The GrailQuest Bestiary: Part I

Whilst J. H. Brennan's GrailQuest solo adventure gamebooks were principally meant to be a more comedic take than usual on the idea, he also came up with one of the best combat systems I've ever seen for an RPG -- simple to understand, but allowing for a diverse range of encounters. Unlike other series of the time, in fact, a complete guide to all the monsters and villains you could fight across the series' eight titles would probably make for quite fun reading. So here we go.

The basic rules of the combat system were as follows:

• You roll one die for yourself and your opponent at the start of a combat; highest score gets first strike, then combatants take it in turns to strike at each other. (This would not apply in some situations, usually because one of the combatants had surprise on their side, meaning they automatically got first strike.)
• If you are fighting two or more opponents at once, then usually they all strike you in turn before you can strike again in an ABC pattern depending on who got the first strike.
• Each combatant needs to roll a certain number on two dice to successfully hit (the default being 6). Every point rolled above the number you need to strike counts as damage, with every enemy you fight having a bonus added from whatever weapon they're using, and some also having armour which would reduce the amount of damage you score. (The player character, Pip, is usually armed with Excalibur Junior, which strikes on 4 or better and scores +5 damage; if you have completed the first book in the series, The Castle of Darkness, Pip also has a dragonskin jacket which subtracts 4 points from any damage done against you.)
• If someone's LIFE POINTS are reduced to 5, they are knocked unconscious; if their LIFE POINTS are reduced to 0, they are killed. (Your own LIFE POINTS are calculated by rolling two dice and multiplying the result by 4; you get Experience Points for solving puzzles or defeating monsters, and 20 Experience Points can be exchanged for one PERMANENT LIFE POINT to add to your maximum.)
• There are two possible ways to avoid combat. The first is Bribery, which is possible only in sections denoted by asterisks; one asterisk indicates a bribe of 100 Gold Pieces (or items equivalent in value), two asterisks means 500 Gold Pieces, three asterisks demands 1,000 Gold Pieces, and a four-star bribe is 10,000 Gold Pieces (a system we shall also use for this Bestiary). You then need to roll 8 or higher on two dice for the bribe to be accepted, in which case you carry on as if you'd won the fight.
• The other way is a Friendly Reaction, which is possible unless the book says otherwise (there are some encounters that don't expressly say you can't try for a Friendly Reaction but common sense says you shouldn't, usually the adventure's final boss): you roll one die for your enemy and three dice for yourself. If your combined total is less than your enemy's single roll, then he's friendly and you can carry on as if you'd won the fight.

1. The Castle of Darkness

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Mean Jake	20	6	None	None	Combat ends when one side has lost 10 or more LIFE POINTS.
Boar	25	6	+4	None	If the Boar knocks you out, you wake up 20 minutes later with the Boar gone.
Wolf	20	6	+3	None	The Wolf attacks your arms, legs and throat, so the usual protection afforded by the dragonskin jacket is disregarded, but you automatically get first strike.
Hounds (2)	20	5	+3	None	Who gets the first strike in this encounter depends on if you had your sword out and ready before searching the area.
Compost Heap Monster*	35	5	+4	None	If you mistake the monster for an actual compost heap and search it, it automatically gets first strike; if you don’t, then you get first strike provided you roll 2 or better on a die. It is only open to Bribery in the former version of the encounter, for whatever reason.
Zombies (6)**	N/A – each Zombie can only be ‘killed’ by rolling 10 or better on two dice	6	None	None	You get automatic first strike, and have time to strike two zombies; all six of them then strike you in turn before you can take two more strikes at them, and so on. If they kill you, on the next playthrough you will become a ‘sort of half Zombie’ which means you will never get the first strike in any battle.
Skeleton	N/A – can only be ‘killed’ by rolling 10 or better on two dice	6	None	None	None
Watchman	25	6	+2	None	Automatically gets first strike due to surprise; if he hits you with his concealed dagger, you lose another LIFE POINT in the next section due to blood poisoning
Giant Spider	33	4	+3	None	On every third successful hit the Spider makes, roll two dice; a roll of 5 or below indicates you die from the Spider’s venom
Snake	12	6	None, but will kill you outright on its first successful hit	None	None apart from the whole ‘instant death’ thing
Guards (2)**	15	6	+2	-2	These two are on the other side of a secret door; who gets first strike depends on whether you managed to open the door quietly or not. Unlike other group fights, you should roll for both guards at the same time.
Unseen Opponent***	40	6	+5	None	Since this fight takes place in total darkness, you have to roll 10 or better to hit. (The opponent can see in the dark, apparently.)
Guard***	20	3	+2	-2	Gets automatic first strike due to surprise (since he creeps up on you whilst you’re searching for secret doors).
Guard	20	7	+2	-1	You only have to fight this guard if he wakes up (the fact he’s just woken up is why he needs a higher roll than normal to hit you).
Invisible Demon	40	6	+5	-4	Automatically gets the first strike since it’s invisible, and you have to roll 8 or better to hit it. Described as the ‘second biggest nasty’ in the book, but also optional.
Vampire****	35	6	None	None	If he manages to hit you twice in a row, “you’re dead and that’s all there is to it”.
Black Hounds (2)****	25	6	+4	None	No, I don’t know why you can bribe them either, but immediately after fighting these two you face…
The Wizard Ansalom	150	5	Has ten Firefinger Lightning Bolts similar to the ones Merlin gives you, which score 10 direct points of damage should they hit	None	None

