Friendly chat

[aine]

Yes, it's a real classic.

[Mr. Handy]

I read that one a few years ago. I think I actually managed to complete it successfully on my first try, which is almost unheard of for Fighting Fantasy. They don't publish them here in the USA (though they used to when I was growing up in the 1980s), but I picked up as many as I could find on trips to London and one trip to Vancouver, where they did have them.

[HoneyDog]

I used to do those when I was a kid. I liked the SF ones the best, like Starship Traveller and The Rings of Kether.

He / she's reading that at 5? That's impressive reading skills. It's torture trying to get my daughter to read English.

[Mr. Handy]

Rebel Planet was a great one too. I also like Sword of the Samurai, and the Sorcery! series. I only ever found book 3 growing up, but I got the rest of them in new editions in London. I never did find the new version of book 3, but I still have my old copy.

Lone Wolf has always been a favorite of mine, which I like even better than Fighting Fantasy. When I was younger, I never was able to find books 21+ in the USA, and the American versions of books 13-20 were all abridged. I now have the new hardcover collectors editions of books 1-24, 29, and 30, with 25 on its way to me now. You can also read the first 29 books free (legally) on Project Aon, along with other great series like Grey Star and Freeway Warrior. You can find the newer hardcover collectors editions (which have bonus adventures written by other authors as well) at Holmgard Press for sale. They're planning to print new collectors editions of the entire series, and eventually paperback versions. Books 31 and 32, which will finally complete the series, are also planned.

[Mephistophilis]

That takes me back. I seem to recall playing the role playing game based on the fighting fantasy series as well.

[aine]

I don't remember an rpg based on the FF books, might be worth checking out. Here's one: Maelstrom, which was a book and and RPG set in Medieval England.
HoneyDog, I'm reading the story; no hope of him reading it for years but the dice work and attributes are fun maths and it's more exciting than Kipper.

[Mephistophilis]

Oh yeah, I used to have it, there was a basic and an advanced set of rules (still not that advanced), a monster manual ('Out of the Pit' I believe), and some setting books (I think the setting was 'Titan'). Think they got thrown out/given away many years ago but I feel nostalgic for it now. Glad I kept my D&D rules cyclopedia.

[HoneyDog]

It must be scary though, aine! I only have one Kipper book, which wasn't particularly memorable. Mog is much more popular; it's much more surreal I think which appeals to me and to the kids too it seems.

I'm sorry again, work is so busy. I won't leave you all hanging. I'm enjoying this scenario, and you're making interesting moves. The devil is in the detail with this one.

[HoneyDog]

Looks like we're back! Something strange happened there for few days. Interdimensional interference from Fomulhaut, I wager.

It might help to take stock of what you've found out so far. Secrets are beginning to be uncovered.

[aine]

It was a tad worrying floating about in the pale; if this site ever went down for a long time are there other planes (forums) that we can keep in contact on?

I’m hoping we can pool our findings on the walk to the village.

[HoneyDog]

The thought occurred to me too. There's the forum for CoC at Chaosium https://basicroleplaying.org/forum/7-call-of-cthulhu/, and also here https://www.yog-sothoth.com/ which is an entertaining resource in its own right.

[Mr. Handy]

The site was undergoing maintenance, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. About a week and a half ago I was notified that it would happen starting on Friday the 26th at 10:00 PM Eastern time, and it should have come back up by Saturday at 8:00 AM, but I had then forgotten about it until Friday night, when the site went down while I was in the middle of posting shortly before 11:00 PM. It's been down until today, and I saw that all the posts I made Friday night were gone, as they must have backed the site up some time before they took it down. A spammer I had eliminated was also back, so I had to get rid of it again.

I'm also on Yog-Sothoth.com, which is a great site, and a couple players from here sent me private messages there to find out what had happened.

[aine]

Thanks for those. I signed up to Yog-Sorhoth but haven’t explored it yet.

[HoneyDog]

I got some nice player aids for some of my earlier adventures from there.

[aine]

I’m off on a 2-wheeled jaunt for a few days so I may not be able to post until late weekend. Sorry, it’s not the best time to disappear; I’ll leave the meeting in Alexander’s and Liv’s capable hands.

[HoneyDog]

Have a nice time! Yes, it's a difficult point right now - you will all have to tread carefully; watch what you say!

[Mephistophilis]

So, can I just check we're all on the same page from an investigative perspective.

It looks like Meddler is trying to drive Forby mad by dressing up as a monster in the hope of getting access to money, possibly the treasure, through his sister.

Nicholas Forby's wife had an affair with his friend Christopher Lehman who it looks like may well have been murdered by him and, I suspect, cast inside the Icarus statue.

There is some kind of treasure that we're going to locate using a mirror and the light from the fireplace.

Anything I've missed?

[Philulhu]

So, can I just check we're all on the same page from an investigative perspective.

It looks like Meddler is trying to drive Forby mad by dressing up as a monster in the hope of getting access to money, possibly the treasure, through his sister.

Nicholas Forby's wife had an affair with his friend Christopher Lehman who it looks like may well have been murdered by him and, I suspect, cast inside the Icarus statue.

There is some kind of treasure that we're going to locate using a mirror and the light from the fireplace.

Anything I've missed?

Meddler - I’m not sure. The evidence suggests he could have a financial motive, but I’m not sure we can prove beyond doubt that it was him in the costume. Meddler was described as having “yellow coloured hair”, the same as Lehman (and Aleister and Harry Forby) - some distant relative returned to take revenge for Lehman’s death (or just a coincidence)?

Nicholas Forby - it appears that Lehman slept with his wife and fathered Aleister Forby. Where do we get the information about Lehman being cast inside the statue?

The treasure, etc. - for this we seem to be on the right track.

[Mephistophilis]

The statue is just a hunch, guy lying on his back looking nothing like Icarus, design changes after guy disappears before it is made, talk of getting revenge. I'd bet if we crack it open there'd be old Christopher inside. ETA that said, strictly speaking, I'm not sure if it's even be possible to cast a bronze around a person.

Meddler is definitely the monster, but we can't prove it, he claimed to have seen the monster but when we checked the outfit it hadn't been moved. Suggesting he was pretending, to draw attention away from himself.

[Philulhu]

Both seem plausible to me.