Dungeon of Justice - Attempts 9 through 18

Yeah, you read that right, this post covers attempts 9 through 18.  I was keen to put "Dungeon of Justice" behind me, so I made a concerted effort to knock it off yesterday.  Did I succeed, and discover the Golden Idol?  Read on, and you may just find out!

ATTEMPT 9

For this attempt I rolled a Skill of 10, a Stamina of 18, and a Luck of 7.

I still had a few unexplored paths on my map of the dungeon, one of which was in the eastern area where I'd been killed by Light Worshippers in an earlier game.  I decided to use this attempt to check that path out, and after killing the unavoidable Thief at the start I made my way through several junctions to that encounter.  There I saw a number of robed figures performing a ritual around a glowing crystal, and when they saw me they moved to attack.  I was able to kill the Light Worshippers (Skill 9, Stamina 11) this time, but I was left with a meagre 4 Stamina.  After the battle the crystal stopped glowing, and when I inspected it it was nothing more than a piece of glass. I was able to loot 3 gold pieces from the Worshippers, though.

The tunnel continued north, but there was also a hole in the wall that led to a smooth slide.  Rather than heading north, I decided that sliding down into the unknown would be a great idea.  Not so much; I was dumped into a furnace and incinerated.

ATTEMPT 10

For this attempt I rolled a Skill of 11, a Stamina of 20, and a Luck of 11.

I couldn't be bothered fighting the Light Worshippers again, so this time I decided to make my way north to a secret door that I'd previously been unable to open.  Along the way I ducked into a side room to fight some Giant Bats, and take the Cape of Levitation and a Ring of Skill (cursed so that it gave no benefit).  One of the Bats, despite having a Skill of 6, really did a number on me; it started rolling absurdly high numbers, and ended up hitting me four times to reduce my Stamina to 12.

I made it to the dead end where I suspected there was a secret door, and this time I got it open with a successful Luck test.  The passage beyond was trapped with a crossbow; I passed the requisite Luck test, but the crossbow bolt still lodged in my shoulder, reducing my Stamina to 8.  It's a pretty rough penalty for success, but the alternative is an instant death, so I guess it is lucky under the circumstances.

On the way north I tripped and bent my shield, imposing a -2 Attack Strength penalty.  I'd reached this ridiculous section in an earlier game due to some faulty OCR in my scan of Warlock #5, but now I was getting to it legitimately.  North of that I passed a junction and came to a cliff, where I was able to float down using the Cape of Levitation.

I had reached the cave with the river, and the wooden bridge being eaten by giant termites.  In every previous attempt I'd crossed the bridge, assuming that trying to swim the river would be an instant death.  This time, I decided to jump in.  The current was strong, but with a successful roll of 2d6 under my Skill I was able to swim to the other side.

(I didn't come to this decision on my own.  Ed Jolley gave me a hint in the comments about reaching a certain point of the adventure four times, and making the wrong decision each time.  By process of elimination, I figured that the only place I'd visited four times was this bridge, so I decided to try something different.  A successful Skill test resulted in it being a non-event, but perhaps a failed Skill test might be of more benefit.  It would certainly fit the warnings I'd been getting from my readers that the solution to this one is a bit bullshit.)

On the far side of the river I headed west, and took the north path through the room with the mud pits.  This time I failed my Luck test while trying to cross, and a fearsome beast emerged: the dreaded Mud Dragon!  The Mud Dragon (Skill 10, Stamina 6) ended up being something of a pushover.  I used my Luck to dish out some extra damage, and hacked the creature's head off in two quick blows.

From there I was able to make it to the end of the adventure, but I still didn't have the golden idol.  Another failure.

ATTEMPT 11

With Skill 10, Stamina 21 and Luck 11, I headed west this time, sneaking past the sleeping dog and taking a couple of unexplored paths.  Both of these tunnels simply joined back to areas I'd already checked out.  At the river I jumped in, but once again I succeeded in testing my Skill and was able to swim across.  I ploughed quickly through the rest of the adventure, getting killed by the elves at the end.

ATTEMPT 12

This time I rolled a Skill of 7, a Stamina of 20, and a Luck of 12.  I decided to hurry north, not bothering to fight the Giant Bats and get the Cape of Levitation.  Because I didn't have the cape I had to take a detour and fight the Giant Porcupines, which managed to knock me down to 9 Stamina.

This time when I jumped in the river, I failed my Luck test, and was swept downstream.  As I passed a rocky island I was able to grab it with a successful Luck test and pull myself to safety.  There, hidden in a niche in the rock, was the Golden Idol I had been tasked with finding.  I carefully placed it in my backpack, and swam to the north shore of the river.

Quickly I made my way through the mud pit room, avoiding the Mud Dragon fight, and reached the old man at the end of the adventure.  I showed him the idol, and he led me outside to face the elves.  I was deemed innocent, and allowed to go on my way.  But when I turned back, the elves had vanished, and only the old man was there, nodding goodbye.  Then even he vanished, and I set off on my long journey to Sapphire City.

THE POST-GAME

Success!  Well, maybe not.  See, the path I'd taken had resulted in my shield getting broken, meaning I had an effective Skill of 5 in combat.  I'd forgotten about that when fighting the Giant Porcupines, so this whole run was technically invalid.  I refought the battle, and got slaughtered.  So while I'd reached the end I didn't feel good about it, and was determined to beat the adventure legitimately.

Scanning the map I worked out the path that would get me through the adventure most quickly.  I found a path through the eastern area of the dungeon that got me to the river cave with no encounters; it did require two successful Luck tests to get safely down a rope, but with the Potion of Fortune that was no problem.  After the river there was only one Luck test required (to pass the Mud Dragon) to get to the end.  The whole adventure could be boiled down to the fight with the Thief at the start, two Luck tests, the Skill test at the river (and subsequent Luck test if I failed), and one more Luck test.

With the adventure distilled to its most basic elements, I set about rolling those dice.  The winning play-through came on Attempt 18, with a character that had a Skill of 10.

So that's that for "Dungeon of Justice".  I won't go in-depth on my feelings for it - I'll save that for a wrap-up post - but suffice it to say that I don't love the successful path requiring a failed Skill check.  There are just some unspoken rules about gamebook design that shouldn't be broken, and this is one of them.

NEXT: I'll do the usual wrap-up posts (Final Thoughts and Exploring Titan), and then it's back to the main series (yay!) for The Rings of Kether, a sci-fi adventure (boo!).