Shrine of the Salamander (Issue 2 adventure)

[champskees]

Shrine of the Salamander Solution

Fun adventure, excellent illustrations too! Rules are defined clearly throughout the adventure, and progression is smooth. The gameplay is well-balanced, and the hub structure was what it should be – the choice that moves you to the next hub is always offered last. The only criticism I had was with the Dark Elf – an item option as an alternative to the luck test would have been more consistent with the rest of the adventure, where you have multiple methods of dealing with most encounters. Overall, an excellent adventure that uses elements from Steve Jackson’s adventures well.

Minimum stats can complete this adventure (Sk 5 & St 14), though a Luck score of 9+ is recommended to stand a better chance of teaming up with the Dark Elf at the end, which is essential in order to receive the best ending.

You start with:

- Warhammer.
- Leather Armour.
- Lantern.
- 5 Gold Pieces.
- Backpack.
- 2 Meals.
- Galehorn.

- Take 3 Pebbles.
- Take Stone Dust.
- Take Sand.
- Go to the Crystal Mines.

Crystal Mines

- Cast spell: HUF (1 Damage).
- You have a Galehorn.
- Enter the tunnel marked ‘Boss’.
- Cast spell: HOT (4 Damage).
- Take 10 Gold Pieces.
- Take 2 Meals.
- Take Stoppered Crystal Jar.
- Eat here (-1 Meal, +4 Stamina).
- Enter the tunnel marked ‘Gear’.
- Trade with Hagla.
- Take Potion of Fire Water (-5 Gold Pieces).
- Take Bomba Fruit (restores x2 Stamina if eaten with Food, -2 Gold Pieces).
- Take 4 Meals (-4 Gold Pieces).
- Enter the tunnel marked ‘Mines’.
- Flee to the north, deeper underground.
- Head west.
- Take 2 Pebbles.
- Take Stone Dust.
- Go north.
- Take Giant Tooth.
- Go north.
- Go east.
- Take Sand.
- Go east.
- Go through the corridor heading north.
- Cast spell: PEP (1 Damage).
- Use Potion of Fire Water (+3 Luck).
- Eat here (-1 Meal, +4 Stamina).
- Take 3 Meals (maximum is 10).
- Take 14 Gold Pieces.
- Take Rope.
- Take 3 Pebbles.
- Take Stone Dust.
- Take Sand.
- Go to the Under-Temple of Throff.

Under-Temple of Throff

- Knock on the doors.
- Bribe your way into the temple (-D6 Gold Pieces).
- Visit the library of Throff.
- Horntoads (-2 Gold Pieces).
- Add note: If beehive, -20 from current para.
- Other denizens of Daddu-Yadu (-2 Gold Pieces).
- Add note: If cavern of giant fungi, +50 to current para.
- Visit the holy pool.
- Take Potion of Transformation (-6 Gold Pieces).
- If you have 4+ Gold Pieces: Take Potion of Healing (restore Stamina to Initial Value when used, -4 Gold Pieces).
- Leave this area.
- Take 3 Pebbles.
- Take Stone Dust.
- Take Sand.
- Go to the Tunnels of Ooze.

Tunnels of Ooze

- Enter the small cave with the humming noise.
- Climb up to investigate the beehive.
- Test Skill (-2 to roll if you have a Rope). Fail = 1 Damage & repeat until successful.
- You have reached the beehive. 92-20=72. Turn to Para 72.
- You have a Stoppered Crystal Jar.
- Take Jar of Bees (-Stoppered Crystal Jar).
- Roll D6. If 1-4: Take 1-4 Damage.
- Take 1 Meal.
- Head down the eastern passage.
- Cast spell: ROK (1 Damage).
- Use Stone Dust.
- Take 3 Gold Pieces (+1 Luck).
- Take Giant Tooth.
- Go north.
- Cast spell: HUF (1 Damage).
- You have a Galehorn.
- Cast spell: HUF (1 Damage).
- You have a Galehorn.
- You are in a cavern of giant fungi. 112+50=162. Turn to Para 162.
- Trade food for knowledge (-1 Meal).
- Add note: When you defeat Salamander, -30 from current para.
- You do not wish to trade.
- Take 3 Pebbles.
- Take Stone Dust.
- Take Sand.
- Go to the Croaking Caves.

