Chasms of Malice

Background -

The well furnished room would have been a nice place to be.  If it was not also a glorified jail.  In a different universe.

Since he was pulled through the Stargate, the person now known as Luke Sharp was having another bemusing day.  He was watching a strange film called Spaceballs.  Was this really what the people from this planet thought space was all about?

He looks up from the painfully small viewing screen these people called a television when he heard the door being unlocked.  

Ian and Phillipa made there way into the room and sat down at the table, facing Luke.

Ian "So Luke, how are you finding Earth?"

Luke "It is terrible, it is grey and cold and everyone is obsessed with a game where people kick a ball about!"

Ian "Erm yeah it does get quite nice in the summer, but it is a bit drab just now."

Phillipa "Enough of the small talk!  Look we spent a huge amount on the Stargate project, and to be honest, Star Strider was pretty bad!  We need you to write another book to justify the project costs."

Luke "But I have never written a book in my life!  I am the 3rd assistant sous chef at my local restaurant."

Ian "Use that!  Think of a great underdog story.  People love that stuff."

Phillipa gets up and storms out muttering "Good lord, those scientists!  They completely ballsed it up this time!"

Ian watches her leave before turning to Luke "Look Luke, the secret of writing a good gamebook is to make it really, really hard!

Luke "Really difficult?  Ok I will try and do that.  And then you will send me home?

Ian gets up and goes to leave "Erm sure, if its good that its.  And remember good books are hard."

Released in December 1987, Chasms of Malice is the 30th book to be released in the series.  It is a book I have never played before.  I do not even remember seeing it in the library.  But I am aware of its reputation.  Bit worried my playthrough will not be a long one.  It is Luke Sharpe's (Alkis Alkiviades) second go at Fighting Fantasy after Star Strider, which I thought was terrible so hopefully this will be better.  Lets find out.

Covers - 

I really like this cover!  Particular the demon like goat headed horse our pale orc friend is riding.  The spear is coming out towards us and there is a big bat thing flying about.

The deep oranges, yellows and reds give the whole thing an infernal, depths of hell feeling.  Which I guess is appropriate if we end up being deep underground.

Hard to find anything to make fun of here.  It is an excellent cover.

Well maybe I could point out his lovely purple knee pads.  Even deep in the caverns, fashion matters.

Premise - 

The first part of the background is an extract from the Treatise on the Kingdoms of South West Khul by Ignatius Pommfritte.  Interesting name, think it is close to meaning french fries?

Anyway, first part is about Gorak, a minor kingdom founded by Tancred the Magnificent.  Why is he magnificent you ask?  No idea.  Anyway he established Gorak to be a gateway between Khul and the chasms, caverns and tunnels of the Gaddon people.  Gorak has been missing a monarch for quite some time and is currently governed by the Lords of Ridermark.

So how about Gaddon?  Well they are also known as Feelbrethen.  They are a people originally from south west Khul but migrated to the Chasms for unknown reasons.  It then proceeds to suggest it could have been to avoid religious persecution.  So the reasons might be known.

Living in the dark tunnels they started giving birth to blind babies who had heightened other senses and became masters of the dark.  The best of these are the Gaddon Knights, the Sensewarriors.   They are very rarely found topside.

Next we get a fragment of text form the Annals and Histories of Tancred the Magnificent, King of Gorak.

Orghuz was Tancred brother, maybe.

Looks like his brother (maybe) turned bad and was imprisoned in the Chasms and the poor Gaddon were left to watch him.

We now swing back to the normal background and follow the wizard Astragal (who appears to be Khuls Yaztromo) flying as a Hawk.  He gets a message form the current Lord Riddermark to investigate strange happenings in Gorak.  Dark creatures are abroad, attacking and killing people for no other reason than malice!  Bit on the nose that.

The Vital Truffle trade route is being disrupted.  No, not the truffles! And Azleff, the leader of the Knights of the Grey Order is missing.  But no one is really worried about him, its all about the truffles.

Will not be seeing much of these in Khul unless we sort it out.

Our man Astragal does some studying of ancient tombs and then investigates the deepest vault in Gorak keep.  Guess what?  All the seals are broken and the True Shield is missing!  There is a large crack in the floor leading to the dark chasms.

