Dark Queen of Krynn: Total War

You know you're overleveled when your reaction to this is "yawn . . . dragons."

       

Motivated by commenters who told me that I'd missed some of the Oracle's clues, I turned around and returned to the Tombs to find them. It turned out that the problem didn't have anything to do with having missed any encounters; it was, rather, related to my failure to have used the "search" or "look" functions. It's frankly been a long time since I even remembered that they were there. Pool of Radiance made use of them extensively; almost any time you got a textual description of an area or object, you wanted to at least "Look" to see if there was something more to it.

 

To ensure that I never missed anything, I adopted a policy early in my Gold Box experience of keeping "Search" active all the time. The only downside is that it takes 10 minutes per move instead of 1, but none of the Gold Box games have time limits or actual calendars. If I particularly needed to hustle through an area, I could turn it off. But as the games marched forward, the number of things that I found with "Search" grew so low that I eventually stopped turning it on by default. Now that I know it's important in Dark Queen, I have restored my previous policy. 

         

The Oracle is so small and cute!

       

Searching turned up a few items that simply walking over each area had not, including the two remaining Oracle pieces. With them, the totality of my Oracle hints are:

        

• "The bright key opens the door to the crypt. Within you will find some words you should heed. Then find the Book that Amrocar wrote. Within its pages, words you must read." The "bright key" bit referred to the choice between the golden key and rusty key that Fastillion gave us, and it proved useful in the Tombs. The Book of Amrocar was reportedly stolen from the library in Kristophan.

• "A dragon you'll meet, more mighty than all. To stop his rampage, seek help from three friends: the black robed, the winged ones, and also the small." I'll probably know who these allies are when I find them.

• "Find the realm where Tremor is lord. Choose the right present to add to his hoard." That one, I'm not sure about yet.

• "You followed the monsters that landed ashore. They killed and they burned, but also found friends. In the men who bring fact to the dire Sharkmen's lore." This refers to the draconians we pursued from Ansalon, but I don't know what "men who bring fact to the dire Sharkmen's lore" means.

• "I see flames and an egg and a crack and a head. Then another, and another, and another, and more. She rises up, the Queen of the Dark. She conquers and rules leaving only the dead." That seems pretty straightforward, with imagery of draconians and Takhisis.

       

As we left the Tombs, Midsummer said she wanted to leave the Oracle there, for other adventurers to find. As we moved to implement Midsummer's suggestion, we discovered that Selias had stolen the statue. His consequent defiance was interrupted by the statue exploding in his hand. And with that, both Selias and the statue were gone.

          

This has to be the 50th time I've been betrayed by a thief NPC in an RPG. You think I'd learn.

        

Back on the world map, I could see several things that looked like fortresses and towns and such, but I thought I'd reach them systematically by exploring north-south in strips, moving one square east after finishing each column. Other Gold Box games had featured un-annotated encounters on their world maps, and I wanted to see if the same held true here.

    

The answer is mostly no, although there were quite a few random encounters. Some were with enemies--trolls, spiders, and gorgons, mostly. I don't like fighting outdoors, so I typically let the computer take over for these. As with past Gold Box games, when you have the computer fight, you can toggle the "magic" option on and off. It's interesting to watch the computer's choice. The AI heavily favors missile weapons and will run through your entire supply of arrows if you're not careful. For spells, it can be both smart and stupid. Targeting of mass-damage spells is excellent; I've never had it catch one of my own characters in a "Fireball" or "Ice Storm." But it also has a habit of wasting those spells against single enemies or against enemies immune to their effects. The AI casts a lot of spells I hardly ever use myself, including buffing spells in combat, but it never casts healing spells. Moreover, it often decides to cast a spell before it realizes there are no valid targets, resulting in it aborting the spell. This happened a lot with "Hold Person" and "Blade Barrier." Finally, I noticed it cast "Invisibility to Animals" on enemies.

       

The AI makes a reasonable choice in this case.

