Excelsior: IND 203

 

Is it ethical to murder someone to free others from slavery?

      

Things have gotten complicated in Lysandia, so much so that I thought it might help to start mapping out the steps of the main quest. I don't know why I haven't done this in more games. Most titles have been relatively linear, but there are a few (perhaps most notably the Ultima and Might and Magic series) that would benefit from this type of organization.

  

This is where I am at the end of this session:

      

You'll probably want to click to enlarge.

      

This session begins with one of those coincidences that, if I were you, would make me skeptical that I wasn't using cheats. I didn't know where to proceed next on my quest to find the ingredients for the Elixir of Capital Power, save one (the "liquid light" was at the bottom of the Forgotten Pits), so I decided to just explore places that I hadn't explored yet. In the first place I explored, I found exactly the PC I needed. Play enough of these games and those sorts of things just happen.

   

The dungeon in question was on an island in a lake south of Castle Excelsior. I didn't even write down the name. It was only two levels, with no major puzzles. The first level was full of undead enemies and doors.

           

Working my way up.

        

The second level led me to a little arbor and the hut of a chemist named Hugh Windwell-Crumb. He offered to prepare a chemical mixture for me "at no charge, simply because I enjoy my work so much." He asked for the ingredients that I wanted to include. It turned out that he already had the first three: dragon tears, chimney soot, and black ice. He balked at liquid light, though ("one of the most potent and rare substances known"). He told me that to collect it, I would need a spun-diamond goblet. "See Alexis, a glassblower found in Davinhoven."

      

Approaching Davinhoven.

       

I didn't know where Davinhoven was, so I popped by Castle Infinitum and consulted with the cartographer. He said it was a dungeon along the northern coast. I found it without much trouble.

   

Davinhoven was a fairly large, square dungeon. It may have had three or four levels. I didn't write it down. On one level, a sign alerted me that the "D.S.C' was nearby. This turned out to be a "dual-shot crossbow," found behind a secret door. It shoots twice, but not for as much damage as my Retribution Sword.

        

And you have to maintain a quarrel supply.

         

Eventually, I found my way to a forge with an NPC standing nearby. She introduced herself as Alexis and said that to spin the goblet, I'd need to bring her fine sand from the southern tip of the Sandbar near Farborough. 

     

What does "spun-diamond" even mean?

     

Before heading there, I explored a level below Alexis and found a house occupied by an evil wizard named Fevez. "Begone!" he demanded, and I did, but only after looting his house of a couple of potions, a magic wand, and a spell with the code "DF." I have no idea what it does, as it requires more than 60 magic points to cast.

   

Back on the surface, I sailed my boat to Farborough and tried to figure out which of the islands in its vicinity was the "sand bar." I was smart enough to try digging with my shovel instead of just L)ooking or G)etting, and sure enough, I turned up some sand. Back in Davinhoven, I paid Alexis for the goblet.

       

I hasten coastal erosion.

           

With the goblet in hand, I returned to the Forgotten Pit. Since I had already explored down to the fourth level, I just used "Instant Descent" to get there quickly. The "liquid light" was a river that I had previously taken for lava. Perhaps that's what it is.

      

I hope that goblet has a lid.

      

I took the ingredient back to Windwell-Crumb, and he created a potion. "I'm not quite sure what you've got here," he admitted. "Use it sparingly, for the last of my black ice was included in this mixture."

     

I suspect I'll save it for "that one big battle" and never use it at all.

        

With no other leads, I returned to Intungo and the Resistance base beneath it. Ambora was delighted and referred me back to the leader, Sebastian. "We have isolated three items needed to restore the King to his natural self," Sebastian said. To wit:

   

• The Gem of Severance. A geologist in Woodshade named Nargausius knows about it.
• A Crystal Jar. Gnona, "found in the dangerous city of Grethal," knows more.
• An unknown item. They're still researching it.

             

Finally, something that sounds like the main quest.

      

I wasn't sure where to find Grethal, so I went after Nargausius first. He said that the Gem of Severance is "created by the combination of a small stone made of pure good with one of pure evil." To forge it, I have to take the two gems to a statue to an ancient god "deep underground." The worse news is that to create the gems of good and evil, I have to find pure representatives of each alignment and sacrifice them. He pointed me to Xoxiro in Burroughs to learn about the two people. 

