The Search for Freedom: All Parts of the World

 

My world map at the end of this session.

    

Guest post from AlphabeticalAnonymous: 

 

I start this session with mixed feelings. On the one hand, The Search for Freedom continues to serve up decent CRPG fare: a main quest, equipment upgrades, dungeons to explore, monsters to fight, just enough encounters and interactions to keep everything from becoming wholly monotonous, and the satisfaction that comes with leveling up. On the other hand, despite the deceptively small map above, I’m starting to be concerned that this game is too long. The manual promises: "22 dungeon levels, each 20 squares by 20 squares, and 2 outdoor areas, each 32 squares by 32 squares." At the start of this session (after a bit over 30 hours of gameplay), I’ve cleared less than a third of the dungeon levels and explored roughly a quarter of the outdoor areas. Another point also suggests I’m only roughly a third of the way: my characters are all still Level 4, out of a maximum level cap of 13. If the game eventually clocks in at over 100 hours, I suspect that it will have long since overstayed its welcome.
      
The friendly ship captain from Hythenforge drops us off in the Dry Desert in the southeast of Shylyllia Isle. We begin to explore and are quickly thrust into battle with three lesser demons (70 hit points) and 6 fire sprites (30 hit points). I’ve been putting off a detailed description of combat, so here goes.
      

Round one: Fight.

     

Although I’ve found no real use for ranged weapons, the first step is always to try to (F)ire at the enemies because this is the easiest way to scan across the full combat map and see where everything is located. Indoors, there can be walls that allow for some tactics (and that confuse the AI), but outdoors the only relevant terrain is water (impassable) or ground. Here, most enemies are to the south of us, so we’ll focus on them first. Few melee-only enemies seem especially challenging: magic users are much more dangerous (though not consistently, since they often cast useless spells). They’re even more trouble than in Gold Box combat, because here they can still cast their spell even if they were attacked earlier in that combat round. However, if an enemy magic-user is adjacent to one of my characters there’s at least a decent chance that they’ll try an ineffective melee attack rather than casting. In any case, our party tries to surround and kill magical foes as quickly as possible. Having never encountered these enemy types before, we don’t know which (if any) use magic.

Combat order is determined each round by some combination of dexterity and a random roll, with characters and monsters interspersed. In this case we surprised the monsters, so we get a free first turn. Usually my fleetest characters (Kizke, Ruxpin, Becket) move before the slower ones (Durkon, Tyrion), but not always; this time, Tyrion moves first. He (D)elays until Elphaba can move out of his way. Becket is up next but is in the center of the pack, so (D)elays as well. Kizke darts south to swing at, and miss, a Lesser Demon. For some reason it’s now Tyrion’s turn again, so he (Delays) again. Durkon lumbers south, reaching a Lesser Demon but without enough movement points to attack. Becket Delays, and then Ruxpin goes to backstab the same Demon that Kizke attacked. Backstabbing increases the chance to hit and (if successful) does double damage; in this case we get a lucky break, because the Teddy scores a critical hit and immediately kills the Demon. Tyrion marches southwest toward the next-nearest enemies; Elphaba follows close behind, but I decide to have her experiment with spells and turn Tyrion invisible (until he attacks someone). Becket heads down too, and Round Two begins.    

       

Ruxpin (the Teddy in pink) just backstabbed and critically hit a lesser demon.

      

Elphaba delays; a fire sprite moves in from the east; Elphaba delays; a fire sprite closes in; Elphaba delays again; fire sprite; Elphaba. Why did none of my other characters get a turn in that rotation? The demon we were heading for casts "Speed of the Puma" on itself—mostly pointless since that merely gives it more movement points, but now we know they’re a magical threat. Sprite; Elphaba; Kizke lunges at (and again misses) a sprite. Elphaba moves southwest and casts "Slow" on the nearby demon and its attendant sprite; the former resists, the latter is slowed to six movement points per round. Becket and Durkon close in; a Sprite attacks the former but misses. Ruxpin attacks Kizke’s target and connects; the northern demon casts "Speed of the Puma" on one of the sprites near it; Tyrion closes in.  

    

Somehow, I didn't get a screenshot of any of the demons.

    

Round three. This time, four fire sprites move first; several of them attack but either miss or connect for zero damage. My characters have as many as 8 armor points, which means up to 8 less damage than would normally be inflicted. Kizke attacks his sprite again and misses again; Becket moves to the south of the demon and attacks to set up a backstab for Elphaba. He got its attention, anyway: the demon hits back and we receive our first injury of the combat. Durkon backstabs Kizke’s target for 30 damage, killing it. Ruxpin misses a sprite and Elphaba misses the demon, whom Tyrion then hits. At this point, the southwestern demon casts "Hailstorm," which damages all characters and enemies in a 7 x 7 square for 10-20 damage. Ouch, but why didn’t they open with that move? Kizke misses a sprite and Ruxpin backstabs and kills it. Becket and Tyrion miss the demon; the other demon moves in from the north and casts "Lightning Bolt," doing 28 damage to Kizke.

