Post by kalieum on Mar 5, 2023 23:27:08 GMT
Talisman of having a nice day out where nothing untoward happens
One attempt, stats rolled in order, no guide.
Stats, kills, etc:
Overly verbose writeup:
One attempt, stats rolled in order, no guide.
Stats, kills, etc:
Killed in combat by Hawkana. Eventually.
Skill 9/9
Stamina -1/17
Luck 6/9
Items:
Provisions 9
Luck potion
Torches 5
Flint & tinder
15 gold
Ruby
Skill boosting ring
Jade rose
Info:
To call for aid, "All-Mother, nature herself, preserve me."
Can be called on once in my time of greatest need. Won't work in another deity's temple.
Leave city by postern gate in cemetery. Go SE to great plateau, tallest mountain (mount starreach) has a portal back to earth atop it.
Talisman can be used to command undead minions of Death? [some believe]
Kills:
MINION OF DEATH
THIEF
ENVOY OF DEATH
The same MINION OF DEATH
The same THIEF
Skill 9/9
Stamina -1/17
Luck 6/9
Items:
Provisions 9
Luck potion
Torches 5
Flint & tinder
15 gold
Ruby
Skill boosting ring
Jade rose
Info:
To call for aid, "All-Mother, nature herself, preserve me."
Can be called on once in my time of greatest need. Won't work in another deity's temple.
Leave city by postern gate in cemetery. Go SE to great plateau, tallest mountain (mount starreach) has a portal back to earth atop it.
Talisman can be used to command undead minions of Death? [some believe]
Kills:
MINION OF DEATH
THIEF
ENVOY OF DEATH
The same MINION OF DEATH
The same THIEF
Overly verbose writeup:
I'm pretty sure I remember the conceit and broad pathing of Midnight Rogue, so Talisman it is.
I never seem to have any luck with my stamina rolls, huh? Sordidly below average all around this time, as well. Ah well, if this is the one I think it is, it's fairly generous and I should still be in with a shot. Skimming the rules I see this is one of the ones that affords you the standard stat-restoring potion. Given I see I also get 10 meals I can eat any time outside of battle, I opt for the luck-restoring potion this time. I also explicitly have 5 torches, and flint & tinder. The first page of the instructions mentioned I have "fire flares" but as they've not come up again I guess those are just my mundane torches?
Oh, the book outright says there's one true path. Never mind what I said about having a chance, then.
The intro reveals I'm a regular person from earth, pulled into the fantasy world of Orb to be the gods' champion against chaos. It's both an interesting departure from normal FF fare, and also so incredibly trite and cliche. I'm kind of impressed. While meeting this pair of gods I get to see visions of myself in a temple, leaving a walled city, crossing a moor alone and in a jungle. I'm making a note of that here in case I'm supposed to infer the correct route through the book from those images. After this, the gods are infuriatingly vague about what they want me to do, and I fall into their world to begin my adventure of vagueness. I'm going to hazard a guess it involves a talisman.
When I wake up I'm deep underground and alone. I hear footsteps approaching and, thinking I remember how the intro to this one goes, I stand my ground. Yeah, here's the adventuring party that are going to sacrifice themselves to teleport me out. I've got a few options, but I'm fairly sure anything but the obviously stupid one will get me to the same place so I just pick one.
Oh hey, apparently saying I'm on a quest against evil is a lie? I suppose the gods said chaos rather than evil, but they also mentioned the forces of Death. Just because I don't know what specifically my quest *is* doesn't mean I don't think I'm questing against evil.
It's no big deal anyway, I'm offered the option to tell the truth and the book gets on with the quest anyway. I'm handed the titular Talisman of Death, told to find a way back to my own world, and teleported to the surface.
Entering the woods I encounter a wolf which I'm able to avoid before finding a giant lizard. Interestingly I'm offered the option of testing my luck to sneak past it or just avoid it entirely. I'm not going to get any value out of my luck potion if I don't start using luck, so I give it a shot. I succeed and am informed it was a basilisk I successfully avoided waking up, which I think is a nice touch; my character, being from earth, wouldn't recognise a basilisk on sight so the book withholds what it is while I'm making my decision, but once I'm locked into my course it's happy to divulge more.
