Exploring Titan 2: The Citadel of Chaos

The second book in the Fighting Fantasy series has a similarly cliched plot to the first, but it's presented in a context that does a lot more to establish it as a part of a living, breathing world.  The Warlock of Firetop Mountain may have been first, but The Citadel of Chaos does a lot more to establish the sort of place that Titan is, even though Titan did not yet exist when it was released.

Background
From the beginning we learn about the "lawful goodfolk" of the Vale of Willow, who have been living in fear of the demi-sorcerer Balthus Dire for eight years.  The phrase "lawful goodfolk" is an interesting one, in that it evokes the alignment system of Dungeons & Dragons, while also working as perfectly decent English for those people who have never rolled a polyhedral dice.  Whichever way you interpret the phrase, it gets the message across.  The Vale of Willow is good people.

Balthus Dire's description as a "demi-sorcerer" is one I've always liked.  It's never said outright what it means, as far as I can remember, but it's obvious from the beginning that he's different from the other wizards out there.  It becomes apparent when you meet him that he's as much a warrior as he is a wizard, and that's where the "demi" comes in.  But more on Balthus Dire later.

The story begins with a spy, who is returning from his mission within the Black Tower, Balthus Dire's fortress.  The spy reports that Dire has gathered an army of "Chaotics" in the caverns of Craggen Rock, and is preparing to launch his attack within the week.  Once again Steve Jackson is evoking the D&D alignment system, with his description of Dire's forces as Chaotics; at this early stage, Fighting Fantasy is incredibly beholden to its source material.  (Incidentally, the spy is a half-elf, the first mention of such in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook.  As there are no elves in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, we have the strange situation were half-elves appear before normal elves are ever established.  Indeed, we'll meet a Black Elf later, but still no regular, plain old elves.)

From there we meet King Salamon, described as both a "man of action" and a "wise man".  He is here shown as the king of the Vale of Willow, and not of Salamonis (which has yet to be mentioned).  King Salamon sends riders into the Great Forest of Yore, home to more half-elves and also to the Grand Wizard of Yore.  The Grand Wizard, described as a "white sorcerer of great power", is also said to be too old for the coming conflict.  But he does have a number of pupils, and that's where the protagonist of The Citadel of Chaos comes in.

That's a decent amount of world-building, at least on a regional scale.  We have the Vale of Willow, whose good folk are ruled by King Salamon.  Nearby is the Great Forest of Yore, peopled by half-elves and the Great Wizard of Yore, along with his pupils.  And looming above it all, atop Craggen Rock, is Balthus Dire's citadel, also known as the Black Tower.  There's no indication of how it connects to Firetop Mountain, but then again there's no indication that it's even set in the same world.

Magic
This is the first FF gamebook in which the hero can wield magic.    There was, of course, magic in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, mostly being used by the titular Warlock.  In The Citadel of Chaos the hero is able to arm himself with a number of spells before venturing on his mission.  It makes for a more flexible range of encounter options, but it doesn't do a lot for world-building purposes.  The system here is heavily based on D&D: you choose your spells before the game, and cross them off as they are cast.  The main difference from D&D is that you can still cast while wearing armour.  The reason it doesn't do much for world-building is that there is little consistency with later books.  There's the system introduced here, the codeword system from Sorcery!, the spell gems from Scorpion Swamp, and others I'm probably forgetting.  For the moment this is the way magic works on Titan, and it fits with all of the other examples we've seen thus far.  It won't be long until it's obvious that there isn't just one way that magic works in this world, that it can be taught and learned in any number of different fashions.  It's another part of Titan's ramshackle charm, I suppose.

The Citadel
What's striking about the Citadel of Chaos, also known as the Black Tower, is just how well it functions as a society in comparison to Firetop Mountain.  Almost every chamber here serves a purpose: there are guard rooms, a prison, a library, a gambling hall, a dining room, and even a wine cellar.  Even the inhabitants serve a purpose, with guards, merchants, a butler, and more.  There are still moments that make little sense, but on the whole the Black Tower feels alive.

It even has a bit of a history established.  The Black Tower was built by Balthus Dire's grandfather.  It gradually became a haven for creatures of Chaos, and Dire's grandfather built a number of traps outside his living chambers to protect himself from his minions.  Meager details, but effective in establishing the nature of the place.

Balthus Dire
A lot can be learned about Dire throughout the book.  He is the third in a line of Sorcerer-Warlords that have ruled the Black Tower and the "Kingdom of Craggen Rock".  If Dire is a legitimate king, it's not something that future books really dwell on.  Just who is he king over?  The most obvious candidates are the various humanoid monsters lurking in and around Craggen Rock.  In the dining hall there are paintings of various lords and earls of the kingdom, but it's not indicated whether these are human or otherwise.

He is said to have risen to power after the death of his father, Craggen Dire, "some years ago".  The time-frame is kept vague, but in the Background section it is said that the people of the Vale have been living in fear of Balthus Dire for eight years, so that seems like a good estimate.  Shortly after that he married the black sorceress known as Lady Lucretia, who is said to be vain, and appreciative of the things that money and power can buy.  It's not said whether they have children, but there is a room full of toddlers right next to Lucretia's bedchamber.  The kids look orcish, but you never can tell with sorcerers involved.  I choose to believe that these are Balthus and Lucretia's kids, despite their appearance; why else would they be placed in the citadel as they are?

