The Fates of Twinion: Orc is Beautiful

A reasonably realistic depiction of walking right next to lava.

     

In my last session of Twinion, I finished the quest to find the four pieces of a map and to bring them to Queen Aeowyn. Now that I've finished the quest and can see it in its entirety, I have a little more admiration for the game than I did when I was still in the weeds. 

   

The quest took place over 11 maps on four different levels, all interconnected with stairs, pits, and teleporters, both marked and unmarked. Moreover, most maps were composed of several isolated sections, each with their own names, like "The Library," "The Vineyard," "Fringe of Madness," and "The Ballroom." The game referred to these names frequently, but I didn't really pay attention to them until the end. I think I would have made the maps differently if I had to do it again.

         

"The Statuary" is part of the enclave on Level 5.

       

Getting through this area was a matter of finding the right objects in the right sequence. It worked well with the way that I map, which is to explore systematically, marking obstacles (locked doors, NPCs who want a certain item, battles I cannot win) in yellow and periodically revisiting them to see if anything has changed. The hard part about this section of Twinion was finding optimal routes from one place to another. Even with maps, it's easy to be baffled by all the teleporters, secret doors, one-way walls, pits, spinners, invisible walls, and locations that require a special item that the game has already taken away from you.

    

A lot of the areas had rooms that only certain races, classes, or alignments could visit. I'm curious how this worked online. My reading of the hints is that the characters occasionally would have to split off into solo "parties," do their own individual quests, and then reform. 

     

What is your race?

       

Rather than give a minute-by-minute account of my adventures since the last entry, I'll just hit the highlights:

     

• I ended the last entry after finding "Rat Race." This turned out to be one of two heavily interconnected maps on Level 6; the other was called "Race Track." They were a nightmare of one-way walls, one-way doors, false doors, traps, and teleporters. I found the third map piece somewhere in "Rat Race," behind a door with a skull-and-crossbones symbol. An NPC suggested that the location of this door would be different for each race.

• Unable to find anything else on the already-explored levels, I next explored the "Graveyard," or as much of it as I could. It was accessible from the "Fringe of Madness" area of Level 5: "The Enclave." There were some images of bone piles in the environment, rare for this game. Enemies were heavily undead, of course. From various messages, I got the impression that my Luminous Lantern was the only thing allowing me to see.

       

The game doesn't have many environmental images like this.

        

• A fountain gave me the "Pickpocket" skill, which allows me to loot from enemies in-combat. I can't imagine that it's actually useful, but I'll give it a try.

• An exit from "The Graveyard" led to a map called "Sn k P t," which is "Snakepit" without a few letters. I got a warning not to visit that map until I had found "THE powerful talisman," which I eventually did. "Sn k  P t" wound its way through multiple battles with winged pythons, medusas, and other snakes before putting me in a battle with the Giant Asp. I managed to "Petrify" him early on, but holy hell, he was hard to hit. It took about 20 minutes to whittle away all his hit points. Among his treasure pile was a Ruby Lockpick.

       

This bastard has a lot of hit points.

      

• The Ruby Lockpick gave me entry to the "shops" of Smug, Sneer, and Smirk, scattered about the levels, but none of them were really "shops," just teleporters to other parts of the dungeon.

• One of those teleports took me to the central section of Level 7: "Tipekans," where at last I found the fourth map piece.

   

There was a teleporter in "Tipekans" to yet another new map: Level 5: "Cartography Shop." I rebelled at this development and decided to just head to the queen's palace on Level 3, give her the map pieces, and be done with the game. I battled through easy (but more numerous than before; clearly there's some scaling involved) enemies in "Queen's Aqueduct," "The Coliseum," and "Queen's Palace" before reaching the throne room and finding it empty. So I reluctantly returned to the Cartography Shop.

     

You can't solve this quest by bringing the map pieces to Queen Aeowyn.

       

It turned out to be a fun map. At most intersections, there was a little true/false puzzle, like: "The Emerald Lockpick is exchanged for the Diamond Lockpick. If true, take the door to the south. If false, take the door to the east." I became swiftly grateful for my detailed notes, maps, and screenshots. As I explored, various NPCs kept giving me jewels—pearl, topaz, coral, and ebony—for a peek at my maps.

          

Smug runs a jewelry shop, so I'll be going south.

      

The corridors led me through a variety of teleporters to a final corridor with eight doors, each aspected to a race, i.e., "Worthy halfling," "Courageous troll." Fittingly, the door clearly meant for an orc (by process of elimination) didn't mention orcs at all. In any event, I had to use the gems in a particular order, provided by clues earlier in the dungeon, to get through the sequence of four doors.

