[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 32 - Slaves of the Abyss

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for running this.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for running this book. It is certainly one of the more exciting ones that I have encountered.

[Queen of Swords]

Thanks for running this.

[SGamerz]

Alright, so let's start with what's probably my one real complaint about one of the things we missed. It was actually something I wasn't surprised that we missed, although I was hoping we'd still get it. The way the book is designed, it's not actually possible for players to get to that encounter and still win the book, which I feel shouldn't be the case because it kinds of leave something unresolved.

You might have noticed that we stopped crossing off time units after we entered Bythos's realm. And the last (and only) time the book checked us for the number of time we've spent was before the Maijem-Nosoth encounter. If we'd crossed off "more than 17 boxes", it would have ended in auto-fail. And there's a special encounter when we cross off the 18th box. Which means if we ever got that encounter, we've already lost.

So this was the encounter that players who win the book on the first try will never hit:



So, yeah, the cloaked hornet assassin who kept hounding us throughout the early part of the book and even impersonated us to commit petty crimes and turn the locals against us (and he was probably the one who "prophesized" our coming to the villagers who tried to make us stay as their saviour before the Reaver got us out), and we never get a chance to actually kill him until this time. He's not even a difficult opponent in a direct fight, at SK 5 ST 10. The thing just feel incomplete and unresolved without finally getting rid of him for good at the end.

Another little thing that was also never resolved was the page who slipped us the warning note about us being watched. There doesn't seem to be any likely candidate who might have instructed him to warn us. Sige certainly had no reason to do it, and none of the other nobles seem to be aware that there were enemy agents spying in the city. This was something that was never explained. If we immediately read the note on the spot (in front of the nobles), we later learnt that the page died after throwing himself into the fire. Sounds like someone hexed him for delivering the note.

The only possible explanation I can think of is that maybe the page was sent by the Riddling Reaver, who seemed to have taken an interest in the whole thing. But I guess we'd never know.

The decision whether to clean the green slime off Mema didn't seem to matter during our playthrough. In fact, it's only important if we choose to ride closer to the "invading army" to examine it. The slime will provide her (and us, by association) the protection to keep the hornets away, and give us the time to escape.

Choosing to stay and defend the city or going to fetch the army both lead to quick game overs, although in the latter case you have a chance to change to the correct course. On your way to fetching the army, you find Sophie of Blacksand (who was sent to do the scouting) murdered, probably by the hornet assassin. You are given the choice to take over her quest (which would still lose you the game in the long term, because you miss out on Sige's pomander) or report back to the city, in which case they reassign you on the scouting mission and send someone else to fetch the army, and Sige will still give you the pomander before you leave.

The bad ending which you get for staying as defender or completing the mission to fetch the army is basically a cut scene many years later when Kallamehr already fell to invaders and you are presumably long dead, and a merchant is shown selling your Fangthane steel sword and talking about its origins to a potential customer.

Regarding some of the items we picked up, or could have picked up:

None of the 3 potions were necessary. The Ghulsh potion is actually good, since it's pretty much a LUCK potion, but since we seldom ever had to test our luck in the game, we don't really need it. It may, however, be handy for a low-SKILLed PC who may have to rely on LUCK on some harder battles (although there aren't too many of these in the book either). The Arahl potion is a delayed Game Over whether we drink it on its own or mix it with Bythos's broth (I still think it's a pity that we don't get to see what happens if Bythos drinks the mixture). It doesn't harm us on its own, but its effect is apparently permanent, or at least long-lasting, so even if we drank it separately long before we drink the broth, Bythos's broth still kills us as long as the potion was ever inside us. At least Barolo is probably safe despite us passing the potion to him, since I doubt he'd ever get to drink the brother.

The Zazzaz potion is basically a sleeping potion. Drunk on its own, it will put us to sleep temporarily and wastes us some time units. Drank together with the broth, it also puts us to sleep...except here it's probably lethal, since we fall asleep right before Bythos comes in, and he'd probably make sure we don't wake up again.

None of the "magic items" we could have picked up in Bythos's realm are necessary, and most are never checked. If we entered the bowl too early, we'd need to fight those crystal warriors, and we'd need a blunt weapon to fight them. The golden fist or the sceptre can work as weapons here.

