Dragonsphere - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

Written by Vetinari

Here we are, at the final leg of our quest: inside Tyre nak Branwe, the Dragon's Tears, Sanwe's tower where he was imprisoned oh so many year ago. I will just start exploring the place and...

Oops.

That evil (literally) eye there on the right wall just threw a bolt of lightning at me, killing me instantly. Not to worry, though, because I have the very inventory item that can be used in this kind of circumstances.

As I said last time: perfectly reasonable to carry some mud around for situations like this.

Let's start by exploring the right doorway.

That's what twenty years of neglect do to a property's value.

I arrive at the magician's laboratory, where most of the items are either too fragile too move or too arcane to have any purpose. The only exceptions are a music box on the stone table, and a strange shimmering blue stone on the right (near the candle).

The blue stone is particularly interesting, since it is a magical vortex stone.

The last Mystery Vortex that I remember was in a completely different game.

The ability to absorb magic from (and put it back into) something would seem very useful in an enchanted locale such as this tower, and this intuition is revealed to be correct as soon as I enter the next room to the right.

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

The coil of magical rope kills me as soon as I do anything other than retreat back to the lab. But with my newly-acquired vortex stone, I absorb the magic from the rope leaving it as just a length of hemp, which I obviously take.
 

That's what she said!

Starting the exploration of this more scientifically focused lab from the rear end, I check the cage at the bottom right where two rats (one alive, one dead) reside. Opening it, the live rat scuttles away “like a prisoner seeing light after 20 years. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much what's happened”. Since the cage still contains the dead rat, I acquire it and put it in my inventory.

First mud, then rat corpses. Will the madness never end?

I then check the round machinery just above, which the game helpfully label as a “freezer”. I try to put various things in it, but after freezing they just revert back to normal as soon as I take them back. Maybe it only works on meat or vegetables? Hmmm... meat?

You can “lick” the dead frozen rat, because why not?

I dread what use could be required of this unholy contrivance. Anyhow, checking the bookshelves does not yield anything useful, so the only thing left to inspect is the thingamajig on the left side, which is obviously some kind of chemistry apparatus. I open the knobs and use the beaker to collect what comes out of the tubes. I am rewarded for my efforts with a flask of acid, which will surely come in handy.

Just like in science class! (I never did this in science class).

Since this seems to be a dead end, I resolve to go back to the antechamber and explore the left side of the castle.

Nothing here.

Apart from those two very conspicuous buttons on the left wall – which I am NOT going to press right now, thank you very much – there seems to be an archway to the north which goes to another room... a spooky, scary and dank jail cell.

Meh. I've seen worse.

Spooky, scary and dank, but not dark, since there is a torch on the wall which seems to be enchanted to perpetually give light. Obviously a very useful item, so I yoink it and go back to examine the two buttons. Pressing the bottom one reveals their functions: they are the commands for a stone elevator.

After seeing all these contraptions, wouldn't you say that Sanwe is not a true sorcerer, but more like a technomancer or something?

The bottom floor of the tower has just an archway at the back, beyond which is a darkened room. After I enter, Callash automatically puts the torch I just acquired on the sconce on the wall, providing enough light to illuminate the whole place – and a deadly trap. 

Sanwe's tower brought back some memories of playing Enchanter.

Upon the pedestal on the left sits a powerstone, but since even without any magical abilities I can sense that the mortar under the floor is just rife with sorcerous power, I know that I cannot just go there and grab it. And yet...

Going back to the jail cell above this room, I pour the flask of acid on the floor and the concoction is so powerful that it eats a hole clean through the floor. Now I just have to tie my non-magical rope to the manacles on the wall, and climb right down through the hole.

Just like Mission Impossible.

Since I haven't touched the floor at all, I can grab the powerstone and climb right back up without activating the defensive deadly spell protecting it. This third and last powerstone is blue, the colour of – actually the game says that you cannot divine what significance its colour has. Whatever.

I get back to the elevator and this time I press the up button, which leads me to the upper floor of the tower. Here I find an old acquaintance, the rat which I helped escape from the cage in the lab downstairs. 

Hey buddy! I look forward to many more puzzles to face together.

Our friend the rat goes right through the doorway on the right... and is teleported smack in the middle of a hot lava corridor which promptly melts him.

Alas, we hardly knew ye.

Even a complete doofus like Callash understands that entering that doorway is not a particularly good idea, so we decide to investigate the room on the north side instead.

