Literature / Legend of Zagor

Four new heroes rise to challenge one old foe...

Legend of Zagor is the 54^th entry of the Fighting Fantasy series of Gamebooks, written by Keith Martin, though credited to Ian Livingstone, who was meant to write it, but found he did not have the time to do so, so Martin wrote it instead; he made little effort to copy Livingstone's style, either, as the moment the book was released readers noted how similar the writing style and gameplay were to Martin's, creating a Running Gag in the fandom that Livingstone had stolen the credit for the book from Martin and buried him in his back garden. Livingstone admitted the truth of the book's authorship when prompted in 2014 (it was for a book on the history of the series, and was the first time anyone had directly asked him about it).

After the events of Return to Firetop Mountain, Zagor was once again stopped and killed by a brave adventurer, who slew the treacherous revenant Warlock and put an end to his threat to Allansia and Titan... the keyword here is, to Allansia. In the parallel world of Amarilla, a great battle was fought by the forces of good to defeat the powerful Bone Demon plaguing Castle Argent and his armies of dragons, orcs and demons. At the conclusion of the battle, the Bone Demon was sealed forever in the Casket of Souls. However, YOU are soon summoned by the good king Irian of Sanctuary to discuss an urgent matter: using a magical crystal, he contacted the wizard Gereth Yaztromo of Titan, who revealed that the soul of Zagor entered the dimension of Amarilla and was sucked inside the Casket of Souls. Zagor's soul merged with the Bone Demon and escaped, now free to start a new kingdom of ruin and horror from Tower Island. It is up to YOU to take on the role of one of four adventurers (Anvar the Barbarian, Braxus the Warrior, Stubble the Dwarf and Sallazar the Wizard) and undertake a perilous quest: enter Castle Argent, defeat Zagor, and make sure that this time he doesn't return from the dead again to threaten Titan or Amarilla.

Legend of Zagor is highly unusual since, as stated above, you can play as four pre-generated characters (though you still have to roll for their Skill, Stamina, and Luck scores), each having unique advantages and disadvantages: Anvar is never taken by surprise but cannot wear metal armor, Braxus can use any weapon and armor he wishes, Stubble is advantaged against certain enemies and traps but is too short for certain sections, and Sallazar is the best spellcaster and can read runes, but cannot use two-handed weapons or wear armor. This also adds to the replay value, as each hero has a different way to reach the end. You can explore many parts of the castle searching for Zagor or the Tower Chests to weaken his powers and are frequently allowed to revisit certain hub locations in case you miss something.

On the other hand, as many reviewers point out, there are plenty of combat situations with powerful opponents, more often than not in compulsory battles. There's also a magic system that allows you to spend Magic Points to activate scrolls and items, or if you're Sallazar, cast spells.

Also notable for receiving an electronic talking board game adaptation.

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Legend of Zagor provides examples of:

• Action Survivor:
  • The three thieves you can find hidden in a dungeon room behind a secret passage survive by scavenging food and items from the floors above while avoiding the Orcs or the dungeons. You can even hire one of them to be your guide, who will unlock chests and doors and help you in combat.
  • Sir Davian, a dispirited knight hiding somewhere in the castle.
• Acid Attack: You can find some vials of acid that can be thrown at enemies to do damage. The Mutant Chaos Ogre also uses acid in its attacks, and using the Onyx Staff successfully against Grool will conjure an acid-filled goblet to deal major damage to the Mutant Ogre.
• Already Done for You: If you talk to the elf-thief Elranel about Tower Chests, he'll have found a Silver Dagger that you can buy from him.
• Anchored Teleportation: Players who chose Sallazar the Wizard as their character can gain access to the wizard-exclusive Teleport Spell, which works only in the presence of specific magic portals (usually disguised as mirrors, paintings, etc) and transports them to a fixed location within Castle Argent. However, its results are usually impractical - Sallazar can perform a Dungeon Bypass and skip some dangerous bosses, but he will also miss out specific items necessary for his quest.
