The GrailQuest Bestiary: Part II

Last time, I set out to write a complete guide to all the monsters and foes you could face in J. H. Brennan's GrailQuest solo fantasy gamebooks, but it quickly became apparent I would have to split it up into multiple parts; Part I includes a recap of how the combat system worked (as well as, courtesy of Ed Jolley, one of the greatest comments ever left on this blog), and here comes the part of the Bestiary covering adventures four through six, kicking off with Voyage of Terror -- which, owing to Merlin's Net Spell going wrong, sees a sideways move from Camelot to Ancient Greece, a consequence of which is that all your usual magic and equipment (including Excalibur Junior) are not available to you...

4. Voyage of Terror

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Treasure Room Guards (6)	20	5	+2	-3	None
Chef	30	5	+3	None	Entirely optional; you only have to fight him if you want to search the kitchen
Giant Sea Serpent	80	6	+4	None	Cannot give a Friendly Reaction, and since you’re on a boat during this combat, even if you win you lose all weapons and equipment
Poisonous Spider	6	5	None, but kills you outright on its first successful hit	None	You automatically get first strike owing to the speed with which you noticed it
Guards (12)**	15	5	+2	-2	You can take a penalty of 10 LIFE POINTS and being thrown out of the guardroom as an alternative to fighting
Ram	30	5	+4	None	Fought with Jason (see end of this section); taking more than three combat rounds to defeat it will impact how easy it is to catch the Golden Sheep in the next section
Boar	35	5	+3	None	None
Guards (3)**	25	+2	-2	None	Elect to fight you one at a time, as “they’re a bit arrogant”. Cannot give a Friendly Reaction.
Sea Dog	25	+1	6	None	Automatically gets first strike if you elect to fight him due to surprise (as you were messing around with the ship’s casks and barrels), but you can take a single hit of 4 LIFE POINTS instead. If you were investigating the barrels filled with wine rather than water, you automatically miss every second strike due to drunkenness
Amazons (2)***	25	5	+4	None	Should you return to this section, you will find the guards have been replaced
Phantom Archer	35 (specified as “LIFE (?) POINTS”)	8	Removes half your current LIFE POINTS on a successful hit	None	As the book points out, he can’t actually kill you since he can never reduce your LIFE POINTS to 0, but if he knocks you unconscious you will awaken back at the start of the island and are forbidden to return to the ruined castle
Harpies (3)	25	5	+3	None	Are hard to hit because they move in three dimensions; you must roll 8 or better for a successful strike
Tyrannosaurus Rex* (Special)	80	4	+7	-5	Special rate of bribery: you can offer it everything you have except for any tiny little golden keys. Cannot give a Friendly Reaction, but it is sleeping when you first encounter it and you can successfully tiptoe past it on a roll of 9 or better every time you pass through its section.
Baby Tyrannosaurus Rex	50	5	+4	None	None
Shadows (1-6)	Each Shadow (how many there are depends on the roll of a die) will grip you tightly on a roll of 6 or better on two dice, absorbing 6 LIFE POINTS per round. They can only be defeated by a light source, such as a lamp or a torch, which will destroy one completely on a roll of 4 or better on two dice.
Pirates (10)	25	6	+3	None	See the end of this section for details on how this combat is conducted.
Long John Silver	35	5	+3	None	On the first attack round, he will attempt to shoot you with his flintlock pistol, at which he will succeed on a roll of 6 or better and cause 25 LIFE POINTS of damage; thereafter he will fight you with his sword
Parrot	50	4	+4	None	Fought simultaneously with Long John Silver; they will take it in turns to strike at you
Librarian	15	8	None, and will automatically miss every second hit	None	Stats are given but he can’t actually be fought; if you try to do so he will teleport you back to your ship
Giant Ferrets Masquerading as Chickens (12)	4	6	+1	None	You and Jason have to fight six each (see note at end of this section)
Witch	20	6	None, but will kill you outright on a roll of 12	None	Fought immediately after the G.F.M.A.C.
Vulcan	100,000	9	+50	None	After telling you he has 100,000 LIFE POINTS, he tells you you only need to knock 18 of them off to win the breastplate he’s been making off him, which he'll also let you wear for the fight. The breastplate will completely absorb the first two blows in any combat and act as -4 armour for the rest of the fight
Superlizard	18	9	Scores six times the damage shown by the dice	None	None
Harpy	30	5	+3	Any roll you make has a -2 modifier	None
Rock Thern	15	5	+5	-6	Is extremely slow, allowing you to get in two hits for every one it makes. However, as this fight takes place in a mine, you need to roll two dice for every strike (by either party): a roll of 2 or 3 indicates a roof prop is knocked out and the mine collapses
Hecate	25	4	+2	None	Before combat, you have to roll to avoid Hecate’s magic. Failure to do so will turn you into a pig with 15 LIFE POINTS, which will remain the case until the next time you die
Hydra (7 heads)	10	6	+1	None	None
Cyclops	50	5	+8	None	Cannot give a Friendly Reaction
Mummy	33	4	None	All dice rolls you make against the Mummy are at -5; even magic which would usually work automatically requires a roll of 5 or better	None