And that’s about it, really. From then on the lesser demons just try melee attacks instead of their potentially-devastating spells, and my characters pair up to set up repeated backstab attempts, first on the demons, then on the remaining fire sprites. We all get 64 XP and a total of 646 gold, both of which are welcome. Kizke is down to 8 hit points; a few other characters are hurt, but none seriously. A somewhat interesting combat, and perhaps I was briefly concerned, but it wasn’t all that challenging and there were minimal options to employ interesting tactics. Part of it is the AI—a more clever pack of demons could have wiped the floor with us—but there’s some other, ineffable aspect that seems to be missing.
      
As it turns out, unsatisfying combat isn’t our only problem. Confident from our recent battle, we soon enter another, identical combat. Wanting more information about our foes, we cast "Identify" on a lesser demon. Though it’s worked before, this time it results in all text becoming invisible, and enemies are suddenly in new positions on the combat map. Then, enemies (and our own party members) occupy many, overlapping positions all at once. I quit and re-load.

      

I love you in every universe.

     

Upon reloading, we instead meet a group of eight laughing lizards with a yellow dragon. The dragon is the toughest enemy we’ve faced in normal combat: 130 hit points, and with a choking breath attack that does 10-20 damage each to several characters. It’s a significantly tougher fight than with the demons, but we win. The secret seems to be Durkon’s "Dragon Bane" spell, which does 70 damage at a time. The rewards aren’t bad either: we get 84 experience each and a chest with 899 gold. Other fights in this area include necromancers and evil heroes; the former can cast "Lightning Bolt" and "Paralyze," but as usual don’t do so systematically. We aren’t even too badly hurt when we finally find our way to Birshada, a town geographically reminiscent of Rimuldar, located in the middle of a lake.

Birshada is another 20 x 20 town with the usual staples: a training center, an arms dealer (with some excellent +2 weapons and armor), a magic shoppe, an inn, a temple, a town square, and even a supply shop selling only torches and lanterns.
      

The best items we've seen yet. Also, a knife and dagger.

       

There are also several unique locations and encounters:

       

• The "Birshada Pottery Museum," which contains over 20 one-square rooms each with a pot. Each pot can be broken, which results in a fight with poisonous rattlesnakes.

• A small gnome with "a pale band of skin on his third finger where a ring may once have been" who promises to tell us where to find a Bloodstone if we can guess his initials. Up to three characters are allowed; for now, we have no idea.

• Nearby, another little gnome introduces himself as Gnimsh. "Can I help you?" he asks. I try RING, INITIALS, GNOME, JOB, HELP, SOULSEEKER, BLOODSTONE, SPHERE, RED SPHERE, KAMAZOL, but get no response.

• A second temple, the "Temple of Bane the Unforgiving." As we enter the high priest approaches us. "What do you say to him?" Whatever we try, he replies "Begone, infidels!" and boots us out. We’ve never heard of any Bane before this.

• A small section of town called the Poor House. A beggar asks for a single gold piece; when we give it to him, he tells us that his cousin "in the North Carpalas Mountains has been to the Isle of No Return and back." That sounds useful except that the Carpalas Mountains are back on the first island/continent, and we have no way to get back there.

• The Poor House is also home to a more enterprising soul, who requests 100 gold for some "very useful information." It’s a seller’s market so we pay: he advises us to look for a hidden temple in the Forest of Spiders (just east of town). Near him, writing on a wall advises that we visit the town square’s beautiful fountain.

• The aforementioned fountain, in the corner of the town square.

• Also in the town square, a colossal statue of a dragon (as usual, described in text but not shown graphically). "It stares at you with cold stone eyes." It sounds like an obvious candidate for the "Stone To Flesh" spell, but the clerics won’t learn that until they reach Level 10. No item that I have seems to affect the statue.

       

Finally, we find Dorf, the man we were sent to by the man in Hythenforge’s so-called blue house. He directs us to a location east of town where he buried a Red Glowing Sphere. "You'll need to keep it out of Kamazol's clutches," he tells us, since three such spheres exist and they are "part of the rituals for restoring the mighty sword Soulseeker."
     
