Deathtraps and Dungeons : December 2020

Where it all begins.....

Background -

So back in 1980 not only was I born but Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston were pitching the Magic Quest to Penguin books. It went well but needed work. It was not until 1982 that the revised effort was published, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Interestingly Penguin published this under their children's banner, Puffin. This would explain why the Fighting Fantasy books were in the kids section of my library. Aint no way books with some of the content these had should have been in the kids section! I don't think they had young adult sections in the 80s. While researching this I learnt that the first half of the adventure is written by Livingston and the second half by Jackson, will see if I can spot different styles, not something I looked for as a kid. I did play Warlock a lot as a kid, I've finished it many times as I worked out the optimum path. However I can hardly remember what I did last week so I doubt ill have much success.

Covers -

Lets have a look at the various covers there has been over the years (spoiler, there has been a few!)

Ah the original! I am going to start off here by being controversial and say I do not like this one. I just think the warlock looks like an inoffensive old man playing with a chemistry set. The dragon is really cool though. If only they could keep that bit and make a better warlock....

And just like one of the warlocks very own spells! Maybe he was only pretending to be an old man to lull adventures into leaving him alone. This is the copy I have and I might be biased but I always thought the Dragon banner with Jackson and Livingston was the best look. Easily the best cover in my opinion.

When Wizard books took over and started to republish the books they updated the book covers. This one is actually pretty good, the dragon in particular is excellent. I might have to change my mind on favorite cover but nostalgia is a powerful thing (and fueling this blog!). So sorry staying with the older one.

However Wizard then regressed massively! When they go for a second season they have these shield covers so you only get a small space for the art. That I feel is a big mistake as it sells the book. This guy looks less warlock and more evil strangler.

Then I found out Fighting Fantasy is now in the hands of Scholastic. They have also published warlock and gave it new cover art. This one at least has a mountain in it! That's really all the good i can say for it, its a bit to cartoony for me and more aimed at kids. And what is going on with his hands, they look like a kind of squid!? At least the mad strangler above has normal hands. I was going to say this was the worst one until I found this next gem.

So it appears that the US publication had their own covers back in the 80s and they are amazing. Look how happy the hero is! Well I guess he would be he has the treasure open. Not sure how he gets it out of the mountain looks a bit much. Also not sure he knows that all those monsters have snuck up behind him. Apart from this guy -

I have no idea what this is but he seems pretty unphased by everything, just minding its own business. Also the hero looks very stereotypical for an 80s hero, like a better looking version of my brother. I might see if I can photoshop his face onto it later.

Premise -

Only a foolhardy adventurer would embark upon such a perilous quest without first finding out as much as possible about the mountain and it treasures. Well i would hope so otherwise it would be a bit of a chance to just head up to a monster infested mountain without knowing what the rewards are. So you do this by heading to a village close by to speak to the locals. Apparently i am a likeable person and get on well with the locals. I can believe this, just look at the guy on the US cover, he looks like a great guy!

So it says you can't be sure if some or any of the information you get is right. Ok so it turns out no-one in this village has ever been to the mountain and its all second hand info from adventurers that have come back. Great. They mention that the treasure is in a chest with two locks that require keys. Yep I remember having to pick up keys in the adventure. Regarding the warlock himself I am told by some he is old and others he is young. I guess they have been looking at the various covers as their source of information. Nobody said he was a strangler though. They also say his power comes from magic cards or black silky gloves. That's so random one of them must be true. Maybe its his straggling gloves.

As for the baddies I'm told there are drunk goblins, a ferryman I need to pay and monsters get tougher the further in you go.

Finally when I leave we are told "the whole village turned out to wish you a safe journey. Tears came to the eyes of many of the women, young and old alike. You couldn't help wondering whether they were tears of sorrow shed by eyes which would never see you alive again." What!? How great an impression I must have made in this village, id only been there a few days! I don't want to go to Firetop Mountain, I want to stay in this village with all my great new friends that care about me! Adventure over.

