Clouds of Xeen - Part 3 Solved by Alex van Kaam We were so fed up with all these mines, they all looked the same with the same enemies but we had made a promise to mayor Gunther as our wise Gandalf reminded us so we continued to..... ------------> Part nine <------------ ------------> Mine Omega <------------ This mine seemed like all the others in the beginning, but we soon encountered a few traps and a lot of thin walls we had to bash in to continue. To the west side we encountered a few tiger moles which protected some gold veins, to the east however we encountered a lot of mad dwarfs and clan sergeants. At a certain point we saw a group of three mad dwarfs approaching us, we shot a few arrows at them and they cast a sleep spell back towards us, luckily only Rak*el fell asleep so we could continue. When we were close enough to the mad dwarfs we saw that we had found the clan king!! After a long fight, with only two of us awake in the end, we defeated the clan king. Boy, were we glad, at last we could leave the mine....... Before we left however we searched the rest of the mine to find a chest with a lot of items and a few big gold veins. We went back to the mine car which brought us to mine one and from there we went to the town of Vertigo. First we went to the mayor who congratulated us and gave us 50000 Xp. and the Red Dwarf Badge of Courage. From there we went to Thylon, he trained us all to at least level seven and Rak*el even to level nine. Money was no problem since we left the mine with 80000 Gp. so we could do what ever we wanted. We went to Norman selling and repairing our items, we didn't buy anything since the items we found in the mine were better than any he was selling. We then entered the Tavern for some food and rest but what we kept thinking about was the clan king, all the others we easily defeated in hand to hand combat but him casting his spells was another story ... and there were probably more spellcasters which we had to defeat to come. The only thing we could think of was to buy some combat spells for ourselves so we could fight fire with fire, so said so done, we went to the guild where Roodhaar and Gandalf bought Energy Blast to cast in a fight and Gothmog bought Revitalize to counter any weak spells that could be cast at us. What next was the question......Nomad said "what if we clean up the Toad Meadow and maybe even kill the witches who live there, with a bit of luck we maybe even find something to help us in our big quest". We all thought about it and agreed, nobody had any better ideas. ------------> Chapter three <------------ ------------> Toad Meadow and the Witch Tower <------------ We left the town, drank from the spring to the east and the one near the bridge, and headed south cross the bridge, we followed the road south until it turned west into the Forest of the Walking Death, everything to the east of the road was Toad Meadow. On the road itself we were attacked by zombies coming from the forest and toads and rattle snakes coming from the meadow. We headed east onto the meadow. ------------> Part one <------------ ------------> Toad Meadow <------------ We quickly found a yellow hut, when we entered we met Valia the old woman. She told us that once she fell asleep in the meadow and when she woke up there was a unicorn with the name of Falista lying beside here, Falista was on the run from the witches of the tower. Valia hid the unicorn from the witches for many years but one morning the unicorn was gone, Valia thought that Falista had been killed by the witches so they could get the Alacorn's magic. Valia gave us the key to the witches' tower and asked us if we could revenge the unicorn. Of course we were all shocked by this story and since we had nothing better to do we agreed. First however we completely cleaned up Toad Meadow from the Toads and snakes that lived in it. Then we went to the tower and entered...... ------------> Part two <------------ ------------> Witch tower level one <------------ As we entered the tower we were immediately attacked by a few goblins, they were very weak so they formed no problem to us. West of the exit there was a skull, when Gandalf examined the skull it asked for a gem, we had more than enough so we gave it one gem. The message we got back from the skull was "Don't forget to use the levitate spell before you enter the cloud world". We wrote it down and continued south. To the east we soon found a gate with a cage behind it, in this cage was a boy, when Rak*el freed the kid he thanked us with 5000 Xp. and told us that the witches wanted to transform him into a goblin. This meant that all the goblins we already killed were just little boys..... We didn't think too long about it and continued south through a door, here we encountered some more goblins which we sadly