Fighting Fantasy #14 - Temple of Terror

Title: Temple of Terror

Author: Ian Livingstone

Illustrators: Christos Achilleos (cover), Bill Houston (interior)

Published: 1985

Level of previous knowledge: I remember having to collect little dragon miniatures along the way or fail the quest (well, it’s Ian Livingstone after all). Also that there are a couple of different ways to get to the dungeon in the first place. Oh and who could forget the happy little fellow, the Messenger of Death…

Plot summary: A rather nasty chap called Malbordus was brought up by dark elves in Darkwood Forest, so of course has grown up to be a complete sociopath. For his eighteenth birthday he wanted five dragons, and found out that if he could retrieve the dragon artefacts from the lost city of Vatos, his wish would come true. The wizard Yaztromo says it’s unlikely that Malbordus would use such pets for anything other than evil, so it’s down to the brave warriors of Stonebridge to step up and explore Vatos en masse in order to find the artefacts before Malbordus does. No? OK, I’ll go by myself then.

Rules: Standard rules with no potion, but a box for Spells on the adventure sheet.

 

Attempt #1

Stats rolled: SKILL 10, STAMINA 18, LUCK 7

Following Yaztromo directly through the Forest of Doom, I questioned how he could pass through with so little difficulty, given the fate that so many adventurers met here in the past. Yaztromo remarked that the creatures of the forest don’t dare mess with him, and it was actually more dangerous going around the perimeter of the forest as the wild hill men out there didn’t have any respect whatsoever. Wondering why Yaztromo didn’t just find the darn hammer parts himself instead of sending adventurers to die in the Forest of Doom, I eventually arrived at his tower, where Yaztromo offered to teach me a few spells before I embarked on my journey. Picking spells that seemed like they would be useful in a deserty ancient city kind of environment (Create Water, Fire, Read Symbols and Open Door) I was soon on my way, led for the first stage of my trip by the wizard’s pet crow, which I named Vel.

I was led to a bridge where some unsavoury types were loading a barge which looked far too small to accommodate me, so I decided on the other option, crossing the bridge and heading for the desert overland. Vel the crow didn’t stick around and callously abandoned me at this point, so I headed vaguely south and hoped for the best. Heading towards some smoke rising a short distance away, I arrived just in time to witness a couple of dark elves setting fire to a hut with flaming arrows, flushing out their quarry and filling him with more arrows. I had no idea who their victim was but this seemed a bit mean so I taught them a lesson they forgot instantly, because they were dead. A quick rummage earned me two gold pieces and a bow, which I thought might be useful if that damn crow ever showed up again.

Heading onward through the scrubland I came to an odd black patch of ground that smelled of decay, in the middle of which sat a medallion with ‘M’ inscribed on it. Retrieving the item was not an appealing prospect and it all seemed like a trap laid for the stupid, so I ignored it and continued on. After an uneventful night I was attacked by a harpy, which failed in its attempt to mesmerise me with its piercing cry and met a swift end at the edge of my sword. Later in the morning a giant eagle arrived to give me a lift to my destination. Fully expecting the ride to be a brief one, because help from an eagle is always either too late or short-lived, I hopped on and took off. Sure enough, a pterodactyl appeared from nowhere and attacked the eagle. My attempt at shooting it with an arrow failed, and I was not given a second chance despite specifically having found two arrows. The pterodactyl and eagle engaged in combat with me still hanging on to the eagle’s back, presumably too terrified to interfere. Unfortunately the pterodactyl turned out to be the superior combatant and my eagle plummeted to the ground and crashed, with no survivors.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 2  

 

Attempt #2

Stats rolled: SKILL 7, STAMINA 20, LUCK 7

Surprisingly this adventure ended not as a result of my pitiful stats, but because once again the giant eagle failed to fend off the pterodactyl’s attack. This was despite my Magic Arrow spell which sunk into the pterodactyl’s belly, for some reason only reducing its SKILL by 1 point and not affecting its STAMINA at all.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 0

 

Attempt #3

Stats rolled: SKILL 9, STAMINA 19, LUCK 11

The pterodactyl wins again.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 0

 

Attempt #4

Stats rolled: SKILL 11, STAMINA 19, LUCK 8

The eagle wins! Flapping valiantly onwards, it soon landed to allow me to find shelter for the night. By the morning it had flown off again, thereby fulfilling its destiny as a giant eagle, by disappointingly being not as useful as it could have been.

