Beyond the Beyond: Update 95: Trudging Onward (Sand Cave pt. 2)

[ladyabaxa]

Beyond the Beyond: Update 95: Trudging Onward (Sand Cave pt. 2)

So the team's last foray into the Sand Cave was, technically speaking, a success. They fought monsters, claimed treasure, and managed to live to tell the tale. This time they have to return to that gloomy trek and hopefully reach the other side.

First though is a matter of resupply. I didn't bother to do that last time. Yup, that's right. I walked into a dungeon I knew was dangerous (and in fact is my least favorite of the entire game) without bothering to hit up an item shop. That's because I was fairly certain before I even entered Zeal that I was just going to grab treasure and port out. All that said, I sold Domino's Mithril Dagger for a nice profit - about the only time that happens in Beyond the Beyond. Then I bought half a dozen Healing Herbs and flew back to Zeal.

The team's stats haven't changed much since the last time I posted their character sheets. Here we have Finn at level 11 and decked out in Mithril. Will he break 100 Strength before the game is over? It seems likely.

Dang it! Now I remember what I forgot to do the last time we were in Isla.
And what is that?
I didn't show Steiner my new sword.
Ah, that.

Finn and Annie have managed thus far to keep their experience synced up but Finn has advanced to level 11 while Annie still needs 8956 experience to get there. That gap is only going to get worse over time. As for stats she's still far and away the fastest person on the team. Here's hoping she can keep Necromancers from causing trouble.

And here I was thinking it might be something important.
But it is important!

At level 10 Samson has as much Strength as Finn but 30 less attack power. That's entirely the result of sticking with the Tempest Axe. In battle he does 8 - 10 damage less than Finn per swing. The two have the same Speed but Samson goes first. I'm not sure how the game resolves ties like these but for now that's their turn order.

You can show him later.
If we get out of this alive.
We will.

At level 7 Domino's well behind the frontliners in Speed but his Attack and Defense are both respectable.

Strong words there.
And he only used two!
Do you have anything you'd like to add, Samson?
Hrmph!
I'll take that as a yes.

Tont's the slowest member of the party but manages to stay ahead of Domino in the turn order thanks to his Tempest Ring. With 78 MP max I'm less cautious then I used to be about using his magic in battle. Only a little though. He can drain that quickly.

Let's go! Quamdar awaits!
Should I be worried that Tont's all fired up?
Yes.

Maybe I spoke too soon.

So the team begins its march back to the Sand Cave and, of course, it apparently isn't a real dungeon crawl without a snake lady calling Thunder on the entire party. It's practically tradition by this point. I could just fly over to the southern edge of the desert but then I wouldn't get to show off desert encounters and, quite frankly, where's the fun in that?

Nothing of particular note happened as the team made its way through the first three floors but they did face the occasional risk of being Voided.

Oh and I blundered into this pit trap. South of this is the treasure chest that once held the Healing Jewel. That's why I missed the pits blocking the direct path earlier. Since I wanted the treasure and that's the correct path I avoided this trap without even knowing it exists.

Here's the staircase leading to the fourth floor. This is where the team aborted the dungeon crawl last time.

Oh and there are a horde of bats trying and failing to stop the team from reaching said staircase. It doesn't work. Not even Finn's constant freaking out at the sight of even one of them will slow this team down. Or even their repeated attempts to summon reinforcements. That only delays the inevitable a little longer.

Remembering how much they struggled to kill these same monsters while sailing the seas makes it clear to me just how much they've improved since then. Yes they all have better equipment but all the level ups since then also help.

4th Floor

We've finally reached uncharted territory.
But wouldn't that mean no one's ever been through here?
Have we seen anyone in this cave who didn't immediately attack us?
I'm the one who's supposed to dodge questions here.
Isn't that what you just did?
Well if you must know... hey look there's a dragon over there!

Tont what are you... holy cow there IS a dragon over there.
And apparently we're going to fight it.
I still don't understand why these dragons are all so small. Does being evil stunt their growth or something?
I'm not sure this is a great time to ask questions like that.
Why?

AAAAAAAHHHHH!
That's why.
OW, OW, OW! Burning! Pain!

