Arena of Sorcery

By Alvin Benedict Lee

Arena of Sorcery is the second book in a series of fantasy gamebooks. These books allow the reader to be a part of the story and to decide what happens next. The victory scenario may be the ideal but how you get there will depend very much on how you play the game and make the choices!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 15, 2002
• ISBN: 9781469711218

Alvin Benedict Lee

Alvin Lee published his first book, Viper?s Lair, when he was sixteen years-old. Lee is an avid marine aquarist living in Singapore. Arena of Sorcery is the second book in the Fantasy Hero Gamebook series.

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All Rights Reserved © 2002 by Alvin Lee Ju Win

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Writers Club Press

an imprint of iUniverse, Inc.

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iUniverse, Inc.

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www.iuniverse.com

ISBN: 0-595-25678-3

ISBN: 978-1-4697-1121-8 (eBook)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO

THE WORLD OF TASHAKI

HISTORY OF VEEROSHI

GETTING STARTED

MAGIC

FANTASY HERO GAMEBOOKS #2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO

THE WORLD OF TASHAKI

This is the fascinating and mystical world of Tashaki. Tashaki was created by the Gods of Good—Life and Love—when they decided to carry out this plan. They created earth known as Lari or ‘Life Bearer’ and placed the huge continent of Tashaki in the northern hemisphere. They then created the stars called Kitash and the moon was created too and put in place. The moon was called Kita and it was then that life began on Lari, particularly in Tashaki.

The Goddess of Life, Veena, created the plants and all the animals that roam the valleys and wildernesses and finally brought humans, elves and dwarves into existence on Tashaki. The Goddess of Love, Shera, put the essence of good on everything that existed on Tashaki and both Goddesses were very happy with what they had done. However, their happiness was short lived when the Gods of Hate, War and Disease came to know about the creation of Tashaki. The God of Malice or Hate, Koosh, sent foul beings into Tashaki to wreck havoc and chaos. War broke out when, Shonkia, Lord of War sent agents to tempt men on Tashaki, provoking them to claim nations for themselves. This triggered off a great struggle which lasted for two full Kitas (two cycles since creation and each cycle is about 200 years) and it was called the ‘Great War’.

After the war, Tashaki was separated into five nations—Ryranna, Sarashoki, Veeroshi, Karosh and Chulaki. Only on the fifth Kita, then all the nations were settled and started developing their different potentials. The various nations set up armies to protect their nation and riches as well as to conquer for more land. The different nations have various gods and the people were free to pick whatever religion they wanted, except for some nations, they only worshipped one god and non followers were despised. Basically, there are two opposing forces, namely the forces of Good and Evil. The majority of the human race worship the Goddess Veena and second to her, Shera. The beings also came to know of the Evil Gods and started spreading news about them which attracted many a people. Even Neutral Gods were learned about and worshipped.

This was basically how the World of Tashaki was evolved and was meant to remain good till Evil woke and started climbing out from the depths of hell.

All the Fantasy Hero Gamebooks featured will be set in this wonderful world except futuristic gamebooks. Besides gamebooks, novels on adventures by brave and foolhardy adventurers might even come about.

HISTORY OF VEEROSHI

Ever since the Great War, a group of sorcerers have claimed a little land for themselves situated to the south of Sarashoki. This small but magnificent nation boasts of its natural resources such as Teeka and Sni-kerin herbs which are essential in most magical and healing potions. Thus Veeroshi has become quite a powerful nation due to its revenue it gains from trading or selling its resources which includes magic-users as well. This is so because there are many sorcery schools in Veeroshi especially in the city of Zoron. These schools are recognized in all Tashaki as only devoted disciples of the Grand Archmage run the schools and the Grand Archmage Karisho Kan is the ruler and most revered mage in Veeroshi and most of Tashaki as well. He resides in his palace in the capital, Veerosh. His bodyguards are supreme sorcerers although his power alone is awesome.

Veeroshi is truly well known because of its Arena of Sorcery called Tanesh in their own native tongue, which is situated in the Forest of Fiends just to the north of the Home of the Giants. A contest held every Kita (200 years) in Tanesh is most venerated as the mage that survives that deadly contest will claim the title ‘Mage of Tanesh’ and also will become ruler of the Arena itself. Besides, his name would go down in the history books kept in the libraries of many cities as this is an occasion that occurs only once in 200 years.

The general population comprises of many races but the majority race are humans (about 15000) and the minorities constitute about 1000 to the population. This is not an accurate number as outlaws exist throughout Tashaki and they are the ones who avoid census taking. The local currency is the bokish (copper pieces) and five bokish is equivalent to one zank (gold piece). The gold pieces are preferred to copper pieces for obvious reasons of course!

GETTING STARTED

To succeed in this contest of sorcery, you must determine your personal characteristics and equipment to help you succeed in the contest. These can be noted on your adventure chart. You begin the contest with a bare minimum, a backpack, a money pouch and of course, your skills in the arcane arts. You begin with no close combat weapons.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS LIFE POINTS

To find out your initial total for your life points, roll two dice and add 20 to the total shown on the dice and enter this final total on your adventure chart. Your life points can never exceed its initial value unless specifically stated in the text that you may do so. Life points will determine your general ability to take damage and basically how strong you are in attempting leaps, sprints and such other physical feats requiring your stamina to be tested. As a magic-user, life points are essential because spell casting at times require life points when you are down on power points (you can read this up later in the section on magic). When your life points reach zero, you are dead and your quest ends there.