The fight with the pirates who have taken over Jason's ship is conducted melee-style, with you rolling on behalf of not only yourself but also Jason and the Argonauts, who have the following statistics:

Argonaut	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Jason	25	5	None, but can be given weapons/armour from the ship’s armoury		Accompanies you on several other combats noted above
Hercules	48	6	Scores a natural +4 on top of any weapons you might give him	See above	None
Achilles	30	2	Scores a natural +1 on top of any weapons you might give him	See above	Can only get in one hit for every two his opponent makes owing to weak ankles
Argonauts (10)	20	6	None but can be given blah blah blah		None

And just in case this section wasn't complicated enough already, one last feature of Voyage is Cross-Eyed Navigation. If you try to steer the Argo towards any of the islands on the map provided, you have to roll two dice. Score below 4 and you have to turn to the Cross-Eyed Navigation appendix, which provides six random islands, one of which you ended up on rather than where you wanted to go. Three of the possible islands have combat encounters:

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Greater Spotted Pondoozlewazzle Bird	100	12	Any successful strike and it will kill you outright by sitting on you	None	You get automatic first strike
Cannibal Chief’s Daughter	35	5	+3	None	Even if you beat her you have to escape the rest of the tribe by rolling 4 or better on two dice
Zebra-Striped Kimono Dragon	30	4	+4	None	You get automatic first strike

And very finally, since I noted the pig thing above, it's also possible for a magic beetle to bite you, which alters your maximum possible LIFE POINTS to 25 (whether that makes them higher or lower than before) and requires you to roll a 7 to strike successfully, but also allows you to get in two hits for every one your opponent makes.

