BRIEFs: Journey into Danger (1981), Mazies & Crazies (1982), Spy Daisakusen (1982)

 

         

Journey into Danger

United Kingdom

ICL (developer and publisher) 

Released 1981 for ZX81, 1982 for ZX Spectrum
Rejected for: No character development

     

Journey into Danger is a simple proto-RPG released as part of ICL's Super Programs 6. It has no backstory, no character creation, no character development, no attributes, no tactics, and no goal other than to earn points.

    

I just earned points.

          

The player character (an asterisk) is released into a single-screen maze with a clearly marked entrance and exit. The maze has a fixed configuration but a random distribution of treasures, traps, and monsters, all invisible until the asterisk enters their squares. The player's goal is to get to the exit with as high a score as possible, which includes treasure and slain monsters. He has to get out before the time counter, which starts at 500 moves, reaches 0. 

      

The only real choice in the game.

      

The player's only choice to make, other than the route through the maze, is whether to (F)ight or (R)un from monsters. The monsters include giant earwigs, giant spiders, giant crabs, griffins, and dragons. When the player meets a monster, the game indicates the relative odds of victory, and the player makes his choice. All fights are to the death (the character has no hit points), and fleeing carries a loss of both time and any accumulated score.

     

Traps include tea breaks (this is how you know it's a British game), rests, rock falls, narrow ledges, and pits, all of which just deduct from the "time left" meter. 

     

I didn't have to BRIEF this. I could have called it a "win."

                

It's really a simple gambling game. Any direct route to the exit probably offers about four encounters. So you need an average probability of 85% per encounter to have at least a 50% chance of making it to the exit alive if the player fights every battle. Of course, any player can make it to the exit by just fleeing every battle. In any event, there's a 100% probability that this is not an RPG.

   

****

   

    

Mazies & Crazies

United States

ICL (developer and publisher) 

Released 1982 as BASIC code for the TRS-80
Rejected for: No character development

   

Mazies & Crazies is a simple roguelite game published as type-in code in Frank Dacosta's Writing Basic Adventure Programs for the TRS-80 (1982, TAB Books). It is one of two full programs in the book; the other is called Basements and Beasties, and it mimics text adventures like (Colossal Cave) Adventure (1976).

     

Though clearly based on Rogue (1980), with perhaps a bit of Dunjonquest (1979), Mazies strips away too many elements to retain its RPG status. Instead of getting stronger throughout the game, the player starts with 9,999 points of strength and immediately starts losing them—about two per second, plus five for every square moved, and a lot more when the unnamed character meets an enemy.

       

Confronting a snake with a couple of treasures nearby.

          

The character appears as an @ and explores a 90-room dungeon with a fixed layout and room numbers, collecting treasures and helpful items such as swords, torches, and bombs. Monsters (*) include spiders, huge bees, trolls, and dragons and must be fought, shot, or evaded. The goal of the game is to find as much treasure in the dungeon as possible and return it to the first room, where you can accumulate a score.

    

I was able to check it out a bit thanks to blogger Jim Gerrie, who entered and debugged the program, then published a series of entries about it on his "Type-In Mania" blog. He speculates that the "winning condition" is to find all 16 treasures before the counter runs out. If the player does run out of strength and die, though, he can "resurrect" with all of the treasures where he left them. Gerrie had some fun with the game, altering the program a bit to fix perceived bugs and to offer a "boss" battle with a demilich. His coverage is pretty comprehensive, and since I don't really see it as an RPG anyway, we'll move on.

      

**** 

     

     

Spy Daisakusen

("Large-Scale Spy Operation"; the Japanese version of Mission: Impossible) 

Japan

Pony Canyon (developer and publisher)

Released 1982 as BASIC code for PC-88, PC-8000, Sharp MZ-2000
Rejected for: No character development

     

Japanese role-playing games have always tended (with plenty of exceptions, of course) to feature defined protagonists—in contrast to the dominant American approach, in which the player determines sex, race, class, alignment, and backstory. The Japanese approach doesn't disqualify the game as an RPG by my definitions—as long as the character improves. In modern JRPGs, he usually does. But in the early era, it was common for Japanese RPGs to include immutable attributes as part of the prescribed character.

   

That's what we have with Spy Daisakusen, which is the way the Japanese render Mission: Impossible, which of course had several iterations as a television show before the first Tom Cruise film in 1996. The player controls Jim Phelps, head of the Impossible Mission Force, as he penetrates a six-level, 60-room, randomly generated enemy base, collects intelligence, and dispatches rogue agents. His ultimate goal is to reach the "document room." 

     

Attributes alone do not make an RPG.

        

Phelps has attributes: endurance, stamina, accuracy, agility, judgment, and luck. Based on a small number of trials, endurance seems to roll in the 8-20 range, accuracy around 5-15, and everything else about 2-8. There's no opportunity to re-roll without restarting the game entirely.

