The Morg Saga Part 3 - 10m below ground

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10 meters below ground



He heads down the stairs into a dank dungeon. This is a big and deep dungeon as is shown on Morg’s map below. The blue square is Slaeter’s Sea that Morg entered through the Vortex earlier. The plane in the middle of the tree is Midgard where the humans live and is shown as a green square to the right. The grey plane below should be Niflheim, where Hela holds Balder’s captured soul. The rainbow bridge to the left of the tree leads from Midgard to Asgard. Here lie the homes of the gods and the Great Plain Vigrid, the prophesied site of Ragnarok, the final battle for the existence of the universe. The first section of the dungeon is shown down on the bottom.



There are a lot of planes and worlds and Morg doesn’t know how to access them yet so he focuses on the dungeon he is standing in for now. "The size of this dungeon is unknown but rumors have filtered back of the existence of a large crypt, a temple, and even a strange bazaar." (from the manual) Morg checks his inventory:



The sounds of chirping birds from the forest are now changed to the dark foreboding sounds of the dungeon. In the first room there’s a Ranger being attacked by a Bandit. Morg pierces the Bandit with the Trident. Some Elgars show up, there seems to be a lot of friendly creatures down here.



Morg enters a dark room and zaps a Wand of Light. He finds 86 gold lying on the floor. In the third room he fells two bandits and finds a Plate Mail. He returns to the surface and drops some unidentified items and armor and goes down again to collect some more. Now he meets a Viking, Gylfi. This is an allied Norseman and Morg can exchange items with him. Morg takes a Topaz Ring and a Boomerang from him but promises to give him some armor in return. He heads for the surface again and identifies all stuff.



Aha, the Boomerang was magical! (+3) Morg also has a ring of Regeneration and a ring of Genesis. He puts on the Ring of regeneration, it will speed his natural healing. The armor was normal. He picks up the Plate Mail to give to Gylfi. He goes down the stairs again and Gylfi is standing there waiting. Morg gives and tells Gylfi to equip the Plate Mail but notices that Gylfi now lacks a weapon. Morg runs up the stairs again and fetches Gylfi a Mace (+0). It’s not a Boomerang (+3) but it’s a weapon.

Down in the corridors of the dungeon Morg notices that the wall is missing in a couple of places There’s only empty space. Morg decides to wait to enter empty space until he can fly or something.



In the next room a Cockatrice attacks. Its gaze can turn a man to stone. Morg has a couple of Clay Lumps to counter that effect. He manages to slay the Cockatrice without meeting its gaze. A Summon Monster Trap blocks the next corridor. Morg uses his skill of relocation to teleport and his Ring Of Locust Mastery to control the teleportation and materializes on the other side of the trap. In the next room he finds the Red Bag. The Red Bag stores an almost infinite amount of items without getting any heavier because all the items are in another plane and thus it also protects its content from damage. Morg transfers his loot to the bag, besides a few important scrolls and potions that could be needed in a hurry.

Morg meets another Norseman named Kormack and takes a ring of Regeneration and a ring of Agility (+1) (AC -4). With two rings of Regeneration he will heal pretty quick. The section is now cleared, and Morg goes east.



Morg encounters a Pelgrat, an ethereal creature that feeds on the power of wands and breathes dangerous rays. Before Morg has the time to engage the Pelgrat it steals charges from his Wands and "changes shape slightly and disappears from sight". Morg wonders if it became invisible or teleported away.

Morg encounters a Vampire and incinerates it with a Wand of Fire. There’s a skeleton close by, perhaps from an unfortunate adventurer. He had a Ring of Famine, so he might have starved to death, but as there is a Food Ration by the skeleton he was probably a victim of the Vampire.



He reads the diary:



Morg meets a friendly Lacunar and in the next corridor there are two dead Lacunars and one dead Elgar. Morg is wondering if they are new victims of the Vampire, but a surprise attack from the Pelgrat disturbs his thoughts. Once again the Pelgrat draws charges from Morgs wands and disappears. Morg angrily places his wands into the Red Bag.

The Pelgrat once again makes a surprise attack and fires an orange ray at Morg that takes away half of his health. Morg engages and three times they exchange blows before the Pelgrat falls (33/105 HP). But with two Rings of Regeneration he regains his health fast (2 HP/turn) so he will be fully restored in no time.

Morg continues and fells three Womeras with his Boomerang. There are Elgars and Lacunars turned to stone in the corridors, presumably the victims of the Cockatrice that Morg dispatched a couple of rooms earlier.

He finds a vortex leading once again to Slaeter’s Sea. He uses the pocket-sized ship, Skidblanir, to sail over the sea and explores the land on the other side. A Bandit zooms in from nowhere but Morg kills it quickly and finds a Ring of Relocation on his body. A Hrygar swoops in and hits Morg and swoops away again but Morg stops it in the middle of the air with his Boomerang.

Some Giant Squids and Hatchet Fishes come to close for comfort and Morg decides to return to the dungeon. The Giant Squids are dangerous with their eight crushing arms and best be taken out from a distance.

Morg finds a scroll of Blessing and decides it’s time to return to the surface and identify the loot. He turns out a magical Grey Cloak (+3), a Ring of Crystal (acid resistance) and a scroll of Knowledge. He reads the scroll and learns the art of Alchemy, way before he has reached mastery as an alchemist apprentice. He learns how to mix three special potions.

Morg continues to explore the dungeon and gets surprised by an Archmage. They are very dangerous and can destroy entire classes of objects. Morg zaps the Wand of Cancellation to cancel the powers of the Archmage and then enters a long clash with him. The Archmage has inferior armor and loses the battle. Morg searches his clothes and finds an enormous amount of items.



Later, in another room Morg and his illusion encounters a Red Ooze. The Red Ooze consumes the illusion while Morg is keeping the distance and throwing the Boomerang. Something invisible is beginning to attack Morg, draining him. At the same time a Phausq, an eyeless creature that shuns light, enters the room and everything gets black. Morg zaps the Wand of Light and the room fills with light again and the Phausq is destroyed. The Red Ooze moves close to Morg and he panics, attacking the Ooze with his Trident (+1) that is instantly consumed by the same. If Morg should attack the Red Ooze again it might consume his Gauntlets and maybe even his hands. It’s really nice in a situation as this to be a Master Conjurer and have the ability of Relocation instead of relying on scrolls of Travelling. Morg teleports away and leaves the section to identify his loot. Luckily one of the Archmage’s rings turns out to be a Ring of Third Sight, which enables the user to see invisible things. Morg, with a firm grip around the handle of his Silver Sword, heads straight back to the place of the last engagement to seek revenge on the invisible thing draining him, and of course on the Red Ooze that ate his Trident. As an extra precaution he wears the Archmage’s Holocaust Cloak (+3) and a blessed scroll of Lava Strike.

The room of the last engagement is empty, only the body of the Phausq littering the floor. Morg continues down a corridor and spots, with the help of his acute senses from wearing the Ring of Third Sight, the Shadow that was draining him of health. He slashes the phantom with his Silver Sword until it disappears into thin air. Now where is that Red Ooze.

The rooms in the area are darkened, supposedly part of the Phausq’s lair. No sign of the Ooze. Some Gas Balls comes floating and explodes near Morg, making him deaf. Morg reads a scroll of Soul Seeking and senses all creatures in the sector, but can’t find the Ooze, it might be dead and the Trident gone forever. The dungeon section is empty of creatures so he continues exploring a new section, Silver Sword in hand.

In a corridor Morg encounters a Migdnart, a devil-spawned being from Niflheim. They exchange a couple of blows and Morg is down to almost half of his health.



Panicked he zaps the devil with a Wand of Sleep and it falls asleep. Just as Morg is about to finish the devil off, another one turns up. He makes that one fall asleep too and then finishes both off with 2-3 slashes at each.

The entrance to the next room is blocked by yet another Migdnart and when Morg engages it a crimson ray hits the Migdnart in the back and continues to hit Morg but without any effect. The ray kills the devil in the next round and Morg takes a quick peek inside the room. The source of the crimson ray is a Sorceror, and there’s also another Migdnart further into the room.



Morg teleports out of the situation, wears his Silver Mantle (magic resistant) and conjures forth his illusion. They together take on the enemy.

Morg charges the Sorcerer and the illusion takes on the Migdnart. Morg and illusion hits their foes three times in a row and the Sorcerer perishes. Morg steps to the side and gets a clear line of sight to the Migdnart and takes it out with the Boomerang.

A Migdnart attacks from the next corridor. His first hit causes heavy damage (-33 HP). Morg is shaken and zaps a Wand of Fire at the devil, but it is unaffected. Of course, it’s a devil from Niflheim and resistant to heat. Morg teleports out. He has to rearrange his equipment to get better protection. Maybe the Wand of Ice works better on the fiery devils? He doesn’t want to zap his Wand of Sleep too often, it hasn't many charges left.

