Part 4: The Sand Drop Must Flow

Before we can get to the whole desert thing, we get another new mechanic introduced. Enemies can now leave loot behind, including these coins. We'll see one of their other uses later, but right now the important thing is that they sell for 150 gold. Goodbye, money problems.




On the way to the item and weapon stores, our characters gain a level and some new spells. I suppose Dark could be situationally useful, but it's hard to figure out a time since Theo should be killing things instead.




Flame, on the other hand, is much more useful. It's a multi-target fire spell that is, if anything, a bit more powerful than the single target version. Weirdness aside, Mute is becoming more and more useful.




We've got enough money to kit out both of our characters with new gear. Note that Mute's actually got slightly higher defense. His lower attack power doesn't matter, since he's just going to be casting spells most of the time.



Mute's got a lot of agility, enough to out speed a ghost. Revenge is sweet.



Our first step into the desert results in being ambushed by a number of new enemies. Basilisks are actually slow and fairly weak, but rocs can hurt. Luckily we just got a spell that can wipe out the entire group.



Theo learns Medic from leveling up in the battle, our first healing magic. It's good for about 20-30 HP back, which is enough to turn most fights around.




The desert itself is pretty barren, although they do a nice job of shifting from just plain scrubby into sandy, blasted hellscape.



Looking around you can find a few kinds of gem stones. I haven't figured out a use for these quite yet, but selling for 750 gold means I'm not terribly worried about it.




The first thing we come across is a creepy fortune teller's tent. She's got three tiers of fortunes, and you can be certain that as an RPG fortuneteller she's 100% accurate. We'll start with the most expensive and go from there.



It's said that he pixies can read the future. The Jewel of Water makes water like air. But be cautious, lest you fall to one of the lake's less friendly denizens.



Bust you must have a Sand Drop to get inside. A king spirit will acquire such a key by helping one in need. Of course, it's difficult to meet someone in the barren desert...



It's said that greedy people are lured inside by rumors of treasure. Pay heed!

If gold and riches
Are all you crave,
Inside you'll surely
Meet your grave!

Huh. Those might have made a bit more sense if I'd went from cheapest to most expensive.



Mute picks up Medic while we're exploring. He also picked up Dark somewhere along the way, but those don't support his primary role. Quite often he ends up grabbing spells a couple levels after Theo.



After a while, we sight a prairie on the horizon. I thought we were going to the desert, but.. eh.



I'm sorry to say this, but their trees look like either mushrooms or crudely drawn penises. Moving on...



The prairie is filled with strange and wondrous creature. This kind of looks like a blop that's been covered in spines.. and I think I see a face at the very top.



They hurt a bit, but can be taken down in a couple of attacks.



Theo learns Teleport about this time, rather later than he learned it in the original SoH. It's more versatile, as we'll soon see.



This prairie has an awful lot of water and trees for an actual prairie. I blame the fact that people in Japan probably don't know about prairies like people who have lived in the midwest do.



Huh. Some kind of giant frog and a lizardman.. this is a definite step up.



Ow. Ow ow ow. Ow!



Sonofabitch. Death Count: 2. I think I wasn't supposed to be here yet. Back to the Desert!



Since we're out of ideas, we'll look at the Teleport spell. This version lets you go to significant locations rather than people. You just have to get to the entrance of a place, as we haven't been to the Underground Temple in the Desert yet but must have come near the entrance.




Mute becomes steadily more deadly. Blaze burns everything on the battlefield, usually ending a fight immediately. If one enemy is tougher than the others, Theo can attack it while Mute damages it and wipes out the small fry in one go.




Eventually we find what the fortuneteller was talking about, when we find a girl buried up to her neck in the sand.




Because no good deed goes unpunished, rescuing her tosses us into a battle. Let's do this, Shai'halud!



The Sandworm is a bit underwhelming, although it does have some fairly tough defenses. I'll also say that this enemy looks quite literally like a bag of smashed assholes.



I have no idea what this spell does. I will try and figure it out eventually when I find something that actually casts spells.



My father left on a treasure hunt, but he has not yet returned. I've heard that if I use this Sand Drop somewhere in this desert, I can enter the underground temple. I'm sure that's where my father went.

Meet our next party member. She and Theo have something in common in having asshole single parents, and her pupil-less eyes are extremely creepy.



She comes along with a plot item, but other than that... okay, there's no nice way to say this. She's useless. She's got as bad an attack as Mute, no magic, and she comes to us at level 1.




Near where we rescued someone has set up a tent inn in the desert for some reason. I'm amazed at the error her, and confused as to how it happened. Did someone put a note in that was interpreted literally, or did someone actually go through the trouble of putting commentary in the code rather than just coding in the dialogue?



Whatever the case is, something warns Theo that the buggy inn keep shouldn't be trifled with.



Mute picks up De-Spell on the way over to the Casino next door. Why a Casino? Why not?



The owner/operator of the casino has one of the worst cases of rape faces I have ever seen in such a low resolution game. The rules of the Casino are as follows:

When you press the A button, the light stops. The number it stops on determines your prize. It costs only one coin to play.

We could use our hard earned coins here, but the prizes aren't that interesting.




A weapons shop looks a bit more promising, although the fact that the shop keeper is the same person is more than a bit disconcerting.




The equipment he offers is a huge upgrade to Theo offensively and pretty decent defensive boost to both Mute and Theo. I have no idea how a hemp garment is more protective than leather but I suspect it's the power of



Nina uses the same basic equipment, but gets magic rings instead of shields. This does not endear her to me any more.



We can return to the place where we found Nina and get a free ride to another area in the desert. Handily enough, it's a couple of screens away from the Underground Desert Temple.



This fairly innocuous looking screen conceals the entrance. Next time, we'll see about rescuing Nina's father and figuring out a bit more of the overarching plot. Spoiler: Turns out the Demon we dealt with previously wasn't Zakdos. He probably still could have killed us.