The 14 Museum

One of the most prolific adventure gamebook authors of the 1980s was J.H. Brennan. You may remember that his gamebooks were, in fact, the subject of the first ever post of this blog over five years ago. But to recap, he wrote three series of gamebooks at the height of the craze in the 80s: GrailQuest, which was set apart from most other series of the time by being incredibly funny; Sagas of the Demonspawn, which by contrast was played absolutely straight; and the Horror Classic Gamebooks, which fell somewhere inbetween those two extremes.

But, apart from the occasional cross-series reference, there was one thing which all three series had in common, and that was what happened when you died: you were directed to another section which described what happened afterwards. That section basically functioned as the gamebook's afterlife. Originating in GrailQuest as one of its many running jokes, this metatextual section was (at least in that series) always section 14, and was often referred to by the book as "the dreaded 14" whenever the player was directed there. You may think the use of the number 14 was a deliberate joke about how you'd expect the obvious number for such a section to be 13. And you'd probably be right. But if you look at how the idea was used in all three series you can, among other things, more or less prove that for certain. So here, then, are all the deep -- and not-so-deep -- hereafters that Brennan ever wrote.

GrailQuest #1: The Castle of Darkness

You're dead. Dead as a coffin nail. Finished. Done for. The late Pip. Draw a thick black border round this Section for future reference. You may be back here again before you're much older.

Most people get deaded sooner or later the first few times they try to get through this adventure. Don't get too depressed about it. What you have to do now is go back to the beginning of the forest, where the King's guard left you, and try again. You'll rescue the Queen sooner or later. What's more, you can safely ignore the monsters and villains you have killed the first time around, since these will only be harmless ghosts and illusions when you go back in again.

When you go back, you'll need to roll up your LIFE POINTS again. No good trying to return to the adventure without any LIFE POINTS. So roll them up exactly as you did the first time. And here's a tip. Draw a map as you go along. Especially a map of the Wizard Ansalom's Dark Castle. It will help you find your way around a lot better the second time. Make a note on the map of what you encountered. Second time around a map is as good as an extra sword - even an extra Fireball.

Now back you go to the beginning of the forest, Pip. With luck you won't be seen round here again.

There are several interesting things to note here. The first is that the beginning of the forest isn't the start of the adventure itself -- the sections of Castle, and a few other early entries in the series, are unusually (for a gamebook) split up into chapters, and this section tells you to skip the tutorial bits and start back at the beginning of the adventure itself. The second is that in the Dark Castle, there's a pit trap that is unavoidable first time round, but which you can completely ignore the ill effects of on your second (or later) attempt if you're working from a map, since you'd know to ignore it.

Finally, one of the items in the adventure is a Teleportation Spell, which when used teleports you to 14... but alive and well, with everything in your inventory and your current LIFE POINTS intact, allowing you to retrace your steps and avoid whatever it is you were trying to get away from. Not every element of the GrailQuest is nailed down completely in this first book. But right from the start, Brennan clearly intends that, unlike most other adventure gamebooks, dying should actually be a feature of the game. 14 isn't just telling you what to do next, it's a playable section of the book like any other, just one that happens to be after you've died.

GrailQuest #2: The Den of Dragons

You open your eyes slowly. Somewhere in the background, a hidden orchestra is playing the Funeral March from Saul. Around you is the crystal cave. Standing over you, looking extremely cross, is Merlin.

"Gone and gotten yourself killed, haven't you?" he snaps. "Very careless. Well, you'll just have to start again, won't you. And do a bit better this time, otherwise I'll never get my pension back. Just you roll dice the way I showed you to get yourself some money, then use it to buy more equipment and so on from the lists. Then turn back to your map and start again from the spot marked 'x'."

With which he wanders off into the depths of the cave, mumbling something into his beard about young people these days...

