Post by pip on May 1, 2020 23:21:40 GMT
Grail Quest was an immensely fun parody of the Arthurian legend, by author J.H. Brennan. The humour these gamebooks display might remind you of the likes of the Monty Pythons. Merlin is kooky as ever, and you wield a talking sword, Excalibur Junior. As books, they provide a highly enjoyable and light-hearted read. As games, I reckon they work best if you don't take them too seriously, as there are vast amounts of deadly traps that you cannot see coming, and sometimes mandatory dice rolls where you need pure luck to stay alive. This flaw is however tempered by the great writing, the fact that the deaths are often humorous (it's sometimes worth dying just so you get to read your death scene), and that previously killed enemies do not reappear on subsequent runs, giving you extra incentive to try again.
Book 1 takes us to the titular Castle of Darkness, where you must defeat the evil wizard Ansalom and free Queen Guinevere. It is a fairly silly book, although the comedy is still rather tame compared to the sheer absurdity that would come in the later volumes. Gameplay-wise, it is rather traditional (later books will expand on the formula with additions like maps, random encounters, etc.).
SOLUTION
The game starts with a lengthy introduction, which includes a fight and a couple of player choices, but none of it matters as you can neither die nor influence any of what’s happening. The point of this introduction is to provide you with the background story, your starting equipment and spells, and a practice fight.
- Fight Mean Jake (20 LP (Life Points), you can hit his nose with 8+ for double damage). You don’t need to win.
- Go willingly (or not, it makes no difference).
- Take Excalibur Junior (E.J.), a dragonhide jerkin, and potions of healing (18 doses). That’s a lot of potion doses, so do not hesitate to use them after losing LP. Avoid using Dreamtime to recover LP, it is too random and dangerous.
- Nod (or say the word, it makes no difference).
- Learn the Firefinger and Fireball spells. It would be wise to save the Firefinger spells for truly dangerous encounters. Definitely save the Fireball spells for the fight with Ansalom.
- Your backpack contains a coil of rope, climbing spikes, torches, a lantern with oil and a tinderbox, sandwiches and apples, sheets of parchment with ink and a quill, a dagger, 5 salves for wounds, garlic, a mirror, a hammer, nails, a saw, and a homemade compass.
From then on, you enter the forest surrounding the castle and the actual adventure begins.
- Take the left-hand path.
- Speak politely to the Knight or attempt to fight him (it makes no difference). Either way, you find out it’s actually King Pellinore, a running gag in the series. You reach the castle.
- Creep along slowly.
- Move east to examine the carts and barrels.
- There’s nothing of use among the carts and barrels, but you may now move north without falling into a hidden trapdoor, so do so and go to the double doors in the north wall.
- Investigate the row of buildings near the north wall.
- Make a thorough search of the stables.
- You go through a trap door leading to a secret passage, and eventually fall down a pit trap. Roll 2d6:
o 3- : you die
o between 4* and 10 : lose 20 LP
o 11+ : you are unharmed
*The text says 5, leaving no option if you roll a 4, but from the wording I assume rolling a 4 should lead to this option.
- Don’t waste time searching the cave (or do, there is nothing to be found so it makes no difference).
- Press on through the exit.
- Fight the Compost Heap (35 LP, hits with 5+, +4 damage).
- Turn the door handle.
The following section is theoretically optional, but in my estimation the nice stuff you can get outweighs the dangers, so I recommend going through it. If you don’t want to do this optional part, skip to the next section.
- Try the door in the west wall.
- Fight the Zombies (special fight, not too tough unless you’re unlucky with the dice).
- Take a tinglering.
- Go east.
- Go in.
- You still want to go in.
- Lose 4 LP. Use a Firefinger spell to get light.
- Promise to buy the Leprechaun a drink.
- Take 50 gold, a double-headed copper coin and a scroll. Roll 2d6 to find out what the scroll contains:
o 2 : nothing
o 3-4 : Healing spell
o 5-6 : Teleportation spell
o 7-8 : Death spell
o 9-10 : Hypnotism spell
o 11-12 : Antidote spell
- Go north.
- You have to roll dice to look for secret doors, but even if you fail, you can just try again until you succeed.
- Use the boat.
- Explore the island.
- Explore the cave.
- Enter the crypt.
- The riddle tells you you should knock four times, so do so.
- Praise the Fiend’s poetry.
