Gunmarie descends the stairs, to be greeted by a lit room.
◊
While hallways are unlit, most rooms in the game are lit, allowing you to see the whole room at once. You can't see lit rooms until you walk in, but creatures in lit rooms can be seen if you have a clear line of sight. We'll see that in a bit.
Nothing in this room, so let's move on to the dark hallway that narrows a few steps in.
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But in only a few steps, we come to another room.
◊ There's a leather helm on the side, and the stairs down. But since we aren't on any time limit, we have no need to descend the stairs yet. Let's finish exploring the dungeon level first.
It's actually been so long that I forget, but I'm pretty sure doors are never locked in the game, so they barely serve any purpose. You can walk right into them
◊ to open them. I think a closed door will keep out unintelligent creatures. (Except the more powerful ones who can break doors.) Either way, we walk through the door and move on.
Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier. Though we can't see the room, we can see this goblin fighter
◊ from a distance away. This means that he's in a lit room. Also, it means that there is a clear path between us and him. So let fly with the magic missiles!
I kill the one goblin fighter, only to have his buddy
◊ sneak up on me from the side. This is dangerous. Goblin Fighters can be quite dangerous opponents in melee. Also, I'm out of Mana.
I beat a hasty getaway forward. In hindsight, I should have fell back to the stairs to retreat and rest. At the time, I was thinking about what loot the first goblin might have dropped. Sadly, there was nothing.
◊ All the room he was in had was a some rotten old shoes and a giant bat.
Well, I wouldn't call giant bats deadly, we're pretty low level, so any fight in melee is dangerous. So I flee downwards, coming to a conspicuous dead end.
◊ Looking at this wall, and the way the passage branches and terminates, I know there's a secret door hidden on that wall.
But, sadly, I can't search, for that takes some time, and the bat was much closer.
◊
Trading blows with the giant bat doesn't pan well for me. He sometimes gets two attacks due to his speed, and I have a hard time hitting him. Thus, in a few rounds, I'm nearly dead.
◊
Fortunately, I get in one last good shot, and the giant bat is no more.
◊
Still, I'm out of magic, and low on health. I'd better retreat for now.
Just as I thought,
◊ there's a secret door here. I run back to the stairs up, sleep at the top until my magic is restored, and head back down, refreshed and ready to kick some ass.
◊
Ahh, there's that Goblin Fighter. And a giant rat. But since I'm full of magic, I just barrage them with magic until they're both dead. The Goblin drops a pile of copper, and I gain a level, and with it a new spell.
◊ As per popular choice, I go with Cure Light Wounds.
I loot the room, even taking the wrecked shoes. I can still sell those for a few copper pieces. Moving back down the hallway, though, I encounter my first trap: A water pit.
◊
Not only is our character a fighter and a mage, but also an accomplished thief. We can disarm traps,
◊ and get a little XP in the process. Another thing to point out here is the dead-end door. For some reason, the random dungeon generator will often put doors at the end of halls that open into stone walls.
Oh, yeah, and there's the second set of stairs. Every level actually has two sets of stairs going up and down. Note there's absolutely no correlation between where the two are between levels. They could be right next to each other on one floor, yet on opposite sides of the map next floor.
Anyways, moving on, we again get a good sniping position
◊ on a poor goblin. Again, let fly with the magic arrows!
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And just to show you. Looks like an opening to a hall here,
◊ but reveals itself to be a fully lit room with the very next step.
◊
Another dead end door,
◊ but apparently we can sense the passageway just beyond the wall. Who knows why, maybe we can sense how thin the wall is.
Oh, crap, a giant red ant.
◊ These things are dangerous in melee, with very tough armour. But, again, that's what magic arrows are for.
Skeletons
◊ are also bad news. Actually, everything at this point is concerning, especially at low levels with a crappy weapon. But again, that's why magic arrow is probably the best startig spell. It hits pretty hard, can hit them long before they get close to you, and hits more often than not. (Though longer distances tend to reduce its to-hit. That one goblin I pointed out before went down with one bolt, but it took three before I nailed the bastard.)
Another weird quirk of the dungeon generator.
◊ Sometimes there'll be a double-wide entrance into a room, and only one door. It's even weirder when that one door is secret. A secret door that can be easily walked around. Weird construction.
Nothing up here, so we move around and down to the lower right part of the map. We come to a room with some good loot,
◊ being guarded by a zombie. (Or a Walking Corpse, as the game calls them.) Zombies can be pretty tough, able to absorb your blows and dish out some punishment... Again, though, so does everything at low level.
I decide to try out my melee, and get up close and personal with the zomboe. who makes me regret it.
◊
Indeed, after a few rounds, it's clear I'm outmatched. And nearly dead!
◊
Fortunately, I have a healing spell! I cast it, restoring my health... and the Zombie knocks me back down to 1 HP
◊ with one attack.
Crap, this isn't good. I cast it one more time,
◊ and thankfully I'm a little quicker than the zombie this turn, so I run. Naturally, zombies are quite slow, so I easily get away from him.
I flee back to this room,
◊ and hit the zombie with magic arrows when he comes through the door. Bam, he's dead.
Heading back to the room I found the zombie in, I pick up all the loot. Hmm... a two-slot belt?
◊ I should check this out.
Double click on the belt to 'open' it up. Aha! a potion!
◊ I take the potion and put it in my own pack. I do have quite a bit of loot here, but much of it is unidentified. And thus can be quite dangerous. I'll get Snorri to identify them when I get back to town.
Well, looking at the map, there's no more doors or unexplored halls. but that empty area to the upper right
◊ makes me suspicious.
So I go to that room in the center right, and begin searching the walls. (Hitting "S" five times against a wall, then moving up one square. Repeat.)
Indeed, my suspicions are correct. There is a bit more
◊ to this dungeon.
In the next room, I see another zombie
◊, and a wild dog.
The zombie I dispatch with my remaining magic, and I take on the wild dog in melee.
This... turns out to be a bad idea. Notably when I see my name emblazoned upon the record of Valhalla's champions.
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