[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 59 - Curse of the Mummy

[Darth Rabbitt]

The telescope seems generally useful but the crystal pyramid is one of those items that is either absolutely essential to our quest or vendor trash that's only good for trading here. Not sure which, so I'll gamble and assume we should keep it.

Third full vote for the Papyrus Scroll, and I'd take the Large Bronze Key for the other item because keys are almost always useful in these books.

[SGamerz]

Boris O’Connell trades his brass telescope for the scroll and the statuette.

Let's look at the scroll first:

Unrolling the scroll, you see that it is covered in incomprehensible hieroglyphic picture-script, written in black ink and arranged into five columns. You can make no sense of the hieroglyphs, so you roll the scroll up again and fuck it into your backpack.

If it contains important information, we can't understand it...at least, not yet.

Now the statuette:

The sandstone statuette, half a metre tall, is of a regal-looking man, bare-chested and wearing a simple cloth round his waist. On his head is a tall, cylindrical crown with nine bands round it. In one hand he holds a long staff.

And now we take our leave of the Theatre...

After meandering through barren, rocky hills, the track descends through a boulder-shewn pass and divides, one branch continuing north-eastwards, while the other leads directly towards a line of several high peaks in the east. Looking at Jerran's map, you see that the route you are now on goes towards the temple, while the new path to the right should take you to the Shaman at Spirit Rock. Will you continue north-eastwards or take the right-hand fork?

Are we willing to take the fascist path in order to meet the Shaman?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Boris O’Connell
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 14/18
LUCK 12/12
Poison: 0/18
Equipment: Sword, backpack, Rope and Grapple, Firepowder (can be thrown at opponent at start of combat, hit after successful Skill test for 1D6 damage), Torch (x2), Lantern, Skins of Oil (x2), Oil of Lotus, Crystal Pyramid, Papyrus Scroll, Statuette of a god
Provisions: 8
Gold: 3
Extra Lives remaining: 1
Notes: We received Cranno's Warning
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

Meet the Shaman first.

[JourneymanN00b]

The Shaman clearly is a required person to meet, so yes, I vote to take the fascist path to meet him.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Go visit the possibly fascist shaman.

[SGamerz]

As the sun reaches its highest point, you rest for a few minutes in the shade of a great slab of rock. (You may eat Provisions here if you wish.) The whole landscape looks as if a Giants' game of knuckle-bones has been played here. The only signs of life in this scorching wilderness are the occasional lizard, running over the rocks in search of beetles, and a lonely bird of prey soaring on the warm thermals above you in the cloudless azure sky. The only sound is made by a cool breeze blowing through the valley...but it isn't the only sound! You are suddenly aware of a low growling coming from somewhere among the rocks behind you. Do you want to investigate the source of this noise, or will you hurriedly move on eastwards again?

There's a weird note telling players they may eat provisions here, even though, like most other books in the series, there's really no limit to where or when the player can choose to eat outside combat, so the note was totally unnecessary. I think there hasn't been any other FF book that puts limits on locations where you are allowed to eat since Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

Investigate the noise?

[Queen of Swords]

Yes, investigate the noise.

[Thaluikhain]

Investigate noise.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to investigate the source of the noise.

[SGamerz]

Climbing over the boulders, you peer over a rocky ledge and are startled by what you see. Lying entangled in a net, which has been staked down, is a huge creature, almost six metres in length; it has the body of an enormous lion and massive clawed feet. As it struggles to free itself from the net, you see that its large head is leonine but its teeth are more like those of a dragon. Its mane is golden as is the rest of its sleek and powerful-looking body, and a pair of small, leathery wings sprout from its shoulder - a Dracon! The trapped beast has not noticed you yet, so will you leave here before it does, remain in your hiding place and wait to see what happens, or climb down between the boulders and approach the Dracon?

[Thaluikhain]

I suggest we approach.

[Queen of Swords]

Climb down and approach the Dracon.

[SGamerz]

Scrambling down from the safety of the rocky ledge, you walk slowly towards the beast. Hearing your footsteps, the Dracon tums its head in your direction and lets out a terrifying roar. You notice that, with the creature's struggling, the stakes holding the net down are coming loose. Do you want to:

Show the beast you mean it no harm and keep walking towards it?
Draw your sword and prepare to defend yourself?
Make a run for it while you still can?

[Queen of Swords]

We've got a stranger to help us once already with the nice approach, so let's try it again. Show it we mean no harm and keep walking towards it.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Show it we mean no harm.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to show the beast Boris O’Connell means it no harm and keep walking towards it.

[SGamerz]

Raising your hands in a gesture of peace you move closer to the Dracon, telling it that you mean it no harm. You are somewhat surprised when the beast snarls in reply, "Well, get this infernal net off me then!" Will you do as the creature demands or leave it bound?

[Queen of Swords]

Since I'm not sure what we'd get out of leaving it under the net after we've come this far, we do as the creature demands while rolling our eyes and saying, "At once, Your Majesty."

