Eye of the Beholder III - THE FINAL NOTES
The final dungeon of the Eye of the Beholder trilogy is relatively short, and while the levels offer some quirks, they're not a major challenge when compared to the numerous puzzles and problems I've faced to get to this point. Some of the enemy choices are nasty, but I expected this; it is the final dungeon of a full trilogy, after all. What was I to do? Why, march in and kick some ass, of course.
The first level has a curse on it; if you fail to resolve the curse, you may end up trapped in an eternal abyss and forced to reload an earlier save. To best this, you have to remove three evil holy symbols from shrines and restore symbols of good to them. Since the temple was originally dedicated to the good god Lathander, it also helps to do a few favors to restore the guy's position and take back the temple from the dark nameless god that profanes it. To do this, you have to do a short puzzle to restore a broken statue and fix his holy fountain. It's optional, but doing this means all of the god's statues in the temple will now heal you, and Lathander actually shows up to tell you what's going on and hint he'll help you out later.
Once the statue and fountain are restored, you then have to seek out the missing holy symbols by checking a few disturbed graves in the temple basement. Close the defiled locations and burn incense, and the holy symbols necessary to cleanse the first floor will appear. Not only that, but I found a wounded paladin of Lathander in one of the basements. Since she's tougher, has healing, and doesn't turn into a freaking furry any time she gets hit, I booted the were-tiger NPC and happily brought her in to be my polearm-wielding second row tank. Since she hit as hard as the first row, this was a brilliant move on my part.
Unfortunately, despite her combat prowess, the enemies on the first floor consist of blobs, which can eat weapons. I had to rely on magic to beat them...which means Noise. Damn it, he started to get a big head about it too. Stupid Noise.
Level 2 doesn't have weapon-melting enemies, it just has a few damage resistant shambling mounds and magic-slinging skull snakes. Honestly, the toughest thing about this level is that it finally reintroduced spinners in one area, though once I realized this, they were easy to avoid. I had to finagle my way past some booby traps as well as a cursed area that required a Bless spell, but the most notable thing about this level is that Lathander popped back up at the end to help me out...by giving me a +5 Two Handed Sword that hits even harder against undead. Oh yeah, Ack eagerly dropped his shield to be able to swat foes like flies, and against undead, his damage output immediately doubled. As in I now one-shotted half the remaining enemies in the temple. Pfft, cakewalk.
Level 3's quirk is that it's so badly defiled that you cannot rest until you've lit the four special pyres. To do this, you have to find the keys that grant you access to the rooms along with the magic embers which will burn. Along the way, you fight banshees and nagas. You know what banshees don't like? +5 Two Handed Swords that do 2x damage to undead, baby! Even without resting, this floor proved to be ridiculously easy; Lathander had a statue that I used for healing, enemies generally didn't require spells, and there was a feast hall in the center of the floor that once restored provided me an immense boon and filled my food up every time I entered the room. In truth, I was a little surprised at how easy this floor ended up being. I was expecting a tougher fight, especially since it was the last before the final floor.
Level 4...ah, the beginning of the end. Up here, it's fireball-throwing undead knights and black dogs. Not hell hounds; I had slain many of those in previous games to know the difference. Instead, these are black dogs that fight in packs and probably come from some kind of evil dimension. Whatever, they die like normal dogs, and while the knights' fireballs suck, they went down in one hit to Lathander's big ass sword. In short, the fireball meant the enemies were an only slightly bigger threat. Booby traps proved to be the nastier thing here.
What do you do in Level 4? Well, you have to restore Lathander's powers yet again, which means finding keys, receiving his blessing from a few specific places that hadn't yet been defiled, and then entering forbidden spaces where only his blessing allowed you to traverse. In one room, I had to grab the Staff of Life. In another, I had to use the Staff of Life to heal a dark ghostly figure embedded in the wall and infecting the temple with its hideous magics. Once it was defeated, the center of the floor opened, and I used a shield to fix a door which took me to the final room.
As soon as I spawned in, I was surrounded by monsters, including skeleton knights on either side that lit me up with fireballs. However, as soon as one side fell, I easily spun to slay the rest. Since I hadn't yet triggered the evil nameless god to come down and fight me, I rested. Oh yeah, you can rest in the final boss' lair. In fact, I recommend it; the beds are nice, and Trivago can get you a good rate. *THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY TRIVAGO* Once rested, I chugged a few potions on my tanks, prepped a couple of spells, and marched forward to do battle. Since this was the finale, no reason to hold back.