had to kill. There were also some piles of rags laying to the east and west with some items in them. We headed back north again alongside the east wall and found another gate, behind this one there was another pile of rags and when Rak*el examined them her condition changed to diseased. We now had a big problem, if we didn't cure Rak*el she might die, we decided to go back to Vertigo and see if we could get a cure disease spell from their guild. So said so done.... We went to the guild and looked around but we could find nothing that could help us, the only thing to do was to go to the Slime Temple and have Rak*el cured there. After this we went back to the Witch tower, on our way to it we figured out that since we made it back to Vertigo with Rak*el she could probably walk around a bit longer with a disease condition so she would check all the piles of rags and if she got the disease condition we would try to cover a bit more and go to the temple a bit later. We all agreed on this, except for Rak*el who didn't really like the idea, don't ask me why..... Anyway onto the tower and into........ ------------> Part three <------------ ------------> Witch tower level two <------------ As we entered this level we were attacked by a couple of goblins which were easy to kill, we headed south and found a gate with another cage containing a boy to the east, we of course set him free and got another 5000 Xp. To the west was a door and behind it a room full of goblins, after killing them we found four chests, two were empty and two contained some gems and other stuff. We left the room and headed south, here we found another skull asking for a gem, after giving it to him it yelled "Goblins back to work", a big help he was. In the room itself there a few piles with rags but nothing special. We left and headed up the stairs onto........ ------------> Part four <------------ ------------> Witch tower level three <------------ This level was infested with Wicked Witches who cast all kind of spells towards us, they damaged us but we were strong enough to survive. In each corner of this level, except where the stairs were, there were two skulls, so six in total. After giving them one gem they offered us to teach us a spell for another ten gems. The spells offered were Clairvoyance, Beast Master, Pain, Sleep, Lightning Bolt and Toxic Cloud. Gothmog and Roodhaar learned the Clairvoyance and Lightning Bolt spells, we then headed towards the eight kettles in the middle of the room. In the middle of the kettles was a cage with a little boy in it, we freed him and got 5000 Xp. We then examined the kettles, from the south/west one heading clockwise. The first kettle had some items but cost us a few hit-points. The second one gave Rak*el who examined it +1 on all statistics. The third one some items but again a few hit-points less. The fourth kettle just took some hit-points. The fifth was the same like the third. The sixth kettle just took some hit-points. The seventh kettle was like the third. And the eighth kettle gave me +1 on all statistics. We headed back to the stairs and up to the next level. ------------> Part five <------------ ------------> Witch tower level four <------------ We were greeted by a witch and two goblins at the stairs and a few more witches in some alcoves. We took care of them and investigated the kettle west of the stairs, it just took some hit-points but gave nothing in return. Further south there was a skull, after giving it a gem it asked for a password so it could open a secret door, we didn't know of such a word so gave no answer, in return the skull transported us back to level 1. We went back up to level four and opened the west door, here we were greeted by a head witch and three wicked witches. The head witch cursed a few of us but we were still able to kill her and her companions. To the north and south in this room there were two skulls, after giving them a gem they told us how beautiful we were....... There was also a chest which contained some nice items and there were two kettles, after drinking Nomad and Roodhaar got +1 on all their attributes. Behind the north kettle was a cage with a boy, after freeing him we got 5000 Xp. and the boy told us the password for the skull, ROSEBUD it was. We went to the skull and after saying the password it opened a door to the south/west with the Alacorn behind it. We got the Alacorn and went up the stairs, we now were at the top and there were clouds stretching to all directions, since we needed the levitate spell as the skull on level one said we went back down and left the tower. We headed south to the old woman who made us Crusaders and gave us 60000 Xp. for the Alacorn. We went back to Vertigo, to the temple for some uncursing and to Thylon for some training, we all advanced to level 8 