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So, you can buy Dragon Wars on GOG now: http://www.gog.com/game/dragon_wars Just a few days before the launch of the Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter, too. Herve Caen's Interplay trying to cash in on the upcoming hype, I guess.
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May 28, 2015 12:24
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That's really cool. Obviously, I highly recommend the game to anyone who hasn't played it. The game wasn't actually hard to find as far as I know, but still. $6 is a pretty reasonable price for it.
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May 28, 2015 16:06
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 This really is just the DM's notes plugged into the Bard's Tale engine, isn't it?
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May 28, 2015 22:59
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That was actually a pretty worthy trap for the unwary.
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May 30, 2015 01:15
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Glazius posted:That was actually a pretty worthy trap for the unwary. It's also a great trap for people who read the "paragraphs" in advance (like me as a kid). They see the note about the sword being there, surrounded by drama and ready for the taking. The part about it murdering you is only mentioned in-game.
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Jun 2, 2015 11:07
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Update 24: Dwarven Ruins We're done with the pirate ship for now. We'll visit Rustic later on.  Let's warp back to the Mystic Wood and climb down into the Underworld for a moment. We're low on MP, and using a recharge pool is obviously preferable to using up Dragon Stones.  Now that we're at the pool, let's talk about the Charger spell. Using it is simple. Cast Charger, and you'll be presented with the list of items the caster is carrying. Select an item from the list. If that item is a rechargeable magic item, it will be recharged. Otherwise, you'll get a message saying, "You can't recharge that," and you'll be allowed to pick another item. If you decide not to recharge something, you can press Esc to cancel the spell. This means you can quickly go through the items the caster is carrying to see if they can be recharged, and it doesn't cost MP until an item is actually charged. You won't "waste" the spell using it on an ineligible item. Of course, we're on a recharge pool, so that doesn't matter right now. One minor inconvenience is that you can only charge items in the caster's inventory, so other party members will have to trade their magic items to Dolph for recharging. This isn't a major problem. So, for example, the Wand can be used to cast Major Healing. It comes with 20 charges. Cast Charger on it, and...  Now it has 21 charges. That's the other inconvenience -- each time you cast the spell, it adds only one charge to the item. A few other notes. The Healing Potion can be recharged, even though it's a potion. One of the Magic Chains (both of which come with no charges) can be recharged to cast Zak's Speed, the other cannot be charged and does not cast a spell. I'm not sure if this was intentional. Also, Dragon Stones cannot be recharged, they're one shot only, and ammunition generally cannot be recharged, but there's an exception. The Dead Bolt is rechargeable. This means that, if you have the patience to charge it up, the Dead Bolt can be used for infinite (decent) crossbow ammo, and you can use it with the "burst" mode of the Tri-Cross to get some decent damage with it. It's not usually worth the effort, there are better things to exploit, but it's there. With that out of the way, we will return to King's Isle, fight some Goblins (not pictured), and wander around the eastern side of the isle...   There's not much going on in this map. Small map, no random battles, almost no walls. There are a few random messages as we walk around, however.  I'm not entirely sure how we know the previous occupants of this area were dwarves, but apparently they were.  I don't know what this one means. It doesn't seem like a hint for anything.  This statue is the important thing. Let's approach it.  How does it look like it's weeping if it doesn't have eyes? If we walk forward, we'll run into a dead end.  A quick look through our inventory tells us how to solve this puzzle. The statue doesn't have eyes. We have the Jade Eyes. So naturally, we try walking up to the statue and using them.  Now that the dwarf has his jewels back, we can continue.    We climb down the stairs and find ourselves in a small room. Walking forward, we come to a fork.  We're facing west. This looks like an open hallway, but it's actually a transparent crystal wall, hence the message. Behind us is the room where we came from.  To our north is a doorway.  And to our south is something we do not want to mess with just yet. Let's start with the west. That forge is important for reasons that should be obvious by now, but there's a wall in the way. Let's cast Soften Stone to get past the wall.  So, this wall is special and cannot be removed with Soften Stone. You might think this is the game's way of keeping us out of an area that's supposed to be hard to get to, but actually, we can get around this by just casting it on one of the regular walls right next to it.  The fact that there's intense heat isn't an important hint or anything. It's just hot because there's a forge nearby.  Well, that could be a problem. We can't use the forge without a dwarf smith, but it seems the dwarves are ancient history. Oh well, I guess seeking out Roba's skull was in vain, so we should go ahead and discard the skull. I suppose we might as well explore the rest of the area first. Let's go through the door to the north. It leads to a hallway with a couple of doors. We check the left door first.  Paragraph 118 posted:A massive mechanical brass automaton stands at silent attention in this chamber. It is a flawless piece of engineering, massive yet agile, and heavily armed and armored from head to toe. It would not do to run into this thing in a dark hallway. That sounds intimidating. Turning around and walking away would be a good idea here, but who needs good ideas? Walking through the chamber to the next room...   Piers: Weapons and armor! Excellent! Everyone Else: IT'S A TRAP YOU MORON!  Oh, I'm sure that's nothing! Let's head back...  Oops. Taking any of the loot from the room will cause the trap to trigger. Trying to go back to the hallway causes us to encounter 1-4 Automaton (the correct pluralization would be Automata, but I'm guessing Dragon Wars is not designed to perform any pluralization beyond adding an "s" to things. In any case, even just one Automaton is pretty miserable to fight against. They melee from 30' away, almost never miss, can sometimes kill in one hit and will stun in one hit otherwise, and have enough HP to last several rounds. They are possible to beat, but it's not worth it. A better option is to once use Soften Stone to take a shortcut, avoiding the encounter tile for the Automaton. I know what you're probably thinking, and the answer is yes. Soften Stone is borderline game-breaking. I'll try to avoid using it more than necessary, at least until later. Besides, there's a better way. Let's go back in time to before we took an item from the vault... Now, this time we'll check out the other door.  Paragraph 119 posted:This vault is filled with slumbering dwarves... but if they sleep, it is the sleep of the dead, for the dwarves have been turned to stone. The dwarves are frozen in all variety of poses - sleeping, eating, working, and just a few while fighting. It seems the dwarves were surprised by something terrible that turned them to stone. Man, that's a shame. All the dwarves have been turned to stone. Nothing can be done to save them now. Unless... wouldn't it be funny if you could use Soften Stone for something other than destroying walls?  Paragraph 38 posted:Using your magic spell, you watch in wonder as color flows back into the frozen dwarves. The chamber is filled witha noise uncomfortably like the popping of popcorn as the dwarves return to life, their joints made stiff from ages of disuse. Before long, the entire clan is restored to life. The dwarves give you the once-over. Whoa. We just revived an entire loving race. The best part? After bringing the entire dwarven race back to life, they immediately judge us based on our actions. If we left their vault alone, they graciously let us have all of their treasures...  But if we took anything from the vault...  Pissing off the dwarves isn't a huge problem, but it's better to avoid it. In any case, the Dragon Helm is +4 to AC. The second Spiked Flail makes a great replacement for Louie's Barbed Flail. The Bombs are thrown weapons and therefore useless. Mystic Might is a High Magic spell which gives one character +15 Strength during combat. I doubt I'll ever use it, though 15 is a lot. If we go all the way down the hallway, we find what looks like a dead end:  Of course, it's a secret door. Walk through it, and we find more loot.   Nothing important. The Crush Mace is a decent weapon, but nowhere near as good as the Spiked Flails or Dragon Sword. We already have a Spell Staff and don't need another. The Healing Potion is actually the best thing here. Unlike the other Healing Potion, this one casts Major Healing. That's not all though. There's a secret door along this wall as well, and another one behind that, leading us to one other piece of loot:   The Dragon Horn casts Rage of Mithras, so it's nice for taking out an enemy at long distance. I don't know what the exact damage range is for the Horn, but it packs a punch. I probably won't use it much, but it's nice to have. Let's go do what we really came here for. Since we saved the dwarves, one of them is now operating the forge. Let's give him the skull.   