BRIEF: The Fantasy Worlds of Tamrak (1993)

 

A backstory to make Norman's head explode.

        

The Fantasy Worlds of Tamrak

United States

Independently developed and published

Released 1993 for DOS

Date Started: 11 November 2025

Unplayable because: Unregistered demo is limited in gameplay 

           

"Tamrak may or may not be a fantasy world," the manual's backstory begins. Ooh, I like a good mystery. I mean, character creation has me choose between human, elf, and dwarf characters before sending me out into a landscape in which I fight orcs and goblins with elven daggers and magic spells. Also, the name of the game is The Fantasy Worlds of Tamrak. But, you know—the jury's still out.

      

It's a good metaphor for meta-data about the game itself. Most web sites, as well as the game's manual, give its name as Infinite Fantasy Adventures: Volume 1: The Fantasy World of Tamrak, but the title screen drops the series title. Perhaps nothing is more ambiguous than the name of the development kit (which we previously saw in The Rescue of Lorri in Lorrintron from 1991), which variously goes as DC-Games, DC-Play (sometimes without the hyphens), the Graphics Adventure Game System (or Builder), and the Generic Adventure Game System. Sometimes it goes by multiple names on the same screen.

         

That could be a sci-fi or steampunk castle.

      

That said, it's a competent enough kit (credited to David Hernandez of Plano, Texas), and I noted some of its strengths in the earlier entry. It offers keyword-based dialogues, a variety of text encounters, NPC movement scripting, complex item manipulation, and tactical combat reminiscent of Ultima V (the Ultima series is, of course, the source for the general look and feel of the kit). Neither game that we've seen has really exemplified what is possible with the kit. Tamrak is better than Lorrintron, but at least the author of the latter purchased the full version and could thus offer EGA graphics instead of this game's ugly CGA.

     

The story is that the world of Tamrak has long been going through a golden age under the wise reign of King Josephus. Tamrak consists of twelve "worlds," each ruled by an appointed lord, each represented by a jewel stored in a guarded safe in Josephus's castle. In response to some recent unrest, Josephus has the safe checked, and it turns out that someone has stolen the entire set of jewels. A tablet left behind indicates that the theft was orchestrated by the evil wizard Marbodaei, thought long-dead, now returned to launch his own claim to the throne. In desperation, Josephus flings a message calling for a hero into a time portal, where it arrives in the lab of the inventor of a time machine (the PC).  

      

Character creation has the player choose from elf, dwarf, wizard, archer, and fighter classes. The selection adjusts the game's attributes: strength, speed, aim, dexterity, hit points, IQ, and power. The player then gets to add to these attributes from a pool of bonus points.

     

I like that you get little tips on the uses of each attribute.

      

Gameplay starts in the character's own house, where he can pick up a key and a leather jacket. The backstory has already alerted the player that the time portal is hidden in a regular wall space, which serves as a hint to search the walls until he finds a secret door. But walking through the door just returns the character to the house; to move forward, he has to stand inside the doorway and hit E)nter.

      

Escaping the house.

       

Correct use of the portal sees the player arrive in the World of Tamrak, where his first priority is to find a town selling weapons. The game uses a traditional Ultima-style keyboard interface, with single letter commands like A)ttack, G)et an object, and T)alk. 

        

Arriving in Tamrak. Note the list of commands.

           

Tamrak's map is a large 100 x 255 tiles. The "worlds" of Tamrak—they may or may not be fantasy, remember—are just castles. The manual gives the names of all twelve—Odem, Pitdah, Bareketh, Nophak, Sappir, Yahalom, Leshem, Shebo, Ahlamah, Tarshish, Shoham, and Yashpheh—and their associated stones. (The source of this list is Exodus 28:17-20; each of these names is a gemstone displayed on a priestly breastplate that Moses ordered the Israelites to make.) These castles, as well as other scattered towns, also provide services including healers, pubs, and shops selling weapons, armor, spells, potions, necklaces, rings, and various modes of transportation.

