[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 58: Revenge of the Vampire

[Beroli]

That's not an option. You go up the stairs now, or you go to the Grand Revenant and don't come in here again. (Or you leave the mansion and don't go to either.)

[Thaluikhain]

Stairs.

[Queen of Swords]

Then stairs, I guess.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Oh, right. Mixed the two up for some reason. Stairs.

[Beroli]

You light your lantern and ascend the steps. The room at the top is a sealed black mausoleum, shrouded in black curtains and drapes; a single coffin lies, sealed, in the middle of the room.

Smash the coffin? Turn to 60.
Go to the one door in the mansion you have not opened? Turn to 274.
Leave the mansion? Turn to 40.

Please vote by 9 AM EDT and before there is a three-vote majority to be sure it will be counted.

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 16/20
Luck: 10/11
Faith: 12
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 3 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Oil of Disenchantment 260, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 11 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: You know about the Ghoulcrypts; Vantiane is with you for 2 fights.[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

Make with the smashy smash.

[Queen of Swords]

Smash the coffin, maybe we get another Faith point for doing so.

[Beroli]

You slash at the black wood of the coffin with your sword, but this is a trap set for the unwary! The Count sleeps in coffins that have been left open, and this sealed one is not one of his resting places. As you strike down, whirring metal blades fly up from the brass handles on either side of the coffin and from the plaque set into its top. Test your Skill. (You cannot fail, so you do not lose Skill, only 4 Stamina.)

(I could hold a vote on whether to leave, but somehow I think you're going in the last door here now.)

An intense sensation of evil hits you like a blast of cold air as you open the door. This cold stone chamber is wholly bare, and to the west, chiselled stone steps lead downwards. A single figure stands here. In the gloom, you might well take it for a Zombie or a Ghoul, but it is the Grand Revenant which bars the way to Heydrich's subterranean lair and is a terrible enemy. Magic has infused its bones with immense strength and ferocity, and there is no escaping it now. You must fight for your life.

GRAND REVENANT Skill 10 Stamina 14

[spoiler=Grand Revenant]Round One: Eric 26, Grand Revenant 20. Grand Revenant is at 12 Stamina.
Round Two: Eric 23, Grand Revenant 20. Grand Revenant is at 10 Stamina.
Round Three: Eric 25, Grand Revenant 19. Grand Revenant is at 8 Stamina.
Round Four: Eric 25, Grand Revenant 14. Grand Revenant is at 6 Stamina.
Round Five: Eric 20, Grand Revenant 22. Eric is at 10 Stamina.
Round Six: Eric 22, Grand Revenant 19. Grand Revenant is at 4 Stamina.
Round Seven: Eric 25, Grand Revenant 19. Grand Revenant is at 2 Stamina.
Round Eight: Eric 22, Grand Revenant 18. Victory.[/spoiler]

The Grand Revenant starts to get back up.

Use Oil of Disenchantment on it? Turn to 130.
Use Blackfire on it? Turn to 130.
Retreat and leave the mansion? Turn to 40.

Also vote on whether to eat Meals and how many before you proceed.

Please vote by 9 PM EDT and before there is a three-vote majority to be sure it will be counted.

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 10/20
Luck: 10/11
Faith: 12
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 3 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Oil of Disenchantment 260, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 11 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: You know about the Ghoulcrypts; Vantiane is with you for 1 fight.[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

I vote oil of disenchantment and 2 meals.

[SGamerz]

^Agreed.

[Queen of Swords]

Sounds like a plan.

[Beroli]

You pour Oil of Disenchantment on the Grand Revenant, destroying it. Before you lies the entrance to the crypts of Mortus Mansion. You consult your sage correspondence.

The letters include a sketch map of the crypts! This shows that there is a passage which descends westwards and then tums north. At the point where it tums north, there is a secret door on the west side. Further on,the passage winds to the west and ends at a door. There's also a side-turning to the north along this western passage, ending at another door--and the symbol of a skull and crossbones tells you that it is not wise to enter here! Beyond the western door the map is marked only in large letters: '? LAIR!' You decide to enter the crypts and follow the passage to the point where the secret door should be. (Your Faith score is 8 or higher.)

You sense the presence of a pair of undead guards behind the door. You pick a stone up off the floor and throw it gently a short distance ahead; then you stand in the corner and wait. The door opens and a ghoulish form appears; you strike at it from behind and manage a lucky blow to its spine. It loses 4 Stamina points. Gain 1 Luck point! As the pair of Ghouls emerge, you can fight them one by one in this corner. (If they win four combat rounds something special happens and if you know anything about ghouls you should be able to guess what. You're one point of Attack Strength short of me not needing to roll these, but if you roll a 2 and one of them rolls a 12 they'll actually hit you.)

