Replay: Sword of the Samurai

That satisfying end to the Sorcery! epic is still warm in my belly, The series  started off slow, but really ramped up into something great. So what will I do next?

I figured that instead of powering through to the next Fighting Fantasy, why not replay an old one? Sword of the Samurai was a favorite a few years back…

The local shogun has charged me, his most promising samurai, with bringing back the magic sword that gives him power to rule. The sword was stolen by a demon (named Master of Shadows) who lives in a mountain fortress (named Pit of Demons).

Hm, okay I’m getting a really strong Crown of Kings vibe here.

My character is, and I swear this was a honest roll, … Oh hell yeah. My guy is gonna steamroll over everything!

• 12 skill
• 21 stamina
• 11 luck

I choose dual-wielding swords as my superpower, pack my bag full of food, grab my swords, and turn to paragraph 1.

First off, I come to a fork in the road: west through the Forest of Shadows, or east into the swamps? There’s no map, just a vague direction of “north” so… Forest of Shadows it is!

Well, some day. The narrative skips over a few days of boring riding, until I come to the lands of a local lord, who obviously isn’t protecting the shogun’s land very well… because raiders are destroying a village. I ride in and demand to know what’s going on, and am attacked by the lord’s samurai! OMG, they are the bandits! This isn’t a random raid, it’s a land grab by  another local lord!

I kill the first soldier, then I do the most macho thing I can imagine: I run to the center of town, and scream a challenge for these bastards to stop picking on villagers and face me in one-on-one combat. Rawr! Three of them take me up, and I take but one scratch before I have decapitated all three. Still, combined with that surprise attack I’m down to 14 out of 21.

The villagers are so happy at being saved, I gain 2 honour points and some gold, and a headband which belonged to a great warrior. Then I swagger back to the road, the closing theme starts to play on the wind, and roll credits…