The Four Towers (Dragonspyre - Part 1)

(This is the final world of the first arc and it is a DOOZY. Expect to not complete this before a week in real life passes, especially if you only game a few hours a day. I already put a post down detailing future updates. Enjoy this first part! ^_^ Oh, and guess what Level Sierra is at. Yep, time to do her final first arc spell quest! Woo!)

"I understand, Professor," I said. I knew he was going to help us in Dragonspyre but he said I was to learn a new spell today.

"Today's lesson is about Orthrus, a two-headed dog that is the brother of Cerberus, the..."

"I know about Cerberus," I said. "He is the three-headed dog in Tartarus who was tamed by Hades. I saw a banner about it in Mt. Olympus."

"Well, it seems you're paying attention," said Cyrus somberly. "Your next spell will allow you use that mighty beast in battle. But it will not be easy, you will have to do several labors like Hawkules before you can use that spell. Research is your ally. Go to the library and speak with Harold Argleston about a book on Orthrus, and then write a report in the classroom - I want to make sure you aren't slacking off like my other students."

 

 

The librarian was very helpful as always. The bad news was that the book was part of a program that rotated books and I had to visit Krokotopia and Marleybone. (Thanks to me and Grace helping the post office, the books got back to Wizard City quickly.) I doubted that Mooshu had a library, but I decided not to test my luck and got the book from Harold.

I went back to the classroom and started writing a report on parchment. It was tedious and trying but I wrote with a diligence that would make the Immortals proud of me. My mother had always tutored me in the importance of being succinct and writing things down when you need to remember them. I hoped my parents were hearing of my exploits. Soon I had it finished, long enough to impress Cy.

"Don't give me that," I grumbled. "I did make a few bloopers but I did my best."

"Fine," muttered Cyrus, putting the report on his desk. "Now that you have completed the report it is time for the real work to begin. You know doubt know what the next obstacle will be."

"I know," I said. "I need to get some collars for the creature. Ha, thought I was going to ditz out on you and not know, huh? I proof-read my report!"

"Then you must know where such collars of that size would be, right?" Cyrus sighed as I tried to say something but failed. "No? Figures. The last such collars were lost in Dragonspyre. You must venture into Dragonspyre and locate them."

"Fine, we were heading there anyways," I said. "I'll meet you there, Professor." I left the classroom.

Later...

"Welcome to Dragonspyre, ruined world," said Christina, bowing on her mine cart as me and Grace looked over the terrifyingly evil-looking world. The giant dragon on top scared me.

"That is the same power I felt from my new spell," Grace whispered. "That must be the dreaded Dragon Titan! Good thing it is asleep, no?"






I nodded slowly.

"I brought them, Cyrus," said Christina, winking as he rode into a portal nearby.

"Good," said my professor. "You two have arrived on time. We have a difficult task ahead of us. When you two opened the Spiral Door to Dragonspyre, I went ahead of you and took the opportunity to scry ahead. This is as close as I can come for the time being. Malistaire will most certainly sense my presence should I enter Dragonspyre, endangering all we hope to accomplish."

Grace leaned into me. "I feel Rra Drake is being serious this time. He dearly wants to stop his brother before his brother's plan succeeds."

I nodded but said nothing.

"This place is controlled by magical gates and portals," Cyrus continued. "Most of them are locked or otherwise impassible. However, I have managed to jury ring the portal to the Outer Ring. From there, you must find a way to open the gate to the next ring and so on until you reach the place my brother is doing his ritual."

We nodded. "We will work together to stop him. Count on us."

"A library is on the other side of this portal," said Cyrus, pointing to a portal showing a ruined street. "Go there and find out what answers you can. I am counting on you two and Christina to find Malistaire quickly." He glared at me. "And remember, Sierra, you have to find some..."





"Don't remind me, giant dog collars," I grumbled, flying off before he got antsy.

