I still find it hard to believe to this day that Eamon was a shareware title or public domain and not a commercial product. The allure of building up a character as you move from adventure to adventure is just too great. Donald Brown, the game’s creator, also gifted the masses with an editor, allowing them the power to create and publish their own adventures. Perhaps it was this grass roots decision to place the game in the hands of the masses that helped propel it to such popularity.
The Abductor’s Quarters is the 8th game in this venerable series and it allowed me to return to the character of Fost Longstrider and step into his boots for another adventure.
You learn that a friend of yours, Kathryn, is in trouble. She was trying to loot a nearby dungeon when she mysteriously disappeared. After careful research, you discover that the dungeon your friend went to is controlled by a mad adventurer known only as “The Abductor”. You must find your friend before it is too late.
The author of this adventure is Jim Jacobson. The dungeon is a rather large one and one to be explored rather than interacted with. There are 72 locations that comprise this dungeon.
There was not a lot of combat nor were there a lot of treasure or magic items to obtain. I found some rare coins and a large red ruby and not much else. There is one particular puzzle in the game, involving a brick wall which impedes your exploration into another area of the dungeon, whose solution I have to applaud and I found highly entertaining for an Eamon offering.
There is not a lot of combat in this particular offering but the battle with the big bad in his lair is quite the affair. You encounter not only The Abductor but two guards. While the battle ensues, more and more guards can randomly enter the fray up to a total of six! They are referred to as Guard1, Guard2, Guard3, etc. Guards 5 and 6 are particularly brutal and hard to beat. The Abductor himself is armed with a magical blade, much like your own if you still possess it from The Beginner’s Cave adventure – Trollsfire! If the weapon broke in a previous adventure, now is your opportunity to get said weapon back with the defeat of The Abductor and his minions. This is a very difficult combat. I was lucky in that I had a shepherd at my side which I had rescued from a cell in the dungeon. Even when you defeat The Abductor, there is the random chance that he may teleport in during one of your later encounters in the dungeon as a special event. This happened to me, much to my dismay, however he was killed with only one blow in this second encounter.
I did eventually find Kathryn which was your main objective for this adventure.
The next obstacle was merely trying to find your way out of this dungeon. Your previous exit had been blocked due to a cave-in and so you have to find another way out which I eventually did.
I enjoyed another excursion into the World of Eamon with my Fost Longstrider character. He was able to survive and so will be back in another thrilling adventure.
Next up on the docket is Hydlide. Until next time…