Phantasie: The Caves of the Lizard Men

Suck it, Nikademus!

 

On the way to the next dungeon, I killed my first Black Knight! Minmax's fireflashes did the majority of the damage - melee barely scratches his armor - but I did it. Ingame lore is that nine of them serve Nikademus, and none have ever been defeated in battle. Well, first time for everything, but I would wager that the game doesn't keep track of how many you've beaten.

The kill earned me $2,706, bringing my bankroll just high enough to train Lambert once.

I saved and entered the Caves of the Lizard Men.

Fine.

Soon after entering, my party stumbled onto a pool of stagnant water, which caused everyone to faint and wake up in a small, blood-stained cavern near the middle of the map. I had to fight my way out, blindly through the unexplored twisty little passageways, back to the entrance, where I escaped somewhat depleted but alive, and with not insignificant earnings. A maul and shield+3 went to Kruncha, who also trained to level 5 on the golden dividends.

I went back and partially explored the region south of the pool - a "twisty maze of rock and rubble." I withdrew before completion, but the experience and gold leveled Lambert, who learned Triple Healing. I also picked up a +2 mace which went to Minmax, being light enough.

With a third trip, I finished exploring the rock and rubble maze, where the exit triggered a cave-in, revealing a dead-end with a dead fighter possessing a scroll, and a secret passage that led out through the lizard men's barracks.

The treasure leveled Kruncha, who pointlessly learned quickness. But the scroll shed some interesting light on the mysterious pools.

I went back in and challenged the mysterious entity that had bid me to turn back before.

Fire elemental! It hits hard, and most physical attacks do little in return. But it went down easily - to Minmax's Quadruple Fireflash spell, oddly enough.

Past the fire elemental, an old man granted me the fire rune.

 

I kept exploring. Deep into the cave, a dilemma presented itself:

I see that Chris Nolan played this game.

I don't see why you couldn't rescue both - there's six of us and two of them. But you have to pick. I picked the distinguished man, recalling the High Priest's quest. He thanked us, uttered "Straticon uble and 48" and died.

Further up north, another warrior's corpse could be seen through a crack, but no obvious way of reaching it presented. I searched the quadrant for false walls, bumping into dozens of real ones until I found one, and another jagged passageway, through a crevice lined with damaging mold, to the body where I found a scroll and a 'good weapon'. The scroll turned out to be one I'd seen before.

Dungeon 3, finished

I went south to explore the next dungeon. Or rather, I would have, if a random encounter with devils didn't one-shot Minmax with a single hugely damaging spell.

Might need to do some grinding.