Let's Play Wizardry 6, part 3

Previously, on Bane of the Cosmic Forge...

"We'd gotten ourselves trapped in a ruined castle filled with giant rats, blood-thirsty bats and a talking cat."

"Yes, very droll. But we must also find something of the Bane King or his wizard ally, to make this expedition worthwhile."

"You... hadn't mentioned anything about a wizard ally before."

"Had I not? It must have slipped my mind."

"We'd found a magic fountain. And a creepy room with bits of dead person in it. And Wrath fell asleep after projectile vomiting on bats."

"It will not happen again."

"The projectile vomiting on bats or the falling asleep in the middle of a fight?"

[Snorts.]

The party had explored the ground level of the castle of the Bane King, albeit leaving many locked doors left unopened, and had explored three of the four corner towers of the keep. Now it was time for the final, northwest tower...

"Actually, I have another suggestion..."

"What do you mean 'another suggestion'?"

"Simply as I just said, my fair Alva. I have heard that a band of rogues have recently taken residence in the keep. I think that it would be expedient to locate them first, and establish a common understanding. They may have information to trade."

"How can you know that? What else aren't you telling us, cat?"

"Nothing. Nothing that you need know, anyway."

In the basement level of the keep are a number of other locked doors, and some central rooms. One of these rooms has a sign on the door:

Captain's Den: no trespassin'

Fortunately adventurers are exempt from obeying signs as part of the CRPG Accords of 1982.

Upon approaching, a slot opens in the door and a voice asks:

"What's da passwurd, matey?"

"Mendelevium!"

"Thass snot it! Buzz off... swabs!"

"Well that's rather unfortunate."

"Any other bright ideas, cat?"

[Irritated.] "Let us explore further; there may be other persons that we can speak with."

Another room in the basement proves more accessible.

A barracks full of broken cots turned to rot is all you find here.

Stepping inside, the party immediately meets its first non-hostile encounter not mediated by a locked door.

At last, someone clearly trustworthy.

"Can I interest you in a bargain?"

Upon encountering a non-hostile actor, we are given a list of options including: attack (unwise), steal (unwise... unless you've a good legerdemain skill), trade (better idea) and talk (always good). Let's try opening a dialogue, with Shaana taking the lead:

"Hello!"

"How may I be of service?"

"Who the heck are you?"

"I am called Queequeg."

"Right."

Queequeg is a cagey one, unwilling to divulge much about what he is doing here. If however Shaana asks him about the password to the Captain's Den, then he will offer it... in return for information. Information on the Captain's treasure—more specifically, where it is buried.

"The Captain's treasure...? Oh! Yes! It's buried around, um..."

"Regrettably, but we do not have this information."

[Quadruple facepalm.]

[Spins lazily in the air.]

No information, no password! We'll have to return here later. In the meantime though, we can trade with Queequeg—he's expensive, but we don't have a better option at present.

Mmm... mystery oil.

Each party member can buy or sell gear individually. Technically each character has his/her own gold pouch, but it is generally best to pool gold into the hands of whichever character needs it at the time. In this case the party is too poor to buy anything much, except for a wakizashi for Wrath. In retrospect, more armour might have been more sensible.

"Ah, so this was not a wasted digression after all, no? We can trade goods as we explore the castle further."

"Great. Except that the presence of these men suggests that the castle has already been looted of everything valuable."

"Oh you think so? But I think that there are still many locked doors and sealed gates—all I see here are men cowering in a cellar."

Just like the ground level, much of the basement is still sealed off (or guarded by monsters we cannot yet deal with).

"Let's try the upper floor!" [Flies off.]

"Don't just fly off Konata! Come back here!"

The upper floor of the keep is mostly nondescript for now, due to the large number of (once again) locked doors.

"Aw."

There is one room to one side that isn't locked however.

An old wooden table and several chairs are rotting away in the centre of the room, and fragments of broken flagons and rubble cover the floor.

Use your imagination. No seriously, it's compulsory for this game.

Unfortunately it isn't abandoned either.

"Oh, hello there! We thought we had the place to ourselves! What brings—"

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

"Prepare yourselves!"

Everyone here is genetically-related, I suspect.

The party's first human opposition, rogues are moderately dangerous fighters who occasionally throw dirks into the party's ranks (putting Shaana, Whisker and Konota at risk). More dangerous variants of rogue have access to spells or simply more deadly attacks. In this case however, these are typical rogues, and the party efficiently dispatch them with remarkably little incident. I'd almost say that they were showing improvement.

"I... I think that was the first man I've killed in battle."

[Silent understanding.]

[Bored.] "So?"

Searching the room yields something of interest, which makes the killing of five people completely worth it.

You found a ring with two odd looking black keys, each with a handle in the shape of a small spade.

"Enough frolicking around. We need to be systematic in our explorations. First, we secure the main hall."

