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MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
I thought Black Dragon Breath Weapon was a line. Of course I am not too familar with 1e.

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Randalor
Sep 4, 2011



It might just be a line that stops at the first person hit. I mean, the black dragons are hocking loogies at you, not coughing.

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
Dragons doing their hit points in breath weapon damage was a 1e thing that changed to straight up dice damage like everything else with second edition. I've heard varying sources that black dragon acid breath behaves like a line or cone, but this game seems to portray it as the former.

I read up on Hillsfar. Basically it was a game where you completed a series of contests ranging from horseback riding to foot races to fighting in an arena. It got mixed reviews and much criticism for lacking a magic system despite giving the option to be a mage or cleric. I don't think we missed much in skipping that game.

I also found some transcription of the journal entries online that fill in a few plot holes. Here goes (commentary in italics)-

quote:

Journal Entry 1 (Not sure who in the party would write this.)

I am beginning a new journal. My old journal is gone, along with all of the party's equipment. I write here to try to make some sense out of our spotty memories. We had all agreed to come south to Tilverton to seek the lost princess, Nacacia of Cormyr. Tilverton is on the border between the Dalelands and Cormyr, and was the last place the princess had been spotted. Rumor was that King Azoun's youngest daughter, the Princess Nacacia, ran away from the royal household of Cormyr almost a year ago. She fled an arranged marriage and ran off with a cleric from Tilverton named Gharri of Gond. The latest word was the Nacacia and Gharri had a falling out and that she was seen near Tilverton recently. The king had a large reward out for Nacacia's return. A smart group of adventurers like ourselves could make some powerful friends if they found the princess and returned her to the king. Somewhere along the road to Tilverton we were attacked. The brigands must have been invisible, because some of our party went down before we knew what was going on. I vaguely remember dark faces in evil-looking helmets firing crossbows into our midst. The crossbow hits were not fatal, but every hit seemed to drop its target. I remember getting hit in the arm. The wound blazed like fire. My head swam. Just before I blacked out, I thought that this was a bad end for such experienced adventurers.

Now we awake in Tilverton with our wounds healed. Our equipment is gone, but we have found a stash of coins. One of our first priorities must be to buy new equipment. I overheard a servant mention the date, but I m not sure I believe it. If the servant speaks true, it is almost a month since the ambush. Almost anything could have happened in that time. It seems that almost anything did. Each of us awoke with five azure blue symbols imprinted on our sword arm. The symbols are not tattoos; they seem to exist below the skin. They occasionally feel like they re moving.

We have devised a plan of attack. Our spell-casters will prepare their spells. We will purchase some new arms and armor. Then we are going out into Tilverton and find out what is going on. Someone must know. And I don't care if we have to roust every sage, priest, and bartender in this town to find out.

That sets the plot up pretty well. I also found the journal entries Alpha mentioned, but deemed them too full of spoilers to post at this time. We're on a new page now, so I'll probably wait for the next update before I say more.

GladRagKraken
Mar 27, 2010

achtungnight posted:

I read up on Hillsfar. Basically it was a game where you completed a series of contests ranging from horseback riding to foot races to fighting in an arena. It got mixed reviews and much criticism for lacking a magic system despite giving the option to be a mage or cleric. I don't think we missed much in skipping that game.

Oh, dear, I vaguely remember playing Hillsfar in middle school, and hope you're mistaken. Okay, all I remember is the burglary minigame, but I remember taking turns with my friends seeing who could steal the the most before getting caught and having the game ignominiously ended.

Truthkeeper
Nov 29, 2010

Friends don't let friends borrow on credit.
On the subject of breath weapons, from the 1e Monster Manual:

quote:

Dragons can attack by claw/bite or breath weapon. The latter can be used but three times per day, maximum. If a choice is possible roll percentile dice. Any score above 50% indicates the dragon will breathe. The breath weapon causes damage equal to the dragon's hit points (half that amount if a saving throw is made) on each and every creature hit by the breath weapon. Cone shaped breath weapons are 1/2" diameter at point of origin.

And mostly repeating the above, the entry on Black Dragons (Draco Causticus Sputem)

quote:

The black dragon attacks with a claw/claw/bite or breathes - in this case spitting acid in a 1/2" wide stream which extends 6" in a straight line beginning at the height of the dragon's head and traveling in the direction and at the angle which the monster's head was facing at the time of discharging the acid
From that, I'd gather that 1e black dragon breath is still supposed to hit every target along it's line just like later editions and this is some strange quirk of the game instead.