Anyway, I come to an algae-filled pond with an old woman stuck in it asking for my help. I ran afoul of a hag in the last book, I'm not about to make it two for two. Eventually I leave the forest and am surrounded by some women on horseback who I tell about my quest, forgetting that has to include 'by the way I'm from another world', and get laughed at.
Though one of the other options was literally to say I'm from another world, so maybe that part isn't what gets me laughed at? I'm not sure. They want me to give them my sword and they'll take me to Greyguilds, the city the doomed adventuring party told me to go to. I wouldn't mind giving up my sword for the duration of the journey, but I'm concerned they think I'm just a madman (they specifically say "back to Greyguilds"), and refuse. They beat my sword out of my hands anyway, and I'm somewhat forcibly taken to the city.
Once in the city I go along quietly, hoping that I might get my sword back if the person they're taking me to can see I'm telling the truth somehow. After choosing to go along without trying to escape, the book tells me I figure I don't have a chance unarmed and go along without trying to escape. Sure.
There are directions and street names that I'm taken along and I really hope I'm not going to have to navigate the city later because I am not taking notes of these.
Oh they, they were working for a villain of some sort, and the talisman was confiscated. I wonder if it's actually possible to avoid this happening or if everything funnels you here so you have a more involved quest than 'find out how to get home'.
Anyway, after this I'm thrown out to the street and given a choice of roads. Given I need to replace my sword, Smith Street seems like a good first port of call. Sure enough I can pick up a new sword, though it costs the majority of the gold the doomed party gave me earlier.
Further along I encounter a spooky thing that thinks I still have the talisman. I don't think I'm talking my way out of this one so I attack the MINION OF DEATH. It doesn't have very good stats, but it drains my skill each time it hits me. It does indeed get a couple of blows in, but the book's kind enough to restore all but one point of my missing skill once I defeat it.
Yet further on, I decide to intercede in a robbery. Killing one of the THIEVES ends the encounter and I'm given 10 gold and a ruby as a reward. I note I'd also be able to replace my sword here rather than buying a new one, though I don't know if I'd have to still survive the minion of death encounter to get to the jeweller's.
Next I'm given the option of going into a library or another building in the area. I choose the latter and it's only in the following section that I'm told I'm sneaking into a building I shouldn't be in. An obviously dragon-y book catches my attention and I figure nothing ventured, finding it's a book of Making People Who Open It Less Lucky. Who would write a book like that? Or keep it around?
The next thing that happens to me is I step in a bear trap. I like to think that's the misfortune book coming into effect already, though mechanically there was no luck test involved. I'm asked if I still have the talisman so I guess it is possible to avoid losing it, though maybe I just lose it here instead.
Some things happen but the crux is I'm freed from the trap and accept a man's hospitality for the night. Figuring that not everyone I meet is going to be so pro-'literally everyone dying', I tell him what I've been through and finally find a helpful npc! He gives me some gold, a ring that boosts my skill, a jade rose so "when you return this evening [...] I will know that you are not a shape-changer" and suggests I enlist the local thieves' guild to recover the talisman. I'm unclear how a jade rose will prove I'm not a shapechanger, though it's good to know that those exist in this setting and are something to watch out for.
I bet when I come back this evening he'll have been replaced by a shapechanger.
Anyway, I head towards the inn and am interrupted by a pair of arguing men who start fighting, with one of them dropping some sort of charm. This honestly feels like a test, so even though I can't fathom who'd set it up I return the charm to them rather than keeping it. This seems to be the right course as I gain a point of luck for this, meaning that despite everything so far I'm back to my starting stats, minus two points of stamina. The text also kinda implies the charm is what made them fight, so I've probably avoided something unpleasant down the way by not keeping it, too.
