The Rings of Kether - Attempt 1

Cover by Terry Oakes

Corruption is rife in the Aleph Cygni system and the flow of the illicit narcotic Satophil-d from the spaceports of the planet Kether has grown to enormous proportions.  Several attempts have been made to crack the notorious drug rings of Kether, with no success.  Now the Galactic Federation has entrusted YOU with this dangerous undercover mission in this wild and lawless place. But will YOU succeed?

The Rings of Kether is the 15th book in the Fighting Fantasy series, written by Andrew Chapman and illustrated by Nik Spender.  I wasn't particularly fond of Chapman's previous effort, Space Assassin, but according to interviews he put a lot more effort into Kether.  I guess we'll see if that effort made any difference, but the book has an uphill battle from the start, as I've never loved the sci-fi entries in the series.

I've only read this book once, about 20 years ago, and I barely remember any of that play-through.  The podcast Campaign on Dice covered it about a year ago, which somewhat jogged my memory, so I'm not going in completely blind.  (As an aside, Campaign on Dice is excellent, and very funny.  It's well worth a listen, as long as you don't mind the books being incessantly ridiculed.  Their coverage of The Rings of Kether is especially good, but word of warning: you should probably listen to it with headphones, it's definitely not family-friendly.)

As noted above, the hero of this book is an undercover investigator, being sent to the planet of Kether to sort out a drug trafficking ring.  The authorities on Kether are supposed to deal with this sort of thing themselves, so there's some suspicion that the authorities might be in on the whole operation.  As such, the hero has been sent in under the guise of a travelling salesman specialising in exotic fruit, spices and luxuries.

The sci-fi books almost always have new rules, and Kether is no exception.  Aside from the usual Skill, Stamina and Luck, you need to roll stats for your spaceship: Weapons Strength and Shields.  Weapons Strength is rolled like Skill (1d6 + 6) and Shields are a simple d6 roll.  Your ship also has two smart missiles, which can be used to instantly blow up enemy ships.  Instead of provisions you have 4 Pep Pills, which restore 6 Stamina at a time.  You've also been provided with money in the form of 5,000 Kopecks, the standard intergalactic currency.

Melee combat works the same as regular FF, but there are new rules for Blaster Combat and Ship-to-Ship Combat.  In Blaster Combat, both combatants trade fire, each taking turns to roll against their Skill with 2d6.  A result under their Skill indicates a hit, which deals 4 damage.  Ship-to-Ship Combat is similar, with the combatants rolling against their Weapon Strength.  A ship that is hit loses 1 point from their Shields, and if they are hit when Shields are at 0 they are destroyed.  (I should note that the use of Luck in combat isn't anywhere in the rules.  There's also nothing to say that Skill and Luck scores can't go above their initial level, although it's possible that may never come up.)

For my first attempt I rolled a 10 for Weapon Strength, a 2 for Shields, a 7 for Skill, a 20 for Stamina, and a 10 for Luck.  I couldn't remember how difficult this book was stats-wise, but I was already nervous about my Shields score, and figured I'd be relying on smart missiles to get through any space battles.

The adventure began as I dropped out of hyperspace, into the Aleph Cygni system: a yellow star with one orbiting planet.  I was told by my cosmo-nav that Kether was mostly ocean, with a few scattered islands and one large continent.  Orbiting Kether was the moon known as Rispin's End, and there was also a vast asteroid belt in the system.  Figuring that investigation of the moon and the asteroids would look suspicious, I decided to land at Kether's starport.

As soon as I landed, I was promptly boarded by customs officers who said they were looking for contraband.  Not drugs as I suspected, but technology; they stripped me of my spy ray before allowing me to disembark.  (This whole spy ray thing is a bit odd.  It's not mentioned at all before these officers take it from you.  What is it?  I thought maybe it was my blaster, and that I now had no weapon, but there's nothing to indicate that that's the case.  I'm going to ignore this unless it specifically comes up later.)