• Antagonist Abilities: Nearly all the "Bosses" have special attacks that can deal more damage or handicap you in some way, as well as having very high Stamina and Skill scores. Zagor in particular can cast spells that can drain your Skill as well as your Stamina.
• Antagonist Title: With a nice "The Legend of" attached to it, a privilege otherwise only granted to the Shadow Warriors.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The book allows you to revisit several important locations that hold key items and other useful things in case you missed something essential.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Sallazar cannot wear armor beside his standard leather vest, which is quite an inconvenience. However, he can freely cast spells on his own, while the other three heroes need a magic scroll.
• Assist Character: You can find both a thief hireling and an Ironhog that can assist you in fights.
• The Atoner: Remstar the Wizard is bound to serve the Bone Demon, but is forced to do so and genuinely wishes to repent. You can release him of his bond if you sacrifice either a Magic point or 1 Initial point of Skill, Stamina, and Luck.
• Attack Its Weak Point: When fighting Crown Zombies, knocking their titular circlets off their heads will both cripple and damage them.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Thulu is the king of the Orcs and he's the strongest Orc in the castle, obeying Zagor's orders.
• Balance, Power, Skill, Gimmick: The four heroes exemplify this. The Jack of All Stats Braxus, who can use any weapon or armor, is balanced; Anvar, who has the highest raw Skill and Stamina potential, is the power character; Stubble, who relies on luck and other dwarfish advantages, counts as skill; and Sallazar, who isn't physically strong but has magic to make up for it, is the gimmick character.
• Barbarian Hero: While Anvar can use all weapons without restriction, he won't wear platemail. He also possesses a keen instinct, which means that he's never caught by surprise and can avoid taking damage from sneak attacks.
• Berserk Button:
  • The Dark Elf Mage is a mortal enemy of Remstar; mention his name in his presence and he'll go ballistic.
  • The Orc Chieftain really hates dwarves, and gains a bonus when fighting Stubble.
• BFS: You can find two-handed swords and axes to use, though Stubble (has short limbs) and Sallazar (not trained) cannot take them.
• Big Bad: For the third time, it's Zagor, merged with a local Bone Demon but still retaining all his personality and even more dark powers.
• Bizarre Gambling Winnings: The player comes across one of Castle Argent's long-abandoned armory where two goblins are gambling, with toenails as betting chips. Turns out the goblins are so filthy, overgrown nails are a sort of delicacy for them.
• Black Swords Are Better: A Dark Knight in the corridor beyond the Bronze Stride wields an enchanted black zweihander which Braxus can take as his Infinity +1 Sword, giving sweet bonuses against Dragons or Zagor.
• Blow You Away: When you fight the Air Elemental, you must test your Skill to see if he can knock you down with a gust of wind, dealing minor damage and lowering your attack.
• Boring, but Practical: Braxus has average stats, can use all armor and weapons, and has no special skills but no disadvantages whatsoever.
• Breath Weapon: The War Dragons can breathe fire, predictably enough, as well as the Champion Hellhorn (toxic fumes that lower your attack) and the Mutant Chaos Ogre, who belches globs of highly-corrosive slime.
• Came Back Strong: Zagor returned from the dead once more, has fused with a Bone Demon, and became incredibly more powerful than he was before.
• Captain Ersatz: Anvar looks and acts rather a lot like Sláine.
• Chekhov's Gun: If you pay the fortune teller in Sanctuary, he will reveal important cryptic clues about using the Onyx Staff.
• Collapsing Lair: Downplayed. Castle Argent begins shaking and trembling when you defeat Zagor and start dragging him all the way to the Heartfires but it does not collapse in the end.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Four rooms on the second floor have distinctive colors and heraldic symbols, namely White, Green, Blue and Yellow. You must fight the guardian inside to see the number and color of the heraldic symbols (Blue Chevrons, Red Lions, Yellow Goblets and Green Stars) to know how to use the Onyx Wand against the Champion Hellhorn, the Dark Knight, Grool, and the War Dragon respectively.
