LP Beach

After a small landing, there is another forked path. I try east first.



When you click on this magic mouth again, it says "Seek my brothers, but beware their fangs." This is a hint about what this floor's gimmick will be. The east path is locked, so we'll need to go the other way first.



North of this are doors labeled I - III.



This one holds the first monster of this level, the gas spore. It has only 1 HP, so it can be killed by literally anything. However, it will explode when that happens, which causes significant damage to a party in melee range. They do actually have an attack. They very rarely land a hit and cause little to no damage if they do, but can also cause poison. Throw any item from a distance to take them out safely.



Door I is a dead end where a fireball will be launched at you. It can be dodged if you react quickly enough.



Door II is the way to progress, where another magic mouth can be found. If you click it afterwards, it says "When all my brothers sing their song, the way will open and you'll carry on!" It then follows up by "breathing the pain" i.e. spitting a fireball at you from point-blank range.



Soon after we meet the second monster of this floor, the flying snake. As you probably guessed, they can poison with their bites. Otherwise, they're another enemy in the "weak but numerous" category.



This door can only be opened by forcing it.



It has two packs of rotten food, one of which will be needed later. This tile also becomes a spawn point for flying snakes, and they'll start coming quite rapidly.





Another choice similar to the one at the end of the previous floor, between east and west doors.




Once again, the east door leads to your party being warped back near the entrance and damaged.



Either way, you get a bone key and the area will be closed off afterwards.



In a room to the north, past a door that can't be opened yet, a hidden button will remove this wall.



Past it is a pile of gear, including banded armor +2, a short sword +3, and a -2 cursed polearm called "Leech" which is in fact also something potentially useful. With that, it's time to take the east path.



This room in the northeast corner has four flying snakes and another pile of items. That has a composite bow with five +1 arrows, a Potion of Extra Healing, and a parchment:



This is a partial map of the next floor. I still can't cast True Seeing...



In a hall to the west, we find our first 6th-level spell scroll. That requires level 12 to cast after scribing, which won't be reached without a big grind. I teach it to San-Raal anyway since there's not much better to do with it.



Another hallway south of that seems to go on forever thanks to a good old invisible teleporter. It can be disabled by finding and pushing this brick.



Past that, there's a rotation tile. All of the classics are here. This leads to a couple rooms with flying snakes, plus another gas spore at the end. All this for... a Potion of Vitality.



Another short hallway further south has this room behind an illusory wall. Any items placed on this shelf will become rocks.



This happens further down that hallway. Let's completely ignore that advice.



Inquire:



Die with honor you say?



He's basically another temple greeter.



These items include plate mail +2, a healing potion, and three fire spheres. However, the door into here is permanently shut. Wall of Force can't be cast in doorways, but you can keep it open by luring a monster there. That will mess up the level's scripting until you go back down and return. It's a lot of effort for stuff I don't need in the first place. If you come back to him after leaving, he says "Leave me and continue forth. May you succeed where I did not." You can kill him without a fight then, but it will have the same result.

North of that is a hallway with eight shorter corridors branching off. Seven of them have magic mouths at the end which ask for items. All but one can be found on this floor.

Magic Mouth wrote: Items born of greed are what I need.
One for each year, and one less to fear.

This one wants five rocks. It's probably the most obtuse one if you didn't find the hidden shelf. After fulfilling its request it says, "You have done well. In return, I sing my song." A tone plays after each mouth is satisfied.

Magic Mouth wrote: One's refuse is another's gold.
Your famine is my feast.

Give this one rotten food, and it says, " 'Tis such a delight to taste the ravages of time. Hear me sing!"

Magic Mouth wrote: I am parched.
I am dry!
Give me liquid so I can cry!

Any potion will do. "Refreshment you bring, so now I can sing!"

Magic Mouth wrote: No matter how parched
No matter if rolled
No matter if magic
No matter how old.

Any scroll or parchment works here. "Yum! Hear me hum!"

Magic Mouth wrote: I must have the blade which has eaten so much!
I must have the one which I fear not to touch!

One of two cursed weapons. Either the long sword "Hunger" from near the start of the tower or the polearm "Leech" from this floor. "Revenge is the sweetest taste of all. Hear my call!"



This is in the corridor with the mouth we just fed. Attack that wall...



Both it and the one behind us will disappear, releasing flying snakes. It will also put either a scroll of Disintegrate or a two-handed sword +3 on the floor there. The item can be changed by reloading. Apparently if all mages are out of commission, swinging through the air at the same spot will make the spawns repeat. That can give an unlimited supply of scrolls and swords.

Magic Mouth wrote: Nature's beauty is my meat.
Tiny and red, 'tis such a treat!

This one requires a red gem, which we don't have yet. It's behind the door we couldn't open earlier. How do we do that?

Magic Mouth wrote: From the fiends.
From below.
Find the item, with the hidden glow!

Find this thing.
Find it for me!
For only then, shall I set you free!

This is the only one to need an item that's not on this floor. Give it the mantis idol...



...and it will open that door. Even the most efficient possible route will necessitate at least some backtracking. Time to go back to the southwest portion...



...which will be no trouble at all.



This chamber spawns four gas spores the first time you step on either tile going into it.



After much slashing and Lightning Bolt spam, we get what we came here for. We feed it to the last mouth, which responds, "The pleasure is mine. For you I play something just as divine."



We now have a way up...



...but not before one last encounter.



The name Dran was mentioned a couple of times in the priests' quarters, now here he is in the flesh. He cycles through three different faces while giving this speech.



You'll find this to be true once he's done talking. However, this can also be prevented by luring a monster into the doorway beforehand.



Real original line, jackass.

After another short landing, we arrive at the third and final level of the Silver Tower. First there are six teleporters, whose destinations are all randomized among them. This part can be slightly annoying for that reason, but it doesn't last too long.



Four of them lead to hands holding Dark Moon keys.



Those are used to unlock the hallway to the east. There we check out the first door to the north.



On the previous floor we encountered monsters that look like beholders, now it's time for the real thing. No convenient spike traps this time. I rearranged my party to maximize throwing weapons. Their spells have fairly short range, so it's possible to avoid them by just backing away. Generally if the beholder is no longer visible, you're safe. I take this one down with a barrage of darts plus melee attacks at corners. If you don't want to face such a dangerous foe in this area, you don't have to: it's not necessary to go into that room and there's nothing else worthwhile there either. It's a bit hard to tell from a distance, but that beholder has a femur in its mouth which is dropped on death.