Unrelated but amusing: There are rules in place for subduing, capturing, transporting, and selling dragons, including forcing a subdued dragon to act as your mount. Slavery is okay by Gygax rules!

JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever
At least up until 2nd edition, green dragons breathed a cloud of chlorine gas, which I thought was a clever alternate breath weapon to the usual cone of fire or what have you. Sadly, I believe that they changed it to something more banal in later editions.

Zurai
Feb 13, 2012


Wait -- I haven't even voted in this game yet!

JustJeff88 posted:

At least up until 2nd edition, green dragons breathed a cloud of chlorine gas, which I thought was a clever alternate breath weapon to the usual cone of fire or what have you. Sadly, I believe that they changed it to something more banal in later editions.

Yep. 3rd edition changed it to a cone of, IIRC, acid.

Alpha3KV
Mar 30, 2011

Quex Chest
I think the Amiga version of this game has difficulty settings, something that all versions of later gold box games have. The difficulties simply adjust the amount of HP enemies have. Fights with dragons are pretty much the only ones made truly more or less dangerous by changing difficulty rather than simply longer or shorter.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.
"The later can be used but three times a day"

BULLSHIT

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



achtungnight posted:

Westgate does not appear in this or any other Forgotten Realms game, far as I know.
Dunno if you're specifically talking about the Gold Box games here, but Mysteries of Westgate, a DLC module for Neverwinter Nights 2, heavily features Westgate, at the very least.

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
Ah, I had not heard of that module. Thanks.

Realms Lore- The Standing Stone in the Dalelands is an ancient monument to a peace treaty between the original human settlers and the lost elven kingdom of Cormanthyr, which I mentioned before when discussing the Knights of Myth Drannor.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.
Sup everybody! Sorry for the slowdown in updates, I'm struggling to come up with good material at the moment. These streaks happen as a writer. I have changed my avatar to get a breath of fresh air and hopefully that will help shake something loose.

My plan is to update this weekend regardless and if it's not funny then gently caress YOU I'M TRYING OK!!!!!

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
I look forward to the update, Chokes. You've always made me laugh thus far in this LP. I expect you to continue.

Jazzimus Prime
May 16, 2002

The Brothers Autobot

Chokes McGee posted:

Sup everybody! Sorry for the slowdown in updates, I'm struggling to come up with good material at the moment. These streaks happen as a writer. I have changed my avatar to get a breath of fresh air and hopefully that will help shake something loose.

My plan is to update this weekend regardless and if it's not funny then gently caress YOU I'M TRYING OK!!!!!

I feel your pain *glances at my own Dwarf Fortress Arena thread that I haven't posted a real update to in at least three years but which I intend to next week*my job demands a lot from me ok

If it's any encouragement at all, I voted your thread back to gold with an old backup SA account of mine that I had to look up the password to.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.
Curse of the Azure Bonds, Chapter 6: Under Where?




Today on the Gold Box adventures, we're going spelunking! Unfortunately, I used up all my horrible disease puns on Final Fantasy Legend 2. Look, I'm out of jokes, and we've got two and a half games to go. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here.


Anyway, if you'll remember last update, all our impressive dark elf adamantium gear rotted away to nothing in the sun. Fortunately, Chokes Has Played the Game™, and I kept all our previous gear. If you're not familiar with D&D, you can very easily go WELP DON'T NEED THIS poo poo ANYMORE, toss all the magic stuff you've accumlated, and get a really nasty surprise. Why, no, I didn't do this on my first offscreen playthrough. Why do you ask?





We also swing by Essembra (just north of Hap) to train. Only one person is eligible, but...







Good news, Sternn!

?

You've passed your apprenticeship! *gestures at shoulders* I hereby dub thee full-blown mage.

Neat! What do I get for it?





...daddy likes.

Just wait 'till you take the cellophane off!




We can now dual wield fireballs, which was the entire point of all this. We have some extra Tier 3 spells hanging around on scrolls, so Sternn picks up Slow and a few other inconsequential spells as well.

Wait a sec! I never actually showed off Tier 3! Let's get to that now. Mage Tier 3 is stupidly overpowered, but it's by and large overshadowed by Fireball.




