Ascent of Darkness

Fan Written Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks
Outline
Location:	Carsepolis, Allansia
References:	219
Publication Details
Author(s):	Stuart Lloyd
Illustrator(s):	Michael Wolmarans
Cover illustrator:	Michael Wolmarans
First published:	April 30 2013
Previous Adventure:	Hand of Fate
Next Adventure:	Starhunt: Void Slavers

Ascent of Darkness was a fan written Fighting Fantasy adventure by Stuart Lloyd. It was first published online in issue 11 of Fighting Fantazine in 2013.

Background

Rules

The adventure in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (see Game System).

Unique Rules

Ascent of Darkness builds on the premise that the hero of the book is a legendary warrior, and as such, must have legendary skills – and flaws – as well.

• One of three Heroic Power (Strength of Telak, Speed of Pangara or Cunning of Logaan) must be chosen at the beginning of the book, each of which offers an increase of one of the three main attributes. The source of these powers are attributed to the gods they are named after.
• One of three Heroic Flaws (Hubris, Rage, Achilles' Heel) must also be chosen.
• Three Heroic Stunts (Shield Bash, Flurry of Blows, Exploit Weakness) are also introduced to emphasize the experience of the hero. These can be used at the end of every Attack Round. Based on the Heroic Power selected two of these Stunts will have a chance of 50%, while the third one a chance of 66% to work properly. In this case the hero will receive various advantages against his attackers. When the Stunt fails, however, the hero automatically receives a damage from his attacker.
• Provisions cannot be used to regain lost stamina points.

Both the Heroic Powers and Flaws play an integral part in the story, offering (or forcing) alternate options in a situation.

Equipment List

• Sword
• Spear
• Shield (reduces the Attack Strength of opponents by 1)
• No armour
• 50 Gold Pieces

Cover and Illustrations

Cover

The cover was designed and illustrated by Michael Wolmarans.

Illustrations

The interior illustrations were by Michael Wolmarans. There were 10 full page illustrations and 6 minor repeated illustrations scattered throughout the text. The paragraphs with a full page illustration were: 9, 12, 33, 51(?), 103, 124, 143, 153, 183 and 214.

Main Characters

YOU: Hero of Ascent of Darkness

• Agamemnon
• Atalanta
• Chiron
• Dilios
• Erishum
• Ikunum
• Platonus
• Stelios
• Telemechus
• Thalos

Locations

• Carsepolis
• Desert of Skulls
• Fire Island
• Karnak Tor

Encounters

• Berem
• Caarth
• Earth Elemental
• Elimite Champion
• Harpies
• Humans - Archer/Assassin/Courtiers
• Hunchback
• Hydra
• Life Stealer
• Lizard Man Slaver
• Mermaid
• Old One
• Pirate Captain
• Shadow
• Treeman
• Zombie

Further Notes

• The story contains several references from the Greek mythology.
• The book uses codewords to record events that happen in the course of the book.
• A French translation was done by Bruenor Jeunesse.
• Translated into Hungarian in issue 9 of Kaland Játék Kockázat as A Sötétség eljövetele. It was translated by FireFoX and Gergő.

Errors

• (12) states that the ship is about an hour away from the shore. According to this wikipedia article the average continuous speed of a trireme is around 6 knots, which is roughly 14.8 km/h. This is when we fall into the water. According to (33) we swim another hour until we reach the island. That is not feasible. An average swimming speed of 5 km/h would be more plausible, but only without a sword or a warhammer strapped onto the back.
• It is pointless to check for the flaw Achilles' Heel on this battle since we know that we have the Rage.
• (24) and (163) should lead to (103) instead of (107) since we're nowhere near the hut anymore.
• On (31) the hero must select which flaw he has. The problem is, Rage can be suppressed and there is no choice for that eventuality.
• The illustration accompanying (51) is missing the dagger mentioned in the text.
• One could argue that (71) is useless: if we had sedative and wanted to drink it we would already have done so on (35) by turning to (82), and wouldn't have risked turning to (71) in the first place.
• (94) should lead to (35) instead of (160), otherwise there would be no point to (35).
• On (126) the Hunchback seems to be throwing the exact same glass globe on us three times, breaking it every time.
• (137) should be leading to (177) instead of (174).
• (133) is just plain wrong.
• On (212) the wizard should be dead right away if we used the Staff of Ashra for the sneak attack as well.
• On (219) the courier says the death happened a week prior, while the letters speaks about events merely a week after his death which suggests the courier made the long way from Carsepolis to Karnak Tor in under a day, while the shortest route back to the city takes several days.

Nitpicking:

• There is practically no difference between (30) and (151). There is no point for checking for the flaw Achilles' Heel on (7).

See Also

• Fan Written Fighting Fantasy
• Fighting Fantazine

External Links

• Fighting Fantazine

References