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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