Part III: Endgame
Our heroes have traveled around the world, visiting a dozen continents. They’ve collected the seven words and six relics that were foretold to stand between them and the Deathlord. And, despite the monster’s insistence, they’ve proved their competence in countless dungeons, towns, and wildernesses.
The only thing left is to find the Deathlord himself, hiding at the bottom of the dungeons of Hell, and end his scourge once and for all.
Hell Island
Time for the final assault. Hell Island is one sector north and four west of Chigaku, presuming that you have the Sharktooth. Land on the patch of open terrain, cast S6:KAERU one last time, and write down your escape word somewhere. No, really. Then rest up as needed.
(If you’re feeling particularly clever, you can cast S6:KAERU near the Emperor’s Palace on Kodan and save yourself an ocean voyage.)
Via ad Infernum means the road to Hell in Latin, in case you were wondering.
There’s a fairly simply maze in the bottom half of the island: go E, E, N, E, N, W, W, W. Now, use the Ruby Ring a lot to walk through the fire, and if you pay attention to how many steps you take before you have to use it again, you’ll be able to save yourself some HP in the long run. To get to the center, head W from the start of the fire, circle clockwise until you hit 12:00 and turn S, then head E and continue to circle clockwise until you hit the blackness. Head N to find the entrance to the keep.
Skull Keep
The Keep is an ‘indoor’ area, which means three things:
- it’s self-lit
- you can’t sleep here
- there are no wandering monsters
It’s full of darkness tiles so you’ll be operating under “torchlight” conditions.
The place is lousy with Demons of all kinds. Smoke and Vapor Demons can paralyze, but by now your Kishi should be able to cast S3:MOTUNASU. Acid Demons don’t do anything special. The Emerald Rod slays demons and grants -6 AC so it’s a pretty obvious choice here. Before you take on the Keep, this is a good time to rejuggle your equipment to lower your average AC in the front line.
There’s no trick to the path here. You’ve got straight hallways, usually with false-wall guard posts like you see in towns, interspersed with diagonal hallways full of energy fields that you’ll need to step carefully around. When you reach the last diagonal hallway, search for secret doors to find your way forward. When you open the last door, there’s a ton more Demons waiting for you. Search N again and find another room of Demons. Do it again and enter Cerberus’s lair; he’ll probably be waiting for you. Walk across the water with G6:UKU or use the Blue Crystal to walk through the energy fields.
Before you descend into hell, heal everyone, then use a macro to wait a long time to restore spell points. There aren’t any wandering monsters here, remember.
Hell
Remember Malkanth, also known as “Hell on Earth”, and how it was divided up into four different parts? The Hell dungeon is divided the same way. It’s 16 levels deep and divided into four chunks: Shadow, Fire, Acid, and Death. Each section has a lord, but you can skip all of them except the Deathlord himself.
All in all, there’s not a whole lot to say about this dive; it’s mostly straightforward so long as you have all the Relics and words, and more-or-less impossible if you don’t. There are a few light navigation puzzles, but most of the levels are simply long and full of environmental effects that sap your resources. You’ll obviously have to fight a bunch of nasty creatures, but you know your party and your tactics better than I do at this point.
Level 1:
You have entered the realm of Malokorai of the Shifting Shadows, Lord of the Dark.
Step E and (U)se the Lantern to cast light; nothing else will work down here.
Watch out for Dark Demons, who level drain. Ha! Just kidding, they’re black squares, so you won’t be able to see them coming. Shades also level-drain. Lost Souls are cannon fodder that summon help, but they go down to G1:HIBANA.
The level itself is kind of pointless; there is a pool of acid and a pool of fire, but neither is worth exploring. Along the N wall (where you came in) there are several teleporters. Most of them teleport you to other parts of this level; two of them take you down to Level 2.
From the sign, go either 1S 2E 1N or 1S 3W 1N. Both of those teleporters will take you to Level 2.
Level 2: Step S to make sure you’re on Level 2 (you should see water) and avoid some more teleporters that take you back to Level 1. (This is a brutal teleport trap, if you don’t have a map in front of you.) Then walk E until you pass through a false wall. When you come out the other side, head S until you see water, then E and N to the stairs down.
