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

[Thaluikhain]

May as well follow the river.

[SGamerz]

As you walk along the riverbank, you begin to see just how strong your dark enemy must be. Even though the canopy of trees is now so dense that hardly any light shines through, the river is completely choked with unnatural weeds swirling around, some seemingly feeding on others. Lazing in the shadows are grossly bloated fish, nibbling at one another. When you finally emerge from the Forest, you are relieved to see the sun shining on the Freezeblood Mountains. However, as you walk north to Gwinir's Bridge, you begin to realize that the nightmare is not over, for there is a terrible darkness hanging over Sardath. With some trepidation, you walk towards the town.

Sardath, built on stilts over Lake Sardmere, is the trading centre of the Freezeblood Mountains and the Forest of Night. Built centuries ago by the rough men and Dwarfs who came to this region to exploit its many resources, Sardath has become an important outpost in the spread of civilizaion throughout northern Allansia. As you walk along the road, it looks as if all this might come to nothing. The whole of Lake Sardmere is shrouded by a strange swirling storm, with the town at its centre; from what you can see, Sardath itself looks completely dead. The bridge that crosses the lake has been destroyed and most of the boats have been wrecked. If today is Fireday, turn to 127. If it is Earthday, turn to 154. Otherwise, turn to 184.

We hit it on a "special" day!

But there is still cause for hope: a small sailing boat struggling desperately against the weather. Its lone sailor, dashing frantically from sail to tiller and back again, may not make it. You look around for a means to aid him, but the only thing yo ufind that will actually float is a small rowing boat, moored to the wrecked bridge. Will you row out to help the sailor or wait and hope that he makes it on his own?

[Thaluikhain]

Help random person.

[Queen of Swords]

Yes, help the sailor.

[SGamerz]

Roll two dice and deduct 3 from the total. If this value is less than or equal to your SKILL, turn to 334. If it is greater than your SKILL, turn to 386.

Even with our recent Ghost-inflicted penalty, we can't fail this roll thanks to the -3 modifier!

The wave crash around you, and the wind and rain lash into your face; you are only just able to reach the sailing boat. "Brave help!" comes a shout from above. When you look up, you see a woman throwing you a rope, so you grab it and haul the rowing boat alongside. Once you are aboard, the woman starts giving you orders. Realizing that she is an experienced sailor, you jump to it, and with your help she is able to get the boat to shore.

"I am Neya," she reveals, once you are both safe. "I owe you my life." You try to shrug off her thanks but cannot suppress a good feeling about what you did (regain 1 LUCK point). "The all said that I was foolish to try to escape from the town, especially now that the storm has grown so bad. Perhaps I should have tried to get away earlier, but we all wanted to stay, to defend Sardath from the Black Flyers." When you tell her that they are the very enemy you have come to destroy, her face lights up with hope. "Then you must travel north into the mountains, for that is where they come from. Strangely, though, on the first night of the siege, it was a Dark Elf army that destroyed the bridge and sank our boats. There is a connection between these two forces, but it is too frightening to contemplate." If you have a Brass Key, turn to 195; otherwise, turn to 372.

We don't have a key...

"Corianthus should know what is going on," she says. "He knows much of what goes on in these mountains." You ask her who he is. "Corianthus is the Storm Giant who lives in the castle on Harn Cloud." She reaches inside her tunic and produces a large Brass Key. "This is one of the keys to his library, a sign of his special trust. Take it to Corianthus and ask for his help in my name." You thank her and ask her how you can get to the Giant. "Go north," she says, "following the river until you reach a small stream leading up the side of a huge, isolated mountain. Persevere, and you will reach the castle." You thank Neya again. "I would like to travel with you," she says, "but I have already promised to go to Fangthane, the Dwarven capital, to tell them of our plight. Sardath has a huge Dwarven population, so they are sure to come to our aid - if it's not too late." You wish her luck. She smiles. "I will see you when I come back to Sardath to celebrate the success of your mission."

You laugh at her bravado, and watch as she heads towards Gwinir's Bridge. Once Neya is out of sight, you turn north and begin the trek into the mountains.

Smart lady, she knows the low survival rate of FF companions in general and nopes out of it.

LUCK is up to 7.

