Part 8: Keeping it Cool

This is going to be a short one. The real path will be a bit longer.

First thing today, as you could probably guess, is not the Ice Pyramid.



It's a battlefield, of course. This one's got mostly Desert Hags and Lamias, with one new enemy that I got a better shot of later.



You might be thinking "Why didn't we clean this one out?" That's because I'm almost positive this battlefield has a unique background after we save the Water Crystal, so that's something to look forward to next update.



Welcome to the Ice Pyramid. First off, you're going to need this (stolen from Gamefaqs because fuck mapping this out myself), but we're only going to be concerned with floors 1, 2, and 3 today. The Ice Pyramid has the same music as the Wintry Cavern, so load that one up if you're listening as you read this. At first glance, we're stuck in this room, but if we take a closer look at that statue in the corner...


Let's push it with something...



The gimmick here is that the darker statues can be stabbed with your sword to make doors open.



Like so.



The other gimmick of this dungeon is that all the enemies are invisible. In this particular shot, I'm standing right in front of a Lamia.

Anyway, our first stop is location "D" on the first floor.



Grabbing the Magic Mirror makes all the monsters visible. Nothing amazing, but it does make things a tad more convenient.



The end goal of the dungeon is to get down into that huge pit, but that's for next time.



Our first new enemy (and the one that was in that battlefield earlier) is the Mage. These guys can cast Muffle, which causes Silence, though I'm not sure it actually does anything. I've played through this when Phoebe had both her correct resistances where she was immune to Silence and Tristam's where she was not, and I could still cast spells just fine. They also will cast Cure on other enemies or themselves if you can't one-shot them, and they have Coldness as a basic Water spell. They're weak to fire, so blast away.

Our next destination is stairway 1.



There's a few heal potions here, but otherwise nothing of note.



This is also about the point where I ran out of arrows, so this is Bare Fists.

Next, we go up staircase 3.



There were arrows in the item box, and there's more arrows on the other side of room.



We also run into the next new enemy, Stony Roosts. They can petrify with Stony Beak, or hit mildly hard with Coldness or Dive.



They also have an upgraded counter. There are several different counters in the game that enemies will throw at you, including Petri-touch (which petrifies you, and the enemy takes no damage from your attack), Confu-touch (which confuses, and we all know how much fun that is), Poison-touch (self-explanatory), and Para-touch (paralysis). Petri-touch is by far the worst, not only because the enemy doesn't take your attack, but it also effectively "kills" you. They're governed by the same rules as regular counters though, so it's not too bad, and Stony Roosts are weak to shooting attacks anyway.



I also take the opportunity to have some fun with Heal. When used on enemies, it causes random status effects not dissimilar to the Claw weapons. You never know what Heal will do though, so stick with the Claws if you must have fun with status effects.



We run into two new enemies here. The Phanquid is just a reskinned Squidite from the Wintry Temple, and I'll talk more about Sphinxes in the next update. For now, it will suffice to say that they're the next in the line of "Goddammit why does every fucking enemy get confusion?"



Continuing up stairway 6, we grab some arrows and heal potions before heading back down to 1F.



We meet the Freezer Crab up here as well. Nothing special, just a reskined Snow Crab. Still weak to axes.



Up staircase 5, we run into a lone Stony Roost guarding arrows.



Back down, we head up staircase 4 to finish up the side area stuff.



There's more arrows here, but that's about it. At this point, I realize I'm running dangerously low on bombs, and Phoebe's not exactly rolling in ammo either, so I decide to turn back, restock, and finish the dungeon next time.



Talk to me buddy. I need the goods.



And so, after a quick rest in Aquaria, we're ready to actually finish the dungeon.

Next Time: More goddamned ice.