Temple of Terror - Attempt 5

I'm a little late in getting this post up, as I've been sinking most of my time into the first Ultima (which I'm blogging my way through over at crpgadventures.blogspot.com).  I actually made this attempt at Temple of Terror right after Attempt 4, and I'd been hoping to write it up within a day or two.  Now I'll have to write this up from my fading memories, and hopefully that won't cause any omissions or errors

For this attempt, I rolled a Skill of 9, a Stamina of 20, and a Luck of 12.  That Skill didn't bode well for the inevitable fight against the Giant Sandworm, but with a high Luck score I had hopes that I'd be able to scrape through.  For my spells I chose Create Water, Open Door, Read Symbols, and Fire.

I think I've figured out the best path through the early stages of the book: take the boat to Port Blacksand, haggle the price down with the boat captain, kill the robbers in Port Blacksand (taking their silver buttons and brass telescope), fight the belligerent pirate in the bar (taking his pearl), eat as many provisions as necessary to be restored to initial Stamina, swim towards the warship after your pirate ship is sunk, and befriend the dwarves by correctly naming their king as Gillibran.

On the above path I took quite a pounding, being wounded four times by the robbers and three times by the pirates.  I also got glassed in the face by the pirate.  (At this point, I want to point out the fact that Ian Livingstone rewards you for being glassed and killing a pirate in a barfight, and penalises you a Luck point for being conciliatory and buying a round of beers to avoid the fight.  One wonders sometimes about Ian's social life in his younger days.)  By the time I reached the dwarf warship I only had 5 Stamina left, but I was able to bring myself back up to 20 by eating provisions at no effective loss, because the dwarves replenished my stock of provisions.

Now on the desert coast, I headed south to the shell pattern where I'd been killed by an elemental curse in my last attempt.  I decided to test fate again, but this time when the shell elemental rose up I fled into the water.  This cost me two provisions, but the creature was unable to reach me, so I left the area and went inland to the east.

Along the way I killed three hostile Needle Flies (in a fight that reduced my Stamina to 14), found a golden key on a corpse, and traded a silver button to a camel-rider for a canister of water.  Not long after that I was caught in a sandstorm (which reduced my Stamina to 12).  Once it subsided, I found a brass handbell in the sand (due to a successful Luck test that reduced my score to 11).

I soon came across a nomad tent, as was welcomed by the merchant Abjul.  He gave me some food (restoring my Stamina to 16), and I bought some of his wares: a crystal key, a bone flute, and a silver mirror. This left me with two gold pieces.  Before I left I ate one my provisions (leaving me with 7, and restoring my Stamina to 20).

After taking my leave of Abjul, I headed back out into the desert, where I was attacked by a Giant Sandworm (Skill 10, Stamina 20).  This was a hard-fought battle, but fortune was on my side, and I was able to slay the great beast. I took one of its teeth as a souvenir.  (The Sandworm hit me six times, and there were four rounds in which our Attack Strengths were even.  On every round that I won, I used my Luck to double my damage, so I was able to take it out with five hits.  By the end of the fight my Stamina was 8 and my Luck was 6.  I ate three more provisions to bring my Stamina back to 20.)

That night the desert was bitterly cold, but I was able to avoid the worst of it by casting a Fire spell (reducing my Stamina to 19).  In the morning I investigated an oasis with birds circling overhead, but thought better of drinking the water.  South of that was a pile of rocks, which I ignored.  Soon I was being scorched by the desert heat, and I had no headscarf to protect me.  I became delirious due to mild sunstroke.  (This reduced my Skill to 8.  It can be prevented by exploring the rocks that I ignored, but looking in those rocks gets you stung by a scorpion, at the cost of 4 Stamina.  I wanted to test which of these options leaves you worse off, and I'd have to go with the sunstroke. A Skill penalty is almost always worse than a Stamina penalty.)

I continued on, and soon came to my destination: the lost city of Vatos.  Using an Open Door spell (which reduced my Stamina to 17), I opened a door in the city wall and made my way inside.  There I found an open square, with an archway on the opposite side and some stairs leading downwards.  At the bottom of the stairs I found an iron casket. Inside was a polished iron helmet, which I placed on my head.  (This took my Skill back up to 9.  I may have to revise my opinion that the sunstroke penalty is worse than the scorpion penalty; the loss of Skill is almost immediately offset, so I'm inclined to go that route from now on. Hopefully I won't need a headscarf later in the adventure.)

Further down the corridor I was tapped on the shoulder by a Messenger of Death, an assassin sent by the evil Malbordus; I would have to be careful to avoid finding the letters of the word "death" as I searched the temple.

