[Let’s Play] ACE Gamebook 06 – Dracula – Curse of the Vampire

[Beroli]

Try the first floor.

[deaddmwalking]

I think top to bottom has merit. Attic.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes counted; choosing the attic won by a 2-1 vote.

323

Climbing all the way to the top of the house, you enter the cramped attic space. There is more furniture here, kept under cobwebbed dustsheets, and you can make out where you are going quite easily as light enters the loft through a series of smeary windows.

You dare risk lifting a few of the sheets, to see precisely what it is they are enshrouding, but you find only chairs, occasional tables, and bookshelves.

As you are about to go back downstairs, something fluttering against a window in the far corner of the attic attracts your attention.

If you want to take a closer look, turn to 293. If you would prefer to go back downstairs and search somewhere else, turn to 273.

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

[deaddmwalking]

Kill the fluttering thing.

[JourneymanN00b]

Vote acknowledged; taking a closer look.

293

As you draw closer, you see that it is a moth – an Acherontia atropos, or Death’s-Head Moth, to be precise, named thus because of the likeness of a skull and crossbones these lepidoptera have on their backs. The insect is beating its wings uselessly against the glass, with no comprehension of the fact that its efforts to break free are futile.

A second death’s-head moth suddenly joins it at the window. And then another.

Hearing a great susurration behind you, as of a thousand fluttering insect wings, you turn to see a great mass of moths emerge from the shadows of the attic behind you. They batter you with their furry bodies, alighting on you and crawling all over your face, as if trying to smother you.

Take a Terror test. If you pass the test, turn to 224. If you fail the test, turn to 374.

Rolling the four dice yielded an 8, so Jonathan Harker has failed the Terror test.

374

Several moths are trying to crawl up your nose and as you open your mouth to give an involuntary cry of horror, several more scuttle between your lips. And all the time you can hear nothing but the amplified buzzing flutter of their wings in your ears.

Add 1 point to your Terror score and then turn to 224.

224

Brushing the moths away from you, you rush back down the stairs and are relieved when the insects do not follow.

Turn to 273.

On section 273, Jonathan Harker has the chance of exploring somewhere he hasn’t been already. Please make your votes on where to go next by 9:00 AM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

Mr Jonathan Harker’s Adventure Sheet

Add 10 to the section number and read that one instead.
Agility = 9
Combat = 10
Endurance = 20
ESP = 7
Terror = 12
The Pen is Mightier: 2 uses
Equipment and Notes:
Golden Crucifix
Good Luck Tokens
Flask of Plum Brandy (4 measures, +3 Endurance per measure, -1 Combat next combat for each measure beyond the first in one go, -1 Terror if 2 or more measures are consumed at once)
Map Showing 30 Rooms
Skeleton Keys with The Tag ‘145’
Revolver
Large Knife
Electric Lamp
Silver Crucifix
Garlic Garland
Sacred Wafer
Blood: 6
Code Words:
Suicide
Succubus
Spectre
Kereszt
Gonosz
Varázslat
Szerencse
Lángok
Azrael
Bogey
Demeter
Somnambulism
Barbastella
Lunatic
Eptesicus
Exsanguination
Quinquaginta

[Thaluikhain]

Second floor next?

[Beroli]

I think this is like the murder investigation as Mina. Most of the house will have only chances to lose points, until the one that ends the scene. That being the case: my vote is to go back to the basement and continue our investigation of it.

[deaddmwalking]

Okay, seems correct. Let's do the basement.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes tallied; returning to the basement and persisting with the investigation won by a 2-1 vote.

On section 656, Jonathan Harker encounters a terrible smell in the basement of the house. He decides to persist with his investigation by proceeding to section 626.

626

Half expecting to find the undercroft of the house flooded with raw sewage, you enter a mouldering wine-cellar and almost step in the mess of offal and intestines covering the floor in a slick of stinking viscera.

