[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 20 - Sword of the Samurai

[Darth Rabbitt]

Run back.

[Beroli]

Run back.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Gogo Yubari will try to run back through the door hanging behind her.

390
You dash back, wrench the door open and dive through. The Phoenix does not attempt to prevent you. You are back in the Hub, surrounded by stars and the eight doors. Return to 8 and choose again, but you cannot choose an option you have chosen once already.

The remaining options from 8 are:
“The Swamps of Primordial Mire? Turn to 98
The Eternal Tower? Turn to 110
The Place of Battle? Turn to 138”

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PDT or a choice gets a 3-vote majority to guarantee that it will be counted.

[Beroli]

Eat a Meal and go to the Eternal Tower.

By the pattern of allies we've recruited so far, we want to find something that wants either a war-fan or the Headband of Shinmen.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed with Beroli.

[Queen of Swords]

Yeah, the Swamps don't sound particularly promising so we might as well try the tower.

[JourneymanN00b]

Returning to the Hub and going though the door to the Eternal Tower received 3 votes, so Gogo Yubari will do this. She will also eat a gunyoki to get back up to 17 Stamina.

110
[spoiler][/spoiler]

You step through the door marked ‘The Eternal Tower’. Everything changes. You are standing at the top of a fortified tower; battlements surround you. The terrain around you is constantly changing, sometimes wood, sometimes plains; blue sky, red sky, and so on – as if the Tower were shifting from plane to plane and world to world. In front of you stands a massive warrior, his face bearded and mature, a veteran of many battles. His armour is strange and outlandish to you: it covers him from head to foot. Behind him stand eight others, their faces visored and hidden. Their armour is gold, with a white surcoat covered in blue circles.

The man speaks: ‘Welcome to the Eternal Tower, contestant. We are the Knights of the Golden Company, and if you wish us to aid you in the Tourney of the Planes, you must answer me this. Do you return to us the war-fan of our king?’

If you have a war-fan, with a symbol of nine gold arrows, a blue circle, and a white background, turn to 186. If you do not, turn to 200.

Gogo Yubari does have a war-fan of that description.

186
You take out the war-fan. The knight gasps in surprise. ‘You have it!’ he exclaims. You hand it to him and then he kneels before you, the other knights following suit.

‘When you travel to the Place of Battle, we shall be there to fight at your side. Long have we sought this artefact.’

Suddenly you find yourself back at the Hub surrounded by stars and the eight doors. Note that the Golden Company are your allies. Return to 8 and choose again, but you cannot choose an option you have tried already.

The remaining options from 8 are:
“The Swamps of Primordial Mire? Turn to 98
The Place of Battle? Turn to 138”

Once again, please make your votes before 9:00 AM PDT or a choice gets a 3-vote majority to guarantee that it will be counted.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Gogo Yubari
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 17 Initial Stamina = 20
LUCK: 8 Initial Luck = 8
NOTES:
Possesses Katana and Wakizashi, Battle Armour, Backpack, Bow, 3 Willow-leaf Arrows (2 STAMINA damage), 1 Bowel-raker (3 STAMINA damage), 1 Armour-piercer (2 STAMINA damage, required for use against certain opponents), 3 Humming Bulbs (1 STAMINA damage, makes a frightening noise), Headband of Shinmen, 115 Gold Pieces, Suit of Samurai Armour, Talisman of Fortuitous Circumstance (jade talisman shaped like a dragon), Ivory Horn
Won over Tatsu, Tiger, Ki-Rin, and the Golden Company to her cause
HONOUR: 7
PROVISIONS REMIANING: 6
SPECIAL SKILL: Kyujutsu
[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

To the swamp, I guess.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Swamp.

[Beroli]

Sure, might as well look at the last one. The Swamps of Primordial Mire.

[Queen of Swords]

Fingers crossed we don't end up drowning in the swamps.