Rather than ask questions at the spaceport or go to the local authorities for help, I decided to keep a low profile by going to a local shady canteen.  I found a noisy bar populated by the usual scum and villainy, and decided to mingle and see what I could find out.  I ended up talking to a deranged starship navigator who told me to "beware".  (This was determined by a die roll, where I got the most common result.  If I'd rolled a 1 I would have talked to a pale man sitting alone, and if I'd rolled a 2 I would have spoken to a fat woman playing cards.)  The navigator went off on a rant, and by the time he ended I had gleaned two things: something was going on at Rispin's End, and the "fat broad" playing cards at the table had something to do with it.  (Yes, the book really describes her as a "fat broad".  As far as this character is concerned, the descriptions of her get much worse.)

Rather then head out to Rispin's End immediately, I decided to keep an eye on the woman.  Despite her appearance and slovenly manner, she seemed to be in charge of the men playing with her.  Figuring that joining their game would attract too much attention, I waited until they were done and tried to follow her when she left the bar.  Unfortunately (due to rolling higher than my Skill on 2d6), I tripped over a motor unicycle, and the woman bolted.  She was fast for her size, but I was able to keep up with her (due to another roll against my Skill, this time successful).  She ducked into a five-story building, and soon I saw a light switched on in the window of the fourth floor.  Looking at the list of residents, the entire fourth floor was owned by a "Zera Gross, Import/Export".  Rather than attract more attention by waiting around, I decided to resume investigation tomorrow by visiting the library.

At the library I found an unused terminal and started going through old news reports about organised crime and narcotics.  I found very little, just one snippet that read: "Central Criminal Court 3: State vs. Z. Gross and B. "Blaster" Babbet. Before Justice Zark. Charge: trafficking in illicit organic materials (Satophil-d). Sitting 10.30 a.m."  I found a record of B. Babbet's address, but nothing further on Z. Gross (although it did indicate that I was on the right track the night before).  I decided to check out Babbet's address.

The place was a large, run-down warehouse. Rather then go in through the main entrance I went around the back and went in through a rear door.  At the end of a corridor I was faced with a choice of two doors, and went through the one to the left.  It led to a raised landing with a storehouse below.  Two men entered, and I lay down flat to hide.  I overheard them say that the "dope" was arriving from the asteroids tomorrow.  Figuring that I'd already pushed my luck, and that staying in the building might be dangerous, I left and returned to the starport.

Looking for someone who might know something about illegal space traffic, I started in the starport hangars.  I approached a lone shuttle pilot, and asked him without offering a bribe (again, I didn't want to cause too much suspicion).  He told me that there's been a bit of odd traffic around asteroid C-230, and that I'd be able to find it easily enough with my cosmo-nav.  Not trusting his information, I decided to head into the city to try to verify this information.

I asked around at a few places with no luck, but while I was having lunch at a sandwich shop two men with blasters approached and forced me into their car.  I was taken to a manor house in the country which was crawling with armed men.  I decided to play along rather than make a run for it.  Inside the house I once again met Zera Gross, and was told that I had to go to a meeting and pick up some documents for her "or else".  Figuring that "or else" meant a certain death, I opted to go to the meeting.

The meeting was with the wife of a Clive Torus, one of the gang's former associates, and was to take place in the city's botanic gardens.  As I approached Mrs. Torus, who was carrying a box containing the documents, a sniper fired at us from the bushes nearby.  We were both hit, and Mrs. Torus fell to the ground.  (I had to roll for damage on a d6 and rolled a 1, reducing my Stamina to 19).  The sniper raced out, grabbed the box, and made his getaway in a waiting car.

Not bothering to check on Mrs. Torus, I ran out onto the road and commandeered a passing car by throwing the driver out the door.  I gave chase in my new car, as my quarry disappeared over the crest of a hill.  I decided to drive at top speed, and was surprised when the road took a sharp turn, but I was able to keep my car on the road (with a successful Luck test that reduced my score to 9).  I chased the other car through a forest, matching its speed, and attempted to ram them from behind.  This had little effect, but I was still able to keep pace with them (with another Luck test that reduced my score to 8).  As the other car went through an S-bend I hit them in the side (requiring yet another Luck test that reduced my score to 7), and sent them spinning off the road.  None of the occupants survived the crash, but I was able to recover the box containing the documents.  These documents had lots of incriminating evidence against Gross and Babbet, as well as the location of their receiving facility on Kether, on an island about 4,000 km away from the mainland.