As should surprise no one Red Dragons breath fire. Even without magic resistance Fire Breath 2 isn't particularly dangerous. It does roughly the same damage as a Titan spell. These dragons are also rare encounters in this cave so it's unlikely the team will ever face the risk of several dragons breathing on them all at once.

That comes later in the game.

Two can fight fire with fire!

I mentioned before that Tont's Summon 4 spell invokes the "use item" animation and apparently that isn't always true. I have no idea why. It seems random. Maybe there's a glitch that causes it? The spell works regardless so this is just a minor cosmetic concern.

That doesn't look like fire to me.
You, uh, just need to squint harder. Yeah, that's it!
I don't think you're going to win this, kid.
Just give me a moment. I'm sure I can come up with something.
Fire and lightning are different things.
Not if you're super careful about how you define them!
This is fascinating but we still have a dragon trying to kill us.

Just southeast of the staircase is a two tile wide passage that has a pair of invisible pit traps. Obviously this is impassable and only serves to dupe the player into making a costly mistake.

My strategy is simply to stay next to walls and try to take longer routes. It... sort of works.

Finn's all paranoid now.
When is my brother not paranoid?
I like to think it keeps all of us alive.
Until there's treasure up for grabs!
Never gonna let me live that down are you?
What kind of friend would I be if I did?
A loving and merciful one?

So much for not setting off another trap.
And the jaws go SNAP, SNAP!
I could do without the sound effects, Tont.
*chuckles* These must be for decoration.
Or a mage was really drunk when placing them.
I like that explanation. Let's go with that.
Happy to help!

Moving through the next passage the team finds an odd stone head formation blocking most of their path forward. This is a bit pointless though and only serves to waste a little of their time.

Moving around them they are set upon by a Demon and an Undead Lector. It's a no-brainer which target to hit first. The Demon dies before getting a turn.

It worked!
It did? I didn't see anything.
Just trust me, Finn.

Undead Lectors are one of the few good targets for the Steal spell. They're fast but their only ways to deal damage are to attack or cast a Holy Light spell. They spend most of their time healing their allies. Steal costs 0 MP and this attempt drains 10 MP which is exactly enough for a Summon 4 spell. Steal has a low success rate though and automatically fails if cast on something with no MP. How do you know if an enemy has mana to steal? You have to see them cast a spell!

In the northeastern corner is a small chamber with five marks for pits on the floor above. That seems a bit ominous. It's a veritable wall of invisible doom just waiting to spring into action.

Directly west is the staircase up and another pointless set of hidden stone heads.

Are these decorations too?
Yup.
I kind of like them. Maybe if I could get them to talk...
What would you have them say?
I don't know yet.

5th Floor

As soon as the team reaches the fifth floor my mind is on the ominous pattern. I do have a general point of reference with the stairs so I know those pits are somewhere east of this spot.

The camera reveals a treasure chest waiting to be looted.

Why is my treasure sense tingling?
I don't know. Why is it?
That's why I'm asking you. You're the voice of reason.
That thought should terrify you, Finn.
Sis that thought has ALWAYS terrified me.
Good! We see eye to eye then.

And there are bats. There are always more bats.

Always.

In all honesty though it's a favorable roll of the dice. In this dungeon bats only ever seem to appear with other bats. There are no mixed groups or, if there are, they are too rare to pop up for me. These bats can only deal damage by attacking and the team has little trouble mowing them down. I'll take that over firebreathing dragons and Void-slinging wizards any day.

To the southeast is a choice of turning west across a larger chamber or taking a chance on a narrow passage that continues southeast.

Finn's confused again.
You're not hearing more bats are you?
They're up there, sis. They're just waiting for the right moment to strike.
I think if we looked we'd find that most of them are sleeping or just don't care about us.
Sis...
You're letting this get to you.
I'm afraid I have to agree with your sister.
What about you, Tont?
You're not going to ask Sir Samson?
I already know his answer.
If I must give an answer I say stay paranoid. You're funnier that way!
I... was not expecting that reply.
You're welcome!

If the answer to the question of which way to go is "blunder into what should be an easily avoided pit" give yourself a cookie. Also, the team heads west because that's the general direction of the previously spotted treasure chest.

