Let's Play Wizardry 6, part 2

Previously, on Bane of the Cosmic Forge, our intrepid heroes had gotten themselves locked within a monster-infested castle.

Our incredible journey so far.

Wizardry 6 often displays narrative text at various points in the game to augment the rather sparse graphics and communicate the impressions of the characters to the player directly. When the party enter the castle proper, the following description is displayed:

You are in the entrance chamber of the castle. It appears to be empty, and a heavy coat of dust covers the floor. Small scampering noises echo down far distant corridors, a reminder that it is you who are the intruder here...

Anybody else having second thoughts? No? Good!

Thus the party finds themselves in a dusty antechamber with a number of adjoining rooms, mostly locked.

"So...?"

"Onwards."

Seeing little reason to dawdle, the party proceed directly towards the heart of the castle, finding their way into the its long-abandoned central hall. A succession of alcoves run down both sides of the hall; within two of these alcoves, directly facing each other, are two chests. They first look to the chest on the left:

Neatly enscribed upon the metal face of the chest are these words: open me first.

Nothing suspicious here, lying out in the open.

And then to the right:

Neatly enscribed upon the metal face of the chest are these words: open me second.

Taking the inscriptions on the chests at face value, Wrath opens the chest on the left side first. Within are three healing potions, a curative potion for minor ailments and one for curing disease, an amulet of life and a scroll that reads:

A cure but twice, and healing thrice, one life for thee times seven.

The last part refers to the amulet, good for seven castings of resurrection on dead party members. Meanwhile, the second chest contains some gold coins, a sword of striking and another scroll that reads:

Beware the narrow corridors of the mind.

The party take a moment to examine what they've found.

[Appraises the sword.] "A fine weapon indeed. Already our expedition bears fruit."

"Swords are your speciality, aren't they Wrath? You want it?"

"This is not the right kind of sword."

"Okay...? Well I'm more into spears, but this is clearly a superior weapon."

Although samurai are fine swordsfolk, they're also very fussy about the equipment they use. Conversely, although valkyries are best known as spearmaiden, they can essentially use any martial weaponry they see fit. Given that the sword of striking (magically enhanced for accuracy) is probably the best weapon the party will find for a while, Alva goes ahead and equips it.

"I wonder what we would have gotten if we'd opened the second chest first?"

[Frowns.] "...what do you think?"

Actually, if the 'second' chest had been opened first, the party would have obtained a couple of iron keys (each of which can be used to open up one of the castle's lesser locked doors without resort to lockpicking) and a stave of missiles. The scroll within would then have read:

Beware the cannon fodder of the mind.

The staff would potentially be quite useful for blowing up some troublesome enemies (as it provides a few uses of magic missile), but I think the sword is probably better, not least because the staff would disappear after its reserve of missiles was expended.

At the far end of the hall, facing the entrance, is a fountain.

Adventurers. Tasting everything they encounter and inexplicably surviving (usually).

"We must be cautious—the water in this fountain is likely foul from years of neglect."

[Burps.] "Tastes nice."

The water in the fountain is indeed nice—it restores stamina to any who drink from it, and so this hall will act as our base camp for a while as the party will frequently need to return to top up their stamina levels.

Within this very hall, the party also gets their first encounter! And in accordance with the prophecy, it's rats.

Combat!

Battles are conducted turn-by-turn. Each character in the party selects what they want to do (fight, cast a spell, parry, hide, run away crying, and so forth), and then the combat round begins with each participant acting according to their speed, modified by some random factor. Enemies are clustered into groups (in this case, only one group of two rats is present), and enemies are targeted by group. Only the first two groups are within melee range, and likewise the first three characters in the party (Wrath, Alva and Motoko) are in reach of the enemy. The rest of the party must rely on spells, extended reach (provided for example by polearms) or ranged attacks (archery and thrown weapons), but at least won't get bitten (provided that their colleagues at the front are not taken down).

"Damnable rodents! Dispose of them!" [Looks around.] "Where is the dracon? And where do you two think you're going?!"

[Both look vaguely guilty.]

Because my frontline is comprised of various flavours of vagabond (self-confessed or otherwise), their first inclination in a fight is to hide so as to launch sneak attacks and not get eaten by carnivorous vermin. Hiding requires and gradually improves the ninjutsu skill, which Wrath, Alva, Motoko and Shaana all have. In this instance, Wrath immediately pulls a vanishing act, while Alva and Motoko are... less successful. I expect a lot of failed sneaking early on, but they'll get more effective with time.

