[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 42: Black Vein Prophecy

[angelfromanotherpin]

I'm not sure it's possible to get a game over in a flashback, that would cause a paradox. But I agree we should try to find someone.

[Beroli]

You open the door and walk out into the corridor. The air is filled with shouting and banging. Servants scurry past without stopping to bow. They all seem as frightened as you.

(You Test your Luck; a 6 passes.)

Panting with fear, you reach the king's quarters, only to find them deserted. The many books that lined his study are now packed into chests. Tiny gems and trinkets are scattered about carelessly amid the general upheaval. You hear footsteps coming from behind and you dive into an empty chest. Crouched inside, you hear two men enter. 'I am sure Maior came this way, master.' It is Panurge, the priest.

The second voice speaks--it is your father. 'We have Feior. Could we not leave the weakling to Fate? It would be no great loss, and we have little time to save ourselves, let alone look for the wretch.'

'Your words contain reason, but should you risk your inheritance on one child alone? I think not. We must find Maior.'

Deeply shocked by your father's callous words, you barely manage to stem a cry of anguish.

Reveal yourself to them?
Keep hiding?

[SGamerz]

I pretty sure we don't want our father to find out that the "weakling" just overheard him suggesting abandoning said weakling son. Keep hiding.

[Queen of Swords]

We didn't come this far to give ourselves up. Keep hiding.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to keep hiding, as the father and priest are clearly not allies here.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Keep hiding.

[Beroli]

Your father and his aide begin to search the room. Just as they near you, a thunderous blast rends the air. The windows shatter and the screams and shouts of battle flood into the chamber. Hearing the door slam shut above the din, you peer out of the chest. The room is empty and you clamber out. You pick your way through the shards of glass as far as the door, only to find it locked. Turning back to the windows, you gaze out on to a scene of terrible destruction. The city is crumbling under the onslaught of three magical beings which hover above it, out of arrow-shot, flinging bolts of vivid colours which crash into buildings and men alike. The familiar streets and buildings that played host to your games and adventures have all been reduced to charred ruins.

Climb out onto the ledge and cross to an open window to your left?
Search the room for another exit?

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to climb out onto the ledge and cross to an open window to his left, as searching the room for another exit will only waste precious escape time.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Agreed.

[Thaluikhain]

Climbing out on ledges is more traditional, so do that.

[Beroli]

You inch your way across the ledge and climb in through the neighbouring window. The room is tiny, and the dark tapestries that drape its walls add to its air of mystery. The only door is locked, and you slump against it, exhausted and afraid. In the middle of the room sits a small table, covered by a large velvet sheet, and this you pull away, revealing a small glass sphere which has been set into the centre of the table. A dingy green glow radiates from it, and you gaze deep into it. At first your view is obscured by swirling mists; then they clear to reveal a lone figure standing on a pinnacle of rock. A thick black cloud floats in front of the figure, forming and re-forming, first into a crude face, then into a twisting vortex. As you watch, thoughts of your nightmare rush back into your head. Both figures are familiar, and your mind struggles to name them. Then, from behind the figure, a winged beast shoots into view. The dragon-like creature heads straight for the figure, spitting fire. They seem unaware of the danger and, as the view shifts, you finally glimpse their features. They are your own! The beast is nearly upon them. You must decide.

Shout a warning to the figure?
Wait to see what happens?
Smash the globe?

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to shout a warning to the figure, who is obviously Maior’s present self.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, try warning.

[Queen of Swords]

Warn ourself.

[Beroli]

You scream a warning into the globe. Your voice seems to echo back at you from its polished surface and reverberates in the small room, causing your ears to ring painfully.

Hands grip you firmly and drag you, screaming, out of the chamber. 'Quiet now, child,' whispers Panurge, the King's Priest, 'you are coming with me.' He mumbles a word and touches your temple...

Slowly you regain consciousness. As the haze lifts, chanted words drift into your head, growing gradually louder as sight returns. You stare up at a high stone ceiling, which is lit by the flames of a thousand candles. With a great effort you raise your head and meet the reverential gazes of a hundred robed figures. At their head stands your father and his hawk-nosed priest, Panurge. They stare back at you impassively and continue their slow chant. The numbness refuses to leave your limbs and forces your head down on to the pillow. Unable to cry out, you watch as the figures melt into one, and their strange intonation eases you back to sleep.

[Beroli]

'So quiet, weakling?' Your father's voice booms out across the chasm. You snap out of your trance and steady yourself on the rocky pinnacle. 'To think that my child would side with the very men who brought me down. You shame me, son!'

The apparition forms into a coiling snake and rears up at you. You gaze at the vaporous beast, unable to turn away. But then a child's voice rings out through the din. Instinctively you turn to greet it, only to see the flaming Sturramak tearing towards you. The creature dives, but you have enough time to fling yourself away from its grasping talons. Unable to stop, the Sturramak crashes into your father's visage and explodes.

You come down from the mountain to greet your anxious friends. They tell you of King Poo Ta's heroic death as he led the last charge, and of the peasant army's steadfast defence of the town. Poo Ta left no heirs; to the victorious army, you are his natural successor. Without you to pull the land's factions together, the battle would never have been won. Your coronation is conducted on the battlefield, and your first action is to appoint Merzei Grand Councillor of the Isles.

Bezenvial's prophecy has come true. One of his children now rules the Isles, but black blood no longer taints your veins. Your absolute success heralds a new era of peace and harmony for the Isles of the Dawn.

[Beroli]

And there it is, the good ending. My house rules changed two things, which I initially planned to spell out, but didn't at the start because of the in medias res beginning.

