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Let's Play Cavequest, part 8: Level 4

Number go up:



I now have maxed stats, aside from intelligence. Intelligence is a waste of resources.



That's a pretty penny! Add to that the money I had left from before entering level 3 and the remaining life points that get converted to silver, and I've got:



Enough to buy a bow, at the very least. 33265.70 is basically an absurd amount of money. Even so, arrows to go with that bow and spears to go without it are a waste.



Magic projectiles are where it's at.

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Magic arrows and magic spears function like regular arrows
and spears, except that they are much more potent. You can
purchase as many magical arrows and magical spears as you
have silver for. Magical arrows are more destructive than
plain arrows, and slightly more destructive than plain
spears. Magical spears are the most destructive projectile
of all. Rumor has it that these projectiles are simple ones,
but dipped in a special poison of the witches' making.

Poison isn't really magic, but whatever. Since money is no object for me at the moment, the fact that these things cost five times what the regular versions do doesn't matter. What does matter is that they weigh the same amount. You might notice that my money counter has dropped by more than the cost of some magic projectiles. That's because I also picked up some of the other magic items. Oh, and I enchanted my sword and armor. Anyways, time to cave quest.



Level 4 wastes no time in getting to business. There's no treasure in room 1, but there is a giant bat.



The bats in level 4 are no tougher than the bats anywhere else in the game. Now, I mentioned that I bought some magic items:



So, 1 through 4 I already had. What're the new items?

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The talisman be an enchanted bauble that, when called upon,
lowers the chance that a wandering monster will show in the
room you be currently in. You must be a level 8 wizard or
better to use the talisman. The talisman be permanent. With
many rooms, a single application of the talisman will be
enough to stop wandering monsters from entering the room
forever. Some rooms will require a second application and a
very few rooms will require a third. Be warned, however,
that you may think a room be safe when in reality it be not.
Stay ready!

I can use this to get rid of the wandering monsters that appeared so regularly in level 3. There it wasn't a big problem, because none of them could harm me, but if I run into continually spawning rats or worse it'd be good to be able to get them under control. Of course, I could just speak to them and then ignore them, but if I do it with the talisman then I won't have to do it again next time I enter the room.

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The pendant of Kort be the most potent of all the magic. It
kills zombies. You must be a level 18 wizard to use the
pendant of Kort, and it be a permenant item.

Pretty sweet. We haven't seen any zombies yet, but when we do, this'll be pretty sweet. That's all of the permanant magical items. I made sure to buy them first, because I read the manual:

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Purchase permanent magic items before you buy temporary ones.
That way, the permanent ones will always be in the same
pockets.

Smart!



Have I given the background on level 4?

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Level four was the dwelling and sleeping level. There be
wandering monsters and hidden doors there.

Luckily, there don't seem to be any wandering monsters in room 1, but my magic hat has revealed a hidden door. Sure, I could take the non-hidden door that's just sitting there, but that's boring. Into the mystery!



I find myself in a sealed room with a giant bug. Once I get rid of it, wandering bats start to appear. Are they coming in through the three hidden doors in the room? Dunno.



After opening my path back to the entry room, I pick up the whopping 1 silver in room 2 and get tired of fighting off bats, so I use the talisman. I thought about doing a .gif to show that it worked, but my guy standing there not getting attacked by bats is a pretty boring animation.



So here's me opening some doors and taking the upper one while not getting attacked by bats.



The next room doesn't have any local monsters, but wandering leeches start appearing almost immediately. My magic cap reveals that the only secret exit in the room is the one I came in through.



Since I'm fighting leeches, I decide to try out one of the new magical items I bought:

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Magic salt will kill a Giant Leech, similar to the way salt
would kill a normal leech. You must be a level 10 wizard to
use the magic salt, and it be a one-use magic item.

Unfortunately I've forgotten which items are in which pocket, and wind up rearranging the leech's internal organs instead. The outcome is the same. What's wierd is that the salt costs and weighs way more than the spell of Gigos, despite only being able to kill one enemy (I assume: I haven't actually tried it on anything yet), and one that Gigos kills just as well.



I use the talisman again, and then again in the next room to get rid of wandering bugs. I don't really need to do this, since neither enemy can hit me. If you look at my slain enemy count in those two shots, you can see that I killed 15 bugs in room 22. Enough is enough. The ten silvers they were guarding are nothing next to the 60 life points each dead bug gained me.



It's all action in room 23, as I deal with an enemy that's actually capable of hitting me, followed by leeches, and find another secret door.



I also score my first non-money treasure: a large diamond. That's worth 200 silvers, but weighs only 5 weight units (100 silvers in cash weigh 30). Nice!



This corridor had only one secret door, the one I came in through, and was plagued with wandering bugs. After I talismanned them and picked up the 1000 silvers, I headed into the next room, where I was greeted with a familiar sight:



My immediate death to a new enemy type. Sigh. What was that thing?

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The Lizardman be as fast as a bat, and his huge mandibles can
crush any man-made metal.

Story checks out. Man, there are still three tougher enemy types I haven't encountered. Anyway, let's see that again in super-slow motion:



So, what happened here? Well, my first mistake was to not immediately talk it down. Like, hit the talk button before the room even appeared on screen immediately. That gave it the chance to step over to me and attack three times in almost no time at all. The first shot missed, the second took 59% of my health, and the third took the rest.



Well, this hurts. I had over twenty-four thousand silvers when I entered the cave. All gone now. I can't even afford to enchant my armor for the next trip, so I'll die even quicker next time. I don't really wanna go back to the earlier levels (although the enemies and treasure will have respawned since I've quit the game and reloaded, I'm choosing to think of them as cleared levels, even if 3 is still full of wandering monsters), so there's only one thing to do:



Actually, it mostly doesn't matter. Aside from the enchantments, I no longer have much need to buy stuff, and my stats are high enough already.

Here's the map so far:




Next time:
I play more cautiously.

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