Quick Update

 Hi, everyone. I know I haven't been around for a while. Something unexpected came up, and I had to take a week off. I should resume posting again by Monday, 16 May.

Lands of Lore: Respawn of Satan

The worst thing in the entire world.

        

I ended this session steaming mad at Lands of Lore, and if I'd written this entry at that point, it would have been full of fury. Instead, I (unintentionally) let a couple of days go by, and now it's hard not to think of it the same way as any other six-hour period with a game in which I faced some obstacle, overcame it, and was in the end glad to have overcome it. 

   

It's hard to say why one type of obstacle delights us, another annoys us, and a third infuriates us. When I hit a traffic jam on the way home, I never think, "Aha! An opportunity to assess my capacity for patience!" And yet when I get around said traffic jam, tossing obscenities into my rearview mirror, I happily rush home to confront myself with a crossword puzzle or several hours fighting monsters in a CRPG and regard it as entertainment. When the obstacle posed by a CRPG is logistical, I tend to pursue it to its end, but when it relies on manual dexterity, I'm quick to abandon it. You could argue that I'm clearly good at one and not the other, which is true, but why should my enjoyment of a puzzle come down to how "good" I am at solving it? You'd think the opposite would be true--that I would delight in overcoming obstacles that require speed and reflexes because I so rarely do.

    

We've got "Trouble!"

     

No matter what obstacle I face, however, I suppose my key criteria for finding it enjoyable (versus annoying or infuriating) is a) it's fair, and b) it operates according to an understandable set of rules. This is where I have problems with Lands of Lore. Its approach to respawning is not only unfair; I'm not sure it's even decipherable. Enemies seem to respawn partly based on geography and partly based on time. That is, if you cross certain tiles, you're bound to spawn a few foes. But even if you stand still and do nothing but fight, you'll face a steady supply. But respawning seems to diminish after you've achieved certain plot goals, so maybe it's partly tied to progress or inventory. I can't figure it out.

Plenty of other games have featured respawning, of course, and generally I like it. Respawning is an opportunity to grind for gold and experience, try new tactics, experiment with spells. But now I realize I have to qualify that appreciation: I don't like respawning when it happens so fast and frequent that an empty corridor fills with enemies in five seconds, trapping you from both ends. That's taking it too far.

      

A mystic key in the form of a scarab or something.

   

Of course, if you can just mow them down, I suppose such respawning is a minor inconvenience at best. It has to be coupled with a high difficulty level to be truly diabolical. And this is what I found in the White Tower, mostly on a single level.

    

The White Tower was inviting at first, with its white marble walls and polished floors. We thought we might find some succor there. But a few doors into it, we were attacked by what the manual calls "Amazons." There were also "archer slugs," which spit missiles at us. Neither were terribly hard. I only fought for a little while before taking a trip back to Gorkha Swamp to offload some excess inventory, even though I suspect the money we're amassing will do no good for us. 

    

Amazons punch and kick us in the White Tower.

    

There were several levels to the tower, with progress blocked by a series of doors that opened to "mystic keys" that we had to find scattered all over the place. There were a couple of other puzzles that involved putting items in slots. For the first time, I faced a button on the floor instead of a wall.

 

On Level 2, we met a third enemy type: one-eyed chickens capable of casting "Fireball" at range. They died in one hit once we got into melee range, but we had to be careful of them suddenly spawning at the end of a long corridor.

       

I was impressed that they have little shadows.

     

At some point, we came face-to-face with Jana, the leader of the Amazons. She took one reload to kill. I thought at the time that she was the "boss" of the tower and our woes were over. Hah. 

    

I have to be honest: "Amazons" don't really seem to fit with this dungeon. Neither, come to think of it, do chickens.

     

As we ascended the stairs, a ghost appeared and suggested we flee the tower and save ourselves, but we of course ignored him and pressed on. Then we started to encounter several types of ghosts. It was these ghosts that led to the rage referenced above. There were three varieties. These hooded and cloaked phantoms were the easiest. Two others had the same graphic--translucent figures wearing armor and holding swords--but different colors. I think only the blue one had the power to execute what is perhaps the most annoying attack of any CRPG in history: the summoning of a phantom snake, which rushes up to the party, hisses, and halves your hit points. You're frozen while this animation plays; there is no way to dodge or counter it.

     

We should have listened.

       

Meanwhile, the ghosts themselves hit pretty hard, and they can fly through walls, so they can start hitting you while you can't even see them (in adjacent walls), and they can come out of nowhere to block passages. 

   

After a few reloads, I took a save by the stairs down to the previous level and started gingerly trying to make it as far into the level as I could. I kept getting surrounded, overwhelmed, and killed. Spells didn't seem to help. The ghosts seemed to take a little damage from "Fireball" and "Freeze," but offensive spells deplete your mana bar fast, and I needed to save as much as possible for healing. 

