Gamebooks

[Barrington Boots]

I don't imagine I'll ever give gamebooks another go, but I've really taken to these write-ups.
Please carry on.

It shall be done.

Creature of Havoc: Attempt 2
I awaken again, confused and in pain. Hearing the sniffling of the wounded dwarf up the passageway I lumber up to him, but this time raise my foot over his head - he screams in horror as I stamp on him and then rifle through his meagre possessions with my clumsy claws, tearing his clothing and pouches apart to get into them. I don't understand what most of the things he carries are, but I am fascinated by a strange hide covered with markings and decide to take it with me.
I wander West until I hear noises up ahead and rush towards the source of the sound with claws and teeth bared. It's three adventurers - a human in clinking armour, another in soft red robes, and a little hobbit. Unable to control myself I fall upon the hobbit and kill him but before I can eat him I must deal with the other two humans. A luck test see's me blind the wizard with a single swipe before battling the other and crushing him with my great strength. It is then simple to finish off the wizard as he crawled blinded about the floor and eat him and the hobbit both whilst they are still warm.
Wandering further west, swiping at tiny, squeaking flying beasts, I find a door but wander off, returning only after I have been struck in the eye by a bat, reducing my Skill temporarily. Furious I rush to the door and knock it down, finding some strange creatures within eating the remains of some orcs and adventurers. I make short work of these, then decline to eat the carrion - the orcs and humans are too long dead - but in my fumbling break a vial that one carried releasing a strange vapour within that forms a face and speaks to me. I cannot understand the words, and swipe at it angrily until it fades. Although I do not know it, I have inhaled one of the three magic vapours of Stittle Woad, granting me the power of reason, and my actions are no longer randomly determined.
I continue wandering without direction, chancing upon three more human adventurers and making short work of them. One was wearing an ugly pendant which fascinates me - I take it and force it over my huge neck.
Leaving the rest of their rubbish behind I descend a cliff over a stinking underground river, taking care with my giant feet on the human-sized steps, turn West, because I like going west, then amble around the dungeon complex looking for food or a fight. Hitting a dead end, the stolen pendant glows and hums, revealing a secret door, which I pass through and find a room full of strange boxes. The boxes smell bad: I bust one open and discover a dead creature inside - that is not so dead after all! I cannot understand its words but am mesmerised by its dreadful gaze as it forces me from the room, my physical statistics much reduced by its dire curse.
After more nocturnal wanderings where I cross a bridge and kill a 'Manic Beast' - some kind of flesh-eating crazed shaggy humanoid which tastes bitter and not to my liking - I find a room with voices inside and hoping for more hobbits, burst in only to find it empty - before a mysterious voice rings out, speaking first in languages I do not understand before suddenly, miraculously, making sense! The voice promises me some juicy hobbits and information if I come into its alcove, but peeking in I see a scene not to my liking and instead lumber off. After being strangely bathed in Elven dust I head South where I fall foul of a sort of living pit trap that moves and swallows me up, sending to me to my death.

Attempts 3, 4 and 5.
After blundering to my death twice due to random movement, I decide to restart after getting the power of reason from now on. This time I try a different route, kill and eat three more hobbits, but wander into a room full of bugs who do not like their nest to be poked by clawed monsters. They flare up, blinding me, and I stagger out into another deadly trap.

