Shoelip said:
Though you fail miserably at 3.5 D&D rules
That reminds me, if any of you guys should ever see me writing bull please feel free to correct me. I wouldn't want to be the one spreading false rumors.
Anyways, cleansing is complete. Let's bring it on!
On Emridy Meadows: Walking with the undead
'It is still unknown why our deceased often tend to rise again to cause us harm. Sure you can say that, in a world filled with magic and mystery, everything is possible but as a man of science I never thought of this answer to be particularly satisfying. I therefore collected many theories over the course of my studies ranging from local myths to insane babbling. [...]The most interesting theory I came across was that the undead are in reality nothing but empty husks reanimated by the spirits of dead heroes and great adventurers who still lust for the experience to kill. Of course, the first time I heard it, I dismissed it as a wild presumption. Now that I'm more familiar with this branch of trade I must admit that I'm not so sure anymore.' Lord Grey,
About Gods and the Unholy
(This chapter could also be called 'How I learned to love the 5-steps move' or 'The time I realized that undead are more annoying than animated pop up ads')
We rejoin Screamer and her companions as they make preparations for their trip to Emridy Meadows. The place where good kicked the arse of evil yet again. From what they could gather from the locals, many of the warriors who died there were also buried on the same ground (wink wink). We're up against the walking dead then. They are especially troublesome since they show great resistance towards ranged weapons like crossbows and bows (like the one we bought for Tumblefingers from Brother Smyth). Considering that three out of five members in the party use ranged weapons, an alternative must be found. While Screamer goes out to buy some holy water from the temple, Magedude and Punkaid attend to the pub and prepare proper spells. We open the spell menu for the very first time:
Phew, Punkaid got quiet a lot of spells. Unlike Magedude, he doesn't learn about two spells per level up or copies them from scrolls but they are granted to him from his deity (lazy bastard - M). Every spellcaster only got a limited amount of spells he can memorize/use. You chose the ones you want from the left, place them in one of the empty boxes to the right, wait for 8 hours and your guy is ready for action. We choose some protection spells for Punkaid and a lot of 'Disrupt Undead' spells for Magedude. They only make 1d6 damage (for the rare case that you're a RPG virgin: 1d6 means one six-sided dice like 3d16 would mean three 16-sided dices and so forth). It's not much but better than the 0-1 damage Magedude's crossbow would deal to a skeleton + the ammo that would be wasted. We also reorganize the party formation and place Johnny and Punkaid in front by dragging their portraits to the proper positions. Screamer isn't too happy when she finds out but then again that greedy wench has only bought three bottles of holy water one for herself, Magedude and Tumblefingers. They too deal around 1d6 damage to any undead or demons plus 1 splash damage in a range of 5 feet. That's pretty much all our level 2 party can do at the moment. Magedude gets the world map from his backpack and they plan a good route to the fields.
Safe bet that they arrive in the darkness of the night and surely it doesn't take long before the first skeleton suddenly bursts out of the ground and catches our heroes by surprise.
Magedude thinks fast and runs behind the fiend, his fingers tightly clutched around the big bottle he's holding. 'Burn baby burn!' comes over his lips as he throws the liquid into its back. Of course, he's also the first to realize that this statement doesn't make any sense in context but the damage is already done either ways.
Fun Facts: Not sure if it is a bug but a bottle actually doesn't disappear from the game once thrown. If you hit an enemy, the bottle will land in his inventory and can be looted from his corpse. If you miss, the bottle will just lie right next to the target so you can pick it up and throw again. Although this might be considered an exploit it saves some money (around 36 gold per bottle) and more importantly room in the inventory.
Another undead pops up and tries to penetrate Magedude with his spear.
Magedude makes a 5-Step move to stay out of harms way when he starts to cast spells. As you can see 5-Steps aren't that much of a distance.
No matter, fire away Magedude!
As Johnny and Punkaid are about to deal with the remaining undead in Magedude's back another skeleton, this time with a crossbow, attacks the group. Punkaid becomes careless and charges in while Johnny is still occupied with the spear wielder. Soon, Punkaid finds himself in real trouble.
Is this the already the end of poor young Punkaid? Will Johnny be in time to save the day? Do dead clerics taste good? Find out in the ne.. I mean now.
It is time to remember that there is a special bond between priests and the undead. While the jolly good priest gets the rather boring opportunity to turn undead and therefore destroy them forever, Punkaid, as the evil bastard he is, can try to rebuke them and therefore convert them to our cause (there are a few exceptions for evil clerics depending on their deity. Look in the help menu for further references).
Better try it now than never.
Wow, full strike! Punkaid got them all in one run! Even the one that is still hiding beneath the earth yield before his awesome powers! (I still got no idea what those powers could be. They definitely couldn't mean his stats that is for sure)
We have made our first step to build our army of ultimate evil. A group photo therefore seems to be in order. Those boneheads won't follow our commands during combat but at least they will make good decoys and damage absorbers.
With more firepower watching our back, we walk a little cross-country. Another encounter with an undead crossbowman that follows again evolves into something rather serious and it becomes complicated to tell friend and enemy apart.
It’s about time for a song to wash all the troubles away. Screamer steadies her lute to inspire a little more courage that will increase attacks and defenses of her allies. Curiously enough it also works for our undead friends.
