[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 28 - Phantoms of Fear

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:38 am

Seek their company of course. Any bit of help that the humans could provide would certainly be useful in this quest. Right?

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Jul 15, 2020 7:22 am

Seek them out, see if this turns into an alternative PoV of Green Blood.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:42 pm

Seek out their company. Defender-Shaman Dickolaus von Scrotunheim is more interested in good human-Wood Elf relations than Elf King Eldring.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:20 am

You soon see that you are approaching a clearing, and you notice a thin trickle of grey smoke rising straight up into the windless sky. You can hear the voices more clearly now. They are definitely human, and they sound worried. Will you step through the trees into the clearing or call out first?

How do we make an entrance?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:58 am

They'll probably be less nervous if we call out first.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Thu Jul 16, 2020 3:11 am

Hmm. If we call out, the humans could prepare for an ambush if they are hostile. Even if they are not, the humans could run off instead. I vote to step through the trees into the clearing and THEN try to say we come in peace.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Thu Jul 16, 2020 4:44 am

Since the voices sound worried, call out first.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:36 am

Seems wisest to let the humans know we are coming rather than startling the underdeveloped primates. Preferably with a song that is unnecessarily long.

angelfromanotherpin · Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:33 am

I actually think showing ourselves will be less spooky than a strange disembodied elvish voice coming out of the woods. Step forward!

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:28 am

Close contest, but calling out wins by 3-2.

You call out, in the common tongue: "Hello, there! I come in peace. Will you let me approach your camp?" As soon as you began to speak, the voices went silent, and they remain silent now: there is no reply to your question. You call a similar message again, but with equally little response. You go up to the edge of the clearing and peer around a tree-trunks. You see half a dozen humans huddled fearfully under a cart, white faces looking in your direction. There are three men, one woman and two children. Will you persevere with your attempt to be friendly, or leave them be?

Insist on lowering ourselves to befriend this inferior bunch?

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:39 am

Continue with the niceness. There are children, they might be edible.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 4:37 am

Keep trying to be friendly. Maybe we can still get something from the humans.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 11:01 am

If they are hiding, they obviously recognise our inherent elven superiority, so talk to them.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 4:07 pm

Prove our superiority by magnanimously helping out the lowly humans.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 5:15 am

The only thing that you can do now is step out into the open, still proclaiming your friendly intentions. But by now these frightened travelers, lost in a strange forest, where every shadow seems to threaten have had time to imagine all sorts of traps you might be setting for them. Even though, when they see that you are alone, they realize that you mean them no harm, nevertheless they remain sullen and uncommunicative. All you can find out is that they have travelled for many months, from a city in the west called Kalagar, and are trying to get to Arion. It appears that a prophet in Kalagar, called Vanator, foretold doom for the world, and these people are trying to escape it. You keep to yourself the news that their prophet might not be far wrong, if Ishtra has his demonic way. You are able to teach them a few pointers of woodcraft, which should help them to tell west from east, even when the sun is not shining; but it is not clear that they are grateful, or even listening. You leave them and continue your westward journey.

Stepping out immediately without calling out was in fact the better option. Apparently, making an abrupt and dramatic entrance somehow causes those humans to be overawed at the sight of us and also makes them more friendly towards. We would gain a POWER point and also learn some minor but useful information.

The further west you travel, the more you are struck by the peculiar behavior of the animals. Normally timid creatures snarl at you from the bushes; birds twitter in fright from the topmost branches. It is also clear that the woodland creatures have been harvesting food. It is not the usual season for this, and you realize that all this strange behavior is due to their instinctive awareness of Ishtra's imminent invasion. There are two consequences of this. In the first place, it makes you confident that you are heading in the right direction. Secondly, however, you begin to regret not bringing any Provisions from home, since it is likely that the closer you get to Ishtra's pit, the more the forest animals will have gathered or eaten the available food. You always knew that you would need to carry food when you were underground, but it now seems sensible to gather Provisions for your whole journey, both overground and underground.

The next stage of your westward journey will be found by turning to 376. Before you turn there, however, remember that paragraph number and turn to 50.

No matter which path we take at the beginning, there will always come a point in time where we are directed to section 50 when the PC finally realize he needs to gather Provisions before he proceeds any further.

As you search for Provisions, you may well have to fight some forest creature, either because you try to deprive it of some food or simply because it is aggressive. Roll one die to find out what creature, if any, you fight:

1 No encounter
2 Wolf (SKILL 7, STAMINA 6)
3 Moose (SKILL 6, STAMINA 12)
4 Bear (SKILL 7. STAMINA 14)
5 Forest Giant (SKILL 9, STAMINA 9)
6 No encounter

If you do not have to fight any opponent, or when you have won, roll two dice: this is the total of meals' worth of Provisions you are able to find. Enter this total in the Provisions Remaining box of your Adventure Sheet and then turn to the paragraph whose number you were instructed to remember.

Encounter roll = 5!

We rolled the most difficult opponent, but at least our SKILL of 12 means it shouldn't be too hard....