Astragal runs off to Lord Riddermark to tell him the bad news.  Someone has unleashed the Malice of Orghuz and the Khuddam.  If Orghuz can break the shields spell then his Khuddam will keep multiplying.  Very specifically to 49, then 2401 then 5764801.  Basic maths until they become an uncountable horde.  The wizard is very insistent that in order to defeat Orghuz you first have to defeat his Khuddam and it has to be a direct descendant of old magnificent Tancred.

Lord Riddermark hits Astragal with the bad news.  The line of Tancred has ended many years ago.  Astragal is having none of it though and gets his special orb out.  It leads him to Tancred's descendent, and shock horror, it is me!

I am currently working as third assistant rabbit skinner in the under kitchens and can not even wash my hands before Astragal whisks me away.  In a dusty room he casts some magic and a fancy sword appears and floats into my hand.  He then pronounces me Tancred's heir.

Astragal tells me that I must retrieve the shield and their is a traitor in Gorak.  He has nothing else to give me, not even a potion, and instead gives me a small cat called Tabasha the Bazouk and then pushes me into the deep chasm.

What the hell is going on.

Playthrough - 

We get a nice colour map.  Not that it will do much good as we will be underground.  I would like to visit the Truffle Heights though!

Skill, Stamina and Luck are all as you would expect by now.  However in the how to fight section, as well as the normal stuff there is a part called One-Strike Combat.  This is for when there is not enough space for a full combat, for example, when you are on a ledge.  I am all for speeding up combat and new mechanics.

However.....

One strike combat is, roll 2 dice for you, roll 2 dice for your opponent.  No Skill or anything, just a straight roll off.  Loser plummets to their doom.     

What the hell is going on!

Only 5 provisions this time.  However if you find any fuel you can cook them which restores 6 points of stamina instead of the usual 4.  

I do not have a lot of equipment.  A sword, leather armour and a backpack.  But we do have the aforementioned Tabasha the Bazouk.  The magic cat acts a bit like a potion.  It can restore back my initial skill or luck but can only do this once.   But you can call on Tabasha nine times throughout the adventure.  Including to help find provisions at any time.  Other times when she can help the book will prompt me.

Finally on the adventure sheet we have the 7 names of the Khuddam.  Its a simple as cross off a name when you defeat them.

Skill - 11

Stamina - 22

Luck - 9

Turns out I have been wasting my time helping skin rabbits in the kitchen as my character (who I know little about) is quite a dab hand with a sword.  I would like to think getting the sword has unlocked some latent ability for being Tancred's heir.  Not that the book said that, I made it up to justify why I am skill 11 with that backstory.  I was kind of hoping for a roll of a 1 to sell the absurdity of the whole thing.

Ill take the Luck cat option.

Dodgy Rasputin waves me on my way.

He pretty much says good luck and I head into the very dark caverns.  My cat tucks itself into my hood and the sword starts to glow which is very handy since its dark.  It scares off some furry creatures and I arrive at my first cave with three exits.  Left is just left, middle through a small crack or a wider crack on the right which drops down almost vertically.  Always left.

I find some vulgar ruins, no idea why they are vulgar as I can not read the shapes.  It looks like some carts have come this way.  Do you want to go left or right.  I go left down the tunnel to follow the cart tracks.

At this stage Tabasha jumps out and disappears into the wall, she comes out with a furry worm and offers it to me to eat.  Well I do not need any stamina but it would be rude not to.  Add 1 stamina, it is delicious!

He really wants that Iron Collar

As I continue on I find this poor dude fleeing some orcs.  I decide to help out rather than hide.  I fight one Skill 6 Orc as the other grabs the spiked collar and runs away.  My dude is obviously displeased by this as I twice roll double 6s in combat as he is easily dispatched.

The Dwarf is dying from a poisoned arrow and just has time to tell me to look for the Dragons Breath Inn for help.  I trundle after the Orc.

I come to another T-junction, but one tunnel has a dragon head carved above it.  Going by the advice of the Dwarf I decide this is the way to go.

Right enough it leads me to the Dragons Breath Inn, but as I arrive a figure in a black cloak collapses outside.  I decide to be nice and help.  Turns out it is a drunk troll who is very upset that I touched him (always get consent) and its another Skill 6 fight.  Quite easy for a troll so I can only assume his low scores are due to his very drunken state.  I hide the body and head inside.  Only mere minutes ago I was skinning rabbits in the kitchen, now I am hiding bodies of people I have murdered!

