Most of my gaming time has been devoted to Moria (because it's so damned big), but I've managed to fit in a few hours of The Game of Dungeons over the last week. I've only lost four characters so far, which is quite good; I think that I might still have some residual talent for the game from when I played the earlier version. My current character is an elf named Melf, who has reached fifth level by way of a huge treasure haul. He's at the point now where he's basically invincible against all of the monsters on level 1 of Whisenwood Dungeon. I can roam around without fear, killing everything in sight and never taking even a single hit point of damage. It's quite gratifying after the caution required at the start of the game, and it's a great aid to mapping as well.
I found out the hard way, though, that you have a cap on the amount of treasure that you can carry. The haul I mentioned above was a chest containing 100,000 gold pieces. I was only able to take about 25,000, much to my dismay. The limit is based on your Strength score and your race: Humans can carry the most, then Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes. As an Elf with a Strength of 10, I can't really carry a lot. I'll need to find a Bag of Holding as soon as possible. (Also, the Help file states that you can only gain one level at a time, but I'm certain I jumped from 2nd level to 5th in one go.)
I've only mapped the first level of Whisenwood Dungeon, so my progress is somewhat slow. There are a few things I forgot to mention last week though.
The game still features the same odd trash-talk. Messages such as "Skewered!" and "Ribbons!" appear at the top of the screen whenever you kill a monster. Above is my personal favourite: "What a Moose!", said while defeating a Phantom. It's baffling. Note also that my character in the image above has no sword: it got eaten by a Rust Monster.
There's an area on the first level that causes you to hallucinate. My character above is seeing hallucinatory cobwebs and slime. The doors aren't real either. It was a bit disconcerting the first time it happened, and can really play havoc with your sense of place. It didn't do my map any favours either.
I didn't mention slimes last time around, but they're a pretty major addition to the game. There are seven varieties of slime in the game (including the cobweb pictured above) Each slime affects you in a different way: some will do damage, some will eat magic items, and there are even ones that anesthetize you so you have no idea how many hit points you have left. I've been wading through them and suffering the consequences, but just tonight I discovered that you can kill them from one space away by using magic. You get the option of using Fire, Cold, Lightning of your sword. Each type of slime has it's own particular weakness, and if you pick the correct one it will always succeed. I haven't figured the various weaknesses out yet, but it's good to know now that I can get rid of the buggers.
That's it for this week. It's time to send my character deeper into Whisenwood Dungeon, and hopefully by next week I'll have made some greater progress.
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