Let's Play Dark Queen of Krynn - The fifth prophecy

[drexciya]

Awesome LP. Entertaining and informative. Too bad Playground has declined to the point where LPs of classic cRPGs only have three to four people commenting on 'em. You'd think here in particular things would be different, eh? /end rant

Also, boom.

Piercers, beholders, dark wizards... I must admit I never played this game, but now I'll be sure to.

I've played both this game and Pools of Darkness and it's in some ways more difficult than Pools of Darkness, because of the wizards with their spell protection. It's a show case of DBF as you can see in the current battles.

 

[Erebus]

Onboard the ship, we're able to rest and memorize our spells.

Ansalon (the continent on which happen almost all of the Dragonlance stories) is pretty far from Taladas and few people make the journey between them.

He can talk to mackerels and tuna all day if he wants to, I really don't care.

After a week, the weather starts taking a turn for the worse.

What's the point of talking to fishies if they only warn you of a coming storm when it's too late ?!

I wish I had a teleport spell.

I wish I had a pegasus mount.

I wish I were a dragon.

Before long, the mast is broken and the ship pushed on its side.

Really ? Because it kind of looks like we are !

No, no, the game can't kill us like that. There has to be some sort of deus ex machi...

glbglglglbglglbglglglb !

glb...

...

...

...

...

?????!!!!!

You know, this is actually pretty cool !

It turns out we can see and hear fairly well. However, our feet feel heavy as we move around on the sandy floor.

Suddenly, a pressure change warns us that the door of the room is opening.

Why hello there, sexy !

The sea elf introduces himself as Lyzian and explains what happened :

" 'One of our number spied your ship in distress and summoned others. We sped like arrow, but when we arrived, the ship was already in pieces. We pulled all the landfolk out, cast spells upon them and brought them to our city Naulidis. The ship's crew proved to be a superstitious lot, ill-suited to life undersea, and so we sent them back to Ansalon. 'Tis strange to me that they who spend their life on the sea should be so fearful of what is underneath, but so it is.' "

How terrible.

It turns out Daenor was seriously hurt during the shipwreck. He has strange magical wards that the sea elves are not familiar with and they're afraid of what their healing spells might do to him.

Lyzian gives us a ring of free action, that will allow one of the PCs to move around as easily as usual.

We are suddenly interrupted by great crashing sounds.

Safe halls ? Does he take us for helpless peasants ?

Calm down. Let's go there first and then we'll decide what to do.

Lyzian is gone. We also leave the room :

Pausing briefly to watch some fishies :

The city is fairly large, but finding the way to the safe halls isn't too hard.

After shouting and pounding for a while, the door is finally opened to let us in.

Well, I'm sure it's a very comforting place if you're a 0-level NPC, but I would like to go and kill something !

I said I'm bored !

Just be patient a while longer. I'm sure that...

Ah ah ! I knew that there'd be somebody in these safe halls that would have a quest for us ! Just tell us what you need, kid !

As it turns out, the boy is worried for his sister, who decided to kill some dragons even though she's too young to fight. She left for a guardroom, but he doesn't know which one.

A rescue mission ? That shouldn't be a problem.

As long as the girl, unlike Crysia, actually wants to be rescued.

We leave the safe halls, but we've barely had the time to take a few steps when :

All right ! Just one Delayed Blast Fireball and we'll be eating grilled turtle for lunch !

Elorin, is there room for anything but spells in that brain of yours ? Anything at all ?

As you could expect, fighting undersea is fairly different from what we're used to. Ranged weapons are useless. PCs who don't have a ring of free action are severely hampered. Fire spells, unsurprisingly, do not work.

The sea dragon has a fairly dangerous breath weapon, but it's killed by Kundry before having a chance to use it.

Exploring the city, it doesn't take us long to find a guardroom.

"Two young elf girls, trying hard to be brave" ? In a deserted guardroom ? I wonder if we're interrupting something again...

Come on, you two, I'm all for experimenting with your sexuality, but there's a place and time for that !

As we start bringing the girls to safety :

Well, sure...

And a bit farther :

No problem, kids, but you do realize that the safe halls are less than 15 yards away ?

And thus, even though we left to look for a single person, we come back with many more, to the great joy of the elves in the safe halls.

However, we don't have time to bask in their praise, as another minor quest is already waiting for us :

The door has been damaged by dragons and it might not resist much longer.

The elf tells us there's another door in her workshop, that could be used to replace this one. When we accept the quest, we're given a map of the city and another ring of free action, which goes to Silivrin.

We leave and head for the southern part of the city :

Luckily enough, we don't meet any dragon on our way.

Luckily for the dragons, you mean. I'm bored again !

A cold forge ? How does that even work ?

