The Rings of Kether - Attempt 3

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but life has a way of intervening from time to time.  I'm not sure what life; I'm literally confined to my house for 22 out of 24 hours a day.  I can't even really say what I've been doing during that time, aside from avoiding the effort of updating my blogs.  Welcome to the existential void of 2021, I guess.

Well, I'm back and it's time for a void of a different kind: the unending void of space!  It's time for another crack at The Rings of Kether, in which I've been tasked with smashing a drug ring on the titular planet.  (Wouldn't be my first instinct, but I doubt this book's going to give me the option of petitioning to legalise satophil-d.  I hear it's great for pain relief.)

For this attempt I rolled a Skill of 12, Stamina of 16, Luck of 10, Shields of 3, and Weapons Strength of 9.  Pretty good stats, but I was a little worried about my Shields score (having died because of such a low score in my first attempt).

After dropping out of hyperspace into the Aleph Cygni system, I decided to check out the moonbase called Rispin's End.  After hiring a scooter for 500 kopecks, I spent the day investigating.  There were no signs of drug manufacturing to be found, so I took off and headed for the planet of Kether.  (On my second attempt I had explored the moon and been the target of an assassination attempt.  This time, coming here before making my presence known on Kether, my stay here was uneventful.  I feel pretty safe in saying that this is a dead end.)

After landing and being harassed by customs, I decided to hang around a local bar for information.  I was approached by a deranged starship captain, whose rambling indicated that a fat woman playing cards nearby was up to some shady business.  I tried to join her game, and after first telling me to get lost she eventually relented and dealt me in.  Her name was Zera Gross, and she was in the import/export business.  "More exporting than importing, I'd wager, the nature of the drug business being what it is! Ha, ha!" I said.  (This is the kind of sly subtlety they teach you in this galaxy's secret agent business, I suppose.)  As a response, Zera had her men beat the ever-loving shit out of me.  (Seriously, this beating made me lose 2 Stamina points permanently.  I don't think I've ever seen permanent Stamina loss in a Fighting Fantasy, most of which involve being run through with swords, shot with crossbows, engulfed in fire, and all sorts of other nasty stuff.  That is some beating.)

After waking up, I decided that a quiet day at the library might be more my speed.  I started by looking at some statistics.  The stats on agriculture and manufacturing didn't yield anything, but the transport stats showed some anomalies.  I decided to head for the State Computer File Centre to get a first-hand look at those statistics.  Unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that only those files more than 100 years old were available to the public.

I decided to return at night and try to break in.  (I'd tried to bribe my way in here on my last attempt, and gotten arrested for my trouble.)  The place was surrounded by razor wire, but I was able to climb up a drainpipe onto the roof and drop in through a skylight.  (I had to Test my Luck here, which I did successfully (reducing my score to 9).  I'm not sure what the consequences of failure were.)  Many of the more recent files on air traffic records were missing, so I decided to leave and find the Chief of Air-Traffic Control.

After locating him at the main heliport, I decided to follow him home from work and confront him. After a few hours of waiting in the carpark, I followed him in a hired ground car.  When I cheerfully introduced myself as a narcotics officer (there's that subtle spycraft once again) he became stricken with terror.  He was apparently covering up flights from "the islands", as well as flights to "the asteroids".  He wasn't able to tell me more than that, so I headed back to the spaceport to see if anyone there could enlighten me.

From a shuttle pilot I learned that something odd was going on at asteroid C230, so I decided to head up there and check it out.  The asteroid was one of thousands that made up the system's asteroid belt.  Its only signs of habitation were a dock and a few antennae.  There was also an emergency escape hatch and an air-conditioning vent.  I decided to enter through the hatch.

It opened into an airlock, and then a rough-hewn corridor that eventually led to a spherical room.  In a niche above me I found a small plaque with the following inscription:

PRAYER TO THUVALD

Hidden is he,

Mighty is he,

His time returns,

Hold, wait, be still.

