The Doom that Came to Mordavia: Let's Play Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness

Perhaps if he described it this way?

Christopher Lloyd a la Back to the Future?

I was imagining Dr. Cadaver from KQ.VII.

We rejoin Garcon in the home of old man Nikolai. What is he doing here? Robbing the poor guy blind obviously! Let's get to it!

First things first, Perseii sneaks so as to avoid making any noise while exploring the house. His first target the wardrobe up against the wall. Before he opens it though he oils the hinges of both doors:



With the hinges oiled he opens it up and rifles through:



Next he tries the chest at the foot of the bed:



Jackson attempts the lock a couple of times without any luck before moving on to the rest of the house. He can always come back for the chest later.



Downstairs there are three things Danar can go for. Closest to the stairs is a music box. We skip that. It's not valuable, he can't hock even if it was, and if he grabs it the box begins playing and wakes up the old man. The other two are the roll up desk up against the wall to the far right and the smaller writing desk next to it. Seepgood heads for the writing desk:



Finally he opens the desk against the wall:



With the rest of the house thoroughly looted our hero returns to the chest. Where he will spend the rest of the night grinding up his lockpick skill...



At some point I got frustrated with not being able to open the chest that he tries using his arcane knowledge:



Lame! More grinding I suppose... Why are we even doing this again? Oh, that's right the Chief Thief won't tell us about the thief job until we've successfully proven ourselves sufficient at thieving... Despite not opening the chest I head back to the Thief's Guild to see if mostly robbing the old guy blind is enough:



Guess not! Unfortunately Garcon is exhausted and mostly dead. Any more lockpicking attempts don't seem like a good idea... On a whim Perseii heads out of town:



Of course he can! He could clamber over the walls(but it would kill him right now as he has no energy and no life) so instead he casts levitate:



There isn't anything out here really. I just wanted to show you the jack-o-lanterns since it's almost Fall. But since he's out here anyway:



With that done he levitates back of the wall and heads for the inn and his bed:



"oh antwerps!"

With the last bit of his health Jackson is able to climb up the wall and into his room:



Danar sleeps until the morning. After wakening up at dawn he heads downstairs and eats his complimentary breakfast



Of course it has garlic in it...

With the dawning of his second day in the valley Garcon decides to spend some time exploring the wilderness surrounding the town.

After learning about the castle from the Chief Thief, Perseii figures that is a good as place as any to head for. The people of the town said it was west of the town and so he heads that way:





Does that name sound familiar to any of you?

"Castle"



"Mordavia"



"Borgav Family"



"Dark Times"



"Boyars"



"Who live in the castle?"



"Daughter"



"Master"



"Foreigner"



That also sounds familiar... Really familiar!

"Guards"



"Boris"



"Gates"



"Town"

With nothing else to do at the Castle Danar leaves. The only other place he recalls people talking about is the graveyard east of town that Igor mentioned. Seepgood goes looking for it:



He does a little poking around:



As much fun as reading tombstones with bad puns on them is I'm going to skip it. If you want more of that please see my Let's Play of King's Quest 4. Garcon tries to open the Borgav crypt to no avail, when he tries the smaller one:



Wandering just east and south of the graveyard Perseii finds a clearing with some giggling bushes:



When he touches the shaking one:



Leshy is the correct answer here. You'd know that if you had bothered reading all the materials included in the box!



Oh yay! More doggeral ryhming! The various bushes disappear until only one is remaining and it transforms into the Leshy:



I could but this section is buggy and so I don't know if it will work out. Just south of the Leshy's location is Erana's Garden:



There are a couple lanterns in the garden. Jackson looks in both of them and finds some money in one of them:



When he tries to grab from fruit from the tree though:




Well, seeing as this is yet another Erana's garden and all the other ones have been magical puzzles. Danar casts detect magic:



Casting trigger on the two lanterns lights them but does nothing else. Casting it on the pond:



Casting open on the flower:



A a scroll. Danar fetches the scroll and upon reading it learns:



Nice! That might help once we start getting into fights! Only one thing left to do here for now. Garcon casts fetch again, this time on the tree, and picks up some mana fruit.