Mage Tier 3

  • Blink. After you take your action, you can't be hit for the rest of the combat round. Period. You just go poof. Only works on the caster.
  • :supaburn: FIREBALL :supaburn: 1d6 x caster level. Rocket launcher range outdoors, plasma caster range indoors. By now, I hope I don't have to explain why nuking everything on the screen makes this a premium spell.
  • Haste. Doubles the party's movement and melee attacks per round at the cost of one year of each person's life. This spell is grossly overpowered, but save it for emergencies so you don't end up in a retirement home before Pools of Darkness. Still, when you need a boss dead right this instant, this is the spell for you.
  • Hold Person, Protection from Evil 10' Radius, Protection from Good 10' Radius, Dispel Magic. Hold Person hits four targets instead of three. Otherwise, exactly the same as Cleric Tier 3.
  • Invisibility, 10' Radius. Now you see us, now you don't! :razz: Anybody within a 3x3 radius of the target (effectively) gets -4 AC and protection from normal missles. Unfortunately, attacking/casting breaks the spell, making it near useless.
  • Lightning Bolt. 1d6 x caster level. Bounces off walls, as previously noted, so there's a good chance you can fireball single targets twice. I'd still rather zap the entire screen at once, though.
  • Protection from Normal Missles. Target can't be hit with arrows or slings. I mean, what did you expect?
  • Slow. Hits a number of targets up to caster's level with a reverse haste spell, i.e. cuts movement and attacks in half. Due to rounding, this means some enemies forfeit every other turn entirely. If the target is Hasted, this gets rid of it instead.




There's a lot to love about this spell tier, but unfortunately, it's rarely worth keeping anything memorized other than fireballs and, at later levels, a couple of lightning bolts. If you know fights against humanoids are coming, it's not a bad idea to have a Hold Person or two memorized instead of Lightning Bolts.

Note how fast Sternn caught up to us. If the rest of your team can carry dead weight through medium difficulty encounters, the first quarter of Curse is a great place to powerlevel a new mage. Or other classes, I assume, but why the hell would you want that? As long as you have enough meatshields to keep everyone busy, just keep tossing fireballs as fast as possible, and everything else will work itself out. Hasn't failed me yet!







Still in the mood to go wizard hunting, Sternn?

You know it! Let's go find that Wizard's Tower!

More like that nerd tower.

Yes. You don't like intelligent people. We got that.

Tower of High Nerdery.

Headband, you got issues.

Nerd issues.







Here we are! The Wizard's Tower!

Wow. I expected a tower to, like, be above ground.

And that's why I'm the brains of the party. :smug:

Will you give me that









Huh. I don't think we can blame the boss this time.

...unless?










hot hot hot

why is there always a volcano

it burrrrrrrrrrrns




Well, here's the welcome wagon. If you were dumb enough to leave Hap without going to the caves, you can load up on dark elf gear again after this. You'll notice, however, they brought friends.







Stand back everyone! I got this :grin:








...





...





...isn't it supposed to do something?

Are you doing it right? Maybe you're not doing it right.

I cast the thing at the thing!

Hmm. Well, beats me!

:mad:




Kicking down the door and flinging our brand new fireballs in isn't going to do squat for us right now, because those are salamanders, and they literally live in, eat, and probably poo poo fire. For those of you not aquainted with myth, people from the medieval era were convinced salamanders were constantly on fire 24/7 and no I don't know why either. I did, in the course of looking something up on Wikipedia my painstaking research, discover that "eye of newt" is actually a type of mustard plant. I will now know that for the rest of my life, and so will you.

Anyway, salamanders are mostly unremarkable except for being large targets that don't take fire damage, at all, ever. Their AC is mehhhhh, and their HP isn't too bad, so they're actually less dangerous than their handlers. That lets us use them as blockers, rain Hold Person down on said handlers, then mop up everyone who's left. No biggie!

Now that we're in, let's go exploring.













:heysexy:

Shut up, Sternn.








Welcome to the Underdark. :twisted:

The under where?

hee hee you just said underwear





Sure, why not.

A hand tattoo? Like, do you even want to get hired somewhere?

Heather!

It's what my mom always said! It makes sense?

You know I'm a scientific researcher, right?

Oh! So you don't have to worry about getting a real job.

...





*scribble scribble*




Journal Entry 44 posted:

I am the current leader of the Swanmays, since Kith and Belinda disappeared on the Great Glacier. We need someone to infiltrate the Red Wizard's Tower, and we heard the "Dracandros" was looking for a party bearing those symbols on your arms. "Dracandros" has gathered all the Black Dragons in the area to his tower. We need to get a special piece of one of them. If you accept our mark you will be eligible for a share of our reward. I have influence with several families that are guarding these caves, so I can get you to the tower. Once there, we would be most happy if you could get us a part of a dragon's heart, or at least get them to leave the tower.