...and yet I still held back, because what I started with just felt unfair. It turns out Time Stop works on the final boss, so I froze him and wailed on him a bit with everything. When he unfroze, I could simply have used my other Time Stop scroll, but I didn't. As he blasted into my rows of characters, my back row threw magic returning hammers, my tanks hit him with all of their weapons, and Noise shot off every spell he had, which consisted of a lot of Fireballs and Cones of Cold. The evil god killed my first row, so Ack and Bone fell to the floor. Then he killed my second row, so Noise and the Paladin NPC fell. And when he reached my third row, Exhum and my Cleric NPC, Rex, hit him in the face with magic hammers, and he crumpled to the floor, because fuck yeah, magic hammers.
With the evil god bested, Lathander showed up again and banished him, then sealed shut his vile portal. He restored all of my fallen and thanked me for my service and the restoration of Myth Drannor. As my party wandered out, I was greeted by the fallen Knights of Myth Drannor, who thanked me profusely for restoring the city and begged me join their numbers. Since they offer decent pay and a dental plan, I accepted.
The final screen of the trilogy is a wall of portraits of the party with their new title, Knights of Myth Drannor.
And so ends a years-long expedition to put a single party through the entire Eye of the Beholder trilogy. I have bested monsters, traps, puzzles, and taken down the likes of a Beholder, Red Dragon, Lich, and an evil god. I have become a hero in three cities. And since SSI never intended for a fourth game, they did not enable a party export once the game was beaten, so here ended my journey. Ack, Bone, Exhum, and Noise laid down their arms and returned to a life of peace.
Ack now owns a small farm, where he specializes in apple orchards, bee keeping, and also raising demons that he can then go hit with his sword when he's in the mood.
Bone opened a temple to the 2600. Its worshippers now wander door to door asking folks if they've heard the good word of Combat and River Raid. Many shopkeepers are annoyed.
Exhum got caught committing a panty raid in the queen's underwear draw and is now serving a long prison sentence.
Noise is Noise, so he's probably sitting on a park bench somewhere, talking about chocolates and pining over some hippie lady. The other guys don't talk to him much.
The NPCs are NPCs. Don't worry about them.
Thus I say goodbye to Eye of the Beholder. It's been a lot of bloodsoaked fun, fellas.
RPG Progress Report
Re: RPG Progress Report
Menzoberranzan
Menzo, as it is usually referred to in shorthand, is an interesting hybrid of mid-90s RPG video game design. It's utilizing the 2nd edition rules for Dungeons & Dragons and the same game engine as was used for the two Ravenloft titles of this era (no, not including the fighting game, you sicko). Gameplay has some elements of Eye of the Beholder as well as an open 3D world that reminds me of early Elder Scrolls titles.
One area where this really benefits the player is with the spells, as there is now some greater representation for the area effect ones. For once in a video game I successfully used a stinking cloud spell. That is something I never did, and I was happy to see it still forming a gross column of gas even after combat ended. The one thing that gets me about combat is now I have to worry about a 360 area as opposed to simple cardinal directions, and I'm not sure how this will tie into party arrangement. I'm sure I'll be fully aware by the time this adventure is over though, and one of the perks to playing Menzo is that it will also familiarize me with the engine enough that I might finally hit up the two Ravenloft titles in the near future.
Anyway, the game. You start by creating a two character party in an overly long and somewhat painful early 3D experience that probably looked fantastic in 1994. Unfortunately, we're no longer in 1994, so now it just feels like it drags. I had to select the usual character traits of importance: gender, race, class, alignment, a character portrait, and a name. My two characters of choice:
Ack, a Neutral Good Dwarven Fighter/Cleric
Owl, a Neutral Good Half-Elf Mage
Who is Owl? My fiancee, you buggers. She'll be my wife in a month, so I'm bringing her along for an adventure. I'll be sure to bring one of you bums along next time.
One quirk of Menzo is that you start at level 5 with a couple of magic items, so thankfully I can survive some things. Also, food is gone, but I still wanted to be sure that I had the magic bases coverd, so Cleric and Mage were the ways to go. Menzo is also way into crossclassing, so I took the step to make myself a little tougher in combat while still getting healing. Also, the party max is limited to 4 characters as opposed to the six I was getting in Eye of the Beholder, so I needed to be sure I had greater versatility with a smaller party size.
Upon creating my characters, I found myself back in town to celebrate my recent victory over a giant white centipede. Unfortunately, that's when the Drow attack, set fire to the storehouse, and kidnap pretty much everyone in town. I put out the fire and grabbed the one remaining town guard to march off into the wilderness.
Once outside of town, I discovered that Menzo is comprised of relatively open areas and cave systems. The game is broken into roughly three parts from what I've read: above ground, the Underdark, and the city of Menzoberranzan. The above ground section isn't particularly long, but it gives open fields and some interesting side things to look up. I found a centaur NPC who willingly joined my party, and I soon discovered that one downside to Menzo is that using bows sucks. You have to manually pick up each arrow and put them in your quiver, one at a time. That took too long, so I eventually just gave the horseman a sword. I also visited an old man who told me a little about the Underdark and suggested I bring some gems to enchant so I don't die horribly from the darkness or radiation down there. Joy!