    

The game begins with Phelps getting his mission on a reel-to-reel tape, which of course explodes when the message is finished. After his attributes are rolled, he selects from a list of weapons and equipment, including an assault rifle, hand grenades, a knife, sleeping gas, a time bomb, and a fire extinguisher. He then enters the six-level dungeon.

      

The tape will self-destruct in five seconds.

            

Navigation in the game is bizarre. The player gets a split-second screenshot of his current position in the hallway before a text screen takes over and asks the player to input the direction of movement on the numberpad. Did something about the PC-88 make it impossible to show the image and ask the question on the same screen?

      

I had about a second to take this screenshot. I'm heading towards an elevator, with four rooms on either side of the corridor.

            

The corridors are lined with doorways, and the player can choose to enter any of them. They might have documents or enemies or both, and after Phelps deals with anyone inside, the player can choose to destroy the room. As I learned the hard way, if the character doesn't have the right equipment to deal with whatever's in the room, the game immediately ends.

     

If the room requires combat, you get a little screen showing the enemy positions, but I think this is just cosmetic. Everything happens with menu commands, as the player chooses various options related to his equipped weapon.

      

Combat in a "radar room."

             

I'm going to be honest: if I thought this were an RPG, I'd have a hard time playing it. My normal rules don't even require me to play a game if I can't easily translate the text. But I'd rather reject a game on definitional grounds than technical ones, and I think I'm on solid footing here. 

        

This doesn't look much like Peter Graves to me. But maybe that's deliberate.

        

I searched in vain for any evidence that Spay Daisakusen was an officially licensed Mission: Impossible game. Opinions online seem to suggest that it was not. It was written by Yoshinobu Takahashi, who is better known for a game he created the following year: Genma Taisen (1983), based on an apparently-famous manga franchise. Jason Dyer has a solid history of Takahashi and his games on his "Renga in Blue" blog. My translation of the title may be a bit controversial, as I'm not in any way an expert in Japanese. Jason suggests that it should be simply translated as Mission: Impossible; other sites just give it as Spy Mission. I am relying on dictionaries that say that daisakusen means something beyond just a "mission," though—that it indicates a major operation. Some translations use "epic." Hence.

    

10/21/2026 

Ravenloft: Strahd's Confession

You're so vain, you probably think this game is about you.

         

Grinding has proven unnecessary in this game, at least so far, but I start this session doing a fair bit of it anyway, just so I can get my new cleric, Mischa, up to Level 5. I start with ghouls in the Cemetery, but it turns out they only deliver 44 experience points each, so I'd have to kill 100 of them. (Vampires are worth more but apparently do not respawn.) Darklings in town and werewolves in the Wooded Area West of Barovia are worth 105 each, but they're actually dangerous and also somewhat limited in number. From an efficiency standpoint, I think the best option is zombies on the Old Svalich Road North. They're worth 68 points each and there are a lot of them in a small area. More important, they have no status effects when they strike.

   

Once Mischa is Level 5, I head for the crypt with the banshee. It takes some fumbling, but I figure it out. There are two statues flanking the entrance to the crypt, and when I use the pouches of Unusual Gold Dust on them, I awaken the female spirits within them. They speak of a brave elven warrior, slain unjustly by "a prince of our land" (Strahd?), entombed below the crypt. Their sister—the banshee—guards the entrance, but their blessing will allow us to pass. Sure enough, when we enter the crypt, the banshee is gone. Stairs head downward beyond the point that she guarded.

       

My first idea, to throw the dust on the banshee, ended more quickly and hilariously than this.

          

We head down and find ourselves in the Elven Warrior's Crypt, Lower Level 1, which of course suggests that there will be multiple levels. I thought this was going to be a quick lark. We start exploring corridors decorated with statues and tapestries. 

   

We meet the ghost of the titular Elven Warrior in the second chamber. He relates that the prince who slew him was not Strahd, but his own brother. Both brothers loved the same woman (the banished banshee), who the brother also killed. To free their spirits and allow them to go to Avernaith, I will need to find a locket in the hallways below.

       

It was nice of someone to decorate the place.

         

Encounters in this dungeon:

   

• Werebats and wights. The werebats pose no real danger, but the wights can level-drain, so I start using "Negative Plane Protection" scrolls and spells. It turns out that they a) only protect one character for b) one hit. Easier to just stay back, which isn't so hard since the wights seem to have trouble with doors. Still, I end up reloading a lot in this area. The wights sound like elephants.

      

Freaky but easy. Like your mom.

       

• A room full of arrows for some reason. I'd rather have my back characters do nothing than spend time picking them up after each battle. Fortunately, my back characters have returnable throwing weapons.

     

A special screenshot for my OCD readers.

        

• A room full of shields and spears, including two Javelins of Lightning. I'll save those for some future boss battle that will definitely come at some point and make itself crystal clear when it does. 