      

Arriving in a new town.

      

Both indoors and outdoors, the character may be attacked by randomly-spawning enemies like orcs, trolls, giants, lizard men, snakes, water sprites, and pirate ships. Combat works like Ultima V in that a single enemy icon may turn out to include multiple enemies, which spread out and take on individual form once combat is engaged. Each round, the player can attack, cast a spell, or use an item. Attacks are targeted with a cursor that allows diagonal and ranged attacks. The character gets experience for every successful action, not just kills, and leveling up (which confers extra maximum hit points and spell power) is relatively swift.

        

Fighting a couple of lizard men.

       

There are some solid basic RPG mechanics here. I never fail to enjoy the process of slowly getting stronger, through both leveling and equipment purchases. Early-game combat is challenging and (for me) required careful use of spells like "Scare" and "Paralyze." It doesn't take long, however, for the game's many faults to come through.

    

• The game has a food mechanic, but food depletes so slowly (like one unit per 1,000 moves) that the developer might as well have not bothered. I think the starting 25 rations would last the entire game. This is good because:

• All food looted after battle is mysteriously rotten. 

• Something is broken with the random number generator that determines how much gold you find after battle. It's normally around 10-100, but every once in a while, you find thousands of gold pieces after killing the weakest enemy. You also sometimes find negative gold pieces, but this happens rarely enough that you can amass a fortune in a short time and buy the best items in the game. At some point, enemies stopped being able to do any damage to me at all when I crossed a certain AC threshold. 

       

That's what I call a Pyrrhic victory.

    

• When you enter certain buildings, you'd better pay attention to what square you arrived on because the game often shows no door, ladder, or other indication of the exit square. You have to just stand in the right place and hit E)xit.

      

Trying to find the way out of this shop.

      

• Sometimes, when you exit a city, you end up back at your house in the northwest part of the game map. 

• The game wastes the kit's dialogue abilities by rarely offering any keywords that NPCs respond to. Although like Ultima IV, everyone responds to NAME, there's no equivalent to JOB to prompt further discussion. The manual suggests that QUEST works, but no one I used it on responded.

      

Either Marta has a very strange nickname, or something has gone wrong with the data file here.

       

• You can ask a lot of NPCs to JOIN you, creating a party of up to six ("and another sixteen in reserve," the manual says, but I don't understand how that works). But a party simply multiplies the number of enemies you face in combat, making combat last a lot longer. Companions do not provide any advantage.

        

I briefly had a couple of allies.

      

• If you die, the game sometimes resurrects you and sometimes doesn't. (I think maybe you get a fixed number per level.) If it doesn't, you have to reload your last save game. But if you do, you mysteriously die again after one step. The only way to fix this is to completely quit the game and restart.

• Fully exploring the map means being able to cross water. The game offers a raft for sale, but for some reason it thinks the raft is food. You can Q)uaff it, for instance. If you drop it and use it to cross a river and then pick it up again, you'll lose it—the game adds it to your food total. Fortunately, there's a separate skiff that you can steal that doesn't have this problem. 

• Every 255 moves, the game says you're exhausted and forces you to C)amp and rest, an action that can be done literally anywhere and takes no time at all. 

      

I can even rest on a skiff in the middle of the ocean.

       

• The game will get into a glitch by which every store sells the exact same random things regardless of the specific nature of the store. 

• There are spelling errors on just about every screen. 

          

The "b" isn't even silent in that word.

        

The indoor areas can be unexpectedly large and complex. There are towers inside cities and dungeons inside towers. You have to watch for cave openings everywhere. My general sense is that finding each of the 12 gems requires solving a variety of puzzles or following a variety of hints. I found two of them in dungeons in their respective "worlds." As for the others, at least one site says that there's one puzzle in which you have to fool a guard with a false key, but I don't see how the mechanics even allow a puzzle of that kind of complexity.

      

This dungeon's name is a bit on-the-nose.

