Let's Play Lone Wolf: Book 29 and beyond!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play Lone Wolf: Book 29 and beyond!

Mikl: Nov 8, 2009; Vote shit sandwich or the shit sandwich gets it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HI22bUV4QE

_{_{I already voted three posts earlier, so don't count this as a vote, but it was too good to pass up.}}

# ? Sep 22, 2017 18:47

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 11:38

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Uses light sword on creature.

And I thought...it smelled bad...on the outside!

# ? Sep 23, 2017 01:35

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

The Caverns of Kalte posted:

The smell is revolting, and you try desperately to hold your breath as you smear handfuls of the slimy grease inside your jacket. As the oil penetrates your skin, you feel a warm glow as if you were near a fire: the more grease you apply, the warmer you become. You also notice that the awful smell is gradually fading.

�When it soaks into your skin, you lose your sense of smell,� says Fenor.

�Just as well,� replies Dyce. �I don�t think I could stand living with myself otherwise!�

Baknar oil gives excellent insulation from the bitter cold of Kalte, and it may save you valuable ENDURANCE points in the near future.

Irian regains consciousness and is soon scooping out the Baknar carcass for himself. Light is now fading fast and you decide to pitch camp in this narrow pass. You prepare a meal, and then you each take it in turns to sit watch, just in case the Baknar decide to return.

The next morning arrives bright and windless. The sun pierces the thin layer of cloud, bathing the east in a soft pink glow. This beautiful vision reminds you that your Kai masters once told you that the light of Kalte is unlike anywhere else in Magnamund. With tent and equipment packed, you leave the pass and venture out onto the Hrod Basin; one hundred miles of open ice now lie between you and Storm Giant Pass.

At first, the journey is easy. The Basin has been worn smooth by the wind and no crevasses lurk unseen beneath the hard, dense snow. But at dawn on the third day, events take a turn for the worse. You are awoken from a deep sleep by Dyce shaking your shoulder. He is frightened. �What�s wrong?� you ask, still bleary-eyed and sleepy.

�Ice Barbarians � on the horizon. Twenty, maybe more. Five wind sledges and a warrior escort. I think they�ve seen us.�

In an instant, you have all climbed out of your sleeping furs and begun to pack away the tent. Dyce is correct, they are Ice Barbarians and they are heading towards you from the west. �If they catch us, we�re as good as dead,� says Fenor, as he ties the last of the equipment to the sledge.

The Ice Barbarians of Kalte are a fierce and war-like race of nomads. For thousands of years they have travelled this icy wasteland, trapping furs and herding mammoths. Their only contact with the rest of Magnamund is through the trading post of Ljuk. In summer, when the coast around Ljuk is free from ice, they journey there to trade their furs for weapons and tools, as there is no iron or wood in Kalte. They hate all except their own kind, and kill anyone they find who dares to trespass in their icy domain. You soon hear their war-cries less than three miles distant, and for the first time since you landed, you pray for a blizzard to hide your escape.

You have covered less than a mile when the first of the Ice Barbarian scouts appear to the north on skis. At first, there are only two of the fearsome warriors, but they are soon joined by three others. They are large, muscular, and bedecked with furs. Some of them wear bone armour. Despite their size, they glide across the snow with an almost feline grace and speed. Each of them has a pole attached to his back from which a small flag flutters.

Suddenly, a bone-tipped arrow whistles past your knee and embeds itself in the sledge. An Ice Barbarian scout skis past to your right. He is less than ten yards away and you can clearly see his slanted eyes and sharp cheek-bones. You suddenly realize that what you had mistaken for muscle and fur is in fact an Ice Barbarian child. Each scout is carrying a large backpack containing a small child. These children are armed with small bone bows, and they fire a constant stream of arrows as their fathers ski nearer and nearer.

Suddenly Irian falls, an arrow buried in his back. Dyce runs to his aid but is shot down before he has taken a dozen steps. Fenor is hit. An arrow passes straight through his throat. He bravely staggers on for nearly a minute before collapsing in the snow. You are on your own. An Ice Barbarian scout skis past to your left and returns towards you head on. He has a spear under one arm, which is levelled at your chest.

Good news: Irian wasn't killed by the Baknar. Bad news: He's dead now anyway.

Will we stand and fight this barbarian or try to escape?

# ? Sep 23, 2017 02:50

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

This moment still scares the heck out of me over 20 years after I first read this book.

I don't want to fight children. Run!

# ? Sep 23, 2017 02:53

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

# ? Sep 23, 2017 02:54

Kanthulhu: Apr 8, 2009; NO ONE SPOIL GAME OF THRONES FOR ME!

