[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 72 – The Dungeon on Blood Island

[deaddmwalking]

We know what happens if we team up with the assassin - she leads the way and we fight the archers and the monk. This time we have the armband so we won't take the -1 on our skill, and we have better Stamina than we did before.

Whatever we decide, we should eat our last provision since we'll probably have to fight the monk no matter what we do.

I think we go with the assassin, and hope we roll better this time around. Without the penalty and the better stamina going in I think we're likely to win. For reference the monk is: SKILL 10 STAMINA 8

Remind me, since we have the breastplate and the Shield are we attacking at SKILL 10, or are we attacking at SKILL 8 (meaning I guess we're down 4 skill but that gives us a +2).

3/4 Vote for doing what we did before - joining the assassin and hoping we make it through this time.

[Beroli]

No choice but to ally with the monk if we go east, I see.

I will be voting to turn the key clockwise as the Troglodyte told us everything written is a lie.

Eat our last meal and rejoin the assassin

Second-and-three-fourthed.

[JourneymanN00b]

We know what happens if we team up with the assassin - she leads the way and we fight the archers and the monk. This time we have the armband so we won't take the -1 on our skill, and we have better Stamina than we did before.

Whatever we decide, we should eat our last provision since we'll probably have to fight the monk no matter what we do.

I think we go with the assassin, and hope we roll better this time around. Without the penalty and the better stamina going in I think we're likely to win. For reference the monk is: SKILL 10 STAMINA 8

Remind me, since we have the breastplate and the Shield are we attacking at SKILL 10, or are we attacking at SKILL 8 (meaning I guess we're down 4 skill but that gives us a +2).

3/4 Vote for doing what we did before - joining the assassin and hoping we make it through this time.

The breastplate and Shield's Attack Strength boosts allow us to fight with an effective skill of 10. Outside of combat, X Pectopa Tronum's skill is 8.

Shaking the Assassin's hand got enough votes, so I will have X Pectopa Tronum join forces with her. As requested, he will also eat his final Provision.

On section 159, the Assassin tells X Pectopa Tronum that they will avoid the tunnel and keep going north. When they get to section 65, they arrive at a set of double doors and the Assassin gets hit with an arrow. On section 298, our hero removes the arrow from the Assassin, who tells him that they need to charge the room and split up. After opening the door, X Pectopa Tronum and the Assassin run into six Zanith Archers on section 394. X Pectopa has a shield, so he uses it to block three arrows on section 191. He then proceeds to kill one Zanth Archer before fighting two Zanth Archers.

The fights:
(First Zanth Archer)
Round 1: First Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 16
First Zanth Archer Stamina: 5, Player Stamina: 16
Round 2: First Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 11, Player Attack Strength: 14
First Zanth Archer Stamina: 3, Player Stamina: 16
Round 3: First Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 18
First Zanth Archer Stamina: 1, Player Stamina: 16
Round 4: First Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 11, Player Attack Strength: 12
First Zanth Archer Stamina: -1, Player Stamina: 16

(Second Zanth Archer)
Round 1: Second Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 12, Player Attack Strength: 17
Second Zanth Archer Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 16
Round 2: Second Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 13, Player Attack Strength: 16
Second Zanth Archer Stamina: 2, Player Stamina: 16
Round 3: Second Zanth Archer Attack Strength: 10, Player Attack Strength: 15
Second Zanth Archer Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 16

As it turns out, X Pectopa Tronum loses 2 Stamina before he kills the two Zanth Archers. On section 382, our hero watches the Assassin die before the Monk reappears and fights him, who is wearing a silver armband.

The fight:
Round 1: Monk Attack Strength: 14, Player Attack Strength: 17
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 16
Round 2: Monk Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 15
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 14
Round 3: Monk Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 18
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 12
Round 4: Monk Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 14
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 10
Round 5: Monk Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 17
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 10
Round 6: Monk Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 16
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 8
Round 7: Monk Attack Strength: 21, Player Attack Strength: 17
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 6