     

There are also quite a few random non-combat encounters in the wilderness, most mimicking the services of a city or town. You can find wandering traders, healers, and trainers, plus other adventurers who offer to share your fire (and guarantee uninterrupted sleep).

     

In case you can't make it to one of several cities in the same area.

        

As some commenters warned me, there's a chunk of western Taladas that you can't enter. The moment you approach, voices warn you that you are "not allowed in the land of the Armarch." If you press it, volleys of arrows attack the party from unseen archers every round until you turn around and head out. 

       

The Armarch elves apparently meant what they said.

      

Most of the visible cities on the map turn out to be menu towns. These include Thera, Vinlans, and Trilloman. I visited each one and used their services, but none of them had anything worth purchasing in their shops. I got a handful of hints in each tavern and tried to make sense of them:

    

• "Takhisis? You mean Erestem. That's all we need; more foreigners." Apparently, they call Takhisis "Erestem" in Taladas. Good to know.

• "The League has had trouble with the Thenolians before but the way Trandamere has been building up the army, we can expect a real war this time." I haven't heard much about "the League," but the map in the journal shows that the northern part of Taladas is governed by the League of the Minotaurs, so I'm guessing it includes Kristophan and most of the free cities I've visited. Thenol occupies the southeast part of the continent. From previous lore, Trandamere seems to be a recently-crowned ruler of Thenol who's stirring up trouble.

• "Draconians? You mean Traags? We've got plenty of those, but they're no real threat. All the real draconians are over in Ansalon." This man is misinformed. "Traag" is a type of draconian new to this game, weak compared to the others. I guess until recently, they were the only type that Taladas had.

• "Belgrag was killed by the Armarch elves. All he did was set foot in their land. I'm never going near those crazy elves again." I have no idea who Belgrag is, but this is just a warning to stay away from Armarch territory, as I found the hard way.

          

I have no idea what this is about.

          

• "Hith, Hitheh, Hiddukel! Taladas sure is the land of plenty. Plenty of names for everything . . . even gods." Very true.

• "I heard some soldiers defected from the Thenolian army. Not surprising, considering the way Trandamere treats them. I wouldn't want to finish my enlistment as a zombie." As I later discovered, Trandamere has a habit of pressing people into service as undead.

• "Too bad we live so close to the Hulderfolk. They're not so bad if you humor them. Even then . . . you never know." The meaning of this statement would soon become clear.

• "I would love to trade with those clever gnomes in Aldinanachru, but it's so hard to travel there. Now, if I only had wings . . ." This refers to a city in the far northeast of Taladas, across a river or straight. I don't know if there's any way to get there.

      

As we kept moving east past the marked towns, we reached a "cleft in the hillside." Entering brought us to an enchanted valley, where the party fell asleep and awakened with no food or water. Since the game doesn't normally have a food/water mechanic, this was a plot device to get the party to lose hit points, which forced us to rest, which allowed the rest of the plot to unfold.

   

In a glade, we ran into Tasslehoff Burfoot, one of the famed Heroes of the Lance. He remembered us from Champions of Krynn and was happy to join us again. It was the most pointless marriage of an NPC with a party in RPG history, since he did absolutely nothing, said almost nothing, and disappeared at the end of the episode, before we'd fought a single combat. He did offer that we were in the realm of the Hulderfolk. Fastillion had suggested we ask for their help, but warned that the price would be high.

            

Having never read the books, I have no foundation for this opinion, but I simply do not like Tasslehoff.

     

As we rested and healed from our hunger pains (which doesn't feel like it should work), an elf named Elea kept visiting in the night and whispering to us. She was teaching us the Hulderfolk language--not in any systematic sense, starting with the major parts of speech and progressing to verb conjugations, counting, and essential vocabulary. Instead, we learned highly ritualistic statements such as:

        

• GEBENE: "We have peace in our hearts"
• LIMENE: "We will do that instantly."
• BILBARA: "We politely but firmly decline"
• SHUWARA: "We block our ears to language of that sort."
• HOLBANI: "Your humor is your greatest treasure."