Oh hey, literally the next section, as I enter the bar, asks if I have the charm. I guess a bar fight would ensue if I did? In any case, I now get to play 'guess how the author thinks a thieves' guild should be approached'. I've got a faint feeling they don't react well to a direct approach, so I'll try the bartender in case he happens to serve as an intermediary between the guild and potential clients. I gain some information that amounts to 'don't piss off a guy named Tyutchev' and am told I walk over to the thieves now. Negotiations were much less involved than I'd feared and I'm given a location to visit tomorrow. Suddenly Tyutchev appears alongside a woman named Cassandra, and the pair sit down at my table. I'm allowed to leave, but I figure that'll either have me miss something important or Tyutchev will construe it as an insult or something, so I elect to stay quiet. This gives me two options, neither of which seem promising, but I go for the one I haven't been outright warned against, which lets me leave. I feel like I've missed something from this encounter, but I'm awarded a luck point for surviving the inn.
The book asks if I've been invited to dinner by the sage. I don't recall an invite, but I'm guessing that's what the 'when you return this evening' was referring to and assume I can take that option. I'm asked if I have the token, which makes me doubt myself a little - if I'm right about the invitation it happens in the same section where you receive the token, so it should be impossible to hit this section (conditional on receiving the invitation) without having the token. Unless you can lose it while interacting with the thieves, which I suppose is an obvious possibility. In any case, I get quite the info dump about how to get back to earth after all's said and done, which really suggests I'm still on the right track.
I ignore a street performance, suspecting a distraction to allow pickpockets to work, and head to the arranged meeting. I'm asked if I was told about a storm drain, and this time I have notes saying it was a coal hole I was directed to, so I pass on that option.
This seems to be correct, and I find myself face to face with the guildmaster. I'm given three options to explain why I'm here, and I see problems with all of them.
"I want help stealing something" is probably a well duh, stop wasting my time
"I want to steal the Talisman of Death" might get them to figure there's nothing valuable in it for them.
"I'll lead you to a hoard of priceless jewellery" is perhaps a really obvious lie.
I guess I'll go with the first option and can always fall back to specifics if they press. They do press, and I'm given the option of telling them, which has the same section number as telling them beforehand, or just saying it's in the temple of Fell-Kyrinla. This one seems more promising as they might be tempted by whatever other treasures they can pick up in a temple, maybe? It's not like I'm going to enlist their help without telling them where we're going anyway.
Ah, no, I get shot to pieces for my trouble. With a section number to turn to after it's told me I'm dead. Hm.
Wait, "Now that we know where to go we have no further need of you"? Did they just not know that this temple exists? It's not like I even gave them directions to if it it was hidden or anything. Ugh, whatever.
Apparently the gods intercede and rewind time back to just after I got teleported to the top of the rift. I lose my items bar what I started with, and regain the Talisman of Death. This might mean I don't have the 10 gold I got given just before I was teleported, which could be trouble if I can't figure a way to keep my sword this time. That doesn't narratively make sense from time being rewound so I don't think that's intended, but I don't think I can really just go awarding myself 10 gold even if I'm fairly confident this is an oversight.
I retrace my route through the forest, electing to hack through the underbrush to go around the basilisk this time, which costs me a provision. I try lying to the horsewomen this time, claiming I'm the survivor of an attacked caravan. Their captain demands to know where it came from, and I can choose the answer she suggests (probably a fake location as a trick), something I think I remember from the intro/doomed adventurer section as Evil McEvilton, and something I probably just make up. Oh hey, my answer works! Now to blunder around pointlessly until I get stuck in a bear trap, I suppose. I try Store Street and am accosted by a strange woman. It turns out she just wanted to know if I met a specific person while I was out of the city - something I missed by cutting through the woods, I suppose - but I'm starting to think I'm probably better off retracting my steps as accurately as possible just in case.
Okay yeah, if I get another do-over I'm definitely avoiding Store Street. A finely-dressed man in a carriage turns out to be the envoy of Death and demands the talisman, and apparently no-one else can see that he's transformed into a spooky skeleton man so attacking him in broad daylight might end poorly. Oh, no, I guess I was supposed to just attack. This guy's basically the minion of death but tougher, and he got a free hit in on me for my daring to not seemingly-unprovoked attack a seemingly-normal guy in the middle of a busy market street. Right.
