Magic Realm: Day 23

There are six days remaining before the end of the month, and the game.  The Black Knight has uncovered four of the seven treasures in the Dragon's Lair, including the Enchanted Meadow.  There are three remaining treasures in the Lair, too few to spend any more time looting there.  Therefore the Black Knight needs to travel elsewhere to seek additional treasure and opponents.

The Black Knight has seven options.  He could travel to the Ruins.  That location is immediate, but is somewhat distant from the Inn, where the Rogues are waiting to be routed.  The Cliff is closer to the Inn, and also gives him access to the tunnels under the High Pass.  The Ledges are just beyond the Inn, and could be the Black Knight's destination after he eliminates the Rogues.  The Borderland has yet to be explored, but visiting there may preclude a visit to the Inn.  And the Chapel is distant  as well, although the Black Knight could take out the Order and the visiting Lancers while he is there.

Given the options before him, the Black Knight decides to visit the Cliff, then the Inn, and if he has time, travel beyond, to the Ledges.

We record a hide action, and four move actions for day 23.

At the start of the day, we make our prowling monster roll, obtaining a 2.  That means that snakes and demons are prowling today.  Only Dragons and spiders reside in the Deep Woods, so we are safe today.

With rolls of double ones, the Black Knight's hide attempt is successful.  He moves four times, ending the day just at the border with the Cliff and the Evil Valley.  No monsters appear, and the Black Knight ends the day.

Magic Realm: Day 22

The Black Knight begins his final week in the Magic Realm having already met all of his victory conditions.  He has 20/10 fame, 76/60 notoriety, and 63/30 gold.  During his final week, the Black Knight's goal is to collect as much additional fame, notoriety, gold and treasure as possible.  He wants to avoid the Octopus and the Winged Demon, the only two Monsters that pose a threat to him.

Yesterday, day 21, the Black Knight recovered the Gloves of Strength from the Dragon's Lair, a treasure that permits him to deal tremendous damage with the Morningstar he purchased from the Order. 

Yesterday, with the Gloves and Morningstar, he killed the Tremendous Dragon making the Lair it's home.  He has now recovered three of the seven treasures there.

The Black Knight will spend one more day looting the Lair, which still contains four treasures.  After that, he will seek out some additional opponents and treasure sites.

For day 22, we record a hide action and four search actions.

Today's prowling monster roll is a 1, which means Dragons are on the move.  The Dragon that appears in the Deep Woods has already been dispatched, so no other Dragons will appear today.

For his first action, the Black Knight attempts to hide, rolling a 2 and 5.  His hide action is successful.

The Black Knight attempts to loot the Dragon's Lair.  His first loot roll is a 5 and 6: with only four treasures remaining, he collects nothing.  His second loot roll is a 2 and 6, so he collects nothing. 

The third loot roll is double ones.  The Black Knight locates the Enchanted Meadow! 

The Enchanted Meadow is the site of a magical pony, and the Truesteel sword (the best weapon in the game). 

The are both very difficult to obtain:  since we must roll two dice, taking the higher of the two, during each search action, there's a 3% chance of recovering the pony, and an 8% chance of obtaining the Truesteel sword.  In comparison, there is a 30% chance we will obtain nothing, and 25% chance of being cursed.

Since we have located the Enchanted Meadow, we can either use our last search to keep looting the Dragon's Lair, or we can try looting the Enchanted Meadow.  Considering our chances of getting cursed (25%), versus obtaining either the pony or Truesteel Sword (11%), we will make one more search attempt at the Dragon's Lair.

Our last search roll results in 4 and 5.  Again, since there are now only 3 treasures left, we obtain nothing.

No Monsters appear at the end of the day.

Magic Realm: Day 21

The Black Knight spent Day 20 searching for the Dragon's Lair, finally discovering it late afternoon.  With the light fading, he resolves to begin looting the Lair on Day 21.

As Day 21 is the end of a week, another kind of magic permeates the Realm today.  This time, purple magic is available to spell casters.  That magical power is, of course, useless to the Black Knight, but it can be handy for folks like the Sorcerer, Magician and Wizard.

The Black Knight ended day 20 unhidden, so the brown side of his character token is face-up at the start of day 21.  We will record our free hide, followed by four search actions, so we can begin looting the Dragon's Lair.

We roll for prowling monsters and obtain a 1:  Dragons.  That is bad.  I had hoped we'd have at least a couple of days to loot the Lair unmolested, but the Tremendous Dragon will appear at the end of today.

