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Completed Blind newfag plays Pool of Radiance!

Angelo85

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
1,569
Location
Deutschland
Nice LP, hope you'll see it through to the end!
rrul8nw3.png


It might hurt in the beginning but trust me, in time it will become much more enjoyable once you gained enough experience.
You write with such passion and excitement about your first time - just by reading it I get that same old familar, warm feeling inside of me. Appreciate it while you can, the first time is always special and replaying won't be the same.

And you are absolutely right: Long and hard ones are indeed the best! Sadly my schedule has become so tight I can hardly fit them in anymore. But when I do, I still prefer the long lasting, rough ones. Seems like eternity to me since I last touched anything like it, I can't even remember if it used any kind of protection!

Aside all of this reminiscing though, I have to admit that as of late I've developed a curious interest in darker settings. Probably just a phase... hopefully. Because I heard from a friend that if you get too involved with those kind of games, they can literally tear you apart.

Personally, I'm just a few hours into my newest game - still in the starting area - and right now it's all nice and dandy. Let's see how the third play session goes though. That's usually when you get to that special encounter. Guess then, after having seen every aspect of the game, it's time to decide if I'll play it a while longer (perhaps it will even turn out that this is the one game I'll play until the finish?) or just go looking for another one.
Besides nowadays there are so many games out there, it's almost ridiculous just to play one game at a time.

/e: also I gotta tell you that I strongly approve of your Avatar choice. Welcome to the brotherhood of midget fetishists Dwarf enthusiasts!
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,519
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
And you are absolutely right: Long and hard ones are indeed the best! Sadly my schedule has become so tight I can hardly fit them in anymore. But when I do, I still prefer the long lasting, rough ones. Seems like eternity to me since I last touched anything like it, I can't even remember if it used any kind of protection!

:hmmm:
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
27,012
And you are absolutely right: Long and hard ones are indeed the best! Sadly my schedule has become so tight I can hardly fit them in anymore. But when I do, I still prefer the long lasting, rough ones. Seems like eternity to me since I last touched anything like it, I can't even remember if it used any kind of protection!

:hmmm:
Dungeon Crawling is all about spelunking and going deep down, news at 11.


PS:
This is the key to understand RPGCodex oldfags.
 

Monstrous Bat

Cipher
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
638
Slums, Part Two

Reload.

u03001.png

Okay, then. Now that most our characters have gained level, we should be able to handle those goblins. Procrastianna memorize some buffing spells.

u03002.png

More rumors.

u03003.png

Before starting the fight, I had Procrastianna cast Bless on our party, lowering everyone's THAC0 by 1 point. I also had her cast Protection From Evil on our frontline fighters.

u03004.png

Go go Codexian!

u03005.png

Ah, a good start.

u03006.png

Grunker casts a Sleep to shut some leaders down.

u03007.png

:rage:

u03008.png

Bee casts another Sleep spell.

u03009.png

Procrastianna heals Grunker with her scroll.

u03010.png

But Grunker was STILL unconscious, despite having full HP. :x

u03011.png

More Sleep spamming. This is our last Sleep spell, though.

u03012.png

u03013.png

Fuck! Those fuckers are hitting us way to often!

u03014.png

Grunker's Sleep spell has worn off.

u03015.png

I sent Bee to melee the goblins in desperation.

u03016.png

u03017.png

Magnus sometimes perform a "sweep" attack, which lets him attack two targets at once. Dunno what triggers it, though. Probably ramdom.

u03018.png

Bee down.

u03019.png

:rage: I was NOT expecting to lose this fight!

Reload.

u03020.png

Let's try again. I gave Bee the AC6 Bracer since we need to keep her alive.

u03021.png

u03022.png

Things are looking good for u--

u03023.png

Nevermind.

