You know I didn't get to use the Gold I earned for literally anything. I hope there is a sequel so I can actually use this gold. I have literally 58 gold. I could buy a lot with that.
Grettir Tue Mar 20 19:36:25 2018
Very droll.
Carlos Fernandes Mon Sep 24 23:35:55 2018
Very original And funny
paul Tue Mar 5 11:11:14 2019
i like!
paul Mon Mar 11 18:17:51 2019
shouldn't have gone to bed :(
Adam Martin Thu Mar 28 23:18:06 2019
Great fun, nice to see a place fleshed out like this. Adds colour to the city of Port blacksand
Jest Mon Jul 22 00:05:22 2019
I love this one!
ShawnFireDragon Tue Dec 3 16:04:50 2019
Great story, I really enjoyed playing. I am a long time fan of Fighting Fantasy. Thanks for your wonderful adventure.
Yaztromo Thu Apr 9 10:10:23 2020
This adventure is evergreen ;)
Ironwolf Wed Oct 21 21:17:09 2020
Amazing! Got both of the 'good' endings, and I'm not sure which is better. I only wish it had a sequel!
morgan painter Fri Mar 12 09:55:08 2021
this was very itense
Mage Mon Oct 18 05:52:36 2021
This one wasn't hard to win, but I thought I'd try for the harder troll-slayer path....just barely made it! :D
bluejuice915 Fri Feb 24 08:43:14 2023
Been making my way back through everything on this site. Got hinted that there was a second (harder) ending I hadn't done on this one & managed to find it. Yay. Still really like how good this story is despite not lacking adventure-ness. Great lead for another adventure, even if it never got used. Props.
YARD Thu Sep 7 15:49:46 2023
After beating In The Footsteps Of A Hero the other day, I decided to power through the other two Blacksand-set stories on here in short order, and here we are!
Not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand, I absolutely LOVED seeing that reference to Demons of the Deep - up until I found this website, it was one of the only two original gamebooks I ever came across. (The other one was Seas of Blood - I guess my initial exposure to Fighting Fantasy was rather atypically marine-themed!) And I still enjoy adventures with low-powered and atypical characters a lot. Chapter titles are also a nice addition - I was at first wondering if it was going to go all the way with ref names, like Soul Tracker, but I guess not.
At the same time, it feels rather arbitrary altogether. Halron's alcoholism (why would a tavern-keeper need any real money in the first place, anyway?) strangely doesn't come into play much, when compared to even the author's own Lair of the Troglodytes. Perhaps it would have been too much of a retread, but then there wouldn't be the addition of recurring characters from Andrew's previous two stories. Unexpectedly, they are not particularly welcome here. as they appear implausibly dumbed down compared to their previous iterations. It's also strange that you have no choice but to talk to them (and lie to them out of spite), yet the follow-up from that inevitable action is completely skippable, in a way which doesn't make much sense.
SPOILER
If you go to sleep upstairs, does this somehow prevent Raitharve from reaching your tavern that night? Does she suddenly decide not to disturb you while you are asleep? Or did SKILL 10 adventurer got scared off by a guy who is most likely well weaker than her, since he lost to a SKILL 9 troll?
END SPOILER
On the other hand, the final encounter is both all-but-unskippable, and doesn't make much sense. If it was that easy for someone like them to exhort taverns, how did you even get by for so long? And surely even they would have been able to understand that since your establishment generates money, they could keep coming back and claiming at regular intervals (since if you couldn' repel them once, why would you succeed the next time?) All the railroading towards that battle simply isn't very satisfying. Out of the two endings, the one which involves the axe is just not very interesting (with even a few works on here featuring variations on this ending) or even hopeful (as the character doesn't come across particularly suited for that life, to say the least). The other ending is a lot better, but the path to it is not very satisfying.
SPOILER
If their late mother was this important, I feel like they would have mentioned her on their own already, not caring what you would think? It's also funny that Thord doesn't care about Raitharve or the extortionist, yet charges into a doomed action against a Troll.
END SPOILER
The key conversation in the lead-up to that ending option really needed to be more involved, with more dialogue options to navigate before pulling this off. Sadly, the supporting characters don't get much of a chance to be remembered, since their encounters are rather one-note due to their brevity. I think that this would have likely worked better with the adventure
Finally, proofreading.
SPOILER
CHAPTER ONE - BREAKFAST AT ALLIERTÉ'S + CHAPTER TWO - THE LUNCH (LIVE, AT THE BLACK LOBSTER) + CHAPTER FOUR + 8 + 19 + 21 + 28 + 37 + 41 + 44 + 56 - extra spaces before question marks
"that you possibly think could be a pirate"
40 – “swing his battle-axe” – not swings? 42 – " green-skinned SERPENTS” – not green-scaled? Drunken Enhance spell is excellent!