Champions of Krynn - The Next Groggy Adventure Thing

Started by BanzaiCat, October 23, 2016, 05:35:54 PM

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Sir Slash

I had almost forgotten about this one. Onward Noble Adventures of the Knight's Order of Grogs!  Villiany has met it's doom.  8)
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

mirth

Quote from: Sir Slash on June 03, 2017, 10:40:45 PM
I had almost forgotten about this one. Onward Noble Adventures of the Knight's Order of Grogs!  Villiany has met it's doom.  8)

More likely with this group, villiany has met its best budd.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

bbmike

Wait, just how long was I asleep? When did Banzai_Cat become BC?
"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you!"
-The Doctor

"Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth."
-Clifford D. Simak

airboy

I can make people hate me as a special ability!
:bd:

JasonPratt

^ Sigworthy.

Quote from: bbmike on June 04, 2017, 07:00:46 AM
Wait, just how long was I asleep? When did Banzai_Cat become BC?

Sh! He's undercover.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

BanzaiCat

10. Yeah yeah yeah...To The Harlem Throtl

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Sure enough, the shadowy figure chained to the wall turns out to be...



...an 80s heavy metal album cover?

Journal Entry 73:
"After the battle I was taken to see a powerful cleric. He laughed at my defeat. They led me to some doors that glowed in the darkness, opened them with a key that he pulled from his robes, and took me to a dark temple. I saw a bronze dragon egg on the altar! He told me that they were going to start the corruptions again! Then he had his minions beat me.

"I woke up here. If it hadn't of been for the treachery of a dark elf, and a sneak attack from behind, they never would have captured me." He pauses. "I'm sorry for my men." he says, 'They had no idea what we were getting into. Krynn's blood, I didn't know either. We were unprepared for the extent of the evil forces.

"The ambush was a complete surprise."


Hmm. A "powerful" cleric, a glowing key that unlocks a door (or a secret door more likely), and some kind of room that worships eggs...



(shudder) I sure hope not...

Man, those are, like, chains, man. How're we gonna break 'em, man? Like, the shackles of D&D going into 5e, man...

Wait...! I know who can fix this!

...wait...oh, NO, duuuuuuude...




Howwwww can I exxplaaaiiinnn...when there are fewwwwww words I can choo-oo-ooose...

By Wee Jas' left tit, where did all these chains and pastel-colored lights come from?!?



HELLLLOOOOOO, BOOOYYYYYYYYS!

NOOOOO BROOOO ANYTHING BUT ME...HIM...ERRRUHM



WAIT DAMMIT THAT'S ME

Oh, honey, you mean YOU'RE supposed to be MEEEE.

PLEASE SIR MAY I KILL MYSEL- UMM...KILL ME?

WAIT! No, put your axe down! You might create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction, that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe!

HEY!

Whoops!

Hey, mannnn, this write-up needs, like...more strong, you know?

See? Looks like everyone prefers THIS faaabulous mirth version to the stumpy and smelly version!

WAIT, WHAT?!? NO! HIS VERY PRESENCE CAN UPSET THE BALANCE OF THIS THREAD!!

This is true! Your sequins and 80s Flashdance accessories are focusing the polarity of the time protons into a Hadrian Field more epic than the J. Edgar Hoover cross-dressing event of 1923!!

EXCUSE ME...GUY CHAINED UP HERE? HELLO?!? CAN WE JUST GET ON WITH THIS?

Really, I never know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to writing these. Or much else, apparently.

While I sit here and try (and fail) to figure out how we're going to break this guy out of his chains (bad pop songs notwithstanding), what passes for a 1990s-era cut scene decides to figure it out without me.



I'd guess that was MIRTH II in there screaming like a little girl, but that can't be since he's here with us...



Uh-oh...



Mee-ROWRrrrr!



Journal Entry 9:
She explains to Caramon, "I've been sent by Sir Karl to get you back to the Outpost. There are rumors that large forces of draconians, hobgoblins, minotaurs and others are gathering. We need you to direct scouting and raiding operations. I see now that things are worse than we thought. Throtl was supposed to have been abandoned."

Caramon says, "It's even worse than that. I have seen Brass Dragon Eggs!"

She gasps, "No! They must not do this again!." Then she pauses, "Wait, how can they do it? I thought the process was lost during the War of the Lance. Did you see any evidence that they were successful?"

"No," says Caramon, "I was knocked unconscious before I had a chance to look further." He turns to you. "I need you to investigate this matter. Find the key, and go to the old temple in the Northeast part of the city. Find out what you can."




