Part 14: Fuck This Dungeon, For Real

This update will have to wait on the noir, at least for a while, because the Patrof Tunnel is seriously that ass. Oh, I'm sure you don't think it's that bad. It can't be worse than the preceding hard dungeons. Well you're wrong. Dead wrong.

These are spiders, or spideks, or whatever the hell the game calls them. They're giant creepy spiders you can barely make out on the combat screen. They dodge everything you throw at them. They hit fairly hard. And they poison. Everything in this dungeon can fucking poison. Purify would be useful here but oh, hey, neither Wilme nor Olvan has it!

A good 30-40% of all chests in this dungeon are Red Tricks, which can also poison. Noticing a trend here? After clearing out a floor I have to run back to town like a dork to heal up and buy 9 more Antidotes.

At least I get something out of it. Note that this dungeon is unpleasant at 20. At 16 it's just hell.

One fight after I leave that chest...

Note the last two pictures are different encounters. The last two chests in the dungeon are both fake. Fuck you, game.

This dungeon is a gigantic ball of poisonous red ass. Any sane person would give up on things right here. Seriously, I won't blame you if you leave this thread and don't continue. But just in case you decide to, be forewarned: This is just a little taste of what is coming.

Still here? Good. Here's the good news: Patrof Castle has no encounters in it.

And now, to finally confront the maniac behind this mass murder and Rune-swiping spree.

It's Kamil. Kamil!? Fuck, I guess it really is always the quiet ones. Kamil has gone insane for no apparent reason, seduced by the power of a town that actually isn't shitty or something.

Of course, I immediately agree. So he opens the castle gates.

Sucker. Let's roll.

Boss Fight - Duel vs. Kamil

A word on this part of the game. The Apprentice who betrays Patrof is not necessarily always the same person. It's not clear if it's randomly assigned or if there's a list for each character, but the Patrof butcher will always be one of the Apprentices that isn't with you. Therefore if I'd wanted to spare Kamil's life, I could have recruited him and dumped Olvan, although this means Olvan would have been fair game. It may not be possible to engineer a particular apprentice here, but if there's someone you hate or at least don't care about, it doesn't hurt for them to show up here.

Apparently, Lux and Esuna can't be the Patrof Apprentice. I'm not sure if there's any logical reason for this, but something that was suggested is that because Lux SPEAKS IN CAPITALS and Esuna is a woman, it would be a waste of time for the programmers to have put in extra dialogue to refer to the Apprentice as "she" instead of "he" or to give Lux a special version of the dialogue. If anyone has ever gotten one of the two at Patrof let me know. Incidentally, you'd hate it if either were the one because they're both hard as hell to fight.

Oh, and a general note on Apprentice battles: Each and every one of them can heal. Yes, even Wilme, Lejes, and Lux, who aren't supposed to have healing spells.

I have to accept this level up because I'm not doing that all over again. Unfortunately, since you have to duel solo (well, you don't HAVE to, there is a trick but it's cheating), Olvan won't get the experience.

With Kamil's death - and yes, Kamil is now dead and will not be in the game ever again, big loss - the people of Patrof are liberated. Also I jacked the Star Rune, which doubles defense like a B Defense when used in battle. It's awesome, needless to say.

Everybody's pretty happy about this. Shame the king and all the kingdom's defenders are dead now. Oh well, not my problem!

Grinding out the rest of Olvan's level reveals he's no chump either.