[Custom dungeon] The Trail [RTC] [Saumun]

[Prince of Elves]

Head -> table... head -> table... I can't believe how long it took me to figure out that

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haze/switch riddle in KU. Sometimes the mind works in strange ways. ^^

[Saumun]

To get the Kath rune is a simple action, but not obvious (I maybe should have added a clue).

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Not looking where you’re going can force a way.

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There IS something more to the pauper. He must, in death, become the prince’s equal. There is something about the graves.

[Prince of Elves]

OK, got those. So, back down to KU again.

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Got the bomb as you already know, and got the key to the pump. It's still not sucking in those fumes, but no need for a hint yet. Ah, well, just a thought: there's a reason for that shutter after all, let's try to create some low pressure first. Otherwise, I'll have to find some spot for that vacuum fuse.

[Saumun]

You don’t need to go as complex as...

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thinking about pressure. As long as you pump enough into the room and prevent it escaping, you’re good to go.

[Prince of Elves]

OK, got me there...

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Was a bit confused because I couldn't see anything happening and on top of that, it takes a while to work - which is realistic, so I'm OK with that. I guess you thought about some optical help yourself, probably there are restrictions due to the engine used. But what would have helped me there: If somehow either the cloud could be seen showing up in the room, or at least if the yellow cloud vanished faster in that right spot with the inlet open.

Anyway, did need that hint and am going on now.

[Prince of Elves]

Thought a while about Project 17, and then thought a while longer if I should write anything about it: it's your game after all and I don't want to impose on it. On the other hand: you decide what (if anything) to do with my thoughts, so here they are:

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I feel that section got some logical problems: I threw a IA bomb squarely at the Knight and it just kept standing there grinning at me (well, couldn't see that because all that yellow smoke ). After your hint I tried running for some more bombs and threw them next to the open inlet, and I was fast enough to get more smoke there when there was still a remnant of the old cloud hanging there. So the room inside must have been pretty yellow by the time, didn't interest the Knight either.

To adress that first problem you maybe could have the Knight already trapped in the room with the door shut and only opening after its gone - I think hearing it behind there along with the scroll should be hint enough especially since there is the additional hint delivered by mail.

The second one could be solved by a time lapse before that bomb respawns, but that may cause other problems as people may not realize it does respawn...

[Prince of Elves]

And I'm afraid I need another hint: ROS

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Worked out the obvious parts some time ago when I was still stuck at the spider and ghost sections. Found the square key and thus the nightblade, but not the ROS rune. There is still a huge blank on the northeastern part of my map but I have no idea how to get there as I didn't see any more switches, fake walls or pits above. And while I consider the possibility that I can access it from below, I'll still need to find the rune to get that ladder down.

Oh, and two more questions while I'm at it.

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What is it with that laser lens effect? I placed that table top on the spot as I can see no effect of it except barring my way through at certain times of the day.
And that sun painting in NETA sections feels like there could be a secret to it but I didn't get it off the wall.

[Saumun]

When you walk into the Ros section...

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and turn north, you come to a 3x3 room with seemingly no exit but you can see on the map there are more places to go.
Have a look around this room and keep checking your map.

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For the light beam, you don’t need it just yet but will soon. Consider the source of the beam and the name of a weapon you found.

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There is something to that sun picture. Sometimes with large wall objects it depends where you click. Try grabbing it near the top.

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The temple has another essential function. Consider the name of the temple and the message on a scroll you found with some bones.

[Saumun]

By the way...

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covering the beam in the caves with the tabletop will ensure you can always pass the area where it’s most concentrated (in Ku), but when I said to consider the beam’s source and the weapon you have, I meant in Ku where the beam ends... so you’ll have to remove the tabletop at some point.

[Prince of Elves]

It's seems I'm even worse with hidden triggers than I already knew, I was in that room more than once before, but well, that's all done now and I'm back to the surface.

One thing I still couldn't solve

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was the sun painting. I vaguely remember having similar problem in DM2, but no matter where I click, it won't come off. Is there a condition to be met? If possible, I'd rather solve that one before desecrating the temple.

On the good side: I had to laugh at the location of the secret armour plate. I really love tweaks like that.

[Saumun]

Hmm... now that I think back, it might indeed be after you’ve done the other thing that I mentioned at the temple.

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... the one concerning the message with the bones, and the name of the temple.

I’d have to check later.

[Prince of Elves]

OK, that may work. First time I tried that

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the abbot stood squarely on the crossroads and that scroll told me to be ruthless. This time I got out with the bones first and am waiting for midnight to see if I got the right spot. Afterwards, I'll go back down to check.

