Title: Caverns of
the Snow Witch
Author: Ian
Livingstone
Illustrators: Les
Edwards (cover), Gary Ward and Edward Crosby (internal)
Published: 1984
Level of previous
knowledge: I remember the storyline very well – man inherits quest to
defeat Snow Witch, man defeats Snow Witch, man spends rest of book trying to
survive consequences of defeating Snow Witch. The details of how any of that is
achieved escape me at present, although the high difficulty level is less easy
to forget.
Plot summary: Oh right, well, see above. At the start of
the book, however, I am a mere caravan guard who has just volunteered to hunt
down whatever ferocious beast slaughtered everyone at a trading outpost in the
mountains. Little do I know how the nature of my quest would soon change…
Rules: Standard rules, ten provisions, choice of
potion. The Adventure Sheet has a space for Jewels, which I feel is hopelessly
optimistic.
Adventure Log:
Attempt #1
Stats rolled: SKILL
7, STAMINA 15, LUCK 10
Potion: STAMINA
I suspect my first
trip into the frozen wilds of the Icefinger Mountains will be extremely short
and violent…
Beginning my hunt, I
head back to the outpost where the traders were brutally slaughtered in the
hopes of finding tracks to follow. Unfortunately they’d long since been covered
by the heavy snow so in absence of a better idea, I decided to wander up into
the mountains with the visibility at near zero. My high SKILL score would get
me through, right?
Eschewing the
tempting opportunity to cross an ice bridge across a crevasse with a SKILL
score of 7 (did I mention the visibility?) I chose to walk around instead.
Before long I was set upon by a friendly mammoth which, in an attempt to nuzzle
me gently, accidentally tore me limb from limb and left my crushed remains to
be buried by the snow.
Conclusion: Failure. Obviously.
Number of combats:
1
Attempt #2
Stats rolled: SKILL
12, STAMINA 15, LUCK 7
Potion: LUCK
My high SKILL score
will get me through, right?
Right. Following my
own footprints, I headed up into the mountains once more. Feeling better about
the ice bridge this time, I stepped gingerly on to the slippery surface and was
asked to make a LUCK test. Oh crap. LUCKily I managed to avoid falling to
another premature death and made it to the other side. Could I go home now?
Pushing on through
the howling wind, I soon encountered two friendly wolves who attempted to eat
my face. Unfortunately for them, they had encountered a more skilled
incarnation of this caravan guard, and were dispatched quickly. Assuming these
were not the creatures I was looking for, I continued my climb. However, the
incline increasing and the pleasantness of the weather decreasing, I began to
struggle to make progress. Stubbornly pushing on, I was prompted a second time
that maybe it would be a good idea to take shelter, so I took the hint and
built myself a lovely igloo. Settling in my new home, I ate a luxurious meal
and nothing tried to eat me for an hour or so. Good times.
Emerging after the
blizzard abated, I continued on until I arrived at a wooden hut. Wondering if
our vicious beastie was more civilised than I gave him credit for, I braced
myself and entered. Finding little more than the trappings of a trapper, I was
briefly disappointed until I spotted a pan of stew. Helping myself (it would be
a shame if someone came home to find themselves the victim of a stew theft, but
I had a sneaking feeling it wouldn’t be an issue), I had a nice rest before
leaving the hut behind, grabbing a couple of weapons on the way out.
Feeling better
prepared, I continued on my way, eventually hearing the cry of a stew theft
victim being eaten by a yeti (I had a keen ear). Having found the object of my
quest, I charged into battle, chucking a spear as I did so (oh yes, spear theft
too – well he should have brought it with him, shouldn’t he?). Despatching my
opponent with ease, I turned my attention to the injured fur trapper. It was
too late to save him, but with his extremely long dying breath he told me a
story about the evil Snow Witch, living in a cave up in the mountains, plotting
to rule over mankind by bringing on an eternal ice age. Riveting stuff, but he
died before telling me about the hero who slew her and saved the world. Anyway,
I had to go back to my employer and collect my pay for a job well done. Then I
lost control of my body entirely, and went in the opposite direction looking
for a fictional witch instead of you know, keeping my job.
