Part 136: Soldier's Graveyard 1

Just a short NPC chatter update here, before the main event.



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Welcome back!

Last time, we got kicked out of Cafu, the hidden ninja elf village of house-fruits. We are therefore venturing across the desert.



For a short, repetitive loop, this is some pretty swanky dungeon music.



The desert of Mariachi Cacti.



Mariachi Cacti who attack with the power of ROCK!

I fucking love this game.







They can drop Cactus Helms, and they're guarding a new throwing weapon for Rapp, and the Cactus Armor.

Hmm. You know who else can use throwing weapons?



This is the reason the debug menu was invented. I'm certain of it.

But in the absence of Sue, Feena takes the armor, and Rapp and Milda take the helms that dropped.



Rapp also gains a level from the process.





There are also sandworms and scorpions. The former can cast Def-Loss, and the latter come in large, tight groups and can inflict poison with, seemingly, 100% success.

And that's all I'm going to say about the enemies here.



Fireball is Rapp's skill learned at Fire 10. It is, bit-for-bit, nearly identical to Puffy Fire, aside from not involving Puffy in any way, making it clearly and demonstrably worse.

It's also locked to throwing weapons, but that's nothing compared to the other disadvantage.



Feena pulls back ahead of Rapp in strength.



We've seen Crackling before, but it never hurts to have multiple people who can throw it out.



Hidden away in an alcove, we find an upgrade to the Medal of Yore from way back when.

Sue would've loved this back when Rah-Rah was my only method of healing.

Anyway, with the preliminary stuff out of the way, it's time to hit the main event.



: Huh? What is it, Rapp?

: The cellar ahead we call the "Soldier's Graveyard". None of the fellows challenged to train there has returned. It's a place with a history.

: Well, if you want to try looking around, don't particularly stop in there.

Welp, sounds like the best excuse to go check it out.







Warning: the dungeon you are about to see is not canon.

Still, it is nice that the game warns you that you're going into an optional side dungeon.



They do represent a nice step up in difficulty from the main areas, and the enemies are even set up to give shit-all for XP and gold, meaning that the only major tangible benefits from the dungeons are the sweet, sweet loot contained within.

But before that, let's look at the guardians, shall we?

Some common features of all the monsters in here are near-immunity to all elements and most status effects, and a wide-area AoE that, if you get hit with more than one at once, is going to put you in a very bad place.

Oddly enough, one of the few status effects that most enemies here are vulnerable to is instant death. Good thing we're packing three swords that do that, huh?





The first area has Sand Men and Cerberi, who behave, and Will-O'-Wisps, who are teleporting fuckwads.



To make up for the fact that each fight is designed to drain your resources with very little reward, they make sure there's a metric fuckton in each area.

Also, Rapp's skill levels are so shit he's actually getting a decent amount of XP per target.



Between this and the Shadow Sword, I think the only reason Milda has a positive move score is because of her boots.



The second area is mostly the same, except for this sneak peak of the end, here.



Oh boy! This has gotta be impressive! It's a gemstone being guarded by two rock bird statues!

.... Yeah, no. It's the cheap, +2 fire resist accessory that was for sale in Gumbo.

Which brings us to the other major theme of this dungeon: treasures that are designed purely to take up space. This one won't be the last. Also: the gimmick of the next few floors.





Bam! Hidden passages!

Which we'll get to next time, as this is the halfway point for this dungeon.

See you next time!