Hiring a helijet, I flew out to the island and landed on a landing bay.  There were two ordinary entrances  into the facility, and a large freight door.  Parked nearby was an antigrav dray (a dray is kind of truck or cart).  I investigated the dray, and decided that it would be a great idea to use it to ram through the freight door.  I did this to great success, killing four brutish-looking guards in the process.

The room was stacked with containers full of Satophil-d.  There was also the corpse of a man who was covered in bloody gashes, either the work of a savage beast or a skilled torturer.  There were no other clues on his person, but he did have a jar with four pep pills, which I took with me.

A corridor led me into a hexagonal room, where I was confronted by a seven-legged robot which waved  its sensors in my direction.  It offered me a riddle, which I would have to answer before I could pass:

Red I am,

the heart of a scorpion,

but not of Arachnia at all!

Pincers I have,

but I grasp with the unseen.

In one word, what am I?

This immediately brought to mind the constellation Scorpio, but I couldn't remember the names of any of the stars that comprised it.  I took a stab, answering "Antares", and was proven correct.  (In actual fact, I took a guess here.  I was thinking of the constellation, possibly due to faint memories from the podcast I mentioned above, but I couldn't remember the answer.  The book gives three options: a word starting with A, a word starting with S, or a word starting with X.  I picked A, and it ended up being correct, which got me past the robot without a fight.  Regardless, I take issue with Antares having pincers, and grasping with anything.  Those clues work for Scorpio, but not at all for Antares.)

At a junction I turned right, where I found a control panel saying that the next shuttle would be arriving in 75 hours.  Returning to the junction and going left, I entered the office of Zera Gross.  As soon as she saw me she reached for her blaster, and I returned fire.  Zera (Skill 8, Stamina 11) managed to hit me twice (reducing my Stamina to 11) before I shot her to death.  Her office was destroyed in the fight, so I raced down another corridor into a command centre.  There on some monitor screens I saw records of Satophil-d shipments, as well as the exact location of the asteroid that the drug was coming from.

I headed back to the mainland and took off in my ship, heading for the asteroid belt.  The asteroid I was headed for was surrounded by a minefield.  I decided to shoot the mines, but I misjudged their power and was caught in the blast (reducing my Shields to 1).

With the path clear, I approached the asteroid, but they had been forewarned by the exploding mines.  The Asteroid Defences (Weapon Strength 9, Shields 6) opened fire on me as I drew closer.  I softened them up with both of my smart missiles (which reduced their Shields by 2 each), and then we traded fire.  I came close to penetrating their defences, but my own Shields, already weakened, weren't enough to survive the barrage.  My ship was destroyed, and my adventure was over.

THE POST-GAME

I think I did pretty well on my first go, as I suspect that I was pretty close to the end of the adventure.  It's honestly hard to tell, I have much more trouble figuring out how well I'm doing with these investigation-style gamebooks than I do with most dungeon-crawls.  My low Shields score was what did me in, but I did have some quandaries regarding ship-to-ship combat.  The first was with my smart missiles, where the book wasn't entirely clear if I could fire them both off at the start of the fight, or if I had to fire one each round while taking fire from the Asteroid Defences.  In the interests of actually beating the book, I opted for the former.  I also wasn't sure if enemies are destroyed when reduced to 0 Shields, or if you have to hit them again once they're on 0.  The latter is true for the player, so I decided to do it the same way for enemies as well.  This cost me, because I did get this enemy down to 0 before it killed me.  One more shot might have been enough for me to finish this book in one attempt, but it wasn't to be.  With better stats, I'll hopefully be able to get through next time (although the temptation to explore a different path will be hard to resist).

Exploring Titan 16: Dungeon of Justice

It's time to finish up my coverage of "Dungeon of Justice" with a post delving into how it fits into the  Fighting Fantasy setting of Allansia.  This adventure is historic in its own way, because it actually does fit into Allansia.  Author Jonathan Ford went to the effort of giving this one a place on the map, which makes this one a lot easier to place than its predecessor, "The Dervish Stone".

The adventure takes place at the northern edge of the Desert of Skulls, which is said to lie some fifty miles south of Oyster Bay (home of the sadly departed Mungo).  (As an aside, there are a lot of desert adventures around this time.  This, "The Dervish Stone", Temple of Terror...  There must have been something in the cultural zeitgeist.  Indiana Jones, Dune, Star Wars?  There are no doubt other things I'm forgetting.)