• Continuity Nod: Plenty of references to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Return to Firetop Mountain: Zagor once again is served by Orcs and Undead, has an evil portrait through which he can see you in his lair, uses magical cards, and is guarded by a Dragon. As a nod to the latter book, the only thing left of Zagor was his skeletal left arm, which can be seen embedded in his Demon form's chest, and his treasure chest is filled with Golden Zagors, the money he mints.
• Contractual Boss Immunity:
  • Useful abilities like an Invisibility Cloak or a paralyzing genie are completely ineffective against dragons or Zagor.
  • Sir Bethel's magic, orc-slaying sword works on every orcish enemy except Thulu, the King Mook orc chieftain, for reasons unexplained.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Averted with the Heartfire room: while the roaring flames make the room incredibly hot, the rope bridge over the fiery abyss is magically enchanted to be fire-proof.
• The Corrupter: The Bone Demon did this to Castle Argent and his people as a whole, and Zagor's return only made things worse.
• Crazy-Prepared: If you try to reach Zagor with a Flight Potion, you'll find out that he cast a spell to make an invisible airborne wall just to prevent this, which means that you take damage and allow Zagor to hit you with a spell.
• Danger Sense: Anvar has a sixth sense for danger, allowing him to avoid sneak attacks from traps or monsters.
• Death by Materialism: If you defy sense and safety to get at the treasure chest in the Mutant Chaos Ogre's room while he's about to flood the room with acid, you'll be corroded to death.
• Deflector Shields: Magic Screen spells are available in this adventure, which both you and your foes can use to negate each others' magical attacks.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Or a dragon in this case. The War Dragon may be many feet above you on a floating platform, but you're not going to taunt it into coming down to fight you by yelling at it; it'll just roast you to a crisp without even getting up.
• Dracolich: A powerful Bone Dragon can be encountered in the dungeons of Castle Argent. It has powerful scores of Skill 10 and Stamina 20, but you can attack him first twice since he's composing his skeletal body to fight. Killing it lets you have the Wand of the Hawk that Sallazar can use.
• The Dragon: While a Continuity Nod to the Red Dragon of the first book, the War Dragon is much more than a mere Right-Hand Attack Dog. He leads the Bone Demons' forces and is heavily implied to have prevented them from collapsing entirely, and kept his evil influence over Castle Argent intact. He is the second-to-last boss and the second mightiest foe of the game, roughly as dangerous as his lord, having SKILL 15, STAMINA 20 and a slew of dangerous attacks.
• Dragon Hoard: You can encounter two different dragons in the adventure - a young dragon implied to be related to the Bone Demon's War Dragon, and later the great War Dragon itself - and sure enough, both of them are shown asleep near piles of treasure. Your character even lampshades this trope after defeating the War Dragon, thinking aloud where are the treasure troves that dragons are known for guarding.
• Dressing as the Enemy: If you're using Braxus or Sallazar and enter the ruined dame's powder room you can salvage some make-up and powders to pass yourself as a Zombie, which allows you to infiltrate Thulu's Throne Room unnoticed and get the advantage of surprise.
• Elemental Embodiment: The infamously tough Air Elemental guards a room on the second floor hiding the precious Onyx Staff, as well as many Stone monsters, against which Stubble has a combat bonus due to his race.
• Elite Mooks:
  • Mutant Orcs, they wear no armour, yet they're stronger than regular orcs, having more SKILL and STAMINA and can even survive a single Lightning Spell.
  • The Crown Zombies are upgraded zombies with impressively high STAMINA, although you can damage them by going for the crown.
• Emergency Weapon: All heroes carry a small knife they can use if they lose their main weapon, but only deals 1 point of damage.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: No kidding, the castle is filled to the brim with dangers and creatures, living or undead, hungry for your blood. Pretty much every room has a foe more than happy to kill you, and that's without going into the plagues or traps.
