Sorcery! Attempt 10 - Book 4: The Crown of Kings

And so at last, I have come to the final book of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! epic. I've only played through this book once, and that was about 15 years ago, so my memories are very hazy. I remember it being pretty difficult, which is not at all encouraging.

While I'm on the subject of hazy memories, here's my last post on The Seven Serpents, the third Sorcery! book. I posted about it all the way back in September 2016, almost three whole years ago, and it's safe to say that I remembered very little about the status of my character. Before I could begin my epic quest to retrieve the Crown of Kings, I had to undertake another epic quest to find the exercise book containing my old Adventure Sheet. Luckily for me it was right on top of my pile of old notebooks, and I was able to get going without too much of a hassle.  Here's what my guy looks like currently:

SKILL: 7
STAMINA 22
LUCK: 11

GOLD PIECES: 1
PROVISIONS: 0

CLUES: Beware Mucalytic Breath

EQUIPMENT: Sword (-1 AS), Large Backpack, Broadsword (+1 AS), Bamboo Pipe, Silver Key '111', Armband of Swordmastery (+2 AS), Skullcap, Green Wig, Lucky Talisman (no Luck lost when unlucky), Serpent Ring '130', Galehorn, Hewing Axe (-2 AS), Orb (Skill roll to hit before combat, breaks on an odd number), Pearl Ring (worth 10gp), Snake-Bite Antidote, Sham's Vial, Serpent Staff (-2 Skill for Serpents), Whistle '199', Lycky Charm (restores Luck)

All of my stats were at maximum, because I had prayed to Libra at the end of Book 3. A look at my last post showed that I had defeated four out of seven Serpents. All told, my guy was doing pretty well. The lack of gold and food was worrying, but perhaps not so bad now that most of my journey was done.

I considered giving myself a refresher on the spells, since it's been such a long gap between books, but in the interests of adhering to the rules I decided not to. If I was going to defeat the Archmage of Mampang and win back the Crown of Kings, I was going to do it completely by the rules.

ATTEMPT 10 CONTINUES!

I was at the base of the Zanzunu Peaks, loking up at my goal: the mist-shrouded Mampang Fortress. I figured that the journey would take about a day, but it was already evening so I set off up the trail looking for a place to take shelter from an imminent storm.  Soon enough, I came to three caverns.

I chose to enter the nearest cave, because it was smaller than the rest and I figured that any monster living inside would also have to be small. As I poked my head in, I was startled by a demonic howling from deep within. I soon got over my shock, and steeled my nerves to go inside.

I entered a larger cavern with my sword at the ready, but what awaited me was not a fierce demon, but a Jib-Jib, a small furry creature that defended itself from predators with its terrible voice. I watched in amusement as the harmless creature scurried away.

With the Jib-Jib gone I searched the shadowy recesses of the cave, and found an old bottle with a parchment inside. I couldn't read it, but I put it in my pack in case I met somebody later who might be able to do so. (I was told to subtract 20 from my current paragraph immediately upon meeting someone who might be able to help me with the parchment.)

The cave was definitely safe, so I settled down to sleep without a meal. I woke up hungry (reducing my Stamina to 19) and set off once again.

Further up the mountains, the trail split in two. To the right it continued climbing, but to the left it led to a gorge with a swaying bridge. Figuring that nobody builds a bridge in the mountains for no reason, I chose the left path, The bridge was tricky to cross, but I managed it safely (with a Luck test that reduced my score to 10).

Further along, I saw the nest of some creature in the crags overlooking the path. I climbed up for a look, and decided to ignore my fears about the inhabitants of the nest to look for treasure. Something glinting took my eye, and I retrieved a gold-backed mirror. But while I was stowing it away, some Birdmen swooped down. One of the grabbed me by the shoulder with its sharp talons, and flew me into the sky. Then it let go, and I was dashed to my death on the rocks below. My adventure was over - very quickly!

