The Gaming Den

Carry on.

Yeah, carry on.

You begin to see skeletons, complete or in fragments, littering the slopes on either side. Most of them are animal skeletons, but some are clearly human or humanoid. Wait! That one didn't move, did it? Surely, that hand didn't slide along the ground towards that wrist, then click into place? Will you make a run for the ruined farmhouse you can see ahead at the end of the valley or stand and face the rattling horde of human skeletons you now see gathering round you?

Fighting a “horde” in an open space is probably a death sentence while going for the ruined house gives us a chance to get them one on one.

Good point, go for the farmhouse.

I vote to stand and face the rattling horde of human skeletons, as we might be missing essential items if we have Waluigi make a run for it.

If the total rolled is less than, or equal to, your current STAMINA score, you make it safely to the ruined farmhouse. If the total is greater than your STAMINA score, the skeletons catch you out in the open and tear you to pieces in seconds. If you reach the farmhouse, you can at least defend yourself in the doorway as they come at you one by one. The skeletons have armed themselves with rusty tools that were lying around in the farmyard.

First SKELETON SKILL 6 STAMINA 5
Second SKELETON SKILL 6 STAMINA 4
Third SKELETON SKILL 6 STAMINA 4
Fourth SKELETON SKILL 6 STAMINA 5

Once you have defeated four skeletons, the remainder become strangely listless; their arms drop to their sides, their weapons clatter lo the ground, and they crumple in piles of bones on the cobbled yard. Will you search the ruined farmhouse, head north up the slope at the end of the valley or go back southwards?

Yeah, clearly an editorial bug here, since there's no mention of how many dice we need to roll for the STAMINA test. This is worse than missing the info for a SKILL or LUCK test, since STAMINA tests in FF books can vary from using 2 to 4 dice. I'd just use 3 here as compromise.

Dice roll = 6+5+3 = 14 (Success). Waluigu makes it to the farmhouse.

While it looks like Darth was on point regarding using the farmhouse to allow us to fight the horde 1 at a time, it was actually better to confront them, because then we'd actually have the chance to offer them something to avoid fighting them at all.

COMBAT LOG:
Skeleton#1 12, Waluigi 14. S1 is at 3.
S1 17, Waluigi 20. S1 is at 1.
S1 14, Waluigi 15. S1 is defeated.
Skeleton#2 17, Waluigi 14. Waluigi is at 14.
S2 13, Waluigi 15. S2 is at 2.
S2 12, Waluigi 16. S2 is defeated.
Skeleton#3 17, Waluigi 14. Waluigi is at 12.
S3 11, Waluigi 17. S3 is at 2.
S3 15, Waluigi 13. Waluigi is at 10.
S3 13, Waluigi 13. Tie.
S3 13, Waluigi 15. S3 is defeated.
Skeleton#4 10, Waluigi 15. S4 is at 3.
S4 14, Waluigi 16. S4 is at 1.
S4 14, Waluigi 16. S4 is defeated.

Waluigi survives but not without taking some damage, even against these weak opponents. Being a mediocre-SKILL PC sucks in FF.

Where do we go now? Do we search the farmhouse?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Waluigi
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 10/16
LUCK 7/11
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, Potion of Fortune, King Jonthane's letter (number '88'), large phial of sallow-seed oil, a needle and some thread, tinderbox and flint, lodestone, lamp, Crescent Moon Key (number '112')
Provisions: 1 (only restores 3 STAMINA per meal for rest of the adventure)
Gold: 8
Boons: Magic Mushroom (x1)
Notes: Visit the City Guard station at room 56 next morning to check if the murderer has been arrested. 2 of the 3 half-giants (not named Otus) working for 'A' loathe each other, and their love of money and their hostility towards each other make them less loyal to 'A' personally (reference from section 312).
[/spoiler]

Search the farmhouse.

I vote to eat the sole Provision that Waluigi has left, and search the ruined farmhouse.

Agreed with JourneymanN00b.

Waluigi restores his STAMINA to 13 with his last meal, then search the farmhouse:

You have disturbed the horror which has made the ruins its home and which is the cause of all the skeletons on the hillside. Once the chief servant of Arachnos, it grew too strong, so Arachnos posted it out here to guard the borders of his domain. But it has grown fat and lazy, and now it hates to have its rest disturbed. The Tantaflex uncoils its tentacles and oozes out of the basement towards where you are rummaging through a cupboard. A slight sucking noise alerts you, and you turn around to confront a creature out of your worst nightmares. Tentacles sprout from what should be its shoulders, and webbed feet squelch with mud from the basement pool. Piercing eyes glare at you from above a beak-like mouth. The tattered remnants of others' clothing cling to its body, and it is surrounded by the stench of its hoard of rotting flesh. By the time you turn from your looting, it has blocked the exits with its tentacles, so you will have to fight.

TANTAFLEX SKILL 10 STAMINA 12

In the unlikely event that you win and gain your freedom out of the farmhouse, you can either head north up the slope at the end of the valley or turn back and make your way southwards.

Great, just what we need. Injured, out of provisions, and trapped in combat with an opponent with higher SKILL than us and no reward for beating it other than survival.

There was a chance of us using the Truthstone on one of the skeletons and getting it to warn us to stay away from the farmhouse. Although even that would be a trap option, because the Truthstone would have been needed for something else more essential later.

