Aias

We went downward through the caves to another large set of caverns. Her we fought giant beetles and trolls.

Trolls are tough opponents. They hit hard and regenerate fast. They can only be killed with fire or acid applied to their fatal wound… quickly before it heals.
We came across a large cavern with an unholy Ziggurat rising in the center. There were several priests of a Deity we weren’t familiar with. And more trolls. A hard battle, but we prevailed.
How many of you are here?

We found a number of slaves in these caverns too, including the high priestess from the Temple of Illmater in Kuldahar. We brought them up a level to the other slaves. We shared what food we had, and suggested they hold tight, we weren’t done and there might be more to rescue.

Continuing down we came face to face with a skeletal messenger of sorts.

He warned us we had met our end. He did have a lot of undead with him! But his warning was exaggerated.
Pikwell does get excited when he finds a trap! I fear our laughter was disturbing all the undead.
Several messengers made their threats, each with a new wave of undead.

We finally found a sorcerer who was behind all this. I believe Charity noted her name somewhere.
And what a shock, more tunnels heading down.
The next cavern had been ornately finished, like an expensive inn in an old castle or something. Quite elaborate. The residents approached like they were some concerned monks worried for our well being. I may have been laughing even before Ila mentioned they were as evil as anything she’d ever sensed. We fought a large number of snake men. I don’t know what they are, they are maybe bigger and tougher than trolls (and they had a few of those!) but they don’t regenerate.

We entered a banquet hall of sorts that was truly vile. They were eating villagers. Their leader made some threats, but he died before his bodyguards even drew their weapons.

We freed some more prisoners, an adventuring party. They knew these creatures as Yuan-Ti. We asked them to head up a couple of levels to guard the captives we’d freed. We cleared this level quickly. Then set up to guard a door to more tunnels heading down. We needed to get some rest.

5 responses to “Aias: Update 6”

  1. Zeno Avatar

    I recognize that Troll! Came out pretty well for a combo pic. Only issue is he’s a bit small, but consistent sizes are a pain-in-the-butt no matter what you do. And we do fight mini-trolls sometimes anyway. The Yuan-Ti came out very nicely as well. How many takes did that require?

    Pikwell in the trap picture is absolutely perfect! My favorite pic of the set! But all of these turned out well. The ziggurat and the slaves really stand out too.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. atcDave Avatar
      atcDave

      Yes, I shamelessly borrow from you! The troll came pretty easily, as you say, I could have tried harder for a taller one. But I was pretty happy with that.

      The Yuan-Ti was a pain. Burned through *A LOT* of renders trying to get that, it just does not want to give the thing arms. It was going to be a fight with Jinella, but she’s low percentage too. In frustration (couldn’t get one where they BOTH looked good) I switched Ila. She comes much easier, and the next Yuan-Ti (4 or 5 more renders) was a keeper!

      Yeah I loved the Pikwell picture, I mentioned before, I don’t quite know how to do emotion with him. But I figured excitement was doable.

      Also the slaves and Charity. Adding the torchlight effects makes her work far more regularly. So it turns out, a cool effect is in some ways, easier.

      and you ever notice saying “skull” or “bones” triggers the first filter, but “skeleton” does not? Funny.

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      1. Zeno Avatar

        All kinds of oddities like that. And very often the word I *think* its objecting to is not actually the problem. Really wish it gave you more feedback about what it didn’t like.

        Right now trying to coax out a useable Chimera. That’s…ah… being a bit of a challenge.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. atcDave Avatar
        atcDave

        I can imagine! If it doesn’t just know “chimera”, good luck describing it!

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      3. Zeno Avatar

        It has no idea what a Chimera is. And to make it extra fun, I want a Chimera in front of a recognizable Severed Hand Tower. Can’t make things *too* easy…

        Liked by 1 person

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