I was a bit wary when I saw the log cabin but Christina assured me that the person owning this house had put it on open house so it wasn't invasion of privacy. We entered to find a mess and a Bear.
"Welcome to my humble hall, Wizards," he said. "My name is Jarl Whiteshield. I wish I could give you some tea but the Grendels have invaded my hall! They came from the caverns below, but I don't know how far they go. They are led by a foul Grendel warlord called Tyrfing."
"No prob!" said Christina. "We are here to help! Let's go, carrot fairy!"
"I have a name," I grumbled as I joined battle with the Grendels.
Other than one Tempest, the little Grendels didn't put up a fight and a powered Sandstorm from Christina destroyed them all. "Beware!" cried Jarl. "Their cries have summoned their big brothers!"
Sure enough, larger Grendels appeared, as big as Skellek. We backed up, regrouped, and attacked.
They used Bladestorm and Mythblades but a Sandstorm weakened them enough for a Frog to finish them all off. I panted. "This is tougher than the Grendels at Draugarth," I muttered.
"We can handle it," said Christina. "Let's go down into the caves."
I was horrified - the biggest Grendel I had ever seen, even bigger than Thulinn, stood amidst a horde of small Grendels. This was Tyrfing. I was afraid.
"Come on, we can win!" said Christina. Bolstered by her courage, we joined battle.
We quickly learned that one of the small Grendels was a life elemental and thus abused healing spells while another abused Tower Shields on Tyrfing. He was very strong and abused the Frog and stunned us over and over again but we survived, though I was nearly slain by a spell that summoned a powerful elephant creature that slashed me hard. (No they didn't. A story here - Christina was defeated and fled, but ended up in the Commons. I thought "Oh great, the game is kicking me out" and with Sierra close to defeat, I had her flee too. Twenty minutes later I was going to just aborted the Hall when I saw that the Dungeon Recall buttons were there. I tried it and it put me back in the Hall. Saved! Dungeon Recall is SO useful, I am glad KI put it in there. Also, that elephant was the Bronze Helephant spell which is a Myth-elemental Helephant.)
He cried out in his death cry for someone called Elexorien, his mother. Jarl came and congratulated us but warned us to be careful. Christina got a pet egg.
In the next chamber we found a kitchen where two giant Grendel were hovering over a stew pot. They spotted us but complained about their hunger.
"Chris," I whispered to my partner. "I think we can avoid a battle - it's not like we can't defeat them and keep them from eating us, but we will probably be worn out and there may be tougher battles below. If we can feed them, they''ll probably leave us alone and we can sneak by." I took out a cookbook from a shelf and read it. It was Jarl's favorite stew recipe."
"I doubt that," said Christina. "Buuuuut... if we can avoid fighting them, all the better. Let's do this."
I read off the recipe from Jarl's cookbook. "First, put some butter in the stew pot and melt it. Put meat into the pot and brown it in the butter."
"Check," said Christina as she grabbed butter and meat. "But how much? I don't like not measuring."
I sighed. "These are Grendels, Chrissy, they don't give a dang - just throw ALL of it."
Christina threw the butter in and lit the fire and, when the butter bubbled, threw the hunk of meat it and seared it. "Next? Hurry, those two are leering at us."
"Add mushrooms, turnips, barley and water in that order," I read the next page aloud. Christina grabbed the foodstuffs and threw them in the order I told. The meat dissolved into the pot with the other items and it became a slimy brown morass in the pot. It smelled pretty good, though. I'd have to experiment with Grizz cuisine when I got home... if we survived.
"Got it," said Christina. "Go on. Hurry."
"Yeah yeah," I sighed. I flipped the page. "Finish with a dash of salt and hot pepper."
She grabbed the seasonings and dashed them in, stirring the pot. The two giant Grendels drooled in anticipation.
"Finally, serve with black bread," I said as I closed the book. Christina grabbed the loaf of dark bread and pushed the pot to the Grendels and tossed them the bread. The two gluttons threw the bread aside and devoured from the pot, belching loudly. I cringed but they seemed satisfied and let us pass.
(Trust me, grab the stuff in the order shown and be quick about it. If you mess up or approach the gluttons, they'll attack and you'll have to fight two tough enemies. Not fun. Oh, and you don't need the bread; once you get the last item, the pepper, you'll get the cut scene that lets you bypass the battle. Trust me, you don't need to fight more enemies than needed and since all the remaining battles are gimmick bosses, you will waste potions fighting these two, who have 5000 HP each.)
Elexorien was in the next chamber, and she was really tough, weakening our attacks every round. With her minions being Balance-elemental, Christina really struggled but in the end we won.
