The Bard's Tale: Wine, weapons, and song

The wine cellar of the Scarlet Bard is the first dungeon, and a taste of what the rest of the game's going to be like. No more healing your wounds in nearby temples; they're all above ground. No more automatic SP recharging; that only works in daylight. No daylight means you've got to use spells or disposable torches to see anything. No street signs and no direction headings; that takes magic too.

I'm able to somewhat easily circumference the cellar, which seems to be divided into quadrants. Random encounters are similar in difficulty to the surface, though on occasion one is friendly and offers to join your party, occupying the top 'S' slot. A dwarf joins in this manner, but his collaboration is short lived. At the very least, he absorbs a hit that otherwise would have landed on my permanent party.

Once I begin to explore the lower-left quadrant near the stairs, though, I find some fixed encounters that are considerably more difficult than anything up in town. And not only are these encounters dangerous, they're also unrewarding, giving maybe 40-130XP per character when the lone Samurai immediately above grants 170XP. The gold, often found in chests, is better, but I don't really need it at this point.

So I train on the samurai a bit, and get all of my fighters up to levels 4-5, and assess their battle prowess.

• Grub becomes a beast, with 59 HP and more damage throughput than anyone else, and that's not even considering his critical hit power.
• Ahab hits the next highest, though with only 22 HP is still a bit fragile. Still, it's much better than the 10 HP I used to have.
• Kurisu's attack power is a bit below Ahab's, but with 38 HP is sturdier.
• Redslayer does about as much damage with his fists as Kurisu does with a poleaxe, but only has 22 HP and wears no armor, making him a mediocre fighter.
• Sunfall fights poorly, but that's okay. She has music. 47 HP on a backrow character feels like a waste, though.
• P-Tux fights even worse, but that's okay, he can disarm traps. Just like Viila, who can also conjure fire, ice, heal, and boost combat power. Why do we have a hobbit again?

I also do some testing on Sunfall's music. It's difficult to assess this scientifically, but the most effective battle song appears to be #5, which is also the only song that has a directly observable stat benefit.

The Apple II and C64 versions are also based on public domain music, though most of it is still a few centuries too new to convey renaissance-era barding.

1. Falkentyne's Fury (Hungarian Dance no. 5) boosts combat damage. I have no idea if repeat songs stack, or what effect it has when played outside of battle, but it definitely works when played in battle. The second-best combat spell.
2. The Seeker's Ballad (Danse macabre) produces light and boosts combat accuracy. The latter effect is barely helpful; my frontmen rarely miss anyway.
3. Wayland's Watch (Russian Sailor's Dance) allegedly makes foes hit less hard, but I'm not yet convinced it does anything.
4. Badh'r Kilnfest (Polovtsian Dances no. 17) heals the bard while exploring, and heals everyone when played in combat. Too bad it only heals 1 HP per cast.
5. The Traveler's Tune (Slavonic Dances no. 7) lowers party AC by 1. It can be cast before combat once, and each cast during combat is cumulative. For prolonged combats, this is great.
6. Lucklaran (The Barber of Seville overture) gives magic resistance. Obviously a situational song, but so far, evil spellcasters haven't been that much of a problem.

Magic still isn't great, but Viila's conjurations are of some use in combat, especially the second-level spell Freeze Foes, which the manual makes them easier to hit, but seems to also make them miss more often. Scribe's combat utility is dubious; his single-member buffs aren't as useful as Sunfall's team boosts, and aging spell Wither Strike doesn't seem to do anything, but Holy Water is good against skeletons, and he has both light and locate spells.

But I'm still too weak to last long down here, so I return to Skara Brae to train where it's safer and more rewarding. In particular, the Stone Giants offer nearly 300XP/character and typically aim for Grub, who has enough HP to withstand a hit. I can earn upwards of 900XP/character in a run that takes about eight minutes, which isn't a lot when it takes multiple thousand to level up, but it's better than the Scarlet Bard's cellar.

With another round of levels added to my party, I can take on the three Ogre Lords too, and now a run around the city earns 2,500+ XP/char in 15 minutes, although the temple bills are prohibitive and I must rely on my own magic for healing. A few boring hours later, everyone is at levels 6-8.

A Guild of Adventurers B Credits C Garth's Equipment D Temple E Review Board F Tavern G Iron gate H City gates I Ogre Lord J Stone Giant K Golem L Teleport M Samurai N Scarlet Bard O Temple of the Mad God

Monster XP Kobolds 60 Hobbits 70 Gnomes 80 Dwarves 80 Hobgoblins 90 Magicians 100 Conjurors 100 Orcs 100 Thieves 110 Skeletons 110 Nomads 120 Spiders 150 Mad Dogs 180 Barbarians 200 Mercenaries 220 Samurai 1024 Stone Giant 1792 Ogre Lord 2816 Golem ? Wolves ?