   

A trip back to Castle Infinitum's cartographer alerted me that Grethal is a monster city, surrounded by mountains, on a western island. I found it without too much trouble. It is indeed inhabited by gremlins, goblins, and such, but it otherwise offers the same services as a human town. I couldn't understand most of the NPCs and worried that I'd have to find a way to speak with them, but fortunately when I found Gnona, she spoke in my language. She recognized me immediately as a Fixer but said she'd keep my secret. The jar, she said, is behind the magic fire at the edge of the world, but to retrieve it, I'd need a purely mechanical device from Karth Whitlaw.

      

Most of the "dialogue" in this town.

       

Fortunately, I knew where Karth Withlaw was from previous exploration: living on an island north of the continent. He had a solution for me: a mechanical cockatiel, like Bubo in Clash of the Titans. Unfortunately, he'd not only broken the key to the cockatiel, but he'd lost the mold for the key to a gambler in Pibsly. The key, moreover, would have to be made of pure eramel.

   

With a growing number of places to visit, I went to nearby Pibsly, where the gambler sold me the iron mold for 250 gold pieces. Next, I exchanged my ship for my horse and rode south to Keep Flare, where I had long ago heard that pure eramel was kept.

      

Dismounting my horse to enter the keep.

      

Level 1 of Keep Flare just had a bunch of enemies. Level 2 offered a puzzle. A bunch of signs had messages, culminating in this riddle: "How many small sacks can you fill with the gold that you receive between a quarter hour after noon and a quarter hour after midnight?" Individual signs held the clues:

   

• A small sack can carry one short of a dozen and four score gold coins.
• I give you one gold coin the first time the minute hand crosses the hour hand on a thirteen hour clock. 
• I give you twice as many as the previous time thereafter. 

          

This is a tough sentence to parse.

        

So a sack can carry 91 coins. The first time the minute hand crosses the hour hand on a 12-hour clock after 12:15 is around 13:05. I assumed the third clue means that I get twice as many gold coins as the previous time each time the hour hand crosses the minute hand, which on a 12-hour clock would be 11 more times, ending at 00:00. That would give 1*2^11 = 2048 coins, or 2048/91 = 22.5 bags. But that didn't work; neither did 22 or 23. I can't wrap my head around how to tell time on a 13-hour clock, but I assumed it would add one more crossing to the mix, tried 45 bags, and got it right.

     

On Level 3, I found a group of elves living in a small group of rooms. One of them, Oyo, explained that an enchantress named Medrabempo had cursed them with a condition that makes sunlight lethal, then offered them "sanctuary" in her tower as a pretense to enslave them and make them mine eramel. Oyo asked me to kill Medrabempo.

  

I found the sorceress on the next level, surrounded by wyverns, demons, undead, and dragons. She mocked me as I approached, saying that I'd be a good test subject for her new spell, "Medrabempo's Curse of Terminal Sneezing." The game said she hurled spells at me, but if she ever hit me with the spell, I never saw its effects. I killed her in a couple of blows. Her treasure chamber had some nice weapons, but still nothing better than my Retribution Sword.

     

The elves were happy to be freed and, more importantly, opened the way to the chamber with the eramel. 

         

I mean, you could sell it.

      

My next stop was the nearby village of Burroughs, just to the south of Keep Flare. I needed to find Xoxiro, who supposedly had the names of the paragons of good and evil, both of whom I would have to kill to make the Gem of Severance. I wasn't looking forward to that. Xoxiro turned out to be a stuttering ranger. He said the people I was looking for were a friar "who has committed not an evil act in his life"; I could find him in Keep Royal. The paragon of evil is Fevez in Davinhoven. I had already met both of them on my first visits to those towers.

     

I want to know exactly how he stuttered on the "X."

       

Instead of heading directly to either dungeon, I turned my attention to forging the eramel key, now that I had both the mold and chunk of eramel. While I was looking through my notes for something else, I had noted an NPC named Balzan in South Blagsell. "If you ever need anything forged out of any metal," he said, "feel free to stop by." I took him up on that now, and he was able to make an eramel key, but at the cost of the mold. "I should have anticipated this," he said. "Since I did not, I will not charge you for my services."

      

That's a true professional.

