Prophecy of the Shadow - To the evil's den

Last time my morale went up because I got directed from the forbidden mages guild what to do. I got the key for the Great Library that is well hidden in the Great Forest. I entered and it was full of bookcases as well as some dire wolves here and there (nice place for their den!).

I found information about different beasts that roams the land like the Torloks and Gazers. The latter one is quite an advanced life form in itself and history tells of them quite a lot. When I came to a sort of piedestal I got struck by....a prophecy enlightenment!

I was not much the wiser of the prophecy except that I should seek out the High Gazers presumably somewhere underground. It is not clear why. I thought the guild might help me to interpret it and so I went back to Silverdale only to be told a simple message:

Ok! So that didn´t make me any wiser. I had explored the whole map as far as I know and could not move on in any place. This time I had to look for a hint online. The hint said it was time to use Larf´s Rod to teleport myself from the desert (called the Withering). I had forgot about all the teleporter stones. I travelled manually to all places and thought the teleporter stones only teleported me to known places. It turned out however, that by using the stones in the desert I was teleported to a small island not showned on the map.

The island housed another teleporter that I used and I found myself underground somewhere.

This was a huge complex filled with dangerous Gazers and a rat here and there. The Gazers are so dangerous that I always have to use the Shadow Sword, which stops me from using magic. That means that after every combat I have to save, rest to regain spellpoints, drop my sword, use healing spells, pick up and equip my shaodw sword and continue again. That is the process.

I stumbled upon some ancient ruins and found a magical lamp that....yepp you guessed it....means I can throw away my flint and torches. Extremely helpful.

In the beginning I wondered about the use of rations. Now I know that you don´t need them. They help regain more hitpoints while resting but it is not worth the silver to carry them around since they are depleted fast. 

After much explorations of the cave I stumbled upon a friendly Gazer who told me vital information. It took me at least two hours of more exploration of the cave because the first time I mistook the Gazer for an enemy and killed him. I had to reload. He didn´t talk to me and I had to go for a hint on this. It turned out I was actually carrying around a Gazer Dictionary - found in the library - that I had forgot about. By using it, he begun to speak.

It is the evil sorcerer Abraxus that is behind everything and the new ruler Cam Tethe (yes Cam, not Gam as I previously thought because of the hard to read font) is his puppet in the world. I was instructed by the Gazer to go to the hall of mages in order to find out more.

I used the teleporter in the cave and started my exploration of the hall of mages. Here I found a lot of important information for the background. The mages guild knew about the danger of Abraxus and had two ways of trying to defeat him. Either by forging a special weapon or by using very powerful magic to draw death itself to him. They choosed the latter one because the sword of power drained them of their magic.

So this is the sword I found sometime ago and was carrying around all the time. It was meant to destroy Abraxus himself but an unfortunate sideeffect was that it also prevented use of all magic, something which is quite a hinderance for a mage, don´t you think ?

 The hall of mages gave me valuable information but not a single hint on what to do next. I returned to the mainland and decided it was time to visit the witch again because I had now found all the four ingredients (the spider venom was found in the hall of mages).

Arghh...she attacks me! But she was weak, after having equipped my shadow sword she could not withstand me. She left the spell Respirare to be written into my spellbook but I have no clue what I should do with it just yet. 

I decided to return to the mages guild for more guidance and found them all dead, slaughtered by the mage hunters. Ok, so now I am alone again. At this time I had no clue how to continue so I checked for a hint saying I should check out Tethems keep near the capital Granite. I had already been there but couldn´t enter.

However, when trying to get into a backway I was told not to return until all mages where dead. Which they were right now but how would I convince them ? I showed my death warrants paper and was let in.

Finally I am inside the Keep where Cam Tethe resides. This will be importan. I seached the keep which was divided into several levels. I could talk to some loyal followers but most of the time I was attacked by the guards which by now was no major trouble since I could always rest and recuperate.

I found some keys that allowed me to open some closed doors. One key was given by a maiden who belonged to the resistance against the Cam Tethe. It allowed me access to his private quarters. Another key led down to the dungeons. In the end there was not much to do except plunder and search everything and find Tethe somewhere. I finally met him upstairs. He attacks with his Ebony Ax which does tremendous damage. I barely managed to hit him with my Shadow Sword. After being killed three times in a row I had to figure out a tactic to kill him. I entered the doors, met him. Made one or two swings then returned by the doors downstairs again. He was not following. By repeating this procedure - and heal in between - I defeated him after about 4-5 confrontations. 

After his death I searched everything and found some sort of priest dress I could wear. My guess is that it allows me to enter the temple in the north disguised but I might be wrong. I also found the key that led to the prisoner section in the dungeons where I saved the princess. She was free at last.

At some place a ladder went down to some caves below the dungeons. 