The Isle of Woe is where we met Irkalla, and I have no idea why the game makes us go back there. Anyway, if we walk to the west, there's a staircase to the Underworld.   Those things that look like campfires drain our entire party's HP.  Fortunately, they don't do much damage. We can just walk past them to the north, and make our way to the re-energize pool.  Then to the northern shore of the Isle of Woe.  Paragraph 138 posted:You stand at the edge of the Isle of Woe looking out across the dark waters, and are convinced nothing is going to happen when a sudden flight of bats overhead heralds the arrival of momentous events. An ominous ringing fills the air. A few yards offshore the dark waters part, and offered up from the depths you see the legendary Sword of Freedom. Forged from dwarven steel in the fires of hell, powered by the essence of the legendary hero Roba, and tempered in the Apsu waters that underlie creation, the most powerful artifact Oceana has ever known has been reborn!  No trap this time. This is the real deal.  Look at that Attack stat. The Sword of Freedom gives +15 AV and +5 AC. And remember, Piers also has an extra +3 to AV when he uses a sword, so he will almost never miss. And that's not even the best part.  It is the only weapon in the game capable of doing 100 damage. The downside is that it's actually 1d100, so it can also hit for as low as 1 damage. But that's okay. The Sword will one-shot an enemy more often than it won't. And later in the game, it will do something even better. For now, we'll settle for our four front-liners all having the best possible melee weapons. Nothing will do more damage than the combination of the Freedom Sword, Dragon Sword, and two Spiked Flails.
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Jun 6, 2015 04:21
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Glad to finally get that update out there. Hope it was worth the wait! Vote for our next destination! - Lansk - King's Island
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Jun 6, 2015 04:24
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MaskedHuzzah posted:It's also a great trap for people who read the "paragraphs" in advance (like me as a kid). They see the note about the sword being there, surrounded by drama and ready for the taking. The part about it murdering you is only mentioned in-game. The inverted version of that is Nergal biting one the head off of one of your party members. The manual makes sure that anybody who reads the paragraphs in advance knows that they're going to have to sacrifice somebody, and then in-game he just puts the head back on again right afterward. Was King's Island the game preserve? Let's go there.
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Jun 6, 2015 04:41
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Seyser Koze posted:The inverted version of that is Nergal biting one the head off of one of your party members. The manual makes sure that anybody who reads the paragraphs in advance knows that they're going to have to sacrifice somebody, and then in-game he just puts the head back on again right afterward. No, the preserve is on Rustic. I'm leaving Rustic off the list for now because there's an item we should get before going there.
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Jun 6, 2015 05:31
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Lansk sounds odd! I assume you're following the Bard's Tale IV kickstarter with interest, Rujasu?
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Jun 6, 2015 11:14
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I seem to recall that the developers back then liked spells like Soften Stone and whatever the wall destroying spell in Bard's Tale was because it reminded them of actual D&D sessions where you could use your abilities in unexpected ways so you weren't forced to solve everything in the intended fashion. As for our destination, let's go to Lansk.
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Jun 6, 2015 12:00
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Update 25: Bridge to Lansk There are a few different ways to get to Lansk. We could just go to the building in the Magan Underworld and take the stairs up. That's probably the shortest way, but I don't think it's really the best way to experience Lansk. Instead, we're going to take the more obvious route of crossing the bridge from the Isle of the Sun (Phoebus) which leads us to Lansk. We could also cross the War Bridge from Quag, but that's harder and basically going backwards. So let's warp over to Phoebus and make our way over another guarded bridge.  Oh, sorry. Heavily guarded bridge. We're level 8, we have Big Chill and Inferno, and one of us is carrying the goddamn Sword of Freedom. A few guards are nothing to us.  To our left is a guardhouse, and up ahead is the bridge. Let's approach the bridge first.  Sure, go ahead and have a look at the stuff we have in our bags.  Seriously? They took a look at the stuff we're carrying in our bags and decided we'd be a good group to try to extort money from? They must be pretty formidable. Let's take them on!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA So, this is an area you're expected to come by very early in the game, possibly right after leaving Purgatory. The first time I played this game, I think we skipped Phoebus entirely and went straight to from the first Guard Bridge to this bridge. So we're a little overpowered for this area. Still, three Pikemen. Good grief.  And with that, we can safely cross the bridge and go on to Lansk. But of course, we're not going to leave without checking the buildings on either side of the bridge. First, let's check out that guardhouse.  Naturally, if we wake the sleeping guards, they'll attack. First we'll have an easy fight, then more guards will wake up from the commotion, giving us a larger easy fight. Walking into a wall, casting a spell, and using an item or skill are all things that can wake up the guards. However, if we don't do any of those things, we can move to the other side of the room without waking the guards.  Normally, using Lockpick here would cause us to wake up the guards.  Lockpick skill level 1 or 2 will trigger the alarm, and even after fighting the guards the box will not open. However, Dolph with his level 3 Lockpick can avoid waking the guards altogether.   Ice Chill is a High Magic spell which is like a worse version of Rage of Mithras. It's terrible and I'll probably never use it. Even if we had somehow picked this up early in the game, it wouldn't have been all that useful. Radiance is an improved Mage Light. I'm not sure what the improvement is, but since we have infinite Mage Light, we don't have much need for Radiance. The Healing Potion is the regular variety which just casts Heal. Not that exciting. Runed Flail is a decent early weapon but obviously we don't need that now. Spiked Flail is multiple levels better. Grey Arrow is good ammo but arrows don't matter much at this point. So none of this stuff is really necessary, but the bit with the sleeping guards is kind of interesting. Also, there's another easy way to get the loot without level 3 Lockpick, and I only know this because it's mentioned in the Dragon Wars Cluebook, which is included in the GOG bundle (and is really cool, by the way). Just use Pickpocket to get a key for the box.  I was always wondering what the point of the Pickpocket skill was. Now I know: this is the best use of it. High-level lockpick is better in general, but Louie comes with Pickpocket anyway, so if you don't have a good lockpicker, this is the way to do it. Let's cross the bridge.  We're going to check out that other building over there.  This kicks us out of the building, and if we try to enter again, we get to face the guards.  There's no tricky way out of this one, just beat 'em up, then walk through the door in the back.  And fall into a trap. Look at everyone's health bar. They were at full HP before we walked in the door! You can actually cast Disarm Trap for 1 MP before walking in to avoid the pit. Or you can just use Bandage, which is free as always, but takes a ton of keystrokes.   Once again: the Holy Mace and Axe of Kalah are great early-game weapons but not useful at this point. The Axe of Kalah is one of my favorite weapons, actually, because it raises accuracy and melees from long distances, but it doesn't do much damage. The Boomerangs are thrown weapons and they don't come back to you. Lame. The Gem Helm is slightly better than a regular helm (2 AC vs. 1) and Gauntlets are always nice to pick up. The Archer's Bow is slightly better than the Great Bow, but neither Valar nor Dolph has the Dexterity needed to use it. There are better bows to be found soon anyway. On our way out, we run into more guards. In case you're wondering, Soften Stone doesn't work in this area so we can't sneak out by making a wall disappear.  Yes, actually, I do think this will be easy.   Ooh, that's tricky. Try blocking this!     So yeah, that's all there is for the bridge. Pretty insignificant area with some mostly-insignificant loot to pick up, but I like what they did with it. With nothing left to do in this area, let's continue to head north.    Next update: Lansk!
