Lone Wolf: Death is in the Cards

[johntfs]

I'm going to do a full run-through of the Lone Wolf books using my card method and the alternate Healing method.

Feb 23, 2010 2:28:38 GMT johntfs said:

Feb 22, 2010 18:14:33 GMT pi4t said:

A couple of people have pointed out problems with healing/curing. In the Dark One amateur series it uses the rule that after each combat you restore 1-10 Endurance (though it can't go above the Endurance you had before the start of the combat) instead of +1 per section. (Note that you cannot heal until you reach a section without combat, so you can still suffer through sections of back-to-back combat)

I quite like that rule. I think I'll keep it for my next play-through.

Another thing I'm going to do is use a deck of cards instead of dice or the books' tables. I remove all but three of the face cards and Jokers, leaving Aces through Tens in the deck, along with the Jack of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts and King of Spades. I designate Jack of Diamonds as Kai, the Queen of Hearts as Ishir and the King of Spades as Naar. The Aces count as 1 and the Tens as 10 or zero according to the situation. Once a card is drawn, it is placed in a discard pile.

The three Face cards are special, representing the interest of the various gods they represent in the happenings in Aon. Drawn as part of a non-combat (including bowfire) random number check they directly modify the check for good or ill (if an instant death situation would result on a 9, Kai would give you a -2 instead of a +2). Kai grants a +2 (or -2) bonus. Ishir grants +3/-3 and Naar curses you with -4/+4. After a face card is drawn, another card is also drawn and this continues until a non-face card is drawn. If more than one face card is drawn, their bonuses/penalties are totaled and then applied.

In combat, the face cards have different effects. The card is drawn and left face up as the God influences the combat. Kai adds +2 to LWs Combat Score throughout the battle. Ishir adds a "phantom" +3 EP to LW and losses are taken from these EP first. Naar adds +4 CS to LW's enemies for the duration of the battle.

Once one or more Face cards have been drawn and their influence on a "Die check" or combat has been resolved, the deck, including the cards in the discard pile are reshuffled into the deck. The deck is also reshuffled at the beginning of any new book.

For the purposes of this run-through I'm going to endure another handicap - no extra gold will be given at the beginning of the adventures. You roll over what you got in your previous adventure, but get nothing extra. And yes, that means that I will start Flight from the Dark without any gold (unless it's the extra item that comes up on the Random Equipment pick).

While I was doing this before, I screwed up and got killed in The Jungle of Horrors due to poor decision-making more than anything else, so I'm trying again.

I'll play through each book and summarize the play-through, making sure to note the appearences of the various "Gods" as I do so.

[Dave]

I like the sound of this... The god-cards will add a nice twist.

[askhati]

...what about a card to represent Alyss?

[johntfs]

Joe Dever can have Alyss play God - but I refuse to.

[askhati]

Whahahahaha!

I was thinking that you could change the gods depending on the setting that LW is visiting:

Good deities:
1) Kai - always, as he is the patron deity of LW and his order
2) a random benevolent god operating in the district LW is visiting - an Elder Magi god when entering Castle Death, an Eruan god when advancing on Torgar, etc etc.

Evil deities:
1) Naar - always, since he and Kai have been at loggerheads for a while
2) a corresponding random evil god from the creatures in the region that LW is visiting - a Cener god when entering Ruel, a Drakkar god when entering Lencia in book 15, etc etc

It would add some interesting twists to the already-interesting effect of the cards!

For that matter, I would actually be more interested in seeing a Good and Evil deity from each book, and what their effects would be on both their champions and their opponents.

[johntfs]

Well, my thing is that Kai is a God who is always with Lone Wolf. And Ishir is with Kai and seems to have a greater influence over the whole world. Meanwhile, Naar seems to be stronger than they are individually, but together they seemed to have an advantage over him. Also, I don't want the Gods just popping up all the time. A God coming into play helps turn even a mundane situation into something more.

