Game:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993)

Duration: 10:04

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I decide the first spot I’ll go to is an unexplored area near Scotia’s barrier. It’s not much—just a small side-path that we missed earlier—but I still want to clear out the whole map. I start heading up the diagonal-like path from the southwest corner to the northern half of the map, using the magic atlas as a guide. We encounter two Giant Hornets en route, but they’re both easily dispatched. When we arrive, though, we run into some tough opposition—multiple Hornets and a Molder mass to stop us, and while Michael’s crossbow is great against the Hornets it doesn’t do much damage per shot against the very tough Molders. Still, we clear out the enemy force and defeat two more Great Hornets for good measure while we’re resting our way to full health. At this point we’ve uncovered the entire northern side-path, so all that’s left is to head south and locate the entrance to the Urbish Mines. I start moving south at a brisk pace, but we’re intercepted en route by a swarm of Giant Hornets. I decide to just have Michael pick them off and not use Baccata at all in hopes of leveling Michael up, but when the fight’s over he’s still at Level 4. That’s alright, though.

Once we get close to the unexplored path, we come under attack again from multiple directions. After killing three Giant Hornets Michael levels up to Rogue 5, a great milestone, and I start marching down the path. The entrance to the mines are located off to the side and we could simply go in now, but there’s still an unexplored path that I want to uncover. This path goes through a chunk of the still-blank part of the atlas, and while it’s a dead-end there are some cul-de-sacs here to explore. The opposition continues to be dangerous--we encounter a Molder while we’re uncovering the area, and a large swarm of Giant Hornets joins in by attacking us from the rear. I manage to destroy the Molder and then turn around to eliminate the Hornets before they can do much damage—fortunately, the path is narrow enough that only two of them can fight us at a time. Once the coast is clear, I come across a tree stump chest that turns out to be empty, but nearby is the dagger Assassin. I pick it up, kill one last Giant Hornet, and then reach the dead-end. Everything on this map is uncovered and it’s now time to visit the Urbish Mines. I backtrack to the Urbish Mine entrance without incident and go inside to find a long corridor that looks like a shack. This is the lobby to the office of the Urbish Mining Company that owns the mine, and it leads from Upper Opinwood right into the other Opinwood.

In order to get into the office proper, we need to go through a door in the middle of the corridor, and it’s guarded by one nasty enemy. Opening the door reveals a large, purple wormlike entity that immediately attacks us. Called a Larkhon, this creature is especially dangerous because we can’t harm it by normal means. Its hide is so thick that our weapons can’t even scratch it, and it’s also immune to our spells. There is, however, one way to defeat this thing, and it’s why I made a point of holding onto the Green Skull for so long. The Green Skull can emit a cloud of acid (technically called the Caustic Fog spell), and this acid cloud is the only thing that can harm the Larkhon. As such, once the Larkhon makes its appearance I make sure to have the Green Skull selected and have the party cast Caustic Fog with it. Doing so costs some mana, and Michael’s able to cast it three times before running out. I have Baccata use it to create a fourth cloud, but that instantly wipes him out. The Larkhon’s been weakened but remains a threat, so our only chance is to rest and get our mana back. I hightail it out of the mining area into Opinwood, rest, and then head back in. Three Caustic Fog castings later, the Larkhon goes down and we’ve won! I make sure to rest and pick up our dropped gear—the Larkhon has an earth- shaking attack that makes party members drop things. Once we’ve got everything re-equipped, we’re ready to explore the Urbish Mining office itself.

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