South and west of Erana's garden Perseii encounters a strange bush:



I don't know about you but Jackson just doesn't trust plants with eyes on them. He tries to fetch the berries:



But, no luck. Not really knowing what to make of the bush. He continues on. When he encounters:



"Oh, look! It's a cute fuzzy bunny!"

"So friendly too! Doesn't seem afraid of me at all... Where is that dramatic and scary music coming from?"



"Goddess!? It's trying to kill me!?!"

Welcome to the fighting screen of QfG4. I guess I can explain it. The top bar is the hero's stamina, next is his magic pool, and finally is his health. To the right of the hero's health bar is the magical charge bar. When casting spells you have to hold the button down until that bar fills up. To the right of the magic bar is the enemies health. Above that are a number of buttons. From left to right they are: Run away, zap, flame dart, lightning ball, force bolt. So how does attack and defense work? Click between the hero and the monster to advance toward the monster, click behind the hero to retreat. Clicking on the hero will have him defend (block or parry depending on skills) if you hold the click the hero will stay in a defensive stance. Clicking on the monster will have your character attack, clicking and holding on the monster will have the hero perform a more powerful attack. Since our character has the acrobatic skill he can do an acrobatic attack by clicking above the monster. The 'S' button on the far right of the screen opens a set of sliders that determine how aggressive/defensive thrifty/profligate your character is and autofights the battle.

This is an unelegant fighting scheme at best. At worst it is a clusterfuck of just pressing and clicking madly. The best way to win fights in this game is to grind stats to ensure your hero is a BEAST. Back to the game:



Killing bunnies, even bloodthirst ones isn't that difficult. We check the body for anything but all that can be found is a pocket watch... While exploring Jackson kills some more bunnies, remembers to work out at the Hero's Guild and then returns to the slimy space outside the Dark One Cave entrance. Remember that tree we saw there? We're going to get it. Why? Well, we found a hole to plant it in and the Leshy is going to ask us about it.



As a thief we're supposed to toss rocvks at the dam of rocks in front of the tree until it falls apart (rocks are picked up almost anywhere on the ground.) BUT...



We see this message a lot for awhile. Also, this is another spot where the game glitches. After tossing rocks our hero starts gliding instead of walking places and then the game crashes after he moves a few feet. The only way to break the glitch and prevent the game from crashing is to do a task instead of walking around. The only task that can be done here though is throw rocks, or collect goo. So we collect some goo:



(We're going to need it soon anyway!)

After tossing a ton of rocks Danar still can't hit a thing. He, and I, got bored of trying to do it the thief way and instead casted force bolt on the dam:



Voila!

Now the thief way to get the bush once it is free of ooze is to use the grapple and rope on the ledge above the tree to climb back up and then to use the rope and grapple on the tree to yank it up to you.



Except Seepgood can't. Turns out he is also a terrible climber. He practices at it for awhile but just can't seem to make his way up:



Fed up he just uses some magic to grab the bush! (This is why you always make a hybrid character!) Garcon kills some more bunnies, and runs into the Leshy again:



I'm supposed to be able to answer Bonsai here and he'll give me some sorty of clue (I don't remember what) but the game refuses to acknowledge that not only have I seen the bonsai, but I have it in my inventory...

Unable to answer his question Perseii heads to Erana's Garden and plants the bonsai in the hole there:



I know what you're thinking! Maybe now the Leshy will let us answer his riddle since we have officialy saved the tree?

Oh reader you are so delightfully naive!

I'll show you why next time!

Below is a copy of the map he hand drew while stomping around the valley:



There are some things on the map that aren't in this update. But don't worry all will be explained eventually!

You're right, a foreigner that looks like a forest DOES sound familiar!

(slight image mixup there)

Thanks Kalir! I generally preview these and catch those sort of mistakes but somehow missed that one this time.

It's been fixed.

