Wow! Some fun today! Actually, I really did do a lot of backtracking. I'm really finished with the whole demo area, except of one final trip to the Lair of Motrax sometime later. (I love Motrax. I hate what they did to him. Poor dear old dragon.)
Anyway, I really did find quite a lot of stuff that I'd overlooked. What I've done is press the "U" key everywhere I go in a dungeon. That finds stuff you can't see too well.
First I had some trouble in the Giant Fort. I did the quest there and got everything, but I could see a barrier behind a fence and some rocks in the kennels. Couldn't manage to get to it. Pressed a hidden switch and I could see that a passage opened up behind the barrier, but how to get there? It took a trip to the Spiderweb Forum, but I learned that I had to use the Move Mountains spell several times and press more switches to get to the passage. Did all that and got the loot. It was most odd, because Jeff virtually always indicates when to use Move Moutains by showing cracks in the walls. There were no cracks here. I guess that puzzle was there for the more intrepid players, or those of us willing to go to the Forum for answers.
As I was doing my backtracking, I realized that I didn't have Move Mountains at level 3. I found out where that was, but I needed a very sharp knife to get to the spell book, and I didn't have one. Well HA! I know what that is! It's the fabled Blessed Athame! This time there was no quest for it. It's in the Waterfall Warren, and I already have a couple of different quests for that.
So, I set aside my backtracking to go do that. What fun! The thing has plenty of combat against hellhounes, ghosts, a few giants and even eyebeasts (which go down with fire), but mostly it's a giant puzzle. You go in one building and make your way through it to get clues for later in the puzzle. Example: you find three empty chests. They have lists. One wants an abacus, another an hourglass, and another a fishing pole. We do not of course have any of these items on us at the moment, and it'll take a freaking long time to go and get them. But never fear. Jeff knows that. I was certain he would plant those very items around the area. And of course he did. When you place the items properly and throw the switch, you get a clue. Without those clues you cannot finish the puzzle.
In the next building we get two keys. One comes from one side, the gate of which opens pretty easily. Opening the gate on the other side turns out to be more challenging, but at last I got it.
The we see enticing chests in another building, but there is no access to the place. However, we can see trap doors in the floors. Ergo, we're going to be climbing up to these areas.
And that happens in the next building. Got some major fights there! Especially, and I remember this from the earliest incarnation of the Avernum game: a doomguard. These are mechanical monsters that hit you, but when you hit them they take damage but split in two. Usually, every time you hit them they split. So you either have to kill them outright (impossible) or just keep at it. The trick is that they get weaker and weaker as you hit 'em. Eventually I had a good dozen of them, but they were close to death. Hit 'em with some good area spells and you can take 'em out. Interestingly, this time Jeff didn't have them split until the end of your round, instead of each time they were hit. I remember this fight from the first game--one of the toughest in the game! This time it's easier.
Of course I ran out of spell energy, but Mycroft leveled up, which restores all the energy. Then Cordelia was close to leveling up, so I gave her a wisdom crystal and got her energy up again as well. That was quite nice for fighting the eyebeasts. Plus, I have a pretty good store of energy elixirs, so I knew I'd be OK.
But that was a fun fun puzzle! I wound up playing most of the day. I'd just finished a lotta work, so I gave myself a Sunday off.
Tomorrow I will continue with my backtracking. Gonna suck the marrow from this game!
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