Warriors of the Eternal Sun: We Butchered a Zoo

The duke starts to lose it.

       

The first couple hours of Warriors were boring. As I related last time, the game starts on an island in the middle of the map, and a single bridge leads off the island. I kept trying to adventure on the other side of the bridge, but I kept getting smacked down hard by giants, grizzly bears, and dire wolves. I settled in for a long period of grinding, but my mage stubbornly refused to gain levels. This had me confused for a while. The magic-user gains Level 2 at 2,500 experience. Granted, this is quite a bit higher than the fighter, who only needs 1,500. But my fighter was at Level 3 (3,000 experience) well before my mage hit Level 2. With some experimentation, I figured out why: Only the character who strikes the killing blow gets full experience from the battle. Everyone else gets roughly 1/10 that amount. Healing, buffing, defensive spells, sleeping (and other non-damaging offensive spells), and any damage short of an actual kill gets you nothing.

   

I had trouble determining through research whether this method is consistent with tabletop D&D, but it's not consistent with most D&D computer games. I don't mind the idea of the person who contributed the most getting the most experience, but contributions other than direct damage ought to count.

   

Up to this point, I hadn't been bothering to cast my mage's single "Magic Missile" because when you cast the last of a spell, you lose it from the hotkeyed action, and you have to set it again after you re-memorize. In light of the new information, I sucked up this annoyance and the mage started to do a little better. At the same time, I started just resting and healing between battles, hoping that the game isn't on any kind of timer (thankfully, there's no age statistic).

        

So, a beastwoman?

     

Gingerly, I began exploring the area on the other side of the bridge. A river cuts the map in half south of the central lake, so I decided to make that my starting point and work my way around the map clockwise. I spent about an hour fighting random grizzlies, hill giants, beastmen (of several varieties), tigers, and dire wolves as I explored in east-west strips. My mage finally hit Level 2 and got a second "Magic Missile."

   

I found absolutely nothing until I got to the northwest corner of the map. The map has something that looks like a canyon up there. I reached the entrance to the canyon and found that it was on higher ground, and a ladder was leading up to it. Without really paying attention, I took the ladder and suddenly noticed the party was taking damage. It appears the canyon is filled with lava. I hastened back down and annotated it for later exploration if I find anything capable of protecting against lava.

        

I suppose you'll tell me that the surface at the top of that ladder is a different color than the surface of the mesa south of it.

     

Continuing along the northern mountain border, I found a network of caves on a couple of different levels connected by ladders. "Smoke from a fire clouds your vision," the game said as I entered the first one. The caves were all small; I searched every wall for secret doors and found only a couple. The caves were inhabited by beastmen and featured numerous battles with beastman warriors. I don't know if this is true for everyone, or if I spent too much time grinding, but I find first-person combat in this game much faster and easier than top-down combat. A fight with a couple of beastmen is over in just a few seconds, and I hardly ever take any damage. None of the battles in the caves lasted more than 10 or 15 seconds, and none resulted in a character death or caused me to reload.

      

Fighting a high-ranking beastman.

      

Miscellaneous encounters in the caves:

    

• A trap filled with spiky rocks.

• "Your lungs burn and your eyes water from the stench of smoldering herbs."

• A bronze-skinned warrior woman who seemed to be a boss. The battle was over too quick for me to get a screenshot. She either dropped a spear +1 and then I found "gold and turquoise jewelry worth 300 gold pieces" nearby or vice versa.

       

But is she a beastwoman, or something else?

       

• A tangled mass of vines blocking a passage. "Maybe Marmillian could help us," the game offered. I didn't know at the time who Marmillian was. 

• A war hammer lying on the ground. When I picked it up, a "large beastman" came rushing from the shadows yelling "Uklangor kill!" He, himself, was killed instead. I think he dropped another +1 spear.

      

I think this was the first special encounter graphic.

      

• "A grunt-like chant echoes from the northern passage." The passage was blocked by rocks, but the Gauntlets of Ogre Power gave us the strength to clear it.  

     

I wonder if regular 18 strength would have been enough.

     

• A battle with someone named Grulapp.

• "The walls of this room are covered in strange runes drawn with coal."

• A "Protection from Evil" scroll lying on the floor. 

• A tribal war party. This was the toughest battle in the game: I think there were six beastmen. It still wasn't hard. Beyond them were "gold and artifacts."

     

This was one of those expeditions that made me feel bad from a role-playing perspective. I mean, the caves are there and of course we're going to explore them and of course we'll respond with deadly force if we're attacked. In real life, I'd be on the side of the beastmen. We're invading their caves. 

