Darkside/World of Xeen - Part 11 Solution by Alex van Kaam @~Continued from last issue -----------> The HOT sewers underneath Necropolis <----------- The floor of these sewers was not made of stone, it was made of lava, Gothmog immediately cast his protection from element spell, the fire version, so we were at least a bit protected. His new spell, Divine Intervention, also came in handy, when our hit-point were low from all the damage we got from the lava, this spell raised all our hit-points back to normal. The sewer itself was infested with Lava Roaches, some good shots from our bows took care of them. There were in fact three areas, one large one where we found Sandro's heart, a medium one with some barrels we could not open, and a very small one, this one could only be reached using the teleport spell. Here we found the mummy's secret chest, after opening it we got 220,000 Gp. and we all got cursed. Again the Divine Intervention spell helped here, it removed the curse with no problem. Anyway, we got the gold and Sandro's heart and we headed back to his throne, we give him his heart and in return we got 2,000,000 Exp. points and the golden statuette. With all this we left the city and we headed south alongside the forbidden zone. And here we encountered something strange, at the south corner where the forbidden zone ended we saw something in a lava stream. We didn't knew what it was, so we headed into the zone and towards the object we saw. Just before we reached it we were attacked by a Gamma Gazer, since we last encountered one, in the east tower, we had gained some levels so we took care of it and we headed to the object. Strange it was.....It was like a ship, but it was made of some kind of iron, it had no sails, and it was completely closed. We did saw some kind of door at one side, but we couldn't get in through the lava, anyway what kind of ship had a door in its side? If it was a ship, with that size, and made of iron it would never be able to float on water, but what was it? At the front of this thing there seemed to be some windows, at the back we saw some large black pipes, weird. We studied it for a while, and Gandalf reminded us about what Gurodel the Giant told us, that Alamar wasn't from here, maybe he used that thing to get here, but that meant that Gurodel was right, and that he was trying to move Xeen to another place. But to move a world that would mean that it was very big out there in the sky, that there would be a giant space out there, large enough to hold worlds........... That's how we came up with a name for that thing, if Alamar used it to get here that meant that he had to come through that space, with this ship, Spaceship. Since there was nothing more to do we headed south, past a broken pyramid, through the mountains until we came to a fort of the barbarians. Inside Yog the Barbarain greeted us, he told us that the Ogres had stolen their Energy Disks, we told him that we already had them so he gave us some rations instead. We left him and we headed south until we came to the river, from here we headed west to Castleview, then north to Luna the Druid. She was very pleased with the statues, she gave us +5 Levels. So on to the Barkman, we headed to the Sprite forest and into the dungeon of the Bark. Down all the floors until we reached the tree shaped dungeon, here we headed to the middle where we saw him first, He had seen us too and he approached us. We decided not to use magic, just our brute force, we struck, he cast his fire spell, it didn't harm us very much so we attacked again. This went on for a few rounds until the Barkman collapsed, we then entered his room, opened the chest, got some items, and we headed to the two treasure rooms. This time Rak*el was able to open the chests, in one we found 25000 Gems, and in the other 2,000,000 Gp., well that took care of our gold supply. We left the dungeon using Gothmog's Town Portal spell and we entered the city of Sandcaster, here we all did some training and we all reached level 50, this was the highest level the school taught. After that we headed to the smithy, here we sold the armor and weapons that were of no use to us. What we did noticed was that from now on we had to make sure none of us would ever be knocked out cold, because this would break his armor, and fixing a piece of platinum armor could cost up to 10,000 Gp. Anyway we left Sandcaster and we headed to the dungeon of the Lost Souls. Along the way we met some more Armadillos, we had so much trouble killing them in the beginning, now one stroke with my platinum broad sword was enough to finish them off. -----------> Hello Minotaur, we're back <----------- We headed straight to the west room, we encountered the Minotaur and we defeated him easily, we left his room and we headed east, here we encountered two more hourglasses