Attempt 6
I restart from the power of reason part again, take a different route and fall down a hole into a dark, straw-filled room where I get the choice of a crystal rock or a shield. I take the latter - it will help with my reduced skill from the bat impact. I keep wandering, going West where possible, until I run into another pair of armed humans and make short work of them. One of them carefully put down a sack before combat, so I upend it, smashing another bottle and releasing another odd vapour.  This one gives me the gift of language and enables me to translate the words of others (via a code) although I cannot speak. After translating the hide I took from the dwarf at the start, which talks about finding the three vapours, I head off, encounter a Rhino Man who, now I can understand speech, gives me a message for his mate should I ever meet him (I never do) and some advice on where to go. After more maze-navigation I end up in a room with a blind, aged human and two orcs. After I finish killing the puny orcs the human, not knowing what I am, begs for help - he is Hannicus, servant of Zharradan Marr (the main bad guy, a vivisectionist wizard dude) and the former custodian of these tunnels and mines, who was displaced by the half-elf lich Darramouss as per the long book intro when Marr grew weary of him. He offers to guide me to Darramouss, warns me of the Chattermatter (the tempting voice from playthrough 2) and gives me a magic ring which, when smashed, will do something cool that proves fatal to Darramouss. He asks for the ring back but, seeing no value in this human now, I just take it and leave him to his fate.
From here I'm back in the room with the boxes. This time, instead of opening them, I hurl them into the river, delighting myself as the reader in the knowledge that they were full of undead witches. I avoid the manic beast, bust into some kind of library and read up on Marr, discovering he prefers to live in a weird netherworld dimension within a magic mirror, and that said mirror should only be destroyed by a crystal club - looks like I missed that, oops!
Next I find an orb, within which Darrmouss appears and threatens me, so I run off. My dead-end spotting amulet reveals another secret door to me, within which is a room full of skeletons. I wander in, the door closes and am forced to stay there until I die. Death!

Attempt 7
I restart at the power of reason, this time get the crystal club, but then try a different route and get killed by an animated shadow after I try to make friends with it, a choice I only made because I thought my godzilla / Klegg monster trying to make friends with anything would be hilarious.

Attempt 8
Restart as usual, get the club, kill the humans and get the power of language, retrace my steps to Hannicus and take his ring, throw the boxed witches in the river, go to the library, this time take Hannicus's advice though and go past the Chattermatter, get bathed in Elven dust, find another secret door and end up running into Darramouss himself. He is stunned that I have acquired understanding of language, and takes his time sneering at me and telling me I was created by Zarradan Marr as an experiment. He offers me the choice of servitude in Marr's mines or death - neither good options - so I smash open Hannicus's ring and sweet smelling holy gas flows out and kills off the undead taskmaster befor ehe can flee. Hurray!
I've made progress but I still don't really know where I'm going, so I continue to blunder about, kill a few things and eat them before finding a big iron door. I knock, a dark elf answers and starts asking why I'm here and not in the mines, so I bust in and rip him up but not before he summons help. I end up caught in a loop, bouncing between the same few paragraphs with endless reinforcements pouring in until I am overwhelmed and die.

Attempt 9
This time I restart after I kill Darramouss and take a different route and head down to the mines. It's full of evil types forcing enslaved humans, elves etc to work for Marr's war effort. I don't think I'll be welcome here, so I try to creep about but as you'd guess I'm not very stealthy - I run into a hobbit, who of course I kill, and wind up joining the ranks of the slaves.

More of this later, when I finally get to the surface and proceed to die in more terrible ways!

[Richard]

18 is a respectable score for such a hard book!

I was however glad to have to stop translating paragraphs out of their coded writing.

I wish I'd remembered that earlier -- I still have my translations from the last time I played this book years ago! It's too late to help you now, but I'll leave them here in case others want them. Sorry about that!

Para 7
[spoiler]"Have mercy upon a blind man whoever you are. If you are friend then lead me from this place. If you are foe then leave me be. You are strangely silent. Who are you. Do you understand me. My god intruder. If your plan is to do away with me then do it quickly. Otherwise be off with you.[/spoiler]

Para 79
[spoiler]"Yellowstone Mines this way."[/spoiler]

Para 86
[spoiler]"Control its mind shaman! It may be able to lead us to that Swinebeard cur!"[/spoiler]

Para 104
[spoiler]"Over here. Come here if you want to learn of great riches in these parts. Do you understand the human tongue? Perhaps then you speak the troll language..."[/spoiler]

