Betrayal at Krondor: Won!

   

Pug and Gorath watch an alien sunset as this session begins. I normally offer a winning screen at the top of the "won" posting, but there isn't one.

      

This session begins at the opening of Chapter VIII: "Of Lands Afar." Gorath and Owyn have used the Book of Macros to teleport to a strange, alien world, looking to rescue Pug, who is searching for his kidnapped daughter. As we arrive, Owyn discovers that he cannot sense any magic, so he cannot cast any spells. He explains that as a magician, he doesn't actually possess any power: "All I know are a series of words and actions that help me gather the power, or manna, from the natural world. If, however, there is no manna for me to collect, then all of my magical training is futile. I'm powerless." Owyn speculates that Pug, wherever he is, must be in the same situation.

   

The overhead map shows a road nearby, so we head for that, walking past jagged crystals jutting from the ground. There's a hut alongside the road, looking from any direction except the one with the opening like a natural feature. It will turn out that the land has dozens of these. When we click on this one, we find a note from Pug addressed to Tomas (Pug had intended Tomas to respond to his S.O.S., but as you'll recall, Tomas is sick). Pug notes that the world shows signs of having been inhabited by Valheru, the ancient race of dragon lords whose power the Moredhel hope to reclaim. (Tomas inherited the power of a "good" Valheru in a series of episodes probably not worth explaining now, but that's why Pug refers to them as "your Valheru benefactors.") He also notes the presence of a violent race "greatly similar to the Pantathians," who the Valheru created.

      

The landscape is one of jutting crystals.

     

We soon run into these creatures, called the Panath Tiandn. They have fearsome sling and sword attacks. They're often accompanied by giant beetles called Nethermanders. For the first time in the game, I find myself using the "quick combat" option, as there's nothing much else to do but thrust away at them.

      

Panath Tiandn and their Nethermander allies.

     

It sucks that Owyn can't cast any spells (nor does his Lightning Staff work), but by this point in the game, he's not completely hopeless when it comes to melee attacks. A combination of attacks from Owyn and Gorath can often kill an enemy where Gorath alone cannot.

   

Owyn is sick of being pigeonholed as a spellcaster.

       

In his note, Pug says that he's going to search for Gamina in a ruin at the northern tip of the island, so we head there. Along the way, we search more huts, buried treasure caches (there are no chests here), and strange yellow or orange crystals, and we find dozens of piles of "raw manna." Owyn soon has hundreds of them. The description of the substance suggests it ought to be useful for casting spells, but I can't figure out how to tap into it.

   

We follow the road north, then east, and find a hut with another note from Pug to Tomas. He says that he hasn't found Gamina, but that he's learned this planet has transformed into crystal. He suspects that the old gods did it to drive away the Valheru. He says he learned things telepathically from the pillars in the northern ruins, but he warns us not to touch the central column.

    

Owyn's inventory starts to get crowded.

   

I head north and find these pillars, but owing to the fact that the landscape gets wonky when you get close to things, I don't think I find all of them. I have no idea which one is "central." I touch all the ones I can see. I don't fully understand the texts that follow, but the gist seems to be that we're on the planet Timirianya, which was devastated by the Valheru during their wars. To get the Valheru to go away, the old gods turned the planet's manna into crystals, then sealed themselves into the pillars, where they have been deteriorating ever since. The gods' leader, Dhatsavan, is in one of the pillars; he suggests the gods are holding Pug in captivity, but they'll free him if we recover the Cup of Rlnn Skrr. 

       

One of the island's many "huts."

      

I guess the different pillars had effects on our attributes. I didn't notice until later.

Having no idea where to find this cup, I continue circling around on the road. We see a hut that we cannot get anywhere near, as it's surrounded by a magical field. Owyn surmises that's where Pug is being kept. We keep heading south, fighting numerous battles with the world's only two enemies (who hardly ever drop any treasure), searching huts, and collecting manna crystals. We used the spyglass to direct us to points of interest.

   

We find the Cup of Rlnn Skrr in a hut in the southwest corner of the map and bring it back to the pillar. It turns out that Pug took it from the pillars in the first place, thinking that he could use its telepathic powers to find his daughter. Instead, "it overwhelmed him and reduced him to little more than a hapless child," which is why the gods put up a protective barrier around him. Dhatsavan says we can use the cup to share spells between us.

      

This planet apparently doesn't like vowels.