On the southern edge of the desert is the prosperous town of Sapphire City, famous for its gemstone mines.  The protagonist of the adventure is planning to walk from Oyster Bay to Sapphire City, across the Desert of Skulls, which doesn't seem like the wisest career choice; if Oyster Bay to the desert is 50 miles, then the distance from there to the southern edge of the desert would be at least 500 miles based on one map of Allansia I've seen.  That map (the one from Titan) does have some coastal mountains along the western edge of the desert; perhaps Sapphire City is in those mountains, more south-west than true south?  It would be a more plausible journey.

The area between Oyster Bay and the Desert of Skulls is home to a tribe of elves, much uglier than most Allansian elves if the adventure's illustrations are anything to go by.  These elves have a twisted sense of justice: instead of putting criminals on trial, they throw them into an underground labyrinth where they must find a golden idol to prove their innocence.  I will note that none of the criminals encountered in the dungeon are elves: most of them are human (with one possible dwarf).  The only elf in the dungeons is found wrapped up in a giant spider's web, and may not have been a prisoner at all. It's possible that this form of justice only applies to outsiders.

Aside from criminals encountered, the creatures living in the dungeon are a mix of naturally occurring vermin (Giant Spiders, Giant Bats, Giant Porcupines), specially placed guardians (the two-headed dog Xlaia, Galon the Birdman, possibly the Mud Dragons), and administrative staff (the wizard at the end, and I suspect the sleeping old man as well).  The orcs and hobgoblin present are curious; it seems unlikely that the elves would have creatures like this working for them, although the wizard might.  They could also be prisoners, I suppose.

The most baffling encounter is the one with the Light-Worshippers, who are found dancing around a huge glowing crystal.  They're described as very small creatures with fine silver cloaks which float about them.  Their size makes it likely that they're not human.  They may be elves, but the real question is what they're doing in the dungeon.  I doubt they're prisoners.  Maybe they're a religious cult working for the wizard?

Let's talk about that wizard.  He's encountered at the end of the dungeon, and he's the one who leads the hero outside for his execution (or exoneration if they're lucky).  Even though it's the elves who throw the hero in, the ending implies that the wizard is really in charge, as he's the one who stays to wave farewell to the hero when everyone else has vanished.  He seems benevolent, but who knows.  If I had to put all of this together, I'd have him in charge of the whole lot: the elves up top, the elven light worshippers below, the monsters in the dungeon, and the whole justice system.  As for the reason for all of this, your guess is as good as mine.  I'm pretty sure I've already put more thought into it than the author did at the time.  (And that's not a knock, I've created loads of dungeons that are nothing more than rooms and tunnels filled with random monsters and traps I thought were cool.  I assume Jonathan Ford was a young boy or teenager doing much the same.)

Some smaller details:

• Oddly, this dungeon contains an atlas that has a map of Analand.  The hero takes it, thinking it will be very handy.  I suppose at the time the author had no way of knowing just how separated Allansia and the Old World are.
• Xlaia is the name of a two-headed dog, thought to have been extinct for 100 years.  I don't think there's been a two-headed dog in any of the adventures so far, but there's definitely at least one coming up (in Trial of Champions).  I suspect there are more, and that the Xlaia may just be a specific variety that's been almost wiped out.
• One of the criminals is carrying a piece of triangular fruit that the hero thinks might be the legendary Xentos, the fruit of longevity.  Literally nothing else is said about it, but based on the name you'd expect it to extend the lifespan of whoever eats it.

NEXT: It's back to the main series for The Rings of Kether.

Dungeon of Justice - Final Thoughts

I probably said this when I covered "The Dervish Stone", but I expect very little from these fan-written mini-adventures.  As non-professional efforts, I'm happy enough for them to present a straightforward adventure that isn't doing anything new or interesting with the format.  I'm not expecting Creature of Havoc or Shadow on the Sand when I sit down to play one of these.

For the most part, author Jonathan Ford provided exactly what I expected with "Dungeon of Justice".  Being placed on trial is a novel (if nonsensical) way of getting your adventurer into the action, but from there it's just a straight-up dungeon crawl with a macguffin to hunt.  The FF rules are used well enough, the encounters are drawn from standard fantasy tropes, and it all holds together solidly enough to justify its existence as a mini-adventure in the middle of a magazine.  Except, of course, for its one crippling flaw.