Then a Necromancer + Dead Armor pair somehow manages to ambush the team while they're in a large open space. I blame Finn. Ambushes have become rare at this point in the game but against an opponent like a Necromancer things could turn bad quickly.

Fortunately the Necromancer opts to attack then use their second action that round to cast Firedrake 1. Annie took a beating but with magic resistance Firedrake 1 doesn't do enough damage to groggy a character at 10 VP.

Ow, ow, ow.
You just healed us all. Why are you still wincing?
Because one of us was hurt a lot more than the others.

Another somewhat pointless diversion exists in the following chamber but since I was taking the longer way around anyway I managed to accidentally miss it completely. I suppose it is preferable that those are stone head traps rather than hidden pits.

The chest contains a Shadow Gi. Since Lorele's not around at the moment it thus gets stuffed into Finn's backpack. (It's cursed anyway. Bummer.)

On the way back a Demon managed to live long enough to take action and chose to cast Wind level 3. It hits everyone on the opposing side and for a decent amount of damage. I could have Domino use this spell but he's so slow and it's really only effective against large groups. I usually prefer to have him finish off something with a knife throw.

This is perhaps the largest chamber in the entire dungeon. It seems like there are multiple options but that's only because of the limited view. The team came from the northwest. To the south and southwest are immediate dead ends.

There's so much water in here. Where does it all come from?
And more importantly is anything dangerous lurking within?
Are you trying to make Finn even more paranoid?
Maaaaybe.
What are you guys talking about? I kinda got distracted looking around.
Oh just us joking around again.

GAH!
I saw that one coming.

Undead Lectors are faster than everyone but Annie. I would say having one land an Illusion spell on three party members is bad but, as if to demonstrate just how useless Illusion is Samson acts next and kills the Lector. These enemies have low defense relative to their peers so this one's Illusion spell was even more of a bad idea. (The only good idea being to immediately run away at the sight of this team of rampaging marauders.)

Eventually the party creeps its way to a passage that winds north before turning west. I hug the wall tightly not knowing (until I do some backtracking later) that I'm barely slipping by the menagerie of pits marked on the floor below.

Why do I always feel like my doom is only inches away?
Because it probably is?
That's what I thought, sis.

It can't be all that doomy if we keep defeating every monster we run across.
If we'd run into something we couldn't defeat I don't think we'd be standing here right now.
Nonsense. We have the good sense to run away.

Annie levels up and maxes out her Holy Light spell. One day I might actually think to use it. Unlikely though.

Is that doom or a staircase ahead of us?
Let's ask Finn's paranoia!
For the moment I'm going to trust that it's a real staircase.
So you do believe that one day a staircase will hurt you.
I'm pretty sure that if Finn tripped of his own accord he'd think it was a trap.
I deny nothing. Or everything. I don't even know anymore.

6th Floor

At first sight the sixth floor seems much like the previous five. I suppose I should be happy that the developers didn't put an invisible pit right in front that drops back to the beginning. Without any particular preference I pick a direction at random and keep moving.

It's a maze of twisty little passages all going in different directions! Northeast goes to a loop that is blocked by a hidden trap. South is a long passage that turns west.

Spotting a treasure chest the team cautiously approaches only to be blocked off by stone heads. For once the game wants the player to take a more direct approach.

By this point Annie's running low on MP so I try to steal some from Undead Lectors. It doesn't work. I'm not at all surprised because that's the usual result.

The Undead Lector then casts Healing Rain 2 to heal the Undead Knight they rolled into battle with. One nice thing about enemies being split across groups is that these group heals aren't as effective.

Miss Annie that ghosty fellow has the same spell that you do.
I'm actually kind of jealous.
How does a ghost heal another ghost anyway?
With ghost love!
I can do without that mental image.

Greater Demons are another rare enemy in the Sand Cave.

This is their first appearance and it doesn't even get a turn. I wasn't in any mood to risk disaster so the frontliners pounced as a group.

That treasure chest contains a Thunder Vase. The team had to backtrack a long way, careful to walk the exact route back in case of pits, so this is a disappointment. This episode's getting lengthy so we'll break there and hope the team can find their way out next time.

 

Next time on Beyond the Beyond - finishing up the Sand Cave.

Update Ninety-four | Index | Update Ninety-six