IF SOMEONE TELLS ME THAT OBERYN MARTELL AND THE MOUNTAIN DIE THIS SEASON, I'M GOING TO BE PISSED.

BUT NOT HALF AS PISSED AS I'D BE IF SOMEONE WERE TO SPOIL VARYS KILLING A LANISTER!!!

(Dany shits in a field)

Slice and dice the Ice Barbs

# ? Sep 23, 2017 03:11

Leraika: Jun 14, 2015; Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.

That child is clearly actually a very tiny man.
Fight 'em

# ? Sep 23, 2017 03:20

RudeCat: Aug 7, 2012; The rudest cat for the rudest jobs

Fight them!

# ? Sep 23, 2017 03:27

Kangra: May 7, 2012

Leraika posted:

That child is clearly actually a very tiny man.

And older than his father. They must be a race of Benjamin Buttons.

With slanted eyes. There's no way we can withstand them! Run Away.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 05:23

Xarn: Jun 26, 2015

Fight! Lets enjoy our overpoweredness while it lasts

# ? Sep 23, 2017 05:35

Darkest Auer: Dec 30, 2006; They're silly; Ramrod XTreme

I knew Dever doesn't like the swarthy types, but wow, what did the Finns ever do to him? Might as well kill the slanty-eyed caricatures.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 06:41

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

Since our combat stat is apparently godly, yea fight.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 06:56

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Kai Lords don't kill kids. Run Away.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 07:27

Neurophage: Oct 11, 2012

Fight

# ? Sep 23, 2017 08:27

Mikl: Nov 8, 2009; Vote shit sandwich or the shit sandwich gets it!

We're trespassing into their territory, so technically we're the ones in the wrong here :v:

Let's try not to kill anyone, shall we?

# ? Sep 23, 2017 10:33

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Kangra posted:

With slanted eyes. There's no way we can withstand them! Run Away.

Well, try to run away.

The Caverns of Kalte posted:

You skilfully sidestep as the Ice Barbarian scout stabs at you with a bone-tipped lance. Your lightning reactions have saved you. The tip of the Ice Barbarian�s lance tears your sleeve, but that is all. But, in an instant, the scout has turned and halted. He unfastens his skis with one swift, practised action, and draws a bone sword. You must prepare for combat.

As the Ice Barbarian moves closer, he suddenly lets out a blood-curdling scream and lunges at your head.

Ice Barbarian: COMBAT SKILL 18 ENDURANCE 28

Lone Wolf: COMBAT SKILL 29 ENDURANCE 30
Ice Barbarian: COMBAT SKILL 18 ENDURANCE 28
Combat Ratio: 11+

We roll: 6
Lone Wolf: COMBAT SKILL 29 ENDURANCE 29
Ice Barbarian: COMBAT SKILL 18 ENDURANCE 12

We roll: 8
Lone Wolf: COMBAT SKILL 29 ENDURANCE 29
Ice Barbarian: COMBAT SKILL 18 ENDURANCE 0

The Caverns of Kalte posted:

The dead Ice Barbarian�s child cowers over his father�s body and stares at you with hatred blazing in his eyes. You notice that the other Ice Barbarian scouts are closing in and you must act quickly to save yourself.

You decide to use the boy as a hostage, but he is like a wild animal. He bites, scratches, and kicks to free himself from your grip.

Healing: +1 EP (30/30)

You manage to hang on to the struggling child, and remove a bone dagger from his boot to prevent him stabbing you in the back.

The Ice Barbarians have drawn themselves up into a circle around you, but they dare not attack while you are holding one of their children as a hostage. Holding the bone dagger to the child�s throat, you slowly inch your way towards the sledge. You soon realize that you will never be able to outdistance them on a loaded sledge. You will have to think of something�and quickly.

We have two choices here. Either way we'll ditch the equipment on the sledge and try to make our escape, but it's up to us whether we free our hostage or take him with us.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 16:45

RudeCat: Aug 7, 2012; The rudest cat for the rudest jobs

Oh balls, gettin' too old for this poo poo. Free him.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 16:49

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

If we take him with us, he's gonna cause trouble. Free him- either he grows up to be a recurring villain or we never see these people again.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 17:09

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

Free him, don't give them a reason to chase after us.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 17:42

vilkacis: Feb 16, 2011

quote:

Holding the bone dagger to the child�s throat, you slowly inch your way towards the sledge.

Our hero.

Let him go, though, that's enough... fun... for one day.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 02:36

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

So, we invaded their land, killed the native wildlife, killed his father, took him hostage and held a knife to his throat. Um...I'm think we're the bad guys here. But we can't be, we have white skin!

