I started out today by heading for Mariah in the Lycaeum to see about getting this book translated. She has half of a tablet she bought from some gypsies which is kind of a rosetta stone for the gargoyle language. This starts off a quest to find the other half which starts with tracking down the gypsies she bought it from.

Luckily enough they are exactly where I saw them last. Apparently the tablet had been lost while in the hands of a pirate called Captain Hawkins. This means a trip to bucaneers den.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough money for a boat so I have to trek through the sewers underneath LB’s castle and then through another dungeon up in Bucaneers Den.

While on the way there is a thief living in the sewers who’s belt I will need in Bucaneers Den to join the thieves guild. I only know this from playing the game before but while I’m here I may as well get it. I’m supposed to steal it from her but there is a nice trick where you can push her onto her own bear trap and kill her off without losing karma. This also nets me a load of glass swords,

To get between the two dungeons I have to sail to a small island in an underground lake. There is a conveniently placed skiff for this.

Since I have the belt, I’m allowed straight into the thieves guild. In the inn, one of the sailors on Hawkins ship tells me that to find the tablet I need to locate the hidden treasure. To find this I need all nine parts of a map (he has one but won’t give it to me without the others). He gives me clues towards four of these parts all of which I’ve screenshotted here. (If I hadn’t joined the guild he wouldn’t have told me this).

Another local at the pub gives me a clue about balooning and points me at a book in the Lycaeum – I’ll look that one up later.

To get the rest of the clues I need to talk to the cook at Trinsic but he won’t tell me anything without a dragons egg.

To get a dragons egg I have to struggle through Destard. This really isn’t too easy at all – I haven’t a chance against the horde of dragons at the bottom but manage to sneak in and steal a couple of eggs before I’m killed off and magiced back to LB’s castle (with eggs).

Sandy now gives me a whole host of clues for the rest of the people with the map pieces. One of them is owned by the town mayor himself. I presume it is 8 map pieces for eight towns…. but I don’t actually know that yet.

After accusing him of being an ex pirate the mayor coughs up the map piece. 1 down and 8 to go then.

Something I will say with this session of play is that the game feels far more like an RPG than it did when I was clearing the shrines now that I’m having to battle through dungeons and the like. Experience seems to be dished out fairly generously so I’m levelling up quite fast but I could do with buying some decent equipment and spells which I’ve neglected to do so far – I’ll need the money to do it first. I bought a ship in Buccaneers Den which cleared out my funds but I’m feeling a bit better off now than I was. I’ll probably still carry on tracking down the rest of the map pieces for now and worry about equipment when I really need it as I expect I will find loads in the dungeons.