     

I wasn't really sure what to do with the two gems that I found (carnelian and emerald). I tried taking them to their respective kings, as a wizard told me, "Return the carnelian to the same place as Odem is." I tried speaking to the king of Odem, dropping the gem in front of him, dropping it on a nearby dais, and so forth, to no avail. I also tried returning them to King Josephus in his castle, Concord, but he also failed to recognize that I had them. He said that I should "return them to the Icon"; I have no idea what he means by that.

     

You mean "again," right?

     

A few other notes:

   

• The manual offers a list of different NPC types that the player will encounter, including trainers, beggars, and quest-givers, none of whom I encountered.

• I did encounter bartenders, however. You can order three beers at each of the game's pubs before the bartender cuts you off. You can ask for a tip after each beer, but the bartender only offers anything valuable after the second one.  

        

After three beers?! Oh, wait . . . I'm playing an elf.

       

• In addition to potions, the game has a lot of exotic foods that provide various temporary benefits like enhanced strength or rapid hit point regeneration.

       

I hope that the bread and cakes are "in the culinary style of the elves."

     

• I found two "proclamations," but the game offers no way that I can find to read them. 

• There's a store where you can buy lanterns and torches, but none of the underground areas were dark. The same store offers keys, but so far every locked door and chest could be bashed open.

          

But why?

            

If the game isn't unwinnable because of its bugs, it is unwinnable because of its shareware nature. The demo version allows the player to enter four of the twelve castles; the others simply say that there is no door present.

     

That must be inconvenient.

     

You had to register the full game to get access to the rest of it. The author asked $10 plus $2 for shipping and handling. The registration form promises that in addition to the full version of the game, those who register it will receive "a jewel from the Fantasy World of Tamrak," guaranteed to be "natural in origin." There's a skeptical part of me that wonders whether the full version ever really existed, and whether anyone really got that gem.

 

An NPC offers commentary on the shareware nature of the game. Technically, I have 10 jewels to find.

       

The Fantasy Worlds of Tamrak was written by Ray Johnson of Tupelo, Mississippi. (He gives a "C.G." after his name, and I cannot come up with any idea for what it stands for.) Johnson apparently also created a text adventure called Lost Gold: The Search for the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine in 1992 (also made using a kit; in this case, the BIG Adventure Game Toolkit). I like to think its story began, "The Dutchman Gold Mine may or may not be lost."

 

The Fates of Twinion: Nor Any Drop to Drink

 

"Carving?"

       

Over the next few hours, I won the "Gauntlet" quest, consisting of two maps, Gauntlet Droit (to the east of the main entrance) and Gauntlet Gauche (to the west). They were both 16 x 16, densely packed with encounters, messages, teleporters, one-way doors, locked doors, fountains, NPCs, and other special encounters. In fact, I'd venture that Twinion (as well as its predecessor, Yserbius) has more content per map than any tiled game since Might and Magic.

   

Except for a lockpick found in the bats' treasure room in Gauntlet Gauche, most of the core action was in Gauntlet Droit. A message near the entrance set it up: "The gauntlet has been thrown down in the Coil Maze. Now you must return it to its birth place, to solve this quest and complete this most simple phase." Later, another message: "Westward, an ancient foundry, now extinct, lies at the bottom of a shaft. It was here that the Lava Glove was born . . . And here it must return once you've retrieved it."

       

The "Coil Maze"—not really a maze, just a coiling bit of corridor—lay in the southern half of the level, reachable only by teleporter. It had a lot of fixed battles. Amidst the single panthers, duelists, brigands, and so forth were the occasional battle with, say, one master knight and three henchmen, or three wizards of Gnog and two duelists, or three apprentice thieves and two novice thieves. Parties of multiple enemies can often kill me within a few rounds, but I remembered some basic tactics from Yserbius, such as always carry a Scroll of Protection; it has multiple uses and negates all damage for a few rounds. An elixir of health, which restores 125 hit points per sip, is also a necessity. Between these two items, I could outlast most parties of foes.

