I haven't forgotten about the Four Dungeons. My old blog described the first two, Kimbaalung and Barkingham Palace. Time to show the third one. (Trust me, the last is going to be an epic tale, but Katie will be talking about it and she's only Level 63 as of this post.) Many of the pictures just have Katie. I have taken them in various ways to have only her because I didn't think to just rush the dungeons at first. These are very tough dungeons, a taste of the final dungeon to come.
Sierra brought me to Alhazred on the bequest of an old friend of her, a Sorcerer called Christina Dawnblade, who was Sierra's best friend. Sierra told me much about Christina and I hope to see her someday. Alhazred bowed his head.
"So good of you to come, Wizards," he said. "Headmaster Ambrose sent a package of great importance to the Oasis in the Care of Prospector Zeke. I sense inquisitive eyes luring about the Oasis, and I don't dare risk them catching sight of my direct involvement."
"I understand," said Sierra, smiling. "Good call. I guess you need us to pick it up for you, right?"
He nodded. "I need you to collect the package for me. Be wary, this is a dangerous time."
"I know," I murmured. "We'll get it for ya."
We teleported back to the Oasis and found the old coot resting in his usual spot. Sierra introduced me.
"Ah, nice to see ya, Miss Ravenpetal," said Zeke, tipping his hat.
"Please, call me Katie," I mumbled. "I understand you have a package from Alhazared."
"The package for Alhazred?" asked Zeke. He rooted in his backpack and pulled out a small carefully wrapped package marked with Ambrose's seal. "Got it right here!"
"Alhazred wanted us to collect it for him," said Sierra.
"Hmmm..." Zeke furrowed his brow in worry. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "The thing is, ol' Ambrose told me to put it directly into Alhazred's hands. It's top secret, high priority!"
"That confidential?" I asked. "Wow, doesn't he trust us?"
Sierra smiled. "Alhazred himself told us to fetch it. He said that he couldn't risk being seen getting the package. After all, the Tuts did cause quite a stir and might still be roaming about."
Zeke relaxed. "Aw shucks, Sierra! After all ya did for me, how can I not trust you?" He handed the package to her. "Just make sure it gets straight into Alhazred's hands, ya hear?"
"No prob," I said. "You forget, we can do magic." I teleported back to a mark I had placed in the School of Balance and Sierra ported to me. If anyone nefarious was watching us, they were sadly out of luck as to where we were going.
"Do you have the package?" asked the aged Krok.
Sierra handed it over. "Right here."
"Good, let me inspect it," he said. He turned it over in his claws and nodded. "Just as I had suspected. Thank the Sands Ambrose had these."
"What is it?" I asked.
He opened the package and revealed two keys. One was ivory-colored and another was a golden key marked in strange symbols which I recognized as Krokotopian heiroglyphs. Sierra's jaw dropped.
"Those keys..." she said.
"This package contains two keys," said Alharzed. "One of bone, the other covered in heiroglyphs. Both ancient and not of the mortal realm."
"They look normal to me," I remarked. "What's so special about them?"
"Ambrose's details were hazy," replied Alhazred. "But he said they were recovered from a fiendish ghoul, Orick Nightglider, in the Briskbreeze Tower. Apparently the victor was a daring young wizard, not unlike yourself. Perhaps you know them?"
Sierra got thoughtful all of a sudden but said nothing. Alhazred continued.
"The Undead's attack on Briskbreeze was but the preamble to this story. My assistant, Aleema, may have stumbled upon the next chapter."
"Really?" Sierra piped up.
Alhazred nodded and handed the golden key to us. "I will keep the Bone Key safe for now. Meanwhile, it is crucial that you take the Heiroglyph Key to Aleema in the upper village of Zigazag."
"I have never seen this place," Sierra said. "And we've explored all of Krokotopia."
"All of the world you could access, my dear," chuckled the Professor. He grew serious. "Aleema was conducting important research at my behest, but her work has been threatened by criminal elements from Lower Zigazag."
"Of course," I said. "What desert town doesn't have bandits slinking in the shadows?"
"After my student, Christina, returned the Krokonomicon to us," stated Alhazred. "I wisely put it in the hands of my assistant. She has since uncovered a hidden chapter in the Krokonomicon called The Krokapocrypha, but her works has become threatened by criminals."
Sierra snapped back as if she was stung, her jaw gaping. "No way, there was more to that book? We need to get there ASAP!"
