Wednesday, April 27, 2011

April A to Z - W is for The Winter King

He thinks he's so cool.
Appears in:  Night of the Necromancer (Fighting Fantasy 63) By Jonathan Green.

Summary:  The Winter King lives in the tower of Frostfinger which also holds the Spirit Stone, gem which holds the souls of many people.  The Spirit Stone can be used by you as a powerful weapon against Unthank, but the Winter King will not just let you take it.

Prominence:  He owns his own tower, but he plays no other part in the book.  2/10

Hardness:  His tower is tough to infiltrate.  If you can't fly, you have to fight several ice ghosts to get across a frozen lake to the tower.  When you enter the tower, you climb stairs which seem to take an eternity to cross and then you may have to fight a hellhorn, a coldclaw and a hellhorn champion.  When you do get the spirit stone, you then have to face the Winter King himself who first sends 1-6 ice ghosts against you before fighting you himself.  He has a skill of 11 and a stamina of 14, which makes him a tough opponent.  In addition, being killed by the Winter King means that your adventure is over for good, unlike most combats in Night of the Necromancer where you get another chance.  8/10 

Ambition:  He really wants to keep the Spirit Stone, live in his tower and stay king of winter but that's about it.  5/10

Style:  He ccertainly fits the 'winter' bill.  Less so with the king thing although you may have just caught him in his armour rather than his royal gear that day.  Ice based villains occur quite often.  The Winter King has the added extra of an army of ghosts, so bonus points there.  6/10

Diabolical genius:  He basically sends lots of creatures to fight you and then fights you himself.  1/10

Total score:  The Winter King is a strong opponent but we don't really get a wider picture of his power beyond trying to steal the Spirit Stone.  22/50

2 comments:

  1. sounds like he could be an awesome villain in a fantasy novel.
    nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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  2. I agree, Nutschell, he would be great if he made a comeback as the main villain in his own gamebook.

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