Pool of Radiance AAR: A GrogHeads™ Experience

[Sir Slash]

Shame on Barth for killing a, "Helpless" Goblin. On the other hand, I do like his all black outfit. Kind of Johnny Cash meets Ragnor Lothbrook. And credit to BC for having an elf in the party. If they die, you can't bring them back to life. At least that's the way it was Curse of the Azure Bonds.

[Bison]

Shame on Barth for killing a, "Helpless" Goblin. On the other hand, I do like his all black outfit. Kind of Johnny Cash meets Ragnor Lothbrook. And credit to BC for having an elf in the party. If they die, you can't bring them back to life. At least that's the way it was Curse of the Azure Bonds.

I do not remember that little tidbit of information about elves dying and not being resurrected.  I don't remember but do you lose a point of CON with each resurrection?

[BanzaiCat]

I save often, so permanent death shouldn't be an issue. However, Bison *is* waiting in the wings, so...

[Barthheart]

Yeah baby! A long sword and a long bow! Now that's light gear to be carrying around while doing sneaky theifly stuff.



And the black getup is my ninja pantsuit!

[JasonPratt]

I am about to read the hell out of this thread.  O0

[Sir Slash]

I can't remember from POR but in COTAB, when my elf was killed, I could not resurrect him. The other characters I could. I played Curse first then POR later. I do remember the first Fireball spell I ever threw--- that's right up there with the first handful of Boobie I ever got(OK maybe the second). But it was the Stinking Cloud spell that saved my butt more often than anything. Erratic but will work on anything even damn scary dragons.

[JasonPratt]

My brother and I played through most of the Gold Box series together (including the Krynn trilogy and the two Buck Rogers games though I think he skipped out on the last one -- we tried playing Silver but there was a fatal bug about 1/3 to 1/2 which prevented us from continuing so we finally gave it up :( ), using our experience from Tunnels of Doom (which the GB series was essentially upgrading the engine on except no procedural level generation), and we preferred lightning to fireballs since we could throw those with more precision and make them ricochet for multiple damage if we gauged it right.

[Sir Slash]

That's it. I usually hit my own guys with the Lightning spell as often as the enemy.

[BanzaiCat]

Entry #3
Phlan Slums

After resting a few hours and getting spells back in the brains of our magic-throwers, we did our best to pick the vermin from our armor and belongings before heading west, and then south.



Coming into a rather large room, we spotted a party of Kobolds across the way. We apparently surprised them, so I chose to advance the party. We kept advancing until we were looking down on their little dog heads...but apparently, we still had surprise on them, because they just kind of looked at us blankly. We'd heard of Kobolds before...but seeing them in person is quite another thing. Dogs wearing armor and wielding small-ish weapons sort of looks like it should be an oil painting in a great room somewhere, not something in real life.

They just kept staring at us, but the moment one of them started sniffing MIRTH's butt, that's when the battle began.



Two SLEEP spells and they were all zonked out. Once again, we heroically dispatched their helpless souls into the next realm. A few of them yipped in MIDI-induced pain. The two that were not in either SLEEP spell's effect zone quickly surrendered, getting up on their hind legs and begging. We stripped them of their armor and weapons and booted them, telling them to never come back.

Again, I made camp, and again, the spellcasters memorized spells. And again, we headed deeper into the slums...

...and again, we ran into more Kobolds.



We made quick work of them, too. This adventuring thing, it's really not that hard. We're all beginning to wonder what kind of soft dullards live in Phlan that can't deal with this problem. All it takes is a few harsh words and minor-level spells, and all of these so-called "monsters" fall like wheat before a scythe.



BARTHHEART got himself knocked out in one fight, though...a Kobold got lucky and took him down. One hit, man, and he was out like a torch. When KYZBP cast a Cure Light Wounds on him, BARTHHEART embarassingly dusted himself off, gave us a Francis "touch any of my stuff and I'll kill you" look, and glumly gathered up his things. We still laughed at him, because that's the kind of crew we are.

