Shadows of Darkness: Take a Deep Breath, Pick Yourself Up

Every time you visit Dr. Cranium, he's further along his quest to reanimate a body.

       

After the bugs and revelations of the last few entries, I thought it best to start over. I restarted with the paladin, as I wanted to see his story through. The prospect of starting over in a Quest for Glory game is never terribly daunting, since most of the time you spend in the game is scoping the territory and learning how to solve the puzzles. Once you have that down, you can speed through a replay. This time, I was a bit smarter. The game supports unlimited saves, so I started taking a new numbered save every 15 minutes or so. I also took more careful notes about what actions awarded me points, which I've annotated below in parentheses.

   

I'll recount the replay chronologically, although in shorthand when I'm covering things I already did in previous entries.

     

Day 0.5

• Woke up in the initial cavern.
• Searched the skeleton and got money and the dagger (2).
• Searched second skeleton and got money and flint.
• Got the torch.
• Used the dagger on the flint and the flint on the torch to light it (6). 
• Exited the cavern.
• Picked up the sword and shield from the dead warrior. 
• Killed the badders and left the cave.
• Crossed the rope hand-over hand (15) and went outside.
• Got the dark one's sigil from the arch after meeting Katrina (6).
• Grabbed some rocks and flowers on the way to town. It got light as I walked.

 

Day 1

• Walked to town, spoke to everyone, bought everything at the shop.

 

I realized that I had picked up flowers the first time but never really did anything with them. This time, I tried giving them to everyone I met. Olga was grateful for them. Most other characters refused them. I think they helped my "Honor" score go up a bit, though.

     

I'm just trying to be friends, Dmitri.

      

• Used the key from the burgomeister to get into the adventurer's guild (6).
• Got fine sword and rope and grapnel (2).
• Signed adventurer's logbook (2) and used exercise machine (6).
• Solved Dr. Cranium's door puzzle (6).
• Used the TRAP to identify an antwerp (2).

    

While I was at the TRAP, I thought I'd use it to identify some of the other creatures in the game. The nature of the questions it asks you prevents you from identifying most of them (e.g., the vorpal bunny), but it did identify the octopus creatures above the monastery doors as "hexapods" and said I could feed them garlic (2). I had figured that out in the last session, but only by trying everything in my pack.

I gotta be honest; I don't think I've ever counted the tentacles on an octopus or squid.

       

• Caught an antwerp in the trap (2) and solved the antwerp maze (6).
• Solved Dr. Cranium's keyhole puzzle (6).
• Talked to Cranium and solved his copy protection puzzles for health potion (2) and poison cure potion (2). Got one of each potion and some empty flasks from him.
• Shuffled messages from Boris to Olga until the evening.
• Checked into the inn and spoke to everyone there.

    

Here was the first major divergence. Alerted by commenter ATMachine to the importance of the encounter, I slept hour-by-hour until midnight, then went out of my room. My paladin senses alerted me to someone watching me. The domovoi (cool Wikipedia entry) was sitting above the fireplace like an elf on the shelf. He introduced himself and was happy to hear that I'm a hero, as Mordavia really needs one. He promised he'd explain more at a later meeting. There wasn't much to do at this point, so I went back to bed and slept until morning.

      

It took me a while to spot him.

  

Honestly, I'm not sure what hint I missed that would have led me to exit my room in the middle of the night. I think most players would "sleep until morning" if they used the bed at the inn at all.

    

Slept until morning.

 

Day 2

 

• Went outside into forest. Met Leshy (2) and got his quest.

 

I went back to the screen with the squid obelisk and the bonsai tree. I tried throwing rocks at the "dam" again and managed to crash the game. Discouraged, I looked up the error online and discovered that I was approaching the puzzle wrong. What the fighter/paladin is supposed to do is loosen it with the rope and grapnel, climb up to the ledge above it, then retrieve it with the rope and grapnel. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, since in previous games "Climbing" was always a thief skill and "Throwing" belonged to both fighter and thief. But anything to avoid the crash, I guess. I wasn't a good enough climber to solve this yet, so I marked it for later. 

     

Man who snag bonsai tree with rope and grapnel accomplish anything.

