[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 23 - Masks of Mayhem!

[Darth Rabbitt]

We went right once, so another right would actually keep Arthur away from fascism.

[pragma]

I still vote left out of habit.

[SGamerz]

The torches on the walls are spaced further apart and then cease altogether, as you walk on down the tunnel. You go back and get a torch to light your way, but strong and unnatural wind blows it out straight away, and then dies down. Will you continue down this branch, or return and take the other branch?

A second chance to turn away from the path of fascism! Do we take it?

[JourneymanN00b]

Okay, I think we have had enough of this route, as I think the wind is a cue that an instadeath may be in store for King Arthur. I vote to return and take the other branch and firmly reject this fascist path.

[Queen of Swords]

It's possible the wind is meant to discourage us from taking the correct route. I say we continue.

[pragma]

I think I'm with Queen on this one, continue on the fascism path.

[SGamerz]

You can tell by a slight draught when you pass a side-passage on your left. Will you take the side=passage or carry on?

How firm is Arthur's resolve to remain on the path of fascism?

[JourneymanN00b]

Okay, since the general consensus is for King Arthur to go full on fascist, I say we have him carry on and fully commit to its evils.

[Queen of Swords]

Yes, let's carry on.

[pragma]

Carry on

[Darth Rabbitt]

Personally I’d check out the side passage.

[Thaluikhain]

I'd vote for checking random side passage.

[Omegonthesane]

The goof about directions entailing political allegiance is for tie breakers when no other information applies. The side passage is a diversion in a Final Fantasy book, and the rule to get distracted by every distraction takes precedence over ensuring an FF character embraces communism.

So check the random side passage.

[JourneymanN00b]

The goof about directions entailing political allegiance is for tie breakers when no other information applies. The side passage is a diversion in a Final Fantasy book, and the rule to get distracted by every distraction takes precedence over ensuring an FF character embraces communism.

So check the random side passage.

Um, carrying on in this case would mean that King Arthur would *reject* communism. And I think that fully committing to the fascist path, since that seems to be the consensus here, would be the way to go, as we will now obtain an example that either shows fascism is never a good idea by way of a “screw you” ending, or shows that King Arthur does need to turn into a dictator to win this adventure. So my vote will remain to fully continue the path to obtain said example.

Oh, and I would also like to have King Arthur eat another provision.

[SGamerz]

There's currently a rare 3-3 tie in votes, by my count.

[Thaluikhain]

Change vote to going past side passage to avoid tie.

[SGamerz]

You come to a large cavern, which is not lit by torches. Will you enter the cavern, or turn back and take the side-passage?

Lots of chances to backtrack or turn away since we started down the path to fascism. How long before we give in to one of these temptations?

[JourneymanN00b]

My vote is to enter the cavern, eat a provision, and drink the Potion of Fortune. The plan is for King Arthur to fully commit to the path of fascism and maximize his Stamina and Luck so there can be no doubts on whether taking this path is a good idea or not.

[Queen of Swords]

Large cavern means some sort of encounter, so I vote we enter it. Also in favor of eating the provision and drinking the potion.

[Darth Rabbitt]

It now seems like the side passage is the thing we'll be able to double back to, so let's check out the cavern. Agreed on eating provisions and drinking the potion.

[pragma]

Cavern, provisions, potion

[SGamerz]

Potion swigged and meal gobbled down. STAMINA now at 14, and LUCK at 10...not that they going to help us in this next encounter...

Eleven vast shapes loom out of the darkness. One of them lights a torch, and then you can see that the eleven Golems are surrounding you. There is no time to get anything from your pack. If you can call on Galrin, you will know where to turn to; otherwise your body is mangled and your adventure is over.

This is really the only place where we can used them (although there's one other encounter where you can be tricked into wasting it), even thought theoretically there should be plenty of places where a spectral army would have been useful. But this is a mandatory "pass or die" check, so I guess having multiple encounters where you might waste it on a less important encounter would probably be worse.