I took a wrong turn and found myself facing Prospector Zeke, who asked me to find some stone roses. Man, he never lets up! I had found one behind the spiral door but the others were tough. (You can find health wisps in this area. This is the best place to refill your health and mana. If you only have free to play, buy this area ASAP to save money on potions!)

We entered the portal and I felt myself choking and sweating - a river of magma was flowing under us! "Keep close," I said. "I don't want us to fry."

We ran into a ghost who I discovered was Balthazar Dragonthorn, the crafter who Toshio spoke of after giving me my adept crafting badge. He nodded when I mentioned Toshio. "I respect his skill, I will train you in my art," he said. "But I will need to see your work. Make for me two Rings of the Apotheosis, I will teach you the recipe."

I checked it and sighed. I could get the Ghost Fire and had all of the Black Lotuses I need, but I had only a few diamonds. I did find some ore which could extract diamonds but Grace was impatient and I knew we had more important things to worry about right now. (Yep, time to make Sierra a Master Crafter! She needs to be one to craft the Watchtower Hall and Celestial Observatory to come. She has almost all of the ingredients for the Hall - Amber needs five more mounds and Sierra will craft the fountains. These quests are brutal - the first requires 30 diamonds, which you will probably transmute from 450 ore. OUCH! Thank goodness transmutes don't have a cool-down time!)

We eventually found the library and a ghostly figure who introduced himself as Milos Bookworm. I inquired about two-headed dog collars.

"You won't find anything like those in the Atheneum," said Milos. "But you are lucky, or somewhat close to lucky. Ranulf Moonclaw used to house a collection of rare and exotic beasts. It is said he met his end in his tower, which is in the Labyrinth."

"The Labyrinth?" I asked. "Where is that?"

"In the Necropolis, but you can't get there now," said Milos. "The way to that place is locked."

"Great," I muttered.

"Don't worry, Wizard," said Milos. "I can help you find a way into there. In Dragonspyre, we have a saying - Look to the Knowledge Crystal. There is a crystal there. Go check it out."

Grace touched the floating crystal and a voice spoke from it.

"The Portal Gates of Dragonspyre. Aurek Blazeburner created the Portal Gates to defend Dragonspyre from outside enemies. Only a Portal Stone can open a gate. Only students and faculty of Dragonspyre Academy can own a Portal Stone, which is issued by the Stone Keeper."

"So, it seems that Dragonspyre had a magical academy like ours," said Grace, rubbing her chin.

"Then we should, like, look for the stones!" said my pet, brandishing her blades. "Maybe one can get you into, you know, the Necropolis."

My pet had a point. I turned to Milos. "Do you know where the Stone Keeper is?"

"I am not sure, I will look for you," said Milos. "But you might want to check the Tower Archives out the east door. My old friend Holger had stored lots of Portal Stones in his tower."

I was about to leave when Chloe shouted something. "Look there!"

There I saw her. She was a glowing woman with strange half-machine body parts including a laser eye. I shuddered as she turned to us. "I am the Loremaster," she said, smirking. "I have learned exotic spells from all over the Spiral. Wizard, I sense you can cast one of these, Ninja Pigs."

I gasped, then I explained how I got it. She nodded.

"I might be able to teach you more lore spells. You seem to be a wizard of Myth, I have another Myth Lore spell, Keeper of the Flames. Battle me and I can show you the range of Lore Spells. If you are lucky, you might learn Keeper of the Flame." She smirked.

"Don't do it, Mma," said Penny, shaking her head violently. "We have little time for games!"

But curiousity got the better of me. "Okay, you're on."

A group of wizards offered to join me in battle but Grace shook her head and waited outside of her chamber as we entered.

 

Needless to say, it was a difficult fight. Only she attacked by summoning many spells I had never seen before, but her little glowing orbs allied with her used spells to weaken us, strengthen her, and heal her wounds. We eventually won.

