The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson

384

The door opens into a passage which you follow northwards.

Shortly you reach a bend and follow it round to the east.

Several metres on, you reach a junction at which you may either go north (262) or continue eastwards (307).

385

You travel westwards for several paces, then the passage turns to the north.

Some way up, you reach a junction.

You may go south (114) or west (297).

To the north, the passage ends shortly at a dead end.

If you wish to go up here [398].

386

You climb on the raft and start to punt your way across the river.

The going is not easy.

In the middle of the river the raft seems to take on a will of its own and bobs up and down dangerously.

You realize it is attempting to capsize itself and throw you into the river!

You may either trust your strength and luck to hold on and keep punting to the north side (55) or jump into the water and attempt to swim back to the south bank (166).

387

You try the keys.

Not one will turn.

As you try to turn the third key, small catches drop and your last memory is a sting of pain as three small darts pierce your skin.

Each is treated with a quick-acting poison.

Remember not to use this combination of keys next time!

388

Your sword flies out of your hand, into the air and you must leap aside as it comes down on you.

It grazes your cheek as it falls.

Lose 1 stamina point.

You decide you'd better leave the room.

Lose 1 more skill point in fear of the Warlock's power.

Pick up your sword and Click here [90].

389

Test your Luck.

If you are Lucky, Click here [289].

If you are Unlucky, Click here [112].

390

The Ghoul twitches and dies at your feet.

You search its body and find little of interest.

A couple of earrings, worth 1 Gold Piece between them, are in one of its pockets.

You may take these.

If you haven't already searched the first body, you do so and find 5 Gold Pieces, which you may also take.

You may also stop here, rest and eat Provisions.

You can add 2 luck points for killing the Ghoul.

Now you may either press on northwards (120) or search the second body (393).

391

You are at the south end of a north-south corridor.

Looking northwards, you can see a passage coming off from the east wall.

Do you want:

392

You are in a north-south corridor.

You may go either northwards through a large wooden door (206) or south (329).

393

You search the pockets of the other body and find 8 Gold Pieces, a bottle of liquid and an old piece of parchment.

You may take these items.

To read the parchment [212].

To test the liquid [369].

394



The boots are well-fashioned in a deep red leather.

They are much sturdier than your own and fit you well.

You try a few steps but are horrified to find that you cannot move, and the boots seem to be gripping your feet with considerable force.

As you struggle to free yourself, you hear a crack and a smash as a stalactite falls from the roof; you crane round to see a large black shape shifting towards you.

As it approaches, you turn cold.

Several metres away is a GIANT SPIDER, at least a metre across, advancing towards you on spiny legs, mandibles clicking nervously in anticipation of its next meal.

You draw your sword to defend yourself as it stalks you.

You cannot move and thus must subtract 2 from each dice roll you make to calculate your Attack Strength.

If you win the battle, Click here [232].

395

You step over the bones on the floor to take a closer look at the Boat House.

You pick up and study a few of the tools scattered around: hammers, nails, chisels and the like, but they appear very ordinary.

You hear a banging sound coming from beyond the north door and have time for one further search before you must react.

Do you look through the drawers of the benches around the room (322) or check the tools more carefully (34)?

396

With the Warlock now defeated, you know your quest is almost over.

You approach the door with two locks.

There are no keys around.

You retrieve two keys from your pack and try them in the locks.

They turn!

You open the door and peer round.

Click here [242].

If you have no keys, you may try to break down the door, and this you will do at the cost of almost all your stamina.

Reduce your stamina by 5 and enter the room.

Click here [242].

397

The door opens to reveal a small room with a stone floor and dirty walls.

There is a stale smell in the air.

In the centre of the room is a makeshift wooden table on which is standing a lit candle.

Under the table is a small box.

In the far comer of the room is a straw mattress.

You may either open the box (240) or leave the room (363).

398

You feel around the rock face at the end of the passage.

One rock comes free and reveals a small knob with a handle on the end.

Will you push it (364) or pull it (12)?

399

The current is strong and takes you swiftly downstream.

You are washed along through a narrow opening and out into a large cavern with banks on both sides.

The current washes you on to the south bank.

Click here [218].

400


The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is no more and you are now the owner of the Sorcerer's riches.

At least a thousand Gold Pieces, jewellery, diamonds, rubies and pearls are in the chest.

Hidden under these you find the Warlock's spell book and as you leaf through the pages, you realize that this tome is probably more valuable than all the treasure.

Instructions are given for the control of all the secrets - and the creatures - of Firetop Mountain.

With this book, unlimited power is yours and the safety of your return to the village is ensured.

Or, if you would prefer, you could remain as master of the domain of Firetop Mountain ...