• A lightning bolt trap. Maybe a thief would have identified and disarmed it.

• Mage scrolls with "Wizard Eye" and "True Seeing."

• A spinner.

• Multiple piles of bones, each of which I feel compelled to try the Rod of Rebirth on.

• I like the paintings and tapestries, but the artists in this place seriously need some new ideas. Everything is either a ship confronting a sea monster, an evergreen tree, or a king in robes carrying a staff.

    

Nice of the developers to take a position on Maine politics.

       

• On the floor of a corridor, in a pouch, I find a Ring of Free Action.

• We encounter something called a "pyre elemental." It repeatedly kills my first two characters. The game has no "Resist Fire" spell. I kill it by shooting it at a distance with a Wand of Frost. Mischa hits Level 6. There are more of them later, and Somers, Quill, and Glorianna all hit Level 8 at about the same time.

           

I like to think I'm not shooting a "Fireball" at him.

          

The large level falls into a pattern. There are four locked doors in one section. Hidden buttons around the level open the doors in succession. Each door has a teleporter behind it that takes the party to a new section of the level, where they must find the button to open the next teleporter before finding the teleporter out of the hidden area. Each "return" teleporter dumps the party in the corridor with the lightning bolt trap, where they must hie out of the way before the bolt fires.

      

This is a big dungeon.

         

Eventually, we find a key, which unlocks the door to the next level. The lower level is equally as large as the upper one and very maze-like. We meet more pyre elementals, and for undead, the game introduces specters. They level-drain just as quickly as wights and are utterly unimpressed at my attempts to turn them. I start keeping "Prayer" and "Aid" going as I travel. "Negative Plane Protection" doesn't seem worth memorizing given how short a time it lasts. 

      

Somehow, this is the best shot I got of a specter. Look, from now on, there are no more "spectres" or "sceptres" on my blog, regardless of how the game spells things.

         

I do my best to actually use items as we move forward, including wands, potions, scrolls, and Oils of Fiery Burning. I think it's time to admit that I'm never going to use all these "Raise Dead" scrolls, though. I can't imagine a scenario in which I'd rather lose a point of constitution than reload an earlier save. I also have a lot of "Cure Disease" scrolls, and I'm waiting for something to cause disease.

        

This level requires finding a bunch of these buttons.

        

Moving on:

   

• A room has a Wand of Fireballs and a suit of Elven Chainmail. Glorianna remarks that even mages could wear the chainmail—except that she can't.

     

Is your name Willis? 'Cause I have to ask you . . .

        

• Mischa hits Level 7 against another pyre elemental. This has been a good session for him. 

• Fireballs shoot down some corridors. 

• In a nook, I find my first magic shield along with a magic battle axe.

• In another nook, a Bag of Holding with eight slots, all filled with stones. I note that you can put other containers in it, but I'm a bit afraid to do that.

• More spinners. They're particularly annoying in this game because if you travel a single inch beyond the spinner, you have to turn around and enter it again. You have to notice immediately when you've spun, stop, and then back up to continue going the original direction. I'm never a huge fan of spinners, but I definitely like them more in tiled games. 

         

There's no way to show a spinner, so here's a nice shot of a statue.

        

The goal on this level is to open a series of doors, each with a button hidden somewhere in the dungeon. I get all but one of them on the first pass, then have to run around for about an hour hunting down the last one. The succession of doors ends in a large room with the elven warrior's signet ring.

     

Back on the first level, the warrior gratefully accepts the artifact: "You have freed not only my tortured soul, but that of the groaning spirit and her sisters. We go to Avernaith, that place of beauty away from all but elves." He leaves behind an ancient elven sword, platemail, shield, helm, and crown. The last item is clearly the second item I need to use Trimia's Catalogue and escape this place.

        

All right, lyricists: get to work.

        

While I was fiddling with my inventory at some point during this session, I noticed that almost all my scrolls are called "Scroll of Whatever," but a few of them are called "Special Scroll of Whatever." I note that the game won't actually let me use them. I come to suspect that these are the spells needed to cure the werewolf over in the Wooded Area West of Barovia. Once I'm in the sunlight again, I head over there to test the theory.

     

Quill tries to be polite about it.

      

There are three Special Scrolls: "Atonement," "Cure Disease," and "Remove Curse." If the order matters, then I'm lucky enough to get it on the first try. The werewolf melts back into a human. He's happy to be normal again, but he remembers his victims as a werewolf. "I must make amends. I must help those families I have cruelly torn." (This immediately reminds me of the Jack Handey quote: "It's sad when a family is torn apart by something as simple as a pack of wild dogs.") He gives me a key to his house in Barovia, where he says a questionable "reward" will be waiting: "Many of my victims' belongings are there."

         

Will your story shine like a light, or end in a field?

