[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy #54 - Legend of Zagor!

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 9:42 pm

Drink potion of stamina, use neckerchief.

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:20 pm

I would prefer to use the 3 small ones and consolidate, on the basis that if later we have only 1 action we can use it to bring out the big gun, but whatever. I'm happy with using neckerchief too.

Vote heal and neckerchief (half a vote to use herbal restorative for the heals)

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 1:38 pm

We drink the Potion of Stamina - our STAMINA goes up to 21.

We then use one of our Invisibility charges before going in:

'Pandemonium' would be a modest description of the Throne Room which lies behind the iron-clad doors. The room is filled with drooling, mindless creatures slobbering and grimacing at one another. In one corner, something that may once have been an Elf plucks randomly at a seven-stringed instrument, picking out a hideous refrain. A lethargic Ogre thumps periodically at a tympani to add to the din, while mindless Goblins blow into conches and flutes. However, not everyone here is a mindless creature; many of the monsters are capable and dangerous. Nearest you are two armoured Orcs, then four Great Orcs are standing together, then come two Orc mutants, and behind them is a pair of Zombies wearing ebony-black circlets round their heads. Behind them in the far distance, the figure of Thulu, Great Chieftain of the Orcs, sits, semi-comatose, on his throne, a grotesquely misshapen crown covering his swollen head and ghastly bony protuberances thrusting out through the holes in the crown. If your preparation included disguising yourself as a Zombie or drinking a Potion of Invisibility, turn to 19. Otherwise turn to 39.

Well, turns out that our Zombie disguise would have been sufficient here. Still, no real harm done. We still have 2 more invisibility charges if needed.

Your deception works: the monsters here don't react to you immediately, though they will as soon as you begin attacking them. You have one free action: this can be casting a spell, striking one opponent (make a note to subtract the appropriate number of STAMINA points from the first opponent you must face in the Throne Room), launching a special magic sword if you can, or throwing in a Lava Sphere (if you have one). Decide upon your free action, then turn to 39 to fight.

We've got quite a few options. The Lava Sphere and the Orc-Slaying Sword are both available to us, although the latter costs at least 1 Magic point. This place probably has more Orcs than any other.

What do we do with our bonus action?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jallarial
SKILL 11/11 (+1 from Ebony Wand)
STAMINA 21/23
LUCK 6/9
MAGIC: 6/9 (+2 from Ebony Wand)
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, knife, rope, Iron rod (-1 to Die roll when opening doors via Skill Test), Potion of Invisibility (opponent -2 Attack Strength if drank before combat), Flask of Herbal Restorative/Liqueur x3 (+4 STAMINA), Golden Talisman (x2), Silver Dagger (x6), Magical Oil of Enchantment (enchants non-magical weapons for one combat), Jailor Keys (70), Wand of the Hawk, Vials of Acid (does 4 STAMINA damage if used during combat), Lava Sphere (does 1D6 damage to all opponents in a room when used in combat), Onyx Staff, Oatmeal x3 (counts as 1 meal each), Potion of Luck (restores 1-3 LUCK), Orc-slaying Sword, PLague Antidote, Neckerchief of Invisibility (1 charge remaining, opponent -2 Attack Strength if used before combat)
Provisions: None
Treasure: 3 GP
No. of Deaths: 1

Additional bonus from Wand of the Hawk: 1) +2 Attack Strength once Jallarial's entered Great Tower, 2) enchants weapons, 3) restore Magic OR STAMINA to full once

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:45 pm

Orc slaying sword can explicitly be used on any combat round in addition to a normal attack, so not much point using it before a combat. Lava sphere I think was able to be used at the beginning of a combat with no combat penalty, so not much advantage from using either option early. See the lay of the land before using either option.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:03 pm

Lava Sphere eats a magic point too, sadly.

