Part 24

"Finally, somebody who knows enough to just take us to whoever's in charge instead of beating around the bush."

"Yeah, what do they have anyway? A duke or a king or something? Maybe a maquis?"



"…evidently someone whose parents didn't love him as a child. Or someone like our old friend Percy, who decided his birth name wasn't good enough."

"Uh… I think he heard that. He doesn't look very happy."

"You say this letter is to be given to Lord Piergeiron, and that it is an important warning from Amanitas?"

"Oh gods, don't tell me he wrote something really strange in there about in case the person reading it was dead."



"…no, that's much worse. Are we sure that's the right letter?"

"In Leilon, while we were drugged! Someone must have switched the letters then!"

"Take them to the harbor, chain them to the Anchor of Justice and toss them into the sea!"



"Umm… I'd like to say we've gotten out of worse situations but I actually can't think of any offhand."

"…sorry about this Siulajia. I don't blame myself for this, but you probably would have been better off not traveling with us."

"I don't blame you either… but I'm glad I came."




"Blubblublubblub"





"I'd like to lodge a complaint… why didn't we get any beautiful shirtless men to rescue us?"

"Two things. First off, I'm right here. Secondly, would you like us to throw you back in?"

"No, no, we'll just be going. Thanks for rescuing us!"

"Er… where exactly are we? And how do we get out?"

"You're in the caverns of a dungeon near Waterdeep, which happens to also be the only way out. Take care!"



"We'd better hurry and get back out. Once word of this gets out, our reputation is going to be shot."




"Never heard of him. Or his vast empire."

"I think there's a statue of him somewhere that's all fallen off except the legs or something."



"Better architectural fixtures than you have said the same thing."



Passing through the archway unleashes two stone guardians who together don't represent nearly the threat that the stone golem did in the first game. Galen can one-shot them with his sword, and they don't require +3 weapons to damage.



"You're about the last person I'd have expected to say that."

"We might not actually want to go this way… this could only be the first in a series of traps."



"Maybe we can squeeze through… who goes first?"

"Do you even have to ask?"



"Coming back coming back coming back!"



Carrion crawlers are easy enough to dispatch, but they do have a chance to paralyze people and then kill them. Fortunately, their THAC0 is terrible enough that they had no chance to hit.



"West, and there's something wrong with that room. We're not going back through it."



"Finally, a secret doorway somewhere that you'd expect to actually find one."

"…did anybody else feel something brush their face?"



"Are we absolutely sure that we don't want to go back and take our chances with the archway?"



That's a LOT of chances to get your characters accidentally poisoned, and we only have one person who can cast neutralize poison. To make things more fun, a group pops in directly behind your back line after a round or two.



"You poor man… does anybody have a knife?"

"Use mine, but be careful… it's enchanted."

"Smooth."

"Oh, no need for that. These knots are terrible."





"Ha! I told you they were fake soldiers!"

"…we'd all kind of accepted that as the truth last week."



"Knock Knock."

"Who's there?"

"A wizard with a spell that opens up locked doors… although that wasn't meant to be a joke."



"Ugh, why do all the people we fight keep these things as pets?"

"Hey, wait a minute… these are Zhentil weapons!"



"Oh gods, that smell…"

"Real troops from Waterdeep wouldn't be so disgusting as to attract otyughs."



We're starting to outgrow these encounters, but at least we're whittling away at their foot soldiers. The next manpower crisis in the Savage Frontier is coming directly from our party's actions.



"Yeah… should we do something about that? She seems like a nice girl."

"I've seen worse men change their ways…although not in recent memory."

"Either that or he'll learn to pretend really, really well."




"Hate to interrupt your teatime gentlemen, but we'd like to have a word…"



This battle introduces the Zhentil Lord enemies, who are significantly tougher than the run of the mill troops and have some better equipment as well. I think they also drop some better helmets as well.





"Say this for them, they're VERY organized. We should probably see about visiting some of the farms that haven't been visited yet, in case this isn't the only group around Waterdeep."




"We've kind of got this thing going with little fishing villages, don't we?"

"That's not exactly shocking considering that we're on the Sword Coast."



"Can't fault the local artists, though… that's a lovely mural. Just hopefully not painted from a local scene."

"Would this village still be here if it was?"



"I think the training hall here might be a bit on the intense side."

"And yet somehow they'll be able to help me with magic… well, it's not going to get better with time."

Some short time later...

"That was the most exhausting magical training I've ever had… I think I need a rest."



"Good gods, these things are worse than rats and cockroaches!"

"Perhaps the Greenhags are simply taking their own back?"



"This place is a real melting pot. We're putting a stop to that."



New art for the fire giants… the way they're holding their swords always strikes me as ridiculous. But the game is very serious about there being only one human.



"I gotta say, this is my kind of town."



"Despite it apparently being a villainous hive, it does have its charms… and its charts, more to the point."



"…we actually spent money on this?"

"I'm with you. There's not even an X to mark some kind of treasure."

"I don't think that you get maps to an actual buried treasure in a shop on main street… unless it's a buried treasure that people have long since un-buried."



"Of all the ironic labels to get attached to us by a brand of pirates and thugs."



"For pirates and thugs, they certainly had a very tidy little operation here."

"I like your perceptiveness in using the past tense there."





"I think that at least one dragon has figured out that eating a chicken gets you a meal for one day but keeping a chicken gets you eggs for the rest of its life."

"Hmm… there can't be very many places large enough to house one in this city, either."

A bit of searching later...




"Really? What was your first clue?"

"I'd always heard that red dragons were among the cleverest of wyrms… color me disappointed."



I've got to say that I love the dragon sprites in this game. They're the biggest enemies, and they look much more menacing than in previous games. They're still just as dangerous… 88 damage from a breath weapon is enough to outright kill everybody except for Galen and Alaric. The only way to approach this is with your characters spread out so that he has to focus on one or two, and hope for the best.



"You… you ran right up to that dragon's face and threw ice magic into it… that was the bravest thing I've ever seen."

"Well, it worked out pretty well. I'm just glad that he decided to breathe fire at Galen instead of me."

"You're… welcome… dibs on the… armor…"

"Don't you dare do anything that crazy again! It's not that I don't appreciate it, but there's taking a good thing too far and that was definitely it."

"That mace looks pretty nice too… now, let us see what Amanitas recommends since we can't exactly go back into Waterdeep."




"It's one crisis after another… we're going to have to come back and settle things here at some point, though."

"But before we do that, we'll have to figure out what kind of embarrassing nickname is hiding behind Fell Hatchet."

Character Snapshot





Our party has made some strides forward with this update, including level ups for both our wizards and some new equipment. Our main fighters get another point of armor class from new helmets, Vermunt is rocking a new mace, and we've got a couple of items we don't really have a use for. We've got some red plate armor from our battle with the dragon, but it's inferior in AC. Also picked up a +4 bastard sword along the way, but despite being something that a character should be able to use with one hand it requires both and nobody's giving up their shield. With their new level Zanros and The Dude picked up Cone of Cold and Charm Monster, respectively.