Space Assassin - Attempt 1

Looming above your home planet is the vast hulk of the starship Vandervecken. Aboard, the crazed scientist Cyrus is planning to unleash a gruesome experiment upon your world, which will destroy all life as it is known, leaving only hideous mutations in its wake. YOU are an assassin and your mission is to stop him - before it is too late!

So this is Space Assassin, the twelfth book in the Fighting Fantasy series, written by my fellow Australian Andrew Chapman. The last sci-fi book in the series, Starship Traveller wasn't much chop, so I don't have a lot of confidence with this one. After all, if Steve Jackson couldn't make it work, how does this Chapman bloke think he'll be able to do better? Still, I'm going to exercise some uncharacteristic patriotism here by being optimistic. Because not only is Andrew Chapman a Top Aussie Bloke, he's written a book with a rad title and an even radder cover. Surely this combination can't fail me, can it?

To top it off, we have illustrations from Geoff Senior, the artist on all of my favourite Transformers comics. I honestly had no idea until right now that Senior had done an FF book. I have to assume it's him: how many other artists with his name would have been active in the UK at this time? I'm pretty stoked that he's involved, I must say.

So the set-up for Space Assassin is that Cyrus, the tyrannical  ruling scientist of your local sector, has been harassing your home planet with destructive robots and mutants. Often he will raid the planet and carry people off to perform experiments upon them. Now it's been overheard that Cyrus intends to bombard the planet with radioactive isotopes and viruses in one huge mutagenic experiment. The planetary Assassin's Guild has been asked to help, and you are the lucky one who has been chosen for the mission of infiltrating his starship, the Vandervecken,  and assassinating Cyrus. He's just a scientist, how hard can it be? (I kind of love that the set-up for this book is basically kill the evil wizard, but in space. Chapman knows his audience.)

Before I begin, I'll need to go over the rules, because there are some significant differences from standard FF. Skill, Stamina and Luck are rolled in the same way as usual. There's also an Armour score, rolled on 1d6+6. Whenever you are struck by laser fire, you have to roll 2d6, and if the result is equal to or less than your Armour score you take no damage. Much like Testing your Luck, the Armour score decreases by 1 point every time it's rolled against.

Hand-to-hand combat works the same as in other FF books, except that nothing is mentioned about being able to affect the results with Luck. Gun combat is very different, though. First, you roll against your Skill on 2d6. If you roll under your Skill, you have damaged your foe (damage is variable depending on the weapon used). If you rolled equal to or over, you have missed. Then, every single one of your foes gets to return fire, each one rolling against their own Skill on 2d6, and hitting if they score under. All of this is repeated until one side is dead.

Stamina is recovered not by eating Provisions, but by taking Pep Pills. Each of these restores 5 Stamina, and you begin with four.

You also roll 1d6 to determine how many points you get to spend on weapons and armour, but I'll detail that below. Unlike most Fighting Fantasy adventures, you're limited to five inventory items, not including weapons and armour. The space assassin would not fare well in Deathtrap Dungeon - or any other Ian Livingstone book - is all I'm saying.

For my first attempt I rolled a Skill of 9, a Stamina of 18, a Luck of 7 and an Armour score of 12. None of those were particularly promising, except for Armour. I rolled a 6 for buying equipment as well, so despite some average physical qualities I was at least going to be decked out with a good arsenal.

You can buy an Electric Lash for 1 point, an Assault Blaster for 3, Grenades for 1 each, a Gravity Bomb for 3, and a point of Armour for 1/2 a point each. The only requirement is that you have to buy either the Electric Lash (which deals the standard 2 Stamina) or an Assault Rifle (which deals 1d6 damage). Grenades can only be used when the text says so, but they deal 1d6 damage to all foes present. The Gravity Bomb creates a mini black hole, and is used for blasting open doors and such.