      

For whatever reason—because it was closest, I guess—I went to Royal Keep next and visited the "pale-skinned friar" where I had previously found him, sequestered at the end of a long room that looked like a dining hall in the royal prison. "Please do not speak to me," he begged. "News of the outside world can have an evil influence on those devoted to the good." When I explained the need for the gemstone, he seemed to accept it. "It is my life's calling to die before committing a single act of evil, and obviously the longer I live, the more difficult this becomes. Therefore, in a way, I wish to die now, though there is only one purely good and ethical way for me to allow this to happen." This turns out to be with a sacrificial dagger dipped in holy water, wielded by another person. He said a priest "in a dungeon" whose name he couldn't remember could help me with the holy water. Fortunately, I met him in the Forgotten Pit.

  

The encounter with the friar raises all kinds of philosophical issues. In Lysandian ethics, or at least this friar's, "good" is purely an absence of evil. This friar has earned the designation of "most good" by sequestering himself in a tower and refusing to interact with the rest of the world. If you've seen The Good Place, he's the equivalent of Doug Forcett, living off the grid and holding himself as inert as possible, walking slowly and carefully to avoid even stepping on an insect. An alternate take (e.g., Ultima's with its "Valor" requirement) is that the "most good" person would have to be an active agent in the world, even if it meant that some "evil" might result from mistakes or unforeseeable consequences.

     

I'm not sure that I understand the difference.

      

His avoidance of "sin" is also interesting. Is consenting to homicide so much different from suicide? And what difference in either case does holy water on the dagger make?

      

I hoped that Fevez would be a bit more straightforward. Since he's evil, I figured, I can just kill him. Unfortunately, the game wanted me to do a quest first here, too. Fevez said he would consent to the murder only if I first took care of his "bucket list" item to kill Lady Jasmine, leader of the Order of the Crescent. I've never met nor heard of her, so that's going to take a while. In the meantime, I tried just killing Fevez, but he didn't leave anything behind. I had to reload.

         

I wonder what "deal" I was going to offer him. "On one hand, I kill you; on the other . . ."

      

I next returned to the underworld via the magic fire on the island in the far northeast corner. Here, I maneuvered between flames to an obvious place to use the mechanical cockatiel and retrieve the Crystal Jar. I then returned the cockatiel and key to Karth, who rewarded me by telling me about his dual-shot crossbow, which I've already found.

           

A plank would have been too obvious?

     

Some other notes:

   

• I've found a variety of wands—magic, fire, and lightning—in various dungeons. They work well as ranged weapons, and I have to assume that they never run out of charges. The Retribution Sword still seems better for melee work, though.

• Combat continues to be annoying rather than dangerous. Even when enemies completely surround me, I can withstand them long enough to kill them and heal. A character with no spell points would have a difficult time with the game.

• I hit Level 9 just as I closed this entry. The magical orbs stopped increasing my attributes when they got to 50, which was a couple of levels ago.

         

My current character.

       

I'll also remark that it's unusual for a game to re-use its dungeons so many times. Usually, dungeons are good for a single quest and then you never return. Excelsior has brought me to several dungeons two or three times, each time going deeper or making use of some NPC who just had generic dialogue the first time. I find value in Excelsior's approach without necessarily committing to saying that it's "better."

 

This has been a decent game, but I really hope I can finish in one more entry.

 

Time so far: 25 hours  

The Fates of Twinion: Proven

 

I cannot tell from this image what shoulder she's looking over. It's a bit disconcerting.

         

As this session began, I had defeated the two maps of the Gauntlet and (almost) the three maps that make up the aqueduct/reservoir area. These areas together comprise Levels 1 and 2 out of heaven knows how many. 

    

The third aqueduct map was called Twinion's Falls. The area had a lot of spinners and illusory doors (i.e., doors that disappeared when I actually approached them). The purpose of the map was to find a switch that unlocked not only doors in this area, but also a pair of doors back in the Queen's Aqueduct that led to Level 3.

     

The development team does what it can, graphically.

           

Other encounters:

    

• Queen's guards blocked two corridors and attacked after I encountered them repeatedly. 

• A female NPC who I'd previously met in the reservoir area kept showing up. 

      

A better game would let her join my party.

      

• A male NPC who was confused by all the spinners. 

     

You just keep walking, my friend.

      

• A female wizard confused by a message on the wall that was obviously meant to confuse her.

• A series of prison cells. When approached from the north, they showed their occupants behind a force field. When approached from the east or west, I could enter and kill them. One of them, a "coelus," was set up as a major adversary, but he died quickly. 

      

All bark and no bite.

        

• A fountain conferred upon me the "Heal" spell.

• A cleric gave me an Elixir of Healing when I gave him directions to a ranger.

