Wizardry I Liveblog Bonus Edition: Interlude 1

Interlude: Back in town…

While the group (Hahaha disregard what was here earlier) was relaxing in the tavern, they were approached by a bespectacled young man.

???: “Hello, hello, you look like you could use a dashing young man such as myself in your party!”

Emptyeye: “Um…who might you be?”

???: “Willy the Wizard, at your service!”

Emptyeye: “Wizard, huh? Sounds impressive, but what exactly does that mean?”

Willy: “Oh, it is, it is! I can cast spells from both schools of magic!”

Zudak: “Well hold on there, buddy, my Cleric friend and I have magic covered, thanks very much.” as he pointed out Xanatos.

Willy: “But…but I can also dispel the undead!”

Xanatos: “So can I.”

Emptyeye: “Looks like we have no need for you, four-eyes.”

Willy: “Wait! I can…I can identify items you might find in the maze!”

Rocky: “Big freakin’ deal, we can get that at Boltac’s. You’re completely…”

Emptyeye: (Interrupting) “Now hold on a second. Yes, we can theoretically get that service at Boltac’s…but if this guy can do it cheaper…”

The group conferred. When they were done, Emptyeye turned to Willy:

Emptyeye: “Here’s the deal. We have no need for another person in the party. But your skill at identifying items may prove useful to us. Here’s a simple test. Identify this dagger that we found in our travels.”

Willy: “Okay…um…hrm…well, sorry to tell you this, but it appears to be just an ordinary dagger.”

Emptyeye: “Well that’s too bad. On the other hand, you did well to pass the test. I’ll make you a deal. When we have items that we need identified, we’ll come find you here. You’ll identify them for us. Anything you identify that we decide we don’t need, you can keep or sell, and any proceeds you get from this are yours to do as you please.”

Willy: “Well, I’d really like to join you on your expedition…”

Emptyeye: “That’s the offer, take it or leave it.”

Willy: “Fine, fine. Identifying stuff and taking your unwanted items off your hands it is..I guess…”

Emptyeye: “Excellent! Pleasure doing business with you.”

(LIVEBLOG NOTE: I will actually be occasionally bringing Willy with me down into the dungeon, if for no other reason than leveling up a Wizard seems to improve his skill at identifying items as well. Also, some Nethack techniques work well in identifying items in Wizardry without “actually” identifying them, especially since Wizardry is on the whole less random. That is, you can make a pretty good guess at what an item is based on knowing its type (Provided) and price (Go to Boltac’s and see what he’ll charge to identify the item).)

After that conversation, a trip to Boltac’s was in store. Emptyeye bought himself a cool Breast Plate, and cleared his debt to Xanatos (Though not necessarily the rest of the group) by spotting him the difference between what he had and what he needed for a Breast Plate of his very own. Nyperold and mazel bought Helms for themselves. In all, the front lines plus Xanatos were fortified slightly, ready for their next trip down.

Next Time: That stuff I promised last time!

Super Cool Bonus Commentary!

• This was an interlude I randomly put in to introduce Willy the Wizard. Poor Willy, getting abused by pretty much the entire primary group. In re-reading this, I was surprised at how obnoxious I had written everyone in said primary group to be in terms of personality (Maybe in response to Willy’s being a bit full of himself at the start.).
• I don’t exactly remember what “(Hahaha disregard what was here earlier)” was in reference to, although if my recollection is correct, I had initially written that only one character, probably Emptyeye, was in the Tavern. Then I saw that I had other party members in the conversation, went “Oh crud that’s wrong”, and went back and edited the post to reflect that.
• A bit of context for the non-Wizardry players out there: There are two schools of magic in the game, the Cleric school and the Mage school. Each school has a class named for it who specializes in that school (Samurai learn Mage spells at a slower rate than do Mages, but are much better fighters. There’s also a class called the Lord that is the same thing for the Cleric school). The third primary magic class is the Wizard, who eventually learns spells from both schools, but at a slower rate than either Clerics or Mages. They can also Dispel undead monsters, but their most useful skill is being able to Identify items you find in the dungeon. While an advanced Wizardry player can “pseudo-identify” items based on their type and how much they cost to identify, for a more casual player (If such a thing as a “casual Wizardry player” exists…like most RPGs of its day, Wizardry is not really a game that can be played casually), Wizards are great for saving massive amounts of cash over the store for getting stuff identified.
• Willy is named for fellow Troper Willy Four Eyes, hence his having glasses, and Emptyeye’s calling him “four-eyes” during the conversation.