      

• Finished Boris/Olga exchange. I didn't get any points for it, but my honor went up.
• Killed a wyvern.
• Met the Rusalka and gave her flowers (6).
• Back in town, entered the monastery (6).
• Gave garlic to hexapod and entered basement (6).
• Drank liquor, had vision, and got Ritual of Blood.
• Couldn't open the desk because I wasn't strong enough.
• Returned to the adventurer's guild, used the exercise machine, practiced climbing for hours. It was dark when I left.
• Went to the town square and met Piotyr.
• Climbed over the wall, went into the forest, got drained by a wraith.
• Met Anna and convinced her she was a ghost (6).
• Finally got the damned bonsai tree (15).
• Filled a flask with the goo that surrounded the tree in case it was "grue goo." I got (6), so I assume it must be.

   

I had been talking to Irene about this game, as she had played it with me back in the mid-1990s. She reminded me two things that I didn't remember. The first was that we hadn't finished it in the mid-1990s because of a bug. The second was that we had captured some will-o-wisps in a jar by giving them candy. I didn't have enough time to yell "spoilers!" before that second part was out.

   

Now that I knew that, I felt it was silly to ignore it, so I returned to the wisp screen, since it was nighttime and right next door to the bonsai screen. I lured the wisps with candy and then captured them in an empty flask (6).

    

Irene always gets me in trouble.

      

• Went to Erana's Garden and slept for the night, got the first nightmare. I spent more time searching the garden than I had the first time, and I found 30 crowns in a lamp.
• Woke up to find the will-o-wisp dead! Lost like 30 honor points, which cost me the paladin healing ability. I guess I should have delayed finding them. Reloaded from before the bonsai. This time, slept in the garden first, then went and got the bonsai. Left the wisps alone.

 

Day 3

 

• Encountered another wyvern. Tried letting the game fight for me, but the problem is, it never seems to parry. Got poisoned again and ran through all my stamina. 

    

I returned to Leshy with the bonsai tree, but he wouldn't even acknowledge that I had it. Fortunately, I had just spent a while clicking all around Erana's Garden, and I had noted a pile of dirt there from which the bonsai might have been removed in the first place. I took it back and planted it, and it immediately grew (6). 

  

Leshy made me play a little hide-and-seek before finally acknowledging me. He gave me a riddle whose answer was RUSALKA (2) before telling me his clue: the word "Disappear" should remove the bushes blocking the way to Baba Yaga's hut. I didn't need to visit her yet, so I saved that for later.

      

Aren't leshies supposed to have horns?

    

• Returned to town and talked to Dr. Cranium, but he didn't ask me for grue goo yet.
• Told Nikolai about Anna being in the forest.
• Exercised at adventurers' guild until my strength was above 300. Returned to monastery, forced open desk, read about rituals.
• Visited Olga, bought more rations, oil, and garlic.
• At dusk, went into the inn and met Punny Bones.
• Slept an hour, went back outside, had second encounter with Piotyr.
• Climbed over the town gate, met Katrina, learned "Frostbite."
• Returned to inn, met Punny Bones in his room and learned about his curse.
• Slept until midnight, then went out into common area.

   

The domovoi was back. This time, he had more to say. He hinted that Tanya was alive, and that he wanted to help them for Yuri and Bella's sake. He also told me about the Rusalka and the fact that the gypsies would know how to uncurse her. He said he wouldn't give me any more information until I helped him. Apparently, there's a domovoi in the monastery, but it's desiccated and must be revived. I said good night, returned to my room, and slept until morning.

    

In case I hadn't already figured out how to get into the monastery, this would have helped.

     

Day 4

   

I returned to Dr. Cranium, solved the copy protection exercise for the Rehydration Solution (2), gave him the grue goo, and got the solution. I returned to the monastery and identified the domovoi as something I had previously taken as a statue. I dumped the solution on him (6). He came to life, gave me a hint about getting past the hexapod over the fireplace (which I didn't need), and left.

   

I couldn't think of anything to do at this point that didn't require another trigger, so I went out into the forest and spent a day in personal development. I threw rocks, climbed trees, fought monsters, and tried out my "Frostbite" spell. Despite a few combats, my "Dodge" ability remains fixed at 200. There's really no way to dodge in this game. You can duck, but I'm not sure it's the same thing, and it never seems to work anyway.

      

Nailing a monster with "Frostbite."

      

I made a visit to the Rusalka for no particular reason. This time, I had some dialogue options that I didn't have before (because of timing). I was able to tell her about Piotyr and his desire that I cure her. She had some introspective comments on how she became a Rusalka and what that means: "I suppose I drown people to get revenge for my death, but it's not a lot of fun. I mean, what good is revenge if you can't remember who you want revenge on?" Most important, she reminded me that the swamp may be navigable. "You need to be really strong to move in that muck," she said, "and make sure you have a sword ready!"

