Arabian Knights II: post scriptum
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
{This one's for Arunsun; if you liked the first pun, you'll love this}
"Big Al" looked around; the latest spider Queen (or King? Hard to tell with spiders) and its minions lay dead, and the Shroud of the Unproven was theirs for the taking. But something stuck in his memory ... those four spirits at the entrance ... one of their names seemed familiar. Ruby ... Ruby something. Hmm, hadn't she once been the slave of some famous poet or other? The longer he thought about it, the more he became convinced that she was indeed the spirit of the famed Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam. Odd to name a slave after a boat, but maybe this Omar guy had a sailing fetish. Whatever; the main point was that such a woman would certainly have been interred with great treasure!
The party of plunderers turned back, running past the caltrops and resting up just out of sight of the spirits, preparing for yet another smash and grab operation. 4 pathetic ghosts? No problem! Their treasures were as good as his! The party cast their usual buff spells, then charged around the corner, where the spirits waited placidly, casting the occasional True Sight. Hmm, apparently True Sight, like the Shadow, is capable of knowing the Evil that lurks in the Hearts of Men, because as soon as Edwin summoned some sword spiders, one of them promptly cast a death spell and poofed the menacing arachnids. Edwin then tried MS2, and the same response occurred. OK, they weren't going to be taken by surprise as much as he had hoped; MC was forced to improvise ... always a risky proposition.
For some odd reason, they still didn't turn hostile; Viconia tried summoning two skeletons, which didn't provoke any response. Enough waiting! MC has an impulse control problem. He and Kagan berserked and rushed forward, Edwin tossed off a haste and Jaheira uncorked her Insect Plague. That rather caught their attention. Contingencies (or sequencers?) fired up protection spells, making MC's and Kagan's weapons bounce off.
Edwin did yeoman's work from a distance, however, breaching their defenses and following up with remove magics.
Things got a bit hectic after that. Before Jaheira's bugs got to them, one of them did something horrible and tried to wilt us, while another summoned a pit fiend. Arg! Viconia hit some of us with protection from evil to keep the fiend at bay, the spirits couldn't cast any more, and the entire thing degenerated into a swirling melee. Edwin, the big wimp, showed his true colors by having a morale failure and running around screaming.
The spirits weren't wimps when it came to melee either. When the dust started to settle, Edwin and Jaheira were dead, Hexxat was gassed, Kagan passed out from post berserk blood loss, Viconia was whimpering off in a corner with a sanctuary up and MC and the Pit Fiend had a Mexican standoff until the summoning wore off and he went back to the Abyss.
The loot wasn't that great; I guess old Omar didn't value Ruby that much after all, but we did score a +3 shortbow, which Nalia could use, as well as some more magical arrows. Yeah, like we really needed more of those! And a bit of other stuff.
Now, back to grab the Shroud and be off!
{I don't usually reload, but you folks got me all curious, and since I hadn't progressed very far from this point, I was able to justify going back to see what the gals had to offer. They never did try a Time Stop, so I still have no idea how that works; none of my guys are anywhere near being able to cast such a thing}
"Big Al" looked around; the latest spider Queen (or King? Hard to tell with spiders) and its minions lay dead, and the Shroud of the Unproven was theirs for the taking. But something stuck in his memory ... those four spirits at the entrance ... one of their names seemed familiar. Ruby ... Ruby something. Hmm, hadn't she once been the slave of some famous poet or other? The longer he thought about it, the more he became convinced that she was indeed the spirit of the famed Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam. Odd to name a slave after a boat, but maybe this Omar guy had a sailing fetish. Whatever; the main point was that such a woman would certainly have been interred with great treasure!
The party of plunderers turned back, running past the caltrops and resting up just out of sight of the spirits, preparing for yet another smash and grab operation. 4 pathetic ghosts? No problem! Their treasures were as good as his! The party cast their usual buff spells, then charged around the corner, where the spirits waited placidly, casting the occasional True Sight. Hmm, apparently True Sight, like the Shadow, is capable of knowing the Evil that lurks in the Hearts of Men, because as soon as Edwin summoned some sword spiders, one of them promptly cast a death spell and poofed the menacing arachnids. Edwin then tried MS2, and the same response occurred. OK, they weren't going to be taken by surprise as much as he had hoped; MC was forced to improvise ... always a risky proposition.
For some odd reason, they still didn't turn hostile; Viconia tried summoning two skeletons, which didn't provoke any response. Enough waiting! MC has an impulse control problem. He and Kagan berserked and rushed forward, Edwin tossed off a haste and Jaheira uncorked her Insect Plague. That rather caught their attention. Contingencies (or sequencers?) fired up protection spells, making MC's and Kagan's weapons bounce off.
Edwin did yeoman's work from a distance, however, breaching their defenses and following up with remove magics.
Things got a bit hectic after that. Before Jaheira's bugs got to them, one of them did something horrible and tried to wilt us, while another summoned a pit fiend. Arg! Viconia hit some of us with protection from evil to keep the fiend at bay, the spirits couldn't cast any more, and the entire thing degenerated into a swirling melee. Edwin, the big wimp, showed his true colors by having a morale failure and running around screaming.
The spirits weren't wimps when it came to melee either. When the dust started to settle, Edwin and Jaheira were dead, Hexxat was gassed, Kagan passed out from post berserk blood loss, Viconia was whimpering off in a corner with a sanctuary up and MC and the Pit Fiend had a Mexican standoff until the summoning wore off and he went back to the Abyss.
The loot wasn't that great; I guess old Omar didn't value Ruby that much after all, but we did score a +3 shortbow, which Nalia could use, as well as some more magical arrows. Yeah, like we really needed more of those! And a bit of other stuff.
Now, back to grab the Shroud and be off!
{I don't usually reload, but you folks got me all curious, and since I hadn't progressed very far from this point, I was able to justify going back to see what the gals had to offer. They never did try a Time Stop, so I still have no idea how that works; none of my guys are anywhere near being able to cast such a thing}
2
Comments
You were hit with Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, right? A nasty spell. Imagine that plunged into a Chain Contingency-spell which can fire off 3 of those babies at the same time. A Time Stop + Chain Contingency ( loaded with x3 Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting) = Insta-win in most scenarios. Doesn't work against magic resistant enemies, though.
Btw, when are you getting to Chapter 4? I recall you not having done the Twisted Rune yet, but was there anything else?
The wilting spell was fairly mean; it was what made Hexxat go gaseous, and probably contributed to Edwin's morale failure.
I am headed to the Twisted Rune very soon, I think. Things in town are starting to quiet down; I suspect I'll need to go on to Chapter 4 soon.
One of these days I should do a playthrough where I actually abuse Chain Contingency. I like self-handicaps more than difficulty mods, so I tend to shy away from stuff like that, but eventually I want to see what it feels like.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise now!
Omar Khayyam