Back in the next room there’s a body of a dead Migdnart and some Gas Balls and a Red Ooze comes toward Morg. The Ooze is frozen in its track with a ray of ice and killed by two more. In the last room of the sector Morg finds a stairay leading down. The toughness of the Migdnart convinces Morg that it’s best to explore the 10-meter depth before going deeper.

In another sector Morg encounters a Magician. He gesticulates and Morg's backpack quivers. Morg puts the Magician to sleep with a Wand and puts on the Silver Mantle to resist magic. He then slays the Magician with his Silver Sword. Some items in the backpack were polymorphed into something else.

Two Yapoks attack. "They are aggressive and can call others to their help."



Morg dispatches one and the other retreats. Morg quickly kills a Secitt, a small creature which rapidly multiplies when near its next meal, before it has time to multiply. A few steps later he meets a Breeder, a creature that clones other creatures. This sector seems to be a breeder’s heaven and Morg’s nightmare.

A Kalvin attacks ripping out one of Morgs four eyes.



Morg puts the Kalvin to sleep but then a Stun Worm comes from behind. This is a dangerous situation; if the Stun Worm stuns Morg the Kalvin might wake up before Morg and rip out all of his eyes.

Morg decides to quickly read a scroll of Lava Strike. The resulting streams of Lava kill the Stun Worm and Morg can kill the sleeping Kalvin. Morg was lucky to have a scroll of Lava Strike ready.



Morg kills a couple of Migdnart devils. They are dangerous, having two attacks and making heavy damage but Morg’s pair of Rings of Regeneration helps him to quickly recover after each battle. He kills a Wraith and eats it gaining experience and goes up to Level 14, learning three more potions to mix.



He finds an amulet. Then he sees a ring floating on the surface of a pool of quicksand and when he gets into the pool the ring sinks. Morg gets out of the pool using the Grappling Hook.

Beneath a scroll there was a vortex and Morg was teleported to Slaeter’s Sea and almost surrounded by Glards, but he made it back by jumping into the vortex again. Later he finds two skeletons and some equipment, and reads their dairies. He learns that "A disperser helm protects against psionic attack and that:



12000 turns has passed and all but one sector is explored of the 10m dungeons. There’s no visible way to enter the last sector. Time to make a permanent backup.



To be continued...


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The Morg Saga Part 2 - The Alchemist

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The Morg Saga Part 2
Morg decides to drink some Mead in the safety of the shop. Intoxicated he stumbles about confused in the shop and walks in directions not intended. He reads a scroll of Blessing and garbles the words. His pack glows white and many of his items are blessed. When he’s sober again he reads the now blessed scroll of Experience and advances to Level 5 (65 HP) and learns the spell Reflect. It’s a defensive spell that reflects some physical damage. But the spell uses 11 Magic Points (MP) and Morg only has 10 so he’ll have to raise his MP someway. He sells the blessed scroll of Pure Evil for 127 gold, because if it’s pure evil it can’t be any good.

He conjures forth his illusory self and they walk back into the forest. They battle with some Retchweed, a plant that stuns. There are a lot of them and the illusion perishes. When Morg has exterminated all the Retchweed he has regained all Magic Points so he conjures up a new illusion. The section is fully explored and he continues west.

There are Gnomes, Orcs and Womeras; cannibalistic ancestor of mankind. They are throwing crude spears from a great distance and are difficult to detect. Morg finds a Chain Mail, and a Boomerang. He decides it’s time to ID everything and the Boomerang is +1, great! Finally a real missile weapon. He isn’t sure he did much damage with the thrown Sai. He finds a Barbed Whip that turns out to be a Chameleon and grabs him and tries to eat him. He manages to kill it with the Trident.

A Berserker comes out behind a tree. Morg throws the Boomerang and hits, and the boomerang returns to Morg. The Berserker drops a Wand of Fire when he dies. He finds another shop with a lot of things. He sells his Sai +0 and throwing knives, relying on the Boomerang for now. He eats some food the shop has on offer. He then buys two scrolls of ID and two potions of Experience, drinks some Mead, reads a Scroll of Blessing and drinks the now blessed Potions of Experience. Before drinking though he identifies his pack to be sure that the potions of Experience really are blessed. They are blessed and a ring gets identified as a Ring of Immunity that grants poison resistance. Morg reaches Level 8 (85 Hp) and learns the spell Entombment. It’s a spell that locks all doors on a level leaving it’s occupants to starve.

