[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 58: Revenge of the Vampire

[Darth Rabbitt]

Huh, should have voted to drink some brandy before the fight. Anyways, I think we're fine just doing this without burning Luck; our Attack Strength is 4 points higher than his and we've got an 8 damage alpha strike. But I suppose if he gets us below 10 Stamina, we should start burning luck to reduce damage taken if he hasn't started biting, and burning it to deal extra damage if he has started biting.

[Beroli]

Just to make sure this is clear, the "8 damage alpha strike" will go unused unless someone votes to use it.

[SGamerz]

Use Luck 3 times in the beginning to increase damage. When his STAMINA drops to 8 or below, use the 8-point alpha strike to finish him so he doesn't get any chance to bite us at all. (And more importantly, remember what happened in Vault of the Vampire when his STAMINA drop to 4...we don't want a repeat of that, so don't give him a chance.)

[Darth Rabbitt]

Does this book have a section to turn to if you skip his final phase?

I like SGamerz' plan otherwise.

[Beroli]

It does, yes.

[Thaluikhain]

Second SGamerz plan.

[Beroli]

[spoiler=Count Reiner Heydrich]
Round One: Eric 26, His Excellency 19, Luck Test 8 (success). Reiner is at 19 Stamina, Eric is at 10 Luck.
Round Two: Eric 25, His Excellency 19, Luck Test 12 (failure). Reiner is at 18 Stamina, Eric is at 9 Luck.
Round Three: Eric 23, His Excellency 16, Luck Test 7 (success). Reiner is at 14 Stamina, Eric is at 8 Luck.
Round Four: Eric 22, His Excellency 16. Reiner is at 12 Stamina.
Round Five: Eric 18, His Excellency 21. Eric is at 15 Stamina.
Round Six: Eric 22, His Excellency 24. Eric is at 13 Stamina.
Round Seven: Eric 23, His Excellency 22. Reiner is at 10 Stamina and starts trying to bite you.
Round Eight: Eric 22, His Excellency 18. Reiner is at 8 Stamina.
Round Nine: Eric 27 using Imperator's smite, His Excellency 15. Reiner falls!
[/spoiler]

Dreadful wailing and sounds of lamentation come from one of the archways as you strike down the Vampire at last. Racing out of the darkness comes a long-haired, pale woman: Reiner's sister Katarina, a Vampire herself! You may drink liqueur or a potion before she reaches you, if you wish, then you have to fight for your life against her rage and fury!

(I'm just going to mention briefly that the fight with the burning Megaghoul doesn't actually mention its Skill; you have to look at the "standard fight" section to learn it, and if you haven't been keeping your fingers in previous choices you might not know where that is. But I want to get that minor editing complaint out of the way, because my final editing complaint is by far the biggest. All but one of the others are proofreading-level; it would take a reasonably intelligent child less than an hour to correct things like "need to list the monster's Skill here" and "this check is backwards." The gamebook is rather infamous for the single example of "This requires you to spend all your money immediately followed by one gold piece, I'm pretty sure this a passage you can't actually reach," but the one that bothers me the most is here: Katarina Heydrich, the living necromancer [though the Let's Play here didn't find them, Vault of the Vampire has multiple passages dedicated to things like, "You cast Jandor's Bolt against Katarina. She's not undead. The spell is wasted" and "You throw holy water at Katarina. Since she is no more burned by holy water than you are, you are now going to fight a wet, angry necromancer"] who wanted to supplant her brother and was enraged if you told her you weren't there to kill him, is now a devoted vampire sister.)

Anyway! Since you have literally nothing to save it for, and if you had the gamebook you could see that winning this fight takes you to 400, you automatically drink a Potion of Stamina.

KATARINA Skill 9 Stamina 9

[spoiler=Katarina the Identity-Confused]
Round One: Eric 27, Katarina 15. Katarina is at 7 Stamina.
Round Two: Eric 19, Katarina 19.
Round Three: Eric 20, Katarina 18. Katarina is at 5 Stamina.
Round Four: Eric 26, Katarina 15. Katarina is at 3 Stamina.
Round Five: Eric 24, Katarina 19. Katarina is at 1 Stamina.
Round Six: Eric 21, Katarina 19. Flawless victory.[/spoiler]

You may have killed the Vampire brother and sister, but you still have to destroy them! Glancing at the crystal heart, you see that it will fit into the amulet set round Reiner's neck. You grind the gem into the metal of the amulet and, as you force it against the silver, it cracks into a shower of fragments. For the briefest of seconds, the Vampire's terrible eyes open wide, a frozen scream of fear on his face. A last trickle of blood dribbles from the side of his mouth, and his head lolls to one side like a rag doll's. You gather up the coffins you find in secret chambers hidden behind concealed doors inside the cave and build a funeral pyre for the Vampires, but you dare not set it alight until you have found a narrow set of steep stone stairs behind a secret door in the room behind the left-hand archway. Then you begin your ascent, leaving the blazing corpses behind you.

