Razaak

Razaak
skill	12
stamina	20
Attacks	1
Weapon Used	Small Claw or Magic (see below)
Habitat	Allansia
Number Encountered	1 (unique)
Type	Human/Undead
Reaction	Hostile
Intelligence	High

Razaak is the main villain of the gamebook Crypt of the Sorcerer. He is an Evil necromancer who is often regarded as the hardest antagonist ever seen in a Fighting Fantasy book.

Physical Appearance

As an undead, Razaak is hideous to behold. Small, bald, hunchbacked and deformed, he has a deadly waxen skin and palpitating red veins on his oversized skull. His left eye is abnormally small, while his right eye is bulging out of its socket. His arms are skinny; the left arm is shrivelled while his right arm is so long that it drags along the ground.

Background

Razaak is the son of a man named Tamal. No further information is given on his father.

It is said that Razaak was once an apprentice sorcerer, but we don't know how and where he learnt magic; it has been suggested that his teacher may have been Vermithrax Moonchaser. However, he wanted to use his powers only for his own ambition and was more attracted by dark magic. He exiled himself in the desert and spent forty years in loneliness, becoming a self-taught necromancer. He then sent messengers to the several Lords of Allansia, ordering them to swear obedience to him; but not knowing him, no one took his words seriously.

Infuriated, Razaak spread plague, curses and misery all over Allansia, slaying every sorcerer or warrior sent to destroy him. He was killed by a hero named Kull wielding the only weapon that can harm him: his own magic sword which he had thrown away as part of a pact with the dark powers to rid himself of all weapons, save a cerimonial dagger. However, the curse of the sword turned Kull to a skeleton unable to release the sword and doomed to dwell forever in the lake where he found it. Razaak's crypt was sealed by a sorcerer and was not to be open until 110 years, or Razaak would be revived.

Crypt of the Sorcerer

Razaak's crypt was reopened a century after his demise, possibly by grave-robbers. Subsequently, Razaak based himself in the Moonstone Hills, where he spread death and plague all around. He raised a Gargantis and planned to build an army of Zombies to take over Allansia and destroy every life there making it into a land of the undead.

The player, helped and guided by the famous sorcerer Gereth Yaztromo and two fellows adventurers, has to find Razaak's sword, kill the fearsome Gargantis to get his horn, and collect uncountable relics before going to fight the necromancer himself.

Statistics and Comments

Razaak is by far one of the best-protected and hardest to defeat villains ever. The player needs to disguise himself as one of his servants with a service number and a special key and needs to know six special numbers just to reach him. Then the player needs:

• a magic Ring of Truesight to recognize him when he is transformed into Yaztromo;
• to have inhaled a special smoke which protects him/her against fire;
• to have a protective spell (and to know how to cast it) against the insect swarm he summons with his magic;
• to have a magic shield which protects him/her against his Lightning spell;

If engaged in melee combat, and if Razaak wins two Attack Rounds in a row, he absorbs the player's life force and turn him into a Zombie, automatically winning the fight. Veterans of this gamebook have often complained that no one can defeat Razaak without cheating or being extremely lucky.

See Also

References