    

Two of the hateful phantoms.

       

Experimenting with different weapons, I found that two "emerald blades" that I'd found in previous dungeons did a lot more damage to the ghosts than conventional weapons. These made a huge difference. I now know I could have used Vaelan's Cube against them, too, but I hadn't unscrambled the ROT-13s yet, and anyway I don't know how much a difference it would have made.

    

Early in the level is a pit trap that you pass by throwing an item across it to depress a button on the far wall. Before I figured that out, we fell down the pit to the lower level and found ourselves in an isolated area of Level 2. It was a god-send because no enemies spawned or respawned in this area except the one "boss" enemy, a minotaur, who had to be approached to be triggered.

     

You don't have to be disgusting.

     

The minotaur was comparably easy. We led him around the central pillar in his chambers while attacking him--a variant of the old "combat waltz" from Dungeon Master. When he died, he left a horn that was the key out of this area. We rested and returned to the fight against the ghosts.

Gameplay for the next four hours involved:

• Resting and saving at the entrance to the level;
• Moving into the level and trying to explore one more square than the previous time;
• Getting overwhelmed by ghosts;
• Trying to fight our way back to the entrance;
• If we couldn't make it back to the entrance, at least making it back to the pit;
• If not making it back to the pit, dying and reloading.

    

I can't convey in words how annoying this process was. The phantom snakes are the worst element. They do way too much damage. And yes, I know I could have taken the edge off by lowering the difficulty, by this time finishing the game on "Ferocious" was part of my religion.

  

There was one door I never managed to pass through. When I hit the button next to it, a face appeared and yelled, "YOU HAVE NO FAITH!" But regardless of what's behind this door, I found the items necessary to complete the tower. First, a ghostly woman appeared behind one door to give me a crucible. She told me to "place it on the Altar de Blanca to receive the ingredients for the Elixir."

     

I am true of heart . . .

. . . but have no faith.

      

The Altar de Blanca was on the first level, behind a door I needed a key from Level 3 (I think) to open. I placed the crucible on it, and it said it was ready to make the Elixir, but of course I only had three of four ingredients. 

    

I like how Conrad keeps his enthusiasm.

     

Relieved to at least be done with the ghosts, I left the tower and kept following the corridors of the forest. They led me to a second barrier, which I destroyed with the second Vaelan's Cube. 

     

The streets of Yvel.

    

Behind it was a path to a dismal, mostly-abandoned town called Yvel. I don't remember it being mentioned before. As I explored, I encountered:

• Numerous abandoned buildings (several with doors that had to be picked) with various treasures, including three playing cards called "Ace of Dominion," "Ace of Infinity," and "Ace of Oblivion."

• A fifth magic spell: "Hand of Fate." 

      

I later cast "Hand of Fate." It has an amusing graphic but doesn't actually seem to hurt them.

      

• An herbalist who gave me the Earth Powder I need for the Elixir.

       

I wonder what happens if we didn't rescue Lora.

   

• A building in which Geron Arbroath, King Richard's chamberlain, was meeting with other staff members from the castle. He was extremely rude to us. He started making demands of Paulson, but Paulson said that he follows me now. He demanded that we bring him the Elixir when we have it, then kicked us out.

   

What a jackass.

    

• A tavern called Bruno's Lodge. There were three patrons. The first was someone who said that I helped him in his hour of need. He gave me a "Cape of Concealment," which doesn't seem to do much in terms of protection, and I'm not sure the game really has a stealth mechanic.

• Bruno's other patrons were a man and a Thomgog. The man was clearly modeled after Cliff from Cheers, and the voice actor did a competent John Ratzenberger impression. Just like Cliff, he was full of trivia, and he relayed a long and rambling story about the history of the region. I don't know if it's all important, but it was interesting. It's a weird way to convey what is ultimately about 50% of the lore of the setting.

   

You can hear Ratzenberger's voice reading this text.

   

• You would think the Thomgog was therefore a riff on Norm. He did ask us to buy him a beer, but the voice actor didn't otherwise try to use George Wendt's voice or mannerisms. If the bartender is supposed to be based on Sam Malone, it's only in the broadest sense. He has some comments about women.

• A bow shop. I've mostly given up on ranged weapons.

• The armorer from Gladstone, having apparently set up shop here in exile. He bought most of the excess stuff I was carrying, including a bunch of named swords. I bought a great sword from him but still had over 3,000 silver. I could spend most of it on a jeweled dagger, but I'm not sure why I would. It would be nice if some shop sold those "bezel cups" that provide full healing. Those would be worth some money.

       

Could you tell me anything about what it does?

