Gamebooks

[Dark Jimbo]

Jimbo, did you ever finish Sorcery 4?

No, I never did!

Sadly, around the same time I fell off the gamebook wagon I went and bought a Nintendo Switch, sealing my own doom. My unfinished quest for the Crown of Kings nags away at me, though. Must make some time to complete it before the year is out...

[Barrington Boots]

You can get Sorcery on the Nintendo Switch! I tried to get my wife to download and play it but she only likes Animal Crossing.

[Dark Jimbo]

Jimbo, did you ever finish Sorcery 4?

Jimbo, did you ever finish Sorcery 4?

No, I never did!

Sadly, around the same time I fell off the gamebook wagon I went and bought a Nintendo Switch, sealing my own doom. My unfinished quest for the Crown of Kings nags away at me, though. Must make some time to complete it before the year is out...

[Barrington Boots]

Wrapped up my playthrough of Stealer of Souls this morning and very much enjoyed it. I won't go into too much detail here as Richard's already done a great job. I found it a very fair book - a lot of the items made things easier, but weren't auto-death if you didn't have them like a Livingstone book. I only died twice on my way to paragraph 400: once on an auto-death paragraph that was, in fairness, signposted and once in the final battle with Mordraneth after losing a lot of my stamina to his spells and then rolling terribly. (I didn't fancy playing the book again at that point, so just restarted the combat)

The dungeon is a bit generic, but its reasonably forgiving with not many traps and whilst I was constantly getting my ass kicked, there were plenty of provisions so I was always able to keep myself topped up foodwise. That last bit, with the illusions, was an interesting twist and the art is fantastic, some brilliant images in this one.

Whilst not outstanding, I thought this was overall a really good gamebook.
Next up for me: Daggers of Darkness.

[Barrington Boots]

Daggers of Darkness

I approached this book with mild trepidation given it was written by Luke Sharp who did the awful Chasms of Chaos. Mitigating that however, the cover features a warrior with a hawk, an eyepatch and a tiger codpiece surfing on two sabretooth tigers and wielding a spiked mace with two smaller spiked maces attached to it, morning star style. That sounds terrible, but it's actually a pretty good image from the great Les Edwards and the book was surprisingly good also.

There's a lot of background, but in short, the land of Kazan, which is a wild place populated by tribes (I got a sort of nomadic steppe vibe from it) has a weird meritocracy whereby parents are able to nominate their children as Ushun Koja, or The Select, upon which the child is given money and training, then exiled from Kazan and must live of their wits and strength until the current ruler dies. At this point all the Select may re-enter Kazan and attempt to recover the six clan medallions from mazes, before racing to the throne and the first Select to get there becomes the new ruler. This ensures each ruler is strong and clever. The ruler has just died, and you play one of the Select.
It all sounds a bit ridiculous written down, but it's a very unusual and imaginative way to frame the quest. On reading it I thought I'd need to get all six medallions and failure would mean death, but you only need one and I think its only possible to get two.
Finally, to complicate things further the current vizier Chingiz, who has the job on a temp basis since the current ruler died, isn't keen to be supplanted so he has hired assassins to kill off all the Select. This means the book starts with you being stabbed by a poisoned dagger (the 'Dagger of Darkness') and adds a unique element to the book - a poison track, which when topped out kills you. Interestingly it's not time that causes the poison to spread but exertion - which includes combat - so it puts a little spin on how to approach the book.

