Cover
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[/spoiler]Alright, everyone. Last night, I received the copy of Fighting Fantasy book #33 that I ordered through international channels some time ago. Together with the fact that I have fully recovered from my covid tribulation, I am officially back in action and ready to resume hosting Let’s Plays for you folks! And what better way to get back in the game by running another fairly obscure and difficult title? Anyone brave enough to join our attempt to conquer this tale is welcome. The plan is to update this series on a twice per day basis, with the exception of Sundays, where I will try to update more frequently on these days. However, my work duties will probably cause adjustments to this proposed schedule, since covid left me with a sizable backlog of tasks that I need to clear. Also, I will be out of town and not have access to the Internet this weekend due to family issues, so progress is going to start off at a rather slow pace.
Preface
About Your Star SystemBeneath the Dome of Marvels, in the legendary vaults of Aarok, the treacherous L’Bastin is cloning an army of terrifying superwarriors, to conquer the cosmos. And only YOU, Sky Lord Jang Mistral, élite solar trooper, special agent – and four-armed fighter! – from the sixteenth aeon, can stop him.
Armed with a laser sword and pistol, electro-javelin and spiked buckler, you must journey into the vaults and defeat the evil mastermind. But beware! L’Bastin has set many traps. Monsters, mutants and space brigands lie in wait for the unwary, and success is by no means certain. If you fail, millions will die; if you succeed, you will win a prize almost beyond your wildest dreams!
Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need to embark on this thrilling adventure, which is complete with its elaborate combat system and a score sheet to record your gains and losses.
Many dangers lie ahead and your success is by no means certain. YOU decide which routes to follow, which dangers to risk and which adversaries to fight.
Your AbilitiesYou are Sky Lord Jang Mistral, élite solar trooper, special agent – and four-armed humanoid warrior – from the sixteenth aeon.
Your home planet, Ensulina, is just one of countless thousands of worlds inhabiting the famous Holo Faluksh star chain – a dazzling spray of more than one hundred thousand live stars and innumerable planetoids, bordering the Berenices Supergalaxy. Some of these worlds, whether baking in the wild solar flares of near-by suns or wandering the bitterly cold galactic wastes, are only lifeless husks. These are of little value to anyone except the ruthless galactic pirates and space desperadoes who use them for their evil purposes. Yet there exist many other worlds less daunting: with kinder climates and hospitable environments; on many of these a wondrously diverse array of life-forms have established themselves.
Your own race, the Ensulvars, is a blood-mix of two ancient nations: the dawn-time Enzuls, the planet’s original inhabitants, and the Ivars, a war clan from Iajax-Green. The Ivars invaded Ensulina during the second aeon, at first defeating and later mixing into the more populous Enzul race. The resulting nation of grey-eyed, four-armed humanoids retained the best traits of their ancestors: the culture and wisdom of the Enzuls, and the courage of the Ivars. As a result, they have been respected and admired by the inhabitants of many other planets in the star system (particularly the two-armed humanoids!) and enjoyed a peaceful existence for many years.
During the twelfth aeon, however, a vast galactic war suddenly broke out: two powerful races, the Fethps (greedy, two-headed reptiloids) and the Deik (large purple molluscoids of unknown origins), always deadly rivals, had secretly amassed mighty armies and space fleets. Simultaneously their armadas stormed across the galaxy at each other, destroying or conquering the planets in their path. The war raged for thousands of years, during which time Ensulina was conquered by the merciless Deik. The Ensulvars were enslaved and forced to produce war machinery for their captors.
Only gradually, following wave upon wave of murderous assaults on each other, did the strength of the Deik and Fethps begin to wane. In the thirteenth aeon the enslaved races of thousands of worlds were sparked to revolution. Led by Ari Skyfarer, a human from Arbitrakt, they rapidly ousted their cruel masters and, employing the weaponry they had previously been forced to build, finally drove both the Deik and Fethps from the star system.
The end of the war signaled the beginning of the Long Peace which has lasted to this day. Ari Skyfarer, the greatest galactic hero, was crowned first Grand Emperor and, in order to maintain a lasting peace, the Council of Star Kings was formed. The council, whose members include the kings of many worlds (including your own King Vaax), usually meets every five hundred days at the Grand Emperor’s palace on Arbitrakt. There, the council tries to resolve peacefully any disputes between its member planets and reaffirms its intention to defend its planets from alien threats, galactic pirates and intergalactic invaders. The latter functions are performed by the Emperor’s Imperial Guard, or by the heroic solar troopers – of whom you are a member.
