Game:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993)

Duration: 11:18

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We’ve landed in a small, enclosed room with a portal. If we step through the portal, it’ll take us to the Urbish Mining Company lobby, so we’ve got a way back to the start. For now, though, we’ll need to use the Silver Key in a nearby niche on a keyhole in the wall. I do so, and it causes an entire section of wall to disappear, revealing a path forward. I take a few steps down this new path, and we’re immediately confronted by one of the rock monsters that Geof’s note earlier warned about. Technically called Rocklings, these are very tough opponents that are notable for being impervious to bladed weapons. Their rock hide is too tough to be pierced, so we’ll need to use blunt weapons instead. Fortunately, we have plenty. Michael’s already equipped with the Great Maul, which works great for such purposes. Baccata only has bladed weapons currently, but I swap those out for the Mace Bouncer and a Sledge. With those new bashing weapons, we’re in much better shape and we’re able to defeat this Rockling without much trouble. There are plenty more where he came from, though.

After resting our way back to full health, I begin exploring the area and uncover quite a bit of ground without incident. Notably, we find a note saying “Piscata Rosea 4 4 5.” That’s a joke by the game—it’s Latin for “red herring”, and the note is likewise a distraction. I drop it and continue exploring, ultimately uncovering plenty of ground but eventually appearing to dead-end. Checking the map, however, reveals that there’s a secret passage, so I backtrack and go through that to enter a small enclosed area. We’re intercepted by a Rockling, and after defeating him I head to the other side of this area where a second Rockling guards a chest. We dispatch the second Rockling, and then I have Michael pick the lock on the chest to open it. Inside is an empty flask which is pretty much worthless and the Gold Jewel which is anything but—we need it to open the door in this area. I move to the door and put the jewel in place, which causes the door to open and reveal a mining cart. This mining cart can transport us to three distinct areas within the mine, as determined by the positions of two levers next to it. Right now they’re both in the down position, meaning the cart is stuck in place and cannot move. Moving them both into the up position sends us to one area, having the left one up and the right one down moves us to a different area, and having the right one up and the left one down moves us into yet another area.

I decide to begin by moving the left lever into the up position and leaving the right one alone. We get into the cart and, after a fun-looking ride, we end up in another area. This one, however, is a dead end. We’re in a small room with no items or any way forward. There’s nothing further to see, so I get back in the cart and move back to the central room. This time I move both levers into the up position, and get back in the cart. The party enjoys another fun-looking ride and ends up in a new room. This is considerably bigger than the previous room, but still initially looks like a dead end. A look at the map, however, shows a switch on the wall. Pressing it causes the wall section to disappear, revealing a path forward. I begin heading down this new path, and we come to yet another dead end—with another wall that has a switch. Pressing that switch likewise causes the wall to disappear, and we continue down the trail until the path dead-ends for real. At the dead-end, however, is a coal seam that’s poking out of the rock wall. This coal seam is an important location—we’re going to have to get the machine upstairs working again, and to do that we’ll need a piece of coal to fuel it. This is the spot to get the coal we need, and fortunately we have a pick in our inventory. I equip Michael with the pick, attack the seam to break off a small piece of coal, then put the coal into our inventory. One piece is all we need, so I then re-equip the Great Maul and backtrack to the mine cart. We bump into a Rockling on the way, but he’s quickly dispatched. After riding back to the central room, I switch the levers to the last remaining position (right up, left down) and ride to the final area. We come to a closed door with a keyhole that Michael picks to open, and disturbingly there’s a Rockling behind it that attacks us. We defeat it and move forward, but the door closes behind us and more Rocklings attack. We defeat them as well, but this is clearly a dangerous area.

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