Pushing onward, I found myself fighting what appear to be giants. The first couple of times, they beat my mage into a pulp until I figured out how to rearrange the party and use spells. Now that I could nuke from afar, I lit them up before they got close and then moved in for the kill. My explorations netted me a few swords and the like, as well as magic scrolls that I scribed into my spellbook for the mage to memorize. Then I found Drizzt's house... Yeah, I'm chasing after the most famous Drow in D&D history. Soon enough, I found the dual scimitar dark elf himself, and he replaced the centaur as my front line tank.
After this, I continued my exploration and discovered a cave full of evil intelligent magical hybrid animal critters named leucrottas. I swiftly exterminated them all and found the remains of caravans they had been raiding, including the gems I needed. One nice feature about the new engine is that it allows for a certain amount of verticality, so I ended up using a jump potion to launch myself into the air to get to several higher caves. With all the gems required, I returned and had them enchanted. One of them turned out to be used for Cones of Cold, so only three let me see in the dark and protect from radiation. That's ok, Drizzt has those abilities naturally, so I dispersed the gems among the rest of the party.
I then pushed into the last area of the above ground section, seeking my way into the Underdark. Here I found troglodytes and stirges hoping to mess me up. Drizzt comes with a lot of hard hitting gear though, and with the extra equipment I'd picked up by fully searching everywhere else, I beat these guys down. I even found an Improved Identify scroll, which I immediately put into my mage's spellbook. It's now a permanent feature, so I can ID gear as necessary. Excellent.
I also discovered a wounded birdman named Vonar who was thirsting for some vengeance. Since he was a buddy of Drizzt and a level 5 Fighter/Thief/Mage, and I lacked a Thief, I sent the guard captain back to watch the town and brought this guy along. I'm now sitting pretty, ready to plunge my way into the Underdark, which is a significantly longer section than above ground. I'm geared up, I've got a bunch of new spells to play with, and with each new level, I'm sure to get tougher, so look out Drow. I'm coming to kick some ass.
Menzo, as it is usually referred to in shorthand, is an interesting hybrid of mid-90s RPG video game design. It's utilizing the 2nd edition rules for Dungeons & Dragons and the same game engine as was used for the two Ravenloft titles of this era (no, not including the fighting game, you sicko). Gameplay has some elements of Eye of the Beholder as well as an open 3D world that reminds me of early Elder Scrolls titles.
One area where this really benefits the player is with the spells, as there is now some greater representation for the area effect ones. For once in a video game I successfully used a stinking cloud spell. That is something I never did, and I was happy to see it still forming a gross column of gas even after combat ended. The one thing that gets me about combat is now I have to worry about a 360 area as opposed to simple cardinal directions, and I'm not sure how this will tie into party arrangement. I'm sure I'll be fully aware by the time this adventure is over though, and one of the perks to playing Menzo is that it will also familiarize me with the engine enough that I might finally hit up the two Ravenloft titles in the near future.
Anyway, the game. You start by creating a two character party in an overly long and somewhat painful early 3D experience that probably looked fantastic in 1994. Unfortunately, we're no longer in 1994, so now it just feels like it drags. I had to select the usual character traits of importance: gender, race, class, alignment, a character portrait, and a name. My two characters of choice:
Ack, a Neutral Good Dwarven Fighter/Cleric
Owl, a Neutral Good Half-Elf Mage
Who is Owl? My fiancee, you buggers. She'll be my wife in a month, so I'm bringing her along for an adventure. I'll be sure to bring one of you bums along next time.
One quirk of Menzo is that you start at level 5 with a couple of magic items, so thankfully I can survive some things. Also, food is gone, but I still wanted to be sure that I had the magic bases coverd, so Cleric and Mage were the ways to go. Menzo is also way into crossclassing, so I took the step to make myself a little tougher in combat while still getting healing. Also, the party max is limited to 4 characters as opposed to the six I was getting in Eye of the Beholder, so I needed to be sure I had greater versatility with a smaller party size.
Upon creating my characters, I found myself back in town to celebrate my recent victory over a giant white centipede. Unfortunately, that's when the Drow attack, set fire to the storehouse, and kidnap pretty much everyone in town. I put out the fire and grabbed the one remaining town guard to march off into the wilderness.
Once outside of town, I discovered that Menzo is comprised of relatively open areas and cave systems. The game is broken into roughly three parts from what I've read: above ground, the Underdark, and the city of Menzoberranzan. The above ground section isn't particularly long, but it gives open fields and some interesting side things to look up. I found a centaur NPC who willingly joined my party, and I soon discovered that one downside to Menzo is that using bows sucks. You have to manually pick up each arrow and put them in your quiver, one at a time. That took too long, so I eventually just gave the horseman a sword. I also visited an old man who told me a little about the Underdark and suggested I bring some gems to enchant so I don't die horribly from the darkness or radiation down there. Joy!
