Betrayal at Krondor: And They Call It a Mine

 

The things this blog makes me spend my time on.

       

I appreciate all the comments--the most on a single entry in a long time--on my first Betrayal at Krondor entry. It sounds like this game is part of a long lineage of CRPGs that insists urgency in the main quest while simultaneously offering lots of side areas and side quests, creating something of a conflict between role-playing and character development. In many past games, I have sometimes enjoyed finding ways to justify dillydallying on what seems like an emergency. For instance, in Baldur's Gate II, where I usually played a paladin, I justified not going to the Thieves Guild as soon as I had 20,000 gold to spend by saying that I had to exhaust every other option before resorting to working with thieves. (My paladin, incidentally, had sworn an oath never to be part of any military. That's why he only travels with six companions max; anything more starts to feel like a military unit.) In Oblivion, I would pretend that Martin had begged me not to take him to Cloud Ruler Temple as an excuse to spend hours adventuring together (at some point, he'd realize he had to do his duty). Fallout 4 is a tough one.

      

I don't know. Seems like the kid is in good hands.

      

"We need to get stronger before we take on [the big bad]" is an easy, if somewhat unimaginative, excuse. What retcons, surplaying, and twists of logic have you used to justify dillydallying?

    

The problem here in Krondor is that the game world is quite large--at least, it seems to me at the outset--and so I'm not sure I can justify taking the time to loop around every city in every chapter just to see what new side quests await. On the other hand, I don't insist on seeing absolutely everything that a game has to offer, so perhaps it will be enough to do just a little ancillary exploration. I can justify it here because we're being stalked by assassins, and taking the direct route to Krondor is too obvious.

       

I'd say we're taking the long way around.

        

This session begins with my three characters--Locklear, Owyn, and Gorath--on the road between Yabon and Zun. Locklear and Gorath are bringing word to Krondor about some new devilry with the Moredhel (dark elves), and Owyn is a local boy they swept up in the journey. We've already killed two Moredhel assassins.

    

As I start this session, I'm a bit curious about how physical space works in the game. The map shows roads, structures, and hills, and it makes it look like the hills are obstacles that can't be crossed. You don't seem to be able to walk up to them in the game, unlike the later Might and Magic VI, but let me know if I'm wrong. If I'm not wrong, the hills create confined corridors and spaces in which you can explore. I suspect if you just stick to the road, you'll miss things off to the sides.

     

Hills create borders and define the explorable area.

       

In this spirit, we start moving back and forth across the road and around hills (remember, we're trying to create false trails for assassins) to see if we find anything. We don't find anything material, but on the other side of a hill, we find a small graveyard with about half a dozen headstones:

    

• Mirriam Haselcalph: "To the drawer of nets she took her key."
• A. R. Cramond. "He told a lie and paid the price."
• Jad Peebles. "He engaged in his last undertaking."
• Rosel LaMutian: "Her face was sweet and her hands could heal."
• Hyden Miller. "A bone did him in."
• Pargus Attacarper. "His fish didn't get away."
• Michel Ambazac: "As you are, I once was. As I am, you will be."
• Goldie Crowe. "In death her face was that of a sovereign."

    

These seem honest attempts at world-building rather than in-jokes. The "Drawer of Nets" is a name for Lims-Kragma, the goddess of death. "LaMutian" indicates that she came from the nearby city of LaMut. There's a character in Darkness at Sethanon named Morgan Crowe, but I don't know if there's a relationship with Goldie. I believe he was from this area.

   

As I inspect each of the headstones, Owyn asks Locklear whether we should dig up the grave. I say no each time.

      

No. And it's really weird that you keep asking.

       

By this time, we've come pretty close to the city of LaMut. In the books, the city is part of the Duchy of Yabon. A Tsurani general named Kasumi, trapped in Midkemia after the destruction of the rift at the end of Magician, swore allegiance to King Lyam and became the Earl of LaMut. Pug re-established a permanent rift at the end of Sethanon (and negotiated a peace between the worlds), but Kasumi and most of his men chose to stay in MidKemia. As he was one of my favorite characters in the books, I decide to pop over to the city and see if we get to meet him in-game.

