Let's Play * of Krynn

[Balcerzak]

Upon reload I blow Esther's wad of Cure Light Wounds on absolutely nothing and a few of Psych's as well. We won't need heals where we're going. I then proceed to memorize Resist Cold and make sure I'm buffed up. (This second shot is from the DISPLAY option under the MAGIC menu, which shows what current effects are running on you. It's not always useful, but for times like this it can come in handy. It also will let you know if time is up and your buffs have worn off during exploring. However, since I usually explore with the SEARCH command toggle set to On, that means every step I take takes 10 minutes, which pretty much kills buffing in exchange for a slightly better chance to find traps, secret doors, etc. At least, I think that's what it does. I obviously toggle it off here, so each step only takes 1 minute.)

Tas wins the initiative and heroicly hits a dragon with a rock slung from his Hoopak. I don't rightly recall, but I'm picturing it as this giant (to a kender) stick with a slingshot at the top. How this is different than the Staffsling that clerics use, I'm not entirely certain...

Jacob follows up with a slash from his Broadsword. Things are looking up guys!

Normally I don't do things like ignore enemies and run away from them, provoking attacks, in order to reposition. Fighting dragons and setting up a solid defensive front seems like a perfect time for an exception to my general rule. (The hobgoblin whiffed anyways.)

Psych control yourself man. Oh, wait. A magical noxious cloud. Well that's different, by all means, carry on.

Oh shit! It's opening its mouth. I know what that means.

Hell yes. Resist Cold + two of my guys made their Save Vs. Breath Weapon roll this time, taking 1/4 the damage they did last fight. (Tas failed his save, but still 10 damage is a marked improvement over 21.)

I don't like to abort spells, but I misjudged the range, and this would catch Strider and Jacob in its gaseous range. Normally I'm pretty chill with taking risks like that from time to time. NOT WHEN I'M FACE TO FACE WITH DRAGONS. I'll remember to step forward and try again next round.

Thinning the flock.

Well, not every attack can be a winner.

Strider gets knocked around a bit here. The physical attacks aren't too bad in moderation, thankfully.

Another pair of swings from our frontliners. A hit and a miss. Middle ground.

You too, Anthony? What have you guys been eating? Oh, right, carry on. Also, one dragon rendered helpless, the other still in fighting condition. Pretty damn good work here.

Excellent, this is just what I like to see happening.

Not pictured, the hobgoblin immediately thereafter throwing down his weapons and surrendering (because I was too slow on the screencap).

Spoils of war. One gem per dragon it looks like. The XP is a little lower than I'd have expected, but they were only white dragons after all, and only 21 hit points. Must be younglings or something. (inb4 "Oh no, he's slain all the younglings!")

Damn right you hobgoblins are surrendering and turning over those good dragon eggs into my party's hands for safekeeping.

That portal at the end of the catacombs spits us back out to the world map.

We're treated to another training montage. I appraise and sell/keep some gems and jewelry.

I identify those few magic items I picked up along the way as well.

「Once there, you should investigate the Tower of Gargath. I am impressed with your progress.」

Reporting to Sir Karl, now that we've thoroughly cleaned up that mess at Throtl. A hero's work is never done however, and he gives us our next mission.

I don't honestly remember where I need to go next, but even if I did I was more interested in just roaming about and exploring the countryside for a bit. Much to my good luck, I stumble upon a travelling caravan. Much to my bad luck, I still have my 2800 stashed in the Vault. Much to my foresight, I still have a bunch of high value gems and jewels on my party, for just such a possibility.

Their wares are as follows. No they don't tell me what's on the scrolls, and yes, I want one of everything. (Well, I skip out on the potion of healing, and the arrows and darts.)

My new inventories after liquidation and rearrangement. I have ~1000 Steel left, which is not enough to grab a second wand.

The merchants then pack up and we each head our separate ways.

[Psych]

Yeah, whatever Psych. Call me when you become a real mage.

What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of my cleric stuff. Or my cool poison cloud spell.