Wandering to the south, we found a large open space with a squat building on the south wall. Finding a door in the east side of it, we were once again perplexed to find it in rather good repair, and locked to boot. Well, we can't have that! Once again I bashed that sucker into oblivion, and we all spilled into...well, it was a clean, well-appointed abode, apparently.



This old guy was kind of all, "WTF, guys?" But he didn't attack us. Now, had that been me sitting there, writing notes on paper, probably about how much I love wargames or something, and six dudes (one dude looks like a lady, though) crash into MY home, I'd be all, "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!" on their asses.

I decided to be nice. After all, any old dude that can live in the middle of a slum like this (granted, one with yippy dogs and Orcs that apparently need a gym of some sort, but a slum nevertheless) can probably take care of himself. We're not quite too big for our britches, at least not yet.



A 'special' potion, eh?  ^-^

Whether it's for some kind of super-power or medieval shaft enlargement, I don't care. The key words in his speech were "I pay well." Yeah, we'll see about that, old dude. Speaking on behalf of the party, I accept his terms.



Ohlo. Okay, Ohlo, I'll say your name (Ohlo) to everyone I see, now. GUSINATOR will ask me where the Kobolds be at, and I'll be all, "Oh...lo."

GET IT?

Okay, okay.

In any case, we trudge back through the shattered door. I cast an apologetic look, but the guy is already mumbling to himself, something about "Everhard's Everlasting Tentacle" or something. I'm the last one out. I turn to say farewell, but the door is already back in place as if it hasn't been touched.

Yeah, I'm glad we didn't fight this guy.

[BanzaiCat]

I won't be able to add to this again until tomorrow night. Too much going on today and tonight.

[bbmike]

Who is it in our group with the green hair that stands in the back and sings into a microphone while the battle rages?

[Barthheart]

[BanzaiCat]

Who is it in our group with the green hair that stands in the back and sings into a microphone while the battle rages?

That's mirth. As soon as I can get back to this I'm going to change his avatar.

[BanzaiCat]

Entry #4
Phlan Slums

After the crazy old man, we went in the exact opposite direction of where he told us to go. Personally, any story I'd heard growing up of wizard's quests meant dragons or hydras or other giant creatures that could bite a 10th-level warrior's head clean off with barely any effort. I'm good with waiting a while.

We went north again, back to the area we were in, and did some 'sploring in the northwest side of the Slums. Here, things were just as seedy, though the buildings had more of a lived-in appearance. What the hell they were exactly 'lived in' by, that remained to be seen.

After clearing out one room of some Kobold inhabitants, we went through the whole camp thing again to get more spells, and we stepped back out into the putrid open air of the Slums.

To, of course, be greeted by more denizens.



They were angry about something. I mean, they're goblins, so what's NOT to be angry about if you're one of them? You're weak, pathetic, and pretty much the Phantom Menace of the monster world.



They looked at us expectantly. As the ugliest one (probably their leader) opened his gaping, rotten-toothed mouth to say something, I brought my sword down on his head. That pretty much started the next tussle.



This one was another shoe-in and we racked up more of a body count, too (damn, I knew I probably should have kept stats on that...silly 1980s games didn't do that quite yet). Two Sleep spells put them all down, and it was a simple matter to remove their zit-filled heads from their open sore-encrusted bodies. Monsters are gross.

So we immediately encamped, revved up to memorize spells again, and rest...and of course the Slums were having none of that!



Oi! You over there!

Eh?

Tell your Dwarf friend there to cover up!

Ex-queez me?

You 'eard me, mate! 'Ats too much hair to be sportin' about, ere! We got standards in deez slums!

You just WISH you could rock a fun-sized body like this, dog-breath!

...'ere, now, ain't no need for insults, mate...just 'cuz we kin lick ourselves there...

Do you mind? My mages here were trying to memorize spells, when you rudely interrupted!