Like, why do you keep making air quotes around the wizard's name?

:airquote: I'm not. :airquote:

Yes you are! You just did it again!

:airquote: Nope. :airquote:

...





There. You're a Swanmay now.

Swansaywhat?

What—oh, you.

I'm a mischievious little scaliwag.





So, we'll have to beat the crap out of some dark elves. Got it.

The more things change...




So I'm sure there's a long winded explanation as to what the Swanmays are and how they're upholding the Ancient Order of Backstory but here's the thing: I still don't care. What I do care about, though, is the Swanmay mark. This'll cut our encounter rate down by roughly half while we're bumbling around down here, plus it makes Justine look super tough in the process. Pretty good deal, all things considered. I mean, there's that whole pesky "bring me the heart of a dragon" thing, but I'm sure we can deal with that when the time comes.

(Spoilers: Well, you know.)










(Sauna. Members only.)





What are you doing here? This is members only!

But that's what it says on my jacket?

Hmm. Checks out.








Sounds great! I'll get right on it.

Be careful, though. Those chests've been in here a long time and got kinda warm.

Don't all of you live in fire?

Yup.

And it's still warm to you?

Like I said, Hanover'll get right on it!

:sigh:





ow





ow

Oh will you move over.





ow








Good job, Hanover! :thumbsup:

S'nothin', boss.

:supaburn:




You can fight these guys, but you barely get any XP, so it's not really worth it. Just (P)arley (S)ly and you'll seem like nice enough dudes they'll let you unlock the treasure chests, which of course are roughly 5,000,000 oF, so you'll end up taking small amounts of damage whether or not you succeed. The contents are random and therefore mostly worthless, but there's six of them, so it's worth the hassle for the XP alone. Besides, you can camp afterwards, (F)ix once, and very likely get away with it. No real downside and plenty of upside to cleaning the joint out.














As we continue exploring the Underdark, we'll stumble into scripted fights like this where Dark Elves and fire based monsters are mixed up and then vomited out at us. Efreeti aren't that much different from Salamanders and are therefore unimpressive. The Dark Elves bringing up the rear are still a pain in the rear end, but our fighters can actually handle them pretty well one at a time.








More concerning are the random patrols that aren't sympathetic to Silk. If you act (M)eek, they'll insult the poo poo out of you and let you off the hook for the low low price of half your money. In theory you'll eventually run so low on funds they'll barely get anything out of you, but we need that money for training. Though, I think at some point I said training doesn't cost money anymore. Yes, here at the Gold Box adventures, we're committed to quality assurance of fine quality.

Naturally, we pick (H)aughty and then kick the living poo poo out of them, but not before catching a couple of lightning bolts to the face. This area's surprisingly generous about giving you time to rest, but there's still a small chance you'll get interrupted. Save early, save often.










Awful lot of commotion goin' on back there.

You said it, short stuff. Let's go see what's up.





Well, that's disappointing.

Yeah. I don't know why they went through all the trouble of blowing up the tunnel themselves. It would've been faster to ask Rezen to do it.

Efficiency is my middle name!

It is?

Nah, it's Amanda.

...it is?




Here's a tunnel to the Dark Elves' divine city! Too bad we ran out of money before we could finish that particular map. Literally nothing to see here, and you have to fight Efreeti along the way to boot. Still, it's a neat little flavor-text detour. Not every place in the Realms has to be subjected to the force majeur that is the All-Stars.

Moving on!
















Oh look. More salamanders. Because I'm the princess of salamanders now. :rolleyes:




This one is slightly more dicey since there's a Cleric. We focus our fire on that guy first, then wipe up the rest of his cohorts. I wish I could say exciting things about these combat breaks, but it's really the same fight over and over again which gets handled in the same way every time. We don't even get the satisfaction of dual-fireballing them into oblivion. This whole section very boring and I am doing my best to be entertaining. Your patience is appreciated in these trying times.







I'm sure it'll be fine.

it woooooooon't be fiiiiiiiiiiine

Ron Howard's dead?!

:rip:




This voice doesn't show up often the series, but when it does, loving listen to it. Top off your spells and HP immediately and save to a different slot than the one you already use. You're not gonna have a good time. Don't make it worse than it already has to be.

With that being said: let's go see what all the fuss is about. I mean, it's going to be rough, but is it really going to be that bad?










doop dee doo, boppin along, fightin' the dark elves





Sup.