A sudden improvement
in the weather put a pep in my step as I began my search for the Crystal Caves.
I was soon brought to a halt by the rumbling sound of an oncoming avalanche,
but I barely made it to a sheltering outcrop just in time as the snow and rocks
cascaded around me.
Eventually I
discovered the entry to the caves, a massive illusory wall of ice which gave no
resistance as I passed through into a long tunnel. Turning at a junction, I
arrived in a cavern containing nothing but a bowl of yellow liquid, complete
with wooden ladle, resting on an ice plinth. Briefly wondering if this was
where yellow snow came from, I decided to sip the liquid, assuming that it was
unlikely to be poisonous given that they didn’t really expect any uninvited
visitors here. It turned out to be some kind of healing potion, and I strolled
back out of the cavern with a warming glow.
Further down the
tunnel I came across one of the Snow Witch’s followers, a tall hooded mountain
elf. Inwardly panicking, I attempted to nod my way past him, but he noticed
that I wasn’t wearing an ‘obedience collar’ (I assumed due to some kind of
X-ray vision allowing him to see through multiple layers of clothing and furs) and
questioned me about it. Given the option to pretend I was having my collar
widened due to weight gain, I decided the safest thing to do was to murder the
poor chap in cold blood, so I did. As he died, the collar he was wearing stopped
glowing, leaving me to wonder if this incident had not gone unnoticed.
At another junction
I prudently turned in the direction away from the sounds of running and I was
soon rewarded for this sensible course of action when the floor collapsed
beneath me and I fell into a pit trap. Oof. I guess they were prepared for
uninvited visitors after all, although how they managed to prevent the more
stupid of the Snow Witch’s followers from blundering into this trap time and
time again was a mystery. Two goblins then arrived and peered down at me,
perhaps wondering if I was one of those stupid followers or an intruder.
Deciding on the latter, they demanded that I throw away my sword and climb the
rope they provided. Quickly guzzling my LUCK potion then giving the rope a firm
tug had the pleasing result of both greenskins falling headlong into the pit, a
trip which neither survived (one of them took a little persuasion). I looted
what I could from their corpses and clambered out of the pit, continuing down
the tunnel to find out what the pit trap was protecting.
Arriving at a
circular cave containing a frozen orc and two pools in the ground, from each of
which protruded a weapon, I read a carving in the ice which made it obvious
which weapon was useful and which was not. Grabbing the weapon I was pleased to
discover it added to my combat skill (using my rules this increases my attack strength
regardless of initial SKILL, as it doesn’t make much sense otherwise) and
rummaged through the orc’s backpack. Disappointed to find some mouldy bread, I
declined the fungal snack and moved on.
This event was
followed by an odd kind of dream sequence where I met a finely-clothed minstrel
who played a song which healed my wounds. Having not eaten the mouldy bread I
had no idea why my dreams were so vivid, and didn’t actually remember going to
sleep, but when I awoke I was extremely refreshed, if somewhat baffled.
Bewildered, I wandered straight into a chamber where some kind of congregation
was going on, and straight out the other side before anyone noticed how my
un-enslaved state. As I continued onward I heard cries for help and, feeling
pretty darn heroic at the moment I headed in that direction to find a dwarf in
a pit with onlookers chucking boulders at him. I helped him out by helping him
out, and he gave me a sling and some drivel about a White Rat. Noticing the
capital letters he used, I made a mental note to look out for it. Or away from
it, or whatever.