I mostly set it up the way I did to give LW a slightly compensation for the fact that the "good cards" could get used up over time. Thus, he has a two to one chance of getting a good God to help him out. However, when Naar does show up, he brings a powerful negative influence to bear.

Also, I'm making another Rules Change. Assuming you survive to get through The Masters of Darkness, Lone Wolf could potentially be carrying The Silver Bow of Duadon, The Sommerswerd, The Dagger of Vashna, The Sword, Helshezag and a Jewelled Mace along with two normal weapons. Given that, it seems absurd to limit Lone Wolf to carrying only two weapons.

Therefore, I now allow Lone Wolf to carry up to four Weapons and Weapon-like Special Items. Weapon-like Special Items are listed and carried as Weapons.

[johntfs]

So first I draw for my stats. I get lucky with a 9 for my Combat Skill, giving me a 19. I then draw Ishir (Queen of Hearts) and a 7. Since my Endurance is limited to a maximum of 29, I don't get the full benefit of my draw, but that's okay. I now reshuffle the deck since a God appeared.

Next, I pick my Basic Disciplines of Sixth Sense, Healing, Weaponskill (which ends up being Axe), Mindshield and Mindblast. I write down my initial equipment and pick another card, resulting in the Helmet. Then I begin the adventure proper.

I have Sixth Sense and could go get Banedon, but I decide to head south instead, since I've never done that before. I fight a bear and search his cave, finding 15 crowns, a Silver Key and, eventually, a cranky old Druid. Fortunately, my Sixth Sense tells me to run, so I do and leave unharmed. I even find a dead Kraan and Giak who are dead from arrow fire. I wonder why I can't have a bow until five books from now, but I get a little compensation in the form of 3 gold crowns.

Eventually I join a line of refugees and end up fighting some Giaks. Naar pops up during the battle, turning it from an easy win to a bit of a fight. I still win, though and reshuffle the deck.

A troupe of guards brings me to the Prince just in time for me to get his sword and battle a Gourgaz to the death. Its death, luckily. Soon followed by the Prince's. I choose to avoid a fight with a bunch of Giaks and Doomwolves and soon find myself near Holmgard. After considering the matter carefully, I decide to go through the Graveyard of the Ancients. After all, surely its evil reputation is overblown, right?

It's not. My Sixth Sense warns me not to screw with the coffin and I eventually find myself in a room with a throne. I sit down to rest for a bit and get handed a Golden Key by the freaky statue next to it. At which point I leave. Rapidly. The Golden Key unlocks a door and I leave even more rapidly, much to the amusement of whatever scary Thing truly rules the Graveyard.

Finally, I'm in Holmgard. A soldier offers to show me to the palace, but I figure that as a Kai Lord (even a teenage one) my sense of direction must be better than his, right? Not so much. I get confronted by an old crazy person (who is not Bill O'Reilly, but still) and duck into a shop to avoid him. My Sixth Sense warns me about the place, but I want some magical doohickies, or at least a couple of potions. But I get attack instead. Fortunately I kill my attacker and the merchant running the place runs away. At which point I gleefully loot the place of its 16 crowns. At this point I choose to take the "Roofways" to the palace and finally get to see the King and tell him that as bad as he thinks things are, they're even worse. Oh, and that his kid is dead, too.

At this point, the King tell me to go to Durenor and grab the Flaming Sword of Fire before Krod Mandoon realizes it's missing. Should be a piece of cake, right?

[johntfs]

For FotW I decide to be a little contrary and pick Tracking for my next skill since I figure that LW's cross-country journey gave him a chance to practice that ability. For my equipment, I choose a Meal and a Shield. I still have 34 Crowns in my purse.

So I go to the docks and meet "Ronan" almost (darn the luck) killing him when he grabs me. I then follow up by using Mindblast on him. At which point he sics his thugs on me (which I probably deserve after the abuse I put him through, I suppose). I kill them fairly quickly and head to the Green Scepter.

