Let's Play Wizardry 6, Part 8

Previously in Bane of the Cosmic Forge, the Felpurr Mage Whisker fell into a hole and almost got eaten by a giant snake.

[Pained expression.] "There was rather more to it than that."

In any case, having expended all other options, the party has returned to the blood-stained altar of the Bane King in order to replicate one of his fell rituals in a desperate bid to find out what happened to him. At the Altar atop the ruined castle, a black wind howls.

"This is madness, mage! Let us turn back from this dark course before it is too late!"

[Holding the Book of Ramm] "Do not try and stop me, dracon! I have not come so far to turn tail at the first hurdle!"

"Will nobody else speak up against this madness?!"

[Shrugs.]

[Uncertain.] "I don't like this Wrath, but if it's truly the only way to proceed..."

[Shuffles feet and doesn't meet Wrath's eye.]

"This could be fun!"

[Points claw at Wrath.] "Did you not promise to guard me on our journey, samurai? You need only do your duty, nothing more."

[Scowls.] "As you wish. As you all wish. My blades will be at the ready regardless of what comes."

And with that, Whisker turns to the altar and...carefully presses the button marked with a goat's head twice, then the button of the flaming orb, then the button of the magic stave, then the button of the flaming orb again. This causes the surface of the altar to open, revealing a drop into darkness...

Hopefully this pit won't lead to a giant serpent.

"Um. Was that it?"

"So it seems. Shall we descend?"

After Alva casts enchanted blade on the party, they leap down into the pit, only to find themselves in a familiar place; the blood-stained chamber on the ground-level of the keep in which the Bane King performed his 'services'. This time however, the door ahead is open—and something fast-moving is heading straight for the party...

Well, damn.

"Seriously?!"

There is absolutely no evidence that this is the same giant serpent that bedevilled the party earlier, but let's assume that it is. The battered and bloody serpent, enraged by the harm inflicted on it already, moves in to take its revenge. Unfortunately for the snake, the party has gotten plenty of practice beating it up, and it only takes two rounds for it to perish, hopefully for the final time, under their blades (and fists, and arrows, and whip).

Though the way forward has been opened, the way back is now sealed, meaning that the party has no choice but to head further towards the rear of the castle, and descend down the steps. They find themselves in a corridor running west-east: to the east the corridor turns south to a locked portcullis; to the west there is another branch south, but the corridor continues, with a passage north and, at the western end of the corridor, two more locked portcullises to the north and the south. While surveying the corridor, the party encounters some ambient slimes.

Please don't divide when hit...

Slimes are resistant (but not immune) to Shaana's lute. They're also immune to a lot of Konata's magic, being generally poison and acid-based. Nevertheless, they're not too much of a challenge, not least because unlike in some computer role-playing games, slimes don't divide when hit non-fatally. The most immediate threat is actually the lack of access to the restorative fountains in the castle; we now need to keep a closer eye on stamina levels (especially for weedier characters like Whisker).

[Frowns.] "Well, I don't think I can get any of these portcullises open. Sorry."

[With Konata on her shoulder.] "We've been looking at the map, and we think we came down just a little north of the jail—we can actually see into the big cell we couldn't access before."

[Nods in agreement.]

"So that leaves..."

Well we're not going to start paying attention to signs now are we?

The hazard area is a warren of tunnels going north beyond the castle. Entering and veering to the right, the party find themselves running into the undead almost immediately...

Oh that kind of hazard.

Although the party fought a zombie in the castle spire, and have increased their power considerably since, this is the first time we've had to deal with three at once. It seems that we've also reached a turning point where Shaana's lute is no longer the dominant factor in combat. In this case, by throwing up a magic screen, Whisker is able to prevent too much damage from being inflicted by the zombies' acid spew, but still most of the party gets nauseated, reducing their combat effectiveness (though not for long). Perhaps more importantly, the party's resources (stamina and mana) are getting stretched already.

[Waiting for the nausea to pass.] "Should we rest?"

[Winces.] "It is likely we will be attacked in our own camp if we set up here. I think we should push on a little further."

Exploring a tunnel running north then east, the party find yet another new kind of enemy.

They're coming through the floor!

