Phantasie
                          (Logical Design Works)

(Tales of Wonder - witness accounts of The Rescue of Gelnor)

Tale of the Trader

As  I left the inn to give in to one of Mother Nature's most frequent urges
(I  could  have used the men's room but there are certain limits to what my
nose will cope with) a strange spectacle caught my attention.

Out  in  the street, just leaving the Guild next door, a colorful gathering
of  humanoids,  men and women, made their way to the bank on the other side
of  City  Square.  Anyone could see at once that they did not belong in the
town  of  Pelnor;  their  actions  much  too loud and uncontrolled. No born
Pelnorian (or Gelnorian for that matter) would talk with so little humility
or walk the streets with such defiant absence of fear.

They  just  had  to  be  strangers;  and if my eyes did not betray me I was
witnessing  the formation of yet another band of adventurers, all too eager
to  accept  the threat posed by Nikademus'  Black Knights and all the other
usurpers  of  Gelnor.  Experience  told me it was useless to interfere with
their business, or to warn them of their dangers. I knew right away that if
they  ever left town the chances of their return were slim at best. So if I
had  any  sense, I told myself, I would do what I set out to do, ignore the
strangers  completely  and  get  back into my bargaining session with Jerry
"Hard-nickel"  Josephson.  Times  are rough for all of us; no sense getting
mixed up in rebellions; however just they may be.

Now  I have this problem. My father, a no-good lazy sod who never earned an
honest copper in his whole life, spent much of his time (of the little time
he  spent  home  with his family, that is) with me, and he always talked of
his  adventures.  Between you and me, and not meaning any disrespect to his
dear  memory,  I  doubt if he ever had the nerve to even lift a dagger, let
alone  partake  in  mighty  fights  and  battles.  But I was a kid, and his
stories  impressed  me.  And  there  was  one  thing  that  sustained their
credibility.  My father, only the Gods know how, had a magic potion that he
showed  me  every  couple  of  months, to bring back my belief and awe when
these  had  diminished  beyond the point of reverence he expected of me. He
would then disappear for a while, and come back with a small vial that held
a  greenish  liquid  of great viscosity. It's the only thing of any value I
inherited from my old man.

When  I returned to the inn, I saw the party of adventurers standing out in
the  street,  and  it looked like they were pondering what equipment to buy
with  the  little  gold  they  had  to  start  their travels with. I made a
decision  then,  walked  past the inn, went to get that magic potion my old
man  was  so proud of, and secretly brought it to the armory where I put it
on  one  of  the  shelves. I know Furry; he never asks where anything comes
from.  None of us Pelnorians have a great love for the forces of Nikademus.
I figured it was the least I could do to help. After all, they were here to
help us.

So  that's how I lost the one heirloom my father left to the family. When I
visited  the armory later that afternoon, the vial was gone. I sure do hope
that's a real magic potion.

Kerlin Battings

SSI's  PHANTASIE  is  reviewed (actually, the game is Phantasie I and forms
the  first  part  of a trilogy). Using a somewhat different approach within
the  same  set  up,  I will try to give a general idea of the game in short
descriptive  accounts  larded  with  hints  and  tips  on how to use magic,
weapons, menu options and so forth. For those new to the game, Phantasie is
a  Dungeons  and  Dragons¿  type game where magic spells, enchanted swords,
healing  potions  and many other Tolkienish accesories serve you to survive
the  many battles that stand between you and the completion of your quest -
the destruction of the Black Lord.  At the end of this article, I will give
a  short  explanation  of  the mechanics of the game, and I'll give you the
information  you  need to start a group of six adventurers on their quest.
But Lo! here's another excerpt.

Diary of the Miller's Daughter

Today  when  I  went  to the forest to gather mushrooms I saw the strangest
thing. Just before I entered the edge of the pinewoods, I heard loud voices
approaching.  Knowing that many evil and dangerous things roam our country,
I  quickly  hid  behind  the  first  trees. There I waited, and after a few
moments, coming from the east, I saw an unusual company make its way toward
me.  At  first I was too scared to keep looking, but when I was sure no-one
had  seen  me,  I  peeked from under a large branch and tried to see who it
was, speaking with such bravour and eloquence.

"I  don't know about the rest of you", said a short, fat, sturdy dwarf with
a  long  black beard tucked into his belt - next to a large hammer - "but I
could  sure  use a bath. We've been travelling for a long time and my beard
has  gathered more dust than all the floors in the Endless Caves of Jaro. I
hope we find a town before long."

"Well Ranp, I don't think you'll need to worry," came the light voice of an
Elf,  "if  my  nose  doesn't  play tricks on me there's a pond of some sort
nearby. I smell fresh water."

"All hail the elfin nose. Lead the way, Sly, we're right behind you."

