Ishar 2 - Won!

In my last session I was just about to return to the snowisland to try to overcome the vertigo my group felt at a certain place. Therefore, in the city, I bought all ingredients needed to brew five anti-vertigo potions. One of the unique ingredients was of course the hard to get Edelweiss flower and there where only five of them in the game.

Of course! I thought. This must be an important potion for the game so I was almost convinced I was on the right track. I did however only have three flowers but I knew where to find the last two. I returned to Jon´s island and searched for the last two flowers. They where guarded by the dreadful harpies and this time they possessed two of my characters to hit my partymembers. Since I could not cure them and there are no temples that offer those cures, I had to reload the battle several times. But in the end there where still at least one party member getting cursed. I found out that it had nothing to do with the harpies but of the place the harpies inhabited. It was by pure coincident I checked my magicians spells and found a spell called remove curse. It worked!

Now I had all ingredients needed for the potions so I returned to the spot where my group refused to go on and brew one potion for each and everyone of them. I was relieved to see it worked. I continued to map this new area and eventually I found another relic.

My knight with his evening tunic on

I was glad I did find it but I still had no way of continuing my quest. It was then I remembered a hint I got from a tavern that I shouldn´t forget to wear my suits to visit the club blue velvet in the evening. In the city there are a place in which you could buy an evening tunic for 8.000 gc. I bought it to all my characters and we entered the blue velvet at night. We where thrown in jail again by the guards so that solution didn´t work.

At this point I had to look for a hint in a walkthrough and found out that I did the correct thing but I would also have to wear one of my found pendants. I am so tired of these puzzles by now. The pendants have no names indicating anything about their use so wearing one together with the evening tunics doesn´t make sense. But it worked. And this was a breakthrough because I found an old man there that gave me the map for the last and fifth island....the fortress itself!

This man is truly a hero, he gave me a new island to explore

Before I left there I had to check out in a walkthrough where the cul-de-sac of the four towers where in the city. It was there I would meet a person at night for some information. When I found the place I waited until 2 in the morning and a shadowy figure emerged in an alley. He requested 20.000 gold. I was not sure for what but paid him and got a relic from him. I now had five relics with which I don´t really know what to do. But there was this place in the mountains where there where five pillars and the relics could be put upon them so I sailed there and used all my five relics. Nothing happened! I don´t know if they must be in any particular order or not but I took back my relics and headed for the last island.

All my hard-to-get relics for nothing!

The last island took me right into the fortress in which I suspect the last confrontation will take place. I noticed that the difficulty was challenging right from the start. I met a tough opponent which had the ability to turn my group against each other. The only way to beat that foe was a newly discovered spell that freezes the opponent. That battle did not come without losses however. My mage Bormost died and I had to resurrect him with a spell. That goes with a price because his XP is reset to zero which means it will take forever to return him back where he was but I thought it was well worth the effort if this was the last place.

After the battle I had to return to town to rest and eat. When I returned I did not make many more moves until a Red dragon stopped my way. I used the exactly same tactic against him and after a tough fight he was dead. I continued through the corridors and soon met skeletons in hordes that depleted my energy and mana and made my progress very slow while I mapped the place. I had to return back to the city again. This time I bought enough ingredients to make 10 potions of restore mana. I had never tried them out before but as it would turn out I regret I hadn´t used them earlier in the game.   

He looks far more dangerous than he is

With every return trip back to the fortress the major opponents where permanently gone but the skeletons still harassed me. I killed their mage leader and behind him a secret wall lead me to a lever that opened my only door forward in the complex. Behind that door I soon found the stairs leading to another level. Before too long I met a knight that blocked my path. He was tough but if I froze him as before I could kill him and I did. My mana was drained but by using a potion on my mage all mana was restored and I could continue hurling fireballs.

Too bad all the different, good looking baddies only appear once in the end

We moved through corridors that where filled with groups of mummies. Those are tough bastards that are able to inflict heavy injuries on you, or at least that was what I thought initially because it seems that when I fight them half of my group actually fights inbetween ourselves so those mummies are a nuiscance.

My solution for them after trying out different tactics was to throw fireballs at them and then use the spell change of timescale. I discovered this spell too late in the game, and didn´t use it until at this last level. It stops time in the middle of combat or anywhere and let´s you rest, both gaining physical as well as psychic energy. That gave me more mana to throw more fireballs and that was how I used it to move further into the complex.

In order to save my strength I begun to avoid fights and run from them unless it was absolutely neccessary. Since time in the game depletes my physical energy I often do recon patrols to map out the area ahead before going in with my real save. In that way, I optimise my gameplay and preserve the strength of the group as long as possible.

Some things of important in this fortress level

• I found a room with a fountain but I didn´t see any effect when using it and could not use any items on it. I moved on.
• There is a lever in the western part that must be pulled to open up a portcullis in the eastern part.
• There is nothing of importance on the level except 10.000 gold and some arrows.

When going through the portcullis we met yet another type of monster. I don´t really know what to call them but they sure did not look friendly with their huge maces. They inflicted heavy amounts of damage on me and fighting them with my ordinary weapons would only get me a Pyrrhys victory, so I used the fireballs tactics at them and it worked like a charm. After that, I healed up using the change of timescale and moved on.

I found another closed door but it turned out I had to step on a preassure plate in a room full of traps in order to open it. After that part I eventually met a mage of some sort. He spoke but said nothing of importance, just that he´d made it. Made what I wonder ? I didn´t understand.

 He could not be fought and he would not accept any of my items so I just moved on.

What the hell is he talking about ?

I begun to become really excited to finish this game now and rushed on without mapping but was stopped by a door with a huge ear on it. What the hell is that !? It couldn´t be opened by magic or force and I had no keys. I started to use my items on it and tried out the parrot I bought before. Apparently a parrot must speak through the ear to let the door open. This must be the most ridiculous challenge yet in this game. There is absolutely no logic in it. Well, at least I figured it out by myself and stepped through.

The most silly solution yet!

I still had one unused rat and monkey in my inventory. I wonder where I could have used them.

This is the void when you cast change of timescale

I moved through a corridor that opened up into a large hall. And there he was....Shandar himself...or rather I thought so. The nameless shadow just stood there. He could actually be anyone because he didn´t speak or anything. But he sure did attack me! He died at my hands in my first attempt. I threw fireballs at him and when my mana was drained I brew a potion to restore it to full strength and repeated that action. Three times I emptied my mana reserves with fireballs at him and managed to stay alive during his feeble attempts to hurt or immobilise me. I was quite dissappointed but at the same time glad I did it defeat him!

Why does he not say anything ?

Shandar was now dead and I was met by the same image as in the introduction but with a slow shadow emerging from the right side of the screen. I suppose that should remind me of a continuation in Ishar 3 but that won´t happen anytime soon. First I need a rest from this gaming system.

Look out for my review in my next post.