Part 66: Fake Update #12: Iona's Dungeon

Fake Update #12: Iona's Dungeon

There are still some things on the first level of Iona's dungeon that I didn't show off. My original plan for the narrative was for Jeremiah to go outside, meet Arhu, then tell Arhu that he was going to return to the dungeon to search for his sister. This would have annoyed Arhu. Jeremiah would then have re-entered and gone through the rest of the levels.


Map - Iona's Dungeon, Level 1








The first additional thing is right in the exit room: a false wall.




It leads to a teleporter stone. That takes you somewhere else on the first level of the dungeon.






This teleporter pad doesn't work, but there are three pyramid-shaped thingees on pedestals around them. What if we fiddle with those?






Each one you touch puts a Super-sized potion on the teleport pad and summons a Steel Skeleton Miniboss to fight. It still doesn't help make the teleporter function any better.

Note the yellow and white hammer icon on the status bar. My shield is going to break soon, which is why you should have 1 point into Repair, or a +1 Repair item before entering Stormfist. You don't want to get stuck down here with broken gear. Worse still, it's possible that you can find the way deeper into the dungeon BEFORE you can find the way out.




If you follow one of the northern routes, you'll see this room full of chests, which apparently can't be opened. But...




Go west, then north again and walk right through the wall.




Here's where I actually got the Metal Belt from. The shield is also magical, but I already have the best shield in the entire game. The switch unlocks the door.

The dungeon is long, and it's both impractical and impossible to keep carrying around all your Vendor Trash, so rooms like this are a good place to leave it, and come back once you get your Teleporter Stones back.




There are various slightly-more-interesting cells in the dungeon, which hold special or mini-boss monsters. I'm not going to post shots of them all, I'm just letting you know about them. This one holds a lot of scorpions and gemstones.




They're not really a threat.




Here's the way down to the lower dungeon. If you use the "go right first" approach to mazes, you'll find this spot before the way to the surface. This can be especially troublesome if you do this the first time you play the game, like I did. While the things down there are tougher than the things up here, they're not THAT hard (with one BIG exception).




You have to look carefully at the text to find the correct phrase (the middle one). It's worthwhile using the wrong phrase at least once, though, it summons a bunch of monsters, so free XP! The stairwell appears to the right and above the parchment.





Map - Iona's Dungeon, Level 2



I'm not sure what the "Mystery Lever" does. That's why it's a mystery.




Mostly what you'll face in the lower levels are Liches. They're moderately tough enemies with above-average HP, and only a weakness to fire. They don't do much damage, but you have to watch out for their Life Leech and Lightning spells. If you have Spellshield, keep it up at all times, because the Liches have a nasty habit of hitting you with Lightning when it's down, which hurts a LOT.

Burning Wall is less effective on this level, so switch to Meteorstrike, and use the standard Lightning on the few Steel Archers around.

There are also some Dark Corpses about as well, but they're more annoying than threatening.




Somewhere on this level I hit level 25. Most of my attributes are boosted by my gear. By the way, you haven't even BEGUN to see what a TRUE "Mystic Aura" looks like.




The Steel Conjurer and Steel Conjurer Lord make appearances on these levels, but not in numbers worth worrying much about.




One locked door, three switches. The left switch opens the door, the other switches trigger traps.




The exit down is at the far left/west of the level. I went through this and didn't find that many interesting screenshots, so be glad I had the sense to not force you to sit through a narrative of it.


Map - Iona's Dungeon, Level 3



The "Mystery Lever" on this map probably opens the nearby cell.






Welcome to the third level down. The creature at the bottom is a Wraith, a type of Ghost. It can cast Withering Curse on you, lowering your resistances, but it shares the same vulnerability to fire as the other incorporeal undead. There are only a handful of them in the entire game, all on this level. This one is the first one you can possibly meet, so it's been given the health of a mini-boss. The rest are a lot weaker.




Also appearing for the first time on this level are Greater Ghouls. Their elemental weaknesses make them little threat. (Once you get over the hump, playing a mage is a lot easier than a warrior, and more fun, too.)




Seriously, keep spellshield up at all times. Lightning really, really hurts. If it wasn't for Spellshield and more importantly - the bonus HP I got from reloading several times to get decent stats on my gear - I would have died several times in this dungeon. If you have no idea the dungeon is coming and enter it at a low level, and then take the wrong turn into the deeper parts, it could be very frustrating.






Further along, there's another false wall. Inside is a nice stash of potions, a Lich, and a switch that opens another locked cell nearby (I think).






This is a random magical tunic which is always found here. It has less armor protection than George's armor, but I reloaded anyway because the magical attributes on George's armor were well overdue for replacement.




Replenishment shrines are getting harder to come by on this level.




Almost to the end. There's an odd room full of harmless livestock. What's this doing here?




I really don't have a good feeling about that cave to my left.




What the fuck is THAT?

It's Cyrion, Iona's pet and the boss for the dungeon.


Video - BOSS: Iona's Pet







BOSS: Cyrion No fooling around this time, this is a serious boss. It is over 10 levels higher than I am, it has no elemental weaknesses, almost 3000 HP, it moves fast, and it does a serious amount of damage. It killed me twice.

Since it has no elemental weaknesses, my strategy is two-fold.




1) Use Rank 5 Limbs of Lead to slow it down so I have room to move away.




2) Pound it with Rank 5 Hell Spikes. Spam them liberally. From now on, Hell Spikes will be my default spell when my enemy has no elemental weaknesses.




Eventually, it dies, dropping some random loot. But the more interesting thing is this locked chest.




There are no keys around, even if you use "Alt" to highlight items, and you can't lockpick it, even with Rank 5 Lockpick. So how do you open it?









Just use SOMEONE ELSE'S head! Here's where I got the Light Plate armor, a Rank 4 magic item. It's classified as heavy armor, but I'm strong enough now to afford the extra weight.

Thankfully, to get out of here doesn't mean walking all the way back.






You re-appear above a hatch that wasn't there before, on the first level of the dungeon in the room where you found your equipment again.

This concludes Iona's Dungeon.

Next Time: The Bizzare and Tragic Tail of Shrimpo