        

Using a scroll in battle.

        

Some other notes about the Gauntlet:

   

• A lot of my battles started with me missing exactly three times before connecting in the fourth round. I don't know what was about. I missed three times in a row far more often than I missed a single time.

• The game really wanted me to have a crystal that, when used, I guess reveals secret doors? I can't seem to get it to do anything at all. In any event, there were a lot of battles with berzerkers who possessed them.

• I was unable to enter four rooms in the Gauntlet Gauche. Two of them had signs reading: "The door to the west is locked, but no lockpick can help you here! You must learn to use what is at hand in a more creative fashion." I thought the message must be referring to the crystal, but I couldn't get it to work. The other two doors also had a message: "Only a masterful thief can open this door." That one seems more straightforward, and I'm not a thief, masterful or otherwise.

• Several messages just had a series of cross symbols. Maybe I need some kind of skill to translate them?

    

Untranslated or untranslatable? (The top half is left over from previous messages.)

      

The final battle in the Coil Maze rewarded me with the Lava Gauntlet. I returned it to a corridor where messages indicated I should bring it. "You have won the challenge of the gauntlet," a message said. "I shall send you to its end." This turned out to be a single-square room where I got 1,000 experience points, an additional skill ("Intimidate"), an additional spell ("Petrify"), and a regular crossbow, which I already had. I assume the reward is tailored to the class, as there are a bunch of other squares that I cannot enter in the same row.

       

My dubious "reward."

       

When I exited the dungeon, I hit Level 9 and got another spell, "Teleport," and another skill, "Stamina." I haven't made a lot of use of skills or spells so far. "Read Tracks" just seems to tell me that enemies are near, which is always. I don't think I've been poisoned yet, so no need for "Cure." "Teleport" is just a dungeon-exiting spell, which you can achieve easily enough by dying.

    

My current skill list.

     

With the Gauntlet completed, I next ventured into the northern chamber to explore the Queen's Aqueduct. I had explored here initially during the first entry and was unable to get very far. What I failed to appreciate then is that nothing stops you from walking into the water, except that you take damage with every step and cannot heal until you get out. 

          

The two water levels.

       

An early message in the Aqueduct said: "Seek the protector of this aqueduct in the west. His magic blocks your forward pass." This was a clue to explore a map to the west called The Reservoir. It consisted of a central pool of water, with a river running to the east (to the Aqueduct). The area was ruled by a giant named Lord Aqueus, and his giant minions were frequent encounters across the map.

   

As I entered the area, an NPC told me to be on the lookout for a helpful thief and giant. The giant was named Sartiq. He opposed Aqueus and gave me a chant to help me get past the waters protecting Aqueus's throne room. I guess he didn't fully trust me because he held something back. Later, I met a thief named Malik who carved a mark in my arm and told me to show it to Sartiq for the rest of the chant. When I returned to Sartiq, he taught me a rhyme to actually enter the throne room, then died.

      

"Sartiq" sounds like he would be a Belle Époque playwright.

       

The rest of the level had various encounters. There were a lot of one-way doors, locked doors (I found a red lockpick somewhere, which worked on most of them), fountains, messages, and NPCs. I used a rope I found in the Aqueduct to save some adventurers who were about to get swept away by the currents, earning a silver ingot for my trouble. There was a central island in the Reservoir with four pillars, and if there was any way to move one to reach the central square, I couldn't figure it out.

       

Yo momma so fat . . .

        

Eventually, I came face-to-face with Aqueus. It took me a couple of tries to win the battle. Even with a Scroll of Protection active, he was capable of hitting hard enough to destroy my hit points in three rounds, far more quickly than drinking a healing potion could restore. I finally got him with "Petrify," although it took several attempts. He left a silver bow, a Blood Shield, and 2500 gold. 

     

Did he pick his name before or after taking over an aqueduct?