Level 3: Head W until you find a stone wall, then circle clockwise. You’ll end up in front of a gate. This is the first Gate of Hell, which can not be smashed down. You’ve heard about these gates in Wakiza and Akhamun-Ra’s Pyramid; the only way to pass them is to (Y)ell one of the seven Words that you learned. There’s no obvious order; the first word happens to be YOKUSEI. Yelling it teleports you to the opposite side of the gate; proceed N to the stairs down.
Level 4: You’re dropped into a wide N-S hallway. Opposite you is a fake staircase; ignore it. To the N is the next gate (NIKUMU). Beyond that is some water; you can pick up 12 magic pools here if you want.
W of here you’ll find some fake Shades. You can’t attack them; it turns out that you need to find the adjacent false walls so you can step around them instead. If you want, you can fight off Malokorai the Dark Lord, but he can level-drain and cast ZUMA, KOROSU, and UNMEI. Not a friendly dude. And completely optional.
Head S, skip the treasure rooms (there are Dark Demons waiting inside), and navigate the fire maze (or just use the Ruby Ring) to find the stairs.
Deep breath; you’re 1/4 of the way there. The next realm is the realm of Fire, so you’re going to need the Ruby Ring a whole lot.
Levels 5–6: Before you go downstairs, use the Ruby Ring. The Lantern is no longer any use down here, so step S and then cast S3:MOAKARI. Then walk E until you find a safe square.
The sign you skipped over says:
You have entered the domain of Frashaak of the Consuming Flame, Lord of the Eternal Fires.
Wind your way around through two levels (there’s a teleporter in the NW of Level 5 that makes it look like you’re on one very large level) until you find some stairs. There are four staircases; they all take you to Level 7, but use the one in the SE because it’s the quickest.
Level 7: Head straight E and pass through a false wall to find the stairs down. You can rest on the false walls if you want; Lost Souls aren’t much of a problem, but Firebats suck a lot, and there’s still Blaze Demons and Smoke Demons to be dealt with. Consider (N)egotiating or (F)leeing.
Level 8: Step S into a false wall. Then walk W a bunch and a bit N. The third Word gate is there (SEIYOKU), but just N of there is a real honest-to-god portcullis that you’ll need to bash down. Say it with me: Deathlord hates you.
You now enter the halls of the Lord of Fire. He’s at the N end of the room; again, he doesn’t move, so you can walk right past him if you want.
W of him there’s a false wall with four magic pools, another room with four more to the S, and his “personal chambers” to the N (mind the pit). Find a secret door in the NE corner of that room for some cash, in case you’ve blown it all negotiating with monsters.
Across the hall from that false wall (and S) is a room with dark, fire, acid, and energy fields. Don’t drink from the pool, head N into the acid (Emerald Rod at the ready), (Y)ell the next word (DARAKU), and advance to the next section.
Halfway there. If you haven’t guessed, you’re heading to the realm of Acid.
Levels 9–11:
Thou art entering the domain of his most horrible presence Jhelag of the Writhing Tentacles.
I really appreciate the shift to the familiar / derogatory form of “you”, here. Good stuff from the Lord of Acid.
Hollow walls to either side of the sign. Much like the realm of fire, these three levels are made to seem like one by the clever use of teleporters. You get a couple of break points as you walk along the corridor; when the corridor forks, head W instead of S to teleport to Level 10.
Continue winding around the long acid-filled corridors, and when you find the energy fields inside some pillars, head SW to find the next teleporter.
Wind around to another pillar-surrounded room, and head N. There’s a false wall in the brick, and the stairs down are right there.
Level 12: Two rooms S, a corridor W, and three rooms N (mind the pit) with a magic pool in each one. I can’t imagine a player being willing to take the risk on the HP or MP restoration this deep in a dungeon; I’d rather rest and wait for combat. Find the false wall W and traverse another acid-filled corridor. The fifth gate awaits (FUSHIN). Walk over more acid, then use the Blue Crystal to pass a energy field and enter Jhelag’s chambers.
The W half of this level is a mirror image of the E half, for the most part. You’ll find the sixth gate (OSORERU) along the way.
Now for the final plunge. In the realm of Death you’ll find every monster you’ve faced so far, plus Vampires, Liches, and Undead Ronin. Definitely try not to fight them because level drain is the worst. To some degree, level drain doesn’t matter when you’re this close to the end. But if you go too far, your to-hit and saving throws will start to suffer.
