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.