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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9404742" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 8): Fire Knife Hideout (Part 1)We enter the Fire Knife Hideout.[ATTACH=full]372732[/ATTACH]The game feels the need to tell us that, apparently.[ATTACH=full]372733[/ATTACH]Looks like the cleric we've been told about has been doing a good job of clearing the way for us! We follow the piles of bodies to see if we can find him.[ATTACH=full]372734[/ATTACH]The cleric has apparently cast a blade barrier spell. I can only assume they put the option to "enter the blades" for the lolz to see if anyone would to it, because if you do, you take damage. We wisely choose "wait".[ATTACH=full]372735[/ATTACH]I can only imagine that would be rather... messy.We continue to follow the bodies...[ATTACH=full]372736[/ATTACH]Good ol' hold person. We could just kill them all, but a bit of interrogation never hurt in these situations, right?[ATTACH=full]372737[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372738[/ATTACH]Oh no! The cleric has been taken captive! However, the info that the leader's room is in the southern end of the complex is a useful tidbit of knowledge.We continue forward.[ATTACH=full]372739[/ATTACH]Sucks to be in group B.[ATTACH=full]372740[/ATTACH]I imagine they're recovering from the cleric's assault. We continue into the next room.[ATTACH=full]372741[/ATTACH]They only captured him a few rooms back, and they've already got him to the torture equipment. They must work really quickly![ATTACH=full]372742[/ATTACH]I mean, obviously, we attack.[ATTACH=full]372743[/ATTACH]Only six of them, and they're likely surprised, so they should go down pretty quickly. Time to break out the spells![ATTACH=full]372744[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372745[/ATTACH](Brother Baltor starts his spell while Bragir is in the middle of casting his).[ATTACH=full]372746[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372747[/ATTACH]That will kill any who fail their saves, but thief-types are good at making saves for this type of spell. Brother Baltor has already run down to cast hold person on survivors.[ATTACH=full]372748[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372749[/ATTACH]Two are held, and the other two are badly injured, before they've had much of a chance to do much of anything. I believe a dagger or two was thrown, but with little effect. Within a short time, they're all dead.[ATTACH=full]372750[/ATTACH]With that done, we release the cleric from the torture equipment.[ATTACH=full]372751[/ATTACH]Again, they must have worked very fast, since we actually saw one of his blade barriers reach the end of its duration, and they don't last particularly long (1 turn back in 1e if I'm not mistaken, so just 10 minutes).[ATTACH=full]372752[/ATTACH]What, no NPC joining to help us out? Don't worry, we'll have plenty doing so later in the game.(Although it's not stated in-game at this time, this cleric is Gharri of Gond, who was mentioned as having run off with the princess back in Journal Entry 1, which is a few posts back at the very start of the game).Leaving him be at his own insistence, we continue onward.[ATTACH=full]372753[/ATTACH]Intriguing! We go through the door.[ATTACH=full]372754[/ATTACH]It doesn't seem like much at first, but this area is a secret corridor that the Fire Knives haven't discovered yet. From supplementary material, apparently they have only just moved in and haven't noticed it yet, which seems odd, as finding secret corridors would seem to be right up the alley of an organization of thieves. But, we'll take what we can get, as we'll be able to move around to different areas of the hideout without bumping into any patrols (frankly, we're lucky that we haven't done so already). As further thing to notice is that the ceilings for the secret area are red, which let you know if you're in or out of the safe zone.We don't need to camp right yet, so let's explore a bit more before we do. We take the corridor to the southeastern portion of the hideout.[ATTACH=full]372755[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372756[/ATTACH](Notice the ceiling is now white, showing we've left the secret area)We go through the door on the left and enter a finely-furnished apartment.[ATTACH=full]372757[/ATTACH]Let's do a quick search.[ATTACH=full]372758[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372759[/ATTACH]If you played PoR, it's bluntly telling you that this mysterious symbol is that of Tyranthraxus. So our old buddy is seeking revenge, apparently.Beyond that, we've found some cool stuff![ATTACH=full]372760[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372761[/ATTACH]That's a substantial amount of money right there. But wait! There's more![ATTACH=full]372762[/ATTACH]Well, meh. This particular treasure is randomly determined, and we didn't get much of interest, which is particularly annoying given how few magic items we currently have. You would think that pure chance would have given us another +1 weapon, (heavy) armor, or shield at least.[ATTACH=full]372763[/ATTACH]Yeah, the leather armor is of no use since Buffy has the bracers. The bastard sword (which can only be wielded two-handed in this game), can at least be used by one of the magic users in lieu of their current non-magical two-handed swords, but as it will do less damage, it's only an upgrade because it's magical.We go through the door on the southern wall of the office.[ATTACH=full]372764[/ATTACH]Oh, I do hope that's barbecue!We continue on to the south.[ATTACH=full]372765[/ATTACH]The game doesn't even allow you to use the "search" option here. It just flat-out says "nope, nothing here."We head back to the hallway and take the door to the west.[ATTACH=full]372766[/ATTACH]So, not barbecue after all. We take a look at the paper.[ATTACH=full]372767[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]372768[/ATTACH]Again, telling you the obvious for anyone who has played PoR. Apparently Tyranthraxus himself paid this fellow a visit and decided to kill him and burn it all down.[ATTACH=full]372769[/ATTACH]Well, we had been doing very well, avoiding random patrols, but our luck was going to run out sooner or later.As we're nearing the image limit, we'll start up with this battle in the next post!</blockquote>

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