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<blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9331361" data-attributes="member: 6801060"><p><strong><em>Pool of Radiance </em>(Part 51): Valhingen Graveyard (Part 1)</strong></p><p></p><p>We walk forward a bit, warily, from the main gateway, But before too long...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360555[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Yikes!</p><p></p><p>(I really enjoy the overall feel and atmosphere of the Valhingen Graveyard. It's actually also pretty challenging, too, even at the party's level. The designers of this area really hit a home run).</p><p></p><p>The skeletons rise from their graves, and the battle is on! That's a lot of skeletons! Luckily, they only have 5 HP each. Unluckily, only bludgeoning weapons do full damage. Luckily again, my characters have enough strength to more or less negate that issue.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360556[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(By the way, all the gravestones from the map are huge walls on the battle map. It's like we've all been miniaturized, or in a giants' graveyard. This increase in scale from main map to battle map has been noticeable before, but it's more obvious here!)</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360557[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Time for Brother Baltor to shine! One of the reasons to wait until the cleric is 6th level before coming here is that clerics don't just turn skeletons and zombies at that level, they outright destroy them. Let's see what he can do! Turn baby, turn!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360558[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360559[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>He only managed to get a couple of them <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /></p><p></p><p>Oh well, we'll just grind them down the long way then. It's not like they'll be able to do much damage against us, even in those numbers.</p><p></p><p>They still do manage to flank, so Bragir has to break out the melee weapons.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360560[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360561[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Soon, however, we've driven them away from our ranged and have the skeletons penned away from them. Brother Baltor moves south to draw the ones nearby towards him instead of through that gap and up to the ranged.</p><p></p><p>And in a couple more rounds of bone-crushing, the battle is over.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360562[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360563[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And that's enough to level Brin up after missing out by so few XP in the last post.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360564[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360565[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Now that we're well into the graveyard, a quick overview of our goals here. The Valhingen Graveyard is divided into several sections, each prominently featuring a certain type of undead, with a few scattered other types here and there. We are, as you may have guessed, currently in the skeleton zone. The goal in each section is to destroy whatever is creating the type of undead for that section. Beyond that as well, the number of the typical undead that can appear in encounters in a section is capped at a certain number based on your party level and strength, so once you kill enough to bring that number down to zero, and also kill the creator, that section of the graveyard will be considered cleared, and no more of that type of undead will appear there. Go out of the graveyard and return without doing both, and you could just reset the undead count right back to where it was at the start. And it's useful to be able to leave if you want to rest, as if you try to rest in the graveyard, even in a cleared area, you'll likely be interrupted by ghouls.</p><p></p><p>So, we warily move to the south, towards a big building in that direction.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360566[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, it certainly will help in destroying them if we surprise them!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360567[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Another large group. Hopefully Brother Baltor does a bit better this time with turning...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360569[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360570[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Looks like he got around 7 this time - much better (you can destroy up to 1d12 per attempt in 1e, apparently)</p><p></p><p>After that, it's just time to grind them down. It's a pity that Bant and Baroness Bella can't sweep them, and all the lowered damage means periodically a hit won't damage a skeleton enough to kill it fully and leave it with 1 HP. </p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360571[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The skeletons annoyingly go around that wall and reach my ranged, but we soon take care of that.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360572[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And soon the battle is won.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360573[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We move around that corner and reach the entrance to the building. We enter, and...