Citadel: Prism Break

What does it feel like to be 20% non-imprismed? Somehow that seems more dangerous than being fully enclosed.

       

Guest post by Quirkz:

  

[But a note from Chet first: I broke the last entry in a weird place. Quirkz was in the middle of exploring Level 5 of the dungeon. He was so engrossed in reading plaques on the wall that he missed the fact that he was approaching a key plot element. We pick up with his narration.]

    

After reading 10 walls of plaques, we turn around and realize Lady Synd is right there!

    

I see that the south end of this chamber lines up with the locked door next to the "break glass" pane I couldn't get through earlier. I circle back and discover the door isn't actually locked, it's just buggy. It takes 2-6 clicks to open, sometimes even giving a notice that the character tried and failed to open it, but then on the next attempt it works. It's very annoying.

     
I can approach the queen from three different directions, and for a while I think we will be curing her in stages, once from each direction, but I'm pretty sure I'm mixing that up with another game. [Ed. Maybe Chaos Strikes Back?] I take a look at that skull wand again, and it has a "brandish" button in the interface. I brandish. A chunk of gem dissolves. The wand turns into a "broken item" but the description has a suspicious wording: "This is now junk, or is it?" I keep it in the party stash for now.

     
The only part of the level we haven't explored is a detached chunk, the lower section of the queen's chambers. We go there and find a large room. There are a bunch of arrows and a bow in the corner. There are also new alcoves, which I click out of reflex. One of these also collapses, revealing a cave and confirming one of my three core memories from 1995.

        

I've heard of a wishing well, but a wishing wall?

       

I try to enter but am given a stern warning: "To win her gift or meet your fate only one may pass this gate." It takes me a minute to remember that the manual says it's possible to split the party, and another minute to figure out how to do it. I have to select a character and pick "leave behind" which kicks him out of the party and amusingly leaves him as an icon on the floor.  

        

Taking the advice of strange voices in dark caves is what adventurers do.

      

I send Caltrop in on his own. Because someone else is holding the light source, it's too murky for a screen shot, but I am in a dark square facing off against three opponents who look just like him, except he is invisible and they are not. He finishes them all without taking a hit. Combat ends with 0 XP rewarded, and then I'm kicked out of the cave, but there's now a scroll on the ground next to the icons of the party. It's a scroll of Wish.

      
The game from this point on can be completely broken, if you want, because this fight is repeatable, and with invisibility it's trivial. Without invisibility, it's a lot harder, fighting three of yourself at once, and I think the fight is designed to include a lot of misses and parries (the hint books make it clear there are four mirror images, sharing one mind, aware of each other's actions). 

     
I'm not going to play like a jackass, but I figure "three wishes" is a trope, right? So I collect two more.

       
Back in camp, I invoke one of the scrolls. I'm asked which character to pick and then given a large range of options to improve, including all six character stats, my health status, my hit points, my level, my armor class, and my magic resistance. There's also a grayed out "map" and "teleport to town" option, which I assume would work in the dungeon but not in camp. I'm not sure why "cash" is grayed out, but I'm guessing it results in literal moneybags that only appear on the dungeon floor.  

     

Where's the "more wishes" button?

       

There is a "bank" option. Because I'm desperate for funds, I try that and get 2,000 GP. It's a reasonable sum, but then I sputter in rage when I have Meanie appraise another scroll and it comes in at 10,000. Why does the Wish, the most powerful thing in the universe, give me less gold from its power than people will pay for the unused scroll? Oh, actually that's probably a reasonable valuation. As useful as my wish is to me, someone else might have a different wish that's more valuable to them. Deep.

      
Well, the scroll is gone, and the 2k is at least enough to uncurse the pentacle necklace my cleric has been stuck with. That costs 500 GP. I'm not sure if uncursing will make the item beneficial now or merely unlock it, so I pay to identify it and see it still gives +1 to armor class (which, like classic D&D, is the wrong direction). However, the amulet is very valuable, and Meanie pawns it to the shop for 7,500 GP.

