Exile 2: Crystal Souls Part #54 - The Spore Tunnels and the Tomb of Delrin-Bok

Part 54: The Spore Tunnels and the Tomb of Delrin-Bok

Update 050 – The Spore Tunnels and the Tomb of Delrin-Bok

“No one?”

“Aside from the fact our resources are communal, what would be the point? We all know what the results would be.”

“That fungus is moving. That one is moving.”

“Not hostile.”

“No, but there will be, further in.”

“Or we could stand here all day, and not do anything?”

“I like that plan!”

“This will take forever to get out of my fur.”

“We could shave you.”

“Don't you dare!”

“Oh! Mobile and Hostile!”

I'm also over-leveled for the area, so random encounters flee me.

“Before we go flying over the water, let's check around the local area.”

“Ford up river.”

“Huh?”

“She is saying that the way the water is flowing indicates a shallow section further up that bay be a ford.”

“You can tell that?”

“We do live in lakes and swamps.”

“Ah.”

This whole section is designed to be completely be someone without Flight or the Orb, so if you are here and have neither, then keep looking for secret passages to get around obstacles.

“Why are all these spores in the air?”

“They collect in low spots where they form a quagmire?”

“Seems so. Nice to have questions answered.”

“How did this get down here?”

“This is very old, years and years.”

“From the place below?”

“The what now?”

“It is not something spoken of around outsiders.”

“So we are.”

“I wonder if we'll find a boat?”

“Probably not. Looks like the Vahnatai have some major public works ahead of them when they reclaim this area.”

Another secret passage to bypass natural barriers.

In the north-west corner of this section of the map, there is this large field with invisible triggers to spawn enemy encounters. There are four of them in this area.

“This isn't a threat.”

Nope. In fact, I just buff/debuff with Art and Kai-Lyss, then feed all these monsters to Marianna and Dmurr so they can get more levels under their belts. Each of these creatures have 30 HP, so they're not that difficult to kill.

“So much fungus. I may have to take a bath in quickfire to get it all out.”

“I can oblige.”

“Is it just me, or are these tunnels folding back on themselves?”

“Probably. We are headed down. And there's a lot of work ahead.”

“A lot of work.”

“Fewer spores in this area.”

“Hello the camp!”

“We will be careful.”

“You as well, Art-Ikteh.”

“Hey, that was a long way around that swamp. And Art didn't get lost once!”

“Really?”

“Yes, Sir Ma'am!”

“And as a distraction, I think we're at the bottom of this area.”

“Careful...”

Welcome to the worst single offender in encounters in the game. This location, and this next dungeon are crawling with Black Shades and Guardians – all invisible.

And after a single round... Yeah. Reload, and bypass this trigger with the Orb. I'm in no mood to deal with this, there will be enough coming up.

“I'm glad that it was nothing.”

“Could you imagine being attacked by a half-dozen invisible mages?”

“In the open like that? How would you find them?”

“I wonder...”

“So, what are we doing here?”

“Negotiating passage, maybe?”

This dungeon is optional. You can bypass it completely.

“A maze in the middle, to defend against intruders. Three ways in.

“Well, we're here, might as well check it out. If those who went ahead were worried about this place, we should at least say hello.”

“I'm worried about your definition of 'hello', dahling.”

“Ah! Invisible enemies!”

“It's hard to find them...”

“There must be a better way...”

“This room is too empty.”

“There is a box.”

“Exactly.”

ARGH! 5 Guardians and a Black Shade! More invisible Bullshit!

“I got feedback from the spell – Delrin is nearby and is hostile!”

“I have an idea! We must clear out this room first, then recover!”

“Alright, what's the idea?”

“This.”

It was late when I recorded this dungeon. I knew that I would be up to my eyeballs in invisible enemies thanks to spawning, so I decided to cut out everything that I could get to safely.

“Wait, what does that spell do?”

Shockwave goes through walls, and deals more damage the farther away from the caster you are. What you see here is the party taking damage while huddled around Kai-Lyss, and a whole bunch of enemies further in the dungeon taking damage. Kai-Lyss can do this 6 times before needing to recharge.

“That's a lot better. I think I also see where Delrin-Bok is located.”

“Let's go around the outside ring of rooms first, see what there is.”

“How does that spell even work? It doesn't damage anything else!”

“The explanation would go completely over your head.”

“Art!”

“He's right. There are thaumaturgical terms that you need years of education to understand.”

“Is there where those Vahnatai who didn't make it out are kept?”

“One way to find out.”

“Statues. Watch out for a Basilisk!”

“There's no where for it to hide. I think this may be a ... trophy room.”

“Um.. I don't think they're friendly.”

Eight Blademasters, close quarters? I'm the one with spell casters, so this was a fairly easy fight. Easy enough that I decided to try and get flashy.

“Let me see....”

How this spell works on the target is very difficult to unravel. The documentation is non-existent, except to state that an enemy that is 'weakened' is more likely to be captured. Does this mean Cursed? Low HP (I think this is a relevant part of the calculation)? Something else entirely? I don't know! But I tried to grab a Blademaster twice after beating it down (Scry Monster is good for knowing how close they are to death), and failed both tries.

“That was well beyond mind control. If they were part of the expedition that reached this point, they were lost well before we got here.”

“Lever.”

“Absolutely nothing.”

“I need to rest. Let us leave this place, allow me to restore my energy, then I will clear out more of the maze.”

“Alright, that's everything in the local area. Let'em rip, Kai-Lyss.”

“And this is as safe as we're going to be.”