    

The game surprises me as we near the city. Although it appears on the map as individual houses, the player apparently can't explore cities (at least, not this one) like the rest of the map. Instead, the game automatically moves the party into the city and it becomes a menu city with a title card. Hovering the cursor over the buildings gives us options to visit the shop, the inn, and the garrison.

          

We can visit the governor, visit a tavern, trade with a merchant, or divide up the plunder.

        

The shop, called Fletcher's Post, buys, sells, and theoretically repairs weapons and armor. I say "theoretically" because when the shopkeeper summons his unreliable tinker, the man simply tells us that he doesn't have the skill to repair our swords and armor. (From the narrative, I think he only does crossbows.) We do end up selling our excess swords and armor to the shop. This is a good place to note that the game makes good use of the mouse in the shop interface. You simply drag an item you wish to buy to the character or an item you wish to sell to the shop.

         

The currency of the game consists of gold sovereigns and silver royals, and we don't have enough of either to buy anything we want. We have only 18 sovereigns when we enter. A good crossbow costs 55 and the best crossbow costs 797.

        

The merchant's wares.

      

The tavern is called the Blue Wheel Inn and has a few denizens. A mercenary tells us some dwarves have offered a reward for the death of a creature called "a Brock Noor or something." A dwarf named Dubal An Loch knows Locklear: "I fetched you out of a cellar along with a score o' womenfolk at the Battle of Sethanon!" (In the books, Locklear is last seen protecting the women during the battle.) He confirms that the dwarves are looking for someone to kill a Brak Nurr in the mines of Mac Mordain Cadal. (The mines play a big role in Magician in a sequence obviously drawn from Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring.) 

      

The bartender is a Tsurani named Sumani. We get keyword dialogue options with him. He was among those warriors trapped with Kasumi at the end of the Rift War. We learn from him that the permanent rift to Kelewan is nearby, but traffic between the worlds has been halted by some political struggle in Kelewan. Sumani will train combat skills, but at a high price of 75 sovereigns. We also decline to pay 5 sovereigns to stay at the inn, since we haven't really lost any health.

      

At least they got an Asian-looking guy to play the Tsurani role.

     

I noted this in the first entry, but it bears repeating: this game narrates everything as if it's part of a book. When you enter the shop, you get a description of the shop. ("The Fletcher's Post had been constructed with elven sensibilities.") Click on the "Repair" option in the shop, and you get a little story about how the shopkeeper whistles for the tinker. When the tinker can't repair something, you get a little quote from him. When you go to sell something, you get a quote from the shopkeeper about the sale price. You can't even say "no" to staying at the inn at night without a little vignette about Locklear advising the innkeeper to lower his prices. This is all fun for now, but I wonder if it's going to get annoying by the end. It's important for you to understand that almost every time I tell you that we did something or something happened, it came with a couple of paragraphs of descriptive text that I'm only rarely showing or quoting.

         

I actually thought the cost was quite reasonable.

       

In the garrison, we meet Captain Belford. He's distressed because some grey warriors (mercenaries, basically) from Kelewan recently passed through town. They're wanted because they stole a ruby from a Tsurani Great One (magician). There's a reward if we find it.

     

That's about all there is to do in LaMut. The Mac Mordain Cadal quest intrigues me, but the mines are supposed to be pretty far to the west, and the game doesn't give us a choice about which way to leave LaMut. When we exit, we're back on the road to the east--in the dark. The game apparently has a day/night cycle. It cleverly makes it dark in both the game world and on the overhead map, so you can't use map navigation as an easy alternative. I try to cast "Candle Glow," but the game won't let me for some reason. I end up lighting a torch, which just makes me realize that I need more torches. 