Here there is an incredible machinery: the seeming source of the infinite waterfall coming from Tyre nak Branwe and which gives it its name. This machine has mechanical parts which spin and whir and clank, but also strange spiritual symbols and arches, and the magical forces which make it run are clearly visible.

As I said: technomancer.

The water begins from nowhere and then runs in a powerful stream out of the window, producing the so called Tears of the Dragon. Examining the window further, Callash remarks that “it is set so low, it seems almost like a door”. Hmmm...I wonder.

Going back to the previous room, I see that the teleport doorway is not actually a permanent fixture, but it seems to be removable, even if it will take some effort.

It's the same as the baby gate I installed for my daughter.

A plan begins to form inside my mind: infinite water + teleportation to a hot lava corridor = infinite steam power! Or at the very least a corridor which is not deadly hot anymore.

However, picking up the teleport frame will require some puzzle solving ability. First of all, it is red hot (because of the proximity to the lava corridor, most probably) so I need something to cool it down. Luckily, I have just what the doctor ordered: a magical rat popsicle.

This game likes to make rats melt away.

Then I try to get the frame, but it is too smooth and deeply set in the stone doorway to get it bare-handed. Checking my inventory, I see that I have some very sticky tentacles that can be used as makeshift grips for the door frame. I attach them to it and then I am finally able to get the teleporting frame.

Just like in Yellow Submarine.

I put it in the window near the infernal machine, and my plan works like a charm.

Burn, baby, burn! No, actually just the opposite.

Unfortunately, the water flow is too strong and after some seconds the stream yanks the frame from my hands and throws it down the window, to be lost forever. But it doesn't matter, because it is enough for the incandescent corridor to be passable again. I walk through the doorway, through the corridor and arrive at the other end, ready to face Sanwe.

Cool decor.

Entering Sanwe's inner sanctum, Callash begins a tirade saying that he has come to defeat him, but the sorcerer just casts an holding spell and immobilises the poor sap.

That was to be expected.

Sanwe brags that he cannot be hurt by any weapon, because his power comes from his circle of spheres here in his study, and the only thing that can breach it are the powerstones. “But suppose you're not as stupid as you look? Perhaps you knew my weakness and you're carrying some even now.” he says. So he casts a detection spell on me to see if I have any of the powerstones, but instead finds that I am ensorcelled by some powerful magic. Thinking that this could be a magical booby trap meant for him, he counters the spell I am under and...

Boom! Plot twist.

Not-Callash is as dumbfounded by this revelation as Sanwe himself (and also as me when I was playing the game). Sanwe says that no wonder I was so easy to hold, it was all a trick to make him think he had slain the real king so he'd have thought himself safe and would be open to attack.

Then he goes back to his previous plan of retrieving the powerstones (through telekinesis, obviously) from my immobilised body, but in all this excitement the holding spell has started to wear off and I can begin to wiggle my fingers. Sanwe takes the first powerstone, spends some time gloating, then grabs the second powerstone. I can just about move my hands enough to do something with my inventory items. And what I find is...

Oh. I almost forgot about that.

Sanwe grabs the fake powerstone, and then I am just about able to move my arms to throw the real powerstone into the circle of spheres.

This would have been a good time for a Bond one-liner.

Sanwe is obliterated, the holding spell wears off and before I can do anything else, a cutscene of the throne room in Gran Callahach starts.

Why is Lak-Hella sitting on my throne? Bah, forget it, it's not even my throne, anyway.

he Queen Mother seems very surprised that “the wretched little shapechanger” actually succeeded, but Fiona says that he's (I'm?) not wretched at all, I'm a hero, and I must be given a hero's welcome when I return. She wants to go wake up Callash from his magical sleep and inform him that their plan succeeded, even if they did it all behind his back since he really wanted to go face Sanwe by himself.

Unfortunately, right on cue, Lak-Hella says that they are never going to revive Callash. She calls her other son, MacMorn, to put the Queen in the dungeon and then come back to prepare for the announcement that Callash died while fighting Sanwe, so that MacMorn can become the new ruler. 

Wow. You're really shooting for “most unlikeable character of all time” here, eh?

Luckily, Lak-Hella retorts that Fiona could still be of some use to them, so she is dragged away by MacMorn while the Queen Mother says that as soon as he comes back they can plan their story and order the shapechanger's death.

After the cutscene, the game goes back to our unnamed hero inside Sanwe's study, in the immediate aftermath of Sanwe's defeat, thinking what I can only surmise is: who the **** am I?

Session Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time: 7 hours 20 minutes