Lady Despina's Virtue - Continued

Ancalagon · Dec 13, 2002

Darwin recomended this story hour to me...

I had been following the first one, but, after a lack of posts, had given up on it.

I am SO glad Darwin told me about it again. This is amazingly good. Bravo sir, bravo.

Ancalagon

Joshua Randall · Dec 13, 2002

This is a superb story. Your skill is obvious, Sepulchrave. I bow to your talents.

All those who sneer at D&D and believe it promotes only munchkinism and hack'n'slash should be forced to read this story and repent of their views.

Joshua Randall · Mar 5, 2003

questions re: first fight with Feezuu

At risk of distracting Sepulchrave from his labors, I have a few questions regarding the PCs' first fight with Feezuu the cambion. These have been nagging at me for a while now, and I feel the need to post them.

There are SPOILERS here for those who haven't read the story!

Mostin and Mulissu discussing how to "whack" Feezuu:

"She is dangerous," the witch cautioned him.
"And beyond me," Mostin nodded.
Mulissu laughed. "Maybe, in a straight fight. But I’m assuming you’d cheat. What’s the biggest evocation you can deliver?"
"Against a Cambion? Sonically Substituted Maximized Empowered Lightning Bolt."

So Mostin's initial plan was to blast Feezuu with his biggest sonic. (Incidentally, for those playing along at home, that's 10d6 maximized + (1/2 * 10d6) [empowered] or 77 points of damage.) However, when it actually came time to prepare the fight, Mostin planned out his spell load a bit differently.

"What spells did you have in mind to ‘whack her’ with," Nwm inquired.

"Quickened ‘Magic Missile’, ‘Disintegrate’, and ‘Great Shout’. If we’re hasted, and we get the jump, I can get them all off before she can react. Ortwin zaps her with my ‘Circlet of Blasting.’ If she’s still standing, she’ll probably be stunned from the sonic – as will at least some of her cronies. That’s when Ortwin finishes her off. If he takes longer than five seconds then, a) I’ll be disappointed in him and, b) I’ll whack her with two sonically substituted maximized ‘Lightning Bolts’ and another quickened ‘Magic Missile’. If that doesn’t finish her off, then I’m changing my vocation."

Still, the plan was to blast Feezuu with many sonics.

But in the actual fight, here's what happened.

Mostin swallowed and knew that if he attracted attention, would probably be next. Oh, well, he thought. He let loose his "Great Shout" and flung a quickened "Magic Missile" followed by "Disintegrate" at the Balor. The sonic blew a hole in the magically sustained blood walls, and several Slaadi stopped in their tracks. Feezuu was staggered. Ainhorr brushed off all of the spells, his concentration unaffected.

Why did Mostin attack Ainhorr with his spells, instead of Feezuu? Wasn't the idea to "whatck" Feezuu? And Mostin must have known that a balor would shrug off his spells while the cambion might not have.

Anyway, a bit later in the fight:

Mostin smiled and let loose two more potent Sonics at point-blank range and hurled another quickened packet of "Magic Missiles" at the Balor. Summoned Devils and Slaadi alike exploded under the force of sound. Feezuu reeled: she was in trouble.

Again, Mostin used spells on Ainhorr instead of Feezuu. Apparently, though, Feezuu took enough collateral damage from the sonics to render her vulnerable to Mostin's final attack:

Sh*t, thought Mostin, and fired off his last sonic attack and quickened "Magic Missile" at Feezuu. The Necromancer finally crumpled under Mostin’s power.

Well. As we know, she wasn't really dead. But she might have been if Mostin had consistently targeted Feezuu.

But then we wouldn've have gotten to read about Mostin's other spectacular fights with Feezuu, so in retrospect I'm glad of his sub-optimal tactics.

Jeremy · Mar 5, 2003

As I recall Ainhorr's prescence at the time was an inconvenient coincidence and caused a shift in priorities to help ensure survival. If you pick a fight and find the bully has more powerful backup, you may need to take out the more powerful back up first to live long enough to deal with the bully.

Joshua Randall · Mar 5, 2003

Jeremy said:
As I recall Ainhorr's prescence at the time was an inconvenient coincidence

Yes, that's right. But:

and caused a shift in priorities to help ensure survival.

Why? Mostin's spells wouldn't even scratch a balor, so why did he bother casting them on Ainhorr? If Mostin had focused all his energies on Feezuu (ignoring Ainhorr), he might've finished her off then and there. If your goal is to "whack" someone, 'port in and whack her, ignoring everyone else. That's all I'm saying.

I guess it just goes to show that even someone with Int 26 makes mistakes now and then.

LordBOB · Jun 27, 2009

First off, I LOVE THIS STORY!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about the caps ( i know thats kinda considered yelling), but in this case i feel its the only way to show my love for this story.

Does anyone have any links to a complete version of the entire story?

I've started this "book" countless times yet i always seem to get distracted and lose the link.

I did a search for Lady Despina and this is the first link that came up. I hope im not bumping an extremely old thread (though to be honest it deserves to be bumped daily)

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I see the last post was in March of '03. sorry to bump a thread thats 5 years old