I eventually emerged
in a large cavern with a skull-shaped exit on the opposite side which was
extremely foreboding and may as well have been adorned with a sign saying “Evil
sorceress this way”. In front of this was some kind of elderly magician
clutching a glass prism in his gnarled hands, who told me, in no uncertain
terms, to bugger off. Lacking the item which would have provided the only other
option, I decided that slaughtering the old man was the only course of action,
and although he made this difficult by becoming three of himself, I managed to
smash his prism which upset him rather a lot, and he ran off, presumably to ask
the Snow Witch to get him another one. Avoiding the skull exit for now, I
thought I’d check one of the side exits, assuming that I’d eventually come back
here to progress. This proved emphatically to not be the case when an iron
grille slammed down behind me as soon as I entered the tunnel. Perturbed, I
continued along the tunnel and found my way blocked by another iron grille.
More perturbed, I managed to throw a dagger accurately at the switch beyond
which lifted the grille and allowed me to progress (the fact that for some
reason this was a LUCK test and nothing to do with my SKILL meant that success
was against the odds).
After a brief
altercation with a crystal warrior which crumbled under the blows of my handy
war hammer, I took another turning and arrived in a room with an open
sarcophagus. A white rat jumped out of it and ran at me threateningly.
Remembering the dwarf’s words I looked for the option to run for my life, but
sadly this did not exist, and I was forced into combat with its final form,
which was unfortunately that of a gigantic white dragon. In the ensuing melee I
gave a good account of myself and had it on the ropes but before I could strike
a killing blow its breath attack caught me off guard, and I became an extremely
heroic-looking ice statue for the Snow Witch’s collection.
Conclusion: Failure.
Number of combats:
6
Attempt #3
Stats rolled: SKILL
10, STAMINA 22, LUCK 12
Potion: STAMINA
Hmmm. I might stand
a chance with the high STAMINA, but I’d better steer clear of any rats just in
case.
Taking the same
linear route through the mountains, I fought my way past the wolves and had a
rather more fraught encounter with the Yeti this time, but my sheer endurance
pulled me through. Entering the Crystal Caves I took the same route until I
bumped into the mountain elf once more. Feeling less murderous today, I
persuaded him that I was here to join the Snow Witch’s followers and, after
attempting to talk me out of it, he gave me directions which avoided the pit
trap and allowed me to explore a new tunnel.
I soon came to a
kitchen, manned by a gnome chef and his Neanderthal scullion. Quite fancying a
bit of the moose that was being skinned within, I entered, only to be meekly
waved away with a bit of stale cake for my troubles. The cake wasn’t bad, but
that moose looked darn tasty. Not long after I arrived at the room of worship
again and attempted to stroll through the service nonchalantly. Unfortunately
this offended some of the more devout worshippers and I was forced to run for
it, expertly dodging their whips and darts as I did so.
Back on a familiar
track, I helped the dwarf out of his pit once more and eventually found myself
back in the skull-exited room with the mad magician leering at me again like he
didn’t know what was coming. Smashing his little toy, I took the opposite door
to last time, lacking the dagger necessary to escape the iron grille trap
within. My heart sank as yet another iron grille slammed down behind me, but
was momentarily relieved when my passage further was barred not just by an iron
grille, but am iron grille with a door in it. A locked door. Oh dear. Lacking
any kind of key and no option to pick the lock with, I don’t know, a war
hammer, I was forced to wait until someone found me and dragged me off to join
the Snow Witch’s minions.
Conclusion: Failure. Maybe I should just get over my
skulldooraphobia.
Number of combats:
2
Attempt #4
Stats rolled: SKILL 11, STAMINA 19, LUCK 9
Potion: LUCK
Taking the same route as last time, with a couple of
exceptions – firstly I admitted to the mountain elf that I was going to kill
his boss and he was delighted about that and gave me his cloak (I’m sure a lot
of people can empathise), and when I arrived at the skull-framed door I bravely
marched straight through, rather than risk getting trapped in the silly side
passages again. On the other side, I met a big, friendly giant holding a
treasure chest. Before I knew it my adventuring instincts kicked in and I’d
fired a ball from my sling into the side of his head, before checking out the contents
of the chest. Inside I found three rings. Knowing there was a good chance one
of them would mean a painful death or worse, I decided that I would only try
one of them on, and went for the least-valuable looking one in the hope it
wasn’t a trap. Fortunately the ring told me it had the power to summon a
warrior to my side, once and once only. How it relayed this information I can’t
quite remember.
