Doom, Gloom, Death, and Destruction
Apr. 27th, 2003 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothYesterday was not a very good day. In AC2 Speckles couldn't play until late, so I checked back late, and -- well, we got killed over and over and over and over and totally failed to make any progress. Obviously, to do anything on Linvak takes a group of more than two. Unfortunately, all anyone on Linvak ever wants to do ever is hunt dillos to powerlevel so that they can get to 50 really quickly then complain that all the content is for people of lower levels.
Omishan was the same, but at least there Flyken and Terra could usually do what they wanted as a duo... Gah. They can blame Turbine all they want, but it's the fricking powerleveling freak-ass players that are killing AC2.
I also tried to play Xenosaga, but MY GOD. I'd heard the game had a lot of cutscenes, but it's impossible to overstate how freakishly long and annoying the cutscenes are. Walk through a door, cutscene. Talk to someone, cutscene. Walk down a hallway, cutscene. Be watching a long, annoying cutscene, cutscene. No, really, the cutscenes have cutscenes! Aieeee!
They aren't even *pretty* cutscenes -- they're polyganal characters of PSX quality with bad, poorly synced voice acting. Two hours into the game (having racked up a total of maybe 5 minutes of actual play) I was screaming at the console to STOP WITH THE FRICKING CUTSCENES. "Run! Just RUN AWAY! You aren't armed and the enemies are invincible, and you don't even KNOW these people! Why are you sticking around? NOOO, not more speeches, run you idiot!"
Other than that, it seems like a pretty good game.
Today was Tom's Sunday D+D game, but before we could get to it Tom had to talk about how his boss at work was basically torpedoing his career so he could look good 'cutting deadwood'. Tom went on to talk about how his employer (which everyone else at the game also works at) has all these draconic policies that, well, I've never heard of or seen in action. I think it might just be his group, unless it's just not my group.
But then we finally got to the game, and somewhat to my surprise, I didn't die. Lots of other people did die, though, as well as both my animal companions.
Mepechu was followed into the room by the invisible Malvar, and sat staring at the enemy cleric, certain she was doomed. Instead, she and Malvar were walled off by a wall of force -- actually a more logical solution since it blocked anyone else from coming through the crystal.
The next round, Darien and Marcus teleported in and started smiting her, and Mepechu and Malvar teleported through the wall of force and also began smiting. She lost a round casting blade barrier on the people still outside -- which freed the insane dire wolf Piko and the insane fighter Thanos from their hasty bonds and badly wounded them and others, including the dire wolverine Muyo who flew into a rage.
Bella and Xaod dragged Thanos out of the blade barrier, Held him (since he was still insane), and tied him up again. Meanwhile, Muyo and Piko took each other out. Bella and Xaod then wasted three rounds bandaging the animals' wounds and tying up Piko again.
Celeste and Keldor (the NPCs) zipped through the crystal and were trapped by the wall of force, so they went BACK into the crystal and came out in a torture room, waking up the Big Bad Guy whose guard the party had been fighting up to that point. Keldor had already been captured by the crystal at this point, though.
Guinsette scampered over the walls above the blade barrier, using her ring of spider climb, and opened a door to the far side of the tower, which was filled with water. The water didn't spill out or anything, but she didn't want to risk swimming through it, so she went back and tried uselessly to beat through the wall and the wall of force separating her from the actual battle.
The actual battle was going pretty good -- Malvar used Enervate twice to take out some of the evil cleric's dangerous spells, while Marcus zorched her a couple times before getting 'Destruction' cast on him -- he saved, but was horribly wounded, and was trapped against the wall where no one could heal him. Darien and Mepechu kept beating her down with physical attacks. They had to do it twice, though, since she had a heal spell memorized.
Then the door opened. Marcus webbed the room. The lesser evil cleric was at near zero for the second time, although she'd taken Mepechu out of the fight with Power Word: Stun, and ran for it -- only to be attacked and killed by her boss for cowardice. "Coward!" he snarled, floating through the webs, unaffected.
A horrid wilting killed Marcus, and badly hurt Malvar and (the stunned) Mepechu. Celeste tried to fry the main evil guy with spells, then Malvar vooped him in a wall of force to give the party time to regroup. He disintegrated the wall of force and (thanks to a haste) cast Destruction on Darien... but Darien had the orb of silvery death and was unaffected. Darien encased him in another wall of force, from his Rod, which forced him to recall away.
