textfiles/adventure/questron.sol

                                 QUESTRON


Here  you are, a lowly serf, out to seek fame and fortune by destroying the
evil  Mantor.  When  the game starts you find yourself wearing only rawhide
for  armor  and with no weapons. The first thing to do is get to Geraldtown
and  buy a weapon. Once you get a weapon, wander about and soon you'll meet
with  one  of the many Questron monsters. Keep fighting with them and after
each  kill, you'll find gold. Don't go near water as you aren't equipped to
handle the sea monsters yet.

Keep  a close eye on your food supply, because you'll die once it runs out.
You can replenish your food supply and buy more weapons and better armor at
Geraldtown  or  any  of the other towns in Questron. Relatively soon you'll
run  low  on  hit  points.  Go  to  the  Swamp Cathedral, located north and
slightly  east  of  Geraldtown.  Give  a  donation  to the priest and he'll
increase  your  hit points. Unless you've given at least 75 pieces of gold,
don't enter the box in the corner.

Frequently  when  you're  in Questron, creatures will offer you hit points,
weapons,  armour or valuable information for a price. You don't need to pay
for  the valuable information because this Solution will give you that. But
do  buy  anything else from them if you can afford it, because their prices
are  generally  cheaper  than  at  the  towns (or in the cathedral). In the
towns, you'll often find gambling games. These games are not tipped in your
favor,  so  watch  out as you can lose all of your gold. There's no need to
play them if you don't wish to.

You'll  also  find  jails  where  you can bribe the guards and speak to the
prisoners.  You  don't  need  to do this because any information they have,
you'll  get  in this Solution. Soon you should be rich enough to be able to
give the priest 75 gold pieces. He should tell you not to be afraid and you
will  be  rewarded.  Go  to the box in the corner, enter the door, (T)ake ,
(H)old  the  (H)oly  water,  and  (O)perate,  and that will get you 100 hit
points.  You  cannot  have more than 500 hit points, so if you get close to
that, don't drink anymore holy water, because you'll be wasting it.

Meanwhile,  back  on Questron, you'll going to need a variety of weapons to
deal  with  the  variety  of  monsters you'll be meeting. Some monsters are
particularly  vulnerable  to  certain  weapons.  Here's  a partial list: 1.
Strangler Fiend-Morning Star 2. Pit Screamer-Flail 3. Phazor Spider-Whip 4.
Irish  Stalker-Rope  and  Hooks  5. Dirt Weird-Mace 6. Leopard Yeti-Mace 7.
Stone Axe Beak-Morning Star 8. Piercing Pungie-Club In general, if you keep
missing  the  monster,  or the monster is hit by blows under 10, you should
try a different weapon.

Eventually,  you'll  want to get over the mountains. You'll need a Lama, as
horses  can't cross mountains. You can buy a Lama in Free Town (Long 3, Lat
3).  (You can also cross the mountains on foot, if you have ropes and hooks
and  you  arm  yourself with them) After you've built your money supply up,
you  can  purchase  a  raft. It's nearly impossible to get the raft that is
located  above  Jail  Town, and you wouldn't want it anyway because it's on
the  wrong  shore.  River Junction (Long 3, Lat 2) and Lake Centre (Long 2,
Lat 3) sell rafts and once you buy one you can get to the Island Cathedral.
You're probably wondering how to increase some of your attributes.

At  the Swamp cathedral you can increase your dexterity by playing a rather
primitive  arcade  game  and  at the Island Cathedral you can increase your
intelligence  by playing a game similar to Master Mind. You definitely want
to take advantage of these games, particularly the Master Mind type game.

At  some  point  in  the game, you'll get a message that Mesron has called.
Mesron is located in the Castle (Long 2, Lat 4) which is difficult to find.
Once  you  enter  the Castle grounds, go east, then north and the figure in
orange  is  Mesron.  He'll  raise your rank and give you some powder to use
against  the Castle guards. Don't use the powders against the guards unless
you  absolutely have to because the powders have a much better use later in
the  game.  There  are  five keys located in the Castle, along with lots of
gold and other suprises. You will need all the keys.

The silver and ruby keys are on the west side of the Castle. Go through the
entrance in the southwest corner. The emerald key is located straight north
and  the lead key is located in the northeast corner. There's one more key,
but  I'll let you find that one. (don't worry, it's not hard to find). Once
you  get  some  of  the keys you can enter various rooms. For 500 pieces of
gold,  you  can see maps of the Land of Evil and Questron. Unless you are a
skilled sketcher, don't bother with the maps.

The Doctor will want 10 vials of holy water to increase your strength. Give
him  the  10  vials  because  you can't get all of the gold from the Castle
without the increased strength. The Princess will increase your charisma by
20  points  for  2,000  gold  pieces.  You're  not  going to be able to get
everything  on  one trip. Get a key, exit, go get more holy water and enter
the  Castle  again. In the Atari version, you must wait a certain length of
time  before re-entering the castle (you'll know that it's safe because the
guards  will  be  in  their  normal  positions and not gathered at the door
ways).

