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Firefinger 1!Section 97 posted:It worked, by Jove! (As the Romans used to say.) The darkness has gone, your torch - which was still lit, remember - now shows you a smallish, ten-metre-square, stone-lined chamber. Gnawing furiously at your ankle is a Leprechaun. I don't think there's anything I can add to that.  Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS: 57/36
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Apr 27, 2015 20:03
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You know what's better than making friends? Buying friends.
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Apr 27, 2015 20:05
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That is a wee man desperately in need of booze. And when a wee man needs booze, you buy him booze.
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Apr 27, 2015 20:23
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Leprechauns are notorious sots.
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Apr 27, 2015 20:30
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Mine's a Jamesons.
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Apr 27, 2015 21:05
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Section 120 posted:The darkness vanishes and your torch abruptly lights up a smallish chamber. Lying on the floor, carefully extracting his teeth from your ankle, is a Leprechaun! If this seems like a repeat of the previous Section, the reason is you can also get here by trying to make friends and making the dice roll; in that case, it's at this point the darkness disappears. Section 120 posted:'Sure and begorrah,' says the Leprechaun with a thick Irish brogue (you wouldn't expect him to come from Israel, would you?). ' Isn't it sorry I am to be after biting your poor ankle, but wasn't I thinking you might be a monster or that wicked Wizard Ansalom and didn't I launch meself without thinking. But I could tell from the taste you had good decent blood in ye, so let me make amends for the damage.' It's worth pointing out that the Wizard Ansalom seems to have a serious problem with squatters. We're in his Dark Castle, and so far we've encountered three people who don't really belong here and who range from indifferent to him (the Fiend) to hating his guts (the Leprechaun) to actively working against him (the Lady). Section 114 posted:What's this? More gold? It is, you know - fifty Gold Pieces and a double-headed copper coin. What a bit of luck!  Section 114 posted:But there's more! Tucked away in the bottom of the purse is a parchment scroll. There's something very familiar about this type of scroll. It looks very similar to the scrolls lying about in Merlin's log castle: the ones he uses to write spells on. Get your dice rolling quickly, Pip, to find out what is written on the scroll. Our Luckstone's no help here, since every Section has a different scroll in it, and we won't know what's there until we get to it.  3 + 1 = 4, off to 88!Section 88 posted:The scroll contains a Healing Spell! We probably will never use this, because of full RPG hoarder mentality, A.K.A. "I might need this later!" *gets killed by level one monster while having a thousand elixirs sitting in the inventory* Section 88 posted:There are no exits from this room, so you'd better return to 75 and reconsider your options. From Section 75 there's only one way we haven't been which isn't backtracking, so let's go west to 71. Section 71 posted:The corridor runs due west for no more than ten metres before you reach the entrance to a large, circular chamber. Set in the centre of the chamber, on a polished granite pedestal, is a statue of a tall, black-bearded man with sharp features and (so far as one can tell from a lump of stone) dark, piercing eyes. He is dressed in dark flowing robes and wears the same sort of pointed hat Merlin wore. In one hand he carries a sack from which protudes the head of a pig. In the other hand he holds a long Magician's wand. Still a better poem than the Fiend's  Section 71 posted:Well now, Pip, here you are in this stupid circular room all set to starve to death. (Have a bully-beef sandwich to help you think.) What now?  Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS: 57/36 Mikl fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Apr 27, 2015 |
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Apr 27, 2015 21:39
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According to my brilliant career in cryptography this is a shift cipher with a left shift of one. Decoding it says to reopen door go direct to sixty one Seeing as opening chests or pulling levels strikes me as awfully curious and death doesn't seem cool, maybe we should go to 61.
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Apr 27, 2015 21:55
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Mikl posted:What's this? More gold? It is, you know - fifty Gold Pieces and a double-headed copper coin. What a bit of luck! Considering that this came from a Leprechaun, can we arrange to make sure we've spent this before sunrise? As for this room, however, remember that while curiosity may have killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back. So let's satisfy our curiosity about what's in that chest!
