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Completed Let's play Dark Heart of Uukrul! -- Dead and done!
- Thread starter Crooked Bee
- Start date
kazgar
Arcane
Kz3r0 said:
I'd be carrying 20 of the suckers if i could.
PrzeSzkoda
Augur
I am enjoying this LP very much. 
Even though I never really got into games like Uukrul, I like the way they exploited technical limitations, design-wise. For instance they used the limited corridor graphics to create all kinds of nasty, annoying and mind-bending direction puzzles.
Even though I never really got into games like Uukrul, I like the way they exploited technical limitations, design-wise. For instance they used the limited corridor graphics to create all kinds of nasty, annoying and mind-bending direction puzzles.
Fowyr said:
Alright, I'll try that!
Fowyr said:
kazgar said:
PrzeSzkoda said:I am enjoying this LP very much.
kazgar said:
I'm always carrying a few, just in case.
PrzeSzkoda said:
Yup, the devs did an awesome job given the limited graphics.
Uhm, bump, please? 
I'll bump for you 
Pussycat669
Liturgist
Guess I owe you that much
Still a couple more to go. 
I think the next post should reach the next page. 
Thanks, guyz!
27: The Cube
Hell yeah!
Okay, folks, here we go. The Cube is indeed Uukrul's analogue for Wizardry 4's Cosmic Cube, Wiz4 having been published 3 years ealier than Uukrul. (If anyone knows similar areas from other dungeon-crawling RPGs, please do tell.)
Uukrul's Cube is 7*7*7. Just like in the Cosmic Cube, every level is divided into smaller sections and contains pits/holes, stairs up or down, and teleporters to other parts of the cube; some teleporters even combine into a teleporter network of a sort. There are also trapdoors, hidden doors, one-way doors, etc. Just like the CC, Uukrul's Cube is plagued with random encounters which can be pretty tough, even with our relatively high party level. Another trick is that there are trapdoors in here that are essential to your progress -- i.e., you must fall through them at many times -- but they strip you of some of your HP so that you must be careful to heal yourself up after falling through a trapdoor or a pit (in case your attempt at climbing it has been not too successful). On the other hand, saying spells and prayers attracts random encounters so you might want to invoke MORPETH in advance to reduce the random encounter rate. You'll miss out on the awesome experience rewards in that case, though, so yeah, you should give it some thought as you go. There are also some scripted encounters in here, i.e., one that respawn every time you reenter the room or the particular tile, but in general they aren't as tough as the random ones. They can be annoying, however, in that they prevent exploring the Cube freely. Also, there are of course inscriptions and drawings around as well as, funnily enough, rope machines that let you buy a rope for 20 coins, making the climbing to and fro process much less of a pain.
Our task in the Cube is to retrieve two things: a key, found on level 4, to the grate on level 7, and the sixth frozen heart on level 4. Accessing both areas are quite tricky, though. You can try finding the route to them yourself with the help of this map I've made:
Dark Heart of Uukrul - The Cube map
It took me some effort to make this map; I just hope I've explored everything thoroughly. (Overall, it should be quite accurate. If you spot any inconsistencies, please let me know.) With the above map, this update will be relatively short, as I won't have to cover the very process of exploring around -- you can trace it via the map yourself -- but will only show you the more interesting spots, fights, or puzzles. Another thing I won't be covering is all those pits; they vary in difficulty, being more or less easier to climb, and you can lose some HP trying to get through them. I've even found an unclimbable ceiling pit on level 1, so go figure.
As we exit URQOL we come across a drawing informing us that the Cube has 7 levels and we must ascend them bottom to top.
On each level, you will occasionally stumble upon paintings on the ceiling telling you which level it is.
As the inscription (which we translate with NGOSLAZAR) tells us, this grate, found on level 1, is a shortcut to the Cube's exit, but the evil Uukrul has damaged it beyond repair and it can't be opened. We'll have to do it the hard way, then -- by making it through the entire Cube.
A random encounter has us fighting a Stone Giant; we get some hefty exp from that:
I guess our entire party should level up by the end of this update.
This is a normal teleporter (marked as "1" on my map above): it can only teleport you to one other location. This one teleports us to level 7, but not to the section with the exit, naturally. In general, the Cube has us hopping around the levels a lot.
And here we are, teleported to level 7.
Trolls are a common enemy in here.
And they also land us a lot of exp.
In the next room on level 7, we face a scripted encounter with a Frost spirit, or Morszahni, defeating it easily with the help of a Fire elemental Kalos summons to our aid. The exp is meh, though.
Trapdoors abound in here, and they're only one-way, of course. Plus falling through a trapdoor hurts and strips us of some HP.
Sometimes we come across what looks like a two-way pit, but we can only climb down, not up, from here. We can also jump over pits, of course. Some pits are situated in a quite tricky manner, so that you have to first descend and ascend it from a different direction in order to access the next part of the dungeon.
The scripted encounter on level 2 pits us against two Sentient Slimes (lol).
This is an easy encounter, though. Nevertheless, we get loads of exp for beating it.
Good. We are, however, plagued!
Good thing Kalos is carrying a Plague antidote on him.
Level 2 has a two-button teleporter marked by "4" in my map. The teleporters marked "4" make a network that has one teleporter on level 2, two on level 4, and one on level 6. You can see the precise way it works by consulting the map.