Entering the desert proper, I soon found the Create Water spell to be useful, and wondered if Yaztromo was also a master of the Create Sun Lotion spell. Eventually arriving at a worryingly large skeleton of an unknown creature, I spotted a box among the remains, which I dug up to find a mirror and a clay pot. The mirror seemed useful, and being an experienced adventurer I assumed the clay pot was not, and left it alone.

Spending a night out in the open desert (Create Tent, anyone?) I awoke thirsty, and rather than simply cast Create Water again I decided to hunt around until I found a dangerous-looking spiky plant, which I was offered the opportunity to cut open. Declining, I was then offered the chance to cast the spell, and moved on. As I progressed I was grabbed by a pair of tentacles which emerged from the sand, intent of dragging me into a nearby gaping toothy maw. Despite prevailing easily over the tentacles I lost a SKILL point as a result of the unprovoked mauling my leg received.

Further on I encountered a legendary basilisk, who suffered from the typical villain trope of stashing the weapon that is their greatest weakness, somewhere nearby. In this case I whipped out the mirror I found earlier and the basilisk turned to stone. I then came across the corpse of a man who had a terrified, agonised expression on his face, and stole his water bottle. Good times.

Later on I came to the camp of a nomad, who invited me in and gave me food and water. I would have felt bad if I left without buying any of his goods, so I simply bought one of everything, except a mirror because I already had one, and vanity wasn’t my thing. With a pack full of potentially useful items, I was feeling good about life until a giant sandworm emerged from the sand in front of me, and despite my protests that I knew nothing about any spice, attacked without mercy. It was a close fight but the creature’s sheer perseverance overcame the power of my annoyance, and I succumbed to its onslaught.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 2

 

Attempt #5

Stats rolled: SKILL 8, STAMINA 21, LUCK 11

Knowing I stood little chance of making it through the desert this time, I decided to explore the other route to Vatos, buying passage on the barge to Port Blacksand after some minor haggling. Arriving at the city, I sensibly decided to wander the streets of the City of Thieves as dusk set in. Ignoring a highly dodgy-seeming offer from an old man who claimed to have a spare bed for the night, I pushed on and soon found myself at the infamous Black Lobster where I paid for a room and some information about a ship setting sail in the morning. I was directed to the captain who took the princely sum of 10 gold pieces for passage on the Belladonna, first thing in the morning. On the way to my room, I crashed into a rather grumpy fellow and spilled his pints. I thought it best to avoid confrontation and paid yet more money for new drinks.

In the morning I made my way to the ship and was quickly informed that I was to take the place of one of the ship’s gunners, who hadn’t survived the night in Port Blacksand. Knowing what this would lead to, I waited until the inevitable man-of-war appeared on the horizon and hunted us down, firing cannonballs mercilessly until our ship sank. Swimming towards the attacking ship, I was relieved to find it crewed by dwarves who believed my story when I told them I was working for King Gillibran of Stonebridge, and offered to take me the rest of the way to the desert. Two days later I was deposited on a sandy shore somewhere near the desert with no idea which direction I should take.

