The Let's Play Archive

Vampires Dawn II

by TheMcD

Part 72: Update LV - Hellfire And Brimstone

Update LV - Hellfire And Brimstone



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid

Hey, guess what? This LP has been going for a year now! A year and two days, to be precise. Oh my fucking god, I've spent over a year on this game. Oh god.

Uh, well, let's not think about that. Let's think about making progress. With our case of the vampiric sniffles dealt with, it's time to check out that hideout we learned about last time and that we definitely haven't visited before.



♪ BGM: Disaster - AftertheStorm.mid

That's not surprising. Right in front of you, there is a big pile of blood on the wall!
What has happened here?
It appears that the wretched Elras were faster than us!
Let's look around...

Anyway, nothing much new here - everybody's dead, and because I did a dumb thing back when we visited this place with Nyria, I screwed myself out of a sweet stack of cash.



Uh, me?
ASIDE from you, Asgar... that you are a bloodthirsty monster is something we are very well aware of.
If this was really the Elras' doing, why is there no corpse of them here? There are only the dead bodies of the Clan warriors...
Very strange...



Hehe, not for long!
Asgar!
Maybe we will now find out what has happened here!



Sir... Aaron... is that you?
Uh, yes!?
Uhhhh... the pain! My... eyes... I can't... see anything... uhhh...
What happened?
It was... the prophet! He... has... betrayed us!
The prophet?
You... have to stop him! Go to... the place... of the tablet...
Place of the tablet? Where is it?
Northeast... in the forest... of Castle Rakar... but why... don't... you know...
Poor dying fool...
Oh... nooooo...
Let's end this...
1) No, wait! - 2) Yes, end his suffering!

This is the option that doesn't reduce your Humanity. If you're wondering why, I suppose that a good rule of thumb is that if Asgar is suggesting something, the opposite is the humane option.

Ah, you are a little sadist, and you want him to bleed to death... fine, as you wish...
Place of the tablet. Is that what I think it is? The place where the stone tablet was found?
Seems very likely.
But who is that mysterious prophet everyone is talking about, anyway?
Perhaps we will find out if we take a look at that place of the tablet...

Sure, why not.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid

And one quick trip later, here we are.



♪ BGM: Place Of The Elras - batwings.mid



So this is the place we've been seeing all this time in those sequences involving the stone tablet. If you look closely, you might see a massive cluster of events in the center of the map. Shit will go down here eventually, as you might be able to imagine. However, for now, nothing much will happen.





Just what does this remind me of?
But it seems to be pretty quiet here, all things considered. Maybe this is just a dead end after all...
Perhaps. We should still take a look around. If we don't find anything, then we're going to go back to taking care of the stone fragments...



So here's where the stone tablet was. There was a stone tablet here. It's gone now.

Anyway, nothing much else here. There's a hidden chest we can access via hidden passage that holds a large soulstone (15 souls), but that's about it.



Up to the north we find this strange perspective shift area...



...which just has a locked chest that contains another map. Not very exciting. Guess that means it's time for me to head back to the castle, save and qui-



♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid

-balls.



13 Elras end up killing 17 mercenaries.

Mercenaries Lost To Global Domination: 587 + 17 = 604

Anyway, now I can save and quit so I can start a new batch of footage, since I like to keep things split up a bit for easier storage. Now excuse me while I re-render the latest batch...



♪ BGM: Ildan - SS_13.mid

Our next stop is Ildan, to finish that one quest where we're supposed to get an amulet from the toy store by winning it. We need 2500 points, but how do we get them exactly?



Well, we need to buy some scratch cards.



And then scratch them! Basically, every scratch card gives you a random number of points, between 1 and 100. Also, there's a special prize you can win if you get a number between 90 and 100 points AND currently have the Sailor's Hat equipped. Yeah, remember that one? I didn't! I thought that Nyria had that one! Either that, or I sold it ages ago, I guess!

The special prize would have been the Spirit Blade, a sword that gives a 210 point boost to Attack and can inflict both Weakened and Silence. This would have been incredibly useful in the early game (and really, would still be useful), but alas, I have no idea where the Sailor's Hat is anymore, or if I can even get it again at this point.



And the 50 cards just so happen to give us enough points to buy the item we need. Let's bring it to the one that wanted it!



Here it is!
You've really got it? And you're giving it to me? OH MY GOD!
Glad we were able to make your day.
Make my day? Make my day? It's way more than that! I am overwhelmed by so much generosity!
1) Don't mention it. - 2) It's worth 40000 Filar. (Lie)

This lie gets us an extra rune.

What, sooooo much? Oh my God! How did I deserve this? How am I going to repay you? Maybe these might be useful to you. It is everything valuable I possess.
Status Rune received! Fire Rune received! Regeneration Elixir received! Wild Bagpipe received!
Thanks. We can put these to use.
Really? Oh, wonderful! And thank you a thousand times!
13266 Experience Points gained!



So yeah, we have a bagpipe now! This is an item that goes into the "other" slot, and it primarily gives us an Attack boost. I stick it on Asgar, since it helps him the most with his double attacks.