A goblin comes out of a door chewing a bone and heads into another door where I catch a glimpse of a roaring fire.  Which door do you want to go in?  Well my guess is one is a type of kitchen but I am already on maximum stamina, so lets try the nice warm fire.  

That moment where the entire pub turns round when you walk in.

It is full of orcs and trolls who are mistreating a Dwarf with a metal collar.  A blind Gaddon arrives to serve them food then smells me, recognising that I am a Topsider.  She warns me that there is great danger and asks why I have come here.  Well the Dwarf said to trust the Gaddon at the Dragons Breath Inn so I tell her my story.

She takes me upstairs to her father Bosak.  When I explain the quest, he tells me the Khuddam are abroad and the old iron mines are being worked by their slaves.  He gives me directions and tells me to seek the old man in the iron caves before getting a nice meal which restores 2 stamina that I had not lost.  It is better than the muck they feed them downstairs he tells me.

I follow his advice and arrive at a tunnel full of spiky rocks, both above and below, time to test my luck.  I pass and a stone dart misses me.  As I make my way onward I hear a scream through a crack on my left.  I am all for helping in this adventure so lets go take a look.

A young Gaddon is stuck in a web, I find the Fang Spider as it drops on my head.  Skill 6 Stamina 10.  I beat it without taking a hit, including us both rolling snake eyes in the same combat round.  I get my luck point back and the Gaddon takes me all the way to the Iron Caves including the correct door to use.

I have found the old man already.  He has a nice chamber here and my cat jumps onto his lap.  He tells me he has been expecting me and is feeling the pages of this book with fat sensitive finger tips.  Ok then.  Everyone is getting on great before a dagger appears from nowhere but my sword leaps up to deflect it.  

Turns out it was a test.  He helped forge the sword.

Time for a lesson!

So he teaches me that these are the symbols for left, right, danger, safe, up and down. 

Not so fast, now it is the maths lesson!

Each raised one has one of these values.

Ok this is all useful and makes sense.  He tells me to find the caves of Minosaddurr and temper the sword in the heartflame.  He also feeds me for more stamina I do not need.  I then have to make a blind left or right choice when I leave.  What?  He gave me all that information but can not point me in the right direction?

I head left, and the I hear screams.  But I see some engravings and using my training I can work out it says left is safe and right is danger.  So lets keep left.

After a long walk I have a sleep, Tabasha fetches a blind fish for me to eat when I wake up.  I then hear lots of shuffling feet and need to hide.  A niche to the left or hole in the ground.  A hole sounds dubious so I hide in the niche.

Turns out my hiding place was terrible.

A women has a longbow pointed at me and she is surrounded by Dwarfs, all wearing metal collars.  I feel like they are my people so I come out.  Then they use magic to knock me out.

I awake in a cave, and she introduces herself as Aspra Smoothcheek.  Really?  Smoothcheek?  Anyway she apologises saying that topsiders are sometimes used as spies and they had to check my credentials.  They are no longer wearing collars but before anyone can explain a Dwarf rushes in and Aspra throws me my sword.  I have to pick an area to defend, the door or a choice of trapdoors.  I am the big man here so I go to the main door.

A bunch of orcs break down the door and I need to fight two orcs and an orc captain one by one.  However it says if anyone rolls double 1 during the combats they are hit by a stray poisoned arrow.  Problem is it does not tell me what that means, stamina loss, death?  The passage just does not say what the consequences are.  

Turns out that it did not matter as nobody rolled double 1s.  I get hit for the first time as the Orc Captain gets a hit in but that is all.  Everybody is healthy as they make a break for it and I follow along.  Aspra goes up a slope and the Dwarfs go through a crack.  I decide to follow her as the I am quite a bit bigger than a Dwarf and would probably get stuck.

Turns out some Dwarfs are with us and we are being followed by a large force.  We come to a lava river and Aspra picks up a Dwarf and makes her way across some stepping stones, which of course sink.  She has an arrow in her leg and the Dwarf starts to work on it.  Me on the other hand, pick up two dwarfs and also attempt a jump.  I need to throw two dice to determine the distance between stones.  I roll 4.  Now I get to roll one die and add my stamina and I need to equal or beat it.  Well my stamina is 22 so I do not bother to throw.

