Warbringer! – Attempt 1, Part 1

Warbringer! – Attempt 1, Part 1

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Full disclaimer to start with.

As mentioned in my initial posts for this project, this is the one book that I never owned as a youngster.  I borrowed a copy from a friend for a couple of attempts, but didn’t even come close to finishing it without cheating.  All I can remember is that Avenger has to recruit from various potential allies to try and defeat Honoric, and that following a successful attempt at recruiting, there is then a gamebook version of old-school wargaming.

I have one or two other memories of the book, which shall be acknowledged as and when they arise.

Oh, and it is very clear from the start that, unlike all the other books in the series, you do not get a chance to rest and recuperate between books.  You start in media res, as it were, atop the burning palace overseeing the burning city of Irsmuncast.

Its better than those shows that end on a cliffhanger, and then segue to the hero, a week later, drinking a cocktail and talking about how ‘last week’s adventure ended so well, didn’t it?’

So.

Back to the start of Warbringer! (way too many letters to type on a frequent basis).  As mentioned, I am on the top of the palace, wondering what the heck is going on, before I even get a chance to start wondering about Honoric’s invading army.  I have the choice of walking down the nearest staircase, into the interior of the Palance or examining the Orb and Scepter which I collected at the end of the last book.

Ah, Devil-Beast, how does it feel to die painfully and alone?

Even if I hadn’t read this book before, its obvious in the extreme that the Orb is intended to replace my lost eye.  What good the Orb might have otherwise done to rulers with two intact eyes is left to the imagination.  I examine the two trinkets which comprise my birthright.

In a startling surprise, the Orb is the right ‘size and shape’ to fit my empty eye socket.  Do I attempt to shove it in there??  Of course!  What could possibly go wrong with shoving a glowing green gemstone into an empty exposed gaping wound within my eye socket??

I place the Orb into the empty socket, and note that the flesh around it begins to ‘creep’ so that the Orb is being ‘sucked into place’ within my head.  Well, I’m going to assume that this isn’t a David Cronenberg movie, and that I won’t get taken over by the evil power of the foreign body part.  I allow the emerald to embed itself.

My flesh knits around the Orb (and I momentarily picture a group of elderly citizens knitting booties while sitting around a green glowing Orb) and I find that I can see the world through the Orb, now also including the ability to observe the supernatural plane as well.

Aside : There is a minor bug in the book here, in that it does not specifically acknowledge that replacing your eye with the Orb restores the -1 to all modifiers which occurred at the time the Grandmaster of Shadows sucker stabbed me at the point of death. I’m taking an executive decision to restore these modifiers now that I’ve got a glowing green eyes.

I then hear Orcish voices on the staircase below me, and leap down to ‘do battle’.  I suppose its more thrilling than leaping down to ‘do lunch’.

Aside : The skill of Climbing would have come in handy here (for an alternate option), but here we are.

Stats: Endurance : 14, Punch Modifier : +2, Kick Modifier: +3, Throw Modifier : 0, Fate Modifier : +1, Inner Force : 1

Awesome names : Only a nameless awesome glowing green eye.

 

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May 31, 2016 at 04:26AM