Part 5: Lurkers, Thieves, and Kidnappers

Leaving the home of Shabow of Courage, Theo was gratified to find that the trees that had previously spoken too softly for him to hear were now willing to speak. Even better, the trees actually had some idea of who was in possession of the key to Camu's domain.



The trees even gave a detailed description of where the lizard who had Camu's key could be found. Although Theo was fond of the trees he had grown up with and those in Martel's domain, he had to concede that the trees near Shabow's home were the most helpful of all.



The trees also whispered of another creature living within the swamp that had some connection to Camu, although Theo couldn't imagine how he'd missed seeing a man made of mud. The swamp was a crowded place, indeed.



Taking the advice of the trees, Theo came to the bridge where the lizard was said to hide. The lizard was a very poor hider seen from any perspective other than that of a tree.



Just as Theo was thinking what a poor hider the lizard was, it erupted from the water and leapt at him. After a short but fierce battle, Theo was able to prevail against the lizard with a pair of spells and claim the key to Camu's domain.

The lizard is actually relatively beefy at this point in the game, with 60 HP and the ability to cast RaiseD and RaiseS. I'm inclined to think that the latter has either a messaging bug or operation error, as it always seems to lower stamina rather than raising it. At any rate, you have to use magic to have any hope of winning this battle since he's capable of doing around 30 HP worth of damage. 11-17 gold and 24-40 experience.



Before heading off visit Camu, Theo stopped in to visit the old man and see what he had to say. As before the old man offered his encouragement to Theo and suggested that since the other two magicians didn't have the Sword of Hope it must be with Camu.



With his morale buoyed Theo headed north into the highlands where Camu dwelt, climbing higher into the mountains. As the path curved, he could see the old man's home and a hedge wall below him. The trails and paths were very narrow, with few places for trees and green things to grow. After speaking with them so often, Theo found that he actually missed the trees when there were so few to be found.

No real significance this, just a neat bit of information the game throws out.



In addition to more of the apes that he had been dealing with it in Shabow's domain, Camu's domain was full of shadows like the one that had been trapped in Shabow's cave and ferocious Orcs. Theo had to fight fiercely in order to make any progress at all.

Once again we've got a boss being recycled into an enemy. The shadows seem to hit a bit harder, and now that you can get them in groups it turns out that their regular attack hits everything on the screen. Orcs are tough enough that we're lucky to do 2 damage to them right now, can poison you, and can also cast Recmin to heal themselves. They've got 46 HP and give 10 gold and 15-27 experience. Bagefir2 is your best friend at this point, but even then it still takes 2 casts per enemy assuming they don't heal themselves.



At length Theo came to a mysterious, quiet spring that the trees claimed could not be spoiled.



As Theo gazed into the water it rippled, and the image of a beautiful woman was reflected in the water. No matter what Theo tried, he could find no way to communicate with the woman. Unable to help himself he reached out, but when his hand struck the water the image vanished.



This was far from the only spring in Camu's domain. As Theo explored he came upon another spring, but the trees were far from encouraging. Instead of encouraging him, the trees told Theo to flee immediately. Despite their words the spring appeared the same as the other had, including the image of the mysterious woman in the water.



Strengthened by his constant combat with the orcs and shadows in Camu's domain, Theo was able to further strengthen two of his spells.

Lightning 3. Not using, as it has the same drawbacks as all the other 3rd level spells. Recmed, on the other hand, is a much needed update to our healing capabilities. It costs twice as much, but heals around 45 or more HP per cast.



High atop the tallest prominence in the region, Theo came upon a mysterious pagoda. While it was presumably Camu's home, the door was sealed and Theo could find no way to enter. Around the corner the path came to and end, facing directly toward the crescent moon.



Looking at the moon filled Theo with longing, and he resolved to climb the pagoda so that he could reach up toward the moon that seemed to close.



Near the pagoda was yet another spring, which the trees encouraged Theo to examine. More struck than ever by the beauty of the woman within, he swore to find a way to communicate with her.



Theo set out to search far and wide across Camu's domain, coming upon many strange sights. He was particularly intrigued the the existence of an overpass, but could find no way to reach the road.



The road above was in poor condition, with some parts appearing to be nothing more than bottomless mires of mud. Theo had to edge carefully around the mud, lest he fall in and never recover.

In an annoying case of the game punishing you for exploring, you actually fall into the mud puddle and lose 10 hp if you look at it. I should mention at this point that there are a few pieces of wheat scattered around here and that you can find gold by examining small stones. It's hardly necessary, though.



Past the mud was a tunnel through the rock. The area gave Theo an eerie feeling, and although he was tempted by the sight of a shining object on top of the boulder he decided not to linger.



Unfortunately, Theo had to turn right around due to the damage that he could plainly see on the path.



With that avenue of exploration closed, Theo backtracked to another cavern that he had observed in his travels only to find that it contained a tunnel exactly like the one he had just visited only going west to east rather than south to north.

Yes, these tunnels do in fact have something in common..



As he continued to explore, Theo began to wonder if it would be possible to combine two facets of magic together. If he could use magic to heal himself and hurt monsters, couldn't a single spell possibly do both?

Exactly what it says on the package. I haven't tested it very much, but I don't believe that it really does enough damage to be that useful.



Emerging from the tunnel Theo found that the terrain looked oddly familar. As he continued along the ledge it became clear that he had found the other side of the damaged path. With that realization, however, he now knew that he had seen everything in Camu's domain. What to do now?

