Version: 1.00
Platform: DM PC
Author: Toni Ylisirniö
Email address: tylisirn@multi.fi
Date published: 2000, August 27
Date last updated: 2000, August 27
Story:
Theron paced around in the room. His master, Grey Lord, had collapsed while in his study and was now lying on the bed. Theron had done all he could to remedy his master's condition, yet it was all in vain.
Then all the sudden Grey Lord opened his eyes. "Theron" his words were a mere whispers, "Theron, He is... strugling again". Theron hasted beside Grey Lord, "Who is Master, who?"
"Lord Chaos. He has deviced a way... to free himself". The words came with great hardship from the lips of the old man." A gateway to the ethereal plane... Into our minds, Theron. In my absent moments He has been able to mutate the original Dungeon. A great device has been built to the very core of Mt. Anaias.
"Theron, enter the Dungeon. The Hall of Champions is still intact. The heroes still frozen in the mirrors. But go quickly, for He is growing stronger each passing moment. Guide the heroes once again and restore balance!
"You must find a way into His labratory. The gate is sealed with a orange gem, hidden into the depths of the Dungeon. Enter the chambers which reside the Astral Gate, activate it. You can then reach Chaos on the ethreal plane.
"The place is a madness, shaped by our minds. Yours, mine and His! Will the Firestaff back to existance! Fuse Him with my other half so I may sustain Him once more.
Theron bowed to his master and started to rise. "I will Master. I will." He began long incantations which would transport his mind to the foot of Mt. Anaias. Allow him to guide the spirits of the heroes and restore balance into the world.
"Go with haste, for time is growing short!" With those words Grey Lord slipped back to unconsiouness, fighting in an inner struggle with Chaos and Order. Desperate to hold the two parts together...
Aim:
Get rid of Lord Chaos.
Notes:
Programs used: DMute 1.3
Instructions:
To Play the Game: Copy the RETURN.DAT file over your DUNGEON.DAT in \DM\DATA\ folder. Don't forget to backup your original DUNGEON.DAT! Start the game as normal.
Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)
[Custom dungeon] Return of Chaos [DM PC] [Toni Ylisirniö]
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[Custom dungeon] Return of Chaos [DM PC] [Toni Ylisirniö]
Toni Ylisirniö
Author of Grave of King Millias, Return of Chaos, and DM2 dungeons.
Author of Grave of King Millias, Return of Chaos, and DM2 dungeons.
Custom dungeon 'Return of Chaos' review by Michael Hutton (a.ka. Beowuuf)
Reviewer: Michael Hutton (a.ka. Beowuuf)
Gameplay: 8
Originality: 7. As with 'The Grave of King Millias' dungeon, retains DM feel beautifully, while still being original in traps.
Difficulty: 7. Lack of food/water killed me, otherwise wouldn't have been a problem.
Puzzles: 7. More good original puzzles.
Size: 7
Replayability: 6. Smaller size and more straightforward.
Craft: 6. Early days of DMuting, but the 'madness of the Grey Lord's mind was cool.
Game Ending: 8
Atmosphere: 8. Just having an original DM story made the atmosphere great.
Overall: 8. A worthy successor to DM if short and not as difficult. A DM 1 1/2, nice filler while waiting for CSB
Best part: Being able to jump right to the Firestaff if you want, and actually taking out the golem with a lucky hit!
Worst part: Running out of food and water - all because I couldn't solve a puzzle!
Review: The eight RA keys are the same... test keys left in that shouldn't be available, I believe.
Gameplay: 8
Originality: 7. As with 'The Grave of King Millias' dungeon, retains DM feel beautifully, while still being original in traps.
Difficulty: 7. Lack of food/water killed me, otherwise wouldn't have been a problem.
Puzzles: 7. More good original puzzles.
Size: 7
Replayability: 6. Smaller size and more straightforward.
Craft: 6. Early days of DMuting, but the 'madness of the Grey Lord's mind was cool.
