You might need a bigger boat...
Seas of Blood is the 16th entry in the Fighting Fantasy line of Gamebooks, written by Andrew Chapman.
You are a ruthless pirate, captain of the Banshee and the most infamous pirate in the infamous city state of Tak. Or at least joint most infamous pirate as your rival Abdul the Butcher matches you for greed and daring. Out of this fierce rivalry a wager is struck. Both of you have thirty days to reach the distant southern isle of Nippur, winning as much booty as you can. The winner may call themselves King of the Pirates.
Seas of Blood is notable as the first Fighting Fantasy book built around the idea that you are playing a bad guy, with the protagonist an unashamed buccaneer. It also introduced the concept of keeping time during your play through (in the form of a ship's log) and rules for fighting mass battles between ships crews, other groups of warriors or truly gigantic monsters.
Seas of Blood provides examples of:
- All Witches Have Cats: The one you meet has one which is also her Soul Jar. However, finding out which one is the real cat and which is an illusion is difficult.
- "Arabian Nights" Days: The Inner Sea has a strong dose of this, mixed in with elements of Ancient Mesopotamia and Greek Mythology as interpreted by Ray Harryhausen.
- Barbarous Barbary Bandits: The story is set in the Middle-Eastern inspired Land of Tak, and has both you and your main rival, Abdul the Butcher, as buccaneers terrorizing the seas.
- Bird People: The Awkmute is a bird-headed humanoid that attacks you armed with a magic staff. You may claim its staff for yourself after defeating it.
- Blob Monster: There's a screaming, acid-spitting one masquerading as a stone on Roc island.
- Cave Mouth: Subverted when you explore the seabed, the cave is actually the open maw of an hungry Sea Giant.
- Cool Helmet: You can steal one from a crypt, which gives you a nice bonus and saves your life from some flesh-digging, brain-eating grubs.
- Cyclops: A cyclops serves as the climactic encounter in the book. You don't fight it in the traditional sense but must wrestle and punch it in order to subdue it.
- The Dog Bites Back: There are a couple of game-overs where your crew, after you were a Mean Boss to them, will revolt and kill you.
- The Empire: Kish is the largest and most powerful city state in the Inner Sea and implied to be an imperial power.
- Epic Ship-on-Ship Action: Happens constantly, the Banshee will frequently engage in battles against war galleys, pirate ships and enemy vessels.
- Evil vs. Evil: You versus Abdul the Butcher.
- Fiery Salamander: You might get into a fight with one of these in the witch's domain.
- Final Boss: The Cyclops, as mentioned above, serves as the final test before confronting Abdul.
- Giant Enemy Crab: There's an encounter with some fearsome crustaceans that kills a few members of your crew and a battle against a Giant Lobster which is promptly turned into a delicious dinner upon defeat.
- Giant Flyer: The Roc, which you may fight one-on-one or, if you're lucky, with all your crew alongside you.
- Graceful Loser: Abdul will take his defeat in stride if you gathered more gold than him.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The massive spiked monster in the Pit on Enraki and the giant Sea Anemone in the sunken vessel cannot be fought against and you will die if you do.
- Indy Ploy: You can invoke this on some Troglodytes carrying a treasure chest to get rid of them.
- Invisible Monster: The caverns under Roc Island host an invisible monster you can fight.
- Lizard Folk: One early encounter is against a caravan of longbow-wielding Lizard Folk and you can meet and enslave Pigmy Lizardfolk on another island.
- Mass Transformation: You can run into a Circe-wannabe who'll transform you into a bird if you fall under her spell. She does the same thing to your entire crew, unless you find a way to defeat her first.
- Morton's Fork: If you meet the king of the Winds and receive a bag containing the winds, you will lose near the end if you didn't gave your men some gold to sate their curiosity, and even if you do, you may not reach the needed amount of gold to win the bet.
- Names to Run Away From: Your rival pirate is called Abdul the Butcher. Your own ship might be an example too — Banshee invokes a murderous and terrifying creature.
- Ocean of Adventure: The story has you assuming the role of the Captain of the Banshee, a pirate ship, as you lead it on adventures across the seas of Southern Allansia. During the adventure, you're able to visit underwater caverns and distant lands and partake in large-scale ship-to-ship battles.
- Oddball in the Series:
- You're playing a villain, whereas the typical Fighting Fantasy protagonist is either explicitly heroic or at least a mercenary facing definite evil. The heavy focus on you as a leader of a crew is also unusual with only Armies of Death having a similar emphasis.
- From the author's perspective, this is the only Fighting Fantasy story by Andrew Chapman that is a fantasy adventure set on Titan. His previous works, Space Assassin and The Rings of Kether, are both sci-fi adventures.
- Pirate Booty: Constantly happens, given the setting. At one point you come across some pirates attempting to bury their gold on a beach, and can lead your crew to rob them on the spot.
- Punched Across the Room: If you lose the wrestling match against the Ogre, the latter's uppercut will send you flying out of the ring.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: This is your daily bread, though thankfully the first article on the list isn't mentioned.
- Religion of Evil: You can visit (and pillage) a temple dedicated to the Lords of Plague and Decay.
- Sea Monster: Given the story, they're to be expected. Most notably, the Hydra depicted on cover (though luckily not that big).
- Side Quest: Most of the time you're given the chance of exploring some place or to raid a local settlement in order to gain more money and/or slaves and useful items.
- Sinister Scimitar: For once, this is played straight by the protagonist himself.
- Slave Market: You can sell off several captured slaves in markets like these, for extra BOOTY. You can either sell them yourself (with wildly variable results) or employ an agent to do so on your behalf (less risk but less potential profit).
- Talking Animal: You can encounter a talking crustacean monster while exploring an underwater cavern. Its hostile, however, and immediately states its intention to eat you before attacking.
- Timed Mission: To win the bet, you must reach your destination within 50 days. This is not much time.
- Turtle Island: Its more of a Giant Crustacean Monster island, but it still fits the trope. You risk losing several crew if you choose to land on one such island like this.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The fight with the cyclops at the end of the book, where it disarms you and instead of rolling dice to fight you need to make branching choices on how to attack it, until one of you's out of Stamina.
- Villain Protagonist: You are a ruthless pirate captain looking to prove once and for all who is the greatest pirate in the Inner Sea.
- Warrior Monk: The fearsome (but wealthy) warrior priests of the Isle of Enraki.
- When Trees Attack: The Bark Biter is a living tree with vines which it can use to strangle you.
- Winged Humanoid: The Winged Hussars are flying enemies which swoops down to attack your crew. Their STRIKE level is surprisingly high, probably due to having the advantage of flight.
- A Winner Is You: The last paragraph is exceptionally short, only telling you that you've won your bet and nothing else.
- Wretched Hive: Tak joins Port Blacksand (introduced in City of Thieves) and Kharé (from the Sorcery! series) as a den of thieves and cutthroats. Unlike those two, Tak only features in the backstory — you set sail from it at the start of the book.
- Your Head A-Splode: If you slay the Horror using Axillon's Bow.
