[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 23 - Masks of Mayhem!

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:55 pm

Hey, copper isn't gold. Vague rumors from another century and also world lied to me.

Left is always right.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Mon Jan 04, 2021 5:22 pm

I feel like the side passage is more likely to have something needed that’s easily missed. So go left.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:26 pm

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 3:22 am

Side passages are normally optional, I think, so check it out.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:46 am

he passage does not extend very far, and shows signs of having been one of the more recent faces of the mine. You find a old pick-axe: the handle has rotted away, but the head, though rusty, is sound. You can take it, if you want, before returning to the main tunnel. Will you continue west, or return past the main shaft and travel east?

If we turned left from the west tunnel earlier, we'll now be turning left again if we continue along the west tunnel now. Hence, I was almost tempted to just skip the voting and have King Arthur turn left again, but I decide to leave it to the votes again just in case...

Adventure Sheet:

Name: King Arthur Anric
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 13/15
LUCK 8/9
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Backpack, Potion of Fortune (+1 to Initial LUCK, restores LUCK to new Initial value), Helmet, sorrels, Iron Sceptre ("There should be just one ruler"), Copper Nugget, Pick-axe head
Provisions: 9 (only restores 3 STAMINA each until new water flask is found)
Notes: 1) When allowed to call on Galrin's help, turn to section 100.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:19 am

Take the rusty pickaxe head, a king always should be on the look out for those.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:36 pm

Continue along the west tunnel. I don't know if we have any use for the pickaxe head, but sure, take that too.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 7:11 pm

Take the pickaxe head and continue to the wildly overpowered fight (I'm guessing) at the end of the west tunnel.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 7:27 pm

My vote is to take the old pick-axe head, and to, of course, go west. King Arthur is not a sucker for fascism, which the east represents.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 11:04 pm

Take pickaxe head, go west.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 9:06 am

Directly underneath one of the air-shafts, you find a litter of small skeletons - presumably of animals that have fallen down - which are partially concealing a small fissure, no more than three centimetres wide. Will you investigate or carry on?

Investigate the thing?

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:24 am

Always investigate random thingies.

JourneymanN00b wrote:King Arthur is not a sucker for fascism, which the east represents.

The east represents fascism? Well, if you live in Britain, Italy and Germany are to the east of...oh wait, I just remembered where King Arthur was from, nevermind.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:35 pm

Sure, let's investigate it.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:53 pm

Investigate.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 6:57 pm

Considering that we have had a poor history when it comes to dealing with skeletons, I really don’t think that any good will come from investigating them. My vote will be to carry on.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:44 am

Investigate.

I agree with Noob that this probably triggers a fight, but maybe that's where the good stuff is.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 9:23 am

While you delay to investigate the crack, you make an easy target for a Blackheart hunter who happens to look down the shaft from above. Purely out of malice, he fires a black-feathered arrow down the shaft and into your back. A somewhat larger skeleton will join the others.

So I guess this was his usual target-practice spot, which explains all the bones.

"Blackhearts" in Titan are a specific species created from cross-breeding Dark Elves and Orcs. There's a potential encounter from earlier where there would have been some introduction of their origins in the text, but for readers who missed that encounter and are unfamiliar with this book or with FF/Titan in general, he'd have no idea exactly what kill his character in this completely random death paragraph.

Rewinding and ignoring the random airshaft...

The tunnel begins to slop upwards, which makes you hopeful of finding a way out soon. But then the shafts come to an end, and the way ahead is pitch-black and the air gets foul. At first you wonder why the shafts should end; but then you reckon that you may be under the lake. Will you plod on through the darkness, or retrace the kilometer or so you have already travelled, back part the main shaft, in an easterly direction?

Embrace the darkness?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: King Arthur Anric
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 13/15
LUCK 8/9
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Backpack, Potion of Fortune (+1 to Initial LUCK, restores LUCK to new Initial value), Helmet, sorrels, Iron Sceptre ("There should be just one ruler"), Copper Nugget, Pick-axe head
Provisions: 9 (only restores 3 STAMINA each until new water flask is found)
Notes: 1) When allowed to call on Galrin's help, turn to section 100.
Number of failures:
1) Randomly shot in the back by a random Blackheart in some random mine shaft.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:55 pm

Damn, our first death, and I can't see any way we could have avoided it.

Keep going into the darkness.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 6:43 pm

Sigh... did we not learn that bad things happen when dealing with skeletons?

My vote is to embrace the darkness ... after all, we are already in the thick of it in real life. The east is seriously a bad idea, as it represents fascism, which we need to stand against.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 6:51 pm

Plot on through the darkness.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:21 am

Eh, wander round the scary tunnels in the dark, what's the worse that can happen?

SGamerz wrote:"Blackhearts" in Titan are a specific species created from cross-breeding Dark Elves and Orcs.

I want that to be the result of healthy relationships, but FF wiki calls them mutations, so it's probably more evil magic and less rom-com.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:57 am

Thaluikhain wrote:I want that to be the result of healthy relationships, but FF wiki calls them mutations, so it's probably more evil magic and less rom-com.

At least they're not called Dark Orcs, or Dorcs.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 6:46 am

Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 373. If you are Unlucky, turn to 163.

Dice roll = 4 (Lucky).

We just dodged another random insta-death!

You walk on and on, unaware that you have fortunately crossed a narrow span of stone over a chasm. Much later, the tunnel narrows, and you keep press to the wall to avoid bumping into the sides all the time. Will you keep to the right-hand wall or the left-hand wall?

This book really wants to test our level of dedication to the left-hand path...

Left or right?

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 6:52 am

My vote is to keep to the left-hand wall. As we all know by now, the right represents fascism, and we need to continue our stand against it.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 9:38 am

In the absence of any other information, sure, let's go left.