Para 147
[spoiler]"I have been awakened from my slumber! Who calls on the vapour of tongues. The heavenly bodies have taken their positions. My gift is granted. For better or for worse my release bestows on you the understanding you desire. May you use your gift wisely."[/spoiler]

Para 155
[spoiler]"Foolish creature. Did you think you could thieve the orb of Daramouss? None may touch my sacred crystal for it is my eyes and ears. And my weapons as you shall see.[/spoiler]

Para 160
[spoiler]"Control its mind shaman! It may be able to lead us to that Swinebeard cur!"[/spoiler]

Para 185
[spoiler]"Leave me alone."[/spoiler]

Para 192
[spoiler]"Biography of Z Marr page ninety three:... thus came Marr to abandon the physical world and take refuge in his own. A strange netherworld which occupies no space in the world we mortals know. A world of illusion in which where he appears to be he is not. And a world in which those searching for him would instead find themselves. He has but one weakness in his new world and that is a crystal club which may be used to destroy forever the gateway between our world and his." If at some time in the future you believe you have located the entrance to Marr's netherworld deduct the page number above from the reference you are on at the time and turn to this reference. If you are correct you will meet the necromancer. For having the good fortune to find this parchment you may restore your luck score to its Initial level.[/spoiler]

Para 217
[spoiler]Who disturbs the rest of the cursewitches. Foul creature you dabble with what you do not understand. None may interfere with our peace save for Zharradan Marr the master. You must be taught to respect the sleep of the undead and you must be made to feel the wrath of the cursewitches."[/spoiler]

Para 241
[spoiler]"Who is it. What is happening. What has disturbed us. Please god release this black eye curse."[/spoiler]

Para 337
[spoiler]"Swinebeard of Yore. You have been found guilty of the crime of wilful and malicious arson a most serious offence in the dry region of Salamonis. As punishment you are sentenced to undertake a perilous mission of recovery. You must travel northwards and enter the underground domain of Zharradan Marr there to seek out and recover flasks containing swirling vapours. These are the vapours of Stittle Woad. You must find the three flasks containing these vapours and return them to this court. ON NO ACCOUNT MUST THEY BE OPENED. This is the sentence of the court and the geas has been caset. This is your punishment. You must succeed in your mission or die in the attempt."

"Vapour of knowledge / - Flaxenmane of Silverton = / - Winged helmet.[/spoiler]

Para 364
[spoiler]"Keep away from me."[/spoiler]

Para 369
[spoiler]"Your progress has been watched foul creature of destruction. So far you have done well though you know not why or what. But you have caused two of the vapours to be lost. Zharradan Marr himself has decreed your destiny. You shall remain in his dungeons and do my bidding. For I am Daramouss your master." If you can understand him turn to reference ninety. "Your first order is this. Report for duty at the Yellowstone Mines. Leave now and head there immediately. I will be watching."[/spoiler]

Para 382
[spoiler]"I am released from my rest. Foul creature what do you know of the forces with which you tamper. But nonetheless my purpose is ordained. I bestow on you the power of reason. From now on you are in control of your own destiny. And now - may I return to my peaceful rest until once more the heavens take their positions."[/spoiler]

Para 392
[spoiler]"You are now under my control foul creature."

"All my wishes are your commands. Gather my comrades and follow me!"[/spoiler]

Para 425
[spoiler]"Yellowstone Mines. Sergeants and slaves only."

"No need to boil your blood. What is it you want in the mines. If its work then come back tomorrow. A few of the slaves will doubtless die today."[/spoiler]

Para 435
[spoiler]"Come on then. What business have you here. Answer quickly." If you can understand the creature turn immediately to reference sixty two. "Lost your tongue eh. Then begone. Be off with you before I decide to have a little battle practice."[/spoiler]

Para 441
[spoiler]"Yellowstone Mines this way."[/spoiler]

[Richard]

I try to make friends with it, a choice I only made because I thought my godzilla / Klegg monster trying to make friends with anything would be hilarious.

