Votes registered, Ben Richards will give the little man some nuts and berries.
309
You drop a handful of nuts and berries into the bag and watch it disappear through the grille. The little man smiles and says, ‘The hunchback is a liar.’ Then he disappears, and you are alone again. Wondering who the hunchback might be, you set off once again. Turn to 58.
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58
Walking along, you step on a stone which triggers an unseen trap. Iron bars drop down from holes in the ceiling in front of you and behind you. You strain to lift them, but are unable to move them, and they are too thick to bend. If you are carrying a file in your pouch, turn to 106. If you do not possess a file, turn to 396.
Ben Richards does not possess a file.
396
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Like a caged lion, you pace between the bars, getting angrier and angrier. But you are trapped and there is no escape. Minutes later, you hear a hissing sound overhead as poisonous gas is released into the air to end your challenge.
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Rewinding back a decision will not help our hero get the file that is needed to continue this adventure. As a result, Ben Richards’ trial officially ends in a tragic failure, the deaths of Lord Carnuss’ slaves will go unavenged, and Baron Sukumvit will probably keep his 20,000 Gold Pieces for at least one year.
Bonus death entry:
”Wow, this sucks. This sucks hard. I just cannot get a goddamn break in this life,” thought Ben Richards, as he swears at himself for getting himself trapped. “If only the stupid galley had not crushed my boat, I would not be in this entire mess in the first place. Well, if Fate wants me to die this way, it was a terrible life anyway.” As Ben Richards notices the poisonous gas, he holds his breath to try to buy himself a couple of more moments of life. However, even that attempt fails, as enough gas enters his system to destroy his lungs and bring out a massively painful death. With a final curse to himself and the world, Ben Richards’s soul zooms out of the current universe and eagerly awaits his next life.
Well, that was a cheap way to die. As it turns out, we made a critical blunder by opening the door to the room of teleportation right before we faced the Trialmaster. As a result, we missed out on facing the Liche Queen, which was a source of a Gold Ring. The room of teleportation also prevented us from reaching a necessary Giant Spider battle, as the reward was another Gold Ring. Proceeding from there would have taken us to a rat horde, which would have given us the iron file, a hammer, and a rope that was needed to climb down the pit. Finally, the pit was a place of getting two more Gold Rings, the nuts and berries that the little man wants, and a required set number, which seals the deal on how bad the room of teleportation put the player in an unwinnable state that may not be noticed until much later in the adventure.
I have no awkward life lesson for this one, as I am sure that all of us can agree that the gamebook design was unfair and that the winning path was far too counterintuitive to figure out. I will soon begin a new thread for the next gamebook that I plan to run, which will be Crypt of the Sorcerer. While it is an understatement to say that the book is also very hard, I will be running it with quite a few edits to make that adventure fairly winnable. Thank you all for playing, and I hope to see you in my next Let’s Play.
Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Ben Richards
SKILL: 8
Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 11
Initial Stamina = 19
LUCK: 4
Initial Luck = 11
NOTES AND ITEMS:
Leather Pouch
5 Gold Rings
Bone Medallion
Phial of Red Dust (turn to paragraph 238 to use)
Boots of Speed
Magic Broadsword
Glass Balls
Iron Key
Mirror
Wooden Whistle
“There is a door behind the pile of stones.”
Cursed Copper Bracelet
“Set one, 249”
Bottle of Blue Dye
Purple Cloak
Brass Clock Hands
BOONS:
1 Rewind
1 Restoration
2 Extra Gold Rings[/spoiler]
Say No To Fascism. The left is the one true way to go.
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