[Prince of Elves]

Regarding that sun:

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Have to be a real arse first and thank those priests for all they did for me. The sun changes its colors after and then its no problem to get it off. What do I learn from that? Sometimes its best to wait before asking.

[Saumun]

Hmm... sounds like

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the abbot may have been attracted by the party presence and refused to move. I might have to look at putting in something to draw him away in future. The “ruthless” thing should be optional.
The red sun does lead to something, but it’s just a “nice to have” item and not essential to any progression.

[Prince of Elves]

So, after three levels with no major problems I'm still only at 84% completion. Got 23/30 secrets, so good progress there. But now I got this scrambled scroll...

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Here's what I tried so far: "rising seven" -> replace the letters with another, seven positions apart in the alphabet, butno sense to be had there (randomly checked for some other combinations but found none that seemd to work so far either); "I vow to con you" -> changing vowels for consonants and vice versa ("Up and down") can't be it either, because in that text there's almost no vowels so after changing (and to which ones, exactly?), there'd be almost only vowels left, so no sense to be had that way, too.
So I'll try some other linear replacements for now (Cesarean, I believe, that kind of code is called) and ignore the text above.

[Saumun]

You’re somewhere along the right lines.

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I hope it’s not giving too much away to say that you should consider “up and down” and “vow to con” as parallel (vow to con is indeed referring to vowels and consonants).

I should also point out that the uncovered message requires DM knowledge to make sense.

[Saumun]

I think I might have given the wrong impression in the last post. What I should have said is...

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”vow” refers to vowels and “con” to consonants, but NOT changing from one to the other. Connect them to “up and down”.

[Prince of Elves]

I considered both possibilities, but could not make anything out of it yet. But I don't have much time to play at the moment anyway, so I'll have that riddle lying around here and look at it during spare moments. And I still got that area six feet under to explore, so no worries.

[Prince of Elves]

OK, it seems I'm at a loss.

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I tried exchanging the letters by a constant scale, and by using just the first line to check all 25 possible movements it doesn't seem I can get any readable text out of it, even if I consider that the vowels may have a different scale. (Not as much work as it may sound, because if you write it in a line, you just have to move one letter forward in each line. )
Also tried reading those snippets back to front. What I did not try was reading those line "Chinese style" (ie: up and down) because I have no idea what to do with the spaces in that case.

Probably thinking way too complicated again, normally with your hints and my knowledge of the game, there's no need to think further. This time I still have no clue.

Well, back to those ghosts for now. I still have that fireball section to conquer.

[Saumun]

I’m not sure how best to give a hint without giving it away completely...

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You move up through the alphabet for vowels and down for consonants throughout the phrase, but the number of letters you move depends on something there is seven of.

[Prince of Elves]

OK, that's basically what I did. Rechecked and found out I got two letters wrong due to that font (read the V for a U and the Q for a G), but even that didn't help. So, having a bit of programming experience, I tried it with brute force.

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With that kind of code it shouldn't matter if you can figure out the exact number of steps by which to replace the original. I even blanked out the vowels, but try as I might, I see no line I can remotely read. Well, here it is, perhaps you can see what went wrong there (first line is the original from the scroll):

Code: Select all

VRF RFG QRXZ_ SB _CJ JL_JKL L_L__
WSG SGH RSYA_ TC _DK KM_KLM M_M__
XTH THI STZB_ UD _EL LN_LMN N_N__
YUI UIJ TUAC_ VE _FM MO_MNO O_O__
ZVJ VJK UVBD_ WF _GN NP_NOP P_P__
AWK WKL VWCE_ XG _HO OQ_OPQ Q_Q__
BXL XLM WXDF_ YH _IP PR_PQR R_R__
CYM YMN XYEG_ ZI _JQ QS_QRS S_S__
DZN ZNO YZFH_ AJ _KR RT_RST T_T__
EAO AOP ZAGI_ BK _LS SU_STU U_U__
FBP BPQ ABHJ_ CL _MT TV_TUV V_V__
GCQ CQR BCIK_ DM _NU UW_UVW W_W__
HDR DRS CDJL_ EN _OV VX_VWX X_X__
IES EST DEKM_ FO _PW WY_WXY Y_Y__
JFT FTU EFLN_ GP _QX XZ_XYZ Z_Z__
KGU GUV FGMO_ HQ _RY YA_YZA A_A__
LHV HVW GHNP_ IR _SZ ZB_ZAB B_B__
MIW IWX HIOQ_ JS _TA AC_ABC C_C__
NJX JXY IJPR_ KT _UB BD_BCD D_D__
OKY KYZ JKQS_ LU _VC CE_CDE E_E__
PLZ LZA KLRT_ MV _WD DF_DEF F_F__
QMA MAB LMSU_ NW _XE EG_EFG G_G__
RNB NBC MNTV_ OX _YF FH_FGH H_H__
SOC OCD NOUW_ PY _ZG GI_GHI I_I__
TPD PDE OPVX_ QZ _AH HJ_HIJ J_J__
UQE QEF PQWY_ RA _BI IK_IJK K_K__

