Let's Play Pool of Radiance -- 28 - Deadliest Librarian Ever (mendor's library)
10:01
We loot up the rest of the library, including a manual of bodily health that gives a character +1 constitution. But passing by the irate librarian is another matter altogether. It takes a couple stabs at the battle to survive it without having one of our valuable adventurers drained in level.
Tags: Let's Play Pool of Radiance Advanced Dungeons and Dragons AD&D PC IBM RPG CRPG
Added: 2 years ago
From: MikeBra99
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[the player is exploring the land of Phlan, and enters the front entrance of Mendor's Library]
NARRATOR: You see an empty room. The only feature is a series of frescoes on the walls of learned men and the heavenly patrons of art and learning. You get a feeling of peace.
[the player enters one of the rooms and looks at the bookshelf]
NARRATOR: These are the library stacks. Old and moldering books are stored on shelves. A sign over the entrance reads "History."
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: As you search the room, you scan random books. You find various books which are so filled with myth that you don't find anything useful.
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: As you search the room, you scan random books. You find the Grand Historian's records of the arts of war. In it you find a useful passage, which you copy into your journal as entry 21.
[the player selects the "Adventurer's Journal" and turns to entry 21]
A crumbling old book; one of a massive series.
'At this time there ruling the Twisted Ones was a powerful general named Tyranthraxus. He strode before his armies cloaked in flame and led the Riders out of the Waste. At his hand the kingdom of Barze was conquered. Turning south he led his army to conquer the Horreb and the Vane.
'Tyranthraxus was a cruel man and leveled all that he had taken, murdering the princes of these lands. But the flame that surrounded him consumed him, destroying his body. Freed of its shell, it flew among the men of his army, lighting on each and claiming it.
'It was then when Baron Schodt imprisoned Tyranthraxus in a vial of water which shone like the light of day. This he sank in the watery depths of Lake Longreach, defeating the armies Tyranthraxus had raised.'
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: As you search the room, you scan random books. You find the history of the North. It is mostly written to please a royal line. However, there is an interesting passage which you copy into your journal as entry 8.
[the player selects the "Adventurer's Journal" and turns to entry 8]
A rugged popular account of the northern lands.
'Ten days ride north of the Varm is a barren and dead country called the Lee-wai, land-in-pain or land-of-caused-pain.
'Further to the south this place is known as the Tortured Land. It is said to be an evil place, shunned be the Riders. They speak little of this land.
'But, yearly, during Ches, they make a trip into its heart. There they go to praise the spirit of a glowing spring. This they have done for ages and so shall they do for years to come.'
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: As you search the room, you scan random books. You find the Lex Geographica, an atlas drawn by Tomarus. It has a map of Phlan which, though old, still could be useful. It becomes entry 37 in your journal.
[the player selects the "Adventurer's Journal" and turns to entry 37]
A massive atlas drawn by the great mathematician Tomarus.
* The Moonsea
* Area Near Phlan
* Phlan
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
[the player leaves and enters another room]
NARRATOR: These are the library stacks. Old and moldering books are stored on shelves. A sign over the entrance reads "Philosophy."
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: As you search the room, you scan random books. You find Urgund's description of darkness. This is an account of his imprisonment in the lower realms. There is a passage of interest which you copy as entry 19 in your journal.
[the player selects the "Adventurer's Journal" and turns to entry 19]
A black bound tome written in a strange halting hand.
'...and settled foremost in the hall of Minor Courtiers were the lesser powers: Maram of the Great Spear; Haask, Voice of Hargut; Tyranthraxus the Flamed One; Borem of the Lake of Boiling Mud; and Camnod the Unseen. These too fell down and became servants of the great lord Bane.'
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: As you search the room, you scan random books. You find Fyerdetha's discourses on power. Among all the dry text, you find an interesting passage, which you copy into your journal as entry 7.
[the player selects the "Adventurer's Journal" and turns to entry 7]
A tightly bound scroll, seemingly immune to the ravages of time.
'Fountains and pools hold great power that can only be reached by performing proper ceremonies. Most sure of these is immersion, for in this way the bather surrenders himself to the spirit of the water. That spirit, or some portion of it, enters into the bather, whereby he gains great powers.