Heading inland, I came across a corpse with a leather pouch clutched in its hand, which I searched to find a golden key, which looked useful, although why the previous owner was carrying it around the desert in his hands was a mystery. Further on, I came to a familiar tent where a nomad guilt-tripped me into buying his goods again. At this point I knew my purchases would not matter, as the unavoidable fight with the sandworm was next, and the outcome was utterly predictable.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 1 

 

Attempt #6

Stats rolled: SKILL 10, STAMINA 20, LUCK 12

Pterodactyl.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 1

 

Attempt #7

Stats rolled: SKILL 8, STAMINA 21, LUCK 9 

Pterodactyl.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 1

 

Attempt #8

Stats rolled: SKILL 7, STAMINA 20, LUCK 12 

Eaten by the sandworm.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 1

 

Attempt #9

Stats rolled: SKILL 10, STAMINA 22, LUCK 12 

Pterodactyl.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 3

 

Attempt #10

Stats rolled: SKILL 12, STAMINA 19, LUCK 10  

Pterodactyl. Seriously, this is daft.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 2 

 

Attempt #11

Stats rolled: SKILL 7, STAMINA 21, LUCK 12   

Pterodactyl. Not that it matters.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 0

 

As I’ve had 10 attempts and it’s obvious that the giant sandworm will eat at least 50% of characters, not the mention the pterodactyl fight (anyone worked out the odds on that?), and I haven’t even reached Vatos yet, this could easily go over 100 attempts. From now on I’m rolling four dice and allocating them as I like for stats.

 

Attempt #12

Stats rolled: SKILL 9, STAMINA 15, LUCK 8   

Oh, FFS.

Choosing the sea route, I pulled off a miraculous win against the sandworm this time. Stumbling onward through the desert, I ignored an oasis on the basis that I could conjure water from thin air instead and not take any risks. Investigating a pile of rocks I was predictably stung by a scorpion but rewarded for my efforts when I found a sack, in which was glass ball containing some kind of sprite. After he was released he sprinkled some lucky dust on my head and told me to make a headscarf out of the sack. Because I was the least well-equipped person to ever attempt a desert crossing.

Later on I finally arrived at my destination – the lost city of Vatos! Opening the gates with a simple spell I walked until I found myself in an empty square and looked around. A dark stone archway looked promising, so in I went, heading down the stairs into the darkness. At the bottom of the stairs was an icon casket, so fully expecting a trap of some kind, I was bemused when it contained a well-made iron helmet, and more bemused when wearing it didn’t cause my brain to melt or anything.

As I wandered down the corridor, I was tapped on the shoulder and turned to meet an extremely attractive fellow who whispered the word ‘Death’ into my ear before disappearing into the darkness. Instinctively I knew that if I came across all the letters of the aforementioned word during my quest my life would be drained away. Groovy.

Undaunted, I indulged my exploratory tendencies by pulling open a pair of drapes and was almost disappointed to find nothing but a door, which I opened to find an odd room containing nothing but an ice bucket hanging from the ceiling. Oh, and a massive centipede that attempted to eat my legs. Oh wait, it succeeded.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 2 

 

Attempt #13

Stats rolled: SKILL 12, STAMINA 18, LUCK 11

A high SKILL score gets me past the giant sandworm (although still not without serious injury) and I made it to Vatos without much trouble. Heading into the tunnels, I made straight for the giant centipede’s room and exacted revenge before pulling the bucket down from the ceiling, which contained a bone dragon artefact. Woohoo!

In the next corridor I found my path blocked by some kind of spiky floating eye, which floated menacingly in my direction. Fumbling in my backpack for something useful, I pulled out an onyx egg at random, which was apparently too dark for the eye to handle, so it went to sleep and allowed me to pass. Clearly I wasn’t thinking about my return journey, or I would have chopped it to bits right then. Further along I came to an iron grille which I decided not to investigate too thoroughly as distant alarm bells rang in my memory.

Arriving at a T-junction (how many times does that happen in Ian Livingstone books?) I chose a direction at random, following the tunnel until I noticed the floor was covered in broken glass. A shadowy figure appeared, giggled madly and threw a bottle at me which fell to the ground and shattered. The bottle had contained a parchment which I declined to read because you know, possible death and all that. Judging from all the broken glass everywhere, I wasn’t the first to receive this message.

