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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9283566" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Pool of Radiance (Part 10): The Slums (Part 6) - The Slums Completed![ATTACH=full]350135[/ATTACH]The party heads south to the door leading to the Rope Guild. They enter, no doubt the door squealing ominously...[ATTACH=full]350136[/ATTACH]And it is pretty much a maze. You can see just from the screenshot all the various paths available. But since Ohlo said the person with the special potion he's requested is to the east, we'll head that way the best we can.The corridors twist and turn...[ATTACH=full]350137[/ATTACH]But then...[ATTACH=full]350138[/ATTACH] Is that a shop? Here in monster infested ruins?[ATTACH=full]350139[/ATTACH]I guess it is. We enter...[ATTACH=full]350140[/ATTACH]I would guess you wouldn't have much to sell, given your potential clientele here. Location, location, location, my good shopkeep![ATTACH=full]350141[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350142[/ATTACH]OK, time to head back to Ohlo. Normally, I'd stay and explore the ruins of the Rope Guild a bit more, but something tells me that getting the XP for those characters so close to leveling might be a good idea. So, back across the map we go![ATTACH=full]350143[/ATTACH](The funny thing is that Ohlo is two squares up and two squares to the left. He could literally break through a wall in his house to get into the Rope Guild and be a couple of steps from this guy. But, we'll have to go the long way round to get back to him)[ATTACH=full]350144[/ATTACH]Let's see that reward, old man, since we've had to traipse back and forth across these gods-forsaken ruins to get it to you.[ATTACH=full]350145[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350146[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350147[/ATTACH]Eh, nice, but neither of those spells will see much use in this game. Brin can have them since Bragir got the other scroll. She'll scribe them when next we rest. And, she'll avoid taking them when leveling up as a magic-user. Speaking of which...[ATTACH=full]350148[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350149[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350150[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350151[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350152[/ATTACH]A very nice mass leveling! And we'll need every last bit of it for what we're about to encounter...[ATTACH=full]350153[/ATTACH]So... back to the Rope Guild. Surely there's more in there than just a shop run by that weirdo! Let's explore to the west this time:[ATTACH=full]350154[/ATTACH]We take one step forward...[ATTACH=full]350156[/ATTACH]Yikes![ATTACH=full]350157[/ATTACH]YIKES!!!!!Two ogres and FOUR trolls! Who designed this for level 2 - 3 characters? Some sort of sadist, apparently. Blundering into this fight was one of the biggest shocks of the game, and you were inevitably murdered very quickly. Luckily, I saved just before walking in here. So... let's rewind and buff up for this as best we can, because we'll need it![ATTACH=full]350158[/ATTACH]Let's equip those magical arrows we've been hoarding.[ATTACH=full]350159[/ATTACH]And pop that bless. It may only last 6 rounds, but that's better than nothing!And in we go...[ATTACH=full]350161[/ATTACH]The first thing we do is cast sleep on that ogre. It will only affect him, but it will cause the three trolls in the back to be effectively blocked rather than moving down after we take out the other ogre. Brother Baltor has our best AC, so he can take the hits a bit better than the others, and can heal himself if necessary.[ATTACH=full]350162[/ATTACH]We'll concentrate on taking out the troll in the front first, then the awake ogre, and let the remaining trolls filter down one at a time towards Brother Baltor (Baroness Bella an Bant will for a short time start using missile weapons as well, shooting past the sleeping ogre while the trolls filter down).The troll in the front still causes significant damage before we can take it down, due to multiple attacks that do quite a bit of damage.[ATTACH=full]350163[/ATTACH]So... now we have a problem. Trolls regenerate, and if we don't stop them from regenerating, in a few rounds, they'll hop right back up with max hit points. We really don't want that to happen, for very obvious reasons! The secret here, since it doesn't give you the option to set a troll on fire after it's down, is to stand on the spot it dropped. If you do so, it will be unable to return to vex you later in the fight. So Baroness Bella moves into its spot:[ATTACH=full]350164[/ATTACH]The trolls are being taken down (as is the sleeping ogre on the round before he wakes up), but they are doing some nasty damage before they do. Brother Baltor just gets mauled:[ATTACH=full]350166[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350167[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350169[/ATTACH](I probably should have had Bant in that slot, as he has more hit points, but we're beyond that now). He's already used one of his heals, and is looking to use his second when, thankfully, as the third troll goes down, the last troll's morale breaks and it runs to the back of the room.  