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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9396213" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 6): Tilverton Sewers (Part 1)And into the sewers we go!There's not much in the first section, just periodic messages about various sounds we're hearing coming from elsewhere:[ATTACH=full]371002[/ATTACH]After a few twists and turns, we spot something interesting:[ATTACH=full]371003[/ATTACH]They really should let us attempt to allow someone else to try, just for the damage and the lolz.Anyway, Buffy climbs up.[ATTACH=full]371004[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371005[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371006[/ATTACH]We're obviously just below the tavern in Tilverton, but the game isn't going to let us back up there that easily (or at all, as it turns out in the end). The mysterious woman was indeed abducted, and pulled into the sewers here.A bit further along, we find yet another bit of info.[ATTACH=full]371007[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371008[/ATTACH]Hmm, it seems one of our foes has some pretty poor opinions of their allies. We know who the "Knives" are, and we've heard people talking about green-robed cultists (presumably of Moander, as the sage in town told us). The wizard and this "T" are a bit more difficult to identify. As a reasoned guess, it seems this note was written by one of the Zhenterim, as they weren't mentioned by the author, and are a group and not individuals like this wizard and "T" are...We head a bit further down, and peer around a corner.[ATTACH=full]371009[/ATTACH]A "checkpoint" would seem to indicate only a few foes, so let's investigate further.[ATTACH=full]371010[/ATTACH]Yeah, that'll be a "no"![ATTACH=full]371011[/ATTACH]Only five. This shouldn't be difficult at all. Especially with Brin going first.[ATTACH=full]371012[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371013[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371014[/ATTACH]That cleared out two of them who failed their saves, leaving three wounded foes left.[ATTACH=full]371015[/ATTACH]And soon, they're bleeding out on the floor.[ATTACH=full]371017[/ATTACH]No exciting treasure as usual, so we continue our way through the sewers. Before we go, the game has us perform a pretty sensible action.[ATTACH=full]371018[/ATTACH]As we go a bit further, we find yet another clue.[ATTACH=full]371019[/ATTACH]Looks like one of our mysterious green-robed cultists came to a bad end here. Or just decided to wander through the sewers robe-less.[ATTACH=full]371020[/ATTACH]"Large" feet are a bit worrisome...[ATTACH=full]371021[/ATTACH]...as is the fact that these two bodies are wedged in so tightly. I'm beginning to worry that there's more down in these sewers than thieves, assassins, and cultists.[ATTACH=full]371022[/ATTACH]Hmm, so we weren't the first ones our foes attempted this with.A bit further along, we finally meet some of those other denizens of the sewer that we've seen periodic hints of...[ATTACH=full]371023[/ATTACH]Otyughs! Hardly surprising in our current location. Although otyughs aren't particularly big and powerful - so there are probably even worse things down here...In any case, the otyughs aren't exactly friendly, and battle is joined![ATTACH=full]371024[/ATTACH]Nicely grouped up, so time for some fire![ATTACH=full]371025[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371026[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371027[/ATTACH]Not bad! As one was already hit by my melee, only four remain, all with significant damage.[ATTACH=full]371028[/ATTACH]We take out the survivors pretty quickly...[ATTACH=full]371029[/ATTACH]But one thing to note - Bant went from 134 HP (one off his max) to 103 HP in just this battle alone! Otyughs have multiple attacks, and they do a fair amount of damage!Unfortunately there's no treasure hidden in this filth, but it does seem to be secure enough to set up camp[ATTACH=full]371031[/ATTACH]With no reason not to, we rest, heal up, and rememorize spells...[ATTACH=full]371032[/ATTACH]Ready to move on, we continue south through the sewers. Immediately after we go through the southern doorway of the otyugh room, we find something interesting.[ATTACH=full]371033[/ATTACH]Another hint that our mysterious abductee was taken this way.We continue onward, and travel quite some way before encountering anything of interest. But then we go through another doorway, and...[ATTACH=full]371034[/ATTACH](The map is split into thirds, so we've traveled down through the left third, and then popped back up at the top of the middle third of the map immediately after finding that last scrap of cloth).More otyughs! Only this time they don't immediately attack. In fact, bizarrely, we seem to have stumbled across a group of otyugh artists! So, we decide to parlay.[ATTACH=full]371035[/ATTACH]Hauling around piles of excrement at the behest of otyughs...Well, it's not the worst thing we've done. So why not?We head out and start to look for this other group of otyughs.[ATTACH=full]371036[/ATTACH]That statement draws a pleasant picture. It's actually surprising we didn't get a giant rat combat here...A few steps beyond that point, I realize I took the wrong door out of the otyugh lair, and head back to cut back through it to the other door. However, they're pretty single-minded about the "treasure", and won't let us back in until we've acquired it.[ATTACH=full]371037[/ATTACH]We back out. We'll have to take a bit of a roundabout way to get to the other otyughs...[ATTACH=full]371038[/ATTACH]I'm sure "Watch the pieces" results in hilarity and a troll battle, so it's burn, baby, burn![ATTACH=full]371039[/ATTACH]Soon we've circled back around to our previous path.[ATTACH=full]371040[/ATTACH]And we make our way back south, past the original door into the artistic otyughs' lair, and into the room where their rivals live...[ATTACH=full]371041[/ATTACH]This group, obviously, isn't particularly chatty...[ATTACH=full]371042[/ATTACH]Oh, and they have a neo-oytugh! Those are basically a larger, more powerful version of otyughs that appeared in previous editions. The only semi-canonical version in 5e is in the Infernal Machine Rebuild on D&D Beyond and DM's Guild. In fact, if we had fought instead of talking in the previous otyugh room, we would have had to fight multiple neo-otyughs (a good reason to choose to parlay!)In any case, it has 72 HP, which is pretty substantial at this point in this game series, so we need to take it down before it can cause too much damage using its multiple attacks! Sounds like fire might help solve this issue...[ATTACH=full]371043[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371044[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371045[/ATTACH]Not bad, but it won't fully take down any of them, even if they fail their saves.So, the solution to that is more fireball![ATTACH=full]371046[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371047[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]371048[/ATTACH]That's helping out quite a bit![ATTACH=full]371049[/ATTACH]We take them down...[ATTACH=full]371050[/ATTACH]But as you can see, they've been beating up my melee again![ATTACH=full]371052[/ATTACH]I mean, we've committed to it all the way to this point, so might as well finish the job, as gross and disgusting as it may be...[ATTACH=full]371053[/ATTACH]Nice, but we'll head back to the otyughs in the other room to get our reward first.[ATTACH=full]371054[/ATTACH]The image of otyughs dancing around in glee, waving their tentacles and splattering filth and excrement everywhere, is both hilarious and disgusting at the same time.(If you compare this to previous otyugh pictures, you can see how much more animated the monster portraits are in this game compared to PoR. Most notably, the tentacle to the right can be seen in several different positions. In PoR, the animation was limited to just two frames that periodically moved back and forth. The movement isn't anything spectacular, but it's still a significant improvement, and pretty cutting-edge for a game from 1989).As we've reached the image limit, we'll see what reward we've gotten in the next post, as well as continuing our journey through the sewers...</blockquote>

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