         

Ugh. There are a million houses in Barovia, and I don't remember which ones had locked doors. I should have been using annotations. I sigh, head back to Barovia, and find the house in about twenty minutes. His room of blood treasure does have a lot of stuff, including a halberd, seven sling bullets, an adamantite plate helmet, a dagger, a cloak, a spear, a shield, two Potions of Extra Healing, a quiver, Keoghtom's Ointment, a suit of chainmail, Gauntlets of Dexterity (they just add +1), and a Ring of Regeneration. 

    

As we enter the room, Somers the Paladin complains: "There is nothing here worth defiling our good natures over. How can we confiscate the objects of the slain, of innocents sent to their deaths by a werewolf?" But Somers the Paladin disagrees: "What's done is done. Lord Dhelt's Amulet is our goal, retrieving it the greater good. To use what we can from these supplies is only common sense."

      

Maybe she's possessed.

             

This is the kind of thing I was just talking about in the comments. Clearly, the game is just selecting the speakers at random; otherwise, Somers wouldn't be arguing with herself. It would have been nice if these types of outbursts were tied to the characters' classes or alignments. The first one makes sense coming from the lawful good Somers; the second may have made more sense from a more chaotic or neutral character. You could imagine an evil character being even more mercenary, although I don't think the game has any.

     

It's an authentically good roleplaying choice, whether to use powerful items like the Gauntlets of Dexterity and Ring of Regeneration despite their grisly origins—although it raises a key question: in a blobber, who are you really "role-playing?" I keep the items, less because I'm convinced it's the right decision and more because I haven't saved the game since before I cured the werewolf. But if Somers had made a stronger argument and not immediately contradicted herself, I probably would have kept her happy. 

    

I can't think of anything to do at this point except head for Ravenloft, I head up the Old Svalich Road North and unlock the gate. A cutscene shows our arrival at the castle. No key is necessary to enter the building itself.

      

"Particularly since you've been here before and met him."

      

We're back on the main floor of Castle Ravenloft. The first door we open disgorges a huge pack of doom guards. Backing up from them, we accidentally leave the castle and have to watch the cutscene again as we re-enter.

      

We're greeted by Strahd's minions.

       

The doom guards turn out not to be very hard, though they're worth a solid 500 experience points. Amidst growls of some nearby monsters, we move into the main hall, where we've already been. The dining room in which Strahd greeted us last time is empty, though there's a nice portrait of him on the wall. On the other side of the room, between two griffon tapestries, is a portrait of what looks like a man and a woman. It's too bad that the graphics can't quite show more detail.

      

When you get to my last paragraph, remember this shot.

         

An illusory wall in the dining room leads to a hallway with more doom guards and a gargoyle who dies so quickly that I don't get a screenshot. The hallway ends at stairs going both up and down. Instead of continuing to follow the right wall and go immediately upstairs, I decide to take this castle one floor at a time. I'm going to need to break this entry while still in the Castle, and it will get confusing if I'm all over the place.

       

A difficult decision.

         

Continuing to move counter-clockwise around the floor, I find:

   

• A lightning trap. It's right on the other side of the secret door from the dining room. I don't know how I missed it on the way through. Again, I'm curious if a thief helps with these traps.

• Another set of up/down stairways in the main hall.

• A long hallway with more doom guards. Mischa hits Level 8. 

• In an enormous chapel with numerous benches, we find a book on the floor. It is titled I, Strahd. In it, Strahd describes how his brother, Sergei, was destined to be a priest but fell in love with a peasant girl named Tatyana. Strahd scorned his brother's choice, then fell in love with the girl himself the moment that he saw her. "From that moment on, my brother became no more than a cold obstacle to me, and Tatyana became my life." Honest of him. I wouldn't have left that book on the floor. 

       

Strahd says that he "fell in love," but all he can say about the girl is her physical appearance. Gross.

        

• Two side rooms, perhaps a vestries, have more doom guards and gargoyles. Each has a stairway up.

       

Got a screenshot this time.

        

• An illusory wall on the north end of the chapel leads to a small closet with a mage scroll of "True Seeing" and two cleric scrolls of "Cure Serious Wounds."

   

At this point, I cannot find any other paths from the Main Floor, although the misshapen automap suggests otherwise. I've rubbed along every wall looking for illusory doors and visually inspected them for buttons.

          

The automap at the end of this session.

       

For my next move, I decide to go down first, heading for the stairway behind the dining room. It takes me to the Larders of Ill Omen. The "larders" part is justified by the numerous barrels and boxes on the level, the "ill omen" part by the numerous undead that I meet. There are two vampires, both of which I manage to kill without taking any level drains. The other undead are wights and . . . skeletons. Seriously? Skeletons haven't been an issue in at least four character levels. I mow down scads of them.

           

I don't know why I'm wasting a "Fireball" on them.