Alhazred nodded. "The fiends have severed all transportation in and out of Upper Zigazag... all but the magical kind, of course." He chuckled.
He waved towards a statue that Sierra noted was a new addition to the place. "Use the Mander Statue to teleport to Upper Zigazag. Make sure Aleema is safe and give her the Heiroglyph Key. Her research must be completed!"
"We'll do that right now," said Sierra. "Come on, Kate."
Later she told me that she had some involvement in acquiring the keys and rescuing a guard from Wizard City who said that Orick had mentioned Krokotopia being the next step. At first, Sierra had assumed it had been the appearance of Morganthe, but now she wasn't sure.
We came to a very dark place. Clearly this part of Krokotopia was on the underbelly of the world as the place was sheathed in night and a giant moon loomed over a sinister-looking inverted pyramid.
I swore I had a picture here of Aleema. I swore it! :(
We quickly found Aleema, a noble Mander. We bowed to her.
"Wizards, how did you get here?" she asked.
"A Mander Statue in the School of Balance," said Sierra.
She gasped. "Alhazred sent you?"
Sierra nodded and handed over the golden key. She was shocked as she held it in her hands.
"Sand and dust, is this the lost Heiroglyph Key?" she exclaimed. She smiled. "This might be exactly what I need!" She showed off the key's runes. "Look here! These glyphs are in ancient form, but I think I can decipher them in time. I only hope it's not too late."
"Great," I said. "The old Krok wanted us to help you in your research, and by that, I think he meant we go and beat the stuffing out of those crooks messing it up." I grinned wickedly.
She nodded. "I've found a prophecy encoded within the Krokapocrypha which I believe holds grim tidings for us all."
"Grim tidings, never a good thing," Sierra joked.
If Aleema caught the humor, she didn't acknowledge it. "It says an avaricious evil simmers under the House of Scales, where immortal Anubis judges the souls of the dead."
"Great," murmured Sierra. "More dealings with gods. What next?"
"And now, Ravenous Teeth thugs are kidnapping Manders throughout Zigazag," murmured Aleema. "It's not safe for me to finish my research!"
"Yeah," I said. "You might be targeted for an abduction next. Don't worry, we'll beat up these crooks and have them locked up so you can finish your research. Just direct us and we'll do some serious police work."
Aleema seems relieved. "Can you end the Ravenous Teeth's terror and free the Manders they've kidnapped? You'll find them skulking throughout lower Zigazag. Meanwhile, I'll study the Heiroglyph Key for clues to the prophecy. I just don't know how, why or when that evil will boil over. There is a boat that will take you down there."
"Right, consider your research finished," I said proudly.
I don't have a picture here. Sorry. :(
We took the boat to Lower Zigazag and immediately ran into some of the Manders. However, they were being held hostage by the thugs... Which we annihilated. Sierra had a powerful spell that I couldn't begin to describe.
"Thank you, effendi," said one of the Manders when we released them. "But there are others still trapped. To get to them, you must lower the drawbridge from the Toll House. Be careful! The Ravenous Teeth control everything here."
"Not for long," I said.
Thought I had a picture here too, sorry.
Of course, we had to deal with the thug boss controlling the toll house before we could lower the bridge, and he was a pain to deal with despite being weak to my Frost Giant.
Argh. Kus'bhid (who is Fire-school) is annoying. He'll be accompanied by three Life-school Ravenous Teeth and every round they'll shout "WE GIVE TO THE TOLL TAKER!" and cast Brilliant Light, which if you didn't know, puts a charm on the target that boosts healing by 40%. After Kus gets such a charm place, he says "THE TOLL TAKER ACCEPTS!" and casts Power Link on a random wizard, which gets a boost to his healing due to the healing charm.
After three turns pass, he'll say "TIME TO PAY THE TOLL!" and proc with Brimstone Revenant on a random wizard. Then, if he's STILL alive after six rounds, he'll say "THE TOLL MUST BE PAID!" and proc with an Efreet on a random person, which is painful and, as you might not know if you aren't playing Fire, puts a 90% attack debuff on the person hit with it! Luckily, we didn't get that far before Sierra's Mystic Colossus vaporized him.
After dealing with that loser, we lowered the bridge and rescued some more Manders, but the rest were being held by Moh'larz...
