From certain locations in Sryth, you can choose to Explore the Realms at random. This may result in random combat, a random encounter, or nothing at all. This was almost the first replayable content of the game, and the first that allowed grinding to be practical.
After an exploration, you can choose to continue exploring or go back to town. There is no limit to the amount of explorations you may make, but there are some anti-scripting measures in place that will reduce your probability of an encounter and increase the probability of a "non-encounter" message, to the point that after a while it's simply not practical to continue. Also, take care of saving your game from time to time.
Combat encounters, whether within a random hostile encounter or otherwise, can range from easy to extremely difficult, especially for starting adventurers. With as little as 49 MR, some combats are still 3+, while even with over 100 MR, some combats are still 18+ The infamous griffon, the hardest encounter to have, is still 9+ at MR 164
You can start exploring from these locations:
- Hawklor
- Trithik
- Your Residence in Trynd Keep
- Talinus
- Port Hallik
- Graldok
- Tryndmoor
- Stormfield
- Temporarily available encounters
During the quest The Hunt for the Phantom Assassin you need to Explore the realms until you find "Something Quite Unexpected", which then adds a temporary special location you can return to advance the quest.
Historical note[]
The option to "Explore the realms at random" was introduced in January 9, 2006. It was then greatly expanded on September 2006, with the addition of new enemies, Spider Caves, Shadow Paths, the Tears of Igranolt, and Ezerok. About this time, it was reported that Exploring the realms at random was only accessible to AG characters (At some point this limitation was removed. This was first reported on September 18, 2011)
- No longer available
- Ezerok. Disabled since November 2006
- Milestone combat contest. Ended on January 2007
- The Hunt of the Tears of Igranolt
- This was a limited-time event, starting on September 2006. On September 5, 2006 the encounter of "A glowing red gem" (one of the Tears of Igranolt) was added, and the hunt for them was announced on Game Updates. It supposedly lasted just for a day, and when you found one, you also found a special, rare, and very powerful item. The list of items is the same you can find in A Haunting in Durnsig. If currently they're still powerful, back them almost all of them were the most powerful item on their category available in the game.
- Then, when the original, limited-time The Hunt for the Phantom Assassin was released, the Tears of Igranolt were available again, and with them the special items. It is implied that this second time the list of items was expanded. There is no information about how long was this scenario available, but A Haunting in Durnsig was released on November 11, 2006 (allowing guaranteed access to 1 of the items), while the final form of the Hunt for the Phantom Assassin (permanent quest and without the special items) was released on February 2007.
- Several players managed to get two, or even three of the items, besides the one they got from A Haunting in Durnsig, while this scenario was available.
Random Texts[]
Nearly every encounter starts with a sentence that consists of three parts: time, place and location. For example: On a frosty autumn morning, in a forest glade west of the city of Charna
"On a frosty autumn morning" is the time, "in a forest glade" is the place, and "west of the city of Charna" is the location. There are a number of different texts for each part, and each part is randomly selected every time, allowing thousands of different combinations.
Some examples |
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And so on. |
No Encounter Message[]
Your travels throughout the realms, while colourful, and at times arduous, ultimately prove uneventful. Despite the lack of adventure, after many long days your road-weary soul is eager to see in the inside of a tavern, and the bottom of an empty tankard...
...you are startled when you spot a lone figure standing a good distance off, intently watching your every move. A wide-brimmed leather hat adorns the head of the tall, lanky figure, and only moments after you first sighted him, he turns and quickly slips away. Puzzled by the strange encounter, you spend the next few minutes intently searching the area for any sign of the mysterious stranger. At last, without having found even a shred of evidence that he was ever there at all, you once again set off on your way.
Hostile Encounters[]
In these encounters, the creature(s) automatically attempt to engage you (most of the time you have the option to BEGIN COMBAT, or FLEE IMMEDIATELY).
List of hostile encounters |
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Neutral and Friendly Encounters[]
You can choose to attack any of the above people and creatures, or go on your way.
