Shadowcaster: Cloaks and Slings

Like I do so at the beginning of so many of these sections, I begin by stepping into a portal to a new level.

Well, that's good. He's a quick fellow, short range though. He gets in nice and close. This is a tight space to begin with, if you jumped in here before resting, you might get slaughtered. There was no intro cutscene for this level, but it looks like a dungeon. Probably full of more werewolves.

I carefully check each of these cells, but only one has anyone in it. An old man. I think I'll be back here later.

Wow, they are fast, and they do have reach. Great. That's great. The magic sword takes care of them like a dream, however.

Eh...maybe. Its hard to tell. There are two doors, one locked, one not. The one not has a werewolf pressed right up against the door.

A chain...in front of locked cells. Gee, what a puzzle. Not exactly the high-quality Dungeon Master-clone you'd expect.
The man is a cleric of the shapeshifters...whatever that entains. There's narration, which I imagine was a text box originally. The narration, which sometimes pops up in cutscenes, is very audiobook-like. Here, he just tells me mostly what I already know. He's a friend of my grandfather, kill the Werewolf Lord. The other locked door is now open.

What's this, two enemies and an object my foes cannot cross? Whatever shall I do? One of them runs off when damaged, screwing with my plans ever so slightly. Its actually pretty difficult to jump over. The Caun however, can jump over it. I'm pretty sure a human could just climb over it, but bringing logic into just reminds me that I could sidestep it.

The room is some kind of storage area, except there's nothing in there. The only exit, a long corridor. Okay, kind of pointless, but whatever.

The room at the end, full of enemies. Mostly these eye-beholder things. This leaves me feeling quite dry, as I use up my health potions and firewand. Only a mysterious key and the horn.

The room is filled with skeletons, not the kind that attack me. I like this game's morbidity. There's another barrel for me to jump over and a room with what appears to be someone stuffed in a burlap sack. I cannot interact with it. Curious.

There's a little quicksand patch with a skeleton in a hanging cage. There's another chain in front of it. Pulling the chain reveals armor.

The Caun has the ability to walk on such surfaces...slowly...painfully...activating the power multiple times. To do so I get a Caun armor. Yeah, I'm going to use the guy with 20 HP to fight. That's less than a sixth of human form.

Right, after another barrel, there are three rooms. The two off to my sides each contain a single werewolf and another dead guy in a sack. The door in front of me has two werewolves. Each of them are right in front of the door. However, in the front room, the werewolves have trouble getting after me. Which is good for me.

After another mess of combat, I gather any items I find on the floor. Another potion of power...frost wand...silver sword. That's going to ruin some werewolf's day. It better anyway.

The hell? This is weaker than the enchanted sword. Is this supposed to do something? How about with the Maorin?

Only, there aren't anymore on this level. The last werewolf was guarding a stairs up, and the rest of the level is similarly empty. Except for a single cell, where a potion of mana and some silver armor are. Sure helped the last guy, didn't it? First stair down, it crashes. Thanks, lads.

The other level transition, which actually works. I swear to God if I have to restart this...I'm doing it in the PC-98 version. This level is some kind of weird maze thing. Its not bad. Bit of a pain to tell if you're being followed.

Anyway, my plan to try the silver sword with the Maorin works. In the sense that the sword does the same amount of damage.

There's no variety in the way the werewolves attack. Its almost always. RIGHT BEHIND THIS DOOR, SUCKER! That's only effective for so long before it becomes cliche.

I regret saying that, as I soon encounter two red beholders flying high. What begins is five minutes of extremely boring throwing of shuriken. They're at the end of a hallway, I'm at the other. If I don't stand in a way that means I don't get hit, this is going to take even longer.

The big hall they were guarding is something of a throne room. There is one teleporter, which leads to a side room. I don't recall them being necessary. There are two werewolves further in, and a single door out.

Behind a werewolf lies another throne-like room. Only this time it has blue and red cloaks. The red cloaks are the toughest thing I've faced so far. They drained about two bars down 75%. I think they steal life from you when they hit you. Which means I'm going to need to wait some more.

This room had a teleporter and a door out. The door out, being my first choice, led to quite a bit of rooms. A few werewolves, but nothing else. I accidentally go down a set of stairs.

Not pictured, werewolf

Which lead to surprise, surprise, another werewolf encounter. Better go back up and clean out the rest of the last level.

Oh, good. This is gonna take a while.