5. Kingdom of Horror

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Druids (3)**	20	5	+3	None	None
Sand Dragon	55	7	+5	-4	None
Barbarians (3)* (Special)	12	5	+3	None	Special bribery rate of 300 Gold Pieces each plus any food rations you have
Wolf	25	5	+2	None	So fast it can get in two strikes for every one of yours
Borfax	70	5	+4 with claws on first strike, and thereafter +5 with fangs	None	You are aiming to subdue the Borfax, not kill it, so need to reduce its LIFE POINTS to 5. If you accidentally kill it, then you have to fight…
Ben the Warrior Dwarf	30	5	+3	None	None
Brigands (3)	15	5	+2	None	Cannot give a Friendly Reaction, and any spell that relies on fooling them (such as by creating an illusion) will not work
Peasant	15	6	+3	None	Attacks you right at the start of the adventure whilst you’re getting your bearings, so you are unarmed (so have to roll 6 or better to strike and score only dice damage). Neither party is armed, so death cannot result from this combat.
Vron (3 + 1d6)	20	5	+3	None	Can be encountered randomly at several points in the adventure. If you have a Vron tooth, they will not attack.
Men at Arms (2)	25	5	+3	-2	Only need to be fought if you can’t or won’t pay the toll across the bridge
Giant	499	3	+15	None	Can only be fought if you insist on trying to fight your way into the Fairy Kingdom without the correct items; the book does make provision for if you actually manage to beat him, surprisingly!
Peasant	26	6	+4	None	Gets automatic first strike because of surprise, and cannot give a Friendly Reaction.
Peasants (25)	30	6	+2	None	None, unless you count the book pointing out what a daft idea it is to take on 25 enemies at once.
Scorpion	8	6	Does 3 LIFE POINTS of damage per hit regardless of what the dice say	None	Will poison you on its first successful strike, meaning you will lose 2 LIFE POINTS per new section visited until you cure yourself
Witches (3)	20	6	The first witch has a thunderbolt which she will try to cast on her first hit, and will remove half your LIFE POINTS if successful, but it can only be cast once. The second witch’s special attack is to encase you in a cube of gelatinous substance which will cause you to lose 10 LIFE POINTS per combat round. The third one has 6 Dragonfire pills which allow her to breathe fire, costing you 35 LIFE POINTS each time she does so. A Friendly Reaction is possible from only one of the three (your choice).
Invisible Bear	45	5	+6	None, but since it’s invisible you will automatically miss every second strike	It takes you by surprise, since it’s invisible, and gets you in a bear-hug; you need to roll 7 or better on two dice before you can even get free to start combat, and will lose 6 LIFE POINTS each time you fail to do so
Peasants (3)	20	6	+3	None	The reason why you keep fighting peasants is because of the riots in Camelot following the theft of Excalibur, if you were wondering.
Demonspawn* (Special)	80	3	+2	None	Cannot give a Friendly Reaction, and has a special Bribery rate of 20,000,000 Gold Pieces, “which probably makes it a bit too expensive to try”
Guards (2d6)	15	5	+3	None	None
Priests (2)	25	4	+3	None	None
Slippery Sam	25	5	+2	None	None
Alf	N/A	6	+10	None	Alf is testing you for your application working in a shipyard (or to join the revolution, depending on which version of this encounter you’re in), so it’s not a fight to a death. Your damage score against him should be deducted from the damage he scores against you in the same round; if you still have 10 or more LIFE POINTS left after four rounds of combat, you get the job.
Ghoul	Exactly the same LIFE POINTS as your current total	4	+5	None	Cannot give a Friendly Reaction, and its first successful strike against you poisons you so you lose 3 LIFE POINTS per combat round for the rest of the fight
Constable	15	5	+2	None	Will use his first successful strike to blow his whistle, alerting 1d6 number’s worth of reinforcements
Giant Berkwaddle	100	4	+5	-4	Has high natural immunity to magic, which means any magic that would usually work automatically requires a roll of 7 or better. If you have found and activated the Ebony Rod of Kraal, it can be used to remove 50 of the Berkwaddle’s LIFE POINTS immediately. Furthermore, if you got the Riddle of the Buck wrong, you have to fight it with one hand tied behind your back, which will cause you to automatically miss every third strike

One of the items in Merlin's store-cupboard is a magic bell which, when rung, will summon a demon with 66 LIFE POINTS which strikes on 4 or better and causes +7 damage, and will fight on your behalf in any one combat... but you must roll one die when using it. Roll 1 or 2 and the demon will join your enemy in fighting you.

