The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (revised) - Attempt 3

I've rather enjoyed revisiting The Warlock of Firetop Mountain over the last few weeks, and this revised version has given me an experience that I haven't had with this adventure in many years: failure.  Twice I've defeated the Warlock, but both times I've only had two of the three keys needed to unlock his treasure chest.

I have an idea where the third key might be, though.  There's only one key that shows up in the illustrations, and it's in a dead-end room protected by a poison gas trap.  Finding that key is my goal for this attempt, and hopefully it's the one I need, because if it isn't then I'm all out of ideas.

I made some stellar rolls for my character this time around, and managed Skill 12, Stamina 21, and Luck 11.  If I fail on this attempt, there'll be no blaming it on poor stats.

I began my adventure with a concrete goal in mind, and I set my sights on it with a laser focus.  I stuck to the corridors, ignoring the many side-rooms, and I was able to make it to the portcullis without having any encounters at all.  I've never realised just how much of this book you can skip if you really want to, and how inessential most of the encounters are.  The only items that are required for victory are the keys, so there's a level of freedom to this book that a lot of later ones in the series lack.

After the portcullis I turned left, and once again proceeded to ignore as many doors and side-corridors as possible.  Soon I came to another junction, where I turned right.  This put me into territory I've yet to cover for the blog, so from here on I'll go into a little more detail.

The tunnel turned north, and I continued north at the next junction until the passage ended at a door.  Inside was a room lined with books, and an old man at a desk.  On his shoulder was a small, winged figure - a Winged Gremlin.

The old man asked me if I was game for a wager.  I had no money, so I declined.  As I was on the lookout for keys however, and I wanted to leave no room un-looted, I drew my sword for a bit of unprovoked murder.  The old man fled through a secret door, but I had to fight the Gremlin, which I killed easily.  I couldn't find the old man's escape route, but in his desk there were 5 gold pieces which I was happy to pocket.

Back at the junction I turned west, and followed the tunnel as it bent around to the north again.  The passageway ended at another door.  The room beyond was large, with a floor covered in a mosaic of tiles.  The most prominent shapes of the tiles were hands and stars.

I wanted to reach the door on the far side of the room, so I walked across.  I suspected a trap, so I was careful to walk only on the star tiles, and avoid the hands.  Nothing happened, and I was able to cross the room in safety.

At yet another junction I continued north, and the tunnel ended at a door with a leather skirt tacked along the bottom.  Inside I found what I was looking for: the room with the key!

I leaped in to grab the key, but the door slammed behind me, and the room started filling with gas.  I had to hold my breath while taking the key, but I was able to escape without inhaling any of the gas.  (This required rolling equal to or under my Skill on two dice, which was impossible to fail with my Skill of 12.)  The key had the number 66 engraved on it.

From there I continued through a couple of junctions until I came to a subterranean river.  I leaped in and was swept downstream, where I was washed up on the shore of the river, and back into familiar territory.

I crossed the river by paying the boatman, and made sure to kill the Werewolf and his Dog in order to claim key 111.  From there I chose the route with the zombies rather than the boathouse, and I mowed through them as well.  Following the zombie fight I chose to search the dead body propped in the corner.  Last time I had taken his sword and crucifix; this time I opted for his armour and gold.  The armour wasn't special, and the gold amounted to 10 gold pieces.  I had hoped there might be a key hidden on this corpse somewhere, but it looks like that's not the case.  (Unless it's in his shield, the only item I've not investigated, but I doubt it.)

I skipped right past the Vampire and the Ghoul, hurrying my way into the Maze of Zagor.  Fighting the Minotaur was a necessity, and he provided me with my first genuine challenge of the adventure, hitting me twice before I killed him.  Afterwards I searched the room, claiming 8 gold pieces and key 111.

It was a simple matter to get through the maze, and soon I was in confrontation with the Warlock's Dragon.  This time I hadn't learned Farrigo DiMaggio's Dragonfire spell, so I found myself in the rare situation of having to defeat the Dragon in battle.  I needn't have worried; it hit me once, but with the aid of a couple of Luck points I was able to knock it off quite quickly.  (This book is very generous with Luck bonuses, so the option of using Luck in battle is well worth it.)

It was time for the final confrontation: the Warlock.  I didn't fancy taking him on in a fair fight, so instead I burned his magic cards.  The weakened Warlock was a pushover, and soon I was standing in front of his treasure chest, ready to test out my keys.

I inserted key 66, and both keys marked with 111.  One by one they all turned, and the chest opened.  Success!  The treasure was mine!  As was the Warlock's book, with all of his secrets, and the rad option of staying to claim his power.  Part of me was hoping for a rewritten final entry; the Background had been redone, after all.  That said, it's an iconic ending, so it's not such a big deal. 

NEXT:

That was fun, but I'm glad it only took me three attempts.  I love this book, but even the greatest of gamebooks needs to be given a rest now and then.  I'll do a couple of quick round-up posts for this adventure, maybe an Exploring Titan, and then I'm going to move on to the preview of Caverns of the Snow Witch from Warlock #2.