Realms of Arkania (LONG)

[ncl...@bda-hp.bda.nasa.gov]

General Hint sheet for Realms Of Arkania Game Series v0.3
=========================================================
List of Contributors
Background Material
Section 1 Introduction
Section 2 Putting together a Party
Section 3 Spells
Section 4 General hints and tips
Section 5 Potions and herbs
Section 6 Weapons and Armour
Section 7 Equipment and Artifacts
Section 8 Cornucopia (Everything that won't fit elsewhere)
Section 9 Days and Months
Preview of Shadows over Riva

List of Contributors
--------------------
Our own Blade of Destiny FAQ (1.0j) <ncl...@bda-hp.bda.nasa.gov>
Tim Chown's Star Trail FAQ (v3.04) <t...@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Translation of German material Uwe Hauck <ha...@heidelbg.ibm.com>

Background Material
-------------------
(This is translated from German material appearing on the FanPro Web
site and probably should be labelled as Copyright FanPro 1996).

Strange events took place in the land in these past weeks. Rumours
about a group of fearless adventurers have spread even to the most
distant corner of Arkania. The hordes of blackfurred orcs seem to be
unstoppable. Long lost artifacts reappear suddenly and recently the
news reached us that the communities of the elves and dwarves want
to unite against the attacks of the wild orcs. This is such an
unusual thing, as there has been no such treaty since the time of
the first Orc war. These somehow connected events have made the
writer Beregon Selmar start research in the name of the twelve Gods.
His report, which reached us lately out of the embattled town of
Lowangen, gives some details on the mysterious events. But read this
for yourself:

"I have given myself the task of making a report about a mysterious
group of people and have reached some astonishing conclusions. I
don't know if my work will even be rewarded because I am in a
difficult position.

At the moment I am in encircled Lowangen. A few month ago this was a
blooming town and the center of trade in the Svelltland. Now cruel
orcs attack her, the noose tightens closer and closer around the
city. Only the good defensive position and the massive town walls
protect her from the orcs. Fear in the population grows daily,
because nobody knows when the orcs will try their next attack and
how long the food will last.

Not being able to leave the city myself I am hoping that some
messenger will be found to bring this report into the city of
Gareth. I am sitting here in the tavern "Wassergraben" with a few
beers, that have been mixed with water more and more to prolong the
supplies, and am writing about some heroes, whose feats were told
to me first in the "Sturmfels" tavern in Thorwal.

That's how this truly epic story started, in Thorwal - the city of
the free, where I was working on translating Thorwalian heroic tales
into Garethi. The friendliness of the Thorwalian people and
expecially of the family of Hildorien may be mentioned in passing.

According to the reports Hetmann Tronde himself had given the
task of searching for the legendary sword of Grimring to a group
of brave men and women. This mysterious blade was owned by the hero
Hyggelik, who had gone to the orc lands with his followers long ago,
but never returned. Of Grimring it is told that the black orcs had a
nameless fear. Tronde had the bold plan therefore to search for the
sword and in this way defeat the growing menace of the orcs to the
land of Thorwal.

Nobody knew where the sword was. The tales told of a map which would
show the exact location of the sword, but this map had been split
into nine pieces. According to the tales these pieces were
scattered throughout all of the land of Thorwal. Here I lost the
track of the heros and thought I would never hear of them again. But
finally, when nearly all my hopes were lost, a group of hunters and
trappers reported meeting with a group of adventurers between
Phexcaer and Hermit's Lake which must have been the people with the
mission from Tronde. According to their stories the adventurers not
only found the sword Grimring, but were on their way to oppose the
orcish army. The outcome of the battle between a selected hero
and an orc champion was the main reason for the retreat of the
orcish army.

Of course I tried to meet these exceptional heros and therefore went
on my way to search for them. Hearing of them much later in
Kvirasim, only a few weeks ago, I sadly enough didn't meet them
there because these six brave men and women were already gone. I
quickly found out they were hunting the orcs again, who by that time
were attacking all of the Svelltish cities. Through a proven source,
and I only use these, I learned that the people I sought for had met
with the elvish messenger Elsurion Starlight. He had asked the heros
to retrieve the long lost Salamander Stone. This ancient sign of the
treaty between elves and dwarves against the orcish danger should
reunite the two folk to deal with the plague.

It is said that a mysterious dealer, maybe a follower of the
Nameless God, wanted to secure the help of the heros by offering
them an immense amount of money for the Salamander Stone. Only now
when I have followed the story through can I assure you that the
heros opposed even that offer and have not fallen into the hands of
the dark powers. Ingramosch the dwarven Prince, as rightful holder
of the Salamander Stone, was supposed to be in Lowangen. Even at
this point a lot of work was necessary to find the trail of our
heroes again. Their travels had taken them to a small place named
Finsterkoppen, where an old temple of Ingerimm is located and in
which the Salamander Stone was hidden. The trip through the enemy
encircling Lowangen must have then been very diffficult and tiring
because only this way can I believe that the stone was stolen
inside the city walls.