COMBAT LOG:

Forest Giant 15, Eldenurin 21. FG is at 7.
FG 17, Eldernurin 20. FG is at 5.
FG 18, Eldernurin 15. Eldenurin is at 17.
FG 18, Eldernurin 14. Eldenurin is at 15.
FG 18, Eldernurin 20. FG is at 3.
FG 20, Eldernurin 22. FG is at 1.
FG 20, Eldernurin 16. Eldenurin is at 13.
FG 17, Eldernurin 14. Eldenurin is at 11.
FG 12, Eldernurin 19. FG is killed.

Wow, considering the advantage we had in SKILL, this fight went surprisingly badly for us! We got his 4 times before taking it out. Let's see if the amount of food we found is at least worth the effort:

Provisions roll = 7.

Right in the middle, but at least it's worth more than the amount of STAMINA we lost...

Later in the afternoon, you hear the distinctive sound of a Wild Boar tramping the undergrowth. The noise dies away and you think you are safe, but half a kilometer further on, the creature bursts out at you from some shrubs.

WILD BOAR SKILL 6 STAMINA 5

Since the Elves of Affen Forest do not eat meat, this encounter cannot replenish your stock of Provisions, but you may decide to take its tusks. IF you win, turn to 326.

Ambushed by a wild boar! Thus far we're not really looking like the skilled woodsman(elf) that we're supposed to be....

Let's hope this fight goes better than the last.

COMBAT LOG:

Wild Boar 11, Eldenurin 20. WB is at 3.
WB 14, Eldenurin 18. WB is at 1.
WB 14, Eldenurin 20. WB is killed.

This time we got a flawless!

During the afternoon, these is no noticeable increase or decrease in the strange behavior of the forest animals, which you observed before. You reckon that you may have to change direction, but you postpone that decision until morning and decide to look first for a place to spend the night. While you are pondering these matters, you almost trip over a sapling which someone has bent down and fixed to the ground. As you walk past, will you leave the sapling to your right or to your left?

Another left/right option, even if it's not quite in the conventional sense.....

Adventure Sheet:

Name: TBC
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 11/19
LUCK 10/10
POWER: 16
Equipment: Telessa (sword), Leather Armor, Backpack, Water Flask, Potion of Strength (restores STAMINA to Initial value), Wild Boar's tusks
Provisions: 7

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:53 am

Hmmm. First of all, are we allowed to consume 1 Provision to restore 4 STAMINA? I feel that 11 STAMINA is a tad too low for comfort, and I would like to eat 1 Provision to get Neo back up to 15 STAMINA if that is permitted.

My position is that we should always be to the left of things whenever possible to avoid the temptation of fascism, so my vote will therefore be to leave the sapling to Neo's right.

Also, our power should be at 17, not 16, since we gained one POWER point from the beginning dream.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:16 pm

Yeah, it's traditional to go left, and it's a good thing nobody is here to see how badly our character is doing at basic adventuring.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:46 pm

Eat some giant meat and then go left.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 2:11 am

JourneymanN00b wrote:Also, our power should be at 17, not 16, since we gained one POWER point from the beginning dream.

Thanks, have corrected it in the updated Adventure Sheet below.

And since no other names have received a second vote, the Defender-Shaman of Affen Forest is now named Dickolaus Von Scrotunheim (DVS for short)!

DVS consumes one portion of his freshly-stocked Provisions to restore STAMINA to 15.

You find two possible places to spend the night. You could make a bed under some bracken in a little dell, or you could climb up a mighty oak and make yourself comfortable in the crook of one of its vast lower branches.

We just avoided a trap by leaving the sapling to our right. This option wasn't as random as it may appear. If we had managed to awe those humans we met earlier, we'd have learnt that they set some hunting traps and may have forgotten to remove all of them before they moved on. They'd also have given us a clue on which way to avoid such traps.

Where do we sleep tonight?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Dickolaus Von Scrotunheim
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 15/19
LUCK 10/10
POWER: 17
Equipment: Telessa (sword), Leather Armor, Backpack, Water Flask, Potion of Strength (restores STAMINA to Initial value), Wild Boar's tusks
Provisions: 6

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 2:42 am

DVS has to climb the mighty oak.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:02 am

Boo! Neo is a more badass and better sounding name!

My vote will be to make a bed under some bracken in a little dell, as our elf will be better hidden from any enemies than if he climbed up a tree, where any halfway decent flying predator could kill him in his sleep.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:29 am

Another vote in favor of sleeping in the tree.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:38 am

During the night, the branches of the tree creak and groan, and these noises influence your dream. You imagine yourself bound securely to a stake, in the middle of a vast plain, while a Tree Devil advances inexorably towards you, its stiff joins creaking. Its knobbly hands end in fingernails of sharpened twigs, which it stretches out towards your face. You know that it will pierce your eyes and blind you to the light of this world. Will you struggle to get free of your bonds or not.

How do we respond to tree bondage?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:52 am

I'm pretty sure that struggling will lead to our first Dream Combat so the question is whether not fighting leads to death/stat penalties or just letting us skip the fight.

I guess struggle to get a taste of Dream Combat.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Mon Jul 20, 2020 4:06 am

I'm tempted to say "don't struggle" just to see if the Tree Devil actually does poke our eyes out.

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[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 28 - Phantoms of Fear

Which of Robin Waterfield's FF works would you like to play next?