</p><p></p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360574[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360575[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>That's hardly an army compared to what we've just been fighting.</p><p></p><p>Time for Brother Baltor to do his thing!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360577[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360578[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>He does fairly well and takes out a few of them. Shortly thereafter, the battle is done.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360580[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We move through the doorway into the next room...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360581[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Oooh, a giant skeleton!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360582[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>With 28 HP, it's not going to go down in just one hit.</p><p></p><p>It's turnin' time!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360584[/ATTACH]</p><p> </p><p>And he takes out a good number of them this time! Only a few remain down to the southeast. The giant skeleton was of course not affected.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360585[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So my melee concentrate on the giant skeleton while my ranged take on the ones in the far corner. Of course, they do start to move up, but by that time, we've taken out their leader.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360586[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And shortly thereafter, the battle is done.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360587[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We do a quick search.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360588[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Of course we open it!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360589[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Wow! That's a good amount of XP for us at this level! There must be some nice treasure in that chest.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360590[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360591[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>I assume that most of that XP came from the jewelry. The scrolls are, yet again, two copies of <em>restoration</em> each. While we're appreciative for all these scrolls as we're in an undead-infested area, we've actually begun to run out of room to efficiently store them in our inventory!</p><p></p><p>We leave this building and continue southwest, to a larger structure in the corner of the graveyard. When we reach its door...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360593[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360594[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Brother Baltor turns again...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360595[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360596[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And only gets a couple of them.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the skeletons are yet again moving around the wall to the north to attempt to flank.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360597[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>But we soon start wearing down their numbers. With no skeletons in front of him, Brother Baltor moves around to shore up the front in that area.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360598[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360599[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And the battle is quickly over.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360600[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Now that the battle is won, we look towards the door to our left.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360601[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, that's hardly a good sign. But we need to get into that building, so, with trepidation, we open the door and enter.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360602[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Ouch! Luckily we haven't been hurt too much before, and only two characters are affected.</p><p></p><p>We continue up the steps at the far end of the room (the map keeps you on the same level, but that sort of doorway indicates a stairwell, even if you aren't technically going up or down in game terms). </p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360603[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Aha! The creature responsible for creating the skeletons (who is momentarily invisible in that screenshot as it flickers in and out). Destroy it, and we'll be all but done with this area of the graveyard.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360604[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Spectre! We need to take it down quickly! If it hits anyone, it's level-drain time.</p><p></p><p>Bows are useless, as it's immune to non-magical weapon damage and we don't have any magic arrows left, so everyone switches to melee to destroy the incorporeal undead. Luckily we have initiative on it since it was surprised, and after a few hits, Bragir moves forward and slays the foul creature, even before Brother Baltor could attempt to turn (which would be tough to achieve at his level anyway)</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360606[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]360607[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Another nice XP reward!