Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 1:04 pm
Does it make a difference if we take it or not? Can't we throw it away later?
Try attacking the thing?
Try attacking the thing?
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Yep, it makes no difference whether we attack here or not....'Have at you, foul beast of Hades! I, Pip, the adventurer, will smite you into oblivion and gave your guts for garters!' you cry heroically as you launch yourself upon the Thing.
Which runs away.
Can you believe that? The horrifying Thing just up and ran away! Not so much as a snap in your direction!
Excitedly you run after it, still hurling abuse and heroic jibes.
Which is possibly a big mistake, as you may discover when you turn to 59.
And we're back in familiar territory:That's done it! That's torn it and no mistake! You are in a vast, gloomy underground chamber, measuring 40 feet square. The floor, walls and ceiling are composed of large black granite slabs. The only light is a single flickering torch set in a bracket on the north wall.
There is nothing in the room (except you, of course) and most upsetting of all, there is no door out!!
Is this it? Is this the end? Is this where the brave adventurer ends up, wasting slowly in some dank chamber of the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead, lonely, miserable, cold, unhappy, facing no brighter prospect than the final solemn journey to the dreaded 14? No, of course it isn't. Pull yourself together. If you look in the southwestern corner you'll find a scrap of ancient parchment on which there is a map. Go to 65 and study it carefully. It may show you a way out of this mess. (And probably into an even worse one, but that's a different story.)
LEVEL ONE MAP:Now there's something to get your teeth into! This looks as though it might turn into an interesting adventure after all. The scrap of parchment seems to be a map of the ghastly place you're in (see Appendix p.219). You'll notice 65 is marked as a 40' x 40' room, exactly as you've discovered it to be. But the map shows no less than four secret doors out. Two of those doors lead into rooms, two into corridors. And the various rooms all have section numbers so you'll know where to go.
(Don't do anything yet, Pip--it's dangerous to rush into things down here.)
At the bottom of the parchment somebody has scrawled a message in blood, or possibly tomato ketchup:
'I have opened the Gateway and hidden the Key! Find it if you can, Sucker!'
Yours in Chivalry,
The Black Knight of Avalon.
So that's where the trouble started. The dreaded Black Knight of Avalon, the most wicked noble in the Realm. Looks as though he was the one who opened the Gateway to the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead and let loose that Brass Dragon you killed a while ago. He must have used this map to find his way around the Ghastly Kingdom, so maybe you can do the same until you discover where the Key is hidden.
Now turn the parchment over--there may be something on the back.
There is something on the back: a set of instructions for adventuring in the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead. The handwriting is different to that of the Black Knight, so you should be able to trust what they say. What they say is this:
LEVEL 1
Study the map carefully. You start from the room marked 65. You may pick any of the four secret doors shown as your exit. If a door leads directly into a room, turn to the section number shown to discover what you find there.
If a door leads into a shaded area, you will find yourself in a gloomy 10' wide, 10' high corridor with worked stone walls and stone slabbed floor.
For every 60' (6 squares) you have to travel along a corridor to reach wherever you are going, you must roll two dice to find out if you have encountered any Wandering Monsters. Check the result on the Table headed 'Level 1 Wandering Monsters' in the Appendix.
Sometimes the roll will show you meet no Monsters. Sometimes it will show you do. Wandering Monsters are too stupid to be bribed, and too bad tempered ever to give you a Friendly Reaction, so when you meet any, you must fight to the death.
If you kill the Wandering Monsters, you may continue along the corridor (still checking every 60' in case you meet some more.)
If the Wandering Monsters kill you, then it's off to 14 to re-equip and roll up new LIFE POINTS. But--and this is important--if you are killed anywhere in the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead, you do NOT have to start the whole adventure again. Instead you return to 65 and start from there. (Or rather here, since this is 65.)
One more thing. The torch in the wall bracket of this 40' x 40' chamber is almost burned out. If you have no torches, lamps or other light sources in your equipment, you must travel in the dark. You'll be able to find your way all right, but you will not fight nearly so well as usual. You will score damage normally, but you will need to roll an 8 or better to hit, even if you're using EJ.
That's the bad news about Wandering Monsters. The good news is that they usually carry a bit of gold around with them and if you manage to kill them, you can add their gold to your own store. The Table shows how much gold each class of Wandering Monster usually carries.
That's it for the corridors. Now the rooms.
What you'll find in the rooms is anybody's guess.
Good luck.
Well, at least there's an exit door in this 50' x 20' chamber. There's also a funny-looking sort of mound in the middle of the floor. Curious, you move forward to inspect it, giving it a little poke with EJ.
Now there's trouble. You've disturbed a colony of ants!
Roll two dice and multiply the answer by 10 to find out how many are attacking you. Each has only one LIFE POINT, but is very hard to hit so you will need to score 8 or better to squash it. The ants, in their turn, score on a 6 and do 1 damage each successful strike, irrespective of what damage the dice show.
