Pussycat669
Liturgist
seriously.
Edit: Dot was missing.
Edit2: No, no, wait. I mean full stop of course.
(Moved Entry from Fri Jun 04, 2008)
Gah, that was a long downtime but whatever I was doing, I'm done now. With the private grunt work out of the way, I think I'll start a little marathon, since we're so close to the end. Five days, five updates although this might be nasty to look at afterwards. Anyways, let's get back to the fun.
The nodes: Going elemental (Earth)
'They usually point and laugh at me when I tell them about it but once the ground itself starts to rise and tries to kill them, they grow more tolerant towards my rather chaotic lifestyle.' Lord Grey, The Nature of Things
So here we are at the earth node. You may recall that I mentioned they would contain no less than my personal devil incarnate and here it is: the dreadful Galeb Duhrs.
If you make the same mistake like I did, you will confuse those buggers with cute little versions of an earth elemental that you can play with. They are not toys. In fact, they are more like compact battle tanks that will mercilessly roll over you when you are not careful. They get a significant AC bonus due to their size, the [15] spell resistance makes them quiet resistant towards Magedude's flashy sorcery and they are almost immune to conventional non-enchanted weaponry (Thankfully, we covered enchantments in the last chapter otherwise Screamer & Co would now be royally screwed). Add this to a tremendous amount of HP + damage output and you get the creatures of terror that you see before you. The worst thing about them though is that they are painfully slow. Remember the ghouls back in the moathouse? Take their slowness square 10 and you will get a rough idea. They also pop out of the ground too, so it is safe to assume that there will be a lot of them around. Johnny is quiet lucky that he doesn't fall asleep before the first two of those scumbags reach him. More are sure to follow.
Screamer is hit and must be taken a little aback. We now got one GD on Punkaid, three on Johnny. The poor guy is going to suffer during this fight.
Punkaid's GD gets top priority due to the rather poor combat skills of the cleric. It still takes forever before the GD is finally killed. Magedude has a bad feeling about this. It turns out that the GDs are not short of reinforcements. I get myself an ice cream while the new GD stumbles towards our group.
Some expired buffs later we get rid of most of the GDs but Johnny has been beaten up bad so Magedude had to surround him with a magical stone skin. Two GDs left. Our heroes can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Heh, you wish.
You think we're done here, right? Wrong! (and yes, I sincerely hope that I manage to annoy you, just like it was annoying for me)
That's it! Magedude gets the dismissal scrolls he prepared earlier out of his backpack. We got around 20 of those. In practice, it's like firing silver bullets with a SMG set on full automatic but it satisfying to watch a GD explodes in a big purple cloud (not seen in this picture).
Slashing helps too like demonstrated by Johnny. In the distance, a reward comes in sight. A chest!
Magedude and Punkaid have run out of spells so we need to rest for a moment (time becomes relative once you have to wait for 8 hours after every twist and turn).
We thereby encounter one mean looking lizard. A basilisks, as Magedude can identify it. It can't turn people into stone like the legends claim and is therefore easy picking but since it only appears in random encounters in ToEE, I guess it should at least be mentioned.
Tumblefingers loots the chest while the rest of the group is still occupied. She finds a lot of nice equipment but our self-made stuff is already better than anything that some random chests could provide. One thing is mentionable though.
Looks like AI is not the only thing that can be radiant in RPGs (Har Har Har). Our heroes dwell deeper into the caves while encountering weaker foes like this earth elemental.
They meet the benighted wizard Sargen, who begs for their help to escape. He's not exactly someone who awakens the good Samaritan in us all but he offers enough money to cover our expenses.
Screamer proves yet again to be quiet the businesswoman and raises the ransom to ten thousand. Who would deny a free level 10 wizard, who actually pays you to join the party? Let's see what spells of ultimate doom he keeps in his spell book... You've gotta be kidding me.
He doesn't have any spells at all! (well, except for the standard level 0 spells of course)
It looks like this is going to be a babysitting quest through and through. Mhm, what about this guy in the corner? He seems to have balls at least, running around in a treacherous environment as a level one fighter.
Ok, maybe not man balls but he actually has woven balls on fire so that's cool enough to take him in.
The ensuing bafflement and enragement within the party for letting not only one but two NPCs join on such a short notice is suddenly interrupted by another group of GDs. The horror in slow motion continues.
Our heroes are kinda new to this rescue thing so it doesn't come as a surprise that the weaver we should protect is the first to be hit and is almost killed. He and Punkaid switch places while more GDs are coming our way. It seems Johnny got himself into trouble again.