And we found he was working for someone else, a very nasty cobra-man. Having fought ophidians in Mount Olympus, I wasn't surprised by the half-snake, half-human creature, but this was new.
"Have the remaining Manders prepared by the time I return," ordered the creature. "The Army of the Condemned needs all the recruits it could-- what's this?"
"Oops, busted," I said, giggling.
"Release them now, or else," growled Sierra.
The snake-man was livid. "Moh'larz! Deal with the intruder or you'll see none of your reward! I'll return for the other Manders' - and the Wizards' - souls soon!" He teleported away.
The purple Krok sneered. "You heard Master Apep! Ravenous Teeth, gnaw the wizards to pieces! Just make sure you save the last bite for Apep!"
"Normally I'd be honored to have my body eaten," I teased wickedly. "But I'd prefer to have my ear nibbled by something a lot more human. En garde!"
Sierra clearly was blushing at my innuendo. Hey, a girl's gotta have some fun! ;)
Obviously, the Ravenous Teeth don't do innuendo. OWWWWWWW!!! X_X
If you have ever tried to fight the first battle in Tower of the Helephant and wiped out everyone but Evrin, you can see the cheat here. Only this time, Moh'larz(who is Storm-school, of course) has even worse cheats. Every turn, he has a random chance to proc with Leviathan. Every time you blade, he procs with Stormzilla. These powerful spells can do a lot of damage and the Levi will wipe out your blades if you are unlucky to get hit by it. The Ravenous Teeth do their "WE PAY TO THE TOLL TAKER" cheat but it doesn't work as well here as Moh'larz doesn't have Healing Current.
Luckily, Sierra didn't need blades, just a well-placed Feint by Katie. ;)
"MERCY!" begged Moh'larz.
"Tell us everything," hissed Sierra. "What are you up to?"
The Krok hung his head. "Apep is helping Ammit the Devourer raise an Army of the Condemned! Ammit ran out of doomed souls, so she's using innocent ones."
"WHAT!?" we cried in horror.
"How could you work for such a terrible fiend?" screamed Sierra.
"Apep promised me unfathomable riches to bring him Manders, but I've bitten off more than I can chew!" cried Moh'larz. "I'm getting out of here."
Sierra barred his exit. "No way, I should punish you hard for this."
"Please lemme go!" screamed Moh'larz.
"We might," I said. "If you tell us where to find your boss."
"You might as well forget about the Mander souls," growled Moh'larz. "Apep just escorted them to the House of Scales. You'll never get in. The only way to pass the gate is to either be dead or own a Rebus Key, and Apep is the only one who has one!"
I nodded and Sierra growled and let him flee the tent. "It's not worth it," I said. "Let's talk to Aleema. Maybe she's decrypted that key by now."
"Fine," said Sierra.
"Unfortunately, we haven't rescued them all," I sighed. I explained the situation.
"The Ravenous Teeth are working for Apep the Scaly One?" cried Aleema in shock. "Of course, the Snake is the Spear!"
"Come again?" I asked.
"He's dragging Manders into the House of Scales," said Sierra. "For some guy called Ammit."
"He was sending Mander Souls into the House of Scales to join Ammit?"
"Yes," I said. "Something about an Army of the Damned or something."
"The Devourer's Army of the Condemned!" gasped Aleema. "The Judgement seeks to be the Rule!"
"Would you please stop speaking in code and tell us if you've figured out that key yet?" asked Sierra, who was visibly annoyed. "We need to find this Rebus Key to save the Manders!"
"The only way to save the Mander Souls is with a Rebus Key?" Aleema mused over it. "Of course! It's so obvious now."
"Good, because it's not obvious to us," I said.
"A rebus is a puzzle consisting of pictures representing words," said Aleema.
"Oh yeah, I do remember playing with rebuses in my youth," I said. Then it hit me. "Wait..."
"Heiroglyphs!" Aleema finished the thought I had. "In older times, the people of Krokotopia, especially the leaders, used pictures to convey messages. That is why the tombs here have those pictures all over the place." She held up the golden key. "The Heiroglyph Key is the Rebus Key!"
"Of course," said Sierra. "I... uh, knew that."
I took the key from Aleema. "We'll save the remainder of the Manders, Aleema." I moved to leave.
"Wait," said Aleema. "While you were away, I was able to piece together the missing parts of the prophecy. The Krokapocrypha says:"
Duat's answers blow upon the Breeze
The hand of the Unready strikes Judgement's salvation.