There was no way that this wasn't going to be the major talking point of this review, so I'll get to it right away: you have to fail a roll against your Skill to find the idol and beat the adventure.  On the one hand you could say that this is a clever subversion of game design principles, and an ingenious way to disguise the path to victory.  I've played a lot of gamebooks over the years, and I sure wasn't expecting it.  On the other hand, it does feel very, very cheap.  With any sort of game design there's a certain amount of trust that has to exist between the designer and the player.  If you're playing a board game, you expect the rules to be clear, and for every player to have an even chance of success.  If you're playing a video game, you expect that it will be relatively free of glitches and that the game can be beaten fairly.  The same goes for gamebooks, and technically "Dungeon of Justice" can be beaten fairly, and with better odds of success than many of the main series books.  But requiring a failure to succeed just feels wrong.  It's more like being tricked by the author than challenged by the adventure, and for me it breaks that player/designer trust.

It's a shame because "Dungeon of Justice" is otherwise a decent amateur effort (despite some smaller design flaws and weird tangents).  This is a real case of one major flaw overshadowing a work that is - if not outstanding - at least solid.

COOL STUFF I MISSED

The only encounter I missed that springs to mind is a magic mirror that forces you to fight a replica of yourself.  It brings up the twisted notion that killing your mirror image might end up as a form of suicide, but never does anything with it.  Other than that I covered everything else the dungeon has to offer.

MISTAKES AND RED HERRINGS

There were a bunch of errors in the PDF that I was using, with a number of choices pointing to the wrong section.  I don't want to bring those up specifically, because I don't know if they're in the original or just a result of bad OCR.  The page for "Dungeon of Justice" at the Titannica wiki has some errors listed that I assume are from the original magazine.

There are a few items that are only here as treasures to be won, and serve no purpose within the adventure.  Some other items, such as the golden and brass keys, only unlock areas that lead to death and danger.  Everything else serves a purpose somewhere, but aside from the idol there are no items required to win.

BEST DEATH

This adventure has 14 instant death sections, and some of them are fantastic.  Whatever flaws Jonathan Ford has as a writer and designer, he's great at creating memorable demises, giving them a level of over-the-top gore or macabre detail that sticks in the mind.  I had a number of contenders here, but the passage below gave me a good chuckle with how over-the-top horrific it is.

S.T.A.M.I.N.A. RATING

Story & Setting: The notion of being put on trial and forced to prove your innocence by surviving a dungeon is nonsensical, but fun in a pulp fantasy sort of way.  There are some nods in the adventure itself towards making it a prison of sorts, but otherwise it's a generic dungeon with the usual assortment of orcs, monsters and giant creepy-crawlies.  The set-up is interesting, but it barely matters except as an excuse for the player to do some dungeon-crawling.  I'll give it an extra point for making an effort to integrate it with the setting of Allansia. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Toughness: It's decently balanced in terms of combat, with lots of weaker foes and some more difficult ones in area that are harder to get to.  It probably errs on the side of being a little too easy, statistically speaking.  The Golden Idol is deviously well-hidden; I do think that putting it in the river - usually the sort of area that would result in an instant death - is somewhat clever.  All the good points, however, are overshadowed by the requirement to fail a check to succeed.  That's enough to knock this one down to a low rating.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Aesthetics: Being stuck in the middle of a magazine never does these mini-adventures any favours, but Warlock always benefits from the presence of the Games Workshop artistic stable.  In this case it's Bob Harvey, whose work we've previously seen in Talisman of Death.  This is a step down from the work on display in that book, with far too many illustrations depicting mundane things such as books, traps, and sleeping old men.  Harvey excels at grotesquerie, and his monsters here are great.  It's a shame he didn't get a crack at drawing the Mud Dragons; the Christos Achilleos painting on the cover that depicts one isn't as fantastical as I'd like.  Rating: 3 out of 7.

