The
Continuing Ironman Saga of Roede and Taoni - Taoni_the_Fell
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Continuing Ironman Saga of Roede and Taoni - Taoni_the_Fell
|
|
First
Session -- Nov. 8th 2001. Total playing time 6 & 1/2 hours. Normal Level One -- the usual suspects. Shrines: Fountain of Tears. Drops: book heal, staff cb, staff Fb, 3rd ID scroll, short bow, cape 2, small axe, short staff, short sword. The warrior soloed
this level. His mission: to gain character level four and find the rogue
a bow. He did both, and dived down to level two. Taoni finished the level,
but did not acquire enough experience to level up (lup). Normal Level Two -- Corpse Axes, Fallen Ones, Scavengers, Plague Eaters. Shrines: none. Drops: 2nd book heal, 3rd book heal, 1st res, 2nd res, cloak 4, rags 6, rags 6, quilt 10, short staff, sabre, mace, book CB (Pukerat), Cloak 4 (Bonehead), 2nd book CB (Shadowbite), blade (Butcher). Warrior soloed while
Taoni cleared level one then joined him in a FFA. Uneventful clear. Butcher
was stair-trapped and killed. Normal Level Three -- Hidden, Devil Kin, Fiends, Corpse Axes. Shrines: Purifying Spring (yowser!), Quiet (warrior), Fountain of Tears, Sacred. Drops: book Fb, 4th ID, staff FW, leather, falchion, hunter’s bow, warhammer, small axe, staff TP (Warpskull), longsword (Bongo), Leather 13 (Leo). Some teamwork, with
door and corner sets. Sometimes Roede soloed while Taoni muled items up
to town. Suspected Leo glow was spotted after about 1/2 the level was
done -- we avoided the area. Cleared the rest of the level and proceeded
to level Four for more opponents and more lups. We came back when Roede
was strong enough to use the warhammer (since we were still without HB). Normal Level Four -- Burning Dead, Corpse Captains, Rotting Carcasses, Dark Ones, Flesh Clan Archers (what a pain!) Shrines: none. Drops: book HO, book lightning, book CB, book CB, book CB, ID scroll, ID scroll, quilt 9, composite bow, flail (Madeye the Dead). Uneventful clear with
“normal” teamwork and emphasis on the rogue due to the Goat
archers. Normal Level Five -- Blinks, Glooms, Horrors, Burning Dead Captains, Dark Ones, Overlords. Shrines: Fascinating (Taoni)/Sppoky(Roede). Drops: book Flash, book Flash, book Heal, book Heal, staff heal (21 charges), Hunter bow, book HO (Wraithraven), Mace (Shadowcrow), Short Bow (Foulwing). We cleared the entrance
area, and the first door opened to Wraithraven and his gang, a potential
ambush. we stand our ground and clear the group at the doorway. Thereafter,
since there were no ranged attackers, we had Roede solo the level. Taoni
joined later to take out Foulwing and friends. Normal Level Six --
Horror Captains, Winged Demons, Stone Clan Mace Goats. Shrines: goat.
Drops: book Flash, book Lighting, book SC (oh yeah!), book Fb, book Fb,
book Firewall, scroll ID, studded leather 15, staff flash, short battle
bow, amulet (chest), spiked club (Deathshade Fleshmaul). Teamwork again; uneventful
clear. Some desync, with respawns of chest and bookcases, and different
foes appearing for us each. Normal Level Seven -- Stalkers, Unseen, Familiars, Stone Clan Mace Goats (again!) Shrines: goat. Drops: book Lightning, book Flash, studded leather 15, claymore, sm. shield 7, sm shield 8, falchion, club, helm 4, ring (chest). Again desync present,
with different foes seen by each of us, and even “ghost” foes
that could only be seen and fought by one of us. Level was cleared slowly
using careful teamwork. Normal Level Eight -- Acid Beasts, Poison Spitters, Fire Clan Goat Archers, Night Clan Goat Archers (argh, terrible level!) Shrines: none. Drops: book Flash, book Flash, res scroll, ID scroll, ID scroll, staff res (9 charges! Oh yeah!), scale mail 27, kite shield 12, bastard sword, hunters bow, robe, long bow, studded leather 15, axe, short battle bow, ring (chest), sabre (Chaoshowler). We ided the ring -- silver ring of power -- not bad!! Given to warrior, of course. Standard teamwork
handled all opponents til we got to the boss dog pack -- then Rogue soloed
vs the pack. Second Session, November 11th; 4 and 1/2 hours Normal Level Nine -- Toad Demons, Night Clan Archers, Night Clan Mace Goats. Shrines: none. Drops: elix Str, ID scroll, cap, breast plate 22, ring mail 20 (ground), Skullcap (Oozedrool). Normal teamwork with
emphasis on the rogue due to ranged attackers. Some set spots were sweet
-- pursuing Goat archers running all the way back into Warrior’s
sword swings. Oozedrool and his gang show up on the other side of a lava
river -- the Rogue fries them all with multiple firewall casts. Normal Level Ten -- Lava Lords, Blood Claws. Shrines: none. Drops: book Phasing, bastard sword, short battle bow, crown 12, breast plate 20, longbow, longsword, amulet (lava lord), book SC (Goldblight of the Flame). We ided the amulet -- precision + 18 Dex -- oh yeah!(This ammy to the warrior, obviously. Along with that Silver Ring of Power, he’s becoming a formidable force!) When at our first
