Loremaster: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

 

Alas, "lm2" was never produced.

         

Loremaster

United States

Creative Software (developer and publisher)
Released 1992 for DOS
Date Started: 14 May 2024

Date Ended: 28 May 2024

Total Hours: 13

Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)   

       

Summary:

    

An adventure/RPG hybrid in the manner of the early Quest for Glory games, although likely influenced by MUDs, Loremaster puts you in the role of a prince (who can be a fighter, thief, mage, cleric, sage, or merchant) seeking to save the empire from the evil sorcerer who killed your father. The titular Loremaster is what you become during your journey, as you assemble the items necessary to defeat the sorcerer and his minions. The game world consists of 126 overworld screens arranged in a 21 x 6 formation, wrapping, and about as many underworld screens in a similar configuration. Much of the game involves assembling clues by talking to NPCs like Emperor Yelraf and his wife, Queen Tei, the cleric Francis, and the oracle Iseult, but there is a mechanism for some RPG-style combat and character development, although it has questionable utility. Screens are not static; you move around them like a Sierra adventure, using both cursor options (cycled with the right mouse button) and a simple text parser. It's not horrible, but many elements of the game are broken and frustrating, and it could have benefited from more playtesting and balance.

 

******  

 

As with any adventure game, winning Loremaster involves a series of steps that take you a while to figure out but really don't take that long once you have the template. This is particularly true of this game, where the extremely powerful TELEPORT spell can take you to any NPC (including unique enemies), and the equally powerful SUMMON spell can bring those people to you.

    

The steps are basically this:

 

Talk to the NPCs around the town to get the backstory, quest, and training.

 

Together, they fill in the story: the empire of seven kingdoms, led by Yelraf and his wife Tei, is being attacked by an evil sorcerer named Gaiasbane. A recent battle has decimated the kingdom, and only a few people are left. You're the son of the slain king of Peace and Tranquility, whose northern lands have been seized by Gaiasbane and ruined by acid rain. Francis, the cleric, recently had his holy grail stolen by an earth elemental. Iseult, the Oracle, pines for her lost lover Tristan. Iseult will train you in magic, the king's servant Gerald in fighting, and Francis in cleric abilities, although I frankly don't know what they are.

     

King Yelraf gives me some background on the Runesword and the Loremaster.

   

These NPCs all expect that a Loremaster will save them, but they're inconsistent as to whether the Loremaster is someone coming from somewhere else, or whether anyone (you) can become the Loremaster. In any event, you learn that Gaiasbane can only be killed with an ancient weapon called the Runesword.

 

Spend some time on character development (optional).

 

To survive your explorations of the outer world and underworld, you want to get to a level between 50 and 100. The default character, Myth, starts at this level. Other created characters will need to fight random enemies, collect treasure, and buy weapons and armor from Butterman at the general store. Leveling up is relatively quick; almost every kill raises you one or more levels. Your attributes are exercised by combat and magic. If you die, you get knocked back down a couple of levels. This also happens if you cast spells more powerful than you're ready to cast.

     

It's nice to be able to do this to them for a change.

     

Enemies in the area of the town are non-hostile, and you lose karma for killing them. (Karma is necessary for successful resurrections.) Those in the wilderness are hostile. Some enemies like wraiths can't be damaged by physical weapons, so fighters and thieves want to avoid them entirely. Spiders are good for grinding, since they die in one hit. You can stand next to their corpses and if they get resurrected, you can just hit them again. Be aware that combat drains stamina and strength fast, so you have to REST quite often to restore it.

      

Enemies either get resurrected or turn into ghosts who threaten you.

   

Enemies generally kill unarmored characters in one hit, so it's best for melee characters to find or buy some armor as soon as they can. Even then, enemy attacks will destroy the armor pretty fast. It's best to avoid them entirely. Magic characters can cast spells from a short distance away and thus should be able to avoid ever getting into melee range. Whether you're fighting with spells or weapons, it's better to use the cursor to target enemies than to have to type things like CAST SPIDER or ATTACK BEASTIE, unless you're a faster and more accurate typist than I am.

      

Solve Francis's quest and get his holy book (HOLYBOOK).

    

Francis wants his grail recovered; he says it was probably stolen by the fire elemental (FIREELEMENTA). She lives in the underworld in a lake of fire. To survive the lake of fire, you have to get your "Piety" score up above 200 or so. You can do this by just repeatedly typing PRAY. If you do this next to Francis, he prays with you.

