ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Speak, friend, and enter

?

Hey.. I'm a newcomer to ToME, having finally hacked my way through the original Angband. I'm enjoying the transition thus far - I found the 'Theme' module online and am playing that for added flava, and after a few false starts with various swordmaster-types I'm doing nicely simply blowing things away with a Dark Elf Sorceror, but I've hit a snag - I can't seem to complete the Mayor's Barrows Downs dungeon quest.

I conquered the dungeon, found a trail to a 'unique level' and found the objective therein before taking the Mayor's quest; I don't know if that's relevant, but I've been down from top to bottom twice since, both times barbecuing anything that moved, the second time scouring every tile obsessively, and both times I've drawn a blank when I got back to Bree to claim my (assumed) reward. True to it's word, that Unique Level hasn't reappeared; Now when I get to Lvl 10 of the Barrow Downs, I follow the trail down to what seems like a random level that can't be all bad..., which exits back out into the wilderness map.

What am I missing?

Bewilderness wrote:Speak, friend, and enter
What am I missing?

I think you're in the wrong dungeon.

For the Mayor's quest, try the entrance just a building or two south of the mayor's office, near the middle of Bree. There should be only a single level to clear. The Barrow Downs is unrelated to this quest.

Thanks and apologies - I wasn't clear.

I spoke to the mayor and completed what I assume to be the 'thieves quest' mentioned elsewhere in the documentation - the single level, two doors down thing you're describing, and collected the reward. Then I manathrusted my way through the Barrow Downs, completed the trail level, went back to Bree, and at a loss as to where I should go next, went to see the Mayor a second time.
That's when he laid this quest on me, named on my Ctrl+Q Quest status as The Wight Grave (Danger level: 30)

Oh, somewhere in this unwieldy timeline there was mushroom recovery mission, too. But that just about covers it.

The mission blurb mentions the Barrow Downs by name, but I've yet to encounter any wights, or find a way to otherwise put an end to this threat, as I was entreated. Ideas?

Bewilderness wrote:Thanks and apologies - I wasn't clear.

I spoke to the mayor and completed what I assume to be the 'thieves quest' mentioned elsewhere in the documentation - the single level, two doors down thing you're describing, and collected the reward. Then I manathrusted my way through the Barrow Downs, completed the trail level, went back to Bree, and at a loss as to where I should go next, went to see the Mayor a second time.
That's when he laid this quest on me, named on my Ctrl+Q Quest status as The Wight Grave (Danger level: 30)

Oh, somewhere in this unwieldy timeline there was mushroom recovery mission, too. But that just about covers it.

The mission blurb mentions the Barrow Downs by name, but I've yet to encounter any wights, or find a way to otherwise put an end to this threat, as I was entreated. Ideas?

You almost certainly are not ready for the wight quest.

You need to go find some other towns and dungeons to explore. You know about using the < key to get to the wilderness map, right? Stay out of deep water and other nasty grids. Theme has some lethal wilderness areas. You can also go to one of the marshes and kill hydras, trolls, and such to get more experience and treasure. The towns all have stores, and you might get lucky with a stat gain potion or great piece of equipment. Theme is pretty generous with those.

Assuming Theme hasn't moved it, the wight quest is a special staircase that shows up in the town at night. It's located near the Barrowdowns entrance, but is not in the Barrowdowns itself.

Warriors get a similar quest to fight trolls, which shows up in the clearing to the southeast of Bree proper (still in the same map sector, though), and again, only at night.

Derakon wrote:Assuming Theme hasn't moved it, the wight quest is a special staircase that shows up in the town at night. It's located near the Barrowdowns entrance, but is not in the Barrowdowns itself.

Warriors get a similar quest to fight trolls, which shows up in the clearing to the southeast of Bree proper (still in the same map sector, though), and again, only at night.

The wight quest shows up all the time, not just at night. The other one only shows up at night, though.

Just the ticket.

Derakon wrote:It's located near the Barrowdowns entrance, but is not in the Barrowdowns itself.

Yup, got it. Much obliged to you. Haven't ventured into the dark yet, though, since...

Yottle wrote:You almost certainly are not ready for the wight quest... You need to go find some other towns and dungeons to explore.

Gotcha. Should I be reading those 'danger levels' as recommended character levels for each quest? Good job I didn't take that hike to Dol Goldur...

You know about using the < key to get to the wilderness map, right?

Err... of course I do. Now. The game world is suddenly rather more navigable than before. Is there a complete world map available online anywhere? I'm not looking for spoilers, just a sense of perspective.

The towns all have stores, and you might get lucky with a stat gain potion or great piece of equipment.

Good call. I took a gentle stroll/epic voyage to Hobbiton, and found an awesome tome in the black market, essentially doubling my spell palette. Had to pawn my chainmail and an axe of *slay giant* to afford it, mind.

You can also go to one of the marshes and kill hydras, trolls, and such to get more experience and treasure.

Verging on the clairvoyant here. Thought I'd take the scenic route back east and on my way across what I assume is the Brandywine, my new purchase makes light work of flash-frying several hydras and a small horde of trolls.

The Wights can wait. I'm off to the Orc Caves.

Err... of course I do. Now. The game world is suddenly rather more navigable than before. Is there a complete world map available online anywhere? I'm not looking for spoilers, just a sense of perspective.

what you could do is start another theme character, and do one of the following:

- pump up your levels a little bit (to not get ambushed), buy lots of food. and go exploring. don't step on water squares (well, deep water especially) or ice squares (maybe sand, I forget)... and you should be fine. (you technically could do this with your current character) (don't bother equipping light sources as they don't help.

- or you could do it via wizard/debug mode (ctrl-a) and then hit (ctrl-a then u) in the wilderness map and you have a full map. (don't do this with your own character it is irreversible) (well, not the ctrl-u, but the debug mode is)

- if you want just most of the map you could combine the two but more along the lines of debug mode then (ctrl-a then a) when you need food (ctrl-a then j then 0) if you are ambushed. (you are still cheating to get it, but you get more of a feel of how the map is)

of these I would recommend the first as you aren't cheating, and you get a feel for the game more. if you do a new character you would have to level up some to prevent ambushes in grass... but you wouldnt have to worry about mis-stepping and getting killed in an ambush. (plus you would spend a lot of time mapping, but if you are doing god quests, you would be spending that time anyways, and it would help later on)

The Theme map is fairly close to the ME maps in Tolkien. If you want a spoiler, you can look at the world map in your tome/lib/edit edit directory (it is a text file). There are a few towns in Theme that don't show up on the Wilderness map...

The danger levels on the quests are approximations, but at least give you an idea of what to expect. Some dungeons (like Dol Guldur) won't even let you in if you are too inexperienced. DG requires level 34.