[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 11 - Talisman of Death

Stories about games that you run and/or have played in.

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SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

'I manage, mostly,' he says, 'but it puts me in mind of one time not so long ago when things really got out of hand.' He goes on to tell you a story about Heimdol the Mighty. It seems that Heimdol was one of the strongest and most unpleasant men ever to have swilled beer in the Red Dragon. One day a stranger, Tyutchev, accepted his invitation to a bout of arm-wrestling. Heimdol lost for the first time in his life. He was furious and threatened awful reprisals if Tyutchev ever returned. A few night later, Tyutchev did return and began methodically to insult Heimdol and two of his friends. In the inevitable fight which followed Tyutchev killed them all and carved his initials on Heimdol's forehead. 'He worships the God of insane chaos, Anarchil, and since then none has dared gainsay him here, even though they are all thieves and murderers.' You decide the time has come to introduce yourself to the thieves, and you walk over to their table.
Tyutchev is one of the powerful GMPC antagonists (along with 2 others) that the players of Way of the Tiger could have met in their adventures.....although apparently the LP that was hosted here managed to skip the encounter with that Trio in Book 2. They would definitely have shown up in Book 6, but again, they didn't appear here because the LP here ended at Book 5.

They would also show up in a few other gamebooks written by the Creators of Orb (including one of the Virtual Reality books. Well, Tyutchev did, at least, if not his companions), where they're generally a major headache, if not outright lethal threat, to the PC characters of those book.
You introduce yourself to the motley group of villains. They do not reply. You persevere, saying that you only wish to speak to them for a few moments. One of them, whose face is marked by a jagged scar, running from ear to chin, fixes you with a stare and grates, "We don't care for the law, so watch yourself. You could be dead before you knew we'd moved."

Will you:

Ask them the way to the Thieves' Guild?

Say you need help with some unfinished business?

Boldly retort that their threats don't scare you?
Ask them the way to their home? Talk business? Or talk smack?
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

Talk business.
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Post by SGamerz »

They appear interested and offer you some ale. You accept a mug but do not drink. You suggest that in helping you, they might gain a great deal. They agree to meet you and tell you to come to the Thieves' Guild at mid-day tomorrow, via the disguised coal-hole in Hornbeam Road. You begin to chat with them.
Hey, that was easy!

Now, let's take a look at 2 members of the afore-mentioned infamous GMPC:
Image
Two newcomers enter the Red Dragon ale cellar. The first is a very tall, wiry man whose frame is draped in a black cloak. The only hint of colour is his hair, very curly and dyed bright corn-yellow. The second is a handsome young woman dressed in a bizarre patch-work of armour. The barman mutters under his breath, then forces his face into a smile. "Tytchev, Cassandra, welcome!" he shouts obsequiously. The thieves move away from you to sit at another table. Tyutchev strolls to the bar and orders a drink. Cassandra sits opposite you, at your table. She ignores you and Tyutchev joins her.

Will you:

Say nothing?
Get up and leave the ale cellar?
Introduce yourself?
No option to challenge them to arm-wrestling, unfortunately.

Chat them up, follow the example of our new thieves friends, or pretend they're not there?
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Well, Olvar wasn't too strong and he was like Tyutchev's BFF, so I can't imagine that Tyutchev is much better. But Avenger we're not, so I doubt that Captain D should try getting the guy mad.

That being said, he's gotten enough of a description that I think he's worth talking to. Ask him what's up.
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Post by SGamerz »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:Well, Olvar wasn't too strong and he was like Tyutchev's BFF, so I can't imagine that Tyutchev is much better.
There's a reason Olvar got offed by Avenger and his 3 companions didn't (even if you do meet them in that book).

Besides, Avenger didn't have a SKILL of 8. :tongue:

They tell you their names are Tyutchev and Cassandra. Tyutchev says, "You are a newcomer - what brings you to the Red Dragon?" The beautiful Cassandra takes a dagger from her boot and starts to toss it end over end, catching it each time by the tip. As you consider your answer, she tosses it again but does not catch it. It buries itself in the table, a millimetre from your hand. Will you:

Say that you wish to meet some thieves?
Say you came in for a drink?
Tell Tyutchev to mind his own business?
What dowe tell them?
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Olvar was pretty strong. He had a lightning bolt hat and took a lot of killin'.
Dr_Noface
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Post by Dr_Noface »

Lets not mess with this guy. Our skill sucks. Ask him about thieves.
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Post by SGamerz »

'I am a thief, among other things,' says Tyutchev. 'Why do you wish to meet thieves?' You tell him that you have some unfinished business and need some help. 'Ah, yes,' he says, 'but I am needed at my temple. I am not interested.' Will you take your leave and go up the steps out into the street, or mention that the business involves the Talisman of Death?
This part sounds a bit weird, since the previous option didn't actually imply that we want to hire him. Besides, we already arranged a meeting with the local Thieves' Guild.

