Game 518: Die Quelle von Naroth (1993)

 

That's a pretty cool opening image.

        

Die Quelle von Naroth

"The Well of Naroth"

Germany

Independently developed and published

Released 1993 for Amiga

Date Started: 5 June 2024

       

Die Quelle von Naroth is a tidy independent game that evokes some of Pool of Radiance in its themes and basic mechanics. I always like solving local problems more than world-ending ones, and this game's main quest, although it may develop into something else, is both local and relatively original. It's set in a typical fantasy kingdom called Naroth, founded by orcs but now occupied by more civilized races. The town once had a booming economy thanks to its magical healing waters, but something has recently caused the well to run dry. The king has posted a reward for anyone who can determine the cause. Enter four young, eager adventurers.

     

Creating the party.

      

Character creation has you selecting four characters from six potential classes: fighter, knight, barbarian, sorcerer, priest, and monk. Your race and class choice, plus some randomness, determine values for strength, intelligence, constitution, skill, accuracy, damage, parrying ability, protection, hit points, and magic points. I create:

• Chester, a human knight
• Tharkk, a half-orc barbarian
• Axon, an elf sorcerer
• Ilende, a dwarf priest.

The game begins in the city of Dandall, and I was delighted to hear background noises! I have been eagerly anticipating the era when RPGs incorporate ambient sound. There isn't a lot here--just repeating loops of inaudible conversation, thunder, people talking, and horses whinnying--but it's 100% better than most games of the era. German developers in general were doing a better job with this than anyone else. I previously praised the ambient sound in The Legend of Faerghail (1990), the two Dungeons of Avalon games (1992), and Fate: Gates of Dawn (1991).

     

The opening moments. I may post a video later so you can hear the background noises.

    

Unfortunately, I soon discover a negative: the game uses mouse controls exclusively. You otherwise  navigate the world in a standard 3D tiled interface. The graphics are decent for an independent game.

   

The party starts with no items and 750 gold. The city is already mapped out in the game's automap. There are no encounters on the street. The city consists of 11 buildings with 14 doorways. The doors open up to reveal two armorers, two weaponsmiths, a bowyer, two taverns, a temple, two dungeons, a training hall, and NPCs named Aurelius and Thelax. After I scope the prices, I get the party outfitted with some basic weapons and armor: shortswords and leather armor for my lead fighters, a morningstar and shield for my priest, and a dagger for the sorcerer.

        

A few options available at the armorer.

      

There's also a door leaving the city, but "the city council has instructed that no one leave the city," so I guess that's for later.

    

Aurelius gives me what seems to be my first quest. He claims to be friends with Thelax, who also lives in town. He says that all his goods are in his house in the neighboring town, and he can't get into the place because two "thieving ogres" stole the key. He'll give us two valuable magic items if we retrieve it for him. We say sure.

       

Aurelius's narrative. It's a lot of text, but Google Translate's new (2023) image tool takes care of it in a few seconds.

        

Thelax is a wizard whose spellbook was recently stolen by his archrival, Maruschke, and taken to the catacombs beneath the city. He's willing to pay for its return.

   

The taverns are called The Orc and The Golden Lion, and in both of them we have the ability to feed keywords to the innkeeper for more conversation. From them, I get:

    

• Aurelius may not be telling the truth about his missing key. The owner of the Golden Lion says that Aurelius had previously enlisted an elven warrior, who tried to run off with the treasure he found instead of giving it to Aurelius, and Aurelius had him killed. The owner of the Orc says she doesn't believe that story but agrees that Aurelius is looking for more than a key.

• Benedictinus at the monastery is looking for someone to clean out the cellar. That has to be on a different map, as I didn't find any Benedictinus in the main city.
  

• Thelax and Maruschke have an ongoing feud that goes back to a magic competition that Thelax won, perhaps by stealing some secrets from Maruschke. 

      

Asking about people in the tavern.

     

After I finish exploring the town, I head into a dungeon, choosing at random the one against the town's western wall. After a few steps, I face my first battle, with two orcs. I've been expecting a Dungeon Master-style combat system (although I realize belatedly there's no button on the interface to fight), so I'm surprised when the game takes me to a top-down interface.

    

My first battle.

       

The characters act in order and can move, attack, use an item or spell, or block. Being Level 1 characters, we miss most of our attacks. I exhaust my sorcerer's and priest's mana bars casting "Magic Missile" and "Healing," respectively, and the orcs manage to kill two of my characters before we kill them. It takes a couple of reloads to get a more favorable outcome. On their corpses, I find a note. It was written by someone who claims that he's being held in a dungeon beneath the city, guarded by two guards. He says he has important information for anyone who releases him.

       

The top-down, turn-based combat system.

   

I'm concerned because even in our "successful" battle, we got hurt, and I have very little magic left. Hit points and spell points do not regenerate on their own. There's a "camp" option, but every time I try to use it, whether in town or in the dungeon, the game says I can't find a good spot. 