You have to wake up pretty early to pull the swirling colored lights over Psych's eyes. Haha, take that!

Ooooh shiny. I mean, I'm obviously the most useful.

[Balcerzak]

We last left off I was wandering the overmap, and then Virtue's Last Reward was released and no progress was made on the LP for a week. Sorry guys, but priorities. Anyway...

I love indulging in silly things and love it when the game plays back with a sense of humor. tl;dr, I can't move into that lake thing there.

This screen shows up whenever you get a random encounter while moving across the overmap.

This encounter is made up of Goblins and Hill Giants. I'm honestly not sure why they would be hanging out together, and there's obviously a huge power discrepancy between the two, but there you have it.

The strategy of letting goblins run into stinking clouds and then surrounding and beating on the giant pays off.

In platinum, no less. Though, actually in this crazy currency scheme I think plat is actually less valuable than steel. Don't quote me on it.

This show's off another new set of enemies. The Kapak draconians. I'm pretty sure I glazed over it when the Baaz were introduced, but for those of you not familiar with Dragonlance, the draconians are evil reptilian humanoids made by rites to Takhisis (I think), to corrupt good dragon eggs. (Hence most of the plot exposition in Throtl actually.) There being 5 flavors of good dragon, naturally there be five flavors of draconian. Baaz are corrupted Brass, Kapak are corrupted Copper, Sivak are corrupted Silver, and I can't remember the other two off the top of my head. Anyway, Baaz will occassionally turn to stone upon being killed and drag your weapon out of you hands, leaving you to have to switch to a second weapon or fight barehanded.

Kapaks on the other hand dissolve into acid upon being killed, and leave obstacles on the playing field. Like shown in this image. The can also apparently paralyze you.

Already being paralyzed, I figure the Stinking Cloud can't really make Strider's situation any worse. Sadly it didn't make it any better either. Hold Person let me down as well. As did Sleep (not pictured).

Another couple of images relating to the Kapaks and their acid.

Awhile later we come across Ogres. Unfortunately my friend with the ogre-slaying knife that gives him a +9 against ogres wasn't here, he was at the tavern getting drunk (and if there were any wenches there...) Luckily for me however, I did bring my friend who knows Fireball. One point of interest though: The radius on fireball is different depending if you're in an outdoor map, or an indoor map (2 vs 3 additional squares from the point of detonation, IIRC).

I'm still not tired of Fireball montage.

Memorizing more than one fireball is always a good idea.

Mages picking off wounded stragglers with physical attacks. Gotta love it.

When I go ahead and re-memorize the fireballs, I remember to actually go ahead and check out the contents of those scrolls I bought, scribing accordingly.

This time it's Hill Giants and Baaz.

I mop them up with my typical strategy and not too much trouble, again receiving excellent money for my troubles.

The wandering clerics is another of the random beneficials you can encounter on the overmap. They're only good for healing spells, and despite me getting my hopes up about them "blessing me and moving on", they didn't actually buff me with the bless spell. (It would have worn off before I fought anything anyways, but I was curious.)

Similarly, you can encounter trainers similar to those found in the Hall out in the field, and serendipitously enough, Esther was able to advance in level because of this.

That's... actually I think just about our image limit. Sorry it wasn't much of an update, but sometimes that happens, especially when you're just gridding every tile on the overworld to see if it has some sort of secret unmarked witch's hut or something.

[Jedi]

So many Hill Giants, it reminds me of the point i'm at in Final Fantasy 2 at the moment, HILL GIGAS ENCOUNTERS.

Fireballs always work, just ask Lina Inverse :P

[Balcerzak]

I find an intriguing location on the overworld map and peek in for a bit.

「WEARY TRAVELERS! Come to the best accommodations on KRYNN! The SOUTHERN SANCTION INN is open for your business. We are located in the southeast corner of the city.

THE DRAGON'S CURSE is open for business in the middle of Sanction. We have the best selection of drinks since Istar sank beneath the sea. Non-humans welcome!