I considered buying an Electric Lash and 10 points of Armour, just to go for maximum invulnerability, but instead I opted for a more attacking set of arms: an Assault Rifle and 3 grenades.

ATTEMPT 1

Having stowed away in the Vandervecken's supply shuttle, I travelled from the planet's surface up to the main ship. Before the shuttle could dock, I pulled open the escape hatch and was sucked out into the void toward my target: a small airlock in the side of Cyrus' ship. After anchoring myself with a magnetic clamp, I opened the airlock and entered.

Beyond the airlock was a short corridor, with an impassable security door at the end. Two small maintenance hatches were on either side of the door, both marked with the word CAUTION. There was also a small pile of refuse on the floor, which I investigated. It turned out to be the body of a small, hunch-backed alien, which had crawled from the right hatch trailing blood behind it. It was clutching a strange device in its hand.

The device was a black box with a red button, and wires connected to a power pack. It appeared to be incomplete, but I kept it anyway. Curious about what had happened to the alien, and lacking a Gravity Bomb to blast open the door, I opted to go down the right hatch.

It led into a long, dark access tunnel. I soon came to another hatch, with a muffled, gurgling voice behind it. Opting for stealth, I ignored the hatch and continued on. A few metres further on, I came to another hatch that was warm to the touch. The room beyond was full of heat conduits. Through the door beyond I could see two rat-like beings called Fossniks in lab coats lounging on couches and reading from electronic record sheets.

I burst into the room, demanding to know where I could find Cyrus. The Fossniks surrendered immediately, but they had no idea of his whereabouts. I stripped them and tied them up, taking an electronic door key. Rather than use it to open a security door leading from this room, I returned to the access tunnel.

The tunnel twisted and turned, until it came to a junction with passages heading left and right. There was also a door, marked with the following sign:

WARNING

EXTREME DANGER

ENTER ONLY WITH AUTHORITY

Still trying be stealthy and avoid danger, I took the right tunnel. It ended at another hatch, which opened into an octagonal room full of banks of circuitry. There was nothing in the room except for some graffiti, which read I hate Cyrus. Resisting the urge to write me too, I returned to the junction and took the left path.

Eventually the path ended in two hatches, one in front and one to the side. Opening the side passage, I found a cluttered room, with a dejected man slumped on a bunk.

I tried to befriend him, and at first he was upset at my presence, but eventually I was able to calm him down. He explained that he was the technician responsible for maintaining the ship's robots. The robot piloting the Vandervecken had apparently developed a personality and stopped taking orders from Cyrus, believing him to be insane. Cyrus had ordered the robot be shut down, but the technician believes that it would be murder. After our chat he gave me an electronic door key, and I left through the other door.

Beyond was a well-lit corridor, and eventually I came to a door to the left. I opened the door, and found a room full of robots in various states of disrepair. Assuming they were inoperative, I entered. The only thing I found within was an android head, which insisted on repeatedly offering me a wide range of exotic alien cocktails. I threw the head away and left. (The only reason I didn't take it was that it would have used up two of my inventory slots. Not that it seemed very useful, but you never know.)

Further along the corridor was another door to the left. It opened into a room filled with rows of pressure suits. As soon as I entered, a black disk cut through the air towards me, slicing off one my helmet antennae. It buzzed back around for another attack, and I was forced to fight it.

The Razor Disk (Skill 9, Stamina 1) came at me, but I was able to blow it out of the air with a single shot. (I'm not entirely sure whether this should have been melee or ranged combat. The Disk has no ranged attacks, but the description says that I fired at it. I played it as ranged combat, but it's a little ambiguous.)  I didn't bother with the pressure suits, as I was already wearing one, but at the back of the room I found some battle armour. Putting it on, I found that it was stronger than my current armour, but also bulkier. (It increased my Armour to 14, but reduced my Skill to 8.)

