Caverns of the Snow Witch (preview) - Attempt 5 & 6

I'm back again, with another couple of attempts at finishing the preview of Caverns of the Snow Witch from Warlock magazine #2.  This half-a-gamebook has given me all sorts of bother, but hopefully I'll be able to win this time.

Okay, I said that I made a couple of attempts, but lets all ignore Attempt 5, shall we?  I rolled a Skill of 7 and got my character trampled by the Mammoth.  I always appreciate a gamebook with a quick method for killing weak characters.

ATTEMPT 6

The dice were far kinder to me this time around: I rolled a Skill of 12, a Stamina of 19, and a Luck of 12.  I couldn't ask for a finer specimen.

I didn't take any chances in the early stages of the book, and took the same path I outlined in Attempt 3 & 4.  This time I murdered the Neanderthal in the kitchen, and claimed all of that sweet kichen loot: the magic flute and the rune-carved stick.  Otherwise, things were much the same up to the point where I killed the illusionist with the prism.

(My stats by then were Skill 12, Stamina 18, and Luck 9.  I had 3 provisions left, and I was carrying a warhammer, a spear, a cloak, a magic flute, a rune-carved stick, and a sling with 3 iron balls.)

After I killed the Illusionist I took the middle path through the skull mouth, as the other two paths had led me to instant death in earlier games.  The passage opened into a large cavern that was the home of a Frost Giant.  I wanted the rings in his chest, so I was quick to knock him out with a well-placed shot from my sling (this required a roll against my Skill, but with a score of 12 I couldn't miss).

I forgot to add this one last time.

The giant's chest contained three rings: one copper, one silver and one gold.  From an earlier game I knew that one of these rings was cursed, and would significantly drain my Skill.  I didn't want to risk it this time, so I took the gold ring, the only one that I knew was safe.  The gold ring provided me with protection from the cold, and also restored my Luck back to 10.  I left the other two; I knew that one was good, but I couldn't risk taking the bad one.

Further along the tunnel I encountered the dreaded Crystal Warrior, the bane of many an adventurer in the Snow Witch's caverns.  Last time, I had been severely weakened, and it had murdered me.  This time I was at maximum Skill, and I was able to get one back.  It hit me once (reducing my Stamina to 16), but I was able to smash it to rubble with my warhammer.

(I'm aware now that leaving the warhammer behind and using the genie's invisibility power is the far better option here.  I thought I'd take my chances anyway, seeing as my Skill was high.)

After the battle I came to a T-junction, and turned left.  The tunnel came to a large chamber that ended in a wall of ice.  In the centre of the room was a sarcophagus, with the lid propped open.  A white rat suddenly scampered out of the sarcophagus and ran towards me.

The stuff of nightmares.

I wasn't about to trust this situation.  Not only had a friendly Dwarf told me to "beware the white rat", but I've also learned that nothing good ever comes out of a sarcophagus.  Not even cute mammals.

Sure enough, the rat started to change shape.  If I'd had any ground minotaur horn I might have been able to do something about it, but as I hadn't found any all I could do was watch as it transformed into a White Dragon.  A copper ring might have been useful to avoid this fight, but I didn't have that either.  Luckily, my gold ring was enough to protect me from the Dragon's breath: without it I would have been subject to a 2-in-6 chance of taking extra damage every round.

The Dragon had a Skill of 12 and a Stamina of 14, so we were almost evenly matched.  Somehow, mostly through the use of my Luck score, I was able to scrape through with only being hit twice.  Straight after the fight I ate a meal (restoring my Stamina to 16), so I got out of this fight just as strong as I went into it.

After I defeated the Dragon, a figure rose up from the sarcophagus.  It was the Snow Witch, who was revealed to be a vampire.  I had no garlic to repel her with, so she tried to dominate me with her gaze.  I had to roll against my Skill to resist, but once again my Skill of 12 meant that there was no way I could fail.

Gnarly hat.

At this point I realised that I could kill her with a stake through the heart, and luckily I had found one in the form of my rune-carved stick.  I thrust the stick into her heart.

(This might be one of the worst pieces of gamebook design that I have ever seen.  You can only succeed at staking the Snow Witch if your Skill is higher than 10.  There's no roll involved, no element of chance at all.  You need a Skill of 10 or higher, and if you don't have it then bad luck.  I'm pretty sure this is the only way to win, which makes it even worse.  The instructions even have the gall to include the line saying that anyone can win no matter their initial rolls!  What a load of old bullshit! Ian, this is your worst move yet.)

With the Snow Witch dead, I was free to explore her cavern.  Frozen into the wall of ice was a trunk full of treasure.  I hacked it out of the wall and started emptying my backpack so that I could carry as much gold as possible.  There was one last obstacle however: a golden idol transformed into a Sentinel, the Snow Witch's final guardian.

The Sentinel hit me once (reducing my Stamina to 14), but I made short work of it.  Now, with the Snow Witch dead her followers would be free.  I left the caverns and made the trek back to Big Jim Sun.  Even though I was loaded with riches, I was still greedy enough to go and demand the 50gp reward for killing the Yeti.  Business is business, after all!

THE POST-GAME

The beginning of this adventure is solid (if a bit too difficult), but the end just devolves into a series of battles against very strong opponents.  I only made it through because my scores were super-high.  And that bit about requiring a Skill of 10 to stake the Snow Witch?  Unforgivable.  I missed some items that might have made the final encounters easier or more interesting, but as I experienced it it's a poor ending.  Hopefully the book version clears some of these problems up.

NEXT

I'll do a quick wrap-up post to finish this one off.  I won't bother with an Exploring Titan, because this is so similar to the book version.  After that, it's on to the third book in the Sorcery! epic - The Seven Serpents.