The hand of the Unready strikes Judgement's salvation.
The Night Glider is but the tip, the Snake the spear.
The Judgement seeks to be the Rule,
thus the Scales be devoured.
Aleema continued. "Ammit is the Immortal whose job is to eat the souls that have been judged to be wicked. Perhaps she has outgrown her role."
"Or she is bored," said Sierra. "And that's a perfect storm of death. Come on, Sierra. Let's raid the place before she devours any souls."
Uh huh, yeah, right.
Courage, Katie. You can do this!
We met another Mander inside. "Why is this one a different color?" I asked.
Sierra sighed and explained the stuff he told Major Talbot a year ago when she was a weak wizard just new to Krokotopia. I was amazed.
Sierra walked up. "We're seeking some Mander Souls."
"You say you are seeking a group of innocent Mander Souls?" asked the Mander. "I am Baruti, one of the Hands of Anubis, the group who follows the edicts of the Judge of the Dead. I saw Apep the Snaky One hand the Souls over to the corrupt Izft only moments ago!"
"Bless you," I said, thinking she had sneezed.
"Izft was once my partner as a Hand of Anubis," said Baruti. "But Apep has deceived him with promises of power and so he is helping capture the Mander Souls."
"We'll get the souls back," Sierra said.
"We are in your debt," said Baruti. "If you can save those Mander Souls before they're judged on Anubis' Scales, I can undo their work and restore their mortal states!"
"Count on us!" I said. "Let find this guy."
First, though, we had to get another key from the Condemned Kroks that patrolled the halls.
We found the guy - a lizard-man - and he threw some Mander mummies at us, which we had to defeat. That ground my gears.
I then ran across a door and looked at the skull lock on it curiously.
"No, don't bother," said Sierra. She shuddered. "I feel something familiar behind it, we can't get distracted in our mission." I sighed and followed her forward.
Sierra got a Stone Skeleton Key from Izft but we aren't using it here - behind this door is Bellosh, the twin cousin of Belloq. If you don't know about him, I highly suggest visiting my blog entry HERE and you'll know why I hate him. Bellosh, sadly, has the same special cheat so people who unlock this door and have not fought Belloq yet will be in for a nasty surprise. He does drop some permanent mounts but I found those same mounts from Ra. Don't bother with this elephant.
We finally caught up to Izft and I froze the crap out of him. :D
This battle was a nightmare for Sierra as both Izft and the Condemned Manders are Myth-school. One of the Manders pranked us and used Earthquake just before we attacked. X(
Suddenly Izft grew scared as hell. "I give up!" he screamed. "Please don't let Ammit devour my soul! I never wanted to upset the Balance. I just... wanted to be important!"
"You'll never make friends by doing evil stuff like that," I growled, pulling him up by the choker around his neck. "Now, you help us out and we might forgive you."
"Okay, okay!" said Izft. "I know a shortcut to the Hall of Justice. I will show you."
I let him go and we followed him into a long hall.
Of course, we had more cobra-warriors to deal with...
But my little friend took care of them nicely. ;)
We finally met up with the Snaky One himself.
"Ammit is preparing to judge a group of Mander Souls now," he hissed. "If we hurry, I'll make sure your souls are bumped to the head of the line!"
"Sorry," I said.
"I think we prefer to remain alive as long as possible."
This battle... ugh, this battle. Apep and the Pit Vipers you have to fight are all Balance-school, which means you'll have to deal with Bladestorm, Balanceblade, and Power Nova. Oh, and before you even begin, he procs with Power Play so expect him to get Ra blasted on Round 3. They also spam lots of Shields, like all high-level Balance-school enemies do. X(
Apep, like Izft, begged for his life, but all I did was gag and bind him as best I could - suppressing a serpent is pretty hard work considering their anatomy.
We took his key and headed to the heart of the pyramid. It was deep and hot and scary.
Unfortunately, for some odd reason, the characters do not load during this final cutscene so I had to go down there and show you. :(
And at the depths of this cavern we found our target: Ammit the Devourer, a feral crocodile goddess. Mander ghosts were shivering in fear, held fast by magical bonds.
"It is time, little Manders, for you to join the ranks of my Army. Good thing, because I'm starving! Who's first?"
"You!" I shouted. "Stop this at once!"
