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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9430484" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 14): The Cave of the Dracolich (Part 1)I wonder if we're going to meet a dracolich soon? Just a hunch...Rested up, we head out of town.[ATTACH=full]375874[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375875[/ATTACH]We head towards the caves, as we'll lose both Akbar and our drow weapons if we head out into the wilderness (the weapons would be by far the greater loss, obviously). This was the issue with having Akbar previously - you couldn't go to Essembra to train without losing him. Luckily, GBC solves that issue for us!Soon (as in immediately in game time), we reach the caves.[ATTACH=full]375876[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375877[/ATTACH] That's an interesting, and irritating, combo. Fireballs will presumably not do much against either![ATTACH=full]375878[/ATTACH]But, might as well try...[ATTACH=full]375879[/ATTACH]While Akbar is in the midst of his casting, Bragir tries to shoot a salamander. [ATTACH=full]375880[/ATTACH]And, even more annoyingly, the salamanders are immune to non-magical weapons. Since we haven't found a single magical arrow yet, any ranged weapon attack will need to be aimed at the drow.Akbar aims..[ATTACH=full]375881[/ATTACH]And, yeah, it does precisely nothing. We're going to need to memorize some different spells here soon.Fire may not do much, but we do have other magical options![ATTACH=full]375882[/ATTACH]And good old melee attacks do work just fine![ATTACH=full]375883[/ATTACH]Eventually, we're able to wear them down and defeat them.[ATTACH=full]375884[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375885[/ATTACH]A decent amount of XP, but they did do some damage. On the other hand, my magic-users are now ready to level up![ATTACH=full]375886[/ATTACH]They've reached 9th level, and now have access to those sweet, sweet 5th-level spells! This is very timely, since one of the premier 5th-level spells will be exactly what we need in these fiery caverns![ATTACH=full]375887[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375888[/ATTACH]Both of them take cone of cold, which will be of immense use here... but we have to be able to rest and memorize it first![ATTACH=full]375889[/ATTACH]Interesting. We will head west then to see where these arrows take us.(Also, all that explored area in the west of the map is just Haptooth Village, as it shares a map with the caves.)[ATTACH=full]375890[/ATTACH]OK, south it is. But, just after we make the turn...[ATTACH=full]375893[/ATTACH]There's not much reason to try to talk or flee, so combat it is![ATTACH=full]375892[/ATTACH]Well, if we can't cast cone of cold yet, let's cast it's closest substitute...[ATTACH=full]375894[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375895[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375896[/ATTACH]For a spell that is forever stuck at 3d10 damage in 1e, that's not too bad.The melee does its share in taking them down...[ATTACH=full]375897[/ATTACH]And soon the battle is won![ATTACH=full]375898[/ATTACH]But, we've been taking a bit of a beating.[ATTACH=full]375899[/ATTACH]The good thing is that the encounter we've been heading towards is literally through the doorway to the right. So we should be able to get there without too much problem...[ATTACH=full]375900[/ATTACH]Sigh... spoke too soon.[ATTACH=full]375901[/ATTACH]Same set-up as before.Bragir follows Brin's strategy from the previous battle.[ATTACH=full]375902[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375903[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375904[/ATTACH]Again, not too bad of damage!Brin casts one of the few spells she has memorized that will be effective...[ATTACH=full]375905[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375906[/ATTACH]That's quite the damage from a magic missile! It's at 5d4+5 at this level.Akbar follows suit...[ATTACH=full]375907[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375908[/ATTACH]Pretty decent damage from him as well (he's only at 3d4+3).As that is the last of our foes, the battle is over shortly afterwards.[ATTACH=full]375909[/ATTACH]We finally head through the doorway, and find out what those mysterious arrows were all about.[ATTACH=full]375910[/ATTACH]From the picture, I'm guessing that their leader's proposition involves acquiring truly prodigious amounts of hair spray.[ATTACH=full]375911[/ATTACH]I mean, at least these drow aren't trying to kill us, so we'll accompany them and see where this leads us.[ATTACH=full]375912[/ATTACH]..."dark with a single streak of white."  That's not a "streak", ma'am.[ATTACH=full]375913[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]375914[/ATTACH]Yes, she does. But first, that journal entry:[ATTACH=full]375915[/ATTACH]Well, that explains why we were attacked by black dragons on the way here. A tower filled with dragons sounds like a... dangerously unpleasant proposition, but if this Dracandos, as seems likely, is the one behind one of our bonds, then we don't have much of a choice. So, we'll take as much help as we can get. Baroness Bella does step forward.[ATTACH=full]375916[/ATTACH]Great, yet another marking! But at least this one was voluntary.[ATTACH=full]375917[/ATTACH]Basically, when we meet random patrols, some might be friends with Silk, and will let us pass without conflict. Given how tough the drow battles have been, this will come in very handy.This whole sequence, by the way, doesn't occur if you don't have at least one female party member. And thus, it's the only time in the Pools series that gender comes into play at all in the plot.[ATTACH=full]375918[/ATTACH]Now that we've had this encounter, we settle down to rest. The problem is, not even here will be totally safe from patrols that could interrupt our rest. CotAB isn't as nice as PoR was when resting in set encounter rooms.Case in point....[ATTACH=full]375919[/ATTACH]Luckily, this time it's a patrol allied with Silk, so they pass by.This is doubly helpful, since you need to encounter 9 random patrols before they are depleted and you can rest freely anywhere in the caves. Note that I said "encounter", not "defeat". Even the patrols that just pass on by count towards this number! Yeah, the party loses out on some XP, but getting to where we can rest freely is worth it. As it is, this patrol was the third (the fight at the entrance to the caves was a set encounter, not a random patrol), so we only have to encounter 6 more before we're in the clear.We make camp again to heal up and adjust memorized spells to our current environment. But, as we're near the image upload limit, we'll pick back up there next time!</blockquote>

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