A severed drudge head at the entrance did nothing to dissuade me. But down the first ramp I remember something I had forgotten: between my first venture to Dereth and my second, the enemies here were upgraded. Instead of low-rent drudges, we now have vicious Virindi-altered drudges. Fortunately, this dungeon is a prime place to bust out the melee fighter's secret weapon: a door!
Yes. There has been, since the very early days of the game, a bug that allows you to melee enemies through closed doors. It's never been fixed because the players like abusing it, thus it's classified as a "glitch" rather than a "bug." Because of this, you can bash away at creatures freely, safe in the knowledge that the door will block any War Magic and you can step back a few paces at any time to heal safely out of melee range.
...or so I think, until I get down to the second level and realize, horror of horrors! The balance of power on Dereth has shifted mightily! Drudges have learned how to open doors!
So what was going to be a quick dungeon-crawl becomes a fairly hectic running battle. These drudges, as well as the Hunter Shreaths that also infest the place, are higher level than me and my weapons are still fairly gimped. The drudges never seem to fall fast enough, and I'm getting pinged for two and three points of damage per second. Fortunately, I have a few tricks of my own. Another weird glitch in the game is that a monster will sometimes psuedo-randomly say "eh, screw it," and just walk away from a battle, disinterested. Before, this wasn't terribly exploitable, given that they re-aggro as soon as you take a shot at them or one of their buddies. But with the new combat update, what it means is free Sneak Attacks.
I also have Lugian gems and know what elements to use (fire against the drudges, ice against the shreath). However, none of this can take away the element of the ticking clock. With neither Healing nor Life Magic, I'm reliant on potions for health and stamina restoration. Which work fine, but are limited. Additionally, it can take a while to get rid of these enemies, so I'm being stalked by the respawn timer. Despite the pressure, I still stop to loot the corpses. Which is very fortunate, since the bartender implied the key was lying around on the floor. Turns out, it's actually held by a drudge in the final room.
I make it to that room just in time. My potions are nearly out, but I have enough to finish off the last few drudges. pushing my luck a little, I go through a new passage out of said room, but it turns out to be a dead-end with a destroyed portal. Nothing I can do with that, so I consider this a successful mission and /lifestone back to Shoushi.
A harder quest than I was expecting, but in the end I was able to handle it without dying. The "chug potions" approach to healing is working. I was able to face a appropriate-level dungeon without too much difficulty. I'll make it a point to bring twice as many next time, though, since almost running out could have killed me if I hadn't hit the end just in time. All in all, I feel like I've proved I still have some idea how to play this game.
I planned to get some more things done tonight, but back in real life I'm feeling under the weather, so I call it an early night. Before I do, however, I take a quick side-trip to Hebian-To (hate the brick texture on the Town Network, but the paintings are nice) to grab some level III item magic. Somewhat unfortunately, it's only after making the purchase that I realize my skill is only around 100, and I'll need 50 more points to cast them reliably. But hey, I'll need them eventually, and money is easy to get in this game, so whatever.
Next time, I really take this show on the road, hitting lesser-visited towns in search of town stamps and keys. See you then!
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