We attempt to hide, rolling a pair of threes.  Our hide is successful.  That's good, at least we will not be running away from the Dragon at the end of the day.

Our first loot roll is a 1 and 4 which nets us ... the Gloves of Strength!

We could not ask for a better result that this.  With the Gloves of Strength, we can use the Morningstar purchased from the Order to dispatch the Tremendous Dragon.  This is an absolutely fantastic find.  Between the warhorse, our Armor, the Gloves of Strength and the Morningstar, we can now dispatch all Monsters but the Winged Demon and Octopus with relative ease.

The Black Knight immediately dons the Gloves Of Strength, and switches weapons to the Morningstar.

Our second loot roll results in 2 and 6, and we recover the Penetrating Grease.

The Penetrating Grease is a handy treasure, as it allows you to bypass armor when it is applied to your edged weapon.  It will not be useful in conjunction with the Morningstar, since that is not an edged weapon, but we might keep this treasure nevertheless.

Our third loot roll is, again, a 2 and 6.  As there are only five treasures left in the Lair, we get nothing.

Our last loot roll is a pair of fives, and we uncover the Dragonfang Necklace.

The Dragonfang Necklace allows the owner to control one Dragon.  I've never seen this item used in a Magic Realm game, but a Player using a character with access to purple magic might find it handy.  Ironically, since today is day 21, and purple magic is available throughout the Magic Realm, this item is "awakened".  It will be interesting to see if, during the combat encounter step, the combat engine allows me to cast the spell control dragons.  I can sell this treasure to the Lancers, and obtain 12 fame in addition to the gold price.

The combat encounter steps finds the Black Knight hidden, and facing off against the Tremendous Dragon who, prior to today, was invulnerable.  But now, with the Gloves of Strength and the Morningstar, the tables have turned and it the Black Knight who has the upper hand.

Having looked at our options during combat, casting control dragons is unavailable.  I presume that is the case since the Black Knight has no spell chits to play, in order to cast a spell.

The first thing the Black Knight does, while hidden, is alert the Morningstar.  You may recall that in the past, he has alerted his mace using his FIGHT M5 chit.  He will do something similar with the Morningstar.  The difference is that while the mace is a medium weapon, the Morningstar is a heavy one.  He can only play FIGHT chits that are the same weight, or greater, than the weapon being wielded. 

Therefore, rather than using his FIGHT M5 chit, he must use or FIGHT H6 to alert his morningstar.  We don't want to use the Gloves of Strength to alert the Morningstar, as that will make the Gloves unavailable during our attack.  The Black Knight needs those Gloves during combat, to deal the fatal blow.

During combat, we play the now alerted Morningstar with our Gloves of Strength.

As a result, we kill the Tremendous Dragon.  As we played the Gloves of Strength, they increase our Morningstar's damage from heavy to tremendous, which we need to inflict in order to kill the Dragon.  And the Morningstar's alerted speed of 3 is faster than the Dragon's move speed of 6, so we undercut the Dragon's attempt to dodge our attack.

We end the day with an additional 10 fame and 10 notoriety, for dispatching the Tremendous Dragon.  Therefore, we now have 20/10 fame, 76/60 notoriety, and 63/30 gold towards our victory conditions.

Magic Realm: Day 20

The Black Knight ended day 19 in the Deep Woods, at the reputed site of the Dragon's Lair.  On day 20, the Black Knight's plan is to search for the Dragon's Lair, and if successfully found, loot it until the Tremendous Dragon arrives and chases him away.

At the start of day 20, the Black Knight is hidden, as indicated by the green side of his character counter.  As there are no Dragons or Spiders about, we record four search actions and an extra hide action, provided by our Cloak Of Mist.

The prowling monster roll for day 20 is another 3:  Goblins and the Octopus.  Since neither inhabit the Deep Woods, that means we are safe from attack for at least one more day.

Our first search roll nets us two fives, so we find nothing.  Our second search roll is a 2 and 5, so we still find nothing.  Our third roll, a 4 and 5, so nothing again.  Our last search roll ... success!  We roll a 1 and 4, which means we locate the site of the Dragon's Lair.

There are seven treasures in the Dragon's Lair, three large and four small.  If we are lucky, we should be able to loot three or four of those seven treasures with relative ease, over the next day or two.  The last three treasures are difficult to obtain, not only because the probability of rolling a 1, 2 or 3 is low, but also because the treasures are guarded by a Monster we can't defeat, and so must spend extra actions dodging and hiding from.

