Bloodstone: Deosil and Widdershins

 

The party does a lot of trekking this session.

       

My memories of The Magic Candle II and III are hardly fresh, and I thus might be mistaken, but I don't remember enjoying the opening hours of those games as much as I've been enjoying Bloodstone. I'm enjoying the combat, the exploration, and the slow process of getting stronger incrementally. I remember avoiding outdoor combats in the Candle games as much as possible, but here I find myself inviting them, even seeking them. The difficulty level is a bit higher here and the economy less generous, so perhaps that's why the battles seem necessary in a way they never did in any of the Candle trilogy.

    

I adopted a very weird exploration pattern this session, mostly unintentionally. Gameplay so far has been centered in the southeast portion of the map, and a natural exploration pattern would go either clockwise or counterclockwise around the island. In my first session, I went north (counterclockwise) to Haraza; in the second, I reversed and went clockwise (south and then west) to Kafari and Tulara. In this session, I began by reversing again, going counterclockwise past Haraza to the next city, Hikar, and then going all the way back around clockwise again, past Tulara, to a few places beyond that. Each pass, I stopped in most of the cities along the way and bought upgrades as I could afford them. I also kept trying myself against the enemies in the Sea Temple in the southeast corner, slowly gaining ground.

      

Our journey so far.

       

I began with a trip to Haraza, already explored, where I put Enric to work at a gemcutter's for 35 gold per day. Between him and Volni, working at the metalsmith's in Tulara, they're making 60 gold per day. I figure I'll visit them in three or four months and have all the gold I need for a while.

I bought some improved armor and weapons in the city, trying not to spend everything I'd earned towards the Belfon spellbook in Tulara.

     

I then made another attempt at the Sea Temple. As we entered, there was this little bit of party dialogue that provided more than I needed to know about Maxon:

    

• MAKA: "Whoever made this was truly amazing!"

• MAXON: "The legends I have read speak of an ancient people who sank beneath the earth after being struck down by their gods. Supposedly they were being punished for their evil ways. The writings are very poetic, and as with all poetry it is as vague and elusive as a young girl . . . [sigh] . . . a young girl . . . Anyway, they probably suffered some natural catastrophe or sickness and their knowledge was lost."

         

TMI, Maxon.

        

We cleared out a couple of rooms of dimelves and undead, using mushrooms like gonshis (give you four actions per round instead of two), nifts (negate damage from three hits), and mirgets (increase attack damage). We also used techniques like having one player "Jump" one or more players into melee range to ensure that all four of their attacks would hit adjacent enemies (i.e., they don't have to waste any actions walking to melee range). These tactics worked, but I didn't have a lot of mushrooms or "Jump" spells; the totems I started with don't offer the spell, so I was limited to an initial memorized supply. After a few rooms, I also ran out of lockpicks--I had forgotten they were single-use items. We also started to run out of arrows. The expedition had been worth it for some gold and gems (and a bugle, if I ever find someone with musical skill) but I cut it short and moved back to the map.

       

Resurrecting a character after a gory battle.

        

Exploring northwest of Haraza, I found a temple whose altar also gave me the code word PLISTICAL. I thought in the Candle games, you found each code word in exactly one altar. Northwest of that, we found a tower with a locked door. We later determined it was Pradaqa. I'm not sure how to get in.

      

Can't we just hack it?

     

North of the tower, we found a city called Hikar. It's one of those smaller dwarven cities that we were told about, unaligned to either of the major dwarven tribes, although there were representatives in town hoping to persuade the chief.

 

Notes from Hikar:

    

• I forgot to mention it before, but kids in every town go on about "Bucky the Superdwarf." I'm not sure who he's supposed to be, but they all admire him and ascribe a number of fantastical feats to him.

           

It makes me want to kill him.

         

• A dwarf named Fisher in the tavern: Pradaqa is rumored to be the home of an ancient god of the taldor.  

• Delfina: A man came into town claiming he had spent months on a floating island. The dwarves threw him out of town. Roga tells me that this same crazy man wants a golden needle.

       

Depends on the temperature, I guess.

      

• A dwarf named Sark calls himself a "guide of these parts" and gives me the locations of some surrounding sites, including a temple and a mushroom patch. His name makes me laugh, as I was just today learning of the Isle of Sark in the English Channel and the "world's smallest prison" located there.

• A temple in town offered the password GARTHUME.

• We bought 20 lockpicks at a supply shop.

    

It was a dwarf named Jaykin in the tavern that alerted us to the fact that Carmine, a resident in the north of town, had a magic whistle. This roused our attention, as a magic whistle is one of the artifacts that both dwarf leaders want for their cooperation. We spoke to Carmine, and he was happy to part with the whistle for 500 gold. One artifact down!