and a Minotaur, we took care of him and we headed south. We soon came to a crossroads, east and west led to two room with two Minotaurs in them, we killed them all and we continued south. Here we came to the staircase leading down, but also two rooms, one to the east the other to the west, we entered both and we killed six more Minotaurs, three in each room. We then headed to the staircase, just as we wanted to descend a voice asked us if we had turned the hourglasses, when we answered no, we were pushed back from the staircase. We went to the four hourglasses and we turned them, we headed back to the staircase and this time we were allowed to descend. -----------> Fountains, fountains, fountains <----------- This level was full of fountains, some working some not, there were also some Minotaurs, but since most of them were alone they were easy to kill. In the south, just before the stairs there was a statue, it said: 'Turn all the dials up, pull lever & drink the souls of adventures past'. Well why not, we turned all the dials, they were on the east wall, up and we pulled the lever in the south/east corner. All the fountains were now working and we all drank from them, the one who drank gained 654321 Exp. points, this only worked once so we all took a turn when we encountered another fountain. There was also a fountain of negative soul water just east of the stairs down, we didn't touch it, instead we climbed down the stairs. There was this same voice again, this time it asked if we drank from the fountains, when we replied yes we could climb down to the next floor. -----------> Minotaurs and Gorgons <----------- We entered this level in a small room with an exit to the north and a statue in the middle. On the statue was written: 'All of the lost souls in this dungeon have become lost because they did not think positively, If you wish to stay found .... think positive'. Well that was clear enough, we left the room and we came to a small maze, it was full of Minotaurs and Gorgons, the Minotaurs were no real problem but we had to look out for the Gorgons, they were almost twice as strong. We killed them all, again the Divine Intervention spell came in handy, and we found four levers. We pulled them all and we headed to the staircase in the north, as we wanted to descend a voice asked us if we had pulled all four levers, when we replied yes we could descend. -----------> Transporters, too many if you ask me <----------- As we entered this floor we could go north, east or west through a door, we first tried east, but a transporter transported us back. We then headed north and we came to a lever to the west and a corridor to the east, the corridor to the east was full of transporters, pulling the lever turned them off. We again headed north and we came to a similar situation, in fact, the whole corridor to the north was full of these levers and side corridors, we pulled all the levers and we entered all the corridors. In the north/east part of this floor we found three more levers, when we pulled two we heard a sound of a moving wall, but we didn't see anything. We then headed to the door, Rak*el with her thievery on 130 couldn't open it so Nomad and I bashed it in. Behind this door we found 4 Minotaurs and 2 Gorgons, we took care of them and we examined the statue in the middle of this new room. On it was written: 'Start from the north, and go south, third from the top and far to the east, pull lever you suspected least'. This seemed to be some kind of answer to all the levers, well we solved it already so we headed north into a corridor. This corridor was full of fire traps but at the end we found a fountain called 'Minotaurs' private reserve'. Nomad, Roodhaar and I drank from it and we received 7,654,321 Exp. points, on the others the fountain had no effect so we left and we headed to the stairs in the south/east. When we wanted to descend a voice asked us if we would pay 1000 Gp. we agreed and then the voice asked if we would pay 5000 more, again we agreed and the voice asked if we would pay 10,000 more, and yes we agreed. Again the voice asked if we would be willing to pay 250,000 more, since we spent so much already we agreed and we could descend into -----------> A dungeon with a name <----------- This dungeon seemed to be two areas, the east one, where we entered, and the west side, to be reached through a gate. We first examined this east side, we found a lot of birds here but not the singing bird we were looking for. There were Eagles of Endurance that gave us +6 on endurance after freeing them, Larks of Luck that gave +6 on luck, Magpies of Might that gave +6 on might, Sparrows of Speed that gave +6 on speed, Albatrosses of Accuracy that gave +6 on accuracy and Parakeets of Personality that gave us +6 on our personality. There were of course some wanderings Minotaurs and also four rooms full of Gorgons and Minotaurs and a statue in the middle. We couldn't open these doors so Nomad and I bashed them in. On the four statues we found the following text: 'I am saying this now for all to hear, None from this world shall I ever fear.' 