Dungeon of Darkness

“You are Meg. When your village is raided by the evil Nightshade’s soldiers, you escape capture. But your parents aren’t so lucky. Hoping to rescue them, you join the Good Knight of the Golden Dragon and his company on their way to the DUNGEON OF DARKNESS.

You might be a kid, but you’re brave! And you can outsmart any creatures you meet on the way…you hope!

Surrounded by battling goblins and lizardmen, you must find a way to escape before you’re discovered.

Will you pull the dragon necklace from your pocket and hope that it can restore the magic-user’s power?
Or will you follow the pieces of your tunic you left along the maze leading out of the dungeon?

The choice is yours!”

Wow!
That’s pretty epic if you’re a kid!

Title: A Fantasy Forest Book #5: Dungeon of Darkness, Pick A Path to Adventure
Author: John Kendall
Company: TSR
Year: 1984
Genre: Young Reader / Children’s

My boyfriend accompanied me on my weekly thrift store rounds and I stumbled across this beauty. I don’t normally dig through books, only when it fits my mood. You could spend way too much time searching titles than actually finding anything worthwhile.

The art on the cover is what jumped out at me. Then I noticed the tiny “TSR” logo in the upper left corner. Considering that my first Dungeons & Dragons book was the 2nd Edition Monsterous Manual, I knew exactly what I had!

It was once school library book and as such, was covered in protective tape. A bummer, but at least it’s not torn apart. The card and stamp sleeve is still inside. Looks like the last time this was checked out was May 10, 1989!

The art is great!

Well, “great” in a classic and “on a budget” sort of way.
Just look at that Umber Hulk!

Look at the toes!
THE TOES!

Presenting the evil Nightshade!

Pretty standard bad-guy awesomeness.

So this book is a Choose Your Own Adventure Pick A Path to Adventure type. As the preface states, you are a young girl named Meg who survived a raid on your town but now have to find your parents…..and the other villagers.

But mostly your parents.

Depending on which path you take, you might encounter dwarves, an ogre, a unicorn, minotaur, specters, a magic talking sword….WOW. This is pretty action packed!

The books in this series:
#1 The Ring, the Sword, and the Unicorn
#2 Ruins of Rangar
#3 Shadowcastle
#4 Keep of the Ancient King
#5 Dungeon of Darkness
#6 Star Rangers and the Spy

They also advertise a second series of books called, Endless Quest:
#1 Dungeon of Dread
#2 Mountain of Mirrors
#3 Pillars of Pentegarn
#4 Return of Brookmere
#5 Revolt of the Dwarves
#6 Revenge of the Rainbow Dragon
#7 Hero of Washington Square (Top Secret setting)
#8 Villains of Volturnus (Star Frontiers setting)
#9 Robbers and Robots (Top Secret setting)
#10 Circus of Fear
#11 Spell of the Winter Wizard
#12 Light on Quests Mountain (Gamma World setting)
#13 Dragon of Doom
#14 Raid on Nightmare Castle
#15 Under Dragon’s Wing
#16 Dragon’s Ransom

Conclusion:
While not up there with literary greats, this book was a very fun, very fast read: even if you read like me and pick every possible route. I’d love to get more of these and will effeminately keep an eye out!

Parting shot:

“No! Not the windows! My allergies!”

Everyday is a Pick A Path to Adventure!
-LadyB