Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun revision 5 Last updated 7-31-2004 by R2 ========================================================================== Contents: 1. Introduction and Storyline 2. Game Controls 3. Game Mechanics 3b. Statistics 3c. A Brief Explanation of THAC0 and Armor Class 4. Character Class Summary 5. Getting Started- Rolling your Party 6. Actual Gameplay Starts Here! 6a. Looting the Castle 6b. Leveling with Lightning 6c. The (Extremely Well-)Hidden Forest Halls 6d: Rope Trick 6e: Hassle at the Castle 6f: Here There Be Dragons 6g: Oh, Wait, We Were On a Mission, Weren't We? 6h. Baby's First Dungeon Crawl 6i. Lizard Empire in the Mire 6j. Big-City Crazies 6k. You Azcan If You Think You Azcan 6l. Stop the Insanity! 6m. Out of the Frying Pan 6n. Ruining Your Day 6o. One Last Cave 6p. TEH END 6q. Optional Dungeons 7. Right Tools For The Job 7a. Forging Ahead With Weapons 7b. Armor l'Amour 7c. Other Stuff You'll Find 7d. Other Stuff You Won't Find 8. Shop Upgrades 9. All The Magic You'll Need 9a. Arcane Magic 9b. Divine Magic 10. Monsters to Watch Out For 11. THE CHEAT 12. Et Cetera 13. Save State Hacking Guide 13a. Conceptual 13b. A Quick Hexadecimal Tutorial 13c. Cracking the File 13d. Statistic Hacking 13e. Equipment 13f. Values for Each Item and Spell 13g. Spells Memorized 13h. Experience 13i. Characters With Class 13j. The Name Game 13k. Experience 13l. Gold 13m. What I Don't Know 14. Dummied-Out Items and Spells 15. Legal Junk ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 1: Introduction and Storyline Friend, do you like gaining levels? I mean... REALLY like gaining levels? Enough to spend hours and hours of your time gaining levels for meager, trifling rewards, only to have to do it again half an hour later? Perhaps you have a seething, smoldering hatred for red dragons, and wish to spend hour upon hour flushing them from their dens and beating them to death for nothing more than the sheer pleasure of removing another dragon from the world? Then this is the game for you! Adapted straight from the rules of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Warriors of the Eternal Sun follows the journey of a group of four adventurers as they explore a strange new land. They'll laugh together, cry together, and kill hundreds upon hundreds of enemies in their search for friends. Released for the Sega Genesis in 1992, Warriors of the Eternal Sun (WOTES from here on out) ran an extremely limited release, and what few players that found it wrote it off as a boring waste of time. Those who gave it a chance, picked it up, and played it, on the other hand, KNEW it was a boring waste of time. And this is its guide. And so the story begins: Duke Hector Barrik and his army have been waging a war with the local goblins for more than a year, and all involved are exhausted. The Duke has all but given up, he expects that no one in the castle will survive through the night. But wait! For no readily explainable reason, the whole castle begins to shake. A giant vortex opens in the night sky, and all the humans and goblins are sucked inside. Have the Gods given Barrik and his men another chance? Are they saved? Well, yes and no. The castle is now in the middle of a huge valley where the sun never sets. What's worse, the goblins have been replaced by all manner of wild animals, magical creatures, and tribes of Beastmen that now pound at the castle walls day and night. At wit's end, the Duke gathers four of his finest first-level warriors and sets them out on a mission to find any allies there may be in this new land. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 2: Game Controls WOTES has some of the most obtuse play control I've seen in any game. When wandering around the map: The control pad moves the characters around. Walk close to someone, then stop moving to talk to them. If you're moving, they'll walk right through you or pretend you're not there. Walk up to shopkeepers, and you'll open the screen that lets you buy and sell wares. The C button changes the active character to the next one on the list at right. The character with the flashing green arrow is currently active. A and B use the equipment or spell in that slot for the active character. The item on the left is the A slot, the item on the right is the B slot. Press Start to bring up camp. In combat on the map: You only control one character at a time. Use the control pad to move the character around. You're limited to a certain distance depending on the armor your character is wearing-- burdened characters can't run very far. Use the A or B button to attack with the weapon or cast the spell assigned to that button. The icon on the left is the A slot, the icon on the right is the B slot. Use the C button to pass the active character's initiative. The next combatant, friendly or otherwise, will move instead. Press start to bring up a limited option menu. When inside a dungeon: Press up on the control pad to step forward. Press down on the control pad to step backwards. Press left or right on the control pad to turn 90 degrees in that direction. The C button changes the active character to the next one on the list at right. The character with the flashing green arrow is currently active. A and B use the equipment or spell in that slot for the active character. The item on the left is the A slot, the item on the right is the B slot. Press Start to bring up camp. When talking with a shopkeeper: First, choose BUY, SELL, or LEAVE from the menu at top. If you are buying, highlight the item you want and press A to purchase it for the active character. C, as always, changes the active character. If the active character cannot use the item in question (a spell scroll for a Fighter, for instance, or an axe for a Cleric), you'll be asked if you still want to buy it. If you are Selling, a menu of all the party's possessions will appear. Highlight the item you want to sell for a price quote, but keep in mind that the weapons shop won't buy armor or scrolls, the magic shop won't buy weapons or armor, and the armor shop won't buy weapons or scrolls. Press A to sell the item. Not surprisingly, pressing A with LEAVE highlighted takes you out of the shop. At any time, press B to cancel your selection and return to the BUY-SELL-LEAVE menu, or press Start to leave the shop entirely. In camp: Press up or down to select the option you want to execute, then press A to execute it. - Inventory: Manages your party's inventory. Press A or B when highlighting an item or spell to equip it to that slot. Press C to change the active character. - Leave Camp: You can hit Start at any time to leave camp, or use this option. - Rest Party: This will restore the party's HP and spells. You'll be given the opportunity to change the spell list for any Clerics, Magic-Users, or Elves in the party. If your Cleric is at least 2nd level and anyone in the party is at less than maximum HP, you will be asked if you want the Cleric to use spells to heal the party (generally, you will). If 8 hours pass and the party is not at full HP, you will be asked if you want to rest until the party is completely healed. If you don't have a Cleric handy, that might take a long time, but is generally a good idea. Keep in mind that if you rest on the world map, there's a chance a party of monsters will sneak up on you in your sleep and get first hit in combat. Underground, the game just won't let you rest if there's a chance of monster attack. - Save Game: Save the game in one of four slots. You can't use this option in a dungeon. - Load Game: Load one of your saved games. You can do this anywhere. - Transfer an Item Give an item that belongs to one party member to another party member. Highlight the item you want to trade and hit A, then point to the character you want to have it and press A again. Hit B or Start to leave. When you find a stack of treasure in a dungeon, Fighters have a propensity to gather spell scrolls, Thieves take potions, and Magic-Users like to gather weapons and armor. Remember this is here so you can get everything sorted out. - View Map If you're on the overworld, this will show a map of the valley. If you're in a dungeon, it will only show whatever you have seen in this particular visit to that dungeon level so far. If you're in the Swamp or the Jungle, you'll have to find a map before you can use this option. - Options Opens up a second-tier Options menu - Return to Camp Returns to the previous list of options - Drop an Item You'll often find yourself burdened with items you don't need: extra weapons, extra potions, the Withered Vine, and so on. Use this to drop that item on the ground and leave it behind. If you drop something on the map, you can go back for it as long as you haven't entered a dungeon or shop in the meantime. If you drop an item in a dungeon, it will remain where you dropped it until you leave that dungeon level. - Change Roster Fighters go in the front, Clerics and Magic-Users in the middle, and Elves and Thieves in the back. This lets you reorder your party lineup. - Music is On/Off If the background music is on, turn it off. If it's off, turn it on. - Bar Graphs are On/Off Turn these off if you'd prefer a numerical display of HP under each character portrait instead of a line. I prefer to keep them turned off. - Special You gotta enter a cheat code to unlock this option. I'll get to that little gem at the end of this guide. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 3: Game Mechanics One of this game's big problems is that while it runs on standard Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, it doesn't actually tell you what all of your character statistics are for and what they do. There are some in-game statistics that aren't even displayed anywhere in the game that would be helpful to know nonetheless-- THAC0, for instance. First, whenever nearly anything happens in the game, it's a "roll". The two most common are in combat: a roll to see if an attacker has hit its target, and a roll to see how much damage a successful hit did. In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, this was done with dice, in WOTES, it's done with random number generators. The ranges are the same, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 3a: Statistics: Character Class: Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-User, Dwarf, Elf, or Halfling. In this game, it's impossible to be more than one character class, and equally impossible to switch classes after the game begins. So choose your party wisely! Level: A general description of a character's power. The higher the level, the more powerful the character compared to other characters in the same class. Experience: Abbreviated EXP or XP. A stupidly high number for a character's... well, experience in the world. The higher the EXP value, the more levels a character has under his or her belt. Hit Points: Abbreviated HP. In a game as chock-full of combat as D&D, it's important to keep track of how wounded a character or monster is. The lower a character's HP, the closer they are to dying. If HP reaches 0, the character keels over and gives up the ghost. Armor Class: Abbreviated AC. The total of all the character's natural agility and armor as it affect that character's opponent's chance of landing a successful hit on the character in combat. Unlike most of the other statistics, the ~lower~ Armor Class is, the better-- a low AC makes a character very hard to hit. Every character starts with an AC of +10. To-Hit Armor Class 0: Abbreviated THAC0. This is a measure of a character's accuracy in combat. It depends mostly on character class and level; it may be altered slightly by spells, raw stats, or the weapon being used at the moment. You'll never actually see this statistic in the game. The lower this is, the better. In all of the "raw" statistics below, higher is better. Strength/STR: This is a character's physical brawn. Any STR between 8 and 16 does absolutely nothing. A higher STR lowers the character's THAC0 by 1 when using melee weapons. Lower STR raises the THAC0 a bit. In D&D, STR also determines a character's encumbrance, but I'm almost sure it has no effect on this particular game. Heavy armor slows a character down, regardless of anything else that character is carrying. Intelligence/INT: This is a measure of a character's "book-learning," and how easily the character learns new information. In normal D&D, INT determines the ability for magic-users and elves to learn and cast spells, as well as how many spells a caster gets per level. In WOTES, all this is determined automatically and never changes, so INT is useless. Wisdom/WIS: This is a measure of a character's common sense, willpower, and perception. In normal D&D, WIS determines spellcasting attributes for Clerics much in the same way that INT does for wizards and elves. But again, all of that is automatic in WOTES, so Wisdom, too, is has no in-game effect. Dexterity/DEX: This is a character's agility, coordination, and balance. DEX affects accuracy with bows and slings like STR does with everything else. If it's above 16, it's slightly easier to hit a target, if it's in the single-digit realm, it gets tougher. DEX also affects a character's AC. For every point of DEX above 14, the character's AC drops by 1. Constitution/CON: This is a measure of a character's stamina and physical health. Traditional D&D rules: At CON 15, a character gets an extra Hit Point per level. At CON 16, 17, and 18, most characters get two extra HP per level. Fighters and Dwarves, however, get +3 HP per level at CON 17 and +4 per level at CON 18. However, in WOTES, I've had a CON 18 Cleric gain 11 HP in one level. Clerics aren't normally capable of doing that in D&D rules (getting a maximum HP gain of 8 naturally, +2 for the CON bonus). It may be that every level of CON above 14 is worth an extra HP at level up regardless of character class. In any event, none of these bonuses continue after level 9 in either set of rules. A high CON also affects a character's resistance to poisoning, petrification, paralyzation, sickness, and other nasty side-effects. Charisma/CHA: This is a measure of the character's ability to get along with others, personal magnetism, persuasiveness, and comeliness. CHA has a few different effects in normal D&D, but none of them apply in WOTES. There are theories that CHA affects random monster encounters or the prices of goods in the shops, but none of them have been verified. CHA, like INT and WIS, appears to be useless. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 3b: A Brief Explanation of THAC0 and Armor Class THAC0 and AC are a little complicated, so if you don't understand, don't worry about it too much. When one character or monster tries to hit another in combat, a random number between 1 and 20 is generated, and if the number generated is higher than the attacker's THAC0, the attack was successful. The defending character's Armor Class modifies this number directly. Let's say a first-level fighter (THAC0 20) is trying to hit a monster with AC 0. Since the fighter has a to-hit AC 0 of 20, he needs a 20 on his to-hit roll to successfully strike his opponent. Anything less is a miss. Let's say the same fighter is trying to strike a monster with AC +10. The monster's AC directly modifies the character's attack roll, adding 10 to whatever the result is. If the character rolls a 15, for instance, it's modified to 25. Since 25 is higher than the character's THAC0 of 20, the hit is successful on a roll of 15. If the character rolled a 9, though, 9 + the AC of 10 is only 19, which misses. Let's say the same fighter is up against a monster with an AC of -10. It seems impossible to hit this monster; no matter how high the fighter rolls, he'll never get above 20 when subtracting 10 from every roll. However, every roll of 20 is a hit, so no character has worse than a 1 in 20 chance of hitting his opponent in combat. As Fighters and Dwarves gain levels, their THAC0 improves at a rate of one per level. Therefore, a level 2 Fighter has a THAC0 of 19, and a level 5 Fighter has a THAC0 of 16. Other classes get bonuses to THAC0 every two levels (Clerics, Thieves, Elves, and Halflings) or three levels (Magic-Users). Complex? Yes, more complex than it needs to be. Like I said, if you don't get it, forget about it. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 4: Character Class Summary Cleric: Clerics are priestly warriors, devoted to their deity. Only moderate fighters and poor attack magicians, they instead excel with healing and protective spells. You'll ALWAYS want a Cleric in your party, no matter who else they're travelling with. At and above 2nd level, a Cleric will reduce the time spent resting dramatically as she heals wounds with her spells. Clerics are also able to banish undead. Skeletons, Zombies, Wraiths, Wights, Vampires and more may be destroyed outright by the Cleric's Turn Undead ability. The higher the Cleric's level, the more likely she is to destroy undead creatures in this manner. When rolling statistics for a Cleric, a high DEX and CON are desirable for ranged combat prowess and HP, respectively. WIS, as described above, doesn't seem to be very important. Clerics are useful throughout the game. Their spells are generally not terribly helpful-- Bless and Striking are the best, Continual Dark and Continual Light are good (but not as good as Entangle), and Cureall isn't bad for a level-6 spell. Still, Clerics will prove most useful in melee combat or patching your characters up as they rest. Clerics can wear any armor, carry shields, and are able to wield Staves, War Hammers, Maces, and Slings-- blunt weapons that draw no blood. There's very little disadvantage to being unable to use a particular melee weapon, but not being able to use a bow is kind of a drag. Clerics get between 1 and 8 HP per level and level up quickly, requiring 100,000 EXP to gain each level after 8. Clerics, like all Humans, stop gaining EXP at level 14. Fighter: Fighters fight. That's all they do. Early on, these will save your bacon, but they get gradually less and less useful as the game wears on. For the most part, you'll want a Fighter in the front of your party to take hits in dungeons. Fighters will want high STR and DEX to make sure their attacks hit, and a high CON for the HP bonus. As I said, Fighters are great early on, but as the game progresses, anyone who can't wipe out a roomful of monsters with a few gestures and a chant will be at a disadvantage. Fighters can wear any armor, carry shields, and use any weapon. Fighters get between 1 and 10 HP per level, and gain levels at a moderate pace, requiring 120,000 EXP to gain each level after 8. Fighters, like all Humans, stop gaining EXP at level 14. Magic-User: Where Clerics wield magical power to heal and protect, Magic-Users instead blast their foes to kingdom come. These are the abjurers who toss around fireballs and lightning bolts at whim. Magic-Users have no tolerance for physical combat, however. Their HP will remain low for the entire game, and they will rarely land a blow in melee combat. They're made for sitting in the back row and tossing Magic Missiles and Entangle spells to support the front-row warriors. Most parties would do well to have a Magic-User at hand. In this guide, I use the term "Magic-User" and "Wizard" interchangeably. When rolling a Magic-User, make sure DEX and CON are as high as possible to alleviate the Wizard's typically poor AC and HP. I have yet to find a use for INT, even with a Wizard; this guide was largely written with a party possessing an INT 11 Magic-User. He could cast Disintegrate and Cloudkill as well as any other. Magic-Users are extremely weak early on-- in traditional D&D rules, an average housecat has a 50% chance of killing a first-level Magic-User with a single scratch. No joke! But as they gain levels, Magic-Users will begin clearing out monster after monster without so much as a thought. A Magic-User is no slouch with Magic Missile or Entangle, gets even more useful with the addition of Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and Ice Storm, and becomes devastating with the addition of Cloudkill and Disintegrate in his repertoire. Magic-Users can wear no armor at all, relying instead on the magical items you'll find very late in the game like the Displacer Cloak and Ring of Protection. Not surprisingly, they can't carry shields, either. They can only wield staves, daggers, and slings in combat. Magic-Users gain between 1 and 4 HP per level, and gain levels slowly: 150,000 EXP to gain each level after 8. Magic-Users, like all Humans, stop gaining EXP at level 14. Thief: Thieves are agile and skilled, taking what they want from life with little regard for the law. In D&D, there are many compelling reasons to play a Thief. In WOTES, however, very few of them apply. Thieves are able to locate and disarm traps before they damage the party. In WOTES, there are very, very few traps. Outside of the Azcan Temple, I can think of one or two in the Beastman Caves and one in an optional dungeon. Given that a Thief only has a small chance of locating any given trap-- mine caught maybe a fifth of those in the Azcan Temple and none of the others-- this ability is more a curiosity than anything to be relied upon. Thieves start with the ability to Hide. It doesn't prevent them from being targetted by enemies, getting hit, or attacking foes, so I wonder if the ability was ever programmed into the game at all. Starting at tenth level, a Thief can use magical items like wands and scrolls. By tenth level, you're so burdened with other goods like potions, armor, and weapons that wands and scrolls just take up space in your inventory. Just so you know. If for some reason you want a Thief, give him high STR, DEX, and CON and treat him like a Fighter. But as they're equally weak at low and high levels, this is one class best left in the barracks. Thieves can use any weapons, but cannot wear armor heavier than Leather or use shields. Thieves don't even get many HP-- between 1 and 6 per level. You'd think, lacking any useful skill, they'd at least level up quickly, but no. They gain levels at a moderate pace, requiring 120,000 EXP to gain each level after 8. Thieves, like all Humans, stop gaining EXP at level 14. Dwarf: Dwarves, as a race, are trained as fighters. They can use no magic but are excellent front-line warriors. They can use all the weapons that a human Fighter can except spears, and have additional resistance to poisoning, petrification, paralysis, disease, and other nasty ailments. They're generally interchangeable with human Fighters. Dwarves need high STR and DEX to make sure their attacks find their mark, and high CON for the HP bonus. Dwarves are good early on, but at a disadvantage late in the game thanks to their inability to use magic. Dwarves can use all weapons except spears (a slight disadvantage, as spears are both cheap and the first weapons available with any given magical bonuses). They can wear any armor and carry shields. Dwarves get between 1 and 10 HP per level, and require a little more work to level up than fighters: 130,000 EXP to gain each level after 8. They reach maximum level at level 12, however, and don't accrue any more EXP after that. Elf: Elves are warrior mages. They have about as much combat prowess as Clerics, but can use spells like Wizards. To their disadvantage, they cannot gain levels after level 10, and take ridiculous amounts of EXP to even get that far. Even so, you'll not regret having an Elf in the party. Elves can detect secret passages just by walking by them. It's rare, like a Thief's ability to find traps, but there are a lot more secret passages in this game than traps to be found. Elves should have high DEX for missile combat and high CON for the HP bonus. Arcane spellcasters like Elves benefit from a high INT in traditional D&D, but don't appear to have any benefit for such in WOTES. Elves are stupidly powerful at any level. Early on they can clash steel right alongside the Fighters and Dwarves, and late in the game they get a couple Ice Storms and Cloudkills to back up their blades. Elves can use any weapon available, wear any armor, and carry shields. In traditional D&D, wearing heavy armor interferes with a spellcaster's ability to use magic, but I've yet to see an Elf's spell fail even when traipsing about in full platemail and a heavy shield. Elves gain between 1 and 8 HP per level, but they are the slowest class to level up in the game. They require a whopping 200,000 EXP to gain levels 9 and 10. And that's all-- no Elf can ever see level 11. Halfling: Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a Thief that can't find traps, can't use magic items, and doesn't have the versatility in regards to weaponry. Why bother? Halflings are even less useful than Thieves, and that's saying a lot. They start with the Hide ability, like Thieves, but as before, I haven't found any effect to using that ability. Halflings can't use big, heavy weapons like Staves, Spears, War Hammers, or Maces, but unlike Thieves, they can wear any armor they like. Even so, if you want a melee class, take a Fighter or Dwarf. This is a class that has no magical ability whatsoever, but can't fight very well, either. I think Halflings get between 1 and 6 HP per level, but I don't particularly care to experiment further to make sure. Halflings have an even stricter level restriction than Elves, for some bizarre reason: they take 120,000 EXP to get to level 8, and then stop gaining EXP altogether. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 5: Starting Out- Rolling Your Party When you fire up Warriors of the Eternal Sun for the first time, you'll be offered the choice to either let the computer roll a party for you or roll the party yourself. The computer-rolled party will consist of a Fighter, a Cleric, a Magic-User, and either an Elf or a Thief-- all with random and generally lousy stats. You're better off rolling your own party. First, consider what the party will be made of. You will want, in order of importance: a) a Cleric b) a Magic-User or Elf c) a Fighter or Dwarf d) someone else-- probably another Magic-User/Elf, maybe a Fighter/Dwarf. Every character will need a high CON, and most benefit from a high DEX. Be patient, and don't accept anything less than 16 in both CON and DEX. Many characters have another statistic that wouldn't hurt if it's high-- WIS for Clerics, INT for Wizards and Elves, STR for Fighters and Dwarves. These are generally unimportant, however, especially STR for one fighter, for reasons I'll go into momentarily. After you've rolled your stats and chosen your character class, pick a name for your character at the top and a color scheme for your character at the bottom. Then hit C to move through the roster and fill out a party of four. Once you're done, the top option will let you start the game, or you can go through the roster again to change names or reroll stats you've reconsidered. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 6: Actual Gameplay Starts Here! Your characters get a pep talk from the Duke, then head out to find some allies. Have a look around your characters and you'll see they have some trifling starting equipment: Clerics start with a Morningstar (and the Turn Undead ability). Fighters start with a Sword and a Shield. Magic-Users start with a Staff (and the Magic Missile spell). Thieves start with a Dagger (and the Hide ability). Dwarves start with an Axe and a Shield. Elves start with a Spear (and the Sleep spell). Halflings start with a Dagger (and the Hide ability). ...not much, is it? You need to get equipped before you head out. The Weapon Shop is no help, all they've got are knives, sticks, and knives on sticks. You'll have to forage for some better stuff. ========================================================================== Section 6a: Looting the Castle The castle has very few landmarks of note. There is a throne room with The Duke and Marmillan, where plot points are explored. There is a weapon shop (the room with the spears and swords on the walls), an armor shop, (the room with plate mail and shields on the walls), a church to resurrect your fallen comrades, and a tiny magic shop. There's also a graveyard, a tavern, and a few houses, but they're mostly irrelevant. Head to the upper-left tower in the throne room and chat with Marmillan. He doesn't give you any items yet, but remember that he's here. Go to the upper-right tower in the Duke's hall and press into the base on the right side. Eventually you'll find the entrace to the tower. Here's your first taste of dungeon-crawling! Step through the door before you, and you'll find yourself in a hallway with four doors on the West side. The second holds a Beastman warrior, while the third holds a Giant Rat. At the end of the hallway, head through the East door, around the corner, and into the interrogation room. In the West wall of this room is a secret passage into a small room with a Gauntlets of Ogre Power inside. These handy gloves (...) increase the STR of whoever wears them to 18. Give them to your Fighter or Dwarf if his STR is 17 or less, or to a Cleric, Thief, or Elf otherwise. Exit the prison the same way you came in and head out to the Church. The tower in the lower-right has an entrace just below the second column of graves. Head inside and explore the crypt; the northwest corner hides a suit of +1 Chainmail behind a secret door. Now that you're done grave-robbing, head out of the crypt and to the entrance of the church. There's a man standing by a bush praising The Maker, walk behind him and check the back wall of the church for another hidden entrance. Check around for a couple healing potions, then search for the secret wall in the southeast corner that hides a Staff of Healing. This is a stick that can't be used to hit things with, but it does cast Cure Light Wounds when it's used. Head back out, go outside the church fence, then walk north until you're above the Church and in a residential area. The guard tower in the upper right hides a +1 Sword in the central pillar; approach it from the North. Go to the left, enter the tavern, and find the entrance to the cellar near the base of the guard tower. In the southeast corner, you'll find a hidden passage leading to a +1 Axe. Just below the Tavern is the Scroll Shop. In the upper-left corner of the Scroll Shop, on the far side of the bookshelf, is one more hidden passage you absolutely can't miss. There's a Sleep scroll in plain sight, and a Wand of Lightning Bolts hidden behind the North wall. You've gotten all the free stuff available in town now. Use the Transfer Item command in camp to give the goods to the folks who would use it best: a your best melee combatant gets the Gauntlets, split the +1 weapons between your best warriors, give the +1 Chainmail to your frontline Fighter or Dwarf, hand the Staff of Healing to a Cleric, the Scroll of Sleep goes to your Magic-User (since your Elf started with the Sleep spell) and the Wand of