     
I now have enough money to train everyone up to Level 3, and I suspect most of them are barely short of the XP required for Level 4. I also find that once any of the base classes hit Level 3, they're automatically invited to switch to a premium class. I allow Jexica the thief to become a ninja so she can wear better armor and be a stronger fighter. Letting the fighter DV change classes is obligatory (see my novel, The Eight-Bit Bard for a proper explanation) so he becomes a knight and gains access to priest spells. These promotions reset their level to 1. I leave the others at 3. My party is now a fighter, a knight, a cleric, a shaman (that's the cleric-fighter combo), a ninja, and a wizard. That's three prestige classes and three baseline ones—I want to keep the one pure fighter strong and I still really want to get some spells out of Siobhan one of these days.
       

This seems like an offer I should not refuse.

       

Speaking of, I finally figure out what's going on with the wizard spells. I was putting scrolls in my inventory and then checking the spellbook to see if I could memorize them, but they weren't showing as available. What you actually have to do is drag the scroll from your inventory to a special scroll icon on that screen, which loads the scroll into a hidden scroll slot on the character. From there the character can cast the scroll or, as I wanted, transfer it to his spellbook.

      
You can also transcribe spells above your level. Siobhan gathers the Level 2 spell "Divine" (an identify spell, I think); the Level 3 spells "Gestun" (light damage to all foes), "Spice" (conjure random item; I recall this being next to useless and not worth the time), and "Sumos" (summon monster companion); and the Level 4 spells "Fortis Al" (party defense) and "Locatus" (mapping location). I cannot yet memorize any of the Level 4 spells, but they're waiting safely in my book.

      
I realize I had confused "Locatus" earlier with "Levitas" (levitate) but I've got enough money that I can just buy the latter from the shop. It's 2,000, but I know I need it. It goes in the book as well, and I immediately memorize it, twice.

     
Something appears to be up with the wizard spell slots, because after that I can only memorize one "Haelan," which is level one, and previously I'd had two. A little experimenting gets me thinking that wizard spells have a sort of encumbrance component. I think Level 1 spells are small and only take up one slot, but higher-level spells take up several. Later on I'll find, for example, that I can memorize either exactly one Level-4 "Locatus" or 8 Level-1 "Haelans." I guess it's up to me to mix and match. 

   

The state of the party. Mulk is finally getting some HP, but Siobhan's health is concerning.

      

Back in the dungeon, characters now sometimes attack twice per round. This isn't just Caltrop, the Level 3 fighter, but also Jexica the ninja and DV the knight, both of whom reset to Level 1. I finally discover a hidden combat message window, which shows me the monster names and damage amounts I've been missing all this time. That's handy, but because it lies directly on top of the combat window and takes up a ton of space, it's impractical, and I mostly leave it closed unless I want to see what a new monster is called. In this case, it also helps me realize Jexica is dual wielding, attacking with a sword and then ineffectively with an empty bow right after. I unequip the bow, but she then begins attacking with her bare left hand. I eventually stick another sword in there and solve the problem.

     
I also start to rethink strategy, because I see now that my characters can successfully mob enemies. For instance, three of them might be able to attack in sequence before the enemy retaliates once. I'm not sure whether it's the added levels, the premium classes, or something else going on in the background. I try to keep an eye on it from fight to fight, adding or removing members from the mob depending on how the pacing seems to work. The Level 1 characters miss a lot more than they used to against tougher foes, and I know I need to level them up again, fast.

     
With "Levitas" in mind, I return to the pit with the Venus flytraps, hungering for the piles of easy experience and gold and especially that elevator key, which will be much more convenient than dashing through the twisty passages every time. I mop up on XP. I grab bags of gold until my inventory is bursting, plus a golden flute I'd forgotten about. I drop one more level, snag that elevator key, and backtrack to the portal in the ceiling. I cast "Levitas" and . . . nothing happens. I flip through all the menus and icons. Surely there's a "go up" button, right? Even The Bard's Tale had that! I try jumping. I try stepping away and back. But no, there's no way to ascend. "Levitas" keeps you from falling but does not make you fly.

