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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9299722" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Pool of Radiance (Part 29): The Wealthy Area & Temple of Bane (Part 2) - Wealthy Area & Temple of Bane Completed![ATTACH=full]353988[/ATTACH]We head out of the Wealthy area and into the Temple of Bane block.Oddly, we don't run into any patrols. Usually in my runs, there are the typical four orc patrols swarming the zone before you get to the entrance to the Temple itself. But we walked all along the southern end of the Temple and reached the front door before encountering anything.[ATTACH=full]353989[/ATTACH]Ewww. But that's why we kept the holy symbols.[ATTACH=full]353990[/ATTACH]Yeah, about that. We'll see how supreme he is after what we do to his temple (and thus start him being really annoyed with us and thus kicking off the plot of the entire rest of this series of games)We enter the Temple. We need to have "Search" on to find any treasures here.[ATTACH=full]353991[/ATTACH]It's oddly quiet as we search every nook and cranny of what is supposed to be a sacred site. Weird.[ATTACH=full]353992[/ATTACH]Open it is![ATTACH=full]353993[/ATTACH]Some very interesting items there![ATTACH=full]353994[/ATTACH]Wand of magic missiles! That will come in handy when we absolutely have to interrupt an enemy spellcaster. Not that there seem to be any around in this almost suspiciously empty temple. We'll give that to Brin.The potions get scattered about the inventories of the various members of the group.[ATTACH=full]353995[/ATTACH]Dust of disappearance. Basically the most over-powered item in the game, even more than the fine longbows. Use it, and the entire party is invisible and can even attack without losing that invisibility. It's a one-shot item though, so it's going to be saved for an important fight ( :cough:finale:cough: ).One treasure cache down, we continue our search of the empty temple. I can only assume the staff are in a meeting or out for lunch.[ATTACH=full]353996[/ATTACH]Yes, narrator, we do. (Who should we imagine the narrator to be? The snarky BG3 narrator, perhaps? OK, I'll formally refer to the narrator as "Lady Narrator" from here on out)[ATTACH=full]353997[/ATTACH]Lots of magical weapons, but when we examine them, they are all just +1, and none of them are any better than weapons we already have. These are earmarked for a quick sell once we get back to town.However, this discovery gave Brother Baltor enough XP to level up![ATTACH=full]353998[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]353999[/ATTACH]Unfortunately, there's nowhere to rest up so he can use those new spells and spell slots.We continue our exploration. But, as we move around the northwestern area of the temple, Dirten feels that it might be time to cast a few preparatory spells, just in case. Heh, he must have heard some mice moving or something, because there's obviously no one in this very empty temple! We humor him and let him cast some spells.[ATTACH=full]354000[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354001[/ATTACH]Spells cast, we move forward a step.[ATTACH=full]354002[/ATTACH]Yep![ATTACH=full]354003[/ATTACH]Oh nice. Let's take a look at...Wait, what was that noise?[ATTACH=full]354004[/ATTACH]Oh dear...[ATTACH=full]354005[/ATTACH]Even worse, the half-orc cleric (whose name is Mace) starts to cast a spell before we can damage him to stop the casting  - in 1e rules, if you get hit and take damage before you cast a spell in a round, you would be unable to cast a spell for the rest of the round. Luckily, his spell takes time to cast, so if we can hit him before he can complete the spell, it will fizzle.And, luckily, Brin goes while he's casting.[ATTACH=full]354006[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354007[/ATTACH](Later games will have "Casting" under the target's stats in the upper right).Magic missile doesn't miss, and Mace loses his spell - very likely hold person, which would likely have been disastrous in this situation.In fact, that's exactly what we will do:[ATTACH=full]354008[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354009[/ATTACH]Bragir joins in with a helplessness-inducing spell of his own:[ATTACH=full]354010[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354012[/ATTACH](Bragir doesn't use one of the fireball scrolls since we'll actually need it more in a fight coming up relatively soon rather than here, where sleep will do just fine).And Dirten gets into the action as well:[ATTACH=full]354013[/ATTACH]By this time, the majority of the orcs have been rendered helpless. Which is good, since the remaining bowmen (boworcs?) are peppering my group with arrows, with Brin and Dirten notably taking some damage, so much so that they will find it difficult to get off any spells after this point.[ATTACH=full]354014[/ATTACH]We've been focusing on Mace, because his spellcasting is the most dangerous threat in the battle. After a few hits, Buffy finally takes him down.[ATTACH=full]354015[/ATTACH]Brother Baltor tries another hold person, but only gets two out of the three:[ATTACH=full]354016[/ATTACH]We take down the foes in the top area, and start clearing out the few remaining active enemies.[ATTACH=full]354017[/ATTACH]And then take out the remaining helpless ones[ATTACH=full]354018[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354019[/ATTACH]And then there were none.[ATTACH=full]354020[/ATTACH]Whew, that was a pretty intense battle, with all the ranged weapon foes, before we got things under control! We did take a bit of damage in this one![ATTACH=full]354030[/ATTACH]Let's see if there is any decent loot after all that.[ATTACH=full]354021[/ATTACH]Mace had a mace, it seems, and a magical one at that. The party will take it, top off their arrows, and just leave the rest.[ATTACH=full]354022[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354023[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354024[/ATTACH]The graveyard is worrying everyone, it seems.[ATTACH=full]354026[/ATTACH]Farewell! Thanks for the couple of spells you cast. Enjoy your shiny new armor that barely even got scratched.[ATTACH=full]354027[/ATTACH]Yeah, I have a paladin and LG cleric. That thing's not going to survive.[ATTACH=full]354028[/ATTACH](In later games, this would likely have garnered a separate XP award, but sadly not in this one).And that is that for the Temple of Bane. We head back towards the civilized area to claim our rewards.We make it back through the Temple district and the Wealthy Area without any further encounters.[ATTACH=full]354029[/ATTACH]Back to town, and off to see the City Clerk![ATTACH=full]354031[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]354032[/ATTACH]Nice! And what do we get for clearing the Temple itself?[ATTACH=full]354033[/ATTACH]That and the friendships we made along the way as well, I suppose. Well, it is a fairly substantial amount of loot.She then repeats the same three commissions as last time (nomads, kobolds, source of pollution) since this commission was from the Bishop and not her. With that, we take our leave and head out to sell our extraneous items.But that's for the next post. We've pretty well explored the ruins of Old Phlan, other than the graveyard and the area immediately around the Boss' castle... which are problems for a time in the more distant future. So next time, we head out of the city and onto the overland map for the first time, to meet up with these mysterious nomads!</blockquote>

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