set near the stairs, the rogue dies due to desync. Four lava lords pursue
her after a scouting venture, and on her screen the stop to engage the
warrior, but one suddenly “beams” behind the warrior and adjacent
to the rogue and in three stunlocking swings it’s all over. The warrior
eliminates the opponents and retrieves a res. We decide to find a set
with greater distance between Normal Level Eleven -- Red Storms, Storm Riders (ugh!) Shrines: none. Drops: staff Lightning, scale mail 28, kite shield 14, long war bow, maul, ring (Red Storm). We id the ring -- Vigor +17 Vitality -- bah! Our first set is very
good, a winding passage with a door at the start channeling foes single
file to our waiting warrior. After about 1/3 the level is completed, we
decide this is actually a warrior’s level and have Roede solo for
the increased exp. The map has several twisting narrow passages that play
to his strength, channeling foes into groups of two or fewer. Normal Level Twelve -- Black Knights, Fire Drakes. Shrines: none. Drops: res scroll, cape, composite bow, short staff, blade, ring (Fire Drake), Dagger (Lionskull the Bent), book FWave (Viperflame). We ID the ring -- Crystal. Grrrrrr. Lucky for us, none
of these foes can open doors! Both Roede and Taoni break out bows as the
rogue lures masses of foes into spots where gates corral their forces.
Then we break out the bows and get busy! Rogue made sure warrior tagged
all or simply out and out killed most all opponents. One embarassing incident
where the rogue (low on hit points due to scouting) is standing next to
the warrior, plinking away at an opponent with his bow. As the opponent
moves past Taoni on the other side of the fence, the warrior tracks him
and dutifully puts an arrow into the rogue and kills her! Wah! Lucky we
had that res scroll drop on this level. End of session. Third Session, November 13th; two hours. Normal Level Thirteen -- Balrogs, Succubi. Shrines: none. Drops: ID scroll, ID scroll, field plate 40, book inferno (Blackskull). Slim pickins! Disaster strikes right
at the first set near the stairs. The Warrior’s finger slips off
the shift keys and he steps around the corner during a fight, activating
a crowd of Balrogs. As the ‘Rogs chop him to bits, Taoni decides
she can’t take the heat and bails up the stairs. Then we have to
clear level eight again with a “non-player” so that Taoni can
take the stairs from level Twelve to level Thirteen, as the Cave entrance
is way too “hot” for her to handle. Since we can’t repair
bows and Taoni needs some decent artillery, we ID a number of items to
keep the game going. Luckily, one bow ends up being “of sorcery”
and brings a SC book into reading range! Oh yeah! Paired with our already
discovered Purifying Spring, Taoni performed the classic “Stone and
Shoot” combo, drinking as needed to replenish her mana. She fought
her way back to Roede’s body, clear the area, and resses him. End of Session. We agree that the lag is so bad that it would be tempting Fate to continue, and so quit this session. Fourth Session, November 20th; four hours. Normal Level Fourteen -- Lava Maws, Counselors. Shrines: cauldron. Drops: full helm 7, full helm 8, field plate 40, breast plate 23, mace, scimitar, amulet (Lava Maw). The monster mix allowed
for only very slow progress. The rogue took out the counselors, while
the warrior had to protect her from pursuing Lava Maws. Many trips to
our “Purifying Spring” to drink and heal. Lots of desynce with
opponents in positioning, making scouting and even bait-and-trap tactics
risky. Normal Level Fifteen
-- Snow Witches, Steel Lords. Shrines: 2 cauldrons. Drops: splint mail
30, sm shield, longbow, gothic shield 16, full plate 67, amulet (witch),
amulet (knight), gothic plate (armor rack), morning star (Bloodstar),
Full Helm (Black Jade), Cloak (Red Vex), Broad Axe (Laz). We ided the
Mstar from Lusty -- “vampires” -- and the amulet from the knight
-- another +vit ammy, useless. Realizing we had plenty more ID’s
and needed some decent armors, and there was only the Sir Gorash drop
left as a “for sure” item on sixteen, we ided both plates and
two more amulets. The Gothic Plate turns out to be “Saintly”,
while the Full Plate is “of Harmony”! Doh! Wish those two could
