Game:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993)

Duration: 10:30

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Before leaving our drop-off point, the first thing I do is rearrange our inventory. There’s a very dangerous enemy type in this area, so I want all our healing items in sight and ready to use. We’ve got three salves and two aloe leaves, and once they’re all in sight I move forward. We can go either west or east, and I start by moving to the east. We’re promptly greeted by Orcs—they’re not the especially dangerous opponents I’m worried about, but they spawn endlessly in this area and are going to be a constant nuisance. I quickly dispatch these two, then check a small tree stump nearby. In most playthroughs nothing’s there, but in this case we get lucky and find a Bezel Cup. This cup can automatically heal a party member to full health, much like the Silver Goblet. The Bezel Cup only has a limited number of uses so it’s not nearly as powerful as the Silver Goblet, but that’s alright.

Once I’ve put the Bezel Cup in our inventory with the other healing items, I start heading west and we’re greeted by some more Orcs. Inconveniently, while we’re dealing with this group another one spawns behind us, so we’re getting hit from two sides. Baccata’s health drops into the yellow range, but we nevertheless clear out the opposition. After resting our way back to full health, I resume heading west and then north. I encounter a few more Orcs near a cul-de-sac, but we defeat them without too much trouble and continue onward until we encounter the enemy I was worried about: a Pentrog. Pentrogs are ram-headed creatures that do severe damage with their head-butting attack. They also carry crossbows and can shoot arrows, but their melee strike is far more dangerous; on Ferocious it’s entirely possible for one Pentrog to kill the whole party. Fortunately, in this encounter we’re able to come out on top, although Michael’s health is knocked into the danger zone. I retreat in hopes of resting our way to full health, but it's not going to work—Orcs intercept us. I end up having Baccata heal Michael, and once the coast is clear we resume heading down the path.

My goal is the northwest corner of the map, which leads into another area. The maze-like forest has some dead ends we encounter along the way, although I locate the Star “Shining” in one cul-de-sac. From there, we encounter a second Pentrog, and this one nearly kills us off. He KO’s Michael and reduces Baccata’s health to almost zero before I give Michael one of our Salves to get him back in fighting shape. From there we dispatch him without further trouble, although we’re immediately confronted by a gang of Orcs. It takes some time to finish them off, but we do and I rest the party to full health. From there, we continue heading northwest, and have a surprise encounter with a third Pentrog. We get very fortunate and eliminate him without much trouble, with Baccata even gaining a new fighting level. I then head down an unexplored path; it’s a dead end, but it has a chest that can be lockpicked. Inside is a lot of great stuff--the Sabre Gutter honestly isn’t very useful, but there’s also a Salve, a Bezel Cup, and a new piece of armor! Our inventory is so full I have to drop some items at this point, but that’s alright. I put the good stuff into our inventory and equip our new Bracers to Michael’s arms.

At this point, I head directly to the northwest corner of the forest and enter the new Swamp area. It’s filled with unique dangers, most notably sinkholes. These spots on the path are giant holes filled with water; if we step on one it’s instant death. Fortunately, they’re easy to spot and we pass by one as we advance down the path. We’re greeted by a strange, frog-like creature holding a trident, who demands we identify ourselves. He’s a Gorkha, a member of the race that’s native to the swamp and has an independent kingdom here. This one is a guard, and warns us that his people recently defeated a band of Orcs that tried to invade the swampland. It’s possible for us to fight the Gorkha if we wish, but it’s much better to stay on their good side. Unfortunately, they’re not the only occupants of the swamp, and once the guard stands down we promptly encounter a Boglyte. These are animated blobs of slime that are always hostile, and their lack of a solid form means our weapons generally do only limited damage against them. It takes a while, but we finally kill this one. There are plenty of others in this swamp, though, so we’ll have to be on our toes.

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