   

You then have to explore the underworld until you find the fire elemental--or you can just INCANT TELEPORT and CAST FIREELEMENTA to zip right there. This doesn't work for all characters, though, unless they've spent time developing their skills--or if you start with Myth. 

    

The fire elemental asks you a riddle and then happily gives you the grail if you're standing close enough. If not, it says to come closer, but it doesn't give you the grail when you do, and as far as I can tell, there's no way to recover from this situation. So make sure you're close enough when you ask.

      

The fire elemental is the most philosophical character in the game.

   

The fire elemental also tells a reasonably funny joke that I hadn't heard before:

       

Once, there was a man who looked into his mirror and saw God looking out at him. He went and told other men that he saw God in his mirror. The other men looked at the man and said, "You're crazy." The man said, "You think I'm crazy, you should have seen what God looked like!"

       

Returning the grail to Francis gets you the holy book, but I also found that he'll happily give it to you, without requiring you to solve the grail quest, if your piety is high enough.

 

A few extra uses of PRAY cut out a big chunk of the game.

     

Get the bell (OLDBELL) from Samwise

   

Samwise is the farmer whose farm, north of the town and in the blighted lands, is doing mysteriously well despite the acid rain. If you talk with him long enough, and answer a riddle or two, he'll finally suggest that he wants items of gold. I found that I had to give him two items--in my case, a gold ring and ancient coins--before he'll give you the magic bell.

       

A leprechaun pretending to be a dwarf. What a stretch.

    

In giving it to you, he reveals his true form: a leprechaun. Something about his magic luck is responsible for the success of his farm.

       

Samwise in his changed form.

  

A word about riddles: A lot of NPCs in the game give you a riddle suddenly in the middle of conversation. Most of them ask you to continue a number sequence. The first time, some NPC will say: "One, four, nine...," indicating that the pattern involves adding incrementally increasing odd numbers. The first time this comes around, the answer is SIXTEEN. Later, some NPC will say, "Four, nine, sixteen..." and you have to answer TWENTYFIVE. The next one is THIRTYSIX. You might imagine that the one after that is FORTYNINE, but it doesn't work. That's because the author of the game wasn't about to win any spelling bees. I correctly guessed the way that he would spell the word: FOURTYNINE.

    

Rescue Tristan and get the candle (MAGICCANDLE).

    

If you explore the underworld long enough (or just TELEPORT directly to him), you'll find Tristan in the clutches of an earth elemental (EARTHELEMEN). The earth elemental thinks that Tristan stole his jeweled stalagmite because Gaiasbane (who the earth elemental thinks is good and wise) told him so. The fire elemental and wind elemental both comment on how the earth elemental has been tricked.

The real thief of the jeweled stalagmite is a troll named Crude. The wind elemental tells you this if you find her, but otherwise you might just find it by encountering Crude and killing him. Return the jeweled stalagmite to the earth elemental and Tristan is released.

      

The earth elemental comes to his senses.

      

If you then visit Iseult back on the surface, Tristan is with her, and Iseult gratefully gives you the magic candle.

     

That's not quite how I ever imagined Tristan.

     

Banish Banesthrall.

     

Banesthrall is a minion of Gaiasbane. He lives in the Caverns of Carthos, a special part of the underworld. Being incorporeal, he can't be harmed by regular weapons or even spells. The only way to kill him is to hold the bell and RING BELL.

     

Entering the Caverns of Carthos.

     

As he dies, he screams, "ARRRRRRGGHHhh . . . you fool! Where did you get that accursed bell! That absurd leprechaun and you shall pay for this one day!" As he dies, he leaves a scroll (OLDSCROLL) behind. The scroll has quite a bit of text:

    

I write this for fear that the knowledge I have uncovered has placed  my life in grave danger. I have discovered the fatal flaw in the dark sorcerer's evil magic. 'Tis a thing called the RUNESWORD, a mystical weapon forged by the immortals eons before this age. This sword exists in all planes at all times. Even GAIASBANE cannot elude its cutting blade, which is why he has placed it in the tail of the DAEMONKOSHI . . . a truly hideous and dangerous creature. This awful being dwells within the darkest depths of the caverns south and slightly east of the chamber of the dark wraith, BANESTHRALL. I fear this dark wraith now hunts me, the price I pay for the powerful secrets written here. I have drawn a crude map on this page . . . may good guard you . . .

      

The character's magic ability increases by 6 after reading the scroll. There is indeed a crude map that you can bring up with the INSPECT command.