On level 4, we find another Nasty knife which we later identify as a Kris of resting. We now have two of them, yay! Enemy spellcasters, beware!
This is one of the particularly nasty random encounters. It has us facing a Frost Lizard (aka Salatrix), two Beguiling Women (aka Lamiae), and two Flying Snakes (aka Winged Serpents).
The Serpents can also cast a spell that lowers our AC. FFS.
We are all poisoned and close to death. FFS.
Serpents and Lamiae are spellcasters, and their spells are strong, so the best tactics is to try silencing them. NULAMIR is a weird prayer that is supposed to silence enemies but doesn't work on all of them (only on humans, maybe?), so we have to rely on silencing scrolls.
But finally we prevail.
Phew, that was surprisingly tough.
Some pits allow you to use a rope to descend safely, but we tend to run out of ropes too quickly.
Good thing there is a rope machine on level 4 that lets us buy a rope for mere 20 coins. We take three.
Also, on level 4, we fight a giant for a plot-critical key.
The giant is very easy to kill, though, and given that you can exploit the situation by not taking the key after the battle so that it respawns, we grind here a bit.
During the grinding, I grow careless and almost have spekkio-kun killed.
In one of our sanctuary visits, Bee advances to level 12.
And spekkio is awarded a Crystal ring in the Arkana of Knowledge.
We can also read the next passage from the archives, and boy does it sound scary.
Kalos receives a Platinum ring from Drutho.
Fshofth is still the least pleased of all the gods. :/
:D
Sometimes even ropes break.
Level 6 hasty a nasty trapdoor with three levers. After a lot of trial and error, I figured out that the first two levers open the doors below on level 5, and the correct combination is pulling lever 2 and then lever 1. Lever 3 makes you fall down below.
This area can't be mapped, to boot.
And we can't open the two locked doors by any other means than solving the lever puzzle above. Which had me swearing, cursing, and retracing my steps back to the trapdoor puzzle on level 6.
Another exp-laden encounter, this time with a Groaning Spirit aka Wailing Ghost.
Too good to be true.
Level 4 also has a funny thing -- a moving room. If you enter it through the southern door, you get transported 4 squares to the north.
Finally we make it to the room with the frozen heart. A wizard is provoking us!
No use in talking to him.
No use in drawing our weapons.
No use in trying to take the heart from him.
Attacking him is the only option!
This fight is easy, though, and the exp is negligible. The heart is all that matters, and we have it now.
Level 6 has an inscription I haven't been able to translate no matter how hard I tried. And I tried everything: NGOSLAZARs, UMESHs, and the Wand of potency.
Back at URQOL, Lord Rocket levels up.
Truth be told, I stopped keeping track of the changes in our attributes some time ago. It just doesn't seem to matter at this stage; we're quite powerful, that's all I can tell you.
On level 3, we find a precious ornate cup. Yay! Looks exactly like the one we got by defeating a dragon earlier.
Level 3 also has some annoying scripted fights: four in one room! So that you can't move around the room without stumbling on a Flame spirit every other step! FFS.
Level 3 is the level of loot. This sword is a Soul cleaver. We now have two of them, too! We're a bit too low-level to be able to equip it, though. It must be powerful!
Kalos and spekkio level up as well!
Lord Rocket and Bee are somewhat lagging behind.
And finally we make it to the level 7 section leading out of the Cube!
There are in fact two ways to exit it. The key we got from the giant is one of them; the most straightforward one. You can, however, miss it and still be able to exit the Cube -- through the "Service Access" room to the left. There is another rope machine in there, but not only that.
There's a secret door in there, too!
The only way that I found to open it was by reciting BELAMOQ, the most powerful prayer to Drutho:
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time Kalos recited it successfully. And on his first try, no less! We got the power!
We can also unlock the grate, of course.
And so we've made it to URQASTUR! Congrats, dear readers, we've beaten the Cube!
No new rings for Kalos or spekkio after the last level-up though. :/
Also, I have a question to Fowyr: should I insert the six hearts in the urn just now?
Next time: it is a mystery!
27: The Cube
Hell yeah!
Okay, folks, here we go. The Cube is indeed Uukrul's analogue for Wizardry 4's Cosmic Cube, Wiz4 having been published 3 years ealier than Uukrul. (If anyone knows similar areas from other dungeon-crawling RPGs, please do tell.)
Uukrul's Cube is 7*7*7. Just like in the Cosmic Cube, every level is divided into smaller sections and contains pits/holes, stairs up or down, and teleporters to other parts of the cube; some teleporters even combine into a teleporter network of a sort. There are also trapdoors, hidden doors, one-way doors, etc. Just like the CC, Uukrul's Cube is plagued with random encounters which can be pretty tough, even with our relatively high party level. Another trick is that there are trapdoors in here that are essential to your progress -- i.e., you must fall through them at many times -- but they strip you of some of your HP so that you must be careful to heal yourself up after falling through a trapdoor or a pit (in case your attempt at climbing it has been not too successful). On the other hand, saying spells and prayers attracts random encounters so you might want to invoke MORPETH in advance to reduce the random encounter rate. You'll miss out on the awesome experience rewards in that case, though, so yeah, you should give it some thought as you go. There are also some scripted encounters in here, i.e., one that respawn every time you reenter the room or the particular tile, but in general they aren't as tough as the random ones. They can be annoying, however, in that they prevent exploring the Cube freely. Also, there are of course inscriptions and drawings around as well as, funnily enough, rope machines that let you buy a rope for 20 coins, making the climbing to and fro process much less of a pain.
