Pandora

Party Order: Edgar the Spider Cronk Rufindel Atramor Nyx

"Rufindel, please get your healing mojo back!" Nyx staggers and sways as she pummels the Swordsman with her book. As she staggers and sways she believes she is starting to hallucinate. A little spider is staring straight at her.... and appears to be... talking to her... "I am the Lord Gilgenthaltoremnanansgerorth, devourer of worlds, spinner of false realities, weaver of lies! You have summoned me!" "Aww, look, it's an itsy bitsy spider! And he talks! Naaaww, he's so cute. I shall call you Edgar and we shall fight together and have lots of fun. " Nyx, with some effort from still feeling faint, stoops down to the little spider and tickles him in an area that might be behind his ears, according to page 5472 of her great book. "Hihihihi, alright, you can call me Egdar. " giggles the little spider. Pleased with her new friend, Nyx pauses to down a potion, staying resolutely in the back row. Edgar, the cute little spider, pepares to pounce on Crossbowman A from the front row.

"Indeed it isn't, Rogue, and my black magic is most effective, particularly against the likes of you...."

"All sounding good, guys. Rufindel, if you could heal Atramor (if only to stop his whining ) that'd be great, although if you could whip up a Miracle, that'd be a whole lot better. I shall move on to another target and try to finish off Swordsman A with Darkness magic, from the back row." Party Order: Cronk Atramor Rufindel Nyx

Happy Birthday CopMike! Have a wonderful day duuuuuuuuuuuuuude, with much beer drunk from large PaB cups! Looking forward to seeing you again this year.

"I do think we need to re-group, but with so many enemies, and thus free hits, I hope we can sit it out until we thin their numbers a little more. I think those of us with low health will need to stick to the back row for now, and I'm still hoping Rufindel pulls a miracle out of the bag. Rufindel does need to heal himself, though (which I am sure he will do from the back row). I think you should bash this round Cronk, hoping that you can finish the Pikeman off. I shall once again aim Darkness magic at the Sniper from the back row. Fingers crossed. Again."

I was about to post Nyx's response/ plan when I read this salient post:- As all my attacks in this battle have been from the back row, should I not therefore have been taking half damage from the free hits? And therefore (before I drink a potion) should I not have a whole lot more health than the pitiful 2 I have right now? P.S. Zepher - hope you're enjoying France!

Big congratulations to Ricecracker and Rick! Both very well deserved promotions!

"Gah, and ow. I'm still going after the Sniper - Darkness, back row, and all that. Rufindel, I'm feeling a little woozy, could you possibly heal me please?" Nyx sways a little, but brandishes her book with steely determination. Party Order: Cronk Atramor Rufindel Nyx

No, he was the only Townie in a game full of scum in Prison Riot! - that was poetic.

"Easy boys, there are plenty of enemies to go around. So let's go back to attack position alpha, or delta, or whatever we were doing before. I'm going back to hitting the other Sniper, again with Darkness, and again from the back row. One of you should certainly try to finish Barr, and then.... oh just hit someone really hard - it'll make you feel better." Party Order: Cronk Nyx Atramor Rufindel

"Yup, let's all have a go at Barr Handle, why not? I shall obviously cast Darkness on him from the back row, just watch your health next round Rufindel, you may need to heal again soon." Nyx looks thoughtfully at her book, which was a most unusual, yet seemingly effective weapon. No, you didn't, we still have a loooong way to go! Also, my Power is now 28, thanks to my new weapon. My fault for not changing it in my sig, sorry.

"I agree Cronk, and I agree that you should indeed bash. So we still have 10 enemies, but as two won't target for free hits, we should only have one free hit each. My concern is that if Atramor receives damage from his target, then that coupled with any free hit will be enough to knock him out. The best course of action that I can see is that Rufindel tries to heal Atramor, and Cronk will need to absorb an extra free hit. It's logical, and you are good at absorbing the blows, I hope you don't mind Cronk. Once again I will target the Sniper A with my Darkness magic from the back row. If there are any glaring holes in my logic then please tell me." Party Order: Cronk Nyx Atramor Rufindel

Nyx surveys the Wolfgang, noting that they didn't seem too confident now that their leader had run away. She counts the ten enemies, assessing which one she'd like to punch in the face first, and then with a weary sigh she shakes a few more bits of dead frog out of her hair and plans the opening gambit with her allies. "To my mind we would definitely not want Barr Handle, the two Swordsmen and possibly the Pikeman to be dishing out free hits. This notwithstanding, I plan to initially focus on the Snipers - their special will not hurt me at all as I have no SP, so that makes sense to me. Cronk, as our heaviest hitter and best defender, I would feel most confident if you gave that rapscallion Barr Handle a lesson in manners. Rufindel, Atramor, choose whomever you wish. As I alluded earlier, I shall cast Darkness magic on Sniper A from the back row, using the power of my new book (which is a fascinating read by the way, and has lots of pretty pictures of gruesome things doing gruesome things to other gruesome things). Let's hope for a few visits from Cronk's beautiful angel and a few miracles from Rufindel. " Party Order: Cronk Atramor Nyx Rufindel

Yo scuba! I was just in the middle of posting (and taking a bit of time over it) and you just jumped in with a battle! Surely you would have seen that I was posting????? Surely?