         

I don't find a single item on the level except for a scroll of "Raise Dead," which is the last thing I need. I do, however, find two stairways up to unexplored areas on the Main Floor. 

      

Lots of miscellaneous notes:

 

• "Light" makes a big difference. I wish I'd had it from the beginning. I like when in-game spells make a difference for the player, not just the characters.

• "Wizard Eye" is supposed to let the party scout around without moving the party. In practice, it just shoots forward for a few steps and then dissipates.

• I wish someone would tell me what "Knock" is in this game for. And lockpicks.

• While I'm on things that don't work, I'm not sure "Turn Undead" really does anything in this game. I haven't been able to get anything meaningful to happen with it since the caves west of Barovia, and I'm not sure it really did anything even there. 

• I would give a lot to know what these things are supposed to be. You can't see it in the screenshot, but they wiggle. 

      

At least they're just cosmetic.

       

• All of my characters wear helmets, but the book says they don't do anything. The ancient elven helm does modify armor class by -1, but it's the only one so far that does. 

• No comment on the holy symbols? Can I just toss them? They do nothing if I click on them. 

• This late in the game, I noticed that hitting the SPACE bar changes the nature of the interface, allowing the player to move the party exclusively with the mouse. Moving the mouse right and left moves the party rather than moving the cursor across the screen. Moving forward and backwards does the same to the party. It's a cute bit of programming, but I find it awkward, and you have to exit the interface any time you want to go into inventory.

• The game has a quick save option (S) and a quick load (SHIFT-R). They usually work great, but about one time out of five, the game decides that you can go screw yourself and doesn't save. Twice, I've had the whole system break, with both commands unresponsive until I quit and reloaded. This is one of the earliest games I can remember with a quicksave option, maybe even the first, but it would be nice if it worked.  

• I'm going to have more to say about this at the end, but I really miss epic battles. I'm not sure that they're even possible in this engine, since battle happens so fast that the player doesn't have time to finesse the tactics. Ravenloft would work great in Might and Magic VI's engine, with the ability to pause the game and go into turn-based mode. 

         

Character standings at the end of this session.

       

Let's do a character/equipment check-in:

    

• Somers is a lawful good Level 8 human paladin. She wields a Paladin's Sword +3 and a magic shield (unidentified). She wears ancient elven plate mail, an adamantite chain helm, Gauntlets of Dexterity, a Ring of Protection, and a Ring of Regeneration. Her armor class is -6.

• Quill is a chaotic good Level 8 half-elf ranger. He has an ancient elven sword and an ancient elven shield, and he wears magic chain mail (unidentified), an ancient elven plate helm, a Ring of Free Action, and a Ring of Protection. His armor class is -5.

• Mischa is a neutral good Level 8 human cleric. He carries an Axe of Hurling and a regular shield, but as I was writing this, I decided the regular shield was silly, tossed it, and decided to start putting usable items in his left hand. He wears a suit of regular plate mail, an adamantite plate helm, and a Ring of Fire Resistance.

• Glorianna is a neutral good Level 9 elf mage. She's got a Dagger of Throwing in her right hand and either a wand or scroll in her left. She wears a cloak +2, a bronze plate helm, and a Ring of Wizardry.

      

Their collective inventory is an overflowing mess, and I have got to start using more magic items.

            

My mother wouldn't have understood this, but I still would have been embarrassed to show it to her.

         

As I wrap up, I want to say that in a game that has done well with creating a sense of atmosphere, Ravenloft is particularly remarkable. It feels like a real place, with identifiable rooms and a sensible layout. The art department went to the next level here, introducing some images not found in other parts of the game. The combinations of furnishings, paintings, tapestries, candelabra, sconces, boarded-over stained-glass windows, etchings, and cobwebs make Ravenloft a joy to explore. At the same time, it's a little frustrating because it's 1994, and the graphics are not quite there. Worse, the sound problems that I mentioned in my first entry (.wav files that have only one volume and no subtlety) both slightly enhance the mood and slightly ruin it. I don't often call for remakes, but I would love seeing a modern take on this setting.

    

I have to say, this was a tough session to end. I wish I could just keep playing this instead of going back to Pagan.

   

Time so far: 25 hours 

    

****

    

Previous entry in this series

    

Next entry in this series

10/18/2026 

Pagan: Super Green

It would be nice if this door would just stay open.

         

I start this session by returning to the Upper Catacombs, which I don't think I fully explored last time. Following the rightmost wall pattern, I first come to a door to the Lower Catacombs. It's locked, but it opens with my Key of the Scion, which being a staff instead of an actual key, doesn't go on the same key ring that I can use for every other key.

    

The Lower Catacombs that I enter do not seem to be the same place I visited before (by falling down a pit). It's a maze of  columbaria and bones, cracked floors showing lava underneath, fireballs shooting constantly from hidden spouts on the walls (why?). Levers open gates as I move forward. Skeletons stand as sentinels against the walls but rarely attack.