Chasing after my assailant, I soon realised the effort was futile and eventually arrived at another T-junction. I was rewarded for my shrewd choice by an encounter with two skeleton warriors, easily reduced to a pile of bones. At the end of the corridor was a door, behind this door was a room, in this room was a clay goblet, and in my backpack the clay goblet went. Heading back to the junction I took the other tunnel and opened a door to a smelly room which happened to be the lair of someone’s ill-trained (or possibly well-trained) pet dog, which attacked me after bounding in after some meat that ‘someone’ threw in as I arrived. Putting the hound down, I peered into the small dark tunnel that led off the room. Shrugging, I got on to my hands and knees and crawled into the blackness. Sensing danger (thanks, sixth sense) I cast a Detect Traps spell to find myself staring right at a crossbow trap, which I managed to avoid triggering and stepped into another room.

As I made my way across the dusty room my mind was suddenly filled with horrific images of the room in flames, my body burning endlessly. Eventually coming to, I realised it was all an illusion, but that did not prevent the loss of 3 SKILL points. Flipping ‘eck. I then encountered some giant fireflies which I was still too skilled to be bothered by, but then walked in front of a stone golem which took exception to my presence and literally took a bit of a hammering. The next room was flooded, and I waded in fully cognizant of the likely outcome, which arrived in the form of giant tentacles. Luckily they were repelled by the crappy bracelet I guilt-purchased from the nomad in the desert, and I was able to escape unstrangled.

Ignoring a side tunnel, I arrived at a dead end with an alcove in which burned a solitary candle. Behind it I found a box with a dragon motif on the lid. Bracing myself for an unwanted sight I opened the box and was delighted to find a silver dragon artefact. Woohoo! Back at the junction, I headed down the side tunnel until I came face to horrifying face with a lantern-carrying phantom. It glared at me a bit, and I became a terrified, snivelling coward, paralysed with fear while the thing made its escape. Luckily it had no interest in eating my flesh or anything.

 At the next junction I headed towards some tapestries, admiring one in particular, that of a phoenix rising from the ashes. I tore it from the wall and shoved it into my backpack, which seemed like an oddly disrespectful way to treat such a work of art, but it might have been worth something to a certain desert nomad. Further down the tunnel I came to a chair shaped like a sphinx. Grimacing uncertainly, I took a seat, half expecting spikes to emerge from the wall, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be one of those vibrating massage chairs, and I stood refreshed and energised. Further down the corridor I came to a room containing some herbal liquid with which I bathed my remaining wounds, healing me back to maximum health and spurring me on.

With no way to continue in this direction I headed back to the junction. Admiring the murals on the tunnel walls, I nearly jumped out of my skin when a voice behind me asked if I enjoyed his work. Responding that his horrifying work was indeed suitably horrific, I had a conversation for the first time since arriving at Vatos (‘Here doggie doggie argh’ is not a conversation). The artist told me he’d never heard of Malbordus, but perhaps Leesha, the High Priestess, would be entertaining him. Her sanctum could be found behind a golden sho—err, curtain of golden rain. Leaving him behind, I continued until I heard the obvious sounds of torture happening behind a door. Still feeling heroic, I charged in and made short work of the perpetrator, rescuing the victim who was fortunately still in a reasonable condition. He advised me that he’d seen someone matching my description of the Messenger of Death, putting something in a golden casket. I thanked him for the top tip and we parted ways.

Coming to another door which I opened with the golden key I found in the desert, I entered an empty room except for the talking head of a woman mounted on the wall. She asked me a riddle about the prize for the art competition being held by the High Priestess, which I fortunately knew the answer to, courtesy of the talkative muralist I met earlier. Red smoke poured from the head’s mouth, which I didn’t worry about at all and breathed in. Luckily the head was true to its word and the smoke made me feel better, healing 2 of my lost SKILL points.