List of neutral or friendly encounters |
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There are probably a few more that are not on the list. † indicates that it is confirmed that you can become less virtuous by killing these creatures, see Alignment (those that are unmarked may alter your alignment, but this hasn't been confirmed) |
Special encounters[]
A Haunted Tower[]
- Divination will tell you that is really haunted, but it will earn you no experience
- When climbing the stairs you must pass a Random check (1-100 + Agility * 2 + Luck * 1). 86 is a fail. Failure results in loss of ~27 Stamina
- Gold and some low-quality items for defeating the ghost (but see Quickstone concerning item drops) - an interesting grinding spot at low levels
- There are several different ghosts you can encounter in the tower, varying in strength:
A Crypt[]
A randomly-generated mini-dungeon. You must kill all undead before you can open the sarcophagus. You can exit the crypt at any time, losing your progress.
- Examples of crypts
List of known boss enemies:
- Rotting Warrior (9+ at MR 55-59 Variable, 70 SP)
- Spectre Lord (9+ at MR 54-58 Variable, ?? SP), special does 14-19 damage
- Undead Sorcerer (9+ at MR ??-48 Approx, over 37, 64 or less SP)
It is currently unknown if the number of enemies you will find in the crypt is completely random, or if it depends on something, such as the crypt map or the crypt boss.
Most of the enemies you will encounter are undead, but some are not. Also, most enemies are not much of a threat, but there are some exceptions. You can flee after the first round of combat.
List of known enemies |
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- Rewards
- 16 or 32 general experience for defeating the boss
- a cache of gold and low quality items (but see Quickstone concerning item drops).
- Additionally, in some crypts there's a stone chest that can be opened only after you defeat the boss at the sarcophagus.
- Most chests are trapped. If you trigger the trap you lose some Stamina. Spotting and disarming the trap requires Thievery skill and earns you 4 Thievery experience.
- Inside you will find some gold and low quality items (but see Quickstone concerning item drops).
A Shadow Path[]
You must first defeat all the enemies coming out of the vortex, and then close it.
Enemies you may encounter |
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Once you have defeated all enemies you have to close the Shadow Path. Your options are:
- Attempt to close the Shadow Path - this requires 1 NV and a certain level of mastery of Gating - 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70. Successfully closing the Shadow Path will earn you some Gating experience based on your current level of Mastery - 32, 64, 96 or 128 (the max)
- Use a shadowstone to close the Shadow Path - only if you have the Shadowstone
- Hold your ground and see what emerges - you get to fight an enemy that is immune to non-magical weapons. There are several different boss enemies (shadow demons) that you may encounter: Soldier, Warrior, Destroyer, Commander, Lord and Prince, each can be a Lesser or Greater one. If I'm not mistaken the strongest one is Shadow Demon Prince (13+ to 14+ at MR 86, about 320SP). No matter which one you defeat you get 65+ combat experience (if you don't use any powers), 26 EXP when using powers. Example: Lesser Shadow Demon Lord (9+ at MR 83-?? Approx, ?? SP), you have to attack 2 times before you can flee
- Move away from here at once - you won't be able to return
- Rewards
- If you close the Shadow path (no matter how, exactly) you get 32 or 64 general experience
Spider Cave[]
You'll have to kill all 7 spiders inside, and then you can either flee or confront the boss spider
- They come in different colors (Black, Brown, Silver, Red, Green, Grey, Yellow) and sizes (Large, Very Large, Massive, Extremely Massive, Gigantic, Gargantuan).
- The names and difficulty of the spiders are random, so you can find a 3+ enemy after a 12+ one.
- Toughest spiders are actually more dangerous then the boss, although with less SP. Example: Hardest spiders (9+ at MR 90-101 Variable, ~185 SP)
- If you flee from any of them, you skip the whole encounter.
Examples of spiders |
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- Boss
After the 7 guards you will encounter an Ancient spider (9+ at MR 74-81 Variable, 300-410 SP, 17+ XP), poison for ~13 SP
- Rewards
- Some loot and/or gold for defeating the boss spider
- 128/256/384/512/768/1024/2048 general experience for completing (the most common one is 128, unfortunately)
Bandit Camp[]
There are 10-20 bandits. You will fight them in groups of 2, 4 or 6 Rugged Outlaws.
