Part 114: Freakin’ Zombies
Chapter 88 – Freakin’ Zombies
Mysterious Catacomb
Gasp from the Past
Bellegar, Round 4
Video: Mysterious Catacomb
(Behrlihn) We are about to discover something. Keep your wits about you and your weapon drawn!
(Yara) That’s just a figure of speech, right? You have been paying a little attention, right?
The green water is highly toxic, as you might be able to guess.
Locked… but there are two pedestals nearby. Looks like something goes on them.
(Rotha) How dare you defile his crypt with your breath that stinks of life? Who? You may seek him, but you will not find him. I will not allow you in his grave.
Well, that’s one… at least I hope this is the right thing.
The green stuff below is hightly toxic, and you need to jump on the series of temporary platforms
The goal is to reach the chest on that ledge. 
Off to the left you can see a Malachite Vein. There are two in this room.
Video: Gasp from the Past
(Lucian) Oh no... it can’t be… Why? Who is it? It’s him! He’s back!
(Zombie Jake) *Inhales deeply* Living flesh! How I abhor it. Warm blood and warm breath, pumping, coursing… breathing! You have done wrong to venture here, with your heartbeat loud as gongs; long have I balanced on the bring of death and my hospitality has suffered for it. As I gathered from the wall-to-wall body parts decoration. Any reason other than an eccentric sense of interior design? I cannot abide it! Up there they love and revel, and I have to dwell here in the dark, cursed to taste neither heaven nor hell! No more! Long as they feast above my grave they’ll only dance the dance of death! Not you, nor anyone can stop me. Know that even if you slay me now, one day, Jake will be back! 
(-15000 XP) I cannot be defeated long as my minions lie living in graves. And what living thing would think to fiddle with graves? Hehehe!
This guy again! Flames of Vengeance has a lot of callbacks to Divine Divinity. Some are bigger than others. Jake appeared three times in Divine Divinity – once in the graveyard of Aleroth, as a little hidden thing, once in a house’s basement, and once later in the Poor Quarter graveyard.
Zombie JakeIn Divine Divinity, it was just a matter of pounding him to death. Here, it’s different: he’s invulnerable. So how to kill him?
First, you desecrate some graves! That’s especially funny since “desecrating” Jake’s grave is how the Divine woke him up in the first place.
(Zombie Michael) I don’t know who you are, but your living flesh offends me! Come, let me at your throat. I promise you will like it!
For each of his minions you kill, one of the blue lights go out.
Over there – another grave!
(Zombie Folo) How dare you disturb the dead? I’ll make you squeal like a stuck pig!
(Zombie Derk) Look, Dana, it’s the Dragon Slayer!
(Zombie Dana) I am cold, she is warm: let us drink her blood!
Ahr! May you pass through endless miles of demon bowels! If by ruse I cannot claim your body, I will have to lay my own cold claws on it!
And STAY DEAD this time, damn you!
That ring ol’ Jake wore: I recognize it. This perennial pilferer muyst have stolen it from Thelyron Hashnitor, a Commander of the Council during the Wizard Wars. Hashnitor the Hypocrite, as I like to call him. Yes, he opposed Chaos. Then spend a long undead life in pursuit of similar powers in catacombs above my very head! It was your crystal-confined friend who ended him, at his own request, long ago, in the darkness beneath this city. I had rather mixed feeling about that at the time. I went all that way, expecting to have to kill a great evil, but instead I met a rather polite bunch of skeletons. I was glad in a way, but it did feel rather… anti-climactic. The great, nasty, evil-doer isn’t supposed to beg you to kill him.
This ring, dented and faded with the aeons, carries an engraved message: “Gold is what the Violet Blast craves most.” “Clue II” complete! Quest Reward: 7920 XP, 1600 Gold, 2 Skill books. Bonus Chosen: 3960 XP, 1600 Gold.
This is another place which is a reference to Divine Divinity that doesn’t quite seem to match how I remember it went. The end of Thelyron Hashnitor. It’s quite true that Hashnitor was undead and asked the Divine to kill him.