Baroness Bella gives chase, and takes some damage as a result (Creatures, and the characters for that matter, can end a round where they've done nothing but move with a "Guard" action, meaning they get a free shot on the first foe that comes into range )[ATTACH=full]350170[/ATTACH]Bant gives chase as well, while Brother Baltor slaps a heal on himself, and I position the ranged characters in various spots where trolls fell to make sure they don't rise again to ruin everything right when the battle is ending. The dwarf and the paladin take down the last troll, and we are victorious![ATTACH=full]350173[/ATTACH]Although not in the best of shape:[ATTACH=full]350174[/ATTACH]But that pain goes away with this:[ATTACH=full]350175[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350176[/ATTACH](This treasure and the one you get from Ohlo are random, some of the very few random ones in all the games. Usually you'll get a useless magical polearm or two - nothing like a fauchard fork +1 as a reward - but both times I got fairly decent treasure. Unfortunately, the coolest treasure, a bag of holding which doesn't give you extra inventory slots but at least negates the character's encumbrance, didn't drop. And, surprisingly, that's the only bag of holding in all the Gold Box games!)Let's check out that scroll[ATTACH=full]350177[/ATTACH]Jaw drops. That's... really, really, REALLY good for a random scroll drop. Haste is bluntly one of the best spells in the game (moreso since I've got a lot of non-humans for whom taking a full year off their lives isn't much of a worry - Baroness Bella has to deal with it, but luckily there are elixirs of youth in later games for her; beyond that in 1e it's a group spell and there's no concentration), lightning bolt is a decent spell for when you can get foes lined up right (and, as can be seen from all these screenshots, they do so with regularity - it's just a matter of getting into position to take advantage of that), and knock is fairly useful because in some situations there are magically locked doors you can't pick or bash.  All in all, very nice for future scribing, once my magic users are of the right level.[ATTACH=full]350178[/ATTACH]The scale mail is equivalent to the banded mail my characters already have, but it should increase movement, so I'll give it to Bant. All my characters who use swords already have a broadsword +1 though, so that will get sold.With all the XP from the fight and treasure, it's levelin' time again![ATTACH=full]350179[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350180[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350181[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350182[/ATTACH]Bragir chooses enlarge for his spell as he levels up. It's not terribly useful now, but in later games it becomes quite powerful. None of the rest of them are really all that useful in game, even protection from evil, which is nice, isn't helpful in taking up a slot for sleep, magic missile, or enlarge, and later protection from evil 10' radius comes online anyway[ATTACH=full]350183[/ATTACH]Brin chooses magic missile, as Bragir had used the scroll with the spell on it previously.So, we rest, and Brin scribes her scroll she got from Ohlo:[ATTACH=full]350186[/ATTACH]Now that both magic-users can memorize two (a whole two!) spells, they both memorize... sleep twice. Right now there really isn't much better.[ATTACH=full]350187[/ATTACH]At least their spellbooks are looking a bit more robust:[ATTACH=full]350188[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]350189[/ATTACH]After we rest, let's see how everyone looks now:[ATTACH=full]350184[/ATTACH]And so, back to town, across the map. We haven't had any random encounters in all this time, running back and forth from Ohlo's and the like, so I very much believe that we've taken out all 15 of them. And that guess is further supported by the fact we get back without encountering any on the way.[ATTACH=full]350190[/ATTACH]Yeah, whatever, losers. We head to the City Hall to see if the City Clerk agrees that we've cleared the Slums and we are due our reward.[ATTACH=full]350192[/ATTACH]Yay! We've have indeed fought all 15 encounters and have cleared our first block.  But I've hit the max number of images again, so we'll see what that reward is and prepare for the next area we'll be going to in the next post.</blockquote>

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