Leaving the chamber, I was soon back in a familiar tunnel
where I was once again forced to smash a crystal warrior to pieces, this time
taking quite a beating in the process. Copper ring, anyone? No? Hmph. Up ahead
I turned away from the room where the white ratdragon resided and came to a
closed door, behind which I could hear the sounds of shuffling feet. Unable to
hear any dance music I assumed someone inside was incredibly shy or
embarrassed, and knocked politely. The door was opened by a zombie who was
perfectly friendly until he realised I probably had a brain, and became rather
bad-mannered at that point. Chopping him into bits, I grabbed some
miscellaneous junk from the storeroom and headed the only way I could go, which
was unfortunately back the way I came.
Arriving once more at the sarcophagus, I sprinkled some
recently-acquired ground minotaur horn on the transforming rat, and it scurried
off into the shadows. Examining the sarcophagus I was shocked to discover it to
be the resting place of the vampiric Snow Witch, who rose from her slumber and,
only slightly perturbed by the garlic I brandished at her, proceeded to enslave
me and drink my blood. If only I’d found a stick on my travels…
Conclusion: Failure.
Number of combats:
3
Attempt #5
Stats rolled: SKILL 7, STAMINA 17, LUCK 7
Yeah, right. Screw that.
Stats rolled:
SKILL 12, STAMINA 17, LUCK 12
That was the genuine second roll. Starting to earn Razaaks
though…
Potion: STAMINA
So – bridge, wolves,
yeti, cave, elf. Same as last time… until I arrived at the kitchen where the
gnome and his Neanderthal friend were cooking up whatever vampiric sorceresses
eat for dinner. On the lookout for any alternatives to my usual path, I refused
the offer of cake and launched into an unprovoked attack on the startled pair, slaughtering the dim-witted scullion and
sending the chef running for his life. Pleased with my act of violence I
searched through the cupboards, finding several items: a stick with runes
carved on it (woohoo!), a self-tooting flute, and a rose. Taking the first two
items and leaving the rose alone on the basis that one in three items is nearly
always a trap, I moved on, feeling more confident about my chances against the
Snow Witch.
Eventually finding
myself once again in the room with the skull door and the leering idiot, this
time I took the new option available to me, that of pretending that I was here
to play a little ditty on my flute for the Snow Witch. In turn, he tried to
fool me by sending me down a tunnel which I knew full well led to a locked door
and likely entrapment. After that, events proceeded much as they did last time.
I took an absolute battering from the crystal warrior this time, but hobbled
onward, picking up the odd items from the kitchen on the way to the Snow
Witch’s chamber.
This time I was in
possession of both garlic and an appropriate weapon, and was therefore able to
pierce the evil sorceress’s heart with the apparently very sharp stick. And
that was that. Heading homeward, I went looking for Big Jim and the caravan in
the hope that I hadn’t been fired yet. Oh. What do you mean, there’s more?
Falling for the old
‘golden idol transforms into treasure guardian’ trick, I gleefully looted the
Snow Witch’s treasure trunk and found myself in combat once again with a
massive armoured warrior. Slightly scathed and more than a little tired, I
prevailed and helped myself to a pile of gold, being offered the chance to
leave an item behind for every 50 gold I took. Now I wished I’d picked up more
crap along the way. (A bit odd that an empty backpack would have enabled me to
take zero gold!) Leaving behind what must have been a surprisingly large clove
of garlic and the now tainted stick, I shoved 100 gold into my backpack,
quickly interrupted by the arrival of a dwarf and an elf, who were delighted
that I’d saved them from enslavement and offered to help me escape. Rather than
go back through the tunnels which were apparently full of goblins (hello? SKILL
12 here) they took me onward, through more tunnels which they had never
explored before. Yay. While Redswift the elf jabbered on about nothing in
particular and the dwarf (Stubb) smiled a lot, we came across some kind of
glass orb on the floor, containing a swirl of colours. At this point I just
wanted to get out of here, so I took the elf’s advice and left it well alone.