"Don't worry! I'll put them to sleep with a lullaby!"

Shaana meanwhile plays her lute. Bards have the ability to play certain instruments to cause magical effects. All bards start with a lute (and indeed I believe that this is the only way to acquire one in the game), which allows them to essentially cast the sleep spell as often as they like on any one group of enemies. Needless to say, this is a huge deal early on, and I use it to stop the rats from getting any actions against the party while I dispose of them one by one.

"Enough of this! Burn!"

[Giggles malevolently.]

The party's spellcasters also get to work. Whisker can cast energy blast and chilling touch, allowing him to burn or freeze any single opponent. Konata has acid splash which provides a third means to inflict horrible burns on a foe (spellcasters are not nice people). And so Whisker immediately immolates one of the rats, while Konata unconcernedly hurls a dirk at the remaining rat's head as it slumbers (she's saving herself for later). She misses.

For the second round of combat, I have Alva and Motoko attempt to hide again (they need the practice after all). I also have Shaana try to hide, since the last rat is asleep anyway. Wanting to conserve a little magic (and not really needing it for one measly rat), I have Whisker hurl a stone with his sling and Konata fling another dirk. As for Wrath...

[Steps out behind the sleeping rat and vomits acid all over it.]

Dracons can breathe acid upon their foes. It costs a large chunk of their stamina, so you don't want to overdo it, but if you happen to be standing next to a stamina-replenishing fountain, and it's more reliable than a sword in the hands of a level 1 character, why not?

[Gags.] "What the heck, Wrath?!"

[Claps hands.] "That was awesome!"

The rat mercifully dies immediately and everyone gets 50 experience points! Coincidentally, not only can characters hidden in the shadows not be directly targeted (useful when everyone is still so fragile) and deal additional damage when they strike, they also have a chance to stay hidden after attacking (which is bolstered if they actually kill their target). Hiding also effectively removes the character from the party formation, meaning that they can attack targets they can't normally reach, but also potentially exposes characters lingering in the back of the formation to melee attacks—something to be careful about.

With that, the party can continue their explorations. In addition to the chests and fountain, the central hall has two (locked) side chambers, two stairways up, and a door leading on to the back part of the castle.

"Shouldn't we check out the side chambers before moving on?"

"I, um... no, not yet."

Although Shaana is the designated picker of locks, at level 1 her skulduggery is simply not up to the job, so I'm going to ignore the various locked rooms on this floor of the castle until further notice.

"What about the stairs up?"

"No little one. We should secure the ground level first."

Beyond the hall, in the middle of a corridor running laterally from one side of the keep to the other, is a sealed portcullis leading to another large room.

Keep service gate closed during service hours.

Good idea. Nobody wants random people wandering in during services.

To the side of the gate however is a button.

[Presses button.]

This opens the way into the service chamber. Wherein we find...

Pieces of old bone litter the ground, and deep red stains colour the earth.

...the site of some past atrocities.

"What on earth...?"

"I... do not wish to think about the 'services' that happened here."

[Glances around and then walks over to the far corner of the room.]

You can 'search' any part of the environment. Characters with the scouting skill have a chance of 'noticing something unusual', which can alert you to places you should search. Otherwise, it probably pays to search any small room or enclosed space you encounter as a matter of course. For example, in the northwest corner of this very chamber:

Lodged within the throat of a crushed skull you discover a strange key, as if the deceased was trying to swallow it when...

Somewhere behind an aged jawbone Motoko finds a key (the Key of Ramm). Also on the far side of the room is another portcullis, but in this case there's no button or other obvious way to open it, and Motoko's key doesn't work either.

"Why... why don't we look someplace else?"

Leaving the service chamber by the way they came, the party finds themselves in a long corridor that encircles the antechamber and main hall; at each corner is a stairway up into the castle's corner towers as well as stairs down into the castle basement. There is also a stairway up to the next floor of the keep halfway down the western passage, matched by a stairway down into the basement on the east side whereby in passing the party finds their second encounter—more rats, which the party promptly squash.

"We should begin our search with the northeast tower."

"Why the northeast?"

[Frowns.] "Because I said 'we should begin our search with the northeast tower'."

