Deathlord: Element Isles and Osozaki

Last post I visited the Black Isles, got the last of the six items and found the fifth Word I needed. I had two hints for new destinations: one, to sail southeast of Shumi's tower on Chigaku, and the other, to sail north of Towne Royal in Asagata. Asagata was a lot closer to the Black Isles than Chigaku so I went there first.

Directly north from Towne Royale was a new "continent" (ie series of small empty islands).

Also directly north of Towne Royale was the entrance to a new dungeon.

That's what I call precise directions!

The cave is the only thing of remotely passing interest, so I went in.

Guess what theme this dungeon is going to have?

The Cave of the Four Elements is one my favorite dungeons in the game--a nice palate cleanser after dealing with the Doors dungeon. The "four elements" theme may seem hackneyed and cliched, but when you consider this game was released in 1987 (and developed for the prior year and a half) it was more of a novel concept at the time. It's a simple dungeon compared to many others in the game, but is well designed thematically.

The first level is the "Earth" level. It's a maze of tight rock passageways, full of monsters--mostly Rock Spirits and Stone Giants. Both have moderate amounts of HP, but the Rock Spirits are more dangerous in that they do a considerable amount of damage when they strike. Stone Giants are on the weaker end of Giant-class enemies. Neither has any special attacks so they're not too bad.

Mapping out this dungeon, it becomes pretty clear where any "hidden" areas are--there's a big empty block smack in the middle of the dungeon. Searching the walls, I found an illusory passage to...an empty room?

Seems like an odd thing to hide...

Searching the room diligently, though, the northern-most tile was a sinkhole that dropped me down to the next level, the Air level.

You might note that there's a complete lack of up-staircases or up-teleports on the Air level. This isn't coincidental--the Cave of the Elements is a one-way dungeon. The only way out is to get to the very bottom--or through use of magic. It's a very good thing I waited to tackle this dungeon until I had the UNPAN and/or KAERU spells--in case anything bad happened.

It becomes quickly obvious on the Air level that everything is passable; all walls except those on the very edges are illusory, making the floor one giant empty 32 x 32 space. In that respect you'd think it would be easy to find your way to the exit--but it's surprisingly tricky. A little bit of exploration showed that the northeast corner of the level had several teleports that were tossing me into different areas of the level, but it was very difficult to tell exactly which tiles were teleporting me because everything looked like this:

It's also not safe to rest anywhere on this level because it's so open--anything that spawns will find you quickly. Fortunately the Wind Spirits here weren't as damaging as the Rock Spirits on the level above. More dangerous were the Djinni who paralyzed party members a few times.

Eventually I tried to carefully map out the northeast corner and discovered that if you approached it from the second-most tile from the wall--either north or east--you could find your way to the staircase down.

The next level was the Fire level, the deadliest level so far:

From the very beginning of the level, it looked like going forward was going to be tough, or at least tedious:

I was really glad I had the Ruby Ring--HITATE spells did not appear to be sufficient here.

I used the Ruby Ring and started moving down the southwest passage, and accidentally stepped into an illusory "wall island" at the end. It turned out that this level was a lot less dangerous than I had initially remembered--the number of fire tiles you have to move through is a lot fewer than you might think. Most of the walls in this level are illusory--though not to the extent of the Air level, you can navigate the floor by hopping from "island" to "island" of illusory walls. There are still a dozen or two fire tiles you need to go through, so the Ruby Ring is great to have--but HITATE spells are probably also sufficient. If you have neither the Ring nor a Shizen...well, good luck, I guess.

Even with the discovery that I could mostly avoid the flames, it took me a while to find my way to the staircase in the northeast part of the dungeon. (In fact, I thought I was in the northwest, but got teleported) I rested up before heading down--the monsters here were not too tough so it was reasonably safe to rest. I ran into a couple of my old friends from Asagata, Fire Giants, but mostly Fire Spirits. Fire Spirits were less dangerous than Rock or Wind Spirits by a good amount--they strike twice in a round but did considerably less damage. Also monsters appeared to only spawn in fire tiles, so the area by the stairs down are perfectly safe.

