The Gaming Den

Yeah, also recommend avoiding it.

Pip avoids the Spif seeds for now.

We can go back out north and take a long detour to check out the rooms on the right side, but it probably makes more sense to check the immediately accessible 81 first:

This vast chamber with its high ceiling has, would you believe, a second long thin room actually built in the middle of its floor. (The Mad Architect strikes again!) There are two doors into this thin room, one at the western end, one at the east. Each is guarded by a smallish Winzing, a squat stubby-winged creature with leathery skin and a sword that's not much longer than a dagger.

The Winzings will not attack unless you try to enter 117. If, however, you do and get into a hassle, it's as well to know the Winzing you'll be fighting has 15 LIFE POINTS, hits on 7 and does +1 damage with that little sword. You don't HAVE to go to 117, of course, but there's nothing else in 81, so your only other option is to return to 135.

Do we want to fight our way past into 117?

It seems like an easy enough fight, so go stab the Winzings.

Fight the winzings.

Fight a winzig.

The phrasing implies that only the one guarding the door we go to will bother to fight us, which is... odd.

Omegonthesane wrote:The phrasing implies that only the one guarding the door we go to will bother to fight us, which is... odd.

Possibly they're magically-tied to the door they're guarding and can't move far from it. When it comes to odd stuff in this series, this one isn't too far out there compared to some of the others we've seen.

Winzig rolls 5, Pip rolls 8. Pip strikes first.

COMBAT LOG:

Pip rolls 2 and misses.
Winzig rolls 10 and hits for 3+1-4 = no damage.
Pip rolls 7 and hits for 3+5+5 (magic coin) =13 damage.
Winzig is knocked out.

Pip enters the row of rooms that make up 117:

You have entered a 10' x 10' chamber and the door behind you turns out to be one-way, so you can't use it to get back out.

What's more, you have fallen down a pit. It's not difficult to climb out again, even if you don't have a rope, but you lose one die roll of LIFE POINTS.

The door north is also one-way and leads back to 81, but you cannot use it to enter the room again.

The door ahead leads to 94.

Damage roll = 4. Pip is now at 20/53.

Do we want to press on to the next door ahead?

QUEST JOURNAL:

Pip's LIFE POINTS: 20/53
Permanent Life Points: 9

SPEED: 11/22

EQUIPMENT CARRIED:
1. Excalibur Jr. (hits on 4, damage +5)
2. Dragonskin Jacket (damage taken -4)
3. Double-headed Copper Coin (can be used to win any gambling games)
4. Talisman of Wandering Monster Protection (2 charges remaining)
5. Poison Antidote (6 doses)
6. Lamp
7. Key to the Gateway of the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead
8. Healing Salve (5 applications)
9. Magic coin (+5 damage to successful physical attack or spell, once per combat)
10. Magic coin (+5 damage to successful physical attack or spell, once per combat)
11.
12. Collapsible Shield (negates every third blow; does not affect SPEED)

MONEY: 1188 GP

MAGIC:
PANIC 3/3
POW 3/3
PILL 3/3
PAD 3/3
PIP 2/3
PIN 3/3
PiR2 3/3
INVISIBILITY 1/1
Firefingers 19/21 (must spend 3 LP to re-cast the spell to use the last 10)
Fireballs 2/2
PLoP 3/3
PID 3/3
PALS 2/3
PIL 1/3
POPS 3/3

EXPERIENCE POINTS: 14
ENEMIES DEFEATED:
Giant Danish Spider
3 Ghouls
110 Ants
4 Nerds
Creeping Jello
4 Orcs
Shark
Little Old Lady Monster
5 Animated Skeletons
4 Kobolds
2 Guards
Treasure Room Nerd
Twisted Mirror Image
Giant Poisonous Spider
2 Poison Dwarves
2 Medusas
2 Colls
Magic Zapper
3 Manticores
2 Golls
Winzig
PUZZLES SOLVES: 2

No. of Deaths:
1. Suffocated in smoke-filled room

ONWARD!

Keep on truckin', Pip.