COMBAT POINTS

To find out the initial total for your combat points, roll a die and add 5 to the number shown on the die and enter this final total on your adventure chart. Since you are a magic-user, your talent does not lie in swordplay or weaponskill but in the arcane arts of sorcery. Therefore, you are not well versed in swordskill as a fighter is. Thus after rolling for your combat points, subtract 2 from the total. Your combat points determines your general fighting prowess in handling weapons in close combat situations, it also determines your general skill in certain things related to weapons etc. Your combat points cannot exceed its initial value unless specifically stated in the text.

INJURY OR DAMAGE POINTS

This will determine how much life points a person will lose when injured in close combat. For example, when a person is fighting with his or her bare hands, he or she does a 1 die roll of damage. But when he or she is armed with a sword, he or she does a 1 die +3 damage against his or her opponent, which means you will subtract this number from your enemy’s life points and if your enemy injures you, does likewise.

ARMOUR FACTOR

In this book, there is an armour factor as in all books which are set in fantasy. This is very simple to understand. For example in a battle, you are fighting a dragon which has its scales as armour, therefore having an armour factor of 7. So when you roll 10 points of damage, subtract 7 from this total and this means that you have only done 3 points of damage to the dragon.

SEQUENCE FOR CLOSE COMBAT

1. To determine who will strike first, roll a die for yourself first followed by your enemy’s. The person with a higher die roll will take the first strike.

2. To determine whether your attack has been successful or otherwise, roll both dice and if it is lower than your combat points, your attack has proven to be successful. After your turn, you do the same for your enemy.

3. Follow by doing the appropriate damage roll and subtract the armour factor from it and finally subtract the overall result from the person’s life points.

4. Continue this sequence until one person is left alive (that is your opponent is killed or possibly you!).

EVASION OF COMBAT

You may evade combat only if the text allows you to do so. However, you must roll a die and subtract it from your life points as you will most probably get injured in the course of fleeing.

WEAPONS & ARMOUR

This is just a table to show you the damage done by ordinary weapons (that is unenchanted) and protection given by ordinary armour (once again unenchanted). It also shows the handling class of each weapon, this will be explained in detail later. Since you are a magic-user, note that you cannot use edged weapons and that you can only wear leather armour. If however you should decide to wear other than leather armour, then note that you will have to subtract 4 from your willpower factor as the armour hinders your spellcasting. You begin the adventure with no weapon and armour. If you find a weapon, you may take it and note that you can only carry one weapon at a time.

WEAPONS/ARMOUR TABLE

HANDLING CLASS FACTOR

This refers to the ability to utilise a weapon with least difficulty. Note that you are trained only in using a club, quarterstaff, warhammer and mace. For example, for an untrained user of a mace, he would have to subtract the handling class number which is 1 from his combat score when using that weapon in combat. But when he is trained in using it, he can add 1 to his combat score being skilled at using the weapon. For some cases, even if you are trained in the use of a particular weapon, you will still have to subtract a certain number from your current combat score because of its extreme length or weight. Also, for some weapons that you may be trained in, you become more proficient in its use. Being trained in weapons depends a lot on your general character. For a knight, he is usually trained in the use of a broadsword or a long-sword as his main weapon. For the normal adventuring type, a sword will do perfectly fine for him. A barbarian will like a battleaxe and for him it should pose no problems at all because of his built and strength. However in this adventure, you are a mage and edged weapons are disallowed for your usage.

MAGIC

This is the highlight of this gamebook and it involves three factors. One is the magic factor, the other the willpower factor and finally the power factor. You specialise in destructive, protective and restorative spells. Casting spells drain power points unless the power used for spellcasting can be drawn from other sources.

MAGIC FACTOR

This Fantasy Hero Gamebook is not like the first. It also includes the use of sorcery and therefore the magic factor comes in. The magic point factor determines the number of spells you are able to master through your years of experience and practise. To find out your magic factor, roll 2 dice and enter this number on your adventure chart. It also shows your ability to learn and master spells with ease and speed which may be useful on your quest.

WILLPOWER FACTOR

The willpower factor determines a magic-user’s ability to concentrate and cast spells successfully! For example, when a sorcerer is disturbed while he is casting a spell, his willpower factor will be reduced. However, your willpower factor can also be increased through meditation or other means which you will discover during your quest. You begin the adventure with 8 willpower points acquired through your years of practise.

POWER FACTOR

As you already know, casting spells requires power to be drawn from a source. Through your years of training, you have developed that source within you. To find out how much power is stored in you, roll a die and multiply it by 6 and enter this total on your adventure chart. Power points can exceed its initial value. Whether spellcasting is successful or not, power points are still drained in the course of concentration. However, if you use up your power points, you can still cast spells at twice the expense of your life points. For example, if you cast a fire spell, you would use 6 life points instead of the 3 power points.

ZADARA’S SPELL BOOK

You are privileged to carry your master’s own personal spell book. You should by now have determined your magic factor. The magic factor shows how many spells you have learnt from this book, decide which spells you have learnt and record it on your adventure chart. Choose wisely as too many powerful spells will drain your power points faster, too little protective spells could cost you your life and so on, so choose wisely! A correct and wise combination would help you through the contest with least difficulty.