A better view of it comes from this other one, spawned in a room to the south once you're in front of the door. That door opens at the same time, so you'll have to either engage it or run away to the east. The beholders on this level aren't as tough as Xanathar. They have HP in the 70's to low 80's, roughly half of what Xanathar has (his HP is also randomized) though still certainly not trivial. Perhaps more importantly, they don't act as quickly as him. They're actually rather slow, which makes defeating them in combat much more doable. They can't shoot fireballs like Xanathar, but can paralyze with their bites unlike him. Of course, they still have two different instakills and are immune to magic, so stand-up fights with them can go badly in a hurry. I kill this one using the same tactics as before.



The room that second beholder came from has a wall that can be removed by pressing its bottom brick.



Behind it are three healing potions and an illusory wall, which as seen here can introduce you to this level's other enemy: the will o' wisp. They don't cast spells or have other special abilities, but their attacks can do damage in the teens with fast move and attack speeds. In addition, they are very hard to hit with an AC of -8 and seem to be immune to most magic. They're quite a pain. This wall is a potential shortcut but I continue east instead.



This comment is made when you step into that intersection, which that beholder won't go into until you do. I kill it the same way as the first two.



The east section has a couple spaces that monsters can't enter.



At the south of that section is a short corridor with fireball launchers, which less aggressive wisps try to bait you into.



This button removes the wall, which leads into the mass of illusionary walls pointed out by the map from the previous floor. There's also an open entrance to it from the north, just south of the other illusory wall.



Another wisp patrols that area, which can make for a very annoying fight. This button at the west will change the layout of the real walls in it. Our destination is at the south.



I decide to help. Trusting the good will of a beholder only went wrong that one time.



If there's any lesson to be learned from the Silver Tower, it's that Darkmoon Temple is a place for assholes. I reload with that in mind.




The answer is yes, since that leads to the northeast area with the one item we absolutely need from this level.




His color changed, since he's randomly spawned after you make the choice. You have to fight him either way, it's just a matter of where. Either location will be in a 2x2 space, which is just enough room for the dance of death.



There's another beholder in this wider area to the west, which makes it another easy victim of sidestepping. Behind us are a robe +4 and cursed bracers -2. The magic items visible from here are a healing potion, a halberd +2, and a shield +3. Under that shield is a crystal hammer +2, which looks like an axe on the ground. It's a blunt weapon that's also light and thus usable in the offhand. I already have superior options for that in terms of damage but still pick it up because it is necessary to reach the next area of the game. Luckily it is still possible to get back here if you missed it or didn't realize you need it. Talk to the last mouth in the hall leading to the stairs, which initially had no request:



At the northeast corner of the level, there's a door with two beholders behind it. I hit the first one with melee at the corners then quickly retreat to the entrance. This kept me facing only one at a time. Going the other way resulted in having both of them at different sides and staring holes into the party as a result. Further along the corridor, a third beholder was easy enough to take out alone by luring it to the open area. Its room has dragon skin armor, which is leather +4 that went to Amber.



There's one more beholder at the end of the corridor. Its room has a wand of Dispel Magic, a spell there will actually be reason to cast in the near future.



We go back to the main area. Shorn finally reached level 9 here, so I have him memorize True Seeing. However, when I try to cast it the game tells me one is already active. I guess the one Ileria cast was still active at the time she left the party, so it never actually expired. Illusory walls will continue to be a mild annoyance through the end of the game.



A little ways into the western hallway, Khelben contacts the party again. Probably worth noting that the place where this happens isn't totally safe, since wisps patrol the area. Everything else pauses during the conversation.



I find the "distinguished gentleman" line kind of amusing since Dran didn't really bother putting on an act like that at all.



What this means is that the southwest section of the level has pressure plates which change the layout of its walls. It's not required to step on any of them.



As we get closer to our destination in the southeast, there's a rotation tile.



Among the last obstacles is this room with one of each monster in it. They don't come out into the hallway until you engage them. If you stand your ground against this wisp, you might be able to go in and fight the beholder in that 2x2 space for an easy kill. Otherwise, you'll need to backtrack a lot. The room has a Ring of Sustenance, which still doesn't work in this game. Past this, another hidden button like the one into the illusory wall area opens the way to the final room.




Two beholders are spawned, which each have over 100 HP. They stay in place until you enter this room. At the same time, the wall you removed to get in is put back unless you cast Wall of Force in its position. If you didn't, you are very likely to be surrounded by them due to the rectangular hallway. I still have two potions of giant strength from the first game, and this makes a good place to use them. The easiest way to deal with this is to simply run past them.



The goal is this pedestal at the opposite end.



"Do you want to get further in the game?"





All characters now have the mark of Darkmoon on their hands. Any character you recruit after this point will have it upon joining as well. With that, we now have access to the second tower.

Back in the priests' quarters, we are now allowed into the eastmost section.



There is another barrier to the second tower's entrance.



The crystal hammer from the top of the Silver Tower is the only thing that can break it.



Just before the stairs into the tower, a group of four clerics will spawn. Given their location, they must all have passed the test of faith. Having just gone through that ordeal, I'm amazed the number is even that high. Anyway, this group includes one who can cast Flame Strike.



This is the first floor of the Azure Tower. There are no enemies here, which makes it a safe place to rest. As you can see from the map, it doesn't have much of anything else either. It's mostly just a place to land if you fall into a pit later. There is exactly one point of interest, past a teleporter behind an illusory wall.



This shield is +2 and protects against petrification. When identified, its name is changed to Medusa Shield. Not just a good item in its own right, but required to progress later in the tower. That scroll on the floor is Hold Monster, which San-Raal scribes.



The first thing we find on the second floor is this message.



This area seems to have been made for the sole purpose of giving Dispel Magic any use at all.



There are two of these busts on opposite sides of that wall.



Doing this twice opens up a hallway, though you don't need to go to both. You can do it a third time to remove another wall slightly further ahead. Of course, the other effect of Dispel Magic is removing all of your buffs. So obviously that hallway is home to the kind of monster you'd want them active for.



This is a bulette (pronounced "boolay"). No spells, status inflictions, or other gimmicks. All they can do is hit like freight trains. I knew before that they could do damage in the 60s, but no damage is displayed on a character who gets killed in this game. I edited my front-liners' HP to 255 with ASE to see what kind of numbers they can put up. This was the highest number I saw. The lowest was 11, so I think the range is 10d10. They're fairly slow don't have any special magic resistance, so spells like Lightning Bolt and Slay Living are the fastest ways to kill them.




Removing the third magic wall opens the way to Alain, whose name is only mentioned if you take this offer. What that does is give the character who touches him just enough experience to reach the next level. I'll be saving that for later.



If you refuse, you won't see him again upon returning, which is why I didn't bother correcting HP. I reload to before the bulette encounter and do that properly. Speaking of which, as mentioned earlier bulettes aren't really magical. The manual also uses the word "stupid" to describe them, so I don't know what Alain could possibly be absorbing from them.



