Ravenloft: Strahd's Invitation

"We would be honored if you would join us."

       

Chasing a burglar who stole a holy symbol, Somers the Paladin (who I've been calling "Summer" this entire time; I forgot what I named her) and Quill the Ranger have been transported to a strange alternate dimension, full of gloom and fog, ruled by a shadowy figure named Strahd. They have explored a dangerous forest and a desolate town, picking up fighter and fighter/mage/thief companions along the way. They have solved one quest but have not made much progress learning where they are or why they're here. A Vistani gypsy has offered to sell a potion that will let them pass back through the fog, but he wants 15 gold pieces for it, and currency doesn't seem to be a thing in this game.

   

We begin this session by returning to the Old Svalich Road South. We abandoned exploration last time. I turn on "step movement" for a while, which has the party move in discrete tiles and turn at 90-degree angles, just like the original Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder. I don't care for it here. Enemies dance all around the party and seem to be able to hide in the diagonals. Also, the numberpad is extremely sensitive and often ends up registering multiple moves when I only intend one. I could maybe deal with that by lowering the cycles, but that causes other issues. I return to continuous movement.

   

It turns out that we almost explored the entire map last time, so the only thing we discover in this new excursion is a couple of bandits and a massive, locked gate at the southern end of the road.

       

I appreciate the elucidation, but this is an RPG. We're all expecting locked doors with no explanation.

          

Soon, we're back in Barovia, which I mistakenly thought we had finished exploring last time. I soon find a few new encounters:

    

• In addition to the exit to the Cemetery, there's a second northern exit to the Old Svalich Road North.
• In Barovia's northwest corner is a large circle of stones. I don't know what it's for.
• A northwestern exit leads to the aptly-named Wooded Area West of Barovia.

   

But the main thing I didn't do last time was visit the Burgomaster, who lives in a huge, richly-furnished manor surrounded by walls in the northwest quarter of the city. Somers expresses disgust as we enter. "What gives such a man the right to flaunt finery in a poor town?" Quill later disagrees: "When I am ready to change careers, 'tis a burgomaster I shall become."

       

My question is: where did he even get the finery? I didn't meet a single tailor, artist, architect, or furniture maker.

          

It's hard to remember any first-person game with more graphic detail than this one. There was some discussion in a previous thread about the graphical quality of Ravenloft in comparison to Eye of the Beholder and other first-person games. To me, it's no contest. Ravenloft might look worse on a pixel basis, but it manages to achieve a much deeper sense of immersion. Its environments are hand-crafted, not just textures. The manor is furnished with tables, wall hangings, lamps, vases, bookshelves, pedestals, candelabras, decorative suits of armor, and other features that create a much deeper sense of immersion than we've seen before. They help to bring life to the sorts of rooms you would expect a manor to have: entry hall, dining room, pantry, study, bedroom.

     

An obvious dining room.

            

The unfortunate thing is that none of its features are interactive. They can't even hold objects; anything that the party can pick up is strewn across the floor. Thus, something like Ultima Underworld still wins the immersion award. It had less stuff, but what it had felt more real. Still, I appreciate that we're almost there. A few improvements to graphics and sound are all we need to feel like we're really inhabiting the world. It's exciting.

     

A study. There's a scroll on the floor.

       

Though well-detailed, the manor is mostly empty of anything interesting. We find a couple of scrolls and potions. In a library, we find a writ ordering death for anyone who claims that Lord Strahd von Zarovich is involved in necromancy, that he killed his brother, and that a woman named Tatyana once plunged to her death trying to escape him.

       

These things seem awfully specific.

         

The Burgomaster is in a den with a roaring fire and a few comfortable chairs. One of them is occupied by a lounging woman, to whom we speak first. She's an attractive elf mage, consulting a book and sipping a drink called tuika. She says she's grown bored of the Burgomaster's attention and offers to join the party. We accept, though over the Burgomaster's protestations ("there are other books, magical volumes I haven't yet displayed before you!"). We say goodbye to "Jill of all trades" Velika.

