In some cases, you'll find out that two heads isn't better than one...
A hero is urgently needed!
The beautiful Princess Telessa of Arion, daughter of King Jothane, has been kidnapped by the sorcerer Arachnos, and will be executed in three days. Only the bravest, most noble of warriors can make it to Arachnos's lair, at the edge of the deadly Deathmoor, braving numerous obstacles inhabiting the moor before finally confronting Arachnos himself.
You are a veteran adventurer and native to Arion, one of the King's most trusted allies and best warriors; but upon your return to Arion from an expedition in the distant Isles of Dawn, you discover that King Jothane has already commissioned the task of rescuing the princess to Fang-Zen of Jitar, a ruthless mercenary and your sworn rival. Fang-Zen is notoriously cruel and ruthless, and cannot be trusted, so you will have to outsmart your rival before setting out to the deadly monster-infested moor...
Deathmoor is the 55th installment of the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks and the final gamebook writted by Robin Waterfield. The usual Robin Waterfield trademarks of a meandering path and a checklist of compulsory item hunting are both there, in the form of King Jothane's letter and the three keys required to enter Arachnos's lair hidden in the moor, but taken up to eleven this time; solving numerical puzzles is mandatory to completing the quest, and missing an essential item can end your quest before it even begins. The fact that paragraph 400 isn't the conclusion — probably to prevent players from cheating — makes the entire book even more confusing.
Coming right after the massively successful Legend of Zagor, and being published after a series of generally well-regarded entries including Night Dragon, Spellbreaker and Island of the Undead, Deathmoor is frequently overlooked by fans due to its over-reliance on numerical puzzles and unpredictable, meandering routes, almost-random sequences of events the book decides to throw at you, essential information and items that are easy to miss, thereby rendering the game unwinnable (which isn't immediately obvious), 50/50 decisions that lead to instant deaths without any hints or warnings, and worst of all, a painfully unsatisfying and anti-climactic final ending.
Deathmoor provides examples of:
- Alliterative Family: The half-giant brothers are named Otus, Oman, and Ophis.
- Bad Boss: Arachnos has no qualms with having his slaves whipped and tortured, or feeding them to his massive pet monster, the Pool Crawler.
- Bar Brawl: Fang-Zen goads you into a bar fight as you confront him in a tavern. Later on, if you're unlucky, you might get assaulted by two other random thugs after recovering King Jothane's letter from Fang-Zen.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: You might get assaulted by a Giant Millipede and a Giant Spider while making your way through the moor.
- Big Fancy House: Baron Den Snau's villa, which you infiltrate to find a vital clue.
- Blob Monster:
- While crossing the heavily-polluted stream to reach the moor, you might encounter a slimy monster... called a Slime Monster.
- The amoeba-like Iron Eater which previously appeared in Temple of Terror and Crypt of the Sorcerer shows up once again, threatening to chew away your armor. In all three of its appearances, this jelly-like creature hides on the ceiling of a dark tunnel and drops down on unwary players.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: One of the possible Non-Standard Game Over has Arachnos take over your mind and turn you into his pawn.
- Brother–Sister Incest: In the backstory, it is revealed that King Jothane and Queen Elegana are siblings. No word if Princess Telessa is their biological child or not, though...
- The Catfish: Oversized fishes like the Granochin inhabit the massively polluted waters of the moor.
- Continuity Nod: You return home to Arion after a Scarlet Pearl diving quest in the Isles of Dawn, which was the setting of the previous gamebooks Black Vein Prophecy and The Crimson Tide.
- Damsel in Distress: Princess Telessa will be executed in three days should you fail to reach her on time.
- Dirty Coward: Fang-Zen, your rival turned enemy; when he's in the company of his fellow rogues, he's all high-and-mighty, but if you're both on your own, he'll sneakily try to spear you from behind.
- Divine Intervention: While hopelessly stuck in the marsh, you can pray to one of three deities to help you escape your predicament. Choose wisely, though; pray to the wrong deity and you risk a Fate Worse than Death...
- Dem Bones: You come across a field littered with skeletons, which will reanimate themselves and crawl at you. Subverted in that the skeleton horde is actually neutral; if you pacify them with the right items, they will actually leave you alone, and even give your LUCK a boost with their blessing. Unless you offer them the wrong item, at which point they will misinterpret you as a servant of Arachnos and rip you into pieces.
- Disc-One Final Boss: You fight Fang-Zen to the death near the edge of the moor, and he's out of the story once he's defeated.
- Elemental Embodiment:
- The Mist Demon is a monster made from the mists of the swamp. You can defeat it by dispersing the mist repeatedly.
- It's implied that the Swamp Ghost works on the same principle, being formed from the fumes of the swamp.
- Failure Is the Only Option: If you fail to obtain King Jothane's letter from Fang-Zen in the tavern right at the start, then your quest has become unwinnable before it can begin!
- Family-Unfriendly Death: The princess's companions and friends are all massacred and hacked limb-from-limb, and their severed limbs spells a message: "WAIT". Keep in mind that the Princess is only 15 years of age, and her friends are likely her peers...
So essentially a bunch of teens just got butchered by the forces of darkness... - Fish People: The Pelagine and Pelaginette which attack you to steal your sacred Scarlet Pearl are described as these. You may also encounter a race of merfolk native to the moor.
- Five-Finger Fillet: You need to challenge Fang-Zen to this game — and win — in order to obtain King Jothane's letter.
- Genius Bruiser: Otus and his brothers, despite being oversized giants, are actually smarter than they look; convincing them to lead you to Arachnos takes quite some effort, and they can kill you before you react if your cover is blown.
- Giant Flyer: The Pterolin is a giant eagle which attacks you when you're too close to its nest. You can search its nest for items, but you risk getting attacked by its mate.