     

You could have bargained for a lot more.

     

North of Hikar, snowshoes got us across the tundra and ropes got us across the mountains (each success gave us a cute image). Across a mountain range, an "ominous gateway" led to a dungeon called Dark Temple. Unfortunately, a weird enemy called "killgrill" killed us in the very first room, requiring me to reload from Hikar.

     

Still doesn't look like something we ought to do very often.

       

I swung back around the other way, stopping in Kafari to exchange some light crossbows for medium ones. In another trip to the Sea Temple, I cleared out two more rooms and found 13 rubies. Low on resources again, I returned to Tulara and sold the 13 rubies for just enough money to buy the Belfon spellbook, which includes the all-important "Jump" spell. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember where the inn was in Tulara, so it was a while before I could rest and memorize my new spells.

      

Easy come, easy go.

      

West and southwest of Tulara, I got slaughtered repeatedly by taldormages and other tough enemies in the mountains. I pressed on, though, and eventually came upon a camp in a valley. It was occupied by a single taldor named Pranararus who said that not all taldor were hostile to us. "Some might even be persuaded to join your quest." We asked if he meant him, and he said yes. Surprisingly for an orclike being, he has miserable strength and bravery (3 each) but high dexterity, agility, intelligence (!), and charm (!!). Even stranger, he has high levels of "Trading" (65), "Stealth" (65), "Soulreading" (45), "Lockpicking" (45), and "Researching" (75!). He brings the Entus spellbook, which has some interesting options that I don't remember from previous games, like "Wherrigan" (a summoning spell), "Sharpen" (increase damage), and "Quiver" (give someone magic bolts).

     

I gave Pran an extra pair of snowshoes, sealskin, blanket, and rope, and the party continued west, winning battles when we could and reloading when we couldn't. We started to meet a terrifying new enemy called a "skyshark" that only has a melee attack but devastates the party if they can close the distance. We learned to start those battles as far away as possible and try to bring them down with spells and bolts. "Burrowers" were other new enemies with lots of hit points and deathly missile attacks. Eventually, it got to be too much, and I began to realize that the west side of the map--just as NPCs had told me--was far deadlier than the east side. Clearly, clockwise and counterclockwise were both the wrong approaches to exploration; instead, I should have been moving east to west in strips.

     

Winter fell at some point during these explorations, freezing rivers and lakes but otherwise offering no extra difficulty to the party that I could tell.

       

Bloodstone will be on the meteorological side of the coming Season War.

               

We returned to Tulara to use Pran's research skill on the DEATH mask. The tome we found related how the dwarf god, Rohrkhad, created the dwarves from stone. The first was called Dahlkhad, "son of the gods." When Dahlkhad died of old age, Rohrkhad cried tears of alabaster, which scattered into the oceans. A craftsman named Amarant collected some of these tears and made a mask called Throshikhad, or "Death Face of the God." It somehow cured Rohrkhad's grief, and he buried Dahlkhad wearing the mask. So I guess we learned . . . the mask is underground somewhere? I would have assumed that anyway.

    

Later, we had Pran research KHAMALKHAD in Haraza. This story takes place earlier than the one tied to DEATH. Here, we learn how Rohrkhad fashioned the mighty axe from bloodstone and gave it to his son. When Dahlkhad died, Rohrkhad took it back and placed it in his castle on Ilakasek Island, which had become cut off from the mortal lands in something called the Great Separation. It awaits an adventurer clever enough to make it to the island. If he can reach it, the word TOGARNAK will open the doors to the castle. 

     

Title drop!

     

Starting somewhere between Tulara and Kafari (I figured I'd explored the eastern area pretty thoroughly), I worked my way north. We started encountering battles with taldors and tlatols again, which was more like it.

      

That'll buy a few gonshis.

      

Eventually, we found a city on a river called Phoroshe. Inside:

    

• A weapon shop run by a dwarf named Dryson, who sold crossbows but was contemptuous of them. ("Those cowardly Morin use them quite a bit.") I had accumulated enough gold that I finally ensured that all my characters had the best weapons they could use given their skills and strength.

     

Alas, no shotgun-axe.

    

• An axe school. My axe levels up fast enough in combat.

• A music shop run by a dwarf woman named Tuonial.

• More about Bucky the Superdwarf:

       

Maiming somewhat loses its purpose in that sequence.

     

• Jalen, who runs the tavern, clarifies more about what taldor are. I guess they aren't orcs. "Fierce savages, like misshapen dwarves in appearance."