• Final Boss: Demon-Zagor, fought in his throne room in the innermost tower of the castle, gifted with SKILL 16, STAMINA 20 and a series of powerful spells and attacks to lay waste on you. However, for every Gold Medallion and Silver Dagger you have collected you can detract, respectively, -1 skill and -2 stamina, making the battle easier. Or killing him outright if you could gather ten daggers.
• Flechette Storm: Using the Onyx Staff successfully against the Hellhorn Champion will bombard him with a shower of magic chevron arrowheads, dealing severe damage.
• Frankenstein Monster: Mungus the Jailer was turned into a grotesque, stitched-up abomination who hits like a truck full of concrete blocks. One of the early foes is a "Corpse Lizard", which is essentially a hybrid of this trope and Lizard Folk.
• Fun with Acronyms: Minor example, in order to unlock the Meditation Chamber where you can fully heal yourself at any time, you must get four gems in another room and use them in the right order, using the first letter of the gems' names to solve the riddle. The gems are ruby, emerald, sapphire and topaz, hence the password is rest.
• Fusion Dance: Offscreen, Zagor's resurrecting essence was sucked in the Casket of Souls by the Bone Demon's presence, which merged the two into a singular entity.
• Genius Bruiser: Grool, the cyclopean ogre that guards one of the keys to Zagor's sanctum. As brutish as an ogre is, he's also smart enough to teleport away when things look bad, heal himself with potions if he has the chance, and even use a freaking ballista against you!
• Gotta Catch Them All: In the introduction, you're advised to look for the Tower Chests (which, however, are trapped and you risk either a Luck point or 3 Damage points each) to obtain either the Gold Medallions or the Silver Daggers. The former lower Zagor's skill score, the latter works for his stamina. They're not mandatory, but the more you have, the easier the final battle gets.
• Hand in the Hole: You are given an option to search a hole, but you risk getting bitten by a stray rat who's hiding in it. And in order to search said hole, you'll need to kill the rat with a dagger. On the plus side, the hole contains a Potion of Flying.
• Healing Hands: There are a couple of healers around the castle that will help the adventurer; one in particular, Zuqurulm, will even teach Braxus and Sallazar how to do it themselves!
• Healing Spring: One with limited healing capacity, however. The interior garden of Castle Argent contains a healing fountain whose waters can restore limited amounts of stamina, and you can collect some of them if you happen to have glass bottles in your inventory. But once you're done collecting, the fountain runs dry and you won't be able to come back for more.
• Human Head on the Wall: You can come across Mungo's trophy room — a single bare room displaying four preserved heads of former victims of the Bone Demon's takeover of the fortress, respectively belonging to a court jester, a viscount, a duke, and a castellan. If you have enough magic points, you can try to summon one of their ghosts through the decapitated heads, although the results may vary ^note  the jester turns out to have become an insane spirit and chases you out of the room, the viscount and the duke fails to show any response, while the castellan on the other hand will provide you a useful clue .
• Infinity +1 Sword: Each character can find a magical weapon granting bonus attacks against Dragons or Zagor himself. Anvar obtains the Barbarian Axe, Braxus gets a Black Greatsword, Stubble obtains a Stone Hammer and Sallazar can get his hands on the Wand of the Hawk. Furthermore, it's possible to obtain more than one of these weapons, but only the mentioned character can get the bonuses from said weapon (for example, Braxus doesn't get any bonus from the Barbarian Axe, even if he can use it.
• Intrepid Merchant: "Three Eyes" Haag has set shop in the middle of the first floor, and is more than willing to sell to you. He says that his magic protections keep the Orcs at bay, and it's implied that the current residents occasionally barter with him from time to time.
• I Know Your True Name: The merchant Cohsturre/Three-Eyes Haag and the priest Zuqurulm will provide further assistance for you when you reveal their true names. Remstar the ghost-wizard won't help you if you reveal his name, but you'll get a chance to free him from his torment without fighting him.
• Kick the Dog: In one room you can find a single Orc torturing an Ironhog with a wooden spear for shit and giggles.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • You can greatly damage the Great Mummy in the Corridor of Fear by throwing your lantern at it or casting a Fireball spell.