Anyhow - I started this book with I think my best ever stats roll (max skill / stamina) I also start the book stabbed and poisoned. A wizard named Astragal (it's not explained who this guy is, but he's a helpful wizard) drops me off at the border of Kazan, noting that the poison cannot be cured unless I hand the knife itself back to its maker (Chingiz). Oh, I'll give it back to him alright.
At the border to Kazan there's another Select, stabbed and dying, who warns be about some Mamliks, who appear to be a sort of steppe orc (I assume the name is a play on Mamluk) who stabbed him and rode off to the left before the poison dissolved him and his gear, leaving just a skeleton. Serious stuff! I don't listen to this properly and go left anyway as is my want, where I meet no Mamliks but an old crone in tattered finery who offers to pay me for some help. I'm supposed to be a noble type, so I agree and have to recover her chest of gold from two hellhounds - an easy fight, but one that increases my poison levels. I elect not to steal the gold myself and in return she gives me some cash and some hints about the maze of Uruz where I can find the first medallion. Score!
I head off the way she indicated and whilst stopping for some lunch get captured by a tribe of huntresses who offer me two tests to prove my worth (or die, ofc): 'Run the Arrow' or 'Three Cuts'. I've got great stats so choose the latter and am told I have to chop through three logs before a candle burns through some twine and I get shot with poisoned darts. This cool idea sadly turns out to be a random dice roll rather than a skill test and so I just die. This sucks, so I reroll and pass the test.
My reward is being shut in a hut with another old crone. This one tells me the Huntresses of Owlshriek believe their power stems from inflicting pain so even though I just passed the test I'm due to die anyway.. until she spots some leaves stuck to my hood and declares them to be a magic herb called Treffilli. She takes the herb, casts a spell, makes us both invisible and we can sneak out into the forest. This is probably the weakest bit of the book. The crone leads me to a clearing where an obvious coven of witches is gathered and they give me some more of the invisibility herb. It costs stamina to use, but I never get a chance to use it anyway.

I continue on, find a gem in my boot (??) and flog it at a trading post, fight off some muggers (increasing my poison score), dodge a couple of road encounters with Mamliks and the like and eventually wake one morning surrounded by a group of horsemen. These guys are the Bogomils and they're one of the Kazan tribes hereabouts. I identify myself as one of the Select and they decide to test me. The Bogomil test involves being staked out whilst a wild horse jumps over me a few times and again involves random dice rolling, but this time I'm lucky and pass first time. Impressed, the tribesmen give me a horse and ride with me to the village where I have to do another test: this time taming a wild horse. It's another dice roll test, but I'm able to stay on the horse's back and the Bogomil announce that I'm worthy of entering their maze. It dawns on me at this point that I've missed the Urguz maze entirely...

The maze is a selection of left / right choices. I stick mainly to West and North. There's some cryptic clues written on the walls here, suggesting something about a medallions weight. Midway through I see a woman up ahead crying and am given pause - in theory nobody else should be in here, because its a sacred maze - but I'm also a proud and noble Kazan and don't want to leave someone in pain. Unsurprisingly, it's a Mamlik in disguise, wearing the peeled off face of a lady! Not a tough fight, but poison levels are creeping upwards..
Eventually the maze terminates at an obelisk, decorated with horses, upon which the medallion hangs. A quick look at the obelisk reveals its trapped: small holes around the room will surely shoot darts, arrows or the like at me should I mess up. I'm told I can switch the medallion out for a purse and need to choose how much gold to put in it: thankfully the clues I've picked up in the maze give me the answer to this and one switch later the medallion is mine!
The medallions all have great power: if I lose a fight I can auto-win it, restarting on stamina 4, although it reduces my skill and luck by 1 and increases my poison score by 3. A real hail mary, then for desperate circumstances.