Croaking Caves

- Offer them a Jar of Bees.
- Go east.
- Stay & confront whoever is climbing out of the pool.
- Talk to him.
- You have 2 Gold Pieces.
- Take a lesson in weapon mastery (-2 Gold Pieces).
- Restore 2 Stamina (or raise Stamina to 10).
- Fight Sk 10 St 10 Merkurio.
- If you are hit three times by enemy: end combat & +2 Initial and current Skill.
- If you hit enemy three times: end combat & +1 Initial and current Skill.
- Drink a Potion of Transformation (+1 Luck).
- Circle within a circle symbol.
- Wade into the pond and examine the spheres more closely (2 Damage).
- -2 Attack Strength for following combats:
- Fight Sk 3 St 2 Killer Tadpole.
- Fight Sk 2 St 3 Killer Tadpole.
- Fight Sk 2 St 2 Killer Tadpole.
- Fight Sk 3 St 3 Killer Tadpole.
- Fight Sk 4 St 3 Killer Tadpole.
- Take Enchanted Warhammer (+1 Attack Strength, cannot escape in combat).
- Flame like symbol.
- Cast spell: ROK (1 Damage).
- Take 1 Gold Piece.
- Try plate of Gloister and bread.
- Restore 2 Stamina.
- Restore Luck to Initial Level.
- Try a haunch of Mutton Fish.
- Restore 2 Stamina.
- Try the bag of Vittles.
- Take 2 Meals.
- Leave this area.
- Wavy lines symbol (1 Damage).
- Wait & see what’s coming.
- Allow yourself to be tied to the spit & engage in conversation.
- Add note: When opportunity to speak Xak, +20 to para.
- Four vertical bars symbol.
- Cast spell: POP (1 Damage).
- Use a Pebble.
- Test Luck.
- If successful:
        o Verrema joins you as an ally.
        o Add note: If asterisk, -15 from current para to see what Verrema has to tell you.
        o Verrema acts as a Sk 8 St 8 Ally in combat.
        o If enemy scores a hit: Roll D6. 1-3 = You are hit. 4-6 = Verrema is hit.
- If fail:
        o Fight Sk 8 St 8 Black Elf Warrior Woman.
        o Take Lucky Charm (-1 to Test Luck rolls).
- Frog with a crown symbol.
- If Verrema is with you: Asterisk: 188-15=173. Turn to Para 173.
- Cast spell: XAK.
- Opportunity to speak Xak. 160+20=180. Turn to Para 180 (+1 Luck).
- Defeated Salamander. 137-30=107. Turn to Para 107.
- Fight Sk 10 St 4 Trident of Doom.
- If Verrema is with you:
        o Asterisk: 200-15=185. Turn to Para 185.
        o THE END! You escape through a secret passage.
- If Verrema isn’t with you:
        o THE END? You will have to go all the way through the caves again to escape.

[The Editor (Alex B)]

A French translation was done as a solo publication and a Hungarian translation was published in issue 6 of Kaland Játék Kockázat.

[a moderator]

A playthrough of Shrine (and a little more carping about my least favourite element of Resurrection of the Dead) can now be found here.

[Peter]

I will continue my amateur odyssey with this adventure shortly. I have been bogged down with my first proper attempt at Return to Firetop Mountain for a while. I managed to deal to it in the end by using slightly loaded dice.

The introduction for Shrine of the Salamander looks promising, as well as being a nostalgic reminder of the first time I picked up a Sorcery! book.

After this, maybe other ones I have found elsewhere - heads up Kieran, daredevil and others.

[Peter]

So far, I like the way the mechanics fit the setting (spells from the Kakhabad spellbook), and the plot is compelling. And the illustrations are beautiful! Nice work Mr Wright and Mr Schofield.

[Peter]

So I died due to not having any bees (it's not often I've had to use that phrase before). Second time around I gathered more of the necessary items and made it almost to the end.

My first impressions haven't changed. Well-balanced, well-written, it held my interest. Difficult enough that it will take several attempts to win, but not so hard that it becomes frustrating. A good read.

[vastariner]

I actually did complete it first time, thanks to having a very good skill, which seems to be the most important attribute - there were plenty of stamina-replenishing options and I did not need much in the way of magic. ROK however seems to be hugely overpowered in this.

One problem is that the book is very easy if your first real choice, in one of the hub quests, is one which is, classically, ill-advised, and which in the FF context is one that would normally be deprecated. If you use the "logical" option then you have to get lucky with what you buy.

