Dragon Warrior Playthrough, Part 10: I'm Doing Just Shrine

The final push into Garin's darkness is every bit as fraught as the ones that came before. The moment I step foot on the third level, I'm bombarded by Specters, Wolflords, Druinlords, and even an occasional Drollmagi. What's more, the labyrinthine dungeon is cruel in its meanderings.

One would be forgiven for thinking that the central staircase on level 2 is the key to the dungeon, but in fact it leads to a dead end. I also try the northwest staircase, which leads to an outer corridor on the third level. While the corridor does not connect with the lowest level, it does contain a detached room with a treasure chest.

Inside, I discover a large belt, the outside of which is adorned with skulls and labelled, "Cursed Belt".^{[Note A]}

I choose not to wear it.

The corridor ends in another staircase that leads me back to level 2. As it turns out, the correct staircase to take in level 2 is the one in the southwest. After descending it, the cave branches into the three corridors, the center of which leads to the final level of the dungeon. I have to beat off a pair of Specters patrolling the corridor, but otherwise reach the stairs without incident.

Finally, the fourth level is just a modest-sized room with a single upward stairway at its center. As I approach the stairs, I suddenly hear the clanking of bones behind me. I duck only just in time to avoid having a femur crush my skull.

The bone chips against the adjoining wall. As the Wraith Knight is recovering itself from the impact, I dash up the stairs. Tripping over the final step, I tumble awkwardly into a room with a lone treasure chest at its center. A faint glow emanates from the mysterious coffer.

Garin be praised...

Gentle strains

As much as I'm tempted to bask in the beauty of an elegantly decorated harp of pure silver, I have no desire to spend anymore time in this pee-pee-soaked heck-hole than absolutely necessary. The darkness seems to echo with clicking and groaning sounds, along with an occasional screech in the distance.

Creeping my way slowly back down stairs, I peek around the adjoining walls of the staircase to see if the Wraith Knight is still lurking. There are no signs I can discern, so I pluck up some courage and bolt for the next stairway. I can hear the harp strings clanging faintly in my rucksack as I clamber along, floor by floor.

At long last, I am back at the entrance to Garin's tomb. An itinerant elderly man is perched near the stairway and he looks at my cuts and bruises with a faint air of amusement.

Collecting myself, I take stock of my situation. In my bag, I have a priceless harp that belonged to a long-dead minstrel. While I'm tempted to sell it for that suit of Magic Armor I saw in Rimuldar, it seems wiser to take such a priceless artifact to someone who knows more about it. On an earlier adventure, I encountered a surly hermit living on a promontory west of Kol. He seemed to have a special interest in the item.

East it is. But first, I want to see what this thing is capable of.

I don't want to make a spectacle of myself in Garinham, so I head for a nearby field. Carefully removing the instrument from my sack, I perch on a nearby rock and begin strumming gently.

After a few seconds, I hear what seems to be a faint moaning sound in the distance. The sound gradually gets louder and before long, I can see a figure at the far end of the field, rapidly advancing towards me. When it gets within about 100 yards, I can make out the robes of what appears to be a Magician. I put the harp away and ready my broadsword.

As it approaches my position, I can see the wretched brute nearly falling over itself trying to reach me, robes tumbling about haphazardly in the wind. The moment it's within striking distance, I take a big swing at its torso and neatly chop the humanoid beast in half before it even has a chance to prepare any magic. Its shining eyes stare up at me from the hard ground, still wide and determined despite its sudden change in fortune.

I look suspiciously at the harp, which I had left resting against the rock.

Best be careful with this item.

Sitting in his nowhere land

The wooded path to the lonely promontory is no longer as treacherous as it once was. The magicians haunting the forest are like butter before my blade, and even the once-fearsome skeletons leave me with little more than bruises.

The moment I enter the hermit's hovel, he jumps to his feet on the far end of the room and positions himself in front of an altar.

Clearing his voice he says, "Thou hast brought the harp. Good. I have been waiting long for one such as thee. Take the treasure chest."

Very succinct. Reaching inside the chest, I feel a light mist suffuse the palm of my hand as my fingers wrap around a wooden staff. It is the Staff of Rain.

From afar, it looks like an ordinary wooden staff with a decorative head, but a mysterious magic permeates its length. I hold it over my head and the room erupts in tiny droplets of water, seeming to emanate from every direction.

Thinking back on the words of the Rimuldarian wise man, "When the sun and rain meet, a Rainbow Bridge shall appear," I feel sure that I am step closer to my final goal.

As I turn to depart, the hermit looks at me and mumbles in a surly tone, "I didn't need a shower."

"Yes you did," I say, and leave the shrine.

Why Vern, why?

As long as I'm visiting isolated shrines with no apparent defense against monsters, it occurs to me that there was talk of just such a thing to the south of Rimuldar. Up to now, I had avoided venturing too far from the town, but my adventures in Garin's Grave made me much stronger.

It is a long hike from the Kol promontory to the southern shrine, so on my way, I stop at Rimuldar to rest. The locals all recognize me by now, and greet me with a satisfying respect. The innkeeper even gives me his biggest room.