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360608[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>At this point, after moving Bragir up, I realize I've been nerfing myself a bit - Baroness Bella and Bant have been carrying around the special undead-killing two-handed swords we got earlier, but aren't using them. I move them over to Brin and Bragir to use while here whenever they get into melee.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360609[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(As you can see, I've gotten so overloaded with <em>restoration</em> scrolls that Bragir is carrying some spares for Brother Baltor.)</p><p></p><p>Since the spectre was the one creating the skeletons, as long as I've killed enough skeletons in this zone to bring their count down to zero, I've cleared this section and neither the roaming skeletons nor their spectral creator will respawn if I leave. I move around this part of the zone to see if I trigger any more skeleton patrols.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]360611[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>After moving all around this area for some time in "Search" mode (which increases encounter probabilities), the party encounters no more skeletons. It does appear that we've dropped the skeleton count to zero, which, combined with taking out that spectre, means that this area will remain free of skeletons should I go in and out of the graveyard. It's time to enter the next section, just beyond the point where the party is standing now: the zombie zone!</p><p></p><p>We'll pick up there in the next post.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Demetrios1453, post: 9331361, member: 6801060"] [B][I]Pool of Radiance [/I](Part 51): Valhingen Graveyard (Part 1)[/B] We walk forward a bit, warily, from the main gateway, But before too long... [ATTACH type="full"]360555[/ATTACH] Yikes! (I really enjoy the overall feel and atmosphere of the Valhingen Graveyard. It's actually also pretty challenging, too, even at the party's level. The designers of this area really hit a home run). The skeletons rise from their graves, and the battle is on! That's a lot of skeletons! Luckily, they only have 5 HP each. Unluckily, only bludgeoning weapons do full damage. Luckily again, my characters have enough strength to more or less negate that issue. [ATTACH type="full"]360556[/ATTACH] (By the way, all the gravestones from the map are huge walls on the battle map. It's like we've all been miniaturized, or in a giants' graveyard. This increase in scale from main map to battle map has been noticeable before, but it's more obvious here!) [ATTACH type="full"]360557[/ATTACH] Time for Brother Baltor to shine! One of the reasons to wait until the cleric is 6th level before coming here is that clerics don't just turn skeletons and zombies at that level, they outright destroy them. Let's see what he can do! Turn baby, turn! [ATTACH type="full"]360558[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360559[/ATTACH] He only managed to get a couple of them :( Oh well, we'll just grind them down the long way then. It's not like they'll be able to do much damage against us, even in those numbers. They still do manage to flank, so Bragir has to break out the melee weapons. [ATTACH type="full"]360560[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360561[/ATTACH] Soon, however, we've driven them away from our ranged and have the skeletons penned away from them. Brother Baltor moves south to draw the ones nearby towards him instead of through that gap and up to the ranged. And in a couple more rounds of bone-crushing, the battle is over. [ATTACH type="full"]360562[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360563[/ATTACH] And that's enough to level Brin up after missing out by so few XP in the last post. [ATTACH type="full"]360564[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360565[/ATTACH] Now that we're well into the graveyard, a quick overview of our goals here. The Valhingen Graveyard is divided into several sections, each prominently featuring a certain type of undead, with a few scattered other types here and there. We are, as you may have guessed, currently in the skeleton zone. The goal in each section is to destroy whatever is creating the type of undead for that section. Beyond that as well, the number of the typical undead that can appear in encounters in a section is capped at a certain number based on your party level and strength, so once you kill enough to bring that number down to zero, and also kill the creator, that section of the graveyard will be considered cleared, and no more of that type of undead will appear there. Go out of the graveyard and return without doing both, and you could just reset the undead count right back to where it was at the start. And it's useful to be able to leave if you want to rest, as if you try to rest in the graveyard, even in a cleared area, you'll likely be interrupted by ghouls. So, we warily move to the south, towards a big building in that direction. [ATTACH type="full"]360566[/ATTACH] Well, it certainly will help in destroying them if we surprise them! [ATTACH type="full"]360567[/ATTACH] Another large group. Hopefully Brother Baltor does a bit better this time with turning... [ATTACH type="full"]360569[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360570[/ATTACH] Looks like he got around 7 this time - much better (you can destroy up to 1d12 per attempt in 1e, apparently) After that, it's just time to grind them down. It's a pity that Bant and Baroness Bella can't sweep them, and all the lowered damage means periodically a hit won't damage a skeleton enough to kill it fully and leave it with 1 HP. [ATTACH