May 2012 Dungeon Exploration Interruptions

Okay, remember in the last post when I said, "It's a GAME!"  ???

Well - it's true. Dungeons and Treasures is a game, so real life STUFF interfered with my dungeon explorations and monster battles for a few days.

Not to worry. Any dungeon I didn't get from the Tavern keeper a few days ago will still be waiting for me when I am able to get to the game to do more searching and fighting.

More truth to be told: trying to stop game play in order to create some storyline on a blog is holding things up more than I'd like. If I were better at managing screenshot images (GIMP), I'd speed right on through but, alas, teeray is not gifted with a ton of technical prowess with computer programs...

I had intended on continuing a day by day approach but things will be a bit patchy from here on out as I make sure to attend to real life matters (like maintaining my click program accounts, out of home research meetings, oh - and seeing friends, too). I have about four dungeons to pick up in the Tavern and I haven't even seen the interiors of these yet.

I haven't wanted to feel like I am in the scenarios from Inception (movie details/Inception (2010) from Internet Movie Data Base: HERE), between dream/virtual world and real life, so I will be posting here as often as I can manage it and when I think something new in my game-play should also be explained for newcomers to the game.


Inception Movie Trailer:

So balancing time spent exploring dungeons, posting about the same and then also participating in other activities is sort of my safety "kick" (explained in the trailer above)..... BALANCING=KICK.

Just taking time to mention this stuff here so that if my posts aren't all sequential and on a daily basis, people will know I'm still a member at D&T, still participating and...well, kicking monsters in the behinds! Rawhhhrrrr!

Every once in a while, a dungeon adventurer needs to go to Second Cup, Starbucks, to the bank, a Birthday Party or to the grocery store... see friends who don't have funny helmets on, etc.

May 2012 D&T Adventure: May 4

Vil-Gariand was the name of the dungeon available on May 4th, and although teeray remembered to drink a +2 learning potion before the monster battles began, the dungeon creeper entirely forgot to visit the Temple! Actually, a newly purchased learning potion was a DUD but the second potion worked to activate a 60 minute increased experience level option.

I can't mention this often enough - KEEP YOUR POTIONS WELL STOCKED!!! There are a LOT of duds that don't work.

Grumbling over incompetent potion mixers, high costs of potions versus the ratio of working potions to duds, teeray got only three moves inside of Vil-Gariand before a Lugdul rushed out of the darkness and starting kicking enthusiastically on yours truly! To be sure, teeray took a bit of a beating but managed to defeat the sneaky little monster!

I apologize for the awful photo here but the Ludgul took me by total surprise! Luckily I had, in fact, just changed the batteries in the new flip-cam I got through a trade with the Tavern guy, so I got a clip, at least. As soon as the Lugdul jumped out, a secondary alert also appeared so I thought I would show it via this pic'. The extra window let me know that I had been called to an "Event" (under the "Contest Clicks" link) - for whenever I could free up my time to attend the contest event.

Take note of the Lugdul's beady eyes, flared nostrils and the way it is hunched down, ready to strike. I just about lost my new flip-cam this day but... oh, what's that you ask?

Why do I have a flip-cam in a Medieval scenario?

Um...

It's just a GAME, okay? It's Not REALLY REAL!

So, anyway - after fending off this sneaky Lugdul who jumped me, I found a key to one of the dungeon doors, fought a Zoumi without too much trouble and then I found a locked box!

Now, this wasn't just any ordinary locked box... it was a lock-picker's nightmare! In my attempts to get into this box, I went through 3 lock-picking tools, smashed it a couple of times (hands), tossed a couple of spells at it, hurting myself in the process - and then it finally opened with the next lock-picking tool I used.

Glad the box finally opened because, as you can see, it contained a number of healing spells. This kind of makes up for all the DUD spells that have been around lately!

A Zoumi was waiting just around the corner after teeray collected potions, spells and 66 gold pieces from the previously locked box. From there, the usual Machole, Gnash monsters, more Lugdul critters and the creepy human-like Zoumi came out, one by one, to try and frighten teeray out of the underground tunnels. It's a good thing the locked box contained healing spells because things were touch-and-go from time to time, and teeray used a number of healing spells to keep from getting killed by the always present and persistent monsters.

