This dungeon ended up being loaded with millions of gold and some insane loot. I ended up being rather shocked by just how rewarding this place was. Even more so since I ended up getting some rare resistance boosts as well. This place would end up spending me off towards the end game on a good footing.

Temple of Bark ended up being a dungeon I've attempted to gain access to in the past. With how all over the place the key system is in World of Xeen. I’m even shocked now that I finally hold the key to it.

I had now been sitting on the key for a little while. Other matters ended up grabbing my attention. I ended up being around the area of the dudgeon itself so I felt it was just time to get it off my list of stuff I wanted to check out.

This place would end up being a bit like a maze. Along with having some mazes along the way. It was another five-level dungeon. The final level is about the size of the first tour levels and in the shape of a giant tree.

There were also quite a few people being held prisoner here. I was however disappointed by the fact they only rewarded me with 25k experience for each one I freed. I had hoped I'd get further rewards from doing so once I was done with this dungeon. As at this point that is such a pitiful amount of experience it was not worth the effort.

I ended up finding a ledger of goods bought inside. This one however was quite a strange one. The people who own this dungeon buy lots of skulls, shovels, and vials. I was on the lookout for something sinister going on.

The orc guards on the first floor ended up not being much of an issue for me. They were easy enough I decided to fully explore the area and found some might and perception boosts. Perception for my cleric feels like it’s been a stat hard to find. I just feel like I'm always having to rest just to recover his mana.

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The second floor ended up feeling rather short. Outside of a couple of guards to take out. I ended up finding three chambers that were filled with stat boost potions. I was otherwise quickly done with this floor and found myself at the stairs to the next floor in record time.

The biggest thing to note was a bit of a trap. There was a section where I could increase all stats on a character. It however would age that character by ten years. Since I have long had the fountain of youth unlocked, I felt like that was a fair trade-off.

The third floor was almost like an option to explore it if I wanted. I ended up turning right once I got onto it. I found the stairs to the next floor looking right back at me after a couple of steps. I however felt like I'd be missing out if I did not at least explore the rest of the floor.

I ended up finding a couple more people to reaccuse. I also found an NPC called Shaalth who attempted to act like he wanted to stop all hostile actions. I should not have drunk the tea as it poisoned my group. He then sent a bunch of guards after me.

Like the guards, the poison was soon cured. Tricking my group was an act of bad faith. I will never forget or forgive such an action. The rest of the dungeon should be fearful of me now for the scorched earth policy I'd have for the remainder of the place.

The fourth floor ended up having a little maze in the middle of it. Around the edges of the map were these dials. They had to be set to the correct numbers before I could move forward.

Like any dungeon. Some context clues were leading up to this point. The solution ended up being rather easy with the combinations being west 1, north 2, and east 3.

The fifth and final floor of this dungeon ended up being where the real fun was. There was a rather cryptic hint about needing to feed the roots and limbs of the tree. Around the top and lower section of the dungeon, I ended up finding some skulls that I could give some gems to.

Here I made a rather annoying mistake. I fed each of the skulls once and thought that was all the requirement was. However, no doors ended up opening up for me to reveal my rewards.

I then went around a second time thinking perhaps I missed a skull. I gave them all gems again. Yet again nothing. So I decided to head back up to the north section of the dungeon for one final attempt.

The skulls in the two sections of this floor ended up behaving a little differently. The ones in the north section if you feed each one enough, they would break. The owners on the southern lower section if you feed them till, they make a funny sound you are done.

Thankfully each time I fed a gem to a skull it was only one gem. The top section ended up giving me access to some decent loot. Including over 2 million gold out of one of the chests. The bottom section ended up being some massive resistance boosts of up to 50 for each of the types per character.

Final Thoughts

I for once found myself in need of a bit of a break from running the dungeon. I found myself loaded down with millions of gold. Along with my inventory being almost full of loot from this dungeon. Despite all this rather short-term wealth, I'd soon be back to not having enough gold to make repairs.

I kind of wish I had put most of the gold in the bank and allowed it to collect interest. That was one thing I ended up being far too lazy about in World of Xeen. Instead of having loads of gold in my time of needing it for leveling up. I was constantly running my next dungeon just to afford to train a couple more levels.

I had also found a few more obsidian items. While mostly capes and cloaks. Where that item's lot on my characters would be the first one for them all to have an obsidian item in it. All of these obsidian items were getting rather costly to repair anytime they broke in battle.

At the very least. This dungeon gave a massive boost to my resistance. Along with quite a lot of AC gained from all the item upgrades I acquired. Even my casters now who were getting quite high up there in level could face tank some nasty damage while also dealing out their own even higher damage.

Things were slowly coming along. That would end up being something that was needed. As I was now nearing the hardest parts of the game. While there would be some easy dungeons left unrun since they were not required. I still had so much left and a rather confusing part of the game coming up.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic IV And V World of Xeen.