The Rings of Kether - Attempt 1

Cover by Terry Oakes

Corruption is rife in the Aleph Cygni system and the flow of the illicit narcotic Satophil-d from the spaceports of the planet Kether has grown to enormous proportions.  Several attempts have been made to crack the notorious drug rings of Kether, with no success.  Now the Galactic Federation has entrusted YOU with this dangerous undercover mission in this wild and lawless place. But will YOU succeed?

The Rings of Kether is the 15th book in the Fighting Fantasy series, written by Andrew Chapman and illustrated by Nik Spender.  I wasn't particularly fond of Chapman's previous effort, Space Assassin, but according to interviews he put a lot more effort into Kether.  I guess we'll see if that effort made any difference, but the book has an uphill battle from the start, as I've never loved the sci-fi entries in the series.

I've only read this book once, about 20 years ago, and I barely remember any of that play-through.  The podcast Campaign on Dice covered it about a year ago, which somewhat jogged my memory, so I'm not going in completely blind.  (As an aside, Campaign on Dice is excellent, and very funny.  It's well worth a listen, as long as you don't mind the books being incessantly ridiculed.  Their coverage of The Rings of Kether is especially good, but word of warning: you should probably listen to it with headphones, it's definitely not family-friendly.)

As noted above, the hero of this book is an undercover investigator, being sent to the planet of Kether to sort out a drug trafficking ring.  The authorities on Kether are supposed to deal with this sort of thing themselves, so there's some suspicion that the authorities might be in on the whole operation.  As such, the hero has been sent in under the guise of a travelling salesman specialising in exotic fruit, spices and luxuries.

The sci-fi books almost always have new rules, and Kether is no exception.  Aside from the usual Skill, Stamina and Luck, you need to roll stats for your spaceship: Weapons Strength and Shields.  Weapons Strength is rolled like Skill (1d6 + 6) and Shields are a simple d6 roll.  Your ship also has two smart missiles, which can be used to instantly blow up enemy ships.  Instead of provisions you have 4 Pep Pills, which restore 6 Stamina at a time.  You've also been provided with money in the form of 5,000 Kopecks, the standard intergalactic currency.

Melee combat works the same as regular FF, but there are new rules for Blaster Combat and Ship-to-Ship Combat.  In Blaster Combat, both combatants trade fire, each taking turns to roll against their Skill with 2d6.  A result under their Skill indicates a hit, which deals 4 damage.  Ship-to-Ship Combat is similar, with the combatants rolling against their Weapon Strength.  A ship that is hit loses 1 point from their Shields, and if they are hit when Shields are at 0 they are destroyed.  (I should note that the use of Luck in combat isn't anywhere in the rules.  There's also nothing to say that Skill and Luck scores can't go above their initial level, although it's possible that may never come up.)

For my first attempt I rolled a 10 for Weapon Strength, a 2 for Shields, a 7 for Skill, a 20 for Stamina, and a 10 for Luck.  I couldn't remember how difficult this book was stats-wise, but I was already nervous about my Shields score, and figured I'd be relying on smart missiles to get through any space battles.

The adventure began as I dropped out of hyperspace, into the Aleph Cygni system: a yellow star with one orbiting planet.  I was told by my cosmo-nav that Kether was mostly ocean, with a few scattered islands and one large continent.  Orbiting Kether was the moon known as Rispin's End, and there was also a vast asteroid belt in the system.  Figuring that investigation of the moon and the asteroids would look suspicious, I decided to land at Kether's starport.

As soon as I landed, I was promptly boarded by customs officers who said they were looking for contraband.  Not drugs as I suspected, but technology; they stripped me of my spy ray before allowing me to disembark.  (This whole spy ray thing is a bit odd.  It's not mentioned at all before these officers take it from you.  What is it?  I thought maybe it was my blaster, and that I now had no weapon, but there's nothing to indicate that that's the case.  I'm going to ignore this unless it specifically comes up later.)

