Completed Let's light the Magic Candle... Blind!

[Monty]

 

[Monstrous Bat]

What the fuck, Photobucket? Why can't I copy the IMG links of my images without copying the URL links as well? The IMG links are all I care about; the stupid URL links serve no purpose other than making copying a large amount of links more painful! Just why are you so hellbent on making your perfectly fine website a piece of shit?

Uh. In any case, here's the update:

Crystal dust

We teleported back to Fubernel (to prove that it's indeed possible), then sold the gems and stocked up on supplies in Delkona.

We then used teleportals to get back to Uberion.

From Uberion, we teleported to Shertuz and located Sur's temple. Note that there's a sanctuary in Shertuz as well, though we've got no reason to use it.

:takenotes:

Then we went to Sudogur to awaken Sur, and got another series of stat boosts for our trouble.

The teleportal in Sudogur sent us to Pheron.

Remember when I said I want to test out something in the last update?

I wanted to see if using fountains in another dungeon could boost our current attributes to the maximum. Turns out it could! From now on, we'll probably never bother finding fountains in other dungeons. We'll just have the gods boost our maximum attributes, then use the fountains in Dermagud to boost the current attributes as well. But why Dermagud, you ask? Because Dermagud has only one level, making it much easier to navigate.

Enough with gods. We used the teleportal in Dermagud to get to Yberton, and made our way to the Crystal Castle again.

We've got many things to do here. First, let's revisit Pindalf and ask him about the ritual of awareness.

"The ritual of awareness is written in a book called 'Zilmaeron'."
"Zilmaeron?"

"It was put in a glass sphere and locked in the 'tower of Ruhan'."
"Tower of Ruhan?"

"Tower of Ruhan is on the 'sunken isle'."
"Sunken isle?"

"Meliso claims knowledge about that long-lost secret."
"Meliso?"

"He lives in Bondell."

I was hoping that Pindalf would just tell us how to perform the ritual. But I guess that would be too easy.

We'll also pay a visit to other residents of the castle.

"Advice?"

"Dinera the witch knows the perils of Shadrum."
"Rumors?"

"Hodli ducks will be our doom, they say!"

Just what the hell are hodli ducks? I even tried googling for them but all I got was walkthroughs of The Magic Candle.

"Advice?"

"I have reason to believe that the teleportal at Thakass is a gate to Sargoz!"

Maybe it is, maybe not. But we already know the teleportal in Khazan can get us to Sargoz, so that's sort of irrelevant.

"What else do you know about Sargoz?"

"You must teleport to Sargoz."
"Rumors?"

"Some say the gods have abandoned us!"
"Teleportals?"

"Three pyramids from Sudogur ports to Sumruna."

:takenotes:

Finally, we also have to obtain information of how to get some crystal dust. The queen seems like the right person to ask.

"We would much like to offer you some crystal dust. But the mines underneath our castle are infested with monsters of darkness. We can no longer access the crystal dust veins. If you destroy ALL the vile creatures below, we could then fetch you all the crystal dust you need."

Ugh. So it's a monster extermination quest. Combats in this game are banal shit boring, but seems like we have no other choice.

Also, the queen's monster sensing ability comes handy here, as it lets us know how many groups of monster we have to kill:
Level 1: 3 ambush groups, 3 groups in rooms
Level 2: 3 ambush groups, 3 groups in rooms
Level 3: 4 ambush groups, 2 groups in rooms
Level 4: 2 ambush groups, 3 groups in rooms
Level 5: 4 ambush groups, 5 groups in rooms

Here we go.

The ambush parties aren't terribly impressive. Most of them consist of gnolls and bargs, with the occasional zumagins or jerrahs or mongors.

The monsters in rooms aren't much stronger.

Neither are the loots they guard.

Map of level 1. As someone in the crystal court said, there're two stairways on this level. One of them, the one leading to level 2, is located in the northeastern corner, and is easily accessible. However, the other one, which leads to level 3, is in an enclosed room in the southeastern corner and requires using a portal to get to.

That being said, finding the portal isn't particularly difficult or anything.

After clearing out level 1, we descended straight down to level 3.

Crezimas has a lot of time traps inside. Some of them are avoidable, some are not.

The ambushes are as pathetic as ever.

We found some gems in a lava zone. Not that it mattered.

The teleportal room is also on this level.

Also, the map. Level 3 is pretty straightfoward, aside from the time traps and lava.

Level 3 and 2 aren't connected by stairs, so if we want to get back to level 1 we'll have to use this portal.

High-level monsters are starting to show up in rooms. Of course, their power was no match for ours.

Level 3 cleared. We could descend to level 4 from here, but I kinda wanted to clear out level 2 first, so we used the portal to get back to level 1.

Level 2 is very small and very straightfoward.

In one of the rooms were some orcs, which we beat up easily. There were two gaems in the room, so the battle wasn't quite as unfair as it seems.

After clearing out level 2, we took some time to repair our weapons and to learn spells.

Once we're done resting, we marched onto level 4. The stairs to level 4 is located in the northwestern corner of level 3, near the lava zone.

Remember this message.

I honestly don't know what this sign is about.

Anyway, here's the map of level 4.

Inside this hall is a portal to another part on level 4.

Where we learned another teleportal combination.

See the 2-tiles wide corridor? You might be tricked into splitting up the party and let four characters pass, first then let the other two pass as well. But that's a bad idea.

Because the two tiles on the left side of the corridor is a portal which takes you back to the hall of ancient dreams! This means that only two characters can pass through at a time.

After passing through that trapped corridor, we found a sign that warned us about the importance of having shovels.

We're now on the other side of the chest which told us to dig the other side of the wall.

Sadly, for all the troubles we went through, the treasure was pretty underwhelming.

Level 4 cleared. Note that there're two stairs leading down on this level.

The monsters on level 5 are much tougher than those on previous levels.

These portals are neat. Makes backtracking a lot less tedious.

Uh-oh. That's a tough fight, with three hibliss among the enemy. Worse yet, Might Hunter Nazim wasn't able to detect the ambush, so the monsters received a free turn.

During which they paralyzed Alhan. At least it wasn't someone important.

We killed a hibliss with fireballs, and Nazim shut down the mongors and one of the two remaining hibiss with Fear. On the enemy phase, however, the other hibliss managed to paralyze Kodex.

Still, Eflun and Ziyx managed to kill the hibliss in the next turn, and the rest of monsters were easily dispatched.

Remember what I said about Shatter? Yeah... Shits like this are the main reason why Fireball is superior to Shatter.

Map of level 5. The level is divided into two disconnected parts. We've cleared the left part, but we'll have to take the other stairs on level 4 to access the other part.

Also, another teleportal combination.

This room looks important...

Indeed. Hissen sleeps here! Kodex awakened him, and we received another series of stat boosts.

Another convenience portal.

Finally! I believe that's the last monster group in this dungeon. Now we'll just rest here for a while and then ask the queen to give us some dust.

Also, you guys didn't have to suffer through this horrible quest, but I assure you it's every bit as tedious as I made it to be. Just be glad that it's not you who had to do this shit.