Mastery of Magic

In the book as I ran it, you automatically regained access to the magic you had learned before using your memory, and understood it well enough to know things like "starting to cast a Mutation spell when my opponent has already started a Disruption spell will mean dying" without finding out the hard way (and then being dead). In the book as it's written, you first have to fail your very first Luck test on escaping the tomb so that a liquid that falls from above will splash on you, and then you have to encounter each of the four spells before you can use it: three you did encounter, plus a place where Feior, apparently offended by a peasant couple, punished them by Locking them in a bog to die of exposure. And each time you can cast a spell, the text gives nothing more than, "Does this code word mean something you want to invoke, Y/N?" You also have to pass a Luck test when you first discover Izkhao, or you stand there holding the brooch for several seconds before he realizes you're not going to invoke his name and command his obedience, so he grabs the brooch, says "Thanks" mockingly, and disappears from your life...and without Izkhao, defeating Feior without killing him even if you cast all the right spells comes down to a coinflip. Literally.

Speaking of the need to defeat Feior without killing him, if you deal with him mercilessly (cutting his throat at the end, burning him up with a Disruption spell when the Mutation leaves him defenseless against you, using a Lock spell to turn him into a statue and leaving him there), you descend from the peak and declare yourself King, and you rule brutally...or rather, Bevenvial rules through you, with you even dimly recognizing that the choices you're making are no longer your own.

Hidden Variables

Some checks in the gamebook involve something visible to both the player and the character ("You can only use the jar of syrup if you have the jar of syrup"). Those I left unchanged. Others involve something the player knows that actually stands for something unrelated ("did Velkos give you the good luck charm? Okay, that means you did travel with Velkos, and also that you stayed awake and she never had the chance to steal Izkhao's brooch..."). Those I occluded. Issues of disliking the equivalent of variables popping up in the middle of the screen aside, Velkos giving you a good luck charm could give you entirely misleading ideas about her trustworthiness and affection for you personally. Velkos is, in fact, so consistently treacherous, given any chance, that I'm surprised it's possible to reach the good ending with her still alive.

Let me know if you have any questions about this book (or my thought processes in running it the way I did). I'll probably be starting another Fighting Fantazine Mini-Adventure Let's Play soon.

[Queen of Swords]

Thanks for hosting this! What happens during the battle if we previously found one of Feior's officers tied up?

[Beroli]

Instead of fighting two generic soldiers, you fight that officer. One enemy, higher stats, still not a very noteworthy fight.

[SGamerz]

Velkos giving you a good luck charm could give you entirely misleading ideas about her trustworthiness and affection for you personally. Velkos is, in fact, so consistently treacherous, given any chance, that I'm surprised it's possible to reach the good ending with her still alive.

Funny, to me leaving that out has the opposite effect (considering how most of the players were so insistent on finding and helping her, it certainly didn't seem to help much). Even on the first time I read the book, I never felt that the charm was a legitimately well-meaning gift. Luck is literally a tangible stat in FF, and the fact that you get zero LUCK boost or Luck test modifier from the item makes it clear that she was giving you false information about the item, whether it was deliberate on her part or not.

The fact that we're only find Izkhao's brooch only if we pass the check for the lucky charm (you are re-directed to the same section number afterwards after checking the brooch, so it's not hard to figure that out if you're actually reading to book - although I guess it's more difficult for the players here since the section numbers are omitted here) is a hint that we might have lost it if we went to sleep instead of staying up chatting to Velkos and receiving the charm from her. And there was no one else who could have taken the brooch from us that night on the boat besides her. It's not the strongest evidence, I admit, but until we run into the bandits (which was something best avoided) it was literally the only instance where she would have directly caused us any loss (unless you make her suspect that you murdered Thandile and looted his stuff. Sure, she runs away on her own when there's danger, but that's not really a treacherous move, especially when she didn't owe us any favour, and we're the one who received help from her in getting out of the city.) Omitting that part actually makes it harder to argue that she's not a trustworthy companion.

****

I felt that giving away the direct effect of every spell during the magical combat with Feior was maybe a little over-generous, but I do agree that the entire section was pretty unfair and not even really make much sense on how each one would succeed or fail. I mean, if you try Mutation first, you are told that Feior blows you up because his Disruption attack was faster. But then he casts a Mutation spell at you, and if you try to throw Disruption back at him, you can't get it off in time and the Mutation spells merges you with your own spell (with lethal results). Definitely, modifications would have helped there.

Other than the unfair condition of learning the Mutation spell (I would have just taken out the requirement to fail the LUCK test), I do feel that it would have made more sense, and a better story, to have retained the requirement to "re-learn" or "remember" the spells before we can cast them. Especially since you're going to give us pretty much a pass on the magical battle with Feior.

****

Also, if we'd stayed to help Merzei raise the peasant army, we'd also march over with the new army to meet the king...which won't go down well at all, since Merzei will clash with the king's officer and then walk out on you with the army, essentially dooming you to be overwhelmingly outnumbered by Feior's army.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you very much for running this, Beroli.

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for running this.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Thanks for running!

[SGamerz]

Oh, btw, there's something I forgot: I'd promised to Thaluikhain that I'd post the picture of the mutated bandits. Here it is:

[Thaluikhain]

Huh, thanks for sharing that, that's a bit The Thing.

Oddly, despite starting out not knowing what was going on, (and still a bit vague about starting off in a sarcophagus in a dead city), I could keep track of what we were doing and why much better in this book than most.

Sky Lord, for example, we are ringing chimes in our submarine so we can win a brain to give to a guy to get a parasite removed, and this is just a distraction because we've got to stop a scientist from sticking pineapples to people's heads or whatever. Or something?