Re: [Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 51 - Island of the Undead (Take 2)
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 3:21 pm
This sounds like a job for the Blue Potion.
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Well, that kind of worked...You swallow the potion and make a run for the door. Your pumping legs cany you along with incredible swiftness and the animating skeletons are too slow to stop you! However, by the time you get to the door the effects of the potion have worn off. You try to open the red door, and you must do this at once without carrying out any other actions first (such as eating a meal or drinking a potion); turn to 260.
If you vote for "otherwise", please also clearly state what preparatory action you wish to perform.The door swings open and you hurriedly close it behind you and stand with it at your back to protect you, while you try to take in the sheer scale and majesty of the huge chamber which spreads out before you. You are standing on a stone balcony overlooking a great, circular chamber with a vast, arched ceiling which must be thirty metres above the floor. A swirling arch of steps leads down to the floor on each side of you; at the bottom of the left-hand flight of stairs stands a motionless Black Skeleton, armed with a two-handed sword and even in the heat haze here you can
see wisps of flame flickering from its jaws. In the middle of the room there is an unbroken circle of flame, within which something is beginning to materialize in the air above a slumped body that is seated on a thronelike chair. You can perform a single action (such as drinking a potion, putting venom on your sword, drinking grog or some Monks' Herbal Liqueur or cramming a very fast meal down your throat) before the Master of Fire's body is possessed by the
manifesting entity and is ready to fight. If you want to forgo any preparatory step and take offensive action, immediately turn to 86. Otherwise, turn to 17.
Adventure Sheet:The Master of Fire suddenly stands upright beside his throne and begins to cast a spell. You cannot see him clearly through the heat haze, but he looks a powerful, tall and commanding figure in his red-and-black robes and you are in no doubt that he is about to unleash something very unpleasant upon you. What will you do now? Will you:
Run down the left-hand stairs towards the Black Skeleton?
Run down the right-hand stairs?
Throw acid at the Master of Fire, if you have some?
This actually brings the question of whether or not we should apply our Attack Strength bonus from drinking the port, since it's not a full combat yet, and if it does, should it use up one of the two "combat" durations that it lasts. To save myself the headache, I'm going to rule that it only applies in a full combat.The wizard is busy casting a spell; you are ln the middle of throwing some acid at him. Work out Attack Strengths for yourself and the Master of Fire (who has SKILL 11). If you have the higher Attack Strength, tum to 271. If he has the higher Attack Strength, turn to 81.
Adventure Sheet:The Master of Fire screams as you catch him in the middle of his chest with searing acid. He loses 4 points from his STAMINA (make a note of this), and you ruin his spell-casting. Now it's time to close in on him. You can dive down the left-hand stairs or the right-hand stairs.
We drank the potion before that, so no, we have to fight.You rush down the stairs towards the Black Skeleton. If you &ark a Blue Potion when you entered this room, turn to 105. Otherwise, the horror is ready to fight you as the body begins to stir on its throne; turn to 224.
The only way we could have killed it outright without triggering whatever happens when its STAMINA is at 3 is to use both the Blade Venom (which we already missed the chance to do) and LUCK when we reduce its STAMINA to 5 (or fail a LUCK roll when inflicting damage to set its STAMINA at 4 before using LUCK successfully to double damage next round, which is too convoluted and unlikely to be worth attempting, so we'll probably see what that triggered even is.The Black Skeleton blocks your way so that you are unable to reach the Master of Fire. The thing is more magical than most skeletons; it can breathe fire, as you're about to find out, In addition, its magical nature means that a magic sword will cause normal damage (of 2 STAMINA points) to it, as will a stone axe, if you have one. An ordinary sword, however, will cause only 1 point of damage if you manage to hit.
Each Attack Round, whether the Black Skeleton has the higher Attack Strength or not, it will breathe fire over you. Roll one die. If you roll 1-3 the fire
envelops you and you must deduct 2 points from your STAMINA. If you roll 4--6, you manage to evade the fiery breath and you sustain no damage. If you
have a Fire Ruby, you can add 1 to the dice roll. If you are in serious trouble, you can spend 1 point of LUCK each round (for as long as you have any left), and this will add 2 to the dice roll.
BLACK SKELETON SKILL 9 STAMINA 9
When you have reduced the Black Skeleton to 3 STAMINA points or less, turn to 301. If you destroy it outright when it had 4 or more STAMINA points left at the end of the last Attack Round, tum to 146.
Die roll = 6! Fred is at 11 STAMINA.So far, the Master of Fire has simply been observing you battling his guardian; now he unleashes one of his minor spells at you. A ball of flame erupts from his fingertips and roars across the room. Roll one die; you must deduct this number of points from your STAMINA. The Black Skeleton is unaffected. If you are still alive, continue fighting it to the death, then tum to 146.
Quite a few blue options here...With the remnants of the Black Skeleton lying al your feet, the Master of Fire is now ready for you, his hands weaving another spell as he stands behind his protective ring of fire. What will you do now? If you have a Brass Orb and want to try using it, you know the number of the paragraph where you found it. Double that number then turn to the paragraph with the same number in order to decide what to do with the Orb. If not, will you:
Throw acid at him, if you have some?
