DavesGaming

We had determined we needed to get to Yulash or Zhentil Keep next. As the Keep would mean passing through Yulash, we decided to just see what we needed to see in Yulash first.

There was a war going on here, between Red Pumes from Hillsfar and Zhentrim troops. The Zhents are always eager to cause trouble. And many year ago, this had been the site of the main temple of Moander, the God of Rot and Decay, in all the Realms. So both parties often found themselves battling Moander cultists eager to restore their faith. Or even restore their dead god, at a (Un)Holy Site deep in the ruins.

We found stairs heading down into the darkness. Since it was well known the city had been built *over* the ruins, this seemed like an obvious start!

We continued on, and fought a few more groups of vegepygmies and shambling mounds. We also fought some trolls, and a few cult clerics. This was our first proof of the cult’s presence.

Eventually we came to what was once a great temple. Many cult clerics, vegepygmies and shamblers were also here.

As the portal opened our bonds weakened, and soon all eight of us were free to attack the cultists. We all actually destroyed the cult pretty quickly. The portal snapped closed, but something came through.

Soon enough we had destroyed all the gooey god bits.

We escaped from the underground. It seems once the cult was destroyed, the Red Plumes and Zhentarim were eager to tear into each other. So we heroically sceddadled. We said our goodbyes and thank-you-very-much to Alias and Dragonbait and all went our seperate ways.

After a rest we headed up to Zhentil Keep. One of our two remaining tattoos was a Zhent symbol. This city is a dark place, with chattel slavery, draconian laws, and gladitorial games to the death. We hoped to enter and stay incognito. But we got the feeling we were expected?

Turning down one city street we saw a familiar sight. We had seen, at a distance, a colorful halfling bard a few times back in Tilverton. Especially in the Tilverton Thieves Guild. Olive Ruskettle was well known as an entertainer in the Moonsea area, now sure if she was really a bard?

She helped us to a hidden side entrance to the Zhent Temple of Bane, and gave directions to Dimsswart’s cell.
We found the sage. Part of what he knew, we had figured out. The bonds give those who applied them control over us. By their control, or death, the bonds fade and no longer have power. So three of our bonds are now faded and powerless. The Zhent symbol is that of High Lord Fzoul, the leader of Zhentil Keep. He must have some purpose for us?

The last symbol was a surprise. It was that of Tyranthraxus. Dimswart was surprised too, he’d heard that Tyranthraxus had just been defeated up at Phlan. There must be a Pool of Radiance in the area that he has returned to. Swell.
We had Dimswart accompany us out. But our entrance door was sealed! We poked around, until we met a hooded woman. She told us to follow her to an escape.

Yeah, no. Bad idea. She led us into a trap. We were confronted by a beholder. He introduced himself as Dexam. He said he looked forward to studying our bonds, and was sure the experience would be painful and deadly for us.
Then Lord Fzoul approached and said he had his own purposes for us and we would be leaving with him.

Well at least another bond faded away! We ran for it. We heard Dexam yell “well they’re no use to me now! Kill them!” He really had a lot of minotaurs. And trolls. We did a lot of fighting for the next half hour or so. We had teleported in so we really didn’t know the way out of these caves.
But Dexam knew well how to cut us off.

This was a fascinating and humbling fight for me. Psyche yelled “I can’t hurt a beholder! Everyone go for the beholder I’ve got everything else!”
So that’s how it went. Psyche killed the medusa and 20 or so minotaurs with fireballs. The remaining *five* of us piled on Dexam and destroyed him.
Admitedly, I’m bragging up my wife a little. The first round we were all fighting the medusa and minotaurs. We might have killed two minotaurs, and almost dropped the medusa. But then Psyche’s first fireball went off and did kill the medusa and those minotaurs right in front. But that was our break, we all charged Dexam while Psyche started another fireball.
Truly, we all work for Psyche now.

After an exhausting few days and a lot of fighting, we traveled down to Shadowdale to rest.

We have one bond left. Tyranthraxus.

*****

A few thoughts. Some of these fights are really hard! The fight against the Moander cult was moderately hard, mostly because you fight a bunch of clerics and their flunkies, then immediately have to face the quite tough “bits of Moander” with no break. I did get that on the first try, but it was a close run thing. And that whole section involves many fights against clerics who love to throw around “Hold Person”. In the Gold Box engine, once you’re disabled, *any* hit will reduce you to “dying” status. Much more brutal than the IE games.
Then Zhentil Keep. Dexam, a single beholder, is a brutal fight. Of course he’s at the back of his force, so you need to carve a path to him (thank you Psyche!). In the meantime, Dexam has ten attacks per round including “Flesh to Stone”, “Slay Living” and “Disintigrate”. Sure we’re all 9th and 10th level now, so we make most saves. But each round, whomever he targets, *has to make* three critical saves… or I reload. And that is a less elegent process in these old Gold Box games (it takes a few minutes). It took me three tries to get him down without a death.

Another thing. I’m reading the novel “Curse of the Azure Bonds” for the first time. Back in the day I read many of the Dragonlance novels, but this is the first Forgotten Realms novel I’ve read. Its pretty good. Definitely a more sophisticated story than the game. Although I would say Alias’ missing memories are far more interesting in the telling than the Azure Bonds (even if there is a sideways connection). Sadly, I know the punchline (for Alias) because I’ve played the game before. The book would be better if I didn’t know.

About the art. GPT Image 1.5 has become my *go to*. Funny, I worked mostly with DALLE for a year and a half. Then SeeDream became my preferred renderer, for two months? Now its GPT Image. It does everything SeeDream did, but better. The faces look less “all alike”, that’s not a small thing! GPT is more colorful. And GPT Image *knows* D&D. I don’t know if they have the rights, or if its something more nefarious. But it will render D&D critters with only the most basic of prompts.
And that Alias and Dragonbait pic! Seriously! I put in an image of the game/book cover. Gave a basic description of the characters, the ruined temple complex, and my usual “Realistic photo.” Holy smokes that was awesome! No tweeking or fiddling with words to get what I wanted, just *BAM* there it is! Wow.