have been reversed! The amulets both are +life adders -- argh! End of session. Fifth Session, November 27th; Normal Level Sixteen -- the usual suspects, of course. Shrines: none. Drops: amulet (knight), axe, and small shield (Sir Gorash) We ID the amulet -- of Titans, +29 Str! Whoa, not bad! The advocates are the rogue’s business, while the warrior takes out the knights as they pursue our scout. The Saintly Plate proves valid against their attack, while Roede’s blocking is reasonable also. Taoni has a bit of misfortune scouting south of the fourth room -- she runs into two advocates who immediately fire on her. She runs back around the corner for protection and tosses a stone curse spell in their general direction. When she rounds the corner carefully again, both advocates are gone! She slowly walks, and walks, and walks some more into the corridor, when suddenly both Advocates appear, one in front of her and one behind her! (I think she stone cursed one foe as he was teleporting away, and so “froze” him in place but while he was still invisible. The second on obviously simply teleported further away from her down the corridor, and teleported back toward her when she activated him again.) The long and short of it is, she cannot dodge between the two of them, especially since their shots stun her, and we have one dead rogue. Roede hears the death cry and charges and corners the advo guarding Taoni’s corpse and kills him -- the other teleports further down the passage again. Roede goes back to town, gets a scroll from our inventory, and resses Taoni. After this point he realize we’ll really have to work at getting Roede some exp if he is going to level again. We break out a bow for him, and have him “tag” advocates whom Taoni then finishes off (usually using SC if more than one advo is present). Taoni in the meantime is experiencing major difficulties in dealing with the big advo packs, as her to hit % is low and her damage is weak (I’ve put several lups worth of attribute points into her magic so that she can readily use her Stone Curse). Roede helps out by donating his Silver Ring of Power to her. But disaster stikes again, and in even more serious form. There are several long narrow corridors that run alongside the major dungeon rooms on the far North and South sides of the dungeons. Taoni is scouting each room with bowshots, trying to activate opponents before venturing in herself to eyeball the situation. However, just North of the first room, Taoni enters the corridor and turns south and too late notices the “shish-kebob” hazards that would have blocked all her bowshots. She activates two advocates by sight, and when she turns to run two MORE advocates teleport in front of her and there is simply no way she can survive this encounter. She dies. This is bad on a number of levels, in that she is fairly deep into the corridor, making rescuing her perilous, and her corpse is guarded by FOUR advocates, making the rescue attempt suicidal! I am thinking this going to be the end of the game, but Roede, resourceful warrior that he is, teases the opponents away from her and out into the room proper one by one by playing peek-a-boo around the corner with them, infuriating them. He then kills them individually, and gets the last res from our inventory to raise Taoni. Man! Way to go, dude! Creeping about slowly and carefully, we finally clear all the rooms except for #4, the one containing Diablo. We’ve decided to park Diablo in the spiral room and have set a portal at the center there, while another portal is set just North of the dividing split between rooms 1 and 2, and then rooms 3 and 4. The idea is that Taoni will activate Diablo and book it to the first portal. When Diablo turns the corner she’ll dive up the portal. Roede, in the meantime, is waiting much further East and down the corridor on the South side of the spiral room. Diablo should be able to see him and should take off after him then, and be led on a merry chase into the spiral room to be parked. Yeah, right. Lag, desync, and Mr.Murphy make sure this won’t happen. Taoni activates Diablo, who chases her to the first portal, which she duly dives up and out. Roede takes an apoc blast, and figuring Diablo has spotted him takes off running for the spiral maze entrance. Then Diablo disappears. Roede walks back to the first portal. No Diablo. Taoni drums fingers in town. Roede walks back to fourth room. Still no Diablo. Taoni begins pacing. Roede searches first room, second room, and third room on level Sixteen. Still no Diablo. He relays this info to Taoni. Taoni tells Roede to meet her by the portal she just exited, and takes the TP back down to join him. IMMEDIATELY Diablo appears next to Taoni at the portal, and the apocalypse blast is nearly mortal! (Roede, waiting patiently by the portal, claims that “He appeared out of thin air!”) Taoni bails out the portal again, and this time Diablo sees and gives chase to the warrior. With no head start, the Lord of Terror nearly catches the swordsman before he makes it into the entrance of the spiral maze. After that, however, since the Demon King pauses to cast apocalypse, it’s only a matter of time and teasing until the warrior parks Diablo at the very center of the spiral maze. Whew! Roede joins Taoni in town, and a shaken duo carefully return to level sixteen via the safe portal. There we finish off the last of Diablo’s bodyguard, hoping for that last nice drop. Alas, there was none. Once the last bodyguard is slain we go back to town to repair items, stock our belts, and use our last ID’s. We