He continues west. Suddenly he falls into a pit. A pack of Wild Dogs attack but Morg kills them from the inside the pit with the Boomerang. He climbs out of the pit. He kills an Anssk with the Boomerang and eats it, and just as he has heard, gets a Sixth Sense. If he ever becomes blinded he will sense creatures with the sixth sense. He finds a scroll of Blessing and potion of Experience, great! When the sector is cleared he goes north to the Village and sells some things and buys a Pick Axe.

He continues south to one of the last three forest sectors. A lot of Orcs, Womeras and Wild Dogs attack. He has a Boomerang/Spear duel with a Womera, but the Womera only has three spears so Morg has the chance to throw the Boomerang two more times as the Womera closes in and fells her. An Orc charges but steps in a teleport trap and disappears. Later Morg attacks a Dreg but the Boomerang +1 breaks and disappears (maybe because of the Dreg’s acid). Morg throws the Sai +1 but misses and finishes off the Dreg with the Trident. He is now out of missile weapons. His boomerang skill has increased to 32.

There’s a pool of lava in the forest. Two potions are floating in the pool. Maybe one of them is a Potion of Magic so that Morg can cast his new spells. He gets greedy and jumps into the pool and grabs the potions, coming up on the other side with only half his HP intact. Stupid, but he survived. Sector is now explored, so he identifies all his items, but finds no interesting potions, but a Holocaust Cloak (protecting against heat, such as lava, hmm) and a Ring of 94% Protection (detects traps with 94% chance) and a ring of Locus Mastery (controls where to teleport).

He then Fast Moves north to the shop and sells some doubles and now has 1918 gold pieces. He buys the scroll of Dispel Hex and reads it and he is finally able to let go of the Trident if he wishes. The Holocaust Cloak gives as much protection as his Grey Cloak +1 so he sells the Grey Cloak. He returns to the third shop and buys two Potions of Experience and blesses them by getting drunk as usual.

He then goes south and finds some unidentified items, reads a blessed identification and drinks the two out of three Potions of Experience that are blessed. He also notices that he has a scroll of Wonder and a scroll of Time Stop, and a Wand of Cancellation (cancels some creatures special powers). Sounds powerful. He wears a Helmet +0 (AC –2), drinks a blessed Potion of Strength (STR 18.96) He ends his apprenticeship and becomes a Master Conjurer (cheating with Potions of Experience, just as any Conjurer would do). He gets 99 HP, the skill to teleport at will and the spell Draining (drain life force with bare hands). He can now choose to continue as a Conjurer or become apprentice in another profession. He chooses to become an Alchemist to learn how to mix some powerful potions.



He goes north to sell a few things and buys three unidentified potions and identifies them in the hope that one is a Potion of Raise Magic, and one of them are! He drinks it and gets MP 11 and can now cast Reflect and Draining.

He gets back to the unexplored forest and finds a Vortex, it teleports him to Slaeter’s Sea where he finds Skidblanir, Freyr’s pocket sized Boat. Slaeter’s Sea is said to lie on the other side of the impassable mountains that surround Midgard. From here it might be possible to get to places such as Mimer's Realm (which is host to hordes of powerful creatures in addition to the Spring and Well of Mimer), Jotenheim (the land of the fire and frost giants), Nidavellir (the caves of the elusive dwarfs), the river Gioll (the entrance to Niflheim) and the base of the flaming rainbow bridge, Bifrost, which leads to Asgard.

There’s a lot of Elgars, friendly birdmen, fighting sea monsters and the Elgars are clearly losing the battle. One of them drops a Silver Mantle (resist magic), and Morg snatches it and returns to the forest as he feels he’s yet to weak to fight these baddies.



He then travels to the last forest sector and finds a Potion of Raise Magic. It gives him 14 MP so it must have been blessed and he is now able to cast all his spells! A Weird fume comes floating through the forest, and when Morg gets close and inhales its fumes he looses memory of the sector map, it gets almost totally black again. Then he grows a new finger, grows new eyes and changes gender a couple of times. Finally his brain throbs and he gets vertiginous. He moves away and drinks a blessed cure that cures the sickness and ends up with 9 fingers (default 8) and 4 eyes and a male gender. The eyes make it easier to hit foes in combat and the fingers permit more rings to be worn. He finds a food store and stairs leading down into a dungeon.



He meets a Raven that says:



Morg saw Thokk and are looking for her to slay her and trap her soul in the Ring of Soul Trapping. He hunts Thokk down and zaps the giant with a Wand of Fire then stabs her with the Trident. When she dies her soul is trapped in the ring. The ring should be given to Hela in Niflheim, to make her free Balder's soul. He takes off the ring so that no other soul is trapped instead of Thokk’s.