- Write a poem and make sure it is longer than 10 lines.
- Take 1 gold for each line in your poem. Your poem has more than 10 lines.
- Take the magic duck. The duck allows you, once in your adventure, to counter any magic spell. Note that you only learn about its power upon using it.
- Drink from the chalice.
- LP restored, +25 buffer LP. Take the Luckstone (a really nifty item!).
- There are two ways to go back to the previous room. You can either go west, get trapped there, then pull a lever which will make the roof collapse, costing you half of your LP and prompting you go to back to paragraph 45. But as the rules specified earlier on when you were advised to draw a map, you are allowed to go back to any previous room as long as you are certain the way has not been blocked. Therefore, it's better if you do not go west and just spontaneously go back to paragraph 45.
Back to the mandatory part of the solution. If you opted not to do the optional part above, you will already be at paragraph 45.
- Climb the stone stairway.
- Lose 1d6 LP.
- Explore the pit.
- Try to make friends with the Spider.
- If you succeed, you can skip the fight. If you fail, you have to fight the Spider (33 LP, hits with 4+, +3 damage; every third time it hits you, roll 2d6 and get 6+ or die). I recommend using your Firefinger spell to help you here.
- Keep exploring the pit.
- Fight the Snake (12 LP, hits with 6+ and causes instant death). You'll want to use your Firefinger spell here. The Snake may get the first strike so it is a dangerous fight either way, unless you happened to find the Antidote spell.
- Search again.
- Roll 2d6 to open the door.
o 6- : Lose 1 LP. The guards in the next paragraph will get the first strike.
o 7+ : You get the first strike against the guards.
- Fight two Guards (15 LP each, +2 damage, -2 from your damage).
- Move east.
- Fight two Guards (15 LP each, +2 damage, -2 from your damage).
- Enter the room they were guarding (the only point is to try your luck at getting the magic wand, which is a nice, but non essential item; it is worth a try)
- Search.
- Roll 2d6 to see what you find:
o 2-6 : nothing
o 7-9 : Take the magic wand
o 10-12 : nothing except a vision of the Queen
- Return up the corridor and continue north.
- Enter the room.
- You have garlic in your backpack.
- Take 500 gold. Try the door on the north wall.
- Fight two Hounds (25 LP each, +4 damage).
- Fight Ansalom (150 LP, uses magic like your Firefinger spell). Use your two Fireball spells against him, if they both hit the fight will be over. Otherwise, use your remaining Firefinger spells before trying your luck with your sword at a last resort. Make use of the magic duck to counter one of his spells if needed.
- You free the Queen and become a hero.
Book 1 takes us to the titular Castle of Darkness, where you must defeat the evil wizard Ansalom and free Queen Guinevere. It is a fairly silly book, although the comedy is still rather tame compared to the sheer absurdity that would come in the later volumes. Gameplay-wise, it is rather traditional (later books will expand on the formula with additions like maps, random encounters, etc.).
SOLUTION
The game starts with a lengthy introduction, which includes a fight and a couple of player choices, but none of it matters as you can neither die nor influence any of what’s happening. The point of this introduction is to provide you with the background story, your starting equipment and spells, and a practice fight.
- Fight Mean Jake (20 LP (Life Points), you can hit his nose with 8+ for double damage). You don’t need to win.
- Go willingly (or not, it makes no difference).
- Take Excalibur Junior (E.J.), a dragonhide jerkin, and potions of healing (18 doses). That’s a lot of potion doses, so do not hesitate to use them after losing LP. Avoid using Dreamtime to recover LP, it is too random and dangerous.
- Nod (or say the word, it makes no difference).
- Learn the Firefinger and Fireball spells. It would be wise to save the Firefinger spells for truly dangerous encounters. Definitely save the Fireball spells for the fight with Ansalom.
- Your backpack contains a coil of rope, climbing spikes, torches, a lantern with oil and a tinderbox, sandwiches and apples, sheets of parchment with ink and a quill, a dagger, 5 salves for wounds, garlic, a mirror, a hammer, nails, a saw, and a homemade compass.
From then on, you enter the forest surrounding the castle and the actual adventure begins.
- Take the left-hand path.
- Speak politely to the Knight or attempt to fight him (it makes no difference). Either way, you find out it’s actually King Pellinore, a running gag in the series. You reach the castle.
- Creep along slowly.
- Move east to examine the carts and barrels.