The Freezeblood Wall is too steep and treacherous a set of mountains for you to climb, so you must skirt round its eastern edge. After travelling for some distance, you observe a black shape at the foot of one of the numerous rocky crags. It is not far away, so you climb up to investigate. When you get there, you find that the shape is, in fact, the corpse of a Dark Elf which is been dead for at least a week. The creature seems to have been stripped of its weapons and armour, and it was not carrying a pack. Nevertheless a thorough investigation is always worth while. Roll two dice. Add together the numbers rolled, then modify the result, depending on what day it is, according to the following table:

Moonday - deduct 4
Fireday - deduct 2
Earthday - no modification
Windsday - add 2
Seaday - add 4

If the result is less than or equal to your SKILL, turn to 152. If the result is greater than your SKILL, you find nothing on the Dark Elf's body, so you deice to leave it where it is and carry on north into the mountains.

We get a -2 modifier, which means, again, that we can't really fail the roll.

Even though you find nothing on the Dark Elf's body, you do discover a number of footprints nearby. You follow them eastwards for a short distance until you come to an area containing several other tracks, all leading north-west up a long valley. These prints were made over a week ago, and by large numbers - a Dark Elf army, perhaps. The presence of such a force, no matter how long ago, is a vital clue to your mission, so you waste no time in following it up.

You travel all day through the Freezeblood Mountains, following the same route up a long, gently rising valley. There is no path here, so the going is very difficult. You can see a huge, isolated mountain at the end of the valley, but it is impossible to tell how far away it is: you walk for many hours, but it doesn't seem to get any closer. To make matters worse, the valley floor is damp and marshy, and you can only make any progress by leaping between clumps of springy turf. Each mis-steps threatens to break your ankle; but you are not easily beaten, and you keep going, ignoring the sweat which is almost freezing against your skin. By the time night begins to fall the mountain still doesn't look any nearer. But everything you have discovered indicates that this is the way you must go, so there is no point in turning back now. Indeed, you may even decide to press on through the night. If you do so, turn to 251. if you wish to camp for the night, you notice a small crag near by where you can shelter and some dry rocks on which you may sleep.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 10/11
STAMINA 15/15
LUCK 7/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 1: Dried Chameleonite Blood, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, 7: Pickled Whole Shapechanger Brain, Four-leaf Clover, Snapperfish Oil, Sleeping Draught, Potion of Fortune, Golden Amulet, Brass Key
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 5
Gold: 3 GP
Day of the Week:
Stormsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Moonsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Fireday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Earthday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Windsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

Camp for the night.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to camp for the night, as pressing is just stupid and asking for a fatal ambush.

[Thaluikhain]

"Each mis-steps threatens to break your ankle; but you are not easily beaten, and you keep going, ignoring the sweat which is almost freezing against your skin...Indeed, you may even decide to press on through the night."

Yeah, even without monsters and whatnot, that would be a stupid idea. Camp.

[SGamerz]

Not long after nightfall and just after you have settled yourself down, you spot an army of Black Flyers coming down the valley from the north-west, heading towards Sardath. Glad that you have stopped and hidden yourself, you pull your blankets close around you and try to get some sleep. Your camp is not exactly comfortable but it is dry and out of the icy wind, so you should be able to rest quite well.

Next morning you wake up cold and stiff (tick off the next day on your Adventure Sheet). If today is Highday, turn to 50. If it is not, you drag yourself to your feet and do a few vigorous exerises to get your body going. Then, after some breakfast, you set off. As the morning wears on, the huge, isolated mountain actually looks as if it is getting nearer; this is a boost to your morale, but it als means that the ground will soon be getting steeper. Towards midday, you begin to climb the mountain itself.

It's not Highday yet (and something tells me having spent so much time before getting here wouldn't be a good thing), but we're now on Earthday.

You ascend the steepening mountainside for some time, losing pace as the climbing gets harder until, eventually, you are forced to rest. As you are gazing up towards the mountain's peak to see how far away it still is, you become aware of a shadowy form in the sky above you. Your thoughts turn immediately to the Black Flyers. As the shape draws closer, however, you realize that it is a Giant Eagle, flying straight towards you. If you do something to show that you are friendly, write down on your Adventure Sheet what that is, then turn to 198. Otherwise, will you draw your bow and shoot at it or draw your sword and attack it as it drops down to land?

Please indicate what you want to do if you want to "do something to show that you are friendly".

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 10/11
STAMINA 15/15
LUCK 7/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 1: Dried Chameleonite Blood, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, 7: Pickled Whole Shapechanger Brain, Four-leaf Clover, Snapperfish Oil, Sleeping Draught, Potion of Fortune, Golden Amulet, Brass Key
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 5
Gold: 3 GP
Day of the Week:
Stormsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Moonsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Fireday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Earthday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Windsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to do something to how that Quincey Stridemoore is friendly. I guess I vote to have him call out to the Eagle.

