Dragon Wars Part #29

Part 29: Snake Pit

Update 29: Into the Madness

We can't turn back, so there's only one way to go: toward the screams.

Everywhere we walk, the screaming continues.

It must be coming from this place.

Decaying city? It's Dilmun. All of the cities are decaying.

Paragraph 75 posted:
After what seems an eternity, you locate the source of the screaming. Nearly mad yourselves, you find a city of the mad squatting on a desolate shore. Feeble huts made of driftwood and debris huddle together in a feeble pile. White-haired loons with wild eyes stumble to and fro, mumbling to themselves or shrieking like cats. Crazed citizens of the place wrestle with one another, seeming like writhing human serpents. It's a madhouse, and the inmates are running the asylum.

So, Snake Pit. One interesting thing here is that despite it being the town of the mad, and despite the paragraph talking about people wrestling, there are no enemy encounters here, even random ones. It's funny how these "crazed" people are the only ones sane enough to steer clear of our seven-person wrecking crew. Well, except for one guy...

Geez. This little boy got shipped off to a town of exiled crazy people? That's dark.

Obviously, to get out of here we need to convince the boy to let us in. The hut is empty, but there's a dock right behind it. Actually, it's entirely possible to use Soften Stone to get back there, but we have other things to take care of here, so we'll go ahead and find the correct solution.

Checking out some of the other huts...

Paragraph 76 posted:
A mad artist inscribes designs on the sandy floor of his hut. "I don't have to do this, you know," he says as you enter. It's uncertain if he's talking to you, or if you walk in on him while he was talking to himself. "I can make a good living as a tattoo artist!" he continues. "But I will draw on you, mother earth, because everyone else draws from you. You. Who. Moo. Moo?"

The artist jumps up and bounds about the hut. "Moo! Moo!" he howls. "Don't you see? It's all so clear. At last! At last! The poor man rushes past you and is quickly lost in the village of the lost.

I'm not sure why Paragraph 76 is in the game. Maybe someone thought it was funny. In any case, it's not relevant.

Fortunately, no Goblin Beach Bums this time around.

We can pick up as many Branches as we want here. The Branches cast Beast Call, except it doesn't work because they're out of charges. We can charge them up by having Dolph cast Charger, and then it works, except it doesn't because we have 7 members already. If we really wanted Beast Call, we'd use the Beast Horn, and we don't need it either way. However, there is something we can do with the Branches.

We give him the Branches, of course.

He teaches Beast Call to whoever uses the Branches, if they have Druid Magic skill. Well, that's wonderful -- more Beast Call.

Moving along, we find that something useful has washed up on shore:

We now have all of the Lanac'toor pieces, so we can go put him back together. Or at least, we can once we get out of Snake Pit.

More unimportant insanity. Next.

Paragraph 81 posted:
A dwarf springs up as you enter the room. He eagerly scans your party, then collapses in disappointment. "No dwarves," he weeps. "Never are there any dwarves. Poor Josephina is all alone." The dwarf has a woman's name, but it's bearded and it smells and... well, no matter, Josephina is probably just as crazy as everyone else in this silly town.

"The kingdom is broken," cries Josephina. "The great clan hall is sealed, and all the dwarves slumber in the vaults. Namtar stole the eyes from our icon and hurled them into the sea. Every day I search the coast, but never do I find the eyes." Josephina continues to weep, hardly aware of your presence.

This might be helpful to a player who hasn't already found the Dwarven Clan Hall. At this point, though, it's information we already know.

Also, considering who developed Dragon Wars, the inclusion of Josephina is interesting.

Hmm. What could this mean? Well, let's take a look at the map:

Any time we see a walled-off space in the middle like that, it's worth suspecting a secret door. Sure enough, if we go back into the other buildings, we eventually find a false wall. So, what's in here? Another crazy person?

Paragraph 80 posted:
The center post of these communal huts shelters a secret chamber. A skeleton dressed in the royal colors of Kingshome sits on a makeshift throne. Whoever this was, he's been dead a long time. A royal signet ring gleams on one skeletal finger. The ring seems both valuable and important.

Oh shit. "The king is near," indeed.

So, this here is King Drake. And he is very, very dead.

Naturally, we can figure out what happened here. Namtar wanted to rule, so he killed the King and took his place. And where better to hide the king's body than in the city of exiled lunatics?

There are two pieces of loot to get here: the Signet Ring and the Jewels. The Jewels are useless, but we can sell them for a decent amount of gold. As for the Signet Ring, it's not an equippable item, it doesn't cast a magic spell, or anything like that. However, it is an item of some importance, and it's going to be our ticket out of Snake Pit.

Also, there's one other secret room inside of the secret room. It has the 6204'th locked chest we've found in this game.

The Crush Mace, the Mega Bolt, and the Grand Sword are all unnecessary because we have better weapons. The Magic Bow is a better bow than the Great Bow, so we'll give it to Valar, not that it matters much. The Luck Wand casts Luck on an ally in battle. Luck isn't great, but the wand has infinite charges, which is kind of nice.

Anyway, you can probably guess our next step. Go back to the boathouse and show the boy the Signet Ring.