The corridor came to a sharp turn, opening into a circular chamber guarded by eight Portabot Pillboxes. The robots opened fire, and I took cover. Not really wanting to deal with such a large number of foes, I lobbed a grenade into the room and destroyed them all at once. (This left me with two grenades remaining.)

There were two doors leading from the room, one of which had two levers protruding from it. It wouldn't open with my electronic key, so I pulled both levers at once.

Without warning the floor dropped away, and I was sliding down a chute. Weirdly, I found myself ejected over a donut-shaped planet, plummeting down towards the surface. Just before impact, my descent slowed, and I landed safely on a grass-covered plane.

To the west and south I could see a forest, and to the east some rocky hills. I made for the hills. A search of the hills revealed a dark cave, but I decided against exploring, and headed south. After some wandering around the plains I came to a chasm, and found some stairs cut into the side that lead downwards. I was able to traverse the stairs safely (rolling under my Stamina on 3 dice), and make it to the bottom. After a few kilometres, I came to a wide, still lake. With few other options, and no risk of drowning in my spacesuit, I dove in.

Below I could see something glinting, and when I investigated I found a small submarine. Before I could enter, however, something grabbed me by the leg, and I found myself face-to-face with a huge octopoid creature.

Having no knowledge of mollusc nervous systems (which apparently would have helped me here), I was forced to fight the Bivalve (Skill 9, Stamina 8) in hand-to-hand combat. It was a tough battle, and the creature struck me six times (reducing my Stamina to 6) before I was able to kill it. But with the Bivalve dead I was able to enter the sub, and pilot it through a tunnel in the lake-bed. I took a Pep Pill, and also got some rest during the journey (restoring my Stamina to 15).

The sub emerged in a room that looked strangely like the interior of the Vandervecken. A door leading out of the room opened onto a path suspended high over a distant countryside. I nervously took the path, which came to a T-junction where I went right. The path ended at a large aluminium cube, floating in mid-air. There was a door in the cube, which I entered. Inside was a room lined with cryogenic sleep capsules, two of which were occupied.

Deciding that it might interesting to revive one of the occupants, I decided to revive the one that had a slightly higher metabolic rate. After a few moments the capsule opened, and a human emerged. We chatted pleasantly at first, but as soon as I became distracted, he transformed into a hideous creature and struck, damaging my armour (reducing my Armour score to 13).

I was in hand-to-hand battle with a Tharn Doppleganger (Skill 8, Stamina 6), which managed to strike me three times before I was able to kill it (reducing my Stamina to 9). Taking a gamble I also revived the occupant of the other capsule. The capsule opened, to reveal a giant spider.

Rather than attack instinctively, I tried to communicate by making insect noises and waving my arms. The spider replied in perfect English (or whatever language we're speaking), telling me that it was captured by Cyrus for his experiments. It rewarded me with a sachet of 'Anti-Mollusc Formula 4', and I went on my way.

Returning to the walkway high over the countryside, I took the left path, which came to yet another T-junction. The right path ended at another aluminium cube, which also had a door in it. Next to the door was a rapid transit commuter, but that only led back the way I came so I went through the door.

Inside was a biological laboratory, full of jars with preserved organs from Cyrus's experiments. An unconscious man with tentacles instead of arms was strapped down to an operating table.

I approached the man, and his eyes fluttered open. He asked me who I was, and I told the truth: that I was an assassin sent to kill Cyrus. This made the man happy enough that he started to cry, and before he lapsed back into unconsciousness he whispered that I should "take the middle, always the middle". I wasn't sure how much advice I should take from a dude who had obviously not fared well in the past, but it wasn't like I had much else to go on. I left the cube and rode the commuter back to the last junction where I turned left.

The path ended at a door in a huge curved wall, which I entered. Inside were two black-clad guards, engrossed in a game of zero-g fangball that was playing on multiple security screens. (See the cover, I guess.) Upon noticing me, they leaped to their feet and demanded my identity.

