Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:05 pm
Rope for 318, Alex.
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We actually don't have much options here. Our stats are mostly full except Magic, but we can't to anything to replenish those. We are also missing just 1 LUCK point which we lost from the Luck Test earlier, and that can be restored with a Luck Spell.You know you must fling the body of the Zagor-Demon into the Heartfires. What you do not know is how swiftly you must do this. You must decide now - not knowing how much time you have, as the Great Tower shudders around you - if you wish lo do anything before you begin your descent with the body. You can perform as many actions as you wish; eating some Provisions, drinking a Potion or casting a spell are the most obvious options. Decide which actions you wish to take before you set off for the Heartfires, then turn to 297.
Alas, the one Potion that would have been useful here has already been used up!You have a certain amount of time to get to the Heartfires; you do not know how much time but from now on you must keep track of the number of seconds it takes you to get there. If you have picked up any Gold Zagors, you have already taken 100 seconds. You have taken 80 seconds for each portion of provisions you have forced down. Either drinking a Potion or casting a spell will have taken you 20 seconds. If you have drunk a Potion of Flying, however, you will be able to move more swiftly and unless you are told otherwise, you can halve the number of seconds you take for all movement to the Heartfires (you will be told how many seconds you need for various movements in later paragraphs). You may stop and perform any of these actions during your journey, but you must add the appropriate number of seconds to the time elapsed: if you want to perform any action, you must make a note of the paragraph number where you stop and perform that action, then turn to 255. Now you pick up Zagor's body; tum to 85.
Time spent = 150 secondsMake a note that, when you have taken 500 seconds or longer on your journey, you must note down the number of your paragraph, then turn at once to 219. For now, you carry the body down the steps and through the arch to the beam of light, which deposits you on the Dragon's stone platform. This takes 50 seconds.
Do we jump?If you have taken a Potion of Flying, you can now swoop down without taking any time; turn to 286. Otherwise, you have a choice you can climb down one of the rope-ladders hanging from the platform or you can pray to the gods and goddesses of Amarillia to protect you and jump the twenty-five metres to the ground.
Luck Test = 9 (Unlucky!)Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you lose only 1 STAMINA point from the fall, surely the heavens have smiled upon you! Gain 2 LUCK points. If you are Unlucky, lose 6 STAMINA points - but even that is better than you might have expected, so. gain 1 LUCK point anyway. You take another 30 seconds to get through the Dragon's chamber. To head onwards, turn to 286.
Luck Test = 9 again (Unlucky)!The dreaded Corridor of Fear awaits you - can you sustain your will and not be slowed down by the terrible phantoms of fear and despair that await you here? Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you get through the corridor in 50 seconds; if you are Unlucky, it takes 100 seconds (a Potion of Flying will not alter these times). With mounting desperation you race ever onwards; turn to 8!
Time spent = 380 seconds.The crystal doors below the wooden stairway are sundered; you find that all doors open before you as the howl of angry, chaotic magic swirls and screams about you. All is pandemonium. You feel as if you are moving in a dream, hardly aware any longer who you are or where exactly you are going, just guided onwards by intuition, willpower and sheer guts! You race through the carnage of Thulu's Throne Room and southwards towards the stone bridge. This has taken you another 100 seconds. Now you must make a crucial decision as you race across the stone bridge. The more LUCK points you spend, the faster you will be able to move, dodging obstacles and the like - but the more difficult any Test your Luck roll will become! You may spend up to 5 LUCK points. Decide how many you want to spend, then turn to 222.
Having spent 5 LUCK, we took only 45 seconds.You take an extra 120 seconds to get across the bridge, less 15 seconds for each point of LUCK you decided to spend (if you are using a Potion of Flying, the basic 120 seconds is reduced to 60, but the absolute minimum time you need to cross, no matter how many LUCK points you spent, is 10 seconds). Right at the bottom of the bridge you must Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, tum to 14. If you are Unlucky, turn to 60.
STAMINA down to 13.You stumble and fall, banging your head on stone; deduct 4 points from your STAMINA. If you are still alive, you pick up the body again and stagger on. Roll two dice and multiply the number rolled by ten; add this many seconds to the time elapsed (a Potion of Flying does not reduce this time). You are so, so close now, but will you triumph?
Section 400?! Victory must be close at hand! We have more than 4 STAMINA left.....however, that additional 30 seconds just brought us over the 500 limit.....As you race through the guardrooms on your way to the southern passageway, the scream of chaotic magic in Castle Agent becomes almost unbearable. Weird phantasms and illusions dance before your eyes; ducking and dodging to avoid them, you need another 30 seconds to cross the passageway (a Potion of Flying will not reduce this time but if you have a Ring of Truesight, you may reduce the time to 10 seconds). You fling open the door leading to the chasm of the Heartfires and race to the edge. If you have 4 or more STAMINA points left, tum to 400. If you have 3 or fewer STAMIAN points left, tum to 310.
Well, we were at 495, 5 of those additional 30 seconds took us to 500, the remaining 25 now equates to 50 seconds due to the talons slowing us down.The Zagor-Demon's eyes jerk open and its taloned hands grab at your body, clutching you tightly and hampering your every movement. From now on the number of seconds you take to progress with the body will be doubled for all movement to the Heartfires! If your journey takes 800 seconds or longer, make a note to turn to 21 immediately. Now turn back to the paragraph you came from.
And finally, it's over! This is probably the longest single-book LP I've run so far! Congratulations for successfully completing one of the harder books in the series (even if we did die twice in the process)!You drop the body of the Zagor-Demon into the chasm of the Heartfires, and a terrible scream rises from the bottomless depths below. The fires burn with an unbearable heat and you stagger backwards, going eastwards along the passageway beyond the chasm, and reel out through the doors of Castle Argent. You really don't remember too much after that.
When you regain awareness, you feel a cool sea-breeze playing across your face. You cough and splutter as a draught of best Crab Island rum is poured down your throat. The smiling face of a Centaur, with just a hint of tears shining in his eyes, swims into focus above you. 'We had to deal with a few Orcs who seemed interested in running you through with their swords,' he says softly, 'but, well, that was the least we could do. Welcome back!' The sailors on the deck of the Glory of Amarillia give you a rousing cheer, and surely greater glory awaits you when you return to Sanctuary. Amarillia is still a troubled land with many evils - but now it has the chance of survival, thanks to you!
Generally, it's not that hard to figure out how to win one of Keith Martin's later books: explore every single area because chances are there'll be something useful for a later encounter. We pretty much took that route in the later half of the game. The difficulty is mainly the number of difficult opponents or some random bad dice roll screwing you over. That's why we decided to tackle this book with the "Maximum possible starting stats" rule, and I think that helped a lot. Even then we ran out of Provisions no less than twice.Thaluikhain wrote:Oh, congratulations!
This is one of a long number of FF books that I tended to get a third of the way through before dying and giving up in frustration after a few times.
Actually, I've got the best part of a shelf full of gamebooks (bout half FF ones, though I prefer the more obscure and weird titles), should have a look at them again.
But...only 2 deaths, and with a little more luck you'd not have had those, well done.