Welcome back! Here's me not spending the 8540 life points I picked up last time.
A decent haul from the lower wing of level 4.
I add magic to my stuff and leave the witches lair.
This time I head up through the secret door in room 1 and take the right-side door in room 2. What happens next might surprise you:
But if you've been following the LP so far, probably not. Actually, it is surprising that I held my own for so long, only dying when I ran out of restedness. It might be because I slowed DOSBox to 2500 cycles from the 3000 I've been running at so far (as a PAL kid, running games at 5/6 speed is what comes naturally). Combat is still a matter of me jabbing the attack button fast enough to kill the enemy before it kills me, but I've got a slightly better chance of reacting before something is upon me now.
With no money, I can't enchant my stuff, meaning I'm likely to die even quicker than last time. Nonetheless, I bravely take on two lizardmen when I return to room 59. When a third appears, I bravely mash the talk button a few times. It's only actually necessary for me to talk once, but Johnny is happy to keep babbling away for several seconds for each time I pressed the button. In the .gif, everything after the word "Pass!!" appears is me talking unnecessarily.
I secure my exit before taking care of the lizardman.
I take him out, and another couple, then start jabbing talk again. I've cut maybe 20 seconds of talking from the .gif. Anyway, once Johnny shuts up, he kills the lizard. Since another one doesn't immediately appear, I assume I've killed them all and relax a bit. Suddenly another appears, and I'm dead again. Turns out there are wandering lizards in room 59.
I lose all my stuff and return yet again. As before, I'm in a weakened state without enchanted gear.
I return to room 59, talk down the first lizard, use my talisman to ensure there won't be any more, then take it out. Although I'm only using the talisman in one shot there, I actually fired it off three times, since SCROLL.OLD says that one or two shots might not be enough to do the job.
I don't take any chances in room 60, talking up a storm even as I step through the door. Turns out there's just a slime in here, which I don't really need any help dealing with. I use the cap of Merlin to check for secret doors (as I do in every room I enter in this level), but find nothing.
I take on a seemingly endless group of slimes. Slimes are kinda tough, but they're so slow that they're not really much of a threat. If they appear far away, I can recover most of my restedness before they reach me.
Suddenly, more lizardmen! I kill the first, the talk down the second and use the talisman to stop any more from wandering in. I think this is the first time we've seen a wandering monster that's tougher than the guard monsters in the same room.
I decide to try out my Pendant of Kort. It's been sold to me as the best magic item, one that kills zombies. Unfortunately, it turns out that it doesn't kill lizardmen. On the plus side, it also doesn't anger them.
I kill it the old-fashioned way, three hits from my sword. My reward is a cool 1000 gold. Time to get my gear enchanted!
Yep, scads of cash. The 1,000 gold is worth 10,000 silver, and the 1000 copper is worth 100.
I return to room 2 and take the top exit.
Facing a giant leech, I try out my magic salt. It works.
But then, so does hitting them with the sword. Or ignoring them completely.
I continue onwards. You may remember room 40 as the room before I got wrecked on my first trip into level 4. Time for revenge!
I talk him down, and then magicate him. Unfortunately, I was looking at the inventory screen I posted back at the start of level 4, and forgot to account for the spell of gigos I used and picked the wrong item. The magic salt has no effect on lizardmen, it seems.
I try again, this time with the spell of Eliakim.
SCROLL.OLD
The spell of Eliakim attempts to turn a monster into dust by
draining all its bodily fluids. It will destroy all the
lower level monsters and seriously wound others. You must be
a level 16 wizard to use the spell of Eliakim, and it be a
one-use magic item.
It doesn't kill the lizardman, but it does injure him enough that I can finish him off with only one hit of the sword instead of the usual three.
With the lizard out of the way, giant rats start to appear. These guys are still able to injure me if I let them. Luckily, I have a trick:
SCROLL.HNT
There are two ways to rest in a very difficult level. First,
use the magic talisman to lower the possibility of wandering
monsters appearing. Second, wound a monster so badly that he
cannot hurt you. Then rest before you kill him. Other
monsters will keep their distance until they are sure their
comrade is dead.
So far I've been using the talisman, but in the .gif above I tried the second option. Giant rats take two hits to kill. I hit that last one once, and then let it be. I wasn't sure it was going to work, but sure enough, it was no longer able to do me injury.
I reach yet another long north-south corridor. It's got one lizardman, 100 gold, and some wandering slimes in it.
Since I've never actually been hit by a slime so far, I decide to let this one take a shot. I get away with it, but only just, the slime taking me to 30% health in two very quick shots. I guess it's only slow when it's walking (oozing?), not attacking.
This looks like the same room layout as in the lower area I explored in my previous update. Some of the rooms have lizardmen in them, though. I pick up three large diamonds and 100 silvers. The talisman comes in handy for controlling the wandering lizardmen and giant rats in some of the rooms.
I make my way topside.
And I get sloppy. Back to town!
I make my return to the area, and re-enter all the rooms I've been to so that my screenshots are consistent.
I talk the lizardman down, swing at him from too far away, then kill him. Luckily, he was the last lizardman in the room. Wandering giant bugs start showing up, but I don't need to worry about them.
This topside has small diamonds, 100 silverses, and bats, bugs, and leeches.
I return to the entrance. I wanna visit the witch and get my gear strengthened again before I take on what's left of level 4. Here's my map so far:
I inverted the colours so it'd fit in with my other shots. Looks pretty nice, eh? So, I've got two unexplored doorways coming off room 23. Any guesses as to the shape of the rooms beyond?
On my way back into the cave, I decide I should try out the projectiles I picked up a while ago. Here's Johnny D holding his bow.
My first attempt misses the giant bat, and I resort to using my sword.
In the next room I fare better against a giant leech. Two magic arrows and it goes down.
I try out magic spears. The first attempt doesn't go well: I land one, but it doesn't do the job, and the enemy closes the distance before I throw the second.
Once again, the second attempt works better. Still, this isn't really any better than just using the sword. Probably if I were running the game more slowly it'd be easier to aim and fire before enemies closed in, and against higher level enemies it's probably a good idea to soften them up before they reach me, but even for that I've got magic items.
I try the lower path off room 23. It's the same structure as I've seen twice before on this level. This time I'm facing mostly great slimes and picking up small amounts of gold.
I pop into room 40 so that I can see the layout better. This middle corridor was missing from the other two versions of this area.
The upper section again is full of slime and small amounts of gold. With room 28 reached, I've explored all of level 4. Time to go!
N
Y, Y
And that's level 4! Here's the complete map, in pseudo-white-chalk-on-blackboard:
It's slightly inaccurate: room 40 should run the full length to where rooms 28 and 35 end, and room 41 should create a gap between those rooms and room 42.
I'm liking how the maps match up to the descriptions given of the floors. This level pretty make sense as sleeping quarters. Level 3, with its large rooms coming off a ring of hallways, could be meeting rooms. Level 2, a long corridor with rooms branching off, works as a storage area. I'm not sure what a multi-purpose level should look like, but I didn't draw a map of level 1 anyway, so I'm not sure if it matches up or not.
Next time:
SCROLL.OLD
Level five be called the "arena" level. The records say that
a huge arena was located in the level. There be wandering
monsters and hidden doors.
Zombies! I assume.
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