With the defeat of Teo, Mathiu suggests we take this opportunity to attack the Fortress of Lorimar. You won't have to fight an army battle here, so go ahead and agree. When the party arrives, Lorimar has already been abandoned...Viktor and Cleo will be required in your party to scout the area.
Exit out to the world map, then reenter Lorimar, and you will find Kirke near the graves. Talk with him and ask him to join your party. The destination is the Warrior's Village, but first, let's do a few side things. You'll want to venture to Qlon Temple, that is the western-most dot on your Suiko Map.
Inside the temple, you will find Morgan in the back. Invite him to join your party and he will.
To the left-hand side of where Morgan was, search the bookcase for the Old Book Vol. 3.
You may have talked to Quincy back at the Fortress of Garan earlier in the game. Once you recruit Morgan, and have all of the Stars of Destiny before him, you will have enough recruits for Quincy to join your army now.
Out on the world map now, we've got a couple of rare items to look for. First, is the Master Robe, dropped by the Sorcerer enemy. This is the best robe-type armor in the game (IE: Sylvina, Hellion, Liukan). It also grants a modest +5 HP regen every turn. At the end of the game, you will be able to buy this armor, but this is your first chance to acquire it.
Then there is the rather rare-encountered Whip Wolf enemy. They drop the precious Resurrection Rune. Later, you will acquire a character that comes equipped with one (Non-removable), but other than that character, you will never find this rune any other way than dropped by the Whip Wolf. It is a rune much like Fire, Water, ect. but comes with both offensive and healing spells; including one that can raise characters that have fallen in battle. When you are ready, head towards the Warrior's Village which is south of Lorimar. Watch the scenes inside and let's recruit a few new characters.
Old moneybags Marco from Rockland has relocated to the Warrior's Village, apparently. Play his mini-game again and win 5,000 bits from him and he will join your army. Once he joins, you can play this game for money anytime at your castle.
In the house in the north-east part of town you will find the blacksmith, Moose. With Maas, Meese, and Mose in your party, he will join as well. Moose is an important recruit as you will now be able to sharpen to your weapons all the way to lvl 15.
Our next character is Zen, who is back in Qlon. Before that, visit the item store in Warrior's Village and buy the Red Flower Seeds. Then, return to your castle and buy the Blue and Yellow Flower Seeds from your item shop. If they aren't there, you'll need to buy them from the Rikon and Teien item shops. Take all three seed items to Zen and he will join your party. Unfortunately, he adds nothing to your castle. Once you have Zen, head back to Warrior's Village and speak to the chief, Zorak, in his house. Watch the scenes and the next morning head outside and Neclord will have arrived to take Tengaar away. You will engage him in battle, but it absolutely cannot be won under any circumstances; just let him deplete all your characters HP and the story will continue.
To defeat Neclord, it looks like we will need a special weapon. Zorak will point the party towards Qlon Temple where some kind of secret is said to be held. Head off towards Qlon and enter the temple and speak to Fukien whom will open the entrance to the Cave of the Past as well as join your party. Fukien is a solid mage that comes with the Resurrection Rune you may have picked up a little bit ago on the world map. When you are ready, enter the cave in the back of the temple.
This dungeon is a bit more complicated than the simple ones that have come before it. Upstairs from the floor you begin on, you will find your first Crimson Cape. This is the best defense-based accessory in the game that all characters can equip. It is only superseded by one you will find later that is unique to Kuromimi and Gon.
In the path to the northeast, will be two chests: one containing a Flowing Rune. This is an upgraded version of the Water Rune and replaces the initial Water Rune spell, Kindness Drops, with a new lvl 4 spell, Mother Ocean. Besides the Resurrection Rune's Yell, Mother Ocean is the only spell in the game that can revive a fallen character. Since you have Mega Medicine to use for a single character, go ahead and swap out any Water Rune you have for Flowing.
In the southern end of this area, look for the area that is pictured above; there is a hidden path through here that will lead to...
The Window Crystal which will allow you to recruit another character.
After going down a flight of stairs, look for the chest containing the War Scroll in the northeast part of the floor. This is also used to recruit a character. At this point, I elected to leave to heal up and recruit the characters we just got items for.
