Shining in the Darkness: Team Shining in the Darkness #2

[MXC]

Don't forget you have back-to-back parts now

Also, this is a filler

[Swalchy]

Whaaaat - how the hell did I miss this?

Sign me up!

[Cullsoft]

Got to work on the next part this evening, focussing on levelling Milo and Pyra before taking on Trial of Strength tomorrow. So here's what happened in today's thrilling chapter of... SHINING IN DA DARKNESS!

- Off to Castle to show off my bling to the King. Theos and Minister tell me to big up my crew and get back on the case, yo.

- Off to the seven-eleven to pick up my bitch.... er, witch... er mage, OG Pyra.

- Gila disses my crew on the way out, so Pyra caps his ass with a Slow ride.

- Off to the chapel, where we pick up our main man the right Reverend Milo Luther King.

- Pyra gets blinged up with the Royal Tiara, then it's off to the labyrinth for a little bump 'n' (level) grind. Funds are low, so I hold off buying any new kit for the time being.

- While grinding to L3, I decide that Milo's getting duffed up a bit too much, so trade his Cotton Robe for Hiro's Woven Robe. In the ~20 years I've played this game, I think this is the first time I've had the sense to do this.

(During this time I realise the game's text speed is kinda slow, so after reaching L3 I save and reload, setting text speed from 3 to 2).

- During the grind, the monsters drop... a herb!

- Grinding would be much faster if the ruddy oozes didn't keep running away... :P At one point I was surprised by a party of 5, but was only able to catch 2!

- After reaching L4, it's time to do a bit of shopping. Gilius doesn't have he Morning Star in stock yet, so Pyra trades her Bronze Knife for a her Bronze Sabre. Green weapon decals are still in fashion this season.

- Back to work, venturing a little further into the dungeon to grind Milo and Pyra up to L6 (and Hiro to L9), then it's back to the shops. Still no sign of the Morning Star, so I get Milo a Fur Robe and return Hiro his Woven Robe (and sell Milo's scratch-worn Cotton Robe).

- A brief visit to the tavern. Vik's dissin' my crew so don't get no service from me. We say hello to Brave Sir Dai as he prepares for his heroic exploits into the Labyrinth ahead of us. God Speed! Meanwhile Gnorn's mutterings of "Nobody believes me. They think I'm crazy. They'll be sorry." make me think he's up to something nefarious.

- Back to work, grinding to level 7. Then back to the court for the Minister, Theos and Melvyl to bang on about the trails and bigging up the Dwarf's Key before eventually handing it over.

- Finally there's just enough time for a quick peek behind the Bronze door, raid the chests by the Cave Of Strength entrance and get Hiro to L10. We even get to take on Kaisy, and despite lopping off 20HP from Milo in one hit (and Pyra in two) still gets hacked and fried into fishsticks.

- A little more work to get Milo and Pyra to L8, then it's back to the shops to rest after a long and rewarding day. Gilius has a special offer! It's... a Long Spear, which is way too rich for my blood. Fortunately a little more persuasion gets Gilius to show us his special ball, and Milo's now got a much bigger tool (let's skip the details). Not quite enough to get him any more armour, though... so may as well start saving towards a Main Gauche. An Angel Feather's picked up in case of emergency, then it's time for a kip at the Tavern - and Old Vic's finally shows my crew some respect by the morning.


We're all set to take on the Cave of Strength - tune in tomorrow for next exciting chapter!

Here's a little stat rundown - I got some pretty decent level ups, with Milo and Pyra getting a good number of +6's in HP and MP.

Code: Select all

HIRO [L10]:
[HP: 95 ][ATTACK: 52][DEFENCE: 15]
[MP:  0 ][IQ: 42][SPEED: 27][LUCK: 22]

MILO [L8]:
[HP: 61 ][ATTACK: 31][DEFENCE: 18]
[MP: 45 ][IQ: 48][SPEED: 32][LUCK: 35]

PYRA:
[HP: 56 ][ATTACK: 22][DEFENCE: 25]
[MP: 50 ][IQ: 49][SPEED: 43][LUCK: 29]

[MXC]

Well done

Way to be slow, Swalchy. Maybe you can convince zexxar to give you one of his remaining sections If not, I could always let you have Truth

[Cullsoft]

If Phill's not covering the Trial of Courage, I'm happy for Walchy to take that chapter - covering both Milo and Pyra's training and Trial of Strength is pretty lengthy, and I'd rather pass it along than do Trial of Courage on top of that (especially if it helps keep things moving, as I probably wouldn't get that finished before the weekend).



