Starflute

[LordNick]

I went to the teleporter after pulling or activating the Level 7 levers or switches, and it wasn;t activated. I had done all the others apart from the spare Level 2 ones and the Alarian vault one. Left a group at the teleporter to test it and sent other group to pull the switches. DId the Level 2 ones and it still didn't work. Did the one which turns the teleporters on and off in Level 6, Still didn;t work. Only with the final one that activates the teleporter to the Alarian altar did it work

[sircharles]

Alright, LordNick

did you gain it or not? If yes, what is your complaint? If not, what is your question?

A bit confused

Sir Charles

[LordNick]

Alright, LordNick

did you gain it or not? If yes, what is your complaint? If not, what is your question?

A bit confused

Sir Charles

I was just presenting what I found out for reference.
The information I saw in the Fatemaster says it was uncertain whether it was just the Level 7 switches or you needed to do all of them.
Further on the Star Flute, the bit about playing in front of the pictures, I don't know about that. I was under the impression that you would get a 50 increase in invul for playing in front of the picture with each different character. So after my cleric did it I went down there with a jester and found you get no extra increase with having two of the four pictures, then I found out it wasn't a permanent increase but a temporary though fairly long lasting one.
I also had recruited a monk and a priest and found that they don;t even need to have gone in front of the pictures it would still work. Whether you need to do it with at least one of the four types before it works I don't know. But seemingly after you have done it with one it works for the other type.

[sircharles]

I was just presenting what I found out for reference.
The information I saw in the Fatemaster says it was uncertain whether it was just the Level 7 switches or you needed to do all of them.
Further on the Star Flute, the bit about playing in front of the pictures, I don't know about that. I was under the impression that you would get a 50 increase in invul for playing in front of the picture with each different character. So after my cleric did it I went down there with a jester and found you get no extra increase with having two of the four pictures, then I found out it wasn't a permanent increase but a temporary though fairly long lasting one.
I also had recruited a monk and a priest and found that they don;t even need to have gone in front of the pictures it would still work. Whether you need to do it with at least one of the four types before it works I don't know. But seemingly after you have done it with one it works for the other type.

Alright, LordNick,whatever switches are needed only Merope can answer correctly. I think that somehow you gained it, though. So, the portraits in the catacombs are just a hint. Any char of the right profession can use it. The effect is temporary and needs to be renewed. It costs the user some stats - again temporarily, but do not overuse it. Do *not* use it for compensation of poor equipment!

Just a warning.
Sir Charles

[LordNick]

Are you referring to the ability increases from the guilds as equipment where it usually means weapons, armour, items or other objects.
I see that playing the starflute seems to have a cost of about 8 to stamina. Thats not a concern since I got the improve spell I play the starflute first then I do all the improve spells.
I have increased invulnerability to about 200 , and then the starflute takes it to 250. Once I got the spheres spell from Master then that seems to add 50 so its no longer necessary.
The starflute did make rushing into the grottos at a lower level pretty comftarble , and allowed the spending of all the allowances on antimagic. The only issue I had in the grottos in my other game there I killed enough myrmidons and mercenaries by the time I got to the last level, so I was in for a nasty suprise this time. Then I remembered what the gnome had said and I remembered how they had dissapeared in the previous game and I connected the two.

[sircharles]

Hi, LordNick.

Are you referring to the ability increases from the guilds as equipment where it usually means weapons, armour, items or other objects.

What I am nagging about is actually armour and other protective items. You need not concern yourself with invulnerability being low if the opponent simply cannot scratch you.

I see that playing the starflute seems to have a cost of about 8 to stamina. Thats not a concern since I got the improve spell I play the starflute first then I do all the improve spells.

Sound tactic. Pity that in the one game I had a monk with me I fumbled the starflute. Maybe I try this one out if I do another one.

The starflute did make rushing into the grottos at a lower level pretty comftarble , and allowed the spending of all the allowances on antimagic. The only issue I had in the grottos in my other game there I killed enough myrmidons and mercenaries by the time I got to the last level, so I was in for a nasty suprise this time. Then I remembered what the gnome had said and I remembered how they had dissapeared in the previous game and I connected the two.

Again, interesting tactic. I usually prefer to walk in the grottos seeing that nothing except the stoning or critical attacks are any danger, and those encounters I do with invulnerability sphere and timestop. Thus I had the same nasty surprise in level 7. Since then I also rely on pimping antimagic quite early. Relying on high invulnerability has its limits, though. As you see in the Agysium, constant damage can bring you down too, so maximum protection is in order. My chars can avoid that by being properly outfitted, and I do not hesitate to use maximum spellpower. Master:Insanity followed by Archmage:Evil Hammer (I think those are the English names) wipes out everyting. Everywhere.
Trying to grope some of the nasties might work if you inflict them with something - insanity, poison, disease, whatever. Then even the Medustaff will be useful again.
I think I see one problem you might have. It sounds like you have only one char having Master spells - Marina, and she is usually quite short of magic points. I have entered the Agysium at a similar level as you have (between 50 and 60) but had at least two fully educated Master casters sharing the workload.
Nevertheless you seem to be quite successful in the Agysium. Learn about your foes and do not hesitate to use heavy magic. Some of the critters are impossible to kill by physical force, but a Banshee:Hammer (should be available to at least three of your chars) puts them out immediately. Against the spellcasing variety the top level Valkyrie spell works quite nicely (as for Bog Ingrols) but is quite mana-heavy, so I keep this for bigger groups, not single Armans. Oh, and remember to keep that shielding wall (Enchanter spell) up, it helps a lot, even in the castle crypt.

