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MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS
Rapax Patrols
I set up a savegame called "Mountain Wilderness" before entering here. There will be two Rapax Patrols when I first enter. One near the entrance to the Rapax Rift in the southeast corner, and another a little northwest of my initial entry. I quicksave when I enter, and check out the patrol to the northwest. I want it to include Rapax Samurai. If it doesn't, I'll reload the "Mountain Wilderness" save, quicksave when I enter, check the patrol, rinse and repeat until that patrol does include Rapax Samurai. When it does include Samurai, that's when I reload the quicksave. There's a specific reason why which I'll soon explain.
Now I take out the patrol near the Rapax Rift entrance, which consists of Rapax Patrols and Rapax Bowmen. I take them out without much trouble.
I go northwest to confront the second patrol, consisting of three Rapax Patrols and four Rapax Samurai. Rapax Patrols have a 100% chance of dropping one or more items from the Rapax Good drop list when they're accompanied by Rapax Samurai. I scum-save them until I get the item I want, a Gown of Divinemail (U) (+10 AC, +1 Hit Point regeneration, +15 Vitality, +10% Divine Resistance, cursed) for Rothgar on an interim basis. It fits his theme as a self-regenerating tank.
Marble Golems
Now I run into another foe that is frequent in the Mountain Wilderness, Marble Golems. But I can now outmatch them pretty easily.
Blistering Scorchers
I continue west and run into a Blistering Scorcher. Blistering Scorchers can either attack with their claws or breathe fire. For both vanilla Scorchers and Blistering Scorchers, the damage from fire breathing is often minor enough that you usually don't need to bother with Elemental Shield if you already have Magic Screen in place. If their fire breathing begins to accumulate damage over multiple rounds, a Heal All (like from Errol's Dulcimer of Mending) suffices to pick everybody back up.
I turn south and kill four more Blistering Scorchers.
Anselm
I continue westwards, and run into a Rapax patrol attacking Anselm and a few of his Adept Brothers. It's a simple matter to chop down the Rapax.
I then chat briefly with Anselm.
Diamond Eyes and Succubus Song
I now go to the place marked 'Undead', which is an abandoned house with a Death Lord and 2 Gibbering Heads. I begin with Soul Shield from Rothgar and Elemental Shield from Chun-Li.
The Death Lord hits the party with a Death Cloud spell. So I spend the next round walking up to him, and having Rothgar get rid of it with Purify Air. I subsequently kill Death Lord, and then the Gibbering Heads, with physical attacks.
Errol picks up an item in plain view, the Succubus Song that allows him to use Lifesteal. He replaces his Silent Lyre with it.
There are other items to be found by searching. These include the Mitre de Sanct (+5 armor class, Priest or Bishop only), and the Brimstone Ring (+1 armor class, +20% fire resistance).
The prize for me is the Diamond Eyes (+2 to hit, +3 initiative, 7-22 damage, +10 Communication, 20% paralyze). This will by Zarax's off-hand weapon in his primary weapon set for the rest of the game, and it far outweighs the benefits of a sword and shield. When the Diamond Eyes paralyzes its target, the monster will quickly die from subsequent blows by the main-hand sword. There will come a time when Zarax goes on the front-line, and RFS-81 holds the left flank. But that time is not yet.
Second Pair of Mantis Gloves
No sooner have I left the house than I run into another Rapax Patrol that includes Rapax Samurai. So I grab the opportunity to scum-save for another item from the Rapax Good list, Mantis Gloves (+14 AC, +5 Dexterity) for Zarax. Rothgar already has a pair.
More Blistering Scorchers
I go east and kill two more nearby groups of Blistering Scorchers.
Granite Golem
Now I go west, with a view towards finding a path that leads up the mountainside.
I run into Savant Berserkers and Savant Drones, which I kill easily enough.
Terra casts Chameleon at this point, as there are multiple monster groups nearby and I only want to deal with one at a time.
I continue west and fight a lone Granite Golem, which is a Golem with significant damage reduction. I still manage to wear it down.
Bitter Wings
Now you may notice that there's a path leading up the mountain on the northern side of the Wilderness. A quite frequent foe along this path are Bitter Wings. Bitter Wings can cause poisoning with either their bites or their spit attacks. Their chief danger is their ability to breathe poison on the whole party. Subsequent damage from poisoning in subsequent rounds can range from a mild 5 or so to a horrific 40+.
Here I run into three of them. What is to my advantage is that they jam each other up coming down the mountain path, allowing me to pick them off one at a time.
The Restoration spell, whether from my characters who have the Priest's spellbook or from Errol's Renaissance Lute, is the key to outlasting the Bitter Wings. Restoration replenishes health, stamina, and cures any condition except death or health drain. If a character is suffering extensive poison damage each round (e.g. 25 to 40+), or is down to about half of his or her health, that is often a good time to use Restoration. Erring on the side of caution is advised. Using Heal All when the entire party is collectively damaged is helpful as well.
Mountain Sprites
I continue up the path. It soons forks, with one path leading north and the other leading west and ultimately over a suspension bridge and to the Northern Wilderness.
I take the north path and soon run into four Mountain Sprites. They can be dangerous, since they have both high Hit Points and good AC on account of their smaller size. They can also cast Quicksand among other spells. Starting off with both Elemental Shield and Soul Shield is obligatory. That puts me in a much better place to afterwards run up to them and cut them down one by one.
Bela
Now I continue to go up the mountain path, and run into a dragon-like creature named Bela. We speak briefly about the Dark Savant, the Cosmic Circle, the Cosmic Forge, and such.
