[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 30 - Chasms of Malice

[Darth Rabbitt]

Sure, why not?

[Beroli]

West.

[SGamerz]

You are in a room with one other door to the east. In the corner, to the right, is a heap of what looks like sludge. It is foul-smelling and steaming. As you walk around, the sludge shimmers and moves towards you. It reveals a trapdoor in the floor. Then three feelers spring out of the pile. They are covered in spiky thorns. Do you choose to go through the door east? If not, you'll have to pass the sludge to get to the trapdoor.

SLUDGE SKILL 8 STAMINA 12

If you survive, you open the trapdoor to reveal a tunnel heading southwest.

There's an option to turn to another section if we want to avoid the fight and take the east door. Do we want to pass through the trapdoor?

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to fight the sludge and head to the trapdoor.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Yeah, kick the slime’s ass.

[SGamerz]

COMBAT LOG:
Sludge 12, Sir Gareth 23. Sludge is at 10.
Sludge 15, SG 20. Sludge is at 8.
Sludge 14, SG 14. Tie.
Sludge 20, SG 18. SG is at 8.
Sludge 13, SG 17. Sludge is at 6.
Sludge 18, SG 14. SGs at 6.
Sludge 19, SG 16. SGs at 4.
Sludge 14, SG 17. Sludge is at 4.
Sludge 20, SG 22. Sludge is at 2.
Sludge 14, SG 19. Sludge is defeated.

Despite the SKILL disparity, the piece of muck somehow managed to score several hits on Sir Gareth. It even rolled double-6s on 2 occasions. Sir Gareth consumes a meal to restore his STAMINA to 8 before continuing through the trapdoor.

You crawl along the tunnel and open another trapdoor. You are in a room with a staircase leading up. You go up the stairs and find another room with doors heading east and south.

At this rate, I'm surprised Sharp didn't manage to fit in all 6 mazes in Daggers of Darkness considering his apparent fondness for writing sections with nothing but random directions to choose from.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Sir Gareth
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 8/15
LUCK 10/11
Equipment: Shining Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 4
Fuel: 0
Tabasha's Favour: 1/9
Abilities: Life Spell (can be used once, when killed in combat, to proceed as it the battle was won, with 4 STAMINA remaining and SKILL deducted by 1)
Khuddam killed: 1 (Barkek)
Extra Lives remaining: 0/9
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to eat another Provision, and to head east.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed.

[Thaluikhain]

Agreed on the eating and no objection to the easting.

[SGamerz]

Sir Gareth restores his STAMINA to 12 with another meal before heading off east...

As you walk into the rom, two Dark Elves grab you from either side and a knight slips a metal collar on your neck. You hear the booming laughter of Orghuz and sees his bright red eyes as he orders you to kneel in front of his lieutenants. One of the Dark Elves get read to swing a sword...

...to another random death.

That uses up the last of Tabasha's aids. We are now on our last life. 1 more "wrong" choice and this is over.

We're also actually really close to endgame, so this may go the way of the initial playthrough of the Sword of the Samurai where we fail right at the enemy's doorsteps...

Rewinding and changing course...

You walk in and the door closes behind you. You stand on a narrow stone path that heads south, then east. On either side of the path there is swirling blue smoke. It lies on the ground and seems to create strange and hideous shapes. Suddenly, the smoke takes the shape of a warrior. It stands behind you and swings its sword. The blade crashes on the path, just missing you. You thrust your Sword through its body, but to no effect. You run into the next room east and shut the door. The Shadow passes through the door. You rush on, but the path divides. Which path do you take: the one leading to a door north, or through a door east?

EDIT: actually, I'm going to skip the voting for this section, because going north here leads to the EXACT SAME Game Over section as the one we just went through. Sir Gareth goes east.

Another door slams behind you, but this time the Shadow does not follow. The path is still surrounded by swirling smoke. Suddenly, the teeth of a metal trap snap shut. Throw a die for your position, and a second die for where the trap shuts. If the two throws match, you are caught and severely wounded (deduct 3 STAMINA points). Repeat twice and, if you survive, the path divides. It leads both to a door east and to an exit north. Which way do you go?

1st rolls: 1 & 6.
2nd rolls: 2 & 5.
3rd rolls: 1 & 1! Sir Gareth loses 3 STAMINA points.

Well, these options at least lead to unfamiliar section numbers. Which way do we go?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Sir Gareth
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 9/15
LUCK 10/11
Equipment: Shining Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 3
Fuel: 0
Tabasha's Favour: 0/9
Abilities: Life Spell (can be used once, when killed in combat, to proceed as it the battle was won, with 4 STAMINA remaining and SKILL deducted by 1)
Khuddam killed: 1 (Barkek)
Extra Lives remaining: 0/10
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

So going east resulted in a death? Interesting, as I though that fascism was the way to go for our fated future dictator. I vote to head east to see if the fascist way leads to victory this time.