I tried to bluff my way past, but the guards weren't having it, so instead I lobbed a grenade that killed them both. (The grenade had a -1 penalty to damage due to a console they ducked behind, but I still rolled well enough to do them both in.) A security door and sliding door led from the room, and I quickly went through the security door.

The door opened into a circular room, mostly taken up by a deep, still pool. A walkway circled the edge of the room, and a bridge stretched right across the middle.

Remembering the tentacle-man's advice, I walked across the bridge, and reached the other side safely. The next chamber was guarded by a brutish alien wearing heavy armour and aiming a disintegrator in my direction. He told me that I could pass if I was intelligent enough to answer his question.

I opted for the question, which went as follows: "What is the next letter in the following sequence: O T T F F S S E?" The answer was obviously N, and once I gave this correct answer the alien let me past. (This is a puzzle I've encountered enough times in my life that I can always recognise it. In this case the sequence is numbers starting from one, but I've also seen the same puzzle using the days of the week. I'm sure there are other variants. It's about the right difficulty of puzzle for an FF, I feel, although who knows why this guy is here asking riddles instead of killing intruders with his disintegrator.)

With a choice of three doors, I chose the one in the centre, once more heeding Ol' Tentacly's advice. The next room was filled with floating circles of blackness, about seventy in all, that drifted aimlessly.

Heedless of the danger I walked right through the middle, and the spheres parted to let me through. My old mate Johnny Tenta-Fingers had come through once again.

I was in a hall, lined with pedestals featuring a weird collection of simulated life-forms, such as aluminium birds and tungsten turtles. As I approached, the first pair swiveled to face me and asked the following riddle: "The moon is red, the sky is pink. Which is faster, light or time?" Reasoning that time really doesn't have any speed, I answered light, but apparently I was wrong. Each of the simulacrums sprouted a laser and started firing at me.

The battle started too quickly for me to throw a grenade, so I had to shoot it out. I did well at first, blowing away two of the simulacrums as my armour absorbed their fire. But eventually they wore me down, chipping through my armour until I was taking actual damage. I wasn't able to destroy more than two, and the remaining four blasted me to atoms.

THE POST-GAME
Before I dissect where I went wrong, I have to say that it was really hard to remember what I'd done when it came time to write up this post. There are a lot of nondescript tunnels and hatches in the Vandervecken, and a few days was more than enough to wipe my memory clean of the various twists and turns my path took. Next time I'll have to keep a closer track while I'm playing.

As for where I went wrong, I really think it came down to that last puzzle. Before that I was travelling well, with good Armour and Stamina scores, and unless I'd missed some vital clue or item I feel like I was on the right track. I'm not even sure that riddle makes sense, but at least I know the answer for next time (assuming that there is a correct answer). And given that I was in the midst of a "riddle gauntlet", with no junctions or turn-offs, I'm pretty sure I was close to meeting Cyrus. I knows an end-game when I sees one. I'll be fairly surprised if I'm not able to knock out this book in the next post.

Talisman of Death: Final Thoughts

Talisman of Death is a book that never quite fit. The Fighting Fantasy series covered a fair number of genres in its day, from sci-fi to horror to post-apocalypse to super-heroes, but medieval fantasy was always its bread and butter. Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone set the tone for FF's take on that genre, and established the setting of Allansia as a place where those adventures could take place. Sure, Scorpion Swamp wasn't explicitly set there, but it felt like it could have been. Talisman of Death is another story altogether.

Written by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson, Talisman of Death takes place on the world of Orb, and has a distinctly different vibe than the FF books that came before it. Everything is a little weirder, and a little more tinged with horror. There are dark forces pursuing you at every turn, and a feeling of menace hangs over you as you try to escape with the talisman. Religious cults are everywhere, and everyone you meet has their own agenda. It feels like a cohesive, lived-in world, in a way that Allansia never did. With such a distinct setting and flavour, Talisman of Death never felt like it belonged in the series.