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Jun 7, 2015 06:51
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I like coming back at high level and visiting early-game areas that are supposed to be a challenge at the time, and pitched as such.
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Jun 9, 2015 03:20
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Update 26: Lansk Paragraph 64 posted:You stand before the gleaming city of Lansk. The streets are clean, the people are orderly, and while the city is walled, there is no gate. None of the busy citizens you spy carries a weapon. The city shows no sign of war or occupation. However, it does seem like a very rich place, and you can detect a faint smell of dragon in the air.... I'm guessing dragon is not a pleasant smell, but I can't say for sure. Let's walk forward a bit.  Paragraph 35 posted:This massive central structure dominates the city of Lansk. Unlike the walls that surround this city, this structure is fortified and prepared for war. Armed Lansk guards patrol the battlements, looking stern and ill humored. Written warnings in a variety of languages advise passers-by to keep their distance. And not without reason, for within the structure, visible through a thick glass panel, you see a dragon. The beast is huge, completely filling the fortress that is its home. It must weigh at least eighty tons. The dragon is asleep, but no less fearsome for all of that. "Destroying both the city and the army that would conquer it" does not sound like a great defense strategy, but I guess it's supposed to be like nuclear weapons where everyone tries to keep peace by threatening each other with the suicidally dangerous option. The city of Lansk is best described as a big square donut around the dragon bunker. You have the wall around the city, then inside that wall is a ring of buildings, and inside the ring of buildings is the bunker. So the best way to explore the city is essentially by taking two round trips: one for the buildings facing outward, one for those facing inward. We'll take a left and go around clockwise.     One of the few really big in-game text dumps (normally we'd have to go to the paragraphs for this sort of thing). Get used to this sort of thing in Lansk. It makes me wonder if Rebecca Heineman was a fan of Bureaucracy, which came out a couple of years before Dragon Wars.    We get handed the Papers. If we walk back in, we'll get handed more Papers. Unfortunately, if we go in when our inventory is full, it doesn't cause some crazy overflow glitch or anything, it just notices that we're full and gives us an appropriate message:  So, we'll walk around looking for the appropriate place to get our papers stamped (the Office of Interior Affairs, apparently).  Hmm, is something going on underground? Maybe it's just the dragon having a stomachache or something.  Well that's a sufficiently bureaucratic name.  There must be some joke I'm not getting here...  There aren't many encounters in Lansk, but the ones we do face are annoying. See how this guy is 150' away? That means we have to advance 15 times while he does this:  And of course, our glorious reward for this intense battle:  One experience point. Hooray Lansk!  Department of Lubrication? The names get more absurd at every turn.  Wait, I thought we were supposed to get our papers stamped at the Office of Interior Affairs? Can we get them stamped here instead?  Apparently yes. (Actually, this is the only place we can do so. There is no Office of Interior Affairs. I'm guessing that's intentional and part of the bureaucracy joke.) As we move on, somewhere along the line we find a building with a chest in it containing a Druid's Mace. I'll spare you the 248th "You have found a locked chest" graphic, so just take my word for it. Anyway, the Druid's Mace is not a very powerful weapon, but it can be used to cast Cure All which is the most powerful healing spell in the game. I'll talk about Cure All more when we find the actual spell. Continuing on, we find the Quarter Masters Office:   This is a call back to Slave Estate, but otherwise it's meaningless. Not entirely sure why it's even here. Next.  Ah, this is where we're supposed to turn in our papers!  They won't accept the papers unless they're stamped first. Fortunately, we got them stamped by Lubrication.  Finally, we have the Governor's Pass. It allows us to safely cross the War Bridge to Quag, where we have already visited. ... Really? That's all Lansk has to offer? A whole bunch of bureaucratic BS just to get to the next island? Isn't there anything else going on here? Well, we know this is a bureaucracy and money changes everything, so let's see if we can bribe anyone for more information, better items, whatever. It's not like we're using our gold for anything anyway. We'll try this guy at the Visitor's Bureau first.  Huh. Useless, but interesting that it actually produced a message. Let's try it at the Governor's Office. That sounds like a good place to offer a bribe.  Hmm, okay. Department of Lube it is.  Perfect. We'll offer 50 gold.  Not enough, eh? This had better be good. We'll have to offer 500 gold.   So that's what the vibration we felt was -- there's a whole other city underneath Lansk! (Remember the Lansk outpost building in Magan Underworld with the stairs leading up? That's another way into the undercity. There's even a third way in; we'll learn about that soon.) We head over to the western side of the city, which is where we first noticed the vibrations.  And so we shall descend into the Lansk Undercity, which we will find to be a stark contrast to the monotonous upstairs version of Lansk. Coming up next: The Lansk Undercity! One final thought: Lansk is generally not a dangerous area, but if you eversee this encounter, run like hell:  There is one spell in the game that hits an entire group from 90' away, and that Mage is the only thing that casts it. You can win this battle, but it's not worth the trouble.