Before teeray quit the dungeon, many items were found laying around - wooden keys, spell books, coins, and a helmet. So teeray didn't have to go purchase a helmet.

As teeray exited the dungeon, it was decided that Dungeons and Treasures is a cool game, so teeray forked over to purchase an Allopass to credit back to the Dungeons and Treasures account. Thus, teeray gained the rank of BARON!

BARON TEERAY!

It sounded better late at night when the transaction was done.

May 2012 D&T Adventure: May 3

Before heading to the dungeons for the third day in a row, teeray purchased some learning potions and swallowed a 2+ potion right away. Using a learning potion helps a player to gain more experience points in the dungeons and level up faster. The visit to the Temple was, once again, rewarding when teeray went in to pray. The powers that be put out a little over 600 gold pieces which teeray gladly accepted before heading out for dungeon crawling.

Feeling pretty confident walking into the dungeon called "Vunvan" while at a player experience level 8, teeray ran smack dab into a Lugdul within minutes. This first Lugdul posed no great threat. In fact, teeray seemed to catch it by total surprise and so had all the advantage in the fight. Soon after defeating the Lugdul, teeray found a little trail of coins and a locked box! It is highly probable that the Lugdul was working on opening the box and, in concentrating so much on the box, did not hear teeray until it was too late to go and hide.

The locked box opened with a not too noteworthy smash of a dagger - further proof that it had been previously tampered with before teeray arrived. Inside, teeray found 2 healing potions and the dagger, "Hidia," which has a +1 value. Nice! A note was found in the box, too, but most of the writing was garbled and teeray could only make out some words someone wrote about the Hidia dagger, "The legends tell that this dagger was once owned by a descendant of Lords."

Hmmm... Lords, eh? Well, teeray decided it was better to test this dagger out than to rely on scribbled words from a box, so teeray exited the dungeon to (technically - "equip" for game play) have a good look at the weapon piece - found it appeared solid and sound, then headed back into the dungeon to see what Hidia could do!

Once inside the gaping maws of Vunvan once more, teeray encountered a Zoumi and used Hidia to push the Zoumi into a corner. The monster was quickly overpowered. It seemed to teeray that this Zoumi was of smaller stature than usual, but there was no delay after the defeat to ponder upon this tidbit for long.

After two more battles with Lugdul creatures, teeray reached level 9 and, newly strengthened, battled through a string of monsters, including Gnash - before running up against something even Hidia couldn't cope with!

Perhaps the battle successes made teeray too smug and bold... maybe teeray started relying too heavily upon the value of Hidia... It may be that teeray just marched on through too quickly, feeling the adrenaline rush that comes with constant physical effort, forgetting to rest - thus becoming actually weaker while feeling only adrenaline mock-strength. Probably a combination of all of these things brought teeray into dungeon crawling DISASTER!!!

After having fought a string of Zoumi among the Gnash and Machole, teeray suddenly came up against another Zoumi that was seriously mistaken for an ordinary foe!

This Zoumi, however, was powerful right from the onset of teeray meeting up with it and it was also entirely PEEVED - ticked right off (might it have been watching teeray slay other Zoumi in the tunnels the whole day prior to teeray meeting up with it?). In any case, the Zoumi launched an immediate attack in an enraged state, taking teeray by total surprise!

(See the little red smiley guy - well he's NOT SMILING!!! It's the fear/rage indicator avatar... this one means BIG TROUBLE for teeray)

To telegraph what happened... teeray lost a life on May 3. No, not a life lost to this Zoumi but I am detailing this here because it was the Zoumi who exacted irreparable damage that couldn't be coped with over the next few hours in the Vunvan dungeon...

Barely able to fend off and defeat this enraged Zoumi, teeray tried to restore energy but came across healing potion DUDS! (Potions that didn't work to heal when consumed). As well, in battling the enraged Zoumi, teeray's sword BROKE, and although Hidia posed as a good, solid dagger - which eventually did send the Zoumi back to its maker, Hidia took too long to do the job, so teeray received a number of damaging strikes from the Zoumi as it raged.

When the battle with the Zoumi was finished, monsters seemed to come out of the walls... In quick succession, another Zoumi, then a Gnash and a Machole attacked teeray. Finally, a Lugdul appeared, and did untold damage!

