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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9485097" data-attributes="member: 6801060">And we're back! After a bit of a hiatus...Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 19): The Cave of the Dracolich (Part 6) - Cave of the Dracolich completed!After chasing the drow to the passage that leads to their city and getting denied access, it's time to rest up a bit.[ATTACH=full]382955[/ATTACH]After that, we move back to the main corridor and continue on, in a winding manner, towards the southeastern portion of the caverns. With no random patrols left, it's quick and easy for a bit, until we run into our next set encounter.[ATTACH=full]382956[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382957[/ATTACH]Three salamanders and four drow aren't a huge challenge, as long as we quickly deal with the cleric at the bottom.Bragir moves towards that end of the battle anyway, for a particular reason...[ATTACH=full]382958[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382959[/ATTACH]And while Bragir is casting, Akbar gets in his available cold spell as well.[ATTACH=full]382960[/ATTACH]Bragir gets the cone of cold off...[ATTACH=full]382961[/ATTACH]And Akbar casts his ice storm...[ATTACH=full]382962[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382963[/ATTACH]16 damage is reasonably good for a 3d10 spell, and the foes start to go down.[ATTACH=full]382964[/ATTACH]With just the drow left, we quickly take them out. Buffy tries, but fails, at a final backstab.[ATTACH=full]382965[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382967[/ATTACH]And that's enough to level up Akbar![ATTACH=full]382968[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382969[/ATTACH]He's definitely come quite far from being useless when we first met him! Obviously not optimized, but at least reasonably useful by giving us a few extra spells!After defeating this group of guards, the game very subtly hints we might want to rest and buff up.[ATTACH=full]382966[/ATTACH]Which we do (and Akbar has new spell slots from leveling up anyway).[ATTACH=full]382970[/ATTACH]Rested up, we begin to cast our buff spells...[ATTACH=full]382971[/ATTACH]Yeah, it's definitely time to throw away a year of our lives to cast haste. Although, again, Baroness Bella is the only one that really needs to worry about aging, and we're nowhere near where that might become a problem.[ATTACH=full]382972[/ATTACH]Fully buffed, the characters look like this:[ATTACH=full]382973[/ATTACH]And we go through the door into the final room of the caverns...[ATTACH=full]382974[/ATTACH]A dracolich! Who would have guessed? Everyone thought the name "Cave of the Dracolich" was just symbolic, or some sort of tourist trap thing!Obviously, we don't surrender.[ATTACH=full]382975[/ATTACH]As we start the battle, the effects of the haste spell get spelled out for us (which is odd, since other effects are shown as you cast the spell in the buffing stage)[ATTACH=full]382976[/ATTACH]One thing to remember is that 1e dragons, including dracoliches, aren't anywhere near as powerful as they were in 2e and beyond.[ATTACH=full]382977[/ATTACH]The -6 AC is tough, but 66 HP is pretty wimpy, actually. But buffed up, we should be able to get past that AC fairly easily and start whittling away at those HP.[ATTACH=full]382978[/ATTACH]Oddly enough, dracoliches in this series are actually susceptible to fireball spells (although they are resistant or even immune to many other spells). We won't look this gift horse in the mouth, and Bragir gets ready to cast![ATTACH=full]382979[/ATTACH]Well, even after a save, that knocked him down quite a bit! But, oops, that was centered in such a way that Brother Baltor was in the radius, and he took some damage.But, hasted and otherwise buffed, this is melee's time to shine. Bant's 3 attacks every 2 rounds turns into 3 attacks a round, and he just bashes away at the dracolich, and quickly brings him down. Brin, in the middle of casting another fireball spell, is a bit miffed. But everyone is happy that the dracolich is gone before it could use its breath weapon.[ATTACH=full]382980[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382981[/ATTACH]Some very nice XP![ATTACH=full]382982[/ATTACH]No one leveled, but Baroness Bella is just this close to doing so. Also, Brother Baltor is the only one who took any damage at all, and that from the errant fireball.[ATTACH=full]382983[/ATTACH]She's barely over 1200 XP away.Surprisingly, the dracolich has no treasure.We rest up and head across the room to the exit of the cave system.[ATTACH=full]382987[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]382985[/ATTACH]And that's it for the Cave of the Dracolich! Next time, we start our exploration of the Wizard's Tower!(And sorry about the delay; I'll try to post a bit more regularly from here on out!)Map of the Cave:[ATTACH=full]383019[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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