[Let’s Play] ACE Gamebook 05 - 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas

[deaddmwalking]

Of course we want to solve it. It's not like they said 'and if you fail we will eat your soul!'.

I'd still probably want to solve it. This sounds like Connections (a New York Times game). In that you get 16 words and have to put them into groups of 4. This sounds like we have 3 groups, each of four words. I'm only an 86% solver on those, but I feel pretty confident.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes recognized; attempting to solve the riddle.

477

The riddle reads as follows:

Ships on the Sea,
Fowls at the Feast,
Stars in the Sky.

If you are able to solve the riddle, you will end up with a three digit number; turn to the section with the same number now. However, if you are unable to answer the riddle, or the section you turn to makes no sense – meaning you have got it wrong – turn to 495.

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PST or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

[Thaluikhain]

Nope, dunno.

[deaddmwalking]

Give me a minute.

The cell he has been living in, for goodness knows how long, is a dank affair, with mouldering straw on the floor and frost covering the walls. The only illumination comes from the moon shining in through a small stained glass window, high up in the tower – and inaccessible to anyone imprisoned inside the cell – that depicts three ships in full sale riding the stormy waves of a stylised sea.

Each line has to refer to a number, and presumably each number is something we might have seen (like 3 ships above).

There's also a song I saw Three Ships Come Sailing In, so the other lines could refer to lyrics of carols if we don't have direct evidence from our time in game. Things like 'six geese a-laying'. I'll go through all the pages to see if I can find other references.

[deaddmwalking]

The door to the south-west tower is carved with a cross. Entering the tower, you ascend a spiral staircase to a small chapel. Upon an altar, under a stained glass window depicting a single shining star hanging in a velvet black sky above a small desert town, is a plain wooden box.

Okay, 3 ships; 1 Star.

[deaddmwalking]

Okay, CTRL+F for the win.

Overlooked by a stained glass window depicting four birds singing in the branches of a tree, a long table has been laid with a sumptuous feast, its centrepiece is a platter bearing a boar’s head, festooned with holly, and a rosy red apple trapped between its teeth.

Looks like 341.

[JourneymanN00b]

Turning to section 341.

341

The instant the three numbers align, accompanied by a rumbling, grating noise, part of the stone-flagged floor irises open, revealing a pit beneath. And lying in the pit is a magnificent spear, fashioned from the wood of the mistletoe. You notice that twelve bands have been carved around the shaft at irregularly spaced intervals.

(Record the Mistletoe Spear on your Adventure Sheet, along with the fact that it is circled by twelve bands.)

“Guard it well,” says Holly.

“And it will guard you well,” says Ivy.

Taking your prize with you, with no other way back down the tower, you climb out of the window and descend to the courtyard below.

Turn to 381.



Please make your votes on whether to go to the central keep or leave the castle before 7:00 PM PST or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

TWAS – The Krampus Night Before Christmas Adventure Sheet
Clark
Agility: 11
Combat: 11
Endurance: 20
Equipment:
Pyjamas
Dressing-gown
Bed Socks
Pair of Slippers
Blacksmith’s Axe (+1 Combat Rating in battle)
Key Embossed With ‘37’
Mistletoe Spear Circled By Twelve Bands
Special Abilities:
The Pen Is Mightier: 1 use
Naughty or Nice: 1 use
Meals: 4
Codewords:
Kold
Kruel
Kind
Krowned

[Beroli]

Go to the central keep.

[deaddmwalking]

Agreed. Let's do it.

We've got 12 bands, so I'm thinking 12 days of Christmas. Even if that's correct, I have no idea what it means, but it sounds like we might used them up (otherwise why note that we have 12 of them?). In the Catholic tradition, Christmas ends with the arrival of the magi on January 6th (the 12th day of Christmas). With magi and a spear, I'm also getting an Evangelion vibe. Pretty sure things end with the Krampus impaled on our spear if things go well, but I bet there are some surprises still in store.

[Thaluikhain]

I think we've been everywhere else, so to the keep!

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered; going to the central keep.

424

You make your way towards the entrance to the ice-locked keep.

If you have the code word Kurious written on your Adventure Sheet, turn to 361. If not, turn to 404.

Clark does not have the code word Kurious written on his Adventure Sheet.

404

(Record the code word Kurious on your Adventure Sheet.)