• A lot of NPCs talk about the tower of Pradaqa, which is rumored to be full of taldor. Sounds perfect, but no one has any dialogue about the password. Sarides tells me that the Moon Scarab is in the top of the tower. 

• A dwarf named Korchar tells me about an underground complex named Delqafi, southwest of the city, where taldor used to live but were driven out by "bazards." The Golden Bowl is rumored to be there, along with a powerful taldor axe called Mukora. It was created by Palelil, the taldor god, for his son, Grefrin, to kill Dahlkhad. It was to counter this axe that Rohrhkad created Khamalkhad. Taldor legends say whoever possesses Mukora will RULE ALL GALAXIES!

      

"Awesome! What's a 'galaxy'?"

   

• Finally, a dwarf in the tavern named Grelira says that Borton, an apothecary, knows the password to Pradaqa. 

• A Tlengle (lizard man) named Pakkr T'thar offers to join the party. He's a strong fighter, stronger than any of my existing characters, but with no magic. I decide to stick with who I have.

• A temple to the god Melmalan has the word HOROOPA on the altar.

      

Is this the god of silliness?

    

• A mushroom seller. I don't have much, but I buy a few more gonshis.

• A dwarf named Trillax sells Ashard and Chalta spell totems, but I don't have anywhere near enough money.

• A dwarf  named Karana tells me a legend her father told her about a dungeon called Anthorn on the north end of an island. The Scepter is to be found there.

• At last, a dwarf teaching "Research." Good thing I don't need it anymore.

• Borton the apothecary is looking for a rare reagent called Lilten. He used to get it from a guy named Groval, who was run out of town. He'll tell me how to enter Pradaqa if I can find some. Borton's old supplier "was last seen heading west towards Amqal."

    

A tower full of taldor seems just what I need to get on solid economic footing, but so far I'm having no luck finding "Amqal," whatever that is, and plenty of luck running into more skysharks and burrowers. So I wrap up, still searching for it. I suppose I should go back to Phoroshe and feed everyone that keyword to get better directions.

       

If you're keeping track, this is the sum of the intelligence I have on the items, verified with the use of the "Search" command in the "Notes" screens, which is just the best interface element of the whole series:

    

• Moon Scarab: At the top of the tower of Pradaqa. Need to find Lilten for Borton, the apothecary in Phoroshe, who will give me the password to the tower.

• Brooch: No word yet.

• Mitre: No word yet. 

• Scepter: Secured in a chest on the third level of the dungeon Anthorn at the northern end of an island occupied by lizard men.

• Golden Bowl:  Korchar in Phoroshe says that it's in the dungeon Delqafi. Not sure if its related, but a dwarf named Forzo in Tulara says he has a "bowl-collecting uncle." He won't tell us about him because he thinks we slay innocent monsters. Maybe I should ask everyone in Tulara about the artifact.

• Orb: According to Pleitan in Kafari, buried in the temple of Ziphanu in Hataan.

• Crown: No word yet.

• Whistle: I have it! Purchased from Carmen in Hikar.

• Death Mask of Rohrkhad: Buried with Dahlkhad. No idea where yet. Some minstrel is supposed to have a song about it.

• Khamalkhad: In Rohrkhad's castle, Entemar, on the isle of Ilakasek.

    

I still don't know how to best allocate them among the dwarven chiefs to get their allegiance, but I'll cross that bridge when I have more than one relic. The plot is a slight variation of the "Disassemulet of Yendor" trope, though in this case, they're all separate items rather than, say, pieces of a staff (or the Amberstar). Still, whenever the plot revolves around collecting a bunch of items, I like to see some variety in the length of time and amount of effort in obtaining each item. They shouldn't all be at the bottoms of equally-sized dungeons. That's boring. Some should come to you only after epic effort, and some should be found in random chests. At least judging by how I stumbled upon the whistle and was able to just buy it, it sounds like Bloodstone, like Amberstar, is going to be the latter, better sort of game.

Time so far: 13 hours

Ambermoon: Summary and Rating

 

As if we needed more fodder for our harp/lyre nitpicking: The instrument in this image has the strings in the wrong direction.

        

Ambermoon

Germany

Thalion Software (developer and publisher) 

Released 1993 for Amiga

Date Started: 28 March 2023

Date Ended: 1 November 2023
Total Hours: 82

Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2.5/5)

Final Rating: 51

Ranking at Time of Posting: 477/508 (94%)

     

Summary:

   

A quality sequel to a quality game, Ambermoon takes place on the same world as Amberstar after a cataclysm has shattered the planet. As society rebuilds, a new threat emerges. At first, it seems to involve the same demon/wizard whose imminent return drove the plot of the first game, but the party eventually determines that the true threat is lizard-like alien invaders intent on stealing the world's water. Their quest to stop the invaders takes them to the planet's two moons and beyond. The party begins with a single character--the Amberstar hero's grandchild--but expands to six as the party encounters PCs willing to join.