  • One relic you find is a Lava Sphere made by the Dwarves of Grundia, which will explode into a ball of flames once activated.
  • The only way to get rid of Zagor once and for all is by throwing his regenerating corpse into the chasm of the Heartfires.
• King Mook: Thulu, king of the Orcs of Castle Argent and also the strongest Orc you can run across.
• Kryptonite Factor:
  • The Golden Medallions and Silver Daggers are these to Zagor himself. They reduce his stats.
  • The Onyx Staff, with the knowledge of the symbols, can be used to deal massive damage to four of Zagor's most powerful creatures.
  • You can get your hands on some grave dust that will do critical damage to any undead creature. Likewise, you can find some orcbane that you can apply to your weapons to, as the name suggests, deal extra damage to orcs.
• Lazy Dragon: Both the War Dragon and it's juvenile offspring, the young dragon, are depicted as asleep in their respective encounters. They both guard piles of treasure, too, and the younger dragon is a much easier opponent.
• Looks Like Orlok: Zagor's new body is thin with a bald head, bat-like visage, red eyes and sharp teeth, along with pale teal skin and sharpened nails. Contrasting all of this, he's about four meters tall.
• Luck-Based Mission: Whenever you open a Tower Chest, roll a dice to see if you get a Golden Medallion or a Silver Dagger. Hence determining how easier the final battle against Zagor becomes.
• MacGuffin Guardian: Plentiful, guarding important stuff: The four Heraldic Rooms are guarded by Animated Armors (two of them for two rooms), a Stone Colossus and a Plant Golem. Each of the four Infinity +1 Sword weapons are kept by a monster, while the Champion Hellhorn and Grool guards the Dragonbone Keys leading to Zagor's inner sanctum. Most of the time you can actually run away from the room to avoid combat. Subverted with the Mutant Chaos Ogre: despite guarding a chest in his room, he explodes into a veritable flood of acid when killed, which melts the entire room, chest included.
• Magic Potion: There are various potions that can help you on your quest, including the usual potions that restores SKILL and STAMINA, an anti-venom (which makes you immune to poison attacks) and, the rarest of all, the Potion of Flying that can only be obtained in two areas.
• Mana Potion: Or Mana Rings. Magic Rings are available in several locations throughout the adventure, either purchasable in shops or found in various rooms in Castle Argent. These rings can restore 1 Magic Point to the wearer, but then needs to be discarded afterwards for they are one-use only. Players assuming the role of Sallazar the Wizard meanwhile can obtain a Wand that boosts his Magic Point in various locations.
• Messy Pig: You can obtain a Ironhog pet: this little boar is covered in iron plates and feeds on iron. If you feed him some metal spikes, he will help you by eating up the armor of certain enemies.
• A Molten Date with Death: How Zagor is finally destroyed: after defeating him, you must carry his towering corpse to the Chamber of Heartfires and drop him in, destroying him for good, else he resurrects himself and kills you instantly.
• Mooks: Orcs serves as Zagor's main servants and slaves.
• Multi-Mook Melee: The Throne Room has you fighting 5 couples of enemies in a row. Very difficult indeed if you can't take them by surprise and haven't found the Lava Sphere or the dancing Orc-Slaying Sword.
• The Needless: Sir Davian has a magic ring which allows him to survive without food or water, where he had remained stuck in the Castle's dungeon for an unspecified amount of time without requiring sustenance. The only way you can obtain this ring is by stealing from Davian's corpse after killing him, but doing so makes you miss out a clue on obtaining Sir Bethel's magical sword, and really isn't advised.
• Nintendo Hard: Scarce Magic Points that must be used to employ magical items, frequent combats with powerful enemies, plenty of Red Herring around and the Tower Chests, while useful, forces you to spend precious LUCK points.
• No-Sell: Certain enemies are immune to mundane weapons, forcing you to rely on Magical Weapons. Stubble, being shorter than the others, has trouble running around or climbing stairs but has a easier time in navigating smaller tunnels and can avoid traps simply because the blades/darts fly over his head. Literally.
