D&D General Demetrios1453 Plays the Gold Box Games

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 34): Zhentil Keep (Part 1)

OK, we're back after a few weeks off for vacations and other not-so-fun stuff.



When we last left our party, they were on out outskirts of Yûlash, so now we need to choose where to go next. As one of the two remaining tattoos on our arms is the symbol of the Zhentarim, heading north to their headquarters in the nearby city of Zhentil Keep seems to be a good idea.





Well, at least that journey was easy, even if them letting us go by makes us uneasy.



Let's enter the city.






Sure, "strictly routine."



Um, we're standing right here?

The "little thief" is going to play a big role, both in her rumor-mongering and in person, as we move through Zhentil Keep, as we shall see.



We press forward through the aforementioned masses.



Apparently they hire from the same place Phlan got their guards.



Grumble. There are three factions wandering the streets (really, just street) of Zhentil Keep, all hostile towards each other, and towards the party. To keep this from becoming a slog of combat every few steps, we're just going to parlay to each group.



We parlay "MEEK", and they let us go.





As we walk down the one street that seems to make up the entirety of Zhentil Keep, we'll continually overhear things like this, or notice something odd going on. It happens every few steps, although each one is unique.



We duck into the inn. Luckily we aren't Red Plumes.



We really don't need to rest, so we'll just camp to save the game.



That done, we continue down the street.



This is the weapons shop. Normally, we'd stop in to sell loot and top off on arrows, but there's a very good reason for not doing so, as we soon shall see....



More rumors from this mysterious halfling...





Aha! We're definitely going in here...



Yes we do!

But first, let's dump off all the magic items we've been carrying around for a bit.

We sell everything extraneous off. The bracers go for quite a pretty penny!



As you can imagine, we're quite overloaded with coins now, but that's not a bad thing at the moment. So we need to pool.



That's quite a bit! But, we finally have something to spend it on!



The scrolls only contain spells we already know. If we had pure magic users, picking up some of the wands of magic missiles would be useful. But as we don't, we're going to blow it all on those nice, juicy magical arrows. Ha, all you mages - your protection from normal missiles will now be useless!

I basically give my back three the maximum amount of arrows, while giving some to the front line as well, just in case (and as storage if the back line run out).



It costs quite a bit, but it's worth it.



Also, we haven't broken into the gems or jewels, so we still have plenty of money for re-stocking later. Also, we'll gain access to a much cheaper magic item shop here soon anyway.

Once done, we head out back down the street again, with their continual messages....





We let him go. This whole encounter is just an in-joke reference to Ralph Bashki's 1977 film Wizards.





Hmm... This halfling has given us quite the reputation, it appears.



Meh, there's nothing much exciting they sell in there, so we continue on...



We file that away for future reference.



As you can see, we haven't made it too far into Zhentil Keep, with just about every other step resulting in a non-combat encounter of some sort.



How decorative!



Our reputation precedes us, it seems.



Hmm, that reputation might not be the best, apparently.



We just parlay "MEEK" again to get around the encounter.





Like any other tavern, you can go in there and spend money getting less-than-reputable rumors. This one has an arena as well, for added interest. But we're on a mission, so we just forge forward.



I assume that suspicious glares are just part of typical guard training.



Yes, it's us.





Oh, that's much more interesting than scared and fleeing civilians! We'll definitely take a look at this altar when we find it!



Ewww. I guess that's better than other things that can be thrown out a window in these pre-plumbing days, though.



You know you're in a reputable place when they're dragging the bodies around the corners instead of just letting them rot in the street.



Sounds like fun times in Zhentil Keep.



OK, random.



Indeed it is.



All from us just walking down the street. We'll need to have some words with this halfling when we meet her.



Thank you, dream-like voice!



Our mysterious halfling, at last!



Olive and Dimswart are both characters from the novel. Olive, notably, claims to be a bard, but everyone keeps telling her "Halflings can't be bards!" due to 1e and 2e race/class restrictions. Her stat block has her class as thief. Of course, it's been a long time since haflings have been blocked from being bards, so this little bit of fun is a bit antiquated these days...



Yes we do.

We'll pick up there next time as we enter the Shrine of Bane, and the horrors that lie within!

