The Keep of the Lich-Lord is the 43rd entry of the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks, written by Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson.
The Arrowhead Islands are in deep trouble: the evil Lich-Lord Mortis of Balthor has returned from the grave to resume his vile plans of conquest and death. He has made an alliance with the Chaos Pirates and took by force Bloodrise Keep on Stayng Island, which is now infested with undead and dangerous monsters as the natives live in fear, and the evil Mortis plots the fall of the Varadian Alliance. You are a mercenary, a brave warrior skilled with the sword and ready to perform a dangerous task: you must land on Staying Island, find a way to reach Bloodrise Keep and destroy the evil warlord before it's too late.
The Keep of the Lich-Lord presents a series of features that would later be reused by Morris and Thomson's series The Fabled Lands: optional sidequests, a heavy sense of atmosphere, passwords, multiple (optional) weapon upgrades and fleshed-out secondary characters which make an overall good adventure. The player character has also an extra score in the form of Resolve, which helps him fighting the dangerous undead on the island.
In 2014 a second version of The Keep of the Lich-Lord was released, this time adapted to be set in The Fabled Lands setting, specifically near the island of Dweomar in The Blood Dark Sea. Most of the plot and writing remained the same but Morris and Thomson changed the rules system to that of the Fabled Lands, changed the interior art and many minor elements of background (removing references to Orcs for instance while introducing references to Fabled Lands characters, deities and places.)
The Keep of the Lich-Lord provides examples of:
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Chaos Pirates, obviously enough, are more than happy to pillage and burn.
- The Bard: Garond the Minstrel is a precious source of old tales that proves vital to your quest.
- Beast Man: Most of the Chaos Pirates seems to be beast-like mutants, including a dog-like Ogre and a boar-like Orc.
- Big Bad: Lord Mortis of Balthor, the titular Lich-Lord, returned from the dead to complete his plans of conquest.
- Cannot Cross Running Water: As per tradition, undead cannot cross rivers, so Mortis built a Dam of Bones to block the river supplying the moat around the castle he invaded. One way to kill him is to destroy the dam while he's crossing.
- Carry a Big Stick:
- You can also find an iron mace you can use, which is the Weaksauce Weakness of the Skullbeast.
- Also, Mortis's weapon of choice is a big flanged mace.
- Classical Movie Vampire: Lady Lotmora, Mortis's wife and Dragon is now one, complete with Ominous Opera Cape and High Collar of Doom, not to mention Hypnotic Eyes.
- Comm Links: A fantasy example; you're given a magic ring you can use a couple of times to speak with your superiors during the quest.
- Dirty Coward: Kandogor tries to kill you in your sleep, runs away from you after the death of Lady Lotmora and faces you with a ballista mounted on a garrison gate.
- The Fair Folk: The forest of Staying Island hosts elves, the ones who made the Spear of Qadarnai, and you can obtain the Ring of the Fayes to invoke their help.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Eldinora the wood elf will accompany you in the vampire-slaying sidequest.
- Heroic Resolve: Your Resolve, which helps you resist the presence of living dead and other monsters on the island. While it can decrease if you fail a Resolve roll (to a minimum of 2), it can increase with each successful roll (to a maximum of 12).
- I Surrender, Suckers: Captain Jarnash will pretend to give up halfway through your battle with him and offer you a booby-trapped chest as a sign of good will.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Mortis was dealt with in the past, and how you can possibly deal with Kangodor and him again.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Spear of Qadarnai, which was used to slay Mortiss before, and which can be acquired in an optional quest. It doesn't increase your Skill points but it deals double damage to the undead, can be thrown and is the best and safest way to deal with Lord Mortis.
- Keystone Army: Upon Mortis' death, his army falls again.
- Kick the Dog: The Chaos Pirates torturing their prisoners for fun. Also Lord Mortis has kept Braxis, the Castellan of Bloodrise Keep, alive in the dungeon and occasionally has him tortured for fun.
- Kill It with Water: As per tradition, being immersed in running water is lethal to undead. Even the Big Bad does not survive if you manage to destroy the Dam of Bones you both stand upon, and release the river that sweeps him away and reduce him to ashes.
- Large Ham: The Centaur you can rescue from a pack of hungry wolves speaks in a haughty, pompous tone of voice, though he's a good guy.
- Luck-Based Mission: In the Vampire-hunting sidequest, you'll have to guess the location of Lady Lotmora's tomb. The sooner you find her, the more advantaged you'll be.