All the other sections are when you're dead; this is the only one where you've just respawned back at the start point, as it were. (Brennan also appears to have conflated the Funeral March with the Dead March; I presume he did indeed intend it to be the one from Saul, which is clearly funnier in the context.) This is also a plot point; in some versions of one important encounter, you have to promise a character that you'll speak to Merlin about lifting a curse on him, and the next time you'll see him is when you die and end up in 14 (the character reasoning that shouldn't take too long). Only once you've actually been to 14 can you claim the reward he gives you!

GrailQuest #3: The Gateway of Doom

Welcome to the dreaded 14. This is what it's like to be dead. Fortunately you don't have to stay dead too long. What you have to do now is roll up your LIFE POINTS again, exactly as you did before. (You might even get a better total this time, which would be great.) Then, when you've done that, start out again. It won't take you long to get back to where you left off since you can safely ignore any monsters or baddies you've already killed. Or you can go in different directions, if you want. This is your adventure, so you can make the most of even being dead.

If you were killed within the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead, you have a special choice. Once you've rerolled your LIFE POINTS, you can go direct to 65; or you can explore any earlier section of the adventure that you have not already entered. (And who knows, you may find some useful items to help you in the Kingdom itself.)

This is the first time one of the books offers you a choice of where to start again from; in this case, allowing you to skip the early part of the adventure where you're looking for the titular gateway and start back at the entrance to the GKotD instead. The book also includes a Resurrection spell as a reward for killing an invisible wizard, which is noted as being the only spell you can cast from section 14.

Oh, and Brennan also deals with an unusual non-fatal game over very deftly: "Since even 14 would be better than what you're turning into, you'd better go to 14."

GrailQuest #4: Voyage of Terror

That's it, Pip. Done for. Crushed beneath the relentless heel of Fate. Clapped out. Wasted. Passed on. In short, you are one very dead adventurer.

Being dead is quite fun, actually. You get to re-roll your LIFE POINTS for one thing. Then you get to start again, fresh as paint.

You've lost any gear, weapons, equipment, spells, booty, loot, treasure you may have collected, of course, which is a pity: but since you doubtless remember where you found it, you can always zip through the sections quickly and collect it up again. Unlike earlier GrailQuest adventures, any monsters you have killed don't stay dead and will be waiting to zap you in the relevant sections. But second or subsequent times around, they will only have half the LIFE POINTS they had first time, which gives you a distinct edge.

Now don't hang about being dead. Zoom off and roll up your new LIFE POINTS so you can get back on the adventure trail.

There are a couple of things to note here. The biggest one -- concerning certain items which stay with you even if you die -- was covered here. The second is one of the fights is a melee where you have to roll not only for yourself, but also on behalf of the characters you're fighting alongside. If you personally are killed, you are instructed to "wait patiently in 14" and see how the fight turns out; if your comrades are victorious with Jason, the one who has the ability to bring you back to life, still alive, then you can carry on. (Should both you and Jason be killed, you can forget about resurrection, obviously.) If you happen to have made it to that particular encounter without meeting the people you're meant to be fighting alongside, the book politely informs you that you can save yourself a lot of bother by turning directly to 14 (a joke which pops up in similar circumstances in a few later books).

Finally, if you are killed by the game's Final Boss, then once you've re-rolled your LIFE POINTS you can go straight back to the door you need to unlock with those little golden keys mentioned in the above post; this makes sense, since as noted above the keys stay with you even in 14. There are also a couple of amusing encounters with effects that will last until the next time you respawn, most notably being turned into a pig by Hecate (and another one slightly too complicated to explain here which effectively makes the aforementioned boss impossible to defeat, but is unavoidable as it's part of getting one of the keys, so you basically need to get yourself killed at some point...)

GrailQuest #5: Kingdom of Horror

That background music is a choir of angels singing Hallelujah. (Or possibly a First XV of drunken devils singing Roll Out The Barrel.) Either way you're dead.

Fortunately you don't have to stay that way. What you have to do now is re-roll your LIFE POINTS. With a bit of luck you might even do better than the last time.