         

The middle message is mine. Note that it doesn't mention orcs. This feels racist.

        

On the other was Queen Aeowyn, who united the pieces and told me to use it "opposite the Night Elves' portal in the Main Entrance," gave me 2.7 million experience points, and disappeared. The experience was enough to jump me four levels to Level 26.

          

I have a lot of extra skill points.

      

New enemies this time included raffish thieves, clay golems, stone golems, Sularian knights, deinons, skeletal giants, colossuses, frost giants, blue dragons, black dragons, and warlords of Zekad. They hit pretty hard, but I had leveled my "Heal" spell so high that it fully cured me every time I cast it. I just needed to keep a supply of mana-restoring potions, which are a bit more efficient than healing potions.

              

A hint as to something in the next section of the game. I cannot see a medusa without thinking of this comic.

           

Yeah, I know I was supposed to stop here, but I was curious what the next quest was, since the queen didn't tell me. It took me a while to figure out what the map "opened," which was a door previously hidden by a plaque. On the other side, the queen greeted me:

      

This will take you to the lowest depths! Together, we will breach the gates of time and march into a new world of wonders! But only together. Each of the vile deities whom the Night Elves worship wears a magical ring. You must get each ring from its owner! Together, the rings are the keys that will allow us to enter the Portal of Time. And then, loyal Champions, I know not where we shall step through into Immortality.

       

Well, that's all a bit vague, but not the part about killing four gods. I took the portal just to check things out, and before I knew it, I had mapped two levels on Level 8: "Dragon's Ire" and "Dragon's Flame." I also poked my head into both "Hopeless Hallways" and "Hocus Pocus" on Level 9.

     

The two levels of Level 8 that I've mapped so far.

       

I rather like the way the plot is developing. From what I gather:

   

• The four elven gods are called Dralkarians.

• There's some kind of war going on between Praxis and Erebus, two categories of demonic beings.

        

One of the demon types.

       

• At some point, I'm going to reach a level that's a chessboard. As I defeat each piece, I will "gain its powers" regarding movement and will then have to move accordingly. 

      

A library gives hints to this area, wherever it is.

       

• To become strong enough to defeat the Dralkarians, I will first have to choose a side in an ongoing feud between Gambril, a frost dragon, and Osterog, the ice dragon.

• On the "Dragon's Flame" map, there are a bunch of wizards to visit, each of whom casts a spell that will help me. Apparently, if you don't take the right route, there are squares that will dispel the blessings. I have to figure out the optimal path that hits all of them before going on to encounter a dragon. I'm not sure whether it's one of the two dragons mentioned above.

          

But I've already defeated plenty of dragons.

      

Enemies are quite a bit harder on the new map, partly because healing options are starting to fail. The "Heal All" potion really only heals about 1,000 hit points, and I have over 5,000 now. My "Heal" spell does a better job, but I can only cast it twice before I need to replenish my mana. There are some battles where I just need to go back and forth between "Heal" and mana potions and never get a chance to attack. I've been relying a bit more on magic items, including a variety (Sovereign Scrolls, Zeus Scrolls, Pipes of Enchantment) that charm enemies. The occasional Scroll Death, which damages everyone on-screen, has been a god-send when I find one.

         

These guys are tough-looking but relatively easy.

      

Some other notes on these areas: 

 

• The rooms are full of lava pools and pits, only some of which are deadly. Others are illusory, so you have to test basically every one.

• There are a number of fountains on the levels. They seem to come in two varieties: those that at first taste bad but turn out to heal you, and those that at first taste sweet and turn out to be poison.

        

This is like every experience I have ever had with absinthe.

         

• There's a central section of Dragon's Ire that I cannot figure out how to access (two doors don't seem to respond to anything).  

• In the southwest corner is an area of lava that saps health and poisons you every step that you take. Magic doesn't work in the area. I had just enough hit points to make it to the end of the walkway, where I met a dragon named Qao Tsur. He dismissed the likelihood that I would ever be able to defeat the Dralkarians and suggested that I confine my efforts to doing tasks for his "feuding children." (I think this refers to Gambril and Osterog.) One step beyond him was a battle with a bunch of lesser dragons, which I largely won with my "charm" items and taking potions every other turn.

        

Check your eyes, buddy. There's only one of me.

        

Ultimately, although I meant to wrap up, I think perhaps I'll keep this game on simmer for a while and dip into it as I have time. Nothing on the upcoming list scratches the mapping itch that I occasionally get. The problem with keeping it active as a primary game is that, thanks to the large number of combats and the need for detailed mapping, it takes a lot of hours to get a full entry. As I end this one, I have only about 1,700 words for about 7 hours of gameplay.

 

Time so far: 43 hours.