I wonder if the Dark Elf Sorcerer needed a hand in making that cool necklace...
Siege of Sardath is the 49th entry in the Fighting Fantasy series of Gamebooks, written by Keith P. Phillips, his sole contribution to the Fighting Fantasy franchise.
For centuries, men, dwarves and elves have coexisted peacefully in the town of Grimmund, until one day, from the Forest of Night, an ancient threat arises. Dark Elves have seized power, and their armies of sinister Black Flyers have invaded the once-peaceful surrounding towns. In the sister city of Sardath, the Dark Elves have completely taken over, and the evil Dark Elf Sorcerer has cut off access into Sardath while plotting to expand their territory into neighboring lands.
You are the last hope capable of stopping the Dark Elves. To liberate Sardath and put a stop to the Dark Elf menace before it spreads to surrounding cities, you must venture through the Forest of Night, bypass the Black Flyers and Dark Elf forces surrounding the walls of Sardath, infiltrate the Dark Elves' stronghold, and destroy the source of evil festering in the once peaceful city of Sardath!
For other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks involving evil Dark Elves or their allies as major villains, check out Phantoms of Fear, Tower of Destruction, Master of Chaos and Temple of Terror.
Siege of Sardath provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream:
- If you screw up the potion-making process, you can ingest a fatal potion that turns you into a living mist on page 218. You have no body, but you are still aware of your surroundings and can still see and hear, but you can't do anything else, and you can never return to normal.
- Getting pulled into the Mirror Demon's dimension causes you to become trapped there permanently.
- Affably Evil: The Dark Elf Sorcerer is surprisingly courteous and polite, congratulating your progress earnestly. However he is clearly threatening, and enjoys taunting you when he has you on the ropes.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Dark Elves.
- Assist Character: And one of the strongest in the franchise, to boot. If you follow the correct methods, you can obtain the assistance of Istu the Veiled Guardian, a Skill 12 Stamina 15' magic warrior who can help you greatly against stronger foes. Unfortunately, for every battle he assists you in, Istu will automatically lose 3 Stamina points due to the massive amount of energy required for his materialization.
- Badass in Distress: You find Corianthus the Storm Giant imprisoned in a cage guarded by several Dark Elves.
- Barrier Warrior: The Dark Elf Sorcerer has various shielding spells that block your attacks.
- Big Bad: The Dark Elf Sorcerer, and a powerful one at that, complete with cool Badass Longcoat, Badass Cape and Badass Longrobe.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Giant spitting spiders, stag beetles and wolf spiders all await you in your journey.
- Blob Monster: You come across a monster called the Vampyric Slime Mould.
- Body Horror: Getting the Vampyric Mould stuck on your body turns you into a horribly deformed Mould Zombie.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: You can wield a bow and a sword as weapons right at the beginning of this quest.
- The Bus Came Back: Remember Suma from Crypt of the Sorcerer? He comes back in a vision to provide for you some advice.
- Call-Back: Once again, you fight another Mirror Demon like the one from Deathtrap Dungeon.
- Cassandra Truth: When Grimmund is plagued by a series of increasingly bizarre incidents, you suggest that some unknown enemy is deliberately plotting to conquer the land. In an almost chilling display of Genre Blindness, the rest of the council laughs at your suggestion. Naturally enough, events soon prove that you're right.
- Creepy Souvenir: The Dark Elf Sorceror wears a necklace made from the skeleton of a severed human hand.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Attacking the Dark Elf Sorcerer head on is a bad idea...
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Veiled Guardians are all demon lords of high authority. Istu, the 12th Guardian, can actually become your ally.
- Despotism Justifies the Means: The Dark Elf Sorceror's MO.
- Dressing as the Enemy: You can drink a shape-shifting potion to turn yourself into a Dark Elf and infiltrate the Elf Sorcerer's stronghold.
- Elaborate Underground Base: You infiltrate one of these built by the Dark Elves, and confront the Dark Elf Sorceror over here.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Xanthic Horror is a mess of tentacles, organs, limbs and body parts fused together which rises from underground to attack you.
- Elite Mooks: The Dark Elf Sorcerer has several Praetorian Guard Dark Elf warriors, which are stronger and deadlier than regular Dark Elves.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": What, exactly, is the Dark Elf Sorceror's name?
- Evil Counterpart Race: The Dark Elves are these to the lawful elves, which are on your side.