     
Crud.

    

Quirkz's map of Level 6.

    
I roam Level 7, looking for another way out, but the problem is I still don't know anything about the sixth floor, either, so I don't know what I'm looking for. I turn the corner, bump into a pack of eight monks all casting some kind of area damage spell, and before I know it my party is dead. I guess all this loot will need to wait a bit longer.

     

It occurs to me a "Wish" spell might be necessary here to do the run and make a clean exit, but I don't want to resort to that yet.

      
I still have one obvious path forward: a set of stairs near the main landing on Level 5 that takes me to unexplored territory on Level 6. The landing offers a trio of doors facing east, each one into a different hallway. In front of each door is a pit. I can jump forward into the hallway but the door will close behind me, so "Levitas" will be mandatory if I want to return. Sneaky.
       

I take the southern branch and see in the distance a magic mouth, speaking, "Come closer, I can't hear you." At this point I find a menu item for "far sight" that a couple of my characters apparently have, and I discover that it slightly magnifies things in the distance. Huh. I step up again and the mouth begs me to come closer. This has "trap" written all over it, and indeed when I approach the mouth gives a giant windy breath, like it's blowing out birthday candles, and then wraps up with a toothy smirk. Except I'm carrying a glowing orb, not the torch, so I am totally unaffected. Take that, mouth! 

     

Could you BE any more obvious?

          

I have a fight with an arch devil, a mummy, and a medusa. The medusa appears directly in the middle of my party and I move everyone away in a reflexive panic. I'm not sure if petrification or paralysis are a thing in this game, but I'm not in the mood to find out. I let an invisible character take her down, hoping maybe if she can't see them she can't stone them, and it doesn't take long for her to fall. The arch devil holds out for a long time, though, mostly because my characters miss so much. Maybe it wasn't smart to make the two invisible fighters Level 1 at the same time. Eventually we win out.

      
The path leads down to Level 7. This is potentially scary stuff considering what those monks did to me, but I chance it. I find a big empty room, full of nothing.

     
In one far corner there's a coat rack with a key on it. Picking up the key closes off an open wall to my right and opens up a closed wall to my left. I worry at first I've been teleported, but putting the key back reverses the walls again. It's just a secret passage.

      
In this next room, there are a trio of jail cells, all unlocked, with skeletons shackled against the far walls, padlocks visible on their wrists. The interface makes this unintuitive again, because clicking on them, even with the character holding the key, does not work like it does on doors. Eventually I hit on the right combo, selecting the key in the inventory, clicking a "use" button, and then clicking on the padlock. In two cases, there's a flash and I find myself in combat with a cave wight and a masked figure. The wight makes me nervous (level drain? paralysis?) but goes down easy. The masked figure is hard to hit and takes a while.

      
In the middle cell, instead of a fight, a "body" appears on the ground. I kick DV out for a minute and add it to the party. Despite appearances, it's not dead: it's a living character, a dwarven clerk named Burliman. Out of the kindness of my heart, I decide to rescue him. I have to put the key back on the rack to get out of the room.
       

The key bone's connected to the . . . lock bone. The lock bone's connected to the . . . wrist bone.

       

Back in town there's no real recognition of the event or anything. He goes into the tavern and is a recruitable character, but is only Level 1 with bad stats. He has 300 gold on him and I assume he's grateful enough to give that to my party in thanks. According to the hint book, he can identify items for the party, but I missed that. Then I return and claim DV, who waited patiently in the jail cell. (The bartender in the tavern did indeed know about the missing DV, and guessed he was still alive, BTW.)

     
Past the jail cells there's one more door, this one locked, and none of our keys work. I'll have to leave it for later, and in fact never figure this one out. The cluebook suggests I missed a way of unlocking it, and I might have had free rein of Level 7 much sooner.