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Jun 14, 2015 07:02
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The whole place is at least a little bit redeemed by that secret passage to the undercity. Also at some point we're fighting that dragon. That's just too much foreshadowing to ignore.
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Jun 14, 2015 19:48
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Glazius posted:Also at some point we're fighting that dragon. That's just too much foreshadowing to ignore. One does not simply fight a dragon. But I hear he conceals a powerful gem.
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Jun 14, 2015 20:37
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Update 27: Lansk Undercity So, last time, we went to Lansk, and Lansk was kind of lame. But after finding the right people to bribe, the passage to the Undercity was revealed. Naturally, the Undercity is the polar opposite of surface-level Lansk.  Paragraph 121 posted:Peals of hysterical laughter assail your ears. You've discovered the secret undercity of Lansk, and where the city above is staid and conservative, this place is a true party town. Citizens stagger about in drunken stupors, angry soldiers wrestle with one another, women and animals run through the streets. Sure enough, upon our entering the Undercity, a group of women immediately approach us and want to party with us.  And by "party with" I mean "kill." Pretty much everyone in Dilmun wants us dead, whether they're working for Namtar or not. Why are we trying to save this place again?  It's not a difficult fight.  We walk by a store, and it is closed. Looks like our kind of place!  Clearly the "shadey" guy winking at us isn't hiding anything. (Secret door to our right.)   Seems we've encountered some sort of secret black market for magic items! Surely these highly illegal spells will cost a fortune!  Nope, everything here is dirt cheap for some reason. Of course, we already have Create Wall, and Wood Spirit is a summon spell so it's useless. And there are plenty of places to get Dragon Stones. But look at that third one. Cure All. For just $100. Cure All does exactly what it says -- heals the entire party. It's Druid Magic and it's even stronger than Major Healing. For a small fee, we now have four of our seven heroes with group healing spells. Awesome! Just to the south of the store is a clearing which sits under the SW corner of the city walls. In the middle is a statue:  Paragraph 124 posted:This statue honors the Universal God, the most popular deity of the surface realm of Oceana. The Universal God is a faceless deity with multiple arms and hands. Each hand is posed in a different signal, sending messages of hope and fear to the faithful. The Universal God is said to offer power to those who serve Freedom - it was a patron of the legendary Roba of Freeport. An ancient shrine to the Universal God on the mountain of Nisir attracts millions of pilgrims annually. I think the Universal God was mentioned in Slave Camp. We already know about Roba and Freeport. We'll learn more about Nisir soon enough. Just keep in mind that there's a tie-in between the Sword of Freedom and the Universal God. Along the southern wall are some buildings, but they're all empty. We do run into this guy who holds his axe like it's an electric guitar:   And there is another statue in the SE corner of the city:  Paragraph 125 posted:Here you find an image of Enkidu the beastman, patron deity of animals and Druids. His worship is strong in the wild places, but has declined in cities with the rise of Namtar and the destruction of the Druid sect. Well, we've already met Enkidu, and Piers bested him. Casting Beast Call or blowing the Beast Horn at this statue does nothing, in case you were wondering. The buildings to the east of the Undercity include the stairs to the Underworld, a healer, and these two shops:   Neither place has anything we need, but seriously. "Doctor Death's Killing and Maiming Emporium." I don't even need to say anything else.   I love this game. Moving along we find the third statue in the NE corner.  Paragraph 123 posted:Here is a statue of Nergal the cowardly King of the Underworld. When he is not getting along with Irkalla, Nergalis exiled to his palace in the Necropolis, a city of the dead hidden on one of Dilmun's many isles. Nergal is a bloated and ridiculous creature, but from the look in his eye you surmise he might have a sense of humor. Again, I guess this would be helpful if we hadn't already visited Nergal, but we have, and we will not be re-visiting him.  There's a harbor in the north. We still have things to do here in the Undercity, however.  Paragraph 122 posted:This statue represents Irkalla the reigning deity of the Magan Underworld. It is to her you must appeal if you will long survive in the Underworld. She frequently wars with her consort Nergal, sometime King of the Underworld. The final statue is one of Irkalla. Again, we're past that point, but this statue is actually different from the others -- it's movable. As usual, we apply the Strength attribute to move it, but a high Strength attribute is not needed. Even Madrick with his lowly 10 Str can move it.   Naturally, the loot is useless. Note that it is possible to get to the Undercity very early in the game, at which point the Glow Sword is a very powerful weapon. At this point, we have no reason to pick it up. Finally, we'll check out one shop to the west:   EZ Paperwork? What kind of stuff could they have?  Ah, of course. Bureaucrats upstairs, counterfeiters downstairs. And yeah, all that work we did to get a Governor's Pass when we could have purchased one for a mere 200 gold. We don't need the Citizens Papers either, but we'll need a Kings Ticket to get on board the ship leading out of the Undercity, so we'll grab one of those for cheap. But wait, don't we have something to do before leaving? That's right! We've been tiptoeing around the most important part of Lansk -- the dragon bunker! This is Dragon Wars, after all! Let's get in there and fight that dragon!  See that black area in the middle? That's the bunker. There is a secret door in the south wall, or we could just use Soften Stone to get in. Either way, there's a small room in the middle with the dragon.  Paragraph 126 posted:Here you find Lansk's dragon, perhaps first glimpsed from the city square above. Up close the dragon is not nearly so impressive. It is an old dragon - its fire has gone out, and its teeth have been pulled. It is still a powerful beast, but age or drugs seem to have robbed the beast of its fighting spirit. The animal looks at you with something close to sadness in its eyes. Yep. The dragon is old, sick, and toothless. So much for the epic dragon battle. We need to get the dragon's gem, but there's actually no way to slay it or even fight it. We can't really negotiate with it either, seeing as it's a dragon. How to get the gem? The simple answer is to heal it. Casting Lesser Heal or using a Healing Potion will do the trick. The Bandage skill won't.   Something I've seen in guides is the idea that in order to heal the dragon, you need to buy an Ankh at the City of the Yellow Mud Toad and use it here. And yes, an Ankh will work. But it's not necessary to buy an Ankh for this, and Ankhs don't heal or do anything else other than this. I don't really understand the point of the Ankh. It is possible that in other versions of the game, using the Ankh is required (it is DEFINITELY required in the Famicom version but that's an entirely different story) but there's no indication as to what the Ankh does or why it would be used here. It's strange. The "cast a heal spell" idea is much better and much more sensible. In any case, we now have the Dragon Gem. And that's pretty much all there is to Lansk Undercity. Despite too many annoying enemy encounters, I love the Undercity. It's a great concept, there are a few secrets, and best of all, it has places like the "closed" magic shop and "Doctor Death's Killing and Maiming Emporium." Note to game designers: stop giving your games sewer levels and give them undercities instead. Undercities are awesome.  We've already been to King's Isle before, but there's some more business to take care of up there. Let's give this guy the Kings Ticket.  Coming up next time: Return to King's Island!
