Aside : To the person who came to my page through the Google search of “Fire on Water Lone Wolf who tried to poison?” I hope you find what you’re looking for (Spoiler : The inn-keeper was in on it)
Back to Castle Death, the delightfully-named romp that has taken the lives of two previous incarnations of Lone Wolf.
Tavig escorts me to a seemingly secluded area and then, acting as if we’re not in the middle of an enemy fortress determined to kill us, we exchange pleasantries and back-stories.
Did you say ‘bullet points’?
……?
That’s what I thought.
- Tavig is astonished that I have only been in the complex a short while, as it shows that he is (comparatively) close to the surface.
- Tavig’s sister was abducted by slavers over a year ago, and was (and is(!)) being held for a ransom of 1,000 (!) Gold Crowns.
- Nothing if not pro-active, Tavig offered the Elder Magi his services in exchange for money to pay the ransom.
- The Elder Magi didn’t simply give him the money (as you would think a ‘good’ organisation would), but rather demanded that in return he penetrate Kazan-Oud and kill the ‘evil’ that lives here.
- He has been on numerous sorties to attempt success at this mission for a year (!!!)
- Apparently the Elder Magi have sent a veritable flood of aspiring adventurers to their death in an attempt to take out their enemy.
So the Elder Magi, who are in theory the ‘good guys’, have been preying on the desperation and greed of any number of adventurers, sending them through the force field, and then apparently banking on the sheer weight of numbers in the hope that at least one can take out their enemy.
This is what Zahda would say to these jokers, right now :
After all that, Tavig takes his leave, apparently trying to make his way back to the surface. I resist the urge to follow, and rather make my way back into the bowels of the matrix of tunnels. I leap over another obvious trap, before confroning choice between paths leading north and west.
Lacking the Discipline of Nexus, I…..
and make my way through a maze of passages, twice hiding from the black-armoured dog-like guards. Then at the bottom of a narrow stairway I find a secluded chamber with fascinating tapestries and a small door in one corner.
Being a man of wealth and taste…
I naturally elect to check out the tapestries first. I find (yet another!!) large Diamond (score!) before leaving by the aforesaid small door.
My elation is soured when the passageway into which I step is quickly sealed at both ends before a dose of sleeping gas sends me to dreamland.
Honor Blackman this time maybe?
No such luck. I again awake in the faux-gladiatorial arena, am stripped of my weapons (and Weapon-Like Special Items) and promptly thrust into the maze without a by-your-leave.
You may recall from my previous incarnation that in the first chamber of the maze there was a sword resting innocently (yeah, right) on a strongly magical block. Whereas before I was frustrated by my lack of rope, on this occasion I have no difficulty in capturing the sword, making my hands feel less naked.
Remembering my previous follies, I take the right-hand path and step confidently and directly through the mysterious beam of light. I then enter the chamber with the severed hand, which attempted earlier to make my close, personal acquaintance.
As the hand ‘leaps’ AT MY HEAD, I throw one of my trusty Fireseeds, and set the hand and the surrounding area up in flames. The hand again throws itself at me (taking 2 of my Endurance), and we have to fight. (Its immune to Mindblast, what with no mind and stuff…)
Project Aon link – Living hand
Great pic – Although the fingernails look a little clean….
Rahkos – CS : 18, E : 30
Lone Wolf – CS : 23, E : 26
The hand is taken out of the game by my sword, but not before reducing my Endurance to the uncomfortable total of 13….
I again throw the (un)dead hand to the disintegrating green light before continuing on my way.
I confront the statue of the Zakhan and proceed on the assumption (and hope) that the answer to the riddle is the same.
Spoiler : It is.
Base Stats : CS : 18, E : 22, GC 31
Final Stats : CS : 33, E : 19
Weapons : Sword
———————————-
IN CUSTODY :
Weapons : Short Sword, Broadsword
Weapon-Like Special Items : Silver Bow of Duadon (+3), Sommerswerd (+8 CS), Jewelled Mace, Dagger of Vashna
———————————–
Backpack : Red Robe, Potion of Laumspur (+4E), Rope, Meal (1), Alether Berries (3) (+2 CS), Lantern
Special Items : Brass Whistle, Copper Key, Map, Crystal Star, Shield (+2 CS), Padded Waistcoat (+2 E), Chainmail Waistcoat (+4 E) Blue Stone Triangle Pendant, Diamond (3), Ornate Silver Key, Quiver (6 arrows), Boat Ticket, Power Key, Fireseeds (2)
Kai Monastery storage : Map of Tekaro, Potion of Laumspur (+4E)
Magnakai Rank : Primate
Magnakai Disciplines : Weaponmastery (+3 CS in Sword, Bow, Mace, Dagger), Pathmanship, Huntmastery, Divination
Lore-Circles : Fire (+1 CS, +2 E)
Kai Disciplines : Camouflage, Animal Kinship, Tracking, Hunting, Sixth Sense, Healing, Mind Over Matter, Mindblast (+2CS), Mindshield, Weaponskill (+2 CS in Short Sword)
Paragraph : 34
LONE WOLF PLAYTHROUGH 
Ah, dear old Bullet points, excellent for information purposes, but even more so for disinformation purposes.
