May 2012 D&T Adventure: May 2

Not so eager to head to the dungeon bathed by moonlight as was done shortly after midnight for the May 1st excursion, teeray started the May 2 adventure after sleeping in and enjoying a good, hearty breakfast!

The deities that be weren't so generous when teeray stopped to pray in the temple, providing no prize at all...

Unwilling to enter any dungeon without some sort of beneficial SIGN of a positive nature, teeray decided to play the Treasure Hunt game and was well pleased at this choice! After winning a wooden key for the Chests Room, teeray felt a little better, a little more like Fortuna was on this dungeon explorer's side!

Entering dungeon Astirabeth, teeray felt confident and strong, carrying two well made daggers and a strong sword, also equipped with a 2+ Learning Spell. Anything that would happen in this dungeon today, it was felt, would provide important learning material and experience, so teeray moved further into the stone-walled dungeon...

Soon, a nasty Lugdul jumped out of nowhere, attacking teeray! Right after the Lugdul was defeated, another monster - a Machole - also leapt out of the darkness to attack teeray..... using hands, then dagger, then sword, then dagger again - every weapon on teeray's person, finally the razor toothed Machole was slain. Sure enough, the monsters were agitated and ready to attack, simply because teeray was getting close to some treasure. Immediately after defeating the Machole, teeray turned the corner and found a chest of GOLD! 117 gold pieces.

Though the physical effort of fighting two beast creatures one right after another should have tired teeray out, adrenaline flow and the achievement of finding treasure let teeray march onward, still further into the dangerous depths of the underground labyrinth called Astirabeth.

Throughout the course of a day's adventure, teeray encountered 4 or 5 more Lugdul critters but these must have mainly all been young animals, for their strength level was very low or low, quite easily dealt with.

Teeray also came up on a low level Zoumi early on in the day - which was good so that teeray could learn a bit about how Zoumi move and fight. This experience was definitely of a priceless category, for about mid-way through teeray's adventure time, a more advanced Zoumi showed up to entirely block the dungeon passageways - and THIS Zoumi caused a LOT of damage to teeray, almost to teeray's death!

Luckily, teeray rolled out of the way and uncapped a healing potion as the Zoumi stood flexing its muscles, preparing for a mean and deadly strike! Magically restored, teeray feigned desperate weakness for a moment and until the Zoumi gathered all its energy and engaged in a last strike. At the last second, teeray rolled away from the dungeon wall, allowing the Zoumi to crash forward to connect with the stone instead of a human body. This greatly angered the Zoumi and teeray will never forget the howling, angry wail that followed - but there wasn't much time to think at the time. Teeray pummeled the Zoumi from behind - faintly aware of how human-like the Zoumi seemed in shape and gesture - but knowing how close death almost came gave teeray the resolve to keep fighting.

When the Zoumi wheeled about to face teeray once more it was to encounter a dagger in each of the adventurer's hands and teeray used every ounce of speed and strength to defeat this enemy.

Once the Zoumi was defeated, teeray took stock of health and all items and then noticed that the battle to defeat this powerful Zoumi had caused teeray to level up to the eighth level. Earlier on, during the fight with the weaker Zoumi, the battle had caused teeray to level to seven... Hmmm - it must be that Day 2 was a day for learning all about Zoumi! Still unsettled by the human-like appearance of the Zoumi, teeray tried to do what was respectful, and dragged the life-less Zoumi out of the dungeon corridor and into a corner space, stopping to say a prayer before moving on.

Sure enough, this last, extra tough Zoumi had fought to the death while guarding another treasure, for teeray had only gotten around one corner before discovering more treasure! A chest with 216 gold pieces!

Teeray found a few more caches of treasure (135, 401, and 293 gold pieces per respective treasure chest found) and - luckily - did not encounter any more Zoumi. A tough level Machole (see above) stood between teeray and the last gold chest found but having fought a number of Machole earlier in the adventure gave teeray the advantage of knowing that when Machole are ready to strike a truly deadly blow, they will suffer a sort of muscle tic and give away which side they will strike toward. Teeray just watched closely and each time the tic showed, teeray stepped aside - then lunged back in to attack while the Machole was off-balanced.

Here's how the stats appeared at the end of adventure day number two:

All in all, the day was rewarding, and teeray found a few keys for the Chests Room, many gold coins just laying around in the passageways, several health potions and a variety of spell books. In total, 7 chests were found with gold pieces inside. With these successes, teeray exited the dungeon to go rest - to be ready for adventure, exploration and fighting monsters on May 3rd.