[Let's Play] The Legends of Skyfall: Monsters of the Marsh

[deaddmwalking]

Both are interesting directions. Let's go North first.

[Thaluikhain]

May as well.

[JourneymanN00b]

I also vote North.

[Beroli]

After two miles this channel bends South, and after two more, South West. Another mile and it turns South again, then South East for two more before finally rejoining the Doone--nine hours later.

That was the fourth tributary.

Travel eight hours in the direction of the confluence with the Sol and investigate the West fork of the sixth tributary?
Travel four hours in the direction of Howard's Crossing and investigate the third tributary?
Travel four more hours and investigate the second tributary?
Travel four more hours and investigate the first tributary?
Travel four more hours to Howard's Crossing?
Go back to somewhere you have been?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 18/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 11 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

That sucks. Half vote to going back to where we just were and going West.

[Beroli]

If you're getting bored, you could always head to the endgame area, you know.

(If you're counting on getting a bow...do note that when you specifically needed a ranged weapon to hunt a non-dominant ram, the gamebook asked, "Do you have a spear?" and didn't mention a bow as a possibility.)

[JourneymanN00b]

I will vote to see the endgame area. Let’s see how well our hero does this time.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, I've been totally lost for quite a while (not too unusual for me and gamebooks, but this time more than most times), so trying the endgame again seems reasonable.

[deaddmwalking]

We haven't found a spear, either. I would expect that there are items that we need to win. Maybe we're ready for the end-game, but it didn't seem like it.

[Beroli]

Heading to Dragon's Mount wins 2-1.

There are a number of potential sites where you could moor your canoe, depending upon which part of the Mount you intend to search.

The small stream which flows North into the Luna by the North Eastern corner of the Mount has a number of bushes and trees along its course and several at its mouth. This could be a suitable place to hide the canoe if you are heading for the cleft or intending to take a swim. In the latter case you would have to strip down to an undergarment and take only a dagger with you, leaving all your other equipment in the canoe.

The caves you saw were towards the Southern end of the West cliff. The best way to reach those would seem to be from the South West corner of the Mount, where it looks as if there may be a narrow ledge running up the cliff face. About a hundred yards to the South is a small grove of trees marking the Southern extent of the firm ground surrounding the Mount. You should be able to hide your canoe there and carry whatever equipment was needed back to the Mount. You could also use such a base for a swimming investigation - although further away it would have the advantage of being downstream on the return leg.

Two other possibilities are suitable only for a swimmer. There is a fringe of reeds growing precariously along the water's edge right around the North and West sides of the Mount. It might be possible to moor the canoe to them and use the canoe itself as a base for your swimming trips. Otherwise, there is the bank of the Luna opposite the Mount. The meadow continues for a few hundred yards on the other side of the Luna, which has carved its channel some four or five feet below the general level of the land. This bank slopes quite steeply, but there are a number of exposed boulders which would supply both a mooring and some shelter.

Investigate the mouth of the small stream?
Investigate the bank opposite the Mount?
Moor your canoe to the fringe of reeds?
Go to the grove south of the Mount?
Leave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

Last time we went to the grove, then we climbed and fought an eagle. Maybe we should try mooring our canoe to the fringe of reeds? Half vote for that.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to check out the mouth of the small stream and head for the cleft.

[Beroli]

Investigating the mouth of the small stream wins 1-0.5.

A small stream flows North along the Eastern edge of the Mount and has carved itself a narrow, rather boggy valley a few feet below the level of the grassy meadow which stretches away for several miles towards the North and East. A fringe of trees screens this valley and there are many tracks as evidence that the local wildlife comes here to drink. It is probably easier for them to get to this stream as the banks of the Luna are quite steep and crumbly.

In fact, you can see a herd of deer approaching slowly from the East.

You pull the canoe a few feet up the boggy valley and fasten the mooring rope to a tree.

Go down the stream bed?
Go into the meadow?
Go elsewhere?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

Guessing the meadow is another hunting opportunity. Half vote for the stream.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote for the stream as well.

[Beroli]

Progress is quite slow as the boggy ground sucks at your feet, which sink in to their ankles at each step.

Continue along the stream?
Move up to the firm ground of the grassy meadow?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

I suspect that this is one of those 'are you sure you want to keep doing something stupid' type questions... But I still want to KNOW. Half vote for persisting.

[Beroli]

Your feet start to sink further, and you nearly lose one of your boots. A large herd of some sort of grazing beasts has churned a stretch of the valley into mud almost the consistency of soup. You come across a dead goat which seems to have become mired and then trampled by a larger creature.

Keep along the stream bed?
Try the meadow?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Half vote for keep along stream.

[deaddmwalking]

I'm convinced that keeping along the stream will result in us dying exactly like the goat. I'm going to give a full vote for going along the meadow, but make a note, I want to know if going along the stream would have been a fatality.

[Beroli]

The meadow extends for a considerable distance to North and East, but past Dragon's Mount to the South there is only a stretch of some hundred yards before the trackless bogs of the Dunmarsh recommence.

Where you are now, a thin screen of trees and bushes separates the meadow from a narrow, muddy valley which has been carved some three or four feet below the level of the meadow by a small stream which issues from a cleft in the Mount by its South East corner.

Go South to the corner where the stream emerges from the Mount?
Go back North to where the stream flows into the Luna? (This is where you left your canoe.)

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

Stream that enters the mount.

[Thaluikhain]

South.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote South.

[Beroli]

From the South Eastern corner of Dragon's Mount you can see in several directions.

To the West there is one arm of the grassy meadow running between the marsh and the South Cliff up to the bank of the Luna.

In front of you a cleft runs back into the Mount for about a hundred yards in a North Westerly direction before bending round to the North out of sight. A small stream runs down the cleft, then around the Eastern edge of the Mount heading North.

The stream has carved a narrow muddy valley a few feet below the surface of the meadow, and a screen of bushes and trees grows along its bank as far as the point where it flows into the Luna by the North East corner of the Mount.

The entrance to the cleft looks particularly boggy, as if it had been churned up by drinking animals. There is a dense clump of bushes growing to the left of the entrance and it is possible there may be a way around the mud by going through them.

Before you decide which direction to take, there is a loud snort behind you.

One of the Stags with the herd of deer has apparently decided you are some sort of threat. As you turn to face him, he attacks.

Face him?
Jump back and try to escape through the mud into the cleft in the Mount?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 5 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed