Elvira II - Won-ish

It's finally time to deal with the third stage, It Came From Beyond the Grave, the stage which has confounded me the most out of all the stages so far. Now I finally possess the ability to actually fight the scores of skeletons deep inside. I wonder what goodies I'll find. Surely it isn't going to be just like the Kiss of the Spider stage and have scores of like four monsters, right?

When I said that Kiss of the Spider was more like a level from a blobber, a Dungeon Master-clone, that was kind of not true. It mostly behaved like one, but most levels from Dungeon Master and the ilk aren't just about killing monsters. Even the bad ones. This? This is just monster slaying with a few traps here and there. Like a key which is set on top of a trap which is...technically poison gas, but there's no sign that it isn't just a poisoned dart. Except because of the way it hits, you might not notice it until you're already dead. You can actually dodge this using the Breath Underwater spell, which is a bit I'm grateful I noticed whenever I needed to find something of bigger importance in a walkthrough.

Then there's this guy. He doesn't exist until you open a chest containing a single potion. He hits like a truck. To which I have to ask myself, is it important that I get this red potion? I mean, it's probably a healing potion, but if I need to use the healing potion right after getting it, should I? I guess the experience is good...but...man, this game is surprisingly philosophical at times.

So, I decide to prep some spells for this long trip. Considering that this is it as far as the game goes, that's probably for the best. I'll just get some Detect Trap, Fireballs, Herbal Healing and Detect Magick spells. I'm sorry, did I say Detect Magick? I meant I have nothing that qualifies as quartz. Hopefully that spell wasn't too important.

I also bring some test tubes to make the cure wounds spell. "Fun" fact, in order to take the holy water you have to drag it to the test tubes in your inventory. No other item does this...that I know of. With that, I have enough to go through a ways. Except as I notice after clearing out the chest the second time, I still had the tomahawk. Well, at least running back gives me an excuse to regenerate my PP. Yeah, yeah, funny pun, still doesn't change that I'm doing a bunch of busywork.

That's basically this dungeon. Kill monsters you're really only killing to get that last bit of XP for level 10. Find a door to a closed room, save, enter, check what the gimmick is, then determine if the juice is worth the squeeze. For instance, a room west of the entrance has an olive green potion inside a locked chest. The chest has a poison spike trap. You can't avoid it, but presumably there's some way to mitigate total failure of whatever part it hits. The potion itself does nothing at a glance, and I don't feel like checking further. Use these rooms to save and restore PP, since random enemies won't enter here. Probably. This feels like a dungeon designed by a DM playing against players used to hardcore dungeons, except in this case the last dungeons they designed was basically wandering around and dealing with one trap. 

A particularly tedious aspect of this dungeon is that there's only one real way down to the second floor and thus to further floors down. Combined with enemies seeming to ignore my protection spell, and being able to cast their own glue spell against me means that there's a whole lot of more waiting going on here. And then I realize that the path I thought lead to the rest of level 2 actually leads nowhere and the path I was taking actually does. Despite the fact that it leads into an instant death trap.

At this point, I realize exactly what I need to do, I need a use of the luck spell every time I head down that path, which means every time I need to enter this stage beyond floor 2. I've found one ingredient that allows me to make a luck spell, which may allow me to have extra castings. That's still a limited amount of times I can go down that floor and explore. Basically, I need to either anticipate what spells I'll need ahead of time or...look up a walkthrough.

At this point, the game is encouraging it, so why frustrate myself further?

Firstly, I need to dress up as a wizard. If I don't, things will end badly later. Don't worry, it'll make sense when I reach the end. Then, I should grab the floppy from upstairs (which I thought I already did) and use it for a Brainboost spell. I can apparently only use the floppy, even though the ingredient required is "anything that stores information", of which I have a great deal. Don't argue with the computer DM, just figure out what it wants. I also discover that copper isn't a precious metal, so I can't complain when the copper pans can't be turned into a Magical Armor spell.

Otherwise, I've prepared myself every kind of defensive spell I could, courtesy of finding out I can just raid the monster's standing corpse for spare parts. Like a metal band, his scalp and brain. Which I'm not supposed to turn into another Turn Undead spell. (There is such a thing as being too prepared) But I've got Protection, Courage, Luck, Revive, every spell I can use on a weapon besides Enchant Weapon, and every regular attack spell. Let's see these guys take me on now!

Damn it, the Luck spell isn't working as advertised. Turns out of the two levers in front of one door, I'm only supposed to pull one of them. Well...this still means less trial and error going on here. Still a lot of waiting, since skeletons have that glue spell and I need to wait for mana to regenerate...until I find a dagger that the walkthroughs point out as important. This is what I'm supposed to use Bless and Frozen Weapon on, the the point that walkthroughs suggest dumping useless crap in the freezer to get the regents for it. I missed the regents for Bless, unfortunately, but that's not important.