[SGamerz]

So going east resulted in a death? Interesting, as I though that fascism was the way to go for our fated future dictator. I vote to head east to see if the fascist way leads to victory this time.

You might note that on the very next set of options, going north led to the same death, so again, I stress that trying to determine a fixed direction bias in Luke Sharp's book is an exercise in futility. I strongly suspect he assigns random deaths via some randomizer tool.

[Beroli]

North.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Blind choice is blind, so north is literally as good as any.

[SGamerz]

You are in a room with two exits. Do you wish to go north or west?

Going west here will take us to the same familiar section that involves us being grabbed and collared, so skipping the votes here again and proceeding west (so yes, this time the opposite of east is the Game Over choice. And for the previous round of voting, east itself was Game Over, and the section before that, going north was Game Over, again proving there's zero consistency in the author's bias for any direction):

The room is pitch-black. Slowly, you begin to discern the sparkle of glass. It gets brighter and brighter until the room is full of mirrors. One of the mirrors shivers and there stands the Dark Lord Orghuz, in his diamond and glass armour. Strange beams come out of his eyes. Then you see two other figures of Orghuz. They all laugh at you, and arrogantly dare you to strike out with the Sword. Where do you strike? On the left-hand figure, the figure on the right, or the figure in the centre?

Finally, we found the Boss! In fact we found 3 of him! Which is the real one?

[Beroli]

Right.

Also, I think you meant skipping vote to go north.

Also I vote to eat a Meal before we come in here.

[JourneymanN00b]

I also vote to eat a Meal and to attack the figure on the right, since this strategy worked against the Illusionist in Caverns of the Snow Witch. Oh, and I believe that attacking rival fascists is the right thing to do here.

[SGamerz]

Also, I think you meant skipping vote to go north.

Oops, correct.

Oh, and I believe that attacking rival fascists is the right thing to do here.

Th flaw in that argument is that if the right figure is the real Orghuz, then it means he chose to stand on his left, because he's facing us. So if attacking the right one works, it means our fascist attack defeats his communist stance.

Sir Gareth restores his STAMINA to 13 with another meal before making his attack:

You strike at Orghuz and he quickly backs away. You have chosen the correct image. Suddenly he holds a sword that looks just like yours. "No other dares to hold a sword in my presence. You have the blood of Tancred the Magnificent coursing in your veins, and you hold the Twin Sword of Light; but I am still your master. Prepare to die!"

It is now official: Sir Gareth's fascism triumphs over Orghuz's communism!

You must fight Orghuz be the number of Khuddam left alive on your Adventure Sheet.

ORGHUZ SKILL 10 STAMINA 12

If you win, mark off one Khuddam on the Adventure Sheet.

If you win and you have tempered your Sword in the Heartflame of Minosaddurr, turn to 385. But if not, you must fight Orghuz again until you have marked off all the Khuddam lives on the Adventure Sheet.

Once all the Khuddam are accounted for, turn to 385.

And I guess this is why Astragal said that all the Khuddam need to be killed before Orghuz can be defeated. Apparently, he also uses them for "extra lives" (and so if they spawn to infinity he becomes unkillable). As you can also see above, there's potentially a way to defeat him after just winning one combat, but obviously we did not find the optimal path and wasn't able to temper our Sword in the Heartflames. This means we must beat him 6 times (we killed only 1 Khuddam). The Life Spell allows us to potentially auto-win once if he beats us, but this will be tough even with our slight SKILL advantage.

With this being the apparent Boss Fight, pausing here to wait for votes on using LUCK for this battle.

Also, I stated at the beginning that I would award extra lives for each Khuddam you kill. Since we are told to mark off a Khuddam each time we beat Orghuz here, please also vote on whether this should add to our extra lives (which would of course give us a much easier time).

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Sir Gareth
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 13/15
LUCK 10/11
Equipment: Shining Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 2
Fuel: 0
Tabasha's Favour: 0/9
Abilities: Life Spell (can be used once, when killed in combat, to proceed as it the battle was won, with 4 STAMINA remaining and SKILL deducted by 1)
Khuddam killed: 1 (Barkek)
Extra Lives remaining: 0/10
[/spoiler]
Top

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to add extra lives for each Khuddam we kill, since I feel that this scenario would apply here. If we have no lives left when our Stamina gets to 5, I then vote to use Luck to deal extra damage or reduce the damage that Sir Gareth takes until our Luck gets to 6.

[Beroli]

Yes, gain an additional life for each time Orghuz sacrifices a Khaddum to revive himself.

Use Luck immediately to deal additional damage until we reach a Luck of 6. Killing him (and getting another life) as fast as possible is our best bet.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Yes for extra lives; we are killing the Khuddam after all.

