House of Hell (preview) - Attempts 4 to 6

Here I am with three more attempts at the House of Hell preview from Warlock Magazine, the first three cracks at it that I've had since May.  For anyone wondering how successful I've been, well...  I've failed at least twice, haven't I?  It makes writing about attempts 4 and 5 a bit pointless, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I'm nothing if not pointlessly thorough.  So let's do it!  (As usual with later attempts, I'll be skimming past things I've covered previously, so check earlier posts if I reference something you're not familiar with.)

Attempt 4

My stats for this game were a mixed bag: Skill 7 (reduced to 4 due to a lack of weapons), Stamina 17, Luck 12 and Fear 9.  With a character like this I'd usually exercise caution, but that's not what's needed right now.  What I need to do is explore the options I haven't checked out yet, and that means that caution can bugger off.  It's time to go looking for trouble.

So, at the front door of the house I rang the bell and was greeted by Franklins the butler.  While waiting for him to fetch the master of the house, I looked at the one portrait in the entry hall that I had yet to check: the old woman.  It was a portrait of 'The Duchess of Brewster: 1777-1845', a woman so old and ugly that Our Hero was found wondering how she ever landed a husband.  Keep it classy, Fighting Fantasy.

He's not wrong though.

The portrait was otherwise without interest (and really, why is the least relevant portrait the one that gets an illustration?), so I waited for the arrival of the Earl of Drumer, after which we ate together.  I avoided the red wine and the cheese, thus making it through the meal without being drugged, and was then led to a bedroom by Franklins.  (This bedroom is the Fortesque Room, which is curiously absent from the landing outside once you begin exploring the house.)

The room had a single bed, and the windows were barred.  I decided to look through the window before going to bed, and what I saw was a shock: hanging by his neck from a tree was the old man from the village, the very same one who had given me the directions that led me to the house.  (This raised my Fear by a whopping 3 points, a full third of my total.  Seems a bit of a harsh punishment for simply looking out a window, but it ain't House of Hugs, is it?)

Vest. Shirt. Skullet. No trousers.

I fled from the room onto the landing, and turned right to meet the ghost bride, find out a bit about the house, and watch her get eaten by ghost dogs.  (Seeing her also raised my Fear to 4.  Ghost dogs?  Not scary at all.)

Heading back along the landing I ignored the Albemarle Room and went into the Rousseau Room.  Inside were a lot of crates covered by sheets.  One of the sheets rose into the air, making me think it was a ghost, but on further inspection I saw that it was being pulled up on a string.  (I'm pretty sure now that neither of these rooms has anything worthwhile in them.)

I ignored the stairs heading down, and continued to a junction where I turned left.  At the end of the passage was the 'Lucretia Room', which I entered to find an old lady sleeping in a bed.  I say sleeping, but when I touched her she was dead.  (Which raised my Fear to 6.)  Suddenly her eyes flicked open, and she sat up.  I decided to stick around and see what she would do.  She demanded that I leave, but instead I interrogated her about the house.  As far as she was concerned it was no business of mine, and at her signal a wall slid open to reveal a pair of Great Danes.  (I like to imagine that this is Scooby-Doo and one of his terrible cousins, having switched sides in the war against the supernatural.)

Alone and unarmed, I faced off against a pair of Great Danes, and to be honest I fared better than I would have expected.  It went right down to the wire: in the last round the second Great Dane had 2 points of Stamina remaining, and I had 1.  The dice betrayed me though, and I was mauled to death by, like, Scooby-Dum or one of those other ridiculous late additions to the franchise.

Attempt 5

This game saw me with stats of Skill 12 (reduced to 9 due to a lack of weapons), Stamina 14, Luck 9 and Fear 10.  Normally I'd be stoked with a Skill of 12, but it's somewhat irrelevant in House of Hell.  I'd much rather swap the Fear and Skill scores around.  (Sometimes when I'm playing Fighting Fantasy books I don't roll the dice in order; instead I'll roll the number of dice I need and arrange the numbers as I like.  Never for the blog, though.  The blog is a sacred no-cheating zone.  Except I might do it for Crypt of the Sorcerer.)