We throw enough coins into the Town Square fountain and are advised that we have "earned a drink from the Fountain of Knowledge." We can choose to drink, or not. If we do, we see a vision of "a great altar," "a great statue of an unknown god," "a large, menacing tower of pure darkness" descending into the ground, "the evil lich-lord" Kamazol laughing to himself, and "a golden throne" upon which sits a faceless, blurry "future king of the realms." Somehow our party interprets this as a positive portent, and we all receive +2 luck "for this morale-raising vision." 

      

Look! Something's wrong with Hen Wen!

       

We trek back to the desert, find the Red Sphere, and return to Dorf. "Very good," he says brusquely, before utterly changing the subject and teaching us all "Mountaineering." After several hours pass in-game, he informs us that we must next reach the Isle of No Return, where the portal to Aegea may be hidden. Dorf recommends that we explore the nearby dungeon Sardain, which is blocked by mountains and so was previously inaccessible. 
                                                                                 
We smash untold pots and fight untold numbers of rattlesnake battles (does anyone remember the old classic, but punishingly hard, beat-'em-up game Battlesnakes?) to clear the Pottery Museum of both vermin and antiquities. After one of the battles, we find a scrap of paper tied with string to a two-handed sword. The paper reads, "DRAGON 3E 4S." The snakes don’t often hit but can poison us when they do. We become too careless and as a result Ruxpin is killed (again). We pay 3000 to resurrect him at the Temple, decide to sell all our goods . . . and the game crashes with a black, blank screen. We reload several times because it turns out the game is crashing only when Ruxpin (not any other character) is the one selling items. 

    

The docents have since denied us re-entry.

      

About this time, I re-read my notes and I realize that I may have missed my chance to get the scabbard from the Pit dungeon on the previous (and now-inaccessible) island. I email the game’s creator; Dr. Feldman isn’t sure, but he suggests that perhaps I'm now in a "walking dead" situation. I’m not yet sure if that was true, but we had definitely missed the scabbard. We reload in the Pit, walk to the scabbard and its forcefield, and (U)se the Bloodstone. "The force field dissipates into a fine mist," and we have the first of three pieces of Soulseeker. (I’m not sure why the scabbard is a necessary part of reforging the weapon, though). Luckily it doesn't take long to re-emerge from the Pit, meet the captain, sail across the river, Flee from every encounter, and march to Birshada.

     

The finest craftsmanship.

     

Clearing out the rest of our to-do list, we (S)earch Spider Forest and find the hidden temple, run by "Father Bob." He asks for a donation of 300 gold, and when we pay it, he "blesses the party." I can’t tell what this has accomplished, and the temple is empty when we try to enter it again. We also repeat all our earlier explorations of Birshada. Meanwhile, the pot clue said "DRAGON 3E 4S." The town square’s dragon statue is five squares east, and three south, of where we found the note. Furthermore, three squares east and four south of the statue is an otherwise-empty square that is curiously labeled "special" on the automap. No amount of looking or searching on either of those squares accomplishes anything. 
    

Not the biggest mystery from this session.

     

The bridge to Birshada is perhaps the best spot for grinding I’ve found so far. Almost every time we cross, we have a chance to enter combat against seven troll fighters and three troll mages! These are powerful fighters and spellcasters: the mages can "Slow," "Paralyze," summon "Hailstorms," and even "Petrify" us. The battles are challenging at first, but the rewards make it worth it: roughly 130 experience per character, and over 1000 gold worth of loot. We grind on the bridge trolls, get everyone up to Level 6, and buy some +2 flails for everyone. These seem to be the second-best "normal" weapons in the game (maybe the best, since they’re one-handed and so allow the use of shields). We also get some +2 shields too. Unsure of how else to proceed, we explore the rest of the continent (finding nothing), grind more, and reach Level 7 and a new sets of spells for everyone.

      

Fighting an infinite series of trolls on Birshada's bridge.

     

I have to say that the game definitely keeps upping the stakes at an effective rate. Enemies start to feel easy for a while, then we reach the next level of challenge and it’s touch-and-go again. Money starts to feel irrelevant for a while, then it isn't because we need to spend 4,000 gold per set of +1 armor. In Birshada, we have no shortage of mysteries; I have no clues as to any of the following: what to ask Gnimsh, how to guess the gnome’s initials, what the statue is about, or what Bane’s temple is for. I suspect (hope) that some of these are linked. Otherwise, our next stop may need to be the Sardain. I’m intrigued by this game and don’t hate it, but I’m not rapturous about it either. I need to find a way to pick up the pace.

   

Time played: 40 hours. 6 party deaths. 3 reloads. 6 crashes.
    

****

   

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   07/05/2026