Reload.

u03024.png

u03025.png

This time our mages won the initiative. We put all leaders to sleep with two casts of Sleep.

u03026.png

Damn, these goblins are surprisingly tough.

u03027.png

At least most of them are asleep now.

u03028.png

Shit! Shit!

u03029.png

Fortunately, we took out the remaining goblins without too much trouble.

u03030.png

u03031.png

u03032.png

All other goblins were killed in their sleep.

u03033.png

:yeah:

u03034.png

They left lots of junks for us to take.

u03035.png

In fact, there are so many junks we couldn't even carry all of them. Oh well.

u03036.png

What treasure were they guarding anyway?

u03037.png

:yeah:

u03038.png

u03039.png

Some money, a magical shield and a mage scroll. The shield goes to Elwro.

u03040.png

The orcs come next.

u03041.png

We were severely outnumbered in this fight, but we could use the terrain to our advantage. First things first, though, we have to kill the leaders, who were out of Sleep's range. We start the fight by putting some orcs to sleep.

u03042.png

u03043.png

Now we can put the leaders to sleep.

u03044.png

Then we stand behind the sleeping orcs and shoot the awake ones. That's the plan.

u03045.png

u03046.png

u03047.png

Perfect.

u03048.png

u03049.png

I was a little underwhelmed, to be honest.

u03050.png

The loots aren't great either.

u03051.png

The mage scroll we found earlier has a Magic Missile spell on it. Bee scribed it into her spellbook.

u03052.png

Leaders eh?

u03053.png

Our foes were: two hobgoblin leaders, two gnolls and a single ogre. I wonder if Sleep works on them.

u03054.png

:yeah:

u03055.png

The hobgoblin leaders plus one gnoll fell asleep.

u03056.png

Another cast put the ogre to sleep as well.

u03057.png

u03058.png

u03059.png

This fight was even more underwhelming than the last one.

u03060.png

The loots were fairly shit too.

u03061.png

Okay. Only the Rope Guild was left for clearing.

u03062.png

What is this I don't even

u03063.png

:rage: :rage: :rage:
Four trolls and two ogres.

Against a level 2 party.

WITH.SHITTY.STATS.

Mondblut help us.

u03064.png

At least the ogres aren't immune to Sleep.

u03065.png

u03066.png

Trolls got 1d3 attacks per round, each one hits for 5-8 points of damage. And they never seems to miss.

Codexian Trolls:0
D&D Trolls:1

Reload.

u03067.png

This time Procrastinna will buff the party up before the fight starts.

u03068.png

:yeah:

u03069.png

Because of the narrow corrior and large size of trolls, the other trolls can't get to us. The fighters got their bows out; maybe we can shoot the trolls to death.

u03070.png

Ugh. Sleep on the ogres has worn off, and we haven't even taken out one troll due to our shitty THAC0 and their popamole regenerating HP.

u03071.png

u03072.png

Codexian Trolls:0
D&D Trolls:2

Reload.

u03073.png

I decided to forget the trolls for the time being and focus on mapping out the Rope Guild. We ran into this guy in some random house.

u03074.png

u03075.png

:yeah:

u03076.png

Hmmm... Moar money, please?

u03077.png

This was his answer.

Our enemy is... One level 3 mage, two orc leaders, half a dozen orcs, and about five thousand hobgoblins.
:rage:

u03078.png

The mage is pretty retarded, though. I mean, what kind of retard would choose to cast fucking Magic Missile over Sleep or Stinking Cloud?

u03079.png

Grunker casts a Sleep on the hobgoblins. Maybe we can win this fight with a few more casts of Sleep from Bee.

u03080.png

Ah. Reload.

u03081.png

Fuck. This dude has three times as many HP as Bee.

u03082.png

Two arrows from Grunker and Elwro took him out, though. :incline:

u03083.png

u03084.png

We put one orc leader to sleep and killed the other one with arrows.

u03085.png

u03086.png

Well, it's about time I explain to you how Sleep works in this game. It affects creatures in a 3x3 area. In addition, it only affect a certain amount of total hit dice. For example, orcs are 1 HD monsters, so one cast of Sleep is enough to put 9 of them to sleep. Hobgoblins, on the other hand, have 2 HD, so Sleep was only half as effective as it is against orcs. :decline:

u03087.png

u03088.png

u03089.png

Fuck. Too many monsters. We can't kill them before Sleep wears off.

