The Search for Freedom: Transporting Us Beyond Seas

 

Only a CRPG adventurer would pay 1,000 gold pieces for a ride on this ship.

      

Guest entry by AlphabeticalAnonymous: 

 

Our party of six adventurers heads out in search of the Pitbeast, armed only with hand weapons such as knives, spears, grenades, what have you. In point of fact, all our non-clerics also have ranged weapons, but these longbows only do 1D6 damage, so we’ve utterly neglected them so far in favor of harder-hitting melee weapons. The old woman of Hythenforge told us that we could find the Pitbeast in the "bottom of The Pit in the Forest of Shadows," and the manual describes this Forest as lying east of the Plains of Bones in the south-west corner. One has to use one’s imagination: the Plains of Bones must be the few squares of cheery-looking grassland just past the trolls’ bridge. But the Pit is a clearly-identified doorway set in the island’s southeast corner. The forest is populated by groups of orcs and bloodhounds, who travel in large packs but aren’t difficult to dispatch. Entering the doorway, I am for some reason surprised to find that the Pit is a dungeon. I should have expected that; I don’t know why, but I somehow thought I would just find it nestled in a shallow hole in the forest, kind of like a large ant-lion. We enter. 

      

Diagonal edge tiles are just for show; the party can only step on full terrain squares.

    

The entrance to the Pit leads into a narrow corridor, just one square wide, that slowly spirals around the entire 20 x 20 map. We periodically fight groups of kapiche and crocodiles, orcs and trolls, evil mages and undead; none of these pose much of a challenge for us. Not only does the inwardly-spiraling design make it feel as though our progress is very slow (although I know we’re always exploring at a rate of one square per square), but it makes the combat maps rather repetitive. As noted before, during combats the game switches to a combat map that is a zoomed-in version of the surrounding terrain or features. A similar design is present in the Gold Box games, but here the approach doesn’t always feel like it rises to the challenge. The initial Pit combats are a case in point: every one of the combats starts with us in the center of a long narrow hallway, with enemies ahead and behind us. It’s not unrealistic, but it starts to feel old after a while.

    

Turning undead in the Pit's narrow hallway.

 

After two and a quarter circuits around the level, a special-encounter square tells us to "Find the Bloodstone." We've never heard of it before now, but presumably we’ll know more about it before this dungeon is cleared. Indeed, after another one and a quarter treks around the circumference of the level—this time, in darkness squares that eliminate all light sources but don’t prevent auto-mapping—we encounter numerous additional messages scattered around the level:

       

• Without the Bloodstone, you haven't a chance.
• There is but one way to break it.
• The Pitbeast's lair hides a very special item.
• You must use it to defeat the force.
• Few are the ones who have faced the Pitbeast and lived to tell of it.
• Call him by his true name to gain access to that which you desire.
• There is but one place it may be reforged.
• There is a pile of chewed up bones here.

          
Finally, in another special square (I think behind a secret door) a "mystical voice" tells us that "The Bloodstone will singe your flesh. Use these tongs to pick it up," and "a Tongs" is added to our inventory. Combats are sufficiently trivial on this level that I kept no detailed notes or screenshots of them.
      
We map the first level of the Pit, find the stairs down, and descend. Here we find some new enemy types. One repeated group includes one or two evil clerics, accompanied by numerous lost souls and dark spirits. The manual claims that the lost souls can paralyze (I’m not sure I ever saw them do that) and that dark spirits can drain life (but how would I distinguish that from more typical melee attacks?). The clerics have a few strong spells but employ them randomly, more often giving one of their compatriots a single extra point of armor rather than doing any damage to us. Regardless, the clerics aren’t tough and both types of undead are relatively easily turned by our own clerics, Becket and Durkon. We also encounter groups of spine shooters (big 2 x 2 enemies who can’t attack at range despite their name) and doppelgangers (who look like zombies but aren’t undead). Finally, we encounter some evil mages who have the capability to fireball my party! This popular spell does a fair amount of damage to a 3 x 3 area; luckily, the evil mages’ tactics aren’t any better than those of the evil clerics, so we’re only rarely singed.
           