At a T-junction, I pulled back some drapes to reveal a door in the wall ahead.  I opened the door to reveal a dusty room with a bucket hanging from the ceiling. Before I could investigate the bucket, a scuttling Giant Centipede (Skill 9, Stamina 7) emerged and attacked.  It bit me twice (reducing my Stamina to 13) before I was able to kill it. Afterwards I cut down the bucket, and bones were scattered all over the floor. One of them was carved in the shape of a dragon: this was the first of the bone dragon statues I had been sent to look for.  I put it in my pocket and left the room through a door in the north wall.  (This is the only one of the five dragon artefacts whose location I remember.)

The door opened at the end of a T-junction, but I ignored the left and right paths to head north.  My progress was soon stopped by a deep pit. With no magic to aid me, I had to jump across, and I was able to do (with a successful Skill check).

In the gloom of the corridor I saw a hovering, spherical creature approaching. It was covered in spines, and had one large eye in the centre of its body: an Eye Stinger! I looked through my backpack for something to use against it, and found my silver mirror. It had no effect, and as the creature bore down on me I dropped the mirror and it smashed on the ground (reducing my Luck to 5).  I was forced to close my eyes to avoid its hypnotic gaze, and swing my sword blindly.  Luckily I struck it in the eye, and the creature fell to the floor in a cloud of toxic vapours.  (This involved a Luck test, which I miraculously passed. My Luck score was now reduced to 4 though, surely an ominous sign for the future.)

As I fled from the Eye Stinger, I saw an iron grille on the left wall.  Climbing up to look at it, I noticed that three of its bars had been highlighted with white chalk, to make a letter H.  It had been done by the Messenger of Death, and I reeled at the sight of it (reducing my Stamina to 9, and my Luck to 3).

The corridor ended at a T-junction, and I turned to the right. It soon turned sharply left, and a shrieking shadowy figure hurled a glass bottle at me before running away. The bottle broke to reveal an old parchment. I picked it up and read it, hoping that it wasn't another of the Messenger of Death's traps. I couldn't understand the writing, so I cast a Read Symbols spell (reducing my Stamina to 8).  The parchment was a bad luck curse, taken from a Mummy's tomb. (This reduced by Luck by 4, which effectively put my score at -1.  It's a pure judgment call as to whether to go into negatives with Luck, but at that point it's all rather moot anyway.)

I chased after the culprit, but they were long gone, and soon I came to a junction.  I turned right, and could soon hear footsteps approaching.  I stood my ground as two Skeleton Warriors lurched into view (Skill 7, Stamina 5 and Skill 6, Stamina 6).  The skeletons attacked both at the same time, but I managed to defeat them while taking but a single wound (reducing my Stamina to 6).  I took a shield from one of the skeletons (which would have restored 1 Skill point if I'd needed it).  I sat and ate three provisions (bring my Stamina back to 18) before moving on.

At the end of the corridor was a locked wooden door. I didn't have the correct key, so I opened it with a spell (reducing my Stamina to 16).  Inside was a room with two stone caskets. The caskets were open and empty, but in the corner of the room was a clay goblet with a heart etched inside the rim. I put in my backpack before returning to the junction and heading west.

I came to a doorway in the left-hand wall, carved around the edged with hideous creatures being consumed in flames.  Encouraged by the decor, I decided to open the door and check out what was inside.  The room beyond was piled with bones, and the walls were marked with scratches.  A huge black Death Dog (Skill 9, Stamina 10) came slavering through an arch in the far wall.  We were evenly matched, but after a hard-fought battle I emerged the bloody victor (with my Stamina reduced to 6).  I ate the last of my provisions (to bring my Stamina back to 10).

In the Death Dog's lair I found a dark tunnel, and decided to explore inside.  Without a Light spell I was unable to see, but I decided to keep crawling along in the dark.  I failed to notice a tripwire, and set off a crossbow, which fired its bolt into my throat.  (This was due to a failed Luck test.  With my score of -1, there was no chance I was going to succeed.)

THE POST-GAME

Well, I kind of got what I was asking for by exploring that tunnel: dark tunnels in monster lairs are almost invariably lethal in Fighting Fantasy.  I do have a large gripe though: it's specifically stated that you are carrying a lantern as part of your starting equipment.  Why wouldn't I be able to see in the tunnel? I suppose I can rationalise that the tunnel is cramped enough to preclude the use of a lantern, but it's a stretch.

On a more positive note, that's the furthest I've gotten so far.  I also found a path through the desert that doesn't require the use of the Create Water spell, so I'm going to swap that out next time.