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

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, bit north, also like that the book is dealing with the fire in a sensible way.

[SGamerz]

Inconsequential trivia: I first 'learnt' about making firebreaks as a little kid through a comedy film I watched (The Gods Must Be Crazy II) and that helped me survive this encounter on my first play of the book (although I didn't win...not for a long time).

This is the only possible solution. Your fire will make a desolate area, which you can enter and wait for the bush-fire to burn itself out. But have you enough time for this area to be consumed and cool down, before the bush-fore is upon you? Roll one die. On 1 or 2, turn to 52; on 3 or 4, turn to 17; on 5 or 6, turn to 114.

Die roll = 2.

By the time you have no choice except to enter your fire-break, it is still very hot, and causes you 4 STAMINA points or burns. But at least you are safe.

This is the second-best scenario. The mid-range numbers (3-4) lead to the insta-fail section, while the highest numbers get us off with no damage taken.

You are safe within your fire-break, and you follow it to the north, to keep well away from the suffocating heat of the bush-fire. After a few kilometres, you find that your fire has burned itself out at the edge of a huge canyon, about half a kilometer deep and almost as wide. The sides are too steep to climb and there is no bridge here.

Add 1 LUCK point for surviving the bush-fire. You now face a lengthy journey along the edge of the canyon, until you can find some way across or down it. At least there will be plenty of roast meat, from animals which died in the fire, to keep you going on the way; and the streams, though oily and blackened from the fire, still provide water which is refreshing enough. Will you head east or west along the cliff?

What, no options to chop off some roasted animal legs or haunches to carry with us for extra Provisions? Even if they won't keep for long, surely we can take 1 unit to last us till the next meal at least.

Which random direction do we go now?

[Queen of Swords]

At least there will be plenty of roast meat, from animals which died in the fire, to keep you going on the way

Do animals that have died in fires make good eating? Then again, I suppose rulers like us can't afford to be picky.

Go west, poor king.

[pragma]

West is left, I think. And I vote to eat a provision.

[JourneymanN00b]

My vote is to eat a provision, and to head west along the cliff. We need to have King Arthur continue his battle against fascism by avoiding the east. Fascism is still alive and well in too many places today, and we cannot have King Arthur succumb to it by going right.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Arthur is lucky if those animals are edible. Brush fires don’t stop cooking meat at “well done” or even “charred”.

Anyhow, go west and eat some provisions.

[SGamerz]

I guess the roasted animals were sufficient sustenance for Arthur to prevent further loss of STAMINA from hunger, but not nutritious enough to actually help him regain STAMINA, so he's forced to consume another unit of his own ration to regain the STAMINA that got burnt off during the bush-fire before continuing...

Foe several days you trudge west. The canyon varies in width and depth, but it is never feasible to attempt a crossing. The sides remain absolutely sheer. The plentiful carrion has attracted many birds: apart from crows and normal birds of prey, you occasionally sight larger winged creatures some way off. Eventually, one of them decides to see if this thing which moves in the burned wilderness is also edible, and you are attacked by a Giant Bloodhawk. This huge creature swoops out of the sky with its four-metre wingspan, talons outstretched to grip you and allow the cruel beak to do its work. If you have the Cloak of Temporary Invisibility, and wish to use it, turn to 103; otherwise, turn to 327.

Is this a good place to use our Deathly Hallow cool new cloak?

[Thaluikhain]

Use magic thing we paid good moneys for.

[Queen of Swords]

Use it, and hopefully the "temporary" doesn't mean "wears off after ten seconds".

[Darth Rabbitt]

Blue option.

[JourneymanN00b]

My vote is NOT to use the Cloak of temporary invisibility, as I have a feeling that we will need it for the final boss, if role playing adventure cliches hold.

[SGamerz]

You put on the Cloak. The Bloodhawk squawks in dismay at your disappearance - but then, with the cunning of a natural predator, simply gains enough height to watch and wait. The Cloak's powers will wear off pretty soon (cross it off your Adventure Sheet): you have merely delayed the battle.

Poor Arthur, enduring all those ant-bites to finally make some cash, only to squander it by spending it all on some fancy cloak which he then promptly wastes in a random wild animal encounter! No wonder he's poor, with investment instincts like that!

There is no escaping the Blookhawk's piercing gaze.

GIANT BLOOKHAWK SKILL 7 STAMINA 12

The Bloodhawk is not evil, so the Horn of Hever will have no effect on it. If you win, turn to 201.

Yeah, even if the cloak had worked here, it doesn't look like skipping a combat with this not-evil-just-misguidedmisunderstoodhungry foe would have been worth the 10 GP we had to spend.

EDIT: There was some error when I posted, and the COMBAT LOG was lost, (and I also had to re-type most of the text below) since I didn't keep record of the specific numbers to re-post them. But we won without taking any damage. The Bloodhawk managed a 1-round-tie with a luck roll, but otherwise it was all Arthur.

