Mirthshire is a Tower Defense map. You must thwart incoming adventurers seeking battle and treasure. These parties are said to have "moved quickly to mobilise their forces against you" and do indeed start tunneling in just before the first payday elapses.
The objective is to kill or capture a certain level 6 Lord of the Land (Earl Russ[1]) leading the final party.
Claim the two Portals, lay down some good-sized[vague] rooms, and train the first eight creatures that call. It's a cinch. Numerous as the heroes are, their levels are rather low for this late stage, and a well-drilled death squad can waste their silly little parties.
This is not the only approach and certainly not the most inventive. Getting rid of the Knight that spawns at ~29 minutes is the necessary and sufficient condition for winning the map, and it does not matter how it is done.
It is possible to wall-in the south portal and, with foreknowledge of exactly where to tunnel, the far west-side gem seam, and remain completely safe and insulated. This grants you freedom from the limits imposed by the heroes' timed ingress; i.e., the dungeon you want, when you want it. There is also unclaimed dirt around the north Portal. An Imp can be dropped out there to tunnel around; could be useful since Sight of Evil is unavailable here.
To summarize: there are just a few heroes already on the board (Wanderers section, below). Over the course of a half-hour some 70 more heroes come in, as parties, through various Hero Gates (Groups section, below). They are led by Tunneller dwarves. The timers are unconditional. The exact schedule is given in the Events section below.
Wanderers[]
- in the open dirt, west
- Guarding the Increase Level, southeast
- Guarding the Make Safe, northeast
Groups[]
Hero Party "ONE"
- 1950 gold.
A party of lowly thieves that gets generated repeatedly, from a different Hero Gate each time.
Hero Party "TWO"
- 2250 gold
A team of archers.
Hero Party "THREE"
- 1650 gold
The Priestess in this party uses a Wind spell that will blow friends and foes everywhere. This party appears twice.
Hero Party "FOUR"
- 2650 gold
A party of brutes, led by the customary level 1 Tunneller mercenary that seems to spawn with every group.
Hero Party "FIVE"
- 2250 gold
Two priestesses with very low damage and, again, the Wind spell.
Hero Party "SIX"
- 3850 gold
Witless anchorites that are lugging their tithe boxes down here for some reason.
Hero Party "XX"
- 6250 gold
A tough group of Barbarians loosely attached to the Lord of the Land. The Tunneller is powered-up, too.
The Lord of the Land and his party seem, like the other opponents in Mirthshire, somewhat under-leveled.
Events[]
This map runs a steady, timed release of the hostile parties listed above, all through Hero Gates. Note that they don't enter in the order of their "NUMBER."
Hero Gate Locations
South Dungeon
Southeast Dungeon
Northeast Dungeon
North Dungeon
Northwest Dungeon
Southwest Dungeon
Southwest Dungeon
Briefing Message
"Your location is already known to the heroes of this land. They have moved quickly to mobilise their forces against you. It's pathetic. They deserve to have their heads impaled on lances for such impudence."
Turn 8500
Hero Party "ONE" enters through Gate 4
Turn 9000, Message
"The heroes of this realm possess treasures of great power. Obviously, these should belong to you. I'm certain you will settle the matter of their ownership in your own way."
Turn 10,050
Party "THREE" enters through Gate 2
Turn 11,500
Party "ONE" enters through Gate 3
Turn 13,250
Party "TWO" enters through Gate 6
Turn 15,500
Party "ONE" disembarks at Gate 5 and heads for Baggage Claim
Turn 17,050
Three parties charge in at this moment. "THREE" enters again, at Gate 5. "FIVE" enters at Gate 4. "SIX" enters at Gate 3.
Turn 18,500
Party "ONE" enters through Gate 1
Turn 20,000
Party "FOUR" enters through Gate 1
Turn 22,500
Party "ONE" enters through Gate 6
Turn 32,000
The parties "XX", "YY", and "FINAL" all simultaneously pile in through Gate 7.
Other Features[]
As in Tulipscent, this realm is dotted with small, White-owned fortifications that can be explored and looted.