After an interminable length of time spent staggering up the steps, you emerge into a small cave with a narrow entrance that leads to a valley. As you totter out into the fresh air, a shepherd runs away, screaming, claiming that a terrible Demon has risen from the depths! If you could see yourself--streaked with smoke, bloodied and wounded, wild-eyed--you might not think his words so silly. And if you had not succeeded in your quest at last, he would have been right. You have eliminated one of Titan's most ancient evils, and you are ready to take your place among the ranks of its legendary heroes!

And that's it. I'll be going over what we missed in this gamebook this evening, as well as my starting and final impressions of it, but feel free to post any thoughts or questions you have about it in the meantime.

[spoiler=Final Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 20/20
Luck: 11/11
Faith: 13
Blood Points: 14
Equipment: Imperator (+1 Attack Power/+2 against undead, 8 damage to undead creature on successful combat round one time, nullify one magic attack), 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 2 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, Potion of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Baleful Red Lantern, Cooking Oil
Provisions: 12 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 38
Special Notes: [/spoiler]

[Darth Rabbitt]

Might have more questions later, but off the top of my head:
Does Oil of Disenchantment do anything to the crystal heart?
What does Blackfire do to Reiner, had we used it on him?
What does the Mystery Potion do to the Megaghoul?

Thanks for the LP btw.

[Queen of Swords]

Thanks for hosting this! The only thing I wondered is, how much help do you get from the Gatekeeper if you do have Sewarth's Codex?

[Thaluikhain]

Thank you for hosting. Wondering, is there anywhere else to get a longbow except the market at Farleigh, and what were in the other knight's tombs?

[SGamerz]

the one that bothers me the most is here: Katarina Heydrich, the living necromancer [though the Let's Play here didn't find them, Vault of the Vampire has multiple passages dedicated to things like, "You cast Jandor's Bolt against Katarina. She's not undead. The spell is wasted" and "You throw holy water at Katarina. Since she is no more burned by holy water than you are, you are now going to fight a wet, angry necromancer"] who wanted to supplant her brother and was enraged if you told her you weren't there to kill him, is now a devoted vampire sister.)

It's certainly an inconsistency, but I always assume that Reiner revived her as a vampire after she died in FF38 because it gives him some perverse sense of satisfaction to turn a former rival into a follower under his power.

Might have more questions later, but off the top of my head:
Does Oil of Disenchantment do anything to the crystal heart?
What does Blackfire do to Reiner, had we used it on him?
What does the Mystery Potion do to the Megaghoul

The Oil never gets used on the crystal heart. But it does dispel the magic stone in the witch's cave. It can also be used to get past a certain door that hides Reiner's most valued coffin. Both accomplishments net you a a lot of Blood points, but since you need 1 of 2 things to get past the Grand Revenant, doing either of these things mean that you have to sacrifice Blackfire instead.

Blackfire doesn't work on Reiner, presumably because it was created by his underling, so he knows about it powers beforehand.

Mystery Potion is just as effective on the Megaghoul as Blackfire, but since it also works on the Count, it's better to save it for the Big Boss.

The only thing I wondered is, how much help do you get from the Gatekeeper if you do have Sewarth's Codex?

He tells you about the sword in the fifth knight's tomb as well. And he introduces you to an old miner who more or less gives you a walkthrough on the cavern (which directions not to take, what hazards are there, etc) that lead into Ghoulcrypts. And he has an antidote that protects you from a ghoul's paralysis attack for 2 combats.

Wondering, is there anywhere else to get a longbow except the market at Farleigh, and what were in the other knight's tombs?

No for the longbow (although it's mostly useless against any of the major enemies anyway. The only time I recall it being slightly useful is against the Ghoul pack and Zombie pack after you enter the crypts under the mansion).

Tombs 3 & 4 contain nothing useful. Tomb 1 has a scabbard that gives you something similar to the Fast-Draw ability in Sword of the Samurai, although it means you must miss Imperator.