They just keep coming! Time to say your prayers Punkaid! Tumblefingers maneuvers around them to get a clear shot. Screamer and Magedude cast some buffs.
Magedude dares to get closer to the field action and uses his stone skin spell on Johnny. We watch Punkaid getting his arse handed to him in the meantime.
The cleric breaks under the stress of battle. It's up to Johnny and his remaining 20 HP to save the day.
It's about time those dismissal scrolls start working again (end results after the node: 7 times blocked with spell resistance another 4 times with a will saving throw and two hits).
Punkaid's condition gets worse. Johnny is forced to use an emergency health potion on him and suffers the attacks of opportunity that are bound to follow. Magedude throws a lightning bolt into the party to cause a little distraction.
There is a short moment of tension when a GD tries to kick Punkaid into his groins as he tries to stand up but the cleric is able to roll into safety. After more loss of blood, sweat and tears, the last GD finally meets his end.
Another rest is in order whereby our unaware campers are ambushed by little ET things.
They the closest resemblance to children that you will see in the game and you can even kill them legally. The experience of butchering quasi helpless foes is so enthralling, in a retarded way that our heroes set out for a little invalid hunt. They quickly make a find.
Last remarkable enemy on this plane are those bulls made out of rock. They seem threatening
but they aren't.
With the minor annoyances out of the way, Screamer comes face to face with the level boss (what will again cost her life in the not shown first try. I wanted to make sure that there are no conversational skill checks involved. The same happens later in the fire node). The Giabrezu doesn't fail to realize all the good qualities in her.
I presume that this means less talk and more fighting. Can we get the elementals over here, please?
Many thanks. So, where to start? Magedude, thanks to his great insight, commanded our two NPC to wait back in the hallway so they should be out of harm’s way. The elementals look stable enough and one of them should provide us with some protection during the first few turns.
Tumblefingers disappears in dust and glitter. The Giabrezu summons mirror images of himself, just like the Vrock from the air node, which will hinder our progress but not for long.
The other elemental crumbles, thanks to Punkaid's fanatic smashing abilities. This fight shouldn't take too long anymore even after the demon manages to attack and kill our elemental with unsettling ease.
Maybe it would have been even smarter to leave the NPCs somewhere out of sight however.
We'll make this personal then. We could still need some cash so at least the mage should survive. The weaver is expendable so we plan to use him as an emergency meatshield. We form a 'line of friends' and lure the little devils into the range of Tumblefingers bow, who makes their demise quick and painful.
Punkaid goes down (in one single round nonetheless). Magedude takes drastic actions to solve the bat problem. We can’t afford any more distractions.
Stubborn little pests! There is no more time to lose. Tumblefingers releases a fury of sneak attacks upon the pitiful Giabrezu, who isn't quiet up to this treatment.
Another glorious case of survival of the wicked. It is strange to see someone level up after all this time. It brings back memories. Terrible, low level memories.
The skull is almost complete. Salvation is at hand!
Our heroes step through the portal and return to the realms of man. It is only one teleport away from the arguably safety of Hommlet (we are just here to buy arrows, honestly). This triggers a conversation with the now freed NPC that were following us (they actually come only one at a time so if the first NPC has talked to you, you must enter a house, leave and then the other conversation will occur).
That punk is lying through his teeth. We don't get any fire balls. He just walks off and that's it. Sargen isn’t much of worth either. Although he remains true to his word, it will take him several weeks before he gets the money together (which you will only receive during a random encounter on the world map what is also going to consume your time). Screamer proclaims that from now on they will stick to the ‘by morons for morons’ mantra about escort quests. At least they made a great step towards the completion of the skull. Only one question remains: Will the elemental fire of evil forge them or melt them? Soon, we will find out.
Embarrassing Fact: This is the last screenshot that features Punkaid alive. He actually died when we passed the gateway because I failed to realize that the only thing that kept him from dying was his righteous might. I heard his voice actor screaming in fatal agony but when the scene faded in Punkaid was still breathing. He was immediately healed of course and everything seemed to be well again but once we entered a house in Hommlet, he suddenly died without any explanation (even this town can hardly be that horrible). Using the auto saves was also useless, he always died immediately. Of course, I didn't save after the demon was killed so I was forced to do this whole battle all over again.
That’s it for now but in case that there are any more unpredicted delays, you can still entertain yourself with this old trailer of Phantasmagoria 2. A story about emotions, sex and lots of (literally) bloody paperwork
Edit: Dot was missing.