[Saumun]

It is a very complicated puzzle, and I have been explaining it very badly (sorry about that). In the spoilered part, I have inserted a link to something that better shows how it works...

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I gave the impression that you yourself move up for vowels and down for consonants, rather it has been moved up from a vowel and down from a consonant. Because of this, you cannot initially know which way... but in the first word, if you write out the letters moved up and then underneath the letters moved down, you'll get WSG and UQE under it. Choosing one from each possibility, you can pick out a word in this.
At first I considered this too difficult and was thinking of changing it, but then the guy who playtested it fo me (chaos-shaman) solved it, so I decided to leave it in (a sample size of one isn't great, but it's all I had to work from).
http://www.mediafire.com/file/q7sf6yfbk ... e.png/file

[Prince of Elves]

Whoa, that's evil.

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Actually, I may have almost stumbled across it in the beginning, when I still tried both directions similar because I didn't know which referred to what. Did that steps in my head though, so I had no two lines to choose from (and I'm not sure I would have tried that, but no way to tell now any more). So the rest should be quite doable, let's see how far I get with the aforementioned DM reference.

[Prince of Elves]

OMG, it was even more evil. That was a hard nut to crack. Afterwards I even got the right one immediately, though I'm not entirely sure what I did there. I'll go checking the DM wiki on that aspect.

Edit: Ah OK, forgot about that part, it's been a while that I've played DM.

[Saumun]

Yes, it’s referred to in DM but also it’s...

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a trick you can use on the FulYa level of CSB, but in case a player had experienced neither, it is referred to as such in the DM/CSB Spell png file contained in the zip.

[Prince of Elves]

I consulted that file when I unpacked the game but never thought about afterwards.

But it seems I'm at a loss again:

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I got that urn, or to be precise: the ashes from inside and that he will rise in flames again. I guess that refers to the last room of the keep as it has those ominous holes in the wall, but I don't see what to do with those alcoves, as I can't seem to place anything into them. Tried opening them in all possible combinations, but the pressure plate won't activate by that.

I cleaned the homeworld and the caves below from some new monsters, so I can move freely again. But the final incantation doesn't seem to work yet either. I tried it on that pentagram, by itself and with the other three in a row, but could see no effect. I guess that's something for later.

I believe the critical spot now is that keep room.

[Saumun]

The final room in the keep...

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has a key that is shot by stepping on the pad in the corner. That key will be turned left, right, or go straight through the haze depending on it’s colour. You must catch the key.

Furthermore...

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The final incantation does indeed need to be cast in a pentagram, but not one that you’ve seen. Think about a place in plain sight that you have not been able to enter. You’ll need the key.

Finally...

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I’m getting a little ahead here, but when you meet the clerk of the dock, I’d advise making a save that you don’t overwrite.

[Prince of Elves]

Did the parts after the keep on my own, that is

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I saved before entering the docks and will have to wait anyway since I have to sell my black market things and probably most of the other stuff as well since I won't be coming back, I guess.

Found 27 secrets, so I missed 3, one of them being the RaSar Plate. What the other two may be, I have no clue except perhaps for the Fire Shield, if it exists.

[Saumun]

The final screen will reveal which secrets you didn’t get.

[Prince of Elves]

So OK... still missing are

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as predicted, the RaSar Plate, then the Phantom and the Sun Staff.

Cool game so far. Of course there are sections that seemed more tedious to me, but I'm sure those are exactly the ones that others enjoy most.

One more remark concerning that keep room: I guess you have some acoustics at work when the pressure plate activates. I can't hear those since I lack the higher frequencies. I hear wall thumps and Mummies, for example but no clicks and Screamers are voiceless to me.

Oh, and one more thing, I don't know if it has been already reported or if it is just me: I got the final message after the ending statistics that the champions will be saved and then RTC crashed. I can start Part 2, though, so probably nothing to worry about - and probably nothing you can do about it anyway since I'm asked to send a mail to George.