Pool of Radiance AAR: A GrogHeads™ Experience

[JasonPratt]

Asian-Themed Hobgoblins are the worst! pretty awesome!Both as opponents and as racial stereotypes. Hit them with your magical +1 Bag of Rice and Chop-Sticks.

Ftfy

[JasonPratt]

GREEN LIVES MATTER!

>:D

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, waiting for comments on the auctioneer.

Who by the way I notice from the screenshots must have been moving his mouth for speaking those lines! Huh; didn't recall that effect being in the game.

[BanzaiCat]

Entry #15
Back to Phlan. Now What?

So we were being threatened by Hobgoblins. Unafraid of what they're trying to bring, I chose Parlay and Haughty.



So much for that! Cowards.

We didn't have any issues with getting out of Podol Plaza, but Lizardmen patrols still reigned throughout Kuto's Well. We ran into several, but it was easy enough to put them down and make some boots out of their hides.



We make it back to Phlan without trouble, and stop by City Hall to get our rewards.



Neither of the Proclamations are a big deal - one is for the books and tomes the Council is whining for, and the other is about some super-secret big mission the Council wants done. Yeah, yeah, we'll get to it eventually guys.

We go inside to the clerk.



That reward amounts to 200 Platinum and 250 Gold. Woo, we're rich.



And for that, we get another 200 Platinum and 250 Gold.

So for that not-really-all-that hard work, we're given the equivalent of 2,500 Gold. Not bad I guess. Enough to level up a couple of characters and then some.

Before we can even finish counting, though:



Oh goddammit. Undead.



Sorry, you know, we're just not...wait, did you say "enchanted weapon?"

Unfortunately I have to accept before I can see what it is they're offering; that's not very good business sense on their part, especially if they want me to go off and clear a graveyard, which means there's going to be a very high-level undead thing that wants to eat our insides.

Since I can't make progress unless I agree to their terms of robbery, I go ahead, and this is what they give us:



The two-handed sword is okay...+1 is kind of lame, but +3 versus undead is pretty nice. Grumble grumble fine we'll take them.



Thieves, eh? Well, at least THESE thieves have the bloody sense to be in a mansion, unlike the sewer-dwellers we dealt with at Kuto's Well.



That's kinda vague. Where are they? I assume in the hinterlands bordering Phlan. Now that the Keep is cleared, we can travel east or west and do some 'splorin there.

Meanwhile, I train MIRTH up to 3rd Level Fighter and BARTHHEART up to 5th Level Thief.

So this leaves us with a LOT of options. I once again ask you, the reader, which direction you think this adventure should go.

(1) Go look south of Kuto's Well and see what's there.
(2) Go look south of Podol Plaza, in the Cadorna Textile House, to see what's there and get that Councilman's family treasure to him.
(3) Go to the Temple of Bane with Joe Dirten. Bonus: we'll be rid of another useless NPC that doesn't do much except cast spells on himself and stay well out of combat.
(4) Go find the Kovel Mansion and beat the tar out of some thieves.
(5) Go to the Graveyard. I am not leaning in that direction, not until we're much higher level. I do NOT like high-level undead bastards, and I am willing to bet that's home to many.
(6) Go off to the wilderness to the east, in search of the nomads the Clerk mentioned, or whatever else may be out there.
(7) Go off to the wilderness to the west, in search of the nomads the Clerk mentioned, or whatever else may be out there.

Atsa lotta choices. Let me know where you'd like to see it go. I know what I'm leaning towards, but I want to see what you want first.

[mirth]

Honestly, I'm amazed I've made it to 3rd level in either class.

[JasonPratt]

The Temple of Bane sounds like it will have enemy spellcasters. You really sure you want Hold Persons and Cause Wounds etc. on your party yet? On the other hand, it would get rid of the useless XP soaker.

I'm inclined to try draining the remaining older quests for XP, though I forget which those would be (if any). As older quests they should be proportionately easier to do, except of course for the obvious Undead Plot.

[Barthheart]

Temple Bane. I'm not sure I want to "beat the tar outta" some of my kin..... just sayin...  :P

[Sir Slash]

I remember the graveyard and the Nomads as being Bitch #1 and Bitch #2 in this game so I would do the Cleric Thing and be rid of him. Unless he would help with the Un-dead. Turn-Undead will save your ass a lot. Or just go clear the Tavern of dangerous ale and wenches.

[KyzBP]

But, but, Clerical Spells.  We so need these.  Think of the possibilities; Enhanced Typing, Summon Coffee, or even a Hold My Calls spell could certainly come in handy.  ^-^

I'll vote for Thief Clearing although the Graveyard would make me feel more useful.