If you accidentally open the door to the Guard Room, which is said to contain "about a hundred guards" who will kill you instantly if they notice you, then the section is labelled "** (Each)"; this is presumably black humour on Brennan's part, since you could not possibly have either the funds to bribe all of them, or the time to roll individually for every single one of them.

Oddly, later in the book a pair of guards absolutely identical (except they can't be bribed) to the two behind the secret door turn up guarding another corridor; a minor proofreading error, or just Brennan being consistent?

2. The Den of Dragons

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
White Rabbit	25	5	+3	None	The White Rabbit bites you in the kneecap the moment you approach it, requiring you to deduct 2 from all dice rolls you make in the ensuing combat. If the White Rabbit strikes you three times in a row, you are poisoned and must roll two dice: 2-4: Instant death 5-8: No effect 9: The Rabbit dies from an allergic reaction from biting you too much 10-12: You lose half your LIFE POINTS, fall unconscious and awaken in a different location
Stone Man	28	8	+4	-4 (magical weapons only)	Conventional weapons will have no effect, and attempting to use one will mean the Stone Man automatically gets first strike against you.
The Phantom of the Village Church	30	5	+3	None	None
Thing (described as possibly being “a sort of green and purple dagger-carrying kangaroo, or a magic platypus, or a very old wallaby, or an Australian cricketer in fancy dress”)	15	6	+2	None	Several of the cottages in Stonemarten Village direct you to this section
Wolf	31	6	+3	-1	Gets automatic first strike due to surprise
Monks (4)	25	4	+3	None	All four of them can strike you before you can even begin to strike back due to a massive speed advantage.
Water Weird	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	The Water Weird can only be harmed by magic. If your first attempt at casting a spell fails or you don’t have enough left, it will kill you instantly.
Stone Monster	18	7	None	-1	As you’re turning to stone yourself throughout this combat, you need to roll 8 or better to hit, but your strength of willpower gives you first strike.
Trolls (6)	10	6	+2	-1	None
Wraith	25	6	+3	None, but see Notes	Can only be harmed by spells
Irish Wolfrat	25	5	+2	None	The Rat carries disease; if it strikes you even once, you must find a cure before leaving the Village
Fish	10	6	None	None	You’re underwater in this encounter, so have to fight the fish with your bare hands, and resolve the encounter within three combat rounds or you’ll drown. (Knocking the fish unconscious can be treated as a win.)
Dwarves (12)	10	8	+3	None	The Dwarves are so slow you can get first strike against some of them; roll two dice to determine how many you can strike before they can fight back, then they all strike back at you in sequence. If you kill ten of them, the remaining two will run away.
Medusa	100	8	None	None	She can turn you to stone if she gets two consecutive hits in. (Using the Invisibility spell will increase this to three hits.)
Shadow Beast	80	5	+2	None	Gets automatic first strike due to surprise.
Slither	20	8	None, but will kill you outright on its first successful hit	None	Gets what is technically the first strike, since you have to roll to avoid its giant tongue before the fight even starts
Shapes (6)	4	N/A	None, but see Notes	None	The Shapes come at you one by one. If you don’t kill them on your first hit, then they blend with your body, which costs you 15 LIFE POINTS each time it happens.
The Brass Dragon	150	5	+5 (breathes fire every third hit, which increases it to +10 for that round)	None	The Invisibility spell will increase the number it needs to roll to hit you to 8.