You've been reading too many Sensitive Klegg stories!

[Barrington Boots]

You've been reading too many Sensitive Klegg stories!

Can such a thing be?
That's awesome work on the translations, thank you - incredibly useful for anyone else attempting it. I'm a big fan of how if you go back and translate the early stuff it links some stuff together, eg. the first set of adventurers you meet are looking for the dwarf, who in turn is looking for the guy that the little invisible monsters are eating.
And I think it would have taken me way more than 18 attempts had I not made liberal use of 'save points' for restarting to stop myself going nuts playing it over the course of a week!

[Barrington Boots]

Second part of my Creature of Havoc playthrough...

Attempt 10
To avoid lengthy replaying, and given most combats are no threat to me, I decide to restart after killing Darramouss. This time I attempt to blag my way out of the dungeon by nodding and offering a toothy grin when asked if I'm allowed to pass. The guard asks me to give a secret a sign: I don't know this, so I just stand there and very fortunately for me he runs off to check with Darramouss (who I melted) and then comes back, says he can't find him and offers to let me past if I give him my secret door finding amulet. I happily hand this over, he unlocks a huge door and soon I'm climbing the steps to the surface! At last my bat-inflicted injury is healed! Once my eyes have adjusted to the moonlight I find myself standing in a field full of strange stones. This being an obvious graveyard I decide against any vandalism / exploration here and instead head off to the ruined church where I am shocked to encounter three sinister hags - the witch women of Dree!
The witches are not afraid of me and instead begin cackling about destiny and the like, but the price of their aid will be to bring them some Sculliweed root. I have no clue what this is, but so I nod and smile at them too until they fade away into nothingness.
The next day I head West, but a mysterious talking raven warns me off continuing that way and figuring it may be a beast of the witches I heed its advice and turn around and slump off to the cursed village of Dree. This place is foul beyond belief: many of the inhabitants are obvious crones, whilst the rest are hideous mutants or Moreaux-like creations, hopping or crawling in the streets like animals, reaching for me with septic, oozing limbs and gurgling as they cannot speak. It's a place of horror and as I am making my way through its streets without warning I am seized, caught in a net and harvested whilst still alive for my organs (frustrated I cheat, go back a paragraph to take a different route and still die. There's nothing but death in Dree)

Attempt 11
This time I check out the graveyard, walk on the wrong grave and predictably set off a horde of zombies. Attempting to escape via a tunnel back down into the dungeon I end up dropping into a huge furnace and being burned alive.

Attempt 12
I skip to the surface, get the quest from the witches and this time make my way to the village of Coven. I know from the intro this lies within Marr's territory, and I suppose for that reason the people don't seem that bothered to have a giant monster strolling about. I decide to go see an aged apothecary, hoping he can help me with finding this mysterious root: he is brewing some concoction and tries to keep me waiting for ages until I lose my rag and throw his boiling potion in his face, blinding him. His whimpers anger me so I put him out of his misery, eat him, and head out of Coven. On the way out I find a dead half orc, so I sling him over my shoulder in case I want to eat him later too.
I soon find a small hut - entering (presumably dragging my half eaten half orc with me) I am greeted by Rosina of Dree, another witch, who offers to tell my fortune. I took some money from the orc, and now understand the concept of money, so I agree. She is remarkably calm to read cards for a huge carnivorous monster and gives me lots of foreshadowing - she is also able to see that I am on a quest for her sisters and tells me the Sculliweed root is blue, before gifting me a magic rope to aid me. I sleep rough, and the next day avoid a tricked out signpost that would have sent me back to Dree and head into the muddy swamps where the object of my quest must surely grow.
There are large, webbed footprints here which I follow - straight into some quicksand. As a large, uncoordinated creature it looks like I'm doomed until I remember - magic rope! I use the rope to escape, although it is lost, and press deeper into the murk, eventually encountering a monstrous Toadman - a creature almost as large as me. Obviously I kill it, but before long the swamps are full of toadmen and I fall to their numbers before being dropped into the quicksand for another horrible end.