Each time I hit an enemy I get more mana. Problem solved. The rest of this should be a cakewalk. Yeah, that was stupid of me. On floor 4 things change. Now there are rats, who are so small you might not notice them, and ghosts. Ghosts constantly pop up, and if you don't cast courage, hurt you before disappearing. That makes it so there's a hard time limit on how long I can spend on this level. Unfortunately, this one makes it difficult, because there's only one way further down guaranteed (there are random, skeletons popping up out of the ground ones) and that's in an area different than the fish bones you need for a spell.

Floor 5 adds in goblins. Not like the ones from the first one, more like traditional fantasy goblins. Only, when I kill them, I get to see the life drain from their eyes. That's not the kind of creepy I was looking for in this game...Otherwise, it's nothing new. Sadly, I no longer get experience for exploring new tiles, and I have a lot of experience but I'm still stuck at level 10. It's either the Bind Demon or Resurrect spell I need to be level 10 for, which is important for the end game.
 

Floor 6 is mostly more of the same until you reach the end, where this wizard is. He can be fought or talked to if I'm wearing the Wizard costume and dressed up as in one of the photographs from the script editor. Well, for most people he can be fought. I tried, since what kind of FPS guy would I be for not trying, but that crashed the game. Just tell him I had a bad case of food poisoning and he goes off, allowing me to "guard" what he's guarding. 

This is Elvira. No, I'm sorry, a doppelganger. You can tell because she has the crazy eyes instead of distaste for my existence and she's happy to see me. I've been playing this game long enough to know this lady isn't happy and I have to kill her. Somehow. If I try to cast spells before talking to her, she yells at me...if I don't she just pops up in my inventory and I can't "drop" her. Well, hopefully when I make it out I can kill her before she kills me. There's also the war lance nearby, meaning soon everything will be a-okay.

On my way back up, I find that one of the skeletons has made a hole near where the area I climbed down from the first floor into the second floor. Meaning, if I had gone back at the time, it would have been a mostly straight shot down to the third floor. Great, great, great. I brace myself for the inevitable attack by the doppelganger as I get closer and closer to the surface. An evil force spins me around. 

It's the Angel of Death. The first time I die. The second time...the game crashes because apparently the Nova spell crashes ScummVM or someone didn't rip the game properly and there's no sound. There's a fifty/fifty chance, really. The third time, I cast Unholy Barrier and let rip with the spells I can use...and I run out of spell points and watch as he slowly hacks away until I die. Finally, I get lucky (not the spell) the fourth time and my spells actually hit...or I used them right. This pushes me over into level 10. Finally, now when's the doppelganger going to try me?

Not when I go into the basement with the four magic items and have the Indian do what he needs to do to bless them. He doesn't comment about anything. At all. Even if it's the doppelganger I expected something. Going upstairs to Elvira's room, nothing. Seriously? Going outside in a deliberate attempt to cause the doppelganger to act up? Well...

Not exactly a doppelganger causing me trouble here. We'll get back to this in a moment. Since I have the fish bones now, I can get the rope. We'll see how the doppelganger can handle going underwater...and it works. With the rope, and the binding scroll I have from earlier, I can make a Bind Demon spell. Now I need to resurrect the priest in the church. To do that, I need to take the Scalp, Brain and Heart from the mad scientist's laboratory, plus Eggs (for the shell as illustrated in the book describing the spell) and something important to the deceased. In this case, a Bible.
 

He's back, at which point I have to get him to set down a pentagram on the studio entrance so I can then lay down the black candles I took. Only...the conversation doesn't allow me to get to that point. He just tells me to talk to the janitor, who I've already done everything I need to do with. Apparently I missed one point of dialog that would have allowed me to get the priest to do what I need to win the game. A point made more difficult by how saying the wrong thing causes the janitor to never talk to you again. I love dialog systems which make the game worse.

At this point, what I should do is head to the car park, summon the demon before he summons himself, bind him, then throw the war lance, and hit him in the heart with the axe. Elvira then gives the player a come hither look, guess that is the real deal, and we get a text crawl in which she discusses casting Hercules Goes to Hell, and wonders what I'm willing to do to get the part.

Anyway, that's my Halloween gaming session ruined. Fortunately for me, I can still watch a Lucio Fulci film to turn things around. Hope you had yourselves a happy Halloween and see you next week for the summary...probably.

This Session: 3 hours

Final Time: 10 hours 35 minutes