I should mention at this point that the world of Orb also featured in the Way of the Tiger series, and that characters like the rogue Tyutchev have appeared in other works by Smith and Thomson. I can't find anything now, but I'm sure I've read somewhere that this book draws heavily on the pair's home Dungeons & Dragons campaign. If that's true, it shows. A bunch of the monsters are direct from D&D, and many of the abilities used by characters (such as Hawkana's obvious flame strike spell) work much the same as they would have in the tabletop game. This possibly explains why Orb feels like such a rich, detailed place: it was constantly developed over the course of years and countless games of D&D. It's not surprise that Smith and Thomson would draw from that material when tasked with writing a book for the series.

A rich setting is worthless in a game when you have nothing to do, though. Talisman of Death doesn't fall into that trap. There is a lot of content in this adventure, from the Rift, the journey to Greyguilds, and the myriad streets of Greyguilds itself. This is where the book really comes alive, and although it becomes quite linear there are numerous interesting paths that weave through that plotline. It perhaps falls down at the end, with a dinosaur-filled plateau that seemingly comes out of nowhere and an unexplained dungeon that just happens to have the one weapon you need to defeat the big bad, but overall it's a satisfying blend of gameplay and story, with a setting more complex than FF had ever seen before.

I've been saying nothing but positive things here, but for all that this is obviously a rather good gamebook, it's never been one of my favourites. Part of that has to do with it not being a part of Allansia or Titan, and the out-of-place feeling the book has because of that. I'm sure that the distinct and weird tone also contributes to my apathy, as when I was younger I was looking for baseline D&D in my fantasy for the most part. Perhaps it's just that the book is a little too easy. More likely it's a combination of all of these things. Regardless, it's a good gamebook but a good gamebook that never really captured my imagination or lived in my memory.

COOL STUFF I MISSED

I covered most of the major encounters in this book, although there were a lot of shops I missed in Greyguilds, and an escape from the city through its graveyard. Probably the most important thing I missed is on the southern path away from Greyguilds, where Hawkana's spirit returns and tries to drag you into the Valley of Death.

MISTAKES AND RED HERRINGS

There are no obvious mistakes in the book, although I there is one paragraph where a monk might steal Hawkana's Ring from you when you don't have it. There's nothing mechanically broken about this adventure, though.

As for red herrings, there aren't any. Every single inventory item you can obtain serves some sort of purpose, even if it's just a stat boost.

BEST DEATH

Before I make a choice here, the question should be asked: what constitutes an "instant death" in this book? Most of the deaths allow you to be resurrected and continue your adventure, and only a handful are truly the end. Even so, I'm counting all of them, even the ones that you can come back from. A death is a death, whether or not the Gods reverse it.

That said, there are 35 instant death paragraphs in Talisman of Death, so I had a lot to choose from. It could have been the one where a dragon bites your head off and throws your body down the mountainside, or the one where a harpoon trap spills your entrails into the sewer, or even the one where Tyutchev, Cassandra and Thaum kill you all at once. In the end, I went with this one:

For once, mythic power wins out over comedic gore.

S.T.A.M.I.N.A. RATING

Story & Setting: The story is a basic one: you need to dispose of a powerful evil artifact, while evil forces are chasing you down. Laid out like that, it obviously owes a lot to Lord of the Rings. It even has wraiths! The setting is where it comes alive, though, especially the city of Greyguilds with its warring religious sects, factions and cults. Every reference and every encounter feels like there's more to be told, and that's a definite improvement on the Jackson/Livingstone model where you get attacked by monsters that often feel like little more than numbers on a page. Rating: 6 out of 7.

Toughness: This book isn't all that difficult, despite a couple of unavoidable encounters with Skill 12 enemies. A large part of this comes down to the option of having your character raised from the dead; I finished this book in 3 attempts, but it really should have been 5. The path to victory is very wide, as you can go almost anywhere and still hope to succeed. The fights with Hawkana and the dragon can be tough, but there are ways to make both fights easier (and a number of Skill boosts if you allow magic items to take you over your initial score). Rating: 3 out of 7.