       

I haven't said much about equipment in this game because there's not much to say. Any game that's linear and doesn't randomize any of its equipment locations provides essentially the same experience to every player. There's no joy at a particularly "lucky" chest or triumph after sneaking into an area several levels above me to make off with a piece of armor. Occasionally, you find a weapon or armor that provides slightly better offensive or defensive scores than your last piece, and you make a swap. If any of these items do special things, the game is so obtuse about it that I don't bother trying to figure it out. As we've discussed, it's one of my complaints with this entire sub-genre.

        

The map of the City of Yvel.

     

As for levels, I ended this session with the following:

     

Character	Fighter	Rogue	Mage
Conrad	7	4	4
Baccata	7	4*	4
Paulson	6	5*	4

*Increased by one by magic amulet

 

You can tell me whether that's high, low, or about right for where I am in the game. I've been trying to improve mage levels for all characters, but magic just disappears so damned fast.

   

Baccata at the end of this session.

     

With all the ingredients, we returned to the White Tower, went to the Altar unopposed, and mixed the Elixir. "We must find King Richard quickly!" Conrad said. There was the rub. Untrusting of Arbroath, I decided to go back to Dawn, even though she was several maps away.

     

This sounds like an insult, but I can't quite parse it.

      

On the way, I tested out the new "Hand of Fate" spell, which I only have enough magic points to cast at Level 1 or 2. It makes a giant spectral hand appear and shove or slap enemies, but as far as I can tell, it does no damage to them. I'm not sure what it's for.

       

Thanks, that was useful.

      

Back at Dawn's wagon, we found the wagoner dead with a spear stuck through his back and no sign of Dawn. With no other ideas, we returned to Yvel and the Council, where Arbroath refused to give us his key and demanded we find Dawn.

     

Conrad stands up to the chamberlain.

    

We wandered back out into the woods and soon encountered Dawn. She said she'd get the key from Nathaniel but needed her own key back. I thought something looked off about her, checked old screen shots, and verified that the real Dawn has blue eyes. With this one, I chose "argue."

        

Scotia, the Nether Mask is kind of lost on you, isn't it?

    

She immediately turned into a giant dinosaur. In her new form, she had a "tremor" attack, just like the Lahrkon back in the mines, and it caused us to drop weapons and shields. I tried to fight her with spells and even the green skulls that worked on the Lahrkon, but she wiped us out. I'm sure there's a way to defeat her, if nothing else by rest-scumming in nearby Yvel, but I'll try a few other things when I pick up the game again next time.

 

(Incidentally, I did reload and give her the key just to see what happens. She smirks and flies off but I can keep playing. Does anyone know the impact on the rest of the game if you do this?) 

     

I didn't have the patience for this one tonight.

       

My only gauge for how close I am to the end is that I've met every monster listed in the book except for, I think, "Cabal warriors." Another gauge may be that I only seem to have room for one or two more spells before the scroll fully unfurls in its allotted space. I hope I'm right. I continue to enjoy the evolving story, the cheesy voice acting, and the graphics, but it's about time for this one to start its final act. 

   

Time so far: 24 hours

Ultima Underworld II: A Song of Ice and Fire

Listen to the music on the (frozen) lake.

       

"Where am I?" I wonder as I emerge from the second facet of the gem and step out of a small blackrock alcove. Thus, it's helpful that the first person I see, a guard, asks me what I'm doing in "Killorn Keep." I give him my true name, and he directs me to someone named Mystell, noting that I might have to undergo a "loyalty test" to see if I am versed in "His Law." I suspect I know who "his" is, and that this guard will soon be at the end of my blade. Sure enough, tapestries with the Guardian's face line the walls.

   

What a welcoming sign.

     

I notice a large cat behind the guard, and just for fun, I speak to it. To my surprise, it speaks back: "Hssst! Do not speak to us here, lest you call attention to us. Speak to us only in the stables. Chirl is too dimwitted to suspect anything." Nearby, another guard tells me that Killorn Keep is a flying fortress, hovering "1257 feet above the sands of the Krain desert" in the Great Northern Wasteland. And already we have the game's excuse for why I won't be able to explore an outdoor area.

       

Most of the guards speak in a brainwashed monotony. A friendly merchant named Aron boasts of his goods but only has an apple, a cudgel, a short sword, and a torch to sell. An insulting woman named Bishay has a few pieces of armor. Much more useful is a robed merchant named Merzan who promises to serve as a near-endless money sink. He sells potions of "Lesser Heal," "Mana Boost," and "Resist Blows," identifies items, recharges magical items, and will provide hints as to the locations of spells. Suddenly, I'm not upset that I brought such a large pile of money. He identifies the jeweled sword I've been carrying as a Sword of Major Damage and a short sword as a Sword of Minor Damage. I decide not to ask him to identify everything, but just the things I've already identified as magical.