Continuing down the corridor, I came to a junction. I could hear voices down one of the tunnels, so I went the other way and came to a room with a low pedestal and a burning flame.  I entered, and the flame roared higher, forming into a serpent with a woman's face.  Legs and wings grew from its body as it began to laugh.  In a panic, I decided to recite the prayer to Thuvald, and the weird creature replied:

"Misled you have been,

In the wrong place, you are

With the Customs officials you should be!"

The creature then told me to begone, and I was hurled from the room by a mystical force.  Not wanting to trust any prophecy that referenced customs officials, I decided to ignore it and keep exploring the asteroid. Soon I came to a door, over which was inscribed GRAND KEEPER.  Inside, an old man in black robes was sitting in a high-backed chair.  He asked me to sit with him, and I obliged. He explained that the asteroid was a monastery, and that I should return to Kether and visit the customs officials at the spaceport.  He waved his hand, and I was immediately transported back to my spaceship.  Taking the hint, I returned to Kether.

What kind of monk wears a proper belt?

At the customs office, I found the office of the Head Customs Officer - one Zac Kalensus - and kicked his door open with my pistol drawn.  "OK Zac baby, start talking about this little drug racket you're in on or I'll have to start pumping with my trigger finger!"  (Holy shit, that dialogue.  Incredible stuff.)  He stuttered something about transmissions from a satellite in orbit, but I wasn't able to get anything else out of him (because I failed a Luck test, reducing my score to 8).

With no other leads, I flew into orbit to look for the satellite and found it after a few days.  Rather than blow it up, I decided to put on my pressure-suit and take a space-walk to look at it.

Looking for Satellites.

What followed was a mini-game, where I had a limited supply of fuel with which to jet over to the satellite.  I had four units of fuel, and every choice used up one of those units; if I ran out I'd be sent spiraling off endlessly into space.  Luckily for me this mini-game relied entirely on rolls against my Skill.  With a Skill of 12 it was almost impossible for me to fail, and I made it over to the satellite using just two units of fuel.  I was able to learn that the satellite was transmitting from an unknown asteroid to the Isosceles Tower in Kether, and that all of those transmissions concerned shipments of the drug satophil-d.

Returning to Kether, I hired a helijet and landed on top of the tower.  On the 50th floor I found an import/export office run by Zera Gross.  The office was unlocked, and after I entered I soon came to a junction.  Heading left, I came to an open plan office that looked to have been recently stripped and deserted. Searching through the office, I was able (due to a successful roll under my Skill) to spot a vidilink file with coordinates to an island.  The message was signed by Zera Gross and someone called Blaster Babbet.

I flew out to the island, where I found a launch pad for shuttles, a helipad, and some ramps.  I climbed into an anti-grav dray and rammed it through a freight door at the end of a ramp, killing half a dozen guards.  In a warehouse I found crates of satophil-d, and a dead body with some Pep Pills (which I took).  Continuing down a corridor into another room, I was confronted by an android, but I was able to bypass it by successfully answering its riddle.  (I covered this riddle in my first attempt if you're interested.)

The passage beyond led to the office of Zera Gross, who was busy dictating to a robot secretary.  Upon seeing me she immediately went for her blaster, but I dove on her first to force her to fight me hand-to-hand.  (Melee combat is much easier to get through without losing Stamina than blaster combat.)  Zera (Skill 8, Stamina 11) proved to be a surprisingly strong foe, and was able to injure me twice despite my high skill (reducing my Stamina to 10).  While she lay "whale-like, immobile and exhausted", I slapped her in the face for information; all I was able to get from here was a dazed mumbling of "up then left".

In a nearby command room I found the coordinates of the asteroid where the drugs were being manufactured.  I flew back out to the asteroid belt, only to discover that it was surrounded by a deadly minefield.  Rather than blast my way through, I decided to be cautious (mostly because blowing them up had contributed to my death on my first attempt).  I made it through safely (with a successful roll under my Skill), but I still had to deal with the Asteroid Defences (Weapons Strength 9, Shields 6), a battery of phasers.

I opened the fight by unloading both of my Smart Missiles (which reduced their Shields to 2), then blew through them with my ship's own phasers, sustaining moderate damage (my Shields were reduced to 1).  I docked at an emergency airlock on the asteroid and made my way inside.