He meets some friendly Dwarfs, Lacunars (mermen of legend) and a Ranger. All nine forest sectors are now explored. He heads for the stairs leading down into the dungeon. Now 8000 turns have passed and it’s time for a permanent back up.

Jump to Part 3 - 10m below ground


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The Morg Saga Part 1 - The Conjurer

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Text in red is game mechanics.
Text in green is fiction from outside of the game.
Text in quotation marks is in-game text.

Intro (summary from the manual)

“For thousands of years, the gods have lived in their home, Asgard. Most of the gods champion the human race, protecting them from greater evils that would destroy their realm, Midgard, and all that lies within it.”

“The gods have lost much of their might through various arcane evils and misadventures. According to prophecy these handicaps will be their undoing.” “Although many hold the prophecies of the Norns to be all-knowing, it is whispered that the future is not set in stone. Many believe that the prophecies can be foiled through human intervention, but it will take a true hero and exceptional warrior to meddle in the realm of gods and giants.”

“It is 999 AD, and as a young Viking, you fear there is little time left before the coming of Surtr and his hordes of fire demons. The nights have been increasingly colder, the days shorter, and the sun and moon have been growing steadily darker, indicating that the power of the gods is faltering. You have decided to brave the unknown rather than wait to perish in flames. You have chosen to leave your village to pursue the following quests:

News of Mimming (Freyr's sword), Mjollnir (Thor's hammer), or Gungnir (Odin's spear).

Mimer's Well and the skill and magic needed to defeat Aspenth, releasing the curse that forms him into a serpent.

Some manner of weapon or magic that can assist Tyr in battling with but one arm.

Thokk's tears, or news of her death to bring to Hela in exchange for the release of Balder's soul.”

The Village



Morg starts his apprenticeship as a Conjurer in a mysterious way. The adventurer he is masquerading as is dead and was named Hifdrok. Why Morg is masquerading as another is yet unknown and is part of the mystery that is Valhalla. As an apprentice Conjurer Morg starts with low constitution and strength. The only spell he knows is Set Recall, which sets the place to return to when reading a scroll of Recall.

He’s armed with a Sai and protected by a blessed Grey Cloak +1 and equipped with a Food Ration and a blessed potion of Curing. The potion will restore all hit points and cure most known ailments. The ring of Soul Trapping has passed through many generations to Morg. Legend holds that this ring can possess the soul of Thokk if removed immediately after killing the giantess in combat (one of the quests).



Morg starts in a deserted house in a deserted village overrun by wild creatures. He looks around in the debris for anything useful and finds a scroll of Blessing, an Elm Wand and some money.

Just as Morg is going to exit the house two Gnomes attack from two directions. They are small nocturnal humanoids that hate mankind. Morg zaps the newly found Elm wand at one of the Gnomes, and a magenta ray hits the gnome with a crackling sound (Valhalla 1.0 has sound, Ragnarok 2.5 has no sound) but without any noticeable effect.



Morg tries to by step one of them to fight them one at a time in a door opening, but he gets severely wounded in so doing. He tries the wand at himself without any effect and decides to fight it out with his Sai. Morg exchanges blows with one of the Gnomes while the other is blocked from attacking. The first one falls and the second one is about to engage Morg.



Morg trades a couple of blows and the last Gnome dies (9/28 Hp), only to observe two more coming in for the kill. Morg notices that he is better with the Sai than he thought and kills both Gnomes without getting more wounds. On the dead bodies he finds a Jasper Ring and a Scroll of Identify.

Morg rests (by tapping the rest key one turn at a time) in the house to recover some health and reads the scroll of Blessing on the Sai. It glows and becomes a blessed Sai +1. He reads the scroll of Identification on the Ring and it turns out to be a Ring of Famine. That doesn't sound too good, better not put it on.

Morg hears a sound (described with a text message) a while later (14/28 Hp), but nothing disturbs his rest. When he is fully recovered a Bear comes through the doorway and hits Morg (takes away 20 HP) with a couple of blows. Morg is forced to drink his blessed Potion of Curing and then kills the Bear with two lucky blows. Now he has become hungry and could eat a whole Bear so he does. The raw Bear tasted terrible and didn’t do much good to satisfy his hunger. Morg hears a sound and forgets about his hunger. He ventures outside to have a look.

A short distance away he can see another house. On his way to the house he finds a Decayed scroll and some money on the ground. Inside he finds “Bafion Fute the trader”. He's got some magical things for sale. Morg is starting to get really hungry so he eats his only Food Ration while looking through the items in the shop.