Unfortunately for our hero, he only manages to deal a single blow to the Monk before going down to 6 Stamina from the Monk’s hits. 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 this battle. 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
X Pectopa Tronum
SKILL: 8 Initial: 10
STAMINA: 6 Initial: 23
LUCK: 8 Initial: 10
EQUIPMENT:
Doom Sword
Backpack
Craggen Knife
2 Throwing Daggers
Brass Button
Small Bottle of Mullweed Oil
Rabbit’s-foot Charm
Hand Axe
Sentinel Shield (+1 Attack Strength)
Rope
Worm Paste Tin
Breastplate (+1 Attack Strength)
Piece of Chalk
Bottle Labelled ‘Weezle Juice’
Chewed Bone
Iron Key
Bronze Key
Four-Leaf Clover Charm
Small Horseshoe Charm
GOLD PIECES: 10
TREASURE:
Silver Ring (etched with ‘111’)
Copper Dragon Ball
Brass Dragon Ball
Silver Dragon Ball
3 Bone Dice
Copper Bracelet (Worn, -1 Skill)
Silver Coin
Gold Key stamped with ‘270’
Silver Armband
Bone Ring
Gold Key stamped with ‘90’
Gold Key stamped with ‘180’
PROVISIONS: 0
RESURRECTIONS: 0

[deaddmwalking]

Let's use luck to increase damage to the bitter end.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for voting. Luck will be used to increase damage.

The fight, continued:
Round 8: Monk Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 17
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 4
Round 9: Monk Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 20
Monk Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 4
Round 10: Monk Attack Strength: 12, Player Attack Strength: 16
Luck Roll: 10, Player is Unlucky and only deals 1 damage
Monk Stamina: 5, Player Stamina: 4, Player Luck: 7
Round 11: Monk Attack Strength: 13, Player Attack Strength: 13
Monk Stamina: 5, Player Stamina: 4
Round 12: Monk Attack Strength: 16, Player Attack Strength: 13
Monk Stamina: 5, Player Stamina: 2
Round 13: Monk Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 21
Luck Roll: 5, Player is Lucky and deals 4 damage
Monk Stamina: 1, Player Stamina: 2, Player Luck: 6
Round 14: Monk Attack Strength: 13, Player Attack Strength: 13
Monk Stamina: 1, Player Stamina: 2
Round 15: Monk Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 16
Luck Roll: 8, Player is Unlucky and takes 1 extra damage (this Luck test was done since our hero would have died if he did not do this)
Monk Stamina: 1, Player Stamina: -1, Player Luck: 5

Unfortunately, because the Monk got some nice dice rolls and because X Pectopa Tronum got Unlucky on one of the two blows that he landed on the Monk, the Monk killed our hero with only 1 Stamina remaining. Since X Pectopa Tronum has no more resurrections, his journey comes to a tragic end.

Bonus death entry:
After the Monk splits open X Pectopa Tronum’s head with his finishing blow, he leans on his staff and pants very hard for a brief moment. He then spits at X Pectopa Tronum’s caved-in face and scoffs in contempt,

“May you rot for all eternity, Adventurer. The Orb will be mine, now that nobody is there to stop me. Thanks for killing all these enemies for me and getting me the other three Compass keys. Too bad nice guys finish last!”

With a loud laugh, Uzman Koh loots X Pectopa Tronum’s body, takes his valuables including the three Compass Keys, and urinates all over his corpse in massive contempt.

Ooof. Truly a horrible conclusion to this adventure. The correct path for our hero’s final life was to leave the room, go back down the staircase, and turn right at the junction after getting the Compass Key from the Cyclops. That is because he needed to get the Vorpal Sword in order to have a decent chance at one of the endgame enemies. Going north shut off that path and instead gave our hero a chance to get an additional Dragon Ball that was unnecessary to get at this point in the adventure. If our hero passed the Skill test when he slid down the well, he would have gotten the Gold Dragon Ball, 1 Luck, and 2 Gold Pieces.

So, what is the life lesson to take from this experience? It’s to be prepared for the worst at all times. Getting bad luck always seems to be a tenet of life, and if you are not prepared for the worst-case scenario at all times, you will get knocked down in life. That was my story when a special shampoo that I ordered in the mail got stolen last week before I was able to pick it up. Because the mail locker was broken into between the time that it takes for a mail locker key to be issued to residents who receive medium to large parcels, I was not able to get my package, and I am thus going to be out of the special shampoo and subject to baldness because a replacement order will take too long for it to arrive in time.

With that out of the way, we are once again finished every Fighting Fantasy title that has been published at the time of this post. That is an *enormous* accomplishment for any forum to achieve, which will hopefully drag our community away from obscurity in a good way.

I will now be declaring a long break from hosting Let’s Plays, as I need to prepare for the family gatherings that will take place in the holidays. Hopefully others will hold the line in my absence.

Thank you to everybody who participated in this Let’s Play and all of my previous Let’s Plays that date back to December 2021.