u03090.png

A (G)uarding character will attack the first hostile creature who enters his melee range. Useful in certain circumstances.

u03091.png

u03092.png

u03093.png

My god, there are way too many hobgoblins here. Note that Bee was hiding behind a wall in the third image. That's because she has ran out of darts.

u03096.png

I sent Bee into melee in desperation.

u03097.png

I ask you, my fellow Codexian: do you know how shitty it feels to spend 20 minutes on a single epic battle, only to lose after you have killed more than 90% of the enemy?

u03098.png

I ASK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

RELOAD!

u03099.png

FINE, FINE! HERE'S YOUR FUCKING POTION. NOW GIVE US OUR REWARD AND GO FUCK YOURSELF!

u03100.png

u03101.png

Our reward. The ring is another Ring of Protection +1 which goes to Procrastianna.

u03102.png

Incidentally, Procrastianna and Kezerilla are eligible for another levelup.

u03103.png

u03104.png

Their latest character sheets.

u03105.png

I finally decided to follow octavius' advice and hire a hero.

u03106.png

My god. Octavius was right; this guy will be tremendously useful to us.

u03107.png

Procrastianna has gained access to level 2 cleric spells. Hold Person is probably the most useful spell among them.

u03108.png

We also bought some flasks of oil to help us in the troll fight.

u03109.png

Flask of oil does decent amount of damage when it hits. Their range is utterly shit, though.

u03110.png

Note the hero's HP. He started with 35. After 2 rounds of combat he was left with 6. That's how much damage a troll can deal.

u03111.png

u03112.png

u03113.png

Much violence was had.

u03114.png

Two trolls down, but most our guys were dead too.

u03115.png

Codexian Trolls:0
D&D Trolls:3

Reload.

u03116.png

u03117.png

u03118.png

u03119.png

Oh hey, we took out three of them this time! Only one lef--

u03120.png

I didn't take a screenshot of it, but one of the dead troll suddenly "stands up and grins". You can take my words for it.

...So, you mean we have to fight 4 uber monsters, each of them being able to dish out ~10 points of damage per round, are nigh impossible to kill, and resurrects after you have killed them?

:rage::rage::rage:

Sorry bros. I couldn't keep my words. I WAS going to clear out the slums in this update, but that troll fight... If that fucking troll fight is even possible for our party without shittons of savescumming I'd be pretty surprised. No, I will do the other blocks first and come back later, after Bee has gained access to level 2 spells. Stinking Cloud would take care of them, at least I think it would.

Fuck you and good night.
 

Elwro

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
11,746
Location
Krakow, Poland
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2
My memory is veeery hazy here, but couldn't you use the flasks when the trolls are down to prevent them from regenerating?
 

Monstrous Bat

Cipher
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
638
I didn't even know this game keeps track of monster corpses.:(

(Not that it matters - we can't defeat the trolls even if they don't have that auto-resurrect ability.)
 

GarfunkeL

Racism Expert
Joined
Nov 7, 2008
Messages
15,463
Location
Insert clever insult here
Standing on top of them helps or burning them with flasks of oil or fireball. Or if you finish the fight quickly enough. You can have 2 NPCs with you, by the way. But you're correct, there are easier places to explore.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
Mondblut help us.
Quick, create a temporary 18/00 18 18 18 18 18 character and delete it while offering a prayer to the Maxed-Out One, I hear that helps to gain his favor :P
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
I admire your attitude and optimism. :salute:

The fight against the trolls are doable with less than perfect specimens in your party.
The key is two Heroes and one Stinking Cloud. By clever use of your assets and not bad luck with the dice rolls you can finish off the trolls before they regenerate.

If you still wonder about Sweeping: no, it's not random. A Fighter type character can "sweep" one weak (less than 1 Hit Dice) monster for each of his character levels. Very useful against kobolds and goblins. Even their leaders are considered "weal".
 