Pushing onward, I found myself fighting what appear to be giants. The first couple of times, they beat my mage into a pulp until I figured out how to rearrange the party and use spells. Now that I could nuke from afar, I lit them up before they got close and then moved in for the kill. My explorations netted me a few swords and the like, as well as magic scrolls that I scribed into my spellbook for the mage to memorize. Then I found Drizzt's house... Yeah, I'm chasing after the most famous Drow in D&D history. Soon enough, I found the dual scimitar dark elf himself, and he replaced the centaur as my front line tank.
After this, I continued my exploration and discovered a cave full of evil intelligent magical hybrid animal critters named leucrottas. I swiftly exterminated them all and found the remains of caravans they had been raiding, including the gems I needed. One nice feature about the new engine is that it allows for a certain amount of verticality, so I ended up using a jump potion to launch myself into the air to get to several higher caves. With all the gems required, I returned and had them enchanted. One of them turned out to be used for Cones of Cold, so only three let me see in the dark and protect from radiation. That's ok, Drizzt has those abilities naturally, so I dispersed the gems among the rest of the party.
I then pushed into the last area of the above ground section, seeking my way into the Underdark. Here I found troglodytes and stirges hoping to mess me up. Drizzt comes with a lot of hard hitting gear though, and with the extra equipment I'd picked up by fully searching everywhere else, I beat these guys down. I even found an Improved Identify scroll, which I immediately put into my mage's spellbook. It's now a permanent feature, so I can ID gear as necessary. Excellent.
I also discovered a wounded birdman named Vonar who was thirsting for some vengeance. Since he was a buddy of Drizzt and a level 5 Fighter/Thief/Mage, and I lacked a Thief, I sent the guard captain back to watch the town and brought this guy along. I'm now sitting pretty, ready to plunge my way into the Underdark, which is a significantly longer section than above ground. I'm geared up, I've got a bunch of new spells to play with, and with each new level, I'm sure to get tougher, so look out Drow. I'm coming to kick some ass.
Re: RPG Progress Report
That sounds like a fun game. I hope you're not misrepresenting it for the glory of great storytelling!
Dope Pope on a Rope
B/S/T thread
My Classic Games Collection
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The PC Engine Software Bible Forum, with Shoutbox chat - the new Internet home for PC Engine fandom.
B/S/T thread
My Classic Games Collection
My Steam Profile
The PC Engine Software Bible Forum, with Shoutbox chat - the new Internet home for PC Engine fandom.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: RPG Progress Report
Himalayan IQ post, Ack.
I assume you've grabbed all those D&D collections from GOG by now?
I assume you've grabbed all those D&D collections from GOG by now?
Re: RPG Progress Report
BoneSnapDeez wrote:Himalayan IQ post, Ack.
I assume you've grabbed all those D&D collections from GOG by now?
Absolutely. I grabbed all of them along with the Ultimas and Might and Magics around the same time. They're all fantastic journeys.
marurun wrote:That sounds like a fun game. I hope you're not misrepresenting it for the glory of great storytelling!
I don't feel like I am. I realize that some folks will probably have trouble getting past the UI, which I admit I initially struggled with since I was most recently used to the tile-based approach of Eye of the Beholder. It's slowly come together though, and I feel I'm easily able to navigate things now. That's probably the biggest hurdle to playing any older RPG, particularly Western RPGs.
Re: RPG Progress Report
I certainly hope he has. If he wants to get his Stinking Cloud on he needs to dive into the Gold Box games.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: RPG Progress Report
Menzoberranzan
The Underdark lives up to its name. Even with the gems, I have to use a Light spell to really see. I'm actually happy about this, as it's a spell I often get that I don't often have to use in Dungeons & Dragons video games. Potions of Passweb and Flying are also crucial at key moments, though surprisingly the spells that seem to be reduced in effectiveness are Magical Vestment and Improved Identify. The first is a spell which can give your gear a nice boost to act like magic equipment, and in 3rd edition, it lasted for hours and basically could be made to last for days if you knew what you were doing. I don't see any change to my AC using it here though. As for Improved Identify, it only seems to work on whatever the caster is holding, so that means it's not usable on armor. That is irksome, but at least Drizzt can cast Detect Magic at will due to being a Drow, so I can tell what armor is magic.
In fact, another thing that Menzo does well is utilizing inherent racial benefits. They operate as spells that can be used infinitely, so reading a language, detecting secret doors, or casting something like Detect Magic or Levitate can be done from the spell menu. It's a good approach, and I use certain abilities often. This helps make up for the fact that the game doesn't expect I will get too high in levels; spells cap out at rank 6, while in 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons they actually go up to rank 9. Eye of the Beholder had several rank 9 spells I could get. Menzo won't last that long, and it's a one-off adventure anyway, so I won't be porting this team over to another game to continue the fight at a higher level.