DO I?!

Crystal dust obtained!

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of power

Next, we'll pay a visit to the dwarves in Kharin, which is to the south of Crystal Castle.

Kharin is one of the bigger villages, with lots of residents. We already know the name of most of them.

"Advice?"

"Learn all you can about Shadrum before you enter it."
"Shadrum?"

"The ogres call their tower on the Isle of Giants by the name of Shadrum."
"Rumors?"

"I heard a rumor about a 'scroll' hidden in Shadrum."
"Scroll?"

"Ask scroll about Kemkezar."
"Kemkezar?"

"He lives at Shiran."

:takenotes:

"Advice?"

"Visit loka patch to the south of Kharin."
"Rumors?"

"I heard about a moss covered 'portal' area in Khazan, at 3rd level."
"Portal?"

"It ports to an area that has no other entrance, they say!"

Already know that, sorry.

"Advice?"

"Pax sleeps in Piyan."
"Rumors?"

"They say the queen is feeling better."

"Advice?"

"Some times ago, with my squad, we captured a cyclop. He confessed he was part of the band that stole the elven 'cloak' from the museum of Merg."
"Cloak?"

"He said they buried it at the southwest corner of the 'hall of ancient dreams'."
"Hall of ancient dreams?"

"The hall of ancient dreams is in Crezimas."

Oh. Seems like we'll have to visit Crezimas again, then...

"Advice?"

"Catch Kulak at noon."
"Kulak?"

"He usually takes a walk in the village in the afternoons."
"Rumors?"

"Some say Dreax is now visible."
"We heard that you know something about Bedangidar."

We'll be heading to Bedangidar soon, so this information should come in handy shortly.

"Advice?"

"Inquire about Khazan on Fubernel."
"Rumors?"

"They say Valoda lost his plume!"
"Valoda?"

"He lives by the well."

"Advice?"

"Seek Dinera on Fubernel, she faced the Ogre King and survived."
"Rumors?"

"Pugar claims to know about a stolen cloak!"

Kharin is also notable for being the only village that has a village armory.

Here, they sells the methreal armor that everyone's been talking about. They're supposedly the best armor in the game.

Of course, armor in general aren't terribly useful, but I still bought a suit for each party member because hey, it's not like we're going to run into money problems ever again.

These armor do take a while to make, though.

"Advice?"

"Shagar's adventures may provide a lead for you."
"Rumors?"

"I hear even the bard's mighty magic was to no avail!"

Shagar's adventures? I'm intrigued... Let's go ask him.

"Hey Shagar, tell us about your adventures."

"I've had many. The worst was the 'lost dungeon'."
"Lost dungeon?"

"Kreh! Stay away from 'Sargoz', the lost dungeon. It's home to dreads!"
"Sargoz?"

"There is no entrance into Sargoz. You must 'teleport' into it."
"Teleport?"

"You need to know two things to get to Sargoz: the 'key combination', and the location of the 'chamber' to teleport from."
"Key combination?"

"I believe the answer to that is in Khazan, written on four signposts."
"Chamber?"

"Truk may know where you can teleport to Sargoz from."

Sadly, Shagar doesn't know anything about Sargoz that we don't.

Kulak said Valoda lives near the well. Must be this house.

Valoda, like Rabbonkar, can teach us dwarvish for a meager price. However, he doesn't know anything about dwarvish that Rabbonkar doesn't, so if you've already visited Rabbonkar there's no reason to study here.

"Advice?"

"I think you may need raise the 'Sunken Isle'."
"Sunken Isle?"

"You must locate the 'three levers'."
"Three levers?"

"They have to be pulled down at the same instant in time."
"Rumors?"

"I heard of a mushroom which looks like sermin but affects like poison."

So the levers are indeed related to the Sunken Isle! I've always suspected so.

"Advice?"

"Viadras can improve your learning skill."
"Viadras?"

"He lives in the square garden."
"Rumors?"

"I hear the red octopus is at large again."

Viadras live here. However, since all of our characters have maxed out learning skill, we don't have any reason to visit him.

Back to Crezimas, Kodex dug the southwestern corner of the hall of ancient dreams, and the elvish cloak is indeed there.

According to the monk at Merg museum, this cloak would let Kodex enter the Furnace of Hades. Of course, Kodex hasn't gotten a reason to do so, but I'm sure this ability will come in handy sooner or later.

Now, the next thing on our to-do list is to explore Bedangidar... But that shall be left for the next update.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Gaining power

(Or rather, gaining even more power than what we already have)

To Bedangidar! The entrance is located in Bihun, to the north of Crystal Castle.

We chanted the words to open the gate.

"Bedangidar. Pride of dwarves."

Keen readers may have noticed that we're currently on the third level of the dungeon. Yep -- we'll be going down AND up.

Map of level 3. The stairs to level 4 and level 2 are on the northern edge of the map.

The monsters here aren't too impressive.

We shall go up first.

Level 2 is pretty small and short. The stairs to level 3 are located in a small enclosed section which is only accessible via a portal.

Map of level 2.

Found the stairs up. Also, the sign says "time trap nearby".

Map of level 1. The large room to the south protected by energy fields immediately captured my attention.

Protected by the fields was a chest. "Sphere, sphere, pyramid to Pheron."

Another passage in the southern parts had some more energy fields scattered around. They technically weren't blocking passage, but I couldn't be bothered to split the party up so I just had Alhan dispel all of them.

Found Paladin! As usual, Kodex awakened him for some nice stat boosts.

"Portal to level 4."

Well, we've already found Paladin on level 1, so I think Somona is probably imprisoned in the lower mines. Let's take the portal, then.

The teleportal room is located on level 4.

Map of level 4. The layout of this level makes it very difficult to navigate through, but at the same time there's very little of interest on this level.

So you should just locate the stairs down ASAP.

Wait, we're on level 6 now? The stairs took us down two levels?

"Go up one level." We will once we have located the stairs.

"Two south, six east, dig."

Meh.

More lame treasure. Why did I even bother taking screenshots of these?

We ran into some azraels in one of the rooms.

I've noticed something curious: the azraels, like mongors and zumagins, has an attack that ignores nifts and armor, but can be nullified by shields. Also like mongors and zumagins, azraels can only shoot in four directions, much like an archer.

Well, whatever. After dispatching the azrael and his band, we finally managed to find the map of this level.

The stairway to level 5 is to the east of the bowl.

Map of level 5. This level is pretty much empty; the only notable things are a signpost and a room.

The signpost tells about a portal nearby that takes us back to the entrance, while the room...

A sword! Could that be...

YES! It's Brennix!

Nobody other than Kodex can pick up the sword. Here's the protagonist-exclusive weapon for ya!

Kodex dropped his old scimitar and picked up Brennix.

We have obtained the ultimate weapon in this game! Now let's find some unfortunate buggers to test it on...

I'm not quite sure how damage with Brennix is calculated. Kodex, with his 41 strength, can deal approximately 55 damage with each attack. Also, Brennix can apparently ignore any enemy armor.