Mechanics: This adventure uses the standard instructions copy-pasted from The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, with no embellishments.  This means there's an error in the rules from the start, because it says you can only eat provisions when instructed; the adventure never says you can do so.  There are also a few links pointing to the wrong section, and a couple of other bits of rules weirdness (I'm thinking specifically of an awkwardly worded Luck bonus that ends up being a penalty if interpreted literally).  There aren't any game-breaking flaws, but there are enough small ones to add up. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Innovation & Influence: There's very little going on here that hasn't been seen before. Rating: 1 out of 7.

NPCs & Monsters: For the most part the monsters in this book are drawn from the standard FF/D&D list: orcs, hobgoblins, giant spiders, and the like.  Galon the Birdman is named, as is the two-headed dog Xlaia, but neither are presented differently from similar monsters in earlier adventures.  The Mud Dragons are the only unique monster, but they don't do anything that would make you think of them as actual dragons; in effect they're just large mud-dwelling lizards that can swell themselves up with swamp gas.  There are a few NPCs in the dungeon, but none of them show much personality. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Amusement: This is a weird one, in that I was finding it mildly enjoyable right up until I learned what I had to do to win it.  It's not a classic by any means, but I'm a sucker for a dungeon-crawl.  It was never going to rate super-high in this category, though.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Bonus Points: 0.

The above scores total 14, which doubled gives a S.T.A.M.I.N.A. Rating of 28.  That makes it the lowest-rated gamebook on the blog so far.  Without its major flaw it might have scraped in ahead of "The Dark Usurper" and "The Dervish Stone" - I certainly enjoyed it more than "The Dark Usurper" - but in the end it was too big a flaw to ignore.

NEXT: I'll do an Exploring Titan on "Dungeon of Justice" and then it's on to The Rings of Kether.

Dungeon of Justice - Attempts 9 through 18

Yeah, you read that right, this post covers attempts 9 through 18.  I was keen to put "Dungeon of Justice" behind me, so I made a concerted effort to knock it off yesterday.  Did I succeed, and discover the Golden Idol?  Read on, and you may just find out!

ATTEMPT 9

For this attempt I rolled a Skill of 10, a Stamina of 18, and a Luck of 7.

I still had a few unexplored paths on my map of the dungeon, one of which was in the eastern area where I'd been killed by Light Worshippers in an earlier game.  I decided to use this attempt to check that path out, and after killing the unavoidable Thief at the start I made my way through several junctions to that encounter.  There I saw a number of robed figures performing a ritual around a glowing crystal, and when they saw me they moved to attack.  I was able to kill the Light Worshippers (Skill 9, Stamina 11) this time, but I was left with a meagre 4 Stamina.  After the battle the crystal stopped glowing, and when I inspected it it was nothing more than a piece of glass. I was able to loot 3 gold pieces from the Worshippers, though.

The tunnel continued north, but there was also a hole in the wall that led to a smooth slide.  Rather than heading north, I decided that sliding down into the unknown would be a great idea.  Not so much; I was dumped into a furnace and incinerated.

ATTEMPT 10

For this attempt I rolled a Skill of 11, a Stamina of 20, and a Luck of 11.

I couldn't be bothered fighting the Light Worshippers again, so this time I decided to make my way north to a secret door that I'd previously been unable to open.  Along the way I ducked into a side room to fight some Giant Bats, and take the Cape of Levitation and a Ring of Skill (cursed so that it gave no benefit).  One of the Bats, despite having a Skill of 6, really did a number on me; it started rolling absurdly high numbers, and ended up hitting me four times to reduce my Stamina to 12.

I made it to the dead end where I suspected there was a secret door, and this time I got it open with a successful Luck test.  The passage beyond was trapped with a crossbow; I passed the requisite Luck test, but the crossbow bolt still lodged in my shoulder, reducing my Stamina to 8.  It's a pretty rough penalty for success, but the alternative is an instant death, so I guess it is lucky under the circumstances.

On the way north I tripped and bent my shield, imposing a -2 Attack Strength penalty.  I'd reached this ridiculous section in an earlier game due to some faulty OCR in my scan of Warlock #5, but now I was getting to it legitimately.  North of that I passed a junction and came to a cliff, where I was able to float down using the Cape of Levitation.

I had reached the cave with the river, and the wooden bridge being eaten by giant termites.  In every previous attempt I'd crossed the bridge, assuming that trying to swim the river would be an instant death.  This time, I decided to jump in.  The current was strong, but with a successful roll of 2d6 under my Skill I was able to swim to the other side.

