Part 8

"Now before we start this, you're sure we're going to get paid?"

"Nothing's really sure in this world… but it'll look a lot better for us if we've actually done the job, won't it? Besides, it's probably something harmless like giant toads."



"I don't think those are toads… they're kind of too pointy."

"Manticores!? What kind of idiots import a bunch of dangerous creatures and confines them inside a large city?"

"Hopefully they'll learn an important lesson from all of this."



Manticores are the rare example of wild creatures that are less dangerous in close close combat than they are at a distance. The six spines that are displayed here can be fired at your characters in the back line, and seem to all fire at once. It's enough to cause more than 20 points of damage, which can take a mage down in one bad volley. The priority is to get someone into range of them quickly, since due to game mechanics they literally can't fire their ranged weapon with someone in melee range. They give decent gold and experience, and in each garden we have to face two sets of them, followed by...



"Cool, tentacle kitties!"

"See what you think of them AFTER they're chewing on your entrails."

"Wait, is that a person with them?"



For some reason, there are Zhentarim fighters in with the last encounter in each garden. The Displacer beasts are just dumb muscle with no special attacks, so it's actually a fairly easy fight. Especially since they need to breathe and are thus vulnerable to stinking cloud. I'm not sure if their table top ability to avoid attacks on a successful percentile roll is active here, but that's more of a hinderance than a show stopper.



The way the whole garden deal works is that each garden has three encounters in it, and once all three are cleared that garden is now safe. For some reason the Bus and Nebus gardens are linked (maybe someone on the dev team got confused?) but there are more...



"Do you think these are named after people?"

"If they are, the least they could do is put a plaque or something out so we know why they have a garden named after them."

Three identical encounters later...



"How many damn gardens does this place have?"

"That's a pretty strange statement for an elf."

"There are limits, especially in something that's supposed to be a city."



"At least this one has a nice view of the water along with murderous monsters."



"I think that was the last one… unless these vines count as a garden?"

"Either way, I don't see any monsters so I think we're done here… and it looks like there's no reward. Sorry!"

"I'm slightly mollified by the gold the manticores were towing around, especially since we got to keep it."



We're still on the way to the Host Tower, but while we're on the way… this is another location that shows up in Neverwinter Nights, although it's obviously quite different.



"If there's a problem with a prince, I think that's right up your alley Alaric."

"Yeah, you'd think that wouldn't you?"

"Umm.. guys, if I remember wasn't the Gallant Prince a ship?"



"So… I guess your choices here are to be either a sailor or a stonecutter?"

"Don't forget peasant farmer. This place is a dump."



"Trust me, we know… still can't believe we're doing this…"



"Well, I think for a mysterious ship this would be the place to ask…"





"We can't do anything about towing it back to sea, but we'll take a look, if you want."

"Can't say much for that fisherman, though. Once someone has been screaming in terror for a couple of days they generally aren't much use afterwards."



"I'm betting that the harbormaster is actually the real villain behind this."

"Is this a special brand of insanity you ascribe to, or just the garden variety type?"



"Huh, I wonder if he was missing his hand and eye before he died, or if that happened after."

"It does make them look like a crew of pirates.. or maybe the pirates attacked the ship and then became zombies?"



The skeletal fighters are a bit less terrifying than skeletal warriors were in Death Knights of Krynn, and zombies are and always have been a joke. Turn undead is a wonderful thing, especially since in this game you get the experience for the undead you turn.



"This is quite a large crew for a ship this size."



Makes me kind of miss the giant zombies from DKK a bit. The game doesn't seem to track your daily number of turn undead uses, so if you have a cleric there's no reason to let these things get close to you.



"You'd think that a few of them would still be laying in their bunks, waiting to grab an unwary soul checking under the pillow."

"Sounds like somebody's been listening to a few too many ghost stories."




"Sailors are really, really odd."




"Only part of what's inside… were they looking for something?"

"I'm guessing that one of the statues we're looking for used to be in here and is now gone. It's just how these things work."



"I'm just honestly surprised that the rats aren't undead too."



"Ah ha… Kas!"



"I think we're all better off not knowing why the crew had the secret password to get into the captain's quarters scrawled on the wall of the storeroom."



"This is actually pretty nice… well, minus the owlbears. I might have to become a sea captain."



Four of these guys at once isn't that much different than dealing with one or two. That said, that's got to be a HUGE cabin to fit seven people and four owlbears and have any room to maneuver at all.



"I've been on a few boats, but this is pretty ridiculous. Secret doors, too?"

"How much of that time was in the captain's cabin on each boat?"

"Well, when you put it that way…"



"Somehow I don't think that the Captain was into collecting decorative statues..."



"If one secret passage was hard to believe, two must be absolutely insane."

"Those are even a bit oversized for smuggling."



"Looks like we're getting started on attacking the Host Tower early."




New undead, and a couple of mages. They're at least fifth level since they'll happily drop lightning bolts on you, which makes them priority number one. The ghouls aren't such powerful undead that they can't also be turned, especially since Galen can also turn some of the skeletons and zombies.







"It seems that all of our enemies are working together… but not very comfortably at all."

"That fact brings me enormous pleasure. It looks like we're really going to have no choice but to go in and ransack the place."

Character Snapshot





So in total this whole series of events netted us about 5K experience for everyone, enough to push Alaric up a level and get everybody else about halfway or better to their next one. The Host Tower is going to be our first major dungeon event, so it's best to be prepared. That said, we're actually coming pretty close to max levels for some of our characters. If Vermunt picks up another level he'll be there, meaning that he'll probably be the first.

Next update: Luskan, where we make ourselves most unwelcome.