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Demetrios1453 Plays the Gold Box Games
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<blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9334052" data-attributes="member: 6801060"><p><strong><em>Pool of Radiance </em>(Part 54): Valhingen Graveyard (Part 4)</strong></p><p></p><p>Picking up right at the cliffhanger of the last post...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361055[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We'll take the third option, where you die. Again.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361056[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>As we said, no.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361057[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>What a surprise! Being in the wight zone and all.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361058[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(The reason I moved in from the north as I mentioned last post should be clear here - if I had moved in from the west, they would have been all lined up against the wall, spread out far to each side. They're much more compact and manageable this way).</p><p></p><p>Four wights again, with their typical zombie friends. But wait, what are those 24 HP creatures in the back?</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361059[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Juju zombies! Well, their immunity to non-magical damage will be annoying, but not as worrisome as the ghouls' paralyzation attacks.</p><p></p><p>Well, with them all grouped up like this, it's time for fire to rain down on them...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361060[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361061[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361062[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Meh, just 16 HP, pretty under-strength for a 6d6 <em>fireball</em>.</p><p></p><p>(For those who don't know, you didn't need to cast a spell with a higher spell slot to get it to do more damage in 1e - the spells leveled up with you. So <em>fireball </em>(and <em>lightning bolt</em>) will do 1d6 damage per level of the caster; so it does 6d6 damage here. And unlike in 2e, where this damage was capped at, usually, 10 dice, 1e let it go up as high as the caster had levels. So in <em>Pools of Darkness</em>, be prepared to see Brin and Bragir lobbing 25d6 <em>fireballs</em> around. Or maybe 30d6 if we manage to get enough XP - magic-user XP, especially multiclassed, will unfortunately slow to a crawl at high levels. Although in reality, they'll be lobbing around 30d6+30 <em>delayed blast fireballs</em> more often at that point.)</p><p></p><p>In any case, with the sub-par damage, one of the zombies even makes its saving throw and stays up. And the wights and juju zombies in the radius definitely aren't taken out.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361063[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, Brother Baltor can deal with any remaining standing zombies...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361064[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, a disappointing two of them.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361065[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>With his fireball being not as effective as he would have wanted, Bragir tries a different tactic.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361066[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(Since <em>magic missiles</em> then, as now, gain extra dice every other level, it's going to do 3d4+3 damage. And for some reason in the Gold Box games, you can't divide missiles between different targets, even though that was possible in 1e rules, like it is now - so they will all go to just one target. Spells like <em>hold person</em> can choose multiple targets in these games, so I'm not sure why <em>magic missile </em>was unable to be designed to do so as well).</p><p></p><p>Bragir targets the last wight standing, and gets an excellent damage roll on the spell, taking it down.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361069[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>With just the juju zombies left, the battle is soon over.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361070[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The guardians cleared out of the way, we enter the door to the building. There's nothing much in the first room, but as we go through the next door...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361071[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Again, we'll take the third option of this wraith doing the suffering. Although we probably shouldn't be so flippant - wraiths can do some pretty nasty damage!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361072[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>With wraiths immune to non-magical attacks, Brin decides to shoot off some <em>magic missiles</em> of her own...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361073[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Brother Baltor gives turning a try, although it will be tough to succeed at his level.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361074[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>He doesn't succeed, but our firepower is enough to take it down before it does any damage to anyone. Baroness Bella gets in the killing blow...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361075[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361076[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>I wonder what was the deal with this paladin it was blathering on about?</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361077[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, that answers that question. And yes we do!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361078[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]361079[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Weird items for a paladin. (Some guides suggest that a different treasure with more appropriate items that we'll encounter soon was supposed to be here).</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361080[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We all know by now what's on that cleric scroll. I'll have my magic-users look over that scroll. As nice as a +3 weapon is, a hammer, with its 1d4 damage, is basically useless in 1e, and I don't think I'll have much use for that sling.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361081[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Wow, pretty useful scroll, as Bragir has none of those spells and Brin only the last. There will be some scribing soon!</p><p></p><p>Having cleared this building, we've finished up in this section of the wight zone. We backtrack and head to the other area of the wight zone, in the north central portion of the graveyard.