'Woe to the weak willed whose spirits are sure to be consumed by spirits that put even the strong at great risk. Yurax holds that the Falls of Ixce are greatest of all these. Morden writes that the Pool of Radiance is greater still.'
Later in the book.
'Places of magical power are not necessarily tied to one physical location. Power often moves from plane to plane along the path of least resistance. The termination of the path determines the place's location on this plane. Volatile upheavals between the planes may lead to a change in the path of least resistance. This can change where the path terminates on this plane, thus moving the place of power.
'Some who wield strong supernatural forces can bend the path like an engineer damming a river. When the path is bent, it can terminate in a new location, moving the place of power on this plane. If the supernatural force that bent the path is removed, the path will snap back to its original form and the place of power will return to its original location. Such disruption can have violent and unpredictable results.
'Thus, inter-planar upheavals and directed supernatural forces may hold the answer to the seemingly ever-changing location of places of power, such as the Pool of Radiance.'
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
[the player leaves and enters another room]
NARRATOR: You enter a hall which is filled with rows of writing tables and high stools. Rotted mounds of parchment litter the floor.
[the player leaves and enters another room]
NARRATOR: You have entered a storeroom full of supplies too old to be useful. Looking up from a table are five Kobolds. They stand arms raised in surrender.
[cut to a closeup of one of the creatures]
NARRATOR: They plead for mercy. One of the Kobolds says, "If you spare our lives, we will tell you all we know about this area!" Will you spare them?
[the player selects "Yes"]
NARRATOR: They describe the surrounding area to you. You listen carefully, question them and from this, sketch a map into your journal calling it entry 10.
[the player selects the "Adventurer's Journal" and turns to entry 10]
A crude map scratched onto an old piece of parchment.
[the player leaves and finds a disheveled man sitting in the corner of the room]
NARRATOR: You find a fighter with battered armor and wild eyes cowering in the corner. "Yai! Mercy! Mercy!" he cries. And then as suddenly, "Die! Die you slime from the pit!"
[the player selects "Ignore"]
NARRATOR: Watching you warily, he inches away. When he is out of sword's reach, he scrambles to his feet and flees the room.
[the player leaves and enters another room]
NARRATOR: This room was once a study. It is now a shattered ruin.
[the player continues exploring the room]
NARRATOR: Buried amid all the trash, you see a book.
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
["The party has found treasure! Each character receives 600 experience points" appears on screen]
[the player leaves and enters another room]
NARRATOR: You see a ruined room with rotted furniture. Human bones lie scattered about a desk. You see a jar under the floorboards.
["Do you take it?" appears on screen, and the player selects "Yes"]
["The party has found treasure! Each character receives 150 experience points" appears on screen]
[the player tries to leave the library, when the ghostly figure of a man appears in front of the door]
NARRATOR: A spectre suddenly appears before you. "Thief! I defended these books in life and I will defend them in death!" It attacks you.
[the player defeats Mendor's Spectre, and "The party has won. Each character receives 253 experience points" appears on screen]
---
From wikipedia.org:
Pool of Radiance is a role-playing video game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) in 1988. It was the first adaptation of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D or D&D) fantasy role-playing game for home computers, becoming the first episode in a four-part series of D&D computer adventure games. The other games in the "Gold Box" series used the game engine pioneered in Pool of Radiance, as did later D&D titles such as the Neverwinter Nights online game. Pool of Radiance takes place in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting, with the action centered in and around the port city of Phlan.
Just as in traditional D&D games, the player starts by building a party of up to six characters, deciding the race, sex, class and ability scores for each. The player's party is enlisted to help the settled part of the city by clearing out the marauding inhabitants that have taken over the surroundings. The characters move on from one area to another, battling bands of enemies as they go and ultimately confronting the powerful leader of the evil forces. During play the player characters gain experience points, which allow them to increase their capabilities. The game primarily uses a first-person perspective, with the screen divided into sections to display pertinent textual information. During combat sequences, the display switches to an isometric, top-down view.
