Eye of the Beholder III - Part 3

               Solution by Alex van Kaam

@~Continued from Issue 30.

        --------> The east transporter <--------

Next on line was the east transporter, it transported us into a
long corridor leading east, at the end of the corridor we came to
a staircase leading up and two rooms.  We first entered the room
north of the staircase, first we couldn't find a button or lever
to open the door but we soon found out that touching the door was
enough.  In this room we were attacked by some Ogre Slugs, we
killed them and searched the room, we found nothing.  Next we
headed to the room south of the staircase, here we were attacked
by some Watchghosts, again we killed them, and again the room was
empty.  There were also two elven tapestries on the walls beside
the staircase, but none of us could read them so we headed up the
stairs to the next floor.

    --------> The east transporter, next floor <--------

This floor was a corridor leading from the east staircase where we
entered west to another staircase leading up.  The whole corridor
was full of side path, doors and removable walls.

We entered each room, killing all the Ogre Slugs, there seemed to
be a constant flow of them, and we worked our way around the level
like this. At the staircase where we entered we headed north
through a wall, north and at the end of this room west, again
through a wall, we kept heading west, through another wall.

Here we found some items, a potion and a cloak if I'm correct,
again we headed west, through a wall, south through a door, past
the staircase leading up, south through another wall.  Here we
found some scrolls which Gothmog wrote in his spell book, in the
south/east corner we found a button, after pushing it a wall to
the east was removed.  We headed east, in this room was nothing
special so we kept heading east through another wall into a room
with a potion of giant's strength.  We took the potion and we
headed east through yet another wall, in this room we only could
head north and we came back to our starting point.

The only thing left to do now was to search the middle part of
this level, we followed the corridor west until we could head
south.

We headed south and we came to three rooms, the first one to the
east was empty except for some Ogre Slugs, the second one to the
west was also empty except for the Ogre Slugs.  The third one,
again to the east, contained a mirror called the Scrying Glass, we
took the mirror and headed to the stairs leading up to ...

    --------> The east transporter, next floor <--------

This floor was a long corridor going round in a circle along the
outside of this floor, it led to three stairs, one in the north,
one in the east and one in the south.

The middle of this level was full of rooms connected to each other
by doors and removable walls, the floor was full of Watchghosts
but there didn't seem to be a constant flow of them.

We decide to first walk the whole corridor and see what we come
across, so said so done, we followed the corridor past all the
stairs until we were back at our starting point, we found nothing
of interest.

Next we headed to the north staircase and from there south through
a wall, we entered the first room to the east, killed the
Watchghosts, explored the room, finding another exit to the east.

We headed back west into the corridor and from there west into the
second room, again only some Watchghosts and nothing else of
interest.  We headed south through a wall until we saw two buttons
to the west, we pushed them both and a wall to the east vanished
and we could enter the third room, again this one was full of
Watchghosts, which we killed.

There were also some items in this room, first we found a necklace
of magic missile, next a wand of fireball, then the ring of
Trobraind (the one who wrote the book we found), and last we found
an old scroll. After reading it the scroll turned to dust but
Gandalf was fast enough to copy it, so here it is:

'...evil shall rise by...hand of...dark god...
 I...must guard agai...doom of myt...nnor...if
 needs must...shall abide here forever
 -- ...cw...n'

We didn't know what it meant so we kept the copy and we headed to
the next room.  In the fourth room we found again nothing except
for some Watchghosts which we killed.  In the fifth room again
nothing so we headed to the six were we found a bit of food, we
took the food and we decided to head to the north staircase.

We climbed the stairs and came in a small room with some
Watchghosts, we killed them and since the room was empty we headed
back down again.

Next we headed to the east staircase, going up brought us again to
a room with some Watchghosts, after killing them we found a ring
of protection, since Gothmog had the worst armor class we gave the
ring to him.

We headed back down and up again at the south staircase, this
brought us to a similar room as the north staircase, again some
Watchghosts but nothing else, we killed the Watchghosts and left
the room.