      

That's one powerful torch.

      

Hardly any distance down the road, we find the entrance to Mac Mordain Cadal. We choose to enter, the torch we lit outside still providing light. I don't know how long it will last, and I only have one more, so I save near the entrance. 

      

This reminds me so much of the later Might and Magic games that it's eerie.

         

Only a few steps into the cave, a dwarf named Naddur Bank Dok makes an inept attack with a magic hammer before he realizes we're there to help. He tells us about the Brak Nurr, which I guess is a species of beast rather than one beast. This one is the first the dwarves have seen in an age; "the kobolds are stirring them up" on their quest to find their lost god, a dragon that died in Magician (an oddity of this setting is that kobolds and gnomes are the same thing). He gives us a description ("'alf again your height, and a'made of stone"). We inquire about repairs, and he says the dwarves don't have time right now, although he'll teach us to do it ourselves for 50 sovereigns (which of course we don't have).

     

I guess the "bravos" he refers to here are the rogues we later encounter.

     

I'm forced to camp for a few hours--apparently, you need sleep in this game even when you haven't lost any health--and of course it's dark when we awaken despite the graphics showing torches all up and down the walls. We light our second and last one and continue down the hallway. I have to say, there are aspects of movement that I don't like. The game "corrects" you a lot, usually making things worse. For instance, if you come to an intersection and clip the corner while turning, it will automatically turn the party to face the original facing direction, forcing you to move forward and turn again. Since I have a hard time judging when I've cleared a corner, I spend a lot of time fighting against the game trying to turn me in a direction I don't want.

     

Fortunately, you can move on the map indoors, too, which is much faster and smoother. You don't want to do it during initial exploration, as you'll miss things like chests, but it's great for the return trip.

       

Moving via the map.

        

While we're on the subject of movement, is there some other game in which holding down SHIFT with the arrow keys moves you faster? I keep accidentally doing that, which in this game stops you cold. 

    

We creep up on some rogues.

      

We turn a corner and face two rogues, our second battle of the game. I try out the "Despair Thine Eyes" spell--a blinding spell discussed in the comments to the last entry--and it does seem to be effective. With Morath taking one rogue and Locklear taking the other, I'm able to kill them both before they wound me at all. I guess they might have been Moredhel, as they dropped "Moredhel Lampreys," weapons that despite a poor textual description did greater damage (though with less accuracy) than my existing broadswords. They also had armor in better condition than mine.

       

This battle goes all right.

   

In a huge room with nothing else in it that I can find, I find a chest. I have Owyn cast "Scent of Sarig," a trap detection spell, before we open it, and he does detect a trap. We try to disarm it, and it blows up, reducing everyone's hit points to single digits and nearly killing Owyn. Everyone takes a few restoratives, but they don't do much; fortunately, health restores (slowly) on its own as you travel. It's almost worth it: the chest has a shovel, 57 sovereigns, and 97 royals.

      

We're not terribly excited when we therefore encounter another chest at a T-intersection, but this one isn't trapped. It is, however, locked, and no one is able to open it. Another chest at another T-intersection is untrapped and unlocked. It has three herbal packets, which I guess speed up natural healing. I have the characters use them.

     

Behind a closed door, we find three more rogues. The fight does not go well. Owyn is too weakened to cast spells; I guess "near-death" is not just an assessment of hit points, but a semi-permanent condition that needs to be healed. I try camping, but Owyn's stats barely budge, and the "Camp Until Healed" option just causes us to run out of rations in a hot minute. I don't like to do this, but while I'm still feeling things out, I give myself permission to reload from after I defeated the first rogues and before I opened the disastrous chest. I try again with the same result. 

     

The death screen.

       

Ignoring the voice telling me that I'm here too soon, I keep going. This time the locked chest opens to the lockpicks and has 78 royals.

