Not fed up

[beowuuf]

That area has an annoying trick to it - the 'twisted humour' means you will bounce around, so it might be a little harder to avoid the eyes. Still, the twisted humour should keep seeing you back to the start of the area...

[Trantor]

Also, the level you were scouting is the last one with Wizard Eyes in it, and they are the most dangerous in the first room in the level. So if you pass the first room, you have the worst past you (at least in terms of Wizard Eyes).

Good that you found the Ra Key! It's much more important than the Skull Keys.

This thread is fun! Reading about the perspective of someone who plays this game for the first time is very refreshing.

[slide]

Glad I'm providing some amusement for the old hands here

I'm not sure what the Ra key business is all about at this point, but I do wish to find the skull key on this level (bathrobe / rat level?) because it'd be great to have an express route back up to the other levels. I'm not sure why, but it'd be great, for example, to return to the screaming cabbage room to do some added training or just pick up supplies.

[beowuuf]

Actually, the little fountain room at the end of the rat area is probably your best friend for training, etc. You have a door for security, a regenerating rat room reasonably close, fresh water, and the exit to the skeleton stairwell on hand.

[slide]

I think my team needs to be a bit stronger to train with rats. I tried a few & it's hard work. Well, something to think of. Since I have another Ra key, obviously there is more to do at the level with the rainbow doors implying I'll need to commute from here or lower to there at least once. Given this game's pattern, I suspect it'll be more than once too. I doubt I'm going to take this Ra key, go to that level, open a door, grab a foozle and that's it. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

So I'm going to scour this area looking for that skull key. Also there may be things left undone such as the vorpal blade I had to go back for. Going back at this point would be laborious. As I go deeper, that will only get worse. I'm supposing the skulls are an express route to the big room.

[Trantor]

The Skull Keys indeed provide an express route back up. You need to go back up

Spoiler

once

as soon as you have the necessary keys. By now, you should have found two Ra Keys. You need to find

Spoiler

one more

as well as

Spoiler

another special key (you will know that it's important once you have it)

. So, I'd say go a bit deeper before you take the expressway back up.

[Ameena]

It's fortunately easy enough to return to the bit you mentioned with the "rainbow doors" (assuming you mean the ones on Lvel 7 which look like forcefields and which have Ra-shaped keyholes beside them) - once you've opened the Central Stairwell (with skeleton keys), you can get back up to Level 8 pretty easily, and then just nip around the corner and upstairs to Level 7 .
Bear in mind, while looking for future skeleton keys, that they may not all be in chests. And they're grey...

[slide]

Thanks again. Yeah, I"m aware of the fact that the skel keys may be on the floor and almost impossible for me to see. I can't do anything about that so just must soldier on. Trantor - yeah, I found another Ra but will just play on from here w/o any further spoilers unless I get stuck. I do tend to get stuck in games finding things - well older games anyway. Not being able to get by a foe which caused my OP is a new one on me. For now, more time maybe training in rat and then down.

[zoom]

Training in the rat level will get you much more experience, since it is a lower level.(compared to the screamer level)
Even if rats are hard to defeat, you should try ..

[slide]

Yeah, I think I'll try.

BTW, is Tiggy a girl or boy? Inquiring minds....

[Gambit37]

Big blonde afro. A feminine tunic and skirt. Lipstick. If she's a boy, she's a very camp one!

[slide]

I guess I missed the lipstick. Thx.

[Trantor]

The gender-issue that really catches people off-guard is that Wuuf is actually female (which puts the manhood of a certain admin here into question...).

[slide]

Gee, I got three girls and a lizard for a team. I thought it was a liz, two boys and a girl.

[Gambit37]

Perhaps the liz is also female

[slide]

All I need is four trombones and I have an act.

[Lee]

You find the trombones on L9 behind the secret wall in an alcove.

[beowuuf]

Hey! BEOwuuf, I'm a totally different Wuuf!

[Ameena]

Out of curiosity, who is in your party? I gather you have Hissssa and Wuuf (which is actually the duo I normally take these days), even if you haven't kept their original names. And I gather the third person is Tiggy. Who's your fourth? It's not Mophus, is it?