It seemed we now had explored all of this floor so we headed down
again back to the entrance hall and from there into.....

        --------> The south transporter <--------

We entered in a small room with a door to the south/east, we went
through the door and we came to a corridor leading from north to
south.

We first headed north and east and we came to a room with yet
another transporter, this transporter transported us to the area
behind the north transporter in the entrance hall. Since we had
already covered this area we didn't use the transporter.

We headed back down the corridor and we went south, we passed
another room which was empty and after that the corridor ended in
yet another empty room, it seemed that there was a constant flow
of Ogre Slugs in this part but we didn't seem to find the place of
origin.

Since this couldn't be the whole level we started to examine the
walls of the corridor and soon we found a side corridor leading
east.

We entered and we came to four other side corridors with four
transporters in them.  On the wall in front of the transporter
there were four plaques saying:
        'To quicken the realm
         the rains of spring'

        'To cleanse the realm
         the heat of summer'

        'To inspire the realm
         the breath of autumn'

        'To preserve the realm
         the ice of winter'

We stepped into the transporter near the spring plaque and we were
transported into a large room with some Watchghosts, a scroll of
water breathing and four doors, one in each direction.

We killed the Watchghosts and got the scroll, next we headed
through the north door and we came to yet another transporter.  On
the wall beside the transporter there were two identical
tapestries, on these there was a sun.  We now entered all the
other doors, behind them were also a transporter and two identical
tapestries.

Behind the west door the tapestries had a ice mountain on them.
Behind the north door the tapestries had a sun on them. Behind the
east door the tapestries had a large wave on them. Behind the
south door the tapestries had a tornado on them.

Since we entered this area with the spring transporter and the
plaque said something about rain we decided to step into the
transporter with the water tapestries beside it.

We were transported back to the corridor with the four plaques on
the wall and we entered the summer transporter, we were again
transported back to the area with the tapestries.

In the end the solution was this:

1. Transporter with the spring plaque
2. Transporter with the water wave tapestry
3. Transporter with the summer plaque
4. Transporter with the sun tapestry
5. Transporter with the autumn plaque
6. Transporter with the tornado tapestry
7. Transporter with the winter plaque
8. Transporter with the ice mountain tapestry

After this last transporter we were transported to ...

 --------> The Mages' Guild, Behind the elements <--------

A corridor where we were attacked by Steel Shadows, they were easy
to kill and we headed north.  We soon came to a room and just as
we wanted to enter a small creature appeared.  His name was
Bugenius and all he cared about was playing games so when he asked
to join us we, of course, refused.

We entered the room and were immediately attacked by some
Scaladars, they didn't hit us back often so in the end they formed
no problem to us.  From the room we could go east or west, we
decided to go east and soon we encountered some more Scaladars, we
killed them and we followed the corridor east and when it turned
north so did we.  We passed an empty room to the west and we kept
following the corridor, after the room the corridor turned west
and so did we.  We soon came to a large room full of Scaladars, we
all killed them and we entered the room.

In the north wall there was a small alcove and two plaques saying
'The Way Is Revealed With The Lure Of The Beast'.  To the west
there was yet another corridor and we decided to take that one
first and then come back to the plaque's and the small alcove.

The west corridor was similar to the east and in the end we found
ourselves back at the place where we met Bugenius.  We headed back
to the alcove and the plaques and we started thinking, obviously
we had to put something in the alcove to open a way, but what.

Gandalf reminded us of the book of Trobriand and how it told about
a ring that attracted monsters.  I had the ring in my back pack
and I put it in the alcove, at that same moment the wall with the
alcove vanished and we could continue north.

At the end of this corridor we came to a rope and two gates, one
to the west and one to the east.  We pulled the rope and the gates
opened, we first headed west.

At the first crossroads we headed north but this was a dead-end so
we went back to the crossroads and south from there, this brought
us to a gate with a button in the side wall.