IF YOU GOT THE MONEY, WE'VE GOT WHAT YOU WANT! While our inventory had been decimated by the recent war, we are again open and offering the finest in magical items available. As always, if we don't have it, we will find it, or make it. All we need is time and money. GUSMARKEN'S MAGIC SHOP. Located in the eastern-central area of the city. We are the first door to the right, heading north from the inn.

THE SHARPEST, MOST DURABLE WEAPONS MONEY CAN BUY! Come to our smithy, located just north of the Southern Sanction Inn, and peruse our fine selection of blades, armor, arrows, darts and anything else you could possibly need to equip your party. REASONABLE RATES!

SO, YOU THINK YOU'VE EARNED THE RIGHT TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL? Horgathindorn's Training Hall has worked with the best! Come see us in the Northeast Corner and see if you've got what it takes!」

This is the map of Sanction. It doesn't seem like I'm supposed to be here at the moment, and there's not much to do aside from explore around and find the stores advertised.

This is the Sanction Inn, if you tell him you're not interested in staying they night, he's pretty rude to you, but otherwise he's kind of a generous chap, letting you have any room in the place. There's not actually a luxury suite or anything though, so I guess it's just fake generosity.

Slightly different weapon selection than in the outposts, but nothing extraordinary. I think battle-axes were available, but inferior to broadswords from a pure numbers perspective. I did grab some Composite Longbows for Strider and Jacob, as I'm pretty sure that's an upgrade from the Shortbows they'd had for ranged.

Also, she's pretty pissy if you don't want to buy anything.

Holy shit that's expensive. Travelling Caravan guys, you are the best.

I don't remember which area I found this guy in, but it echoes the sentiment that I'd be sequence breaking here. I'll fill in the map with more details when I come back and there's actually things to do.

Another random battle, but this one was actually pretty interesting so I'll post it even though it has the same enemy distribution as one of a previous kind. It starts off with Jacob getting paralyzed and me pulling of some effective damage control.

Until Tasslehoff gets paralyzed and killed, and I take too long killing, which lets the stinking cloud dissipate and the other Kapak regain his senses, undoing all my hard work and taking Jacob down anyway.

Shortly thereafter he fails his morale check, runs away and is killed by the attack of opportunity that it provokes, dissolving into acid.

I don't actually enter any of these, but I'm cataloging what city is where on the main map.

I stop into the Vault at one of the outposts and withdraw the money I'd squirreled away.

I appear to have wandered too far east at this point, as I'm now encountering Giant Spiders, which I seem to remember having Poison, and as you can see they are pretty beefy. I think there were a set of 3 or 4 scattered variously about the map, so it's not just a 1 on 1.

I set up my best defensive walls, and pray that nobody gets hit and poisoned.

This is the screenshot of the flavor text for when the Stinking Cloud wears off.

At some point we've wounded it badly enough that it begins running away. Strider sadly misses his opportunity, and I must have missed capping what happened with Jacob. It manages to make it through the remaining Stinking Clouds without getting Nauseated, and I decide to put it down with a Magic Missile.

We then finally head into the outpost we were supposed to go to, the one between Jelek and Gargath, to meet up with Sir Karl. He has this and the following to say to us.

「Go to Gargath. A Dragonlance is rumored to be hidden there. This is a powerful weapon that you may use if you recover it. We have a man there who can help you. May Paladine protect you.」

I don't recall exactly, but I think you have to try to enter the Commandant's another time, in order to open up this side quest.

「While you are exploring I would like a favor. I want a flower from a silver rose bush in Jelek, to give as a gift. This is unofficial and mustn't affect your mission. Thank you.」

「Recover the Dragonlance from Gargath.

See that Jelek is safe.」

Trying to enter the Commandant's any further only gives you a posted listing of the current quests. I believe that they are listed in Last in First out, but I can't swear to it.

At this point, I actually enter Jelek, to see what's up. Immediately I'm greeted by some plot.