   

As I move through the keep, I find broken weapons and other debris all over the floor, suggesting recent unrest. In the southeast corner of the level, I find some stables run by a hand named Chirl. Instead of horses, the stables house more of the giant cats, apparently called Trilkhai. That's an anagram for "Kilrathi," the enemies of Origin's Wing Commander series, and I guess they're also feline, though they look different than the cheetahs I'm seeing here. However, one of them soon makes the connection explicit: "I have heard many stories of our race's past, wild tales of Trilkhai who flew among the stars, and hurled fire at the humans."

   

Apparently, the cats aren't actually talking but rather speaking to me telepathically. This one is called Blackie. She tells me that the humans in the keep aren't aware the Trilkhai are intelligent, but she can read my mind and she realizes that I have "virtues that will prevent [me] from betraying [them]." She wants to know more of her race's past, and I promise I'll return if I can find any more information.

     

Let me tell you about a certain hoe . . .

      

More NPCs on the first level:

    

• Kintara, a traveler from the land of Javra, "beyond the Tuay Mountains." She is heading for Mashan to collect a shipment of "Shalathian dream-spice," which supposedly gives people dreams of other worlds. Many of them see a "strange and beautiful shrine." She sells me a pair of Boots of Fire Resistance for a sapphire, but Merzan later identifies them as just regular leather boots.

• Ogri, who comes from a long line of servants in the keep. He hints that someone keeps it afloat at the Guardian's will, and that it was built to "keep something in." During his ancestor's day, the keep was sacked by a warrior named Praecor Loth, who took the keep's blue eagle emblem. He says if I bring it back to him, he'll tell me secrets about the keep. He also offers "Lore" training.

• Lobar, a drunken fighter. Once a champion duelist, he now spends most of his time drunk to keep the voice of the Guardian at bay. "I'll be damned if that red bastard will make me his toy." He indicates that the Guardian promotes his own system of virtues: Sobriety, Punctuality, Obedience, Vigilance, Conformity, Efficiency, Silence, and Diligence. He also offers "Sword" training.

• Lord Thibris, ruler of the keep, hangs out in his throne room. I don't know what to make of his name being an anagram of "British." A servant of the Guardian for centuries, he conquered the keep from Praecor Loth, who fled north and died in a mazelike tomb. The Guardian had hoped to recover Loth's magic horn, which could shatter buildings, but it was lost in the tomb.

        

I bet this guy doesn't put up with servant rebellions.

       

• Mystell. She immediately starts grilling me. I tell her that I am "Ratava, Avatar of Britannia and sworn enemy of the Guardian," and she thinks I'm joking. She just gets angry when I answer where I'm from, so I take the only available option and fill in the blanks from what Kintara told me: I'm from Javra, bound for Mashan. She asks me the seventh of the eight virtues, and I answer from what Lobar told me. Satisfied, she asks me to serve as her spy and see if I can dig up dirt on the sorceress Altara.

     

Are you related to Nystul?

    

• Altara, who is in the next room. Figuring the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I introduce myself and explain that I'm from another world being invaded by the Guardian. She says that she's heard of me from Bishop. She warns me that the Guardian has likely planted a spy in Castle Britannia, "some magical creature lurking in the sewers and tunnels." She says it will stay near a body of water and surround itself with walls of fire. I remember fire walls in one part of the sewers. She gives me a dagger to kill it with (Merzan identifies it as a "Dagger of Unsurpassed Accuracy"). She also offers "Casting" and "Mana" training.

       

Our names share a lot of the same letters!

     

A barracks has a ton of locked chests. I bash one open, but it takes about 30 blows and I don't have that kind of patience with all of them.

   

There are three stairways out of here. I take one going down from the pantry next to the tavern. It leads me to a dark, stone basement full of trash and rats. I follow a corridor to a sturdy wooden door, locked, but I bash it open in a couple of minutes. It has a couple of giant spiders, which I kill, and a barrel with a wand, plate boots, a couple of lockpicks, and a red ring.

   

I am unable to bash down a portcullis on the east side of the level. Continuing to search, I find a secret door that brings me down a hallway. Here, the entrance to another room is decorated with a rug with a candle in each corner. Stepping on the rug teleports me to a freaky room with a floating skull (that does nothing to me). Moving forward here, I am teleported and find myself back in the Britannian sewers. Weird. 

      

What new devilry is this?

      

Before heading back to Killorn Keep, I decide to check out what Altara said. I remember the location of the fire walls on Level 4 and head up there, finally killing some annoying bats on Level 5 on the way. The fire wall is where I remembered, in the southeast corner, but there's an opening I didn't notice before (or wasn't there before), heading down a corridor and into an open room. The creature flying around the room looks like a mongbat, but I guess it's not because blue lightning crackles between its hands and when I kill it, it drops coins that, the game says, "belong to a daemon."

  

I hit the creature about 20 times with my sword to no avail before pulling out Altara's dagger. It shatters but kills the creature in one blow. He leaves only 8 gold pieces behind.

      

Fighting some kind of demon amid walls of fire.