If Lava Sphere takes an action, then Lava Sphere with our surprise round. Otherwise, Skill spell with our surprise round, then activate Lava Sphere and magic sword simultaneously in first round.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:30 pm

SGamerz wrote:

Huh, that's clearly a modified version of an Ian McCaig piece from an old Ian Livingstone riddle-book called Casket of Souls. I loved that book, it was really grim and had elf tits.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Jul 26, 2016 1:42 am

Omegonthesane wrote:If Lava Sphere takes an action, then Lava Sphere with our surprise round. Otherwise, Skill spell with our surprise round, then activate Lava Sphere and magic sword simultaneously in first round.

This.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Tue Jul 26, 2016 11:58 am

angelfromanotherpin wrote:
SGamerz wrote:

Huh, that's clearly a modified version of an Ian McCaig piece from an old Ian Livingstone riddle-book called Casket of Souls. I loved that book, it was really grim and had elf tits.

That same picture (the coloured one you posted, not the modified one in LoD) was also re-used as the cover for Book 3 of the Zagor Chronicles.

We fling our Lava Sphere into the room......

Thulu remains seated on his throne, but the other monsters swarm to attack you. You must fight them together, in pairs, in the order shown below: Orcs, then Great Orcs, then Mutant Orcs, then Great Crown Zombies. You can neither rest nor perform any action, such as drinking a Potion or eating a meal, between fighting each pair of enemies.

First ORC SKILL 6 STAMINA 5
Second ORC SKILL 6 STAMINA 5
First GREAT ORC SKILL 7 STAMINA 6
Second GREAT ORC SKILL 7 STAMINA 6
Third GREAT ORC SKILL 7 STAMINA 6
Fourth GREAT ORC SKILL 7 STAMINA 6
First MUTANT ORC SKILL 7 STAMINA 8
Second MUTANT ORC SKILL 7 STAMINA 8
First GREAT CROWN ZOMBIE SKILL 8 STAMINA 12
Second GREAT CROWN ZOMBIE SKILL 8 STAMINA 12

When you are fighting the Great Gown Zombies, you have one special option: you can attempt to knock the ebony circlet from a Zombie's head rather than striking normally. lf you do this, you receive a penalty of 3 to low Attack Strength; but if you succeed in striking the Zombie, it loses 2 points from its SKILL and 6 points from its STAMINA instantly. lf you win this ferociously difficult combat, tum to 82.

Rolling for Lava Sphere damage...

Roll 1 = 3. First generic Orc is at 2.
Roll 2 = 1. Second generic Orc is at 4.
Roll 3 = 3. First Great Orc is at 3.
Roll 4 = 5. Second Great Orc is at 1.
Roll 5 = 4. Third Great Orc is at 2.
Roll 6 = 1. Fourth Great Orc is at 5.
Roll 7 = 5. First Mutant Orc is at 3.
Roll 8 = 2. Second Mutant Orc is at 6.
Roll 9 = 2. First Crown Zombie is at 10.
Roll 10 = 4. Second Crown Zombie is at 8.

Ten rolls and not a single 6. The die really doesn't like us....

There were previous votes to use Skill spell and magic sword, but they can't be used in the same round, if you still want to do both we'll have to use the spell first and then the sword in the second round. Note that Jallarial's Magic will be down to 3 if we do all that. Now that we've seen the stats, do still want those.

And do we want to aim for the zombies' crowns?

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Tue Jul 26, 2016 4:40 pm

Just carve them up.

Half a vote for the called shot.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Tue Jul 26, 2016 7:52 pm

The Skill spell was only if we couldn't lavabomb as a free action in the first combat round.

Activate the magic sword, we're not going to get another better chance to do so and it looks like it'll be scoring a kill a round. Don't reactivate it though, there aren't that many orcs and we'll be attacking too. Attack the orc with 4 stamina, let the magic sword bisect the orc with 2.

Full vote for the called shot.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Tue Jul 26, 2016 8:32 pm

Agree with Oregon.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Jul 26, 2016 11:29 pm

Thirded.

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 7:14 am

The sword, if used, should only attack orcs with 3, 5 or 6 STAMINA until no such orcs remain, then it can attack 1 and 2 STAMINA orcs.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 7:45 am

Mr Shine wrote:The sword, if used, should only attack orcs with 3, 5 or 6 STAMINA until no such orcs remain, then it can attack 1 and 2 STAMINA orcs.