The next morning, I immediately set out south. The denizens of the forest continue to hound me, with Wolf monsters, Metal Scorpions, and Warlocks all taking runs at me at one time or another. The more monsters I cut down, however, the more I can feel my magical abilities increase.

On my way to the shrine, I stumble upon a secret magic called Outside. It is not unknown to me; I've heard of ancient scrolls that speak of heroes magically removing themselves from deep in the darkest dungeons. It is a shame I was not able to learn this before visiting Garin's Grave.^{[Note B]}

Continuing south, I have my first encounter with a monster known as the Wraith. In strength, it falls somewhere between the two of its cousins, the Skeleton and the Wraith Knight^{[Note C]}. It does have the ability to heal itself, but my attacks are strong enough by now that ordinary heal magic is not very effectual. By the time it finishes healing itself, I have done as much damage as it could recover.

Before long, a mountainous island appears on the southern horizon, separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. A wooded area sits on the edge of the island, and I can faintly make out some large, writhing mass floating between the trees. I don't know what new horror awaits me, but I had best keep one eye pointed up.

Just then, the bridge to the island appears before me, sprouting from the forest like a corn shoot. It stands some 300 feet above the channel and is considerably more rickety than I would like. Nevertheless, I perservere.

As I approach the end of the bridge, I see something rise from the forest canopy on the near side of the island. It approaches me rapidly and soon I can see what looks like an oversized flying worm, with a face like that of a stork and a body that's propelled by a giant pair of wings. I quickly recognize the wings as being the same sort that I had used to return to Tantegel Castle after an earlier monster hunt.

When the creature gets within a stone's throw from my position, the avian menace leans forward and shoots towards me a like dart. I quickly jump to the side, but not fast enough, and suffer a deep wound to my left breast. Fortunately, I get a good swing in myself, partially separating its right wing. That leaves it flailing awkwardly in the air, and a quick upward thrust is enough to finish it off.

My magical reserves can tend to the bleeding for now, but it's clear that I will have to tread carefully on this island.

The Shoo-Shrine

A ring of mountains surrounds the central part of the island, shaped as if to cradle an ancient secret. The mountains fall off into rolling hills at the edge, and a narrow corridor appears passable at the southern end of the mountain ring.

In addition to the Wyverns, a fair number of Wolflords frequent this area. Their obsession with Stopspell magic is fortunate, for they are quite strong and would do a great deal more harm to my person if they stuck to physical attacks.

Finally, I reach a dense forest among the ring of mountains. Nestled among the trees is a stairway similar to the one I descended at Kol. Wasting no time, I make my way down.

When I reach the bottom, I'm confronted by... an old man with a treasure chest.

In fact, the old man looks strangely familiar. His upper lip is decorated with a waxed moustache but the color doesn't seem to match his hair. I move to take a closer look, but before I have time to react, he thrusts his arms in the air and bellows, "In thy task thou hast failed!"

The room suddenly becomes fuzzy. As my body dematerializes, I swear I see the old man's moustache fall the floor.

To be continued...

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Commentary

A. And I won't tell no one your name

It's sometimes difficult to explain a character's awareness of the names of things in the context of the game world. This issue extends far beyond the Dragon Warrior series. For example, in the Wizardry titles, you will see different names for things based on whether your characters have successfully identified them. A "small humanoid" might turn out to be an Orc or a Kobold, while a "strange animal" might be a gorgon, a chimera, a troll, a wyvern, or one of a number of other fantastical creatures.

In Dragon Warrior, your character's knowledge of the common names of things is effectively unlimited. It seems a bit silly to even have an item in the game called a "cursed belt" if your character will inevitably recognize it as cursed, but hey, at least it adds some variety to the unboxing process.

B. Get outta here

I suspect that the Dragon Warrior designers didn't intend for me to finish Garin's Grave before getting this spell, considering how deep I had to go to get the Silver Harp. I was fortunate; getting killed deep in a dungeon is generally worse than getting killed elsewhere. This is both because it's difficult to return to where you were and because you've usually amassed a good bit of money while fighting your way down. I could easily have been killed by a Wraith Knight in my last jaunt (had they repeatedly blocked me from running).

I think that giving players the Outside spell in the middle of the narrative arc makes sense because it allows the designers to increase the complexity of their labyrinths without having to worry about the player getting too frustrated. In this view, the ideal scenario is one where the player fights down the lowest levels of an increasingly challenging dungeon, finds the special treasure (perhaps after fighting a boss) and escapes magically to the surface. Without the Outside spell, you have to retread all of the ground you already covered, which is both tedious and nearly doubles the magic reserves needed for healing.

C. Too early for knight time?

I honestly wonder if the Wraith Knight's appearance in the lower levels of Garin's Grave was a mistake or miscommunication by the developers. It is disproportionately stronger than the other monsters around it and there happens to be this other similarly named monster, the Wraith, that would have been a much better fit.

As it is the Wraith seems entirely extraneous, appearing occasionally in a few isolated areas of the overworld where it wouldn't pose much threat compared to the other monsters around it.