Al-Qadim: Over, Sideways, and Under

 

I praised this animation in my last entry, then forgot to actually include it.

        

In the last session, we learned that some malevolent force is freeing genies from their vows. My own family's genie, without authorization, destroyed the ship belonging to a rival family and kidnapped my betrothed, Princess Kara. When questioned, the genie intimated that my family ordered the attack, so the caliph had my mother, father, and sister (the only family members who can summon the genie) imprisoned in the capital city of Bandar al-Sa'adat. I don't know whether the caliph is part of the conspiracy, but he said some weird things, and something is clearly going on with him.

   

The sorcerer Farid al-Mutan suggested I seek out the Genie Lords to get to the bottom of this mystery, but to find them, I'll need to learn the name of the island they live on. I can supposedly get that information from a hermit in the library on Shibaz. Before going there, I decided to go to Bandar al-Sa'adat to spend some money at the bazaar and see if I could find a trainer. I've leveled up twice and apparently earned the right to learn "new combat moves," but I haven't had anyone to train me.

   

I rowed back to my ship without incident, healed myself at the orb, and ordered the captain to take us to the capital city. On the way, we were attacked by mini water elementals, but they didn't take much effort. Once on land, I accidentally hit "load" instead of "save" (the menu is very hard for me to interpret), and I had to do it all over again.

        

This is how you have to determine which command is selected. I'm sure that "Save Game" looks like a completely different color to you, but to me it just looks slightly darker.

        

Bandar al-Sa'adat covers its island, so there wasn't anything to find in the "wilderness." The guards challenged me as I entered the city, demanding to know my business. My protestations of nobility got me nowhere. The guards said I couldn't enter any restricted areas or private homes. This is probably the game's way of hand-waving why what is supposed to be a teeming capital is so small. The only area I could explore was a thin north-south street leading to the caliph's palace. There were buildings on both sides.

        

Ha. I'll bet it's not even programmed.

         

Encounters in the city:

    

• A "trade office and money changer." I could trade gems for gold or gold for gems, but I did neither for now. 

• I earned 200 experience points for giving 10 gold pieces to a beggar in an alley. 

• A building "for rent" had a note inside that the previous owner, a scribe, had been arrested for possessing forged seals. "Let this be a lesson to all who plot against the caliph." It was signed by Vizier Zummerand. I told you a couple of entries ago that this game felt a bit like Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (1990); here we have a similar plot of a city ruler turning tyrannical.

      

At least this city's fountain isn't dried up.

        

• A supernatural emporium sold potions of healing (100), extra healing (200), invulnerability (800), and giant strength (500); oils of elemental invulnerability for each elemental type (150-300), Moonstone Shards with different spells ranging from "Water Blast" (400) to "Lightning" (2,200). He also sold me a Gilded Dove for 200 gold. I had the option to say, "No, that is robbery," but it didn't get me anywhere. Apparently, the detailed haggling mechanic in the tabletop game wasn't implemented in the computer version. Anyway, this shop seems to serve as a useful money sink.

• The Travelers' Rest Inn had a sign saying it was closed. A couple of people were hanging out inside, but they didn't have anything important to say to me.

     

This was a common sentiment.

       

• Ingrid's Shop of Wonders seemed promising, but all she would sell me was a slice of honeybread. I wonder if that's like a sweetcake.

• A street merchant was selling cakes, but the game wouldn't let me buy any. Ditto a rug merchant and a guy selling pots.

• Several private residences. 

• On the west side of town, I found not only a trainer, but the same trainer as the one I met in Zaratan, Zubakon. He explained that things are falling apart in Zaratan. I told him I was ready to learn a new combat move. We sparred for a while, but all that happened was I got a second "action circle," which apparently causes my sword swings to damage enemies to the left and right as well as in front of me. If I can get one more (there are only three slots), my swings will damage enemies in all directions. There's no actual "move" to learn.

• A "Gambling Club" offered a game called "Guess the Number," that old "high/low" guessing game that's perfectly solvable in seven guesses. This variant only gives you six, but that's enough to get it 63% of the time, and the game pays 3-to-1. That's a 1.89 gold piece return for each gold piece spent, and the game lets you bet up to 500 gold. The only thing that keeps this from breaking the economy entirely is that it takes time. The interface for adjusting your guess is particularly annoying.

     

This got old fast.

        

• A healing shop. It would be ridiculous to waste money there with free healing on my ship.

• A place called "Reptilian Desires" offered to sell me a "wise serpent" for 102 gems.

• A coal shop, but you need a house in the city to buy from it. 

       

There were numerous NPCs on the streets, most of whom either commented on how oppressive the caliph's rule is becoming or spit on me for being part of the Al-Hazrad family.

        

How does everyone know me?

       

Eventually, I wandered up the road to the caliph's palace, a large building with many rooms. In the grand hall, I met Grand Vizier Zummerand, whom I gave a lesson on agentive versus non-agentive language.

       

This would 100% be my response in real life.

        

The vizier told me I could see the caliph, but I'd have to wait until a gong sounded. So I explored the palace a bit and was treated rudely by multiple guards and other palace residents.

          

That's an awfully specific policy.

       

In one room, I found a floor pattern that could be just decoration, could be the solution to a maze.

   

This is like the wallpaper at a Holiday Inn.

     

Eventually, the gong sounded and I went to the caliph's throne room. I demanded my family's release, which got me nowhere ("Your audacity knows no bounds!"), so I asked if I could just visit them. Worried that I might conspiratorially pass or receive information from accused assassins, the caliph summoned the vizier, who cast a spell to detect if I was telling the truth. The caliph then asked if I knew of any information that would point to my family's guilt or innocence, and I honestly said no. (I know it's not going to go this way, but it would be an awesome plot twist if it turned out my family was responsible.) The caliph said I could visit my father but not my mother and sister.

      

Interesting leadership style.

        

I still had to bribe the guard with 75 gold pieces to get into the dungeon. It was curiously enormous, patrolled by both human guards and miniature copper automatons, another creature outlined in the "new monster descriptions" section of the game manual. (Are regular copper automatons part of D&D canon?) A guard escorted me to my father's cell, which looks fine graphically but is described in the game text as particularly squalid. I observed that my father was pale and frail, but a Potion of Extra Healing fixed him up (and got me 600 experience points). I really liked that. So often in RPGs, you encounter sick or injured NPCs and the game won't let you do anything despite a battery of spells, potions, and other items that routinely cure every affliction you have and bring you back from death's door.

          

My father is an understanding guy.

     

My father asked me to find my mother and sister, find out how they're faring, and report back to him. I pointed out that the caliph had ordered me not to visit them, and he asked if I had sworn an oath to that effect. I said no, so he suggested it wouldn't be a violation of my honor if I ignored the caliph's demands. I agreed with him, but there was a dialogue option to hold firm. I wish I had saved and tried it; I'm curious if that was an illusory role-playing option (e.g., my father would have just demanded that I obey him anyway) or a real one.

     

Hiding from a copper automaton.

       

I had to avoid guards and copper automatons as I explored the dungeon, but it wasn't hard (lots of alternate corridors and empty cells to duck into). There were a lot of NPCs in the cells, claiming that they were there for relatively minor offenses against the caliph, such as criticizing the new laws or spitting on the palace wall. Many complained they were ill and dying. It was very evocative. One prisoner who didn't protest his innocence was Shubakan, the forger, who freely admitted that he forged the vizier's seal for "some guy from the caliph's court." Interestingly, while searching the palace, I found a note in a drawer that said, "Do not forget to see Shubakan." I have no way of telling who the room belongs to, though.

    

One of the caliph's pathetic victims.

      

I found my sister talking to herself in the back of her dingy cell. She came to her senses long enough to upgrade my sling with a +1 sling shard. My mother was far to the east of the dungeon, in a better cell block. She was in good health and told me not to worry about her. I returned to my father, told him how things were going, and got a Ring of Protection +1. It went right onto my character sheet, not in my inventory.

     

Like so.

       

I had hoped my family members would have something to offer about the genie's curse, but my father just said the creature must have found some way to slip his bonds. I had to bribe a guard 100 gold pieces (good thing I had plenty!) to get out of the dungeon, and then I bribed the original guard 400 more to move my father to the dungeon's safest cell. I guess I have no way of verifying that he did so, but I got 1,000 experience points for the effort. 

    

Having nothing else to do in Bandar al-Sa'adat, I left the city, rowed back to my boat, and told the captain to set sail for Shibaz. We were attacked at sea by undead pirates; I had to board their boat to defeat them all. They left a treasure chest with 159 gold and 9 gems. The whole dynamic is silly given that I have infinite healing available on my ship.

    

Bringing the fight to the other ship.

        

Shibaz had a small wilderness area with the same type of creatures in the oasis back home. I was therefore able to gauge the differences in combat with my new sling and powers. To use the new swing, I had to hold down the ENTER key instead of just pressing it. It wasn't easy to master when I needed to strike multiple times in a row. On the positive side, the +1 on the Sling of Seeking seems to add a lot more power than you'd expect given that it's only +1 and not, say, x2.

    

The island had a large complex with indoor and outdoor areas. The outdoor areas had lots of air elementals (regular and miniature), giant boars, debbis (what I've been calling jackals), and those goddamned bees. There was a room in which I got attacked by furniture.

    

Furniture closes in on me. I don't even want to know what's happening in that top left relief.

      

I found a new enemy amidst some oil lamps on sticks: greater ghuls, which can go invisible in the middle of battle. They had me furiously paging through the manual to look up a description (I love these moments), and it turns out that you can still target them when they're invisible. That was the key to defeating them. 

      

They got me the first time, though.

       

I had to bypass a couple of statues, one of which wanted me to recite a pledge to "uphold and protect the wisdom of this place." There was a book that taught me the words, but unfortunately I found it after the statue. The statue gave me the correct oath, but one word at a time, for which I had to pay a gold piece per word. The other statue required me to contribute knowledge to the library, so I had to find a scroll with something valuable on it. I ended up finding three scrolls, but the statue rejected two of them.  

      

If a substance with a partially reflective surface is positioned so that its third index of refraction matches the wavelength coefficient . . . 

        

Beyond the statues was a chest that spoke to me when I opened it. It accused me of trying to steal its treasure, but I protested that I had planned to put treasure in. We negotiated a fee of 13 gems for a shard that it carried; the shard added +1 to my sword.

      

I promise you I no longer think that.

        

Around this time, a guy on a magic carpet started flying around the area. I finally caught up with him outside. He refused to take the mirror I had brought from Farid. When I asked him about the name of the Genie Lords' island, he said he'd go look it up in the library, and he took off.

   
When he didn't come back, I went looking for him. In a room where I'd found some kind of altar (with symbols similar to the floor in the caliph's palace), it was now slid aside, revealing stairs beneath.

     

Either there's a secret staircase in the caliph's palace or this symbology means something else.

       

I went down into a large cave maze, where I spent the next hour or so running around and solving puzzles. This game really likes its puzzle mazes. There were spikes to negotiate, levers to pull, flame elementals to kill, urns to smash, runes to step on, and bridges to cross. Some of the rooms had statues that rushed up to me (causing damage) when I got near them. There were a number of chests with gems, gold, and magic shards.

     

Pulling a stone block.

Solving a rune puzzle to pass through an archway.

Attacked by clingy statues.

          

The hermit was buzzing around on his carpet the whole time. He kept telling me things other than the answers to my questions, claiming that he was answering the question behind the question. But as I made my way forward, I discovered that the secret to reaching the library myself was to find a magic carpet and fly to its entrance. I finally found one, and I hoped I could take it for the rest of the game, like in Ultima, but it only works between floor runes.

     

He was in the backstory!

       

The library was another large maze full of giant rats, giant spiders, earth elementals, and ogrimas (like ogres). There was one battle with a group of thieves trying to loot the place. I reached Level 6 after some random fight. Chests had more gold, gems, shards, and a Ring of Protection +2.

       

An ogrima.

 

How did you even get here?

        

The hallways had about two dozen scrolls, each with a line or two of pithy wisdom, all useless, such as: "Those who need advice the most love it the least" and "Adversity is the straightest path to truth." Some of my favorites:

   

• "Indolence is the stepson of ambition" and "Admiration is the daughter of ignorance." A few more, and I could construct a family tree. 