If we weren't undersea, my guess would be : with a lot of hammering. As it is, I haven't got a clue.

We have no trouble bringing the door back :

The minor quests we're given in that part of the game are partly random and it's unlikely to receive all of them. For instance, there's a chance the safe halls will be attacked by several dragons while we're there, but it doesn't always happen.

The soldiers are palace guards. They have no apparent wounds but are in a catatonic state. Looking closer, we see on each of them three small punctures in a row.

Ah yes, making a treaty with sahuagins. That usually works well !

Apparently, the sea dragons are used to attacking sahuagins as well as sea elves, which led Lyzian to forging a truce between the two people. Maybe things have changed...

A Neutralize Poison spell is all that's needed to heal the guards. A bit later :

We're told saving him might take all our healing spells. We're about to do it...

Which is kind of stupid, since it means we won't be able to heal anyone else until we've rested.

...but then the priest opens his eyes :

He gives us his staff of striking, then dies.

Yet another minor quest is not long in presenting itself :

Apparently, the soldiers guarding the doors to the east are starting to run out of spears. We accept the mission.

Carrying stuff, looking for people, helping the injured... What are we, 1st-level adventurers ?

Come on, it's a nice change from the usual.

I'm sure it won't be long before we're given a desperate mission to save the whole city.

We leave the safe halls again and go straight east :

Finding the guards is easy.

The soldiers rearm themselves and send a few of them carry some spears to the other outposts. We're free to go back to the safe halls.


In the next update, we are given a desperate mission to save the whole city.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I wish I had a teleport spell.

I wish I had a pegasus mount.

I wish I were a dragon.

:D

And whoa, sea elves, what a twist! And underwater dungeons! The game is certainly a blast.

EDIT. "Whales be praised!", lol.

 

[lightbane]

That was unexpected. A welcomed change of pace, pretty original. So, what's Dragonlance's equivalent of Cthulhu, if anything like that exists?

Also... Submarine dragons!!! That's even more innovative than Skrimjob's infinite dragons

PS: By the way, fire spells (obviously) don't work, but what about electricity-based spells? Are these more powerful now?

 

[Erebus]

So, what's Dragonlance's equivalent of Cthulhu, if anything like that exists?

Ancient horrors waiting in sunken cities, you mean ? I don't think such things exist in the setting.

what about electricity-based spells?

They work a bit differently. I'll show how in the next update.

 

[abnaxus]

I never got past Dark Knights of Krynn because I had missed some McGuffin (a rod, IIRC) that was necessary to beat Lord Soth. Without it, he would respawn time and time again.

 

[PorkaMorka]

It may be nostalgia speaking, but I still find the graphics in this game really attractive at a technical level* and I still love this engine.

* The art design can be a bit hit or miss due to their love of copying from D&D paintings and re-using graphics from other games in the series.

 

[Erebus]

Going back to the safe halls, we meet Lyzian there :

He tells us the sea dragons have never attacked them so fiercely before.

Well, we didn't stay here the whole time, but yeah, it was fairly boring.

However, the elves around us do not share that opinion and list all the things we've done for them.

It's nice to be appreciated for small things, once in a while.

You know, if you're feeling really grateful, I can tell you exactly what you could do to... er... for me.

If he decides to grant us wishes, mine will be to turn you into a coelocanth.

Can't say we know.

But I know I don't care.

Lyzian suddenly remembers that Daenor is still in the palace. He was about to bring us to him when the city was attacked by the dragons.

As Lyzian is carried away, we're told Daenor was left to rest in the prince's bedroom.

We leave the safe halls and head north, to the palace.

I'm really hungry, but I don't feel like eating uncooked fish.

There's always undersea volcanoes.

As we follow a corridor leading to the heart of the palace, we start hearing whispering voices...

Sahuagins are fairly pathetic opponents. Their HP are low, the damages they inflict are hilariously low and their only special ability is that their crossbows can work underwater (at very limited range).

Lightning bolts still work underwater. They inflict the same damage as usual, but their area of effect is the same as an Ice Storm, which usually means they can hit more opponents. They'll replace fireballs in the memories of our mages during this part of the game.

Having easily slaughtered the sahuagins, we keep exploring the palace.

Well, nobody's here. The sahuagin must have caught and eaten Daenor. How sad. Let's go.

But as the party turns to go, a figure slumps from behind the door :

Stupid sahuagins...

Daenor's half-delirious. He mumbles the name "Talhook".

I'd kill for an omelette right now, but I still wouldn't call eggs a treasure.

I suspect the eggs he's speaking of have a greater value than their use in making an omelette.

We try healing Daenor, but the magical wards Lyzian mentioned prevent our spells from working. We have no choice but to carry him back to the safe halls.

