10-17-2003, 09:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-31-2012, 11:59 AM by MongoJerry.)
IRENE: THE CAVE / THE MAUSOLEUM / THE CRYPT
"Cool!" said Aliza after she and Irene had killed Bishibosh. "Where to next?"
"Well," said Irene. "I was thinking that we should practice working together for a bit before we start the whole 'saving Cain' thing. There's a cave not far from here with a lot of monsters in it. Want to try that?"
"Sure!" said a chipper Aliza.
In The Cave, Irene and Aliza had their first encounters with archer type monsters (dark rangers), so they had to move much more carefully than they had needed to move before. Still, progress was steady for the most part against normal monsters.
But that changed when they ran into a multishot dark ranger boss with her minion pack. The fight was nasty and Aliza died once (queue a collective 'awww...' -- no, there are no rules against resurrections). The only way to fight the pack was to break it up, and even then it was touch and go. But in the end, Irene and the newly resurrected Aliza were victorious. I took a few screenshots during the fight, but none of them turned out to be any good. Oh, well.
![[Image: N8tKm.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/N8tKm.jpg)
But that fight was nothing compared to the fight against Coldcrow and her minions. Imagine Blood Raven -- only there's six of them and they all shoot cold enchanted arrows. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration -- but only a slight one.
The first thing Irene had to do was break up the pack. She ran around corners, trying to get some of the pack members caught on various cave protuberances while goading one of them to chase her. Leading archers away from their friends is different from leading away most monsters, because how different their AI is. They'll chase you if you get too far away, but if you get too close, they'll run away. So, if Irene just ran up to a ranger, that would cause the ranger to run back to her friends. To isolate a ranger, Irene had to lead the ranger away from her pack a little ways and then run around to the other side of the ranger. That way, when the ranger backed away, the ranger would move even farther away from her pack.
![[Image: Yinpj.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/Yinpj.jpg)
The tactic worked well, and by happenstance, the first pack member to be isolated was Coldcrow herself. Even better, Irene and Aliza successfully cornered her. Coldcrow delivered damage faster than minor healing potions could heal Irene, so Irene had to back off frequently. This worked out well, though. Coldcrow would hit Irene a few times, Irene would back off, Coldcrow would switch to shooting at Aliza a few times, Irene would charge forward, and Coldcrow would attack Irene again, allowing Aliza to heal. This went on for a bit, and Coldcrow was eventually taken down. Her minions were taken down similarly.
![[Image: PxWdv.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/PxWdv.jpg)
Irene went down into The Cave Level 2 and found two zombie boss packs. *cackle* Zombie boss packs = good experience and not much danger. Still, I found out something interesting. I don't know how well you can see it, but the mana burn zombie boss above has an orange life leech swirl going. When I first saw that the boss was mana burn enchanted, I laughed, because I was thinking that it didn't matter if the boss took Irene's mana. But then I realized that the zombie was turning the mana he drained from Irene into life for himself. Irene and Aliza dealt damage faster than the zombie could heal himself, but there was no doubt that he was being healed by his attacks. I never knew that mana burn monsters did that.
Irene and Aliza managed to do a full clear of The Cave and emptied the gold chest down in level 2.
"Hey!" said Irene. "Want to check out that mausoleum and crypt in the Burial Grounds?"
"Yeah!" said Aliza. "That sounds like fun!"
"OK..." said Irene, while thinking that Aliza had a strange idea of "fun."
![[Image: E2Jzj.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/E2Jzj.jpg)
Irene and Aliza had an easy time clearing out The Mausoleum and then headed to The Crypt. What happened there? All I can say is Bonebreaker's hits hurt and his minions didn't exactly pull their punches, either. Irene fought some of the minions through a doorway while Aliza shot arrows at them from a safe distance. This strategy allowed Irene and Aliza to fight pack members one-on-one. However, when Bonebreaker himself came to the doorway, Irene had to back off and resort to running around corners to break up the remainder of the pack.
Still, in time, Irene and Aliza successfully cleared the Mausoleum and The Crypt. In case you're keeping score, that means that they've managed to do full clears of everything up to the entrance to the Stony Field. There was nothing in the rules that said Irene had to do full clears, but it's a good way for her to gain experience and anyway I'm not one to run away from a challenge unless it's absolutely necessary. Irene is just a smidgeon away from becoming an eighth level sorceress. Aliza, however, is still only a fifth level rogue. It's strange how mercenaries level so quickly at high levels in 1.10s but level so slowly at low levels.