OH MY MOTHER OF PEARL IT'S A DRACOLICH





Ah. Well. Well, I'm sure we can talk our way through this like rational—





oh





oh no








:supaburn:

:tif:




This is Crimdrac, a dracolich. Dracoliches ain't nothin' to gently caress with. They're dragons that were convinced being undead immortal spellcasters was a great idea, and hell, they're not wrong. Besides the massive AC and ability to torch the poo poo out of us just whenever, they also have a paralyzing gaze, which is basically a free Hold Person spell every round. So that's fun! The silver lining is A) our guys already have stupid low THAC0 and stupid high damage, so they'll be able to hit about 60-70% of the time for reasonable amounts, and B) he's only got 66 HP instead of ~80, which limits both his fire breath damage and ability to stay alive. Don't get me wrong, it sure is fun to wander into a fight and immediately have both paralytic gaze and loving dragon fire unleashed on you before you can even take a turn, but we do have to win this fight to continue on.

Oh, while I'm at it: dracoliches are immune to almost all magic spells. I want you to remember our competition up to this point and realize exactly how soon after starting the game this monster is getting thrown at us. I also want you to understand he's the miniboss of this section, and that you get a single vague warning before he shows up out of nowhere. It's pretty wild, and it won't be the first time Gold Box does this to us. Not in the least.








The first thing we need to do is get our mages the gently caress out of there, preferably in opposite directions. Dragon breath'll suck no matter what, but the less people that get hit in one go, the better off we'll all be.





Then, we get our fighters surrounding Crimdrac on different sides. Again, you'd much rather only have one or two people in the cone's range than your entire front line.





Next is our actual battle plan, and the main reason it's important to get the mages to a safe distance. The one spell immunity he doesn't have is Magic Missle, which means Rezen and Sternn can plunk him for sizeable 10-14 HP chunks of damage if the fighters can keep him busy. Remember that he has 66 HP and our fighters are still clubbing on him the entire way. 28-34 damage a round isn't anything to sneeze at.





Eventually, Hanover delivers the final blow. Despite sustaining some ugly levels of damage, we didn't lose anybody. This is the result of careful planning and knowledge of the game engine on my part. If you show up here with the standard party of a single mage and no clue what's coming or what proper tactics are, you are going to get absolutely pasted. It's even worse if you consistently fail your resist rolls against paralyzing gaze, which is the real danger here. This guy has the potential to be a major roadblock, and he's just the halfway point. Good grief.

You may wonder why we don't just surrender our money and be on our merry way. I'll tell you why: because then you have to do this fight all over again, except outdoors, and after you're already hurting from finishing the scenario. Even better: Crimdrac knows Dimensional Door and is not the least bit shy about using it. Just *bamf* *bamf* fire breath upside your head from behind! Whoops lol! So, we're handling him here indoors, where we can keep him contained and in front of us.

Fighting outside sucks. Fighting a dracolich outside sucks even worse. Life's hard enough as is, so let's just get it over with now.







Sss. I ssssuppose you're not as incompetent as I was led to believe.

Oh man. You have no idea what kind of forces you're dealin' with here.

My tutor will be most pleased with his new sssssubjects. Go and meet your new master.

...

Tutor?

Yessss. He taught me everything I know.

Like, it must've not taken long.

HRK

What? What just happened?

It appears Heather sassed him so hard, it eradicated his phylactery.










This looks like the way to the Wizard's Tower.

I'm concerned about who's waiting for us.

Yeah?

Yes. We just faced an undead dragon sorceror. The wizard we're about to face was his tutor.

...yeah...

Just what kind of evil demented genius are we up against?
















quote:

Bad news. They got past the dracolich.

Are you kidding? That's great news. Go get my usual cut of the platinum, and I'll meet the dipshits Tyranthraxus put those bonds on.

I don't think you understand, Chief. They killed him. He's dead.

What? Bullshit. He's a lich.

Looks like one of them knows Power Word: Insult. It's pretty bad. I wouldn't go look if you have a weak stomach.

Oh for gently caress's sake! I put a lot of effort into getting that contract signed! What kind of idiots think fighting a dracolich is a good idea?

Big ones, Chief. Huge. Like, you got some whoppers on the line here.

Gah. See, that's the problem with adventurers: they're too stupid to know what they can't do. *grumbles* I can't believe I have to do everything myself around here. I don't know why I even hire you feebs.

...you don't pay us anything.

Can you blame me?!




Next Time: Reading the Fine Print

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
Realms Lore- Swanmays, Divine Cities, & Dracolichs.