When I saw who they were, my eyes opened in wonder. Not only was it strange
to  see  such a mingled company of races, but their outfits! One of them, a
halfling,  was wearing a large pointed hat and a woollen cloak adorned with
many mystic symbols. Another one, a strange creature with two horns growing
from  over  his  ears,  wore grey armor and a large shield. There were four
others,  among  them the elf and the dwarf who had spoken of water, and all
were riding on horseback.

Alone  in  my  hiding  place, I felt safe, but worried. The elf had smelled
water,  and  there was only one place where it could come from. A few miles
ahead,  there  was  a forbidden pond. Its water crystal clear, it seemed an
innocent place to rest - but those who drank would all be changed. Although
the  change  that  comes upon humanoids (my father says only thinking races
profit  from  its  exotic  effects,  because  animals  do  not  know how to
understand the magic gift) is benificiary, none of us Gelnorians ever drink
- the Black Knights mercilessly execute those who ignore their commands.

For  a  moment,   I  wanted  to  shout,   but  then they had disappeared. I
wondered  if they would bathe? If they did, some of them would be stronger,
others  smarter, still others would have more vigor in their veins. Somehow
I  was glad I hadn't warned them. They looked like one of the rare bands of
adventurous  travellers  that sometimes ride in our country, until they are
defeated  by  Black Knights or slain by some strange monster from far east.
It  is rumored that many powerful beings live there, and that there are two
more magical ponds where none dare drink these days. I hope some day a hero
will  be strong enough to enter the Black Lord's Palace and remove his dark
reign from Gelnor - but it is said that it takes great courage to enter his
domain, and that it can only be done with the help of the Gods. May Zeus be
with that hero, whenever he comes.
.........taken from Josella Kreylers diary.

The Vicar's Sermon

...and saw how this servant of Satan stalked the party of warriors, and how
the minotaur knight who was standing guard was surprised by the presence of
the  devil  and  failed  to  wake his companions in time. The devil, merely
playing  with  his  victims,  clawed at one of the sleeping forms while the
minotaur drew a long, shining sword.

As  the enchanted metal of the fighter cut the substance of the devil great
flames  burst forth. I could just see how on the other side of the fire the
figure  of a man, a priest of an order unknown to me, started a prayer; and
how  this  prayer was answered by a great sound as of a gong reverberating,
waking  all those whose lives were now threatened by the presence of Satans
vile subject.

Now  the  devil  was no longer playing, and while a number of warriors took
their  weapons  and  shields  and  attacked  him, and while another started
mystic  signs  to  tap  his  magic  resources,  the  devil started his most
powerful  incantation. As metal cut flesh, the evil creature brought down a
powerful blast of negative force on his attacker, slaying the brave warrior
with  one  mighty  stroke  of  the  evil power bestowed upon him.  And yet,
victory was not his, for only seconds later the magician finished his great
spell and an enormous flamebolt struck the devil and scattered him about in
a thousand pieces of horrid black flesh...

...almost  decided  to  stop  following  them  when my patience was finally
rewarded.  The  party  had come upon another band of servants of Nikademus,
but  this time they were not surprised by the foul beings. While both sides
started  their preparations for battle,  I tried to discern the identity of
the   party's adversaries.  Again they were forces of evil, two mighty high
demons  assisted by a large number of skeletons. I saw how the magic man of
the party, a hobbit wearing a strange blue outfit, broke off an incantation
as  if  he suddenly realised that the monsters were too near to be affected
by  his  spell.  The  priest,  however, took out his holy symbol and softly
vocalised  his God's help to turn away the undead creatures that threatened
them.  I  also  saw  how  a  sparsely  clothed sinewy individual brought an
incantation  down on himself, and started to glow brightly. The new fighter
in  the  party,  realising  it was no use trying to hit a demon with steel,
tried  to  hit  the  skeletons; just as another woman, a slender pixie who,
according to her stealth, had been trained in the abilities of thieves, who
tried  to  walk around the demons to attack one of the lesser undead in the
back.  The  other fighter, a ranger by the looks of him, seemed to trust in
the magical force of his sword and attacked one of the demons.

Of  all  these  strategies  the  last  one was the least successful; for no
enchantment  of  steel  can  ever  be  sufficient  to  hurt a being of such
devastating  power as a high demon. And more went awry, for the presence of
these  dark  beings  was so overwhelming that the priest's attempts to turn
their  minor disciples was to no avail. The magician, incapable of anything
but  defensive  manoeuvres,  was  hit  time  and again, and only one of his
parries was successful. When the second high demon used his dark force, the
magician was struck dead.