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Apr 27, 2015 22:38
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Let's not waste our broken as hell Luckstone on an instant death trap. Go to 61
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Apr 27, 2015 23:40
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What if breaking ciphers is curious? 
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Apr 28, 2015 08:48
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Aithon posted:What if breaking ciphers is curious? Guess we're going to find out! Section 61 posted:You did it! By George, that was clever! Now you can get out simply by pulling gently downwards on the wand held by the statue. Go on: it won't hurt you. There, see? The room is revolving again, opening up the entrance so you can go back to the junction and decide what to do next. We've already been in both directions! In fact, we've explored everywhere we can down here, but the Wizard Ansalom's nowhere to be found! You know what that means, right?  We have to backtrack! Now, look at the map: Which way should we go from here? Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS: 57/36
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Apr 28, 2015 13:15
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Looks like the Double Doors via 18
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Apr 28, 2015 14:34
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Ghostwoods posted:Looks like the Double Doors via 18 It does seem like this is our only unexplored option at the moment.
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Apr 28, 2015 15:42
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Alright then, let's go! Through a corridor, through another corridor, through a chamber, through two caves, through another corridor, up a ladder, and finally through the double doors in the courtyard!Section 33 posted:The double doors are closed, but not locked. You step through to find yourself in a second courtyard, stone flagged this time and without Chickens. On the eastern wall this time is a flight of stone steps up to the battlements and towers. About thirty metres in front of you is a whipping post with a manacled Skeleton hanging from it. The total area of the entire courtyard is about eighty square metres. Along the north wall of the courtyard is a row of four three-metre-high stone buildings, each with a closed wooden door. Near the west wall is a three-metre-square wooden building, the door of which is closed and barred with a large iron bolt. By the east wall is another building of stone, six by three metres with its door slightly ajar. Lots of options this time! We've already done the first one (and it nearly got us killed), but the other four are all unexplored paths.  My poor map  I was so, so proud of managing to make a neat map, fitting everything into a relatively small space  Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS: 57/36
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Apr 28, 2015 18:27
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Let's head down the list and check out that Skeleton.
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Apr 28, 2015 20:02
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See the bones. Second courtyard must connect to the battlements, your map is terrible. (I feel your pain - CYOA mapping is a nightmare.)
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Apr 28, 2015 20:19
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Ratatozsk posted:Second courtyard must connect to the battlements, your map is terrible. (I feel your pain - CYOA mapping is a nightmare.) That would have been easy... had the book not said that the stairs to the battlements are now on the east side. Specifically. You know, just to spite me and my efforts  Section 24 posted:As you approach, the Skeleton moves! First Friendly Reaction roll of the book! Let's refresh the rules: Friendly Reaction posted:Roll one die once for your enemy and three times for yourself. If you score less than your enemy, he is Friendly. Proceed as if you had won a fight. Enemy roll: 4 Our rolls: 1, 3, 1, total 5. Allllmost made it, but unfortunately the Skeleton isn't friendly. But wait! We have our Luckstone! This means we can take 3 off our result, which means we get 2, so the Skeleton is friendly! Thanks Luckstone! Alternate take, if I wanted to do some extreme rule-lawyering and Luckstone abuse, just because I can: Literal reading of the rules means we roll for our enemy, so we get to apply our plus-three Luckstone bonus to that throw. Moreover, the rules don't say "roll three dice", they says "roll one die three times", so we get to apply our minus-three Luckstone bonus to each of those three rolls. Enemy roll: 4 + 3 = 7 Our rolls: 1 - 3 = -2; 3 - 3 = 0; 1 - 3 = -2; total -3, which of course is less than 7, so the Skeleton is friendly. But breaking the gamebook over our knees isn't fun at all, so let's do this the "proper" way and only use the bonus once. Either way, let's run off to 52 and see what happens! Section 52 posted:'Have you come to rescue me?' asks the Skeleton. 'I've been chained up to that whipping post for ever such a long time!' We win, thanks for playing guys, see you next book! Section 52 posted:You don't believe it, of course. For one thing, Queen Guinevere is much shorter than this great big Skeleton. But you can't blame it for trying, so you say, 'If you tell me the truth, I shall let you go free. At least, I won't hack you into chicken feed with my trusty Excalibur Junior.' But... We've been down there already, explored the place top to bottom, found nothing at all. What gives?  Anyway, what shall we do now? Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS: 57/36
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Apr 28, 2015 21:09
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Hmm. Intriguing and possibly confused skeleton. How about Half-Open Door 50?