If you want to try for a Friendly Reaction, you must roll for each ant separately, so it hardly seems worth the trouble. Of course, if you happen to be carrying an Artificial Aardvark in your backpack, it will eat 20 ants every time you wind it up, which you can do by rolling a 6 or better.
If the ants kill you, go to 14.
If you survive, you may leave by either door.
Dice roll = 5. No random encounter.Make one Wandering Monster roll in this 10' x 10' chamber. If the dice show no monsters present or you win through the encounter, you may leave by any of the three doors shown.
Oops, yes you're right.Thaluikhain wrote:Should that be we've been from 90? If so, I vote 95, if not, I'm lost.
There is only one door to this 30' x 30' chamber (the one you came in) and it swings tight shut behind you. Not that this should bother you greatly since your attention is taken up by the fact that the floor has just opened up beneath you, dropping you into a 20' deep pit. Deduct a double dice roll of damage from your LIFE POINTS (and go to 14 if this kills you) then sit down on the floor of the pit, which is littered with the dried bones of previous adventurers, and try to figure your best way out.
Try climbing out without ropes. To do this you roll two dice. Score 11 or 12 and you will succeed in getting safely to the top. Anything else and you fall, with a double dice roll of damage.
Use a rope if you've brought one. To do this, roll two dice. Score 2 to 10 and you make it out of the pit; 11 or 12 and you fall with a double dice roll of damage.
If you climb out safely, you may leave through the door.
If you kill yourself, go to 14.
Failing to climb out doesn't kill us outright though, just more damage. There's nothing to stop us from keeping ourselves alive by popping heals and keep trying until we succeed (or run out of heals).Thaluikhain wrote:Hasty maths give about a 1 in 4 chance of not dying by just trying to climb out. I think.
My ruling (Brennan is ambiguous on that as usual) is that spells don't get restored after death/restarts.Thaluikhain wrote:So assuming we are trying to survive...oh, hang on, do spells we've used come back when we die, or are they gone forever? If the are lost, recommend trying to climb out and saving levitation for later.
There are two archways in this 20' x 30' chamber, neither of which is closed off by a door. The room is empty, but you must make one Wandering Monster roll to cross it.
An empty 10' x 10' room with two doors. Nice surprise: you don't even risk a Wandering Monster.
There is a door in each wall of this 10' x 10' room. There is also a funny smell, similar in many respects to fish and chips.
Although the room seems quite empty, you search diligently and eventually discover in a crack in the floor, a cricket engaged in the unusual occupation of frying up a fish supper. (A very small fish supper--plankton mainly--since crickets have small appetites.)
If you happen to have a clickstick with you, go to 68.
Otherwise you may use any of the four doors since the cricket will certainly not launch a vicious attack on anything your size.
Triple death-trap! That shark's fin isn't really worth all that risk, but it's too late to turn back!Trouble. There's a Shark in here, Pip. You discover it by falling into the pool which comprises the whole of this eccentric chamber.
You now have several interesting problems, Pip.
First roll one die to see if you drown. Score 1, 2 or 3 and you do. (Off to 14.) Score 4, 5 and 6 and you don't.
Next roll one die to see if you freeze, the water being very cold. Score 1 or 2 and you do. (Off to 14.) Score anything else and you don't.
Finally, see if you can cope with the Shark, which has 20 LIFE POINTS, hits on a 5 or better and bites +4 chunks of damage out of you. If the Shark kills you, go to 14. If you kill the Shark, don't forget to pull its teeth which, when powdered, are a sure cure for poison.
Open the chest or not?There's a chest in here, oak by the look of it, with brass banding. Want to open it? If so, roll two dice. Score 2 to 6 and go to 73. Score 7 to 12 and go to 134. If you decide not to open the chest, you can leave through the door by which you entered.
Oh dear, this is most definitely the bad roll.Mmm. Seems the chest was trapped, Pip.
Nothing serious - just a poison needle. It certainly hasn't killed you; not yet. The problem is you will now lose 1 LIFE POINT for every 10' you travel until you can find some sort of anti-poison or spell. Successfully Sleeping or a healing potion will restore LIFE POINTS but not cure the poison.
As a small consolation, the chest contains 50 gold pieces, a hunk of cheese and an old booth (left foot).
Return to 115 and take it from there.
Originally I wanted to rule that it only lasts for one encounter, but on second thoughts, I think I can allow it to last all the way until Pip runs into something poisonous.Thaluikhain wrote:Reading the poison spell rules, if Pip casts it now does it remain in play until Pip finds something poisonous? Maybe on his next life, or is that pushing it?
There's a little old lady in here, Pip.
She's sitting in a rocking chair in the middle of this 30' x 30' stone-lined chamber, her little old feet resting on a sea chest and a long strip of Aran knitting trailing down from her lap. (She must be working on a scarf by the length of it. Either that or she's forgotten to cast off.)
She glances up at you as you enter, peering short-sightedly over the top of gold-rimmed bifocals. 'Hello, young stranger,' she greets you in a quavering voice. 'Who might you be then?'
