Dark Crucible
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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