Here's a picture of the Gatherer that we didn't come across because we never gave him the chance to attack us:



He's actually a pretty weak opponent even in direct combat (SK 6 ST 6), but one pretty wicked trap is that, because he's basically a skeleton, he's immune to the Spitting Fly, since he has no vital organs that we can impale, so using that against him is a lethal mistake. As the picture shows, he has his own missile attacks, which he creates by fashioning the crystals at hand into javelins, and they actually also kill on contact. But once you get into close combat with him, he's a pushover, and can easily be killed in normal combat.

One item that looked deceptively important due to being checked so many times in the book is the crossbow, but in fact it's not only unnecessary, but it's also seldom the best choice to use even when it's checked. Shooting the troll in the shifting forest only makes him instantly hostile to us when we find him later. He'd lose 2 STAMINA from the shot, but our way lowered his SKILL by 2 points, so it was the better not to shoot anyway. Shooting pit monster in the dungeon doesn't really injure it, and we only lose precious time, and Ramedes will die if we insist on continuing using the crossbow. After the jailor pushed us into the pit, using the crossbow does give us a chance kill him and escape, but it's not guaranteed, and definitely not as accurate as the Spitting Fly. It's not even good for a substitute item, because we can only pick up the crossbow if we have the Spitting Fly,

Basically, we had to fail a stat check and get caught by a palace guard while we were snooping around earlier, who will threaten us with the crossbow. The only way to get rid of him and continue our snooping was to surprise him to the Spitting Fly. Then we get to loot the crossbow off him.



The only place where it might have given us a positive result is if we'd lingered too long while we were peeping on the nobles, and risk getting caught by the patrol. Even here, it's weirdly handled, where the positive result comes from us failing a stat test (Mason loves that in his books, it seems...there was also such a case in Black Vein Prophecy, which Beroli edited and removed in his LP) when we shoot at the guard with our crossbow. If we succeed, we hit and kill the guard, but that attracts attention from other guards who catch us red-handed murdering their colleague. If we fail the roll and miss, the bolt goes wide and makes a loud sound some distance away, which distracts the guard and allows us to get away!

If we set Sige free in Bythos's realm, she gives us some fake "secret" that Bythos is somehow weak to Fangthane steel, and then betrays us to him later in the final encounter with Bythos.

If we chose to leave by the front entrance after Bythos escaped from his palace, it could actually lead to an easier ending. Bythos will still run to the chain to try and "release" the dungeons of the captured souls into the air so that the souls can never be freed. Since he had more time to do so, he succeeded in breaking the chain free, but we still arrive in time to grab the chain and keep the prisons from floating away, If we decide to focus on attacking Bythos, then the game is lost as we fail to free the prisoners after allowing the prison to disappear. But if we hold on to the chain, and when Bythos tries to attack us while we're occupied, we get the option to use our own crystal breath attack on him! We're immune to his due to the pomander's herbs, but apparently he's not immune to his own power, so we defeat him without having to roll for combat.

[Thaluikhain]

The bad ending which you get for staying as defender or completing the mission to fetch the army is basically a cut scene many years later when Kallamehr already fell to invaders and you are presumably long dead, and a merchant is shown selling your Fangthane steel sword and talking about its origins to a potential customer.

Always thought that was kinda cool, myself.

If the player loses their sword, due to Spitting Fly or something else, can they still win, with Skill penalties for being unarmed or getting another weapon?

[pragma]

Is following Ramedes a game over? It would be nice to save him and install him as ruler, but that's not usually the date of ff companions.

[SGamerz]

If the player loses their sword, due to Spitting Fly or something else, can they still win, with Skill penalties for being unarmed or getting another weapon?

I'm pretty sure the Anemorus fight can't be avoided, and we need a sword to beat that, so we definitely can't win without a sword. I actually can't remember whether there's any place where we can find a replacement sword, though. I don't think so. But there're also not many opportunity to lose our sword permanently (although there are occasions when we get disarmed temporarily).

Is following Ramedes a game over? It would be nice to save him and install him as ruler, but that's not usually the date of ff companions.

Yes, it's a game over. We aren't much help to him against a squad of crossbowmen, besides dying alongside him.

There's only 1 successful ending, and Madhaerios ends up as ruler in that one (even if he's no longer around by the time of Magehunter).