 (**Note: The Lugdul is only "Injured" slightly at the point of teeray's expiration and Lugdul took teeray out with a punch to the head.... Great! Not!)

Defeat and death put teeray back at the mouth of the dungeon with 2 lives instead of three and no wounds, but teeray decided not to stay in the dungeon at all. It was time to go get some working healing potions, repair a broken sword and rest a bit before any more monster battles. Off to the SHOPS!

When teeray returned to Vunvan a few hours later, feeling refreshed and strong again, it was with a more objective and less cocky attitude toward the monsters in the dungeons. Luckily enough, there were only three monsters left in the dungeon and teeray sought out the injured Ludgul to battle FIRST, feeling it was a priority to rid the dungeon of the monster that caused death! After this, only a Zoumi and a very small Lugdul remained and teeray quickly defeated both, then finished up by finding two small caches of gold.

In total, teeray gained two levels to end up at level 10, tho' with the death event, teeray does not recall the points of adventure when the level ups occured. As far as booty - 6 treasure chests containing gold pieces were discovered in Vunvan and the most precious treasure teeray came out of the dungeon with was a new respect for the monsters that lurk in the darkness.

May 2012 D&T Adventure: May 2

Not so eager to head to the dungeon bathed by moonlight as was done shortly after midnight for the May 1st excursion, teeray started the May 2 adventure after sleeping in and enjoying a good, hearty breakfast!

The deities that be weren't so generous when teeray stopped to pray in the temple, providing no prize at all...

Unwilling to enter any dungeon without some sort of beneficial SIGN of a positive nature, teeray decided to play the Treasure Hunt game and was well pleased at this choice! After winning a wooden key for the Chests Room, teeray felt a little better, a little more like Fortuna was on this dungeon explorer's side!

Entering dungeon Astirabeth, teeray felt confident and strong, carrying two well made daggers and a strong sword, also equipped with a 2+ Learning Spell. Anything that would happen in this dungeon today, it was felt, would provide important learning material and experience, so teeray moved further into the stone-walled dungeon...

Soon, a nasty Lugdul jumped out of nowhere, attacking teeray! Right after the Lugdul was defeated, another monster - a Machole - also leapt out of the darkness to attack teeray..... using hands, then dagger, then sword, then dagger again - every weapon on teeray's person, finally the razor toothed Machole was slain. Sure enough, the monsters were agitated and ready to attack, simply because teeray was getting close to some treasure. Immediately after defeating the Machole, teeray turned the corner and found a chest of GOLD! 117 gold pieces.

Though the physical effort of fighting two beast creatures one right after another should have tired teeray out, adrenaline flow and the achievement of finding treasure let teeray march onward, still further into the dangerous depths of the underground labyrinth called Astirabeth.

Throughout the course of a day's adventure, teeray encountered 4 or 5 more Lugdul critters but these must have mainly all been young animals, for their strength level was very low or low, quite easily dealt with.

Teeray also came up on a low level Zoumi early on in the day - which was good so that teeray could learn a bit about how Zoumi move and fight. This experience was definitely of a priceless category, for about mid-way through teeray's adventure time, a more advanced Zoumi showed up to entirely block the dungeon passageways - and THIS Zoumi caused a LOT of damage to teeray, almost to teeray's death!

Luckily, teeray rolled out of the way and uncapped a healing potion as the Zoumi stood flexing its muscles, preparing for a mean and deadly strike! Magically restored, teeray feigned desperate weakness for a moment and until the Zoumi gathered all its energy and engaged in a last strike. At the last second, teeray rolled away from the dungeon wall, allowing the Zoumi to crash forward to connect with the stone instead of a human body. This greatly angered the Zoumi and teeray will never forget the howling, angry wail that followed - but there wasn't much time to think at the time. Teeray pummeled the Zoumi from behind - faintly aware of how human-like the Zoumi seemed in shape and gesture - but knowing how close death almost came gave teeray the resolve to keep fighting.

When the Zoumi wheeled about to face teeray once more it was to encounter a dagger in each of the adventurer's hands and teeray used every ounce of speed and strength to defeat this enemy.