It has the same skill drain on hit mechanic as the minion so I try to burn luck to kill it in two hits, but I fail a luck roll then kill it in three rounds unscathed anyway. Ah well.
I'm once again afforded the option between the library and the nondescript building, and as the latter only had the Book of Losing Luck in there I'm going to ignore the rule I just came up with and check out the library this time.
Inside the library is the assistant of death! Nah, just kidding. I read up on the gods a bit, which suggests the talisman can be used to command undead minions of Death as well as a couple of snippets about some others. Then I realise it's getting dark and I'm about to miss my appointment with a bear trap. You'd think I could use my time-loop foreknowledge to avoid that this time.
The text is different as I still have the talisman, but the outcome is the same; the watch captain/high priestess gets the talisman and the sage invites me to his place.
I accept his hospitality again, go to the inn again, talk to the thieves again and am standing in front of the guildmaster again when I realise that this time around I don't have the ruby because I went to Store Street instead of Smith Street. So I tell the guildmaster I want to steal something from the temple and get shot to death again.
I get teleported, I enter the forest, I back off from the wolf, I avoid the basilisk, I lie to the women, I go to Smith Street, I punch the minion of death, I stop a robbery, I visit the library (and actually read the other option), I step in a bear trap, I get robbed, I go with the sage, I get the token, I return the charm, I go to the inn, I arrange a meeting with the thieves, I avoid Tyutchev, I don't go with the boy, I get info-dumped, I ignore the street performance, and I meet the thieves again.
This time I'm up front about wanting to steal the talisman of death. Perhaps they'll be motivated by the whole 'not dying when Death is released' thing. And if not, I'll probably time loop and get to choose the last remaining option.
I make forward progress! We break into the temple, but I'm spotted and the alarm sounds, causing the thieves to all vanish, leaving me on my own. I guess they at least got me inside. Pressing onward, I encounter a guard who I manage to kill within the requisite 5 rounds, presumably before reinforcements arrive. Just ahead I quite suddenly encounter Hawkana, the high priestess/watch captain. She wings me with a pillar of flame, I'm given the option to use any of three items I haven't seen, and I'm taken to combat. Yeah, she's going to kill me and I don't think I get time loop shenanigans for combat deaths. Guess I should've stabbed the random old man I saw in the temple.
Well, I got a couple of good, luck-boosted hits in and managed to roll a couple of high attack strengths in later round, but I couldn't punch through the skill difference, and that is me dead and done.
It was a pretty fun book, though the death & time loop mechanic was a little tiresome. I guess it lets you get past the railroaded introduction part (though as written you lose the 10 gold you get the first time around), but I probably would've taken my first death as an actual, play session ending death had I not been consciously taking advantage of the book letting me continue to have this all count as one attempt for the contest purposes. Still, would give it another go. I assume I need to find some of those items I was asked if I wanted to use to render Hawkana beatable by an averagely-skilled character, and my refusal to much deviate from what I thought was a good path on the time loops was my downfall.
I never seem to have any luck with my stamina rolls, huh? Sordidly below average all around this time, as well. Ah well, if this is the one I think it is, it's fairly generous and I should still be in with a shot. Skimming the rules I see this is one of the ones that affords you the standard stat-restoring potion. Given I see I also get 10 meals I can eat any time outside of battle, I opt for the luck-restoring potion this time. I also explicitly have 5 torches, and flint & tinder. The first page of the instructions mentioned I have "fire flares" but as they've not come up again I guess those are just my mundane torches?
Oh, the book outright says there's one true path. Never mind what I said about having a chance, then.
The intro reveals I'm a regular person from earth, pulled into the fantasy world of Orb to be the gods' champion against chaos. It's both an interesting departure from normal FF fare, and also so incredibly trite and cliche. I'm kind of impressed. While meeting this pair of gods I get to see visions of myself in a temple, leaving a walled city, crossing a moor alone and in a jungle. I'm making a note of that here in case I'm supposed to infer the correct route through the book from those images. After this, the gods are infuriatingly vague about what they want me to do, and I fall into their world to begin my adventure of vagueness. I'm going to hazard a guess it involves a talisman.