    

We find Pug at the hut, and he basically tells us what's been happening all game: Makala has been supporting Delekhan this entire time, telling him that Murmandamus is alive, encouraging him to attack Sethanon, all in a ploy to lure the garrison away from the city. Makala wants to enter the caverns beneath Sethanon and access the Lifestone, an ancient artifact that—if I'm remembering the books correctly—holds the combined power of the Valheru and maybe could return them to existence? I'm not sure. If that's correct, I understand why the Moredhel would want it, but what is Makala after it for? In any event, it's not a bad plot twist, but it's one that requires deep knowledge of the lore to appreciate. I'm probably not fully appreciating it.

       

I'm grateful that Pug lays everything out, as I was honestly confused.

     

Pug and Owyn share the Cupp of Rlnn Skrr, which makes them each capable of casting the spells that the other knows, which makes little sense, as Pug should have access to literally thousands of spells that Owyn doesn't—spells that don't even exist in the game (to handwave this, the game makes some comment about Pug's "debilitated condition"). The ritual knocks them both out for two days.

   

Pug then joins the party and becomes the lead character (for purposes of narration), which pisses me off about as much as the ridiculous portrait that should have gotten somebody fired. He comes with a crystal staff, Macros's staff, 10 rations, a map of this part of Timirianya; it turns out we're on an island. With the sole exception of Casting Accuracy (120%), he has bafflingly bad statistics, far worse than Owyn, but again we're meant to think that he's not at his best. As the player, I'm glad to have him so I can finally free up some inventory spaces.

    

The greatest magician in the world, folks.

     

Gorath asks where we're supposed to go, and Pug wants to talk to Dhatsavan again, so we make our way back up along the road. Pug talks to the old god, recognizing him as a "cousin of Aal," the Oracle from our world who currently inhabits the body of a dragon. Dhatsavan, in turn, recognizes him as a friend of Macros the Black and offers news of Gamina: She is the prisoner of the Panath-Tiandn. To rescue her, we will need to "seek the old hordes [sic, I hope] of the Valheru." Pug notes that he's already explored the entire island except the southern end, and Owyn says we've already explored the southeast, so that leaves the southwest.

     

I've been summarizing the text, but I like to leave at least one reminder per entry that there's a lot of it.

      

As we make our way around the continent, I note that Pug can cast spells. After some experimentation, I discover that it's because of his crystal staff. Moreover, the crystal staff feeds on manna crystals, 100 at a time, and runs out of power once we've used an equivalent number of spell points. So though it seems like we had a lot of those crystals, I end up having to conserve them. Pug takes over as the spellcasting powerhouse of the party, leaving Owyn feeling a bit useless.

       

Making manna out of the crystals.

     

Nearing the southwest part of the map, I run into a problem: the game crashes. I reload, and it happens again. I circle the entire continent to come at the area from the east, but it happens there, too. Nothing I do will let me get near the area of this supposed Valheru "horde." The Dhatsavan warned that there might be magic defenses, and I wonder if the developers didn't choose to express those defenses in the most meta of ways.

      

The Valheru crafted the ultimate weapon.

      

Some Googling suggests that other players have had the problem, but none of their solutions (specify different DOSBox configurations, enter the area using the map only) work for me. Ultimately, I decide to hope that these special artifacts are not that necessary and I move forward. I find a cavern leading into the center of the island and enter a small dungeon.

        

Panath Tiandn await in the corridor.

      

After a couple of battles with Panath-Tiandn, we enter a large room where we are attacked by three Panath-Tiandn and two Wind Elementals. "We have made a grave mistake," Pug puns. Indeed, the Wind Elementals are entirely invulnerable. "Fetters of Rime" freezes them nicely, but I otherwise cannot damage them with a single weapon or spell. Inevitably, they come back to life and slaughter us all.

       

I've killed Wind Elementals with swords in other games. Just saying.

          

After leaving the game alone for a day, I remembered that I purchased it from GOG. Usually, when I buy games from GOG, I just play them using my existing DOSBox configuration so I don't have to change the configuration file to match my preferred settings. But I figured I'd try it with their bundled DOSBox version and configuration, and sure enough, that worked long enough to sneak into the area and get two caches of equipment. Between them, I find two sets of Valheru armor, which seems to be better than Dragon Plate, at least for elves; another crystal staff for Owyn; a scroll with "Drain Strength" on it; and a bunch of restoratives, herb packs, rations, and manna crystals. I guess "Drain Strength" must be the key item. I have to use the cup again to share it with both spellcasters.