The other big prize is in Tomb 2. It belongs to the knight whose ghost greeted you outside. But you can only enter it if you picked up a skeleton key back at Crab Peaks. You find that key by talking to the witches first, and accept a mini-quest from the older witch to help her kill the Basiisk that killed her sister. You find the key on a dead body while looking for the Basilisk in the caves. And yes, you can still kill the witches and loot their stuff after completing the mini-quest for her.

With the key, you can open Tomb 2 and find a suit of magic armour, which gives combat bonus and a 1-shot 10-point healing boost (although it turns into a mundane armour after you use the boost). The big bonus here is that the knight's ghost is happy at your "wisdom" in choosing his tomb, and gives you a second chance to enter another tomb, so you can still get Imperator.

[Beroli]

broken wrists. will comment here and start new let's play when recovered more.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Oof, that's rough. Get well at the healthy rate for bones to knit.

[Queen of Swords]

Damn, sorry to hear that. Hope you get enough rest, and even if we do Let's Plays of other books in the series in the meantime, we could leave Sky Lord for you.

[SGamerz]

Get well soon!

[JourneymanN00b]

Please get well soon Beroli. Having broken wrists is definitely not pleasant.

[Thaluikhain]

Ouch, get well soon.

[Darth Rabbitt]

That sounds awful. Get well soon!

[Beroli]

Final evaluation: Much better than I went in expecting.

The Katarina thing stands out as the biggest problem (and since the alchemist says he's attempting to bring Katarina "back to unlife," I fear I don't think any explanation more complicated than "Keith Martin forgot what he'd written, beyond the outline of 'they killed Katarina right after Reiner'" really fits). Other than that, Martin, pay me $25 and I'll fix all your editing issues in an hour.

There are three chances to get a magic sword (four, if you count Imperator, but if you reach Imperator without a magic sword and without being mowed down by an invincible-to-you witch, it means you don't have the red crystal heart and will shortly be slaughtered by an invincible-to-you vampire lord). Two are for the same sword, which Igor has. If you buy the horse and check into the coaching inn (shoutout to Queen of Swords for voting for this path the first time), and if you choose to search immediately as the book tells you, "You're sleepy, go to bed Y/N?" you find Igor guarding Reiner's coffin: identical fight, identical loot plus Sewarth's Codex. You automatically try to destroy Reiner and determine that you can't (chop off his head, it reattaches itself, expose him to sunlight, he wakes up enough to smirk at you), you destroy his coffin, and he leaves that night riding the horse pulling his coach instead of in the coach.

The History of Mortvania is under Endrell's bed. You have to search his room to find it. Incidentally, if he catches you in the catacombs and you go back to your room when he says to, he poisons you (auto-death).

The one editing glitch this book is infamous for: The horse doesn't cost a flat 7 gold in the original. He costs "however much gold you have," only offered if you have 8 gold or more. This means you cannot check into the inn, since if you reach it in time you must have 0 gold, and thus cannot possibly fight Igor there or obtain Sewarth's Codex. I decided that the intent was that that sequence was available to you if you had 8 or more gold, best and most immersively and fairly managed by simply setting his price to 7 gold.

Other than the editing issues and the Katarina thing, I'd call this a worthy sequel to my favorite FF gamebook--not at all the verdict I went in expecting to give. Like Vault of the Vampire, it's remarkably forgiving for a Fighting Fantasy gamebook and consistently heroic; it also does an impressive job of seeming significantly more expansive in the same number of entries (several of which are technically wasted as you can't reach them; e.g., without my editing, you auto-leave Crab Peak when and only when you find the red crystal heart, obviating both the "hit the heart on the stone here" section and the later "did you leave Crab Peak without the heart?" check(s)).

[SGamerz]

The Katarina thing stands out as the biggest problem (and since the alchemist says he's attempting to bring Katarina "back to unlife," I fear I don't think any explanation more complicated than "Keith Martin forgot what he'd written, beyond the outline of 'they killed Katarina right after Reiner'" really fits). Other than that, Martin, pay me $25 and I'll fix all your editing issues in an hour.

I stand by my makeshift theory. Doktor Verruckte wasn't working for the Heydrichs during Katarina's previous life, so he's probably going by what he heard from the Count. The only people in this book who knew what happened back in FF38 are Reiner and Siegfried, and the latter never said anything about her (and probably never talked to Reiner's underlings). so Reiner was probably passing down some revisionist history.

The History of Mortvania is under Endrell's bed.