Lightning goes to a Wizard or Elf. Rest the party and the Wizard holding the Sleep scroll will scribe it into his or her spellbook. From here on out, you have the option to memorize and equip the Sleep spell any time you choose to rest your party. After a spell is memorized, it's equipped just like any other weapon. If you don't have a Magic-User in the party, you can sell the Sleep scroll back to the Magic Shop to raise some quick cash. Come to think of it, you'll be spending money a lot more often than you'll be casting Sleep in this game... maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to pawn it off anyway and let your Wizard make do with Magic Missile. Armor and shields are equipped automatically by characters who can use them, but you'll have to use the Inventory command to equip any weapons, magic items, or spells. Now head to the Weapon shop and buy slings for everyone. Go to the Armor Shop and buy Leather Armor for the non-Wizards (the person with +1 Chain mail obviously doesn't need any either). Equip your Slings. I like to put all ranged weapons-- slings, bows, and if I have several, long-range damaging magic spells like Magic Missile, Fireball, and Ice Storm-- on the same button for each character. In dungeons, this means you can tap one button repeatedly to send a storm of sling bullets and arrows out in front of you to attack the darkness-- er, soften up any opposition. Now you're ready to leave town. ========================================================================== Section 6b: Leveling with Lightning You have three options now. You can wander around aimlessly and hope to stumble across some Boars or Beastmen to slaughter for tedium and a little EXP, you can head to the swamp for tougher battles with Leeches and Crabs for more EXP, or you can head to the bridge to the southwest for nearly- impossible battles for tons of EXP and quick level-ups. Because you have an ace up your Wizard's billowing sleeves, namely that Wand of Lightning you ganked from the Magic Shop, you can take down monsters you're not supposed to until much later. Head to the bridge for quick levels for your Wizard or Elf. Equip that character with the Wand, Save your game, and cross the bridge, ignoring any insecurity on the part of your characters. The far side of the bridge is a spawn point for monsters, so it won't take long before you're approached by Hill Giants, Grizzly Bears, Dire Wolves, or other nasties if you wait for them around the spot where the music changes. When you spot enemies approaching on the map, press A or B to engage them. The active character will attack with whatever was equipped to the A or B slot before the monsters attack. If you don't engage the monsters, they'll hunt you down and get first hit instead. Keep the character equipped with the Wand of Lightning active, and when you see monsters, zap them with it. Anything that doesn't die immediately will be severely wounded and easy fodder for your other characters or another blast of lightning. Keep in mind that Hill Giants give the best EXP at this point, but also have the best AC and are hard to kill without using Lightning or Magic Missile. Notice that only the character who lands the killing blow on a monster gets the experience from that creature's death, so to level up Clerics, Fighters, Dwarves, etc. you should weaken Grizzly Bears and Dire Wolves with the Wizard/Elf's Lightning and let the other character finish off the last few HP in melee combat. Leave the Hill Giants to the Wizards and Elves, who have Lightning and Magic Missile attacks that never miss. The Wand of Lightning has a small, random chance of disappearing when it's used. If that happens, Load your previous save and try again. The Wand of Lightning has infinite charges if you can prevent it from disappearing. Oh, and while we're on the subject, be careful with the Wand of Lightning, or any Lightning Bolt spell, underground. Lightning Bolts bounce off of walls, and if you're still in range, they will be more than happy to decimate your party. On the overworld, all you have to be careful of is keeping your crew out of the area of effect, but underground it's much tougher to avoid. Get any Elves or Wizards up to at least level 3 with the Wand of Lightning. After that, try to get your other characters up to at least level 2. Head back to town now and then-- as you level up, the shops will get more weapons, armor, and spells in stock. Buy bows for any characters who can use them to replace those worthless slings (alas, Clerics and Wizards cannot use bows and are stuck with slings), then buy shields for your Elves and Clerics and better armor for everyone when it becomes available. Now you're going to undertake a fairly dangerous sub-mission or two, but as the first leads to some helpful armor and the second the most powerful spell in the game, they're quite worth it. ========================================================================== Section 6c: The (Extremely Well-)Hidden Forest Halls There is an optional dungeon on the far side of the bridge from the castle, but it's amazingly hard to find. Look at your map of the valley. In the Southwestern edge, there are several groups of trees, kind of arranged in a diagonal line. You want to head for the middle group. It looks like a long bush, with round bushes above it and to the left. There is another tree further to the left. ASCII art? Well, okay. | _ | () _.(_)_ | (_)(___) |__ \ The line off to the left is the cliff on the western side of the valley. The circles are how the bushes are shaped and arranged, the () is a tree that's smaller than the bushes, and the period marks where you should be standing. If you've found the right spot on your map, you should be standing on the eastern side of a clearing with some foliage off to the right. From the bottom up, you should see a tree with a trunk and individual leaves traced out on it, a tree with a trunk and no individual leaves traced, another tree with no leaves traced, and some bushes. There will be a large round bush on the very top, a smaller bush immediately to its right, and then a pair of rocks. See all that? Okay. The dungeon entrance is behind one of the trees without the leaves traced on it. Save your game and press up against the north face of the trees until you're taken into a dungeon. There'll be a monster in front of you as soon as you come in, so let fly with those slings and arrows. Welcome to the Hidden Forest Halls. This is a den of Minotaurs, with some Minotaur treasure as well. This makes it remarkably more useful than most of the other optional dungeons in WOTES, as most of them contain no treasure at all. The Hidden Forest Halls aren't really halls so much as five closet-sized rooms arranged around a single open area. You enter facing West. The Northeast room has two Minotaurs and no treasure. Likewise, the Northwest room has two Minotaurs and no treasure. Not one to break a trend, the Southeast room has two Minotaurs and no treasure. The Westernmost room has a Minotaur Liutenant guarding a Sword and a suit of +1 Chain mail. Not bad, but... The Southwest room hides a Minotaur Chief guarding a +1 Sword and a suit of +2 Chain mail. +1 and +2 Chain? Not bad. Suit up your Fighters, Dwarves, Clerics, or Elves as you see fit. You can probably throw away the regular sword, and the +1 Sword should fetch a good price at the Weapon Shop in town (as you already have things on par with this from searching around the castle at the beginning, remember?). If you can't find the dungeon or the Minotaurs too jealously guard your treasure at the expense of your party's lives, don't worry too much. The armor is nice (and more importantly, free), but will be outclassed by what's for sale in the Armor Shop before you know it. Plain ol' regular Plate Mail protects its wearer just as well as +2 Chain Mail, anyway. Minotaurs give pretty lousy EXP, a few hundred for the Chief and less for his subordinates, so this is a crummy place to level up. ========================================================================== Section 6d: Rope Trick Check your map. See the cliffs dotted with caves in the upper-right area, beside the fiery canyon? That's where you're headed. It's a long walk, but if you use the Wand of Lightning judiciously, you can make it. You want to go into the middle cave on the topmost level of the cliffs. Ignore the others for now. This is the Gateway Passage. You'll be back here later, but for now, take down all the Beastmen you can. Feel free to fire into the dark with your slings and bows to check if there are any ahead of you. As you walk down one narrow passageway, the Beastman chief will interrupt your progress with his portrait and war cry. Turn left to face him, then take one step back. You'll be rewarded with the treasure he was guarding and be in position to fight him without being flanked by any subordinates he has left. Once you kill the Beastman chief (his name is Uklangor or some other such nonsense), check the walls for a mass of tangled vines, then go ahead and leave the cave. You're done here when you get the message "Maybe Marmillan can help us." The bounty you swiped from the Beastman chief is as follows, in case you missed it in the heat of combat: a pair of +1 Spears, a Light scroll, and Entangle scroll, a Detect Magic scroll, and 400 GP. Give the scrolls to your Wizard or Elf and Rest the Party. If he's at least level 3, you'll be able to learn Entangle. Any combat with a single monster from here on out will be a snap. Entangle, in traditional D&D, wraps its target in a rope and makes it hard for that creature to move. In WOTES, Entangle is far more powerful-- instead of making it difficult for the creature to move, it can't move at all. Instead of losing its DEX bonus to AC, it loses all AC. That means EVERY ATTACK on an Entangled monster will hit. The monster also can't attack when Entangled, making it a powerful defensive spell as well. The monster can't even resist the spell! If you target a creature with Entagle on the map, it's Entangled. If you're right in front of it in a dungeon, it's Entangled. Sound good? Let's review. You just got a spell that a) prevents its target from attacking, b) drops all its target's defenses, and c) always works. It's the most powerful spell in WOTES, and it's available at level 3! Save your game when you get outside, and head back to the castle. ========================================================================== Section 6e: Hassle at the Castle You've done some good exploring, you're far more powerful now than you were when you left, and you've even slain the chief of the Beastmen. But what's this? It seems no one at the castle is very pleased with your progress. The shopkeepers are rude, the townspeople are brash, and even the priest at the temple is a little snippy if you come to him for resurrection. One man appears to have lost his cat. Sheesh. I wonder if Lewis and Clark had to go through this? At least the Duke seems to be okay with how you're doing. You reached a milestone plot point, so now the shops will start selling better gear. When you get to around level 3 or 4, the Armor Shop will start carrying Plate Mail, which is a sound investment for Fighters, Dwarves, Clerics, and Elves. You'll also find that the Caravan now has journeys up to the Beastman Caves, so you can take a shortcut there for a monetary cost rather than taking time walking. You'll still have to hoof it back to town no matter what, but it's a handy timesaver if you have cash to spare. Go see Marmillan, as your party recommended. He has a few theories about what's going on, and gives you a Withered Vine. This little doodad is a semimagical item that repels normal vines, so it'll let you pass that tangled mass up in the Passageway Cavern. You probably ~could~ head back up there if you wanted, but why? You can do some more leveling up now, and it's about as quick as your first levels on the far side of the bridge. (Yes, I know I mentioned the Withered Vine earlier as a useless item that just takes up space. It's not useless right now, though, so hang onto it. As Marmillan said, he's only got one, and if you throw it away, you're gonna have to restart your game.) ========================================================================== Section 6f: Here There Be Dragons All geared up with the new armor available? (The new weapons in the Weapon Shop are on par with what you got for free at the beginning of the game, but if you have two spellcasters in the party, you can probably pick up another Entangle scroll in the Magic Shop about now.) Head out of town, cross the bridge, and head up to the Beastman Caves again. Don't go inside any of them; you're looking for another hidden dungeon in the cliff walls to the South. From the Beastman Caves, go left and walk down along the cliff wall. Before long you'll see a large bush half-covered by the cliff, with another, smaller bush to the right. Memorize as many Entangle spells as you can (Wizards and Elves get 1 Entangle at level 3 and 2 Entangles at level 4), Save your game, and press into the cliff wall just beside the smaller bush to enter the Passageway Cavern. As you enter, you're immediately accosted by a Fire Giant. Smack him with Entangle, and he's helpless. Pound on him for a bit, the character that slays him will be awarded more than 2000 EXP. Conveniently, monsters are spaced far apart enough in this cavern for you to rest after taking out any of them. If you got hurt or need to recharge Entangle, have a Rest before heading through the secret door to the Southwest. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT go straight ahead. There are four Hellhounds there, more than can be safely Entangled and slain. You won't want to bother them until you're a bit more powerful, but when you're to that point, Hellhounds are worth a fair amount of EXP and they guard 1500 or so gold pieces in a secret room behind them. What you want to do is hug the wall to your left and walk around the open area you saw when you came through the secret door. When you have a choice of turning left or going straight ahead, go straight. There's a Sabre-Toothed Tiger waiting for you, and while it doesn't have much EXP or any treasure to give, you don't want it harassing you as you combat your next opponent. Go back to where you passed up the left turn earlier. Go that way now. You will see in front of you the mighty Red Dragon, the monster that gives more EXP than any other: a whopping 2500 per Dragon slain. Entangle it and pound on it with everything you've got-- you do NOT want it to survive long enough for Entangle to wear off. Once the Dragon is gone, its hoard is yours for the taking. (By the way, walk until you're one space away from the Dragon, and let it cross the last space to put you adjacent to it. As soon as it comes to you, let fly with Entangle. If you walk up to ~it~, it can immediately strike with its Claw/Claw/Bite combo and wipe out your first party member, or use its fire breath to kill everyone at once.) Walk around the Dragon's lair, as almost every panel in the back has something good in it. A pile of gems! Mounds of jewelry! Stacks of gold! You just somewhere around 10,000 gold (and therefore, 2500 or so EXP for each character). You also find a suit of +1 Plate Mail (very nice!), a +2 Shield (woo!) and a +2 Sword (yay!). Every once in a while, I find a +1 Bow in the Dragon's hoard as well. Leave the dungeon the way you came in. There are no other monsters or treasures inside (other than the Hellhounds I told you to ignore), and if you take the far exit, you'll end up in the fiery canyon and start taking damage rapidly. Equip your new gear, Rest to recharge your HP and Entangles, then head back inside. Between the Fire Giant and the Red Dragon, level 6 is quickly and easily attainable. More than that would be just keen. ========================================================================== Section 6g: Wait, What? Oh, We Were On a Mission, Weren't We? Alright. All leveled up, and got the best stuff available from the stores? Let's get back to that quest the Duke sent us on, then. Head for the Beastman Caves again. This time we'll check all of them, since some of them have a bit of treasure. The lowest level's left cave has a handful of Beastmen, a bone pipe, and an exit that leads to the middle level of the caves. I think the pipe was intended to be given to Marmillan so he can study what's going on in this weird valley, but it's wholly unnecessary and if you miss it (or any other artifacts in the game), you're not losing out on anything. The lowest level cave on the right is a Beastman warrior's private pad. If you barge in, you can expect the resident shaggy dude to be pretty upset about it. Usually there's no treasure in sight here, but occasionally I've found a Shield scroll inside. The middle level's right cave is a Beastman party. No, I'm not kidding. There are four or five Beastmen having a shindig in the front room, and they immediately surround you when you enter. There are a few more down the hallway guarding a Darkness scroll and a handful of gold. The middle level's left cave is the other end of the lowest level's left cave. The topmost level's left cave is another private residence, this time of the Beastman Chief's oddly-human wife. The Southern end of this cave hides a pit trap for your characters to fall into and a dagger. Not a +1 Dagger or a Vorpal Dagger or a Winged Dagger or a Dagger of Radioactive Monster Slaying, just a plain old regular dagger. You can safely leave that side of the cave unexplored, as a dagger isn't worth wasting your time or HP on (pit trap, remember?). The North side of this cave has Kacantizu the Azcan Warrior jumping for your throat. Entangle her and beat her to death, then loot her possessions for about 300 gold. Yeah, exploring doesn't sound so noble when I put it that way, does it? The topmost level's middle cave is the Gateway Passage, remember? Hang on, there's one more quick cave to check. The topmost level's right cave is the abode of the Beastman Shaman. As you enter, the stench of burning herbs burns your eyes and scorches your lungs, doing 1 HP damage to each character in your party (insert marijuana joke here). Head on in. You hear a grunt from the Northern passage. It's Grulapp, the aforementioned Shaman. He's easily beaten. There is a stone in the Northern wall that it'll take a strong person to move. Since you got the Gauntlets of Ogre Power way back when, you can shove 'em aside without a hitch. Behind the rock there's a Protection from Evil scroll and a +1 Sword of Just Sell Me Alright I'm Like the Tenth +1 Weapon You've Found. The Southern, non-grunting passage, has a pair of giant rats to kill and some drawings on the wall. Not that you can see them or anything, you just get a text message saying they're there. Sit down and scribe the scrolls you've found. If you have two spellcasters, make sure to give the Darkness scroll you found here to the one that did NOT get the Light scroll you found when you offed Uklangor. Light and Darkness are so similar, the game gives any character one when they learn the other. If one learns Light and the other Darkness, then they'll both have Light and Darkness in their spellbooks. When you're at full HP and have your spells ready, head to the Gateway Passage again. ========================================================================== Section 6h: Baby's First Dungeon Crawl Since you offed Uklangor, the first section of this cave is empty. Head up to that tangled mass of vines that blocked your way earlier, and now that you have the Withered Vine, you can walk through. There aren't any Beastmen in the cave depths; apparently they couldn't get through the vines either. This is one of the more complex caves in the game. Usually a good strategy is to follow a wall. Unless you're fighting a monster or something, always keep one wall to your side and follow it through the cave. That way it's easier to keep your bearings. Check your map often to fill in any places you're missing. If you find yourself injured or running low on spells, retreat! You can't Rest while monsters are within a certain radius or chasing you, but if you follow your map back to an area you've already cleared of hostile forces, you can Rest all you want. Unfortunately, this can take some doing, as the game considers monsters on the other sides of doors and solid walls to be "nearby" if you ask to rest. Wander around in an area you know to be clear, giving the command to Rest every few steps, and it'll let your party set up camp eventually. If you want the treasure this cave has to offer, keep a hand on the left wall. If you just want to find the exit, keep a hand on the right. The treasures you find by going left are 2 Potions of Healing, 2 Potions of Cure Poison, a Dispel Magic scroll, and about 130 gold. All of it is behind secret panels, so either try every rock and mass of vines you see or let the Elf in your party earn his meals. As soon as you come in, you're accosted by a Carrion Crawler. This beastie gets eight attacks in a row, and while it doesn't do much damage with each attack, it has a chance of paralyzing its target. Slay it and take a walk back to the entrance to rest if you get paralyzed, it goes away over time. If you're going for the treasures, the Potions of Cure Poison are guarded by a Black Widow spider. You'll know you're close if you see a giant web clogging the hallway of the cave. The Black Widow, not surprisingly, can poison your party members. If that happens, don't rest your party or the poisoned individual will instantly die. Cure it with a Potion of Cure Poison or with a Cleric's Cure Poison spell. The other treasure is nearby and very easy to find, it's right behind an Owlbear and the game gives you the old "It would take great strength to move these boulders" bit again. Behind the boulders you'll find a couple owlbear cubs, two potions, and some money. Other monsters you'll find in the cave are the lizardlike Tuataras, some Crab Spiders, some Giant Rats, a brood of Racers, and a whole mess of Troglodytes. Crab Spiders have been known to cause poison and allegedly Giant Rats can carry diseases, but I've yet to see either of these take effect before the creature at hand dies a grisly death at the tip of a dozen +1 weapons. Troglodytes are a bit tougher, partly because there are so frickin' many of them and partly because being close to them causes your character's THAC0 to suffer a little. There's a Phobosuchus near the end of the cave. It's not listed on any WOTES bestiaries I can find online, but I seem to remember it giving about 1000 EXP or so-- the only decent leveling monster in this cave. If you need a quick level or two, it's the first thing you find when you reenter the cave from the other side. When you meet the Phobosuchus for the first time, though, it means you just walked past the Haste scroll the Tuataras were guarding. Take a few steps back and search around until you find it. He who learns Haste also learns Slow. At the end of the cave, you notice some holes in the wall. Um... okay. When you leave, you find yourself in a mazelike swamp. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 6i: Lizard Empire, in the Mire Now that you're out of the cave, you can Rest anytime and Save as you wish. There are three points of interest in Dalpheggi Swamp: a tree that recovers your party from any wounds or status ailing them; a pool of water that can revive the dead; and a village. The swamp is also crawling with prehistoric beasts-- it's not uncommon to find a herd of Aurochs (the evolutionary ancestors to our modern-day cows) or the occasional dinosaur inside. If you stumble across an Allosaurus, you're in for a long battle, but the reward is about 2000 EXP if you manage to fell it. Entangle, as always, helps. The Tree, should you find yourself envenomed and without any potions or spells to cure it, can be found by going straight up until the path curves to the left, following the path as it curves back up, then taking the first left. The pool, in case one of your party members has fallen, is found by taking the second right, then the first turn upwards, then the first path to the left, then the second path to the left. To get to the village from the entrance of the swamp, take the second right, and the more distant turn upwards. Ah, civilization. It'd be nice to have a place to rest and kick up our feet for a little whi... eh? What's this? The natives are restless! Also scaly. That's right, you've stumbled upon a village of lizard folk, and they're not happy to see you. If you wiped out the Beastman Camp at some point, you're familiar with what's going on. There are twelve or so Lizard Men here, and they surround and attack your party. They're wimps, though. After the Lizard Man greeter gives the battle cry, hit the button to fire off a Bow. If you get first strike in this combat, you can take out almost half of the scaly critters with Magic Missiles and bows before any of them even get to move. If you saved your game inside the swamp, feel free to use the Wand of Lightning to zap 'em into oblivion if they gather into groups of two or three. The Lizard Men have some artifacts for Marmillan and a map of the swamp (so you can find the tree and pool easily if you have to) if you search their huts after you've beaten them. There's also a pile of valuables worth 600 gold or so and a hint that there are some gold-skinned folk to the North. Now that you've tried to find some allies, head on back to the castle. Yeah, you have to trek through the Gateway Passage again, and yes, all the monsters you beat the first time will be back. Sigh. Once you get back outside the Beastman Caves, you can throw away the Withered Vine if you want. There's no reason to go back through the Gateway Passage or to the swamp for the rest of the game. ========================================================================== Section 6j: Big-City Crazies Erm... oookay... The townspeople are raving about all sorts of things, from sending blind men for help, to vows of deafness, to skin lotion-- and that guy still hasn't found his lost kitty. As one of the guards put it, "I'm soooo confused." The Duke, too, is getting testy. Marmillan is no help. Basically, no one in the castle is worth a durn thing, with the possible exception of the Weapon Shop, if it's selling +1 Bows and +1 Slings. It's time to level up some more. Head back to the Passageway Cavern (the one with the Fire Giant and the Red Dragon) until you're level 7 or 8. 9 would be nice, but it might wear on your patience a little to go that long. It's still possible for the Red Dragon to wipe out everyone with a single application of its fiery breath if you're careless, so make sure you Save often! Head back to the castle to get some more gear. +2 War Hammers and Maces should be available for your Cleric, as well as +1 Plate if you can afford it for any armor-bearing character. It's possible a couple +3 Weapons for your Fighter or Elf are for sale, and a Fireball scroll for your resident Wizard or Elf wouldn't hurt. Gear up, then head for the Northeast corner of the valley. ========================================================================== Section 6k: You Azcan If You Think You Azcan Your next destination is the northeast corner of the valley. There's a cave entrance in the cliff wall out in plain sight. That's the Azcan Cavern, your next goal. Upon entering, the Azcan Cavern seems pretty small. Nothing here but a Stone Golem (er... Rock Statue), huh? Try pushing into the Easternmost wall. Because of the patterns of holes you saw in the Gateway Passage, you pivot the wall and enter the cavern proper. There's some treasure in this cave, but most of it is already outclassed by what you're wearing. By following the left wall, you'll find a stash around the dessicated corpse of a Cleric: a Cure Serious Wounds spell scroll, a pair of Cure Light Wounds scrolls, a Bless Spell scroll, and 1536 gold. Unlike other scrolls you've found, these are used by Clerics, not Elves or Magic-Users. There's another stash not far after that hiding a Magic Missile Spell scroll (woo...), a Web Spell scroll (...), Dispel Magic Spell scroll (got that too...), +1 Leather Armor (only +1?), a Potion of Healing, and 512 gold. In the Southern section of the cave, guarded by a Stone Giant, is a group of four Potions of Healing and a few hundred gold. The prime stuff is on the far east side, though. In a nook guarded by a bunch of Trolls, there's a Protection from Evil: 10' Radius scroll, a Fireball scroll, a Ring of Regeneration, and 1000 or so gold. Trolls regenerate damage, so slay them quickly. In traditional D&D, Trolls were particularly adverse to damage from fire and lightning, but as far as I can tell, that aspect of Trollism wasn't programmed into this game. It doesn't matter how you kill 'em, just kill 'em quick-like. The Northwest corner of the cavern, with the dead Cleric and other weak spell scrolls, is populated by Minotaurs. Owlbears and Cave Bears dwell in the Southwest corner, Giant Ants nest in the Southeast area, a central room is chock-full of Tiger Beetles, and a wormlike thing called Caecilia lives somewhere near the middle. The way to the exit is blocked by some poisonous Giant Scorpions, a couple Sabre-Toothed Tigers, and a Gelatinous Cube. When you leave the cave, you'll find yourself in a jungle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Jungle you find yourself in is absolutely huge, but there are only two landmarks. You enter on the Eastern side. The Waters of Life, which combines the functionality of the tree and pool in the swamp, is a little spot of water in the Northwest corner. The Azcan temple is in the Northeast corner. The entire southern two-thirds of the jungle is extraneous, because there is NOTHING there but random encounters. When you approach the pyramid, start climbing the stairs and you'll be confronted with eight or so Azcan guards. Like the Beastman camp and the Lizard Man village, these guys are pushovers. You know what to do. After taking out the temple guards, head inside. As you may recall from the summary of the Thief class, I mentioned that the Azcan Temple is chock-full of traps. As you explore, make sure you keep looking for secret doors, as they often lead to ways around the traps. If you have a Thief in your party, he has a miniscule chance of detecting and disarming any trap you find before you step into it. This is the one stinkin' dungeon where having a Thief is worthwhile. The Azcan Temple is a five-level dungeon, as you descend from the top of the pyramid to the bottom. Each level is larger than the one above it. Level 1: The first level is small and simple. You start in the center and spiral counterclockwise around the rooms until you find the exit. There's a Continual Light scroll in the Northwest room. Level 2: There are eight tiny rooms on this level, and six of them have traps inside. The Easternmost room on the North row has a secret passage that leads