House of Hell - Attempt 3

Last time around I discovered the Kris Knife, then almost immediately took a wrong turn and entered a room from which there was no escape.  Still, finding the Kris Knife in this book is no mean feat, so I had pretty good reason to believe that I could win if the dice were kind.

For my third attempt, I rolled Skill 11 (excellent), Stamina 21 (also great), Luck 7 (not so good) aaannnnndddddd......  Fear 7.  Okay, so the dice were not kind.  I know from experience that, unless you cheat by skipping vital clues, you can't finish this book with a Fear of 7.  I think you need a minimum of 9, but I could be wrong there.  (Actually, I could be wrong about all of this, and House of Hell might be doable with Fear 7.  If so, please enlighten me with a minimum of spoilers.) So, with no hope of success, this attempt would be all about exploring options that I never would otherwise.

My adventure began with the usual "heavy rain, broken-down car, spooky mansion" set-up, but instead of opening the front door I sneaked around the back.  I considered climbing through a window and entering the house unseen, but it was covered with iron bars.  There was a light on in the kitchen at the back of the house, and two robed men were talking about their "Master", and wondering excitedly if they would be visited.  One of them was having doubts about whatever was going on, particularly regarding the involvement of a young girl.  My reaction to this obviously Satanic conversation was, naturally, to knock on the door and ask if they'd let me in.  They asked if I was one of the "brethren".  My advice to most people would be to avoid anyone who ever calls anyone brethren, but in this case I nodded my head and pretended I was one of them.  Mentioning by broken-down car was a mistake though, as it seemed that none of the others had arrived in that manner, and the two got suspicious.  Before I could react, one of the men had crept around behind me, and he knocked me unconscious with a blow to the head (reducing my Stamina to 17).

I woke up in an empty room, with my hands and feet bound.  I was capable of some movement, though, so I hopped over to the window, broke it with my hands, and used the glass to cut the ropes.  My wrist was injured as well (reducing my Stamina to 15).  (I had the option here of using my Luck to avoid being injured, but with such a low initial score I didn't want to bother.  I wish more FF books gave you the option of taking the bad path without losing a Luck point.)

With my hands free, I left the room and stepped out onto a landing inside the mansion.  Heading right, I entered the Azazel Room, and found a laboratory.  Aside from some cupboards and drawers, there were a number of coloured liquids in vials: green, red, clear and yellow.  I drank the green liquid, but nothing happened.  Then, after waiting for some men to pass by outside the room, I returned to the landing and headed left.

I passed by the Mephisto Room (where I'd been tied up before) and came to two doors at the corner of the landing.  I ignored the Balthus Room and entered the nameless one in front of me, which opened into a short corridor with one door and a window at the end.  The door was marked as the Diabolus Room, and I went in, finding it to be empty except for a bed.  I decided to rest in here for a while, and gather my strength (restoring my Stamina to 17), but soon something at the window caught my attention.  Someone was calling my name, and before long a ghostly shape came floating through the room: a bloody apparition that carried its own severed head in its hand.

Striking fear into ten-pins everywhere.

The sight of this was horrible (raising my Fear to 2), but I decided to stay and hear what the ghost had to say.  I was hoping for a friendly clue, but instead I got a lot of threats about being cursed to haunt the House of Drumer for eternity (which further raised my Fear to 4).

I ran out of the room, ignored the window and returned to the landing.  I soon came to some stairs leading down, with a door opposite, and I chose to enter the door.  It led into a storeroom, where I found a meat-knife (good for stabbjn') and some garlic (good for cookin').  There was another door at the back of the room, which led to a short passage and three doors: Shaitan, Mammon and one that was nameless.

I entered the Shaitan Room, which was elegantly furnished, with a smouldering fire.  When I stepped inside I was welcomed by a sinister voice (which raised my Fear to 5, because little is scarier than sinister politeness).  A pale man stood up from his chair, but I was onto this guy with his white skin and black cape.  Dude was a vampire, so I got out my garlic and waved it in his face.

Count Jimmy Smits

The vampire tried to flee through one of two exits.  I made for the other, but was shocked to see that it opened into a cupboard.  Not just any cupboard, but a cupboard for storing Zombies.  I had no choice but to fight them, but was able to carve them up with my meat-knife without taking a scratch.  Still holding the Vampire at bay with my garlic (why didn't he fang me while I was busy fighting Zombies?) I took the other exit.

It opened into another cupboard, but this one had a secret door at the back.  This led to some stairs heading down.  At a landing I came to a door, which opened into a room with a strange shimmering in the corner, like a curtain of sparkling water.  There was another door as well, but instead I stepped through the curtain, and found that I had passed through a magic mirror into a room with a mural of a country scene, and a table surrounded by six chairs.

Leaving the room, I found myself in a hallway with a door to my left.  The door was locked, so I had to follow the hallway.  I passed across another hallway (the book didn't give me the option of following it), and kept walking until I reached a dead end with two doors.  I chose the one on the right.

It was a kitchen, the very same one where the two cultists had knocked me out earlier.  There was door leading outside, as well as a pantry door.  I tried the back door, thinking of making my escape, but it was locked.  I could see some keys on top of the cooker, but I figured they might be too hot to hold, so I opened the pantry door instead to look for something I could pick them up with.

Inside the pantry I saw a figure in tattered clothes, heavy with the stench of death.  I had awakened a Ghoul, but I never had a chance to fight it: the sight of the creature was so frightening that I had a heart attack and died on the spot.  (My Fear had, of course, been raised to 7.)

Either it's dark in here, or that Ghoul has amazing hair.

THE POST-GAME
I had, alas, made my way into the dreaded kitchen, from which there is no possible escape.  It's a genuine dead-end loop, and even if you beat the Ghoul you get killed by cultists.  I didn't mind though, because I was dead before the game even began, and was just messing about and trying things.  I was honestly surprised at how little I learned about the house.  I didn't meet anyone important, or learn much about what was going on.   It would have been a pretty disastrous game, had I been genuinely trying to win.  In retrospect, I probably should have used this go to at least try to figure out the path from the Kris Knife to the Master.  Ah well, there's always next time.