When I wake up I'm deep underground and alone. I hear footsteps approaching and, thinking I remember how the intro to this one goes, I stand my ground. Yeah, here's the adventuring party that are going to sacrifice themselves to teleport me out. I've got a few options, but I'm fairly sure anything but the obviously stupid one will get me to the same place so I just pick one.
Oh hey, apparently saying I'm on a quest against evil is a lie? I suppose the gods said chaos rather than evil, but they also mentioned the forces of Death. Just because I don't know what specifically my quest *is* doesn't mean I don't think I'm questing against evil.
It's no big deal anyway, I'm offered the option to tell the truth and the book gets on with the quest anyway. I'm handed the titular Talisman of Death, told to find a way back to my own world, and teleported to the surface.
Entering the woods I encounter a wolf which I'm able to avoid before finding a giant lizard. Interestingly I'm offered the option of testing my luck to sneak past it or just avoid it entirely. I'm not going to get any value out of my luck potion if I don't start using luck, so I give it a shot. I succeed and am informed it was a basilisk I successfully avoided waking up, which I think is a nice touch; my character, being from earth, wouldn't recognise a basilisk on sight so the book withholds what it is while I'm making my decision, but once I'm locked into my course it's happy to divulge more.
Anyway, I come to an algae-filled pond with an old woman stuck in it asking for my help. I ran afoul of a hag in the last book, I'm not about to make it two for two. Eventually I leave the forest and am surrounded by some women on horseback who I tell about my quest, forgetting that has to include 'by the way I'm from another world', and get laughed at.
Though one of the other options was literally to say I'm from another world, so maybe that part isn't what gets me laughed at? I'm not sure. They want me to give them my sword and they'll take me to Greyguilds, the city the doomed adventuring party told me to go to. I wouldn't mind giving up my sword for the duration of the journey, but I'm concerned they think I'm just a madman (they specifically say "back to Greyguilds"), and refuse. They beat my sword out of my hands anyway, and I'm somewhat forcibly taken to the city.
Once in the city I go along quietly, hoping that I might get my sword back if the person they're taking me to can see I'm telling the truth somehow. After choosing to go along without trying to escape, the book tells me I figure I don't have a chance unarmed and go along without trying to escape. Sure.
There are directions and street names that I'm taken along and I really hope I'm not going to have to navigate the city later because I am not taking notes of these.
Oh they, they were working for a villain of some sort, and the talisman was confiscated. I wonder if it's actually possible to avoid this happening or if everything funnels you here so you have a more involved quest than 'find out how to get home'.
Anyway, after this I'm thrown out to the street and given a choice of roads. Given I need to replace my sword, Smith Street seems like a good first port of call. Sure enough I can pick up a new sword, though it costs the majority of the gold the doomed party gave me earlier.
Further along I encounter a spooky thing that thinks I still have the talisman. I don't think I'm talking my way out of this one so I attack the MINION OF DEATH. It doesn't have very good stats, but it drains my skill each time it hits me. It does indeed get a couple of blows in, but the book's kind enough to restore all but one point of my missing skill once I defeat it.
Yet further on, I decide to intercede in a robbery. Killing one of the THIEVES ends the encounter and I'm given 10 gold and a ruby as a reward. I note I'd also be able to replace my sword here rather than buying a new one, though I don't know if I'd have to still survive the minion of death encounter to get to the jeweller's.
Next I'm given the option of going into a library or another building in the area. I choose the latter and it's only in the following section that I'm told I'm sneaking into a building I shouldn't be in. An obviously dragon-y book catches my attention and I figure nothing ventured, finding it's a book of Making People Who Open It Less Lucky. Who would write a book like that? Or keep it around?
The next thing that happens to me is I step in a bear trap. I like to think that's the misfortune book coming into effect already, though mechanically there was no luck test involved. I'm asked if I still have the talisman so I guess it is possible to avoid losing it, though maybe I just lose it here instead.
