Session 19

Down the stairs I do a little exploring... I've lost track of what basement this is now... something like 6 or 7 I guess...

I come to a room with a green jelly wall and a red jelly wall. There's corresponding pressure pads on the floor too.

I decide to try the red plate first and sure enough the red jelly disintigrates! Eager to see if this has opened the path back on the previous floor (currently blocked by a similar red wall) I scamper up the stairs again... Alas, it was a waste of time - I'm still trapped.

Well, not a COMPLETE waste of time actually. The team have decided that as a result of all this running around they're ready to rest! They must've been very NEARLY tired before when they refused.

Back down again and I go to have a poke around in the new area the red wall revealed. There's not much back here... except a crap-load of warniaks! Gah! They're in my hair! Oh crumbs!!!

Since I've been fighting these monsters for ages now, you'd've thought I'd've got tough enough that they don't bother me any more. But the level 2 and 3 warniaks are still quite capable of killing my team off if I'm not careful!

Indeed, this crowd take Tom and Mell down before I can chop them up!

During the fight I notice something I need to come back to have a look into later. The Space-cat-people's magic works by throwing special seeds at people. No seeds, no spells. But since this is all the seeds are any use for, I've given them all to Sira the Space-cat-lady wizard. Only some of the magical weapons seem to fire seeds when they're used - even if it's by people on the team who aren't carrying any. I wonder if this is because the weapons contain these seeds somehow or if the characters using them are dipping into Sira's seed-bag... It doesn't make a HUGE difference at the moment since Sira has an enormous quantity of seeds and so isn't going to be stranded, unable to do spells any time soon. But eventually I imagine there'll be a time when she doesn't have many and I'll be casually using them up without knowing by firing lightnings out of daggers...

Anyway, Hof and the two cat ladies survive the fight and peer further into the next chamber. As the gloom recedes they discover... More Warniaks.

"Come on then, we can deal with these stupid monsters!" Dirr probably cries to her companions. "Tom and Mellthas wouldn't want us to give up! Hoorah!"

"Hoorah!" chorus Sira and Hofstedt! Gallantly the three of them charge the swarm of flapping horrors.

"outch!" exclaims one of them as he's stung on the arm by a beastie. "That really hurts!" and from here he falls into a panic and runs away.

"ooh!" complains the the other as she's poked on the nose. "That's quite unpleasant!" then she too descends into a panic addled quivering jelly.

"Cheers guys. Really helpful" responds Dirr as she has to single handedly slay the rest of the monsters.

When characters panic they just flee out of the combat grid. But there's no lasting penalty, so when Dirr finished the monsters she finds the other who stood just behind her saying "Oh, you did it then? How splendid" and "Yes, I was going to help, but I just remembered that actually I had probably left the oven on... And then I went to check but there's a wall I remember so I came back"

Tutting and deciding not to pursue this conversation, Dirr walks to the back of the Warniak chamber and finds a lovely chest full of treasure! What's this though? Just a pair of boots and a crummy shield? Why the heck did I have to fight so hard for THAT?

No one's tired yet, but I decide to go get a cup of tea (leaving the game running) to give them a chance to become exhausted since there's no way back to go get help and Sira's healing spell will only go so far.

Once I've got my cuppa and a slice of toast, we rest and head for the green-wall-with-pressure-plate.

As expected, the plate vanishes the green wall and the gang wander through it down a long corridor into a huge chamber. Up ahead I can see blocks of red-wall cells containing the beedy eyes of demons. As we close in Dirr points out that after the pummelling we took from the last demon, if this lot got out we'd be totally screwed - and I'm inclined to agree.

After giving the room the once over, the exact situation is this: There are 4 blocks of Red-wall arranged close together in a square - so that the path in between them all forms a cross shape. Inside the red-wall blocks are crap-loads of demons - the predator demons, not the "fear" demons. To the north, there's a green wall with a dramatic prominade behind it, lined with pot-plants (or what would once've been pot plants except for the fact that it's been 400 years since they've been watered)

On the ground between the demon's cells are a scattering of green and red pressure plates.

I reckon it's a safe bet that stepping on any of the red plates will release the demons - but that I need to hit all the green ones to proceed.

I wonder what circumstances have lead to these green and red gelatinous walls being everywhere. And why these demons are trapped in them.

Presumably the demons have been in their red rooms for the whole time since the end of the war - but where they trapped in there to protect the world from them? Or were the evil druids so hardcore that they summoned demons from hell to act as their guard dogs?

Maybe the gel walls have been here since before the war? Maybe the ancient druids thought nothing of having demons around the place and used to cage them up in these red-chambers all the time back in the day.

Well, whatever the reason, the game here is to tip-toe between the red plates in order to press all the green ones.

It's actually surprisingly fun - a little bit of precision walking's a lot more interesting than the previous puzzles I've undertaken in this dungeon. And having the demons banging up against their prison walls trying to get to me - willing me to mess up with their gaze - is surprisingly pressuring! Plus, as I weave my way in amongst the two-tone scattering, the last of my torches goes out! This puts the pressure on to be even more careful as I delicately step around the panels - since now I can't see what colour they're going to be until I'm almost upon them!

Eventually the team hear a clunking sound away to the north - indicating that I've stepped on all the right plates and can leave.

I contemplate freeing the demons and running away before they can grab me. But I probably shouldn't since they ARE demons and they're at best angry - but more probably they've gone insane from being cooped up in their little prisons for so long. And I don't know if the remaining druids on the floors far above would appreciate it if one day a bunch of mad demons find their way into the library and start ripping people up like damp kitchen roll.

Down the dramatic promenade (which is quite a strong description for a regular passage, but lined with pot plants) I pass another pair of red and green plates with corresponding walls. But since I can walk past them I decide to give them a miss for now. I shall get a feel for the lay-out of this floor before I start beggaring around with any more levers, pressure plates and buttons etc.

Further down and round a corner I come to a room with a stair-case down on the far side, a cadged door to the right and a blue pressure plate in the middle.

Interesting - there's no blue jelly wall... I wonder what this does...

And Dirr wonders the same. As I cross the threshold of the room she pipes up "Ah! Well! Since we've worked out that red-plates = bad news and green plates = good..."

Had we? I hadn't! I suppose it makes sense now she points it out - but I'd not make the connection in my head. I make a mental note to go back and ONLY try the green plate back up the prominade

"...I wonder what the BLUE plates will do!"

"I don't care WHAT it does, from now on we don't press any plates until we have to..."

"Where's your spirit of adventure Tom! What's going to happen? Is the whole place going to collapse around us?"

"Well I shouldn't think so - I mean, why would druids put in a self-destruct pressure plate just in the middle of a random room?"

"So what's your beef?"

"Well I just don't want to release any monsters..."

"TOO LATE!"

Dirr excitedly jumps onto the blue pressure plate (this is actually what happens in game by the way - this isn't another instance of my accidentally doing something and blaming it on Dirr's ineptitude) and the floor collapses. Everything goes black...