These wyrms don't put up much of a fight and are easily destroyed. I suspect that much stronger variants of wyrm will emerge before too long however. What proves more troublesome is the encountering of yet more undead, leaving the party as a whole badly wounded, followed by an attack by a new and more deadly form of creeping vine: the jungle vine.

"Wrath, I'm... struggling here."

"Yes. Let us withdraw to the relative safety of the castle."

And so the party creeps back to the castle and rests for a few hours. This allows the party to recuperate stamina, health and mana, though not usually all of it. Unfortunately, it also provides an opportunity for monsters to sneak up on the party. In this case, a couple of giant bats. Of course, if we had rested actually within the hazard zone, we'd probably have been ambushed by something much worse. In any case, being attacked while resting will leave at least some of the party asleep at the beginning of battle, leaving them wide open to attack. Feel free to speculate on why nobody in the party bothers to set a watch while the party is resting.

"We're all really tired, okay?"

During all of this, Motoko finds the mana and the time to identify another of our items: the annointed cloak, which, it transpires, provides a 12% resistance to pure magic damage and effects.

After the rest, the party return to the hazard area, pushing north. After defeating a tangle of ten giant wyrms (some of which the mythologists in the party identify as dungeon leeches), a cave is encountered containing the bones and other remnants of several past victims of the wyrms. Amongst the random detritus, Motoko finds a miner's pick.

[Holds the pick aloft, then stows the pick in her pack.]

"Dwaaarrf..."

Fighting through more slimes and zombies (to the extent that just about everybody in the party now feels sick to their stomachs), we find another cave a little to the west, in which a luckless soul's corpse is found. More importantly (to us), on that corpse is a key! Specifically, the dungeon key.

"Ooh!" [Yoink.]

"Shaana, that's been on a corpse."

This is good enough reason to withdraw from the hazard area and its onslaught of tough foes and return to the now positively friendly castle. Shaana sets to work with her new key, and quickly finds her way into the back cells of the castle jail. In one corner in particular, she finds the old bones of a forgotten prisoner, who died in his chains.

[Quietly.] "And what do we have here...?"

Searching the bones, you discover an odd looking ring on one finger. Upon examining the ring, you see a circle of letters which read: Jolly Roger Decoder Ring.

The party: low on stamina and comtemplating a pair of manacles in a dungeon.

"Oh, I always wanted one of these. Better give it to Whisker though."

Trusting on a hunch, Whisker immediately puts the decoder ring to use on the logbook that the party had found in the castle jail earlier. This proves to be exactly the right course of action.

"Now let us see... this diary seems to be that of a pirate, perhaps a comrade of the mysterious Captain?" [Begins to read out loud to the party.]

The diary describes how a pirate crew came to be shipwrecked somewhere in the vicinity of the castle. As the survivors travelled from the stricken vessel in search of safety or civilisation, they began to get sick, and some died. The writer started getting really spooked because the bodies kept disappearing. Apparently they were carrying their treasure with them, because eventually they had to ditch it on the mountain that they were on...

[Excited.] "That's it! That's the Captain's treasure Mr. Queequeg wanted to know about!"

"Ssh."

The remaining survivors started seeing their dead comrades in the mist.

"Yeah, they're coming back as undead."

"Ssh!"

At some point they were attacked by some kind of ogre or giant, able to bite the head of a man clean off. This led the writer to christen the mountain they'd just cleared "Giant Mountain".

"Well that's original."

[Angrily.] "Ssh!"

They encountered some miners—likely dwarves (or dwarfs)—and decided to ask for help.

"The logbook is blank from thereon. I suspect the dwarfs were less than helpful."

[Look at Motoko.]

"...?"

Having heard the last testament of the poor, deceased pirate, the party must move on. Unfortunately, while the dungeon key may have gotten them into the rear cells of the castle jail, they still can't get back through into the rest of the jail from their side, meaning that they still haven't found a route back into the castle proper. There is however another portcullis to the west for Shaana to try her dungeon key on; it works, and the party find themselves in another cell. In one corner of that cell is an old body, and, perhaps expecting more clues or another musical instrument, the party takes a closer look...

Oh we're far too tired for this crap.

"Got'cha 'gain!! Haugh haugh haww..."

