Demon's Winter: A Slight Thaw

I don't like this guy.

   

When we last left Demon's Winter, I had finished two dungeons and I was a little uncertain about the game. But I was also exhausted, having just finished an entire month on the road, and my perception was a little skewed. Since then, I have warmed to the game a bit.

My next step was to travel to a dungeon called Qoorik on an island south of the mainland of Ymros. (I kept calling it Zoorik in the last posting; the odd game font is a bit confusing.) To get there, I needed to purchase a ship from one of the port cities. Once I had the ship, though, I was in no particular hurry to get to Qoorik, and I spent some time sailing around the game world and visiting various temples, and training guilds. There are a lot of temples in the game, which is odd given that they have such a limited purpose.

The world of Demon's Winter, courtesy of Andrew Schultz, who I talked about in a posting last year. I'm not 100% sure that a game map came with the game, so I might be viewing massive spoilers here.

There are a bunch of places to train, but with only a limited number of skills that each character can learn, I was a bit wary about spending any of my points. I had my paladin master fencing, I gave berserking to my barbarian, and my wizard mastered wind runes.

Is it just me, or does this sound a bit lewd?

    
On the sea, I was introduced to the joys of sea combat, which hasn't changed appreciably since Ultima II: I basically hit the (f)ire key and shoot at other ships and the occasional sea snake. These battles give an absurdly high amount of experience--at least 10 times the average land battle--but it comes a high cost. If the ship takes on too much damage, it sinks, so I have to repair it frequently, which costs a lot of gold. Some of the battles inexplicably take place in areas surrounded by walls, and if I miss the enemies, my cannonballs ricochet off the walls and smash back into my own ship! I fought on the sea until I was out of gold and then headed for Qoorik.

Bland but rewarding combat with pirate ships.

     
In a couple of towns, I got interesting hints about the main quest. I had thought that the game didn't reference Shard of Spring, but I was wrong:


       
The next town served up a reference to the villain in this game:
     

       
After reading both of these, I realized with a start that the main quest of Demon's Winter hasn't even begun! For all my characters know, they're just trying to figure out why the pack of goblins attacked Ildryn. In other words, the "Demon's Winter" of the title hasn't actually started. This comment by Giauz had gone over my head the first time I read it, but he's right. If SSI had made Baldur's Gate, they would have titled it Child of Bhaal.

Qoorik turned out to be invisible, but I knew where to look and ended up stumbling into it. The experience I got from ship combats served me well, as the dungeon knocked up the level of monsters significantly, throwing demons and high-level spellcasters at me. My wizard become essentially a healer only: I needed his healing spells too much to waste spell points on offensive spells. I had to resurrect characters a couple of times.

This troll turned out to be a lying bastard.

    
The dungeon was huge and multi-leveled, and I don't know if I explored all of it (I find it too hard and unrewarding to make maps for isometric games). Amidst a number of fixed encounters with Xeres's minions, I solved several inventory puzzles. A troll blacksmith game me a broad sword that he said was designed to kill Xeres, but when I had it identified in town, it turned out to be cursed. I found a black wand that I had to use on an archway to teleport between levels. A skeleton key opened a door in a crypt and took me to a shifting maze of tombstones that I had to navigate.


       
An old bookcase concealed a secret door that led to a skeleton holding a piece of paper that said "Ymros is Mine!" There were runes painted on the wall, that have the same number of characters: perhaps this is a code key for a later puzzle?


       
In another room, I found a bag, used it to scoop up some red dust that I then burned in a censer, and I got an image of a demon who said: "The father of demons sees all. Only those who possess the demon crystal can escape his sight." Other items I haven't figured out the use for, including a piece of papyrus, an ancient tome, vials of goblin's and unicorn's blood, and a microscope (it doesn't seem to do anything with the blood).

A Ouija board in a "gypsy room" told me to "walk along river Styx until you find the ferryman." I did that, and gave him some black coins I'd found to take me across a river. There, I encountered a tough battle with a "gravekeeper":

      
When I finally killed the gravekeeper and his minions, my characters were nearly dead and my spellcaster was out of spell points. I limped my way through a fire-shrouded maze and, at last, encountered Xeres, whose screen shot leads this posting. He slew me without much trouble--several times.

One thing hasn't changed from Shard of Spring, although in the first posting I thought it had: the game throws a "random" encounter at you every 43 movements, no exceptions. This makes it particularly hard if you're stuck deep in a dungeon with low hit points and spell points; you can't trust luck to carry you back to the exit. This is where I stand now: stuck between Xeres, who I can't defeat, and the long return to the entrance, which I can't make. I'm also almost out of food, so walking around and repeatedly resting isn't an option.

Though I'm not looking forward to starting over again, there are several things I've come to like about the game. The inventory puzzles have been intriguing and the encounters more memorable than in Shard of Spring. The dungeon was a fun challenge to navigate (though I wish I hadn't gotten myself stuck).

I'll keep throwing myself at Xeres and let you know what happens. I may have to start over. In the meantime, here's a video of my most successful battle against Xeres. You can see how combat works. The monsters move around the screen in odd patterns, making it tough to gang up and kill them one-by-one.

I actually managed to kill the demon himself, but his minions finished off my characters. I never got this close again in six or seven other combats. I suspect I erred in assuming that the cursed sword was a fake and tossing it; maybe it really was intended to kill Xeres.

Keep in mind, this is still the beginning of the game! I can't imagine it gets easier.