A Saint Beckons

the final words from the dying priest in the church, 'LIV-', are actually Roman numerals - the correct number to open the knight's tomb - so best keep that in a French translation. It's a little bit cryptic (if you'll pardon the pun!) as I wanted it to sound like the word: 'live', as if he was giving the player one last blessing or piece of advice.

"Live" translated into French can be "Vis". Taking the first two letters gets another (different) roman numeral, so it could work with just a little shuffling of paragraphs!

The reader (hero) is indeed describing his portentous dream during his recovery period when the Saint's skeletal hand graceed his brow. It is only revealed later through those conversations with Prior Richmond and - if he escaped the struggle with Hugh and Lukas - Brother Roubert, himself a learned scholar who is able to deciper the mysterious meanings. I decided not to go into the dream during the Background section, in danger of it adding too much extrapoltation at the beginning. I like to try and break things up evenly - dialogue, action, extrapolaiton - wherever possible., so the reader doesn't get great clumps and make the writing tedious. If the player manages to get a full list of meanings, these act as sublte hints of help and perils throughout the gameworld. Therefore, I would much prefer the dream's description being kept where it is. And if the player made the wrong choice...? Sorry, but that's what FF is all about!

Sorry, forgot to mention: entry 73 has the necessarary on/off switch: either Brother Roubert escaped, or he was knocked unconscious and is unable to do a translation.

Haven't eight days passed from the hero's arrival to his conversations about the dream? His recovery is completed the third day, Sir Cecil's patrol comes the seventh day, the theft is committed that night, and the hero discusses his dream the day after. So why talking about the "dream from last night"?

Hi Benoit,
Yes, that's okay, I made a mistake in my previous post to you: the dream actually happens after the player's been knocked unconscious by Lukas Tillens on the seventh night, that would make more sense as you pointed out. The Saint is 'speaking' to the hero ever since her touch helped heal him. So the dream happens after the encounter with Hugh Riverton and Lukas Tillens.

How come a Fleming uses German words in his English sentences? Is there something in Lukas Tillens' background that could explain this?

it's a very interesting one with an equally complex answer: I often considered the Flemish people, culture, and dialect as a mix of many influences - with Germanic being one of them. The Flemish were originally West Germanic (according to Wikipedia) and it seems they are mainly centred in Belgium? If so - and my apologies to the Flemish people if I got it wrong! - I assumed the German tongue played some part in their language. Back during the mid-15th Century, it was probably a different case, but I got the idea from Bernard Cornwell's Grailquest series (set during the Hundred Years War). Anyway, sorry if I got it wrong. But as for Lukas Tillens, I like the idea of him knowing/using more than one language; he is a mercanary after all and served in many campaigns across Europe. Let's just say he's Flemish but likes to use certain Germanic words. Again, I apologize if any such words differed somewhat to how he pronounces them in the dialogue sections. If it's a mistake on my part, then best let it remain a mystery - which all the more adds to his character.

you have found ALL allies along the way. Even if you just miss one, it's an automatice failure! If you want to try playing through it again, let me know how you get on. I'm not sure if it would be an idea for a 'solutions' section to be included on the FFProject. They do exist online for the published series of gamebooks.

I am talking, of course, about going to the Raven's camp and getting killed there. I see someone else complained about it before as well, and with all due respect to Robert Douglas, his response "Even the best agent/professional can make mistakes which actually creates some edge-of-the-seat twists and turns in a plot... EVERY real-life spec ops soldier worth their salt will tell you - that nobody, including themselves, is infallible. Everybody takes wrong turns in life." is completely ridiculous when throughout the story, you can get not one, not two, but SEVEN or EIGHT separate "hints" (some of them are like flashing neon signs, really) that the Raven is evil, yet only one of them actually stops you from going to the camp.

0: In his rantings, Brother Jacob somehow makes the conclusion that the Raven would necessarily be implicated in the scheme if you are telling the truth. I do not like this part, because it appears to come out of nowhere (same as the whole scene with his unchallenged accusations, really), and would like to see it removed, but while it's here, it's certainly a hint.

1: Prior explicitly tells you he doesn't trust the Raven and it's pretty clear he is suspicious of his involvement.

2: If you go talk to Pilgrim Seb, the protagonist's OWN THOUGHTS say that Raven must be playing some game. That choice ALONE should prevent you from going to the camp, regardless of anything else.

3: Visiting Tobias (necessary to reach Sheinton in the first place and avoid the caravan ending) tells you about the Raven's behaviour towards Annabel. Not directly related to theft itself, but certainly not good.

4: If you rescue Mary, she proves beyond doubt that the Raven is evil.

5: Lukas accuses the Raven if you beat him, regardless of what happens next. Yet, sparing him is the only thing which stops you from going to camp, and not anything else.

6: Mary's brothers tell you what happens once you reach Sheinton, and it is completely impossible to avoid that if you have made it that far. Even the Priest will tell you the Raven's soul is like that of Satan himself.

7: If you get healed by the Priest, he'll also tell you to beware.

In the light of all this, just the unavoidable hints (1, 3 and 6) should make going to the camp a choice rather than a necessity, even if the player simply gets a different gameover as the result. Getting 4 or 2 should prevent you from going to the camp same as 5, even if it won't let you win without doing everything else actually required by the narrative.

Unless cooking that rabbit is the difference between whether you still have to fight some vagabonds after killing Eli as an Archer or not? Not sure how that worked. I'll also note that if you have the flint, you should probably find and cook that rabbit even if you slit Lukas' throat.

Halberd's penalty doesn't seem to activate after the third round in the Vagabond fight? (But it does for the Lynch Mob and other infantry encounters.)

How the hell are Vagabonds armoured if you manage to snipe their crossbowman as an archer, but unarmoured if you fail, or fight them as a different background?

Does Spiked Gauntlet ever do anything, or do you have to have a non-Halberd/non-two-handed weapon?

Are the brigands who attack you at the sacred tomb mounted (even though the text says nothing like it), since you get a bonus when fighting them with the halberd? I also wonder if the dogs/hawk should have spotted them tracking you.