Once you have re-rolled your LIFE POINTS, you can start your adventure again. This gives you the chance to make different decisions or take different routes. And even if you decide to take the same route, any enemies you have successfully killed last time round can no longer harm you. (They'll still be around, of course, but you can safely consider them as ghosts.)

Being dead is not exactly a bowl of cherries, but it's not too bad either, except that you lose any booty you may have accumulated and have to start again with no more than old EJ as your companion.

Try not to worry about that too much. Just re-roll your LIFE POINTS and get going.

The only thing I really have to add here is that the pull-out instructions card states that on repeat attempts, the "enemies previously killed will have half their original LIFE POINTS" rule from the previous book still applies here, thereby contradicting this section. This is either sloppy editing (the card includes several rules unique to this book, so they didn't just reuse the same one) or Brennan changed his mind at the last moment and forgot to update the card.

GrailQuest #6: Realm of Chaos

Well, that's it, isn't it? Killed stone dead by something or other. But there's no need to stay that way. Just grab your dice, reroll your LIFE POINTS and you can get back into your adventure faster than you can say antidisestablishmentarianism (which is supposed to be the longest word in the English language, incidentally).

What's more, you don't have to go back to the beginning, unless you particularly want to, but only to the start of the particular sequence where you were killed. If, for example, you were slaughtered in Glastonbury Village, you can restart back there. If you were killed in the Castle, you can begin again at the Castle. This saves a lot of time and may even be a help to you in the long run since it gives you a second chance to investigate things you may have missed first time around.

The "return to the start of the particular sequence" rule is probably only there because of the nightmarishly difficult last sequence, which the book can't name because it would spoil it for those who haven't yet got that far. I like the air of resignation this one has at the beginning. There's also a joke it's astonishing it took Brennan this long to use:

"Gotcha!" yells the Wyrm, emerging out of the ground immediately behind you and fastening its great fangs on your ankle.

If the shock of this surprise attack kills you, go to 14. If not, you might like to admire the scenery at 76.

For the record: this section, and the equivalent one for the next two, do not specify how to treat previously defeated enemies on subsequent attempts, but the pull-out instructions card for this one says they remain dead, whilst the card for #7 and #8 says the "half their original LIFE POINTS" rule applies. Who can fathom why (although most likely they were reusing templates from earlier books, since only #5 has unique rules that are noted on the card).

GrailQuest #7: Tomb of Nightmares

Well, that's it then. Knackered yet again. One dead Pip. A severe case of the galloping rigor mortis.

But don't hang about feeling sorry for yourself. Leap forward before you stiffen completely and roll up your LIFE POINTS again. Once you've done that, you can decide whether to return to the section you just left, or start your adventure again from the beginning. There are pros and cons to both courses, so consider carefully.

Whichever you decide, you must first record your unfortunate demise on the DEATHOMETER (page 185). At the end of your adventure, this will allow you to compare your Adventure Score with those of your friends who are making their feeble attempts to scrape through this adventure with considerably less expertise than yourself.

The option to return to the section you just left, whilst curious at first sight, is likely because of the unusual structure of Tomb of Nightmares -- the majority of the book is basically one massive maze, where one can easily end up going round and round in circles. The DEATHOMETER can be seen here, courtesy of Demian's Gamebook Webpage.

GrailQuest #8: Legion of the Dead

Strewth, you've done it again! You're completely finished - caput! Stuck your head in a monster's mouth. Leaped gaily into a pit. Piggied poison. Drowned. Fried. Suffocated. Whatever.

In any event, you are definitely one late Pip. Dead as Dracula and not as half as mobile. Close your eyes, cross your arms on your chest, look pale and say nothing.

When you get tired of behaving like a twit, open your eyes, uncross your arms and reroll your LIFE POINTS. Then set out refreshed on your adventure again, starting either right at the beginning or at the section where you were slaughtered, whichever you prefer.

