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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Next entry in this series

   07/02/2026 

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  

     

****

   

Previous entry in this series

   

Next entry in this series

   07/08/2026 

The Search for Freedom: All Parts of the World

 

My world map at the end of this session.

    

Guest post from AlphabeticalAnonymous: 

 

I start this session with mixed feelings. On the one hand, The Search for Freedom continues to serve up decent CRPG fare: a main quest, equipment upgrades, dungeons to explore, monsters to fight, just enough encounters and interactions to keep everything from becoming wholly monotonous, and the satisfaction that comes with leveling up. On the other hand, despite the deceptively small map above, I’m starting to be concerned that this game is too long. The manual promises: "22 dungeon levels, each 20 squares by 20 squares, and 2 outdoor areas, each 32 squares by 32 squares." At the start of this session (after a bit over 30 hours of gameplay), I’ve cleared less than a third of the dungeon levels and explored roughly a quarter of the outdoor areas. Another point also suggests I’m only roughly a third of the way: my characters are all still Level 4, out of a maximum level cap of 13. If the game eventually clocks in at over 100 hours, I suspect that it will have long since overstayed its welcome.
      
The friendly ship captain from Hythenforge drops us off in the Dry Desert in the southeast of Shylyllia Isle. We begin to explore and are quickly thrust into battle with three lesser demons (70 hit points) and 6 fire sprites (30 hit points). I’ve been putting off a detailed description of combat, so here goes.
      

Round one: Fight.

     

Although I’ve found no real use for ranged weapons, the first step is always to try to (F)ire at the enemies because this is the easiest way to scan across the full combat map and see where everything is located. Indoors, there can be walls that allow for some tactics (and that confuse the AI), but outdoors the only relevant terrain is water (impassable) or ground. Here, most enemies are to the south of us, so we’ll focus on them first. Few melee-only enemies seem especially challenging: magic users are much more dangerous (though not consistently, since they often cast useless spells). They’re even more trouble than in Gold Box combat, because here they can still cast their spell even if they were attacked earlier in that combat round. However, if an enemy magic-user is adjacent to one of my characters there’s at least a decent chance that they’ll try an ineffective melee attack rather than casting. In any case, our party tries to surround and kill magical foes as quickly as possible. Having never encountered these enemy types before, we don’t know which (if any) use magic.

Combat order is determined each round by some combination of dexterity and a random roll, with characters and monsters interspersed. In this case we surprised the monsters, so we get a free first turn. Usually my fleetest characters (Kizke, Ruxpin, Becket) move before the slower ones (Durkon, Tyrion), but not always; this time, Tyrion moves first. He (D)elays until Elphaba can move out of his way. Becket is up next but is in the center of the pack, so (D)elays as well. Kizke darts south to swing at, and miss, a Lesser Demon. For some reason it’s now Tyrion’s turn again, so he (Delays) again. Durkon lumbers south, reaching a Lesser Demon but without enough movement points to attack. Becket Delays, and then Ruxpin goes to backstab the same Demon that Kizke attacked. Backstabbing increases the chance to hit and (if successful) does double damage; in this case we get a lucky break, because the Teddy scores a critical hit and immediately kills the Demon. Tyrion marches southwest toward the next-nearest enemies; Elphaba follows close behind, but I decide to have her experiment with spells and turn Tyrion invisible (until he attacks someone). Becket heads down too, and Round Two begins.    

       

Ruxpin (the Teddy in pink) just backstabbed and critically hit a lesser demon.

      

Elphaba delays; a fire sprite moves in from the east; Elphaba delays; a fire sprite closes in; Elphaba delays again; fire sprite; Elphaba. Why did none of my other characters get a turn in that rotation? The demon we were heading for casts "Speed of the Puma" on itself—mostly pointless since that merely gives it more movement points, but now we know they’re a magical threat. Sprite; Elphaba; Kizke lunges at (and again misses) a sprite. Elphaba moves southwest and casts "Slow" on the nearby demon and its attendant sprite; the former resists, the latter is slowed to six movement points per round. Becket and Durkon close in; a Sprite attacks the former but misses. Ruxpin attacks Kizke’s target and connects; the northern demon casts "Speed of the Puma" on one of the sprites near it; Tyrion closes in.  

    

Somehow, I didn't get a screenshot of any of the demons.

