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

[Queen of Swords]

Dark Elves are far more likely to respect aggression than apologies. So let's be aggressive.

[Beroli]

Pretend to be angry.

[SGamerz]

Holding your sword up to his face, you shout at him that you are the one who deserves the most respect. You say that you are a warrior, risking your life for the spread of Dark Elf civilization. He begins to tremble and drops his bundle. A small, beautifully carved statue of a Gargoyle's head falls out of the sackcloth. "We both noble, in our own ways," he says, obviously concerned by your superior strength, but still trying to salvage some honour. "No need violence." he says. "Take Gargoyle." You sneer, but you pick up the figure and march off down the main road. "Many ways of power," he shouts after you. "See when you need noble living place." You ignore his taunts and carry on.

The further down the road you go, the more unfinished the buildings become and the greater the proportion of slaves doing the work, carrying materials and building walls and pillars. But there are also more slave-drivers, and other Dark Elves are on the scaffolds, inspecting the work and whipping those Dwarfs who deliberately make mistakes - Dwarfs never build badly by accident. Some distance ahead, you can see the cavern wall and hundreds of slaves swarming around it, all chained. If only you could release them, all these Dwarfs would make an excellent army - as long as they were directed by a good military leader. If you have a Small Gargoyle, turn to 162. Otherwise, turn to 76.

We'd only just picked one up!

Before you reach the cavern wall and the Dwarf slaves who are quarrying there, you arrive at a junction where a narrow path leads off to your right. It must finish up somewhere in the city, but you can see neither where it ends nor any turnings off it. There are high fences along its sides - so presumably it is a pathway for slaves, the fence being there to prevent them straying into the city. Will you leave the main road and go down this path or carry straight on.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 10/12 (while wearing Brain Slayer Amulet)
STAMINA 11/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, Four-leaf Clover, Sleeping Draught, Potion of Fortune, SevenFourteen-coiled Snake Ring, Brain Slayer Amulet (symbol 'IX' carved on its back, 'XX' carved on its front, -2 SKILL when worn, currently not 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), Small Gargoyle
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 10
Gold: 6 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 (1/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

"Many ways of power," he shouts after you. "See when you need noble living place."

"We'll go to one of your competitors, and you'll be the elf on the shelf, literally."

Go down the path for slaves.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, down the path, we aren't a devotee of the Goddess of Justice so hopefully we can start a slave revolt.

[SGamerz]

The fenced pathway carries you right through the weirdly constructed city, past enclosed squares with towers standing at strange angles and streets whose only purpose is to confuse. Everything is carved with images of malevolent-looking Dark Elves. The fence is unbroken for the entire length of the pathway, so you have no access to the city - but you realize with some relief that this also means that the bizarre city has no access to you! Eventually you reach the wall of the cavern, some way beneath the balcony. There is an archway here, leading to a short tunnel. It is very low and narrow, and you have to stoop to get through. However, it soon emerges into the bottomless cavern, and yo lower your gaze to avoid the wild architecture. The flimsy walkway you are no on is slippery with moss, so you walk very carefully; but it soon widens and becomes dry again. After a few more metres, you come to a junction. Will you go right or carry straight on?

[Queen of Swords]

Carry straight on.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to carry straight on, as I think Quincey Stridemoore has indulged in enough fascism for now.

[SGamerz]

After some distance, the walkway reaches another junction. Will you now go left or carry straight on?

[JourneymanN00b]

Hmm. I vote to carry straight on this time in order to avoid accusations of leftist extremism.

[Queen of Swords]

Without other information, straight on seems as good a choice as any.

[SGamerz]

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?

[Queen of Swords]

Let him turn to go. Attacking him might bring more guards, and I'm not sure engaging in conversation with someone already predisposed to laugh at us will be effective.

[JourneymanN00b]

Sure, I vote to let him turn to go, as attacking him probably won't go well and asking him will only arouse suspicion.

[SGamerz]

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.

The option turned out to be a pretty deceptive one, as allow him to turn became a plot for surprise attack. Still this turns out to be the best action to take here.

Because we put on the Brain Slayer Amulet, the SKILL penalty means that we actually have to roll for the SKILL test.

Dice roll = 7 (Success)! The Elite Dark Elf was one-shotted by the surprise attack!