       

The typical cave in this area.

       

When I wrapped up, I decided to head back to the castle and see if I could figure out who this "Marmillian" was. I searched the manual and found the answer. Although he doesn't appear in the back story, he's "the duke's chief advisor" and apparently resides in one of the towers in the castle throne room. I found him occupying one of those non-obvious entrances, and I'd overlooked it. He had a long speech:

       

I am so glad to see you all again. People here are becoming edgy. It seems that all they do is bicker and snap. Even our well-mannered duke seems a bit paranoid. Perhaps it is this infernal sun or the feeling of imprisonment in this strange valley. I do hope you will find some allies soon. It may be just what the people need to lift their spirits.

   

The artifacts from the beastmen are patterned from items made by an ancient race known as the Azcans. It's amazing that art lost for centuries has remained unchanged in the beastman culture. These creatures you describe are long extinct outside this valley. I feel like we're in a giant museum. I have an item that may help you pass the tangled vines you found in the beastman caves. It is a withered vine that repels normal vines. I only have one, so guard it well. Please hurry. I fear we haven't much time.

       

So from this speech, I learned a few things. First, it's likely that the castle and its people are from the outside of Mystara, not from another world entirely. Second, the authors of the setting are pretty lazy: "Azcan"? As in a combination of "Aztec" and "Incan?" Third, the "giant museum" bit confirms what Adamantyr said about the purpose of the Hollow World being to preserve threatened cultures. It's great that we showed up, isn't it?

        

It's kind of like Anchorage in the summer.

    

Meanwhile, Marmillian isn't kidding about people around the castle starting to lose it. NPC dialogue got updated and changed at some point: "Where were you during the last beastman attack?"; "I think my neighbor has gone mad"; "Things aren't much better now"; "Haven't you found an ally yet?" Most disturbing was the duke. Although he was happy that we'd found a "passage to another realm" (I guess that answers my question as to whether this map is the only map), he had changed his goals at some point: "I expect you to return with an army to aid me. I am afraid the people plan to revolt. Beware of that scheming Marmilllian. I do not trust anyone anymore." Yikes.

    

More positive changes were found in the shops, which had new equipment. That was good, as I had plenty of gold to spend. The armor shop had a suit of plate mail and a leather +1 that I bought for my fighter and thief, respectively. The magic shop had a "Sleep" scroll. The weapon shop didn't have anything new that I wanted, but I offloaded a bunch of found weapons.

      

New stuff in the shops.

      

Because of what happened with my missing Marmillian, I took the time to explore every nook and wall, and I found a couple of dungeons I'd missed the first time. One was on the outside of the temple, and it led me to a basement with a Staff of Healing and a Potion of Healing. The other was inside the magic shop, and it led me to a small laboratory with a Wand of Lightning and a "Sleep" scroll. Damn it. I'd just bought one.

    

That wand sure came in handy.

    

Finally, the caravan shop was offering transportation to the beastman caves for 1,000 gold pieces. That's a steep price, but it's worth not having to take the time to walk. Unfortunately, he doesn't hang around to bring you back.

    

My cleric had acquired "Resist Fire" in the meantime, and I wanted to see if it worked on lava. It does, but only for one character, so that will have to wait a bit longer. Rather than head back into the beastman caves and untangle the vines, I decided to explore the rest of this map first. 

   

It was a long time before I found another point of interest--a cave in the northeast corner. A few minutes after I entered, two of my characters got killed by a rock statue. (I noted with amusement the similarities to my problems with the stone golems in Ambermoon.) On a reload, I decided to try my Wand of Lightning on him, and I soon found out that you have to be careful about mashing the "Attack" button when you have a Wand of Lightning equipped, because once the monster is dead, the extra lightning bolts come bouncing back at you from the wall behind him and kill your party members. On a second reload, I killed him, but I soon reached a wall that required some kind of combination to pass, and I had to leave.

       

I'll be back with a paper sword!

           

I continued following the outer edge of mountains down the western side of the map. My experiences in town had taught me to hug the mountains as I traveled down them, in the event that there were any concealed entrances (a trait this game shares with Serpent Isle). It was good that I did, as I found one on the eastern edge of the map. Inside were a bunch of cave bears, quite a bit harder than the grizzly bears outside, and for the first time in the game, I found myself trying classic Dungeon Master tricks like backpedaling down a hallway while firing missile weapons. It's tougher here than in Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder because the game doesn't let you move while the enemies are taking their turn. Once a group of enemies has started attacking, you can mash the directional pad all you want, but you're not moving until they've all had a chance to make their attacks.

