|
Post by Wilf on Mar 10, 2017 1:31:57 GMT
The MOOn Serpent.
The only one with a double leTTer in its name.
(Forest of DOOm, Starship TraveLLer, House of HeLL, Space ASSaSSin (two doubles in that one), etc.)
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,456
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
Member is Online
|
Post by kieran on Mar 10, 2017 10:16:29 GMT
Oh very clever! I was stumped on that one.
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 10, 2017 18:15:48 GMT
Well-spotted, Wilf. You open the door with the photo of the lunar surface stuck on it, and proceed towards... whatever madness is devised by the next person to come up with a Sid puzzle.
In case Kieran was wondering how he inspired that puzzle, the abundance of double letters in Mississippi got me thinking about books with double letters in the title. Given that Slaves of the AbySS and MOOnruNNer were reasonable matches for the first couple of entries on the list, it seemed quite plausible for a while.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 10, 2017 20:38:03 GMT
You find yourself in a room with many exits. Each way out is through an arch, with a long, dark corridor leading off it. There is nothing particularly appealing about any of them, and they appear to be identical apart from one small detail – at the top of each arch, carved into the stone, is an animal. The first has a bull, the second a griffin, the third a solitary wolf… there’s also a bear, a shark, a tiger, a horse, a serpent, a scorpion, and a dragon.
In the centre of the room is a column, and on the column is pinned a drawing. It depicts a bizarre underwater scene, in which a shackled man is emerging from a yawning chasm and offering a heavy, skull-shaped pendant to a terrifying demon. The pendant seems to be having a lethal effect on the fish nearest to it, all of which appear lifeless. As you ponder this strange watery image (not least to wonder how the man is managing to breathe), you notice that the whole thing has been drawn using dark red ink… well, at least you hope that’s what it is.
You turn your attention back to the many exits. Which Way should you take?
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,456
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
Member is Online
|
Post by kieran on Mar 15, 2017 14:34:23 GMT
Bit stumped on this one. I think there might be a few Talisman of Death references - offering the fish-killing talisman to a demon and the archways with the animal symbols. But maybe a bit of Demons of the Deep too? But what it all means I have no idea.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 15, 2017 19:27:02 GMT
You're on the right lines, but keep going...
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 16, 2017 21:07:25 GMT
It's all about the artwork. There are four books referenced in it, of which Kieran has correctly identified two...
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 17, 2017 21:35:16 GMT
The 'red ink' makes me wonder if Seas of Blood might be another of the relevant titles.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 18, 2017 9:46:27 GMT
...three down, one to go...
...but you can answer this with three. You turn your attention back to the many exits. Which Way should you take?
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 18, 2017 15:56:45 GMT
If the shackled man in the chasm is meant to indicate Slaves of the Abyss, the four FF books referenced by the picture are the ones illustrated by Bob Harvey. So I guess that means the arch with the giant invisible rabbit carved into it. No such arch? A quick look at Mr Harvey's portfolio suggests that I might need to try The Way of the Tiger.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 18, 2017 16:56:54 GMT
Correct on all counts. Over to you...
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 19, 2017 13:44:38 GMT
The arch with the tiger inscription leads to a short passageway, which ends in a door with the words 'BE GOOD' painted on it. The door opens onto a large room without a proper floor. Before you is an expanse of unpleasant-smelling mud, with a few dozen granite squares arranged in it as stepping stones. There's a definite pattern to the arrangement of the stones, but it's not regular or symmetrical. Each of the stones has a small picture on it. The one just in front of the entrance shows the original cover of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and those a metre to the left and right of it show the covers of Starship Traveller and Space Assassin respectively. You can make out the pictures on a few more of the closer stones, too. There are two further stones near Assassin: the one straight ahead of it as you face into the room shows the cover of Appointment with F.E.A.R. and the one further to the right has Beneath Nightmare Castle's cover on it. Traveller only has one other stone close to it, straight ahead, with the cover of Stealer of Souls on. The pattern of stepping stones creates a maze-like path providing access to eight doors. each of which also has a picture on, though these are large enough that you can see even the most distant ones. Going clockwise from the entrance, the pictures are as follows: - Balthus Dire
- Alfred Hitchcock with a crow on his shoulder
- A crooked cricket bat
- The Goodies (though, disconcertingly, Tim and Bill's faces have been replaced with copies of Graeme's)
- A couple of badly cropped images - the first a headless shot of a large black feline, the second a photo (minus head and feet) of someone in a dog collar and cassock
- A snooker table with an assortment of red and yellow balls on it
- Kermit the Frog and his nephew Robin
- Graham Souness
You should be able to get to any of the doors without too much bother. It's just a question of identifying the correct one...
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 19, 2017 17:52:36 GMT
I appear to be in Scorpion Swamp. The books relate to the numbers in the clearings in that adventure.
On the doors, we find references to Birds (Hitchcock), Gardens (three Goodie Graemes), and Antherica berries (black feline is a panther, minus its head (read: initial letter) is anther; add a vicar minus his head and feet (read first and last letters) is ica.)
However, the Mistress Of Birds and the Master Of Gardens are both GOOD, as is the person who sends you on the Antherica quest, so I'm not sure which of these doors I should take.
Certainly I won't take the Frogs door, as the Master Of Frogs is neutral. If there are Wolves or Spiders here, I don't see them, though clearings 4 and 17 where they appear are both represented by the stepping stones.
