April A to Z - V is for Vonotar the Traitor

It's a blast.

Appears in:  Fire on the Water (Lone Wolf 2), The Caverns of Kalte (Lone Wolf 3), The Prisoners of Time (Lone Wolf 11) all by Joe Dever.

Background:  Vonotar was a member of the wizards' guild of Toran but he betrayed them for the magical power of the Darklords' wizards.  He then ends up in Kalte, controlling the mind of the ice barbarian chieftain.  You catch him and Vonotar is thrown into the shadow gate which leads to another dimension.  You also get thrown into the shadow gate a few years later where you come across him again.  And he's annoyed.

Prominence:  Vonotar or his servants are not prominent in any of the books, but he is one of the few recurring gamebook villains.  Bonus marks for this.  6/10.

Hardness:  With a power ring he wields, Vonotar has a combat skill of 30 and an endurence of 21.  He is immune to Psi surge and mindblast.  His endurance is quite low, but his combat skill is quite high for an ordinary wizard (I expect the power ring improves it).  He also manages to blast you and damage you for five endurence points before the combat and before you get near to him, you have to fight five notorious criminals from Sommerlund which have a combat skill of 38 and and endurance of 46 together.  Killing him and the five criminals is a pretty tough job even with all of the combat skill raising weapons and skills you have.  7/10.

Ambition:  Vonotar's orginal ambition is more magical power, but then he tries to take over ice barbarian tribes.  His ambition in the Prisoners of Time is to get home.  Ultimately, Vonotar is a lackey to the Darklords and so can't get too high a score in ambition.  4/10

Style:  Quite typical wizard with a typical modus operandi of wizards.  4/10

Diabolical genius:  He manages to get the Kai Lords killed but after his initial betrayal, his genius kind of stops there.  4/10

Total score:  When it comes to Lone Wolf's enemies, Vonotar is a small fish that resurfaces more than once.  25/50.

April A to Z - P is for Parsion

Ragadorn tour 5050.
Parsion is on the far right.

Appears in:  Fire on the Water (Lone Wolf 2) by Joe Dever.

Background:  Parsion is introduced to you as a priest who accompanies you on a coach journey between Ragadorn and Port Bax.  However, it turns out that he is an assassin whose job is to kill you and to prevent you from getting the Sommerswerd.

Prominence:  Parsion is not in the whole book.  He turns up for a few scenes.  4/10.

Hardness:  A combat skill of 16 and an endurence of 23 makes Parsion a fighter with some skill but he is no master.  However, he does manage a couple of assassination attempts before you finally confront him.  3/10.

Ambition:  He's been ordered to kill you by someone who works for the Darklords.  He's not too high up on the food chain.  3/10.

Style:  He's not too distinctive although maybe he's not trying to draw attention to himself.  You won't think about him once he's gone.  1/10.

Diabolical genius:  He pulls off quite a good impersonation as a priest and comes up with creative ways of killing you - trying to get you run over and by poisoning your food.  One mark deducted for wearing a blatantly obvious sign of his allegence.  4/10.

Total score:  Parsion, if's that his real name, provides and interesting challenge to you in the book but he ranks a little higher than mook in the hierarchy of the enemy.  15/50