I went to Narawn next by accident. I was aiming to go south to Greenbanks and got hopelessly lost at sea. Yes, even with the (real) map of the world right in front of me. Once you get lost at sea in Deathlord, it's hard to find your way; even KONPASU only gives you vague directions and you can end up somewhere you weren't expecting at all. I ended up at Narawn.
Rather than try to find my way to Greenbanks, I decided to explore here. And in a way it's fitting, because there's no place in the game that will give you directions there. Also interestingly enough there's no case of the "Narawn" showing up in-game either; that just came from the clue book I believe. You are told about locations in Narawn; both the Lagoon and Malkanth are here. These are both critical locations for beating the game. But to start with I didn't go to either. Instead, I went to the town of Kashiwa.
Kashiwa is a town with decent amenities and a good deal of secrets. One thing slightly odd about the town is that you need to enter by water to explore it thoroughly. Those two ships in the channel separating the northwest quadrant from the rest of the town look like they're there as a ferry, but you can't board either of them. Using my own ship I got across, where I found a Shizen among the trees telling me to "check the loops." Asking about the loops, he told me they referred to the loop areas in the canal. However the secret there is trickier than you might expect; it's not a secret door but an illusory wall, so rather than searching for it, you have to directly disembark from your ship into the wall. This took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out.
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| The ship awaiting you is OK to board |
There are some other hints to be found here. Various townspeople tell you that the Lagoon is to the north, and that Malkanth lies in that firey volcano in the center of the continent. A ronin told me to "Search in the Academy" so I examined the trainer; there was a secret room there containing a Yakuza that demanded more than usual to give up his hint:
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| Directions to a new island! |
Lastly before leaving I visited the Daimyo; like many others, he's hostile. Amusingly if you talk to him, he'll pleasantly greet you before attacking, unlike the other Daimyos who generally just threaten you. I'm guessing that was an oversight in development.
Next, following the directions they gave me in Kashiwa, I went north to the Lost Lagoon.
The Lost Lagoon is a tricky place to maneuver around. The town itself is located on islands in the lagoon proper, and each of the islands is only accessible from a specific shore, with the most being accessible from the west. I started from the south this time though.
Obviously the goal here was to find the Crystal I've been hearing about. I knew it was here, but exactly where, I immediately asked the first guy I saw about them and got the response "I seem to have heard the name before" so I didn't get any immediate directions yet. Exploring around the trainer in the south I found a hidden Shizen who gave me a hint:
My first thought was to check the trainer (I wasn't referring to the maps at this point yet, and actually didn't remember exactly how to get to the area with the crystal either) since there are some sections that appeared to be "empty" given the shape of the building but nothing was there. Proceeding counterclockwise around the lagoon I ran into a bunch of Toshi that gave me no good information, and then a building full of hostile Kichigai that took me forever to to kill off because they kept summoning more.
The east side of the Lagoon was empty; just a general store and a Kishi that told me about the Demonguard, an "honorable clan of samurai who hold back the demons." The north was similarly empty but I did get an interesting hint from a Ryoshi hanging out in a locked building:
I searched this house too since it seemed like it blocks off access to a lot of the island it's on, but didn't find anything. Moving on to the west entrance to the lagoon, there are plenty more buildings to explore. The first one I checked just had a couple of peasants in it, but the second had an illusory wall to the south where I went through and found this guy:
This is the spot I was trying to find. This Mahotsukai doesn't give you any more pertinent information. If you ask him about the crystals he just spouts the same "I seem to have heard the name before" line. (When you make an inquiry in Deathlord, it doesn't matter to whom--everyone in a given town will always give the same answer)
This is, however, where the crystals are. If you search in any of the bush tiles around this Mahotsukai you'll find a Crystal. You need at least two--one to get through magic walls, and one to give Senju, so I did. One plot item down, five to go. The crystal should give me immediate access to two--the Rod back in Akmihr's castle, and the Spear from Senju.
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I explored the rest of the town but despite being the largest chunk of it, there's nothing else of interest in the central islands. There's a grocer and a third-rate weaponsmith and armor shop, but that's it. I still had
The next stop is Malkanth, in the middle of the volcano at the center of the continent. There's no visible way in--the only potential entrance is a town built into the west side of the volcano.
This is the entrance to the fortress of the Demonguard. Demonguard Fortress is conceptually one of the best towns in Deathlord. The demon town of Malkanth is in the volcano, and the fortress serves entirely as a bulwark keeping the demons in and away from the rest of the world. The fortress itself is run by the Demonguard, the aforementioned clan of samurai who keep vigil to make sure that no demons escape. The difference is that your party is, perhaps unwisely, trying to break in to Malkanth so you have to get past their defenses.