'Long have I travelled through deep dark space, Only to land and take over this place.' 'The soul maze inside is dark dready and vast, The name found within is the clue to my past.' 'This dungeon stand as tribute to me, My name in walls to see.' It seemed that all this was made by Alamar, and that he did come from somewhere else, through space, and that Alamar wasn't his real name, we could find his real name in the soul maze. We explored the rest of this east area, freed all the birds and we headed to the gate. There was no way we could open or bash the gate in so Roodhaar cast Etherealize to transport us to the other side of the gate. We were now in a large area with groups of walls which housed some cages with birds, there were Illusion Birds and Parrots of Prophecy, these parrots told us the next lines after freeing them: 'His nights were filled with evil dreams his days were spent in wicked schemes you must destroy that wicked fiend before he controls all of XEEN' In the south/west we also found the Songbird of Serenity, after freeing this bird it agreed to accompany us to castle Kalindra. Well that was about it, we searched the rest of the level and Gandalf mapped it. Just as we wanted to leave and Gandalf wanted to roll up his new map Rak*el noticed that some of the walls formed letters. We all looked at it and yes she was right, all the walls formed the next line:' MY NAME IS SHELTEM '. Well, well, it seemed we had found Alamar's real name, Sheltem. We were very pleased with ourselves, we had the songbird, we knew Alamar's real name, we only needed one more energy disk, but where could we get it.....? We didn't think too long about it and Gothmog cast Town portal to bring us to Castleview, from there we went to Dimitri, captain of the guard. When we approached Dimitri he heard the songbird and it totally removed his depression, maybe now he would start thinking about how to help the queen. And he did, he told us that if we could get the queen's crown to her she would be returned to normal, but the crown was on the third floor, in a wall safe, and only the queen knew the combination. Dimitri also gave us the combinations of all the safes on this floor that held Energy Disks. He also told us that we should see Ambrose the queen's knight. We thanked him and we went to Megan, she thanked us and she gave us 3,000,000 Exp. points. Next we opened all the safes on this floor and we got six more energy disks, we then headed into the dungeon and we opened the rest of the safes. After we got everything we headed to Castleview and into the tower of Ellinger, he was very pleased, he brought back the last floor of castle Kalindra and he told us that we should find the key to the Pyramid, and that we should bring the orb back to the Pharaoh. We left him and I cast my Town Portal spell to bring us to Necropolis, from there we headed north/east until we came to the tent of Ambrose, we told him that Dimitri send us and he let us in. Once inside he told us that he had captured a Griffin, he wanted to use it to free the queen, but the Griffin didn't let anybody ride him. Ambrose asked us if we could let the bridle be enchanted by an enchantress, since we knew there was one in Sandcaster we agreed. Ambrose gave us the bridle and I cast Town Portal to bring us to Sandcaster. We entered the town and we found the enchantress in the south, for 50,000 Gp. she enchanted the bridle and we brought it back to Ambrose, he thanked us and he headed to castle Blackfang. Maybe he could use some help so we headed east from his tent, through the mountains and the forests, killing some Hell Hornets until we came to a river. As we wanted to cross it we were flushed south, to the city of Lakeside, here we headed a bit east and then north, we soon encountered a lair, after destroying it we found Caleb's Magnifying glass. We had no time to bring it back so we headed north again, until we came to castle Blackfang. As we wanted to enter we met Ambrose, he told us that he needed some help defeating these Vampires, we agreed to help him and he offered us a ride on his Griffin into --------> Castle Blackfang, and some sharp tooth persons <-------- We first explored the whole level, killing a lot of Vampires and one Vampire Lord, we opened all the coffins, some were empty others contained a little item. We couldn't reach the north area of this level but we did find two staircases going up, one guarded by a Vampire Lord, the other was revealed after hitting a gong. We also found two journals on the corpses of dead adventures, one