   

Our new companion is Glorianna of Sithicus, a neutral good Level 5 mage. She inherits all of Velika's carried stuff, but since she has a quarterstaff (which allows attacking from the rear rank), I decide that I'm done with retrieving missile items. Her starting spell selection isn't great: no "Improved Identify," no "Fireball" (despite two Level 3 slots). Still, I'm sure we'll get there.

        

Just what the party was lacking: a 1980s aerobics instructor.

     

On to the Burgomaster. He welcomes us in the name of Lord Strahd, his master. When we ask about Stahd, he says, "Your interest in the great one is matched by his interest in you." He hands us an invitation and refuses to answer any more questions, saying only (ominously): "If I cannot persuade you, he will compel you to go."

      

I'm curious if Strahd ever really "compels" the party to go.

       

I figure we're going to have to walk there along the Old Svalich Road North, but he says that a carriage is waiting to take us to Castle Ravenloft. We demure long enough to rest and memorize spells, then accept the invitation.

   

A cut scene tells us how a horse-drawn carriage conveys us through the night to the castle. A cinematic shows us crossing a drawbridge.

        

I wonder who does the carriage manufacturing around here.

         

"Everything will be fine; we're guests, after all," Somers says as we arrive. "Yet  there is in this air something which brings sweat to the palms." I'd love to believe this is her "Detect Evil" ability activating, but I suspect every party gets this dialogue. We find ourselves in the castle's entry hall, full of armor, tapestries, paintings, and a (probably) red carpet.  

   

No sooner than we have opened a door than another cut scene takes over. Lord Strahd von Zarovich (which turns out to have the accent on the second syllable, not the first) greets us in front of a dining room table. He presents himself as an articulate and debonair lord, with no signs that he's a chaotic evil vampire. I suppose it's not possible to go into this game ignorant of his true nature, but it would have been more fun if he hadn't been shown on the game box in vampiric form.

                

He  looks like George Hamilton crossed with Laurence Olivier.

        

Strahd's speech is long, adequately but not brilliantly voice-acted. "No road leads out of this mist-bound universe," he warns. "The land entraps many; its ruler is no exception." He claims to have therefore devoted his life to the entrapped people. His latest pursuit involves the study of dimensional gateways (I thought there was no way out?). He says there is a portal in the caverns west of Barovia, near the Ivlis River, and he'd like us to investigate. The party dines with him and takes his carriage back to Barovia. I was rather hoping that we'd get to explore more of the castle.

   

I assume the way to the caverns is through the western exit, so naturally I take the northern one. It is indeed the same road that we took by carriage, and it takes us back to Strahd's castle, although its gates are shut and locked. Other than a bunch of worgs and the experience points they convey, we don't find anything in this area.

    

One does not simply walk into Ravenloft.

       

Back in Barovia, I'm just about to head to the Wooded Area when I remember that the Vistani offered to lead us to his camp if we were willing to be blindfolded. We talk to him again and agree. He warns us it will take a day or so to reach the location. Blindfolded, I think it would take a day or so to even get out of the city.

      

An inviting scene.

       

He leads us to a circle of wagons surrounding a fire. "Madam Eva awaits," the game tells us, as if we've heard of her before. A cut scene draws us into her wagon. All we learn, however, is that her tarroka deck is short one card, stolen by another gypsy, perhaps at Strahd's behest. A few seconds later, we're back at the tavern in Barovia.

        

What's he going to do with one card?

       

The Wooded Area West of Barovia is the last place left to us, so that's where we go. Well, first I go back to the Old Svalich Road South, as I have come to regret expelling Velika instead of Fhalken. Unfortunately, I can't find Velika where I originally picked her up. Thus, west it is.

   

The Wooded Area is full of skeletal bats and werewolves, neither of which is terribly difficult. I feel like combats in this game have been relatively easy in general, facilitated by the relative ease of finding a place to rest and fully heal. I'm not even sure why this works given that my paladin cannot cast cleric spells yet. I thought D&D rules were that absent spellcasting, characters could only heal one hit point per 24-hour period. Nevertheless, about nine hours seems to be enough to get everyone back to full health.