       

After Aqueus died, the waters mostly stopped damaging me when I walked in them. A couple of squares in the Aqueduct still had an "undertow" that killed me instantly. Nonetheless, I was able to explore the rest of it and to find an eastern passage to a new map called Twinion's Falls. There's still a door I cannot pass in the Aqueduct; it bears the message: "Return here once you've completed what must be done elsewhere." I assume I have another puzzle to solve in Twinion's Falls.

 

Arriving in a new area.

      

Miscellaneous notes:

   

• The annoying thing about fixed encounters in this game is that they never clear. Kill an enemy party, walk one square away, return, and you'll face them again. The only exception is boss-level foes. Clearly, the game has a way to remember that you've defeated those, so why not the battle that you just fought?

       

Not to mention locked doors.

      

• An encounter with a wet elf that I didn't understand: "Her majesty's idea of draining the River of Eternity is a good one, albeit a bit late for my brother." Maybe it'll become clearer later.

• I didn't mention it last time, but the early game plot, in which the queen is using the first few dungeon levels to test the mettle of would-be heroes, is clearly cribbed from Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981).

• It was very late in this session that I figured out how secret doors work. You get a message like "there are scratches in the stone here." This is your clue to use the crystal ball or an equivalent spell (which I don't have). Then you get a notice that you've found a secret door, although nothing is shown in the window. You have one turn to then walk through the illusory wall. I was able to explore the other maps without knowing this (coming at the same areas another way), but the Queen's Aqueduct had a few areas only discoverable by this method.

       

It takes me a while to get the hint.

        

• My archery-based character is able to equip a shield along with his bow. 

• About 25% of the game's battles have some kind of flavor text to put the battle in context. I applaud this. 

         

For instance.

        

Twinion continues to be a perfectly serviceable single-character game in the Wizardry tradition. Unfortunately, what I enjoy most about the games in the Wizardry line is the tactics associated with party-based combat. Twinion is a bit boring in that regard, and thus I find I have to have something else going—an audiobook or a television show—as I play.

   

At the same time, I can only imagine it was boring as a multi-player game (not multi-character, mind you, but multi-player). Joining a party that someone else controlled, only being able to occasionally act in combat, must have been excruciating. Maybe a lively conversation system made up for it, but I suspect the novelty of online play was doing much of the heavy lifting. 

   

Time so far: 8 hours 

 

Excelsior: Onward and Downward

 

Dungeons are teeming with enemies, items, doors, and clues.

     

We return to Chester the sexless golem paladin, circling the roads of the land Excelsior, picking up various hints and clues. The Council of World Watchers have sent me here to deal with some unspecified evil, but so far the only major quest step I've uncovered is to find the three amulets that will allow me to increase my attributes when leveling up. There are supposedly clues to the red and blue amulets in North Blagsell and Embiscule, and the green amulet is apparently in the Forgotten Pits.

   

I want to visit each town once before committing myself to dungeons, so I press on.

   

Owenfield 

 

• An astrologer reads my fate and says that I'll need four items of fantastic power to fulfill my destiny, and that one man will show me the way when I'm ready for it.

• A graveyard has a bunch of stones but apparently no inscriptions.

• A ranger: When hunting in the Rumbling Range, he encountered a unique baobab tree.

     

Deep into my thirties, I thought that "baobabs" were fictional trees.

       

• The weaponsmith has some unique items, including a Wind Staff and Poseidon's Trident.

• The armory has eramel plate and an eramel shield. I can afford the latter and buy it.

• A guy offers another game of Three Crowns Up. 

• A warrior says that he's served Lord Valkery (of Castle Excelsior) for years, but something is different about him lately. 

     

Owenfield is with Castle Griswald on a southwestern peninsula. I have to retreat across the peninsula, back to an intersection near the city of Hollow, and then take a long road to the southernmost part of the continent.

   

Borinthia 

   

• A mage staying at the inn: A magic fire is the gateway to the netherworld. He does not know where it is.