[Beroli]

We could go straight to the Plane of Battle now. I just didn't figure such a vote had a chance. (And also it would mean people who haven't read this one not seeing the swamp at all; I'd push harder if the swamp was instant death.)

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Gogo Yubari will go through the door to the Swamps of Primordial Mire.

98
[spoiler][/spoiler]

You find yourself standing on a low hummock of solid earth. Around you lies a great swamp. It bubbles and heaves, a morass of stinking mud and thick liquid. Twisted trees and plants struggle up out of the mess. A door hangs behind you in space, the route back to the Hub.

Suddenly a tremendous serpent, with eyes glittering like black diamonds, bursts out of the mire and rears up before you, ready to whip its head down and bite you in two. If you wish to fight the serpent, turn to 246. If you would rather try to use an item against it, turn to 258.

Please make your votes before 6:00 PM PDT to guarantee that it will be counted.

[Beroli]

Use an item. A headband totally goes with a serpent, right?

[Thaluikhain]

Use an item, I guess.

[pragma]

I'm rather enjoying the image of Gogo blasting through enchanted realms while constantly blowing a vuvuzela, which is too say that I'm hoping for another chance to use the war horn.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Gogo Yubari will try to use an item against the serpent.

258
What will you do? Try to touch the serpent with an antler, if you have one (turn to 290)? Blow a horn, if you have one (turn to 318)? Or try to use the Phoenix Ruby in some way, if you have it (turn to 328)? If you have none of these items, turn to 246.

The only item that Gogo Yubari has out of the above choices is again the ivory horn, so it looks like pragma's wish was granted. I will assume that the horn will be used.

318
The horn gives an ear-splitting blast, which echoes through the miasmal swamp, but it is as if the serpent has no ears at all. Turn to 246.

246
The great serpent, wide as a tree, tries to bit off your head. You have no choice but to fight it.

GREAT SERPENT SKILL 10 STAMINA 10

If you win, turn to 272.

The fight:
[spoiler]Round 1: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 21;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 17
Round 2: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 16;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 15
Round 3: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 16;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 13
Round 4: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 16;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 11
Round 5: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 15;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 9
Round 6: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 16;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 7
Round 7: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 16;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 5 [/spoiler]

Jeez, did Gogo Yubari get unlucky here. Because she kept getting very low rolls, Gogo Yubari only managed to deal 2 damage before the Great Serpent reduced her Stamina to 5. Should Luck should be used to improve our hero’s chances of surviving the rest of the fight? If so, should we use it to reduce the damage that Gogo Yubari takes or to inflict additional damage?

The first choice to receive a 2-vote majority will be used to resolve the rest of the battle. If no choice has a winning margin before 9:00 AM PDT, I will make the choice based on which votes are cast.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Gogo Yubari
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 5 Initial Stamina = 20
LUCK: 8 Initial Luck = 8
NOTES:
Possesses Katana and Wakizashi, Battle Armour, Backpack, Bow, 3 Willow-leaf Arrows (2 STAMINA damage), 1 Bowel-raker (3 STAMINA damage), 1 Armour-piercer (2 STAMINA damage, required for use against certain opponents), 3 Humming Bulbs (1 STAMINA damage, makes a frightening noise), Headband of Shinmen, 115 Gold Pieces, Suit of Samurai Armour, Talisman of Fortuitous Circumstance (jade talisman shaped like a dragon), Ivory Horn
Won over Tatsu, Tiger, Ki-Rin, and the Golden Company to her cause
HONOUR: 7
PROVISIONS REMIANING: 6
SPECIAL SKILL: Kyujutsu
[/spoiler]

[Beroli]

Use Luck to inflict additional damage. Looking at our Luck...Ouch. Wouldn't this be an ironic place to stop.

[Queen of Swords]

With a skill of 12, we really were unfortunate. Might as well use Luck to inflict more damage.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for your votes. Luck will be used to deal additional damage to the Great Serpent since we have 2 votes for this.