      

This doesn't seem right.

        

Continuing to follow the right wall, I come across a door flanked by two skeletons and a fireball spitter. The door closes as I get near, but I'm able to open it again. Unfortunately, I cannot get through it. In the game's perspective, the open door blocks the passage beyond, so I cannot see whether there's actually an opening or just a blank wall. I try jumping for some reason, and it works, sending me soaring through the door and into a room with multiple treasure chests, flasks of oil, and weapons. The chests have banal things like helmets, more oil flasks, and shields—until I open one full of magical weapons, including a copy of the Slayer mace I've been carrying for multiple sessions. Is this some kind of cheat room? If so, the player ought not to be able to stumble into it so carelessly. I'm on the verge of letting myself take a magic shield when I realize I have no way out of the room. I don't want to navigate back here, so I reload from outside of the room and continue. 

    

Twenty minutes later, I'm so annoyed by the Lower Catacombs' constant fireballs, lava pools, skeletons, one-way gates, and twisty passages that I just reload from the beginning of this session, undoing all my progress. Why am I bothering to explore anyway? My character is already at max statistics and has more money than he knows what to do with.

   

I re-enter the Upper Catacombs and this time head right for the Birthplace of Moriens. When I unlock the door with the Key of the Scion and enter, it seems I've been teleported to an entirely different dungeon. An altar with some sparkly lights above it has a plaque reading: "The Birthplace of Moriens"; it seems odd to me that he was born on an altar in the catacombs.

 

His parents were into some kinky stuff.

     

I continue exploring this area and find the remains of some previous adventurer. Based on a letter and a book found in his backpack, I gather his name was Trecaste. He was sent on a mission from someone  named Drokar to find the ancient Zealan shrines to the gods of emotion, "which could be the key to freedom." The shrines were mentioned in a book written by someone named Yradan the Scholar. Drokar warned Trecaste that "the agents of the Titans, both human and otherwise, are numerous."

      

A large set of double doors exits this tomb to the east, where I enter a twisty earthenwork cavern. Encounters here:

   

• Spiked balls rolling back and forth across the corridor in several places. I try to avoid them and of course manage to walk into them every single time.

     

Just what the dungeon needed.

       

• Five levers surrounding a fenced-off chest. "Do not go near that, Avatar," the Guardian advises as I approach. When I pull one of the levers, the others all activate in a particular order. I watch the order, figuring I will have to replicate it. But as soon as I pull the first one, the gates lower and I have access to the chest, which has a single key to a nearby double-door. I don't know what the other levers were for. When I try a couple, it just sets off traps, so I leave them alone and continue on.

      

This was easier than it looks like it should have been.

       

• A chest has something called the Skull of Quakes. It seems to be a usable item, as I get a targeting cursor when I double-click it. 

• A gate that I cannot figure out how to open, so I have to approach the area from a different direction.

        

Never figured this one out.

       

• This different direction involves a room with a maze of one-way gates. I'm able to avoid a lot of them by climbing up to a platform and just jumping over them, although that's perhaps the intended solution.

     

I feel like I should be able to leap over these fences.

         

• The maze dead-ends in a gravestone that reads "AMRAZHAR. BY THE ANCIENT ONES, HE IS MET." I'm about to turn around and go back (to where?) when I realize that a nearby table has a vial of blood, a pile of blackmoor on it, and an empty pouch. These are the two reagents needed for "Open Ground," the spell that opens passages in stone walls. Figuring that's too specific to be a coincidence, I mix the spell and cast it. Instead of a hole opening in the wall, a pit opens in the ground. It then takes me longer to figure out how to finagle the game into actually letting me jump into the pit than it took to solve the puzzle in the first place. 

• A bunch of locked doors that none of my keys open. 

        

The Avatar can see that this pit goes straight through to the next floor, but I cannot.

         

I arrive at a room with a table and a bunch of colored "rolling spheres," like billiard balls, some on the table and some on the floor. There's also a skull on the floor. A closed gate is shut nearby. I spend a good half an hour in this room, trying to figure out what to do. Double-clicking on the balls causes them to skitter away from the player, and if they hit another ball, they carom in a predictable direction. The physics are fun, but to what end? What do the colors mean? Can I even see all of them?

      

I spent forever trying to bonk the balls into the skull, trying each color, then trying each color off of a different color. I try shooting the balls under the gate, which doesn't work. Finally, I'm at my wit's end. I open my browser to search for a hint, then I figured if I'm going to do this, I might as well do it right. I download the official cluebook and search for a hint there. Do you know what the answer is? To throw one of the balls (which the book calls "marbles") onto the raised platform beyond the gate. That's it. None of the colors or physics or the number of balls has anything to do with it. Meanwhile, there's nothing about the platform that says "throw something up here." This may be one of the worst CRPG anti-puzzles ever designed.

