Part 8

Going back to the second basement of the water shrine you can see the difference that having a see-in-the-dark mole makes. It’s… not that much, since you can still see perfectly well without it. The differences take a bit to show up.



While exploring it looks like I missed something, which some of you pointed out:



“Hahahaha! My jewels are safe!”

“You mean your gems?”

“Those too!”



“I knew it was looking at me. I should have smashed it the first time around…”

“Is he always like this?”

“More and more so. I think he might be starting to crack a bit.”

For clearing the layer, we release: A squirrel.



Another statue lair is hidden in a larger hall. They react when they’re in the light. Our prize: a mole.



With that there’s nothing left, we can head past the water shrine and enter another area of floating piers with new sets of mudmen and treants. We’re actually just south of the next shrine, and release a dog by clearing the mudmen out.



A treant lair to the south gives us a shortcut back to the Celestial Palace, so we can skip wandering through the entire area to get back here. While monsters in lairs don’t respawn, all the damn fire-breathing lizards come back every time we leave the area.



Nearby we see the final enemy of the marsh: The Butterflower. Naturally, it releases Butterflies that chase after you and cause minor damage. You just have to swat the butterflies out of the air and make a rush for the butterflower. Wiping out the treants opens up the route to the fire temple, which is…



“Oh, come on. I should be half baked by convection. I’m less than 20 feet from molten lava.”

“I bent the rules a little bit. So sue me. Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

“I’ve seen you strike your own temple with lightning and burn peoples’ houses down. I know better…. and I think it’s time to leave here now.”



“Deal! And this is all you get!”



Our new sword is twice as powerful as our old one… which isn’t saying much. It’s also not what we need to go back to the first area and clear it, although it’s a step in the right direction.



“Wait, used to?”

“Turbo learned a great many things from him. He used branches from the trees to make a tool called a raft.”

“How!? With what opposable thumbs?”



“I’ll get on that as soon as I figure out who he is.”



“I’d… kind of expect that from a dog?”

“Alright, let me start doing my job!”



“So far, nothing surprising…”

“What is that smell!! I smell something strange coming from the north!”



“This… this is an outhouse.”

“Oh, this is our bathroom.”

“I don’t usually say this to animals, but I hate you right now.”



“As long as I don’t have to walk through the outhouse to get to it.”



That’s as far as we can go in town, so it’s back to the fire shrine. We’ve got new enemies with this new area. These are either Lizardmen or Faders, with the latter doing some kind of trick where they disappear from view but I never caught them at it so it’s hard to tell the difference. The scorpions are invincible right now, but we can stun them with our new sword.



We release a dog from the fader lair and a… kitchen of some sort? I’m hoping for a monkey or something so I can figure that they did all the construction work.



Next up we have the fireman (brought to you by the maker of the mudman) which can just shoot fire at you. Oddly enough, they’re vulnerable to our fire magic (I think. It’s been a bit). It’s a pure dash and slash on them.



Handy. This is proof of what people have been saying in regards to the Medical Herb: it actually does heal you if you already have one in inventory.



Some chests are actually troll chests, meant to make you think that you’re about to get treasure when you in fact aren’t. This is evil.

“And I know evil when I see it.”



The rest of the inside of the fire shrine is a maze of twisting corridors, filled with monster lairs. It can be hard to figure out what enemies are connected to which layer, so the best practice is usually to kill them all and let GodJesus sort them out. We released yet another squirrel from this lair.



More faders, appropriately enough releasing another crocodile. At this rate, the squirrels and dogs don’t have a chance.



Members of the Moon Tribe also patrol the hallways. They have the lowest HP out of creatures in the Fire Shrine and come in second in terms of experience. They can float anywhere so they’re not as confined as other enemy types.



They’re holding a dog who lives in a graveyard prisoner. Classy, guys.



The uptick in experience pushes us through another level. We’re at maybe the halfway point in this area and we’ve already put on 3 levels. It’s kind of crazy, but makes it seem like getting to a fairly high level will actually be pretty easy.



Back upstairs through the maze we’ve got some more firemen holding a mole prisoner, while some nearby moon tribe members are keeping a squirrel hidden.



“What’s the deal with that pathway?”

“Those are heat panels, Metatron. But if you try to run across, you’ll never make it!”

“And I don’t have any rations to increase my body temperature. Oh well. I’ve got all this life energy for a reason..”




Our prize is some new magic, which is a bit more failsafe but costs significantly more gems per use. I’m not sure if I really want to use it yet, but it certainly looks pretty.



“I’m pretty sure I’m looking at the menu. It’s all nuts and berries as far as the eye can see.”



Our next step is actually to visit the dreams of a… I don’t have any easy way to say this. We’re going inside the dreams of a stump.

“At this point, nothing surprises me anymore.”



“Are you a stump dreaming you are a bird, or a bird dreaming that you are a stump?”

“I suppose that depends if I’m awake or asleep… what if I’m a bird dreaming I’m a bird who thinks that he’s a stump when he’s awake?”

“And now you’ve lost me.”



Going into the stump-bird’s dream gets us access to the treasure that the dog mentioned earlier, our first armor upgrade. It also lets us cross hot tiles without taking damage, which means it would have been useful a bit earlier.



“I… okay, at least you have paws. I suppose you COULD play an instrument.”

“Built in pickers. But we’re still missing one our drummer.”



“Not as surprised as I would have been if I’d stepped on you.”

Next update: Well, we’ll see won’t we?