Rather a clever trick on the part of the programmers, if you think about it. The rooms don't have to be anywhere near each other, they just have to use the same art.



With no other options, Theo decided to seek after the shiny object he had seen in the first tunnel. Unable to climb the rock he decided that the best course of action was to strike it as hard as he could in hopes of dislodging the object. Much to his surprise the object turned out to be a single blue gem. Theo reached out toward it, only to be interrupted by a loud voice.



Theo whirled around, only to find that somehow an enormous yeti had snuck up behind him!

Yeti. Out of nowhere.



The yeti was a burly creature with a brutish face and black paws that reached out to take back the crystal. The yeti was surrounded by a frigid air, and Theo had to use all of his power to strike at the Yeti and heal himself after its powerful blows.

The Yeti is actually our toughest opponent yet. He's got about 100 HP and likes to use a frigid air attack that can do 30-40 damage. It's about this point that healing starts to become necessary during boss fights, since you're not going to be able to just bash your way to victory. On the plus side, he's worth upwards of 40 experience when you beat him.



With the Sapphire in hand Theo rushed to Poliniyak's grave to return it. Poliniyak willed the jewel to turn into a harmless drop of water and allowed it to splash away, lest its power be abused by another such as the yeti.



In thanks he provided Theo with a worthy gift. The prince tried to keep from wondering how the swordsman had died if his armor was so wonderful, but before he had a chance to ask Poliniyak how he had died the ghost vanished to his rest.

All jokes aside, the platinum armor is a large improvement compared even to the gold armor. It boosts stamina by 60 points, putting us on equal footing with most of the enemies we're dealing with. While we can only do about 2 damage to orcs, now they can only do about 2 damage to us. It's worth noting that this part of the game is completely optional. You don't have to kill the yeti or ever go back to the grave, but you'd be pretty stupid not to.





Theo had decided that he was sick and tired of dealing with enemies one at a time, so he began to work on refining his spells in order to strike as many enemies at once as possible. In addition to creating final versions of the lightning and bagefire lines, he also took a note from the yeti's book and created a spell to freeze his enemies to death.

Finally, we can actually deal with large groups efficiently. These spells are also more consistently damaging than the earlier versions, and in most cases are more efficient overall. It's a lot easier to cast bagefir4 twice than to cast bagefir2 6-7 times, and only costs about 2/3rds the mana. Arctic isn't really a noteworthy spell, but it does damage and reduces enemy agility so it's not terrible either.



Feeling more confident in himself, Theo decided to explore the second tunnel in the hopes that he would find some clue to the mystery of the woman in the spring. Unfortunately, what he found was much less pleasant.



The imp that rushed out from behind the rock was deceptively small and weak looking, but packed a significant punch and knew many powerful spells. In addition, it was quick enough to reach into Theo's purse in the midst of battle and steal his hard-won gold! Theo was hard pressed to beat the speedy monster, but in the end was able to triumph.

Oh boy. This guy... you might notice that I'm level 13 in the screen shots when I was level 17 a second ago. You have to look at the rock in order to fight the imp, making it something that it's very easy to stumble in to. The imp cleaned my clock at level 13, but I wasn't ready to introduce him at the point when I took these screenshots. He has Bagefir4 and Lightning4, as well as the ability to steal and can hit you for some fairly rough damage. To make matters worse, he shrugs off your magic and has to be killed with a sword... which only does a decent amount of damage about every 3rd hit. He's got 100 HP, so you're going to have to spend most of the fight healing and praying you'll tag him. I didn't just get up to level 17 for fun... I needed it this time. It's actually a relief when he steals from you, because at least at that point he's not shredding your face.



Appropriately chastised the imp begged for forgiveness and rushed off, shouting a promise to be good over its shoulder. Luckily for the imp, Theo never saw it again and was too preoccupied with the fact that in its haste the imp had dropped a letter. Figuring that as the prince he had every right to interfere with the mail, Theo opened the letter and began to read.



The contents of the letter were puzzling, but seemed to suggest that a monster called Mudman had perpetrated some hideous act on Camu that was tied to the appearance of her face in the springs across her domain. The exact plot was impossible to decipher completely, but Theo felt that he knew enough of the essential details.



Unsure when the letter had been sent, Theo was forced to act with haste. Luckily, he could remember that the trees in Shabow's forest had mentioned Mudman living in the swamp.



Theo set off to search the swamp near the Tricky Cave, but as fate would have it he did not have to search for long. Within moments of beginning his search he was forewarned by a set of bubbles in the water as Mudman rose from the swamp and suddenly attacked.



Mudman, despite his strange appearance, was a master of powerful magics and Theo was hard pressed to survive, let alone find any opportunity to attack and even the score. Luckily for all his strength Mudman was not terribly bright, and several times decided to strike at Theo with his hands or used magic that was as dangerous to the user as to the target. After a long and dangerous battle Theo emerged triumphant, holding a mud-covered ring that presumably had some connection to the many springs in Camu's domain. Feeling extremely accomplished Theo set out again toward Camu's domain, hoping at last to hear her voice.

Another tough battle, made tougher by the fact that Mudman has some of the strongest spells in the game. XPLSION2 can do nearly 40 damage to us at this point, possibly killing us in 2 shots. Mudman is a bit slow, however, and as I mentioned before he is dumb enough to use spells that will damage him and has no real method of healing. It's fairly sad, but that's the way it is sometimes. Overall he has about 100 HP, and shows a notable aversion to Lightning.