I don't want to bother the reader now with details, because to break
the wall of silence in Lowangen cost me a lot of sweat and money,
more than I wanted to pay. But I dicovered that the heroes had found
the Salamander Stone again because a few days after their arrival
they departed for Tjolmar. How they could leave Lowangen I don't
know, but these heroes seem to know no obstacles. I soon ascertained
the reason for their departure - the dwarvish prince, Ingramosch,
wasn't in Lowangen at all! All clues pointed to Tjolmar as the place
he sadly was now.

Until yesterday I was sitting doomed to doing nothing with a beer
which doesn't even have the right to be called a beer, when suddenly
news spread throughout the city that the heroes had freed Ingramosch
in Tjolmar and that the elves and dwarves would unite against the
orcs. This encourages the people and me here in Lowangen.

If there is more to report or even should I meet one of these heroes
face to face then I will try again to send a report to my office and
inform you, my dear readers, in an instant.

I thank the Gods and wish to learn to know these extraordinary
people whose trail I follow in person.

Beregon Selmar, Writer

1) Introduction
---------------
This hint sheet was put together by Nigel Clarke and Sean Abrams,
with assistance from the contributors above, to help other players
of the Realms of Arkania game series. Some material is taken from
the Blade of Destiny FAQ we put together and other stuff from Tim
Chown's Star Trail FAQ.

The third part in the Realms of Arkania series, Shadows over Riva
(SoR), has been delayed until the Summer of '96 and this may give
players a chance to develop a party from Blade of Destiny (BoD)
through Star Trail (ST) ready for when it is released. The original,
German, version of SoR is to be released by July so we can expect
some early input to help players when the English translation is
available later.

The Blade of Destiny FAQ can be found at the usual sites and is
also available from the address at the end of this hint sheet.

The Star Trail FAQ can be found at Games Domain's Web site
In the US <http://www.gamesdomain.com/faqdir/star.trail.faq> or in
the UK <http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/faqdir/star.trail.faq>.

Screen shots from Shadows over Riva can be seen at the FanPro Web
site (the text is in German but isn't necessary and is translated
above anyway). <http://www.fanpro.com:80/spiele/multi/riva.htm>
More shots are at the Sir-Tech Web site
<http://sir-tech.com/coming/riva/>

Patches
-------
Patches for these Sir-Tech games can be obtained from:
<ftp://ftp.sir-tech.com/pub> and from the Games Domain sites listed
above, which also give some mirrors which may be useful for non-US
based gamers.

2) Putting together a Party
---------------------------
These are some hints and tips for putting together a party. We
assume that you are using advanced mode to play.

A party is made up of six characters, and a single Non Player
Character (NPC) may join you at various points as in the first two
games. We originally suggested that 2 fighter types (Warrior,
Thorwalian or Dwarf), a Druid, Combat Magician, Sylvan Elf and
Hunter make up a reasonably balanced party for BoD and this works
for ST as well. There is no best party makeup as far as the hint
books go.

The Druid is a useful combination Magic User and Archer. The Elf
a combination Archer/Fighter/Magic User, and the Hunter can be used
as a combination Archer/Fighter. The drawback with Thorwalians is
their initial low magic resistance, but if you import characters
from BoD to ST then they should be at a reasonable MR level for SoR.

This suggested party works fine for the first two games but SoR is
supposed to take place mainly in a town so the wilderness skills of
Druids, Hunters and Elves may be less appropriate.

Generating Characters and increasing levels
-------------------------------------------
When completing the generation process or when going up levels your
characters should concentrate on getting high haggle skills,
healing skills or spells, lockpick skills, perception/danger skills,
nature skills, survival skills, carouse skills, and orientation
skills. Climb, swim, and ride are useful general skills particularly
as ride seems to apply to travelling by raft or ferry in ST. Swim
might well become very useful in SoR as the action takes place in
underwater regions when you 'dive to the depths of its crystal cool
caverns'.

When raising combat values we do not tend to increase parry levels
beyond the initial level. Rather we rely on raising attack levels
to hit the enemy first and harder.

General Skills
--------------
At the beginning at least two or three characters should try and
get good healing skills (wounds, disease and poison). These will be
very important during the early game. If, however, you imported your
characters from BoD to ST and then on to SoR this may be less of a
problem.

The party leader (the character in the leftmost slot) should have
good charisma for interacting with people you meet. Do not hesitate
to switch characters around so, for example, your character with
the best survival and orientation skills is leading when travelling
overland or by ship and one with high perception leads when
searching for secret doors.

Character specific skills
-------------------------
Always try to get your superstition rating down (up?)as much as
possible as this affects the character's MR negatively.

