Part 18: Ice Cave

Today's update is going to be a bit of a short one - the dungeon we're tackling isn't terribly long and doesn't have many monsters we haven't already seen.

Before heading out, since we've got a ton of money, we head to Lefein to buy 8th-level spells for Cleric, then Crescent Lake to get 6th-level spells (specifically, ICE3, HEL3, and TPR2) for Ranger. Neither can actually cast those spells yet, but it'll save us a trip later.



A completed spell roster is a thing of beauty.



Our destination today is the Ice Cave. We've already gotten the ICE Staff from here, but now we're going to clear it out.



Instead of going due south from the entrance, we turn west. This twisty path leads to the stairs down, which you can actually see in this shot.



Piscos are a regular encounter here, for whatever reason. At this point they're a complete joke.



Squids also make a return. They're nearly as weak as piscos.



Frost giants are just stronger members of the giant family, but ice lizards hit hard and can paralyze with their attacks. With frost wolves present as well, this encounter is pretty threatening.




The next floor is a bit of a maze, with intersection hallways blocked by rocks. The trick is to head all the way west, then south, east, south, and finally west to the stairs.



This area is fairly uninteresting.



The following floor has a giant room, but naturally we have to take the long way around to get to the entrance. Fans of vanilla likely have an idea of where this is going.



The Ice Cave also has damaging floors, which I assume are supposed to be super-cold ice or something. Like the lava tiles, they deal 2 damage per step.



That's an enticing central area, to be sure, but of course we can't get there yet. Instead, we'll have to dive into one of those holes.




The room at the bottom is filled with spiked tiles containing encounters with undead.



This floor has a couple of treasures worth getting. Off to the west is this chest, which contains the first of them.



Naturally, it's protected.



SOFT is still broken.



Inside is the SLEP Ring. After some debate, I give this to Cleric and trade her BOLT Ring to Rogue.



In the northwest is this chest, looking dangerous with those two skulls flanking it.



It's just money, though.



To the southwest is this room. Most of the chests her contain consumables or money, but the one in the upper right?



It has the Aegis shield, the strongest shield in the game. (Sadly, it offers no protection against petrification.) It goes to Ranger, and Cleric inherits his opal shield.



After heading up to the next floor, we make our way east to this room. There's nothing special in the chests - the hole in the floor is what we're really here for.



It drops us here, on the other side of the boss room, giving us access to the orb.



Our foe doesn't even have the courtesy to give us an introduction before attacking.



The boss of the Ice Cave is Hyudra. Although she doesn't have many real tricks, she hits hard and can deal a lot of damage. She's threatening for three reasons.




First, her attacks are strong and can inflict sleep. Sleep isn't terrible, but if she knocks out a healer it can be serious trouble. And of course, the damage can just be outright lethal.



Second, she has a special attack, ICEBEAM. Similar to Tiamat's BOLTBEAM, this hits one character for a ton of damage.




Third, she casts spells, alternating between ICE2 and ICE3. The former isn't terrible, but the latter can roll some very high damage, even with SHEL in place.

The best strategy for fighting Hyudra is to cast WALL and SLOW at the start of the fight, in that order. That will make her physical attacks basically a nonissue and make her ice attacks much less dangerous. For offense, HSTE is your best bet - the Ashkandi in particular can deal a ton of damage here.



Even with that strategy, this fight was rough. Rogue and Ranger both died, and it fell to Viking to finish the job, backed up by Cleric.



10001 GP and EXP, signifying that we've beaten the first of the optional dungeon bosses. This gets us to level 22 and finally gives Cleric access to her level 8 spells. But of course, that's not our only prize. Hyudra, like all the optional dungeon bosses, guards two chests.




They contain Glamdring (a reference to Gandalf's sword) and the Merlin staff, the ultimate weapons for the Wizard and Sage. Sadly, we have neither of those classes, so both of them get thrown away.



Once down, three to go. After we get Rogue and Ranger back on their feet, of course.