Dungeon Master II: The Legend of the Area Outside Skullkeep

My growing map of the wilderness area encircling the titular fortress.

       

The Dungeon Master series has a great use-based character development system. The danger of such systems is that they become more addictive than the game. I was headed that way in my last Skullkeep session, and I became fully ensorcelled during this session. The last five hours have consisted of about one hour of exploration and four hours of watching my skill levels increase as I fight wolves.

      

If I ever encounter a wolf in the wild, I'll just punch it.

      

I encountered the wolves shortly after the last session, in the only area available to me without heading underground. They respawn endlessly, and they're the perfect enemy for grinding because they hit hard enough to require the occasional gulp of a potion (which builds priest skills) but not so hard that I'm in any real danger. As I futilely tried to "clear" them, I built fighter levels with weapons, ninja levels with daggers and fists, priest levels with healing potions, and mage levels with fireballs and "Light" spells. I rotated characters into different positions as they advanced or fell behind, and it wasn't long before everyone was pretty much even. I had to make occasional trips back to town to sell mushrooms (which also respawn), buy food, and refill canteens. Overall, the value of respawning mushrooms seems to be slightly higher than the value of the food I've needed to purchase with them, and that's without even bothering to kill the herds of bullceratops, which I imagine also respawn.

      

Seri gets a priest level casting a spell that causes everyone to get blue and white sparkles around them.

     

When characters had full spell bars but no reason to cast, I had them attempt random spell combinations. I recorded what worked and what produced nothing and am about halfway through the potential list. The problem is that when something works, I don't often know what it does. For instance,  ZO BRO ROS made some kind of green mist shimmer in front of us for a few seconds, but I don't know what it did. OH IR ROS made my characters dance around in their formation for a while. Sometimes spells just fizzle even when the combination is valid. And unless the spell fills a potion jar or happens to level someone up when he or she casts it, I don't even know if it's a priest or mage spell.

      

Slowly figuring out what spells do.

     

Eventually, I forced myself to push forward. The wolves were guarding a hollow full of swamp squares, which impede movement out of them. The passages were narrow, so it's good that enemies like to run around randomly a lot in combat. Otherwise, the wolves would have just choked the passages and I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere. Deep in their territory, I found a round stone altar with another clan key piece, a moon key, and another magic map. Elsewhere, I found a pile of bones next to a horned helm and a chest. The chest had a necklace called "Suzerain" and a scarab. Both of the pieces of jewelry seemed to increase mana. I tried bringing the bones back to the resurrection altar, but nothing happened.

        

Someone else didn't do so well against the wolves.

     

The wolves' area had a lot of passages inaccessible because of pits, and I can only assume I'll find a "Levitate" spell or some item that lets me cross them. I can see coins on the other sides of some of them.

 

A curious thing happened in the northern part of the wolves' territory. A long passage looped back to the bullceratops fields, but it arrived in a place where I hadn't mapped a passage before. Either I made a mistake the first time or something I did "unlocked" the passage--probably the latter because if the passage was available from the outset, you could reach the area beyond the lightning door without the lightning key. 

     

These locked doors, with keyholes in the obelisk, close off major sections of the outdoor realm.

      

The moon key opened a door back in the thief's realm. The thief, who screams "Mine!" as he tries to snatch whatever he can from the hands of adjacent characters, is not quite as annoying as the "Giggler" from Dungeon Master. Or maybe I've just developed more patience. When he steals something, he always drops it in a predictable location, so you can just get it back. There only ever seems to be one of them at a time, with a new one respawning a few seconds after you kill the previous one. When he dies, he drops a dagger and several gold coins, so he's good for grinding. I discovered that if I just wanted some peace and quiet for a while, I could almost kill him, at which point he'd go running off to some corner for at least a few minutes.

   

This was how I felt, at least, until I reached the area behind the moon door, which was absolutely full of the little #$*@ers. After some initial frustrating forays, I gave up trying to hold on to my stuff. Their lair, which also had a couple of giant worms, really held nothing of interest except a shield, an obelisk, a keyed door, and a passage east to another area. I reloaded, didn't worry about fighting the thieves, and just ran past them. Enemies fortunately do not cross between areas, marked by treed archways.

      

Enemies do not pass these barriers.

