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When a game isn't fun any more, it's time to make changes. So after
long thought, Trystahnn the half-elf paladin went to the Tunare retirement home. A
new team of characters would take on the Adventure chronicles: Ancarett, a high elf
cleric and Slugaduk, a troll warrior. Together they
made an awe-inspiring team and vowed to carry on the Adventures tradition.
Having surpassed Yseulte and Trystahnn in levels, Ancarett and Slugaduk set off to explore more challenging zones. A guild raid on Lower Guk sounded like the perfect opportunity to start their chronicles. This part of the froglok kingdom housed undead frogloks and a host of other powerful monsters. It was only with the guidance of Hykros and Haunters, our guild leaders, that we were prepared to venture beyond the first corridor of this challenging dungeon. We took the further precaution of buying some cloudy potions to render Slugaduk invisible while he passed parts of Upper Guk held by the live frogloks, who loathe trolls. Our adventure began on an excellent note. In exchange for resurrection, an enchanter cast Koadic's Endless Intellect upon our party including Calliden, a wizard, Toboli, a shadow knight, Slugaduk and myself. For two and a half hours, our casters enjoyed the benefits of this buffing spell. Mana flowing and weapons flashing, we laid waste to the frogloks we found. After laying waste to the undead froglok sage and his guards in the sage room, we went through a steady stream of pulls from other parts of the dungeon. At times there were seven or more bodies littering the floor of the room. Since most of the frogloks we fought were undead, my cleric spells could afflict over 250 points of damage at a cast. Some nice loot dropped: a braided cinch cord, a runed cowl and Slugaduk claimed the warrior-only Executioner's Axe that a Ghoul Executioner relinquished. The new axe laid waste to a trio of gargoyles. Hykros searched deep in the dungeon and came back with a herd of angry minotaurs on his heels. Calliden unleashed his wizarding flames upon the minotaurs while Toboli and Slugaduk waded into combat. By this time, our party was strengthened by the addition of Hunnen, a druid, whose damage shields were welcome by the fighters. While Koadics lasted, I was able to throw stuns on these "live" opponents. Calliden's area effect spells caused spectacular fireball effects that roared impressively in the small room. Toboli's melee attacks were augmented by Clinging Darkness and other debuffs while Slugaduk enjoyed an occasional bit of haste courtesy of his new axe. As we efficiently killed all that came our way, Hykros searched farther and farther for mobs we could kill. It was surprising and funny to see a hand chasing Hykros down the hallway to our room. This Reanimated Hand was an amusing opponent: notice what finger it keeps up in combat. It didn't take long for Slugaduk and Toboli to take it down. Both times we killed it we only got the common drop of serpentine bracers. Disaster struck only once. Just after the Koadic's buff wore off, Hykros cryptically advised us to "Stand!" as a magnificent train of monsters followed him into the room. The casters were quickly out of mana and our 57 cleric became aware too late of the gravity of our situation. When the last monster was dead, only Toboli survived, in part due to the last desperate casting of Greater Heal I'd thrown his way before I, too fell. We were quickly rezzed and resituated for more pulls. Conserving our mana, we were still able to take on a crowd of skeletons and another long train of frogloks. By this time Slugaduk, Calliden and I had all achieved level 36. As we wound up, Hykros took us on a guided tour of Lower Guk (strangely empty due to our recent fights). We stopped to admire several rooms before breaking up our party and heading our separate ways. Ancarett made her way to the South Ro druid ring before camping, heavily laden with platinum, fine steel weapons and a few other items. Slugaduk took advantage of the rare opportunity to visit homey Grobb and get the best prices for his goods. Panic struck as he accidently sold his Centi Longsword to a merchant along with the other fine steel weapons but a timely bit of merchant mining retrieved his beloved sword. |
