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

[SGamerz]

Let's go green!

The green-lacquered door opens readily, and the chamber beyond appears very strange, for it is filled with dead vegetation! You can see a wooden chest, half-buried under trailing vines in the distance, so you enter in order to take a closer look. As you do so, a huge shape arises from the half-rotten plant remains, roughly human-shaped, the thing is composed of vines, and it reaches out for you, its knobbled 'limbs' trailing twitching vines along the ground. If you want to flee, tum to 5. If you decide to fight the Plant Golem, do your best to despatch it swiftly. Each time the Plant Golem wins an Attack Round, you must Test your Skill. If you fail, it has wrapped some of its trailing vines round your legs and arms, making it harder for you to move freely and fight it, and you must subtract 1 from your Attack Strength. It can do this up to three times as the thing binds you tighter and tighter in its suffocating grasp!

PLANT GOLEM SKILL 8 STAMINA 13

A room of greens behind a green door.....those designers took their colour coding very seriously.

Do we want to fight this? Any use of magic for this fight?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jallarial
SKILL 11/11 (+1 from Ebony Wand)
STAMINA 14/23
LUCK 9/9
MAGIC: 9/9 (+2 from Ebony Wand)
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, knife, Potion of Stamina (restores half your Initial STAMINA), rope, Iron rod (-1 to Die roll when opening doors via Skill Test), Flask of Herbal Restorative (+4 STAMINA), Golden Talisman, Silver Dagger (x3), Magical Oil of Enchantment (enchants non-magical weapons for one combat), Jailor Keys (70), Wand of the Hawk, Vials of Acid (x2, does 4 STAMINA damage if used during combat), Lava Sphere (does 1D6 damage to all opponents in a room when used in combat)
Provisions: 7 Meals
Treasure: 26 GP, Fine Silk Tapestry (worth 4 GP)
No. of Deaths: 1

Additional bonus from Wand of the Hawk: 1) +2 Attack Strength once Jallarial's entered Great Tower, 2) enchants weapons, 3) restore Magic OR STAMINA to full once

[Darth Rabbitt]

With a 3-SKILL advantage over it I think we can kill the shambling mound with our shiny new wand.

[Mr Shine]

With a 3-SKILL advantage over it I think we can kill the shambling mound with our shiny new wand.

Agreed

[SGamerz]

Sorry I unexpectedly lost my internet access for a full day. let's proceed with the fight:

COMBAT LOG:

Plant Golem 11, Jallarial 22. PG is at 11.
PG 19, Jallarial 19. Tie.
PG 11, Jallarial 14. PG is at 9.
PG 14, Jallarial 16. PG is at 7.
PG 16, Jallarial 18. PG is at 5.
PG 11, Jallarial 17. PG is at 3.
PG 13, Jallarial 20. PG is at 1.
PG 15, Jallarial 18. PG is killed.

And it was a flawless!

If you win, to your dismay you find as you open it that the chest here is not a Tower Chest but has a heraldic device painted inside its lid; this shows seven red lions on a green background. Inside the chest you find 4 Gold Pieces and a Potion of Stamina, drinking this restores STAMINA equal to half its Initial total (round fractions up) and you can drink it at any time except during combat. Now, leaving this room and entering the Passage of Hawks, will you head west or east to the crossroad?

The options here are going to 92 or back into the Passage of Hawks (5).

Do we want to stick to the plan and go for the Abominable Snowman behind the white door next?

[Sirocco]

Nice! Well, you know my vote.

[Mr Shine]

Stick to the plan.

[SGamerz]

The white lacquered door opens into a large chamber which, to your delight, contains a Tower Chest; however, from this distance you cannot discern in detail the heraldic symbol on it. The room also contains a pair of suits of armour made of while lacquered plate mail and grasping halberds in their mailed gauntlets; they snap stiffly and loudly to attention as you enter, pointing their weapons directly at you. If you prefer to flee, tum to 5. Otherwise, fight them one at a time.

First ANIMATED ARMOUR SKILL 8 STAMINA 10
Second ANIMATED ARMOUR SKILL 8 STAMINA 10

If you win, you find that the heraldic symbol on the Tower Chest shows three blue chevrons on a white background. When you are ready to leave, you should explore an area you haven't entered yet along the Passage of Hawks, so will you:

Go east to the mid-way point of the Passage of Hawks?
Go west then along the south passage?
Go west then along the north passage?
Open the single door to the west?

These are even weaker than the Plant Golem, so I guess we go for straight combat....