Wait, all we woz...

My good sirs, do you realize how long it takes to imprint the finely-tailored mage spells within my tome, upon my massive brain? One foul-up and it's that many less of your brethren we can send on to their final reward!

...wot?

Ferget 'im, he wuz in community theater...hey, brother, step a bit closer and give us your liver, then...

...yer all bloody nuts, you are. Tell you wot...



Meh, I let them go, because we're out of Sleep spells.

So we encamp again, and get all our spells lined up, and...



Dammit.



Well, instead of parlaying, this time I'm just going to kick their asses. And we do manage to do that. KYZBP gets a bit dinged up, but that's okay because he doesn't get skewered by a dog sword (who could live something like THAT down, huh?), we slaughter all the All Dogs Go To Heaven rejects, and once again, make camp.

And get our spells lined up, and get everything just so, and...

...get interrupted again.



And again, we beat them to a pulp. GUSINATOR gets hit though and he's down in hit points like KYZBP.

This time, I move everyone back into the building we were in before, make camp there, and rest, and fortunately THIS time we're not interrupted by a pack of pups.

We move out again, moving a bit west, then turning north to find a door.



Like other doors, this one is locked too. Like other doors, I smash it, because anything locked usually means treasure!

The area is small, and looks like it holds a storeroom to the east. To the west, we spy another door, but as GUSINATOR leans against a wall to spread some more dwarven oil on his chest, he goes right through the wall with an "Ulp!" and falls, his feet sticking out of what looks to be an illusionary wall.

Inside, we find arrows and a short bow. I think the bow is magic...why would it be here, otherwise? This encounter gets us a LOT of experience, more than doubling what we had already to this point, so after checking out this last door I've resolved to head back to Phlan to see what we can sell, identify, and whom can level up.

But first, the door.

Oh yeah...before I forget, I changed MIRTH's avatar to look less...uh...dress-wearing.



The fabulous 'hand flair' move stays, though.

So anyway, back to the door...



Great, Hobgoblins. They're basically a more pissy version of Goblins, but stronger.

But that doesn't stop them from falling asleep and getting their butts handed to them.

Literally. BARTHHEART had to be forcibly stopped from removing their butts and placing them in each Hobgoblin's hands. I guess as a warning sign or something to the other monsters around here. I reminded him we were here to clear the Slums, and such a thing would be pointless because nobody would see it. The dude might be psycho, but he's decent enough with a blade.

We cleared out the meager sum of gold the Hobgoblins had on hand, and returned back to Phlan. We'd had a decent outing so far, killing just about everything facing us (except for that one talky-talky incident, but that won't go into the Official History of Team GrogHeads when our memoirs are written.)



Despite all of our best efforts to date, the gate guards STILL give us the stink-eye when we go through. Some just don't appreciate us as much as they should.

After stumbling around a darkened Phlan for a while, we finally came across the Training Hall to the north. Walking in, we moved through an interior set of doors to find a big, metal-infused Crossfit class going on.



My twin (God bless the early days of computer gaming with their few portraits to choose from) wants to know if we want to spar. I told him no, and he stepped aside to go beat on a student (one that's probably paying him good money to do so). Along the north wall were a bunch of doors, each labeled as training for different classes.

The first one I went into was apparently for thieves, because the guy in there asked for 1,000 gold to train. Nevermind that it really WAS to train thieves. If all of the rooms are like this - Warrior, Mage, and Cleric alike - I'm wondering if this means we all get to multi-class as rogues by paying off this highway robbery.

As it is, each of us has maybe 200, 250 gold total, so we'll have to make camp somewhere and try to figure out what magic items we've gotten. I'll have to guess well, because if I remember right, it costs 100 frikkin' gold to ID a piece of equipment. We might be doing a lot of saving and reloading.

[JasonPratt]

"With One Cruel Blow" should be the title for this thread.

(Preparing for Gusinator joke in 3... 2... )