Playthrough -

As this is the first gamebook its standard rules. I have a rucksack, which to avoid confusion has haversack, backpack in brackets in case i do not know what a rucksack is. I have decided to call mine a haversack as nobody calls them that anymore. I also have a lantern but no gold. I must have spent it all on my new friends at the village. Lets roll up some stats -

Skill - 12

Stamina - 17

Luck - 8

Yeah I know, Skill 12, no one will believe me but a worrying low roll for stamina and luck.

I also get 10 provisions that will restore 4 stamina points when I eat them but can only eat when book lets you. You also get a potion to pick of skill, stamina and luck. I can't remember skill changing much or using much luck and no stamina means death and its a low score so I'll go for a potion of stamina. I can use this at any time, and get two chugs of it.

Before we head in it says there is only one true path and you can get through even with the worst starting rolls. Now i remember that being a load of rubbish in some books but i think it is true in this one.

2d6 and a pen and paper, I hated when people used the sheets in the book.

So first off I arrive at the mountain and find out despite its name it is not a volcano. It gets its name from the red fauna at the top of the mountain. I had no idea! At the very start you get prompted to go east or west so 50/50 choice straight off the bat. I go west and find sleeping goblin guard. I pass a luck test and sneak past. I guess you get what you pay for with guard quality. To be fair I can't imagine there is much traffic for them to guard so most days would be really mind numbing so no wonder he is asleep. I then to come to a door and I have already made up my mind that I with my high skill score I will open any door I come across. This once has a sleeping orc and its mentioned he may be the night shift. Not sure it matters since the day shift is also currently asleep. Alas as I sneaked in I made such a poor job of it I crashed into everything and woke him up. I imagine this was his reaction -

He is easily dispatched and my reward is a measly gold coin. And a mouse which I am not given any choice to do with as I just release it. As I move on I wonder what the sleeping day shift will think when they come back and find their colleague murdered. And more importantly who will work the night shift now? Do they have some kind of HR process to find a replacement? I know if I was working there I would feign sleep, that keeps you alive, if you do your job you just get murdered by a "hero".

As i carry on there is another door i go in an find a box which I open. Inside is a snake which misses me and is killed in one hit. I am rewarded by finding a bronze key with the number 99 on them. Great news already found a key. The process of walk and listen at door continues and the next one has the worst singing my character has ever heard. Like a vengeful Simon Cowell I burst in to find some drunk orcs living in squalor. I dispatch them and look through their stuff. I find a scroll by one Farrigo Di Maggio called the Making and Casting of Dragonfire, I memorise it as it disintegrates and move on with two thoughts.

1) I am told Di Maggio locked his life works in a chest and hid it in the depths of Firetop Mountain, afraid it might fall into the wrong hands. Why then hide it in the lair of a warlock!? Di Maggio is an idiot.

2) As i murder all these orcs i feel bad for them as they are living in squalor, the warlock is clearly not spending much on his security and they don't seem to have any benefits. Maybe he is not rich after all.

Heading east I go through a door into the orcs kitchen. There are five of them in here. But as I have not been touched yet I go for it. The poor orcs do not stand a chance, with only orc 3 getting close to scoring a hit. I hope they do not have family but there guys are as useless as storm troopers. It goes so well I am told to have +1 skill and +5 stamina but this is where I have some issues with the rules. You are never allowed to go above your initial roles, not a problem when you roll a 6 for skill but if you role a 1 you should be allowed to increase skill during the adventure. Maybe cap a maximum of 12 or something.

Anyway I got a lovely bow with a silver arrow as my prize and continue on. Now for exploring I go by the rule of never go North unless I am forced to. Trying to sweep for items before moving on. Next door I hear screaming for help so I break down the door and find this guy hurtling towards me -

You get the option to attack this guy or talk him down.

I am a nice guy (just ask the people of the village) so I try to talk him down. It works, he is a previous adventurer but was captured by the orcs and they keep him as a pet. He gives me some info, be nice to the ferryman, pull the right lever and the boat house key is guarded. I offer him to come with me but he understandably wants to go home, hope he has a bath. I watch him head off thinking he must have rolled a one for his skill to be captured by this bunch.