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Apr 28, 2015 22:04
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Carefully approach Half-open door Nr. 50.
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Apr 29, 2015 00:50
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AutistTree posted:Carefully approach Half-open door Nr. 50. This because  .Anyway I just caught up to this and just had to say I was really impressed by the intro. Lots and lots of  to be sure, but none of the CYOAs I used to read were ever anything to get excited about as far as writing quality went. The author really had some fun with this one and it shows.
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Apr 29, 2015 07:19
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Section 50 posted:'Who's there?' a quavering voice calls as you push the door gently. Roll: 2 + 5 = 7, it WOULD do 3 points of damage (accounting for the +2) but our trusty dragonskin jerkin prevents that. Per the rules, I'll subtract 1 LIFE POINT on the next section. He probably nicked us with that dagger or something. Initiative rolls: Watchman 6 + 3 = 9, Pip 4 + 5 = 9, a tie! Re-roll: Watchman 1 + 4 = 5, Pip 3 + 1 = 4, the Watchman goes first. Watchman attacks! 1 + 2 = 3, too slow! Pip attacks! 2 + 6 (+3 on account of the Luckstone) = 11, that's 5 + 5 damage (on account of E.J.), Watchman is down to 15 LIFE POINTS. Watchman attacks! 2 + 3 = 5, close but no cigar. Pip attacks! 5 + 1 (+3) = 9, 3 + 5 = 8 damage, Watchman is down to 7 LIFE POINTS. Watchman attacks! 6 + 3 = 9, Pip is hit for 3 + 2 - 4 = 1 LIFE POINT and is down to 56. Pip attacks! 6 + 1 (+3) = 10, 4 + 5 = 9 damage, and Watchman is Pip's first kill of the gamebook!  (discounting the zombies, which aren't technically alive, all other fights ended with the enemy falling unconcious upon dropping below 5 LIFE POINTS).Now we get 1 LIFE POINT worth of blood poisoning, bringing us to 55, and we go to 155. Section 155 posted:Well, there's one consolation: the old fool was carrying 70 Gold Pieces, presumably stolen from adventurers he managed to kill with that dagger. You hold on to them now: they may come in handy for Bribery at some stage if you can get hold of a few more. And we're back in the courtyard. As a refresher: Section 33 posted:
Where to next?  Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS:
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Apr 29, 2015 17:19
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Wonder if we should have messed with that chest? Or if we're going to find clues around here to take back underground. Anyway, have a look at the barred building. Bars keep secrets in!
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Apr 29, 2015 18:48
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We're supposed to be looking for a prisoner, so barred building it is.
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Apr 29, 2015 19:10
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Zoe posted:We're supposed to be looking for a prisoner, so barred building it is. Oh yeah, so we are. Better have a look there, then.
