[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 60 – Eye of the Dragon

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes tallied; continuing his quest and crawling through the new tunnel won over searching the cavern first by a 2-1 vote.

233


You tell Littlebig that you will enter first and bend down to crawl along the dark tunnel. In the far distance you can see a faint glow of light and, as you approach the end of the tunnel, you try to be as quiet as possible. You see that it opens out into a huge cave and that you are halfway up the side of the wall. Looking down, you see a giant, black-scaled reptile asleep in the middle of the floor. It has a long neck and tail and huge wings that are folded across its ridged back. Smoke rises from its large, gaping nostrils. There is no mistaking it: the terrifying beast that is slumbering below is a BLACK DRAGON. ‘Maybe we can creep past it while it’s asleep,’ whispers Littlebig. ‘But how are we going to get down on to the floor of the dragon’s lair?’ If you are carrying a coil of rope, turn to 242. If you do not have any rope, you will have to climb down the wall. Turn to 120.

Sinbad is carrying a coil of Rope.

242
After fixing the rope to a rock overhang, you lower yourself over the edge with Littlebig following right behind. Turn to 305.

305
You manage to climb down to the cave floor without waking the giant dragon. Beyond the dragon you can see a much larger tunnel entrance. If you are wearing Elven Boots, turn to 194. If you are not wearing these boots, turn to 335.

Sinbad is not wearing Elven Boots.

335
As you walk around the slumbering beast, Littlebig inadvertently kicks a loose stone across the floor. The noise echoes noisily around the cave. Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 203. If you are Unlucky, turn to 269.

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

269
Littlebig’s face is frozen with fear as the dragon stirs. Its tail swishes from side to side and one giant eye flicks open to spy on the intruders. It sees you immediately and you have no choice but to fight the enraged beast.

BLACK DRAGON       SKILL 14       STAMINA 18

The dragon will concentrate its attack on you but you will have two strikes each Attack Round, one for yourself and one for Littlebig. During the first Attack Round you must Test your Luck to see if you are caught within the poisonous gas cloud that the dragon blows out at you. If you are Lucky, it misses. If you are Unlucky, lose 4 STAMINA points. If, somehow, you manage to defeat the mighty dragon, turn to 337.



Rolling the dice yielded a 6, meaning that Sinbad was Unlucky and gets caught within the poisonous gas cloud from the dragon. He thus loses 4 STAMINA points while the first Attack Round is resolved.

The fight:
Round 1: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 20, Littlebig Attack Strength: 22;
Black Dragon Stamina: 14, Player Stamina: 9
Round 2: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 18, Littlebig Attack Strength: 20;
Black Dragon Stamina: 14, Player Stamina: 7
Round 3: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 21, Player Attack Strength: 17, Littlebig Attack Strength: 20;
Black Dragon Stamina: 14, Player Stamina: 5

Well things aren’t looking too good for Sinbad here. Sinbad and Littlebig manage to deal two hits to the Black Dragon, while the Black Dragon brings Sinbad’s STAMINA to 5. Even though there is a miniscule chance that our hero can pass a further Luck test, should Luck be used for the rest of the 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 will be used to resolve the rest of the battles. If no option has a winning margin before 7:00 PM PST, I will make the choice based on which votes are cast.

Adventure Sheet
Sinbad
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 5 Initial Stamina = 17
LUCK: 2 Initial Luck = 10
NOTES AND ITEMS:
Backpack
5 Provisions
Leather Pouch
59 Gold Pieces
2 Emerald Eyes
Sword
Axe Head
Mirror Piece
Healing Potion
Chain-mail Coat
Gold Nugget
Silver Box
Crystal Dagger
Garlic Cloves
Large Tooth
Bronze Key Stamped With ‘85’
Leather Bag
Dagger
Gold Ring
Lucky Charm
Glass Ball
Broken Dagger
Iron Key Stamped With ‘34’
Short Stick
Leather Pouch
Iron Breastplate
Dried Leaves
Silver Key Stamped With ‘14’
Gold Key Stamped With ‘325’
Staff of Thunder
Bronze Shield
Copper Key Stamped with ‘192’
‘Hole in the Wall’ Spell: Azang Bazang-zang
3 Silver Coins
Silver Armband
Dark Blue Bottle
Rope
Ring of Zombie Control
Silver Cross
Kris Knife
Bronze Monkey Statuette
Golden Orb
Picklock
Map
Wooden Catapult
3 Lead Balls
Skullsplitter Sword
Doppelganger Is The Left One
Secret Tunnel In Room of Webs
RESURRECTION USED: Yes

[Beroli]

Luck 2. Don't use Luck.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for voting. Luck will not be used for the rest of the fight.