(Got defeated twice because of the gimmick - every third round you'll get hit with a -30% Weakness on everyone. Cleanse Charms are very useful here. Christina got defeated by the Blackrock Colossus, despite her resisting it. Oh, and Exelorien is Life, so expect her to spam healing spells.)
She gave a curse to her 'master' as she died. We headed down and found an even more scary monster. It reminded me of Heironeus Bunch from Pigswick, only this yeti was naked, thrice the size, and VERY hostile. It was also accompanied by Wildclaws.
This was probably the most terrifying fight I had been in within my entire life - the yeti cast Blizzard over and over and one of the Wildclaws summoned a dragon that spat lightning at us. The second used Satyr and I took it out ASAP, but we were knocked out several times. Christina brought down the Yeti with a Hydra but the last Wildclaw was resilient and I got knocked out again.
"Okay," snarled Christina, whipping out a treasure card. "I was saving this but you forced my hand!"
A terrifying creature emerged. It had three heads like the Hydra but they unleashed attacks from their bodies that were Myth, Life and Death. "What is that?"
"I dunno," said Christina, shrugging. "The treasure card didn't say. I asked Al about it but he told me that I would have to get stronger to know the secrets of that spell."
(This is likely the toughest fight in the Hall. Jokul will use Iceblade, then Ice Trap and then Blizzard. Ten rounds in, he casts Balefrost. He also has a killer fist that does over 1000 damage. I used up all my potions for both girls in this fight and had to restock.)
We finally entered an ice cave and I paled and nearly wet myself.
A DRAGON.
Now if there was any creature deserving to be a Myth creature, it was THIS. Dragons were said to live in Avalon! How did one end up here of all places? I began to cry.
Christina put a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "It'll be a strug, but we can win this. Just believe in yourself."
"I can do this, I can do this," I said as the battle commenced and we fought the dragon and his three vicious trolls. But my heart sank as the dragon threw up shields that I knew would absorb damage...
And then Christina threw money into the air and a mouse knight appeared. "Are you crazy?" I screamed. "I'm a tightwad, I look down upon spendthrifts! You summoned a hench and..."
She slapped me hard. "Stop being such a prude, carrot fairy! This is our toughest battle yet. We need help or we will DIE! Randy Max here is stronger than the both of us together, he can support us. Why worry about 400 Crowns?"
I wanted to slap her back but I knew that the dragon was more important than arguing. We watched as the mouse knight summoned a mighty sasquatch that nearly destroyed the trolls. I was confused - that did a lot of damage but why?
I whispered an apology as the knight healed me with a powerful spell, but saw that Christina was close to dying. Why did he heal me? (Yeah, Randy Max cast Dryad on Sierra who was at full health. Hench AI tends to be iffy. :( )
The dragon belched fire that burned Christina and blinded us with smoke, making us fizzle more often. But Christina took out the trolls with a Sandstorm...
And I finished off the dragon after the knight hit it with another summoning of the creature from before. Clearly this fire dragon had some weakness to it. I brought out the Pigs...
And it melted into dust. We won.
"You haven't heard the lasssst of me!" it hissed as it faded away.
I didn't care. I had slain a terrifying nightmare of children. I would gloat if I wanted!
Jarl entered the cave, put down a teleport rune stone that he said would take us back to Wizard City, and invited us to return. I didn't feel like coming back, fearing the monsters would return.
As we approached the stone, I felt Christina touch my shoulder and turned to her. "What?"
"I know you're after Mal," she said. "We're all after him after what he did to Wizard City and Krokotopia. But... once he's defeated... it won't be over." She whispered a prophecy.
"The Crazed One will get that
Which he seeks
Despite the wards placed on it
By a meowing sneak.
In the land of the orient,
You must fight demons four
The Jade One, The Death Eater,
Plagued One and Fiend of War.
Then to the dead city, you must pass
To stop the Crazed One at long last.
Your professor will aid you despite his ire,
And then you will face Malistaire in the Great Spyre.
But even when you win,
There is one more evil than him
This one shall fulfill
A prophecy grim.
The mirror will shatter
The horn will call
The shadows will strike
And the stars will fall.
And in the web of shadow
Defeat the vile queen
Only then will your journey
Reach exalted end seen."
"Yes, but it's a long journey, a journey I am taking too," said Christina." She smiled. "That's why I'm here to help, girlfriend."
I sniffled. "Thank you, Chris, you made my day. Well, gotta go..."
"I have stuff to pawn off." (Sadly, Sierra got nothing great except a Crowns Helm which is useless to her. Christina got the good stuff - three pet eggs[Frost Beetle, Wildclaw, and Snow Serpent] and a couple of ice-related Crowns gear that will be given to Chris Icedreamer. ^_^)
(To be continued...)
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