Monstrous Bat

Cipher
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
638
Kuto's Well

Reload.

u04001.png

Let's explore the block to the west of the slums.

u04002.png

A new kind of monster!

u04003.png

Lizardmen are strong. They have 4 AC, 11 HP, can attack up to 3 times a round and have good accuracy. Sleep works on them, but due to their high level it will only affect 2 of them at a time.

u04004.png

Lizardmen give good XP but don't leave any treasure when killed. Oh well.

u04005.png

Kobolds in this block appear in larger numbers. But they were still kobolds.

u04006.png

Hold Person will paralyze up to 3 creatures if they failed the saving throw. It only works on humanoids, though, so we can't use it on the trolls.

u04007.png

Killing the kobolds barely earned us any XP.

u04008.png

u04009.png

u04010.png

But that's enough for our fighters to level up again.

u04011.png

Another fixed encounter?

u04012.png

Bah. Kobolds? They were no threat to us two levels ago.

u04013.png

The reward was also shit.

u04014.png

Wait! Another fight occured as soon as the last one ended.

u04015.png

Turns out it was just some more kobolds.

u04016.png

:m

u04017.png

u04018.png

u04019.png

We could climb into the well but I decided against it. We shall finish exploring this block first.

u04020.png

Another fixed encounter.

u04021.png

And here's our enemy: a single lizardman and two giant lizards.

u04022.png

We paralyze the lizardman and put the lizards to sleep.

u04023.png

That's easier than I had expected.

u04024.png

The lizardman was guarding this door.

u04025.png

u04026.png

Hmmm... An unholy pool? Could she be referring to the famous Pool of Radiance?

u04027.png

u04028.png

I tried talking with them. Maybe we can get some information out of them.

u04029.png

Another reference to the pool. I bet this pool is important.

u04030.png

Let's question them some more.

u04031.png

:decline:

Oh well. I'm feeling merciful today, so we will let them go.

u04032.png

The kobolds were very grateful. And they should be, because any other Codexian would have killed them without hesitation.

u04033.png

u04034.png

Huh? There's another 1x1 room in the northwest corner of map, but this time I couldn't find a way in no matter what.

u04035.png

Damn, that was a really boring block. I wish the well is more intersting.

u04036.png

u04037.png

Message in the second image was just flavour. There was no fight and we didn't actually take any damage.

u04038.png

u04039.png

The figure appeared two more times as we explored the well.

u04040.png

We ran into this... dude in the well. Natually, we chose to fight.

u04041.png

:rage:
Well, 25 HP wasn't that bad, but look at his AC.

u04042.png

Fuck. Shouldn't have focused fire on Norris, he's nearly impossible to hit. Reload.

u04043.png

One cast of Sleep from Grunker put 6 kobold leaders plus 1 lizardman to sleep. Procrastianna followed up with a Hold Person spell.

u04044.png

:yeah:

u04045.png

Another Sleep spell put even more monsters to sleep.

u04046.png

Our enemy are either paralyzed or dead.

u04047.png

u04048.png

:yeah:

u04049.png

Norris' gang dropped lots of junk, among which we found a magical longsword which goes to Magnus (who will sell his 2-handed sword and get a shield when we are back in the city).

u04050.png

Entry 50

An official looking notice
'Assemble a group of at least 30 of your followers. Meet up with a hobgoblin assault force at the small docks to the west of town. You and your group will be under the command of the hobgoblin leader. Follow his orders. Upon completion of the mission you will be rewarded with food, treasure, and many slaves.'
Signed,
The Boss
Scribbled on the back of these orders is Norris the Gray's unsent reply to The Boss
'I will never follow the orders of a hobgoblin. I don't go on missions until I know exactly what we're supposed to do. And I don't go on missions for an unknown amount of 'food, treasure, and slaves.' I do go on missions where I am in command; where I know exactly what the target is; and where I know exactly how much I'll get paid. Don't snd me another order until you can meet my terms.'
Signed,
Norris the Gray
I thought Norrios was a hobgoblin himself. :retarded: I also got the feeling that we will run into this "hobgoblin assault force" sooner or later.

u04051.png

u04052.png

:yeah:

u04053.png

This secret door was actually just a shortcut to the entrance.

u04054.png

u04055.png

:yeah:

u04056.png

These gems should sell for a tidy profit.