I dunno, "can target" seems to be a two-way relationship. I mean, if we *can* whittle down the Fourth Great Orc and Second Mutant Orc before their pair steps up to fight us then sure but that isn't clear from the text.

If the magic sword can target orcs that haven't yet stepped up to the plate, then 2nd Orc, 1st Great Orc, 1st Mutant Orc, 4th Great Orc, 2nd Mutant Orc, 2nd Mutant Orc again if applicable, whatever orcs are left in that order.

Otherwise, prioritise targets at exactly 3 HP, then targets at more than 3 HP, then any other targets in that order.

EDIT: In what order do we resolve 1) the normal combat round 2) the sword's attack 3) the next pair stepping to the plate? Given that we cannot take any action whatsoever between pairs, I am inclined to think they can step up to the plate between resolving normal combat and resolving the sword's attack where applicable.

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 8:28 am

Omegonthesane wrote:. I mean, if we *can* whittle down the Fourth Great Orc and Second Mutant Orc before their pair steps up to fight us then sure but that isn't clear from the text.

the sword will fly through the air and attack any single Orc... you can see in the room where combat is taking place

We can definitely use it to attack orcs we can't actually fight ourself.

I'd say priority.

3 ST orc
6 ST orc, if another charge remains to finish it off next round)
5 ST orc
1/2 ST orc
4 ST orc

Within those bands always go for the one nearest the back of the queue.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 12:46 pm

Jallarial launches the Orc-slaying Sword....

....and rolls a 4! That means the sword gets to attack 6 times!

Then she wades into combat while the sword flies to the back of mass of enemies....

COMBAT LOG:

Orc#1 17, Orc#2 14, Jallarial 19. Orc#1 is killed. Meanwhile, the Magic Sword cuts down Mutant Orc#1.
Orc#2 12, Jallarial 19. Orc#2 is at 2. The Magic Sword cuts MO#2, who is now at 3.
Orc#2 15, Jallarial 18. Orc#2 is killed. Magic Sword kills MO#2.
Great Orcs #1 & 2 moves up to engage Jallarial.
GO#1 17, GO#2 13, Jallarial 18. GO#1 is at 1. Magic Sword attacks GO#4, who is now at 2.
GO#1 16 GO#2 10, Jallarial 20. GO#1 is killed. Magic Sword kills GO#4.
GO#2 13, Jallarial 22. GO#2 is killed. Magic Sword kills GO#3.
Magic Sword has run out of attacks.....fortunately, all the Orcs are now dead anyway! We're left with the zombies, and we aim to knock their crowns off...
Great Crown Zombie#1 20, Great Crown Zombie#2 17, Jallarial 13. Jallarial is hit by both zombies and is at 17!
GCZ#1 16, GCZ#2 20, Jallarial 13. Jallarial is at 13.
GCZ#1 16, GCZ#2 15, Jallarial 15. Jallarial is at 11.
GCZ#1 13, GCZ#2 17, Jallarial 16. Jallarial is at 9, but GCZ#1 is at SK 6, ST 4!
We now aim for the second zombie's crown (since #1 isn't much of a threat now).
GCZ#1 11, GCZ#2 13, Jallarial 16. GCZ#2 is at SK 6, ST 2.
We keep aiming for #2, since it's weaker.....
GCZ#1 12, GCZ#2 10, Jallarial 19. GCZ#2 is defeated.
GCZ#1 13, Jallarial 18. GCZ#1 is at 2.
GCZ#1 16, Jallarial 21. GCZ#1 is destroyed.

We were doing so well until we came up against the zombies. The dice just don't seem to work in our favour most of the time when we try for crown shots.

The monstrously bloated figure of Thulu the chieftain rises unsteadily from its throne. It looks down at you unbelievingly, then howls in fury and screams abuse at you Frothing at the mouth, the monster whirls its mighty axe around in a circle, its arms and hands shaking uncontrollably. Fortunately for you, the monster takes a while to get itself back under control before it can attack you. This gives you time to perform two free actions, such as drinking a Potion or herbal liqueur, casting a spell, etc. (but not any free attacks by weapon or by spells, since these will make Thulu fight at once). Decide what these actions will be, and then you must fight for your life.