"Well done, wizard," said the Loremaster, bowing. "Come by any time to fight me and I can show my spells again." I shrugged and left after getting a Rebirth treasure card and a hat. I had no time for this.

(Yep, meet the infamous Loremaster, who was added to Dragonspyre long ago by KI to give wizards a better chance at getting rare spells like Deer Knight. There is a 0.01% chance you may learn one of the many Lore Spells - Ninja Pigs is one - that she casts on you. Also, there is a 0.0001% chance you'll get HER as a Lore spell, which is a Balance attack that does 450 damage and hits the enemies with Weakness and Black Mantle. OUCH! It's a broken spell that's abused in PvP. You might get her as a Treasure Card, and you need her Treasure Card in masse to craft the new Shadow-Forged Weapons which Sierra will never see until Khyrsalis. Be warned - the fight is tough - the Font of Weakness will debuff you, the Font of Strength will proc the Loremaster placing a 50% Balanceblade on her, and the Font of Life will keep using healing spells and Spirit Armor to make your life suck. Luckily only the Loremaster attacks and she only uses Lore spells.)

(I will NOT be farming her as you might get useless spells - my other Myth Wizard got elemental spells she can't use - Winter Moon and Brimstone Revenant, and Sierra already has her best Myht lore spell; she can craft Keeper later once she starts working on her third craftable house.) 

I didn't see Grace for a long time so I decided to work on my first house. When I was ready, Grace returned. "I am sorry for being late, Mma, but Rra Balestrom summoned me again." (Yep, Grace hit Level 48 after I had her do her mandatory Loremaster battle, so she got her final first arc spell quest... yeah, they are clearly getting closer in level together.)

"What did he have you chase after THIS time?" I giggled.

"First I had to get some gears from Gearheads in Chelsea Court," said Grace. "He said that was the EASY part. Luckily, there were nice people who aided me since they resisted my attacks."(Thanks to Amber Rainbow, my Death Wizard, for helping out, though you can Tempest these guys easily now that you have the power to since you are now 20 levels higher. ^_^)

"Oh my, what was the HARD part?" I gasped, not wanting to know.

 

"Finding a former worker in Wizard City called Pitter Daybreeze to locate a Pattern to assemble the components," said Penny, answering my question for Grace. "But he spent some time in Krokotopia and then came here to Dragonspyre."

"Say," I said to Milos. "You know this guy?"

"Pitter Daybreeze..." said Milos. "That is a name I have not heard in a long time. He came here a long time ago and asked where he could set up a workshop. I directed him to the Labyrinth..."

I looked at my friend. "Looks like we both need to get to the Necropolis," I said. "Let's go." (Yep, the Myth and Storm Level 48 spells require you to do the Labyrinth - not like it wasn't mandatory anyways. I could have spam-ported it, but I decided not to; they need lots of experience before they dare face the challenges ahead. I know because my other Myth Wizard nearly died when she tried to go through the challenge in the Labyrinth for the dog collars at Level 48. With some Grandmaster Gear and Sun enchants, these challenges won't be too difficult, especially for Grace who needs all the help she can get!)

The Tower Archives were a dreary place filled with golems and undead. We met a scary creature called Zarathrax, who tried to say he was helping us, but I knew better. He knew how to open the tower where Holger was living - we had to unlock four towers with keys and activate the crystals at the top of them. The first was held by ghouls that were skulking about. We worked together to kill the undead until we found the key. I went up and activated the first crystal after dodging the patrols.

 

 

The next key was held by a ghost called Lidia Brightmoon who asked us to defeat several ghostly soldiers of the Dragon Titan's army - even in death these spirits fought for the glory of that evil dragon looming above us. She then confessed to lying about where the key was. Again I dodged guards and activated the second crystal.

 

 

(Along the way we helped rescue the Knowledge Keeper, who was being held hostage by a magma colossus called Blackblade. We vaporized him and his cronies.)