[Barthheart]

...

I'll vote for Thief Clearing although the Graveyard would make me feel more useful.

Hey Clerk.... Cleric, go get some coffe for us while the big boys talk. Clear out thieves indeed. 

[KyzBP]

...

I'll vote for Thief Clearing although the Graveyard would make me feel more useful.

Hey Clerk.... Cleric, go get some coffe for us while the big boys talk. Clear out thieves indeed. 

>:( If we cleared the Undead I could just summon coffee...grumble, grumble...

[MetalDog]

I say clear the thieves then the Temple to get rid of Dirten.  Then see what the day brings.

[BanzaiCat]

I'll get back to this in the next day or so. Sorry for the hiatus, but work has had me all over the place these last couple of weeks.

[BanzaiCat]

Entry #16:
To Kovel Mansion.

It's been a bit of time, so I can only assume that my party has gone to blow off some steam. We all more or less went off to take a bit of time to deal with personal things, except for MIRTH, whom we can only report was last seen headed towards the cattle yards/bordello district, murmuring something about "sheathin' my +5 Vorpal Rod of Penetration."



As we gather back, I know some of you gave feedback into where you'd like to go, but I want to hold off on the Temple for a bit. For now, we're headed to Kovel Mansion, to try to root out the thieves' den there.



We board a boat. MIRTH even brought a nautical themed pashmina afghan.

The trip there is uneventful.



Kovel Mansion is essentially a large square-ish structure stuck in the northern uncivilized portion of the city. The main thieves' guild of Phlan has taken over the ancient mansion of the Kovel family. The thieves act as spies and information brokers for many forces in the city. Our mission is to find all of the thieves and clear them from the place.

The main entry is on the north side...and it happens to be the only point of entry that we can find. We venture in.



The interior is a maze of corridors and rooms. It is also a deathtrap, as there are more tortuous devices here than could be found in the entire vendor area of StarMirth Con '15. Moving in 'search' mode is a necessity to avoid the plethora of traps (and perhaps pinatas, though none have been found yet). Not that it does us much good, as we get bitten in the ass more times than I can count. We also get tased, slashed, poked, and branded in the ass as well on more than one occasion.

And then there's this.



Jeff Foxworthy here apparently was a member of the Phlan Thieves' Guild before hitting it big as a redneck comedy guy. He likes to jump out of the shadows and attack us randomly, on several occasions. Me being me, I let the poor bastard go, because it's very obvious he's no good at his job. Probably did it on a dare.



This mansion sucks. The decor is quite pedestrian (reeking of 'medieval dung heap') and I see no furniture anywhere. Nor do we see any thieves, for that matter, except for the mustachioed thieving failure from earlier. We're more or less wandering around aimlessly at this point.

Then, we are ambushed by TWO thieves instead of one. But they're just as bad as their predecessor and try to flee.

We immediately give chase!



We turn to our left to head through the east door, after that scalawag. We'll give him such a pinch when we find him!



Finally, we corner this little bastard, but he begs for his life. The prospect of avoiding the random attacks and S&M inanimate object sex assaults is somewhat of a pull...



F*cker.  >:(

Jeff Foxworthy attacks us again, shortly after this. It was his mistake to do this after the one a-hole tricked us, so lucky him, we Ginsu him into oblivion.

Our wanderings must have finally attracted the attention of the thieves, because when we enter another large room, it looks like they accumulated half of their Guild to fight us.

Actually, this is more like their Chippendale Review subchapter, I think. All of them are shirtless and wearing leather pants. Not to mention sporting microphones like MIRTH.



This male review/karaoke night might be fabulous around here on Tuesday nights, but not tonight. We're about to create some openings in the Thieves' Guild membership rolls.



There's a whole bunch of 1st Level Exotic Male Dancers, and two 6th Level Magic Mikes. A few Sleep spells helped to calm them down and stop them from gyrating their junk in our faces.

These guys fall like bad stripper movies before a reviewer's scathing review scythes.



225 experience is kind of lame.



And this place creeps me out. They dropped a bunch of "long swords" and one set of "leather armor." I don't touch any of it, because there's no telling what kind of STD +3 we might get out of that. Some diseases can't be spelled out of existence, son.



A few more explorations and a few more Jeff Foxworthy clones later, and we find some clues.



Okay, so some vague map of some unseen castle thus far that looks like it could be an actual castle or perhaps the bowels of some hapless intruder. I don't know.

We continue on, exploring Kovel Mansion...

[Sir Slash]

Yeaaahhh Team!  O0