[slide]

No, not Morphus. You got them all right. My fourth is a woman with black hair and a yellow dress who looks like an Indian. I need to be at my other place to see the game and her name. Is Morphus good or bad?

What do you think of my team? I considered someone besides Hissa initially but he had no mana & I tend to play magic more than sword. IIRC he was some guy in a hoodie.

[beowuuf]

Chani!

Mophus is ok (he's the journeyman priest), just his grin is so terrifying in the portrait that everyone on the forum is a little scared of him. Me included!

Chani is a good spellcaster, Tiggy's only weakness is her low health and stamina (I tend to go for Boris), but she has the highest mana, I would swear by wuuf because he has the second highest mana, great spellcaster, and starts with the flask. Hissssa's a good dependable tank, as you say he starts with a little more mana than say Daroou. Personally I like the pure tanks like Halk of Stamm, but if you are looking for spellcasters then Hissssa is a good choice for token strongman who won't let you down in the magic learning department.

The guy in the hoodie was probably Alex, and is a low ninja/wizard I think. Middling stats, he'd probably be ok for magic, but I think you made a better choice.

[Ameena]

I think the only characters who start with no mana are Stamm and Halk, aren't they? Or does Daroou have none as well? I recall there are one or two characters who have very low mana - maybe Daroou is one of those. I know Hissssa has low mana, but he at least has enough to cast Lo, then egen that mana point back and cast Ful, so you can practice the Wizzy levels straight away (and obviously Priest levels too, provided you hace a flask, since I think Lo-Ya is the cheapest spell in the game).
Hissssa and Wuuf (reincarnated) are my usual duo. You get a pretty decent melée person, a caster, a free flask, and they both look cool (I find humanish-types boring ). Before I started taking just those two, when I first played RTC I took a party of them plus Gothmog and Gando (again, all reincarnated - apart from the fact it's a better idea in DM anyway, I like being able to name my own characters ).
Ohh, going back to an earlier point regarding magical jewellery - they don't just affect your stats. Check out your skill levels too, before and after equipping certain items .

[zoom]

Daroou has more mana than Hissssa !

[Ameena]

Oh, does he? Lol, I can't remember - it's been ages since I've played it. I wonder why I've never taken him then...

[beowuuf]

He only has a point more mana, and I think is slower to learn spells. I think Hissssa makes either a good priest right off the bat, or learns spells marginally faster. Hmm, need to look at the stats to back that one up!

[Ameena]

Well, Hissssa's always been fine for me - he was one of the ones I usually used to take back on the Atari too. Though of course, now I play with Reincarnation, he becomes a female .

[linflas]

i took both of them on the Atari. i used to prefer non human characters probably...

[Ameena]

Hehe, yeah, I do too now...though back on the Atari I can remember taking Hawk quite often - Hawk and Hissssa used to be my first two guys on more than one occasion. I can't remember who the other two were, but I can remember one time I had Azizi in my second slot (and presumably, therefore, hadn't taken one of either Hawk or Hissssa because they'd always be my first two people and be at the front as the fighters) because she was dead when I finished the game, lol.

[Trantor]

Your party is fine, but melee is usually more effective than magic. Anyway, Hissssa is a decent fighter with a respectable amount of mana. Stamm is probably the only one whom I consider clearly superior, mostly for his axe and high stamina. But he does not have mana.
Wuuf is just a good all-around caster, has very high mana and a handy flask.
Tiggy has the most mana and a high wisdom and is thus the most specialized spell-caster. She has the lowest health and stamina, however, making her a little nuisance sometimes. Boris is certainly superior (and still my favourite character, as you can tell from my avatar).
Chani has the highest wisdom and the Moonstone and is an excellent spellcaster as well. I still prefer Boris, but she isn't far behind.

But to be honest, character selection doesn't matter that much after the initial first few levels, at least not if you train all characters to be all-rounders instead of specialists (which I strongly recommend; you just get a lot more levels and thus more health, stamina and mana for everyone).

[Chaos-Shaman]

Yeah, I think I'll try.

BTW, is Tiggy a girl or boy? Inquiring minds....

hehehe, the portraits are so crude, you can't make it out. i thought Chani in the original DM was a dude, heh
pigs as rats, hahahahaha, your description says it all.
welcom to the forums slide