Swanmays are a rare creature in the Realms. Specifically they are a D&D creation similar to the Princess in Swan Lake, women who can transform into swans. Wait, that isn’t what appears here. The Swanmays are also the name of an all-female adventuring party from Azure Bonds. Alias was a member once, according to her backstory. I don’t remember any specific member names of the Swanmays from the book, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t mention a dark elf member. Most dark elves are evil human hating jerks, and if she wasn’t kicked out of her family Silk must at least be keeping up the appearance of being such. I wonder how she can do that and be part of an adventurer party with non-dark elves. But the game probably won’t give us an answer to that.

Not sure what the divine city is supposed to reference. The dark elves of the Realms have several cities hidden beneath the earth, but I don’t know if any of them are divine.

Dracolichs are as nasty as described in the LP. There’s actually a whole cult of evil mages and clerics in the Realms dedicated to convincing dragons to become Dracolichs and then performing the necessary transformation rituals. The Cult of the Dragon, a truly messed up group. And yes, a Dracolich is totally a level appropriate encounter here. Um hmm. :sarcasm:

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.

achtungnight posted:

Realms Lore- Swanmays, Divine Cities, & Dracolichs.

Swanmays are a rare creature in the Realms. Specifically they are a D&D creation similar to the Princess in Swan Lake, women who can transform into swans. Wait, that isn’t what appears here. The Swanmays are also the name of an all-female adventuring party from Azure Bonds. Alias was a member once, according to her backstory. I don’t remember any specific member names of the Swanmays from the book, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t mention a dark elf member. Most dark elves are evil human hating jerks, and if she wasn’t kicked out of her family Silk must at least be keeping up the appearance of being such. I wonder how she can do that and be part of an adventurer party with non-dark elves. But the game probably won’t give us an answer to that.

Not sure what the divine city is supposed to reference. The dark elves of the Realms have several cities hidden beneath the earth, but I don’t know if any of them are divine.

Dracolichs are as nasty as described in the LP. There’s actually a whole cult of evil mages and clerics in the Realms dedicated to convincing dragons to become Dracolichs and then performing the necessary transformation rituals. The Cult of the Dragon, a truly messed up group. And yes, a Dracolich is totally a level appropriate encounter here. Um hmm. :sarcasm:

Dracoliches: mash magic missle as hard as possible and pray to the gods you make all your resistance rolls

That reminds me: clearly the elves know what's going on because they'll refer to your party's swanmay as "sister" when firing warning shots at you in the barracks. The whole thing is very strange. There may be somewhat of an explanation in Pools, but I doubt it, and DON'T SPOIL IT IF THERE IS SHEESH

Chokes McGee fucked around with this message at 16:08 on May 11, 2020

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Chokes McGee posted:

Curse of the Azure Bonds, Chapter 6: Under Where?
Anyway, if you'll remember last update, all our impressive dark elf adamantium gear rotted away to nothing in the sun. Fortunately, Chokes Has Played the Game™, and I kept all our previous gear. If you're not familiar with D&D, you can very easily go WELP DON'T NEED THIS poo poo ANYMORE, toss all the magic stuff you've accumlated, and get a really nasty surprise. Why, no, I didn't do this on my first offscreen playthrough. Why do you ask?

I certainly never did this and then spent an hour frantically going through old saves to do character import/export bullshit so that I wouldn't have to find all new equipment when I was a kid, either.

I think it was more like three hours.

Alpha3KV
Mar 30, 2011

Quex Chest
Casting resist fire on the character who goes for the chests in the salamander sauna will prevent them from taking damage. On a similar subject, efreeti are not immune to fire, though they're probably supposed to be.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.

Alpha3KV posted:

Casting resist fire on the character who goes for the chests in the salamander sauna will prevent them from taking damage.

Boy is my face red!

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
Put on sunscreen next time you stand next to lava so you don't get as bad of a burn on your face Chokes

DGM_2
Jun 13, 2012

Chokes McGee posted:

You've passed your apprenticeship! *gestures at shoulders* I hereby dub thee full-blown mage.

Hmm... I need a new apprentice now. Hey Justin-

Do you know where you can stick your next fireball, or do I need to spell it out for you?

:(



quote:

I also want you to understand he's the miniboss of this section, and that you get a single vague warning before he shows up out of nowhere. It's pretty wild, and it won't be the first time Gold Box does this to us. Not in the least.

I think you mean "won't be the LAST time."

