Confession time. I tend to at least vaguely flip through a new book to get a feel for it. Sometimes I even read a few of the early references, and in flipping from one to the next I pass images. So, I passed this image. Normally, I pass by images without much of a thought about it. I try not to take in too much, beacuse images can reveal more than a feel, but I stopped on this one.
Now, you might think that I was struck by the juxtaposition of allure and danger from having a scantily clad (and apparently starving, by rib count) woman with a fearsome snake head. Or, perhaps, you think I was struck by the bizarre foreshortening of the snake head which makes it appear to grow to such a size that it would topple the whole human body to the ground. Perhaps she is only kneeling because she can't stand under that weight. If you're really attentive, you might even think I was struck by the eyelashes on the snake, a creature with neither hair nor eyelids. As fascinatingly strange as these choices are, I have to say that none of themwere what struck me about this image. At least, not this time.
What struck me is that I've seen this image before. While the cover didn't strike my memory, this rang it like a gong. I really thought we wouldn't get to a book I played as a child until Scorpion Swamp, but here we are.
I think this makes City of Thieves the book where I need to find some kind of magic bow and arrow, and other mystic items I can't remember in order to kill the boss, but this information won't be made entirely clear until a good way in. I'll let you know if any other entries in here strike my memory, but I thought I should be blunt about this part.
Anyways, I need to make a character. It's a Livingstone book, so the character creation hasn't changed at all from the start of this.
So, back to high skill, terrible Stamina, and below Average Luck. Let's grab the Luck Potion (1 Measure), the 10 provisions, the backpack, the sword and the leather armor, and put it all down on the Adventure Sheet... oh...
 |
| Well, there's one job done. |
Well, then, someone filled this out properly before scanning it. Let's take a little peak, shall we?
The Hades was happening here? Skill increases over its initial value 4 times to become 15, and gets a +1 on Attack Skill from somewhere else? Stamina goes down occasionally, but manages to increase to 9 points over the initial value. Luck goes 3 over to 14? Apparently our previous player either did math backwards, or else found the better entries than I ever have.
Other two blows from centipede and one from ratnose, whoever filled this out last appears have never been hit by an enemy. No enemy skill exceeds 11, either, so maybe I'll be okay with my 11. Right until I just open a page that kills me, of course.
This is the third Ian Livingstone book, and I believe the third to feature a clove of garlic. Did he write these hungry?
I'm seeing a lot of magic rings. Ring of ice for cooling drinks, ring of invisibility for referencing Vagner, and of course the ring of golden eye for when you need to kill someone with a satellite.
I'm loving trying to guess what the winged helmet, lotus flower, hag's hair, etc. are going to be used for.
It was always an interesting thing getting these books from the library and sometimes seeing what the previous player had left. More often I fear I was the one marking them up like mad, before I hit on using separate paper like a civilized animal.
Ah...
I feel like I was supposed to be doing something here...
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