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Jun 21, 2015 05:23
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Hell yes, King's Island! Cast that "summer salami" spell and go on all the roller coasters
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Jun 21, 2015 06:31
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Wow, the dragon is sadder than anticipated.
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Jun 23, 2015 02:51
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Update 28: What's Up, Dock? Last time: After sailing on the Lansk ferry, we're taken to the Old Dock on King's Island.  If we want to return to Lansk using the ferry, we have to buy a return ticket.   There are cheaper ways to get back to Lansk, and really as cool as the Undercity is, there's no need to return there. The free ferry to Nisir, however, is very relevant.    You may remember that we picked up a Pilgrim Garb earlier. If you're thinking we can just use that to dress up as pilgrims and board the ferry, well... yes that's exactly correct. We could go to Nisir right now. But why would we go there? Well, we know that Mystalvision is hanging out there, and we do want to take another stab at him. But we'll save that for a bit later. First, we should investigate Kingshome and get some intel on our real target -- Namtar. So for now, we'll leave the pilgrims alone. One thing we will do before leaving the Old Dock: check out the statue across from the ferry.  The fourth wall has been broken! I enjoy these weird anachronisms that always seem to show up in 80's PC games. Anyway, we can use Strength to push the statue out of the way...  ...once we bump Piers up to 24 in that attribute, that is...  There, that's better.  Earth Summon is useless and the Ice Wand is meh (it casts Ice Chill). The IBM PS/2 is kind of nifty though. When equipped, it adds +4 AC. It doesn't take up an armor slot or anything -- it's just free AC for whoever carries it. It also has 63 charges of Guidance (the spell that gives us a compass in dungeons). I don't remember if the Guidance lasts indefinitely like the Magic Lamp does, but with 63 charges it doesn't much matter. We'll never need to waste MP on Guidance again. Hooray!  Leaving Old Dock puts us just south of Byzanople. We won't be returning there, but there's a bridge leading west. We haven't heard anything about this before. Where does it lead?   Oh my. Lots and lots of weak enemies. What will we do about that? Oh, right:  Everyone else in the party just dodged for the first round. Goblins are weak and Inferno is ridiculous.  Decent experience return though.  All right folks, it's bridge time. You know what this means. Let's get ready to fight some guards.   ...Huh. Something doesn't seem right here. Louie: I have a bad feeling about this. Dolph: Where does this even lead? Piers: Let's go! This must be the way to Namtar's lair! Kali: Lair? I thought he was ruling Dilmun these days? He's probably in the Kingshome castle right now... Piers: No, I can feel it. Follow me, everyone! (They open the door, to find...)  Another door?  Piers: Yes! This must be a sign that Namtar is close! Dolph: No, this is a sign, a LITERAL SIGN written IN BLOOD saying DO NOT GO THIS WAY! Piers: That's just Namtar trying to trick us! Kali: Don't do it! Madrick: We can just let him go by himself, whatever happens to him happens... Valar: You fool! Ulrik: You moron! Piers: CHAAAAAAARGE!!!!  Paragraph 50 posted:The door closed behind you with an ominous sound evoking the finality of the tomb. The door and wall from the bridge must have been sound proofed, for no sooner do you emerge from the bridge than a mad chorus of howls assails your ears. Insane screaming seems to spring from every direction, although you cannot see the source of the noise. It's enough to drive a person mad! Piers: ... Dolph: ... Valar: ... Ulrik: ... Madrick: ... Louie: ... Kali: Don't worry! I'll cast Soften Stone to get us back through the wall!  Kali: .............poo poo. Coming Up Next: ??????????????????????????????????
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Jun 30, 2015 02:30
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Seems like an appropriate response.
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Jul 2, 2015 22:32
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Man, I remember the days when an IBM PS/2 was the pinnacle of computing. Right now I'd side with the infinite chorus of madness, though.
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Jul 3, 2015 16:47
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Update 29: Into the Madness We can't turn back, so there's only one way to go: toward the screams.   Everywhere we walk, the screaming continues.  It must be coming from this place.  Decaying city? It's Dilmun. All of the cities are decaying.  Paragraph 75 posted:After what seems an eternity, you locate the source of the screaming. Nearly mad yourselves, you find a city of the mad squatting on a desolate shore. Feeble huts made of driftwood and debris huddle together in a feeble pile. White-haired loons with wild eyes stumble to and fro, mumbling to themselves or shrieking like cats. Crazed citizens of the place wrestle with one another, seeming like writhing human serpents. It's a madhouse, and the inmates are running the asylum. So, Snake Pit. One interesting thing here is that despite it being the town of the mad, and despite the paragraph talking about people wrestling, there are no enemy encounters here, even random ones. It's funny how these "crazed" people are the only ones sane enough to steer clear of our seven-person wrecking crew. Well, except for one guy...    Geez. This little boy got shipped off to a town of exiled crazy people? That's dark. Obviously, to get out of here we need to convince the boy to let us in. The hut is empty, but there's a dock right behind it. Actually, it's entirely possible to use Soften Stone to get back there, but we have other things to take care of here, so we'll go ahead and find the correct solution. Checking out some of the other huts...  Paragraph 76 posted:A mad artist inscribes designs on the sandy floor of his hut. "I don't have to do this, you know," he says as you enter. It's uncertain if he's talking to you, or if you walk in on him while he was talking to himself. "I can make a good living as a tattoo artist!" he continues. "But I will draw on you, mother earth, because everyone else draws from you. You. Who. Moo. Moo?" I'm not sure why Paragraph 76 is in the game. Maybe someone thought it was funny. In any case, it's not relevant.   Fortunately, no Goblin Beach Bums this time around.   We can pick up as many Branches as we want here. The Branches cast Beast Call, except it doesn't work because they're out of charges. We can charge them up by having Dolph cast Charger, and then it works, except it doesn't because we have 7 members already. If we really wanted Beast Call, we'd use the Beast Horn, and we don't need it either way. However, there is something we can do with the Branches.  We give him the Branches, of course.   He teaches Beast Call to whoever uses the Branches, if they have Druid Magic skill. Well, that's wonderful -- more Beast Call. Moving along, we find that something useful has washed up on shore:  We now have all of the Lanac'toor pieces, so we can go put him back together. Or at least, we can once we get out of Snake Pit.  More unimportant insanity. Next.  Paragraph 81 posted:A dwarf springs up as you enter the room. He eagerly scans your party, then collapses in disappointment. "No dwarves," he weeps. "Never are there any dwarves. Poor Josephina is all alone." The dwarf has a woman's name, but it's bearded and it smells and... well, no matter, Josephina is probably just as crazy as everyone else in this silly town. This might be helpful to a player who hasn't already found the Dwarven Clan Hall. At this point, though, it's information we already know. Also, considering who developed Dragon Wars, the inclusion of Josephina is interesting.  Hmm. What could this mean? Well, let's take a look at the map:  Any time we see a walled-off space in the middle like that, it's worth suspecting a secret door. Sure enough, if we go back into the other buildings, we eventually find a false wall. So, what's in here? Another crazy person?  Paragraph 80 posted:The center post of these communal huts shelters a secret chamber. A skeleton dressed in the royal colors of Kingshome sits on a makeshift throne. Whoever this was, he's been dead a long time. A royal signet ring gleams on one skeletal finger. The ring seems both valuable and important. Oh poo poo. "The king is near," indeed. So, this here is King Drake. And he is very, very dead. Naturally, we can figure out what happened here. Namtar wanted to rule, so he killed the King and took his place. And where better to hide the king's body than in the city of exiled lunatics? There are two pieces of loot to get here: the Signet Ring and the Jewels. The Jewels are useless, but we can sell them for a decent amount of gold. As for the Signet Ring, it's not an equippable item, it doesn't cast a magic spell, or anything like that. However, it is an item of some importance, and it's going to be our ticket out of Snake Pit. Also, there's one other secret room inside of the secret room. It has the 6204'th locked chest we've found in this game.  The Crush Mace, the Mega Bolt, and the Grand Sword are all unnecessary because we have better weapons. The Magic Bow is a better bow than the Great Bow, so we'll give it to Valar, not that it matters much. The Luck Wand casts Luck on an ally in battle. Luck isn't great, but the wand has infinite charges, which is kind of nice. Anyway, you can probably guess our next step. Go back to the boathouse and show the boy the Signet Ring.  Walk through the secret door in the back, and...  Well, this seems totally safe. Let's go!  Hooray! We're free! Piers: See! We got out of it, and everything is fine now!   Piers: ...poo poo. Tune in next time, as our heroes attempt to escape the Kingshome Dungeon!