'I am Pip the Adventurer, sent here by command of King Arthur and his wise advisor, the Druid Wizard Merlin, to close the Gateway to the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead and thus rid the realm of foul emanations,' you reply long-windedly. Then, remembering that you have not been formally introduced, you add politely, 'May I have the honour of learning who you are, Ma'am?'
'I'm the Little Old Lady Monster,' says the little old lady. 'It is my duty to guard this chest which contains a great many valuables. I suppose, as an adventurer, you'll be trying to steal it, won't you?'
'Oh no, Ma'am,' you reassure her. 'Nothing of the sort. I would never dream of such a thing.'
'Even if it happened to contain the Key to open the Gateway?' asks the Little Old Lady Monster slyly.
Which is an interesting point.
'Does it contain the Key?' you ask curiously.
'Not telling you!' says the Little Old Lady Monster smugly. 'Now you'll have to try to steal the chest. Come on, then--I haven't had a good punch-up in ages.' With which she produces a rolling pin from underneath her knitting and leaps up from her rocking chair shouting 'Banzai!!!'
So much for the Age of Chivalry. They don't seem to have learned the rules down here. But you're stuck with the fact of the matter and it's a nastier fact than you might have imagined, since that is a lethal rolling pin with +3 damage. The Little Old Lady Monster hits on only 3 first round, but needs a 6 thereafter on account of her eyesight. She has 50 LIFE POINTS and will batter you to death if she can.
If you survive the Little Old Lady, you can move on to 136 to open the chest. If not, you can think things over in 14.
There's a key in here!
A huge brass key, attached to a huge brass keyring, with a huge brass plaque on which is engraved, in huge brass letters, 'Key to Gateway of the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead.'
You've found the key! (Without even having to fight the dreaded Black Knight either.) This is incredible! This is fantastic! The very Key you were looking for and here it is in the chest of the Little Old Lady Monster! Now all you have to do is zip out and lock the Gateway, get back to Camelot and pig yourself stupid at the festive banquet while everybody tells you what a good class of adventurer you turned out to be!
Wait a minute. You still have to get back to the Gateway. Wonder which way that is?
The doors in this room open (north) into 97 and (east) into a corridor.
You find yourself in a dingy, rather cramped 20' x 20' room, stacked floor to ceiling with broken furniture (none of it particularly good-looking even when it was new, so far as you can judge.)
Since there are no apparent exits, you turn to leave. But some instinct urges you to search around a bit.
Good instinct, Pip. You've found another piece of parchment with another map! (see Appendix, p. 221) And this map not only shows you two secret doors in Room 80, but also shows you a good few other rooms and corridors that weren't on your first map.
Looks like the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead is a bigger place than you imagined. Study your new map, decide where to go... and good luck.
Through the secret door merrily and into a huge 30' x 80' chamber full of pot plants.
Pot plants?
That's what they look like. Rubber plants and ferns and creepers, the occasional flowering cactus and stuff like that, all laid out neatly in aisles like some sort of underground greenhouse. The ceiling of the chamber has crystal globes imbedded--blue, green, pink and white--shining down on the plants to give them a bit of light.
This could be quite a pleasant place if it wasn't for the scruffy looking old fool shuffling towards you with a pitchfork.
You can either leap on him vigorously and get an automatic surprise attack by going to 103.
Or take a chance that he might be harmless (harmless!) at 132.
What be 'e doing here, young adventurer?' asks the scruffy old man, setting his pitchfork down carefully on account of his bad back.
'I seek to find the route that will forever close the Gateway to this Ghastly Kingdom, Scruffy Old Sir,' you declaim politely.
'Ahr, that be what most of them be arter right enough. Does 'e like pot plants?'
'Ahr,' you reply, which he takes, quite correctly, to be an affirmative reply.
'So does I, ahr. Friendly things, pot plants, if 'e doesn't mess with them. Not like people, nahr. Nor monsters neither. Closing the Gateway, is it?'
'Ah--I mean, yes.'
'Won't manage that here, young 'un, nahr. The way be guarded. Guarded by the Black Knight hisself, ahr. But take this bottle of my patent weed-killer and rub some on your sword, ahr. It gives 'e double damage the first time 'e hits a vegetable monster and there be enough in the bottle for three applications, ahr.'
Which was, you must admit, a nice gesture on his part, and potentially a very useful gift if you happen to meet any vegetable monsters. Stow it away carefully in your backpack for now and return through the secret door to 80.
***
This 30' x 30' chamber looks as though it might have been used as some sort of reception room at some time, although the few scraps of wooden furniture are in a pretty ragged state now.
All the same, it's not entirely disused. There are two armoured guards at the door in the southern wall and, when you look carefully, you can see why--the door has a notice saying 'TREASURE ROOM'.
The only way through that door is past the guards, Pip. They don't look particularly strong--15 LIFE POINTS each, which suggests somebody forgot to feed them for some time. As against that, they are each armed with swords and the armour they are wearing is very high quality, subtracting 3 from any damage scored against them.
The guards will not attack if you leave them alone, so you have a choice of simply returning back into the corridor. If you want to go to 66, however, you're into Bribery or a fight, or both.