Uh, well, okay, I guess, I mean...



Uh-huh. Okay, we see where this is going...

Even *I* can see where THIS is going.



Well g-g-gee whiz, I wonder who gets to do THIS little chore...?



*SNIFF* *SNIFF* That was either the universe's biggest loud but clean fart, or...

Probably a friggin' dragon - that's all we neeeeeeeed!



YEAH OK BUH-BYE thanks guise, why don't WE just clean this shite up then, eh?

But, duuude, we're...like...

...yyyessss...?

Ad...ven...der...rers...riiight?

Confused as to the entry and exit of our "companions" (whom really aren't companions in the technical sense since they just pretty much left us to clean up the mess that Caramon started here, but hey, what are heroes for but to be the fantasy world's janitors, right? Like we're some untouchable peasant? Peon? Huh? Maybe so, but following a sword and shield around after shithead monsters like these for the past thirty-seven years, we've learned a couple of things; we look through our Adventurer's Journal letters, we look through monster's lockers...we listen to their conversations, they don't know that but we do – until we bash the door in and end them, that is. We are the eyes and ears of these institutions, my friends. By the way, that clock's twenty minutes fast.

Waiiiit, what clock, man?

We head out into the hallway (leaving METALDOG confused, but that's a normal thing, as is confusing the readers of this thread with ridiculous non-sequitur asides), following our exited 'companions,' to this scene.



Yep. Not just a dragon, but either a White Dragon or Silver Dragon. I think those are good-aligned.

At least, I hope they are. Seeing as how she could have done this to us but did not, I'll lean towards 'yes.'

We head down the streets and halls of the now-utterly-silent Throtl, finding nothing, but heading towards where our ex-companions told us to go, and we end up in a room that we hadn't explored yet.

A room that's not unoccupied.



So he orders them to attack, and the game asks US what we do?

What DO we do, kids?



It's a bunch of Skeletons and Zombies, and one 'Evil Curate.'

In other words, barely a speed bump on our way to glory! The combat is barely worth a mention - once the Undead go down, the Cleric is easy pickin's.

What's the next step when one's foes are slain?

That's right, carefully arrange the bodies and give them the proper blessings of their deities with great respect toss the benders over and rifle through their pockets!



Searching the newly-cooling bodies, we find the aforementioned key among the Cleric's robes. So far, everything is playing out as they said. Too bad they didn't stick around for their share of the amazing two hundred or so XP we just got.  ::)

Well, the only thing left to do now is, wander around until something happens.



That 'something' ends up being the key glowing when we walk by an otherwise indistinguishable wall.

We open the door, saving the game, and continue deeper into the battered city...

bob48

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

JasonPratt

Uh-oh. Tika is not going to be happy that "Maya" whooshed in there to embrace her husband while he's chained up and then whoosh him out again apparently still in chains! (There was nothing about her getting him out of the chains, which is something a silver dragon's elven form wouldn't likely be able to do.)

Methinks a frying pan may be in order.  :knuppel2:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Meanwhile, I was laughing hard at BC's return to form. ALL YAY HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED!  :bd: :notworthy:

(...tho, the Lost Boys have never looked so gay...  :-X :buck2:)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

BanzaiCat

11. Throtl Temple, Where Art Thou?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After finding the (now dead) cleric with the (now ours) key with the (now used) glowing-ness that has opened the (now open) inner bailey/stronghold/temple/Home Depot, we're nearing the conclusion of our Throtl adventures.

Maybe.

A conclusion to Throtl would be a great thing, because we'll be able to create all-new puns with wherever else we need to go in this adventure!



The area is about as purty as the worst possible fixer-upper on Dungeon Hunters International or the Real Zombies of Throtl County. There's not enough Botox in the universe to make a 'Real' Housewife look any better than these stank hallways, though.

Hey! I take offense to that!

Hey! I take offense to that!

HAY! We ALL take offense to you both! But the first one is definitely worse!

Whinny! (munches cud)

(AHEM) We take that first door to the right. Though encounters are fairly static in these Gold Box games (except for the random ones, of course), it still feels weird to leave an unopened door at our backs.

No surprise here, but the room beyond is occupied.



More stuttering and whispers about the eggs. Judging from the reaction of the...errm...Elven woman from the last chapter, and what Caramon said, and the fact that I've played this through several times back in the day, I know exactly where this is going.