Our task in the Cube is to retrieve two things: a key, found on level 4, to the grate on level 7, and the sixth frozen heart on level 4. Accessing both areas are quite tricky, though. You can try finding the route to them yourself with the help of this map I've made:
Dark Heart of Uukrul - The Cube map
It took me some effort to make this map; I just hope I've explored everything thoroughly. (Overall, it should be quite accurate. If you spot any inconsistencies, please let me know.) With the above map, this update will be relatively short, as I won't have to cover the very process of exploring around -- you can trace it via the map yourself -- but will only show you the more interesting spots, fights, or puzzles. Another thing I won't be covering is all those pits; they vary in difficulty, being more or less easier to climb, and you can lose some HP trying to get through them. I've even found an unclimbable ceiling pit on level 1, so go figure.
As we exit URQOL we come across a drawing informing us that the Cube has 7 levels and we must ascend them bottom to top.
On each level, you will occasionally stumble upon paintings on the ceiling telling you which level it is.
As the inscription (which we translate with NGOSLAZAR) tells us, this grate, found on level 1, is a shortcut to the Cube's exit, but the evil Uukrul has damaged it beyond repair and it can't be opened. We'll have to do it the hard way, then -- by making it through the entire Cube.
A random encounter has us fighting a Stone Giant; we get some hefty exp from that:
I guess our entire party should level up by the end of this update.
This is a normal teleporter (marked as "1" on my map above): it can only teleport you to one other location. This one teleports us to level 7, but not to the section with the exit, naturally. In general, the Cube has us hopping around the levels a lot.
And here we are, teleported to level 7.
Trolls are a common enemy in here.
And they also land us a lot of exp.
In the next room on level 7, we face a scripted encounter with a Frost spirit, or Morszahni, defeating it easily with the help of a Fire elemental Kalos summons to our aid. The exp is meh, though.
Trapdoors abound in here, and they're only one-way, of course. Plus falling through a trapdoor hurts and strips us of some HP.
Sometimes we come across what looks like a two-way pit, but we can only climb down, not up, from here. We can also jump over pits, of course. Some pits are situated in a quite tricky manner, so that you have to first descend and ascend it from a different direction in order to access the next part of the dungeon.
The scripted encounter on level 2 pits us against two Sentient Slimes (lol).
This is an easy encounter, though. Nevertheless, we get loads of exp for beating it.
Good. We are, however, plagued!
Good thing Kalos is carrying a Plague antidote on him.
Level 2 has a two-button teleporter marked by "4" in my map. The teleporters marked "4" make a network that has one teleporter on level 2, two on level 4, and one on level 6. You can see the precise way it works by consulting the map.
On level 4, we find another Nasty knife which we later identify as a Kris of resting. We now have two of them, yay! Enemy spellcasters, beware!
This is one of the particularly nasty random encounters. It has us facing a Frost Lizard (aka Salatrix), two Beguiling Women (aka Lamiae), and two Flying Snakes (aka Winged Serpents).
The Serpents can also cast a spell that lowers our AC. FFS.
We are all poisoned and close to death. FFS.
Serpents and Lamiae are spellcasters, and their spells are strong, so the best tactics is to try silencing them. NULAMIR is a weird prayer that is supposed to silence enemies but doesn't work on all of them (only on humans, maybe?), so we have to rely on silencing scrolls.
But finally we prevail.
Phew, that was surprisingly tough.
Some pits allow you to use a rope to descend safely, but we tend to run out of ropes too quickly.
Good thing there is a rope machine on level 4 that lets us buy a rope for mere 20 coins. We take three.
Also, on level 4, we fight a giant for a plot-critical key.
The giant is very easy to kill, though, and given that you can exploit the situation by not taking the key after the battle so that it respawns, we grind here a bit.
During the grinding, I grow careless and almost have spekkio-kun killed.
In one of our sanctuary visits, Bee advances to level 12.
And spekkio is awarded a Crystal ring in the Arkana of Knowledge.
We can also read the next passage from the archives, and boy does it sound scary.
Kalos receives a Platinum ring from Drutho.
Fshofth is still the least pleased of all the gods. :/
:D
Sometimes even ropes break.
Level 6 hasty a nasty trapdoor with three levers. After a lot of trial and error, I figured out that the first two levers open the doors below on level 5, and the correct combination is pulling lever 2 and then lever 1. Lever 3 makes you fall down below.
This area can't be mapped, to boot.
And we can't open the two locked doors by any other means than solving the lever puzzle above. Which had me swearing, cursing, and retracing my steps back to the trapdoor puzzle on level 6.
Another exp-laden encounter, this time with a Groaning Spirit aka Wailing Ghost.
Too good to be true.
Level 4 also has a funny thing -- a moving room. If you enter it through the southern door, you get transported 4 squares to the north.
Finally we make it to the room with the frozen heart. A wizard is provoking us!
No use in talking to him.
No use in drawing our weapons.
No use in trying to take the heart from him.