Dire is haughty and arrogant throughout the book, and just a general bastard all around.  It's not just his desire to conquer the Vale, which is your garden variety villainous sorcerer bit.  There's also an encounter with a ghost, whose entire family was burned to death by Dire when she failed to launder his clothes on time for an important meeting. That's a special brand of bastard right there, and goes a long way towards justifying the assassination mission that the hero is undertaking.

Monsters
Whereas The Warlock of Firetop Mountain stuck mostly to standard D&D fare, The Citadel of Chaos does a lot to establish a variety of monsters that are unique to the Fighting Fantasy series.  Though it does feature a number of creatures that were also in Warlock (dwarfs, orcs, goblins, winged gremlins, snakes), and some others that are D&D or mythological staples (hags, leprechauns, black elves, gargoyles, ghosts, golems, hydras, giant scorpions, gorgons), the rest are new.

A number of these monsters are strange hybrids, and probably the result of experimentation by Balthus Dire.  The ape-dog and dog-ape guarding the front entrance, the spider-man, and the rhino-man are examples of this.  Even the brutish gark is said to be a mix of goblin and giant, and one would hope that it is a magical experiment, because the logistics hardly bear thinking about.

A few of these monsters do not actually appear here, but are used as illusions or transformations by Dire or the book's protagonist.  The protagonist can at one point create the illusion of a giant scorpion, and during his battle with Dire he can take the form of fire demon (which is not described in any detail).  Dire takes the form of a gorgon during the final battle, and here the book is drawing more on mythology than on D&D, as this gorgon appears not as a metallic bull but as a hideous woman with snakes for hair, that can turn the protagonist to stone.

Some other monsters appear that are not gone into in great detail.  The Clawbeast is a hairy brute with four-arms that end in vicious talons; it's hair can entangle a sword, but it's easily dispatched with a Weakness spell.  The Devlin is a small fire imp, that can't be killed with a weapon but can be extinguished with liquid.  There's a mysterious whirlwind woman in the courtyard who never gets a name, and exists mainly to harass the hero.  The hags have a snapperfish living in their broth (though it could have been summoned, or perhaps illusory); it's a lot more vicious than the average Earth snapper.  The wheelies are interesting from a whimsical perspective.  They're small wheel-shaped beings that cartwheel towards their foes while hurling knives, and while they're a lot of fun, they're not gone into in any great depth.  It's probably for the best, as they kind of defy explanation and logic.

There are a few of the monsters here that bear further exploration.  The first of these are the Miks, who are said to be able to transform into anyone, or anything, they wish.  They're also said to be masters of illusion, but given that one can poison the hero to death while in the form of a snake, the transformation ability seems more likely.  As such, they never appear in their true forms, though they are described in a book as being "thin and elf-like".  The same book also says that their favourite weapon is a needleknife, that they can't use metal in their disguises, and that they can't cast illusions over objects other than themselves, but none of these things become relevant when the hero meets the Miks.  The only other thing that we really learn about them is that they have a lust for gold.

The Calacorm guards the Black Tower's prison.  It's a large, two-headed snake man with grey skin, and is said to be fairly contented as long as it has a comfortable life with plenty of dead snakes to eat.  They don't even seem to care much for gold.  They take great delight in the screams of torture, and are deathly afraid of mice.  It's not a lot, but there's more going on here than with the average orc or goblin.

The Scouts are seemingly the only friendly people living inside the citadel.  They appear as small humanoids, and panic at the prospect of danger, though they have a number of magical powers.  They can summon a gale-force wind, and possess at least one piece of cube-shaped bread that can fully heal whoever eats it.  They also have an amulet that will protect the wearer from the Ganjees, and are quite reluctant to part with it, although they are "obliged by their gods" to help.  Most puzzling of all is their seeming fondness for Balthus Dire.  Even though the scouts are obviously good, they grow hostile if the hero talks about defeating Dire.  It's an odd moment, but it does serve to humanise Dire just a little; even the vilest sorcerer must have his good days, I suppose.

Finally, there are the mysterious Ganjees.  They are spoken of ominously throughout the book, and seem to be malevolent spirits that drain their victims of magic.  They are said to haunt the citadel by night, and oddly to eat their supper in the great hall, which doesn't quite match up with the rest of their portrayal.  The Ganjees are never really explained; even if you try to look them up in the citadel library you'll find that their page has been torn out of the relevant book.  But if there's one thing that people who have played this book remember, it's the Ganjees.  Not only because of the nightmarish illustration, but because that's where the reader will probably die the most, over and over again.

Next
The next installment will be an examination of The Forest of Doom, which pulls back on the unique monsters, but goes full force in establishing the building blocks of Allansia and Titan.  It's time for some Ian Livingstone world-building, folks.  Bring a very large backpack.