Abandoned Places 2 - In the depths

I had mapped over 80 % of the first level of the dwarven mines without having found any new stairs leading down. In the west there where a preassure plate that when stepped on, teleported the party to another location on the level. It lead to the stairs going down.

I had to refrain myself to go down since I knew I had one tricky part left of the level. In the south you could step into a room filled with water and fire hexes and three preassure plates. When you get inside you have to step on the first preassure plate and that one closes the exit for you. The only way is to continue forward and map this part. I did so and encountered a lot of dwarves defending this area. What it eventually led to was that I found three levers on the walls at different places. I pulled all of them and I still don´t know what they do. However, in the end there was a magic trap hurling bolts at me. In the end of that corridor I met a group of four dwarves attacking me. They left a gold key for me. Ok, so how do I get out ? Well it turned out that when I returned to the beginning of the strange room the exit was clear. I am not sure if it has to do with the levers or any other thing that triggered that to happen. I was glad to escape at least.

Now I had the chance to try my gold key on a door I´ve found. Behind the door was only a wall, but you could step forward into it and found yourself in one hex with secret doors both at the east and west. I searched the area as much as I could but couldn´t find anything interesting. No chest, no items, no buttons or hidden walls. I figured this was  a real waste of my gold key, so I reloaded just before using it and saved it for now. Perhaps later in the game I will return here unless this is a red herring to force me to give up an important key for nothing. This would be the cruellest of things though.

I returned to the stairs leading down, healed up, readied my weapons  and ventured forth...down to level 2.

I saw - visualised in text - hundreds of dead, tortured dwarves lying here. So this is why I was attacked ? This place has been taken over by evil forces it seems. Not that I needed that statement but it gives a small bit of understanding.

This level contained a huge room filled with spinners, preassure plates, darkness squares and teleportation squares. It was tough to map and get through it, though I eventually succeeded. The goal was to pull a lever to get a hidden passage to open up in the south. In there I eventually found a key. There where two locked doors in the beginning of the dungeon. I tried the key on the south part. It contained a room with a chest and some items and nothing more. I was lucky to find a secret door to the south that led to the stairs down to level 3. Before going for level 3 I did actually reload just prior to opening the south door, just to check what lied behind the north one. I did not find anything interesting behind the north door so the key really was needed for the south or I would get stuck. That must be a major flaw in the game. To let quest-important keys be used on more places than what they are intended for.

You see the key on the floor? It is worth anything!

Trying out the white key on the doors lock

We went down to level 3 and my group was still at level 5 or 6.

Some reflections

• Combat is becoming quite boring. You don´t see when you hit or how much damage you are dealing. Neither can you see how much hitpoints your enemy has remaining. You might hear some different sounds when you attack with you weapons which might indicate when you hit or not. I am not sure of this. I am still attacked by dwarves and their small, green four-legged followers.
• Food is really just a nuiscance in the game as stated before. You almost never run the risk of running out of spell points, so food creation are never any problem. Why then, do I have to replenish the group every five minutes with boring administration ? I am hoping for a greater spell in the future to replenish more food than what my level 1 spell could do.
• I have found several rope items but never any place or situation where I have thought of it as useful. 
• My inventory for every character is becoming full. I have no intention of returning to the outside again to sell off stuff and then return back again. At least not until I really have too. I would rather drop items before that will happen. But how knows.
• I am now at level 4 and I wonder how many levels there could be here.
• The levels are of different sizes. So far I have been lucky to find the exits leading down to the next level. They are always hidden though.
• When levelling up you get hitpoints automatically but not increases in your statistics. I have not noticing that my warriors gets better in any way except for that. 
• I am not sure if my wizards behind could attack in melee. In the Abandoned Places 1 they attacked your companion in front of them but here they do no damage to them, so I wonder if they could reach a monster or not. I don´t think so though. They just slash in the air.
• There are no more story elements or descriptions so far. I am still not sure what to expect down here,except to find a shield somewhere. The game would gain on having more of the information screen it has showned before.
• There are no music in the game at all, just sound effects. Compare this to the first installment which holds very good game music. 

What will the next level greet me with ?

Level three contained two stairs down to level 4, both hidden at different places. There where some secret walls that contained a much important key. Now I have two keys and a locked door and neither fits. I didn´t care though and went forth down to level 4. My hope is to complete this place in my next post...