Onward, and we soon
came to a large casket on one side of the tunnel. Despite grave misgivings and
the advice Redswift had given only minutes earlier, we decided it would be
jolly good fun to mess around with it, and drew lots to find out who would open
it. The elf drew the short straw, and fortunately so as his elven instincts
alerted him to a hidden catch which he released, evading a potentially nasty
trap and revealing the treasure within – a pair of magical boots. Less
fortunately for me, when we drew lots to decide who would get to wear them,
Stubb the dwarf won, and gleefully pranced about in his new silent footwear
while we grumbled to ourselves.
Making a note to
loot the dwarf’s corpse should anything happen to him in the near future
(ahem), we soon encountered a cave man who took exception to our presence, so I
sent my companions down the next tunnel while I stayed behind to beat him up.
Finding an odd star-shaped disc on his person, I pocketed it and caught up with
my friends to find they had made the acquaintance of a tentacled monstrosity
called a Brain Slayer. Feeling somewhat obliging, I willingly gave up some of
my brainpower in order that my friends might live. Or at least, I think I did.
Nursing a very sore head (and a permanent -2 to my SKILL) I was unable to
prevent the creature’s escape, and found my companions in a similar state to
mine. Opening one of the pots in the room in search of paracetamol, I found a
parchment which taught me a spell to protect against an air elemental. Useful.
Specific, but useful. Another pot contained a square metal disc which I added
to my toy collection.
Yet another tunnel
ended at a wooden door in which was embedded a dagger. Thinking better of
touching the weapon, we opened the door into another tunnel, where we sat down
for a rest. Grudgingly giving away the remainder of my provisions, I wondered how much further there was to
travel. Further on, another door, this time with a parchment pinned to it.
Redswift read the archaic script, and looked a bit terrified. Maybe it said
“Any player, no matter how weak on initial dice rolls, should be able to get through
fairly easily”. He then tore it to pieces and wouldn’t talk about it. I assumed
we’d be fine then. Continuing down the next tunnel, I was unpleasantly
surprised to find acid dripping on to me to the stalactites above, causing no
little damage to my battered body.
Arriving in a larger
cavern, we surprised an orc who had just entered from the other side. There was
a glass globe on a plinth, which began to glow and coalesce into an image of
the vile Snow Witch. She informed us that she could still defeat us, and proved
it by using her spiritual powers to strangle the orc to death via his obedience
collar. She then turned her attention to my companions, who were still wearing
theirs. I fired a ball from my trusty sling, but this had no effect other than triggering
a bolt of lightning that very nearly fried my face. She then began to strangle
my companions while I hurled insults at her, eventually tapping into her
‘playful’ nature, which involved bringing in zombified versions of my friends
for me to face in combat. Downing my potion of stamina before wading in, I
defeated them with surprising ease. She then proposed a game of ‘Discs’ which
was similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors and would use the discs I’d found on my
travels. Only possessing two discs, I was concerned about my chances of
winning, but I chose correctly and victory was mine. Apparently losing the game
was more than the spirit of the Snow Witch could bear, and the globe shattered
with her cry of defeat. Somehow evading death from the collapsing roof, we
clambered out of the cavern and found ourselves outside. We had escaped!
Agreeing to
accompany my friends to Stonebridge, we travelled for two days until we came to
the river Kok, where we paid an indolent ferryman an exorbitant sum of money to
take us across. Hiding from some passing centaurs, we soon came across an old
man who charged us more money in exchange for the bad news that hill trolls
were gathering near Stonebridge, and the nearby watering hole was poisoned. None
of this mattered for long, however, as soon afterwards we were attacked by
formidable bird-men who tore us limb from limb. Jeez.
