Part 63: Venus Gem Trap

Update 21: Venus Gem Trap

Now that we're properly rested, the party can go searching for that stupid grey rock. It won't be long before we find… well, something. As a note, I had to get a couple of screenshots off an early attempt to play through that had me run into the initial encounter before recovering my HP.



"…since long before you were corrupted. This is effort I do not want wasted, Vlaahg. The Greystone must be recovered at once. Gather dragons to seek it out, and take it off Taladas. Do you hear me?"



"…with the Grathanich I can rebuild. You must…"

"Betcha 10 steel you won't get the chance to hear the end of that sentence."



"Somehow I don't think he's going to pay up."



In a nice nod to gameplay and story integration, the Aurak in this group really is right up front where he's got a front row seat to the ass-kicking that's about to take place. Those enchanted bozaks can be a bit annoying, but the kapaks and their acid spatters are practically guaranteed to keep two of them from casting. Once we're done with them, our goal is to make our way down to the third floor. Naturally, this isn't completely uneventful.



"No parley, not with you. We'll kill you first, then see if she wants to talk."






"Unless you're willing to wait 300 years for me to get old, the whole 'I'll spare your homelands until you're about to die anyway' ploy isn't going to work.

"I may not have to wait until you are old. You are foolish already!"



"Geeze, where were these guys the entire time we were climbing up the tower?"

"Considering the difficulties involved at that point and that we still have the enemies of the Abyss to face, I'm just as happy that we did not meet them earlier."




They're pulling out all the stops at this point, with lots of spell casters and some of the nastier enemies with save or die abilities and hideously powerful death weapons. The enemy is also scattered enough that one or two of them will get some kind of spell off.




"Is that all you have left, now that you're locked away in your prison again? You could at least try to show some dignity in defeat."



"Huh.. whaddya think they're all looking at?"

"Who cares? Let's just start hitting them while they're not paying attention."




"That idea sounds better and better. We definitely can't let them get their hands on it again."

"They must not disturb the iron flower! Death to the interlopers!"



First line of defense. No big deal, especially since they're mostly positioned for a single fireball to wipe them out. You might, however, want to save some of those. We've got a lot more ahead of us.



"Open the shafts! And summon the dragons to bear our prize away!"

"You guys should know about counting eggs before they hatch."



"The dragons must have abandoned the fight outside the tower to deal with this. Unfortunately the gnome ships can really only follow them through the largest shafts."



That is a LOT of dragons. A lot of soon to be dead dragons, especially the much more dangerous green dragons up front. If you get the drop on them, this actually isn't a very hard battle. Without the enchanted bozaks and their fire shields, there's also nothing to stop your front liners from running up and tearing apart the auraks.



"You little guys just knock yourselves out, we'll let you handle it from here."




"Huh, is that a good thing or a bad thing? The gnomes seem a bit upset."



"Yeah, we'll have to put a stop to that."



"They can't really afford to ignore us, can they?"



Fittingly enough, it's turned into a confused mess with dragons and draconians completely intermixed. Even if you can't take out the death dragons quickly, the sivaks detonating will probably finish them and can do serious damage to dragons that are just a bit out of reach.




"We need to keep them focused over here for a minute longer."

"Hey you bunch of overgrown geckos! I'm getting kind of tired, so are you just going to stand there and make me chase you or are you going to come over here so I can stab you?"

"All of these adventures with me, and that's the best you can come up with?"



"Certainly seems to have gotten their attention, at any rate. You can work on it later."



Despite appearances, this is a much more dangerous set. Luckily, the worst of them are all clustered together. The black dragons can really be dealt with at your leisure.




"If it weren't for that grapple, he might actually have a chance of getting out of this… but I'm all out of arrows."



"Luckily, I have no such handicap."




"Huh. Well, I guess that's one way to take care of the Greygem."



"Wow. Why didn't she do that to us when she had a chance?"

"The Dark Queen can only directly strike at those who have already given themselves into her power here on Krynn."




"Guys? Guys! It's okay, we can walk!"



"Well, at least we got to leave first. And we don't really have to worry about any of the dragons being left alive at this point."

"Yes, we have effectively committed genocide on several of their sub-species."



"Our pilot seems awfully quiet at the moment."

"As much as they all want that Greygem, he almost had it. I hope he's not too mad at us for cutting the cable."

"Ah, maybe the lava will destroy that flower someday, and the Grathanich will again be free! We'll just have to plan a way to search for it and some kind of mechanism to pull it out, and…"

"I wouldn't worry, as long as the problem poses a technical challenge gnomes generally pick themselves up fairly quickly."




"I'm glad to hear that Daenor and Crysia made it out alright."

"If by 'rescued' you mean was hijacked by, that is probably fairly close to the truth."

"I'm just looking forward to a nap when we get back to the Gnome city."