(I didn't come to this decision on my own.  Ed Jolley gave me a hint in the comments about reaching a certain point of the adventure four times, and making the wrong decision each time.  By process of elimination, I figured that the only place I'd visited four times was this bridge, so I decided to try something different.  A successful Skill test resulted in it being a non-event, but perhaps a failed Skill test might be of more benefit.  It would certainly fit the warnings I'd been getting from my readers that the solution to this one is a bit bullshit.)

On the far side of the river I headed west, and took the north path through the room with the mud pits.  This time I failed my Luck test while trying to cross, and a fearsome beast emerged: the dreaded Mud Dragon!  The Mud Dragon (Skill 10, Stamina 6) ended up being something of a pushover.  I used my Luck to dish out some extra damage, and hacked the creature's head off in two quick blows.

From there I was able to make it to the end of the adventure, but I still didn't have the golden idol.  Another failure.

ATTEMPT 11

With Skill 10, Stamina 21 and Luck 11, I headed west this time, sneaking past the sleeping dog and taking a couple of unexplored paths.  Both of these tunnels simply joined back to areas I'd already checked out.  At the river I jumped in, but once again I succeeded in testing my Skill and was able to swim across.  I ploughed quickly through the rest of the adventure, getting killed by the elves at the end.

ATTEMPT 12

This time I rolled a Skill of 7, a Stamina of 20, and a Luck of 12.  I decided to hurry north, not bothering to fight the Giant Bats and get the Cape of Levitation.  Because I didn't have the cape I had to take a detour and fight the Giant Porcupines, which managed to knock me down to 9 Stamina.

This time when I jumped in the river, I failed my Luck test, and was swept downstream.  As I passed a rocky island I was able to grab it with a successful Luck test and pull myself to safety.  There, hidden in a niche in the rock, was the Golden Idol I had been tasked with finding.  I carefully placed it in my backpack, and swam to the north shore of the river.

Quickly I made my way through the mud pit room, avoiding the Mud Dragon fight, and reached the old man at the end of the adventure.  I showed him the idol, and he led me outside to face the elves.  I was deemed innocent, and allowed to go on my way.  But when I turned back, the elves had vanished, and only the old man was there, nodding goodbye.  Then even he vanished, and I set off on my long journey to Sapphire City.

THE POST-GAME

Success!  Well, maybe not.  See, the path I'd taken had resulted in my shield getting broken, meaning I had an effective Skill of 5 in combat.  I'd forgotten about that when fighting the Giant Porcupines, so this whole run was technically invalid.  I refought the battle, and got slaughtered.  So while I'd reached the end I didn't feel good about it, and was determined to beat the adventure legitimately.

Scanning the map I worked out the path that would get me through the adventure most quickly.  I found a path through the eastern area of the dungeon that got me to the river cave with no encounters; it did require two successful Luck tests to get safely down a rope, but with the Potion of Fortune that was no problem.  After the river there was only one Luck test required (to pass the Mud Dragon) to get to the end.  The whole adventure could be boiled down to the fight with the Thief at the start, two Luck tests, the Skill test at the river (and subsequent Luck test if I failed), and one more Luck test.

With the adventure distilled to its most basic elements, I set about rolling those dice.  The winning play-through came on Attempt 18, with a character that had a Skill of 10.

So that's that for "Dungeon of Justice".  I won't go in-depth on my feelings for it - I'll save that for a wrap-up post - but suffice it to say that I don't love the successful path requiring a failed Skill check.  There are just some unspoken rules about gamebook design that shouldn't be broken, and this is one of them.

NEXT: I'll do the usual wrap-up posts (Final Thoughts and Exploring Titan), and then it's back to the main series (yay!) for The Rings of Kether, a sci-fi adventure (boo!).

Dungeon of Justice - Attempt 8

After seven attempts, I can sense that my readers are starting to get somewhat frustrated with my efforts to complete Dungeon of Justice.  I get the feeling that I've been on completely the wrong track, and that simply exploring the dungeon isn't going to be enough for me to find the Golden Idol and win the adventure.  Nevertheless, there are still tunnels for me to check out, and with no other obvious options I plan to stick with it.