 

The third key was held by one of the Dragon Titan's minions, a vicious guy called Petrov Gloomstrider. He was brutal and tough to beat but we did it. (Despite needing more healing than I did, Grace's Triton was much stronger than my pigs. But I didn't mind. ^_^) Again I did the honors of activating the crystal on the third tower.

Finally, the fourth key was easily found in the skeletal claw of a dead dragon buried in the street. I had seen it before and had marked it just in case, I was lucky I had! We warped there, grabbed the key and I snuck up to the final crystal, opening the main tower.

 

We entered the main tower... and found Zarathax sitting there, smug. I laughed.

 

"You're delusional." Chloe said as she paralyzed the two goons and we finished him off with the pigs and sirens. Soon he was just a dead corpse.

A ghost appeared who introduced himself as Aurek, the creator of the gates. "Can you supply us a portal stone to the Necropolis?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, you will have to ask someone else, maybe the Stone Keeper," said Aurek. "I do not know where you can find a portal stone."

 

I sighed and turned in my two Rings to Balthazar, who scrutinized them. I owed Amber and Chris so much to give up their ore to make diamonds for me - those gems were hard to find! He nodded. "I can't judge on one sample," he said. "Make me two Bright Surcoats of the Paragon. You can find the recipe with Shan Yao, who plies his wares in the Village of Sorrow."

I remembered the ninja pig who was selling recipes for myth armor. I bought two recipes(he tricked me into buying the list for the Bright Footgear of the Paragon, sneaky!)(I accidentally clicked the first item and didn't check to see what it was, oops, so now I have two recipes for Myth Gear which is obsolete) and checked the recipe for the Surcoat...

OH MY. :(

[To be continued...]

Sierra Fairyfriend, Student Professor (Spiral Cup Gauntlet)

(A quick brief primer - if you don't know what Wysteria is or are coming onto this blog as this is your first read post, I strongly suggest you read the following posts - it will help you understand what is going on. Also, I got the Spiral Cup Gauntlet[at great deficit to my bank account which I must repay for life] but I decided to give this to Sierra as the one-month pre-paid time would be useful to her account as it was due to expire in a couple of weeks. This is now my favorite bundle as Wysteria is probably my favorite world in Wizard101 and this expands on it. I had exercised artistic license as the first post explains clearly, some of the stuff doesn't happen in game.)

1. The Great Magical Tournament
2. Of Goblins and Girls
3. The Tournament Continues
4. It's Not Easy Being Green... Men
5. The Spiral Cup Is Claimed

 (With that, allons-y! ^_^)

The appearance of the fountain on my estate was confusing to say the least. As was the note attached to it. It was an invite from Pigswick. It had been a long time since I had visited that place. It read:

We have a matter you might find intriguing. Return to Pigswick Academy and visit me in my office. Headmistress Belladonna Crisp.

I wondered what the deal was but I shrugged and took the Spiral Gate to Wysteria.

"You know, I am still not forgiving you for the rudeness you displayed towards me and Grace," I said with a sneer. "And the way you belittled my school..."

"Actually, your school is exactly why I called you here," said Belladonna. "You see, after we... lost the Spiral Cup to Ravenwood, Hugo discussed the future of the school... we made a decision with the professors and agreed that maybe we would humble ourselves and get someone from Ravenwood to teach us a little about your magic. Perhaps our founder was... wrong about Ravenwood. As you know, we were founded by Mr. Pigswick, who was expelled from Ravenwood for questioning the ways of your schools. Perhaps we need to re-establish ourselves, so I swallowed my pride and sent a letter to your headmaster asking for a student to come tutor some of our best students in magical dueling. He referred me to you two and one other..."
 

I was surprised when Christina came in, smiling. "Is this where I get to be a student teacher? Man, what memories of this place. And you still haven't fixed the Green Man problem? Lame."

"Her?" I asked.

