I see you...
Eye of the Dragon is the 60th entry in the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks, written by Ian Livingstone as part of the Wizard books series; it was the first original adventure Wizard published, and the first new entry in the series in over a decade.
The plot is rather straightforward: you are an adventurer who traveled to Fang to undertake the infamous Walk in the local dungeon: during your permanence in the Blue Pig Tavern, you meet a shady adventurer who introduces himself as Henry Delacor. Henry tells you of a marvelous treasure hidden in a secret dungeon under Darkwood Forest, a golden dragon statuette which is worth 335000 gold pieces, but there's a catch: it can be safely removed from its pedestal only if two gemstones, known as the "Eyes of the Dragon", are inserted in the idol. Henry managed to obtain one gem, but he couldn't find the other one, lost in the depths of the dungeon. Intrigued by the chance of becoming rich, you strike a deal with Henry Delacor and offer him to recover the other eye, get the Dragon and share the price with him... but then he seals the deal by offering you a drink which, as he promptly reveal, is laced with poison! And so you have a limited amount of time to venture into the dungeon, find the other Eye of the Dragon and recover the statuette for Henry in exchange for the antidote.
Eye of the Dragon is a pretty standard Livingstonian adventure, often criticized in the reviews for the random nature of the dungeon itself, the twisting paths and the rather weak backstory. It's still a decent if bizarre adventure, featuring many Continuity Nods to previous titles and adventures of the series, and was notable as the first completely original entry in the series published by Wizard Books.
Do not confuse with The Eye of the Dragon, the fourth entry of the Golden Dragon Fantasy Gamebooks series.
Eye of the Dragon provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream: You and Littlebig might get turned into a living portrait during this adventure.
- Big Bad: Henry Delacor, a.k.a. Sharcle, a rogue aiming for the Golden Dragon.
- Big Red Devil: The Hell Demon you can possibly fight is one, save for the pitchfork.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: In the very beginning, Sharcle still decides to give you a drink spiked with poison in order to force you to recover the Dragon, in spite of the blatant fact that you wanted to do so and share the booty with him in the first place. For further idiocy, the poison was a bluff.
- Boss Bonanza: The final part of the dungeon has several boss fights against powerful opponents, namely the Gigantus, the Doppelganger and a Black Dragon. The last one, thankfully, is a Skippable Boss.
- Call-Back/Continuity Cavalcade: This book has an impressive amount of references to previous works, such as:
- Deathtrap Dungeon: The first part of the dungeons and the many encounters calls this one to mind, including a room that seemingly speaks to you. Also, you start the story in Fang.
- The Forest of Doom: You get a Dwarf companion named Littlebig, who's Bigleg's nephew. The dungeon is located under Darkwood Forest as well.
- House of Hell: You can encounter a Hell Demon who looks nearly identical to the one in the book, is disguised as a meek old man and can be killed with a Kris dagger.
- The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Part of the dungeon calls Zagor's one to mind. You can also find a suspiciously similar Evil Wizard, the choice of two magical helmets, numbered keys required for the end game and a wooden seat that restores your health if you sit on it.
- Carrying the Antidote: Henry Delacor/Sharcle claims that only he has the antidote to the poison he gave you. Turns out he's bluffing: he didn't even have the poison in the first place.
- Con Man: Unlike many other main villains, Henry Delacor, a.k.a. Sharcle the Man-Orc, is a rogueish adventurer who makes his way through life by beguiling and tricking others and taking advantage over them. His fighting stats reflects this.
- Cool Sword: The magic sword you can find in the Niblick's lair is called "Skullsplitter" and becomes unvaluable when fighting the Verminspawn, countering the monster's aura of fear.
- Dirty Coward: You don't even need to kill Sharcle to beat him, only wound him twice. He will spend his remaining minutes begging for mercy.
- Dragon Hoard: The Black Dragon in the dungeon sleeps over a gigantic hoard of gold.
- Evil Sorcerer: One simply called the "Evil Wizard pops out of thin air to confront you halfway through the dungeon. You can defeat him with a magical item.
- Expy: The shopkeeper in the dungeon looks remarkably like Ian Livingstone.
- Fat Bastard: Henry Delacor is rather portly and is a remorseless prick.
- Faux Affably Evil: Henry Delacor seems quite nice and affable... then poison you and blackmail you for absolutely no reason.
- Fighting Your Friend: Invoked when you run into the Doppelganger, who takes the form of Littlebig. Subverted if you guess the right one.