Now, getting back to the Underdark, the initial experience is a maze of corridors that wrap in and around on themselves and often have multiple ways through, though many would require flight to access. Enemies wander the halls, starting with weaker opponents like gnolls at the start before eventually leading to much nastier things like ochre jellies. The initial Underdark section is also split across two floors, which you will have to move between several times. Gear is smattered about, and I was happy to find several mage scrolls for spells I did not know. I'm not a high enough level to cast them yet, but having the option to eventually cast Passweb from memory will be a good option.
There are a couple of NPCs to be found along the way too, a pair of Dwarves. One provided me with a "world map" of sorts that shows how deep I am in relation to the surface and to the city of Menzoberranzan. I have a ways to go, but I have hints of what the paths will look like and my progress in this section of the adventure. While I could have brought this particular Dwarf warrior, I'm happy with my party makeup at the moment. The second Dwarf was much deeper, and he spoke about his master and the treasures he will be granted. In fact he raved and rambled about them.
Uh oh.
Look, here's the deal in D&D: you find someone ranting about their master, that's not a good sign. Menzo starts you off at level 5 so it can throw some tougher enemies at you from the start, but what kinds of creatures enslave in such a way as to make their subjects eager? Nothing good. Mindflayers tend to leave their servants mindless, so at least that wasn't the encounter. Liches can do it through magic, yet they tend to favor magical creatures and undead instead of mentally possessed people, because having someone around means someone who can learn their secrets and the location of their phylactery. None of the other options were good either, so I carefully pressed onward to my possible doom.
Drow soon started appearing in the halls, small bands of a couple of fighters and eventually a group with a Drow cleric. I slew her first before turning my attention to her little honor guard retinue, and then I found secret doors that brought me through more mazelike passages until I reached the lake.
What lives in water and mentally dominates humanoids?
Fuck me, it's an Aboleth.
I hit it with everything I had: fireballs, magic missiles, a lightning javelin. I buffed with my cleric and hacked at it with swords. I hit it hard, and the thing eventually fell in a pool of its own gore, and its tentacles stopped twitching and writhing as it screeched at me in a language I happily do not comprehend. I left the lake as quickly as I could, pushing forward into the Underdark again to find the next step of the path.
That was how I made it to the Dwarven Fortress. Unfortunately, these aren't your normal Dwarves; these are Derro, small blue evil Dwarves of the Underdark that hate. Thankfully, they approach combat like a bad action movie, hanging back and attacking only one at a time. I slaughter the little blue creatures as quickly as I see them. Hook Horrors also haunt the halls of this fortress, yet they're not much harder to dispatch.
Hook Horrors. Derro. Ochre Jellies. Troglodytes. An Aboleth. Menzo is throwing monsters at me that I don't often see in Dungeons & Dragons games, and I am loving it. Someone did a good job of exploring the Monster Manual for some lesser loved critters, and I am more than happy to put them down, just for the chance to fight these things.
As I continue to explore the halls of the Derro fortress, I wonder if this place wasn't actually built by proper Dwarves, and the Derro just took over. Eventually I find a young Elven child who seems both overconfident and out of place. When I point out she doesn't speak quite the way an Elf would speak, she removes her disguise, and I find myself toe to toe with a Handmaiden of Lolth. For those of you who don't know, Lolth is the spider queen god of the Drow, and her Handmaidens are nasty creatures. I didn't have the chance to buff the way I had when I saw the Aboleth, so instead I just let loose with all of my offensive spells and hope for the best, pausing only long enough to use all of my healing spells to keep my front line upright and fighting fit. It took every damn spell I had, but I eventually put that bitch down. Lolth, I'm gonna squish your ugly spider ass.
With that, I marched through the fortress and into the first floor of a beautiful Dwarven temple that is now overrun with Derro. There is a puzzle here, but I'm currently taking my time and admiring the level design. The main halls of the temple are even shaped to look like hammers. Gotta love the Dwarves.
The Underdark lives up to its name. Even with the gems, I have to use a Light spell to really see. I'm actually happy about this, as it's a spell I often get that I don't often have to use in Dungeons & Dragons video games. Potions of Passweb and Flying are also crucial at key moments, though surprisingly the spells that seem to be reduced in effectiveness are Magical Vestment and Improved Identify. The first is a spell which can give your gear a nice boost to act like magic equipment, and in 3rd edition, it lasted for hours and basically could be made to last for days if you knew what you were doing. I don't see any change to my AC using it here though. As for Improved Identify, it only seems to work on whatever the caster is holding, so that means it's not usable on armor. That is irksome, but at least Drizzt can cast Detect Magic at will due to being a Drow, so I can tell what armor is magic.