[Thaluikhain]

Remove infernal net.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to do as the creature demands.

[SGamerz]

You pull the stakes out of the ground so that Dracon can free itself from the net. "At last," the creature growls in a haughty tone. "I suppose I owe you my thanks. I don't know how I ever managed to get into such a predicament in the first place. I only lay down for a nap and then those impudent trappers had the effrontery to try to capture me. No doubt I was bound for the animal traders' markets of Rimon and then into the private zoo of some upstart human noble. If there's one thing I cannot tolerate, it's a complete lack of manners."

Four men on horseback suddenly appear between the boulders. Seeing you' with their prize free, they dismount and draw their weapons. The leader of the group, shipped to the waist and with a shaven head, runs at you with a stiletto dagger grasped in one hand. You join battle with the leader while the Dracon takes on his accomplices.

TRAPPER SKILL 8 STAMINA 7

The blade of the trapper's dagger is coated with a poison that normally induces sleep. However it will have no such effect on you, due to your high immunity to toxins. The first time the trapper wins an Attack Round you must add 1 to your POISON total, as well as deducting the usual 2 points of damage to your STAMINA. If you win, turn to 125.

Kind of nice that for once we're told we can automatically no-sell the usual effects of a poison weapon.

COMBAT LOG:
Trapper 17, Boris O’Connell 22. Trapper is at 5.
Trapper 16, BOC 23. Trapper is at 3.
Trapper 14, BOC 18. Trapper is at 1.
Trapper 14, BOC 16. Trapper is killed.

Actually our first flawless kill in this LP!

You land the fatal blow as the Dracon brings down one of the other men. The other two trappers fling themselves onto their mounts and gallop away, screaming in terror. "It seems I owe you my thanks again," says the creature, "and as a sign of my gratitude I shall give you a gift." The great beast bounds up the side of a boulder, launches itself into the air on its stubby wings, and disappears from view. You do not have to wait long, however, before the Dracon returns, holding in its mouth an object which it drops at your feet. The article is half a metre long and looks like a T-shaped cross whose top arm consists of a loop. It is made of solid gold and has twelve precious stones set into it. It must be very valuable. "I hope you find this acceptable," the Dracon says, "and thank you again, human." With that, the golden creature flaps its wings and rises into the sky, leaving you alone again to continue on your quest.

I'm almost surprised it didn't start referring to itself in the Royal we in its speech.

I think this is the first gamebook that features a creature that is positively identified as a Dracon (although I believe Paul Mason put one in Magehunter too, which was never identified in the book itself because the PC wasn't from Titan and didn't know any of the local monsters by their proper names).

You trudge on through the heat of the day, further into the rugged hills. The only vegetation that grows in this hot region is the occasional scrubby bush and fleshy, green, thick-stemmed succulent covered in spines. You notice one of these plants growing close to the track you are following. Some species are very nutritious, but you do not know if this is such a one. Do you want to cut yourself a piece of the plant to eat or will you continue on your way?

Do we want to eat random vegetation?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Boris O’Connell
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 14/18
LUCK 12/12
Poison: 0/18
Equipment: Sword, backpack, Rope and Grapple, Firepowder (can be thrown at opponent at start of combat, hit after successful Skill test for 1D6 damage), Torch (x2), Lantern, Skins of Oil (x2), Oil of Lotus, Crystal Pyramid, Papyrus Scroll, Statuette of a god, Golden T-shaped cross whose top arm consists of a loop
Provisions: 8
Gold: 3
Extra Lives remaining: 1
Notes: We received Cranno's Warning
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

So in a fight, this six-meter-long winged creature only brings down one opponent, the same as we did. I'll be charitable and assume the Dracon was a little cramped from being caught in the net.

As for the plant, we're not in desperate need of food yet. Continue on our way.

[SGamerz]

So in a fight, this six-meter-long winged creature only brings down one opponent, the same as we did. I'll be charitable and assume the Dracon was a little cramped from being caught in the net.

The FF combat system is such that you can't do more than 2 STAMINA damage to an opponent per round, so even if the Dracon has better stats than us (which it probably doesn't - average Dracons have SK 9 ST 14) he probably can't kill a guy any faster than a SKILL-12 human unless his opponents have much lower STAMINA than ours. Out of the Pit does, however, list them as having 2 attacks in multi-opponent combat, so theoretically it could have killed/damaged 2 guys within the same number of rounds. Maybe the other 2 guys were wisely hanging back and watching how their comrades do before committing.

[Thaluikhain]

Or that particular trapper was extra hard. Avoid eating random plants we come across.

(FF wikia says that Magehunter and this book are the only gamebooks with Dracons in them, but doesn't say if Magehunter named it as such and I don't have that book to hand to check)

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to continue on our way, as we really should not be messing with unknown cacti on principle. I would however, like to vote to eat a Provision to bring our hero to full health.