Attacking him is the only option!
This fight is easy, though, and the exp is negligible. The heart is all that matters, and we have it now.
Level 6 has an inscription I haven't been able to translate no matter how hard I tried. And I tried everything: NGOSLAZARs, UMESHs, and the Wand of potency.
Back at URQOL, Lord Rocket levels up.
Truth be told, I stopped keeping track of the changes in our attributes some time ago. It just doesn't seem to matter at this stage; we're quite powerful, that's all I can tell you.
On level 3, we find a precious ornate cup. Yay! Looks exactly like the one we got by defeating a dragon earlier.
Level 3 also has some annoying scripted fights: four in one room! So that you can't move around the room without stumbling on a Flame spirit every other step! FFS.
Level 3 is the level of loot. This sword is a Soul cleaver. We now have two of them, too! We're a bit too low-level to be able to equip it, though. It must be powerful!
Kalos and spekkio level up as well!
Lord Rocket and Bee are somewhat lagging behind.
And finally we make it to the level 7 section leading out of the Cube!
There are in fact two ways to exit it. The key we got from the giant is one of them; the most straightforward one. You can, however, miss it and still be able to exit the Cube -- through the "Service Access" room to the left. There is another rope machine in there, but not only that.
There's a secret door in there, too!
The only way that I found to open it was by reciting BELAMOQ, the most powerful prayer to Drutho:
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time Kalos recited it successfully.
And on his first try, no less! We got the power!
We can also unlock the grate, of course.
And so we've made it to URQASTUR! Congrats, dear readers, we've beaten the Cube!
No new rings for Kalos or spekkio after the last level-up though. :/
Also, I have a question to Fowyr: should I insert the six hearts in the urn just now?
Next time: it is a mystery!
golgepapaz
Augur
Very good effort, please continue
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,545
Crooked Bee said:
If I had a dollar for every game that's blocked off the easy exit through an area, just to give the game more banalshitboring filler content, I'd be a very rich man.
It is, however, good to know that this "innovative" bit of game design goes at least this far back.
Fowyr said:
Ah yes, Wizardry 7. Thanks for the reminder.
Fowyr said:
Oops. I totally forgot there are Crystal spells. The one in the Arkana of Knowledge does indeed sound swell:
Will cover it in the next update, whenever that might be.
(Also: "CYQIEQARAQK"? "Sieqsiethsh"? Really!?)
You shouldn't even approach this kind of game without a bit too much of persistence. 
Kz3r0 said:So Bee tried everything except to bribe the wizard?
28: Hearthall
In which we get trapped a lot, obtain the dark heart of Uukrul, kill a Titan, and grow most powerful.
Previously on this LP, we made it through the nasty Cube and reached the URQASTUR sanctuary. Now onto the next area! In the manual, URQASTUR is called Sanctuary of Adron's Legions -- because, apparently, this is the former army headquarters -- but I'm going to call it "Hearthall dungeon" or simply "Hearthall", since that's what the teleporter in here is called.
Here is a map of this dungeon, and it is much more dangerous and sophisticated than it might seem at first glance:
Dark Heart of Uukrul -- Hearthall / Adron's Legions map
Some nasty traps in here! Teleporter #3 brings you to a small two-square room from which there's no escape but using a Medal. Black portal (marked by P) leads to a non-escapable trap room where your party freeze to death (again, you can only escape this place by using a Medal). One of the teleporter spawn locations, marked "dX" on the map, is the third trap since there's no way to go from it but onto the mentioned teleporter #3. Good gosh.
Again, in this update, I won't be covering the exploration process in full, only the places of interest. Hopefully, you should be able to track everything via the above map without too much problem.
And so we exit URQASTUR via the eastern door. The evil grows stronger!
Climbing down into the pit, we face a liquid wall.
We don't gain anything by examining it, but...
...we can walk right through it!
As we do that, we find ourselves in an area of darkness. We can't see a thing!
Only the walls are visible so we follow them.
Behind the next door we come across a drawing depicting the centre of Hearthall, the place where the 7th heart is being kept. You can easily spot it on the map, and I'll be covering it at the end of this update.
Teleporter #1 is pretty nasty; it doesn't let you progress further, teleporting you to a nearby (not "far", as the message says) corridor.
There's an iron slab on the floor here, with a mummified heart on top.
We examine the heart: the platform it rests on is key-shaped. Hmm.
Touching the slab isn't a good idea.
Taking the heart, however, throws us into a battle against a demon.
The Diabolic Phantom isn't a particularly tough enemy, but it can cast some nasty spells, so we should be on our toes.
Defeating the demon lands us some nice exp -- and an iron key! Making use of the best exploit this game has to offer, we don't grab the key just yet, grinding on the respawning demon encounter instead.
Having killed the demon several times, three of our heroes level up!
We're pretty strong, yay!
At the Circle of Magicians, spekkio is awarded a platinum Protection ring.
And then Kalos obtains a Crystal ring from Golthur!
Let's now try casting the Crystal spell spekkio learned in the previous update, CYQIEQARAQK:
Each time we cast it, CYQIEQARAQK lets us consult a passage from the Tome of the Seer. The first passage tells us of the Crystal spell in the Arkana of Fire, CYQIEKUN! Cyqie-kuun! Sounds quite powerful.
