LOL-ing around
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
Having bid a fond adieu to the lair of the demons, MC and crew went further down into the deeps of the well watched Keep. The first room was dominated by a most unusual construct; if what MC had read was correct, this was none other than the infamous Mechanism of Lem O' Loony, aka LOL for short. Inside it's crystal dome was a gentleman who seemed trapped inside; or at any rate, seemed disinclined to open the door. According to various papers we had found upstairs, the machine held the key to descending further, so we needed to find a way to rescue (or evict) the current inhabitant.
An inordinate amount of time was spent in pursuit of that goal, as MC bumbled around in his usual semi-clueless style. Among other things, various oils, candles and matches had to be found. One obstacle was a pair of Magic Golems. Now, according to Elminster's notes, (Vol IIIA was it?) these can only be hit by non-magical weapons. What's a non-magical weapon?? The crew hadn't seen one in months! Just as MC was about to try whacking them with his fists, the party discovered some cabinets nearby that had, fortuitously enough, an assortment of non-magical weapons. What were the odds on that?
As a side note, a partial diary of a previous adventurer suggested that the Watchers up above were less than trustworthy. Which is about par for the course, actually.
The other tasks that needed to be accomplished were several and varied, and seemed to have little connection with any logical plan. On the other hand, this WAS a mechanism designed by a lunatic, so expecting any sort of logic regarding its function was baseless optimism. Some Mind Slayers needed slaying as did some Yankee Gits. The final pair of Mind Slayers were also undead; however, they had somehow neglected to hire the usual thugs to protect them, and went down easily.
[Note: When you see them, you are supposed to go "OMG! VAMPIRE MIND FLAYERS! ACK!". However, they totally lacked any defensive screen. This would have been a MUCH harder fight if they had the usual bunch of Umber Hulks, 4-5 maybe, with perhaps a regular Ilithid or two to direct them, blocking us from whacking them hand-to-hand]
An inordinate amount of time was spent in pursuit of that goal, as MC bumbled around in his usual semi-clueless style. Among other things, various oils, candles and matches had to be found. One obstacle was a pair of Magic Golems. Now, according to Elminster's notes, (Vol IIIA was it?) these can only be hit by non-magical weapons. What's a non-magical weapon?? The crew hadn't seen one in months! Just as MC was about to try whacking them with his fists, the party discovered some cabinets nearby that had, fortuitously enough, an assortment of non-magical weapons. What were the odds on that?
As a side note, a partial diary of a previous adventurer suggested that the Watchers up above were less than trustworthy. Which is about par for the course, actually.
The other tasks that needed to be accomplished were several and varied, and seemed to have little connection with any logical plan. On the other hand, this WAS a mechanism designed by a lunatic, so expecting any sort of logic regarding its function was baseless optimism. Some Mind Slayers needed slaying as did some Yankee Gits. The final pair of Mind Slayers were also undead; however, they had somehow neglected to hire the usual thugs to protect them, and went down easily.
[Note: When you see them, you are supposed to go "OMG! VAMPIRE MIND FLAYERS! ACK!". However, they totally lacked any defensive screen. This would have been a MUCH harder fight if they had the usual bunch of Umber Hulks, 4-5 maybe, with perhaps a regular Ilithid or two to direct them, blocking us from whacking them hand-to-hand]
Post edited by FrdNwsm on
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All this eventually led to the group getting a crystal hammer with which the door to the Mechanism could be shattered. The group bashed it open, kicked out the whining occupant and told him to go home to mommy. The Mechanism was open for use!
Now, it appeared that there were hundreds of possible combinations of control settings, however, the various papers found around the keep only gave directions for 5 of them, in addition to the one for the exit. Needless to say, the group definitely didn't want to screw around with random chance, and so declined to experiment. A couple of stats were increased where they would do the most good (strength for Anomen, constitution for Neera, wisdom for Jaheira, charisma and magic resistance for MC).
[Note: there may even be more notes lying around somewhere; 5 is all I managed to find]
The 6th combination was plugged in, and the way down was at last revealed. However, before going down, the group made one last recon, and stumbled onto two more doors
(In retrospect I should have just gone berserk; I had forgotten that berserk state also protects against Imprisonment. It is in fact superior to Slayer in just about all respects, except the extra 100 HP).
With dinks to keep his attention, MC withdrew and everybody who had them peppered him with +4 missiles, while Keldorn and Jaheira whacked him with their melee weapons. Jaheira was also imprisoned before he went down, but we had taken the precaution of buying all the Freedom scrolls that those Duergar in the Underdark were scalping.
And whats with the Freedom spell, anyways? It's a level 9 mage spell but apparently we can't learn it?
There should also be three more scrolls for the machine. Two more stat-uppers and one that gives a pretty cool mace that can be upgraded in TOB. As with my note on missed items in the last thread, I make no judgement on whether they're worth going back for (which in this case would probably involve scouring the upper levels of the keep).
(Btw, I've been missing out on some of your adventures since the hard-drive on my old laptop blew up. Now I have a new computer after 3 weeks of computerless life, and I'm back in the game.)
Internet research might be cheating a bit, but I have to go back to WK anyway for various reasons. (I left for a bit).