The Scars of Velious, part 1 (con't.)

Mark's Comments, con't.: Running by the pirates and continuing to hug the shore, I then found a natural ice bridge that connected to an island. Naturally, I ran to check it out. You can see in the screen above and to the left that the ice bridge had yet more gnome pirates on it. You're probably just as bored with them by now as I was. So it's see ya Gramps! as I blow on by them.

The island turns out to be pretty cool. It has this wicked looking tower (center screen) guarded by these masses of whirling bones called Shadow Guardians. These give me pause, not because they're red to me — everything is — but because they're Undead. The Undead can often see through spells of invisibility. In other words, my cover may be blown.

I decide to test this. I find a stray pile of whirling bones and walk up and wait for it to inflict terrific damage to me, after which I will run as if I had the Spirit of a Formula One Race Car spell in effect. I walk up to the Shadow Guardian and wait and...nothing! Coolness! They can't see me! Yeehaw! I'm kicking ass and taking names now, in a figurative sense.

I now run around the perimeter of the tower and look for a door. There isn't an obvious one, so I approach a discolored part of the wall that looks like it's made of ice. "Zoning...please wait." Yep, I found the entrance. I was greeted with the image you see below.

Jarn the Jarninator, a level 40 necromancer, is pulling some nasty looking wraiths and killing them one at a time. He warns me not to go in since the tower is full of some high level undead creatures that will spot me. I agree, and then moments later inexplicably go farther in.

Call me brave, call me adventursome, or just call me stupid, because that's what I was. In the screenshot above you can see a second doorway. That's what I went through and immediately slid into a pit. Apparently the evil designers at Verant who discriminate against halflings booby-trapped this area. So I fall into the damned pit and just then my Camouflage spell wears off. Yes, the stars are aligning and getting ready to aim their deadliest cosmic rays at me. But hey, the pit's empty except for some piles of bones...this could be a break for me. Wait a second — did I say "piles of bones!" Oh no! I know what that means! They promptly come to life, attack me, and kill me as I try to cast a Gate spell and escape.

When you die you return to your bind point, which for me is in Kunark of all places. That's when I get a message from Jarn: "Did you fall into the pit?" Yes Jarn, I did. "I thought so. Everyone does their first time in that room." Now he tells me!

Tomorrow's installment: Corpse retrieval and then more sightseeing.

December 20, 2000