The part I’m confused about is from the diaries left scattered around that dungeon.
Those imply that he was alive when Mardaneus founded the new village of Aleroth, and that he was only in the lands of the dead for a decade or so.
Fatality
Increased from Rank 14 to Rank 15
Mana Cost: 60 -> 63
Kills Enemies under: 49% -> 52% Health
Evade
Increased from Rank 1 to Rank 2
Evade chance: 10% -> 12%
Video: Bellegar, Round 4
…And here we go again…
(Bellegar) All you have seen, the strife and the war,
and still you follow Zandalor! He’s mad, don’t you see, the gibbering fool, if he risks in Rivellon mad Behrlihn’s rule!
Mad? What slander is this? What lies? Release what you have, fool, so we can blast and butcher!
The time limit remains at 2:00, but the levels of the enemies continues to increase. They’re now level 40. That makes a pretty big difference. Frankly, if the time limit wasn’t two minutes, I probably wouldn’t be able to beat this.
Just 17 seconds on the clock. Enemies on Nightmare have a lot of health to chew through, so it’s not a lot of room to spare if there’s more than one full-health enemy. That’s the last of them! Rest assured, Bellegar, there is no stopping us!
Such power you wield that for me you not yield! Nothing for it, I say, but to try and try, until you may finally wither and die! 
You can quite clearly see what folly it would be to follow Bellegar. He would even have you go against Zandalor and we can’t have that now, can we? Interesting choice of words... I beg your pardon. “To follow Bellegar”. I wasn’t aware that was an option. Interesting catch, Dragon Knight. She’s caught nothing! Bellegar is nothing but a madman! You know that as well as I do! 
(Madam Eve) There you are! You were gone so very long! Are you okay! Why, yes! The murderer was a zombie named Jake and I put him six feet under for what is hopefully the last time. I bet you a hundred gold that it isn’t. Then it is all over? Madam Eve’s is safe again? Oh, what a relief! I’d give you the kiss of your life if I wasn’t afraid to burn my tongue on your Dragon breath! Are you trying to tell me I need a mint? But don’t worry, I will reward you well for your success as a sleuth! I am a rich woman and oh, how I do love to share! Maybe Thaddeus has seen something by now. “The Murders in the Rue Lanilor” complete! Quest Reward: 7920 XP, 1600 Gold, 2 Skill books. Bonus Chosen: 3960 XP, 1600 Gold.Evade
Increased from Rank 2 to Rank 4
Evade chance: 12% -> 16%
(Thaddeus) Ah, Dragon Knight, where have you been? I’ve been out protecting the city. And delivering cheese. And toys. And also fetching earrings for pathetic drunks Not to mention –
ALL RIGHT, I GET IT! I beg your pardon?
Sorry, nevermind. Do you have something for me? Yes, I do, actually. I discovered what that hatch leads to – it’s an old section of crypt tunnels that predated the city - by thousands and thousands of years - Er, no actually, only a century or two, actually. It was quite heavily trapped, so it was decided to seal that off rather than go through the risk and expense of clearing it out. All well and good, but I’m still waiting for the part that will help me. According to the records, it comes out in Source Square. Here, I found the combination to the hatch. Great work, Thaddeus! Thank you, Dragon Knight. How fares your search for the five clues? I have four so far. That’s… incredible. Yeah, maybe, but it might not mean much if I can’t find the fifth. I’m off to Source Square, and then to Champion Academy. Divine be with you Dragon Knight. Divine be with us all. The hatch is not really locked, but there’s nothing that way except main quest, so there wasn’t any point in going that direction until everything else was done.
Traps, huh? Do your worst.
Mysterious Catacomb
Gasp from the Past
Bellegar, Round 4
Maps
A close-up look at the image that the “Fear” skill produces.
This is another quest you can do before you ever visit the Prancing Seahorse. After Behrlihn prattles on about the Wizard Wars, he adds this line if you shouldn’t know what that is:
But you have no idea what I am talking about, have you? Perhaps later you will come to understand. In the meantime, keep the ring. I know it is important.