Part 36: Fiery Death
Update 35: Fiery Death
"Come on, everyone: it's time to enter the Tower of Mercy, save the good wizard Yekop and gain limitless arcane power! Hooray!"
Welcome to the Tower of Mercy. The map is a mirror image of the Dark Keep, it has the same gimmick, and it is exactly as annoying.
"Hmm. I guess that means that this time, we have to add 1 to all odd numbers and subtract 2 from all even numbers."
"In that case, if the answer to this riddle is 1, then the correct door is number 2."
"And an answer of 4 also becomes door number 2."
"... and that means door 4, right?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Screw it, just pick a door at random."
I chose poorly.
Pegasi are highly resistant to magic. Fortunately, they can't really do anything except use weak physical attacks, so even a party of mostly Sorcerers can just beat them to death.
"Why, that's 5, of course -- which translates to door 6."
"11 is odd, so the answer is actually a dozen. Door 12!"
"Good thing I have lots of experience passing sobriety tests!"
"Too easy. Door A!"
"U is six places from the end of the alphabet, but these doors only go up to E..." "Wait, I know! The answer is double-U -- W! Which is four places from the end, so... door D it is!"
"And of course, this time the correct door is F."
"I get it! The first letter in 'right' is R, so... uh... we should go through door I! I think."
Success! Once again, the party blows up a few Iron Wizards with magic, and arrives...
... in the chamber where the tower's wizard is imprisoned.
"There are another two dials to set. Make yourselves useful, mortals. Do any of you know the correct combination?" "I remember!"
"Left 64, right 32! Yekop, here we come!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" "But why are you thanking us for freeing Ybmug? You're good and he's evil, after all."
"Well, sure, but I lent him a bunch of money and he promised to pay me back with interest. Now that he's out of stasis, I can lend him even more! I'll be rich!" "I suppose this also explains why Ybmug wanted Yekop freed."
And we're finally done with the Tower of Mercy. Teleportation is blocked in both of the Sorcerer quest dungeons to keep you from bypassing the puzzles, so the party has to walk all the way out, back the way they came, and then fly to Mt. Farview.
"Awesome! This is even better than when I first learned Disintegrate!"
"We sure will! I'm gonna sign it like I've never signed before: with an Implosion spell!"
"Uh-oh."
"I hope I don't have to do too many more of these. I'm getting sick of going on everyone else's quests for no extra reward."
"Level 9 spells at last! God's in Her heaven, and all's right with the world!"
"I can no longer command all the power I once held, but this is enough -- for now."
Take note of Marcel's HP. Now look at the rest of the party. That is the difference between ten levelups at 5 endurance and ten levelups at 100 endurance. Yeah, we're going to want to do something about those stats soon.
"It's lucky for you that hirelings can't charge more than 50,000 gold per day."
"Wow! I've totally got like a million new spells now!"
"At last, I have ascended to the pinnacle of arcane knowledge! Some day I will break new ground in magical research, and others will follow in my footsteps!"
"Yeah, that's nice and all, but the important thing is that we can blow shit up better than ever before."And how! The party now has access to the final two levels of Sorcerer spells:
Level 8 Sorcerer Spells
1. NAME: Incinerate
COST: 3 SP/level + 8 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: 1 monster
DESCRIPTION: Engulfs a monster with the heat of a thousand fires, doing 20-40 damage points per level of caster.
At very high levels (50+), Incinerate is the best way to inflict single-target magical damage against anything not immune to fire. Of course, at very high levels it's also incredibly expensive in terms of spell points, but when you need something to die right now it can be worth it.
2. NAME: Mega Volts
COST: 3 SP/level + 8 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: 10 monsters
DESCRIPTION: Creates a chain of electricity connecting all opponents, with the deadly voltage doing 4-16 damage points per level of caster.
"Hey, remember that scene in Return of the Jedi where Emperor Palpatine shoots lightning out of his fingers? Ever wanna do that yourself? Now's your chance! This is one of the strongest multi-target spells, even if it is kind of expensive."3. NAME: Meteor Shower
COST: 8 SP + 1 SP per monster + 8 Gems
TYPE: Combat, Outdoors
TARGET: All (limited by spell points)
DESCRIPTION: Buries all monsters under a hail of meteors, inflicting 5-50 damage points on each monster.
"A fast, if inefficient, way to end a battle when facing hundreds of vermin: this is one of only two spells that can affect more than 10 enemies at a time. But against groups of more powerful opponents, it may greatly drain the caster's magical reserves to little useful effect."4. NAME: Power Shield
COST: 8 SP + 8 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: Entire Party
DESCRIPTION: Reduces the damage inflicted on all characters by any attack, by 1/2. Lasts for the duration of combat.
"Safety first! At the start of any battle against monsters who can inflict dangerous amounts of damage, casting this spell will help weaken their physical and magical attacks."Level 9 Sorcerer Spells
1. NAME: Implosion
COST: 10 SP + 10 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: 1 monster
DESCRIPTION: Creates a hole in space at the centre of the target creature, sucking it into nothingness.
"As you have already seen, this spell inflicts 1000 points of damage. Against resistant enemies -- which is to say, most of the enemies worth using it on in the first place -- it will usually inflict only 250 damage. Even so, Implosion is a reliable way to inflict heavy wounds, and far more cost-effective than Incinerate."2. NAME: Inferno
COST: 3 SP/level + 10 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: 10 monsters
DESCRIPTION: Unleashes the heat of the sun on all monsters shown, doing 1-20 points damage per level of caster.
"It's about as strong as Mega Volts, but it's fire instead of lightning. So, like, I guess you should use it on monsters that get hurt more by fire than lightning, and otherwise use Mega Volts."3. NAME: Star Burst
COST: 10 SP + 1 SP per monster + 20 Gems
TYPE: Combat, Outdoor
TARGET: All (limited by spell points)
DESCRIPTION: Showers all monsters with pieces of an exploding star, doing 20-200 damage.
"I am going to have fun with this spell like you wouldn't believe. Okay, I guess you would believe it if you knew anything about me at all by now, but still! It's like Meteor Shower but four times as awesome, and it only costs 2 more spell points and a few more gems!"4. NAME: Enchant Item
COST: 50 per plus of item + 50 Gems
TYPE: Non-combat
TARGET: Spell caster
DESCRIPTION: Attempts to raise the magic ability of an item by increasing its '+' by 1.
"In theory, any item can have an enchantment of up to +63; items found as treasure seldom rise above +30. With this spell, anyone with enough time, power and gems can have a full set of +63 equipment. Of course, enchanting an item from +62 to +63 would require 3100 spell points, which is only achievable with a level above 100 and very high Intellect."Well, that's 6 plus quests down, 1 to go. Should we finish the Barbarian quest next, or would you rather see me search Druid's Point Cavern for the Divine Intervention spell, or explore a castle dungeon, or finish Lord Slayer and Lord Hoardall's quests? The decision is in your hands! Vote now!