The views expressed in this Let's Play are solely those of Totemic Hero and are not in any way representative of TV Tropes.
We open the double doors, and discover a huge horde of monsters waiting for us. You know what this means for our party, who has low MP, right?
Retreat!!
However, we can do better than simply resting. We go back to New Sorpigal, and hand the scroll over to Janice...or not. She lets us keep the scroll, which is...odd. We get paid a couple thousand gold, and we get more experience...and you know what that means. Time to level up!
After gaining a level in the training center (another week goes by), we decide the gold is burning a hole in our collective pockets. Thus, we visit the Self and Elemental guilds, and flesh out the skills of Cate and Eno. We won't have to be buying many more skills after this.
Now for skill points. Eno spend his points in magic skills, as does Cate. Toblerone gets more ranks in Body Building and Identify Item, and as for Huaryu...hmmm. I guess he gets more points in magic skills too.
Despite this, Toblerone still can't identify those items, except for one of the scrolls. Not surprising, as Identify Item really is somewhat useless until you get Expert in it. Now for something else: A report on the brewing of potions!
I talked about this briefly before, but let's get deep into it now. Potions can be created by combining one of the games three herbs with an empty vial. It is then possible to combine said potions to make more powerful potions. We already have a blue herb and an empty vial, so we combine those to make a blue potion, which restores MP. Nice, but we also have a red potion which restores HP. Guess what happens when we mix the two? We get a purple potion...which is of the cure poison variety. Again, we are trying to stockpile such potions, so we are happy.
One more thing: If we were to mix an incorrect potion combination, the results would quite literally explode in our face. This is easily capable of completely killing a low level party such as us, so naturally we are not going to experiment. Successful combinations, once you make them, are recorded in your in-game notes, which is quite convenient. We'll get into more advanced potion making later on.
Back to Goblinwatch! We head in, and position ourselves so only some of the army of monsters will come at us. Get used to this, the game loves throwing mass waves of monsters at you. Anyway, the first two monsters happen to be a blood sucker and a brain sucker. They are soon joined by another brain sucker and a rat, with more enemies on the way. We kill the rat quickly,and keep killing as the rats and, um, suckers leechbats keep coming. Some healing here, one briefly unconscious Huaryu there, lots of melee, and the enemies are dead.
We head through the double door, and discover a couple of suckers leechbats are still here. Arrows make everything better. This doors led to a large cavern with a strange blue altar (or something, not sure what it is), in the center. A pit in the cavern floor lies in the southeast corner. There being no other way to progress, so naturally, we jump in!
Now for another engine glitch: wall hugging. Supposedly, falling long distances is supposed to hurt your party. However, by pressing against the wall, you slow your fall and prevent said damage. Thus, we descent the pit safely.
The bottom of the pit contains a corridor that leads to a room. We are naturally cautious, and with good reason. Said room is full of rats, along with a few suckers leechbats and goblins for good measure. Luckily, we have mastered the art of ninja stealth and are able to pull a few at a time, killing them with mostly arrows at our leisure.
The room has four chests to the side, but we are ignoring those for now. We follow the corridor leading off the other side of the room, easily disposing of a couple of rats along the way. The corridor zigs and zags upward, leading to a mechanical wall that is easily shifted, revealing two paths: one straight and leading upward, the other a stairway going down to the left. We take the straight path, and come to a rusted metallic door. It opens, revealing...the entrance room! We're back where we started.
We backtrack to the room with the chests, and prepare to open them. The second chest from the north has a spawn trigger (activating or using this objects makes monsters appear), and three goblin shamans appear behind us. We manage to fight them off, and then loot the remaining chests, one of which has magic gauntlets that boost electrical resistance. Weakened by the fights, we head outside and rest.
We head back down, and this time take the staircase. It leads to some sort of dining room, albeit one filled with rats, goblins, and suckers leechbats. We clear them out, claim the loot left on the tables, and then discover there are two long cave tunnels leading off of this room under the keep. What lurks in them? We will soon find out...
