House of Hell (preview) - Attempts 7 to 9

In my last post, I outlined a plan of action for the opening stages of the preview version of House of Hell.  Over the course of my first six attempts, I felt as though I'd covered pretty much everything, and had worked out the best path to progress forward and defeat the Vampire, and ultimately the Earl of Drumer.  As it turns out, these next three attempts showed me a few things that I'd been missing, and a new path that had been previously hidden.

That's getting into spoiler territory, though, and best left for the actual write-up of my adventures.  Onward!

Attempt 7

 For this attempt I rolled Skill 7 (reduced to 4 for being unarmed), Stamina 20, Luck 9 and Fear 12.  Already I was off to a bad start.  My plan involved fighting a pair of Great Danes, as well as a Zombie, and a Skill of 4 wasn't going to cut it.

So, in the interests of getting my hands on a weapon, I chose the bell-pull at the beginning of the adventure and was dumped into the cellar.  I had an amicable meeting with the hunchback Shekou, who led me back to the ground floor, where I failed to sneak quietly up a staircase.  This alerted Franklins the butler to my presence, and made my whole trip down below pointless.  I'd been caught before finding any weapons, and would have to contend with the adventure with an effective Skill of 4.

After that I did the usual schtick: dining with the Earl, getting myself drugged on purpose, escaping and meeting the ghost bride.  Following that I went downstairs to the library, where I found the pentacle (which grants power over devil-worshippers), and opened a secret door.

I'd gone this way in previous adventures, and rescued a man in grey who was a former servant of the Earl.  What I hadn't explored much was a pantry, containing all sorts of food: cakes, bread, fish, fruit, cheese, and wine.  I had come here before, but hadn't tried any of the food.  This time I tried everything except for cheese and red wine, as I was well aware that those were drugged.  It was fairly rewarding: most of the things you can eat provide a Stamina boost, and the wine knocks off 2 points of Fear at the cost of a point of Skill.  With a more competent character that would be a good trade-off, but it was a bad idea for Steve Urkel over here, who was left with a Skill of 3.

With that in mind, I decided not to risk rescuing the man in grey, and went back upstairs.  My chances with the Great Danes weren't looking good either, but I knew that I needed that garlic.  So in I went to the room with the dead old lady, and proceeded to wake her up and provoke her until she set her dogs on me.

I prepared myself for an early end, but for once in my life the dice were in my favour.  Sure, I was left with 3 points of Stamina, but beating two Great Danes to death with my bare hands is pretty impressive for a guy with a Skill of 3.  I rewarded myself with some garlic and belladonna, and made for the next encounter.

Next stop was to fight the Zombie in the unmarked room, which I had second thoughts about once I got there.  Those second thoughts were moot, however, because once you're in that room there's no getting out without a fight.  I had to suffer the automatic damage that comes from being surprise attacked by a zombie hiding behind a curtain, and then the bugger killed me in the first round of combat.

All in all, a highly unsuccessful adventure, but a failure that was no fault of mine.  That Skill of 7, coupled with a failed Luck test that stopped me from finding a weapon, was what did me in.

Attempt 8

For attempt number 8, I rolled Skill 9, Stamina 20, Luck 9 and Fear 11.  That's a proper Joe Average character, albeit one with a high tolerance for scares.  Thankfully stats aren't all-important in this adventure, so I was reasonably confident of getting to that vampire and finally doing him in.

Once again I chose the bell-pull path, but while waiting for Shekou I did a quick search of the cellar, looking for a weapon.  A successful Luck test turned up a branch about the size of a baseball bat, which I proceeded to lug around for the remainder of the adventure.  (Who knows what the Earl of Drumer was thinking through our dinner, or why he didn't take the damn thing off me while I was unconscious.)

Following that I took the same options as in Attempt 7, including raiding the pantry for some wine to offset my Fear.  I gave the Great Danes a good old thrashing, and did the same for the Zombie, claiming the garlic, the belladonna and a key marked '114'.

Soon after that I was near my goal, with a choice of two doors: the Astor Room and the Master Suite.  I knew that the vampire was in the Master Suite, but I wanted to check out the Astor Room again.  I'd been in there before, but it had been so uneventful that I was suspicious.

The Astor Room had nothing in it except for a bed, but there was music playing from an unknown source.  As I explored the room I heard footsteps approaching fro outside, and I decided to find a place to hide.  After a successful Luck test I hit on the idea of jumping under the bed-covers.  It seemed like a terrible plan to me, but what's the worst that could happen?

As it turned out, the worst was something completely unexpected.  The moment I was cozy in bed, it flipped up and deposited me in a chute, and I tumbled downstairs into a bad, bad scene.  A scene so bad that it got censored out of the book version (well, the scene didn't get censored, but the illustration sure did).

Thank God for that considerate cultist covering her boobs.  Some kids might really have been scarred by this.

From a hidden alcove I watched on as about forty goat-headed cultists prepared to sacrifice a young woman.  This is the sort of situation where a hero might leap out and rescue the fair maiden, but I wasn't a hero.  I was Joe Average with a tree branch.  Besides, if there's one life lesson that gamebooks have taught me, it's that you DON'T MESS WITH DUDES WEARING GOAT HEADS FOR HATS.

