Happy New Year dear reader! Our first game covered in 2023 is Karkoth’s Keep. Karkoth’s Keep was written by David Dougher and published by Indecs Services in 1983 for DOS.
The evil witch king, Karkoth, led his hordes of fell creatures over the northern border of Isgalduin in what bards have come to call The Battle of Long Defeat. In his last stand, King Quilan held out for weeks defending the massive stone keep built by Quilan’s namesake, Quilan Miningol I. As Karkoth’s hordes breached the keep, Quilan carried all of his precious relics and heirlooms of his family and hid them deep in the dungeons underneath the keep. Rings there were, magic and potent, and weapons: swords and armor, each with its own powers. The dungeon spread out far beyond the keep and delved deep into the rock. Ten levels the dungeon descended from keep to secret vaults.
Quilan was never seen again. Some say that Quilan lived and escaped through some underground way but that is only legend. Or is it?
While investigating a secret burial tomb high in the western mountains you discovered a hidden parchment supposedly penned by Quilan himself. One of the treasures hidden deep below the keep was the sword Ramdahl, otherwise known as Wizard’s Bane. Only Ramdahl can harm and defeat the undead king, Karkoth. The great sword is hidden somewhere in one of the lower levels. It is up to you to find the sword and save the realm.
I’m going to have to give David Dougher an A for the background that came with the game’s documentation. Dougher is also an author who writes under the pen name of David C. R. Nash and has his own website where you can browse his books. One of the books is entitled Tales of Isgaldin which is the world that Karkoth’s Keep is set in.
Karkoth’s Keep can be classified as a Rogue-like which is a subgenre of role-playing video games characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. It is named so after the game Rogue which was released in 1980 and covered here.
Character generation is fairly straightforward. You are given ten different sets of randomly generated attributes and asked to pick one. The six attributes are taken straight from Dungeons & Dragons: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma.
Once you have selected a set of attributes there are five different races to choose from: Greyelf, Dwarf, Human, Half-elf, and High-elf.
There are then five different classes to choose from: Ranger, Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, Gedi, or Monk.
The Gedi may use swords, shields, and armor and also has limited spell abilities.
Karkoth’s Keep reminds me a bit of The Dragon & the Princess in that there is a town to explore above the Keep’s dungeons and exploring the town is much like playing a text adventure.
It is in the town that you can purchase equipment and magical items and spells. More importantly however is that you can purchase FOOD at the Raging Bull Tavern. The game has you keep track of your food supply and the only place to obtain food is from the Raging Bull Tavern. Your food diminishes with just about each click of the keyboard so you’ll find that you have to make your way back up to restock or use a Transport spell. To get to the dungeons you do so through The Laughing Elf Inn and you talk to the proprietor, Azab.
The keyboard commands in the game are your movement keys of N, S, E, W and then you have (Q)uit, (M)agic, (W)ait, or use (Sc)roll. All character classes have some access to magical spells or scrolls. The scrolls that you can collect are: Cure Serious Wounds, Levitation, Invisibility, Strength, and Turn Undead.
The list of available spells and their users is seen below:
All characters go up in levels as they play and experience points are rewarded for the monsters slain. Experience points are also given as a one-for-one basis for gold pieces when the character exits the dungeon and enters the Laughing Elf Inn. In combat your options are to fight, run, cast a spell, or use a scroll.
There are 48 different enemies that you face and all of them stem from Dungeons & Dragons. These enemies range from goblins and gnolls to chimeras, trolls, vampires, and various dragons. Each of the dungeon denizens also come at you in varying numbers and different levels. For example on the first level you may encounter 5 Level 1 Snakes but on the 9th level you may encounter one 29th level White Dragon. The lower you delve into the keep the higher your opponent’s experience level will be.
Once again, to win the game, you have to make your way down into the lower levels and find the sword, Wizard’s Bane.
I was expecting to have to laboriously search the 10th level for the sword but I ended up finding it on the 9th level! I was surprised by a 29th level White Dragon. Once I beat the dragon I suddenly found the Sword of Karkoth in my inventory. The magical sword is a +15 sword. You can see by my character sheet up above that by the time I found the sword on the 9th dungeon level I had a +5 shield, +9 Armour, a +7 Mace, and a +8 Dagger. I also had a +7 Ring of Regeneration.
Once you have the sword in hand you have to make your way back up and out of the dungeon. Now normally, you can use a Transport scroll which will teleport you to the stairs at the start of the dungeon but once you have the Sword of Karkoth in hand the Transport spell only works up to the 8th level. Then it no longer functions. You’ll have to trudge your way up through the dungeon to the exit. The sword also attracts monsters and so you’ll have to combat a foe at almost every step on your way out of the dungeon. It was a long, grueling trek.
Once you make your way to the 1st level stairs and exit the dungeon you’ll then switch to a combat screen and immediately encounter Korkath.
I’m not quite sure what the developer was going for here; because you control both your character AND Korkoth in this battle. Now Korkoth is a 9th level Magic-User and my character, Fost, was an 11th level fighter. On each round I could have chosen to hurl a fireball or lightning bolt at Fost and made short work of him but there was no way in hell I was going to do that after all the hours I had put into the game. I also could have completely cheated and had Korkoth just cast Invisibility over and over again each round. Instead I just chose the (F)ight option for both characters and kept slamming the return key. After many rounds I finally defeated Korkoth.
I am not sure why as a player I would want to control my opponents (the big bads) actions as well – I was really scratching my head there.
Early in the game I stayed very close to the stairs on the first level. Merely by standing still I encountered many different enemies and procured magic items from them. I would then ascend the stairs, collect my experience points, purchase food, and then venture back down. Once I obtained 6th level in experience I began to get braver and explore the dungeon’s deeper levels. Permadeath is a very real threat here so you want to be very careful and grind slowly. The dungeon levels are vast and there are many different stairways or access points scattered all about. It is absolutely necessary to map the dungeon levels by hand. You may find different access points then I did; however I am providing you with the first 9 dungeon levels below. The stairs going up and down have been highlighted.
The battles become progressively harder as you begin to move lower. Once you descend a set of stairs and encounter your first foe you’ll know if you’re ready for that particular level or not right away.
I played Karkoth’s Keep using Dosbox and it took roughly 11 hours for me to beat the game. I probably could have completed it one to two hours quicker if I hadn’t been taking my time mapping the levels by hand. I enjoyed Karkoth’s Keep though I would have liked to have seen more dungeon dressing. Perhaps some fountains scattered about or special areas or encounter areas. I enjoyed my time I spent with the game.
Next up on the docket is Illigks Episode IV – The Maze of Illegus.
Until next time…