After clearing the Tomb of the High Kings I head to dwarftown to do some errands before going back to the Tower.
I use the ring of djinni summoning to wish for a girdle of giant strength that gives +10 strength.
Then I dump a bunch of gold on Garth to train Strength, Wisdom particularly, and Toughness. We had ~40,000 gold. I use ~25,000 of it, then sell all my vendor trash to the general store.
Then I turn in Thrundarr's quest to become champion of the arena (I did this before the Tower of Eternal Flames) and then I give the artifact golden gladius I got from the arena championship to the grizzled gladiator in the dwarftown bar. He gives us some training in various melee skills. We also get the backstabbing skill and tactics skill.
Then I equip the girdle of giant strength and take Thrundarr's last quest. He claims a demon has been terrorizing the village and he wants us to slay it. Step outside Thrundarr's house, and oh look, there's a demon. How unusual, almost as if someone summoned it for this quest. *cough*Thrundarr's a jerk*cough*
The greater demon isn't too much trouble. It does drain our wisdom and learning stats a bit, which is bullshit. All it did was cast a spell and woop, there goes some attributes.
Anyway, turning in the quest gets us the artifact lead-filled mace "Big Punch" that deal 8d5+3 damage. Lots of damage dice for a onehanded weapon. We have no skill in maces, but we could train it.
While I'm doing all this, I get our next Corruption. "you thrive on the flesh of Order!" no idea what that does, but we aren't gonna be eating any lawful critters anytime soon. Doesn't seem to hurt us though.
So anyway, we head back to the Tower of Eternal Flames, armed with our new crystal tower shield and the lead filled mace Big Punch. Also I brought every healing potion I had.
The fight against the hordes of fire elementals and fire demons goes much better this time. Thanks to our tower shield, we can actually block attacks again! Eventually the number of monster dwindles and suddenly a force attacks my mind and confuses me. I panic and use a gem of darkness to provide some cover and retreat.
Here's the thing responsible for confusing me.
This guy hurts. He hits multiple times, each hit corrupts, and he can confuse me and blast me with magic. The magic really hurts, dealing 50-100 damage in a single cast.
I pull out my rapier for this. The mace is powerful, but I'm more skilled and accurate with the rapier and need every chance to hit I can get. We can block the wyrm's attacks. Occasionally. It still gets lots of hits and criticals me into 38 hp. I chug a blessed potion of extra healing.
...and that's when my girdle of giant strength is burned away in the heat. SHIT, wasted wish. I've gone from unburdened to strained in a single turn. The one thing I lose in the Tower is the thing I spent my third wish on! Arrrgh!
I get a good hit in on the Chaos Wyrm and it starts panicking. It starts confusing me at point blank range. I get cornered with the chaos wyrm on one side and two fire demons on the other, with no chance to escape.
I chug potions while in coward mode, waiting for an opportunity when I'm not confused or near death so I can use my turn to cast teleport.
There's a chance! I cast teleport! The magic fails! SHITSHITSHITMAGICCANDOTHATOHMAN. I chug more potions!
There's another opportunity to attack the wyrm! I go berserk!
...I did it. And I'm still alive. I have almost no healing pots left but I'm alive, so that's something. I grab the chaos orb of fire and leave the tower as soon as possible. I'm alive! Aaaa~~ I thought I was gonna die to the Chaos Wyrm!
This was a crazy intense fight. I forgot to take screenshots at points, due to me not wanting to die.
Also; http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Archmage
Infinity Plus One Sword, anyone?
I was actually just going to suggest that he do that.
Was thinking of trying this in the future. No way that Urist could do that this game, he has a hard enough time learning frost bolt.