So, to recover mana before we dive back into the dungeon, I sleep right in the middle of town.
◊ Guess there's no vagrancy laws, or nobody wants to tell an amazonian mage knight where they can and can't sleep.
Now that that's done, let's sample Rune of Return.
◊
You feel the air charge around you...Now, in a short, but random, period of time, we'll get teleported back to the dungeon. Interestingly, it won't let you walk into a shop
◊ while the spell warms up. And then...
◊
You feel yourself yanked in a direction you didn't know existed!Though that quote will get annoying later on. After a hundred castings, I'd assume I would know about the existence of this sub-space non-direction.
So, next floor down
◊ and one Detect Monster spell later, we're on floor 3. Nothing noteworthy with the map/monster scan.
I don't think I've shown it, but one fun thing with Detect Monster is to go to the Map Screen, especially when you just begin a level. The spell detects all monsters in a level. Lets you see the threats that await you in the dungeon.
Anyways, more exploration. Nothing new, though this room
◊ sure looks weird.
Ouch! A new trap. Glyphs.
◊ Unactivated glyphs look different. Most glyphs simply do damage, but a few will cause ability and level drain. Now traps start to mean business.
Not much to say about this picture.
◊ Just a dark room and a giant red ant about to be blasted with cold bolts.
Here's another new trap. Poison gas.
◊ Like the runes, the gas can have different effects, though the two I can recall are sleep gas... or straight-up poison.
◊ Oops.
Poisoned, and without mana, I close the door.
◊ Since this room has no other way in (And even if there was, no enemy can open a secret door that hasn't been found.) this is the best way to rest in-dungeon. The door opening will usually rouse you from sleep, so you don't get attacked while resting.
Strangely, the poison is quite weak, not even doing any damage.
◊ And now I see that Mana will regenerate even without having to Sleep. It might still require rest in general, though. And it's so slow that you're better off sleeping anyways. Which is what I do. The door opens a few times, but I slay my attackers and eventually recover my mana.
Another map scan
◊ with Detect Monsters... Oooh, crap. Manticores.
◊ These guys are quite tough, with a lot of hitpoints, a powerful attack, and a ranged attack, launching six tailspines at you at once. Still, with enough magic, I can still kill him, it'll just gobble up a lot of Mana.
Dangit, not another glyph!
◊
Well, I'm here.
◊ Let the cold bolt bombardment commence! I actually manage to kill him before he launches spikes at me. Kind of unfortunate, I wanted to get a screenshot of it.
Thanks to detection spells, you can scan for secret passageways. Just look for the trap, loot, or creature in an area of the map that you haven't found an entrance for, yet. Which is how I found this secret door,
◊ thanks to those two goblins.
I kill the goblins, walk down the hall, hit a water pit trap, turn the corner... and hit a trap door.
◊ Which dumps you to the next level down. Which can be problematic if you're loaded down with gear from the last dungeon, and low on mana. With Rune of Return, it isn't killer, but one tends to be thorough in such a game like this, and hates leaving unexplored territory in levels previously passed through.
Oh, crap. Smirking Sneak Thief.
◊ The trope page for Castle Of The Winds list these guys as Goddamned Bats. And with good reason.
See, first they steal your stuff
◊ in melee. Either the coins from your purse, or items on your person. (Usually belt items.) The item stolen text is "Something seems missing..." What's worse is that they have quite a few hitpoints, and before you can kill them, they love to teleport away.
◊ With your stuff.
Fortunately, they'll remain on the dungeon level. And sometimes, if you're lucky, they'll end up very close to you. Like the above screenshot shows.
He actually runs back into the room and charges at me again. But, since there's distance, I kill him with spells, and take his purse.
◊ The other annoying part of thieves. You don't just pick up a pile of money that's put in your purse, you have to open the purse, and move all the copper, silver, and gold into your own purse. (Doubly annoying as you have to confirm how much of the copper you want with an extra click on the amount menu. No, I don't want to leave any of the 256 copper in the pouch. Move it all!)
Some threatening monsters on this dungeon level. A Carrion creeper,
◊ who has multiple tentacle attacks. Also a blatant ripoff of Dungeons And Dragons' Carrion Crawler.
A rat man.
◊ Not sure what the idea is behind these anthro creatures. We'll meet a few more as the game goes on. No catgirls, sadly.
And finally, a large gathering
◊ of monsters. I'm pretty sure this is another plot development waiting for us here.
But not right now. Let's find the stairs back up... Oh, hey, that was quick.
◊
Here's what a trap door
◊ looks like, incidentally.
Oh, and it's not safe to cast a spell
◊ without mana. I recall there's an abuse to gain absurdly high Constitution by abusing this, but I'm going to play fair.
A quick snooze and another Rune of Return brings me back here.
◊ Still have to walk through the winding path, unfortunately.
A few things to show off in town. First, you don't have to worry about selling things like bags or belts accidentally if there's stuff inside. Shopkeepers will handily tell you so
◊ if you try.
Also, they won't buy cursed or broken items.
◊
So here's my haul
◊ after the last level. There was a Scroll of Sleep I decided to read to see how it worked. It made me sleep. But I was in the middle of town, so nothing happened. There's also that scroll of trap creation I read in town as well, but the game won't spawn a trap
◊, saying "You feel lucky for some reason!"
Ooh, some sweet stuff
◊ at the armour shop. I don't have enough to buy both the enchanted helmet or the medium shield. But, since they'll be replacing the equipment I have in those slots anyways, I sell them, giving me enough cash to buy both. Sweet!
My new setup.
◊ Found some boots of levitation, so now most traps shouldn't even activate when I walk past. Also found a four-slot belt which should prove quite handy.
With that, I Rune of Return my way back down to the dungeon, fourth floor.
◊ Plot awaits, I can sense it!
