[Ziggurat]

Here's an update, for those who want to know:

Instead of reaching Trynton (on the road we ran into 2 parties of Sige and Piercer Modais, plus some Crimson guys, survived two groups and ended up sneaking back to Arn to avoid the third, and this was when we had barely passed the house!) we went to the Monastery to use the Wheel Key. Ran into nine Pestilent Rats that were beyond us. Killed four or five of them, blinded the rest and they left us alone. The rest of the Monkery was unremarkable but we did run into 20 Acid Vines and an Ironweed on the way out of the area. Not a hard battle, death-wise, but stamina-wise quite taxing. Bis did a blind to negate the Ironweed so we could kill the bigger threat. Went on to Northern Wilderness from there, sneaking past the Hogar. Not hard if you know the trick. Easily dominated the thief group, got the Umpani flag and headed towards Bela. Ran into 5 Piercer Modais. They also were stronger than we could handle in the open. We ran away after a few attempts.

Side note: The faerie Nin, bless her soul, only has a Bo (1-8 damage, +1 to hit, +1 init). There are no weapons available that are better so far. At least her staff skill is going up (to around 42) and she can heal a bit. And she rarely gets killed, with her 50+ stealth and ninja armor. BTW, the only kills I saved were against Gregor.

No problem with the Marble Golem or the three lev 10 sprites (well, no big problems). We were and are lev 9 now. There seems to be a big gap in reaching lev 10 from 9. Probably just level of monsters you want to face and the areas you have to explore next.

After seeing Bela and fighting some lev 10 flying snakes, we turned the corner to go back and ran into a scorcher lev 34!!! That seems a bit much. We were toast by the second round, even with Magic Screen up to 6 or 7. We went back to Bela and rested. When we came back the path was clear and made it back OK to Arnika. We considered going after the good stuff in the wilds, and then remembered a recent post on getting stuck against a monster you could not beat at this level. Yeh, should have tried anyway.

This is not an easy party, especially with Redstart, our valiant Ninja, being so hobbled that it is closer to a party of 3. She has had only one or two crits. Not too surprised. Ms. Monk (Ophydia) is getting up to six attacks per round, Zax the Dracon Sam is getting Tiger Strike about every second or third battle, and he has Bloodlust. Johvol the Bish is holding his own with a whip, shield and stones, only missing Elemental and Soul Shields for protection.

Next step is Trynton and beyond!

(Sorry, I edited this thing a few times to get it right)

[ 07-01-2003, 12:00 AM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]