「"We've had a lot of unsavory characters passing through town lately. The good armies have left us in the lurch and we are forced to take the law into our own hands in order to protect the citizens of this town. Here's the official proclamation."

'All persons entering Jelek that are unknown to the guards shall be assigned an escort for the duration of their stay in the city. They will be restricted to the public parts of the town. The burial grounds are strictly forbidden to all strangers.'

"It's signed by our leader, Sir Lebaum.

"So, here's a nice young man who'll show you around the town.

"Skyla! Come over here!"

He introduces you to a man who looks you over and breaks into a goofy grin. His entire aspect seems dignified enough, until he smiles or begins to talk, then his ancestry is extremely questionable and you wonder if maybe he hadn't suffered a fall on his head as a child.」

「Skyla joins your party. 'Let me see,' he says, 'I have a map here somewhere. Ah, yes. Here we are. This is where we should go. A friend of mine lives there...」

「He rambles on for some time. You record the more relevant parts as Journal Entry 76.」

「...friend has many objects of value for sale...

...great frog collection!!!...

...sword that seems to be magical, at least undead creatures are

afraid of it...

...many potions for sale...

...information about the incidents of undead and Draconian incursions

in the area...

...a beautiful daughter...」

「You record Skyla's map as Journal Entry 45.

'I've marked where he lives on the map.', he says.」

At this point, I call it a pretty good stopping point, and will do more tomorrow.

[Balcerzak]

These are Skyla's stats which I forgot to cap last update, and also the area map. Note how it actually matches up with the map provided. This gives us quite clear indications on where to go. We are obviously going to dally and wander awhile first. Also, I'll edit up a full-town map with color-coding later, like I did for Throtl.

Wandered up to the Inn. The innkeeper and the dialogue is exactly the same as in Sanction.

I'm wandering around, in the Inn no less, and the above just happens. Skyla suddenly decides to wander off, and armed thugs coincidentally just pick that moment to try to tangle with us. I think you all can see what's happening here.

Skyla rejoins us after the fighting is all over.

I attempt to rest in one of the Inn rooms to regain spells. Foiled. There's no battle however so I try again.

「A swift kick wakes the hapless escort. He dreamily looks up at you. 'Oh, was I snoring?', he says with a sheepish smile.」

Third time's the charm, right? WRONG. Motherfucker. These three things cycle endlessly, so I never get the chance to regain spells. Obviously I need to go leave and do things.

The Tavern. I never visited them in the outpost, because they're kind of silly. If you buy a drink you can listen to Tavern Tales, which are essentially Tavern Only Journal Entries, of questionable relevance.

Tavern guy is also rude if you don't want to drink.

「'Then you must leave.'」

As long as I'm here I do listen to one of the Tavern Tales, though.

「'You hear Tavern Tale 4.'」

「"Hey, Jorclack! What in blazes were you doing up in the slum area? You rubbin shoulders with the local scum?"」

Oh how wonderfully illuminating that was. I wonder why I even bothered.

The Jelek armory has I believe the same stock, or very similar, as in Sanction, which I forgot to cap there, so here's the pic here.

This is actually kind of important. Pay attention.

Magic Shop woman is polite if you don't want to buy anything, and she has a wider stock than in Sanction, but still expensive as all hell. I'm assuming they're the same scrolls, so I don't buy any.

I wonder if anything bad's going to―ass...

Easily handled.

Sure you were, buddy. Sure you were.

Hints～

Skyla disappeared on us before a battle yet again, and rejoins us here.

Fine! We've come to visit your friend. Ya happy?

「'I must leave to tell Myrtani of our success. My friends will deal with you.'」

「A horde of evil characters attack. A small figure joins the battle on your side.」

Mysellia, huh. I wonder who she is and where she came from. She couldn't possibly have been that thief that was tailing us ever since we entered the city. Must be something completely different.

Things start out pretty normal.

Uh-oh.

Naw, it's cool, I'd started casting my spell first and shut you down. How'd you like them apples, Bi~atch!

