World of Xeen/Darkside of Xeen - New World Computing - Part 12 Solution by Alex van Kaam @~Continued from Issue 37 From the city of Sandcaster we headed west until we came to the first few mountains in the desert, we killed some Vultures and we headed north until we came to a grating near an oasis. The grating led into the sewers of Sandcaster, since we already went there we headed west until we came to a enchanted boulder. This was the 6th boulder, this boulder had a riddle, but since it was the 6th one there had to be more so we headed north to the 5th boulder, west past the 4th and 3rd boulder until we came to a boulder that wanted an answer, from here we headed south past the 2nd boulder to the 1st boulder. All these boulders had a riddle so we started with the 1st and we worked our way up to the 7th and last one: 1st boulder: is in aPple and also in pear, north to the 2nd boulder: is in cAve and also in lair, north and east to the 3rd boulder: is in fabLe and also in tale, east to the 4th boulder: is in lArk and also in quail, south to the 5th boulder: is in winD but not in gale, south to the 6th boulder: is in glImpse and also in sight, west to the 7th boulder: is in Night but not in light, We then headed west back to the 1st boulder and north to the boulder that wanted an answer, we told it 'Paladin', we got 1.000.000 Exp. points and it told us that we had to get all the magical items that were held by all the other boulders. So we went back to all the other boulders and we got a complete Obsidian armor, it was made out of a shield, gauntlets, boots, a cape, a long sword, a helm and a plate mail. All made out of Obsidian, since the answer was Paladin we gave the complete armor to Nomad, he put it all on and his AC went up to 150 !!!. Heading from boulder to boulder made a large square, Gothmog said that maybe there was something in the middle, so we headed to the middle of this large square and we found the Pyramid. Great, we headed straight to the entrance, the guard let us in and we entered into......... -----------> Level one, Dragons, I said DRAGONS !!! <----------- We entered in a corridor heading north into a large room, on each side of the corridor there were three alcoves. Since there was nothing in them we headed north into the great room. Here we were greeted by a large Cloud Dragon, it hurled Ice spells towards us so Gothmog quickly cast his Protection from Elements spell, four times for all four elements. We were heavily damaged by now so Nomad cast Divine Intervention to heal us all, we then headed towards the dragon and we attacked, the dragon was fast but after a few good strokes with our weapons it was dead. We then examined the room, there were five more exits in this room and a statue, the statue was a welcoming message, it was like some kind of machine, the message kept repeating itself, weird !?. We decide that we would enter the exits clockwise, starting with the south/west one. We entered this corridor, which was spiral shaped, in the centre we encountered another Cloud Dragon, some stairs leading up and a lever, we killed the Cloud Dragon, then we tried the stairs but we were not allowed to climb them. The only thing left to do was to pull the lever and head back to the entrance room, from here we headed into the north/west corridor. We soon came to the Reception, here we were greeted by 2 Cloud Dragons, we killed them but Nomad had to cast Divine Intervention to bring us back into shape. From the Reception we headed north into the Overseer's Office, here we were greeted by two Green Dragons, they hurled fireballs towards us, Gothmog had already cast his protection against fire so we carefully approached them, and we killed them. At the end of this room we found another lever, we pulled it and we made camp. The next morning before we left Gandalf cast Day of Sorcery, Nomad cast Day of Protection, and Gothmog four times his Protection from Elements spell. We left south back into the entrance hall and then north into the Visitor's Atrium, here we found a statue saying not to forget to light six torches before trying the stairs. From the Visitor's Atrium we headed north into Information, here we were attacked by three Cloud Dragons and three Green Dragons this was a tough fight, the Jump and Divine Intervention spells sure helped us out here. We used every trick that we knew, Jumping straight to a monster, using Time Distortion to retreat, I took a while but in the end we won. In the room itself we found another talking statue, it also repeated itself and we found a lever, we pulled it and we headed back to the entrance room and from there into the north/east corridor. This corridor led to a room with two Cloud Dragons, two statues, eight skulls and a door leading south. We first