Some things happen but the crux is I'm freed from the trap and accept a man's hospitality for the night. Figuring that not everyone I meet is going to be so pro-'literally everyone dying', I tell him what I've been through and finally find a helpful npc! He gives me some gold, a ring that boosts my skill, a jade rose so "when you return this evening [...] I will know that you are not a shape-changer" and suggests I enlist the local thieves' guild to recover the talisman. I'm unclear how a jade rose will prove I'm not a shapechanger, though it's good to know that those exist in this setting and are something to watch out for.
I bet when I come back this evening he'll have been replaced by a shapechanger.
Anyway, I head towards the inn and am interrupted by a pair of arguing men who start fighting, with one of them dropping some sort of charm. This honestly feels like a test, so even though I can't fathom who'd set it up I return the charm to them rather than keeping it. This seems to be the right course as I gain a point of luck for this, meaning that despite everything so far I'm back to my starting stats, minus two points of stamina. The text also kinda implies the charm is what made them fight, so I've probably avoided something unpleasant down the way by not keeping it, too.
Oh hey, literally the next section, as I enter the bar, asks if I have the charm. I guess a bar fight would ensue if I did? In any case, I now get to play 'guess how the author thinks a thieves' guild should be approached'. I've got a faint feeling they don't react well to a direct approach, so I'll try the bartender in case he happens to serve as an intermediary between the guild and potential clients. I gain some information that amounts to 'don't piss off a guy named Tyutchev' and am told I walk over to the thieves now. Negotiations were much less involved than I'd feared and I'm given a location to visit tomorrow. Suddenly Tyutchev appears alongside a woman named Cassandra, and the pair sit down at my table. I'm allowed to leave, but I figure that'll either have me miss something important or Tyutchev will construe it as an insult or something, so I elect to stay quiet. This gives me two options, neither of which seem promising, but I go for the one I haven't been outright warned against, which lets me leave. I feel like I've missed something from this encounter, but I'm awarded a luck point for surviving the inn.
The book asks if I've been invited to dinner by the sage. I don't recall an invite, but I'm guessing that's what the 'when you return this evening' was referring to and assume I can take that option. I'm asked if I have the token, which makes me doubt myself a little - if I'm right about the invitation it happens in the same section where you receive the token, so it should be impossible to hit this section (conditional on receiving the invitation) without having the token. Unless you can lose it while interacting with the thieves, which I suppose is an obvious possibility. In any case, I get quite the info dump about how to get back to earth after all's said and done, which really suggests I'm still on the right track.
I ignore a street performance, suspecting a distraction to allow pickpockets to work, and head to the arranged meeting. I'm asked if I was told about a storm drain, and this time I have notes saying it was a coal hole I was directed to, so I pass on that option.
This seems to be correct, and I find myself face to face with the guildmaster. I'm given three options to explain why I'm here, and I see problems with all of them.
"I want help stealing something" is probably a well duh, stop wasting my time
"I want to steal the Talisman of Death" might get them to figure there's nothing valuable in it for them.
"I'll lead you to a hoard of priceless jewellery" is perhaps a really obvious lie.
I guess I'll go with the first option and can always fall back to specifics if they press. They do press, and I'm given the option of telling them, which has the same section number as telling them beforehand, or just saying it's in the temple of Fell-Kyrinla. This one seems more promising as they might be tempted by whatever other treasures they can pick up in a temple, maybe? It's not like I'm going to enlist their help without telling them where we're going anyway.
Ah, no, I get shot to pieces for my trouble. With a section number to turn to after it's told me I'm dead. Hm.
Wait, "Now that we know where to go we have no further need of you"? Did they just not know that this temple exists? It's not like I even gave them directions to if it it was hidden or anything. Ugh, whatever.
Apparently the gods intercede and rewind time back to just after I got teleported to the top of the rift. I lose my items bar what I started with, and regain the Talisman of Death. This might mean I don't have the 10 gold I got given just before I was teleported, which could be trouble if I can't figure a way to keep my sword this time. That doesn't narratively make sense from time being rewound so I don't think that's intended, but I don't think I can really just go awarding myself 10 gold even if I'm fairly confident this is an oversight.