Daenor stirs for a moment.

If this guy doesn't stop obsessing over his sister, I'm going to start making incest jokes.

But, as it turns out, there's some sort of magical link between the siblings and Daenor calling Crysia suddenly activates it.

The foreign mind reaches her, then jumps to Daenor's mind and looks at us !

(If you haven't guessed who it is, go back to the fifth picture of my first post and pay more attention to the character who isn't a hot, barely-clothed dominatrix.)

Then a draconian yells at Crysia, the link is broken and Daenor loses consciousness again. We bring him back to the safe halls :

Lyzian is relieved to see us safe and sound.

Daenor tells us what happened to him :

" 'I woke. Everyone was gone. Something was wrong ! I hid under the bed. Soon, some sea-devils came in. One was swimming around and around the room, proclaiming to the others where he would place his possessions, when he came to rule. The others called him Lord Prince Talhook. Then a sea dragon arrived ! I could not understand his talk, but Talhook could. 'You will get your eggs back when the elves are under my command," he said. 'Not before. Obey me, or I will cook your progeny.' After the dragon left, the sea-devils all snickered.' "

A treacherous sahuagin ? Will wonders ever cease ?

The situation is now clear : the sahuagins are holding the eggs hostages to force the dragons to attack the sea elves.

Didn't something like that happen in the War of the Lance with the eggs of the good dragons ? You'd think they'd watch them a bit more carefully...

Lyzian thinks finding Talhook is going to be difficult. However, he has an idea as to where the eggs might be hidden.

Evil creatures have appeared there and Lyzian tells us they're especially dangerous to sea elves. Unsurprisingly, he asks us to go and get the eggs so the sea dragons can be appeased.

There's an actual explanation for the fact that nobody but us will take on this mission ? That's unusual.

The spell enabling us to survive underwater will have to be dispelled so we can breathe air again. And, when we leave the air-filled suite, it will have to be cast again.

Lyzian speaks strange words in the shell. We can activate the crylokon to shift from water-breathing to air-breathing and vice-versa.

We leave the safe halls, but we haven't even reached the southern part of the city when we're attacked :

All right, either we're witnessing the results of a wizard having way too much time on his hands or something very disturbing once happened between a toad and a dragon.

The silly-looking amphi-dragons are less dangerous than the sea dragons. As for the sea serpents, they're only a threat because of their poisonous bite.

The fight is quickly ended, but we get into another one not long after :

Eyes of the deep are cousins of the beholders, but they're much less dangerous. Their paralyzing gaze can be annoying, but we don't leave them the opportunity to use it.

Finally, we reach the southern exit of the city :

Then, all we have to do is follow the long tunnel south.

Ooooh... Tentacles !

Giant squids have a lot of attacks and can inflict quite a bit of damage if given the chance.
(Aside from the monsters you can see in the above picture, we also have to deal with two eyes of the deep.)

A few lightning bolts and magic missiles make the fight quite easy.

We finally reach the end of the tunnel.

We start exploring the city, looking for the place the eggs may be kept in.

We get into another fight with the aquatic, large-sized fauna :

Anemones can be a pain in the ass if you're low on spells. They can't move, so, unless they're in contact with an enemy, all they do is use the "guard" function (which means they'll automatically attack the first enemy that comes in contact, before said enemy can attack them). Since anemones have many attacks and said attacks can paralyze their target, getting rid of them can be harder than you'd think.

Obviously, we could simply flee from the fight, but there's no way we'd ever actually do such a thing.

Anyway, since we're not low on spells, the anemones aren't much of a problem.

Looks like air. Let's climb up.

Easy for you to say, you're not wearing a solamnic plate armor.

We use the crylokon to make it possible for the party to breathe air again.

Hey, nice place ! Must have been fun being an ambassador to the sea elves.

We reach a large hall. The air is stuffy and smells of burnt flesh.

Nice place, I agree.

Wonder what it is. Let's go and have a look !

Well, we could do that or...

We could remember that we're in a CRPG and realize that the easily-missed door on our left is probably the better choice.

Behind the door is a short corridor that leads us to another room where...

Ha ! We're no longer underwater ! Prepare to be utterly destroyed by my Delayed Blast Fireb... fuck.

I have to say, the sahuagins may be terrible fighters, but their evil plot isn't half-bad. How did they manage to bring fire creatures in a place completely surrounded by water ?

The fire elementals don't have any special power, but they can inflict fairly decent damages. The fireshadows are more annoying, though (I've read that they're especially vulnerable to maces of disruption, but I completely forgot to use mine).

Fortunately for us, being completely made of fire does not make one immune to electricity.

As the fight is almost at an end, the last fireshadow manages to use one of his special abilities on Kundry. It makes her take regular fire damage...