While there, a longboat is rescue and I get to yell "Fire!" I also win a game Samar with the Captain, boosting my purse to 44 Gold before I dodge a falling mast and the ship sinks. Out in the water, I consider flagging down a fishing boat, but decide against it since I have no weapons and they might be part of the Conspiracy (getting a ship sunk out from under me makes me paranoid).

I manage to make to shore, get spooked (or warned) by wolves and sleep in a tree. I'm hungry, so I get some fruit. After flagging down a coach, I get to Ragadorn and ultimately head to Sage street to buy a dagger and then an over priced ticket to Port Bax. As we set out, Naar comes into play, costing me a Gold crown and denying me a chance to get some Laumspur. And then somebody tries to kill me. Never trust a priest.

After beating Parsion and swiping his gold, I head out into the wild and starve a little because I stupidly failed to take Hunting. Despite all attempts to discourage me, I try to help the speared fellow, who then tries to kill me. But I get this nifty Spear which may well come in handy. After getting to Port Bax and navigating the bureaucracy there, I meet Rhygar, eat something both delicious and non-poisonous and then head out.

Alas, we get mugged by Helghasts. Eventually, Rhygar stays behind, sans spear to, I dunno, play keep-away, I guess, with the Helghasts. I see a Noodic but don't bother with it and manage to kill another Helghast before making it to Hammerdal and getting the Sommerswerd.

They feed me and even give me a nice potion to in case I get hurt some more, and then we all go sailing. I think this bodes ill, because my last sea journey didn't go so well and neither does this one, what with the storms and fleet of undead ships. Still, I jump on the enemy flagship so I can kill the snot of stuff that should've stayed properly dead. And it's fun. Zombies? ZAP! Helghast? Whoosh! Whoosh! ZAP! I spot the sorcerer in the tower and make a beeline for him. ZAP! incoming on me. Luckily the Godswerd saves me from my own tactical dumbness, but Vonatar escapes (wonder if we'll see him again...). I still want to kill some stuff, and there's a couple of Drakkar to help me scratch that itch. Then it's on to Holmgard where the Sommerswerd makes like the main cannon of the Death Star and commences to Alderaan Zagarna in one of the cooler bits of gamebook PWNage I've ever read. I dislike this book, but it does bring a cool ending.

After trading in my now-useless Magic Spear for some extra-warm long-johns, I suppose it'll be time to head to Kalte.

[pi4t]

You now have the disciplines I normally have, but I get tracking in book 1 and mindshield in book 2 (arguing LW had nearly learned it, but not quite, when the monastry was destroyed). You can't hunt in the wildlands anyway, and elsewhere you can buy food generally.

A troupe of guards brings me to the Prince just in time for me to get his sword and battle a Gourgaz to the death. It's death, luckily. Soon followed by the Prince's.

Sorry to be pedantic, but it should be 'its death' (no apostrophe). The way you wrote it means 'it is death', not 'the death of it'.

[johntfs]

Mar 13, 2010 10:30:42 GMT pi4t said:

You now have the disciplines I normally have, but I get tracking in book 1 and mindshield in book 2 (arguing LW had nearly learned it, but not quite, when the monastry was destroyed). You can't hunt in the wildlands anyway, and elsewhere you can buy food generally.

As it turns out, Hunting is far more useful in FotW than Tracking. Hunting confirms that the fruit is edible, that the delicious meal is poisoned and lets you avoid EP loss due to starvation at least once on your journey to Port Bax. Oddly enough, despite going through civilization, you don't get many chances to purchase food. I'm wondering if you'd be allowed to buy extra Meals at the first inn at which you stop. A regular Meal costs 1 GC there.

A troupe of guards brings me to the Prince just in time for me to get his sword and battle a Gourgaz to the death. It's death, luckily. Soon followed by the Prince's.

Sorry to be pedantic, but it should be 'its death' (no apostrophe). The way you wrote it means 'it is death', not 'the death of it'.

Yeah, I went back and corrected that as well as another instance of it.