The population of the fortress is primarily--and unsurprisingly--Demonguard soldiers. The first place I explored, though, was the guest quarters in the southwest, which has a fair number of non-guard townspeople. They didn't tell me much, though, except for a Yabanjin who mentioned he came from a place called Snowraven, far to the east--another as-of-yet undiscovered continent. Then I broke into the Demonguard prison in the southeast. The Demonguard inside weren't too happy about that.
Demonguards are only slightly tougher than regular guards--they hit twice but don't generally attack in as great numbers. My party didn't have too much trouble taking care of them. Inside the prison I was hoping to get pertinent information from the demons, but after freeing them (and taking quite a bit of damage trying to smash down the gates to their cells) with a few exceptions, they were more interested in attacking than talking.
Demons are fodder enemies, but relatively tough ones, and are on par with mid- to upper-tier undead. They generally don't have a ton of HP, but hit hard and often have spells or draining/instant-kill attacks. The ones in the Demonguard dungeons were relatively benign though, with the exception of a Molochai group that wasn't hostile in the first place. None of the non-hostile demons had any hints of value--one gave me directions to the same pyramid that I had learned about in Kashiwa and that was it.
There was nothing else of interest in the rest of the fortress, with the sole possible exception of a talking unicorn that told me to "sail due east to the temple." I have no idea what this refers to as sailing due east from Demonguard doesn't take you to any temple that I'm aware of. There was a decent healer, weaponsmith and armorer but I didn't need the services of any of them yet.
The east wing of Demonguard is blocked by portcullises, which someone is going to have to smash down. The towers on the east side also have windows that look directly into lava, a nice touch. The entrance into the volcano is in a trapped choke-point, dead-center on the east wall and marked with warning signs.
However I didn't have a choice as I know the Tooth is in Malkanth and I need it. Smashing down the portcullis I made it out, but you have to go through a curtain and have your HP halved before you can make it out. (On the way back, I fully planned to try to UGOKU past it) Fortunately the volcano itself outside is not all lava, and nothing spawns in there, so you can rest up as much as you want. I did a bit, though not enough to heal the party to full before I entered Malkanth proper.
Malkanth is a dangerous place. There's a lot of fire and acid in it, so you really want a Shizen for HITATE and SANTATE spells. Either that, or come back later when you have items that can cast those spells for you. As its an Indoor area, you can't rest here, so you need to conserve your HP and MP. The smart bet is to take on the dungeon a section at a time and leave to rest outside when you need.
Malkanth is a town of demons, but for the most part, they're not hostile. It's divided into four sections; one darkness-themed, one fire-themed, one acid-themed, and a section that mixes the three. I decided to investigate the dark area first. The dark area has two big buildings--a weaponsmith and an "inn" of sorts.
Searching the coffins here--or anywhere in town for that matter--is risky, as you can find some powerful undead in them. You can cast YUJO and they won't attack you until it wears off, but you still can't get initate hostilities first strike, unless you want every demon guard in the place trying to kill you.
There's a third building in the dark area, but you need to find a secret door to get inside. The building itself is fairly empty, except for a single coffin. Anyone playing Deathlord that made it this far will probably recognize solitary coffins as bad news--and this one is no exception, with a Lich inside it. Liches are the single most powerful undead monster in the game, with the exception of Akhamun-Ra himself. Actually, they're kind of like a weaker version of Akhamun-Ra, except that instead of insta-killing or inflicting illness, they paralyze instead. I decided to risk the Lich and killed him in two rounds.
Moving next to the northeast "fire" theme, I found the temple of the Deathlord himself, but nothing especially useful. A Shade near the temple did mention that Malkanth mirrors Hell itself:
Searching the entirety of this area took a lot of time and sitting in place waiting for Gio's MP to recharge so she could recast HITATE. I did manage to find two large treasure chambers behind illusory walls though. But that was all I found, so I decided to move to the acid area next.
The acid area of town has a fast food restaurant, "McEvils." And that's really it. The building takes up the entire area that's not covered by acid-sea; there's an adjoining (empty) graveyard, and if you slog all the way to the back, casting SANTATE spells as you go, you can go into the kitchen, where the cook will happily let you know that McEvils has the best slime.