• "Avoid fighting shirtless young men and you will live long."

• "The mind of the djinn is like a songbird—the words are sweet, but ultimately are about nothing."

• "Allegories are like the waterbags of desert wanderers. No one knows why, but this is so." 

        

I'm pretty sure this is a direct Jack Handey quote.

      

I found a chest called the "Casket of Worldly Cares," which asked me if I wanted to put the magic mirror in it. I did. The hermit later picked it up and started arguing with his own reflection. When I interrupted him, he said: "Why don't you sail on to Jaza'ir Jiza and leave us alone?" I thus got the name of the island of Genie Lords. Later, I found a scroll with the same information.

     

Either way, that's where I need to go next.

     

I got out of there and returned to my ship. I finished off this session with a quick trip to Bandar al-Sa'adat to train to the next level (I now have an attack that damages everyone around me), and then to Sorcerer's Isle to deliver the Gilded Dove to the pahari. In return, she told me that she had spoken to a marid genie who used her Crystal of Vision to determine that Kara is still alive, but "trapped behind a wall of blue energy and grows weaker every day." The marid also wrote words on a parchment that I should speak when I meet my "true enemy": JIZALA MIR'ZABIN. This is the second parchment I'm supposed to read to my nemesis. 

       

Next time, it's on to the island of the Genie Lords. I find the plot fun, the world-building solid, and the atmosphere just on the edge of immersive. I'm still not wild about the mechanics, but I wouldn't mind another 8-10 hours with this one. 

      

Time played: 12 hours 

   

****

   

Previous entry in this series

    

Next entry in this series

07/13/2026 

The Search for Freedom: We Have Conjured Them

We explored a lot of dungeons this session.

        

Guest post from AlphabeticalAnonymous: 

 

We rejoin our party of intrepid adventurers in the town of Birshada. There we had recently learned how to climb through mountainous terrain, but were stumped in their quest to reach Aegea (the land of the dead) and destroy the evil lich Kamazol by several puzzles. These include a gnome who asks us to guess his initials, someone named Gnimsh who is looking for an unknown keyword, and the "high priest of Bane" who also wants a word we don’t know. Hoping that the answers may lie in the next dungeon, we head south. Alas, in the desert we are caught in an ambush with 6 lesser demons and 8 fire sprites. The demons have some serious magic and are smarter about using it: along with several castings of "Hail Storm," they first paralyze Tyrion and then turn Becket, Durkon, and Kizke to stone. The survivors make a forced march back to Birshada, fleeing all encounters, to pay 3,000 gold to revive their companions. On a second try, we make it through unscathed. Dorf’s training does indeed allow us to finally climb over mountains and we quickly reach the dungeon of Sardain, which we were earlier told spans two continents. Inside, we are told "To obtain the third and final Bloodstone, you must search this dungeon well." But I've only acquired one so far. I wonder whether Dorf's red sphere could be a Bloodstone, but it turns out not to be. Paranoid about having missed something in Birshada, we tramp out of Sardain and back to Birshada. This also lets us sell our loot and give everyone either +2 Chain mail or +1 Plate Armor. In town, I try to wrestle with Gnimsh’s request, the gnome’s initials, and the high priest of Bane.

The "Vision" spell reveals no new, obvious secret areas on the town map. Gnimsh can accept statements up to 11 characters long. My notes file contains 31 possibilities from "accumulated" and "cachlodytes" (unlikely) to "unfortunate" and "troglodytes." None of them work. The high priest of Bane accepts up to 14 characters. My notes file contains only two such words: "constitutional" and "distinguishing"; obviously, neither of these work. I could probably brute-force the gnome’s initials (only 3 characters), but I'd rather not try. We spend about an hour of real time purchasing fortune cookies at the magic shoppe, but find no useful hints there. I finally resort to the self-decrypting hint guide included with the purchased game. Here I learn that I shouldn't have ignored Hythenforge’s unopenable door; successfully opening it would have led to a ring inscribed with the two (not three) initials "JH." So this is a game where this single, missed encounter can result in a "walking dead" situation. We tell the gnome "JH," and he tells us a nonsense word to pass to his brother Gnimsh. 