Adventure Sheet
X Pectopa Tronum
SKILL: 8 Initial: 10
STAMINA: -1 Initial: 23
LUCK: 5 Initial: 10
EQUIPMENT:
Doom Sword
Backpack
Craggen Knife
2 Throwing Daggers
Brass Button
Small Bottle of Mullweed Oil
Rabbit’s-foot Charm
Hand Axe
Sentinel Shield (+1 Attack Strength)
Rope
Worm Paste Tin
Breastplate (+1 Attack Strength)
Piece of Chalk
Bottle Labelled ‘Weezle Juice’
Chewed Bone
Iron Key
Bronze Key
Four-Leaf Clover Charm
Small Horseshoe Charm
GOLD PIECES: 10
TREASURE:
Silver Ring (etched with ‘111’)
Copper Dragon Ball
Brass Dragon Ball
Silver Dragon Ball
3 Bone Dice
Copper Bracelet (Worn, -1 Skill)
Silver Coin
Gold Key stamped with ‘270’
Silver Armband
Bone Ring
Gold Key stamped with ‘90’
Gold Key stamped with ‘180’
PROVISIONS: 0
RESURRECTIONS: 0

[Dogopolis]

Thanks for running this, can I ask you a question?

You decided our path where we gave up 1 GP for the bell was wrong, Is "Juggler Jak" real, and/or if so would the bell be useless? Did we still have a reason we needed Gold Pieces?

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for running, and for running previous ones.

At least we got pretty far into this one. Seemed to follow the original in lots of random stuff stuck together, rather than a more coherent dungeon.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thanks for running this, can I ask you a question?

You decided our path where we gave up 1 GP for the bell was wrong, Is "Juggler Jak" real, and/or if so would the bell be useless? Did we still have a reason we needed Gold Pieces?

Juggler Jak is encountered if the player did not descend down the cockroach pit, and the bell would drive him off if it is used there. However, encountering him means that the hero would not be able to get to the place where the '90' Gold key is located and would immediately run into the dying Thump, which would eventually lead to a game over.



Appreciate all of the thanks headed my way.

[Dogopolis]

Is not helping the assassin a game over?
Is there any point to Gold pieces, (other than the clue we got from the hand)?

[JourneymanN00b]

Is not helping the assassin a game over?
Is there any point to Gold pieces, (other than the clue we got from the hand)?

Yep, the Assassin leaves our hero for dead, who eventually gets discovered by a patrol Zanth Archers who kill him with their bows.

If our hero killed the Monk, there is a point later in the adventure where the player can buy a Ring of Dexterity that gives our hero 1 Skill point and 1 Luck point.

[Thaluikhain]

Oh, is the Craggen Knife we bought near the very beginning useful?

[deaddmwalking]

Thank you for running it! I'm sad to have died, but still had fun. Luck loss really did hurt.

If we hadn't drunk the mind control potion (twice!) would it have ever done anything good for us?

If we beat the monk, considering how low we were on Stamina, would we have had any chance, really?

[JourneymanN00b]

The Craggen Knife is useful in fighting the Bronze Warrior in that it deals 2 damage per hit, where the sword would only deal 1 damage per hit.

Not drinking the mind control potion would have resulted in a -4 Attack Strength penalty against one of the endgame opponents. If the player had defeated the monk, he probably would not have survived since he did not get the Vorpal Sword, which gives a +2 Attack Strength bonus against that opponent.

[Beroli]

Thanks for running this.

Would turning the 180 key clockwise have been the right answer?

[JourneymanN00b]

Thanks for running this.

Would turning the 180 key clockwise have been the right answer?

Nope. That would have resulted in an instant death by electrocution.

[deaddmwalking]

So not everything written was wrong. Maybe just everything 'officially' written by the dungeon creators? That's a fine hair to split.

[Beroli]

More likely the troglodyte was just mocking us, not actually being helpful even accidentally.

[Dogopolis]

I'm now managed to get a copy of this. Does anybody want to finish it off: if so we'll leave it as canon what happened to Tronum, enter a new hero: Fingers Foley!

Plot so far: he wins the arrows and the strength, elects to join the winning tug of war team, steals the sorceresses's ring, beats her in combat, ignores the old man's warning, takes position 5, and drops....