   

A lot of my statistics went up from today's activities.

   

She was right. Wading through the swamp saps stamina, but there isn't any other trick except to occasionally beat at the grasping limbs with your sword.

  

After a few screens, I found an obelisk (6) guarded by two creatures that the manual describes as "Chernovy Wizards." They cast spells as you approach and in combat. It took me a few tries before I was able to defeat both of them.

    

I blunder into two very hard enemies.

     

The obelisk indicated that it had a depression in the shape of my Dark One sigil, so I used it on it, and found myself on a puzzle screen with eight symbols. I'd seen them before. It took some shuffling through my screenshots before I found one in the monastery. The relief above the doorway had five of the symbols, in the same clockwise order as the puzzle. When I was out of symbols, I just kept going clockwise, and it worked. I got the Dark One's Bone Ritual (2). That means this must be the mad monk's tombstone.

  

While I was consulting my notes to determine what the Diary of Amon Tillado had said about the Bone Ritual, I remembered that another one was supposed to be found on the squid stone, revealed "by the light of a dead child's soul." I had assumed it had something to do with Tanya, but is it possible that wisps are the spirits of dead children? They do like candy, after all. I decided to check it out.

 

I captured one as before, then brought it to the obelisk. When I held the flask up to the obelisk, signs appeared. I used the sigil on the obelisk and it opened a puzzle where I (obviously) had to spell out the name of the Dark One, AVOOZL, with the letters. This opened a secret compartment and got me the Sense Ritual (6).

 

The flask reveals hidden glyphs.

      

On the way back to town, I witnessed Anna and Nikolai's reunion (2), but this time I had cause to come back to the square later, and they had returned. They thanked me for reuniting them and offered to help me if they could. Nikolai had some intelligence about vampires having moved into Castle Borgov and the secret passage necessary to get there. He also gave me his hat (2).

  

Dodging wraiths, I slept at Erana's place. 

   

Day 5

• Returned to town and witnessed confrontation between burgomeister and townsfolk over the missing Igor and the captured gypsy.
• Rescued Igor (15) and read all the headstones.
• Returned to town, talked to Igor, and got the crypt key.
• Went to the gypsy camp, but for some reason I wasn't welcome yet.

       

Baba Yaga's yard.

   

I went to the bushes blocking the way to Baba Yaga's and said the magic phrase. They disappeared. I walked west to the hut screen (6), which showed Baba's traditional hut on chicken's legs, although it seemed smaller than the last time I saw it. A tree with a hanging body loomed in her front yard. I assumed this was "hangman's tree" from the Diary of the Mad Monk, but there was nothing in the hollow.

  

Bonehead, the skull with the gem for an eye, recognized me immediately as I approached. (I honestly thought he was named "Morty," but I don't know why.) When I asked about the gnome, he asked me to bring him something "to keep the sun out of [his] eyes." I gave him Nikolai's hat (6), and he told the other skulls to let me through.

  

As I approached the hut, it shied away, apparently blaming me for having to fly all the way from Spielburg. "If you want to catch a chicken, think like a chicken," Bonehead offered. I went through my inventory, and the only thing I could think that a chicken might want is corn. I put it on the ground, and the hut came over and squatted atop it (6). I entered.

    

Somehow, I speak my "last words" through a coating of ice.

     

Baba Yaga had set up an ambush for me. The moment I entered, a bucket of water spilled on me, and the ogress shouted an incantation that turned the water to ice. She taunted me for a while and contemplated eating me, but she realized that what she really wanted was Elderbury Pie. Remembering that I'd successfully fetched her mandrake in the past, she zapped me out of the hut with orders to return with Elderbury Pie.

  

Fortunately, Bonehead helped with the recipe: bonemeal (clearly made with the mortar and pestle in Baba Yaga's yard), grue goo, and Elderbury berries. I knew where to get the latter two. I still hadn't figured out how to get the berries without the bush swatting me, but I could take the damage. I threw rocks at it until it dropped some berries, ran over, picked them up, absorbed the damage, and got away. I got some more goo in the usual place.

   

Oddly, this skeleton was gone later.

      

Bones were tougher than you might imagine. You can't loot them from slain enemies or get them from the cemetery. The Dark One's cave, which had some skeletons, is closed off. But I remembered a skeleton near the swamp, and I was able to get a bone there.

