"Wrong" on several counts

The opening scene after exiting the forest with my clump of nightshade - I found the area swarming with orcs, rogues and skeletons. I fought my way to the Trinsic portal, and with a hop, skip and jump, used the moongates to arrive at Skara Brae. Shamino was delighted to join the party. I remembered that Shamino started out at a lower level so I thought he should join the party before Geoffrey. At first I thought of sailing the ship near Skara Brae to the dungeon Shame to obtain the purple stone. "Isn't this one of those where the stone is on Level 8 and I will have to seriously fight my way down?" I thought. I wanted to opt for an easier dungeon so that Shamino would not be too surprised. I decided to pick Wrong, the dungeon with the green stone. If I thought it was going to be easy, I was wrong.

Things were smooth until I got to Level 3 where I found a magic orb. I figured that Dupre could do with additional dexterity and intelligence and that he could withstand the orb with 400 hit points. I was wrong. Dupre died. First, I thought of restarting the game. Then I thought of just exiting the dungeon, resurrecting Dupre, and going back down since I was not sure what would happen in a dungeon room with the dead Dupre. (I had never had a party member die in a dungeon before.) I got myself into a battle to assess the situation. Dupre did not show up in the battle. This meant that I could safely navigate the dungeon rooms. I figured Dupre would not miss much and I would be in and out in a jiffy with the stone. I was wrong.

There was a lot of treasure in Wrong on the fourth and seventh levels. I'm not sure if the latter was worth as much as I thought because I had to battle a large group of rogues on level 6 to get in and out of the treasure area. They stole a lot of gold because I did not have mandrake root to cast a tremor spell or resurrect Dupre. There was also a nasty fight with a couple of reapers and a large group of Headless where a tremor would have been useful. I actually used the Kill spells I had mixed to finally dispatch the reapers when they were in my line of sight.

Eventually we made it down to Level 8. There were some tricky secret passage rooms. The one just outside the altar where I would find the stone had a Zorn and a group of slime. Peering at a gem had told me that I needed to head west after entering the room, but as you can see, only a south exit was apparent. With the Zorn negating magic, I had to blast my way through the slime and then take the Zorn down the old-fashioned way without magic. After clearing the room of its denizens, I proceeded to search for the trigger that would open a passage westwards. I figured that it was in one of the corners underneath the electric fields. Jaana was sent to the southeast corner first. My first guess was wrong. I decided to try the northwest corner, and sure enough when I stepped on the corner square, a narrow passageway opened westwards. We were able to find the green stone and then I made a quick magical "X-it".

While in the dungeon, I had already made up my mind what to do next. I was going to get some mandrake root even though I had not visited Lock Lake. My rationale: The strange single square of marsh (that I had now left a treasure chest to mark the spot) would have been searched by me anyway on the darkest night with the manual as my guide and my recent experience finding the bell of courage. I blinked myself south towards the moongate near Britain and teleported outside Minoc. I made a quick stop in Minoc to buy Julia a Magic Axe. This was very appropriate since Minoc was Julia's home towne and the Iron Works was happy to sell me one for 1500gp. (It's expensive!)

Where "treasure" marked the spot, my first night's search of mandrake root yielded 11 roots. I mixed a Resurrect spell, having learned the reagent list from Nigel, and brought Dupre back to life. A heal spell then raised his health to 82 hit points. That should be enough until I get to Lord British. I fought a band of orcs before staying a second dark night to find more mandrake root. This second night brought a bountiful harvest. I made my way back to the moongate to get to Castle Britannia.

Lord British seemed pleased with the experience gained in my most recent exploits. My "Wrong" choice was not too bad after all. Iolo, Dupre, Katrina and Shamino all made it up a level. Julia is actually quite close but I will need to do a little more adventuring. I only have 9 gems left so I can either buy some more at a guildshop or mix my own View spells. I might opt for the latter.

26388 moves. Cumulative playing time = 15 hours.