Demetrios1453 said:

Olive and Dimswart are both characters from the novel. Olive, notably, claims to be a bard, but everyone keeps telling her "Halflings can't be bards!" due to 1e and 2e race/class restrictions. Her stat block has her class as thief. Of course, it's been a long time since halflings have been blocked from being bards, so this little bit of fun is a bit antiquated these days...

Click to expand...

Shhh! Don't tell @ECMO3

Seramus said:

Shhh! Don't tell @ECMO3

Click to expand...

Not quite so far back in time, BG2 lampshaded 2e class race restrictions with a halfling wannabe paladin. Mazzy Fenton I think she was called.

Paul Farquhar said:

Not quite so far back in time, BG2 lampshaded 2e class race restrictions with a halfling wannabe paladin. Mazzy Fenton I think she was called.

Click to expand...

Yep! Mazzy explicitly had some paladin powers like Lay on Hands despite being a fighter. She even breaks the 4th wall, and cracks a joke about the gods revising halflings a third time in Throne of Bhaal (released in 2001, a year after 3rd Edition).

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 35): Zhentil Keep (Part 2) - Zhentil Keep completed!

We follow Olive through her secret entrance into the Shrine of Bane.



Hey, that could have been useful! It's like it's fated that every time we enter a new area, access to the old is mysteriously blocked! (Which is really a very annoying thing they purposely put multiple times into this game, unlike all the others where you can usually backtrack and re-visit old areas, with only a few hard blocks from doing so here here and there).



She seems oddly unconcerned that her escape device just blew up, but whatever. We follow her and listen.




Very thief-ly thing for a "bard" to do, my dear Olive.

Anyway, we move around a bit, and reach a cell door.



It doesn't say "Olive tells you that Dimswart is just beyond this door," just that you somehow know. Maybe they've got his name posted on the cell door?



OK, so long, I guess?

We go ahead and open the door (or, more precisely, Buffy picks the lock).







Thank you, Mr Exposition!

So, basically, if you've gotten this far in the game and somehow still know nothing of what has been going on, Dimswart just fills you in on everything. Confirming what we suspected, that Tyranthraxus is the final foe, is still nice to know though...



Yes we do, since we can't advance out of this zone unless we do.

We head out of his cell and investigate the room next to it.





That's intriguing. We go around the room, looking into the mirrors, seeing various scenes.







Mysterious, hooded women are never good news to anyone adventure-savvy...



Yikes! Beholders are definitely bad news!





This is from the arena in the main part of the city, where we could have bet on matches if we wished (or, if we had been defeated by a patrol, been thrown into ourselves!)





The air is turning blue? Weird.

Anyway, that is the last of the scrying visions - they just start to repeat after this. So time to leave this room and explore elsewhere. At least we have some idea of what we might bump into in the near future...

We go into the other room near the cell, and in one corner we search and find...



Excellent! We go through.



The annoying thing here is that, even though thieves can detect traps, the game only allows you to use the cleric spell here. And since Brother Baltor doesn't have it memorized....



Buffy has no option of just disarming the trap. We just have to open the door and let the inevitable trap affect us...



A few characters take some light damage as a result.



But that's fine, because... treasure!







Not quite the cache we were expecting from the rumors, but not bad nonetheless...



Oh joy, a cursed sword. Well, at least the wand and the arrows (+2!) will be of some use.

Having looted the treasure they have here, we see if we can get out a different way. We turn around and head to the main doors of the temple. But when we get there...





Some fighters, some priests (the ones in red), and two high priests (the ones in purple). Thankfully, there aren't too many of them, and we have some AoE ranged attacks to keep them from casting and ruining our day.





I always forget about Buffy's necklace. The fireballs from them don't do as much damage as the real ones from my magic-users, but any damage at all will stop foes from casting spells during the round.

Buffy aims towards the right...



Brin towards the left...



With only one priest unaffected, and them still nicely lined up, Bragir moves forward...





And basically mows down that front row...



The remaining front-row priest is dealt with, and everyone moves up to the back group...



And soon the battle is over...



All of them have magic items, but most of them are no better than what we have, and are too heavy to carry around. However, there are a couple of upgrades...



The fighters have magical crossbows and quarrels. I've been keeping non-magical crossbows for awhile, due to some specific fights near the end of the game, so I now replace them with their magical counterparts (although there are only five, so Brother Baltor is the odd man out). Since Bant has a crossbow as his main ranged weapon anyway (not that he ever uses it, really), I'll pick up the magical bolts (or, in 1e parlance, "quarrels") for him to use.