Suddenly a Wild Boar comes charging into the shop and wounds Morg badly. Morg retreats behind Bafion Fute who kills the Boar with one single blow. Morg picks up a scroll of Identification (ID), a Potion of Curing and a Grappling Hook to buy them. Bafion is a suspicious shopkeeper and locks the doors to make sure Morg will pay. Morg uses this “hospitality” to fully recover (by using Far Move command with no direction to avoid constant tapping of rest key) in the safety of the shop. Then Morg pay him almost all of his money and exits.



A Wild Dog attacks Morg outside the shop and he tries to scare it away by throwing an arrow he found earlier, but to no avail. There's a short battle and Morg finally gets a killing thrust with his Sai +1. The creatures really are on a rampage.

A Raven comes flying and speaks to Morg: "An orange cube will propel its owner to the Wasteland." The Raven then disappears. Morg has heard about the Wasteland. It’s an area that has slipped outside the normal flow of time, an area that is as unstable as Midgard was in the early stages of its existence. To get there Morg apparently needs an orange cube, but does he really dare to venture to such a dangerous place?

Morg finds some food rations and eats them greedily. An Anssk comes hovering; it's a non-aggressive creature whose main defence is hypnosis. Morg stays away and heads toward the third house. The Anssk is pretty annoying and follows Morg around. If Morg gets trapped he may have to attack the Anssk and maybe get hypnotised. This incapacitated state lasts a long time and wild animals might eat Morg alive long before he comes to his senses again.

A Wild Boar and a Rat attack Morg and he positions himself in the doorway of the shop and takes care of the Rat first and then the Boar. He attains Level 2 (31 Hp).

He finds a woven Scroll and an Urn. He hopes that the Urn contains something edible but it is empty. He notices a pit and avoids it. The Anssk still follows him around. Morg tries to lure the Anssk into the pit but naturally the Anssk just hovers over it.

In a glade he finds Scale Mail Armor. Morg thinks about identifying it before putting it on, you never know, things might be hexed. But then Morg decides that nothing can be worse than his Armor Class (AC) of 8 and puts it on. It takes five turns to equip and it seems to be an ordinary Scale Mail (AC: 5). The Anssk is watching with interest.

Morg finds a potion of Speed, some Food Rations and some money. He kills a Wild Dog and finds two scrolls of Identification. The section is finally explored and Morg decides to move east.




The Forest



In the next forest section three Wild Dogs ambush Morg.



The image on the left is from the zoomed in view in lower screen. The image on the right is from the overview map in upper screen.

Morg thinks as a fighter would and tries to position himself in an advantageous position but fails miserably and gets surrounded and attacked by all three dogs at once. After missing a couple of blows while getting bitten by the dogs he decides to drink a potion of Speed. He's now so fast he gets an extra strike each turn. He wins the battle with only minor wounds.

Continuing into the forest Morg encounters a few lone Wild Dogs but have no trouble killing them. Then he runs into a blue jelly sitting on the forest floor. It’s a Stun Jelly and can stun it’s opponents so Morg retreats. The Stun Jelly is slow and Morg slips away easily. He stumbles upon an urn that contains a green powder that makes Morg stronger, from Strength 10 to 13. He finds one more and gets even stronger (Str:15). He dispatches a few Wild Dogs and now another Anssk follows him around. He notices something glimmering on the forest floor. It’s a Silver Sword, a magical weapon and a Werewolves' bane. He takes it and wields it.

Suddenly a Wild Boar comes charging out of the woods. Morg waits for the Boar to come close so he can get the first strike, and what a strike, he fells the Boar with one mighty blow.

Morg feels lucky as he later finds a scroll of Blessing. He’s heard a trick (read the strategy guide included with Ragnarok 2.5 package) where one should drink Mead to become intoxicated and then read the scroll of Blessing to bless multiple items in his backpack. He just has to find some Mead. He has a hard time to hit a rat with the Silver Sword, maybe the Rat is too small? Later he encounters a Dreg, a slow, nasty creature that spews acid when struck. Morg keeps away. He wishes he had some kind of missile weapon.

Morg sets of a teleportation trap and ends up in an already explored section of the forest. He heads for an unexplored section again and an arrow hits him, taking away 10 Hp. He sees neither trap nor foe.

Morg notices a pile of gold and approaches it smiling with glimmering eyes, but falls into a pit before he reaches the gold. He throws his Grappling Hook and climbs out of the pit and gets the 26 gold. Lucky to have a Grappling Hook he continues on his journey.