Aesthetics: The writing is atmospheric, and it's rare that a paragraph feels too perfunctory. Adding to the doom-laden vibe is the art of Bob Harvey, who really excels when asked to draw horrific undead and creepy monsters. He perhaps falls down a little with the dinosaurs and the dragon, and his big-nosed dark elves are very weird for a veteran of the Drizzt era of D&D, but when Harvey is on point he is really on point. I never think of him when I'm naming the best FF artists, but he deserves at the very least to be in the conversation. Add to that one of the very best covers in the series, and it's a great-looking package. Rating: 6 out of 7.

Mechanics: This book uses the standard FF rules, and uses them well. The only new thing it does is allowing the hero to be resurrected, by rolling back time to an earlier point in the story. It can save some time to roll up a new character, I guess, and it's especially nice once you've escaped from Greyguilds to not have to go back to the start, but mechanically speaking it's executed fairly basically. Rating: 4 out of 7.

Innovation & Influence: It's not that innovative, with the aforementioned resurrection being the main thing it adds outside of standard FF. It should be recognised for being the first appearance in print of Orb, however, as that setting goes on to feature in one of the most successful gamebook series of the 1980s. Rating: 3 out of 7.

NPCs & Monsters: The monster variety here is good, especially when the book veers away from D&D tropes and does its own thing. It's especially good at making these encounters feel like they matter, that they are part of a wider story and world. Where the book especially excels, though, is with the characters that appear. Hawkana, Tyutchev, and the many others that pop up throughout the adventure are well-realised and fleshed out. There's no-one here as iconic as a Balthus Dire or a Zanbar Bone, but to be honest the characters that appear here have more depth than those classics, or at least they seem to. Rating: 5 out of 7.

Amusement: Despite the many good things I have to say about this book, it just doesn't grab me. I like it well enough, but it doesn't present the kind of challenge that I like in an FF gamebook. It's very forgiving with the paths you choose, whereas I prefer to have to search for a specific path to victory. You don't have to amass an unlikely inventory that is vital to your success, or learn any passwords, or really do anything. You just keep moving towards your goal, and as long as you don't do anything too stupid you'll probably make it through. It's a good gamebook, like I said, but it doesn't scratch my particular itches. Rating: 3 out of 7.

No bonus point for Talisman of Death. The above scores total 30, which doubled gives a Final Rating of 60 out of 100. That puts it on a par with Forest of Doom, which is similarly forgettable, although vastly more flawed mechanically than Talisman. I guess sometimes nostalgia wins out.

Next week, I have a choice between tackling Space Assassin or the mammoth that is The Crown of Kings. Long ago I made the foolish choice to try to tackle the Sorcery! series as one huge gamebook, so Crown of Kings is looking really daunting right now; one failure, and I'm all the way back to The Shamutanti Hills. So, I'm postponing that nightmare scenario, and starting with Space Assassin, which I've played but have almost no memory of. The sci-fi books have never really been my bag, but I'm hoping this one proves me wrong.

Talisman of Death - Attempt 3, part 2

At the end of my last post I had failed to complete Talisman of Death, having been crispy fried by a dragon right at the cusp of victory. Death is not necessarily the end in this book, however, as the Gods will give you another chance if you wish to try again. With a Skill of 12, I decided to take that offer. Refusing would have meant going right back to the start, and most probably rolling up a weaker character. By taking the Gods up on there offer, I get to keep my Skill score and skip a large portion of the adventure. It's a good deal.

As a reminder, I had the following initial stats: a Skill of 12, a Stamina of 20, and a Luck of 9. The Gods had restored me with 15 Stamina, and my Luck was currently at 8. I was carrying a sword, leather armour, a backpack, flint & tinder, five torches, a golden apple, chainmail armour, a ring of skill, 15 gold pieces, and 5 provisions.