• A battle with two ruffians and a rogue leader earned me a Cross Key.

• I get several messages that suggest that thieves have picked my pocket before attacking me, but I don't notice a significant drop in gold.

        

Level 3 began with my arrival in "The Coliseum," via a teleporter from the Queen's Aqueduct. I started in a small central area with four teleporters, each leading to a different "arena." I eventually explored all four and didn't notice that any of them were more difficult than the others. Early in the first arena, I met a wizard who said: "She said I would get great rewards for doing all four, but I know that only one would suffice." "She" in this case must be the Queen—we're in her proving grounds, after all—so I resolved to complete all four arenas before meeting her.

    

The arenas offered the first legitimately hard battles in a while. Enemies included packs of wizards, giants, archers, thieves, knights, skeletal knights, and skeletal wizards. I found that my usual strategy for tough battles—use a Scroll of Protection at the outset; chug an Elixir of Health whenever my hit points drop below 100—got me killed more often than I would have liked. I experimented with other spells and skills and occasionally had some luck with "Petrify" or "Intimidate." A lot of it came down to luck. I continued to grow annoyed at the game's insistence on never clearing a square, so that if you (for instance) hit a dead end, you have to fight every battle again on the way back.

        

I like the artwork here, but I think I've seen it somewhere before.

         

One technique that occurred to me embarrassingly late is to always attack the group of enemies with the most enemies. Occasionally, you get a critical hit that wipes out three or four enemies at once, and you don't want to waste that on a single foe. 

      

The enemy parties are getting larger and tougher.

       

When I had mapped as much of the Coliseum as I could, I still had a bunch of unexplored areas surrounded by pillars. Is there some mechanism that I'm overlooking to get through these pillars?

   

All arenas eventually led to the same area of the Coliseum, where teleporters could carry me backwards to the Queen's Aqueduct or forward to the only other Level 3 map: The Queen's Palace.  

         

Moving on, or at least contemplating it.

       

Some other encounters in the Coliseum:

   

• A couple of rosters "listing various guilds and names." The game noted that "your name does not appear on the list!" This was true even after I completed all the arenas. I don't know whether I should make anything of this.

• A fountain gave me the "Reverie" skill, which lets you gain mana at the cost of initiative. I don't see using it in a single-character game. 

         

My current skill list. I've been favoring the passive skills.

       

One step into the Queen's Palace was a message: "There are short and long pathways to the Queen's chambers. Each has its own reward. Only one need be solved to continue, but more explored, the greater the rewards." The Palace level was hard; I still haven't mapped it all. It's full of one-way doors, illusory doors, spinners, bottomless pits (instant death), and the most difficult battles in the game so far.

   

I guess there are, in fact, multiple pathways. The first one I tried led me to battles with slimes that I could not defeat. They kept killing me in the first round. The second one led to an area with no exit except to throw yourself down a bottomless pit. There's a message next to this pit that I don't understand: "Perhaps you can send some light across the chasm to see if any burning clues are visible." Whatever it's suggesting, it doesn't correspond with any item, spell, or other game action that I can figure out.

           

Which command lets me "send light"?

        

Eventually, I found a pathway that had me wind past bottomless pits with spinners next to them, so moving too quickly led to instant death. There were also a few tough battles in this area. Beyond that was a room full of poison traps; fortunately, I have "Cure." At the exit to this room, Queen Aeowyn appeared. "Impressive, how you managed to pass through the arena!" she said. "Now, to my throne room. I will wait for you there!"

       

The queen's just hanging out in this room full of poison.

       

Aeowyn's throne room had a couple of pools of water and lots of statues. As I approached, the game noted: "A magnificent queen stands before you. Her beauty and strength awe all who see her, woman and man alike." When she saw me, she had a long speech:

       

My champions, a key awaits you at the palace exit. Use it at the ancient gateway east of the main entrance. Another portal will lead you to the depths of this volcano, where none has dared yet visit. I require four pieces of an ancient map! I enjoin you with this task as a test of your loyalty. Reveal your purpose to no one! Go now! Seek the kingdom of the Night Elves. I will meet you at your quest's end, that we may piece together the maps' meaning.

         

The approach to the throne.

        

I was indeed handed a Queen's Key as I exited. I left a lot of the map unexplored, blocked by enemies I couldn't defeat. But I guess I defeated the "proving grounds" part of the game.