Hooray! The battle was won! The party moved to regroup and teleport out of there -- Xaod and Bella had come up through the crystal, finally, from the floor below -- but oh, wait! Celeste triggered a Symbol of Death, which killed her, and Malvar, and Malvar's familiar, and almost (but not quite) killed the still-stunned Mepechu.
Well, fuck. There went the teleports.
Plan B: All the dead bodies (and the live ones) were stuffed into Malvar's portable hole, along with hastily gathered treasure from the room, and Mepechu used 'Ethereal Jaunt' to take everyone out of the tower and back to the secret passage at the edge of the crater. Everyone except for Xaod, who went back for Thanos, through the crystal... he wanted to save the two unconscious but stable animals as well, but couldn't carry them (they were each Large, about 400 pounds, and Xaod wasn't very strong). Just as he exited the tower, Bella, on lookout, spotted the enemy approaching anew from the far side of the crater, through the main entrance!
Luckily, everyone managed to get out of sight, and he just went back into the tower. Malvar was raised, and teleported the party back to Veluna, where Thanos' insanity was cured. Keldor was not curable, though, even by the high priests of Hieronius. Everyone who'd made all their saves from various trips through the crystal were VERY VERY GLAD.
The party raised the rest of their dead, and tried to plan their next assault. Celeste and Marcus did *not* want to go back in, but Celeste said she would if ordered, since she owed the party for raising her. After a scroll of Commune revealed just how much life would suck if the evil people succeeded, Celeste was duly ordered to accompany the party on a last suicide run to the old temple of elemental evil itself, to hopefully stop the summoning before the SIX DARK GODS imprisoned in it, the worst of which was Tharizdun himself, were set free to walk the prime material plane and make everyone their slaves. The first, who'd killed off half the party almost without trying, would undoubtedly be there with the remainder of his forces -- or at least, was not in his tower in the crater anymore, according to Hieronius.
"Gee, I guess we're not going back for that paladin we left with the mind flayer."
"Ask your god if I have time to take a couple weeks and scribe a bunch of spells into my book."
"He says no."
"So, um, I'm still using half of a +2 double longsword... do you think you could get me a better weapon while we're here?"
last session next session
Dave, who plays Darien, was really really angry that a bunch of people had died and we'd basically failed the mission, and wanted to end the game instantly on the spot. No one else agreed with him, though -- we've been playing this module for more than a year, and by god we're at LEAST going to all die trying to finish it.
Omishan was the same, but at least there Flyken and Terra could usually do what they wanted as a duo... Gah. They can blame Turbine all they want, but it's the fricking powerleveling freak-ass players that are killing AC2.
I also tried to play Xenosaga, but MY GOD. I'd heard the game had a lot of cutscenes, but it's impossible to overstate how freakishly long and annoying the cutscenes are. Walk through a door, cutscene. Talk to someone, cutscene. Walk down a hallway, cutscene. Be watching a long, annoying cutscene, cutscene. No, really, the cutscenes have cutscenes! Aieeee!
They aren't even *pretty* cutscenes -- they're polyganal characters of PSX quality with bad, poorly synced voice acting. Two hours into the game (having racked up a total of maybe 5 minutes of actual play) I was screaming at the console to STOP WITH THE FRICKING CUTSCENES. "Run! Just RUN AWAY! You aren't armed and the enemies are invincible, and you don't even KNOW these people! Why are you sticking around? NOOO, not more speeches, run you idiot!"
Other than that, it seems like a pretty good game.
Today was Tom's Sunday D+D game, but before we could get to it Tom had to talk about how his boss at work was basically torpedoing his career so he could look good 'cutting deadwood'. Tom went on to talk about how his employer (which everyone else at the game also works at) has all these draconic policies that, well, I've never heard of or seen in action. I think it might just be his group, unless it's just not my group.
But then we finally got to the game, and somewhat to my surprise, I didn't die. Lots of other people did die, though, as well as both my animal companions.
Mepechu was followed into the room by the invisible Malvar, and sat staring at the enemy cleric, certain she was doomed. Instead, she and Malvar were walled off by a wall of force -- actually a more logical solution since it blocked anyone else from coming through the crystal.
The next round, Darien and Marcus teleported in and started smiting her, and Mepechu and Malvar teleported through the wall of force and also began smiting. She lost a round casting blade barrier on the people still outside -- which freed the insane dire wolf Piko and the insane fighter Thanos from their hasty bonds and badly wounded them and others, including the dire wolverine Muyo who flew into a rage.
