Let's Play Fighting Fantasy no 46: Tower of Destruction

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Mon May 13, 2013 8:52 pm

I'll give in to peer pressure, as you've convinced me that it's a good idea. Two flights up.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Tue May 14, 2013 7:47 am

You climb up the black stone steps to a landing, where you find a heavy door on one side and no other exits. You listen at the door, but can hear nothing. You decide to open it. Test your Luck.

(4: We are Lucky.)

You are fortunate indeed, for you crouch down as you open the door and a volley of fiery darts hurtles just over your head! Unfortunately for you, they're the least of the perils in this hot, dank chamber.

[...]

Within the gloomy recesses of the room, a pillar of fire suddenly bursts into prominence. A black-winged humanoid figure, with the horns and hoofs of a great goat and bearing a huge whip and sword, snarls fury at you. You have chanced upon a Fire Demon!

[...]

Fortunately for you, the Fire Demon isn't fully formed on this plane, away from its natural abode- It can be struck and hurt with non-magical weapons, and it isn't as powerful as usual. However, if you have taken 5 or 6 days to get fo the Sphere, you must add 1 to both it's SKILL and STAMINA scores given below; if you've taken 7 days or more, you must add 1 to its SKILL and 2 to its STAMINA score; it has grown closer to full power with the passage of time!

FIRE DEMON SKILL 8 9 STAMINA 8 9

Each Attack Round, the Fire Demon will shoot a stream of fire from it's nostrils. This will cause 1 extra point of damage to your STAMINA on a die roll of 1-4 (and 2 extra points if you have spent 5 days getting here). The Fire Demon is not an easy enemy to defeat!

Combat Log

Furryborn 17, Fire Demon 16, fire breath 6, Fire Demon at 7.
Furryborn 14, Fire Demon 13, fire breath 5, Fire Demon at 5.
Furryborn 16, Fire Demon 20, fire breath 2, Furryborn at 16.
Furryborn 11, Fire Demon 15, fire breath 1. Furryborn at 12
Furryborn 20, Fire Demon 18, fire breath 3. Furryborn at 10, Fire Demon at 3.
(Testing Luck, even though we're low on it, because this thing is going to kill us right fast unless it dies quickly. A 9. Unlucky. Great. Fire Demon at 4.)
Furryborn 19, Fire Demon 16, fire breath 3. Furryborn at 8, Fire Demon at 2.
Furryborn 13, Fire Demon 17, fire breath 4. Furryborn at 4.
Furryborn 17, Fire Demon 13, fire breath 2. Furryborn at 2, Fire Demon is dead.

If you win, you may search this dismal chamber.

[...]

You know better than to pick up a whip or sword of a Demon: among the rubble and rubbish in this chamber, however, you find a metal chest, warm to the touch but which you can open safely. While you are doing so you hear sounds coming from one of the walls, a humming and throbbing, and what sounds like the crunch of metal striking metal and a shouted curse. The control room, or the leaders, of this contraption must be on this level! If only there were a door here- but there isn't, only the one you came in by.

Returning to the chest, you grab 6 Gold Pieces and a flask of dark liquid; this is a Potion of Fire Breath. You can drink this at any time (except during combat) and in the fnst combat you come to afterwards, for three Attack Rounds you will be able to breath fire at the same time as using a weapon. Each Attack Round, you must roll one die. On a roll of 1-4 your breath will stnke your enemy and cause 2 points of damage to its STAMINA (on a roll of 5 or 6 you miss!). This must be done in the first combat you have after drinking this potion. Fire Breath won't hurt Fire Elementals or Demons, though! If you want to take this potion, add it to your list of Possessions.

You leave here ard take the stairs down to the next floor. You decide that there's no point in heading further down - you want to find a way back up. You head along the corridor to the point where you first came to the main junction. Standing facing in the same direction as when you entered, do you want to try the left-hand turning or the right-hand turning?