With a pep in my step I continued down the tunnel to be presented with a choice of two doors. Opening one, I found myself in a storeroom where I was set upon by a horned, red skinned, fire-breathing beast which was not a dragon but some kind of disappointing demon. Dispatching it easily, I searched around, finding only a dodgy-looking necklace which I declined to wear, leaving the room and opening the door opposite. The room within contained another door with some kind of donation box attached to it. Wondering if they were trying to raise funds for a new pet centipede, I rummaged in my pockets for a coin – but alas, I was penniless. Shrugging, I moved on into pitch blackness, wondering if the box was actually some kind of primitive electricity meter. Unable to see, I was injured by some kind of blade trap before panicking and running heedlessly for the exit.

I emerged in a candlelit chamber, occupied by a grotesque one-eyed mutant armed with a silver rod capable of emitting blasts of presumably dangerous white light. Rummaging in my backpack for something more useful than my sword, I was hit painfully by a blast, which proved my presumption correct. Unimpressed by the options in my backpack I pulled out the brass handbell and started ringing it, perhaps hoping to distract the creature with how utterly bonkers I was. Imagine my surprise when the mutant screamed and collapsed on the floor. Imagine my further surprise when the ceiling then began to descend, threatening to crush me along with the contents of the room. Briefly wondering if this was just a trick as it seemed odd to crush the contents of the room, the mutant, candles and all (also, what triggered the ceiling’s descent? – OK, my wondering wasn’t so brief after all), I grabbed the mutant’s silver rod, which equally oddly caused the ceiling to stop moving. Unlocking the door with my handy crystal key, I got out while the getting was good.

The next room contained little but a wooden carving of some giant sandworms attacking a city. Examining it more closely, I found an ebony dragon artefact hidden in one of the cracks. Weird, but woohoo! Opening another door I found myself in a large hallway occupied by three fanatical men in robes who moved to attack. I convinced them that I came bearing gifts for the Great and Ever Wonderful High Priestess Leesha. Handing over the gift (I could choose anything, so I gave them the key to the previous room!) I entered an archway at the other end of the room, into a narrow corridor, protruding from the walls of which were stone arms wielding swords. I wasn’t sure if sword arms were any weirder than sword trees, but they were certainly less dangerous and I swashbuckled my way through without a scratch. At the far end I stepped through the golden curtain of rain as advised by the mural artist earlier.

Beyond was an opulent room adorned with paintings, but I had no time to enjoy them as I was attacked by a bare-chested balding guard with unfeasibly large feet. After defeating them I suddenly felt a bit thirsty and fatigued, bizarrely deciding to drink from a bowl in the room when I could have  easily cast Create Water any time I liked, and then settling down for a nice lay down on the cushions. Thankfully given the option to stay awake, I was interrupted by the sound of someone approaching the room, so I hid behind some drapes, which I was then informed were semi-transparent. Luckily the man who entered the room had very poor eyesight, and after checking on the guard’s corpse he simply ran off again.

Approaching the door on the other side of the room, I cast an Open Door spell and was disgruntled when it failed to work – apparently my magic had been drained by the golden rain but that didn’t stop the attempt from draining my STAMINA as usual. I hacked the lock off the door and wrenched it open in annoyance, finding another two doors before me, one engraved with a sun sigil and the other with a moon, both with unreadable runes scrawled underneath. Picking the moon door at random, I entered another room containing three pots. Opening one, I found a monkey’s paw which I left well alone as I assumed some kind of curse. Another pot contained a copper ring which I tentatively slipped on to my finger, expecting something terrible to happen – but nothing did. I left the third pot alone as I felt like I was being a bit too curious for someone trying to avoid seeing any ‘messages’.

Another tunnel, another door, and I found myself entering a treasure chamber. Forewarned about the golden casket, I avoided it and helped myself to a golden statuette instead, which would either make me a rich man or a looter’s dream. Further along I took a turning and came across some grapes on a marble column. Assuming they were intended for someone important not therefore not likely to be dangerous, I scoffed the grapes to discover they had healing properties.  This was fortunate, because immediately afterwards I came into contact with two talking skeletons who insisted on poking me full of holes with their spears. I prevailed over them however, and entered the large chamber beyond, which happened to be the inner temple of the High Priestess Leesha.

