[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 49 - Siege of Sardath

[SGamerz]

I guess there's no objection to keep following Amenggur's directions:

Eventually the walkway leads you to an archway. Unlike the other archways you have seen, this one has a door in it - but one without any lock or handle to open it. With a shrug, you give the door a push, but it doesn't budge. Instead, a small hole opens at about head height. When the guard on the other side sees you, he mutters something to himself, and you hear the sound of bolts being drawn. Having opened the door, he just stands there, leaning arrogantly against the frame. "I know you," he says. "It's Lord Chaugh, isn't it? Oh yes, I remember now. You're stationed up in the Giant's castle with the other scum." He laughs. "I'll just go and see if your name is on the list." Will you let him turn to go, ask him why he has to check, or attack him?

We know from past experience that letting him turn will give us the golden opportunity to 1-shot him...

As the Dark Elf turns his back on you, you realize you have the perfect opportunity to take him by surprise. You draw your sword swift and strike him on the back of his neck. Roll two dice. if the total is less than or equal to your SKILL, you kill him instantly. If the total is greater than your SKILL, you got in a good hit, stunning him momentarily. However, his armour saves his life and he is able to turn and defend himself.

ELITE DARK ELF SKILL 9 STAMINA 6

If you defeat the Dark Elf, you drag his body on to the walkway and drop it over the side. Then you walk back to the archway and go through the door.

...and just as importantly, unlike the last time, we still have not put on the Amulet (again, reminder that you need to specifically vote to put it on before the book tests for it in order for it to be effective), and without its -2 penalty, we can't even fail this SKILL test. The Elite Dark Elf is 1-shotted.

A long corridor runs from here and it has just one exit: a closed door at the other end. When you walk down the corridor, you are relieved to see that this door has a handle, so you open it and walk through. And then you stop - the room is full of Dark Elves, and they are elite warriors, all wearing the same type of armour as the guard. For a few seconds you hesitate to take any action at all - this is a very dangerous situation. One of the Dark Elves then walks up to you and looks at you with disdain. "Name?"

"Lord Chaugh," you say, "from the Giant's castle."

"Sit here," he says, pointing to a chair by a stone door. Wary of making the Dark Elves suspicious, you do as you are told. The door has the word 'SAUCRIERE' carved on it and, as you sit there, you wonder what it means. The Dark Elf turns to the others and murmurs something in a strange language - probably a secret battle language, for it doesn't sound at all like normal Dark Elf. Whatever he said, it must have been sarcastic, for the others laugh. Add up the value of the rings you have, then turn to the paragraph with the same number. If you have no rings with values, turn to 203.

This time we have an extra ring...and an extra 300 to add to the 14 we already had, and we proceed to section 314.

At that moment, a young Dark Elf comes running in, holding a piece of paper. "Archduke Awlenon?" he asks.

One of he elite Guards saunters up to him and takes the message. When he reads it, he looks worried. "The slaves have broken free, and we are being attacked by Wood Elves. I will need all four cohorts." The warriors prepare themselves and run excitedly to battle. In just a few minutes they are hone, except for one guard.

Suddenly you feel strange - the transformation potion is wearing off! When he sees what is happening to you, the elite Guards screams, "Human!" and then attacks. He is too quick for you to use your bow.

ELITE DARK ELF SKILL 10 STAMINA 8

If you win, you hurry over to the door that has 'SAUCRIERE' carved on it. If you have an 'S' key, turn to 63. If you do not, turn to 86.

Given Amenggur's instructions, we can be fairly sure at this point that 'SAUCRIERE' probably leads to the 'Sorcerer'. We even have 2 sets of keys for the door. But first, we have to deal with the guard/

COMBAT LOG:
Elite Dark Elf 17, Quincey Stridermoore 17. Tie.
EDE 17, QS 14. QS is at 9.
EDE 13, QS 18. EDE is at 6.
EDE 15, QS 19. EDE is at 4.
EDE 16, QS 16. Tie.
EDE 16, QS 23. EDE is at 2.
EDE 17, QS 20. EDE is killed.

As soon as you slide the key into the lock, the huge stone door grinds open, revealing a long walkway back in the bottomless cavern. You lower your gaze to avoid the sight of the insane Dark Elf architecture, and step out. The door closes behind you. There is a staircase at the end of the walkway, leading downwards to an archway. The corridor is filled with yet more madness. The subjects of the wall paintings aren't too bad: a Dark Elf sorcerer hypnotizing Dwarfs, conjuring strange monsters and annihilating dragons with floating spheres of blackness. But it is all in such an inhuman style that the depth of the Sorcerer's evil is made very plain. Halfway along the corridor there are two doors, one on each side, and you can see a set of Iron Keys hanging on the wall next to the door on the left. You decide to take the keys (note them on your Adventure Sheet). Now, will you go through the door on the left, carry straight on and go through the door at the end of the corridor, or go through the door on the right?