We suggest that Fighter/Dwarf characters concentrate on the
survival and perception/danger skills. These help in leading the
party and avoiding danger. Lockpick is another skill choice the
fighters should have.

Elves should gain skills in perception/danger, nature, survival,
herb lore and orientation. These help with hunting for food and
water and other outdoor work.

Hunters should choose perception/danger, nature, survival, and
orientation skills. These help with hunting for food and water and
other outdoor work.

Druids should choose nature, perception/danger, and herb lore
skills to allow them to gather herbs easily.

Magicians should make sure that they have good spoken, read/write
skills, ancient tongues, ancient lore etc to allow them to read
scrolls, recipes etc. We suggest that combat spells be chosen as the
preferred Arcane Lore. In addition we strongly suggest that, when
increasing levels, Magicians switch skill increase attempts for
Astral Points by giving all the Life/Astral points increase to Life
Points and convert all 5 skill attempts to get 5 spell attempts when
going up levels.

3) Spells
---------
For spells we specifically recommend the following:
Magicians
All combat spells, Horriphobus, Foramen, Pure and Clear,
Analyze, Transversalis and Penetrate.
Druids
Lightning, Iron Rust and Evil Eye.
Sylvan Elves
Lightning, Fulminictus, Eagle Eye, Balm of Roond, Rest the body
and Odem Arcanum.

Generally at least one magic user should get the dispell skills
necessary to remove petrification (Dispell Transformation) as soon
as possible (Priests of the Nameless God tend to cast petrify spells
on characters). Penetrate is much less use in ST than BoD due to the
change in the method of use of Tranversalis (No longer can a mage
peek to see beyond the locked door and teleport the party through).
In ST two required spells are Bane Ghosts and Melt Solid, there may
be some other mandatory spells in SoR. The Ocean's Floor spell may
well be necessary in the underwater areas.

4) General Hints and Tips
-------------------------
These are in no particular order.

a) Make a map in BoD. The bargain bin BoD CD-ROM doesn't have a map.
Having a map makes it much easy to work out where you need to go,
especially when you are at a harbour which doesn't show the map
screen. Do this by standing at a town exit and clicking on the map
for information and place names. This definitely applies to BoD and
may apply to ST if you find it as a bargain CD.

b) In BoD and ST visit every building in each town or village. Talk
to every Inn and Tavern keeper and their patrons for information. If
necessary split the party and use just the character with the
highest carouse skill to avoid getting drunk. The game will almost
certainly lock up and crash when this happens in BoD.

c) Make a donation and pray at temples as this may help with
certain, minor, side quests and often feeds the party or allows
them to travel more safely, find water etc.

d) Use tarneles on any wounded character prior to sleeping as it
helps recover Life Point's.

e) An alchemy set is a waste of time and carrying capacity in BoD.
Buying magic potions to recover Astral Points or using meditate is
easier. Some of the recipes in ST may make it worthwhile carrying
one.

f) Magicians should meditate to turn Life Points into Astral Points
and then eat whirlweed to recover Life Points. Whirlweed is cheaper
than healing potions and can be stacked on a backpack space in BoD.
Use ordinary healing potions as soon as you lose Life Points to
reduce weight carried. ST allows you to 'stack' items of the same
type which reduces this problem in the later game.

g) Use the 'Analyze' spell to check if items found are magical and
to find out the properties of the magic item. If your magician is
short of AP's then cast Odem Arcanum first using another mage
(Sylvan Elf) to see if it is magical.

h) Save game often. In BoD it costs 50 points if you save outside a
temple. This is not the case in ST, but 50 points is easily
recovered in a fight against just about anything

i) Always 'Use Talent' to cure wounds after combat when low level.
Failure to do so will cause the party members to frequently die of
tetanus from infected wounds.

j) Secret doors can be found by characters with high perception
skills. Make sure that the character at the front (in the left most
slot) has this skill. In BoD you can sometimes see them when
bumping into a wall as the game will not say "You cannot go any
further" when there is a secret door, these doors you have to go
through backwards. You may also find them by attempting to go
through the wall at every likely point. Another thing to remember is
that the caves, dungeons etc in BoD are all laid out as a square so
if you don't see the complete square then generally you will have
missed something. In ST these locations are not necessarily laid out
in a regular shape.

k) When characters are about to go up a level remove any MR
enhancing devices from them before you get the experience to reach
the new level. A bug in the BoD game fails to increase the
character's MR correctly when you are using one of these devices.

5) Potions and Herbs
--------------------
Some potions and herbs are useful and others are just for
background and local colour. The healing herbs are most useful as
they can be stacked in a characters pack (in BoD most items cannot
be stacked). Poisons should be used on arrows for double damage (you
can't fumble and shoot yourself) and extra strength or potent
healing potions will be useful in combat. However whirlweed is
generally the best source of Life Points. When using their healing
skills characters may require certain herbs to effect the cure.

