Part 30: Silver and Gold Requiem

Update 8: Silver and Gold Requiem



"Yeah, we're kind of upset about that too… but I don't think he could bend such a great knight to his cause."

"I see you are not yet worthy of my secret. If I tell, and you fail, all is lost."

"C'mon, give us a bit of credit here."

"Find the Dragon Pit. It is in the mountains northwest of here. Here's how to enter it."





"We'll be back! Assuming we don't get sidetracked in a bunch of tiny villages."

"Go now, or evil will find me."



After a long and perilous journey, we finally reach the area. It's easy enough to miss, especially since Sebas' directions are based on when you get here."



"There are many other entrances, but they are warded against the living. I appreciate your help, but it is I and I alone who shall return my beloved to his rest."

"Last time you tried this, we had to rescue from Myrtani… but if you insist…"



"I shall cross over here. I can faintly scent Sir Karl. Take the path that Sebas indicated and we shall soon meet again."

"She could have at least hooked up the bridge for us."

"It's okay, this'll give her just enough time to get in trouble so that we need to rescue her again."



I can't really complain about taking the long way around, especially when it means all kinds of experience and goodies.



"It's certainly odd for a temple such as this to be abandoned. How long does this place date back?"

"It might have been pre-Cataclysm temple. The land might have been quite different then."



"Holy Mishakal's ovaries, those things can talk! Nobody ever said they could talk!"

"They won't be talking for long."

"This was Sir Bregen who disappeared on patrol some days ago. At least we have given him the peace of death."

A few steps further along..



"You lie, dog, as you have always lied. Bring your minions! We'll deal with them, and then we'll deal with you as soon as you stop running and show your cowardly face."



His minions are considerably less impressive than they have been in the past. We've finally reached the point where the skeletal warriors are only a moderate threat.



"Should we… should we use anything we find here? It's in a temple of Takhisis, after all…"

"Except for the most powerful magical items, such things have no fixed allegiance."

"Besides, they probably stole it from the forces of good in the first place."

The treasure in this case is Plate Mail +3, a Shield +2, and a pair of scrolls. You can see the differences in armor classes. With the room scoured, our party moves out into the main corridor...



"The smell is terrible… having lived in a farming village, I really don't want to know what those mounds are made up of."



"I'm not sure if I'm happy that you were wrong or not."

"They're zombie dragons. You should be ecstatic, since they still count as dragons."



Off to the side is another temple, also filled with sleeping undead dragons. They're nothing but brutes, so it's a fairly easy fight. A little further along the corridor..



"Free me before they turn me into an undead!"

"We can do that, but before we do you'd better tell us everything you know."



"Fair enough. Go free, then, and if we meet again we'll be enemies."

"Thank you mortals! I shall be on my way out."

"Huh. Maybe there's some hope if a red dragon can actually be grateful."

Less than 20 minutes later...



"Well, he died as he lived. I don't think a red dragon would want to end up as anything other than a pile of ashes."

"Yeah, we're not going that way."



"In some ways, the undead are very set in their ways."

"Even nightmares need a good grooming every now and then."

The fight is nothing remarkable by this point. Moving on...



"HEY! Come back here! Why won't anyone stick around and fight?"

"Probably trying to set a trap. And the proper way to deal with a trap…"

"Is to step into it and break the teeth."



"I have warned you of the foolishness of your quest. Now Soth has asked that I make his view more clear."

"Oh, I've been waiting for this for a LONG time."

"At least we'll finally be rid of him haranguing us at every turn."



We've got a bit of killing to do in order to actually come to grips with the dread wolf. He's an extremely dangerous monster, who gets six attacks per turn, has an insane armor class, and ignores most magic you can throw at him. He managed to bring Boo and Rip into unconsciousness before the battle was finished.



"Say what you want, he was a worthy adversary."

"Having the shape of a dog, you almost feel bad for it… although if we have anything to say about it he'll be waiting a long time for Takhisis to return him."



"I've got a really bad feeling about this place, considering the amount of effort they went through to bury the rest of it…"



"…kind of? About that…"




"Son of a… I knew she'd get into trouble!"



"Once again, though, we've got bigger problems right in front of our faces."



Death dragons are a whole different kettle of fish compared to undead dragons. They've got a breath weapon, and seriously, look at that armor class and HP total. This thing is absolutely lethal, and if they don't make their safe it can kill most of our characters outright. Despite that, being only a single enemy its lifespan is limited.



"That's probably not a good sign."

"This time, we're not letting anybody else take the damn thing. It causes too much trouble."



"It could be that this entire temple simply fell because that death dragon going out of control."



Just… just look at that experience award. I think this might be the single biggest experience award in the game. In addition to a metric fuck-ton of coins, it also includes some leather armor +3 (finally, something for our thief), short bow +3, and some plate mail +2.



"This really would have been nice to have a couple of hours ago."



"Wait, when did this get here?"

"Considering that I left to join you some weeks before your companion died, it's likely that an engraver got a mysterious order some time back."

"Things like this don't put the Gods into a very positive light. If they know so much about what's coming, why don't they do something about it?"

"They do. That's why we're here."




"The Gods might be only a little bit less helpless than we are… and it must be so much more difficult with all their power."

"I'm just glad that Maya and Sir Karl are together now."

Character Update





With a good chunk of the game left to go, our heroes are really starting to shape up. Max level in this game is level 14 for everybody except thieves, who go up to level 18. Sam is becoming an incredible monster in combat, and will only continue to get more dangerous. Amanda is catching up, and new gear is helping her fight on par with everybody else. Our mage and cleric have reached max spell level, and you can see that everybody is loaded down with coin. We'll have to do something about that next update.