We're well past the archway, and Amenggur's direction no longer applies. Which way to we go now?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 9/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, Four-leaf Clover, Potion of Fortune, SevenFourteen-coiled Snake Ring, Brain Slayer Amulet (symbol 'XXIX' carved on its back, -2 SKILL when worn, currently not worn), Climbing rope, Brass Key, Fangnir's Encyclopedia of Subterranean Flora, Lightning Sphere, Red Gem, Small Crystal Ball (when looking at Dark Elf architecture, automatically Lucky from resulting Luck test, and does not need to spend LUCK point), 'S' key (x2) Diamonds (x3), Jailor's keys, Ring of Three Centuries, Iron Keys
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 9
Gold: 20 GP
Companions: Istu (SKILL 12, STAMINA 1, can fight alongside us in combat, does not take damage from opponents, but lose 3 STAMINA per use)
Notes: Currently disguised as Dark Elf, subtract 10 from section number when encountering the phrase 'because you are human'.
Day of the Week:
Stormsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Moonsday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Fireday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Earthday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Windsday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (0/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

Put on the amulet and try the door on the left. I'm curious about whether there's a reason the Iron Keys were hanging beside this particular door.

[SGamerz]

(Will be away for more than a day over the weekend, so there'd be quite a gap between this update and the next.)

Quincey puts on the Brain Slayer Amulet and goes through the left door:

As soon as you open the door, you are stopped dead by the sight that greets your eyes. There are scores of Dwarfs in here, shackled to the walls and floor with manacles and chains, and to each other with neck-bands and steel rods. When they see you, many of them widen their eyes in delight but keep their mouths firmly closed. You go to the ones nearest you, quickly unhook the Iron Keys from your belt and unlock him. Now that he is freed, the Dwarf grabs the keys from you and begins to release the others.

"Go back into the corridor and through the door opposite," he hisses at you over his shoulders." I presume you are well enough armed to fight the Sorcerer. We'll go to the dormitory on the left and take out the acolytes." He look sat some of the others. "Revenge at last!" he shouts, and the Dwarfs let out a cheer, unconcerned at the noise they are making. Following the Dwarf's instructions, you return to the corridor and go through the door opposite.

Well the keys sure didn't stay in our possessions for long...

As soon as you go through the door; you are assailed by a hypnotic. rhythmic chanting. You are high up on a balcony in a massive circular room, so you step closer to the edge and look down to see what is making the noise. The room below you is filled with Dark Elf sorcerers wearing ornate robes and holding twisted, black wands in the air. They are standing in three groups of thirteen round, strangely ungeometric magical diagrams, swaying and loudly reciting their invocations. The air above each group is heavy with baleful power, and thick globules of blackness hang over their heads.

If you have a Lightning Sphere, it begins to crackle, so you take it out of your pack. As you hold it in your hand, it glows with a bright, white light, and small flashes of energy arc out over the sorcerers, dying against the coagulation of black power. If you hurl the Sphere at the Dark Elves, turn to 233. If you don't have a Sphere, or if you don't want to use it, turn to 191.

Finally, the Sphere reacts again! And these guys aren't even drunk! It appears that the sphere only triggers when it's close to Dark Elf spellcasters? I guess there is some logic to it, since Titan's Dark Elves worship demons, and presumably learn their style of magic, so the "darkest" of Dark Elves are those that dabble in the dark arts of demonic magic?

Do we want to use the sphere here?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 9/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, Four-leaf Clover, Potion of Fortune, SevenFourteen-coiled Snake Ring, Brain Slayer Amulet (symbol 'XXIX' carved on its back, -2 SKILL when worn, currently not worn), Climbing rope, Brass Key, Fangnir's Encyclopedia of Subterranean Flora, Lightning Sphere, Red Gem, Small Crystal Ball (when looking at Dark Elf architecture, automatically Lucky from resulting Luck test, and does not need to spend LUCK point), 'S' key (x2) Diamonds (x3), Jailor's keys, Ring of Three Centuries
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 9
Gold: 20 GP
Companions: Istu (SKILL 12, STAMINA 1, can fight alongside us in combat, does not take damage from opponents, but lose 3 STAMINA per use)
Notes: Currently disguised as Dark Elf, subtract 10 from section number when encountering the phrase 'because you are human'.
Day of the Week:
Stormsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Moonsday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Fireday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Earthday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Windsday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (0/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

We're very close to the endgame here, so we're going to have to use the Lightning Sphere sooner or later. I don't know if the Lightning Sphere would work against the Sorcerer, but it seems likely to work against these Dark Elves, so use it here.