[pi4t]

But tracking avoids a 1 in 2 instant death after the gourgaz in FFTD. Also, book 2 is FOTW, not FOTF!

[johntfs]

Mar 13, 2010 12:10:43 GMT pi4t said:

But tracking avoids a 1 in 2 instant death after the gourgaz in FFTD. Also, book 2 is FOTW, not FOTF!

True, but I was specifically focusing on FotW. Also, correction made.

Anywho, the next book is TCoK. For this I picked up two Meals and claimed the Hunting skill.

I picked the "easy" route, killed a Baknar and reluctantly smeared its oil into my skin on the advice of my trusted guides. Alas, my guides were soon dead via murderous Ice Barbarian children. I fought and killed one of the scouts and Ishir showed up (this is the second time through this book via the cards that this has happened. For some reason, this particular Ice Barbarian just pisses Ishir off) holding his angry child hostage until I could escape. After which I fell into a crevice.

After playing hopscotch across some ice floes, I smell some food and spot a couple of Barbarians about to eat. I'm still angry about my scouts, so I kill them, take their Firesphere and triangle and then eat their food just for good measure. The Firesphere is immediately useful in warding off a Javek and I soon find myself in a bone-littered hall. Searching remains has been effective in discovering loot in prior occasions, so I do it here, managing to turn up a Diamond that will soon go into the Monastery building fund. Soon enough I Crystal Frostworm attacks. I choose to kill it instead of turning my back on it and running and am rewarded with an acid-coated (ouch!) Silver Key. Soon enough, I use my Triangle and am into Ikaya.

After grabbing some potions (Kai appears to help me get the Graveweed since he doesn't like Ice Barbarians any more than Ishir), a Silver Helmut and a Stone Effigy of Vonatar's real mom, I kill an Ice Barbarian wearing a Bracelet. I'm about to try it on, but my Sixth Sense warns me against. I soon release a prisoner who was trapped in a pentagram and attempt to lead him to freedom. Wait a second, why was that guy in a pentagram unless he- OWWWW, my throat. Luckily I have the Sommerswerd and dispatch the Helghast with relative ease. In another cell I spot an old man but no pentagrams. I warily let him out but keep a serious eye on him just in case. I soon use the graveweed to kill pretty much everyone who hasn't had their stew yet and Loi-Kymer heals my throat injuries.

Soon enough we're at the door to the throne room and Loi Kymer insists on using some convoluted scheme involving Weed to deal with the guards. I figure I could just kill them the way I've dealt with almost everything else here, but whatever. That done, we enter the throne to find Vonatar studying a book of Giak porn or something. He yells for his mommy, but I've got her picture and she turns against him. So much for the power of Vonatar's love hump. We teleport back to the ship and sail for Holmgard to thrown Vonatar into the "portal of no return" despite my repeated suggestions to just kill him and be done with it. Magicians can be such drama queens.

Oh well, now I can get the monastery fixed up until I go visit the Chasm of Doom. Here's hoping they have guided mule tours.

[johntfs]

I picked Camouflage for this one, and got some healing potions and a couple Meals. This is actually the only book where I didn't grab the maximum equipment available at the start. Also, the God were pretty active in this one, showing up at five different times.

After meeting some old guy in a hut and getting a scroll of disturbing poetry, we stopped to watch a play and I got D'Val's sword. Then Ishir showed up and pointed me toward some ruins where I got some Holy Water from a couple of Redeemers (who really should've worn a sign or some crap. A less confident Kai Lord might've iced them on the spot). After this, we got attacked. Kai showed up to aid me again a bandit. Well, help is overstating it since I had a +11 CS advantage to begin with, but it was good for moral support, I suppose. So, with eighty percent of my strike force horseless, my military career appears to be made of suck right now. Still I press on.