       

A cool map that corresponds with nothing that I see in the dungeon.

    

Kill Daemonkoshi and get the Runesword.

   

I tried to find Daemonkoshi with the map but eventually gave up and just TELEPORTed to him. He is guarded by Cerebrus [sic, but I'm always misspelling it this way, too]. The demon causes both paralyzing fear and complete darkness. It took me about 10 reloads to figure out the right sequence to deal with him.

   

You first have to HOLD HOLYBOOK and READ HOLYBOOK to overcome your fear. Yes, you can somehow do this in the pitch darkness. You then KEEP HOLYBOOK (to stow it) and HOLD MAGICCANDLE to dispel the darkness and make both Daemonkoshi and Cerebrus afraid of you. You have to do all of this while they're attacking you, so it might be a good idea to SUMMON some powerful NPC from the rest of the game to occupy them.

        

Daemonkoshi is one odd-looking duck.

    

If you hit Daemonkoshi with the candle, it kills him and he drops the Runesword--but it also turns the candle into just a regular candle, which means Cerebrus is no longer afraid of it. You have to pick up the sword and get out of there or kill Cerebrus through conventional means.

     

Kill Gaiasbane.

   

The last step is to go to Gaiasbane's tower, or SUMMON him to you, and attack him with the Runesword. He dies in one hit. 

      

That was for dad.

    

Unfortunately, none of the NPCs in the game acknowledge your deed. After you kill Gaiasbane, you just have to walk a couple of screens. The game then takes over, shows you the winning screen (above) and dumps you to DOS.

   

This all seems fairly straightforward. Loremaster is much larger and more elaborate than is required for this relatively short main plot, which led to a lot of my (and Morpehus Kitami's) initial confusion. There are also a lot of bugs, pitfalls, walking dead scenarios, points of confusion, and game elements that are just broken. 

 

The two worst elements of the game are combat and traps. I can't tell you how incredibly frustrating it is to get killed 10 times in a row by the same enemy on the same screen. Enemies kill you in one hit and then stand by your corpse. As soon as it's resurrected, they hit you again. You have to hold down a movement key and hope that the game registers your attempts to flee before it registers the enemy's attack. 

   

Traps and pits are everywhere, and even if the detection system worked (it doesn't, although I didn't try it with a thief character), it would be too onerous to detect traps on every inch of every screen. Instead, you just have to suck it up as you get blasted with fire, ice, and sleep or unceremoniously dumped into the underworld.

     

There are, in fact, traps everywhere on this screen.

    

I tried to roll with the punches with all these deaths and traps, but the game saves continually, so there's no way to reload without reinstalling the entire game. I eventually started backing up the data files so I could restore when I lost 10 levels in a row to the same enemy.

 

Many miscellaneous notes:

   

• I never found any way to open chests. I also never found any use for a key that I found. Maybe the key is supposed to open the chests, but I couldn't find any keyword that did it.

• Queen Tei seems to have a quest involving a missing cloak, but I never found it and I don't know what the reward would have been if I had.

• A decent percentage of the time when you ask an NPC something (e.g., ASK YELRAF SORCERER), the game just ignores you as if you typed nothing. You have to do it again. Other times, the NPC says, "Make your point" and requires you to retype your question.

• Several NPCs ask, "Why are you here?" and seem to expect an answer. I never figured out how to successfully answer them. 

• The level cap seems to be 101.

• Sometimes, you have to look really hard for treasure on the ground.

      

That little bit poking above the wall is the only sign.

     

• One enormously helpful spell is ETHEREAL, which makes you temporarily impervious to damage and lets you walk through walls. You can use it to very quickly explore the maps, although you can't pick anything up until it wears off. This is particularly useful in the underground, since navigation there really sucks. 

• The INSPECT command shows you a full portrait of the game's NPCs and many of the objects that you find. It's pretty cool.

     

Yes, delightful.

    

• I found a couple of wands but was never able to get them to do anything.

• In any event, you need both hands free to cast spells, so spellcasters shouldn't even bother to get weapons. Armor also interferes with spellcasting. The mage is still worth it.

• There's food but no EAT command.

• After you rescue Tristan, Iseult gives you a magic candle every time you see her if you don't already have one. You can keep selling them to Butterman for infinite gold. Not that gold is really worth anything.

            

I'm finally out of hock to Butterman.

      

• Sound is limited to quick tunes and bloops as you change screens. When you start up the game, it plays a couple of bars from "It's a Small World." I didn't experience it for most of the game, as you have to proactively type SOUND ON. 