Our final action, hiding, fails, as we roll a 3 and 6.  Thus , we end the day unhidden.  Not fatal, as no Monsters arrive to battle us.  We will spend tomorrow looting the treasures from the Dragon's Lair.

Magic Realm: Day 19

The Black Knight spent day 18 in the Magic Realm, haggling with the Order over the prices of a warhorse and Morningstar, which cost him 26 and 20 gold, respectively (when you factor in the cost of buying the related rounds of drinks).

In addition to 63 gold, the Black Knight has the following items.

He has his mace readied, is wearing heavy armor and the Cloak of Mist, and is riding his warhorse.

His additional equipment includes an axe, the Gripping Dust, a helmet, a broadsword, and a Morningstar.

He is still at the Chapel, with the Order.  The Black Knight could wait at the Chapel, for the Lancers to arrive, as they are another hated foe to dispatch.

Or, he could head back to the Inn, as the warhorse gives the Black Knight an excellent chance of defeating the resident Rogues.

I think the better choice is to travel to the Deep Woods, and try to locate, and loot, the Dragon's Lair.  You may recall that we travelled past the location of the Dragon's Lair on the way to visit the Guardhouse.  The Dragon's Lair has seven treasures (three large and four small), and it would be nice to pick up at least 3 or 4 of those.

With his current equipment, the Black Knight cannot defeat the Tremendous Dragon making the Lair its home, but the Black Knight is sufficiently fleet of foot that he can run away from it, should the Dragon awaken.  He is able to do so because the Dragon's move speed is 6, while the Black Knight has a faster move speed of 4.

At the start of day 19, we record the Black Knight's actions: four moves and an extra hide, courtesy of the Cloak Of Mist.  He is taking a bit of a risk here, as the Black Knight will end the day in the Deep Woods, with only one hide attempt.  With one attempt, there is a 70% chance of hiding.  However, as mentioned, he can easily run away from the Tremendous Dragon if it appears.  The only downside is that the Black Knight would need to expend extra hide and move actions, tomorrow, to arrive again at the location of the Lair, if he is unhidden at the end of day 19.

Our roll for prowling monsters results in a 3:  Goblins and the Octopus.  We already know that the Deep Woods is the home to the Tremendous Dragon and Spiders, so the Black Knight should be safe from attack today.

The Black Knight rides his warhorse to the Dragon's Lair and attempts to hide.  With a roll of 1 and 2, his hide is successful.  As no monsters appear, as expected, the Black Knight ends his day, hidden in the clearing.  Tomorrow, he will attempt to locate the Dragon's Lair, and start looting its contents.

Magic Realm: Day 18

The Black Knight spent the last couple of days in the Magic Realm travelling to the Chapel, the home of the Order. 

The plan for day 18 is to trade the Sacred Statue to the Order, to fulfil our fame victory conditions, and buy a warhorse and morningstar.  The warhorse will provide the Black Knight with extra protection, as opponents must kill the horse before they can wound or kill the Black Knight.  The morningstar is a fast, heavy weapon, that, in conjunction with the Gloves or Girdle Of Strength, allows the Black Knight to take on the most dangerous Monsters in the Magic Realm.  There's no guarantee he will find either treasure, but if the Black Knight does, he may as well have the right equipment available.

During day 18, we record four trade actions, and one hide action.

The prowling monster roll for day 18 is a 3:  Goblins and the Octopus.  The Goblins are dangerous, and the Octopus, more so.  Fortunately, we are safe in the Valley as no monsters prowl here.

During our first trade action, we buy the Order drinks.  Buying drinks costs 1 gold per Denizen in the group, and temporarily improves your relationship with the group by one level.  The relationships are Enemy, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly and Ally.  Depending on the Denizens, this may be worthwhile.  In this case, we are neutral with the Order, so buying them drinks costs 4 gold, and increases our relationship from neutral to friendly.  During the trade action, we ask the Order to sell us their best warhorse, worth 22 gold -- a massive, armored beast able to carry tremendous items and move at a galloping speed of 5.

We roll a 1 on the meeting table.  A roll of 1 on the friendly table improves our temporary relationship with the Order, from friendly to ally.  On the ally table, we roll a 2, and as a result, the Order agrees to sell us the warhorse for its price x 1, or 22 gold.  This is an fantastic result, as the only better result is a 1, where the Order gives us the warhorse for free. 