First GHOUL Skill 8 Stamina 73
Second GHOUL Skill 8 Stamina 7

[spoiler=Ghoul One]Round One: Eric 26, Ghoul 16. First Ghoul is at 1 Stamina.
Round Two: Eric 29, Ghoul 17. Flawless victory.[/spoiler]

Spoiler=Ghoul Two]Round One: Eric 21, Ghoul 17. Second Ghoul is at 5 Stamina.
Round Two: Eric 25, Ghoul 11. Second Ghoul is at 3 Stamina.
Round Three: Eric 25, Ghoul 20. Second Ghoul is at 1 Stamina.
Round Four: Eric 26, Ghoul 13. Flawless victory.[/spoiler]

Vantiane takes her leave as you look around the chamber of the ghouls, which is devoid of anything of interest or value. You continue northwards along the passage until it turns to the west again. In the distance it ends at a door, and there is a northern side-turning to another door.

Go in the north door? Turn to 288.
Go in the west door? Turn to 347.

Please vote by 9 PM EDT and before there is a three-vote majority to be sure it will be counted.

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 18/20
Luck: 11/11
Faith: 12
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 3 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 11 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: You know about the Ghoulcrypts[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

Again, there's no reason to go north when we literally just received the information that there's a deathtrap there (and have no reason to doubt the source of that information), and we also know for a fact that our quarry lies in the west. So west.

[Beroli]

You open the door and gaze, open-mouthed, at the sheer scale of the room in front of you. Seemingly endless, it is filled with stone tombs and mournful statues. In an archway to the north is a glowing azure barrier of light; far to the south there are two more great archways, each with a huge wooden door and bronze plaques and handles. It comes as no surprise when you see what looks like a small army of undead beginning to advance on you from the south. If you can't face fighting the Ghouls, Zombies (and perhaps worse) heading your way, you can slam the door shut and run like mad back to the entrance hall, where you will be able to take your bearings and find somewhere else to search, but you may not come back here again. Failing that, you have enough time to perform four actions before the Ghoul Pack reaches you.

If you choose to throw Blackfire for one of those actions, the resulting wall of fire will destroy the Ghoul Pack utterly, leaving you with three actions to perform before the Zombie Pack reaches you. You can choose to drink brandy for one of those actions; you have nothing relevant to do for the other two.

The Ghoul Pack has Skill 9 and Stamina 10, and close behind it is a Zombie Pack.

Throw Blackfire and drink brandy?
Throw Blackfire but not drink brandy?
Drink brandy but not throw Blackfire?
Simply raise your sword and wait?
Retreat and leave the mansion?

Please vote by 9 PM EDT and before there is a three-vote majority to be sure it will be counted.

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 18/20
Luck: 11/11
Faith: 12
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 3 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 11 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: You know about the Ghoulcrypts[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

I vote raise our sword and wait, but in a cool dramatic and heroic way.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Save the Blackfire for now, but drink the brandy because we’ve got loads of healing items.

[Thaluikhain]

Normally I'd not use a 4 point thing to only get 2 back, but yeah, we have plenty, get drunk and glass the monsters.

[Beroli]

You drink brandy before facing the undead packs.

[spoiler=Ghoul Pack]
Round One: Eric 24, Ghoul Pack 15. The Ghoul Pack is at 8 Stamina.
Round Two: Eric 25, Ghoul Pack 19. The Ghoul Pack is at 6 Stamina.
Round Three: Eric 27, Ghoul Pack 18. The Ghoul Pack is at 4 Stamina.
Round Four: Eric 22, Ghoul Pack 17. The Ghoul Pack is at 2 Stamina.
Round Five: Eric 22. Ghoul Pack 17. Flawless victory.[/spoiler]

ZOMBIE PACK Skill 7 Stamina 16
[spoiler=Zombie Pack]
Round One: Eric 18, Zombie Pack 12. Zombie Pack is at 14 Stamina.
Round Two: Eric 22, Zombie Pack 16. Zombie Pack is at 12 Stamina.
Round Three: Eric 24, Zombie Pack 17. Zombie Pack is at 10 Stamina.
Round Four: Eric 17, Zombie Pack 15. Zombie Pack is at 8 Stamina.
Round Five: Eric 24, Zombie Pack 14. Zombie Pack is at 6 Stamina.
Round Six: Eric 25, Zombie Pack 12. Zombie Pack is at 4 Stamina.
Round Seven: Eric 22, Zombie Pack 13. Zombie Pack is at 2 Stamina.
Round Eight: Eric 24, Zombie Pack 15. Flawless victory.[/spoiler]

Gain one Luck point (already maxed) and one Faith point. Now, will you:

Go through the azure-lit archway? Turn to 12.
Open the right-hand door on the south? Turn to 97.
Open the left-hand door on the south? Turn to 152.

Please vote by 9 AM EDT to be sure it will be counted.
[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 20/20
Luck: 11/11
Faith: 13
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 2 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 11 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: You know about the Ghoulcrypts[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

Left-hand door because we already know that's where the Count is.

And in case anyone else want to search the other places first, I just want to point out that we definitely do NOT want to go to the azure archway now. That's where the Count will use to escape later, when we show him the heart. So it's definitely some kind of magic teleporter. If we go there now, who knows where it'll take us, but it's probably going to be far away from here, and we still have unfinished business here. It only makes sense for us to follow him through it later, after he's presumably triggered it to take him to a specific location where he wants to go (and where we'd want to go after him).