The drop leads to a steep pit with spikes. Anybody else but somebody with the agility of a thief would surely have died, bit Finger's reactions and climbing are good enough that he protects himself and then inches his way back to the top, at the top he takes position 4, mainly following behind Tronum, but diverts from the course long enough to get the vorpal sword and also the info about the key order. Just as he is approaching a battle between Tronum and the monk, the badly wounded monk finally comes out on top. Foley presses on to take the monk down.

landing almost on top of you. He spins round and lunges at you with his staff. You must fight the Monk! Unless you are wearing a silver armband, you will find it hard to focus on the Monk’s agile movements and must reduce your Attack Strength by 1 point during this battle.

MONK  SKILL 10  STAMINA 1

FF 17, Monk 15, monk dead.

While catching your breath, you take the gold key that is hanging on a string cord around the Monk's neck. You see that it has the number 360 stamped on it. You put it in your pocket, together with 2 Gold Pieces from the leather purse on his belt. You also find a gold envelope inside his tunic containing a handwritten note that reads, 'My dear Uzman, return the Orb to me, and 10,000 Gold Pieces will be yours to keep, together with your freedom. And, should my brother meet with an untimely end at your victory ceremony, Blood Island will be yours! Baron Sukumvit.' You put away the note and search the Assassin to find a small phial of clear liquid in her pocket. Do you want to drink the liquid or do you want to leave the chamber by the door at the back?

You can also pick up any of the following from Tronum's body:
Doom Sword
Backpack
Craggen Knife
2 Throwing Daggers
Brass Button
Small Bottle of Mullweed Oil
Rabbit’s-foot Charm
Hand Axe
Sentinel Shield (+1 Attack Strength)
Rope
Worm Paste Tin
Breastplate (+1 Attack Strength)
Piece of Chalk
Bottle Labelled ‘Weezle Juice’
Chewed Bone
Iron Key
Bronze Key
Four-Leaf Clover Charm
Small Horseshoe Charm
GOLD PIECES: 10
TREASURE:
Silver Ring (etched with ‘111’)
Copper Dragon Ball
Brass Dragon Ball
Silver Dragon Ball
3 Bone Dice
Copper Bracelet (Worn, -1 Skill)
Silver Coin
Gold Key stamped with ‘270’
Silver Armband
Bone Ring
Gold Key stamped with ‘90’
Gold Key stamped with ‘180’

If anybody is still interested please make choice as to which sword to keep, whether to drink the potion and if you want to take everything else Tronum had.
----------------------------------
Fingers Foley

Skill 9/10
Stamina 20/20
Luck 11/11

10 provisions.
Magic ring (+1 attack strength, immunity to mind control)
Vorpal sword
Handwritten note
Gold key 360
7GP

[deaddmwalking]

I'm interested.

We already have a Doom Sword, right? And he has one, too?

I like the Doom Sword but we do know a Craggen Knife is a good thing to have. I'm for taking everything that we can. I'm NOT in favor of drinking the liquid (could be poison and useful for killing the baron later).

[Dogopolis]

We (Fingers) have a vorpal sword, (because we went a different route to this iteration of Tronum) You need to decide if you want Tronum's Doom sword or keep Foley's vorpal sword.

[deaddmwalking]

Vorpal sword sounds better. Half vote for that.

[Dogopolis]

By 0.5 to 0 we keep the vorpal sword, take everything except the doom sword and don't drink the liquid.

The door opens into a narrow corridor with a polished stone floor and smooth walls. There are paintings on the walls running the length of the corridor. All the paintings are of Baron Sukumvit being attacked by hideous creatures. There is a door in the left-hand wall halfway down the corridor, and another door at the end. Do you want to open the door on the left, or do you want to open the door at the end of the corridor?

[deaddmwalking]

I feel froggy. Let's try the door on the left.

In OSR parlance, I carefully approach the door on the left. Pressing myself flat against the hallway wall I open the door just a crack, just an inch, with my body fully along the wall and only my hand exposed. One eye is close to the crack so I can take a quick look into the room.

[Thaluikhain]

May as well.

[Dogopolis]

The door opens into a small room where you see a little old man cowering in the corner. He looks terrified. 'Don't attack me! Don't attack me,' he whimpers. 'I'm here just to look after the Lord Carnuss's paintings in the hallway. That's all I do. Nothing more. As you saw, he's a very good artist, but doesn't want everybody seeing paintings of his brother being savaged by monsters! I can't sell you a painting, but I can sell you an old ring I found. Give me 1 Gold Piece and it's yours. It looks like a magic ring to me.' Do you want to buy the ring or do you want to leave the room and open the door at the end of the corridor?