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Demetrios1453 Plays the Gold Box Games
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<blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9311390" data-attributes="member: 6801060"><p><strong><em>Pool of Radiance </em>(Part 36): The Sorcerer's Island (Part 1)</strong></p><p></p><p>Time to rest up before our next adventure. We have some new spells to scribe!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356337[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356338[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>My magic-users' spellbooks are looking pretty nice now, although they will look much nicer once they can gain and memorize 3rd level spells. They aren't too far away from that now...</p><p></p><p>Bragir's spellbook:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356340[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356341[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Brin's spellbook:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356342[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356343[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>With that, we rest up, and start out fresh to head up north along the river to find the source of its pollution. Time to catch a boat to the other side of the bay...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356344[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356345[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356346[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We head north along the river through the gray polluted zone.</p><p></p><p>A short way up the river, we bump into some monsters, and this time there's no way around combat.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356347[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356348[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Interesting how we have cacti here. I guess the pollution basically turned the region into a desert instead of a complete wasteland (and, as someone who lives in Arizona, there's definitely a big difference between desert and utter wasteland)</p><p></p><p>Bumping into wandering monsters is always a pain, but it's just kobolds, so it's more of a minor speedbump than anything.</p><p></p><p>I was originally planning on just holding back and let them come to me, but they all appear to have bows, so they were just taking potshots and not advancing at all. So I was forced to start moving my melee over. Thankfully, with vegetation being fairly sparse, I could get over there pretty quickly.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356349[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(Baroness Bella has just killed a kobold directly in front of her, but I was a moment too late with the screenshot).</p><p></p><p>We rapidly wear them down...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356350[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The last few surrender, and the battle is soon over.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356351[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(Again, just a moment too slow to catch the "Kobold surrenders" text)</p><p></p><p>Kobolds vanquished, we continue north along the river. Soon we reach a lake, and on an island within it there's a very curious structure indeed!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356352[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>It definitely appears that the pollution is flowing from the top of that pyramidal structure. We move around the lake, looking for some way to cross the water.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356353[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>"Amoungst"? As you may have noticed, spell-checking, and even sometimes basic grammar, were apparently not a priority during the production of the game.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, happy to have found a boat, we board it and travel to the island.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356354[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Obviously, to fulfill our commission, we have to go in.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356355[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We enter, and travel down a long, featureless corridor.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356356[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We turn right at the first doorway we find. Hmm, why are there rocks here? But before we even have time to ponder that...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356357[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Oh great. It's time for that old CRPG (and regular RPG for that matter) standby: "Fun With Teleporters".</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356358[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And even more fun, the whole place is a maze of featureless corridors. At least you get a warning (other than the first time) when you're about to enter a teleporter due to the rocks there. I have no doubt that the maddening combination of maze and teleporters helped drive the sales of the cluebook for the game immensely.</p><p></p><p>To make matters simpler, and to save the people reading this thread the tedium of having to go through multiple parts of just "the party wanders, and sometimes teleports, randomly through the labyrinth", we'll just take the short route, with a couple of minor detours to see some of the more interesting stuff here. This means skipping the first floor entirely (other than the corridor we entered through), but that's not missing anything terribly noteworthy - there are just random wandering monsters, and a couple of encounters with people who have been trapped in the maze who don't have much to say at all (one has all but broken through the outer wall to create an exit, but we'll be able to exit normally on our own anyway). The first floor is much larger and far more maze-like than the upper levels anyway, so it's pretty much just for the best to pass it over entirely. No doubt everyone will agree once I post the full pyramid map after completing this section of the game.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the party goes to the left at the intersection pictured above. Right after we do...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356359[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, if you find a secret door, you have to go through it, right? So in we go.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356360[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Hey, that's not polite!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356361[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We advance...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356362[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>I assure you, we are not! We advance once more...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356363[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Huh, they seemed pretty hostile before. We decide to parlay.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356364[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, that's nice of you. Presumably, before we can get any further info, especially on who this "Yarash" is and what they are doing, the lizardmen leave.</p><p></p><p>We head back out into the corridor. Before we go much further...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356365[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(What's with the weird passive voice in this section? Usually the Gold Box games say "Buffy Burrows (or whoever) found a secret door" in these situations.)