Edit2: No, no, wait. I mean full stop of course.
(Moved Entry from Fri Jun 04, 2008)
Gah, that was a long downtime but whatever I was doing, I'm done now. With the private grunt work out of the way, I think I'll start a little marathon, since we're so close to the end. Five days, five updates although this might be nasty to look at afterwards. Anyways, let's get back to the fun.
The nodes: Going elemental (Earth)
'They usually point and laugh at me when I tell them about it but once the ground itself starts to rise and tries to kill them, they grow more tolerant towards my rather chaotic lifestyle.' Lord Grey, The Nature of Things
So here we are at the earth node. You may recall that I mentioned they would contain no less than my personal devil incarnate and here it is: the dreadful Galeb Duhrs.
If you make the same mistake like I did, you will confuse those buggers with cute little versions of an earth elemental that you can play with. They are not toys. In fact, they are more like compact battle tanks that will mercilessly roll over you when you are not careful. They get a significant AC bonus due to their size, the [15] spell resistance makes them quiet resistant towards Magedude's flashy sorcery and they are almost immune to conventional non-enchanted weaponry (Thankfully, we covered enchantments in the last chapter otherwise Screamer & Co would now be royally screwed). Add this to a tremendous amount of HP + damage output and you get the creatures of terror that you see before you. The worst thing about them though is that they are painfully slow. Remember the ghouls back in the moathouse? Take their slowness square 10 and you will get a rough idea. They also pop out of the ground too, so it is safe to assume that there will be a lot of them around. Johnny is quiet lucky that he doesn't fall asleep before the first two of those scumbags reach him. More are sure to follow.
Screamer is hit and must be taken a little aback. We now got one GD on Punkaid, three on Johnny. The poor guy is going to suffer during this fight.
Punkaid's GD gets top priority due to the rather poor combat skills of the cleric. It still takes forever before the GD is finally killed. Magedude has a bad feeling about this. It turns out that the GDs are not short of reinforcements. I get myself an ice cream while the new GD stumbles towards our group.
Some expired buffs later we get rid of most of the GDs but Johnny has been beaten up bad so Magedude had to surround him with a magical stone skin. Two GDs left. Our heroes can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Heh, you wish.
You think we're done here, right? Wrong! (and yes, I sincerely hope that I manage to annoy you, just like it was annoying for me)
That's it! Magedude gets the dismissal scrolls he prepared earlier out of his backpack. We got around 20 of those. In practice, it's like firing silver bullets with a SMG set on full automatic but it satisfying to watch a GD explodes in a big purple cloud (not seen in this picture).
Slashing helps too like demonstrated by Johnny. In the distance, a reward comes in sight. A chest!
Magedude and Punkaid have run out of spells so we need to rest for a moment (time becomes relative once you have to wait for 8 hours after every twist and turn).
We thereby encounter one mean looking lizard. A basilisks, as Magedude can identify it. It can't turn people into stone like the legends claim and is therefore easy picking but since it only appears in random encounters in ToEE, I guess it should at least be mentioned.
Tumblefingers loots the chest while the rest of the group is still occupied. She finds a lot of nice equipment but our self-made stuff is already better than anything that some random chests could provide. One thing is mentionable though.
Looks like AI is not the only thing that can be radiant in RPGs (Har Har Har). Our heroes dwell deeper into the caves while encountering weaker foes like this earth elemental.
They meet the benighted wizard Sargen, who begs for their help to escape. He's not exactly someone who awakens the good Samaritan in us all but he offers enough money to cover our expenses.
Screamer proves yet again to be quiet the businesswoman and raises the ransom to ten thousand. Who would deny a free level 10 wizard, who actually pays you to join the party? Let's see what spells of ultimate doom he keeps in his spell book... You've gotta be kidding me.
He doesn't have any spells at all! (well, except for the standard level 0 spells of course)
It looks like this is going to be a babysitting quest through and through. Mhm, what about this guy in the corner? He seems to have balls at least, running around in a treacherous environment as a level one fighter.
Ok, maybe not man balls but he actually has woven balls on fire so that's cool enough to take him in.
The ensuing bafflement and enragement within the party for letting not only one but two NPCs join on such a short notice is suddenly interrupted by another group of GDs. The horror in slow motion continues.
Our heroes are kinda new to this rescue thing so it doesn't come as a surprise that the weaver we should protect is the first to be hit and is almost killed. He and Punkaid switch places while more GDs are coming our way. It seems Johnny got himself into trouble again.