      

Spooky, scary.

              

We find the entrance to the caves on the far western wall. The masked woman from the tavern, Irmgarde, waits next to it. She mentioned that she was trying to find a way out of here, and apparently she's heard of the dimensional portal within. We suggest once again that she join us, and this time she accepts. We send Fhalken back home. I guess it's a good thing we didn't waste time having Velika rejoin us.

         

I'm not sure what she means by her first line.

        

Irmgarde is a Level 6 neutral good half-elf cleric. With her and Glorianna, I feel like I have a complete party. Thus, when I discover a chaotic neutral human mage named Ryszard brewing potions in a nearby building, I decline to let him join us even though he's one level higher than Glorianna.

        

I'm not sure I want a party member who's mad with anything.

       

We enter the caverns. There's a spinning portal-looking thing right in the main entrance, and at first I think that's the portal we've been sent to find. It turns out it's just a barrier that we have to dissolve by pressing the Seal of Entrance that Strahd gave us to a plaque on the wall.

      

This seemed too easy at first.

       

On the other side, blocking the corridor, we meet a fighter named Vladislav who says he "shares our goals" and offers to join the party. "You will come to know me as a man of constant resolution." He elaborates that he is also seeking a portal to "a kingdom known as Elturel," which the Burgomaster worries thieves might try to use. That's where we're from! I don't like his attitude, and I like my current party composition, but the bastard is literally blocking the way forward and won't budge. As I soon discover, I can't take him, then drop him, because he returns to the place I found him. I thus reluctantly have to get rid of Glorianna temporarily. She says she'll go to the tavern.

      

He looks a bit like Strahd. Is it Strahd? Did everyone know that except me?

Vladislav is a Level 7 chaotic neutral half-elf male fighter. He comes with platemail, which I give to Quill. I have to arm him with a quarterstaff so that he'll be able to do some good from the rear rank. I soon find a halberd to replace it with.

   

It takes me about three hours to get through the caves. I have a block shortly after I start exploring because in order to make progress, I have to open some barriers by pulling ropes on the walls. The problem is—and here my colorblindness might be screwing me again—I can't really see the ropes against the backgrounds. I only find the first one because, having hit nothing but dead ends, I end up both clicking and trying to walk through every wall.

      

Does that look like a pull rope to you?

       

There are ultimately four keys scattered about, all needed to open a series of those spinning barriers. There are also teleporters, illusory walls, and spinners aplenty, plus a couple of corridors where lightning bolts and fireballs come shooting at the party. One of them kills Irmgarde at one point, and Quill remarks that without her, we have no hope of entering the portal in the caverns. I didn't realize she was that key.

         

A lightning bolt is about to kill us. One of those barriers spins to our left.

        

The floors are so scattered with scrolls, potions, wands, and weapons that my inventory is soon bursting. I start using things just to clear some space.

     

An Oil of Fiery Burning damages a bone golem.

      

The level is swarming with skeletons, punctuated by the occasional bone golem. The skeletons are trivial; the bone golems are deadly. I keep dying at their hands, reloading, and then killing them at a distance with Oils of Fiery Burning. "Turn Undead" turns out to be a single-enemy spell, though it refreshes quickly. It completely kills the enemy when it works. All the characters hit Level 7 in the caverns.

     

Somers takes a mace to the face.

      

We find a mage's scroll at one point. It's written from the perspective of someone trying to escape from Ravenloft, convinced that there are portals that can be opened with various rituals (including killing a wereraven beneath a full moon). It ends by wondering: "Lifting the cures of Alabain, acquiring Trimia's Catalogue of Outer Plane Artifacts, finding the date of the Great Alignment of Southern Stars, which of these holds the most promise?" 

      

There was this weird pile of clerics' gear in one cavern. None of it was magical.

       

We find the portal in the southwestern part of the level, behind a couple of secret doors. We walk into it. I don't understand what happens, but we find ourselves back in the Wooded Area with Irmgarde and Vladislav both gone, their stuff piled on the ground in front of us. Neither are back at the entrance. Did they jack our portal? If not, why did we not all appear in the same place?