bring in mules to pack out items that we chose not to ID at this time. The last ID scroll goes on a helm that turns out to be “of the eagle”, and so is given to Taoni -- not bad! Getting ready for the finals conflict, we trade amulets -- Taoni takes the +18 Dex ammy for “perfect blocking” purposes, while Roede takes the +29 Str “of Titans” ammy for the extra hitting/stunning power (assuming he hits, of course). Roede is using a plain bastard sword, while Taoni will be using a flail. Looking back, we had “wasted” our ID’s on jewelry identifications, hoping for a nicer setup to face Diablo with, and none of the weapons were assured “non-cursed” since none were from decent bosses (sure, we could have identified the sabre from Chaoshowler, but the bastard sword was still probably going to do more damage than a silly sabre!) It would have been nice if Sir G had dropped a decent one-handed weapon! As it was, here are our stats for the Normal difficulty final conflict: Roede.Orm (Level 22
warrior) Saintly Gothic Plate total ac 126; unided gothic shield AC 16; crown AC12, bastard sword, amulet of Titans +29 Str; Silver Ring of Power +17 to hit / +11 Str; Ring of Vigor +17 Vit. Taoni_the_Fell (Level
24 Rogue) AC 54, to hit 11%, damage 20-30 (no stun!), resists all zero. Ringmail AC 20, Helm (4) of Eagle (+27 life), Sm. Shield AC 6, Flail, amulet of Precision +18 Dex, no rings (thinking that since I had “perfect blocking”, there was no reason to be wearing any +vit rings. Nearly dead wrong here.) We both take the TP back to 16 and walk the spiral room. By the last corner before you reach the final North-South corridor to the center, Roede stops and sets up in the corner. Taoni checks her spots beside him, then advances down the corridor to activate Big D. As soon as they spot each other, Taoni hightails it back to Roede’s side. Not wasting time on
apocalypse spells, the Lord of Terror wades right in! As game creator,
Taoni takes all Diablo’s heat while Roede starts chopping away. The
idea is that her “perfect block” will foil his attacks, while
the warrior will take him down. Doesn’t quite work that way as: “WHACK”
the second swing of a One-Two combination from Diablo get through and
nearly kills her! D@mn! I’m thinking, that sure hurt! I drink from
belt slot eight and shake my head! Then Diablo throws in a swift one-two
combination followed by a quick apocalypse blast --WHOOSH -- and Taoni
loses 2/3 her life! Doggone it, I’ve got perfect block! What the
heck is going on here? Drink from belt slot seven. Diablo throws in another
one-two flurry --BAM!-- and potion number six is quaffed! Sheesh, for
a person with “perfect block”, I’m getting the absolute
stuffings knocked out of me! Roede is swinging like made, connecting sometimes,
but Diablo is connecting MUCH more often! CRACK! SLASH! Jeez, that nearly
killed me! There go potions in belt slots five and WHAP! Drink from slot three. WHAM! Drink from two. SMACK! Drink my last potion in by belt. Open the inventory. Decide that it won’t make a difference, and keep swinging that silly flail. SLAM! Life 1/2 gone. WHAM! Hanging on by a thread. GARRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH! The blood-spewing fiend animation starts! Woo hoo! I can’t belive it. He’s down, and I’m still (barely) alive! Sweet lordamercy we won! Whew! Final impressions: Taoni, the rogue: The game was well played by the rogue until the very last level. The disappearing stone-cursed advocate was a trick I should have been aware of, and taken greater care. The reckless scouting down the long narrow corridor was simply poor play that almost cost us the entire game. And the idea that Dexterity alone provides the rogue with perfect block is laughable. Without a fast block shield and without our warrior, Diablo would have shredded me in no time. This doesn’t bode well for Nightmare difficutly: either I need to find a fast-block shield, or I’ll have to act like a real rogue and shoot from afar and hope that the warrior will actually be able to go toe to toe with the Demon Lord. Not good; not good. But hey, we did make it through Normal! We’ll worry about Nightmare Diablo when/if we reach him. Roede, the warrior: this game was pretty “average” -- only one stats adder shrine (the Quiet one), no outstanding equipment. The game winners from my point of view were the PS on level 3 (which saved many a potion) and the Silver Ring of Power from Level 8 and the Precision Amulet from level 10 which together counterbalanced the lack of decent armor and magical weapons. For the finale, the shield/executioner combo is do-able in Normal, but it seems a fast block shield is recommended. With Diablo concentrating on the Rogue (game creator) the warrior was able to swing constantly and cut him down without interruption via block or stun. All-in-all, a pretty standard game.
Things That Go Bump in the Nightmare
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