The final level is the most straightforward of the elemental levels. It's one long, spiral waterway you have to navigate down while being swarmed by Sea Spirits. Sea spirits are on the same level of difficulty as Fire Spirits, but there are a lot of them. One thing I noticed as odd as soon as I entered were the ships here:

Four ships?

I thought it a little strange--and honestly, pointless--that there would be four ships, as only one of them had access to the channel deeper into the level.

After fighting a small army's worth of Sea Spirits (not enough to gain a level though--they were coming slow at this point) I finally made it to a central "island." Clearly it had some sort of secret door, which I quickly found. Inside was a chamber that was obviously a Word room of some sort:

I took a few steps forward and...

Son of a...!!

...one tile away from the Word, got teleported right back to the beginning of the dungeon.

So that's what those extra ships are there for. If you get teleported back to the beginning and need to find your way back, your first ship will (presumably) be parked at the entrance to the Word Chamber and you'll need a new one to get there. I should probably mention that it's still pointless to have four ships on the Water level, though--should you foolishly get teleported three times in that central chamber, you won't be able to use the fourth to get back; you can't Disembark from one ship onto another, and with a ship presumably blocking the entrance to the chamber from each side, you'd have no way to get in--you'd have to leave the dungeon to reset it.

Either way, this is a nasty trap--if you get caught by it and get teleported to the top of the dungeon--which you probably will the first time you come here--you've got to hoof it all the way to the bottom again.

However I was having none of that--I had the UNPAN spell. Judging that the Word was in the dead center of Level 4, I went to the center of level 1, cast UNPAN down three levels, and was right in the middle of the Word chamber again. It's kind of cheating but I really didn't feel like traversing the entire dungeon again.

That's much more like it.

To get past that teleport blocking the Word, you have to go around it--it doesn't look like it's possible initially, but both walls otherwise blocking your way are illusory. Now I had the sixth word--OSORERU, or "To be afraid of" in Japanese. (I think they really were looking for "Kyofu", "Fear", and got the verb by accident) Now I was perfectly happy to be teleported out of the dungeon.

My first lead was taken care of, and now I had only one more Word to go before I had everything I would theoretically need to fight the Deathlord. Because I've played this game many times before I knew exactly where I needed to go, but I decided to follow my other "lead" and go southeast of Shumi's tower rather than navigate directly to the continent I need to go to next. Partially it's because it's more natural to do it that way (and I don't have to cheat and look at maps) but also partially because I hate the last Word dungeon so much I'd like to put it off.

Sailing southeast of Shumi's tower, I landed on the continent of Osozaki.

Osozaki, like Tsumani, is another optional continent. There's a town, a ruin, and a dungeon here, but none of them have anything you'll need to complete the game. There's not even anything here in the way of hints. The dungeon, however, is a humdinger, as we'll soon see.

The first place I went was the town, Deepingdale.

Despite Ozosaki being home to one of the hardest and most punishing dungeons in the game, Deepingdale, the only town on the continent, has no healer. That means if you need a healer's services after dungeon delving, you need to go back to another continent. Fortunately, now that I had all the spells in the game, that would only be an issue if Shigeko got killed. Time (and food, which I can buy here) is all I need to restore her MP to heal the party up.

Deepingdale is completely devoid of anything of value--hints or anything else. There's a Kobito fortress in the northeast, accessible only by water, that can be stormed, but the treasure there is a pittance. Closed-off houses have more than their fair share of  hostile townsfolk, but nothing a party of my level couldn't handle. There's one, solitary piece of information given out by a Ryoshi in the extreme southeast corner and that's it.

16 levels--few dungeons have this many; the one on this continent is going to be a slog.

Leaving Deepingdale, I decided to check out Wakai, the ruins on the southwest part of the continent, before tackling the dungeon.

Wakai is your typical ruin--overrun with monsters, and little in the way of treasure or hints. On my entry, I found a "hotel" of sorts where a Hobake told me to search the condemned house to the north. There I found a secret door, leading to a crypt with a coffin.

I should have known...

A lone vampire was no match for the party now, though. They're still dangerous because of their level drain attacks, but a far cry from the risk they posed in the newbie dungeon.

The vampire was pretty much it for things of note in Wakai--it's yet another interestingly-designed but ultimately pointless Deathlord location. I know I'm sounding like a broken record at this point but there are so many of these places.