We pushed the button and the gate opened, behind the gate we found
a small room with two Steel Shadows and some items.  We killed the
Steel Shadows and examined the items, we found some stones, a
club, a staff and some arrows, we only took the arrows and we went
back to the crossroads.

We now headed west and we came to an area of five rooms with a
pillar in the middle.  The rooms were connected to each other by
some corridors.  We killed about three Steel Shadows and we found
one dart, in one of the rooms however, the south/east one, we
found another rope on the wall.

We did pull the rope but nothing happened so we headed back to the
first rope we found and from there east through a gate.  But we
couldn't find the corridor we used to enter this area, after a lot
of searching and using our map we found the corridor, it seemed
that the rope we pulled put a walk-through wall on the spot where
the corridor started.

Anyway we found our way back to the first rope and from there we
went east into a large area of corridors.  How we walked I don't
now exactly but we first came to another rope on the wall, after
pulling it we were transported to a small area with three
transporters, one Steel Shadow and a dagger +4 called 'Ocnor', we
gave the dagger to Gothmog and every time he threw it away at some
thing it automatically came back, just like the Gandalf's hammer.

The transporters formed a little puzzle, two of them kept
transporting us back to this area and only one transported us back
near the area where we pulled the rope.  In the north/east corner
of this area we found some armor and from there we headed south,
we came past yet another rope in a side corridor and when we
pulled it we heard a gate open.  We went to look south and, yes,
there was the open gate, the room behind the gate housed some more
Steel Shadows and after killing them we found a ring, a wand and
two potions of invisibility.

We of course covered all the side corridors we passed since we got
to the room but they were all empty so I didn't mention them.
Anyway we kept heading south and east at the end until we came to
another rope, we pulled the rope, headed east, past a plaque
saying 'Weapons Laboratory Entry Strictly Forbidden', into a small
room.

We killed the Steel Shadows and we went to examine the items in
this room, we found four rock +4 ????, a spellbook that exploded,
and apple and three potions of poison.

We took the potions, you'll never know when they would come in
handy, and we left the room.  We kept heading east until we could
turn south. We entered this corridor, which soon turned west and
led to a grating in the floor.

Behind this grating we saw two Scaladars in a small side corridor.
Somehow we didn't trust this grating and as we examined it we
found some sort of mechanism underneath it.  There had to be a
way to turn it off but how? We re-examined all the walls we had
passed until now but we didn't find anything so we went back to
the grating.

Here Nomad came up with the idea that there could be some kind of
pressure plate on the other side of this corridor, but if so how
could we reach it?  Gandalf suggested that we could shoot an arrow
to the west, so said so done, Delmair shot an arrow, we waited.

We heard no sound so we decided to take the risk and head west, we
stepped on the grating and some large spikes came upwards and they
pushed us, draining some hit points, to the west, we were now in
the middle of two Scaladars.

Since we didn't had the ring of Trobriand they now attacked us
straight away, we had two things left, we could fight or run.
Nomad looked at me and we both yelled 'RUN', we ran as quickly as
we could to the west, over three more grates and past four more
Scaladars.

A Steel Shadow approached us but a few good hits took care of him.
On the south wall we found a button, we pushed it and a wall
disappeared.  We headed south into this corridor and soon we found
another button, we pushed it and we followed the corridor to the
east, in the end we were back at the first grate.

We headed back to the last grate and we went west, soon we found
another button, pushing this lowered the spikes in the four grates
to the east.  We went back east and killed all the Scaladars, we
went back to the last button and north from there, in this area we
only found a short sword +3 and some more grates, first we thought
they were safe but when we stepped on them again some spikes
appeared, we went back to the button and pushing it again lowered
these spikes also.  From here we went south/west and soon we came
to a corridor leading north, we entered and after a few steps a
lot of our items vanished and we were attacked by four Steel
Shadows, two on each side.  We killed them with our bare hands and
we got our items back, this was a good opportunity to sort our
backpacks out and so we left all the items of which we had better
ones.