As a thief, you can use your grappling hook to break up the rock pile. Can't believe you're taking all those magical shortcuts instead of grinding your class skills!

And don't forget to check the stump in front of the town gates.

Really?! The more you know!

I think I checked the stump in the first or second post? If I didn't mention it. I did do it!

West and slightly north of the swamp outside of the Dark One's cave Garcon stumbled upon Lake Mordavia, the only sizable body of water in the Valley:



Looks calm, peaceful, maybe even safe?!



Oh! I guess Perseii isn't alone here!



"Why not just get out of the water?"



Jackson tries to engage the young lady in conversation, but she seems to have a one track mind:

Name:



Lake:



Forest:



Why She's Here:



"Well, okay!"







That didn't work out, did it? The Rusalka seems determined to get Danar in the water regardless of what he say to her. Maybe there's some other way to get to her? One that doesn't involve her drowning us...



(You can also give her some candy that is bought at the general store in town)

Also, while going back and forth between the lake and town Seepgood ran into a Necrotaur. These are the toughest monsters he'll encounter during the day in Mordavia:



Killing them gives us nothing but experience points...

Now that she isn't determined to drown him Garcon can have an actual conversation with the lady in the lake:



Rusalka:



Name:



Lake:



Swamp:



Things:



Forest:



Why She's Here:



Drownings:



Town:



And that's really all we can do with the Rusalka. If we were a Paladin we could probably do something to help her. But who wants to be one of those goodie-two-shoes?



There is still some daylight left and most of the things Garcon needs to do can't be done until night falls and so he does some wandering around. I end up back at the graveyard and this time he runs into Igor:



Cemetery:



Igor:



It's got to hurt being called "weird" by THAT guy...

Open Grave:



Crypts:



*insert comic book nerd joke here*

Crypt Key:



Evening sets in as Perseii walks back to town and after a short nap near Erana's staff it is nigh time:



What are we going to do tonight Talking Time? The same thing we do every night try and steal from a helpless old man:



Dammit!

Jackson exhuasts himself trying to open the chest (though once we open it the game will call it a nightstand...) Between a potion and some naps he gets enough energy and enough practice at lockpicking to finally open the damned thing, only to find:



Now we could steal this. We could even show it to the Chief Thief to prove we're ready for that job he keeps hinting at. In fact I did just that:



But the damned bug isn't having any of it! He won't even buy the stupid locket off of me! So Danar returns it:



Good thing he did too! If he hadn't Nikolai would have noticed it was missing. The Burgomeister would have noticed that. And Seepgood being the new guy in town would be searched, found with the locket, and then jailed. Game Over.

After successfully looting the old man's house what is supposed to happen is the Chief Thief spills the beans on how he became a bug and how he can be restored. He tells Garcon about a statue that can be found in the secret basement of the monastery in town. Since he refuses to do that Perseii is going to be a little more proactive. I think he's ready:



The first thing you'll notice about the monastery is the giant stone Hexapod over the door:



That Hexapod doesn't like Jackson. That Hexapod will surely kill him. BUT! If we show him our hexapod symbol:



He'll leave us alone. But the door stil won't budge! Turns out the symbol also has to be used on it:



(As a thief we could have just scaled the wall and come in through the window)



There's a few things worth noting here in the monastery. The first of which is that tiny black object in the alcove above the door:



Danar scales the wall and shimmies over to the statue, hoping that perhaps this time he will have found the real Black Bird:



Sadly, that is not the case...

The next object of note is in the case on the righthand side:



Nothing we can do with it now, but we'll come back for it. The cabinet also contains a healing potion which Seepgood obtains by picking the lock.

Finally there's the weird looking thing above the fireplace:



Unlike the one outside this one isn't made of stone. But is a real-live hexapod. It also doesn't like Seepgood and will kill him if he gets too close! Luckily, we already found out what these things like to eat thanks to Dr. Cranium's machine. Garcon gives the creature some garlic:



And it is now safe for him to approach the fireplace, trigger the hidden switch and descends the stairway which opens up behind it. He spends a moment taking it all in:




(looking at the large golden statue)



The desk seems the "safest" place to start.