Okay, this time I rang the bell, ignored the paintings, and made it through the meal with the earl without being drugged.  In the bedroom I went to bed instead of looking through the window, and had dreams about being chased by an asphyxiating cloud.  When I woke up, I found that I was being smothered to death by my pillow and bed-sheets (which raised my Fear to 2).  I had to fight my way out (by rolling under my Skill on two dice), and once I escaped I wasted no time in running out of the room and onto the landing.

(What I've discovered here is that you're actually better off being drugged.  The worst that happens to you there is a slight loss of Stamina, or a point of Luck.  Here you're guaranteed to gain at least 2 Fear points, and that's far more detrimental.)

From there I encountered the ghost bride (Fear raised to 3), then ignored the Albemarle and Rousseau Rooms and headed downstairs to explore the library.  In the library I saw a ghost pen writing a cryptic message (raising my Fear to 4): "Beware the astorbed".

I decided to peruse some of the books, and was given a choice between a volume on black magic and one on hypnotism.  Having read the black magic book on a previous attempt, I chose the book about hypnotism.  On the front was a detailed drawing of an eye, and when I looked at it my head was filled with screams of agony (raising my Fear to 6.)  I was compelled to keep staring at the eye, but with great will (and a roll under my Skill on two dice) I was able to wrench myself away.

After that I fled from the library and back upstairs, where I once again checked out the old dead lady in the 'Lucretia Room'.  Rather than touch her gently, I instead opted to attack her reposing form before she could get the drop on me.  She shot up before I could bludgeon her with a classic overhead double-fisted chop (raising my Fear to 9).  Once again it led to me fighting a pair of Great Danes, but this time I killed them with some god-damn kung fu.  The old lady continued uttering threats, but I ignored her and got to looting.  I found some garlic and some belladonna, both of which are handy in a horror setting.

Heading back down the other passage, I entered the 'Gordelia Room', a bedroom strewn with women's clothing.  After a quick search of the room I found a box on the mantel, and an old photo in the fireplace.  I bent over to look at the photo, but before I could grab it, a pot plant was smashed over my head (reducing my Stamina to 11).

When I got to my feet, there was a rustling from the curtains.  They opened!  Then they shut!  The horror!  Anyway, it was enough to raise my Fear to 10, which meant that I dropped dead.  Because of some opening curtains.  As great as this gamebook is, the Fear mechanic means that it has some of the dumbest ways to die in the entire series

Attempt 6

In my final attempt for this post, I rolled a Skill of 8 (reduced to 5 due to a lack of weapons), a Stamina of 19, a Luck of 11, and a Fear of 9.  Good, ordinary scores.  After two failures, I was keen to really go off the beaten path, so rather than ring the bell at the beginning, I yanked the bell-pull and was sent tumbling through a trap-door and into a pile of hay in an underground cellar.  (This raised my Fear to 1, and after a Luck test to avoid serious injury, it also reduced my Stamina to 17 and my Luck to 10.)

I could hear shuffling coming from outside, so I quickly searched the room for a weapon.  Luck wasn't with me though, and I found nothing (and my Luck was reduced to 9.)  Quickly I hid in a corner as a hunchback entered the room.  Already stressed out from my car crash and a surprise fall through a trap-door, I decided to take out my frustrations on the hunchback, and leaped to the attack.  He was stronger than me (injuring me four times and reducing my Stamina to 9), but I was able to outlast him and knock him unconscious.  There was nothing to loot on his body, though, so I left the cellar and ran down a hallway.

I decided against entering a door to my left, due to some muttering coming from behind it, and continued into a chamber with stairs leading up.  That wasn't the only thing in the room though: it was also home to colony of bats.  The bats swarmed around me, and I had to cover my head and run up the stairs (raising my Fear to 2.)

I emerged in a hallway lined with stuffed animal heads, but I decided not to look at them and instead climbed another stairway leading up to a first floor balcony.  I was able to climb the stairs without making a noise (with a successful Luck test that reduced my Luck to 8.)  From downstairs I heard a door open, so I ducked into the nearest room to hide.  The room was full of shelves containing all sorts of everyday objects.  I searched the shelves, and found a meat-knife which I could take to use as a weapon.  I also found a bottle of red liquid, which I avoided.  (It was probably red wine or blood, and neither of those are good to drink in House of Hell.)