The northeast and southwest dungeons have Boulder Traps. Northeast has a small Treasure Room with 10,000 gold. Southwest has a Treasure Room with 7000 gold.
The northwest dungeon has several squares containing multiple Poison Gas Traps apiece, and with the Fairies fluttering around a pool behind the door, one might have thought they meant this dangerous little area to hold the Locate Hidden World. Instead, the Locate Hidden World is in a room far to the south, quite obvious to see, and unguarded. All that's here is a Make Safe.
The north dungeon lies in sight of the northern Portal and contains a Prison with two unclaimed Archers (6) and a tiny Treasure Room with 6200 gold.
Sound Bytes[]
"Mirthshire. Industrious citizens go about their daily business with care, enthusiasm, and diligence; there is no crime, and everybody is working for the common good. It is a disaster of a place, and deserves razing."
"Dragon Tyne. We set fire to this place. It's still burning with a fierce, unnatural intensity— so we can't get anywhere near it— but we're sure you'll love it! Once it's cooled down a bit."
— Cannon Outro
Trivia[]
Earl Russ is possibly a reference to Russell Shaw.
This is the highest realm where the outro narration bytes appear to be out-of-sync with the intro bytes. These files are in the directory \SOUND\ATLAS\. The "GOOD" files should not be changed. As the Mentor reckoned the whole site ought to be burned to the ground, the most suitable match to Mirthshire, GOOD17.WAV, seems to be Dragon Tyne, BAD12.WAV.
Mismatched OC soundbytes
Intro
Matching File
Reasoning
GOOD01.WAV
BAD01.WAV
Anthrax
GOOD02.WAV
BAD02.WAV
Mention of Demon Spawn
GOOD03.WAV
BAD03.WAV
Inhabitants' altered viewpoints
GOOD04.WAV
BAD18.WAV
Mention of Trolls
GOOD05.WAV
BAD05.WAV
The quietude broken by screams
GOOD06.WAV
BAD07.WAV
What became of the bunnies
GOOD07.WAV
BAD08.WAV
Lady Catherine
GOOD08.WAV
BAD09.WAV
War arrived
GOOD09.WAV
BAD10.WAV
The legions of Hell rode in
GOOD10.WAV
BAD11.WAV
Inhabitants' violent death
GOOD11.WAV
BAD06.WAV
Feeding on the dead?
GOOD12.WAV
BAD13.WAV
Fairy ring
GOOD13.WAV
BAD14.WAV
Being together, in a mass grave
GOOD14.WAV
BAD15.WAV
Sleepy farms got "developed"
GOOD15.WAV
BAD16.WAV
Undead massacre
GOOD16.WAV
BAD17.WAV
No more flowers
GOOD17.WAV
BAD12.WAV
Razed completely
GOOD18.WAV
BAD19.WAV
A great battle
GOOD19.WAV
BAD04.WAV
Poisonous fumes
GOOD20.WAV
BAD20.WAV
Skybird Trill named
The names for this level in other languages are as follows:
Translations: Mirthshire
Language
Translation
French
Allay-Gretz
Italian
Contea Del Riso
German
Glücksberg
Dutch
Vreugdeland
Polish
Uciechów
Czech
Swedish
MUNTERÅS
Russian
Миртшайр
Japanese
マースシャー
Chinese
快乐之郡 / 欢笑郡
Mirthshire's depiction in the level map resembles a bunch of hanging mushrooms; it is therefore unclear how citizens go about their daily business.
Other versions[]
There are two known prototypes of this level, last modified on 13 May 1997 and 26 May 1997, respectively. The only differences to the final are the use of the snowy theme, and parties Five and YY have Fairies instead of Witches. They are the same level and carry the same quantity of gold. The 13 May version is also missing the Locate Hidden World box.
References[]
↑ 1.01.1Prima's Official Guide To Dungeon Keeper Gold Edition. pp. 206-209.
Prima Publishing. (1998).
ISBN 978-0-7615-1581-4.
Orc