"Christina Dawnblade is your school's second best Sorcerer next to Christian Storycrafter, and you are the second-best Conjurer and Diviner next to Sailors Venus and Jupiter," muttered Belladonna. "But Mr. Storycrafter was unavailable for comment, and we think the Sailor Wizards are myths, no offense intended, so Ambrose gave you two as references. Go talk to Benedict in the tournament hall and I will be there shortly."

"I don't see what the deal is, Mma, but if we can teach these people some of our magic, they might work together and this rivalry will end," said Grace. I nodded. AND I wanted to humiliate them a bit further by stealing students from Pigswick.

Benedict was there and told us what we were going to be doing in our curriculum - basically, beating up the top students in Pigswick. "Your first students are Rusty Tinderspark, a student of Ember magic, and Cora Winterbranch, a student of Frost. Don't be too hard on them, but don't be too gentle either!" I laughed at the irony of it all.

"Woo! Let's get this party started, girls!" cried Christina. I laughed even harder at Benedict's disgusted reaction to this display as we headed into the Hall of the Hydra.

 

 

 

 

These two were pretty good and they had summoned minions - an Evil Snowman and Fire Elf - but we took them down well enough. Blinding Light really helped. Other than a Tower Shield the Snowman put up, we were good. I laughed at Cora's decision to transfer, recalling how the Ms. Crisp said we should transfer to Pigswick after seeing how 'great' they were. Shoe on the other foot! ^_^

(The enemies are around 1000 HP but nothing too hard; Tower Shields are your biggest threat here.)

Benedict grudgingly acknowledged our success and told us to head to the hall of the Specter for our next "tutoring session." When I heard Chaos and Tempest, I turned to Grace and sighed.

Sure enough, the students were Myth and Storm elemental and had a Troll and Riverclaw minion with them. We switched to our boss decks so we wouldn't be wasting attacks on the enemies we couldn't damage.

Christina had no such qualms as her Power Nova was not resisted by anyone. :p

We had to deal with puking frogs but I was used to it by now. (Goldrook will do a gimmick which happens at the beginning of each turn and casts Humonofrog on you if you use anything on the storm guy, and the storm pig uses a gimmick if you don't harm her each round, casting a Stormblade on herself. This can get very dangerous very quick - Grace and Christina were dropped to half health by the sudden Humonofrogs and Blade-boosted Storm Sharks.)

 

We cleaned up and then reported to Benedict, who sent us to the Hall of the Harpy to fight a couple of exchange students, Elia and Gemma.

 

I was surprised that the Earth student was Nalia's cousin, and bowed. The other was a fox in knightly armor. They had a river elemental and specter as minions, so we were wary.

"Greetings wizard," said the fox. "I hail from Avalon, a wonderful place. I am unimpressed with this school, I want some excitement!"

"Well, we'll give it to you!" I chuckled.

*head desk* STILL using that old Wizard City Voodoo? That's not a challenge! :(

 

My frog took down Nalia's cousin(sorry Nal) and Grace swamped Gemma with Tempest. (This group isn't too hard at this tier, none of them have over 980 HP. Still, they did spam Weakness.)

"Tell me a bit about Avalon," I begged.

"Oh, if you had only been there during the time when King Artorious had ruled!" she said, sighing. "But now it's... I can't talk about it."

"I hope to visit your homeland some day," I said, smiling. (Little did I know that dream would come true, but not for a very long time.)

"I can still taste the dirt!" coughed Elia, spitting. "Nalia's experiences with you didn't prepare me with how tough Wizard City students are!" I grinned - back when I fought Nalia in the Spiral Cup, I was much weaker than I was now.

 

Belladonna graced us with her presence but was rude as always. I frowned. Benedict told us what our final workshop would be and Christina sighed. "Equilibrium, balance, it's the same thing," she said.


"Don't fight them," I said as we entered. "We'll do the hitting. My Frogs will make them weep."

I was angry and amused at the rumors that I was hearing. Falmea was not a dragon and neither was Dworgyn. But we were going to show them real magic.

