The Last Stone

After picking up Geoffrey and arming him with a bow, the party set sail north towards Skara Brae skirting the west coast of Britannia. I passed the isles south of Spiritwood and rounded the island of Skara Brae keeping close to the coastline until finding the mouth of the river that would lead to the dungeon Shame. I had seven of the eight colored stones and had left purple for the last. The entrance to Shame is laced with poison. Seven of my party made it through but Shamino got poisoned just before we passed through the dungeon doors.

I had a vague memory that this dungeon is complicated. I thought that the stone would be on Level 8 and that perhaps I could also visit an altar room if one was nearby, since I still needed to get the three-part key. I quickly realized that the entry ladder goes all the way down to Level 7. I recall that the Apple II version had some sort of bug whereby if you X-ited a balloon without landing properly (i.e. you still have a bird's eye view over the terrain), then you could take the ladder all the way down to Level 9 and get unlimited gold! Since illegal jumping out of the balloon (with no harm) is not permitted at present, I could not explore if this bug exists in the GOG version.

The first dungeon room was interesting. Casting a "View" spell showed that I had to head east after defeating the denizens of the crypt. I actually remembered how to trigger open the secret passage. Unfortunately I had to get poisoned while stepping in the southeast corner. This moved what I think is supposed to represent a coffin or gravestone - actually I'm not sure what those two-square rectangles represent. Iolo stepped in the space of the one that opened up, and the passageway east was revealed.

I worked my way back up to Level 4 which is the crucial section of the dungeon that connects the different areas. There is a suite of five rooms arranged in a cross-shape, the center of which contains a twister, a ghost and a giant squid. I first went west and worked my way down to Level 6 where Katrina opened many treasure chests. The Gold was not unlimited, though, and I am saving up to get more magic weapons before entering the abyss. I then worked my way down to Level 8 only to find that the stone was not there.

The party backtracked to Level 4, fighting the twister, ghost and giant squid again, before exiting south. I worked my way back up to Level 2 and was rewarded with finding the purple stone. I was not sufficiently motivated to work my way back down to an altar room so I cast two "Y-up" spells to leave the dungeon. I parked my ship along a narrow section of the river, and then fought several battles on my way back to Castle Britannia.

36711 moves. Cumulative playing time = 20.5 hours.