- 2 Rugged Outlaws (9+ at MR 49-51 Approx, ?? SP, ~1 XP), you have to attack 2 times before you can flee
- 4 Rugged Outlaws (9+ at MR 60 Exact, ?? SP, ~1-5 XP), special does 6-8 damage
- 6 Rugged Outlaws (9+ at MR 64-71 Variable, ?? SP, ~2 XP), special does 7-9 damage
After defeating them you get to fight the boss, the boss can vary (see Talk), among (but not limited to) the following:
- Outlaw Leader (9+ at MR ??-63 Approx, ?? SP, 5 XP), (not tested at 67 like the rest)
- Outlaw Swordsman (9+ at MR 59-60 Approx, ~75 SP, 4+ XP), deals up to 8 SP damage
- Outlaw Bladesman (9+ at MR 69-71 Approx, ?? SP), special does 10-14 damage
- Outlaw Swordmaster (9+ at MR 80 Exact, ~130 SP, 19 XP), deals up to 25 SP damage, you have to attack 2 times before you can flee, (the most difficult so far)
- Rewards
- The leader will drop some gold and one or two items (possibly higher quality).
- The camp will also drop some gold (up to 242 gold tokens attested) and items, usually low quality, but see Quickstone concerning item drops.
A group of Mountain Goblins[]
Your options are:
- Fight them - you'll fight Mountain Goblins, Mountain Goblin Warriors and/or Mountain Goblin Champions, in groups of 1, 2 or 3, until you have killed them all. After the entire group has been defeated you'll encounter one more Mountain Goblin that is stronger than the rest and will earn you more combat experience than the regular fights
- Flee from any of the fights - Random check (1-100* 1 + Thievery * 1 + Mind * 1 + Body * 1 + Spirit * 1 + Agility * 1). 165 is a win. 139 is a fail. If you fail to get away you'll have to continue the fight (and eventually try again to flee)
- Difficulty
Some of the goblin groups can be as difficult as 3 Mountain Goblin Champions (9+ at MR 72-79 Variable, ~80 SP), around 12 SP special attack, you have to attack 2 times before you can flee
List of known goblins |
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A group of outnumbered Border Rangers fighting some Cave Trolls[]
You get a little gold (amounts of 23-25 observed) as thanks for helping them, but first you must defeat 2 Cave Trolls (you'll fight them one at a time)
- 1st Cave Troll (9+ at MR 55 Exact, ? SP), special attack can do 6-14 damage
- 2nd Cave Troll (9+ at MR 57 Exact, 80 SP), special attack can do 7-15 damage
Imps[]
- Colors
- Red Imp
- Green Imp
- Blue Imp (9+ at MR ??-48 Approx, ?? SP), special does up to 19 damage
- Silver Imp (9+ at MR ??-52 Approx, 70? SP, 3+ XP)
- Gold Imp (9+ at MR 49-51 Approx, 81 SP), special does up to 18 damage
- Platinum Imp (9+ at MR ?? Missing, ?? SP), immune to mundane weapons
- Characteristics
- The stronger ones are immune to non-magical weapons. All have special attacks
- For defeating an imp you get some gold - in most cases it's less than 100, though in some cases the amount is in the hundreds, and on rare occasions it can be over 1000 gold
Slimes[]
There are several different slimes you can encounter:
- Black Slime (9+ at MR ??-61 Approx, 75 SP), 10 SP special}}
- Green Slime (9+ at MR ??-48 Approx, ~40 SP)
- Grey Slime (9+ at MR ??-46 Approx, ?? SP)
- Red Slime (9+ at MR ??-48 Approx, ?? SP), 15 SP special
After killing a slime, if you're lucky, you will find some low-quality items (but see Quickstone concerning item drops).
A glowing red gem[]
- This is one shard of the fabled Tear of Igranolt
- There are several different versions, but you have no way to know which one you have found.
- The min reward is 8 general experience for all versions
- The most common version gives 8/16/32 exp. The rarest one can give as much as 4096 exp. Luck helps a little bit with the exp you get.
Rewards[]
Generally the rewards are:
Rewards for special encounters may include:
- XP for individual kills
- Larger XP amounts to finish
- Larger loot drops
- Larger gold drops