The Rings of Kether - Attempt 3

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but life has a way of intervening from time to time.  I'm not sure what life; I'm literally confined to my house for 22 out of 24 hours a day.  I can't even really say what I've been doing during that time, aside from avoiding the effort of updating my blogs.  Welcome to the existential void of 2021, I guess.

Well, I'm back and it's time for a void of a different kind: the unending void of space!  It's time for another crack at The Rings of Kether, in which I've been tasked with smashing a drug ring on the titular planet.  (Wouldn't be my first instinct, but I doubt this book's going to give me the option of petitioning to legalise satophil-d.  I hear it's great for pain relief.)

For this attempt I rolled a Skill of 12, Stamina of 16, Luck of 10, Shields of 3, and Weapons Strength of 9.  Pretty good stats, but I was a little worried about my Shields score (having died because of such a low score in my first attempt).

After dropping out of hyperspace into the Aleph Cygni system, I decided to check out the moonbase called Rispin's End.  After hiring a scooter for 500 kopecks, I spent the day investigating.  There were no signs of drug manufacturing to be found, so I took off and headed for the planet of Kether.  (On my second attempt I had explored the moon and been the target of an assassination attempt.  This time, coming here before making my presence known on Kether, my stay here was uneventful.  I feel pretty safe in saying that this is a dead end.)

After landing and being harassed by customs, I decided to hang around a local bar for information.  I was approached by a deranged starship captain, whose rambling indicated that a fat woman playing cards nearby was up to some shady business.  I tried to join her game, and after first telling me to get lost she eventually relented and dealt me in.  Her name was Zera Gross, and she was in the import/export business.  "More exporting than importing, I'd wager, the nature of the drug business being what it is! Ha, ha!" I said.  (This is the kind of sly subtlety they teach you in this galaxy's secret agent business, I suppose.)  As a response, Zera had her men beat the ever-loving shit out of me.  (Seriously, this beating made me lose 2 Stamina points permanently.  I don't think I've ever seen permanent Stamina loss in a Fighting Fantasy, most of which involve being run through with swords, shot with crossbows, engulfed in fire, and all sorts of other nasty stuff.  That is some beating.)

After waking up, I decided that a quiet day at the library might be more my speed.  I started by looking at some statistics.  The stats on agriculture and manufacturing didn't yield anything, but the transport stats showed some anomalies.  I decided to head for the State Computer File Centre to get a first-hand look at those statistics.  Unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that only those files more than 100 years old were available to the public.

I decided to return at night and try to break in.  (I'd tried to bribe my way in here on my last attempt, and gotten arrested for my trouble.)  The place was surrounded by razor wire, but I was able to climb up a drainpipe onto the roof and drop in through a skylight.  (I had to Test my Luck here, which I did successfully (reducing my score to 9).  I'm not sure what the consequences of failure were.)  Many of the more recent files on air traffic records were missing, so I decided to leave and find the Chief of Air-Traffic Control.

After locating him at the main heliport, I decided to follow him home from work and confront him. After a few hours of waiting in the carpark, I followed him in a hired ground car.  When I cheerfully introduced myself as a narcotics officer (there's that subtle spycraft once again) he became stricken with terror.  He was apparently covering up flights from "the islands", as well as flights to "the asteroids".  He wasn't able to tell me more than that, so I headed back to the spaceport to see if anyone there could enlighten me.

From a shuttle pilot I learned that something odd was going on at asteroid C230, so I decided to head up there and check it out.  The asteroid was one of thousands that made up the system's asteroid belt.  Its only signs of habitation were a dock and a few antennae.  There was also an emergency escape hatch and an air-conditioning vent.  I decided to enter through the hatch.

It opened into an airlock, and then a rough-hewn corridor that eventually led to a spherical room.  In a niche above me I found a small plaque with the following inscription:

PRAYER TO THUVALD

Hidden is he,

Mighty is he,

His time returns,

Hold, wait, be still.

Continuing down the corridor, I came to a junction. I could hear voices down one of the tunnels, so I went the other way and came to a room with a low pedestal and a burning flame.  I entered, and the flame roared higher, forming into a serpent with a woman's face.  Legs and wings grew from its body as it began to laugh.  In a panic, I decided to recite the prayer to Thuvald, and the weird creature replied:

"Misled you have been,

In the wrong place, you are

With the Customs officials you should be!"

