Bloodstone: The Tower Treasure

The most difficult battle of the series--so far.

       

As this session began, I set out to visit the one island that I had not yet visited: Tanala, to the east. (Technically, I haven't visited Ilakasek, where Castle Entemar is, either, but it's not on the game map, and clearly I need a boat to get there.) It was a short visit. I found a mushroom patch, a teleportal chamber, a temple to Ziphanu, who I've already awakened. I avoided most of the wilderness combats.

   

Unfortunately, I didn't have the password to the tower on the island, so I retreated back through the teleportal chamber.

    

I can also barely see it.

      

My next move was to re-visit my home caverns, as Eddy in Niruun had suggested there was treasure there, "where a dwarf should be." The map had two skulls on the ground, and each produced a treasure when I dug there. The first had 90 bolts, 50 picks, 6 pairs of snowshoes, 6 sealskins, and 6 ropes--a good pack for starting an adventure, but not much use now. (I'm reasonably sure I lacked a shovel when the game started, so I couldn't have found the treasure immediately.) The second had 5 diamonds, 6 emeralds, 7 sapphires, and 8 rubies, enough wealth to keep me flush for the rest of the game, I suspect.

      

This would have helped a lot 25 hours ago.

       

I decided to return to Balat next. In a previous session, I had visited the island, but I had to reload a save from before the visit when I didn't find a teleportal chamber. Since the other two large islands both had teleportal chambers, I assumed I just missed it. This turned out to be correct.

   

Last session, I talked about how I had nearly left the city of Niruun without exploring 80% of it because I didn't realize that it existed in tiers, connected by ropes and ladders, until I looked at the map. This, in fact, is exactly what I had done in the city of Malat. I reported that I had "found a store run by a Tlengle named Tenglog." This store was in fact only one location in a large city, but I hadn't realized that the thin rope near his shop wasn't just a graphical decoration but a means of accessing the rest of the city. It had an inn, a temple, a weapon shop, a tavern, a runemaster, a gemseller, an herb-seller, and a tailor and "Tailoring" teacher.

   

Several NPCs talked about the nearby dungeon of Anforn, and how it was overrun with the dead, but unfortunately none of them offered the password.

      

Great! How do we get in?

       

I found a Tlengle named Rnjrnet who sold the last spell totem that I needed (Demmock). I sold several gems until I had enough gold to buy a few copies.

    

At this point, I had three dungeons--Anforn on Balat, Kireini in the southwest of Tarq, and the one on the island of Tanala--and no passwords. With a sigh, I settled into what I assumed would be a long process of revisiting every city looking for NPCs that I'd missed. I figured I'd start with the early cities, reasoning that I was more likely to miss dialogue in the early game, before I'd become experienced exploring cities systematically. This turned out to be a good choice, as I found a lead in the tavern of the first city I re-visited, Haraza.

       

Trinjara is the little wad underneath the guy with blue pants on the east side of the screen.

      

The way that NPCs pop up and disappear in taverns makes it easy to miss some. In this case, I also suspect there was a graphical element, as the key NPC, Trinjara, doesn't much look like a person. Among descriptions of various things she'd seen in her travels, she named the tower on Tanala as "Naluun" and said that "a priest on some other island, whose name begins with 'M,' knows how to get in."

    

"Some other island" could only be Noriin or Balat. Since I'd just come back from Balat, I decided to try Noriin first. I re-visited the city and did find an NPC that I'd missed the first time, but oddly his name was Hblktra. Anyway, he directed me to the guy in Malat that I'd just bought the Demmock spell totem from. Finally, in a revisit to him, I got the password to Naluun: BASTIRAND.

      

The party insults someone in French.

      

I wasn't sure whether to continue my city explorations, looking for the other passwords, or jump right to Naluun. I chose the latter, which also turned out to be a good decision. 

       

Arriving in Naluun.

      

The tower was the largest in the game so far, with six levels, although just like some of the other dungeons I've visited recently, many of them were curiously empty. Other dungeons have definitely had more rooms. Enemies were mostly insect-like "Kriktisks," who die easily but have a powerful physical attack that seems to ignore armor, at least some of the time. There were also a lot of "killgrill," those lightning-slinging, scorpion-like bastards who are quite hard to kill, and "garlogs," which paralyze. Treasures included, ironically, another Demmock spell totem and a magic bow named Delatna.