I move my little group toward Ruanon after we pass the dead half of D'Val's force and I consider that these are some badass bandits. I don't think we lost this many people when the Darklords hit us four years ago. Meantime I'm losing people left and right before we get to a mine, which we enter. We trying to cross the river, but my Rangers get snuffed by a Meresquid. I kill it but they're still too dead to care. I finally make my way out of the mines, see the flag over Ruanon and haul ass toward it.

I'm nearly there when a sniper pops up. And so does Naar, transforming a 10% chance of death to a 50% chance. I'll have to get a 5 or higher to survive. Luckily, I do. I make to D'val, hear about Madeline, give the captain his sword back and then battle is joined. After a taste of front-line combat, I head back to the watchtower fighting a Naar-supported bandit as I do so. I make it to the tower, heal an archer, kill a bird-brained captain with the aid of Ishir and collect a nifty Onyx memento. Ultimately we beat off the attacks and drive the bandits away, but I've got three days before Vashna comes calling.

So, I set off again. I bully some poor soldiers before making it to Maaken. I figure the "unguarded" passage isn't, so I figure to bluff the guards. It doesn't work, so I kill 'em instead. I check over the balcony and see Barraka and his knife come in, so I prepare for the big smackdown. Then I just decide to chunk the Holy Water at the Dagger and see how opposites react. The answer, not well. I get a flashburn. Barraka gets nuked and then I collect Madeline and a nasty little backup magic weapon.

Well, the bandits are gone but this is still a pretty unpleasant foreign policy problem with Vassagonia. Man do I feel sorry for the poor sucker that has to go over there and sort this out...

[johntfs]

And my last skill before ending the series will be Mind over Matter. With the Sommerswerd in one sheath and the Dagger of Vashna in another, I figure I'm pretty well horribly beweaponed enough to not need mundane instruments of death. Coupled with a shiny new Shield, a healing potion and a couple of Meals, along with stuff from previous adventures, I'm good to go.

So instead of surrendering (which is probably one the safer things to do) I spend most of the first part of the book as The Fugitive before I get Down with the Sickness, in this case, Limbdeath. Kai helps me against the guy with the Herb Mask and when I fight the Elix for the Oede, but I manage to get healed and spot Haakon dealing with Kimah.

Then the second part of the book starts and all hell breaks loose against me. I wander all over the palace dodging and killing things. Naar leads a Vordak with a patrol to me, but I've got the Sommerswerd so the patrol is screwed. Eventually, I get to the Itikar pens with my Onyx Medallion and fly, fly away. For a little while.

I get jumped by a Vordak and re-enact the front cover of the book, ultimately getting saved by a flying ship, which is soon cleared of of Drakkers and on it's way to see a Wanderer. We meet a vexalor along the way and I drop off the rest of the Oede, mostly to spite Kimah, because that's apparently some truly awesome weed and get a nice Jewelled Mace in return, making me even more horribly beweaponed. Eventually we find Tippy's house, but not Tippy, but we get a lead on where to go next, so we go there.

Once actually at the Tomb, that Blue Stone Triangle I've been carrying since Kalte comes in handy again, sort of, and I confront Haakon (which was kind of stupid on his part. I mean, I have the Sommerswerd, which can for-real kill him. Screw showing up, just fill the throne room with like forty guys with crossbows or whatever. Moron.) He tries to blast me but I parry with the Sommerswerd, which disarms me of it. I consider going for the Swerd, but I figure that Haakon wouldn't be stupid enough to let me just grab it back up again (turns out he actually is that stupid, but I can't know that right then). So I try to maneuver into position to grab the Swerd back and then he tries to fry my fortunately Mindshielded brain. Then, he uses some kind of Ghost Vomit creature to attack me. And Naar, perhaps sensing a last ditch moment to take me out, appears on the scene to support it. It's a decent fight, but I beat the thing, grab the stone and send Haakon off to a fate worse than death (Apparently he's now a greeter at Wal-Mart). That done, I get the book and apparently play time is over and study time has just begun.

[johntfs]

So it's three years later and I've finished make book-learnin' I've also presumably started training some baby Kai lords. But it's time for me to quest of the Lorestones.

