|
|
Everyone has their favourite hangouts. Fifties kids at the malt shop, modern teens at the
mall. When in Norrath, we've adopted the Tower of Frozen Shadows as a kind of home away from home. Sure,
the inhabitants are a bit cold and the decor's a little bare, but really, the zone has everything you'd
want: a library, a kitchen, a never-ending wedding party. O, and a terrifying
vampire bosslady on the top floor. Well, no place is perfect, but the Tower offers great opportunity for
an organized and patient party in their thirties or forties.
Accompanied by Calima the bard and on occasion, Moonfairy the wizard as well as Tanzzir the ranger, we spent several days exploring the Tower's lower floors as well as making one surprise trip to the top. We started out at the first floor, determined to nab a few keys for our party members. The first floor is filled with a variety of undead, ranging from level 25 to 35. The center room of the first floor is slippery and will land unwary adventurers in a central pit inhabited by a few angry shadowbone skeletons. Slugaduk took advantage of levitate to pull steadily and safely from the many alcoves. Tanzzir joined us part way through the evening, helping out with snares as well as meleeing alongside the warrior and bard. It took a while but we managed to pop the keyholder, a Large Undead Gnoll, three times, so we had a couple copies of the key to go around. Calling it quits for one night, we resolved to return and tackle the second floor. When we all had logged back in the next evening (and run a few party members to the Tower from the nearby wizard port) Moonfairy levitated all in the party, to avoid the possibility of slipping into the shadowbone-filled pit, and with my own casts of Invisibility to Undead on all, we zipped over to the second floor entrance: a mirror set in the wall. Someone in your party must have the key ready and everyone must stand nearby in order to make it through. If anyone's left behind, you'll have to run through the floor to the exit and repeat the process all over again, so be warned! The second floor is dark and filled with ghostly undead Erudites: students, teachers and librarians. Slugaduk remarked how reminiscient the architecture was of Paineel, then he shook off his brief moment of Erudite channeling and returned to his usual trollish self. We set up camp just in front of the library entrance as Slugaduk started the evening's fun off by pulling the librarian and her assistant from the center desk. After we had slain the pair, the pulls came in steadily. It's best to have a range of resistances up as the mobs on this floor cast a variety of spells: disease, poison, cold and fire afflicted our party at various points in the evening. Clerical anti-undead dots and nukes were very effective here (with controlled pulls, heals weren't often required). The keyholder for this floor only appears as a random result of any other kill. It took a while to get the key for ourselves as there was another player waiting (only for the key) when we arrived. When we finally got our key (and a copy of the Teacher's Syllabus as well), we were ready to call it quits and have Moonfairy teleport us out. Alternatively, it would have been easy to renew Invisibility to Undead on all the party members and exit the floor to camp back inside the tower's first floor foyer. (You don't want to try to camp out outside as the wandering shadow guardians and snow dervishs haunt the Tower's exterior). The next night, only three of us (Calima, Slugaduk and Ancarett) could make it. Nevertheless, we'd planned to attack the second floor when a guildleader showed up and invited us to join him on the top floor. We couldn't say no and prepared to take on the toughest mobs in the Tower. Fortunately, Hykros had the direct key to the top floor (which drops off of the Tower's boss mob, Tserrina the vampire) so we didn't have a long and risky run through the other six levels. Once at the top, he took over pulling mobs while Calima and Slugaduk assisted as directed on a string of lesser vampires, bats and familiars. I took up a healing station nearby with Haunters, my fellow cleric. It was a very boring view from where I sat and meditated. The fighters had a much more exciting evening of it. Tserrina popped several times and each time she appeared, we had at least one death on our part. For an enchanter, she's an amazingly tough mob who charmed both Hykros and Slugaduk at different points in the evening. In between we slew shaded torches (which drop an amusing, no rent rangeslot version of themselves, of little use, even in the short term), shadow familiars and shaded bats, attempting to pop Tserrina again. After three times, we'd had enough and bid Hykros farewell. With keys to the seventh floor in our sacks awaiting a return engagement, we exited, returned to the first floor entrance and safely camped out. A week later we all returned to the zone. Slugaduk, Calima and I all enjoyed the scenic boat ride from North Ro to the Iceclad docks. Back in the Tower we prepared to tackle the third floor. Our first zone in was a bit of a rude shock. An armored shadow awaited us as we zoned in. Not undead, it saw us and immediately attacked. Fortunately we were able to take it down speedily and no other inhabitants wandered nearby to attack us. We set up camp in a corridor near the pool room and exit. Slugaduk again began to pull, by ones or twos, the zombie servants and shadowbeast kitchen help that populate this floor. Tanzzir again joined us partway through the evening. Having all the keys, it was easy to dodge out to the exit, add the ranger to the party, renew Invisibility to Undead and be back at our camp site within two minutes. With four members, it was easy to take down two, occasionally three, at a time. We particularly liked the funky looks of the armored shadows. Calima charmed some and we appreciated the extra damage (though charm did break at some inconvenient moments). Rooting the additional mobs also was a good strategy and Tanzzir's snare helped to keep the wandering monsters from straying out of sight. At the end of the evening we repeated our quick exit only to camp out in the relative safety of the first floor entrance. Over four evenings' visits, we'd thoroughly enjoyed ourselves exploring more sections of this amazingly underused zone. |