Well, let's take a peek at the Fire Lord's domicile, shall we?
We enter to find a small room with a pit, a chest...and the Lord of Fire himself! (He's a face on the wall.)
Being a chatty Fire Lord, and not of the 'BY FIRE BE PURGED!' variety, he tells us of his problem. The doors of his house have become "warded", i.e. locked. He wants us to unlock them. Sounds simple enough, right?
But before we go, he warns us that a strange creature he doesn't recognize has taken up residence here as well. Given that the Fire Lord is an ancient elemental being who probably has near literally seen it all, this...is disturbing. He also tells us we can get help from his "servants" if we ask, and they will send us back to the entrance.
Next we check the chest. It has two pieces of amber, a few potions, and a journal fragment. The latter reads as follows:
The intended hint you're supposed to walk away with is that: Carrying amber - good. Not carrying amber - bad. As for the "strange creature"...that's one of the Fire Lord's servants. The one thing you haven't been told, which I know due to psychic powers, is that unlocking unwarding these doors takes a key, which is...a piece of amber. Which is consumed in the process.
And this is only the tip of the Guide Dang It! iceberg...
Anyway, the amber is handed to Eno and Huaryu, then look around. There is no apparent exit from the room, except the pit. Guess what that means...we get to use Feather Fall...a lot.
After having Cate cast it, we drop down into a larger room, landing a large rock in the center. Around us are a handful of goblins. Guess what? We out-level them. Bye bye.
Now we can survey this room, and...there are nine more pits. One in each of the eight directions, plus a ninth one to the southwest. As one can guess, this room is the hub for the rest of the dungeon. Decisions, decisions...
However, I, unlike many, have psychic powers. And since it will help us greatly if we get more amber pieces, we must go where they are and get them. And my psychic powers tell me to go south!
We drop in the southern pit, and come face to face with more goblins. Die already. We head further down the corridor and encounter...more goblins. Die already. At the end of the corridor we come to a room...with even more goblins. Die already!
This room has two exits: Another pit (get used to them), and a door. I think that's enough falling down pits for now.
The door is not one of the locked warded doors, so we go through with our supply of amber undiminished. The corridor beyond it loops around, heading back north to another room, this one wide, and with more gob- those aren't goblins!
Introducing Ogres! Essentially, they are goblins 2.0: more health, and they hit a lot harder. The more advanced types (Ogre Raider and Ogre Chieftain) have poisoned weapons on top of that. They are not fun to deal with, but deal with them we must.
After finishing those off and burning a lot of Spell Points in the process, we look around the room. Alcoves along the south wall, flanked by huge images of stone faces...oh wait, those aren't images. They're the "servants" of the Lord of Fire, who can teleport us back to the dungeon entrance.
The alcoves contain chests, one per, for a total of four chests. While no loot of note can be found here, two of them have something we have sought...more amber! Now everyone has a piece to carry.
This room is connected by two passages to the north to another room, which has more...goblins. Boring. This room has a pit and a hall leading north. We ignore the pit and keep going north.
Along the way, we run into a single ogre and more goblins. Kill those off, and find that the passage...links up to the southeastern pit from the hub room! I guess that's done.
Back to the stone servants, and we teleport up, putting Mario to shame. Well, that's one part done...but there is much more to do before we're finished with this place. Stay tuned...