At the end of the hallway, we encounter the other monster of this level: the basilisk. Here's where the shield from the first floor of this tower and the magic dusts from much earlier come into play. Their petrifying gaze seems to actually be a hit effect that only happens rarely. They're otherwise weak enemies, but they start spawning in this area rapidly.



A room to the north has this fixture, which is missing three gems.



I first go east to a corridor with a moving pit. It skips the jog in the middle, which makes getting back without falling in possible.



It leads to a room with five basilisks guarding the Soul Gem. They don't come out of there until you engage them, so it's possible to open with an Ice Storm from a safe distance and kill three of them at once.



The other two gems are to the west. The illusory wall called out by a mage leads to a room with the Body Gem, and the southwest teleporter takes you to the Heart Gem.



Putting them all in opens the eastern door.



The south path leads to this bulette, which won't attack until you do first.



It drops a key and guards the way to this puzzle. The wall will move east or west to get closer to the last plate activated. You can get past it by stepping on one side, backing off and stepping on the opposite side, then throwing an item back to the first one you stepped on. That will put the wall back on the opposite side of you, where it won't catch up by the second row.



However, it just leads to a door requiring something I don't have yet. I go back and retrieve the item, singular by my solution, to redo this later.



The crystal key is used on this lock at the end of the north path.



It opens this room, with these three levers on the north wall and a button on the south wall. Altering the levers then pressing the button will change the positions of transparent walls in the area southeast of this room as well as spawning a basilisk there. Having the east lever up and the other two down will lead to the prize:



Magical necklaces like this must be held in hand to cast their spells.



This room with a row of pits is to the west. A button on the south wall spawns the basilisk. That pressure plate on the other side will close the southern pit. Casting Hold Monster or throwing an item at the basilisk while it's on the plate can keep it that way. You can also just wait at the button and run past when it steps there. This goes into perhaps the most annoying stretch of the entire series.



With a couple exceptions, every number with a letter activates a corresponding fireball launcher with the latest letter. With San-Raal in the party, Wall of Force can be used to temporarily block some fireballs, particularly at points like 42B and 40B. The middle tile in the west part is a safe one you can rush to at the start. The plate at 41A closes the pit at 41B. The tiles labeled 43 are levers - Put A and B down, leaving C up to open the door to the south. Plate 44B doesn't seem to actually do anything, which is good since 46 represents bulettes. They also spawn and wander around the east area, activating fireball launchers. With luck they can kill each other that way. Being able to track their positions with ASE makes it easier to get through this with minimal damage.



Here's the spot labeled 47. If you go early, the bulette in this room will not have moved from its original location. That saves you from a very hard-to-avoid fireball and makes it an easier target for Slay Living. Improved Invisibility doesn't break upon offensive action but does eventually expire, after rest for example.



Location 48 has this key which opens a door in the priests' quarters. It's the first item needed to open the way to the third and final tower. 57 has another polished shield.



58 is the lock for that shell key, which is the way out of this mess...



...and straight into another one. You can rest here and probably should. There's a teleporter next to this magic mouth. If there are any spellbooks or holy symbols in your inventory, it will take you to a small cross-shaped room with bulettes on three sides and a door behind you.



That door cannot be opened until the bulettes are dead. Wands and scrolls are acceptable items.



The item on your cursor does not count as being in your inventory, and leaving the spell menu open still works. This takes you to a room in the southwest with four bulettes, but like the earlier sentry they don't attack until you do first. I cast Wall of Force onto the tile the party is currently standing on, which prevents the possibility of being surrounded. I open with a Wand of Lightning and Cone of Cold to kill the two directly in front of me, then use Slay Living on the full-health one that moves in front of me. After that, there's enough room to move around the last one. Even with this, there's really no foolproof way to do this and some luck will be required. If you want to do it the more honorable way I'd use more wand spam in place of the other spells.



The way out of the bulette room is an illusory wall to the north. Past it are two signs with a teleporter in between. The second one is referring to this:



Every time you hit it, it does 8 damage to each character in the party. Six hits are needed to remove it, causing a total of 48 damage to everyone. With my smuggled holy symbol, I can repeatedly rest and cast Aid on everybody to prevent any real damage. Otherwise, it's time to finally use some healing potions and scrolls you've been holding onto and/or rest for a long time since nothing will interrupt you. Past the Wall of Souls is a teleporter that will let us finally meet the jerk who set this up.

This is who issued the challenge at the end of the previous update, a greater guardian daemon. From what I know of AD&D cosmology, that "a" makes it something entirely different from a demon. Though I think this was released at a time when TSR had otherwise banned use of the "D-words" in its materials as response to 80's Satanic Panic. Anyway, this guy only has physical attacks with no status inflictions. The damage can go into the 20s, which is hardly trivial but nowhere near as strong as the bulette. To further compare the two, they have similar HP ranges of about 30-52, but he's a little harder to kill due to 25% magic resistance on top of immunity to lightning, cold, and weapons inferior to +2. Slay Living can work, though less reliably than on most enemies.



The Eye of Talon, being worn on the neck, is on the floor at his starting position. North of that is an illusory wall leading to a teleporter. It goes here, where your casting items plus another polished shield are found. Another illusory wall to the west, which was actually solid until now, goes into the north central room with the row of pits.



The Eye goes into this slot past the moving wall puzzle, but the door won't open until you also take it out. That's nice because it's something still needed later on.



This plate closes the door behind you and makes bulettes in each corridor start moving. I use Hold Monster on the first one then Lightning Bolt and Cone of Cold to kill it and the one behind it. I then move into the junction for more mobility and use Slay Living on the last. The way to the Azure Tower's third floor is now open.



In addition to the visible shell lock, there's a crystal lock on the other side of that transparent door. Opening it requires both. It's an elf who makes this comment about stonework rather than a dwarf. This is calling out another illusory wall.



It goes into this room. The pressure plates do nothing. The button in the middle first opens the south door, which has a sign next to it reading "Short Cut..." Behind it is a teleporter leading to a shell key with no obstacles, and another teleporter back here. After going through that, the button opens the north door.



It goes into a four-tile corridor with a moving pit. It always skips the second tile, so it's safe to wait there. This ultimately leads to another teleporter.



That gives us a better look at the guardian daemons, who are the only enemies on this floor. There's no further dialogue if you leave.



At this point doors to the west and east open, releasing another guardian from each room. I pre-empted that by casting Wall of Force in front of them beforehand. I then backed up beside the teleporter to avoid getting flanked. Since they're immune to all the spells that damage multiple tiles, fights with groups of them can be kind of a slog. One of the first two drops a crystal key, which has a corresponding lock to the north. You could use that or even the one from the second floor to unlock the staircase, but there are still things you need there acquired from here. Specifically, the east room has another Medusa Shield in it. There are six in total, and the remaining two are also in this area. The west room has an illusory wall on its north side with three more guardians behind it. They won't cross it, so you can whittle them down with hit-and-run.



This magic mouth past the crystal lock opens a western door to the room those aforementioned three guardians reside. It and the lock can also be bypassed from that illusory wall.



A mage gives a heads-up about this circle on the floor, but there's no way around it.



It damages the entire party with an electric beam every time they step on it and also opens the door next to it. You see a small part of a guardian behind this door, and there's another in the room. Also behind the door is a pressure plate that will close it. When you step off of that, it opens a door to the north with three more guardians behind it. You can rest between the fights.



I'm not sure if these boots actually do anything. At the start, two fireballs revolve around the middle square of this 5x5 room. I got lucky and the guardians ran into them before I arrived. That scroll is Ice Storm. If this plate is no longer weighed down, a pillar will appear at each corner around it and fireball launchers in the middle of each wall will shoot towards it.



This is the last comment to come from a dwarf. Without one of them, a thief will say "There must be a secret out." The bottom brick removes the wall next to it.



That item northwest of the party's position is another Medusa Shield. As you can see, we need to go through a lot of guardians to get it. We have a weapon to help with that:



There is a fireball launcher on the south wall, opposite a door toggled by a button on the east wall.



Every time this pressure plate is stepped on, two fireballs will be launched. The other one at the north end won't do anything but make a sound, letting you know when a guardian is at the junction. You can also see them around the corner if you face north. You can stay in this alcove, and step out onto the plate then immediately back in when they get there. This will really soften them up or even kill them, and ones who survive that will be forced to step on it themselves to engage you in melee. That button toggles the door.



The north wall of the west room has this lever, which does two things: First, it toggles north walls in both rooms. Second, it spawns guardians at each open tile in the 3x3 room to the north. It does those every time it gets switched. Guardians are worth a lot of experience, so this can be a great place to grind. Instead of spending time on that, I increase everybody's XP with ASE and fight one group to level up. From that I find that racial level limits aren't actually implemented in this game. According to the manual the dwarf cleric limit is 10, but Shorn can reach the game max of level 13. However, I did retire him anyway: My final party is the four "loyal" NPC recruits, and you might remember there's a chance Shorn won't join you in the first place.



To get those items, you must break through these walls by attacking them. One of them is a scroll of Stone to Flesh. San-Raal started with that spell, so Amber scribes it. She now knows two 6th level spells, but still none at 5th level.



The other item is this scepter. Insal's letter after his departure mentions it as what he's looking for. Like the Eye of Talon, you must put it into a slot then take it back out to open the door next to it. Unlike the Eye, It actually does something else: It can cast "Mystic Defense" on the entire party. I'm not certain what the exact effects of that are.



The hallway that door leads to has an illusory wall on its west side. Past it you can find this partial map of the next level, oriented with north on right. At the same spot you also find Jhona's Cloak +2 as well as the sixth and final Medusa Shield. That's all you truly need from this level, but you can't backtrack to the start.



This Khelben speech occurs even if you don't have his coin in your inventory. Wait, wasn't our communication severed last time?



An "Amulet of Resurrection" appears on the floor, which has a different graphic from the Amulet of Life we got earlier. I only know Khelben from this game. I've heard he's kind of a dick in otherwise, but I feel confident in saying this advice is out of character for him. If you listen to the first part of that advice and put the amulet in a character's hand, you'll find that it's cursed. Interestingly enough, it can be removed from the neck. When it's identified:



Suffice to say, the whole thing is a fraud. A button on the east wall opens this door. Behind it is a pressure plate that closes it. Another button next to that opens the door to the east room, where three more guardians will spawn. After buffing, San-Raal cast Wall of Force in the north middle tile of the 3x2 room to prevent being surrounded while keeping some space to move. Slay Living and Disintegrate made short work of them.



The guardian that started in the east room, which also has a sling +1 on the floor, will drop a tooth. Put into a "ferocious creature skull" to remove the wall next to it. When you do that, another image of Khelben appears and says, "You fools!" After that:



I don't remember Khelben having fangs like that. Remember who does?



Pretty smug for a guy whose trick just failed. Speaking of which, there is a special message if your party does die in the previous room. "Khelben" appears and calls your party "Such trusting whelps!" You then see the same Dransformation as here and get this spiel:



On to the next room.



That cleric comment actually comes in the middle of an empty hallway and starts scrolling up by the time you get here, so this image is spiced. In addition to these five pressure plates, there are six more on the east and west sides behind transparent walls. There is also a teleporter at either the northeast or southwest corner, behind a pit. The east and west plates will bring the teleporter and pit to the same side. The most recent of the middle three you stepped on will stay down after you're off of it. They determine which corresponding plate behind the wall an item thrown into the teleporter will land on. When all six are weighed down, the north door and the middle panes on each side will open up. This allows you to retrieve the items and also get a Wall of Force scroll. Until now, having San-Raal in the party was the only way to cast it. Amber finally learns a 5th level spell.



A staircase leads to a series of three rooms. All but the first have patterns of moving pits. Falling into one will drop you into the previous room. The Gamebanshee guide shows the easiest paths through them.



This shelf is in a 3x3 room with a teleporter in the middle, so be sure not to just go straight into that. It contains a crystal key and a ring of Feather Fall, which is the fourth one I've collected including three from the first game. Everybody in the party can equip one now.



The teleporter takes us back here. I go back through the north door and intentionally fall through a pit, which lands me in the corridor to the Soul Gem room. From there I go through another pit to the first floor. I go back up and help Alain.



Amber took the experience boost. She had just over 750K before and 938.2K after. That's a little more than half of the 375K required to level up as mage at this point.



We go back up and finally unlock the way to Azure Tower 4.

After going up to Azure Tower 4, we're immediately greeted by aerial servants. That first word in their name indicates that they come from the Elemental Plane of Air, and aren't undead despite their ghostly appearance. They only have physical attacks, which can do damage in the 20s with no other effects. No level draining or any other bullshit like that, since again they're not undead.



Damn it, what did I just say?



In the room at the end of the previous hallway, we find another bust. I think in the Amiga version it's another magic mouth.



This line seems to come whether or not you have all six polished shields in your inventory. If you say no it will respond, "The Medusa's Labyrinth is not a place for the unsure."



This room and the next one are good places to rest.



There are six of these slots on the walls. This is why it's actually necessary to find all of the Medusa Shields.



Filling all six slots opens a door to the north. You can take them back afterward, but I just leave them here. They improve the wielder's saving throw against petrification, and are not perfect defense against it. I still have all but one of the magic dusts I collected, no need for more inventory clutter. Petrification will never be a threat again after this point anyway.



The first medusa encounter happens when you step into the junction ahead. One spawns at each of the three corridors going into it, including the one behind you. Like basilisks, their petrifying gaze is actually a hit effect. The medusa's seems to succeed more often. They can also poison with their snake hair, though I don't think both can happen at once. Also like basilisks, they have under 30 HP and no special magic resistance, so they die quickly.



The first item to find in the labyrinth is another tooth. I didn't take a shot of it last time, but they look like keys on the floor. They do ultimately have the same function.



These scratch marks can be seen throughout the labyrinth. As a mage points out here, the layout will indeed change as you traverse it.



For example, this door I went through earlier now has a wall behind it. In a hallway on the west side of this floor, there is a rotation tile that doesn't get called out. Behind that is a one-time teleporter that forces you to walk on it again.



There are 11 medusae in the room behind these doors. Cone of Cold can thin the herd preemptively. A button on the south wall opens the door next to it, but stepping on that tile causes six more medusae to spawn in the corridors just behind this.



Stepping through the south door causes the north one to open, which makes it possible for the medusae to surround you. Casting Wall of Force in front of it beforehand can prevent that.



Shortly after exiting that room, we find more loot. Amber learns the spell.



We make our way to the large central room, which has an annoying puzzle.



You have to get a medusa on each of those pressure plates. Leaving items on them won't work. There were several in the room to start, but I killed them all. That actually makes this easier due to fewer obstacles. Medusae spawn in this room two at a time at opposite sides. Lure one to the north plate, use Hold Person/Monster to keep her in place, then close the doors on each side. Repeat this for the east and west plates. Get on the south plate yourself, close its north door, then do this one last time. The door out will now be open.



That goes into a hallway leading here. What looks like a dagger under the bones is actually the Hilt of Talon, which will be needed later.



An elf spots a misplaced brick on the north wall, which may be slightly confusing if you're not facing that direction. South of this you can find a scroll of Flesh to Stone under some more bones. San-Raal scribes it.



Putting the tooth from earlier into this skull opens a door to the south. You can take it back out, but that just closes the door again.



This comment is false on two counts. Assuming it's about aerial servants, the cleric who says this should know better than anyone else that they're not undead: turning doesn't work on them. Moreover, neither they nor any other monster showed up here in the first place. I was able to rest here undisturbed.



The scroll that dropped is Cone of Cold, which Amber scribes.



This pressure plate marks the end of the stage. I'd recommend buffing up before you step on it.



It marks a (temporary) point of no return.



We're not fighting Dran just yet, though this is the last encounter with him before we finally do. However, we will be fighting another tough enemy very soon.



After this, the plate becomes a pit which drops us to the next stage.

Does this map look familiar? It's nearly, but not exactly, identical to Azure Tower 3. It's actually considered an entirely different level by the game. The temple entrance and priests' quarters have a similar relationship. Things like staircases and teleporters are still present, but mostly nonfunctional if you warp to them with ASE. We've already been to this level, in the side rooms with moving pits. The enemies won't go into the corner next to the starting spot until you do. This allows you to heal and prepare to some extent, though you can't rest there.



Those enemies are frost giants. As you might guess from that name, they're immune to Cone of Cold and Ice Storm. That scroll from the corner is no use here. Insta-kill spells can work on them and are definitely worth trying since they average 100 HP. If they don't work, or you just don't have them, Lightning Bolt is ideal for large monsters in narrow corridors.



In this cramped space, the only weapons they can use are their fists. As you can see, that's still quite effective and it can hit multiple characters. They can punch an entire party of six at once.



They don't seem to have side sprites and turn around instantly. Getting behind one is still a good opportunity for a pre-emptive attack.



Here's the new spell from the previous update. It's essentially a permanent Hold Monster that also makes its victim die to the next hit. This can give you a chance to rest.



Here are the moving pits of this section. Falling into one will drop you to the second floor of this tower. That's not a shortcut since you need an item from the end. You can get back here by breaking one of the glass panes at the end of the labyrinth with a single attack. The pattern of this set forces you to go into the south hallway, where two more giants are waiting. To the west are three doors, each with more giants behind them. Opposite the north door is a wall that's passable from the west but solid from the east, which locks you into going backwards and doing this again. The way to the end is the middle door, which has a pit that opens directly in front of it, so don't stand there too long.



After fighting through some more giants, we finally meet one willing to talk instead.



I think this is supposed to be a hint on how to get into the last tower, or at least the first two lines.



What looks like a staff on the ground is actually the blade he was holding.



Using the stone dagger here takes you back to the priests' quarters. The stone gem goes to the no rest zone in the catacombs, where you can get to the same place by using it again. Without either, you'll have to fall.



This locked door is just around the corner from the portal room.



Behind that is this very unique wall carving.



Putting the three Talon parts into it makes it melt away and creates a longsword with a distinct icon.



There are two entrances to the Crimson Tower, which is the final area of the game. Weighing both of these plates down with items opens up the south entrance. Just in front of the staircase up is a group of four priests who never move from their starting position. That makes it trivial to hit-and-run them to death.



Before we can enter there's one last copy protection check. In this case the word is "button" but once again the GOG version allows anything.



The first thing we get in the Crimson Tower is this. There's a door on the opposite side.



That leads here. That teleporter to the east (left) will disappear after one use, giving access to what's behind it.



It goes to the middle of a similar setup on the other side of this room - they're connected by a single tile on the north side. This paper is a cursed item when put in someone's hand, but it's needed later. From here I go into the teleporter to the west.



That goes to the other tower entrance, in a separate room not connected to the one we came from. There are two invisible teleporters here that go elsewhere in the room, and the layout ensures you'll step into at least one of them near the start. These can be deactivated by levers, which is necessary to get out.



At least one of these mages will be here at the start. If you step into the middle tile of the teleporter room, one of them will spawn on each side of it. They always start with Magic Missile. That can be nullified by the Shield spell, so I put both mages up front. Their second spell is always fireball. The ones in this room drop crimson rings.



The northwest corner of the room has this shelf, which changes any item into a fire sphere. This is also near the place where more mages spawn.



In front of the Crimson Tower's north entrance, there's a pit which opens and closes periodically. Past that corner is a pressure plate that launches a fireball from the west the first time it's stepped on and every second time after that.



The pit drops you onto the tile just north of this, a cross junction that starts with priests on all four sides. Between the tower entrances is a staircase leading to this room, which allows you to fight them more manageably. This is a 6th level spell for mages, as opposed to 5th level for clerics. San-Raal learns it.



Back in the south room, this is behind the former location of the east teleporter. Looks like one of those crimson rings will fit into it.



This is what happens when you do that. Going in is of course the only way to progress. Refusing will just lose you the ring. Another one of those carvings is on the other side, so you can get back if you have another ring.



Speaking of which, there are two more on the floor here. However, they will move away from you if you approach them. If you get near the end of this hallway, they warp back to the start and you find a plaque on the north wall saying, "Ringmaster am I! Watch me fly!" Putting the sticky paper from earlier on the floor will stop the rings from moving. One is needed for another wall like the one that got us in here. San-Raal scribes the last scroll in this game.



First we found a short sword called "Sting" in the catacombs, now we see this.



On the opposite side of the room we find this coin. It's next to a corridor of illusory walls which leads to stairs up.



That corridor has alcoves with these items. The Shall Rejoice is another coin with the same shape as Mapaj.



The next room has walls that constantly change position as you go through it. We do get a straight shot to that green square to the south.



It's a pre-placed Wall of Force, which can only be removed by Disintegrate.



Behind that is a "reunion" with Insal, but notice I had to bring back some old friends to see this with ASE warping. That's because this event only happens if he was never actually in the party, despite what his lines indicate. With crimson rings, you can even go back to his cell in the catacombs and recruit him after this if you never met him in the first place. That means it is possible to finish the game with a party of all six NPC recruits, but I didn't learn about how this event actually works until very recently and I'm not going to redo everything this far into the game.



The coin you get here doesn't have a hole in it like the other two, nor a special name. One of these coins is needed later on, but thankfully there's another place to get one.



We meet another rhyming frost giant in the northeast corner.



After this we go to the northwest corner, which takes a lot of walking around to make the walls cooperate.



I first select talk, which ends this encounter and makes me have to walk back into the tile. Then I pick touch.



This trades Mapaj and Shall Rejoice for a coin like the one Insal would give.



He's very close to the stairs up. This is the shortest of the three towers, and overall the easiest too. Next update will finish this game.

Intro video

It has been some time since the defeat of Dran and his vile minions at the temple known as Darkmoon. Your victory over Dran has allowed the citizens of this great city to rest easy once again.

This game came out over a year after the second one, in 1993.



Worth noting that 1992 saw the release of Ultima Underworld, which brought several advancements to the first-person dungeon crawler genre all at once.



That meant that even on a new engine with added features, going back to this series was going to look somewhat outdated by comparison.



It was developed in-house by SSI, since 1992 was also the year of Westwood Studios' acquisition by Virgin Games.



They went on to create the Lands of Lore series.



The party here bears resemblance to the one seen in the first game's intro.



This game also initially has a "Quick Start Party" in its first save slot, with different characters but the same composition as the one from the second game.



Without much knowledge of fantasy geography, I had to search for some context. I found this site, which says that Waterdeep and Myth Drannor are 1,280 miles apart.



I think this guy needs a ring, don't you agree?



Much like Khelben in the previous game, our quest giver immediately teleports the party near their destination.



Characters made in this game don't start with consistent amounts of experience like the first two games. Single-class characters start at level 11, double-classes at 10/10, and triple-classes at 9/9/9. Like the second game, the character creation for this also incorrectly applies constitution bonuses to the static HP gains after a character's last hit die. That does not happen within the game proper. A single-class dwarf fighter with maxed out stats will start with a whopping 151 hit points.



Several new faces were added to this game. Many of the old ones also had changes in appearance, usually not for the better. If a character is given the same name as an NPC recruit from one of the earlier games, they will get that character's portrait. Unlike the first two, this game does allow multiple characters to have the same face.



All that the save import program does is copy the selected file to your EOB3 directory and rename it TRANSFER.SAV. You can cut out the middle man and do that yourself. You can also do that with the first game's save file, but the results will be buggy as seen here. This also shows that this game allows you to look through and adjust inventory within the camp menu, which was not the case in the first two.



In addition to messing up their names and items, a direct transfer from the first game also puts character's stats all over the place. Luckily a proper import from the second game won't have any issues like this.



All mages, including recruited NPCs, start with the spells on the right side of this list. Imported mages will automatically learn any spells they were missing from it. I'll describe the cleric spells at relevant points.

As seen at the end of the previous update, your party starts out in the Burial Glen, right in front of a headstone. Unlike the start of the second game, you can't dig up graves here. Soon, the first enemies of this game will approach. Grave mists are undead which are immune to normal weapons and cold. Like the second game, new characters start with +1 weapons. According to the manual they should in fact be healed by cold, but I have no way of seeing if that's true. The manual also says their attacks can drain constitution, but it seems like that wasn't actually implemented, so all they do is 1-4 damage. Since we're in battle now, there's a couple things to point out. First, you may have noticed the All Attack button. When that or the space bar is pressed, everybody whose name is highlighted in yellow will swing/throw/fire their weapons. Second, polearms are now able to reach from the middle row. Keeping the Chieftain Halberd around really pays off here. The party can become very efficient killing machines with these features. After defeating another pair of grave mists, I'm able to rest.



This encounter happens at a random location. The starting area is very open and has no real landmarks, which can make it somewhat difficult to keep track of your location without ASE3. Everybody has blue HP bars since Aid brought them above max. Strangely, showing numbers instead will not indicate that. On a subject related to spells, many of the sound effects here are also used in the Dark Sun games. I think the sound design for this is worse than the first two games. Instead of their more subtle atmospheric sounds, everything here is just kind of loud all the time. I will say that although I agree with the general consensus of this game being the worst of the trilogy, I don't hate it. Anyway, here are the responses:



Either way, he name-drops Elminster, who is Ed Greenwood's self-insert the big-time wizard of the Forgotten Realms. Instead of letters and documents, this game's manual starts with a 26-page story by Ed Greenwood where he is prominently featured. I didn't include that in the intro due to its length and minimal relevance to the actual game. Elminster shows up in Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pools of Darkness, and the Baldur's Gate series.



A strange difference between this and the first two games is that moving with the number pad requires NumLock to be off in this one, whereas it had to be on previously. One area of interest is at the north. There are several grave mists concentrated here, and we get a couple comments about the trees around here. We'll see what those are about soon.



The first comment happens when you click on one of these smaller trees. True Seeing has been majorly upgraded from the second game. In addition to actually working reliably this time, it also doubles as Detect Magic. As you can see, that extends to items on the ground now too. Those include plate mail +1, three healing potions, and four +2 weapons: two daggers, a mace, and an axe. That last one has some special use here:



The weak trees that get called out can be chopped down. Only axes will work for this. Some more items can be found by doing that elsewhere in the glen:



Near the west edge, there's this cache with +2 chainmail and eight conveniently pre-identified +1 arrows. In the southeast, you need to cut through a lot more trees to access wands of Magic Missile and Fireball.



Around the center of the Burial Glen, you can find the entrance to the Warriors' Tomb. This is a completely optional dungeon, which has one of the toughest areas of this game.



Although there are no monsters in the entryway, your party is likely to act as if there are if you try resting. That's because this game checks for them in a certain radius, ignoring walls between you. There are stairways at each corner of this room, going to isolated sections. I go northeast first.



The party is immediately confronted by swordwraiths, undead that require +2 or better weapons to hit. Their attacks can reduce the victim's strength, which can be recovered by resting. Negative Plane Protection can prevent that, as well as causing damage to any undead that lands a hit. However, the spell immediately stops when that happens. These guys have just enough HP and land just enough hits to be a problem. There's a potion of giant strength a little ways past this.



The plaque with that message is above a pressure plate which makes this spike wall move down the hallway. Flipping that lever will take it back to its original position and disable the trap. If you don't get that in time, retreat and wait for the spikes to reach the end, after which they'll go back.



There are a few tiny buttons like this throughout the tomb, which all remove the wall they're on.



Behind that one is this lever, which requires either a thief with renamed lockpicks or anybody with giant strength to pull down. Doing so disables hidden teleporters in the northern corridors, making progress possible. All of the levers here are bone-shaped. The hint in the entryway refers to specific ones at the end of each section, marked by plaques. This is not one of them, though they are also all behind walls with tiny corner buttons.



Further on, we encounter this floor's other monster. Undead beasts don't cause any effects when they land hits, but they attack fairly quickly and can do damage in the 20s. They take half damage from sharp weapons and are immune to fire. Disintegrate can work on them, but its success rate is low. With high HP and damage output, they're some of the most dangerous monsters in this game even without any special abilities.



That one dropped this key, used here.



This is what the hint in the entryway is referring to: four levers that start in a middle position. The signs above them tell about Fflar, and I think what each one says depends on the order you visit them. According to the item description in Baldur's Gate II, he was the original owner of Foebane.



True Seeing also alerts you to cursed items by giving them a red glow. What kind of curse does this scroll have?



Ignoring warnings can literally blow up in your face. After resting and picking up a wand of Wall of Force nearby I move on to the southeast section.



The first thing I find is a non-cursed scroll for a new 2nd-level spell. It'll be saved for this game's mage recruits. I'm not sure if any monsters in this game are even capable of paralyzing.



That was location 8. Up next is a rather annoying lever puzzle. The makers of this map, GameBanshee, described the solution to it better than I could:

GameBanshee wrote: To solve the puzzle, you should begin with all of the levers in the "up" position, and then pull them in the following order: #9a, both at #9c, both at #9b, both at #9c (up), both at #9d, both at #9e, both at #9d (up). There aren't any hints for this sequence. This is just a trial-and-error puzzle (and a way to encourage players to buy the Cluebook, back in the days before the Internet).

Here's what it looks like after completion. A plaque in the middle has this slight misquote from Shakespeare's Cymbeline. It should be "learning" instead, but it's not like it has any real relevance here anyway. The spot marked 10 will spawn four swordwraiths and an undead beast each time you walk on it. That can make it a potential grinding place, though there's no way to trivialize the battles. 11 is another tiny button, which makes way to the key at 12 that opens the door at 6.



2 refers to open crypts like this in a few places around this floor. Closing them slows the rate of swordwraith spawning, if the guides are correct. 13 is the location of this section's main lever, the only one not in the northwest corner of its section. Its plaque says "SPIRIT FULL OF UNREST".



B is a pit, but it's hidden such that not even True Seeing will expose it.



Walking into it drops you in a small room with a teleporter (C) that takes you back to the entryway (C1). I go to the southwest section next.



A seemingly featureless corridor holds one of the game's deadliest traps. Going into the middle of it will put a wall in front of you and spawn an undead beast at each of the three other sides. Luckily, you don't have to go through this because there are other ways around.



If you walk through this hallway without the correct plates weighed down, a fireball will be launched at your party then they will be teleported back to the start. The solution is leaving items on the second, third, and fifth pressure plates. I'm not sure there's a way to figure that out other than trial and error.



If you click on this launcher at the end, you'll see a fireball appear briefly, but not actually take any damage. This section's key is behind another tiny corner button. The sign over the third main lever says "SEALED DOWNSTAIRS UNTIL DEFEAT IS BROUGHT TO HIM".



The northwest section has two parallel corridors near its entrance, as well as some swordwraiths and an undead beast. That scroll on the ground is Prayer.



If you go into one of them, your party will be closed in. The game pretty much gave you the answer to this problem, which is casting Prayer. Interesting note: paladins can use cleric scrolls in this game and the first one, but not the second. If you don't have a cleric or paladin in your party, just bypass these corridors by continuing north.



The first destination is this pit. With four rings of Feather Fall, that's no problem for my party.



It drops into a room with lots of fireball launchers. Protection from Fire totally absorbs a certain amount of fire damage, so casting it on every character is a great way to get through this room. Pulling a lever will deactivate all the launchers, drop a holy key nearby, and make a teleporter to this section's south hallway appear. The plaque above the last main lever says "TIME HAS ROBBED HIM OF HIS NAME".



When all four levers are down, the wall that had the plaque referring to them is removed. Two stairways to the second and final level of this dungeon, which also lead to isolated sections, are now accessible.

I start with the south section of Warriors' Tomb 2, and immediately encounter a group of four shadows. As seen here, they can reduce strength with their hits like swordwraiths. They are also immune to normal weapons. What's kind of strange is that they are significantly weaker than the monsters in the first floor of this dungeon. At cleric level 11, same as a single-class character made in this game, Tanglor destroys this entire group with Turn Undead.



Their solid black coloration makes the ones in the back seemingly merge with those in front. It also means their entry in the manual shows exactly what one looks like in-game.



The party is able to rest a little further on. This encounter happens the first time you do that on this floor.



We have our first NPC recruit for this game.



Like the second game, the permanent thief recruit is available just after the only part you might want a thief for. While his introduction might give a similar impression to Insal, he won't rob you and run off at the first opportunity. He's the only character aside from triple-classes made in this game to start at a low enough level to still have hit die rolls. His initial hunger meter does match what he was saying. He starts with an axe +2, three +1 daggers, and normal splint mail. Instead of rations I give him a Ring of Sustenance, an item that finally works properly after two whole games of doing nothing.



This room is 5x5 except for one row that's three tiles wide. This plate opens up one of three walls corresponding to which of those three tiles you walked on beforehand, and closes the other two. It's not permanent, you can change which hallway is open by walking over one of the other tiles before stepping on the plate again. You'll want to go through all three anyway. I put Tanglor in the back and have him cast Spiritual Hammer, which creates a throwing weapon that automatically returns. It's a great way to have clerics contribute to your offense, with no need to retrieve projectiles.