And if Kodex uses a mirget before he attacks, he would be able to deal 99 damage in a single strike!

Brennix is probably the best melee weapon in the game. Sadly, it's still a melee weapon. Kodex will probably never use it, since it's almost always better to incinerate your opponents with Fireball in the first round. If Rexor could equip Brennix, it might actually see some use. Pity.

If you would look closely at the map of level 6, you'd see a series of rooms in the northeastern corner of the level. That seemed important! Maybe Somona's prison is there?

Nope. It's just some monsters and a fountain. :sad:

Might as well use the fountain, since we've already cleared out the room. However, if Somona isn't here, then where could she be?

Well, level 2 and 4 and 5 are pretty empty, we've fully explored level 6, and I'm pretty sure she's not on level 3 (the entrance floor). That leaves only level 1.

Now, look at the map of level 1. There's an enclosed section in the southwestern corner, and it's pretty far away from the stairs to level 2. My metagaming sense tells me there's something important...

Also, on the route to there are some chutes which would drop you to level 2. Avoid these.

Although avoiding these chutes means we have to sometimes take the longer route, possibly doing more combat as well. Kodex had a pretty close call in one of the rooms, when an azrael and his minions nearly got him. I should be playing a little more carefully.

After we finally reached out destination, we found... a stairway up? But aren't we already on the top level?

Going up, we found ourselves in a room with a cage.

Finally, that must be the Songbird of Serenity! That little bird has been a huge pain to find. Now we just have to take it back to Castle Kalindra.


...Sorry.

Turned out the pigeon is actually Somona in disguise.

With that, our business in Bedangidar is officially concluded!

On the next day, we found Somona in Theldair hall and asked her about dream dust.

Why wouldn't we?

Dream dust obtained!

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will

We then went to Merg to resupply and upgrade our weapons. In particular, everyone got a brom bow to replace their old ash bow.

Now is time to explore Upper Deruvia. We hired Tomola at Merg to take us to Kraken Bay.

The ship dropped us off in Rosus.

The temple of Pax is located on the western edge of Rosus.

:takenotes:

Shiran, the village of wizards, is located in Darvale.

Shiran is a fairly large village, but unfortunately we don't know many people who live here (yet).

"Advice?"
"You may benefit from fountains of Thakass if you awaken Kalb."
"Kalb?"
"His temple and his place of rest are in Dakland."
"Rumors?"
"They say Thakass teleportal is the gate to Sargoz!"
"Sargoz?"
"Home of dread!"
"Teleportals?"
"3 spheres from Sargoz ports to hidden vale."
"Someone told us to ask you about scroll."
"The scroll of Zukkamear contains the three words for a bubble of captivity."
"Zukkamear?"
"It is lost since the Elden days."

Seems like we've one more quest item to find.

It's the conclave! I hear these people knows something about Shir-aka ashes.

We came just at the right time, as well.

"Advice?"

"Magical items of the same color light up the 'stones'."
"Stones?"

"Lighting stones are in Berbezza."
"Rumors?"

"We prefer not to!"
"Shir-aka?"

"The great tree of magic power, may it flourish to eternity."
"Can you spare some ashes?"

"You need the ash of Shir-aka eh? None other than the one who wears the 'circlet' of Aka can gather the fallen twigs of the Shir-aka. Any other who touch will be severely punished!"
"Circlet?"

"Halflings on Fubernel claim knowledge about its whereabouts."

Remember what the halflings said about the ogre king? They said that the ogre king wears a "stolen circlet". Seems like we'll have to go to Shadrum soon!

"Advice?"

"You can buy a Zoxinn here at Shiran."
"Zoxinn?"

"Fizkreto sells the Zoxinn."

Aren't you guys supposed to be wearing robes of your respective color of order?

"Advice?"

"You must walk in Shiran after midnight!"

Have we ever met any wizard who wears green robes? Because I can't remember any. Also, I've noticed that the pink order doesn't have a representive here. I guess they're the minority among wizards as well.

"Advice?"

"We are all experts in teleportals."

Oh, that reminds me. We've yet to ask the wizards here about teleportals.

Freyapkin: "Sphere, sphere, cube from Khiriss gets you to Fubernel."
Shekyza: "Sphere, cube, sphere from Shendy ports to Dakland."
Gromus: "Pyramid, cube, pyramid from Shadrum gets you to Shiran."
Jaxinfozt: "Pyramid, sphere, pyramid from Meardom ports to Knessos."

:takenotes:

The aforementioned Fizkreto lives here.

He sells book of Zoxinn! Zoxinn is the ultimate spellbook, so it's only natural that it's the most expensive of all spellbooks. I bought four copies of Zoxinn. We probably don't really need so many, but once again, it's not like we have much use for money at this point. I'll introduce the spells at the end of this update.

The tree of Shir-aka is located in the center of the village. Nothing we can do with it at this moment.

"Advice?"

"You may take lessons from Seksanta."
"Seksanta?"

"He has two cows."
"Rumors?"

"Some say a god sleeps nearby."
"Teleportals?"

"Cube, cube, pyramid ports from Shadrum to Fisestar."

"Advice?"

"You can pick sermin mushrooms in Trilliad, northeast of Theldair."
"Rumors?"

"Some say Debaramos no longer practices magic."
"Teleportals?"

"Pyramid, sphere, cube from Crezimas gets you to Trilliad."

Seksanta lives here. He can boost your learning score for 120 coins each session, which is the cheapest of all teachers. However, you would likely have maxed out everyone's learning score long before coming to Shiran, so his service is kinda useless.

"Advice?"

"Search for Brennix in Bedangidar."
"Rumors?"

"I hear Crezimas is infested with the spawn of darkness."
"Teleportals?"

"Sphere, cube, pyramid from Khiriss ports to Trilliad."

Enough with the wizards. Let's search for Kalb!

For some reasons, almost all tiles in the province of Dakland are no-teleport, so we're stuck with actually walking to our destination.

The temple is here.

:takenotes:

Kalb's symbol is... I'm really not sure what. Face of a bat?

Being unable to Teleport also means we'd have to actually fight monsters instead of teleporting around them. Monsters in Dakland are pathetically weak though, so it's nothing more than a small nuisance.

Kalb sleeps in the brick building here.

Done. We have awakened seven out of the eight gods; Pax is the only god we haven't awakened yet.

Also, there's one final person in Shiran that I'd like to meet before moving on.

"Advice?"

"You may pick drelin mushrooms from a patch just west of Shiran.
"Rumors?"

"Some say there is an obelisk in Meardom!"

There is? That gives us a reason to explore Meardom at last.

"Obelisk?"

"There are three, they say."
"Teleportals?"

"Pyramid, cube, pyramid from Khiriss ports to Shertuz."

Having collected all information in Shiran we could, we teleported east, to the city of Knessos.

By the way, Knessos is the last civilized location that we haven't visited yet.

"Advice?"

"The old man Gherig knows a wizard."
"Gherig?"

"Gherig is out around 20:00."
"Rumors?"

