DavesGaming

The council seemed to think it was time to make a move towards Stojanow Castle. That was the seat of power for old Phlan. We had reason to think a powerful being known as “Tyranthraxus”, a leader of the sacking of the city over 30 years ago, was still ruling over the ruins from the Castle. The plan was, we would first take the main gate. Then penetrate into the Castle looking for Tyranthraxus and whatever leadership there may be to clear them out. Starting at the gate, we would take point and then city forces would come in behind and secure the site.
Shuri observed it seemed to be on us to do the hard work and the city would reap the benefits. I had to laugh, that’s why we make the big money! I explained to her I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are more capable on point, and the city will need its resources because preserving the peace is typically long and grinding work. We’ll be done in a couple days.

So we set off…

He thanked us for sparing him an unpleasant task, and warned the guard was all ill-tempered bugbears.

Fortunately they aren’t the brightest. They let our humble supply wagon through for a nominal toll.

We explored some of the side buildings along the way. No doubt this is some of the toughest fighting we’ve seen yet. We also learned the password for the inner gates.

[Gamer’s note: Giants are worth a lot of experience! We gained enough for all the warriors to level up one last time. So Diomedes and Harg hit 8th level while Garaint and Shuri hit 7th. I ran back to town for those last level-ups. It will be a big help with the final act.]

Entering those gates led us to a wild shrub maze, including teleporters between segments. I feared we would get lost in here, but this is all right into Psyche’s strength. She was mapping things carefully and was able to locate us quickly everytime we took a teleport. Her clear thinking saved the day.
We finally found our way to the main keep. This was mostly empty, we may have cleared out most of the troops already? One wrong turn did lead us to a fight with a medusa. That could have been bad, but we all came through intact.
We found a staircase going way down into a natural cavern beneath the Castle. This would prove to be the end of resistance.

With all of us concentrating on the dragon it fell pretty quickly. That seemed to be the end of it. The pool of glowing water in the cavern faded out, stopped glowing. We felt the evil disapate. Apparently the threat was over.

New Phlan troops were filling into the Castle area behind us. We had spearheaded the victory.

*****

That’s the end of Pool of Radiance. The game does actually allow for continuing gameplay if you haven’t cleared everything. And if you are importing characters over to Curse of the Azure Bonds it would make sense to maximize your characters before doing so. As I suggested earlier, I will recreate my party rather than import. Mainly so Diomedes can start as a Paladin, and they will all start on equal footing.

I expect to have a couple more posts up quickly now. An overview of Curse of the Azure Bonds first, then a first update for the team not too long after.