 

The next couple of hours were nothing but frustration. I couldn't defeat the fixed battles with wraiths on Level 4, nor the ones in the Queen's Palace, nor just about anywhere else I went. The game is long and large enough that the last thing I want to do is waste time grinding, but it looks like I may have to if I want to progress. At the very least, I may need to experiment with some of the scrolls the shop offers.

 

These guys are harder than two of anything ought to be.

     

Speaking along those lines, I didn't get a single equipment upgrade this session. I've already bought the best bow, armor, and helmet the shop offers. Leveling has also slowed; I gained two levels (to Level 13) during the first half of this session and none in the second half. I don't know, maybe it's time to call this one. I barely got 1,000 words out of 7 hours of playing time.

   

Time so far: 16 hours 

 

  

Excelsior: Who Has Gone Farthest?

 

Chester reaches the Ninth Circle.

       

My "fixer" has arrived in Lysandia from another universe, tasked with dealing with some kind of threat to the land. He has inhabited the body of a sexless golem paladin (I will never tire of writing that phrase). He has spent the first 12 hours chasing hints to find three magical amulets that allow him to improve his attributes when he levels up. Towards the end of that quest, he learned that there is a Resistance in the dungeon of Intungo, which is on an island.

   

During this session, I:

   

• Acquired means of crossing water.
• Explored the dungeon to find the Resistance.
• Accomplished the Resistance's first mission.
• Made some progress on the Resistance's second mission.

   

The narrative starts in the city of Farborough, where I had previously noted ships for sale. I now have the 5,000 gold pieces necessary to buy one. I talk to everyone first—since NPC dialogue is prompted by plot points, it's a good idea to re-visit everyone when you re-enter a city—and manage to learn both "Swimming" and "Seamanship." 

        

An NPC teaches me how to sail my new ship.

        

These skills allow me to both purchase a ship and sail to a special magic shop accessible only by sea. I think that's half a dozen magic shops I've encountered so far. They sell both wands and spells, and I really need to keep track of which shops offer which spells so I can return when I have more money. I have to leave my horse behind; apparently, the ship is too small to accommodate him.

   

On the high seas, I confirm that the game world is 500 x 500 tiles and that it—hallelujah—does not wrap. The ship has a catapult that does about as much damage as my Retribution Sword, but from any number of squares away. It still confers experience, and land-based enemies still drop treasure.

     

The edge of the world.

      

I spend some time checking out nearby islands but find them mostly empty. A large island to the southeast has a single empty hut and a city called Rondeway. 

   

Eventually, I sail across the southern boundary of the map to visit the island with the city of Heize and the dungeon of Intungo. I find Heize curiously useless except for two pieces of NPC dialogue:

   

• "There is a great chemist living in the Seventh Keep."

• "There is a magic clock which, when wound with a special key, has remarkable powers." This is important, as I later buy a clock for 100 gold pieces in Rondeway.

        

I just need the key.

      

Intungo starts out as a typical maze-like dungeon. I explore the first level for a while, fight a lot of monsters, and take a ladder down. On the second floor, I'm greeted with a sign that says: "SE. W. NW. NE. SE. N. W. SW." At first, I think it's directions to the maze, but it soon becomes clear that doesn't work. None of the corridors go in intercardinal directions.

   

I wander a bit more and find a talking sign that asks for a password. It takes me a few minutes to figure it out. There are certain wall patterns in the dungeon shaped like letters, starting with an "S" southeast of the entry ladder. I go west from there and find a "U." This continues for a while until I piece together the password requested by the sign: SURMOUNT. This opens the way to the next level.

        

Note the first letter in the lower-right.

     

The third level has a walled city, grassy expanses, trees, and gas lamps. A watchman demands a password, but I got it last session from the woodsman Hule: VICTORY. This answer opens a door in the wall. The city is full of Resistance members who proudly proclaim their roles, including both fighters and scholars.

          

I think you're on shaky philosophical ground.

         

Their leader, Sebastian, is found to the west. He asks if I'm willing to aid in the overthrow of King Valkery, and I say yes. Sebastian gives me my first mission: deliver a message to King Valkery's heir, imprisoned somewhere in the Royal Keep.

   

Before I leave the Resistance city, I explore a lower level, which has a training arena and a room that includes every regular weapon and piece of armor in the game. There's also a storeroom with a skull. I pick it up, and the game says that I've acquired Mortimer's Skull. I have no idea who Mortimer is. I hope I didn't do something too early.