The next passage is just some atmospheric fluff. The mirror is apparently the Scrying Mirror, and the globe, the Globe of Blood. Now that we're reminded of them, let's rub the globe and the mirror!
The globe shows us a vision from the past: a prisoner and a guard torturing him.
The mirror shows us a vision of the future: four rotten corpses in a dungeon without a door. Hmm, I wonder if that's the same traproom the teleporter #3 teleports you to.
We cast CYQIEQARAQK once again. The new Tome of the Seer passage tells us of the crystal Healing spell, CYQIETUR. Sounds great! We'll have to wait until spekkio obtains the crystal Healing ring, however.
The fourth passage we read is about Adron.
It's the same Adron whose kauri plaque we found a few updates earlier. The one with the words "I WILL RULE". I doubt you're ever going to rule, Adron, dear.
Those aren't all the passages from the Tome of the Seer, but enough of them for now. Let's rather collect all the six hearts we've found so far -- they are currently stored at different sanctuaries -- and go insert them into the urn to finally claim the dark heart of Uukrul!
Bee now has the six hearts!
We teleport to URTEHLN and then reach the urn labyrinth. We already solved the lever puzzle several updates ago, so straight to the urn we go.
Let us insert the hearts now.
As we put a heart into one of the sockets, a shriek of terror is heard.
Finally, the six hearts are in place. And Uukrul is laughing.
His image appears behind the grate.
The final battle and the Chaos? Sounds scary!
But anyway. We now have the dark heart of Uukrul! Which means we are now closer to beating him!
The dark heart pulses faintly.
Back at the sanctuary, spekkio levels up.
He's level 14 now.
We ask Sagaris to identify the dark heart, just to hear what he has to say. Apparently, we'll need to smash the heart right in front of Uukrul!
In the shrine of Fshofth, Kalos is awarded a platinum ring!
After that, we return to the Hearthall dungeon. As we explore it, a vision of Mara appears:
She tells us the words that open the secret doors around here, of which there's quite a lot. Good. "The dark one has hidden the way with golden words" points to the riddle we'll have to solve to get to the 7th heart. (Of course, we don't really need the 7th heart anymore since we've already obtained the dark heart and therefore we could proceed straight to the next sanctuary, but I want this LP to be as thorough as possible. Also, I find it nice that you can find more hearts than you really need in this game, meaning you can skip a puzzle or two if you can't solve it.)
DRASZ is one of the words that open the secret doors.
And here's the first golden message.
This is another message, but not a golden one. I haven't really figured out its meaning, but I assume it tells us we can find another stone heart in this dungeon. Something like that.
One of the scripted encounters in here is with 6 Samurai. Easy peasy.
There are weapon and armour storage rooms in the eastern part of the Hearthall dungeon.
We stumble upon a nicely-looking sword here; Kalos picks it up.
Most of the weapons here are, however, of very poor quality. Bee looks scornfully at them.
Still, we manage to find a good one among them.
A flaming sword, yay! Bee grabs it.
Both swords look pretty kewl.
I've no idea what the deal is with all these coloured tiles.
Money! Rare gold coins, no less!!
Something ominous is going on behind this door.
A high-level Orc meeting!
Some Orcish Generals and Lords. They have quite powerful spells at their disposal so we make sure to silence them using a Silence scroll.
It doesn't take us long to find the next sanctuary, UROQLAMN. Our bussines in Hearthall is not yet done, however!
Meanwhile, Bee has advanced to level 14!
Hmm, will we all be able to make level 15 during this update, I wonder?
spekkio obtains the crystal Fire ring! He can now cast CYQIEKUN.
And we can now read the next archival passage. It tells us of some kind of beacon.
We ask Sagaris to identify the two swords for us. I like.
At UROQLAMN, we continue reading the Tome of the Seer. No idea what this particular passage is supposed to mean.
QADIOS is the crystal spell in the Arkana of Protection. It is the most powerful shielding spell.
Yet another Tome of the Seer passage tells us of the Obsidian Hammer.
And then we learn about MUZAQ, the crystal Frost spell. Instakill!
We also consult the Globe once again. I wonder who that old man is. Sagaris? Uukrul?
And the mirror shows us a horrible place we're sure to discover in the future!
Exploring the Hearthall dungeon further, we reach the officer's quarters.
Some cheap and worthless weapons in here.
As well as a small sum of money. Too small to matter.
This scripted encounter has us battle a Robed Man and three Wights. No problems here.
I'm not sure what this inscription is supposed to mean.
In the southern area of Hearthall...
...we come across a black portal!
As we examine it, Kalos advises us against entering.
As we try entering it, the game warns us the second time! FUUUUUUUUU-, handholding!
We press on. Kalos faints.
Oops.
It is indeed a trap. If you don't escape it by using a Medal of escape, the cold will kill you.
This is the teleporter #2.
It takes us back to the URQASTUR sanctuary.
The second golden message!
We also find a cool-looking staff. spekkio claims it.
Looks powerful!
There are many too many slimes in this dungeon, and they tend to plague us.
Good thing spekkio can cure plague with ISUL, the golden spell in the Arkana of Healing:
Lord Rocket is level 14 now!
And Sagaris identifies the staff for us, revealing it to be a Staff of power. spekkio-kun has a new staff now.
