May 24, 2000 wrote:It's worth your very life to try and do business in town these days. Just
this week I resurrected a poor miner who had been slain in his hotel bed by
a swarm of lizardmen and ratmen, then fought off the hoarde while he
retrieved his belongings.
Today I nearly suffered the same fate. I had retired too late to bother
going home and just taken up in the Salty Dog for the night, and when I
woke up there was a lizardman standing next to me. As I was beating him
off, his friends the ratman and the gazer came over to join in. My barding
skills certainly saved my neck, not for the last time today. Also of help
was a kind gentleman, whose name I forget, who came to assist me.
Off I went, marking runes--I thought my sisters could use city rune books
so they could visit more towns than only Britain. I purchased mark scrolls
and runes, and went busily about, keeping the runes in the bank in between
cities for safety.
Then I recalled in to Cove. And there, right next to my recall spot, were
two gazers and a headless. "Yummy!" they all exclaimed. "No, I am skinny
and tasteless!" I protested, barding like mad until the gazers were
fighting each other over who got to eat me. Then I stood back with my
little bow and took potshots at them until one was dead and the other weak
enough to finish off easily. At last it was safe to go to the bank and
retrieve my bag of blank runes.
Oh, drat. There is no bank in Cove. I'll have to recall to Britain and
get the bag, then come back.
Recall to Britain, walk to the bank--there's a gazer, demanding equal
banking rights for the limbless. He takes out his frustrations on me with
a very potent pair of flamestrikes. I dash away to give myself a chance to
heal, and run right into his fan club, six or eight lizard- and rat-men.
Down to twenty hit points, crowded in by hostile creatures who want to make
a large withdrawal out of my physical person, I was down to a bare sliver
of consciousness by the time I managed to shove clear of them all and
stagger up to the Sweet Dreams Inn. I ran up the stairs and holed up in a
room while I healed myself. Then I sallied forth again; the gazer had
returned to complaint desk at the bank but his entourage was milling about
downstairs. I got them all squabbling amongst themselves and laid about me
with vigor until they were all dispatched, skinned and looted every one,
and dragged my haul back to the bank.
Then I went down to the provisioner's to sell all the non-gold loot from my
kills--and as I passed the Girl's Best Friend jewelry shop I heard the
mortal cry of someone gasping their last, and ran to help. Two rats and a
lizard were the culprit; I managed to wedge them in a corner so that only
one could attack me at a time while I resurrected their victim. The first
rat fell, and the lizard looted his corpse. "Thieving lizard!" I
exclaimed, and whacked on him until he perished. Even as he hit the
ground, the other rat looted HIM. I believe my poor staff needs replacing,
it took so long to finish off that rat. At last I retrieved the rat's
backpack and handed it over to the fellow they had killed, assuring him
that anything the first rat had looted should be in there somewhere.
Sold the loot, banked the gold, and recalled back to Cove to mark those
runes (that was the original purpose, remember?).
Recalled right in between another pair of gazers and TWO headless this
time. Took me quite a bit of fancy footwork, gulping heals and slapping
bandages, and working my little tambourine like crazy to get those gazers
off me and attacking each other before they managed to kill me. Thank
goodness I have a very sound constitution. By the time the first gazer was
dead the second was low on mana and easily dispatched.
At last got my Cove runes marked, then recalled back to Britain to bank
them. I had barely opened my bank box when another swarm of lizardmen and
gazers rushed by, chasing some poor mage who was trying to cast flamestrike
on them as he ran. I provoked them onto each other so he could kill them
at his leisure.
Good grief. At least all these gazers have funded the cost of the mark
scrolls and blank runes. From now on I'm sleeping out in the forest where
it's safe.
Katherine, Grandmaster Healer
Ciaran, Lia Fail Empire (Atlantic)