type="full"]360571[/ATTACH] The skeletons annoyingly go around that wall and reach my ranged, but we soon take care of that. [ATTACH type="full"]360572[/ATTACH] And soon the battle is won. [ATTACH type="full"]360573[/ATTACH] We move around that corner and reach the entrance to the building. We enter, and... [ATTACH type="full"]360574[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360575[/ATTACH] That's hardly an army compared to what we've just been fighting. Time for Brother Baltor to do his thing! [ATTACH type="full"]360577[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360578[/ATTACH] He does fairly well and takes out a few of them. Shortly thereafter, the battle is done. [ATTACH type="full"]360580[/ATTACH] We move through the doorway into the next room... [ATTACH type="full"]360581[/ATTACH] Oooh, a giant skeleton! [ATTACH type="full"]360582[/ATTACH] With 28 HP, it's not going to go down in just one hit. It's turnin' time! [ATTACH type="full"]360584[/ATTACH] And he takes out a good number of them this time! Only a few remain down to the southeast. The giant skeleton was of course not affected. [ATTACH type="full"]360585[/ATTACH] So my melee concentrate on the giant skeleton while my ranged take on the ones in the far corner. Of course, they do start to move up, but by that time, we've taken out their leader. [ATTACH type="full"]360586[/ATTACH] And shortly thereafter, the battle is done. [ATTACH type="full"]360587[/ATTACH] We do a quick search. [ATTACH type="full"]360588[/ATTACH] Of course we open it! [ATTACH type="full"]360589[/ATTACH] Wow! That's a good amount of XP for us at this level! There must be some nice treasure in that chest. [ATTACH type="full"]360590[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360591[/ATTACH] I assume that most of that XP came from the jewelry. The scrolls are, yet again, two copies of [I]restoration[/I] each. While we're appreciative for all these scrolls as we're in an undead-infested area, we've actually begun to run out of room to efficiently store them in our inventory! We leave this building and continue southwest, to a larger structure in the corner of the graveyard. When we reach its door... [ATTACH type="full"]360593[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360594[/ATTACH] Brother Baltor turns again... [ATTACH type="full"]360595[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360596[/ATTACH] And only gets a couple of them. Meanwhile, the skeletons are yet again moving around the wall to the north to attempt to flank. [ATTACH type="full"]360597[/ATTACH] But we soon start wearing down their numbers. With no skeletons in front of him, Brother Baltor moves around to shore up the front in that area. [ATTACH type="full"]360598[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360599[/ATTACH] And the battle is quickly over. [ATTACH type="full"]360600[/ATTACH] Now that the battle is won, we look towards the door to our left. [ATTACH type="full"]360601[/ATTACH] Well, that's hardly a good sign. But we need to get into that building, so, with trepidation, we open the door and enter. [ATTACH type="full"]360602[/ATTACH] Ouch! Luckily we haven't been hurt too much before, and only two characters are affected. We continue up the steps at the far end of the room (the map keeps you on the same level, but that sort of doorway indicates a stairwell, even if you aren't technically going up or down in game terms). [ATTACH type="full"]360603[/ATTACH] Aha! The creature responsible for creating the skeletons (who is momentarily invisible in that screenshot as it flickers in and out). Destroy it, and we'll be all but done with this area of the graveyard. [ATTACH type="full"]360604[/ATTACH] Spectre! We need to take it down quickly! If it hits anyone, it's level-drain time. Bows are useless, as it's immune to non-magical weapon damage and we don't have any magic arrows left, so everyone switches to melee to destroy the incorporeal undead. Luckily we have initiative on it since it was surprised, and after a few hits, Bragir moves forward and slays the foul creature, even before Brother Baltor could attempt to turn (which would be tough to achieve at his level anyway) [ATTACH type="full"]360606[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]360607[/ATTACH] Another nice XP reward! [ATTACH type="full"]360608[/ATTACH] At this point, after moving Bragir up, I realize I've been nerfing myself a bit - Baroness Bella and Bant have been carrying around the special undead-killing two-handed swords we got earlier, but aren't using them. I move them over to Brin and Bragir to use while here whenever they get into melee. [ATTACH type="full"]360609[/ATTACH] (As you can see, I've gotten so overloaded with [I]restoration[/I] scrolls that Bragir is carrying some spares for Brother Baltor.) Since the spectre was the one creating the skeletons, as long as I've killed enough skeletons in this zone to bring their count down to zero, I've cleared this section and neither the roaming skeletons nor their spectral creator will respawn if I leave. I move around this part of the zone to see if I trigger any more skeleton patrols. [ATTACH type="full"]360611[/ATTACH] After moving all around this area for some time in "Search" mode (which increases encounter probabilities), the party encounters no more skeletons. It does appear that we've dropped the skeleton count to zero, which, combined with taking out that spectre, means that this area will remain free of skeletons should I go in and out of the graveyard. It's time to enter the next section, just beyond the point where the party is standing now: the zombie zone! We'll pick up there in the next post. [/QUOTE]
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