THE POST-GAME

After a three-year hiatus, I hilariously died in about five minutes. I'm pretty sure I spent more time looking for my old notes and writing my Adventure Sheet than I spent playing. Ah well, Steve did try to warn me that I should be focused on my mission rather than looking for treasure. Actually, I was hoping for some eggs so I could have more provisions. I'm not particularly looking forward to going back to the start, but perhaps it's for the best. I'd like another crack at defeating all the serpents in the previous book.

Space Assassin: Final Thoughts

Reading some quotes from Andrew Chapman, I was struck by the revelation that he wrote Space Assassin after reading The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, having read no other books in the series. A lot of things about the book clicked into place after that, because in many ways it's just Warlock in space.

Oh, there are other influences for sure. I'd be shocked if Chapman had never played Metamorphosis Alpha, or its successor Gamma World. But the premise of Space Assassin and Warlock are near-identical - navigate a series of dangerous tunnels and rooms to defeat the evil wizard/scientist - and they both feel similarly disjointed in their encounter design.

They also share a similar difficulty level. Even with low stats, you're likely to win through to the end in both books, with little trouble. If anything, Space Assassin is even more open-ended than Warlock: without the need to collect keys, you're free to explore anywhere in the Vandervecken, and you can still beat the book.

One of the places where Warlock wins out though, is the writing. Space Assassin can be shockingly terse, and nowhere is this more apparent than its execrable final section: "You drag the unconscious Cyrus from the Waldo. Your mission is a complete success. Congratulations." Not even an exclamation point! There are just too many places where Space Assassin gives the bare minimum of description. This is a shame, because there are moments of genuine character and humour in the book, hints of weirdness and absurdity. I'd like to have seen Chapman lean into that tone a little more. As it is though, it's too terse too often, and it hurts it as a reading experience.

As a game, however, there's a lot to like. It's quite a well-designed adaptation of the Fighting Fantasy rules, and completing it should be possible with minimum scores. It might be a touch too easy if you roll a really high Skill, but that's probably better than the standard FF design philosophy. Ten-year-old me hated books where the enemies were too easy to defeat, but 40-year-old me ain't complaining.

Also like Warlock, this book sometimes can give the sense that it's nothing but a series of passages, junctions and side doors. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but this made it really hard for me to remember where I'd explored while trying to write up the adventure. That's not to say there aren't interesting encounters: there are quite a number that tickled me, especially the philosophical robot pilot. There are a lot of interchangeable passageways though, and too many encounters with hostile, boring guard robots.

I'm in two minds with Space Assassin. While I often find it to be shallow and disjointed, there are other moments where it shows wit and inventiveness, and a gleefully pulpy tone. Based on my play-throughs I would have scored it quite low, but a thorough exploration of every path revealed a number of encounters I'd missed that were a lot of fun. It's never going to be one of my favourites, but I'm leaving Space Assassin with somewhat fond feelings. Perhaps it's just charmingly bad?

COOL STUFF I MISSED

With most of the other books I've finished on this blog, I feel like I covered most of the cool stuff during play. Going over Space Assassin, I discovered a lot of things that I was sorry I missed. The most obvious of these is a tank battle mini-game, complete with map and score-sheet at the back of the book. It's fun, and in all the times I've played through this book over the decades I've never found it. There are a bunch of encounters on that odd donut-world that I missed, particularly an alien village. Finding that village allows the player to assemble the Pan-Dimensional Homing Device, a weird and wonderfully absurd object that gave me a few chuckles.

MISTAKES AND RED HERRINGS

I caught no major mistakes, and the vast majority of the items that can be found come in handy somewhere. The only thing I pocketed that I never found a use for was a cassette, which now that I think of it seems rather apt.

BEST DEATH

Space Assassin has 18 instant death paragraphs, but as with much of the writing in the book they tend to be a little terse. In the end there was a clear winner:

Look, if you make me laugh you're going to win, and causing an alien tribal chief to spray himself in the face with nerve gas is never not going to be funny. You know, as long as it's fictional. I'm not a monster or anything.

