Welcome aboard, Peggy. I like this game's interface, but it does take a while to get familiar with its fine points. Referring to the manual is helpful. Glad you're liking the game.

Debra, I tried that F7 key and it acts just like a Quick Save key. Goodie. Don't know why the manual calls it an Auto Save, which is technically different. I took the train to Ashbury to pick up Dog (great to be with him again), and am now in the middle of exploring the Black Mountain Clan mines for Bates.

(syd slips her invisibility cloak on, creeps into the thread - takes notes on game and slips out quietly to locate a copy while not alerting the original posters to the fact their thread has been spied upon)

Thanks, Sig for the link to the manual. Peggy glad you're here, too.
If you have any questions just whistle.
What kind of character are you playing?
Syd, I see though invisibility cloaks. Come on in and join us!
I'm in Stillwater now and have captured the Stillwater Giant

(The ever-vigilant Sig puts on his Spectacles of All Seeing and discerns Syd sneaking into and out of his topic, wearing a very handsome cloak, indeed.)

Yeah, come on, Syd. We have to make up for all those people who never gave this game enough of a chance. I bet GoGamer has a copy with your name on it.

You're in Stillwater already, Debra? Uh . . . I'm glad this isn't a foot race.

I have trudged around S Hills, Tarant and Dernholm and am making progress with quests but I am not figuring out how to increase my skills! I find all those folks who can make me an apprentice, but they all tell me my skills are too low. How do I increase them?

CYE, Peggy. I sent you a copy of the game's manual, which has all that skills stuff in it. The file opens with Adobe Reader. If you don't already have that program, it's freely downloadable on the web.

Thanks, Sig. The manual has not yet arrived, but I will be on the lookout for it.

I made pretty good progress last night and did get increase one of my skills somewhat, though I am not sure how! I had that auto schemes on. Probably did that when I was first looking over the screens. I turned it to "No scheme" so that I can tell when I increase something. Then maybe I will know how I did it.

I killed Virgil!! Should I replay or just go on with his replacement? I rather liked him and don't know why he suddenly turned on me. I was only trying to crack open a barrel at Schuyler's...

This is a very intricate game and I am loving it. Probably will last me several months.

Thanks again.

Too bad about Virgil, Peggy. He's not crucial to have with you, so you can just continue on. You probably didn't wanna resurrect him cuz he turned on you, huh? I don't know why he did that, for just trying to bust a barrel. Is it possible you might've accidentally done the "force attack" on him instead of the barrel? That could've turned him hostile.

Yeah, I don't use any of those Auto Level-up Schemes---I like to spend those precious level-up points myself. I'm not sure how the whole skill increase thing works, cuz I beef up my character's skills with the hack editor, but it might be based on how much you use this or that skill. Anyway, they cover this thoroughly in the manual. Glad you're liking it. Keep us posted.

I hacked this round too! Lots of fun doing things I never got to do before.
I'm turning techie, too. I've made Featherweight Armor, Eye Goggles, a Shocking Staff, Regenerating Jackets,lots of potients and Balanced Swords. Good money from junk.
Peggy there will be others who can join your quest as you move along. I'd love to get rid of Magus Shalefist, but he figures into another quest that I didn't complete on one of my other plays of the game so, I've got to see how that works out.

Yeah, Debra, it's fun making things with those "schematics," isn't it? My fave is all the different funky firearms, but I make a lot of Healing Salves and Fatigue Restorers and other stuff. And aren't the pencil drawings on the schematics good? I love those.

I should be reporting back to Bates in the next session about what I found out in the Black Mountain mines, after having done some extra exploration there, and also in the Tarant sewers.

Speaking of neat things in this game, don't you like those little, purple, floating "Love Lights" in Ashbury? I wish those phenomena really existed, but I guess we'll have to settle for fireflies.

Yeah, the drawings are neat. The game has a lot of polish, I think. I love the loading screens with the train and the skeletons, too.
I'm in Quintarra now. I've done the Bedokan Village and messed that up so I didn't get the lizard warrior this time. I'm about to meet the Silver Queen.
I killed one of those love lights once by accident. That is not a good thing to do. They become hate lights at that point and everyone dislikes you in Ashbury.
Is your character good, neutral or evil Sig and Peggy?
Where are you now Peggy? Are you still enjoying the game?

Yeah, I always appreciate eye-pleasing load screens. The train one is my favorite.

Too bad about not being able to pick up Waromon (that lizard humanoid). I had him the first time and want to get him again. True to RPG-ness, though, it's easy to mess up in this game. All it takes is clicking on the wrong reply choice or trying to pick the lock on a barrel within eyeshot of someone. Put it this way . . . I'm hitting F7 a lot.

You killed a Love Light? Yeah, that had to be an accident. Rather serious consequences for that, but it just bears up what I was just saying. Funny how NPCs always assume you do everything on purpose.

My character's a good guy. Yours, too?

I'm back from the Isle of Despair, but the dwarf there wouldn't give me his Wheel Clan spectacles, and the game wouldn't let me have that shopkeeper in Ashbury make me a pair, so I made a schematic for them with the editor, but now I'm going all over looking for a lousy Kathorn crystal I need to make them (we sold all the ones we've collected so far). At least the strategy guide I ordered got here (from Canada), so "dungeon crawling" is a little better with the maps in it. Onward and downward . . .

I've done most of the Tarant quests that can be finished there. Tried the Black Clan mines and ran into a golem who made mincemeat of my party!

Right now I am trying to decide how best to muscle up and to get some cash. Seems no one wants to buy many of the awesome things I have managed to collect. Oh, how I would love to find one great general store that buys and sells it all!

I've crashed a couple of times. I am able to play right through when I start back up so I must be overloading something.

Yes. I am still really enjoying. There is quite a long learning curve for me. I am Level 13 and have not learned much! These guys are very stingy with those points.

Sig, I've got lots of Kathorn (sp?) crystals. You should have asked me. I would have met you at Schuyler and Sons and passed 'em over.
Peggy, I think as you upgrade your beauty or charisma you can buy/sell more at any store. Which character are you? Are you a goody-goody like Sig and I? What's your character's name?
I am Eleanor, half-elven and drop dead gorgeous.
You may touch me now
Whatever happened to stealthy Syd?

"Whatever happened to stealthy Syd?"
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She is out buying a cloaking device for her invisibility cloak while waiting for her game to arrive