Lying on the packed earth floor is the eviscerated corpse of some unidentifiable wretch, his face frozen in a rictus of terror, his glazed eyes no doubt still staring at his killer, even though he is long gone from this place.

Take a Terror test. If you pass the test, turn to 601. If you fail the test, turn to 572.

Rolling the four dice yielded a 13, so Jonathan Harker has passed the Terror test.

601

Stepping back out of the cellar, you give yourself a moment to recover your breath before retreating upstairs.

Turn to 273.

On section 273, Jonathan Harker again has the chance of exploring somewhere he hasn’t been already. Please make your votes on where to go next by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

[Beroli]

Well that wasn't edifying. Top useless and dangerous, bottom useless and dangerous...

Try the middle. First floor.

[deaddmwalking]

Maybe we'll try them all. First floor next, sure.

[JourneymanN00b]

Checking out the first floor received 2 votes; so Jonathan Harker will explore it next.

542

Most of the rooms on the first floor are empty, the few pieces of furniture you do find draped in heavy dustsheets. However, at the back of the house you come upon a study that looks like one of the cabinets of curiosities that were popular a century ago.

A large glass-fronted piece of furniture, that is a cross between a display case and a bookcase, dominates one wall, and in front of it is a desk piled with papers that is as cluttered as the cabinet. You see animal skulls, intriguing fossils, geodes, pieces of meteorite, polished fans of coral, West African carved figurines, and a plethora of other curios.

If you want to enter the cabinet of curiosities to take a closer look, turn to 523. If you would rather leave the first floor and see what else you can find elsewhere, turn to 273.

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

[Beroli]

Enter the cabinet.

[JourneymanN00b]

Vote registered; entering the cabinet of curiosities to take a closer look.

523

Entering the study, you realise that there are a variety of living things among the items on display. There is a glass jar containing a soupy green liquid, that looks like stagnant pond water, which is full of writhing black leeches; another container covered with a fine meshed netting, to which cling dozens, if not hundreds, of mosquitoes; and a vivarium containing a dead rat seething with blood-sucking ticks.

On the desk in front of the cabinet is the skeleton of a bat, poised on a stand with the finger-bones of its wings outstretched. You also see the leathery body of a lamprey pinned out on a fluid-stained board, apparently mid-dissection. In addition, there is a pile of newspaper clippings and a black velvet bag embroidered with gold thread.

But it is what you see resting on the floor under the table that fascinates you the most. It looks like a large fish tank, but you can see nothing through the inky water filling it.

Do you want to:

Flick through the newspaper clippings?     Turn to 484.

Examine the black velvet bag?     Turn to 454.

Take a closer look at the fish tank under the table?     Turn to 504.

Leave the study and search elsewhere?     Turn to 273.

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

[Thaluikhain]

Newspaper clipping probably won't scare us too much, so I suggest them.

[Beroli]

Look at the fish tank.

[deaddmwalking]

I want the velvet bag, but I do not want the fish tank. Half vote for newspapers.

[JourneymanN00b]

Voted counted; flicking through the newspaper clippings won by a 1.5-1 vote.

484

Someone has taken the trouble to cut out a series of articles from various different local and national newspapers. Among them is one about a Russian schooner that ran aground on the North Yorkshire coast in Whitby, dated 8 August, and another from The Pall Mall Gazette, dated 18 September, regarding a wolf escaping from London Zoo, and a third bearing the lurid headline ‘Bloofer Lady Strikes Again!’

What do you want to do now? Choosing something you haven’t done already, will you:

Examine the black velvet bag?     Turn to 454.

Take a closer look at the fish tank under the table?     Turn to 504.

Leave the study and search elsewhere?     Turn to 273.

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

[Thaluikhain]

Velvet bag next, I guess.

[deaddmwalking]

Velvet bag.

[JourneymanN00b]

Examining the black velvet bag got 2 votes; so Jonathan Harker will do this.

454

You pick up the cloth bag and immediately feel how heavy it is, and hear a jangling sound. Intrigued, you open it to find several antique coins; you believe they are golden ducats.