The spectral army appears and you stand back to let them to their work. It does not take long. Galrin salutes you, and then he and his followers vanish forever. You are free to continue - and it soon turns out that the Golems' cavern was the ante-chamber to Morgana's throne-room. You enter a vast cavern. Morgana herself is seated on a black thrown in the centre. She shrieks at you: "So you think you have destroyed my pets, do you? You fool! I can always make more!" You leap towards her throne, to stop her foul mouth forever.

Now you confront Morgana herself. She is so confident of victory that she allows herself to gloat over you. "By all the dark forces," she cries, "this is perfect! I've got you just where we wanted." Then she leaps off her throne and at you. Her body is frail, but her magical powers more than compensate for lack of strength. You will be able to inflict only 1 STAMINA point of injury every time you wound her (or 2 if you use LUCK successfully). The Cloak of Temporary Invisibility (if you have it) will not protect you in the slightest against anyone with magic powers.

MORGANA SKILL 11 STAMINA 6

If you win, and Morgana cursed you on Pikestaff Plan, turn to 4; otherwise, turn to 81.

No idea why they keep brining up the Cloak in sections where you're not supposed to use it. I mean, it's not like the player would know how much bonus to give himself even if he decides to cheat and rule that the Cloak works here anyway.

COMBAT LOG:

Morgana 19, Arthur 20. Morgana is at 5.
Morgana 17, Arthur 16. Arthur is at 12.
Morgana 17, Arthur 18. Morgana is at 4.
Morgana 17, Arthur 22. Morgana is at 3.
Morgana 13, Arthur 18. Morgana is at 2.
Morgana 16, Arthur 18. Morgana is at 1.
Morgana 19, Arthur 16. Arthur is at 10.
Morgana 17, Arthur 21. Morgana is killed.

She was skilled enough that the Horn became a difference-maker in at least 2 of the rounds, but Arthur made it out of his fight after taking only 2 blows.

If you talked to Vashti, turn to 258; otherwise, turn to 347.

We have...

Everything begins to fall into place - the realization that your mission was a trap; Morgana describing the plan as if it were not just hers alone; Kevin treacherously slain. You have been puzzling over all this for some time. If you suspicions have fallen on a particular person, you should be able to work out which paragraph to turn to. Otherwise, turn to 347.

OK, the last of the infamous puzzles in this book that gave this book its reputation of high difficulty. It wasn't just that the solutions are hard to figure out or the vital items or clues are easy to miss, but also because of how vague some of the puzzles are...as in, the player may still have no idea what to do even if he has the appropriate answer or items to be used in such situations. The puzzle about finding entry to Vashti's place was one of those vague puzzles. In that case, other than the Juja's cryptical remark, there was another encounter that could have given us a further hint on what we'd have to do. We missed that encounter, but at least the clue was there to be found.

In this case, though, there's really not much a clue in the whole book. The difficulty lies not in figuring out whom we should suspect, but in figuring out what the hell we're supposed to do with that information once we think we have the answer.

So for those of you who already know the answer to this last puzzle due to having played the book before or having read a solution or walkthrough previously, I'd like to ask you to refrain from giving the answer (or hide it in spoiler tags) for at least couple of days, because I'm really genuine curious if the new players can figure out which section to turn to by themselves (I couldn't).

Whom do we suspect, and which section should we turn to here?

[Omegonthesane]

I suspect Ifor Tynin, the court wizard, but fucked if I know what to do with that information in gamebook terms. Surely they can't expect us to turn to page 49 just because his name sounds vaguely like that.

[Whatever Jr.]

Since our trusted armorer was apparently murdered (?), I also suspect Ifor. If not 49, perhaps we turn to 90 based on his last name? 45 by counting the letters in his first and last name? 20 by counting and multiplying?

[pragma]

Ifor does seem shady, and his name has the word "four" in it. Maybe section 14 (I-four)?