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

Story & Setting: The giant spacecraft Vandervecken, full of labs and weird mutations, is a potentially great setting, but the writing fails to make it come alive. With an incredibly basic plot, and perhaps the worst victory passage in the entire series, I have to mark this low. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Toughness: Statistically this book is well-designed, and should be beatable by characters with minimum scores. It's also very open-ended; there are no items or special passwords or anything needed to get to the end, so you can beat it on pretty much every path. For my tastes, though, it's a little too easy, so I have to ding it a little. Rating: 4 out of 7.

Aesthetics: The cover by Chris Achilleos is a belter, and if we were just talking about that the marks would be high. Geoff Senior is one of my favourite under-rated comic artists, but this is early work from him, and I probably wouldn't recognise it if his name wasn't in the credits. It's good, but it's a little lacking in personality. The writing is what really lets it down, failing to create much of an atmosphere or a sense of place. Rating: 3 out of 7.

Mechanics: Aside from the standard solid FF ruleset, Chapman adds rules for firearms, grenades, and high-tech armour that are all pretty simple and workable. Add to that a very playable tank battle mini-game, and this book is pretty strong mechanically speaking. Rating: 5 out of 7.

Innovation: This isn't the first sci-fi book, nor is it the first dungeon-crawl, but it is the first FF to combine the two. Add in the new rules for gun battles, and we have a book that's just mildly innovative. Rating: 2 out of 7.

NPCs & Monsters: I'll just say it right out: this book has too many robots. Not many of the others monsters and characters you meet get fleshed out either, and as such they're not that memorable. Even Cyrus, the main villain of the book, remains a cipher. The sole exception is the robotic pilot of the Vandervecken, who I really wish was in the book a bit more. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a philosophical robot. He's not enough to knock the score up much, though. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Amusement: There's fun to be had in this book, but I just happened to miss most of it on the paths I took. Still, it does have too many passages and junctions, and too many meaningless robot fights. Rating: 3 out of 7.

No bonus point for Space Assassin. The scores above total 21, which doubled gives a Final Rating of 42. That puts it at 13th place out of 16 books, above Starship Traveller and below Island of the Lizard King. It's perhaps a little harsh for Starship Traveller, but ultimately I think Space Assassin has a bit more charm about it.

NEXT: Pray for me, as I tackle The Crown of Kings, the finale to the Sorcery! epic. I might be on this one for a good long while, because I made the dumb decision to play the series as one long adventure. So chances are I'll have a quick death in Book 4 and get sent all the way back to Book 1. I really am stupid sometimes.

Space Assassin - Attempt 3

Last time around, I came as close as I possibly could to beating Space Assassin without actually beating Space Assassin. Literally, I could see the magic phrase "turn to 400" right there under Cyrus' Skill and Stamina scores. Consequently, I am very confident about this, which I guess is in character for a professional assassin. I suppose I'm getting a bit method with my gamebooks here.

Anyway, I rolled a Skill of 8, a Stamina of 19, a Luck of 10, and an Armour of 8. I gotta say, my confidence is wavering a little bit. Cyrus killed me last time because I had a Skill of 7, and my current score isn't much better. This could be very touch-and-go. (And seriously, on the whole planet they couldn't find anyone better to do the job? Skill 8 is the best they could muster? Maybe they deserve to have Cyrus drop a gene-bomb on them.)

I rolled a 6 for credits to spend on weapons. I ended up going for an Electric Lash, a Gravity Bomb, one grenade, and an extra 2 points of Armour. The Electric Lash is a pretty weak weapon, but I should be able to find an Assault Blaster pretty early on.

It should be noted that I'm glossing over a lot of this adventure, because I've covered it before. If you want more details, check out the earlier posts.

Okay, well-armed and perhaps not entirely well-trained, I'm ready to board the Vandervecken and kill me a mad scientist.

ATTEMPT 3

Having boarded the Vandervecken, I used my gravity bomb to blow up the door right ahead of me. The door was vaporised in a perfect circle, and standing on the other side was a faceless guard robot with an assault blaster levelled in my direction.

The Guard Robot (Skill 5, Stamina 5) was better-armed than me, but for some reason kept on missing its shots. I eventually whittled it down, and took the Assault Blaster from its remains.

