Al-Qadim: Master of None

The family genie screws us all.

         

I couldn't solve the crashing problem that I reported last time, even with a new version of the game that I bought from GOG. I thus started over, and it only took me about 20 minutes to get back to where I was. It's a good reminder that the second attempt at a game is often incredibly faster than the first, which is why it seems crazy to me that HowLongToBeat doesn't make any distinction.

   

This time, I didn't sacrifice a bunch of health to the sword master and I bought a couple of potions before heading out to the desert. The potions are a scam, by the way—each expensive one of them only heals about 25% of the character's health bar. The bigger help was commenter TheOrz's intelligence that the ALT key toggles backing up and turning around when you reverse directions. This kept me alive longer in battle, though I still found it difficult. 

      

I fought in the oasis for a while before determining that it's not possible to clear it; enemies just keep respawning. I visited the mermaid and got her quest. On the way back to town with the purple berries, my mentor, Sinbar, apparated in front of me and said that his daughter, a seer, had a vision that "fate will propel [me] to a most dangerous conflict." She sent a scroll with a phrase that I should say when I encounter my "nemesis": SALAB'LA JASUM ABA. 

       

Good thing my character isn't named "Ash."

    

I returned the berries to Babazar, who administered them to his daughter. She began to improve immediately. I got 360 experience points. Babazar wanted to know if I'd met a mysterious creature, but I lied and said no. "I'm certain I could find a way to make money off a creature like that," he said, and announced his intention to send someone to find her. 

   

The Qadi wasn't interested in talking about the mermaid's message until I got two signatures on the peace treaty, so I headed over to the Wassab house. The patriarch of this rival family refused to sign it unless Aliya and I also signed it, since the original treaty didn't bind us to the same good behavior as it did to our father, mother, and aunt.  

    

My sister accompanied me to the Qadi's house, where we both signed the treaty and swore an oath "never [to] harm the Wassabs and never to instruct the family's genie to harm the Wassabs," That seems awfully broad. What if they attack first? But the game didn't give me the option to refuse. We signed it. I earned another 360 experience points.

      

I took a document to a couple of people. Let's not go too far.

           

I delivered the mermaid's message: "Farid al'Mutan wishes to speak with you regarding the monsters that plague the once pleasant oasis. He fears it is an omen that the Genie's Curse has arisen again." That's interesting. So the subtitular curse was something that people believe happened in the past, not something that's ongoing. Anyway, the Qadi agreed to go meet with Farid at his tower. The tower, by the way, is north of the oasis, but every time I visited, a voice just refused me entry.

   

I returned to the oasis, fighting a few mini air elementals and jackals. I reported to the mermaid that I had delivered her message, and also that Babazar was looking for her. I got another 270 experience points and the right to use the oasis for healing. I returned to it frequently to avoid wasting my pathetic potions. 

       

This would be a good grinding spot, if that made sense in this game.

        

When I returned to Zaratan, all hell broke loose. Some sailors had just washed up from a shipwreck, some belonging to my family's ships, some to the Wassabs'. Our sailors reported that as the two ships passed near the island, a violent storm suddenly arose. It destroyed the Wassabs' ship while sparing my family's. Our family genie, Muliban, could be seen "commanding the storm." The ship was supposed to be carrying Tarik, my brother, but he had missed its departure.

   

The Qadi came rushing up and summoned us to his courtyard.

    

"Avengers . . . !"

     

There, both my family's sailors and the Wassabs' sailors told the same story. It then transpired that the Wassab ship was transporting the caliph and his daughter—my bride-to-be—both of whom were sucked off the ship by the genie. As the Wassabs called for our heads ("Every Al-Hazrad must be killed! THEY ARE MURDERERS!"), the Qadi ordered me to go out and search for survivors.

          

Finish that sentence, buddy.

        

I reached Level 4 as I fought some more monsters on the way to the coast. There, I found the caliph, alive, but he said a few curious things that indicated he was a participant in some kind of plot. He wouldn't answer any questions, though, except that Princess Kara was still being held by the genie. He ordered me to escort him back to Zaratan, but only after we found a golden chest lost in the wreck.

      

How still we see it lie?

         

I found the chest next to some flotsam. Within it was a locket with a portrait of Kara. The caliph claimed that as long as the picture depicted her eyes open, she was still alive.