Do we want to use our LUCK for this combat? (And considering it's currently at 7, do we also want to use our Potion of Fortune)? Or maybe use the Magic Mushroom to help us win the fight?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Waluigi
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 13/16
LUCK 7/11
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, Potion of Fortune, King Jonthane's letter (number '88'), large phial of sallow-seed oil, a needle and some thread, tinderbox and flint, lodestone, lamp, Crescent Moon Key (number '112')
Provisions: 0 (only restores 3 STAMINA per meal for rest of the adventure)
Gold: 8
Boons: Magic Mushroom (x1)
Notes: Visit the City Guard station at room 56 next morning to check if the murderer has been arrested. 2 of the 3 half-giants (not named Otus) working for 'A' loathe each other, and their love of money and their hostility towards each other make them less loyal to 'A' personally (reference from section 312).
[/spoiler]

Use the Potion of Fortune and then use Luck to increase damage dealt.

Ah, good idea, second that.

I vote to use the Potion of Fortune and use Luck to increase damage dealt as well.

Waluigi downs his Potion of Fortune, raising his LUCK to 12.

COMBAT LOG:
Tantaflex 19. Waluigi 14. Waluigi is at 11.
Tantaflex 19. Waluigi 16. Waluigi is at 9.
Tantaflex 17. Waluigi 15. Waluigi is at 7.
Tantaflex 18. Waluigi 13. Waluigi is at 5.
Tantaflex 17. Waluigi 15. Waluigi is at 3.
Tantaflex 15. Waluigi 16. Luck test (automatic success due to 12 LUCK). Tentaflex is at 8.
Tantaflex 15. Waluigi 17. Luck test roll = 9 (Lucky). Tentaflex is at 4.
Tantaflex 17. Waluigi 17. Tie.
Tantaflex 16. Waluigi 18. Luck test roll = 7 (Lucky). Tentaflex is defeated!

Waluigi barely hangs on to his life with his STAMINA now at 3.

Do we head north up the slope now, or turn back south?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Waluigi
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 3/16
LUCK 9/11
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, King Jonthane's letter (number '88'), large phial of sallow-seed oil, a needle and some thread, tinderbox and flint, lodestone, lamp, Crescent Moon Key (number '112')
Provisions: 0 (only restores 3 STAMINA per meal for rest of the adventure)
Gold: 8
Boons: Magic Mushroom (x1)
Notes: Visit the City Guard station at room 56 next morning to check if the murderer has been arrested. 2 of the 3 half-giants (not named Otus) working for 'A' loathe each other, and their love of money and their hostility towards each other make them less loyal to 'A' personally (reference from section 312).
[/spoiler]

I vote to head north up the slope, as turning back does not seem to be a good idea.

Yes, keep heading north.

The slope going north beyond the farmhouse turns out to be steeper than it looked from a distance, and it is covered with loose stones and slate. You keep causing little avalanches on your way up and your hands are soon covered in scratches. At one point you slide several metres back down the siope and you are forced to pause, gathering your strength. Will you give up your attempt and go back down the slope or will you carry on?

Yet another "do you want to turn back" option...

I vote to carry on once again.

Carry on

Carry on.

Your struggle up the slope costs you 1 STAMINA point in cuts and bruises. When you reach the top, you find that this is just the first in a series of ridges extending to the north like the bow-waves of a boat. You have committed yourself to an arduous journey. You must eat one meal from your Provisions here, just to keep your strength up, but it does not restore any STAMINA points.

On each of the next two days, as you struggle northwards and slightly to the west, following the contours of the land, you will have a hostile encounter. Roll one dice twice to find out from the list below what you must fight.

1 GARK SKILL 7 STAMINA 11
2 WILD BOAR SKILL 6 STAMINA 5
3 BRISTLE BEAST SKILL 5 STAMINA 7
4 HILL GIANT SKILL 9 STAMINA 11
5. HARRUN SKILL 6 STAMINA 7
6, GOBLIN SKILL 6 STAMINA 6

If you survive all the hazards, turn to 69.

And we are down to 2 STAMINA points. We're also out of meals. If this were a Keith Martin book, we'd have died due to not being able to eat when we are told to. Fortunately, Waterfield made no mention of such rules of losing STAMINA when unable to eat, so we still barely hang on by a thread.

Random encounter die roll = 6. We encounter a goblin. At least this is one of our better rolls, with a relatively weak enemies.

Still we are 1 hit away from death. Do we use our LUCK for this combat? Or our last boon? Or trust to our natural luck on the dice?

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Waluigi
SKILL 9/9
STAMINA 2/16
LUCK 9/11
Equipment: Sword, leather armour, King Jonthane's letter (number '88'), large phial of sallow-seed oil, a needle and some thread, tinderbox and flint, lodestone, lamp, Crescent Moon Key (number '112')
Provisions: 0 (only restores 3 STAMINA per meal for rest of the adventure)
Gold: 8
Boons: Magic Mushroom (x1)
Notes: Visit the City Guard station at room 56 next morning to check if the murderer has been arrested. 2 of the 3 half-giants (not named Otus) working for 'A' loathe each other, and their love of money and their hostility towards each other make them less loyal to 'A' personally (reference from section 312).
[/spoiler]

I vote to use Luck to reduce any damage we take.

Agreed. Too bad we can't eat the goblin even if we win.

I’d just use the mushroom, honestly.