[Thaluikhain]

3 groups of 13 dark elves, who are the worst apparently and evil sorcerers?

I vote we use the sphere and if we had another sphere I'd vote to use that one as well.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to use the Lightning Sphere against the evil group of Dark Elf sorcerers.

[Beroli]

Throw the lightning sphere.

[SGamerz]

One of the covens of sorcerers turns and glares at you, but the Lightning Sphere is already falling towards them. An instant later it hits the ground, exploding into a mass of lightning and fire. For a second you feel intense heat on your face, and you close your eyes in shock. And then it is gone. You walk back to the edge to the edge and look down. All that remains is a thick layer of grey dust covering the ground.

On the other side of the balcony there are some steps leading down to the floor below. In a state of mild shock, you walk over to them and go down to inspect the damage you have wrought, hoping to find some remains of the Sorcerer himself. If you have a set of Iron Keys, turn immediatel7y to 215. If you do not, you spend a few minutes looking around but finding nothing. Suddenly a part of the wall slides to one side and a robed figure steps out - the Sorcerer himself. You stand before him, triumphant among the havoc you have caused, but he is unimpressed. "I still have the power to turn the tide. You have brought the Wood Elves and feed the slaves, but I have a greater power than you can imaging. You have destroyed my acolytes, but they can easily be replaced. And I have plumbed so many of the depths of Corianthus's mind that I will soon be able to force him to cover this whole land with darkness." The Sorcerer looks at you through narrowed eyes. "And yet you stand there, apparently unafraid. Is this bravery, or mere foolishness?" If you are wearing a Brain Slayer Amulet, turn to 222. If you are not, turn to 38.

We have recently put the amulet on.

"Ah," he says in an almost friendly tone, "now I see what it is that is making you so confident." He pauses, looking thoughtful. "So it was you who destroyed my two Flyers. And you managed to get into the tomb and retrieve the amulet." He smiles. "Well don." Having no desire to take part in this bizarre conversation, you stand there impassively. Unperturbed, the Sorcerer goes on. "When the last pair of Flyers reported that the tomb had been destroyed, I thought I had lost the amulet." He laughs quietly. "But now I see that you have brought it for me. Please accept my humble thanks."

The Brain Slayer Amulet is the only object you have that you can use against him. But how? For the moment, all you have is talk, so you are forced to say something. Will you tell him to go ahead and kill you if he wants the amulet, tell him that, if he makes any move against you, you will destroy the amulet, or tell him that, if he makes a move against you, you will use the amulet against him?

We actually did not kill his 2 Flyers. They got themselves killed due to lack of manners and forgetting to knock the door before they try to open it. Although it looks like we may have too much manners by contrast, making conversation even though we have no desire to instead of charging forward to stick our sword in him.

What do we tell him?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 10/12 (-2 due to Brain Slayer Amulet)
STAMINA 9/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, Four-leaf Clover, Potion of Fortune, SevenFourteen-coiled Snake Ring, Brain Slayer Amulet (symbol 'XXIX' carved on its back, -2 SKILL when worn, currently worn), Climbing rope, Brass Key, Fangnir's Encyclopedia of Subterranean Flora, Red Gem, Small Crystal Ball (when looking at Dark Elf architecture, automatically Lucky from resulting Luck test, and does not need to spend LUCK point), 'S' key (x2) Diamonds (x3), Jailor's keys, Ring of Three Centuries
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 9
Gold: 20 GP
Companions: Istu (SKILL 12, STAMINA 1, can fight alongside us in combat, does not take damage from opponents, but lose 3 STAMINA per use)
Notes: Currently disguised as Dark Elf, subtract 10 from section number when encountering the phrase 'because you are human'.
Day of the Week:
Stormsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Moonsday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Fireday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Earthday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Windsday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (2/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (0/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[Beroli]

Tell him to go ahead and kill us.

[Queen of Swords]

Threatening to destroy the amulet means he can easily call our bluff, and we can't actually use the amulet against him unless he makes the first move. So tell him to kill us if he wants the amulet.

[SGamerz]

He smiles. "You must think me very foolish if you expect me to fall for that trick. I suppose you have some kind of shield against physical magic to complement the mental defences of the amulet." He pauses, frowning. "But what?"

