"Dungeon of Justice", written by Jonathan Ford, was the runner up in the gamebook design contest that ran in Warlock #1. That means it came in second to "The Dervish Stone", which is a little worrying. I don't believe we'll see anything from Jonathan Ford in the future, but illustrator Bob Harvey has already worked on the main series with Talisman of Death, and will contribute to a bunch more.
The background kicks off by firmly setting this in Allansia, with the hero of the adventure determined to travel south from Oyster Bay, across the Desert of Skulls, to reach Sapphire City and its famous gemstone mines. (This adventure came out a little before Temple of Terror, so it does have the distinction of being the first adventure to do something with the Desert of Skulls. Although technically it starts before the hero ever gets there, so I guess Temple of Terror should still get that credit.) Along the way, the hero encounters some goblins in the process of murdering an important-looking elf. The goblins clear out just before some other elves appear, and of course the hero gets blamed for killing the elven chief. The elven legal system apparently involves retrieving a golden idol from the so-called Dungeon of Justice as proof of innocence, and the hero is lowered through a hollow tree trunk into the labyrinth below. The mission is to find the idol and escape the dungeon, and only then will the elves set the hero free.
The rules are basic Fighting Fantasy, without any embellishments. The hero begins with the standard FF kit of a sword, shield, leather armour, and backpack. The backpack contains five provisions, which can only be eaten one at a time when the adventure says it's okay. You also get the choice of taking one of the following three: a potion of skill, a potion of strength, or a potion of fortune, each with two doses. Very familiar territory.
I rolled an 11 for Skill, a 20 for Stamina, and an 8 for Luck. With Luck as my obvious weakness, I chose the potion of fortune, and set off on my adventure.
With no other recourse, I set off along the torch-lit tunnel. The tunnel twisted and turned, continuing roughly north. As I turned a corner I bumped into a man in black robes, armed with a dagger; probably someone else that the elves had put on trial. (For what? Have the elves had multiple chiefs killed on the same day? It says he's a thief, so that solves it, I guess.). The thief (Skill 7, Stamina 6) lunged at me with his dagger, but I killed him easily. (If you're making a list of things that annoy me in gamebooks, add unavoidable combats right at the beginning of adventures. Getting thrown right into a fight before making a single decision really gets to me.)
On his body were 3 gold pieces and a mouldy piece of triangular fruit. I'd never seen a fruit like it, but I suspected it might be the Xentos, the legendary fruit of longevity. Rather than risk eating it, I left it behind. (This bit is weird. You don't get a choice to eat the fruit, it's just an odd bit of setting flavour that the author throws in. It might come back later in the adventure, but I suspect that it's pointless.)
At a fork in the tunnel, I turned west into a passageway that ended at a door. The door opened into a small room with a large dog sleeping in a basket in the corner. On the far side of the room was another door, with a brass key hanging on a hook nearby. I decided to risk creeping quietly across the room. My sword made a noise when it struck a stone, but the dog didn't wake up (due to a successful Luck test that reduced my score to 7). I took the key, made it through the door, and slammed it shut as the dog snarled and slavered on the other side. (I never understand in these sleeping animal situations why I don't get the option to just sneak over and jam my sword through the dog's neck. But I guess I only think of things like that because I am a dog-hater, a hater of all kinds of pets, and generally just soulless and evil.)
The tunnel beyond headed west before turning north. I came to a door in the east wall and decided to open it. The only thing in the room was a not-too-deep hole in the floor, with a passage leading north at the bottom. I decided to jump into the hole, but as I did my backpack caught on something and I was thrown off-balance. I managed to land well (due to a Luck test that reduced my score to 6), but I was still slightly hurt by the fall (reducing my Stamina to 19). I took this chance to take a swig from my Potion of Fortune (increasing my initial Luck to 9, and restoring it to that number as well.)
The tunnel came to a junction, with a path branching off to the east. I went that way, down some roughly cut steps. After a time the tunnel curved back north, and I was confronted by a dirty, fat Hobgoblin (Skill 7, Stamina 8). (With one purple eye and one green eye, he's the David Bowie of hobgoblins.) He attacked me with his sword, and I was able to kill him without a scratch. On his corpse I found 2 gold pieces (bringing my total to 5) and a scrap of parchment.
