> > > Hello: I thought that after you killed a group that the kill number was supposed to go down one number. Right now the kill level is showing 5 but It was showing that number at least 10 kills ago. I'm in that very large area that has a pool in it. I have stepped on every square in that large area and the pool is the only thing that is there. Except for that lousy red thing that kills my monsters. Any help very much appreciated. Thank you. Deadman
> >
> > The "freeborn" parties don't count for the kill number. Only special, unique parties (usually described as a party belonging to a player of MR) count. Hello: I s there a way to tell by looking at them if they are a free group or the other group? I had killed two of the groups to get down to three kills needed but then I got killed and ended up back at 5 kills needed. When that happened I was back in the other section where you have a door on both sides of the place where you get the monsters. That place only lets you have three groups. After getting the groups I went into the door and the arrows only let me go one way so I had to try to fight whatever was in there. It makes the game almost impossible to win when they take your kills away from you. Deadman

Can you throw some blank lines after what other people have said before you start typing? Every one of your posts, one has to hunt around to find where the guy you're replying to stopped talking and you start.

To answer your questions:

1. The freeborn parties can be distinguished from the 20 parties that count toward your "kills left" because, when you meet them, it says "Freeborn Party" at the top of the yellow box. On the top-down view of the labyrinth, as it says in the instructions, freeborn parties are represented by blue icons, while the 20 that count are represented by red icons.

2. When you die, any red kills you have made since reaching the last checkpoint come alive again. Kill a red, then hit a checkpoint, and that red party will stay dead.

3. I had a look at your saved game. You seem to have committed the most wild, unholy, unexpected act of terrorism ever on it. Never, in the development of this game, did I anticipate anybody would do such a thing. That big giant room with all the blue freeborn parties? You weren't supposed to kill THEM ALL. I cannot even imagine how long that took you, especially since every time you kill a blue party, another one regenerates at some other part of the level. So you must have had to kill many times more than the number that initially start there to get all but three of them out.

As was made clear in the instructions and should have been apparent based on the fact that the "Kills Left" counter doesn't decrement except for red parties, the blue parties are purely optional. My intention in designing that level was that most of them probably would never get killed. You simply have to find your way through the room without getting attacked before you have monsters to help you fight.

But because you cleared that room out, and because, as I said before, new freeborn parties generate in other parts of the level as you kill them, you've kind of gotten yourself stuck. For example, in one of those one-way corridors you were complaining about, there was originally only two red (required) parties. Now there are two red parties plus ELEVEN blue parties. No wonder you can't kill all thirteen parties with only one set of monsters!

The way I see it, you only two options for how to proceed with your game, as it stands now:

1. Restart the level and do it over. I know this backtracks a long way, but it will work. You know what to do and what not to do now, and you know where everything is in the level. It won't take nearly as long to replay the level as it did to get you where you are now. For one thing, you can skip right over clearing out that big room, which must have taken DAYS to do.

2. If you don't want to restart, I have what I think is the solution that will give you the best possible chance to finish the level without restarting. I don't know if it will work, but you can try it. The steps are as follows:

(a) Get some monsters from the portal in the big room. Then leave the big room, avoiding fights wherever possible. Go into the corridor *across* from the big room. You have to kill three blues, and after the blues you get the option of killing three reds, but don't. Kill the three blues, then leave the area. Go back, get new monsters, and THEN go kill the three reds. Keep trying to do this until all three reds are dead. Then loot the stuff the three reds were guarding. Then hit that checkpoint nearby. Don't hit the checkpoint BEFORE all three reds are dead and you've looted the area behind them, or you'll have more to redo if you die later on. Because, I'm sorry to say, that is your last checkpoint, and you're definitely going to be dying later on.

(b) At this point, you only have two red kills to go. Unfortunately, getting to them means fighting your way through about seven blue parties on one set of monsters. Try getting fresh monsters from the portal in the big room (this one gives you more than the others on the level), then returning to that last corridor, the one directly to the south of the portal in the long hallway and just keep trying to get through that hallway. Attack ONLY those parties that are on the route of the shortest path through that area. There will be blues hanging off to the side, but if you don't have to fight them to get back out of the corridor to safe ground, don't bother with them.

Personally, I don't think much of your chances for making it through step (b), so I'd really just recommend restarting the level. But if you want to give it a shot first, go for it.