60) Eye of the Dragon Solution

[champskees]

Probably the easiest FF adventure I’ve ever mapped. Simplistic design and bare bones story actually made me laugh while I was reading it! Obviously aimed at a younger audience, but it is just too much to swallow. A huge complex underneath a woodcutter’s house, underneath Darkwood Forest? That no one has heard about? The amount of useless items I recorded…the wild difficulty curve…the single paragraph encounters. Personally the 335K value of the statue cracked me up; I thought it would be worth 330K, but there you go. What amazes me though is that I still liked playing through it. If there is one thing I like about Livingstone, it is that he creates a sense of familiarity with the player. Walking through Darkwood Forest, collecting gems in a dungeon – feelings of melancholy wash over the experienced player, who has been there from the start, reflecting on those precious childhood memories.

I recommend a Skill of 12 for this adventure due to a couple of tough mandatory opponents. Admittedly this solution isn't really 'the best' path. It is a path which allows you to collect all of the five keys, in order to receive every clue at the end, which is not necessary. I would probably skip the witch encounter and forgo the Bronze Key (you can still work out the final puzzle with just four of the keys).

You start with:

- Sword.
- Backpack.
- 10 Gold Pieces.
- 10 Food.
- Emerald Eye.

Part One: The Five Keys

- Go straight down the steps.
- Turn left.
- Force the door open.
- Test Skill. Fail = 1 Damage & try again until successful.
- Look in the mirror (2 Damage).
- Try to smash the mirror with your sword.
- Take 1 Gold Piece.
- Take Piece of Mirror.
- Walk around to the far door.
- Continue walking up the corridor.
- Enter the room.
- Pick up the card.
- Take 5 Gold Pieces.
- Enter the room.
- Fight Sk 5 St 4 Giant Rat.
- Fight Sk 5 St 3 Giant Rat.
- Fight Sk 5 St 2 Giant Rat.
- Drink some of the liquid (+2 Stamina).
- Take Healing Potion.
- Walk on.
- Wait and see if the owner of the evil laugh appears (-2 Skill, 2 Damage).
- Jump down into the room below.
- Open the chest.
- Take 5 Gold Pieces.
- Take Crystal Dagger.
- Walk over the bridge & carry on up the corridor.
- Go down the right-hand corridor.
- Drink at the fountain (+2 Stamina).
- Sit on the throne (+1 Skill, +1 Stamina).
- Carry on walking up the corridor.
- Retrace your steps & walk back to the last junction.
- Open the door.
- Talk to her.
- Fight Sk 5 St 4 Vampire Bat.
        o 1 Additional Damage per round.
- Fight Sk 5 St 4 Vampire Bat.
- You are not wearing a Gold Bracelet.
- Kill 37 Rats. D6+Skill Rats killed per round. Each round take 1 Damage.
- Fight Sk 10 St 6 Snake Witch.
        o Enemy has 2 attacks per round.
- If you are bitten at least three times: you have a Healing Potion (+2 Stamina).
- Attempt to grab the emerald from her outstretched hand (D6 Damage).
- Tell her she is ugly.
- Take Garlic Cloves.
- Take 7 Gold Pieces.
- Take Bronze Key ‘85’.
- Carry on walking up the corridor.
- Examine the sparkling object.
- Put it around your neck.
- Leave the pendant on.
- Take Crystal Pendant (+1 Luck).
- Test Luck. Fail = 3 Damage.
- Fight Sk 7 St 8 Giant Spider.
- Take Iron Key ‘34’ (+1 Skill, +1 Stamina).
- You want to open the door.
- Try on the iron breastplate (+1 Skill, +1 Luck).
- Take Magical Iron Breastplate.
- Ignore the cries & walk on.
- Open the gate & enter the room.
- Fight Sk 4 St 3 Gremlin.
- Eat some of the leaf paste (+1 Skill, +2 Stamina).
- Take Silver Key ‘14’.
- Stand & fight.
- Fight Sk 6 St 5 Skeleton.
- Fight Sk 5 St 6 Skeleton.
- Walk on without it.
- Open the door.
- Stay in the room.
- Tell the wizard about your quest for the golden dragon.
- Take Gold Key ‘325’.
- Follow the arrows.
- Grab the shovel & dig out the object from the sand.
- You have a crystal blade dagger.
- Open the wooden chest.
- Take 27 Gold Pieces.
- Strike the staff on the floor (1 Damage).
- Take Staff of Thunder.
- Follow the arrows down the corridor.
- Pull on the rope.
- This is what you want to do (2 Damage).
- Fight the Niblicks.
- You are not wearing a helmet (3 Damage).
- Fight Sk 4 St 3 Niblick.
- Fight Sk 5 St 2 Niblick.
- Fight Sk 3 St 4 Niblick.
- Take Bronze Shield (+1 Skill, +2 Stamina).
- Take Copper Key ‘192’.
- Read the scroll.
- Add note: Hole in wall spell: Say ‘Azang Bazang Zang’.
- Climb back down the rope & walk back down the corridor.
- Take 3 Silver Coins.