     

I return to Killorn Keep and report my success to Altara. She says that she's trying to put a powerful enchantment on a pearl but she needs the egg of a dread spider and am amethyst rod. I don't have either, but I suspect the dread spider's egg is to be found in their area in the Britannian sewers. Finally, she gives me three magic runes: AN, CORP, and QUAS, none of which I have. 

It's been a while since I checked what spells are available to me. As a ninth-level character, I can cast up to fifth-level spells. The new runes give me the ability to try "Night Vision" (QUAS LOR), which allows me to see more than "Light," but in black-and-white. It works for me, but I suspect it will make for less pleasant screen shots.

      

You probably don't want the rest of my images to look like this.

       

In other news, I've been wasting time with "Lesser Heal" (IN BET MANI) without noticing that "Heal" (IN MANI) has been available to me for at least two levels. I've also been neglecting "Open" (EX YLEM), which takes half my magic and backfires when I try to cast it in the barracks. Alas, I lack the HUR stone for "Levitate," and the first-level "Magic Arrow" remains my only offense spell until I find the FLAM rune.

   

I try another down stairway in the southwest corner off the barracks, A guard blocks the corridor and orders me to return to the previous level. I have hostile dialogue options, but I'm not ready to turn the entire keep against me yet, particularly when I need Altara's help.

       

I'm not forgetting that you called me "missy," though.

   

An ascending staircase in the throne room simply leads to the Thibris's bedchambers, where there's a huge chest that I can't open (EX YLEM casts, but it just says it has "no effect"). I return to the stairway off the pantry. EX YLEM opens the portcullis I couldn't open before, which dumps me in a pit with two headless. I swiftly kill them. Loot in their chamber includes 6 gold pieces, another blackrock gem, and a magical short sword.

 

At some point, I stop to sleep and I get a vision from the Guardian suggesting that his soldiers are ravaging Britannia while we're all trapped in the castle. I wonder if this is true. I don't remember any discussion of it in Ultima VII, Part 2, but then again that game takes place in another world. These visions impart a sense of urgency that the quest doesn't otherwise have.

        

He'd better stay away from Nastassia.

        

Finding nothing else to do in Killorn Keep, I head back to Britannia. I go up one level and enter the domain of the dread spiders. Whatever detente I have with the beasts is spoiled when I start messing with their eggs. I have to kill about six of them, then heal my poison with leeches. I hope it was worth it; the game specifies that I found several egg shells belonging to the spiders, but not entire eggs.

   

Before I head back upstairs, I find that "Night Vision" is particularly useful for tracking down all the miscellaneous bats that flit about the lower levels, making noise, but never seem to die. Oddly, however, "Night Vision" turns into just regular light when in the presence of the blackrock teleporter. I wonder if it has to do with limitations on how the facets of the teleporter can be depicted.

      

I finally kill this damned bat. Although I'm operating with "Night Vision," this part of the dungeon is colored normally.

    

Upstairs, people continue to complain about Patterson. Feridwyn, another former Fellowship member, says that he's "a constant pest."  Julia says that she tried to teach him fletching, but he ruined a batch of arrows. Patterson, for his part, is aware that everyone hates him, and he claims to feel bad about it. I have a tough role-playing choice here.

      

#2 is the honest answer; #1 the compassionate one. Which would you choose?

     

Lady Tory says she's feeling strong emotions coming from Feridwyn ("he has either committed an evil act without remorse, or he is afraid of being falsely accused") and doesn't trust him. Miranda reports that Dupre is restless, which Dupre confirms, but I have no dialogue options that give him anything to do. Syria has tried to spar with Geoffrey, but she destroyed him in their first bout.

 

Nanna says the Guardian has been speaking to her in her dreams, promising "a world where the workers have equal representation in all levels of government," but she's resisting him. It seems like she's going to get what she wants anyway: Lord British has decided to accede to their demands to end the caste system, though he has no dialogue on what that means practically. 

      

The Guardian is a Bolshevik.

     

Nystul takes the new blackrock gem I found and performs a ritual over it, turning from "cool" to "warm," which I hope means that more facets of the teleporter in the dungeon will become available, but it doesn't. When I use the gem on the stone, it freezes the Killorn Keep facet so that it's always active, but the third facet--the only one I haven't taken--continues to blink on and off, and the rest stay dark. 

     

Two skeletons welcome me to a new world.

    

I enter the facet I have not tried and find myself in a dark tunnel of ice, where I'm immediately attacked by a blue version of the bloodworms in the Britannian sewers. As I move forward, blocks of the floor occasionally collapse under my weight and dump me into frigid waters. There are other places where I go careening uncontrollably across the ice. I find that jumping a couple of times stops me, allowing me to proceed more carefully, albeit slowly.

