09-14-2003, 10:49 PM
The Viper Temple was quite fun. It has a lot of monsters in it, but its rooms are also quite large, making it easy to run past most monsters. It was funny to run around opening chests and breaking jugs while a dozen snakes randomly slithered around me.
However, I had one very frightening moment in a hallway. I ran into a champion pack of vipers and when I instinctively cast Bone Prison on them, I accidentally trapped myself while I was in range of their attacks. After making some futile attempts to get out, I cast a tp, but it appeared too far away and I couldn't get to it. So, I cast decrepify on the vipers and refreshed Bone Armor and quaffed potions, hoping I could survive and get out once the Bone Prison expired. The Bone Prison finally expired and with the vipers decrepified, I was able to slip between them to the town portal and refresh my potions. *whew*
I took the stairs down to the second level of the Claw Viper Temple and immediately spammed Dim Vision everywhere. As I slowly made my way around the alter, Fangskin, the only monster who hadn't been blinded, came charging out. I led him back to the entranceway stairs and Bone Prisoned him there. Then, after Dim Vision expired, I led his minions away from the alter and Dim Visioned and imprisoned them. After that, it was a simple matter to run around the mummies, open all the chests, kick open the jugs, hit the alter, grab the amulet, and tp to town.
The townsfolk thanked Maldar for stopping the Claw Vipers and restoring light to Lut Gholein. Jehryn took Maldar and Cain aside and finally revealed what he had kept hidden from them earlier.
A dimensional portal had opened in the cellar of the palace and the city's guards were fighting a losing battle against hordes of hideous monsters who were pouring through the rift. Jehryn asked Maldar to investigate the situation and stop whoever was leading the attack before his city was overrun. Maldar quickly agreed to the task and charged into the palace.
Can Maldar find the dimensional portal and stop whoever was sending the monsters into Lut Gholein?