      

Be glad there are no shops in this little town.

      

Thanks to previous explorations, I know that the Royal Keep isn't the same thing as Castle Excelsior; it's a tower to the north of the castle, along the coast. I get attacked by guards the moment I enter. The first floor is full of things that look like cells, or perhaps storage rooms, but none of them have a person with them.

         

Nor is there any way to open any of those chests.

    

Level 2 is dark. Neither my magic lantern, nor my regular lantern, nor "Dark Eyes" allows me to see more than one square in radius. I circle the place forever before I realize I'm just walking in circles. I have to spend about 30 minutes searching every single wall space for secret doors. I finally find one mere steps from the arrival ladder. Boo.

     

This will not be the only time this session that I start searching in the wrong place.

     

Level 3 has more rooms and cells. There's an area with a door maze in which I have to move diagonally through doors and search diagonally for secret doors, followed by an area in which I have to move diagonally through trees and find secret doors. I don't happen to have my external numberpad at this point, so I have to use the on-screen keyboard app to get me through it. 

        

I'm not sure I understand how trees have secret doors embedded in them.

             

On the final level, I'm greeted by a guard who asks me if I know the name of a "murderer who fled from the continent." I actually do—a guy named Cope in Heize confessed to me that he committed murder—but I forget it at the time. I say YOU, and the guard pretends he doesn't get the joke. He leaves me alone to wander around. Again, I find plenty of cells and prisoners, but most of them are behind doors I cannot open. There's a large area to the north that I can't find a way to access despite searching every potential wall for secret doors. I can even see a guy in there who is probably the target of my quest.

   

Eventually, I speak to the guard again and try confessing to the murder myself. He tosses me in an otherwise inaccessible cell, and I find my way to the prisoner through a series of secret doors.

        

I like his reaction.

       

The prisoner introduces himself as Prince Williamson, son of King Valkery, and he has a long story to tell. He knows why King Valkery has undergone such a severe change in personality: A few months ago, he was in the throne room with his father when a "dirty old man" entered and offered the king a gift. When the king accepted, the old man shouted an incantation and broke a glass rod above his head. This act caused a brief electrical storm, from which "some sort of ethereal demon" emerged and entered the king's body. Valkery immediately changed from the wise, compassionate king he had once been to the tyrant we know today. He ordered everyone in the throne room executed except for Williamson, whom he had imprisoned.

   

The prince is delighted to hear about the growing Resistance. He thinks he has a way to restore the king, which he writes down and asks me to bring back to Sebastian. He bravely volunteers to stay behind "so as not to arouse any suspicion with the authorities."

      

Part of the Prince's story.

     

I use the "Instant Descent" spells to get out of the keep quickly and make the long return to Sebastian. Once I get to Intungo, I can use "Instant Descent" to get to the Resistance city quickly, but it takes a long time to cross the map, and I find myself wishing for some kind of fast travel mechanism. Later, I buy "Mesmer's Flying Feet" from a magic shop, as it promises to move the character great distances with each casting. The joke's on me, because it only moves the character about 20 squares, and he has to leave his horse behind. Not worth it (although it might allow access to some of the islands without having to buy a ship).

   

Sebastian receives Williamson's information gratefully and says he'll need to consult with his advisors. In the meantime, he wants me to speak to Ambora, the antiquarian, about a "powerful elixir which may prove useful in our efforts." Ambora tells me about the Elixir of Capital Power, which grants "near immortality." He thinks its secret is in the Almanac, a collection of arcane knowledge written by the sage Varbel, who did the majority of his research on Zzoborf Isle.  

      

Alas, the Almanac will cease publication next year.

          

Thanks to the map that Matt Engle gave me, I know that Zzoborf Isle is off the southeast coast of the continent. But I also know that I've been there, and there is nothing there. On the way there, I stop at a bit of land in the far northeast corner of the map and find magical fire that I can E)nter. It leads to a cave full of fire—some kind of underworld, I guess. I don't find anything to do there just yet, but I suspect I'll be back later.

          

After confirming my previous finding that Zzoborf Isle has no towns, keeps, or other things of note, I set about searching literally every square before finding the book 30 minutes later in a pool of water. Boo.

          

 I wish I'd started at the south end of the island.

      

The book is waterlogged and unreadable, but I have notes that Yohan in Roaldia repairs damaged books. I take the book to him and pay him 1,250 gold pieces to restore what he can. It turns out to contain a series of numbers.