Our next stop is to do some grinding to get to level 70, because our next target will be the volcano where the fourth key is stashed, which has a recommended level of 70. So now we get to beat up on some more Final Fantasy V enemies.



Also, these zombie dragons can use a spell that hits every party member and can inflict either Blind or straight up death. Fun. These random world map encounters are becoming some real bastards.



♪ BGM: Syrahs - field4.mid

With that done, we're due for another gear upgrade, and then, it's on to the volcano.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid

The place is kind of hard to miss.



♪ BGM: The Volcano - Vulkan.mid



Now, this place doesn't have a lot of trickery to it. What it does have is a fairly large area for us to cover, caves to explore, and some badass enemies ready to lay the hurt on our hapless party.



Luckily, the poisonous brimstone does not affect us... a human would have probably already suffocated in agony.
But the lava won't be kind to us, either.
Absolutely correct, Valnar. So be careful where you're going!

Note, you can't actually walk into the lava.



These guys are pretty badass, sporting an Attack of 710, a Defense of 720, and some beefy fire spells. Still, they're not all that rough.



We also have these guys, which are an interesting gimmick enemy.



After one round, they transform into this second form.



Also, with hitting level 70, the artifact we found in the pyramid becomes pointless for the werewolf because he learns the Berserker skill, which is basically Dark Ritual, just for himself. This is very useful, since it not only boosts Agility, but Attack as well. The werewolf becomes a very heavy hitter with this, just one that you can't aim.



Anyway, after another round, these enemies transform into the third form. One round later, and they explode, dealing massive damage - or at least I assume they deal massive damage. I made damn sure I don't get hit by that, and managed to avoid getting hit by it throughout the entire dungeon.



These flame guys - which are also totally ripped from Final Fantasy V - are some real bastards as well. Why? Status effects. This one can inflict the Burning status effect, which is a real motherfucker to deal with. It deals 10% of your maximum HP plus 15 in damage every action (called "turn" in the UI) taken. Now, the settings say that it has a 50% chance that it cures itself every "turn", and is guaranteed to end after three "turns". However, Valnar took the damage - which was about 220 HP by the way - five times before the effect went away. So after a single attack, Valnar went from this amount of HP...



...to this. This effect can be fucking devastating if you're not paying attention, and really, even if you are. Burning is not an effect we can heal easily right now, and it does its damage too quickly to really react to it. All we can do is bear it, murder the flame guys ASAP, and heal up afterwards.



Eventually, we trek around the area long enough we make it to the top left, where we get to transfer to the second part of the map.



It's more of the same, really. Our goal here is to find a particular cave, which requires going through a different cave to reach an otherwise locked off area that holds that particular cave.



The cave is in the middle of the map.



Anyway, in this cave, we get to deal with...



...walking over narrow passages to the next level...



...walking over narrow passages to the next level...



...and finally, walking over narrow passages to the boss.



En route there, we also get to deal with some new enemies - some dragons. They're also pretty beefy, but not a major change from the other beefy guys we've been fighting.



♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid

While on a trip back to the castle to restock, we get attacked again.



18 knights end up taking out 20 mercenaries.

Mercenaries Lost To Global Domination: 604 + 20 = 624



Also, since we were right before the boss, we pick up our vampire mage again for spell support.



♪ BGM: Syrahs - field4.mid

While getting gear for the mage, we find that the current staff has the very useful "first strike" attribute. That should get us getting those Dark Rituals out even quicker.



♪ BGM: The Volcano - Vulkan.mid

And we're back in the volcano.



We're right before the boss, and because of that, we save. This is going to become relevant in a bit. Anyway, time for the boss.





Prepare yourselves!



♪ BGM: Stronger Enemies - VD2Kampf3.mid

Undead Dragon:

Recommended level: 75

HP: 7500
BP: 0
Attack: 750
Defense: 750
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 400

Behavior List:

- Attack
- Fire Breath (fire spell with 300 base damage, targets the entire party)
- Venom Breath (poison spell with 100 base damage, targets the entire party, can inflict poison with a base 70% success rate)
- Attack
- Attack
- Fire Breath (fire spell with 300 base damage, targets the entire party)

Today's episode is brought to you by the number 75.

Now, this guy can be tough. He can hit hard, fuck you with damage over time, and he's very bulky with strong defense. However, we're going to completely declaw him in a very easy way.



Step one: Inflict Silence on him. This removes his spells.



Step two: Cast Gnome's Compensation on him. This reduces his Attack, and after two applications, he can't do damage to us anymore. Congratulations, we just completely neutered a boss.



♪ BGM: The Volcano - Vulkan.mid

We don't get much of a death animation for this one - just some screen shaking and the sprite fading out.

That one is done for!
Then let's see what's inside the chest!



15000 Filar obtained! ✝ Red Key obtained!
Very nice, with this, we can get ourselves a few more stone fragments!

Noooooow... remember how I said that the fact that I saved before this boss will become relevant? Well, here's the thing. I have about 40 more minutes of footage, which is me going through the Bugus Beetle quest and going through the dungeon for the next stone fragment. However...



...it didn't end well. So basically, I'm tossing that footage and declaring it non-canon due to the required reload. So now I'm off to record some more footage. Next time, beetles and stone fragments!