Conclusion: Failure. This is really an epic journey. Even
with great starting stats I ran out of juice before the end. All I can do is
try again and hope to find something to stop the Brain Slayer slaying my brain,
as the loss of 2 SKILL points really cost me.
Number of combats:
10
Attempt #6
Officially in cheat mode now. Rolling 4 dice and allocating
as I see fit:
Stats rolled: SKILL 12, STAMINA 16, LUCK 11
Not quite as good as last time, but if I can avoid losing
SKILL I might make it further. I’ll take a potion of SKILL this time just in
case.
Imagine the same story as last time, except that I took a
sneaky peek at another reference and realised that had I not been carrying the
war hammer I could completely avoid the encounter with the crystal warrior.
This seemed rather unfair so I threw away the war hammer as the warrior
approached and used the genie instead, granting me invisibility and allowing me
to sneak past.
Ultimately I defeated the physical version of the Snow Witch
again, and continued into the tunnels with my new-found friends. Taking a
slightly different route to last time, we came to an odd stretch of tunnel
floor which was covered in black and white footprints. Choosing to walk on the
white ones we were battered by gigantic hailstones coming from er, upwards.
This soon abated and, continuing on, we came across a (now known to be useless)
circular disc which I picked up.
Continuing on, we found ourselves in a familiar tunnel,
eyeing up a familiar casket and drawing straws to determine who the sucker was.
This time it was Stubb, and he got himself bitten by the snake hiding within.
Rather than killing it and helping ourselves to the treasure, we apologised
profusely and backed away from Mr Snake, continuing down the tunnel.
Once again lacking the necessary item, my brain was, alas,
slain once again by the slayer of brains, the Brain Slayer. Downing my SKILL
potion and muttering to myself, we continued on. Taking a different turn again,
we found a shield which was protected by an air elemental – fortunately I had
read the scroll which taught me the spell to shoo it away and took the shield
without incident, noting with satisfaction the extra SKILL point it provided.
The shield also provided convenient protection from the dripping acid in the
next chamber.
Annoyingly the SKILL point gain was counterbalanced by the
Snow Witch when my attempt to smash the globe with a slingshot resulted in
being struck by lightning. Grrrr. Nevertheless I defeated her zombie minions
and then won her game without problems, then escaped the caverns and began the
journey towards Stonebridge.
Not feeling like paying the lazy boatman again, we walked
down the riverbank until we came across another boat. Waiting for its owner to
arrive rather than committing needless theft, we settled down for the night.
Before long I was woken by the sound of Redswift summarily gutting a dark elf
with his sword. Unsure as to what his victim had done to deserve such a fate, I
gleefully looted the corpse and found some kind of green potion. Taking leave
of my senses I drank deeply, happily discovering it was a potion of healing.
Welcome back, SKILL point! Selfishly I finished the entire thing myself, giving
no thought to my companions. Soon we cooked up a delicious stew, restoring yet
more health and giving me some hope of surviving the rest of the adventure.
Taking the boat (murder and theft is clearly more justifiable than just theft)
we made our way to to the other side of the river and continued our journey.
Ignoring an old man offering old advice for gold, we were
soon set upon by the bird-men once again. This time I was able to prevail over
my freakish opponent, whose friends decided we were best left alone. As we
continued on, I suddenly had the realisation that I was quite thirsty and
didn’t have a water bottle. Unsure as to how I didn’t notice these crucial
details earlier, we soon came to a watering hole, which we ignored based on advice
from an earlier life. Luckily we soon came across the corpse of a dwarf from
Stonebridge, which still had a full water bottle on it. Stubb was less pleased
about this for some odd reason.
Stubb had his vengeance when we spotted some trolls
approaching the town of Stonebridge on the following morning. Tempted to leave
him to slaughter all six of them in his berserk rage, we decided to help him
out nonetheless, and it turned out we were pretty good trollslayers. Still
frothing at the mouth, Stubb headed straight for the town with us staggering
behind. We met his friends who informed him that their previous hammer had been
stolen and it was somewhere in Darkwood Forest. Stubb then told us we were no
longer welcome to stay in Stonebridge for some reason, before heading off to
the forest with his friend Bigleg who I failed to recognise on account of him
missing a big hole in his stomach.