u04057.png

Bee finally has enough experience for level 3. She learned her first level 2 spell: Stinking Cloud.

u04058.png

Grunker gained a mage level as well. His new spell will be Enlarge. I don't think we will ever even use this spell but to be honest, level 1 mage spells are almost all useless.

u04059.png

u04060.png

u04061.png

Kezerilla is level 4 already. She will probably hit the level cap before long.

u04062.png

Now that we have access to Stinking Cloud, we are finally capable of taking on the trolls.

u04063.png

:rage: I thought this spell creates a 3x3 cloud!

u04064.png

Creatures in the Stinking Cloud must make a saving throw every turn. If they failed the roll, they become helpless. This is probably the best mass disabling spell in this game; too bad only a single troll was caught in it.

u04065.png

I was actually surprised that monsters won't walk into Stinking Clouds. The AI was not quite as stupid as I have thought. Reload.

u04066.png

This time we put the ogres to sleep first. Then we killed a troll, and the remaining trolls are in a formation in which they can all be affected with a single cast of Stinking Cloud.

u04067.png

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WERE ALL OF THE RANGE OF THAT SPELL???
:rage: :rage:

Reload.

u04068.png

This is as good a result as we can get. Stinking Cloud has very short range.

u04069.png

Elven mage killing a troll in melee. Not a scene you can see every day.

u04070.png

Only one left.

u04071.png

We prepare ourselves for the upcoming onslaught...

u04072.png

...But instead of charging at us, the last troll panicked and tried to flee. But he had nowhere to run to.

u04073.png

He just cowered in the corner as we filled him with arrows. Not the best way to die.

u04074.png

The Codex giveth, and the Codex taketh away. In this case, however, the Codex just taketh.

u04075.png

u04076.png

The awl pike was an Awl Pike +2 (our first +2 weapon, woohoo!). Awl pikes are two-handed weapons that does shitty damage. Despite its high enchantment, we still won't be using it, because its damage is just too bad. We won't be selling it either, though, because it might come in handy in case we need a reach weapon.

u04077.png

u04078.png

u04079.png

We were rewarded for killing Norris the Gray...

u04080.png

u04081.png

u04082.png

...As well as clearing out the slums.

u04083.png

The clerk also assigned us a new quest.

u04084.png

The magical ring we found in the troll loots turned out to be a Ring of Invisibility. Might be useful.

u04085.png

u04086.png

Finally, Procrastianna advanced to level 4 and Elwro gained another thief level.


DUNGEON MAPS (Thanks Damned Registrations for the dungeon mapping tool!)

Slums:
SLUMS.png

(The stairs are actually portals to other blocks)

Kuto's Well, Outside:
WELLOUTSIDE.png


Kuto's Well, Inside:
WELLINSIDE.png



QUESTION TIME
I still cannot into backstabbing. If I understand correctly, the backstabber must strike from the exact opposite of the first creature who attacked the target in this turn, and a backstabbing attack must be an "attack from behind". Am I correct?
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,519
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
I believe so. And reach weaponry? No such thing in gold-box games. You have melee weapons and ranged weapons and that's it AFAIR.
 

GarfunkeL

Racism Expert
Joined
Nov 7, 2008
Messages
15,463
Location
Insert clever insult here
Yeah, reach isn't coded at all.

Backstabbing requires two characters to attack the enemy, then a third can attack directly behind the first one, to qualify. Though in PoR it is possible to backstab any- and everything, including dragons. HINT HINT.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
Even though that Awl Pike +2 doesn't do a lot of damage, it's valuable due to the increased chance of actually hitting.
And that Ring of Invisibility should be very useful to your thief or mage. If they are invisible thay can move at will without risking opportunity attacks (unless they meet a rare monster which can see invisisble) and can't be targeted directly with spells or missile weapons.

Backstabbing requires two characters to attack the enemy, then a third can attack directly behind the first one, to qualify. Though in PoR it is possible to backstab any- and everything, including dragons. HINT HINT.

