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Beyond the Beyond: Update 28: Pyramid Diving (Arawn's Palace, pt. 2)
Searching for any clue to Arawn's whereabouts or some sort of doohickey that can get them closer to Master Zeon the team stares out into the desert towards the ruins they have already visited once. Would a more diligent search yield something useful?
So where are these ruins?
To the northwest. Across the sand? Yup. Great.
Having made the trip once before it isn't all that long until they are once again staring at the stairs down.
The barrier is still here. Can we just walk through it? *concentrates* Yes. I think so.
All right then. *takes a deep breath* Let's do this!
B1
There are walkways down here and more stairs. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but this certainly isn't it. Yeah no kidding.
We'll have to go around. Come on.
Welcome to the first real dungeon in Beyond the Beyond. Each and every one has its own puzzle gimmick. Fortunately the game is good about not recycling gimmicks but that doesn't make them any less annoying.
Ok, let's see what this does.
The ground rumbles and the sound of grating stone is heard.
Uh, what? Part of the walkway moved. That sounds like someone went to way too much trouble when building this place. Why bother? Elder Xelmet did say a relic might be hidden somewhere in here. I guess this is some sort of security system.
So does that mean these priests are lost down here? They don't seem very keen on talking to us. There's something strange about them. Strange or not they are advancing. Defend yourselves.
Once the priests and their pet slime are vanquished the team crosses the newly created path, walks south, then north to find another staircase down. That about sums up what this dungeon demands. Each floor is a slightly more complex path-generating puzzle. Also note that even though we just entered this dungeon we're already fighting formations that we'd see around Simone. That's not an accident and it's going to get worse.
B2
More of the same, just a bigger floor. Great. Wonderful. This had BETTER be worth it.
Pryaa! Finn! Treasure! Where?! Oh, so close yet so far. Just you wait treasure chest. We'll find a way to reach you.
Another summoner? Where are all these people coming from?
Only minutes later a Summoner and a Lizard Man attack the group. Although Finn and Annie valiantly try to kill the summoner zie simply absorbs their blows and retaliates by calling an ally into the battle.
A High Elf's Wind level 2 is significantly more effective when used on us. Of note, Samson took 50% more damage from Wind 2 than everyone else (Tont's damage printout hasn't popped up yet but he took 18). That's more then he currently has as his maximum VP. Beyond the Beyond has officially declared war on us.
Imagine heading down here on first reaching Ophera to understand what it was generally like when this game first came out. There's a reason Beyond the Beyond got a bad reputation for its encounter rate. If you got used to a town-dungeon-town-dungeon game flow like most jrpgs have this dungeon would have thrown you for a very nasty loop - and laughed the whole time it was murdering you!
How dare you attack us! Die!
This is also around the point in the game where you have to seriously consider whether to use any of the AI autocombat options even for formations where they've been pretty successful in the past. I have it on Reserve most of the time but each encounter forces a quick reassessment.
Ow, ow, ow! Is everyone okay? A little bruised but fine. Likewise.
Good thing we brought a whole bunch of herbs with us. We're going to need every single one of them.
And I do mean every single one of them.
Aargh! These skeletons have a lot more bite to them!
Another switch. Um, yay? There's some stairs too.
Seeing as how we'll almost certainly need access to the lower section of this chamber hitting this switch is necessary.
The walkway loops around? Who designed this place? Someone with way too much time on their hands, that's who. I'm more worried about all the monsters. Is that what that barrier is for, to keep the monsters in? I guess. I can understand the undead but how does anything else survive down here? We're out in a desert and this place is bone dry. Umm, magic? *pauses* Ok, seriously I've got nothing, sis.
This is something else Arawn's Palace does a lot of - looping around on itself. There's no way to know which way to go without trial and error which means you spend that much more time in random encounters getting pummeled.
Now this is just rude! What did we do to deserve all this powder that makes my nose run? Hey I did remember to bring my noseplugs! I told you I didn't forget them, Finn. That's *sneezes* just great, Steiner.
Oh no, not illusion status! Whatever shall we do? Oh right illusion does nothing. We shall then commence sneeze-filled laughter.
I think I'm starting to get the gist of this. Yeah, it looks like whoever designed this place wants visitors to use all these fancy switches to open and close paths. Why can't we just climb down? It's not even all that high, really. Because then we might never find a way back up.
Now that we've moved that block and cut ourselves off we have no choice but to go north again.
On the other hand that also means we can reach the treasure chest Steiner spotted earlier.
Another smoke bomb? Eh, treasure's treasure I guess.
More importantly, however, the team can continue south to loop around the southern walkway.
There's the stairs up. I'll get the switch.
Just northeast is the staircase down.
B3
More switches, more sliding stones. Lovely.
Well I guess I'll get this one.
Huh? That path just leads to a dead end. The floor path below us is open, though. I guess that's what we're supposed to do.
And just in case you do forget to get the second switch you'd come to a dead end just like this. It's easy to avoid now, not so much when you're walking halfway across the chamber from where you hit the first switch and have been dragged into several random encounters to oh-so-helpfully encourage you to forget where you're going or what you're doing. That's the insidious part of the encounter rate.
Ta da! It looks like the way is clear. We just have to survive it, that's all.
You ain't kiddin', sis. It's nothing we can't handle. I kinda want to know how all these dead people got in here. A mystery for the ages, I suppose. If we ever meet Arawn we need to ask why his house is filled with monsters.
As expected the path is now open. Weaving around the stone platforms the team heads west.
They stop and turn north to squeeze through the narrow opening, fighting off more monsters before descending the next staircase. A way to get back upstairs is also easily accessible in case we need to make a hasty retreat (or to screw over a player who is half asleep, not that I've every gotten mixed up like that - nope, definitely not).
B4
Pryaa! More treasure! That's what I like to see first thing. Gives you something to work towards? Well you know everybody's gotta have a hobby.
This switch controls two blocks. I guess the designer got bored with just one. If we can just find a way down we can reach treasure. I should have thought to bring a rope.
There's a staircase. But we just made it useless. We can't reach it without blocking that route Finn wants to take. We'll worry about that one later.
As the team continues to fight for seemingly every inch of ground they at least make some decent cash along the way. Oh and I suppose Finn gets a level up too for his trouble.
Aha, see, progress! Treeaasuuure! Finn, wait! Don't go... *sighs* running off recklessly.
Eyes on the prize and now the prize is mine. That big chest for one little card? Yup. If you're done admiring your newest trinket, Finn, could we move on?
Well we're one Dragon Card richer. Yay?
This spell hasn't been very useful but I guess I can give it another shot.
Annie's Silence spell worked on one Summoner but unfortunately the other one nuked our forces with Fire 2.
Agh! Ugh, that was less helpful then I hoped.
What do you mean you missed?! You're not supposed to miss! You're making me look bad. AARGH!
I don't usually use the base Summon line much and I'm starting to remember why. Yay we can spend MP to do absolutely nothing. Woohoo!
With nowhere else to go the team returns to the first switch.
I think I understand what we have to do next.
Well it'll have to wait. I'm all tapped out. Finn? No problem. One hasty exit coming right up!
Annie's out of MP and we're almost out of herbs so it's time to ditch and run for our collective lives. Having to repeatedly heal five characters drains our resources quickly. However we won't have to make side treks for the treasures we picked up when we come back so getting back down to this point will go a little faster.
Next time on Beyond the Beyond - the second half of this dungeon!