    

Round three. This time, four fire sprites move first; several of them attack but either miss or connect for zero damage. My characters have as many as 8 armor points, which means up to 8 less damage than would normally be inflicted. Kizke attacks his sprite again and misses again; Becket moves to the south of the demon and attacks to set up a backstab for Elphaba. He got its attention, anyway: the demon hits back and we receive our first injury of the combat. Durkon backstabs Kizke’s target for 30 damage, killing it. Ruxpin misses a sprite and Elphaba misses the demon, whom Tyrion then hits. At this point, the southwestern demon casts "Hailstorm," which damages all characters and enemies in a 7 x 7 square for 10-20 damage. Ouch, but why didn’t they open with that move? Kizke misses a sprite and Ruxpin backstabs and kills it. Becket and Tyrion miss the demon; the other demon moves in from the north and casts "Lightning Bolt," doing 28 damage to Kizke.

And that’s about it, really. From then on the lesser demons just try melee attacks instead of their potentially-devastating spells, and my characters pair up to set up repeated backstab attempts, first on the demons, then on the remaining fire sprites. We all get 64 XP and a total of 646 gold, both of which are welcome. Kizke is down to 8 hit points; a few other characters are hurt, but none seriously. A somewhat interesting combat, and perhaps I was briefly concerned, but it wasn’t all that challenging and there were minimal options to employ interesting tactics. Part of it is the AI—a more clever pack of demons could have wiped the floor with us—but there’s some other, ineffable aspect that seems to be missing.
      
As it turns out, unsatisfying combat isn’t our only problem. Confident from our recent battle, we soon enter another, identical combat. Wanting more information about our foes, we cast "Identify" on a lesser demon. Though it’s worked before, this time it results in all text becoming invisible, and enemies are suddenly in new positions on the combat map. Then, enemies (and our own party members) occupy many, overlapping positions all at once. I quit and re-load.

      

I love you in every universe.

     

Upon reloading, we instead meet a group of eight laughing lizards with a yellow dragon. The dragon is the toughest enemy we’ve faced in normal combat: 130 hit points, and with a choking breath attack that does 10-20 damage each to several characters. It’s a significantly tougher fight than with the demons, but we win. The secret seems to be Durkon’s "Dragon Bane" spell, which does 70 damage at a time. The rewards aren’t bad either: we get 84 experience each and a chest with 899 gold. Other fights in this area include necromancers and evil heroes; the former can cast "Lightning Bolt" and "Paralyze," but as usual don’t do so systematically. We aren’t even too badly hurt when we finally find our way to Birshada, a town geographically reminiscent of Rimuldar, located in the middle of a lake.

Birshada is another 20 x 20 town with the usual staples: a training center, an arms dealer (with some excellent +2 weapons and armor), a magic shoppe, an inn, a temple, a town square, and even a supply shop selling only torches and lanterns.
      

The best items we've seen yet. Also, a knife and dagger.

       

There are also several unique locations and encounters:

       

• The "Birshada Pottery Museum," which contains over 20 one-square rooms each with a pot. Each pot can be broken, which results in a fight with poisonous rattlesnakes.

• A small gnome with "a pale band of skin on his third finger where a ring may once have been" who promises to tell us where to find a Bloodstone if we can guess his initials. Up to three characters are allowed; for now, we have no idea.

• Nearby, another little gnome introduces himself as Gnimsh. "Can I help you?" he asks. I try RING, INITIALS, GNOME, JOB, HELP, SOULSEEKER, BLOODSTONE, SPHERE, RED SPHERE, KAMAZOL, but get no response.

• A second temple, the "Temple of Bane the Unforgiving." As we enter the high priest approaches us. "What do you say to him?" Whatever we try, he replies "Begone, infidels!" and boots us out. We’ve never heard of any Bane before this.

• A small section of town called the Poor House. A beggar asks for a single gold piece; when we give it to him, he tells us that his cousin "in the North Carpalas Mountains has been to the Isle of No Return and back." That sounds useful except that the Carpalas Mountains are back on the first island/continent, and we have no way to get back there.

• The Poor House is also home to a more enterprising soul, who requests 100 gold for some "very useful information." It’s a seller’s market so we pay: he advises us to look for a hidden temple in the Forest of Spiders (just east of town). Near him, writing on a wall advises that we visit the town square’s beautiful fountain.

• The aforementioned fountain, in the corner of the town square.

• Also in the town square, a colossal statue of a dragon (as usual, described in text but not shown graphically). "It stares at you with cold stone eyes." It sounds like an obvious candidate for the "Stone To Flesh" spell, but the clerics won’t learn that until they reach Level 10. No item that I have seems to affect the statue.

       

Finally, we find Dorf, the man we were sent to by the man in Hythenforge’s so-called blue house. He directs us to a location east of town where he buried a Red Glowing Sphere. "You'll need to keep it out of Kamazol's clutches," he tells us, since three such spheres exist and they are "part of the rituals for restoring the mighty sword Soulseeker."
     
