DavesGaming

We had a possibility on how to find Tyranthraxus. We had met a strange hooded man back at the Standing Stones north of Essembra. He said to “come see him” when we only had one bond left. Apart from the stronge “trap” vibe, this seemed like a solid lead. It showed he had some awareness of our feelings towards our bonds, even when it wasn’t entirely clear how he even knew we had them.

So off we went. The hooded man was there again. He revealed himself to be, wait for it, Tyranthraxus. He said we could find him up in Myth Drannor.
That is a ruined ancient city, most recently used by elves. But it has long been a ruin. We headed out through the woods to find the old ruin of the Forest of Cormanthor. It really isn’t a hard place to find, the location of the ruined city is mapped and well known. But it is a dangerous place. Overrun by a range of foul things.

Stepping out of the Forest near the city we first found ourselves in the old Burial Glen. This was not a place of rest.

They were apparently here looting the tombs. We tried to set things right when we found damage they had done.

We approached one stately old mausoleum that seemed in better repair than most. A pair of spectral elven guards informed us their queen was waiting for us. We briefly discussed if that was a good thing or a warning?! I sensed no evil from these spirits, so we entered.

Seriously, the best sword I’ve yet seen, and Girdle of Giant Strength we equiped Shuri with.

As we moved on it seemed we were leaving the Burial Glen and entering an old commercial part of the city. This area seemed thick with illusion and evil. We soon recognized we were facing Rakshasa, and they were the leaders of the foul dogs.

Not too much further on we saw a great ruined temple. We could feel movement from our last bond, we were drawing to its master.

A friendly spirit, known to us in passing as “Nameless”, helped us to escape Tyranthraxus control. In frustration he fled. But we knew he was rallying his forces.

We rushed through the old temple looking for him.

Actually, Psyche said these were “Margoyles”, slightly bigger than Gargoyles. We smashed a lot of them.

None of these battles were difficult. But clearly Tyranthraxus was trying to weaken us before we found him.

This was an epic fight. Psyche started unleashing Fireballs. A lot of them. The rest of us starting smashing Margoyles. Psyche shouted that Tyranthraxus was immune to her fireballs. So Shuri and I cut a path through the beasties to put our own sort of hurt on the big guy. Garaint and Moya held back to cover Psyche and Harg.

This did not all go our way. Harg took a blast from a huge Lightning Bolt hurled by Tyranthraxus that bounced off a wall and hit him again in the back. He was down. Both Garaint and Shuri were dragged down by the Margoyles.

I cleaved Tyranthraxus with the elf queen’s sword. By that point it was just a matter of eliminating the last remaining Margoyles and Banites.

Harg was beyond immediate help. We all needed to recuperate. And Moya needed time to get a Raise Dead spell for Harg. In time, we were recovered enough to walk out. As we had entered, as a team.

With no more blue tattoos.

*****

That brings us to the end of the second Gold Box game. This has seriously been a lot of fun, and I feel better about how these games play than I did a few years ago. I will look forward to doing more of this.

But that said, I have other ideas at the moment. This game has seriously made me want to run *this same team* through Icewind Dale. I want to run them in the more developed game engine with 2E rules. And I want to try a new mod. So that will be next. Expect by the end of this week I’ll have a new Icewind Dale playthrough up at this site.
Further, I want to do another BG run. I have a new couple, a pair of seriously sub-standard paladins I want to use. These are another couple from my deep PnP folders, that I’ve used very little over the years. So, coming soon!