Healing
Whirlweed gives back up to 10 LP's.
Four leaf Loneberry gives back up to 4 LP's.
Tarneles will aid in recovering AP's and LP's while sleeping.
Thonnys allow non-mages to meditate and recover AP's.
Healing potions give back 10 LP's.
Potent healing potions give back up to 30 LP's.
Miracle cures give back all lost LP's.
Antidote potions cure diseases.

Making money
Most herbs that you find should be sold to herbalists in towns
and villages. Sell excess healing potions and buy whirlweeds
instead.

6) Weapons and Armour
---------------------

See one of the FAQ's for either BoD or ST for details of costs and
effectiveness. Some character classes have restrictions on what they
can use. Don't waste efforts on equipping a low level party with
weapons and skills that are not of immediate use to them. Stick with
the weapon classes that individual characters start out best at and
improve those. Once you are more experienced then you can start
thinking about diversifying with other weapons etc.

7) Equipment
------------

a) The magic water canteen from ST should be retained as this will
no doubt prove very useful.

b) An alchemy set may prove more useful in SoR, assuming you have
ingredients, in whipping up the odd potion. The best recipe seems to
be the Hylalian Fire as it is very useful as a fire bomb when AP's
run out as magic users can't use missile weapons.

8) Cornucopia
-------------
a) Crystal balls are often found in the posession of enemies in
BoD. You will find that casting 'Analyze' on them reveals that they
generally have a spell to warn of danger. Doesn't seemed to have
helped the bad guys :-), but you may find it warns of ambush or
pitfalls by increasing the danger sense (by 2) of the character
holding it in a hand while leading the party.

b) The coronet found in the Temple of the Nameless God in BoD adds
2 to MR of anyone wearing it.

c) Gold star design amulets from BoD are either fire resistance
amulets or increase MR by 5 for the wearer. In ST an old woman in
some towns may sell you an amulet, some of which add 5 to your MR.
The blue flower amulet from BoD protects against the Ignifaxus
spell - useful when opening some chests.

d) There are several rings to be found in these games.
In BoD:
Red - +2 magic resistance
Green - Fire resistance
Blue - non-magical
In ST:
Asthenil Ring - fire resistance

e) Death's Head belts reduce your Necrophobia by 4 points when
worn. When fighting a zombie or skeleton the belt often loses its
effectiveness and disappears.

h) A Girdle of Might can be found in BoD and increases the strength
of the character wearing it by 5. Several (5/6?)of these belts can
be found in ST.

i) To read a document you need to select it and use object rather
than drop it on the eye icon. You may need several tries depending
upon who is trying to read it, use the character with the best
language skills.

j) Characters imported from BoD to ST get to keep all their money
and artifacts. Those party members petrified by priests are
depetrified when imported to ST. Presumably the same rules will
apply to characters imported into SoR.

9) Days and Months
------------------
The days of the week are:
Marketday, Praiosday, Rohalday, Fireday, Waterday, Windday, Earthday

The months are each 30 days in length:
Summer
Praios, Rondra, Efferd
Autumn/Fall
Travia, Boron, Hesinde
Winter
Firun, Tsa, Phex
Spring
Peraine, Ingerimm, Rahja
Days without a name (5)

During Winter you will find it impossible to travel across the
Hjaldor Mountains in BoD and you need winter clothing for some
locations in ST. You may have to defer visiting some locations or
travel by ship.

Preview of Shadows over Riva
----------------------------
All material in this section is Copyright 1996 Sir-tech Software,
Inc.

Game Plot
---------
Something sinister is happening in the seaside town of Riva.
Outside its protective walls, thousands of Orcs threaten the
people's existence. Within the city center, brave and honored
warriors lay down their swords and refuse to fight for the city's
good. What preys upon them will consume the city mind, body, and
soul . . . unless you find the answer that looms in the Shadows over
Riva.

Game features
-------------
Full 360-degree engine keeps the action in your face! Explore
twisting alleys, rugged terrain, and underwater regions. Automap and
completely customizable diary follow you in your travels. Print
option for character and diary information, too! Create a party of
six characters with over 50 improvable skills and spells, plus
positive and negative attributes. Enter the city as an unknown.
Mingle in its two-class society. Explore its winding streets,
caverns, and dungeons and dive to the depths of its crystal cool
caverns. Fully digitized speech, music, and soundtrack. Three
different levels of play, from hardcore role-playing to pure
adventure. Win hundreds of NPC friends (so you can kill them later).
Isometric, phased combat system with different play levels. Handle
it all like a true dungeon master, or let that rippin machine of
yours figure it out. More than 50 fully animated monsters--and over
400 weapons, magic items, and spells to kill them with!

Email comments and suggestions on this hint sheet to:
<ncl...@bda-hp.bda.nasa.gov>