The forest section is now fully explored and Morg uses Far Move to get back to the shop in the west section of the forest. (The Far Move command is an automatic movement in one direction and halts when Morg notices a creature or runs into a tree.) He notices a Raven. The Raven flies in the opposite direction and Morg tries to catch up, cautiously avoiding a Dreg. He finally catches up with the Raven who speaks:



Back in the shop he buys a Potion of Curing. He doesn’t have to drink it right now because he has regained all hit points while walking around. He heads for the easternmost section of the forest with Fast Move. He avoids some Stun Jellies and Dregs, and kills a few Wild Dogs on his way.

In the new forest section Morg finds Chain Mail armor. When he picks it up he hears a sound out in the woods. Something is close by. Chain is better than Scale so he decides to put it on. It will take 9 turns to make the change. There's a thought in his head saying that it might be unwise to change armor in an unexplored section of woods, especially when there’s something close by, and in the middle of the change a Knilb, a teleporting doglike creature, teleports in and attacks.



Morg defends dressed only in his Grey Cloak +1. The Knilb misses and Morg gets a couple of hits killing the Knilb. Morg continues to dress the Chain Mail, but now a couple of Orcs come charging.

When Morg has finished dressing (AC: 4), the first Orc is just about to strike at him. Morg strikes first and kills the Orc with a well-placed cut. The second Orc charges and hits Morg again and again without Morg getting any hits at the Orc. Finally (24/31 Hp) Morg gets a hit at the orc, with a clanging sound. The second slash also hits killing the Orc and Morg raises to Level 3 ( 41 Hp). The Orcs dropped a Sai, a Banded Mail and a Leather Scroll. The Banded Mail is better than Chain Mail, but this time Morg will explore the forest some more before changing armor. He can’t carry it all so he leaves the Banded Mail where it is.

Morg notices an Orc and throws one of his two Sais at him and it hits (the Sai is not a throwing weapon so damage may be small). The Orc engages but Morg fells him with the Silver Sword. A Homunculus approaches. This aggressive and nasty small animal's bite can cause unconsciousness, very dangerous in Orc infested woods. Morg retreats and by cutting a few corners manages to throw off the Homunculu's chase though it is equally fast. Morg moves to the western section of the forest to recover some health and think of a battle tactic, but he is disturbed by a Stun Jelly slithering slowly towards him. He returns to the east forest section and immediately gets attacked by an Orc. He throws his Sai +1 and hits and then kills the Orc with a thrust from the Silver Sword. The Homunculus and a second Orc comes running and Morg is forced to retreat to the western section, only to be bumped by the Stun Jelly again. He makes a wide stroll around the Stun Jelly and decides to head for the shop to rest some.

Back in the deserted village four Gnomes are resting in one of the houses. They attack on sight and a short but bloody battle leaves Morg standing with some Gauntlets, a White Mushroom and a Trident.

Back at the shop he sells a Scale Mail for 275 gold. Morg fully recovers in the safety of the shop. He looks at his newly found Trident and decides to try and wield it. When he closes his hand around the handle it grafts onto the hand, making hand and weapon as one. It is hexed and the shop has a Scroll of Dispel Hex that makes it possible to let go of the Trident, but it costs 420 gold. He decides to hold on the Trident for now, it’s a better weapon than the Silver Sword, but not magical. Morg reads a Scroll of ID on the Trident to make sure that he isn't holding a cursed weapon, and it shows to be a blessed Trident +1. He identifies the Gauntlets as normal and puts them on (AC: 2). (How is that possible when the Trident is grafted to his hands?) He buys a couple of Scrolls of ID for 100 gold a piece and heads back to the east.

Morg's Fast Move is interrupted by a Kobold hitting him with a thrown Flint Knife. Morg replies with a well-thrown Sai and fells the Kobold in close combat with the Trident. The Kobold drops 6 Flint Knives and a Wand of Light.

As soon as Morg enters the easternmost forest section he hears a sound. Could it be the Homunculus again? No, it's four Orcs attacking! As the battle starts Morg spots the Homunculus some distance behind the Orcs. After the battle (32/41 Hp) Morg can’t spot the Homunculus.

He takes a few steps forward and hears a noise. He arrives at the place where he first met the Homunculus, and his Sai +1 still lies there on the ground. Two Orcs attack from different directions. Morg throws his other Sai and then kills both Orcs and a couple of Imps with his Trident +1.