On Ensulina, the title of ‘lord’ is not a birthright, but must be earned in some way. It was your exceptional skill and courage shown when fighting in the ranks of the solar troopers which earned you your first lordship title – that of a Knight of Ensulina – when you were only twenty years old. Since that time your fellow peers, the lords of Ensulina, have often employed you as a special agent, performing hazardous and extremely secret missions to ensure the security of Ensulina and the Friendly Worlds. Because of your accomplishments, you have been honoured with further titles – the latest, that of Sky Baron, being awarded after capturing the murderous Olaf Tharkin and his band of solar cutthroats.
But now you have been summoned to appear before King Vaax and your fellow lords, to be briefed on a new mission: the most perilous, most challenging – and most unusual – adventure of your career. Failure will bring disaster for Ensulina; success will bring you a treasure beyond your wildest dreams ...
However, before you can receive details of your mission, you must learn how to use your special skills and weapons and your starship, which will assist you during the course of your adventure. You will also require two dice, a pencil and an eraser, to record your scores and equipment gained along the way.
For the purposes of this thread, the Adventure Sheet will be hand-made and will be periodically displayed.Your abilities to fight, withstand damage and escape from tricky situations are determined by your SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK points. On the Adventure Sheet on pages 18-19 you will see sections where these attributes are to be recorded. They are obtained as follows:
Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. Enter this total as your SKILL.
Roll two dice. Add 12 to the result. Enter this total as your STAMINA score. If your STAMINA ever reaches zero, then you have been killed.
Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. Enter this total as your LUCK.
Normally, I would make the appropriate rolls and modifications to generate our hero’s Skill, Stamina, and Luck. However, players with maximum stats will already have a difficult time attempting to successfully complete this adventure. Because I want us to have a rewarding experience in this Let’s Play, I will set our hero’s initial scores to the maximum allowed values. Our hero thus starts with the following scores:
SKILL: 12
STAMINA: 24
LUCK: 12
Using Luck
Restoring StaminaFrom time to time you will be called upon to Test your Luck. When this occurs, roll two dice. If the result is less than or equal to your current LUCK score, then you have been Lucky. If the result exceeds your current LUCK score, then you have been Unlucky. Each time you Test your Luck, you must deduct 1 point from your current LUCK score. Thus the more you use your LUCK, the riskier it becomes. LUCK points may sometimes be restored (you will be told in the relevant paragraph when this is so), but may never exceed your Initial score.
Restoring SkillDuring the course of your adventure, you are almost certain to lose STAMINA points. Generally, you may recover these by consuming Provision Tablets at any time other than when engaged in combat or other hostilities. You begin your adventure with 10 Provision Tablets – list these on your Adventure Sheet. For each tablet you consume, you will recover 4 points of STAMINA. Note, however, that your STAMINA may never exceed its Initial score.
MoneyThere will be occasions during the adventure when you may lose SKILL points, and other occasions when you may gain SKILL points. However, your SKILL may never exceed its Initial value.
CombatYou also begin your adventure with 10 credits, the most common galactic currency. Add these to your Adventure Sheet.
Personal CombatDuring the course of your adventure you will probably be required to fight in two distinctly different sorts of battles, known as Personal Combat and Combat-Weapon Clashes.
Using Luck in CombatThe rules for Personal Combat are much the same as in other Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, but with a few minor differences to keep in mind. The basic rules of combat are:
1. Combat is simultaneous. Individual combat is conducted as a series of rounds, in which one combatant will inflict damage on the other.
2. Roll two dice and add your opponent’s SKILL score to the roll. This total is your opponent’s Attack Strength.
3. Roll two dice again and add your SKILL score to the roll. This total is your Attack Strength.
4. If your opponent’s Attack Strength is greater than yours, the opponent has inflicted damage upon you: deduct 2 points from your STAMINA.
5. If your Attack Strength is greater than your opponent’s, you have inflicted damage upon your opponent: deduct 2 points from your opponent’s STAMINA.