Do we want to tell him more?
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

Somehow I don't think this guy will help us out, out of the kindness of his heart. At the very best he'll help us steal it back and then keep it for himself. I say leave.
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Post by SGamerz »

You step out, squinting against the bright light of the late afternoon sun. Add 1 Luck point for visiting the Red Dragon Inn and living to tell the tale. You are back in the Street of Seven Sins. If you have met a Sage and he has invited you to dinner, and you wish to take up his invitation, turn to Section 229. If you have not been invited or do not wish to go, you may go down a side street called Cobbler's Walk, heading west, or go down Merchant Street, heading north-west.
Yes, we actually get a Luck bonus just for leaving the inn alive.

Back to full Luck score.

Which way do we go now?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 8/8 (9 in combat)
STAMINA 16/22
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA), Holy Sword (+1 SKILL in combat)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 8 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (restore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

I dunno, visit the shops, I guess? Merchant Street? We have time to kill until midday tomorrow.
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Post by Dr_Noface »

I vote for cobbler's walk since we have no gold
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Post by Sirocco »

Duh. Cobbler's Walk it is.
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Post by SGamerz »

Since we can't buy anything, we avoid the merchants and go get our boots fixed instead, because everyone knows Cobblers are really nice generous guys and totally will not ask for payment. :tongue:
Image
You continue along Cobbler's Walk, turning a corner or two. Suddenly, a body comes crashing through a nearby window into the street. Splinters of glass fly everywhere, but you are unharmed. Moving closer you see the mangled corpse of a man dressed in black robes covered with odd symbols. A door to the nearby house burst open and a man dressed in a silver robe with black symbols runs into the street screaming, 'Flee! Run for your life!' as he disappears. In the open doorway a monstrous figure now stands. It springs at you with a demonic howl. It is three metres high, with the head and hind legs of an elk. Its bloated humanoid torso is mottled blue and grey and its breath clouds the air with crystals of ice. It points at you and a gale of freezing sleet hits you. The chill is almost crippling - lose 3 STAMINA points. If you are still alive, the Demon reaches for you with its powerful talons. You must fight it.

ICE DEMON SKILL 8 STAMINA 10

If you win, turn to 61.
Ouch. Down to 13 STAMINA. Fortunately, our chances are still somewhat better than its, thanks to our Holy Sword.

COMBAT LOG:
Ice Demon 14, Captain D 13. Captain D is at 11.
Demon 14, CD 16. Demon is at 8.
Demon 12, CD 12. Tie.
Demon 12, CD 19. Demon is at 6.
Demon 18, CD 11. Captain D is at 9.
Demon 15, CD 16. Demon is at 4.
Demon 12, CD 19. Demon is at 2.
Demon 15, CD 16. Demon is dead!
You have banished the Ice Demon to the plane from which it came, through defeating it combat. The shards of broken glass crunch underfoot. Will you enter the house it came from, or continue down Cobbler's Walk?
Sadly, the Demon could not repair our boots. So we gave it the boot right back to where it came from.

Do we want to enter the house?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 8/8 (9 in combat)
STAMINA 9/22
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA), Holy Sword (+1 SKILL in combat)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 8 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (restore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

Sure we do.
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

I assume that on the other side of every demon is a reward for killing it. Enter the house!
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Post by SGamerz »

You walk through the front door, which is glistening with frost. A trail of frost leads from the door to a large pentacle chalked on the floor. Sand is strewn where the frost crosses the edge of the pentacle. One the table lies various strange pieces of equipment. On the floor next to it lies an Amulet, made from the tip of a Unicorn's Horn, with some strange runes engraved on it. You may take it if you wish. There appears to be nothing else of any use to you, so you leave.
That was a pretty random encounter. Sounds like someone tried to summon a demon and lost control of it. Most of the bizzare enemies we've had to fight so far were probably sent by Agents of Death, but this one doesn't seem relevant to the main plot.