Also spotted the edit - the red and yellow balls on the table presumably point to pool (as in Pool Beast) rather than snooker.
That's as far as I've got.
Think I'm going to take a punt on the Antherica door, since the initial instruction is that I should BE GOOD, not that I should encounter good.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 19, 2017 17:59:13 GMT
The crooked Cricket Bat is Willowbend, isn't it?
The doors all represent places in Scorpion Swamp from which there is no exit other than the way you came in.
Is there a Dire Beast somewhere in the swamp, too? If so, the only one I don't get is Graham (sic) Souness. Guessing he has a Swamp-related nickname. Off to Wikipedia with me. ETA: He's the manager of Rangers. Gotcha.
Still sticking with my answer. Antherica door, please.
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 19, 2017 20:42:19 GMT
The Antherica door is the correct one.
You're right about most of the other exits, too. Just a couple of minor things you didn't get (and one of them was a pretty tenuous parallel anyway). The pool table was the pool of water with healing properties in clearing 21. And some time before becoming Rangers' Captain, Graham Souness broke an opponent's jaw while playing for Liverpool, so he was the 'Pool Beast.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 19, 2017 21:32:14 GMT
That was actually quite a tough one to crack, but as soon as I got the Antherica bit, it all fell into place.
This one should be fairly easy.
---oOo---
You enter a room with a single exit - a large door with the number 18 etched on it, which will not budge.
In the centre of the room is a circular pit, a metre across and extremely deep. There is a pulley on the ceiling, and a rope runs through it and straight down into the hole.
Seeing no other obvious course of action to take, you pull on the rope to see what might be at the end of it. From out of the pit emerges a bucket of water, at the bottom of which are a handful of gold pieces and a rather soggy copy of... err, Out Of The Pit. In fact, it's so wet it's largely unreadable, but you can still make out the entries on Ghosts, Mummies, Pixies, Zombies, Hellhounds, Nandibears, and Calacorms.
You turn your attention back to the door. It has no handles or keyholes. How will you open it?
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 20, 2017 19:04:34 GMT
Does it matter whether that's the original version of OotP or the trade paperback edition (page numbers vary)?
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 20, 2017 22:04:23 GMT
Not in the slightest.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 23, 2017 18:33:21 GMT
After three days stuck in the room, you are beginning to get a little bored (and if you've no Provisions left, quite hungry, too). You decide to inspect the book a little closer, now it's dried out.
On page 11, below the entry for Zombies, you can see an ink stain in a different colour - as if someone wrote something there long ago. It's just an illegible blur now, thanks to the water damage, but peering at it, you think it might have been three words - one long one followed by two short ones. What could this mean?
There is nothing else remarkable about the book.
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 23, 2017 23:01:21 GMT
I think I've just cracked it. Not sure that a puzzle which requires a fairly detailed knowledge of the first multiplayer scenario in the book Fighting Fantasy counts as 'fairly easy', though. A little self-consciously, I say: Fanananana
Cosim Patana
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 24, 2017 8:00:07 GMT
That'll teach me to make claims about what's easy and what isn't. I genuinely thought it was, as the FF book was considered very much as part of the series as the gamebooks were when I was little.
The pit is clearly a well, and the gold coins have been thrown down it, indicating it might be a wishing well. All the monsters in the book appear somewhere in the adventure (I thought this would be easy because Calacorms and Nandibears aren't exactly commonplace), and the number 18 refers to the treasure room, the door of which can only be opened by reciting the spell on page 11 of the spell book.
Next time I'll try to be more lenient!
Over to you.
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 30, 2017 16:59:33 GMT
Complete the following sequences:
9, 26, ? 20, 34, 8, ? 19, 35, ?, ?
The same principle applies to each sequence.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 30, 2017 18:21:51 GMT
? 27 or 45 or 49 (or Sorcery! 3)... 6, ?
Am I on the right lines?
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 30, 2017 22:27:16 GMT
In the right general area, but there's a progression you don't seem to have picked up on.
Either 27 or 45 could be in place of 8, but not follow it, while 49 could only precede it, and Sorcery! 3 is just wrong.
6 is spot on, though.
|
|
|
Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Mar 30, 2017 23:44:28 GMT
59 ? 6
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 31, 2017 6:51:13 GMT
That first one has me stumped. Possibly 5?
Second one is surely 53 (or Wizard Series 2, Book 4).
And 55 comes after 6.
Number of words in each title decreases by one each time, whilst the basic initials stay the...
...Definitely 5. You're replacing the initials COTS with COT not COS.
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Mar 31, 2017 19:08:27 GMT
That's it, Wilf.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Mar 31, 2017 21:41:55 GMT
OK, let's try this sequence. What completes it?
1, 52, 64*, 15, 18, 11, 10, 44, 4, ...?
* I am counting the new titles from Eye Of The Dragon through The Port Of Peril as being books 60-66.
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,456
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
Member is Online
|
Post by kieran on Apr 1, 2017 8:04:25 GMT
22?
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Apr 1, 2017 8:28:38 GMT
That one really *was* easy, wasn't it?
Correct. The last letter of the first book is the first letter of the next, and books starting with the same letter are picked in publication order.
Sadly, no FFs start with O.
Not yet, anyway...
Your go.
|
|