...even after the fight has ended !

My body's turning to... fire ? What the hell ? Somebody cast Dispel Magic on me !

In fact, the right way to deal with the problem is to cast enough healing spells to get the afflicted PC back to his/her maximum HP. Once it's done, the "turning to green fire" thing stops.

Considering the type of enemies we have to deal with, wouldn't it be a good idea to cast Resist Fire spells over all of us ?

I'm not sure they'd really lessen the damages inflicted by a fire elemental, but why not ?



In the next update, we keep looking for the eggs and the Resist Fire spells probably save us from a TPK.

 

[Azira]

I remember playing this game so many years ago. I've almost forgotten everything about it, but I remembered the undersea levels and the lightning bolts doing the ice-storm thingie.

 

[Crooked Bee]

"You are out of your element, yet you have done well." Loving that line for some reason.

Ha ! We're no longer underwater ! Prepare to be utterly destroyed by my Delayed Blast Fireb... fuck.

 

[Erebus]

After protecting the whole party with Resist Fire spells, we resume our explorations :

Apparently, somebody's heard us coming just in time :

Of course, there has to be two doors.

We pick the door on the right and it turns out to be a good choice :

(Opening the wrong door leaves the wizard enough time to summon some fire elementals.)

Sayali is one of the first to act and rids us of the wizard before he has a chance to try anything.

Relying on showy spells is for lesser wizards.

Fuck you.

The few rogues are easily slaughtered.

We go back to the larger room :

But as we're about to leave :

What the hell ? Where did this one come from ?

Remember when I said that the first initiative roll was essential ? This time, it doesn't go in my favor : the dark wizard acts before I have a chance to try anything.

Being on the receiving end of a Delayed Blast Fireball is something you want to avoid as much as possible. Fortunately, thanks to the protective spells they cast, my PCs only receive 22 points of damage each. But it doesn't change the fact that my spellcasters won't be able to use magic until next round.

My warriors attack the fireshadows. My wizards have to rely on their wands, which inflict less than impressive damages.

Sayali has already used her only Power Word : Kill, so our best chance to kill the wizard is with Cones of Cold. Acting fairly early in the second round, Elorin tries to cast one, but is interrupted by a second DBF :

Fucking spell... Why does it take so long to cast ?

We can't even stop the Dark Wizard from casting his third and last DBF in the third round.

Uh, guys ? I think I'm going to die.

Elorin and Sayali finally put an end to the wizard with two Cones of Cold, before he can start using lower-level spells.

The warriors have already taken care of the fireshadows and dealing with the surviving rogues isn't much of a problem. However, after the battle is done, some of our PCs really need healing :

Once our heroes have regained all of their HP, they resume their exploration, but are soon attacked by other fiery monsters :

Fire minions are the third kind of fire monsters we can meet here. They're largely insignificant.

We slaughter all of them and keep moving.

We finally reach this door, which leads to a large hall. However, actually going through the door is a bad idea. Much like what could have happened in the previous update, it'll make you fall into an ambush.

The right thing to do is to follow the corridor right next to the hall :

Then we smash the window and enter the hall !

Nothing we can't handle, though we're starting to run low on spells (we haven't taken the time to memorize spells since we left the safe halls).

As we wait for our enemies to approach and our warriors use the "guard" function, Elorin uses the 9th-level Summon Monsters spell. As it usually does, the spell gates in two gorgons ; they'll be largely useless except as meatshields (they can't even hurt our opponents).

We throw many of our remaining offensive spells at the enemy, killing most of them.

By the end of the fight, both gorgons are killed by fireshadows, but only Kundry has been (slightly) wounded.

If I were a CRPG villain, the small room over there would definitely be the place I'd keep all of the eggs my evil plan entirely relied on.

Deep in the well are twelve large eggs ! The PCs take turns to dive and bring them back.

I've had enough of water for now, so I'll let you valiant warriors deal with this.

No problem. More XP for us.

Argh ! Okay, I'll dive once !

Once we have all the eggs, we head back to the exit. If some fiery creatures still exist around here, they're wise enough not to show themselves.

Wait wait wait !

Unless you intend to spend the rest of your life here, I'm afraid that we do have to go back into the water.

It's not that... well, not just that. Shouldn't we take some time to memorize our spells again ? I don't have a single lightning bolt left !

Hmm... Good point, actually.

After resting, we dive back into the water and activate the crylokon for the second time :

A welcoming party soon shows up :

Since we've replenished our spells, they're no trouble at all.

After taking care of them, we head back to the tunnel between Naulidis and Celanost.

Along the way, we meet some sahuagins that have been tasked with renewing the air in the abandoned suite. They attack us, not realizing that their CR is hilariously inappropriate.