We throw enough coins into the Town Square fountain and are advised that we have "earned a drink from the Fountain of Knowledge." We can choose to drink, or not. If we do, we see a vision of "a great altar," "a great statue of an unknown god," "a large, menacing tower of pure darkness" descending into the ground, "the evil lich-lord" Kamazol laughing to himself, and "a golden throne" upon which sits a faceless, blurry "future king of the realms." Somehow our party interprets this as a positive portent, and we all receive +2 luck "for this morale-raising vision." 

      

Look! Something's wrong with Hen Wen!

       

We trek back to the desert, find the Red Sphere, and return to Dorf. "Very good," he says brusquely, before utterly changing the subject and teaching us all "Mountaineering." After several hours pass in-game, he informs us that we must next reach the Isle of No Return, where the portal to Aegea may be hidden. Dorf recommends that we explore the nearby dungeon Sardain, which is blocked by mountains and so was previously inaccessible. 
                                                                                 
We smash untold pots and fight untold numbers of rattlesnake battles (does anyone remember the old classic, but punishingly hard, beat-'em-up game Battlesnakes?) to clear the Pottery Museum of both vermin and antiquities. After one of the battles, we find a scrap of paper tied with string to a two-handed sword. The paper reads, "DRAGON 3E 4S." The snakes don’t often hit but can poison us when they do. We become too careless and as a result Ruxpin is killed (again). We pay 3000 to resurrect him at the Temple, decide to sell all our goods . . . and the game crashes with a black, blank screen. We reload several times because it turns out the game is crashing only when Ruxpin (not any other character) is the one selling items. 

    

The docents have since denied us re-entry.

      

About this time, I re-read my notes and I realize that I may have missed my chance to get the scabbard from the Pit dungeon on the previous (and now-inaccessible) island. I email the game’s creator; Dr. Feldman isn’t sure, but he suggests that perhaps I'm now in a "walking dead" situation. I’m not yet sure if that was true, but we had definitely missed the scabbard. We reload in the Pit, walk to the scabbard and its forcefield, and (U)se the Bloodstone. "The force field dissipates into a fine mist," and we have the first of three pieces of Soulseeker. (I’m not sure why the scabbard is a necessary part of reforging the weapon, though). Luckily it doesn't take long to re-emerge from the Pit, meet the captain, sail across the river, Flee from every encounter, and march to Birshada.

     

The finest craftsmanship.

     

Clearing out the rest of our to-do list, we (S)earch Spider Forest and find the hidden temple, run by "Father Bob." He asks for a donation of 300 gold, and when we pay it, he "blesses the party." I can’t tell what this has accomplished, and the temple is empty when we try to enter it again. We also repeat all our earlier explorations of Birshada. Meanwhile, the pot clue said "DRAGON 3E 4S." The town square’s dragon statue is five squares east, and three south, of where we found the note. Furthermore, three squares east and four south of the statue is an otherwise-empty square that is curiously labeled "special" on the automap. No amount of looking or searching on either of those squares accomplishes anything. 
    

Not the biggest mystery from this session.

     

The bridge to Birshada is perhaps the best spot for grinding I’ve found so far. Almost every time we cross, we have a chance to enter combat against seven troll fighters and three troll mages! These are powerful fighters and spellcasters: the mages can "Slow," "Paralyze," summon "Hailstorms," and even "Petrify" us. The battles are challenging at first, but the rewards make it worth it: roughly 130 experience per character, and over 1000 gold worth of loot. We grind on the bridge trolls, get everyone up to Level 6, and buy some +2 flails for everyone. These seem to be the second-best "normal" weapons in the game (maybe the best, since they’re one-handed and so allow the use of shields). We also get some +2 shields too. Unsure of how else to proceed, we explore the rest of the continent (finding nothing), grind more, and reach Level 7 and a new sets of spells for everyone.

      

Fighting an infinite series of trolls on Birshada's bridge.

     

I have to say that the game definitely keeps upping the stakes at an effective rate. Enemies start to feel easy for a while, then we reach the next level of challenge and it’s touch-and-go again. Money starts to feel irrelevant for a while, then it isn't because we need to spend 4,000 gold per set of +1 armor. In Birshada, we have no shortage of mysteries; I have no clues as to any of the following: what to ask Gnimsh, how to guess the gnome’s initials, what the statue is about, or what Bane’s temple is for. I suspect (hope) that some of these are linked. Otherwise, our next stop may need to be the Sardain. I’m intrigued by this game and don’t hate it, but I’m not rapturous about it either. I need to find a way to pick up the pace.

   

Time played: 40 hours. 6 party deaths. 3 reloads. 6 crashes.
    

****

   

Previous entry in this series

   

Next entry in this series

   07/05/2026