 

Like its predecessor, Ambermoon combines top-down locations with first-person locations, with influences from Ultima and Dungeon Master. Combat is turn-based and takes place on a quasi-tactical grid, but with players and enemies limited to their respective sides, and I suspect the original inspiration was either Phantasie or the Phantasie-inspired Legend of Faerghail. The RPG mechanics, including character development, NPC interaction, inventory, are all solid, and there are a number of satisfying puzzles. The world is open by geography, if not by plot. The only major negatives are the lack of sound effects and a continuously-scrolling interface that is technically innovative but also slow and cumbersome. Overall, Ambermoon is one of the few games of the 1990s that feels like it has all of the key elements of a modern CRPG. If none of those elements are the best that the era offers, neither are any of them very bad.

     

****

        

It would be irresponsible to wrap up my coverage without covering some of the content that I missed by taking my shortcut through the Thalion offices. (That's a "first," right? We've had developer Easter eggs in games before, but an entire dungeon based on the developers' offices? Can anyone think of any antecedents?) I didn't re-play any of it, but from what I understand from both your comments and videos that I watched:

    

• I only explored three of the palaces belonging to members of Morag's ruling council: S'Riel (the one who tried to help me), S'Orel (the one I killed on Lyramion), and S'Arin. The others belong to S'Endar, S'Trog, S'Kat, and S'Lorwin, and the owners are home in all the other palaces and must be defeated to get their keys.

        

This screenshot suggests I killed S'Arin, but I don't remember the math puzzle in S'Arin's palace, so I'm not sure what happened.

      

• S'Arin's palace features some math puzzles based on eight crystal balls that you find behind secret doors, each with a number on its surface. There are two magic mouths with riddles based on the balls. One of them asks  "What is all together?", looking for the sum of the numbers. The other asks, "What is all together when there are balls below a line and columns after a cross?" You somehow have to interpret this as: (The sum of the numbers on the balls) / (the count of the number of balls) * (the number of columns on the map). I agree with commenter Buck that the language is ridiculous. I'm almost sorry that I cheated you out of the rant it would have provoked.

• S'Trog's palace has a bunch of traps that must be deactivated with levers. S'Endar's palace has a bunch of traps, some of which are illusory, and you have to apparently rely on luck or reloading to figure out which ones are safe to walk through.

• S'Lorwin's palace is surrounded by a moat. You find plans for a sandboat in S'Kat's palace and have to take them back to S'Goldar in S'Angrila to build one.

• Somewhere on Morag's surface is a shop that sells riding lizards, making overland navigation faster.

• There's a random tower on Morag's surface in which you find a dying Moranian named S'Krel. If you give him the ¤6,000 water bottle from the shop in S'Angrila, he rewards you with a yellow orb and enough experience points to boost characters to their maximum levels. This would have made me mad, too. I'm glad I didn't find him.

• The yellow orb is what Valdyn needs to go home. He'll refuse to abandon the party if you try to take him back to the world teleporter, but the endgame text changes from what I experienced to reflect that he's able to use the yellow orb instead of waiting for scholars to manufacture one for him.

      

The text that a "completionist" got.

      

• There was an aspect to the interface that I completely missed until I read about it in Wikipedia: the 3D perspective changes slightly based on the height of the active character. This isn't really worth much beyond a "huh!," though.

      

My Thalion shortcut is, incidentally, the key to a speedrun for the game. This player did it in 10 minutes: Grab the staff from grandfather's house, run to the Thalion offices in Spannenberg, get all the Level 50 employees to join you, pick up every mandatory item that you need (principally the whistle that summons the giant eagle and the harp), fly to the temple, play the harp, run past the magic guardians and Morag dragons, and defeat the machine.     

     

I ignored this message.

      

There's a delightful exchange between Ambermoon author Karsten Köper and frequent CRPG Addict commenter sucinum on the Dungeon Master forum website. It's over 22 years old, and sucinum comes across as the 13-year-old fanboy he must have been. From his perspective, Ambermoon has "the best ending you can imagine for a computer game." When Köper responds, sucinum gushes that he has a script for a third game, Ambersun, already prepared. Köper says that he planned to call the third game Amberworlds before (apparently) ghosting sucinum. Perhaps sucinum will let us know what the plot to Ambersun would have been.

