-
- Forums
- Chatrooms
- Gallery
- Gameplay Videos
- Upload
- Articles
- Mod Reviews
- Shop SP: Games, Movies, Books
|
|
New City | Orkogre Castle | Nyctalinth | Munkharama | The Hidden Temple | Land of Dreams | Rattkin Ruins | The Funhouse | Giant Cave | Witch Mountain | Ukpyr | Sphynx Cave | Dionysceus | Return to Nyctalinth | Return to New City | Dragon Cave | City of Sky | Hall of the Dead | Hall of Gorrors | Hall of the Past | Tomb of the Astral Dominae |
MUNKHARAMA
Brother T'Shober
Now I travel east from New City through D5.
I then find myself at the south end of the D4 Map. This time though, I go east after hitting the fork at the end of the road.
Now I am at the west side of the E4 map.
At #1 I run into Brother T'Shober. If you tell him the correct password (from Father Rulae), "Slay not he that cannot hear", he'll give you a Cable Trolley that allows you to cross the river without having to swim it.
I deliberately botched it though, and gave him the wrong words. He charges me 150gp to cross the river without giving me the Trolley. There's certain advantages to saying the wrong words. Once my swimming skill is good enough, I won't need the Trolley anymore. Also, this way, he'll stay put instead of going around for any of the Maps himself.
As an aside, there is a certain benefit to killing Brother T'Shober. After you do, he will reappear at #1 as T'Shober's Ghost. You can kill the Ghost as well for a lot of xp. In fact, you can go away for a while, and T'Shober's Ghost will appear again at the bridge good as new. For anyone wanting to powergame and really go up a lot of levels, this is your opportunity for fast and endless experience points. Do not do this until you're up in the mid-level (15+ or so in my opinion) and you've already visited Father Xheng in Munkharama. Note that if you kill Brother T'Shober, you will not be on good terms with Father Xheng, and the Father may in fact spend the rest of the game hunting for your head.
Now it's on to Munkharama itself.
Cups Pentacles Sword Wands
Now I find myself at #1 on the Munkharama North map. Munk encounters will now become frequent. They include:
Demented Munks - They usually don't, if ever, cast spells, and are pretty easy take out.
Dark Forest Munks - Somewhat tougher, and they can cast lower level spells like Sleep and Itching Skin.
Munk Ninja - The real deal. They can dish out hefty damage, and can sometimes critically hit party members. It gets even worse if they get off Blinding Flash. Go all out to kill them as quickly as possible.
Mad Warder - Similar to Munk Ninja, kind of a boss-level Munk. And again, take them out as quickly as possible.
But at any rate, I travel to #2 and get 4 Well Coins by answering "coin" in response to the riddle.
I go to the room at #3 and insert a Well Coin. It opens the west wall, leading to a lever at #4 which I pull.
Now I travel through the door at #5. Note that there are locations marked as letters east of #5. These locations have magic beans. "C" has the Bean of Cups. "P" has the Bean of Pentacles. "S" has the Bean of Swords. "W" has the Bean of Wands.
I spin around for xp after I get the beans, because I have a level-up coming soon and I don't want it to happen while I'm busy with the next steps to make progress. A Rattkin NPC named Ratsputin shows up. Chances are my attempts at Diplomacy will only cause him to attack me, so I just attack him to get it over with. He calls several Hunters and several T'Rang Wilders to help him out. Errol blows away the Hunters with a Fireball. I can't Silence them since they use Alchemy spells, so I kill them outright. Terra uses Silence on the Wilders. My front-line warriors take out Ratsputin as soon as possible. A benefit of doing this is I get the Fool map from his corpse. Errol takes Armormelt on his 10th level-up.
Note also that there are four corner rooms next to where you found the Beans. I fight monsters in set encounters in two of those rooms. Rothgar takes Superman on his 10th level-up, which can act as a hefty power booster for a warrior like Zarax.