Emerging into the sunlight I'm hailed by the stoic Bogomils and sent on my way. The next morning I get a message from Astragal, conveyed in the form of a small bird, telling me the medallions are all claimed and I should now head for the capital, Sharrabbas, and make my play for the throne. The message is garbled and there's something about going to one person for help and on no account going to another, and I get one name - 'Vetch'. Unhelpful!
Using the map to help me I press towards Sharrabbass, keeping to the main road for ease of travel. Along the way I find the body of another Select, surrounded by slain trolls and orcs, and bearing a bloodied note that mentions 'Wolfsbane' in the street of guilds. Eventually I reach the capital: there are two trolls on the gate demanding bribes, and I don't have enough gold after leaving most of it back in the maze so am drawn into battle. This is a tough fight, and without my high skill would probably have been too much. As it is I'm wolfing down provisions and I (and the other happy residents, no longer being charged toll) make my way into the city over the bodies of the trolls.
The city streets are a lot more uninformed left / right choices as I wander the streets like some gawping bumpkin. At one point, seeing a crowd, I push through and am able to see Chingiz himself, born on a litter and surrounded by goblins, fierce tribesmen and great steppes cats. Someone in the crowd points out both Vetch and Wolfsbane - names I have heard. Vetch is a tough looking fighting man, and Wolfsbane a smith. The crowd seem to think Vetch should take out Chingiz, and I'm given the option of following one of them. I think this is a classic trick here: Vetch looks more useful, but I reckon he is the one Astragal told me not to ask for help: I'm guessing / hoping I'm not the only Select getting help here, and the other guys note saying to go to Wolfsbane was for aid, so I tail him, lose him but eventually wind up on the street of guilds anyway and head into his shop.
Wolfsbane denies knowing what I'm talking about but makes the secret sign of Astragal (its an A, unimaginatively) and writes down on a slate that I should go to the Dragons Wings Tavern. Spies are about! I leave, take a wrong turn and am ambushed by a couple of Chingiz's assassins who jump down on me from giant vultures. Surviving this unsubtle attack, but now low on provisions, I finally make it to the tavern where Wolfsbane is waiting for me with another wizard, Geronicus.

This pair reveal Chingiz has employed necromancers to spellblock the fortress and has by now slain all the other Select. I'm the only person who can beat Chingiz and his devilish (and previously not mentioned) daughter! Geronicus has some magic phials of potion that can get me in, and I have to choose one. I've got no clue which is which, so I pick one at random and when my two friends take me to the fortress wall I drink it and am able to pass through the stone. Hurrah!

I'm drawn to a room with a panel showing the six tribes sacred beasts, which niches for their medallions and a mysterious voice tells me to place the medallion I have in the appropriate spot. I pop my medallion in, and the way ahead opens into a room stuffed with bottles and reagents. This is the chamber of spells where I must pass a test of Gnossis by... randomly mixing ingredients together and drinking the results, twice. I do this and immediately die as I've created poison.
Unimpressed by this Luke Sharp-ism I decide to give myself another shot and this time my tinkering creates two nicer brews: a potion of super luck, and a potion of invulnerability to sword strikes! Feeling deeply chuffed I move on, am ambushed by Mamliks and their swords bounce off. They flee like the dogs they are and I stride proudly deeper into the tower.
The way ahead is blocked by 'dungeon beasts' and there are too many to fight them. I haven; drunk the potion of what I need to pass here, so have to go the other way, fighting four rubbish orcs (and pushing my poison levels higher still) before entering a room containing a scene of carnage: piles of dead Mamliks, orcs, trolls and men scattered about with a laughing wizard amidst it all. This is Zizzadek, the top necromancer, and he duly turns himself into a dragon and butchers me because he has SKILL 11 and tons of Stamina.
But wait! I have the medallion! I use its power and continue on.
But wait part 2! Writing this out, I've just realised I left the medallion in the wall when I used it to enter the inner fortress. At least I assume I did - I wasn't told to cross it off my adventure sheet but.. neither was I told I picked it up again? Which means I've probably cheated to win this playthrough. Erk.

With my last provisions eaten I move on where I'm ambushed by four gremlins - the personal guard of Chingiz. As you can imagine these guys aren't up to much, especially as I'm invulnerable to their swords, but fighting them whacks up my poison score to what is now dangerous levels. After busting down the next door get a cryptic message from the voice telling me the throne, not the sword, holds the kingdom together. Thanks voice. I kick down the next door - a solid gold one at that - and find Chingiz himself, sitting in bed. He congratulates me on getting this far and quick as I can I put the dagger into his hand, ridding myself of the poison and curse. Chingiz chuckles but before he can say more he slumps forward, a knife in his back!
Moving past the body I come upon the Throne of Sharrabass itself. Seated upon it is Meghan-na-Durr, the daughter of Chingiz, and before her are four ogre slaves. Like her father she offers insincere congratulations for my getting this far but denies me the throne - it is hers by right, as it was she that murdered her father - and I am next! She leaps from the throne, knife in hand, but I swat her weak attack aside and she collapses. Cursing me she releases her chained ogres but recalling the words of the Voice I sheathe my sword and instead step up and sit upon the throne - for no sword should be drawn in the shadow of the throne of Kazan. As I sit, the ogres collapse and Meghan herself crumbles to dust with a scream, cursed by the power of the land itself. I am lord of Kazan now, and under my rule the land will flourish. THE END