You have entered a 10' x10' chamber and the door behind you turns out to be one-way, so you can't use it to get back out. What's more, you have fallen down a pit. It's not difficult to climb out again, even if you don't have a rope, but you lose one die roll of LIFE POINTS.

The door north is also one-way and leads back to 81, but you cannot use it to enter the room again.

The door ahead leads to 122.

Pretty much the exact same thing. It seems likely that we may have to go through of series of these pit rooms.....

Damage roll = 3. Pip is at 17 LP.

Do we want to persist all the way through and hope there's something worthwhile at the end? Or quit before we die from falling into too many pits?

Persist! We can always go back and eat some of those Spif seeds.

Agreed.

You have entered a 10' x 10' chamber and the door behind you turns out to be one-way, so you can't use it to get back out. What's more, you have fallen down a pit. It's not difficult to climb out again, even if you don't have a rope, but you lose one die roll of LIFE POINTS.

The door north is also one-way and leads back to 81, but you cannot use it to enter the room again.

The door ahead leads to 131.

As feared, more of the same.....

Damage roll = 6!

The next fall can potentially knock Pip out, so I'm going to use up 2 units of Healing Salve to recover those 6 LP.

Pressing on (there'd better be something good after all this)....

You have entered a 10' x 10' chamber and the door behind you turns out to be one-way, so you can't use it to get back out. What's more, you have fallen down a pit. It's not difficult to climb out again, even if you don't have a rope, but you lose two dice rolls of LIFE POINTS.

The door north is also one-way and leads back to 81, but you cannot use it to enter the room again.

The door ahead leads to 99.

You'd think Pip would be ready for the pit trap after 3 of the same in a row but noooo, there's no way to avoid falling in.

Worse, it's now TWO dice of damage instead of one!

Dice roll = 6! Pip is now at 11.

Are we sure we want to go on? Pausing here since the overall potential damage level has doubled....

Turn back and go for some Spif seeds.

We still got 3 shots of healing salve right? Burn through those first, make room for spif seeds.
Changed mind. Get outta there, take the spif seeds, turn on the wandering monster amulet and go to 87.

Pip exits back into 81 by the 1-way door and heads back to 135 to grab the Spif seeds.

Roll two dice. Unless you score 10 or better, the Spif will vibrate, in which case you should count to eight then flow away to 14.

If you manage to score 10, 11 or 12, then you should roll one die to find out how many seeds are in the head.

The doors in this chamber lead into the corridor to the north and into 81 to the south.

That's really crappy odds for us.....

Dice roll = 10!! We somehow made it! Really lucky roll....

.....unfortunately, Pip then rolls very badly, scoring a 1, so he only got away with a single Spif seed.

Btw,

the pit rooms aren't really worth the damage, since all they do is teleport Pip straight to 87.

Pip uses up a charge in the Talisman of Wandering Monster Protection and walks to 87 with no encounters.

How interesting. There are stairs in this room, Pip, leading down into the dark depths of 150. There are also three doors, one leading south into a corridor, one north to 113 and one east to 102.

There's no point going south since we came from there.

North, east or down?

QUEST JOURNAL:

Pip's LIFE POINTS: 11/53
Permanent Life Points: 9

SPEED: 11/22

EQUIPMENT CARRIED:
1. Excalibur Jr. (hits on 4, damage +5)
2. Dragonskin Jacket (damage taken -4)
3. Double-headed Copper Coin (can be used to win any gambling games)
4. Talisman of Wandering Monster Protection (1 charge remaining)
5. Poison Antidote (6 doses)
6. Lamp
7. Key to the Gateway of the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead
8. Healing Salve (3 applications)
9. Magic coin (+5 damage to successful physical attack or spell, once per combat)
10. Magic coin (+5 damage to successful physical attack or spell, once per combat)
11. Spif Seed (restores LP to max when swallowed)
12. Collapsible Shield (negates every third blow; does not affect SPEED)

