Dark Crucible



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Entrance



The entrance to Korax's stronghold looks really eerie! Crimson red sky,

pitch black shadows, and corpses on spears. Even the bridge is swinging.

But you've come this far, and there's no turning back. Go across the bridge

and enter the door.



There are three switches here: one by the stairs, and two at the sides of

the room. If you pull the two switches at the sides, and then pull the

switch by the stairs, mana will appear in front of the two switches.

Exactly what type of mana is generated is random. This is for those who

don't have enough mana to face Korax! On rare occasions, you may even get a

Krater of Might or a Mystic Urn. Be careful, though. If you do this too

many times, some Dark Bishops might teleport in to join the switch-pulling

fun... :) However, after the second hall opens later, this room will be

closed, and you won't be able to come back again for the mana. Anyway,

thanks to the many people who told me about this. I don't have much time

now, so I wouldn't have figured it out myself.



Korax



The strange echoing sound that you heard when you first entered the Dark

Crucible is the sound of Korax. Open the door in front, and there's a big

hall in front. And on the opposite side is none other than the long-sought

Korax! Don't just stand there and stare at him. He hates that, and you'll

find out real soon that it's not different flavours of ice-cream he's

throwing at you... :) Be extremely careful of his fireballs! He shoots many

fireballs with his many arms and the fireballs converge into a single blob

of death that can kill you with one hit! He uses the fireballs of different

monsters: the yellow ones the Chaos Serpents breath, the light green ones

Brown Serpents breath, the blue ones Slaughtaurs shoot, the green ones

Stalkers throw, the fiery ones Reivers throw, and the yellow ones Afrits

shoot. (Hmm... did I miss any?) I don't know if he also uses the frost

shards Wendigos shoot... probably not.



Another word of advice: don't walk up to him to discuss your differences

either: that brownish trail isn't a carpet! :) And he also hates uninvited

people treading his hall. He can fire lightning upwards with his arm to

control different traps in the hall, such as activating fireball spitting

devices on the ceiling, or turning almost all the floor in the hall into

lava! Beside these, there are also crushers scattered around the hall.



After you hurt him enough, he teleports away like the coward that he is.

And he opens two pairs of really packed rooms on the far east and west

sides of the hall. These rooms are jam-packed with countless ettins and

centaurs! They'll come swarming on top of you, the ettins first, followed

by the centaurs, after you've killed all the ettins. You probably need many

Discs of Repulsion to keep them from stampeding you to death as you shoot

at them.



Once you finish off these troops, the doors on the north side of the hall

opens to reveal another big hall beyond. Korax now teleports between

several locations in both halls, and sends more of his troops from another

two pairs of jam-packed rooms in the second hall. This time, they are Chaos

Serpents (perhaps with Brown Serpents mixed in as well). Watch out as they

literally rain fireballs on you! Also, be careful when you're running back

and forth attacking the monsters. Korax can turn most of the floors in the

two halls into lava, and activate fireball traps.



After you litter the two halls with the carcasses of the Serpents, Korax

will begin to summon more monsters. Dark Bishops will appear, as well as

invisible Chaos Serpents (that shoot the more damaging green fireballs like

Brown Serpents!) and invisible centaurs. These invisible monsters don't

leave any carcasses when they die: they simply disappear. When you reach

this point, don't waste your ammo on these monsters! Kill just enough of

them to keep them from getting in your way, and concentrate on Korax! You

should have kept enough Kraters of Might to keep you going (there are also

a few scattered around the two halls).



Conclusion



When Korax finally dies, the Dark Crucible quakes and trembles, and a

portal opens at the far end of the second hall. Stay away from him when you

kill him! When he dies, a swarm of ghosts explodes from his carcass,

something like what the Cleric's Wraithverge does (fortunately, these don't

stay around for as long). After the ghosts are gone, you can go look at the

big fat carcass of the late, lamented Korax. :)



Now, gather yourself together, and step into the portal. After all the

excitement in the final battle, you can at last sit back and watch the

conclusion.



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