I told you: Classics won't stay dead.
Revenge of the Vampire is the 58th entry in the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks and Keith Martin's sequel to his previous work, Vault of the Vampire.
Long ago, in the grim and wraith-infested forests of Mauristania, a brave adventurer faced the ghastly perils of Castle Heydrich and vanquished the evil Vampire Count Reiner and his spawn of darkness, saving the good people of Leverhelven and the Old World from peril. Fast-forward to the present: you are resting in a comfortable Inn in Analand when you meet up with a nervous traveler, who is on a journey to visit a friend in the nearby monastery, and decide to travel with him. However, the following day, you awake to find that your companion was murdered. A note on his body mentions the return of the Vampire Count Reiner Heydrich, who managed to came back from the dead using a secret Soul Jewel to store his life force. Count Heydrich is plotting something in Analand which will make him even more powerful than he was in Mauristania. Is up to you to start a long and perilous quest across Analand to track the evil Vampire lord, destroy his coffins and stop him before his plan is completed, facing undead horrors, dangerous thralls and dire beasts on your way to glory.
Revenge of the Vampire overall uses the same system as Vault of the Vampire. In addition to the usual Skill, Stamina, and Luck scores, you have a Faith score which is used to repeal certain monsters, and the possibility of being infected with afflictions, curses or disease which, if left unchecked, will cause your death later on in the book. Additionally, throughout your adventure, you can gain or lose "Blood Points", which determine how powerful Heydrich has become when you face off against him in the final battle. This time the adventure feels longer, with your character venturing across Analand from dungeon to dungeon, looking for Heydrich and gathering clues and items necessary for finding and defeating Heydrich once and for all. It also features a lot more combat than its prequel, often against opponents following special rules in combat.
Revenge of the Vampire provides examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: Reiner's own Vampyres are all women this time around.
- Anti-Regeneration: The Grand Revenant in Mortus Mansion will continuously revive himself unless you use sanctified Oil or Darkfire on him. In a bout of Anti-Frustration Features, if you don't have these things with you the first time you encounter him, the book allows you to leave and return to face the Grand Revenant (and get the loot he's guarding) if you happen to find them later.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: The Zombie Carriage puts the living Tiger Rug from the previous game to shame.
- Avenging the Villain: If you manage to slay Reiner in the final battle before he can phase away, Katarina will attack you outright.
- Back from the Dead: Reiner Heydrich managed to survive his own definitive death by staking and returned to plague the world. His plans seems to involve doing the same to the Vampire Lords buried in the Ghoulcrypts. Oh, also Katarina Heydrich has returned.
- Big Bad: Reiner Heydrich, once again. Subverted with Katarina Heydrich, who this time is subservient to her brother.
- Blob Monster: The Vampiric Jelly sent to murder Harquar by suffocating him in his sleep.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: By the halfway point of the adventure, you go from dueling strong enemies or a couple of zombies at a time to butchering whole Zombie Hordes and Ghoul Packs in a single battle.
- Cool Sword: Other than the mandatory Magic Sword, you're instructed to look for the ultimate undead-slaying sword Imperator, buried somewhere north in the Shamutanti Hills. Also, Igor possesses a magical sword you can obtain from him.
- The Dragon: If you reach Reiner in the Inn, you have to face his manservant Igor, who is a massive, sword-wielding brute.
- Dungeon Crawling: When you're not travelling through Analand, you're exploring a series of dungeons, including the Monastery on Lake Libra, Mansion Mortus, the Witches' lair and the Ghoulcrypts themselves.
- Easily Forgiven: Seemingly, Reiner held no grudge against Katarina, though it's implied that this time he's put her under his direct control.
- Evil Plan: It's believed that Reiner wants to reach the Ghoulcrypts to resurrect the various Vampire Lords buried there. In truth, being an egotistic bastard, he wants to absorb all their powers to grow even more powerful.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Even if you spend all your money on a horse and reach Reiner's coach in the Inn halfway through, you have no way at all to wound him or kill him, not even with sunlight, and the locals are under Reiner's spell and won't help you. Furthermore, even if you destroyed the coffin on the carriage, you will still find the coffin on the coach in Mortus Mansion.
- Final Boss: Reiner Heydrich, stronger than ever, inside the Ghoulcrypts. And possibly Katarina Heydrich, again, if you manage to kill Reiner instantly.
- Flesh Golem: A tremendously strong Cadaver Golem is sent against you as a killer.
- Game-Breaking Bug: Unfortunately, the book contains a number of errors which make it impossible to complete the adventure without an extensive list of errata:
- If you chase after the Count directly after the attack on the monastery, you can buy a horse from a farmer for all the gold coins you have. If you successfully track the Count by chasing him non-stop, you will catch up to him immediately afterwards at an inn. The only problem is that the inn charges you one gold coin to stay, there's no opportunity to have earned any more gold on the way there, and if you're following the book exactly as it's written, you just spent all of your gold buying a horse! There's no possible way to stay at the inn without cheating. Although you can't stop the Count at the inn, staying the night results in an encounter that awards a Cool Sword, blood points, and a diary which gives background information and bonuses to later rolls. Fans of the series have suggested numerous ways around this problem, including paying the minimum allowed price for the horse instead (eight gold pieces) or simply ignoring the price of the inn altogether.