        

This was all rather difficult to unravel.

     

Gnimsh informs us that the Bloodstone is buried in an unopenable chest under the altar of "Bane the Thrasher," and he teaches us a magic charm that will entrance the priest without even using any magic points. That's some charm! I'd like to recruit Gnimsh to my party. In the temple, the priest goes into a trance, digs up the box, gives us its Bloodstone, and re-buries the empty box. Amusingly, if we charm the Priest again he digs it up again and "is puzzled that the box is empty." That’s a nice touch.     

    

Technically, the priest found it, albeit under magical compulsion.

    

We all march back down to Level 2 of the Sardain. It is several levels with various pairs of enemies: pennagalan and ghosts, red dragons and laughing lizards, necromancers and familiars, various flavors of ogres and giants, werewolves and wererats, evil heroes and white wolves. We can successfully flee from almost any combat when the option is given (perhaps due to our high dexterity), though we are still (rarely) thrust immediately into combat. In any case, most combats feel trivial at this point.

     
There are a few fixed encounters: with a stone golem and a pair of yellow dragons. The outcome of these isn't in doubt, either, but they provide some nice textual flavorings before combat begins. Level 3 contains a teleporter maze, and Level 4 has lots of up and down between dungeon levels. None of it is difficult, but it is time-consuming.

   

Ganging up on giants in the Sardain.

     

Various special squares offer messages as we explore the dungeon. These include:

      

• "Powerful Wizards are useful tools," which turns out to be a hint for the next dungeon.
• "Seek the hilt when you hit the bottom," which is a hint for this one.
• "Bloodstones are not always found in dungeons," which JH already hinted at.
• "The key is not in Blusfor"—no idea.
• "Blusfor reaches to the very depths of the fiery infernos of hell!"
• "Balthazar was here."
• "The truth is often found through reversal."
• "Learn the chant."
• "Strawberry jam goes well with cream cheese."
• "The Caballa is second to none."

       
A magic mouth on Level 4 demands that we "Speak the name of he foretold." It’s not Kamazol, Lozamak, Hawkslayer, Arthur, Dorf, or any of our names. Tiring of the game, I inspect the main executable file which tells me the unexpected answer: Razahtlab. Behind it, we use our second Bloodstone on another force field and recover "the mighty hilt of Soulseeker," the only sword that can defeat Kamazol. He then helpfully appears to tell us that he has hidden the final piece, the blade, "in the deepest bowels of the Earth . . . Your quest is in vain, pitiful mortals." In the next chamber, we are suddenly attacked: "This is no ordinary monster, it is Xanthropobl, a beast spoken of until now only in legends." No legends we’ve ever encountered, but no matter: it only hits twice before succumbing. We get 1,000 experience each, and 9,369 gold in the chest it was carrying—effectively doubling our current stash
   

I believe this is the first Internet page ever to feature the word "xanthropobl."

      

On our way back up, we find the shattered remains of the third and final Bloodstone. A giant stone guardian attacks us but never hits. It yields another 500 experience each, plus 5,864 more gold pieces. Behind it is the passageway to Hythenforge that was formerly blocked by a boulder. We sell all our loot and find ourselves now with over 34,000 gold. The economy seems well and truly broken, especially with no new or improved weapons or armor for sale. We all train up to Level 8, prioritizing strength and dexterity. Our friend the captain is still offering one-way trips to Shylyllia Isle, but instead we visit the man in the Carpalas Mountains. On this previously-inaccessible square, we find "a strange boatman" who will take us to the Isle of No Return. We accept and find ourselves at Blusfor Dungeon! 

       

This welcome message is anything but.

     

At this point, I lost my gusto for meticulously exploring every square of every dungeon level. I kept hoping that there would be "extra-secret" squares—special squares that don't show up on the map from the "Vision" spell. But there are lots of empty spaces that clearly don't connect to the critical path, so at this point I start avoiding those to move things along a bit more quickly. Really, mapping is trivial at this point; for example, giant rooms filled with magical darkness squares are no challenge with the "Vision" spell and an always-impeccable automap.
     
