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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9528130" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 25): Dracandros' Tower (Part 6): Dracandos' Tower completed!Rested up, it's time to head back down to the first floor and deal with Dracandros once and for all![ATTACH=full]388487[/ATTACH]Nothing exciting happens the whole way down to the Level 1, as we've cleared out the remaining patrols.[ATTACH=full]388488[/ATTACH]We pass the sliding stair trap and poke about in the northern rooms of the level. Not much going on - it seems that Dracandros has decided that it's time to get as far away as possible from us as he can...[ATTACH=full]388489[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]388490[/ATTACH]We head towards the southern section of the level, to where we entered from the caves and then were unceremoniously teleported to the roof. But as we go through one door...[ATTACH=full]388491[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]388492[/ATTACH]Six wyverns!I'll just have my magic users launch fireballs. Although the big battle with Dracandros is imminent, as we'll see, fireballs will be pretty much useless there. So might as well cast them now!Buffy might not have fireballs as such, but she does have something close...[ATTACH=full]388493[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]388495[/ATTACH]Eh, not terribly exciting. Let's see what Bragir and Brin can do...Bragir starts softening them up...[ATTACH=full]388498[/ATTACH]Akabar also wants in on the action...[ATTACH=full]388499[/ATTACH]Brin's spell goes off..[ATTACH=full]388500[/ATTACH]But before Akabar can get his spell off...[ATTACH=full]388501[/ATTACH]And he was only a few XP away from <s>retirement</s> leveling!It wasn't the actual damage that brought him down, but the poison. Poison in 1e, being an insta-kill if you failed your save, was ridiculously overpowered!Well, unpleasant, but not unexpected. At least we only have two wounded wyverns left to take out, and then we can patch him up.[ATTACH=full]388502[/ATTACH]Bant takes down the last one (I was a bit slow on the screenshot, unfortunately), and with the battle over, it's time to tend to Akabar.[ATTACH=full]388503[/ATTACH]This brings him back with 1 HP, which is slightly less than what he normally has.Although it's tempting, we can't have him going into the next battle with that low amount of HP, so Brother Baltor casts cure serious wounds on him.[ATTACH=full]388507[/ATTACH]Still not the best. Then I remember there's a healing resource I've been passing over in these situations.[ATTACH=full]388508[/ATTACH]I choose "Heal" here for Baroness Bella's Lay on Hands ability.[ATTACH=full]388509[/ATTACH]That tops him off nicely!And a good thing too! We cross the room to the door to the level 1 courtyard, were we entered the tower quite a bit ago. Beyond lies Dracandros and his remaining minions![ATTACH=full]388510[/ATTACH]But before we open it, it's definitely time to buff up! And this time, passing over haste is not an option![ATTACH=full]388511[/ATTACH]After casting our buff spells, here's what everyone's statuses looks like:[ATTACH=full]388512[/ATTACH]All buffed up, it's time to confront Dracandros himself![ATTACH=full]388513[/ATTACH]Tough talk for someone who's very evidently fleeing from us, dragging whatever possessions he can carry, from his own tower![ATTACH=full]388514[/ATTACH]And everyone ages. No one but Baroness Bella cares.[ATTACH=full]388515[/ATTACH]Dracandros stands across the courtyard, with six efreet and four drow warriors. Those aren't too tough, despite their resistances and invulnerabilities - after all, we've taken down dozens of them so far, and, even in increased numbers, they won't be too much of an issue. Dracandros, on the other hand...First of all, normally when moving the cursor over someone, there should be an option for "Target" along with "Center" and "Exit". But in this case, Dracandros is invisible, and can't be targeted at range. But that's just the first problem. He actually has a whole slew of buffs he's cast upon himself to make this fight particularly tricky!He also has protection from normal missiles and minor globe of invulnerability cast on him, which would stop us from targeting him with ranged weapons anyway even if we could see invisible, as well as making spells under 3rd level useless against him (which is why I said using up the fireballs in the last fight wasn't an issue). Thankfully, we have ice storms and cones of cold to help there. Finally, he and his allies are on the far side of the courtyard, which would usually mean he (and his allies) would get a full free round to damage us at range before we got to them. That's why haste is so crucial in this battle!That all explained, it's time to deal with him once and for all!Baroness Bella zips across the courtyard and ensures he doesn't start casting anything nasty at us...