- While exploring the monastery, you are given the opportunity to go to a previously unknown area if you know its name by converting that name into a number and turning to that reference. However, the reference you are supposed to turn to is different from the one you actually end up at by doing this.
- Several of the page references throughout the book are misnumbered, instructing you to turn to a section that takes you to the wrong part of the adventure (and, in at least one case, bypassing a number of major encounters).
- Ghostly Advisor: Thankfully, Siegfrid Heydrich returned from the dead along with his brother. He cannot act directly, but he can still tell you where to find Reiner and the weapon to hurt him.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Zigzagged with the Coffins: you can hunt them and destroy as many of them as you can, but this time they're not vital to the quest. They do make the final battle easier, though.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Vantiane of Gallantaria, a female warrior captured by Reiner, who you can rescue inside Mortus Mansion. She helps you for three battles, adding 2 points to your Combat score.
- Haunted House: Mortus Mansion, Reiner's personal hideout in Analand, complete with hidden Vampyres, ghouls and monsters hiding around.
- Healing Factor: The Proto-Zombie is a disgusting, constantly-regenerating undead which you have to put down by hacking at him until he dies.
- Infernal Retaliation: You can kill the Mega-Ghoul with a fire flask, but you must endure for a couple of rounds his ferocious assault, and now he's even stronger than before since he's on fire and its metal components are scorching hot.
- Interface Spoiler: While exploring the monastery, some paragraphs give you choices along the lines of "If you have uncovered Endrell's evil plot" and "If you have killed Endrell", which all but state outright what's going on with Endrell and what you'll need to do about it. Later on, you're given the option to confront Endrell, which might not make sense to you in character but certainly seems like a good idea if you're paying attention to the choices you've been given.
- MacGuffin: The Crystal Heart, the gemstone holding the power to resurrect Reiner.
- Mad Scientist: Doktor Verrukte is one working for Reiner inside Mortus Mansion.
- Mistaken for Murderer: If you fail to rescue Harquar in time, his bodyguard will mistake you for his killer, and a mess will ensue.
- Nigh-Invulnerable:
- Reiner Heydrich is immune even to decapitation and sunlight as long as the Heart is safe.
- The two witches cannot be harmed without a magic sword.
- Night of the Living Mooks: It goes without saying, but most of the enemies waiting for you are undead of various kinds.
- No-Sell: Using the vial of acid against the Mega-Ghoul is utterly useless, since the monster already uses acid as part of its arsenal.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Starting from a ghoul hidden in the monastery on Lake Libra, this book has plenty of ghouls of various types, sometimes coming in packs.
- Heavily Armored Mook: The Steel Ghoul in the mansion, which is covered in steel armor welded to his skin.
- Giant Mook: The Huge Ghoul once again returns from Vault of the Vampire.
- King Mook: The Mega-Ghoul serving as Reiner's last line of defense is a massive, heavily armored, acid-oozing abomination with raking claws and a ferocious attitude.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Not only is Reiner a Vampire with a Soul Jar akin to a Lich, but he can also spawn lesser Vampires known as "Vampyres" to act as his minions. Non-human vampires are present, too: the Vampiric Jelly and the Vampire Wraith are both implied to be the result of his experiments in absorbing other vampires' powers.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Regular zombies are often encountered as mooks, with a unique, half-rotting "Mortvanian Zombie", whose characteristics aren't fully explained.
- Poisoned Weapon: The two witches wield poisoned daggers as their weapon of choice.
- Race Against the Clock: As time passes, you must add one point to your Blood Score (which can be decreased by destroying the coffins): the more Blood Points you have, the harder the final battle will be.
- Revenge of the Sequel: It's right there in the title, you see?
- Shout-Out: The setting of this adventure is Analand, all the way to the Shamutanti Hills, the starting setting of Sorcery!.
- Soul Jar: Reiner's Soul Jewel, the Crystal Heart you must recover from its hiding place to vanquish Reiner.
- Turns Red: Just like in Vault of the Vampire, on low health Reiner will try to maul you like a beast. This time he can score a "critical hit" which deals you 6 points of damage and causes you to die if you're unable to end the combat in 4 rounds or less. If you kill Katarina but he's still alive, he will use an even more feral style of combat.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: The whole horse thing mentioned in Game-Breaking Bug above may be the result of bad writing: you're only given the option to buy a horse "for all your money" if you have more than 8 Gold Pieces on yourself, which implies that the horse costs 8 Gold Pieces at least. Downplayed in that the encounter at the inn is not required to complete the adventure.
- Villains Want Mercy: Both witches try to beg for mercy when weakened in order to pull a I Surrender, Suckers maneuver on you.
- Wicked Witch: Shevala and Carollar, the Witch sisters of Crab Peak tasked with guarding Reiner's Crystal Heart, looking like the typical hag witch. They had a sister who was Taken for Granite by the Greater Basilisk infesting the mountain.
- Wolfpack Boss: Both in Mortus Mansion and in the Ghoulcrypts, you can fight against packs of Ghouls, treated as a single opponent.