Anyhow, let's see reveal how the party fared in the Trial of Strength!


- A bit of anti-Kaisy navigation on the way to Cave Of Strength by avoiding facing left-turn corners.

- Screw the Chestbeaks for now, I'm not in the mood for dying this early! No probs with getting other chests, though.

- Ran into a Kaisy early into the Trial - git awesome blows Hiro for 28 points after he misses! Manage to take him down before his next attack, though.

- Despite having a big shiny ball, Milo struggles to OHKO enemies early in the trial.

- Yaye! Pyra gets Blaze L2. Multi-tasking barbecues now on the menu.

- Backing into the Killwave pool in the lower part of the centre hall. Again, I'd rather not get beaten up especially as I'm holding back on healing Hiro until I can do a full Heal L2 on him.

- Gordon Bennet, Milo and Pyra... could you guys get through a battle without ANY misses?

- Well, that was a bloody waste! Blaze L2'd a group of Mad Gnomes, not a single one gets OHKO'd.

- After clearing items from the central hall area, the party inventory's almost full so I head back to the entrance to sell some stuff. Milo gets poisoned by a Widowfang on the way - this day just gets better and better! At least Pyra gets a level up along the way, though I'm not running to the tavern quite yet.

- Back in town, I sell the Wisdom Seeds and a few Herbs. I've now got more than enough to get Milo a Main Gauche - I want to see plenty of OHKO's!

- OH COME ON, Two Kaisys back to back?

- Pop downstairs to pick up the Healer Fruit, run straight into a bunch of Skeletars and Triclopses! Hiro gets poisoned by a Skeletar, but fortunately none of the Triclopses get an MP drain in.

- Blaze L2 pays off at last - have to use it to emergency finish a group of Skeletars before they finish off Hiro.

- I resist the urge to take a blind leap of faith over the trapdoor to the Mithril Ore. Not that it would be much use at this stage, but I'm not going back down to the arsekickers on the lower level again.

- F***'S SAKE YOU'RE ALL WORSE THAN HANS WITH THESE SODDING MISSES!

- HOLY FUDGING CRAP HIRO GOT A +3 IN DEFENCE!

- Skipping the south-west corner Chestbeak entirely. Still not in the mood for dying, especially the way the Trial's gone so far.

- Ran into a Killwave on the southern passage. But this time HE misses twice and the party wins without taking a single hit. Ciao!

- Hiro gets paralysed by a vampyre on the way to the Woven Robe in the south-west corner! Fortunately it wears off right before I run into five more of the buggers.

- Dang it, so many Vampyres in the three-prong hall! What've you got against me? I like bats! Feeding the bats was my favourite bit when I got to be a wildlife park keeper for a day!

- Dangit, two Triklopses gets MP drain on Milo. There go six L1 Heal spells. At least Pyra learned Egress afterwards.

- Crying out loud, Killwave gets off a Freeze L2, then EVERY. BODY. MISSES.

- Yaye - Skeletar drops me a Depoison.

- Hah! Group of three Deathguides all try sleeping powder on me, but only the last one works and only on Pyra, who's paltry damage wouldn't make much difference to the fight.

- After picking up the Short Sword in the north-east corner near the end of the trail, my inventory's full and I'm almost out of MP, so it's time to Egress. Just as well, because I want to take a break at the Tavern before finishing the Trial...

- Back in town I sell the Short Sword and Woven Robe I found (got better stuff on those who can use them), as well as a Depoison and a couple more Herbs. With over 2600 gold, I can easily afford the Breastplate for Hiro and Hemp Robe for Pyra... groovy. The Alkemist has just got a Miracle Herb in stock, but I'm not tempted by her cheeky wink - not for the haggle-free price of 8000 gold at least.

- YEAH DARK JELLIES YOU BETTER RUN CAUSE I DON'T THINK YOU'RE READY FOR MY JELLY

- OH HELLO KAISY YOU WANT SOME PAIN CAUSE I'M BRINGING THE PAIN YEAH YOU BETTER RUN CRYING TO YO MAMA

- HEY THERE KILLWAVE YOU SERVING SOME ICE COLD DRINKS WELL FIRST I'M SERVING SOME RED HOT DEATH YEAH YOU GO BACK IN YOUR WATER HOLE YOU GO BACK IN AND YOU DIE

- WHAT'S UP TRIKLOPSES GONNA MAKE SOME MOVES WELL HOW ABOUT THESE SUPER FLY MOVES... Oh crap, one of them survives and drains an Egress spell from Pyra, maybe time to start taking things seriously.

