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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9674530" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 38): The Cave of the Beholder (Part 3)[ATTACH=full]407377[/ATTACH]Time to deal with some ogres![ATTACH=full]407378[/ATTACH]And a dark elf lord! Those are the ones with the ridiculously good AC and attacks. The good thing there is that they have some really nice items that will be upgrades, at least temporarily.There are a lot of ogres...[ATTACH=full]407379[/ATTACH]And, as you can see, Bragir is casting a nice fireball into the group...[ATTACH=full]407380[/ATTACH]They don't even have a chance. Even if they make their saves, they're toast (literally)...(Also, I like the new icon for ogres, compared to those in PoR. Those were really scrawny compared to these more bulky ones. Although these appear to be wearing magenta shoes. You do you, ogres!)That very quickly leaves a lot fewer combatants to deal with.[ATTACH=full]407381[/ATTACH]The remaining ogre goes down quickly, so I surround the DEL (much easier to abbreviate instead of typing out!) and slowly hack away at all his hit points. He's hard to hit due to his low AC, and he can hit members of the party fairly often, and for considerable damage, with his magical longsword.I attempt to line up Buffy for a backstab, but it's hard to do given his positioning and low AC.[ATTACH=full]407382[/ATTACH]Even though she is unsuccessful, eventually we slowly wear down the DEL's HP, and the drow goes down...[ATTACH=full]407383[/ATTACH]Mediocre XP. Ogres are just too low level now to give higher amounts.[ATTACH=full]407384[/ATTACH]He has some money...[ATTACH=full]407385[/ATTACH]I give his drow longsword +5 to Baroness Bella to use for the time being until we leave the zone and it evaporates. Bragir gets his drow chain mail, which improves his AC by one (again, temporarily). As you can see, he did quite a bit of damage to the party before we took him down.[ATTACH=full]407387[/ATTACH]We wander around the complex a bit.[ATTACH=full]407389[/ATTACH]Random event - I have no idea what the A. S. initials might mean.Soon afterwards, we bump into another patrol.[ATTACH=full]407392[/ATTACH]Three clerics, two wizards, and a high priest, alongside a bunch of fighter mooks. The real problem is that some of the enemy spellcasters win initiative, and start casting!Bragir breaks out the old standby...[ATTACH=full]407393[/ATTACH]Since time is of the essence to damage them, Brin forgoes casting a spell, and instead uses a wand, which will go off instantaneously.[ATTACH=full]407394[/ATTACH]Brin's wand goes off immediately, doing pretty decent damage, and, more importantly, stopping the enemies from casting any spells this round.[ATTACH=full]407395[/ATTACH]Bragir's spell is a bit more powerful, and the foes begin to drop...[ATTACH=full]407396[/ATTACH]Leaving just a few for clean-up.[ATTACH=full]407397[/ATTACH]Soon, the last spellcaster goes down..[ATTACH=full]407398[/ATTACH]And after that, the battle is quickly over...[ATTACH=full]407399[/ATTACH]They give some quite good XP, but none of their items will be upgrades, so we just take a few light items like bracers and darts to sell, and just leave the rest.[ATTACH=full]407400[/ATTACH]We explore around the northeastern quadrant of the zone, avoiding the corner and the malfunctioning teleporter we were told about. Eventually, we encounter some new foes...[ATTACH=full]407401[/ATTACH]There are only five of them, but they have yet another dark elf lord friend who will be a pain to deal with.[ATTACH=full]407402[/ATTACH]As Bragir is all out of fireballs, time for another tactic. I momentarily thought about using cone of cold, but that would place either magic user that used it right next to the dark elf lord, which wouldn't be particularly good for the health of whomever did so.[ATTACH=full]407403[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]407404[/ATTACH]Well, that was disappointing.Brin, at least, still has one remaining fireball, and lets if off now.[ATTACH=full]407405[/ATTACH]That's much more satisfying, and useful!Now we just need to deal with the DEL, who has taken some normal melee damage, but who of course didn't fail any magic resistance rolls against the spells.[ATTACH=full]407407[/ATTACH]I again move Buffy around for a backstab, and this time it works! In fact, since she has fighter levels and gets 3/2 attacks at this point, she luckily got the backstab during one of her two attack rounds, meaning two backstabs! Although each attack wasn't all that much (in fact, the damage was downright pitiful for a backstab for the one I screen captured; I believe the other one was somewhat better) two of them in a row still takes down the hapless DEL, and the battle is over.[ATTACH=full]407410[/ATTACH]Bant gets the drow longsword this time:[ATTACH=full]407411[/ATTACH]While Brin gets the armor.[ATTACH=full]407412[/ATTACH]Since we're fairly beaten up, and my magic users have depleted a good amount of their spells, it seems to be a good time to rest. Moreover, Brother Baltor has just leveled up, and hasn't had the chance to memorize spells since doing so, it's time to fill those new slots, especially since he now has access to 5th-level cleric spells![ATTACH=full]407413[/ATTACH]As I mentioned earlier, there's no reason to memorize raise dead with its penalties, so I'll go for flame strike.Now the issue is whether we will be able to rest without a random encounter interrupting us.[ATTACH=full]407415[/ATTACH]And, thankfully, we successfully do!Rested up, we head out of the northwestern quadrant and start moving around the west central region. Oddly, even though we still have a couple of random encounters still available to annoy us, we actually are able to travel a long way without issue. [ATTACH=full]407416[/ATTACH]We stand before a doorway. Shadowy figures can be seen within, including one that's spherical and floating...And we'll pick up here next time, for the climactic battle of the Cave of the Beholder!</blockquote>

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