   

Back in town, the Qadi demanded that my father, mother, and sister summon our genie so he could be questioned. He appeared—huge, floating, and cross-legged—in front of us. When asked why he destroyed the ship, he said: "I did as my masters bade me." When asked who his masters were, he said: "Those whose commands I follow." No one bothered to ask whether my family members were still his "masters" or whether we specifically ordered the destruction of the ship. But this was all enough for the caliph, who accused my family of hatching a plot to marry me to his daughter, kill him, and seize his throne.

      

If we'd wanted to kill you, my plan would have been a lot simpler than that.

        

The caliph ordered my family to swear not to summon the genie again until he commanded it, then ordered that we all be locked in chains in the dungeons of Bandar al-Sa'adat. Mullad, owner of the potion shop, protested that since I just got back in town and also saved the caliph's life, I must be innocent. "The young Al-Hazrad can join the search to find the caliph's daughter," the Qadi said, "And seek to clear his family's name." The caliph agreed but still ordered me exiled from the city. I was expecting worse. I thought my whole family would be executed like in Assassin's Creed II. 

      

I tried to get back in right away. I could threaten the guards blocking the gate, but it wouldn't let me actually attack them. Even with them standing aside, there's an invisible barrier that prevents me from moving into the town.

        

You're doing such a good job blocking the entrance, too.

            

I circled the area, found nothing to do, and eventually made my way back to the mermaid. I explained my woes. "There was more than genie magic in that storm," she said. "There is an ancient evil at work here." She told me that to the northwest, at Dead Man's Reef, I'd find the remains of a magical ship. "If you can restore the ship, it is yours." She said that after I restored it, I should seek the help of Farid al'Mutan, and she gave me the passphrase to his tower. Finally, she gave me the magic words necessary to summon a creature who could take me to the reef.

      

Maybe I should give Faery Tale Adventure another try.

        

The creature turned out to be a sea turtle. I rode his back to Dead Man's Reef and alighted on the sandy shore. The area was strewn with gold and gems, some of which turned into zombies when I approached them. There were also miniature water elementals, ghouls, and more of those damned thorn-shooting plants. I was better with the controls here, but I still had a few reloads, and I had to take the turtle back to the oasis for healing at one point.

     

Some disgusting undead.

        

The wrecked ship was in the middle of the oasis. Some guy on the deck was shooting arrows at me, and I had to run up a plank and kill him swiftly. A hatch led to the hold, but I had to find three keys first, two in hidden chests and one from the corpse of a ghoul. When I opened the doors, I met a mage who was trying to access an inner area. "I will gain control of this enchanted vessel or I will give my life trying," she proclaimed, and then did the latter. A scroll left behind indicated her name was Sashana and that her quest was "fruitless" because the ship's door would only open for the "chosen one."

      

Note the condition of the place.

       

I guess I'm the Chosen One, as the door swung right open. It brought me to some kind of platform in a void, a huge orb mounted in the center. When I touched it, it exploded and left a smaller orb behind—one apparently capable of healing my wounds.

      

This was very dramatic.

        

When I exited this area back to the ship, I found it not only asea, but also repaired and restored. A large golden statue of a corsair stood at the stern. He introduced himself as the master of the vessel, cursed into his current form when he used forbidden magic to open a portal to an "evil realm." He said he could only be freed when the power that cursed him was destroyed. Finally, he said that I could sail anywhere I wanted by simply asking him. However, when I did so, I only had two options: Zaratan and the city of Bandar al-Sa'adat.

      

Santa Catalina.

        

Following the mermaid's instructions, I decided to return to Zaratan. (Sailing brings up an animation of a ship passing a mountainous island, which is cute.) The ship stays off the coast when I arrive at a new location, and I have to board a skiff to actually land. I came ashore south of the oasis and made my way (past jackals, tiny air elementals, etc.) to Farid's tower.

     

Could I put an outboard on this thing?

       

The password got me in, but the voice said, "An audience [with] the Sorcerer is still farther from you than water from the desert sun." It wasn't kidding. I spent the next 90 minutes solving a long, multi-stage obstacle course. It's not worth recounting the blow-by-blow, but here are the highlights:

    

• In multiple places, there was a face on the floor I could walk over to speak to a mysterious voice. Usually it was a man's voice, but sometimes it was a woman's. It generally just told me something of the challenge to come, but a few times, it asked me questions. I generally adopted a humble and respectful response. 

• Puzzle mechanisms involved levers, switches, hidden doors, teleporters, and sliding stones that carried me across vast pools of acid. For instance, I had to find the right sequence of levers to open a path through a bunch of spikes; in another place, I had to pull switches in the right sequence to make a path across an acid pool.

     

Where do you even get this much acid?