Yeah, Pool of Radiance has somewhat different rules than later Gold Box games.
In later games the first, not second, attack from behind is a backstab, but you can only backstab single hex monsters.
So backstabbing is not very useful in PoR, both because it's more difficult to be in a position to do it, but also because the backstab modifier is rather small. In Curse of the Azure bonds OTOH it's highly useful.

And thieves can wear Studded Leather in the later games.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
I once backstabbed the Big Bad and since my thief was level-capped by then, I did pretty good damage. The fight was quite easy after I accidentally managed that.

In Bane of the Cosmic Forge my thief used to backstab Slimes and Jellyfish. o_O
 

Monstrous Bat

Cipher
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
638
Sokal Keep

Reload.

u05001.png

All right, then. Sokal Keep comes next!

u05002.png

u05003.png

The ship at Passenger Docks took us to there for free.

u05004.png

We found the skeleton of some elf near the gates. Let's search a bit.

u05005.png

u05006.png

Oh.

The scroll was written in Elven language. To read the scroll we have to use the Translation Wheel which was included in the game package. This works both as a copy protection and as a translation minigame. I'll spare you the details. The scroll was translated into:
LUX
SAMOSUD
SHESTNI

...Huh? That doesn't make any sense.

u05007.png

Undeads? I don't the lesser undeads can even talk, but still, we shall try talking with them.

u05008.png

Uhhh... Maybe one of the words on the scroll would work? LUX!

u05009.png

:rage:

u05010.png

Thankfully, skeletons and zombies are weak, and there weren't many of them. And Procrastianna can (T)urn undeads.

u05011.png

I'm not sure how exactly does turning work in this game. I know it makes undeads flee, but that's about it.

u05012.png

Did I mention that Attack of Opporunity was present in this game? Leaving a hostile creature's threat range provokes an AoO from that creature. You can move around as long as you are still in his threat range, though. Spellcasting does not provoke AoOs, and neither does using a ranged weapon (because you can't even use any ranged weapons when you are in the melee range of a hostile creature). We got many free attacks on the undeads as the attempted to flee from us.

u05013.png

Piss easy.

u05014.png

Some random image of our party exploring the dungeon.

u05015.png

Telling the undeads "SAMOSUD" did nothing, but "SHESTNI" makes them go away. :yeah:

u05016.png

u05017.png

Oh, so we don't have to type SHESTNI every time we run into a group of undeads? Very considerate! :incline:

u05018.png

u05019.png

These froggies didn't seem to be friendly to us.

u05020.png

They were really weak, though, with only 4 HP and pretty bad THAC0.

u05021.png

Piss easy.

u05022.png

Of course we do!

u05023.png

:yeah:

Sadly, it was just a Hammer +1. We won't use it, but it would fetch a good price at shops.

u05024.png

Damn. I was hoping to find something useful here.

u05025.png

An ambush!

u05026.png

:rage:
My god, this is like that Ohlo fight but with even more monsters. On the other hand, we are now much more powerful than we were when we fought Ohlo, so we might have a chance here.

u05027.png

I sent Grunker in to put some orcs to sleep.

u05028.png

Shit... I probably shouldn't have put someone as squishy as Grunker on the front line. Bee casts another Sleep spell on the hobgoblins.

u05029.png

The hobgoblins managed to land a few blows on Grunker, bringing him dangerously low. I sent Kezerilla to the frontline to soak up some damage for Grunker. That's all she's useful for anyway.

u05030.png

Thanks god we have 4 casts of Sleep in total.

u05031.png

:rage:
Bee has enough HP to survive one arrow from the orc leader, but that fucker got a double-shot and took Bee out. She had already depleted her spells before, though.

u05032.png

This is our last Sleep spell. Only 3 leaders were affected by it, but the last one would run out of arrow pretty soon anyway.

u05033.png

You might be wondering why I'm wasting arrows on killing helpless creatures. It's because ranged weapons like shortbows sometimes let you make two attacks in a single round (the manual says that you can make two attacks every turn but I think it's actually random - more often than not I only get one attack with bows).

u05034.png

u05035.png

After we have killed ~15 monsters, the remaining monsters started to surrender.

u05036.png

That was much easier than I had thought. Half of them were killed in their sleep and the other half just surrendered.