1,000 gold pieces sounds like a huge amount until you realize that we’re never told things like average wages etc. In a tavern in Quarlen (Kingdoms) a meal is two gold pieces as is a tankard of ale. Now a pint of beer is about 6 euro’s in a local pub which works out as 3 euro’s (or 4.25 Australian dollars) to a gold crown. So we’re talking about a ransom of around 30 thousand euro’s or 42 thousand Australian Dollars (not bad by modern standards actually). Why didn’t he just get a second mortgage on the family home? Well, ok, maybe that’s not so easy considering the constant wars in the Stornlands but it does help with the later bullet points.
“Tavig’s sister was abducted by slavers over a year ago, and was (and is(!)) being held for a ransom of 1,000 (!) Gold Crowns.”
Sadly probably was sold quite some time ago, a sad reminder (in case it hadn’t been noticed in just about every book of this series so far) that on Magnamund the forces of Good are NOT triumphing. (You breezed through Avenger but you had the option that the greatest Ninja of the time would spend the rest of his miserable life as a galley slave).
“The Elder Magi didn’t simply give him the money (as you would think a ‘good’ organisation would), but rather demanded that in return he penetrate Kazan-Oud and kill the ‘evil’ that lives here.”
Ye Gods! That’s like reading my employers account of the events that led to our strike. The account actually says “he travelled to Herdos to offer his services to the Elder Magi, to attempt the destruction of the evil that haunts Kazan-Oud, in return for his sister’s ransom”.
So in defense of the much maligned Elder Magi
1) Tavig was NOT an ally. In fact from his survival record he was probably one of the numerous mercenaries who’s contribution makes the Stornlands the delightful warzone that it is today.
2) Even so, he did NOT go begging for help from the Elder Magi, he presented them with a business proposition. They examined it, decided that if it was good for him then it was good for them and accepted.
3) He COULD have said he’d go in if they rescued his sister, I’m sure they would have agreed to that (through desperation if not charity).
4) On other points, Sadzar the slaver of Gzor only exists because of the other corrupt governments and businesses in Magnamund. Paying him 1000 GP’s only serves to keep funding the entire corrupt system. A better system would be to tear down all the corruption, and if the Elder Magi could do that they wouldn’t exactly be hiding in the middle of a jungle now, would they? Fact is that even when the Kai :Lords were at the peak of their strength the Sommlending sailors still knew to keep on the lookout for pirates from the Lakuri Isle’s. I know the whole matter of paying ransom money is complicated and if it was our sister we’d pay the money, but this wasn’t the Elder Magi’s sister, it was the sister of someone who wasn’t an ally. Heck, he wouldn’t even offer to help Lone Wolf (although that undoubtedly improved his own survival chances).
“Apparently the Elder Magi have sent a veritable flood of aspiring adventurers to their death in an attempt to take out their enemy.”
Reminds me of when Perrin Aybara has his charges read out by the Whitecloaks before the Queen (forget her name) and he thinks for a bit before saying, “Yes, yes, that’s about right.” Guilty on those charges your honor. End of the day, they’ve tried everything else. Zahda is more powerful than they are.
THREE diamonds!!! Was I the only one thinking what Tavig really should have done was grab a few valuables a year ago and then skedaddle? On the plus side, you can always pay off the sisters ransom now yourself (assuming she’s still findable).
And yes, we’d all have liked to see Honor Blackman 😦 Still, the maze seems much more reasonable once you have a sword in your hand. Go forth and slice and dice young man, slice and dice for Kai but not for Kwon because he only wants you to punch and kick (and throw).
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This story puts Lone Wolf’s business acumen to shamre. He could have asked for a THOUSAND gold crown in exchange from removing the evil of Kazan Oud, like Tavig. But no. He only bargained for FIVE ITEMS valued at 2 gold crown each at most.
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Oh, and I also question the common sense of the EM. According to Tavig, they agreed to his price as they had for “scores” of other before him. If you follow Tavig, attempt to save him and loot his body, you’ll see he’s carrying a powerkey. So basically, the EM are sending scores of guys with magic items allowing to get out of the shield they painstakenly erected around Kazan Oud. It’s a wonder Lord Zahda couldn’t get his hands on one…
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The mini-adventure in the Mongoose Books reissue does something with the premise that Zahda’s minions are stockpiling powerkeys from unsuccessful adventurers in preparation for an assault on the shield generators.
I’ve only played it once, and failed quite early on thanks to a combination of unclear writing and an authorially-imposed bad decision, so I can’t say much more than that about it. Still, it goes to show that you’re not the only person who noticed that (unless you authored the mini-adventure, in which case what were you thinking when you forced me to ambush a group of armed guards while weaponless?)
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