But before you go, don't forget to make your mark on the DEATHOMETER at the back of the book otherwise you won't be able to calculate your adventure status at the end.

The option to return to the section you just left seems totally arbitrary in this instance, since this book is totally different to Tomb; it's not really clear why it's there, especially since you stand a chance of making the whole thing impossible to win if you take it. The DEATHOMETER is identical to the previous book's.

Anyway, having wrapped up the GrailQuest, we turn our attention to the far drier Sagas of the Demonspawn... which didn't have its afterlife in section 14, but 13. Given this series was played totally straight, this indicates that the placement of the section in the comedic series was indeed a deliberate subversion of expectations.

Sagas of the Demonspawn #1: Fire*Wolf

Thus died the hero Fire*Wolf.

Or perhaps the word 'died' is inaccurate, for the universe - Fire*Wolf's universe - is a mysterious place, full of strange possibilities.

One such possibility is reincarnation.

Any reader finding himself or herself at this section may take the opportunity to create a new (and hopefully better) Fire*Wolf by returning to the introductory pages of this book and rolling up new characteristics for him.

Once recreated, Fire*Wolf may be reborn at the beginning of his great adventure, lacking SKILL but not the knowledge he has gained. This knowledge will obviously allow him to retrace his steps quickly, avoiding past mistakes, exploring possibilities he ignored on his former journeying.

Thus died Fire*Wolf.

But his death was a new beginning.

Sagas of the Demonspawn #2: The Crypts of Terror

Death has come to Fire*Wolf.

But in the strange universe inhabited by your creation, death is not the end. For here, reincarnation is the Law. The essential entity that is Fire*Wolf is quite indestructible. Only the body/personality mask he wears may perish.

Roll new stats for him as instructed at the beginning of this book. He will retain the Doomsword and his sorcerous robe, but nothing he may have collected during this adventure, including POWER.

To set his feet again on the long road to his Destiny, you may, if you wish, begin the adventure from the very start, perhaps making different decisions at crucial points.

Alternatively, a double dice roll which scores higher than 10 (i.e. 11 or 12) will permit you to return him directly to the section he has just left.

You have one chance only to make this roll. If it fails, you may make a further double roll, multiplying the result by ten. Provided the end figure is less than the number of the section he has just left, you may take him directly to the section indicated by the dice. (Which may, incidentally, prove a confusing experience for you both.) If the roll shows a section higher than any he has visited, subtract 10 and continue to subtract 10 until the figure is lower than the last section visited, then take him directly to the section indicated.

It is hard to escape the feeling that Brennan had gone a bit peculiar when he wrote these. For whatever reason, The Crypts of Terror is quite insistent about providing as many opportunities as possible to avoid dying in fatal scenarios, which the book's short length -- only about 150 sections, making it the shortest Brennan gamebook of all and a good 30 sections shorter than Fire*Wolf -- doesn't really justify. (I wonder if something got cut out quite late in editing.) And that last paragraph is totally baffling, especially since the sections it could possibly direct you to clearly haven't been written with this possibility in mind.

Sagas of the Demonspawn #3 & #4: Demondoom & Ancient Evil

Section 13 for both these books is identical:

So it was that Fire*Wolf died.

But if our hero is no more, it is but a temporary hiatus in the great cycle of his Destiny. For Fire*Wolf may reincarnate, with freshly rolled LIFE POINTS and statistics, ready once again to face the foe.

But where he faces that foe is a matter of chance. Roll two dice. Score 5 or below - and he must begin his adventure from the beginning. Score 6 or more and he may return directly to the section where he was killed.

(The opportunity to avoid having to start over is justified by these two books, which are by some distance the longest and most difficult gamebooks Brennan ever wrote.)