COMBAT LOG:

Animated Armour #1 11, Jallarial 17. AA1 is at 8.
AA1 15, Jallarial 19. AA1 is at 6.
AA1 16, Jallarial 17. AA1 is at 4.
AA1 15, Jallarial 22. AA1 is at 2.
AA1 19, Jallarial 18. Jallarial is at 12.
AA1 17, Jallarial 14. Jallarial is at 10.
AA1 17, Jallarial 22. AA1 is destroyed.
AA2 17, Jallarial 17. Tie.
AA2 14, Jallarial 16. AA2 is at 8.
AA2 15, Jallarial 21. AA2 is at 6.
AA2 15, Jallarial 14. Jallarial is at 8.
AA2 16, Jallarial 18. AA2 is at 4.
AA2 19, Jallarial 18. Jallarial is at 6.
AA2 17, Jallarial 17. Tie.
AA2 18, Jallarial 22. AA2 is at 2.
AA2 17, Jallarial 19. AA2 is destroyed.

That didn't go nearly as well.....

Do we want to spend a Magic point on the Tower Chest? And do we continue to the remaining door in this passage after that?

[Sirocco]

Yes and yes and nom a meal or drink our newly found potion of stamina.

[Mr Shine]

No to magic point. An MP is already worth a guaranteed 4 ST with low level Create Food, (6.666... with high level) so using it for a chance to not lose 3 ST is never optimal.

Yes to door, eat something.

[Sirocco]

Reverting to no because math.

[SGamerz]

We eat another meal to bring STAMINA up to 10.

You find yourself in a powder-room used by the glitteringly beautiful women of Castle Argent before its fall. Their valuable gilded minors, crystal scent-bottles and jewellery boxes have been pillaged, and make-up lies in small mounds on the broken and vandalized marbled tables. If you are Anvar or Stubble, you leave here; you can make your way along the north passageway opposite, if you haven't explored that area before, or go back east along the Passage of Hawks. If you are Braxus or Sallazar Jallarial turn to 15.

It certainly would be rather appropriate that the female character manages to find some use for the powder-room even in a time like this.

A cunning plan begins to hatch in your mind. Much of the cosmetic powder that has been left here is very pale in colour and, by daubing a great deal of it on your face and hands - mixed with some of the oily skin-creams here - you might just be able to pass as a Zombie. You may be able to fool other Zombies or equally mindless minions. You can take enough cream and powder to disguise yourself, if you wish to do so; you will be asked later on whether you're using this disguise or not. Now, you can head along the north passageway opposite or go back east along the Passage of Hawks.

Okay....that's something you don't see often in these books, certainly. Although I would have thought that a purely visual disguise like that is more likely to trick something like an Orc as compared to Zombies and other undead. Maybe I'm mistaken about this, but I'd always been under the impression that Zombies and less intelligent undead don't really rely much on their sight, but rather on some innate ability to sense life in their targets. :shrugs:

Anyway, we've looked through all the doors in the Passage of Hawks. We can head northwest straight to 385 from this section, or we can go back to the PoH section and head for 92. Which will it be?

Oh, and do we want to begin our Zombie disguise now?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Is the disguise now or never? That'll heavily influence my decision there.

As for where to go, Passage of Hawks.

[Sirocco]

Stick to the plan, northwest to check if the passage dead ends or joins the other.
If we can maintain this disguise indefinitely, apply it now.
What about the LUCK test for the Tower Chest?

[Mr Shine]

Use disguise immediately if it's considered indefinite, open Tower Chest, follow Sirocco's directional lead.

[SGamerz]

What about the LUCK test for the Tower Chest?

We rolled a 1 and got a new Sun Talisman.

As to the other question regarding the disguise, as I said I'm not that familiar with this particular book. If it's not explicitly stated in the text, then your guess is as good as mine. I do not recall reading about the disguise "expiring" over time at any point during my own playthough, but I may well have missed something like that since I didn't map this book out thoroughly. I'm inclined to think it doesn't wear off....but no guarantees.

I can tell you that the book doesn't check for the disguise immediately in either of the next sections.

For Darth's question, I know of at least one opportunity to put on the disguise later, but it doesn't come in the form of "do you want to do this", but rather in the form of "you got this much time to perform this many actions, decide what you want to do", which is something that happens at multiple points in this book, and in one of those scenarios the section after that checks whether you chose the disguise as one of the actions.

Can I confirm if you wish to use the disguise now? If you're going by my (limited) knowledge then the decision would be "yes".

We head northwest.

