[LP] Fighting Fantasy 46 - Tower of Destruction (Take 2!)

[angelfromanotherpin]

We should run out through the fire with our ring, but first we should definitely sit down and calmly eat five meals' worth. It's anticlimactic, but escaping from this exploding tower is definitely going to offer us the opportunity to lose at least 4 stamina from hazardous environment.

[Thaluikhain]

Ring of fire, yeah.

[Darth Rabbitt]

According to the classic FF monster book Out of the Pits, there are 4 Night Demons in the Demonic Planes of Titan. I believe Relem is the only one who's ever appeared in one of the FF gamebooks. And supposedly they can't be permanently killed on the mortal plane, but only temporarily banished for 54 days when they are defeated, before they get resurrected and try to hunt down their killer for revenge.....

I thought Zanbar Bone was one? Unless "Night Prince" is different than "Night Demon." It would even explain his resurrection in The Port of Peril, as terrible as that book is.

Anyhow, eat up and then run out of the ring using our ring.

[Thaluikhain]

I thought Zanbar Bone was one? Unless "Night Prince" is different than "Night Demon." It would even explain his resurrection in The Port of Peril, as terrible as that book is.

The Fighting Fantasu Wikia names the 4 as Kalin, Relem, Shakor and Vradna, so I'm guessing he's not.

[SGamerz]

According to the classic FF monster book Out of the Pits, there are 4 Night Demons in the Demonic Planes of Titan. I believe Relem is the only one who's ever appeared in one of the FF gamebooks. And supposedly they can't be permanently killed on the mortal plane, but only temporarily banished for 54 days when they are defeated, before they get resurrected and try to hunt down their killer for revenge.....

I thought Zanbar Bone was one? Unless "Night Prince" is different than "Night Demon." It would even explain his resurrection in The Port of Peril, as terrible as that book is.

Anyhow, eat up and then run out of the ring using our ring.

I have no idea what Zanbar Bone is, but he's not one of the 4 Night Demons. According to OOtP, the two-headed dragon/serpent humanoid is the default "earthly" form for all of them, so none of them look like a skeleton. And as Thaluikhain said, they were given specific names.

Anyway, Night Demons are supposedly the 2nd-highest level demons in their home planes. The Snake Demons (3 of them in total) are the rulers of the plane (and also constantly fighting each other). The Night Demons usually work as lieutenants for one of the 3. At the time of writing of OOtP, Sith was more powerful than the other 2, so he had 2 of the Night Demons serving under him (Relem and Vradna).

All 3 Snake Demons were actually featured in FF gamebooks (Ishtra in FF 28, Myurr in FF 40 which I run before....Sith didn't actually manifest personally, but he was worshipped by the villains in FF 59), but I only know of 1 Night Demon ever being featured thus far.

****

Anyway, Tallpipe wolf down a meal and raises his STAMINA to 8 before charging into the flames:

The superhot fire sears your skin and inflicts damage on you, although your ring saves you from the worst. Deduct 4 points from your STAMINA. If you are still alive, you rush out through the chamber where the chilling webs are melting away, round the edge of the sphere of darkness, and find yourself at the junction of two passages. One leads back and down to the Golem room, the other into a part of the Tower you haven't been into yet. The shaking of the Tower tells you you must hurry! Will you head for the Golem room or take the other passage?

Our timely eating saved our life as the fire burns off the STAMINA we only just recovered! Tallpipe continues shove food into his mouth as he continues running, immediately raising his STAMINA back to 8.

Btw, if we'd stayed to study the vortex:

not only does it fail to solve our problem, but we'd also be specifically prohibited from eating meals to recover STAMINA before we escape the tower because of time wasted, so running through the fire immediately is definitely the better option!

Do we backtrack or find a new way out?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jefferson Tallpipe
SKILL 11/12 (13 in combat w/ Magical Ice Sword & 14 vs Demons)
STAMINA 8/25
LUCK 9/12
Honour: 9
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Lantern, Backpack, Blanket, Climbing Gear, Tasrin's Ring, Crowbar, Crossbow (w/ 3 non-magical bolts), Magic Sword (+1 SKILL unless it's already 12), Shield of Warding (deflects missile attacks on roll of 2-8 on 2D6), Mealin's Silver Amulet, spare lantern oil, Magical Ice Sword (+2 SKILL, +3 SKILL and +1 damage when fighting demons)
Spells: Linkcut, Coldwarding
Gold: 21
Provisions: 3/10, +3 elven weybread
No. of Failures in this playthrough: 3

[angelfromanotherpin]

I remember that one of the AFF books confirmed that Bone was just a particularly goth wizard.

Anyway, backtracking is for Metroidvanias. Take the new way.

[Darth Rabbitt]

We don't have time to fight a golem, go the other way.