Run at him with a weapon?
Use a crystal or diamond here?
How do we use the orb?You can rub the Brass Orb, throw it at the Master of Fire or smash the Orb at your own feet.
Handy!Smashing the Brass Orb at your feet cloaks you in an aura of magical force. The Master of Fire flings a handful of white magical missiles at you, but they strike the aura and are dissipated, causing no damage! You can completely ignore the effects of the next two (and only two!) spells cast at you (this includes the effects of running through magical fire, if this would otherwise damage you). Regain 1 LUCK point for your wise action. Now rush the wizard; turn to 364.
Our new magical protection from the Brass Orb protects us from the lightning, so there's no need to spend any LUCK here.The Master of Fire casts a spell al you as you race towards him, but fear is beginning to show in his wide, possessed eyes. He flings a bolt of lightning at you, but it almost misses its mark and only just catches you; if you are prepared to lose 1 point of LUCK, you can dodge it altogether, otherwise you lose 2 points from your STAMINA. Now you're closing in on your target, so turn to 39.
Another item check passed!You have to overcome a final barrier before you can attack the Master of Fire: his magical wall of fire. If you have a Fire Ruby, you know how many facets it has; multiply that number by two and add thirty, then turn to the paragraph with that number. If you don't have this item, turn to 308.
This means we don't even have to use up our Brass Orb's protection here! We are still protected from one more damaging spell, if we even need it!The flames do not harm you; the Fire Ruby glows and draws the magical strength of the flames into itself. A wave of powerful magical energy seems to be transmitted from the Fire Ruby into your own body; regain 3 points of STAMINA and gain 1 point of PRESENCE too! Now turn to 196.
It's another magical assault, so I'm sure the Orb's magic will protect us even if we lose the Attack Round, but if we win, we can save it even further (there's no time limit mention on the Orb's protection).You finally confront the Master of Fire as you strike out with your weapon and he raises his sword. Through his weapon he is able to channel one final magical assault upon you. Roll dice for Attack Strengths of both yourself and the Master of Fire (he has SKILL 11). If you have the higher Attack Strength, turn to 295. If he has the higher Attack Strength, turn to 229.
And we still have +1 bonus from the port too! Since we already know his SKILL is only 11, I think we have this one in the bag...Your sword strikes the Master of Fire and ruins his concentration so his magical attack is nullified. Your weapon's blow inflicts the usual damage, so turn to 375 and finish the wizard off!
COMBAT LOG:Now you are battling the Master of Fire in hand-to-hand combat, with an end to sorcerous meddling! You should now deduct from the Master's STAMINA score any damage you have already inflicted upon him.
MASTER OF FIRE SKILL 11 STAMINA 1711
If you win, turn to 326.
Decide our 5 actions before the Boss Fight begins!At last the Master of Fire falls to the ground, his body lifeless and inert, and it slips into the ring of magical fire surrounding his throne. The body chars and begins to burn; the element he commanded will consume him at the end. Cain 1 point of PRESENCE. You begin to turn away, to seek a way out of this terrible place, or to search for treasures you can take home with you; but then the hair at the nape of your neck begins to rise. You spin round...to see that something is emerging from the charring body of the dead wizard. A spectral form is dragging itself out of the corpse, unharmed by the flames, and as you swing at it with your weapon you slice right through it, doing it no harm. Fool, a thought implants itself in your mind, you cannot harm me! I will find another body to possess, just as I took over this mortal who summoned me! Perhaps I will possess yours...
You now have a limited time in which you can carry out up to five actions. Eating a meal counts as one action (and you can't gobble down more than two meals). So does drinking a potion, coating a weapon with venom or bane if you have one, guzzling some Monks' Herbal Liqueur or grog, or coating yourself with oil (if you can). Decide which five actions you want to perform, then turn to 163.
It was...If one of your chosen actions was coating yourself with Ethereal Oil, turn to 312. If this was not one of your actions, turn to 278.
We already used the Spectrebane and the Blue Potion (although the former presumably will still apply its effect in the upcoming fight, since we only just applied it). We do have an extra dose of acid, though, so this choice just boils down to whether or not you think it works on this spectre.Your body becomes insubstantial, ghostly, almost transparent. The hideous Dire Spectre which has risen from the wizard's corpse stares at you in hatred and fear! Its face is lined, its shrivelled eyes are sunk back into their sockets and its clawed talons end in wisps and tendrils of acrid smoke. It is a little distance away from you, in a world which seems strange and only half real; you can make out the material worl4 including the wizard's chamber, but only as through a hazy fog; this Ethereal Plane has an elusive, fluid nature of its own. But you have to get accustomed to it quickly as the undead monster is waving its hands, and you guess that it possesses some magic of its own. Will you:
Throw acid at the Dire Spectre, if you have some?
Drink a Blue Potion, if you have one?
Move to attack the Dire Spectre?
Coat your sword with Spectrebane, if you have any?