       

These guys look like they're wearing sunglasses and dancing.

        

I managed to defeat the bears, but there were some saber-toothed tigers on the other side of a door that attacked me from two sides, left room for no tricks, and killed me nearly instantly. I marked the cave for a later return. 

   

Another secret cave in the southeast corner held some black widow spiders. I was able to defeat them without tricks, but I didn't find anything useful. West of that, yet another hidden cave had about six bears in a very small area and sent me scuttling with my tail between my legs ("Sleep" did not work on them). I cleaned out another cave of owlbears only with great difficulty, finding 752 gold in a corner. I was beginning to think that clearly we were in this area too soon, but the next cave had nothing but swarms of giant rats, which we cleared easily. 

        

Still the silliest D&D monster.

          

I finally reached the western side of the southern river, having completed my circuit around the outer edges of the map. I was at this point about as far from home as you can possibly get. I turned around and followed the contours of the river back.

       

Making my way back.

      

I found a cave on my return trip. When I entered, I took no more than three steps before a voice boomed out, "These passages have been sealed by the ancients!" I couldn't progress any further. 

      

So?

        

On the way back, I was attacked by a hydra and had to reload when he killed my cleric. (I was too far afield to make it back with a dead character.) The second time in the same area, I ran into a black dragon. I had my mage shoot a lightning bolt at him from the wand and followed it up with some physical attacks, and against all odds, I killed it.

     

What kind of hydra has only one head?

   

Since I was mostly hugging water on the way back, there wasn't much opportunity for caves, and the return trip was quicker. When I finally made it back to the castle, I had explored the outer and inner edges of the map, though I might have missed some areas in between. So far, I haven't found any caves or dungeons that aren't in cliff walls, so I'm not sure if it's even possible for one to show up in the middle of a forest. If it is, I've missed those. I still need to re-explore some cliff faces on the central island, as I didn't know to check for secret entrances the first time. Oh, and when I got back, the bartender told me that he heard there's a secret entrance somewhere behind a waterfall. Damn it. I must have passed six waterfalls.

       

Now you tell me!

      

The weapons shop had +1 daggers and maces, and the armor shop had +1 shields. The magic shop acquired "Web," but what I really need now is a third-level mage spell. The caravan routes now go to the "Azcan Caverns" and "Elven Caverns," which I'm guessing are the two places where I couldn't progress because I have to finish the beastman caverns first.

   

Five notes:

  

• When a character levels up after combat, you hear a "Yeah!" but otherwise get no confirmation. If you don't notice whose maximum hit points changed, you don't know who leveled.

• Resting offers a Gold Box-style fast healing where the cleric keeps casting healing spells until everyone is at full strength.

• If the mage has a scroll in her possession and hasn't memorized it yet, she automatically does so when you rest. This is one of those things where I have to admit that no, I don't see any reason why I wouldn't want to memorize a new spell, but I'm still annoyed that the game does it without my input.

• Along the same lines, I can't put my finger on why it bothers me that characters are assumed to automatically equip the best armor and shield in their inventories (if they have more than one), but it does.

• I can't get over how large that compass is. The developers really wanted you to know what direction you were going.

   

As I wrap up:

    

• My fighter is Level 5 and carries a +1 sword, bow, plate armor, and +1 shield.

• My magic-user is Level 5 and carries a +1 dagger, sling, and Wand of Lightning. I wish I knew how many charges it had left. In her Level 1 spellbook, she has "Magic Missile," "Sleep," "Detect Magic," "Light," "Darkness," and "Shield." At Level 2, she has only "Entangle." She has one Level 3 slot and nothing to memorize there yet.

      

My mage at the end of this session.

       

• My thief is Level 5 and carries a +1 sword, bow, and +1 leather armor. I really haven't found much for thieves to do. I need to try her "Hide" option more.

• My cleric is Level 5 and carries a +1 mace, sling, +1 chain mail, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and +1 shield. She has two "Cure Light Wounds" occupying her Level 1 slots and "Bless" and "Resist Fire" occupying her Level 2s.

     

I wish the game had slightly better balance between the outdoor and indoor areas. Both exploration and combat outdoors are a bit long and tedious, while both exploration and combat indoors are a little too quick. 

   

I like the way the plot has been evolving, and I hope it pays off. My theory at this point is that we were teleported here because our culture was about to go extinct (at the hands of the goblins). We're in the zoo.

   

Time so far: 7 hours