"They say an Azrael is leading the enemy forces."

An azrael? We have beaten up about half a dozen azraels in our journey and this number is going to continue to rise. "A legion of azraels" would be more appropriate.

Another guard:

"Advice?"

"Ugdobar is from Shiran."
"Ugdobar?"

"Ugdobar is out around 01:00."

"Advice?"

"There is a teleportal at level 5 of Thakass."
"Rumors?"

"I hear of writings about Hoyam in Port Avur library."
"Teleportals?"

"Pyramid, sphere, pyramid from Thakass ports to Khiriss."

"Advice?"

"Don't mess with gaems. I did and now I am cursed!"

That's probably because you're not as awesome as we are.

"Rumors?"

"I hear an army of kobolds just arrived from grud!"

"Advice?"

"When facing tough monsters, using 'nift' helps."
"Rumors?"

"Some say hodli ducks are a curse!"

"Advice?"

"If all else fails, read the rule book!"
"Rumors?"

"I hear hodli ducks are losing their feathers!"

The inn is empty at this moment.

"Advice?"

"Try my ale."
"Rumors?"

"Some say the mad wizard is really not so crazy."
"Captain?"

"Captain Barbos usually gets here around 19:00 hours."

"Advice?"

"Seek Fagharn's advice in Sumruna."
"Rumors?"

"Some say temples have prayers to gods."

"Advice?"

"Get inside, I feel rain coming."
"Rumors?"

"I haven't heard a hot one lately!"

"Advice?"

"Seek the holy 'temple' in Dakland."
"Temple?"

"Temple of Kalb is in Dakland."
"Kalb?"

"He is the god with a mask."

"Advice?"

"Barbos may sail to Bihun."
"Rumors?"

"Some say one obelisk is under the king's castle."

"Advice?"

"You must kill monsters!"
"Rumors?"

"They say only a wizard with lots of pierce spells can survive at Thakass."

Lots of Pierce spells? Do we have that?

Yes, I think we do.

"Advice?"

"Buy 'boots' to walk upon hot 'lava'!"
"Boots?"

"Buy them at stores."
"Lava?"

"Some dungeons have hot lava floors."

"Advice?"

"Seek the 'temple' in Rosus."
"Temple?"

"Temple of Pax is in Rosus."
"Pax?"

"He sleeps at marsh of Piyan."

"Advice?"

"Seek knowledge about the bubble at Shiran."
"Bubble?"

"You must be more specific for me to answer that."
"Bubble of captivity?"

"Ah yes! Talk to Kemkezar about it."

"Advice?"

"Gherig's friend knows how to enter Thakass."
"Gherig?"

"Ask the guards."

"Advice?"

"Barbos can take you back to Pheron."
"Rumors?"

"Some say 3 spheres from Bedangidar ports to Shendy."

"Advice?"

"Must have many pierce spells to conquer Thakass."
"Rumors?"

"I hear of an 'obelisk' nearby."
"Obelisk?"

"North of Knessos, they say."

Really? We'll have to check out that later.

"Advice?"

"Keep asking about blue ring to the mad wizard."
"Mad wizard?"

"Ignore his meaningless responses!"
"Rumors?"

"Some say quonnies drove him mad!"

"Advice?"

"You must know the 'symbol' for each god."
"Symbol?"

"See above altars at temples."
"Rumors?"

"Some say Zumagins rule Thakass."

"Advice?"

"Sail with me!"
"Rumors?"

"I hear rats ate Garlin's boat!"

Why do the other captains love making fun of Garlin anyway?

Captain Barbos sails to various locations. We don't need his service right now, though.

"Advice?"

"Barbos sails to Kuzu Bay."
"Rumors?"

"I hear of a treasure buried at level 1 of Thakass."

"Advice?"

"If you wish to enter Thakass, ask about it to Yetmishi."
"Yetmishi?"

"He is a wizard of Shiran."

:takenotes:

243
"Advice?"

"If you are in Shiran, visit Petkenpif."
"Petkenpif?"

"He knows of the white amulet."
"Rumors?"

"I hear there is a sermin field in south Darvale."

:takenotes:

Okay, that concludes our business in Knessos.

Here's the obelisk Jemosh told us about. Teleport is needed to reach this area.

That's one of the three words of will. We'll have to check out the ones at Meardom and Isle of Vo as well.

Back in Shiran, we have some more information to collect. First, we revisited Kemkezar.

"We heard you know something about the bubble of captivity."
"The bubble of captivity is conjured by chanting 'three words' while crystal dust floats in the air."
"Three words?"
"The three words to conjure the bubble are written on a scroll called 'Zukkamear'."

Sadly, he didn't have any new information to offer.

Petkenpif comes next.

All home-dwelling wizards in Shiran wears pink robes. Were you trying to imply something, Mindcraft?

"Advice?"
"You must conquer ten dungeons."
"Rumors?"
"They say Koldan knows the location of Zukkamear."
"Do you know anything about the white amulet?"
"Oh! The white amulet of light. Well, I heard Tombul bought it from an elf."
"Tombul?"
"In Delkona."

So the amulet of Tombul was indeed the white amulet. However, it's now possession of Faruk, and I couldn't seem to find Faruk on Fubernel. Hmm, maybe I'll try again the next time we're on Fubernel.

Finally, Yetmishi.

"Advice?"
"Raising dungeon gates require special knowledge."
"Rumors?"
"I hear my mad colleague is gone senile."
"Can you help us entering Thakass?"
"Chant: 'kuramdafur', 'tevalato', 'rekmetrek' to enter Thakass."

Thanks. :takenotes:

Before we would venture into Thakass, there's one last thing I want to do: I'll make use of the dirt-cheap combat school in Knessos to boost our sword skill. We almost never use melee, but we've got the money and time to spare, and it does make our character sheets look nicer.

See you next update!

Bonus content: Book of Zoxinn

The Book of Zoxinn

Zoxinn does a lot of things to a lot of people. They call it "The Book of Something." Here are
the spells.

ZOFIR is the counterspell to Freeze. It removes paralysis, allowing its target to return to combat immediately.

It's usually better to kill any opponent who is able to paralyze your guys in the first turn, but this may not be possible, especially if you got ambushed. And in these occasions, Zofir would come in very useful.

ZAPALL throws fireballs against all the party's opponents at once. The fireballs are only half as powerful as those thrown against a single opponent by the fireball spell, but still have their effect.

Mostly useful when you don't feel like taking out the 20 gnolls one by one. The damage is very weak, to the point where it takes three or four casts to even kill trolls. Also, unlike Fireball, this spell takes forever to learn. I believe this spell ignores obstacles, which is a nice bonus, but this spell still isn't very useful.

ZENGRL restores full stamina to all the members of the caster's party. While it can be cast in combat, it is usually more useful afterwards.

Pretty much useless. It's rare to have your characters injured, and even rarer to have that happen to multiple characters.

ZISHOXE is to "Shield" as Zapall is to "Fireball." It strengthens the magical shields of everyone in the caster's party, but only half as much as an individual shield spell would.