to the rest of the (blessedly trap-free) level. Fight your way through the rest of the rooms along the Southern edge to find the exit. You should be able to Rest to restore your HP and spells right in front of the stairs to level 3. Level 3: This level has several 3x3 rooms with two traps in them between the entrance door and exit door. So if you find yourself in a room of such dimensions, don't make a break straight for the door or you'll take damage for the effort. Walk around the far wall instead. You're going generally counterclockwise again. You enter this level in the Southwestern section, and the exit is in the West. The Northeast corner has five tiny rooms in a row. The fourth one has an exit to the South; the fifth has a trap. Not far from the exit is a course of four rooms that lead to one another, and all of them are trapped. After the tiny rooms in the Northeast corner, if you find yourself in another tiny room, immediately go back out the way you came, back to the 3x3 room. In that room, in the center of the Southern wall, is a secret passage. Go through the West wall of that passage to find the way to Level 4. Level 4: This level has several long hallways with traps every few paces. Search the walls for secret passages every step or two to avoid them. Often you'll find yourself stepping out of a secret passage and straight into another on the other side of the hall to avoid the next trap. You enter from the West. Use two secret passages to head generally Eastward (the first secret passage on the North wall has a Continual Darkness scroll inside. Like the Light and Dark scrolls you found in the Beastman Caves, share Continual Light and Continual Dark between your arcane spellcasters). Turn North over the fresh corpse of the Azcan warrior you slay at the end of the hall. Step Westward into another secret passage with a pair of flying vipers inside, go to the North end, leave the secret hallway to the East, take one step South, then go East again through another secret door. The two Easternmost hallways of this temple are full of traps and secret doors leading to one another, so take two steps South, step into the first hallway, take two steps South, go back to the secret hallway, then take two more steps South and switch back to the first hallway again. Head South and around the corner. When the hallway turns Northward, there's a secret hall to the East to avoid a trap, and when it turns Westward, look for a secret passage on the North wall to avoid a trap there. Two steps West of the trap or one step West of the exit from the secret passage to avoid it is another secret door on the North wall. At the end of that hallway is a large room, cut through the middle to the Northeast corner. Take the door there and follow the long, winding, and generally trap-free passages to the exit. Level 5: This level is large, but simple. You enter in the South, there's a giant corridor on the Eastern side, and you don't have to look for ANY secret doors here. The only visible passage from the large (and seemingly randomly-trapped) hallway leads to the Azcan Shaman's throne room, and as you can imagine, it's chock-full of Azcan Warriors. Take out as many Azcans in the hallway as you can to prevent from being flanked, then charge into the throne room to bust some heads. Or, you know, stand back and throw spells, stones, and arrows. Whatever works for you. Behind the throne you find four Rings of Fire Resistance. Give one to each member in your party, then get ready to do the whole temple over in reverse. Yep, you've gotta hoof it back out on your own, bucko. Not only that, the game erased your maps, too. Hope your memory's good. (There's more to level 5 than that, but it's just more secret doors, Azcans, and traps. No treasure or any other reason to explore.) Not surprisingly, the temple is full of Azcan warriors and shamans of different levels of ability. There is also the occasional flying serpent or spider inside. Azcan Shamans have spells that can Blind your party members, making them forfeit every turn of combat. The game treats them as not being there at all. You can remedy this situation with the opposite spell-- Light for Darkness, or Darkness for Light, assuming you can somehow tell which one has been cast. Next time you Rest, your Cleric can handle the situation automatically if you tell her to heal your party with spells. When you get out of the Azcan Pyramid, revive anyone who needs it at the Water of Life, then head back through the Azcan Caverns to reenter the Valley. Might as well go back to the castle and see what's up, eh? ========================================================================== Section 6l: Stop the Insanity! Um... wow. It seems the townspeople have gone from slightly deranged to totally psychotic. They babble, they laugh to themselves, they accuse you of causing all the trouble. Just keep your head down and avoid eye contact, yeah? The shops might have some new stuff for you. The Caravan now offers trips to the Azcan Cavern, too, if you really feel like going back. Save your game (you'll be glad you did) and talk to the Duke. Wow. He was mad, huh? Mad enough to kick you out of town and set up guards at the entrance to make sure you don't get back in. And as it turns out, you can't get back in. So unless you're absolutely confident you'll never need to buy anything at any shop ever again, Load your game back and avoid the Duke from now on. Out of sight is out of mind. Marmillan, too, is going nuts. He raves about time travel and the ancient civilizations for a bit, then announces how crazy the Duke is and tells you he found a cat. ...um... right. Load up on whatever gear you can get at the shops (ignoring the rude shopkeepers), then head out again. You can take the Caravan back to the Beastman Caves for a shortcut, because now that you've got some Fire Resistance with those rings you found, you're going to the fiery canyon you've been avoiding so far. Either climb up the ladder available from the valley or take the Passageway Cavern one last time. ========================================================================== Section 6m: Out of the Frying Pan The fiery canyon is full of powerful monsters like Salamanders, Hellhounds, and... erm... Fire Giants... and... Red Dragons. Yeah, the stuff you've been beating up on since level 3 or so was supposed to wait until now. Not bad experience from random battles, if you can handle the common ambushes while you rest and recuperate. In the North end of the canyon is a cave. Immediately inside the cave is a Red Dragon. Entangle it, slay it, leave, come back, new Dragon, repeat. Do this for a long, long, long time. Until you're at least level 10. If you want to use some of the level 6 spells in this very dungeon, level 11. If you want the shops to sell some really good stuff, higher still. This is where Clerics, Fighters, Thieves, and Elves are good to have-- the first three require less EXP to level up than other classes, while Elves just don't gain any more levels after level 10. Be very paitent, because this is probably the last leveling you'll be doing in the game. If you have to rest, do it inside the cave, after you slay the dragon. If you go outside, there's a good chance you'll be attacked in your sleep. As usual, head back to town every once in a while to check the shops. Around level 9 they start selling +2 Plate, which is stupidly expensive but works very well at keeping your characters alive. Also, the Caravan will start offering trips to the Dragon Cave for a whopping 4000 gold. If you want to Caravan, it's probably better to take the shortcut to the Beastman Caves and walk through the Passageway Cavern. EXP is easy to come by by slaying the Red Dragon inside the cave, but money is tougher-- you'll have to find Fire Giants or Red Dragons in the random encounters outside to raise cash. You can get a little more experience for Wizards and Elves after they learn to cast level 5 spells. There is a group of four Hellhounds down the hall that always die when hit with Cloudkill. The first door on the left is full of Giant Ants, easily cleared with a Cloudkill and a couple Ice Storms. Total EXP is somewhere around 6,000, including that for casting two Cloudkills and three Ice Storms. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, when you're aaaaaaaaaaall done gaining levels at the expense of the Red Dragon at the entrance, and you've spent all the money you can buying items at the town shops at the expense of the Giants and Dragons outside, Save your game and get ready to head into the dungeon depths. Behind the Hellhounds in the first hallway is a secret door that leads to another nest of Giant Ants. At the end of the next hallway is a Troll guarding a Displacer Cloak and a pair of Cure Serious Wounds scrolls. Cure Wounds scrolls can only be read by Thieves above level 10 and Clerics. I tend to leave them behind, by this point in the game my characters tend to be too burdened with armor, magic rings, and weapons to carry scrolls or potions. Don't miss the Displacer Cloak, though, it decreases the AC of its wearer by 3 and is one of the two protective items a Magic-User can wear (the other being a Ring of Protection, available for sale at the Armor shop if you gain enough levels). Anyone can wear the Displacer Cloak, though, so it's up to you whether you have a moderately-protected Wizard or a nigh-invincible Fighter. Back in the first hallway, the Northbound branch of the corridor leads to the domain of a Fire Giant. The Giant is standing in front of a secret door that leads to spell scrolls for Ice Storm, Cloudkill, and Lightning Bolt, and a +1 Sword. The room directly North of the Fire Giant is full of Hellhounds. Take the South door from the Hellhound room to find another hallway. Inside every door on this hallway is a group of enemies (Zombies and Gargoyles) and no treasure, but there is a stash of Potions of Cure Poison at the end of the hallway if you don't go through any doors. It's guarded by a group of Gargoyles. The exit from the first level is on the North side of the map, slightly to the West of the median. If you start finding Fire Beetles and Stone Gol... er, Rock Statues, you know you're close. The path to the next level looks like a regular door, though... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The second level of the dungeon has you entering from the South into a room with paths to the West, North, and East. The easiest way to the next level is to take the North passage, turn right at the fork, go through the door, fight off the Giant Scorpions, and take the secret passage in the Northeast corner of the Scorpion room and go straight until you hit level 3 (There are two Potions of Cure Poison in the Northwest corner if you want 'em). There's some trifling treasure on this level if you feel like hunting for it: 1) Four Potions of Healing and a few hundred gold are guarded by Ogres in the Southeast. 2) More Ogres, further Southeast, guard more gold, two more Potions, and a Death Spell scroll. 3) A mess of Trolls guards some gold and a few low-level Clerical scrolls in the Northwest area. Then again, there are a lot of Trolls in general in the Northwest area. The secret passage leading to the treasure is on the North wall of a room three spaces wide by two spaces tall. There are a few rooms that shape on this level, but only two are in the Northeast sector and only one has Trolls in it. Besides Ogres, Trolls, and Scorpions, there are Skeletons, Giant Rats, Black Widow spiders, Ogres, and one room that's oddly empty of monsters and treasure on this level. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to confess, I absolutely despise this area. The answer can be summed up in two words: Level drain. That's right. This dungeon contains Wights, Wraiths, and Spectres, all of which merrily drain the experience levels right out of your characters with a successful melee attack. This always struck me as being stupid in D&D, where it can take weeks or months of play to gain the levels back, and crossing that over into a game that already has you leveling up as much as WOTES just begs to have a two-ton rock dropped on TSR from low Earth orbit. Anyway. Level drain. Watch out for Wights and Spectres. On this level of the dungeon it's often a good idea to equip the Cleric's Turn Undead ability whenever you're faced with a door, switch the Cleric to the active character, and fire off Turn Undead as soon as you charge through the portal at hand. If there were level-draining undead there, they're not there anymore. And hey, if it turns out all that was behind the door was a bunch of Trolls or Ogres or something, no harm done. Anyway, here it is. The depths of the dungeon, where the undead are hellishly tormented by their own shallow mockery of life. As soon as you turn a corner and go through a door from the starting hallway, you're faced with a group of Wights that are more than happy to suck away your EXP fast enough to make David Oreck blush. Turn 'em as soon as you see 'em. In the North passage, the Wights are mixed with the less-dangerous Ghouls. Ghouls get three attacks per round rather than the Wight's one, but can't drain levels. Cause Paralysis, sure, but not drain levels. In addition to the Wights, Wraiths, and Spectres on this level, there is a Shadow well-hidden behind a few secret doors that isn't an Undead creature, can't be turned, does not have level drain, has pathetic attacks, and dies after a just few sharp knocks with your weapons. As it guards an empty closet, I really have no idea why it's there. (Shadows can only be damaged with magical weapons. You've come across at least one +1 Sword in your journeys, right?) This level is almost perfectly symmetrical, down to the secret doors. The North side has some treasure hidden behind a secret in one of its larger rooms, check the East wall for a +2 Mace, a +2 Shield, two Potions of Healing, and some gold. Check the same place in a similar room on the South side for +1 Plate mail, a +1 Shield, a Dispel Magic scroll, a Confusion scroll, and more gold. There's no "exit" here; this is a dungeon, not a tunnel. However, you should definitely look for secret doors on the East wall of the corridor furthest to the North. Behind it, you'll find an Oltec merchant who... GASP... DOESN'T TRY TO KILL YOU! Quite the contrary, this merchant is quite pleased that you've opened this new trade route. You know, that trade route, the one that runs over miles of barren wilderness, across a burning canyon, through a dragon's den, and three levels down a dungeon crawling with ogres, trolls, and merciless undead. Sure sounds like a route I'd love to trade goods on! Anyway. The merchant gives you a letter for the Duke and a medallion as proof of your new allegiance. Now that you've completed the Duke's quest, you get to trudge back through the dungeon, waste more Trolls and Ogres on your way back out, and beat a Red Dragon to death one last time before you leave. Trek down through the canyon one last time and head for the castle. If you got drained by any of the Undead on the lowest level, now would be the time to do the "Level Up With Red Dragon" bit again. It's possible to complete the last stretch of the game at level 9 or 10, though, so if you don't feel like butchering another three dozen dragons, you might not really need to. ========================================================================== Section 6n: Ruining Your Day What's this? The castle is a mess, and not a soul can be found. Wander