Part 19: Burglary and Vandalism

TLOD 5: Burglary and Vandalism



The portal takes us up to the priests' quarters, and we get the drop on one of them right away. Unlike those in the catacombs, these ones don't cast any spells. They can attack immediately once in melee range and consistently do more damage than their flails should - I think imported parties take double damage.



That single priest was just enough to level San-Raal up to 9. He can cast 5th level spells now. I grab a couple items from a shelf and open the door out of this room. It's around the southwest corner of a roughly square-shaped hallway, and I head north first.



Let's do some eavesdropping.



Remember the old woman from the start of the game who offers to guide you to the temple? Turns out her cause was hopeless from the start. They also mention the name Dran, who seems to be in charge here. One of the parchments in the previous update was a letter addressed to him.



There are a few instances of doors opening and priests coming out on this floor. Most of the ones tied to events are men, as are the majority spawned around the floor in my experience. This event guarantees one man and one woman. This hallway ultimately ends with a door that can only be unlocked from the other side, so I go to the south one.



There are four locks like this around the level. They have no keys. The first one goes to the portal room, which can be opened from inside. All others can only be picked. None of them contain something essential, and only this one has anything particularly interesting:



We've found that scout Khelben sent before us. There's a note with her remains:



Foreshadowing for the next area of the game, as well as the skeletal lords if you came here earlier than I did. It seems she was done in by hubris.




These decorations can be seen all around this floor. Those sculptures can be destroyed by any melee attack.



One in the southeast has a hidden button behind it.



It removes the wall, opening the way to three teleporters. Two of them will take you to either corner of the south hallway. The western one will disappear after you walk into it.



That one takes you to this room. It's square, with a shelf in the middle of each wall. Each one has a gem in it, except the north one, which has a copper key. Putting all three gems into the same shelf will remove that wall, opening the way to a door. This means you can only go to one of the rooms. I'm making a save and going through each.



First is north. After you go through the door, two darts will be launched at you, then three priests will spawn in the corridor behind you. This includes an elite who can cast Flame Strike, which is basically cleric Fireball. That gem on the gound is called a Tropelet Seed, and there is one in each of the four rooms. No other loot to be found here other than the darts from before.



I go counter-clockwise and check the west room second. It has four shelves, each with two iron rations. In this same level I also found two scrolls of Create Food. On the ground with another Tropelet Seed is a normal two-handed sword. While this room isn't actively harmful like the last one it's a bit of a dud.



Next I check the south room. It's an improvement over the previous two with actual magic items. The shelves contain a scroll of Lightning Bolt, a wand of Magic Missile, another Tropelet Seed, and four potions: three healing plus one vitality.



Finally, the east room. It has yet another Tropelet Seed, a scroll of Raise Dead, and some good enchanted gear seen here along with this note found among bones. It also mentions the name Dran, so I think it's safe to say we've identified the main villain of this game.



What could these ominous messages mean?



Oh. The wall you removed to get there comes back after you go through the door. Time to reload then. Given what's available and what happens in each room, there's obviously only one choice:



East. Wall of Force makes a temporary barrier that only your party can go through. Here it also stops that wall from coming back while it's active, so we can make off with that nice shiny armor. Just be sure not to hang around there too long and get out before the spell expires. After successfully escaping the east room, what about the central one?




That's what the Tropelet Seeds are for. Hint: read that name backwards. This takes you to the southeast corner of the main hallway.



While you can come here pretty early on, this floor mainly serves as a hub for the second half of the game. Getting past this requires finishing the next area. Once you do, there are more elite priests behind this and on the way to the final area.



I need to get this from the northeast quadrant in order to unlock all the doors here.



This shelf has lockpicks and a spellbook, items for Amber the thief/mage. Yes, she's a thief NPC that you need a thief to be able to recruit. You can only revive her after the sole section of the game you would want a thief for, but another mage isn't bad to have. Speaking of reviving her, I complete the path back to the stairs to do just that after resting.



She also learns Armor, Shield, and Invisibility from scrolls. There are a total of six recruitable NPCs in this game, and the last one is near the entrance of the next area. I intend to have them all together, no matter how briefly. That means she can't memorize any of those spells until then. Luckily, I still have wands for her.



As it happens, we also have some unfinished business in the nightmare stage. Since I'll be encountering monsters whose attacks can paralyze, I put Shorn in the spot where he's least likely to be hit. Having the only caster of Remove paralysis himself be paralyzed would obviously suck.