</p><p></p><p>We go through this door as well.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356366[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356367[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Presuming this is our mysterious Yarash at work, he doesn't seem the particularly pleasant type...</p><p></p><p>We head back out to the corridor and continue down it further. After several twists and turns, we reach the end of it, but...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356368[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>In we go again!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356369[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Let's look around a bit closer...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356370[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>I'm sure bathing in whatever that vile liquid is was perfectly harmless and didn't change them in any way, right?</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356371[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>While the use of "mutant" in their name might be cause for some momentary worry, they only have 18 HP, and with only three of them, this fight goes as quickly as one would expect...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356372[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Since there's not much more to explore here, we backtrack to the intersection near where we came out of the teleporter, and this time go down the corridor to the right.</p><p></p><p>Shortly after passing the intersection...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356373[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Yet again, we decide to explore what's beyond the mysterious door.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356374[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356375[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Our opinion of this Yarash keeps plunging with each discovery we find.</p><p></p><p>We retreat from this room, and head further east down the corridor, until we reach its end.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356376[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We're at another teleporter, as indicated by the rocks. This time (and all further times) we aren't instantly teleported through when we get to the square.</p><p></p><p>And here's the deal with the rocks - each teleporter has two different potential destinations, and they swap out each time something goes through. So, sometimes you'll want to go through the teleporter without throwing a rock through it first, and sometimes you want to go through <em>after</em> throwing a rock through, depending on which destination you want to reach. To get to where we want to go in the most efficient way possible, we will throw a rock through first.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356377[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We head through, and...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356378[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>This time, it's just one long, snaky corridor until we reach the next teleporter.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356379[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356380[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356381[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We again throw a rock first.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356382[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And then go forward...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356383[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356384[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>This time it's quick and easy. We just go a few steps through that doorway to find the next teleporter.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356385[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Again we throw a rock, and move through ourselves.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356386[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]356387[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We hear strange mechanical and bubbling sounds from around that corner. Our goal must be near. But, as we've reached the upload limit for this post, the mystery at the top of the pyramid will have to wait for the next post..</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Demetrios1453, post: 9311390, member: 6801060"] [B][I]Pool of Radiance [/I](Part 36): The Sorcerer's Island (Part 1)[/B] Time to rest up before our next adventure. We have some new spells to scribe! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-03 192607.png"]356337[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-03 192820.png"]356338[/ATTACH] My magic-users' spellbooks are looking pretty nice now, although they will look much nicer once they can gain and memorize 3rd level spells. They aren't too far away from that now... Bragir's spellbook: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-03 192940.png"]356340[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-03 192944.png"]356341[/ATTACH] Brin's spellbook: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-03 192951.png"]356342[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-03 192956.png"]356343[/ATTACH] With that, we rest up, and start out fresh to head up north along the river to find the source of its pollution. Time to catch a boat to the other side of the bay... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 151750.png"]356344[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 151806.png"]356345[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 151824.png"]356346[/ATTACH] We head north along the river through the gray polluted zone. A short way up the river, we bump into some monsters, and this time there's no way around combat. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 151947.png"]356347[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 152003.png"]356348[/ATTACH] Interesting how we have cacti here. I guess the pollution basically turned the region into a desert instead of a complete wasteland (and, as someone who lives in Arizona, there's definitely a big difference between desert and utter wasteland) Bumping into wandering monsters is always a pain, but it's just kobolds, so it's more of a minor speedbump than anything. I was originally planning on just holding back and let them come to me, but they all appear to have bows, so they were just taking potshots and not advancing at all. So I was forced to start moving my melee over. Thankfully, with vegetation being fairly sparse, I could get over there pretty quickly. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 152145.png"]356349[/ATTACH] (Baroness Bella has just killed a kobold directly in front of her, but I was a moment too late with the screenshot). We rapidly wear them down... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 152452.png"]356350[/ATTACH] The last few surrender, and the battle is soon over. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 152535.png"]356351[/ATTACH] (Again, just a moment too slow to catch the "Kobold surrenders" text) Kobolds vanquished, we continue north along the river. Soon we reach a lake, and on an island within it there's a very curious structure indeed! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 152630.png"]356352[/ATTACH] It definitely appears that the pollution is flowing from the top of that pyramidal structure. We move around the lake, looking for some way to cross the water. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 152701.png"]356353[/ATTACH] "Amoungst"? As you may have noticed, spell-checking, and even sometimes basic grammar, were apparently not a priority during the production of the game. Anyway, happy to have found a boat, we board it and travel to the island. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 153054.png"]356354[/ATTACH] Obviously, to fulfill our commission, we have to go in. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 153613.png"]356355[/ATTACH] We enter, and travel down a long, featureless corridor. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160120.png"]356356[/ATTACH] We turn right at the first doorway we find. Hmm, why are there rocks here? But before we even have time to ponder that... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160130.png"]356357[/ATTACH] Oh great. It's time for that old CRPG (and regular RPG for that matter) standby: "Fun With Teleporters". [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160150.png"]356358[/ATTACH] And even more fun, the whole place is a maze of featureless corridors. At least you get a warning (other than the first time) when you're about to enter a teleporter due to the rocks there. I have no doubt that the maddening combination of maze and teleporters helped drive the sales of the cluebook for the game immensely. To make matters simpler, and to save the people reading this thread the tedium of having to go through multiple parts of just "the party wanders, and sometimes teleports, randomly through the labyrinth", we'll just take the short route, with a couple of minor detours to see some of the more interesting stuff here. This means skipping the first floor entirely (other than the corridor we entered through), but that's not missing anything terribly noteworthy - there are just random wandering monsters, and a couple of encounters with people who have been trapped in the maze who don't have much to say at all (one has all but broken through the outer wall to create an exit, but we'll be able to exit normally on our own anyway). The first floor is much larger and far more maze-like than the upper levels anyway, so it's pretty much just for the best to pass it over entirely. No doubt everyone will agree once I post the full pyramid map after completing this section of the game. Anyway, the party goes to the left at the intersection pictured above. Right after we do... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160322.png"]356359[/ATTACH] Well, if you find a secret door, you have to go through it, right? So in we go. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160334.png"]356360[/ATTACH] Hey, that's not polite! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160345.png"]356361[/ATTACH] We advance... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160458.png"]356362[/ATTACH] I assure you, we are not! We advance once more... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160504.png"]356363[/ATTACH] Huh, they seemed pretty hostile before. We decide to parlay. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160520.png"]356364[/ATTACH] Well, that's nice of you. Presumably, before we can get any further info, especially on who this "Yarash" is and what they are doing, the lizardmen leave. We head back out into the corridor. Before we go much further... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160617.png"]356365[/ATTACH] (What's with the weird passive voice in this section? Usually the Gold Box games say "Buffy Burrows (or whoever) found a secret door" in these situations.) We go through this door as well. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160629.png"]356366[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160641.png"]356367[/ATTACH] Presuming this is our mysterious Yarash at work, he doesn't seem the particularly pleasant type... We head back out to the corridor and continue down it further. After several twists and turns, we reach the end of it, but... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160747.png"]356368[/ATTACH] In we go again! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160809.png"]356369[/ATTACH] Let's look around a bit closer... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160834.png"]356370[/ATTACH] I'm sure bathing in whatever that vile liquid is was perfectly harmless and didn't change them in any way, right? [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160901.png"]356371[/ATTACH] While the use of "mutant" in their name might be cause for some momentary worry, they only have 18 HP, and with only three of them, this fight goes as quickly as one would expect... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 160930.png"]356372[/ATTACH] Since there's not much more to explore here, we backtrack to the intersection near where we came out of the teleporter, and this time go down the corridor to the right. Shortly after passing the intersection... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 161023.png"]356373[/ATTACH] Yet again, we decide to explore what's beyond the mysterious door. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 161035.png"]356374[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 161044.png"]356375[/ATTACH] Our opinion of this Yarash keeps plunging with each discovery we find. We retreat from this room, and head further east down the corridor, until we reach its end. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 161922.png"]356376[/ATTACH] We're at another teleporter, as indicated by the rocks. This time (and all further times) we aren't instantly teleported through when we get to the square. And here's the deal with the rocks - each teleporter has two different potential destinations, and they swap out each time something goes through. So, sometimes you'll want to go through the teleporter without throwing a rock through it first, and sometimes you want to go through [I]after[/I] throwing a rock through, depending on which destination you want to reach. To get to where we want to go in the most efficient way possible, we will throw a rock through first. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 161934.png"]356377[/ATTACH] We head through, and... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 161942.png"]356378[/ATTACH] This time, it's just one long, snaky corridor until we reach the next teleporter. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162007.png"]356379[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162021.png"]356380[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162027.png"]356381[/ATTACH] We again throw a rock first. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162033.png"]356382[/ATTACH] And then go forward... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162040.png"]356383[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162046.png"]356384[/ATTACH] This time it's quick and easy. We just go a few steps through that doorway to find the next teleporter. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162053.png"]356385[/ATTACH] Again we throw a rock, and move through ourselves. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162114.png"]356386[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-04-06 162128.png"]356387[/ATTACH] We hear strange mechanical and bubbling sounds from around that corner. Our goal must be near. But, as we've reached the upload limit for this post, the mystery at the top of the pyramid will have to wait for the next post.. [/QUOTE]
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