Dungeon Master: Dwindling Supplies

Level 10, which is just about where you'd think the game would end. Its business as usual from a playing perspective, another message on the wall saying turn back. In a room with no doors or anything, just a hallway around a central pillar and the stairs back up. So I have to check the walls...only, no, the puzzle is considerably different than that. Moving around in the room teleports you to a similar, but different room. I don't really know the specifics of it, but I have to use two keys in two different versions of the room. This opens a secret wall. I know this even before seeing it, since the wasp enemies suddenly start appearing.

I get a panicked moment, trying to find someplace safe on this level to rest. The wasps aren't hard so long as I can throw a fireball at them. Actually fighting them in physical combat is a losing proposition, since they dodge well and I don't seem to deal much damage. Oh, and the poison. I luckily find a sealable room soon enough. With a new sword. Well, the Vorpal Blade is nice, but I don't think I'll need that one anymore. I continue exploring, encountering another gremlin item-stealing monster. It startles me, and I in a panic slap Z twice...which with my new sword summons a fireball.

The north area leads to a cross hallway with three locked doors. There's a key there that might open one of the doors, but I decide to chance it and go to the southern area first. One I avoided the first time, owing to the suspicious design of it. At the end of the hallway with these suspicious holes, is a sword. Its not that hard to figure this is a trap, but it turns out to be just a poison trap. So I take it and walk out, until my game crashes near the door. That's a sign for me that this sword is not worth it.
 

Back at the crossroads, I chose the west door. This leads to a throng of blue goblin-like monsters. Holy crap, just so many monsters. It practically turns into your standard hack and slash, except there's this blob creature roaming around. He automatically dodges ranged attacks, and after several fireballs shows no signs of being hurt. I have no idea if its even possible to hit him. The door trick doesn't even do anything to him. The damn thing puts me in an awkward position should I have to return this way.

Unlike on previous floors, it seems the choice of door is exclusive, as I reach the area I think connects the three back together. Must be some kind of treasure there. The whole floor has been a letdown since that opening section. And it doesn't get any better, as behind two gates I see more wasps. They're just so annoying, I opened up the gate to take one group out and in the femtosecond they were in they poisoned my two fighters. And then there's just the stairs down. There's still more on the level, but it feels really disappointing. There's a room containing copper coin slots. From those I get bomb potions, which are yet more items I'm saving for boss fights.
But there is one more area. A hallway with "Enlarge my view", written on it. Pressure plates that teleport me back block my path. At first I think there's some walkable wall here, and there is, but that only leads to Boots of Speed, which I assume increase speed. But soon enough I find something on the wall to press, revealing the whole thing to be a fairly mundane puzzle giving me another key.

Level 11, after the last floor, I hope there's something more interesting here. There's this thing, which is another creature that can't be hit by physical attacks and dodges all ranged attacks. Only this one casts fireball and poison cloud. Good...just what I needed. And I left behind the Vorpal Blade somewhere and I haven't a clue on how to find it again. And when you cast the destroy non-material creatures spell they need to be in a specific state or it won't do anything.

Continuing inward, the level gets...interesting. I bit it to a combination of some weird spider things and the non-material one. So I reload, and the spider thing is alone. Interesting...kind of. There are an extensive amount of safe areas too, in which I can safely hide myself in to recharge mana. They have food in them, but my more pressing concerns are towards water. Still I continue exploring until I have tried every key on every locked door I can find, and tried to bash down every door that didn't have any way of opening it. Took a bit of searching the walls to find something and even then it was just some silly staff.

My thoughts turn to the pressure plate I stepped over as I walked into this floor. Aha, I think, this must activate something, like a door. As I begin walking around to see what it changed, I fall down a floor. Yes, I went to all this trouble just to accidentally reactivate a pit trap. Invisible one too, meaning this was especially devilish. The way back up is guarded by some sort of flame creature. It stays in place, and doesn't hit me with ranged attacks, unlike so many other characters. So, that's out.

It takes some time, but I eventually find a switch on the wall that I missed. What does that open? A door inside a big chamber, which reveals a walking suit of armor. He's pretty tough, shrugging off physical attacks quite well. He drops a complete suit of plate armor when I eventually manage to kill him. He was guarding a key...but wait, it opens a room with another suit of armor. So instead of fighting him, I cleverly have the armor fall down a level. Then I check where he was guarding. Nothing. Oh, don't tell me he had something in his inventory? One long fight later, and I have another key.

The section that key unlocks seems innocent enough...at first. Long corridors with nothing much inside. But then there's another spider-thing. And then there are two suits of armor. Which turns out to be the hardest, most annoying part of the game. Because they just eat up damage and it seems like they can hit me in melee before I can hit them. I was already running low on water, but this section just hit the oh crap threshold. Out of water, and the nearest known water fountain is many floors higher.
And then it gets worse. The spider-things respawn, constantly. But I manage to finally kill them all and break through. The empty hallway afterward doesn't make me feel any better. There's a fork in the hallway that doesn't matter much right now. To the south, three doors, with a thing on the wall saying something about cowards. Walking into a room and then out causes all the doors to open, but you can close them pretty quickly. To the west, a pair of non-material beasts. They kill me the first time, which is just great. But I manage to make my way past them eventually.

The wonderful situation my party finds itself in is compounded by a...rotating pit, I guess. And those non-material things can get past the closed door, which just increases my problems. There's another key, and another fork, one of the paths lead directly downstairs. And after a brief jaunt downstairs I know that's not yet for me. And the other path leads to nothing. And I check to make sure of that. Which puts me in a bad position. Okay, time to look at someone else's map. Where downstairs is there a water fountain? Nowhere. Somewhere I missed on this floor? Nope. The nearest water fountain is a few floors back, and certain death fighting my way back there. I may be screwed here.

This Session: 3 hours

Total Time: 13 hours 40 minutes