Will you tell him that the magic that protects you is so strong that he will not even be able to detect its presence, let alone penetrate it, suddenly look panic-stricken and say that the amulet's power is waning, or tell him that, since you are defended against physical magic, his best option might be to attack your mind?

[Beroli]

The only one that doesn't amount to jumping up and down and screaming "This is an effort to manipulate you!" Look panic-stricken.

[Queen of Swords]

The only one that doesn't amount to jumping up and down and screaming "This is an effort to manipulate you!" Look panic-stricken.

Agreed, let's do this.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to look panic-stricken and say that the amulet's power is waning.

[SGamerz]

Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 173. If you are unlucky, turn to 246.

Dice roll = 8 (Lucky).

The Sorcerer begins to laugh. "And now, it doesn't matter what clever defences you came armed with, for your principal weapon is its power." He shales his head in disbelief. "And the cruelest joke is that this turn of events suits my purpose perfectly. I don't want the amulet for protection myself - I hardly need it. No; I want to learn its secrets and to turn them, so that I may break Corianthus's defences once and for all. Once the amulet is dead, that job will be child's play." He looks at you with a disdainful glare. "And now I will wipe your mind blank and take what is mine." His eyes flash bright yellow, and the air between you crackles with energy. Add 300 to the number of the Brain Slayer Amulet and turn to the paragraph with that number.

300 + 29 = 329.

The amulet hums with power as it absorbs the Sorcerer's attack, and flashes yellow. There is another crackle of magical energy and the Sorcerer is left staring ahead through pure white eyes. He is alive, but mindless. You tell him to lie down on the floor, and he obeys you. But when you tell him to use his magic to levitate himself, he just lies there dumbly. With his mind destroyed, all his magical abilities have gone. You draw your sword and leave the Sorcerer's domain, striding out on to the walkway in the bottomless cavern.

Everywhere, Wood Elves and Dwarfs are fighting Dark Elves. They have torn down a lot of the architecture and you find you can now look around in comfort. You walk along the walkways, striding through the battle, delighting in what you have achieved. A grave threat has been lifted from the peoples of north-east Allansia, and it is unlikely that the Dark Elves will return for some time.

All at once you see a massive form squeezing itself through one of the archways that lead to the main city. When he rises to his full right metres, you realize that this must be Corianthus. He edges towards you on what to him must be a knife-edge. "Are you the adventurer from Grimmund?" he asks in a deep booming voice. When you admit that you are, he picks youup and holds you at eye level. "Thank you," he says. "You have released me from a fate so terrible that I had wished for death for many days. Now I am glad to be alive. We are certain to win this battle, so let's you and I go up to my castle and celebrate."

Uh...just because we're "sure to win" doesn't make it seem right that we should just walk away while the fighting is still going on instead of helping the others finish it sooner. I mean, they were playing roles just as vital for this win (without the military backup to draw the guards away we would have failed), so it's rather rude to start the party without them.

Still, this is undoubtedly a win for this book, so congratulations. This one took pretty long, but I hope you enjoyed the ride.

Beating the End Boss via conversation instead of combat or plain items use is one of the more original designs in the series, although the lines of the conversation could have been better (suddenly looking panicky and blurting out an apparent weakness to your enemy doesn't feel too convincing, although the alternatives were pretty blatantly bad choices too). Still a refreshing change from the norm, although not quite enough to match the coolness of similarly turning the enemy's on attack on himself in Spectral Stalker (or even Magehunter).

(Just a note - that last Luck test wasn't pass-or-die. If we failed the roll, he was suspicious about whether we were telling the truth, and we had the chance to convince him by playing along and going, "Yeah, you were totally right, I should have known better than to try and trick you." and he goes, "Haha, you messed up earlier and now you're trying to cover up, I won't fall for that!" and then goes on to mind-wipe himself. That would actually be slightly more realistic than him just being so gullible as to believe the first thing we tell him.)

There probably isn't too much of content that we missed, since this is one of the books where the winning path takes the long way, so I will probably be summing them up within a day. As usual, feel free to ask about anything specific subject that you wish to know.

Thank you to everyone for playing!

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for running this adventure, SGamerz.

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for running.

[SGamerz]

One of the many signs that we'd already been through the majority of the content in this book during our playthrough is the fact that we went through almost all the pictures. There's only this one, I think, which we did not come across:



This is actually Sorrel's sword, and it's lying within the range of a man-eating plant called the Death Dripper, who kills its prey by dripping poisonous fluid on it. The fact that the sword is found in its possession is an additional indication that the real Sorrel is probably dead.