MONEY: 1188 GP

MAGIC:
PANIC 3/3
POW 3/3
PILL 3/3
PAD 3/3
PIP 2/3
PIN 3/3
PiR2 3/3
INVISIBILITY 1/1
Firefingers 19/21 (must spend 3 LP to re-cast the spell to use the last 10)
Fireballs 2/2
PLoP 3/3
PID 3/3
PALS 2/3
PIL 1/3
POPS 3/3

EXPERIENCE POINTS: 14
ENEMIES DEFEATED:
Giant Danish Spider
3 Ghouls
110 Ants
4 Nerds
Creeping Jello
4 Orcs
Shark
Little Old Lady Monster
5 Animated Skeletons
4 Kobolds
2 Guards
Treasure Room Nerd
Twisted Mirror Image
Giant Poisonous Spider
2 Poison Dwarves
2 Medusas
2 Colls
Magic Zapper
3 Manticores
2 Golls
Winzig
PUZZLES SOLVES: 2

No. of Deaths:
1. Suffocated in smoke-filled room

Head down.

North.

East!

....

Ok, to avoid a 3 way tie, down.

This isn't really a room at all. The stairs leave off in a twisty bit of corridor with, fortunately, a full plan of Level III drawn facing you on a massive blackboard.

Since you can't very well carry a blackboard around with you for the rest of the adventure, you carefully copy down the plan (wondering who drew it there) and note that you are actually in a spiral corridor that goes on for quite a long way.

This is rather a pity since you will find that in the corridors of this level you must make a Wandering Monster roll every 40 feet (4 squares) and not every 50 as on the level above. Results should be read from the Level 3 Wandering Monster table, in the Appendix.

Now put your best foot forward, turn to the Level III map and good luck.

And we're now at Level 3! That means our Talisman of Wandering Monster Protection won't protect us until we use up the last charge in it.

And there's not only monsters on this level, but random pit traps that are guaranteed to hurt us (monster may be slain before they can do any harm but pit traps do automatic 2d6 damage).

LEVEL 3 WANDERING MONSTERS:

LEVEL THREE MAP:

1) Do we want to activate the Talisman on this level?
2) Which section do we now head for?

Also, if you guys want to go back up the stairs, it's still a valid option since there're 3 more rooms unexplored on Level 2.

Do we still have the anti poison spell? If we are worried about falling into poison spikes, we might want to use it now.

Any vote on actual directions?

170?

Sure, 170.

One vote to use the anti-poison spell and 2 votes to go straight for 170 (which means we bypass a lot of rooms including 147, 167, 160, 173, 176, 179, 190, 193 & 198).

Since no one voted to go through 148, I assume you want to take the long way and circle pass that room to the lower entrance to 170, which means Pip has to go through........13 Wandering Monster rolls, since nobody wants to use the Talisman.

First, Pip casts the spell:

Dice roll = 7 (Success).

That brings Pip's LP down to 8, so I'm going use up all the remaining salve to bring up to 23.

Wandering Monsters rolls:

1) 2 (no encounter)
2) 6 (Pit Trap)

Damage roll = 2. Pip is at 21 LP.

3) 6 again

Damage roll = 7. Pip is now at 15 LP.

4) 8 (5 Vampire Bats)

These things can be killed with one blow each, but they also have a high hit rate (roll of 3 of 2d6). Pip pops down the Spif seed to recover all lost LP before engaging.

Bats roll 9, Pip rolls 7. Bats go first!

COMBAT LOG:

Bat#1 rolls 9 and hits for 6+1-4 = 3 damage. Pip is at 50.
Pip rolls 11 and hits for 7+5 = 12 damage. Bat#1 is killed.
Bat#2 rolls 3 and hits for 0+1-4 = no damage.
Pip rolls 7 and hits for 3+5 = 8 damage. Bat#2 is killed.
Bat#3 rolls 8 and hits for 5+1-4 = 2 damage.....but Pip's collapsible shield blocks it!
Pip rolls 6 and hits for 2+5 = 7 damage. Bat#3 is killed.
Bat#4 rolls 11 and hits for 8+1-4 = 5 damage. Pip is at 45.
Pip rolls 5 and hits for 1+5 = 6 damage. Bat#4 is killed.
Bat#5 rolls 9 and hits for 6+1-4 = 3 damage. Pip is at 42.
Pip rolls 12 and hits for 8+5 = 13 damage. Bat#5 is killed.