Early the next day, you notice that the cliffs are getting lower. You contemplate jumping into the river from this height, but then you notice that the river is flowing extremely fast, and soon you hear the bottom of a large waterfall ahead. Before long you come to the lip of the falls. The river is flowing between ordinary banks now, and the fine spray from the falls seems to hover in the air, scintillating with rainbow colours. There is no ways across the river at the point.

There is a steep path down the cliff from the top of the waterfall to the large pool, which has formed in the canyon below. The cliffs here are craggier and less sheer, and you hope that, if you can cross the pool, you may be able to climb the northern cliff. As you swim across the deep pool, you see that the northern cliff is climbable - but you also see a rather large Alligator waddle from the northern shore into the water, where its snout cuts a furrow in the water towards you. If you have the Cloak of Temporary Invisibility, you cannot use it here: it would be too awkward and time-consuming to get it out of your pack. Will you tread water to meet the Alligator's onslaught in as stable a position as possible, or will you dive underwater in an attempt to get at the creature's underbelly?

We'd lost the cloak by this point, but it's kind of not-too-common in gamebooks for authors to go to the trouble of explaining why a specific item doesn't work in an encounter. It made sense for the Horn, which is assumed that it would be used for every combat unless otherwise stated, but we hadn't been told that we could used the cloak without the text's prompting anyway, so that was kind of out of nowhere....

How do we deal with the croc?

[Queen of Swords]

Damn. When I said I hoped it didn't wear off after ten seconds, I was just being cynical.

As for the Alligator, I don't know anything about fighting those, but I'm not sure treading water will help (other than allowing us to breathe, but then the Alligator can always attack from beneath the surface). Go for its underbelly, I guess.

I'm still disappointed about the cloak.

[JourneymanN00b]

Shaking my head... this is why we don’t use valuable items such as the cloak of temporary invisibility in the first chance we get. In games like this, there is *always* a trap for using powerful items in the first opportunity, especially after we first get them.

My vote is to dive underwater in an attempt to get at the creature's underbelly, as I feel that treading water will not do much good here, while there is a chance we can finish off the alligator quick if King Arthur dives.

[pragma]

My instinct is tread water, but I'm fine diving.

[Thaluikhain]

I vote we follow JourneymanNoob's plan, as we'd have done better to do that last time.

[SGamerz]

You manage to wound the Alligator before it too dives to meet you. The battle is on, sometimes under water, sometimes on the surface. The Alligator is not evil, so the Horn of Hever will have no effect on it, and you must reduce your SKILL by 1 point for this fight, because the water hampers your movements.

ALLIGATOR SKILL 7 SYAMINA 8.

If you win, roll two dice. If the total is 4-10, turn to 393; otherwise, turn to 122.

COMBAT LOG:

Alligator 13, Arthur 16. Gator is at 6.
Alligator 18, Arthur 20. Gator is at 4.
Alligator 19, Arthur 19. Tie.
Alligator 10, Arthur 17. Gator is at 2.
Alligator 13, Arthur 21. Gator is killed.

The fight went quick and easy, even with a couple of really good rolls from the Gator, but now we must roll another random dice test for some unknown result...

Dice roll = ...3!

When you dived below the water, you saw something extraordinary on the bottom of the pool. A human skeleton was sitting on a throne of weeds. Will you dive down again to investigate this remarkable, but possibly dangerous phenomenon, or will you swim over to the northern shore?

We avoided the choker-wearing skeletons in the village. Do we want to approach one that sits on a throne?

[Queen of Swords]

A human skeleton was sitting on a throne of weeds.

Swim down, maybe he'll share!

Oh wait. It says weeds.

Still, swim down.

[JourneymanN00b]

Hmm. I really don’t want to approach the skeleton, considering our poor track record with skeletons in general. On the other hand, said skeleton is sitting on the throne. I will give a half vote for swimming over to the northern shore. I don’t mind heading down to investigate though.

[pragma]

Dive down.

Either instadeath or really good stuff. I'm hoping it's part of a scepter.

[Thaluikhain]

Check out random thingy.

[SGamerz]

Closer inspection reveals two things: that the throne of weeds is actually a real throne which has simply become overgrown with weeds (though the skeleton is clean); and that the skeleton is holding an orb in its right hand and wearing a crown on its head. Will you try to take the orb or the crown, or will you return to the surface and swim over to the northern shore?

Yes, I still have to ask...

[JourneymanN00b]

My vote is to try to take the orb. After all, much of our quest has been spent looking for one, especially since the bard went on so much about an orb. I think it is worth trying to get it and take the risk of approaching the skeleton.

[Thaluikhain]

"Try" to take the orb, yeah.

[Queen of Swords]

Take the orb.