After entering the kitchen and killing the solitary chef, we have a rare choice (of a sort):
    

Possibly the toughest role-playing choice in the history of CRPGs.

     

Crackers poison the active character, whereas a sandwich heals all a character’s wounds (although not status effects such as poison). Otherwise, there are several irritating combats with lesser demons and fire sprites. The former can turn my characters to stone, which I can’t heal yet. I feel under-leveled because we lack the "Stone to Flesh" spell, but over-leveled because most combats are too easy. The occasional "dangerous" combat is just because of random luck, when an enemy spellcaster decides to cast an effective spell instead of something pointless like "Protection from Dragonbreath." I suffer a random crash during one battle.

     

Level 2 of Blusfor contains a minotaur. He is nominally found in the center of a "maze," though it’s not exactly challenging to navigate to the center. Although I am told that he somehow gets the drop on us—"Ruxpin is impaled by the Minotaur's horns, killing him," and two characters were already stone—the remaining characters easily kill him. Nearby, we find a bound and gagged friendly wizard, who tells us that we can restore our broken Bloodstone by putting it in a Magic Box and saying OKUNTHAR. Unfortunately, before we can make it up to the surface to restore half of our party a group of lesser demons turns our remaining party members to stone. An honest-to-goodness loss! I reload, kill the minotaur again, and descend to Level 3.

    

If he had gotten one of us with each horn, we might have been in trouble.

      

As suggested by clues on the walls, we encounter a beholder here, which we quickly hack to death. We are then told "You notice that the eye seems to have a strange greenish glow to it. Cut open the eye? (Y/N)" We can hardly refuse such an invitation, and inside find a Green Glowing Sphere. Immediately east of this room, we are attacked by "mutated killer ninja rats," in one of the sillier parts of the game to date. Otherwise, there are several treasure rooms with gold that we don’t need and equipment worse than what we already have.
       
We find plenty of messages on the walls of the dungeon. Something new is that we see several numerals seemingly written on the wall, as seen in the first-person view. That’s something new! We also discover a scroll with instructions for opening the portal to Aegea, a bag of ordinary marbles, and "a gigantic machine here labeled 'Teleporter.' Below is a panel of push-buttons labelled with the numbers 0 through 9." Based on the clues we’ve encountered so far, we correctly deduce that "5209" should take us exactly where we want to go. So it does.
        
We fight some mist demons, fix the Bloodstone in a Magic Box, and then meet: "A large, fat, ugly, child-like creature in diapers here. 'I wanna toy' it whines repeatedly. It will not let you pass. Attacking it would be foolish as it is easily thrice your size and weight and could just sit on you." It must be a child from a century ago, because it’s excited beyond belief by the bag of marbles. It leaves and we find an electronic keypad outside of "THE VAULT." It was just "5902" (the numbers from the previous floor of the dungeon), but then we are faced with "A giant of a man, much resembling the great Thor himself." He tells us we need a glowing key and we will have to dig for it somewhere. I consult the hint guide to learn that we have to walk four floors back up to the outside world, get the key, and descend again. For the life of me, I don’t know how we’re supposed to know where the key was located without the hint file. After following these steps, Thor lets us pass into the "Inner Sanctum" and the sealed portal to Aegea. 

         

The resemblance to Chris Hemsworth is uncanny.

     

Inside the sanctum, another gnome gives us half of a glowing blue sphere and bids us to return to him "for a final gift that you will need for your journey" after we have the last piece of Soulseeker. That piece is guarded by the corpse of Hawkslayer, who defeated Kamazol long ago and who we must now defeat in turn. We kill him and several accompanying specters (losing only Durkon to a one-hit kill), heal up, and recover the blade of Soulseeker. Kamazol taunts us again (not for the last time), and the gnome hands us an onyx key to open the portal to Aegea.  

      

It is 72 inches long and deadly to the touch. How do we carry it?

      

When we enter the portal room, we are attacked by four "etherial [sic] guardians" of the portal. They have 235 hit points each, but more importantly they can kill any character with just a single hit. In an even exchange, we kill four of them but lose everyone but Becket and Elphaba. Luckily, Becket is able to resurrect everyone else (except for poor, stoned Kizke) and bring them back to full fighting trim. 