• A warrior: There are rumors that the king's son, Prince Williamson, has been imprisoned in the royal keep.

• Janell: The only remedy to being land-locked is "not on the land itself."

• Nelver: Used to work for King Valkery but was fired over differences in views, replaced by Peffley. 

• L'lella: A woman volunteering at the clinic asks if I'll stay and help care for wounded people. I say yes, stick around for a while, and learn the "Bandage" skill, which causes my wounds to heal automatically, though slowly enough that I still need "Alleviate Pain" after most battles.

    

After Borinthia, I head back north, up the east coast of the continent. I cross two islands to the next location.

    

The Port City of Farborough 

    

• The weaponsmith has something called a Devil's Pitchfork. I can afford it but don't buy it.

• There are places in the city only reachable by boat. Clearly, I'll have to return with one.

       

Ah, Venice.

     

• Pirate: There's a large sandbar east of here. It keeps the town safe from rough seas. 

• A shipwright offers ships for 5,000 gold.

     

It's going to be a while.

      

Embiscule 

   

• A beggar asks for 2 gold. I give it to him. He says that a baobab tree marks the location of an object of great significance. The sorcerer Cirine in Burroughs can tell me more. 

     

I have no idea why this is the last screenshot for a while. I must have just forgotten that I had to take them.

     

• Pirate: He's heard of a magic lantern that can burn forever, but he doesn't know where it is. 

• Assassin: A man in Heize murdered a man in cold blood and can teach his methods.

• Hollow: A ranger can tell me about "Dark Eyes" (I already have it).

• The weaponsmith has a Thunder Axe and a Speedblade, both too expensive.

 

Widdlenix

   

• The weaponsmith sells an Axe of Doom. Still too much.

• Archer: Fefin in Pibsly will teach me "Marksmanship." 

• Militiaman: There are treasures across the oceans. Janell in Borinthia can help me get there.

• A magic shop. I'd love to buy more spells, but I can't seem to make any serious money.

• Woodsman: Schoenoff's Forest is to the northwest. There's a woodsman named Hote there who may provide assistance. 

    

I'm almost back to Castle Excelsior, but another road branches east and south. 

    

North Blagsell 

    

• Townsman: There's a literate person in Wyckmire who teaches people to read and write. 

• Cleric: A substance called Liquid Light can be found in the Forgotten Pits.  

• Boore: I should find Gerald of the South, kin to one of the greatest knights in the land.

    

I was supposed to get a clue to the red amulet here, but I circled the place several times and didn't find anything. I move on to South Blagsell, which as per last session, is actually north of North Blagsell. 

 

I lose my horse somewhere between North and South Blagsell. I don't know what happened to it. I must have accidentally jumped off and failed to notice.

 

I also find a yellow potion after one battle and a red after another. The yellow heals 10 hit points; the red increases strength (temporarily).

 

There's a keep called Ironthread on the road between North and South Blagsell, but the door is locked.  

      

South Blagsell 

      

• A warrior named Gerald: Excited about his brother having studied under a master warrior in Embiscule.

• Archer: You can sharpen your skills with a bow by seeking out the master archer in Pibsly.

• Archer: A man in Castle Infinitum is an expert in "Survival." 

• Ranger: Boore in North Blagsell knows about the red amulet.

• The healer is inexplicably sequestered behind half a dozen locked doors. 

     

Build a side door?

     

Once you get some dialogue in this game, the same dialogue never comes back even if you speak to the same NPCs. I miss something in the Boore/Gerald thread, so I end up saving the game and creating a new character just for the purposes of re-experiencing those lines of dialogue. I make him a male giant, pump him full of strength, and give him the "Bandage" and "Fist Fighting" skills. This is just enough to keep me alive long enough to visit the two Blagsells and record the lines.

      

"Blah" the giant collects some intelligence.

     

The combination of these leads suggests that the next clue on the path of the red amulet is to be found in Embiscule.