Leesha was being fanned by yet another bare-chested muscular type, this time with milky white eyes that suggested blindness. He was therefore useless in a fight and dispatched with ease. Leesha grabbed a shiny black object which I assumed would be bad news, so in a flash of completely random inspiration I pulled out a giant sandworm’s tooth from my backpack and waved it at her menacingly. Conveniently this item happened to be her only weakness, so she ran for it. Charging after her, I stopped to investigate an idol of a nice doggie, which contained a golden dragon artefact. Woohoo! I was then further interrupted in my pursuit by a random sunburned dwarf who handed me a war hammer and told me to destroy the dragon artefacts with it in the order I obtained them. Turns out the hammer was the famous weapon put back together by the hero of Forest of Doom and the dwarf was sent by Yaztromo. Wondering why Yaztromo didn’t arrange for me to be armed with the weapon before I started this flipping quest, instead sending a random dwarf on a suicide mission to get it to me (how did he get past all the guards? were they all new employees? So many questions), I chased Leesha into a room with a circular pit in the middle.

Seeing no sign of the High Priestess I decided to empty out my backpack to count my dragon figurines. 1…2…3…4! Gleefully eyeing my collection I was distracted when a clap of thunder sounded, and through the window I saw none other than Malbordus himself departing in true villain fashion, on the back of a dragon’s back. Apparently he had found the fifth dragon and I had failed in my mission. Gah.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 14

 

Attempt #14

Stats rolled: SKILL 10, STAMINA 15, LUCK 10

Eaten by the giant sandworm.

Conclusion: Failure.

Number of combats: 3 

 

Attempt #15

Stats rolled: SKILL 12, STAMINA 19, LUCK 11

This time taking a slightly different route through the tunnels of Vatos, I encountered a gnomish scavenger who had a fetish for brass. He offered to take a brass telescope off my hands in exchange for something from his hoard of goodies. Handing it over, I was delighted to find a crystal dragon artefact amongst his belongings, and grabbed it gleefully. After a brief encounter with a pair of rat men I was back in familiar territory, and knowing that the same path as last time would result in obtaining the rest of the dragons, I stuck to it carefully, with the exception of the room of terrifyingness that cost me several SKILL points last time.

Therefore I was like unto a god when I arrived at the point where my adventure ended last time. Heeding the dwarf’s words and smashing the bone dragon first, I was interrupted in my endeavours when a dishevelled-looking man arose theatrically from the depths of the pit, which looked suspiciously like a latrine. It turned out this was Malbordus himself (Was he waiting in a pit for me to arrive? I thought he was you know, looking for dragon artefacts). He clapped his hands once, causing a deafening thunderbolt to not deafen me because the copper ring I found earlier protected me from it somehow. He then drew his ‘cursed sword’, which was apparently no better than anyone else’s sword, and did not help him in the slightest as I cut him to ribbons. Smashing the rest of the dragon artefacts to pieces, I wondered where that Leesha woman had gotten to. I peered into the pit…

Conclusion: Success!

Number of combats: 15

 

Review

Writing: Ian Livingstone is back in his element with this one, a large part of the book being set in a comforting, familiar, deadly dungeon-type environment where he can use his imagination to its best effect. The Messenger of Death in particular is a great story device, leaving you in fear of investigating anything too closely throughout the dungeon.

The setting is interesting, a return to fantasy after the departure in Freeway Fighter, but with the desert-themed twist. The story is set up pretty well, with Malbordus built up to seem like a genuinely dangerous magic user who is a real threat to Allansia, and you as the hero in a race against time to find the dragon artefacts before he does. Sadly this never really pays off – at no point does it really feel like Malbordus is nearby trying to find the artefacts and the only sign of his existence before the very end of the book is a ‘trap’ medallion supposedly left by him out in the desert (on the ‘wrong’ path). The final confrontation is a big let down – Malbordus is supposedly a powerful wizard but after one easily-defeated trick the conclusion is a simple sword fight. No spells, no cataclysmic dragon-riding duel in a magical thunderstorm, just a fight in a room that looks like a toilet.