     

We reach the three rogues this time in much better shape, although we're unable to surprise them. I guess you surprise enemies by clicking on them (which gives you a little narrative text) before moving forward. If you just blunder into them, they get to attack first. These guys got to attack first both times, though. 

        

Even the process of surprising enemies is narrated.

       

I defeat them with the same strategy as I used last time. They have broadswords, standard armor, elven armor, rations, and a couple of crossbows with bolts. A locked chest in their room has another broadsword and more standard armor. I swap out my mostly-damaged broadswords for only slightly-damaged ones.

   

By now, I've discovered "Candle Glow" works underground, so I'm able to cast it when the torches run out. Another battle against four rogues doesn't go so well. Two of them insist on swarming Owyn, preventing him from casting spells. I replay the battle a bunch of times trying to get better at combat. Some notes:

      

• There's a certain realism to it in the sense that your stamina starts to flag after a few rounds, until you get to the point that you and the enemy are just exhausted, whiffing every attack. A "rest" option lets you recover a bit, but only a bit. 

• Even understanding the stamina system, I can't help but feel that the game lies about accuracy. I don't hit nearly as often as the accuracy percentage would indicate. 

• This is one of the few games I've played where defense really has some value. I found that if I had the beleaguered Owyn defend instead of attacking or trying to run away, he could stay alive long enough for the two fighters to finish off their foes and come to his aid.

• It's hard to imagine using crossbows. They do less damage than swords and the battlefield is so small that you really can't hold enemies at a range.

         

No way do I hit 52% of the time when I thrust.

        

Eventually, I get lucky and am able to kill them all, although with Owyn unconscious and the other two pretty low in both health and stamina. It takes a couple days' rest to even get back to mediocre status. In addition to weapons and armor, the rogues have a couple of whetstones, a cloth that "enhances" a blade, and about 20 sovereigns. I run out of inventory space trying to pick up all their stuff.

Meanwhile, the room has a Moredhel chest, this one with six tumblers. The riddle is: "Two legs it has, and this will confound: Only at rest do they touch the ground." The tumblers offer these potential combinations:

E T R I O S

R S W L N W

O A O H D G

B U T R T E

     

I wonder how possible it would be to get most of these simply by looking for valid letter combinations. Just for fun, without thinking too much of the riddle, I try it out. I used Access to give me all 4,096 valid combinations. NOT LIKE "RS*" reduced it to 3,840. Other obvious ones at the beginning and end (e.g., RT*, BT*, *TW) reduced it to 2,112. Some more technically possible but unlikely combinations had it down to 585. Within a few minutes, I had whittled it down enough that I could pick out the valid words from a list of less than 100: BARING, BARROW, BATING, BURROW, EATING, OARING, RARING, and RATING. I don't know; maybe I missed some. Anyway, the second word is the answer, but only if you're thinking about the WHEEL kind and not the mound kind. The entire exercise takes me about 10 minutes. It's possible I wouldn't have come up with the answer in 10 minutes of just thinking about it.

         

As an expert in fauna, I can assure you that the legs of a rathog do not touch the ground until it rests.

     

The chest offers 166 royals, two Rings of Prandur (which cast a light spell), 4 ropes, and a vial of Dalatail Milk, which is "reputed to increase one's ability to defend oneself during combat." Permanently or temporarily?

   

At length, we come to the room with the Brak Nurr, which looks like a kind of stone golem. I don't know if "Despair Thy Eyes" will work on it, but that's Owyn's one thing, so I cast it anyway, then surround him. He has a lot of hit points, but he doesn't manage to hit us once before we kill him.

     

Give me a single tough enemy over multiple regular enemies any day.

        

Naddur Ban Dok appears in the room to congratulate us and give us a pouch with about 150 gold sovereigns. Suddenly, we're rich. A locked chest in the room opens with the "peasant's key" (I don't remember where I got this) and offers a "Guilder's Passkey," 4 ropes, 3 torches, and 5 restoratives.