In  the  Apple  version,  you  can exit and immediately re-enter. The Ocean
Point  cathedral is not far from the Castle (Long 4, Lat 4) and you'll find
a  magic  Flute there. It says that you can only use the Flute three times,
but  if you bring it back to the cathedral it can be recharged. By the way,
you  have  to  have  a  Lama  or  ropes and hooks to get to the Ocean Point
cathedral.  Back  at  the  Castle, once you've gotten the gold key, you can
enter  the  King's  room.  He will Knight you and increase your stamina and
intelligence.  You  must  steal the King's trumpet, located in a small room
just to the southeast of the King.

After you do this, Mesron will want to see you again. Mesron will take your
holy  water,  increase  your  hit points and give you some instructions and
help  for  the  rest of the game. At some point before leaving Questron you
should  rob  all  of the chests in the Castle, as you'll be needing as much
gold  as  possible.  Take Mesron's advice and increase your intelligence to
60. After that, go to Jail town, use the Trumpet to get through the fog and
buy a clipper in the town above Jail town.

Don't try to use the Raft because you'll drown. The clipper costs 2380 gold
pieces.  Get  the  clipper and sail straight north. You will soon reach the
Land of Evil.

The Land of Evil looks very much like Questron, except that are fewer towns
and  no  friendly  creatures.  You  can  now  buy magic items to use in the
dungeons  and  food  is a little cheaper. You can also buy a trained eagle,
which  is very handy to have as the eagle can take you anywhere you want to
go. Before you enter the Mountain Catacombs (the first dungeon) you'll need
a supply of all the spells with the exception of the Magic Missiles. A good
supply of Fireballs and Armour Enhancers is particularly useful.

You'll  need to purchase more than one set of armor and weapons because the
monsters  will sometimes take them. You will definitely need rope and hooks
also.  Before  you  buy,  shop  at  different towns because the prices vary
widely.  While you're above surface in the Land of Evil, stay away from the
dragons  and  whenever  an "unknown creature" approaches attack immediately
because  they will attack you. The Mountain Catacombs are at Long 3, Lat 3.
Once  you're  in  the dungeon, (X)amine at every step in order to avoid the
traps that fill the dungeon.

There is a compass located on the first level of the dungeon. Use it. Don't
forget to keep the Armor Enhance spell active at all times. The monsters on
the first few levels you can usually kill without the use of spells, but as
you  get  deeper  into  the  dungeon  you'll need to use the Fireballs more
often.  It's  a wise idea to explore the first 2 or 3 levels of the dungeon
and  then exit the dungeon and buy more supplies. You can (A)rm with (RO)pe
and Hooks to climb up the shafts if there's no ladder or rope.

A  special  clue: if you descend the third rope past the mine on the second
level to the third level and go down the passages, you'll come to a passage
that  is  lined with hit points, gold, and food. If you (X)amine all of the
caves,  you'll find a shaft down to the fourth level. The traps reset every
time  you  leave  a  level  and  the  chests reset every time you leave the
dungeon.  The  best  way  to get lots of gold and hit points is to remember
where  all the chests are on the first few levels and then keep exiting and
re-entering the dungeon.

The  Mountain  Catacombs have eight levels. You'll find a key to the second
dungeon  on  the  eighth  level. If you use a Wall Pass in the right place,
it'll  lead you straight to the safe with the key. The Dungeons of Death is
the second dungeon (Long 3, Lat 4). You'll need more of all the spells than
you  did for the first dungeon because the monsters hit a lot hrder. You'll
particularly need Stone Spells because often there is more than one monster
hitting  you at a time. Be careful of them though, sometimes they back fire
and freeze you instead of the monsters.

On  the first or second level of the Dungeons of Death, you'll find a shaft
that goes all the way down to the sixth level. You'll need a Wall Pass here
to  descend  to  the  lower  levels. The Dungeons of Death has eight levels
also.  Once you've gotten the key from the Dungeons of Death, you can enter
Mantor's  Mountain,  the  final dungeon. Hopefully, you've gotten a trained
eagle  by  this  time  because  that's  the only way you can reach Mantor's
Mountain (Long 4, Lat 1).

Before you enter the dungeon you should have 20,000+ hit points, some Magic
Shields,  some  Long Bows and Lances and lots and lots of spells. There are
17  levels  to  Mantor's  Mountain and the monsters hit extremely hard. The
long bows are extremely useful in attacking monsters before they get to you
and  the lances are good backups. Once you enter Mantor's Mountain remember
that  when  you get to the bottom (finally) you won't be coming back to the
Land of Evil.

Also  be  careful  of  the urns and the hit point chests on the lower level
because  some of them are booby-trapped and will cause you to lose at least
a  fourth  of  your hit points. Some of the levels are difficult to descend
from; remember to (X)amine in every cave and corner. When you finally reach
the bottom and open the safe, you'll be in Mantor's Castle (or, you can pay
one of the monsters the bribe that he asks for, and you will be transported
instantly to the castle). I'm not going to spoil the superlative ending for
you,  but  just  remember  two  things:  There's a second use for the magic
powder and the game's not over til it's over.

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