Something's fishy here
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
The party's luxury sea cruise was rudely interrupted by a bunch of New Englanders. These Yankee Gits wanted something the party had, and weren't about to take "we ain't got it" as an answer. Then, just when things were looking interesting, yet another force showed up! A bunch of Fish Boys came out of nowhere and crashed the party, and, shortly thereafter, the substandard ship that the SS Tour Lines had hired abruptly sank. A lesson learned; never hire the cheap cruise liner. If nothing else, the menu will be inferior.
Amazingly enough, instead of being drowned, the party ended up in the custody of a bunch of refugees from a Starkist recruiting ad. MC's head ached from trying to make sense of all the odd names; they sounded worse than Thax the Silly. The fish folk, for their part, decided that a trial by combat was needed to prove the usefulness of the drylander group. ::yawn:: No problem; scratch one Ettin.
Having proven that they could survive one pathetic combat, King Icky and his priestess Tie Six then recruited the group to aid in the fight against Prince Very Natty, who was not only apparently well-dressed, but also was trying to usurp King Icky's throne. Not really caring which fish boy held the title of Top Tuna, the group agreed.
All was not well in Fish Town, however. Another priestess, named Sanity, told us that King Icky was out of his mind, and that Prince Natty would be a much better ruler for the fish folk. OK, no problem, we agreed to help Natty. (See the comment above about not giving a damn who ruled Fish town).
The party wandered around town, exploring. Some rebel groups were encountered, none of which were even a minor threat. MC wondered why King Icky even needed to recruit them, since the rebels were so wimpy. He could only assume that the Loyalist forces were even more incompetent.
Amazingly enough, instead of being drowned, the party ended up in the custody of a bunch of refugees from a Starkist recruiting ad. MC's head ached from trying to make sense of all the odd names; they sounded worse than Thax the Silly. The fish folk, for their part, decided that a trial by combat was needed to prove the usefulness of the drylander group. ::yawn:: No problem; scratch one Ettin.
Having proven that they could survive one pathetic combat, King Icky and his priestess Tie Six then recruited the group to aid in the fight against Prince Very Natty, who was not only apparently well-dressed, but also was trying to usurp King Icky's throne. Not really caring which fish boy held the title of Top Tuna, the group agreed.
All was not well in Fish Town, however. Another priestess, named Sanity, told us that King Icky was out of his mind, and that Prince Natty would be a much better ruler for the fish folk. OK, no problem, we agreed to help Natty. (See the comment above about not giving a damn who ruled Fish town).
The party wandered around town, exploring. Some rebel groups were encountered, none of which were even a minor threat. MC wondered why King Icky even needed to recruit them, since the rebels were so wimpy. He could only assume that the Loyalist forces were even more incompetent.
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[Note: a passing acquaintance with Forgotten Realms will help here. I recognized 3 of the 5 characters. and the hints were enough to determine the other two]
Beyond the imps was a Beholder, who apparently had something the party needed to progress further Oddly enough, he proved far more pleasant than any of his kin the group had encountered before. Positively chatty, in fact. MC and Co. tried everything they could think of to get the Balloon Boy to reveal his secret, but nothing worked. For the first time, MC and crew felt a bit of remorse as they whacked the poor unsuspecting fellow.
[I am sure that there is an alternate solution, since he is being so chatty, but have no clue what it might be]
Going onward, MC's folks stumbled into a rather ferocious combat; this caught them by surprise, actually, since all the other opposition had been feeble at best.
A Fish Zombie King! Ick; the very thought was decidedly unappealing. If nothing else, the stink was ... unappetizing. A frenzied melee ensued; the party was victorious, but two members had to be raised from the dead.
{If you're prepared, the fight isn't all that hard. I had allowed my usual screen of skeletons to go poof, however, and had to waste the first round of combat buffing up and getting more summonings. The end result shows what happens if you aren't paying attention]
We give the fake Prince heart to Icky, who was happy for like 5 seconds, until the rebel forces attacked. OK, our cover was blown. No biggie; King Icky and his guards went down like wheat before a scythe. The new regime was here! Prince Natty offered us our reward .. and then proclaimed his New Order.
OK, hang on a minute. When we first arrived and got involved in local fish politics, Keldorn had his reservations. Thinking back, MC really had to agree. These guys, whoever they supported, were a menace to the surface world!
Die, you bloody flounders!
MC and Co. killed off Prince Natty and any guards who were left, and then scoured the realm for anything left alive. A few surviving rebels and a priestesss hiding in the Temple were dispatched, before the group scurried down a magic rope to ... the Underdark?
Grr; things kept going from bad to worse.
To my knowledge there are only two ways to avoid combat and still get the chest, you can either bring Haer'Daelis or talk to Mr. Beholder with a character that has 14+ wisdom (not sure if this has to be MainChar or not). In either case it becomes clear that his orders were to protect the chest itself not it's contents, thus giving you free access to loot it.
You normally see that beholder again in ToB, but since you have slain him I wonder what will happen?
If he has some critical role to play, I suspect he'll be back. I did kill off the Pirate Lord, for example, and he got resurrected in time for the fight at the dock when we were ready to sail. And that didn't even seem to me to be a crucial encounter. On the other hand, since Biff the Understudy seems to have retired, if his role is relatively minor he probably just won't show up.
Rethinking the matter, he probably will show up regardless of his role, since ToB really does seem to exist as a separate entity, even though you can import up to 5 NPCs with you. I tried importing a low level party into ToB out of curiosity, and everyone got enough experience to make them level 18 or so.
Also, the evidence is that the spectator wasn't even summoned to guard the chest. The drow who summoned it shouted "my chest!" while being stabbed through the chest, and the spectator took that as meaning it should guard the chest for some reason. Rather amusing bit of dialog, that.