[ATTACH=full]388516[/ATTACH]Brother Baltor moves up and takes out the leftmost drow, while Brin also runs across and sets up for a cone of cold...[ATTACH=full]388517[/ATTACH]While she's casting, Bant makes his move...[ATTACH=full]388518[/ATTACH]Well, that's the main threat dealt with! We just have to take down the remaining efreet and drow now.Brin gets off her spell (which I didn't get a screenshot of), and Bragir moves down to duplicate her actions...[ATTACH=full]388519[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]388520[/ATTACH]Akabar helps with an ice storm (since they're no longer all nicely lined up any more).[ATTACH=full]388521[/ATTACH]With doubled attacks each round, my melee is carving through them like hot knives through butter. Buffy gets in a particularly nice attack on one of the drow...[ATTACH=full]388522[/ATTACH]Bragir shoots off another ice storm...[ATTACH=full]388523[/ATTACH]And soon the last efreet goes down![ATTACH=full]388524[/ATTACH]Battle won! Dracandros is dead, and Hap is forever free of his tyranny! Plus he won't be able to place sketchy and potentially plagiaristic tattoos on unsuspecting adventurers any more![ATTACH=full]388525[/ATTACH]We get a good amount of XP for the deed...[ATTACH=full]388526[/ATTACH]And Akabar can level... for what it's worth. He's going to leave here shortly, and his new level will never come into play for us...We split some gems and jewelry, and then pull up the real treasure...[ATTACH=full]388527[/ATTACH]Lots of useless drow items (they're all going to evaporate soon), but those last three definitely look interesting![ATTACH=full]388528[/ATTACH]The quarterstaff is nice, but those last two are definitely among the best treasure we've seen so far in this game!I was originally going to give both to Buffy, but that moved her AC down to lower than anyone but Baroness Bella, so, since it can be used with non-magical armor, I gave the ring to Brother Baltor, and then swapped shields between him and Bant to even out the ACs a bit up front.  Buffy's old bracers were the same as banded mail, so they went to Bragir, which will increase his movement and lower his encumberment while keeping the same AC.After all the equipment shuffling, this is what the party looks like now...[ATTACH=full]388529[/ATTACH]Bant has a slightly worse AC than his other two front-line melee, but as a pure fighter, he'll often have more hit points.After closing out the treasure screen, a brief message passes across the screen that we find the Helm of Dragons on Dracandros' body, but it flew by so quickly and without a "Press <Enter/Return> To Continue" prompt that I was unable to get a screenshot. This is an important quest item, as we'll see later, but doesn't show up in anyone's inventory (thankfully!).Presumably the Helm was in the heavy bag Dracandros was dragging, as we find additional treasure along with it![ATTACH=full]388530[/ATTACH]Even more XP than before!We quickly split the gems and jewels, and then sort through the good stuff.[ATTACH=full]388531[/ATTACH]Again, some very nice loot![ATTACH=full]388532[/ATTACH]The ring of wizardry is the big find here, as it's the type that will double all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-level spells. Obviously that's extremely useful, as there are lot of spells of those levels that my magic-users simply don't have the slots to memorize without having to forgo even more vital spells. In fact, I'd say that it's the best version in all the Gold Box games, as all the other rings of wizardry in other games simply double 5th-level spells; while that's nice, as 5th-level is higher than 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, there just aren't that many useful spells of that level in these games. It just becomes a lot of cones of cold instead of more versatile magic missiles and fireballs. The real question is why was it in Dracandos' bag and not on his finger?The wands will be very useful, and I'll give one to each magic-user. The robe is of course a "gotcha" cursed item, the ioun stone is for INT (but everyone already has an 18 INT, so it's not useful at all), and the scrolls mostly have duplicates of spells my magic-users already have (more on that when we go to scribe what we can later).I'll give the ring of wizardry to Bragir, along with the wand of ice storm. Brin will get the nicer wand of fireballs and all the scrolls as compensation.That done, let's head on out.[ATTACH=full]388533[/ATTACH]We actually don't want to head out into the wilderness quite yet, as we have one final task in the caves...[ATTACH=full]388534[/ATTACH]Indeed we are![ATTACH=full]388535[/ATTACH]Some more nice XP! We get a lot of platinum (much of which is too heavy to carry and which we end up dropping) and some gems and jewelry.[ATTACH=full]388536[/ATTACH]With that, we head out of the Tower, and head back to Hap to rest up and sell items.Two out of the five foes have fallen! Next time, we start our quest to uncover and defeat the third!</blockquote>

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