Surprisingly this book was both a lot of fun, and on the whole very forgiving. There's very, very few crucial items to find: just items that make your life easier, and the book rockets along, never dragging and moving from one encounter to the next. The setting is interesting and different and there's enough lore here to bring it to life: I had fun trying to act like a proud nomad type, and the best choices seemed to reflect that.

The bad side to the book is all that there's a lot of random roll-to-die moments - eg. roll 2 dice and then another two dice and if the first total you rolled is higher, you die - or another part where you roll two dice five times and die if you roll doubles. This is somewhat reminiscent of the one strike combat in CoM, and really sucks. Thankfully here it's spaced out and only happens a few times. The part where you have to mix the potions seemed very random to me, unless there's a clue along the way that I missed. There's also a lot of 'go left or go right' choices that feel a bit like you're blundering around in the dark, but because there's multiple paths through the book its rare that you go the wrong way and lock yourself out of future success.

Art is by Martin McKenna and is wonderful. I always associate his work with a certain era of White Dwarf / Warhammer and he's got the same aesthetic here: dark images, great monsters and grubby, down at heel humans in an unforgiving fantasy world. There are some great images here including some kind of horrible Rawhead Rex thing in a swamp that I didn't find.

Overall not a classic, but definitely a fun play and way better than the authors previous effort - and it being fairly straightforward I played it twice with different choices and won again (there's a potion you can mix that lets you dodge the Dragon fight) - or perhaps won fairly the second time? Oops.

[Trooper McFad]

Boots another great read/play through for the non Gamers. Whether it's a good book or not your play throughs are always interesting and your descriptions always bring it to life.

How long does a play through usually take?

[Barrington Boots]

Thank you mate, very kind words!

These usually take me an hour or two, depending on how many times I die and if I do, do I restart or just cheat and handwave it away. It's a lot quicker if you're not taking notes! I often play them in chunks during quiet periods whilst wfh.
With a really hard book, it can take ages, especially if you're mapping them out. I felt like I was playing House of Hell forever.

[Richard]

Another entertaining write-up! It does sound like a better book than I had expected it to be.

[Colin YNWA]

Daggers of Darkness

... the cover features a warrior with a hawk, an eyepatch and a tiger codpiece surfing on two sabretooth tigers and wielding a spiked mace with two smaller spiked maces attached to it, morning star style....

There is so much wrong and yet so much right about that cover. I mean after reading that decription can anyone honestly say they've not looked it up? AMAZING!

[Richard]

Here it is without logos:

[Le Fink]

Here it is without logos:

Ha, brilliant. Thanks for posting 

[Funt Solo]

Here it is without logos:

Ha, brilliant. Thanks for posting 

There is a sense, if you focus on his expression, that he's completely shitting it.

[Colin YNWA]

And the tigers are only there to try to get cast in an Esso advert!

[Blue Cactus]

As a kid I saw this cover plenty of times and just thought it was a standard cool FF image. It was only once I looked at it again years later I thought what the hell is actually going on there! The guy's got skills, to be fair. Not sure if the Eagle is attacking him?

[Barrington Boots]

There is a sense, if you focus on his expression, that he's completely shitting it.

HOW DO I STOP THESE TIGERS FUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK

I can't find where this guy appears in the book. I was hoping I'd be able surf the tigers myself, all the way to victory.