While searching them I stumbled upon an evil priest which I killed with the Ebon Axe from Tethe. He left an importan spellbook that gave me some more spells. Actually I never use spells in combat. It is to slow and clumsy but someone else might have use for them.

It takes no engineering brain to conclude that I will probably have to find these four scrolls. I hate looking for items with very little to go on. Especially if I have already been in the places mentioned like the Withering lands. Perhaps I have it in my bag of holdings already. Let´s hope so and continue.

I was finished with my business in the Keep. All guards where dead. Cam Tethe was dead and I had his axe and some dark priest robes. Now I left to visit the temple in the north.

Before I went there I took on my robes and tried the double doors. I was let in but they immediately discovered my false identity and attacked. It was too late for the however. Now I had access to the whole temple.

I begun my search. Rumours says there are a tomb where Abraxus lies. I think it could be beneath the temple. If this game is not hidden any huge unknown areas, the next post just might be the last one on this game...

Prophecy of the Shadow - Back on track again...

I found the map that are included in the manual. Though I roughly knew where everything was by now it still helps me to figure out how big certain things are like the Great Forest.

I had missed the capital Granite on my way north (though I don´t understand how I could´ve missed it). Anyway there I discovered a few shops and an inn. The palace where located on an island that was not easily accessed. The guards outside attacks me on sight and it took me a few tries to defeat the first two of them, and that was only possible because I could take them on one at a time. But when I tried to walk over the bridge to the castle, another two guards attacks at once and I don´t stand a chance so I left this place for now.

I did, however, manage to locate the former guard captain Gulian, but he had not much to add to the mystery.

I returned to the southeast part where I knew a huge swamp where. When I got closer this time around I discovered I could walk on certain hexes that contained some type of weed. While trying out all places to step my foot on (and I did try for long), I finally managed to get to an island in the middle of the swamp. There was an house there and I entered. It was inhabited by an old Witch, Esme that I figured out would be very important since she was so hard to find.

She spoke about contacts with the gnome-wizard Larf and that he wanted to ressurrect dead bodies and was always interested how thing where on the other side. Then it struck me that the severed head I carried around might be his and showed it to the witch. Voila! She begun to speak....

Arrrgh!, It turns out I need to find four different ingredients to create a potion of necrotelecomnicon. Not that I understand why I would need it. It seems like a hard task so I suspect it will be either very vital to the quest or something which will be very beneficial. After the visit to the witch´s hut, I tried to locate positions on the map where I could continue. The northeast and northwest part of the mainisland is blocket by difficult enemies, regardless of the great sword I carry. That is because they could throw fireballs at a distance. I have seen however that there is a shop in Jadar that sells what I believe is some sort of protection against it.

Meanwhile I ran around the Great Forest to find any entrance to the great library or the rumoured Torloks tribe but didn´t have much luck. My attention went back to the desert area in the southwest where I might have missed something. And so I did. I found a house but could not enter. It was probably deserted. While very throughly searching the desert, I found the desert pango. At least one of the four ingredients had been found.

I don´t remember exactly where, but I found a special bag of holdings which - unsurprisingly - allows me to carry more items. It seems it holds quite a lot and because of that I decided to return to the crypts under the desert to pick up items I had to get rid of in order to keep more important items. They could always be sold and allow me to buy better things.

After returning from the desert I had still no clue where to go so I went back to the Great Forest to explore all 

paths. Finally I found a path I´ve not been into. I was attacked by both Torloks and wolves and after fighting them methodically and healing and resting inbetween, I eventually entered their main camp. After some time I cleared it out and found their cave....

My investigation of the Torlok cave included a lot of fights. They mostly dropped pelts as items. They are not worth much but still, with the bag of holding, I can get some silver coins for them. I cleared out the whole area and met the Torlok Chieftain in the end. He was somewhat difficult to defeat but after a few attempts he was defeated and left a Torlok tongue. That is the second ingredient for the potion the witch could brew. Other than that I found nothing to take me further into the main quest. 

I left the Torlok cave and explored what was left of the irregular paths that led me there and stumbled upon the famous Great Library. What a pity it was locked and I had no idea how to get in. 

There was not much else to do so I took a note of the path to the library and went back outside the Great Forest. Now I was quite lost. I think I´ve talked to everyone and searched everywhere on the map. I made a new attempt to attack the Gazer in the north but to no avail. I had to take a little sneak peek in the walkthrough to get me only a hint of what to do and found out I´ve forgot to clear out the whole mine complex in the beginning. I was obviously on my way back to the town, stuffed with items to sell and forgot I was in the middle of its exploration. I went back and now I throughly searched the mines. I found a not talking about the Gnome Chieftain and his famous sword. Ah...I remember I did read that text the first time around but forgot all about it. Now I carefully searched the whole area and found the captain in his camp. I defeated him and he left a Shadow Sword.