Back inside the Qlon Temple, the librarian Hugo will join your party after handing over the War Scroll to him. Take your Old Book items you have acquired to him in your castle and you will be able to read them.
At the item shop in Warrior's Village, Window will join your army by giving him the Window Crystal. At your castle, give him any Window Sets you have and he will change the visual and color of your dialogue and menu boxes. Unfortunately, just like with the Sound Sets, there is a bug where your window setting may revert to the default one when you load your game.
Back inside the Cave of the Past, let's look at a few rare drops here. The Red Elementals carry Speed Rune Pieces. You can farm these as much as you want to raise a character's speed stat permanently and Red Elementals are your only source for these in the game.
The other rare item is carried by the Banshee and is the Landscape Painting. You cannot get this antique anywhere else but here.
The last chest to look out for in the Cave of the Past is the Skill Rune Piece. You found one earlier in the game, and this is the second, and last, one you can acquire. Not too long after finding this chest, you will reach the end of the cave. Unfortunately, we have a bit of a test before we will be allowed to take the sword...
The party is warped to the distant past where they will meet a much younger Ted. Watch the scenes as Windy, Neclord, and Yuber torch the town.
If you walk near the water here, the party's status will be restored.
Before you enter the light and return to the present, walk back around to the area where you made your escape with Ted and pick up the chest with the Boar Rune in it. This is your only chance to open this chest.
Inside two of the burned houses, you will find a Mega Medicine and Champion's Rune. These chests are also missable. The Champion's Rune will allow you to explore without enemies that have the "Let Go" command in battle be encountered. This is for sale back in Warrior's Village, but at a ridiculous price.
Pass through the light and Viktor will obtain the Star Dragon Sword as his own (His previous sword's status and rune piece will carry over). Now we can go after Neclord. Return to Warrior's Village and watch the scenes with Zorak and then head towards Neclord's Castle which is due south. At the castle entrance, Hix will join your party and you will venture inside to save Tengaar. Before going further, I highly suggest returning to your castle and sharpening Hix's weapon and buying new equipment for him; Neclord's Castle can be a rough dungeon.
Within the castle, there is a zombie that will sell you hints. If you choose the priciest option, you will get an amusing scene where Viktor will force him to repay you for his lousy advice.
As for rare drops in Neclord's Castle, first is the Star Earrings accessory carried by the Hell Unicorn. You may have seen one of these permanently equipped to Eileen. It gives the same +5 HP regen as a Water Rune Piece with a slight defense boost, but can only be equipped by females. Can be useful on the right character, with the right setup, but I generally don't use these, however, being dropped by the Hell Unicorn is the only way to get one.
Then we have the Blue Dragon Urn and Fine Bone China antiques dropped by the Larvae enemy. Both of these can only be acquired from this enemy and the Fine Bone China can be an absolute pain in the ass to get. It's your only option, though.
Not too far into the castle, you will run into a puzzle involving paintings. In case you were wondering, Onil back at your castle actually has the answer for this! Examine the tree painting (3), then the one of the girl in the afternoon (2), followed by the peasant girl (4), and finally the painting of Neclord (1) and a passage will open to the next floor.
You will encounter a room with coffins about midway through the dungeon. If you examine the upper-right coffin, you can actually use it as an inn. Highly recommended; even though creepy.
With no other noteworthy things in this dungeon, you will encounter Neclord at the top.
The first round of the battle, have all your characters defend, except for Viktor, who should attack Neclord with his sword; this will allow him to be normally damaged by all your other characters. The battle can be nasty if Neclord chooses to repeatedly use his spells that hit the entire party. Just make sure you have a Water/Flowing Rune ready with Rain or Water of Kindness to counter this and you should be fine.
As Neclord is defeated, watch the scenes, and then search for a hidden chest containing a Rage Rune that is below the stairs and behind the stained-glass window. The Rage Rune is the fire elemental upgrade like the Flowing Rune was to water. It replaces the Flaming Arrows spell with the devastating lvl 4 spell, Final Flame. Before exiting the castle, take anything off of Viktor you think you may need as he will be leaving the party for a while. At the entrance, Tengaar will join your party and Viktor will part ways to visit his homeland that Neclord destroyed. When you are ready to advance the story, use the Blinking Mirror to return to your castle.