We continued north and soon we came to a rope on the wall, we
pulled the rope and the wall west of us vanished and we could go
down the stairs to....

           --------> And down again we go <--------

At the bottom of these stairs we found a grappling hook, Nomad
took it and we continued east, we soon came to a plaque saying
'The Learned One Hold The Key'.  A little bit further we found two
gems, a red one and a blue one.  Beyond the gems was another
plaque with the same writing on it as the first one.

Nomad put the gems in his back pack and we continued east,
suddenly we were transported a few steps back west, we tried again
and again we were transported back.  When we tried to head back up
the stairs we were transported a few steps east, it seemed we were
trapped.

Now we know the answer, but at that time it took us a very, very
long time to find the answer, we tried everything except throwing
them since we didn't know if they would return. Anyway after all
kinds of ideas Gothmog finally came up with the right one, he took
both the gems in his hands and we could walk through the
transporter as if it wasn't there.

We continued east until we came to a wall with a button in it, we
pushed the button and the wall to the east vanished, we pushed it
again and another wall, further to the east, vanished.  It seemed
that pushing the button turned some walls so we could go into
certain corridors.  We kept pushing until we had two corridors
open, one heading north and the other heading south.

We first headed south and we soon came to a side corridor heading
west, we entered and soon we found a grate which was locked with a
silver lock, since we didn't have the key we headed back into the
main corridor and then south.  Soon we came to a gate, we entered
and were attacked by some Earth Elements, two attack rounds were
enough to kill them but we had to make sure that they didn't have
an opportunity to attack us because they could give a lot of
damage to our whole party.

Anyway, we killed the Earth Elements, and continued south, we soon
found some items and a corridor leading east. We took the items
and we headed east, soon we came to yet another gate, we went
through it, killed some more Earth Elements, and headed east,
since west would take us back to the first gate.

We entered into a small room and from there we headed north, when
the corridor turned west so did we, only to find that it was a
dead end.  We headed back to the turning walls and from there we
headed north.

To the east we came to a gate which none of us could open, we
continued north until we came to a side corridor with at the end a
button and in front of it a grate. We tried to pass the grate but
some spikes pushed us back, Delmair suggested he could shoot an
arrow at the button, he did and the gate we passed earlier opened.

We entered the gate, killed some more Earth Elements and we headed
east, we came to a side corridor leading north and we entered it,
soon we came to a grate with a Water Weird coming out of it, we
killed it and now we could choose to go west, north or east, we
decided to go back south since all these corridors were dead ends.

We continued east into a small room, here we first went north,
again killing an Earth Element, and we found a silver key at the
end of the corridor, we got the key and we headed back to the
small room.  The east corridor was yet another dead end so we
headed south, passt another grate with a Water Weird into a room
with two doors leading south and a plaque saying ' Choose Left
Door And Ye Shall Live Longer'.

Of course we entered both the doors, which after opening threw a
fireball at us, we found a lot of scrolls for Gothmog, some armor
and a scroll from someone telling about the evil that had
appeared in and around Myth Drannor.  We read the scroll and went
to the grate with the silver lock, Isharn opened the lock with the
silver key and we use the grappling hook to climb down into the
water. Before we entered, however, Gothmog cast underwater
breathing at us.

We were now under water, we headed south and soon we encountered a
Slithermorph, we killed it and we continued south into a small
room, here we found a few items, we took them and we examined the
rest of this small room.

We found nothing so we headed back to the grating and we climbed
up using the grappling hook.  We headed back to the main corridor
and we headed north, past the gate, the button with the grate in
front of it, a hole in the wall which threw a ice spell at us,
until we found a lever in an east passageway.

We pulled the lever and we heard a door opening, we continued
north until we came to an open door leading east.  We entered and
we were in a corridor with a lot of side rooms, the first was
empty, the second had three Earth Elements and an Elven Tapestry,
we killed the Elements but none of us could read the tapestry so
we continued.

@~More next issue.














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