    

As for the plot to Amberworlds, I haven't found anything that offers any detail, but it almost certainly would have involved the world-teleporting technology revealed in the last act of Ambermoon, perhaps connecting the worlds of Ambermoon, Dragon Flight, and Lionheart in a way that goes beyond the simple Easter eggs of this game. It might have somehow involved the book in an unknown language that we found in the mines of Dol Kiredon. I suspect it would have revealed some previous advanced civilization that occupied all of the planets.

    

But it must be said that Ambermoon, unlike its predecessor, does not demand a sequel. There are some mysteries by the end of the two games, but no major dangling threads. In fact, Amberstar and Ambermoon together feel something like a trilogy already, since Ambermoon has an obvious break point. (The fact that I took a long break at precisely that point enhances the feeling for me.) A better-paced series might have ended Ambermoon with the invasion of the Temple of the Brotherhood and the discovery of the nature of the true threat; the third game would have involved voyaging to other worlds, with perhaps a bit more content than in the existing game.

     

That said, Ambermoon is a solid game. That I wanted to skip a bit of the end doesn't change that fact. It turns out I didn't skip very much, and honestly when I did it, I was only momentarily annoyed with how long the game was taking, not absolutely bone-weary to the point of hostility the way I was with Serpent Isle. It has good mechanics for character development, combat, equipment, magic, NPCs, and just about everything else I love about RPGs. "Good" is hardly a superlative, I realize, and I chose it carefully. Almost nowhere does the game achieve, or even stray towards, brilliance. But it is almost uniformly not bad. The one asterisk is in the interface: There wasn't a moment of gameplay in which I didn't wish that the authors had stuck with tiled movement. Other than that, it mirrors its predecessor--and exceeds just about every other game of the era--in getting essentially nothing wrong. I expect 4s, 5s, and 6s across the board in the GIMLET. For 1993, that's a superlative in itself.

      

I award the game:

    

• 6 points for the game world. It has a nice backstory, a heap of lore, and a few interesting plot twists that put it above the typical CRPG. It makes good use of its predecessor while telling its own original story. The connections with other Thalion games were fun. I just wish the game responded more to the characters' actions, particularly in respect to some NPCs.

      

I still think the authors must have been influenced by V.

     

• 5 points for character creation and development. It's good but uneven. The biggest negative is having little creation at all and forcing the main character to play a fixed class. I don't see how it would have required much tweaking to give that choice to the player. While character leveling is consistently rewarding, skill development is extremely front-loaded, and characters earn far more training points than they can spend. Spell learning points continue to remain valuable.

        

The main character at the end of the game.

     

• 6 points for NPCs. Those that can't join have a healthy amount of keyword-based dialogue. A satisfying number can join, and a replay might someday be fun with different class choices. I don't think I gave the original much credit for offering the ability to prompt dialogue by showing or giving an inventory item.

• 5 points for encounters and foes. Like its predecessor, it comes with an original monster list. They have a generally satisfying number of strengths and weaknesses, though not quite as extensive as any D&D game. The better "encounters" were the many puzzles that were both fair (exception above) and well-integrated with the plot. Still no role-playing choices, alas. 

• 5 points for magic and combat. The Phantasie-inspired combat works pretty well. Not as well as it would have worked on an open tactical grid, but well. I would have liked to see a few more options for melee characters, but the variety of spells is excellent, as is the mechanism for using items in combat. I would have liked to see a way to speed up combat. The "fast combat" option should have disabled enemy animations at the very least. 

    

I never got sick of this spell.

     

• 7 points for equipment, an excellent category that would have been boosted only with item descriptions and more randomization. Everything else is positive: the number of slots, the clarity of the datasheets, the uses of "Identify," and the variety and utility of items. I love the way that items become part of the interface. I suppose there's one other minor negative: the copious number of scrolls. I never came close to using them all.

       

Just when I'd reduced my scrolls to a manageable number.

       

• 4 points for the economy. There are useful things to buy, but the rewards are a bit too generous, and the economy is thus hopelessly broken about a third of the way into the game. Some services (repair) are under-utilized, and anyone who actually buys a potion (except attribute-boosting potions) or scroll is a fool.

• 4 points for quests. I would love to see a game in this engine with actual side quests. Here, there's at best a few side-areas. There are no choices or alternate endings except for the text changes involving Valdyn.

• 3 points for graphics, sound and interface. The graphics are improved from Amberstar, but I don't know how you seriously field a game in 1993 without any sound effects. The interface could have benefited from simple keyboard commands rather than the cumbersome use of the mouse and numberpad, and the 3D movement was never anything but infuriating. The developers there were clearly enchanted by a technology "advancement" that needed more time in the womb.