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.

We have just one ring, a 14-coiled Snake Ring from the Wood Elf Bistort, so we turn to section 14 here:

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

One of he elite Guards saunters up to him and takes the message. "Just a few Wood Elves," he comments laconically. "It will only take a couple of cohorts." Some of the warriors prepare themselves and hurry away excitedly to battle. However, a lot of them have stayed behind - obviously they don't see the Wood Elves as much of a threat. Suddenly you feel strange - the transformation potion is wearing off! When he sees what is happening to you, one of the Elite Guards screams, "Human!" and they all attack. You fight as well as you can, but there are just too many of them. Your adventure is over.

And we hit another Game Over! It appears that the number of rings we have is supposed to indicate allies whom, if there are enough of them, may draw away the majority of the elite guards before our disguise wears off.

Which spot should we rewind back to?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 10/12 (while wearing Brain Slayer Amulet)
STAMINA 11/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, Four-leaf Clover, Sleeping Draught, Potion of Fortune, SevenFourteen-coiled Snake Ring, Brain Slayer Amulet (symbol 'IX' carved on its back, 'XX' carved on its front, -2 SKILL when worn, currently not 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), Small Gargoyle
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 10
Gold: 6 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 (1/3 extra lives remaining)
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

Since we couldn't save Corianthus, I vote to rewind back to the point where we find him, save the lightning sphere, and walk round him to the left to see if taking a stand against fascism will help here.

[Thaluikhain]

Well, we did manage to off a bunch of DE that way, but ok, that seems reasonable.

[Queen of Swords]

Well, we did manage to off a bunch of DE that way, but ok, that seems reasonable.

We did manage to kill a lot of Dark Elves, but ultimately that didn't really help us, so I agree with saving the Lightning Sphere and walking to the left of Corianthus.

[Beroli]

I actually propose we rewind all the way back to the communication device and try to contact Corianthus at the point where we stopped trying to contact people and just left.

[SGamerz]

Three votes to rewind back to the point before we used the Lightning Sphere and walk round the left side. Note that this was also the point where we just put on the Brain Slayer Amulet, so I'm going to assume that we're not wearing it now. Please voice out if you still think we should put it on.

You walk round the side of the room until you are level with the archway. When you look through here, you are amazed by the splendour of what you see. In the centre of a large hall, with great staircases going up and down to other floors, is a long table, with at least thirty Dark Elves sitting round it. They are feasting but are showing no signs of enjoyment; they are just leering over their gruesome food like fastidious, demonic gourmets.

One of them turns around. "Would you like to come in for dinner?" he says.

Will you accept the invitation and go through the archway or say that you have other business to attend to, then quickly move away? If you choose the latter course of action, will you go towards the diners or towards the ritual?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Quincey Stridemoore
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 11/15
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, bow, quiver, Council Signet Ring, 2: Condensed Mist from the Mithrir Forest, Four-leaf Clover, Sleeping Draught, 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)
Arrows: 6
Bundles of Herbs: 10
Gold: 6 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]

Freudian slip? We are certainly not telling the truth to come in for dinner. Wait, do we have poison? Sleeping Draught, that'll do. Let's go in for dinner. Without wearing the amulet yet. And hope we can avoid having to actually eat food of unspecified grotesqueness. Or food of specified grotesqueness, "surface elf lungs" or something similar would be worse.

[SGamerz]

Freudian slip? We are certainly not telling the truth to come in for dinner.

Oops, typo corrected.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to say that Quincey Stridemoore has other business to attend to and go towards the diners. I feel his cover will be blown too easily if he accepts the invitation, and the diners are a good target of his sleeping draught. And I do not want him to wear the amulet yet.

[Beroli]

So I just noticed something.

However, if two 'X's are scratched in front of the existing symbol,

I do not think this should translate to "the amulet now has IX on its back and XX on its front."

I think this should translate to "the amulet now has XXIX on it."

The existing symbol was "IX."

[Queen of Swords]

I vote to say that Quincey Stridemoore has other business to attend to and go towards the diners. I feel his cover will be blown too easily if he accepts the invitation, and the diners are a good target of his sleeping draught. And I do not want him to wear the amulet yet.

Agree with this.