There's also two odd little encounters worth noting: one with a Wood Troll, who is totally immune to metal (and apparently magic), and can only be dealt with by drowning him in a waterbag, hitting him on the head with a pair of spare boots, or charming him with a lute or harp. If you don't have any of these, the Wood Troll will take everything you have apart from weapons or armour. The other is a friendly fist-fight with a Minotaur which ends upon one party losing 10 LIFE POINTS.

3. The Gateway of Doom

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Ghouls (3)	15	6	None	None	As a general rule, you can never get a Friendly Reaction from Ghouls.
Bear	50	6	+2 normally, bear-hugs you for +4 every third combat round	None	None
Giant Spider***	13	6	None	None	Gets automatic first strike since you're on its home territory. If it hits you three times in a row without you hitting back, you die from poisoning
Manticores (3)	30 (Mum), 25 (Dad), 15 (Little Baby Manticore)	6	+3	None	The baby has a “fireball similar to your own” (and hence presumably works on a roll of 6 or better on two dice and causes 75 LIFE POINTS of damage) that he will fire if either of his parents are killed before he is.
Winzings (2)	15	7	+1	None	None
Great Danish Spider	15	5	+2	None	Before the fight you have to roll 4 or lower on a die to avoid being stuck in its web. Excalibur Junior is afraid of spiders, and will score 1 point less than usual in damage due to shivering.
Ants (between 20 and 120)	1	6	Scores 1 point of damage regardless of what the dice show	None	You need to roll two dice and multiply the result by 10 to discover how many ants there are. You need to roll 8 or better on two dice to squash each ant. If you want to try for a Friendly Reaction, you have to roll for each ant separately; if you have an Artificial Aardvark with you, it will eat 20 ants each round on a roll of 6 or better (the joke, if it's not clear, being that you don't have a clue why you'd want to take an Artificial Aardvark with you prior to this encounter).
Little Old Lady Monster	50	3 in the first attack round, 6 thereafter on account of poor eyesight	+3	None	None
Djinn	100	5	+3	None	None
Nerd (A)	20	8	+5	None	If the Nerd manages to ring his bell, you fight this version of him alongside the Djinn
Nerd (B)	20	6	None, but his dagger has paralysing poison on it, so every time he hits you you miss your next strike	None	If the Nerd doesn’t manage to ring his bell, you fight this version of him
Scruffy Old Gardener	7	8	None (weapon of choice: blunted pitchfork)	None	You automatically get first strike due to launching an unprovoked attack on him, which as the book notes may even be enough to kill him
Plants (3)	12	5	None	None	The plants will only attack you if you kill the old gardener. The first is poisonous and will kill you outright if it hits you three times.
Invisible Wizard* (Special)	40	Knows every spell in Pip’s First Spell Book (except he has run out of Fireballs and his Lightning Bolts only do 2 points of damage)	N/A	None	Special bribery situation: Will only accept a magical item of any kind.
Ampitherian	50	6	+3	None	If you were wondering, an ampitherian is a squat, toad-like creature about five feet high and six feet broad. It hates xylophone players.
Shark	20	5	+4	None	None
Bota-Botas (6)	5	N/A	N/A	N/A	The Bota-Botas move one square forward per attack round, and will not try to attack you in any way. If any Bota-Bota manages to make six steps forward, they will have accumulated enough earth energy to make their war-cry, which is lethal to anyone in earshot
Magic Mirror Pip****	Half your own current LIFE POINTS	4	+5	Depends	Described as identical to you in every way apart from having half your LIFE POINTS. Cannot give a Friendly Reaction.
Treasure Room Guards (2)	15	6	+4	-3	None
Golls (2)	10	6	+1	None	Both Golls get a free hit against you whilst you switch off their infernal machine (if you attempt to fight them without switching the machine off it will explode, killing you all).
The Magic Zapper	6	N/A	N/A	N/A	If you leave the Magic Zapper’s room without fighting him, all magic you cast will cost you double the usual LIFE POINTS (i.e. from 3 to 6). However, if you fail to kill him with a single blow, he will absorb all your magic completely.
Gerofla	40	6	None, but gets two attacks for your one due to having two heads	None	None
Djinns (1-6)***	30	5	+2	None	How many you fight depends on the roll of a die (denoting how many urns you managed to open before you noticed the Djinns materialising from them)
Guardian of the Darkness	40	7	+3	None	Requires 7 or more to hit because of the darkness, but so do you
Vampires (2-12)	2d6 multiplied by 2 for each one	5	Causes 5 LIFE POINTS of damage per successful hit regardless of what the dice say	None	How many you fight depends on the roll of two dice (denoting how many of the coffins are opening)
Ghoul Mensa (3)	30	5	+4	None	None
Ghosts (3)	10	6	+1	None	If you don’t have special spectacles, the Ghosts are invisible to you, meaning they cause 5 LIFE POINTS of damage to you before you realise they’re there, can only hit them on 8 or better, and will automatically miss every third strike
Dwarves (7)	20	5	+3	None	None

