Game:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993)

Duration: 10:39

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Once all the Orcs get cleared out, the only visible path that we haven’t cleared out is a southward path near our start point from Lake Dread. That’ll lead us to a lot more territory, so I head down that way. It takes us to the east and a dead-end—or at least it looks that way. From the map, however, we can see that there’s a secret passage at the end that we can go through. I do so and find a new batch of forest to explore. This one likewise is a dead end—and likewise has a secret passage that we can go through to continue exploring. I go through the second secret passage to yet another batch of forest, and this one is considerably larger than the previous one. There’s a small cul-de-sac where I check a tree stump for loot—it’s empty, though—and then I move up where we confront a Pentrog. They were a problem before, but now we have the Fireball Wands and it’s time to take advantage. I take one of the Wands and have Michael use it, with spectacular results. The wand casts Level 4 Fireball, which not only kills the Pentrog in one shot but also causes Michael to instantly jump to spellcasting level 2! Casting attack spells serves to increase experience, and using wands works just as well as standard spells. Since Michael in particular is a slow magic learner compared to the other three character options at the start of the game, using the wands is going to make him dramatically more powerful.

Having roasted this first Pentrog, I move forward and give the same treatment to a second one approaching us, then check a nearby tree stump for loot. We pick up six coins, then move forward to find yet another secret passage. An arrow comes through to strike us, so I make a point of waiting a bit—there’s a Pentrog on the other side, and I want to let him back up from right up against the passage before moving through. Still, when I do go through, he’s easily obliterated. We resume exploring and ultimately find a map exit to the Urbish Mines. These are the mines where Scotia found the Nether Mask, and we’ll have to go there eventually. It’s a very difficult area, though, so we won’t be going there for quite some time. I turn around and resume exploring Opinwood, going on a long northward path where we find the Star Polaris in a tree trunk. Eventually it starts going west, and we encounter a gang of three Pentrogs. Michael quickly eliminates them with three fire blasts, one of which boosts him to Level 3 spellcasting, and then we continue. A tree nearby contains the Green Skull, which may seem like a weird object but is going to be a necessity for entering the Urbish Mines. Moving south, we use the last remaining charge on our Fireball Wand to kill a Pentrog, and then find the Longsword Flayer. It’s a bit better than a standard longsword, so I equip it to Baccata.

I continue to head west, and we go without incident for some time but finally bump into a Pentrog. We’ve used up our wand from earlier, but since I bought two we’ve got a fresh one ready to go. I select the remaining wand and have Michael vaporize the Pentrog with it, then give the same treatment to a second one right behind him. I advance a little further, only to find more Pentrogs advancing on us. This time there are three of them, and I use three Fireball blasts to eliminate the dangerous creatures. Close by, though, we encounter yet another Pentrog, and I blast him as well. The wand is already starting to run out of juice, but this particular blast promotes Michael to Level 4 spellcasting, so that’s positive. Unhappily, another Pentrog shows up in a nearby spot, forcing us to use the last Fireball Wand charge to get rid of him. We’re now out of Fireball Wands, but Michael is now an incredibly powerful spellcaster and I’m confident that’ll serve us well. Sure enough, when we encounter our next Pentrog, I have the group defeat it conventionally and then Michael heals himself with Level 3 Heal—certainly a stronger form of Heal than he could have cast beforehand. In a skirmish that happens later, though, that’s not enough. We face two Pentrogs and Michael gets KO’ed, so I decide to show off the Bezel Cup. Using the Bezel Cup on him instantly revives him to full health—although since this cup had only one gem (out of four maximum), it’s now used up and disappears. I resume exploring, and thankfully we get a break from more Pentrogs until I reach a path in the far north of the map. Dispatching this one and advancing further down leads to a tree stump chest—and this one has a particularly nice surprise. After picking the lock and looking inside, we receive a Lighting scroll! Lightning isn’t as potent a spell as Fireball, but it’s still quite good. It’s now added to our spellbook, and we can cast it as long as our mana supply allows.

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