Truth in advertising

With Wakai behind me, I headed to the last area of note on Osozaki--the 16-level dungeon of Telegrond.

Telegrond is one of several "challenge dungeons" in Deathlord. You don't need to visit it, and there's no reward but treasure--though there's quite a lot of that. Telegrond is the Deathlord equivalent of a mountain you climb just because it's there. If you just want to play the game from start to finish and want to avoid tedium and frustration, stay out--and even if you do want to experience everything the game has to offer, I wouldn't think of stepping in here until you have all the spells in the game at the very least.

A quick addendum to the Telegrond maps. Telegrond is one of the cruelest dungeons in the game in terms of teleport traps. A large part of the dungeon consists of "chain teleports," teleport traps that transport you directly to the location of another teleport trap. You get exactly one turn on that destination square to move before you're teleported to the next location. Because of the sheer number of these in Telegrond, I'm using the method to indicate teleports I did in the Doors dungeon, where capital letters are teleports and corresponding lower case numbers are their destinations. Chained teleports--those that are both teleports and destinations--get green squares and are divided into "teleport/destination". So, for example, the "A/b" on floor 1 teleports to destination "a" and is also destination "b" at the same time. "3A/a" teleports to destination "a" on level 3, and is also destination "a" on level 1.

The first level of Telegrond appears to be empty except for a bunch of acid and fire pits. There are lots of acid and fire pits in Telegrond, so much so that you're better off waiting to go in with the Emerald Rod and Ruby Ring rather than try to use HITATE and SANTATE spells. Behind most of the fire/acid pits are illusory walls. Some lead to an empty chamber which has a paltry amount of gold hidden behind it. On the east and west ends are small rooms with teleports.

There are lots of rooms that look exactly like this. The ICHIHAN spell is critical for not losing your bearings.

Both teleports are chain teleports. The one on the east just teleports to the one on the west. The one on the west teleports to level 3, then level 2, then to a different location on level 2, then level 4,  then a different location on level 4, then back to level 3, and the cycle repeats over again. First comes level 3.

Level 3's defining feature is a lake with a large central island. I used Frank's UKU spell to get there, but after the fact I realized I could have found hidden passageways to a ship. The island has a decent amount of treasure, and there's also a treasure chamber in the southeast hidden behind illusory walls that I failed to find.

A very common fight on this floor

Monsters here were numerous but not particularly hard--mostly Skeletons, Zombies, and lots and lots of Mermen. I ran into a group of Shadows and Manticores as well, though.

After clearing out this level I returned to the teleport, and was now on the second floor.

The second floor seemed completely empty except for a few wandering monster groups--Ogres and Mahotsukai mostly. I found a staircase, but that took me directly up to a teleport tile that got me stuck in the chain teleport again. It actually took me a few tries to get out of this loop, but eventually I made it to the 4th floor.

On level 4 I discovered an enormous treasure chamber with enough gold to max out my party's carrying capacity. At this point one would be forgiven for teleporting out coming back later once more gold was needed. However I wasn't planning on coming back here, so I decided to continue to loot everything--wasting the gold, but hopefully coming across some nice items. Off the treasure chamber I discovered another illusory wall that led to a nasty trap.

Nope! Not going that way.

It wasn't until after I consulted my map that I realized that this corridor straight-up cannot be traversed, as you'd have to somehow be able to survive 14 tiles of having your HP halved (I guess with multiple ALNASU castings that might be possible for one character or so) so it was a good thing I turned back. I also realized that half the level contained a ridiculous illusory-wall maze that doesn't take you anywhere. Good thing I forgot/missed it, I wouldn't have wanted to get lost in there.

Heading back to the teleport chamber, I found myself in another room that led to...the other end of the magic-wall passageway.

So that's where it led.

Turning back, I found myself teleported right back to level 3. Obviously I had missed something along the way, so I started searching the walls of the teleport chambers more carefully. It took me quite a while, but  I found a chute which dropped me to level 5.

Unfortunately, I was totally trapped where I was dropped off, between some swamps and what was obviously another teleport. The walls beyond the swamp didn't turn up any illusory walls so I had to cast UKU to walk over the water and get out.