         

This is like living in New England, where you constantly encounter historical markers saying, "The Abenaki called this place 'Danaug,' meaning, 'beautiful flowing river that sparkles in the sunlight and is bountiful with salmon.'"

       

Eventually, we were greeted by other Hulderfolk, to whom we responded with GEBENE. This got our foot in the door, and suddenly the area was filled with elves putting on a banquet. The party was brought to the king and queen of the elves, both of whom tested our knowledge of their tongue by asking questions like, "Will you swear an oath not to destroy any of our trees?" and "Will you raise arms with us against our enemies?" I had saved just before the encounter, so I decided to see what would happen if I answered the questions "wrong." It turns out if you just say something kind of silly (e.g., HOLBANI to most questions), the elves look at each other but move past your faux pas. If you say something actively offensive (e.g., BILBARA to whether you'll swear an oath against destroying trees), the elves pack up and leave. If you answer correctly, however, the conversation moves forward and you get experience.

            

HOLBANI!

       

The conversation ended with the queen demanding that we stay for a month-long feast. Naturally, both the party and Tasslehoff objected. The queen refused to relent, but the king got around her demands by making us his "official emissaries." He demanded that before we leave, we prove the health of the "mother of trees" by counting its leaves.

    

We found the tree, and the process of counting the leaves took a while as I sat there and watched the number increment on my computer. When it was done--at 14159--we went back to report the results to the king and queen. The queen pointed out that leaves had fallen since the count, so the number was no longer accurate, and we were sent back to do it again. At that point, Tasslehoff suggested that we just pull all the leaves off the tree so the elves couldn't trick us again. We did that, saving one leaf that wouldn't budge. I suppose 1992 players who didn't have Tasslehoff in their party are counting still. Part of me wants to know what happens if you keep shuffling back and forth with new counts. Does it reach 1 on its own?

         

A prime number!

          

The king was amused by our solution and rewarded us with some gear, including 20 arrows +2, a composite long bow +4, and elfin chain +4. He also gave us a ring that reveals deceit and a necklace that somehow helps hunting dragons.

     

The elves had one final trick for us. Assuring us that we should rest and "tomorrow" they would open a passage out of the forest, we took their word. We woke up a month later, our weapons rusted, our facial hair grown, Tasslehoff gone. The game actually made a point that only Dutch's beard had grown, the other characters being elf or female.

        

The game suddenly pretends it has a timetable.

       

Elea met us on the way out of the forest and realized with chagrin that we weren't "back" but had never left. She said her own mother had been similarly tricked. She arrived in the forest newly pregnant, fell asleep, delivered the baby, awoke, and left, completely unaware that she had ever been with child. Elea asked us to tell her mother about her if we ever find someone who seems to fit the bill.

         

I'm not sure just your name will be enough. I think I'll probably have to tell her the whole story.

          

Shortly thereafter, our expedition came to a halt as we reached impassable mountains on the eastern side of the continent. North was out of the question--we found no ways to cross the river between the landmasses. West had gotten us shot with Armarch arrows. It was then that I realized you can walk south, off the map, to an entirely new map. Somehow, I hadn't realized this previously.  

A whole other map! But the Armarch still control half of it.

         

Fortunately, owing to the placement of the Armarch lands and various mountain ranges, I hadn't missed much. The only available route channeled the party to two southern fixtures. The westernmost, and the first I explored, was Hawkbluff. It was a town at the foot of a fortress, and the town had the usual shops and services. I couldn't get into the fortress, however--I couldn't even provoke combat--because I lacked an "incense pass." There were bad signs in Hawkbluff, though, including people who greeted me with "Death to all enemies of Hiteh!" and "Death is life!"

         

Shopping has gotten weird during the pandemic.

      

I thus moved on to the fortress city of New Aurim, which seems to be the capital of Thenol. The city consists of a large inner fortress ringed by various shops and services to the south and east. We explored this outer area first before entering the fortress. 