- Evil Genius: The Dark Elf Sorcerer is one of these, and also an Evilutionary Biologist and The Chessmaster responsible for enslaving Sardath.
- Frog Men: The Slykk, a race of non-hostile frog people you encounter en route to Sardath.
- Ghost Town: Sardath has become one of these by the time you arrived.
- Giant Flyer: You can hitch a ride on a giant eagle.
- Golem: The Toa-Suo, creatures made from earth and clay. They're pathetically weak enemies, but tend to attack in large numbers to make up for it.
- Healing Herb: Instead of Provisions, your player character has access to herbs, which can restore Stamina.
- Hellhound: You encounter two Obligaths, scary-looking horned canines with razor sharp teeth. You can throw an Orc bone at them to avoid a fight though.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: You get to cross Freezeblood Mountains, Forest of Night, and Fangthane Road on your way to Sardath. All those names sure do sound like fun tourist attractions, don't they?
- Magical Accessory: The Signet Ring, the silver Seven Coiled Snake Ring and the Brain Slayer Amulet. The last of which is compulsory in the final confrontation against the Dark Elf Sorcerer.
- Magic Mushroom: You come across various types of fungi, which may either harm or heal you, such as the Greencap and Elf Bane.
- Magic Potion: You come across a potion-brewing machine which helps you create your own shapeshifting potion by combining various ingredients you obtained throughout your quest. However, if you mix the wrong ingredients, you will be severely penalized; the worst outcome is getting transformed into a living mist... forever.
- Magic Square Puzzle: You need to play one of these at one point in order to get a secret number.
- Nature Hero: Your character's refusal for the citizens of Grimmund to burn down the forest in order to stop the Dark Elves leads to your quest.
- No Name Given: The Dark Elf Sorcerer, which is the Big Bad of this installment, doesn't even have a name.
- One-Book Author: This is the ONLY Fighting Fantasy gamebook written by Keith P. Phillips.
- One Riot, One Ranger: You are sent to liberate Sardath... ALONE. No armies can possibly penetrate the city after being completely cut off from the outside world by the Dark Elves.
- Open the Door and See All the People: While infiltrating the Dark Elves' stronghold, you can open a door leading to a mess hall full of Dark Elf guards. Hopefully your magic shape-shifting potion still works...
- Orcus on His Throne: The Dark Elf Sorcerer is content with just waiting for you in his personal quarters.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: You get to fight a ghost, which you can only win if you have a magic weapon. The ghost cannot harm you in battle, but each hit you take reduces your stats after combat.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The Mould Zombie, animated by mold growing on a corpse.
- Potion-Brewing Mechanic: You can come across the Triplex Potion Concoctor, which can mix various herbal ingredients you've collected and blend them into a useful potion for your quest. In typical Fighting Fantasy fashion, you're required to convert ingredients into numbers and turn to the correct references.
- Puzzle Boss: Your penultimate confrontation with the Dark Elf Sorcerer plays out like this.
- Samurai Ponytail: The Dark Elf Sorcerer has long hair tied up like this in the interior illustration, but not on the front cover.
- Screw You, Elves!: Your enemies in this quest are Dark Elves.
- Shock and Awe:
- The Dark Elf Sorcerer can fire yellow lighting Eye Beams at you.
- You can obtain a Lightning Sphere which can fry a whole bunch of Dark Elves.
- Talking Animal: You encounter a Black Mammoth... who can speak! He is still hostile and will attack you, though.
- To Serve Man: Dark Elves apparently feast on Orc flesh, it seems.
- Trust Password: While disguised as a Dark Elf, a Dark Elf warrior will quiz you with this. If you don't have the correct password, your cover is blown and several other Dark Elves will be alerted to your presence. The correct password is: Reply "Thionel" when greeted with "Valethion".
- Weapon of X-Slaying: You can obtain a magic sword that deals extra damage to Black Flyers and Dark Elves.
- Winged Humanoid:
- The Black Flyers, who are Dark Elves with wings magically grafted to their backs. These are basically the Airborne Mooks of the Dark Elf Sorceror.
- On the other hand, if you have a pair of Pegasus Wings, you can summon them to turn yourself into one of these.
- You Are Too Late: Should you take too much time to complete your quest, the Dark Elves' ritual will be complete, turning them near-invincible, at which point they will effortlessly destroy humans, dwarves, elves, and everything that stood in their way.
- Zerg Rush: The Toa-Suo are golem made of clay and earth, which rises from beneath the earth in large numbers. You help an army of dwarves battle these.