This time around I rolled a Skill of 8, a Stamina of 21, and a Luck of 10.  Those aren't the greatest stats, but I'm not overly worried; there are tough enemies in this book, but they're hidden out of the way and easily avoided.

As usual I started the adventure by fighting the Thief; this time he actually wounded me, which is unusual.  At the first junction I took the western path, through the room with the sleeping dog.  Despite my high Luck score I rolled badly on my attempt to sneak past.  The two-headed dog Xlaia woke up, and I had a fight on my hands.  Our Skills were even, but by the time I'd killed Xlaia I only had 3 Stamina points left.  I ate a meal, restoring my Stamina to 7, before moving on.  (The rules says that you can only eat when instructed, but at no point in the adventure have I been told I can eat provisions.  I can only assume that this is a mistake resulting from copying the rules directly from Warlock of Firetop Mountain, so I'm allowing myself to eat provisions whenever I'm not in combat.)

I ignored a door and headed north at the next junction (into unexplored territory).  At the top of some stairs I was attacked from behind by a Dwarf wielding a morning star (Skill 8, Stamina 5).  He struck me before the battle commenced (reducing my score to 6).  With only a meagre 1-Stamina advantage, I decided to use my Luck score to even the odds.  My first blow reduced him to 1 Stamina, but then he proceeded to win the next three combat rounds; I had to use my Luck again to avoid death.  With just 1 Stamina remaining, I killed the Dwarf and hastily ate another provision (restoring my Stamina to 5).

I almost got killed by a dwarf with no
beard, how embarrassing.

Continuing north, I came to a room with three exits and a pile of gold pieces in the middle.  I carefully scooped up the gold (30gp in total), and searched the corners for more.  Finding none, I was told by the adventure that I had to exit to the north.  The door was trapped with darts, but I avoided them with a successful Luck test.  My Luck had been reduced to 5 at this point, so I took a drink from my Potion of Fortune to raise it to 11.

Along the passage I came to a massive door studded with iron bolts.  The handle was shaped like an enormous bird, and I decided to push it open. Inside there was a sparsely furnished room, with an old man asleep on a chair.  I didn't find anything else in the room, but before leaving I had the option to murder the poor old guy.  Instead I decided to wake him up and question him.  The startled old man offered me all of his treasure, which I took; it amounted to 27 gold pieces and a diamond.  Once again I had the option of cold-blooded murder, but I decided to let the old man live and leave the room.

The author really wants me to
murder this guy.

The passage turned into a chimney, and I had to climb up (reducing my Stamina to 4; I ate a meal to get it back up to 8).  I emerged in the river cave, with the bridge and the termites.  Crossing the bridge with a successful Luck test, I took a door to the west.

At the next junction I went north, entering a room with a pit.  Having been drowned in this pit in an earlier play-through, I ignored it and continued north into unexplored territory.  I emerged into a circular room with a deep pool of warm water. While taking a refreshing swim I noticed a door at the bottom which I was unable to open. With nothing else to do, I headed back through the pit room to the junction and turned west.

Ignoring a north tunnel, I soon came to the room with the ruby and the constantly rotating spikes.  I'd been here in an earlier adventure, but decided against trying to get the ruby.  This time I went for it, and one successful Luck test was all I needed to pocket the ruby.  With nothing else to do, I went back to the last junction and headed north.

I entered the room with the two mud pits, and decided to skirt around them to the right.  With a successful Luck test I was able to pass by without mishap.  I went north, past a door leading to a trap, and soon ended up in the final room, where I was asked if I had the idol.  Once more I did not, so I was taken before my elven accusers and shot to death.

THE POST-GAME

I got more of the dungeon paths explored, but to nobody's surprise the idol didn't turn up along any of them.  Currently, I have these options left to explore:

• The north tunnel of a junction found just after a jumping into a pit (a little north of the sleeping dog).
• Heading north from the door where I met the sleeping old man.
• Whatever lies past the Light Worshippers over on the eastern side of the dungeon.
• North of the prison past the combination lock.
• The dead-end/secret door directly north of the entrance (through four junctions)

I'm pretty sure that most of those are just going to connect back to areas I've already explored, with little of interest to be found.  I should try to knock them all out as quickly as possible in my next post.  Wherever that idol is, it's damn well hidden.