(Man, the combats in this book are rough. We might not make it through the sphere, even with that potion. I'm assuming we drink the last of our brandy and eat the last of our provisions.)

Furryborn the Honourable
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 14/20
LUCK 5/10
Honour: 7
Time Elapsed: 5 days
Equipment: Sword, Furred Leather Armour, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, Climbing Gear, 9 gold pieces, Tasrin's Ring, Snow Fox, Potion of Fire Breath.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:19 pm

Go right, turning left is almost always a bad idea in these books.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:33 pm

Wait, what? We were offered the chance to go up to the top if we hadn't been there already when we were at the bottom. But now the book says we can't go down, making that statement impossible. What the hell book?

In any case, these books were written to punish people for trying to get through the mazes by taking left hand turns. So the right hand turn is usually the correct one. Right is Right.

-Username17

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue May 14, 2013 4:12 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Wait, what? We were offered the chance to go up to the top if we hadn't been there already when we were at the bottom. But now the book says we can't go down, making that statement impossible. What the hell book?

In any case, these books were written to punish people for trying to get through the mazes by taking left hand turns.

Apparently, this one was written to punish metagaming, too.

Dr_Noface · Post by **Dr_Noface** » Tue May 14, 2013 4:12 pm

I still believe in you, left.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:20 pm

Right,

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:29 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Wait, what? We were offered the chance to go up to the top if we hadn't been there already when we were at the bottom. But now the book says we can't go down, making that statement impossible. What the hell book?

(It is possible to go straight on again after you return to the crossroads from the left or right and have that option presented again, but our character apparently decided for us based on what he overheard in the Fire Demon room that heading down is for squares, on this occasion, and that he needs to instead find a way up.)

You walk on tiptoe along a narrow passageway which slopes downwards, and soon you come to a door which has an iron grille set into it. In the chamber beyond is a very odd sight: a human-shaped pillar of rough, coarse stone holds in its 'hands' a globe of very hot glowing rock, on to which it is blowing a yellow dusty breath. As the creature blows, the rock grows redder and redder; then, finally, the stone monster throws the rock in an arc across the room and into an aperture in the wall. The strange, swirling darkness of the hole swallows up the flaming rock sphere, and it whistles away into the distance, leaving only a faint glow behind. Meanwhile, the stone creature has picked up a dully glowing rock from a pile at its feet and is beginning to blow on it, starting the process once again. This is all very strange! But it may have something to do with how the great Sphere is powered, so perhaps you will want to stop it. On the other hand, the stone monster looks pretty formidable. What will you do? Will you:

*Open the door and attack?
* Return to the T-junction and take the middle path?
* Return to the T-junction and take the left-hand path?

Furryborn the Honourable
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 14/20
LUCK 5/10
Honour: 7
Time Elapsed: 5 days
Equipment: Sword, Furred Leather Armour, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, Climbing Gear, 9 gold pieces, Tasrin's Ring, Snow Fox, Potion of Fire Breath.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:36 pm

(Weirdly enough, the perspective of that picture is wrong and misleading; we're supposedly seeing the creature through the iron grille, and there are no other exits from that room, yet we can see the iron grille behind it rather than in front of it.)

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Tue May 14, 2013 7:03 pm

Fighting giant stone monsters is usually a sucker's bet.

-Username17

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Tue May 14, 2013 8:47 pm

Our skill is as good as I, Live Only to Destroy Our Mutual Enemies Dicklong Eldritcock, so I say we fuck that stone golems shit up fierce, because making a casual comparison to something only slightly connected is always a good reason to fight.

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Tue May 14, 2013 9:06 pm

Seeing as we're out of healing items, already wounded, at dangerous levels of LUCK, and that the monster is apparently fire-immune, I think we stay clear of it for now. If it's mandatory we'll come back and fight it, but let's reserve our strength for now.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue May 14, 2013 9:11 pm

This thing will probably be immune or resistant to our sword, and equally so to our Fire Breath.