They have some priestesses with them, but it doesn't really make any difference.

They probably have a few spells that could be annoying if the target failed his/her save, but we don't let them use magic anyway.

After leaving bits of sahuagin spread all across the place, we head toward the tunnel :

"Too many to fight" ? What does that even mean ? Let's slaughter them.

That'll just lead to unnecessary fights. Let's do what we're supposed to and give them the eggs.

It makes me sad to think of the giant omelette we could have done with them.

If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure omelettes are better with unfertilized eggs.

The dragons take the eggs and leave.

Well, that went surprisingly easy.

We head back to Naulidis :

When we arrive there, we're warmly greeted by Lyzian.

Yes, I'm sure your alliance with the dragons against the sahuagins will go much better than your alliance with the sahuagins against the dragons.

The sea elves have captured a sahuagin. He told them that, after conquering Naulidis, Talhook intended to attack the capital of the sea elves.

I wonder how long it would have taken for the dragons to realize he was never going to give them back their eggs ?

Talhook is now being hunted by the elves and the dragons.

Lyzian also mentions that the king of the sea elves is sending us a gift.

I love presents !

We head for the palace :

We finally get to the royal bedroom :

I knew we'd be the ones to find you !

Have no fear. Once this fight is over, I predict that we'll never bother you ever again.

I raised the difficulty level to maximum for this fight. As you can see, it has made Talhook fairly tough.

The other sahuagins, however, remain pitiful.

That armor class of -10 makes Talhook pretty difficult to hit with weapons. As a four-armed sahuagin, he has three attacks (two daggers and a trident). He hits Kundry with all of them for a decent amount of damage.

The other sahuagins aren't much of a threat, but I still use a lightning bolt to kill half a dozen of them.

Talhook might be hard to hit in hand-to-hand combat, but he has no protection against magic.

All we have to do is spam magic Missile...

...and he dies before having the chance to attack a second time.
(I'm not quite sure why his AC has become -7. Perhaps he was using a shield at the beginning of the fight and later replaced it with a weapon.)

A lightning bolt takes care of what's left. Even on maximum difficulty, this remains a very easy fight.

I commend you guards for your speed of reaction and general efficiency.

After stating the obvious (we've foiled an assassination attempt) and unsuccessfully trying to make themselves look useful, the guards finally leave us to rest.

In the next update, we finally get to Taladas.

 

[lightbane]

You could said that there was something fishy with this Prince Talhook...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Lol @ lightbane.

Good update and nice to see some underwater love! Those rules always got a chuckle out of me in the D&D Expert rules (or was it Journeyman rules?).

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

I like how the after the prince jumped out of the armoire, half a dozen other baddies just appear out of nowhere.

 

[Erebus]

We go to the main hall, where there's a celebration in our honor.

And the king has sent a very nice gift to us :

Woohoo ! It was about time I got mine !

Lyzian understands the urgency of our quest (even though, to be frank, we still have no bloody idea what it is about).

There's really no hurry.

He records a message in a new crylokon and gives it to us :

For the journey to Taladas, he'll have to cast a spell over us :

...

...

...

...

After a sleep full of dreams, we wake up in a very different location.

What a... quaint little place.

Bloody elves... After all we've done for them, couldn't they've had the courtesy to wake us up on arrival instead of leaving us to be found ?

We ask the woman about Ezra and she tells us he owns the bait shop. We leave the inn.

Nor do we look like bait shop owners, for which I'm feeling really grateful right now.

Ezra doesn't believe us when we tell him Lyzian sent us, so we give him the crylokon.

He's your father ? Eww... Remind me never to have a child with a sea elf.

Ezra gives us journal entry number 37 :

" 'Travel north, my friends, and soon you will come upon an ancient lighthouse. For eons, the lights has guided sailors through the dangerous shoals of the Tiderun.' "
" 'Legend has it that the tower is deserted, except for whatever magic keeps it glowing. But I know that there is a keeper, and his wisdom is profound. Seek his aid and you will be richly rewarded. But be warned, strangers are not welcome in the ancient tower, and reaching its pinnacle may prove to be a dangerous task.' "

What ?! What ?! That's your help ?!? That's your help ?!?! Tell me you did not just send us to explore a mysterious tower full of traps and monsters simply because you heard somewhere that a generic wise wizard lives in it ! No ! No, you did not ! You know what ? You know what ? Fuck you ! We'll go to this tower since I'm sure we have no other choice, but if the wizard doesn't tell us absolutely everything we want to know, I'll come back to this shithole and use you as shark bait !!! Do you understand me ?!?! I WON'T STOP UNTIL EVERY LAST BIT OF YOU IS RESTING IN THE STOMACH OF A SHARK !!!!


That being said, we leave the shop.