He gains Level 4 (53 HP) and the ability to cast the Illusory Self spell and the skill of Fenneling (move charges between similar Wands). He finds an Ivory Staff, good for killing the undead, and some armor. He drops a lot of stuff and gathers up all armor with the plan to read a scroll of Blessing on a scroll of ID to be able to identify everything in the backpack. A Berserker and an Orc attack leaving even more weapons and armor to identify, and a second scroll of Blessing.

To be able to identify as much as possible Morg takes off his Chain Mail armor and have to fight both a Bear and an Orc in his Grey Cloak +1 and Gauntlets. But he survives and identifies everything. Nothing much of interest, apart from a blessed potion of Curing and a scroll of Travelling (teleport away from bad situations). He wears the Banded Mail (AC: 1) and drops some arrows and other useless stuff.

After exploring for a while the Homunculus shows up and Morg panics off to the east forest section. The Homunculus doesn’t seem to be able to follow him between the map sections. He rests for a while and remembers that he now can cast the spell Illusory Self. He returns and spots the Homunculus and casts the spell Illusory Self and looks at amazement when a copy of himself kills the Homunculus.



Morg and his copy explore the forest together, hacking Orcs and Gnomes to pieces. Now it's time to move south with all three of the north forest sections and 1/3 of the total forest explored.

Morg reaches the new section and steps on a teleportation trap and gets teleported into the middle of the forest. A Knilb attacks him, and he throws his Sai +1 and hits, but his other Sai misses and the Knilb dies in close combat. A little later a Berserk attacks, taking away half of Morgs HP with two hits, but Morg kills the Berserk with three hits. Now it's time to be more cautious, the enemy is getting stronger.

Morg finds a ring, identifies it as a Ring of Relocation (teleport). In the middle of the forest he finds a shop. There's a battle going on between the shopkeeper and some Orcs. Morg joins in the fray and finds some items lying around after the battle.



He reads an unidentified scroll of ID and it was blessed because he hears a buzzing sound and everything in his backpack is identified. There’s a ring of Agility (good for AC), a cursed ID scroll and the Wand he found in the deserted house is a Wand of Hastening. Sadly a hastening ray speed lesser creatures but is ineffective on users themselves. He puts on the Ring of Agility and Bracers +0 (AC: -1), and sells some other stuff. Not counting on meeting the undead in the forest he sold the Ivory Staff for 500 gold.

Morg rests to full HP and the game now reaches 4000 turns. In expert mode it is now possible to make a permanent save.

To be continued…



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Ragnarok

Genre: Roguelike
World map: Yes
Permadeath: 1.0 No/2.5 Yes
Races: 1
Classes: 6
Religion: No
Spellcasting: Basic
Persistent dungeons: Yes
Played Version: Valhalla 1.0
Latest version: 2.5 - Ragnarok Homepage
Old version (with sound): 1.0 (Valhalla) - Home of the Underdogs (use DosBox)
Graphics: ASCII and tiles
Mouse: Yes
Sound: 1.0 Yes/2.5 No
Resource: Ragnarok Homepage, theodor lauppert

Ragnarok (known in Europe as Valhalla) is an epic and deep roguelike with many worlds based on the Norse mythology. In the Valhalla release the player is allowed to make permanent saves provided they are done 200 turns apart (beginner) or 4000 turns apart (expert). The Ragnarok release has permadeath(?) The layout of the worlds are always the same but terrain and encounters are randomised. It is one of the few roguelikes to sport a mouse driven GUI combining both tile based graphics and ASCII. The player has a few quests to solve making the game a bit more like a RPG.


Review

Early Game
Ragnarok is a vast and complicated game that requires a lot of dedication. The starting class decides the playing tactics in the early game, but as it is possible to change class each 10th level the decision isn’t crucial for the long term play. However, the weak classes, such as alchemist and sage, are difficult to keep alive as apprentices but get very powerful at level 10 when they get their master skills, like re-writing scrolls and mixing powerful potions.

The save system in the Valhalla version is a compromise between permadeath and permanent saves. To play a long row of new inexperienced adventurers isn’t as fun in Valhalla as in some other roguelikes, mostly because each world is quite large and therefore a little repetitive and because there is only one race and a few classes to try out. By being able to make a permanent save after 200 or 4000 turns saves the dedicated player from having to replay the early game again and again, but at the same time offers new challenges each time a game is restored because of the new random content. Furthermore replaying 200 or 4000 turns isn’t something to look forward to if you have made great progress and found nice items, and thus still keeping the tension high.

Jump to The Morg Saga


Other blogs on Technorati: ragnarok, roguelike