Ascending one storey of the northeast tower, the party find another sealed portcullis to the west connecting back into the keep and a locked door a few steps to the south. Ignoring them, the party ascends a few storeys higher, finding what appears to be a storeroom or guardhouse at the top of the tower.

"Wow, even in here the vines have gotten in and grown all–"

[Grabs Shaana and throws her out of the way.]

Eats shoots and leaves nothing but corpses.

Our newest foes are animated plants. Creeping vines attempt to grab and crush inattentive adventurers, but aren't too scary (in fact they're basically the weakest monsters in the game near as I can tell). Fuming vines are a little more dangerous, causing nausea with their eponymous fumes. Shaana is able to put the vines to sleep (somehow) while Wrath, Alva and Motoko chop them to pieces.

"Never drop your guard. Anything can be a deadly threat."

[In a small voice.] "Okay."

Vines destroyed, the room contains only rotten debris for the most part, except for an old bow and some arrows.

"Me! I'll take them!"

Isn't it fortunate that we've found faerie-sized equipment? Actually, despite their diminutive size (which gives them bonuses to evasion among other things), the restrictions on equipment are quite lenient—no armour (but clothes are fine), and no large weapons, but most other gear including bows are entirely fine.

Each of the corner towers of the castle has an outside walkway encircling it at the top. So naturally the party takes a stroll outside for a moment.

Looking out across the tower's edge, the North Forest spans as far as the eye can see.

It's a lovely view.

While the collapse of central government has indeed been great for restoring the environment into its pre-cultivated state, there is more here than just the view:

The smelly carcass of something dead is lying on the tower ledge directly overlooking the moat. It has decayed beyond the point of recognition with no indication of how it died.

It seems that the killer vines do not consume their kills. Sometimes when you encounter something 'interesting', you get a choice of response. In this case, we can investigate the carcass further, push the carcass off the tower, or leave it be.

"Hey, I wonder—"

[Kicks the carcass off the tower.] "Do not wonder, just do."

If anybody had gone ahead and prodded at the corpse looking for loot or clues, it would have let off a cloud of noxious gas leaving everyone nauseated, which can cause them to lose turns in combat (due to uncontrolled gagging). This is rather inconvenient, and can only be cured by a cure light condition spell or potion, or the passage of time.

"Aw."

Finding nothing else of interest, the party decide to investigate another tower. Next is the southeast tower, but as they begin their next ascent...

You hear some kind of rustle or flap from somewhere nearby. Perhaps it is only the wind descending from one of the towers...

The wind of adventure perhaps? Perhaps not.

"Hey! I think someone's up there!"

As they climb the stairs the party hear the sounds of someone hurriedly running up ahead of them. Reaching the top of the tower they come to a sealed door:

From behind the door you hear a very strange noise. It almost sounds like something is pressing up against it and breathing heavily...

There's no need to be worried, we're adventurers! No wait...

When the party knocks politely (having checked the lock and tried giving it a good heave):

"Um... hello?"

"Go away! I said, go away! I'm not coming out, whoever you are, and you can't make me!"

We get an opportunity at this point to respond to the voice behind the door. Wizardry 6 uses a free-form text parser for dialogue, though typing simple keywords is usually sufficient to get what you want. In this case however, we need to cajole whoever is hiding in this tower room to come out, and we don't know what will do the trick yet.

"Well I can't be bothered to argue through a solid oak door. I say we leave him in there to stew and continue exploring."

"I'm hungry."

Out onto this tower's walkway...

To the east is the edge of the swamp, a cold and gloomy place that forbodes a land of evil. Perhaps the tales of demons and witches are just rumors after all...

Unable to coax the mysterious fellow from his hideout in the tower storeroom, there is nothing more to be done here.

"Southwest then."

The party descends and makes their way to the third corner tower, the southwest tower. Reaching the top, they take a few steps forward and...

[Stops short and then points upward.]

"What? What is it Motoko?" [Looks up.] "Oh my..."

Looking upward, a multitude of bats are delicately poised directly over your head in the tower rafters.

"Get down!"

[Grabs Shaana and throws her out of the way.]

I'd point out that three is not a multitude, but someone is still probably going to die.

For a group of level 1 characters, vampire bats are nasty—more than capable of dispatching any of our heroes with a single bite. Fortunately, Konata reacts quickly and kills it with a particularly powerful acid splash...

"Yay!"