Levels 13–14:
You have entered the realm of his most noble countenance, the Prince of Demons and the Lord of Death.
A game’s got to be funny right up to the end, I guess. The “No Admittance” club is a fake staircase. Ho ho ho.
Head E. The stone walls are false if you don’t want to walk through either the fire or the acid. In the darkness to the E, head E and N until you teleport to Level 14. This one’s a little less artfully designed; when you teleport, you’ll be able to see the walls behind you shift. Then follow around to the next teleporter.
Level 15: Step N, then find the center. Depending on which square teleported you here, it might be either E or W.
All of the pools you find down here are magical. Head N down the hall of statues. If you duck to either side you can find some very rich pots. At the N end of the hall you’ll pass a ring of acid, a ring of pit traps, and a ring of fire before approaching the seventh gate. Yell the final word (CHIJOKU) and get teleported to the bottom floor.
Level 16: A maze of Arkhan’s Walls, so tread carefully. Take it slowly so you don’t zap all your HP; or go all Damn The Torpedoes and proceed blindly into the center, giving up 78% of your HP on your way to take on the Deathlord.
Walk W, keeping the outer wall to the N; when you get to the NW corner, turn S. When you get to a four-ish way intersection, head S and follow that corridor NE to the center. Save your game, back it up, cross your fingers, and do whatever you’re going to do, because this is the big one.
How to fight the Deathlord: The Sunspear is the only physical weapon that will hurt him; all others do 0 damage if you hit. The Deathlord level-drains, hits for 40+ damage, and casts KOROSU. He also has around 250 HP, so five or six shots with the Sunspear should do it. I recommend focusing on having your Mahotsukai cast M3:ISOGU to grant an extra attack per round; it works on the entire party, but only the fighter with the Sunspear will be effective. Believe it or not, M1:TODO is also effective, but it only does 3-24 damage and a second attack with the Sunspear is almost certainly going to do more than that.
Other useful spells are Z1:HIKAKOMU and G1:SHOTEN, which buff the to-hit of a single fighter; S3:ONKEI which buffs the entire party’s to-hit; S4:MAKATAI and G4:MANIJIN, which buff the AC of the whole party; and Z2:KINO which buffs the AC of one person.
As for tactics: cast haste, buff your AC, and pray for more physical attacks and fewer castings of KOROSU (or level-drains). If you’re lucky, you may be able to finish him off in three or four rounds. I got away with only one level drained.
When you beat him you get the following message:
A chilling scream surrounds you as the Evil One is consumed by white flames. Amid the ashes you find a pulsing Black Orb.
You then need to take the Black Orb. It’s a Magic Item (slot 5) so you won’t be able to give it to some party members, because they’re already carrying one.
Return to the Emperor (Kodan)
Once you have the Black Orb, all that’s left is to head back to the Emperor. There are three ways to do it:
- It is technically possible to walk all the way back out of Hell,
(B)oardyour boat, and sail back to Kodan. The Deathlord’s chamber is safe to sleep in because you’re protected by the energy fields, but I wouldn’t want to fight my way back out, not to mention having to navigate the stupid fire and acid worlds again. (Y)ellyour S6:KAERU escape word, which may or may not involve sailing from Hell Island to Kodan, depending on where you cast it. This is almost certainly your best bet.- Dismantle your party, assemble a new one, and re-start the game outside Kawa. You keep all your equipment, so you can just bop over to the Palace and talk to the Emperor. I personally think this is cheating, but hey if something goes wrong and your recall spell doesn’t work, or you’ve lost your boat or something, go for it.
Once you’re back on Kodan, head to the Emperor’s Palace and (OI)ffer him the Orb. You’ll have to switch back to the Boot disk at this point. A pastoral scene will appear along with scrolling text:
And so it came to pass that the evil tyranny of the Deathlord was broken by the heroic efforts of 6 adventurers: (character portraits and names)
Because of their deeds, the cause of much of the evil in the lands was banished, and the people knew peace at last. In the days that followed, a great shrine was raised by the people and it was called the Hall of Heroes.
Inside the shrine stood the statues of many heroes of legend, but among their ranks stood a statue that was dedicated to: (character names)
In this way did the legend of the mighty quest live on for all time!
The end