Aspra has a potion that heals her wound and we leg it as the orcs shoot arrows across the lava.  Aspra tells me she was born a toplander but lives with the Dwarfs, eeking out an existence.  The Dwarfs are fishing for blind fish and I get the option to try while Aspra is not paying attention.  The fact it says while she is not paying attention makes me think it would be a bad idea so I pass.

Turns out it was the correct decision, the Dwarfs cook it and I get 4 stamina so back at max.  I get invited on a raid or I could stay in camp.  Well I need to find these Khuddam so I decide to head out.  

We find a cart with 6 Orcs and 2 Dark Elves on Koyunlu (no idea what they are, maybe the horse thing on the cover).  Aspra fires off a shot and takes one Dark Elf in the arm.  I can attack the other, jump on the cart or head into the orcs.  Ill go for the Dark Elf, just for a bit of a change.

This is a terrible choice as he stabs me and I lose 1 skill point and 4 stamina.  He is skill 8 and if either of us throws double 1 we will fall off the cart and get crushed to death.  Wait why am I now on the cart?  I did not pick that option.  Luckily I do not fall to my death and despite the hit to my skill I win without being hit.

I drive the cart back to the camp, and my rewards are 2 meals.  I eat 1 straight away.  I will now be entering the lands of malice proper.  Do I want to go to the Crying Spring or the Downdrop Cavern.  Neither sound wonderful.  Ill head to the Spring.

I follow a stream and it starts to smell.  It ends in a gate with a skeleton hanging on a metal spike.  I get the choice to feel around with my sword to the left or right.  Hmm, ill go left.

Left is another poor choice as I fall into a pit trap.  Test my luck, if I fail, I am dead.  I roll a 6 and only lose 1 stamina point instead.  That's a fair difference, death or 1 stamina point.  Luckily there is a door in the pit trap that I can just walk through.

I am in a cobwebbed room with four exits, one at each compass point, I have no idea which door I came through?  There are footprints coming from the North door heading to the South, lets follow them.

Turns out its a dead Trogg.  He has a shiny gem on his finger, I decide to leave it, probably the reason he is dead.  The path gets very small and ends up in a dark abyss.  I can not see the bottom, do I want to jump it.  Erm, no lets try another way.

On my way back some hellhounds and trolls appear and I have to squeeze through a crack to escape.  Test my luck and I pass to avoid getting bit by a hellhound.  

Things start getting very odd though as the tunnel breaks up and I am climbing over rocks.  Tree roots appear but they leak sap which immediately harden into more roots.  I can go over them, under them or to the left.  Erm, ill try and go over.

I get stuck as a Bazouk appears to kill me, but I have a chance, Tabasha can fight it but its a luck test.  I just pass and no more.  Next time ill need to use the potion of cat to get my luck back up.

I find a way out through a shaft or I can squeeze into another hole.  I decide to try an use the shaft to get out.  I find some warriors made of wood and to the surprise of no one, one of them comes to life and I need to fight the Skill 8 Woodman.  He hits me once before I put him down.  I look down and ask him if he has got wood.  As I giggle though he starts to heal so I run away.

I am rescued from all the Woodmen by a big fellow called Gregory who starts reciting his entire family tree.  He takes me back to his wooden house where an old man is lying on a bed of roots.  He says the tree of life is being poisoned by evil and offers me either a bag of gold or a sliver of everlasting wood.  Well this is fighting fantasy so the random object will be the one I take.

Apparently I can use it to cook food over and over again.  I get 2 luck points back and as he turns to wood Gregory takes me away and leads me to the next section.  He shakes my hand and I get a splinter.

At last an illustration!

As I play hopscotch over another lava river a women with a crossbow tells me to drop the sword.  Well that sounds like a terrible idea, I need this sword and I already have lost a skill point.  

It does not go well as I get hit by a poisoned bolt and collapse.  It costs me 3 stamina points, all my provisions and any gold/jewels that I have.  Jokes on her, I am poor.  She kicks me before she leaves and I pass out.  My cat licks the wound clean but some Orcs turn up and carry me away.