THULU SKILL 9 STAMINA 17.

If you win, turn to 125.

Do we want to use that extra action for anything before we start the fight?

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 5:02 pm

Cast Summon Food for 3 MP, recharge our magic via the Wand, cast skill spell as a free action, then DEATH SPELL this jerk! Or the "roll 2 attacks and choose the best" instead of skill, if stroking our wand to feel magical doesn't cost us any action.

It's a (small) risk, but we're not likely to fight many tougher SKILL 9 opponents. And we know there's a healer just beyond this throne room, so expending healing items seems like a waste.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:36 am

Missed this the first time around, but since we got 1.5 votes for the herbal flasks and only 1 for the STAMINA potion so by democratic process we should still have the potion (and 1 more STAMINA than we currently have, if any of that matters.)

Regardless I'll mostly agree to Johnny's plan, with the caveat that I'd rather just spend MP on Death without also spending on buffs.

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:24 am

3MP seems like a waste to take down this jerk. We would need to be very unlucky not to win outright with no buff, and there's probably a free full heal coming up. I vote for no special action, or second preference to use only theskill spell. I'm definitely against spending 2 or more MAGIC.

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 7:33 am

I agree with.Mr Shine. SKILL should be enough.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:56 am

Ok, I'll change my vote to no death spell. I also suspect full heal is approaching.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 12:03 pm

Darth Rabbitt wrote:Missed this the first time around, but since we got 1.5 votes for the herbal flasks and only 1 for the STAMINA potion so by democratic process we should still have the potion (and 1 more STAMINA than we currently have, if any of that matters.)

There was only 0.5 votes for the herbal flasks. Mr Shine was the only one who voted for that. Sirocco voted for neckerchief but said nothing about heals, so your 1 vote for the potion overrode the 0.5 vote.

Now, for this current option, the various votes look a little complicated. It looks like SlyJohnny is agreeing that the Death spell and extra heals won't be needed, so I'm going to go with just the SKILL spell, giving us a +3 Attack Strength advantage.

COMBAT LOG:

Thulu 12, Jallarial 16. Thulu is at 15.
Thulu 15, Jallarial 21. Thulu is at 13.
Thulu 17, Jallarial 18. Thulu is at 11.
Thulu 16, Jallarial 21. Thulu is at 9.
Thulu 14, Jallarial 17. Thulu is at 7.
Thulu 21, Jallarial 18. Jallarial is at 7.
Thulu 21, Jallarial 17. Jallarial is at 5.
Thulu 15, Jallarial 21. Thulu is at 5.
Thulu 14, Jallarial 18. Thulu is at 3.
Thulu 18, Jallarial 16. Jallarial is at 3.
Thulu 20, Jallarial 20. Tie.
Thulu 18, Jallarial 23. Thulu is at 1.
Thulu 16, Jallarial 21. Thulu is killed.

The body of the hideous chieftain lies at your feet. You have triumphed; gain 1 LUCK point. A great reward is surely yours - somewhere! You find some scraps of edible food on the banqueting table in this place, though almost everything here is rotten (add 3 to your Provisions). Looking around and ignoring the pathetic and mindless minions since they offer no threat to you, you observe four doors in the chamber: three are along the north wall, and one is in the north corner of the west wall. Will you open:

The door in the west wall?
The far left door in the north wall?
The central door in the north wall?
The far right door in the north wall?

Well, at least we didn't waste the Magic on creating food. We just found 3 here!

Which way for more reward?

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 2:05 pm

Elrarel, master thief wrote:Thulu, the Orc chieftain in the Throne Room, holds a Healer prisoner. The jail cell lies behind the west wall.

West wall. Let's get our heal on.

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 2:27 pm

Agreed.

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:41 pm

Show the healer our broken body.

The Gaming Den

[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy #54 - Legend of Zagor!

Which of the below meatgrinders do you prefer to play first?