Also useless. Monsters tend to focus fire on one character, so you usually wouldn't need to restore everyone's shields at once.

ZEFOAR throws a giant fireball. It damages everyone near its landing point, friend or enemy, as would a normal fireball spell. Use with care.

Arguably the most useful spell in Zoxinn. It damages everyone in a 3x3 area; the damage is slightly lower than that of a normal Fireball, but still much more powerful than Zapall. Most useful in dungeons, where monsters tend to clump together.

ZUTYUN makes the "Weaken" spell obsolete. It affects all your opponents as Weaken would affect one of them. Their armor turns to sand; their shields vanish into air.

Another nice spell, particularly useful when facing many high-level spellcasters.

 

[CappenVarra]

Well, at least you found out why the pink order doesn't have a representative in the conclave - they're all home bound :D

 

[Monstrous Bat]

octavius I need your help.

Spoiler

What the hell do I have to do to get the shir-aka ashes? I've already got the circlet but I still can't obtain the ashes. I can't offer the circlet to the conclave, I can't use the circlet anywhere, and I've inspected every single tile of the shir-aka tree but the game kept telling me there's nothing special. WTF?

EDIT: Pretty sure it's a bug now. I googled the problem and saw this image on CRPG Addict's blog:

Apparently I was supposed to have one character wear the circlet and inspect the "fallen twigs" tile under the tree. However, when I did this happened:

o_O
I'll try downloading a diffrent copy and see if it would work.

EDIT AGAIN: The problem persists. Screw this, I'll just grab a hex editor and hack myself some ashes.

 

[Azira]

Hexediting to the LP rescue!

Oh, I had so much fun with hexediting for my Afterlight LP..

Well, I eventually got it to work. Eventually...

 

[octavius]

Maybe your inventory is full?
Maybe you need to actually wear the circlet if that is possible?

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Maybe your inventory is full?

Pretty sure that's not the problem. I even tried having Kodex give some of his items to other characters, but it didn't work.

Maybe you need to actually wear the circlet if that is possible?

Dude. You've played the game. You should know that it's impossible to equip anything other than weapons and armor in this game.


Well, whatever. Here's the update:

Godwin's Law

A few days later, the party finished their combat lessons. In particular, everyone but Nazim and Alhan has maxed out their weapon skills.

Time to visit Thakass. The entrance is located on the Wizard's Isle. Captain Barbos can take you there, but why waste the money and time when you can just Teleport?

Here's the tower.

Unlike all previous towers we've been to (where we just beat up shit and went up), Thakass is functionally more similiar to dungeons, except it goes up rather than down. Also, Thakass has a total of eight levels, which is the most of all dungeons we've been to.

The monsters here are pretty pathetic.

Also, here's the spell animation of Zefoar.

Map of level 8 (the bottom level). The stairway up is located in the eastern part of the level.

Monsters formed like this make for perfect targets for Zefoar. Two casts and they're all dead.

On level 7 we learned another teleportal combination.

Also, there're many chutes on this level, making navigation rather painful.

Map of level 7. This level is pretty simple. Actually, pretty much all levels in Thakass are.

Map of level 6. There're chutes on this level as well, but their placement means they generally aren't as obnoxious as the ones on level 7 are.

:takenotes:

There're some rooms on this level, but who gives shit. All they contain is lame treasure anyway.

The teleportal room is on level 5.

Here's the map.

On level 4, we managed to find some gems.

Map of level 4. We had to fight a few ambush parties, as they were guarding critical chokepoints. They were nothing we couldn't handle, though.

To level 3!

Eh, now that we've already cleared the room, might as well use the fountain.

Map of level 3. The stairway to level 2 is behind a series of rooms, all of which were guarded by monsters.

I'll spare you the details of the combat. You should know how they goes at this point anyway.

Level 2 is the level of energy fields.

Look at all the purple dots on the map!

Alhan dispelled enough energy fields to make a path to the stairway up.

Then, we found the mad wizard on level 1 at last.

"Hello, Mr. Mad Wizard. I hope you aren't mad at us for killing all your pet hraffels."

"Well.. I am not mad, and that's that!
"Advice?"

"Patience is a great virtue!"
"Rumors?"

"Well, hmm... The quonnies must be ready for the moon dance!"
"Blue ring?"

"The blue ring of power, eh? Right! Just throw a pinch of kuspar and she will stop crying!"
"Kuspar?"

"Keeps babies quiet!"
"That's very interesting but what we want is the blue ring."

"The blue ring of power, eh? Right! Just throw a pinch of kuspar and she will stop crying!"
"Blue ring."

"The blue ring of power, eh? I vaguely remember something like that!"
"BLUE. RING."

"The blue ring of power, eh? Here, I have no use for it. It's yours if you want it!"

That was actually easier than I expected.

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will
Finding Zukkamear

Conveniently, there's a portal on level 1 that took us back to level 5, near the teleportal room.

From there, we teleported to Bihun.

And then made our way to Kharin to pick up our methreal armor. We've kept the shopkeeper waiting long enough.

Also, we found a brick house in Piyan.

And inside sleeped Pax, whom Kodex awakened. We've finally awakened all eight gods by now.

Afterwards, we used the Kherbel teleportal to get to Fubernel.

We've got stuff to do on Fubernel. First, we paid a visit to Meliso in Bondell.

"Advice?"

"You must raise the sunken isle from the sea by pulling the 'three levers' at once."
"Three levers?"

"There are three levers at three different locations. They must be pulled at the same moment and the isle will rise from the sea."
"Rumors?"

"They say the officers of Delkona are all crooks!"
"What more do you know about the sunken isle?"

"Eldens dwelled on it once."

Meliso told us how to raise the Sunken Isle, although I kinda figured that out by myself several updates ago.

180 days have passed since the game started, so monsters on the overworld have respawned. Thanks god we have the Teleport spell now.

We met a merchant on the road. Could it be Faruk?

Nope, he's just some random merchant selling pyramids.

In Delkona, we hired the captain to sail to Isle of Giants.

But we still had to find Faruk. Wandering some more on the roads, we ran into another merchant who sold cubes.

He didn't tell his name when greeted, but he did mention an amulet when Kodex asked him about rumors.

"Amulet?"

"I was rescued from a goblin ambush by a brave knight. I gave him the amulet as a token of my gratitude."
"Knight?"

"His name was Farhad."
"Farhad?"

"He was from Sumruna."

Hmmm... Did we met anyone called Farhad in Sumruna?

"Advice?"

"You may have to enter the 'furnace'."
"Furnace?"

"All elden artifacts found by the enemy are thrown into furnace of Hades."

Ah yes, we did! We'll have to ask him about the amulet the next time we're in Sumruna.

...Although if you're genre savvy enough, you might already know where the amulet ended up. (I believe I do.)

Anyway, to Isle of Giants! It's not until we landed on the isle that I realized that we could have just Teleported here from Fubernel. Oh well, we learned many spells while aboard, so we didn't really waste any time.

Here's our objective, the tower of Shadrum.