DGM_2
Jun 13, 2012

Chokes McGee posted:

Boy is my face red!

So were Hanover and I!

Now you know what WE had to put up with.

Yeah, bein' outta work ain't always a bad thing.

Victis
Mar 26, 2008

Swanmays are like were-swan druids that protect nature, but they can also induct people into the order. You have to have a good-aligned woman in your party for that encounter to work iirc.

It's been years and years but I'm 99% sure there's a journal entry or tavern tale or bit of dialogue you can find ahead of the encounter that gives you some foreshadowing that they exist and would be cool with the party. Maybe it's feathers scattered around? The game is playing with your suspicions by making the Swanmay a Drow. It's just a little self-contained thing.

Victis fucked around with this message at 17:24 on May 11, 2020

Narsham
Jun 5, 2008

Alpha3KV posted:

Casting resist fire on the character who goes for the chests in the salamander sauna will prevent them from taking damage. On a similar subject, efreeti are not immune to fire, though they're probably supposed to be.

Also very useful when going into an encounter against a fire-breathing dragon. If memory serves, later games have a lightning-breathing dracolich, which is a bit more of a problem. Clerics get resist spells for fire and cold, and rangers eventually get druid spells to protect against fire, too. Electricity is tougher; chlorine gas and acid there's no effective resistance at all.

Guess what black dragons breathe?

Anias
Jun 3, 2010

It really is a lovely hat

Pretty sure 2e drow society was essentially a matriarchal oligarchical theocracy. A bunch of powerful merchant/noble houses all vying for power in the church of lolth, so by that metric every drow city is presumed to be a divine city. There were at least two exceptions (one run by a wizard, another by rakshathas?) but most cities answered to the high priestess of lolth local division. Sadly I can’t recall the spoony drow names for them, much less if they were introduced this early or if they came in later.

Anias fucked around with this message at 19:30 on May 11, 2020

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

I enjoy the idea that they're too dumb to know they can't do something (but we know that isn't [completely] true).

My number can't be up, I never learned how to count.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.

Narsham posted:

Also very useful when going into an encounter against a fire-breathing dragon. If memory serves, later games have a lightning-breathing dracolich, which is a bit more of a problem. Clerics get resist spells for fire and cold, and rangers eventually get druid spells to protect against fire, too. Electricity is tougher; chlorine gas and acid there's no effective resistance at all.

Fireball. The answer to this and many other questions you may have is fireball.

Zurai
Feb 13, 2012


Wait -- I haven't even voted in this game yet!

Anias posted:

Pretty sure 2e drow society was essentially a matriarchal oligarchical theocracy. A bunch of powerful merchant/noble houses all vying for power in the church of lolth, so by that metric every drow city is presumed to be a divine city. There were at least two exceptions (one run by a wizard, another by rakshathas?) but most cities answered to the high priestess of lolth local division. Sadly I can’t recall the spoony drow names for them, much less if they were introduced this early or if they came in later.

The main one is Menzoberranzan. That's the one Drizzt is from, and IIRC it's supposed to be the biggest. Drizzt was from 2e originally, but I think I remember reading somewhere that R. A. Salvatore had a more or less blank slate to work with at that point, so it may not have been around early enough for the Gold Box games to reference it.

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

Zurai posted:

The main one is Menzoberranzan. That's the one Drizzt is from, and IIRC it's supposed to be the biggest. Drizzt was from 2e originally, but I think I remember reading somewhere that R. A. Salvatore had a more or less blank slate to work with at that point, so it may not have been around early enough for the Gold Box games to reference it.

I was about to claim that Menzoberranzan was a Gold Box side-gama ala Dark Lords of Krynn, but I was mistaken. It was still SSI, but it was post-Eye of the Beholder. Looks like Salvatore's novels were released the same year that SSI retired the Gold Box engine, 1992. Maybe the AOL Neverwinter Nights referenced it, but I couldn't tell you.

Hobologist
May 4, 2007

We'll have one entire section labelled "for degenerates"
The dark elf mageocracy is Ched Nasad. But I think it was destroyed in some novels I haven't read.

Truthkeeper
Nov 29, 2010

Friends don't let friends borrow on credit.
Don't got much to say about Haptooth Hill. Did the game ever actually establish that it's called that, I don't think it did. Anyway, Chokes just casually stormed a volcano, and it went more or less exactly the same way in-game that it does in the module. The text actually gives you the option to try and climb the mountain or fly in order to avoid having to go through the caves, but if you try it you have to fight a pair of red dragons. I guess that's considered an equivalent challenge.

