Dark Tower Locations
Tomb/Ruin
When you move onto a Tomb or
Ruin, you will hear the eerie sound of a creaking door and
one of the following events will happen:
The Tomb or Ruin will be deserted. Nothing will happen, no digital display will appear, no light-up picture will flash on. You will only hear the sound of a creaking door shut. Your turn is then over.
Or a battle with Brigands
will take place. You decide whether to fight it out or retreat. If you win the battle, you
could be awarded some treasure... gold, a key, a wizard, Pegasus or a Dragonsword.
Or, you may instantly discover one of the 5 treasures as a bonus without fighting a battle.
Sanctuary
When you move your pawn
into a territory that has a Sanctuary building on it, you will hear a high-pitched trill. If you are in need of men, gold or food, the
Sanctuary will give you what you need. Here's how you qualify for aid: if you have 4
warriors or less, 7 bags of gold or less, or 5 rations of food or less, the Sanctuary will
give you a bonus of whatever you are short of. If you are not needy in any of the above
items, nothing will happen.
Citadel
The Citadel spaces are the 4 territories with the kingdom flags and crests. You can only move your pawn into your own home Citadel territory, not foreign Citadels. If you enter your home Citadel near the end of the game when you have collected all three keys, crossed all four frontiers and are ready to lay siege to the Dark Tower, you will get special reinforcements. If you have between 5 and 24 warriors in your force, the number of your warriors will be doubled. If you don't have this number of men, the Citadel will act as a Sanctuary and supply you with the usual bonuses of warriors, gold and food if you qualify for such aid. This warrior-doubling can be an important strategy to take in preparation of your siege on the Brigand force in the tower.
Note - You can revisit the Citadel and redouble your forces again only if you visit a Tomb, Ruin, Bazaar or the Dark Tower in your own kingdom in the interim.
Bazaar
In the Bazaar, you can buy
warriors, food rations, a Beast, a Scout and a Healer; all the things that will be useful
to you in winning the game. When you enter the Bazaar you'll hear the exotic "snake charmer's music." Then the tower will present what's for
sale with a beep, a picture of the item and a digital display. The digital display
indicates how many bags of gold it will cost you to buy such an item. Five possible items
may be shown to you. As each item is displayed, you must tell the tower whether you wish
to purchase that item at the price shown. Here's how to do it...
Selecting the item you want... if you are not interested in buying a particular item, press the NO/END button which means I'M NOT INTERESTED, SHOW ME MORE. The next item to be sold will then appear on the screen with its price. Continue to press the NO/END button until the desired item appears. Then you may either buy the item or haggle with the merchant about the price.
Haggling.
If you desire a particular item but think the price is too high, press the HAGGLE button. You have approximately a 50/50 chance of
lowering the stated price by one bag of gold. If you are successful in haggling, either
buy the item at the new price or haggle again to try to get an even better bargain. Of
course, if you haggle too much, you run the risk of angering the merchant.
If you anger the merchant, the Bazaar will close, and your
turn is over. You may try again to buy an item on your next turn, if you wish.
Buying an item. If you wish to buy an item at the stated price, then press the YES/BUY button to tell the tower, YES, I WANT THAT PARTICULAR ITEM. You can buy one of the following on a turn:
- One or more warriors (roughly 4-10 gold each)
- One or more rations of food (1 gold each)
- One Beast (if you don't already own one)
- One Scout (if you don't already own one)
- One Healer (if you don't already own one)
Note - the five items will always be displayed in the above order. Beasts, Scouts and Healers are special commodities. You can own one of each, but once you purchase one, such items will never be shown to you for sale again. Each costs roughly 15-20 bags of gold.
Frontier
These are the long,
narrow territories which separate one kingdom from another. When you press the FRONTIER button, you will hear a triumphant musical sound. You must enter a frontier to cross from
one territory to another. Traversing a frontier is always without event; you will never be
attacked or lost, etc.
If you attempt to leave a foreign kingdom without discovering the key for that kingdom, the tower will not allow entry into the frontier, and will flash the KEY MISSING picture in the window along with a "sad-sounding" tone. The player must return to the last territory it was in before crossing into the frontier, and stay in that kingdom until the key is discovered.
Use of Pegasus to cross Frontier... if you use a Pegasus token to fly to another territory in another kingdom, you must pause in the Frontier to alert the tower that you are now in a new kingdom. Note that you can't fly out of a kingdom unless you have the key for that kingdom.
The Dark
Tower
You may attempt to enter the Dark Tower only when you have fulfilled all of the following requirements: you have collected all three magic keys; you have crossed all four frontiers and are back in your home kingdom. Move your pawn to the Dark Tower space and you are ready to being your siege of the tower. When the DARK TOWER button is pressed you will hear a few notes of the "1812 Overture" and the tower will signal you to solve The Riddle of the Keys!
The Riddle of the Keys...in order to gain entry into the Dark Tower and to fight the final battle with the Brigands within, you must unlock the tower by arranging the brass, silver and gold keys in proper numerical order... this is called solving The Riddle of the Keys. Essentially, you are shown a random key, and you must guess whether this key is first. If you guess correctly, you will be shown a second key, and so on. A failed guess ends your turn, and you may try again later.
THE FINAL BATTLE... Once you have solved The Riddle of the
Keys the gates of the Tower open and you must fight the Brigand force within. As soon as
the second key is properly picked, the battle horn sounds and battle is joined. The game
play level determines how many Brigands are guarding the Ancient Scepter (Level One = 17
to 32 Brigands; Level Two = 33 to 64; Level Three = 17 to 64). If you retreat or are
defeated, you must solve the Riddle again (though the sequence of keys remains the same)
when you return to the Tower. If you win the battle, you will hear the triumphant musical
signal ("Ride of the Valkyries"), and see the VICTORY
picture of the Ancient Scepter held aloft in triumph! Congratulations, you've won the
game!