Now it seemed that none of the party members would escape with their lives,
for  the  ranks of their opponents had paid only the toll of two demolished
skeletons  -  a  mere  token. While the priest beseeched his God to restore
life  to  the  dead  wizard,  both the fighter and the thief took defensive
positions.  Now,  the  demons were further away, too far to claw, but close
enough  to  emit their dark forces. The skeletons, coming closer, were hewn
down  by the monk, whose powerful lithe body fought like a dervish, killing
four  skeletons  in a matter of seconds.  This brought new energy and faith
to  the  party,  and  while  the  fighters   finished  off  the   remaining
skeletons,   and   the  resurrectured  wizard  and the monk started casting
their  most  effective  spells, the priest called upon his deity to confuse
Satan's  vicious helpers, so that they would no longer be able to tap their
black magic resources.

This  turned  the  battle  in  the party's favor, for both High Demons were
felled  by  the  fierce  raw  force  of  the  flames  drawn  hither  by the
magicians."

Part of Vicar McMurray's Sermon #381

The Druid's Tale

In  the  Course of Time a Keeper of Nature will see many things strange and
wondrous.  Some  of  these  things  will  be good and beautiful and enhance
Nature's  quality, other things vile and dark will cause pain and chaos. In
these  last  years, a true storm of darkness has wounded our Gelnor, and it
is  no secret that he who causes these wounds is none other than Nikademus,
the Dark Lord.

For  many  years  now  the inhabitants of our Islands await the coming of a
party  of  adventurers,  heroes  strong  enough  to  waylay  the  evil that
Nikademus  plans  for the Universe. Many parties have already attempted the
near-impossible task, but none have succeeded. Today I have been witness to
the  coming  of  a  party, and from their conversations I have learned that
here, at last, our country has a chance for its liberation.

This  is  what  I've heard them speak; read, and hope, and maybe soon we'll
all rejoice.

"I  think  this  last  fight  was  it," spoke the fighter of the party, "we
should  go  to  town  and  see  if  we've  gained  enough  experience to be
trained."

"Experience  we have enough, Rob, but what with the looks of you I doubt if
we've got enough money to afford training."

"Will  you listen to him? If you're such a handsome, Mr. Elf, why don't you
charm  our  ememies  instead  of  us having to fight them all the time? Who
knows, you might even make a useful contribution."

"Come  on, boys, enough of that," warned a pixie, "we've got to make up our
minds."

"About what?" asked the wizard, who had been reading.

"About  whether  or  not  we're ready to confront the Black Lord. If so, we
should  go  to town, train, see about more spells; then rest and distribute
our belongings."

"And look at that last scroll we found," added the priest.

"And  buy  all  the  damn potions we can, magic and healing," completed the
ranger.

"True,"  said  the  monk,  "and the way I see it, we might as well try now.
Cause I'm not getting any younger, that's for sure."

There was a short silence; then the wizard spoke.

"Okay then, let's see. We needed nine rings. These we have."

"Aye, we sure do. Nine rings," confirmed the dwarf.

"Further, we had to gather the four runes. We did so, and together with our
experience  in  combat  and  the rings, this finally enabled us to get that
most precious of runes, the fifth or God Rune, bestowed upon us by Zeus, on
Olympus."

"Correct."

"Now,  the way I see it, the God Rune is supposed to ward off the evil that
surrounds  the  fortress of the black knights. Once within, we need nothing
but our health, strength and magic."

"Not to mention luck, that is," added the thief.

"And maybe the aid of a summoned elemental," said the monk.

"Of  course.  The question is: do we have enough experience to confront the
Black Lord on his own territory?"

Thus  spoke  a party strange and wondrous in appearance, and before long, I
saw  them  make  their  way  to  town,  no  doubt on their way for the last
training, needed to confront the Black Lord himself. May the arcane help of
the elementals go with them for strength and protection.

An account of Tanger Idon, druid of Gelnor Island.

So  far  for  the  playing  hints, tips and guidelines. I will now explain,
concisely,  the  mechanics  of starting a new game; which is what you do if
you've  just  bought  Phantasie, or when you've used the UTILIES program on
your disk for STARTING A NEW GAME FROM SCRATCH.

From  now  on,  words or sentences in CAPITALS are taken literally from the
dialog or menu options in the game.

First of all, if you have an adequate copying program, make backups of both
your  disks. Disk 1 is protected, disk 2 isn't (and if you make a protected
backup  of  disk  two  you may find yourself in trouble). Now write protect
your  disk  1  (do  not  write protect disk 2 as the program keeps score of
which  parts  of  the  island have been discovered - also you will probably
want to save your game at several occasions).

To start play, insert disk 1 and double click either START.PRG

(with  music  etc.)  or  PHANT.PRG (without intro). After loading, exchange
disk  1  for  disk 2. Press a key. Put disk 1 away, you won't need it again
for  as  long  as  you  continue play.  Now, you are ready to form a party.
You're  in Pelnor, one of the towns/cities on the Island Gelnor, and before
you  can  go  on  your  way  you  need to find, select and equip a party of
adventurers. To do this, you enter the GUILD. Entering buildings is done by
clicking  on  their  respective doors (but remember, you need to assemble a
party before you can do anything else).