We also buy a new weapon for Kalos, a Club of holy power. We're fairly rich and can afford it!
Sagaris tells us the Club is inscribed with the glyph of the high priest. Nice.
At the sanctuary, we peek into the Tome of the Seer again. "The kauri plague is broken"? But we're carrying it, and it looks fine! What, should I break it or something?
The Tome also tells us about the prayer that awakens the dark mirror vision and that we'll need to shatter Uukrul's dark heart, but we know all that already.
And the Globe of blood shows us the final battle of Mara's party.
The fourth golden message!
In the area we can access from the cX spawn point, we find a new plate of armour. I wonder if it's any good.
We also try out spekkio's new crystal spell, CYQIEKUN, in a battle against several Trolls. They all die in an instant.
And here's the third and final golden message. Coolity cool. We can now proceed to solving the riddle.
We take teleporter #1 and find ourselves inside the Hearthall central building.
There is the HEARTHALL teleporter in here, which we can use to quickly travel between this place and a sanctuary.
Also, there are four secret doors in here. Each door is opened by speaking a "golden word", as Mara's vision told us earlier. The main clue was given in the golden messages themselves. In message #1, which we can identify by the word "first", we must form a "golden word" (= the password for the first secret door) from the first letters of each of the words it contains => FIRELIGHT. In message #2, we take the second letters of each word => HEARTSTONE. The third password is KAURIGLASS, and the final one is, surprisingly enough, UUKRUL.
We open the first secret door and are thrown right into a battle...
...against a Malign Shadow!
We defeat it easily.
The next fight is against...
...two Fire Drakes. This one is trickier as the Drakes can breathe flames that hurt our party a lot. Still, we prevail in the end.
Nice!
The third encounter is, however, the toughest one.
It pits us against a Might Creature aka a Titan. The Titan can also breathe flames as well as hit hard and cast Fire spells.
Still, the exp reward for defeating the Titan is pretty high, and we can use it to grind to level 15! I must've fought this battle, like, 15 times :OCDbee:
First Kalos and spekkio make level 15. It's the level cap, by the way.
spekkio gets the crystal Protection ring.
And Kalos obtains the crystal rings from Drutho and Fshofth!
Kalos is the most powerful priest evar! now.
The plate mail we found is Enchanted mail. We equip it on Bee.
At the shop, we buy a Great helm and Battle gloves for Rocket:
His AC goes up to 33.
We also buy Battle gloves for Bee and Magic boots for Kalos. Bee's AC is now 31, and Kalos' 19.
After some more grinding, we finally grab the 7th heart! Not that we need it, though.
Lord Rocket and Bee are now level 15, too!
We got the power, yay!!
At the Circle of Magicians, we read the last 15th passage:
Hmm, so we'll need to destroy a beacon? Duly noted.
Also, spekkio obtains the last two crystal rings!
Uukrul, beware!
In which we get trapped a lot, obtain the dark heart of Uukrul, kill a Titan, and grow most powerful.
Previously on this LP, we made it through the nasty Cube and reached the URQASTUR sanctuary. Now onto the next area! In the manual, URQASTUR is called Sanctuary of Adron's Legions -- because, apparently, this is the former army headquarters -- but I'm going to call it "Hearthall dungeon" or simply "Hearthall", since that's what the teleporter in here is called.
Here is a map of this dungeon, and it is much more dangerous and sophisticated than it might seem at first glance:
Dark Heart of Uukrul -- Hearthall / Adron's Legions map
Some nasty traps in here!
Teleporter #3 brings you to a small two-square room from which there's no escape but using a Medal. Black portal (marked by P) leads to a non-escapable trap room where your party freeze to death (again, you can only escape this place by using a Medal). One of the teleporter spawn locations, marked "dX" on the map, is the third trap since there's no way to go from it but onto the mentioned teleporter #3. Good gosh.Again, in this update, I won't be covering the exploration process in full, only the places of interest. Hopefully, you should be able to track everything via the above map without too much problem.
And so we exit URQASTUR via the eastern door. The evil grows stronger!
Climbing down into the pit, we face a liquid wall.
We don't gain anything by examining it, but...
...we can walk right through it!
As we do that, we find ourselves in an area of darkness. We can't see a thing!
Only the walls are visible so we follow them.
Behind the next door we come across a drawing depicting the centre of Hearthall, the place where the 7th heart is being kept. You can easily spot it on the map, and I'll be covering it at the end of this update.
Teleporter #1 is pretty nasty; it doesn't let you progress further, teleporting you to a nearby (not "far", as the message says) corridor.
There's an iron slab on the floor here, with a mummified heart on top.
We examine the heart: the platform it rests on is key-shaped. Hmm.
Touching the slab isn't a good idea.
Taking the heart, however, throws us into a battle against a demon.
The Diabolic Phantom isn't a particularly tough enemy, but it can cast some nasty spells, so we should be on our toes.
Defeating the demon lands us some nice exp -- and an iron key! Making use of the best exploit this game has to offer, we don't grab the key just yet, grinding on the respawning demon encounter instead.
Having killed the demon several times, three of our heroes level up!
We're pretty strong, yay!
At the Circle of Magicians, spekkio is awarded a platinum Protection ring.
And then Kalos obtains a Crystal ring from Golthur!
