Out Of Character

[mushgnome]

Right. So he could potentially Choke a werewolf. (But not while 5 other weres are snapping at him, and tar-beast is zapping him with its laser eye beam.)

[ehiker133]

We should have never left the place the first time without figuring out how to disable the tar pit. :/

We just keep jumping from one bumbled adventure to the next, never getting anything done and never profiting much, either. After three years, it's starting to get frustrating...

[sully]

Well, the party has been punching above its weight for a while now, too. When was the last time we fought enemies that were our level or below?

It's always ogres, or giants, or 30 goblins with worgs, or werewolves that can't be hit by magic weapons.

And now that we have some PCs at Hero level, it's a demon, surrounded by 'save or choke' gas, with a disintegration beam.

The Hinterlands is a dangerous place!

We need to find that dungeon that Ways intended us to adventure in, and just camp the 1st level. Kill a few kobolds, feel better about ourselves.

[Olroda]

I was back from Rhodes last saturday, but I've been really busy this week, and thus unable to reply until now. I'm sorry about that.

Rhodes! Nice enjoy... My wife's comes from Kattavia, never been myself but it sounds like a very nice place.
-Mike

I guess you can consider yourself lucky then. Greek women are gorgeous! Unfortunately, I never got to visit Kattavia, as I spent most of my time in the north, at Ixia and Rhodes city. There was a lot of old ruins and statues to look at, and the Acropolis of Rhodes was impressive. Not to mention the good food, beer, and friendly people.


...Concerning the current in-game situation, I must say that things look grim. I'm all for getting out of that nightmare asap!

-Daniel

[waysoftheearth]

Welcome back Olroda, just in the nick of time

re: frustration with lack of success; I think it's at least in part to do with the difficultly of coordinating a relatively large group via forum discussion. This party probably could defeat most (if not all) of the foes they've encountered--in the right circumstances. But in the wrong circumstances, an otherwise beatable foe can become far more dangerous.

Lack of loot has been a bit of an unexpected feature of this game. It's partly due to not "completing" some of areas, perhaps, but also to a couple of "near misses" where treasure that was this close was left behind.

Werewolves are effectively heroes themselves (they are 4 HD), so in theory the heroic PCs are on level footing with them, but it doesn't help that not everyone has a silvered weapon. The tar fiend is a "boss" type bad guy, sure. I don't want to give too much away, but it is certainly beatable--in the right circumstances. And you'll need to beat it, or get around it, in order to get your hands on the main loot.

The goblin fortresses higher up in the Hinterlands can still be visited, of course. Yes, those will be full of 1 HD minions which you'll slay in droves, but it will have tougher stuff too--it won't be a total push over

I guess the message is: don't loose heart. The abbey really isn't that far from succumbing.

[ehiker133]

... Aside from the save or die boss monster. And it was poor planning to go into a place with known were creatures without every single party member having some means of hitting them. Still not sure how that happened, honestly. Everyone should have made sure they were prepared for this. If they didn't have the coin, they should have spoken up - lots of people would have been happy to chip in to cover costs.

If/when we make it out of here, I say we go back to the very first dungeon presented the party - the ruined fort not far from Ket. Good news is we have the rations for easily making the trip now. From what I've read, it seems like something a mix of hero and lower level could handle, with some good loot opportunities.

[mushgnome]

Our interlude among the Elves had me pumped up for a truly Epic conquest; alas!

But let's not give up yet, for now just take cover and 'regroup'...

[waysoftheearth]

... Aside from the save or die boss monster.

This is the information that you currently know about it:

1. It either creates--or is associated with--a cloudy miasma,
2. As Gustave demonstrated, the miasma causes save vs poison or weakness/sickness,
3. It has a disintegration gaze attack which can be used at least once per encounter,
4. As Olaf demonstrated upon first encountering it; a shield will be disintegrated before you will be,
5. Ulric's roll of 14 (@+1 = 15) did not hit, so it's AC must be better than 5.
6. Wen's roll of 18 with a normal arrow hit, so it's AC can be no better than 2.
7. Wen's hit with a normal arrow did it no harm, so it is impervious to normal missiles.
8. Ulric's +1 arrows did harm it, so it is vulnerable to enchanted missiles.
9. It survived the 10 hit points of damage caused by Ulric's magic missiles, so it has at least 11 hit points.

There was also some very interesting speculation about use of mirrors and the Gazeback spell in the OOC thread that is worthy of further consideration:

Gazeback (affects: self, duration: 6 turns) The magic-user’s eyes become mirrored granting him immunity to dazzling and gaze attacks without impairing his sight. The gaze attacks of basilisks, medusae, and vampires, the mirror of life trapping, and the color spray spell are all defeated. Moreover, any gaze attack attempted within 3" will be reflected back at the attacker exactly as if they had looked into a mirror.

I can say with some authority that giant Tar Fiends with disintegration attacks were not in the forefront of the author's mind, but the purpose of the spell is clear; it reflects gaze attacks.

For this strategy to succeed the fiend would have to look you in the eye; there are guidelines for gaze attacks and seeing one's reflection in DD3 volume 3 which would likely apply if this were attempted.

Alternatively, one could speculate about the potential virtues of a "mirror shield", if such a thing could be had...

[coffee]

And it was poor planning

If I ever write an autobiographical account of my history with D&D, "Poor Planning" would make a really good title...

[mgtremaine]

So Desmond, Armando and Highbough are in full retreat without trying to take this wounded one down first. Which means Wen and Josiane are trying to battle something they can't hurt....

I was sort of hoping to kill one more before we leave. The TAR BEAST will probably not fire into melee so we should be ok for the round. There are other better targets then the cluster near the Werewolf.

We may have not planned our attack out well enough but even if we had, we did not expect the entire Abbey to empty out at us just because Dieter jumped the wall and killed some priests. Lets try to make our retreat count, like Ways hinted the Abbey defense is close to down. If we took the wolves, the priest and 1/3 of the werewolves out on our first attack. Coming back means we have

4 Werewolves
1 Tar Beast
Some number of unknown priests.

Thats not too bad.