[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy #54 - Legend of Zagor!

[Darth Rabbitt]

Enter and eat.

[Mr Shine]

Enter, don't eat.

[SGamerz]

I didn't raise any question about the Light spell since as far as I know we still have our lantern, so there doesn't seem to be any particular reason to spend a Magic point here (in the Feast Hall it was a very specific question of whether to use the spell).

There're more votes for eating, so Jallarial wolfs down another meal before opening the door (STAMINA at 22).

In this subterranean room there is a vast jumble of furnishings and bric-a-brac, and all the walls are inscribed with magical symbols and signs. You see the single occupant of the room, a cowering, emaciated Dark Elf with a thin dagger in one hand and a small trail of fine ash drifting from the other as he prepares to cast a spell at you. If you are Sallazar Jallarial, you can make out what the magical wall-designs mean, so turn to 306.

The magical circles are protective, the occupant of this room is clearly terrified of some form of magical attack by a wizard, and you guess he isn't going to parley with you If you trade spells in combat with the Dark Elf who lives here, you must subtract 2 from your Attack Strength when you cast a spell because of these defences. If you want to attack the Dark Elf, turn to 258. If you decide to run, turn to 198.

Do we want to stay and fight knowing this penalty for wizards?

[Mr Shine]

Attack. (I can't see the in combat spells ever being of much use, given that if our skill is higher we can use our weapon but if it's lower we'll probably exhaust our MP for little or no gain. I can only really see it in an "if you win in x rounds" type situation.)

[Sirocco]

We do.

Do you guys want to cast a Magic Screen on the first round? I think we should primarily focus on defense spells; since we do have the maximum possible SKILL for a wizard, we can probably take him hand-to-hand from round 2 onwards.

[ashimbabbar]

this guy looks scared, also (metagaming) I think it's too early in the book for him to have stuff that would badly hurt 3 characters out of 4.

I vote we use no magic screen and bash his brains out with our staff

Too bad we can't coerce info or equipment from him though… maybe he'll give up if we damage him a lot, otherwise we'll just loot his corpse.

[SGamerz]

You are engaged in mortal combat with the crazed Dark Elf. In the first Attack Round he will try to attack you with a Fireball spell, and if he has the higher Attack Strength you will lose 4 STAMINA points from the burning flames that cover your body. If you have the higher Attack Strength you strike him and ruin his spell. Thereafter, the Dark Elf will fight with his dagger. If at any time you decide to flee, turn to 198.

DARK ELF WIZARD SKILL 8 STAMINA 10

If you win, you can search the room. This takes some time, however since everything is so cluttered, so you must eat a meal. Eventually you find 3 Gold pieces, a fine silk tapestry worth 4 Gold Pieces (if you can find someone to sell it to), a scroll with an Open spell inscribed upon it and a Magic Ring. This is a good haul, so gain 1 LUCK point. There is also a diary which shows that the Dark Elf once served the Bone Demon whose army decimated Castle Argent, and that he lives in mortal fear of a ghostly wizard, Remstar, who is said to be 'beyond the Heartfires'. There is also some gruesome notes concerning the Dark Elf's involvement in necromantic magic, creating mutated monsters and using magic to animate them, with a reference to the 'silver room' where these experiments were conducted. Now it's time to leave here and search elsewhere; turn to 376.

The Magic Screen certainly would have neutralized the Fireball, but since he needs to hit us for it to work anyway, and his SKILL is lower than ours, we're probably good to go without it.

COMBAT LOG:

Dark Elf 13, Jallarial 19. Dark Elf is at 8 and his spell fizzles.
DE 19, Jallarial 13. Jallarial is at 20 (Yes, the AT was reversed from last round).
DE 17, Jallarial 14. Jallarial is at 18.
DE 16, Jallarial 16. Tie.
DE 16, Jallarial 17. DE is at 6.
DE 14, Jallarial 19. DE is at 4.
DE 20, Jallarial 17. Jallarial is at 16.
DE 16, Jallarial 16. Tie.
DE 16, Jallarial 16. Tie.
DE 18, Jallarial 18. Tie.
DE 15, Jallarial 18. DE is at 2.
DE 14, Jallarial 14. Tie.
DE 13, Jallarial 17. DE is killed.

Looks like his fear of wizards drove him into a such frenzy that he put up a surprising long and hard struggle, but we got him in the end.

For the trouble it took, I'm not sure it was a really good haul. Spell scrolls are useless to wizards since they still cost Magic points. We do, however, replenish the Magic point that we spent on the Open spell earlier thanks to the Magic Ring, which I will use now if there's no objection.

We're back to the section where we just enter the double doors via the main hall. Which way do we explore next?

West passage?
Double doors in front of you?
First door along the north passage?
Second door along the north passage?
End of the north passage?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jallarial
SKILL 10/10
STAMINA 16/24
LUCK 9/9
MAGIC: 7/7
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, knife, Potion of Stamina (restores half your Initial STAMINA), rope, Plague Antidote, empty glass bottle (x3)
Provisions: 9 Meals
Treasure: 6 GP, Fine Silk Tapestry (worth 4 GP)

[Sirocco]

Let's try the second door.

Re: Magic Screen, I believe -and it was confirmed in this fight- that magic-using creatures start off with their most powerful spells, so usually it's most useful at the beginning of combat. Something to consider for our future encounters.

