Pool of Radiance (Part 22): Cadorna Textile House (Part 1)
We'll be avoiding Podol Plaza for a bit until we can get to higher level and take out swathes of humanoids at a time ( :cough:
fireball :cough: ) to make clearing it a lot easier. So the next place on our list will be the Cadorna Textile House, from the mission given to us by Councilman Cadorna to retrieve his lost family treasure.
So off we go...
As always.
We go through the Slums, Kuto's Well, and skirt the edge of Mendor's Library (which is always free from wandering patrols, so it doesn't need to be cleared like the other blocks).
We enter the block containing the Textile House and head west. A few steps in, and:
The random foes in this block for the most part are either living things that have poison, or undead with paralyzing or level-draining powers. Again, there are only 10 patrols in order to clear the block (although, like Podol Plaza, you don't need to defeat them to complete the city council mission - but they will award you an extra reward if you do so), but since the foes have these nasty attacks, it's not a fun business to clear them.
And, unlike the scorpions we met in Socal Keep, they aren't all just large scorpions either:
More hit points, lower AC, and a more powerful attack. Fun. Thankfully there's only one of them per pack.
We take them down fairly quickly with little issue. Then we take literally one step...
It's the exact same group as before, 3 large scorpions, and 1 huge scorpion. Again, we take them down quickly with little damage and no one poisoned, thankfully.
The party then investigates the ruined building just to the south, and find something interesting:
Well... that's unpleasant news to find out about the graveyard. We'll hold off on that particular commission for as long as possible...
We continue to head west, until, near the western end of the zone, we spot another well.
Well, as we have a thief who has a climb skill, it looks like it's up to Buffy.
Buffy reaches the bottom and meets up with some interesting characters at the bottom. (Also, why do so many people live down wells in this town?)
It's wild that the thieves in this town respect you, while the guards don't!
Oh yes, we are interested!
Sure, we're naive enough to be blindfolded surrounded by thieves in their own lair. Surely nothing can go wrong!
Well, what do you know, actually honest thieves!
So, let's see where they've dropped us off.
(We entered from the right, went all the way to the left to get to the well, and are now here).
Let's take a look inside the building to the west.
I would think that would have caused us a bit more distress than mere "disquiet"!
Oddly, despite it being stated that she's a hobgoblin, she's indicated by a goblin icon.
This is the first magic-using foe we've fought, which means we focus fire on her. If she gets a spell off, which will almost certainly be
hold person, unpleasant things will result.
Of course, taking out a lot of her minions is also important!
Meanwhile, the others have been focusing on Grishnak, and Bant takes her down.
And shortly thereafter, all that's left is a few sleeping hobgoblins, who are quickly dispatched.
Oooh, that's a lot of XP, so we must have found some good loot! Detect time!
Among the regular gear, there's a magic necklace, potion, and two scrolls! The stone statue isn't worth taking - it's heavy and isn't worth anything. The brass key, however, will come in handy shortly. We all know that video games don't give you keys unless they're for opening something later!
Hmmm, I don't think I'll be using that necklace. Maybe I can pawn it off for some gold by duping the storekeep back in town.
Let's see what's on those scrolls though!
Fireball! We've got the holy grail of spells, ready to scribe once we're high enough level.
Mirror image is useful as well, especially later when it will become part of our typical buffing routine before fighting a boss.
Blink seems like it would be nice, but it's hard to use since it can only be cast in combat and not before as a buff. The rest are all sort of meh, but will be nice to get into the magic-users' spellbooks.
All this is enough for some characters to gain levels!
All fighter levels, but at least THAC0s go down and HPs go up.
We go south out of the altar room.
I'm struggling to figure out a way that blood smeared all over the place could be anything but an unholy manner. We head on through the door ahead of us, and...
I guess I encountered the vandals with their paint spray cans, red handed!
The main worry in these hobgoblin groups are the leaders, with their slightly darker blue shorts/miniskirts and ranged attacks. But we have ways of quickly incapacitating them...
And soon all that is left is to take out the helpless ones...
So we go through the next door to the south.
"Excuse us, sir. We're going to be too busy for several minutes transcribing this random piece of paper into our journal to free you from those undoubtedly uncomfortable shackles."
Some interesting stuff there, especially with ettins guarding the gate. And there's a dragon in the mountains?
Now we get to freeing this fellow.
We choose "Parlay" first.
Sounds handy to have in a tight spot. We choose "Free" next.
I mean, we didn't receive this brass key a couple of rooms back for nothing!
Exactly as suspected.
He then asks to join with us to defeat the monsters here. Sure - he looks like he could be handy with a sword!
I'm assuming that's a nickname he got later in life. Otherwise, I'm not sure what his mother was thinking when naming her precious baby "Skullcrusher".
We have our first (and certainly by far not the last) NPC to join our party! NPCs are usually awesome additions for firepower for the period they are with you. On the other hand, any items you give them are theirs forever - there's no way short of just letting them die to get the items back. That's usually not a problem, as fairly often they will come reasonably well geared up, and if not, there's usually some spare items either in inventory or after a fight or two you can give them that won't hurt to lose permanently.
Let's take a look at his character sheet:
Nice Strength, and decent enough other stats. The only issue is that he doesn't have any weapons or armor. While I do have spare weapons from the last couple of fights (a longsword and a longbow), I don't have any spare armor, and that AC 8 isn't good at all. I guess I'll make him mainly ranged, and then go frontline when it's not hugely dangerous.
Yeah, that's at least a bit better.
And we've reached the upload limit for this post, so next time we'll continue with the exploration of the Cadorna compound!