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Saturday, January 5, 2019

Bard's Tale I: Don't Joke with the Priests of the Mad God

One of the puzzles in Bard's Tale I is the name of the Mad God. You need this to progress to the second major dungeon, which has the answer needed for later dungeons . . . and awesome monsters to grind.

However, there is a temptation to try other names. You know, instead of working your way down to the answer in the first dungeon, maybe you just peruse the names in the manual and try guessing those.

Well, don't guess BURGER, the Mad God's priests don't like that.

How much don't they like it?

This much:




Even just 99 Ancient Enemies is enough - they have a lethal breath weapon. I don't think the Black Company* is going to make it through.**


Apparently this isn't a totally unwinnable fight. According to the internet, if you win this, you get 200K+ in experience and then the Mad God's priests send some real foes after you.


* Can anyone tell me which book I was reading when I named my characters? I do think Sleepy should be a Paladin, not a Warrior, but I never did try the game with a Warrior instead of a Paladin, so why not?

** They didn't.

5 comments:

  1. I don't think Slink or Riverwalker made it out of Water Sleeps... so probably Water Sleeps.

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    1. Yes, Water Sleeps. I don't think either of them get a mention after that, and they don't appear before that either.

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  2. I loved The Bard's Tale in the 80s. Never got that far, unfortunately.

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  3. Bard's Tale series was probably my favorite and most played CRPG. Strangely though I never got this result. Was it specific to the DOS version? I played the C64 version and guessing wrong never got me attacked, but I think they kicked me out of the temple for not answering correctly. I wish I had this, because near the end of the game I had to grind for experience to be strong enough to survive in Mangar's Tower. The best thing I found was to go to the castle, (make sure I'm not wearing green robes), cast APAR to teleport up 2 levels, and fight the 4 groups of 99 berserkers. This was an easy fight once I had a high level Sorcerer who could kill them all with MIBL and high enough dexterity that I acted before the beserkers.

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    1. I don't think you want this fight. If you win, another deadlier group attacks you. By the time you can win two fights like this in a row, you don't need to grind for anything, you already ground.

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