Let's now try casting the Crystal spell spekkio learned in the previous update, CYQIEQARAQK:
Each time we cast it, CYQIEQARAQK lets us consult a passage from the Tome of the Seer. The first passage tells us of the Crystal spell in the Arkana of Fire, CYQIEKUN! Cyqie-kuun!
Sounds quite powerful.
The next passage is just some atmospheric fluff. The mirror is apparently the Scrying Mirror, and the globe, the Globe of Blood. Now that we're reminded of them, let's rub the globe and the mirror!
The globe shows us a vision from the past: a prisoner and a guard torturing him.
The mirror shows us a vision of the future: four rotten corpses in a dungeon without a door.
Hmm, I wonder if that's the same traproom the teleporter #3 teleports you to.
We cast CYQIEQARAQK once again. The new Tome of the Seer passage tells us of the crystal Healing spell, CYQIETUR. Sounds great! We'll have to wait until spekkio obtains the crystal Healing ring, however.
The fourth passage we read is about Adron.
It's the same Adron whose kauri plaque we found a few updates earlier. The one with the words "I WILL RULE". I doubt you're ever going to rule, Adron, dear.
Those aren't all the passages from the Tome of the Seer, but enough of them for now. Let's rather collect all the six hearts we've found so far -- they are currently stored at different sanctuaries -- and go insert them into the urn to finally claim the dark heart of Uukrul!
Bee now has the six hearts!
We teleport to URTEHLN and then reach the urn labyrinth. We already solved the lever puzzle several updates ago, so straight to the urn we go.
Let us insert the hearts now.
As we put a heart into one of the sockets, a shriek of terror is heard.
Finally, the six hearts are in place. And Uukrul is laughing.
His image appears behind the grate.
The final battle and the Chaos?
Sounds scary!But anyway. We now have the dark heart of Uukrul! Which means we are now closer to beating him!
The dark heart pulses faintly.
Back at the sanctuary, spekkio levels up.
He's level 14 now.
We ask Sagaris to identify the dark heart, just to hear what he has to say. Apparently, we'll need to smash the heart right in front of Uukrul!
In the shrine of Fshofth, Kalos is awarded a platinum ring!
After that, we return to the Hearthall dungeon. As we explore it, a vision of Mara appears:
She tells us the words that open the secret doors around here, of which there's quite a lot. Good. "The dark one has hidden the way with golden words" points to the riddle we'll have to solve to get to the 7th heart. (Of course, we don't really need the 7th heart anymore since we've already obtained the dark heart and therefore we could proceed straight to the next sanctuary, but I want this LP to be as thorough as possible. Also, I find it nice that you can find more hearts than you really need in this game, meaning you can skip a puzzle or two if you can't solve it.)
DRASZ is one of the words that open the secret doors.
And here's the first golden message.
This is another message, but not a golden one. I haven't really figured out its meaning, but I assume it tells us we can find another stone heart in this dungeon. Something like that.
One of the scripted encounters in here is with 6 Samurai. Easy peasy.
There are weapon and armour storage rooms in the eastern part of the Hearthall dungeon.
We stumble upon a nicely-looking sword here; Kalos picks it up.
Most of the weapons here are, however, of very poor quality. Bee looks scornfully at them.
Still, we manage to find a good one among them.
A flaming sword, yay! Bee grabs it.
Both swords look pretty kewl.
I've no idea what the deal is with all these coloured tiles.
Money! Rare gold coins, no less!!
Something ominous is going on behind this door.
A high-level Orc meeting!
Some Orcish Generals and Lords. They have quite powerful spells at their disposal so we make sure to silence them using a Silence scroll.
It doesn't take us long to find the next sanctuary, UROQLAMN. Our bussines in Hearthall is not yet done, however!
Meanwhile, Bee has advanced to level 14!
Hmm, will we all be able to make level 15 during this update, I wonder?
spekkio obtains the crystal Fire ring! He can now cast CYQIEKUN.
And we can now read the next archival passage. It tells us of some kind of beacon.
We ask Sagaris to identify the two swords for us. I like.
At UROQLAMN, we continue reading the Tome of the Seer. No idea what this particular passage is supposed to mean.
QADIOS is the crystal spell in the Arkana of Protection. It is the most powerful shielding spell.
Yet another Tome of the Seer passage tells us of the Obsidian Hammer.
And then we learn about MUZAQ, the crystal Frost spell. Instakill!
We also consult the Globe once again. I wonder who that old man is. Sagaris? Uukrul?
And the mirror shows us a horrible place we're sure to discover in the future!
Exploring the Hearthall dungeon further, we reach the officer's quarters.
Some cheap and worthless weapons in here.
As well as a small sum of money. Too small to matter.
This scripted encounter has us battle a Robed Man and three Wights. No problems here.
I'm not sure what this inscription is supposed to mean.
In the southern area of Hearthall...
...we come across a black portal!
As we examine it, Kalos advises us against entering.
As we try entering it, the game warns us the second time! FUUUUUUUUU-, handholding!
We press on. Kalos faints.
Oops.
It is indeed a trap.
If you don't escape it by using a Medal of escape, the cold will kill you.
This is the teleporter #2.
It takes us back to the URQASTUR sanctuary.
The second golden message!
