Avernum 3-8: Wandering and Demons (and Drakes!)

Well I kind of hit a wall with the game, but I think I'm through it now. I could not could not could not find a map of the last unmapped province. Finally I realized that it had to be in the major city of that province, and at last I found it. Whew! I spent way too much time wandering around looking for it. Still have to turn it in to complete a quest, but I know where that destination is.

I looked at the Spiderweb Forum and learned that although most people finish the game before Day 160, that's when a major event happens at the Tower of Magi, and I don't want to miss that. Hence the wandering. However, I'm finding that the "Job Board" time-limited quests you get don't even show up in your quest list if you get them past the time that they're supposed to be done. So there's a limited number of those minor quests that I can do to pass the time. This element in the game bothers me because I always like to do every quest I can find no matter how small, and now I can't. Shoot.

So now I'm going after the major artifacts in the game. I have two, a shield and Pachtar's Platemail, both of which I put on Aldous. The shield you get from the mad monks down on the island in the south (in the previous incarnation of this game you found the recipe for Knowledge Brew there, but now we use Wisdom Crystals instead, and there are a limited number of them, sadly). I remember that those monks were really tough in the last game. (Some nice humor about kung fu movies, there, however, if you find it!) I'm a lot stronger now but even so I found them to be fairly challenging. Well that's good. I don't want to just blow through these fights. 

I also got the platemail from the Lair of Drakos, which involves having to slaughter not only Drakos, but plenty of Ur-Basilisks and fire lizards and Efreets and Demons. That was challenging too. Should have given my priestess an invulnerability elixir, because I had to use up far too many return life scrolls to get her reanimated when she got killed. She can return life to the others, but shoot, that was a fairly good fight.

However, as seen below, there is a nice chest that's blocked by stones. I was certain that I already had Move Mountains at level 3, but apparently not. Had to go back to the Forum to see how to find it. Found it, and went back for the loot!

Kill the demons, get the loot

I'm finding that money is much tighter in this game than I'd like. There are lots of major fees that you have to pay to get information about where things are, and keys, and of course, there's buying the house.

So after I get the Fury Crossbow, and the Ring of Endless Magery, and, I think, the Black Halbred, I will go after the golem factory, and slay the alien beasts, and get into Blackcrag Fortress. That ought to get me closer to the endgame. I do want to go beyond 160 days, though.

Oh, and, um (blush), I finally realized that I can deposit loot into my junk bag just by control clicking on it. Sheesh. This far into the game. Idiot me.

I'm on Day 129 now, so there's lots still to do!

Next Entry.

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