When I wake up, I am chained to a rack overlooking a great big chasm.  I still have all my kit and I am surrounded by elite Xokusai Orcs.  The captain is talking, not happy that the Khuddam have not turned up, even though they have been hunting his warriors for sport.  The Lieutenant says they have to wait for the appointed time as per the Prophecy of Mukinahdun.  This causes all the orcs to kneel down and stab their swords into the ground.  It is then declared the chase will begin and a bunch of fire breathing Gryphons are released.  As am I, as I get pushed onto a ledge and told to run for my life.

As I hear the drums I get a choice of right or left.  Lefts not been kind to me so going right this time.  I hear cheering which is odd.  Again its left, right or drop down a level.  I head down a level.

I drop my sword and end up hanging on a ledge, an Orc from below stabs me on my foot and I lose a stamina point.  Haul myself up or drop down.  Well that depends where my sword is, I have no idea!  I try to pull myself up.  

My sword is there but I have to fight two orcs before I can pick it up.  So it is -2 skill for those combats. I win but I am down to 14 stamina.

Three Orcs rush me but one hilariously falls off the ledge.  But I must fight the other two using the one strike combat rules.  So its a straight roll off twice or game over.  First Orc up, I roll a 6 and he rolls an 8 and I die.  Terrible rule.

Notable Encounters -

You can end up in a place called Caverndown.  It is currently under siege (not by Steven Segal), and you can help the good guys by riding out to break it.  Now you can go for the not as cool main force out the front door, or the much more cool riding a Koyunulu with the flanking force!

The glorious charge!

The camp of the Xokusai Orcs is interesting as you masquerade as an ally.  You can find out info on a traitor.  And when they feed you you can hide it in your pocket instead, but Tabasha who is in your pocket throws it out.

So where I died is called the Chase.  Its an interesting concept but you will die.  

Not all encounters are notable for good reasons.  You know I hate a maze, and guess what, we get a maze of blandness!

The only illustration in the maze of blandness.  And you do not even get to make a choice, just take a 2 stamina hit.

And you have to go through the maze in order to get to the Heartflame.  Which you really need to do to make the end boss manageable.  

Keep an eye on the guy who rubs his sore knee, it matters a lot later on!

Orghuz Tower should be a grand finale, but its another bland maze full of random death choices.  

A second Orc kitchen encounter, two in one book, lucky us!

One of this guys tells the truth, one tells lies, and one cant be arsed speaking to you at all. 

I guess the most important encounter is at the very end, after your battle with Orghuz you must identify the traitor before he can stab you in the back.

One of these Knights is a traitor, clue for you, its the one that looks like a dick who would be a traitor.

Artwork -

Fighting Fantasy royalty, Russ Nicholson is back in action.  It does give the book a feel of those early books.  In the past I have said I liked the main focus of the image but his backgrounds were lacking.  And I think I will get myself in trouble here as well, but I do not think this is his best work by a long way.  

I mean what is going on with the architecture in the pick the traitor picture?  

The Dwarf from my playthrough with the collar looks great, as do the orcs in the dragons tavern, but their backgrounds are poor.  

And when I got spotted by Aspra and her band, why are they all in the bottom corner looking tiny with the majority of the picture a very bland cave?!

I do like the picture of the breaking of the siege, its a chaotic mess but it is great.

I also like the use of illustrations to pick up information such as the code for the Fighting Fantasy equivalent of brail. 

There are good ones though -

My favorite is this one, but alas you only see it if when you die for picking a random direction.

 

We find the former Knights Grand Master Azleff working as a blacksmith.  Very good apart from the weird smoke stuff.

Proof that he can do backgrounds when he wants too!

He also does an excellent Orc.  Caught these lands trying to break our shield!

Some of the more dubious ones though -

Orghuz's Tower, described as shrouded in mist, depicted as a proper pea souper. 

Can you guess what this is?  If you said some ghouls being sucked into a hole after a magic spell, you are doing better than me.

Special shout out to the boat going over the waterfall.  Why you ask?

This guy!  Priceless.  Made me chuckle.

Big Bad - 

Orghuz loves mirrors, lets him check out his awesome diamond and glass armour from all angles!

I was really intrigued by Orghuz's backstory.  He was maybe Tancred's brother, at least part of the original struggle against the Malice.  Either way I was looking forward to finding out what happened to him and his story.  But it is never mentioned or fleshed out which is a massive shame.  It was a chance to make him a bit different from evil dude wanting to destroy the world.

