Part 53: Stop Dragon My Heart Around

Update 34: Stop Dragon My Heart Around

You voted for dragon-slaying, and dragon-slaying is what you shall have! Sometimes it will be the dragons slaying the party and other times it will be the party slaying the dragons, but in any case there will be a lot of slaying going on.



"Hey, how come we're exploring this swamp?"
"There's supposed to be a legendary city of dragons somewhere in the Swamp of the Dead."
"Wait, 'Swamp of the Dead'? Dragons? Aren't those good reasons not to explore it?"
"Since when have we done things for good reasons?"



"Seriously, guys, I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Cowardice ill suits you, Drewjitsu. If there is evil here, it is our duty to destroy it."



"There have been grave-robbers at work here! We must track them down and stop them."



"Or, you know, the dead might have come back to life and disturbed their own graves."



"You'll have to get up earlier in the morning than that to beat me! I mean, technically you're undead and don't sleep so you probably didn't get up in the morning at all, but you know what I mean."



"Preacher, you've gotta teach me how to cast Holy Word sometime. It's too awesome to keep to yourself."



"We killed a lich and all we get is one lousy gem? Well, that sucks."
"At least it's a really, really shiny gem."



"Uh, dude, do you want us to help bury you or dig you up?"
"Either's okay, really. I'm just kinda uncomfortable the way I am right now."
"I... think we'll bury you."




"Not bad. We should bury corpses more often."
"If we buried everybody we killed, we'd never get any adventuring done."



"Speaking of adventuring, it's about time we did some grave-robbing of our own."



"How'd they fit that many corpses in one coffin?"
"Must be one of those clown coffins."



To nobody's surprise, the undead are easily dispatched. Some players recommend repeating these encounters for experience, but I'm not sure why: the Black Knight encounter in area B-2 gives better treasure and almost as much experience.



"You know, I'm pretty sure there's something geologically suspect about mountains in the middle of a swamp. Well, I guess we might as well see what's at the top..."



"Looks like we've found what we came here for. Everyone ready?"
"Just one moment."




"Okay, now we're ready. Well, as ready as we'll ever be, anyway."



"I wish I could say that launching an unprovoked attack on a city full of dragons seemed like a good idea at the time, but honestly we all knew it was a bad idea even before we did it."

This is the most difficult fixed encounter in the game. There are several ways in which it can go horribly wrong for the party.



Well, the party has dodged their first bullet of the fight: the Demon Lord and Arch Devil started off outside of melee range this time, so they couldn't use their attacks to eradicate party members.



"Why are you looking at me like that? I can cast spells other than Disintegration, you know."

And hopefully that will help us dodge Bullet #2, when all the dragons get their turn and try to breathe on us for around 100 damage each.



"I really need to use this laser blaster more often."



Bullet #2 successfully dodged. Most of the dragons ran away, and only the silver dragon breathed on the party, for 49 damage. Yes, that would have been 98 damage without Power Shield, enough to knock out Preacher and Jostiband instantly.



Bullet #3... not dodged.

"Dammit, can't I go anywhere without getting the flesh melted off my bones by unholy forces? Why, I oughta--"



"Just because I can cast spells other than Disintegration, doesn't mean I want to."



Mission accomplished, and with only one casualty. Somehow, that ordeal earned the party even less experience than wiping out a bunch of undead with one spell.



"I hope this treasure was worth nearly getting ourselves killed for."



"... let's just stuff these shields into Tarquinn's backpack and get back to the nearest temple."



"Bah. Demons and their cheap magic tricks. Nobody believes in a fair fight any more."
"Look on the bright side: we found a couple of shields! They're all yours if you want them."
"Now that everyone's alive again, how about we go back and finish exploring the dragon city?"
"Fine, but any demons in there had better watch their backs. I'm out for revenge."



"What's that building over there? Could it be..."



"Awesome! El Dorado, here we come!"

This was a bit of a short update, but I'm cutting it off here because if I included the next dungeon it'd be a very long update. Next time on Let's Play Might & Magic: the party fights every monster in the entire game. (Well, almost.)