I'm slightly confused about who this zombie is supposed to be—perhaps the original zombie back in the castle spire? Or just some random joker who decided not to pass on? In any case, the party unleash hell before it has the chance to harm them too badly. Whisker is badly wounded however, and even though Konata heals him up, he's still exhausted after the battle.

[Tugs Whisker's whiskers.] "Yep. He's out cold."

"Can't you cast a spell to restore his stamina?"

[Brightly.] "Oh sure!" [Casts a spell.]

"Okay, he should be up in a minute... oh for crying out loud!"

Yes, I put my alchemist to sleep trying to wake up my mage.

Fortunately, in this room is yet another portcullis that can be opened by the dungeon key, and through that is familiar territory around the back of the basement level of the castle. The party is now back into the castle proper, and has regained access to its restorative fountains!

"Ah, that was refreshing. What did I miss?"

The first thing to do is pay a visit to Queequeg. This is also a good opportunity to stock up on ammunition and other random equipment pieces (including the mysterious mystery oil) now that the party has harvested considerably more coin from the broken bodies of their slain enemies.

"Okay Queequeg! You said you'd give us the password to the Captain's Den if we told you where his treasure is buried. Well we know—Giant Mountain."

[Sidelong to Whisker.] "What happened to her shyness around other humans?"

[Whispers back.] "I suspect she's forgotten how she's still dressed."

"Giant Mountain! Of course! I should have known! Oh yes... the password is 'skeleton crew'.

And with that, the party revisits the Captain's Den...

"What's the—"

[Impatiently.] "Skeleton crew."

"Awright... c'mon in..."

Thick smoke fills the air inside this mangy den, and huddled about each of the tables, clutching a bottle of ale or steaming brew, is the wildest gang of thieves, rogues, brigands, pirates and cut-throats ever assembled under a single roof. As soon as you enter the room, action grinds to a halt, all eyes rivet onto you, and a deadly silence ensues...

So a reptile, a cat and a faerie enter a bar...

[Small voice.] "Are we going to die Motoko?"

[Nods.]

Glancing at each of the tables, it is amazing how much you can notice within a single second; a pile of gold coins, the faces on a deck of cards, even the chip on a corner of a set of dice. All this, and every little detail on every nasty face staring at you as well.

[Floats forward slightly, as if transfixed.]

In the odd moment you have before you think you are going to die, something about the situation will stand out as if to tell you a secret, or solution to you impending demise. It is just such a moment, and you cast your gaze across the room, away from the faces and stink and smoke, and you behold a curious sight—mounted, behind steel bars, erect, sporting a twisted smile-cum-grimace, is the preserved figure of a man dressed in scarlet tailcoat, white ruffled shirt, blue knickers, a black tricorne hat, and wearing locks of black curly hair two feet long. It isn't the black patch which covers an eye, nor the stuffed green parrot on top of his shoulder, nor even the odd expression that haunts his queer face which holds your attention: it's that upon his right arm, just where a hand should be, there protrudes a polished hook made of bright steel.

[Narrows his eyes and looks across to one side.]

[Belches.] "Avast ye swabs! We don't cotton to no strangers unless they's proved themselves in some kinda mortal contest!"

[Softly.] "Of course you don't."

"Round here we got two ways o' contest. Tha' ole fashioned way bein' fight'n, an tha' more civilised way, which is o' course drink'n!!"

[Carefully.] "Wrath..."

[Fingers the pommel of his katana.] "Drinking, you say? Very well."

"Arr! That's my kind of contest!"

You can choose here to fight Captain Matey, or try to outdrink him. I choose to drink, and by default the party leader (Wrath) gets selected to do the job. It costs 50 gold pieces to buy a round, and each time the drinker has a chance to lose stamina...

Let's do this.

"Bottoms up! Har har har! Glub! Glub!"

After twelve rounds of drinking...

"Ugh...I don' feel so good..." [Collapses to the ground.]

[Contemplative silence.]

"Wow."

"Uh, Wrath, are you okay? You just drank a dozen pints of god-only-knows-what."

[Blinks very slowly, just the once.] "We are done here."