[Mr Shine]

2nd door seems fine.

[ashimbabbar]

And he taught us nothing about Remstar that we didn't already know. Let's maim the dark bastard's corpse before opening the 2nd door.

[SGamerz]

The door here is wedged tight but you managed to force it open, and you find yourself in a smithy. There is a great forge-fire in the south wall, but its flames have long been dimmed. Any weapons or armour once here have evidently been looted, but you may take a strong iron rod you find here. If in future you are asked to Test your Skill to force open a locked or tightly shut door, you may subtract 1 from the total rolled for using this strong bar to help you open the door. Leaving this room and looking east along the corridor opposite the door you can see two doors to your left. The first of these is particularly strong, and contains a heavy lock. You should now explore an area you haven't entered before, so will you:

Open the first door along to your left?
Open the second door along to your left?
Head back south and search elsewhere?

The iron bar is a nice find. Since Jallarial's SKILL is 10, with the bar she'll only fail by rolling a double-6.

And yes, heading back south brings us back to the last section. Do we want to check out any of the 2 doors here?

[ashimbabbar]

pretty convenient we found that rod just before the door it can help force open

On a hunch, normal door first, and if it leads nowhere then go for locked door

[Mr Shine]

pretty convenient we found that rod just before the door it can help force open

On a hunch, normal door first, and if it leads nowhere then go for locked door

This seems fine to me.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Works for me.

[SGamerz]

The door here is half ajar and you push it open easily. The room beyond must have been a guest chamber: the comfort of the bed, furniture and rugs here suggest that. It was looted long ago, of course. The bed sags in the middle from Orcs jumping up and down on it, and the fine rosewood table and chairs have had Orcish names carved crudely into them. If you want to make a prolonged search, turn to 2. Otherwise, turn to 33.

Interesting if irrelevant tidbit information telling us that Orcs sometimes jump up an down on beds for entertainment, too.

Another "prolonged search".....do we think there's something to find here?

Btw, my updates throughout next week will be irregular, if any at all, as I will be rushing an urgent assignment. Should be back to normal schedule by the end of next week.

[Sirocco]

Half a vote to search. I think we've enough provisions.

[ashimbabbar]

what we learned the last time was not hardly worth a meal, was it ?
Of course it might be a trick of the author's to discourage us this time from getting some really useful item/info…

Still, half a vote for not searching and busting that lock on the other door

[angelfromanotherpin]

Of course it might be a trick of the author's to discourage us this time from getting some really useful item/info…

Fighting Fantasy is usually the other way around; the first time you get a reward, the second time you get a trap.

Otherwise.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Head on, for the reason angel gave.

[SlyJohnny]

A meal is a cheap gamble for something useful. Search.

[Mr Shine]

Some of these prolonged searches have to come up with something good. Try and see if this is one of them.

[Sirocco]

I'm going to go ahead and change my vote from half to full, in favor of searching.

[SGamerz]

This was almost a tie, but ashimbabbar's half-vote means that searching wins.

You must eat a meal during your time here. Stuffed inside a pillow, you find a Magic Ring! What's more, you also find a scroll with an Open spell stuffed under the mattress. Gain 1 LUCK point for this find.

Our Magic is full, but we can keep the Ring till we need it later. So, essentially trading a meal for a Magic point.

You leave the looted guest chamber and tum to make your way back west. Test your Spot Skill. If you are successful, turn to 141. lf you fail, turn to 575.

Again, Jallarial can't fail this....

You spot a secret door at the end of the passage, flush with the east wall. If you want to open it, having not done so before, tum to 171. If you would rather not, you will have to head back west and south to explore elsewhere; turn to 376.

OK, this is actually the same secret door we found before with the Dark Elf inside, so there's no point going back in.

Weirdly, there's no option to look at the other locked door. We get directed back to the passage.

Don't worry, we didn't miss anything that could have benefitted Jallarial. It's an armourer's room, with a bonus-less chainmail, which she can't wear.

Which way now?

West passage?
Double doors in front of you?
First door along the north passage?
Second door along the north passage?
End of the north passage?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jallarial
SKILL 10/10
STAMINA 16/24
LUCK 9/9
MAGIC: 7/7
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, knife, Potion of Stamina (restores half your Initial STAMINA), rope, Plague Antidote, empty glass bottle (x3), Iron rod (-1 to Die roll when opening doors via Skill Test), Magic Ring
Provisions: 8 Meals
Treasure: 6 GP, Fine Silk Tapestry (worth 4 GP)

[Sirocco]

Well, metagaming-wise, you've already told us there's nothing useful in the Feast Hall, so I suggest we try the west passage first, then the north.

[SGamerz]

Well, metagaming-wise, you've already told us there's nothing useful in the Feast Hall, so I suggest we try the west passage first, then the north.

Actually, that's not true.....

The Light spell gave us a warning of what's the in the Feast Hall, but there was no option to enter from the kitchens....and I got confused with the directions given in the book and didn't realize that the Feast Hall is actually accessible via the double doors in the main passage. So I gave away information (about the rats) that I shouldn't have (assuming that we couldn't go in).

I'll avoid posting spoilers for the rest of the book (at least until the playthrough's over), since like I said I'm not as familiar with this particular book. My bad about this.