[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 50 – Return to Firetop Mountain

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, take the copper pieces and the garlic, then go to the door ahead.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Dickblade Cockbiter will take the 3 Copper Pieces, garlic, and the piece of paper with the word ‘Leg” written on it. He will also leave the ear-ring and walk up to the door ahead.

149
You open the door and walk along a narrow tunnel. It turns briefly to the right and then to the left, where there is a small alcove. Walking on, you arrive at another wooden door with a carved bone handle. Hearing no sound coming from the other side of the door, you turn the handle. You enter a strange, pear-shaped room with a rough stone floor; there is another door in the far wall and on one side of the room there is a pile of rubble. You suddenly spot a small creature lying asleep on the rubble pile; it has large ears and a long nose, and is wearing only a loincloth. A dagger and a pouch lie by the Troglodyte’s head. If you want to tiptoe over to the next door, turn to 330. If you prefer to sneak up to the Troglodyte and take its dagger and pouch, turn to 45.

Please make your votes before 6:00 PM PDT to guarantee that they will be counted.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Dickblade Cockbiter
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 3 Initial Stamina = 15
LUCK: 6 Initial Luck = 11
WEAPONS:
3 Steel Daggers
Darkblade’s Sword
Sword
ARMOUR:
Shield
TREASURE:
3 Gold Pieces Stamped With “Z”
6 Gold Pieces
Gold Dragon Tooth Stamped With “315” and Heart Symbol Inside Flaming Circle
Gold Ring Stamped With “30” and Inscribed With “Seeing Is Believing”
Gold Spoon
Gold Tooth Stamped With ”186”
Bronze Tooth Stamped with “280”
3 Copper Pieces
EQUIPMENT:
Backpack
Lantern
Mushroom
Ring of Invisibility
Iron Key With “142” Stamped
Wooden Ball
Leather Pouch
Rope
Magnifying Glass
Silver Dagger
Leather Gloves
Mirror
Tin Whistle
Onyx Egg
Silver Bell
Ball of String
Garlic
Paper With The Written Word “Leg”
BOONS:
2 Item Wishes[/spoiler]

[Darth Rabbitt]

Take the dagger and pouch in case there’s an important item in the latter.

[SGamerz]

Steal the pouch and dagger.

(Surprisingly, there's no option to stab the Trog in its sleep. Even more surprisingly, there's actually not been any opportunity to act like a pure blood-crazed psychopath in this Livingstone book. Pretty much all combats have been triggered by the PC being attacked first instead of the other way round.)

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Dickblade Cockbiter will sneak up to the Troglodyte and take its dagger and pouch.

45
As you creep over towards the sleeping Troglodyte, you stumble and trip over the rough floor. Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 70. If you are Unlucky, turn to 191.

Rolling the dice yielded a 9, meaning that Dickblade Cockbiter was Unlucky.

191
The noise you make is enough to awaken the sharp-eared Troglodyte. It leaps up, grabs its dagger and pounces on you.

TROGLODYTE SKILL 5 STAMINA 4

If you win, turn to 220.

Given that Dickblade Cockbiter is at 3 Stamina, should Luck be used for this fight? If so, should it be used to reduce the damage that our hero takes or to inflict additional damage?

The first choice to receive two votes (or two votes over all other choices) will be used to resolve the rest of the battles. If no option has a winning margin before 9:00 AM PDT, I will make the choice based on which votes are cast.

[SGamerz]

We just failed a Luck test due to below-average Luck. It's not worth the risk to use it against a SKILL-5 opponent. If we roll badly enough to lose this fight, then we're probably screwed no matter what. Just fight normally.

(Ironically, if Livingstone had allowed us to act like the usual murdering psychos in his books, we probably could have 1-shotted the ST 4 creature in his sleep, but of course, he'd only offer that choice if it's another way to get us killed.)

[Queen of Swords]

Agreed, fight normally (and hope we get a Luck boost soon).

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for voting. Luck will not be used in this fight.

The fight:
[spoiler]Round 1: Troglodyte Attack Strength: 12, Player Attack Strength: 21;
Troglodyte Stamina: 2, Player Stamina: 3
Round 2: Troglodyte Attack Strength: 10, Player Attack Strength: 18;
Troglodyte Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 3[/spoiler]

Dickblade Cockbiter flawlessly kills the Troglodyte, as expected.

220
You empty out the Troglodyte’s pouch and find a piece of slate with the word ‘arrow’ scratched on it. You put this in your pocket and slide the throwing dagger down the inside of your boot. Satisfied that there is nothing else of interest in the room, you walk over to the far door. Turn to 158.

158
[spoiler][/spoiler]

The door leads into a tunnel which has been roughly cut into the mountain. It widens out, until you find yourself in a large sand-covered cavern through which a river flows. On the nearside bank of the river a few stumps of wood sticking out of the water look like the remains of a bridge. To their left, an old cracked bell hands from a post. A sign is nailed to the post but it is too faded to read anything except the word ‘Ferry’. The river is fast-flowing and looks too deep and treacherous for you to try swimming across, so you decide to ring the bell, hoping to attract a ferryman. The bell gives out a dull clang, and a few moments later a withered old man in a small wooden boat approaches the riverbank.

‘Jump in,’ he says gruffly. ‘Two Gold Zagors to cross, payment in advance.’ You assume that inside the mountain Zagor must enforce the use of his gold coins. If you have two Gold Pieces with the letter ‘Z’ stamped on them and wish to pay the ferryman, turn to 399. If you do not have the coins or do not wish to pay, turn to 260.