We learned the opening words of Shadrum like ten updates ago. It's about time we put them into use.

Immediately upon entering Shadrum, we were greeted with a crapton of energy fields. Hopefully you wizards have enough Pierce spell memorized.

Shadrum is home to a new kind of monster: the ogres.

OGRES: It is common knowledge that ogres are extinct. I had better describe them to you anyway--it would embarrass us all if you were destroyed by an extinct monster. Ogres were giant creatures with incredible reserves of stamina. Ogres threw rocks as big as elephants.

Well, obviously ogres aren't as extinct as they say, but as far as I know, the ogres in Shadrum are the only ones left of their kind. Which means... By clearing this place of the ogres, we're technically commiting genocide.

Now you know where the chapter title came from.

The gimmick of ogres is that they've got retarded amounts of HP. With 400 (!) maximum HP, they're the most durable type of monster in the game. (Well, we haven't ran into any dread yet, but I doubt they'd have more HP than ogres.)

Other than being ridiculously hard to kill, the ogres are pretty unimpressive. They have a ranged attack that does ~40 damage, but they can only shoot in four directions and their attack is nullfied by nifts.

Some Zefoar spamming and a few Fireballs won us the fight.

Map of level 7.

The stairway up is just south to the bowl in the last screenshot.

There's a portal on level 6.

Using this portal is necessary to proceed, as if you attempt to walk to the stairway up you'll get dropped back to level 7 by a chute.

Damn, killing the ogres is already getting tedious. They've got almost twice as many HP as azraels, and they come in much larger groups as well. I think maybe we won't be genociding them after all.

Onwards and upwards!

Map of level 5.

Was buried here. But it isn't now. Kodex digged under the sign, but found nothing. (And no, the tile to the right of the sign didn't have any treasure buried, either.)

I'll be skipping most combat that happened when we're exploring the tower, because honestly they're boring as fuck. Just picture in you mind our party beating up tons of ogres here and there.

Some lame treasure was buried on level 4.

Map of level 4. The stairway up is on the southern egde of the level.

Also, chutes. Because you see, random trap coming out of nowhere and forcing the player to backtrack is such a great idea.

A portal on level 3 took our party into a huge hall.

Great, now we just have to wander around for twenty minutes until we randomly find the way out.

The big hall is also full of ambushes, because the level wouldn't be tedious enough without them.

Map of level 3.

We eventually stumbled upon a portal which took us to the stairway up.

Level 2 consists of many, many interconnected rooms, most of which have ogres in them. One of them also had a fountain, which we used.

Who the hell wrote all these signposts anyway? If he knew about Dalameir's treasure, why didn't he just fetch them himself? Was he too poor to afford a shovel or something?

Spamming Zapall to kill the ogres doesn't even seem like such a bad idea anymore. It's a horribly inefficient use of the wizards' energy, but fuck you I value my sanity more than their energy points.

Map of level 2.

Man, you've no fucking idea how tedious clearing out this level has been.

Immediately upon entering the top level, we were greeted by two signs.

However, the way we want to take is here.

Walking ahead, we were teleported into the hall of no return.

There're many portals scattered in the hall of no return. To cross this hall, we'll need to follow Dinera's instruction. First, we must reach the east wall...

...And then go south.

Then we had to fight even more ogres to reach the ogre king. Ugh.

Say hello to the king!

Surprisingly, the ogre king is friendly to us, despite the fact that we just killed off half the ogre population on the planet to get here.

If we ask nicely, maybe he'll just cede his circlet to us?

I can't believe that actually worked.

We also asked him about Zukkamear, but he apparently doesn't have it. We couldn't fight him if we wanted to, so we'll have to obtain Zukkamear in some other way.

Behind the king's chamber is a portal.

It took us to another section on level 1, close to the teleportal room.

Also close to the teleportal room is a chest, in which lies the scroll of Zukkamear! :takenotes:

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will
Finding Zukkamear

Isn't it convenient that the teleportal in Shadrum can take you straight to Shiran?

Now that we have the circlet, the archmages have a new dialogue when asked about circlet:

They told us how to obtain the ashes of shir-aka. All we have to do is to have the character with the circlet in his inventory inspect the fallen twigs of shir-aka, and they'll be magically turned into ashes. There's one problem, though...

...The game kept telling me that there's nothing special about the twigs.
o_O
At first I thought I was doing something wrong, so I did all kinds of stuff in attempt to pick up the twigs. I made sure it's the character with circlet that is searching, I tried giving the circlet to the conclave members, I tried using the circlet on the tree, I tried inspecting every tile of the tree from every angle, to no avail. Eventually I got frustrated and googled "circlet shir-aka" and saw this image on the blog of crpgaddict :

Well, I'm sure it's a bug now. Also, I'm apparently the first person in human history to encounter this bug, so I do feel a bit special.

I tried solving the bug by downloading a different version of the game, but the problem persisted. After a while I gave up and just edited the savefile to give Kodex some ashes.

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will
Finding Zukkamear

Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be off exploring somewhere else. Somewhere with less chutes and less HP-bloated monsters.

 

[CappenVarra]

So octavius made a "did you try equipping the ring?" joke

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Levers and obelisks

Quick update before we dive into the final dungeon.

Time to raise the Sunken Isle. In order to do this, it's necessary to split the party up.

First, Alhan teleported to the lever house in Darvale. But we still have to place two characters in the other two lever houses, in Phalang and Piyan respectively.

In Thakass, Kodex and a few others used the teleportal to get to Pheron, from where they teleported to the lever house in Phalang.

Meanwhile, Eflun teleported to Bihun.

The last lever house is in Piyan. Not to be confused with the other brick building in Piyan, which is the resting place of Pax.

"Alright, Eflun, Alhan, can you here me over there? Listen to my orders. I'll count to three, and then we'll all pull the lever at the some time. Got it?"

"Roger."

"You're literally on the other side of the world! How the hell are you talking to me from there?"
"Well duh, of course I can. You're part of the hivemind after all."

Seems like it worked!

Alhan then used the teleportal in Khiriss to meet up with Eflun, and later met up with Kodex's party in Kendar.

The Sunken Isle is located to the south of Meram, in the area marked on the world map as "Bay of Sunken Isle". To actually get on the isle, you'd need a wizard with the Teleport spell.

On the isle is a single isolated building.

That must be the glass sphere Pindalf was talking about!

Kodex looked in the book for information about the ritual of awareness.

:takenotes:

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will
Finding Zukkamear

In Dermagud, the party used the fountains to boost their current attributes.

Our final character sheets. They are unlikely to see much more changes.

Back in King's Castle, we entered Meardom with Beratt's help.

There sure are a lot of dungeons of doom in RPGs.

The monsters here could seriously rape your ass if you came here right after starting the game. However, now they pretty much can't put up a fight with us.

Is the game trying to intimidate us? That's cute.

Map of level 2. I won't be showing the map of most levels in Meardom, because I rushed through the dungeon as fast as possible, usually descending before I could find the bowl on the level.

Like this.

Map of level 5. The obelisk is located in one of the southeastern rooms.