They just keep coming! Time to say your prayers Punkaid! Tumblefingers maneuvers around them to get a clear shot. Screamer and Magedude cast some buffs.
Magedude dares to get closer to the field action and uses his stone skin spell on Johnny. We watch Punkaid getting his arse handed to him in the meantime.
The cleric breaks under the stress of battle. It's up to Johnny and his remaining 20 HP to save the day.
It's about time those dismissal scrolls start working again (end results after the node: 7 times blocked with spell resistance another 4 times with a will saving throw and two hits).
Punkaid's condition gets worse. Johnny is forced to use an emergency health potion on him and suffers the attacks of opportunity that are bound to follow. Magedude throws a lightning bolt into the party to cause a little distraction.
There is a short moment of tension when a GD tries to kick Punkaid into his groins as he tries to stand up but the cleric is able to roll into safety. After more loss of blood, sweat and tears, the last GD finally meets his end.
Another rest is in order whereby our unaware campers are ambushed by little ET things.
They the closest resemblance to children that you will see in the game and you can even kill them legally. The experience of butchering quasi helpless foes is so enthralling, in a retarded way that our heroes set out for a little invalid hunt. They quickly make a find.
Last remarkable enemy on this plane are those bulls made out of rock. They seem threatening
but they aren't.
With the minor annoyances out of the way, Screamer comes face to face with the level boss (what will again cost her life in the not shown first try. I wanted to make sure that there are no conversational skill checks involved. The same happens later in the fire node). The Giabrezu doesn't fail to realize all the good qualities in her.
I presume that this means less talk and more fighting. Can we get the elementals over here, please?
Many thanks. So, where to start? Magedude, thanks to his great insight, commanded our two NPC to wait back in the hallway so they should be out of harm’s way. The elementals look stable enough and one of them should provide us with some protection during the first few turns.
Tumblefingers disappears in dust and glitter. The Giabrezu summons mirror images of himself, just like the Vrock from the air node, which will hinder our progress but not for long.
The other elemental crumbles, thanks to Punkaid's fanatic smashing abilities. This fight shouldn't take too long anymore even after the demon manages to attack and kill our elemental with unsettling ease.
Maybe it would have been even smarter to leave the NPCs somewhere out of sight however.
We'll make this personal then. We could still need some cash so at least the mage should survive. The weaver is expendable so we plan to use him as an emergency meatshield. We form a 'line of friends' and lure the little devils into the range of Tumblefingers bow, who makes their demise quick and painful.
Punkaid goes down (in one single round nonetheless). Magedude takes drastic actions to solve the bat problem. We can’t afford any more distractions.
Stubborn little pests! There is no more time to lose. Tumblefingers releases a fury of sneak attacks upon the pitiful Giabrezu, who isn't quiet up to this treatment.
Another glorious case of survival of the wicked. It is strange to see someone level up after all this time. It brings back memories. Terrible, low level memories.
The skull is almost complete. Salvation is at hand!
Our heroes step through the portal and return to the realms of man. It is only one teleport away from the arguably safety of Hommlet (we are just here to buy arrows, honestly). This triggers a conversation with the now freed NPC that were following us (they actually come only one at a time so if the first NPC has talked to you, you must enter a house, leave and then the other conversation will occur).
That punk is lying through his teeth. We don't get any fire balls. He just walks off and that's it. Sargen isn’t much of worth either. Although he remains true to his word, it will take him several weeks before he gets the money together (which you will only receive during a random encounter on the world map what is also going to consume your time). Screamer proclaims that from now on they will stick to the ‘by morons for morons’ mantra about escort quests. At least they made a great step towards the completion of the skull. Only one question remains: Will the elemental fire of evil forge them or melt them? Soon, we will find out.
Embarrassing Fact: This is the last screenshot that features Punkaid alive. He actually died when we passed the gateway because I failed to realize that the only thing that kept him from dying was his righteous might. I heard his voice actor screaming in fatal agony but when the scene faded in Punkaid was still breathing. He was immediately healed of course and everything seemed to be well again but once we entered a house in Hommlet, he suddenly died without any explanation (even this town can hardly be that horrible). Using the auto saves was also useless, he always died immediately. Of course, I didn't save after the demon was killed so I was forced to do this whole battle all over again.
That’s it for now but in case that there are any more unpredicted delays, you can still entertain yourself with this old trailer of Phantasmagoria 2. A story about emotions, sex and lots of (literally) bloody paperwork