[Thaluikhain]

New way.

[SGamerz]

We don't have time to fight a golem, go the other way.

I think the text means going back to the room where we already defeated the Great Golem earlier, so I doubt we'd need to fight it again.

Racing down the long passage, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of an exit in front of you, as blocks of stone begin to shake and fall. You are in a truly desperate race against time. Roil two dice and add 1. If the total is less than or equal to your SKILL, turn to 91. If the total is greater than your SKILL tum to 62.

It's possible for us to fail this SKILL test, but the chances aren't high.

But to be on the safe side Tallpipe continues to stuff his face with food as he runs (STAMINA raised to 12).

Dice roll = 7 (Success).

You see a very narrow side passage to your left, leading into a chamber where people in leather armour are putting on harnesses of some kind. It looks like an evacuation! You've got to take this chance, so you race down the passage towards the chamber. Test your Luck. lf you are Lucky, you make it to the chamber; tum to 134. If you are Unlucky, tum to 29.

Dice roll = 7 (Lucky).

In the chamber, you can see people putting on harnesses and jumping out through an archway into the sky, under the direction of a robed figure. The escaping people carry weapons and armour, and you guess that they would have been used as a ground force to attack any survivors of the Tower's awesome magical assault. What will you do now? Will you move straight in and attack them or wait briefly to see what happens in the chamber?

Risk attacking a group of armed guard, or risk waiting and be left with no magical parachute harness to use after they've evacuated?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jefferson Tallpipe
SKILL 11/12 (13 in combat w/ Magical Ice Sword & 14 vs Demons)
STAMINA 12/25
LUCK 8/12
Honour: 9
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Lantern, Backpack, Blanket, Climbing Gear, Tasrin's Ring, Crowbar, Crossbow (w/ 3 non-magical bolts), Magic Sword (+1 SKILL unless it's already 12), Shield of Warding (deflects missile attacks on roll of 2-8 on 2D6), Mealin's Silver Amulet, spare lantern oil, Magical Ice Sword (+2 SKILL, +3 SKILL and +1 damage when fighting demons)
Spells: Linkcut, Coldwarding
Gold: 21
Provisions: 2/10, +3 elven weybread
No. of Failures in this playthrough: 3

[MisterDee]

Wait briefly, to see how the harnesses work.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed.

[SGamerz]

You are unfortunate. The robed man goes last, but a small pile of the magical harnesses is left behind. You rush in and grab one, just avoiding a huge pile of rock which would have smashed you into the floor with it if you'd been underneath it. You put on the harness and jump through the archway into space. Now you must Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to, 330. If you are Unlucky, turn to 259.

I think there's a typo in the first sentence......from the description I think we should be considered fortunate that there are still harnesses remaining for us, and the fact that we just avoided getting smashed by a pile of rock.

Dice roll = 11 (Unlucky!)

...now THAT is unfortunate!

Unfortunately, a crossbow shot, from one of a group of Tower servants who are running in to get the harnesses, hits you in the back as you are jumping out of the Tower. Deduct 2 points from your STAMINA. If you are still alive, turn to 330.

Because we've been vigorously stuffing our faces while we were running, we survived the shot!

You drop through the air like a stone as the Tower hurtles crazily away out of control and careen downwards inexorably, rather like you...Luckily, just when you're about to give way to panic, the magic of the harness takes effect and you find yourself gliding, floating gently down.

You land in a heap, exhausted and weak. Fortunately, the two servants of Zeverin who have floated down in the same area, are too busy running away to trouble you. And, looking up, you see the huge Tower fall precipitously towards the Frozen Plateau and explode there in an enormous ball of flame and molten rock. Unbelievably, against all odds, you have succeeded in your mission...haven't you? You see, in the distance, a cowled and robed figure striding purposefully towards you. This doesn't look good.
You've got time for 3 actions before the stranger gets close to you. Eating a meal (you can't use all your actions for eating meals, drinking a potion, casting a spell, or using a magic item all count as an action. Decide what you are going to do, then tum to 204.

This is.....a weird and pointless section that seem to serve no purpose other than padding out sections, and I'm going to skip the voting here (not that we can do anything besides eating a meal anyway), because as you will see, it doesn't matter at all what we do here:

The stranger comes closer and begins to weave an enchantment. You stare at the figure both in recognition and in utter disbelief. Zeverin! How many times do you have to kill this monster? Twice now he has cheated you, with illusions and clones of himself, but now the real wizard is upon you. His power is tangible even at some distance. You know that he's going to kill you and that you don't stand a chance. Do you have a magical Ice Sword? If you have, tum to 181. If you haven't, turn to 151.

