"You" are hanging out with your friends Sue and Eddie, who first appeared in A Night in Terror Tower. They tell you that they are secretly the heirs of a medieval kingdom, and they need your help to reclaim their throne from their evil uncle. "You" go back in time to help them, while avoiding many dangers including dragons, monsters, and the Lord High Executioner.
It was the first and only book of the GYB series to be a direct sequel to another book in the original series.
Return to Terror Tower provides examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Sue and Eddie's uncle was the Greater-Scope Villain of the first story, is now the Big Bad and has to be defeated to get the Golden Ending.
- Been There, Shaped History: In one of the good endings, it turns out you are the inspiration behind the Just Like Robin Hood concept, "stealing from the rich to help the poor".
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Depending on your choices, this can happen to you with the Lord High Executioner's mind control. Alternatively it turns out he is brainwashed, and you break the spell over him by defeating the king.
- Burn the Witch!: In one ending, Robin Hood and her merry men burn you at the stake, believing your 90s-style Walkman to be sorcery.
- Cassandra Truth:
- In one ending, you're stuck on your own and have no one to hang out with, because you didn't believe Sue and Eddie's story about being a medieval prince and princess.
- In another, some tourists get sent back to the past with you, and think it's a medieval-themed attraction. You try to warn them that they're in real danger, but they think you are just an actor, and don't listen to you.
- Cave Mouth: In one ending, giving the wrong code to enter Morgred's tower turns it into a giant mouth that bites you in half.
- Chekhov's Gun: The woman who gave Sue away to the Lord Executioner makes an appearance. Remembering how that went down helps you make the right decision.
- Demoted to Extra: Sue and Eddie, who (depending on the storyline you follow) may barely appear at all.
- Exact Words: Attempting a "beginning" spell actually gets you sent back to the beginning of time, and killed.
- Evil Uncle: The current King is Sue and Eddie's uncle, who has usurped their throne and is trying to have them killed.
- Gender Flip: If you meet Robin Hood during the story, she will turn out to be a woman.
- Face–Heel Turn: In the original A Night in Terror Tower, an old woman promises to hide Sue from the Lord High Executioner - but ends up handing her over out of fear. The old woman is portrayed sympathetically in that book, but in this one, she gives you to the Executioner deliberately just because he's paying her.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Your main quest throughout the story is to collect the three white stones from the first book, which are needed for you to return to the present day. But if you do collect all three, there's no way to get a good ending - seemingly because Sue and Eddie went back to save their kingdom, and had no intention of returning to the present.
- Genre Savvy: The Lord High Executioner is this, since he went to the modern day in the first book, and knows all about you.
- Heel–Face Turn: The Lord High Executioner is a major villain (and the main villain of the original Goosebumps book on which it's based) but in the best ending of the book, you defeat the evil king and the Executioner becomes good, having been under mind control the whole time.
- I'm a Humanitarian: You may find yourself eaten alive in a bad ending where Robin Hood and her Merry Men turn out to be cannibalistic monsters.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: This book has you picking three items out of a possible four, and using them at a possibly appropriate time. Pick the wrong item to use during the events, and a humiliating death usually results. One item is useless, as the one time you could use the object, it doesn't help you at all.
- Involuntary Dance: In one ending, the evil king forces you to dance for him until you either die from exhaustion, or (if you stop) get killed by his soldiers.
- Kill It with Fire: In this book, you can be burned at the stake for sorcery, or burned alive by a dragon.
- Long-Lost Relative: In one of the good endings, you help your two friends (a medieval prince and princess) overthrow their evil uncle and reclaim the throne. It is then discovered that you are their cousin and didn't know about it, so you get to rule the country with them.
- Robin Hoodlum: Depending on your choices, the female Robin Hood and her Merry Men may burn you at the stake, or even eat you.
- Sequel Non-Entity: Morgred does not return from A Night In Terror Tower, and no real explanation is given for his absence; although you can visit his house and use his spell book in your quest.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: One bad ending has you fall asleep on a magical bed and wake up in a hotel in London ... 800 years later, and you're going to be charged for spending all that time in the hotel.
- Stripped to the Bone: This book has an ending where living skeletons (who were burned alive by a dragon) skin you alive so they can have your skin.
- Taken for Granite: Happens to you in one bad ending if you simply try to walk into Terror Tower through the front door.
- This Loser Is You: Two endings result in this:
- You refuse to go with Sue and Eddie, and are stuck on your own with nothing to do. The book makes fun of you.
- Sue and Eddie send you back to the present day for your own safety, but (as the book gleefully points out) they're still in serious danger and you did nothing to help.
- Time Stands Still: One ending has this happen to you when you essentially "break" time by knocking over the three white stones in the middle of time-travel.
- Time Travel: The plot is based around you going back to Sue and Eddie's time to help them reclaim their kingdom.