Wut. Elvish Rogues can cast spells? I must have managed to deal with them quick enough in the small skirmishes that I was not expecting this. Charm Person too...

Things are still proceeding relatively well aside from the charmed thief having one-shotted Anthony to 0HP exactly (didn't need a bandage, woot).

BULLSHIT.

Okay, Charm Person I sort of understood, because they're elves. But Stinking Cloud too? BULLSHIT. That's not Rogue territory. These elves are clearly multiclassed rogue/mages or some shit. False advertising! I cry foul!

That was pretty much the end of me. They cast another Charm Person on Esther, and then it's TPK time. Except worse. When you lose a battle with charmed people, it counts as if you had fled, and any heroes that were unconscious are permanently lost, as you just left their bodies behind, regardless of if they were stable or not. Witness in the following my 2-man party. (Also, this is the dialogue if you refuse to let the NPC thief join your party.)

[Balcerzak]

Double feature today, check the previous post if you're just tuning in.

Load from Save. I could maybe get by with one permanent casualty, but not 4. That's... too much. I buff up, see if that will help.

I also start using my Silence 15' radius, on the elvish dicks.

Well, Esther getting Held blows, but once she's Charmed afterwards I look for the silver lining. At least the enemies won't attack and kill her, right? No, just my fucking NPC ally. *sigh*

(At least this was my thought process before more extensive testing in a different battle leading me to realize that Charm Person will NEVER wear off, short of having a Dispel Magic cast on them, or another Charm Person. Holy Shit.)

So, I thought I might have won this one, but then this bullshit happens. FML.

This is the flavor text if the thief dies during the skirmish. Also, if I wasn't going to accept a 2 man party, I'm sure as hell not accepting this 1 man party.

What did I ever do to deserve this. Is this karma for all my cheesing of other battles using similar spells? This is only the beginning of yet another failed run.

Fresh start, good first move.

Remember, nobody can cast spells if they've been damaged before their initiative. Fireball will be much more effective than Silences, Holds, or Clouds, at least for the turn it is cast. It also deals damage!

Successful Holds.

Charm Person, meet Dispel Magic. Thank you Esther, so far you're the only one elite enough to be able to cast that.

Dammit! Well, one out of two isn't that bad, and he's not in immediate danger of death.

More Holding progress.

*screams internally*

We needed another fireball all up in this. Please, I'm tired of losing this fight.

Psych charms him back to my side.

Continuing to take care of the false advertising rogues, with Silence and enough damage to drop them.

Yes! Some screencaptures of the elusive "[unit] surrenders".

The nightmare is over. Not only did I win, I actually had everybody up on their feet still.

「The thief introduces herself as Mysellia. You record her mission as Journal Entry 59.」

「"Listen, I've been following you for some time now. That Skyla character is the leader of a faction of guards that has taken over the city. He looks stupid, but don't let that fool you. He knows exactly what he looks like, and he knows how to use it to his advantage.

"He takes his orders from Sir Lebaum. Lebaum took over about a week ago. It was slow and insidious how he did it. No word got out at all and, initially, there was lots of business for our shops. Everyone was happy. Except that now he's cut off all contact with the outside. Anyone that comes in here either joins the guards or is killed, as you almost were.

"There's another disturbing thing. I've done some digging around and nobody has even seen this Sir Lebaum character. Most people have never even heard of him. There was a Knight of Solamnia of that name that was corrupted by Takhisis many, many years ago but legend has it that he died--horribly, they say. I'd like to get into the graveyard and examine his office. Are you willing to go with me?"」

「Mysellia joins your party. She says that there is a safe place to rest to the northeast.」

Alright. Well, that was painful.

Wandering our way up to the rumored safehouse, I stop in and meet with an old gravedigger. He shares his tale.

「"I've been kept out of the burial grounds now for a week; I can't even get in there to get my tools. There are strange things going on in there...open graves, broken tombstones, strange noises...even the animals are gone! That Sir Lebaum is ruining the town. He even made his office in the burial glen! It's in the building just to the south and west of here but the door is through the graveyard.