“Don't worry, I can heal.”

“Wow.”

I love this spell. I know Major Blessing is also awesome, but Shockwave just rips dungeons to shreds.

“You know, before Kailyss did his thing, there were at least four monsters in this room.”

“I'm just glad all these sleeping pods are intact. But they're too opaque for me to see what's in them.”

“Missed one!”

“Wait.. where are they coming from?!?”

“Thin air.”

I am going to accidentally abuse this room later on.

“Got it!”

“Quick! Get out of there!”

“Hrm... I can handle this.”

“What was that for?”

“Efficiency.”

“There's nothing else over here, I think the last section to go to is the north side.”

“Or undead could show up behind us.”

... Stupid spawning rate.

“Cells.”

“I agree.”

“There are a couple with living beings in them, be careful.”

“Right, farthest one first.”

“Free.”

“Thank you for your help. Kai-Lyss here will give you directions to the camp your fellows have made.”

“Thank you, Art-Ikteh.”

We also lose 10 food in the event.

“And next is a hidden room.”

“Pulled, and still nothing.”

“One more.”

“Come on, we'll get you out of here.”

One completely forgettable fight, where the enemy Hraithe didn't even summon anything....

Did I mention invisible random encounters on this patch of land? Because there are invisible random encounters full of invisible enemies that are invisible.

“Alright, last place to check, then we're going to get into the maze. Thankfully most of it is cleared out already.”

“There's something written on the wall over there.”

“What about the crystal?”

“It is just projecting that image.”

“So that's, what? Three levers?”

“Nor'West, South East, Sou'West.”

“None in the north-east?”

“Not that I noticed.”

“Nor did I.”

“In any case, I see the next point where I can fire off the Shockwaves to reduce future enemies.”

“Inside the maze?”

“Correct.”

“I wonder, is that section merely incomplete, or damaged due to time?”

“I figure the latter.”

“We'll cover everything anyways, but looking at the map, there are plenty of secret passages around here. Just check all the walls while Kai-Lyss gets ready.”

“Ready.”

You know what? Shockwave has regained its place as my single most beloved spell in the series. I'm sorry Major Blessing, but while you're awesome, you're not Shockwave.

“That should do it. We can get to Delrin-Bok now.

“I think these are tied to the levers we pulled.”

“I concur.”

“One more!”

“OH COME ON!”

“Perhaps one of the levers is in the incorrect position? A false-negative?”

“Missed one?”

“You missed one, Kai-lyss.”

“Giving you something to do.”

“I suppose this room might have a point if people were blindly exploring.”

“Probably secret passages to the south.”

“And putting lava behind the barrier is insulting. I approve.”

“Shock barriers. To dispel or walk through?”

“I should rest. We can walk through and trust in Art to heal.”

“And damaged. Look! Something shiney fell out of the wall.”

“We should retrace our tracks and locate that secret that was mentioned to us.”

“Right. I think I know the place, based on the map.”

“This isn't well hidden. Searching negative space is old hat to one such as I.”

“... This is stupid.”

“There is no lever in the north-east!”

“And if I'm reading this right, the south-west needed to be left in the 'up' position.”

“Ghast room.”

“Oh, don't worry. I have a trick up my sleeve that's almost as fun as Kai-Lyss'.”

“Oh?”

“Let's get over there, and I can show you.”

“Your plan?”

Mass Charm just turned 2/3 of the Ghasts in this room friendly. They then descend on the remaining hostile Ghasts in a frenzy that is beautiful to behold.

“Uhh... How did you get out here?”

No clue, but this was taken while I was trying to find that damned North-east lever, just to satisfy my curiosity as to its location. I also encounter enough random encounters 'off camera' that I just spammed Shockwave to clear them out. This is about to bite me in the ass.

“Let's try this again.”

Look at the message log. Guess what I didn't see?

“You know, I think that the lever is hidden in that cabinet in the north eastern room.”

“The one that was chock full of Guardians and Black Shades?”

“The one we can safely ignore?”

“Success!”

“Alright, best behavior everyone, and get ready to utterly wreck Delrin-Bok.”

“CHARGE!”

“What?”

“It is... done.”

“What?”

“Look here, shattered crystal.”

“What?”

“My excessive use of Shockwave may be the reason.”

So, here's what I figured happened. When clearing out the north-east side of the dungeon, Delrin-Bok can be clipped with the Shockwave spell. Now, I noticed this. I saw Delrin taking damage, but I also knew that he was a boss, and thus, had a larger HP pool. I wasn't worried about that as I would leave the dungeon and rest up before returning to Shockwave another group of enemies.

But the game keeps persistent track of the number of the damage done to enemies in recently entered towns and dungeons. And it keeps track of how many enemies I've killed in dungeons. This information resets when you enter your third dungeon. So, you can enter a place, then two more. And on the fourth, the persistent information for the first is cleared out, and any non-plot event gets reset.

As near as I can tell, the sheer death toll caused by me running through the Ghast spawning room a couple times, coupled with accidentally killing Delrin-Bok with excessive Shockwave use caused the game to flag the dungeon as “Abandoned”.

I wiped out the dungeon by accident. I had no idea that was possible before now, and I'm amazed at what I did, and ashamed I was denied a proper boss fight.

“And that is why.”

“Oh my.”

“I vote that when we tell the Olgai Council about this, we describe an epic battle against an insane Bok who took offense to our presence, despite our goal as a rescue mission.”

“Aye!”

“This isn't a democracy.”

“Aye.”