And really, this section is really the main reason for the difficulty/stringent path for this book. Up to this point, while all the item checks we passed helped immensely, none of the checks would have ended in outright failure if we'd failed the checks. The Ice Sword is a great asset against Relem, and yes, we'd probably have lost that fight without it, but THIS is the only point where it's no "Ice Sword = death". And the reason (if any) provided by the text doesn't really offer a real explanation:

Zeverin hurls a slowing blue ball of magical power at you. You know for certain that it's going to kill you, so you just pray that death will be swift and that you will feel little pain. You grip your sword, not because you can fight - Zeverin is too far away - but simply as a reflex. And from the sword the magic drains, forming into a shimmering pool of light between you and Zeverin. An Elven figure forms within this pool, tall and bright with light; and a wave of his hand dissipate Zeverin's, spell into nothingness. If you have met Elokinan, you recognize the great Elven lord. If you have not met him before, you know you are in the presence of a spirit of great power and charisma!

Elokinan s hands open gently and a case of yellow bars of light forms round Zeverin, who howls in rage and frustration. "Begone," the Elf-Lord whispers softly. "There is a prison for you for all eternity," and the case and the wizard fade into nothingness.

I have no idea why Elokinan only shows up to save your skin if you have the enchanted Ice Sword. The book even acknowledges that you may not have met him before in the process of getting your sword enchanted. It would have made more sense if it were the mark on your head that summons him, or if the sword brings Tassaskil to save you (since you must have at least met him if you got it enchanted).

Anyway, as mentioned, this is the only point where it's automatic failure to not pass the Ice Sword item check. I think the overall difficulty of the book would have been improved a great deal without that last check (although it'd still be tough due to all the hard fights with high-stat opponents). There'd still be a reason to want to get the Ice Sword due to how helpful it is against Relem, but without that mandatory check at the end it'd be theoretically possible to still get through this book even if you visit the locations in the Ice Palace in the wrong sequence. you can still get rewarded for not visiting the places in the optimal sequence as designed by the writer without being punished by automatic failure if you don't. And as I said, that last section didn't even make a lot of sense storywise.

The Elf spirit turns to you. Elokinan is so radiant with light that you can only just make out the features of his wise and kindly face. He whispers softly to you as you manage to get to your feet. "You have saved Allansia from that wretch, and probably most of Titan. There's a Demon who may come looking for you, but I believe I may be able to do something about that. I owe you this, for, by your destroying Zeverin and his evil, the last of the strands of Fate holding me in this world are broken. I am free." and the spirit's voice breaks with emotion at his release. Elokinan is beginning to fade into the spirit world, but his last act is to place his hands on your forehead for a few seconds. They are cool, and you seem to feel a spring breeze round you, carrying scents of green shoots and earth and new life. "Relem will never find you," Elokinan smiles "not in a thousand years." And then he is gone.

Not far away you see a thin plume of smoke; a few score stumbled steps takes you to a trapper's hut in the near distance. You smell food cooking: maybe some will be spare and there will be a bed for the night for you. You take a last look at the cloud of smoke rising from the debris of the Tower; you think back over your completed quest and turn on your heel, to find a friendly smile on the face of the man standing outside the hut. "You look done in," he says. "Could you do with some hot food?" The prospect has
never seemed so good...

I actually kind of like the ending which gives an explanation of why the PC won't have to worry about being eventually hunted down by Relem after he's inevitably resurrected. But as I said, the sequence before that mars it. It also doesn't make sense for Elokinan to say that he's freed because the PC destroyed Zeverin.....because it was actually Elokinan himself who actually defeated Zeverin and saved the PC from death. Lots of things that I both like and hated about this whole end sequences, but the overall is a negative.

Anyway, we've successfully made it through another FF book with high-level difficulty (after 3 failures). Not too bad, all things considered. I won't be starting another LP until at least after the New Year, but as usual if you have any questions about this book feel free to ask. I don't think I'll be doing one of those run-through summaries, because the design of this book meant that we've pretty much see more than 90% of it.

Thank you all for preserving through this playthrough, And I hope you still had fun. And I think this is a good day to end this. Merry Christmas!

Final Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jefferson Tallpipe
SKILL 11/12 (13 in combat w/ Magical Ice Sword & 14 vs Demons)
STAMINA 10/25
LUCK 7/12
Honour: 9
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Lantern, Backpack, Blanket, Climbing Gear, Tasrin's Ring, Crowbar, Crossbow (w/ 3 non-magical bolts), Magic Sword (+1 SKILL unless it's already 12), Shield of Warding (deflects missile attacks on roll of 2-8 on 2D6), Mealin's Silver Amulet, spare lantern oil, Magical Ice Sword (+2 SKILL, +3 SKILL and +1 damage when fighting demons)
Spells: Linkcut, Coldwarding
Gold: 21
Provisions: 2/10, +3 elven weybread
No. of Failures in this playthrough: 3