except for Rak*el who reached level 10, Thylon told her that here she was at her top so we needed to go to a better trainer if she wanted to advance any higher. In the Tavern we got some food and decided to go to the wagon just across the bridge. ------------> Chapter four <------------ ------------> Derek, his bride and the walking dead <------------ As we entered the wagon we were greeted by Derek the Ranger, he told us that he was looking for his bride named Celia, she had been captured by the zombies and taken into the Forest of the Walking Dead. Derek asked us if we could help him find Celia because the forest was too big for one man alone, we, being the crusaders that we were, agreed. Looking at our map we saw that the forest stretched from the road beside the Toad Meadow, we walked that one before, to the west until it reached Lifeforce Lagoon. The best approach we thought was going south from the wagon until we came at the end of the world where the forest ended, then going west just a little, then going north until we came to the river, then west a little and south again, and so on slowly working our way to the west towards Lifeforce Lagoon. We all agreed to this plan from Gothmog and went on our way. As soon as we were entered the forest we were attacked by zombies and skeletons which we, of course, all killed. We came to Pitchfork Creek and found south of there, near the end of the world, an entrance to a dungeon. We tried to enter but without the right stone we couldn't. Then we encountered another dungeon entrance, west of the Pitchfork Creek, which we couldn't enter either. To the west of this entrance we found a shrine of electricity which gave us, after praying, +50 electricity resistance. To the south of this shrine was a hut, inside we found Celia tied to a chair, after freeing her we got +5000 Xp. We went back to the wagon of Derek and he gave us +20000 Xp and 2000 Gp. as a token of his gratitude. Here we decided to go back to the hut and search the rest of the forest. In the north/west part of the forest close to the river we found the shrine of Ligono the spirit who hated the surf, he asked us if we could get his skull back, which apparently drifted to the south near the end of the world, he would teach us a spell before he left. We headed south and were soon attacked by killer sprites and insects who came across the river from the lagoon and the Fairy Forest. Near the end of the world we found the city of Nightshadow and a tent. We headed west along side the end of the world and soon found a dead body with of course a skull, in the distance we saw a walking tree coming towards us, we got the skull and quickly ran back to the sprite before the tree could catch us. Ligono was very pleased and taught us the Recharge Item spell before he left. It seemed we could use this spell to recharge a magical item, very useful indeed. We headed south towards the city and the tent. "Let us first enter the city," Roodhaar suggested, the rest agreed except for myself, I told them that a city with such a name could not be very good to our health, but they didn't listen so we entered. ------------> Chapter five <------------ ------------> Nightshadow and a lot of trouble <------------ And, yes, I was right, the whole town was infested with Bat Queens and Gnome Vampires. At the entrance of the town a Bat Queen advanced towards us, we didn't wait to see what she had to say and immediately shot our bows at her, she was quickly killed, we tried to kill all the Bat Queens this way and only used hand to hand combat if it couldn't be avoided. North of the entrance there was a gate with a few Bat Queens behind it, we didn't enter yet and continued west. To the north we soon found a Magic Mirror like the one in Vertigo, we kept heading west until we found a door with "Treasure Trove" above it, inside we found three coffins, after opening them we were attacked by Gnome Vampires which were a bit hard to kill, one of the coffins contained some useful items which we took. North of the Treasure Trove was another door leading into "Gnome Home" with another few coffins, nothing special inside them except a few Gnome Vampires. North of the Gnome Home we found a tombstone with this writing on it: "Only at night you can put up a fight." North of this tombstone we found a gate which led to a big area full of trees stretching north. Because of the trees we didn't see any enemyies coming so with every step we made we shot our arrow to the north, we could hear them hitting somebody but we never saw anyone. In the north/west corner of this area we found a coffin which Rak*el couldn't open whatever she tried. We left back through the gate and headed north, here we found our second tombstone which had the following on it: "If the dials are properly set the count will