Demetrios1453
Hero
Pool of Radiance (Part 61): Valjevo Castle (Part 4)
We pick back up, fresh from our gnoll murder...
No problem. That gnoll looked to be a bit overbearing as a boss. Why didn't you complain to Tyranthraxus' HR team?
That's "RHODIA" in Dethek. Another use for the copy protection wheel!
Well, that will help once we turn our attention to the hedge maze here in a bit. Thanks for the help and warning!
With that, he leaves. And then suddenly we remember that we were going to search the records hall across the alleyway when we were attacked. So we head back over there to search.
Why not?
Intriguing. But nothing of importance in this game at least (It will be of importance in later games, though).
But before we can search much more...
Bad timing for you, bud. However, we're not going to murder some innocent scribe just for doing his job. We'll just tie him up for someone to find after we leave.
With that bit of excitement out of the way, we search for further interesting information.
We've already spent hours already, so why not?
Stupid alarm.
Just reading some books...
They apparently don't like that response.
But they probably won't like this response either!
A reasonably decent fireball at last!
We quickly take them down afterwards.
Same story as with all the other patrols. Great XP, too much money, and the human leader has a magical longsword.
We start to search a bit more, and...
This is getting seriously annoying.
Brin is out of fireballs, so has to resort to other spells...
Well, he's dead quickly at least.
Again, we quickly take them out.
Lots of XP, too much money, magical longsword.
Hopefully with fewer interruptions this time!
Interesting. He hasn't even conquered everything north of the Moonsea yet, and we're rapidly bringing even that to an end. I guess kudos to him for having lofty expectations and believing in himself.
The game not so subtly saying "Get out of here and go kill things".
With our spells a bit depleted, we head back to the armory to rest.
Hopefully that will be long enough for the alarms to finally stop going off so we don't have to keep dodging patrols!
We head out, and head west.
They're fire giants. They're intelligent and orderly, not like their hill giant cousins. So the place shouldn't look like a pigsty. The game has a very low opinion of anything outside the traditional PC races...
Nicely lined up, we do a risky move with Brin, since fireballs aren't going to be of any help here...
They don't take too much damage, but at least the one nearest Brin decides, surprisingly, not to attack her out there isolated by herself, but to move around the other three to the spot just above Bant.
My melee and ranged make quick work of them.
Again, lots of XP, too much coin to carry.
However, they do have something useful on them...
The second one is "RHODIA", which we already knew, and will let us into the hedge maze. The first one, however, is much more useful. It says "HARASH" (in Espruar), and we can use it to get out of the tedious never-ending patrol fights by doing a quick parlay. Yes, we'll lose some potential XP, but most the characters are at or are near the level limits for the game, so that's not going to be a serious loss. In fact, the characters are well above what freshly-made characters in Curse of the Azure Bonds would be starting out at.
Leaving this building, we continue west.
Well, that is interesting. We go investigate.
Well, at least he's direct and to the point!
As are we...
Lots of nice stuff on this one:
The chainmail and the two-handed sword aren't anything special, but the javelin of lightning is nice, even if it's just a one-shot item.
We head back out, and reach the entrance to the northwestern quadrant, the last section before we head into the hedge maze, and, ultimately, the castle proper itself. We'll start up there next time!
We pick back up, fresh from our gnoll murder...
No problem. That gnoll looked to be a bit overbearing as a boss. Why didn't you complain to Tyranthraxus' HR team?
That's "RHODIA" in Dethek. Another use for the copy protection wheel!
Well, that will help once we turn our attention to the hedge maze here in a bit. Thanks for the help and warning!
With that, he leaves. And then suddenly we remember that we were going to search the records hall across the alleyway when we were attacked. So we head back over there to search.
Why not?
Intriguing. But nothing of importance in this game at least (It will be of importance in later games, though).
But before we can search much more...
Bad timing for you, bud. However, we're not going to murder some innocent scribe just for doing his job. We'll just tie him up for someone to find after we leave.
With that bit of excitement out of the way, we search for further interesting information.
We've already spent hours already, so why not?
Stupid alarm.
Just reading some books...
They apparently don't like that response.
But they probably won't like this response either!
A reasonably decent fireball at last!
We quickly take them down afterwards.
Same story as with all the other patrols. Great XP, too much money, and the human leader has a magical longsword.
We start to search a bit more, and...
This is getting seriously annoying.
Brin is out of fireballs, so has to resort to other spells...
Well, he's dead quickly at least.
Again, we quickly take them out.
Lots of XP, too much money, magical longsword.
Hopefully with fewer interruptions this time!
Interesting. He hasn't even conquered everything north of the Moonsea yet, and we're rapidly bringing even that to an end. I guess kudos to him for having lofty expectations and believing in himself.
The game not so subtly saying "Get out of here and go kill things".
With our spells a bit depleted, we head back to the armory to rest.
Hopefully that will be long enough for the alarms to finally stop going off so we don't have to keep dodging patrols!
We head out, and head west.
They're fire giants. They're intelligent and orderly, not like their hill giant cousins. So the place shouldn't look like a pigsty. The game has a very low opinion of anything outside the traditional PC races...
Nicely lined up, we do a risky move with Brin, since fireballs aren't going to be of any help here...
They don't take too much damage, but at least the one nearest Brin decides, surprisingly, not to attack her out there isolated by herself, but to move around the other three to the spot just above Bant.
My melee and ranged make quick work of them.
Again, lots of XP, too much coin to carry.
However, they do have something useful on them...
The second one is "RHODIA", which we already knew, and will let us into the hedge maze. The first one, however, is much more useful. It says "HARASH" (in Espruar), and we can use it to get out of the tedious never-ending patrol fights by doing a quick parlay. Yes, we'll lose some potential XP, but most the characters are at or are near the level limits for the game, so that's not going to be a serious loss. In fact, the characters are well above what freshly-made characters in Curse of the Azure Bonds would be starting out at.
Leaving this building, we continue west.
Well, that is interesting. We go investigate.
Well, at least he's direct and to the point!
As are we...
Lots of nice stuff on this one:
The chainmail and the two-handed sword aren't anything special, but the javelin of lightning is nice, even if it's just a one-shot item.
We head back out, and reach the entrance to the northwestern quadrant, the last section before we head into the hedge maze, and, ultimately, the castle proper itself. We'll start up there next time!