Let the kid go.

Comstar fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Sep 24, 2017

# ? Sep 24, 2017 02:45

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

ahahaha wow so this is the other path? I believe you also get ambushed and get to cover yourself in oil the other way. But i definitely don't remember getting attacked by natives and having to take a kid hostage while going the other way :psyduck:

They won't mess with us while we have a hostage though take him with us

# ? Sep 24, 2017 03:10

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

HOOLY BOOLY posted:

ahahaha wow so this is the other path? I believe you also get ambushed and get to cover yourself in oil the other way. But i definitely don't remember getting attacked by natives and having to take a kid hostage while going the other way

This can happen if you go the other way, but it's much less likely. There are a bunch of branches and crossovers that happen in this part of this book, so it's pretty variable.

Comstar posted:

So, we invaded their land, killed the native wildlife, killed his father, took him hostage and held a knife to his throat. Um...I'm think we're the bad guys here. But we can't be, we have white skin!

Let the kid go.

White skin and proper, unslanted eyes.

The Caverns of Kalte posted:

Letting the boy go free at the last possible moment, you grab the sledge whip and lash the dogs, driving them for everything they are worth. On all sides, flurries of arrows whistle past you and several thud into the framework of the empty sledge. A couple of the Ice Barbarian scouts give chase, but your dog team is now much faster and you soon outdistance even their arrows.

By nightfall, you reach the very edge of the Viad Mountains. This vast granite range rises sheer out of the ice and snow and presents you with an impassable barrier on such a moonless night. Meanwhile a wind arises in the west, heralding a night squall. You must find shelter or you will surely perish in the blizzard.

Your Kai Discipline of Sixth Sense reveals to you that there is a network of caves less than a couple of hundred yards to the south. You abandon the sledge and search southwards.

You have explored only a hundred yards of the rock-face when you discover a large fissure�the entrance to a cave. In your eagerness to escape from the bitter wind you quickly enter and, in the darkness, fail to notice the crevasse that divides this cave in two. In a tumble of ice and stone, you fall head-first into the dark.

You fall over thirty feet and land flat on your back in the snow-filled crevasse. You are surrounded by sharp stalagmites and jagged ice, but you have miraculously escaped death and injury. Shaken, but thankful to be alive, you stagger to your feet and grasp a crystal stalagmite for support. You slowly become aware that you can see your hands quite clearly. A faint light is seeping from a fissure to your left. With curiosity getting the better of your natural caution, you stagger across the crevasse floor and explore this mysterious cave.

After a few hundred yards, you find yourself in a huge cavern that spreads out in all directions as far as the eye can see. You have entered the caverns of Kalte and are now looking at an uncharted world that few Sommlending have ever seen. This massive underground labyrinth was constructed by the Ancients many ages before the Sommlending set foot in Magnamund. Its wide avenues, temples, and arenas once echoed to the sounds of a race of creatures for whom the ice was a natural home. M�lare bowls still hang from the ceiling bathing the caverns in their eternal light.

You trek steadily northwards for nearly six hours, until you arrive at the bank of a fast-flowing melt-water river. On the opposite bank, you see a tunnel leading off into the distance. You can find no apparent way of crossing the deep water, except by using the ice-floes bobbing up and down on the surface. By jumping from one floe to the next, you could get to the opposite bank, but it will not be easy. You will have to jump at least three of the icy slabs to reach the other side.

There's a die roll here, to which we get to add 2 because we have Hunting. We passed.

The Caverns of Kalte posted:

Running for the tunnel entrance, you quickly leave the icy river far behind. You follow the tunnel for countless hours as it bends its way northwards. It becomes impossible to recall what hour of the day it is; the perpetual half-light of these caverns never changes. Through fissures in the wall of the tunnel, you catch glimpses of other chambers, and you marvel at the sheer scale of the labyrinth.

You are nearly asleep on your feet when you suddenly detect the aroma of cooked meat. It is coming from a chamber just a few yards ahead to your right. You are very hungry and must soon eat.

Investigate the chamber, or ignore it and continue down the tunnel?

We might yet get the full explanation of M'lare Bowls, but basically they've got a demon trapped inside and that's how they work. Lone Wolf is strangely blas� about that.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 04:14

Ratatozsk: Mar 6, 2007; Had we turned left instead, we may have encountered something like this...

Investigate! Maybe there's a child we can capture to replace the one we just lost.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 04:16

Leraika: Jun 14, 2015; Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.

Yeah, there aren't many reminders that this was a gamebook series published in the mid-80s, but when they do, eesh.