In fact, another thing that Menzo does well is utilizing inherent racial benefits. They operate as spells that can be used infinitely, so reading a language, detecting secret doors, or casting something like Detect Magic or Levitate can be done from the spell menu. It's a good approach, and I use certain abilities often. This helps make up for the fact that the game doesn't expect I will get too high in levels; spells cap out at rank 6, while in 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons they actually go up to rank 9. Eye of the Beholder had several rank 9 spells I could get. Menzo won't last that long, and it's a one-off adventure anyway, so I won't be porting this team over to another game to continue the fight at a higher level.
Now, getting back to the Underdark, the initial experience is a maze of corridors that wrap in and around on themselves and often have multiple ways through, though many would require flight to access. Enemies wander the halls, starting with weaker opponents like gnolls at the start before eventually leading to much nastier things like ochre jellies. The initial Underdark section is also split across two floors, which you will have to move between several times. Gear is smattered about, and I was happy to find several mage scrolls for spells I did not know. I'm not a high enough level to cast them yet, but having the option to eventually cast Passweb from memory will be a good option.
There are a couple of NPCs to be found along the way too, a pair of Dwarves. One provided me with a "world map" of sorts that shows how deep I am in relation to the surface and to the city of Menzoberranzan. I have a ways to go, but I have hints of what the paths will look like and my progress in this section of the adventure. While I could have brought this particular Dwarf warrior, I'm happy with my party makeup at the moment. The second Dwarf was much deeper, and he spoke about his master and the treasures he will be granted. In fact he raved and rambled about them.
Uh oh.
Look, here's the deal in D&D: you find someone ranting about their master, that's not a good sign. Menzo starts you off at level 5 so it can throw some tougher enemies at you from the start, but what kinds of creatures enslave in such a way as to make their subjects eager? Nothing good. Mindflayers tend to leave their servants mindless, so at least that wasn't the encounter. Liches can do it through magic, yet they tend to favor magical creatures and undead instead of mentally possessed people, because having someone around means someone who can learn their secrets and the location of their phylactery. None of the other options were good either, so I carefully pressed onward to my possible doom.
Drow soon started appearing in the halls, small bands of a couple of fighters and eventually a group with a Drow cleric. I slew her first before turning my attention to her little honor guard retinue, and then I found secret doors that brought me through more mazelike passages until I reached the lake.
What lives in water and mentally dominates humanoids?
Fuck me, it's an Aboleth.
I hit it with everything I had: fireballs, magic missiles, a lightning javelin. I buffed with my cleric and hacked at it with swords. I hit it hard, and the thing eventually fell in a pool of its own gore, and its tentacles stopped twitching and writhing as it screeched at me in a language I happily do not comprehend. I left the lake as quickly as I could, pushing forward into the Underdark again to find the next step of the path.
That was how I made it to the Dwarven Fortress. Unfortunately, these aren't your normal Dwarves; these are Derro, small blue evil Dwarves of the Underdark that hate. Thankfully, they approach combat like a bad action movie, hanging back and attacking only one at a time. I slaughter the little blue creatures as quickly as I see them. Hook Horrors also haunt the halls of this fortress, yet they're not much harder to dispatch.
Hook Horrors. Derro. Ochre Jellies. Troglodytes. An Aboleth. Menzo is throwing monsters at me that I don't often see in Dungeons & Dragons games, and I am loving it. Someone did a good job of exploring the Monster Manual for some lesser loved critters, and I am more than happy to put them down, just for the chance to fight these things.
As I continue to explore the halls of the Derro fortress, I wonder if this place wasn't actually built by proper Dwarves, and the Derro just took over. Eventually I find a young Elven child who seems both overconfident and out of place. When I point out she doesn't speak quite the way an Elf would speak, she removes her disguise, and I find myself toe to toe with a Handmaiden of Lolth. For those of you who don't know, Lolth is the spider queen god of the Drow, and her Handmaidens are nasty creatures. I didn't have the chance to buff the way I had when I saw the Aboleth, so instead I just let loose with all of my offensive spells and hope for the best, pausing only long enough to use all of my healing spells to keep my front line upright and fighting fit. It took every damn spell I had, but I eventually put that bitch down. Lolth, I'm gonna squish your ugly spider ass.
With that, I marched through the fortress and into the first floor of a beautiful Dwarven temple that is now overrun with Derro. There is a puzzle here, but I'm currently taking my time and admiring the level design. The main halls of the temple are even shaped to look like hammers. Gotta love the Dwarves.
Re: RPG Progress Report
So, 2nd Edition Magical Vestment doesn't stack with armor. That's the problem. If you are wearing armor and cast Magical Vestment, if your level is high enough that it is better than your current armor its AC value simply replaces yours. If the armor value is lower than your current armor you simply retain your armor's value.