First I need to pick my new Magnakai Disciplines. I pick Weaponmastery, Psi-screen and Nexus. Within Weaponmastery, I pick Sword, Bow and Mace. I have all the gold from Book 5 and now pick some equipment. I choose a Bow, a Sword, a Quiver, a Meal and Laumspur. I leave a bunch of potions along with the Sommerswerd, Dagger of Vashna and the Jewelled Mace behind for Safekeeping. Why? Because this quest is supposed to be on the downlow, my Kai wannabees. And nothing is less "downlow" than a big-ass flaming holy sword. I do take the Silver Helmet, Firesphere and Shield, though.

So first we hit Quarlen and I decide to go through the South gate. They give me a bunch of crap about a Pass, so I just ride right on through them (which is arrogant and potentially fatal, but I got away with it. This time.) Later I take a fork in the road and run into those mouthbreather Acolytes of Vashna from the Chasm of Doom. And smart off to them. Then kill a whole crapload of them. After that, it's time to find a medieval Motel Six.

I get a room and order some food and holy crap that costs. Prices are severely inflated since my road trip through Durenor. Then some nobletwerp comes in, makes a huge scene and is about to gut this poor sucker he sat down with. So I shoot him with an arrow. He cusses me out, announces who he is and then leaves. Oh well, that's the last we'll see of that guy, right?

I get to talking with Cyrilus about Varetta and the Lorestones therein and introduce myself. The next morning we ride together. I see an Archery tournament and decide to enter because, well, hell, this is really kind of a working vacation. It's pretty much the first time I've been able to function without some scary deadline over my head. Sure, I need to get the Lorestone, but it doesn't have to be right this second, does it? So I enter and manage to qualify, along with a dude who's like the secret lovechild of Robin Hood and William Tell. I could use my Basic skill of Mindblast to even this out, but that would be cheating. Plus, Mindblast is really, really obvious. I could also drink the leftover Alether I got during the a previous adventure. While that might also be cheating, screw it, I want that bow and drug testing doesn't exist yet. It's close, damn close, but I pull it out and win. And Cyrilus is gone.

So, I get to go back inside and see if I can buy somebody's horse (sure, I could just swipe it, but there's like fifty guys with bows there just itching to try them out for real. No thanks.) It's Altan. He wants the bow and to squeeze me a little for "cheating." But I earned that bow. So I cough up twenty crowns instead and haul ass. I then get to use that bow to take down one of Cyr's kidnappers and rescue him. We end up in a graveyard and then Roark, that ass from the Barrel Bridge shows up and freakin' animates the dead in the graveyard. I rekill them but not before they eat Roark's guys and mortally wound Cyrilus. He says something about Brass Street and then dies. I bury him, find another inn and go watch a conjurer. I like conjurers.

Especially when they pose easy logic problems and give me money. After eating my last meal so the rats don't get it first, I spend the night, buy some Alether (good source of strength and fiber) and head on to Varetta. I wind up in a bar and meet a fairly cool merc captain, though I turn him down politely when he offers me a place in his unit. I eventually get to Brass Street, my Gwydion in the flash and re-equip for an overland journey. I avoid Amory like the plaque just in case and end up in Soren, after killing some robbers who want me in a grave, so they could rob it.

In Soren, I buy a ticket to Eula and met back up with the Captain. Then we fight pirates together. At this point I'm thinking the best move would be to drop the Magnakai quest for a while and just bring this dude and D'Val to Helgedad so we can stomp the Darklords into the mud through the sheer force of our manly badassery.

But after stocking up on potions, maps and assorted stuff, it's time for me to part ways with the Captain and go swim to a sewer. So I do. A map of the place ultimately directs me to the Lorestone when this... thing attacks. I beat it off, but it's regenerating, so I grab the Lorestone and kill it. First quest complete. Now it's off to Elder Magi-land after I get some new boots because sewers have kind of an ick factor.