The creature then told me to begone, and I was hurled from the room by a mystical force.  Not wanting to trust any prophecy that referenced customs officials, I decided to ignore it and keep exploring the asteroid. Soon I came to a door, over which was inscribed GRAND KEEPER.  Inside, an old man in black robes was sitting in a high-backed chair.  He asked me to sit with him, and I obliged. He explained that the asteroid was a monastery, and that I should return to Kether and visit the customs officials at the spaceport.  He waved his hand, and I was immediately transported back to my spaceship.  Taking the hint, I returned to Kether.

What kind of monk wears a proper belt?

At the customs office, I found the office of the Head Customs Officer - one Zac Kalensus - and kicked his door open with my pistol drawn.  "OK Zac baby, start talking about this little drug racket you're in on or I'll have to start pumping with my trigger finger!"  (Holy shit, that dialogue.  Incredible stuff.)  He stuttered something about transmissions from a satellite in orbit, but I wasn't able to get anything else out of him (because I failed a Luck test, reducing my score to 8).

With no other leads, I flew into orbit to look for the satellite and found it after a few days.  Rather than blow it up, I decided to put on my pressure-suit and take a space-walk to look at it.

Looking for Satellites.

What followed was a mini-game, where I had a limited supply of fuel with which to jet over to the satellite.  I had four units of fuel, and every choice used up one of those units; if I ran out I'd be sent spiraling off endlessly into space.  Luckily for me this mini-game relied entirely on rolls against my Skill.  With a Skill of 12 it was almost impossible for me to fail, and I made it over to the satellite using just two units of fuel.  I was able to learn that the satellite was transmitting from an unknown asteroid to the Isosceles Tower in Kether, and that all of those transmissions concerned shipments of the drug satophil-d.

Returning to Kether, I hired a helijet and landed on top of the tower.  On the 50th floor I found an import/export office run by Zera Gross.  The office was unlocked, and after I entered I soon came to a junction.  Heading left, I came to an open plan office that looked to have been recently stripped and deserted. Searching through the office, I was able (due to a successful roll under my Skill) to spot a vidilink file with coordinates to an island.  The message was signed by Zera Gross and someone called Blaster Babbet.

I flew out to the island, where I found a launch pad for shuttles, a helipad, and some ramps.  I climbed into an anti-grav dray and rammed it through a freight door at the end of a ramp, killing half a dozen guards.  In a warehouse I found crates of satophil-d, and a dead body with some Pep Pills (which I took).  Continuing down a corridor into another room, I was confronted by an android, but I was able to bypass it by successfully answering its riddle.  (I covered this riddle in my first attempt if you're interested.)

The passage beyond led to the office of Zera Gross, who was busy dictating to a robot secretary.  Upon seeing me she immediately went for her blaster, but I dove on her first to force her to fight me hand-to-hand.  (Melee combat is much easier to get through without losing Stamina than blaster combat.)  Zera (Skill 8, Stamina 11) proved to be a surprisingly strong foe, and was able to injure me twice despite my high skill (reducing my Stamina to 10).  While she lay "whale-like, immobile and exhausted", I slapped her in the face for information; all I was able to get from here was a dazed mumbling of "up then left".

In a nearby command room I found the coordinates of the asteroid where the drugs were being manufactured.  I flew back out to the asteroid belt, only to discover that it was surrounded by a deadly minefield.  Rather than blast my way through, I decided to be cautious (mostly because blowing them up had contributed to my death on my first attempt).  I made it through safely (with a successful roll under my Skill), but I still had to deal with the Asteroid Defences (Weapons Strength 9, Shields 6), a battery of phasers.

I opened the fight by unloading both of my Smart Missiles (which reduced their Shields to 2), then blew through them with my ship's own phasers, sustaining moderate damage (my Shields were reduced to 1).  I docked at an emergency airlock on the asteroid and made my way inside.

I made my way down a long zero-gravity tunnel, until I reached an airtight security door in one of the walls.  Inside was a room full of pressure-suits and emergency air-tents, but nothing of use.  Continuing down the tunnel, I soon found my way blocked by a strange device, constructed of four cubes in the shape of an X.  The cube sparked with electricity as it approached.