6. If both Attack Strengths are equal, both attacks have missed. Start the next combat round from step 2 above.
7. Continue this combat until either your opponent’s or your own STAMINA is reduced to zero (death).
In cases where you are instructed to fight more than one opponent, fight only the first listed. If you defeat this opponent, go on to fight the second listed, and so on.
For the purposes of this Let’s Play, the attack rounds will be resolved all at once. I will generally only consider using Luck in battles if the character has less than 7 Stamina points. For such battles, I will ask whether Luck should be used to improve the odds of winning the fight.On certain pages of the book you will be told to Test your Luck, and you will find out the consequences of being Lucky or Unlucky. However, in personal combat (but not in combat-weapon clashes), you always have the option of using your LUCK either to inflict a more serious wound on an opponent you have just wounded, or to minimize the effects of a wound you have just received.
If you have just wounded your opponent, you may Test your Luck as described above. If you are Lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound and may subtract an extra 2 points from its STAMINA score. If you are Unlucky, however, the wound turns out to be a mere graze and you must restore 1 point to your opponent’s STAMINA (i.e. instead of scoring the normal 2 points of damage, you have now scored only 1).
If your opponent has just wounded you, you may Test your Luck to try to minimize the wound. If you are Lucky, you have managed to avoid the full force of the blow: restore 1 STAMINA point (i.e. instead of losing 2 points, you lose only 1). If you are Unlucky, you have taken a more serious wound and must subtract 1 extra STAMINA point.
Remember that you must subtract 1 point from your LUCK score each time you Test your Luck.
Combat-Weapon Clashes
Based on the same reasoning for providing our hero the maximum allowed value for Skill, Stamina, and Luck, our hero will start out with an initial RATING score of 4.When you fight an opponent who has a RATING and numbers for LASERS and SHIELDS listed in the text, then you are involved in a Combat-Weapon Clash. Unlike Personal Combat, these encounters usually involve fighting between sophisticated combat vehicles, one of which is always piloted by yourself.
You have already attained a good proficiency, or RATING, in piloting many combat vehicles. Roll one die to determine your RATING; if you roll 1, 2 or 3 your RATING equals 3; if you roll 4, 5 or 6 your RATING equals 4. Then enter the result in the RATING box on your Adventure Sheet.
The basic rules for Combat-Weapon Clashes are:
1. Combat-Weapon Clashes, unlike Personal Combat, are not simultaneous. To determine which craft (yours or your opponent’s) will fire first, compare your RATING to your opponent’s RATING. (Your RATING will not be given in the text, of course; refer each time to your Adventure Sheet.) If your RATING number is greater than your opponent’s, you will shoot first; otherwise, your opponent will shoot first. The one who fires first in combat is the Attacker, the other is the Defender.
2. Roll one die. If the result is less than or equal to the number of LASERS on the Attacker’s combat weapon, he has scored a hit: deduct 2 SHIELDS from the Defender’s combat weapon.
3. Now the Defender retaliates. Roll one die again. If the result is less than the number of LASERS on the Defender’s craft, he has scored a hit: deduct 2 SHIELDS from the Attacker’s combat weapon.
4. Continue the combat from step 2 above, until either your or your opponent’s SHIELDS are reduced to zero (death).
5. If you win the combat, then you may reinstate the SHIELDS of your combat weapon to their value before the combat began, since the energy banks quickly regenerate after a combat. In addition, if your opponent’s RATING number was greater than your own RATING, you may increase your RATING by 1 point.
At the beginning of your adventure, you are equipped with a starship, the Starspray. A plan of the Starspray is shown on your Space Combat Sheet on pages 20-21. Whenever you are involved in a Combat-Weapon Clash using the Starspray, you may use the starship plan to record hits against your ship (simply cross off the SHIELD boxes to record hits). Then, if you win the combat, you may return your SHIELDS to their strength before the combat began by simply erasing the crosses.
For the purpose of this Let’s Play, the Space Combat Sheet will be hand-made and will be periodically displayed. The Starspray has an initial LASERS number of 4 and an initial SHIELDS number of 12.
Please keep all spoilers covered out of respect to those of us who want to have a blind experience. Any ties will be broken by me based on my personal instincts.
Just like my Crypt of the Sorcerer Let’s Play, our hero will start with 6 resurrections. Upon dying, our hero will use a resurrection to be sent back to the point where the first critical mistake was made in order to make the adventure winnable once more. The Adventure Sheet will also be reverted to what it was at that point in the story upon use of a resurrection. This makes resurrections more powerful than rewinds employed in several previous Let’s Plays.