Still, no way to proceed with the main quest. But this let me try out to defeat the gazers in the north again. And with the Shadow Sword equipped I vanquished them. Not easily, but still. They allowed me to explore the northern part of the island. The sword itself was interesting. It turned out that while carrying the sword I was not able to cast any spells. So now I have to drop the sword, equip the platinum catalyst, cast my spells and then pick up the sword again. That is the only way to heal yourself quick enough.

The northern part of the island housed the town of Malice. It turned out to be inhabited by religous fantatics that talked about Abraxus, some sort of god that will come back to the world to punish all that are against him. His temple lies there but they don´t allow anyone not disguised as a priest. I had no way to get in and there where not much more to do there. 

Yes! I finally located Gerald. He was hidden in a path south of Glade which I had not discovered yet. At last he give me instructions to go forward and meet them in the closed down Guild in Silverdale.

While inside the Guild, I learn that the shadow lord, the evil Abraxus is about to come loose. He surely have something to do with Tethe Gam, the new ruler. Now I was to find  more information in the Great Library. They want me to go there and gave me a key to enter. Finally I am about to proceed in the adventure....

Dark heart of Uukrul - slowly progressing

Last time I had just found my first Sanctuary in the huge underground city. Since then I have progressed with my party. So far we are all pulling east to get into new territories and on the way we have found new sanctuaries. I finally reached the marketplace. 

Here you can visit a blacksmith to have your broken weapons repaired (I was not too happy to discover you can break your weapons in the middle of a battle. You always have to have a backup weapon with you).

I also found a Maousoleum in which you can resurrect your characters if they die. The bad part - except for paying a lot of gold - is that you loose some attribute points when resurrected. There are, however, a guild just nearby that lets you recruit any new character of the ones pre-rolled. I haven´t tried them out yet so I  don´t know how good they are. 

When you reach enough experience points for your next level you have to visit a Sanctuary to level up. During level up, I have noticed you can increase from zero to three attribute points (totally random it seems). You also get more hitpoints and spell points. Close to each Sanctuary are teleporters. With them you could  write the correct word and then teleport back to another Sanctuary or place. Too bad the place you have discovered are not listed. You have to write them down separately. 

I have still to know any details of my main mission to destroy Uukrul, except that it seems his black heart are locked in by six locks that could be opened by a petrified human heart. I met a femal that faded in before me called, Mara, she mentioned I need to find the frozen hearts. So far I have had no reason to write anything down since every encounter is hostile anyway. 

When you level up you could visit the temples or the mages and if you are of enough level they will give you another ring or school of magic. Here is where I think I can begin to explain the magic system in the game. For both priests and mages you have several schools of magic. Each school have spells divided into categories that relies upon a certain ring of metal. You start at the lowest category which are an iron ring of a particular school. That is the most basic spells. If you are of enough level you might be given a copper ring which gives you access to the next level of that schools magic and so on. It works the same for both mages and priests. 

My only reliable partner is my mage. He could always throw spells in combat if he has enough spell points. My priest, however, invoke prayers and it is not guaranteed that they will be heard which makes him very unreliable. I suppose the chance to succeed also depends on the level or metal of the ring in the school but I have yet to verify it. The priest could summon elementals in battle. Only in level three I managed to summon an air elemental to fight at my side. That is another plus of the battles here compared to Demons Winter.

As said in my previous post, you have to manually enter all the spell names to cast them which forces you to print out the manual and flip through the pages every time you want to use your spells. It is almost impossible to remember the names except a very, very few. Very tedious and that makes me too lazy to use spells unless I really have too.

Other reflections of the game so far includes:

• Food seems to deplete in a balanced way in the game. Everytime you move or take an action like "Searching the walls", "Looking for a device for a secret door" etc takes time and depletes your stock. It is not too fast and has not become any real problem yet, but not as slow as not draining the money I try to build up to buy better equipment.

• As mentioned in my previous post, at every door you could Listen before entering. I have not found any practical use for it. You might get a hint if there are any evil denizens on the other side but you still have to go through that door sooner or later anyway, so I just open every door. If you are low on health and want to avoid meeting anyone you would not explore areas in which you have not been before anyway. 

• Run from combat works very well. Each combat screen is built upon you immediate surroundings. So if you have three doors in the room you are in then they will be in the combat screen as well. It seems you only need two character close to the door to make the whole group flee. Your adjacent enemies are give a free attack but that´s all. Run actually means run. You will not start out in the same hex. You could have run a lot of hexes and you don´t see which hexes as in Dragon Wars either. I discovered that when I tried to map an area where the automap didn´t work. I just didnt get it right. Now I know why.