definitely be upset." We headed north again and seemed to have reached the north end of the town, here there were four doors leading north into four rooms, each of the rooms contained a coffin with a Gnome Vampire but only the middle two rooms had something left inside the coffins after we killed the Gnome Vampire. After searching the rooms we headed east and found three tombstones, they had the next writing on them: "Open his coffin and bid him farewell, only then can you use the magic of the well", "A stitch in time" and the last one "Lives of a cat". It seemed that the sundials which we saw on the square in the middle of the town had something to do with the coffin we couldn't open. Before we tried the dials we first enter the little room to the east were we found the Count Du Monay, he was the guildmaster and made us a member for 250 Gp. South of him we found the Moon Guild, here Nomad and I bought Natures Cure and Roodhaar and Gandalf bought Fireball and Levitate. If we ever got out of here we could use the Levitate spell on top of the Witch Tower and enter the Cloud Kingdom but first we, except for myself, wanted to open the coffin. We went to the three sundials, since a cat had nine lives we turned them all to nine, we then headed to the coffin and waited until it was dark..... Just before Rak*el opened it I suggested that we at least cast some kind of protection spell, the others agreed and Gothmog cast his Protection from Elements four times to cover all four elements. Rak*el opened the coffin and immediately we were attacked by Count Draco, the spell he cast drained our Hit-points and with some of us our Magic-points, luckily Roodhaar had enough Magic-points left to cast Fireball once and Gandalf could cast it two times before his Magic-points were gone. It was now a hand to hand combat, the Count seemed to have some kind of protection spell since we could barely hit him, it now went completely wrong. Gandalf was the first one to be killed, next came Gothmog and Roodhaar. The rest of us kept fighting but we almost couldn't hit him, in the end I was the only one to be alive, barely that is, I decided to use the Jewel of Fist that we had left, the Count was heavily wounded by now, I used it and the spell hit him. He looked a bit dazed, started to become very unsteady, this seemed to take ages but then he fell to the ground............. In his chest I found 99999 Gp. which I took, I then got the rest of the party, using the magic mirror, to Vertigo. I brought them to the Slime Temple and paid heavily to get them back to life again. We first went to Norman to sell some items we found during the last few quests and from there to Thylon for some training, we all gained a level except for Rak*el. We got some food from the tavern and went to the Witch tower in the toad meadow, we climbed to the top and just as Gandalf wanted to cast the Levitate spells Gothmog stopped him, he said that all the spells seemed to stop at dawn so the best thing we could do it to wait for dawn and then cast the spell so it would last 24 hours. We waited until dawn, Gandalf cast Levitate, and we entered into the Cloud kingdom, we soon came to a statue but none of us could read the runes. It seemed we needed more than just Levitate to explore the Cloud kingdom. We decided to go back to Vertigo and use the Magic Mirror to go to Rivercity, this seemed to be the biggest city in the kingdom and maybe we could find somebody who could teach us this reading skill. So said so done we went back to Vertigo and onto..... ------------> Chapter six <------------ ------------> Rivercity <------------ As we entered Rivercity we were attacked by a beggar!! With one blow he was history and we left the main street through the gate to the east, we soon came to Arnold's Gym who taught us the Body Building skill for 1000 Gp. a person. With this skill our Hit-points were raised a bit. North of the Gym we met Flint the Arms-master who taught us the Arms-master skill for only 300 Gp., further north we came to Lindon the Taskmaster who would give us 100 Gp. for a week of working for him, we had more than enough gold so we left. We went west back into the main street, we then headed north and came to the Bulls tavern, we had a few drinks and left. Past the tavern we turned east and soon came to a tent, this was the tent of Barok the sorcerer who told us that a sorceress had stolen his magical pendant and he would reward us well if we recovered it. We went back west and then south towards the gate since we first wanted to see what was between the tavern and the gate. Past the tavern we came to the Rivercity Smithing, there was nothing we could use here so we left and headed south again. Next was the bank, we didn't really trust the bank manager so we left ... @~To be continued next issue. - o -