Continuing Replay - Maganakai Books 6-9
Feb 24, 2021 19:33:39 GMT
GhostofLandar and rhygar like this
Post by dinefwrwolf on Feb 24, 2021 19:33:39 GMT
Magnakai Books 6-9 Playthrough
Continuing my playthrough of the Lone Wolf series here. As there are 7 books in the Magnakai section, I will split this into two posts and deal with books 10-12 in the next. Please no spoilers beyond book 13. Again, I would be most interested to hear about other players' experiences.
Book 6 “The Kingdoms of Terror”
I remembered a few things from my first playthrough. I remembered that there was an annoying nobleman called Roark and that I had been killed by him several times in the tavern. I must have had very poor stats back then. Then I was also silly enough to pay a visit to Amory (Roark's hometown) which did not end well ! Other than that, I had no other memories of the book, other than that I liked it. This time around my brawl with Roark ended easily enough but later got ambushed by him in the hills, where he killed the old man that he had hassled in the tavern. I survived the encounter, avoided Amory and took the less direct route to Varetta. I avoided losing any lives until right at the end of the book. While in the sewer, I had a sense that if I didn't get out at the right point, I would likely end up dead. This is exactly what happened, I ignored the ladder leading to the arched door and instead pressed on only to be ambushed and killed by the Dakomyd. No combat just a life and quest ends here moment. So I ended up completing this book with the loss of one life. This was also the first time on my replaying of the adventures since book 2 that I lost a life through my own decision, rather than simply getting killed in a combat or losing on the random number table.
Book 7 “ Castle Death”
Back in the day, I rember getting killed at least 7 times before even reaching the maze. I also had a memory that I chose the jetty route at the beginning, so I avoided that route this time around. Other than that I remembered almost nothing other than that I knew this was a very difficult book – and so it proved this time around. I managed to avoid dying before I reached the maze but then encountered lots of problems. I got the zakhan's riddle (which was simple enough really) wrong but the forbidding atmosphere did affect my ability to think in a measured way here. Then cumulative damage in combats led to death at the hands of – the hand ! On 5 occasions. I then was nearing the end of the maze but entered Zahda's throne room from the front rather than behind and ended up dead again. I then completed the book on the next go but failed to retrieve the Sommerswerd, so I had to take another attempt to find it and complete the book, so I could take it into book 8 and I managed to do this.
In many ways, I think that book 7 was one of the high points of the series. Joe created a real sense of fear and loneliness in the book, which does pressurise one's decision making I think. It is also very challenging, if anyone has completed this in one go, I take my hat off to them. It is hard without being unfair. At the same time it has a very different feel to the rest of the series which will not be to everyone's taste. I was impressed on re-reading but glad that most of the other books are quite different.
Book 8 “The Jungle of Horrors”
I had very few memories of this. I remembered that I liked it first time around. I was less impressed on replay though. I lost 4 lives in total but these all came at the hands of the helghast in the monastery. Even with good stats this is a very tough foe to beat and only with freakish luck on the RNT was I able to kill him losing few lives. The adventure was too linear and just didn't feel balanced. Other than this incident, I thought it was rather easy and the one difficult part was a bit manufactured and unfair. The helghast can only be avoided by taking some really counter intuitive decisions beforehand, including refusing to show your pass to the Tharro guard. It also seemed contrived that Lone Wolf managed to seek out the only dodgy hostelry in the city, surely there was somewhere else he could stay ? On the plus side, I think the story was well written and interesting but on reflection, I feel this was the weakest of the first 13 books (I have not completed further than this on replay.)
Book 9 “The Cauldron of Fear”
I had no memories of this other than that the end boss had an orb of death and was very difficult. On replay I lost 17 lives, 16 at the hands Zakhan Kimah and one other from the senator who cuts the rope in the well, leading to an RNT check. Overall, despite the rather unfair level of difficulty for the end boss fight, I enjoyed this adventure. Before I reached the Anari capital, I ended up involved in a stramash with some soldiers, which I was worried would lead to me getting arrested at some point when I reached the capital. It also led to some hiding under bridges. All in all I thought it was an interesting one.