The sword is actually made of silver, so it can be used as a life-saving weapon against the wraith in the tomb for players who didn't manage to spot the secret door. But this is definitely not on the optimal path. In fact, you need to fail a SKILL check (and then pass a LUCK test) in order to get the sword. If you pass the SKILL check, you identify the plant for what it is, and keep away.

On the subject of Sorrel, if you try to contact him using the mercury dish, it more or less confirms that he's dead, because the device tells you that there's no of that name living anywhere within his range. For the other guys you may try to contact, Colrhyn is said to be still unconscious (although you learn that he's at least still alive, even if you didn't save him earlier). Corianthus actually manages to speak a few word to you, although you don't learn much beyond the fact that you need to destroy the Sorcerer to free him. Ydyss Thinner, the commander of Sardath's army, is the only other person who still manages to have a full conversation with you, although again there's nothing vital to learn from him. He just talks about the situation at Sardath's siege. Ironically, despite the book's title, the optimal path to win it actually involves you never visiting Sardath at all. The only useful thing we can potentially get out of it is the Brass Key from Neya, and we can only get that if we visit on a specific day.

What we took was pretty close to the optimal path. The one bonus we really missed was attacking Thyra Migurn when we first meet her. And even that may not necessarily be the optimal choice for everyone, because she fights at SKILL 10, so we need to be strong enough to beat her in combat to benefit for it (which Quincey probably was). She is impressed by the feat and rewards you with extra damage output to your sword (3 points per blow) for up to 4 battles against Dark Elves (by charging your sword with electrical powers). However, she will still expect you to bow down to her after the battle. And if we refuse, we get lethally fried by lightning.

It may actually be better to try and dodge past Morn Preeler and escape from him instead of attacking him - there's a 50/50 chance you can just successfully run back out to the council chamber and alert everyone else that there's an imposter, and he gets taken down without much of a fight. Engaging him in combat actually gives him comparatively more chances to get away with your signet ring, which would be a delayed Game Over. If you set off on your quest without the ring, when you try to contact the astrologer later via the mercury dish, he will tell you that an imposter came back to Grimmund wearing your ring and led the council into attacking the Forest. This resulted in the Forest retaliating, and your conversation with him ends with a Giant Spider breaking into his lab before contact is cut off (and Liam presumably is killed by it). You don't learn about turning the Brain Slayer Amulet into a reflector in this case (and therefore doomed to fail).

There are 3 possible concoctions you may make in Corianthus' lab. The transformation potion is the only correct one, of course. Switching out Lycanthrope Saliva for Condensed Mist will produce a potion that turns you into an insubstantial mist-like form, which is a Game Over. Switching out Chameleonite Blood for Powdered Pegasus Feathers gives you Pegasus Wings, which isn't an immediate Game Over, but the one time you get checked for it, you get spotted by Black Flyers and killed. (All the other Black Flyers have bat wings, so yours stick out like a sore thumb.)

Putting Love Potion in the Dark Elf noble's drink is risky. If you fail a Luck test, he decides that he likes you so much that he orders you to stay with him and essentially become his pet (Game Over). If you pass the Luck test, he lets you go, and gifts you with the Orc bone which you can use to distract the Obligaths outside the slavers' camp.

If we still had the Iron Keys right before we meet the Sorcerer, it means we didn't free the Dwarf prisoners next door first, so there was no one keeping the acolytes in the dormitory busy, and they arrive to finish us off. We can also go to the dormitory first and use our Lightning Sphere to wipe the sleeping acolytes out...but that would leave us defenseless against the acolytes in the Sorcerer room.

[Queen of Swords]

I enjoyed the worldbuilding here. You really get a sense of Dark Elf society, this veneer of courtesy over arrogance and viciousness. Even the throwaway encounters, like the one which got us the second S key, feel well-thought-out in terms of description and give a glimpse into the Dark Elf mindset.

Though now I'm imagining what would happen if we put a Love Potion into the Dark Elf noble's drink, and he likes us so much he insists we become his pet, but then the transformation potion wears off...

Thanks for hosting this!

[SGamerz]

Though now I'm imagining what would happen if we put a Love Potion into the Dark Elf noble's drink, and he likes us so much he insists we become his pet, but then the transformation potion wears off...

I imagine the Love Potion will wear off eventually too (I highly doubt a common trader will be selling something powerful enough to make others fall in love with you permanently), but either way, it's highly doubtful the PC will survive anyway. The sorcerer is likely to mind-wipe him once he finds out about the intruder, and the noble will probably be just as happy with an obedient mindless pet.