• You don´t have to kill every creature in a battle. If you are strong there is a great chance the enemies will flee rather than meet their certain death. I really appreciate the programmers effort to include this feature of the game.

• Walls in battles prevents spells like firebolts to hit their enemies. You can´t shoot around corners etc which makes battles more tactical.

• When infected by plague it spreads to other members of the group unless treated in time. Good feature, albeit not fun to suffer from.

• In battles you often get a general description of a foe like Orc until you actually starts attack him. Then you might identify him as a red orc, orc chieftain or something other more specialised type. 

• Specific and unusual items you found could be used but they dissappear when you use them, regardless of if you where successful or not. I have bones, rags, ointments, unnamed scrolls, gems and other items I am not sure what to do with.

• You have the option of Auto-combat but what that means is that the computer will command your characters and attack all enemies without any regard of tactics or protection of the weak mages. I only use this for easy fights. I would like an automatic, computed combat instead.

Notice the door in the southwest and northeast. You could flee through them

My party is slowly progressing but most of my gold goes to buy rations and heal my injuries. I have no money left to buy better equipment. I just got hold of the Chrome Key which opens a gate but right after I stumble into a den of thieves (or rather assassins). I have yet to defeat them in order to progress and have died several times in that battle. So I have to restore a backup from the sanctuary and go grinding for a few hours to reach level 4. Hopefully that will also get me some gold to buy better equipment. The priest is mostly useless so far and totally unreliable in combat. I hope he will be more useful later on in the game.

I am progressing farther and farther from my shops. I have no idea if my shops are the only one in the town or if I will find more later on. I would like to find someone to identify my ? items. I have not found any good weapons lying around so far. You don´t get much loot.

I am enjoying the game but the fights starts to get tedious and the overly difficult one-save-no-regret thing is starting to make things quite difficult. For example, the game saves the game in the beginning of every fight which means you cannot quit and reload. If you are unlucky the fight is impossible to win. In no way there are enough gold to resurrect several characters, much less so to be able to backtrack to the Mausoleum before the whole group is wiped out.

Dungeon Master 2 - Very near the end

Last time I tried to figure out how to pass a room with reflectors and pits in the floor. It turned out I didn´t have to align the reflectors to get through. I just sent in a scout to stand on the brown spot behind the wall and the pits and the pits would go away.

We got up to the next level from there and faced a corridor full of electrical charges being spawned out from the wall. The only way to get through was to cast the spell accelerate on the party and run through with as little damage as possible. Behind the corridor was a niche with two keys as seen below.

Vital keys behind a trap in the floor

The problem was that if I took both keys I would be trapped within the marks at the ground. So I could only take one key and step out. Placing something to replace the keys had no effect. So I took the Onyx key and used it to open the door just before the electrical charges. At this stage of the game I was constantly harassed by the flying robots. They are so extremely irritating. If you don´t move quick enough you can stand around one or two hits until the whole party is wiped out.

When coming through the door we finally got into a room with a huge crystal, several levers at the wall and a special gate door that did not open. There where also another gate and a teleporter that could be used. The only way forward was to use the teleporter to be transported into a room where you where trapped behind tables and reflectors. You had to hurl fireballs on the reflectors to destroy the tables and get space to move. You could then get out of the room only to find yourself back at the mainroom with the huge gem. So what do I have to do ? I had to cheat by checking and it was said I have to move the reflectors into the main room and align them against the gem. Then, by pressing the levers, fireballs would be hurled hitting the reflectors and then the gem. It is supposed that the special gate door then should be opened.

The roof of Skullkeep, full of nasties as could be seen

But nothing happend when I pulled the levers. No fireballs where emitted at all. Hmm. There was a ladder here that went down to the machine room I spoke about in a previous post. I figured that now was the time to try to get it started and so I went down and tried to check everything. I was constantly attacked by the robots so my progress was very slow. I even had to go back to the pits since I though I would have to pick up pyre stones to use somewhere but I never found out where. I moved some levers in the machine room, the fire was burning, some preassure was seen etc. I went back up and now I could pull the levers and fireballs was emitted. But nothing happend. It seems I need a lightning bolt to hit the gem from the side and that thing of the machine is not working. I have no idea how to get it to work. 

Right now I am quite fed up with this machine thing and decided to pause the game. I know that I am very near the end and that I soon will face Dagoth, the enemy himself.

I was hoping I could have finished Dungeon Master II before Skyrim was released tomorrow. I am not sure I will have the time to go back to finishe this until too much time has passed. There will probably not be any more updates for some time now due to the Skyrim release.

Ps. By the way, my DM2 is running extremely slow in dosbox right now. To move a step forward takes 1-2 seconds. I have tried to change the dosbox settings but cannot make it to change. Does anyone know how to increase performance ? I thought it was because I was overloaded but saw no effect when unloading items.