As is often the case with FF, there are many things that don’t make much sense. Why send a single adventurer when the fate of the world is at stake? Why not provide the eagle ride from the beginning? Where did Leesha go and what was the purpose of the character in the first place? Why wasn’t Malbordus hounding me at every step, or making more effort to find the dragon artefacts, most of which I found just lying around? Why was he waiting in a pit for my arrival? Why did I suddenly decide to destroy the dragons when I arrived in the unremarkable room at the end?

Also – stop telling us things we don’t know! “Unknown to you, the golden rain has drained your magic powers” is up there with “Unknown to you, you just drove through a minefield without exploding”…

Writing: 3/5

 

Artwork: There are some decent illustrations in this one but I found them mostly unmemorable, except the drawing of Malbordus, for all the wrong reasons. Instead of setting up a final confrontation with a depiction of an all-powerful evil wizard on the verge of greatness, we get a skinny unwashed guy emerging from a toilet (no, I can’t let it go!). The cover is very nice, and I have nothing bad to say about it because Christos Achilleos signed my copy of the book!

Artwork: 3/5

 

Design: This is a pretty tough book to complete because it has a classic shopping list of dragon artefacts, but this is hard to criticise too much because it’s the main premise of the book. The one thing that bugged me slightly was the crystal dragon, which is not only extremely missable (see attempt #13) but can only be obtained if you trade a copper telescope for it, which in turn can only be obtained if a) you pick the correct route to Vatos, thus rendering the other one and all its content pointless) and b) you make a stupid decision which gets you robbed, and then find the telescope on the robbers’ corpses. It’s a shame the desert route is a ‘wrong’ path for this reason, because otherwise it would have been a perfectly viable way to get to Vatos, albeit significantly tougher.

Otherwise this is a pretty well-designed adventure, often with multiple ways to succeed in different situations (the large array of spells and obtainable items helps with this) and a dungeon which feels dangerous at every corner. However it’s a bit linear in places and there are a lot of unavoidable combats which will wear down all but the most skilled adventurers. The final encounter is also disappointing mechanically as well as storywise.

Design: 3/5

 

Fairness: This book isn’t quite as tough as many later ones in the series, but I’d say a minimum SKILL of 10 is required to stand any real chance here, and probably 11. The giant sandworm is a big ability check, denying you entry to the second half of the book if you’re not up to scratch. The Messenger of Death mechanic, while fun, does make it entirely random when you search anything, whether you find a useful item or one of the deadly letters. This unfairness is justified by the story, however. My biggest annoyance in my early attempts was the fight between the giant eagle I was riding and the pterodactyl attacker. The fight is rigged heavily towards the pterodactyl even if you successfully shoot it with an arrow, and you have no influence whatsoever over the fight itself, which more often than not results in your untimely doom. I was glad when I realised that the desert wasn’t necessarily the correct route (especially considering another couple of nasty encounters there) but this fight seemed unnecessarily harsh. Overall the book is learnable within a few attempts if your stats are up to scratch.

Fairness: 3/5

 

Cheating index: 1 Razaak (stat dice allocation) 

 

Average enemy stats

Successful path: 26 enemies, SKILL 7.0, STAMINA 7.0

Entire book: 46 enemies, SKILL 7.5, STAMINA 7.5

Instant death paragraphs: 23

 

Any player can win no matter how weak initial dice rolls: Yeah, that’s a LIE.

 

Final thoughts: An enjoyable adventure that doesn’t quite live up to its own story, it’s nevertheless good fun to explore a new kind of setting in Fighting Fantasy. If you’re in a rush, roll D3+9 for your SKILL…

Final score: 6/10