It's also one of those where you have to do things in the right order, which sometimes is obvious, other times less so. The restriction on one visit per place makes sense in some circumstances but not in others; e.g. why can you not go back to Throff's shrine if you now have enough money to do what you could not have afforded to do?

It is quite fun though to have another sort-of Sorcery! adventure, the spell options limiting the adventure capabilities but it still seemed quite full.

[hallucination]

Posting this a little late but hey, self-imposed deadlines are there to be broken! As it was with last month's playings of Resurrection of the Dead, I had not read/played Shrine of the Salamander before, and went in blind. Unlike last month, I did not have much free time, and I groaned when I read that I had to memorise the spells, Sorcery style (mainly because i could not invest time into that).  
So I couldn't give this adventure the time it deserved (hence only the 3 shots before giving it a crack with champskees' guide). However: I shall have to come back to it! The writing was great, and exploring the hub structure was fun and it seemed to be well-executed. The general premise and story (via the route chamskees offers) quite neat too; and cool that it is a sort of 'serious' semi-parody/pastiche ; it really feels like a product of a FF Fan.
 


Shot 1

SPOILER: Click to show

Skill 5, Stamina 19, Luck 10

Items: Provisions x2; Warhammer; backpack; lantern; gold piece x6; galehorn; small pebbles x3, stone dust, sand.

Started off by heading to the Under-Temple of Throff, knocked on the doors, and bribed my way in. Checked out the library and holy pool, but didn’t spend any of my few remaining gp. Off to the crystal mines instead. Fought and beat two dark goblins, picking up 3 gp. Checked out the tunnel marked ‘mines’—wandered around a bit and was killed by the Rhino-man and dark goblin manacled together.

 
Shot 2

SPOILER: Click to show

Skill 9, Stamina 2, Luck 11

Items: Provisions x0; Warhammer; backpack; lantern; gold piece x10; galehorn; small pebbles x7, stone dust, sand.

This time started off by checking out the Tunnels of Ooze. I follow the humming noise, check out the beehive, get stung a bit but also score some honey, continue north, kill a Baddu-Beetle (but not before it seriously messed me up), gobble down some provisions, kill a Skurasha, gobble down some more, check out a jagged crack in the rock, and cast Huf (and escape the quicksand!). I cast Huf again to blow the Sand Golem apart. I fail the Skill test to climb up the sinkhole and plunge down into the Croaking Caves, errr... straight into the latrine of the Horntoads. I kill the Slime Eater lurking in the muck, but also contract Wasting Disease. I follow the wavy-lines symbol thinking this might take me to clean water, but I get jumped from behind. With only 2 stamina left I decide not to risk the option of attempting to break free by using my strength, so I wait to see what happens. I engage the Gremoll in conversation, and learn the Salamander’s name is Xak (+20 to para). Next I follow the squirming lizard symbol, slay a Young Salamander, and then onto 6x Salamander Efts and am killed by the effects of the Wasting Disease.

 
Shot 3

SPOILER: Click to show

Skill 5, Stamina 16, Luck 10

OK I head straight for the Croaking Caves and I cast Huf at the Horntoad guards. One of them gets blown over and killed. The other engages me in a fight and kills me.

 
Shot 4 – chamskees’ solution

SPOILER: Click to show

Skill 7-->9 (Merkurio), Stamina 21, Luck 7

Provisions x9; Warhammer; backpack; lantern; gold piece x2; galehorn; small pebbles x13, stone dust x3, sand x5; jagged lumps of coal x5, a stoppered Crystal Jar [x]; Potion of Fire Water [x]; Bomba Fruit; Giant Tooth x2; Rope; Read mouldy scrolls on Horntoads: if in the presence of bee hive, deduct twenty -need a container; if in the presence of a cavern full of giant fungi, add 50; Potion of Transformation (transform into another humanoid creature) [x]; Potion of Healing (restore stamina to Initial and cure any diseases); Jar of Bees [x]; if defeat Salamander of Croaking Caves, deduct 30 to deal with trident; lost the fight to Merkurio; Enchanted Warhammer (+1 AS; can’t escape); to speak the name Xak, add 20; rolled a 6 on the Black Elf luck test. Verrema = Sk. 8, St. 8. If asterisk, deduct 15. Victory! (185, the good one)