We also find a cool-looking staff. spekkio claims it.
Looks powerful!
There are many too many slimes in this dungeon, and they tend to plague us.
Good thing spekkio can cure plague with ISUL, the golden spell in the Arkana of Healing:
Lord Rocket is level 14 now!
And Sagaris identifies the staff for us, revealing it to be a Staff of power.
spekkio-kun has a new staff now.
We also buy a new weapon for Kalos, a Club of holy power. We're fairly rich and can afford it!
Sagaris tells us the Club is inscribed with the glyph of the high priest. Nice.
At the sanctuary, we peek into the Tome of the Seer again. "The kauri plague is broken"?
But we're carrying it, and it looks fine! What, should I break it or something?
The Tome also tells us about the prayer that awakens the dark mirror vision and that we'll need to shatter Uukrul's dark heart, but we know all that already.
And the Globe of blood shows us the final battle of Mara's party.
The fourth golden message!
In the area we can access from the cX spawn point, we find a new plate of armour. I wonder if it's any good.
We also try out spekkio's new crystal spell, CYQIEKUN, in a battle against several Trolls. They all die in an instant.
And here's the third and final golden message. Coolity cool. We can now proceed to solving the riddle.
We take teleporter #1 and find ourselves inside the Hearthall central building.
There is the HEARTHALL teleporter in here, which we can use to quickly travel between this place and a sanctuary.
Also, there are four secret doors in here. Each door is opened by speaking a "golden word", as Mara's vision told us earlier. The main clue was given in the golden messages themselves. In message #1, which we can identify by the word "first", we must form a "golden word" (= the password for the first secret door) from the first letters of each of the words it contains => FIRELIGHT. In message #2, we take the second letters of each word => HEARTSTONE. The third password is KAURIGLASS, and the final one is, surprisingly enough, UUKRUL.
We open the first secret door and are thrown right into a battle...
...against a Malign Shadow!
We defeat it easily.
The next fight is against...
...two Fire Drakes. This one is trickier as the Drakes can breathe flames that hurt our party a lot. Still, we prevail in the end.
Nice!
The third encounter is, however, the toughest one.
It pits us against a Might Creature aka a Titan. The Titan can also breathe flames as well as hit hard and cast Fire spells.
Still, the exp reward for defeating the Titan is pretty high, and we can use it to grind to level 15!
I must've fought this battle, like, 15 times :OCDbee:
First Kalos and spekkio make level 15.
It's the level cap, by the way.
spekkio gets the crystal Protection ring.
And Kalos obtains the crystal rings from Drutho and Fshofth!
Kalos is the most powerful priest evar! now.
The plate mail we found is Enchanted mail. We equip it on Bee.
At the shop, we buy a Great helm and Battle gloves for Rocket:
His AC goes up to 33.
We also buy Battle gloves for Bee and Magic boots for Kalos. Bee's AC is now 31, and Kalos' 19.
After some more grinding, we finally grab the 7th heart! Not that we need it, though.
Lord Rocket and Bee are now level 15, too!
We got the power, yay!!
At the Circle of Magicians, we read the last 15th passage:
Hmm, so we'll need to destroy a beacon? Duly noted.
Also, spekkio obtains the last two crystal rings!
Uukrul, beware!
So many crystal rings...
Kashmir Slippers
Magister
Am I the only one who finds it odd that your hack-and-slash warrior's best attribute is Intelligence, so much so that he is tied with your mage? His Vitality stat, interestingly enough, is (or at least was) the lowest out of all of your party members. Are stat gains random?
Also, I was wondering why you waited until now to buy gloves for your fighters. Was it an inventory thing?
Anyway, good job! I'm really excited to see this thing come to a close. It is my favorite LP going on right now.
Also, I was wondering why you waited until now to buy gloves for your fighters. Was it an inventory thing?
Anyway, good job! I'm really excited to see this thing come to a close. It is my favorite LP going on right now.
Kz3r0 said:
Yay!
lightbane said:So much grinding... Does that mean that this game is actually a jrpg ?
No, that means I should seek treatment. :OCD:
Fowyr said:
Indeed. I just can't help exploiting and power-gaming without any real purpose.
lightbane said:
Nope: "Nothing happens, the glass heart stays in one piece".
Kashmir Slippers said:
Yup, the attributes seem to randomly increase on a level-up. Well, truth be told, I'd like to think that isn't entirely random, but rather depends on the character's sub-class (e.g., Lord Rocket's sub-class is Berserk, spekkio is an Enchanter, etc.). That's just a wild guess on my part, though, the way it imho should be.
Kashmir Slippers said:
Yup, the encumbrance limit is very harsh in my view. It's only in this update that I was finally able to equip Rocket and Bee with the heaviest gear available at the shop; equipping it earlier would've either been impossible or would've precluded them from picking up any significant loot, which wouldn't have been wise.
Kashmir Slippers said:
The game is indeed extremely good, glad you're enjoying it.
torpid
Liturgist
Didn't know there was a level cap 
Without it you could've reached ridiculous levels -- let Uukrul get a taste of a level 25 party.
Also, adding your self-made maps takes LPing to a whole new level.
Without it you could've reached ridiculous levels -- let Uukrul get a taste of a level 25 party.Also, adding your self-made maps takes LPing to a whole new level.
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