The retro cult around Fighting Fantasy gamebooks​

In March 1983, an unconventional series of books held the top three entries of the Sunday Times bestseller list.

These were Fighting Fantasy books - stories "in which YOU are the Hero".

All that you needed to take part was a pencil, eraser, dice and an active imagination, writes Peter Ray Allison.

Created more than 30 years ago by Games Workshop founders Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, Fighting Fantasy continues to remain popular.

The forthcoming Fighting Fantasy Fest in London will see dedicated fans coming from as far as Taiwan and Australia.

Fighting Fantasy came about after a representative of Penguin visited a "games day" event in 1980.

"They were fascinated by a hall jam-packed with 5,000 people playing Dungeons & Dragons," says Livingstone, "They asked us to write a book about the hobby of role-playing."

Instead, Jackson and Livingstone convinced Penguin that a game book, which simulated the experience of role-playing, would be more effective.

This book was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and the Fighting Fantasy series was born.

Fighting Fantasy employed, ahem, a non-linear, second-person narrative with a branching storyline.

After reading a section, the reader would be invited to make a decision about how the story progressed.

These choices could range from deciding which way to head down a corridor or whether to help a fair maiden (an invariably fatal decision in Fighting Fantasy).

Each decision would be associated with a section number that the reader would then subsequently read.

These entries would continue the story into a series of branching narratives that would lead on to further adventures.

Or an untimely demise.

For example: "Walking along the path you hear footsteps and arguing voices ahead of you.

If you wish to meet their owners, turn to page 317.

If you would rather hide in the bushes and let them walk by, turn to 300."

If you went to page 300, you saw "two pairs of pair of spindly legs in tattered cloth shuffle past you and the voices soon fade into the distance".

But page 317? "You encounter a pair of hobgoblins which you must FIGHT!"

Second-guessing such decisions were the essence of the fun.

Would the apparently innocuous decision lead to a grisly encounter?

Or would the dangerous-sounding option actually get you out of trouble?

Livingstone recalls sitting on a bus during the 1980s watching people read Fighting Fantasy.

He was amused to see them bookmarking pages with their fingers in order to undo decisions which concluded with failure or death.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was not an immediate success, but this soon changed.

"Playground chat was the virality of the game," explains Livingstone, "Children became completely taken over by the roleplaying, as suddenly this was the chance to experience a book where they were the hero."

Software developer Christopher Brind was a fan at the time.

"The books had been out for a while by the time I started reading them, so I was able to hammer through a whole bunch of titles once I got addicted."

Dr David Waldron, a lecturer in History and Anthropology at Federation University Australia, collected a complete set of Fighting Fantasy:

"I started when I was eight years old in the early 80s. For 30 years I have pottered about thrift shops for old copies to make a collection."

The Mechanics of Fighting Fantasy​

Before starting a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, readers created a character by rolling dice to determine their character's Skill (proficiency in combat), Stamina (damage tolerance) and Luck.

The higher these statistics, the better you were (and the easier the gamebook became).

Throughout the gamebook, readers would face various enemies and monsters, from bandits and mercenaries to zombies and dragons.

Each of these opponents would also have Skill and Stamina statistics.

Combat would be resolved by rolling dice and comparing the player statistics with that of the monsters (some readers would forego this mechanic, due to the practicalities of dice rolling whilst outside).

In Jonathan Green's book, You Are The Hero - A History of Fighting Fantasy, he notes that while the books were targeted at boys, the character's gender in the gamebooks was never identified.

Thus large numbers of girls also read Fighting Fantasy.

Not everybody liked the books.

Livingstone recalls: "The Evangelical Alliance published an eight-page warning guide saying, because children were interacting with ghouls and demons, they would be interacting with the devil.

One housewife phoned her radio station and said her son levitated having read one of my books.

A vicar also threatened to tie himself to the gates at Penguin Books until Fighting Fantasy was banned."

But there was a clear positive.

"It got children reading," says Livingstone.

With the success of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Penguin wanted more.

Nearly 60 gamebooks would be commissioned, with writing duties delegated to authors such as Jonathan Green and Marc Gascoigne in later titles.

In Green's book, he discusses writers and creators who grew up reading Fighting Fantasy including novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland, author Joe Abercrombie and Moshi Monsters creator Michael Acton Smith.

Labour MP Tom Watson was another fan of the series, and appeared in Ian Livingstone's Blood of the Zombies, released as part of the 30th anniversary.

Neil Rennison, creative director of Tin Man Games, describes the books as "my first portable gaming experience - I remember family holidays where I would take along a stack of Fighting Fantasy books".

Rennison was approached by Livingstone to develop app adaptations of the books.