If you haven't figured it out, they're corrupting dragon eggs, turning them into those fairly useless lizard-like warriors with varying annoying powers. Because that totally seems to be an awesome trade-off – some low-rent eight HP wonder in exchange for a dragon that could be possibly raised and tamed.

I guess the bad guys in this game don't have much in the way of patience.



Funny that he hasn't attacked quite yet...



It's almost as if they're gathering a welcoming committee!



On second thought...

Combat is always an option, but in Gold Box games, if it gives you a chance to Parlay, you should always take it. This is a hint that there's information coming that you might not otherwise get.



Demands to know who we are? How do we respond? I guess we are technically the intruders, here, but this isn't exactly the French Riviera of dungeons, so them hiding deep in a monster-infested neighborhood means being 'nice' is going to result in a mess. 'Haughty' might work, but 'Sly' might also. I generally never choose 'Abusive' unless I want to start a fight.

So, 'Sly' it is.

Well, you know, buddy, we were just down here looking for some...errr...paperwork, you know?

Yeah, we woz lookin' t' slice it up all pretty like.

???

What my friend here is saying, is, our boss, you know, he's one mean dickhead. He's trying to slice into us pretty harshly to get us to do our jobs...

Wewll, really, what I meant was-

We have been tasked by our bosses, the ones we have in common, to get some written materials, which no doubt have instructions from those very same powers that be, eh?

By Tyranthraxus's fourth ball sack, why didn't you just SAY so?





So, the bad guys are readying a bunch of eggs for transport. Sounds like between us and the others, the forces of evil here are thinking this place is too hot for further operations and need to find some other locale from which to threaten the world.

There we go again...fudging things up for would-be world conquerors.



What? You mean, we haven't worn out our welcome?

Yet?

Let's do something about that, shall we?



Might as well get this party started...



Turns out this party is pretty dangerous! There's two mages and two clerics, but they're bunched up pretty well where a Sleep spell might work!



Unfortunately, only one of the bastards falls asleep. And when you only manage to put to sleep one of four enemy spell casters, things don't end up too pretty.



AIRBOY, whom is in the back rank, starts throwing insults at a Black Robe Mage, which is probably not the smartest thing to do in hindsight.



The effects of his Taunt are better than I'd expected.



Unfortunately, the bad guys get a Curse spell off, which gets every single one of us.

Not pictured (it happened too quickly for me) is yet another spell. One of the evil clerics cast Charm Person on AIRBOY, and it succeeded. So AIRBOY spent the rest of the rounds trying to hit SIR SLASH in the back, but failed each time (the Curse spell didn't help...or in this case, it helped tremendously).

It took us a while, but we were finally able to start clearing these guys out. Fortunately BBMIKE had a couple of Sleep spells; one was used to put the two Clerics out of commission.



The last Sleep spell was used to put AIRBOY down. Unfortunately, I had to do this directly, as the game wouldn't stop combat until all enemies are fallen. With one swift stroke, AIRBOY went down and was immediately bandaged.



Fortunately, being unconscious managed to cure him. I figured I'd get ambushed sixty times if I tried to rest here, but we were able to fix up the gang pretty quickly.



Now THAT was fun. What else is in store for us here, huh?

Dare we ask...?

mirth

I like how my character's HP seems to only go up during battles.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

JasonPratt

Worth noting: that fight might have been tougher than it had to be, due to the black moon being full up there at the top of your screen.  :nerd:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

BanzaiCat

Quote from: JasonPratt on June 11, 2017, 10:46:02 AM
Worth noting: that fight might have been tougher than it had to be, due to the black moon being full up there at the top of your screen.  :nerd:

I'd totally forgotten about that crap. Thanks for the reminder, JP.

In the world of Krynn, the power of mages is moderated by the three moons. Mages are divided into three orders based on alignment. Each alignment has its own order, strengths, abilities and moon. The mage's power fluctuates with the cycles of the moon that influences his order. For more information on the orders and moons see the Magic section (page 15).

THE MOONS OF MAGIC
Since the creation of the world, three moons have governed the powers of magic in Krynn. As the moons wax and wane, so do the powers of magic aligned to them. Each moon has a different cycle and effects a different group of mages. Mages of the White Robes gain their power from Solinari the white moon, Mages of the Red Robes are governed by Lunitari the red moon. The evil Mages of the Black Robes are empowered by the dark moon Nuitari. The current position of the moons is displayed at the top of your computer screen...



mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus