Floors 7 and 8
I wonder what kind of "entity" the Dark Underlord spoke of.
I can't say for sure, Josh, but I sense powerful black magic on the floors below.
Ooh! Foul witchery! That'd be my specialty.
One piece of loot I failed to mention in the previous update is the
Rod of Flame. As a rule, rods can be equipped by Mages, Samurai and Bishops as their secondary weapon, i.e., in addition to their main one. They don't deal any kind of melee damage but may grant a bonus or two and usually have a spell associated with them that you can cast by using them in-battle. In this particular case, the
Rod of Flame confers a 2% magical protection bonus, makes you resistant to the Fire element, and allows you to cast
Mahalito 10 times before it breaks.
One thing I like about Wizardry is that, unless you grind
insanely much, you won't be steamrolling everything by the end of the game -- quite the contrary, the lowest floors are probably the most challenging ones. So before heading down to the 7th and 8th floors, let's buy some new equipment to strengthen our front line characters.
Pete gets a
Blade of Biting, a pretty decent mid-tier weapon with low base damage (only 1D6+1) but decent to-hit (+4) and swings (+2) attributes. As you are no doubt aware, the higher the to-hit attribute, the higher is our chance to hit a low AC enemy, whereas the number of swings is basically a weapon's damage multiplier.
Apart from that, both Pete and Todd receive
Gloves of Copper, which further reduces their AC by 1.
Time to hit the floor! As usual, Sawyer casts
Maporfic as soon as we enter the dungeon to make random encounters less frustrating. Thanks to the spell, Pete and Todd now have AC of -4. Not bad for their level.
Taking the B4 elevator, we safely arrive to B7.
In the original version, B7 was the
perfect kind of floor. Not only did it look perfect, it also featured the perfect kind of pit and teleporter placement. In particular, note the four one-square rooms in the centre: one empty, one teleporting you back to the entrance, one holding a pit, and finally one concealing the stairs down to B8. So minimalistically sadistic.
In the (S)NES version, B7 isn't that great. For one, they fucked up the pit and teleporter placement. Then they broke it into several mutually inaccessible areas. Finally, they made it even more maze-like. Yeah, okay, the latter is actually a plus, but the first two are still inexcusable. And as always, the reasoning escapes me. Oh well, at least it is no less of a pain to navigate.
The walls here are golden, and it almost feels like we're wandering the halls of some kind of abandoned ancient palace.
It seems so peaceful here.
In the shadow of peace, there must inevitably be wicked things, Josh.
Peace will be undermined, and the power of Charisma and Vanity shall rise again!
Tee hee. Lookie look! We have visitors!
Who are YOU? And what are you doing here?
Isn't it obvious? I live here, duh. This is totally my castle! So you better behave yourselves.
This place... is your home?
I feel at home here deep down in the dungeon. Truth be told I really wanted the
interieur to be more, um, gothic, but I suppose it's all a matter of time and budget. So yeah, this is MY place now. I've got nowhere to go to back in the heavens.
In the... heavens?
And you're kinda cute.
Must be my radiant glasses!
She was talking about
me, you dork.
Gosh, I've changed my mind. You're so boring. Ciao!
Pete! Todd! Why did you LISTEN to this crazy person?!
She was wearing half-pants.
She was wearing a skirt.
She liked me.
She pet me.
... Let's just get on with it.
The
Champ Samurai aren't a new kind of enemy, but I just wanted to show off that whenever some of your characters are asleep (or paralysed or whatever), those further down the line fill in their place. That may sometimes expose your back row casters to melee attacks, rendering them extra vulnerable. In the pictured case, Laidlaw is just one step short of being attacked by a Samurai, and given his low AC, one hard hit would likely be enough to strike him down.
Monks are the unidentified
Lvl 8 Ninjas. Those appear in groups of 1D3, have 8D4 HP and AC of 4. They aren't much of a threat to us at this point, really, especially when unaccompanied.
Let's now have a look at the loot we've gathered so far. Two new items there, a
Mace of Misfortune and an
Epee of Excellence.
The
Mace of Misfortune is, as you may have guessed, a cursed item. (Thankfully, you don't always identify cursed items as having the cursed status from the get-go, so you can sometimes sell them off at Boltac's Trading Post before the shop owner knows what's going on.) Being cursed, the mace has a -1 to-hit, making you miss more often than not.
Now the
Epee of Excellence is a completely different thing. It has the base damage of 1D6+2, +5 to-hit and +3 swings. It can also be equipped by both Fighters and Thieves, which makes it a perfect kind of weapon for Gaider to be wielding.
Still here? So who are you folks?
We're... um... RPG developers.
You say you design RPGs? Now that's interesting! You don't really look Japanese to me...
So what did you design? Shin Megami Tensei? Hungry Ghosts? Arx Fatalis? Baroque? Shadow Tower?
Um... Dragon Age II.
Skyrim.
Fallout New Vegas.
Bah!
Adventure game designers! And terrible ones at that.
Hey, wait! See that man over here? He designed Planescape: Torment!
Oh, you mean that bad adventure game without puzzles?
......
What?
Sorry, but someone had to do it. Now, like, the problem is that whatever it is, it isn't a good role playing game at all: Every other day i play an MMO with better combat mechanics and more challenging battles than anything Torment has to offer, and with a much better character system than Torment's to boot. And when you are defeated by an MMO you suck as a role playing game, sorry. Torment's setting is cool, yay, and it's very atmospheric. So what? If having a cool, immersive, and atmospheric setting is the mark of a role playing game then Pathologic, The Void, and some thingie or another of Kyoto are the best role playing games, like, ever. Or evar, nya. Torment's plot is good for a game, yay, and somewhat interesting, i guess. So what? If having a good plot is the mark of a role playing game then EVER17 is the best role playing game EVAR!!1! And it has more choices and consequences than Torment, too. But then even the lesser type of Otome games have more meaningful choices than Torment, and usually they get better gameplay to boot. So stop the bleeping idiocy. Torment sucks as a role playing game: It lacks in the exploration, combat, character development, and, like, most other thingies. Go play real role playing games with dungeons and parties and riddles and monsters and stuffy stuff, then talk about what is and isn't a role playing game, nya.
Aren't we playing one already?.. Er, I mean, who the hell ARE you?
Spoiled princess. Pwetty witch. Budding pop idol. At your service. Or is that supposed to be the other way 'round? Hmm, I need to think about that for a moment. Until then, peasants!
MCA levels up, learning new spells.
He finally gains access to lvl2 Priest spells, including the very useful
Manifo, the group paralysis spell. You know, in retrospect, I really should've gone for a second Priest instead of a Bishop and then multiclass him into a Mage. That way, he'd gain all the spells much quicker in the long run. Bishops sure do have some insane exp requirements. Then again, we're fast approaching the end game anyway so it doesn't make much difference unless we're powergaming, which we're not.
A new enemy awaits us on B4 as we make our way to the second elevator. It's a group of not particularly friendly
Dragon Flies, who appear in groups of 1D3+1, have 2D8 HP, AC of 4, and Magical Resistance of 20%.
Another new B4 enemy is the
Boring Beetle. They may be boring, true, but they hit for 5D4!
This time, let's head down to B8.
In the original version, B8 was a pretty straightforward floor... except that if you made it to the spinner field via the 1->1' teleporter, you'd have a really hard time trying to get back out.
Also, as you may have noticed, there are
no stairs down to B9 here, so the only means of getting there is the elevator. Yes, that means B8 is a trolling floor, and exploring it is pointless.
Thankfully, they didn't change that last bit for the (S)NES remake. Incidentally, B8 is the last floor to be redesigned in the (S)NES version; both B9 and B10 stayed true to the original design. Unfortunately, the Japanese got rid of the spinner field, but overall they made B8 into a floor that is pretty interesting to explore, so kudos to them for that.
What do you think? I changed the wallpaper! Isn't it fresh? Aren't you excited?
Why should we care? Just let us through already!
How nice! You're full of energy! I like it! ...But leave now, if you please. The mistress is too busy at the moment to spare time for anyone. Doing one of her psychotic experiments again, no doubt. *giggles*
The mistress?
That'd be me! Haha. ...Don't think I'm 100% mean, though. I can be nice too. Sometimes. Spontaneously.
Are you even human?
What is a human? A miserable little pile of excuses... Is that brat (*points at Pete*) not developing the crap he develops for the sake of power, and leading for the sake of ego? And please don't lecture me on "rules" and "principles". There are no such things as hard-and-fast rules; there are only conventions adapted to the climate. Fling a man headlong into one social melting pot after another, and convictions and forms and moral systems become so many meaningless words to him. The one thing that always remains, the one sure instinct that nature has implanted in him, is the instinct of self-interest. As to manners, man is man all the world over. The same battle between the poor and the rich is going on everywhere; it is inevitable everywhere; consequently, it is better to exploit than to be exploited! *giggles cheerfully* Those greedy humans, only wanting fame and power! I will become the ONLY power! I will become the ONLY justice! For when all sensations are exhausted, all that survives is Vanity -- Vanity is the abiding substance of this world!
