The Fates of Twinion: Up and Down and Over and Out

 

Is he related to a sloth? If so, the "ice" part really makes a difference.

         

When I blog about games, I sometimes deliberately adopt a "summary" approach. Rather than narrating the blow-by-blow of a second of the game, I wait until its end, and then cover its major plot points, themes, and mechanics in a few paragraphs. Other times, I try to give a sense of the moment. Call this the "articulated" approach. If the game is long and takes up multiple entries, I like to vary these two approaches.

   

There are times, however, when I'm essentially forced into the articulated approach because I don't know how long it's going to take to finish a section and I'm writing on a deadline (admittedly a self-imposed one). That's what's happened with The Fates of Twinion. Eventually, I'm going to finish all of these interrelated maps on Levels 4, 5, and 6, and I'll be able to see the big picture and give you a summary. But if I do that, I don't know if I'll be blogging again this year. Thus, for the second time, I have to offer you a hyper-detailed account of my blundering through these levels, many clues uncollated, many puzzles unsolved.

    

The interconnected maps that make up this session.

     

This session begins on Level 6 of the castle-inside-the-volcano. The level is called "Twinion Keep." I'm in this section of the dungeon to find four pieces of an ancient map for Queen Aeowyn, but I'm just happy if I can find a way forward. I have numerous locked doors and unsolvable mysteries in my backpath. This whole area is supposed to be part of the Kingdom of the Night Elves, but I've barely met any elves.

   

I start at the north edge of the map, move forward, fight one battle, and immediately get killed falling down a pit. It's not that I didn't notice the pit; it's just that you have to try to fall down every pit in the game to make sure it doesn't lead you to a new area. (I thought RandomGamer had a sensible reaction to this mechanic in the last Twinion forum.) As a reminder, dying has no consequences in this game except that you start over from the outside menu.

   

The one battle is with a new enemy, raptors, and it's a curious one. I end up fighting them a few times to test it out. Each time, I meet a handful of raptors in one party and a single raptor in another. Each time, I swiftly wipe out the party of 2-4 raptors, sometimes with a single attack, and each time, the single raptor causes me no end of grief. I miss him 2/3 of the time and end up having to waste a couple of entire potions to heal the damage he does. Until now, I didn't realize that one enemy could have different attributes than another enemy of the same type.

   

Other new enemies include Maoelian Woodsmen and Mages of Tresmed, and as with the Mindarian zealots and Salosian zealots of previous sessions, it annoys me that I don't know what these things mean. Give us some lore, Twinion! Are we really only three years away from Daggerfall and its 94 readable books? 

    

Who is Tresmed? Where is Sularia?

        

Just as I think this whole area is going to be a bust, a message alerts me to a secret door. On the other side, I find another message: "There is a magical force that returns most quest items back to where they came should you accidentally drop them." That's good to know. A couple of squares later, I'm teleported to a new area with a couple of lava squares, and no, I'm not walking into each lava square to see if it kills me. If there's any puzzle in this game that requires walking into a lava square, tell me now so I can quit now.

   

Another teleporter takes me from here to a third section of the level, where I underestimate a new enemy called an "ice sleeth" and soon find myself on the starting menu again. Rarely have I met a game capable of imparting such a sense of despair, as you realize that the enemy is capable of damaging more per round than you're capable of healing per round, and now you're down to 300 hit points, and your fate is essentially sealed.

   

In a rematch, I kill the bastard and recover a life jacket from his body. Yes, I know that doesn't make any sense. Anyway, the life jacket is the artifact I needed to get through the Lake of Despair on Level 5. 

     

Was he wearing it or just carrying it?

       

Yet another teleporter brings me to an unmapped area of Level 4: "Night Elf Ingress," and so I start exploring around there. I find an excellent grinding spot where I'm attacked by a couple of wraiths and a couple of brown bats, neither of which survive more than one hit, and yet the battle gives about 600 gold and 1,200 experience points. I repeat it about 10 times and then move on.

  

Through another door, I interrupt some wizards and knights fighting over a key. Naturally, they turn on me. When we're done, I have a Front Door Key. 

  

The way I came has been closed off by a one-way wall, so I head north, turn a corner, and fall down a slope to Level 5: "The Enclave." I've been to this level before, but not this specific area, where I'm surrounded by lava. I make my way through a few doors and secret doors, get the "Lightning" spell from a magic fountain, and go through a teleportation door that puts me back on Level 6: "Twinion Keep." It's a good thing I'm not relying on automaps.