You also need to kill him to walk away with the book. If you hide from him when he returns from the room, you know about the book's existence but don't get to keep it (the book makes a point of differentiating between that when you talk to Marcus - if you have the book, it means you killed Endrell, and he refuses to talk to you further). Also, I think besides the LUCK bonus in the final battle, it doesn't really give you any other bonus in the book. If you have it, you will recognize Katarina and Siegfried's portraits in the gallery, but that's just random and non-essential flavour information.

Other than the editing issues and the Katarina thing, I'd call this a worthy sequel to my favorite FF gamebook--not at all the verdict I went in expecting to give. Like Vault of the Vampire, it's remarkably forgiving for a Fighting Fantasy gamebook and consistently heroic; it also does an impressive job of seeming significantly more expansive in the same number of entries (several of which are technically wasted as you can't reach them; e.g., without my editing, you auto-leave Crab Peak when and only when you find the red crystal heart, obviating both the "hit the heart on the stone here" section and the later "did you leave Crab Peak without the heart?" check(s)).

It was also good to see that Martin was scaling back from the stringent-true-path design for his last book. Between Tower of Destruction and Island of the Undead he was getting kind of close to Livingstone level in those regards (I'm not familiar enough with Night Dragon to know that's an improvement), but without the bugs, this book would be at a nice challenging level without being unplayable. Only 2 really essential items, the Heart and a magic sword, and as you pointed out, with 3 opportunities to find the latter.

[Beroli]

The History of Mortvania is under Endrell's bed.

You also need to kill him to walk away with the book. If you hide from him when he returns from the room, you know about the book's existence but don't get to keep it (the book makes a point of differentiating between that when you talk to Marcus - if you have the book, it means you killed Endrell, and he refuses to talk to you further).

Actually, not entirely. If you go to Endrell's room, there's a decision tree that looks like this:

He's not here. Search or go elsewhere?

(Search) The History of Count Heydrich's homeland is under his bed, suspicious! Oh he's coming. Hide or put it back and tell him you were cold?

(Put it back) Test your Luck. Succeed: He gives you another blanket but posts a guard. No more exploring tonight. Lose Blood Points. Next night, explore more. Fail: He poisons you.

(Hide) Test your Luck. Succeed: He goes to sleep and you leave with the book. Fail: He sees you and attacks with Magic Missile.

If you talk to Marcus after that, there are checks for: Do you have the History of Mortvania? If so, did Endrell attack you? The first check alone takes you to its volume number, 8; the second check takes you to the volume number times the number of rings in Endrell's staff (8 * 10 = 80).

8: Look, he has this suspicious book. Marcus is a lot more forthcoming with his suspicions and tales of monsters wandering the monastery.

80: YOU KILLED ENDRELL? NOT LISTENING ANYMORE! OUT OUT OUT! I will have guards attack you later!

[SGamerz]

If you talk to Marcus after that, there are checks for: Do you have the History of Mortvania? If so, did Endrell attack you? The first check alone takes you to its volume number, 8; the second check takes you to the volume number times the number of rings in Endrell's staff (8 * 10 = 80).

8: Look, he has this suspicious book. Marcus is a lot more forthcoming with his suspicions and tales of monsters wandering the monastery.

80: YOU KILLED ENDRELL? NOT LISTENING ANYMORE! OUT OUT OUT! I will have guards attack you later!

The exact words (in my copy at least) are:

"If you found a book in Endrell's room and you have fought Endrell, multiply the number of that volume by the number of metal bands on Endrell's staff, then turn to the paragraph with same number. If you only glimpsed the book, turn to the paragraph with the same number as the volume number of the book. Failing that..."

I've always interpreted it as "if you didn't fight Endrell for it, you only caught a glimpse of it but don't have it". Seems like you had to hide from Endrell before you were able to grab the book, so you can only pick it up if you leave him too dead to stop you. I think that makes more sense too: Endrell would have done something if he found the book missing, unless he's too dead to do so.

Also, if you killed Endrell, you are said to be trying to get Marcus to take a look at the book (which he refuse to listen), but if you only "caught a glimpse of it", then nowhere do you ever actually show him the book, you just tell him verbally about Mortvania's past association with vampires as part of your suspicion.

[Beroli]

Yeah, my mistake, I think. Which means you have to fail a Luck test to get the book, too.

[Beroli]

Oh, I neglected to mention.

So it could be--for example--that [...]if you have Latent Vampirism [Imperator] kills you outright and if you have Lycanthropy it shocks you.

Yeah, it's this. And I rolled the dice for the fight; if you had fought the Vampyre in the crypt you would have gotten Latent Vampirism in the last round (so, not if you had used Luck successfully to do enough additional damage to shave at least one round off the fight).