Mission Background
Turn to paragraph 1The name ‘L’Bastin’, even if only whispered, would certainly cause the faces of the Ensulvar palace staff to flush with anger. From poor King Vaax, however, it would bring an uncontrollable outburst of such ferocity that the employment of a large hypodermic tranquillizer might well be advisable, for his own well-being!
Of course, it has not always been like this. In fact there was a time when L’Bastin, the now infamous galactic renegade and scourge of Ensulina, had enjoyed a much more friendly relationship with your king. In those days, he had occupied a position of authority and prestige. As Vaax’ major-domo, his responsibilities had included the employment and supervision of the king’s entire household staff – a job which he handled with due skill and diligence for a number of years.
But then he took up a new hobby – cybernetics and genetic engineering – and his attitude changed drastically. In order to pursue his leisure-time activity, L’Bastin had to build a laboratory and equip it with many varieties of cloning, fusing and transforming hardware, and then buy important scientific publications. Of course, all of this required a large amount of money. After running up sizable debts, L’Bastin approached King Vaax and begged for an increase in his modest wage; following years of faithful service, he considered that he had earned it. The artful Vaax, however, steadfastly refused, claiming that, in the interests of the national economy, virtually no one in Ensulina had been allowed a pay rise for over two hundred years. To grant one to L’Bastin, he argued, ‘could set a dangerous precedent, which would undermine the entire economy, to the mutual disbenefit of all’.
L’Bastin, who believed that these were merely the words of a stingy ruler, was infuriated. The economy, as everyone well knew, had never been in better shape! In retaliation, the crafty courtier devised a scheme whereby he could obtain the money he needed for his creditors while simultaneously causing his tight-fisted monarch some inconvenience. The scheme went thus: on the pretext of maintaining exceptionally high standards of behavior among the palace catering staff, L’Bastin began dismissing the stewards for trivial misdemeanours. Upon receiving their marching orders, these unfortunates were immediately escorted from the premises and informed that, if they were ever to return, they would face a speedy execution! In their place, the wily L’Bastin substituted creations from his own laboratory; these obliged their master faithfully by investing their weekly wages with him!
After his initial successes with the stewards, L’Bastin set about dealing with the other palace staff with equal fervour. The fact that many of his creations resembled dismissed staff was no mere coincidence, and within a surprisingly short space of time he was receiving pay packets from chefs, chauffeurs, guards, groundsmen, and even the king’s personal advisers and henchmen, all without arousing the least suspicion.
With his supplementary income thus assured, L’Bastin got himself released from debt. For a while he contented himself with engineering whimsical creatures for his own amusement: the spider-fly and the gigantic fanged armadillo-bodied rhinoceros in particular were sources of great satisfaction to him! Indeed, at that time the chambers beneath his manor-house fairly teemed with bizarre livestock. Eventually, however, L’Bastin grew dissatisfied. The ultimate, the most rewarding experience, he concluded, could be derived only from the creation of the perfect life-form – whatever that was. He grew determined to find out, although accomplishing the task would consume a considerable amount of money, and require the acquisition of some extremely sophisticated equipment indeed ...
Purchasing a brand-new metamorphosal hydrolizer ‘special’ required an enormous financial outlay – even more than his dishonest tactics had afforded him thus far. Another money-making scheme was required: L’Bastin ordered one of his henchmen to pilfer and then pawn a number of palace artworks. Several antique porcelain vases were first to go, followed by a crystal statuette (the personal property of the king), and a cosmoscope entitled ‘Birth of a Star’. Since by now there were few ‘reals’ left among the palace staff, L’Bastin believed that the thefts would go unnoticed. And they would have, too, if he had chosen someone other than his creation, Ben Frumpet, to carry out the crime.
One day, when Ben was in a local pawnbroker’s establishment, haggling over a suitable price for the stolen cosmoscope, in walked the real Ben Frumpet, his identical namesake. (The real Frumpet, one-time head chef, had been unemployed since his dismissal from the palace, and had gone to the broker to hock his gold watch.) The real Frumpet suddenly twigged the situation and, after a brief protest, he stunned his facsimile and dragged it off to the local constabulary.