Heading off once again, we managed to avoid bumping into
more trolls, but I was becoming quite concerned about my diminishing LUCK
supply after all these tests. This was confirmed when Redswift breezily
informed me that the scroll he read in the dungeon was actually a Death Spell
and we were both doomed unless we could find a person called the Healer in the
Moonstone hills. Annoyed that the Death Spell not only targeted the reader of
the parchment but anyone unfortunate enough to be standing nearby at the time,
I attempted to carry him onward, but he selfishly passed away before we got
very far, forcing me to waste more time burying him. Weakening by the moment I
decided to spend some more time investigating a tree stump, which happened to
be full of flesh grubs. Avoiding any contact with them, I was informed that I
wasn’t going to find the Healer in a tree stump. Thanks for the clue!
Arriving at a wooden hut I had my time further wasted by a
herbalist who was not the Healer, and apparently didn’t think to ask him if he
had any herbs that might be useful in my current condition. Oops. Things took a
turn for the better later on when I bumped into an elf named Ash who happened to
be the brother of the recently deceased Redswift. Agreeing to help me find the
Healer, he led me to a dangerous-looking rope bridge. Unfortunately not given
an option to avoid LUCK-based activity, we made our way carefully on to the
bridge. Two LUCK tests later we had barely made It across, only to be attacked
shortly after by a mercifully incompetent death hawk, which had an intimate
meeting with one of Ash’s arrows at the second attempt.
Ash gave me directions to the Healer and left me to continue
alone, and when I came to a wooden tree house I couldn’t resist the urge to
drag my rapidly weakening self up the rope ladder to investigate. Within I was
set upon by a man-orc but despite my condition I dispatched him easily.
Stealing his stuff, I clambered back down and continued on my way, soon coming
across a sleeping barbarian. Lacking any fancy boots which would help to sneak
past him (damn you, Mr Snake!) I was forced yet again into combat, again
prevailing without much trouble. Putting on his armband which read “Strength is
Power”, I was pleased to discover it increased my combat skill even further. A
shame it didn’t say “Luck is Power”, not that it would have made any sense.
Finally coming to the Healer’s cave, I entered to find the
disfigured man sitting in front of a wall covered in bizarre masks. He told me
that he had only ever cured the Death Spell once and was very unlikely to be
able to cure me, then handed me a mask to wear which drained more of my health,
thus ensuring that he was correct. He then took me to a wide pit with a log
across it, and told me to cross. Rather than provide any light, he informed me
that if I brought my own light source, it would be easier. Well, duh.
Increasingly unsurprised at the Healer’s track record at curing my particular
condition, I lit my handy candle and stepped on to the log with trepidation.
Happily the crossing was a test of my ability and not random chance, and I made
it across. The next test involved walking past a screaming banshee without
succumbing to the urge to shut her up. The banshee told me I was going to die,
and she was probably right so it didn’t bother me much.
At last the Healer informed me that I must travel to Firetop
Mountain and climb to the top before dawn, where the rising sun would finally cure
me of the Death Spell. Fortunately I happened to have a silver arrowhead with
which he could summon a Pegasus to transport me directly there (again I was
rather unimpressed with the Healer’s preparedness for curing this condition).
Riding the beast through the skies, I mentally ticked this experience off my
list of “Mythical beasts to ride before you die”, doubting I would ever get to
tick off “Kraken” or “Mermaid”.
