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

[Omegonthesane]

Find the healer.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed.

[SGamerz]

This door is locked, but a swift search locates the keys on Thulu's body and you throw open the cell which lies behind the door. On a bed of filthy straw, a red-eyed old man clad in once-white robes looks up at you with an expression that is at first hopeless but then tums to one of delight and joy as he sees that you are not one of Thulu's creatures. 'My friend, how can I ever repay you for freeing me?' he says. 'I am a healer, and surely you must have suffered much to reach this far into this terrible den of evil.' If you have the Plague, the healer will cure you of any and all forms you may have. He can also lay his healing hands upon you and restore up to 8 points of STAMINA. He then rushes up to Thulu's throne and opens a secret compartment in its base, reaching for a ring, which he slips on to his finger. 'My friend, I am no fighter or wizard. I can help you no longer with your quest; I have been locked up for so long that I know nothing of the terrible changes here, though I have sensed them. I must be gone, back to my liege lord, the king.' If you think you know the name of this healer, convert his name to a number using the code A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 and so on, add the numbers corresponding to the letters of his name and tum to the paragraph with that number. If his name is not the first word you see there, or if you do not know his name, turn to 211.

Not the full heal we were hoping for, but it does get our STAMINA back to 11.

It's weird, though, that this guy's apprentice actually healed us more!

Speaking of which, yes we did meet the apprentice earlier, which means we do know his name!

'Zuqurulm, I-' But he has already stopped dead in his tracks.

'My hue name was known only to my acolyte!' he says. You explain how you saved this acolyte from the Great Orcs in the basement of the castle. Zuqurulm is overjoyed; he had thought his student long dead. 'Then you have saved both of us My debt to you is doubled. Friend, now you have slain all the vile servants here, we have some time. There is a special spell I can teach you which may help you prevail at last.' You rest and meditate with Zuqurulm as he teaches you the Stamina Spell. This costs 1 Magic Point to cast; when you cast it, you regain lost STAMINA points equal to half your Initial total (round fractions up). You can cast this spell at any time, except during combat. Now, if you are Braxus or Sallazar Jallarial, turn to 232. If you are Anvar or Stubble, turn to 211.

That works like a STAMINA potion, except it costs Magic.

With this spell, there's no reason to ever use our wand to re-charge STAMINA, since we can just spend Magic to heal ourselves twice before using the wand to recharge Magic. Unless we manage to run out of both simultaneously, somehow!

Let's see if he has something extra for Jallarial.....

Zuqurulm can teach you a special form of the Stamina Spell. This costs 3 Magic Points to cast, but it may be cast during a combat, at the start of any Attack Round (if you have enough Magic Points to do so). If you have the higher Attack Strength, you regain lost STAMINA equal to half your Initial score (rounding fractions up). If you do not have the higher Attack Strength in that Attack Round, however, the spell is ruined and you do not regain any STAMINA points (your enemy will damage you instead). As usual, you must decide whether you are going to cast this spell in an Attack Round before you roll dice to determine Attack Strengths! Now turn to 211.

Awesome. While we can't afford to use this often, this may save our life at some point.

The healer concentrates all his powers on his magical ring - and disappears in a puff of magical smoke! Now you must leave and open one of the doors in the Throne Room which you haven't opened before, all are along the north wall, so will you open:

The left-hand door?
The door in the middle?
The right-hand door?

So many people here seem to have a portable teleporting device of some sort. Why couldn't we get one?

[Omegonthesane]

Check for the goat behind the left door.

[SlyJohnny]

Sure, but let's eat a meal first.

[SGamerz]

We wolf down one of our new-found meals and raise our STAMINA to 15.

The bedchamber of the kings of Amarillia lies before you; looted and ransacked, little of value remains in it. You find a single Gold Piece on the floor here but that's all so you leave, and now you must open a door in the Throne Room which you haven't investigated before. Will this be:

The door in the west wall?
The central door in the north wall?
The easternmost door in the north wall?

Hey, if we'd found that earlier, we'd have been able to pay off the hag!

Oh well, where next?

[Omegonthesane]

Is there a goat behind door number 2 the central door?

[SlyJohnny]

Central might lead us onward, so I'd suggest the easternmost door.

[Sirocco]

I'll vote easternmost to break the tie.

[SGamerz]

You have made your way into the Chancellery where the kings of Amarillia kept their treasure! Of course much has been looted but, to your delight, there is a Tower Chest here! After opening it, you must Test your Spot Skill. If you are successful, turn to 17. Otherwise, you leave here, and now you must open a door in the Throne Room which you haven't opened
before; will this be:

The door in the west wall?
The central door in the north wall?
The westernmost door in the north wall?

Thanks to the LUCK bonus we got from beating Thulu, we still have a decent chance at opening the chest manually....

Luck test roll = 7 (Lucky)

Die roll for content = 2 (Silver Dagger)

There's no need to roll for Spot Skill, since as usual our hawk-eyed wizard spots everything!

You find a small sliding panel in the eastern wall which, you suspect, may well be trapped. lf you decide to open it, tum to 34. If you don't want to take the chance, you leave and open a door in the Throne Room which you haven't opened before; will it be:

The door in the west wall?
The central door in the north wall?
The westernmost door in the north wall?

Open the hidden panel?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Open it.

[Omegonthesane]

Open it.

[SlyJohnny]

Open the thing!

