CHARACTER CREATION
This is undoubtedly my most viable character yet: Skill 12, Stamina 20 and Luck 8. What could possibly kill this guy?
THE ADVENTURE
The opening stages of this book have become super-familiar to me now, so I breezed past the Giant Crab, Mungo's death, and the headhunters. Once again I chose to visit the headhunters' village and burn it down. This time I rolled a rolled a 4 on my die roll while escaping, and the man I was trying to rescue got speared. (I'd really like to know what happens if he survives, but I'm not going to find out in this attempt.)
The horde were still in pursuit, but I decided against hiding in a hollow log, and continued to run through the jungle. The headhunters knew the land better than I did, however, and I ended up in a fight with three of them at once. Being supremely skillful has its benefits, though, and I killed them all before escaping. The remaining headhunters backed away, thinking of me as some sort of god-empowered warrior, and I looted their fallen comrades. What I found was some green paste, which did nothing when I spread it on my wounds. Glad to be free of the headhunters, I continued on my way. (At this point I had 19 points of Stamina remaining, and had not used any Luck.)
Soon I came to the swamp, and this time I chose the safe path through. All I had to deal with were the leeches, which reduced my Stamina to 14, and necessitated the use of one of my provisions to remove them.
Once out of the swamp I came to a gorge between some hills. I avoided the landslide by climbing a hill, then went down into the gorge where I found the snuffbox with the gold nugget and the message inside.
After a brief encounter with a Giant Lizard (which reduced my Stamina to 12), I met and killed the Spit Toad and claimed the treasure hidden in its pond (the Pouch of Unlimited Contents and the leather boots; I knew now to ignore the ring and the potion). Later a pig crossed my path, but I wasn't able to catch it (will I ever reach this point with the spear?).
When I reached the river I found the boat mentioned in the snuff-box message and started punting up-river. A crocodile attacked me, but I defeated it easily. I ignored the man who waved at me from the shore (he's a delirious madman, as I learned in previous attempts), and soon I came to the gold mines.
There were two Lizard Men guarding the village outside the mine. Last time I had reached this point I ignored them, but with my Skill so high I decided to have a crack at them. A successful Luck test (reducing my score to 7) meant that I was able to kill one of them before it could react. The other (Skill 9, Stamina 8) retaliated, and fought well. It was able to wound me four times before I killed it, reducing my Stamina to 5. I found three iron keys on its corpse, and pocketed them before heading into the mines. (At this point I ate two provisions, restoring my Stamina to 13.)
Inside the mine I turned right, then left, and soon found myself in a disused network of tunnels. At one point I reached a dead end, and lost a Luck point due to feeling lost. In another tunnel I stumbled into a support beam, and was almost buried alive in rubble (dropping my Stamina to 9). In yet another tunnel the whole roof collapsed on my head, and my Stamina was reduced to 4. Surprisingly, this turned out quite well; a successful Luck test led to me finding the legendary Horn of Valhalla. You know, just stuck in the roof of a gold mine, where you'd expect it to be. (This brought my Luck back up to 8.)
After eating two provisions (bringing my Stamina back to 12, and leaving me with 5 provisions) I explored the rest of the top level of the mines. I avoided the bore-hole and the Grannits, and claimed the superbly-crafted sword from the shaft with my Boots of Climbing. That done, it was time to head below and liberate the slaves.
The liberation went about as smoothly as it could, with the aid of three successful Luck tests (reducing my Luck to 5). I only had to fight one Lizard Man, and that one got torn apart by dwarven slaves halfway through the battle. I lost 4 Stamina in the ensuing conflict (leaving me with 8), but by the end I had 63 followers who were ready to fight, and ready to throw a party.
Alas, there's always an elf to spoil things, and I was off to find the Shaman so that I could learn how to kill the Lizard King and the parasitic Gonchong that was controlling it. After swigging my Potion of Fortune (raising my Luck score to 9), I set off towards Fire Island's volcano. I ate some wild raspberries (and used my Luck to avoid a fight with a Giant Dragonfly), and also some honeycomb and fruit that resulted in me fighting a Bear. A Hill Troll ambushed me, I found a feather to tie in my hair for the shaman, and I killed a Cave Woman and rubbed some of her red dust on my face. Before long I was at the base of the shaman's volcano, eating one of my provisions. (My Stamina was 10 at this point, my Luck was 6, and I had 3 provisions remaining)
In previous attempts I had gone straight up the volcano, but this time I decided to explore around its base. What I found was a sulfurous pool filled with eggs. I took a closer look at them, and was rewarded when one of them hatched and a Razorjaw burst forth.
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| "A hideous creature that has evolved to kill all other species." |
The bugger latched on to my neck (reducing my Stamina to 6), but it was easy enough to kill after that surprise attack. With no other paths to explore, I ate one of my provisions (bringing my Stamina back up to 10, and leaving me with 2 meals) and went up the volcano to see the shaman.
The shaman presented me with his three tests, and this time - having failed the tests on my last attempt - I went for easy pickings. First I chose the Fear test, which I've described in an earlier post: the shaman fills your mind with horrific imagery, but if you have the red powder from the cave woman you can resist. The second test I chose was Pain, which is even more of a gimme: all you have to do is say that you resist the pain that the shaman is causing you, and you automatically succeed. I wasn't completely sure about the third test, but given my high Skill score I chose Dexterity. The task here was simply to hit an orange with a thrown dagger, which was done by rolling equal to or under my Skill on two dice. Given that I had a Skill of 12 there was no chance of failure.