[Queen of Swords]

Maybe put our weapons down and then call out to the Eagle?

[SGamerz]

If you wrote something like 'Hold up the Brass Key', turn to 66. If you didn't, the Eagle takes no notice whatever it was, and you have only just enough time to draw your sword.

So apparently this has something to do with Corianthus.

(If you are wondering why we didn't have any clue about what to do even though we got the required quest token...remember that we were checked for that item before we got it from Neya, so clearly there was more than one such key, and we could have gotten it from someone else...)

The Giant Eagle swoops in at great speed, raking a gouge in your shoulder before you can react (deduct 2 points from your STAMINA). The bird banks and turns, then swoops again. This time you are ready for it.

GIANT EAGLE SKILL 8 STAMINA 12

If the Eagle wins two Attack Rounds in a row, turn immediately to 339. If you win the fight, did you follow the runnel up the mountain, or did you come up by some other route?

Another not-too-strong opponent stat-wise, but apparently does something special with its attacks when it hits twice. Do we want to use LUCK to speed up this fight too?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 10/11
STAMINA 13/15
LUCK 7/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 1: Dried Chameleonite Blood, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, 7: Pickled Whole Shapechanger Brain, Four-leaf Clover, Snapperfish Oil, Sleeping Draught, Potion of Fortune, Golden Amulet, Brass Key
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 5
Gold: 3 GP
Day of the Week:
Stormsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Moonsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Fireday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Earthday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Windsday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

With no votes, I assume the default is preferred, so straight combat it is!

(The Giant Eagle's picture has been added to the previous post.)

COMBAT LOG:
Giant Eagle 14, Quincey Stridemoore 115. GE is at 10.
GE 14, QS 17. GE is at 8.
GE 14, QS 21. GE is at 6.
GE 16, QS 20. GE is at 4.
GE 12, QS 17. GE is at 2.
GE 12, QS 14. GE is killed.

It couldn't even hit us once, much less twice in a row.

We did not get here by any runnel...

Climbing is very hard work because, for every two metres you ascend, you slide back one. The day passes in what seems like an eternal torment and you are hardly aware of the terrible cold or the falling of night. Suddenly a shout comes from above you and you look up. Gliding towards you is a whole flight of Black Flyers. They swoop down on you with murder in their eyes. Your adventure is over.

And here's our first failure. Clearly, we missed a bunch of stuff that were checked on the way (a possible silver weapon against the Ghost, some companion named Istu, the chance to check out other items in the tomb, another person who may give us a Brass Key and maybe tell us about the Giant Eagle association with Corianthus, and possibly others). Is there any particular point you guys wish to rewind to? Or would you sacrifice 3 chances to be re-directed to the first place you left the "true path"?

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to rewind back to the point where we encountered the potion merchant. I would like to see if refusing to buy potions results in discounts, as I feel that that his prices were rather high and that we missed an opportunity to haggle him down so that we can get an extra potion or two. I would also be open to seeing whether carrying out a surprise attack succeeds, as there have been books where being a psychopath was necessary to win the adventure.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, if we kill the guy don't we get loads of free potions? Half vote for giving that a try.

[Queen of Swords]

I vote to rewind back to the point where we encountered the potion merchant. I would like to see if refusing to buy potions results in discounts, as I feel that that his prices were rather high and that we missed an opportunity to haggle him down so that we can get an extra potion or two.

Agree with this.

[SGamerz]

Rewinding back back to the potion merchant, Quicey decides he's not interested in buying any potions...

The trader looks anxious. "I beg you reconsider," he whines, "I've been waiting just outside the village for ages for someone like you to come along. I hoped I could fool you into thinking that I had just arrived with fresh stock. The truth is I haven't sold anything for days. If it wasn't for the danger, I would have left a long time ago and headed west for Zengis. But, alas..." He pauses for a moment, then grins. "Tell you what, I'll give you a mystery free gift if you agree to buy something." You ask him what kind of 'mystery gift'. "A potion," he says. You narrow your eyes - you'd guessed that much. "Honestly, I don't know what it is. That's why it's a mystery!" He laughs nervously. Will you now agree to buy some of his potions, or will you decline the trader's offer and continue on your way?

So I guess that's one mystery solved: he never actually passed through the "impassable Forest", just pretended to. He was in fact sort of stranded in this place without customers.

At least it removes the option to murder him now that the suspicion about how he managed to get here through the Forest is resolved.