around for a bit if you like, but no one's there. The only person left is an oddly lucid Marmillan, left for dead in his tower. Marmillan, thanks to some of the Azcan artifacts you looted, now knows exactly what's going on. There's this Lovecraftian monstrosity that collects cultures just before their demise, you see, and it lives beneath the valley in its burrow. Let's call it the "Burrower" then, shall we? The Burrower drives all of the denizens of the valley insane, which explains what was going on with everyone in town as well as why the monsters supposedly attack the castle in berserk rage. The people of the castle lost all control, rioted, destroyed what they could, and fled for the woods. You've been crawling around in dark, fetid dungeons that lead outside the valley, so the Burrower's maddening effect hasn't afflicted you. So now it's your job to dig the Burrower out of its lair and summon a god to defeat it. Yeah, that would work. Conveniently enough, Marmillan has exactly the Summon Deity scroll you need, which he happily hands over. Let's look for this Burrower, shall we? Here's a hint: He's in the swamp in the Southeast corner of the map. (Yes, the town is ruined, and no, it won't be fixed before the end of the game. That means the shops are closed, cutting you off from new items, and that the temple can't resurrect any characters. Since Clerics aren't allowed their own Resurrection spell in this game, any character that dies is going to stay dead unless you trek aaaaaaaaall the way back through the Gateway Passage to the pool in the swamp or aaaaaaaaall the way back through the Azcan Caverns to the pool in the jungle. A better option: Save often and reload if someone keels over.) ========================================================================== Section 6o: One Last Cave Alright. Since the Caravan broke down, you'll have to either take a walk all the way around the valley or go through the secret Elven Underground dungeon in the graveyard. The valley route is tedious but easy, the Elven Underground is much quicker, but more difficult. The Immortal Cavern where the Burrower hides is easily visible on the valley map. Once inside, you'll find that both the Medallion in your inventory and Marmillan's scroll that isn't are required to enter. The entrance is in the Northeast corner, the exit is in the West, directly opposite a Disintegrate scroll. There's a pair of Cureall scrolls in the middle of the dungeon (guarded by a pair of Flapsails) and four Cure Serious Wounds scrolls and some gold behind a secret door on the East. To get through this level with a minimum of fuss, keep one hand on the wall to your right as you explore. You'll have to find one secret passage on the South wall of a Westward corridor as it takes a Northward turn. There are Flapsails about if you're in the right area, which look like Red Dragons but are far less dangerous. The door itself is marked by a green pool nestled among the stalagmites; just walk right through it and return to following the wall on the right. You'll encounter some more Flapsails and a nest of Black Widows before you find the Dark Elven warriors who guard a Disintegrate scroll and the exit to the next level. If you take a wrong turn after the secret passage and find yourself facing a Basilisk, turn around and follow the left wall to find the Elves, the scroll, and the exit. Should you look for treasure or wander around, you'll find the cavern's other residents: more Basilisks, a Gelatinous Cube, a nest of Tiger Beetles, a brood of Rock Pythons, a den of Cave Bears, a group of Giant Bats, and a Stone Giant. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dark Elf City: Yes, Both Dark and Full of Elves Now you're in the city of the Dark Elves. This huge, sprawling complex leaves hardly a space unused-- nearly every single panel is a hallway, a room, an open area filled with wizards. There's tons to explore here, but almost no treasure save for what slain Dark Elves drop. The easiest way through: Take the first right, the fifth left, and then go straight through three doors. You're now facing a central pillar that marks the exit. Enter it from the West to enter the bottom level. Should you explore, you'll find a Flesh to Stone scroll in the Southwest area, a Stone to Flesh scroll in the Northern sector, and lots and lots of pissed-off Dark Elves. Dark Elf Magic-Users can use Web, while Elf Wizards are fond of Fireball. Oh, so that's the difference between Wizards and Magic-Users! Before you go down to the next level, rest your party and make sure you have all the spells you'll need for the final leg of the game. There are some tough monsters on the bottom level, and the game doesn't allow you to rest there. You'll have to come back up to the Elf city if you want to rest, and that just respawns all the monsters in the third level, making it pretty futile. I'd recommend switching your Cleric's third-level spells for Continual Light or Continual Dark, as they permanantly prevent an enemy from attacking. Elves and Magic-Users can use Continual Dark, but may want to stick with Entangle. Whether you want to blind something and run away or Entangle it and club it to death is your call. Remove Poison and Remove Disease wouldn't be a bad idea, just in case. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- They Ain't As Immortal As Ya Think The Immortal Cavern is full of huge, wide-open rooms and powerful monsters. You start in the Southern sector, facing East. The Burrower is in the Southwest corner, but you'll have to go to the Northeast corner and follow a twisty passage West and South to find it. There is no treasure here. The first critter you find is an Efreeti, who have Fireball as an innate ability (Efreeti are from the Elemental Plane of Fire, not that you care). There are Medusae here, but I've yet to be petrified by one. Strange that Basilisks are capable of turning your characters to stone, but Medusae are not. On the other hand Medusae will poison your characters with every attack that hits. Hope your AC is good, or you have those Remove Poison spells handy. Chimerae get five attacks (claw/claw/bite/bite/bite... three heads are better than one) per turn. They're not too tough once they're Entangled, though. The Mummy here can't drain levels, but can cause disease and supposedly paralyze party members when they approach it. A diseased character can't restore HP, through resting, Ring of Regeneration, or healing spells. Anyway, have your Cleric handle this guy. What's a mummy doing here, anyway? There's also a Vampire later on that can drain two levels from your characters at a time. Needless to say, he should also be Turned by your resident Cleric. If you don't Turn the Vampire, it regenerates damage dealt to it in melee combat. It can only be harmed by magical weapons, but if not everyone in your party has at least +2 weapons, you're drastically short on supplies. You'll also find Stone Giants and Fire Giants all over the place, but you should be an expert at dealing with those by now. The last enemy you'll face is a Pyro Hydra. This thing is no joke-- despite looking exactly like a Red Dragon, it has twelve heads and each one gets to attack by itself. Furthermore, rather than trying to bite, each head has the option of breathing fire instead. Sadly, even this mighty beast is no match for Continual Light or Entangle. Beat it to death, and the Burrower is right behind it. All you have to do is walk up to the Burrower, and you win. Kind of anticlimactic, huh? (You can stand a space away from the Burrower and try to pelt it with spells and arrows if you like, but every attack will miss. You need something with a bit more punch, like a tyranosaurus god.) ========================================================================== Section 6p: TEH END Ka gives you a scaly pat on the back for what you did, heals the townsfolk's insanity, and sends you back to the Duke. The Duke offers you political positions in the castle and gives you a similar pat on the back. What a lame ending, huh? Roll credits. After the credits roll, you're reminded of your character's stats and told to "Write these down for future products!" There aren't any future products you can use these in. Apparently TSR was being a bit optimistic. After your party is displayed, the game resets. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 6q: Optional Dugeons There are a bunch of dungeons in WOTES that have little of value inside. Maybe that's why they're invisible, to keep you from worrying about cleaning them out and picking gold pieces out of the corpses of the monsters inside. Here's a rundown of where the dungeons are and what you can expect to find within: The Beastman Camp: Yeah, way to go me, start off the section entitled "Optional Dungeons" with an event that takes place outdoors. Just Northwest of the castle (you can see it on the map) is a campfire with some logs arranged around it. When you approach, seven or eight Hairy Beastmen attack. They have no money or items save what they drop when slain, but if the Weapon Shop isn't selling bows yet, the Beastmen might drop one or two. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Catacombs of Doom: The Catacombs of Doom are behind the waterfall just north of the Castle. They lead to the top of the plateau, and there's no other way down except back through the Catacombs. Unfortunately, the tree that marks the exit can be harder to find after a while than the one that marks the Hidden Forest Halls, so either be extremely careful on the plateau or don't go up there at all. If you Save on top of the plateau, use a different slot than usual. Anyway. The Catacombs have no treasure, but it does have a bunch of Flying Vipers, a Gelatinous Cube, some Giant Toads, and some Tiger Beetles. The Southernmost wall of the cave section leads to a section built from stone walls with a winding corridor around several smaller rooms. The smaller rooms have Zombies, Giant Scorpions, Trolls, Gargoyles, and a group of Ghouls behind a secret door, but no treasure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hidden Forest Halls: Look, I already told you how to find this in excruciating detail in section 6c. There is a tribe of Minotaurs here guarding some decent armor and weapons. It's good to clean out before Plate mail is available, but is entirely outdated when that happens. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elven Underground: A shortcut from the castle to the Immortal Cavern, this tunnel is chock- full of nasty beasts. It can be accessed from the castle graveyard, where a man was standing before everyone went crazy and left. The first passages of this place are populated with Cave Bears, Zombies, Ogres, Crab Spiders, Basilisks, Stone Giants, and Tiger Beetles. If you find a room with four Ogres in it, the North wall hides 400 or so gold. The hall leading to that room has a secret passage on the South wall that leads to the rest of the dungeon. In the room with criscrossing paths among the pillars, search the North wall in the Northeast corner for some cash. Not that you can spend it anywhere, but it gives a tiny EXP boost to your party to find it. The exit to this room is through the West wall of one of the nooks on the South side. The end of the cave is a maze of secret passages populated by Flapsails, Dark Elf warriors, and a Pyro Hydra. As usual, Entangle will get you past any beasts that would otherwise give you trouble. The end of the tunnel leads to a dead tree in the swamp in the Southwest corner of the valley. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Pits: The Pits are in the cliff walls on the South side of the valley, under the far Western side of the swamp. There are a few dozen Giant Rats here, but no treasure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ant Nest: The Ant Nest is in the cliff wall on the South side of the valley, just to the East of The Pits. It is, as you may have guessed, full of Giant Ants. The Ants have a treasure horde of about 2500 gold squirreled away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Winding Cavern: It's on the South cliff wall, like The Pits and the Ant Nest. The Winding Cavern has four Owlbears and 750 or so gold behind a wall. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cave Bear Lair: In the Southeastern corner of the valley, on the South cliff wall. It's got four Cave Bears inside and nothing more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Web Palace: In the Southeastern corner of the valley is a cliff that juts out towards the Northwest. It is at the Northwestern corner of this cliff that the entrance to the Web Palace is found. The Web Palace is full of Black Widow spiders, but if you search behind a secret wall, you can find... ...more Black Widows. Nope, no treasure here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Warrens: There are three entrances to The Warrens on the Northern part of the valley's Eastern cliff face. There are plenty of Cave Bears and Sabre- Toothed Tigers here, but nothing else. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Passageway Cavern: The Passageway Cavern leads from the valley floor to the fiery canyon. There is a Fire Giant at the entrance, a group of Hellhounds, a Sabre- Toothed Tiger, and a Red Dragon living here. The Hellhounds have some money and the Dragon has a trove of money, weapons, and armor. It's just south of the Beastman Caves, or were you not paying attention when I told you to level up here twice in the guide itself? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Halls of the Dead: The Halls of the Dead are found in the fiery canyon, just North of the exit from the Passageway Cavern. There are Skeletons, Zombies, level-draining Wights, and a Shadow inside this symmetrical cave, but no treasure. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 7: Right Tools For The Job Weapons, armor, potions, spell scrolls, magic rings... there's all kind of junk you'll be lugging around. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7a: Forging Ahead with Weapons Advanced Dungeons and Dragons has very simple rules for weapons. Namely, all weapons, except the Dagger and Sling, do between 1 and 6 damage. The Dagger and Sling do 1 between 1 and 4. That may be why very few classes have any significant limitations on what weapons they can use-- the only difference in melee weapons is the asking price. As the Weapon Shop gets more weapons in stock, they usually get Spears with magical bonuses first. After that come the Swords and Daggers, then the rest of the melee weapons, then the Bows and Slings (not that Bows and Slings get any bonus above +1...). If a weapon has a bonus on it, that means it improves THAC0 and damage equal to the number on the bonus. For instance, a level 1 Fighter (THAC0 20) using a +1 Sword is treated as having THAC0 19 when he uses that sword. If he hits, the +1 Sword will do between 2 and 7 points of damage rather than 1 to 6. You'll never find a Staff with a magical bonus. On that same note, you'll not find a Bow or Sling with any bonus higher than +1. Daggers and Axes don't go above +2. If you get your characters around level 13 (what Human characters you have, anyway...), the Weapon Shop starts carrying +3 Swords vs. Regenerating. From what I can tell, these act just like +3 swords. I haven't noticed any particular effect on creatures that regenerate, or when carried by characters using a Ring of Regeneration. Regular weapons are silver and/or brown. +1 weapons are blue. +2 weapons are green. +3 weapons are red. Fighters, Thieves, and Elves can use any weapon they want. Clerics can't use Daggers, Spears, Swords, Axes, or Bows. If it draws blood, it's off-limits to the clergy. Magic-Users can't use Spears, War Hammers, Swords, Axes, Maces, or Bows. (The one class that isn't disadvantaged by not being able to use a bow. Who needs arrows when you've got Magic Missile, anyway?) Dwarves can't use Spears. Halflings can't use Spears or Axes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7b: Armor l'Amour Give a character the any assortment of armor they can wear, and they'll automatically put on the best suit and schlepp around the rest. If you check the Inventory for that character, the best armor will be labeled "Wearing", while the others will be "Carrying". The only potential for confusion is shields, which are labeled as being carried whether the character can use them or not. The AC bonuses from wearing armor stack with the AC bonuses from having a high Dexterity. If the armor is magically enchanted with a numerical bonus, AC is decreased by that amount in addition to the armor's normal value. Remember, the lower AC is, the better. Leather Armor decreases AC by 2. Chain Mail lowers AC by 4. Plate Mail lowers AC by 6. Carrying a Shield lowers AC by 1. The Displacer Cloak lowers AC by 3. A Ring of Protection lowers AC by 1. Therefore, +2 Leather is the same as regular Chain mail; +2 Chain mail is the same as regular Plate mail. Just because it's more expensive doesn't always mean it's better! All characters start out with AC +10. This adds 10 to the THAC0 rolls of any monster trying to hit them. With a high DEX, AC drops a bit. Armor, however, is going to do the bulk of your AC-lowering. A regular-DEX character is AC 10, but put 'em in Plate Mail and give 'em a shield and their AC drops to a respectable 3. If it's +1 Plate (for instance), all the better, as that's another point shaved off AC (dropping it to 2). AC can go down to -10, at which point the character is nearly impossible to land a blow on. But that requires a character with DEX 18, +3 Plate, a +3 Shield, the Displacer Cloak, and a Ring of Protection. If you attain -10 AC at all, it'll be very late in the game. (For the curious, the best monster AC in the game is possessed by the Red Dragon, at AC -1. Elf Captains and Ankylosauruses are AC 0. Every other creature in the game has an AC that is a positive number.) Armor, however, can slow a character down. A character totally unencumbered by armor can move pretty far during each round of combat on the world map, but the heavier armor gets, the smaller the character's move distance gets. Usually it's not noticeable at all until the characters get Plate mail, but it's something to keep in mind. Armor doesn't have this effect in dungeons or caves. Fighters, Clerics, Dwarves, Elves and Halflings can wear any armor they want and use shields. Thieves can wear only Leather and can't use shields. Magic Users get squat-- they can't use any protective gear at all, except the Displacer Cloak and the Ring of Protection. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7c: Other Stuff You'll Find A Potion of Healing casts Cure Light Wounds on the character that drinks it. Potions of Cure Poison remove Poison status from the character that drinks it. They're not for sale anywhere, ever-- you have to find 'em. The Rings of Fire Resistance found in the lowest level of the Azcan Pyramid grant, not surprisingly, resistance to fire. Not only does this make combat with firebreathing creatures like Salamanders, Hellhounds, and Red Dragons more tolerable, it also makes the fiery canyon accessible and the Oltec Tradeway explorable. The Ring of Regeneration restores 1 HP to its wearer every once in a while. If the character is in combat, they gain 1 HP every turn. A Ring of Regeneration can be found in the Azcan Caverns, more will go on sale in the Magic Shop if you can stand to gain levels into the early teens. The Ring of Protection improves AC by a point. It goes on sale in the Armor shop if you level up enough. I haven't found one anywhere else. Gauntlets of Ogre Power increase the wearer's STR to 18. You'll find one set in the prison of the castle behind a secret wall. Others go on sale in the Weapon Shop if you level up enough. Magic Wands are enchanted to cast the Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ice Storm, or Fear spells when used, and there's a Staff of Healing that casts Cure Light Wounds when it's triggered. They all have a small chance of disappearing when they're used, however. You can find a Wand of Lightning and a Staff of Healing for free at the beginning of the game in the Magic Shop's hidden basement and the cathedral's hidden basement, respectively. Wands are sold late in the game, but the Staff of Healing is never available from any shop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7d: Other Stuff You Won't Find There are several items that, for some reason or another, aren't listed as treasure anywhere in the game at all, even though they're listed in the game data. Is this why so many caves have no treasure in them? Maybe. These items are available by hacking the game, and doing such a thing is beyond the scope of this guide. Not like half the items even have game code written for using them anyway, making them useless novelties. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 8: Shop Upgrades Okay, I admit it. I have NO IDEA what causes the shops in the game to increase their stocks. It's somehow based on your party's experience levels, but not on the sum or the average. It may be based on your party's experience, rather than the levels, but my experimentation in this regard is not quite finished. Usually the shops upgrade around the time everyone in your party gains a level-- usually. Sometimes two will happen at almost the same time. If you lose any levels (due to fighting Wights or Spectres, for instance), the shops will not regress and start selling fewer items. However, you'll have to gain those levels back before the shops will stock anything new. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting out: Armor Shop: Leather Armor Weapon Shop: Dagger, Spear, Staff, Sling Magic Shop: Shield scroll First upgrade (around level 2): Weapon Shop: War Hammer, Sword Second upgrade (levels 2-3): Armor Shop: Chain mail, Shield Weapon Shop: Axe, Mace, Bow Magic Shop: Magic Missile scroll Third upgrade (level 3 or so): Weapon Shop: +1 Spear Magic Shop: Sleep scroll You're stuck with the third upgrade until you travel at least as far as the tangled mass of vines in the Beastman Caves. When you return to get the Withered Vine from Marmillian, the shops will once again proceed as you level up. Fourth upgrade (around level 4): Armor Shop: Plate mail, +1 Leather Weapon Shop: +1 Dagger, +1 Sword Magic Shop: Entangle scroll Fifth upgrade (about level 5): Armor Shop: +1 Chain mail, +1 Shield Weapon Shop: +1 Mace, +1 Axe, +1 War Hammer, +2 Spear Magic Shop: Web scroll Sixth upgrade (levels 6-7): Armor Shop: +1 Plate mail Weapon Shop: +1 Sling, +1 Bow, +2 Sword Magic Shop: Protection from Missiles scroll Seventh upgrade (approaching level 8): Armor Shop: +2 Leather Weapon Shop: +2 Dagger, +2 War Hammer, +2 Mace, +2 Axe, +3 Spear Eighth upgrade (level 8 or so): Magic Shop: Fireball scroll Ninth upgrade (level 8 or so): Armor Shop: +2 Chain mail, +2 Shield Magic Shop: Confusion scroll Tenth upgrade (level 8 or so, still): Magic Shop: Wand of Fireballs Eleventh upgrade (about level 9) Armor Shop: +2 Plate mail Weapon Shop: +3 War Hammer Magic Shop: Ice Storm scroll, Stone to Flesh scroll, Flesh to Stone scroll Twelfth upgrade (levels 9-10): Armor Shop: +3 Leather Weapon Shop: +3 Sword Magic Shop: Cloudkill scroll, Feeblemind scroll Thirteenth upgrade (levels 10-11): Armor Shop: +3 Chain mail, +3 Shield Weapon Shop: +3 Mace Magic Shop: Disintegrate scroll, Wand of Cold (Ice Storm) Fourteenth upgrade (approaching level 12): Armor Shop: +3 Plate mail, Ring of Protection Weapon Shop: Gauntlets of Ogre Power Magic Shop: Anti Magic Shell scroll Fifteenth upgrade (level 13): Armor Shop: Ring of Regeneration Weapon Shop: +3 Sword vs. Regenerating Magic Shop: Death Spell scroll, Wand of Fear ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 9: All The Magic You'll Need This isn't a list of every spell in the game. I suspect half the spells included were either not programmed properly or ill-concieved to begin with. I mean, what use is Detect Magic when nearly every spellcasting enemy is named Magic-User, Wizard, or Shaman anyway? Does Detect Evil have any effect at all, and if it does, what do you care what alignment your enemies are? You kill them regardless, right? This is, however, a list of all the USEFUL spells in the game. Whether arcane or divine, once a spell is memorized, it appears in the character's inventory and may be equipped to either the A or B button. After that, it may be used just like a spear or bow, just hit the A or B button when it's the caster's turn and choose your target. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 9a: Arcane Magic In Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards and Elves spend time every day poring over their spellbooks, memorizing spells. At low levels, they can only memorize one or two spells at a time, and once those spells are cast, they're wiped from memory entirely and may not be cast again until the caster rests and studies it from scratch again the next day. At level 1, this means your Wizard can Magic Missile once-- just once-- after that he's dead weight for the rest of the day. Lame? Yes! This method of study means the Wizard or Elf must first find the spell he wishes to learn and scribe it into his spellbook. In WOTES, this is done by finding or purchasing spell scrolls. When you rest, the game checks to see if the potential caster is capable of memorizing any of the scrolls he has in inventory; he does not need to have them equipped to the A or B buttons. If so, you'll get a message informing you that the Wizard is scribing the spell on the scroll into his spellbook. This destroys the scroll, but means that the Wizard may then memorize the spell any Rest period thereafter. There is one small boon, however. When an arcane caster studies a spell that has a polar opposite, the caster gains the opposite spell as well. Learn Light, and you get Darkness for free, and vice versa. Same with Continual Light and Continual Dark, Haste and Slow, and Stone to Flesh and Flesh to Stone. Users of arcane magic use spells that have their own levels. At every odd-numbered experience level-- that is, when the caster reaches levels 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11-- he gains the ability to cast spells one level higher. On even-numbered levels, the caster gains the ability to cast more than one spell per level. At experience level 2, he may cast two level 1 spells. Then at experience level 3 he gains a level 2 spell. At experience level 4, he gains a second level 2 spell, and at experience level 5, his first level 3 spell. As the Magic-User gains levels, he'll eventually find himself casting six levels of spells: four spells per level up to level four, three level 5 spells, and two level 6 spells. As the Elf gains levels, he'll eventually find himself casting five levels of spells: three spells per level up to level four and two level 5 spells. When your caster gets the ability to memorize more than one spell at a given level, if you choose to memorize the same spell more than once, you may cast it as many times as you have it memorized before resting again. For instance, at level 2, a Wizard gets two level 1 spells. He can memorize both Sleep and Magic Missile if he likes, meaning he gets one use out of both spells. Alternately, and more likely, he can memorize Magic Missile twice, allowing him to double his combat potential. Level 1 spells: Magic Missile: The greatest part of this spell is that it never misses if there's a target to be hit. Damage isn't much-- between 1 and 4 at 1st level, up to its maximum of 5 to 20 at 9th level-- but unerring accuracy IS pretty nice. Sleep: Only useful on weak creatures, it does keep them from attacking, but they wake up and resume combat when you hit them. Light/Darkness: Since you don't need the ability to make light or darkness proper in this game, you can instead cast these spells into your opponent's eyballs to blind them, leaving them helpless for several rounds. It seems to me that searing light in your eyes would be somewhat more unpleasant than total darkness, but the in-game effect is exactly the same either way. Level 2 spells: Continual Light/Darkness: As non-Continual Light or Darkness, only the effect is permanant. Entangle: Aww yeah. Entangle is where it's at. Choose your target and throw a rope at them; the rope will automatically tie them down and leave them at your mercy for a long, long time. While Continual Light and Continual Darkness are permanant, the blinded character can still dodge attacks and tends to wander around, forcing you to chase it down to pummel it to death. Entangle leaves it in a nicely-wrapped package at the Wizard's feet, granting unerring accuracy to anyone attacking the Entangled beast and keeping it from going anywhere while you finish it off. Web: Used on the map, it's remarkably like Entangle, with the potential of affecting more than one target if the targets are reasonably close to one another. In dungeons, it makes an impassible wall of spider webs that lasts for a long, long time. Naturally, monsters caught inside the wall find themselves under the paralyzing effect of the spell. Level 3 spells: Fireball: Careful. It explodes. Keep any of your allies away from your target unless you plan on burning them to cinders as well. Naturally, if your foes are clustered together, the area effect is quite beneficial. Underground, there is no danger of catching your allies in the explosion, but if more than one monster is occupying a particular panel of dungeon floor, the spell will hit all of them when cast into that panel. Lightning Bolt: In the overworld, Lightning Bolt acts exactly like Fireball-- including the area effect. It doesn't look like it explodes as far as Fireball, but sure enough, it does. Underground, it works MOSTLY like Fireball, except it keeps going after it deals its damage and bouncing off of walls back at your party. You can take advantage of this by casting a bolt at your foe and letting it rebound off the wall behind him for another hit on his backside, but do take care to make sure you're out of range of the bolt if you try it. It has the full effect on your party if it bounces back to them. Haste: Not a bad spell, granting additional turns to the ally you cast it on, but it's rarely useful to memorize this instead of one of the direct attack spells above. Level 4 spells: Ice Storm: Like Fireball, only with a bigger explosion and cold-based damage. It behaves just like Fireball underground, except being cold instead of hot. Level 5 spells: Cloudkill: While it deals but a single point of damage to strong enemies, this cloud of noxious gas is instant death to weak ones. Has a large area of effect outside; it travels slowly underground but has infinite range. Cast it down hallways you know to be infested with beetles, ants, hellhounds, or other critters and rest assured that any foolish enough to remain in the area of effect have been succinctly converted from living creature into EXP bonus. Level 6 spells: Death Spell: A lot like Cloudkill, really. It has the potential to effect stronger monsters like Trolls and Ogres, but the bigger the monster, the slimmer the chances are the spell will actually work. Disintegrate: Another instant-death spell, this effects one target but can destroy even Red Dragons and Pyro Hydras. Even better, it works more often than Death Spell. Flesh to Stone: As Entangle, keeping a creature helpless and immobile, but permanant. Stone to Flesh: Cures petrification. I was curious to find out what happens if you cast this one a Rock Statue or Gargoyle, but the game won't let you. Frownie. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 9b: Divine Magic Clerics wake up and spend time every morning cleansing themselves and praying to their deity. This time of reverential worship is when the deity in question smiles upon the Cleric and grants him his spells for the day. Like the arcane spellcasters described above, casting a divine spell wipes it from the Cleric's memory and it may not be cast again until the next worship session. In essence, the Cleric uses spells exactly the same as an arcane spellcaster, but does not need to find the spell in a scroll first. Clerics gain all the spells of a given level as soon as they are able to cast spells of that level. Clerics use spells that have their own levels. At every odd-numbered experience level-- that is, when the Cleric reaches levels 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11-- she gains the ability to cast spells one level higher. On even-numbered levels, the Cleric gains the ability to cast more than one spell per level. At experience level 2, she may cast two level 1 spells. Then at experience level 3 she gains a level 2 spell. At experience level 4, she gains a second level 2 spell, and at experience level 5, her first level 3 spell. As the Cleric gains levels, she'll eventually find herself casting six levels of spells: five spells of levels one, two, and three, three spells at levels four and five, and two spells at level 6. When your Cleric gets the ability to memorize more than one spell at a given level, if you choose to memorize the same spell more than once, you may cast it as many times as you have it memorized before resting again. For instance, at level 2, a Cleric gets two level 1 spells. She can memorize both Cause Light Wounds and Darkness if she likes, meaning she gets one use out of both spells. Alternately, and more likely, she can memorize Darkness twice, allowing her to cast the spell on two different creatures or in two different combats. For the most part, you will not need to memorize any "Cure" spells at any level-- your Cleric is quite capable of healing the party while resting, while still maintaining flexibility by memorizing other spells for combat. "Cause Wound" spells are slightly more helpful in everyday situations. Level 1 spells: Cause Light Wounds: Rupture your opponent's life force to deal a few HP of damage. Light/Darkness: As the Arcane spell. Cause Fear: If anything, this is a spell NOT to cast. Fleeing monsters are a pain to track down and slay. Level 2 spells: Bless/Blight: Either grant a small bonus to hit and melee damage to any ally, or curse an enemy with penalties to same. Level 3 spells: Continual Light/Darkness: Again, just like the Arcane spell. Cure Disease: In case you get hit by the Mummy. Striking: Enchant an ally to near-perfect accuracy and a decent bonus to damage. Like Bless, but better. Level 4 spells: Cause Serious Wounds: As the spell is bigger, so is the HP loss. Neutralize Poison: There are a lot more poisonous creatures in the game than there are disease-carrying ones, so this is a bit more helpful than Cure Disease. Level 5 spells: Cause Critical Wounds: Pfeh, by the time you're this level, the wounds you cause aren't THAT critical. Not like you have much of a choice, though: it's either this, its recovery-based counterpart, or the so-useless-I-wonder-if-they-even-bothered-to-code-how-the-spell- should-work Dispel Evil. The Level 6 spell: Cureall: If anything is ailing a character, Cureall can fix it. Er, assuming the character in question is still alive. It'll fix paralysis, poison, petrification, disease, and restore almost all HP, though. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 10: Monsters to Watch Out For 9-Headed Hydra The 9-Headed Hydra gets one attack for every head. It's not bad for EXP or cash, and lives in the Southeastern swamp. Allosaurus Found in the Dalpheggi swamp. Powerful and worth lots of EXP. Animals and Giant Animals All bears-- Cave Bears, Grizzly Bears, and the bird-headed Owlbears-- get three attacks per round: one with each claw and a bite. If both claws hit, the character is caught in a bear hug for additional damage. Boars are probably some of the first animals you meet. They're tough on first-level parties, but after level 2 you can pretend they don't exist. All the great cats-- lions, tigers, sabre-toothed tigers, and panthers-- get three attacks per turn, but lack the crushing ability of bears. Crocodiles and their larger cousins, aptly named Large Crocodiles, can be kind of tough. Their scaly hide is good at deflecting attacks, and they do lots of damage. They're not bad for EXP, but not particularly great either. Giant Bats are no threat. They're only found in the Immortal Cavern's first level. Giant Crabs can do some serious damage to a low-level party, but are no threat later on. They're found in swampy areas. Giant Toads live in a group of four in the Catacombs of Doom and nowhere else. There are several different breeds of snakes: Flying Vipers, Young and Giant Racers, and Rock Pythons. Racers and Pythons are nonvenomous, but Flying Vipers are supposedly able to poison your party members. They're also supposedly able to spit venom in a ranged attack, but I've never seen them do that, either. Rock Pythons are the toughest of the serpents, doing rather a lot of damage with each attack, but by the time you stumble across any of them you should be more than capable of coping. Wolves are nothing to write home about. Before long you'll run into Dire Wolves-- "dire" is the D&D term for "bigass," so a Dire Wolf is just an overgrown regular wolf and should be treated as such. Ankylosaurus Found in the Dalpheggi swamp. Stupidly hard to kill. Aurochs Found in the Dalpheggi swamp. They tend to attack in herds of five or six. Azcans Found (not surprisingly) in the Azcan Temple and the surrounding jungle, the Azcans are a tribe of humans. Most of them attack with weapons, but every once in a while you'll find a shaman among them who will blind your characters if given the chance. Blind characters cannot act in combat, so that's a status you'll want to heal quickly. Kacantizu is an Azcan living in the Beastman Caves. Other than having a name, she's nothing special. Basilisk The Basilisk has a chance of petrifying the character it attacks. If this happens, haul them back to the Church or have a Wizard cast Stone to Flesh on the unfortunate person. Otherwise the rest of the party will have to lug around a big, heavy statue of their former comrade. These are found in the Elven Underground and the Immortal Cavern. Beastmen (about ten different varieties exist) Beastmen are nothing special, but there certainly are a lot of them around. Supposedly the tribe shaman Grulapp has access to a Cause Fear spell, but either he never uses it or it never works. The chief, Uklangor, guards some good treasure... Black Dragon The weakest of the Dragons. It can use a claw/claw/bite combo, or breathe acid to do its current HP value in damage to your party. They live in swamps. Caecilla There's only one of these, in the Gateway Passage. Carrion Crawler These centipede-like beasts attack with eight tentacles on their faces. They can paralyze party members, but the paralysis wears off with rest. They're found in caves here and there. Chimera These triple-headed beasts get five attacks per turn. The last attack may be replaced with fire breath instead. They're only in the Immortal Cavern. Efreeti Efreeti can use Fireball spells. They're in the Immortal Cavern. Elves Elf Warriors, Liutenants, and Captains attack with weapons and are no threat whatsoever. Elf Magic-Users like to cast Web and block passageways, and Elf Wizards like to use Fireball spells to damage the whole party at once. Careful with those. These are in the Elf City that makes up the second level of the Immortal Cavern. Flapsail Flapsails can breathe fire, and in the Immortal Cavern, they tend to attack in groups. Their biggest threat is psychological, though, considering they look just like Pyro Hydras and Red Dragons. There are a couple more in the Elven Underground. Gargoyle Gargoyles travel in groups and get four attacks per turn. They're found in the Oltec Tradeway and the Catacombs of Doom. Gelatinous Cube The sheer ridiculousness of a slime in the shape of a perfect cube is astounding. Anyway, these things can paralyze your party members and are immune to Ice Storm and Lightning Bolt. Giants Hill Giants are the weakest and most common of the giant tribes. They'll either bash your party members with a club or stand back to throw rocks. After level 4 or so, they're hardly noteworthy. Stone Giants are a bit tougher than Hill Giants, but not by much. Ogres aren't very dangerous to a well-prepared party. The only trouble you'll get from them is because they tend to attack in groups of four to eight. Fire Giants are the toughest of the overgrown humanoids. They live in hot areas like the fiery canyon and the dungeons connected to it, so as you might imagine, they resist damage from fire attacks. Green Dragon Green Dragons are the mid-level dragons in the game. They can either hit with a claw/claw/bite combo or breathe acid to do their current HP in damage. Not bad EXP or money for killing one. They live in the Southeastern swamp. Hellhound Hellhounds attack in groups and occasionally breathe fire to damage one character. Cloudkill is remarkably effective. They're all over the place, in the fiery canyon and in several dungeons. Lizard Man Lizard Men live in Dalpheggi Swamp. They're not very dangerous. Medusa Medusae live in the Immortal Cavern. They have a very high success rate at adding Poison status to their melee attacks, but I have yet to be Petrified by one even after intentionally trying. Pyro Hydra Pyro Hydra are 12-headed, and therefore get 12 attacks per turn. Any number of those attacks may be replaced by a party-wiping fire breath instead. Red Dragon Ah, the staple of D&D. Considering Red Dragons are worth more EXP than any other monster in the game, you'll be killing an awful lot of these. That doesn't mean they're not dangerous, though; if you're careless they can breathe fire to do as much damage as they have HP. Stumbling into an 80-HP dragon's lair unprepared and catching his fire breath right off is a good way to find out what the Game Over screen looks like. These are random encounters in the fiery canyon, as well as living in two out of the three caves connected to it. Rock Statue An animated statue made of... well, rocks. They get two attacks every turn, but are otherwise nothing to write home about. You'll find your first one in the Azcan Cavern. Salamander These critters are immune to fire damage. Supposedly any character close to a Salamander takes heat damage just being there, but considering these are only found in the fiery canyon and you wouldn't be fighting them without a Ring of Fire Resistance, that's hardly an issue. Shadow The Shadow looks undead, and indeed can't be put to Sleep or damaged by nonmagical sources, but can't be Turned by a Cleric. It's okay, though. They don't have many HP and are easy to slay with spells or enchanted weapons. Troglodytes A clan of Troglodytes lives near the back end of the Gateway Passage. Troglodytes smell bad. We're talking major stinkage here! They smell so bad, in fact, that characters attacking them are distracted and suffer a penalty to accuracy when attacking. There are four or five different kinds of Troglodytes, with varying combat abilities. None of them can use magic, however. Troll Trolls are pretty common, living in large groups in the Azcan Caverns, the Oltec Tradeway, and the Catacombs of Doom. Trolls regenerate their HP when damaged. If you find a Troll Chief, he's a little stronger than your plain garden-variety Troll, but not by much. Tuatara Tuatara are big lizards that dwell in the Passageway Cavern. Undead All undead are vulnerable to the Turn Undead ability, but cannot be put to sleep with a Sleep spell. They're also immune to a lot of other spells and abilities from traditional D&D that didn't make it into WOTES, but who cares about those? Zombies and Skeletons are the least powerful of the undead, with trifling attack potential. They tend to disintegrate if a Cleric just thinks about using Turn Undead on them. They're in several different dungeons. Ghouls are mid-level undead. They get three attacks per round and can cause paralysis with their grimy claws, but since they're only found in the Oltec Tradeway, you're powerful enough to take them down without a hitch. The Mummy is a tougher customer, since it can cause diseases that stop your HP from recovering. What attacks work against it (magic and magical weapons) do half damage, too. Thankfully, there's only one Mummy in the game, in the Immortal Cavern, and he's quite vulnerable to Turning attempts if your Cleric is at a high enough level. Undead, Level-Draining Oof. These undead can't be put to sleep and can't be harmed by any nonmagical weapons. Thankfully, they can still be turned, and turn them you should! If any of these undead land a successful melee attack, the character they hit loses at least one experience level, forcing you to butcher dozens more monsters to gain your EXP back. How irritating! Wights are the most common level-draining undead, followed by the slightly more powerful Wraiths. Both drain one level per attack. In the Oltec Tradeway lives a Spectre or two, a bit more powerful than a Wraith, and Spectres drain TWO experience levels from characters they land a successful hit on. If that's not a reason to reload from your last save, I don't know what is. The Vampire is the nastiest of undead. It can regenerate damage done to it and has the Spectre-like ability to drain two experience levels at once. Destroy it in one attack with Turn Undead, or you'll regret it. Mercifully, the only Vampire in the game hangs around near the end of the bottom level of the Immortal Cavern, so if you do end up losing levels to it, you might be able to work your way through the last bit of the dungeon and win the game anyway. Vermin Save for minor variations in difficulty, Giant Ants, Robber Flies, Tiger Beetles, and Fire Beetles are virtually interchangeable. None of them should give you any particular trouble, with low-to-moderate HP scores, one attack per turn, and no special abilities. Giant Rats are generally harmless, and will only give trouble to a level-1 party. Supposedly they carry diseases, but I've never had a party member catch one-- even after intentionally trying. The two kinds of spiders-- crab spiders and black widows-- are capable of poisoning your party members when they bite. Even more dangerous are Giant Scorpions, which claw twice before trying to use their poisonous sting. If either claw hits, the sting attack is more likely to hit as well. Giant Leeches and Stirges are bloodsuckers that live in swampy areas. If a Giant Leech or Stirge