Magedude wants to seize the opportunity to yet again outflank the enemies so that he can place a burning hand spell into their back. We press and hold alt to plan his route.
I promised to explain attacks of opportunity and this appears to be a good moment for it. See those yellow circles underneath the combatants? That is their current melee range. It can vary mostly depending on the type of weapon that is used and the size of the attacker. If someone stumbles into this circle who is not a friend there is the possibility that he can trigger an attack of opportunity (as it is indicated here with the red sword symbol) in case that the passerby doesn't make a successful tumble roll. There are other occasions that may provoke such an attack, like casting a spell at leisure or drinking a potion while still in fighting range. Some foes get more than one attack of opportunity so running past them can be really painful. You should always try to keep out of range whenever possible. We redirect Magedude therefore by setting waypoints around the dangerous areas with the finger still remaining on the alt key.
That seems reasonable enough. We confirm with a left click on the last waypoint (alternatively right click to start planning anew), Magedude yells 'Jawohl Herr Kaleun!' and is set on his way (Silent Hunter 3 fans may catch the reference). This time, they'll burn for real.
Well, that wasn't that bad but then again the undead apparently can't stop harassing Magedude with polearms.
No big drama though. Magedude retreats back north while successfully avoiding an attack by a skeleton on his way. Johnny, Punkaid and the other boneheads make quick work of the remaining enemies. The second great battle of Emridy Meadows comes to an end without any casualties on our side and the group is awarded by fireworks and a level up.
Having enough excitement for the night, our valiant heroes return to the pub before continuing on their adventure in the morning. They are just examining the southern parts of the fields as the ground suddenly starts shaking. Suspicious and a wee bit terrified they send sneaky Tumblefingers alone to scout ahead.
A bear? Probably dangerous sure but he doesn't look big enough to cause such trembling. The next fellow who comes in sight does however.
It's a god damn Hill Giant! Knowing that they only got dim chances against a creature of such raw powers in a direct confrontation, Magedude decides that a more subtle approach is in order. Tumblefingers waits until the giant walks away a bit, starts to sneak attack the bear (one arrow, 12 hitpoints damage, up your arse!) and makes a run for it back to the others who are in hiding. Johnny is buffed with pretty much anything that was at our disposal (which really isn't that much) when the bear reaches him.
To make a long story short, the bear goes down eventually. Saying that it was a close call would be a drastic understatement however.
Second visit at the pub. When the group returns it is after nightfall again so we try to rest for a few hours until the sun goes up. The game differs between four kinds of areas when it comes to resting. The rest button (yellow tent symbol here) will change either in color or symbol depending where you are. Green tent means safe, yellow that there is a chance for a random encounter, red is a no go and if the icon should ever change to a pocket watch then your party is only able to pass time and stand around harassing people but not to rest. The wild is a yellow zone, naturally, so the following doesn't come as a surprise.
Punkaid tries to rebuke the gnolls but is too low in level to do anything other than to terrify them. At least they don't defend themselves while we beat them to powder. No fun. We make two more resting attempts since it is very unlikely that there will be more random encounters in such a short frequency.
Aw, screw that! Back to the pub then.
Fun Facts: The dead guys in the pile are actually pirates. No ninjas spotted so far.
We have one last confrontation with the undead before taking care of the giant.
Punkaid makes them again cowering in fear. It's time to fire it up Magedude!
Oh for crying out loud! How many god forsaken people died on this field? (well, probably thousands so I better don't ask aloud)
Once they're finally all dealt with Tumblefingers and Screamer realize that their bottles of holy water have gone missing. Pressing the tab key makes them quickly find their belongings.
It is time for the great (meaning big in size) finale of this episode. Magedude has prepared a web spell that will, hopefully, immobilize the giant so our spells and arrows can take care of him. Either that or we’ll be squished to death. It's your pick. Surprisingly enough that plan seems to actually work.
Damn, look at the attack range of that thing! To think that this guy has the cleave feat as well, meaning that he gets a free attack if his first attack should kill someone (what happens often), makes us glad that it is to our skeleton minions to be brutally crushed instead of Johnny and Punkaid. Open fire!
We can hurt him. That's quiet a relief.
Getting somewhere (we're so dead if he should break free)
Oh for the love of- Johnny just can't take it no more and rams that fat bastard. End of story.
Level 4 is in grasp now plus all the juicy loot we get. Some jewelry, an elven cloack for Tumblefingers that will help her when she's trying to hide and some nifty elven armor for Punkaid (good protection, low chance of spell failure).
Wait, weren't our heroes supposed to do something here? Screamer swaps through her secret diary and finds the part about Terjon wanting an artifact hidden somewhere under a rock. Like this one?
We find what he's been looking for. It's a trinket and really as worthless as mentioned. Giving it back to him will grant us a discount for every service of the temple so there is no real argument against it. We also discover a strange figurine from which Terjon warns us that it possesses some kind of evil magic and that we should get rid of it. We keep it of course and let Burne identify it.
What is a Fungi? Maybe we will find out next episode when our people explore the not so deep depths of the moathouse and finally get the main quest running. (Actually no, we won't find out but I thought it would be a nice cliffhanger nonetheless)