4d6 damage coming my way.

I took a flying dropkick at the device (because when a gamebook presents you with an unusual option, you should always take it).  I hit it dead on (due to a successful roll under my Skill) and the device smashed to pieces against a wall.

I came to a crossroads with three options, and decided to go straight ahead. The corridor led to a large cavern, filled with bulbous, tentacled creatures that had no eyes.  Above them hung three metallic spheres, each with a loop-shaped handle.

What is this, Total Wipeout?

There was no way I was going to wend my way through a bunch of tentacles, so I decided to risk jumping from sphere to sphere.  I was able to make all three jumps safely, and exit the cavern on the other side.  (This required three successful rolls under my Skill, so it's probably not the best option unless you're playing with a high-Skill character like mine.)

I found myself in a large chemical laboratory for making satophil-d, and spent some time smashing things up.  There was a door and a corridor leading onwards, and I chose the door.

Oh look, a room.

In front of me was a wide pit spanned by a narrow bridge with no handrail. Guarding the bridge was a three-legged alien, with an electric bracer in each of its three hands.  It ordered me to halt before firing several bolts of electrons at me.

You could say I Vanque-ished him.

I traded shots with the Arcturian Vanque (Skill 7, Stamina 10).  It hit me once (dropping my Stamina to 6) before I was able to kill it.  I ate a Pep Pill after the battle to restore my Strength (bringing my Stamina back up to 12).

At a junction I turned right, which led to the control room for the asteroid's nuclear reactor. There were no controls except for a keyhole.  I had no key, so I had to go back and take the other path.  This led to a tiny room with doors on every surface.  Each door had a black button in the centre.  Presented with six buttons to press, I tried the one in front of me and received an electric shock (reducing my Stamina to 11).  I tried the door behind me, and was shocked again (reducing my Stamina to 10).  At that point, I thought of what Zera Gross had told me while I was slapping her in the face: "up then left".  Pressing the button above me opened the door into an identical room.  Pressing the button to the left opened the door in that room, leading into a sumptuous living area.  (I could see those rooms being frustrating and potentially deadly if you didn't get the clue from Zera.  I had enough Pep Pills that getting through by trial and error wouldn't have been a problem, but I saved myself some pain by remembering that hint.)

The room was decorated with carpet and modern furniture, with a trendy folding screen near the door. In the wall opposite was a corridor, guarded by two identical figures that I assumed to be 'Blaster' Babbet.  They each had a blaster aimed at me, and after greeting me in unison they prepared to open fire.

Babbet season!

Rather than try to guess which of them was real, I "thought of an alternative course of action" by jumping through the folding screen.  The real Babbet was behind the screen, and the two in the corridor were illusions.  I tackled him, and we engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

'Blaster' Babbet (Skill 10, Stamina 8) was tough, and the battle was a close one (he reduced me to 4 Stamina).  But with my superior skill I was able to capture him, and wipe out the leadership of Kether's whole drug operation.  My mission was a complete success!

THE POST-GAME

I'd considered retracing the steps of my first attempt to get this book over and done with, but I couldn't resist the temptation of checking out various different things.  The pointless detour to asteroid C230 was probably my biggest deviation, and maybe the most interesting; I look forward to seeing what else is there when I read through the whole book.  This one ended up not being too difficult, although I may very well have failed without such a high Skill.  As it was I only scraped through on 4 Stamina, so maybe it's harder than it seems.

NEXT: I'll do one wrap-up/review post, and then it's on to something a little unusual: Steve Jackson's Tasks of Tantalon.  Unfortunately all of my books are currently boxed up after a move, so I may have some trouble finding it.  If I can't, then I'll be moving ahead with the next book in the series, the piratical Seas of Blood.

The Rings of Kether - Attempt 2

I feel like I did pretty well on my first attempt at The Rings of Kether; at the very least, I almost made it to what I assume was the stronghold of the head bad guy.  I went into my second attempt with a great deal of confidence; if I nearly won last time, surely I stood a good chance of victory this time around.

For my second attempt I rolled a Skill of 12, Stamina of 18, and a Luck of 9.  For my ship I rolled a Weapons Strength of 9 and Shields of 4.  Last time a low Shields score had done me in, but I felt a lot better about my roll for this attempt.