      

Confronting the portal.

     

In any event, I'm glad to be out of the caverns. I have not enjoyed this game's approach to dungeons nearly as much as its approach to other areas. The dungeons have been too cramped and confusing. I did forget until the end of this session that the player can write annotations on the automap, though, which might have made the place easier to navigate.

     

This was a big map.

       

We head back to town and go to the Burgomaster's to enlist Glorianna again. He tells us that she's gone to the tavern, where we find her and convince her to re-join us. With no more cleric, at least for now, we go to the house of Tatian the fighter and ask her to join. She's only Level 4, so I hope not to have to keep her for long. We then return to the forest to pick up the various items. I just realized typing this that we could have enlisted Ryszard instead. Maybe I'll do that when the next session begins.

     

Is she any relation to the Tatyana who plunged to her death?

       

While in the Wooded Area, I happen to notice a cave I missed during my initial explorations. So I may pop in there next before . . . I don't know . . . returning to Strahd? Oh! I forgot to tell you that I found a Church Vestibule Key in the caverns, so that's a potential path forward. What do you think: Should I spend some time in the next entry comparing what this game has shown us to the original model, or should I save that for the end?

           

Time so far: 11 hours 

09/13/2026 

Game 590: Labyrinths (1982)

 

You have to admire a game that gets right down to business.

      

Labyrinths

United States

Progressive Computer Applications (developer and publisher)
Released 1982 for Atari 800
Date Started: 10 September 2026

Date Ended: 10 September 2026

Total Hours: 2

Difficulty:  Easy (2.0/5), not that it means much in this game, since there's no objective

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later) 

     

Any player who has sampled Telengard (1982) or one of the other DND variants knows that the geography of those games is just an illusion; the character can hit (P)ass next to the stairs and receive encounter after encounter. This game does away with the illusion. It's all-text. There is no movement, no sense of any geography. The player enters the dungeon and gets encounter after encounter until he dies.

      

Ads for the game in magazines like Antic and Compute stressed this inherent randomness. "DIFFERENT EVERYTIME [sic] YOU PLAY!" the publisher boasted.

      

I enter a very small office every day.

         

There's no backstory except that the character is going to descend into a network of labyrinths and try to get rich. The player names the character and chooses from fighter, thief, cleric, and magic-user classes. Each character starts with between roughly 1 and 15 hit points (class dependent) and a spear. He immediately starts encountering gnolls, mummies, zombies, giant spiders, dragons, and 30 or so other D&D-style creatures. As in the DND variants, these monsters all have an explicit level between 1 and roughly the player's current level plus 2. There can be multiple monsters, but they attack and die as a unit rather than individually.

        

If the player successfully kills the monsters in combat, he gets experience and finds treasure that can include weapons, armor, scrolls, and gold. Gold is converted directly to experience. The player can find treasures irrespective of monsters, too, and just as in Telengard, it's always fun when a Level 1 player finds treasure worth 5,000 gold pieces and gets to Level 3 immediately. Levels come with extra strength and hit points.

       

This was a good day.

       

So far, this seems like an awfully basic game, and it is, but Labyrinths has some surprises when it comes to combat. It's unexpectedly tactical, and in a way that's class-dependent. Some examples:

   

• Enemies start at range. Some try to maintain a range, others close the gap. The player can also run towards or away from the enemy. He might want to maintain distance from melee enemies, using his own missile weapons, or run towards enemies with breath attacks and kill them in melee combat. If he runs far enough away, he escapes.

• The character can carry several weapons, both melee and missile, and use them as the situation demands.

     

Combat options for a magic-user  character.

       

• Spellcasters get typical D&D spells at appropriate levels, including "Magic Missile," "Shield," "Strength," "Speed," "Lightning Bolt," and "Hold Monster." Clerics get several variations of "Cure," "Teleport," "Hold Person," and "Flame Strike," among others.