Another locked door that I smash down with my high skill score. This one has a shield that gives you a saving throw but you have to leave something else in exchange. I do not want to drop anything else so can I leave my lantern? Should have picked up that mouse and left it here. As I have a skill of 12 I decide to leave the shield. Next door and more tortured screaming so I burst in to see two orcs torturing a Dwarf who dies as I arrive. I get the option to join in which is amazing but I decide to kill this lot as well. My reward for this? Some cheese. I wish I could go back to the shield room and swap the cheese but we can only go forward!

I arrive at portcullis with a left and a right lever. I trust the old man and go for the right one and it opens. Continuing on I get to a nice rest stop with the option to eat provisions. I have not lost any stamina yet though so march on. Going east now all the time. I arrive at another room with this guy.

Stupid Sexy Cyclops

Reminds me off this -

Well I get the option to prize the jewel from the eye of the statue which of course I take as the whole point of coming on this trip was to get some treasure! To the shock of no one it comes alive and I have to fight. Its skill 10 so toughest opponent I have met so far and i take some hits. But in the end the distraction of his sexy ass is not enough and I defeat it. I get told the jewel is worth 50 gold pieces and on top of that another key, this one labelled 111.

I am finally forced north and meet a mad barbarian. No idea what he is doing here but he is dispatched and I find a mallet and some stakes, really handy for vampire hunting. The next room is full of paintings, strange place to have an art gallery. I can stop and look or move on, I decide to just leg it through, they look terrifying. I then end up in a pear shape room where I can pick up some y-shaped sticks, erm ok, and a rope. The rope attacks me but I need to test my luck or lose a stamina point and must keep going until I am lucky. Hmm my luck is only 8 at this point and every time you test your luck goes down. After rolling twice and failing and my luck down to 6 i roll 5 and survive. That could have been the end very quickly!

I now arrive at the river and things do not go well.

I would see this page a lot

It cost two gold pieces to cross and I only have one. I wonder if the ferryman will have change for my jewel? Instead I explore other options. First I try the rickety bridge, just do not roll a 6. I rolled a 6 and fell in and had to fight of piranhas. Not good. So next I try to punt across in a raft myself. It starts to fight back and I fail my luck test so get deposited into the water again and have to fight more piranhas. So I give up and ring the bell and the ferryman comes, he says due to inflation its now three gold to get across, I still only have one so he gets angry and I am given the option of giving him five gold pieces! I still only have one! I am not being stingy I just do not have any money. I would give him ten to get across this stupid river. So it turns out the ferryman is in fact a were rat and we got into a scuffle. I won and took his boat across, although I was told the body had disappeared. No matter I was finally across the river.

And then I was promptly knocked out. I awoke in a room with some very suspicious looking gentleman making strange noises.

As I'm nice I tried talking to them, turned out they were zombies...

After seeing them all off I was able to pick two rewards, I finally got enough gold to pay the ferryman and a silver crucifix! Vampires beware as I am now setup like Buffy. I am told I get scared by a noise and leave the room before I can pick up anything else. Low and behold the very next room is a crypt, I wonder who could be lurking around. Sure enough out pops a vampire. I use my silver crucifix and he hisses and I leave by the next door. I assume whatever religion is prevalent here also by chance includes a crucifix?

I worry I should have staked him instead but we move on. I then find some magic tools digging a tunnel, great way to save money on labour, maybe another indication of cost saving in the warlocks domain. The magic tools are humming the hi ho song from snow white. So does this mean snow white exists in this world? In the next room are some bodies which I start to loot, of course one is alive. A ghoul!

My girlfriend once told me I looked like a ghoul, pretty harsh....on the ghoul

So in this fight if you get hit four times you get paralyzed. That cant be good, and he hits me in the first round but only once more after that and I get through. So I loot through more bodies (kids game this is meant to be) and I find a map of the maze and some holy water which I drink. If you were low on stats this would have been great but I am still in pretty good shape still.