Perseii first looks for hidden traps on the desk, finds one and disables it, and then rifles through the contents:





Hrm... Well, that can't be right because we've already removed the Dark One sign from the arch and there was no ritual underneath it...

Done with the desk Perseii looks closer at the alter at the back of the basement:



"Avoozl? That's the dumbest name for a god I've ever heard!"



Taking a closer look at the big gold statue:



After that Jackson attempts to take the book from the alter:



Ouch! I guess Garcon isn't supposed to learn any more about the dark arts than is absolutely necessary...

We'll find out what we're really supposed to be doing down in that dank basement next update!

We last saw Garcon in the sanctum sanctorum of some creepy cult being destroyed by the Necrophilicon, which isn't a corpse fucking convention in Philidelphia, despite what you might think! No, it was an evil body of text used for nefarious purposes unknown! A quick reload and our intrepid hero is back! There's only one other thing he hasn't looked at yet. In a tiny niched to the right of the big gold idol is a small little statue:



Except that useless giant roach didn't! Oh well! This is the thing that turned the Chief Thief into a bug! Why he couldn't make his way back down here in the dead of night is beyond me... So, I guess Perseii will have to take it back to him:





Years after this Jackson was able to make a living for himself as the one and only Slurms MacKenzie. But he days of heroing and adventuring were over... Party on Slurms!

Note to self: don't ever touch a creepy magic idol with your bare hands! Using the shopping bag he bought from the general store Jackson picks up the idol:



Haha! Victory! Only one thing left to do here in the basement. Remember those rituals we read about? The Blood Ritual could only be had by one seeking dark visions? And didn't the game say something about the wine here giving those who drink it visions? Let's do that!



"This doesn't seem so bad..."






"Okay. Now it seems bad."





That must be the Blood Ritual!



Danar picks up the scoll and leaves the Monastery. There's nothing more he can do there for now.



Now to make one giant bug happy!

With the idol in hand Seepgood makes his way to the Thieves Guild and hands it over to the Chief Thief:







That wasn't helpful at all! Keep it in mind though. At some point Garcon will have to use those clues to make his way into the Castle. What a busy day! Garcon decides to call it a day. Except, of course, the inn is locked tight this late at night... Scaling the side of the building he slips in through his room window but before he goes to bed he slips out into the main room:



It looks like a lot like the dried up thing we saw in the monastery. Let's talk to it:



Where It Lives:



Luck:



Dark Magic:



What It Is:



Mordavia:



And that is about all we can get out of the little guy for now. Perseii will be seeing quite a bit more of him in the future though!



And now it is really late! Time for bed! See you Day 3:

man, that rusalka art is still awesome.

I never appreciated the Cask of Amon Tillado pun until years after playing QfG4.

The day dawns on Garcon's fourth day in Mordavia! I was hoping a certain thing would happen today (it usually happens on the morning of the 4th or 5th day and it helps progress the story along...) But it didn't, so we'll take advantage of the extra day to learn some things and set up another part of the storyline! Our first stop the general store:



Innkeeper:



Borgovs:



Vampires:



Old man:



As a refresher we ask her again about her husband:



Interesting! Wasn't the gatekeeper of the Castle west of town named Boris?



Great! We get to play messanger for these two old bats... Next stop is Dr. Cranium's who I am also expecting to mention something to us either today or tomorrow:





Alas, he doesn't bring up the topic. Probably tomorrow. Perseii decides to share some of his adventures with the doctor:





Antwerps:



Lightning:

Danar continues the discussion he was having with Dr. Cranium:



Life Force:



After that Jackson goes to the Guild Hall and works out before going out into the wilds of Mordavia once again. His desitnation, the Leshy's home:



Seepgood knows this one!