While I found some secret areas, they ended up all as dead ends so I ended up having to enter the teleport anyway. This is the start of the second chain teleport--from level 5 to level 8, then level 7, then level 6, then to a different place on level 7, then to a different place on level 5, then to a different place on level 6, then back to the first place on level 7, then the cycle continues.

This is a particularly heinous teleport chain because half of the stops on it are surrounded by chutes that will dump you all the way to level 9--and right on top of another teleport chain to boot. You need to fall down these chutes to proceed further into the dungeon, but it makes getting out, or exploring levels 6-8 in their entirety, very difficult. Of course in my desire to explore everything I immediately got caught in the first set of chutes and fell to level 9.

Level 9 starts the nastier teleport chains. Here, rather than water or acid, you're blocked off by magic walls that halve your HP.  Fortunately I fell on to the west side of the level 9 teleport so found the illusory wall to the west without having to go through one of them.

The area beyond the illusory wall had lots and lots of treasure--not many boxes but each contained hundreds of GP. And there's also a coffin room filled with undead.

I can take them, but really shouldn't be fighting them because of their level drain ability.

As you can see from the above screenshot, I got unlucky with a poison gas trap. Shigeko was running really low on MP. However I couldn't rest here. The enemy spawn rate was too high, and with tough stuff--Golems, Gorgons, Werebears, and so forth. I couldn't just wait for my MP to regenerate. So I had to head back to the teleport, which took me to level 12. This is part of yet another teleport chain: Level 9a > 12a > 11a > 12b > 10 > 12c > 9b > 11b> and back to the first teleport on Level 9.

The teleport on level 12 was a safe place to rest. However the one exit from the teleport opened on to the massive lake, with no ship in sight, and way too much water to risk chained UKU spells. Especially since the enemy spawn rate seemed high.

Four Sea Spirit groups were waiting for me. This screenshot was after killing off two of them.

So, it was back to the teleport, to level 11.

Level 11 was full of more Sea spirits and lots of treasure. I was hoping to find some nice stuff in the boxes but didn't. One of the Sea spirits dropped a Do-Maru +1 which I gave to Shigeko. It's close to one of the best armors in the game.

Every box had a sum like this. Telegrond is a rich dungeon.

Heading back to the teleport, I found myself in a closed-off room back on level 12. (When I mapped this place, I was only able to find out where on the level I was relative to the rest of the level by using Cheat Engine to find my coordinates, it's so isolated) There were no secret doors at all in it and I got heavily weakened going through magic walls, so I used the opportunity to rest up and heal my party there. But even in that tiny enclosed space, monsters spawned on top of me and interrupted my rest several times. There aren't many safe places to sleep in Telegrond.

I took the teleport again, and this time ended up on level 10:

Level 10's defining feature is a very large, rather irritating maze of illusory walls. It looks simple on the above map but in practice it's very easy to lose your way if you're not very careful. After stumbling around in the dark I found my way to the treasure room, where a lot of level-draining undead like wraiths and phantoms attacked. The chests had nothing but gold in them. Then I found the other area which was even (potentially) worse:

Medusas like these are why I keep Shigeko in the back row--so she can de-petrify if necessary.

The only treasure there were some magic pools that did nothing but drain Frank's MP to 0. Back to the teleport and I was now in another empty area in Level 12, one that opened out on the big lake. So next I took the teleport one more step and ended up back on level 9, where I got a rude surprise.

Not the best place to fight...

This was rough because none of these guys except the Dark Toshi are enemies you want to let get the first strike. Rather than let the Medusas get the first strike I fought them after taking care of the Dark Toshi, but once the battle was over, that counted as a turn so I got teleported again back to the beginning of the chain. After a few cycles I cleared out the remaining monster groups and explored this room, where I found a staircase back up to level 8.

The good news is that now I was back where I wanted to be, since I fell down to level 9 and hadn't gotten a chance to explore level 6-8. The bad news is that despite this being a 16-level dungeon, I hadn't found any way to get below level 12--unless I could somehow UKU across that enormous lake to find a staircase (or more likely a teleport), which seemed to be an unlikely thing I'd need to do--since that would require a Genkai in the party, or teleportation of some sort.

Anyhow, Level 8 was pretty sparse--there were rich pots of gold, but I mostly ignored them, since pots can't usually give you items. There wasn't any way out that I could find, so I hopped the teleport to level 6.