And of course, like a typical salesman, he now tries to offload unknown junk that he can't market to other people due to not knowing what it does on us, and trying to pass it off as a gift! Do we accept the outrageous deal?

[JourneymanN00b]

Okay, I guess now is the time to agree to buy some of his potions. I vote to buy a vial of sleeping draught and a potion of fortune this time.

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, let's get the Sleeping Draught and the Potion of Fortune (and the free gift).

[SGamerz]

"excellent." He is obviously very pleased and hands you a large bottle containing about half a litre of a thick, clear liquid. "What I said before wasn't quite true. It's not really a potion at all - at least, not a potion for drinking. All I know about it is that it's very dangerous, so don't even open the bottle, let alone pour it down your throat. What I suggest you do is throw it at something nasty and hope that it does some damage." You may use Mystery Potion X at any time when you are allowed to fire your bow, in place of one arrow. When you decide to use it, make a note of the number of the paragraph you are reading at the time and then turn to 96 to find you what happens. "Now, then," says the trader, "down to business." Turn to 263, and remember: you are obliged to buy at least one potion.

We should totally renege on our promise because he was lying about the gift being a potion, but there's no option for that.

"I have a great range of potions," he tells you, "although some are in limited supply." He reaches into the wagon and produces a placard with a list of the prices. "The Love Potions are excellent value, and vert effective, though I don't suppose you are in need of such things. The Sleeping Draught is potent, but it does tend to make you a bit hyperactive once it has worn off. And then there are my special commodities. I'm afraid that the last four items on the list are very rare, so I only have one of each. I suppose I ought to apologize for their cost as well - but, as I said,they are very special." Buy what you wish from the list and deduct the appropriate number of Gold Pieces from your Adventure Sheet. After making your purchases, you bid the man farewell and carry on down the road.

There were already 2 votes on just buying the Potion of Fortune and the Sleeping Draught this time, so I will buy those and proceed. But if anyone still want to buy anything else, feel free to voice out before the next update.

You walk on down the road until you come to the last outpost of village - the harbour, where all the trading boats are kept. It has a look of dereliction about it: all the sails are furled, and the food in the warehouses is beginning to rot. This scene drives home to you the importance of your mission and the urgency with which it must be completed. There is not much for you to go on yet, but nevertheless you must now decide how you will proceed. Will you travel north-east on the Grimway, take your boat and sail up the river, or cross the river and head north-west through the forest?

Do we want to maintain or change our course from the previous time?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 11/11
STAMINA 15/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 1: Dried Chameleonite Blood, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, 7: Pickled Whole Shapechanger Brain, Four-leaf Clover, Sleeping Draught, Potion of Fortune, Mystery Potion X (turn to 96 when used as an arrow)
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 5
Gold: 6 GP
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 (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Seaday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
Highday (3/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I still vote to sail up the river.

[SGamerz]

You walk down to the harbour and find your boat. It takes only a few minutes to set sail, and then your quest begins. With the sun shining across he fields, the first few kilometres make a pleasant - if somewhat chilly - start to the day. As you journey progresses, however, the tail pines close in on the Grimway. Of course, you don't fear the Forest's shadowy atmosphere, but there do seem to be more eyes peering at you than you remember, and the background noise of unknown creatures is closer to the river.

Towards midday, you reach the point where the rope-bridge should be, but it has been torn down from the east bank and is lying in the river. Will you try to maneuvre round it, land on the west bank and walk along the forest trail which goes northwest, or land on the east bank and walk northeast through the pathless forest beside the river?

Still in familiar territory...

[Queen of Swords]

Try to maneuver around it.

[JourneymanN00b]

I still vote to maneuver around it as well.

[SGamerz]

Sailing round the wrecked bridge is easier than you thought, and you are soon sailing on up the river. The increasing darkness of the Forest bears out your theory that something evil is taking place, that the coldness you feel is not just the result of the weather. Even the river is beginning to look abnormal. Several times you see a pair of large amphibian eyes pop up in the reeds, only to disappear just as quickly. Many hours pass, and the Forest's darkness turns into the chill blackness of night. There is a small clearing on the east bank, so you land the boat and set up camp. As you sit, eating cold rations and gazing over the trees to the west bank, you notice two black shapes silhouetted against the starry sky. They are some distance to the west, flying southwards; after a while, they land. If you decide to sail over to the west bank and track the creatures into the Forest, turn to 168. Otherwise (write the number 178 in a circle on your Adventure Sheet), will you settle straight down to sleep or make a fire first?

Still familiar here, but do we want to continue treading the old path and track the Flyers straight to the tomb this time?