 

And they would regret calling us "hedge wizards!"

 
Of course, I didn't expect the last brother to suddenly summon a Balance-type Heckhound! (Gimmick: Once you drop the first two brothers, the third will cast this Sandhound that will do a ton of Balance damage to one target - it did over 600 damage, and it will be cast before you can act every turn. Luckily, it's not a Damage over Time like the other hounds. Christina took a lot of damage. She wouldn't have this problem had I farmed for her Grandmaster gear.)

"I hope you do," I said. "You need to work on REAL magic, though I would like to know where you learned that Heckhound variant." Suddenly, we heard a scream and raced back into the great hall...

And found Benedict and Belladonna nowhere to be found! I noticed that something had changed - a bunch of vines were clogging the doorway to the Hall of the Gorgon.

"Those look like Goblin Kudzu from the Wyrd," gasped Gemma.

"The Wyrd?" I asked.

"The Wyrd is a dark and terrible forest filled with evil spirits and ogres," whispered Gemma. "It is said that after King Artorius... disappeared, his queen vanished into that foul place."

"I see a portal, it must lead to the kidnappers," said Grace. "Shall we investigate?"

Christina grabbed my by the back. "Let's!" She pushed me forward as the Pigswick students watched us enter what they thought was certain doom. I was worried too, but I knew I couldn't falter. As much as I hated Belladonna, we needed to rescue her - I would have done the same had it been Ambrose.

We found Benedict and Belladonna in cages in a mystical place. I was spooked by the giant humanoid sitting on a throne. He ordered his minions to attack. (This actually takes place in Avalon because the music is the same as the Avalon battle music!)

 

We brought down the goons and the ogre chuckled and told us about some flyers he got from the goblins who had invaded earlier. I realized that the goblins and hobgoblins whose portal we had closed ages ago had returned here with Pigswick brochures.

"I liked the idea so much that I decided to start my own school here in Avalon," chortled the ogre. "I already have a master of arms and a headmaster, maybe you three will be teachers!"

"Not in your school, pug face!" sneered Christina. "We'll kick your butts!"

They kicked OUR butts. After summoning more minions, the ogre cast a Balanceblade on the last goblin who suddenly summoned a Tempest that nearly annihilated us. We had to flee and regroup.

(This battle took two tries. The gimmick is that on turn 2, Barbarous here summons ogres and/or goblins to fill up all the remaining spaces. Then on turn 3 and every other turn, they start a chia where the minions are buffed with +35% Balanceblades and the last one procs with a zero-pip Tempest that does 250 damage and adds +100 damage each time the gimmick chain occurs. With the Balanceblade, that leads to a LOT of damage if the battle isn't won quickly and if you take out the mooks, he'll summon a new one every turn. My group was dropped to double digits and Grace got defeated. I also stupidly used her boss deck when I should have focused on Tempest which does more damage than Triton with enough setup.)

 

We attacked again and this time Grace defeated the mooks with Tempest (and brought the main guy to 187 HP) and Chris finished him off with Power Nova. Then we cleaned up with Judgement and my Ninja Pigs. I sighed in relief. "You fail this course, jerkwad!"

I admit I was happy that was over. A ton of wisps refreshed us.

"But I thank you for saving us," she said humbly. "I guess we do have something to teach each other."

"Maybe you should..." I began to say...

But Cy interrupted me. I groaned as the headaches split my head. "Dang it!"

"Go on," said Christina. "We'll clean up here and make sure the portal is taken down. You go and take care of school business."

I sighed. I did admit that anything Cy put before me was nothing compared to this.

(And that's the Spiral Cup Gauntlet in a nutshell, folks. The final boss is the only hard boss due to that Tempest cheat, but if you have Dissipate, use it and you'll do fine. Barbarous has a low drop of pet eggs for the Rude Goblin which has a spell that summons the big guy and minions.)

[To be continued...]