fighting monsters that want to pull you in two directions

By Drake Leonclaw, in Talisman Rules Questions

Got another funny one for you guys.

Had an encounter in the Highlands last week that proposed an interesting conundrum. 2 monsters were drawn that had the same encounter number and used Strength (thus, both had to be fought as one fight). One was the Harpy, the other was the Earth Elemental (i believe these were the creatures' names). One says that if you lose the fight to it, you are sent to the Crags, the other says if you lose the fight to it, you're sent to the Highland Entrance. Naturally, the player that encountered them lost.

So where do they go? Is it a matter of what card's drawn first? Which one has the higher strength score? Player's choice?

I would say it is player's choice in this case.

I think that the player can choose too...

it's a funny situation..

you can always roll a 1d6 which card will send you to the directed space.. gui%C3%B1o.gif

Drake Leonclaw said:

Got another funny one for you guys.

Had an encounter in the Highlands last week that proposed an interesting conundrum. 2 monsters were drawn that had the same encounter number and used Strength (thus, both had to be fought as one fight). One was the Harpy, the other was the Earth Elemental (i believe these were the creatures' names). One says that if you lose the fight to it, you are sent to the Crags, the other says if you lose the fight to it, you're sent to the Highland Entrance. Naturally, the player that encountered them lost.

So where do they go? Is it a matter of what card's drawn first? Which one has the higher strength score? Player's choice?

Strange situation, but possible. Drawn first is not a good solution, since you may have forgotten it when you encounter again the two creatures. Strength score is arbitrary and it might be possible that they have the same value (not yet, but in future who knows). I will also say that it's a player's choice.

Remember that when you're defeated, your turn ends here and then, you just need to solve effects related to the combat outcome (= special abilities of the Enemy). You're not supposed to encounter the Highland entrance or the Crags; they're just one space away from the other, not very important for the gameplay but it can still make the difference. For example, if I were the Sage, I'd rather go to the space that's in the Region I'm going to travel next, so that I can have a look at the top card of the deck.

Obviously the Harpy and Earth Elemental would tear the player in half, fling his pieces across the board and he would need to pull a new character.