If you take the expected route of going through the caves, it's pretty well identical to the game's version of events. Drow, efreeti, salamanders, Crimdrac. The drow don't get along with the fire dudes and they don't fight together, and just casually ignore any sounds of combat coming from the other's territory. On the other hand, every drow encounter here has a cleric who can cast Hold Person, Paralysis, and Blindness, so it isn't exactly a walk in the park. Instead of the chests buried in lava, there's a hot spring that damages you if you're in it, but heals you if you're close enough to breathe it's vapor. The only treasure in the whole drat cave is a scroll of Gate that's specialized to only connect to the Plane of Fire, with a note that Dracandros has to make a copy for "Lord T", whoever that might be, I couldn't possibly guess. The swanmays are an addition to the game, they make no appearance in the module, and honestly feel kind of superfluous here.

The module makes it more clear that Crimdrac and most other dracoliches are actually created by human spellcasters, rather than turning themselves into liches, a product of the evil designs of the Cult of the Dragon. Crimdrac can't cast spells, the whole reason he's here is because he's trying to get Dracandros to teach him some. He does have some kind of hold over the drow and elementals, it isn't made clear if it's some kind of magical mind control or more generic "I have power, you must obey!" Whatever the case, if you disembody Crimdrac (he's a dracolich, if you destroy his body he just possesses the nearest dragon and turns that body into his own over time), they all bail. You can actually skip all of the fighting in the caves (only missing out on that one scroll) by just telling the first guards you run into that you're here to see Dracandros. Great security. Of course, Dracandros does have very good reason to believe that the party isn't a threat to him.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.
Apparently Pools of Darkness has Super Duper poo poo Your Pants Large enemy types :stare:

Chuu
Sep 11, 2004

Grimey Drawer
Hey Chokes I've always been a huge fan of your LPs and finally caught up. Near the beginning of this LP you briefly mentioned something about a second book. I remember in a previous LP you talked about writing a book. Did you ever finish your first book? Is there a link to buy it?

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.

Chuu posted:

Hey Chokes I've always been a huge fan of your LPs and finally caught up. Near the beginning of this LP you briefly mentioned something about a second book. I remember in a previous LP you talked about writing a book. Did you ever finish your first book? Is there a link to buy it?

WHAT'S THAT? YOU WANT TO



WELL IN THAT CASE

https://www.amazon.com/Tainted-Astin-Novel-H-C-Cavall-ebook/dp/B01KEDGXMQ



I'll be very lucky if I ever get the second novel out. It's been at least four years now, and I've got half a book I'm not even that committed to. Still, at least I got the one!

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



Hobologist posted:

The dark elf mageocracy is Ched Nasad. But I think it was destroyed in some novels I haven't read.
Ched Nasad was destroyed, but it was never run by wizards, that was Sshamath.

Deptfordx
Dec 23, 2013

KataraniSword posted:

Looks like Salvatore's novels were released the same year that SSI retired the Gold Box engine, 1992.


The original icewind dale trilogy with Drizzt' introduction as a party member came out in 1988.

Homeland, where D is the main protagonist and focus of the story was out a couple of years later in 1990.

Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 12:35 on May 14, 2020

JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever
In another gold box game, one of the ones set in Krynn, I believe, the players fight what are called something called "Dragon Skeletons", or something close to that, that seem to very specifically avoid mentioning Dracoliches. I recall them not having any special abilities, possibly even no breath weapon, so I think that the idea was that they were the mindless animated bones of dragons in the same way that skeletons are mindless people bones. Much less intimidating than an actual undead dragon, that's for bloody sure.

Chokes McGee
Aug 7, 2008

This is Urotsuki.

JustJeff88 posted:

In another gold box game, one of the ones set in Krynn, I believe, the players fight what are called something called "Dragon Skeletons", or something close to that, that seem to very specifically avoid mentioning Dracoliches. I recall them not having any special abilities, possibly even no breath weapon, so I think that the idea was that they were the mindless animated bones of dragons in the same way that skeletons are mindless people bones. Much less intimidating than an actual undead dragon, that's for bloody sure.

as long as it's not vomiting hold person and fire breath every loving turn they could call it susan for all I care

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JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever

Chokes McGee posted:

as long as it's not vomiting hold person and fire breath every loving turn they could call it susan for all I care

Now I want to make a game where every enemy without a breath weapon and hold person is called "Susan", with palette swaps called "Margaret", "Brigitte", "Katherine" and "Cindy"

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