Part 9

Back to the fire shrine with our new armor, it’s more of our lizard-man friends. Later events reveal that these aren’t the faders that I mentioned earlier. Those aren’t going to show up for another dungeon. This bad boy extends the bridge you can just see over to the right all the way to the next platform.



After that it’s pretty much metal scorpions all the way down. Three is just a bit excessive, and it’s looking like it’s going to be more and more of a project to come back and deal with all of these in the future. On the plus side, there’s a chest with 100 gems on the other side of these guys.



“I don’t even remember what my favorite thing used to be, but ice armor is my new favorite thing.”

“I’d have thought maybe medical herbs were your favorite thing, but that might make too much sense.”



Clearing out that lizard man nest releases a sleeping gravestone bird, which isn’t creepy and definitely means we’re going to have to whip out the dream rod when we get back to town.



Continuing along the island platforms gets us a few more lizard men nests and a flame man nest that hold a mole, a deer, and 60 gems. One of those things is much less disappointing than the others.



At the end we climb out of the bowels of the fire shrine, leaving it to be the kingdom of the metal scorpions.



A quick little jog and we’re near the end, with a pathway in place to let us take a shortcut through the top level when we inevitably have to come back. Another lair lets a squirrel into the restaurant, which sounds like the plot of a cartoon short but in this case is barely a net positive development.



“A talking raft… presumably made from talking trees. That’s a little disturbing if you think about it.”

“We are rafts made from the branches of trees in GreenWood. If you cannot prove that you are from GreenWood, we will not let you ride.”

“Um… I’m on a mission from GodJesus?”

“Doesn’t sound like ‘from GreenWood’ to me.”

“Fine. I guess I’ll go see a squirrel or a bird about some branches or something.”



“That’s an extremely odd thing to tell someone out of the… wait, why are you following me?”

“Oh, it’s purely a coincidence I assure you.”

“Ugh. If I’d known you were a stalker I’d have left you in the lair.”



“I’ll see what I can do, but… well, you probably aren’t going to walk how most of the bridges around here work. Anyway, you’re a deer… you mean you just can’t jump it? Or swim?”

“There was once a raft made from the bark of my branches. You must find this raft. I believe might it be able to help you in some way.”

“Already did, and… not as much as you’d think.”



“I just dug up some dog bones to the southeast.”

“That’s… that’s… wait, isn’t that in the direction of the cemetery?”

“I got scared and re-buried them.”

“That’s probably for the best.”



Sure enough, we’re pretty close to the cemetery but that isn’t very helpful if we can’t even get there. We’ll have to go back and walk on some crocodiles.



“…crap. I really don’t want to break this to Lisa.”

“He WAS a dog. It’s not like they live that long.”

“Wait, how long has this town been around? Shouldn’t they have been expecting this?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Magical sleep tends to screw with peoples’ heads.”



Our next step is going around and using the dream rod on the sleeping bird near the graveyard. This is different from a Graveyard Duck because it’s obviously not a duck.



“He fought Deathtoll trying to save GreenWood and all its animals, but he was defeated.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t old age waiting for someone to come find him. Is he…?”

“Just head south. Can’t miss him.”



“You will find what you’re looking for. There is a bird, Tiki, that may tell you how to use the raft.”

“Great, but I can’t promise that I’ll remember his name.”

“You must protect GreenWood now that I am gone.”

“You don’t know what happened aft… y’know what, rest in peace Turbo. You were a good dog.”



“Maybe if you bring something that used to belong to Turbo they might help you.”

“Like what? A collar or something?”

“There are some leaves from GreenWood buried with Turbo. I mean, they’re rafts. It’s not like they’re long on brains.”

“Couldn’t I just grab some leaves from one of the trees and skip the whole digging up a dead dog?”

“They’re… uh… special leaves. That’s it. Just don’t ask so many questions, okay?”

“I hate you and those rafts.”



We have to go back to the location we went to in the dream and pull some decaying leaves from Turbo’s grave. Nothing else will do for the discriminating taste of the rafts.



After providing the leaves we get moved to the pathway toward the Light Shrine, which is the final sub-section to this area. The mudman lair here releases another of the mole people, whose vengeance against those who dwell on the surface grows closer by the day. Another mudman lair releases an additional dog that is presumably a descendant of Turbo.



The Light Shrine is at the end of a raft wide, but it’s not a big deal if you’ve dealt with most of the enemies. If you think that it looks functionally identical to the other shrines then you’re exactly right.



These guys are the faders I mentioned earlier. They can’t be hit when they’re in their shadow form on the floor, but otherwise they’re similar to lizard men and don’t really present a threat.



The deal with this area is that the red lines are solid light beams that are removed when you clear a lair. Oh, and the glowing ball to Metatron’s southwest is a new enemy, the Spirit Ball. We can’t kill them, but they mostly just bounce off of objects and aren’t really a threat.



We get another level in the course of clearing this area up. It’s quite a change from the first area, and.. huh, probably shouldn’t be carrying the dream rod around in a dungeon.



The moon tribe guards the stairs downward, and the nearby lair releases…



Yet another squirrel. Yay.



Downstairs it’s completely dark, although for some reason enemies show up perfectly well even in the darkness.



Turns out that it causes some weird effects that only really show up in a screenshot. Anyway, more faders that release a crocodile and some flame men that are holding a mole captive.



Eventually we open up another teleport square back to the Celestial Palace, giving us an easy way back here. Unfortunately, this means that we’re probably going to have to leave and come back. That’s a major factor in this game, as you might have picked up at some point.



Before that, there’s a nice crowd of moon tribesmen to be dealt with. Despite the appearance, 999 isn’t the max number of jewels you can keep on hand. I just happened to reach that point for a couple of screenshots. Anyway, back to GreenWood!



“Glad I could help, but… what are you going to do for a show?”

“Even though you are our only audience we will try our best. Please watch the two other guys.”



“Wait… I’m pretty sure all three of you weren’t squirrels a second ago.”

“How did you like it? For our next number you must try and guess the real squirrel, me.”

“And what do I get if I guess right?”

“A brand new shiny medical herb!”

“…yeah. I’ll just be leaving now.”

Next update: We finish GreenWood!