   

I finally finish my road loop back at Castle Excelsior, though I can tell from the map that Matthew Engle provided that I've missed Burroughs, on a lake in the middle of the southern part of the continent, and several cities accessible only by ship.

     

These travels are accompanied by many battles, but they've gotten rather easy.

       

At Excelsior, I level up a couple of times, check my task list, and decide to try to find the green amulet in the Forgotten Pits, on Hugh's Point, south-southwest of Schoenoff's Forest. Before leaving the Excelsior area, and on the way to the forest, I do a few errands:

   

• In Oooblyae, I ask around until a bard tells me that Jad Merlings was recently in the city but has left for South Blagsell. I've been on the trail of Merlings, who can supposedly teach me how to play the lute I've been carrying since Level 1, for several cities now. I don't even know what playing the lute allows me to do, although this is partly answered in the next bullet point.

• In Woodside, I open a door I didn't have a key to open last time I visited. There's a guy who sells lutes and "Slumber Lutes." I note it for later. 

       

All lutes are Slumber Lutes.

        

• I waste a bunch of time in Castle Excelsior opening doors I didn't have keys to open before. I find nothing in any of the rooms, just generic NPCs.

• Wyverns, golems, gargoyles, and sorcerers are among the new enemies I encounter at my higher level. I find a Retribution Sword on the body of a wyvern. It does double the damage of my eramel longsword.

• In Pibsly, a master archer named Fefen teaches me "Marksmanship" for 100 gold. 

    

I haven't shot a bow in this game yet, but I still like acquiring all the skills.

    

• In Stockshire, a guy behind a locked door says that his travels have taken him to a magic flame on a small island near the edge of the world. I also buy a new horse here. 

• In Roaldia, I buy "Instant Elevation" (IE) and "Instant Descent" (ID) spells to facilitate dungeon exploration.

• Schoenoff's Forest is a maze with a hut in the middle. It takes me forever to find my way to it because I've temporarily forgotten that the game allows diagonal movement. The occupant, Hote, at first just tells me to state my business or leave. Since I don't know exactly what I want from him, I just leave.

 

I find the Forgotten Pit right where the cartographer said it would be. My first thought is to use "Instant Descent" to rocket to the bottom of the dungeon and begin hunting for the red amulet. I soon discover that the two spells only work after you've arrived at the levels organically. This turns out to be a good thing.

     

Arriving at the Forgotten Pit.

     

The dungeon levels are large, about 48 x 48, and I nearly have to map. There are plenty of enemies, but also plenty of time to rest and heal between enemies. My backpack soon fills up with valuable items. I leave so much expensive loot on the floor that it starts to physically hurt. There are locked doors to open, treasure to find, and signs to read.

   

On Level 2, a sign tells me: "There is exactly one secret door on this level." I find it in the southeast corner, allowing entry to a long hallway that runs up the entire east side of the dungeon. At the end of the hallway is the green amulet and magic lantern. I didn't expect to find them so soon.

      

Nice of the developers to put them together.

         

As soon as I pick up the magic lantern, the fog of war disappears, and the entire 26 x 18 exploration window fills up with dungeon squares. Being able to see a quarter of the dungeon at one time obviates mapping.

      

Too little, too late.

       

I'm surprised to find a ladder down. Level 3 has a more "cavernous" feel. There are a number of signs that read:

 

• It can't exist in a one-dimensional world.
• It is one-dimensional in a two-dimensional world. 
• It is three-dimensional in a four-dimensional world.

   

There's a final "chattering" signpost that I find I have to talk to instead of reading. It asks me: "What is it that my mute friends are speaking of?" I don't know the answer. While I'm pondering it, I start to question what a "four-dimensional world" would look like and Google it. Google's AI result says right in the description that the "shadow" of a 4D would be 3D. Having thus spoiled it for myself, I try SHADOW, which opens the way to the fourth level.

   

Level 3 also has a little residence belonging to a priest; he asks me to leave him alone, as he "Must spend time deep in prayer [to] produce holy water." I can't figure out anything to do here. The fourth and bottom level has a maze in the top half and a series of rooms in the bottom half that suggest a destroyed castle. 