Rather than ask questions at the spaceport or go to the local authorities for help, I decided to keep a low profile by going to a local shady canteen.  I found a noisy bar populated by the usual scum and villainy, and decided to mingle and see what I could find out.  I ended up talking to a deranged starship navigator who told me to "beware".  (This was determined by a die roll, where I got the most common result.  If I'd rolled a 1 I would have talked to a pale man sitting alone, and if I'd rolled a 2 I would have spoken to a fat woman playing cards.)  The navigator went off on a rant, and by the time he ended I had gleaned two things: something was going on at Rispin's End, and the "fat broad" playing cards at the table had something to do with it.  (Yes, the book really describes her as a "fat broad".  As far as this character is concerned, the descriptions of her get much worse.)

Rather then head out to Rispin's End immediately, I decided to keep an eye on the woman.  Despite her appearance and slovenly manner, she seemed to be in charge of the men playing with her.  Figuring that joining their game would attract too much attention, I waited until they were done and tried to follow her when she left the bar.  Unfortunately (due to rolling higher than my Skill on 2d6), I tripped over a motor unicycle, and the woman bolted.  She was fast for her size, but I was able to keep up with her (due to another roll against my Skill, this time successful).  She ducked into a five-story building, and soon I saw a light switched on in the window of the fourth floor.  Looking at the list of residents, the entire fourth floor was owned by a "Zera Gross, Import/Export".  Rather than attract more attention by waiting around, I decided to resume investigation tomorrow by visiting the library.

At the library I found an unused terminal and started going through old news reports about organised crime and narcotics.  I found very little, just one snippet that read: "Central Criminal Court 3: State vs. Z. Gross and B. "Blaster" Babbet. Before Justice Zark. Charge: trafficking in illicit organic materials (Satophil-d). Sitting 10.30 a.m."  I found a record of B. Babbet's address, but nothing further on Z. Gross (although it did indicate that I was on the right track the night before).  I decided to check out Babbet's address.

The place was a large, run-down warehouse. Rather then go in through the main entrance I went around the back and went in through a rear door.  At the end of a corridor I was faced with a choice of two doors, and went through the one to the left.  It led to a raised landing with a storehouse below.  Two men entered, and I lay down flat to hide.  I overheard them say that the "dope" was arriving from the asteroids tomorrow.  Figuring that I'd already pushed my luck, and that staying in the building might be dangerous, I left and returned to the starport.

Looking for someone who might know something about illegal space traffic, I started in the starport hangars.  I approached a lone shuttle pilot, and asked him without offering a bribe (again, I didn't want to cause too much suspicion).  He told me that there's been a bit of odd traffic around asteroid C-230, and that I'd be able to find it easily enough with my cosmo-nav.  Not trusting his information, I decided to head into the city to try to verify this information.

I asked around at a few places with no luck, but while I was having lunch at a sandwich shop two men with blasters approached and forced me into their car.  I was taken to a manor house in the country which was crawling with armed men.  I decided to play along rather than make a run for it.  Inside the house I once again met Zera Gross, and was told that I had to go to a meeting and pick up some documents for her "or else".  Figuring that "or else" meant a certain death, I opted to go to the meeting.

The meeting was with the wife of a Clive Torus, one of the gang's former associates, and was to take place in the city's botanic gardens.  As I approached Mrs. Torus, who was carrying a box containing the documents, a sniper fired at us from the bushes nearby.  We were both hit, and Mrs. Torus fell to the ground.  (I had to roll for damage on a d6 and rolled a 1, reducing my Stamina to 19).  The sniper raced out, grabbed the box, and made his getaway in a waiting car.

Not bothering to check on Mrs. Torus, I ran out onto the road and commandeered a passing car by throwing the driver out the door.  I gave chase in my new car, as my quarry disappeared over the crest of a hill.  I decided to drive at top speed, and was surprised when the road took a sharp turn, but I was able to keep my car on the road (with a successful Luck test that reduced my score to 9).  I chased the other car through a forest, matching its speed, and attempted to ram them from behind.  This had little effect, but I was still able to keep pace with them (with another Luck test that reduced my score to 8).  As the other car went through an S-bend I hit them in the side (requiring yet another Luck test that reduced my score to 7), and sent them spinning off the road.  None of the occupants survived the crash, but I was able to recover the box containing the documents.  These documents had lots of incriminating evidence against Gross and Babbet, as well as the location of their receiving facility on Kether, on an island about 4,000 km away from the mainland.