      

Shortly after reaching the new area, I encountered a new enemy--a giant barbarian with two axes. He looked fearsome, but I was happy to be past the thieves and have something new to fight--until he swiped my fighter's sword and ran off with it. One point for you, Skullkeep.

      

He looks fearsome, but he turns out to just be another thief.

      

As with his smaller cousins, I mostly ignored him as I mapped his area, which had another stone altar and an exit to the north. Several more of them appeared when I approached the altar, and they began hurling double-bladed axes at us. I snatched the clan piece key and the key to the other door in the thieves' area, then fled to the north.

    

I was surprised to find another village, complete with shops for armor, equipment, and weapons. They seemed to have larger selections than the first village, and the weapon shop sold some things that sounded like plot items, including a vacuum fuse and a large gear. I took note of the items but didn't buy anything for now.  

       

What do you bet this is the solution to a puzzle somewhere?

       

I returned to the previous area and slowly took care of the axe giants. I overloaded the hell out of my characters with all their axes and headed back to the first town to sell them and regroup. To get back to town, I used a teleportation pentagram in the south of the thieves' area. I figured out how those work at some point. You have to stand on them and then use the "Techshield" that I found in a previous session. It takes you to the large raised pentagram in the middle of the village. Unfortunately, the trip is one-way. You have to walk back.

   

Judging by sale prices, the axes were the best weapons I've found so far, so I sold everything else, plus the excess axes. By now, I had plenty of money, and I knew where to get more, so I went on a spending spree. I bought a magic sword called Excsymyr that seems to grant additional mana points and hopefully clears up any skin conditions. I bought boots (including a set of mithril boots), helmets, and armor for the characters who didn't have any. There are some expensive pieces of armor in the armor shop, including "fire armor" and mithril, and it's nice to have something to save for.

   

Miscellaneous notes:

   

• There are a lot of respawning, edible things that grow on trees. Most of them can be sold or traded to the tavernkeeper. An exception is something called a "Bainbloom." It can't be eaten and the tavernkeeper doesn't seem to want it.

• My highest level achieved so far is "Adept" (7). I think everyone was at "Journeyman" (4) in their skills last time, but since then I've progressed some of them through "Craftsman" (5) and "Artisan" (6).

• I have a sense that the different magic maps I'm finding do slightly different things. It's on my list to analyze them next time. 

• I have a couple of blue things marked with the YA and EW runes, and I can't figure out what to do with them. You can't eat them and they can't be activated from the hand. I think a spell created one of them.

       

I've largely lost any connection with the game world and what I'm supposed to be doing. This is primarily the fault of my erratic playing schedule, but the game doesn't help. I can see why people think Lands of Lore is the superior RPG. With continual cinematics, scrolls, and NPC comments, you never forget your quest or the basic nature of the game world. The designers of Skullkeep seem to have gone out of their way to avoid putting any text in the game. There are no monster names (as usual), no NPC names. Spells use symbols and shops use signs with pictures on them. The only writing I've found so far is the scroll that told me how to use the resurrection altar.

       

It's intriguing how the game has yet to feature any famous Dungeon Master puzzles. I assume they come along in Skullkeep itself, but so far it's all been mapping and combat. I figure I have at least one more entry to make in the outdoor area, including its underground sections, at which point I'll finally be ready to tackle the castle.

        

Next up: the legend of the areas beneath Skullkeep.

      

I'm posting this a couple of weeks before I thought I'd be blogging again, having found a little time to play Skullkeep even during the busy opening weeks of the semester. There is something a bit unwieldy about the game that makes me postpone my sessions even when I might otherwise have a little time. No matter how many hours I spend on it, I can't seem to master the control scheme. I strafe when I mean to turn, and vice versa. I right-click when I should left-click, and vice versa. Nobody ever seems to be holding the right items in their hands. The first combat of every session I flub because I start clicking on the weapons at the top of the screen rather than in the combat panel. I mis-time movement and bash into walls. And I can never quite get used to manipulating the numberpad with my left hand. These things get better as the session goes along, but they deter me from starting the game in the first place. More than once over the last two weeks, I've sat down at my computer intending to give Skullkeep a few hours and ended up doing crossword puzzles instead. I'll see if I can get some more forward momentum this week.

      

Time so far: 10 hours