Once the Zoumi was defeated, teeray took stock of health and all items and then noticed that the battle to defeat this powerful Zoumi had caused teeray to level up to the eighth level. Earlier on, during the fight with the weaker Zoumi, the battle had caused teeray to level to seven... Hmmm - it must be that Day 2 was a day for learning all about Zoumi! Still unsettled by the human-like appearance of the Zoumi, teeray tried to do what was respectful, and dragged the life-less Zoumi out of the dungeon corridor and into a corner space, stopping to say a prayer before moving on.

Sure enough, this last, extra tough Zoumi had fought to the death while guarding another treasure, for teeray had only gotten around one corner before discovering more treasure! A chest with 216 gold pieces!

Teeray found a few more caches of treasure (135, 401, and 293 gold pieces per respective treasure chest found) and - luckily - did not encounter any more Zoumi. A tough level Machole (see above) stood between teeray and the last gold chest found but having fought a number of Machole earlier in the adventure gave teeray the advantage of knowing that when Machole are ready to strike a truly deadly blow, they will suffer a sort of muscle tic and give away which side they will strike toward. Teeray just watched closely and each time the tic showed, teeray stepped aside - then lunged back in to attack while the Machole was off-balanced.

Here's how the stats appeared at the end of adventure day number two:

All in all, the day was rewarding, and teeray found a few keys for the Chests Room, many gold coins just laying around in the passageways, several health potions and a variety of spell books. In total, 7 chests were found with gold pieces inside. With these successes, teeray exited the dungeon to go rest - to be ready for adventure, exploration and fighting monsters on May 3rd.

May 2012 D&T Adventure: May 1 Stats

After first dealing with the Tavern master in the wee hours of May 1st in order to gain access to a not oft-seen dungeon, teeray managed to have quite a fine time hunting for treasure.

After Day 1, stats look pretty good for this Adventurer! Having completed exploration on a dungeon with over 10 doors and secret passageways, teeray ended up at a level 6 and acquired a handful of spells (to be used from level 10 onward) two daggers, a sturdy sword, a helmet for protection and some decent armor. As well, because teeray found several keys for The Chests Room, won a few Gold Calendar games, and sold a few items at the Player's Market that were found in the dungeon, a rather tidy sum of 24 482 Gold pieces rounded out the dungeon adventure! I do believe teeray was the first to post a CHEAPLY PRICED item in the player's market this month.

Not bad for one day, huh?

Sadly, as the month of May and the new month-long questing begins at Dungeons and Treasures, teeray is still stuck with a rank of Knight...

teeray will remain a Knight, too, through unwillingness to fork over real cold, hard cash into this virtual adventure world as yet. Yes, more features, higher rank titles, and high risk competition is made available by putting real funds into this virtual world, however, teeray plans to MAKE MONEY - not spend money here.  (**NOTE: full stats/game position scores and fund conversions aren't completed yet by administrators at Dungeons and Treasures. Tallying and confirming all the stats/fund amounts takes a few days each month, so once those figures are posted, I will, in turn, post on how my April game funds converted to DT currency).

Being a Knight in rank is nothing shameful... it only restricts players from participating in the higher risk (but higher paying, higher loss) games and means that players not boosting stats, buying additional equipment quickly in the course of the game month, etc., will have to make careful decisions, play consistently and work well with what they've got. There will be Barons, Counts, Dukes, Legends, Emperors and other higher ranks in the game - players who pay to gain rank and extra features - but things are designed so that every player can have fun and compete in MOST of what is available on the Dungeons and Treasures game site. Frankly, if Knights don't put tons of money into the game and play the high risk games, the Knights aren't losing any real funds when they lose a round, either.

There will come a time when teeray will pay into the game (because I really like this game and I will support it by making some purchases at some point), but May is not going to be the month for it!

Compared to the first hour of the game re-set into May's monthly adventure time, starting with 500 gold pieces, bare hands and no weapons or armor, the above stats are pretty good and an indication that May is going to be an exciting and lucrative month for game play at Dungeons and Treasures!

And with that said, it's time for me to head to the game site and check out my dungeon for Day 2.

May 2012 D&T Adventure: May 1

Avid dungeon explorer teeray waited until the clock struck midnight on May 1, 2012, then took a deep breath in preparation for May's month long adventure at Dungeons and Treasures.

