Avadon 11: Off to See the Wizard

Well he was hard to find, but I have vanquished the evil wizard. So he wasn't the endgame. Something else will be tougher.


Actually he really isn't all that tough if you realize what to do. Get him away from his summoned demon assistant and you can attack him. Sometimes. The tough bit is getting through all the imps and various hellish enemies that the demon summons. (That demon is really a great guy. Good humor. Be sure to talk with him after the battle. Ask him to talk about himself. Ha.)


Fortunately, I was strong enough to do it. And it did it with my shaman, too. Not the sorceress. See? If you give her enough dexterity points, she becomes quite useful. Really, she's good.


The main fun of getting the wizard is all the stuff you have to go through to find him. He has three, count 'em, three towers. You have to gain entrance to that area. And there is a whole lotta great loot! I've got so many good enhancements now that I don't know what to do with them all.


Also got a nice spider, the Widow of Bones, who frankly wasn't that tough. Got numerous demons along the way. Plenty of ghosts and ghasts. Looted the shaman-in-the-woods' bedroom. Well, she charges too much for her stuff.


So that was a long quest, but quite a good one. Nifty.


And yup, I've been sent back to the Kva for the third time. Strange. Jeff normally doesn't re-use areas like this. I assume he had to get the game out in record time, and it's a from-the-ground-up brand new game. So he's become efficient. It'll be very interesting to see what the sequel looks like!


However, the game really is going to have to wait for a bit. I want to get a good head start on my Kirkus books. So, later for Avadon!


Next Entry

Avadon 10: Got 'Em!

Ok, the second time through wasn't that tough, and I even forgot to use my nifty assault crystal. Kept my sorceress back a bit so she could flee out of the entrance, just flinging spells from afar and she was mostly fine. She did get drawn into the room more than I would have liked, and got confused once when the pylons went off, but most of the time she fended even that off. Frankly, the confusion spell isn't much. Only lasts one turn.


There are some unfinished missions in that area as well, so it means we'll be going back there. 


Interesting that Jeff isn't using even close to the whole map. I'm now at level 20, which means that I'm more than halfway through the game. I've been to Kva twice already, with obviously at least one more mission there. I'm just being sent back to Kelvaria. I guess that Jeff just didn't have time to fill out the whole map with this from-the-ground-up new game. It's supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Apparently he'll be building on the thing with the next two games.


(I've read on the Spiderweb Forum that we max out at level 30 in this game, which is low. I've also read some complaints about that, saying that you hit level 30 quite a while before the end of the game, so maybe I'm only halfway finished. We'll see.)


I was able to grab another drake skin, and took that to the leatherworker in the Beraza Pits area. She made me a seriously nifty tunic. Found another skin later, went back and got the one I'd stored in my cabinet earlier and got another tunic for my second shadowwalker. Would love to get the leggings too, but we'll have to see just how many drake skins are in the game.


Wow, that cheat that adds sparkles to the hidden switches is wonderful. There is no way I would have found several switches without it. I would have been wandering around in the Beraza Pits forever without that cheat.


So I went back and found Jenell, my shaman. She had accumulated eight lovely points, and I shoved about half of them into dexterity for her. Now she's far more useful. She still misses, but not nearly as often, and she has a really nice ranged spell, earthquake, that takes a whole lot out of a lot of enemies. We had a battle against another shaman that wasn't too tough, but still was fun. Got some decent loot out of it.


So, now I'm back at the castle, ready for my next mission. I think I'll take my tank (blademaster) this time. He has some truly great bashing skills, and his missile attack is good too. I'm also building up to some decent skills with my main character.


Had to take a few days off for some rush Kirkus stuff (a rush book didn't arrive on time because of bad weather back east), but that's done. I do have to grind out a few more just to keep ahead of the game, and I have to start painting (finally!) my front room, so it may be a few days before I do much more with the game.


However, ya never know! Avadon calls!


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Avadon 9: Waiting for the Big Battle

Waiting 'cause I've already lost once. This one is a serious boss.


However, losing can help one prepare for the second try.


I have killed the five basilisks required by the beastmaster, along with varied spiders, rats, bats and wolves, and pretty much scoured out the two areas before the boss battle. I've collected plenty 'o loot, and have descended into the pit of magic.


There's a drake there. He does magic. He isn't nice.


Now, I know I can't just step up and massacre a drake, especially one that uses magic. However, I have learned that by forcing it to replenish it's "pets" when I damage them, it loses power.  Clearly, I have to last long enough to do enough damage that it becomes so weakened that I can kill it.


I'm frankly amazed at how long I lasted. My sorceress went down fast, of course, and I'm not sure it's worth it to try to sustain her. I mean, she's good, but she's easily damaged, and I need the healing stuff for my two shadowwalkers.


