Part 64: Stealing from Earnest and A Fine Suit of Armor

Update 58 – A Fine Suit of Armor



“So, any suggestions as to where we start?”

“If I may?”

“Go ahead.”

“Ivanova, the sage of Golddale, has asked us to recover a book on teleportation from the good wizard to the north.”

“Yeah, but she offered the Identification spell – which we already have.”

“Which Matthias had.”





“Are you sure? He's been good to us, and we shouldn't jeopardize that relationship.”

“Maybe we can talk it out?”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

* * *



“Hello, Magus Earnest?”

“Back again? I haven't seen you in a while.”

“Yes. Well, we came across a curious request. There is a certain sage in Gol...”
“Ivanova, yes. Has something of superiority complex. Wants one of my primers.”

“Well, she wanted us to steal it.”

“Did she now? Well, I know for a fact she's no where near as good as she thinks she is. Hrm. I have a proposal then, just to spite her.”

“What would that be?”

“There's a book on one of my shelves – Teleportation for Dummies. It's a load of hogwash, but she wouldn't know that until far to late. You steal it from me, and I punish you by teleporting you to a location relatively close to Golddale. I know a place. It's not the safest of spots, but I'm certain you can handle it given everything else you have been through.”

“That sounds very kind of you.”

“Honestly, it'll get her out of my hair for a while. She's been nothing but a nuisance in my side for a while, and you're good enough people to not stab me in the back. Are you up for it?”

“Might as well. Not the first con.”

“Excellent! Search my shelves, while I prepare one of my portals. The one to Shayder, I should think.”

“Thank you again.”



“That was nicely done.”

“He did all the work.”



“Found it!”



“He's right. This is bad. Useless even.”

“The Shayder portal, right?”

“Yep!”



“That was bad acting.”





“This looks familiar.”



“I know where we are!”



“We're all the way to the east! Over by the coast!”

“This is where he sent us? The nerve!”

“Well, we're still pretty close to Golddale. Let's go take care of that.”



“My Precious!”

With the Orb, we can take shortcuts across mountain ranges that would otherwise take longer to go around. I do this twice to get to this little ravine just south of Golddale.




“Hello. We finished your mission for you.”

“It's about time! Let me see.”

You present the book to her. She flips through it, and makes sure it's genuine and intact. When she's satisfied, she pulls out a spell book. She teaches you how to cast the spell Identify. It's a short, but intricate and demanding spell. When she's done, she says “That's all I need from you. Thank you.”

“Very well.”

* * *



“Mission accomplished.”

“Excellent! Let's see how long before she realizes I've fooled her! The Shayder portal is restored to normal.”

What happens in this little side quest is that you steal the book, and Earnest teleports you to the Drake lair in retribution. Then he promptly forgets about it, and everything goes back to normal the next time you visit him.

“Actually, given that Shayder is on the Isle of Bigail, there is something I want to look into.”

“What is that?”

“There were some books in the library at Gale that spoke of a man who died on the Isle, attempting to slay a great Drake.”

“I remember! He had awesome armor!”

“That too. If we're doing random things now, can we look into this?”

“DONE!”





“So, where to?”

“Kuper, then Kneece.”

“That's on the other side of the Isle.”



“Yes, it was.”



“And the ride over just as bad as last time.”

“It wasn't that bad!”



“And here it is.”

Those of you who remember the last time I visited this island, while punching the Roach Plague out, may recall I took this exact shot last time – except there was no dungeon here. But, because we rummaged through the Gale Library, we know where this is, and can now access it.





“This is well fortified.”




“And some sort of warping in effect to prevent us from reaching the insides.”

“We can go around, find some way in, I hope.”




“Argh! No way here either!”

“Hey, there's digging to the south.”

“What? Really?”



“See! Someone put a crack in the rock here.”



“Nice going Sass!”



“Be careful, there is more to these pillars than what seems likely.”



“Like what?”



“They warp space back to impede passage.”

“REALLY?”

The first barrier we encounter in this dungeon is this, a teleporter maze where making the wrong move just moves you back a couple spaces. Think of it as a maze with invisible walls, and you'd be good.



