The death counter reads Scoti 18, Basket 5 as Team B.S. heads back into the Zepharin Sands palace. They think the basement is the last part they haven't done. "The left is always right." It isn't. Silverfish come at them on the way down, the slave quarters turn up 45 leather, and a spare sword gets passed over as a backup. They grab the wheat too, for a cow farm they've been talking about.
The floor is lava
A sign reads "Throne of the Pharaoh," and another says to explore the rest of the area and collect some decent gear before going any further. They drop the loose stuff in a chest and go on carefully. Past a gravel corridor there's the sound of lava under the floor, three odd andesite pillars, and bedrock. "The floor is lava." They lay a layer of blocks over it anyway, and it starts crumbling under them. Creeper spawners sit in the side walls, and they get through with headroom cut out so they can run.
Read the signs
At the end is a scary-looking throne and a room full of story signs. This is the first boss fight. The Zepharin Pharaoh is not pleased about how they've treated the servants. Bosses don't drop crystals: a box with the crystal appears in the air in the middle of the room once the boss is dead. The book in the chest explains the rest. Three stone obelisks make the Pharaoh invulnerable. Pressing a button on one switches it off for a short time, and only with all three off can the Pharaoh be hurt. There are hints too: watch chat, sounds and visual cues, look for shrines that give buffs, and if a fight seems impossible, "you need to rethink your strategy." The chest also holds saturation potions.
Remembering how they split up against Protox in Ragecraft 2, they plan to stay together this time and loop the obelisks in order like a racetrack.
Round one
"Zepharin Pharaoh. Prepare for battle!" The room is ringed with lava and fire. "I am immortal! Rise my scarabs!" brings silverfish. A tower has a buff on top, resistance for two minutes.
Obelisk 1 goes down, then Obelisk 2, and then Basket ends up in the lava. "BasketMC tried to swim in lava." Everything Basket carried is gone. "I made a poor choice." The Pharaoh announces it must go back to its throne, and they work out the obelisks seem to reset, maybe when someone crosses the threshold.
Round two, and a broken potion
Basket restocks from the chests and comes back with boots that give a little speed. This time the Pharaoh turns vulnerable, but it has thorns and no health bar to show how it's doing. Charged creepers lurk behind the giant pillars around the outside. One of them drops to three and a half hearts and has to heal up. Stopping to eat while sprinting around costs time, so they try to turn the saturation potions into splash potions with gunpowder. Both come out as nothing. "We broke the potion of saturation."
Round three
They run the order again: one, two, three. "Obelisk 3 has been deactivated." A pickup gives jump boost and speed, and then it falls apart. "Scoti_Garbidis was slain by Spider." Basket tries to retreat and doesn't make it: "BasketMC was slain by Zepharin_Pharaoh." The Pharaoh is still standing. The episode ends at Scoti 19, Basket 7, with the monument at 2 of 16 crystals and 2 of 12 emerald blocks.