Level 6 was completely devoid of anything of interest--an empty level with a bunch of Phantoms in it but that was it. So I went through the teleport and ended up in level 7.

Level 7 was like level 6, but larger--an enormous, empty cave with some Dark Toshi, Ogres, and Ogre mages. Again, not interesting, so I took the teleport again, and got sent to a different area on level 6--though I only could tell through deduction, because as soon as I moved off the teleport to cast ICHIHAN I was dropped down a level--which was level 7. Of course after casting it I got dropped down a level again to level 8, where I escaped into the teleporter. Mapping the teleport chains in Telegrond is not easy by any stretch of the imagination.

At this point, I was pretty much lost, and stumbled around blindly through the teleport chains just trying to figure out where the heck I was. On more than one occasion I got dropped back down to level 9 and had to figure my way out of the levels 9-through-12 teleport chain again. After stumbling for what seemed like an eternity, I discovered a staircase beyond a secret door, but it just took me back up to level 4, where I got stuck in the levels 1-through-4 teleport chain. Fed up, I teleported out of the dungeon and went back to town to purchase some food.

Back in the dungeon and after what seemed like an eternity, I found what I was looking for--a chute in a teleport chamber on level 11 that dropped me down to the southeast corner of level 12. That chamber has an exit in the north that leads to a ship with which you can navigate the big lake.

Sea Spirits swarm you on the lake--it would be a great place to grind if it weren't deep in a complex dungeon.

I actually lucked out here, because the tile I teleported onto had a chute to the north, west, and south--and I moved to the east to avoid the swarms of monsters that were coming at me from the west and south. Had I picked another direction I would have been dropped down to level 13.

The lake appears to be a giant dead end going nowhere, but that's just Deathlord code for "search for secret doors." I did, and discovered a treasure chamber with a LOT of good stuff in it.

Best Shield in the game--I also found 2 Do-Maru + 2s, a Skull Shield, a Holy Blade, and a Falcon Helm from the chests here. All top-tier equipment

In the south wall of this chamber I found an illusory wall that took me up one level to another room with lots of treasure--and it was full of really nasty traps. Pits that took off 20+ HP when you fall into them, exploding box traps that do as much if not more--by the time I cleared the area out, my party was quite weak, despite not getting in a single battle. After resting up a bit, I made my way back to the southeast chamber (which turned out not to have a teleport in it at all) and promptly fell down a hole to level 13.

And I thought 9-12's teleport chambers were bad...

I didn't think for an instant to hang out and search the walls of this teleport chamber. I immediately moved to the center teleport and got sent to the next teleport chain.

The worst chain of them all....

This is the most obnoxious teleport chain of them all, because outside of using a memory viewer like Cheat Engine, there's no way to tell where you are. You're sent into a series of four teleports, all on level 16, and no way to differentiate any of them. There are some teleports in the cardinal directions off the center tilethat will move you around, and one of them will move you into the center of Level 16 proper.

This is the bottom level of Telegrond, where I was "greeted" by the masters of the dungeon.

Guess this must be the circle of 13...

One necromancer I can handle. 13 necromancers in quick succession is going to be hard to survive--some of them are going to get first strike and hit the party with mass-damage or mass-death spells. The secret here is to cast the YUREI spell. Once Frank cast that, all the Necromancers immediately ignored me, allowing me to get first strike at my leisure. Necromancers are tough, but they can't survive a round with my party at full bore.

I now had free reign to loot the Circle's lair, but I didn't find any great items. Gold was substantial (one chest had nearly 2000 in it) but as the party was maxed out in that regard, that didn't do much good. Once I was done, I stepped on the teleport square in the dead center of the level and was sent up to the teleport-chain on level 10.

So, by killing the Circle of 13 and taking their treasure, I'd "completed" Telegrond...but what happened to levels 13 through 15? It's very odd, and probably a design oversight, but I can find no way to get into those floors through normal means. As far as I can see, you have to teleport in there through use of the UNPAN spell.

So I teleported down from level 10 to level 13 using UNPAN--and immediately got dumped down a chute to level 14.