I was in a prison room, with two cells. I looked in the first cell and found an old man, who talked to me about the crazy robot pilot of the ship. I ignored the second cell and left the room through a maintenance hatch.

Further along I found another hatch, and upon entering found some rat-like scientists. I interrogated them, took their security key, and made my way through a security door into a long corridor.

Along the corridor I found a kitchen, which I looted for some high-energy bars. The corridor soon ended at a checkpoint, where a robot armed with twin electric lashes halted me. With no patience for such delays, I attacked it immediately. The robot retaliated fiercely, blasting away at my armour (reducing it to 7, and my Stamina to 17), but I was able to destroy it with two shots from my Assault Blaster.

Under the robot was a hatch with three buttons. I was able to press them in the correct sequence, and underneath I found another Gravity Bomb. Checking a side door, I was surprised by a Laser Globe, which darted out and zapped my Armour (reducing it to 6). I returned fire, and it exploded in one hit. Inside the room was a lab, where I found some nerve gas, three tablets and a dead crab. I ate a tablet (restoring my Stamina to 19), and took the remaining tablets and the nerve gas with me.

Further up the main tunnel I found a library, where I quickly read a microfilm about robotics. (I was a little surprised that there were real books in this library, but the existence of microfilm is really stretching things. It's hard enough here in 2019 to find a microfilm reader, let alone the far-flung future of Space Assassin.)

I ignored a room containing "cephalo squirrels", and soon found myself in front of a door with two buttons. With little other option, I pressed the button on the right and was pleased when the door slid open. I was less pleased when a trio of alien cleaners, armed with hydrovacs, charged to attack.

You might have thought I'd mow these guys down with my Assault Blaster, but for some reason I engaged them in hand-to-hand combat. The first cleaner struck me once before I broke his neck, and the third cleaner was able to land three hits on me. The second cleaner proved to be a real fighter, though, and hit me no less than four times before I could kill him. I was barely alive (with just 3 Stamina remaining), so I scoffed down my high-energy bars and one of my tablets (which brought my Stamina back to 13).

After a short time the corridor ended at an enormous tunnel extending to the left and right. Feeling exposed in such a large space, I clambered down through a maintenance hatch, and crawled along a long series of gloomy access tunnels. I found another hatch and opened it. Beyond was a small, hot, smelly room full of pipes and wiring. A tiny alien cowered in the corner, with one of its legs badly burned.. I spoke to it in a friendly manner, and it replied by warning me about "the nasty, nasty black blobs". Thus forewarned, I returned to the tunnel.

It continued for a very long time, until ending at another hatch. The room beyond was half taken up by a large pool, but I ignored it and left through the far door. This opened onto a walkway above a vast landscape far below. Going along the walkway I turned left, and left again, until I came to a guard post where two guards were watching zero-g fangball. I killed them both with nerve gas. Checking one exit I found a kitchen with coffee and some sandwiches, but I ignored those and left through the security door.

Beyond was a bridge over a pool, and past that was an alien who demanded that I answer a riddle to pass. His riddle was simple, and I answered it and left through the centre door behind him, where I confidently strode through a room full of floating black spheres. Finally I came to four pairs of pillars, each with a robot animal on top. The robots asked me questions as I passed through them, but I was able to answer all of them correctly, and leave through a door to the right.

I was suddenly attacked by a pair of Sentinel robots. The microfilm from the library would have helped me if I'd decided to fight them, but instead I got past them by climbing up and along the ceiling girders (this required two Luck tests, and reduced my score to 8).

I had finally made it to the bridge, where the robotic pilot tried to engage me in a philosophical discussion. I did my best not to answer, and eventually he grew bored with me and I was able to leave through a door with a crescent on it. (I ate the last of my tablets and a Pep Pill to bring my Stamina back up to 19.)

Inside I found an opulent room, and sitting in a chair reading was Cyrus. He was unprepared, and tried numerous ploys to distract me, but I kept on advancing, intent on my task. He fled down a chute, and I followed. Cyrus was waiting for in the hangar, now inside a powerful loading machine robot, and wielding an industrial laser.

