[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 55 - Deathmoor

[Queen of Swords]

We didn't see anyone in the previous room, did we?

I don't mind taking the risk of searching current rooms, but I'm reluctant to go back. So... leave the torture chamber by the stone stairs.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, it'd be a shame if we miss something/someone, but an insta kill if we dawdle. Run away!

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to leave the torture-chamber, as I feel that returning to the room is a trap.

[SGamerz]

You are in the entrance-hall of the Baron's mansion. A wide staircase leads to the upper floors and there are doors off the hall to rooms on the ground floor. However, Baron den Snau himself has been alerted to your presence, and he is standing a little way up the staircase, looking down at you. "What do you want, stranger?" he demands.

You reply curtly, "Information," Will you simultaneously rush at him up the stairs or stand your ground?

I would have thought what we most urgently want is to get the hell out of the burning house, but there's no choice to run for the front door. What do we do instead?

(Number of sections remaining before getting roasted alive: 5/7.)

[Thaluikhain]

We are in a rush, so rush.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to stand our ground. Maybe we can get something valuable out of this action.

[Queen of Swords]

Stand our ground. I don't want to take the risk of one of the steps on the staircase giving way and dropping us into a pit of spikes.

[SGamerz]

Like all bullies, the Baron is essentially a coward, caught up in a make-believe world in which he is brave. Since he believes his self-made myth, however, he advances down the stairs to fight you.

...'Kay.

(Number of sections remaining before getting roasted alive: 4/7.)

In this fight, beware the Baron's sword, which is dipped in poison. He only has to nick you for the poison to enter your bloodstream. If you are wounded twice, you are dead. If you are wounded only once, you are strong enough to withstand the poison, but your Provisions will restore only 3 points to your STAMINA for the rest of this adventure.

BARON DEN SNAU SKILL 7 STAMINA 12

If you defeat the Baron, turn to 119.

(Number of sections remaining before getting roasted alive: 3/7.)

While his stats aren't high, the penalty getting wounded/poisoned is flat out nasty! Pausing to see if you wish to use LUCK to speed up the fight (or even use the Magic Mushroom boon to guarantee victory without getting wounded.) Note that we don't have enough gold for another resurrection if we die here.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote not to use Luck here and hope for the best in this fight.

[Thaluikhain]

We have good luck, I half vote for one use of luck to increase damage.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Honestly this guy has enough stamina that I think the mushroom is a good idea (that poison is nasty) but I’d settle for just using luck to increase damage a few times to hopefully 3-shot him.

[SGamerz]

3 differing votes, so I guess I'd take the middle-ground of using LUCK once to increase damage for this combat.

COMBAT LOG:
Baron Den Sanu 16, Waluigi 13. Waluigi is at 12.
BDS 15, Waluigi 15. Tie.
BDS 14, Waluigi 18. Luck test roll = 4 (Lucky). BDS is at 8.
BDS 14, Waluigi 15. BDS is at 6.
BDS 11, Waluigi 16. BDS is at 4.
BDS 14, Waluigi 19. BDS is at 2.
BDS 13, Waluigi 16. BDS is killed.

Waluigi survives but must now take the restorative penalty from Provisions for the rest of the adventure.

The Baron lies dying on the floor, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and bubbling with his final breaths. Will you now leave the house or question the Baron?

(Number of sections remaining before getting roasted alive: 2/7.)

Do we think we have enough time to question him before the house burns down?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Waluigi
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 12/16
LUCK 10/11
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, Potion of Fortune, King Jonthane's letter (number '88'), large phial of sallow-seed oil, a needle and some thread, tinderbox and flint, lodestone
Provisions: 9 (only restores 3 STAMINA per meal for rest of the adventure)
Gold: 3
Boons: Cape Feather (x1), Magic Mushroom (x1)
Notes: Visit the City Guard station at room 56 next morning to check if the murderer has been arrested. 2 of the 3 half-giants (not named Otus) working for 'A' loathe each other, and their love of money and their hostility towards each other make them less loyal to 'A' personally (reference from section 312).
[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

We're near an entrance, I think, and we've got time, to question person who's got no reason to tell us the truth, cause why not?

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to leave the house, as we do not want to risk getting roasted alive with only 2 sections remaining.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Noticeably missing: drag the Baron out of the house with us and try to question him there. Worst case scenario he dies and his corpse doesn't answer our questions.

