Part 2: The Forest Surround

Forest Theme


As he left the Old Man's house, Theo looked around at the world with new eyes and began to see and hear things that he had overlooked previously. Looking at the trees he couldn't help but imagine that they had once been people and so came to hear their voices.



The voices of the trees made their plight clear to Prince Theo, and he was saddened to realize how much time had been stolen from the people of his kingdom.



Because of his compassion the trees themselves decided to aid him, for nothing that happened in the forest happened outside their hearing.



Not all of the things that Theo saw looking more closely at the world were pleasant, however.



Fortunately for Theo the Shaman that the Old Man had sent him to lived only a short distance away.

As in, you only have to move twice to reach this door.

Shaman's Theme


To say that the Shaman was odd would be to say very little. His home was small and dimly lit, a strange space filled with an awful stench that Theo could only hope came from the ingredients for his magic.



The Shaman had the power to restore Prince Theo's health and magical reserves, but demanded a price. Further, he felt no compunction to negotiate.

The price is always your current level plus 4 gold. There are other methods of healing, but early on this is it and it's always the most convenient.



The most fascinating of the Shaman's magical tools was his Crystal Ball. although Theo could make neither heads nor tails of the words within it.

And thus, the game's password system



When Theo tapped on the crystal ball the Shaman grew upset, but his words lacked the force of true conviction. Theo knew that the Shaman would never withhold his aid.

Battle Theme


The Forest was rarely at peace, and was infested with moths who spread poison and viciously attacked anyone they saw.

3 HP, worth 0-2 gold and 1-2 experience. Yes, it's possible to get no gold for killing some of the weaker monsters. Poison isn't more than an inconvenience and doesn't carry over to after battle.



Even after defeating the enemies directly in front of him, Theo could see that the forest itself was full of conflict.



One of the trees gave Theo advice about the Magic Book that he carried, which was proved right shortly afterword when Theo was able to understand the spell of Fireball from within its pages.

Single target spell that costs 1 MP and does about 20 damage to weaker enemies. It isn't without its problems, however...



As Theo grew stronger he felt more capable of fighting groups of enemies, a process that was made even easier by the fact that they would sometimes fight among themselves.



One of the trees near the site of his latest battle had seen a monster in the shape of a tree take a key from a pigeon. Theo knew immediately that this was one of the keys that he sought and determined to seek out the tree monster and pry the key from its hands.



Even the most minute details didn't escape Theo, often to his gain. Lying in the path and various other places he found useful healing herbs and other objects just lying around.

In this case, an herb.



The trees spoke to Theo of his family and life before the coming of the Darkness, giving him more reason to fight on. Some of their words sparked his curiosity, making him wonder where heirlooms like his mother's Ruby Charm had ended up.



The trees were also familiar with the three magicians that Theo had heard so much about, although they were unable to tell him as much as he might have wanted about them.



One tree related to him the story of a great warrior who had fallen to the darkness before the king's heart was taken by the dragon, and whose great love for the kingdom had allowed him to keep watch over the kingdom even after death.



The swordsman's spirit mourned the fall of the kingdom and still resided within the domain of the magician Martel at his grave. Theo made a vow to visit that grave as soon as he could find a way to pass the gate to that realm.



A trail of sparkling gold led Prince Theo to a small shop within the forest, although he couldn't help but wonder who the shopkeeper was planning to sell to.



The shop's mistress was a kind woman, who told Theo much about the properties of herbs and grains.



In addition, she had in her shop a set of silver armor that Theo coveted, regardless of the fact that silver is a soft material that doesn't provide much in the way of protection.

One thing is that the prices for wheat, barley, and herbs will rise as you gain levels. Every 4 levels the price of wheat increases by 4 while the prices of barley and herbs increase by 8.



Unfortunately Prince Theo could not afford the silver armor, and the mistress of the shop was unwilling to reduce the price for the future savior of her country. Theo was saddened, but his sadness was nothing compared to the sorrow and despair of the trees.



The trees of the forest also knew of the shop keeper, and whispered that she had once been a frequent visitor to the worship site in Martel's domain. Since the shop keeper had stopped going, however, no one went at all.



At last Theo found the plaza that housed the violent treant, but it remained frozen in place and didn't react to his presence in the least. It sent a chill through his heart, however, and he resolved to become strong enough to defeat the monster.

The treant is a boss fight that you have to trigger by hitting or attempting to open the tree.



Theo continued to fight against the monsters inhabiting his beloved forest, perfecting his magics and gaining experience and gold.

Yes, your spells can come back on you. The first version of any particular element is particularly unreliable. Skeletons, by the way, have 4 hp and give 1-2 gold and 3-4 experience



At length Theo came to understand another spell from the magic book, and decided to seek out the shop keeper again.

Does exactly what you'd expect: reduces all of an enemy's stats. As with most games, the question becomes why you'd spend a turn doing this when you could be killing the enemy.



The shop keeper was cheered by Theo's repeated visits, and as a gift offered him an old scroll in the back of her shop. She had no further need of it, and hoped that it would somehow be useful to Theo.



The treasure chest, when Theo found it, was covered in dust and looked like it hadn't been opened in ages. Moved by the frustration of his quest Theo struck the chest a mighty blow, although he couldn't say why striking an inanimate object made him feel better.

Hitting most unopened chests gives you 3 hp.



Inside the chest was a spell-scroll that taught the spell of Grace, whose purpose Theo couldn't immediately puzzle out. In some way, however, it seemed related to the worship site the trees had told him about.



After a bit more fighting, Theo at last felt prepared to fight the monstrous treant. The fact that he could afford and had bought the Silver Armor only bolstered his feeling of being prepared.

Firebal2 is a stronger version of the single target Fireball, without that nasty chance of hitting the caster. Since it costs the same amount of MP, there's no reason to ever use Fireball again. The Silver Armor adds a flat 20 points to Theo's stamina



Theo visited the Shaman had paid to have his health restored, then sought out the treant and struck it a sharp blow to waken it to battle.



Rather than strike at him as he had expected, however, the treant reached out with its magic to steal away his agility and stamina for itself!



To counter this Theo attempted to use the stripall spell to weaken the treant, but the spell rebounded and afflicted Theo instead.

Yet another reason to not use debuffing spells..



Faced with this set back, Theo decided to simply incinerate the treant with as little fuss as possible.

Victory Fanfare


While the treant repeatedly stole away at his abilities, Theo reduced it to a smoking heap with two powerful spells.

With 40 HP, you're pretty much obligated to use magic on this guy or you'll never get anywhere. He's only worth about 3-6 gold, but gives a beefy 7-12 experience.



The treant was chastened, and apologized to Theo and to all the trees and forest creatures he had hurt. By way of apology he gave Theo the key to Martel's domain, which he had taken from a pigeon, and promised to be kinder from now on.



Due to his good deeds and kindness, the treant became popular with the people of the forest and from then on his presence ceased to inspire fear and instead became friendly.