TG305

Galatea

Episode Number: (TG305)
Original Airdate: 8/2001

The party's fight with a basilisk and a stone golem gets much more interesting when Tierney realizes that the party is actually in two separate rooms, with each group seeing illusions of the other room. Though the basilisk and golem are eventually destroyed, it is at a high price. Leny and Arlemis are petrified, and the group's spellpower is exhausted. Some wandering results in traps and random attacks, and the party eventually decides to rest and regain spells, then look for some way to heal their friends later.

Treasure Watch:

Aldamar is now wielding the EarthenScimitar
Tim found a potion of Jump, and some scrolls
Tierney found the BurglarsGloves

Note:

Rather than indulge in any cheap attempt at petrification humor, the title takes a more elegant approach, referencing Galatea, the mythical statue-woman that Pygmalion prayed to Aphrodite to bring to life.

Plot Points:

Sendant's ability to turn undead has saved the party at least twice, turning a potentially lethal battle into a ten-second pushover.
The dungeon is apparently laid out in elemental format, with challenges relating to earth, water, fire and air. Whether this directly relates to the power directing the undead remains to be seen.
The fire challenge is a room filled with magma and columns of rock. The party is leaving this challenge alone for the time being.
The dungeon is heavily trapped.

Unanswered Questions:

How is the party going to revive Leny and Arly?
When is the party going to attempt the fire challenge?
Why is it that the big horrible petrifying monster always just happens to have some treasure that allows people to not get turned into stone, which would, for example, have come in really handy a bit earlier?

Analysis:

At this point, we're dungeon hacking. There's not a whole lot to analyze. The dungeon appears to have a number of puzzles, or at least the possibility of puzzles. While freeze traps in conjunction with monster summoning are just unpleasant, the idea of two rooms into which the party could be separately teleported, with overlaying illusions making it difficult to uncover who is in what room, speaks of an intellectual test. Or a bloody nasty DM.

DMP Speaks:

What? Explain the damn room thingie!

Okay. So three people walk into the top door and three people walk into the middle door. The people who walk through the top doorway go into the room with the golem. The people who walk through the middle doorway go to the basilisk room. The basilisk room has an illusion of the golem room overlaying it. The golem room has an illusion of the basilisk room overlaying it. To the people in the basilisk room, the basilsk is real, and the golem is an illusion. To the people in the golem room, the golem is real and the basilisk is an illusion. And so are the people in the other room.

Why isn't there a good safe place to rest and some Stone to Flesh scrolls?

Maybe the party needs to explore a bit more so that they can find the ObviouslySafePlaceToRest.

Notable Quotes

Patrick: Oh, how helpless I am with my bosom heaving.

Tierney: (weakly, as if severely injured and horribly embarassed) Does anybody have a rope...and a priest?
Timus: Why? For a wedding?

Tierney: How about I go first, and you rush in and save me when something horrible happens.

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