   

These guys were pretty tricky, I have to admit.

    

We then lift the veil to reveal "that thought by many to have been mere legend—the Portal to The Mad Plain." We unlock it and (with a hint) speak the incantation to open the magical gateway: "ALA CABALLA OPEN FOR ME THAT WHICH WAS SEALED LONG AGO." Ruxpin reaches out and grasps the wooden handle of the portal . . . but is instantly killed. Back to the hint book, which tells us that only a level 7+ Mage can open the portal. So if all of ones' mages were turned to stone in Blusfor, there would be no way to win without a much earlier reload. Durkon resurrects Ruxpin, and then Elphaba tries her hand at it: not only does she succeed, but everyone is healed and gains 100 magic points and 10 hit points.

     

Lucky for us that Kamazol didn't just pop through after we opened it on this side.

     

We awaken in Limbo, Level 1. We are told that we have "a strange feeling of déjà vu, though, as if you've seen, or perhaps heard, of this place before." We find the second half of the Blue Sphere and fuse them together to have our third colored Glowing Sphere. We find a large mirror which causes us to fight our own mirror images: this is a fun twist and sounds interesting, but none of them are particularly bright and so our mirror selves are no match for our real selves. The mirror shatters, and we can take as many mirror shards as we like. I haven’t played too many CRPGs or adventure games, but I know enough not to pass up an opportunity like this. We take six. 

       

No idea what this was about in Limbo, except that this is my real life as a parent.

      

There is an odd section of Limbo including me using "an IBM (It's a Big Machine)" to play The Search for Freedom, as well as a large, furnished living room, dining room, and master bedroom. After a few more combats, we defeat an undead wyvern (just a large dragon, here) who is the final guardian of the portal into Aegea. He tells us that "On Aegea, you must not listen to normal reason, or common sense, for these simply don't exist here. Aegea is the complement, not supplement, to Earth," but this all turns out to be either pointless philosophy with no impact on the game, or an incredibly subtle reference to Thomas Paine. Regardless: we have the chance to leave Limbo and return to the normal world, or to continue on to Aegea in search of Kamazol. Terrified of repeating this entire dungeon, we hurriedly choose the latter.    

      

Can one be foolish when common sense doesn't exist?

    

In Aegea—the world of the dead—at last. As the first notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony begin to play, the voice of our arch-nemesis Kamazol fills the sky. He boasts that: "Here, I am all-powerful. I shall bring you to your knees . . . I am unstoppable, mortal fools! Ha ha ha!" He also claims that there are only a few weeks until the 1,000-day deadline when his portal will open to facilitate his conquest of Earth, even though we’ve only spent 58 days in our quest so far. I can’t imagine how anyone could possibly take multiple game years to get to this point.
   
Time played: 58 hours. 7 party deaths, 6 reloads, 7 crashes, 7 hints.
    

****

   

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   07/10/2026 

Al-Qadim: Master of None

The family genie screws us all.

         

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

   

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

      

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

       

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

    

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

   

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

    

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

      

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

           

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

   

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

       

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

        

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

   

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

    

"Avengers . . . !"

     

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

          

Finish that sentence, buddy.

        

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

      

How still we see it lie?

         

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

   

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

      

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

        

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

      

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

        

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

            

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

      

Maybe I should give Faery Tale Adventure another try.

        

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

     

Some disgusting undead.

        

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

      

Note the condition of the place.

       

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

      

This was very dramatic.

        

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

      

Santa Catalina.

        

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

     

Could I put an outboard on this thing?

       

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

    

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

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

     

Where do you even get this much acid?

       

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

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

      

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

       

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

    

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

               

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

       

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

      

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

       

You threatened to dissolve me. Repeatedly.

         

In subsequent conversation with the couple, I learned:

   

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

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

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

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

          

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

         

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

               

Miscellaneous notes:

    

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

       

My anatidaephobia is acting up again.

        

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

       

This is what I mean.

       

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

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

      

Did I miss that episode?

       

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

             

Another one of the puzzles from Farid's maze.

         

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

      

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

     

Time so far: 7 hours  

     

****

   

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Next entry in this series

   07/13/2026