That guy needs to put on a shirt or something.

We've gained a lot of experience in our underwater adventures and all the PCs are able to level up.

We've just left when :

For Mishakal's sake, we must be magnets for trouble !

We had zero problem slaughtering you underwater and you think you can kill us on land ? Good luck with that, fish brain.

The sahuagins do have three dragons with them, but we recently received new anti-dragon equipment...

Acting early in the first round, Silivrin kills two of the dragons.

Oh wow, this is awesome !

And of course :

How I've missed you, Delayed Blast Fireball ! You're my bestest friend ever !

Needless to say, the battle is soon over.

Well, I'm really glad to know that I will be welcomed with open arms in the unlikely case I decide to visit this shithole again.

I, on the other hand, am fairly sure I will be visiting again, with some rope and an extra-large fish hook.

Aside from the training hall, our heroes only find a single building really worth visiting :

Later, on their way to the gates of the city, they're surprised to discover that even a microscopic town like this can have a seedy neighborhood :

Are you guys suicidal ? Didn't you see when we killed three dragons and a dozen sahuagins less than an hour ago ?

Unless they get a chance to backstab, the black rogues inflict very low damages. However they'll often hit our spellcasters with their slings, preventing them from using magic. That can make fights against them annoyingly longer than they should be.

Leaving their bleeding or charred bodies behind us, we finally reach the best place in the entire town : its exit.

Mislaxa ? Who's that ?

Our own goddess, you ignoramus ! That's how they call Mishakal on Taladas !


And that's it ! We now have access to the overland map of Taladas !


A few words about Taladas, as even those of you who know the Dragonlance setting are probably unfamiliar with the place. The continent has been mainly developed in the accessory "Time of the Dragon" and its supplement "Taladas : The minotaurs". Very few adventures or novels are actually set there. There's a throw-away reference to it in one of the Weis and Hickman novels, but nothing more. It's really a pity, since the place is fairly interesting and imaginative.

At the center of Taladas is the great lava sea, a result of the cataclysm that marked the departure of the gods. Our adventure takes place in the south-western part of Taladas.

The map is divided into two. Here's the upper half :

On the right, you can see part of the great lava sea. Next to it are the citadels of the gnomes, the only places on the map that are not accessible right now.
Most of the rest belongs to the Minotaur League. Formerly a human kingdom, the nation fell to the minotaurs quite some time ago (though most of the population is still human, with some elves and dwarves here and there). The minotaurs have a "might makes right" philosophy that makes fighting in the arena an integral part of the judicial process. Other elements are patterned after the roman empire : the emperor rules with the help of his legions and the senate is subservient to him.

The lower half of the map :

Most of this belongs to the Kingdom of Thenol. The king is actually but a figurehead and the kingdom is in truth a theocracy, ruled with an iron fist by Trandamere, bishop of Hith (aka Hiteh, aka Hiddukel). Trandamere and his priests led a successful coup several years ago, using the powers granted by their god to suddenly raise large armies of undeads and crush anyone who could oppose them.

Thenol and the League have been at war for a long time. While the League is superior in many ways, Thenol's easily-replenished armies of undeads are a huge advantage.

 

[Sceptic]

Awesome LP, even if this isn't my favorite GB game for a number of reasons. The underwater part was good fun though, especially with the change in spell selection that was required.

Carry on good sir

 

[Volourn]

GB fans always make make me chuckle. I rmemeber people whining that NWN1 had you fight two dragons at once. Same with nwn2. Yet, the same very people will clap and cheer on GB games like treat dragons like nothing more than simple fodder. LMAO Modern D&D games (well.. mostly BIO ones) treat dragons like the serious enemies they are. And, DL versions of dragons compound their problems b/c they are really crappy comapred to other worlds' drgaons in the first place hence the wussy hit points. The fact you can kill a dragon in one hit or one spell (barring death spells) is rtaher pathetic.

Nice LP, but it just shows how overrated due to nostalgia GB games really are.

I, too, like Crysia. I wannt know her story. Good stuff.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Changed my avatar to show my appreciation of this LP.

(Opening the wrong door leaves the wizard enough time to summon some fire elementals.)

Heh, that's a nice little detail.

If I were a CRPG villain, the small room over there would definitely be the place I'd keep all of the eggs my evil plan entirely relied on.

fftopic: Dark Heart of Uukrul was most elaborate in that regard. The urn with the dark heart was hidden in a little maze behind a really difficult lever-switching puzzle, not to mention that the dungeon itself had lots of other protective mechanisms such as riddles, secret doors, etc.

 

[Erebus]

Thanks for the comments, people. I'm going to be a bit busy for a while, so it may be some time before the next update.

treat dragons like nothing more than simple fodder.