And we drop those now-useless regular crossbows...

We head through the doors only to see a grander set of doors ahead, obviously the way back out to the main street.

But, as we approach, there's a flash of light (in a message that popped up and then disappeared to fast for me to get a screenshot), and then...



Blocking the way out again! And, like usual, there's nothing we can do about it, even catching this priest as he slips through a doorway.

Well, we'll have to search around for another way out.

But as we go through the doors to the left...



At least it's a smaller group, although still with several clerics to take care of (including a high priest in the back - the one with 60 HP)

Time to break out the fireballs. At least I'll be able to get all the clerics in the radius of each one this time...









Those drop quite a few of them. Bant moves in to take down the high priest.



And soon the battle is over...






Decent XP, but still not quite enough to level anyone (Buffy is currently this close to gaining a level, and Bant and Brother Baltor aren't too far behind).



Brother Baltor gets his magical crossbow and Bant gets further magical quarrels (I didn't cast detect magic this time, but the gear is standardized).

Well, right now the best thing to do is to go back the Dimswart's cell and rest up and heal.



And after that, we head out to see if we can find any alternative way out. We first go to the room off the corridor we came in through...



Er... this is obviously a trap with a quite likely hostile being (I think we all know what "hooded women" usually are, even if we don't quite catch a glimpse of any snakes). But, it is the truth that we seemingly don't have any other way out....



Yes, but only because we really don't have any other choice.



Fzoul Chembryl is the then-current leader of the Zhentarim, and ruler of Zhentil Keep. It's probably not a good thing he's annoyed at us...



And then... we're suddenly somewhere else...



And with that, we've completed Zhentil Keep and the Shrine of Bane! Next time we begin to explore (cue dramatic music) the Cave of the Beholder!

(Maps of Zhentil Keep and the Shrine of Bane):

Demetrios1453 said:

The air is turning blue? Weird.

Click to expand...

So, I'm not sure if this is just an idiom obscure enough to have escaped you, or you're just being dry, but to "turn the air blue" is to use a lot of profanity. Given this game dates back to the TSR Code of Ethics era, the direct use of profanity was probably prohibited by SSI's contract.

see said:

So, I'm not sure if this is just an idiom obscure enough to have escaped you, or you're just being dry, but to "turn the air blue" is to use a lot of profanity. Given this game dates back to the TSR Code of Ethics era, the direct use of profanity was probably prohibited by SSI's contract.

Click to expand...

Now that you mentioned it, that makes sense. I've heard the term before many times, but didn't expect it in the game's context, where magic could actually turn the air blue.

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 36): The Cave of the Beholder (Part 1)



Being led along dark corridors is never good news...



...especially when you're led to a beholder!





Oh, you're all heart, Dexam...



It doesn't matter what you choose, as you and the beholder's minions are immediately interrupted...






I get the feeling these two don't like each other very much. Also, no matter who wins, we're not in for a good time. I guess we'll need to make sure neither wins!



No!!! You've destroyed that magnificent mustache!

Well, that quickly narrowed our foes here down to one. Also, TSR was not happy with SSI killing off a major FR NPC here so nonchalantly. Technically, the games were part of FR canon (as were the Dragonlance ones in their own canon), and thus Fzoul's death was supposed to reflect in the real game world. This was quietly glossed over, and Fzoul continued on, quite alive, to menace adventuring groups in the setting. After this, canonical NPCs always managed to escape or be banished without technically dying, or were replaced by suspiciously similar substitutes.

Canonical or not, Fzoul's death here does have one rather beneficial result for us...





And then there was one.



Such a great guy.



Hey, we need that!



So now we're in a real mess. The two forces fill the room, each fighting the other, but if we try to move through, a group of one or the other factions will try to block our way. We grimace and try to make a dash for the exit across the room. There's a 36% chance each step that we'll be drawn into the melee...

Step one...



Well, nothing to do but fight. There's several minotaurs, two priests, and two high priests.

Brin and Bragor immediately go to their tried-and-true method of clearing out the masses and interrupting spell casters...



Brin's goes off first...



Very annoyingly, it took several minotaurs to just 1 HP each. It's so, so annoying when that happens...



Bragir's goes off...