• 6 points for gameplay. Positive qualities are a relatively open world, a modest difficulty (tending slightly too easy), and a small amount of replayability. It's too long, but only at the end did I get to the point where I stopped looking forward to a session.

    

The final score of 50 is exactly what I gave Amberstar. I didn't engineer that, but I agree they're about even in quality--which is another point to the series, since sequels so rarely equal the originals. The categories aren't all even between the two games, but they vary only by a couple of points. [Ed. I was persuaded after this initially published that I was too harsh on graphics, sound, and interface, and thus increased the final score to 51.]

    

The company was a little too modest with this ad. They probably could have removed at least one of those qualifiers.

    

Given the lack of an official English release (I've been playing an unreleased version), it's no surprise that American magazines skipped Ambermoon. British magazines received preview versions in English, which explains this insulting, enraging review by Rich Pelley, who thinks all top-down interfaces owe their lineage to Zelda, all first-person interfaces are copying Eye of the Beholder, and "consoley" is a compliment. He rates it a 30% after only 4 hours, complaining about the simplicity of early-game combat. The review is full of idiotic jokes and non-sequiturs that any good editor should have hacked out. Any Brits who supported this magazine have a lot to answer for.

    

Fortunately, other European Amiga magazines were more discerning, with reviews ranging from a low of 79% (Amiga Format) to 93% (Play Time). Reviews were almost unanimous in praising the graphics (including the monster animation), music, story, and size of the game, but lamenting mostly the absence of sound effects. The continuously-scrolling 3D seems to have been received well by contemporary reviewers, which I understand. I think many of them would agree with me 30 years later that it hasn't aged well.

    

The reception was not enough to save Thalion from dissolution in 1994. Many of its employees made their way to Blue Byte Software, another German developer. These employees include producer Erik Simon, programmer Michael Bittner, composer Matthias Steinwachs, and graphic artist Thorsten Mutschall. Blue Byte's Albion (1995) clearly draws a lot from the Ambermoon interface and engine, and Mutschall's graphics would be noticeable anywhere despite the shift to a science fiction setting. The inventory system, character development system, and automap seem almost identical. I look forward to it, but it alas seems to be Blue Byte's only RPG.

         

A screen shot from Albion (1995) shows advancements in the interface but a similar art style.

       

Karsten Köper, the creator of the series, did not follow his colleagues to Blue Byte. Interviews with Thalion's former employees suggest that he was on the way out the door even before Ambermoon was finished, suggesting that there may not have been a third game even if Thalion had remained intact. (I listened to a podcast interview with Erik Simon and Jurie Horneman in which they indicate they were sick of high fantasy tropes and wouldn't have pursued a fantasy game on their own.) I'm not sure exactly what happened to Köper after that. He appears in the quality assurance credits of a few German games in the late 1990s and early 2000s (including one from Blue Byte), but it doesn't sound like full-time employment. As far as I can tell, he's never been interviewed in English. I'd love to fill that gap, but I'm afraid he might have been soured in the CRPG Addict during his one brief appearance.

   

In 2022, retro game designer Pyrdacor announced both Ambermoon Advanced and Ambermoon.net. My understanding is that the former is an ongoing expansion to the original game and the latter is a full rewrite, but I'm confused as to whether .net includes the Advanced material or whether they're separate projects. Both releases seem to offer interface improvements, including keyboard shortcuts and the ability to increase combat speed, but I'm curious to hear what else they offer--particularly in terms of new content--from anyone who has tried them. A trailer for Advanced promises new areas to explore, new monsters, new items, and new quests.

    

My rating of 50 puts Ambermoon at about the 93% mark on the ratings sheet. It is a rare game to achieve that position almost entirely on the strength of individual ratings of 6 or below. But as I'm often reminded with my students, co-workers, and employees, simple competence in everything almost always outranks genius in just one thing.

Bloodstone: Gods and Monsters

 

I like the sentiment, but could you express it in just three words?

         

In the first session of Bloodstone, Danat McLagh ignominiously fled his home with four companions while his clan, the Asarene dwarves, were slaughtered by goblin-like "taldor." With a general goal of uniting the dwarven clans against this threat, the party went north to Haraza, where Torongo, chief of the Tanar clan, wanted us to bring a bunch of dwarven artifacts back to him in exchange for his support: a magic scarab, brooch, mitre, scepter, golden bowl, orb, crown, whistle, and Death Mask of Rohrkhad.

