*STRETCH! YAWN!*
It's been awhile, but I finally revisited the peasants last night. When we last left Sniffles, Gruhntella, Lightfingers, Flitter, Eljayess, and Periwinkle, Peri's brother, Forest Lump, had just saved the party from the morgue in Brimloch Roon, where the mighty Goshin had sent them.
Back to the waters outside Brimloch Roon... is teleport still active? Sure is... right to Skull Castle. Cool [img]smile.gif[/img]
The peasants head in to Skull Castle... what were they doing there before? I'm not sure... let's look around on the map to see... yep, been here... been there... oh, look... a couple of skeletons.
And Plague hordes.
And zombies.
And a bone lord. Sheesh! Who put together this welcoming party?
Hmmm... not a lot of mana, but this shouldn't be difficult. We'll just...
*thud*
*sigh* Flicker? Lightfingers, please...
Whoa! There are way too many of them! One thing to do...
RETREAT!!!!!!
Step by step, the peasants retreat until they're in the door to Skull Castle. Keep on going, gals...
Fortunately, the door allows some tactics, since the beasties can't all seem to get through.
Unfortunately, the bone lord just summons critters in there.
Oh, look... some vampiresses have joined the party. No, ladies, my neck is *NOT* inviting! And a pit fiend... *sigh* if we live through this, we'll have plenty of XP...
An old military saying comes to mind... if the enemy is close enough for you to see, then you're also close enough for *THEM* to see as well. We've got *storm spells, but to cast them, you have to be able to see them... and these mongrels seem to have plenty of long-distance spells at their disposal.
Oh, and the peasants still can't hit the broad side of a barn!
They do finally make it out, using flamedrop and *storm spells and a handful of rebirth and life scrolls. Life is good... but perhaps Skull Castle's a little too dangerous yet [img]smile.gif[/img]
They head out, and rather than go back to town, they decide to scope the area surrounding Skull Castle. Water, trees, sand, sharks... SHARKS? YES!!! let's fight... XP, here we come!
Hmmmm.... they still miss more than they hit, though. And look -- a couple of crabs, some dartha eels, more sharks... okay, who put on the bait perfume today? This is ridiculous!
They keep wandering around, and eventually get to the leprechaun area. What's that over there? A MYTHARIAN WISP?!?!? ATTACK... FAST!!!
Oh, and there are raptors, and wyr mystics, and wyr warriors... did everyone get an invitation to this party or what?
Eventually, they take out everyone but the wisp... after it was nearly dead, it just wandered away. More seafood came to the party as well... got more shells, we did
The peasants scouted around the leprechaun area for a while, encountering pirates and scourges, and decided to run back to Brimloch Roon to see about the shrine of Isis quest before heading up there.
They get back, sell stuff, and head north again. More random encounters, lots of *swing* *swish* *oops, sorry
stuff going on.
Check the packs... yep, Flitter's got a good stash of scrolls. Exorcism, rebirth... good stuff.
They get to a clearing... hmmm... I think Oakenmir's back here... what are those? Mytharian wisps... AGAIN???
Okay, quick! Get 'em before they reflect damage... guys... guys...?
Crap. One of 'em radiated, and half the party's now insane. Including Flicker... Flicker? The one who's holding all the exorcism scrolls?
Okay, so *THAT* was a lousy bit of planning...
Throughout the long battle, the peasants fought bravely, except for those too nutty to fight. At one point, the peasants had up to SIX condition indicators -- you know, the little circles on the character face that indicate blind, insane, confused, and so on? They were suffering a world of hurt...
Eventually, with Lightfingers, Flicker, and Periwinkle insane, the party defeated the wisps and headed back to town. Eljayess had also died... the wisp got a reflect damage cast, and Eljayess took the brunt of it.
So to wrap it all up, the two tanks, Sniffles and Gruhntella, carried the broken and bleeding bodies of the rest of the party all the way back to Brimloch Roon, swimming as fast as they could.
More news later as it comes...