Confounding the issue is that you have to keep running from one side of the room to the other, or you'll become confused for a turn or two. Jeff loves this kind of puzzle. He lets two pylons glow red on one side of the room. You have time to move. If you don't move, you get hit by the pylon. However, I think I can stay mostly in the middle and be OK.


I've noticed that it's a waste of time to fight the various ghouls the drake throws your way. I need to damage the fighters instead, because that's what weakens the drake.


However, I've learned this stuff, and it's kinda late. I had lots of fun making my way into this lair--had a really nice demon to fight who kept sending imps my way. The only way to get him was to make my way to a certain spot where I could hit him with razordiscs. Otherwise the fight would have gone on all night. After I got him and cleared out the remaining imps, I figured out the puzzle to get in the portcullis. Not difficult, actually, especially if you know Jeff's games.


So, I've lost one battle with the drake, but I learned what I have to do. If I can keep both shadowwalkers alive I think I can get it next time.


Until then, it'll have to wait.


Sleepy times now.


Till tomorrow!


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Avadon 8: Boss Slaughtering

Even though I was rudely interrupted by the Great San Diego Blackout (which apparently, blacked out most of south Southern California and Baja), I managed to get a bad boss.


(I'm proud though. During the blackout, I cooked dinner for Dad over the gas fireplace, because we have an electric stove. Lightly sauteed salmon in butter. Also boiled up some peas. Worked great! One of the best dinners we've had in awhile, actually. Also shoved the milk into the freezer and saved that.)


First, I did try the game on "hard." Went upstairs in the library to dispatch some nasty skeletons and got slaughtered. OK. Turned it back down to "normal," which made a huge difference. I bagged the skeletons, and set off to the new area.


Traveled all over the castle, stole stuff, got the major quest set up, and off I went into the Beraza Woods. First, though, there are some nifty minor quests to complete. One of those turned out to be quite the quest!


In an abandoned farmhouse, we fight some rats. Easy peasy. Then, we go down. There we fight more rats. Then we go down again. More rats. Down again.


Once we get to the bottom layer we find the evil spirit that's infesting the area, and she is tricky. She got me twice before I wised up to her.


Problem is, she teleports anybody who directly attacks her far away down a twisty corridor and surrounds him with more ghosts to battle. I realized that I could get her with razordisks, fireballs, and a lovely wolf my sorceress conjured up. Wasn't easy, and I used up lotsa stuff to get her, but finally she expired. Whew!


And that was on normal. So I take it back about the game being too easy.


One thing I really like, and I've mentioned it before, is that your team members occasionally comment and we get lots of their personalities and backstories. This time I luckily decided to take my sorceress and my other shadowwalker. The sorceress is Kelendrian, and the shadowwalker is from an enemy land. He was quite nervous about being in this place.


Also, my shaman has disappeared, but I'm betting I'll meet up with her sometime soon. It'll be fun to see how many levels she's gained. Maybe I can up her dexterity so she won't miss so often.


Well, gotta publish this before the power gives up again!


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Avadon 7: Castle Dungeon, Conquered!

After my successful ogre and salamander slaughter, I thought I'd try those lower dungeons in the castle again. Yup, I had gained a couple of levels and I was able to do it quite well. Only had a bitsy bit of trouble with some quickghasts, who are tougher than just your ordinary ghasts. The boss fight with the demon went very well. I was able to charm one of his augmented rats. Also used a battle crystal that was really good. Must find more of those!


A bit of a complaint though: this is by far the easiest Spiderweb game I've played. Now, that's great in one sense. You do get to move along smartly in the game, and there are some challenges. But, for example, once your fight is over, your characters regain all their health very easily, after taking just a few steps. Before, you'd have to use potions, or enter a town, or have your healer do her stuff (I used to just wander around building up spell energy when it was inconvenient to get to a town to heal up.) Plus, while they do lose "vitality" (the new term for spell energy), they don't lose it very quickly. I've only used one "vitality" potion so far.


There was a cave in the opening section of Avernum VI, for example, that was full of ghosts who ate me for breakfast over and over again. I had to find the lightening spray spell before I could beat 'em, and even then it was a near thing. It took blasted forever to get that spell. However, once I did beat 'em, it felt great!


Difficulty can be more fun, by overcoming those frustrations.


Well, Jeff has allowed us to turn up the difficulty in the game if we want to do that, and I think I indeed will try it on "hard." It will be the first time I've ever tried any setting other than "normal" in one of his games. We'll see how it goes.


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Avadon 6: The Secret Dungeon (and Ogres)

Aha! In my latest wanderings, after dispatching the ogres, I bumped around the dragon's lair, followed a quest to the library, and the secret door cheat I added worked! I just happened, by luck, to stop at a certain point, and I noticed sparkles on the wall. Sure enough, there was a teensy red button embedded in the rock wall. No possibility of noticing that without the sparkles, or without being told where to look. No doubt that without the cheat we are told where to look, and I'll bet I know where the quest will come from too. (True, I've jumped the gun a bit, but nothing lost. I'll still get the quest and find out that I've already done it, or will go back and do it.)


