Part 6: Greedy! You Want My Gold?

Stepping inside the mine there's only one way forward, involving this trolley. It'd be pretty annoying to find this first and have to figure out the oil's location afterward.



Once we've got the oil equipped we can begin our trolley ride. It's fun to zip around, only made slightly less fun by the giant spiders all over the tracks who are poisonous and also breath poison.



The trick in this section involves these switches. Hitting them changes the path the trolley will take. This first one actually turns us back in a short loop and brings us back again, so we don't want to hit it.



The only thing we have that can hit the switches is the scythe, but I'm inclined to forgive the re-use of the items on the grounds of it being fun and the fact that this is a novel use of the item compared to its original role of cutting down plants.



This is probably the hardest one to hit. I think I went around 3 times before I got to it. Oh, and each time you go around all the switches reset.



Success... comes with a price. That's not Rock derailing, that's Rock flying through the air about to go down the mine shaft.



I have GOT to stop doing this.

Need a hand up?



Looking for Silver? Let's go together then!



Watt's contribution as an ally is that he's a walking store. This is tempered by the fact that the little bastard wants full price for everything. What ever happened to friendship discounts?



The bottom levels of the mines are crawling with giant fleas and weird animated boxes. The fleas jump about as much as you'd expect, so fire is a very useful way of dealing with them.



Did I mention that Watts attacks by flinging giant axes? Because Watts attacks by flinging giant axes and it is awesome.



You might notice that there's a lot of rocks and such scattered around in here. The fact that we have a guaranteed method of getting mattocks means that the dungeon designers made every single room require at least one swing.



This dungeon is actually very straight forward. This healing spring is about the only detour, probably because there's no weapon or new tool to grab in here.



Missing here: The two jars I had to destroy with a mattock before triggering the plate and sliding into the now revealed stairway.



Pleasantly enough, some of the enemies in here drop bags of gold.

Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold!

I thought we were here for silver?

But that's not how the song goes. It's traditional.



The spiders and their poison breath are actually fairly dangerous in narrow spaces like this, but...we have ways of dealing with that.



One nice thing in this game is that its usually made quite clear when you're going in to a boss fight.

Boss Fight: Megapede


Megapede Boss Battle

Megapede is a fun boss, with a few possible viable strategies. The head is the only vulnerable spot and Megapede likes to make circular motions, so a weapon with a good arc is pretty useful. Magic is out, though, as the fire spell has about an even chance of hitting a body segment. If you're really daring, you can try to get in the center and hit the head as the Megapede is circling around you. The biggest danger dealing with this battle is getting pushed into a wall.



The explosion that's a bit away from the rest is Megapede's head.



Somehow the Silver is left in a chest.



Sweet, I'll come pick my set up when you're done!

Gaia will let you in if you wear Silver stuff!

Five minutes later...

Dwarf Cave Music



Great, I'll just take these...

That'll be about 1750 gold.

WHAT!? That's highway robbery!

Can't be. We're in a cave, for starters.

I helped you fight the monster that was between you and the materials. In fact, I did most of the work!

Dwarf's gotta make a living.



Yes, you do indeed have to buy the silver equipment after getting the materials for it. Watts is a little bastard that way.



On the plus side, however, the equipment provides about a 33% boost in our attack and defense stats.



Nothing terribly exciting happens when we enter Gaia this time, although this is a rather interesting obstacle. When you walk between the statues the door closes. The solution is to simply walk far enough back up to open the door and then turn around immediately.



As soon as we walk out, though, we're stopped by a voice behind us. I'm assuming that he had Silver armor already...



Cibba told me about that. Julius is good at disguising. But, don't worry. We can save her.

Have you guys been watching Julius, or is that a generic statement since he fooled us?


I'll come with you and help! Let's go!



Bogard is...less than impressive. He's got a very large sword, but all he does is stab straight ahead with it. His ASK command, as you see here, is not terribly useful either. It does bring to mind a question: are Gemma knights the only ones who can do these techniques? If so, how does Rock know them?



The guy from Kett's brothers are here in the forest, although they're significantly stronger and have a sound attack that can hit off to the side. They can also jump to get around obstacles. I find it somewhat amusing that the werewolf in Kett's appears to have been the runt of the litter.



There's a shortcut concealed in the trees where the wolves were hanging out.



On the way there are fishmen who fling tridents straight ahead similar to the way that the bugbears did. Curiously enough they're still flammable.



The game is kind enough to have an inn waiting for us if we should need it.



The porcupine-like monsters fling quills but are otherwise unremarkable. The green leaves near Bogard are actually a plant enemy that can only be attacked when it comes up out of the ground.



They appear to attack by screaming at you. Mandrakes perhaps? The building here is a merchant for your key and mattock needs, who also sells the Silver Helmet.



In order to continue we have to pull out the chain again. This is a bit more of a problem now, as there's a 6 point difference in attack between the chain and the silver sword.



This is just overdoing it. Who set up this network of posts, and who else is running around with a chain using them? The cloud enemies, by the way, attack with lightning bolts and are best dispatched with fire.



At long last, we reach the airship.

Next time: Cabin boys, Julius, and Rock's least favorite activity.