History Literature / DaggersOfDarkness

''Daggers of Darkness'' is the 35[[superscript:th]] entry of the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' series of {{Gamebooks}}, written by Luke Sharp.

The ''Fighting Fantasy'' franchise continues exploring through the cultures of our RealLife world, this time taking place in the FantasyCounterpartCulture of the Mongol Empire. Set in the ancient land of Kazan, the player character -- YOU -- are one of Segrek's Select, successor to the throne. However, the evil Vizier Chingiz have plans to usurp leadership for himself, and have allied himself with the forces of darkness.

One night, you are assaulted by one of Chingiz's assassins, and while you survive, you were scratched by a cursed dagger called a [[TitleDrop Dagger of Darkness]], which infects you with a deadly poison that threatens to spread all over your body. Your only way to lift the curse, and reclaim the throne, is to send the dagger back to Chingiz and confront him in his throne room. But your ''real'' enemy may not be who you think it is...

The book follows the same rules as the standard ''Fighting Fantasy'' adventure, but being a Luke Sharp gambebook, once again time is ''not'' on your side. To reflect the spreading infection of the titular dagger, your stats includes a diagram of your body -- divided into 24 units -- where each unit represents an infected body part. When all 24 units are infected, you die!

* AnArmAndALeg: The huge Kalamite is beaten off when Adana-Broussah, an ally, hacks off its arm.

* ConsolationPrize: After you lifted the curse of the dagger by confronting Chingiz, you gain 4 STAMINA points. However, the adventure is about to end in 4 pages, and there are no battles, traps, enemy encounters, or opportunity to lose STAMINA - which makes the STAMINA boost really pointless.
* CreepySouvenir: The Talon of Sakar is a severed, mummified arm of a Boulyanthrop, which is actually magical and can summon help should you need it.
* DefeatMeansRespect: If you defeat the two marauders challenging you (it's not a fight to the death, you are allowed to pull out when your STAMINA reaches 4 points), you are immediately welcomed to their camp.
* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler:Chingiz's position as the BigBad is usurped by his daughter, Meghan-na-Dur. Not that it really benefits her though, since she dies literally a couple of pages later anyways]]...

** The Bogomil Medallion can help you skip battles, which is a good thing if you don't want your POISON level to spike.

** And the Stone Dragons trio, should you encounter them, can be ignored if you can bribe them with gems.
* EyeOfNewt: There is an alchemy chamber where you get to mix and match various weird ingredients to create different kinds of potions, [[spoiler:two out of nine which is fatal to you]]. Check out the ingredients: Eye of Newt, Volcano Dust, Viper's Tongue, Ground Dragon's Claw, Mithir Forest Mists...
* EvilChancellor: Chingiz, the evil chancellor and BigBad of the story who is after the throne and cursed you with the titular dagger.
* FlunkyBoss: Meghan-na-Dur, Chingiz's daughter, have four ogre bodyguards flanking her sides. [[spoiler:Subverted that you are NOT supposed to fight them; instead she is using the ogres to trick you into drawing your weapon and inflict a deadly curse upon yourself]].

* GrimUpNorth: Being set in a Mongol-inspired setting, expectedly most of the story will be set in a winter wasteland.
* HopelessBossFight: The immensely huge and powerful Kalamite will instant-kill you if you try to fight it, regardless how high your stats; instead you're supposed to let it grab you so that Adana-Broussah, a fellow warrior-woman, can hack off its arm and beat it off.

* MakingASplash: The Necromancer can summon a tidal wave, in an attempt to kill you.
* TheMaze: You get to traverse one called the Maze of Bogomil to find the magic Medallion of Bogomil, a compulsory item for your quest. Unlike ''Literature/TheWarlockOfFiretopMountain'', however, the maze is more of a straight path this time where you keep walking forward while throwing a die to see what random encounters you might stumble upon while making your way across.
* {{Mooks}}: Chingiz's forces are mostly Orcs and Mamliks, a race of beast-men native to Kazan.
* NighInvulnerability: Necromancers cannot be beaten by weapons, but there is a way to learn a method (identical to learning the XEN religion from ''Literature/FangsOfFury'') to damage them. Defeated Necromancers "die" but their staves burrow into the ground; implying they were some form of TheSymbiote.
* NightOfTheLivingMooks: The Necromancer you encounter can resurrect skeletons and zombies from a graveyard on you. You don't get a chance to fight, though, because of how vastly outnumbered you are, so your best bet is to [[RunOrDie run the heck out of the grave]]!

* PantheraAwesome: Fangtigers are frequently encountered in this adventure. They may be on your side or not, depending which path you take.
* RandomEncounters: You navigate the Maze of Bogomil by rolling a dice to determine which room you end up in; each room may contain enemies, traps, treasures, or useful hints, depending if the dice gods are kind to you or not.

** Victims of the titular daggers will suffer this fate, should the infected fail to find a cure on time. A victim you encounter in the first paragraph dissolves away as you try speaking to him.

** After you help an old crone retrieve her chest of gold, you can choose to snatch some of her gold for yourself. [[spoiler:If you do this, you activate a magical trap which summons a poisonous serpent which will bite you, causing you to lose STAMINA and your POISON level to spike]]. Just let the old lady have her gold, it's better this way...

* SinisterScimitar: Given the setting being Mongol-inspired, many of your opponents wields these, including several Mamliks, marauders and Chingiz's guards.

** Zizzadek the sorcerer, a SKILL 11 opponent which can summon a FlechetteStorm on you before the fight. However he is not a compulsory boss encounter.
** The trio of Stone Dragons are a WolfpackBoss which can be avoided. And if you somehow ends up fighting them anyways, you can use gems to pacify them to leave you alone.
* StepIntoTheBlindingFight: More often than not, you will have to do battle against enemies while in total darkness. However, if you learn the skill of Darkfight from Alkis Fearslicer, you need not suffer a malus in such situations.
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Meghan-na-Dur's ogre bodyguards turns into stone when you cause her curse to backfire on her]].
* TheUsurper: Chingiz's reason for sending an assassin after you; he wanted the throne for himself. [[spoiler:Not to mention like father, like daughter]]...
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: Inverted, with every fight you participate in, your POISON level will increase; as such you're supposed to ''avoid'' participating in too many battles.
* WeHaveReserves: When the Necromancer suspects there is an impostor (that is, YOU) hiding among her mooks, but have no idea who it is, she immediately opts to summon a tidal wave and kill EVERYONE present, including several Mamliks and goblins.
* WhenTreesAttack: The Gnarled Oak is a living tree which ensnares victims with its branches and fuses them into its body; there is a spooky accompanying illustration of the oak with several skeletons fused into its trunk.
* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler: Chingiz and his daughter, Meghan-na-Dur, are easily the ''MOST'' ridiculously anti-climatic final encounters in the entire ''Fighting Fantasy'' franchise. Your confrontation with Chingiz starts with his evil gloating, which is abruptly cut short when Meghan-na-Dur betrays him by stabbing him InTheBack. You then confront Meghan-na-Dur, and defeat her... by literally walking towards her throne without lifting a weapon]]. The entire confrontation lasts for 3 pages without a struggle.

* WingedHumanoid: The Boulyanthrop are lawful bird-men on your side, and you can enlist their help sometimes to get you out of a jam.