I mapped the southeast corner of B2 and also found the White Wolf cave.

I just had some very exciting battles! I had been mapping for a while, so despite that the enemy parties weren't too strong, I was still sort of pushing my luck, in case I ever did come across a much stronger party.

As luck would have it, one of the paths in B2 dead ends to a set encounter with very powerful enemies - A Lich and several Mummies. The Lich had over 80 hit points, the mummies over 50 each. Also, this was a party that was impossible to run from.

I was sure I wouldn't get out alive, but a judicious strategy saved a couple of members.

Then, as is my wont, I turned and pressed against one adjacent wall to verify it was truly a dead end, then turned back to press against the other wall...

That party attacks you each time you face the dead end wall.

Fortunately, I had camped after the first battle (so I'd be safe to open the left over chest if it was trapped), so I at least fought at nearly full health. I also tried to learn something from the first fight.

It seemed like the Lich never actually attacked, but only cast magic spells. Not only that, but they were of the type "Lich cast a spell, Crawl was (un)affected". The effect is not specified, and I'm lead to believe it's nothing. So I just kept the Lich alive until the end. That meant only two mummies could attack per round (the back row enemies had no projectile attacks). On my first turn, I also cast Hero2 on Sonja, which gave her three (rather than 2) attacks, and thus the ability to deal over 40 points of damage.

I managed to beat that party a second time, and even only lost one character that time. After that, I figured I had enough and flew back to Sorpigal to heal. Each fight gave 5,333 experience to each survivor (which was enough to level up Rigel and Lilac -- my wizard and archer -- to everyone else's level [7], but level 8 remains a long way off. About 30,000 experience points off) Maybe I could even use that square for level building in the future.


I guess we've talked before about bosses that you just barely beat on your first try!!, and how that's a lame standard for challenge, but I guess this is a little different since a) That wasn't a boss fight, just an exciting normal fight b) the stakes might have been higher than in some boss fights, where death might just mean you have to fight the boss again c) it might be a little different for RPGs generally d) I have gotten plenty of game overs in this game, including several in the same area (for instance, while working on the North Barrier). So, if you are looking for actual game overs rather than close calls, this game has that, too.


"Any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats."
-Orwell