Looking north along this passage, you can see two doors opposite each other, halfway along the corridor, and one facing you at the far end. A swift check shows that the western door here opens into some bedchambers of the ladies of the court; these rooms have been utterly looted and vandalized. The door opposite them has an onyx, patterned inlay bearing some odd magical runes. The door at the end of the passage has a great shield inlay on it: the design of the old king, Kraal, himself! If you are Sallazar Jallarial, turn to 37. If you want to open the onyx door turn to 78. If you want to open the door bearing the shield, turn to 259

More wizardly knowledge called for!

The runes of the onyx door betray the presence of some form of magic pertaining to Elementals within the chamber. This spells danger to you, so you should expect to have to use powerful magic here. You also know that Elementals cannot be harmed without a magical weapon, If you don't carry such a weapon, you are very unlikely to be able to slay an Elemental by spells alone, for they are strong. lf you want to open the onyx door, tum lo 78. If you want to open the door bearing the shield, turn to 259.

Curiously, there's no choice to not open both doors.

Our wand can enchant any weapon, so we don't have to worry about not having a magical weapon to fight Elementals. But do we want to?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jallarial
SKILL 11/11 (+1 from Ebony Wand)
STAMINA 10/23
LUCK 9/9
MAGIC: 9/9 (+2 from Ebony Wand)
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, knife, Potion of Stamina x2 (restores half your Initial STAMINA), rope, Iron rod (-1 to Die roll when opening doors via Skill Test), Flask of Herbal Restorative (+4 STAMINA), Golden Talisman (x2), Silver Dagger (x3), Magical Oil of Enchantment (enchants non-magical weapons for one combat), Jailor Keys (70), Wand of the Hawk, Vials of Acid (x2, does 4 STAMINA damage if used during combat), Lava Sphere (does 1D6 damage to all opponents in a room when used in combat)
Provisions: 6 Meals
Treasure: 30 GP, Fine Silk Tapestry (worth 4 GP)
No. of Deaths: 1

Additional bonus from Wand of the Hawk: 1) +2 Attack Strength once Jallarial's entered Great Tower, 2) enchants weapons, 3) restore Magic OR STAMINA to full once

[Darth Rabbitt]

As it turns out we have a really pimpin' magic weapon. Put on the disguise and enter the onyx door.

[Sirocco]

Agreed on both counts.

[Mr Shine]

Onyx door.

[SGamerz]

We put on our zombie disguise and enter the onyx door:

The first thing you notice in this chamber is the set of interlocking circles drawn on the floor, next, the many blue and yellow wall-hangings and a pair of huge, gilded copper urns set in the comers of its east wall. To the north, there is a doorway just round the comer from you. The air here is heavy with a strange, musky perfume. Within the central circle of the magical set, something is beginning to materialize in the air as a faint shimmering. It grows stronger, denser, higher, as you watch it, forming into a whirlwind-like vortex several metres tall. If you decide to flee, turn to 97. If you choose to stay, you can perform two actions (such as eating some provisions, drinking a Potion, casting a spell, etc.) before whatever it is that is materializing here is fully formed. Decide which two actions to take. If you want to spend one action trying to open the door to the north, turn to 143. Otherwise, ready yourself to fight and turn to 190.

Yeah, this is one of those scenarios I was talking about yesterday, with the book telling you "you can do this many things before something happens". It seems to be one of Keith Martin's trademarks, he's done them in both FF38 and FF41, although they only happened once in each of those books. In this book I think he kind of overdid it.

What actions do we want to perform?

[Sirocco]

One action is eating a meal.

The other depends on whether enchanting a weapon is a free action.
If yes, do it and nom another meal (lol @ stuffing our face like mad right before combat)
If not, just do it (TM).

As for the fight, if things get ugly, use the acid, cast a Fireball, and cast a Thunderbolt, in that order of progressive ugliness.

[SlyJohnny]

Let's spend magic on that roll-twice-pick-the-best spell for one action.

[Sirocco]

Fast Hands? OK, but if we're going to use it, for maximum synergy we should also cast Fireball during the first 3 rounds. Let's do that, but only if we're outmatched in SKILL or STAMINA. Else, save the Fireball for later.

[Mr Shine]

Eat 1 provision, cast fast hands.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I'll second Sirocco's plan.

[SGamerz]

We eat a meal and bring our STAMINA up to 14, and cast Fast Hands (Magic down to 7).

