The following is a retranslation of the in-game conversation text from the German version of Dungeons of Avalon. It includes extra details which don’t appear in the official English translation.
Kham’s dialogue
My name is Kham. We then went out to kill the Dark Lord, but our mission failed. A traitor lured us into a trap and the party fell in battle. My spirit will not find peace while the Dark Lord is still alive. I created a spell to defeat the Dark Lord, but you need the Rune of Hakan. This is hidden in the dungeon. Bring me that rune and I’ll give you the magic.
Also, look for my old companions in the dungeon, they can help you with your quest. They all fell, but you should be able to revive them in the temples. Now hurry, before the evil takes possession of the other city. I wish you luck more than we had on our mission.
Kham’s dialogue #2
I see you have found the rune. I will now give you the spell that you can use to defeat the Dark Lord. This spell only works once. It will not kill the Dark Lord, but it makes him vulnerable to your weapons. So always remember you have only one try, may the good power be with you.
Elistaire’s dialogue
My name is Elistaire, I guard a treasure, if you bring the Ruby Dagger the treasure belongs to you.
Elistaire’s dialogue #2
Oh, I owe you too much thanks, through the dagger, I am able to free myself and therefore the treasure should be yours. Go only a few steps further.
Notes
- In German, Kham does not feel the need to introduce himself, while he does so in the original English translation: “I was the good magician of Avalon”. This matches his description in the English translation of Scroll 1, but in German that scroll only refers to him as “des guten Magiers” (the good magician). “Magician” is the correct translation for “Magier”, as in the character class in this game.
- In English, Kham was killed by the Dark Lord, and his party killed by the Dark Lord and his monsters, which implies that they made it to the final boss and were simply unable to defeat him. In German, Kham’s party was betrayed by a traitor and led into an ambush, where they were all slain.
- The English implies that Kham needs the rune to invent a spell that would defeat the Dark Lord’s protective “anti-aura”, perhaps this unexpected protection being the reason Kham’s party failed. The original German seems to say that that Kham already knew the spell, and just needs the Rune to make the scroll. Naming the Dark Lord’s shield “Anti-Aura” is inaccurate since that’s the name of the spell scroll that Kham gives (presumably to defeat the Dark Lord’s protective “aura”).
- The German gives the rune a name: the Rune of Hakan. This is also the name of the game’s programmer. The rune is not named in English.
- The English uses a double negative: “My soul will never find peace before the Dark Lord is not defeated.” This isn’t a trick question, it’s just a mistranslation.
- Kham warns that the Dark Lord will conquer “the other city” (die andere Stadt), presumably a reference to H’Khan. In English it’s translated as “the island Avalon”, despite no particular evidence in the game that Avalon is an island. Avalon is the name of an island in Arthurian legend, but the German documentation for the game (see the backstory translation) simply refers to Avalon as a “land” (das Land Avalon). This may suggest that the German storyline and English translation were written by separate people with differing knowledge of mythology.
- Rather than “good luck”, when Kham gives you the Anti-Aura scroll he wishes “may the good power be with you”.
- Elistaire’s dialogue makes less sense in German. He simply offers to trade his treasure for the Ruby Dagger without explaining why it’s so valuable to him, only explaining afterward that it will “free” him (but this could be interpreted as allowing him to abandon the hoard he guards by trading it for the dagger. In English he explains up-front that he is trapped by the Dark Lord, and needs the Ruby Dagger to free himself.
- Elistaire’s final line “always remember my name” only appears in English. This is useful, because it’s the answer to a riddle on the first dungeon level.
See also the backstory translation, which translates the game’s backstory in the German manual. It references a good wizard named Arakus, who was killed in the dungeon by robbers, but left riddles and clues behind to help later magicians defeat the Dark Lord. Arakus may have been renamed to Kham.
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