I was also in possession of the Talisman of Death, which I was trying to take away from the world of Orb by entering a portal to my home-world of Earth. The aforementioned Dragon was the guardian of said portal, so I was going to have to find a way to defeat it. Nothing obvious had presented itself in my last attempt, and the final encounter was an instant death that gave me no chance to avoid being killed. Whatever the solution is, I have no clue. I'll just have to try a different path and hope for the best.

* * *

I woke up from my demise outside of Greyguilds, and promptly set off towards Mount Star-Reach. After a night's sleep in a hay-rick (restoring my Stamina to 17) I was faced with three paths: south-east across the moors; south along an old trade road; or east towards some hills. Recalling that my path east had led to a disastrous flight on Griffin-back, I decided to head directly for my goal across the moors.

The Talisman grew heavier with every step, and I was glad when I was able to make camp for the night. Rest was not to come, though, as I was awakened by the wild neighing of a black horse, bearing a spectral rider.

I lit one of my torches and stood my ground. The Wraith reined in its hell-steed, warned me that he would return with reinforcements, and rode away. My sleep was troubled for the rest of the night (and my Stamina was only restored to 18).

The Talisman grew even heavier the next day, so I took it out to examine it. Upon the Talisman was a glowing inscription: "I am Death's Talisman. I am protected by the Faceless Ones who serve my wielder." When night fell, I built a large fire, ringed my camp with lit torches, and waited. Six mounted Wraiths appeared, demanding the Talisman. Rather than give it up, I held it aloft and tried to use its power to banish the creatures. The Wraiths were dispersed, and I was finally able to sleep easily (restoring my Stamina to 20).

I arrived at the plateau at the base of Mount Star-Reach, and climbed some steps carved into the rock. Some way up I came to a waterfall, and decided to investigate. Behind the waterfall was a cave entrance, and I decided to enter.

At the back of the cave was a door, with a frieze depicting a red dragon and an ivory spear. The door opened easily, and I soon came to a junction with three paths onward. I chose the left-hand path, which soon turned right and came to a chamber with a rectangular pillar. An inscription on the pillar read as follow: "Put yourself in the place of the monkey. To the left is danger; the idle shall act."

As I was reading, a trickle of sand alerted me to the imminent collapse of the roof above. A slab of rock was closing off the far exit, but I was able to hurl myself through the narrowing gap just in time (with a successful Skill check).

The tunnel beyond led to an iron door, with a message painted in shimmering letters: "One only can be read". Through the door was a chamber with three pillars, and three more doors leading onward. One pillar was rectangular, one was square, and one was circular. I approached the square pillar and read the message inscribed on it: "Furthest from the poison of the scarab beetle, You will find a venom more deadly than dragon fire". The pillars disappeared.

Only one of the doors opened, so I went through it into a wide hall. In the middle of the hall was a hideous idol.

On the opposite wall were four doors, each with a symbol: a serpent door, a monkey door, a scarab beetle door, and a dragon door. Based on the clues I had found, I figured that the serpent door would be deadly: it was left of the monkey door, and also furthest from the scarab door. The scarab had also been described as poison, so I ruled it out as well. That left the dragon and the monkey doors, and I chose the monkey.

There was nothing beyond but a blank wall, so I went to the dragon door. No sooner had I entered than a portcullis crashed down behind me, sealing the exit. The passage led to a dank crypt, where I found a sarcophagus with a mummified warrior inside. Clutched in the warrior's grasp were a sword and a spear. I decided to take the spear. It was well made, and I saw the word 'Dragonsbane' carved on the shaft.

Before I could leave, the dead warrior shambled to its feet, and I was being attacked by a Mummy (Skill 8, Stamina 10). It struck me one blow (reducing my Stamina to 17), but with my spear I was able to make short work of it. At the base of the sarcophagus I found a secret tunnel, and followed a winding path that led back to the top of the waterfall.

