[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 31 - Battleblade Warrior

[Thaluikhain]

Sneak past.

[Queen of Swords]

Try to find a detour.

[SGamerz]

Sneak.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes counted, Alexandros the Third will try to sneak past it, as that option won over walking along the ridge in search of a detour by a 3-1 vote.

207
You slip carefully down the steep slope, but your feet dislodge small stones, which bounce noisily down ahead of you. The Triceratops stops eating and lumbers towards you with a bellow.

TRICERATOPS SKILL 12 STAMINA 18

The Triceratops has two attacks; treat the second attack as if you were being attacked by a second opponent with the same SKILL score. If you defeat the creature, turn to 76.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

The fight:
[spoiler]Round 1: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 22, Player Attack Strength: 20, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 18;
Triceratops Stamina: 18, Player Stamina: 18
Round 2: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 12, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 21;
Triceratops Stamina: 18, Player Stamina: 14
Round 3: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 16, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 17;
Triceratops Stamina: 18, Player Stamina: 10
Round 4: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 21, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 21;
Triceratops Stamina: 16, Player Stamina: 10
Round 5: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 23, Player Attack Strength: 19, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 18;
Triceratops Stamina: 16, Player Stamina: 8
Round 6: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 14, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 14;
Triceratops Stamina: 16, Player Stamina: 6[spoiler]

All right folks, so the fight has gone to the point where the Triceratops has 16 Stamina, and Alexandros the Third has 6 Stamina. Should Luck be used for the rest of the fight? If so, should it be used to reduce the damage that our hero takes or to inflict additional damage?

The first choice to receive two votes (or two votes over all other choices) will be used to resolve the rest of the Triceratops battle. If no choice has a winning margin before 11:00 AM PDT, I will make the choice based on which votes are cast.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Alexandros the Third
SKILL: 9 Initial Skill = 9
STAMINA: 6 Initial Stamina = 22
LUCK: 8 Initial Luck = 10
ITEMS OR EQUIPMENT CARRIED:
Cloak
Hunting-knife
Sword
Rucksack
Armour
Bow and 1 silvered arrow
Bottle of healing balm (turn to 42 to use it)
SPECIAL ITEMS:
None
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 3
Note: Four Lizard Men escaped from the section 284 ambush
BOONS:
2 Rewinds
2 Restorations[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

Argh, SK 12 opponent. I think we're screwed anyway even if we use LUCK, but why not, might as well try it. Use LUCK for extra damage and reduce damage, whichever is relevant depending on the result of the dice.

If we die to this, can we use a rewind instead of a restore? I see no purpose in trying this fight multiple times with our SKILL level.

[Thaluikhain]

I agree with SGamerz on both points.

[JourneymanN00b]

Sure, I can make an exception for this particular case and have us use a rewind instead of a restoration. This battle was one of the reasons why I offered curare darts as a boon in order to avoid such a scenario.

Luck will be used in this battle to improve our hero’s chances of winning.

The fight, continued:
[spoiler]Round 7: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 21, Player Attack Strength: 19, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 16;
Luck Roll: 6, Player is Lucky and only takes 1 damage
Triceratops Stamina: 16, Player Stamina: 5, Player Luck: 7
Round 8: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 15, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 16;
Luck Roll: 3, Player is Lucky and only takes 1 damage from the first hit
Triceratops Stamina: 16, Player Stamina: 2, Player Luck: 6
Round 9: Triceratops First Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 15, Triceratops Second Attack Strength: 20;
Triceratops Stamina: 16, Player Stamina: -2[spoiler]

To nobody’s surprise, Alexandros the Third has been killed. So we have two rewinds to spend, which means that we can either use a single rewind to go back to section 257, or use both rewinds to go back to section 377.

Please vote on which section to rewind back to and what decision to take before 1:00 PM PDT to guarantee that it will be counted.

I also have a special request to ask from this community involving a future book that I could possibly run: Does anyone have a copy of Sky Lord (Book #33)?

I am considering selecting it for my next Let’s Play, but I am having trouble finding a complete copy, as no library near me has it in stock in either a physical or ebook format. Because of my bout with Covid and the expenses that I have incurred to deal with it, I am not able to buy a copy right now, and any publicly available copy online has sections 31-35 missing. If there is anyone who has a copy and is either willing to show me the sections in question at least (as well as any accompanying pictures), then I would be willing to run the book.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Alexandros the Third
SKILL: 9 Initial Skill = 9
STAMINA: -2 Initial Stamina = 22
LUCK: 6 Initial Luck = 10
ITEMS OR EQUIPMENT CARRIED:
Cloak
Hunting-knife
Sword
Rucksack
Armour
Bow and 1 silvered arrow
Bottle of healing balm (turn to 42 to use it)
SPECIAL ITEMS:
None
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 3
Note: Four Lizard Men escaped from the section 284 ambush
BOONS:
2 Rewinds
2 Restorations[/spoiler]

[Beroli]

One rewind, back to 257, and detour.

[JourneymanN00b]

Vote registered, Alexandros the Third will use a single rewind to send him back to section 257, and he will walk along the ridge in search of a detour.