• Nothing but Skulls: The Corridor of Fear's walls are seemingly made by a single mass of skulls embedded into the stone itself.
• One-Hit KO: There are a few abilities that can do this in the adventure, mostly Antagonist Abilities.
  • The Stone Colossus's basilisk-skin whip that causes you to be Taken for Granite on a hit.
  • While fighting the hag Grizzel and her cat Wacket, on a very (un)lucky hit, you can be paralyzed by Wacket's saliva and have your adventure ended right then.
  • Three-Eyes Haag has a genie that can instantly paralyze anyone to be killed. He will use it on you if you attack him, but you can also buy the genie from him and use it to defeat any one enemy you encounter (though many monsters, like dragons and Zagor, are immune to it).
  • The Plaguebearer's Touch of Death only requires one hit to turn you into a plague bearer yourself.
  • On the other hand, if you're playing as Sallazar, you can use the Death Spell, which can instantly kill enemies whose SKILL is 9 or lower, regardless of how high their STAMINA is. Best to save this spell for bosses like Grool and Thulu.
• Open the Door and See All the People: This happens when you enter Thulu's Throne Room... and is greeted by a banquet hall filled with Orcs. Hope you've ingested an Invisibility potion or have disguised yourself as a zombie beforehand!
• Orcus on His Throne: Like in the previous titles, Zagor is a sedentary boss, waiting in his well-protected throne room. He has a reason this time, as he is merely waiting for his transformation to be complete, which would make him fully unstoppable.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: The sea captain who leads you to Tower Island is a Centaur who owns magical horseshoes that allows him to walk on water.
• Our Dragons Are Different: War Dragons were a race of powerful and fierce magic-wielding egil dragons, raised by the Bone Demon to act as his vassals. One of them is still alive and protects Zagor's hideout.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Two mutants in the Castle: the Mutant Chaos Ogre is a bloated, clawed monstrosity hooked up some acid tanks who can spit and bleed corrosive slime. The other is Grool, a crafty, horned, cyclopean mutant who guards the Dragonbone Keys in the eastern Wing.
• Poisoned Weapons: A lot of enemies use poisoned weapons that will deal extra damage - Elranel the elf, Grizzel the hag, the Hellhorn Champion, Zagor himself...
• The Plague: You can be infected with one (or more!) different strains of plague if you let the wrong enemy get a hit in on you. Luckily there's Plague Antidote and a few healers around if you can find them.
• Pyrrhic Victory: If you reach the Heartfires with Zagor's corpse but your STAMINA is 3 or lower, you'll lose your balance and fall into the Fires with Zagor: you won, but won't be around to enjoy your victory. Crosses over with Heroic Sacrifice if you were injured enough by the fight against Zagor to fall below this threshold, but still carried out your mission to throw his corpse in anyway, or with Taking You with Me if Zagor's corpse managed to regenerate and damage you enough to take you with him.
• Quieting the Unquiet Dead: You might come across the Vengeful Ghost of Remstar the Wizard in the Chamber of Heartfires. If you know his name, you are given the option to pacify him by spending 1 Magic Point to have Remstar laid to rest, overcoming him without a fight.
• Race Against the Clock: Once you kill Zagor, You have to carry his massive corpse to the Heartfires and have 500 seconds to do so before he starts to regenerate (after which you have 800 more seconds to deliver him to the flames before he regenerates enough to kill you).
• Random Encounters: As you set sail towards Tower Island, you can discard a LUCK point to avoid an encounter. If you don't, you must fight a Fog Wyvern.
• Red Herring:
  • In the ruined village outside Castle Argent, you can find a vision Pit which, if you throw a coin in it, will advise you not to trust Remstar the Wizard. While you can fight him, it's possible to release him from his torment without a fight.
  • Casting an Open spell on the door to Zagor's sanctum will just have Zagor mock you for wasting your precious magic on a door that wasn't even magically trapped.
