Welcome back intrepid
adventurers! After my less than
successful trip through the Firetop Mountain which I assume resulted in my
eventual starvation and thus death I’ve returned to take on The Citadel of
Chaos!
Deep inside the Citadel the
dread sorcerer Balthus Dire is plotting.
I was summoned by a desperate plea as the Vale of Willow’s only hope. I’m no ordinary adventurer. A start pupil of the Grand Wizard of Yore and
a master sorcerer myself I must strike into the heart of the nightmare world.
Yay, I get magic in this
one! How exciting. Full disclosure before I begin this
post. As awesome as Firetop worked out
on a single outing this is my second start of Citadel. My first trip in lasted only ten rooms deep
before being crushed to death by a rock golem.
So, I’m going into this with a little fore knowledge which will probably
do me a fair bit of good on the early section.
That said, sadly, I did end up with worse stats for my second go at
it. A skill of 8, stamina of 19 and luck
of 7. All pretty mediocre honestly. I did however end up with a magic of 14 which
means fourteen spells at my disposal.
There are twelve different spells in the game so I took one of each and
I doubled up on Fireball and Shielding.
Hopefully this will give me the kill power and protection I need. Hopefully.
I also started with the constant leather armor, sword, lantern and back
pack. No potions this time around
though. So, take a deep breath, and
let’s begin.
I make my journey from the
Vale to the Citadel which takes most of a day.
As the sun is setting I approach.
I stop for a short rest and feel chills on y spine despite the heat of
the evening. I resolve myself and
continue while pondering how I will get past the gatehouse. I decide to attempt to deceive the guards
either claiming to be an herbalist com to heal someone, a tradesman looking for
work or just a passerby seeking refuge for the evening. The gate is guarded by two beings for they
are not men. A great ape with the head
of a dog and next to him a dog with the head of a gorilla. Terrifying.
More so they are able to speak to me in my own language. Given my foresight into the future (i.e. my
failed first attempt) I bluff them and say I am an herbalist come to see an ill
guard named Kylltrog. I have no idea how
I came up with that name, but it sounded evil enough to me. The guards laugh and ask for proof. Luckily, I happen to have picked a couple of
handfuls of grass on the way for just such an occurrence. Producing the “herbs” in question the guards
guffaw and say how lazy and worthless Kylltrog is and that he isn’t worth
saving but they decide to lt me pass and so I enter the main courtyard.
The courtyard is spacious
and lit by several different fires. I
can see outline of figures wandering around in the darkness. In the center is a large monument of some
kind, perhaps a fountain and directly across from me are the main doors to the
keep. I decide to skirt the walls around
avoiding the groups of people. Half way
around the edge I am approached by a crawling figure asking for help. As my last character was flawed with
attempting to help those in need, so shall this one be. I approach and find he is an elderly man who
has been beaten badly. I could cast a
Stamina spell on him to heal him but I only have a single copy of that spell
and I fear I may need it myself. He
offers to help me on my quest but I feel that I cannot take the chance and so
pass him by feeling morose about the prospect of his future.
I continue my way and in the
shadow of the wall nearly fall into a deep pit that I barely managed to see at
the last second. My luck was tested and
found to be worthwhile but I don’t have a lot of faith in that happening to
often. I continue my way. In the corner before reaching the keeps main
doors I find a small misshapen bush or tree with berries. I take some and stuff them into my bag
feeling certain they will have a use for me later and I finally approach the
door itself. The door is sturdy and
locked. I could cast Strength and beat
the door down but with the other people in the courtyard and it being awfully
early in my adventure I think I’ll trust in my lies and I knock at the door
determined to continue my herbalist string of deception. The guard, an anthropomorphic rhinoceros
wielding a pike answers (man this place is crazy) and I give the lie as I did
at the main entrance testing my luck again and as expected I do not
succeed. The rhino man jabs at me with
his pike pushing me away from the door and I am destined either to fight him or
come up with a cleverer solution.
Faced with having to fight
the rhino man I cast weakness on him.
Before the spell manages to take hold, he lunges and gouges my arm for
two damage. Then the spell takes effect
and the fight is on. The rhino proves
formidable even without his full strength and I suffer further wounds from the
fight before I manage to bring him down.
Luckily, nobody in the courtyard seems interested in the ruckus and I
enter the citadel proper. Inside I find
myself in a hallway that leads straight on for some distance until it stops at
a wooden doorway. To my left is an archway
and some stairs that lead downward which I decide to follow. I figure I’ll work my way from the dead
bottom to the tippy top. (Also, thanks
to that super failed first mission I feel like this may be a better way to go.)
At the bottom of the stairs I
find another locked door which is locked so I strong arm open. It takes a bit but I get there and am greeted
by a round stone room.
There is a table
in the middle with a small humanoid in a green suit floating above it. His eyes closed, he appears to be
asleep. As I look at him I hear a spring
pop and turn my head just in time to see something flying at me having been
fired form a small catapult. (Here comes
that special foresight again, for a probably the next like ten paragraphs of
choices, I guess this wasn’t a much better direction to go.) I’m hit in the face with a ripe tomato at
which point the man in the room awakes and introduces himself as O’Seamus the
leprechaun. He shakes my hand vigorously
and for a moment I don’t realize I’m shaking the stuffed hand of a dummy. Irritated at his antics I could attack, but
decide not to and instead try to gain useful information out of him. The room has three exits and he tells me a
riddle to help me try and decide which way to go. I choose the right most door and enter a dark
room.
Suddenly there is a bright
flash and I am blind. I hear a creature
padding towards me and I swing wildly with my sword as it sinks its massive
teeth into my leg. I don’t bother
wasting spells because I know (foresight!) that I’ll be okay. I lose consciousness as it sinks its teeth
into my neck but then I wake up in the round room again. The leprechaun and I have a good laugh about
the silly practical joke at which point he does decide to let me continue my
quest, again only giving me the riddle about the three doors as a clue. This seems like a nice stopping point for the
moment so…
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