I do love his look as a warrior with diamond and glass armour.  Now that looks cool but I am not sure glass would make for good armour to be honest.  The crazy light is described as strange beams coming from his eyes, I think this is meant to be the Malice.  Again though, better writing could have really made this stand out.

For the combat you have to figure out which one is the correct image to hit.  Then it is a Skill 10, Stamina 12 fight which to be honest is not terrible in Fighting Fantasy bosses.  The kicker though is if you have not quenched the sword in the Heartfire then you have to fight him for each Khuddam that you did not kill, which could end up being 7 times but I doubt if that's the case you will even be here.  Even if you beat him though you still have to hit the finishing blow, which means picking which part of the body to hit.  Ill give you a clue.

He also shows up randomly to kill you during the adventure if you make a poor choice.  Such as putting a slave collar on, at which point he goes lol there you are, stay there my minions are on the way.

Menagerie - 

There are a lot of Orcs here, lots of Orcs, and some Goblins as well of course.  They come in a variety of guises, such as Cooks, apprentice cooks, regular etc.  The Xokusai are where it gets a bit more interesting.  These super elite and drilled Orcs come over as much more of a threat.  Except when the are chasing you and continually fall over cliff edges.  They are ruthless though, pushing random members to their death, because why not.

Quite a few Dark Elves kicking around as well, a level up over the standard Orcs and Goblins.

You are meant to be hunting the Khuddam or is it Kuddam?

Makes Sense

The very next page....

Anyway, it is much more them hunting you.  I was hoping they would all be a bit different, kind of like a sub boss for the book.  But no, they ae more like the Ring Wraiths as they are all the same.  Of course you find them randomly and sometimes by making what appears to be the worse decision.  They can smell you as well so no point running.  But I do not want to run, we have to take them out?  Another good idea but poorly executed.

Dr Doom is here as well.

Quite a lot of unique enemies here as well, but no pictures.

A Griphawk, which leaves one foot out and then pops out with four arms and two wings. The Shimmera which appears to be an insubstantial cloud of evil.  And even a Slime Belly, still not sure what it is.

And the Tailspiker, known for erm, spiking things with its tail?

The rest are your standard fantasy fare with something added in.  For example a Mist Wraith, or a Long Fanged Ghoul, or a Long Toothed Bear, or Snapspine Trolls.  You get the picture.

Here is a pic of some Stone Guardians, pretty much only because they got a picture.  When nothing else really did.

Entertaining Deaths -

I could be here a while, just for random things that fall on your head.  I will try and stick to the best ones.

Leaches, lots of them, Tabasha get you some food to help but you cant be bothered and give up.

Going to the wrong door and getting crushed by a giant slab.

Getting stuck under a falling rock.

Going into a trapdoor, of course you get locked in and forced to live all your nightmares until you die.

An icicle drops on your head.

You hear a scream and go to help, its an elf captive, you are told first that the door is bolted from the outside, but if you ignore this and go in, it locks behind you.

Slipping down a slope along with an Orc as it hurtles past.

Crawling into a hole which turns out to be a Hydras mouth.

Jumping into a ditch, which is full of Gremlins.

An Orc waves at you, turns out he is waiving at his mates who pour lava over you.  I can only imagine you are relived you do not have to live on with the embarrassment at waving back. 

Getting a choice to jump into lava or be shot by a poisoned arrow.  Either is death.

But the winner here is, drum roll please.  Trying to escape by going through a small crack.  You get wedged in and stuck and a Goblin finds you and puts a slave collar on.

Pete's Corner - 

I never found any rabbits to skin, which would have been more in my wheelhouse.

Final Thoughts - 

I was aware of this books reputation before I played it so was dreading it a bit.  However as I played through I thought, ok it does not feel as bad as everyone makes out.  It is not amazing but I have played worse than this.  Then I tried to map it out.

It makes absolutely no sense.  It took me ages before I gave up and just started looking at numbers.  For example, you can go in two completely different directions and encounters then end up at the Griphawk.  This happens loads of times.  I understand that in other books, you tend to get railroaded into a certain section no matter which way you go.  But those have logic to them.  So many times I was like, wait I am here now?  How!?  Good luck trying to make any sense and draw map.  Which might be why the map on the inside of the cover is over ground as the chasms are unmappable.  