I'll be taking the Amulet unless there are any objections.
You turn down Carriage Street and see the sign of an inn, the Silver Trinket. It is next to a large stable and work-house. It seems a much more pleasant place than the Red Dragon Inn and, as it is growing late, you decide to go in.
The taproom of the inn is empty. You ask for a hot meal and a room for the night. The innkeeper tells you that this will cost you three pieces of gold, but says hat he is short-handed and that if you will do the washing-up he will let you stay for nothing. The choice is yours. You have a delicious meal of hippogriff in cream sauce. After your meal you sleep like a log and wake up feeling refreshed. Gain 4 STAMINA points. You set out in search of the Thieves' Guild.
Another weird section since it doesn't seem to make any difference whether we choose to pay the gold or wash the dishes. Why would any body pick to pay here? Not that we have a choice here, of course.

Our STAMINA goes up to 13 after the healthy exercise of washing-up.
As you set off, you see a small group of people clustered around a man wearing a flowing grey cloak and one dangling gold ear-ring. He is making huge bunches of flowers appear and disappear, to cries of delight and amusement from the crowd.

Will you:

Try to find a way into the Thieves' Guild?
Try to regain the Talisman on your own?
Stay and watch the magician?
Adventure Sheet:
Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 8/8 (9 in combat)
STAMINA 13/22
LUCK 10/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA), Holy Sword (+1 SKILL in combat)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 8 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (restore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

So far, nothing has indicated that the Thieves' Guild is of use to us (given that our representative has been Tyutchev) and the temple he's going to is probably the one that the woman who took our Talisman went to--meaning the Guild may be working for the BBEG already.

Try to find it on our own.
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Post by SGamerz »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:So far, nothing has indicated that the Thieves' Guild is of use to us (given that our representative has been Tyutchev) and the temple he's going to is probably the one that the woman who took our Talisman went to--meaning the Guild may be working for the BBEG already.
Actually, while Tyutchev has admitted he's, as he puts it, "a thief, among other things", I don't think he's the representative of the Guild. I'm not even sure if he's actually a Guild member. What we do know is that we set up a meeting with 6 Thieves before that, and those definitely ARE guild members, and they avoided Tyutchev like everyone else did.

Also, the bartender told us Tyutchev has his own religion/god (Anarchil, god of insane Chaos), and Hawkana worships Fell-Kyrinla, so the remark about the temple may not mean much.
You spot one of the warrior-women who you know are members of the temple of Fell-Kyrinla. Hoping she's on her way to the temple, you follow her at a distance. Eventually, you come to a buiilding made of a white stone, with dark grey columns. Steps lead up to the entrance between two pillars and there is a guard at the top. What will you do:

Attack the guard?
Tell her you have a message for the High Priestess?
How do we proceed?
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Post by Dr_Noface »

Fudge, we were probably supposed to go to the Thieves Guild. I say we attack the guard, for funs.
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Post by SGamerz »

As you rush up the stairs, the guards strikes a hidden bell and attacks you. You must fight her.

TEMPLE GUARD SKILL 6 STAMINA 8

If you win, turn to 255.
The fight itself doesn't look hard. What's more worrying is the fact that she struck the alarm bell and we couldn't stop her.

COMBAT LOG:
Temple Guard 15, Captain D 12. Captain D is at 11.
Guard 12, CD 21. Guard is at 6.
Guard 15, CD 15 Tie.
Guard 11, CD 14. Guard is at 4.
Guard 10, CD 11. Guard is at 2.
Guard 10, CD 17. Guard is dead!
Just short of a flawless.
As the stricken woman slides down the temple steps, leaving a trail of blood behind her, you are dismayed to see Hawkana, the raven-haired High Priestess. She lets out a scream of invocation, calling on the power of her Goddess. A pillar of flame engulfs you as the power of Fell-Kyrinla is unleashed. You are burnt to a cinder.
As Dr_Noface clearly predicted, the alternative option wasn't a good one either. Pretending to bring a message to Hawkana only skips the fight, but still gets us fried by the priestess. (To be fair, the authors did warn us by having the Paladin appear in our dreams and literally telling us that we need the Thieves' help, so while the design of this quest isn't that great I wouldn't say the auto-fail is unfair)