Finally, we also encounter surprisingly-cute monsters called "hairy things." These look less hairy and more like small apples, or perhaps like infant California Raisins.
      

Luckily, she's weaker to water attacks than to flame.

      

In between the many combats with these foes, the first portion of this level that we explore is, like the one above it, surprisingly free of traps or magic-draining squares. We do continue to find a number of hints and messages on special-encounter squares, including:

      

• The Other Side, Aegea, The Mad Plain—all are one and the same.Pitbeasts are powerful creatures [the use of the plural form here is a bit worrying].
• Some say there is a shield which may help defeat the Pitbeast—it may be obtained by simply being polite.
• Take the left door, then the right, then the middle, to find the answer to the riddle.
• To enter the Pitbeast's lair, simply pay the fare.
• It is said that Sardain is big and deep—in fact, it spans two continents.

        

After our experiences in Hythenforge we’re not keen on the idea of more riddles, but sure enough we soon find a "magic mouth" on the wall which seems to block a doorway. 
      

". . . but no one really likes me. What am I?"

      

We try ZERO, the letter A, ONE, ALPHA, and even BIRTH. I thought the first and last of these guesses had a chance, but no dice: each time the mouth tells us we are wrong and pushes us back a square. As usual in this game, the mouth is alluded to via text but never shown; that may be just as well, since I always found the magic mouths in Amberstar and Ambermoon to be vaguely unnerving. Blocked for now, we explore the rest of the level. It enters a new phase when we pass through an antechamber and are told we are entering "the minefield."

      

My eventual map of Level 2; the minefield is in the southwest quadrant.

     

The minefield’s walls are shorter, more fragmented, and more maze-like than we’ve seen thus far—and 58% of its squares are taken up by traps. I find this number to be an intriguing ratio. Make every square a trap, and there’s no suspense; ditto if there are no traps. But I felt that having roughly half of the squares be traps (and unevenly clustered, at that) kept the tension high throughout. It reminds me of being told when I was hired at a prestigious university near Boston that roughly half of new hires reach tenure and are kept on: the department chair described this arrangement as being designed to produce "maximum uncertainty;" though I was never clear on why that was a desirable outcome (the department got some good work done, but was plenty dysfunctional in various ways).
     
Anyway, down in the Pit there was no need for us to feel tense: both my mages had long ago learned the "Trap Zap" spell, which clears traps in the three squares ahead of the party. For some reason, I fell out of the habit of using it—perhaps to save magic points, perhaps out of a forlorn hope that my Teddy thief, Ruxpin, will be able to successfully disarm them. Whatever the reason, Ruxpin paid the price for his failures by being poisoned by a trap: this causes him to take further damage if resting, makes him harder to heal, and means full death if hit points reach zero. There was no reason to continue onward, because by this point the party had enough experience points to level up—and allow my four magic-users to double their complement of spells. Nonetheless, we were deep enough in the Pit that I was loath to take the time to retrace our steps. Plus the next level was "only" around 700 experience points away, so it seemed more efficient to forge on and level up twice in a row. Unfortunately, in this case past performance is a perfect indicator of future results: shortly thereafter we hit a bomb trap, and Ruxpin is utterly killed.       

        

Never trust a Teddy to do a thief's job.

    

The party members look around at each other, sigh, and begin the long march back up to the surface. We emerge from the Pit just before midnight at the end of Day 29. We return to Hythenforge, pay 1,500 gold pieces to resurrect Ruxpin (incurring a permanent loss of one endurance point), and heal him. While in town, everyone levels up to Level 4. Ruxpin uses his two upgrade points as perks in "Disarm Trap," which takes him up to 70%. His other attributes (aside from the core statistics) all seem to increase by a more-or-less constant amount with each level; for example, his "Critical Hit" rate is up to 35%, and "Pick Locks" is up to 53%. The other party members all upgrade their base statistics instead: Becket takes +2 wisdom to provide a further boost to his magic points (these also increase automatically each level for magic-users); Kizke takes +2 strength; and the other three characters each take +1 strength and +1 dexterity. Strength allows heftier weapons and armor to be equipped, and also results in more melee damage, while dexterity boosts movement points, swiftness, armor points, and the difficulty of being hit in combat.  