             

In addition to the 6,000 we already have? No, we're good.

              

As we stepped into the first building in the outer area, we met some recruiters who asked if we'd like to join the Thenolite army. This is the type of choice we've seen dozens of times in Gold Box games, and I'm not sick of them. What the encounter is really saying is, "Do you want to approach the rest of this area with guile or force?" And while I appreciate the role-playing choices inherent in the "guile" path, I'm also of the philosophical disposition that when you're nearly Level 20, capable of essentially infinite "Fireball" spells, and facing an enemy that allies with evil dragons and kills innocent people just so they can be converted to undead soldiers, there's only one response: total war. Ooh, that would be a good subtitle for this entry.

    

Although I know it doesn't really have any effect on the game, except perhaps in terms of my experience level, I like the idea that we're not just going to beat this enemy--we're going to completely destroy his ability to make war. We're going to burn every barracks, destroy every weapons cache, overturn every evil altar--and of course put to the sword any squad, company, or brigade that stands in between. In real life, foes are rarely so incorrigibly evil, and thus you rarely get to crusade with such moral certainty.

          

If you mean what do I do first, sure, it's "talk."

        

I thus responded to almost every encounter with "attack," even though the game was patently giving me lots of opportunities just to sneak a pile of uniforms. In the end, I had to put on the uniforms anyway, because apparently the palace guards a) stand behind doors impervious to even "Meteor Swarm"; b) have managed to remain ignorant of the fact that literally every soldier outside the palace has been slaughtered, so they'll just trust anyone wearing the right colors. In the meantime, though, I got a lot of experience.

   

The battles were pretty tough. It's a rare one these days that doesn't include at least a few high level wizards with "Mirror Image," "Fire Shield," and "Globe of Invulnerability" going as combat begins. They're immune to any spell lower than seventh level and arrows usually just knock away their images. If I can't damage them every round, they cast their own "Delayed Blast Fireballs," and my party can't last more than two of those. Sometimes one is enough to kill someone. Meanwhile, they soak up mass-damage spells like my own "Delayed Blast Fireballs" and "Meteor Swarms" like sponges, requiring at least three castings to kill them. I essentially have to concentrate all my resources into the mages, no matter how big the surrounding army, until they're gone. Some commenter was right that those "Eyes of Petrification" sometimes help. "Monster Summoning" sometimes distracts the mages with meat shields, but the monsters almost never appear where I want them to appear when I cast the spell.

          

For once, "Monster Summoning" puts monsters in a useful place.

        

From snippets of conversation, scraps of paper, and other encounters, I learned that Trandamere, once a "petty religious official," usurped the legitimate king and queen and has taken over. He has invited draconians into his army, even into the palace guard. They're being bred in the basement of the palace. New draconians are often sent in batches to Hawkbluff, but many of them desert along the way, so escort soldiers have started accompanying them. Those escorts carry a "clay pass" from a commander outside the palace.

 

Trandamere has closed temples to the good god Mislaxa and only allows the temple of Hith/Hiteh to operate. Press gangs round up citizens on the street for conversion to undead, and Trandamere plans to wage war on the League of the Minotaurs.

 

A healthy rebellion has formed. Most of its leaders were in prison when I started the map, but I freed them and got access to special rebel inns and stores. (One of the stores sold a few magic items, but I'm still waiting for a store that sells magic arrows.) I also freed slaves from several press gangs, and one guy who was being tortured. This was all fortunate because the rebels ending up giving us the clay pass we needed since we'd killed the commander who was supposed to give it to us. 

         

Freed rebels give me some assistance.

         

The clay pass got us into the palace, which had multiple levels. There weren't a lot of combats, which was good because a gong went off in the basement every few minutes--honestly, it got annoying to constantly acknowledge the message--and prevented sleep.  We looted a broken clay tablet from some draconians and found that Trandamere has a special interest in the stolen Book of Amrocar, which is supposedly in Hawkbluff.