The battle with Cyrus (Skill 9, Stamina  12) was a hard fought one. We traded hits early, but as the battle wore on his accuracy grew worse, while mine remained steady. At last, I destroyed the machine Cyrus was fighting in with my Assault Blaster, and dragged his unconscious body out of it. My mission was successful.

THE POST-GAME
Success! I nearly screwed it up by inadvertently finding a new path; those Cleaners really did a number on me. But in the end, with a copious amount of Stamina-boosting items, I was able to pull through. Sometimes, very rarely, being confident works out.

Next time I'll give my final thoughts on Space Assassin, and then it's back to the Sorcery! series for The Crown of Kings. Obviously there'll be no Exploring Titan post for the sci-fi books, so it'll be one more post and then back to some good old fantasy, Steve Jackson style.

Space Assassin - Attempt 2

This is an uncharacteristically quick turnaround for this blog, but it took me so long to get to writing the last post that I wanted to knock this one out as soon as I could. Bear with me here, I'm having a brief spurt of productivity. I'm sure it will wear off shortly.

Also contributing to my speediness is the feeling I had that I was nearing Space Assassin's conclusion. Nothing gets me motivated more than ticking something off of a spreadsheet, let me tell you.

Anyway, for my second attempt at Space Assassin I rolled some pretty abysmal stats: Skill 7, Stamina 16, Luck 12, and Armour 9. To top it off, I only rolled a 2 for points with which to buy weapons, so I was restricted to an electric lash and a single grenade. I wasn't liking my odds.

ATTEMPT 2

Having infiltrated the airlock of the Vandervecken I was faced with a choice of ways forward: a heavy security door and two maintenance hatches. There was also a dead alien on the ground, and I looted a strange, incomplete electronic device from its corpse.

I couldn't get through the security door without a gravity bomb, so I opened the left hatch. After some difficulty it came loose, dragging a mass of high-voltage wires with it. I was able to retreat in time to avoid the wires (by making a Luck test that reduced my score to 11). There was no way forward through here, so I had to open the right hatch.

Some way along the access tunnel beyond, I came to a door through which I could here some muffled gurgling. I opened the door and found myself in a small lock-up with two cells, guarded by a humanoid robot with an assault blaster. The robot hadn't noticed me, but I decided to get its attention and try to engage it in conversation. Its only response was a hail of blaster fire, which I was forced to return.

The Guard Robot (Skill 7, Stamina 6) proved to be a good shot, and it was only my armour that saved me from injury (my Armour score was reduced to 6) before I was able to destroy it. With the robot destroyed, I eagerly looted its assault blaster.

The gurgling sounds were coming from one of the cells, so I investigated. Inside was a battered old man, covered in scars and bandages. He was pleased that I was releasing him, and recounted his capture and torture by Cyrus. He also mentioned the strange pilot robot of the Vandervecken, recommending that if it ever asked me questions about thoughts or feelings, I should always answer that I don't know. (The books says nothing about where this old guy goes. He might wander off, he might just sit in his cell, who knows. He could have warned me about the next encounter at least.)

I checked the other cell, which appeared to be empty, but when I entered a small furry creature dropped on me and bit into my Armour (dropping my Armour score to 5). Afterwards it scuttled back up to the roof. (The book doesn't specify, but I imagine that I sent a hail of blaster fire up there with it.)

Further along the tunnel, I came to a side-door that was warm to the touch. Entering, I found a room full of heat conduits, and a lounge where some rat-like alien scientists called Fossniks were reading. I blew them away, took a security key from their smoking corpses, and used the key to leave the room.

The door opened into a long, well-lit corridor. I found a side-door further along and opened it, entering a kitchen. The food in the "meal-o-matics" was unpalatable, but I found a couple of high-energy bars that would restore my strength. (Eating them would restore 5 Stamina).

The corridor ended at a circular room, where a squat robot with a pair of electric lashes was blocking the way forward, squawking that this was an inspection point. I tried to bluff my way past by claiming to be a security guard. The robot checked in with "central", and I soon got my reply: more blaster fire! One of the shots hit me (reducing my Armour score to 4) and I was forced to retaliate.