Undaunted at the low number of gold pieces in pocket for weaponry, armor and goods, teeray nonetheless entered THE GAME...

Empty-handed, short on funds, teeray first visited the temple to pray...

 The Gods that be saw fit to reward teeray with GOLD!!! 2028 Pieces of Gold!

Still, careful not to get too excited, teeray got back to the task at hand, realizing that Gold would end up being more useful saved than spent - and that if teeray could get through part of the first dungeon bare-handed, this would allow for more Gold and resources when things were to get difficult in the first dungeon.

Off to the Tavern teeray trotted, for a quick swill of ale to get the courage thoroughly flowing and, of course, to ask the Tavern keeper to tell where the trail lay for the the location of a new, unexplored dungeon. (Well explored dungeons aren't exactly lucrative opportunities for treasure hunters, are they?).

Although the Tavern keeper tried to deny at first that there were any unexplored dungeons around, once teeray applied just a little pressure to the Tavern keeper - in the form of many tankards of prime, aged cider pushed in the Tavern keeper's direction - all was well and teeray was ready to set off and find the secret pathway to the dungeon.

In fact, the Tavern keeper was so friendly after a half dozen guzzles of cider, he showed teeray a secret pathway that led out from the underside of the tavern, see?

The scenario not shown here is the one where the Tavern keeper started stumbling and passed out on the far side of the kegs... shhhh his wife doesn't know. She thinks he went out to the barn to brush down some traveler's mare. What she knows won't exactly hurt her now, ah? But could harm the Tavern keeper very much (and ME, too) if she finds out how teeray got the information to access the secret dungeon.

I must end my Dungeon Adventurer journal short here but will finish writing the tale soon... what's that? I hear a great disturbance downstairs at the Inn. I must go investigate (after first putting away the gold I've been counting).

It may be that the Tavern keeper's wife just found out something...

This Adventure Game Pays You To Play

Dungeons and Treasures is a turn by turn adventure-explorer game. It's absolutely free to join and you'll never be asked to upgrade. You'll also not have to upgrade in order to cash out - HOWEVER - investing in the game does help you level up faster and access a few extras.

The game Re-Sets every month, so if things are not shaping up well for you over a couple of weeks, don't worry - just keep trying to advance and re-shape your strategy to play for the next coming month.

GAMEPLAY TIP:  During the last few days of the month, avoid large purchases on ITEMS and avoid holding expensive items if you can. (SELL THEM to accumulate GOLD). Those items will be "held" if you can't sell them on the last day of the month and will be like holding on to a cash value that can't be converted to GOLD in the game. *Note: most experienced players have SOLD and are holding their gold at the end of the month already and if you wait too long, everyone else will be scrambling to sell and you'll have trouble selling at decent prices to collect gold.

You can sell and buy in the Player's Market OR the internal, always-available Game Market.


This is what your DASHBOARD area looks like:

Gameplay objectives: Explore Dungeons and find Treasure! One dungeon is available each day (each player will have their own dungeon so you won't run into other players in dungeons who will steal your available treasure). You'll encounter monsters and have to fight your way through each dungeon to find dropped potions, weapons, keys, spell books and treasure vaults. You'll also encounter locked boxes and will have to figure out how to open these to get the items that are inside. Will you have the right key on you to open a box? Will you be able to pick the lock and get to the contents of the box - or will you smash the box open with your weapon or a magic spell?

(Getting ready to fight a Draccus creature in a random dungeon/over lvl 20)

The Main Game is NOT the only game on-site and is NOT the only way to collect gold! There are side-competitions and games besides the Dungeon Exploration Adventure part - bow and arrow target games, mini treasure hunt game, and more. There are player vs player competitions available (Jousting), too - and the game owners always run fully interactive contests each month that include team work between many players at once.

Win Gold with Gold Calendar

Gold Cost Per Spin: 1000 (so be careful)

There are a LOT of features to this site and game, along with need to develop varied strategies for game play. It might look and sound overly SIMPLE but I assure you - game play is CHALLENGING and fair because the game re-sets every month and every player has to start from scratch at the beginning of each month (*Note: accumulated GOLD doesn't get deleted - it is CONVERTED to a more useful currency).