Part 81: Witches Get Stitches

Update 44: Witches Get Stitches



"Necropolis I know -- that's the town on the edge of the Forbidden Zone -- but we've been all over Darkside now and haven't seen Olympus anywhere. Eh, doesn't matter. Not like we have a pass to get in anyway."



"Wasn't clearing out one evil-spellcaster-infested town enough?"



Witches attack the whole party for 10-100 electrical damage. They're immune to electricity but have no other significant resistances, and only have 150 HP.



If you're in Lakeside in the first place, that means you've fought your way through Sandcaster, which means you've already faced enemies stronger than Witches. It's practically impossible to not be overlevelled for them. Just get into melee and kill them.



"This is all rather reminiscent of the Witch's Tower back on Cloudside. Are these witches also turning people into goblins?"



"Goblin, minotaur... pretty close."
"If the monsters we fought on the Isle of Lost Souls were failures, I'm not looking forward to seeing the successful ones."



"Purple is tastiest of all colours!"



"I'd say we have to teach him to stop doing that, but what could we do to him that's worse than he already does to himself?"



"Good evening, talking skull! How does it go for you on this day?"
"It's a skull. How do you think it's doing?"



"This is much easier than the paladin's riddle. There's only one possible answer for each position."



"Score!"
"Why you excited? You not use magic."
"Yeah, but it's free!"



"And look, there's stuff in the guild for us non-magical types too!"



Make sure to search all the beds in Lakeside: many of them contain scrolls with high-level spells like Dancing Sword and Moon Ray. Even if you don't want to use them, they sell for a good bit of money.



The guild's spell selection is a bit of a disappointment: of the three Sorcerer spells it offers that we don't already have, only Inferno is really good.



Both of the new clerical spells are nice to have, though.



"Another talking skull? In this town the dead are friendlier than the living!"
"Let's bring some more friendship, then."



...stir rapidly. The hide should dissolve in the caustic brew in three minutes, exactly. If the hide dissolves any sooner or later, the brew is sour and will turn its drinkers to stone. Makes one serving.

"Sounds like a lot of effort. I think I'm gonna stick to letting other people make it and then takin' it from 'em."



"Awww. Would be cute little town if not for witches."



"I can't even get drunk in this town? Witches ruin everything!"

The nearby blacksmith is similarly destroyed: the only shop in Lakeside that's still usable is the magic guild.



Once again I feel I have no choice but to make a video to show off the voice acting here:



"Crikey. We'll give it a burl, then."



... the next day. If the mixture turns black, the brew is sour and will turn its drinkers to stone. Makes one serving.

"With all the ways these brews can go wrong, I'm surprised the witches haven't all managed to turn themselves to stone before we got here."



... brew is sour and

"And will turn its drinkers to stone?"

Hey! No interrupting!



There are in fact some cauldrons with potions of Endurance, Speed and Personality, in between all the ones that turn you to stone. Keep Clairvoyance active so you can tell which cauldrons are good -- and then take note of which ones you've already benefited from, because if you try to drink from the same one more than once, guess what happens.



"Doot de doot, time to loot. If I'm evil, this stuff's the root. The treasure I'll take and my own horn I'll toot. I'm the master thief Trish, with skills most acute. At locks I'm an expert, at parties a hoot. If Ellinger had this cash he'd buy a boot. But he's not here, so the point is moot."



"Technically, once actually put in potion, not 'spare part' any more: just 'part'. Only spare part if still in storage."
"I'm sure that knowledge would have been a great comfort to her as she was being melted down into goo. Speaking of which, has anyone seen any more Personality potions around here?"



The Coven Leader is basically a somewhat stronger Witch, but with a twist: her party-wide attack does energy damage instead of electrical, and has a chance to reduce characters' current spell points to zero. This might be more of an issue if we couldn't just melee everything in town to death, but we can, so it isn't.



"What is this? A pass to the city of the dead? Could it mean an opportunity to hang outwards with more friendly skulls?"



"Woooo! Fubar always hope for someone to see his inner beauty!"



"... northwestern corner of the town."
"It's actually in my pocket now, but thanks anyway! Now you quit trying to be a witch and run along home, you hear?"



There are five prisoners to rescue in Lakeside, meaning a total of 1 million experience points, or 1 full level for the party.



"Good idea to join yacht club. Signalling high social status bring many kind of reward."



This boat will in fact take you safely to the Isle of Lost Souls. It's one-way, which could be a slight problem if you have neither Walk on Water nor any teleportation spells that can get you back off the island.



"I'm surprised the witches haven't looted this boat already."
"Well, they are witches. They're not known for their positive relationship with water."

The party gets 35,000 gold and seven high-level random items from searching this boat.



"Speaking of bad relationships with water, I don't suppose we can put this off any longer, can we."



"Aw, you think you're scarin' us with those chompers? That's adorable. We've killed dinosaurs, for cryin' out loud!"



Sewer Stalkers have a single attack for 3-300 damage, but it's a physical attack and it's not particularly accurate so really they're just going to miss us all the time.



They have 250 HP and no resistances, so fighting them doesn't take long, either.



Large groups of them like to pop out of the water right in front of you without warning, but fighting three of them just means three times the experience points.



"There's the golden dragon statuette that Luna the druid was looking for near Castleview! We only need one more statuette to restore her shrine. If I recall correctly, the last one was supposed to be in Necropolis."



"We're collecting potions -- things that you put in your mouth and drink -- that came out of sewer drains. This is what we've now been reduced to. Fantastic."

The potions you can find down here are all either Stone to Flesh or Resurrection. I don't know if there are any more monsters that can turn us to stone now that we're done with the Isle of Lost Souls, but having items to cure eradication could come in handy.



... was so sudden. Who would have known that the witches were plotting to...

"And that's where it ends, but considering how things have turned out here I'm gonna guess they were plotting to take over the town and turn a bunch of people into monsters. Just a hunch."



... infested with sewer monsters, and they seem to come out of nowhere. Got to watch my back.

"This why people should leave monster-smashing to experts like Fubar."



"What foolery am I seeing before me? Why are there benches here, as if this were a park for the strolling and canoodling of the public?"



"If I had to guess, I'd say someone has built a very tiny and gross church down here."



"Tiny it may be, but our spirits will be enlarged by the visit all the same!"

We now finally have access to Prayer Master, the skill that boosts clerical casters' spell point totals.



And since there's nothing much else to see in Lakeside, that wraps up this update. The party's gained a little experience, some gold, a couple of spells, a few minor equipment upgrades and the Prayer Master skill, plus the pass to Necropolis and one of Luna's statuettes.



Where to next? Should the party use their newfound pass to visit the dread city of Necropolis, find a way into Castle Blackfang to rescue Queen Kalindra, or do something that isn't likely to involve hordes of murderous undead and explore outdoors? Vote now!