Thus, L’Bastin’s conniving schemes were finally exposed; his henchmen were weeded out and the original staff reinstated. For his crimes, the king punished L’Bastin severely. After a not-too-lengthy trial, Vaax sacked L’Bastin from his post, ordering his laboratory to be demolished and his manor-house confiscated. The former major-domo was to be thrown into the streets!
But L’Bastin, seething with anger, had other ideas. Clearly, he would soon be forced to leave Ensulina to continue his work – but first he planned a final mordant joke upon the king, now his sworn enemy! Disguising himself as a famous cosmetic surgeon, L’Bastin visited the king’s wife, Broomhilda, offering her ‘beautifying treatment’ free of charge; naturally, Broomhilda accepted. Contrary to his promised beautification, however, the despicable mastermind played an awful prank upon her: while she was upon the operating table, he carried out certain ‘modifications’ to her, extending her nose by ten inches, enlarging her eyes to the size of small saucers and discolouring them (one red, one green) and, worst of all, grafting a large pineapple to her scalp (sadly, a process not entirely reversible!). This cruel act was discovered only when the bandages were removed a week later – and by then L’Bastin had fled the planet.
Despite the generous reward offered for his capture, L’Bastin has remained hidden for years. During the past week, however, a bounty hunter has landed, bringing startling news to Ensulina. He claims to have tracked L’Bastin to Aarok, a man-built fortress-world orbiting the galactic rim. Aarok was abandoned by its makers centuries ago, following a massive radiation spill. Since then it has become the abode of dreadful galactic cut-throats and varieties of abhorrent creatures, as well as many eccentric recluses. The bounty hunter captured and interrogated a mutant, obtaining from it the following information: deep within the vaults of Aarok, L’Bastin has long been experimenting on the local livestock, breeding and refining their better traits, until recently he developed the ‘perfect’ life-form he sought. Rumours say that they are terrifying dog-headed superwarriors with brutal strength and electrifying speed, calling themselves ‘Prefectas’. L’Bastin is busily cloning an army of them, which he will unleash upon the galaxy. Particularly harsh treatment is planned for King Vaax and the Ensulvars!
Fortress Aarok bristles with automatic missiles, lasers and pulsers, and is surrounded by energy shields and vacuum mines: at present it is impregnable to invasion by a large force. But, as the bounty hunter has proved, a solitary craft may be able to pass through the screens, and land, undetected. Once down, this lone invader would need to destroy the planet’s defence centre, located beneath the Dome of Marvels, deep within the planet’s interior. Only by this means would an invasion fleet be able to land safely. The task ahead is fraught with danger, and only Ensulina’s most skilful agent – you – will have any chance of succeeding. Knowing that failure may cost billions of lives, still you have accepted the mission. If you succeed, however, the fabulous man-built world will at last be decontaminated and repopulated – and you will be crowned its sovereign ruler!
Now the time has come for you to leave your home planet, Ensulina, and travel to distant Aarok in your starship.
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[/spoiler]After a short rest, you gather your equipment and board your spaceship, the Starspray, where you begin a quick, pre-programmed countdown sequence. Ten, nine ... the energy banks hum; eight, seven, six ... thrusters ignite, your seat judders; five, four, three ... pulsers roar, a loudspeaker announces: ‘Dimension hop imminent!’, two, one ... Bang! Your home planet disappears from the vidi-screen; the sky is black and starless. You have entered a warp-lane. From this lane, you must steer the Starspray into another dimension: one more suitable for rapid galactic travel to Aarok. Your best opportunities are probably time–space travel in the 4th dimension, or light–space travel in the 6th dimension. Each has advantages over the other; each also has its dangers. Will you time-travel (turn to 164), or light-travel (turn to 15)?
Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PDT to guarantee that they will be counted.
Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Jang Mistral
SKILL: 12 Initial Skill = 12
STAMINA: 24 Initial Stamina = 24
LUCK: 12 Initial Luck = 12
RATING: 4
CREDITS: 10 Initial = 10
OXYGEN SUPPLY POINTS: 10 Initial = 10
NOTES AND ITEMS:
10 Provision Tablets
RESURRECTIONS: 6[/spoiler]
Space Combat Sheet:
[spoiler]STARSHIP: STARSPRAY
DATA: 4 HIGH POWER LASERS L
12 FORCE SHIELD PODS S
YOUR VEHICLES:
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