I dispatched numerous fire-breathing salamanders (obviously without my fireball spell, which doesn't work on them) and other lizards from behind the dragon's walls, but I encountered several major bosses, and one which I suspect will be the object of the forthcoming quest. There's a specter watching over a hidden crypt. He doesn't do very good watching, because I robbed the crypt blind right under his nose.


Wake him up, though, and you get a battle I'm not ready for yet. And one of the officials says to come back later, if I gave you my quest now you'd get killed. And so I would, if that guy's the quest. In the meantime, I've cleared out all the lizards already. Got lotsa loot too. Also cleared out some more wretches hiding there, but that was easy, so that can't be the quest.


And I met a demon with the best humor in the game so far. He's on vacation. Tres droll. Also completely undefeatable. I tried. So he won't be the quest. There's also a drake that would be super tough. Both say they're there at the behest of the dragon, so I imagine that leaving them alone is the only real option.


There are intrepid players of these games who would find ways to take those guys out, as a singleton with the game set on "torment," but I'm not that fanatical.


The only things really interesting about the ogre fight was, first, finding them, which wasn't straightforward, and a couple of battles (well, and finding the "blue ore" in the blacksmith's quest--but I know that Jeff always wants the number six in these quests, so the five easy samples weren't enough--you get number six after a boss battle). In one, you have to fight your way out of a corridor as flood water advances on you. If you let the water touch your characters at all, they perish. It's very easy just to jump (three of my guys have that ability now--two shadowwalkers and my blademaster with a teleport scarab) or just to run ahead of the water. The first time I got lazy about that though, and died. Well that was fine. Got to see the death screen.


Also, I dispatched a titan and then a wizard. Forgot to save between those boss battles, (I'm usually really good about that, but sometimes you just get caught up in the momentum of the game and forget) but managed to get the lady wizard without too much trouble on the first try. After all of this, I got a quest for a weapon from a titan. I'm not going back to search that area though. That isn't how Jeff does these games. I'll meet another titan later, slaughter him, and he will have the requested weapon ("You find a steel-headed mace. You remember Berek wanted one. You take it."). It will be a "special item" and will work automatically.


So this has been fun, and I've gathered up some decent loot, finally.


I keep noticing how much Jeff has enhanced the graphics in this new game. We get nice drips from the ceiling down in tunnels, rather like the rain effect aboveground.


Also, at this point in the game it's very clear that we're going to get one of Jeff's famous choices: to stay with Redbeard or to join hidden rebels. This first time through I'll probably stay with Redbeard. I know you get a battle with him at the end, but whether that's optional or not, I don't yet know. Probably is.


Onward, through more secret doors, I hope!


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Avadon 5: No Dungeon Today

Short entry for last night. Got slammed with Kirkus books (six in one shipment!), and even though I'm way ahead on the deadlines, I want to get a head start. The more I get in early, the more books I get, the more $$$ I make.


But, last night I tried to go down to the lower dungeon. Was able to do it, but only by using far too many potions and scrolls. Fortunately I always save at least two games. My major game, and a game for each new area. Plus, there are the "quicksave" moves that are really helpful. 


Anyway, I decided I didn't want to waste all that expensive stuff when I can just gain a few levels and go back later when I'll be able to do it easily. I mean, normally I do use the stuff, but not at that rate! I restored my major game at the beginning of that level, and willingly lost all the ghouls and augmented rats I'd killed, but I regained my stuff. (I did poke around and see what's in the area, first, however. Yup. It's a demon. It's making the augmented rats, so I'll have to get him. Later.)


Also, although I took my Shaman out to Kva the first time and liked her fine, this time she was almost useless except for healing. I mean, she has assault abilities, but she missed at least 75% of the time. The Sorceress is lots more useful. So, the Shaman can just go hang out in the castle gardens, gaining levels while the rest of us go and fight. Maybe there will be an area where she'll fit in later. We'll see. Pity I wasted an enhancement stone on her.


I did learn an interesting thing about the game in the dungeon, though. Your characters really don't die (unless the whole party is killed)--they just fall unconscious. They spring to life again as soon as the battle is over. That's much easier even than in Avernum VI, where you had to enter a town to revive your characters. And of course, in the earlier Avernum games, a character killed is a character actually killed. You had to find a high-level healer and play lots of coins to get your guy returned from the dead.


I do want to keep playing, despite the Kirkus books. If I stop I'll lose my momentum, which is the greatest thing about these games. I will cut down on internet surfing and keep the playing time down.


So tonight I'll go back to Kva, but with the sorceress and the other shadowwalker, I think. And I won't go far.


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