Rather than giving the Order 22 gold, we give the Order one gold, and make up the difference by giving them an axe, shield and the Sacred Statue, worth a total of 21 gold, thus buying the warhorse and at the same time collecting the 10 fame points for the Sacred Statue.

With that trade, we have collected 10/10 fame (the boon for the Sacred Statue), 66/60 notoriety, and own 77/30 gold (we had 82 gold, but used 4 gold to buy drinks, and provided 1 gold as part of the bargain for the warhorse). 

We have met all of our victory conditions.  Any additional points and gold from here on in go to bragging rights, as every player who meets their victory conditions wins the game, but the one who exceeds their victory conditions by the greatest value is first amongst equals.

We still have 3 trade actions and a hide action.  During the next trade action, we buy drinks for the Order, for 4 gold, and offer to buy the morningstar, worth 8 gold. 

The die result on the friendly meeting table is 6: no deal.  We try again, again buying drinks for 4 gold.  This time we roll a 1, bumping the Black Knight's temporary relationship up to ally, but the subsequent roll is a 6: price x 4, or 32 gold.   Too expensive.  On our final attempt, we buy drinks once more, and roll successive 1's: the Order offers to give the morningstar to the Black Knight for free.  Instead, we pay 2 gold and make up the difference trading a mace worth 6 gold.

As a result of all that drink buying and bargaining, we have reduced our gold to 63/30.  Still an adequate amount, and we now have a warhorse and morningstar.

Our final hide action fails, as we roll a 3 and 6.

During the combat encounter step at the end of the day, we roll a 3 on the meeting table.  The Order does not take offence the presence of the Black Knight at the Chapel, and the day ends.

Magic Realm: Day 16 and 17

The Black Knight ended day 15 at the Guardhouse, having dispatched the Guard and the Patrol and recovered all but four treasures scattered about following those combats.  The Black Knight could stay and continue looting, but his chances of successfully looting are significantly diminished since there are so few treasures left, and at any rate, are of little value to the Black Knight.

Both day 16 and day 17 will be spent travelling to the Chapel, the residence of the Order.  The Order is a dangerous foe: fortunately, the Black Knight and the Order are indifferent to each other, and with the Black Knight's fearsome martial reputation, we would have to roll extremely poorly to find ourselves challenged to combat by them.

Each day we record a hide action and four move actions.  We can record an extra hide action each day, as we recovered and donned the Cloak Of Mist, which supplies us with an extra daily hide.

On day 16, our roll for prowling monsters is a 5: Spiders.  As we will start and end our turn in a valley, we are safe from prowling monsters.

Our hide is successful, with a roll of 1 and 5.  We use our four move actions, ending the day in clearing 4 of the Dark Valley.

We record the same actions for day 17.

Day 17's prowling monster roll is 6:  Bats.  We are safe from those Monsters as we will be ending our day in a Valley.

Our hide roll is 1 and 1, so we successfully hide, and use our four move actions to arrive at the Chapel.

As we have used all of our daily actions, we cannot trade with the Order today.  During the combat encounter step, at the end of the day, we roll a 4, so the Order does not confront the Black Knight (we would need a roll of 6 during the combat encounter step, and then 4-6, for the Order to seek battle with the Black Knight).

The Knights of the Order are heavily armored and ride armored warhorses.  The Black Knight is incapable of dispatching any of them, with the equipment he currently possesses.  I think we will try to avoid combat with the Order ... at least, for now.

During tomorrow, day 18, we will sell our excess equipment to the Order, and see if we can acquire both a Warhorse and the Black Knight's favorite weapon, the Morningstar.

Magic Realm: Day 15

Day 15 in the Magic Realm will be much the same as day 14: we will spend the entire day looting the Guardhouse, safe in the knowledge that neither the Guard nor the Patrol will appear again, prior to day 21.  By then, the Black Knight will be long gone.

There are still five treasures scattered about the Guardhouse: a helmet, two breastplates, a shield, and the broadsword.  After today's looting, we will make our way to the Chapel, the home of the Order, and sell our surplus treasure to them, along with the Sacred Statue.

During day 14, the Black Knight recovered the Cloak Of Mist, a treasure that allows characters to record an extra Hide action each day.  He activated that Cloak at the end of day 14, thereby permitting him to record that extra Hide action during day 15.

During the planning portion of day 15, we record a Hide action, and four Search actions.  Obviously, we don't need to hide, as no one will appear at the Guardhouse today, but it's good to get in the habit of using all of your available actions.