So with that area being a bust (and wasting tons of time and food resting to restore Gio's MP) I went to the final area in the southwest. This area appears to be a dead end, leading to an empty diamond-shaped room. But each corner of the diamond has a secret door. The south door just led to an empty council chamber. The west one led to the "games room" where a bunch of demons were torturing (I guess) a Senshi in a fire pit.
Beyond the games room was a long passageway that ended in a door to the treasury--but I couldn't get in because a Molochai group was blocking my way. Rather than kill it and provoke the wrath of all the guards, I just teleported in with UGOKU. (though I teleported myself straight into the middle of the acid in the southwest corner first--UGOKU is very hit-or-miss)
The east passageway was most interesting. On the way was the entrance to "Cold Storage"--which was a meat locker full of dead people.
The Lost Lagoon is a tricky place to maneuver around. The town itself is located on islands in the lagoon proper, and each of the islands is only accessible from a specific shore, with the most being accessible from the west. I started from the south this time though.
Obviously the goal here was to find the Crystal I've been hearing about. I knew it was here, but exactly where, I immediately asked the first guy I saw about them and got the response "I seem to have heard the name before" so I didn't get any immediate directions yet. Exploring around the trainer in the south I found a hidden Shizen who gave me a hint:
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| That would seem to narrow things down a bit... |
The east side of the Lagoon was empty; just a general store and a Kishi that told me about the Demonguard, an "honorable clan of samurai who hold back the demons." The north was similarly empty but I did get an interesting hint from a Ryoshi hanging out in a locked building:
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| This is kind of an obvious hint once you actually get to Malkanth though. |
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| I don't see any crystals... |
This is, however, where the crystals are. If you search in any of the bush tiles around this Mahotsukai you'll find a Crystal. You need at least two--one to get through magic walls, and one to give Senju, so I did. One plot item down, five to go. The crystal should give me immediate access to two--the Rod back in Akmihr's castle, and the Spear from Senju.
t
I explored the rest of the town but despite being the largest chunk of it, there's nothing else of interest in the central islands. There's a grocer and a third-rate weaponsmith and armor shop, but that's it. I still had
The next stop is Malkanth, in the middle of the volcano at the center of the continent. There's no visible way in--the only potential entrance is a town built into the west side of the volcano.
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| A ship is required to get in here. |
The population of the fortress is primarily--and unsurprisingly--Demonguard soldiers. The first place I explored, though, was the guest quarters in the southwest, which has a fair number of non-guard townspeople. They didn't tell me much, though, except for a Yabanjin who mentioned he came from a place called Snowraven, far to the east--another as-of-yet undiscovered continent. Then I broke into the Demonguard prison in the southeast. The Demonguard inside weren't too happy about that.
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| The sign did say to keep out I guess... |
Demons are fodder enemies, but relatively tough ones, and are on par with mid- to upper-tier undead. They generally don't have a ton of HP, but hit hard and often have spells or draining/instant-kill attacks. The ones in the Demonguard dungeons were relatively benign though, with the exception of a Molochai group that wasn't hostile in the first place. None of the non-hostile demons had any hints of value--one gave me directions to the same pyramid that I had learned about in Kashiwa and that was it.
There was nothing else of interest in the rest of the fortress, with the sole possible exception of a talking unicorn that told me to "sail due east to the temple." I have no idea what this refers to as sailing due east from Demonguard doesn't take you to any temple that I'm aware of. There was a decent healer, weaponsmith and armorer but I didn't need the services of any of them yet.
The east wing of Demonguard is blocked by portcullises, which someone is going to have to smash down. The towers on the east side also have windows that look directly into lava, a nice touch. The entrance into the volcano is in a trapped choke-point, dead-center on the east wall and marked with warning signs.
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| The Demonguard clearly don't want anyone coming through here. |
However I didn't have a choice as I know the Tooth is in Malkanth and I need it. Smashing down the portcullis I made it out, but you have to go through a curtain and have your HP halved before you can make it out. (On the way back, I fully planned to try to UGOKU past it) Fortunately the volcano itself outside is not all lava, and nothing spawns in there, so you can rest up as much as you want. I did a bit, though not enough to heal the party to full before I entered Malkanth proper.
Malkanth is a dangerous place. There's a lot of fire and acid in it, so you really want a Shizen for HITATE and SANTATE spells. Either that, or come back later when you have items that can cast those spells for you. As its an Indoor area, you can't rest here, so you need to conserve your HP and MP. The smart bet is to take on the dungeon a section at a time and leave to rest outside when you need.