"What's this?" Ammit turned to me and Sierra. "More recruits? Get in line behind the... wait, you're mortal! I see what's going on here. Only dead souls can be judged. But don't worry, I'll fix that soon."
"Not on your life!" screamed Sierra.
Well, she's a good fighter, that's for sure! I think Christina would be pissed to see her own spells being used against her friends.
Ammit is probably worthy of being a final boss. Every turn she takes damage, she uses Sap Health to steal 300 health from one of the three Pit Viper mooks she has and restore it to herself. But that's not the worst part of the battle...
The worst part is her other cheat - every other turn, before anyone else acts, she procs with a Judgement spell that ignores her pips and does a flat 1000 damage! For us, who have only around 4500 health each, that means you only have a few rounds before you're wiped out. Luckily, Balance resist does get calculated in, but even so, Katie and Sierra were still taking an unavoidable 664 damage every other turn since Balance has no means of being migitated except with Tower Shield or Legion Shield. Not only that, Ammit has Fire and Death Mastery, so except to get hit with Fire Dragon, Wraith and many many nasty attacks.
In the end, though, Sierra's word was law and her awesomesauce spell vaporized the vipers and brought Ammit to her knees.
"I yield!" cried Ammit. She groaned. "All I wanted was to be something more than a pawn in the natural Balance. Don't you judge me!"
"We aren't judging," I said. "That will be up to your fellow Hands of Anubis." I wasn't about to become a guidance counselor for some disillusioned work-weary goddess.
She sighed. "My rebellion is over. I will disband my Army and return to my given role." She released the Mander souls which flew out of the chamber. Baruti would no doubt restore them. "Sekhmet is going to be very displeased when he finds out."
"Who's Sekhmet?" asked Sierra.
"Oh, you don't know?" chuckled Ammit. "You'll find out soon enough."
I had enough. We handed Ammit over and left the House of Scales, returning to Aleema.
"She's getting her just punishment," I chuckled. "She abandoned her schemes."
"She did mention that we'd meet some guy called Sekhmet, though," said Sierra. "And he'd be mad."
Aleema shuddered. "While I'm pleased that Ammit will return to her role and you restored the natural Balance, her parting message sounds foreboding." She shrugged. "I'm sure we will find out what that means soon enough. Honestly, how long could it take for a prophetic statement like that to come to light?"
Too soon, as I would soon discover.
"In the meantime, could you take my research to Professor Alhazred?" asked Aleema. She didn't wait for our answer and filled our arms with papyrus scrolls. I grunted under the weight, this was quite a lot of research, but we smiled and bid her farewell.
"Oh, definitely," said Sierra, unloading the scrolls on the nearby desks. "And Aleema brought something for you to bide your time in while you're rotting in this dusty classroom."
I laughed. Sierra was just a jerkwad but never meant any harm with her words.
Alharzed smiled a toothy smile and nodded. "I am pleased to hear that you not only preserved the natural Balance of the Spiral, but also the safety of my dear Aleema."
If Alhazred wasn't ancient, I'd suspect a tinge of romantic undertones in those words. Nope, from that he treats Aleema like a daughter. "Well, I'm certainly glad that things got sorted out okay."
"Your skills in wizardry have progressed impressively," said the aged Krok. "It is good to know I have yet another powerful ally at my disposal! My dear pupil, Christina, brought Sierra to me and Sierra told me about you. You indeed make the Order of Ice proud."
"Praise Lydia, not me," I chuckled. "She helped me get this powerful. Well, we'd better get back to training and all that." I yawned and stretched.
"I won't keep you, Katie," said Alhazred, taking one of the scrolls I had deposited nearby and cracking it open. "I simply can't wait to pore over Aleema's research!"
"Knock yourself out!" I laughed, but then I noticed Sierra was missing.
Huh, she's probably waving about that big sword she swiped from Ammit...
That's okay, I've got my toy. ;)
And that is it for the Zigazag dungeon! The Zigazag hub has a pond which is the only place you can catch a Pharoahmari fish, and Ammit drops a lot of cool looking wands, like the Manmote of the Ancients(the sword that Sierra modded her Hades wand into) and the staff Sierra was shown holding. (I forgot to unequip it for the first two screenshots, though. Oops.) Also, Sierra got a Mote of Severity from Ammit. You'll find Motes of Severity from the bosses in Lower Zigazag and the House of Scales, and you'll get the House of Scales Champion title after your first victory over Ammit.
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