So what's the difference between the two options? Basically, getting killed in normal combat doesn't get us ressurected, as we are about to be below:
Your spirit floats gently towards the Valley of Death. The featureless, wind-blasted plain stretches away endlessly, beyond the horizon. The souls of the dead wander there aimlessly, in solitude. Just as you approach the edge of the valley, an ethereal wind gets up and your soul is wafted away. Soon you feel yourself in the presence of the two who summoned you to this fantastic world of magic. The eyeless being in robes of shifting hues says, "All is not yet lost." You understand the words without hearing them. "If your spirit is willing, we will reunite it with your body and turn back the wheels of time." The other being offers you a choice: "If you wish it, I will send you back in time. You will be at the lip of the Rift again." Do you wish to go back in time to attempt the quest again? If you do, he lays a hand on your shoulder. They disappear. You are alive again. Your wounds are healed and you have 10 Provisions. You have only the equipment with which you began the adventure, including the Talisman of Death, if you had lost it. Anything else you picked up on the way has disappeared and will have to be crossed off your Adventure Sheet. Your SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK are at their Initial levels. Suddenly you are on the surface of Orb once again.
This basically means we're back at the point where the adventuring group just handed us the Talisman. In fact, the next paragraph directs us back to this familiar section:
Dark Elves and Cave Trolls are pouring into the cavern, attacking the Shield-Maiden. As the Paladin and Priest rush to her aid, you see a huge shadowy form looming behind the sea of Elves and Trolls. The Paladin's glittering sword cuts through the horde, but the Dark Elves are using magic and the Shield-Maiden falls beneath their onslaught. The huge fiend howls triumphantly, just as the wizard completes his spell.
Even though the text forgets to mention it, I'm going to rule that we get our 10 gold pieces back as well, even though we didn't technically start with them. After all, it's still possible for us to take the option that involves us distracting the Orcs with our spilled money pouch, and that wouldn't make any sense if we didn't have any gold!
All in all, it might not have been too bad a thing for us to die (and get ressurected) when we did. We missed 2 encounters in the city, either of which would have helped get us safely out of the city after regaining the Talisman from Hawkana, so restarting now may save us another wasted trip later.
So how do we want to do this:

1) Re-roll our character completely and hope we get a higher SKILL?

2) If not, how much to we want to re-tread our old path? Or do we take a completely new route this time?

Here are the spots off the top of my head that we could have done differently, in chronilogical order:
- Go through the woods instead of the open ground right at the beginning?

- Give an alternative answer to the warrior women when they questioned us (instead of telling them the truth)?

- Try to escape before meeting Hawkana?

- Go down a different street after being robbed and thrown out by Hawkana?
There may be others that I've left out. If you want to rewind to a different point, just point out where. :)
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Post by Dr_Noface »

I vote to go into the woods. Half a vote for reroll.
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Post by Sirocco »

Gah, no, we had an appointment at the thieves' guild at noon!...

Oh well. Yeah, why not reroll, how worse can it get?

As to where to next, since the whole warrior-women encounter doesn't have much prospect, yeah, I agree, go to the woods.
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Post by SGamerz »

So, Captain D tells the two unnamed gods of Orb that he's had enough of their screwed-up world and demands to be sent home instead. The gods oblige, and set about looking for another hero and champion.....preferably one that's better at hitting other people and not so much at getting hit.

And what do they get?.....

SKILL: we roll a 6 and get 12 (YES!!)
STAMINA: we roll a 9 and get 21 (only marginally weaker than the previous guy)
LUCK: we roll ANOTHER 6 and get 12!!

By chance, the gods find some other guy on Earth who happens to have a name that starts with D as well, making him Captain D II! (unless you guys prefer a new name?)

So, our new hero gets transported to the Rift, got the Talisman (and the gold) from the generic RPG adventuring party, and gets transported to Orb:
Suddenly, you are in blinding sunshine. You are standing at the lip of an immense chasm. You realise that this must be the rift the Crusaders spoke of. The rocky earth is blackened and cracked, full of pits and fissures, and noisome fumes rise from the depths of the chasm. To the west you see a range of green hills partially covered in trees and thick woodland. A few hundred metres to your right, you can see where a forest begins, extending all the way to the hills. You realise that you must head in the direction of the hills to reach Greyguils - but which route will you take? If you go through the forest, turn to Section 256. If you would rather take the more direct route across open ground, turn to Section 134.
We head for the wood this time:
You enter the green, gloomy shade of the woods. After a while, you stumble into a clearing and stop in surprise at the sight that greets you. huge, grey she-wolf, almost as large as a pony, is suckling two cubs. She pushes them aside and crouches, snarling at you. Will you:

Back off and leave?
Offer the wolf some dried meat?
Attack her?


It is assumed that we have dried meat as part of our Provisions, I guess.

What do we do here?

Also:

Since we're staring from scratch, do we still want to bring the Potion of Fortune this time?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter II (??)
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 21/21
LUCK 12/12
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield
Gold: 10
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: ??
No. of Re-boots in this playthrough: 1
Last edited by SGamerz on Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dr_Noface
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Post by Dr_Noface »

Dried meats for the wolf I say. Captain D is friend to nature!

Half a vote for potion of fortune.
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