:takenotes:

OK, we've found what we came here for. Now let's bail.

In Port Avur, we hired Garlin to take us to Point Hena, then teleported to Sumruna from there. In Sumruna, we found Farhad and asked him about the amulet.

Duh. Saw this coming miles away. That finally gave us a reason to explore Sargoz.

The third and last obelisk is located on Isle of Vo. We could sail to there from Sumruna, but once again, why sail when you can just Teleport?

All three obelisks are found by now. :takenotes:

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will
Finding Zukkamear

Only one thing is left now. We must enter Sargoz, and retrive the white amulet from Furnace of Hades.

Someone advised us about only going to Sargoz after we're the best we can be. I doubt we'd have much trouble with Sargoz as we are, but just to be safe, I had the party stocking up as much supplies as they could.

Then we would teleport to Fubernel, and enter Sargoz via the Khazan teleportal.

TONIGHT... WE DINE IN FURNACE OF HADES!

Please stay tuned for the next update, in which our party will explore Sargoz and (likely) end the game.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

The Candle Repaired

Alright, let's see what's the worst the game can throw at us.

The only way out of Sargoz is through the teleportal here, although it's surprisingly easy to find.

Map of level 1.

The Zefoar spell is really useful in Sargoz, since there're a lot of monsters, and they tend to clump together.

Level 1 and 2 aren't connected by stairs; the only way to enter level 2 is through a portal behind the moss-infested area.

We ended up on a small isle on level 2.

It's on level 2 that we met our first dreads. I've posted their descriptions, but it's been a while since I did so I figured I'd post them again.

DREADS: Thousands of years ago, in the Elden Wars, a chief foe of the Children of Light was the dread, a being of purest evil. It was thwarted, but not defeated. I wish I did not need to tell you that the dread may still exist. It may have allied with the invading forces of Darkness. And, worst of all, it may have spawned more of its kind.

Come thinking about it, how did the original dread spawn more of its kind, when it's the only dread in the world? Do dreads reproduce by clonal fragmentating or something?

I had Ziyx casting Assess on the dreads just for the heck of it. Dreads are mostly similiar to azraels, although slightly squishier.

As for their offensive power, it's slightly stronger than azraels, but they almost never actually get to attack anyway so it's not like it mattered.

Map of level 2.

We never got around to check out this treasure. Then again, it's probably just some gemstones, which are totally useless at this point of the game.

The portal to level 3 wasn't too hard to find, though we had to fight a few monsters on the way.

The annoying thing about Sargoz is that it's ridden with traps and ambushes.

Map of level 3. This level is quite complex, with many portals and streams.

As all portals are one-way, the only way to get back to the previous levels is using another portal located on a lower level. We didn't use this portal, of course.

Indeed there are.

Another information about some treasure that is almost certainly not worth the effort of finding. We'll pass, thanks.

A parchment before said we must dispel snakes to use a portal. This seems like the place it was talking about.

Bingo!

We're teleported into a room with four signs in four corners.

Sadly, the signs just revealed to us a teleportal combination to escape Sargoz. I suppose this information might be useful if you're stupid enough to enter Sargoz without knowing how to escape.

The actually important portal is here. It took us down to level 4.

Here's the map.

Lake Kumalis? Have I heard of this name before?

"I hear the 'furnace' of Hades burns in Sargoz."
"Furnace?"

"You must find the portal in Lake Kumalis to reach the furnace."
"Lake Kumalis?"

"They say it is at the bottom at Sargoz."

Ah, yes! The halfling Nimmet said the portal to the Furnace of Hades is located in the lake.

So we did what must be done: casting Walkwater and wandering around in the lake until we randomly stumbled upon the portal.

We ended up in an enclosed area on level 4. I believe we're close to the Furnace now.

Well, not that close. We've still got to beat up some more powerful monsters.

We haven't used Fear in quite a while, but here it came in as a life saver. Since we can't kill so many strong monsters with spells alone in the first round, we must use Fear to paralyze the survivors to make sure they don't focus fire on Kodex and kill him in one round.

Then we had to make our way through energe fields and parasite mosses.

This is quite possibly the hardest encounter in the entire game. Fortunately, Fear is totally overpowered and made sure most of the monsters never get to act.

After the battle, we went through a long hallway filled with lava...

...And finally found the Furnace of Hades.

The white amulet is inside the Furnace. However, only a character with the elvish cloak would be able to enter the Furnace and retrive the amulet.

You know, it would royally suck to make it this far only to realize that you didn't find the cloak in Crezimas. Good thing we did!

Ritual checklist:

The green ring
The blue ring
The white amulet
Shir-aka ashes
Elven dream dust
Crystal dust
Learning how to perform the ritual of awareness
Learning the three words of will
Finding Zukkamear

I believe we have everything needed for the ritual now.

Quite conveniently, there's another teleportal room right next to the Furnace, so we don't have to go all the way back to level 1.

Even more conveniently, the teleportal could take us straight to the Hidden Vale.

Alright, let's get this over with.

First, make sure the guys who will perform the ritual are equipped with the right items. You need three magic users (not necessarily wizards, just someone who can cast spells): one with the amulet in his inventory, one with the green ring, and one with the blue ring. The bearer of the green ring must also have dream dust in his inventory; the blue ring bearer, crystal dust and shir-aka ashes.

Next, the party must locate the three lighting stones in the candle hall. The stones will be revealed when the character with the magical item of the corresponding color steps on them, so the three magic users had to run around in the candle hall until they have found the stones.

Also, the three magic users will be the only ones who will actually do something during the ritual. The other three party members will just eat popcorns and watch.

After all three magic users are standing on the right stones, it's time to begin the ritual. Kodex starts by chanting the ritual of awareness.

"Rehtem verek. Eklem kenek. Elatir gnassar."

Success!

Next up is Ziyx, who will sprinkle the crystal dust and conjure a bubble of captivity. Note that once the dust have been used, you have several real life seconds to chant the words to conjure the bubble. Fortunately the timer pauses when you're typing in chants, so you just have to input the 'C'hant command immediately after chanting the last word, but if you'd set DOSBox's CPU cycles too high, even that may not be possible. In this case, just adjust the cycles until the game is running at normal speed.

"Tefk. Akamur. Darda-iym."

Success!

Next, Alhan must sprinkle the dream dust (can you spot them in the screenshot? They're the small pink dots) and chant the three words of will to transfer Dreax into the bubble.

"Sastamounu! Ezberekene! Vrakkalamhir!"

Dreax doesn't look too happy there.

Well, whatever. Alhan then has to prepare the candle for repair.

"Ude! Samaid! Dehuble!"

Then Ziyx sprinkled some ashes of shir-aka and cast the candle-repairing spell.

"Exiteralmisto. Haxobez. Beshaim."

Success! The candle is whole again.

Finally, Kodex finishes the ritual by trasferring Dreax back to the candle:

"Ekburamitral. Hox. Begone!"

The ritual is finished! We have completed our quest!

Time to watch the endgame sequence.