Entering the keep through a grandly-sculpted entrance, you proceed to explore a maze of frozen halls and frost-rimed rooms – all of them empty, all of them eerily quiet – until, at the end of an icy passageway, you see a grand ante-chamber with a set of glacial double doors, currently closed to the room beyond. Standing before them are two more of the ice sculptures, only these have been carved in the shape of powerful figures holding polearms.

If you have the Box of Delights, turn to 374. If not, turn to 312.

Clark does not have the Box of Delights.

312

As you approach the antechamber, the ice-formed guards start to move, with an unnatural life of their own, bringing their glittering polearms to bear. If you want to enter the chamber they are guarding, you are going to have to fight your way through.

If you want to change your mind and leave the keep again, hoping that the guards don’t follow you, turn to 381. If you want to bring The Pen is Mightier special ability to bear, and you still can, turn to 262. If you are prepared to fight the guardians to achieve your goal, turn to 224.

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PST or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

TWAS – The Krampus Night Before Christmas Adventure Sheet
Clark
Agility: 11
Combat: 11
Endurance: 20
Equipment:
Pyjamas
Dressing-gown
Bed Socks
Pair of Slippers
Blacksmith’s Axe (+1 Combat Rating in battle)
Key Embossed With ‘37’
Mistletoe Spear Circled By Twelve Bands
Special Abilities:
The Pen Is Mightier: 1 use
Naughty or Nice: 1 use
Meals: 4
Codewords:
Kold
Kruel
Kind
Krowned
Kurious

[Thaluikhain]

We've looked everywhere in the castle, I don't think we are getting the Box of Delights, and I want to save our last Pen is mightier.

So attack them, we have a new pointy stick and everything.

[Beroli]

Use The Pen is Mightier.

[deaddmwalking]

So we got the code word Kuriouser, so if we leave the castle and come back we'll get a different version. It's possible we can get a box of delights doing the castle without the code word, then use it the next time through...or something.

I want to save our special abilities for the Krampus, and I'm not ready to leave and come back. Fight

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes tallied; fighting the guardians won by a 2-1 vote.

224

Your heart racing, you bring the battle to the animated ice guards. (You must fight them both at the same time, but in this battle you have the initiative.)

First ICE GUARDIAN     COMBAT 7     ENDURANCE 8
Second ICE GUARDIAN     COMBAT 7     ENDURANCE 8

If you are wielding an axe, any successful hit you deliver with the heavy-bladed weapon will cause 1 additional point of damage, as it smashes away at their frozen forms.

If you manage to defeat the Ice Guardians, turn to 295.

I will assume Clark uses the Blacksmith’s Axe for this fight.

The fight:
Round 1: Clark’s Combat Rating: 9+11+1+1=22, First Ice Guardian’s Combat Rating: 6+7=13, Second Ice Guardian’s Combat Rating: 7+7=14;
Clark’s Endurance: 20, First Ice Guardian’s Endurance: 5, Second Ice Guardian’s Endurance: 5
Round 2: Clark’s Combat Rating: 9+11+1+1=22, First Ice Guardian’s Combat Rating: 9+7=16, Second Ice Guardian’s Combat Rating: 6+7=13;
Clark’s Endurance: 20, First Ice Guardian’s Endurance: 2, Second Ice Guardian’s Endurance: 2
Round 3: Clark’s Combat Rating: 7+11+1+1=20, First Ice Guardian’s Combat Rating: 8+7=15, Second Ice Guardian’s Combat Rating: 5+7=12;
Clark’s Endurance: 20, First Ice Guardian’s Endurance: -1, Second Ice Guardian’s Endurance: -1

As expected, Clark flawlessly defeats the Ice Guardians.

295

With the guards now just so many shards of ice on the floor of the antechamber, you push open the doors and enter a grand throne room. At the end of the chamber, its vaulted roof supported by twisted glacial pillars, seated upon a throne of ice is the ruler of this unreal palace – the Snow Queen!

The monarch of winter is chillingly beautiful, with piercing eyes like sparkling sapphires, while her skin is as white as freshly fallen snow, shot through with ice-blue veins. She is wearing a crown that appears to have been made from sharply-pointed icicles, she is swathed in fur-lined robes and a cloak that looks like it has been fashioned from snowflakes. Indeed, the only human parts of her that can be seen are her angular face and her slender hands.

She fixes you with an icy stare and screams, in a voice as sharp as cut crystal, “How dare you enter the throne room of your queen uninvited!”

The Snow Queen becomes like a blizzard and flies the length of the throne room, as if borne on the wings of Boreas, the North Wind.

You have earned the enmity of the cold-hearted queen and now she is intent on ending you.