    

As we begin this session, the party is leaving Haraza to visit the Morin dwarves in the city of Kafari to the south. Those are the two major dwarf clans, but there are reports of minor tribes in the "wastes of northern Tarq." I don't know if we need their support or not. On the way to Kafari, we find a guy teaching "Trading," but I decline to spend money and time on it.

        

Arriving at Kafari.

     

Fighting a couple of miscellaneous combats on the way--more on combat in a bit--we eventually come to Kafari and begin our typical exploration pattern. Key notes:

   

NPCs talk of an ancient temple in the southwest corner of town filled with ancient "half-dead." But when we enter the building, we find a pretty temple to Ziphanu, the God of Air. The altar has a word: FURBIMBOR on it. I assume that, as in the Candle games, we'll use this word to wake up the god. He's rumored to be imprisoned in Hataan to the west. Rolg at the bar in Tulara knows more. 

          

This series knows how to stick to a theme, however odd.

       

• In the tavern, Emmera thinks the rivalry between Morin and Tamar dwarves is so toxic that not even Khamalkhad can unite them.

• Also in the tavern, Olga is looking for her husband, Atun. 

• A cook named Re tells me that when dwarves die, they go to the home of their god, Rohrkhad, who was banished when he imprisoned the other gods. Some "crazy old man up north" is said to have been to his castle.

• There's a school that teaches gemcutting, plus a gemcutter who needs help. There's a weapon shop, an inn, a wizard's retreat for those with spellbooks to memorize spells, and a place to learn archery. I don't do anything with any of them.

• A kid tells me about an old temple to the south.

• A dwarf named Shedara says that she once saw a fine platinum lyre in the hands of a traveling minstrel. If I ever meet him, I should ask him for the "Lay of the Death Mask."

• A man named Horatio sells musical instruments in his shop. I do want to explore music in this game, but none of my existing characters have much skill. 

      

Which one will lead to the most annoying and pedantic discussion of the number of strings?

       

• Notama tells me that Dablak, God of the Earth, is buried deep in central Tarq.

• Smorqa, the Mystic of Kafari, suggests I seek certain "wise people" to aid me with totems and tiles. Tiles are the key to instant teleportation. I should ask loremasters about COMBINATIONS.

• A trader named Ensule sells sealskins, which will let me cross rivers. I buy six, depleting most of my money.

        

Later: I guess they work.

       

• The Morin chief lives in a hut to the southeast of town, but I need to know his name before I can enter. It's late in the session before I finally find a dwarf named Pleitan, who gives me the name as RAKAN. He also tells me where I can find a magic orb buried in the Temple of Ziphanu.

• I meet Rakan in his house. He wants the same list of treasures as Torongo! I'm not sure what to do if I want both their support. Give half to one and half to the other?

       

There isn't a lot of variance in these dwarf names.

      

• On a later visit to the tavern, I find a wizard named Maxon. He tells me that all the best wizards have names that start with "M," and he gives me the teleportal combination to Asarene. Finally, he offers to join the party, and I accept. He comes with the "Chalta" book and lots of spells from other books memorized.

   

Shortly after leaving Kafari, I find a patch of Sermin mushrooms south of the city. I pick a few, taking care to leave some still growing. South of that, I find an "ominous gateway" that leads me to a dungeon with a very long, spiraling corridor. I try to explore it, but in the first room I enter, I fight some undead called "thamalques." Like undead in the other Candle games, they spring back to life in the round after they've been slain if you don't cast "Restsoul." I only have a couple of those memorized. I go back outside and memorize more (they're part of the Gimlai spell totem that came with Danat), but when I enter again, I get slaughtered by crossbow-wielding "dimelfs" in a different room. I decide to return to this dungeon when I am stronger and better-resourced, particularly with enough Nifts to avoid damage from attacks.

       

Slaughtered by the drow's less intelligent cousins.

     

Random combats in the wilderness replenish my gold. I start taking notes as to the game's original monsters and their special attacks. If I'm lucky, I fight monsters like taldor and pennari who have only physical attacks in melee range. I'm able to kill them with crossbows before they even reach us. More dangerous are magic-using creatures like taldormages. I've been reloading after each death because the party only came with about 5 "Resurrection" spells, and we have no way to get more until we buy the appropriate totem.   

      

An enemy approaches in the wilderness.

       

Notes on monsters:

    

• Taldor: Basic brutes, like goblins. Melee attacks only.
• Pennari: Dogs that accompany taldor. Melee attacks only.
• Hightaldor: Strong taldor. But still just melee attacks.
• Taldormage: Very dangerous. Cast spells like "Shatter" from afar.
• Tlatol: Taldor companions.
• Thamalque: Undead of some sort. Physical attacks only.
• Dimelf: Shoot with crossbows. Play on "dark elf"? 
• Bazards: Giant green lizards. 