I take the south hall first and encounter this level's other enemies, wights. As seen here, they are undead with that much loathed mechanic of level draining. While about a third of this game's bestiary is undead, these are the only ones who can do that. Luckily they don't land hits very often, this shot was the result of intentionally waiting around. Negative Plane Protection is a must if you aren't treating certain party members as temporary and therefor disposable - Isharn has it on, along with all the best defensive gear. Like shadows, they require +1 or better weapons to hit and are also weak enough to be destroyed by Turn Undead.



Each subsection has one of these at the end. The one in the central hallway is behind a tiny corner button.



The north subsection has a +3 trident named Revko. It's not something I need, I just wanted to show that there are polearms other than halberds in this game. The scroll is Cure Serious Wounds. After collecting the third rod fragment I go up then back down to the north section.



The northernmost hallway has a door into this room. This poison is fast-acting and there are also wights to the party's left. I cast Slow Poison on Isharn.



This lever in the room immediately detoxifies everybody. The room isn't very big, so the poison doesn't last long. It's still enough to do some damage to everyone but Isharn.



To the west, we find this behind a corner button.



In the southwest is the most annoying part of this floor. This stuff on the ground severely slows down your movement speed. It takes a few seconds before you can walk to the next tile, no matter how you mash the keys. Even Free Action doesn't seem to help. Thankfully attack speed is unaffected, since there are monsters here. Granted, I pretty much only used Turn Undead on this stage anyway. The area is ultimately not that big, but still lasts way too long. Especially since you have to come back through it.



After finally getting through that, we come to a button that opens a pit at its location. That drops us to a small room with a key needed for a door to the south and a teleporter back here.



This room is behind another corner button.



Clicking on that gets you Fflar's nameplate.



Unfortunately, this is the only way back out from there.



After getting through the muck again, we come to this corridor. The pits move along with the party. When you reach this tile and have two in front of you, step back to permanently close them all.



Fflar awaits in the room at the end of that hallway. If you choose something other than "Talk" he has no further lines. It's the most complex branching dialogue in this game, though ultimately goes to one of two outcomes depending on whether or not you have his nameplate. Having the item on your cursor does count as it being in your inventory this time.



Choosing "Attack" will of course lead to a fight with him. It's also the end result of talking to him without his nameplate. He swings that sword pretty quickly, but doesn't cause especially high damage or any effects when he hits. While each stage still has only two regular monsters, the end of each dungeon has a boss who is not mutually exclusive with them. There's another tiny button in the northeast corner of this room, which can lead to fighting Fflar alongside wights and shadows.



The first option is the only one to have further branches.



The other two options go the same way. The experience for resolving this peacefully is much higher than defeating him in battle. If he has become hostile, it's no longer possible to talk him down even if you get his nameplate after that. Either way you get a Medallion of Friendship.



Past Fflar's room, there are six +1 clubs on the floor.





Flipping that lever will bring all of the party's metal items into this glass box, and spawns shadows nearby. The clubs give a way to fight back against them if you don't have Turn Undead available. Pulling on it again will remove the box, allowing the items to be retrieved.



While the carvings on the side look kind of similar, there are no stone portals in this game.



Instead it's used to assemble the rod.



You have to go and read this sign before it actually appears in front of the device. I took this shot after going back for it. The rod brings anybody who lost levels back to the minimum experience of where they were before. On a hunch, I tried it on Isharn due to his low starting levels. It didn't have any effect on him. Since he was only 10K XP from thief level 9 at this point, I got him there with a little grinding on the first floor of this dungeon before leaving.



The entrance to the next area is in the northeast corner of the Burial Glen, behind two layers of choppable trees.



A few steps in is a copy protection check. The word here is "though" but once again the GOG version is cracked to allow anything.



The main gimmick of the Forest Trail are these thickets, which allow you to move straight ahead or to a diagonal tile.



That first one to the north leads to this, which does the same thing as the Medallion of Friendship. The other gimmick of this area is seeming dead ends of trees. Using either item will cause them to move away. This is necessary to get further in or even back to the Burial Glen.



After the first two instance of that, we meet another companion. Delmair is the protagonist of the story that starts the manual, Moonrise Over Myth Drannor, which takes place during his childhood.



He joins, bringing our party size to maximum.



Delmair starts very close to reaching level 12. He has +2 elven chain mail, a +3 long sword, a +1 short sword, a longbow, and 15 arrows +2. East of his location past more movable trees are the first enemies of this area, minotaurs. They're nothing special, but one of them does land a hit on Delmair.



Delmair is a weretiger, and will transform the first time he takes damage. This causes him to drop the items in his hands, which can be annoying. Even more annoying in some places is that his claws do not count as magical weapons. They're still quite effective against enemies that don't require that, since they consistently do damage in the teens and have a fast attack rate even without Haste. He turns back after resting.



Soon after we find the other monster type in this area. The feyr (pronounced "fear") is invisible most of the time, but True Seeing makes it hard to tell. They have 40% magic resistance and no other special abilities, but are dangerous since they attack quickly have damage output similar to the undead beast.



Near the end of the trail, we meet a spirit upset with our lumberjacking in the Burial Glen.



Both responses lead to the same thing: the Lord Protector defends this forest and the city by putting up a massive wall... of text.



There is a choice of four books, all called The Book of _______ Deeds. Each one brings certain classes exactly to the next level.
Adroit: Thief
Daring: All warriors.
Arcane: Mage
Exalted: Cleric and paladin.



Choosing the wrong book causes the character to lose a level, which the Rod of Restoration can bring back. A correct choice is required to remove two tree tiles blocking the exit. Three wrong choices remove the encounter, forcing a reload. Isharn reached fighter level 9 just before this, and was only 49 XP over the requirement for that. That's where the last hit die is rolled and experience requirements become linear: 250K for each level afterwards. This game does enforce racial level limits, and from character editing I learned that the books won't do anything for characters at them. Dwarf limits are 13 cleric, 15 thief, and 18 fighter. Multiclass hit die rolls are still properly divided, but it gives the single-class 3 HP for fighter 10 instead of just 1. Because of all this, Isharn levelling up as fighter was the best choice all around.



West of that is a clearing with four feyrs in it. They guard an incredible pile of loot. It starts with a Wand of Magic Missile and a Ring of Wizardry, which all only double 5th level spells in this game (Including the one brought from the first). These last couple items are totally redundant, since no lock in this game can be picked. Thieves' tools are only used to flip stuck levers, which someone with fire giant strength (22) can also do. The leather armor is +3. Other items from the trail include +2 plate mail, a +3 cloak of defense, chainmail +4, a Wand of Cone of Cold, a two-handed sword +3, and a dozen arrows: half normal and half +2.



Next time we finally go into the titular city.