Continuing my playthrough of the Lone Wolf series here. As there are 7 books in the Magnakai section, I will split this into two posts and deal with books 10-12 in the next. Please no spoilers beyond book 13. Again, I would be most interested to hear about other players' experiences.
Book 6 “The Kingdoms of Terror”
I remembered a few things from my first playthrough. I remembered that there was an annoying nobleman called Roark and that I had been killed by him several times in the tavern. I must have had very poor stats back then. Then I was also silly enough to pay a visit to Amory (Roark's hometown) which did not end well ! Other than that, I had no other memories of the book, other than that I liked it. This time around my brawl with Roark ended easily enough but later got ambushed by him in the hills, where he killed the old man that he had hassled in the tavern. I survived the encounter, avoided Amory and took the less direct route to Varetta. I avoided losing any lives until right at the end of the book. While in the sewer, I had a sense that if I didn't get out at the right point, I would likely end up dead. This is exactly what happened, I ignored the ladder leading to the arched door and instead pressed on only to be ambushed and killed by the Dakomyd. No combat just a life and quest ends here moment. So I ended up completing this book with the loss of one life. This was also the first time on my replaying of the adventures since book 2 that I lost a life through my own decision, rather than simply getting killed in a combat or losing on the random number table.
Book 7 “ Castle Death”
Back in the day, I rember getting killed at least 7 times before even reaching the maze. I also had a memory that I chose the jetty route at the beginning, so I avoided that route this time around. Other than that I remembered almost nothing other than that I knew this was a very difficult book – and so it proved this time around. I managed to avoid dying before I reached the maze but then encountered lots of problems. I got the zakhan's riddle (which was simple enough really) wrong but the forbidding atmosphere did affect my ability to think in a measured way here. Then cumulative damage in combats led to death at the hands of – the hand ! On 5 occasions. I then was nearing the end of the maze but entered Zahda's throne room from the front rather than behind and ended up dead again. I then completed the book on the next go but failed to retrieve the Sommerswerd, so I had to take another attempt to find it and complete the book, so I could take it into book 8 and I managed to do this.
In many ways, I think that book 7 was one of the high points of the series. Joe created a real sense of fear and loneliness in the book, which does pressurise one's decision making I think. It is also very challenging, if anyone has completed this in one go, I take my hat off to them. It is hard without being unfair. At the same time it has a very different feel to the rest of the series which will not be to everyone's taste. I was impressed on re-reading but glad that most of the other books are quite different.
Book 8 “The Jungle of Horrors”
I had very few memories of this. I remembered that I liked it first time around. I was less impressed on replay though. I lost 4 lives in total but these all came at the hands of the helghast in the monastery. Even with good stats this is a very tough foe to beat and only with freakish luck on the RNT was I able to kill him losing few lives. The adventure was too linear and just didn't feel balanced. Other than this incident, I thought it was rather easy and the one difficult part was a bit manufactured and unfair. The helghast can only be avoided by taking some really counter intuitive decisions beforehand, including refusing to show your pass to the Tharro guard. It also seemed contrived that Lone Wolf managed to seek out the only dodgy hostelry in the city, surely there was somewhere else he could stay ? On the plus side, I think the story was well written and interesting but on reflection, I feel this was the weakest of the first 13 books (I have not completed further than this on replay.)
Book 9 “The Cauldron of Fear”
I had no memories of this other than that the end boss had an orb of death and was very difficult. On replay I lost 17 lives, 16 at the hands Zakhan Kimah and one other from the senator who cuts the rope in the well, leading to an RNT check. Overall, despite the rather unfair level of difficulty for the end boss fight, I enjoyed this adventure. Before I reached the Anari capital, I ended up involved in a stramash with some soldiers, which I was worried would lead to me getting arrested at some point when I reached the capital. It also led to some hiding under bridges. All in all I thought it was an interesting one.