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Jul 17, 2015 06:55
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Isn't this the 3rd or 4th time you got railroad-ambushed and dumped in a dungeon somewhere?
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Jul 18, 2015 10:44
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RabidWeasel posted:Isn't this the 3rd or 4th time you got railroad-ambushed and dumped in a dungeon somewhere? Well, that's how the whole game started, with us getting ambushed, stripped naked and dumped in Purgatory. Then there was Phoebus. Byzanople wasn't so much an ambush, but you could maybe count that. So yeah, this is the 3rd or 4th time.
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Jul 19, 2015 06:21
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Man, they are really on top of escapees from the isle of madmen.
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Jul 19, 2015 22:04
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Somehow it's been almost a month since the last update. I've been busy and will continue to be busy, but rest assured, my loyal half dozen readers, that I am working on the next update and I shall see this LP through to the end! Until then, here's a preview shot! 
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Aug 7, 2015 04:27
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Update 30: Dungeon of Kingshome You'd think, at some point, villains would evolve past the cliche of throwing the heroes in a dungeon. Escaping from dungeons while scouring them for every possible ounce of treasure and experience is kinda what adventurers do. Not only are they bound to get out, they'll probably find some secret magical item or mysterious hidden treasure on the way. So not only did you not really impede the heroes' progress by capturing them, you probably managed to help them find exactly what they need to defeat you in the process. Bottom line, if you've got them at your mercy for a minute, just kill them! Barring that, you're better off just not even capturing the good guys. If they can't find a dungeon to milk for treasure, maybe they'll get stuck in some town where they neglected to talk to the right elder, and they'll just never find you. So with all of that in mind... ...our heroes find themselves in yet another dungeon. Why would Namtar make such a mistake? More on that later. For now, we have a dungeon to explore, and eventually escape.  It's just us, a cell, and a door. And presumably, a lock on the other side of said door. What shall we do? We have lockpicks, but we can't very well pick a lock from the inside of our cell. We could try to kick the door down, or...  ...or it could just not have a lock at all this time. Well, okay then. So, this puts us in a short hallway with doors to a few other cells along the way. At the far end of the hallway is another door leading out of this area of the dungeon. Before we go there, we'll pick the lock of one of the cells (only ours was unlocked), and encounter...  Paragraph 53 posted:In this cell you find a weak young man dressed in soiled motley. "Good evening ladies and germs, it's good to be back at the palace," he says as you enter his cell. "A funny thing happened to me on the way to the dungeon." The poor man was obviously a court jester. "I ran into Sir Loin of Pork this afternoon - he said he was about to become Baron of Greymatter." This guy really stinks. If wiser men than you consigned this man to the dungeons, who are you to set him free. "I got a million of 'em," the jester says, seeming to notice you for the first time and perking up considerably. This confirms your worst fears, and you slam and lock the cell door. "Cancel the Renaissance - it looks like a reign of terror!" comes the muffled voice from behind the door. We don't get anything for going in here, it's just another one of the game's odd bits of humor. Okay then. We move to the door at the end of the hallway, where we encounter another wild paragraph:  Paragraph 65 posted:This guard room is occupied by several menacing men who stand when you enter. "Well... look at this," one of them sneers. "Our prisoners have 'escaped'. We have to 'recapture' them - perhaps several times." The guards begin to close in. "Remember, men, these prisoners were trying to escape...we won't be accused of beating prisoners in their cells again!" Remember, this is the dungeon of a country currently ruled by a literal demon from hell. Why do the guards need to hide the fact that they're beating prisoners?  I always love it when the paragraph mentions "several menacing men" and the actual encounter is two random weak guys. By the way, we still have all of our magical equipment, items, and spells, because Namtar's henchmen never bothered to take that stuff away from us. So naturally, we kick these guys' teeth in without breaking a sweat.  These guys are a bit tougher, but still fairly easy to take down. This dungeon has a way of overselling the severity of its encounters. It's possible to make it here earlier in the game, but even then, it's just not a very tough area. The two Stosstrupen might be tougher to deal with if they started at 10', but at 20' we can just fire spells at them for a round or let them walk into melee range.  The "Jackpot!" here, however, is not overselling things. This is a nice haul:  Sure, some of this equipment is outmoded by now. But Black Helms are always precious, the Mage Ring is mildly useful, and the Gatlin Bow is the first and only bow we really care about. Remember how the Tri-Cross has a "Burst" mode which fires three bolts instead of one? The Gatlin has that too, but that's not important. It also has a third mode: Full Auto. It fires the entire quiver in one attack. So if you equip the Gatlin Bow along with a pack of Arrow x 20, using Full Auto will attack a single enemy target 20 times. This is costly, but it deals a bunch of damage. That's still not the good part. Earlier, we picked up an item called the "Magic Quiver." It is listed as a pack of 63 arrows, and those arrows are slightly weaker than normal arrows, but they never run out. The count will always remain 63, no matter what. This means exactly what you think it means. Attacking with Gatlin Bow + Magic Quiver + Full Auto means you fire 63 times, you don't waste any ammo, and you never have to reload. This combination very well may be the best attack in the game, even better than the Sword of Freedom. Also, there is a secret door in the eastern wall. Like with many secret doors in this game, I don't know how you're supposed to know about it. Our best bet is to just feel around random walls or cast Soften Stone wherever there's a spot that could be a secret area.  There is a fork here. If we go to the north, we walk right into a trap!  