And not-quite-finally we have the Horror Classic Gamebooks, which as noted in my review of them, were two adventures in one -- the even-numbered sections were for the human character, either Jonathan Harker or Baron Frankenstein, whilst the odd-numbered sections pertained to the monster's adventure, be it Dracula or the Baron's, uh, monster. So each one has two such sections -- section 13 was in both cases for the monster, and section 14 for the human character.

One HCG mechanic I didn't mention in the review of them was the Location Sections. Each numbered section of the adventure itself began with the name of the location you were in and an associated number; you could turn to the list of Location Sections to read a description of the area, saving on book space since both adventures used the same set of locations. Dracula's Castle gave the locations of its two dead spaces as "Heaven" and "Hell", with the Location Section as "Unknown"; The Curse of Frankenstein went with "Dead" for the location, and the Location Section as "?". Anyway, here's what they said.

Dracula's Castle: Section 13

You're dead. Or more properly, no longer undead. Somebody (or something) has helped you shuffle off the mortal coil. Fortunately vampires have a trick or two up their opera cloaks; and one of them is a very nasty habit of creeping back to their crypts for a quick regeneration. Which is what you are in the process of doing now, of course. Roll up fresh stats, collect another 100 brand new LIFE POINTS and go to Act 5. The only bad news is that any nasty you may previously have faced will be regenerated too. But that, as they say, is show business.

Dracula's Castle: Section 14

Never mind the golden pavements and the harp musak: you have a job to do! Jonathan Harker would never hang round enjoying himself up here while the dreaded Count still lived. You must go at once to the Reincarnation Centre, pick up 100 new LIFE POINTS, re-roll your stats, then beam down to Act 6 where you can start again. The only bad news is that any nasty you may previously have met and vanquished will have reincarnated too by now.

The Curse of Frankenstein: Section 13

Although it's a little hard to tell with a creature like yourself who's sewn together from spare parts, you are currently dead.

What you must now do is haul yourself up by your bootlaces, re-roll your stats, collect a fresh 100 LIFE POINTS and start off your adventure again at Act 1. Any booty you collected last time round is lost, unfortunately, but nobody can stop you making use of any maps you may have made.

The Curse of Frankenstein: Section 14

Well, that seems to have put paid to your ambition for a long life and a peaceful demise. You are no longer among the quick.

In case you're unfamiliar with being dead, what you need to do now is re-roll your stats, pick up a fresh 100 LIFE POINTS and restart your heart and your adventure at Act 2. You are not permitted to keep any booty you may have picked up last time round, but you can make cunning use of any maps you may have generated.

(The specific prompts regarding maps in the last two are probably because a large chunk of both adventures are made up by totally featureless mazes in the icy wastelands.)

But this turns out to not quite be the end of the story, because over a decade later Brennan returned to the gamebook genre for a series imaginatively titled Adventure Gamebooks, also known as History Adventure Gamebooks in some places. These were aimed at a younger audience than his other series, and whilst they have the occasional flash of GrailQuest-esque humour, they are largely a sincere attempt to educate readers about various eras of history via the format of interactive fiction.

Two entries in this series, Aztec Quest and Egyptian Quest, were published in English in 1997. For whatever reason, the other two, Greek Quest and Roman Quest, were not, but French-language translations were printed in 2000. Precisely what the bloody hell was going on here is something I have not yet been able to get to the bottom of -- Brennan was hugely popular in France, but I don't know why they were never published in English at the time. British readers were, however, eventually able to read these books when they were published as eBooks in 2011... which did at least make tracking them down for the purposes of this post much simpler than it otherwise would have been. All four place their afterlives in section 13, and they complete this little museum:

Aztec Quest

The 1997 print edition reads as follows:

You're dead!
Fortunately you don't have to stay that way. Roll up another batch of Life Points and go back to Section 1 and start again. Better luck next time!

The 2011 eBook goes with:

You're dead. But fortunately you don't have to stay that way. Roll up another batch of Life Points (not forgetting any Special Life Points you've earned), go back to Section 1 and start again. You'll have better luck next time. Probably.