Bella and Xaod dragged Thanos out of the blade barrier, Held him (since he was still insane), and tied him up again. Meanwhile, Muyo and Piko took each other out. Bella and Xaod then wasted three rounds bandaging the animals' wounds and tying up Piko again.
Celeste and Keldor (the NPCs) zipped through the crystal and were trapped by the wall of force, so they went BACK into the crystal and came out in a torture room, waking up the Big Bad Guy whose guard the party had been fighting up to that point. Keldor had already been captured by the crystal at this point, though.
Guinsette scampered over the walls above the blade barrier, using her ring of spider climb, and opened a door to the far side of the tower, which was filled with water. The water didn't spill out or anything, but she didn't want to risk swimming through it, so she went back and tried uselessly to beat through the wall and the wall of force separating her from the actual battle.
The actual battle was going pretty good -- Malvar used Enervate twice to take out some of the evil cleric's dangerous spells, while Marcus zorched her a couple times before getting 'Destruction' cast on him -- he saved, but was horribly wounded, and was trapped against the wall where no one could heal him. Darien and Mepechu kept beating her down with physical attacks. They had to do it twice, though, since she had a heal spell memorized.
Then the door opened. Marcus webbed the room. The lesser evil cleric was at near zero for the second time, although she'd taken Mepechu out of the fight with Power Word: Stun, and ran for it -- only to be attacked and killed by her boss for cowardice. "Coward!" he snarled, floating through the webs, unaffected.
A horrid wilting killed Marcus, and badly hurt Malvar and (the stunned) Mepechu. Celeste tried to fry the main evil guy with spells, then Malvar vooped him in a wall of force to give the party time to regroup. He disintegrated the wall of force and (thanks to a haste) cast Destruction on Darien... but Darien had the orb of silvery death and was unaffected. Darien encased him in another wall of force, from his Rod, which forced him to recall away.
Hooray! The battle was won! The party moved to regroup and teleport out of there -- Xaod and Bella had come up through the crystal, finally, from the floor below -- but oh, wait! Celeste triggered a Symbol of Death, which killed her, and Malvar, and Malvar's familiar, and almost (but not quite) killed the still-stunned Mepechu.
Well, fuck. There went the teleports.
Plan B: All the dead bodies (and the live ones) were stuffed into Malvar's portable hole, along with hastily gathered treasure from the room, and Mepechu used 'Ethereal Jaunt' to take everyone out of the tower and back to the secret passage at the edge of the crater. Everyone except for Xaod, who went back for Thanos, through the crystal... he wanted to save the two unconscious but stable animals as well, but couldn't carry them (they were each Large, about 400 pounds, and Xaod wasn't very strong). Just as he exited the tower, Bella, on lookout, spotted the enemy approaching anew from the far side of the crater, through the main entrance!
Luckily, everyone managed to get out of sight, and he just went back into the tower. Malvar was raised, and teleported the party back to Veluna, where Thanos' insanity was cured. Keldor was not curable, though, even by the high priests of Hieronius. Everyone who'd made all their saves from various trips through the crystal were VERY VERY GLAD.
The party raised the rest of their dead, and tried to plan their next assault. Celeste and Marcus did *not* want to go back in, but Celeste said she would if ordered, since she owed the party for raising her. After a scroll of Commune revealed just how much life would suck if the evil people succeeded, Celeste was duly ordered to accompany the party on a last suicide run to the old temple of elemental evil itself, to hopefully stop the summoning before the SIX DARK GODS imprisoned in it, the worst of which was Tharizdun himself, were set free to walk the prime material plane and make everyone their slaves. The first, who'd killed off half the party almost without trying, would undoubtedly be there with the remainder of his forces -- or at least, was not in his tower in the crater anymore, according to Hieronius.
"Gee, I guess we're not going back for that paladin we left with the mind flayer."
"Ask your god if I have time to take a couple weeks and scribe a bunch of spells into my book."
"He says no."
"So, um, I'm still using half of a +2 double longsword... do you think you could get me a better weapon while we're here?"
last session next session
Dave, who plays Darien, was really really angry that a bunch of people had died and we'd basically failed the mission, and wanted to end the game instantly on the spot. No one else agreed with him, though -- we've been playing this module for more than a year, and by god we're at LEAST going to all die trying to finish it.