      
Back up on 6, I try the middle path, to the Buddha's delight. It is a short jump to a loooooooong hallway, 10 steps east and 18 north, expanding into a large, irregular room. There's a door to the north, and when I peek inside I see a book on the floor and a vaguely grim-reaper-looking monster moving around. It attacks when I step inside for the book.

      
According to the window, I am literally fighting Death, or at least a death. He hits hard and often, even invisible characters. None of mine hit him even once. I give it 20 rounds, but this seems like a foolish battle, so I pull my characters back to the edge of the screen and activate my second of three core memories about this game from 1995. I withdraw from a fight, which works as advertised, playing a short clip of "Run away!" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I probably should have tried it sooner, but I was looking in the wrong pull-down menu for the wrong words, and also failed to remember the character had to be disengaged from combat and at the screen edge.  

     

Combat with a wight, some bat-men, and some skeletons. Monsters turn into tombstones when you kill them.

       

Running away pulls you out of combat, but leaves the opponent a square away. If you're slow, they can re-engage. I grabbed the book and backtracked through the door as if death were literally on the doorstep.

The book turns out to be a second spellbook. This one even has several spells already saved into it, though Siobhan also has them all. 10 hours feels too long for the chance to bring a second useful magician into the game, but considering we're all still only level 3, going on 4, maybe not? I'm tempted to add a magus (the fighter-wizard) to the mix, but for now things are working well enough I don't want to mess with party composition.

To the west of us there's a narrow passage and then another 3x4 chamber. It seems empty, but as I circle it checking for invisible walls there's a sound like something grating or moving. At first I'm not sure what's happened and worry I was teleported. The room looks the same, but the exit is missing. As I panic about being trapped I'm attacked by a wight and some critters. The fight is easy, but afterward I'm still confused about my location and since I appear to be trapped I keep checking for secrets. It turns out the entryway is still there, just covered by an illusion now. It's really confusing for a minute, but after some thought I have to give the developers credit for making it exciting.

I find myself impressed by the variety of mechanics and interactions I've seen lately. There's been a teleport, a false teleport with a deceptive illusion, the on/off secret passage from the keys, some illusionary walls, and a body to rescue with a split party. While some of the interface choices have been hard to figure out, it's got me using items in several different ways to find surprising outcomes. Honestly, not bad.

Back in camp I heal up and take stock. Money is the problem again. All of my characters can go up at least one level, but I can only afford to train the level 1 folks and one more. I pick Siobhan the wizard because I know I need more mage spell slots, and also because her HP are by far the worst. I'm pleasantly surprised when she goes from 10 to 14 HP, and also happy to see Jexica and DV get modest gains. I wasn't sure if they'd gain health while rehashing levels they'd already gone through once. I really hope being level 2 again helps with their accuracy.

Siobhan is only 200 XP from level 5, but I'm nearly broke. I don't even bother checking the others.
     

On the sixth floor there's only one path left, so I take it along a snaking, non-branching tour of the entire northern half of the level. A note on the wall gives me the recipes for a couple of cleric spells, "Faer" (fear, basically, weakens attackers) and "Fortis Al" (party defense). At the end I find stairs up, which lead through short stints on each floor before ascending again, all the way to the top. All told, it's probably 100 steps from the door to the final room.
       

A mage cannot cast spells while wearing armor. Despite some hints at other restrictions, this is the only one I've observed in-game.

      

I approach a skeleton, and as I do a wall in front of me disappears when I'm two steps away and reappears when I get one step closer. It takes me a minute to realize this is a basic pressure plate. Gear is not enough, though; I have to leave a party member behind. First I poke at the skeleton, which exposes a helmet and another skull wand. Sweet! I leave the shaman behind and step forward. The secret door slams shut behind me. I find myself facing the gate to the elevator shaft.

