Lands of Lore Part 47: Joining Team Xeob

Our next step is to go through one of the two teleportation portals in this room that’ll take us out of here. Taking the portal to our left means we’ll be backing the Knowles, while taking the one to our right means we’ll support the Xeobs. Whichever portal we choose, we’ll be transported to the dungeons of Scotia’s home base of Castle Cimmeria, and it’ll be patrolled by large numbers of the opposite race who will attack us. We’ll need to completely clear the dungeon of enemies, and once we do the race we’re helping out will give us plenty of rewards. Specifically, the Knowles and Xeobs alike will grant a key out of the dungeon as well as a Vaelan’s Cube-we’ll be facing more spectral enemies in Castle Cimmeria, so the Cube will be necessary. Beyond that, the Knowles will give us one Death Stick and grant each party member an additional magic level, while the Xeobs will give us one Great Sword Justice and grant each party member an additional fighter level. All told, I prefer the Xeob option. Another Great Sword Justice is a much better weapon than a Death Stick, and we can use all our Fireball Wands for extra magic if the situation calls for it, so we’ll be backing the Xeobs in this playthrough. I briefly head over to the Knowle carving to show it off, then turn around and head into the Xeob portal.
We’re now in the dungeons of Castle Cimmeria, and I decide to drop all the breastplates and shields onto the ground. They’ll just take up space in our inventory, and we can come pick them up once the enemy is gone-they’re not going anywhere. With that done, it’s time to start exploring. The dungeon area is absolutely massive and has a wide number of twists and turns, so it’ll take a while to explore the whole thing. I begin by cautiously going in a circle around our starting point, then head north and go through a secret passage. There are several Knowles on the other side, and we quickly get a taste of what they’re capable of. These floating heads can shoot Fireballs from range, just like the Starks in the White Tower, and they do real damage when they hit. We get two of them right in the face, and I decide this is no time to play around. I grab one of our Fireball Wands and blast the Knowles with fire of our own-despite their fire attacks, Knowles are actually vulnerable to fire spells and we’re able to clear them out with our flames. After casting Heal 4 and resting our mana back to full, we find a chest that contains Dwarvish Boots; I give them to Baccata, who still has just regular boots. There’s also a Galenian Plate Mail breastplate, which we can’t use right now but we can still take. I move forward and encounter another group of two Knowles, who demonstrate their other main ability-they can cause minor earthquakes that cause us to drop our weapons. This is the main challenge of fighting Knowles, since we have to pause to pick up our weapons and they can get free hits. Still, we rearm and defeat these two Knowles, and after resting I press a switch to open the way to a niche. Inside is Nathaniel’s key to King Richard’s shroud, so we now have all four keys. It’s a significant milestone.
I head back to our armor pile and, after defeating two more Knowles, drop our new Galenian plate mail to save an inventory slot. From there I open a nearby door and head through, moving south and then east before ultimately looping north and going in a circle. I head out the same door again, and after defeating a couple of Knowles I head west this time. We come to a different door, and inside is a chest that Michael lockpicks open. Inside is the Trident Mandible, a weapon that would have been useful earlier in the game but is weaker than what we have now. I drop it and continue to loot the chest, getting fifty crowns-also not very useful, since we’d have to do a lot of backtracking to get to a merchant. However, the rest of the stuff is pretty good. There’s a Dwarvish Plate Mail breastplate, which is going in our armor pile but should be a quality armor piece once we’re done with the Knowles. We also get two Bannon’s Reserves, which are always nice. That’s it for this chest, so I backtrack and drop our new plate mail in the growing pile of armor. I then decide to head west, and we find the Gold Key on the floor as well as another chest. This one has Steel Bracers, which I happily equip to Michael to replace his standard Bracers-we don’t need to worry about this armor type getting melted, so it’s safe to wear. There’s also an Ace of Dominion and two Guardian Orbs, a fantastic item type. A Guardian Orb is a one-use item, but it generates a large sword that does massive damage to enemies. We’re better armed than ever, but there’s still a lot of dungeon to explore.