I continued climbing the steps, but as I neared the top several boulders came crashing down. I was able to dodge them (with a successful Skill check), and when I finally reached the top of the plateau I found the culprits: a group of Hogmen! I tried to show them that I meant no harm, and when they gave no reaction I offered them some dried meat. The Hogmen took the meat (leaving me with 4 provisions), but it turned out that I had given them salted pork, and they were highly offended. They demanded that I go with them, and I decided not to resist.

They took me to their village, a collection of huts and a two-storey building of stone. Sitting on a throne nearby was the chief of the Hogmen.

He demanded to know my reason for being on the plateau. I told him that I was searching for the portal on Mount Star-Reach, and the head-hog said that he would help me, as they were eager to be rid of the portal's dragon guardian. Apparently the only way to survive the dragon's fire was with a shield made from its own scales, so the Hogmen gave me the gum of an amber pine that I could use to bind them together. After a meal of nuts and fruit (restoring my Stamina to 19) I took my leave and entered the dragon's lair.

Aided by memories of my last foray into this place, I chose to take a narrow side tunnel rather than the main tunnel. It led around the side of the dragon, and I was able to grab some of its scales. Ignoring the dragon's treasure, I high-tailed it back outside, where I was able to use the gum that the Hogmen had given me to fashion a dragon-scale shield.

Once again I reached the top of Mount Star-Reach, and stood before the portal leading back to Earth. Alas, once again the dragon swooped down to confront me.

I tried to explain that the God of Death was a threat to the world, but the dragon was uninterested, claiming to be above death. I told it about the Talisman, and for some reason that shook the Dragon more. It said that weapons could not be taken through the portal, and that I would have to discard all my arms and armour before stepping through.

I was no fool, and I told the dragon as much. Still, it insisted, and its persuasive voice almost convinced me (I was able to make a successful Luck test to avoid being charmed, leaving my Luck score at 7). It was time for battle.

The dragon breathed, but I was able to survive the blaze behind my shield. It tried to swipe the shield away from me with a claw, but I was too swift, and retaliated with my spear. The dragon (Skill 12, Stamina 20) was tough, and dealt me many grievous wounds (reducing my Stamina all the way to 9). But the spear was a mighty weapon, and with only three strikes I was able to beat the creature into submission. (The spear deals 5 points of damage per hit, meaning that I only had to win three Attack Rounds before it surrendered.)

Before I could kill the dragon, its form changed to that of an old man. The old man explained that he had been cursed into the form of a dragon upon entering the portal, but that now he was free, and small enough to return to his home-world. I didn't trust him, and besides, one dead old man was small potatoes next to getting rid of the Talisman. I stabbed the old man with my spear, and instantly he transformed back into a dragon, showing his true form.

I stepped through the portal, and found myself in a ring of standing stones on Earth. The two gods who had summoned me - Fate and Time - gave me their thanks. I had taken the Talisman from Orb, and become the savior of that world! Never mind that the portal was there, and servants of Death would be able to come through whenever they liked. Everything was completely fine, and nothing could possibly go wrong.

THE POST-GAME

That wasn't too hard! All I had to do was take a more direct path to my goal and everything I needed was pretty much given to me. Most of the time this book is very forgiving, and takes great pains to ensure that its various paths all lead to victory. It's weird that one of the three choices after Greyguilds leads to certain death; it's essentially a "walking dead" scenario, where you have to play through a bunch of tough fights only to find that you had no hope of winning. A lot of other books do it as well, but it feels out of whack with the rest of Talisman of Death.

The next post will give my final thoughts on the book. I won't be doing an Exploring Titan-style post for this one, mostly because it's not set on Titan but also because it's so richly detailed that such a post would take forever. So there's one post to go, and then it's on to the majesty that is Space Assassin.