Dungeon of Dread was the first book published in the Endless Quest Gamebook series, based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Written by Rose Estes and illustrated by Jim Holloway.
The reader plays the part of Caric, a fighter who wakes up in the middle of the night to find a halfling named Laurus rifling their pockets. To make amends he tells Caric the story of a wizard named Kalman who terrorized the village where Laurus lives until the townspeople banded together and burned down his home. Since then Kalman's carved out a dungeon full of monsters beneath a nearby mountain to protect his riches. In an ill-advised quest to steal some of the wizard's reputed treasure to get a bit of relief from his nagging wife, Laurus set off into the forest and was caught by Kalman, who showed him the horrific denizens of his lair and the mound of treasure at the heart of it, before being released with a mocking reminder of his impotence. Caric takes Laurus under his wing and decides to pick up where the halfling left off, to make his way through the dungeon and defeat the evil wizard.
Dungeon of Dread provides examples of:
- Attack Reflector: It's a good thing Caric and Laurus polished their shields to mirror brightness before heading into the dungeon, since it lets them take out Kalman's pet basilisk by reflecting its own deadly gaze.
- Basilisk and Cockatrice: Kalman keeps a basilisk as a pet and watchdog for his treasure stash, as you're warned almost as soon as you get inside the dungeon. As is to be expected, the room before Kalman's treasure horde is full of other adventurers who've been turned to stone.
- Bewitched Amphibians: One of the Forced Transformation victims is a person turned into a frog. A frog about the size of a cow quite capable of crushing the player if it lands on them...
- Blob Monster: There's a green slime guarding part of the dungeon. A losing path also contains a black pudding.
- Door to Before: After the heroes defeat the wizard and find his treasure, they also find a secret passage that leads back out to the forest without having to deal with more monsters or traps.
- Dungeon Crawling: Unsurprisingly, very much has the feel of one, with each room seeming to have a new monster or weird danger to confront.
- Dying as Yourself: When the reader's character kills monsters that are transformation victims, they turn back into themselves for a minute to thank him before expiring.
- Evil Sorcerer: Kalman.
- Forced Transformation: Four of the monsters in the dungeon are created this way, with an evil wizard casting this spell on enemies or innocent bystanders - only one gets fought on a playthrough.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: When Kalman mocked Laurus before letting him go, he told him everyone would think Laurus was out in the woods "drinking fermented corn juice" and made up the story about finding the wizard and his mountain fortress to cover up what he was really doing. That is, they'll think Laurus went out in the woods to get plastered drinking corn liquor, just not in so many words.
- Henpecked Husband: Laurus comes across as this, but he manages to find his confidence over the course of the adventure. Even in some of the endings where Caric dies, Laurus escapes (usually because he was the one who had the good sense not to want to tangle with some super-dangerous monster like a Minotaur or a Dragon), grateful to his friend for teaching him bravery.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: A feature that was left out of most future books in the series (but not all), with you being expected to find an important key through your trek through the dungeon.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The shields do get some hits during combat, and the companion is described as hiding behind the shield in some scenes. They also get polished a bit, which was necessary for the basilisk.
- Railroading: Almost all routes through the dungeon lead to the room with the key to Kalman's treasure, only two potentially winning routes miss that room. Probably why that event's depicted on the cover.
- Sidekick: Caric, who's an experienced warrior when the book begins, does most of the work, but Laurus is helpful in his own right. Like when things get desperate in the showdown with Kalman, Laurus gets desperate enough he bites the wizard, giving Caric a few precious seconds to find something that'll even the odds.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: If you didn't find the key that opens the door to the treasure room, it turns out Laurus knew how to pick locks the entire time, probably so the reader doesn't feel like the whole read-through was a waste in the first book in the series. Granted, you almost have to try to avoid getting the key, and the ending where you do have it feels a lot more rewarding.