  

Returning to the hut, I ground the bone and added it, the goo, and the berries. I showed it to Bonehead, and he told me to bring it to one of the other skulls. The skull blasted it with some kind of heat ray, cooking it.

      

Bonehead looks dashing in his hat.

       

In the hut, Baba Yaga turned me into a hedgehog before remembering I was bringing her pie. She was forced to turn me back into a human. I dithered too long and she killed me, so I had to reload and go through the whole thing again.

   

I gave her the pie (6), and she offered to reward me. I had three options: something to restore the gnome's humor, a spell, or "something else." This was a tough choice, as I'd promised the gnome to help, but "something else" was the ritual from the tree. Fortunately, it turns out that you can repeat the exercise, with any of the individual ingredients of the pie, and get the other two rewards. Baba Yaga also had some information for me: the people in the castle (Ad Avis and Katrina) are the ones who summoned me here, but they intended for me to land in a "summoning circle," not the Dark One's cave. It's just that the cave happens to draw magical energies.

      

Baba Yaga is unexpectedly helpful.

      

I ran into the Leshy on the way back to town, and he had a couple more riddles for me (4). The second one indicated that the Heart Ritual would be found with a wraith in the woods. I still don't know how to survive their draining attack.

  

I waited until dusk and wasted some time looking around for Katrina. I climbed over the gate and returned to the inn. When I entered the gnome's room, something weird happened. My "Honor" went up, and the game said that I now had the paladin's "Danger Sense." Hadn't I had it all along? How did I lose it after Wages of War? Anyway, I gave the gnome the Good Humor Bar (15) from Baba Yaga, and he got his humor back. As a reward, he told me the Ultimate Joke, which the game didn't relate, but apparently I found it funny. I hope it's this one; I've tried to tell it a few times, but it only really works if you commit to the physical part as sincerely as Hackett.

   

I went to bed for a few hours, came out at midnight, and met with the domovoi again. He was happy that I'd freed his friend, and he agreed to help me. He related the story of Tanya and the big ape creature that I'd already heard from their point of view: Tanya's parents wouldn't let her go outside; Tanya befriended Toby and got the doll from him; Tanya's mother freaked and hid the doll; Tanya was sad, and Toby took her away to the castle. The domovoi told me where I could get the doll from the cabinet on the far wall. It was soon in my hands.

      

I wonder if now that I know where it is, I can just grab it in a future game.

      

I returned to my room, went to sleep, and found a note waiting for me when I woke up. How someone managed to slip in there is quite a mystery. It was from Katrina, asking me to meet her outside the town gates. I think this is the note that's sometimes bugged, so I suppose I've crossed that hurdle.

   

I would have kept checking the town gates even without this note.

     

Day 6  

    

Davy the Gypsy was waiting when I went outside in the morning. He thanked me for arranging his freedom, invited me to visit his camp, turned into a wolf, and took off. I didn't get this encounter last time.

  

• Visited the gypsy camp (2), got the "Aura" spell and the information, had my fortune told (2). Unfortunately, the mandatory socialization afterwards kept me from meeting Katrina.

• Visited the Rusalka, got her to remember her name, got a lock of her hair.

     

I laughed at this.

     

I didn't want to visit the castle again until I'd met with Katrina. I couldn't finish the Rusalka quest until night, so I spent the day in more character development. At night, Katrina was outside town again, but she didn't have much that was new to say. She claims to work at the castle, which is why she can't get away during the day. She asked me to meet her outside the castle gates next time.

  

• Went to the cemetery, defeated Janos's ghost (6), and freed the Rusalka (15). This got me the paladin's "Honor Shield." I don't know why I didn't get it last time, or for that matter why I didn't still have it from the previous game.

    

I accidentally wandered up to the castle gates when I was trying to get back to town, and I was surprised to see Katrina there. I assumed she meant to meet her a different night. She wasn't wearing her headscarf this time. We went through a little small talk and flirting, but I still got nothing useful from her. I tried to use garlic on her, but she just said, "No, thank you. I can't abide the smell of garlic." She asked me to meet her in three nights' time and took off.

   

Katrina needs to learn the difference between "coy" and "subtle."

     

I climbed over the gate and returned to town. Piotyr met me in the square with a different message this time, encouraging me to defeat the wraith. I'm trying, buddy. Maybe "wraith" will be a dialogue option now.

      

You think you're being cryptic, but I totally get it.

     

I'm well back on track now, so I'll pick up next time, and perhaps win.

  

Time so far: 17 hours