Each corner room has a chalice. The goal here is to place each bean in the correct chalice in order to open the door at #6. And no, it's typically not the chalice right next to where you found a Bean. In fact, I'm convinced that the order is quite random and changes from one playthrough to the next. You'll know if you get the right order if you get 'BBBB' after pulling the spindle at "X". If you get a 'W' at any point in the sequence instead of all 'B's, you'll get dumped in the dungeon below at "A". So ... obviously the goal is to figure out the right placement to get 'BBBB'.
This is basically a process of deduction and reloading, and I'll show you an example of how it works. I started off with this sequence:
| Swords | Wands |
| Pentacles | Cups |
I got all 'WWWW'. You can surmise from this that none of the Beans were correctly placed, so I write this down to keep track in a process of elimination. I now know that the Bean of Pentacles cannot be placed in the northwest chalice, the Bean of Swords cannot be placed in the northeast chalice, and so on. Now I simply reload after falling down the pit. Then I tried:
| Wands | Swords |
| Cups | Pentalces |
Now I got "WWWW". This is useful as part of the process of elimination. By the way, a result like "BBWW" would also be valuable, as it means two of the Beans were correctly placed, and two were not. That would mean I know that I only need to switch two around and leave the other two as is. But the two "WWWW"s I got is also very helpful as I know I need to do another complete switch. So I reloaded, and this is what succeeded for me.
| Pentacles | Cups |
| Swords | Wands |
Now I get "BBBB" and the door at #6 is open.
The Wading Area
Now I head for #7 on the Munkharama South map. This is the Wading Area. Note that every character in the party needs a Swimming skill of at least 10 to avoid dying while moving 1 square over water. The more squares over water that you want to move, the higher your swimming score needs to be. You can train it with practice once you reach the minimum 10, but you need that minimum 10 just to be able to step onto water.
The Wading Area offers a risk-free opportunity to bring your swimming skill to ten for each character. Simply enter the pool at #7, "Practice Swimming", and heal your wounds after getting out. Everybody's swimming skill will go up by one. I had everybody spend their physical skill points where they needed it (e.g., Skullduggery for Errol, Oratory for Terra, etc.) so I take full advantage of the Wading Area to get my minimum 10 for everyone.
At "C" is a chest that holds a White Rubber Bear, that can be equipped and then invoked in order to raise a character's swimming skill.
I then travel south through the door at #10.
Brother Moser
I go to #9, which is the shop of Brother Moser. He sells various potions and powders, but I just sell off my excess loot.
I go south, and then west, and press the button at #11 to open the way out.
Builder of the Temple
Now I'm next to the large pool at the center of Munkharama. I now need to swim two squares across to get to the isle in the middle, so I train my swimming skill a little first.
Once I get across, note that there are four spots marked 'J'. I go to each of these, "Search", and get four coins, amber, ruby, diamond, and emerald.
Now I head back to New City. I make a point of swimming around the point in the river where Brother T'Shober stands guard to avoid setting loose to find the Maps I want, and to avoid paying his 150gp toll fee now that my Swimming skills have come along. More practice as swimming is an additional benefit.
Chun-Li advances to her 10th level along the way. She takes Death, which may come in handy as a single-target instakill option.
Now I swim across to #14 on the New City North map, and search. I then get a Moonstone.
Now I come all the way back to Munkharama. Ryu and Terra advance to their 10th levels on the way there. Ryu takes Acid Bomb. Terra pushes up her Theology with a view towards taking 5th-tier Priest spells on her 11th level-up, but takes Iceball now on her 10th level-up. It provides a potent offensive spell that can wipe out a group of monsters instantly.
I return and have to place the four jewelled coins that I found in the correct 'K' spots on the Munkharama North map. The Amber Coin goes in the northwest 'K', the Ruby Coin in the southwest 'K', the Diamond Coin in the southeast 'K', and the Emerald Coin in the northeast 'K'.
Now I swim across again and head for the statue of Phoonzang that is in center between all the 'J's. I "Search", and then use the Moonstone. This brings me to the Hidden Temple.