Having won the acceptance of the amassed vagabonds, we can explore the Captain's Den. There are a number of side-chambers, but by far the most interesting sight is that of the cage in the middle.

Inside the gate stares the preserved corpse of the hook-handed pirate. It looks even more macabre up close.

The real captain, methinks.

Opening the cage with the silver key given to the party by L'Montes, Shaana reaches out to the preserved corpse, which then proceeds to disintegrate under her touch.

"Whoops. Sorry."

All that is left is the Captain's coat, his tricorne hat, the stuffed parrot, the eye-patch, and the steel hook. Also we get attacked by five scallywags. Wrath kills them all.

"Well that was... useful?"

[Reaches out and puts the tricorne hat on Alva's head.]

"Uh..."

"Keep it on."

[Pockets hook, eye patch and parrot.]

The use of the hook will be revealed later. The eyepatch is an armour piece that makes you easier to hit (peripheral vision has its uses). The power of the parrot can be invoked to give a permanent boost to personality (destroying the parrot), so I have Shaana use it.

"There is no more parrot, only Shaana."

In one of the Den's side-rooms, Captain Matey is having a nice nap.

In the far corner of the room, Captain Matey is heaped upon a mangy old bed, blissfully snoozing away...

Aw, bless. Let's steal all of his stuff.

In the corner of Matey's room is a chest, which Shaana decides to disarm and open up. Within is a skull dagger, a breastplate, a cure paralysis potion and a stink bomb. Taking the contents of Matey's chest however wakes him up and causes him to turn hostile, bringing in some of his mates; this leads to a fairly tough, drawn out battle. As ever, while Wrath, Alva and Motoko simultaneously duel Matey (not bad for someone who was pass-out drunk a little while ago), Shaana puts his allies to sleep, Whisker throws up a missile shield versus thrown dirks and then proceeds to burn or freeze anyone who looks threatening (that's everyone), and Konata blinds Matey before trying to dissolve his friends in acid (otherwise known as Plan A).

After Matey dies (from a punch in the jaw by Motoko as it happens), and his friends are finished off, the party can now waltz out of the Captain's Den, having quite possibly achieved something. Shaana decides to wield the newly-acquired skull dagger in her off-hand, and Konata takes the potions and the breastplate. Unfortunately, only Alva can use it (sorry Shaana), but her chain-mail hauberk is better, so the party decides to sell it.

"Oh hey Queequeg, I've got something nice I'd like you to give me a price for..." [Stops.] "Where's the shifty blighter gotten to, anyway?"

"Maybe he's gone to get the treasure."

"Really? Damn."

Fortunately, it is still possible to trade with L'Montes, though he doesn't have nearly as good a selection of goods to trade for. The party is reasonably well equipped now anyway, and Konata has plenty of arrows for her bow.

"So...I guess that's it then, isn't it. Well, it was fun, sort of."

[Irritated.] "What are you babbling about now, girl?"

"Well, we've explored the castle (except for a few locked gates leading nowhere in particular), found the King's stuff, beaten up the local toughs—we're done here, right?"

[Look at one another.]

[Eyes wide.] "Finished? Having achieved nothing?! A diary I can't read, no sign of what happened to the Bane King, no wizard, no artefacts of power? Did you forget about the mysterious black steel door?"

"Well, no (okay, actually yes to that last one), but what's there still to investigate here?"

"We have still not fully explored the tunnels leading out from under the castle."

[Nods.]

"Oh good, I was hoping we'd go back there."

"Hurray!"

And with that, the journey continues. Returning to the hazard area, the party veers northwest, fighting more zombies, slimes and vines. At one point, the party encounters what appears to be a blocked passage.

Inspecting the wall, you detect traces of a recent excavation, and subsequent replacement of stones. It looks as if someone dug a passage and then cover it back up.

[Scowls.] "It will take forever to unblock this."

[Reveals pickaxe triumphantly.]

Breaking into the passage, the party find a hidden chest; inside is an awl pike, a conical wizard's hat (which Whisker takes, of course), a potion of moderate healing and a fireball scroll. The party then proceeds to explore the caverns to the west, finding another blocked passage that Motoko quickly excavates with a potent mix of dwarf stone-cunning and monkish alacrity. Plunging deeper into the darkness, Konata sees something in the distance.