Now its the maze, I wont go into all my options I took and directions as that would take forever, I was in this bloody maze for over two hours! I was told I had found a map as well but it didn't actually provide me with one! It got so bad at one stage I had to stop and have some provisions in real life to keep going (Texas BBQ pringles and a crunchie in case you were wondering). Here are some highlights.

I met some dwarfs, not sure why they lived there but friendly enough and gave me directions, spoiler the directions did not work. Found a minotaur, as you would in a maze. He was quite tough but in the end he coughed up more gold and another key also saying 111.

I got gassed and knocked out so much times I probably have permanent brain damage. Interestingly every time I was knocked out I was moved to a different part of them maze which was a nightmare for me. But I have to wonder how angry the warlock must be with his minions, they could have killed me each time I was unconscious! Again the warlock not paying for proper quality help.

I met an old man that I also tried to be nice to and he abused me so much I left without learning anything.

After reaching each room a good three or four times each I ended up back at the start of the maze. I had no choice but to draw a map, its impossible otherwise. Even then it still took some time and searching for secret doors, more gassings before eventually I came across a dragon.

I had no option to talk to this dragon it was always going to be a fight. Luckily I had Di Maggio's spell which I used and killed the Dragon without having to draw my sword. Honestly I was just glad to have read a new passage.

Next room and there is an old man playing cards. Hmm, thinking back to my villager mates they mentioned the warlock has cards and was an old man, just like the original cover! So I charge in and sure enough its the warlock who transformers into a younger man (like the second cover!). I have some options, look for an item in my haversack, look around the room or draw my sword. I decide to look around the room as I want to see if I can spot the cards or black silky gloves. I pass the luck test and sure enough spot the cards. We both rush to them but I get there first and burn one with my lantern (just as well I did not leave it in the shield room!) and the warlock is clearly pained. Like a sadist I burn them all one by one despite his pleas. This results in him going down to skill 7 so an easy fight and he is dispatched.

But the adventure is not over, I need to open the treasure chest with its 3 locks, well I have 3 keys and I have to add up all the numbers to take me to a paragraph, it adds up to 321 which then takes me to another paragraph which takes me to the fabled 400.

Love the exploding lines

So adventure complete and I have stolen the treasure successfully. I did not think I had the right keys as I remember there are other ones in the adventure. I have many questions about why the keys would be all over the lair and have strange numbers on them. I know for a gamebook why its got them but in the world of the warlock is there another 110 keys kicking about? So I was getting ready to say I was happy with my Jewel and 34 gold pieces I ended with. It was better than the nothing I started with! I could have gone back to the village for a while and lived off of that. As it is though I am given the options to stay as the new master of Firetop Mountain. Yes! This is my choice, lets use my new wealth to sort this place out. I would implement the following -

Demolish the maze.

Set up a new recruitment process and pay more for better quality conditions for the orcs.

Implement a free ferry system to get across the river.

Notable Moments -

So I found the optimal path, but there is plenty of other things in the game that I missed. The fight with the dragon and the warlock can be a lot tougher and more epic but there are other encounters to bring up here.

There is a man selling blue candles in the middle of the lair. I have to ask how on earth that's commercially viable unless orcs or the warlock need a lot of blue candles.

When having provisions you can be attacked by a giant sandworm -

I just wanted a sandwich

And I have no idea what's going on in the skeleton boathouse -

Would love to know more about this enterprise

Artwork -

I found the interior art in FF books were a huge part for me. It adds so much flavour and as a kid were my favorite parts. Russ Nicholson is the man behind the pen and just like the gamebook itself its early days and i think the results are mixed. One of the main issues being that the backgrounds are just empty a lot of time -

Giant rats look great but so much white space.

The floor detail is great but again nothing else.

Maybe the warlock just splurged out on a great plasterer. Another thing is some of the big moments feel a little let down by the art. For example after building up to the adventure and reading all the rules you finally arrive at Firetop Mountain, really excited to go and this is the scene -

Its just a bit underwhelming.