I was able to destroy the Guard Robot (Skill 7, Stamina 6) with my assault blaster, but not before its twin lashes completely obliterated my armour (leaving me with an Armour score of 0, and a Stamina of 6). I ate my high-energy bars (restoring my Stamina to 11). Inspecting the remains of the robot, I found a floor safe beneath it. The safe had three buttons, blue, green and red.

My insatiable curiosity led me to start pushing buttons (i.e. the book gave me no other option), and I went with the combination of red, then green, then blue. The safe opened, and inside I found a gravity bomb, that would have detonated had I pressed the wrong button. I took the bomb and left. (There were no clues to this puzzle, so I just went with the order of the colours on an RGB monitor. It worked!)

There were two exits from this room, one in front and one to the side. The side door opened into a large laboratory, but before I could enter a tiny silver sphere dropped down and opened fire on me. (At this point I was told to lose 1 point of Armour, but my Armour was currently at 0. I decided to implement a house rule here, and had the Laser Globe hit me for a full 1d6 damage. I rolled a 4, and reduced my Stamina to 7.)

With a single return shot, I blew the Laser Globe (Skill 9, Stamina 1) into oblivion. The lab was for biological research, and inside I found a can of nerve gas, a packet with three tablets, and a huge, dead crab. Not wanting to overburden myself (and restricted by the book to only taking two items) I took the nerve gas and the tablets. I tried one of the tablets, and found that it was similar to my Pep Pills (restoring my Stamina to 12). I still had two left.

Leaving the inspection point along a corridor, I came to yet another side-door. Opening it, I found a library full of books of all kinds. I found three books of interest: one on the nervous systems of molluscs, one on neurotoxins, and one on robotics. I read the book about molluscs and continued on.

Further along I came to another side-door with the following sign:

CEPHALO SQUIRRELS

HANDLE WITH CARE

The room did indeed contain black-furred squirrels, trapped in a glass cage and screaming wildly. An open crate was nearby. I had a look inside, and saw some orangey-purple fruit. The squirrels were now watching me silently, and this was unnerving enough that I left the room, not wanting to deal with the fruit or the squirrels.

Further on the corridor was blocked by a wall with two buttons. With nowhere else to go, I pressed the left button. A trapdoor opened beneath my feet, and I found myself falling towards a strange donut-shaped planet.

I landed softly on the planet, in the middle of an open plain. I kept heading north, until I was in a patch of low red shrubs, with burnt patches on the ground. I brushed against one of the shrubs and it exploded in a fireball, damaging my space suit. (I should have lost 1 point of Armour, but my score there was still 0. House-ruling it again, I rolled 1d6 and scored a 2, reducing my Stamina to 10. I downed a Pep Pill, restoring my Stamina to 15,)

Further north I came to a chasm, and was able to scramble down some stairs to the bottom (by rolling less than my Stamina on 3 dice). A walk along the chasm floor led me to a lake, which I entered. I found a sub, but a huge octopus found me, and I had to fight it hand-to-hand.

The Bivalve (Skill 9, Stamina 8) was a mollusc, and my new-found knowledge of mollusc nervous systems gave me the ability to deal more damage on a successful hit (dealing 3 points instead of 2). The Bivalve struck me twice (reducing my Stamina to 11), but with my knowledge of 27 different martial arts I was able to defeat this house-sized octopus with my bare hands.

In the sub I was able to rest (restoring my Stamina to 15) as it went on autopilot. Eventually it emerged in a pool, still inside the Vandervecken. I exited the room onto a walkway over a plain far below. Turning right at a junction, I came to a floating aluminium cube. Inside the cube I found a bank of cryogenic tubes, and I awakened a spider-like being that was frozen within. The spider thanked me for saving it from Cyrus' experiments, and gave me some Anti-Mollusc Formula Four.