    

I thread my way past some pits—I'll have to check them later—and down a snaking corridor that winds south, then west, then north. I fight off a night elf warrior and a few raptors. One of the battles gives me a Heal-All Potion (worth 20,000 gold, so yay!) and a second Ring of Thieves. I meet a monk in a corner: "Search well, for there are places in the dungeon where your attributes can be enhanced."

   

Another teleporter takes me to the western side of the same level. I wind around a hallway of plaques, most of which are broken and unreadable, one of which advises me to "if given a choice, use the opal second." I get attacked a couple of times by jaguars and another ice sleeth. 

     

I'm not sure about "informative."

       

The only way out is via yet another teleporter which takes me back to Level 4: "Night Elf Ingress," this place to an area called "The Vineyard." I don't know why it's called that. A small room has a sheet of music with a song written in the key of C. "The lyrics tell of two areas where race is the key to discovering treasure." Another room has 5,000 gold pieces.

   

The only way out of here, at least into an area I haven't already explored, is to fall down one of two pits. I suspect they'll both kill me, but I've worked out a way to "cheat" in moments like this. There's a "Quit to DOS" feature on the menu that saves the character and quits the game, allowing you to pick up where you left off. The game confirms that you want to quit after saving the character's location, though, so if you then say "no," your position is saved. The next time you die, you can just click the lower "skull" entrance on the main menu to return to the saved position. I'm not abusing this exploit in general, but I don't have any ethical angst using it to test pits.

    

The note about walls altered by construction is a signal to search for secret doors. You usually only get these messages on your second time through an area.

        

One of the pits surprisingly leads me to an unexplored area of Level 5: "The Enclave." As I land, the game says: "Your confidence turns to alarm as you feel yourself approaching the Fringe of Madness." The large room is full of spinners and one-way invisible walls, and the automap refuses to show me where I am on the level. I feel my way through the room, through an illusory wall, and right into a pool of lava, where I die.

   

From back outside the dungeon, I re-enter, but this time instead of tracing my most recent path, I head back to the Lake of Despair (on L5: "The Enclave") with my new vest. It doesn't make the area much easier. The water still saps my hit points alarmingly fast, and there are still instant-death traps on the islands. What the vest seems to do is reverse which islands are safe and which lead to instant death. This is enough to get me to a door that I couldn't access previously. On the other side is a Storm's Bow, a Freedom Ring, and a Fellowship Key. I lose my vest in a scripted event. 

        

You ought to call yourself something else.

        

From the Lake of Despair, I head through a portal I haven't taken before to Level 6: "Twinion Keep." Down a corridor, a female dwarf offers: "The graveyard is very dark. You must rely on your wits and skills to get you through." I'm assuming I haven't found the graveyard yet and that the light I find at the end of this entry is important to navigating it.

         

I suspect my "Intimidate" skill won't come in particularly handy there.

      

It's getting exhausting narrating all of this in paragraph form. Let's switch to bullets.

   

• Another walkway, pits on the side, all leading to death.

• A scrap of paper: "Reward offered for the return of a jeweled lockpick to Tipekans." 

• An NPC who tells me there are secret rooms in the area, some accessible only by certain guilds. 

• A helmeted NPC: "Three clues are available for each race . . . You must read all three clues, or you will not be rewarded." I guess maybe I couldn't read the other plaques for racial reasons. I believe I have experienced two such types of clues at this point.

     

I seem to be hours away from having even one of the map pieces.

       

• I just realized I never re-equipped my breastplate after losing the vest. No wonder enemies have been hitting harder.

   

This area ends in a portal. "Dark Alley waits the unwary traveler," it says. "Step cautiously as you wander through the darkness." I enter and find myself back in another section of Level 5: "The Enclave," again in an area that the automap does not pick up.

    

The corridor in which I find myself is not particularly dark. Back to bullets:

   

• The entrance to Smug's Jewelry Shop is locked. I had previously found the "back door" to the shop on the same level, so that suggests this area is in the southwest. I don't know why all these doors are locked nor why none of my keys work.

• A female NPC also searching for the Emerald Lockpick. "I must find it and get to Tipekans." This is the third time Tipekans and the Emerald Lockpick have been paired in clues. I find the Emerald Lockpick in a nearby room, guarded by a night elf monk. I still don't know where to find this Tipekans. My quest items pack is completely filled with lockpicks and keys, by the way. Something is going to need to give.

• A portal offers to take me to "The Stables." Another suggests that it goes to "Cliffhanger."