- And now the reason I wanted to get out and rest before finishing: Gila joins the party! And as I've just rested, he should be sticking around for longer! You want more Wahunga? THE SITD STRIKERS BRING YOU MORE WACHUNGA!

- Group of five Skeletars. Milo and Pyra keep missing. Gila Wachungas into the fray. Milo gets poisoned. Serves him right for missing.

- North eastern path to the end of the trial could be nicknamed the boneyard. Four battles in a row with nothing but Skeletars.

- Pyra gets to L13 just before the end of the trial. Now passed, the party heads back to town to tool up for the next part of the adventure. On the way Hiro scrapes up to L14, and a friendly Slimy Ooze gives us an offering of a herb before we leave (Pyra rewards his kindness with DEATH).


Here's the stat summary:

Code: Select all

HIRO [L14]:
[HP: 126][ATTACK: 66][DEFENCE: 21]
[MP:  0 ][IQ: 56][SPEED: 36][LUCK: 30]

MILO [L12]:
[HP: 88 ][ATTACK: 41][DEFENCE: 25]
[MP: 66 ][IQ: 64][SPEED: 45][LUCK: 47]

PYRA [L13]:
[HP: 84 ][ATTACK: 32][DEFENCE: 37]
[MP: 79 ][IQ: 75][SPEED: 63][LUCK: 42]

And here's the ZIP file with save state and SRAM.

[MXC]

Excellent, Cull Those misses really are a pain in the ass. Sounds like you got hit harder than normal.

Swalch, if you happen to check this again, go ahead and pick it up where Cull left off.

[Swalchy]

Swalch, if you happen to check this again, go ahead and pick it up where Cull left off.

Cheeky bugger - checked this thread everyday since! :P

Trial of Courage will be mine!

[Cullsoft]

Huzzah - good luck with it. My luck picked up a little in the second half of the Trial, but those misses... ugh.

Also, after completing the trial I went straight back to town and stopped there - no shopping, no resting, no nipping into the way to Courage for any items or grinding. Only thing I did was pop into the Shrine to save (Milo's should be far from a level up).

FYI, zexxar gave Hiro a Sword which is stronger than the Morning Star, so it's not worth detouring through the MP-draining thorns for the second Morning Star (unless you badly need cash and don't need Gila hanging round anymore).

[Swalchy]

Gila's already gone

Plus thanks for the tip. Won't go down there then, unless I'm really levelled and don't mind losing the MP before leaving. I like exploring everything, regardless

[MXC]

But Gila is useful at the end! Oh well

[Swalchy]

Psssh. My SitD never needs help from some silly secondary character


Anyways - done!

Everything got in the ToC (bar the demon staff, obviously), and completed the trial with very little hassle.

After resting and getting rid of Gila, didn't really check any of the characters stats but noticed there was still 1500 gold coins left. Decided to buy a Bronze Helmet for Hiro, knowing full well that most enemies target him. As it's the ToC, using magic is at it's minimum, so not having to heal so often is ideal.

The path to the ToC is straight forward, until I run into some damn Death-bringers that manage to get all my characters to sleep for 5 bloody minutes! Thankfully, and to my surprise, they could barely hit the force whilst they were sleeping. Either Hiro, Milo, and Pyra have such highly trained senses that they can move in their sleep, or there's something screwy with these death bringers.

Anyway, we get into the ToC, and I decide to go the left way round. First thing to notice: Pyra has a Bronze sword and is doing very little damage. Thankfully, Milo and Hiro are hitting nicely, and Hiro's defence boost means that only the Minotaurs and Grimfowls do more than 1 HP damage. Though to my surprise, the enemies appear to be, err, rather bad at hitting the characters! I don't recall the miss-rate for enemies being this high for SitD, but never mind, use it to my advantage.

Before I know it, I'm staring at the end of the ToC. Either I've become damn good at getting through this game over the years, or this game of SitD is a bit odd. Decide not to go to the end, and continue round to the right side to descend the stairs to the basement, to go and fight the Tortolyde.

Torty falls, rather easily (cast a slow on him using Pyra in the first round. Made it a bit too easy methinks), and I get the Orb of Truth. Still got a few MP to spare, so trot off back a bit to retrieve some of the items past the places where my MP is depleted.

Once retrieved the Woven Hood (given to Milo - he needed the defence), used Pyra's last remaining MP to Egress and go to the weapon shop. Sell a few of the items there, and check his deals section. Notice the Thorn whip - 5500 gold coins. I have over 6000. Purchased, and Pyra can now attack multiple enemies, and do some decent damage. Rest up, and return to the Labyrinth and the ToC.

