Played all day yesterday! W00T! Did two epic dungeon crawls that kicked it!
First up was "Troezen's Treasure," an abandoned tinkermage workshop with all kinds of nasties inside just waiting to eat me. This may be the best dungeon crawl I've ever done. It has three different layers. First, you get in and confront constructs that keep generating. The more generated the tougher they become, so it's necessary to take 'em down as quickly as possible, um, except you don't know that until you get to the end. We wind around and get to the back of the workshop, destroy all the constructs, and then we're safe. However, we can't open the gate into the rest of the workshop. We make a drawing of it and take that back to the lady who gave us the quest, a tinkermage in Troezen. She takes her time in figuring it out, and won't figure it out until we've gained more levels. So we get on with the rest of the game.
At last we're sent back to Troezen, and at last she's figured it out. She gives us instructions, and we return to the workshop. We open the gate! Now we've got more baddies to fight and they're not really all that bad, but once we get 'em all slaughtered we find yet another gate we can't open. Back to the lady tinkermage and she can't figure this one out, but remembers that there's another way in. So off we go, slaughtering altered goo bats and various ghasts until we get to a window that allows us to see the gate mechanism from the other side. Take that back to the tinkermage and she solves it. Now we can get in to the inner workshop, with all the goodies.
But, first we have to get by a couple of really tough constructs that drop mines. That one defeated me the first time until I wised up and set up my towers right at the doorway so they couldn't get by. I've got two tinkermages in this battle: my main character and the other tinkermage that nobody likes, and that turned out to be a great choice. Was able to fire away at the constructs with my sorcerer taking no damage at all, and finally got through to the inner sanctum and the final, nasty battle.
I had to take a look at the forum for advice on this one. There are three "tinkermage constructs," each in a little alcove. These all set up their own hostile towers that shoot at you. Apparently you only have to kill one tinkermage construct to win the battle, but they're not all vulnerable at the same time. A little wisp circles one of them, changing all the time. When the wisp is circling around one of them, that one is vulnerable. Also, in the center of the room, more constructs are formed that eventually are going to attack you.
First, I set up with the south tinkermage construct, but got killed pretty quickly. Then I took the forum's advice and entered battle mode before going into the room, because the room doesn't become hostile until all three of our characters are inside. This time I chose the north alcove, because you're sheltered from the other two alcoves and their hostile towers there. Ran in one at a time, set up four towers, two for each of my tinkermages, then had my sorcerer run in and join me.
How I did it!
Got killed again on the first try, but that was only because I neglected the center constructs for too long, and they shambled forward and slaughtered me fairly quickly. However, it clearly was a smart option, so I did it again. Summoned creatures with my summoning wands and used an assault crystal to get everybody charged up. This time I hid behind my towers, except for my sorcerer, who mostly stood back against the wall. When my tinkermage construct was invulnerable, I just shot at the constructs forming in the center of the room. They actually go down fairly easily if you keep hammering them. Whenever my tinkermage construct turned vulnerable, I whacked away at her, this time not forgetting the center constructs. It took awhile, but I had set up not only suppression, ice and razorblade towers, but a healing pylon too.
So I got out of it with a nice win and not even too much damaged.
Really, I think that was the best dungeon crawl I've ever done.
The second one turned out to be another solo effort for my main character, although I think I could have avoided that. We go to another of those temples looking for the bad guy Dheless, and this time we find him. We also find a truly powerful Tawon goddess, however and she sends us downstairs to hung Dheless, because he make her mad. She sends our two companions away, however, so we're on our own.
Now, I think I could have avoided most of that by just going downstairs with my whole party before I encountered the goddess. I might have a saved game that would let me check that out, but I'm not sure. Anyhoo, you have to slaughter ghasts and ghosts and rats, but these come at you mostly one at a time with the occasional twosome. Not too difficult to dispatch, as we heal up every time we go into peace mode after a fight. There are some decent goodies to loot, and thanks to the junk bag there's no limit to what we can carry. (Although my inventory was completely clogged at the end, because I found some good weapons and armor that I didn't want to sell--fortunately, as you'll see!)
Got to a room where I had to fight Tawon soldiers, but these came at you one at a time, and I had my towers to suppress them and heal me. I didn't bother with shooting towers because I could whack away at 'em on my own. Got all those guys and used up a buncha lock picks to get into sealed areas and get some better goodies. Finally went upstairs, where I had to avoid a construct that patrolled the halls just as in Avernum 6, so I knew how to do that. Fought a buncha ghosts there and took down a buncha hostile towers--easy for a tinkermage with some tool use.
Another upstairs level, and this one had internals to fight. Needed my suppression and healing towers for those, but it went easily after that. Then we get to a "test area" where you have to prove your worth to the goddess. But hey, I'm a tinkermage, so I can set up my towers and the bad guys will whack those instead of me while I shoot and whack them. Wasn't difficult at all and I came out of it almost unscathed. Then I got a really nice sword from a treasure chest as a reward, as well as a key to the final tower, where you find Dheless. Won't say what happened there.
But back I go to Avadon to find that my sorcerer has disappeared. This happens in the Avadon games--each of your characters will have some kind of crisis and you have to go rescue them. That would be fine, except that my sorcerer disappeared with all the good gear on him! Luckily I had scored some good stuff, and I had a good breastplate for my blademaster, as well as a buncha other stuff I hadn't sold yet. She had her own good weapon, so I gave the new sword to the tinkermage that had gone with me on the last mission, as he was already tricked out with the good armor. I only had to buy a helmet for her--I had necklaces and boots and gloves and what all for her. She won't be as strong as before, but she won't be vulnerable.
So now I can start gathering my wandering characters. I've got two to find, as I didn't go after the first one earlier. Will do that before I start any more major quests.
Whew! That was major PHUN! Two great dungeon crawls! Took me all day, but I earned it!
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