37 HP is enough to take them down in one shot, if they fail their saves, thankfully...

Things have cleared out quite a bit, with quite a few foes down to single digits.



The minotaurs do gang up on Bant, and actually do some significant damage before we can take them down. The priests and high priests are slowly picked off by arrows or chopped up by the melee...



Soon, their morale breaks, and the remaining foes surrender.





Again, some nice XP, but this time...



Buffy can level!



There's some decent magic treasure here, let's see if any of it are upgrades. Thankfully, the all the other combatants in the room politely keep their distance as we try out various weapons and armor...



The weapons aren't upgrades, but the plate mail +2 will definitely help our fighter/magic-users! In fact, it will also equal Brother Baltor's boring old non-magical banded and ring of protection +3, so we can equip him with the plate so that Buffy can get the ring, which will be of great help to her.



There are only two sets of the +2, but even a +1 will help the magic-users, so the +2s go to Brother Baltor and Bragir, while Brin has to settle for the +1. Probably temporarily, since we'll likely have to fight more high priests (who have the +2) here shortly.

And beyond getting the nice ring, Buffy can now gain a level!



The good news is that Bant and Brother Baltor aren't too far behind, and, given the XP for this fight, they will only need about 3 - 4 more combats for them to also gain a level.



The exit is so near, yet so far...

Step two...





At least there are fewer of them this time, and some of the priests are actually within melee range, making damaging them, and thus keeping them from casting spells, much easier.

Brin goes to the old standard...





Again, there are a couple of minotaurs with just 1 HP. Brin needs to do better to get that extra point of damage!



Checking Buffy's equipment list, it appears that we've exhausted her necklace of missiles, sadly.



Some of the minotaurs get around the flank and menace Bragir.



But he's able to get off his fireball.



Which, thankfully, outright kills the minotaurs in the radius, if they fail their saves.

We take down the last of the priests...



Which causes the minotaurs to flee...


Since they run past my melee, only one escapes, with just a single HP. Which is quickly dropped to zero after a final arrow...



More good XP.



And some more sets of plate mail +2. Brin takes one, and now everyone is now set up with some pretty decent ACs. However, people are beginning to take some noticeable damage...



Only one more step to the door!

Step three...



Sigh. There's only about a 1-in-3 chance for an encounter when going through the altar room, and we've had the bad luck for it to happen it all three times...



The wall causes several priests to be in melee range again, while bunching up the others. And bunched up groups call for...



We are getting dangerously low on them, though...



Bragir hits above 33 HP, which thankfully drops any minotaurs that fail their saves.

Brin follows up...



Her damage is yet again below 33 HP, but these have all been wounded previously by Bragir's. The entire group in the back go down from the combined damage of the two fireballs...

This quickly leaves us with just four foes, all next to our melee...



The melee and arrows quickly cut through them...



The minotaurs try to run again, only to be cut down as they try to escape..



We get a similar amount of XP again, and similar treasure. With nothing in that would be an upgrade, we just leave it all behind.



We've reached the door. Buffy is able to pick the lock, and we go through, leaving the chaos of the altar room behind!



We quickly make camp and try to heal and rest up. It's still dangerous, as random patrols might interrupt us, but it's worth a try (especially as I saved as soon as we got through that door!).

We heal and rest up, and memorize spells...



And we are able to rest successfully! Presumably the bad luck of getting so many encounters inside the altar room was balanced by the good luck of being able to get in an uninterrupted rest.



With that, we leave the chaos of the altar room behind, and start our exploration of the remainder of the Cave of the Beholder. We need to get the Amulet of Lathander, and that's currently in the possession of the titular beholder. We'll start that exploration next time!

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 37): The Cave of the Beholder (Part 2)

Rested up, and having escaped the chaos of the altar room, we begin to explore the cavern system to find the Dexam the beholder (who holds the Amulet of Lathander), as well as a way out of this labyrinth...

We head up the corridor a bit...



That's never a good sign when you're underground!

We continue towards the northeast.



Yikes! Meeting the beholder already? Although it's probably futile, we try to sneak past it.



One of D&D's most infamous "gotcha" encounters...

We continue northeast.



Oh come on, of course we examine! The game pretty much never puts something like that out there and then goes "You find nothing."



Intriguing...



Having "Cast find trap" as an option is always worrying, but unlike the last time we had this issue, the game will let you get around doing so without causing catastrophe. We choose to pick up the bag.