Levels 13-15 are really poorly designed--they're full, fleshed out levels with treasure, traps, and secrets, but are completely disjointed, and most of the areas can only be visited via UGOKU or UNPAN teleportation. I got dropped onto the central pillar in the middle of the level; from there you can move to one of the four chutes surrounded by both types of magic walls. That's the only way out, and if you came in here without the Blue Crystal, you'd be stuck (if not for the fact that you have to have UNPAN to get here in the first place)

Figuring I didn't have a choice, I went through the south pit. I tried resting after getting through the magic walls, only to be attacked by Stone Giants and Undead Ronin--the monsters here are tough!

Level 15 is more interconnected than level 14, however, even though the only way out is through chutes that will dump you right into level 16's teleport chain.

Sea Dragons--among the nastiest of the dragons in the game

The monsters on this level are among the toughest enemies you'll find in game. Not just the Sea Dragons as pictured above, but Banshees, Vampires, and the toughest of all, Beholders and Purple Worms, spawn on this level.

There are only two of them, but this is a tough fight.

I've covered Beholders already back when I ran into one in North Spindrift, and they're still probably the overall deadliest monster in the game that isn't a boss. Purple Worms are almost as bad. They have more HP than any enemy in the game except maybe the Deathlord himself. The Deathlord is also pretty much the only enemy that deals more damage per strike. They also instant-kill your party members with more regularity than even Undead Ronin. The Purple Worm in the above fight managed to successfully insta-kill Gio; though Shigeko quickly revived her with MOINOCHI, death drains all MP in Deathlord so now I was limping along with a crippled caster.

This level of Telegrond is one of the most dangerous areas of the game. I didn't stay long, but that's partly because I fell through a pit back into the teleport chain on level 16. Rather than stay there, I used UNPAN to teleport back up to level 13, not having had a chance to explore it fully yet.

Level 13 of Telegrond is horribly disjointed. That area in the middle is completely blocked off from the rest of the dungeon; there's no way to get there but the UNPAN (or I guess UGOKU) spell. This time, I was in the southwest corner, which also seemed really closed off.

Does going through this magic wall really seem worth it?

As far as I could tell, though, there was no value whatsoever in going through those magic walls. Looking at the map of the level after the fact, you can tell actually that yes, there is an illusory wall beyond the water past the magic walls, but realistically, what player is ever going to find that? I only mapped this level in the first place by cheating like mad using Cheat Engine and looking in the game files. I wonder if there's ever been any player out there that managed to find and map this place legitimately.

Rather than waste my time running through magic walls, I took the stairs down to level 14. There I found myself in the treasure chamber area of the level, and the chests there had truly obscene amounts of gold. Opposition on this level was tough though.

Again, Gio?

Great, Liches. The nastiest undead enemy in the game, they can cast kill-all spells (which took out poor Gio again here) paralyze, and use powerful fireball spells. They hit hard and have a lot of HP to boot.

After reviving Gio again, I couldn't find any way into either the northeast corner of level 14 or the majority of level 13. Frustrated, I checked my maps and decided to throw in the towel. My food was critically low, I'd already maxed out my characters EXP and had two level-ups waiting for each, and there was nothing waiting for me in the areas I hadn't seen but maybe some stat gains and items from treasure chests. And lots and lots of hard combats that frankly my party wasn't ready for. Rather than risk that, I invoked Shigeko's KAERU code word and recalled out of the dungeon.

So that's Telegrond. Despite its poor design and high tedium, this dungeon actually had some promise, it was just squandered. The teleport-chain gimmick of the dungeon, while enormously frustrating, is creative in its own way as it gives the illusion of the dungeon morphing around you.

Overall the design is disappointing--some of the levels themselves have cool themes, but the blatantly unfinished bottom floors of the dungeon with inaccessible areas and confusing teleport chains drag it down. It just feels rushed and half-baked, which is too bad because with a little extra work it might have been a great challenge dungeon.

Now, with all 6 items and 6 of the 7 words, I'm reaching the end of the game. I've also exhausted all of my in-game hints, with the exception of directions to the hated Pyramid of the Old Ones, where the last word waits. However, there's still a fair amount of optional content left as well--one continent, two cities, and three dungeons that I haven't touched yet. In the next few posts, I'll cover that content before attempting to take on the final dungeon.