Game Ending: 8
Atmosphere: 8. Just having an original DM story made the atmosphere great.
Overall: 8. A worthy successor to DM if short and not as difficult. A DM 1 1/2, nice filler while waiting for CSB
Best part: Being able to jump right to the Firestaff if you want, and actually taking out the golem with a lucky hit!
Worst part: Running out of food and water - all because I couldn't solve a puzzle!
Review: The eight RA keys are the same... test keys left in that shouldn't be available, I believe.
Was unable to (permenantly) kill off ian_scho (Haynuus), Ameena, oh_brother (Westian), money (Falkor), raixel (Petal) and Lord_Bones (Aurek) in the DM D&D game Time's Champions!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME WHAT IT WAS - GREAT!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME WHAT IT WAS - GREAT!
-
PicturesInTheDark
- Arch Master
- Posts: 1154
- Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 4:47 pm
- Location: Vienna, Austria
Custom dungeon 'Return of Chaos' review by PicturesInTheDark
Reviewer: PicturesInTheDark
Gameplay: 6. Straight dungeon approach with 3 ways to solve leading to a single final path. Not too heavy to follow, pleasant to play.
Originality: 5. Although probably not too hard to build this dungeon had some fun riddles in it. For example, the teleporter room area in level 1 took me by surprise, I also liked the variation of the Matrix and the hidden objects to be gained at the end of the three starting ways if you happened to solve that “riddle” (I did only by chance).
Difficulty: 6. I would have rated 7 and liked it more – but I think you overdid a little at the end. The “Prepare to meet your doom are” was all right with me (why are there an overall of 8 Ra keys by the way, did I miss something?), then it got a little heavy because training was nigh impossible in this dungeon. On the other hand, it was certainly solvable as well as survivable and I had good fun while playing it.
Puzzles: 6. No new stuff from my point of view but nice variations and themes out of the “known” riddle database of DM/CSB. The teleporter area in level 1 was my favourite, the small tip on the hat via CSB with the mummies was also a nice touch. For a quick dungeon pretty solid work.
Size: 7. I enjoy shorter dungeons since I don’t always want to play for days to get near the end. A little more would have enriched this one though – after completing the three initial ways I could have done with a little more tension towards the end and not more or less suddenly stumbling into Chaos.
Replayability: 5. A little too short to play again soon.
Craft: 7. Solid work, little flaws (see comments below for details), as far as I can tell traps and actuators worked fine and as intended. After finishing I had a look in CSBuild and was wondering how you managed the lightning bolts in level 10 – I could find no source of them… but they worked, I can assure you
Game Ending: 7. On the one hand too short (as said above), a little more preparation before the final fight would have been all right, on the other hand I appreciate that you did not throw all kinds of different creatures onto the party just because they had not been used yet.
Atmosphere: 7. Good gameplay-feeling, some nice/nasty surprises, difficulty was sometimes a bit jumpy in progress, I always had fun playing and never got stuck.
Overall: 6
Best part: Teleporting area (level 1), Matrix variation, “bonus riddle” at the end of the three ways, facing Chaos alone without demons, black flames or dragons.
Worst part: “Beware my twisted humor” was pretty deadly, fireball area in level 3 was hard since you cannot train and my characters (though only two) were still weak. Two riddles were rendered worthless by doors that should not have buttons (see below).
Review: CONTAINS SPOILERS
The “Time is of the essence” area in level 1 should be accessible only after getting the green gem if I am not mistaken. Unfortunately, the door leading into it has a pushbutton as well, so my party started out with the diamond edge, Power Towers, Dex Helm and Vorpal blade. Very comfortable but I believe that was not the idea. The teleported apple (CSBwin analysis after the game) did close the doors to those four precious items but after triggering the pressure plate (audible !) they reopened. Although I did mind being quick I doubt I would have gotten all if they would have closed again after a while. The way it was designed I had no trouble getting all because if I did not trigger the plate again the doors stayed open. Maybe this has something to do with converting the dungeon to CSBwin format – I don’t know how you intended this area to work.