6. Realm of Chaos

Opponent	LIFE POINTS	Strikes on	Damage bonus	Armour	Notes
Alchemical Green Dragon	40	6	Will cause 10 LIFE POINTS of damage on a successful hit regardless of what the dice say, and will transmute its opponent into solid gold on any roll of 12, “which is quite a spectacular way to get killed”	None	Can be summoned by a magic stone you find three times per adventure, but every time you use it you must roll one die twice. If the second roll is higher than the first, then you can set the Dragon on your current opponent; if it isn’t, the Dragon will attack you.
Honest Albert	19	6	None	None	Honest Albert’s combat stats are not given in the English edition, but his LIFE POINTS were added – most likely by a translator who noticed the issue – in the French printing. (See here for more.) Combat ends when you bring his LIFE POINTS below 15
Rat	33	6	None, but its bite is poisonous and any successful hit means you will lose 5 LIFE POINTS per combat round until the battle is over	Non	None
Monks (2)	20	5	+3	None	You are aiming to subdue the Monks, not kill them; if you accidentally kill either of them you will be instantly struck down by a bolt of lightning
Guardian Wyrm (A)	1,000	1	+50	None	This is the version of the Wyrm you have to fight if you don’t have Uther’s Mirrored Shield with you. To add insult to certain death, it grabs Excalibur Junior from you and you have to fight it weaponless
Guardian Wyrm (B)	40	6	+2	None	This is the version of the Wyrm you fight if you do have the Mirrored Shield, needless to say, although it does manage to bite you for 5 LIFE POINTS of damage before the combat starts.
The Glastonbury Duck Pond Monster	30	6	+5	None	None
Fungoid Zombies (3)	22	6	+3	None	Will kill you outright on a throw of 12
Boris the Torturer	23 (initially 30, but you manage to strike him for 7 LIFE POINTS of damage before the combat begins)	5	+5	None	None
Fungoid Guards (3)***	25	5	+3	None	Bribery will allow you to avoid combat, but not enter the room they’re guarding.
Crawman	40	6	None	-4	A Crawman is described as “a four-legged giant spider with the face of a cat, with each leg ending in a giant claw”, if you were wondering. So slow it only has one strike for every two of yours.
Squand	80	6	Has no teeth or other armament, so will only do 2 LIFE POINTS of damage regardless of what the dice say	None	Only has one strike for every two of yours, but will swallow you whole if it manages a roll of 12
Hoopberk	35	5	+3	None	If you miss the Hoopberk for three combat rounds in a row, it will lay an egg which will instantly hatch into another, fully grown Hoopberk with identical statistics which will join the fight
Ratchbacked Mervillion	40	5	+3	None	Its extreme bad breath will do you 10 LIFE POINTS of damage every third attack round whether or not the Mervillion actually hits you
Guardian Spooks (3)	30	4	+3	None	If you have a Spook Basher with you (which the book actually provides instructions for you to make in real life), three quick cracks and a roll of 6 or better on two dice will dispatch them all. A throw of 12 by any of the Spooks will paralyse you and cause you to miss your next strike.
Karate Cat	50	4	+3	None	Automatically gets first strike, causing 5 LIFE POINTS of damage
Ghast	33	5	+5	None	Ghasts are resistant to weapons of all types, requiring you to fight it with your bare hands
Great Hairy Thing***	30	5	+3	None	None
Giant Squackdiddle	55	8	+10	None	None
Vampire	38	3	Unknown – due to a typo the book says “+ damage”	None	If you have a stake, you can kill him instantly on your first successful strike. If he rolls a 12, he fangs you in the throat, which not only kills you instantly but requires you to deduct 15 LIFE POINTS from the maximum of your next incarnation. “Vampires are not to be trifled with.”
Two-Headed Dog (treated as 2 different enemies with identical statistics)	25	3	+5	None	None
Little Old Lady with Trombone	30	6	+7 (that is one dangerous trombone)	None	This fight takes place on a tiny (7’ x 7’) cliff with sheer drops on all sides; if you ever roll a 5 or 7 during combat, you lose your footing and plunge to your death
Vorpal Bunny	55	5	+2	None	Any roll of 6 or 12 and it rips your brain out, killing you instantly
Pondifilous Maximus	12 (but see notes)	5	+4	None (but see notes)	Is immune to all attacks: any damage you do is added to his LIFE POINTS, but if you drive his total up to 30 or more he will call off the fight
The Seven Sisters (6, since the last of them has different statistics to all the others and is one row down)	10	5	+3	None	None
The Seventh Sister (fought simultaneously with the above)	20	4	+5	None	Will kill you outright on any roll of 12
The Phantom Grunweazel (Dum da dum dum!)	55	6	Causes 12 LIFE POINTS of damage per hit regardless of what the dice say. If you have the Bonkers Helm, it will absorb half this damage every time	-3	If you don’t have the Bonkers Helm, you not only take full damage but the Grunweazel is nearly invisible, requiring you to roll 6 or better to hit it even when using Excalibur Junior

The Little Old Lady with Trombone has a cousin in the Little Old Man with Bagpipes, another possible encounter on the maze-like Astral Plane (a maze where you have limited control over the direction you go in... it's complicated) who is identical to her combat-wise in all respects, including the sheer drop on all sides; similarly, you can also meet a relative of the Crawman known as the Namwarc.

Although he's not an opponent, you can acquire the services of a Glastonbury villager's bull mastiff, who will fight on your behalf; the dog has 25 LIFE POINTS, strikes on 5 or better, causes +4 damage but will withdraw from combat if reduced to 5 LIFE POINTS and leave you to finish the current opponent off.

Pedants' Corner may wish to note that whilst the fight with the Wyrm is obviously meant to be hopeless if you don't have the Mirrored Shield, and hence the book tells you that if you don't have it you can save yourself a lot of trouble by going straight to 14, it would hypothetically be possible to win by setting the Green Dragon on it, getting first strike and then rolling a 12.

Anyway, the final part of the Bestiary will cover the last two books, plus an Appendix which those of you who've already read them may be able to guess the nature of.