So much MP, I can't get rid of it fast enough. Grab the remaining items in the cave, then head to level up the characters a bit in the passage just before the exit Muriel-thingy. Get them to Level 17, and then it's time to leave.

I get congratulated on passing the ToC (which, for the record, was hardly making the characters sweat - those Palace Soldiers are some right pussies), and get sent to the entrance to the cave again. Some MP left, so go and grab the morning star and smelling salts before heading for the Labyrinth exit.

Get back to town, sell the items that are unneeded, and save ready for the next guy

Stats:
HIRO
Lvl: 18
HP: 162
MP: 0
EXP: 14772
IQ: 69
Speed: 45
Luck: 38
Attack: 84
Defence: 26

MILO
Lvl: 17
HP: 121
MP: 94
EXP: 14219
IQ: 87
Speed: 61
Luck: 62
Attack: 55
Defence: 35

PYRA
Lvl: 17
HP: 105
MP: 102
EXP: 14219
IQ: 96
Speed: 81
Luck: 53
Attack: 40
Defence: 48

[MXC]

Hey look, it's my turn! Should have time to do it during lunch tomorrow

Good job Swalchy, even if it was too easy for you

[zexxar]

Way to be slow, Swalchy. Maybe you can convince zexxar to give you one of his remaining sections If not, I could always let you have Truth

If Swalch wants he can have my Tiral of Wisdom so that he isn't finished already.

[Swalchy]

If Swalch wants he can have my Tiral of Wisdom so that he isn't finished already.

Would much rather have your level 4, if that's okay?

[MXC]

Booted up the save and hopped right into the Labyrinth. In fighting the Grim Wall, I can already tell that somebody has the group leveled a bit high Then again, I feel like the last time I played SitD, I was in a similar setup. Anyway, I nabbed the 100 gold from the chest and made my way to the trial. Funny how I remember so many of the enemies (and which to take out first).

Into the trial and things start out smooth, except for the pesky Stallion. I always liked the spinners and how smart I felt when I was 12 that I could walk backward onto them to face the direction I wanted! Continued running through, noticing that Hiro was dodging hits like crazy and Milo taking them like he liked it. Finally go over to the Ghost that almost took out Hiro and Milo before I finally finished him off. Milo learns Quick 2

Ran around some more and remembered that this cave should be called the Cave of Paralysis. f*cking toadstools. ANYWAY! Grabbed the False Idol but skipped the second Ghost, just past the chest behind the cell door. Tracked down the Chainmail. Getting pretty low on MP right now. Oh look, Jackobutch! These little guys are always cool for some reason.

I decide to go fight the last Ghost (remember, I skipped the second) because I quickly forgot my MP situation. Fortunately, Milo lands an awesome blow which cuts about 2 turns out of the battle. Pyra levels up (again) and learns Blaze 3 and Peace Make it to the red door with the end in sight... then run into 4 Ostriks. I hate these bastards. Fortunately, this is the only time I have to deal with them.

I go up to fight Mr. Penis Head and promptly put him to sleep (I saved just enough for it) and kick his ass. Pick up the Rune Key and head to get the last chest. Receive the Battle Axe and give it to Milo... and that zaps the rest of my MP. I proceed to have two battles with Dark Wizards that have a lot of fun casting Screen on my characters with 0 MP. Go figure.

Since I managed this in one trip, I'm going to leave weapon purchasing to the next person. I did sell the unnecessary weapons though and can tell you what's new:

Gold: 15,331
Longsword 2,530g (Hiro)
Long Spear 9,500g (Hiro,Milo)
Bronze Armor 3,200g (Hiro)
Iron Helm 3,400g (Hiro)
Madu 2,500g (Hiro, Milo)
Magic Hood 5,800g (Milo, Pyra)

I suggest at least the Madu for Milo and the Magic Hood for Pyra, then mix and match everything else. Of course, a bit of extra grinding will be able to net anything you need Everyone gained a level (2 for Pyra). Since I was a bit high in level going in, it might mean that the group is a bit weak for the last trial. Sorry about that

[zexxar]

Sorry I was too busy with work the last few days to even check on SFC. I will try to do this this weekend.

@Swalch: Sorry Swalch you can either have this or none because I really like to do level 4 myself .

[MXC]

Level 4 is my favorite as well. Don't blame you.

[Swalchy]

Motherf*&^ing Germans....

I'll take your level 3 if you want MXC in place of this... >.>

[MXC]

Actaully, Wisdom is my least favorite part of the game and I just did one

[Swalchy]

Fine, fine.

Next Team SitD we do, I'm gonna be the first bloody post and get the levels I want!

*downloads save*