u05037.png

They left us with a lot of equipments, none of which are magical.

u05038.png

Entry 57
A ratty piece of parchment with large writing on one side.
'Our spies in the city inform us that a party of invaders will travel to Sokal Keep to free it. To combat these invaders, assemble a force of no less than three squads. Travel by boat from the small docks at the west of town to Thorn Island. Move undetected to Sokal Keep. Find the adventurers in or around Sokal Keep. Kill them before they can return to the city council with information about the true situation at the keep. Return with the invader's heads as proof of completion of your mission. Upon completion you will be rewarded with food, treasure, and many slaves.'
Signed,
The Boss
They knew we were coming to Sokal Keep? :eek:Damn, seems like we have attracted The Boss' attention. Still, if he want us dead, he should probably send more powerful minions here. I mean, I got through that battle without even reloading once.

u05039.png

Rather than continue exploring the keep, we went back to the city to get some rest. The scroll we found in the troll loots has two level 3 mage spells on it.

u05040.png

Back to the keep, we ran into some giant scorpions.

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They were pretty tough.

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A single cast of Stinking Cloud shuts them down, though.

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Piss easy.

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This room was empty.

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This one, on the other hand, was not.

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u05047.png

Ghosts? I wonder if the passwords works on them...

u05048.png

SAMOSUD did nothing, but LUX did the trick.

u05049.png

u05050.png

u05051.png

Entry 3
An old leather-bound book, written with a small, firm hand.
'The hordes came again last night. Their coordination was frightening. Under the cover of darkness, goblins and kobolds pushed bundles of sticks to within bow range. There bundles formed a wall that protected the small ones from our archers. Once the wall was erected orc archers took up saft positions there and begin pelting the castle walls with arrows.
'We tried shooting flaming arrows at the wall of sticks to set it afire. Monsters are normally afraid of fire. But these monsters showed no fear. They simply scooped dirt on the flames to put them out. Before all the fires were out they had resumed firing at us. Surely, some unnatural force must have been at work to welf these quarlsome beasts into an organized fighting force.
'I do not know if we can combat the monsters onslaught much longer. We lost 12 more men last night. The monsters seem to have an unlimited number of reinforcements. The Last Priest of Tyr, Ferrann Martinez, says that he has a way to protect the keep, but he says that it's so terrible that it may only be used as a last resort. Unless we receive reinforcements shortly, Ferrann Martinez is our only hope.'
...So it was a priest of Tyr who bound the ghosts to this place? :eek:Shit, I guess they were really desperate at that time. I don't think Raise Dead was an aligned spell in AD&D, but I don't think a priest of a lawful good god normally binds the souls of dead people to make them fight. I wonder if this priest dude also created these skeletons and zombies?

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Yes, we do. I hope the ghosts won't mind.

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They didn't.

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Finally, behind the heavily-guarded gate we found what seemed like a temple.

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If LUX let us talk with the previous group of ghosts, it should let us talk with this guy, too.

u05058.png

No. Phlan was conquered and pillaged. And Sokal Keep was occupied by orcs and hobgoblins and your undeads did jack shit. And those bound by your spell hated you. And Bethesda fucked up Fallout 3.

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There was a secret door in the armoury? Shit, I should've known that.

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:bounce: Magical equipments?!

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:yeah: Magical equipments!

u05066.png

A Shield +1, a Longsword +1, a Chainmail +1, and a Mace +2.
:bounce:
The shield goes to Grunker. The mace goes to Procrastianna. We will sell the longsword and the chainmail once we are back in Phlan.

u05067.png

Actually there were still skeletons and zombies in the keep, but the council apparently doesn't care.

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:yeah:

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You know, finding your precious family treasure would be so much easier if you would tell us what it actually is. :roll:

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Lastly, all of our fighters have gained a level.

Ha! I've completed an update without suffering a single TPK! I bet you didn't see this coming:smug:

DUNGEON MAPS

Sokal Keep:
SOKALKEEP.png
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
27,012
Ha! I've completed an update without suffering a single TPK! I bet you didn't see this coming:smug:
:thumbsup:
 

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