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Apr 29, 2015 20:58
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Section 28 posted:You approach the door and slide back the iron bolt. Next thing you know, the door bursts open and you are under attack by two savage Hounds. If you had your sword out and ready (tell the truth now) you can strike the first blow against one of the Hounds. If not, the first blow is struck against you. I'll just let the Hounds have the first blow for this one, we have lots of advantages already. Section 28 posted:Each Hound has 20 LIFE POINTS. Each needs to roll only a 5 or better to hit you and scores +3 bite damage. If you have the first blow, the fight sequence goes: Interesting to note: the Skeleton DID mention the Hounds. First Hound attacks! 3 + 5 = 8, Pip is hit for 3 + 3 - 4 = 2 LIFE POINTS and is down to 53. Second Hound attacks! 1 + 6 = 7, Pip is hit for 2 + 3 - 4 = 1 LIFE POINT and is down to 52. Pip attacks! 4 + 3 = 7, First Hound is hit for 1 + 5 = 6 LIFE POINTS and is down to 14. First Hound attacks! 4 + 5 = 9, Pip is hit for 4 + 3 - 4 = 3 LIFE POINTS and is down to 49. Second Hound attacks! 1 + 5 = 6, Pip is hit for 1 + 3 - 4 = 0 LIFE POINTS and nothing happens. Pip attacks! 4 + 3 = 7, First Hound is (again) hit for 1 + 5 = 6 LIFE POINTS and is down to 8. First Hound attacks! 5 + 2 = 7, Pip is hit for 2 + 3 - 4 = 1 LIFE POINT and is down to 48. Second Hound attacks! 3 + 3 = 6, Pip is hit for 1 + 3 - 4 = 0 LIFE POINTS and nothing happens. Pip attacks! 3 + 4 = 7, First Hound is (again) hit for 1 + 5 = 6 LIFE POINTS, is down to 2 and slumps down unconcious. Second Hound attacks! 5 + 6 = 11, Pip is hit for 6 + 3 - 4 = 5 LIFE POINTS and is down to 43 (that hurt). Pip attacks! 4 + 6 = 10, Second Hound is hit for 4 + 5 = 9 LIFE POINTS and is down to 11. Second Hound attacks! 6 + 3 = 9, Pip is hit for 4 + 3 - 4 = 3 LIFE POINTS and is down to 40. Pip attacks! 4 + 3 = 7, Second Hound is hit for 1 + 5 = 6 LIFE POINTS, is down to 5 and like his bro falls unconcious. That was pretty brutal, not even a single miss in the whole combat. And we got a whole 15 (!) of our LIFE POINTS chewed off. Well, let's see what our reward is for defeating these beasts. Section 141 posted:Those Hounds were put there for a purpose, Pip. Hounds are Hounds and if the Wizard Ansalom wasn't using them for hunting, he must have been using them to guard something. But what? 6 + 5 = 11, let's check out 156.Section 156 posted:Doesn't seem to be magic. Doesn't seem to be anything except an ordinary valuable ring. But maybe there's something else in the casket. Have a look under the velvet cushion, Pip. Well, well, well - a scrap of parchment. Read it quickly! Huh, I wonder what that means. And I wonder who put it there. Section 156 posted:That's it. Not very helpful, is it? Still, good advice always comes in useful sooner or later and you do have a feeling that this is somehow good advice. Well that was fruitful, if a bit painful: we got a nice ring out of it! Where shall we go next?  Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS:
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Apr 29, 2015 21:23
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You know what we haven't done yet? Let's sleep and get some life points back.
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Apr 29, 2015 23:39
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inflatablefish posted:You know what we haven't done yet? Let's sleep and get some life points back. USE A HOUND CARCASS FOR A PILLOW!!
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Apr 30, 2015 00:08
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inflatablefish posted:You know what we haven't done yet? Let's sleep and get some life points back. Why not use one of our eighteen healing potions instead? Somehow I really doubt we're going to run out. Also gently caress no ain't befriending no spider, forget that.
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Apr 30, 2015 06:30
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Zoe posted:Why not use one of our eighteen healing potions instead? Somehow I really doubt we're going to run out. Because we want to see what happens if we do. It'll be fun! There probably won't even be any horrible death.
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Apr 30, 2015 06:36
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A nap sounds nice. And then the row of buildings.
