Wednesday 29 January 2014

Sorry, I Was a Bit Slow

I was all set to have a go at the next official Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure when I rolled up a character who's not really suited to it (or to the subsequent one, for that matter). But in many regards this is one of the best T&T characters I've ever generated, so rather than waste them, I've decided to put them through one of the unofficial solos I own. Andy Holmes' The Halls of the Gorgon is for first-level characters (and has a sequel that I also own), so I'm going to try that one. It's one of several that I bought from the author's eBay store, though he didn't sign this one like he did a couple of the others.

Anyway, here's the character in question.
Strength: 12
Intelligence: 10
Luck: 13
Constitution: 16
Dexterity: 14
Charisma: 15
Speed: 6
All right, so Speed is pretty abysmal, but it's only been mentioned in about two of the twenty-seven adventures I've played to date, so I'm not too fussed about that. Starting gold was also low, but enough for clothes, a short sword and a shield, and what more does a young warrior need?

I've decided to explore the Halls of Ogul-Duhr, which used to be occupied by Dwarves, but were abandoned some time ago. Rumour has it that there's a lot of treasure still in them, though. And, as can be inferred from the title, a Gorgon has taken up residence there. Pity I couldn't afford a mirror, really.

I find the cave leading into the Halls, which is partially blocked by a statue of a warrior. A victim of the Gorgon, I presume. One failed Luck roll later, I hear something approaching, and decide to hide in case the something in question is hostile.

I do not believe it. To hide, I have to succeed at a Saving Roll against Speed. Unsurprisingly, I fail. And the something is hostile. In fact it's the Gorgon, which catches me off-guard and doubles the number of statues in the vicinity of the cave mouth. If I hadn't tried to hide, it would have been another Luck roll instead, with success and failure leading to the same sections as for the Speed roll. And, my Luck being so much higher than my Speed, what I just rolled would have been enough to succeed at the Luck roll. But if I'm not prepared to accept the adverse consequences of my decisions, there's no point in playing gamebooks, so that's another rapid failure for the list.

Well, The Halls of the Gorgon might not be an official Flying Buffalo release, but it shares with around half of them the quality of being able to kill off characters at a very early stage.

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