Hiring a helijet, I flew out to the island and landed on a landing bay.  There were two ordinary entrances  into the facility, and a large freight door.  Parked nearby was an antigrav dray (a dray is kind of truck or cart).  I investigated the dray, and decided that it would be a great idea to use it to ram through the freight door.  I did this to great success, killing four brutish-looking guards in the process.

The room was stacked with containers full of Satophil-d.  There was also the corpse of a man who was covered in bloody gashes, either the work of a savage beast or a skilled torturer.  There were no other clues on his person, but he did have a jar with four pep pills, which I took with me.

A corridor led me into a hexagonal room, where I was confronted by a seven-legged robot which waved  its sensors in my direction.  It offered me a riddle, which I would have to answer before I could pass:

Red I am,

the heart of a scorpion,

but not of Arachnia at all!

Pincers I have,

but I grasp with the unseen.

In one word, what am I?

This immediately brought to mind the constellation Scorpio, but I couldn't remember the names of any of the stars that comprised it.  I took a stab, answering "Antares", and was proven correct.  (In actual fact, I took a guess here.  I was thinking of the constellation, possibly due to faint memories from the podcast I mentioned above, but I couldn't remember the answer.  The book gives three options: a word starting with A, a word starting with S, or a word starting with X.  I picked A, and it ended up being correct, which got me past the robot without a fight.  Regardless, I take issue with Antares having pincers, and grasping with anything.  Those clues work for Scorpio, but not at all for Antares.)

At a junction I turned right, where I found a control panel saying that the next shuttle would be arriving in 75 hours.  Returning to the junction and going left, I entered the office of Zera Gross.  As soon as she saw me she reached for her blaster, and I returned fire.  Zera (Skill 8, Stamina 11) managed to hit me twice (reducing my Stamina to 11) before I shot her to death.  Her office was destroyed in the fight, so I raced down another corridor into a command centre.  There on some monitor screens I saw records of Satophil-d shipments, as well as the exact location of the asteroid that the drug was coming from.

I headed back to the mainland and took off in my ship, heading for the asteroid belt.  The asteroid I was headed for was surrounded by a minefield.  I decided to shoot the mines, but I misjudged their power and was caught in the blast (reducing my Shields to 1).

With the path clear, I approached the asteroid, but they had been forewarned by the exploding mines.  The Asteroid Defences (Weapon Strength 9, Shields 6) opened fire on me as I drew closer.  I softened them up with both of my smart missiles (which reduced their Shields by 2 each), and then we traded fire.  I came close to penetrating their defences, but my own Shields, already weakened, weren't enough to survive the barrage.  My ship was destroyed, and my adventure was over.

THE POST-GAME

I think I did pretty well on my first go, as I suspect that I was pretty close to the end of the adventure.  It's honestly hard to tell, I have much more trouble figuring out how well I'm doing with these investigation-style gamebooks than I do with most dungeon-crawls.  My low Shields score was what did me in, but I did have some quandaries regarding ship-to-ship combat.  The first was with my smart missiles, where the book wasn't entirely clear if I could fire them both off at the start of the fight, or if I had to fire one each round while taking fire from the Asteroid Defences.  In the interests of actually beating the book, I opted for the former.  I also wasn't sure if enemies are destroyed when reduced to 0 Shields, or if you have to hit them again once they're on 0.  The latter is true for the player, so I decided to do it the same way for enemies as well.  This cost me, because I did get this enemy down to 0 before it killed me.  One more shot might have been enough for me to finish this book in one attempt, but it wasn't to be.  With better stats, I'll hopefully be able to get through next time (although the temptation to explore a different path will be hard to resist).