        

Archery skill goes up from shooting a taldor.

    

The next port of call we reach, moving clockwise around the map, was the city of Tulara, still part of the Morin clan domain. Findings:

     

• A casino. I lose two rolls for small amounts and decide not to waste my money there.

• A metalsmith. He needs help and offers to pay 20 gold per day. I say what the heck and assign Volni, who has the highest skill in this art, to work with him. Even if I don't leave him here, we'll make 20 gold if we're in town for only one day, and I know I'll spend at least a day passing time in the tavern to see who shows up at different hours.

        

The series continues to allow some poor characters to work as wage slaves to support the party.

       

• Manteki has the Belfon totem for sale for 2,525, about 1,000 more than I have. I mark the hut for later return. 

• An armorer. I buy some leather for Maxon, who didn't come with any.

• A trader sells shovels, ropes, and picks. I think I'm all set there.

• A small temple has an altar with the word PLISTICAL on it. It's probably the secret word for waking up Dablak, the earth god, who lies in the ruins of Delqafi (information I got elsewhere).

     

"Let's get . . . plistical."

        

• Rolg shows up in the tavern at 19:00. He tells me about the land of Hataan, west of Tulara. The ruins with the Temple of Ziphanu are in a field, surrounded by a forest, east of a bridge, south of Rulaan, the female barbarian city.

        

Rolg tells me about the ruins of Hataan.

     

• Numerous NPCs tell me the lands to the west are overrun with dangerous monsters.

• I finally find a herb shop but can barely afford anything.

• There's a tailor, but none of my characters have any tailoring skill. Also a gemseller and a guy offering music lessons.

• A dwarf named Frozo upbraids us for killing "innocent monsters with families and children."

     

Always nice to get the liberal perspective.

     

• In the loremaster's hut, I get two teleportal combinations. Researching TALDOR, I learn they were created by Palelil, evil brother of Rohrkhad. Rohrkhad couldn't undo their creation, but he made it so when the taldor got drunk, they'd tell anyone anything. Unfortunately, even Maxon doesn't have enough "Research" skill to research the DEATH Mask of Rohrkhad, and I'm not sure how to develop this skill.

       

How do you suppose this translates in real terms? How much skill do you need to read things on stone tablets?

     

A warrior named Enric offers to join the party in the tavern, and I take him, filling the hole that Volni left. He's stronger than Volni but lacks Volni's magic. I decide to keep him for the time being and let Volni continue to work, mostly because I can't figure out how to temporarily park a party member in this town. If anyone had skill in tailoring, I could do it there, but there's otherwise no place to "assign" a party member temporarily in order to shuffle another one in. Since I need so many things that cost money, it strikes me that it might be more advantageous to keep a slot permanently open and put one of my other characters to work in one of the other towns.

      

I can believe a "Musical" skill that low. I once saw Enric Palazo absolutely butcher the national anthem.

     

As I contemplate that, I also contemplate our next steps. At this point, we've explored maybe the southeast tenth of the main continent. We have a lot of leads, but I'm hesitant to depart from what we might call the "tri-cities" area until we're better resourced--weapons, armor, mushrooms, bolts, spells. I think I might spend what I have on what I can afford, then try that dungeon a second time.

    

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• If I ever understood the reason for having a "Greet" command separate from "Talk," I've forgotten it.

• The game bifurcates NPCs into named ones, who always offer ADVICE or OTHER (enter your own keywords) as defaults, and unnamed ones, who offer NEWS, WEATHER, and PEOPLE. WEATHER never produces anything interesting. NEWS seems to pick from a databank of rumors. ADVICE often leads to other keywords, but NEWS never does.

• For a game that has so many input options--keyboard, mouse, and arrowing around to commands and hitting ENTER--I manage to flub whatever I'm trying to do a lot. I remember commenting on this several times in the Candle games. I can't put my finger on exactly what's wrong--on paper, this is just the type of interface I'm always demanding--but I'm constantly finding myself in sub-menus that I didn't mean to visit or on the verge of doing something like dismissing a party member or reloading a game, when I never meant to get anywhere near those options.

• As with the Candle games, my colorblindness doesn't work well with icons as small and detailed as this. I'm constantly talking to inanimate objects thinking that they're NPCs.

 

       

I'm having quite a bit of fun with this one. This approach is exactly what I enjoy: A distant goal, lots of lore to keep track of, a growing "to do" list, and a strong economy (at least for now). The poison pill of the Candle series has always been character development, and I sense some of the same potential problems here. I'll talk more about that next time.

   

Time so far: 7 hours