Arriving at the mountaintop, I settled down for a rest,
unaware that Firetop Mountain was named as such for its red grass at the peak,
which happened to be sleeping grass. Soon I was in a deep slumber, unable to
wake until the image of a Phoenix entered my mind. Recognising it as such, I
awoke just in time for the sun to rise and cure me of my ills. Climbing
carefully down the mountain (what an anticlimax that could be) I set off for
Stonebridge in the hope that Stubb had not only returned from Darkwood forest
already, but had for some reason been immune to the Death Spell that afflicted
Redswift and I. You never know…
Conclusion: Success! And about time too.
Number of combats:
12
Review
Writing: The
story starts off as a fairly standard one – lowly caravan guard sent to hunt
down yeti and finds him/herself dragged into a quest to defeat an evil villain
and save the world. However it doesn’t end there and if anything the adventure
post-mission is longer than the mission itself. This is interesting in a way
but also feels a little bit like it’s been dragged out too long into an anticlimax.
However the writing itself was good enough to keep me engaged throughout, with
some nice descriptive text (despite the somewhat repetitive tunnels) and some
relationship building with other characters. The gratuitous references to
previous books did start to get a bit grating.
Writing: 3/5
Artwork: A nicely
done front cover, although perhaps slightly odd to someone who hadn’t yet read
the book. The internal illustrations have a distinctive style which may not be
to everyone’s tastes but I quite enjoyed some of them, the image of the Brain
Slayer (grrrr!) slaying the brains of Redswift and Stubb being one of my
favourites.
Artwork: 4/5
Design: This felt
like an extremely long adventure – I haven’t been comparing the number of
paragraphs passed through on the way to victory in each book but I suspect this
is easily the longest so far. This demonstrates a degree of linearity in the
book, which gives the illusion of choice many times but keeps you largely on
the same track throughout. This does make the inevitable replays increasingly
tiresome.
Mechanically this book is brutal, and even with a SKILL of
12 you need a certain amount of luck to get through the sheer gauntlet of
combats and STAMINA loss as a result of the Death Spell. In my final attempt I
was worrying about my LUCK situation near the end because despite starting with
a score of 11 it had decreased to 5 and I had a vague memory of needing to pass
a LUCK test to get to the top of Firetop Mountain. Fortunately I’d forgotten
about the Pegasus option which allowed me to skip the dangerous climb. I did
enjoy the idea that I was running out of time to get healed towards the end but
I felt like I was have preferred it if the majority of STAMINA loss came from
the Death Spell and not from the random encounters along the way (a SKILL 12
Bird-Man, really?)
Design: 2/5
Fairness: As
mentioned, the number of combats which required god-like stats to survive makes
this a book for the extremely skilled adventurer. Also the encounter with the
crystal warrior seemed rather unfair, not being given the option to call the
genie and skip the encounter entirely if you own a war hammer is very harsh,
especially as its far from an easy fight, and never are you offered the chance
to use the genie again in the book even when there are several occasions where
it would have been highly useful. On another occasion I was a bit miffed when I
realised that to obtain a crucial item for killing the Snow Witch I had to
violently attack some of her followers without provocation (they offered me
cake!), which seems a bit mean-spirited considering their situation. That said,
there aren’t too many situations where a 50/50 decision leads directly to
failure.
Fairness: 2/5
Cheating index: 2
Razaaks
Some stat fiddling was needed when it became obvious that
the average Joe wouldn’t stand a chance. I also peeked at the relevant crystal
warrior reference so I could ‘lose’ the war hammer before the encounter.
Average enemy stats
Successful path:
15 encounters, SKILL 8.1, STAMINA 7.9
Entire book:
44 encounters, SKILL 8.4, STAMINA 8.4
Instant death
paragraphs: 25
Any player can win no
matter how weak initial dice rolls: Uh-huh. Huuuuge LIE.
Final thoughts
A decent,
epic-feeling story marred by the sheer gauntlet of difficult combats and the
linearity which reduces the pleasure of replays significantly. If you want to
get anywhere in this book without replaying exactly the same events over and
over, do yourself a favour and start with a SKILL of at least 11. I started off
enjoying this one but eventually couldn’t wait for the end.
Final score: 5/10