Plot Summary
The ancient trade city of Phlan has fallen into impoverished ruin. Now only a small portion of the city remains inhabited by humans, who are surrounded by evil creatures. To rebuild the city and clean up the Barren River, the city council of New Phlan has decided to recruit adventurers to drive the monsters from the neighboring ruins. Using bards and publications, they spread tales of the riches waiting to be recovered in Phlan, which draws the player's party to these shores by ship.
At the start of the game, the adventurers' ship lands in New Phlan, and they receive a brief but informative tour of the civilized area. They learn that city is plagued with a history of invasions and wars and has been overtaken by a huge band of humanoids and other creatures. Characters hear rumors that a single controlling element is in charge of these forces. The characters begin a block-by-block quest to rid the ruins of monsters and evil spirits.
---
From gamefaqs.com:
Mendor's Library
Common/Set Enemies: Basilisk, Kobald, Spectre.
Goal to Clear: Get the ancient books and kill the monsters.
Reward for Clearing: 1500XP and 1500G for killing the monsters; total of 1100XP and 1100G for finding four books (may vary).
There really is very little in the way of opposition here. However, two encounters are very difficult and can have disastrous consequences, so it is never a good idea to come into this block thinking you'll have an easy time of it. The Library is located directly south of Kuto's Well, so head over to it. In the block, there are two doors into the actual building. Take the one at (9,1), so you can clear out the unimportant stuff before worrying about the books and monsters.
By using the "look" command at (10,2), (10,6) and (8,5), you'll find boxes of gold foil worth 100GP and 100XP.
"Look" at (8,4) for better treasure. You'll find three Potions of Extra Healing here.
Going to (11,3) sparks an encounter with Mad Man. If you don't have an NPC in your party, you can get him to join you -- but there is no reason to have this worthless fool in your party.
Go to (12,5) and meet five Kobalds who immediately surrender. Don't kill them to find out that the boss of the Textile House is in a secret room. If you've followed my walkthrough, you know that by now, so that info is worthless.
Now it's time to enter the northern (and more important) half of the library. Go north through the door at (8,6) to get there. If you keep going west and try to go through the door at (7,6), you'll briefly enter the garden, step into Green Slime, watch one person take a bit of damage and immediately leave the room. In other words, DON'T go through that door! In the northern part of the Library, there are a ton of rooms, but only four of them have books in them. The Mathematic Book room is at (3,9), the Philosophy Book room is at (13,9) and the History Book room is at (11,11). It seems to be random when/if you get books from "looking". On one time through, I got a book from this History room the first time I "looked", the next time I played, I "looked" five times and got nothing.
Now it's time to enter the Literature Book room at (5,11). There may not be exciting books here (well there is one to find), but there is a grumpy Basilisk.
******
SUB-BOSS: Basilisk
Yes, there are only two real enemies in this block, but they both are boss-class monsters. This freaky lizard isn't afraid to use its gaze attack to try to turn a party member to stone. If it does (it isn't 100% accurate, but it is fairly effective), you might as well reload. It's not cheap to unstone a character and you'll want to be at full strength for the Spectre anyway. Basically, you'll want to go all out here. Have all your melee fighters assault it and have your magic-users go after it with Magic Missiles. You want to kill it as quickly as possible because the more turns it remains alive, the more chances it has to take someone out of commission for a long time.
Note: By purchasing Silver Mirrors in Phlan, it is possible to defend against the gaze attack. Just a piece of advice for those who find this beast problematic.
******
For winning, I got 3368XP, two potions, a scroll and a Displacer Cloak (very useful, as it will lower someone's AC by two points). "Look" and you will find one book here. If you've explored everywhere, then it's time to leave. Just take either door out of the building. No problems here. Nope, not at all. Wait! What's that!!!!
******
BOSS FIGHT: Mendor's Spectre
After taking the books, any attempt to leave through either door is met with a hostile encounter with the ghost of the library's founder. After all, he spent his life guarding them. In the NES version, you'll have some interesting dialogue with Mendor saying he'll guard the books with his life and one of your party members coming back by saying that he's already lost his life.