     

We return to the caves. The battle is pretty easy from here. Pug and Owyn nail everyone with "Fetters of Rime." This drains us a bit, and Gorath takes a couple really bad hits from the Wind Elementals, so I spend a round having everyone chug restoratives to get back into shape. Pug and Owyn then start hitting the Wind Elementals with "Strength Drain." There's no visible sign that it's doing anything, but they both keel over after two castings, so it works. Thus, I'm not very frustrated with the chapter, but I don't like the idea of an enemy that can only be killed with one particular spell.

     

I'm not even sure why it kills them. Why doesn't it just leave them weak.

       

The end-chapter cutscene takes over immediately after the battle. Pug is glad to see Gamina alive in some kind of crystal prison. Gorath shatters it with his sword. As Pug and his daughter embrace, Gamina takes a hidden dagger from her belt and plunges it into Pug's back. He looks on, horrified, as blood pours from his mouth. She gloats, "This was the real Betrayal at Krondor."

 

I'm sure he'll be grateful later.

      

I feel like there are so many ways this could go wrong.

        

Wouldn't that be awesome? Alas, they just hug it out while Owyn fawns over Gamina. Pug nearly gives the boy a heart attack by telling him he's welcome to visit Stardock. Then Pug takes out a gem and announces that they'll be able to use it to teleport home, dropping off Gamina at Stardock before "attending to our business." Gorath asks, "We will go to join Prince Arutha?" Pug replies, "No, we shall go to Sethanon!"

   

We transition to Chapter IX: "Mad Gods Rage," which is a name of a spell that I have but never shows up in the list of available spells in combat.

      

The title kind-of makes sense by the end, but I still think they could have come up with a better one.

        

Back in Dimwood Forest, Locklear and James are mourning Patrus's death, although Locklear's insistence that "there was absolutely no chance that Patrus could have survived the blast. None" makes me think that the old man is definitely alive. The warriors see the portal activate and prepare for battle, but are astonished to see Pug, Owyn, and Gorath come through.

     

"And here we are in Sethanon! Wait . . ."

       

We spend a few screens in greetings while Pug catches up James and Locklear on his theory about what's going on. He tasks them with reporting to Prince Arutha, then teleports the three of us directly to the caverns beneath Sethanon. Gameplay begins with the mandate to "Prevent Makala from reaching the Lifestone." I'm disappointed in the composition of the party in the final chapter. I would have rather the game come up with an excuse to remove Pug and replace him with Locklear or James.

   

I take a quick word count, note that I'm a few hundred shy of my usual target (2,500), and decide, "Screw it. Let's finish it in one entry."

       

As we move into the caverns, Pug gives us some background on the Lifestone, why Murmandamus wants it, and informs Gorath—who apparently didn't know—that Murmandamus was really a Pantathian, not a Moredhel. (I admit I had forgotten this, too.) Pug says he doesn't know what would happen if someone tried to activate the Lifestone, but given its history, it can't possibly be good. Pug doesn't think that Makala intends to destroy the world, "but his curiosity may lead to more trouble than he imagines." I hope this is the direction that the endgame goes—that this Tsurani magician engineered a war between two nations, killing thousands of people, just so he could mess around with the Lifestone to satisfy his own curiosity.

        

This late in the game, it still insists on putting these little narrations in front of each battle. We're fighting three dogs here, by the way.

        

I try immediately leaving—I really would like to go to a store—but Pug won't let us. There's a room directly ahead of us. We enter and are attacked by a couple of goblins with dogs. One of them has a key called Ward of Ralen-Sheb on his body, which opens the northern door out of the room.

I take an eastern door first and do my usual follow-the-right-wall thing. We follow corridors, hit dead ends, open locked doors, explore large rooms, swing over pits . . . and find nothing. Seriously, it's like 20 minutes before the next encounter with anything at all. The eastern part of the dungeon has absolutely nothing in it. 

    

I think this is the first time we've seen cave giants.

      

The next battle is with a cave giant and three dogs, and it's tough because the enemies crowd the two spellcasters, knocking them perilously low in health before Gorath is able to kill them. This is followed almost immediately with a fight between three Moredhel warriors and a spellcaster, but we surprise them, and Owyn and Pug bring them down with "Evil Seek" in the first round. A few steps beyond them, a trapped chest detonates on us—this is where it would have been nice to have James—and I reload, hoping we don't need what's in it.