On one side they are stamped with the image of a serpent, or a dragon. On the other there is a shield split vertically, with a crescent moon and a six-rayed star below it on the left-hand field, and inside the second field three horizontal bars. Around the edge of the coat-of-arms in Cyrillic letters is the legend ‘Vlad Voivod’.

(If you want to take the Golden Ducats with you, record them in the Equipment Box on your Adventure Sheet.)

What do you want to do now? Choosing something you haven’t tried already, will you:

Examine the newspaper clippings?     Turn to 484.

Take a closer look at the fish tank under the table?     Turn to 504.

Leave the study and search elsewhere?     Turn to 273.

I will assume that the Golden Ducats are taken unless a majority votes not to do this. Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

Mr Jonathan Harker’s Adventure Sheet

Add 10 to the section number and read that one instead.
Agility = 9
Combat = 10
Endurance = 20
ESP = 7
Terror = 12
The Pen is Mightier: 2 uses
Equipment and Notes:
Golden Crucifix
Good Luck Tokens
Flask of Plum Brandy (4 measures, +3 Endurance per measure, -1 Combat next combat for each measure beyond the first in one go, -1 Terror if 2 or more measures are consumed at once)
Map Showing 30 Rooms
Skeleton Keys with The Tag ‘145’
Revolver
Large Knife
Electric Lamp
Silver Crucifix
Garlic Garland
Sacred Wafer
Golden Ducats
Blood: 6
Code Words:
Suicide
Succubus
Spectre
Kereszt
Gonosz
Varázslat
Szerencse
Lángok
Azrael
Bogey
Demeter
Somnambulism
Barbastella
Lunatic
Eptesicus
Exsanguination
Quinquaginta

[deaddmwalking]

Take the coins. Half vote for leave and explore 2nd floor.

[Beroli]

Look at the fish tank.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes tallied; taking a closer look at the fish tank under the table won by a 1-0.5 vote.

504

Getting down on your hands and knees you peer over the rim of the fish tank. The stink of the filthy water makes you recoil, just as something launches itself out of the tank straight at you.

The thing is composed of a gelatinous crimson body and eight arms connected by a webbing of skin. Having no warning of the creature’s imminent attack, it manages to latch its rubbery limbs onto your sword-arm, and you cry out in pain as the rows of fleshy spines that line each one dig into your skin.

You manage to pull the horror from you with your free hand and it plops back into the tank, sloshing water over the floorboards. Whatever the creature has done to you leaves a lingering tingling numbness. (Deduct 2 Endurance points and 1 Combat point.)

It is then that you notice the smudged label on the side of the tank that read, ‘Vampyroteuthis infernalis’.

Not wanting to fall foul of the vampire squid from hell a second time, you decide to vacate the study as quickly as possible and look elsewhere.

Turn to 273.

On section 273, Jonathan Harker again has the chance of exploring somewhere he hasn’t been already. Please make your votes on where to go next by 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

Mr Jonathan Harker’s Adventure Sheet

Add 10 to the section number and read that one instead.
Agility = 9
Combat = 9
Endurance = 18
ESP = 7
Terror = 12
The Pen is Mightier: 2 uses
Equipment and Notes:
Golden Crucifix
Good Luck Tokens
Flask of Plum Brandy (4 measures, +3 Endurance per measure, -1 Combat next combat for each measure beyond the first in one go, -1 Terror if 2 or more measures are consumed at once)
Map Showing 30 Rooms
Skeleton Keys with The Tag ‘145’
Revolver
Large Knife
Electric Lamp
Silver Crucifix
Garlic Garland
Sacred Wafer
Golden Ducats
Blood: 6
Code Words:
Suicide
Succubus
Spectre
Kereszt
Gonosz
Varázslat
Szerencse
Lángok
Azrael
Bogey
Demeter
Somnambulism
Barbastella
Lunatic
Eptesicus
Exsanguination
Quinquaginta

[Beroli]

Go to the ground floor.