     
Uh, something was supposed to be here, right? Looking at the hint book, I see that this is how you're supposed to reclaim the elevator if you take it up to the first floor and then fall through the trap door. Except I didn't bother doing that because Chet had documented it in his walkthrough. So I've got no elevator to retrieve, and I've just locked a party member at the wrong end of an infinite corridor for nothing. Adding injury to the insult, I have to talk to the giant head and let the trap door send me down a floor because that's the only way out.

     

Chet's screenshot of this moment, for reference.

      

I always feel a little rushed and nervous with a split party, so selling some extra gear or using the wand isn't an option; it's an all-out sprint down through levels 2-6, taking the normal route. Critically, there's an interruption in the real world. I save and quit, take care of things, and come back—still antsy to make the party whole before I mess up.

       
Back through the north door, jump over the pit. 80 steps of snake tunnels to the stairs, climb 5 flights. There's Mulk, just waiting for me. I turn around and reverse the process. Stairs, stairs, stairs. Serpentine, serpentine. The hall straightens and the door is in front of me. I've been clicking fast to get through all of this and I run straight up to the door and smack into it.

      
And then I fall. Because these are the doors with the pits in front of them, the ones you need "Levitas" to make it back the other way. In my hurry, I've forgotten, and now I'm back on the seventh floor, in the same dead-end zone where two other valuable runs have already led to party wipes and full resets. I still don't know how to get out of here. It may not be possible. And of course because of that brief save, I'm not sure how far back my prior save goes. Probably just to when Siobhan leveled up. Without the need for mapping, it's probably only 10 minutes of game time to redo it. But crud, how annoying.

      

Rather than immediately reloading, I push on, hoping that since I'm stronger I can find an exit. I am not mapping. I'm being pretty sloppy, really. And it's a big level, so I'm running around kind of lost. I find the elevator key and figure why not take it a third time before I die? I hit the same battle with the 8 monks (wizards, actually) and this time I don't have much problem. My three spellcasters have picked up "Gestun" (light damage to all foes) and this seems a perfect time to try it out. It damages about three quarters of them on each cast; I assume the others resist. Gestun doesn't kill anyone, but the invisible characters mop up. I take a little damage, but not much.

      
I roam long hallways, occasionally getting into fights which all end well and give great XP and some bags of gold. I find a golden apple, which is clearly going to be valuable one way or another. There's a rapier, and the description says it's mithril, which has to be a good thing. We are running low on health, not so much from the fights but because we've run into a couple of traps or scripted events where a wizard—the villain Nequilar, presumably—teleports into the square in front of us, laughs, and blasts us all with fire. I've run all over the place and have found no stairs at all. Nothing but floor pits, if I want to go down to the eighth floor. From there I'd still need to find a way back up to 7 to get out.

      
I'm starting to think I'm doomed, but then I remember I'd picked up one more Wish scroll for testing purposes. I also started thinking, I've been down here so many times now, and I've been told there's no exit, and I can't find one. It might actually be true. I consult my maps and realize I have exhausted every path I know on the higher levels. Maybe I've missed some hidden walls or something, but my only next step is to jump right back down here anyway and map until I die or find my way out. As cheesy as it is, maybe the Wish scrolls are the intended way back?

     
Well, screw it. I'm stuck and this doesn't feel fun. I zap home.
      

The golden apple sells for over 9,000. I don't see a way to use it, and decide it's probably intended to be treasure rather than a quest item. I really don't need to start a 10-year war in Asia Minor right now.

      
I appraise the rapier and realize it is the best weapon in the game. It does 5-15 damage and confers 20% magic resistance. Very nice. I give it to Jexica, who dual wields it with another sword.

     
With the money, I can train my ninja and knight up to 3, get the others to level 4, and Siobhan, who was already 4, goes to 5. That should help tremendously. Everyone has enough XP to go at least one level higher, maybe more, but there's no more gold. Back into the breach.

     

****

   

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09/27/2026