DavesGaming

Whatever Hobart did, we found ourselves transported in a flash to a sun-blasted and ruined old castle in a sweltering heat. We had jumped from one extreme uncomfortable climate to its opposite. But we hardly had a moment to ponder…

The fight was only difficult because of the utter suddeness of it. We prevailed, but Garaint was a gibbering idiot for a few minutes. Something about the effect of the Harpies shriek. We explored the grounds of the castle and had a few more fights against Harpies and Wyverns, the two types seemed to be battling for control of this ruin.

We found Hobart and learned we were now at a ruin in Anauroch, the Great Desert. We would have to solve the riddle of the Luremaster to escape. Swell.

If we understood correctly. Psyche is our best puzzle solver, and at least she wasn’t being broiled alive like the rest of us. But solving this is of some urgency. We have a white dragon to hunt down, and I don’t think this change in climate is doing any of us any good.

There was a tall tower at each of the castle’s four towers. In one, we fought another band of adventurers led by a Banite cleric. We also found Harpies and Wyverns had each taken a tower for a nest.

In clearing the four towers we earned four poems, that told the first part of the tragedy that struck here. Four watch knights had died defeating a dragon that attacked this castle. Their Lord, Fallon Maluradek, abandoned them from fear and cowardice. Learing this part of the story also gave us access to the crypts under the old Chapel of Helm.

That also gave us access to the main castle. Here we fought many spectral guards, who could only do their master’s bidding. We avoided harming the numerous spectral residents and courtiers.

But defeating him still did not end our entrapment. The deranged Lord had banashed the bard, the Luremaster into the castle dungeons. And when the bard continued singing the tale, he had his tongue cut out. So we would need to enter the dungeons and find the bard.

This was a lot of fighting! There were all sorts of beasts and undead in those dungeons.

The last act of this tale led us back upstairs to the throne room, where the bard himself now held court.

We did so, and were finally rewarded with a trip back to the inn in Lonelywood.

The next morning, it was back to the barbarian camp for transport to Icasaracht’s Island. There were snow and ice trolls on the island, and a single large cave guarded by two Ice Golems. Our way was obvious.

We battled more trolls and undead within.

We learned this was once the mate of Icasaracht. He’d been slain by her over some dispute about their offspring. Aparently she had “hatched” a scheme to restore her own life by possessing the bodies of her children.
If there was ever any doubt she was evil…

We put her down, and a tribe of Sahuagen that were supporting her.

And we were ported back to Kuldahar. Didn’t even get to say our goodbyes!

*****

At this point the four warriors are all about equal in their combat stats. Diomedes slightly leads, Garaint slightly lags.
Shuri has been shockingly effective. I think there are two main things that keep her ahead of Garaint in effectiveness. The first is on me, because she is the weakest of the warriors, I pass all the Strength related potions on to her. So she is often fighting with Giant Strength. Second, is the way “2-handed weapon fighting style” works. It doubles the odds of scoring a critical hit. And I don’t know exactly how the math of it works, but the inspiration for the image of Shuri scewering a harpy came from her destroying one with over 60 points from a single hit. Obviously this is more than “double damage”. Maybe triple? That’s possible. She now has an 18/00 strength (Gauntlets of Ogre Power since just before the start of this Update), Grand Mastery in spear and a +3 spear. So that’s a maximum of 20 points from a normal hit. I don’t know the mathmatical formula IE uses for extra damage on criticals, but Shuri is seeing a large number that must be over double damage (I know the formula I used in my own PnP game, this is far more often than that!)

I think I’m looking at one or two more updates to this. Then a new BG run.