</p><p></p><p>We move forward, and shortly afterwards, we're under attack by a random patrol</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361082[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Except... this group has a mummy with them. And I have two characters fail their fear save.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361083[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Two insta-kills later, I reload from my last save (which is only a few steps back since I'm saving liberally in this section).</p><p></p><p>We head back in, and meet with another wight group one step before the failed encounter.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361084[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>This group, too, has a mummy with them. But thankfully, everyone makes their save this time.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361085[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Since they've conveniently decided to group up...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361086[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361087[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Sucks that I'll miss the mummy and only get two of the wights in the radius, but it will still clear things out considerably, I hope.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361088[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>19 points is better than before, but still not ideal. 6d6 <em>fireballs </em>should do 21 points average...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361089[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>That's a truly annoying amount of zombies that made their saves.</p><p></p><p>Well, my ranged will pick them off easily. After a few go down, Brother Baltor does his thing...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361090[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361091[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Oh wow! He must have rolled <em>very</em> well! Even though I didn't get a screenshot of it, even the <em>mummy</em> was turned! In fact, he turned<em> all</em> remaining undead left on the board! Brother Baltor will get an extra mug of ale on me when we get back to the inn!</p><p></p><p>The fun part is that all those wights next to my melee will turn and run, causing the characters next to them to get free automatic attacks from behind...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361092[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361093[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>This murders them quite effectively, and, suddenly, the only remaining foe left is the mummy, which being turned has fled to a corner in the upper left.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361094[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So as to not waste more spells, let's break out the other wands...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361095[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361097[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361098[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And Baroness Bella runs up there to finish it off.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361099[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>With the battle over, the characters receive a very nice XP award...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361100[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And Buffy is able to gain a level.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361101[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361102[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We turn the corner in order to get to the door of the building to our right. When we reach the door, inevitably, it has some guardians...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361103[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]361104[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>That's a lot of wights, but at least they don't have any surprise friends this time.</p><p></p><p>But... we've reached the image upload limit once again. We'll pick up here in the next post.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Demetrios1453, post: 9334052, member: 6801060"] [B][I]Pool of Radiance [/I](Part 54): Valhingen Graveyard (Part 4)[/B] Picking up right at the cliffhanger of the last post... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210341.png"]361055[/ATTACH] We'll take the third option, where you die. Again. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210346.png"]361056[/ATTACH] As we said, no. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210356.png"]361057[/ATTACH] What a surprise! Being in the wight zone and all. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210411.png"]361058[/ATTACH] (The reason I moved in from the north as I mentioned last post should be clear here - if I had moved in from the west, they would have been all lined up against the wall, spread out far to each side. They're much more compact and manageable this way). Four wights again, with their typical zombie friends. But wait, what are those 24 HP creatures in the back? [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210446.png"]361059[/ATTACH] Juju zombies! Well, their immunity to non-magical damage will be annoying, but not as worrisome as the ghouls' paralyzation attacks. Well, with them all grouped up like this, it's time for fire to rain down on them... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210525.png"]361060[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210557.png"]361061[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210615.png"]361062[/ATTACH] Meh, just 16 HP, pretty under-strength for a 6d6 [I]fireball[/I]. (For those who don't know, you didn't need to cast a spell with a higher spell slot to get it to do more damage in 1e - the spells leveled up with you. So [I]fireball [/I](and [I]lightning bolt[/I]) will do 1d6 damage per level of the caster; so it does 6d6 damage here. And unlike in 2e, where this damage was capped at, usually, 10 dice, 1e let it go up as high as the caster had levels. So in [I]Pools of Darkness[/I], be prepared to see Brin and Bragir lobbing 25d6 [I]fireballs[/I] around. Or maybe 30d6 if we manage to get enough XP - magic-user XP, especially multiclassed, will unfortunately slow to a crawl at high levels. Although in reality, they'll be lobbing around 30d6+30 [I]delayed blast fireballs[/I] more often at that point.) In any case, with the sub-par damage, one of the zombies even makes its saving throw and stays up. And the wights and juju zombies in the radius definitely aren't taken out. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210629.png"]361063[/ATTACH] Well, Brother Baltor can deal with any remaining standing zombies... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210644.png"]361064[/ATTACH] Well, a disappointing two of them. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210650.png"]361065[/ATTACH] With his fireball being not as effective as he would have wanted, Bragir tries a different tactic. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210803.png"]361066[/ATTACH] (Since [I]magic missiles[/I] then, as now, gain extra dice every other level, it's going to do 3d4+3 damage. And for some reason in the Gold Box games, you can't divide missiles between different targets, even though that was possible in 1e rules, like it is now - so they will all go to just one target. Spells like [I]hold person[/I] can choose multiple targets in these games, so I'm not sure why [I]magic missile [/I]was unable to be designed to do so as well). Bragir targets the last wight standing, and gets an excellent damage roll on the spell, taking it down. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210818.png"]361069[/ATTACH] With just the juju zombies left, the battle is soon over. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 210914.png"]361070[/ATTACH] The guardians cleared out of the way, we enter the door to the building. There's nothing much in the first room, but as we go through the next door... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211023.png"]361071[/ATTACH] Again, we'll take the third option of this wraith doing the suffering. Although we probably shouldn't be so flippant - wraiths can do some pretty nasty damage! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211046.png"]361072[/ATTACH] With wraiths immune to non-magical attacks, Brin decides to shoot off some [I]magic missiles[/I] of her own... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211057.png"]361073[/ATTACH] Brother Baltor gives turning a try, although it will be tough to succeed at his level. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211121.png"]361074[/ATTACH] He doesn't succeed, but our firepower is enough to take it down before it does any damage to anyone. Baroness Bella gets in the killing blow... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211200.png"]361075[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211208.png"]361076[/ATTACH] I wonder what was the deal with this paladin it was blathering on about? [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211224.png"]361077[/ATTACH] Well, that answers that question. And yes we do! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211229.png"]361078[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211235.png"]361079[/ATTACH] Weird items for a paladin. (Some guides suggest that a different treasure with more appropriate items that we'll encounter soon was supposed to be here). [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211313.png"]361080[/ATTACH] We all know by now what's on that cleric scroll. I'll have my magic-users look over that scroll. As nice as a +3 weapon is, a hammer, with its 1d4 damage, is basically useless in 1e, and I don't think I'll have much use for that sling. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211359.png"]361081[/ATTACH] Wow, pretty useful scroll, as Bragir has none of those spells and Brin only the last. There will be some scribing soon! Having cleared this building, we've finished up in this section of the wight zone. We backtrack and head to the other area of the wight zone, in the north central portion of the graveyard. We move forward, and shortly afterwards, we're under attack by a random patrol [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211821.png"]361082[/ATTACH] Except... this group has a mummy with them. And I have two characters fail their fear save. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 211900.png"]361083[/ATTACH] Two insta-kills later, I reload from my last save (which is only a few steps back since I'm saving liberally in this section). We head back in, and meet with another wight group one step before the failed encounter. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212008.png"]361084[/ATTACH] This group, too, has a mummy with them. But thankfully, everyone makes their save this time. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212039.png"]361085[/ATTACH] Since they've conveniently decided to group up... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212051.png"]361086[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212119.png"]361087[/ATTACH] Sucks that I'll miss the mummy and only get two of the wights in the radius, but it will still clear things out considerably, I hope. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212136.png"]361088[/ATTACH] 19 points is better than before, but still not ideal. 6d6 [I]fireballs [/I]should do 21 points average... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212200.png"]361089[/ATTACH] That's a truly annoying amount of zombies that made their saves. Well, my ranged will pick them off easily. After a few go down, Brother Baltor does his thing... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212242.png"]361090[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212247.png"]361091[/ATTACH] Oh wow! He must have rolled [I]very[/I] well! Even though I didn't get a screenshot of it, even the [I]mummy[/I] was turned! In fact, he turned[I] all[/I] remaining undead left on the board! Brother Baltor will get an extra mug of ale on me when we get back to the inn! The fun part is that all those wights next to my melee will turn and run, causing the characters next to them to get free automatic attacks from behind... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212303.png"]361092[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212306.png"]361093[/ATTACH] This murders them quite effectively, and, suddenly, the only remaining foe left is the mummy, which being turned has fled to a corner in the upper left. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212315.png"]361094[/ATTACH] So as to not waste more spells, let's break out the other wands... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212356.png"]361095[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212428.png"]361097[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212443.png"]361098[/ATTACH] And Baroness Bella runs up there to finish it off. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212548.png"]361099[/ATTACH] With the battle over, the characters receive a very nice XP award... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212601.png"]361100[/ATTACH] And Buffy is able to gain a level. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212608.png"]361101[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212621.png"]361102[/ATTACH] We turn the corner in order to get to the door of the building to our right. When we reach the door, inevitably, it has some guardians... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212704.png"]361103[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-05-01 212725.png"]361104[/ATTACH] That's a lot of wights, but at least they don't have any surprise friends this time. But... we've reached the image upload limit once again. We'll pick up here in the next post. [/QUOTE]
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