Now that I had passed all three tests the shaman gave me the information I was after. He described the Gonchong as a parasitic spider that perched on its victim's head, with a proboscis that connected it to the brain. The only way to kill the Gonchong was to sever the proboscis after killing the host, but killing the host was not going to be so easy, as it was immune to all weapons except for a fire sword. As luck would have it, the Lizard King was super fond of fire swords, and had a stash of them in his armoury disguised as rusty knives. Oh, one last thing to remember: the Lizard King is scared of monkeys. I'm sure that will be important.
Armed now with that vital information, I set off south-east for the Lizard King's stronghold. Soon enough I reached the Hobgoblin guarding the bridge over the chasm. Last time I reached this point I had bribed him with a gold nugget, but this time I was loathe to give up my treasure. Instead I murdered the hell out of him, and ransacked his corpse. I was expecting some minor treasure, perhaps a few gold coins, but instead I found a clay doll that had been cursed by a witch doctor. This reduced my Luck to 4, which was not a good state to be in, especially with the battle I knew was coming. I ate another provision, restoring my Stamina to 14 and leaving me with but one meal remaining.
Over the bridge I went, straight into the Mutant Lizard Man and his Styracosaurus steed. These two had killed me the last time I got this far, and I didn't fancy my chances this time around either. The dinosaur hit me four times (reducing my Stamina to 6), but fortune was with me in my battle against the Lizard Man: I was able to take it out without being hit. I looted the Lizard Man's shield (which would have given me a Skill bonus had I needed it), and continued on; this was the furthest I had reached while playing this book for the blog.
As I made my way through the jungle I was scratched by a thorny bush. Luckily I had earlier drank Baskin's potion from the hut near the beach, and I was protected from being poisoned.
Further on I found a dead seaman and a chained monkey. What a coincidence! Who would have thought that I would find a monkey at the very time that I needed just such a monkey to help me on my quest. I didn't even have to work for it. It's like Fate just said POOF! You need a monkey? Have a monkey! Monkeys for everyone!
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| Thanks for the monkey, Ian. |
Soon I came to a valley, and I could see the Lizard King's fortress below. But before I could get to it, I was confronted by Raquel Welch from One Million Years BC. Oh yeah, there was a sabre-tooth tiger there as well, I guess.
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| Thanks for the lady, Alan. |
I tried to talk to her, but the language barrier was too great. Somewhat puzzled by this pointless encounter (I suspect that Alan Langford just wanted to draw a sexy jungle lady), I made my way into the valley to reunite with my army. (At this point I ate the last of my provisions, restoring my Stamina to 10.)
It was time to attack the Lizard King's fortress, but it was apparently not the time to discuss tactics. I just gathered my guys together, and we all ran towards the fort. Luckily for me the Lizard King opened the gates, and his forces met us in the field.
I had to roll a die to determine what sort of foe I fought in the battle. I rolled a 4, and had to fight a regular old Lizard Man that reduced my Stamina to 8. The battle was going poorly, but I had an ace up my sleeve: the Horn of Valhalla! I blew the horn and bolstered the morale of my troops. They were able to open a gap in the enemy lines, and I ran through the fortress gates into the inner courtyard.
I had a choice of doors to my left and straight ahead. I chose the left door, which opened into a prison complex. I found an old man chained up in an open cell. It was a bit suspicious that his cell was open, but just look at the miserable bugger. How could I not set him free?
Well, as it turns out, this encounter was designed to teach me a valuable life lesson: steer clear of miserable old men. The old man turned out to be a reptilian Shapechanger, and in the course of defeating it I lost more precious Stamina (I was reduced to a total of 4).
Exploring further I came to a locked door, but I was able to open it with my iron keys. Beyond was a torture chamber, with all manner of implements lying about. Among them was a set of rusty knives, and I did not hesitate in grabbing one of them. Just as the shaman had told me, it was actually a magical fire sword. If I had needed it, the sword would have given me a +2 Skill bonus, but finding it did restore my Luck to 6.
Another door opened into a storeroom. Searching around I found a strange bottle, and a took a chance by drinking its contents. Inside was water from an enchanted stream, which restored my Stamina to 6. It wasn't much, but at this point even the smallest bonus was welcome.
The next room was a laboratory, but before I could examine anything I heard steps behind me, and I decided to hide under a bench. A shackled Dwarf entered, being pushed by a Two-Headed Lizard Man. I decided to leap from ambush, but I failed a Luck test and wasn't able to kill it instantly. It wounded me before I could kill it, and I found myself approaching the endgame with a mere 4 Stamina remaining. If I was going to succeed, I would need the dice to be kind.
Without a picklock's wire I wasn't able to free the Dwarf, but he still gave me directions to the battlements, where the Lizard King was directing his forces. I raced up a set of stairs, and soon I was confronting my ultimate enemy.
First, though, I had to battle its pet, a vicious Black Lion. I made a valiant attempt, but with 4 Stamina points I just wasn't strong enough, and the Lion mauled me to death. Mungo would have been ashamed.
THE POST-GAME
Remember earlier, when I wondered what could kill such a tough character? As it turns out, the answer was attrition. I made it to the end, but the long, linear slog of Island of the Lizard King just wore me down. Now I have a better idea of which encounters I should avoid, and my next Skill 12 character will stand a much better chance of success. The question is, how many guys do I have to send to their deaths by quicksand before I succeed?
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