Last night, Team Spode continued our adventures in Dungeons & Dragons Online’s Three Barrel Cove. It’s the next step in the Barrel Cove series, and we can’t wait to get started on Four Barrel Cove. Yay, pirates!
Well, these pirates put up a fight, this time. But what got us in the end wasn’t pirates at all, but a simple game of Chutes & Ladders…
Two weeks ago, we’d started two longer quests, Galt’s Tomb (helpfully found by Spodal Attraction, AKA a Magnetic Monospode — Spode falling off a bridge and into the entrance), and after a little fun impaling ourselves upon the spears of pirate hobgoblins, the fire caves. Last week was an off week; we just did slayer and exploration quests. This week we were all together once more, and it was back for return engagements in the Tomb and the Caves.
The Tomb still managed to hold some surprises. Though the fireball-hurling troglodytes had abandoned the place, the undead still lurked about, and in a nod to one of the very first quests in the game, we had to run around smashing all the sarcophagi we could find. Eventually we came to a skeleton mage who cast stinking cloud (or some such) and managed, between that and its helpers, to slay us all before we could get our potions ready.
Luckily, there was a shrine close enough that we could run to it dead, so we were soon back on our feet, potions were drunk, mage defeated. We had a final area to find, at the end of a water-filled tunnel. I stepped foot into it first… and the door locked behind me. I was stuck in the final room with the undead boss of the dungeon, two of its friends, and me and my cleric hireling.
I did pretty well, I thought. Without the cleric I would never have had a chance, of course, but I did for one of the friends and a good bit of the boss before I died. My cleric hireling managed to finish off the boss on his own, unlocking the door and letting the others in. They got loot; I did not. I’m not sure how that happened.
On to the fire caves, where Gleek’s new Mephit Madness perfume worked its usual wonders. Poor Gleek. There really is nothing quite as tasty as toasted hobbit toes, though. Not that I’d know. Drow don’t often get surface delicacies.
It was more hopping and jumping platform action as we took out the large crowds of mephits and the deadly fire elementals, but it wasn’t particularly hard and we soon finished.
Though the time change was making everyone a little tired, we had time for one more adventure — Rackam’s Trials, an adventure we’d encountered while getting our explorations done but had saved for later.
Though there’s combat in this dungeon, it’s largely a mission to test your puzzle solving and platforming abilities. You start off solving a simple trap (and not the last one in the dungeon; a rogue is mandatory). Next, an ambush by mechanical dogs, following a crate maze, a secret door and … ladders.
Ladders and ladders and ladders. Hopping from one to the other. Someone with a ring of feather fall would have no trouble with this, but they are horrendously expensive on the auction house. We all had moments when we thought we would make it to the top, but eventually gravity took its remorseless toll. We reluctantly gave up on it and ended for the night.
I went back tonight, though, determined to solve the trial now that I was somewhat more awake. I bought several potions of jumping from the potion vendor in the Marketplace. My cloak of feather fall had regained its daily charge. I was determined to solve the ladders.
Two potions of jumping and one charge of feather fall right at the end, and I was to the top. It was actually almost easy. There were some puzzles that sent me downward right after (inevitably), but going down is a lot easier than going up.
At the bottom was a mechanical maze with a bunch of bizarre levers and lights on the ceiling. I wondered if at some point the room would flip over, but that never needed to happen. I spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure out the puzzle before I gave up and looked the solution up on the web. I’m not proud of it.
Next up was a room of fire traps, all of which needed disarming to reveal a chest perched upon some fire traps and the levers that opened the door to the next room. Sometimes I love being a rogue!
That brought me back to the foul looking guy at the entrance, who challenged my knowledge of pirate lingo and habits. I answered his challenges like a true two sheets t’the wind bosun. Lastly, I was given the chance to have a troglodyte walk the plank to his certain doom, or set him free as a mercy.
Come on. Troglodyte? Make him walk! Wild dogs tore him apart.
That ended the trial. That wasn’t so tough! Next week maybe we’ll see if we can get a block and tackle installed to haul the heavy armor guys up to the top.
4 thoughts on “Dungeons & Dragons Online: Endless Trials”
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After reading the title I thought you were going to muse about the F2P implementation. 😉
Hard to think of anything that hasn’t been said there, except that if DDO were a subscription game, I would not be playing it.
Good to hear you completed the Super Mario 3 Barrel Cove instance!
Since this is soloable and a little frustrating for four people to coordinate, maybe we ought to just skip it — people can solo it if they want. A togue is not required but I’d be willing to come along whenever.