That said, I don't have time to waste on you PEASANTS! Open, gates of Hades! Come, my servants! Swat the pompous flies who dare DIRTY my castle!
Chimeras travel in groups of 1D4, have 9D6 HP and AC of 2. Their default attack is a Fire breath attack hitting the entire party for 1D3/1D3/1D4/1D4/2D4/3D4 damage.
Master Thieves come in three kinds. The first two kinds appear in groups of 1D6 and have 4D6/6D6 HP and AC of 4/3 respectively. The last kind always appears alone, has 12D6 HP and AC of 2. Pictured above is the weakest kind.
Gaze Hounds have relatively low HP, 4D8, but their armour class is pretty low (AC = -1). They only attack for 1D2, but they can also paralyse you, so it's not all well.
Oh yeah, did I show off
Milwa/
Lomilwa already? They create light in the dungeon and expose secret doors. Too bad it gets extinguished as soon as we enter a dark zone.
With their AC of 0 and HP of 7D12,
Major Daimyos are badass. They also attack up to 2 times per turn for 1D10/1D4 points of damage. You may have noticed the really low AC our party has in the above pic, that's because Sawyer has cast
Bamatu to reduce it by 4. That way the Daimyos are barely able to hit us.
Arch Mages aren't really dangerous when alone. There are two types of Arch Mages, and only the weaker ones may even appear alone; the second type always appears alongside
High Bishops and mean real trouble.
Taking the stairs up to B7, we run into a group of
Lvl 10 Fighters. They sure look badass, but even their 7D10 HP and AC of 0 can't save them from the combined game developers' might.
Traps! We better avoid them.
The weirdest monster so far:
Medusalizard. Appearing in groups of 1D6, they have 5D8 HP, AC of 6 and hit for 1D3 -- nothing immediately intimidating.
However, when their attack connects, they can
stone you, and that's some bad shit. Not as bad as in the later Wizardries, though.
The later games in the Wizardry series feature a particularly nasty Stone effect -- it damages vitality the same as dying, and when you do cure a stoned character, it's quite possible they died while stoned, necessitating resurrection and inflicting the vitality loss for dying...
In the early Wizardries, a character doesn't lose a Vitality point when stoned. Thankfully.
So let's hurry back to the castle and heal Todd up.
Aww, leaving already? But we're having so much fun!
Fun? What kind of a person are you?!
I am a LADY!
An awfully perverted one, I'd say.
Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? *giggles* ...Er, whatever. Take your leave. I don't care. You don't even have the proper clothes to wear to go clothes shopping with me anyway. So off with you! Shoo!
Another new enemy we encounter on our way back:
Priestesses, otherwise known as female Priests. As far as I can tell, they must have been introduced by the Japanese; at least I can't seem to find them in the original Wizardry monster list. They're probably not that different from the regular Priests anyway.
At the temple, we pay 1600 gold to bring Todd back to normal.
And hey, one of the items we've found turns out to be cursed!
To uncurse it, we must pay 500 gold to Boltac. And no, we can't just drop a cursed item, that's the problem.
Pete levels up. One step closer to perfection!
Todd improves his max HP quite a bit.
Sawyer learns new spells.
Those are level 5 Priest spells!
Dialma is a more powerful version of Dial, healing 3-24 HP.
Badialma is the reverse of that, dealing 3-24 points of damage to a monster.
Kandi is a spell that lets you locate party members lost in the dungeon; useless to us in this LP. Finally,
Di is our first resurrection spell; failure to bring a character back to life means he is ASHED and needs something stronger. Success means the character is brought back at 1 HP.
Gaider only gets a very moderate HP boost.
Laidlaw also gets new spells.
Level 5 Mage spells, yay! As well as one new lvl 4 spell.
Dalto is a Cold element spell dealing 6D6 elemental damage to a group of enemies.
Mamorlis is a stronger variant of Morlis, causing stronger fear in enemies.
Makanito is a unique kind of spell -- a suffocating spell that causes a vacuum to form around all enemy groups; if they breathe air, there's a chance they will be affected by this spell. Most anything with under 40 HP will be suffocated. Finally,
Madalto is the industrial version of Dalto, causing a really big blizzard to form and dealing 6D8 Cold damage to an enemy group.
Okay, so the next update may take a while, since there's that job-related project I'm basically working on 24/7 at the moment. Plus I want to grind for some really rare loot to show off, which again takes time. So stay tuned! There shouldn't be more than two, or at most three, updates left anyway.