“Let me take care of this.”

The next wrinkle is that the three paths forward are blocked by Lava. The unblocked path is on the left.



“My fur!”

And then Fire in the air, this entire corner of the dungeon is covered in Conflagration tiles.



“This smells like a trap.”




Four Efreet's appear, one at each corner of this empty section of hallway. Make no mistake, this isn't an easy fight. They each can breathe for upwards of 60 damage, and are surrounded by more fire tiles to make physical attackers take harm in the process. I had to reload a couple times, especially as you take damage from the fire tiles first.



Like so.



“Oh hell, I'm trapped in here!”

Well, this was unexpected. By approaching the door, Bronwyn has been locked out of the fight. If I end combat, she'll teleport back to the rest of the party thankfully.



“Brr! This is cold!”



“And now that I've managed to wedge myself through, I think we should take a break.”

“Agreed.”

“And while we'll do that, I'll cast magic on these boots!”



“Bronwyn gets those. She's got the heaviest gear.”



“Alright, I got point.”



“Huh. OK. We can't get in. They can't get out, but as long as we're in the anti-magic field, they can't harm us. Everyone, be careful!”

No, I have no idea either. Although this does prove that the Breath-type weapon is considered to be a physical archery attack that does magic damage as they try to breathe on the party as we pass by.



“A quick run to get into the barriers, and we won't have to deal with the drakes.”



“Lever!”



“Fire Lizards!”

“Ni'aurrl, Sass, take out some barriers, give us room to manoeuvre.”





“Don't let them all come to us!”



“Or I could drop an Anti-magic field on us, preventing them from harming us.”



“More behind those pillars!”

And more fire fields.



“Perhaps this switch?”



“That did it! We can go forward now!”



“Poor fellow. I wonder how you got here.”




“Oh come on! Will this never end?”

Not really. This whole dungeon is one long combat slog. At least Gorgon's aren't a threat.



“Charge!”



“How does this work?”

There are three lines of pillars here, and as you move right or left in front of them, the various rows will move back and forth one space each. Our goal is to open up a path to the top where we can advance.



Not like this.



Or that.



This will do.




“That is quite the drop.”



“That portal will take us outside.”



“Stairs!”

“Down we go.”



“This is a joy.”



“No welcoming committee. Let's go.”



“I feel like something should be here.”



“Oh no!”

There are a dozen Basilisks in the second chamber, here in the south-east. You've seen them before, and I had to reload about a half-dozen times as they mass-petrified everyone they could.

The best way through is to stick to the right side of the room, then west. This minimizes the number of the damned things that attack you.

Also, given we know that this is a Drake lair (it's in the name! The LAIR OF DRAKOS), I'm not adding these guys to the Random Basilisk Count.









“That was not fun!”

“I'm glad I have that Crystal Shield still.”






“Great, another case of taking the long way around.”



“Only this one is filled with the Undead.”

“You say that like it's a bad thing!”



“And more on the far side!”



“We're getting close to the end. I smell sulphur.”



“Uh oh.”



Entering the last chamber teleports the party into the middle of this pool of lava. I end the fight, cast Firewalk, then get ready to rumble.



“Hey, ugly!”



Reload!



Reload!







Drake Lords are nothing to sneeze at, and we're fighting two of them. This is not an easy battle, and I cheese it with liberal applications of Anti-magic fields on both of them to keep their damage output down.

Anti-Magic. Don't leave home without it. Unless you can cast Avatar on everyone in your party.





“Huh. That was less easy that I was expecting.”

“Their loot is in the back here!”



“One last Flame walk...”



There is a lot of loot here, but the real treasure is on the body in the back.



“And you must be Pachtar.”





“His armor is intact!”

“And what armor it is!”



And with this, Bronwyn is nigh-invincible. The 'Protects from many things' duplicates the effect of the Ring of Resistance she's had on since forever. It will go onto someone else at this point. And the effectiveness of the armor itself is top-notch.

One end-game piece of equipment down. 4 to go.

“We have what I came for. Let's get out of here.”




“And away we go!”



“Well, that was entertaining. Where to next, I wonder?”