[Beroli]

You open the door to the tomb-chamber of Count Reiner Heydrich! The stone lid of the tomb itself opens with a grinding sound as you enter, and the Count clutches at the edge of the tomb with long fingered nails, sitting upright even as you rush to attack! With one bound, the black-cloaked figure leaps out to face you. (You do have a red crystal heart.)

The Count stares at you in fear and rushes past you, through the open door and away to the north. His passage is so swift that you can hardly keep up with him. He reaches the glowing archway and races straight into it. The surface of the blue magical barrier ripples, as if someone had dropped a stone into a pond, after he has passed through it. Sparks of magical fire roar round the edges of the barrier. You have a split second to decide.

Jump through after him NOW?! Turn to 359.
Turn away and explore the other door in the crypts? Turn to 97.
Leave the crypts and the mansion? Turn to 40.

Please vote by 9 PM EDT to be sure it will be counted.

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 20/20
Luck: 11/11
Faith: 13
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 2 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 11 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: You know about the Ghoulcrypts[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

To the other door!

[SGamerz]

Jump through after him NOW! We wasted so much time and resources trying to find Ghoulcrypts last time, now it's our chance to take the expressway while it's still activated!

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed, follow the Count.

[Beroli]

(I'm amused by how close you came to leaving Mortus Manor not one jot more knowledgeable than the last time.)

The Count has used a magical portal to transport himself far away, flying across the planes to his final hideaway. When you strike the barrier, fire flickers round your body as you suffer some of the ill-effects it was designed to inflict on anyone who entered it other than the Vampire; lose 3 Stamina points.

You feel bewildered and disorientated. You are standing on a hazy, insubstantial surface, surrounded by barren plains and mists. Before you stands a single glowing figure, tall, fair-haired and grave in appearance. 'He is gone to the Ghoulcrypts,' the spectre declares sadly. 'You will have to follow him there.' You stand still, trying to get your breath back. You have no idea who this figure is until he introduces himself. 'l am Siegfried, Reiner's brother and his nemesis. When he was brought back into existence, the magic also called me back from my own resting-place. We are inseparable: he is the darkness, I am the light. But I am still trapped here and can do nothing to stop him. I do know where he is, however, and I can help you. Pass beyond the northern Great Wall to the margins of the Shamutanti Hills and seek the village of Sharnek. Find the Gatekeeper. He has stood guard for many long years over the secret places, and he will be glad that his long wait is over. When you find the Ghoulcrypts, you must seek the tomb of the fifth and last Knight of the Thorn there. Not only the Vampire Elders are buried in that place; the tombs of their five greatest enemies, those fabled Knights, stand there also. In that fifth tomb you will find a great weapon to aid you against Reiner. This time, you must destroy him utterly.' (You do have a red crystal heart.)

You have no time to lose. With a wave of his hand, Siegfried gives you the blessings of the gods and returns you to your own world. You are standing outside Mortus Mansion, and your final goal lies to the northwest.

(You know about the Ghoulcrypts; you DO know the specific location of the Ghoulcrypts.)

On the trip from Mortus Manor to Sharnek, you must eat a total of 6 Meals. You may buy Meals, for 1 Gold Piece for 2 Meals. (Lacking a longbow, you cannot shoot rabbits to eat.) You could also choose to work chopping wood; gain one Gold Piece for each Blood Point you sacrifice to delay.

Eventually you round the western edge of the northern Great Wall and, as night falls, find yourself in the village of Sharnek. Behind you, a rider races up and rushes straight past you, screaming something about a scarred monster-man following him.

Ignore the rider's yelling and look for a place to stay? Turn to 285.
Crouch down, hide, and wait to see what follows? Turn to 94.

Please also vote on how many Meals to buy, whether to eat one, and whether to work for any gold. After applying the -6 for this trip your Meals are currently listed as 5; you can vote to buy 0 to 8 Meals, and if you buy 8 you automatically eat one and wind up with 12 meals and 20 Stamina. Vote by 9 AM EDT to be sure it will be counted.

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]Name: Eric Cross Brooks
Skill: 13/13
Stamina: 17/20
Luck: 11/11
Faith: 13
Blood Points: 16
Equipment: 2 Magic Swords (+1 Attack Power), Magic Gauntlets (+1 Attack Power), Nonmagic Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern, 2 Herbal Brandy (+4 Stamina), Resin, Garlic, Silver Stake, Mallet, Silver Mirror, Climbing boots for hill-climbing, Rope, 15 pages of sage correspondence, 90-Faceted Red Crystal Heart, 2 Potions of Stamina (+9 Stamina), Mystery Potion, Baleful Red Lantern, Cooking Oil, Blackfire
Provisions: 5 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 47
Special Notes: [/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

Buy 8 meals, we don't have much else to spend gold on.

Hide and ambush monster.