So rather than mount a rescue, I tried to look for another way out.  There was another passageway leading from the chamber, and there was a possibility I'd be able to sneak through it if I was careful.  Alas, I wasn't careful enough, and one of the cultists spotted me.  (I wonder how.  It's dark down here, and peripheral vision in those goat hats has got to be terrible.)

Luckily for me, I had a secret weapon: the pentacle.  I whipped it out (by turning to entry 66), and its power compelled the devil-worshippers to let me by unharmed.  Maybe I could have used it to make them free the girl as well, but no sense pushing things too far.  The line between heroism and death is a fine one.

I emerged into a room with two doors, and chose the door on the right.  It was locked, but I was able to open it with my numbered key.  It was the dining-room, where I had previously taken supper with the Earl of Drumer.  A quick search of the room didn't reveal anything (because I failed a Luck test), so I pulled a rope to summon the butler.

Franklins entered quickly, and after I demanded to see the Earl he rushed off to fetch him.  The Earl was super-pissed at being disturbed in the middle of the night, which I find a bit weird given the circumstances.  Was he really asleep?  While a load of cultists were doing ritual sacrifices in his basement?  It's the sort of thing I'd expect a master of evil to be awake for.

Eight buttons.  Seriously.

Anyway, I'd had enough of the ghostly shenanigans going on in the house, so I attacked the Earl with my branch.  It was useless; only the Kris Knife could harm him, and I hadn't found it.  Alas, my life ended, strangled to death by a man in a smoking jacket and a cravat.  (And like, eight buttons on his trousers?  Going to the toilet has got to be difficult.)

Attempt 9

I'd been diverted from my goal of defeating the vampire during my last attempt, but I had an inkling that I might just have discovered a better way of reaching the endgame.  For my next character I rolled Skill 12, Stamina 20, Luck 8 and Fear 10.

With my Skill at the peak of human capacity, I ignored the bell-pull and went straight into dining with the Earl of Drumer.  After being drugged I powered through the ghost bride encounter, claimed the pentacle from the library, and reset my Fear score with some wine from the pantry.  I didn't bother fighting the Great Danes, as I wasn't going to be encountering the vampire, but I did make a point of taking out the Zombie and claiming the key to the dining-room.

After that I made for the Astor Room, climbed into the bed, and was dumped down the chute.  (As I had previously suspected, this bed is no doubt the subject of the message you see in the library, 'Beware the astorbed".  More on that in my next post.)  Once again I got past the cultists with the pentacle, and was faced with a choice of two rooms.

This time I chose the door to the left, and entered a drawing room with a table in the centre and a full-length mirror.  I was shocked to see that the mirror cast no reflection (which raised my Fear score to 4), and when I tried to touch it my hand passed right through.  This was no doubt intriguing, but before passing all the way through I decided to fully explore the drawing-room.

It was lucky I did, because in a secret compartment in the table I found a leather box.  Before I could open the box there were footsteps from outside, so I grabbed the box and jumped through the mirror, where I emerged in a small room.  There I took the chance to open the box, and inside I found the Kris Knife!  Huzzah!  Now, all I needed was to get back to the dining-room...

I waited until things were quiet, and stepped back through the mirror and out of the drawing-room.  Using my key I unlocked the dining-room, and summoned the butler for the final confrontation.

Once more I faced the irate Earl of Drumer, but I had come prepared.  With my Skill of 12, and the Kris Knife, he was hopelessly outmatched.  He put in a decent late flurry, hitting me twice, but the result was never in doubt.

My final blow sent the Earl stumbling into a chandelier, which set the room ablaze.  I smashed a window with a chair and leaped to safety, then watched in satisfaction as the house went up in an enormous blaze of fire.  And ghosts, apparently.  I had survived, and destroyed the evil of the House of Hell!

I should have torched this place much earlier.

THE POST-GAME

Yes!  Success!

Still, as happy as I am to have beaten this adventure, I'm a little disappointed that I made a big plan for defeating the vampire and then never got to see it through.  On the other hand, by-passing him makes for a much easier adventure, with a lot of risks that can be avoided.  But for all I know beating the vampire just leads to certain death further on, so maybe it's all for the best.

To be honest, I almost feel like I cheated to win.  I didn't, of course.  This blog has a strict non-cheating policy.  But my discovery of the winning path was so accidental that I don't quite feel like I earned it.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for House of Hell.  Except, hang on a second...  The next book on my list is House of Hell?  Yep, based strictly on release order, I'd be following the magazine preview version of House of Hell with the complete book version of House of Hell.  That's far from ideal, so I'm going to take a minor detour first.  After my next post, which will be a wrap-up on this adventure, I'm going to do a single post on the newest FF book, Port of Peril.

If any of you aren't aware, Scholastic Books has taken up the series, and along with some old classics they've released a new adventure by Ian Livingstone, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  It's the first genuinely new fantasy adventure from Ian since Legend of Zagor, and the first one set in Allansia since Return to Firetop Mountain, so I'm pretty excited about it.  (I'm not counting Eye of the Dragon, since it was heavily based on his adventure from Dicing With Dragons.) I'm going to have one go at it, do a single blog on that one adventure, then it'll be back to the regular schedule.  I have no idea what Port of Peril is about, but given the name I'm anticipating a return to Port Blacksand, maybe?  That would be way cool, and I'm really looking forward to cracking it open.