Attempt 13
In an attempt to avoid burnout, I skip to Coven, don't visit the apothecary but instead head west out of the village. This time I am surprised to see a fight in progress: a half orc, presumably the one whose corpse I was dragging about earlier, is in the process of being beaten to death by a human whist a crowd cheers him on. I've tried to embrace being a monster so far so without warning I leap into the fray and disembowel the human with a single (lucky) swipe of my claws. This means out come the pitchforks, so the half orc and I leg it. Once a safe distance away he introduces himself as Grognag Clawtooth - he's practically a beggar, and not exactly a decent sort, admitting he'd have left me to die where I him and that the human was attacking him for eating his dog alive. He suggests we stick together, and the book here uses a neat little mechanic whereby instructions to turn to certain paragraphs change if he is with me and he gives a comment like 'maybe we shouldn't go that way'. He retrieves a mysterious bag of 'family heirlooms' from where he had previously hidden it and starts chatting away, asking where I am headed and what I am after. Eventually working out I am looking for someone he suggests we head off to see Rosina. Back on track!
After having my fortune told, Grog and I head into the swamp, where he proves his worth by helping me avoid quicksand (I'm just thumping about like an idiot) and steering me away from the toadman encounter. Grog is useful!  We pick the flowers - remembering they are the blue ones - and then get ambushed again by toadmen. I think Grog has fled and am just about to go down under weight of numbers again when he leaps out in a flanking attack and flying kicks the toadman chief into the quicksand, scattering the stupid toadmen. Yes! Sadly in doing this Grog has taken a trident to the neck and dies in my arms. No! Groooooog! I take his bag and run off whilst the toadmen are in toad turmoil. It contains a wooden box with a vial inside it, but I am too clumsy to open it with my monster sausage fingers. I keep it with me anyway. RIP Grog, absolutely the most useful Mungo for ages.
That night the witch women appear to me in a dream. Having brought them the Sculliweed, they reveal to me that they seek the downfall of Zharradan Marr, although 'he is their creation as I am his': they instruct me to get close to Marr to defeat him, and to seek out the elf Daga Weaseltongue in Knott Oak Wood who will help me do that. As you'd guess from his name he is a famous liar so they give me a ring to compel truths from him and tell me to ride the Ophidiotaur to find him. Eh?
I awaken in Knott Oak Wood where I soon find a gigantic dinosaur. Electing not to attack for once, I make friends with the creature, and it leads me deeper into the forest where an elf is beating beaten up by brigands. It's an easy task to kill the brigands. Daga, for it is he, immediately starts lying, but the ring of truth puts him right and he is compelled to tell me about how to get to Marr via his huge magic flying pirate ship, the Galleykeep. I have two options: find the testing grounds, where Marr will be recruiting crew for the Galleykeep, or (and this sounds like the way worse way) find a trap they've laid for animals and get myself caught in it: it's like a snare or net attached to a trebuchet like device that will sort of catapult me onto the Galleykeep and then go on the rampage. This idea is mad. He also gives me a confusing riddle to enable me to find Marr when onboard.
Sadly there is no option here to kill and eat Daga so I let him go. Deciding to look for the testing grounds I eventually wind up caught in a trap and dangling upside down from a tree. I hang there all night until the Galleykeep arrives and in my weakened state they guillotine me and harvest me for meat. Grim!

Attempt 14
I restart at Daga and try a different path through the forest. Here I encounter a hapless hobbit, tied up and left to die. He pleads to be let live, saying he will tell me all about the paths ahead, so I cut the little chap down, only for my instinct to take over and to suddenly kill and eat him instead. I head deeper and deeper into the woods only to find the path twisting and vanishing behind me. I am being herded by the trees themselves, who don't like monsters in their forest, and they proceed to turn me into fertilizer.

