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

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Jan 29, 2021 3:14 am

Waiting by this thing we have no especially strong in character reason to wait by is the kind of thing that tends to be essential in Fighting Fantasy books. So wait.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Fri Jan 29, 2021 3:52 am

Wait.

Taking adventure prompts is more fun than skipping them.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Fri Jan 29, 2021 8:05 am

Question: Are we allowed to eat our provisions before restocking back up to 10 provisions? Because if so, I would like to do that.

And my vote is to wait by the trail, as this seems to be a scenario that is essential to the good ending if previous FF adventures hold.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:02 am

Ok, that was random, and waiting for no reason also seems random and pointless, so let's do that.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 4:48 am

JourneymanN00b wrote:Question: Are we allowed to eat our provisions before restocking back up to 10 provisions?

I guess there's nothing specific in the rules to prohibit that, so yes, Arthur regains the 2 lost STAMINA he lost against the Hellfire Spirit from a meal before he restocks.

You don't have to wait long before a large red any passes by, Soon you have seen over a dozen of them. You recognize them as Treasure Ants - so called because they line their nests with any trinkets they can carry. They are quite large (you have already seen four of them dragging a dread fieldmouse along), and their bites can be painful. These ants are passing you by in both directions, but the ones travelling south-west are usually carrying some titbit or other, so obviously their nest is somewhere in that direction. You are tempted to find the nest, to see if they have hoarded anything valuable, but Treasure Ants are known to travel many kilomoetres, and south-west is out of your way. Will you head south-west along the trail, wait where you are for a while, in case an ant passes by with something valuable, or ignore them and press on northwards?

Treasure-hoarding ants! I can't imagine these being too prevalent in Titan without being hunted into extinction by adventurers. No matter how painful their bite is, their hoards must present a far more attractive target than those of dragons.

Does the pauper king wish to track down some ants' nest to gain some travelling expenses?

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:45 am

If we could rob a fatherless Doragar family, a Treasure Ant nest will pose no moral problems whatsoever.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 7:19 am

Go find the ant nest.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:31 am

Hunt the ants.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:45 am

I cannot remember what we are supposed to be doing, so go kill ants and take their stuff.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 1:07 pm

My vote is to head southwest to find that nest, which is code for an essential place for King Arthur to visit.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:01 pm

Boil an anthill, go up a level

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 1:41 am

After a couple of hours, the ant-traffic has not noticeably increased, and you have seen no sign of the nest or anything being carried along that is more valuable than a rusty nail. Will you carry on on along the trail, or turn north again?

How far are we willing to go to seek out this ant-hill?

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:18 am

Maybe it's the sunk cost fallacy talking, but yeah, I vote we find the nest.

Take the rusty nail too.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:49 am

Take the rusty nail.

Also, carry on.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:55 am

My vote is to get the rusty nail and carry on.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 5:03 am

This many "do you want to go back?" choices means that there's either something good or bad if we keep going on and actions are more interesting than inaction so keep at it.

Rusty nail is either going to be worthless or really important, so take it.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:06 am

Carry on, take nail.

Is there any penalty to taking the nail? I think we have infinite inventory in these books.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 9:39 am

Darth Rabbitt wrote:Rusty nail is either going to be worthless or really important, so take it.

Not unknown for these books to have a "sacrifice one item of your choice" thing crop up, so I'm always for taking random junk along.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 9:37 am

I'm surprised how literally everyone voted to pick up the nail, because I've never interpreted it as an item that can be picked up and taken with us and always assumed it was just flavor text.

I guess there's no harm in noting that down on our Adventure Sheet if you guys really want it, but I now kind of regret not doing the same for that dead fieldmouse that the ants were also said to be carrying.

Your perseverance is rewarded. You come across an open area in the grass, where hard mud is pitted with holes, each of which is about the size of your fist and serves as entrance and exit for countless ants. You dig in the earth with your sword, but while you do so, ants have the opportunity to climb all over you and nip you. You can gain treasure worth up to 10 Gold Pieces, but at a loss of 1 STAMINA point for every 2 Gold Pieces. When you have finished, turn to 140 to head north again.

How much STAMINA (or food) are we willing to sacrifice for the treasure?

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:23 am

I assumed that people were joking about taking the rusty nail.

Miscalculated too. Take the full 10 GP then eat a provision.

JourneymanN00b · Post by **JourneymanN00b** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:12 pm

My vote is to get all 10 gold pieces, and eat a Provision.

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:36 pm

SGamerz wrote:I'm surprised how literally everyone voted to pick up the nail, because I've never interpreted it as an item that can be picked up and taken with us and always assumed it was just flavor text.

This is Fighting Fantasy so we're conditioned to take anything that isn't nailed (heh) down.

I guess there's no harm in noting that down on our Adventure Sheet if you guys really want it, but I now kind of regret not doing the same for that dead fieldmouse that the ants were also said to be carrying.

The ants can have the dead fieldmouse. I mean, even we didn't take the fatherless Doragar family's lunch.

Let's get all the gold and eat a Provision.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:15 pm

10 GP, eat a provision.

I'd take the dead fieldmouse and the chair we were sitting on at Hever's ball given the opportunity. Hobo King Arthur Anric clearly needs more stuff!

Queen of Swords · Post by **Queen of Swords** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:25 pm

Now I'm wondering. Do the Treasure Ants know the difference between rusty nails and Gold Pieces? Or do they just collect anything metallic that's small enough to fit into their nest?

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:21 am

Queen of Swords wrote:Or do they just collect anything metallic that's small enough to fit into their nest?

Now we can just anticipate the potential dick move of having our essential-plot-token Iron Sceptre being stolen by the ants because we got greedy and try to rob their nest...

Anyway, the king of Arion goes about the glorious task of scrounging an oversized anthill for loose change and getting bitten 5 times in the process. After managing to grab as much as he could, he stops for a snack to restore 4 of the 5 STAMINA points he lost to ant-bites, before resuming his important world-saving mission.

The people of Arion must be so proud.

By nightfall there is still no end to the grass. Will you flatten some of it and bed down for the night, or press on?

Does the grass look like a comfy sleeping area for us?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: King Arthur Anric
SKILL 12/12
STAMINA 14/15
LUCK 9/9
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, Snatta-cat's Tusk (11 dragons engraved), Apple Pips (x8), Water Flask, Tiger's Claws, Hever's Horn (-1 SKILL to opponents), rusty nail,
Provisions: 9
Treasure: 10 Gold Pieces
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.
2) Fell down a chasm of unknown depths in the same random mine shaft