      

I met a cryptographer named Wipfel in Rondeway, so I take the book to him. He says he's sure that "each set of three numbers represents a single letter," but he wants 5,000 gold to offer more than that. I start grinding for it, but I soon decide it will take less time to decode the cipher myself.

         

Was this the only page?

            

Since each grouping has three numbers from 1-3, that gives 27 possibilities, or one more than the alphabet requires. Since the book has both 111 and 333, I figure it's not as simple as putting them in order and assigning "A" to the first one and "Z" to the last. But eight combinations are unused (no SPHINX OF BLACK QUARTZ in this message), so I can still assign a random letter to each number set to simplify the cryptogram. I get:

   

CSFAVM QLFSH XIRDMLB HVVQ OYFXP RXL YRJZRC YRAIQ

 

I like to think that I'm good at cryptograms, but I can't get anywhere with this one. There are no obvious As, THEs, or NOTs, no repeated words, and only one set of double letters. Finally, I fire up my Microsoft Access database of English words (what, you don't have one?!) and start messing around with combinations. I start by assuming that the "V" in HVVQ is either O or E—more likely O since E is the most common letter in English and yet the V occurs in only one other place in the entire phrase. That limits the first word to only 106 possibilities, two of which are DAEMON and DRAGON. I work with DRAGON, which turns out to be a fortunate choice, and soon have:

   

DRAGON ??AR? ????N?? ?OO? ??A?? ??? ?????D ????? 

   

I then start working on the ?OO? word, the first letter of which has to be the last letter of the second word. It's not BOOK, since nothing ends in ??ARB. I think I'm getting somewhere by assuming it's MOON and the second word is CHARM, but that ultimately leads to dead ends. SOOT doesn't seem likely at first, but it would mean that the second word ends in S, which makes sense, and then a flashback to goddamned Ishar gives me the answer [Ed., as commenter Delfayne points out, I was more likely thinking of Drakkhen.]:

   

DRAGON TEARS ????NE? SOOT ??A?? ??E ?????D ????T

       

I'm literally trying to save the world.

       

That word before SOOT has to be CHIMNEY, right? Now we're off:

 

DRAGON TEARS CHIMNEY SOOT ??AC? ?CE ?I??ID ?I?HT 

    

It's nearly winter in Maine, and I see BLACK ICE immediately for words five and six. The final phrase is easy from there:

 

DRAGON TEARS CHIMNEY SOOT BLACK ICE LIQUID LIGHT

   

Whew. That only took about 90 minutes. I should have grinded instead.

    

Is that a recipe list? If so, I'm not sure how to find those items. It occurs to me at the end of all of this that I probably have to grind for the money and pay Wipfel anyway, as it's probably necessary to trigger the next bit of dialogue. Neither Ambora nor Sebastian has anything new for me in the meantime.

        

At least I didn't cheat by using the map. He would have told me.

      

I try to clean up some minor "to do" items before closing this entry:

   

• Another unexplored northern island has a single hut. Outside the hut is a sign that reads: "Karth Whitlaw and His Barbilious Inventions." There's a guy in the hut, but he doesn't seem to have anything to say to me. I can only assume he's important later.

       

"I was hoping to solve a quest before someone gave it to me."

      

• I spend some time chasing Jad Merlings, the renowned bard who can supposedly teach me "Music." Every time I visit a city where he supposedly last went, it turns out he's moved on to the next city. I visit South Blagsell, Burroughs, Hollow, and Woodshade, hearing at the last city that he's moved on to Roaldia, where I got the first clue about him. I give up. I hope "Music" isn't important.

      

Fool me five times . . .

        

• The only skill I don't have besides "Music" is "Lockpicking," and it doesn't seem to stop me from picking locks.

• I still have a couple of towers to explore, which I might do as an alternative to grinding outside Castle Excelsior.  

• No new weapon or armor upgrades this session, but I do visit Castle Excelsior at the end of it and go from Level 6 to Level 8. Dragons start appearing in the countryside.

           

Ow. Stop.

      

Combat remains frequent as I move from place to place, but it's become a trivial annoyance rather than any kind of challenge. That's too bad. It appears that the character development part of the game is largely over (save perhaps some additional spell acquisition). The good news is that the authors have shown a certain talent for puzzles that enliven what would otherwise be standard fetch quests. 

    

Time so far: 19 hours