I need to quickly break the table now to explain how the final encounter works: There are seven Djinns, then seven Slime Monsters, then seven Dwarves, and then the final boss himself, the Black Knight. You have to fight each wave in turn, but if you have already met, befriended or defeated the Djinns or the Dwarves in the earlier encounters above, they won't attack you and can be ignored. The Dwarves' statistics are identical to that previous meeting; the Djinns are similar, except they now have a different, special Bribery rate of 500 Gold Pieces and two precious stones each, and a Tinglering can normally be used to bypass Djinns entirely but will only halve any damage they score on this occasion.

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Slime Monsters (7)	10	6	None	None	Poison you on their first successful hit, which causes you to lose 2 LIFE POINTS per round until you cure yourself (which will itself take up an attack round)
The Black Knight	80	4	+4	-12 the first time it’s hit, -6 the second time, and -4 thereafter	None

That covers the actual sections of The Gateway of Doom... but wait, there's more. When you get to the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead, you have to find your way around through RPG-style maps -- here's one of them from Demian's Gamebook Webpage. There are three levels in total (one of the levels has two maps), and each one has its own table of Wandering Monsters for when you're walking down the corridors (the grey-shaded squares). You need to make a Wandering Monster roll for every 6 squares on Level 1, every 5 squares on Level 2, and every 4 squares on Level 3. Wandering Monsters cannot be bribed, and never give Friendly Reactions.

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Level 1 Wandering Monsters
Animated Skeleton (roll of 8)	20	6	+1	None	None
Nerds (2) (roll of 9)	11	7	+2	None	None
Orcs (2) (roll of 10)	12	6	+2	None	None
Kobolds (4) (roll of 11)	8	7	+1	None	None
Creeping Jello (roll of 12)	30	5	+4	None	None
Level 2 Wandering Monsters
Medusa (roll of 7)	30	7	+2	None	Any roll of 12 by the Medusa will paralyse you for the next four combat rounds
Poison Dwarves (2) (roll of 8)	15	6	+1	None	None
Golls (2) (roll of 9)	15	5	+2	None	None
Triffids (2) (roll of 10)	30	8	+4	None	None
Scrats (5) (roll of 11)	10	7	+1	None	None
Creeping Semolina	35	6	+4	None	None
Level 3 Wandering Monsters
Pit Trap (roll of 6)	Lose double dice roll of LIFE POINTS
Thern (roll of 7)	20	5	+5	None	None
Vampire Bats (5) (roll of 8)	6	3	+1	None	None
Spike Trap (roll of 9)	Lose double dice roll of LIFE POINTS and poisoned (lose 5 LIFE POINTS for every 4 squares travelled or new section entered)
Permans (3) (roll of 10)	15	5	+2	None	None
Tubarinos (2) (roll of 11)	30	6	+1	None	None
Creeping Sago (roll of 12)	70	6	+2	None	None

I think we're going to have to split the Bestiary up into three different posts, since it's becoming a bit too long for just one, so join me at some point in the future for Books 4 through 6...