As mentioned before, I was hoping to wait till the maintenance update is done before I start this, but the dates posted for it has passed by and there's been no apparent change. No idea if it was postponed or what, but I think I've waited long enough, so let's just proceed with this!
Standard FF Boilerplate Rules:
Skill, Stamina, & Luck
[spoiler]SKILL score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result.
STAMINA score: Roll two dice. Add 12 points to the result.
LUCK score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result.
SKILL score reflects your expertise in combat, your ability with weapons, and your dexterity. STAMINA is your general constitution and "Life points" . LUCK score shows how lucky you are. None of them may exceed their Initial score unless specifically stated.
Eating a meal restores up to 4 points of STAMINA; you may only eat one meal at a time.
Testing your Luck: When instructed by the book to Test your Luck, roll two dice. If the result is equal to or less than your current LUCK score, you are Lucky. If the result exceeds your current LUCK score, you are Unlucky. Whatever the outcome, you must deduct one point from your current LUCK score every time you Test your Luck. The more you use your LUCK, the less likely you are to be Lucky.[/spoiler]
As the last few LPs I've run, I'm going to retain my policy of rolling 4 dice and allowing players to assign the values to our stats by their votes.
Combat:
[spoiler]SKILL and STAMINA scores are given in the text for each adversary that you face.
The combat sequence is then:
1. Roll two dice for your opponent. Add the total rolled to its SKILL score. This is the Attack Strength of your enemy.
2. Roll two dice and add the total to your own current SKILL score. This is your Attack Strength.
3. If your Attack Strength is the higher, you have wounded your opponent: deduct 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA..
If your opponent's Attack Strength is higher, it has wounded you: deduct 2 points from your own STAMINA.
If both Attack Strengths are equal, you have avoided each other's blows.
4. Begin the next Combat Round, starting again at step 1. This procedure continues until either you or your opponent has a STAMINA score of zero. If your opponent's STAMINA score reaches zero, you have killed it and can continue with your adventure. If your own STAMINA score reaches zero, you are dead.
Using Luck in Combat
You can use your LUCK in combat to inflict a particularly serious wound, or to minimize a wound that has been inflicted on you.
Whenever you wound an opponent, you may Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound: deduct an extra 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA. If you are Unlucky, you have merely grazed it, and you deduct 1 point less than normal from its STAMINA.
If you have been wounded, you can Test your Luck in exactly the same way. If you are Lucky, the wound upon you was only a glancing blow and you can deduct 1 less point of STAMINA than usual. If you are Unlucky, the wound is serious: deduct 1 extra point from your STAMINA.[/spoiler]
Since this is one of the relatively easier books that don't rely too much on high stats to win, I'd just take the dice as they fall:
SKILL: We roll 4 and start with a SKILL of 10.
STAMINA: We roll 6 and gets a STAMINA of 18.
LUCK: We roll 5 and get a LUCK of 11.
Not too bad, and should be sufficient for this book unless we're really unlucky (in Luke Sharp's books there's always a chance of getting screwed by random dice roll, although this book isn't as harsh on that as some others).
For Equipment, even though this is one of the later books, we actually get to start with the classic choice between 3 potions (Skill, Strength, Fortune) in addition to the regular sword + leather armour combo. Starting provisions is also standard, with 10 to begin. We also start with some money, specifically 6 gold coins. We are told specifically that we keep 1 of them sewn into our boot as our "lucky piece", and that we "must not use it unless specifically instructed.
There are also a couple of New Stuff in this book:
Poison:
In the background story, the PC was the target of an assassination, and while he was saved, he got nicked by the assassin's dagger and infected with a slow-acting poison. Throughout the book, he will gradually gain "poison unit" as the poison slowly spreads through his body. Each time he does, his STAMINA usually also gets drained a little (although those can be regained via the usual methods, like eating). This usually happens after some "exertion", like a battle or some physical feats. In the Adventure Sheet, there's a rough human-shaped diagram split into 24 sections, and when we play the book, we're supposed to shade off a section each time we are told to "mark off" poison units. For the purpose of this LP, I'd simply keep track of poison using X/24. If our poison reaches 24 (i.e. the entire diagram has been shaded), we automatically die of poison. Part of the purpose of this adventure is to return the dagger into the hand of the person who enchanted it with the poison, which will break the spell and save us.
Medallion (and Mazes):
AS you will soon be finding out, the backstory of this adventure is that the land of Kazan has a unique tradition where each ruler will "select" a group of potential heirs while they are still infants, and at the age of 9, all the Selected members will be exiled and try to survive in the harsh conditions of Khul outside Kazan. When the ruler does, the Select are to be notified by messengers, after which they will return to Kazan and go to each of the 6 clans within the kingdom, each of which has a maze in which the medallion of their clans is being kept. The Select must collect as many of the medallions as he can get before going on to the capital to make his claim on the throne, and I imagine the number he collects will impact the strength of his claim over other Select members (assuming more than 1 survives to make it to the capital). The PC is, of course, 1 of those "Select". So, we also need to keep track of any medallions we find throughout the game, and each one is marked by name of the clan. The clans are: Yigenik, Uruz, Bogomil, Hulugu, Korkut and Kazilik.