Let's smell what the rocks are cooking

# ? Sep 24, 2017 04:24

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Leraika posted:

Yeah, there aren't many reminders that this was a gamebook series published in the mid-80s, but when they do, eesh.

Let's smell what the rocks are cooking

This is tame compared to later books.

Investigate the interesting thing.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 04:29

RudeCat: Aug 7, 2012; The rudest cat for the rudest jobs

Float after the smells like a hungry hobo.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 04:57

Ratatozsk: Mar 6, 2007; Had we turned left instead, we may have encountered something like this...

Tangential yet somewhat relevant: I just recently happened upon the full series of Legends of Lone Wolf, a traditional fiction series (co-authored by John Grant) which chronicles books 1-8 (I think) of Lone Wolf. I only had the books which covered through Caverns of Kalte previously, so there's a good amount of material to cover. For now, I will simply remark that Denver lives him some 'dotard'.

Ratatozsk fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Sep 24, 2017

# ? Sep 24, 2017 05:12

Leraika: Jun 14, 2015; Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.

anakha posted:

This is tame compared to later books.

Investigate the interesting thing.

I mostly remember the, uh, fifth book, was it? Probably best not to comment beyond that, though.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 05:47

Omnicrom: Aug 3, 2007; Snorlax Afficionado

Investigate

I just remember in the old LP how it was noticed that the books had a distressing tendency to depict lots of the evil people as "Swarthy". Take a moment and remember that "Swarthy" literally means "dark-skinned".

# ? Sep 24, 2017 05:53

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

quote:

Investigate

# ? Sep 24, 2017 06:19

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Ratatozsk posted:

Tangential yet somewhat relevant: I just recently happened upon the full series of Legends of Lone Wolf, a traditional fiction series (co-authored by John Grant) which chronicles books 1-8 (I think) of Lone Wolf. I only had the books which covered through Caverns of Kalte previously, so there's a good amount of material to cover. For now, I will simply remark that Denver lives him some 'dotard'.

I have three of those (including the first one) but haven't read them in probably over twenty years. Feel free to talk about them whenever they're relevant as long as you don't include spoilers. Be aware though that a lot of what shows up as backstory in the novels could be classed as spoilers as far as the gamebooks go and some characters and events even show up out of sequence.

Leraika posted:

I mostly remember the, uh, fifth book, was it? Probably best not to comment beyond that, though.

Yeah, book five is all about those evil, swarthy foreigners. I'm not sure it's actually worse than this one when you think about it, but it's certainly a lot more blatant about it.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 06:31

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

Investigate.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 07:49

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Investigate the burning sausage sizzle. Maybe they have a Bunnings attached.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 11:47

Mikl: Nov 8, 2009; Vote shit sandwich or the shit sandwich gets it!

Hey good lookin', what'cha got cookin'?

# ? Sep 24, 2017 12:10

vilkacis: Feb 16, 2011

If we can take their children hostage, we won't have any issues stealing their food, too. Investigate foody smell.

Ratatozsk posted:

Legends of Lone Wolf

I look forward to hearing about this, because I've never seen them myself.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 12:42

Kanthulhu: Apr 8, 2009; NO ONE SPOIL GAME OF THRONES FOR ME!

IF SOMEONE TELLS ME THAT OBERYN MARTELL AND THE MOUNTAIN DIE THIS SEASON, I'M GOING TO BE PISSED.

BUT NOT HALF AS PISSED AS I'D BE IF SOMEONE WERE TO SPOIL VARYS KILLING A LANISTER!!!

(Dany shits in a field)

I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to keep the ~~loot~~ kid we got from that dead monster.

Oh well. Let's go see if we can loot some food instead.

Investigate

# ? Sep 24, 2017 12:53

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

The Caverns of Kalte posted:

You can see two men in ragged clothes, huddled together beside a fire that seems to be burning inside a small metal bowl. Over the flames, the skinned carcass of a small animal is roasting on a spit. The men are old and toothless, and they have a strange glint of madness in their slanted eyes.

Should we try to talk with these slanty-eyed (probably mad) barbarians like as though they're human beings worthy of respect? Or just murder them like the animals they no doubt are? Or recognise that we're actually intruding on their land and possibly even their home and just leave them alone and be on our way?

I may be reading more racism into this than was intended. The options as presented in the book are not actually so provocative.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 15:37

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Chat them up. I'm sure they haven't heard yet about us murdering their tribesman and taking one of their children hostage.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 15:40

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 11:38

RudeCat: Aug 7, 2012; The rudest cat for the rudest jobs

Mikl posted:

Hey good lookin', what'cha got cookin'?

Chat 'em up.

# ? Sep 24, 2017 15:44

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