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Demetrios1453 Plays the Gold Box Games
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<blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9287133" data-attributes="member: 6801060"><p><strong><em>Pool of Radiance</em> (Part 17): Mendor's Library (Part 1)</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>[ATTACH=full]351187[/ATTACH]</strong></p><p></p><p>Back we go, through the Slums, until we get to Kuto's Well again. Our goal is to go through the southeast corner of that block to get to the entry of the block before it, hopefully to find this mysterious library. But a short time after we enter Kuto's Well:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351188[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>It takes a short time, but we down our foes:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351189[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351190[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351191[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351192[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>But Bant has taken a lot of hits. It was really weird just how many times he was hit. I checked it out later, and lizardmen in the game have a THAC0 of 16, which means, with his AC -2, they had to roll an 18 or more to hit him, and he was just hit over and over. He's not wearing cursed armor or anything, but it was really strange how much damage he took in this fight. Baroness Bella took fairly significant damage as well.</p><p></p><p>We march ahead, and only a few steps beyond this last fight:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351193[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351194[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We win the battle fairly quickly, but Bant and Baroness Bella have taken yet more damage. Bant's down to nearly 1/3 HP!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351195[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So, we'll do an about-face and head to the Well to rest and heal up. We thankfully make it there with no further encounters.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351196[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>While resting, Brother Baltor receives a premonition and changes out one of his spells:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351197[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Rested up, we leave the Well and head south again. We are literally one step away from the southern exit to the zone, when:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351198[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>OK, this is getting tedious. Time to deal with this quickly and brutally:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351199[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351200[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351201[/ATTACH]</p><p>That takes out enough of them that we can conclude this battle quickly, and this time with minimal hit point loss:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351202[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>We finally get through the door and enter a quite different area. It's one large walled-in area, with a large, imposing building in the center. Could this be our mythical library? (Spoiler from the post title: it is). We quickly reach the front door:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351203[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The door is magically locked, so Buffy can't pick the lock. Good thing we memorized <em>knock</em>! (although the party still had a good chance of bashing it open)</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351204[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(Note the option to use <em>knock</em> which only appears when you have it memorized)</p><p></p><p>Once inside...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351206[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>That seems much nicer than the other places we've been. Unfortunately, that feeling of peace will soon be gone, replaced by annoyance and frustration.</p><p></p><p>We turn left (east) after going through door, and reach the library stacks. We go left again (north) into the first room of books:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351207[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Ah, history! That's the sort of book we were told to search for. Dutifully, we turn on "Search" and start moving around the large square room full of books.</p><p></p><p>We march around.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351208[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>... and around</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351209[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>and around... and around... and around. Welcome to your world for the next 20 minutes or so of game play time. No, seriously, it takes <em>forever</em> to find anything, with those same two text blocks repeated over and over each time (each of which takes a couple of seconds to scroll out every time). It's apparently a 1 in 12 chance you'll find anything useful. Finally, after awhile, we actually hit pay dirt!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351210[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Journal Entry 21:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351211[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Another interesting clue on what is happening here. The spirit in Sokal Keep also mentioned this "Tyranthraxus".</p><p></p><p>The game asks if you want to take this (and any subsequent) book you find here, for which the answer is obviously "yes", since the City Clerk specifically stated you'd be rewarded for it.</p><p></p><p>We march around and around again, interminably, until we find another book that catches our attention:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351212[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>This nets us some nice maps of Phlan and the surrounding area!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351213[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>And round and round we go, until:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351214[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>(Yes, we've been going around that same square for like 10 minutes at this point).</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351215[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Another reference to a glowing spring or pool.</p><p></p><p>And, finally sick of searching here, we head out and cross the hall to search the room to the south. (Game-wise, there are only three books to find in the History section, so no further need to keep going here).</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351216[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So, philosophy this time, eh? We start our search...</p><p></p><p>Shockingly, on our very first step (note that the time changed 10 minutes, which is what a step while searching takes):</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351217[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351415[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Tyranthraxus again...</p><p></p><p>Now the search begins in earnest, and we start to march around...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351219[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Indeed it is.</p><p></p><p>After a bit, we find a second book in this section:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351220[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351221[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351222[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>More stuff about this mysterious "Pool of Radiance"</p><p></p><p>We continue to search this section for a bit, but find only items of minor interest:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351224[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351225[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]351226[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>None of these have any journal entries. There are actually 5 of them, but they're so unimportant that I bailed after finding the third. It's just not worth the endless time searching.