Dope Pope on a Rope
B/S/T thread
My Classic Games Collection
My Steam Profile
The PC Engine Software Bible Forum, with Shoutbox chat - the new Internet home for PC Engine fandom.
B/S/T thread
My Classic Games Collection
My Steam Profile
The PC Engine Software Bible Forum, with Shoutbox chat - the new Internet home for PC Engine fandom.
Re: RPG Progress Report
That figures. It makes the spell much less worthwhile for me. I abused it in 3rd Edition.
Re: RPG Progress Report
Menzoberranzan
The quest continues.
When I last left off, I had entered the first floor of a Dwarven temple. I continued on in my explorations and discovered that the evil Derro had indeed pushed the Dwarves from their home with the aid of a Drow noble house. Now that house was demanding the Derro launch an attack on a rival house, but the Derro leader wanted instead to buy time and search for a magic fountain hidden in the temple. Once the meeting was over, I made it a point to enter and assassinate the Derro leader.
I also discovered several secrets, leading me to the Holy Symbol of Dumathion, some sort of Dwarven hero or holy figure to whom the temple was dedicated. With this symbol, I moved to the second floor, killing the Derro and Night Hunters that appeared in my way.
The second floor of the temple contains Menzo's version of spinners, which are far more annoying than those found in tile-based games like Eye of the Beholder. To pass them, you need to get right to the edge where you spin and then immediately back up upon activation, thus letting you cross over the boundary. A couple of spinners were also placed in front of doors, which made things doubly difficult to maneuver around, though through patience and careful work, I successfully managed to navigate the floor.
Along the way, I also found a prisoner of the Derro, a Deep Gnome thief that the blue bastards had tortured and poisoned. Since he's a dedicated thief, I opted to boot the birdman in exchange and help cure his poison by speaking with the Myconids. As much as birdman was useful as a backup Mage, his 3 classes meant that he didn't really excel and always served as a support role. The thief will be similar, but perhaps I'll need him at a key spot later.
While searching for secrets and hidden switches, I managed to find a teleport that transported me to a hallway with Umber Hulks and a Dwarven horn. The Hulks proved susceptible to magic, so I took them out from afar and then took the horn with me to a particular statue, where I blew on it to find a special chalice. All of this was written in books that I had found in the temple, and using the holy symbol and chalice, I was able to push forward to the third floor of the temple.
This floor lacks spinners, and while it features the return of Hook Horrors alongside the Derro as well as some little lizard enemies, nothing really posed a threat. However, a central corridor dominated the floor, and at the end was the fountain. It demanded an offering, so I pried a diamond off a wall in a different part of the level and came back to toss it in. Ha, so here was the secret the Derro were searching for! And it's...a throwing ax. One that returns, but still, that's not nearly as awesome as I was expecting. Still, the Deep Gnome thief could use it, so I now armed my back row completely and pressed forward.
With the temple complete, I turned a corner to exit and found myself toe to toe with a Roper. These are magical beasts which reside in caves and look like stalagmites but reach out with rope-like tentacles whenever prey draws near. I hit it with fireballs, my swords, and the Ax of Hurling, and it died. With the way open, I marched forward...only to be met with a sudden Orb of Darkness and a fierce, hidden attack.
The Drow kidnapped Drizzt. Some of the gear he had been holding was left behind, but his weapons and the magic objects he came with were now gone. Considering how easily my butt got kicked, my party decide to lick its wounds, regear and drop the unnecessary materials I had gathered, and respec. The Deep Gnome was still poisoned, so I pressed forward and found myself in the Myconid caverns, an area full of fungus, lichen, and mushrooms. I had to fight my way through shrieking mushrooms and fungus-crusted skeletons before finally making my way to the Myconid court, but as I was a foe of the Drow, their king let me in to speak.
The Myconid people are happy to be separate from the rest of the world and exist among themselves, and their king wanted that tradition to continue, free from the machinations of the Drow and outside meddlers. He offered to heal the Deep Gnome of his poison, but only if I undertook a quest for him first. With no other options at hand, I agreed and was tasked with assassinating an Umber Hulk nearby. It turns out he wasn't that far away, and despite no longer having Drizzt, crushing my prey ended up no harder than before as I nuked him with fireball spells. The Myconid King was more than happy and gave me three treatments for the poison, one for the thief and two more to help in my fight against the Drow.
I moved onwards and soon found myself in a cave where a creature of the very earth formed out of the wall and begged me find a missing stone necklace he could not touch. I fought my way through, finding the necklace and a magic throwing knife that was better than the Ax of Hurling, along with a two-handed sword that turned my Fighter/Cleric into a hoss, and I easily slew the Ropers that got into my way. Upon return the necklace, I was allowed to proceed beyond this simple filler chapter.