UP NEXT: The Stony Field
"Cool!" said Aliza after she and Irene had killed Bishibosh. "Where to next?"
"Well," said Irene. "I was thinking that we should practice working together for a bit before we start the whole 'saving Cain' thing. There's a cave not far from here with a lot of monsters in it. Want to try that?"
"Sure!" said a chipper Aliza.
In The Cave, Irene and Aliza had their first encounters with archer type monsters (dark rangers), so they had to move much more carefully than they had needed to move before. Still, progress was steady for the most part against normal monsters.
But that changed when they ran into a multishot dark ranger boss with her minion pack. The fight was nasty and Aliza died once (queue a collective 'awww...' -- no, there are no rules against resurrections). The only way to fight the pack was to break it up, and even then it was touch and go. But in the end, Irene and the newly resurrected Aliza were victorious. I took a few screenshots during the fight, but none of them turned out to be any good. Oh, well.
But that fight was nothing compared to the fight against Coldcrow and her minions. Imagine Blood Raven -- only there's six of them and they all shoot cold enchanted arrows. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration -- but only a slight one.
The first thing Irene had to do was break up the pack. She ran around corners, trying to get some of the pack members caught on various cave protuberances while goading one of them to chase her. Leading archers away from their friends is different from leading away most monsters, because how different their AI is. They'll chase you if you get too far away, but if you get too close, they'll run away. So, if Irene just ran up to a ranger, that would cause the ranger to run back to her friends. To isolate a ranger, Irene had to lead the ranger away from her pack a little ways and then run around to the other side of the ranger. That way, when the ranger backed away, the ranger would move even farther away from her pack.
The tactic worked well, and by happenstance, the first pack member to be isolated was Coldcrow herself. Even better, Irene and Aliza successfully cornered her. Coldcrow delivered damage faster than minor healing potions could heal Irene, so Irene had to back off frequently. This worked out well, though. Coldcrow would hit Irene a few times, Irene would back off, Coldcrow would switch to shooting at Aliza a few times, Irene would charge forward, and Coldcrow would attack Irene again, allowing Aliza to heal. This went on for a bit, and Coldcrow was eventually taken down. Her minions were taken down similarly.
Irene went down into The Cave Level 2 and found two zombie boss packs. *cackle* Zombie boss packs = good experience and not much danger. Still, I found out something interesting. I don't know how well you can see it, but the mana burn zombie boss above has an orange life leech swirl going. When I first saw that the boss was mana burn enchanted, I laughed, because I was thinking that it didn't matter if the boss took Irene's mana. But then I realized that the zombie was turning the mana he drained from Irene into life for himself. Irene and Aliza dealt damage faster than the zombie could heal himself, but there was no doubt that he was being healed by his attacks. I never knew that mana burn monsters did that.
Irene and Aliza managed to do a full clear of The Cave and emptied the gold chest down in level 2.
"Hey!" said Irene. "Want to check out that mausoleum and crypt in the Burial Grounds?"
"Yeah!" said Aliza. "That sounds like fun!"
"OK..." said Irene, while thinking that Aliza had a strange idea of "fun."
Irene and Aliza had an easy time clearing out The Mausoleum and then headed to The Crypt. What happened there? All I can say is Bonebreaker's hits hurt and his minions didn't exactly pull their punches, either. Irene fought some of the minions through a doorway while Aliza shot arrows at them from a safe distance. This strategy allowed Irene and Aliza to fight pack members one-on-one. However, when Bonebreaker himself came to the doorway, Irene had to back off and resort to running around corners to break up the remainder of the pack.
Still, in time, Irene and Aliza successfully cleared the Mausoleum and The Crypt. In case you're keeping score, that means that they've managed to do full clears of everything up to the entrance to the Stony Field. There was nothing in the rules that said Irene had to do full clears, but it's a good way for her to gain experience and anyway I'm not one to run away from a challenge unless it's absolutely necessary. Irene is just a smidgeon away from becoming an eighth level sorceress. Aliza, however, is still only a fifth level rogue. It's strange how mercenaries level so quickly at high levels in 1.10s but level so slowly at low levels.
UP NEXT: The Stony Field