Best of luck!
Sir Charles

[LordNick]

Hi, LordNick.

Are you referring to the ability increases from the guilds as equipment where it usually means weapons, armour, items or other objects.

What I am nagging about is actually armour and other protective items. You need not concern yourself with invulnerability being low if the opponent simply cannot scratch you.

I see that playing the starflute seems to have a cost of about 8 to stamina. Thats not a concern since I got the improve spell I play the starflute first then I do all the improve spells.

Sound tactic. Pity that in the one game I had a monk with me I fumbled the starflute. Maybe I try this one out if I do another one.

The starflute did make rushing into the grottos at a lower level pretty comftarble , and allowed the spending of all the allowances on antimagic. The only issue I had in the grottos in my other game there I killed enough myrmidons and mercenaries by the time I got to the last level, so I was in for a nasty suprise this time. Then I remembered what the gnome had said and I remembered how they had dissapeared in the previous game and I connected the two.

Again, interesting tactic. I usually prefer to walk in the grottos seeing that nothing except the stoning or critical attacks are any danger, and those encounters I do with invulnerability sphere and timestop. Thus I had the same nasty surprise in level 7. Since then I also rely on pimping antimagic quite early. Relying on high invulnerability has its limits, though. As you see in the Agysium, constant damage can bring you down too, so maximum protection is in order. My chars can avoid that by being properly outfitted, and I do not hesitate to use maximum spellpower. Master:Insanity followed by Archmage:Evil Hammer (I think those are the English names) wipes out everyting. Everywhere.
Trying to grope some of the nasties might work if you inflict them with something - insanity, poison, disease, whatever. Then even the Medustaff will be useful again.
I think I see one problem you might have. It sounds like you have only one char having Master spells - Marina, and she is usually quite short of magic points. I have entered the Agysium at a similar level as you have (between 50 and 60) but had at least two fully educated Master casters sharing the workload.
Nevertheless you seem to be quite successful in the Agysium. Learn about your foes and do not hesitate to use heavy magic. Some of the critters are impossible to kill by physical force, but a Banshee:Hammer (should be available to at least three of your chars) puts them out immediately. Against the spellcasing variety the top level Valkyrie spell works quite nicely (as for Bog Ingrols) but is quite mana-heavy, so I keep this for bigger groups, not single Armans. Oh, and remember to keep that shielding wall (Enchanter spell) up, it helps a lot, even in the castle crypt.

Best of luck!
Sir Charles

The nasty suprise I had on the 7th level was when you go to enter the corridor with all the final treasures plus Mandrag without having killed off enough Myrmidons and mercenaries for them to no longer appear, you get teleported back one square and all your Mp points get reduced to zero.
This happened on the current game. The first game I spent a lot more time in the grottos before I got to the final level so I had killed enough of them off without knowing I needed to do it.

The r-sphere and time spells didn;t last long enough for me , I tried to use them to progress while I could make it to the fountain on Level 4, going further beyond that I would run out of spell points. If you made it to Level 6 that way hats off to you.

i did find first game when I had one character at 60 anti magic and then at Level 6 that character was being pummeled but instead of going back to raise it I used the antimagic single character spell from fairy to raise it for the rest of the Grottos.
This new game I had two characters at 80 anti magic but lower level and they started to get pummeled by magic from level 4 onwards. So the lower the level it seems the higher the anti magic needs to be.

[sircharles]

Hi, LordNick!

The nasty suprise I had on the 7th level was when you go to enter the corridor with all the final treasures plus Mandrag without having killed off enough Myrmidons and mercenaries for them to no longer appear, you get teleported back one square and all your Mp points get reduced to zero.
This happened on the current game. The first game I spent a lot more time in the grottos before I got to the final level so I had killed enough of them off without knowing I needed to do it.

Oops, that never happened to me. Well, I did know the hints and never proceeded to lower levels while those guys were still showing up.

The r-sphere and time spells didn;t last long enough for me , I tried to use them to progress while I could make it to the fountain on Level 4, going further beyond that I would run out of spell points. If you made it to Level 6 that way hats off to you.

I made it to level 7. Easily. Used quite a lot of potions, but those are cheap. My nasty surprise was that my main tactic was no longer working - and the guys at level 7 are *really* fond of magic.

i did find first game when I had one character at 60 anti magic and then at Level 6 that character was being pummeled but instead of going back to raise it I used the antimagic single character spell from fairy to raise it for the rest of the Grottos.
This new game I had two characters at 80 anti magic but lower level and they started to get pummeled by magic from level 4 onwards. So the lower the level it seems the higher the anti magic needs to be.

I learned that the hard way. Grotto level 7 can be mastered with antimagic 100+. No nasty stoning or critical hitters anywhere, but magic all around. Need antimagic 200+ for the Agysium, though.

Greetings,
Sir Charles

[Dragonfly]

I went to the teleporter after pulling or activating the Level 7 levers or switches, and it wasn;t activated. I had done all the others apart from the spare Level 2 ones and the Alarian vault one. Left a group at the teleporter to test it and sent other group to pull the switches. DId the Level 2 ones and it still didn't work. Did the one which turns the teleporters on and off in Level 6, Still didn;t work. Only with the final one that activates the teleporter to the Alarian altar did it work

Hmm, that´s interesting. Could be helpful in the next run.
Thank you !

Greets,
Dragonfly