         

Someone needs to suffer for this.

      

The area beyond has chests and barrels with a bunch of reagents, almost 250 obsidian coins, and two keys. One of the keys opens one of the doors in my backpath, but there's nothing behind it but bones and trash.

   

I next come to a puzzle involving three stairways with three pressure plates in front of them. In contrast to the "rolling ball" puzzle, this one I ultimately find tough but fair. Some experimentation shows that:

   

• Each stairway has four steps. 

• The rearmost step can be up to four steps high. The third step can be up to three steps high, and so forth. 

• Stepping on each plate affects the stairway in front of it. 

• The first time the Avatar steps on a plate, it lowers the forwardmost step in the associated staircase by its current height.

• The second time he steps on a plate (whether the same one or a different one), it raises the rearmost step that is not currently raised by the same height.

• However, no step can be higher than the step behind it. Nothing happens in that case.

   

I hope that makes sense. The overall goal is to slowly transfer the stairs from the rightmost staircase to the middle staircase, using the leftmost staircase as a kind of holding place. Solving the puzzle felt very familiar. At first, I thought it was like playing solitaire and transferring cards between stacks so you can put the cards you want in the correct order. It is a bit like that, but my memory was more atavistic than that. Suddenly, I recalled a toy I had when I was a kid—maybe when I was four or five years old—involving three pegs with fat plastic rings around them, with the goal to transfer the rings from one peg to another. I did some Googling, and it turns out that this puzzle is called the "Tower of Hanoi" and was invented in 1883. It works with any number of disks (or stairs) and only three pegs, but the total number of moves needed to complete the transformation is 2^n-1 with n being the number of disks. With four stairs, I needed 15 moves to solve the puzzle, not accounting for any errors, which sounds right.

             

In the midst of the puzzle. I started by walking on the tiles, but there was a handy clock nearby, and it seemed easier just to stand in one place and transfer the clock between plates.

           

At the top of the stairs are a couple of beams of light that kill me when I try to cross them. I can't find any way to turn them off, and throwing things through them doesn't accomplish anything. I can't climb the walls around them. At first, I think this is the moment for the "Withstand Death" spell, but something tells me to try "Rock Flesh" first, and that works. Nearly put myself in a walking dead position there, since "Withstand Death" apparently works only once, and you need it in a very specific place.

      

On the other side, I come to a temple with three statues, two male, one female, and I gather these are the old gods of emotion worshiped by the Zealans. I seem to have gone far afield from Moriens' Birthplace. The door behind the statues is locked. I find a key beneath a skeleton, but it doesn't open the door. I turn around to try the key in the doors in my backpath, and of course I forget about the lasers and blunder right into them, forcing me to reload from before I even solved the rolling ball puzzle. What's wrong with me?

        

Every. Damned. Time.

          

One of the doors the key opens takes me to a room with a Zealan Ceremonial Shield, with three icons that appear to be a sword, a hand, and scales of justice. The game won't let me equip it as a shield, but I'm so over-encumbered that I have to leave my regular shield behind to take it. 

   

Back in the temple, I put the shield on the shrine. Nothing happens at first, but then I walk into the area between the three statutes, and they begin speaking to me.

   

• Male: Greetings, Avatar. We are aware of you and from where you come. We also know of what you seek.

• Female: And we wish to help you! You must become your destiny.

• Avatar: What is my destiny?

• Female: That is not important now. Know that we wish to help you in your quest. Behind us lies the tomb of Khumash-Gor.

• Avatar: Who is Khumash-Gor?

• Other Male: Only the most fearsome warrior who ever lived! Eons ago, he was a great chieftain to our worshipers. But now he lies forever entombed in honor of his valor.

• Female: With him rests an artifact that is the key to tremendous power. It is made of Blackrock, a substance with which you have considerable familiarity. The small object is shaped like a pyramid. But be warned!

• Other Male: For even in death, Khumash-Gor has kept the fighting spirit to which he held so tenaciously in life. He will not part readily with his possessions.

• Female: Good luck, Avatar.

      

Assuming that the three ancient gods named in the Chronicle of Pagan are the only emotional gods, I suspect the first male is Apathas, god of impartiality. He delivers his lines in an indifferent monotone. That means the female god is Amoras, the goddess of love and joy, and the other male is Odion, god of hate and grief.

     

Alas, the gods spoke only on audio, no subtitles.

         

Khumash-Gor is mentioned in the Chronicle of Pagan as the warleader who united the Zealans into a single society, although his empire did not survive his death. He seems to be based on Genghis Khan. 

