#Endless Quest

[smbhax]

Illustration by Larry Elmore

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Endless Quest #21 - Duel of the Masters Cover Art by Clyde Caldwell

[dndhistory]

347. Morris Simon - Endless Quest #23: Blade of the Young Samurai (1984)

A second Asian inspired D&D Endless Quest book, after Duel of the Masters, this one is more explicit about its setting as instead of following an established D&D class such as the Monk, it goes into a more strictly East Asian setting with Samurais and Ninjas showing up.

D&D Oriental Adventures would be coming out in 1985 and this gamebook clearly anticipates both then and eventually in 1988 the Asian inspired sub-setting of Forgotten Realms: Kara-Tur.

As I didn't get my hands on this on time for the review I can't really speak about the interior of the book or its illustrations, but reviews around the internet praise the story as being quite good, I can't vouch for that, but I am curious! 

[damailbox]

June 1995

[13thhr]

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #427: An Endless Quest Book - Song of the Dark Druid Reading

Remember Endless Quest books? They were a brand of Dungeons and Dragons game books. We reading from 1987's Song of the Dark Druid by Josepha Sherman this week.

[hemlock-dreams]

I love MJ. Peter must have really been devastated by her being affected when he was outed as Spider-Man. I have a few questions! You mentioned in the original universe she had a relapse — was it just the same universe changes that made Peter a criminal that caused there to be an MJ that was an addict? Would the venom have caused her to die in a while like most people, or no because Peter became her supplier and had presumably good control? Wouldn’t she have known the reasons he had hesitated to kiss long eventually, since he had to tell her everything to help with the venom thing? And does his venom just… come out automatically after a bit with anything, or is it possible for him to have situations where it’s not involved at all for a time? I’m sure he misses her and usually MJ and Peter are friends before they get together in many canons, so I’m really happy that he’s able to be her friend in the new universe and didn’t lose her entirely 🥺 even if he basically had to reform the relationship from scratch. (Also if Peter and Marko were such good friends, why was he willing to put him and his loved ones in danger by telling everyone?) all of this is very cool and fun ty for sharing.

So OG-MJ was an addict before she ever knew Peter(and before everything with the knock off venom.) She had been sober for two years at that point, and continued to stay sober for a few years after she and Peter officially got together.

However, Peter was always gone, flaking on all their special dates/anniversaries etc. He'd make plans and then never show up, or cancel at the last minute. And despite being super affectionate with his words, was always really physically distant. All of this left MJ feeling really alone and angry, as she was dealing with her own abandonment issues (foster care).

Eventually, everything was just a perfect storm of frustration (struggling with her boss, Peter flaking on another date, a new job opportunity not coming through) that she ended up reconnecting with some old friends who convinced her to try 'this sick new upper'.

The issue with manufactured venom (gonna call it Aurora) is that in it's impurity, it had extremely degenerative effects at lower doses. Peter's venom, while just as bad, was 'cleaner'. He can secrete it at will, but his body starts automatically pumping it when he gets excited (not to mention his fangs do not retract!!!) (They are very sharp!!!)

As for Marko, he'd been Sandman for a while before he revealed Spiderman's identity. Not only was he mentally very unstable, but he'd been very bitter over Peter going 'straight'. They were supposed to be ride or die, but Peter kept drifting away and eventually cut ties with him when it was obvious that Marko was never going to leave the lifestyle.

Then one day, during a fight with Spiderman Marko just...recognized the body language, the words, just...something clicked, then broke. Because not only did Peter leave Marko, the guy who had his back all those years in prison, his supposed 'ride or die' was also fucking Spiderman. The guy who had been actively fucking up Marko's life for years. The enemy.

Payback was an easy decision for a guy who held tight to grudges.

And for the kicker, he didn't even sell the information, just gave it to JJ for free-- that's how much he wanted to hurt Peter. Later, he would really regret it, but it would be too late at that point.

After Marko threw Peter's life into the fire, he and MJ had a blowout fight. At the height of it, MJ told Peter to 'prove he loved her' and used her own addiction as a way to control his time and attention after being starved for so long (kind of holding herself hostage).

Yeah...it all kind of went to real shit after Lmaoo

Once again, thank you SO much for the support and all these amazing asks!! <3 <3

[slime-showdown]

[atomic-chronoscaph]

art by Larry Elmore (1985)

[youling-the-ghost]

Can I just say I love the way Tom types

[smbhax]

Illustration by Larry Elmore

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Endless Quest - Stop that Witch! Cover Art by Larry Elmore

[dndhistory]

373. Bruce Algozin - Endless Quest #27: Lair of the Lich (1985)

The first of three Endless Quest books by Bruce Algozin (and not the best of them), in this book you play Eric, a young wizard apprentice, and son of a wizard yourself. As the gamebook starts, you find your father has been the victim of an attack and a robbery.

However, the attacker wasn't just a normal thief, but an evil lich who stole your dad's spellbook. So, as you can imagine your mission is to retrieve the spellbook from Castle Necropolis (what an original name!). In this quest you have the help of Pnimm, a kind of homunculus which at first looks like a halfling or nome, but really is magically created and very annoying.

I only had access to the Spanish version of this to read, and that is a very different experience from reading the English (a Lich is a "Wandering Corpse" for example) so it's a bit hard to judge this in terms of literary quality, these were the kinds of book that didn't really hire the most expert translators. Still there's some fun and creepy art in this one, with cover by Jeff Easley and interiors by Jim Roslof, with some cool illustrations of monsters like an intellect devourer, owlbears and plenty of undead. 

[vintagerobin]

Tbh I feel like when Dick says he's healed from the loss of his parents he's being about as truthful as when he says that he's nothing like Bruce.

[sleepyisnotagamer]

the endless search for memorable names pt.8

Orpheus Rising - a portent of some sort

Reed Steed - the protagonist of a cartoon network show

Wolf Tamer - what about of werewolves?

Brand StrongPants - the newest craze in wizard fashion

[magnusbae]

dream, the entirety of s01 

[vinnie2757]

in that i loved you, Love, i worshipped you