I don't know how it is in the FR Gold Box games, but it's kind of true in the Dragonlance GB games. Even in Champions of Krynn, in which you're limited to level 8-9, you seldom meet a dragon all by itself.

In DQK, dragons are a bit like giant spiders : you can't take them too lightly, because they can do a lot of damage if they get to use their special ability, but they're usually not much trouble.

(They can be a bit more dangerous if you create a new party for DQK, since that means you don't start with a dragonlance.)

The undead dragons are tougher than what we've seen so far, but they still have to team up to be a real threat. A single dragon has no chance whatsoever of defeating the party.

Spoiler

With one exception.

 

[lightbane]

Awesome update. By the way, I found some info about that "new trilogy" you mentioned, I just have to say: WHAT THE FUCK???? IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN THE PREVIOUS STORY ARC!!!

But your LP is still good, so continue it please.

 

[grotsnik]

Looking forward to seeing more of this...

 

[GarfunkeL]

But Volly, dragon hordes work well with 1st edition AD&D, as both FR and DL lore had dragon swarms that would periodically destroy civilization. Or at least tried to.

Anyway, MOAR!

 

[Erebus]

In my opinion, DQK has two weak parts, which are unfortunately rather close : the first one is the cave full of draconians ; the second one is worse and happens to be the lighthouse we've been told to visit in the last update.

I usually try to go through them as fast as possible. In fact, there's a way to bypass almost all of the lighthouse, though you'd have to be extremely lucky to discover it on your own the first time you play the game.

Obviously, I'm not going to use it for this LP, but I'll try to keep a fairly brisk pace during this part of the game. Posting more screenshots of the lighthouse probably wouldn't make it more entertaining to you.


After leaving Hizden, our heroic party travels a short way north, to the lighthouse where they've been told they can find a wise wizard to advise them.

This doesn't look like the lair of a reclusive lunatic at all !

Level 1

I'm almost beginning to miss Hizden...

I don't think anyone has ever found a wizard on the ground floor of his tower. Let's look for some stairs.

Poor creature. Maybe we should...

Look, I'm all for doing good deeds when we get the chance, but I'm pretty damn sure that freeing this ettin will only bring us trouble. Either the stupid thing will attack us or the owners of that web will. Maybe even both.

Leaving the ettin the way they found it, our party keeps moving.

I'm guessing it is my superior Intelligence score that allows us to recognize this illusion for what it is and thus avoid this trap.

Sure. And it's your abysmal Charisma score that keeps away all the monsters that live in this place.

Go get fucked by an otyugh, you pansexual slut.

This place is a complete ruin ! Does anybody really live here ?

Crazy wizards who live in complete isolation are probably not big on interior maintenance.

Let's just hope the whole building doesn't collapse while we're exploring it.

The party goes back the way it came, waving to the ettin as they do so.

It doesn't take long to find some stairs that can still be used :

Level 2

Say, you guys want to take bets as to how many levels this lighthouse has ? I'm betting ten gems on eight levels.

You're being too pessimistic. I say six levels.

You're both being too optimistic. I say ten levels !

Oh yeah ? Well, I say eleven !

And I say... I say thirteen !

Let's not get crazy. Hmm... I'm betting on nine levels.

I wish I had pink drapes to hang up or something.

All right ! Let's set these things on fire !

That's your answer to everything.

What can I say ? I'm a girl with needs.

Two fireballs later, things aren't going well for our enemies :

As a ranger, Kundry inflicts especially high damages to creatures like ettins, trolls and giants, not that it was really necessary in this case.

Shortly after this very easy fight, we find stairs leading to the next level :

Level 3

Our party goes through a few corridors without any trouble and quickly get to the next stairs :

Cool story, midget. I want a sphere of annihilation, but you don't see me waiting on some stairs for some random people to come and bring it to me. So go fuck yourself.

Ow ! It's at times like these that I regret being in the front.

Well, it looks like we'll have to find this thingamajig...

ELORIN SMASH PUNY BARRIER !!!

When will you ever learn that there are some problems in CRPGs that violence really cannot solve ?

The spiders are no more dangerous than the smaller ones we met much earlier. The bats are completely insignificant, especially since they're trapped behind their eigh-legged friends, which make them perfect targets for a fireball.

(However, just before the fight ended, one of my mages managed to get hit by one of the few surviving spiders and failed her save vs poison. Since I'd completely neglected memorizing Neutralize Poison, I had to reload. That'll teach me to choose options I know are stupid.)

The party looks around for the gnome's gizmo...

...and finds it less than twenty yards away from the stairs.

We've had some stupid quests given to us before, but this one just might out-stupid them all.

We go back to the gnome and give him his thingie.

The gnome leaves just after freeing the way.