Analogue with the ruby key hole/respective door in level 4. But in this case the key was nearby already as I found out after the riddle with the pushbuttons. In this case I deliberately ignored the pushbutton on the door since I suspected it might be similar to the green gem
I liked the direct, small approach even leaving out some monsters because there was no need for them – otherwise it would have been too much. Had a good time playing this and being able to finish a dungeon in only a few hours is certainly nice for a change. Thank you!
Gameplay: 6. Straight dungeon approach with 3 ways to solve leading to a single final path. Not too heavy to follow, pleasant to play.
Originality: 5. Although probably not too hard to build this dungeon had some fun riddles in it. For example, the teleporter room area in level 1 took me by surprise, I also liked the variation of the Matrix and the hidden objects to be gained at the end of the three starting ways if you happened to solve that “riddle” (I did only by chance).
Difficulty: 6. I would have rated 7 and liked it more – but I think you overdid a little at the end. The “Prepare to meet your doom are” was all right with me (why are there an overall of 8 Ra keys by the way, did I miss something?), then it got a little heavy because training was nigh impossible in this dungeon. On the other hand, it was certainly solvable as well as survivable and I had good fun while playing it.
Puzzles: 6. No new stuff from my point of view but nice variations and themes out of the “known” riddle database of DM/CSB. The teleporter area in level 1 was my favourite, the small tip on the hat via CSB with the mummies was also a nice touch. For a quick dungeon pretty solid work.
Size: 7. I enjoy shorter dungeons since I don’t always want to play for days to get near the end. A little more would have enriched this one though – after completing the three initial ways I could have done with a little more tension towards the end and not more or less suddenly stumbling into Chaos.
Replayability: 5. A little too short to play again soon.
Craft: 7. Solid work, little flaws (see comments below for details), as far as I can tell traps and actuators worked fine and as intended. After finishing I had a look in CSBuild and was wondering how you managed the lightning bolts in level 10 – I could find no source of them… but they worked, I can assure you
Game Ending: 7. On the one hand too short (as said above), a little more preparation before the final fight would have been all right, on the other hand I appreciate that you did not throw all kinds of different creatures onto the party just because they had not been used yet.
Atmosphere: 7. Good gameplay-feeling, some nice/nasty surprises, difficulty was sometimes a bit jumpy in progress, I always had fun playing and never got stuck.
Overall: 6
Best part: Teleporting area (level 1), Matrix variation, “bonus riddle” at the end of the three ways, facing Chaos alone without demons, black flames or dragons.
Worst part: “Beware my twisted humor” was pretty deadly, fireball area in level 3 was hard since you cannot train and my characters (though only two) were still weak. Two riddles were rendered worthless by doors that should not have buttons (see below).
Review: CONTAINS SPOILERS
The “Time is of the essence” area in level 1 should be accessible only after getting the green gem if I am not mistaken. Unfortunately, the door leading into it has a pushbutton as well, so my party started out with the diamond edge, Power Towers, Dex Helm and Vorpal blade. Very comfortable but I believe that was not the idea. The teleported apple (CSBwin analysis after the game) did close the doors to those four precious items but after triggering the pressure plate (audible !) they reopened. Although I did mind being quick I doubt I would have gotten all if they would have closed again after a while. The way it was designed I had no trouble getting all because if I did not trigger the plate again the doors stayed open. Maybe this has something to do with converting the dungeon to CSBwin format – I don’t know how you intended this area to work.
Analogue with the ruby key hole/respective door in level 4. But in this case the key was nearby already as I found out after the riddle with the pushbuttons. In this case I deliberately ignored the pushbutton on the door since I suspected it might be similar to the green gem
I liked the direct, small approach even leaving out some monsters because there was no need for them – otherwise it would have been too much. Had a good time playing this and being able to finish a dungeon in only a few hours is certainly nice for a change. Thank you!