Inside  the  GUILD, the city menu changes. As you see, only ADD MEMBER, NEW
MEMBER  and  INSPECT  MEMBER  can be chosen. Choose NEW MEMBER. Now, pick a
race.  Then  pick a character class. Keep the rulebook in mind: it's no use
making  illogic  combinations  (like  an  Ogre  Thief  (bad dexterity) or a
Halfling  Fighter  (insufficient  strength).  For  a good party, all scores
should  be  10+  and prime requisites (strength for a fighter, intelligence
for  a  wizard, dexterity for a thief etc) 15+, preferably 18+. For a Great
Party  you  must have patience and get low scores around 15, highest scores
over  twenty.  This  may  take  several  hours of constantly picking a race
(remember  RANDOM  races  often  occur only once; i.e. if you have stored a
pixie  you  will not get another one until you PURGE it), then a class, and
then  PURGING  if  the statistics aren't up to your standard. If the scores
are alright, KEEP your adventurer, NAME it and thus store it. You can store
something over thirty characters in your GUILD.

Once  you  have  an  adequate set of characters, you put them in a party by
choosing  ADD  MEMBER  from the GUILD OPTIONS. A complete party for a fresh
game  will  consist  of  six  adventurers.  It is up to you to select their
respective  professions  (or  CLASSES). Remember you will need at least one
PRIEST  (for  HEALING  and PROTECTION purposes), one WIZARD (for aggressive
magic  such as FIREBALLS and MINDBLASTS) and one THIEF (for DISARMING TRAPS
and OPENING LOCKS).

Now that you have your party (you can always INSPECT MEMBER in the guild to
see  how their abilities, skills, equipment etc. are developing) you should
get  them  the  best  equipment  you can. Go to the BANK, WITHDRAW a couple
hundred  GOLD,  and subsequently enter the armory. Here you can buy lots of
things  (you  should  try  to  get  all  the  POTIONS and different SCROLLS
available)  to  equip  your  characters  with.  HEALING POTIONS restore hit
points,  the  higher the number, the more effective they are. The same goes
for  MAGIC  POTIONS, but these restore magic points. MAGIC 1 restores 3 mp,
MAGIC  2  restores  6  mp  and so on. As the maximum number of magic points
you'll  ever  achieve is 20, anything over MAGIC 7 potions is wasted (minor
game bug, I presume).

W(eapons),   A(rmor)  &  S(hields):  When you generate new characters, they
are usually outfitted with a Club, Clothes and a Small Shield. The notation
for a club is, for instance, CLUB W 4. This means that a CLUB is a W(eapon)
and  has  a point value of 4. The higher the point values for W, A & S, the
more  effective  they  are. When an item is followed by the word "UNUSABLE"
this  normally means that the character who is purchasing cannot use it due
to  lack  of  strength.  If  you  wish to protect your weaker party members
(wizards,  thieves) you should make sure that they have sufficient strength
to wear heavy armor and use good shields.

Okay, you bought your equipment. Maybe each bought the right items at once,
but  let's  distribute  anyway. Enter the INN. Click on DISTRIBUTE. You see
your  party,  followed  by  0  values  for  W(eapon), A(rmor) and S(hield).
Underneath  is  a  list  of  items (starting off with weapons), followed by
numbers  1 to 6, of which some may be invisible. The clue is, these numbers
refer  to  your  party  members, and UNUSABLE items will cause the relevant
party  member  number  to  disappear  behind  the items' values. (i.e. if a
SWORD+1  W  7 is followed by 12 4 6, this means that party members 3  and 5
are unable to use the weapon due to  strength limitations).

If   you click on one of the party members,  the  top (highlighted) item in
the  stack  will be given to the character in question, and the item's name
will disappear from the stack; moving all other items one place up. In this
way,  you  can distribute all your equipment. Anytime you encounter an item
you  don't  need, click on SELL ITEM. Part of the item's gold value will be
added  to  your  account,  furthermore  it  will be available in the town's
armory for some time.
Equipment  ready  - now you can pay a visit to see how the local Old Mystic
estimates  your  progress;  otherwise  all  there's  left to do is read the
scrolls  you  bought.  Do this with the USE ITEM menu option.  Okay, you're
ready  to  leave  town - click on the exit road and move around with either
mouse  (a  drag)  or  arrow  keys  (much  easier).  Using  the menu options
available, I'm sure you'll find your way around the game. Just one fighting
tip:  to start, first click on a character, then select an action. When all
characters  perform their required actions, click on fight - and earn those
sorely needed experience points.

Have  a  good  time  in  PHANTASIE,  and  when  you're near the Black Lord,
remember (this is the voice of your conscience speaking) this: Honesty is a
Virtue; Wealth & Riches are unacceptable Perversions of the Mind.

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