A band of some two-dozen thieves and cutthroats, led by the infamous robber baron, Rex the Reaver, have stolen the duchy’s most revered possessions, the foundation of the ducal calendar, the datestones.
The thieves fled and were pursued by the Duke’s own cavalry. Rex the Reaver led his brigands to their cave complex in the foothills of the Haunted Mountains, there to rest until nightfall, when they could slip out a secret exit under cover of darkness.
It was late in the afternoon before Captain Morpheus of the cavalry, tortuously following the trail, led his men to the cavern entrance.
Stationing them in a picket line around this shadowy opening, he pondered the situation briefly before calling for a volunteer to go inside. If the rumor was true, and there was a secret exit, decisive action would have to be taken before sunset, and it was already hard upon dusk in the hills. Venturing en masse into a certain ambush was little better than suicide. Their own noise would effectively mask the rogues’ actions, and torchlight would make them easy
targets. Going in darkness was still worse; they’d stumble about and count
themselves lucky not to be killed by their own comrades.
No, the answer to stealth was stealth. Tum the robbers’ own tricks against them. One brave, sly (and, of course, junior) officer might succeed where even a small number of troopers might not. You, mercenary at large, have drawn the short straw, have the singular honor of undertaking this hazardous but glorious mission. Will you emerge victorious, carrying the sacred stones and the head of Rex the Reaver, or will you meet ignominious defeat, pierced through by a cold steel blade thrust from the shadows? The honor of the duchy is in your hands.
This is the excellent and well written premise for this follow up to Temple of Apshai. This is a much shorter scenario in the Dunjonquest series and given the moniker of Microquest. You have a 20 minute time limit to get into the cavern complex, get as many of the datestones as you can, and get out.
There is an additional point bonus for being outside of the caverns at the expiration of the time limit. The largest part of your points comes from recovering the datestones. Victory points for the datestones will be awarded only upon their removal from the cavern. You also get points for slaying opponents. Finding and killing Rex the Reaver is a more valuable prize than obtaining a datestone. When you begin play you are just inside the cave complex.
When you begin the game you are not given a choice of character class nor do you have any control over your attributes.
Your stats are provided as you are thrust into the role of protagonist Brian Hammerhand who was first introduced in the Temple of Apshai. The attribute scores generated are always the same from game to game. There is not an accumulation of experience points nor any kind of character growth or progression. There is not an innkeeper in this game nor a place to purchase weapons & armor. This particular Microquest plays more like an arcade experience rather than a role-playing game.
The graphics and controls will feel familiar to veterans of the Temple of Apshai. There really are no differences though fatigue is a much bigger factor in this game. There is a 20 minute time limit imposed to get as many of the Datestones as you can and then get out. So you’re in a race against the clock. The cave complex, because of the time limit, is very small. I mapped out a total of 9 rooms. There are also a total of 36 Datestones. There is also monster or brigand in every room as well as wandering encounters that spawn in the halls. I encountered centipedes, robbers, skeletons, skeletal bats, spiders, swamp rats, and Rex Reaver himself. Most of these creatures perish after two hits however there are so many of them that they begin to wear you down. You do have arrows which you can use however the random encounters spawn so close to you in the halls that it renders your bow useless. The combination of combat and moving quickly through halls and in and out of rooms with Datestones makes dealing with fatigue a constant.
I emulated Datestones of Ryn on a TRS-80 platform. The result was that I found the rendering of the walls and rooms to be extremely slow. My experience with Temple of Apshai had been on the Apple II platform and I found that gameplay there was much faster.
I found a magic sword in the upper northeast chamber as well as a secret door. The chest containing the magical sword is trapped. The room beyond the secret door is where you will find Rex the Reaver. I found combat with the big bad was surprisingly easy however the trapped chest filled with spiders in that same room was NOT. In my first foray I only escaped with 7 Datestones. My next successful venture resulted in me escaping with 11 Datestones. In another scenario I escaped with 15 and killed Rex the Reaver. In between all of these successes I died A LOT. I have to hand it to anybody who finds all 36 Datestones, kills Rex the Reaver, and exits within 20 minutes. That is extremely impressive. I mapped out the entire complex; and I could leave with many Datestones, kill Rex the Reaver and leave; but I never did collect all of the Datestones AND kill Rex the Reaver. I may have had the patience for several more missions if the graphic rendering had been faster.
I found Datestones of Ryn to be more of an arcade experience than a computer role-playing game. I don’t take issue with that however the differences between this game with Temple of Apshai need to be stressed. I found the premise and idea to be engaging and well presented. I found the difficulty level to be above average given the number of encounters and traps. I spent approximately 4 hours with this game and appreciated finally having the time to sit down with this little piece of gaming history.