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Apr 30, 2015 10:43
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Alright then! Just remember that this was your choice Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the die my soul to keep... Die roll: 1, even with the +3 from the Luckstone we're headed... for the Dreamtime (dun dun dunnnn). Dreamtime posted:The Section is used ONLY when you decide to Sleep during an adventure. If the dice direct you here, follow these Rules. Dice roll: 4 + 1 = 5. Dreamtime Section 5 posted:You are trying to escape from the turret of a high tower and have climbed out through a narrow window in the hope of scaling down the outside wall. Although there are good toeholds, the surface is very slippery. Roll two dice to discover if you fall: score under 6 and down you go! Very bad luck, rolling 5! This is literally the second worst possible outcome for that dice roll. No time to waste though, let's see if we die horribly! Dice roll: 2 + 3 = 5, we slip and fall down! Dice roll: 3 + 1 = 4, we land on the ground and lose 10 LIFE POINTS. And now we wake up... That was painful, now we're down to 30 LIFE POINTS. Moreover, since we ended up in the Dreamtime, we don't get to roll to restore our LIFE POINTS! (Not that it would have helped, since we were already above the maximum thanks to the Lady's blessing  ).Let's check out the row of buildings before anything else happens. Section 26 posted:The smell tells you what these are the moment you open the door. Stables. Not very well cared for, by the look of them. Full of rotting straw and manure, but otherwise empty. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. (We have nowhere else to go anyway.) Section 41 posted:A thorough search of the stables will reveal a scrap of filthy parchmen on which there is a sketch map of the first courtyard showing a secret trapdoor between the portcullis and the doors to this courtyard. Open the trapdoor, lower yourself down and you can go direct to 36. Been there, done that. And with this, we've explored all we have available to explore, but the Wizard Ansalom is nowhere to be found! Where could he be hiding? Have you figured it out? (There's been a specific clue pointing out where we have to go )The map isn't updated since I'm yet again updating from work during lunch break, but there are no significant changes worth noting: Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS:
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Apr 30, 2015 12:37
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Turn to page 36, as the friendly skeleton told us. (If you decide to attack the skeleton, does that make the book unwinnable?)
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Apr 30, 2015 17:19
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We seem to be getting pointed to page 36 a lot, let's go back and try to figure out something from there.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:56
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I think we need to go back and befriend that spider, guys.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:13
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I think things might just work out for us if we take the back way up to the battlements!
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Apr 30, 2015 18:19
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We probably need to befriend a spider to murder those archer insect guys on the battlements and I don't know where to find one, so let's go to 16 and get drunk on wine and see if that helps.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:27
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Glazius posted:I think we need to go back and befriend that spider, guys. Ding! Give this goon a cigar! Going to 36 does nothing, as it's simply the Section for the underground tunnel; the clues were pointing us there so we could go down without falling down the trapdoor. We've seen the battlements already, and I'll show you what drinking the wine does in post-gamebook commentary when we've completed our runthrough. For now, if you remember, there was a Spider the size of a Great Dane down underground, and we bravely fled before it; the clue we found told us we must try to befriend it. (It's very fortunate that we got that clue, by the way, it was a lucky roll. If we hadn't made it we would be stuck with no clue where to go next, another small defect in this book.) So now we make our way back underground and we carefully lower ourselves back into the Spider Pit at Section 43: Section 43 posted:Crawling towards you across the rough stone floor, no more than two or three metres away, is a giant Spider. This great hairy monster is the size of a Great Dane. A big Great Dane. Swiftly you draw Excalibur Junior. Bravely you leap towards the monster. By Jove, befriend a spider we shall! Section 70 posted:OK lunatic, roll! As always, one dice for them, three for us. We shall use our Luckstone for this, hoping it's enough. Spider roll: 6 Pip rolls: 2 + 3 + 1 (- 3) = 3, and the spider is Friendly (two out of two for our Friendly Reaction rolls, how's that for luck?). Section 68 posted:'Halt, desist and cease,' says the Spider in a melodious female voice that echoes through your head, spiders being in the main female - at least the ones you see. 