A Fighting Fantasy Journey
Book twenty six - crypt of the Sorcerer
Ian livingstone returns with a book that felt to me to be more of a novel in its linear approach. The necromancer Razaak has risen again bringing blight to Allansia. All you have to do is collect a magic sword and the horn of a monster. Because Allansia is well establish now we get our first map on the inside cover and a cast of familiar faces. Yaztromo of dark wood forest returns to send you on a mission and the dwarfs of stonebridge give a helping hand. Great classic cover from les Edwards. I love Razaaks long right arm. There is a mini available for Razaak but he's out of stock at the moment. It's very easy to fail on. This adventure if you don't find certain items and relies on a lot on obtaining paragraph numbers which you can't progress without. Finding a helpful imp creature who you can call on later he gives you his number like he has a mobile on him which made me laugh. The use of numbers for paragraphs takes me out if the adventure when they are required in the world. 
I did like that the quest wasn't dungeon bound. We get to explore the map given us in the book and there are lots of references to previous books such as port blacksand. 
Once again we find companions like symm here and the dwarf Borri. Amazingly they both survive 
I am always suspicious of elf girls hanging from trees but surprisingly it's not a trap 
Nice way to get about. 
There are certain finds in this book that you will need later such as the blood from these chaps. Without it you can't win which makes this book difficult 
Not what you want to see if your in a balloon 
The sword you need to kill Razaak is cursed so if you fail to lift the curse your flesh might drop off like the previous owner
I found it more fun playing now than when I was a kid because I probably found it to hard. I liked having companions and found it funny that I needed to know the dietary requirements of a troll to gain access to the villain. John Sibbicks art is great and I was a fan of his work in the series 
Because the book was second hand it's funny to see what school library it came from. 
Leave a Reply