   

The dungeon brought ambushes for the first time in a long time, including a particularly nasty one involving my most hated foe from the Candle games: deathbeasts. They create replicas of themselves at the beginning of combat, and you have to waste attacks trying to find the "real" one (a good task for Gonshi-fueled archers). They have spells that can completely strip your shields and lower your skills. My tactic is to "Jump" Mirget-boosted characters to them and pound them until they're dead, ideally in the first round.

     

Ambushed in a narrow corridor.

       

This entire series has always driven me crazy with environmental objects that look like they ought to be interactive but aren't. Naluun had more than any other dungeon so far, including a "prestidigitational device" that looked like it ought to be important, but I could find no way to interact with.

          

Does Ranak have any idea what that means?

      

The dungeon culminated in a sixth-floor room where I met an alluring woman named Talya who said she had been imprisoned by the insects after burying her brooch just outside the chambers. She offered it to me in exchange for freeing her. She somehow knew about our quest to unite the dwarf clans and said that we'd also need something in Anforn, for which she knew the password: NAKRITOS. Unfortunately, there was no more explanation about the odd woman or the "prestidigitational device" nearby. I suspect she's meant to be not quite of this world.

      

I feel like we missed some backstory here.

        

We dug until we found the brooch, then headed for the tower's teleportation chamber to take us to Anforn.

   

We spoke the password and entered the dungeon, which turned out to be a set of three large, maze-like caverns. The first level required us to cast "Walkwater" for the first time since The Magic Candle III. It was a few minutes before I even remembered that spell existed.

     

I remember when I got trapped in the middle of a river because of this spell.

       

The monsters in the dungeon were all undead, which means that you have to waste some of your characters' turns casting "Restsoul" after killing each enemy, or else they pop up alive again the next round. I didn't have much problem with "Dwarf Rots" and "Taldor Rots," zombie-like creatures with mostly physical attacks. They gave me an excuse to test out some of my new spells. I found that "Crumble" (stripping them of their shields) followed by mass-damage spells like "Firedeath" (hits everyone in a 3 x 3 area), "Firestorm" (hits everyone) and "Whirlwind" (hits roughly in a 3 x 3 area, but randomly) were good combinations. 

     

Not so good in a salad.

       

But there were much more difficult battles to come. I eventually wandered into a room with two ghosts, eight "Sheemrims," and one "Necromant," the latter two both new enemies. Sheemrims look like specters. I think they have just a physical attack, but it's a real wallop, multiple times per round, and they have almost 400 hit points, shields of 80, and armor of 45, which a regular attack barely penetrates.

  

Necromants were easily the toughest enemies of the game so far, capable of casting "Imbecile" and "Firestorm" multiple times per round, entering combat with over 700 hit points, shields of 99, and armor of 40. Ghosts aren't that hard in comparison, but they can cast "Disappear" every round on themselves or their allies, meaning you have to waste time and spell points countering them with "See" just so you can target your foes.

   

The initial encounter with them, and a few others like it, were bad enough, but one battle on Level 3 consisted of four necromants, four sheemrims, and four ghosts. It was probably the most difficult fight I've faced in the entire Candle series. If four necromants even get a chance to cast, they can blow through the entire party's shields and hit points with "Firestorm," causing full-party death in a single round. It took me an average of three tries to win the simpler battles and maybe seven to win the toughest one.

        

The real workhorse this session.

       

It goes without saying that I don't even walk into a dungeon room these days without Gonshis, Mirgets, and Nifts in everyone's stomachs, and the first round usually involved Pran casting "Jump" on the first four characters to put them next to enemies and ensure they didn't waste any of their movement points walking. Against tough foes like these, my fighters are swallowing Gonshis every round, Mirgets before every attack, and often Nifts to prevent taking damage.

      

I had some luck buffing my fighters with "Sharpen." Offensive spells didn't help me very much in these battles--the foes just have too many hit points. What really saved the day were "Timestop," giving me two full rounds to incapacitate enemies before they could attack (you can only cast it once per battle, alas) and "Imbecile," which kept the necromants from casting. 