Agreed with Beroli’s plan on luck use.

[SGamerz]

COMBAT LOG:
Orghuz 15, Sir Gareth 23. Luck Test roll = 7 (Lucky), Orghuz is at 8.
Orghuz 19, SG 17. SG is at 11.
Orghuz 21, SG 18. SG is at 9.
Orghuz 17, SG 20. Luck Test roll = 4 (Lucky) Orghuz is at 4.
Orghuz 18, SG 18. Tie.
Orghuz 20, SG 16. SG is at 7.
Orghuz 17, SG 21. Luck Test roll = 8 (Lucky) Orghuz is defeated.

2 Khuddam down, 1 extra life gained, LUCK down to 8.

COMBAT CONTINUES:
Orghuz 15, SG 19. Luck Test roll = 7 (Lucky) Orghuz is at 8.
Orghuz 17, SG 23. Luck Test roll = 11 (Unlucky) Orghuz is at 7.
Orghuz 16, SG 24. Orghuz is at 5.
Orghuz 21, SG 19. SG is at 5.
Orghuz 17, SG 19. Orghuz is at 3.
Orghuz 18, SG 20. Orghuz is at 1.
Orghuz 19, SG 18. SG is at 3.
Orghuz 14, SG 19. Orghuz is defeated.

3 Khuddam down, 2nd extra life gained, LUCK down to 6.

COMBAT CONTINUES:
Orghuz 19, SG 20. Orghuz is at 10.
Orghuz 12, SG 21. Orghuz is at 8.
Orghuz 15, SG 21. Orghuz is at 6.
Orghuz 18, SG 21. Orghuz is at 4.
Orghuz 21, SG 18. SG is at 1.
Orghuz 14, SG 16. Orghuz is at 2.
Orghuz 18, SG 19. Orghuz is defeated.

4 Khuddam down, 3rd extra life gained.

COMBAT CONTINUES:
Orghuz 22, SG 20. SG is killed!
Life Spell restores SG. Orghuz is auto-defeated. SG is at 4.

5 Khuddam down, 4th extra life gained. SKILL is down to 11 due to Life Spell's effect.

COMBAT CONTINUES:
Orghuz 21, SG 15. SG is at 2.
Orghuz 14, SG 16. Orghuz is at 10.
Orghuz 19, SG 21. Orghuz is at 8.
Orghuz 16, SG 22. Orghuz is at 6.
Orghuz 20, SG 18. SG is killed!

Extra life kicks in and restores Sir Gareth back to 15 STAMINA. 3 extra lives remaining.

COMBAT CONTINUES:
Orghuz 13, SG 20. Orghuz is at 4.
Orghuz 22, SG 20. SG is at 13.
Orghuz 14, SG 20. Orghuz is at 2.
Orghuz 19, SG 21. Orghuz is defeated.

6 Khuddam down, 4 extra lives remaining.

COMBAT CONTINUES:
Orghuz 18, SG 20. Orghuz is at 10.
Orghuz 20, SG 21. Orghuz is at 8.
Orghuz 14, SG 20. Orghuz is at 6.
Orghuz 20, SG 18. SG is at 11.
Orghuz 16, SG 17. Orghuz is at 4.
Orghuz 12, SG 19. Orghuz is at 2.
Orghuz 16, SG 19. Orghuz is defeated.

All 7 Khuddam are down!

So, yeah, if we hadn't taken extra lives with each time we beat Orghuz, we would have lost, even with the Life Spell!

If there are any Khuddam still alive on your Adventure Sheet, Orghuz regenerates slowly into the guise of another Khuddam. You have a fleeting chance to strike unopposed at a part of his body.

If all the Khuddam are dead on your Adventure Sheet, Orghuz stands like a statue in front of you. The Malice still inhabits his body. You must strike the lethal blow to rid it of the evil. Where do you strike:

Left shoulder and upper arm?
Right shoulder and upper arm?
Left elbow and lower arm?
Right elbow and lower arm?
Left thigh and upper leg?
Right thigh and upper leg?
Left knee and lower leg?
Right knee and lower leg?

There's no heel in the option, so where do we think is his proverbial Achilles' Heel?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Sir Gareth
SKILL 11/12
STAMINA 11/15
LUCK 6/11
Equipment: Shining Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 2
Fuel: 0
Tabasha's Favour: 0/9
Abilities: Life Spell (can be used once, when killed in combat, to proceed as it the battle was won, with 4 STAMINA remaining and SKILL deducted by 1)
Khuddam killed: 1 (Barkek) All
Extra Lives remaining: 5/16
[/spoiler]

[Beroli]

Left knee and lower leg.

[JourneymanN00b]

I also vote for the left knee and lower leg.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Left knee and lower leg sounds good to me.