The party now finds itself in the Cave of the Driders. If you're not familiar, Driders are Drow that have been magically mutated into spider hybrids. In short, they're not pleasant. It is time I move in and kill them. Judging from my map, Menzoberranzan is not too much farther. I hope to enter the city soon.
The quest continues.
When I last left off, I had entered the first floor of a Dwarven temple. I continued on in my explorations and discovered that the evil Derro had indeed pushed the Dwarves from their home with the aid of a Drow noble house. Now that house was demanding the Derro launch an attack on a rival house, but the Derro leader wanted instead to buy time and search for a magic fountain hidden in the temple. Once the meeting was over, I made it a point to enter and assassinate the Derro leader.
I also discovered several secrets, leading me to the Holy Symbol of Dumathion, some sort of Dwarven hero or holy figure to whom the temple was dedicated. With this symbol, I moved to the second floor, killing the Derro and Night Hunters that appeared in my way.
The second floor of the temple contains Menzo's version of spinners, which are far more annoying than those found in tile-based games like Eye of the Beholder. To pass them, you need to get right to the edge where you spin and then immediately back up upon activation, thus letting you cross over the boundary. A couple of spinners were also placed in front of doors, which made things doubly difficult to maneuver around, though through patience and careful work, I successfully managed to navigate the floor.
Along the way, I also found a prisoner of the Derro, a Deep Gnome thief that the blue bastards had tortured and poisoned. Since he's a dedicated thief, I opted to boot the birdman in exchange and help cure his poison by speaking with the Myconids. As much as birdman was useful as a backup Mage, his 3 classes meant that he didn't really excel and always served as a support role. The thief will be similar, but perhaps I'll need him at a key spot later.
While searching for secrets and hidden switches, I managed to find a teleport that transported me to a hallway with Umber Hulks and a Dwarven horn. The Hulks proved susceptible to magic, so I took them out from afar and then took the horn with me to a particular statue, where I blew on it to find a special chalice. All of this was written in books that I had found in the temple, and using the holy symbol and chalice, I was able to push forward to the third floor of the temple.
This floor lacks spinners, and while it features the return of Hook Horrors alongside the Derro as well as some little lizard enemies, nothing really posed a threat. However, a central corridor dominated the floor, and at the end was the fountain. It demanded an offering, so I pried a diamond off a wall in a different part of the level and came back to toss it in. Ha, so here was the secret the Derro were searching for! And it's...a throwing ax. One that returns, but still, that's not nearly as awesome as I was expecting. Still, the Deep Gnome thief could use it, so I now armed my back row completely and pressed forward.
With the temple complete, I turned a corner to exit and found myself toe to toe with a Roper. These are magical beasts which reside in caves and look like stalagmites but reach out with rope-like tentacles whenever prey draws near. I hit it with fireballs, my swords, and the Ax of Hurling, and it died. With the way open, I marched forward...only to be met with a sudden Orb of Darkness and a fierce, hidden attack.
The Drow kidnapped Drizzt. Some of the gear he had been holding was left behind, but his weapons and the magic objects he came with were now gone. Considering how easily my butt got kicked, my party decide to lick its wounds, regear and drop the unnecessary materials I had gathered, and respec. The Deep Gnome was still poisoned, so I pressed forward and found myself in the Myconid caverns, an area full of fungus, lichen, and mushrooms. I had to fight my way through shrieking mushrooms and fungus-crusted skeletons before finally making my way to the Myconid court, but as I was a foe of the Drow, their king let me in to speak.
The Myconid people are happy to be separate from the rest of the world and exist among themselves, and their king wanted that tradition to continue, free from the machinations of the Drow and outside meddlers. He offered to heal the Deep Gnome of his poison, but only if I undertook a quest for him first. With no other options at hand, I agreed and was tasked with assassinating an Umber Hulk nearby. It turns out he wasn't that far away, and despite no longer having Drizzt, crushing my prey ended up no harder than before as I nuked him with fireball spells. The Myconid King was more than happy and gave me three treatments for the poison, one for the thief and two more to help in my fight against the Drow.
I moved onwards and soon found myself in a cave where a creature of the very earth formed out of the wall and begged me find a missing stone necklace he could not touch. I fought my way through, finding the necklace and a magic throwing knife that was better than the Ax of Hurling, along with a two-handed sword that turned my Fighter/Cleric into a hoss, and I easily slew the Ropers that got into my way. Upon return the necklace, I was allowed to proceed beyond this simple filler chapter.
The party now finds itself in the Cave of the Driders. If you're not familiar, Driders are Drow that have been magically mutated into spider hybrids. In short, they're not pleasant. It is time I move in and kill them. Judging from my map, Menzoberranzan is not too much farther. I hope to enter the city soon.