Come back here, you lazy runt ! I'm going to cut out your liver with a butter knife !

Level 4

On this new level, the party hasn't gone very far when :

Let me guess, don't tell me, you're going to give us a quest so we can prove that we're worthy of going past you.

Let's just kill them. Re-kill. Whatever.

Maybe we could simply...

...bribe them ?

That's right, we're dealing with corrupt ghostly guardians. For a single gem, they'll let us pass by them. Several directions are available to us. The one we choose brings us to a locked door :

Since we don't have a thief and I'm pretty sure none of you has thought of memorizing a Knock spell, I suggest letting the one of us who has a girdle of giant strength deal with this.

Shouldn't take long...

The ancient document turns out to be a "to do" list :

- Fix the light
- Find more power
- Block doorway
- Train gorgons
- Bribery ?
- Visit library
- Repair broken teleporter
- Install new doors
- Clean the basement

Only the first item is checked.

Either we're dealing with an extremely lazy wizard or with a long-dead one.

This way turns out to be a dead end, so we go back on our steps.

Yeah, yeah, here's your gem. Man, I'm feeling so disillusioned right now...

We take a new direction, which quickly leads us to new stairs.

Level 5

Ow !

What the hell ?

There seems to be no way of avoiding the effects of the vortex. The party aims for the center of the floor, taking low damages each time they take a step.

We go by another poorly-hidden pit :

Right now, I really don't care !

We finally reach the center of the floor and it turns out to also be the eye of the storm :

Ah ah. Putting a warning in a place you can only reach by going through the danger you're warning people about. We're dealing with either someone who has a very special sense of humor or someone who's dumber than the average zombie.

On the bright side, we can rest here. Nobody's going to disturb us.

Indeed, the party is able to rest and memorize spells without fear of being attacked by random monsters.

Then it's time to leave this haven and brave the vortex again in order to find the stairs leading up :

Fortunately, it doesn't take too long.

Level 6

I'm getting really sick of this place...

Are these pits some sort of running gag or what ?

As we explore the floor, we suddenly hear whispering voices :

Looks like the owner of this charming place is still alive after all.

Yes, and whoever these punks are, I'm not letting them kill him after all the time we've already wasted here ! Charge !

Fuck, I'm the first to act, what do I do ?

Just attack them bare-handed !

Attacking bare-handed means inflicting less damage, which is for the best in this case, since the Fire Shield protecting the wizards will hurt the attacker for twice the damage s/he inflicts. A single point of damage is all that's needed to prevent the wizard from doing anything useful until the next round.

Unfortunately, attacking bare-handed also means you don't get your weapon's Thac0 bonus. Kundry misses her target.

But the initiative god isn't with the dark wizards today : Faerlin is the second to act and is able to cast a Cone of Cold, wounding a wizard and killing another :

While the Fire Shields (cold flames) seem to always protect the dark wizards against DBFs, they have a negative effect : if a dark wizard fails his save against a Cone of Cold, he receives weirdly huge damages, enough to kill him four or five times.

Sayali is next to act. Fortunately, she's just close enough to kill the third wizard with her Power Word : Kill.

The warriors all attack the surviving wizard bare-handed (Silivrin has obviously removed her girdle of giant strength). His Mirror Images make him difficult to hit at first, but destroying all of them doesn't take long.

The wizard doesn't survive much longer. The clerics quickly heal Kundry, who's been slightly hurt by the Fire Shield, and we go back to exploring this floor.

It turns out to be fairly empty. The only monsters we meet flee from us :

Come back and fight, you cowards !

Forget about them. I have a feeling I'm going to lose my bet : there's no way we're nearing the top of the lighthouse yet.

In the next update, the tower doesn't become more interesting, but the fights become harder.

 

[lightbane]

Look, I'm all for doing good deeds when we get the chance, but I'm pretty damn sure that freeing this ettin will only bring us trouble. Either the stupid thing will attack us or the owners of that web will. Maybe even both.

"But... But the paladin code says it's mandatory to help everyone, even if they don't want to be helped!!!"




By the way, can you kill the gnome to skip its inane quest??

 

[octavius]

Great stuff! DQK is one of my favourite games, and this LP is well written and funny, without trying too hard to be funny.

For some reason first time I played it I hated the underwater portion, second time I loved it.

Interesting to note differences in playing style. I never bother with spells against low lives like bats or saughain. But against the Dark Mages there is of course no holding back.
Also I always play with a Kender. Kender Cleric/Thieves are nice since Hoopaks can be used by Clerics and can also be used for backstabbing. And the Kenders' taunt ability and immunity to fear are fun.

This is the most difficult GB game and there are some extremely difficult battles ahead. I'm looking forward to read about them. :D