killed the Cloud Dragons, then we examined the statues, the first one said: 'enter the 8 numbers to pass the test, they are in a row so do your best', the second statue said: 'they total 52 the rest is up to you'. Next we tried the door, Rak*el couldn't open it so Roodhaar cast Etherealize and we were transported beyond the door, here we found a lever, we tried to pull it but it was stuck. So we headed back and we examine the skulls, they all had a riddle about numbers, it took a while but Gandalf came up with the answers: I'm the largest prime = 7 I'm twice the smallest even = 8 I'm the smallest square = 9 I'm the smallest = 3 I'm the smallest prime = 5 I'm what's left = 6 I'm the smallest even = 4 I'm the largest = 10 We gave all the answers and we headed back to the lever, this time we could pull it, a wall was removed behind the second statue and we entered this new corridor. This corridor led to a room with a pile of gold in the middle, we had encountered the same kind of pile in one of the towers, that time it was a trap so we carefully headed towards it..... Nothing happened so we picked it up.....it was 2.5 million gold pieces and 5000 gems.......... We put it all in our back-packs and we headed back to the entrance room, here I told the rest that we should get some more training, we could really use it to defeat all these dragons. The rest agreed so Roodhaar set Lloyd's Beacon to this place and I cast Town Portal to bring us to Castleview, from here we headed to Castle Kalindra and to its training school. We had 3.5 million so we all took training lessons until we were all at level 64, we still had 1.2 million left and we wanted to keep it that way. We left and Roodhaar brought us back to the entrance hall of the pyramid, we then entered the last corridor, the south/east one. This corridor led to another one with three levers and five doors, we pulled all the levers and we entered all five doors. Behind the doors we found some Cloud Dragons, it was a good thing we were now 11 levels higher than before, it took a while but we managed to kill them all. We headed back to the entrance hall, it seemed we had covered this level, when Gandalf looked at his magical map he saw that in the six alcoves near the entrance there were six torches burning. We headed to the stairs and we were allowed to climb up to..... -----------> Numbers numbers numbers <----------- We entered in a small room with a statue and a staircase leading up, we first tried the staircase, but as we tried to climb up a voice asked us 'Starfleet Registry Number NCC', we didn't knew what to answer so we were not allowed to climb up. Next we examined the statue, it said: '1 - Total the dates is all you do Then minus the number thirty-two' What numbers...... we didn't see any so we went to the door in the south/east of this room, Rak*el couldn't open it so Roodhaar cast Etherealize to get us beyond the door. We were now in a large room with blocks of walls and a door in the north/west. When we mapped this area we soon saw that the blocks of walls were in fact numbers.... We mapped this whole area and we got the numbers 1993, 1492, 1776. Next Roodhaar transported us through the north/west door, behind this door we found another door leading south, when Roodhaar brought us beyond that door we came in a area that was made out of three rooms with three statues. On the statues was the following: '2 - Now take the answer, divide by three Your mission is the pharaoh to free' '3 - Then subtract another forty-two This final number can get you through' '4 - Type in the passcode you now should know To quickly get from this level below' We wrote it all down and we headed back to the staircase leading up, as we started climbing the voice asked again: 'Starfleet Registry Number NCC'. Gandalf started calculating, 1993+1492+1776 = 5261, this minus 32 makes 5229, 5229 divided by three is 1743, 1743 minus 42 is 1701. We replied 1701 and we were allowed through, I must say, this was getting stranger and stranger. -----------> Round and round and round and ... <----------- This level was a long winding corridor with a few transporters that transported us a bit back, it took a little while but we found all the locations of the transporters and we could jump over them. At the end of the corridor we found stairs leading up to.... -----------> The Dragon Pharaoh <----------- He was very pleased to see us, and he told us the following: 'Alamar wants to use Xeen as transportation back to his world called Terra, this will not destroy Xeen but all life will perish in the cold that lies between the stars. Alamar has the Cube of Power and through this cube he commands Xeen, the sun has already diminished in strength as Alamar directs Xeen to the stars. I can't leave my pyramid because Alamar can sap my strength once I'm outside of it. The night Alamar arrived on Xeen two shooting stars impacted the world of Xeen, the first one was Alamar, the second one landed in some lava. Alamar did not rescue the pilot, so maybe he fears him or it. If you could go there and examine this craft, the orb will cool the lava down.' Well, well, this sure made us look a bit differently at our 'planet' Xeen, it could be controlled by a Power Cube........ As for the stars that had impacted, we already saw the one the Pharaoh mentioned, and it wasn't a star, it was a ship, we named it at that time 'spaceship' We agreed with the Pharaoh, he gave us 5.000.000 Exp. points and he told us to hurry. Roodhaar set her Lloyd's Beacon to this floor, and I cast Town Portal to bring us to Necropolis. Once there we headed south and west and we soon arrived at the 'spaceship'. -----------> Escape pod 1 <----------- This ship was not very big, we found some control panels, some strange alien heads/devices and a throne in the front of the ship with a person in an energy field on it. Near this throne we also found something called LOG COMPUTER, it showed us the adventures that the person on the throne had made to get here, we didn't understand it completely but after reading it a few times we did knew that the person was called CORAK, and that he had to capture SHELTEM, who we know as Alamar. Roodhaar has written it all down so we could show it to the Dragon Pharaoh, so here it is, I hope you understand it: Log Entry 1; All internal systems operational, All ship systems operational, Setting course for TERRA project, Mission objective: Deactivate and retrieve damaged SHELTEM unit, Return to base. Log Entry 2; Orbit established around TERRA, Utilizing Schwartz- Heinrich matter transfer device to accomplish planet fall. Log Entry 3; Subject deactivated and retrieved, Returning to base. Log Entry 4; Mission objective delayed indefinitely, SHELTEM unit escaped, Location: VARN4, CRON vehicle, 3.8 years have past since last log entry, Time spent in stasis in ship's brig, Activating full CORAK personality module to facilitate heuristic problem solving, Will begin search for SHELTEM unit immediately. Log Entry 5; Search for SHELTEM has born little fruit to date, His reasons for imprisoning me in the ship's brig are unclear, His next action unpredictable, I wander the VARN in hopes of finding some clues as to his whereabouts, But nothing has turned up yet. CRON's wire shows no record of travel between VARN or to CRON itself. Log Entry 6; I remain unable to locate SHELTEM, The wire shows signs of his tempering, But he has been careful to cover his tracks and hide his location, The cunning he displays must be a result of heuristic improvement to his mind, I am facing an advanced artificial intelligence uninhibited by mental blocks or behaviour restraints and driven by a will to survive, SHELTEM may also be following some internal directive he believes he has. Log Entry 7; VARN 6 launched itself into the sun today on SHELTEM's command, A hundred thousand lives snuffed out in a matter of minutes, The magnitude of his crime is overwhelming and the fact that I was unable to stop him lends my mission a sense of desperation and urgency that it lacked before, Where SHELTEM was merely a nuisance before the disaster, He is now a terrible menace that must be stopped at any cost, I MUST find him. Log Entry 8; News has reached me that SHELTEM was posing as king Alamar, But has fled his usurped throne, I should have suspected, Alamar's subjects were saying that he has acted strangely for about four years, But it never occurred to me to question why, The wire reports that he has lost connection in the VARN, But has fled to CRON, I will seek him there. Log Entry 9; SHELTEM is nowhere to be found, The wire reports several attempts by SHELTEM to subvert the system and regain access, But he has been unsuccessful up to now. Log Entry 10; SHELTEM has escaped CRON and returned to TERRA, He ambushed and defeated me in combat, Separating my memory core from my body and placing it in stasis in a cave, Fortunately some natives of CRON vehicle rescued me from my plight and saved CRON from SHELTEM's plan to pilot it into the sun, The VARNs that where to be released on TERRA have done so on schedule, Revealing that SHELTEM still follows one of his directives, I will use the matter transfer device to achieve planetfall once again on TERRA, With SHELTEM gone at last CRON will be permitted to continue its star seeding mission, Uninterrupted from here on. Log Entry 11; I arrived on TERRA once again, And the landscape is a bit different from my last visit, Four VARNs descended on the planet while I was in stasis and SHELTEM is busy assimilating the