Part 27: Lansk Undercity

Update 27: Lansk Undercity

So, last time, we went to Lansk, and Lansk was kind of lame. But after finding the right people to bribe, the passage to the Undercity was revealed. Naturally, the Undercity is the polar opposite of surface-level Lansk.

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Peals of hysterical laughter assail your ears. You've discovered the secret undercity of Lansk, and where the city above is staid and conservative, this place is a true party town. Citizens stagger about in drunken stupors, angry soldiers wrestle with one another, women and animals run through the streets.

Sure enough, upon our entering the Undercity, a group of women immediately approach us and want to party with us.



And by "party with" I mean "kill." Pretty much everyone in Dilmun wants us dead, whether they're working for Namtar or not. Why are we trying to save this place again?



It's not a difficult fight.



We walk by a store, and it is closed. Looks like our kind of place!



Clearly the "shadey" guy winking at us isn't hiding anything. (Secret door to our right.)




Seems we've encountered some sort of secret black market for magic items! Surely these highly illegal spells will cost a fortune!



Nope, everything here is dirt cheap for some reason. Of course, we already have Create Wall, and Wood Spirit is a summon spell so it's useless. And there are plenty of places to get Dragon Stones.

But look at that third one. Cure All. For just $100. Cure All does exactly what it says -- heals the entire party. It's Druid Magic and it's even stronger than Major Healing. For a small fee, we now have four of our seven heroes with group healing spells. Awesome!

Just to the south of the store is a clearing which sits under the SW corner of the city walls. In the middle is a statue:

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This statue honors the Universal God, the most popular deity of the surface realm of Oceana. The Universal God is a faceless deity with multiple arms and hands. Each hand is posed in a different signal, sending messages of hope and fear to the faithful. The Universal God is said to offer power to those who serve Freedom - it was a patron of the legendary Roba of Freeport. An ancient shrine to the Universal God on the mountain of Nisir attracts millions of pilgrims annually.

I think the Universal God was mentioned in Slave Camp. We already know about Roba and Freeport. We'll learn more about Nisir soon enough. Just keep in mind that there's a tie-in between the Sword of Freedom and the Universal God.

Along the southern wall are some buildings, but they're all empty. We do run into this guy who holds his axe like it's an electric guitar:




And there is another statue in the SE corner of the city:

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Here you find an image of Enkidu the beastman, patron deity of animals and Druids. His worship is strong in the wild places, but has declined in cities with the rise of Namtar and the destruction of the Druid sect.

Well, we've already met Enkidu, and Piers bested him. Casting Beast Call or blowing the Beast Horn at this statue does nothing, in case you were wondering.

The buildings to the east of the Undercity include the stairs to the Underworld, a healer, and these two shops:




Neither place has anything we need, but seriously. "Doctor Death's Killing and Maiming Emporium." I don't even need to say anything else.




I love this game.

Moving along we find the third statue in the NE corner.

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Here is a statue of Nergal the cowardly King of the Underworld. When he is not getting along with Irkalla, Nergalis exiled to his palace in the Necropolis, a city of the dead hidden on one of Dilmun's many isles. Nergal is a bloated and ridiculous creature, but from the look in his eye you surmise he might have a sense of humor.

Again, I guess this would be helpful if we hadn't already visited Nergal, but we have, and we will not be re-visiting him.



There's a harbor in the north. We still have things to do here in the Undercity, however.

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This statue represents Irkalla the reigning deity of the Magan Underworld. It is to her you must appeal if you will long survive in the Underworld. She frequently wars with her consort Nergal, sometime King of the Underworld.

The final statue is one of Irkalla. Again, we're past that point, but this statue is actually different from the others -- it's movable. As usual, we apply the Strength attribute to move it, but a high Strength attribute is not needed. Even Madrick with his lowly 10 Str can move it.




Naturally, the loot is useless. Note that it is possible to get to the Undercity very early in the game, at which point the Glow Sword is a very powerful weapon. At this point, we have no reason to pick it up.

Finally, we'll check out one shop to the west:




EZ Paperwork? What kind of stuff could they have?



Ah, of course. Bureaucrats upstairs, counterfeiters downstairs.

And yeah, all that work we did to get a Governor's Pass when we could have purchased one for a mere 200 gold. We don't need the Citizens Papers either, but we'll need a Kings Ticket to get on board the ship leading out of the Undercity, so we'll grab one of those for cheap.

But wait, don't we have something to do before leaving?

That's right! We've been tiptoeing around the most important part of Lansk -- the dragon bunker! This is Dragon Wars, after all! Let's get in there and fight that dragon!



See that black area in the middle? That's the bunker. There is a secret door in the south wall, or we could just use Soften Stone to get in. Either way, there's a small room in the middle with the dragon.

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Here you find Lansk's dragon, perhaps first glimpsed from the city square above. Up close the dragon is not nearly so impressive. It is an old dragon - its fire has gone out, and its teeth have been pulled. It is still a powerful beast, but age or drugs seem to have robbed the beast of its fighting spirit. The animal looks at you with something close to sadness in its eyes.

Yep. The dragon is old, sick, and toothless. So much for the epic dragon battle.

We need to get the dragon's gem, but there's actually no way to slay it or even fight it. We can't really negotiate with it either, seeing as it's a dragon. How to get the gem?

The simple answer is to heal it. Casting Lesser Heal or using a Healing Potion will do the trick. The Bandage skill won't.




Something I've seen in guides is the idea that in order to heal the dragon, you need to buy an Ankh at the City of the Yellow Mud Toad and use it here. And yes, an Ankh will work. But it's not necessary to buy an Ankh for this, and Ankhs don't heal or do anything else other than this. I don't really understand the point of the Ankh. It is possible that in other versions of the game, using the Ankh is required (it is DEFINITELY required in the Famicom version but that's an entirely different story) but there's no indication as to what the Ankh does or why it would be used here. It's strange. The "cast a heal spell" idea is much better and much more sensible.

In any case, we now have the Dragon Gem. And that's pretty much all there is to Lansk Undercity. Despite too many annoying enemy encounters, I love the Undercity. It's a great concept, there are a few secrets, and best of all, it has places like the "closed" magic shop and "Doctor Death's Killing and Maiming Emporium." Note to game designers: stop giving your games sewer levels and give them undercities instead. Undercities are awesome.



We've already been to King's Isle before, but there's some more business to take care of up there. Let's give this guy the Kings Ticket.



Coming up next time: Return to King's Island!