Part 32: Lanac'toor's Lab

Part 32: Lanac'toor's Lab of MAD SCIENCE*!

*May contain more magic than actual science



Into the lab we go!

Paragraph 107 posted:

This tower chamber is in very ill repair. The supports are sinking, and half the floor is flooded with inky blackwater. The contents of innumerable vials and potions are emptied on the floor alongside the smashed vials that formerly contained them. What was once a great magical library has been destroyed by fire and water damage.

Amid a pile of debris you find the fragments of a journal. Much of it is in some magic language you can't understand, but a small part is legible. The journal is dated prior to the destruction of the City of the Yellow Mud Toad. You surmise the journal was maintained by Lanac'toor.

'The chicken remains animate, not that it matters any longer. That pinhead Mystalvision has changed the rules again. Where will I find a vole in this weather? ... Have resumed expansion of my tower's basement, using Soften Stone and Create Wall spells to clear rock, but this whole damn building is sinking. I keep running into pockets of water. Furthermore, I uncovered an entrance to Magan, and all manner of berserk Underworld denizens are running amok in my tunnels ... The hell of it is that I've lost my spectacles that Utnapishtim the Faraway gave me. I'll never see the entrance to the College of Magic without them.

They're buried somewhere in the rock. I don't know if I can locate them at this late date, with Namtar's thugs loose and my name on the hit list. I should prepare the city for defense, but I haven't done my laundry in weeks, and it's beginning to smell.'

Such are the concerns of sorcerers.

Piers: Geez, what a nerd. And I thought Madrick was bad.
Madrick: Keep talking, Stabby McStabberson. Remember, Ice Chill hits from a mile away. How much range does that Freedom Sword have again?

As you might have guessed from his name, Lanac'toor is a bit of a comic relief character in this game, despite his being dead, petrified, and smashed into four conveniently-recoverable pieces. However, his journal here gives us some pretty obvious hints. We'll need to use Soften Stone and Create Wall to navigate down here, and we're looking for Lanac'toor's glasses, because we'll need them to find the College of Magic.

To start out, we have to cover a lot of ground. The Lab is a fairly large, open dungeon and mapping out all of the walls is key to solving it.



Here, for example, the only way into this area is by casting Soften Stone. No big deal, we'll just cast the spell and walk in...



FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF



So yeah, that note from Lanac'toor about "pockets of water" was a warning. Removing walls in certain areas means getting knocked over by a huge wave. As long as we remember to Bandage up regularly, this won't be a huge problem, but it is annoying.

Also, there's nothing in this particular area, but we'll have to keep exploring.



There are a lot of monsters down here. While Lanac'toor's notes mention them coming from the Underworld, these skeletons were apparently conjured up by Lanac.



Snakes... I hate snakes.



You used that line about ghouls costing an arm and a leag back in Necropolis, game. You're not fooling me. Also, how many fucking Goblins are there in this game? We must have encountered about 600 of 'em by now.

Also encountered, but not pictured: Wraiths. Because FUCK WRAITHS.



Are we sure that's the Underworld we're smelling and not Lanac'toor's laundry?



We don't want to go this way. It does lead down to the Magan Underworld, but there's no way back up. Let's go Soften up some more walls.



FUCK DAMMIT



Kali: Maybe you all should try backing away from the wall before I cast the spell?
Piers: No way! We're heroes! We must attack the flooding water head-on!
Kali: .......




Fire Storm is a pretty cool and powerful spell that we probably won't use all that much. It's Sun Magic, it hits all enemies within range for a ton of damage, but is less cost-efficient than Inferno. We'll give it to Dolph since we gave Inferno to Valar.

Kill Ray is one of three spells in the "Miscellaneous Magic" category. Any magic-user with skill one of the non-Low schools of magic can learn a Miscellaneous spell. Despite the awesome-sounding name, Kill Ray kinda sucks because it costs 15 MP and only hits one target, though it does hit 10-80 damage. Hmm, who shall we give this one to?

Madrick: Mwahahahahahaha! Mortals shall tremble before me, bearer of Madrick's Mighty Death Ray of DEATH! With this I shall rule Oceana!
Dolph: Why do we bring him along again?
Valar: Meh, not like I need that lame over-priced spell anyway.
Dolph: Yeah, knock yourself out buddy.
Madrick: Fear my DEATH RAY!

Zak's Speed, which we can already cast with items but don't really bother with, is also Miscellaneous. I'll probably give it to Dolph. Valar is just going to spend all his MP casting Inferno on everything. The other stuff is either crap or obsolete at this point. There's no way you would get this far in the game and still be looking for Mage Fire of all things.

There's also a locked chest in this room with a Healing Potion, Dragon Shield, and Battle Wand. The Dragon Shield is naturally a pretty good shield (+5 AC), and the Battle Wand increases everyone's Strength by 10 during combat. Which would be pretty good if I gave a damn about melee at this point.

Oh and right next to all of this stuff:



Kali: Great, we found Lanac'toor's Spectacles! Now we can find the entrance to the College of Magic!
Madrick: Mwahahaha, I don't need college, I have a DEATH RAY!

Indeed, there is a College of Magic to be found, and it's worth checking out. That's not all there is to check out, however. Let's make our way back to the Smuggler's Cove...



We haven't been to Rustic yet, but the College of Magic can be reached from there. There's a Game Preserve there which we may want to check out on our way to the College, or on our way back from it.

Additionally, remember how I said there was something else to check out near Sunken Ruins?



We might also have a reason to check this out now as well.

Next up: Either the College of Magic, Game Preserve, or Dragon Valley! What will it be?

Madrick: DEATH RAY!