told about some traps that could be jumped over. We decided to first go up the south/east staircase, so said so done. -----------> Lever two of castle Blackfang <----------- This was a small area with a few coffins and a staircase, in the north, leading up. We first opened all the coffins and killed all the Vampires, since the coffins were empty we left and we headed up the stairs to... -----------> Lever three of castle Blackfang <----------- Again a small area with a few coffins, in the south there was a staircase leading up to the sky road. We killed all the Vampires, opened all the coffins, and we found a diary of a dead adventurer, it seemed a lot of people had tried to save the queen, but none had succeeded. Since we couldn't go any further we headed back down to the first level and we took the north/west staircase up to another part of -----------> Level two of castle Blackfang <----------- This part was made out of two rooms, both were full of coffins and of course Vampires. We opened all the coffins, killed the Vampires and we took the items that were inside. At the end of the third room we found some stairs leading up to.... -----------> Level three of castle Blackfang <----------- Again the same as level two, two rooms with coffins and Vampires, we killed them all, took all the items and just as we wanted to leave we spotted a bash-in wall. Nomad and I bashed it in and we came in an area of four rooms with in the middle of each room a coffin. In the first coffin we found Lady Blackfang, a few good strokes and she was a pile of dust, we headed to the next coffin. Here we found Duchess Blackfang, again some well aimed strokes and she was also history. On to the next coffin, here we met Countess Blackfang, well countess or not, we finished her off and we headed to the fourth and last coffin, after opening we were attacked by Count Blackfang himself, he was fast but we were strong so in the end he lost. We took the stairs, that were in the last room, down back to... -----------> Level two of castle Blackfang <----------- We were now in a long corridor, there were traps at regular intervals, and as soon as we found out where they were Roodhaar cast Jump so we could avoid them. At the end of the corridor we found some stairs leading down to..... --------> Castle Blackfang, and some sharp tooth people <-------- Again the same kind of corridor as on level two, again the Jump spell was very handy here. At the end of the corridor we found some stairs leading down into..... -----------> The dungeon of castle Blackfang <----------- This was a large area full of water, there were a few Octopods but we easily took care of them and we found queen Kalindra in the south/west corner. She told us that she could not leave here since she had become a vampire, when we told here that we needed the combination of the safe to give her the crown she agreed and told us the combination. We wrote it down, Roodhaar set her Lloyd's Beacon spell and I cast Town Portal to bring us to Castleview. From there we entered castle Kalindra and we went up to the top floor. ----> Castle Kalindra, the crown and a great training school <---- We explored the whole level, for some sections we needed to take another staircase on the ground floor but in the end we had found: A training school, we all trained 3 levels to level 53, we could have trained some more but Rak*el wanted us to have about 1 mil. gold pieces in reserve. We also found a shop, here we sold all the items we didn't need. And we found a temple and a bank, we didn't have any use for these so we continued. In the north/west, near the queen's bedroom we found a safe, after using the combination the queen gave us we could open it and inside we found the crown. In the north of the queen's bedroom we found a button, pushing it removed a wall to the south. We entered this new corridor and we came to a large pillar, we turned the switch that was on it and all the mirrors were now in working order, we could now use them the same way as we used the mirrors on the other side of Xeen. We also found a lot of barrels, some with Queen's brew and some with Knight's brew, the Queen's brew gave us +10 on personality, the Knight brew gave us +10 on might. Those of us who were low on these drank from the barrels. By now we had completely covered the castle, the only thing left to do was to bring the crown to the queen. Roodhaar used her Lloyd's Beacon spell and we were transported near the queen in the dungeon of castle Blackfang. We gave the crown to the queen, she put it on her head, and before our eyes she slowly changed, back to a normal human being, it worked !!! As thanks she gave us the key to the pyramid, we took it and she left, well there was nothing more here for us so I cast Town Portal to bring us to Sandcaster. @~More next issue - o -