Attempt 15, 16
Restart at Daga, different route, this time I spot the Galleykeep but fail a luck test and end up back in a snare. This time however I am not weakened, and when the ship grows near I activate the trap to catapult myself up to it in what has to be the maddest bit of the book. Some goblins bring me in and make to guillotine me, but I quickly slay them and charge below where I am given the choice of five doors.
Suffice to say Daga's riddle is not much help and I choose the wrong door twice. Each time this kills me in a suitably crazy way, from being stuck in a sealed room with a curse that forces me to kill and eat anyone who comes in to battling Quimmel Bone the undying (any relation to Zanbar Bone?) in a fight that literally can never end until I run out of stamina.
Can we just take a minute here to acknowledge that I have catapulted myself onto a giant flying magic pirate ship. So cool.

Attempt 17
I chose the right door this time but ended up playing with a telescope like an idiot until I got caught by hobgoblins. Less said about this one the better.

Attempt 18 - Victory!
FINALLY! REstart on the Gallyekeep. I choose the right door and find myself in what appears to be a disused naval captain's cabin, its contents thick with dust and cobwebs. I'm shocked to see a monster inside but it turns out this is just a mirror. Who lives in a mirror? Zharradan Marr! I concentrate on the mirror and Marr appears before me, sitting smugly in his mirror dimension. He chuckles evilly as he reveals he is delighted that I was able to get to the Galleykeep and confront him - for this means I am the perfect blueprint for more monsters to be created to form his evil army (if this was a test it was a poor one). He monologues away, revealing that I was once the captain of the Galleykeep before Marr captured it and subjected me to his awful experiments that made me a monster. He implies that others of my crew where also experimented upon, made anew and dropped into his dungeon - a nasty little twist that means I was killing and eating all my friends at the start of the book. As I stand in shock he leans half out of the mirror and demands that I give him none other than Grog's bag. It seems I've brought him the third and most powerful of the vapours, which will grant him eternal life! How on earth did Grog get that?
(I did peek to see what happens if you give him the box here. Marr makes me his general and we go on the rampage. It's a sort of win, but instead...)
..I refuse to give him the vial. Enraged, Marr starts to cast a spell, but the Elven dust I encountered all that time ago, and had totally forgotten about, disrupts his power momentarily. Marr starts yelling threats and promises of riches, I whip out the crystal club and smash his mirror to bits, trapping him in a limbo dimension for all eternity! In your face Zharradan Marr! Weirdly Marr knew all about big chunks of my adventure but not that I had the club or had been in the Elf dust, the big dope.

Weirdly I then turn back into a human and take over the Galleykeep again! Hooray, I guess! It's full of monsters who apparently 'will obey me' even though I'm now a weak, naked human and their numbers include the likes of undead vivisection king Quimmel Bone and something called the Master of Hellfire. This bit felt a bit like a tacked on happy ending tbh but what the heck.

What a great book!

[Richard]

What a great write-up! I almost feel like I've just re-read the book. I think I'll still give it a go myself soon. It certainly is one of the best.

The catapult to the Galleykeep must have felt like a swashbuckling Indiana Jones moment! (The Galleykeep is cool, there's a brilliant illustration of it in The Trolltooth Wars.)

You were right to go that way; the [spoiler]training grounds[/spoiler] are a dead end if I recall correctly.

[Barrington Boots]

Thanks for the kind words. You should definitely play it: I'm of the opinion everyone should play it tbh but I'm a big nerd. Up to a point I assumed I'd missed something vital at the [spoiler]training grounds[/spoiler], as I had the number puzzle from the rhino man to use there.

I'm reading the Trolltooth Wars at the moment on my commute!

[Richard]

Even though that's not a gamebook you should still write us a review when you've finished it!

[Dark Jimbo]

I need to go back again to Creature of Havoc. I attempted something like 8 playthroughs before I fell off the FF wagon late last summer, and just about made it to the end of the opening dungeon (having to break my own rule and make a map in order to do so). Didn't bother with the usual write-up as it's not the usual sort of book! Needless to say it's rather superb, though - something really quite special within the series, and a more than worthy swansong for Steve Jackson.