This just made it feel like a lot of separate encounters smooshed together without thought of building.

Lets quickly fire back to what I did like about this book.  I did like some of the worldbuilding at the start.  Using book extracts to give us a bit of information but not much.  And it did feel like a live world we were in.  From the towns of CavernDown and The Dragons Breath Inn, there is plenty of stuff going around.  And People!  Lots of named people such as Alkis Fearslicer, Aspra Smoothcheek, Azleff, Gregory and even a trader called Pierskat.  I mean anyone with a second name has a terrible second name, but hey world building is hard.

Another thing that worked well was Tabasha the Bazouk.  It is nice to have a companion that stays for the whole adventure and she works well getting you feed and keeping you alive.  The limitation of her use is good as well but I did not feel I was ever in danger of using them all up.

The Cyphers I liked as well.  Made you feel like you knew the secret.  

That's it for the good stuff.

Lets start with the story.  I get being the 3rd assistant rabbit skinner is meant to be a nod to all those 80s films and books.  But it feels a bit odd.  And makes me question the wisdom of wizards in the Fighting Fantasy world.  Ok the sword kind of guides you and makes you a bit of a better warrior, and I get you as the heir you have to kill the baddy, but why the hell do you have to send me alone?  Send me with the whole army!

I said as well that I would have liked to have found out more about the Khuddam (or Kuddam) and especially a tragic tale of what happened to the once good Orghuz.  But nothing really happens story-wise other than there is a war going on between the Gaddon and the evil guys.  Missed opportunity for me. 

Now for the real issue at hand, mechanics.  My word this book falls apart for fairness.  Three main things here.

1) Luck tests, they are everywhere.  And its never if you fail go to page x.  Instead its minor stamina loss or death.  No in-between at all.

2) So many dice rolls.  Roll 1d6, this is your position, roll another dice, it its the same, you are dead.  Now repeat 237 times.  It just relies too much on luck and a lot less on decision making.

3) The worst of the lot, One Strike Combat.  This is a killer.  A one off dice roll, highest wins, loser dies.  Madness.  I am all for quicker combat, but have it as a normal one round combat where you add your skill.  But no, it is just a roll off.  How this got past the editors I have no idea.

Mazes need to get in the bin, the caves do sometimes have something a bit different but I just loathe them and find them boring.  The Tower at the end also feels a bit maze like, except far more lethal.  Oh you went left, your dead.

The artwork should have been a highlight, and sometimes it is.  But its almost feels like Russ Nicholson had a look and went, well I know how to do an Orc and a Dark elf, that will do.  But so much of it has bland backgrounds, which to be fair could be because they take place in a cavern.  As I said though earlier, this just did not hit the spot for me which is a shame from someone who is Fighting Fantasy royalty.

So how impossible is this book?  Well I do not think its as tough as Crypt of the Sorcerer for example.  It seems impossible and even after mapping it I was still not sure on the correct path which is something.  But going through this guide from the great champseeks- 

30) Chasms of Malice Solution | Fighting Fantazine (proboards.com)

It did not look so bad.  But even the perfect run through still requires two one strike combat fights, so that is two pure chance results.  Which I was very angry about having even one in Masks of Mayhem.  And if you are playing for real it would take a huge amount of attempts to find the route.  

And even though Crypt is impossible, it has a great story.  I do not know what it is about Luke Sharp but some of the writing is quite bland.  Do not get me wrong, this is much better than Star Strider writing, and some of the stuff is really good.  Like the Siege breaking of Caverndown.  But there is also a lot of random stuff, such as the tree roots which reads poorly.  Never mind that for example if you choose to go left your dead, with no indication or clues.

A story and a premise that started out promising, just failed to deliver in the end.  Add in some nice mechanic ideas (Tabasha, cooking food) but then some awful game breaking ones.  Then you get a gamebook which could have been really good, but ends up being a frustrating mess.  

I am off to my bedroom, but instead of going up the stairs I will try going through the garage, I should end up in the bedroom somehow anyway.

I decided to try using my own cat, Sushi, to help like Tabasha.  But all it led to was the corner of the book being chewed and my dice being batted away.  What a dick.

Score - 3 out of 10