Mime-artist's redemption
I was reminded that I came up with a sequence by which you could become a white-faced monk and still go on to win by rejoining the correct path later. This would, unsurprisingly, be impossible without the returning-through-the-double-doors trick. As it is, it's certainly statistically tougher than my basic suggested route, so should probably only be attempted if you roll at least 5 for SKILL. Having STAMINA of exactly 2 will not work on this route (as discussed above your only chance is to stay on the road and ambush the mercenary). Generally a very low STAMINA probably isn't advisable, however a FEROCITY of exactly 3 (which is only possible with a STAMINA of 2 or 3) is so beneficial that this trumps those concerns.
There are two benefits to giving this a go:
– It allows you to see much more of the book on a successful playthrough.
– The possibility of redemption for someone who hasn't done much wrong but has been in the wrong place at the wrong time and fallen in with a bad lot. This is pleasing and seems in keeping with book's theme of a positive character journey.
I probably hesitated to post it before because there's an even higher chance that the maths is suboptimal. My grasp of logic is pretty good but I never did A-level Maths (to use John Brawn's criterion) so it may be that fiddling with this will give you a better chance. I may be grumpy when you point this out.
- Travel by road
- Flee
- Defend Hani -2 Temp Stamina +1 Ferocity
- Stick to the road
- Boarding house with the others + word 'art'
- Leave the magistrate's chamber
- You have the word 'art'
- Travel to Traole with the others
- Make camp here
- Stay on guard
o If your Skill is 5 your Stamina 7+ and Luck 9+, fight worm
* o Fight Skill 6 Stamina 8 Cangui
o If you win, +1 Skill +1 Luck
o Else, flee
o -1 Temp Stamina
+1 year to Age (Restore Stamina; -2 Ferocity)
- Enter the city
- Go and see what's happening
- Fight Dragon Guard Skill 8 Stamina 10
o If your Temp Stamina is an even number
o use Luck once when you're hit to make it odd
- If you win, you die(!) else
- Your Stamina drops to 1 exactly
+2 Temp Stamina
+2 Temp Stamina
- Attack the guard
- Roll 3D6 and compare to sum of Skill and Ferocity
o If roll equal to or greater than
o Fight Warder Skill 5 Stamina 6
- Take keys (and cudgel if available)
- Make a break for it straight away
- Take torch
- Roll 2D6 and compare to
Permanent Stamina
o If the result is less than PS
o Go right
o If the result is equal or greater
o Use torch
o -1 Temp Stamina
- Don't use torch, even if you still have it
- Sneak upstairs and eavesdrop
"What's this? Some kind of invisible wall?"
- Burst in and attack
- Press home your attack
- Restore Stamina to Perm level
- Agree to help the monk
+ word 'spider', +1 year to Age (Restore Stamina; -2 Ferocity) +3 Skill, + 3 Permanent Stamina, + note face is painted white
- You have a white face
- Fight Monk Skill 10 Stamina 12
- Hand father your most prized possession (-2 Ferocity)
- Push the left-hand door
- You have a white face
- Say
you're doing taster sessions at various monasteries to find the most monktacular experience so you wish to join the monastery
[Rejoin the juncture of Champskees's solution/my insert at Take Red Robe]
* This is probably the point at which my maths feels most inadequate to the task. Is it ever worth taking on the Cangui? A SKILL 6 STAMINA 8 foe has a high chance of killing you. You'll probably need LUCK tests to get through. So long as you don't actually die, STAMINA is an irrelevance as it will be restored to full before your next fight. The prize for winning is a SKILL point and a LUCK point (the latter of which is probably just compensating for you spending at least one during the fight).
There's even a question as to whether you want that SKILL point because you have to lose your next fight against the SKILL 8 STAMINA 10 Dragon Guard. (Perhaps if you burn LUCK against the Cangui you'll have a better chance of losing more STAMINA against the DG. Hopefully if you've survived this far the SKILL 5 STAMINA 6 warder should be beatable without LUCK even if you have to fight him.)
However you eventually need to fight a SKILL 10 STAMINA 12 monk. By then you will have had a 3 point SKILL bonus and the same for STAMINA. Nevertheless you might feel the benefit of another SKILL point as even a SKILL 6-starting adventurer will be a point down on the monk otherwise. Note that you don't have any more chances to regain LUCK after the Dragon Guard.
Additional notes:
For people wondering about the FEROCITY 3 thing, (and I hope I'm right about this), the point is that in saving Hani you pick up 1 FEROCITY point, but there is no reason for you to pick up any more. As you age 1 year on the way to Traole and another in the white-faced monastery, that represents a loss of 4 FEROCITY points, reducing your score to 0 which results in the 2 point SKILL bonus neatly in time for the SKILL 10 monk.
It is just as well that it is impossible to sustain the minimum possible FEROCITY of 2 up to the point you begin the year long trek to Traole, otherwise by the time you face the Dragon Guard you might have become so mellow that you kill him.
Some people might wonder whether instead of picking the left door at the end there you could go through both doors, then back through the double doors (i.e. take a crack at Death's Messenger before any more monk-y business). You certainly can. Arguably this is statistically better as if you defeat it you might pick up another SKILL point relative to the white-faced monk you'll need to beat later. I just think that...
– As you're at the monastery already you might as well get on with learning another stats-boosting martial art (something there'll be no justification for if you beat Death's Messenger first). This seems more fun.
– There might be a remote chance that you'd screw up getting the word 'When' and have to loop back again unnecessarily.
– What would the benefit of that SKILL point be, exactly? The chances of an adventurer defeating a SKILL 10 STAMINA 12 monk, then picking up (on the 'wood'-learning path) at least 3 SKILL points and several STAMINA points and then getting their arse handed to them by a SKILL 8 STAMINA 8 monk strike me as not large.
Needless to say: on this route you may quite easily end up with a SKILL score in excess of 12. If you feel like sliced mudworm is on the menu and worth a detour, you have my blessing on behalf of our kind.