Time to finish the Temple of Tsanta as we all finish off the year 2010! Again, be ready to consult online maps, as I am not able to precisely describe everything.
We go back in...and I fail at dodging the Floor of Doom (TM). Sheesh, take a break for Christmas...
We cut around, clearing the remaining rooms and halls of cobras and cannibals alike. There are a few pits with monsters lurking in the bottom. However, the power of the Sparks spell lets us rain lightning death on their heads. Jumping into these pits allows you to raise the floor and pass by. However, we leave one of the pits near the center unraised, and you will soon see why.
As we finish, we note two very large sealed doors, both connecting to a central room. Neither key nor force will let us pass, so clearly more subtlety is needed. So...puzzle time!
The switch on the altar is the first step. This opens three more switches scattered about the temple. All three must be activated in order to access the central room. The switches are in the following places (in the order I activated them):
- Female cannibal quarters, northwestern most room in the temple
- Medium room, directly south of the big doors
- Small side room, northwest of the Floor of Doom (TM) room
The central room opens, revealing a veritable army of enemies. You know what this means...
Time to go rest up. No Floor of Doom (TM) damage this time (going out or coming in)!
Now for a nasty trick, once we get back. The pit I left unraised blocks off a corridor near one of the previously sealed doors. However, our party's training with Falagar included training for the long jump event in the Olympics. Don't question it.
Thus we are able to jump over the pit. Cobras, being cobras, cannot jump. And guess what? Neither can cannibals.
This is pretty much our strategy: Pull a few enemies, jump over pit, turn around and arrow them to death. Except for the few cannibals armed with magical might, we can do this unscathed.
Eventually, of course, I mess up and fall in the pit, but by then I've cleaned out about two-thirds of the enemies. Pit gets raised, and we move on. The rest pose little trouble (although one pesky cobra poisons Cate for a bit).
The room itself appears to be the main chapel (get used to me saying the word "chapel"). It's roughly round with another altar. Behind said altar are stairs going down.
At the base of the stairs are two rooms, both with more cannibals. Due to the way the rooms are positions, guess what spell works fiery wonders on these enemies?
Having Ring of Fire'd to our heart's content, we kill off the one cannibal who didn't fall and poke around. Two treasure chests, one of which is empty...no fair, I want treasure! The other has the usual mix of loot.
Also, there is a door, opening to a rough stairway going deep underground and ending at another door. Behind this door is the person we came to rescue. You all know what this means...
Temple of Tsanta complete!
Now to deliver the girl. One last trip over the Floor of Doom (TM). Rest at the inn, then Water Walk our way back south to the mainland, then to Free Haven, where we Water Walk across nothing (we go around the lake).
For someone who was concerned for his "friend's" life, the quest giver doesn't sound nearly as happy as he should, but then again his "friend" is now in the same room. Anyway, we get 1500 gold for our efforts, and a lot of experience too.
Level up time, and now for allocation of skill points. We are all now level 13.
Our next stop is Castle Ironfist again, where we will tackle a dungeon and a half! How will we do this? You will find out...but not until 2011!
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