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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9486981" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 20): Dracandros' Tower (Part 1)After a quick rest, we leave the caves, and enter the next area, blinking in the sudden sunlight.[ATTACH=full]383323[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383324[/ATTACH]I mean, with just a glance, how are we to know it's mystically protected, or just new or well-maintained? But we don't have time to investigate closely, since...[ATTACH=full]383325[/ATTACH]Must we?[ATTACH=full]383326[/ATTACH]I guess we must.[ATTACH=full]383327[/ATTACH]Um, that's not good.[ATTACH=full]383328[/ATTACH](I do like the picture, showing the size of the dragon compared to the wizard. But the top of the tower must be pretty sturdy to be able to hold a bunch of dragons of that size!)[ATTACH=full]383329[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383330[/ATTACH]Uh... what?[ATTACH=full]383331[/ATTACH]Well, thank goodness for that, although we (and Elminster) are being framed here. Hopefully the dragons aren't particularly stupid and fail to notice that (a) we took the dragon down in one blow, and (b) there's no body.[ATTACH=full]383333[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383334[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383335[/ATTACH]So, no, the dragons aren't that stupid.(And the mention of Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco is a reference to the novel, were Alias and her friends subdue a red dragon by that name).But the good news is, we've been released from another bond![ATTACH=full]383336[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383337[/ATTACH]And away it goes! Two down, three to go![ATTACH=full]383338[/ATTACH]"Attack dragons" or "Flee" will set 15 black dragons on the party, which is actually doable with the potion of protection from dragon breath. But it's long and tedious, and definitely not 100% guaranteed to work, so we don't choose that. We decide to "Parlay with the Dragons" and choose "Nice"[ATTACH=full]383339[/ATTACH]("Attack Wizard" basically gets you the same thing, but with a different text and the dragons flying off.)Dracandros, finding to his dislike that dragons are actually smart enough to see through his (pretty stupid IMHO) plan, runs off.[ATTACH=full]383340[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383341[/ATTACH]An efreet, two drow warriors, and a drow mage. Not too tough, as long as we deal with the mage quickly. Brin does damage with an arrow, he runs up to the front line, and is taken down by Brother Baltor.I try to position Buffy for some backstabs...[ATTACH=full]383342[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383343[/ATTACH]But they just end up being regular attacks. No matter, she takes two foes down anyway.[ATTACH=full]383344[/ATTACH]Not bad. But the main thing is that Baroness Bella, who was just a hair away from leveling previously, has gotten that hair and a bit more![ATTACH=full]383345[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383346[/ATTACH]Of real interest here is that she's finally reached the level where she can cast cleric spells. Nothing exciting, but she can memorize some spells that Brother Baltor has been memorizing, allowing the latter to expand a bit when it comes to memorizing his spells.[ATTACH=full]383347[/ATTACH]Very nice - we can always retreat up here whenever we're in need of rest. Thankfully, the dragons never return.[ATTACH=full]383348[/ATTACH]So, I'll have Baroness Bella memorize bless, which will free up a slot for Brother Baltor to memorize another cure light wounds to speed up the Fix process.[ATTACH=full]383349[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383350[/ATTACH]We rest up... and then buff up. Something tells us that we'll be in immediate danger once we walk down those steps...[ATTACH=full]383351[/ATTACH]Baroness Bella gets to cast that bless spell right away!I only buff up a bit, since the threat, while bad, shouldn't require us to cast our more powerful buffs like haste.[ATTACH=full]383352[/ATTACH]And down the steps we go...[ATTACH=full]383353[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383354[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383355[/ATTACH]It's only a single drow, but as you can see, he's got a very low AC and a lot of hit points! He's also using a symbol of pain which gives us -4 to hit. Beyond that, and unknown to us, he's just drank a potion of stone giant strength and a potion of speed. Although in most cases it's good that the game doesn't utilize the 1e potion mixing rules, it would have been really funny here if they did, and the drow had exploded or something.We start the fight. I try to position Buffy so she can get a backstab in (as her attacking from behind will help negate the penalties from the symbol)...[ATTACH=full]383357[/ATTACH]But that doesn't go very well. My melee just don't hit him enough, and when Brother Baltor actually does, there's not a spot for Buffy to get directly opposite him. Meanwhile, while Buffy is futilely trying to get a backstab in, the drow just focuses in on her, and quickly drops her.[ATTACH=full]383358[/ATTACH]As you can see, he's also done significant damage to Baroness Bella, and we've only gotten him down to just above half his hit points. Clearly, this isn't going well, so a reload is in order (and I saved just back up on the roof, thankfully - you learn to save a lot in these games!)[ATTACH=full]383359[/ATTACH]OK, so maybe we should fully buff, including haste. I don't need things like mirror image as it's unlikely my ranged will get hit, but I buff up with everything else I have.[ATTACH=full]383360[/ATTACH]That's better. OK, Round 2![ATTACH=full]383361[/ATTACH]Everyone ages a year. Everyone besides Baroness Bella is like, "Whatever."[ATTACH=full]383362[/ATTACH]We'll try this as well. Given his drow magic resistance, it's a long shot, but if it works, it will end the battle pretty much immediately.[ATTACH=full]383363[/ATTACH]It doesn't work. However, as you can see, the haste spell is allowing us to whittle away at his hit points with twice as many melee attacks.[ATTACH=full]383364[/ATTACH]We try again.Again it doesn't work.But this time, I do successfully get Buffy into position, and...[ATTACH=full]383365[/ATTACH]And that takes him down!Although he did do quite a bit of damage again. He focused on Buffy as before, but Bant was the real target of his wrath, as you can see![ATTACH=full]383366[/ATTACH]But that's fine. Safety is just back up the steps, and we can heal that up quickly.[ATTACH=full]383367[/ATTACH]For a single foe, that's a lot! Hopefully he had some good stuff![ATTACH=full]383368[/ATTACH]Indeed he did![ATTACH=full]383369[/ATTACH]Other than the fact that the longsword is only temporary, since it will evaporate once we leave this zone, that's quite a haul! Our only good armor we've received so far is, as you can see, the banded +1, and we haven't gotten any magical shields at all! And even though it's temporary, that +5 for the longsword will be very handy until then!I let Baroness Bella keep the plate and the sword, and pass on her magical banded mail to Bant and the magical shield to Brother Baltor.[ATTACH=full]383370[/ATTACH]That plate is just so much better than anything else we have that it drops her AC significantly, and there's not much I can do to even it up among my front line at the moment given the few magical armor/shields we've received thus far. But, everyone up front has improved, and that's the most important thing!We head back up the stairs to rest and heal up before we explore the tower further...[ATTACH=full]383371[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]383372[/ATTACH]And we'll end it there for now. We've got five floors to explore, so we've barely scratched the surface of this area!</blockquote>

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