If you want to use The Pen is Mightier special ability, and you still can, turn to 9. If not, turn to 273.



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

[deaddmwalking]

So we have one use of Naughty or Nice and one use of The Pen is Mightier. It seems strange to me that it's asking if we want to use one of those abilities but not the other.

For that reason, I'm inclined to use it (saving our last Naught or Nice for the Krampus). Call it a half vote for The Pen is Mightier.

[Beroli]

Do not use The Pen is Mightier. Fight her.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes counted; not using The Pen is Mightier won by a 1-0.5 vote.

273

Shrieking at you, her voice the shrill keening of the wind, the elemental spirit that is the Snow Queen attacks, bombarding you with blasts of hail-hard pellets and dagger-sharp shards of ice. (In this battle, the Snow Queen has the initiative.)

SNOW QUEEN     COMBAT 8     ENDURANCE 11

If the Snow Queen wins a Combat Round, roll one die (or pick a card). If the number rolled is odd (or the card is red), you are struck by dagger-shards of ice; lose 2 Endurance points. If the number rolled is even (or the card is black), you are bombarded by stinging hail; roll the die again (or pick another card), and if the number rolled is odd (or the card is red), lose 3 Endurance points, but if the number rolled is even (or the card is black), lose just 1 Endurance point.

If you reduce the Snow Queen’s Endurance score to 2 or below, she transforms into a flurry of snowflakes that are sent whirling away over the castle wall by a gust of wind – turn to 227.

Once again, I assume that the Clark uses the Blacksmith’s Axe.

The fight:
Round 1: Clark’s Combat Rating: 6+11+1=18, Snow Queen’s Combat Rating: 5+8+1=14;
Clark’s Endurance: 20, Snow Queen’s Endurance: 9
Round 2: Clark’s Combat Rating: 5+11+1+1=18, Snow Queen’s Combat Rating: 10+8=18;
Die Roll: 2, Clark’s Endurance: 19, Snow Queen’s Endurance: 8
Round 3: Clark’s Combat Rating: 7+11+1=19, Snow Queen’s Combat Rating: 6+8=14;
Clark’s Endurance: 19, Snow Queen’s Endurance: 6
Round 4: Clark’s Combat Rating: 7+11+1+1=20, Snow Queen’s Combat Rating: 9+8=17;
Clark’s Endurance: 19, Snow Queen’s Endurance: 4
Round 5: Clark’s Combat Rating: 5+11+1+1=18, Snow Queen’s Combat Rating: 7+8=15;
Clark’s Endurance: 19, Snow Queen’s Endurance: 2

227

The Snow Queen’s hold over this place broken, a violent shaking besets the foundations of the frozen fortress. Great blocks of masonry and ice come crashing down as the castle starts to collapse.

If you have the code word Krowned recorded on your Adventure Sheet, turn to 170. If not, turn to 207.

Clark has the code word Krowned recorded on his Adventure Sheet.

170

With the castle walls crashing down about your ears, you sprint for safety, hoping you can get out before the entire place collapses.

As you are crossing the courtyard, you hear a furious barking and see Venceslav coming towards you, riding a sled being pulled by a team of huskies.

“I found these fine fellows in the castle kennels,” the deposed king tells you as the sled skids to a halt beside you. “Quick, jump on and then we’ll be away from here! After all, I couldn’t leave you behind, not after you freed me.”

Not needing to be told twice, you jump onto the back of the sled, and with a shout of “Yaah!” and a crack of his whip, Venceslav sets the dogs running again.

They race through the crumbling gatehouse, the sled bouncing over the ice bridge, and safely to the other side, just moments before its supporting arches give way and it crashes down into the crevasse that surrounds the castle.

You are safe! That is, until the cold moon emerges from behind a shroud of cloud.

Venceslav gives a cry of pain and doubles up, his body contorting into agonised shapes. As you look on in horror, he starts to change. His body rapidly swells in size, bursting out of his clothes, revealing a shaggy white pelt beneath. His face elongates, with a horrible cracking sound – like bones breaking – as it becomes an ursine muzzle, while his hands transform into huge black-padded paws, embedded with lethal claws as long and as sharp as knives.

You are no longer sharing the sled with a crownless king but a furious polar bear. The huskies howl in fear and panic, dragging the sled down a bumpy slope, and you and the transformed Venceslav tumble from it into the snow.

Bellowing like the brute beast he now is, with a murderous bloodlust burning in his eyes, the Venceslav-bear goes for you.