In many ways it feels like the (normally quite fair) Steve doing an Ian Livingstone – there's plenty of insta-death choices to be made, and given the random die rolls at the start, you experiencing plenty of them! It also feels – although I don't know – as though there's maybe a One True Path at work, too. He even borrows the new mechanic from Trial of Champions (i.e. Roll a die. 1-4 go to X. 5-6 go to Y.) But whereas all this turned me off from Sir Ian's books – 2 attempts apiece at Deathtrap Dungeon and Trial of Champions were enough for me – I kept going with Creature of Havoc, compelled by the unusual narrative. If I'd been the usual leather-armoured adventurer trying to track down an evil sorcerer I'm not sure I'd have bothered. 7.5 combat dice out of 10 (maybe higher if I can get a bit further and see what it was all about!)

[Richard]

It just gets better and better.

[Barrington Boots]

Even though that's not a gamebook you should still write us a review when you've finished it!

I finished The Trolltooth Wars yesterday and I have to say this is on the whole a bad book. It's just not very well written: the prose is fairly basic and very dry, with little sense of character, atmosphere, tension or excitement. The protagonist is a unlikeable thug and his sidekick is annoying. The third member of the party, who gets bigged up as this super adventurer, is a total chump. The plot is fairly straightforward, and the ending is a deus ex machina move of the very worst sort.

As a big FF nerd however, I did really enjoy all the references to old FF lore: places, characters and creatures and especially the fleshing out of Marr, Dire and Zagor, and to see things in a wider context than the specific books where they appear. The three sorcerers are easily better and more interesting characters than Darkmane and if the whole book had just alternated chapters about them would have been a lot better. The battle at the pass itself was cool. I'm not really sure where this is set in terms of FF timeline? You'd think it would be before Warlock, Chaos or Havoc, but I'm pretty sure Roue is implied to be alive in the latter and he dies here.
The art is also absolutely stupendous though and more than worth the few pounds I paid for the book. Fantastic rendition of the Galleykeep especially.

I'd probably recommend it to someone deep in the fandom as then all the worldbuilding is a delight and you can overlook what a slog big chunks of it are to read. To a casual reader it would likely be tedious nonsense and should be avoided at all costs. Bit of a mixed bag then!

[Richard]

Oh dear! I think I enjoyed it more than you did!

I think the only way to reconcile this book with Creature of Havoc is to say that your character winning CoH is the non-canonical ending, and actually you never make it back to the Galleykeep! Which is a bit bleak, but statistically speaking entirely likely.

[Barrington Boots]

Sorry dude! What I was trying to put across was that I enjoyed it, but also thought it was objectively pretty bad, if that makes sense. I think the setup - the two warring wizards, the Galleykeep and so on - is great.
Have you read the graphic novel version of the book? I spotted it on Etsy.

I think the only way to reconcile this book with Creature of Havoc is to say that your character winning CoH is the non-canonical ending, and actually you never make it back to the Galleykeep! Which is a bit bleak, but statistically speaking entirely likely.

This makes a ton of sense, especially as any other reading would have Marr being trapped in his mirror twice!

Anyway I'm playing some Lone Wolf before I move onto Nightmare Castle, which gives everyone more time to play CoH and write up their inevitable deaths.

[Richard]

The graphic novel artwork looks a bit too cartoony for my tastes, especially compared with the illustrations in the prose novel.

I'm a bit worried about Russ Nicholson actually; he hasn't blogged in nearly three years. I hope he hasn't died!

[Barrington Boots]

Someone told me he was supposed to be at Fighting Fantasy Fest last year but couldn't attend due to health, but I've just had a dig around on the internet and can't find any mention of him being announced so that may not have been correct. I'm pretty sure he's still with us though!