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| This is actually a hint of sorts |
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| One of these coffins has Banshees in them. |
There's a third building in the dark area, but you need to find a secret door to get inside. The building itself is fairly empty, except for a single coffin. Anyone playing Deathlord that made it this far will probably recognize solitary coffins as bad news--and this one is no exception, with a Lich inside it. Liches are the single most powerful undead monster in the game, with the exception of Akhamun-Ra himself. Actually, they're kind of like a weaker version of Akhamun-Ra, except that instead of insta-killing or inflicting illness, they paralyze instead. I decided to risk the Lich and killed him in two rounds.
Moving next to the northeast "fire" theme, I found the temple of the Deathlord himself, but nothing especially useful. A Shade near the temple did mention that Malkanth mirrors Hell itself:
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| So I guess the Deathlord rules Hell? |
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| More dumb monkey cheese. You can restock your food here though. |
The acid area of town has a fast food restaurant, "McEvils." And that's really it. The building takes up the entire area that's not covered by acid-sea; there's an adjoining (empty) graveyard, and if you slog all the way to the back, casting SANTATE spells as you go, you can go into the kitchen, where the cook will happily let you know that McEvils has the best slime.
So with that area being a bust (and wasting tons of time and food resting to restore Gio's MP) I went to the final area in the southwest. This area appears to be a dead end, leading to an empty diamond-shaped room. But each corner of the diamond has a secret door. The south door just led to an empty council chamber. The west one led to the "games room" where a bunch of demons were torturing (I guess) a Senshi in a fire pit.
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| I guess this counts as demon "games." |
The east passageway was most interesting. On the way was the entrance to "Cold Storage"--which was a meat locker full of dead people.
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| Interesting how the demons seem to be so hostile to humans yet ignore the party completely here. |
Beyond that I found the Shrine of Chaos, a room with darkness, fire, acid, and two empty coffins. It seems pointless, but having been previously tipped off by the Mahotsukai in the hidden passage in Kashiwa, I knew to search the area, and after a bit, found the Sharktooth in a corner. Two items down, four to go.
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| You probably wouldn't find this without being previously tipped off, unless you make it a habit to search everywhere. |
This was what I came to find, so now I could finally leave. Getting back out of the whole complex and out through Demonguard again was costly--it took me several tries to get the door beyond the magic curtain so my party's health was reduced to a tiny fraction of what it was previously. The Demonguard temple patched me up well enough though.
Now that I had both the Sharktooth, and more importantly, the Crystal, I now could get access to two more of the six items--the Emerald Rod and the Sunspear. Both are top-tier weapons so rather than wait I went to get them immediately. First I returned to Akmihr and went to the chamber with the emerald rod.
Using the crystal I was able to get through the magic wall; you can't do so unscathed, as every party member will take 4 points of damage for each wall you traverse. This was compounded by there being a Sand Dragon group on the other side.
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| Sand dragons are nasty--this one was actually on the low end in terms of its HP, and thus breath damage. |
I could have just cast YUJO and bypassed him without incident, but the party was strong enough to kill it with little difficulty. Dragons are very hard enemies in Deathlord but just one in a town is not that big of a deal. The chest contained the Emerald Rod, as expected, which I gave to Gio to equip. The Emerald Rod is one of the best weapons in the game--it does 5-20 damage per strike, has a bonus against demons (somehow), gives a whopping -6 bonus to AC, and casts unlimited SANTATE spells. It can also be used by anyone but a Mahotsukai or Genkai. If you've got a thief character or a priest character in the front row, it's a great permanent weapon to give them.
Now it was back to Twin Rivers in Nyuku to visit Senju again and give him one of my extra crystals.
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| Only one spear per party--give him an extra crystal and he'll just thank you. |
Now I had the Sunspear, the only weapon that can damage the Deathlord. It's a very good weapon--at 4-27 damage, it's the single most damaging weapon in the game--per hit, that is. Who to give it to was actually quite the dilemma. If I had a thief character they'd be a no-brainer for the Sunspear, but I've got two fighters with otherwise decent weapons, and the Emerald Rod is probably a better weapon for Gio. I initially gave the spear to Shuten, but he killed things so much slower with it than with the Berzerk Sword in a few test fights that I gave it to Yoshinaka instead. Even still he isn't really doing any better with it than with the Katana. I may decide later just hand it to Shigeko until it's time for the final battle.
There weren't any dungeons to speak of on Narawn, but next post I'll take on one of the other continents I haven't been to yet to seek out some new Words. It's at about this point in the game that the dungeons start to get really ridiculous--it's been hard but fair up until this point. That's going to be changing in the near future.
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