If you want to use The Pen is Mightier special ability now, and you still can, turn to 139. If not, turn to 480.

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PST or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.

TWAS – The Krampus Night Before Christmas Adventure Sheet
Clark
Agility: 11
Combat: 11
Endurance: 19
Equipment:
Pyjamas
Dressing-gown
Bed Socks
Pair of Slippers
Blacksmith’s Axe (+1 Combat Rating in battle)
Key Embossed With ‘37’
Mistletoe Spear Circled By Twelve Bands
Special Abilities:
The Pen Is Mightier: 1 use
Naughty or Nice: 1 use
Meals: 4
Codewords:
Kold
Kruel
Kind
Krowned
Kurious

[Thaluikhain]

Polar bears are scary, and despite only having 1 Pen is Mightier, half vote for using it here.

[Beroli]

Use The Pen is Mightier, since this, unlike fighting the Snow Queen or a final fight with the Krampus, is a situation where "get me out of here" is a desirable outcome.

[deaddmwalking]

I'm fine with it. I don't really want to kill him, so maybe that gets him restored to his normal form.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered; using The Pen is Mightier.

139

The polar bear suddenly locks eyes with you, and you feel that you can see something of the cursed king in its soulful stare.

Giving another bellow, the beast suddenly breaks off its charging attack, turns tail and lollops away into the night and the snow, leaving you gasping for breath and your heart racing like a steam locomotive.

When you finally feel ready to resume your journey, no longer fearing that the bear might pick up your scent and come back for you, you set off again, travelling north towards the dark teeth of the mountains.

Turn to 244.

244

And so you come at last to the foot of a steep mountain pass, and the great tongue of ice that protrudes from it. The front face of the glacier rises like a cliff far above your head. And yet, if you are to proceed beyond the ice-rimed peaks, you are going to have to attempt to scale its frozen immensity.

If you have a Pair of Ice Picks, turn to 45. If not, turn to 25.

25

Pulling the belt of your dressing-gown tight and taking a deep breath, you start to climb the fissured face of the glacier, searching for hand-holds and protrusions upon the ice-cliff.

Take an Endurance test. If you pass the test, turn to 45, but if you fail the test, turn to 65.

Rolling the dice yields a 14, so Clark passes the Endurance test.

45

As the biting wind tugs at your hair, and the unremitting cold nips at the skin of your cheeks and the backs of your hands, you struggle on up the vertical ice-cliff.

Slowly but surely you climb higher and higher until you come to what appears to be a cave-mouth that has formed along a fault-line in the face of the glacier.

If you want to enter the ice cave, turn to 303. If you would rather struggle on to the top, turn to 125.

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

TWAS – The Krampus Night Before Christmas Adventure Sheet
Clark
Agility: 11
Combat: 11
Endurance: 19
Equipment:
Pyjamas
Dressing-gown
Bed Socks
Pair of Slippers
Blacksmith’s Axe (+1 Combat Rating in battle)
Key Embossed With ‘37’
Mistletoe Spear Circled By Twelve Bands
Special Abilities:
The Pen Is Mightier: 0 uses
Naughty or Nice: 1 use
Meals: 4
Codewords:
Kold
Kruel
Kind
Krowned
Kurious

[deaddmwalking]

Half vote for the cave.

[Thaluikhain]

Always enter random caves.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes acknowledged; entering the ice cave.

303

Hauling yourself into the ice cave, sheltered from the wind at last, you rest for a moment. (Now would be a good time to eat a Meal or have a drink, if you can.)

As you take in your surroundings, you see strange carvings etched into the undulating walls of blue ice that form a tunnel, which in turn penetrates deeper into the glacier.

Intrigued, and wondering what the symbols can mean, you follow the tunnel through the ice. An eerie blue glow seems to come from inside the ice itself, enabling you to see where you are going, no matter how far you are from the moonlit entrance to the cave.

The tunnel eventually enters a chamber at the heart of the glacier. And there, suspended in a shaft of silvery moonlight that enters through a narrow hole in the ceiling, is a most magnificent sword. It appears to be made entirely from ice, and has snowflake-like patterns carved into the blue-white material of its blade. You have never seen anything like it!

Snow has drifted into the icy alcoves of the chamber, having entered through the shaft in the roof as well, you imagine, while icicles hang down from the ceiling like frozen stalactites.

If you want to try to reach into the beam of moonlight and take the sword, turn to 336. If you would prefer to leave the clearly magical frozen blade where it is, turn to 363.

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PST or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.