Gunshy

I give them very English names like Norman, Graeme, Sharon, etc. Malcolm the Mage is a particular favourite.

There's a secret chamber off the main room. Talk to the bartender first. Be very careful about stealing anything.

Nailed it. Thanks, guys. Potion skill of 13. I'll have to buy a couple of Knowledge Brews to bump it up.

OK, I found it in the desk on the top floor of you-know-where and was told my party now possessed it...but when I looked at my potion-makers' array of recipes, it was nowhere to be seen. Clicking on "Info"/"Potions" shows it in the list. How do I go about making it, please?

I got through the Golem Factory...with the walkthrough and repeated visits to the Character Editor. There! I feel better for confessing. Now I can go back and clear out all the good gear and flog it in Tevrono, in good conscience.

My Priest is Hssska, whom I recruited in New Cotra, near the start of the game. He has good polearm skills, plus his natural advantage of being a slith, so I gave him the Radiant Slith Spear. Sometimes he runs out of SP and it makes a handy old equaliser!

Leave it until you've done at least two plagues then buff up and kill everything. Conjure/summon as many mercs/meat shields, as you can, and kill! kill! kill! (Did I say that out loud?) The summoned help is indiscriminate, btw - mine killed two cows in a pen, before they started on the guards!

I've now got a rakshasa and a drake lord, but as my mage always seems to be at the back in a fight and as they always materialise behind him (more or less), they aren't always a battle-winner.

Head back to Fort Emergence and find Eva in the animal pen SE of the map. She raises the dead for reasonable rates. Make sure you pick up any gear the dear departed dropped at the time of their passing or else you end with an unequipped and underdressed party member. btw, why do they have to wear Pants (apart from a point or two of protection)? The character images are all decently dressed and I've never had NPCs react against one of my party whom I've forgotten to equip with Pants.

Fair enough That gives me a question: do you make notes, as you go through, of where things/people are, locations of stuff/quests, etc. that you'll be coming back to, warnings, e.g. stay out of Erox, until you're really fit? I don't and must admit I've wasted a fair bit of game time scouring around. Perhaps I should print out the maps.

You sad lot! Tidying virtual rooms, indeed. I find it hard enough to remember where I've left stuff, when it's right out there on the floor. If I had to search every time, the game would take four times as long!

Dear Pink and Pretty Lord, Duly noted, but an answer to Jill's question about overwriting slots in the Simulacrum would be mightily appreciated. (Geez, I just took an off-topic whipping in Gebra. Those Mad Monks are - well, mad! Sorry, back to the topic.)

The walk through is brilliant - it's just that my crew keep getting their clocks cleaned! They just aren't tough enough. I shall explore everywhere else and try things like the Knowledge Brew quest, in the hopes of acquiring a few more sp.

Well, I've been bustling about, scaring up every coin I can and buying up all the stocks of Invulnerability, Energy and herbs I can find. I've got Beastslayer and something else cool, plus Radiant Slith Spear. None of my armour is Blessed though. My cleric has Lv.3 Mass Healing, but it eats SP. I'll go looking for these legendary items - I've got the skinny on the Black Halberd, so I'll kick off with that.

Does that mean tiptoeing about in combat mode, hitting 'D' a lot and using physical ranged attacks whenever possible? Plus, every time one of my guys whacks one of those darn crystals on the first/ground floor, he/she takes about 60 of damage. Ouch.

It's too damn' tough for my guys and girls. I've done the slimes, the roaches and the troglo/giant quests. Any suggestions where I could go to level my guys up a bit, before I go back in there? Is it better to kill a few golems, go back out, recharge, go back in, etc.? Is that even practical?

I tried that, even left the horses round the side, ready for a quick exit, but there was a guard on the back door, so it all kicked off, anyway. If I ever get out of that damn' Golem Factory, I might go back and sort Paolo. (I went back to Silvar and took out that snotty Empire Dervish - he had some nice Plate Mail and a few bob on him. )

I was recovering Paolo's stolen packet from Delis, when the alarm went off and everyone, but everyone, in the whole town pitched in. There was a hell of a battle - the best I've had so far in the whole game, actually - which I won. Afterwards, I realised I'd done so by killing every single inhabitant of the place, including two cows. I then went on to happily loot the entire place. Guilty? Hell, no. The packet was stolen; my guys had a commission to retrieve it for the alleged owner. What was in it? F***ing drugs - skribbane! Maybe I should have taken Paolo out after receiving the reward...anyone tried that?

Right, back to Avernum it is. I'll sell it and go looking for a provisioner! This Golem Factory is proving a little tough and I need my lot to be in peak condition and able to pop out to recharge their batteries.

What is this stuff? If you look at the definition, it quite clearly says that a bag of meal is a unit of Food. I knew I had several bags of it so Rested my party and kept getting told I needed Food. This got quite tricky as I was on the Undead Isle at the time! Anyway, is it useable, as Food?

Excuse me. Whose post was foolish?

I made about four trips and cleared out anything with a resale value. There is a dealer in the nearby hamlet - Angel's Rest, is it?

Thanks, everyone. I did try the summoned Ur-Basilisk, but it only successfully froze one clone and acted as a meat shield for a couple of chomps. The Slith Spear did for the Doomguard eventually, helped out by the Alien Blade and some precision archery. Soloing the Slith Spear-wielder then got me out of the ensuing Giant-Troglo mayhem - just! Spent yesterday looting Troglo Castle. Off to Lorelei, now. Byeeee!

So, rather than scattering fire and producing more of the little buggers, the slith priest, with his Radiant Spear should just stand and chop away, while the mage blesses and the other two only pick off the very weakest, who will go down with one shot? Otherwise they should just what - Defend? I'll try it. (I left the Concealed Tunnel, in the hope of finding more useful gear, e.g., Demonslayer, or some more EXP and when I got back, the whole thing had reset! Grrr!)

Cool, thanks. I've been going for the healthy guys, rather than wiping out the weaklings, but your tactic makes loads of sense.