"That's another strange thing...nobody's even seen our new leader, at least, nobody that I know of. He gives his orders and the 'guards' carry them out.

"Things just ain't right."」

We make it to the safehouse. We choose to follow him and he leads us to a safe place to rest.

Then we head for the burial glen. We have business to attend to.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Balcerzak

[Balcerzak]

Combination of Ghouls, Ghasts, and Zombies. This is basically asking for a TPK if you don't get lucky.

I got lucky, and my Fireball went off when they still mostly hadn't moved, and it did enough damage to kill the ghouls. The only thing left is that one wounded ghast, and whichever monsters moved first, which was all of like, two.

One funny thing about ghasts is they have this ability that has them release an evil stench. I'm not entirely sure what mechanical effect that has. Also it was a bitch to screencap, so have a different reality take where I slowed the CPU way down on DOSBOX.

Anyway...

I surround the last ghast and beat on it repeatedly, and luckily nobody was paralyzed/killed.

Not all encounters go so smoothly...

A fireball that clears out everything but that zombie that was around the corner, and a ghoul that was too far forward enable me to salvage the encounter though.

Rolling low on fireballs, or not getting them off in time, or getting surrounded, or all at once however definitely led to this party wipe. At or around this time I switch to just spamming Turn Undead, and walking away from these encounters with +0XP, because it's way easier than having to enter copy protection each time I would have to reload.

Sweet! I've found Sir Karl's rosebush, I'll just take this and―wut. Why are there DRAGONS?!

A few notes. Black Dragons as seen here are the same size as Whites, have more hit points, and less movement. I don't remember enough to compare armorclass, but that could be fixed by a quick scroll up.

The other important thing to note is... there is no Resist Acid spell. I have to get this done quickly, before they breathe on me.

\o/

I accidentally botch diagonal movement (because I have a laptop keyboard instead of a numpad, and sometimes forget which of End PgDn PgUp and Home I mapped to which), but Jacob doesn't nauseate himself, and I take out all the stops to bring this guy down successfully.

This is the special +XP screen for when you complete quests, or grab special treasure, I believe.

The door directly north leads to a scripted fight, and I apparently botched the screencap only partway through. It's not that terribly difficult to imagine what the rest of it might say.

Mopping this up actually worked pretty well. That's way more XP than these guys are normally worth, wonder what the story is...

Aha, money and magic loot. All is explained.

Lots of turn-bait encounters. Also, the last couple images are slightly different.

My theory is that it coincides with the fact that the enemies spawn right up next to you instead of a little ways away.

Aside from the hordes of undead leaving their graves, the rosebush and that room in the northwest, the only other point of interest in the burial glen is this locked office and its Journal Entry.

「Myrtani is gathering his forces in secret areas around Sanction. We won't be ready for a few weeks yet. My minions have started gathering materials for my use. Several graveyards have been looted already. Many of them have left the open grave sites unfilled. I suppose it can't be helped. Stupidity has always been our most dangerous enemy.

Myrtani has found a Dragonlance! I urged him to give it to his strongest warrior but I'm afraid that the Draconian doesn't trust anyone who could hold that much power. Foolish. He's going to hide it away somewhere in Sanction.」

I sense that this is more foreshadowing for after we've finished with Gargath.

I wander all around town looking to make sure I didn't overlook something I needed to do with the NPC before I leave and she leaves my party. There wasn't anything that I could find.

May or may not do another update later tonight.

Edit: Forgot my Jelek Map

Purple is for shops and it's highly plausible some of those graveyard red dots were just random encounters and not scripted fights.

Black is Entrance/Exit of the town.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Balcerzak

[Psych]

The door directly north leads to a scripted fight, and I apparently botched the screencap only partway through. It's not that terribly difficult to imagine what the rest of it might say.

Nice to see they added the Yo to keep the dialogue hip and fresh.