        

This could be Magincia.

      

Locked doors cut off the southeastern area. I open them and slay a white dragon. There are rivers of lava running through here, but I can't figure anything else to do. I suspect I'll have to return later. 

     

On the bottom level of the Forgotten Pit.

    

Four castings of "Instant Elevation" get me back to the surface. The items I looted sell for so much money that I could certainly buy a ship if I took another dive to get a second batch of loot. Overall, the dungeon was a bit livelier than I expected, closer to Ultima V than Ultima IV and earlier.

  

Instead, I decide to head south to the town that I missed. On the way, I stop at Embiscule and learn from someone named Christoph that Gerald is a liar: far from a great knight, Gerald's brother died a beggar in Owensfield—and was buried with his red amulet.

     

Wait. "One of?"

      

After that, I cross a couple of bridges to the island that hosts:

 

Burroughs 

       

• A thief: Somewhere there is a small hut filled with thieves who can teach "Lockpicking." This must be the least useful skill in the game, since you find so many picks that even someone with no skill (like me) has a surplus of hundreds.

• Cirine the Sorcerer: Once had the blue amulet, lost it under a baobab tree. Hute the Woodsman can assist in its retrieval.

• The weaponsmith sells Death Swords and Holy Blades. 

   

I'm close to Owenfield at this point, so I head southwest to the city and use my shovel on graves until I find a body with the red amulet. 

      

Not the Avatar.

      

Hoping to make it a trifecta before I post this entry at midnight, I race back to Schoenoff's Forest. This time, Hule hears the story of the baobab tree and makes me a Forestry Axe.

   

The ranger in Owenfield said the tree was in the Rumbling Range, which is depicted on the map in the northwest corner of the continent, not far from Schoenoff's Forest. It's a large range and it takes a long time, studying one screen of mountains after another, to find a tree in their midst. When I see it, I use the axe and claim the blue amulet.

      

Definitely not the Avatar.

     

Hule asked me to return the axe, which I do. He says that he's part of an organized group called the Resistance, which is dedicated to the overthrow of King Valkery. He tells me that their headquarters is in the dungeon Intungo, where the password is VICTORY.  

      

That escalated fast.

      

Some miscellaneous notes:

   

• As commenter Scott pointed out, the "Zagha's Banquet" spell trivializes the food system. I've been casting it whenever I think about it.

• The game has a curious mechanic discussed briefly here. Sometimes, slain enemies leave two items behind, and the game pictures them side-by-side. When the player goes to G)et the item in that square, the game asks which one they want. The player has to hit the left arrow or right arrow to pick up the appropriate item.

     

Pile of Gold or Crossbow? would be a great game show.

      

• In my descriptions of the towns, I have been eliding the many generic NPCs with standard lines. There are many of them.  

• Character death comes with a little narrative in which the character finds himself standing before the Great Council, chided for his failure, and passed over for promotion.

      

I love how the game has a backstory that would allow for easy resurrection after death, but instead death is permanent failure.

            

I wrap up this session by visiting the three castles again and touching the various glowing balls, increasing my strength, dexterity, and intelligence. 

      

Re-visiting Castle Griswald.

      

These attribute increases make battles, which had already become fairly easy, even easier. I'm enjoying the exploration and treasure-hunting nature of the quests, but I'm worried that the game is going to become unchallenging as an RPG. We should know by the end of the next session.

   

At Griswald, I speak to the cartographer and learn that "Intungo is in the mountains north of Heize." I haven't found Heize yet, but the map shows it on an island to the west of the continent. As it happens, I've sold enough gear to be able to afford a ship, so my next steps seem obvious. 

     

Time so far: 12 hours 

    

**** 

    

If you're still raw about my recent abandonment of Sandor II, check out the extensive notes file offered by commenter Buck, who got much further than I did but still got stuck.