Lands of Lore Part 38: Return to Floor 3

With the Crucible in our possession, we can now leave the sub-level of the tower. As I retrace our steps out of here, we pass a niche that has all four of the items we “gave up”-the tower is rewarding us for our virtue by returning them to us. The Wand of Death is definitely going to be a great asset for us later, but the other three can be safely gotten rid of and they’re going to join the pile of junk on the first floor. I head upstairs, make my way back to the pile, and drop those items. Now it’s time to revisit Floor 3. As noted, this is strictly optional, but there’s actually a lot of great loot up there that we haven’t gotten to yet. As long as we have the Vaelan’s Cube, the opposition should be manageable and the loot really is worth the extra effort. I head to the staircase and head up to first Floor 2 and then Floor 3. Once we reach Floor 3, I grab the Vaelan’s Cube in hand and begin to move through the floor. The coast is clear at first, but once we reach the room with the rectangular corridor we’re intercepted by a large gang of spirits. There are two Wraiths that directly attack us, and a third is visible behind them. Using the Vaelan’s Cube, I manage to dispel the front two and an Apparition that joins them, then move to attack the third Wraith. I defeat him and an Apparition backing him up, then turn around to confront a total of three Wraiths and one Apparition behind us. They’re joined by two Apparitions who attack our flank through the wall, but we ultimately clear out all the opposition to win the first major encounter of our return trip to the haunted floor.
I proceed to use the Vaelan’s Cube to clear the fake wall once again, and we fight our way through two Wraiths and lots of Apparitions to reach the pit we used to leave the floor. I press the switch to make it disappear, and we resume heading down the path. We’re intercepted by a number of Wraiths, but thankfully they only attack one or two at a time, letting us defeat them with relative ease and soon we reach the door we were blocked from last time. I press the button, and the lion’s head reappears. Since we now have the Crucible of Faith, it tells us “your faith warrants passage” and the door opens for us. Inside there are two treasure chests, one to the north and one to the east, and they both have some excellent loot. The catch is that we can only access one of these two chests-once the player lockpicks one of them open, the other disappears forever. I decide to open the one in the eastern direction, and proceed to claim the three items inside. The most useful is the Galenian Plate Mail, a very high-quality breastplate that’s equal to the Dwarvish Chain Mail that Michael has at the moment but is far superior to what Baccata and Paulson have. I end up giving Michael the new plate mail and move his Dwarvish Chain Mail to Baccata. The other two items in the chest are an Arbalest and the Great Axe Reaper. The Reaper isn’t as good as our current melee weapons, and I prefer the Crossbow Valkyrie to the Arbalest, but both weapons will sell for lots of cash.
Once the items are claimed, I head out of that room and prepare to advance further. There’s an area to the south that hasn’t been uncovered yet, and it’s time to explore it. We walk past a seemingly inactive pressure plate and make our way forward, defeating several Apparitions as we do so. We come across the Bow Gemini lying on the floor, and I add it to our inventory. With the bow in our possession, I backtrack to the faith door, but we soon get hit with a snake attack-there’s a Wraith around. He doesn’t show himself at first, but soon enough we battle a Wraith along with a couple of Apparitions. They’re ultimately neutralized, though, and I weigh down the plate we passed earlier with a rock. There are two pressure plates here, and weighing them down at the same time is necessary to access a chest. I make our way to the other one and weigh that down as well, making the room adjust. I head over to the now-visible chest and, after battling an Apparition, I have Michael lockpick it open. This chest is even more lucrative than the one in the faith room-there’s a Wand of Lightning, two Bannon’s Reserve vials (they’re like salves, but replenish mana instead of health) and an amazing 400 crowns! A look at the map reveals that we’re not done yet, either-there’s a secret passage next to the chest. Michael uses the Cube to dispel the fake wall, and we head in to find a third Bannon’s Reserve, a salve, and a Sabre Cougar. Once we collect those items, we’re truly done with Floor 3 and I start backtracking to the spot with the pit. We have some opposition along the way, and once the pit’s reopened it actually takes a while before we can jump down because there are plenty of hostile spirits in the area. But the Cube does its work and once the coast is finally clear, we jump down the pit. We’re done with Floor 3 for good.