Why Bant is doing this and not Buffy is really puzzling. I guess dwarves have some innate trap-finding in 1e? In any case, we attempt to remove the trap.



Again, strangely, it's Bant and not Buffy. Also, how was this bag trapped? Did the elf just carry it around trapped? Must have been terribly inconvenient (let alone dangerous) when out shopping and the like. Or did one of the beholder's minions place it here on the off chance an adventurer would stumble upon it? In any case, let's see what we've found...





We're in the blank area to the northeast, but at least it gives us a pretty useful chart to find the way out, once we head back west.

Before we can ponder if the elf or whoever trapped the bag just for an incomplete map, we do find other items of interest in the bag.



Some money...



And some items...





A shield +2 is better than what Brother Baltor currently has, so we give it to him. It will give him a better AC than the other front-liners, but that's OK since he has fewer hit points than they do.

But.. not as few as before! In addition to gaining a nice new shield, Brother Baltor can now level up!





Oh nice! He can now cast 5th-level spells! At first raise dead might seem nice, but with its permanent Constitution drain (1e didn't pull any punches) for anyone who it's cast on, it's, in the end, not as useful as it seems, especially when we can just go back to a previous save. We'll actually be memorizing flame strike and cure critical wounds and wait until he can cast resurrection.

But... that's not all! Brother Baltor is actually able to level up in both classes!



1e rangers were weird, and allowed the casting of magic-user spells. I'll just give him detect magic here. Honestly, other than magic missile and shield, none of these are are really all that useful at this level...

With his new AC and extra HP, Brother Baltor is now cutting a fine figure among the melee group!



Bant is irritatingly close to leveling as well, but the remaining XP balance should be taken care of here soon.

We leave the room with the dead elf, and continue northeast. Almost as soon as we round the corner...



Oh no!



Geesh, only four? That's a bit insulting at this level. We take care of them quickly, not even wasting spells on them. They don't even manage to damage a single member of the party.



And they give pitiful XP, not even enough to level Bant, as close as he is...



We continue around the next corner, and...



Well, this is much more interesting!



Time for the artillery!





And Bragir follows up in the same way...



The result is a rapid clearing of enemies off the field of battle...



And we quickly take care of them.





That XP is much better! Even if the loot unfortunately doesn't contain any upgrades...

But, speaking of upgrades...



Time for Bant to level up!



Unfortunately, we're beginning to reach levels where, instead of a character getting a normal hit dice, they only get set amounts of HP when leveling up (fighters and paladins +3, rangers, clerics, and thieves +2, and magic users +1), with no CON bonus as well. A few of my multi-class characters will still get their normal half hit-die for a level or two, but soon everyone will be getting these set amounts, with HP levels only creeping upward by small amounts. It wasn't until 3e that characters always got the full hit die no matter what level they were. In any case, as small as it is, any HP improvement is helpful.

With not much more to see in this area in the northeast corner, we begin to backtrack to explore around further. As we head back down the corridor...





That's a decent amount of clerics and magic users there! But Brin has an answer for that.



Even though she can't get all of them in her AoE, she still gets a big group.



Annoyingly, the one mage she wasn't able to get within her radius gets off a magic missile on Bragir, stopping him from casting this round. However, as the second round of combat begins, he moves around to get in position for a different spell...

(By the way, Brin has a wand of lightning that she picked up in the Yulash, and I really need to remember that so she can use it effectively).

With that, the battlefield has cleared out a bit...



And we take down the remaining enemy combatants until, annoyingly, they start to run away...



The one near the group goes down, but everyone else uses their bows to take out the one fleeing...



Some really nice XP for this fight...



Although there isn't much in the way of upgrades in the loot, we still pick some of it up just to sell later. Bracers are light and sell for a lot of cash, and darts are both light and stackable. And Bant gets some further magical quarrels for his crossbow.





This was a random encounter (the other ones were set encounters). There are 4 random encounters in this zone, so once we clear them out, we'll be able to move around freely.

We continue to head out of the northeast section...



That's weird. The map we found earlier clearly shows the way out is to the south.


We continue to wander around the north-central portion of the caverns...



Are they sill fighting it out in the altar room?



Hmm... That's a bit worrying.

Eventually, after moving around a bit with nothing exciting happening...



And we'll pick back up there next time, when ogres attack!