       

"Imbecile" takes care of the last necromant on the field.

      

The rewards were mostly worth it. I got a ton of gemstones. I found the sleeping chamber of the Tlengle god, woke him up, and got +1 strength, +1 resistance, +1 intelligence, +1 charm, and +5 "Trading" skill per character. I found the magic quill in one chest and the magic scepter in another. When we were done, after about four hours of exhausted fighting, I teleported out of the dungeon via a special chamber and returned to the mainland.

      

Never has a treasure been so deserved.

       

We immediately headed for Galaq and gave the quill to Chief Tanro, who was delighted that he could now write his memoirs. (That sounds like the kind of procrastinating that I'd do, insisting I needed a "magic quill" before I could begin work on my dissertation.) He gave me the silver quarrel in return, which I suspect he'll regret, as I immediately took it to his sworn enemy, Queen Katrina of Rulaan. In return, she gave me the password to Kireini Tower: PALATIGO. You can see why I'm grateful I didn't spend a lot of extra time searching for missing NPCs.

      

Tanro is my kind of procrastinator: "I can't possibly work on my memoirs until I have a special magic quill."

     

While in the two cities, I sold gems, stocked up on herbs, and still had enough gold that I could buy multiple copies of several spell totems, saving me from constantly having to swap them among characters.

    

While in Rulaan, I crossed off another "to do" item by visiting Gregor and teasing him about his love of FLOWERS as reported by someone in Rulaan who had spied on him. Gregor was outraged and ashamed and swore me to secrecy. He offered to sell me his Book of Flowers, which hardly makes much sense if we bought into the notion that liking flowers is shameful. He also told us about his childhood "friend," Doroma, the local wizard's son. "We used to love finding new flowers in the woods and fields," he said, leaving even more unsaid. But Doroma's father forced him off to wizarding school and Gregor lost touch with him. He suggested that if we ever meet him, he'd like the book. I searched my notepad, but it doesn't appear we've encountered him anywhere.

       

Gregor is a prisoner of society's expectations.

       

Miscellaneous notes:

   

• In one chest, I found 8 fireglobes (one-use missile weapons). Like the "Walkwater" spell, I forgot they were even a thing. I don't think there was any place to buy them in any of the cities.

• "Destroy" theoretically kills one enemy. It didn't work on necromants, and the cost (you lose all spells in memory) isn't worth it.

• One of these days, I'm going to have to decide if it's scepter or sceptre (and, while we're at it, specter or spectre) and whether I'll insist on that spelling even if the game does otherwise.

• I used to be able to flee battles, and I often did so in the wilderness, but ever since I found that hammer, the game won't let Danat flee. "Danat refuses to part with the hammer," it says.

      

No one's trying to make you.

       

• As we left Rulaan heading for Kireini, June 1 rolled around and we got a cut scene saying "Summer arrives." It was pretty, but I'm not sure what difference it makes.

        

That suits me fine.

       

I leave you at the front door of the Tower of Kireini, my "to do" list greatly reduced. I expect to find the mitre in the tower, along with the golden needle that I need to construct a ship. After that, I just have to figure out how to divide the artifacts among the dwarven chiefs, build the ship, and head to Castle Entemar. If I found the sleeping place of the god Tito along the way, great. Otherwise, no big deal.

    

As I was typing the above, I realized I had forgotten about the Death Mask of Rohrkhad. I never found the blind minstrel who supposedly knew a song about it. I searched my notes and found no appearance of BLIND, but MINSTREL got me a guy named Logartus in the Tavern in Hikar. I reloaded an earlier save and visited the tavern. This did turn out to be the right person. He said he'd sing me the "Lay of the Death Mask" if I told him its true name, which I had from a library search (THROSHIKHAD). After I gave him that name, he said he figured we didn't really want to hear the song; we just wanted to know where it was. He gave us precise instructions where to dig (on the third level just north of a tomb covered by swords) in what I assume is the SeaTemple. So we'll go grab that once we get out of Kireini.

       

That was shrewd of him.

       

This was a nice, challenging session in a solid game. I've been pleasantly surprised by Bloodstone and I look forward to seeing its conclusion.

    

Time so far: 39 hours