Round 4: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 22, Player Attack Strength: 18, Littlebig Attack Strength: 18;
Black Dragon Stamina: 14, Player Stamina: 3
Round 5: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 22, Littlebig Attack Strength: 24;
Black Dragon Stamina: 10, Player Stamina: 3
Round 6: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 23, Player Attack Strength: 17, Littlebig Attack Strength: 16;
Black Dragon Stamina: 10, Player Stamina: 1
Round 7: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 21, Littlebig Attack Strength: 19;
Black Dragon Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 1
Round 8: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 20, Littlebig Attack Strength: 21;
Black Dragon Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 1
Round 9: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 23, Player Attack Strength: 23, Littlebig Attack Strength: 17;
Black Dragon Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 1
Round 10: Black Dragon Attack Strength: 26, Player Attack Strength: 14, Littlebig Attack Strength: 18;
Black Dragon Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: -1

Well, Sinbad and Littlebig manage to get the Black Dragon all the way to 4 STAMINA, but the Black Dragon unsurprisingly kills Sinbad after 6 more Attack Rounds.

Bonus death entry:
With Sinbad dying from the many deep wounds from the Black Dragon’s attacks, he summons up the last of his strength to yell at Littlebig:

“Nice going, moron! You killed us all by kicking that loose stone across the floor. Why could you not have been more careful around such a huge threat as the Black Dragon? I wish you would have been killed so that you could not have condemned me to death!”

Before Littlebig can reply, the Black Dragon grabs the dying Sinbad by the neck and smashes him on the cave floor, killing him with a burst of pain. The Black Dragon then roars and grinds Sinbad’s body to a bloody mass. With a shout of rage, Littlebig rushes over to attack the weakened Black Dragon. Unfortunately for him, the Black Dragon still has more than enough strength to turn aside his attack, grab his arms, and rip him into two bloody halves using its claws.

After coming so close to the goal, Sinbad’s adventure comes to a pitiful end. We were actually close to finishing this game, but the decision not to open the box after being told it was not a trap by Littlebig was the big mistake. This is because the box contained the Elven Boots that the Black Dragon cave checked for. If Sinbad had gotten the Elven Boots, he would have been able to get past the dragon without waking it up and reached a room where the five keys would have basically guaranteed a win for Sinbad.

Here’s the life lesson to learn from this adventure: Listen to your friends’ advice when you are trying to accomplish something very important. You don’t always have to follow these words to the letter, but serious mistakes can be avoided if your friends’ advice is properly taken. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was trying to properly write my resume and cover letters when applying for a job starting in the summer of 2019. Because I didn’t heed the proper advice given to me and hired a professional resume writer, I failed to get a job all throughout 2019. Add 2020’s pandemic, and the resulting unemployment gap permanently shut me out of all the high paying industry jobs that a fresh Ph.D. graduate was supposed to get.

Now, I think that everyone’s read enough of my cringeworthy lecture. I will be starting a new thread very soon for Blood of the Zombies. The book’s story is okay and the illustrations are decent, but the rules need some serious adjustments to be remotely playable, as the adventure is virtually unwinnable as it is written. Thank you all for playing, and I hope to see you in my next Let’s Play.

Adventure Sheet
Sinbad
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: -1 Initial Stamina = 17
LUCK: 2 Initial Luck = 10
NOTES AND ITEMS:
Backpack
5 Provisions
Leather Pouch
59 Gold Pieces
2 Emerald Eyes
Sword
Axe Head
Mirror Piece
Healing Potion
Chain-mail Coat
Gold Nugget
Silver Box
Crystal Dagger
Garlic Cloves
Large Tooth
Bronze Key Stamped With ‘85’
Leather Bag
Dagger
Gold Ring
Lucky Charm
Glass Ball
Broken Dagger
Iron Key Stamped With ‘34’
Short Stick
Leather Pouch
Iron Breastplate
Dried Leaves
Silver Key Stamped With ‘14’
Gold Key Stamped With ‘325’
Staff of Thunder
Bronze Shield
Copper Key Stamped with ‘192’
‘Hole in the Wall’ Spell: Azang Bazang-zang
3 Silver Coins
Silver Armband
Dark Blue Bottle
Rope
Ring of Zombie Control
Silver Cross
Kris Knife
Bronze Monkey Statuette
Golden Orb
Picklock
Map
Wooden Catapult
3 Lead Balls
Skullsplitter Sword
Doppelganger Is The Left One
Secret Tunnel In Room of Webs
RESURRECTION USED: Yes