• Thieves can hide in shadows and backstab. 

     

I somehow managed to backstab with a bow and arrow.

        

• Characters can find magic weapons and armor in the dungeon or purchase them from an occasional merchant. Magic weapons may have an increased chance to hit, increased damage, or both.

• The game tracks encumbrance, also based on class. 

• All characters can read magic scrolls, though they don't know the effects until they've read them. These scrolls might heal, protect, or strengthen the character.  

• The player can consult battle statistics that show his chances to hit the monster and vice versa.

     

Statistics for the current battle.

      

• Every once in a while, the game gives the player the option to leave the dungeon and go outside. If he takes it, he always a) encounters a merchant and can buy one item, b) rests and heals, and c) immediately encounters a pit that dumps him back into the dungeon. 

     

Do I have to count them out individually?

        

It's too bad that this is all for nothing. The game has no quest. The character can never escape the dungeon or retire. (I've verified this by inspecting the file.) He just keeps fighting until he dies and gets a score.

     

So it goes.

       

Although there are no graphics, the game does offer basic sounds (crunches and such) during combat. The game changes colors of the screen background and text at random, which I could do without. All command prompts are given on-screen, which is handy.

    

Although there are things I like about the game, I think the ad over-sells it a bit.

      

I've often thought that in an all-text game, there isn't any excuse for simple mechanics, since the developer didn't have to spend time or disk space on graphics. By the same token, though, I think that there's no excuse for an all-text game to offer no story or ending. 

      

I can't find that the Burtonsville, Maryland-based PCA ever made or marketed any other games; they must have blown their budget on full-page ads. Labyrinths sold for $28.95 on disk, or about $100 even today, which is pretty crazy. Still, for a game that isn't very good (GIMLET of 15), it isn't half bad.

   

For further reading:

• My "Index of Games by Lineage" has the titles in the DND line. 
• El Explorador de RPG's coverage of Labyrinth. As usual, he gets into more details about statistics and mechanics than I did. 

     

****

    

That's all I accomplished this week. How pathetic is that? Less than 1,000 words. I wanted to couple this with one or two other short games, but I ran out of time, and I knew that if I allowed myself to break my regular posting schedule, which has been intact since April, I'd end up taking a long hiatus. I might anyway; this month is killing me. But cross your fingers for another Ravenloft entry on Sunday.

 

Pagan: The Necromancer's Apprentice

So is anyone going to come along and move him?

       

The Guardian has marooned the Avatar on the world of Pagan, which is dominated by four titans, each with its own school of magic. The Avatar has learned that if he wants to escape, he's going to have to master the different magical systems. Let's get that organized:

       

Realm	Titan	Magic  School	Founder	Current Rep
Earth	Lithos	Necromancy	Moriens: Made a deal with Lithos to stop earthquakes in exchange for Pagans serving Lithos in death.	Lothian/Vividos
Water	Hydros	Tempestry	Kalen, a Necromancer: Imprisoned Hydros when the titan would not return his dead girlfriend, stole water magic from Hyrdos.	Mordea
Air	Stratos	Theurgy	Stellos: Caused the titan to breathe life into Kalen's beloved, lost his sight as a result.	????
Fire	Pyros	Sorcery	Four unnamed theurgists who used blackrock to imprison Pyros and thus stop a volcano from destroying the world.	????
????	None	Thaumaturgy	Unknown.	Mythran

     

The backstory of the game has a Guardian whispering dissent to the old followers (Zealans) of the three emotional gods, turning them to the worship of elemental titans as a way to defend against a coming Destroyer. A suggestion has been made in the comments that the Guardian (the evil being) was both the Guardian and Destroyer of Pagan and essentially the creator of the elemental titans. (Joshua's rot-13'd comment in that thread is worth reading.) It's an inspired idea, that the Guardian is uniquely good at identifying a world's weaknesses and exploiting them, much as he did with the Fellowship on Britannia—and that he has done so across multiple worlds (we have hints of a few other cases in Ultima Underworld II). I can't help but lament what could have been if someone at Origin had ever created some kind of governing document for the entire Ultima universe, outlining the true nature of these multiple worlds, the true nature of the Guardian, and the reason that magic works differently from place to place. This is exactly the sort of thing that Brandon Sanderson would do with his Cosmere in another decade.