   

I enter a large cave with a couple of skeletons. After I kill them, I find the remains of previous adventurers strewn everywhere, including several backpacks. One of them has a map scroll that automatically gets added to my automap, along with some notes speculating about the location of the "lost city of Anodunoslies." There's also a WIS stone, plus a mandolin that the game allows me to "play" with the 1-9 keys. 

     

The previous explorers' map not only fills in my automap but adds text.

     

I spend a while exploring the two levels of these ice caves, finding small treasures in crevasses. Ice balls start pelting me from afar; it turns out these are thrown by yetis. Despite their fearsome mien, they die in just a couple sword blows. I reach Level 10 after killing a group of them.

       

I feel bad killing these guys, but they won't stop pelting me with ice balls.

        

I find a third blackrock gem poised on the edge of a precipice above an icy underground river.  

    

Well, that was a smart place to leave it.

     

In a small cavern on the second level, I find an NPC named Mokpo the Mad. He refuses to believe that the world we inhabit is the "real" one, as he periodically has visions of a different world with "shining colors, fabulous beasts, vast plains of light, great pillars of light reaching up into the blackness." He talks of an "endless walkway of glowing blue" and a "golden maze." He accuses me of being an illusion, though, and I risk turning him hostile if I try to get anything else out of him.

       

I'd choose option #2, but I don't want to mock poor Mokpo.

     

My explorations take me across a broad, flowing river (with a lurker, of course) and into a large chamber in which water pours in from three sides. Up some stairs, I find what I can only describe as an ice golem. He introduces himself as "Sentinel 868" and says that he won't let me pass through the door behind him, where I will encounter the controls "to the dam in the reservoir of Anodunos." Only two operators can pass at once, "as each operator only knows half the combination to the controls."

      

He did not give me a chance to leave immediately.

     

"I must pass through this door!" I say, which is kind of silly because I didn't even know about this place until the golem told me about it. He turns hostile, and I'm forced to kill him, loot the key from his body, and continue.

   

Beyond the door is a large area that I'm not sure I've finished exploring. I reached a column with a different control--switch, dial, pull chain, and button--on each side, and by fiddling with it I managed to open the way to a room with a key, but I suspect there's more to do in an area as elaborate as "dam controls." I'm going to take another pass through the area. If that doesn't pay off, I always have the new blackrock gem to take back to Nystul.

        

There are also lynxes or something here. I forgot to mention it in my narrative.

      

I've enjoyed the ice caverns. The ice reflects light and makes them much brighter than the dim chambers of the other worlds. The rest of the game may be realistic in its darkness, but it's still too damned dark. The caverns also feel sufficiently different from the other worlds. The prison tower and Killorn Keep, while ostensibly in other universes, had the same look and feel as Britannia.

Time so far: 19 hours

Lands of Lore: Enemy Mine

A beast that elicited more of a WTF than an LOL.

     

This is the penultimate week of classes at the University of Chester (not to be confused with the actual university of that name in Pennsylvania), always a very busy time, and three nights this week, I've managed to fall asleep in my office chair with Lands of Lore on the screen in front of me. Some evenings more than once. But each of those nights, I've eventually woken up and continued playing until too late, so the game does have a kind of grip on me.

 

As this session began, my team wandered into the Urbish Mines. We were out again in minutes. The upper level of the mine consisted of a long corridor connecting Opinwood with Upper Opinwood. There was one door. Behind that door was a slug creature called a  Lahrkon, which is not in the manual. It had a tremor attack that damaged both health and magic and wrenched our weapons from our hands. This was fine because even when held, the weapons seemed to do no damage to the creature. Neither did any of our spells. 

     

I was so sure this was the solution to one of our riddles that I held up the flask to it but I got nothing.

           

Conrad and Baccata fled out the other side of the mine, expecting to find the solution to the beast in Upper Opinwood. What they found instead were a lot of giant hornets, plus walking-dead enemies called molders. The hornets were particularly copious, respawning at four "nest" locations and choking my backpaths. "Freeze" took care of them, but it was almost impossible to find anywhere to rest and restore spell points. 

   

The hornets' nests had honey, though--I just had to hold an empty flask up to the nest. I know this is a fictional world, but I must point out that hornets in the real world do not produce honey. 

   

The two enemies in this area.

       

As we reached a northern part of Upper Opinwood, Scotia suddenly alit on the path in front of us, transformed into an old crone, threatened us, and erected a magical barrier to keep us from progressing any further in that direction. Unfortunately, "that direction," as she intimated, holds the very tower on which we must put together the elixir. 

 

Scotia is one of the few RPG bosses who can follow through on her threats.