The Air Elemental that forms here is not as strong as many of its type, but it is still a formidable enemy. You must Test your Luck. If you are Unlucky, the whirling Elemental knocks you off your feet, and you must subtract from your Attack Strength for the first Attack Round, as well as losing 1 point from your STAMINA.

AIR ELEMENTAL SKILL 12 STAMINA 15

When you first win an Attack Round, do you have a magic weapon? Elementals cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons. If you have no magic weapon, you must flee; turn to 97 to search elsewhere. If you have a magic weapon, you can fight normally and your blow has caused the Elemental to lose STAMINA Points as normal. If your weapon is not magical, but you do have a way of making it magical for this one combat you must take one Attack Round to do this (during which time the Elemental strikes you; lose2 STAMINA points). Continue fighting the Elemental, but every third Attack Round you must again Test your Luck! If you are Lucky, you can continue fighting; if you are Unlucky, you are knocked down by the Elemental, losing 1 STAMINA point and you must also subtract 1 from your Attack Strength for the following Attack Round. If you win, tum to 217.

Crap, look at those stats. I think we may be screwed here....

At least, I don't think the rule about spending one round to enchant our weapon applies to the wizard. After all, we were forewarned, so there's no reason we wouldn't enchant our weapon before entering the room. I'm pretty sure it's meant for non-wizard characters using the enchanting oil (which we do have but no longer need).

Considering how strong the opponent is, I'm going with Sirocco's idea of using the Fireball spell.

Luck Test roll = 3 (Lucky)

Combat proceeds as normal.

COMBAT LOG:

Air Elemental 19, Jallarial 19 & 13. Tie. (Damn, wasted 2 Magic)
AE 17, Jallarial 21 & 13. (Score!) AE is at 10.
AE 20, Jallarial 18 & 21. AE is at 5.
Luck Test roll = 3 (Lucky) Combat resumes as normal.
AE 17, Jallarial 21. AE is at 3.
AE 21, Jallarial 22. AE is at 1.
AE 23, Jallarial 17. Jallarial is at 12.
Luck Test roll = 9 (Unlucky) Jallarial is at 11.
AE 19, Jallarial 17. Jallarial is at 9.
AE 22, Jallarial 14. Jallarial is at 7.
AE 21, Jallarial 17. Jallarial is at 5.
Luck Test roll = 8 (Unlucky) Jallarial is at 4.
AE 17, Jallarial 20. AE is defeated.

We come out of this fight with 6 STAMINA, 3 MAGIC, and 7 LUCK remaining! Looking at how the later rounds went, I don't think Fireball was a bad call, since we might not have survived without to successful blasts at it.

The ornate circles on the floor dim, the light of magic sparking out of them. Since this chamber is nearly bare, you try the north door, wondering what may lie behind it, since the Elemental was a powerful guardian.

Behind the door you find a small cubicle with a Tower Chest! You also find an ornate onyx staff, it has four symbols etched along its length: a lion, a goblet, a star and a chevron. Gain 1 LUCK point for these finds. You do not know as yet exactly what the staff does but, if you use it at some future time, you will have to spend 1 Magic Point to be able to do so. Now turn to 97 to search elsewhere.

Were kind of running low on both LUCK and Magic, but at least we can regain the LUCK, so I'm going to open the Tower Chest manually.

Dice roll = 10 (Unlucky)! Jallairial is down to 3 STAMINA.

We then roll a 4 and get another Silver Dagger.

We then head back to 97. The only door left is the one with the shield inlay. Do we want to open that before we move on to 92?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Jallarial
SKILL 11/11 (+1 from Ebony Wand)
STAMINA 3/23
LUCK 7/9
MAGIC: 3/9 (+2 from Ebony Wand)
Equipment: Staff, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, knife, Potion of Stamina x2 (restores half your Initial STAMINA), rope, Iron rod (-1 to Die roll when opening doors via Skill Test), Flask of Herbal Restorative (+4 STAMINA), Golden Talisman (x2), Silver Dagger (x4), Magical Oil of Enchantment (enchants non-magical weapons for one combat), Jailor Keys (70), Wand of the Hawk, Vials of Acid (x2, does 4 STAMINA damage if used during combat), Lava Sphere (does 1D6 damage to all opponents in a room when used in combat), Onyx Staff
Provisions: 5 Meals
Treasure: 30 GP, Fine Silk Tapestry (worth 4 GP)
No. of Deaths: 1

Additional bonus from Wand of the Hawk: 1) +2 Attack Strength once Jallarial's entered Great Tower, 2) enchants weapons, 3) restore Magic OR STAMINA to full once