So, yeah, quite a bit of background story needed to account for the new stuff, so let's learn more from the Background section:
I've talked about the brevity of Sharp's writing style before, but in terms of scene & background setting, he's actually not bad at creating an intriguing and flavourful setup. What lets it down tends to be the lack of important relevant details that makes it hard for one to really picture anything and to some extent prevent the reader from really getting into the story. "Mamlik Assassins" have been mentioned a few times during the background...and at the end we still don't really know exactly what they are. They can easily be interpreted to be of a specific rank or caste created by the vizier, a tribe, a secret society, etc...it's only when you see a picture one of those assassins when you realize that they're actually a non-human, animal-like (somewhat feline, I think...but again the authors gives zero description, so who knows if the artist interpreted them correctly?) species that dresses and speaks like humans (and can disguise themselves). And honestly they're not the only things in this book that we'd have to rely heavily on the illustrations to discern when we're seeing, just one of the more obvious examples. Which is fitting, I guess for an LP that's supposed to be a tribute to the artist.You open your eyes. Above you stands a creature swathed in a dark cloak. He is holding a long dagger which he is about to plunge into your body. You try to move but cannot; you are transfix4ed by his staring, unblinking assassin's eyes. The blade gleams in the moonlight as it flashes down towards your throat.
"Begone, creature of the night!" a familiar voice cries. "Homrath Deis Blichneth Vaqua!" The dagger falls with no power and grazes your shoulder. Just before you swoon at the fiery torment, you catch a glimpse of the departing figure of the would-be assassin, then you turn your head and see Gally's gentle eyes, before you black out.
When you awake, the pain in your shoulder is a dull throb. Gally is bathing the wound and chanting in a strange tongue. He sees that you are watching him, and says: "Welcome back. I feared the dagger held a greater evil, beyond even my powers. But you are quickly recovered. Well met, brave Kazanid, one of the Segrek's Select."
"But how do you...?" you begin to ask.
"This inn is dangerous now," he says. "I will take you to a safer place and then all will be explained."
The drinking companion you knew as Gally leads you into the Keep at Gorak, up a spiral staircase and into a large room full of dusty books, jars and bottles, small furry creatures and birds. Suddenly you realize that 'Gally' is none other than Astragal the Wizard. He explains that there is little time. Only recently has he learnt that Segrek, ruler of Kazan, died the previous year and that the vizier, Chingiz, suppressed the news and sent out the Mamlik Assassins to kill all the Select before they could undertake their journey to the Throne at Sharrabas. He tells you to sit and rest, for there is much to be done. As he leaves the room, you hear him ordering the guards to let no one in. You sit back, rubbing your shoulder, and watch the birds flutter in and out of the window. By your side, a small book lies open; you pick it up, to read a very familiar story.
Suddenly your read9ng is interrupted by Astragal rushing back into the room, clutching the evil dagger of the Mamlik Assassin. "This dagger was forged by Chingiz with a very strong Death Spell. There is no way to recovery but to hand it back to its maker, Chingiz. You must hurry!" you secure the dagger in the lining of your boots.Kazan - Very little is known of this strange, wild land. It is situated to the west of Gorak (see above) and south of the Swordflow, in extreme south-west corner of Khul. The capital city is Sharrabbas, where sits the Throne of Kazan. The remainder of the land is divided into six tribal regions, each fiercely independent and warlike. The Kazanids are renowned for their bravery and their acceptance of any creature or being that can stand up to their hard and, some would say, savage tests. There have always been rumours of the presence of gold in the Greater Ilkhansa, the range of mountains to the south of Sharrabas, but no prospector has ever returned with firm evidence. Kazan has a very strange ritual of succession to the throne. But the system has meant that every ruler of Kazan has been very brave, strong and quick-witted. Those parents who choose to nominate their children as Heirs to Ushun Koja (or the Select) bring their babies to Sharrabas, where they have to undergo a series of tests. The parents of those children who pass the tests are given money to bring up the infant in the approved manner. At the age of nine the child is exiled from Kazan and must roam the lands of Khul, making his or her own way and surviving the rigours of loneliness and fear. When a ruler dies, the Select are summoned by messengers who travel the countryside, leaving secret symbols in traditional locations. They must make their way to Kazan, enter the great Mazes and obtain as many of the Clan Medallions as possible. They then have to reach Sharrabas, where they must be the first to sit upon the Throne. The Kazanids are a very secretive people and the mystery of what happens in Sharrabas has never been revealed.
So begins your journey to the Throne of Kazan. You must make your way through the wild lands, take the test of the Clans, enter the Mazes and carry as many of their Mediallions as you can to Sharrabbas. Once there, you must find the Great Throne. All the while you will be sought out by the Mamlik Assassins who serve the evil Vizier Chingiz. Caution must be your watchword! You may encounter Necromancers, undead beings of no physical substance but possessing great powers of evil magic. Avoid them if you can.
Unfortunately, as Astragal explained, you have been scratched by a Death Spell Dagger: your body has been infected by the evil of Chingiz. The poison will spread slowly through your body, but it will have no real effect until it has travelled through every part - and then death will be sudden and violent.
Now, turn to 1.
And strangely the description of "Necromancers" here don't exactly fit the ones found in most other fantasy stories, but sound more akin to wraiths here...
Before we proceed further please vote on which starting potion to take with us (Skill, Strength or Fortune). Feel free to vote on names as well (the cover and the very brief descriptions seem to give the setting a somewhat Mongolian flavour, although it's up to you whether you wish to go with that in the naming)!