[Yelling.] "I see something in the distance!"

Looking down the tunnel, you spy some very strange looking black women, with white marks painted on their faces and carrying long spears and hide shields. One of the women suddenly points your direction and they quickly vanish into a passage on the left...

"Hmm. Probably shouldn't have yelled."

Pursuing the strange women, the party runs up to the side passage, only to find...

You are standing at the edge of a wide chasm, which gapes before you as if it were a gigantic bottomless pit. On the other side, you spot a group of the strange black women, hurrying away from the edge and hauling a long rope made of vines after them.

This may take a running start.

"Well we're not getting over that."

Not willing to tumble lemming-like over the edge of the abyss, the party backtrack into the tunnel they were in before and continue onwards, eventually finding themselves in a cave at the bottom of a long shaft, filled with small animal bones. Searching the area, they finds yet another key.

[Thoughtfully.] "Okay, okay, which doors haven't we opened yet..."

"Even I must admit that the odds of that key being useful to us—"

"Of course! The belfry! They must keep rope in the belfry for hanging the bell and stuff, and we need rope to get over the chasm. But we couldn't get into the belfry attic because the door was jammed! And we just found a key!"

"What? Is that what constitutes logic in that head of yours? How you managed to unlock even the basic secrets of thaumaturgy..."

[Nods to herself confidently.] "Trust me. I'm a bard."

Following their bard's hunch (and that fact that the key is called the bell key), the party return to the castle. They ascend the castle belfry, disturbing the local bat population again, and Shaana unlocks the bell-tower attic room.

[Triumphantly.] "Told you!" [Holds up coil of rope.]

"You were lucky. Now we must fashion some kind of grapple..."

[Flourishes the Captain's steel hook, then attaches it to the rope.]

[Both grin at each other.]

"Oh that is not going to work!"

Heaving the hooked rope over the edge of the chasm, you succeed in snagging it onto a sizable boulder...

It worked.

Map, Castle basement

Party review, level 7

At which level the party is starting to show dangerous signs of competence.

Sword 85, Oratory 11, Ninjutsu 31, Mythology 10, Thaumaturgy 31, Kirijutsu 6

Thanks to his dual-wielding, Wrath's sword skill is racing towards 100. His Thaumaturgy is tending towards adequacy as well. I notice that he's slightly overburdened by the combination of his armour and the rope and hook he's carrying, so I think Motoko should probably carry the latter. Wrath can now cast missile shield, which is not interesting.

Sword 60, Shield 7, Scouting 3, Oratory 15, Ninjutsu 28, Mythology 10, Theology 38, Kirijutsu 5

Alva has learnt armorplate, a spell that boosts the entire party's defences. Complementing enchanted blade, this means that Alva is now the party's primary combat enhancement specialist.

Hands & Feet 82, Scouting 2, Oratory 11, Ninjutsu 37, Mythology 9, Theosophy 39, Kirijutsu 10

Motoko has eaten all of her apples off-camera. She is now by far the most pious and studious of the party. Motoko can now cast haste, allowing the party to act more quickly in combat, increasing the chance that enemies will be killed or crippled before they have the opportunity to strike against us.

Sword 27, Shield 4, Music 57, Oratory 21, Skulduggery 48, Ninjutsu 31, Mythology 9, Thaumaturgy 32

Shaana has ended her brief dalliance with her buckler shield and instead embraced the martial art of rapier-and-dagger, possibly because it is more swashbucklery. She has also learnt to cast magic missile, just for when music isn't the answer (which increasingly now, it isn't, at least until we find better instruments).

Mace & Flail 60, Oratory 45, Mythology 7, Scribe 5, Thaumaturgy 65

Whisker persists in being atrociously awful health-wise. At least he can now cast conjuration, which summons an ally monster to fight with the party and take some of the hits.

Bows 66, Artifacts 20, Mythology 9, Alchemy 53

Aside from poor piety, Konata has excellent physical and mental characteristics (for a faerie anyway). She can now cast air pocket, which can be used to protect the party from the effects of cloud spells that can gradually maim or otherwise harm the party when cast upon them. It so happens that the primary source of such cloud spells is Konata.