       

The magical assignments seem a bit dubious to me. The link between water and tempestry is the most solid, but I believe that the term was invented for this game. As for the others . . . I don't see why necromancy should be concerned primarily with earth (yes, yes, interment, but still) or healing with air. "Pyromancy" would make sense with fire, but "sorcery" in general? The Ultima series likes to create neat little packages of its themes (8 virtues, 8 classes, 8 towns), but they don't always hold together well. The associations between elements and magic are, to me, the "bards = compassion" of Pagan.

      

I take some time to finally organize my backpack.

                

(You didn't ask, but writing "tempestry" several times made me think of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which I think is his most autobiographical play and thus one of the most interesting to study, but it's my least favorite to see performed. There's virtually no conflict in it at all.) 

       

But back to the present game. The Avatar has agreed to be the apprentice for Vividos, the new Necromancer Supreme, which of course begins with a fetch quest. I have to head to Western Tenebrae for some "fallen sticks from the place where spirits roam." This would be a good time to introduce the map I've been working on for the world as a whole:

     

I haven't visited much so far.

           

I'm not sure whether "West Tenebrae" means the area I've already explored (and found no sticks) or the map even further west than that, which I have not yet visited.

     

I know where there are spirits in West Tenebrae, though I don't remember any sticks there. I revisit just to be sure. I kill the ghost and his ghouls again, and yes, there are a couple of poles on the ground, but I don't think that's what Vividos was talking about. I'm just about to leave the area when I click on some sticks that look like a part of the background texture, and it turns out that they're what I'm looking for: Dead Man's Elbow.

    

The "elbows" are the items to the left and right of the tree in the upper-left corner.

       

I'm a bit disappointed because I was hoping to explore the area west of West Tenebrae. Even though I have only a Willie Suttonesque reason for doing so, I decide to go there before heading back to Vividos. While trying to find the western exit, I accidentally jump into the river and thus have to repeat everything from the beginning. [Ed. That should have said "George Malloryesque," i.e., "because it's there." Ridiculous mistake.]

         

I end up calling the area "West Valley." It's a truncated map, about as long as a regular map north-south but only about as third as wide east-west. Encounters:

    

• A guardhouse. Inside a barrel, I find an abacus, which automatically counts up my various piles of obsidian pieces. Barrels on the roof include a hallucinogenic mushroom (the screen changes colors for a few seconds) and a hurricane, which does indeed seem to be the New Orleans drink, as after I drink it, the Avatar starts moving around in random directions. Hurricanes suck, by the way. Be a man and order a Sazerac.

    

Of course, just clicking on the pile of obsidian pieces accomplishes the same thing.

         

• There's a waterfall at the north end of the map with some nice water effects. 

     

Contrasting with the absolutely banal depiction of water immediately to the right.

      

• A cave that I nearly miss behind a tree is occupied by a kith. I kill it. Among the skeletons in the cave, I find half a dozen obsidian coins, some spell reagents, and a Scroll of Trap Destruction.

      

It's hard to take screenshots while moving. All my screenshots look like the Avatar is just standing around.

           

• A shack on the western edge is occupied by a woman and a little girl. The woman yells at me to go away, and the girl has the same dialogue options as the inquisitive little girl in Eastern Tenebrae. 

• A house with a roof deck has another one of these girls. They're annoying because you have to go through the whole dialogue before you can move on. 

    

Argh. Not again.

       

• There are a couple of large houses side by side in the southwestern part of the area. One seems to be a store, but nobody is manning the counter. I wait through several time periods.

• The other house is occupied by a fisherwoman named Kilandra. She stays away from town because Mordea "is a selfish, black-hearted woman." She recounts how she brought her sick daughter, Elaina, to the palace steps for healing, but Salkind (the seneschal) insisted that Mordea was taking a bath and couldn't be disturbed, "especially to help a filthy gutter snipe." The girl later died. The name seems familiar, and a quick search reveals she's the author of What the Fish Tell Me, a silly poem for children.