Thus chastened, the party descends back to the ground floor to make sure that there are no surprises lurking around their 'base camp' in the central hall. A few slaughtered rats and creeping vines later, and our party collectively ascend to character level 2! So let's see how they look now with a little experience under their belts.

Party review, level 2

When a character levels, they gain a random number of random attribute increases, a random number of hit points (based on class), a random number of skill points, and possibly a new spell. This does mean that you get bad levels and good levels—I confess that I did replay a few battles on the ground floor of the castle a few times in order to get at least adequate advancements for each character, particularly characters like Shaana who need to start actually using their skills to advance the game.

First Wrath. When we review characters, there are a number of statistics visible in the main review screen:

At level 2, Wrath's major skills are Sword at 12, Ninjutsu at 8, Thaumaturgy at 3, and Kirijutsu at 1.

In the top section, we have Wrath's portrait, name, age (20 years), life (he's still on his first), sex (male), race (dracon), class (samurai) and level (2). We also have his rank (he's now a bladesman), experience (1415; different classes have different level requirements, and samurai I believe need around 1400 experience to advance to level 2) and 'Monster Kill Statistic'—meaning that Wrath has personally dispatched eight foes to their respective afterlives.

In the middle-left section, we have the core attributes: strength, intellect, piety, vitality, dexterity, speed, personality and karma. Wrath has good all-round stats for a fighter, but most notably is fast. He's hasn't got much of a personality, and lacks piety, which governs how quickly spell points regenerate, and represents the character's general studiousness. Perhaps it's that impious nature that led him astray in life resulting in his current situation. we also have hit points (an adequate 13), stamina (currently at 95%), condition (OK), gold (most of the party's reserve—305 coins) and carrying capacity (180, of which he is using very little).

Middle-right, we have a breakdown of armour values, both his base value (at the top) and by hit location (body, head, arms, etc.). In adherence to the old CRPG tradition of ripping off Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, armour class (AC) ranges from 10 to -10, the lower the better. So basically Wrath's AC is rubbish. But that's fine, because it's the same for everyone at this point.

Lower-right, we have equipment. A cutlass and a wakizashi, some robes and a nice pair of shoes.

Lower-left, we have spell point reserves. Wrath can't cast spells yet (however everyone will be able to cast at least a little magic by level 3), so all of his pools are empty.

In the review screen, we can also review skills and spells, as well as transfer items between characters and between gear 'to hand' and in the swag bag (not accessible in combat). But for now let's look at the other characters.

Sword 6, Ninjutsu 8, Theology 7, Kirijutsu 1

Alva has overall somewhat mediocre stats, but no real weaknesses (except for a slightly grating personality). She has the sword of striking, which in principle is the best weapon available so early in the game, but she clearly hasn't made great use of it, given that she has only killed three monsters so far. Oh well, maybe she'll blossom as a warrior later. She also has the one decent piece of armour available to the entire group.

Hands & Feet 10, Ninjutsu 6, Theosophy 8, Kirijutsu 1

Motoko is looking pretty good. Almost as many kills as Wrath, and just as fast and strong. She also has been keeping some shurikens up her sleeves, but has been relying on her hands and feet to do the real damage.

Music 18, Skulduggery 10, Ninjutsu 5, Thaumaturgy 1

Shaana hasn't killed much, but then, she's mostly been playing her lute—and that's a good thing. I've only just noticed how terrible her karma is though—what has she been up to? Her skulduggery is now finally high enough to at least attempt some of the locks in the castle, but she'll need to invest in thaumaturgy if she is to start proper spellcasting soon.

Sling 13, Oratory 12, Mythology 3, Scribe 2, Thaumaturgy 20

While the fighters have been bumbling around trying to hide in the shadows and launch barely competent sneak attacks, the spellcasters have been busy disposing of the actual threats. Whisker has twenty-two kills to his name. He's the smartest and most pious of all the party, is the fastest and has (almost) the best karma. He also has an awful four hit points at level 2, which is still a massive improvement over the one hit point he had at level 1. So he clearly needs all the good karma he can muster...

Whisker knows three spells now, distributed across the fire, water and magic spell pools respectively: energy blast, chilling touch and magic missile. So basically Whisker is all about offence, but then, he is the party's designated artillery piece.

Bow 12, Throwing 7, Artifacts 8, Alchemy 13

How can a faerie be almost three times as durable as a man-sized cat? Konata's hit points are fairly respectable compared to any of the rest of the party. Her attributes are spread more thinly than Whisker's, but she has the best personality (tied with Shaana) and maximum karma; she has a decent MKS as well—don't underestimate the little people folks.

Konata know three spells as well, spread over the air, earth and magic spell pools: poison, acid splash and heal wounds. So Konata is nearly as aggressive a spellcaster as Whisker, but she can also heal her comrades, which of course is rather useful.