I guess it depends on whether or not questioning the Baron leads to one section where he says something before dying and then we leave, or a number of different sections. The former is safe, the latter is a death sentence. Honestly I'll go with the former just because doing things is more fun than not doing them.

[SGamerz]

Do you have a Truthstone? If you do, and you wish to use it, turn to 264; otherwise, turn to 303.

(Number of sections remaining before getting roasted alive: 1/7.)

We need to make it out of the house in the section after the next one to survive!

[Darth Rabbitt]

Oh, wow, this is a bigger troll job than I thought; you can die by means of blue option checking.

It doesn’t seem like we get a choice to actually use the truthstone or not so go ahead and hope the next section isn’t a game over.

[SGamerz]

It doesn’t seem like we get a choice to actually use the truthstone or not

We do, judging by the text "and you wish to use it".

[JourneymanN00b]

Okay, I vote to use the Truthstone. This had better not get our hero killed.

[SGamerz]

You take out the Truthstone, and in its eerie light you see the cruelty of years etched on to the Baron's face as clearly as if you were reading a map or a book. Cross the Truthstone off your Adventure Sheet and turn to 303.

(Number of sections remaining before getting roasted alive: 0/7.)

Unfortunately, as you can see, this leads to the same section as where we're turn to anyway if we don't use the stone, which means the Baron was going to tell the truth in any case.

Worse, unless the books states that we get out of the house within the next section, we're dead.

Our last way to undo this is to use our last Cape Feather boon to rewind to an earlier point. Pausing here to see if you wish to use it, and where you wish to rewind to.

[Darth Rabbitt]

It doesn’t seem like we get a choice to actually use the truthstone or not

We do, judging by the text "and you wish to use it".

Whoops, that’s what I get for posting right before bed. And the stone probably cost us our life. Cape back to the point before we set the house on fire and don’t search that room this time? Since whatever info we get out of the baron (and possibly other places) might be more worth it than being unable to search for any clues other than the 1/6 chance to get the right document from a burning house.

[JourneymanN00b]

I think last month's file gave valuable information by Fighting Fantasy standards, so I vote to use the Cape Feather to the point where we defeated the Baron and choose to leave the house instead.

[Thaluikhain]

I think last month's file gave valuable information by Fighting Fantasy standards, so I vote to use the Cape Feather to the point where we defeated the Baron and choose to leave the house instead.

That sounds reasonable, yeah. But I vote we try rushing the Baron this time to see if we can save ourselves a section, and then decide if we want to interrogate him, not using the Truthstone. And useing more luck to speed up the fight with him this time.

[SGamerz]

Again, there's no clear consensus after 2 days. I decided to go with JourneymanN00b's vote partly because it's the shortest rewind and everyone agree that we should at least go back that far (if not more), and also partly because Thaluikhain said it sounds like a reasonable option even though he suggested something different.

You dash out through the front door and across the courtyard - only to find that the main gates are locked. You can't pretend to the Orc porter that nothing suspicious is going on: you will have to fight him before you can escape.

PORTER SKILL 6 STAMINA 6

II you win, and if you bribed the porter to get into the Baron's grounds, you can take back however much you paid him before, plus 1 extra Gold Piece. You find a set of keys in the porter's gatehouse and use one to unlock the gates. Then you waste no further time before leaving the city and setting off westwards to try to find the kidnappers.

Weirdly, if we came out after we questioned the Baron, we can actually trick the porter into opening the gates for us without fighting him if we'd bribed our way in earlier. The text says that the porter is used to seeing guests leaving his master's presence in a hurry and so didn't find it suspicious. Maybe it's because Waterfield assumed that we'd only run out without questioning the Baron because the house is on fire (in which case it's impossible for the porter to not notice), even though the player can choose to do so either way.

COMBAT LOG:
Porter 17, Waluigi 13. Waluigi is at 10.
Porter 17, Waluigi 15. Waluigi is at 8.
Porter 11, Waluigi 15. Porter is at 4.
Porter 15, Waluigi 13. Waluigi is at 6.
Porter 12, Waluigi 16. Porter is at 2.
Porter 11, Waluigi 17. Porter is killed.

Waluigu must be really nervous about the fire, since he did pretty terribly for this combat despite facing a weak opponent.

The text makes it sound like we can only get the 1 extra gold off him if we'd bribed him earlier, but I rule that we can take it anyway. It makes more sense.