Our SKILL is only average for an adventurer, so unless we have an item that we can use in combat to kill it (and from our listed choices, I would guess that there is not), it's probably better to live with the knowledge that we ran rather than fight and die.

So we bravely run away, Sir Robin.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Wed May 15, 2013 12:19 am

Left.

Dr_Noface · Post by **Dr_Noface** » Wed May 15, 2013 12:37 am

Fuck golems, our sword will probably shatter on its supple rock skin.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed May 15, 2013 1:23 am

Oh, and go middle this time.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Wed May 15, 2013 7:37 am

(One vote for left, another for going straight on again. I guess I'll count Dr_Noface's earlier vote as the tiebreaker)

You make your way along a winding, featureless passage which opens into a bare, spherical chamber, a very odd design. You are about to enter it when a smoky shape starts to take form within the room, and drifts soundlessly towards you! If you've been here before and fought this enemy, another has appeared in its place.

Do we want to stay and see what happens, or do we want to flee and return to the main junction we came from?

Furryborn the Honourable
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 14/20
LUCK 5/10
Honour: 7
Time Elapsed: 5 days
Equipment: Sword, Furred Leather Armour, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, Climbing Gear, 9 gold pieces, Tasrin's Ring, Snow Fox, Potion of Fire Breath.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed May 15, 2013 10:39 am

Well, apparently killing it doesn't do much, so I suggest we run and head down the middle this time.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Wed May 15, 2013 3:17 pm

Darth Rabbitt wrote:Well, apparently killing it doesn't do much, so I suggest we run and head down the middle this time.

Seconded.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Wed May 15, 2013 5:07 pm

Repetitive backtracking, heading straight along and then downwards:

(Escaping just takes us back to the three way junction.)

You walk a few stealthy paces down a dimly lit passageway with smooth black walls, looking out for guards - but you see none. You soon come to a three way junction within the gently humming, warm and slightly smoky body of the Sphere. It is obvious that each of these passages continues for some distance; the interior of the Sphere is clearly bigger than the outside size would seen to indicate was possible. This is obviously a very magical creation!

Will you:
Take the right-hand passage? (To the golem-thing)
Take the left-hand passage? (Back to the smoke-thing)
Head straight on? (To the stairs)

You hurry on down a very long, meandering passageway, which eventually opens into a circular chamber of black rock. Around the smooth walls are bronze rails, and a circular stone staircase cut into both floor and ceiling leads up and down. Will you take the steps leading up or those leading down?

(We've cleared the Fire Demon upstairs, downward is our only option:)

[...]

The air gets hotter as you descend the stairs, and they end in a circular, plain chamber with a single passageway leading off it. The heat feels even greater in that direction, and the smokiness of the air makes your eyes water. If you have to fight down here (before taking the stairs back up), you will have to subtract 1 from your current SKILL for as long as you remain. So will you:

*Climb the stairs back up to where you came from?
*Climb the stairs up two flights, if you havn't been there before?
*Follow the passageway here?
*Search this plain chamber?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed May 15, 2013 5:35 pm

Haven't we already searched this area?

If so, follow the passageway, if not search.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed May 15, 2013 8:15 pm

I say we search the room. That has never lead to anything bad happing in anything ever.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Thu May 16, 2013 12:34 pm

(We have already searched and failed, but I assume we can search again.)

Roll two dice.

(9: total is less than or equal to our skill.)

You find a sturdy door hidden in one comer of the room, but it will take some effort to open. You also have a sneaking feeling that it may be booby-trapped in some way. What will you do? Will you:

Open the secret door anyway?
Open the secret door with a crowbar, if you have one?
Take the steps up one flight?
Take the steps up two flights?
Follow the passageway leading from here?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu May 16, 2013 1:54 pm

We spent all that effort trying to find it, we should damn well open it.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu May 16, 2013 2:08 pm

It'll probably kill us, but we have to open it.

The Gaming Den

Let's Play Fighting Fantasy no 46: Tower of Destruction

What book should be up next?