       

• One of the more memorable puzzles had me step on a bunch of squares in sequence, chasing a blue light. The voice then asked me questions like which of the squares never lit up and which one lit up twice. I like the idea of this puzzle, but in practice it was too difficult the first time (not knowing the questions were coming) and too easy the second time. 

• There were occasional enemies: bats, giant rats, giant spiders, and acid blobs. There were pools of acid all over the floor, and if I got too close to one, it would disgorge an acid blob.

      

A giant spider approaches as I linger near one of the stone faces.

       

• There were numerous chests and smashable containers with gold, gems, and healing potions. 

    

Towards the end of the sequence, the voice told me a story of a married woman who fell in love with a man and ran off with him, leaving her husband behind. It asked me what kind of a man would steal a married woman. I had three options: "He is a man without honor!"; "He is an infidel! He should be killed!"; and "I do not know. I have not met him." The third answer seemed reasonable to me, and I chose it, but the voice was clearly upset that I didn't take a stronger stance against infidelity. 

               

The woman also asked me this one. A couple of these analogies are pretty funny.

       

Shortly thereafter, a woman's voice came through another stone face and asked me what I thought of a man who kept his wife locked in a tower with him, neither having any kind of social life. I responded that he is a jealous man who should learn to trust his wife. She seemed to like that. Later, the male voice demanded that I swear never to seek out the mermaid again, and it wouldn't let me proceed until I did.

      

Eventually, I made my way into an area with a green floor. I opened a door and found an opulent room, full of birds and a cat. A woman was stretched out on a divan while a man sat at a desk. This was Farid and his wife, and it was clear that they had been the ones speaking to me through the stone faces. I'm confused whether Farid is also the face that kept appearing in the acid, which told me towards the end of the maze that I would need "a voice, a jewel, a sword, and a stone" to complete my quest.

       

You threatened to dissolve me. Repeatedly.

         

In subsequent conversation with the couple, I learned:

   

• Farid's wife is the mermaid. I guess technically she's a pahari, a shapeshifting water nymph that often takes mermaid form. She was annoyed that Farid asked me never to speak to her again; Farid protested that he's always afraid of losing her.

• Farid: "Years ago, my own genie succumbed to the Genie's Curse and I was no longer its master. It appears the Curse has struck again." 

• To find out who is behind the curse, I will need to speak to the Genie Lords. Unfortunately, no one knows where they live. If I can find out the name of their island, the ship will take me there. A hermit who tends a library on the island of Shibaz may know the name of the Genie Lords' island. Farid gave me a magic mirror to "pacify" the hermit. That's ominous.

• The pahari asked if I would bring her a Gilded Dove from the bazaar. A side quest, maybe?

          

You may think she's happy and free from care. She's not, though she seems to be.

         

A short walk later, and I was back out in the oasis. 

               

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• Right outside the main entrance to Zaratan is a duck that attacks me if I get too close. He'll probably turn out to be important later.

       

My anatidaephobia is acting up again.

        

• While wandering around town, I took note of the round wooden roof supports partly jutting out from the sides of houses. I had noticed them on some historic buildings during my recent trip out west, and it made me curious why they exist and why they're common to both new world and old world architecture. It turns out they're called vigas, and they're left jutting out (instead of cut flush) for a few reasons: to provide support for scaffolding during roof and wall repairs; to account for shifting walls; and to hang things from. They originated in the Middle East and made their way to the New World via the Moorish influence on Spanish architecture.

       

This is what I mean.

       

• I have several shards: "Magic Missile," "Sunscorch," and "Water Blast." I found them in various chests this session. They each have between 12 and 15 charges. I haven't tried them yet.

• Here was the passphrase to summon the sea turtle. It's obviously a play on "George Jetson," but how does it make any sense in this context?

      

Did I miss that episode?

       

I hit Level 5 while in the final stages of the maze. The game manual says that the levels only go up to 8, and I started at 2, so I guess I'm halfway through the game.

             

Another one of the puzzles from Farid's maze.

         

I enjoyed the puzzles. They were a little on the easy side, but that's better than the opposite. I like that the game has opened up a little, in the sense that since I became the master of the enchanted ship, I've had two potential places I could go. Overall, though, it feels like things are going to be pretty linear, and I still don't like the combat. Maybe it will improve now that I have those shards. Plus, I'm supposed to somehow get new "combat moves" the moment I can find a trainer.

      

I think I'll go to Bandar al-Sa'adat next. I have a lot of gold to spend, and I like the sound of a bazaar. 

     

Time so far: 7 hours  

     

****

   

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   07/08/2026