And, after 2 failures (technically 1 failure and 1 predicted doom, I guess), our hero finally makes it out of Arion:

Three days later, you are still walking towards the west. There has been no sign of the kidnappers, though occasionally you have felt yourself being watched. If you have King Jonthane's letter, the royal seal will show you where to go in order to meet the kidnappers. If you have come here without the letter, you have failed. Your action will cause the death of the beautiful and innocent princess, as King Jonthane warned you at the very start.

Thankfully, we do have the letter:

A sturdy half-giant steps out from behind some boulders. "I am Otus,' he says. You have something for me. I believe...A letter." Once he has shown you a lock of the princess's golden hair, you hand over King Jonthane's letter of agreement. As the half-giant reads the letter, his face llghts up with dark malice. "Good," he declares at last. "My brothers and my master, Arachnos, will be pleased." If you have heard the name Arachnos before, turn to 137; otherwise, turn to 231.

We knew about a certain mysterious 'A', but not his full name...

It all starts to make sense now: Arachnos the Life-Stealer is up to his evil again. Centuries ago, in the far north-eastern promontory of Khul there stood a fair and prosperous trading city called Faleha; Arachnos gradually made himself master of all its revenue. Monetary gain was not his purpose, though he certainly needed to pay the increasing numbers of his servants, soldiers and minions. He is a creature of Chaos: he must sow Chaos and Evil wherever he goes and, unlike the usual thugs you come across in your adventures, he is intelligent enough to pursue more subtle plans for spreading Evil. In that, not wealth, lies his pleasure. Now it looks as though he has set his sights on Arion. He wants to manipulate the trade in gold until he controls enough of Arion to bring King Jonthane to his knees. No doubt his plans will not stop with controlling northern Khul; he intends to set up an Empire of Evil. Your thoughts are interrupted because Otus is still speaking to you.

Despite the paragraph of exposition, the villain's image is actually still pretty blurred. It's not clear whether "Life-Stealer" is a moniker or his actual species. Obviously, the fact that he existed centuries ago suggests that he's either not human or a very powerful magic-user who uses it to extend his life-span (or it could be both, of course), but the book never goes into more detail than that.

Life-Stealers are an actual species featured in Out of the Pit, but because we never got any physical description of the villain, it's impossible to tell whether he's such a creature. They're supposed to be tall, thin humanoids with leathery skin, bat-like wings, short tusks and narrow heads. They're definitely enemies to humankind, because they eat human flesh, although even in Out of the Pit it's never really confirmed whether they're evil or just a predatory species who see human as one of their natural food sources. Their intelligence level range from Average to High, so again it's vague whether they behave more like animal or sentient humanoids. Their usual lifespan is also not stated (also the book makes a point of saying that dead Life-Stealers are rarely seen), and there are speculations that they actually don't reproduce (because no young ones are ever seen), which may also suggest that the ones that do exist may be immortal.

Out of the Pit also featured a "rumour" that they may be worshippers of Sukh the Storm God (because of pendants bearing Sukh's symbol being found on some of those rare dead Life-Stealers mentioned earlier). I guess that actually fits in with the idea that the PC of Deathmoor was delayed in his voyage to Arion by a storm - possibly Arachnos prayed to his god to interfere? But that doesn't quite square with Arachnos being named as a Creature of Evil and Chaos committed spreading them across the world. Because despite his volatile and unpredictable disposition, Sukh is actually not generally considered an Evil god, he's actually officially on the side of Good, although that doesn't prevent evil people from worshipping him.

Anyway, ramblings aside...

"You wait here now," says Otus, jabbing a finger as thick as two ordinary fingers into your chest. "I return with the princess in two days. "Will you do as he says or not?

Do we wait?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Waluigi
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 6/16
LUCK 10/11
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, Potion of Fortune, King Jonthane's letter (number '88'), large phial of sallow-seed oil, a needle and some thread, tinderbox and flint, lodestone
Provisions: 9 (only restores 3 STAMINA per meal for rest of the adventure)
Gold: 4
Boons: Magic Mushroom (x1)
Notes: Visit the City Guard station at room 56 next morning to check if the murderer has been arrested. 2 of the 3 half-giants (not named Otus) working for 'A' loathe each other, and their love of money and their hostility towards each other make them less loyal to 'A' personally (reference from section 312).
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

I hope "not" means we follow him at a safe distance and secure the princess's freedom ourselves.

Regardless, it feels like a lot of this adventure so far has been detours and side quests, so I'm not sure what we'd do during two more days of wasted time, and the adventure certainly can't end even if he does bring the princess back alive. So we might as well not wait.