Nyx turns to her team-mates for their opinions and counsel. "It would seem that we are facing an impossible fight, and much as I feel in my heart this is the wrong thing to do, I fear we have no choice but to hand the damnable keystone to Dozenhands. Have any of you other ideas? Can anyone see another way out of this? I don't think we could get to the land where the vault the keystone unlocks is, so I don;t think we're necessarily losing anything (and we can all assume the vault contained a big monster and no loot, right?), but I just don't like helping these guttersnipes. Please, friends, any other ideas?"

Before she forgets (even more than she already has ), and completely surreptitiously so that the Wolfgang don't see, Nyx tosses a bone each to Cronk and Atramor, and 3 Gold to Cronk and Rufindel, 2 Gold to Atramor and keeps 2 Gold for herself. That done, she fixes Donny with a smile of pure loveliness and benevolence. "Donny, how fabulous to meet you, I've heard chitter-chatter about you around Heroica - rumours and so forth. Don't mind the stuff in my hair, it's just the remains of the last creepy-crawlie who tried to face me down. It really would be in your best interests to listen to lovely Mr Cronk here. We don't want anyone as an enemy, but those who end up our enemies, well let's just say they aren't our enemies very long. I'm really quite tired, today has been quite draining so far and it's taken us quite a bit of effort just to determine that this is a keystone - which you seem to know off the bat. What I would really like to happen is that you tell us everything you know about the keystone, and if you do then we will consider letting you walk away from this." Nyx continues smiling throughout, maintaining an expression of utter innocence and kindness.

"I'm kind of hoping the Wolfgang will have just wandered off by now, but yeah if there's another way out of here, that'd be handy. So it's a ridiculous idea to go to Strivvi (apparently), but I don't think going back to Acting Captain Patricia and saying 'Hey, I know we've been gone ages, but we found this Keystone to a hidden vault in a city faaaar away, that we have no hope of getting to - oh the guards? Dunno about them, sorry' will garner any rejoicing. We know the guards were disappearing from the docks area, and we know there's a connection between a missing guard and Strivvi (the keystone and a guard's helmet were found together) and this dude tells us that there are slavers in Strivvi. It seems plausible to me that the guards are being abducted and exported as slaves, but I think we're going to need some evidence for our employers to believe us. So, I suggest that we find a way out of here (bypassing the Wolfgang) and investigate the docks area further. If we still come up empty handed, then we can go and talk to Acting Captain Patricia."

Make that two! Big, big congratulations to you Yatkuu, you built a great model, and the journey has been absolutely fascinating to follow. Enjoy some celebrations!

"Oh, then I guess it's back to the docks with us, to either investigate further or find a boat to Strivvi wherever that is. If we get to keep the Magnifying Glass, then Atramor can have it and he can be our official trap finder. "

" I think we can assume we'll get depressed. And then have our arses kicked. I agree Rufindel, let's go back to where the drunken guy was and see if we can find somewhere to apply this Strivvian Keystone."

"Hurrah, we have been successful in our quest to find an everyday item mislaid by a forgetful old man! We only had to face being blown up and fight off hoards of creepy crawlies... I really hope he can now inform us better about this Strange Amulet... "

"No, I didn't like that much either, but thank you for your healing, it is a very generous and kind thing for you to do, Cronk. I guess if we're all definitely healed and prepared for the unexpected, we should carefully open the final chest."

I actually think that's still too much. I know I'm completely biased, as I am now the proud owner of said item, but three Ether is a lot. Especially if you are a Mage, whose bread and butter combat is Ether based. We consume (and thus have to replace) more Ether than the other classes, and that comes with an inherent cost in replacing it. Add to that the fact that we really need more than one gem (and a decent weapon like the other classes) to be in any way combat-effective, and it begins to appear unfair. While it's really nice to have a combat pet, spending 3 Ether (actually, to my mind, any Ether) makes it far less attractive to use when I could be spending that Ether on spells, or even end up consuming it unintentionally with a counter-attack. I don't wish to sound petulant, but I do think these are fair points, and I don't think players should be penalised for being lucky.

"Yeah, take that you smelly snake! And... ... uuhhm, would there be any serious objection to me keeping the book? I'm completely open to reasoning from others. But it better be really convincing reasoning, really, 'cause I really want that book." Nyx realises that she is clutching the book tightly, so tightly her pale knuckles are becoming translucent. She also realises she is almost brandishing it as a weapon towards her friends. With a light shake of her hair, she composes herself, and smiles more warmly, not wishing to upset people she not only depends upon but also cares about. "So, uhm, any particular requests for the Venoms? I'm thinking the Paralysing Venom for Cronk, and the garden-variety Venoms for Rufindel and Atramor?"