Crypt of the Sorcerer

Crypt of the Sorcerer is a single-player roleplaying gamebook, written by Ian Livingstone, illustrated by John Sibbick and originally published in 1987 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 26th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-032155-1) and 6th in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-396-1).
Contents
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* 1 Story
* 2 Trivia
* 3 Notes
* 4 See also
* 5 References

[edit] Story

An ancient evil is stirring in bowels of the earth, and the land is blighted. After being entombed for one hundred years, the dread necromancer Razaak has been re-awoken and is poised to fulfil his promise of death and tyranny. His army of undead are at large across Allansia, bringing death and destruction to all who resist.

It is up to YOU to find the only weapon to which Razaak is vulnerable - his own magic sword! Only then might you survive the dangers that await you in his evil lair - the Crypt of the Sorcerer!

Razaak, an evil necromancer, has re-awoken after being entombed for a hundred years. He plans to send his army of undead to take over Allansia. The main objective for the reader is to find his sword, the only weapon which will harm him, and then to find and defeat him. However, two companions; a ranger and a dwarf named Sym and Borri, are found along the way to help with the adventure.
[edit] Trivia
Crypt of the Sorcerer map

In the original edition of 'Crypt of the Sorcerer', from '87 onwards, this gamebook was one of a few to have a full-colour map printed on the inside of the front cover to illustrate the area the adventure was played over. In this instance, the western part of the Allansian Continent. Unfortunately, the map wasn't included in the Wizard reprint when the series came back from '02 onwards.
[edit] Notes

* This is one of the hardest Fighting Fantasy books, since the victory path is very narrow, leaving very little room for error and therefore making gameplay extremely unforgiving, often without any warning. There are many certain artefacts and items that must be collected in order to be successful. For instance, part of the adventure involves fighting a rare creature known as the Gargantis to get its horn; the only way to defeat it is by gaining the power of chameleonite camouflage (optional, but having it helps) and a sanity crystal as a protection. But in order to gain the crystal in the first place, the player must expose himself to a deadly menace at the start which can easily end the game very quickly, if the die roll to be made is unlucky enough. Not only that, there are other crucial dice rolls scattered throughout the book that have a significant chance of getting an instant death, which has nothing to do with the player's Skill, Stamina, or Luck scores. Therefore even if the player has maximum scores, the chances of him/her surviving is still deemed to be small.

* The central plot of Razaak the necromancer bears more than a passing similarity to the Conan story 'Black Colossus'.

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