Darth Rabbitt wrote:Does choosing to stop fighting cause Issel to lose a turn if Darian chooses to attack?
If would make sense if it does, but no, the book hasn't really said much about player-vs-player fight rules despite the many opportunities to do so in the book.
Anyway, both players decide to end the fight:
Suppressing your urge to attack Darian, you ask him if he too feels odd. He answers that he does, and your mind is at once filled with suspicions. As you are discussing it, a hooded figure emerges from the undergrowth at the side of the trail. Stopping in front of you he throws back his hood to reveal a shock of white hair and cold blue eyes.
Have you been together to the Pool of Mirrors, deep in the Wailing Forest?
If you have, turn to 35.
If not, turn to 145.
Not recognize this man, you greet him warily. Beside you, Darian whispers that he is a very powerful magician. Politely you ask what he is doing here. His reply is puzzling.
"I am the hermit of the Pool of Mirrors," he tells you, "come to reclaim what is rightfully mine now that the Glade of Dreams has been destroyed. Some time ago," he continues, "I entered the glade and the Guardian stole from me a magical amulet which held a powerful spell. Now I have returned for it."
Darian asks him what spell the amulet contains, and the hermit answers correctly that it holds the spell that can turn lead to gold.
Reluctantly, Darian begins to dig in his pack for the amulet, but you stretch out your hand to stop him and ask the hermit to describe it. He cannot, and his anger at you both becomes obvious. Stepping forward, he holds out one hand and snarls. "Give it to me and I will let you live. Refuse and I will kill you."
Although this man has great magical powers, he has stepped quite close to you and you both already have your swords in your hands. If you act swiftly, you will both be able to strike at him before he can react.
After you have both attacked the hermit, the person with the highest Agility score should attack next, followed by the one with the next highest Agility score, followed by the one with the lowest Agility score. This means that if both your Agilities are higher than the hermit's, you will each be able to hit him twice before he can cast a spell. When the hermit does strike, he will attack you first and then Darian. The Fire Hand spell causes the loss of 4 Strength points every time it hits.
Hermit: Agility 8 Spell: Fire Hand Strength 8
If you both survive and the hermit is dead, turn to 350.
If you alone survive, turn to 198.
Both of you have higher Agility than the hermit. I don't think it's possible to lose this fight, since Issel is guaranteed to hit him in the first 2 rounds, and casting the Fire Hand spell successfully will drain his Strength to 2, so he'll go down before he can cast a second Fire Hand. And you are both too healthy to go down to just one Fire Hand spell.
COMBAT LOG:
Round 1:Darian rolls 6 and misses.
Issel hits and Hermit is at 6 Strength.
Round 2:
Darian rolls 6 and misses.
Issel hits and Hermit is at 4 Strength.
Hermit casts Fire Hand at Issel, and Issel is at 6 Strength. Hermit is at 2 Strength.
Round 3:
Darian rolls 6 and misses.
Issel hits and Hermit is killed.
Smiling grimly, you and Darian stare down at the body of the old hermit. Darian stoops to cover his face with the hood of his cloak but, as he does so, there is a breeze from the glade and the body shudders, turning to dust as you bend over it. Exchanging a shrug, you turn your backs on the remains and hurry down the trail to the waiting Riddling Sphinx.
As you approach, the giant beast kneels and cups its hands for you to mount. "Hail King Issel!" if cries. "Hail Darian, mighty wizard!" Then it lifts you both to sit astride its broad golden back. The mighty wings beat twice and the beast springs lightly into the air, circling the destroyed Glade of Dreams.
"Where can I take you, masters?" it asks, and you glance behind you at Darian, holding on tightly to the creature's long fur. He grins broadly and nods, and you turn to shout into the Sphinx's ear. "To Franzos!" you cry, and the magical creature turns to head north.
High above in the sun you catch a single flash of bronze as if from the wings of another mighty creature, but it is gone in a second and you are left together to face a long and happy future.
Your joint adventure ends here. Congratulations!
And it's over! Thanks for sticking with this to its completion.
Regarding the hermit:
As the text indicates, it's possible to encounter him before you enter the glade. He would try to dissuade the PCs from continuing their quest, and also try to turn the 2 players against each other by goading them into looking in his pool "see their future", which would show them each to see a maybe-phony (could turn out to be legit since the player can decide to double-cross his companion in the future) future of his companion backstabbing him. He's much more difficult to deal with once the encounter turns hostile, and that's when the players need the Mind-Over-Matter spell to escape from him if he manages to freeze them with spells. There's no way to kill him then. The end-game fight is surprisingly easy considering how he's portrayed to be so much more powerful in the initial encounter.
Also, if the players have encountered him before, then the conversation is quite different, since instead of trying to trick Darian into handing over the amulet he will simply be upset at the PCs for causing the glade to be destroyed (which was apparently the reason he tried to stop them from continuing their quest before. He will also claim to be a friend of ex-King Theo and wants to kill Issel to avenge him.
So, as a 2-player game.....this wasn't a very impressive design. Too many things in multiple-combat encounters not being specified and left to reader's interpretation, and also once you enter the glade the 2-player grid mechanism isn't really utilized much. There are really only 2 instances where the players get to make independent options via the grid (the choice whether to save the dragon from his torturers and the final choice to double-cross each other). Also, the game becomes very linear once the players enter the glade, so there isn't going to be much variation on replays. There are more opportunities to utilize the 2-player options before you enter the glade, and the pre-glade part of the game was more open-ended with a few different paths to reach it, but there's also a high chance that the players may not cross paths at all and therefore don't get to experience what is supposed to be the unique features of this series.
There is some replay value in the sense that the dreams take a completely different nature if the players are going solo, and some parts of the solo dreams are actually more interesting than the joint dreams in 2-player mode.
Anyway, if there are any questions about the books, I will answer them in the joint thread. Thanks for playing!