But if we go south, we find this: Paragraph 42 posted:In this dusty and disused chamber you find what was formerly the throne of King Drake of Kingshome, the mightiest ruler of Dilmun. The throne is heaped in the corner and in poor repair. Carelessly tossed behind the throne you find Drake's ceremonial crown. Maybe it will be worth something, if there is ever a true king in Kingshome.  The crown is useless, as far as I can tell, despite the paragraph's suggestion that it could be important. The Gold isn't really much better at this point. From here, we'll backtrack a bit and find a staircase leading up.   Note the color change. While the name displayed is still "Kingshome," we're now out of the dungeon and in the castle proper.  There's only one way to go, however, and it leads through this room:  Now, it looks like there's nothing in this room, but that's just 1989 EGA graphics fooling with your eyes. Everyone... prepare yourselves. ... ...  There's this guy. Paragraph 131 posted:This is a private bedchamber. A man wearing a simple robe lays on a divan. He seems neither old nor young. He has no distinguishing marks or characteristics...there is no evil air to him, his eyes do not piece to your soul, his brow has no spark of mad genius. He sits up lazily as you enter, swings his feet to the floor, walks across the room, and shakes your hand. Yep, you read that right. quote:"I'm Namtar," he says. Holy poo poo. quote:NAMTAR  Paragraph 131 Continued posted:"I'm Namtar," he says. "I suppose you guessed that. You've given me quite a lot of trouble." Namtar smiles. "Disappointed? Expecting something more? Later - I promise you. Won't you sit down?" Namtar offers you a chair. drat. The brilliance of this is that it gives a pretty simple explanation for why Namtar took us alive instead of killing us. He's bored. He's already omipotent, he's conquered Dilmun, and now he's toying with his only possible opposition because it's the only thing amusing him.   Really, what is there to say about Namtar's introduction? It is great. Sure, it's just a short blurb of text and a picture, but it's enough to make Namtar not just a faceless antagonist, but a real, interesting character. And if there was any doubt that he is a serious threat, his performance here should erase that doubt. We won't see Namtar again for a little while. We have some other business to take care of before visiting him (and Mystalvision!) on the Mountain of Salvation. But rest assured, when we do, it will be worth the wait. Namtar won't be holding back next time.
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Sep 9, 2015 07:06
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In a slightly more modern RPG you'd hope to see him give some idea of what his rule will be like and why you should join him so you can have a bad end/evil choice.
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Sep 9, 2015 10:50
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chiefnewo posted:In a slightly more modern RPG you'd hope to see him give some idea of what his rule will be like and why you should join him so you can have a bad end/evil choice. Well, I suppose that would be one way to make this game even more non-linear.
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Sep 9, 2015 18:44
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I remember stumbling on this early and being horribly confused because I really hadn't gotten up to that much poo poo yet. I also found the gatling crossbow and it made the game a total walkover.
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Sep 9, 2015 19:32
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Zeroisanumber posted:I remember stumbling on this early and being horribly confused because I really hadn't gotten up to that much poo poo yet. Yeah, it's possible to get here pretty early. To get to the Kingshome dungeon, you need to either go to Snake Pit or lose the Byzanople war. So a couple of possible paths include: Purgatory->Phoebus->Siege Camp->Byzanople->Kingshome or Purgatory->Mystic Wood->King's Isle->Bridge of Exiles->Snake Pit->Kingshome I doubt you made it to the dungeon quite that quickly, but you can certainly get there much earlier than I did in this LP. And yes, getting Gatlin Bow + Magic Quiver early on is a good strategy. Deals a ton of damage and doesn't suck up valuable MP.
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Sep 9, 2015 20:44
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rujasu posted:Yeah, it's possible to get here pretty early. To get to the Kingshome dungeon, you need to either go to Snake Pit or lose the Byzanople war. So a couple of possible paths include: I probably did get there later than I'm thinking that I did. It was quite a while ago.
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Sep 9, 2015 21:39
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Well, now the comparatively lackluster opposition makes sense, if you can get here early. I imagine when Namtar went to the Mountain of Salvation he was kind enough to leave the door unlocked behind him?
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Sep 11, 2015 01:46
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rujasu posted:
This pissed off my 16 year old self so much when I ran into it. Granted, I cheated like mad in order to win that particular battle, but I expected at least a little fanfare and loot for doing it. Now granted, this was on a Commodore 64, and there weren't any fun utilities like cheat engine around at the time, so the only way I was able to make it happen was by abusing something which I haven't seen you run into yet. See, there was a spot on the map you could stumble into while you were exploring, and it would give you a handful of skill points as a reward, and from what I recall, it was near the beginning of the game. You could also start a new game game at any time, and re-import your party. Their gear would be gone, their levels would be reset, but skill points? They didn't think to reset your unspent skill point counter. Now, combine that with the fact that there are some spells in the game where the amount of damage you do to a group of enemies scales based on how many points you dump into the ability, and you could suddenly break a lot of the fights in very spectacular ways. I think that was the only playthrough in which I finished the game.
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Sep 18, 2015 01:26
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EricFate posted:This pissed off my 16 year old self so much when I ran into it. Yep. I think I actually managed to win that battle at some point without abusing the skill point bonus, and yes, I will be showing that off later in the LP and Mystal just won anyway because Plot Reasons. I don't think I was too surprised at the time.