    

First side quest solved!

     

There are a few other things to discover in the mines, including a corridor that the dwarves won't let us pass, another tough battle with four rogues, a locked door that opened to one of my guilder's keys, and two more Moredhel boxes:

• "Round as an apple, deep as a cup, all the bitter sea, can't fill it up." The answer had five letters. The riddle is cute because it alludes to a different riddle whose final line is "all the king's horses can't fill it up," and the answer is WELL. Clearly an entire sea could fill a well, plus WELL is only four letters, so the answer here must be different. I don't do the Access trick again, but I still spend some time scrolling through the letters before I get it with (SIEVE). These are legitimately hard. It has a couple of broadswords (which I don't take), a shell, and a book titled Lorgan's Journal. It's by a dwarf, mentions the Brak Nurr, and also mentions a secret chamber in the lower levels ("Rhuargh's Room"), which I'm not sure how to access. Rhuargh was an ancient dragon in Magician whose magical gifts gave Tomas his power and his connection with the spirit of an ancient Valheru. He died after their encounter.

• "Although my cow is dead, I continue to beat her. What a racket she makes!" I get this one without having to look at the letters (DRUM). The chest has some money and a pair of "Weedwalkers," shoes that add 30% to stealth as long as they're in your inventory. So it turns out what I said last time about there being no special items like helms and boots, just generic suits of "armor," isn't true. You just don't equip them in the left-hand pane.

    

The shoes have Gorath's stealth up to 63%.

      

If there are any secret doors or secret areas on this level, or ways to lower levels, we don't find them. Eventually, we've mapped the only level we seem to be able to explore, and we head for the exit. Naddur Ban Dok stops us again on the way out, and we're able to ask him about Rhuargh's Room. He confirms the backstory and says that it's full of treasure, but thanks to the Brak Nurr collapsing passages, it's going to take them a while to dig it out. "Come back later and mayhap we'll see it together!"

      

Onomatopoeia at work.

     

It's dark when we emerge, and Owyn's health is down to 3, so we camp until morning and have Owyn take an herbal pack. We continue south towards Krondor, though I'm looking forward to just making it to the next city, Zun, and offloading some of this excess stuff. We're attacked by two Moredhel on the way, and they do some damage, but we manage to kill them.

    

We reach Zun, and I'm surprised to find that it's not a menu town like LaMut. Instead, we have to walk up to the individual buildings and click on the doors. It's mostly a waste of time. The tavern is closed, the residents of the houses unfriendly--one hits Locklear with a wine bottle. One abandoned house yields some money and a bowstring. There's an herb and potion shop (Kege's Herbs), but it's not interested in our excess swords and armor. 

      

Arriving in Zun.

      

Needing the certainty of an inn and shop, I head back north to LaMut. It's dark when we arrive, and we head to the inn. Sumani, who we did not re-visit during our previous stay, after speaking to Captain Belford, has some intelligence about the grey warriors with the stolen rubies. He suggests we talk to another "man without honor," Keifer Alescook in the town of Loriel. He's a gem merchant.

   

We stay the night, apparently in a common room, because in addition to the 5 sovereigns we pay for the room, we have about 15 pickpocketed from our money pouch. We make it up at the store after selling our excess armor and swords.

       

I think I'd rather sleep outside.

        

And here I sign off, mere inches from where we began this session, and yet we learned valuable lessons about exploration, cities, side-quests, treasures, combat, and other game mechanics. We've also had a little character development. In comparison to the beginning of the game, Locklear has increased by 1 strength, 1% in defense, and 1% in melee accuracy; Owyn is up 1% in defense; and Gorath . . . well, Gorath is down 2 strength, 3 defense, 4 crossbow accuracy, 2 melee accuracy, 4 assessment, 2 armorcraft, 2 weaponcraft, and 2 scouting. Someone please enlighten me how that happened.

    

Time so far: 5 hours