people, plants and animals into the existing biosphere, His process seems flawed, However I can't help but detect a faint callousness towards his people, The adaptive process is unnecessarily harsh, The time table needlessly swift, Another character flaw to add to the list of problems that must be fixed with the SHELTEM unit, If it can be fixed at all. Log Entry 12; After much time and effort I have determined that SHELTEM resides in the original seedship that first settled TERRA, The ship is entirely underwater, But several matter transfer sites exist on the surface of the planet, Disguised as pyramids, The pyramids denied me access of course, But that problem can be solved through the wire, I feel confident that I will have SHELTEM in custody soon. Log Entry 13; With the help of the wire I have infiltrated the starship, SHELTEM has activated all of the ship's defences, Sparing no effort to eliminate me, Despite my best effort I have been unable to cut SHELTEM from the wire or ordering him off, I will have to physically defeat him. Log Entry 14; I was unable to capture SHELTEM and he escaped once again, He is in an escape pod heading for the XEEN project, I am in one as well, Seconds behind him yet unable to accelerate to catch him, The pod has no weapons, Apparently natives of TERRA were right behind me and have activated the seedship's engines and launched, They are in close pursuit. Log Entry 15; XEEN approaches, I will have to engage the ship stasis field in order to survive the impact, Since I will be right behind SHELTEM I stand a good chance of capturing him after impact, NAV computer predicts that the Terrans will not impact the project but will instead burn up in the atmosphere, I have instructed them on the use of the matter transfer device aboard their seedship, So that they may escape its destruction, I am going into stasis now, May the gods smile upon me. After reading all this we were a bit quiet, all this meant that Xeen was a project made by the people that this man, Corak, represents, and that Sheltem is one of them but he has turned against his people...... We decided to rest here and to continue searching this ship the next morning. After a good night rest we were all in top shape and we searched the rest of the ship, straight across the LOG computer we found the Scanner, on its display we could see: X.E.E.N (Xylonite Experimental Expansion Nacelle) Starseed project Mean orbit 1.1 AU Surface gravity .88 Mean surface temperature 72 All this meant nothing to us so we headed to the last console, this was the stasis console, it read: Main console, to deactivate stasis field decipher following message The Ancients Goal Is: To = 20-15 Boldly = 2-15-12-4-12-25 Go = 7-15 = 23-8-5-18-5 = 14-15 = 13-1-14 = 8-1-19 = 7-15-14-5 = 2-5-6-15-18-5 The answer was easy, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. We typed it in and the stasis field was removed, we went to the throne and we were greeted by Corak the Mysterious, he was very grateful that we had freed him, he told us that he had sensed that Sheltem has full control over Xeen, he could stop him but if he left the ship Sheltem would sense him and drain him of his strength even before he could reach him. It seemed that we had to find a way to get Corak to Sheltem without being sensed by Sheltem, we didn't know of such a way so we returned to the Dragon Pharaoh using Roodhaar's spell. We told the Pharaoh the whole story, he was very pleased, he said 'another guardian to help', if I now think about it that means that the Pharaoh was also a guardian, just as Corak, hmmm....... Anyway the Pharaoh told us that we should get the Soulbox from the city of Olympus, take it to Corak and he would tell us what to do. The pharaoh gave us the pass to Olympus and I cast Town Portal to get us there. The guard let us in and we entered.... -----------> The city of Olympus <----------- It was a peaceful city, we found some people who told us lots of interesting things, Zeus told us that Alamar held Prince Roland in his dungeon, and Atlas told us that Alamar's birth number was 9 so he has a preference for that number. We wrote it all down and we examined the rest of this city, we found four statues with hints and tips for our quest, but most of them we already knew. There were also some scrolls, one made us member of the guild, the others had answers to some riddles, the only one useful to us was: 'Drawcab monks study Palindromes', that one we never found out. We did enter the guild but they could not teach us any more so we left and we went to the tavern, there we bought some food for 40 days. Since we didn't find any soulbox we decided to look in the sewers, there was a grating in the tavern so we climb down into.... @~Wait until issue 39 to find out! - o -