    

I have to admire how well the game makes you feel like you're part of an ongoing narrative. Most games establish the enemy in the backstory but then leave him passive until you show up to kill him. Lore perhaps goes too far in the opposite direction, making you feel as if you're losing ground with every dungeon you complete. The main quest has followed this evolution:

  

• Find the Ruby of Truth to counter Scotia's Nether Mask and kill Scotia.
• Find the elixir to heal King Richard, and then (presumably) kill Scotia.
• Find the four ingredients for the elixir, make the elixir, find the four keys needed to lower the magical barrier around King Richard's body, find King Richard, then apply the elixir, then kill Scotia.
• Find the four ingredients for the elixir, find some way to lower the barrier blocking access to the tower where we have to make the elixir, make the elixir, find the four keys needed to lower the magical barrier around King Richard's body, find king Richard, then apply the elixir, then kill Scotia.

   

The next evolution of this type of system is to give the player some kind of agency in whether, how, and when these plot developments occur. Even modern games don't do a particularly good job of that.

 

Scotia seals off part of the forest.

     

I mapped the rest of the area. There were several tree stump treasure chests that delivered various weapons, armor, silver crowns, and other upgrades. One of them was a jade necklace that increased one character's thief level by 1; another was a green skull that turned out to be important. I had already found a green skull in "lower" Opinwood. An exit from the far western side of Upper Opinwood connected with the Gorkha Swamp, making this entire area a square.

   

I didn't find anything that explicitly dealt with the Lahrkon, so I returned to the mines and tried again with the usual weapons and spells. When they failed, I fear I had to Google for a hint. It turns out that the skulls are usable items that cast an acid spell, although for some reason they deplete your mana bar in the casting (other usable magic items don't do that). I should have thought to try them, but I assumed they were either junk to weigh down pressure plates (like all the other bones and skulls in the game) or solutions to some kind of puzzle. It took about six uses of the skulls to kill the creature. I had to run outside and rest to restore mana in between.

     

The skull's acid finally dissolves the giant slug.

     

Beyond the Lahrkon was a stairway down to the rest of the Urbish Mines. The first level held the mine's offices, and it was full of desks with miscellaneous papers and notes and amusingly modern-looking file cabinets. Tool inventories and monthly quota sheets hung on the walls, along with signs that said things like: "Notice: Only one meal per day! No exceptions for dwarves!"; "Sickness is no excuse! No work, no pay!"; and "Thomgogs do NOT get double pay!" In other words, the developers did a modest amount of world-building, which is always nice to see. One of the desks had a "Fireball" scroll.

   

Searching one of the desks on the mines' office level.

      

Monsters were these giant lobsters crawling along the ceiling. I was surprised that, like the Lahrkon, it is not mentioned in the manual. Neither were some of the other monsters I faced later in the mines. I had been gauging my progress through the game by the number of monsters I'd encountered, and before I had entered the mines, I had figured I was about 50% through the game because I'd met 50% of the monsters in the manual. Now I don't have any idea.

We found a clerk working in one of the offices. He said that everyone else had fled the mines a year ago "when the monsters invaded the mine," but he'd been trapped by the Lahrkon. We said we were looking for "a friend who may be in the mines," which was news to me. I don't remember anything specific that told us to enter the mines except that they were literally the only place to go. Searching my past entries, I realized that King Richard's knight Paulson had vowed to clear the Urbish Mines of monsters, and that, in fact, the Urbish Mines are where Scotia had found the Nether Mask in the first place.

      

Nice to see a man with priorities.

     

We picked up a mining pick and a helmet on the clerk's screen. By the time we finished with the first level, we were way overloaded with equipment, so I took the time to wander two maps back to Gorkha Swamp to sell a bunch of stuff. I made a full circuit through Upper Opinwood, Gorkha Swamp, and Opinwood, and there were a few places in which I got swarmed with hornets. I also had to reload once when I was killed by a pentrog. While in Gorkha Swamp, I paid the hermit for the last clue, which turned out to be to collect the swamp water itself.

    

At this point, I have all of the clues and 50% of the reagents.

    

There were four more mine levels to explore, but narrating in linear order would be boring, as there was so much backtracking. I think I spent as much time in the mines as in the entire game so far.

      

Little giggling weirdos attacked on the lower levels.

     

There were several types of new and old enemies. There were little worms that attacked fast but didn't do much damage. Iron grazers are small, round enemies who spit acid and destroy armor, so you have to (annoyingly) strip the moment you hear them. The easiest new enemy type were these small giggling things (again not in the manual) that sound annoying but weren't difficult to kill. The hardest were "avian worms," flying flatworms with toothed heads at both ends that respawned so fast I got completely stuck in a few areas because I couldn't kill them fast enough to get past them.

      

Flying worms overwhelm me.

       

Somewhere in the middle were "lightning jellyfish" who usually weren't very hard but occasionally managed to zap us for 50% of our hit points.

        

Electric jellyfish.

    

Finally, we met some tough rock creatures that were the source of the blood we needed for the elixir. At first, I tried holding up an empty vial to the blood splatter the creature left when it died. That didn't work. Neither did holding up the vial to a living monster. Eventually, however, one of them dropped a "bloodstone," which is clearly what I need. That's three out of four reagents.  

