Welcome back! Today, I'll be taking Johnny into level 2. Level 2 has secret doors, which he'll need intelligence to discover and open. Unfortunately he's as dumb as a bag of hammers, but I've come up with an alternative plan: instead of getting smart, we're gonna get wizardly. Merlin's Cap will (hopefully) do all the door-finding we need.
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The cap of Merlin be another very useful magic item. It
finds all the secret doors of the room you be currently in.
You must be a level 9 wizard to use the cap of Merlin, and it
be a permanent item.
Sadly I don't have the life points to up my Wizard Skills enough to use the thing, but I make a start, also putting a couple more points each into strength and stamina.
The treasure from the last wing of level one tallies up to 388.3 silver. Not bad! More than I thought I was gonna get, in fact.
I upgrade to the large shield and enchant my sword, and then I'm outta cash. Even though I've started to put points into wizarding, I don't have the skills to use any of the items yet, aside from the cloak (which I already have) and the light burst (which I don't need, since I can stun monsters with charisma instead). Even the healing potion requires level five wizard skills.
Well, here we are at the start of level 2. I'm gonna stick with my plan to hug the left wall as I explore.
I'm taking a slightly more aggressive approach to my .gif editing here, hence the slightly disjointed action above. This first branch has a few small treasures and some weak monsters. Nothing I can't handle.
I also took the time to search for hidden doors with the 'E' key. Nothing found! Is that because there's nothing there, or because I'm too dumb to find it? I dunno. With anything less than maxed intelligence, there's a chance you'll fail to find a secret door. I assume that with zero intelligence it's a certainty that you'll fail, but even with a high non-perfect rating I'll have to examine every wall multiple times to be sure that there's nothing there. Or I can use the cap of Merlin, which examines all the walls in a room for you. There is the possibility that the results are based on intelligence, meaning I'll have to use it multiple times to be sure of finding things, but I'm hoping that that isn't the case.
I pick up the single copper on offer in the entry hall and move on.
A skeleton comes to meet me as I carry on up the hallway. It takes a while to reach me, so I move towards it myself. It's generally a better idea to let the enemy come to you, so that your stamina is full when it reaches you, but if I run out of stamina against a skeleton I can just stand there and recharge while it fails to hit me.
I take on the next leftward branch. The monsters are starting to get tougher and to appear in larger groups (there are like six skeletons in room 28), and the treasure is increasing to match. The fifty silvers in room 24 pop my weight up by 15, but that's nothing to the 50 weight point jump I get from the thousand coppers in room 25.
I meet a couple giant bats in room 3. Now, the end of this corridor looks familiar. It's years since I've played level 2, but I have a feeling that there's a hidden door in the far wall.
Unfortunately I lack the smarts to find it. You may be wondering if I'd have better luck if I stood closer:
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You can be anywhere in the room and examine any wall, the
effectiveness is the same, but you do need to be facing the
correct wall.
Nope!
There are no monsters on the way to these silvers. Perhaps level 2 has already exhausted its supply of dangers?
Or not! I make short work of it, but that leech is the next step up in enemy toughness from the bugs.
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The Giant Leech be a fairly slow sort, but feeds on the blood
of humans that enter the cave.
It's nice to meet a new enemy without immediately dying for once.
With the leech defeated I'm able to reach this silver unmolested.
Room 19 is not so friendly, and has the same value of money in less convenient copper form.
Room 18 is even worse, with more enemies for only one copper.
On my way over to the right side of the level, I ignore the manual telling me it's pointless and get up close and personal with the wall, searching it until I'm exhausted. It gets me nowhere.
Over on the right I face more enemies for little cash. Of course, each treasure I get earns me 20 life points (which convert to silver if I don't use them to level), so that 1 copper is actually worth 201 coppers to me.
More bats and small change.
I decide to compress the rest of this branch into screenshots rather than a jumpy .gif. It's quicker to read that way, and the only info that's really missing is that I fought more bats in room 52.
I head back to the middle part of the corridor and take the right exit. I'm rewarded with more small change and a skeleton.
That's more like it.
Bat and skeleton city around here. I guess the big finds in this level are behind me, now that I'm getting closer to the entrance.
An interesting thing happens in this bat fight: I run out of restedness and become too tired to attack. Partly that's because I didn't bother to rest up before entering the room (which is just sloppy play), partly it's because I'm carrying so much stuff that I'm losing a lot of stamina with each action. Fortunately, giant bats can no longer touch me.
I return to room 1. The doorway on the right is the only path I haven't explored yet.
Fortunately, there's only one room in there. One room and a heck of a lot of bats. I manage to keep my restedness above zero this time, despite taking several swings at empty air between bats (each of which costs the same 10% as a successful hit).
My reward is a gold piece. That's worth 100 coppers, but doesn't add to my weight like so many coppers would.
And that's all for today! I've explored as much of level 2 as I can without being able to find secret doors.
Next time:
Either I find that damned door, or we check out level 3.
See you then!
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