Anyway, if the Spectre hits you, the struck member will lose two experience levels. If this happens, reload. While you can use a Restoration spell to get the levels back, you won't get any lost experience above the minimum needed to be at a character's maximum level. If a character that was about 100XP from advancing gets afflicted this way, it could take hours to regain those points.
The problem is that Mr. Spectre is very, very, very skilled in combat and has a pretty good THAC0 (not to mention a low AC). Regardless of your melee fighters' AC, getting through this fight unscathed is more a matter of luck than anything else. All I can really say for advice is to just keep trying until you get it and don't get discouraged. The discouraging part is when you get to the Graveyard and realize that you'll have to fight more of these Spectres....and they aren't the toughest things there....
Use the same strategy I gave you for the Basilisk and hope you kill him before it connects. This time through, I did something I never have done before on either the NES or computer version -- won on the first try. It struck first and missed and then I got a couple big attacks (10HP), a 10HP Magic Missile and a couple little attacks to win. Needless to say, I was very relieved.
******
Victory means you can leave this place and collect your reward --- which was a total of 2600XP and 2600G. The next quest given is to prevent a tribe of ever-lovable Lizardmen from joining the enemy. That Wilderness quest will wait for a while, you might as well head to the Kobald Cave now.
---
From gamebanshee.com:
Mendor's Library
Area Note
The four main sections of the library (#2-5) contain books, but you might have to circle around them several times with "search" on before you'll find them all. We found 9 books in total, but there are possibly more than that.
1 - Entry Doors
The doors to the library are difficult to open. Characters need a high strength to bash them (18/00 isn't guaranteed to do the trick; you might have to try a few times), and thieves, if they can pick open the doors at all, have to be higher than level 4 to get the job done. Thus, the easiest way to open the doors is to use "knock," provided you have a magic user who knows the spell.
If you take any books from the library (see #2-5), then when you leave through one of these doors, a spectre librarian will attack you. "Thief! I defended these books in life and I will defend them in death!"
2 - Rhetoric Section
Right away in this section you'll encounter a basilisk. The gaze of the basilisk can turn your characters to stone, so try to kill it as quickly as possible. Any character turned to stone can be cured at a temple (for 2000 gold). Once the basilisk is dead, you'll find a potion of giant strength, a potion of healing, a cloak of displacement, and a clerical scroll with two "restoration" spells on it.
This section doesn't seem to contain any books.
3 - History Section
In this section you can find the following books:
a) The Grand Historian's Records of the Arts of War, which contains a "useful passage" (journal entry 21)
b) History of the North, which contains an "interesting passage" (journal entry 8)
c) Lex Geographica, an atlas drawn by the great mathematician Tomarus, which contains a map of Phlan (journal entry 37)
4 - Mathematics Section
This section doesn't seem to contain any books.
5 - Philosophy Section
In this section you can find the following books:
a) Chronicles of Arram
b) Fyerdetha's Discourses on Power, which contains an "interesting passage" (journal entry 7)
c) The Harmony of the Rock
d) Meditations
e) Strom's Discussions of Poetics
f) Urgund's Description of Darkness, which contains a "passage of interest" (journal entry 19)
6 - Gold Foil
You'll find three sheets of gold if you "look" in each of these locations. However, as far as we can tell, there isn't anything you can do with the sheets. (If you sell them, you'll only get 0 gold for them.)
7 - Jar
If you "look" here you'll find a jar with three potions of extra healing inside.
8 - Kobolds
If you allow them to surrender, the kobolds will describe the "surrounding area" to you (journal entry 10). The surrounding area is actually part of the Textile House.
9 - Mad Man
The mad man is a level 1 fighter, and if you "parlay" with him, you can add him to your party. However, since he's level 1 he probably won't be very useful to you, and if you take him to the Civilized District, he'll start randomly attacking people. If there's a way to cure the mad man, we didn't find it, so your best bet is to "ignore" him and let him run away.
"The big one, the evil one in the castle of flowers -- he is coming! It is coming!"
10 - Manual of Bodily Health
The manual is worth 25,000 gold. You can also read it, but while the manual sounds like it should add constitution to a character (and does so in other games), it doesn't seem to do anything here.
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