TG306

Army of Dorkness

Episode Number: (TG306)
Original Airdate: 8/2001

The party tries to advance through a series of nasty traps, but eventually gives up and heads back. After finding a room with a healing fountain, they are able to return Arlemis and Leny from their stone forms. With Arlemis' assistance, the party is able to get past the trapped corridor and find a number of magical iterms. As they return, however, they are attacked by a party of skeletal adventurers.

Treasure Watch:

• Sendant is now carrying the StaffOfContinuance
• Gryff is wielding the ValiantBlade
• Timus is wearing the GreenstoneRing.

Plot Points:

• Sendant's ability to turn undead is, again, saving party butts in a big way. Even the skeletal party is not immune.
• The dungeon has been warded by Simon to prevent the party's departure until the Tasan has been activated and the artifact creating the undead has been destroyed.
• Aldamar's ability to shape stone has gotten the party past a lot of traps that the DM spent a lot of time working on. There's a good chance that the DM, never one to let things fall by the wayside, will find another place to put those traps.
• Dungeon Etiquette: Listen At The Doors First. This is a case where one really sees an application of the old saying, "Listen first or else the party of marrow / Will sneak attack, fireball, and shoot you with arrows."

Unanswered Questions:

• How is the party going to survive (again)?
• Pat wouldn't really have had Tierney killed if that death knell thing had gone off... would he? (9/29/2001 Note: Given that our favorite bard got gored to death in Joy on the Path Ahead, it would seem that party death in random fights is actually a possibility.
• How is the party going to get their eventual revenge upon Simon? 'Cause there's gonna be something.

Analysis:

The Skeletal Party consisted of one Fighter, one Ranger, one Wizard, one Cleric, and one Thief. It was just about your utterly typical adventuring party -- a tank, an archer/flanker, mage, healer, and sneak. That looks like a really nice number of items for the party to get when they win.

DMP Speaks:

The whole healing fountain thing is just totally overdone. It also kills the suspense.

Yes. I can tell that right now, with Tierney down, Sendant down, and the skeletal party effectively unturned, the party is really in a relaxed place, feeling really laxadaisical and chipper.

Seriously. You saw that the healing fountain was a limited use item. And they can't go back to town. It had to be in there for those moments when the poor party members are dinged in some way that the party cleric can't deal with. Petrification, for example.

How can the skeletal spellcasters make the verbal components? You know, no tongues.

This will be explained when the party has won. The mage is indeed making noise. He doesn't have to silence all his spells.

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