And when the dragon that looks so good on the covers appears it just lacks something I feel -

He looks like he has just woken up, which to be fair he might have.

By no means I am saying its bad as its not, I just feel it lacks a bit of detail. There are good ones as well though like the crypt and the ghoul. I think my favorite though is the giant spider, it looks just as terrifying as it should -

Maybe you can throw a blue candle or a y-shaped stick at it.

The Big Bad -

So the warlock fight was a bit easy for me but I like how its set up. There are multiple ways it can go, a straight skill 11 fight which would be tough. The way I did it by burning his cards and reducing him to skill 7. A potion of invisibility if you have it is still skill 11 but you get bonuses. You can kill him outright with the cyclops eye, which I had! Other options in the pack include the cheese which he laughs at and the y-shaped stick which has broken in two during the adventure haha. The bow also is of no use but I love the different options. We find out later the warlocks name is Zagor but there is hints in this book as twice it references the Maze of Zagor.

Don't strangle me please.

The warlock is the iconic baddie in the FF series though and all others will be compared to him as the benchmark.

Menagerie -

As this is the first book its full of fantasy staples which is understandable. The first section is full of orcs and goblins but as you traipse further in you can meet a giant, ogre, troll, vampire, zombies and ghouls. They guardians of the keys work like mini bosses as well, the Minotaur and the Iron Cyclops are great fights. And of course a dragon as the guardian of the warlock. None of it makes a lick of sense thematically but at the moment of writing you don't know that there will be more than one book so you want to throw everything you have at it. They did fall into the trap of throwing giant in front of everything though, we have a giant sandworm, giant spider, giant rats, giant bats and erm just a giant.

Entertaining Deaths -

This was inspired by a post I saw of funniest deaths in fighting fantasy. Warlock does not have many though that I could find. The closest I came to dying was in real life trying to get through the maze. Most adventuress seem to end with you crying while sitting on the treasure chest without the right keys. I have to give it to the Ghoul though as if he paralyses you he dances around delighted and then sinks his teeth into your rump. Well at least you are paralyzed and don't feel it.

Pete's Corner -

Here my brother who has never played these before will give his thorough analysis and views -

I picked up a rope as i thought it would be useful and it straggled me to death.

Thanks Pete. I was hoping you would do better so I could use this picture -

Final Thoughts -

Well that took a lot longer than I thought. I feel the first part of the adventure is good but after the river its just killed by the maze. I understand why you would put it in and would be fun to map out but it didn't work, its torturous. I think you could have low stats and still make it through which is good, my skill 12 made combat really easy but if you had lower skill the only fights you need to get through are the minotaur and iron cyclops.

I was lucky I went one way but I do feel I missed out on a lot of other things that looked fun, but I don't believe I could go that way and still win. But after the river and before the maze there are multiple paths that you can take and not miss out on anything vital. I would have liked to try and buy a boat from the skeletons.

I also felt you could play evil as well as good with some of the choices you were presented. Lets not worry about the fact you just blundered into someone's home, killed loads of creatures and killed and robbed someone. The warlock was clearly a terrible boss and treated his workforce awfully. He deserved all he got.

The whole thing though does not make a lot of sense, how does this ecosystem work, why is there a random gallery miles from the warlock? Why did the keys need numbered? Why are they spread all over? Its more like an old school dungeon crawl. But saying all that it is almost like a technical experiment. This was the first fighting fantasy gamebook and you have to experiment and find your feet.

I used luck a lot more than I remember, clearly my young self automatically said I was lucky!

If you take out the maze its really enjoyable and laid the foundations for everything else to come. I would say if you pick up the map of the maze you should get to see the map, even if its not complete. I found it difficult to work out the compass points depending what direction you were coming from as well as a lot of junctions were just the same. Sorry I keep going back to the maze, it really did drain enjoyment from it. Technically though its very impressive work to put it all together. I can see why future books get harder though. The toughest opponent that almost killed me and took out Pete was the magic rope!