Part Two: Eye of the Dragon

- Open the door.
- Fight Sk 8 St 8 Uglukk Orc.
- Test Luck. Fail = -1 Skill & 2 Damage.
- Fight Sk 8 St 9 Uglukk Orc for three rounds.
- Tell him you do not need his help.
- Search the bodies.
- Take 2 Gold Pieces.
- Take Brass Bell.
- Search the cavern.
- Take 2 Gold Pieces.
- Take Silver Armband.
- Uncork the bottle.
- You would like some gold pieces (+1 Luck).
- Take 15 Gold Pieces.
- Leave the cavern.
- Carry on walking.
- Open the door.
- If you have lost a point of Skill: turn left.
- If you are at your Initial Skill level:
        o Turn right.
        o Prise the lid off the barrel with your sword.
        o Test Luck. Fail = -1 Skill & 2 Damage.
        o Take Rope.
        o Drop the doll on the floor to break it.
        o Take Ring of Zombie Control.
        o Keep walking back to the junction & head straight on.
- Use one of your magic items.
- Use your Staff of Thunder.
- Ignore him & turn left.
- You are wearing a Silver Armband.
- Walk on.
- Pull down on the handle.
- Walk along the top of the stepping stones.
- Press on.
- Run after him on your own (1 Damage).
- Fight Sk 6 St 6 Thief.
- Fight Sk 7 St 5 Thief.
- Take 7 Gold Pieces.
- Take Picklock.
- Sleep in the dwarf den (+4 Stamina).
- Take a closer look at the items.
- Kill D6+6 Flesh Grubs. 2D6 Grubs killed per round. Each round take 1 Damage per Grub alive (Max 2 rounds).
- Take the Sword.
- Take Skullsplitter Sword (+1 Skill).
- Walk on.
- Go down the steps.
- You have the ‘Skullsplitter’ Sword.
- Fight Sk 10 St 10 Verminspawn with Sk 8 Ally.
- Search the cellar.
- Open it fully.
- Let Littlebig touch the glass ball.
- You know the ‘Hole in the Wall’ spell.
- Shout ‘Azang Bazang Zang’.
- Pick up the emerald.
- Take Emerald Eye.

Part Three: The Golden Dragon

- Fight Sk 12 St 12 Gigantis with Sk 8 Ally.
        o Enemy deals 4 Damage per round.
- Dissuade him from doing so & continue looking for a way out of the cave.
- Drink the water (+1 Stamina).
- If you do not have a Ring of Zombie Control:
        o Fight the Zombies.
        o Fight Sk 6 St 6 Zombie.
        o Fight Sk 6 St 7 Zombie.
        o Fight Sk 5 St 7 Zombie.
        o Fight Sk 5 St 5 Zombie.
- Walk on.
- Climb the staircase.
- You have a picklock.
- Follow the person who ran away.
- Go right.
- Read the sheets of paper.
- Add note: Doppelganger will be on the left.
- Drink the soup (+1 Stamina).
- Open the door opposite.
- Speak to her.
- Reply ‘Yes’.
- Add note: Secret tunnel in room of webs.
- Open the door with the green square.
- Cut through the cobwebs & search the room.
- Test Luck. Fail = Use Potion of Healing or take 7 Damage & -1 Skill.
- Open the box.
- Take Elven Boots (+1 Skill).
- Crawl through the tunnel.
- Fight the Littlebig on your left.
- Fight Sk 10 St 10 Doppelganger.
        o -2 Attack Strength for duration of fight.
- Continue your quest & continue through the new tunnel.
- If you have a Rope: You are wearing Elven Boots.
- If you do not have a Rope: Test Skill. Success = You are wearing Elven Boots.
        o Fail = 1 Damage & Test Luck. Fail = 4 Damage.
        o Fight Sk 14 St 18 Black Dragon.
- You have some keys.
- Use Bronze Key. Turn to Para 85.
- Add note: Two Arrow.
- Use Iron Key. Turn to Para 34.
- Add note: One Spear.
- Use Silver Key. Turn to Para 14.
- Add note: Three Axe.
- Use Gold Key. Turn to Para 325.
- Add note: Five Dagger.
- Use Copper Key. Turn to Para 192.
- Add note: Four Sword.
- You have finished opening the boxes.
- Pull the spear.
- Pull the arrow.
- Pull the axe.
- Choose the sword to pull first.
- You have two emerald eyes.
- Fight Sk 8 St 8 Sharcle & win two attack rounds.
- With good friends and a golden dragon worth more than you could ever have imagined, it would be difficult not to enjoy yourself. And so you do.

Note: Stat block is calculated without going for the Bronze Key and fighting the Snake Witch.

[kieran]

I would probably skip the witch encounter and forgo the Bronze Key (you can still work out the final puzzle with just four of the keys).

Would definitely agree here, the witch is a tricky fight that's plain unnecessary if you get the 4 other keys. That's one thing I quite like about this one, all you need is 4 out of 5 keys to be perfectly safe from the final trap. Even with 2 or 3 you stand a decent chance. Although I suppose technically if you're using a solution you don't need any

It's a pity the Gigantis and Doppleganger are so overpowered. It seems likely that at least some of the Skill-boosting items about the place were intended to take you over your Initial score, but then allowing that would make the final fight even more of a joke than it is.

What amazes me though is that I still liked playing through it.

Me too. I love the randomness of it all. The evil wizard who shows up to chuck a fireball then is never seen or mentioned again, the Livingstone look-alike running a shop for some reason, the mercenary who taps you on the shoulder in the middle of a fight to ask if you want him to take over.