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PDT or a 3-vote majority is reached to guarantee that they will be counted.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Dickblade Cockbiter
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 3 Initial Stamina = 15
LUCK: 5 Initial Luck = 11
WEAPONS:
3 Steel Daggers
Darkblade’s Sword
Sword
Throwing Dagger
ARMOUR:
Shield
TREASURE:
3 Gold Pieces Stamped With “Z”
6 Gold Pieces
Gold Dragon Tooth Stamped With “315” and Heart Symbol Inside Flaming Circle
Gold Ring Stamped With “30” and Inscribed With “Seeing Is Believing”
Gold Spoon
Gold Tooth Stamped With ”186”
Bronze Tooth Stamped with “280”
3 Copper Pieces
EQUIPMENT:
Backpack
Lantern
Mushroom
Ring of Invisibility
Iron Key With “142” Stamped
Wooden Ball
Leather Pouch
Rope
Magnifying Glass
Silver Dagger
Leather Gloves
Mirror
Tin Whistle
Onyx Egg
Silver Bell
Ball of String
Garlic
Paper With “Leg” Written
Piece of Slate With “Arrow” Scratched
BOONS:
2 Item Wishes[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

(I think this is where callbacks to Warlock of Firetop Mountain ends.)

I doubt we can use Zagor's currency anywhere else, so don't waste them. Pay him.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, pay him. Though, I don't think we'll reach anywhere where they aren't accepted before the book ends.

[Queen of Swords]

Agreed, pay him.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Dickblade Cockbiter will pay the ferryman.

399
You climb into the boat and the old man rows you slowly across the river. As soon as you get out of the boat on the other side, however, the old man raises his head and howls like an animal and from out of the shadows step four Lizard Men, each armed with a loaded crossbow. Swiftly they take aim and fire as you dive into the murky water. Roll one die. If the number rolled is 1-4, turn to 310. If the number is 5 or 6, turn to 364.

Rolling the die yielded a 1.

310
At least one crossbow bolt finds its mark and sinks into your neck. You are dead before you hit the water. Your adventure is over.

“How did I get suckered in to a death like this!?” thought Dickblade Cockbiter as his life rapidly slips away from his body. He cursed his foolishness and inability to sense danger when he needed it the most. Perhaps it was because he did not have the ability to be assertive or the psychopathic urge to defy and kill all servants of Zagor on sight. Thanks to a lack of those abilities, Dickblade Cockbiter was suffering a quick and unoriginal death, with no chance of making up for his mistake. In the last brief moment before death claims him and his body is sent to a watery grave in Firetop Mountain, Dickblade Cockbiter swears at his own foolishness and releases himself to the eternal darkness that he was doomed to be in for all eternity. As his body splashes, the Lizard Men and Wererat celebrate the adventurer’s death and begin a series of chants hailing Zagor. Being released from the cold confines of his corpse, Dickblade Cockbiter’s soul silently floats out of the river and makes his journey to the next world with a hope that a more fortunate end awaited him there.

Well, that was an unremarkable end to this adventure. The proper choice was not to pay the ferryman, as declining to pay would have caused him to transform into a Wererat and allowed our hero to kill it with ease, as the Wererat had pathetic skills. He would have then moved on to the next part of the labyrinth without incident.

The trademark life lesson that I have for this Let’s Play is to stick with traditions when it comes to RPGs. They generally have traditions that players can exploit without the need of a walkthrough in order to have a good chance of winning. Doing that has allowed me to complete such games from Pokemon to Nethack.

Now that my cringeworthy lecture is out of the way, I am announcing a break from hosting that will last for approximately one month. This is because work is heating up hard since I got assigned another new project to participate in. A lot of my time out of work is going to be spent doing the necessary research and reading the appropriate documentation. Also, I have done 16 Let’s Plays since the end of last year, and I think this is a good stopping point. Finally, I plan to join this year’s November Nethack Tournament, as I have some skill in ascending in Nethack and want to participate to its fullest this year.

Thank you all for playing, and I hope that everyone has enjoyed Fighting Fantasy Let’s Plays that I have run in this forum.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Dickblade Cockbiter
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 3 Initial Stamina = 15
LUCK: 5 Initial Luck = 11
WEAPONS:
3 Steel Daggers
Darkblade’s Sword
Sword
Throwing Dagger
ARMOUR:
Shield
TREASURE:
1 Gold Piece Stamped With “Z”
6 Gold Pieces
Gold Dragon Tooth Stamped With “315” and Heart Symbol Inside Flaming Circle
Gold Ring Stamped With “30” and Inscribed With “Seeing Is Believing”
Gold Spoon
Gold Tooth Stamped With ”186”
Bronze Tooth Stamped with “280”
3 Copper Pieces
EQUIPMENT:
Backpack
Lantern
Mushroom
Ring of Invisibility
Iron Key With “142” Stamped
Wooden Ball
Leather Pouch
Rope
Magnifying Glass
Silver Dagger
Leather Gloves
Mirror
Tin Whistle
Onyx Egg
Silver Bell
Ball of String
Garlic
Paper With “Leg” Written
Piece of Slate With “Arrow” Scratched
BOONS:
2 Item Wishes[/spoiler]

[Darth Rabbitt]

Wait, there’s just a 2/3 chance of instant death there? Wow, fuck this book. It’s already a meat grinder.

Thank you for all of the LPs!

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for hosting, and yeah, that was a pretty stupid way to die.

[Queen of Swords]

Thanks for hosting this. Best of luck in the tournament!

[JourneymanN00b]

I appreciate all the thanks headed my way!

[JigokuBosatsu]

Thanks for your service!