     

Kilandra, this world isn't big enough to have dialects.

        

• A ghost and a pack of ghouls.

• An unoccupied hut. There's a kith in a fenced-in back yard, but I can't figure out how to get to it.

• A changeling. A mandril.

• A dead fisherman on a bedroll next to his rope and basket.

     

Not a bad way to go in this world.

        

• A two-story stone house. It is well-kept and fairly opulent, but no one is living there. It does contribute the humorous My Rival, My Love to the "Books of Pagan" entry. 

        

Does no one live here?

       

That is all I can find, so I gird myself for the long walk back to Vividos. (Couldn't he have invested in a teleportation pad?) A guard stops me as I enter the Eastern Shore area and demands to know what I know of the scholar Bentic. I refuse to answer his questions, so he attacks me, and I actually manage to kill him. A nearby guard says "no fighting" but otherwise doesn't seem perturbed that I've just murdered his compatriot.

   

I decide I'd better see what this is about, so I reload and say, "We have spoken." The guard says that Mordea has executed Bentic for "conducting forbidden research." He then asks about the fisherman, Devon, who of course I also know. He has been arrested and imprisoned. Man, Mordea really has to go.

     

Can't you just say "killed"?

       

I teleport back to the palace. Just for fun, I try to kill Mordea, but the game isn't having it. With the first blow, a sorcerer appears and executes me. Actually, the sorcerer appears, and while Mordea is explaining to him what crime I've committed, she executes me.

      

Down in the dusty basement I previously visited, I find Devon in a locked room. I'm able to speak to him through the door. He asks me to help figure out what is happening and suggests I talk to Salkind. (In any conversation with Mordea, she asks where I'm from and refuses to talk anymore after I give the answer.) I find him in the throne room at mid-day. He is unapologetic about Bentic's execution (though he won't tell me what constitutes "forbidden research") and he says that Devon will be executed soon.

          

At least they gave you a decent bed.

     

Salkind mentions his logbook of executions a couple of times, which is back at his house in East Tenebrae. I head there, and sure enough, it has been updated to include Bentic's execution. It notes that: "The confiscated research is secured in the dungeon evidence chamber for further review to determine the presence of additional conspirators." Does the game really want me to find out the specific reason Bentic was executed? It strikes me that Mordea and Salkind aren't above just executing people on any old trumped-up charge.

     

I find a book in his desk that I missed the first time (or else it wasn't there before). It's called "Enemies of Tenebrae" and lists nearly everyone in Tenebrae.

      

These people seem more like victims of Tenebrae.

      

I toss the place, looking for a key to the dungeon. I'm almost surprised when I find a key under a pot. I find another one under a cloth in his bedroom. Unfortunately, they seem to open a door and chest within his house. The chest has several scrolls and 300 obsidian coins.

       

Damn. I really do need to move everything in this game, don't I?

          

I return to the dungeon and verify that the keys have nothing to do with those doors. I waste a lot of time tossing the dungeon and the palace, looking for the appropriate key. I do find the key to the armory (under a pillow in the barracks), but there's nothing I really want there. I wish I had found it earlier.

         

I think I prefer when the Avatar spoke in keywords rather than questions.

       

Determined to accomplish something this session, I return to Vividos. (Lothian's body is still just lying on the altar.) "I have found your reagents," I say. Vividos praises me and gives me the "Key of the Caretaker." which despite its name is a fairly large staff. He says my next task is to visit the Catacombs, which will require the "Open Rock" spell, cast on the rock face to the north of the Tomb of Moriens. He outlines the process for casting spells as such:

      

You must place the proper reagents in a bag, close the bag, and then invoke the power of the Key [of the Caretaker] on the closed bag. When you open the bag, you will find a magic talisman within. When you invoke the magic of the talisman, you cast the spell.