    

The problem is, the door behind them still doesn't open. I waste a lot of time running around the level, shifting every pile of bones and piece of junk, looking for the key. Eventually, I head back to the cluebook (boy, is that dam broken now) and discover that I have to use one of Mythran's Scrolls of Dispelling Magic Portals on the door. And that's what the scrolls are called, cluebook, not "Opening Scrolls" like you have it. So apparently they work on both illusory walls and regular doors—two completely different things. What makes this door magical, even? How many other locked doors could have been opened with this spell? How did players ever win this game back in the day?

    
"Who is foolish enough to disturb the sanctity of Khumash-Gor!" a corpse in a throne demands as I enter. A phantom appears, but it dies after a few swings of Slayer, leaving the Scepter of Khumash Gor. A chest behind him has Blackrock pendant. 

     

Khumash-Gor is just a regular ghost.

       

Back outside, the gods congratulate me, saying the Blackrock pendant is the key to unlocking a great power. Then they lay out the rest of their plan: I will become the fifth elemental titan, the Titan of Ether. I will then steal the powers, and the worshipers, from the other titans. "The greater the abilities you can accrue, the better chance you have of weakening the other four and eventually standing with them as more than just equal." They recommend that I somehow deal with Hydros in her underground temple next, even though I haven't exactly stolen Lithos's power or worshipers yet.

     

To me, this sounds like a plan for the gods of the Zealans to get revenge on the elemental titans who usurped them, not a plan for me to get home. I go back through the screenshots to recall what Mythran told me: "It is the power of the Titans that makes [interplanetary] travel impossible . . . Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that to depart from Pagan, one must master the powers of all four of the Titans." This whole time, I've been assuming that an extra-dimensional portal will somehow require me to channel Air, Earth, Fire, and Water together like an Aes Sedai in The Wheel of Time or something. But a reread of Mythran's text suggests that he means the Titans are somehow blocking inter-dimensional transport, and I'll thus need their powers to defeat them and destroy this blockade. That's the only way I can come up with to reconcile Mythran's suggestion with the Zealan gods' plans, anyway.

        

The elemental titans suck, no argument, and I suspect that they're either creations of the Guardian or somehow in league with him. They don't seem to be very good for the Pagans, and thus worthy of toppling, although I'm not sure the God of Apathy or the God of Hate are better options. Plus, the damage seems to have already been done. There are about a dozen people left on Pagan. The best I can do is open a portal and lead them all to a different place, not restore their ancient gods.

   

There is an extent to which these conversations re-contextualize the events to which I objected during the previous session. If the Avatar already suspected all of this, and was just playing Lithos for a fool, his behavior is a bit more defensible, although I still feel bad about lying to Vividos and the other necromancers. I think the bigger problem with Pagan is the Avatar himself. Commenters are right that previous Ultimas didn't give a lot of role-playing options, but it still felt to me that the Avatar was more of a real person. His dialogue occasionally had a bit of wit. He had friends. The Avatar of Pagan is a featureless marionette, helmeted even when he isn't wearing a helmet, constantly repeating the last thing that an NPC said, as if he recently read a pop psychology book about mirroring. I don't know what's going through his mind. It's not the same thing going through my mind. There's no relationship between player and Avatar.

     

As I head back to Vividos—goddamn it, I walked through the lasers again—I have to wonder what his big spiritual experience was at the Birthplace of Moriens. Was it the shiny lights? Or did he make it all the way to the Zealan gods? When I return to Vividos, I tell him I've completed the quest, but all he has to say is, "I hope that your experience was as wonderful as my own." He has no more dialogue options or quests. I guess I've finished the Lithos questline, then? I don't really feel like I've defeated him or stolen his followers, not that there are many left.

      

Well . . . I now have a quest to steal your power and kill your god, so probably not.

        

So where do I even go to learn Tempestry, Sorcery, or Theurgy? The theurgists supposedly live on Argentrock Isle, reachable by a bridge, but I don't believe I've found this bridge. The sorcerers live at Sorcerer's Enclave, but I don't know how to reach that, either. As for the tempests—well, Devon is the Tempest, thanks to me, but the Zealan gods mentioned something about an underground temple. Devon, wandering around the palace still in his fisherman's clothes, has nothing to offer.

          

A different Ultima might let me help with that kind of thing.

        

I end up doing a full follow-the-right-wall loop around Tenebrae again, looking for anything I missed, re-talking to everyone I see, discovering nothing new. I end up back in the cemetery again, then the Catacombs, not actually believing that the path to anyplace can run through the Catacombs, especially given that you need an earth magic spell to enter in the first place. But I continue following the right wall, eventually coming back to the Lower Catacombs entrance where I began this session. I sigh, enter, and spend a half hour dealing with lava, fireballs, skeletons, ghosts, one-way gates, levers, innumerable dead-ends, and equally innumerable reloads before finally emerging in a new area with a plaque reading: "NOW ENTERING THE PIT OF DEATH." I explore this area for a little while, then accidentally jump into some lava, then quit.

      

Just before tragedy.

          

Time so far: 33 hours 

    

****

   

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10/16/2026