    

We weren't the only invaders in the palace: a young female dwarf fighter named Grunschka joined us and suggested we talk to the real king and queen, held as virtual prisoners upstairs. But draconian guards wouldn't let us pass without a signet ring from Lord Trandamere. Instead, we went to the dungeons, where the draconians mistook us for an escort party sent to bring the newest batch of draconians to Hawkbluff.

           

If "attack" is there, I'm going to use it.

       

Clearly, this was what we were meant to do, but I'm not a fan of doing things the intended way, so I chose "attack" as soon as I could. This put us in two back-to-back battles with enormous parties of draconians, but draconians these days aren't really that hard--not even the special "enchanted" ones new to this game. There are some--enchanted Bozaks?--who have "Fire Shield" permanently cast, so you have to avoid hitting them in melee combat. A lot of draconians explode when they die, and the new "enchanted" ones mostly just explode more, which means that sometimes the party's fireballs and other mass-damage spells cause some delightful chain reactions in which they essentially kill each other.

      

A nice tight cluster of draconians awaits a fireball.

       

The double battle was still challenging, especially as I probed the strengths and weaknesses of the new draconians. A lot of them can cast spells, but fortunately just low-level ones like "Magic Missile." Again, it helps a lot having so many characters who can heal. Unlike all the other NPCs we've had so far, Grunschka turned out to be actually useful, especially after we gave her a spare long sword +4. 

   

We couldn't go much farther after killing the draconians; the way to the rest of the dungeon (and the gong, and presumably the eggs) was blocked by a guard post. Unsure what to do (I had explored everywhere, I thought), I made another circuit of the palace, and this time there were no guards to challenge me on the way up to the royal chambers. I wandered into the king's chambers without a fuss.

    

The king at first seemed sympathetic to our cause and listened as we described the atrocities being committed by Trandamere. But he then showed his true colors by declaring his utter allegiance to the Hith priesthood and to Trandamere--he wasn't usurped at all; he was complicit. The queen, however, was more sympathetic. She'd had a dream in which a mysterious dark figure told her to give a message to us, "Destroy them all" (meaning draconians) and then find him. She gave us a ring to give to the jeweler in Hawkbluff for assistance, then let us use her secret door to get to another part of the basement.

        

This guy could do a decent job in Britannia.

      

From there, we slowly made our way to the egg-hatching ceremony, destroying the cursed gong along the way. The ultimate encounter involved three consecutive battles against draconians, but I could at least heal and buff between battles 2 and 3. None of them were as hard as the previous draconian battles I'd fought. After the draconians, there were some mop-up actions against fleeing priests. Trandamere himself appeared in one room, burning papers, but his allies held us off long enough for him to make his escape. Grunschka suggested that he probably went to Hawkbluff. We still don't have an "incense pass," but maybe that's what the jeweler will help us with.

         

Preparing to destroy the mechanism for creating new draconians. Somehow, this still isn't the end.

        

Grunschka stayed with the party as long as we agreed to continue killing draconians, which was an easy promise to make.

        

She's a few steps behind, but good in a fight.

      

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• The "Area" command, which serves as the series' approach to automapping, hardly ever works in Dark Queen.

• This has to be the most common spelling mistake in the RPG genre:

        

The gods know I could use one, though.

    

• "Turn Undead" never works against skeleton warriors. I would like to know why. 

• It's a bit ridiculous that none of the high-level enemies I kill ever have any magic gear. This is far cry from early Gold Box games where every Level 4 mage had bracers AC6 and a dagger +2. I'm not complaining because I don't need the gear or money, but it's still weird.

• While we're on the subject, I don't mind an explicit spoiler on this, particularly since I seem to be running out of places: will there ever be a store worth shopping in, or am I saving all this money for nothing?

      

I could have done without getting jerked around by the Hulderfolk map, but otherwise it wasn't a bad session. I wouldn't mind if the game wrapped up in Hawkbluff, but I suspect it still has a long way to go.

   

Time so far: 21 hours