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Sep 18, 2015 02:00
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Part 31: This Is a Short Update, Deal With It After our encounter with Namtar, we walk through a door, and it disappears behind us. In case you're wondering: yes, we can just cast Soften Stone to go back into the room. It doesn't really accomplish anything, but we can do it, and in doing so we can mess with the game's scripting a bit. You see, if we go back and step on the tile for the stairs back into the dungeon, it triggers the event to make the vanishing door appear, and we can go back and walk through it again, and it becomes a wall again. But if we go back to the tile and create the door again, then Soften Stone our way around to the other side of the door, we can trigger the script to make the door vanish from the other side, without actually going through the door at all, because you see the script actually doesn't trigger on the action of going through the door, but on the action of stepping on the tile on the other side of the door, and that means... Oh, wait, nobody else actually cares about this. Moving along.  Paragraph 130 posted:Formerly the imperial court of King Drake, this hall retains none of the splendor of ages past. Where once hung brilliant tapestries, the walls are now bare. Empty pedestals mark where renowned sculptures formerly stood. Blocks of marble are missing in several places where materials have been removed to construct fortresses for Kingshome's campaign army. This is not the court of a king in residence. We can explore the castle, but there is nothing of any real importance here.   There's an infinite supply of Pilgrim Garbs here, but we already have one and our inventory is pretty full right now.  It's interesting how the castle is almost completely abandoned (there aren't even enemy encounters!) despite the dungeon clearly being fully operational. Well, it was operational before we slaughtered every one of the guards, but still.  This is of course right in character for Namtar. He's already conquered the world (or at least Dilmun) and now he's just kind of bored. You know that one Twilight Zone episode where the guy is the sole survivor of a nuclear war, and then he has all those books, but then he breaks his glasses and can't read any of them? Namtar is kind of like that guy, except he's also the guy who caused the nuclear war. Or something like that.   Most of this stuff is useless (fine mid-game gear, but we have the best stuff already), but an extra pair of Lucky Boots are always good to have. This Magic Chain doesn't cast Zak's Speed like the other one does. That's really all there is to do in the castle. But we have something more important to take care of.  We still have a bunch of Lanac'toor's body parts clogging up our inventory. Let's return them to their rightful place.        The game seems to be confused about whether this is a statue of Lanac'toor, or the real guy. In any case, Lanac'toor doesn't magically come back to life or anything. Paragraph 54 is a lie, it is never actually used in the game, but here it is anyway: Paragraph 54 posted:"Thanks for putting me back together - I feel swell!" Lanac'toor grins. "I was a little nervous when you put my arms on backwards, but I guess I'll get used to it. Having my elbows bend the wrong way will make it easier for me to scratch my back!" That said, these stairs will lead us to Lanac'toor's Lab, which is one of the few remaining areas to explore before heading for Nisir. There are a couple of other places we could go right now, but I'm going to save them until after the Lab. Next up: Lanac'toor's Lab!
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Oct 12, 2015 05:23
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Yeah, Namtar seems like the sort of guy who'd collect a bunch of treasure and then get bored with it.
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Oct 13, 2015 19:53
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Working on the Lanac'toor's Lab, hoping to have it up some time this week. It's not a hard dungeon, but I forgot how annoying it can be.
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Dec 13, 2015 20:06
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Part 32: Lanac'toor's Lab of MAD SCIENCE*! *May contain more magic than actual science Into the lab we go!  Paragraph 107 posted:This tower chamber is in very ill repair. The supports are sinking, and half the floor is flooded with inky blackwater. The contents of innumerable vials and potions are emptied on the floor alongside the smashed vials that formerly contained them. What was once a great magical library has been destroyed by fire and water damage. Piers: Geez, what a nerd. And I thought Madrick was bad. Madrick: Keep talking, Stabby McStabberson. Remember, Ice Chill hits from a mile away. How much range does that Freedom Sword have again? As you might have guessed from his name, Lanac'toor is a bit of a comic relief character in this game, despite his being dead, petrified, and smashed into four conveniently-recoverable pieces. However, his journal here gives us some pretty obvious hints. We'll need to use Soften Stone and Create Wall to navigate down here, and we're looking for Lanac'toor's glasses, because we'll need them to find the College of Magic. To start out, we have to cover a lot of ground. The Lab is a fairly large, open dungeon and mapping out all of the walls is key to solving it.  Here, for example, the only way into this area is by casting Soften Stone. No big deal, we'll just cast the spell and walk in...  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF  So yeah, that note from Lanac'toor about "pockets of water" was a warning. Removing walls in certain areas means getting knocked over by a huge wave. As long as we remember to Bandage up regularly, this won't be a huge problem, but it is annoying. Also, there's nothing in this particular area, but we'll have to keep exploring.  There are a lot of monsters down here. While Lanac'toor's notes mention them coming from the Underworld, these skeletons were apparently conjured up by Lanac.  Snakes... I hate snakes.  You used that line about ghouls costing an arm and a leag back in Necropolis, game. You're not fooling me. Also, how many loving Goblins are there in this game? We must have encountered about 600 of 'em by now. Also encountered, but not pictured: Wraiths. Because gently caress WRAITHS.  Are we sure that's the Underworld we're smelling and not Lanac'toor's laundry?  We don't want to go this way. It does lead down to the Magan Underworld, but there's no way back up. Let's go Soften up some more walls.  gently caress DAMMIT  Kali: Maybe you all should try backing away from the wall before I cast the spell? Piers: No way! We're heroes! We must attack the flooding water head-on! Kali: .......   Fire Storm is a pretty cool and powerful spell that we probably won't use all that much. It's Sun Magic, it hits all enemies within range for a ton of damage, but is less cost-efficient than Inferno. We'll give it to Dolph since we gave Inferno to Valar. Kill Ray is one of three spells in the "Miscellaneous Magic" category. Any magic-user with skill one of the non-Low schools of magic can learn a Miscellaneous spell. Despite the awesome-sounding name, Kill Ray kinda sucks because it costs 15 MP and only hits one target, though it does hit 10-80 damage. Hmm, who shall we give this one to? Madrick: Mwahahahahahaha! Mortals shall tremble before me, bearer of Madrick's Mighty Death Ray of DEATH! With this I shall rule Oceana! Dolph: Why do we bring him along again? Valar: Meh, not like I need that lame over-priced spell anyway. Dolph: Yeah, knock yourself out buddy. Madrick: Fear my DEATH RAY! Zak's Speed, which we can already cast with items but don't really bother with, is also Miscellaneous. I'll probably give it to Dolph. Valar is just going to spend all his MP casting Inferno on everything. The other stuff is either crap or obsolete at this point. There's no way you would get this far in the game and still be looking for Mage Fire of all things. There's also a locked chest in this room with a Healing Potion, Dragon Shield, and Battle Wand. The Dragon Shield is naturally a pretty good shield (+5 AC), and the Battle Wand increases everyone's Strength by 10 during combat. Which would be pretty good if I gave a drat about melee at this point. Oh and right next to all of this stuff:  Kali: Great, we found Lanac'toor's Spectacles! Now we can find the entrance to the College of Magic! Madrick: Mwahahaha, I don't need college, I have a DEATH RAY! Indeed, there is a College of Magic to be found, and it's worth checking out. That's not all there is to check out, however. Let's make our way back to the Smuggler's Cove...  We haven't been to Rustic yet, but the College of Magic can be reached from there. There's a Game Preserve there which we may want to check out on our way to the College, or on our way back from it. Additionally, remember how I said there was something else to check out near Sunken Ruins?  We might also have a reason to check this out now as well. Next up: Either the College of Magic, Game Preserve, or Dragon Valley! What will it be? Madrick: DEATH RAY!
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Dec 18, 2015 05:59
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