       

That's a little convoluted, and it requires a free bag. I had hoped to just keep all my reagents in one bag, but I guess that's not going to be possible. "Open Ground" requires Blood and Blackmoor, according to Earthen Magic, and I have both from Vividos's own office. I empty out one of my bags, give it a try, and soon I have an "Open Ground" talisman. Now I want to know whether the system really requires a bag, or whether any container works. In a pinch, could I just hold the reagents in my hand and use the Key on it?

      

Casting the spell on the reagent bag.

      

Vividos also says that I'll need to learn from the ancient necromancers buried in the Catacombs, and for this, I'll need "Death Speak," which requires Blood and Bone. I have two vials of Blood and two piles of Bone shards, but I suspect I'll need more. Hoping I'll find more in the Catacombs themselves (which in retrospect is probably stupid), I move on.

       

North of the Tomb of Moriens, I thought a ghost was blocking the exit to a new area. I see now that he's just blocking the gate to a building. I manage to kill the ghost this time; my strength and dexterity both hit their max of 25 during this battle. 

   

I enter the building and use the talisman on the stone wall, which opens to reveal a cavernous entrance.

        

I guess I should have assumed it would open at the end of the middle path flanked by busts of Lithos.

        

I start exploring the Catacombs. Encounters:

   

• Skeletons and ghouls. The skeletons are remarkably persistent here, following me from room to room, and rising even if I'm nowhere near their corpses. It would be nice if I were taught some kind of spell to kill them permanently.  

     

Slain by the undead.

       

• Holes in the walls shooting fireballs.

• Levers that open gates.

• A lever that flips the entire world upside down; I consider playing like this for as long as it will let me, but it gets annoying fast.

     

I need to test the limits of this.

       

• Pits that suddenly open up in the floor, requiring me to climb out. Some of these open into pools of lava or acid or something, which means I'm trying to climb out, which is hard enough, while taking damage. I die repeatedly from these.

      

I think I like it better in here.

         

• Gates that shoot electricity between them.

• An enormous pile of skeletons, not to mention all the ones in loculi on the walls. None of them seem to have anything. Eventually, I stop checking.

• I bypass a closed gate by climbing over a pillar.  

      

I just realized I probably could have jumped up on that roof from here. I'll have to go back and try it.

       

• I reach a plaque that reads "Hegland Hegwood." I think this might be one of the ancient necromancers, but when I cast "Death Speak" on any of the bodies in the area, nothing happens. Ditto with "John of Garland."

• A plaque reads, "Danger, do not enter." I enter anyway. The room beyond has "strange holes" in the floor that spout jets of flame if I get too close. I skirt them and grab a bag from the floor, which I really need.

• A two-story building has a chest on the top. Getting up there takes some real effort (I have to climb some nearby ruins). It has a Scroll of Trap Detection and several fire gems. I still don't really know whether they're spell reagents or valuables. I have a lot.

     

A great leap forward.

       

I really wanted to finish the Catacombs before posting, but alas, I ran out of time, and I wanted to keep my normal schedule. If I break the pattern, before you know it, I'll be on "hiatus." Thus, we'll have to resolve these plot points next time. 

    

I did find myself enjoying the game a bit more this time around. In my most recent entry on Ravenloft, VK noted some similarities between it and Pagan. It's an apt comparison. Both feature depopulated, depressing worlds run by tyrants and full of undead. Both have vacant houses and a general sense that the world's best days are behind them. I think the problem that I have with Pagan is that I've lost faith in the development team when it comes to the integrity of their storytelling. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to regard all the empty mansions as a sign of a society that keeps executing its citizens or whether I'm to regard them as a sign that Origin ran out of time before it fully populated the world with NPCs.

      

This session, I had more fun as I realized I was giving Origin the benefit of the doubt. It does make sense if you compare Salkind's execution logbook with the vacant manors, for instance. It would just make more sense if more NPCs seemed to realize that their society is past the point of recovery. Anyway, I'll try to keep on in this more positive vein.

   

Time so far: 18 hours

   

****

   

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   09/08/2026