Thanks, Lucern. I went searching on the JoWood site (and discovered that in addition to publishing Arx, they also publish the Pingu games -- never realized it). From their forums, I found that I neglected one minor step after defeating the *spoil* that came up -- I forgot to actually touch the shard. That kicked the rest of it off, and it's been running just fine...
Midway through the crypt, now, and finding it just a wee bit too easy so far... and I don't know much about cheating yet
Thanks for popping up with a suggestion [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]