    

After another battle with two cave giants and some dogs, we find the chamber with the Lifestone and Makala—but it's not that easy. He's being protected by the same kind of barrier spell that protected Pug on the crystal planet. Pug surmises that there are six mages in the dungeon keeping it going—specifically, Delekhan's Six, who Pug believes are Tsurani mages disguised as Moredhel spellweavers. "Makala has played your ruler for a fool. Delekhan won't stand to benefit in the slightest from this raid."

    

"My 'ruler' is Aglaranna, jackass."

       

(I'm right at this moment in the game when Irene comes bursting into my office and tells me to look out the window. Goddamn if there isn't a bobcat—or maybe a lynx; we have a bit of a debate about this—prancing across the snow-covered yard in the middle of the day. I've never seen a bobcat outside of a zoo before. I hope he sticks around. Our squirrels have been getting cocky lately.)

     

We keep following the dungeon around, fighting a few battles with cave giants, Moredhel, and dogs. There are some final fairy chests (most with four-letter answers, curiously) with some sundries in them. We rest frequently. Owyn runs out of torches for the first time since the game begin, and we have to resort to casting "Candle Glow." 

    

A late-game fairy chest.

     

The caves go down to a lower level. We meet another Wind Elemental, but he's alone, and we know how to deal with him.  We go down a long hallway, turn a corner, and find a post at an intersection that reads, "The Six.." Nice of them to announce themselves. 

       

You honestly took the time to erect a sign?

      

If any of the Six are really Tsurani mages, we can't tell at first. They present as Moredhel spellweavers, and the illusion does not disappear when they die. One of them eventually calls Pug "Milamber" (his Tsurani name), spoiling the illusion. In pre-combat text screens Pug gives them all the chance to stand down, but they all stupidly refuse.

    

Finding them in the large level is more difficult than killing them. Except for one, who has a Wind Elemental companion, they attack alone, making it moronically simple to deal with them: Hit them with "Fetters of Rime" right away, then have Gorath finish them off. Miscellaneous battles with wyverns in the corridors are harder than the Six. Some weird-looking thing called a Servitor of Lims-Kragma seems scary, but again, once you have "Fetters of Rime," no single enemy in the game poses any difficulty. More enemies should have been immune, I guess.

        

A typical battle with one of the Six.

       

Equally pointless are the dozen or so locked doors on the level, all of which open with the same key. It's not that I want to be picking locks this late in the game, particularly since Gorath sucks at it, but make something a challenge or don't include it.

   

With the Six slain, we make our way back to the chamber with the Lifestone. I rest, fully heal, and buff with everything I have before approaching the Lifestone chamber.

 

The Oracle of Aal, who was supposed to be protecting it, is lying feebly on the floor; apparently, Makala has an amulet that saps the dragon's strength. "He is in the process of disabling the last of the defenses which ring the Lifestone," the dragon warns. Pug asks Gorath to stay behind and guard the dragon while he and Owyn rush forward to confront Makala.

    

You got a depilation spell in that spellbook?

     

In the subsequent conversation, Makala makes some good points: Pug was unnecessarily uninformative after the Battle of Sethanon, despite the fact that Tsurani troops participated in the battle (and were killed) and despite that fact that Pug is supposed to have some loyalty to the Tsurani Empire as well as Midkemia. Makala's scheme wasn't exactly done with the permission of the Assembly, but it wasn't discouraged, either. The Lifestone threatens all nations, all worlds, and ought to be studied or destroyed, not left alone under the dubious protection of some guards.

        

Makala makes his case.

       

Pug counters these justifications, but not convincingly (in my opinion). Makala then moves to destroy the Lifestone, which Pug and Owyn intercede. Thus begins the final battle of the game, Pug and Owyn against Makala and two Dreads—demon-like creatures who can cast fireball and lightning spells. Owyn starts behind the Lifestone, so he can't do anything for the first round. Fortunately, the dreads being spellcasters, they're not interested in getting close to either of the characters, and the final battle really is an all-magic battle.

   

The final battle.

     

I do try not to do the obvious. I experiment with spells I haven't used much before. But after a couple of character deaths, I go with Plan A: hit them all with full-powered "Fetters of Rime" and then take my sweet time. "Flamecast," "Evil Seek," blasts from the Staves of Macros (oh, yeah, Owyn found his own Staff of Macros somewhere in the dungeon). They all have a lot of hit points, but "Fetters" has them paralyzed for something like 20 rounds. They fall eventually. Just for fun, I kill the last dread by poking it with staves.