'Put away that silly little sword: I have no wish to harm you.' Like I said: the Wizard Ansalom has a serious squatter problem  45 is the room from which we get down here, so let's explore the pit at Section 73! Section 73 posted:Will you never learn? You've found a Snake now! A little thing, but deadly poisonous. (You can tell by the skull and crossbones marking on its back.) No chance to make friends here - it's trying to bite you already. This, incidentally, is the most bullshit fight in this whole gamebook. No matter how healthy you are, no matter how many magic items we've found, one hit and you're dead. Let's see if that happens to us. Snake initiative roll: 6 + 3 = 9 Pip 2 + 3 (+ 3) = 8 The Snake goes first. Snake attacks! 5 + 1 = 6, Pip is bitten, and falls down dead. Didn't even get one attack in  Oh well!  Death the third: bitten by a deadly poisonous snake (you can tell it's poisonous by the skull and crossbones markings on its back) As usual, we lose all our precious loot. On the plus side, we can by-pass the Snake fight when we get back to it, which we shall right after re-rolling our LIFE POINTS. 6 + 3 = 9 5 + 3 = 8 3 + 2 = 5 36 LIFE POINTS yet again. Let's see what's past that sneaky Snake. Section 79 posted:Going to search again? Once agan I'll make the choice for you, since there's nothing left to explore outside of this pit. Section 69 posted:You've found a secret door, Pip. Well done.  This next section presented in picture form, so you can appreciate this gamebook's nice formatting:  5 + 6 = 11, let's go to 118.Section 118 posted:You've got a knack with doors, Pip. It opened ever so quietly. Which is just as well since there are two Guards on the other side, nasty big men with leather armour and swords. Section 86 **B (Each) posted:You're into a fight, Pip, whether you like it or not. Each Guard has 15 LIFE POINTS. Their swords to + 2 damage and their leather armour subtracts 2 from any damage scored against them. I don't suppose either of you is Friendly and fed up with your boss, no? Friendly Reaction check! Guard 1 roll: 6 Pip roll vs Guard 1: 3 + 2 + 2 = 7, not Friendly. Guard 2 roll: 5 Pip roll vs Guard 2: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, Guard 2 is Friendly! Pip attacks! 4 + 3 = 7, Guard 1 is hit for 1 + 5 - 2 = 4 LIFE POINTS and is down to 11. Guard 1 attacks! 5 + 1 = 6, missed! Pip attacks! 4 + 5 = 9, Guard 1 is hit for 3 + 5 - 2 = 7 LIFE POINTS, is down to 4, and falls unconcious. Guard 2 will take care of his buddy or something, I guess. Section 107 posted:Now that you have time to look around you, you find you are in a small anti-room with a single, well-lit corridor running off northwards. The whole feel of this place is very different to the parts of the Wizard Ansalom's Dark Castle that you have already visited: it feels lived in. If you listen carefully, you can even hear distant sounds. Better move quietly, Pip, and keep a careful look-out. Well, this was an eventful update! One death, and we've found the way forward. What shall we do now?  Pip’s Stat Block posted:LIFE POINTS: Roll of the Dead posted:Death the first: pecked to death by Savage Chickens. Mikl fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 20:28
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...wow that is colossal bullshit.
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Apr 30, 2015 21:55
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A few corrections (were you in a rush or something?) - "You not, hesitantly." Nod? - There's a failed quote tag a bit later. - I am quite sure that "anti-room" must be ante-room. Both in the text and in your map. Ante means 'before' as in 'a room before a large room'. 'Anti-room' would mean 'against room' and makes no sense. Did the actual book make the same mistake?
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Apr 30, 2015 21:58
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Carbon dioxide posted:A few corrections (were you in a rush or something?) Fixed the first two, thanks! As for the third, I'm copying from the book, so all wierd spelling is the book's own (except for where it's a typo, but that's not the case here).
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Apr 30, 2015 22:04
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