...but the other bats still take chunks out of Wrath and Motoko. The party staggers on into the storeroom at the top of the tower, full of rotted debris, whereupon they get attacked by another vampire bat and its friends. Barely fending them off, the party finds a moldy old leather cuirass! (Yay?) This goes to Alva, since Wrath and Motoko tend to favour speed over defence (like they have a choice). Just as Alva starts to don the cuirass, the party immediately ambushed again by creeping vines.

"Okay, I'll sweep in from the right, while Wrath, you take them from—Wrath? Wrath!"

[Collapses to the ground.]

Note how my samurai appears to have fallen asleep.

One problem with the dracon's acid breath—it really takes the wind out of them. Use it more than a couple of times and the dracon will likely fall unconscious from stamina loss, at least at early levels. After belching on the last vampire bat in order to kill it, Wrath simply can't handle another fight.

Now falling unconscious is not a good tactic for a frontline fighter at the start of any fight. Nevertheless, thanks in no small part to Shaana's magic lute, the battle is won without casualties, and the party can finally safely step out onto the tower ledge.

Looking southward, you see far beyond the castle gate into the distant blue mountains.

[Adjusting the straps of her new cuirass.] "Home... I wonder if I'll ever go back..."

[Stands companionably beside Alva, then slowly starts leaning forward.]

[Grabs hold of Wrath and pulls him back from the edge.]

"Perhaps we should return to the great hall with our exhausted friend here, yes?"

And with that our heroes return to the central hall of the castle to partake of the restorative waters of the fountain within and plot their next move.

Combat overview

As mentioned, combat is turn-based with all participants choosing their actions in advance before everyone acts at once. It is necessary to try to predict the flow of battle—which enemy groups to focus attention on, which party members are likely to need healing this round, whether to go fully on the offensive or take the time to cast defensive magics, etc. Only the first two enemy groups in the list can be targeted in melee, and likewise for the enemy, only the first three conscious player characters (discounting those who have successfully hidden themselves away during the previous round) can be targeted. If a group of enemies is destroyed before a character can attack them, then their turn is wasted; coupled with the need to conserve magic from battle to battle, this means you have to consider carefully how to most efficiently neutralise every threat with the minimum of wasted resources.

An example of combat, the party versus two groups of rogues, numbering three and two respectively.

There are a number of basic options available most of the time to all characters:

Fight	Physically attack one group of enemies within reach. Many weapons allow multiple modes of attack (e.g. swing or thrust), which may sacrifice (for example) damage for accuracy, or vice versa.
Parry	Go on the defensive. All characters can dodge or guard, relying on their evasion or their weapon skill to avert hits respectively. Characters can also rest to regain lost stamina, but this leaves them wide open to attack. Characters with shields can also block, relying on their Shield skill.
Equip	Sacrifice their turn in order to go into the equipment screen in the middle of the fight in order to change equipment. Best to avoid needing to do this, if possible.
Use	Use an item, such as spell scroll or potion. Some regular equipment has special effects if used in battle as well. Success depends on the scribe (for scrolls) and artefact (for anything more complicated than potions) skills, with failure causing the user to lose their turn or worse, cause the desired effect to backfire on the party.
Move	Change a character's position in the party formation. Useful if someone on the frontline is paralysed or otherwise crippled, and you need to throw someone else into the breach.
Run	Attempt to run away! If one character successfully runs, then the whole party escapes. May be necessary in emergencies, but characters attempting to run are wide open to attack, and the individual chance of success can be very low. And the party can immediately run into a new encounter!
Backup	Return to the previous character to re-select their action. Actions are chosen sequentially according to the party formation (the position of the characters on the display). As long as you haven't started the round, you can backtrack as much as you want.
Cancel	Cancel all selected actions for the next round and restart action selection from the first character.

There are a few other options only available to spellcasters, sneaky people, and Wrath:

Spell	Cast any known spell from one of the caster's spell pools.
Hide	Hide from the enemy using ninjutsu. If successful, the character can then attack from the shadows in the next turn.
Breath	Breathe acid onto the enemy. Can hit multiple targets (in one group). Dracons only.

Once you've selected your actions for the entire party, you get one last chance to backup or cancel. Otherwise, it is time to start fighting.

Final orders before the combat round begins.

And that's basically it. As soon as you start fighting, the combat round will play out, with messages appearing in the lower part of the screen telling you who hits what, who falls over ineffectually, and who dies on the spot. If both you and the enemy are still standing, then you go on to the next round, until either you are victorious, or have been completely wiped out.