There was a door at the back of the storeroom, which I opened.  I screamed as a corpse tumbled out (raising my Fear to 5), and fled from the room.

Collar. Cuffs.  Pants.  If he teamed up with the hanged guy, they'd have a full outfit.

Outside of the room I bumped into Franklins the butler, who angrily marched me back downstairs and ran off to fetch his master.  This is where the book gets back on track, and I went through the usual motions of dining with the Earl of Drumer (being sure to drink some sherry to reduce my Fear to 4).  I then chose to drink the red wine, which resulted in me being drugged and waking up in an empty room with my hands bound.  One broken window later (and an injured hand that reduced my Stamina to 7), I had cut my bonds and was free to explore the house.

That led to the ghost bride (raising my Fear back to 5), and from there I ignored the stairs down and turned right at the junction.  When faced with a choice of two doors, I ignored the "Gordelia Room" and entered the unmarked door.  The room inside had one wall covered in a strangely bulging curtain, and a box on the mantelpiece.  I wanted to open the box, but instead I investigated the curtain first.  (I was pretty nervous about curtains given my death in Attempt 5.)  I was prepared for something horrible, but not prepared enough, as a Zombie punched me from behind the curtain and knocked me over (reducing my Stamina to 5 and raising my Fear to 7).  It struck me another blow (leaving me with 3 Stamina), but I was able to finish it off with my meat-knife.

For some unknown reason I then ignored the box and tried to leave the room, but the door was locked (which raised my Fear to 8. Shouldn't my guy be getting used to this shit by now?)  Now I looked in the box, where I found the key to unlock the door, and another key marked with the number 114.  A numbered key you say!  I'll be having that.

Following the passage further, I came to the 'Astor Room' and the 'Master Suite'.  I checked out the Astor Room, which was empty except for a bed and a dressing table.  There was music playing from an unknown source, so I decided to search the room.  I didn't find anything, but soon there were footsteps from outside.  I hid behind the door to pounce on anyone who entered. the door-handle turned, but then whoever it was had second thoughts and left.  I decided against having a quick nap, and entered the 'Master Suite'.  (Perhaps this is the "astorbed" that the phantom pen in the library was warning me about.)

This room was plush, with a large chair facing a smouldering fireplace.  I entered the room, and someone spoke to me from the chair: "So! Our visitor is inquisitive, eh?  Perhaps our hospitality is not to your liking. Maybe you would like to see some more - shall we say - amusements?"

I realise that I typed this speech out in an earlier post, but I had to do it again.  Because it raised my Fear score to 9.  Which killed me.  Killed, by a spooky voice in italics.  Like I said above, this adventure has the dumbest ways to die, bar none.

THE POST-GAME

While I didn't have any concrete success, I feel like I've explored most of the options in the early going, and have the best path figured out.  What I need to do is this:

• Pull the bell-cord at the beginning if my Skill is low.  It results in a bit of Stamina loss, and 1 Fear point, but getting a weapon is vital in order to fight the great danes
• Get myself drugged by the Earl of Drumer, to avoid the Fear penalties in the Fortesque Room.
• Talk to the ghost bride.
• I probably should go downstairs to the library to claim the pentacle that protects against cultists.  There's a Fear penalty here as well, but I reckon it's worth it.  I'm not sure if I need to rescue the Man in Grey from his cell, though.
• Wake up the dead old lady in the Lucretia Room, kill her great danes, and claim the garlic and the belladonna.  There's a vampire ahead, so the garlic is a necessity.
• Ignore the Gordelia Room and enter the unmarked room with the Zombie to claim the numbered key.  Numbered keys are not to be left behind.
• Confront the vampire and his spooky italic voice with some garlic at the ready.

From there I'm in the dark, but it's good to know that I have the early going sorted out.  It seems to me that this version of the adventure is a lot more linear than than the book, which suits me fine at this point.  I'm hoping that the latter parts are straightforward as well, because I'm ready to move on.  My only concern is with the number of Fear points I'll rack up following this plan.  If I do everything on the list, that's already 9 points (I think).  I can cut out the trip through the cellar and the library, which reduces it to 7, which is more manageable, but I'm still worried that there are lots of Fear penalties to come after that.