Egyptian Quest

The text in green only appears in the 2011 eBook version, and is not in the 1997 print version:

Well, that's it. You're dead, deceased, no longer living. You've turned your toes up, bought the farm, shuffled off this mortal coil, copped it, snuffed it, passed over, fallen off your perch, passed on, popped your clogs. You are now a late adventurer.

The good news is there's a lot of life after death in this book. Climb out of your mummy case, re-roll your Life Points, not forgetting to add on any Permanent Points you've notched up due to experience, and start, intrepidly, again.

Better luck next time.

Greek Quest

Well, the Greeks had a word for it and the word was dead. You've just cashed in your Greecy chips. If you had a son he'd be obliged by law to bury you. If you died in battle (which is very likely in this gamebook) the city state will pay a pension to your parents.

Meanwhile you can get on with the job of resurrection. Grab your trusty dice and roll yourself another set of Life Points, not forgetting to add in any Special Life Points you may have earned. Then trudge off to Section 1 and start up the whole mess all over.

Try not to make the same mistake again.

Roman Quest

Well, sic biscuitus disintegratus, as the Ancient Romans used to say, which translates as that's the way the cookie crumbles. Your cookie's crumbled with a vengeance since you're now dead as an undertaker's fish paste sandwich.

But unless you want to hang around this section for the rest of your death, it's time for you to roll up a whole new mess of Life Points (not forgetting any Special Life Points you've earned) then gird your lions, place your nose to the grindstone, put your best foot forward and try, try, try again from Section 1.

I'll be rooting for you.

Notice the difference in writing in the two unpublished ones, plus the additional text in the digital versions? I have a suspicion that when they were printed as eBooks, Brennan may have had another pass over them... but that's a story for another time.

03/05/22 update! Long-time commentator Ed Jolley has been in touch; apart from noting that the 1997 edition of Aztec Quest has minor differences in its 13 section, he also revealed two I'd missed entirely. In the eighties Brennan wrote a book designed for multi-player role-playing games, The Monster Horrorshow, which included a short solo adventure; I was aware of this, but from what I could tell from what was available online, the solo adventure didn't have a 13 section.

I am grateful to Ed for providing this, since the asking price for a second-hand copy is a little too dear; he also provided information on a Brennan gamebook which was totally unknown to me, 2003's The Book of Wizardry (written under the pseudonym Cornelius Rumstuckle), which is half-gamebook and half, er, not. Both mini-adventures have their own 13 sections, which Ed has typed up:

The Monster Horrorshow: The Labyrinth of Squat

You are lying, hands neatly folded on your breast, in a velvet-lined coffin made of highly polished pine with shining brass fittings. Friends and neighbours are filing past, staring down at you and bursting into tears. (You did wash your face this morning, didn't you?) Somewhere in the background, an organ plays solemnly. Since you are unable to move a muscle, it occurs to you that you are dead.

And very nicely laid out if I may say so, although they skimped a bit on the coffin: for somebody of your stature, you'd have thought gold trim was the least they could have done. Be that as it may, you can't lie there all your life (death?). If you plan to become a Werewizard, the only thing for it is to leap from your coffin, ignoring the terrified screams of friends and neighbours, reincarnate yourself with 100 LIFE POINTS and start again at 1.

(Ed notes that a Werewizard is the name Brennan gives to a GM for The Monster Horrorshow's system; completing the solo adventure is a mandatory requirement to becoming a WW.)

The Book of Wizardry: The Wizard's Adventure

Well, that's it then. Another fine mess you got yourself into. You're dead. As a dodo. As a dinosaur. As a coffin nail. If you weren't a Wizard, your only option would be to lie down, fold your arms across your chest, and forget about the Wizards' Guild. (Along with everything else in your life.)

But fortunately you are a Wizard (of sorts), so you can roll up a new set of Beginning Life Points and start all over again. Won't that be fun? Go to 1.