• A knight says he dropped a Skeleton Key, which he needs to get into "the secret armory rooms." 

    

I enter what looks like a regular door, but I'm teleported to Level 4: "aMAZEing," to an area I've already mapped. Fortunately, there's a section of this level that I haven't finished, so I head there, pushing my way through random encounters. I'm finding a lot more "Heal-All" potions in battles, saving me from having to buy them.

   

A barbarian behind a door says that grave robbing can be hazardous to your health. A fountain restores my mana. These are the only encounters I get before a teleporter whisks me back to an earlier part of the level. I take some time to verify that none of my many keys and picks will get me through a locked door elsewhere on the level. They do not. 

    

I "Teleport" out of the dungeon and find that I've reached Level 16. While leveling up, the game won't let me raise my agility anymore, so I do the other three attributes. It will be 181,595 experience points—about 180 battles, at the rate I've been earning lately—before I see Level 17.

       

I wonder if the game has a level cap.

         

Back in the dungeon, I fall down a couple of pits to "The Stables" area of Level 6: "Twinion Keep." Here:

    

• Difficult battles with ice sleeths and night elves.

• A fountain heals me; another poisons me.

• An NPC knight says that there's a lantern needed to open a door in the dark.

       

I found the lantern at the end of this session. I don't know where the door is.

     

• A sign above a door says "Rangers Only." I nearly leave but then remember I'm a ranger. Behind the door, I find a Skeleton Key.

   

The only way out of here is a portal door to a new area of Level 4: "Night Elf Ingress." I'm not here long enough for any bullets, except that I find a back door to Sneer's Pawn Shop. None of my many keys or picks will open it. This is the second shop for which I've found both a locked front door and a back door.

    

Not long after that, I run into a door. The game notes: "The door to the Armory has seen many a traveler pass, each in search of the secret rooms inside." Entering takes me to a brand new Level 4 map called "The Armory."

      

How many of them, like me, have no idea why they're here?

      

• Enemies on this level: skeletal savages, hill giants, grey oozes, green slimes, night elves, night elf monks, ice leeches, ice sleeths, barbarian vandals, raptors, clay golems, ruthless thieves.

• A room with a message: "One of your party members must stay in the Armory until light is shed on your purpose. He who remains must at least lead once upon your return. Then, you may alter your formation." None of that seems to apply to a single-character game. 

• A door that says "Fellowship Meeting Hall." There's nothing beyond but a battle with three slimes. 

• A message at a t-intersection: "Do not proceed north unless you have disarmed the traps." This is good advice, as every square beyond has a trap, and healing does not work in this area.

• A locked door unlocked with the Fellowship Key. A teleporter leads to a new part of the level.

• A locked door that I'm not strong enough to open. None of the keys work. 

• Lots of one-way walls, one-way doors, illusory doors, and teleporters.

• In an alcove, I bump a shield off the wall. It falls against a switch, which disarms the traps and unlocks the doors, although not the door I wasn't strong enough to open.

• A message on a locked door: "When the wand is zapped, stay in the area until you open the door." 

      

I'll try, but this game has a way of yanking you from one place to another. I mean, check the subtitle.

     

• A knight: "The dralks . . . or some such thing, they are what these elves worship." 

• A couple of places in which my mana is drained by "miasmal gases." 

• A magical fountain teaches me the "Light Shroud" spell. Another one teaches me the "Shield" spell.

      

I think it protects against attacks from the undead.

      

• A troll cleric takes some gold from me and gives me a Spidersilk Helm. Later, a guard lets me enter a door because I'm wearing the Spidersilk Helm. 

• Behind a secret door in this area, I knock over a magic wand, which activates, unlocking the door that mentioned the wand. This door leads to a series of corridors in which I find the Luminous Lantern. A final teleporter tosses me back to Level 5: "The Enclave."

      

How do I "mark well," exactly?

           

I managed to explore the Armory in one go, but I'm out of healing potions at this point, so I "Teleport" outside the dungeon to sell my loot and restock. I'm a bit depressed that I've found none of the map pieces, but I do have a few new keys and lockpicks, so perhaps it's time to try all the locked doors again. 

   

The game is packed with content, which I normally enjoy, but one thing that's annoying about the hints is that they clue you into things that you don't need any hints for. You'll just inevitably reach the location that the hint talks about and do the only thing that you can do there. This makes it more difficult to identify the hints that you truly need.

   

Now that my winter break has started, hopefully I have more time to get ahead of this game and to adopt a more summary approach. 

 

Time so far: 31 hours