      

Owyn strikes the killing blow. If you're having trouble parsing the image, the Dread is behind the Lifestone.

     

Pug and Owyn are looking over Makala's body when they hear noises from the chamber outside. Delekhan has arrived. He attacks Gorath, but Gorath successfully fends off his blows and knocks him to the ground. Responding to the call of the Valheru spirits in the Lifestone, Delekhan gets up and runs for it, with Gorath just behind. They both reach for the sword at the same time. If you don't know what sword I'm talking about, I'm confused, too, until I open up A Darkness at Sethanon again and remember that Tomas defeated the returned Valheru lord Draken-Korin by thrusting his golden sword (a Valheru artifact) through the Valheru and into the stone. I guess I just didn't remember that it stayed there permanently.

         

Gorath doesn't even look like he's trying.

     

Anyway, Gorath and Delekhan struggle over the sword while Pug shouts that the Valheru souls are slipping free. "We will have to kill them both," he says. I think he means the spirits, but in the following cut scene, it's clear that he means both Delekhan and Gorath. Pug and Owyn both blast them with magic from their staves. There's an explosion and they're gone. 

      

There should be blood and gore flying out of this.

     

Owyn is devastated: "We killed him. He came to the Kingdom to warn us and we killed him." Pug is as big a dick as he could possibly be at this moment: "Don't be petulant, Owyn. This isn't the time for it." He tries to backpedal, explaining that "Gorath was dead the moment he touched the sword," and that the Valheru would have overtaken him if they hadn't killed him. His initial reaction is still enough to make me not want to read a book with Pug in it again.

 

The last image of the game, looking an awful lot like the tattoo on my right arm.

    

The final text screens transition to the battle outside. Moraeulf, Delekhan's son, is fighting a losing battle against Arutha's forces when a runner approaches and says that Delekhan has captured Arutha. The Moredhel gather below the battlements to see not only Delekhan but Murmandamus, gaunt and malnourished by his years imprisoned but alive, standing over Arutha. Murmandamus brandishes a golden sword and tells his people that Delekhan's plan was victorious, and that they've finally found the sword of prophecy. He's just about to behead Arutha when Pug appears, riding a dragon. The dragon swats both Murmandamus and Delekhan from the battlements, killing them instantly. Moraeulf retrieves the sword, proclaims himself leader of the Moredhel, and calls the retreat, seconds before Danab shows up and stabs him through the eye, claiming the sword as his own. They march away, Danab satisfied that his rivals are dead, fantasizing about taking the throne of Sar-Sargoth and killing Gorath's wife.

   

It's mostly an illusion, of course, conjured by Pug, who miraculously stopped being "debilitated" just in time. Delekhan is recently dead, and Murmandamus really did die at the end of A Darkness at Sethanon. Danab has stalked off with a worthless sword, which he will soon realize, and the Moredhel will be demoralized for a generation.

      

The final screen of the game is, characteristically, a lot of text.

     

Owyn asks, "What about the Tsurani," and Pug replies, "I shall have to talk with them," an answer I find far too insufficient given what's happened. Everyone talks a bit about how to keep the secret of what's below Sethanon. Arutha says that if he tells James and Locklear just not to ask, they won't like it, but they'll obey. He leaves Owyn—one of six people who now knows everything—to Pug. Pug tousles his hair and suggests that Owyn become a student of magic at the Academy in Stardock, to which Owyn says, "I've never wanted anything else." That's the last line of the game. We go back to the title screen with no final congratulations screen or image or anything, which is a bit of a letdown.

     

In my ending, Owyn says. "I don't know, I think maybe I'm too petulant for the Academy" just before blasting Pug with a fully-powered "Fetters of Rime." While Pug stands there frozen, Owyn drops the Staff of Macros at his feet and says, "Anyway, I'm already an archmage." He saunters away, heading for the nearest tavern.

        

Seriously, the final chapters were a bit of a letdown: too linear, too scripted, and (for the final chapter) too easy. Having to track down the six mages spread across a dungeon level just felt like padding in a chapter that was paradoxically a bit short.

      

But of course my feelings about the game overall are positive. There's a lot more to say in the "Summary and Rating," coming up soon.

    

Final time: 72 hours