Training to face Oblivion

Part of the journals from Wizardry Online! You can view the rest here!

With Dwark looking into further leads to chase down the "mysterious four", we received a quest from the elf priestess Caladre to recover a soul gem from a nearby underground shrine called "the Temple of Oblivion". The crumbling, claustrophobic tunnels are littered with traps and are home to powerful spirits, zombies, demonic imps and conjurers who are (despite our newly upgraded gear) too dangerous to deal with. Even more annoying is that like the Golden Dragon Ruins, this place has barriers blocked by riddles that can only be solved by exploring each passage for historic slates.

Despite that I managed to get Caanon and Quark past the first barrier and they made it all the way to the second floor by luring each guardian spirit (in each barrier) one by one. The zombies are comparatively the safest to deal with as thier slow gait still makes them easy spear fodder and the majority of the paths are linear.

Still, they've come across a chamber with "light spirits" which are too strong to push past so they returned to town to train up a bit first. Fortunately Caladre isn't in a hurry for that gem, so Quark and Caanon have been hunting the cursed coins back at Aria, as well as more Bullspawn (with the porkul thief Arsenic and elf mage Helga) to gain the strength needed to face the horrors still awaiting them in the temple. Selenka has also finished helping Mighty Dog at Deltis Keep and is now assisting the remainder of the cavalry unit at the Aria entryway, while I've continued culling the numbers of Zule back at the Golden Dragon Ruins. It is worth noting that our masked "friend" Arahawi was also in the Temple sometime before us as he took the soul lantern of a spirit there. Tried questioning him on the matter but he seems content on just giving out free tarot card readings in town while avoiding questions.

If only we could train like Stephen Amell!

-Thanam

As an OOC note: The multiclassing system sounds really interesting here. Quark switched from priest to mage and back (having gained skills/levels between each switch) and it looks like you can bring a number of skills from your previous profession over to your new one. Even better you can "grandfather" skills by bringing skills further down the skill tree back to the original class saving you points from any skills you didn't use higher up but previously needed to unlock. Powerplaying sounds like a key mechanic here, the only draw back is each time you change you require 7 class stones of the relevant class which only drop from monsters in... the Temple of Oblivion. :P

Bounty Hunting in the Caligrase Sewers

Part of the journals from Wizardry Online! You can view the rest here!

Received our first task from Dwark the dwarf, guild master in Illfalo Port to hunt down the Black Rose bandits in Caligrase Sewers. There were many other adventurers there upon our arrival, mostly new recruits like ourselves from the looks of it. The area is more or less in four parts, accessible in order.

Zone 1: Entryway
Slow moving zombies and large beetles predominantly lurk here, all of whom are easily avoided. After pressing four buttons the hall opened up allowing further exploration after defeating 5 slow but poisonous zombies.

Zone 2: Dark Halls
Highwaymen and bandits patrol the deeper halls, but again they follow predictable paths and are easy to bypass. Access to the next hall was blocked by a large bug catching chamber. Had to clean it out before being able to progress. Should note Thanam got himself trapped in one of the dark rooms here with a bunch of zombies. Fortunately his traps and knife sorted them out, which seemed to unlock the exit door.

Zone 3: Bridge over Drains
With stronger zombies lurking below and traps on the bridge this was a bit tougher. The high road was ultimately easier to navigate, but I needed to backtrack to search the lower drains for pieces of a lever in the muck. Giant frogs and what looked like a werewolf also lurked down here. Did not want to tangle with that for sure.

Zone 4: End of Circuit
After the bridge was a small kobold camp. Fast moving critters but again easily outrun. Entrance to the Black Rose lair was not far past this but their four man band put up a good fight when all together. Was forced to fight them separately, especially Black Rose herself (?). She looked very much like a man. There was also a beacon to return to town nearby and a path back to the Entryway.

She was quite scary indeed.

With that task complete we returned to town to report in. Not a very profitable run however. I think the elf will have to sleep in the stables tonight.

-Caanon