Heading back along the walkway, I ignored a left path and came to another aluminium cube. Inside I found another one of Cyrus' victims, a man on an operating table with tentacles for arms. I told him that I was a member of the Vandervecken's crew, and he lapsed back into unconsciousness without a word.

Heading back to left path, I eventually came to a guard post full of security screens, and two guards.  Not wanting to fight them, I instead filled the room with nerve gas and killed them both. With two exits from the room, I chose the security door.

It opened into a room with a pool, a walkway around the edge, and a bridge. I walked safely across using the bridge.

In the next room was a huge alien wielding a disintegrator. I answered his riddle correctly, and exited through the middle door behind him.

The next room was filled with floating black spheres, but I was able to pass through them simply by striding confidently down the centre of the room.

In the next room were eight simulated life forms on a row of pillars. The first pair asked me the following riddle: "The moon is red, the sky is pink. Which is faster, light or time?" I answered "time", and the simulacra let me past.

The second pair asked me the following: "Up is up and down is down. But do they really exist or are they ghosts?" I answered that they were not real (a total guess), and I was able to pass.

The next pair simply asked where I was going, and I replied that I was trying to find Cyrus. They let me pass.

The next pair flanked two doors. "The right door is the one you want," said the first. "Don't listen to him. He lies," said the second. "Only sometimes," replied the first. After some thought I went through the left door, and was engulfed in electric blue fire than almost killed me. (This fire deal three dice worth of damage, and left me with 6 Stamina. I took two tablets afterwards, and restored by Stamina to 16. I'm not sure why I got this puzzle wrong. So the first guy tells me to take the right door. The second guy tells me he lies. The first guy replies "only sometimes", but if that's a lie shouldn't it mean "always"? I guess there's no reason to believe either of them, to be honest. None of these simulacra puzzles make sense, they're just a series of 50/50 guesses.)

Taking the right door, I emerged into a long room guarded by two Sentinel robots that opened fire on me.

Rather than fight them head on, I decided to scramble up onto the ceiling girders and run over the top of them. They kept blasting at me, but under the cover of the girders (and with a successful Luck test that reduced my score to 10) I was able to make it to the end of the room. The robots were still firing, but I was able to drop down between them and dart through the door (with another Luck test that reduced my score to 9).

Soon I was in the ship's bridge. Standing before me, connected to the ship by a cord, was a magnificent humanoid robot. It was pleased to meet another person, and offered to chat with me.

I was happy to talk to the robot, who quickly got metaphysical, asking if either of us might be a figment of the other's imagination. I told him I had no idea. The robot persisted with this line of questioning, and I just as stubbornly kept on telling him that I had no idea. Eventually he decided that I was quite a boring person after all, and asked me to leave.

The bridge had three exits, one marked with a star, another marked with a crescent, and a third marked COMPUTER. I entered the computer room, and was surprised to find a room filled with white cabinets, disk drives and air conditioning, a very primitive system. Resisting the urge to wreak some havoc, I moved on.

The door opened into a spacious room furnished with rugs, chairs, and shelves of books. Sitting in one of the chairs was Cyrus!

He offered me a drink, but I ignored him and closed in. As I approached he wildly insisted that he was a compulsive gambler, and wanted a game of cards as a last request. I ignored this as well. Finally he grabbed a device from the table, telling me it would fire an armour-piercing dart that never missed. Again I ignored him, and he hurled the device at my head and ducked out through a secret passage.

I followed, sliding down a chute into a hangar. Cyrus was waiting, now in a mechanised suit called a Waldo, and wielding an industrial laser. I checked my pack for items to use against him, but I had nothing, so I had to engage him in battle.

Cyrus (Skill 9, Stamina 12) was a deadly opponent, and I was facing him with no armour at all. I was able to hit him once with my assault blaster, but in the end he was too much, and I died under fire from his industrial laser.

THE POST-GAME

Well, I was worried about those stats, and I should have been. I honestly didn't expect to get as far as I did, but the book is pretty generous with Stamina boosts. That low Armour score was the killer: once it gets low enough it's just a death spiral, until you have none left at all. At least now I know how to get to the end. I just need to roll decent enough stats, and I'll win for sure.