I also give him both Diamond Rings that I obtained in Wizardry 6. I then get 6,000gp and 300,000xp for each party member as a reward. I'll replace them with better anyway. Chun-Li, who's about to get two such items, hands over her Amulet of Healing to Vi Domina.
Vi Domina, Rothgar and Ryu all advance to their 22nd levels. Vi Domina and Rothgar both take Restoration. The more characters who have it as an option when I'm fighting things like Bitter Wings and other nasties, the better.
Ryu takes Asphyxiation, which provides another mass-death option which is not yet in my repertoire.
He also has a few items for sale. One that I bought from him was a Cloak of Many Colors (+3 armor class, +10% all resistances) for Rothgar. It will stack with the resistance bonuses provided by his Iron Will skill.
The other I bought was a Dread Spear (11-23 damage, +2 initiative, +2 to hit, 50% hex, +20% Polearm skill) for Zarax. It will be his extended range weapon for the rest of the game. Remember that a Fighter using the Berserk ability accepts a penalty to hit when making physical attacks. The +2 to hit and the +20 to the Polearm skill together go a long way towards mitigating that and improving his chances of double damage hits.
Ring of Power and Cloak of Many Colors
There is one more matter involving Bela, I want him to die here so I can collect his other Cloak of Many Colors (+3 armor class, +10% all resistances) and his Ring of Power (+2 armor class, +2 mana regeneration, recharge magic with limited charges). However, I can't attack him while he is in vendor status.
So, I try another method. You may have noticed by now that whenever you shoot missile weapons, they appear to go elsewhere other than your intended target on the screen and can in fact hit creatures other than your intended target. So I load up on ammunition that provides things like bonus to hit and greater damage, but won't critically hit their target. Viper Arrows for Errol, Medusa Stones for Chun-Li and Hunter Quarrels for Rothgar.
So I rest once but no monsters. I rest a second time and get ambushed by three Bitter Wings. I spend the first round putting my buffs back up. There's a storm to be weathered, a poison storm, in the early going. Errol uses his Renaissance Lute plenty of times, and multiple characters are casting Cure Poison lots of times as well, to pull through as I walk up and cut down the first and then the second Bitter Wing.
Now I retreat and position myself so that I can train missile fire on the Bitter Wing while is it standing behind and a little right of Bela, but not quite directly behind him either. Very often, my missiles will strike and damage Bela instead of the Bitter Wing. Note that positioning Bela directly in between myself and the Bitter Wing won't work. They have to be side by side at least to a degree. Don't worry, he won't attack. Bela has more hit points than the Bitter Wing, however, so once in a while I cast Heal Wounds on the Bitter Wing to make sure Bela goes down first. And at some point Errol scores a critical hit on Bela, so now I go ahead and finish off the last Bitter Wing.
Now I collect my prizes. Chun-Li wears the second Cloak of Many Colors for the rest of the game. Its resistance bonuses will stack with the resistance bonuses provided by her Iron Will skill. She also wears the Ring of Power for the rest of the game. The mana regeneration makes it the ring of choice for my primary spellcaster.
Don't worry, Bela will show up for the finale as though nothing happened.
Night Wings
I go back down the path. I look down and notice that some serpents and other creatures are bunched close together. I wait a bit until the serpents separate from the Sprites, and then continue down the path.
The Serpents are Night Wings. Their acid spit attacks can cause poison, sleep or stamina drain. But Missile Shield goes a long way towards negating their danger, so I don't have much trouble cutting them down one by one.
Waterfall Cave
I continue back down the path and fight some Fire Ants, which aren't much trouble.
I next go to the Waterfall Cave at the west edge of the Wilderness. Inside are several items of various kinds. Notable ones include ...
Burning Spear (-3 initiative, 7-22 damage, Ring of Fire with limited charges) - I prefer the Stun Rod for Vi Domina, and the Dread Spear for Zarax, so I'll just sell this one.
Staff of Doom (+4 to hit, +1 initiative, 7-27 damage, 25% paralyze, 15% hex, 10% critical strike, Death Cloud with limited charges, -1 health drain, cursed) - This will replace the Ebon Staff as Chun-Li's main weapon for the rest of the game, but I don't equip it just yet. I need to find an item with health regeneration to neutralize the health drain that comes with equipping the staff. I will find such an item for my Bishop very shortly.
Winterwand (+1 to hit, +5 initiative, 4-8 damage, 15% paralyze, Iceball with limited charges) - It doesn't fit into my plans, so I'll just sell it.
I notice that there's some Bitter Wings up the path. So I go chase them, which I almost regret. There's six of them, and they're able to fire on me all at once. Chun-Li almost died. But with some luck, and persistent use of either Cure Poison spells or Errol's Renaissance Lute, I'm eventually able to overcome them.
RFS-81, Zarax and Errol all advance another level. I go back down the mountain path.
Third Pair of Mantis Gloves
Now I go east along the road, until I run into four Gibbering Heads. Soul Shield plus Elemental Shield, then run them down and kill them.
There's another Rapax Patrol to the north that includes Rapax Samurai. I notice that one of them is retreating after having been blinded, so I grab the opportunity to finish off the rest, let him put some distance between us, and quicksave after only he's left alive. I scum-save him until he drops a third pair of Mantis Gloves for Vi Domina.
To the Mountain Wilderness Retro Dungeon
Now I go to the spot labelled 'R' on the Mountain Wilderness map. I touch the runes in the sequence shown in the video, and then place a Longsword on the stone in the middle.
This then reveals a Faerie Circle to the northwest that teleports the party to the Now I am ready to enter the Mountain Wilderness Retro Dungeon. I rest up and buff up before I step through.