"We hereby present you our most heartfelt gratitude for what has been accomplished. Your names, and your heroic deeds, shall become a permanent part of our land's lore and culture.It is thanks to your victory against Dreax and his forces of darkness that we could gather here tonight and make merry.

So, let us all rise and toast, to our Heroes of the Candle! The hall rings with the shouts of all who attend the banquet: Hail to the Heroes of the Candle!!!"

"The word reaching us from the lands beyond the sea of Oshmar causes us much concern. There is talk of a new demon-lord who equals Dreax in might. He is said to gather a dark host that is the most powerful ever! So it is our grim duty to make it known here tonight, that the well deserved rest our heroes will have following their victory, may have to be shorter than we would wish.

But for tonight, let us all enjoy this moment of peace and thank you once again, Kodex and Heroes of the Candle!"

Old RPGs and their sequel hooks.

If I ever get around to play The Magic Candle II, I could transfer the save into that game. If I ever get around to play the game, that is.

Thank you for reading this to the end. See you next LP!

 

[Azira]

 

[CappenVarra]

Congrats on completing the LP!

Also, the three magic users will be the only ones who will actually do something during the ritual. The other three party members will just eat popcorns and watch.

Neanderthals doing all the work while the Sapiens chill out? This is like that thing Cleve was talking about

 

[SCO]

Show what happens when you fuck up the ritual or let the timer end (preferably on the candle chamber AH)

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Show what happens when you fuck up the ritual or let the timer end (preferably on the candle chamber AH)

I'm planning to do a bonus update, including ways to screw up the ritual, the deal with the other two elven maids, and maybe some other craps. But first I need a break.

 

[lightbane]

You did it!

Too bad that at your characters were so stupidly powerful that few things could be considered a challenge. Also, it's funny that even the greatest soldiers of the Darkness are vulnerable to the Fear spell

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Bonus Update: The Shocking Revelation

Time to deliver the bonus update I promised. First, I'm going to show you the ways to screw up the ritual. And by ways I mean way, since there's only one possible screwup.

Perform the ritual normally until Dreax is captured in the bubble. Then move a character into the bubble.

The bubble will break, and Dreax will become free.

Then everybody dies.

Next up is some road encounters. I missed a ton of road encounters in my playthrough, but they tend to be rather unintersting so I won't bother showing most of them.

"Advice?"

"Seek Remon the knight."
"Remon?"

"At Crystal Castle."
"Rumors?"

"I hear of treasure chests stashed in enemy headquarters."

"Advice?"

"Ask Glenli about 'elven maids'."
"Glenli?"

"He is an elf lord. He lives in Crystal Castle."
"Rumors?"

"Got no time for that!"

Now that we know about two more residents of Crystal Castle, let's pay them a visit.

"Advice?"

"Seek evil dragon Rahkan's treasure."
"Rahkan?"

"Long time ago, a group of powerful wizards tricked Rahkan into a 'trap'."
"Trap?"

"It was a trap from which Rahkan was able to 'escape', but he was forced to leave our plane."
"Escape?"

"It is said that he had to leave his treasure behind, buried under a cursed sign."
"Rumors?"

"They say Rahkan will one day return."

This information would be useful if we still give shit about treasure at all.

There're three elven maids in the world. You must ask each of them about their song, and they'll sing the song for you. The problem is, while we did get the help from Suerfin, we were never able to acquire knowledge about the other two maidens' songs. But now I'm going to show you how to obtain that information.

"Advice?"

"My kin may help you locate a 'ring'."
"Ring?"

"I suspect it may be on Heavenly."
"Heavenly?"

"The only way to Heavenly is thru 'stairways to heaven'."
"Rumors?"

"I hear of three 'elven maids' with strange powers."
"Elven maids?"

"I once heard, on the Isle of Shendy, a maiden by the name of Aellin sing a most beautiful 'song'."
"Song?"

"The name of her song was 'river song'."

"Advice?"

"'Elven maids' can give you a gift in a song."
"Elven maids?"

"There is a famous song about one!"
"You mean Ellidrin?"

"Ask Ellidrin to sing you the swan song."

We actually talking with this elf before, it just never occured to me that I have to actually ask him about Ellidrin.

Now that we know the names of their songs, we just have to locate the elven maids themselves. Aellin is on Shendy, and Ellidrin is in Selderad. Sadly, all elven maids' songs have the same effect: boosting everyone's speed attribute by one. There's little reason to travel on foot once you've obtained an Ishban, so this speed bonus is pretty useless.

Finally, as per SCO's request, I'm going to show you what happens when you let the timer run out. First you have to find somewhere safe to rest, like a sanctuary or the guest room in castles. Then order everybody to sleep.

Now just tab away from DOSBox and check again two hours later because this is how long it takes to pass 600 days with DOSBox running at maximum speed. Fuck you for making me do this, SCO.

Actually, no. You can't just have everybody sleep for 600 days because of the food system. Since each character can only carry 99 units of food on them, we must go to Sumruna to stock up on foods every 100 days or so, making the process even more annoying.

After two hours of DOSBox running in the background, we're finally close to hitting the time limit. I wonder what will happen tomorrow... :fingercrossed:

Nothing happened on the next day.

Da fuk?

We went to check the Candle in Berbezza. The candle has completely burnt out, and Dreax is nowhere to be found. But why are we still alive? Why is the world not destroyed yet?

Well... Maybe Dreax is taking his time destroying the world, and we just have to wait a little longer?

Another 100 days passed, and the world is still fine. Something is not right. There HAS to be some consequence in letting the timer run out. Maybe the ritual will be impossible to finish after the Candle had completely burnt out?

Only one way to find out!

By performing the ritual according to the instructions on Zirvanad, we were able to transfer Dreax from whatever place he was into the bubble of captivity. He was probably just enjoying sunshine on Kuskunn when the spell abducted him to the other side of the world.

To our surprise, despite having completely burnt out, the Candle was perfectly repairable.

The ritual is successful.

As Kodex and his companions discovered, their quest was never on a time limit. Dreax was never going to destroy the world. The lands of Deruvia were never in actual danger.

The whole Candle Crisis was a lie.

I'm speechless.

 

[SCO]

Dreax just wanted bygones to be bygone and chill out on a tropical beach somewhere. L-O-L

 

[Azira]

 

[lightbane]

Amazing, I never expected a bug conspiracy like that

Should you let the time run out, are the npcs killed? If not, do their dialogues change if the supposedly "evil" Dreax is freed?

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Amazing, I never expected a bug conspiracy like that

Should you let the time run out, are the npcs killed? If not, do their dialogues change if the supposedly "evil" Dreax is freed?

No and no. I even tried having Mikemira cast the Neutar spell after hitting the time limit and then let the timer run out again -- nothing happened.

 

[SCO]

This could be really good plot trolling on a modern game...

 

[Crooked Bee]

Holy crap, completed already? That's what happens when you have too much work/random shit to do -- I missed out on all the fun I'm slowly catching up though!

 

[Invictus]

Just finished reading this gem, by far the best LP I have ever seen simply superb