I began my mission to bust the drug rings of the Alpha Cygni system by entering the orbit of the planet Kether.  I began my investigation by checking out the system's asteroid belt (because I already knew that the bad guy's base was there from my last play-through).  Before I could find anything I was attacked by a pair of space vessels: Interceptors (Weapon Strength 5, Shield 3; and Weapons Strength 5, Shield 2).  It was a long, drawn-out dogfight, and the Interceptors shot me twice before I could destroy them (reducing my Shields to 2).  Unfortunately, there was no way for me to find anything among the thousands of asteroids without years of searching.  I would need to find the proper coordinates before I could come back.

(As an aside, the ship-to-ship combat in this game yields very different results to regular FF combat. In regular FF combat, having a higher Skill than your opponent gives you a pretty good chance of getting through unscathed, because only one combatant can score a hit in any round.  With this style of ship-to-ship combat, having a high Weapons Strength in no way prevents other ships from hitting you, and dealing just 1 point of damage per hit means that the battles are bound to be drawn out.  It's almost guaranteed that you're going to lose some Shields if you get into a fight, and I'm not sure that there's any way in the book to replenish your Shields.)

After landing at the spaceport on Kether and being bullied by customs, I decided to hang around the port and ask some questions.  I learned that all cargo comes through the spaceport, but there was no other useful information to be had.  I decided to head to the local authorities and declare my presence as a Federal Investigator.

After asking for one of the senior investigators, a bored man at reception led me to the office of a Mr. Samuel.  (Normally I'd have been taken to see Mr. Perry, but he was apparently out at the pub.  Being taken to Samuel was the result of rolling a die and getting an even number; presumably if I'd rolled odd I would have seen Perry.)  Samuel became immediately alarmed when I told him who I was.  He slipped me a note saying that he couldn't talk, but would meet me later at a restaurant called Viqueque.

I decided to trust Samuel, and went to meet him at the restaurant.  He showed up in disguise, and told me that the local police were rife with corruption.  It was his suspicion that the drugs were being brought in via the city's helipads.  He also told me of his underworld connection, an unemployed starship navigator.

Meeting with Mr. Samuel

I decided to meet the navigator at a local bar.  The man was paranoid, but among his ramblings I picked out two things: there was something odd going on at the moon (also known as Rispin's End), and a fat woman playing cards in the bar was mixed up in it.

Rather than trail the woman, I went back to my ship and immediately took off to investigate the moon.  The only facility on the moon was a small dome town for tourists and scientists.  Before landing I decided to fly around the moon looking for suspicious activity, and before too long I was attacked by two Robot Fighters (both with Weapon Strength 7 and Shields 1).  I blew the first one up with a smart missile, but the second hit me before I could destroy it (reducing my Shields to 1).  I couldn't find anything else on the moon, so I landed at the dome town.

To explore the town I hired a rocket scooter for a few days (this cost me 500 kopecks, leaving me with 4,500).  Someone left a note in my helmet telling me to leave Alpha Cygni if I wanted to live, but I ignored it and continued my investigations.  I didn't turn anything up, but a few days later an assassin took a shot at me.  I fled the scene, but not before getting a good look at my would-be-killer, and I was able to identify him by going to the starport and looking through the recent arrivals.  He was a Mr. B. Smith, age 34, a librarian working for the City Central Library.  Rather than stay on Rispin's End, I decided to return to Kether and check out the library.

At the library I looked through some transport statistics, and noticed that there were some discrepancies.  I headed for the State Computer File Centre for some more information, but was disappointed to find that they only allowed perusal of files more than 100 years old.  I tried to bribe the clerk, opting for a conservative bribe of 1,000 kopecks.  Rather than accept the bribe, the clerk pressed an alarm, and I was swarmed by security and arrested.  The police stripped me of my identification, and my pleas of being an official investigator fell on deaf ears.  Soon I was thrown in prison, and my adventure was over.

THE POST-GAME

Well, I fell into the trap of taking a different path so that my second attempt would be more interesting.  I could easily have followed the same choices I made last time, and I would have done much better.  With a higher Shields score, I very well may have won the whole thing.  Instead I got curious, explored a lot of dead ends, and fell afoul of the crooked authorities.  My initial instincts for this book - to keep a low profile - were much more effective.

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).