327
The ridge circles around the depression, heading for a thick clump of trees. The first trees are young saplings, but soon you come to larger, thick-trunked trees. You brush against one of them, and almost leap out of your skin as it moves and an enormous Tyrannosaurus Rex Rises from among the trees! Your heart sinks into your boots. What can you do? Roll two dice. If you roll higher than your SKILL score, you must attack the creature (turn to 132). If you roll less than or equal to your SKILL score, you may be able to try something else (turn to 81).

Rolling the dice yielded a 12, which is higher than Alexandros the Third’s Skill score.

132
The Tyrannosaurus Rex is upon you! In vain you try to fend off the cruel snapping jaws, but no matter how hard you fence you cannot win. Soon you will know what few others have known – the inside of a Tyrannosaurus Rex! Your adventure is over.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Ooof, talk about bad luck. The second and last rewind will take Alexandros the Third back to section 257 again, and he will again walk along the ridge in search of a detour. Rolling the dice this time on section 327 yielded a 6, which is less than Alexandros the Third’s Skill.

81
Being not careful not to trip over the loose rocks, you lead the raging Tyrannosaurus Rex back to the edge of the ridge. If you can get him there before he attacks you, he should distract the Triceratops! As you reach the edge he makes one final lunge for you. Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 34. If you are Unlucky, turn to 132.

The Luck roll yielded a 10, meaning that Alexandros the Third was Unlucky. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is once again upon him and proceeds to slaughter our hero once more.

Bonus death entry:
Alexandros the Third curses himself for his horrible luck and stupidity as the Tyrannosaurus Rex masticates him into a bloody pulp. Why, oh why, could he not get a break here? Whatever mistake he made in his past to deserve this, Alexandros the Third would have been completely willing to atone for it threefold. Of all of the ways for his quest to end, this was by far the most pathetic. Regret and shame fill him as Alexandros the Third meets a painful end inside the Tyrannosaurus Rex ... he had failed his mother, Telak, and Vymorna. The Lizard King and his servants will soon doom the entire region of Southern Allansia. With one last desperate will of the mind, Alexandros the Third releases his soul and leaves his body to be digested by the Tyrannosaurus Rex. As his soul zooms to the next world, he prays that his next incarnation would have a better life.

That has got to hurt. I am honestly surprised that the players wanted to try to sneak past the Triceratops, as the book gave clear hints that this was not a good idea with the words “you can’t really hope to sneak past it”. Trying such a risky move does not usually go well in Fighting Fantasy adventures. As it turns out, we chose the medium difficulty by choosing to sneak away before dawn. The easiest route was by far to steal a boat, as that would have allowed our hero to skip quite a few hard encounters, including the dinosaur scenario. Even so, taking a couple of curare darts would have greatly helped our chances of survival against the Triceratops, and I was also surprised nobody went for that.

The life lesson here is to trust your instincts and to take your starting choices rather seriously. That is how you get a rewarding life and maximize your chances in fulfilling your goals, as doing that allowed me to excel in college.

Now that we have the cringeworthy lecture out of the way, I have a rather sad announcement to make. I am actually going to withdraw from hosting Let’s Plays for a while, as my Covid symptoms are still not fully gone, especially my spleen pain. I will need to spend all of my time trying to prevent further complications from developing, and also to arrange a way to resume the work projects that were put on hold from the damned virus. By my count, I have done 11 Let's Plays since the end of last year, so I also think now is a time to take a break from hosting.

As I said in the previous post, I am looking for the content of sections 31-35 of the Sky Lord book (Book #33), and would highly appreciate anyone who could show me the wording for these sections, as well as the sections that each of them points to. If anyone is able to provide me with this missing content, then I will run the book as my next Let’s Play. If not, then this will be my retirement, as covid has put me in a serious financial corner, and I will not be able to get a copy for a rather long time. Thank you all for playing, and I appreciate how good this community has been when it comes to carrying out Fighting Fantasy Let’s Plays.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Alexandros the Third
SKILL: 9 Initial Skill = 9
STAMINA: 20 Initial Stamina = 22
LUCK: 7 Initial Luck = 10
ITEMS OR EQUIPMENT CARRIED:
Cloak
Hunting-knife
Sword
Rucksack
Armour
Bow and 1 silvered arrow
Bottle of healing balm (turn to 42 to use it)
SPECIAL ITEMS:
None
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 3
Note: Four Lizard Men escaped from the section 284 ambush
BOONS:
2 Restorations[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

Alas, Sky Lord is the one book that I actually managed to misplace, as I mentioned in an old topic (one of the 5 books in the old Puffin series that I don't currently own). Really unfortunate, I only ever had one go at it and never went back to it again, so I was wondering whether I'd actually bring myself to finally finish it this time, over a decade later.

[JourneymanN00b]

Alas, Sky Lord is the one book that I actually managed to misplace, as I mentioned in an old topic (one of the 5 books in the old Puffin series that I don't currently own). Really unfortunate, I only ever had one go at it and never went back to it again, so I was wondering whether I'd actually bring myself to finally finish it this time, over a decade later.

Ooof, that is bad luck. Thanks for trying to help.

Also hope your covid recovery is going better than mine is. I am still trying to pick up the health pieces.