If Pip hadn't taken the Spif seed he'd have been knocked out!

Continuing with Wandering Monster rolls:

5) 8 again.

Bats roll 7, Pip rolls 5. Bats go first!

COMBAT LOG:

Bat#1 rolls 4 and hits for 1+1-4 = no damage.
Pip rolls 10 and hits for 6+5 = 11 damage. Bat#1 is killed.
Bat#2 rolls 7 and hits for 4+1-4 = 1 damage. Pip is at 41.
Pip rolls 8 and hits for 4+5 = 9 damage. Bat#2 is killed.
Bat#3 rolls 7 and hits for 4+1-4 = 1 damage.....but Pip's collapsible shield blocks it!
Pip rolls 10 and hits for 6+5 = 11 damage. Bat#3 is killed.
Bat#4 rolls 9 and hits for 6+1-4 = 3 damage. Pip is at 38.
Pip rolls 9 and hits for 5+5 = 10 damage. Bat#4 is killed.
Bat#5 rolls 10 and hits for 7+1-4 = 4 damage. Pip is at 34.
Pip rolls 8 and hits for 4+5 = 9 damage. Bat#5 is killed.

Brutal fight there.....

Pip did gain an additional Permanent LP through the series of mass fights. That's the only good news, since the Bats don't even carry gold.

6) 7 ("Them", whatever they are)

"Them" roll 9, Pip rolls 7. "Them" go first!

COMBAT LOG:

Them roll 10 and hits for 5+5-4 = 6 damage. Pip is at 28.
Pip rolls 9 and hits for 5+5+5 (magic coin) = 15 damage. Them is at 5 and is/are knocked out.

Another painful fight, although the magic coin helped Pip end the fight early. At least this monster does have gold (150).

We've lost nearly half our LP and still have 7 more Wandering Monster rolls to go through. We're also out of heals. Do you guys want to try Sleeping for the first time (or use the Talisman) before I continue?

QUEST JOURNAL:

Pip's LIFE POINTS: 28/54
Permanent Life Points: 10

SPEED: 11/22

EQUIPMENT CARRIED:
1. Excalibur Jr. (hits on 4, damage +5)
2. Dragonskin Jacket (damage taken -4)
3. Double-headed Copper Coin (can be used to win any gambling games)
4. Talisman of Wandering Monster Protection (1 charge remaining)
5. Poison Antidote (6 doses)
6. Lamp
7. Key to the Gateway of the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead
8. Magic coin (+5 damage to successful physical attack or spell, once per combat)
9. Magic coin (+5 damage to successful physical attack or spell, once per combat)
10.
11.
12. Collapsible Shield (negates every third blow; does not affect SPEED)

MONEY: 1338 GP

MAGIC:
PANIC 3/3
POW 3/3
PILL 3/3
PAD 3/3
PIP 1/3
PIN 3/3
PiR2 3/3
INVISIBILITY 1/1
Firefingers 19/21 (must spend 3 LP to re-cast the spell to use the last 10)
Fireballs 2/2
PLoP 3/3
PID 3/3
PALS 2/3
PIL 1/3
POPS 3/3

EXPERIENCE POINTS: 5
ENEMIES DEFEATED:
Giant Danish Spider
3 Ghouls
110 Ants
4 Nerds
Creeping Jello
4 Orcs
Shark
Little Old Lady Monster
5 Animated Skeletons
4 Kobolds
2 Guards
Treasure Room Nerd
Twisted Mirror Image
Giant Poisonous Spider
2 Poison Dwarves
2 Medusas
2 Colls
Magic Zapper
3 Manticores
2 Golls
Winzig
10 Vampire Bats
Them
PUZZLES SOLVES: 2

No. of Deaths:
1. Suffocated in smoke-filled room

Sleep.