I made my way down a long zero-gravity tunnel, until I reached an airtight security door in one of the walls.  Inside was a room full of pressure-suits and emergency air-tents, but nothing of use.  Continuing down the tunnel, I soon found my way blocked by a strange device, constructed of four cubes in the shape of an X.  The cube sparked with electricity as it approached.

4d6 damage coming my way.

I took a flying dropkick at the device (because when a gamebook presents you with an unusual option, you should always take it).  I hit it dead on (due to a successful roll under my Skill) and the device smashed to pieces against a wall.

I came to a crossroads with three options, and decided to go straight ahead. The corridor led to a large cavern, filled with bulbous, tentacled creatures that had no eyes.  Above them hung three metallic spheres, each with a loop-shaped handle.

What is this, Total Wipeout?

There was no way I was going to wend my way through a bunch of tentacles, so I decided to risk jumping from sphere to sphere.  I was able to make all three jumps safely, and exit the cavern on the other side.  (This required three successful rolls under my Skill, so it's probably not the best option unless you're playing with a high-Skill character like mine.)

I found myself in a large chemical laboratory for making satophil-d, and spent some time smashing things up.  There was a door and a corridor leading onwards, and I chose the door.

Oh look, a room.

In front of me was a wide pit spanned by a narrow bridge with no handrail. Guarding the bridge was a three-legged alien, with an electric bracer in each of its three hands.  It ordered me to halt before firing several bolts of electrons at me.

You could say I Vanque-ished him.

I traded shots with the Arcturian Vanque (Skill 7, Stamina 10).  It hit me once (dropping my Stamina to 6) before I was able to kill it.  I ate a Pep Pill after the battle to restore my Strength (bringing my Stamina back up to 12).

At a junction I turned right, which led to the control room for the asteroid's nuclear reactor. There were no controls except for a keyhole.  I had no key, so I had to go back and take the other path.  This led to a tiny room with doors on every surface.  Each door had a black button in the centre.  Presented with six buttons to press, I tried the one in front of me and received an electric shock (reducing my Stamina to 11).  I tried the door behind me, and was shocked again (reducing my Stamina to 10).  At that point, I thought of what Zera Gross had told me while I was slapping her in the face: "up then left".  Pressing the button above me opened the door into an identical room.  Pressing the button to the left opened the door in that room, leading into a sumptuous living area.  (I could see those rooms being frustrating and potentially deadly if you didn't get the clue from Zera.  I had enough Pep Pills that getting through by trial and error wouldn't have been a problem, but I saved myself some pain by remembering that hint.)

The room was decorated with carpet and modern furniture, with a trendy folding screen near the door. In the wall opposite was a corridor, guarded by two identical figures that I assumed to be 'Blaster' Babbet.  They each had a blaster aimed at me, and after greeting me in unison they prepared to open fire.

Babbet season!

Rather than try to guess which of them was real, I "thought of an alternative course of action" by jumping through the folding screen.  The real Babbet was behind the screen, and the two in the corridor were illusions.  I tackled him, and we engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

'Blaster' Babbet (Skill 10, Stamina 8) was tough, and the battle was a close one (he reduced me to 4 Stamina).  But with my superior skill I was able to capture him, and wipe out the leadership of Kether's whole drug operation.  My mission was a complete success!

THE POST-GAME

I'd considered retracing the steps of my first attempt to get this book over and done with, but I couldn't resist the temptation of checking out various different things.  The pointless detour to asteroid C230 was probably my biggest deviation, and maybe the most interesting; I look forward to seeing what else is there when I read through the whole book.  This one ended up not being too difficult, although I may very well have failed without such a high Skill.  As it was I only scraped through on 4 Stamina, so maybe it's harder than it seems.

NEXT: I'll do one wrap-up/review post, and then it's on to something a little unusual: Steve Jackson's Tasks of Tantalon.  Unfortunately all of my books are currently boxed up after a move, so I may have some trouble finding it.  If I can't, then I'll be moving ahead with the next book in the series, the piratical Seas of Blood.