- Giant Space Flea From No Where: The collocation of many monsters in this dungeon seems to be rather random. Egregious example is the Evil Wizard who appears out of thin air in a corridor to attack you.
- Glamour: Pia the witch appears before you as a beautiful young woman, but she is actually a wizened old crone.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The five keys required to obtain the hints for the final puzzle. Subverted in that you can still guess the order of the puzzle via Trial-and-Error Gameplay.
- Hired Guns: In a rather outlandish example, when you fight the Uglukk Orcs, a massive warrior will enter the room, look at the mess and then offers to fight for you for 10 gold pieces. If you refuse to pay him, he will attack you. If you ignore him, he will go away, only to be killed by the Orc.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Your character. Sure, have a talk with the shady black-robed stranger who just entered your room...
- Intrepid Merchant: A merchant of items and one of potions both dwell inside the dungeon in the middle of nowhere.
- Kick the Dog: Sharcle opens the final combat by shooting Littlebig with his crossbow.
- Lazy Dragon: The Black Dragon, as depicted on the front cover, turns out to be asleep when you inevitably encounter it. You'll need to find a way to get past the dragon without waking it up, or else be dragged into a battle against a SKILL 14 boss.
- Luck-Based Mission: If you didn't find all the keyes, you can still guess the order of the five weapons you need to pull from the wall.
- Ludicrous Precision: As many reviewer noted, it's rather odd that Henry can surely estimate that the Golden Dragon is worth exactly 335000 gold pieces.
- MacGuffin: The Golden Dragon statuette, as well as the two emerald eyes required to safely take the statue in the first place. You start the game with one of the two eyes in your possession.
- Magic Potion: Pia the Enchantress will sell you various magical items, including a Clear Vision potion, a Water Breathing potion and a Green Skin potion.
- Ms. Fanservice: Pia appears as a good-looking girl with a midriff-baring attire that resembles the one of a belly dancer. Subverted by her real self, which is an old hag.
- Multiple Head Case: Henry mentioned running into a two-headed Troll in the dungeon. You can actually meet him in one of the rooms early on.
- My Brain Is Big: The Doppelganger has a nightmarishingly bloated, pulsating cranium and psi powers to go with it.
-
Nausea Fuel: The Verminspawn is a grotesque, obese monster with rotten skin and all manner of insects and critters crawling over it. - Personal Space Invader: Opening a random barrel will result in two massive Jumping Spiders to pounce out of the container and latch on your body to bite you.
- Race Against the Clock: In the backstory, Henry slips you some poison, which means that you must complete your mission as fast as possible. Subverted, it wasn't really poison, and he was bluffing.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Several can be found in this book, usually in the form of notes you can find around."Roses are red, violets are blue"
"A face like yours belongs in a zoo"
(cue inescapable portcullis trap shutting down from behind you) - Rock Monster: The Gigantus, possibly the toughest mandatory opponent you can run into, is a gigantic humanoid covered in rocky hide with horns.
- Sequential Boss: The Serpent Witch will first send her pets against you, then turn her limbs into snakes to fight. After defeating her, she will give you an item and disappear.
- Skippable Boss: The Black Dragon depicted on the front cover is an insanely powerful SKILL 14 opponent, but thankfully you can get around it before it wakes up.
- Smug Snake: Henry Delacor/Sharcle the Man-Orc is a rather slimy fellow who's genuinely convinced that things will go the way he wants.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Henry Delacor. His plan? After you tell him in his face that you wish to enter the dungeon and recover the other Eye and the Dragon itself and share the booty with him, he, rather than let you proceed and return with the statue (or die in the attempt) or coming with you, he decides to offer you a drink (which you, adhering to the trope as well, drink without question) which he claims is poisoned, and "forces" you to go looking for the Dragon asap if you want the antidote. To cap it all, it's revealed when you finally off him for good that the "poison" was fake and he was bluffing, making his entire plan sound incredibly stupid.
- The mercenary warrior who stumbles on you when you're fighting the Uglukk Orcs. If you refuse his offer he will shrug and walk away... allowing the Orc to brain him from behind with his morningstar, which in return allows you to brain said Orc.
- Villains Want Mercy: After fatally wounding Sharcle he will beg for mercy like the slimy bastard he is.
- Weaksauce Weakness: For some reason, the Evil Wizard is terrified of a Moonstone Brooch and will run away screaming if you have one with you.
- Weapon of X-Slaying: As it turns out, Kris Daggers do wonders against Hell Demons.