- Made of Iron: The Skullbeast's bony carapace is so hard that not even the Spear of Qadarnai can pierce it, reducing all damage taken (except from a mace) to 1.
- Magic Knight: Lord Mortis is an expert Necromancer who has the looks and military prowess of a Black Knight.
- Miles Gloriosus: It is mentioned that you think that most of the exploits of your Centaur friend are wildly exaggerated.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Whipperwolves are a hybrid of animal and plants, being massive wolves with long, whip-like thorns where their tails should be.
- The Mole: Early on, there's a shifty man in a tavern who will leave if you mention that you're there to defeat Mortis. Later on, he will lead an ambush against you.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Rock Golem guarding Lhyss' Fingers has four massive arms, as well as Eye Beams.
- Necromancer: Lord Mortis, though he looks more like a dark knight clad in armor rather than your standard sickly Squishy Wizard.
- No-Sell: The Ring of Fays is useless against Lord Mortis, as even the Fays are too afraid of him.
- Our Liches Are Different: Lord Mortis, on paper, fits the basic definition as he's an undead sorcerer. However, he's also clad from head to toe in a silvery, antiquated armor with horned helmet and black cape, wields a mace and, despite being more than capable of spellcasting, seems to prefer the physical approach to most problems.
- Praetorian Guard: Mortis has one in the shape of the deadly Knights of the Apltraum. At one point while sneaking in the Keep, you have to pass near their quarter.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Chaos Pirates' M.O., which you can see for yourself at one point. They also sell their prisoners as slaves.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Lord Mortis was sealed away in his tomb, stabbed by the Spear of Qadarnai. Then, a moronic grave robber had to pull the spear from his corpse...
- Sidequest: Your main quest is to reach Bloodrise Keep and slay Mortis, but you have plenty of chances to help the locals in a series of sidequests which provides bonuses and extra equipment if you bother to complete them. They're usually about killing dreaded creatures haunting the island or looking for a way to enpower yourself.
- Skippable Boss: Lady Lotmora, if you manage to find her coffin soon enough, and Lord Mortis, if you have the Spear and find him unprepared in his throne room.
- Smug Snake: Kangodor is a really unpleasant, slimy fellow.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Upon reaching Bloodrise Keep, you'll have to take note of your Alarm Value, which starts at 0. Whenever you end up fighting enemies or doing something noisy, the value rises. If it's too high, bad things will occur. If you manage to reach Mortis's throne room and your value is low enough, you can get the better of him while he's still blocked by daylight.
- Tail Slap:
- The Thrasher is a massive monster with a flail-like tail capable of demolishing buildings with ease.
- The Whipperwolves attack with their thorn tails.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: A plot point: since the Spear of Qadarnai was made by the elves but used by a human hero, he couldn't unleash its powers while holding it, so he threw the spear at Mortis: this way, the powers of the spear were active and allowed it to slay Mortis. If you do the same you can kill the Lich-Lord instantly.
- Tin Tyrant: Lord Mortis wears an archaic but good-looking suits of armor which includes a black ragged cape and a Cool Helmet.
- Too Dumb to Live: The tomb robber who thought it was a good idea to steal the Spear of Qadarnai from Mortis's corpse. And in fact, he did die and became a zombie under Mortis's control.
- Turn Undead: The Charm of Unbinding, a secret holy word only known by a few pious women which can be used to instantly dispel and destroy the undead. Too bad that, if you manage to learn it, it works only once.
- Unholy Matrimony: Lord Mortis with Lady Lotmora. After returning from the dead, Mortis turned his consort into a Vampire, which is plagueing Staying Cemetery and the nearby villages.
- Villain-Beating Artifact: The Spear of Qadarnai, an ivory spear of elvish design which was made to kill the undead and Lord Mortis himself. It's also obtainable pretty soon in the game.
- Weapon of X-Slaying: The Spear of Qadarnai deals double damage to the Undead and can slay lord Mortis.
- Weakened by the Light: Lord Mortis is at his weakest during daytime, and can fully take advantage of his powers at nightfall.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Minor one, you get chewed out by your superiors if you misuse the Ring of Communication for trivial matters.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: The Temple Guardian is protected by Lhyss: when you fight him, he can negate your damage as you suffer improbable strikes of bad luck during the combat.
- Words Can Break My Bones: Almost literally, the Charm of Unbinding can nullify necromantic magic and destroy undead beings who hear it. The downside is that you can only employ this charm once.