We go with Rusulka and for getting it correct we're given a hint:



There are some bushes in the southeast part of the valley that look suspicious, and if you bother to cast detect magic will be highlighted. Garcon heads there now:



With the bush gone Perseii explores this new area of Mordavia:





This all looks very, very familiar... For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about I encourage you to read through my Let's Play of Quest for Glory: So You Want to be a Hero to learn about Garcon's first encounter with Bonehead and a certain ogre witch who lives in a hut with chicken legs.

Danar approaches the skull with the glowing gem:





Baba Yaga:



Skull



Danger:



Hut:



Rhyme:

A few more things to talk about with Bonehead before we leave. First we finish the dialogue tree and ask Bonehead about his eye:



Next we talk about our memories of Spielburg and how much fun it was turning Baba Yaga into a frog:



Seepgood will be coming back here soon enough but for now he leaves. There's one more place we haven't visited yet. Olga the shopkeep has mentioned them a couple of times now, the Gypsies. They can be found in the far northeast of the valley:



That's a lot of dogs (wolves?) (werewolves?!)

Sadly, the sole human at the camp doesn't seem too friendly:



What else can Garcon do now... Hrm... Well, there's always the local yokels! Perseii heads back to town and waits for evening to come along:



Strangers:



"Are there any other type of strangers...?"



"I'm not quite sure I'm understanding you guys... Are you saying you DON'T like strangers?"





Jester:

This other guy sounds a lot like me. Sans the non-human and joking part...?

The locals continue:





Okay, so there's a Gnomish jester in town who tells bad jokes. Danar will look into that later. Back to the dialogue tree, Town:







How They are Doing:



Night:



(please note before this game is over we will be encountering all of those things... Yay!)



"That's always a good indicator that there absolutely are vampires in Mordavia..."





Join us next week when we learn all about the Gnome and his reasons for being in Mordavia and once again encounter the beautiful, mysterious lady we first saw outside the Dark One Cave!

We left Garcon talking with the locals in the Mordavian Inn. The big take from that conversation was that our hero isn't the only stranger in town. There appears to be a gnome in the valley with a predilication for telling bad jokes. The gnome isn't at the inn right now so Perseii goes up to his room sleeps a couple of hours and then comes back down:



And there he is! Prepare for some painful reading...









Reluctantly Jackson approaches the "jester" and engages in conversation:





Gnome's Home:



Gnome:



Show Business:



Jokes:



If we're feeling up for it we might try the Gnome in his room later tonight. Before that though Danar needs to leave town as he walks out of the inn:



Hollow threats. We can always sleep in front of Erana's staff as well as just climbing into our room. Though I wonder what the innkeeper thinks we he sees us coming down in the morning after having done so... He never mentions it.

Once out of the inn Seepgood climbs over the town walls and:

"I don't know I seem to be doing okay..."



Woah... I thought this game was PG!?



*bow-chicka-bow-wow*



Oh, was that it? Kinda disappointing really...





Name:



Forest:



Magic:



But before she answers any more questions:



Mysterious!

But now we know her name and have the frostbite spell! Which is just like all our other aggressive projectile spells, except a different color! I don't recall if it slows enemies down or not. We'll find out when I encounter a monster I guess!

With Katrina gone Garcon returns to the inn. He's got one more thing to do before going to bed:







This guy is the ultimate distillation of that awkward kid who was really into magic back in middle school we all knew...

On the corner of the Gnome's bed is a strange looking chicken, Perseii picks it up:







Humor:



Curse:



Baba Yaga:



Gnome:



Jester:



Punny Bones:



Mordavia:



Rumors:



And that's about all he has to say, except for a few more terrible jokes... Join us next week as we do a lot more talking to people and maybe begin a fetch quest!

I love how his door can actually kill you if your health is low enough.

Huh. I've never seen a gnome (or leprechaun, for that matter) depicted with such long, curly red hair before.

Katrina's definitely the best dressed Mordavian so far. The brooch is a nice touch.

And that's the QFG4 Fashion Report. Back to you, Falselogic.

this game's portrait art is just so fucking good. So glad you've grabbed all of these screenshots Flawgic!!

Just wait.

Thanks. I still feel bad about not capturing voice but me streaming this game would be a mess...