Journey of the Kai Marathon, Day Nine

When we last saw Lone Wolf, he was dead in the Caverns of Kalte. He took 1 point of damage from a kalkoth, and its venom is Your Adventure Ends Here material. So, I reloaded from a save and played through the book again.

Fast forward: Off course, over land, a baknar and some Eskimo, our brave hero being very not brave and very un-heroic, falling into a cave, jumping over some ice. This time, I attack those old men to steal their dinner… and get a blue triangle keycard. Hey, I know what this is for!

I scare off a snow snake on a cliff, then pick a different tunnel and sneak past a sleeping baknar… and find myself back in the room with the door. I rummage through the skeletons and fight the snake again, coming out of it with a silver key and a giant diamond, but also lightly injured because I didn’t roll so lucky this time. But, I do have a blue keycard from the old men in the cave, so I’m spared a fight with a venomous lion.

And, I’m in the fortress proper!

The entryway is a trash heap, where I find a coil of rope that takes up 2 backpack spaces. But when climbing mountains and exploring caves, that’s gotta be useful at some point! A bit further along, I find a room with a bunch of potions which I don’t take with me since my backpack is already full, then I find a second room with a magical +2 helmet. I toss out my old helmet (+2 endurance) for this one. Nice!

Moving on, I find my way to a landing which has an obvious secret panel. Behind it is a swirly gateway to the realm of demons, the same which are trapped in those overhead lights. Sounds like a great place to visit, so I step inside!

I find myself in a temple. A statue comes to life and starts lumbering toward me. I know that books like this, such a creature usually has the magic gem that I need, but then again maybe not! I run.

I stop for wind and find myself in a jail cell block, which is guarded by a barbarian who fortunately was not paying attention to my clomping nor to my wheezing and panting. I wander the cells, and one of the prisoners is a wizard of the same order as my old friend Banedon from book 1. The wizard tells me that Vonotar kidnapped him so as to get teleported here to Kalte, and is apparently off the Darklords’ Christmas list since their invasion tanked. That’s good; it means he probably isn’t protected by anything tougher than barbarians. The good news continues: Vonotar has this wizard’s magic staff of teleportation too, so I won’t have to walk back to the ship after I kill Vonotar.

Together, we creep down a hallway and encounter the kitchen. I one-shot-kill the barbarian there, and the wizard starts rummaging the cabinets for herbs.  And get this: he crafts me a healing potion, makes up a sleep-gas bomb with some other herbs, and packs his pockets with magical reagents. Nice! I know now to never underestimate herbalists in this world.

We creep our way down another hallway, and find… Vonotar in a big ol’ throne room.

The wizard distracts him by engaging in psychic battle, while Vonotar distracts me with this horrible tentacle monster thing. Fortunately, the Sommerswerd is absurdly O.P. and the thing goes down in two hits. Vonotar comes at me with a bolt of magical energy, forgetting that the Sommerswerd also consumes magic; and the wizard puts Vonotar down in one hit with a fistful of herbs that turn into an entanglement spell. I like this guy!

And that’s it; turn to 350. The wizard was great, the boss fight was easy, the Sommerwerd is O.P., and now that bastard is in prison. I’m assured that the prison is 100% totally inescapable, so we’ll never be hearing from  Vonotar again. No-sir-ee!