</p><p></p><p>By this point, everyone is so annoyed from searching for hours among the books that we need to take a breather and go explore the non-book areas of the Library. When we came in, there appeared to be a passage that went straight forward - so we'll head that way and see what else this library might hold! We'll continue with that in the next post.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Demetrios1453, post: 9287133, member: 6801060"] [B][I]Pool of Radiance[/I] (Part 17): Mendor's Library (Part 1) [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 133126.png"]351187[/ATTACH][/B] Back we go, through the Slums, until we get to Kuto's Well again. Our goal is to go through the southeast corner of that block to get to the entry of the block before it, hopefully to find this mysterious library. But a short time after we enter Kuto's Well: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 204203.png"]351188[/ATTACH] It takes a short time, but we down our foes: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 204239.png"]351189[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 204244.png"]351190[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 204300.png"]351191[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 204703.png"]351192[/ATTACH] But Bant has taken a lot of hits. It was really weird just how many times he was hit. I checked it out later, and lizardmen in the game have a THAC0 of 16, which means, with his AC -2, they had to roll an 18 or more to hit him, and he was just hit over and over. He's not wearing cursed armor or anything, but it was really strange how much damage he took in this fight. Baroness Bella took fairly significant damage as well. We march ahead, and only a few steps beyond this last fight: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205003.png"]351193[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205015.png"]351194[/ATTACH] We win the battle fairly quickly, but Bant and Baroness Bella have taken yet more damage. Bant's down to nearly 1/3 HP! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205240.png"]351195[/ATTACH] So, we'll do an about-face and head to the Well to rest and heal up. We thankfully make it there with no further encounters. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205315.png"]351196[/ATTACH] While resting, Brother Baltor receives a premonition and changes out one of his spells: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205619.png"]351197[/ATTACH] Rested up, we leave the Well and head south again. We are literally one step away from the southern exit to the zone, when: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205725.png"]351198[/ATTACH] OK, this is getting tedious. Time to deal with this quickly and brutally: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205807.png"]351199[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205816.png"]351200[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 205831.png"]351201[/ATTACH] That takes out enough of them that we can conclude this battle quickly, and this time with minimal hit point loss: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210016.png"]351202[/ATTACH] We finally get through the door and enter a quite different area. It's one large walled-in area, with a large, imposing building in the center. Could this be our mythical library? (Spoiler from the post title: it is). We quickly reach the front door: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210057.png"]351203[/ATTACH] The door is magically locked, so Buffy can't pick the lock. Good thing we memorized [I]knock[/I]! (although the party still had a good chance of bashing it open) [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210105.png"]351204[/ATTACH] (Note the option to use [I]knock[/I] which only appears when you have it memorized) Once inside... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210114.png"]351206[/ATTACH] That seems much nicer than the other places we've been. Unfortunately, that feeling of peace will soon be gone, replaced by annoyance and frustration. We turn left (east) after going through door, and reach the library stacks. We go left again (north) into the first room of books: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210130.png"]351207[/ATTACH] Ah, history! That's the sort of book we were told to search for. Dutifully, we turn on "Search" and start moving around the large square room full of books. We march around. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210235.png"]351208[/ATTACH] ... and around [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210244.png"]351209[/ATTACH] and around... and around... and around. Welcome to your world for the next 20 minutes or so of game play time. No, seriously, it takes [I]forever[/I] to find anything, with those same two text blocks repeated over and over each time (each of which takes a couple of seconds to scroll out every time). It's apparently a 1 in 12 chance you'll find anything useful. Finally, after awhile, we actually hit pay dirt! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210344.png"]351210[/ATTACH] Journal Entry 21: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210425.png"]351211[/ATTACH] Another interesting clue on what is happening here. The spirit in Sokal Keep also mentioned this "Tyranthraxus". The game asks if you want to take this (and any subsequent) book you find here, for which the answer is obviously "yes", since the City Clerk specifically stated you'd be rewarded for it. We march around and around again, interminably, until we find another book that catches our attention: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210514.png"]351212[/ATTACH] This nets us some nice maps of Phlan and the surrounding area! [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 210547.png"]351213[/ATTACH] And round and round we go, until: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211146.png"]351214[/ATTACH] (Yes, we've been going around that same square for like 10 minutes at this point). [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211221.png"]351215[/ATTACH] Another reference to a glowing spring or pool. And, finally sick of searching here, we head out and cross the hall to search the room to the south. (Game-wise, there are only three books to find in the History section, so no further need to keep going here). [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211252.png"]351216[/ATTACH] So, philosophy this time, eh? We start our search... Shockingly, on our very first step (note that the time changed 10 minutes, which is what a step while searching takes): [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211310.png"]351217[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]351415[/ATTACH] Tyranthraxus again... Now the search begins in earnest, and we start to march around... [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211409.png"]351219[/ATTACH] Indeed it is. After a bit, we find a second book in this section: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211630.png"]351220[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211653.png"]351221[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211743.png"]351222[/ATTACH] More stuff about this mysterious "Pool of Radiance" We continue to search this section for a bit, but find only items of minor interest: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211812.png"]351224[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 211903.png"]351225[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="Screenshot 2024-03-10 212150.png"]351226[/ATTACH] None of these have any journal entries. There are actually 5 of them, but they're so unimportant that I bailed after finding the third. It's just not worth the endless time searching. By this point, everyone is so annoyed from searching for hours among the books that we need to take a breather and go explore the non-book areas of the Library. When we came in, there appeared to be a passage that went straight forward - so we'll head that way and see what else this library might hold! We'll continue with that in the next post. [/QUOTE]
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