        

Do any CRPGs feature anti-statistics, such as weakness, foolishness, and clumsiness? [Ed. Yes! We just saw examples in Realms of Arkania: Star Trail. I can't remember any others.]

     

The clerics donate at the temple, the mages buy new spellbooks, everyone rests for a full day in the inn, and—abracadabra—we have a lot of new spells at our disposal. On the mage side, these include the always-popular "Fireball", along with "Sense Special" (detects traps, dark squares, anti-magic squares, and so forth, ahead of the party) and "Vision" (provides a full map of the current town or dungeon level). The most interesting clerical spells seem to be "Cure Greater Wounds," "Remove Paralysis," "Group Heal," and perhaps "Identify Monster" (which provides a monster’s "under-the-hood" statistics). Thus better equipped, we tramp back down the minefield. With a more conservative application of "Sense Special" and "Trap Zap," a message soon announces: "Congratulations, you've made it across."
      
At this stage we are told to "choose wisely" and are presented with several nested, consecutive sets of three doors each. I recognize that this is where we need to apply the clue we received on the upper level. We choose left, right, and then middle to successfully reveal that: "To find the answer you seek, simply try a day of the week." That makes things pretty clear for the magic mouth’s riddle, although I’ll note here that in different countries the week is considered to start on different days (e.g., on Monday instead of Sunday). "You’re getting closer," the game tells us. Shortly thereafter, we meet "an [sic] small old man" blocking the path onward. He demands to know, "What has a bed, but never rests, has a mouth, but never eats?" I don’t recall any clues in the dungeon to this one, but fortunately it’s an easy one: I correctly guess RIVER on the first try. He vanishes in a puff of smoke, but leaves behind "a small iron coin with the head of a gnome pictured on one side."      

      

They're sized 2 x 2, so the one on top is directly adjacent to Durkon.

       

The gnome was guarding the route to the stairs down to the bottom floor, but I want to finish exploring the rest of Level 2. We yell MONDAY at the magic mouth, who graciously lets us pass. Past it: "On a 3 foot pedestal in the centre of this small chamber rests a fist-sized blood-red gemstone that looks not quite like a ruby. So this must be the Bloodstone you have heard so much about." Remembering the advice we received, Becket equips the Tongs to pick it up, but he is still "singed for 3 points of damage." Trying again, I have him select the tongs in his inventory and then press (U)se; this may be the first time this particular mechanic is used in the game. We obtain the Bloodstone (whatever it is), although "the tongs are rendered useless in the process." Having only a few squares left to explore on the far side of the minefield, we head back there, walk through a door—and find ourselves teleported all the way back to the beginning of Level 1 of The Pit! It’s a long walk through the spiral passageway to return to Level 2.
       
Back down on Level 2, I remember that my mages recently acquired the "Vision" spell. Kizke casts it, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see it provide me a full view of the level! In 1994, I would have had to transcribe it to graph paper, but today a screenshot does the trick. It shows me that all the remaining doors lead to more special squares; presumably, only the one true path leads through and down to Level 3. The spell also reveals some apparently-inaccessible rooms near the center of Level 2. At the time, I assume that perhaps a later teleporter or stairway will lead me to that area, and so leave it for now and descend to Level 3. As it turns out, I think the game was trying to hint to me that "Vision" isn’t perfect: it reveals everything about a level except for secret doors. This becomes important down on Level 3, where we immediately pass through a one-way door and are told "Onwards you now must go."
     

As I said.