The fight, continued:
[spoiler]Round 8: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 14, Player Attack Strength: 14;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 5
Round 9: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 19;
Great Serpent Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 3
Round 10: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 19;
Luck Roll: 7, Player is Lucky and deals 2 additional damage
Great Serpent Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 3, Player Luck: 7
Round 11: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 16;
Great Serpent Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 1
Round 12: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 22;
Luck Roll: 8, Player is Unlucky and only deals 1 damage
Great Serpent Stamina: 3, Player Stamina: 1, Player Luck: 6
Round 13: Great Serpent Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 17;
Great Serpent Stamina: 3, Player Stamina: -1[/spoiler]

Well, I am sorry to say that Gogo Yubari was killed due to a further dose of bad luck. She was Lucky in the first of her two blows that she inflicted against her enemy, but got Unlucky, which, combined with further bad luck, allowed the Great Serpent to finish her off. It is frustrating, but that is bad luck that we have to accept when we play these adventures.

Bonus death entry:
After dealing many bites against Gogo Yubari, the Great Serpent snaps forward and bites off her sword arm with lightning fast speed. With her katana dropping to the ground, and blood gushing out of her wound, despair overtakes Gogo Yubari as she mentally prepares for her death. “Now I know what Moichi felt back when we were fighting the Mukade…”

Bleeding with many wounds itself, the Great Serpent stares at Gogo Yubari and bites her head off. After that happens, the Great Serpent chews up her corpse in a mish mash of blood that drips down into the swamp. Gogo Yubari’s spirit screams at fate for giving her this poor end and prepares to leave for the next world. Her final words in this universe were:

“Screw fate for giving me this raw deal! My name is ruined now!”

Well, we tragically have to say Sayonara to Gogo Yubari and this adventure. We were approximately three quarters into the winning path, and would have been favored to win had we survived or avoided this battle. Entering the Swamps of Primordial Mire was not necessary, as we already had enough allies to dispatch every one of the Dai Oni’s allies. At least we got farther than 13 of the 15 characters that I ran in this book. One of the two made it to the place of battle, but died to the Dai Oni Battle, while another barely managed to finish off Ikiru and win the adventure.

As for the life lesson that we can learn from this adventure? Don’t get too greedy, as trying to have everything can knock you down big time, no matter how small the chance might be for this. This is a lesson that keeps bashing me in the face when it comes to playing roguelikes, as I kept trying to save healing items and other powerful objects for key parts the run rather then liberally using them. As a result, I died far more often than I should have because luck decided to screw me over in the worst times.

So that’s enough of my cringeworthy lecture. I will be starting a new thread for my latest Fighting Fantasy find very soon. Thank you all for playing, and I hope to see you in my next thread when it is ready.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Gogo Yubari
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: -1 Initial Stamina = 20
LUCK: 6 Initial Luck = 8
NOTES:
Possesses Katana and Wakizashi, Battle Armour, Backpack, Bow, 3 Willow-leaf Arrows (2 STAMINA damage), 1 Bowel-raker (3 STAMINA damage), 1 Armour-piercer (2 STAMINA damage, required for use against certain opponents), 3 Humming Bulbs (1 STAMINA damage, makes a frightening noise), Headband of Shinmen, 115 Gold Pieces, Suit of Samurai Armour, Talisman of Fortuitous Circumstance (jade talisman shaped like a dragon), Ivory Horn
Won over Tatsu, Tiger, Ki-Rin, and the Golden Company to her cause
HONOUR: 7
PROVISIONS REMIANING: 6
SPECIAL SKILL: Kyujutsu
[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

Am disappointed that there weren't any Challenge of the Magi references in that bit.

Oh, and dying as well isn't great.

[Beroli]

Would it be acceptable for me to pick this up? I find getting this close and dying to bad dice rolls frustrating.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I’m fine with that if JourneymanN00b is.

[angelfromanotherpin]

If Beroli would prefer to keep playing, I'm willing to run.

[Queen of Swords]

I'd love to continue. We didn't die because of obviously poor choices, we died because of dice rolls.