I retrace my route through the forest, electing to hack through the underbrush to go around the basilisk this time, which costs me a provision. I try lying to the horsewomen this time, claiming I'm the survivor of an attacked caravan. Their captain demands to know where it came from, and I can choose the answer she suggests (probably a fake location as a trick), something I think I remember from the intro/doomed adventurer section as Evil McEvilton, and something I probably just make up. Oh hey, my answer works! Now to blunder around pointlessly until I get stuck in a bear trap, I suppose. I try Store Street and am accosted by a strange woman. It turns out she just wanted to know if I met a specific person while I was out of the city - something I missed by cutting through the woods, I suppose - but I'm starting to think I'm probably better off retracting my steps as accurately as possible just in case.
Okay yeah, if I get another do-over I'm definitely avoiding Store Street. A finely-dressed man in a carriage turns out to be the envoy of Death and demands the talisman, and apparently no-one else can see that he's transformed into a spooky skeleton man so attacking him in broad daylight might end poorly. Oh, no, I guess I was supposed to just attack. This guy's basically the minion of death but tougher, and he got a free hit in on me for my daring to not seemingly-unprovoked attack a seemingly-normal guy in the middle of a busy market street. Right.
It has the same skill drain on hit mechanic as the minion so I try to burn luck to kill it in two hits, but I fail a luck roll then kill it in three rounds unscathed anyway. Ah well.
I'm once again afforded the option between the library and the nondescript building, and as the latter only had the Book of Losing Luck in there I'm going to ignore the rule I just came up with and check out the library this time.
Inside the library is the assistant of death! Nah, just kidding. I read up on the gods a bit, which suggests the talisman can be used to command undead minions of Death as well as a couple of snippets about some others. Then I realise it's getting dark and I'm about to miss my appointment with a bear trap. You'd think I could use my time-loop foreknowledge to avoid that this time.
The text is different as I still have the talisman, but the outcome is the same; the watch captain/high priestess gets the talisman and the sage invites me to his place.
I accept his hospitality again, go to the inn again, talk to the thieves again and am standing in front of the guildmaster again when I realise that this time around I don't have the ruby because I went to Store Street instead of Smith Street. So I tell the guildmaster I want to steal something from the temple and get shot to death again.
I get teleported, I enter the forest, I back off from the wolf, I avoid the basilisk, I lie to the women, I go to Smith Street, I punch the minion of death, I stop a robbery, I visit the library (and actually read the other option), I step in a bear trap, I get robbed, I go with the sage, I get the token, I return the charm, I go to the inn, I arrange a meeting with the thieves, I avoid Tyutchev, I don't go with the boy, I get info-dumped, I ignore the street performance, and I meet the thieves again.
This time I'm up front about wanting to steal the talisman of death. Perhaps they'll be motivated by the whole 'not dying when Death is released' thing. And if not, I'll probably time loop and get to choose the last remaining option.
I make forward progress! We break into the temple, but I'm spotted and the alarm sounds, causing the thieves to all vanish, leaving me on my own. I guess they at least got me inside. Pressing onward, I encounter a guard who I manage to kill within the requisite 5 rounds, presumably before reinforcements arrive. Just ahead I quite suddenly encounter Hawkana, the high priestess/watch captain. She wings me with a pillar of flame, I'm given the option to use any of three items I haven't seen, and I'm taken to combat. Yeah, she's going to kill me and I don't think I get time loop shenanigans for combat deaths. Guess I should've stabbed the random old man I saw in the temple.
Well, I got a couple of good, luck-boosted hits in and managed to roll a couple of high attack strengths in later round, but I couldn't punch through the skill difference, and that is me dead and done.
It was a pretty fun book, though the death & time loop mechanic was a little tiresome. I guess it lets you get past the railroaded introduction part (though as written you lose the 10 gold you get the first time around), but I probably would've taken my first death as an actual, play session ending death had I not been consciously taking advantage of the book letting me continue to have this all count as one attempt for the contest purposes. Still, would give it another go. I assume I need to find some of those items I was asked if I wanted to use to render Hawkana beatable by an averagely-skilled character, and my refusal to much deviate from what I thought was a good path on the time loops was my downfall.