- There’s nothing of use among the carts and barrels, but you may now move north without falling into a hidden trapdoor, so do so and go to the double doors in the north wall.
- Investigate the row of buildings near the north wall.
- Make a thorough search of the stables.
- You go through a trap door leading to a secret passage, and eventually fall down a pit trap. Roll 2d6:
o 3- : you die
o between 4* and 10 : lose 20 LP
o 11+ : you are unharmed
*The text says 5, leaving no option if you roll a 4, but from the wording I assume rolling a 4 should lead to this option.
- Don’t waste time searching the cave (or do, there is nothing to be found so it makes no difference).
- Press on through the exit.
- Fight the Compost Heap (35 LP, hits with 5+, +4 damage).
- Turn the door handle.
The following section is theoretically optional, but in my estimation the nice stuff you can get outweighs the dangers, so I recommend going through it. If you don’t want to do this optional part, skip to the next section.
- Try the door in the west wall.
- Fight the Zombies (special fight, not too tough unless you’re unlucky with the dice).
- Take a tinglering.
- Go east.
- Go in.
- You still want to go in.
- Lose 4 LP. Use a Firefinger spell to get light.
- Promise to buy the Leprechaun a drink.
- Take 50 gold, a double-headed copper coin and a scroll. Roll 2d6 to find out what the scroll contains:
o 2 : nothing
o 3-4 : Healing spell
o 5-6 : Teleportation spell
o 7-8 : Death spell
o 9-10 : Hypnotism spell
o 11-12 : Antidote spell
- Go north.
- You have to roll dice to look for secret doors, but even if you fail, you can just try again until you succeed.
- Use the boat.
- Explore the island.
- Explore the cave.
- Enter the crypt.
- The riddle tells you you should knock four times, so do so.
- Praise the Fiend’s poetry.
- Write a poem and make sure it is longer than 10 lines.
- Take 1 gold for each line in your poem. Your poem has more than 10 lines.
- Take the magic duck. The duck allows you, once in your adventure, to counter any magic spell. Note that you only learn about its power upon using it.
- Drink from the chalice.
- LP restored, +25 buffer LP. Take the Luckstone (a really nifty item!).
- There are two ways to go back to the previous room. You can either go west, get trapped there, then pull a lever which will make the roof collapse, costing you half of your LP and prompting you go to back to paragraph 45. But as the rules specified earlier on when you were advised to draw a map, you are allowed to go back to any previous room as long as you are certain the way has not been blocked. Therefore, it's better if you do not go west and just spontaneously go back to paragraph 45.
Back to the mandatory part of the solution. If you opted not to do the optional part above, you will already be at paragraph 45.
- Climb the stone stairway.
- Lose 1d6 LP.
- Explore the pit.
- Try to make friends with the Spider.
- If you succeed, you can skip the fight. If you fail, you have to fight the Spider (33 LP, hits with 4+, +3 damage; every third time it hits you, roll 2d6 and get 6+ or die). I recommend using your Firefinger spell to help you here.
- Keep exploring the pit.
- Fight the Snake (12 LP, hits with 6+ and causes instant death). You'll want to use your Firefinger spell here. The Snake may get the first strike so it is a dangerous fight either way, unless you happened to find the Antidote spell.
- Search again.
- Roll 2d6 to open the door.
o 6- : Lose 1 LP. The guards in the next paragraph will get the first strike.
o 7+ : You get the first strike against the guards.
- Fight two Guards (15 LP each, +2 damage, -2 from your damage).
- Move east.
- Fight two Guards (15 LP each, +2 damage, -2 from your damage).
- Enter the room they were guarding (the only point is to try your luck at getting the magic wand, which is a nice, but non essential item; it is worth a try)
- Search.
- Roll 2d6 to see what you find:
o 2-6 : nothing
o 7-9 : Take the magic wand
o 10-12 : nothing except a vision of the Queen
- Return up the corridor and continue north.
- Enter the room.
- You have garlic in your backpack.
- Take 500 gold. Try the door on the north wall.
- Fight two Hounds (25 LP each, +4 damage).
- Fight Ansalom (150 LP, uses magic like your Firefinger spell). Use your two Fireball spells against him, if they both hit the fight will be over. Otherwise, use your remaining Firefinger spells before trying your luck with your sword at a last resort. Make use of the magic duck to counter one of his spells if needed.
- You free the Queen and become a hero.