         

Rock beasts.

     

Puzzles were equally hard. There were a lot of keys to find and doors to open, pressure plates to weigh down, buttons to push, illusory walls to pass through, teleporters to activate, walls to attack with picks, and pits to both use and avoid. Several puzzles used wheels, including one that required me to interleave three messages to determine what order to spin the wheels.

       

A pile of rocks I must use a pick on.

  

One corridor dead-ended in a square that, as the game told me, was full of gas. I had to intuit that the way to progress was to cast a "Fireball" down the corridor, making the gas (and, thus, the nearby wall) explode.

       

Hitching a ride on a mining cart.

    

There were a couple of fun puzzle setpieces. One involved a mining cart that would take us in three different directions depending on what levers we had pulled. Another involved a water pump way back on the first level. We had to find a gear to repair it and coal to fuel it before it would pump out the water blocking a key stairway.

      

Just like my furnace at three o'clock in the morning.

       

The mines culminated in an encounter with Paulson. He'd set up a little office in the lower mines and was reading a book when we found him. He joined the party and brought his "key" to unsealing the spell around Richard, as well as something called "Vaelan's Cube." He also led us to a stash of equipment that he'd hidden nearby. Finally, I had three party members again.

     

What are you even doing? I thought you came here to clear this place of monsters!

      

Paulsen joined the party at fighter Level 5, rogue Level 2, and mage Level 3. At this point, Conrad and Baccata were both at fighter Level 5, rogue Level 2, and mage Level 4. The mines hadn't been difficult enough that I felt I needed to spend any time "grinding," but I did want to spend some time answering a few questions:

  

• Does throwing daggers increase rogue skills even though they're listed as "melee" weapons, or do I need to throw weapons that are explicitly throwing weapons, like stars?

• If throwing weapons don't cause a visible blood splatter on enemies, are they doing anything? Do they increase skill even if they don't cause damage?

• Do missile weapons increase rogue skills even if you're adjacent to the enemies when you use them?

   

I went back to lower Opinwood to test these questions on orcs and pentrogs. It turns out that non-"missile" weapons do increase rogue skills, but only when they do damage. Meanwhile, I'd been neglecting a pretty powerful crossbow called "Valkyrie" because its "might" score is low and I wasn't sure it worked in melee range, something I could have tested a long time ago.

       

Good exercise.

    

One thing that annoys me is not knowing how much damage my weapons actually do. I've been assuming that their value is tied to the "might" score that they provide, but clearly that's not the case for missile weapons, and I'm not sure that some of the other weapons don't have special abilities not accounted for in that score. I don't know why Dungeon Master-style games are always so obtuse about giving you information about your equipment. This is doubly true about the few magic items that I've found, the uses of which I've had to guess or be told in the comments.

   

We went back to the barrier in Upper Opinwood. Paulson didn't have anything to say about it, but I assumed Vaelan's Cube would be the solution, and I was right. After a few uses, both the barrier and the cube were gone. Later, a monster dropped a second Vaelan's Cube.

      

The barrier warps and dissolves.

     

We fought through more giant hornets and exited Upper Opinwood to a new map, Yvel Woods. There, we met a new foe--giant, armored creatures that I would call "orcs," but they have piglike faces and this game has made it clear that its orcs are more ape-like. There were several versions of the creature, differentiated by color (this is true of most of the enemies, but as we've discussed, I'm so unattuned to color that I often don't notice or don't differentiate even after I do notice). An easy variety of these foes lulled me into a false sense of security, which was broken when they started slashing away half my hit points in one blow. I got completely trapped by the bastards several times and had to load much earlier saves. They were completely immune to blunt weapons and barely responded to most spells.

        

Damn these bastards.

      

In the northwest, they were so thick I couldn't get through them. I had to keep retreating to rest, during which time they easily replenished their numbers. A sensible player would have explored in a different direction or lowered the difficulty level, but I spent about two and a half hours stubbornly trying to clear the damned things, retreating, resting, and trying again. My characters all gained at least one level in each of their classes during this process. I was swapping the crossbow among them, and a couple of them gained two rogue levels.

   

I finally broke through the pack only to find that what they were guarding was the bridge to Castle Cimmeria, Scotia's headquarters, and they immediately demolished it as we approached. Thus, except for the grinding, the experience was largely a waste of time. I turned around, kept exploring, and found my way to the white tower where presumably we have to make the elixir. I still haven't found "Mother Earth," though.

     

Maybe they'll rebuild it by the time that we're actually ready to go there.

       

Aside from the frustration of the last couple of hours--which I suppose I can't really blame the game for--it was a fun and challenging session. I've mostly made peace with its linearity. The only way it could really go wrong at this point is to drag on. Another 8 hours would be acceptable, another 5 just about perfect. I'll know by next time.

   

Time so far: 18 hours