The Bard's Tale: Mangar's Tower, part three

 

Welcome to Mangar's penthouse suite! We're not ready yet.

Storm giants near the foyer weed out level 16 wimps. Like us.

 

To prep, we train on floor 4, with a save state at the start in case things go badly. The catacombs might have far easier encounters for more reliable XP, but the monsters in the tower have cool loot.

Of course, fighting them is risky! 

A trifecta of terror

 

Some of the more troublesome monsters are:

• Greater Demons appear in groups, usually hit, and possess party members on touch, but they don't often live long enough to benefit the demon as they also breathe fire for 100+ per party member. Never fight them.
• Red Dragons breathe fire for 100+ damage per party member. Lucklaran helps resist, but it's no guarantee that everyone survives this, especially when they show in packs.
• Titans hit accurately for 60+ points of damage.
• Cloud Giants are like Titans but even more accurate, more damaging, and nothing seems to kill them except Scribe's Deathstrike spell.
• Wizards love to summon more demons. Regular demons, but you don't want those either.
• Master Ninjas will instantly kill anyone they hit. But death is curable with Wizard magic at this point; just expensive.
• Mongos cast Stone, instantly ruining one party member if it works. It's worse than death, because you must leave the dungeon and go to a temple to cure it!
• Beholders cast deadly magic including Deathstrike, an instant kill to a single victim.
• Master Conjurors love spamming group-damaging magic against your party, and tend to tank your own return fire.
• Basilisks inflict Stone on hit. 
• Sorcerers can summon Red Dragons.
• Vampire Lords cast Deathstrike, tank Repel Dead magic, and drain levels on hit. Again, never fight them.

 

And some of the stuff I found includes:

• Arc's Eye - Unlimited casts of Sorcerer Sight. Pointless; the space it takes up isn't worth the meager SP saved by having it.
• Flame Horn - An awesome, reusable bard weapon that does massive group damage. Out-damages Frost Horn and Mind Blade.
• Dag Stone - Unlimited magic light. Not bad, given the prevalence of darkness.
• Troll Ring - Regenerates HP far too slowly to be worth it.
• Ogrewand - Summons an ogre. I don't know why you'd want this.
• Diamond Helm - Nothing fancy; just a minor5 upgrade to the Adamantium Helm, but for paladins only!
• Mage Figurine - Summons a Master Wizard once. Doesn't seem very good; he just cast mysterious spells that did nothing and then got his throat cut by a ninja.
• Spiritdrum - Bard-only item that summons a lesser demon. Worthless.
• Pipes of Pan - AC-lowering bard instrument that also provides free magic light.
• Powerstaff - Mage-only weapon that lightly singes a group of enemies in combat. Worthless.
• Thief Dagger - No idea, because only rogues can use it and mine is benched for this game.
• Conjurstaff - Effectively doubles the SP of whoever equips it. One of the best finds.
• Staff of Lor - No idea. Nobody can use it!
• Deathring -  Possesses a dead party member. Afterwards, the dispossess spell restores them to normal.
• Dragonwand - Group-targeting damage. Outdamages Mind Blade. 

 

Two successful trips with over 100,000 XP gained earns newly-Wizarding Houdini a few catch-up levels, brings Ahab and Sunfall to level 17, and gains Magic Mike, Scribe, and Viila nothing at all, who remain at levels 10-11. It's hard to overstate just how slowly wizards gain levels; Ahab and Sunfall at their current levels have in total over a million XP each, while my wizards would need 900,000XP accumulated just to reach 12, not counting the XP gained in prior spellcasting classes!

To be continued! This is basically over, right?