On day 15, the prowling monster roll is a 6:  Bats.  I hate Bats.  They are too fast for the Black Knight to undercut, even with his alerted mace.  And they are too fast to avoid their attacks or run away from. The Black Knight has to line up with the Bat's move in order to kill it, while suffering at least one wound per round since the Bats always undercut the Black Knight's move.  If you are unlucky, Bats will wound you to death.  As we are in a Valley, the Black Knight continues to be safe from prowling monsters.  That will change once he strikes out into the wilderness to seek adventure.

Along with Bats, a roll of 6 also summons various quests and visitors to the Magic Realm.  Those visitors are the Warlock, the Scholar, and the Crone.  As you can see from the above chart, based on random  placement at the start of the game, the Warlock can appear with the Company, the Scholar with the Bashkars, and the Crone at the Toadstool Circle and Shrine. 

Players can choose where these are placed, rather than allowing random placement: if so, the Black Knight should, if he can, place the Scholar with the Patrol, since the Patrol visits the Inn, where the Black Knight starts the game, and the Guardhouse, where the Black Knight travels to collect some early notoriety and gold.  The Scholar always starts with three random magic items for sale, and you sometimes find he has just the right treasure to make your Magic Realm adventures more successful.

If we encounter the Bashkars we will keep a lookout for the Scholar. 

We failed to hide during our first action, rolling a 3 and 6.  No harm, as we are not expecting anyone to arrive at the Guardhouse. 

Our four Search actions result in rolls of 4 and 5; 3 and 5; 3 and 5; and 6 and 6, netting us just one more treasure, the broadsword. 

The last three searches were unsuccessful, because after the first successful search, there were only 4 treasures remaining, and we rolled fives and sixes.

There's little point in staying for an extra day for the remaining treasures.  They will net us gold if collected and sold, but we've already collected enough gold, and none of those treasures are of any great use to the Black Knight, since they are all medium armor, and the Black Knight already owns heavy armor.

Therefore, he will quit the Guardhouse tomorrow, and both day 16 and 17 will be spent travelling to the Chapel.

Magic Realm: Day 14

As I mentioned on day 7 of our adventures in the Magic Realm, at the end of each week a different color of magic infuses the realm.  In addition, some of the Denizens and Monsters can re-spawn.  As today is day 14, the end of week two, Grey magic is available to spell-casters.  The Black Knight has no access to magic, so is unaffected by this feature of the game. 

On day 13, we recovered the Sacred Statue.  Some time in the next couple of days, we need to travel to the Chapel, and sell that to the Order, satisfying the last of our victory conditions.  For now, though, there are still 9 treasures to be looted from the Guardhouse.  We will spend at least one more day, and maybe two, recovering what treasures we can.

For day 14, we record four search actions.

Our prowling monster roll for day 14 is a 5, which is Spiders, and the Bashkars (who only show up at the Large and Small Campfires).  As none of those Monsters or Denizens have yet been killed, none are re-spawned to the Treasure set-up card.

We recover the following additional treasures on day 14 while looting the Guardhouse.

We recover a shield, and axe and a helmet, but the most exciting treasure is the Cloak Of Mist.  As I mentioned earlier, every character in the Magic Realm gets two actions per day, plus another two actions if they spend their entire turn above ground.  The Cloak Of Mist gives your character an additional Hide action each turn, in addition to the above-mentioned daily actions.

At the end of the day, during the combat encounter step, we activate the Cloak Of Mist.  That will allow us to record an extra Hide action, while we record our actions for tomorrow, in addition to our other four actions.

Magic Realm: Day 13

The Black Knight spent day 12 in the Magic Realm resting, recovering from his fatigue and wounds after battling the Patrol on day 11.

On day 13, the Black Knight records four search actions, looting the treasure dropped by the eliminated Guards and Patrol.

He recovers an axe, another mace, the Sacred Statue and the Gripping Dust.  The Sacred Statue is worth 10 fame, if sold to the Order.  With the fame from that recovered treasure (once sold to the Order) we have essentially won the game, as we only need to collect 10 fame to satisfy our victory conditions.  It will take us two days to travel to the Chapel, where the Order resides, following the route below.

The Gripping Dust is a one-shot treasure.  The Gripping Dust is played during combat, and your weapon stays alerted - until the end of that day, at which point, it gets discarded to the Warlock, one of the NPC's of the Magic Realm.  This is a nice treasure if you are facing multiple opponents and need to keep your weapon alerted to more effectively finish them off.