• Resurrective Immortality: Demon Zagor can revive himself at will, no matter how badly-damaged he is. If 500 seconds expires while you drag him to the Heartfires, he will start to awaken and will claw at you, hindering and damaging you as you proceed to the Heartfires chamber. If you take too long after that, he'll fully regenerate and disembowel you.
• Reverse Shrapnel: Using the Onyx Staff successfully against the War Dragon will conjure a ring of magical stars around its head, that will stab at it periodically and both injure and distract it.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If you have a Thief hireling or an Ironhog, they will flee after a certain amount of combat or if you run into a Dragon.
• Seers: You can consult with one of the king's sages at the harbor before you set out for Castle Argent. If you help one of his customers, he'll share with you a bit of doggerel that tells you which of the Onyx Staff's symbols is effective against which sub-boss.
• Shoplift and Die: Don't attack the merchant Three-Eyes Haag if you find him; he has a genie that will paralyze you and end your adventure right there.
• Skippable Boss: If you feel lucky, you don't have to fight and kill all the bosses guarding the various chests and rooms.
  • The Dark Knight is only a mandatory boss for Braxus for the Infinity+1 Sword; Anvar, Stubble and Sallazar would've already have their own Infinity+1 Weapons at that point.
• Squishy Wizard: Sallazar has the highest magic and can cast without a scroll or read runes, but has the lowest SKILL and STAMINA output of the foursome, making certain sections trickier.
• Summon Magic: Using the Onyx Staff successfully against the Black Knight will conjure a magical lion that the Knight will have to fight as well as you.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: The Corridor of Fear fills your heart with sheer terror as you cross it.
• Swarm of Rats: The once-lavish banquet hall of Castle Argent is infested by a rodent horde, which attacks you immediately should you choose to enter (you can use a spell to look into the hall, and the moment you realize it's infested by rodents the book will tell you to "never go there"). You fight the swarm as a single creature, and even if you win, you risk catching the Bubonic Plague, a disease which periodically drains your stamina.
• Take That!: A very minor and subdued one, but if you see the treasure chest behind Zagor's throne but refuse to open it, the narration will praise you for this choice and point out that you're not here for greed alone, possibly a nod to the infamous controversy regarding the player's actual intentions and morality back in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
• Taken for Granite: In an original variation, the Stone Colossus wields a whip made of Basilisk skin, which will turn you to stone on a successful hit.
• Tarot Troubles: In a secret cave beneath the Heartfires you can find Zagor's tarot deck, which can either net you a free Silver Dagger or a malus. Zagor also tries to use his cards against you in the final battle.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Feeding the Parnassian Ironhog you encounter with iron spikes will allow you to recruit it as a temporary Assist Character.
• Throne Room Throwdown: Your penultimate battle against Zagor takes place in his throne room, atop some steps. You actually need to find a way up those steps first (since Zagor casted spells to prevent you from advancing) before fighting the demon.
• Touch of Death: The Plaguebearer has low stats (7 SKILL and 4 STAMINA) but only needs one touch to kill you.
• Transhuman Treachery: While Demon Zagor is an incredible threat, we all know that he was a despicable piece of work back when he was human.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: When you calculate the formula to use the Onyx Staff against the War Dragon, the book neglects to mention that you have to subtract 100 from the result to find the correct paragraph.
• Unreliable Illustrator: Some details in the description of Demon Zagor do not match with the picture: the skeletal left arm embedded in his side is nowhere to be seen (is covered by a robe), and is empty-handed despite being described with a staff.
• Vengeful Ghost: Castle Argent is filled with these. While some of them can be reasoned with (like Remstar the Wizard, if you know his name), most of them, like the Specter, will hunt down and kill everyone in sight, including you.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Find three struggling thieves or a dispirited knight just trying to survive inside the monster-filled realms of Castle Argent? You can kill them as well and take their stuff.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: You can find a magical sword made to slay Orcs, though you don't brandish it but simply throw it at them, causing the sword to dance and slice all nearby Orcish enemies.

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