
23 Nightal, 1369, Hour 14

I think the most tempting part of Yeslick's offer is that I don't know him. I have fond memories of killing gnolls with Kagain. Xan I am in love with, even though it is still early in our relationship. And back when I was a man I had a wild and crazy night of passion with Viconia. Yeslick I do not know at all, so it will be easier to risk him, or to see him fall, in battle. Besides, Viconia needs to rest that fine ass of hers. You'd think the platemail would obscure it but nope!





I wave goodbye to Viconia and watch her leave. To, you know, make sure she's okay. Then I turn my attention to Yeslick. The poor guy is totally without equipment, since he was in jail. We're going to have to equip him from our stores. It doesn't start out well. He asks us for a warhammer. We, uh, we don't have any warhammers at all. That's, uh, unfortunate. The little guy really likes warhammers.

We decide to give him the Flaming Death flail.

Gameplay note: He gets 3 attacks per round with it, but his THAC0 is only 17.
We do a little equipment shifting. Yeslick also likes the Crystal Plate Mail the best for its resistances. He can use the Helm of Mind Warding, so he goes for that. We should not forget its True Sight. Of course he gets the Boots of the Forgotten Ones and the Large Shield +1 that we have. He also gets a sling and a Cloak of Protection +1, because he looks less well protected than others in the group. When he is all suited up, he looks rather dashing.

He is the toughest, strongest, potentially most damaging melee fighter we have, and that is without taking into account his spells! We must put him on the front line. In fact, he can lead us for now. Xan can come back to the rear with me.
He says that we should rest so he can pray to get his spells back. I dare not risk sleeping right out in the open where any Iron Throne flunky can find us, so I teleport us to Shaundakul's Sanctuary. We spend an uneventful night resting in the quiet. Then, we return and go down the next level of stairs.

When we get down the stairs, they are waiting for us.

Yeslick fights like a dwarf possessed, swinging his flail wildly and getting the first kill.

One of the guards is beating on me, so I run away into the corner and cast Mirror Image.

Xan takes him out a moment later.

Then Xan goes after the hobgoblin archers, and they don't fare very well.

Yeslick gets a second kill.

As Xan gets his third.

And Kagain finally contributes with the last guy.





With that, the old dwarf speeds down the hall and enters the first door on the left. We hurry to catch up to him.

I think Yeslick takes offense to that.

Skeezer is practically bursting with excitment after looking around the room for two seconds.

There are 4 fire agate gems, about 50 gold, and two spell scrolls in here. I guess that guard had aspirations. The scrolls are of Sleep and Shocking Grasp. Skeezer copies down the Shocking Grasp and gives the Sleep to me.
But Yeslick is already down the hallway again. I think he believes he can clear this entire mine out himself.

Yeslick, Kagain, and Faldorn charge the hobgoblins, but two of them are spellcasters!

I hope we can do something about them in time. I throw out some random missiles and interrupt one of them.

But Skeezer goes for Sleep, and it takes too long to cast. The second one gets a Hold Person off aimed at Faldorn! Thankfully she resists it. Then Skeezer's spell finally goes off.

I guess Hobgoblin Captains are too cool for that sort of thing. Well I have an idea of what to do about that...

Burn baby burn! Faldorn also summons some insects to confuse one of the casters. And Skeezer shoots some magic missiles at another, but not before he successfully casts Dispel Magic at us. These shamans are no pushovers.

I try to interrupt another shaman with Chromatic Orb, but that doesn't really work out well.

Faldorn has effectively shut down one of the shamans, and the other has put himself into a Sanctuary. I think we can pretty much forget about them for the rest of the fight.

The shaman with bees dies to the bees, and the one in the Sanctuary wanders off. We are only resisted by a Captain, but he puts up quite a fight, holding the door against us in some kind of desperate last stand move.

After what seems like an eternity, Faldorn strikes him down.

Yeslick leads us further into the room and we find two more hobgoblins. He destroys both of them, one after another.


We actually find a lot of loot in this room. There is a katana and a composite long bow, which we take. There are piles of cash and gems in the chests, which are always welcome. There is one cursed scroll and one Protection from Acid scroll. Not bad. But there are also several magic scrolls of spells that I had not heard of before, even in Candlekeep. The first is Orb of Air, a level 1 spell. The second is Icebolt, a level 2 spell. And the third is Ajandurah's Ice Shard, a level 4 spell.

Gameplay note: Turn a target into a puff of smoke for 4 rounds?! I have to try this out!

So this is 2d10 damage. Other comparable level 2 damaging spells are Agannazar's Scorcher for 3d6 the first round, and 3d6 the second round. Plus its a beam so it can hit other people too. There is also Melf's Acid Arrow, which does 2d4 per round for every 3 levels. And finally, there is Rhialto's Random Missiles, that does (for now) 1d6 missiles inflicting 1d4+1 possible damage each, a range of 1-28 damage. I guess Icebolt's advantage is that it does cold damage, even though its damage is lower than comparable spells at that level. I'll load it up and give it a try.

So 3 arrows' worth of cold damage. Arrows are 1d6 damage, so this ice shard does 3d6 damage, I assume. The other damaging spell I have right now at level 4 is Ice Storm, which does 2d8 damage per round for 4 rounds to a 30' radius. I guess if you wanted to only inflict cold-based damage to one target instead of an area you might use this. But, one spell level lower you have Flame Arrow, which starts out doing 4d6 damage per arrow, and the caster gets one arrow per 4 levels, with a maximum of 5 arrows at level 20, which would be 20d6 damage. I guess, once again, this is favored for its ice properties. If an enemy is vulnerable to ice or immune to fire it would make more sense to prepare this spell. I guess.
Yeslick says we should stick to the main hallway, so we turn around and go across it to the other door. Skeezer once again ransacks the place.

We find something completely amazing in this room.

Complete immunity to normal missiles?! Skeezer puts it on. He is always getting hit with arrows.
Yeslick keeps pushing us, though, so we hit the next room, and see another surprised guard.

Again, Kagain is the one who takes him out.

In this room we find an acceptable number of potions, some money, and a scroll of Dispel Magic. This is extremely valuable tactically. Also, Skeezer and I both have it written down in our spellbooks already. I stash the scroll.
The next room we enter is some kind of armory.

There are armor and weapons hanging about all over the place. Only a Medium Shield +2 is magical, though. We leave the rest where it is, and go back out the door and down the hallway leading southeast. It is a long, ominous hallway, so we advance down it slowly, the dwarves leading the way.
