Time to take on the first FF book not written by the big two. Scorpion Swamp is written by the other Steve Jackson and it's certainly got a slightly different set up and feel.
My history with the book
Never owned it. Never played it. Although I think I must have looked through someone else's copy at school, as a lot of the pictures ring a bell with me. Suffice to say, I'll be going into the swamp totally blind.
What's it all about?
Once again, I'm a 'hardy adventurer'. However, I've never been to the famous Scorpion Swamp because everyone gets lost in it. Cos of an eeeeevil fog. So far, so ... weird. One day, while adventuring, I find an old woman lying on the floor so I decide to help her. She's so happy that she gives me a magic ring. What makes this ring magic? It means I will always know where north is! (It can also detect evil but that seems less important). If i can always find north, then I should obviously go to Scorpion Swamp! Apparently.
The adventure
Skill : 12
Stamina: 15
Luck : 12
I seem pretty hardy so I hope this goes well.
I travel towards the swamp and end up in the town of Fenmarge. Obviously, I enter the local bar immediately and get the goss from my fellow drunks. Seems the swamp is currently inhabited by a group of wizards who have called themselves The Masters. As I go to leave, I'm stopped by a man calling himself Gronar who inexplicably demands I have a purpose for my trip into the swamp. I listen to him though and he tells me of three wizards who all have business in the swamp - Selator, Grimslade and Poomchukker. Obviously, they each have their own allegiances too. Being a kiss up, I decide to help the good wizard, Selator. I soon find him and he explains his mission. He wants a plant called Antherica. As its only useful to good wizards, the forces of evil have wiped out all but one last plant and I must find it. He also gives me 6 spells : Stamina, ice, fire, friendship, illusion and bless. As I finally have a mission, its time to get going.
I enter the swamp and immediately meet my first obstacle - a tree root. A luck test stops me tripping over it and I head east. I ignore the hollow tree I find there and turn north. The gradual appearance of several spider webs suggests I am about to meet my first big bad - The Master of Spiders. My magic ring says he's bad news so I take no chances - my fire spell immediately sets him on fire before he even speaks. Although I've just incinerated an old man who'd technically done me no wrong, I have no time to mourn as the fire spreads further and burns me.
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| He's a pain in the arse, but highly flammable |
I run north until I realise the grass is snapping at me. This is Crabgrass so I hack at it til it dies and head east. Some arrows embedded in a tree cause me to find a dead man surrounded by dead orcs - seems I've missed an epic ruck. I take the man's magnet shaped necklace and go north, where I meet a fellow leaning against a tree. My magic ring tells me he is an evil thief so I ignore him and walk on. Course, being a thief, he's also a dick so he creeps up behind me, garrottes me and steals all my magic from my unconscious body. I wake up and head east, grumbling about the youth of today.
After an exciting scorpion leaping escapade and an even more exciting eagle ignoring event, I bump into a giant who refuses to let me pass. The magic ring says that he isn't evil so I try to chat with him. I don't have the handkerchief he's lost, but I stroll past him nonetheless. Wandering on, I find a ranger who demands to know my allegiance. I tell him I'm working for Selator, which pleases him. He gives me directions to find the Antherica berry which, due to some mapping errors, I don't follow very well. (In fact, I ended up moving further away from where I was meant to be but I wouldn't realise that for a long while).
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| Before Google Maps, this guy got people lost |
I head off in the direction I think it is correct but get lured astray by a Will-o-the-Wisp, that leads me into a swamp and vanishes. I head back and then continue in the direction I think I'm supposed to, killing a slime and befriending some brigands, having lightly stabbed their leader. I soon find myself in the town of Willowbend, suggesting my attempts to follow the Ranger's directions have gone massively wrong. I go for a kip at The Bent Spear and am immediately approached by the Innkeeper in the morning. He directs me to a local wizard who sells me magic in exchange for the magnet necklace thing. I take a stamina spell and leave town.
As I realise that I'm at the end of the western trail, I try to amble back east in an effort to regain my sense of direction. After ALOT of bumbling around, I find a giant Scorpion killing a dwarf. Although I kill it, the dwarf is already dead. I raid his corpse and drink his skill potion, 'cept it's a dwarf potion so takes my skill down a notch. I keep wandering in circles for a while until I stumble upon a fella smoking in the middle of a pretty garden. He is, of course, the Master of Gardens. He gives me his own set of directions to find the Antherica berry and, although my map is now so wrong they don't entirely work, I eventually find a clearing guarded my two wolves. As I can't tame wolves, I'm forced to kill them. In the middle of the clearing is a bush and on that bush - an Antherica berry! It's been a long journey but with the berry in my pocket, my adventure is finally ov.... oh wait. No. I need to walk it all the way back to Selator.
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| Master of Gardens. By this point, no effort is being put into captions either... |
I'm pretty bored of my adventure by this point, so I simply retrace my steps to avoid any new excitement. Unfortunately, the Master of Spiders is still on fire so I'm forced to take a slight detour. This detour sees me fighting some Sword Trees and meeting the Master of Wolves, who I refused to even acknowledge.
Finally, I stumble back through Selador's door and hurl the berry at him in frustration. Fortunately, he's incredibly happy to have an Antherica berry of his own so he rewards me. With dinner. No money or magic or fame. Dinner.
Still - Success...!
So, How'd it go?
It took me 5 tries to beat Scorpion Swamp.
Adventurer 1 - Sk 9. Jumped into a river which was actually just mud. Got stuck and eaten by crocodiles.
Adventurer 2 - Sk 12. Tried chatting to Master of Spiders. Spiders ate me
Adventurer 3 - Sk 9. Died fighting the Master of Spiders.
Adventurer 4 - Sk 8. Died fighting Sword Trees.
I'm not sure how I felt about Scorpion Swamp. The free nature of the book and multiple quests is a great idea and would lead to lots of replay value. But, it was the free moving nature that caused me to wander around in circles for so long. I enjoyed mapping the adventure but I feel the map doesn't always work - at least one part caused an error on my map that lead me to be lost for so long. The fact it's taken me nearly a year to actually write this blog post suggests I wasn't keen to go back through it for a while.
However, if I ever get through this blog, I'll come back and replay some other adventures. Maybe.
Next time - Caverns of the Snow Witch.
I'll definitely never finish this blog...