       

The dungeon exploration interface.

    

I continue on, letting the automap do its work. It's a few minutes before my next battle with four spiders. It and a subsequent combat with four rats leaves me almost completely dead. I'm not finding any treasures to pay the temple to heal me, either.

   

I consult the manual, and it says you can't camp in cities, as vagrancy is outlawed, but you can camp in a dungeon if you can find a place with a wall on three sides. That actually makes sense. I find such a nook, and soon I'm back to full power.

         

The group successfully camps in a little nook.

      

I kill more rats. It looks like the game divides experience from combat based on the number of successful actions. 

     

After combat. Chester, as usual, was the MVP.

     

I soon wall off a square, so I start testing the surrounding walls for secret doors. This pays off. The square turns out to have a treasure chest with 200 gold pieces. Another one, right by the entrance, has 100. I'm feeling good about the future.

       

Why would anyone choose not to take the gold?

      

Then I encounter two trolls. My characters all die within two rounds. I'll have to try to work around them and save them for last.

    

The game tells you what weapons and armor your foes have, but unfortunately you can't loot them when they die.

     

Before wrapping up, I check out the second dungeon, which has a more polished look and symmetrical layout.

     

We activate a pressure plate in dungeon #2.

      

There are a couple of pressure plates that open hidden doors. Without even having to fight any battles, I encounter several treasure chests with gold, a long bow, a shield, and a morningstar. Some rats and kobolds give us a little trouble. Eventually, I realized I've amassed enough experience points to level up--only to discover that leveling up even one character will cost as much money as I have. Clearly, I need to find some more treasure.

                  

The training hall.

         

I manage to finish this second, smaller dungeon. I kill a bunch of rats, kobolds, and spiders, find a few treasure chests, and find a key that unlocks a door on the small second level. Behind the door is a druid, who attacks us by himself. I guess it's Maruschke, because once he's dead, we find a spellbook on his body. We also find a yellowed piece of paper that no one can read.

      

Maruschke makes his last stand.

       

Returning the spellbook to Thelax gets us a longsword and 800 gold. I have enough at this point to level up my first three characters but not the fourth. Axon got "Magic Cloud" at Level 2, a single-target spell that does more damage than "Magic Missile."

         

This interface allows me to give Thelax his spellbook back.

       

We turned our attention to the larger dungeon, the improved party doing better with the parties of 2-10 rats, spiders, kobolds, and orcs. We even manage to beat a couple of pairs of ogres. I'm nowhere near the level needed to kill the two trolls, though, as a disastrous rematch proves conclusively. Amassed treasure finally gets my cleric to Level 2 and my knight to Level 3.

       

Taking on a whole swarm of rats.

      

In a dead-end cell, we find an old elf warrior--clearly the author of the note and the subject of the innkeeper's rumor. He introduces himself as Effax. He says Aurelius imprisoned him when he discovered the mage's true intentions. The ogres didn't steal Aurelius's key, he says, but they have their own treasure guarded by a key, and Aurelius wants it. He recommends that we take it for ourselves and then takes off to enjoy his freedom.

   

The dungeon continues to a second level, but here we run into an obstacle. To progress, we need to defeat a party of 4 ogres, and I just can't do it, not without leveling up first. The frustrating thing is that I think my characters have amassed enough experience to make it to about Level 5, but a deficiency of gold keeps us where we are. For the same reason, we can't upgrade to better armor or weapons. There's no way to grind in the game, at least not so far, as all the enemy encounters are fixed. I found a Ring of Wisdom at one point, which adds 10 to a character's intelligence, but I'm honestly considering selling it, since it will pay for 4 or 5 training sessions.

        

My sorcerer's inventory at the end of this session.

       

I'll make another loop around to make sure I didn't miss anything and keep trying. Aside from the leveling problem, I'm enjoying the game. It's simple but effective.

This entry is about eight years in the making. I was first contacted by Helge Foerster, the author of Die Quelle von Naroth, in 2016. He sent me a custom package to help emulate the game as well as a translation of the manual. That same year, Foerster produced a very belated sequel for the Android, called just Naroth. (YouTube trailer here.) It looks like an independent Elder Scrolls. It seems to have been well-received.

         

We exchanged some emails leading up to this entry. He confirmed my suspicion that he had played Pool of Radiance: "[It] was the first RPG that I ever played (on my trusty C64). I loved it." Naroth is in no way a "clone" of Pool, but it evokes some of the same spirit with the nature of the quest, the tavern tales, the city council, the 3D exploration contrasted with top-down combat, and the trolls serving as a hard experience gate in the first dungeon. Even the full-party-death message ("The opponents laugh at your incompetence") echoes the famous Gold Box death message ("The monsters rejoice for the party has been destroyed"). The world could use more developers inspired by the spirit of a previous CRPG who didn't feel compelled to make a direct clone.

    

Time so far: 3 hours