- Grimy Water: While making your way towards the moor, you'll need to cross a badly-polluted stream which is constantly spewing toxic fumes and infested by slimy monsters. The waters are so filthy that you risk losing STAMINA just by wading through it!
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Oh yes it does, from enemy attacks, giant monster bites, lava, toxic fumes...
- Morton's Fork: You can attempt to flee while battling a Giant Millipede... only to run into a Pool Crawler in an adjacent tunnel. Both monsters will make kibble out of your flesh instantly.
- Multiple Head Case: The Cradoc, as seen on the front cover, is a reptilian monster with two heads, an ogre's and a dragon's. You will have to battle it twice, since both heads have their own SKILL and STAMINA values, then choose which head to sever to put it down for good. You need to decapitate the ogre's head to kill it. Cutting off the dragon's head allows it to regenerate and instantly kill you.
- Mysterious Mist: Deathmoor is constantly shrouded in mist, which allows its resident Swamp Ghosts to mislead you, or for deadly predators to leap out at you.
- Nintendo Hard: Having a high SKILL and LUCK stat isn't going to help you when the sheer amount of instant death choices, unexpectedly difficult mathematical puzzles, easily-missable essential items, and chances to lose important items you already have makes this book one of the most unforgiving in the series.
- Nobody Here but Us Birds: You can fool an ogre guard by pretending to be a dog or a cat. If you pretend to be a dog, you will cause the ogre to come out and investigate, leading to a fight.
- Oddball in the Series: The first book since The Crimson Tide where the final paragraph 400 is not the ending. Also, the previous seven books all end with a climactic boss battle against the Big Bad, whether by throwing dice or using essential items to engage in battle. This book changes that formula, as you defeat Arachnos by solving a math puzzle.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The Marsh Ghosts inhabiting the moor are created from the toxic fumes of the moor itself. Surprisingly they can be wounded by your sword, and disperse once bested in battle.
- Poisoned Weapon: Baron Den Snau attacks you with a poisoned sword, which affects your metabolism just by inflicting one hit on you (your Provisions can only restore 3 points of STAMINA after that). Two hits? You're a goner.
- Press X to Die: You can actually lose this adventure in just two pages. By choosing to set off for the moor immediately without looking for clues in the city, you will be hopelessly lost and unable to reach the princess within the 3-day deadline. She dies, and it's time to start again.
- Prehistoric Monster: The Flesh Eater is an ancient, dinosaur-like beast inhabiting the mist-covered parts of the moor, and is among the Last of His Kind. It's still hostile though, so if you encounter it, you'd better make it extinct!
- The Rival: You and Fang-Zen are competing against each other to be the first to rescue the princess.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: If you know the essential clues, you can actually instigate a fight between Otus, Oman, and Ophis, causing the latter two to knock each other out and leaving only Otus to deal with.
- Shout-Out:
- While crossing the swamp, it is possible to be overwhelmed by feelings of depression and sadness, which can possibly make you decide to sink yourself into the swamp and drown on purpose.
- Two of the characters you meet are a pair of plumbers named Oiram and Igiul. Have you considered reading their names backwards?
- At one point you risk having your items stolen by a bunch of furry, weasel-like critters called grinches.
- Sinister Scythe: You risk getting attacked by a Dark Elf gardener wielding a scythe taller than him. While his SKILL is low, he can actually One-Hit Kill you with that scythe if you're really unlucky...
- Slippery Skid: You can defeat a troll by dropping sallow-seed oil on a narrow path ahead of your opponent.
- Small Name, Big Ego: For the amount of trash talk Fang-Zen delivers and the self-praise he constantly heaps upon himself, in the ultimate confrontation it turns out his SKILL is always at least 2 points behind yours, and he barely survives halfway through the quest. He didn't even manage to set foot into the titular moor, Titan be damned!
- Swamps Are Evil: Most of the adventure sees you crossing the biggest, nastiest swampy moor inhabited by the scariest of creatures in Titan.
- Swamp Monster: The titular moor is filled with monsters, from a prehistoric dinosaur-like fleasheater to giant fishes, oversized millipedes and spiders, a massive tentacled behemoth whose lair is filled with the skeletons of its victims, creatures animated by the muck and water-dwelling reptiles.
- Tentacled Terror: The Tantaflex is a massive tentacled abomination inhabiting a ruined farmhouse, adjacent to a valley littered with skeletons. You probably know where those skeletons come from...
- Too Dumb to Live: If you trust Otus the giant to deliver the princess back to you, the text will reprimand your idiocy in putting too much trust and belief in the forces of evil, that it's a wonder how you managed to survive throughout all your adventures given your naivety — and then reveal the princess will be delivered to you, but in pieces. Good luck explaining that to the King!
- Truth Serum: The Truthstone can force your opponents to reveal the truth, but unfortunately it can only be used once. And if you waste it on the wrong enemy, your quest is now unwinnable. (Have we mentioned how unforgiving this book is?)
- Will-o'-the-Wisp: Some of the Marsh spirits will produce an unearthly glow when they reveal themselves to you.
- A Winner Is You: After braving the frustrating challenges of the moor, slaying Arachnos, and saving the princess, what is your reward in the ending? A one-paragraph congratulatory text about how the sorcerer is dead and his forces will crumble. Nothing is stated about your reward or what happens to you after you return to Arion. For comparison, imagine if Knights of Doom had this ending, which isn't far from the one in this book:You slay Belgaroth with the Elven spear. His forces crumble. You have saved Ruddlestone. Thanks for playing! ~ THE END
- Would Harm a Senior: Otus has no qualms beating an old woman to death after forcing her to let him spend a night in her cottage.