The parchment had three numbers written on it: 15, 10 and 22. I tucked it away in my pocket. (The book told me I should memorise the numbers in case I lost the parchment, but I wrote them down instead. I figure if I'm carrying the parchment with me there's no need to memorise it. If I do lose it, then I'll rub the numbers out.)
Further along the tunnel I came to a door in the east wall. It was locked, but I was able to open it with the brass key I'd taken from the dog's room. In the middle of the room beyond was a large ruby, glinting in the torchlight. Filled with greed (and also figuring that if I needed a key to get in here this ruby might be important for my quest) I walked over to pick it up. As soon as I entered the room, a gigantic Spider dropped down from the roof. I caught a glimpse of its previous victims webbed to the ceiling before it attacked me.
The Giant Spider (Skill 9, Stamina 5) was a stronger foe than those I'd previously fought, and it managed to wound me once (reducing my Stamina to 17). When the spider was dead I grabbed the ruby, and clambered back out of the room over it's sticky corpse.
Coming to a junction, I headed east. The passage soon came to another junction, but the way south was a dead end, so I turned north. After a while the passage widened, and I found myself at the top of a cliff overlooking a large cavern with a fast river at the bottom. I had no way of getting down, so I turned back south, west, and then north. (The book asked if I had a Cape of Levitation, so that's something I'll have to look out for.)
The way north was barred by two strange beasts, giant Porcupines with poisonous quills. I had to fight them both (Skill 7, Stamina 5 and Skill 8, Stamina 5), but luckily they attacked me one at a time. I was able to kill them without being hurt by their spines. (The poison would have done 3 points of damage instead of the usual 2, due to the poison.)
The passage widened into a cavern, the same one that I had seen before from the clifftop. I went downstream along the river until I reached a bridge. Not only was the bridge rather flimsy-looking, it was also in the process of being devoured by giant, two-headed termites. I considered swimming across, but figured that the current would be too strong for me to survive. Instead, I decided to risk crossing the bridge before it was completely destroyed. The termites ignored me, but with each step another piece of the bridge fell away. By the time I got to the far end it was hanging by a single rope, but I was able to make it to the north riverbank (with the aid of a successful Luck test, which reduced by score to 8).
An alcove in the cliff face ahead had three doors, heading west, north and east, but first I decided to search the beach on the north riverbank. I didn't find anything, and I was nipped on the hand by a small crab (reducing my Stamina to 15). I decided to move on, taking the west door.
The passage beyond continued west, and I ignored two branches heading off to the north. Eventually I came to a rock fall that blocked the way forward, but there was another passage north, which I took. It led to a huge cavern, in which I saw a gigantic ruby on a shelf on the far wall. The path to the ruby was lined with spikes that swivelled in and out, looking very dangerous. Figuring that I was here for a golden idol and not a ruby, I decided to leave and head back the way I came. (Now that I think of it, that's the second ruby I've encountered so far, which seems a bit suspicious. I'm wondering now if I need to be collecting all the rubies I see.)
I went back east, past the first northern branch. I wasn't able to open the door back to the river cave, so I took the second branch to the north. It led to a room with an exit on the far wall, and a shallow pit. I jumped into the pit, and saw a low tunnel entrance under some overhanging rock. Investigating, I found a phial of blue liquid on the ground, which I drank. It was a Potion of Fortune, much like the one I already had with me. (Drinking it raised my initial Luck and my current Luck to 10.)
At the end of the tunnel was a door, and from behind it I could hear a strange gurgling noise. It felt strangely cold to the touch, but I decided to open it anyway. This proved to be a very bad idea, as a flood of water gushed out as soon as the door was opened. It was impossible to flee, and I drowned in the tunnel. My adventure was over!
THE POST-GAME
Well that was a nice, traditional dungeon crawl, which I'm always up for. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but I don't expect a lot from these amateur contest entries. One thing I've realised that I need to do is make a map. The dungeon has a lot of doors and passages, with a decent amount of backtracking. I figured that, being a shorter adventure, I'd be able to dispense with the mapping, but I was wrong.
I'm also wondering about the rules for provisions. The rules say you're meant to eat when instructed by the text, but I never got any such instructions. I suspect that this is an error, and that I should be able to eat whenever I'm not in battle. It didn't matter, as I hardly sustained any damage, but it might become more important for a low-Skill character.