• HELP HISTORY gives you a quick backstory of the game. 

      

I wish I'd known this at the beginning.

     

• Commands for which I never found any use: OPEN (it doesn't work on chests), DISPELL, PUSH, SPEAK, SMILE, SNEER. 

• Spells for which I never found any use (admittedly, I didn't explore them as thoroughly as I should have): AGE, AURA, DISARM, FEAR, GIFT, HARM, INVISIBLE, RESURRECT, SHACKLES, SHIELD, SLOW, TRAP, WEAK.

    

As I've mentioned, the default character, Myth, is overpowered, particularly since TELEPORT, SUMMON, and ETHEREAL obviate much of the game, and he can cast those spells (albeit not without losing a level from the strain) from the outset. It's possible that he wasn't originally that powerful, and that the only version of the game found online has a Myth who's already been heavily developed. In any event, it would be a much more challenging game to play as a fighter or thief. I'm not sure if they ever develop magic ability enough to cast those spells. I played for a while as a cleric and managed to get from Level 20 to around Level 50 by whacking enemies with a mace. But it ultimately was too frustrating, and I ended up winning with Myth. I have no idea what kind of game a sage or merchant experiences.

      

An up-close shot of Queen Tei.

     

In the end, I think it's a better game than it first appears. Perhaps more importantly, it's a better engine than it is a game. With a little more balance, some additional puzzles, more extensive equipment, and a few other features, it could have evoked some of the spirit of Quest for Glory.  

   

I still don't understand what the purpose is of having multiple characters able to exist in the universe without interacting with each other. It appears there's only one copy of the game's major artifacts exists, so a second character can't get another grail, bell, or Runesword. It's pointless.

Finally, I should mention that Twitch streamer Chuboh, whose 2019 streams are responsible for briefly-resurged interest in the game, found a way to win in 90 seconds. Once you know that someone named Daemonkoshi has the Runesword, you can just SUMMON him to a screen where Yelraf or another invincible character can kill him without the need for you to find the holy book or magic candle. You then calmly pick up the Runesword from his corpse, SUMMON Gaiasbane, and kill him.

   

In a GIMLET, I give the game:

   

• 4 points for the gameworld, with a reasonably competent backstory and a relatively clear quest.

• 3 points for character creation and development. It's an admittedly original approach to have the character yo-yo up and down levels instead of always shooting upward, but otherwise development doesn't feel rewarding or consistent enough. It's unclear what the "mage levels" and "cleric levels" do, since those statistics are hidden. I will say that different classes face very different experiences.

• 5 points for NPCs. They exist; they tell you about their world; they give you quests; you can SUMMON them to your aid. A strong category.

 

You don't strictly need her, but the wind elemental is the biggest gossip in the game, with something to say about everything.

      

• 4 points for encounters and foes. The game has about 10 enemies, and some of them do have unique attacks and defenses. The puzzles were mostly based on inventory and the right parser commands. Nothing exciting.

• 3 points for magic and combat, and it gets all of that for a somewhat innovative magic system. I don't recall any other game that let me teleport to any named NPC or, even better, summon that NPC to me.

     

Killing a "basalisk" with a FIRE spell.

    

• 1 point for equipment. One weapon, one suit of extremely fragile armor.

       

INSPECTing the Runesword.

     

• 1 point for the economy. Once you've bought that weapon and suit of fragile armor, there's no point to gold.

• 2 points for a main quest with no side-quests or other options.

   

But there are some sub-quests.

    

• 1 point for graphics, sound, and interface. It gets that point for the occasionally-decent graphics. Sound is too sparse to be worth anything, and the interface was nothing but a nightmare, requiring the player to type too frantically with too many elements not working.

• 5 points for gameplay. It's mildly nonlinear, mildly replayable, just a little bit too hard, and not too long.

    

That gives us a final score of 29. I'm tempted to subtract a point or two for all the things that didn't work, but I guess I already punished it enough by giving no points to the interface.

   

We've covered the critical reviews, which were mostly negative, in previous entries. As I wind up this short series, I feel better about the game at the end than I did at the beginning, which is rare. I would have liked to see what author Glenn Francis Farley could have done with Loremaster II. We now know that Farley died in 2001, leaving a widow named Harriet, the obvious source of inspiration for Queen "Tei." Creative Software does appear to be Farley's company, the odd legal paperwork found by Busca notwithstanding, and it does not seem to have produced another game.