[SGamerz]

Test your Skill. If you are successful, you slide the panel across safely. If you fail, a poisoned blade flies out and slashes deep into your wrist; you must deduct 2 points from your STAMINA from the deep gash and a further- 2 STAMINA points because of the poison; you must also lose 1 point of Current and Initial SKILL because your weapon hand is injured! Worse still, the compartment behind the sliding panel is empty; what was once hidden here has evidently been removed. Now you may leave and open a door in the Throne Room which you haven't opened before; will it be:

The door in the west wall?
The central door in the north wall?
The westernmost door in the north wall?

Turns out it was one of those trapped compartments where the trap resets itself?

Skill Test roll = 3 (success)

At least we escaped the trap unscathed.

There's only one door left, so let's proceed:

You enter a short hallway which is bare of any decoration and which has a single door at its northern end. You stride ahead and throw it open: you find yourself standing in a broad and almost endless corridor and the door behind you slams shut! You will not be able to open it now, either by magic or by force.

And of course, this arbitrarily moves us forward to the next Hub-zone.....

You are standing in the middle of the great castle passageway known as the Bronze Stride. The walls here are covered in bronze plaques on which the faces of great heroes of Amarillian history are etched. To the south is a door which you cannot open. To the north, there is a door which has a lacquered black surface with gold etching and details. Adjacent to it is a door with four shallow depression in it. Far to the east, there is a set of double doors which give admittance to the east wing of the castle; likewise, far to the west of you is a set of double doors which give entry to the west wing of the castle. You must open a door which you haven't previously opened. Will it be:

The black and gold door?
The other door to the north?
The doors to the east wing?
The doors to the west wing?

Which door now?

[Sirocco]

So, to quote what the elf said:

'[...]Get through there and you're into the Bronze Stride; from there, there are doors to the east and west wings and the doors to the Great Tower. Grool rules the east wing from the old war tower; the west ring is very dangerous, with the Hellhorn Champion and all those severed heads - gives me the creeps. Beware the Spectre there!'

The Eli flinches at the mention of Zagor's name. 'I really wouldn't use the Z-word round here. Walls have ears, you know- More importantly, there are things that can creep out of walls if they hear that word. Well, to find you-know-who atop the Great Tower, you've got to get past the Dragon Doors, north of the Throne Room, along the Bronze Stride. And to do that, you have to have the Dragonbone Keys. There's one set in both the east and west wings. Grool has one set, for sure.'

So, the door to the north is probably the way forward. We should leave this one for last.
Want to try the east wing first, to get our first set of keys?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Sure, east.

[SlyJohnny]

We have the Onyx staff cheat-code for fighting the hellhorn champion, so we should do west first.

[SGamerz]

East first:

Behind the doors to the east wing is a very lengthy, wide passage which leads eastwards. You march fifty metres or so along it until you arrive at the middle and take your bearings there.

Standing in the middle of the main passage of the east wing, you can see six doors. Two large doors in the north wall both bear the symbols of dragon's heads, and they do not appear to be part of the original castle design. To the west, double doors give access to the Bronze Stride. To the south there are two doors, one of which has a large, crudely painted sign which reads: 'DO NOT ENTER!' Lastly, there is a door at the far east end of the passage. You should open a door which you have not opened previously (unless you are returning to the Bronze Stride through the west door, which you can do at any time). Will you open:

The door to the west?
The left-hand door in the north wall?
The right-hand door in the north wall?
The door with the warning sign?
The other southern door?
The door to the east?

Which door now?

[SlyJohnny]

Door to the east.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I'd prefer the door with the warning sign.

[Omegonthesane]

Blatantly defy the sign.

[Sirocco]

Thirded.

[SGamerz]

Test your Spot Skill. If you are successful, turn to 79. If you fail, tum to 146.

Nothing escapes Jallarial's eyes! Her eyes are as sharp as those of the hawk on her wand!

Opening the door will release an ingenious mechanical trap which threatens to decapitate you with its slicing blades! You can bypass the trap if you have a lockpick, if you use an Open spell, or if you have a thief hireling with you. If you can use any of these means, turn to 307. If you cannot, then you must either open the door and risk suffering the damage the trap may do to you or decide to leave this door unopened and explore elsewhere.

The text doesn't give an option NOT to use any of the possible blue options even if you have them (you are told to turn to 307 if you CAN do any of them) but I thought I'd give you a choice to decide whether you want to spend the Magic on Open spell or just take the damage.

Logically, if the player has the thief hireling or the lockpick there's no reason not to use them, but we only have the spell, and that costs something, so I find it more fair that there should be an option to not use it.

By the way, choosing to risk the damage leads us to 146....the same section we'd have gone to if we didn't spot the trap. That feels a bit awkward. I mean, it'd be one thing if we're not sure what the trap does, but apparently we can spot that it's some slicing blade that'll decapitate us. I understand that there'd still be some risk involved, but surely knowing about the trap in advance should give us a better chance of avoiding it even without a spell or a lock-picker? I mean, we know there's a slicing blade coming, can't we just duck out of the way? Not even a modifier to help us?

Anyway....do we want to spend the Magic?

[Sirocco]

Yeah, I think we do.

[Omegonthesane]

The wording is "if you use an Open spell" not if you have the ability to do so. Presumably, making teh conscious decision to skip the Open spell lets you not use an Open spell.

But fuck it, use the Open spell.