       

We encounter the same enemies as on Level 2. We still hit a few traps, but even bomb traps are much less trouble now that we all have more hit points (and the clerics have the "Group Heal" spell). In one last pre-boss encounter, we meet another gnome who again blocks our way. The party automatically asks what he wants, and he incongruously replies, "Hmm, well a Porsche or a Rolls Royce would be nice" before we are told "Note: to give him an object, USE it." Even I can take a hint as obvious as that one: we give him the gnome-faced coin we acquired on Level 2, he leaves, and we continue. Not long after, we "hear heavy breathing" ahead, and then "a scratching sound" coming from behind a door.

     

It had better not be a dog. A dog once bit my father.

      

On the one hand, the game has done an admirable job of building up the anticipation about the Pitbeast. Warnings in town, piles of bones, and several encounter messages. I appreciate that, because it seems more realistic than encountering four dragons and nine screaming samurai with no warning beforehand. On the other hand, there’s not much of a way to make use of the information. In particular, we have no real buffing spells along the lines of Dungeons & Dragons' "Bless" and "Prayer" that we could use to prepare for a combat. Likely-sounding candidates such as "Armor Enhance," "Invisibility," and "Strength of the Bear" can all only be cast once the party has already entered combat. And so:

       

You draw your weapons, sensing that this is it. The Pitbeast. Your weak souls are not prepared for the horror which breaks through the door the next moment. The gargantuan mongoloid beast rears it's [sic] ugly head to the ceiling and stands at it's [sic] full height of ten feet. This will be a tough battle. [Ed. Great. I can't wait for the comment section on this one.]

       
And then we enter into combat with the most adorable ten-foot mongoloid I’ve ever seen.
   

Looking at this picture makes me feel a bit guilty all over again.

       

The Pitbeast is strong, at least: it has 500 HP, 6 armor points, does 6d6 damage, seems to resist all spells, and is somewhat tough to hit. Nonetheless, the battle is six-on-one and having two clerics gives us more than adequate healing capacity. Like the Riddler back in Hythenforge, we whittle it down until Tyrion strikes the killing blow and everyone earns 416 experience points—more than enough to let everyone level up again. The game then questionably claims that this "was the toughest fight you've ever fought" before encouraging us that "Perhaps you do have a chance of succeeding in your quest after all." But before we can feel too cocky: "A skeletal face materializes in front of you. Kamazol!" [Ed. Every time I see this name, I read it as "Kalamazoo."] He curses us (verbally, not magically) before helpfully pointing out that "You will never find all three parts of Soulseeker! Without it, you haven't a ghost of a chance" (Soulseeker is rumoured to be the only weapon that can defeat Kamazol). 

   

[Ed. Sorry, Chet here. I can't read that last sentence without recalling a night I spent in Santiago, Chile. I was out on the town with a few locals. We somehow managed to find a bar with a female jazz singer singing in English. At some point, she sang, "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You," which I told my companions was one of my favorite songs. They asked me to translate it, and the best I could do was no tengo un fantasma de una oportunidad contigo. Apparently that's not an idiom that they have in Spanish, so they were very confused, and I spent the next three or four numbers trying to explain it. It led to a long and interesting discussion about idioms and how they don't translate well. Fun times.]

    

Does he have a goatee, or a Fu Manchu mustache?

     

All that’s left is to explore the final, northeast, quadrant of the level. There, behind some secret doors we find "a huge leather scabbard" that is "enclosed by what appears to be a magic force field. Try as you might, you cannot penetrate the force field." This must be part of Soulseeker, but none of my spells have any effect and so I mentally mark it for later, head up and out, and emerge into the fresh air and starlight on Day 34. Still 966 days to go before the world ends. We return to Hythenforge, level up, and pay the old woman’s naval friend to ferry us across "the relatively calm river" (can a river separate one continent from another?). He warns us that it will be a one-way trip, but we have nowhere else to explore on Raksta. We thus disembark on Shylyllia Isle, the game’s third and final continent, and set forth to check out our surroundings.

    

Time played: 32 hours. 6 party deaths. 2 reloads. 3 crashes.
   

****

   

Previous entry in this series

     

Next entry in this series 

    06/22/2026