The Tales of Galtero Ironhand - 2-1-2011
When we last left Galtero, he had just finished off the two remaining quests of the Harbor and kicked orc ass in the Cerulean Hills (though not before dying during one of the quests in question) and rescued a lady wizard and her two bodyguards. I had anticipated having to get into a party today to tackle the two Extreme difficulty quests, but I soon learned through playing my other characters that there was a good number of quests available in the Marketplace, among them a sewer crawl for Aurla Courson.
The sewer crawl in question had two major paths. The first one, which I first took with my rogue Simmene, involved traversing and disabling a network of nasty traps. The other one, which I took with my other characters, including Galtero, involved fighting my way through more damned kobolds, a few doggies and some goddamned oozes. Most of the kobolds got the hammer of doom dropped on them (I love the Maul in general), while certain other enemies were picked off from long range with the bow. At the end of both paths, there was a big pool with a caged platform containing my treasure. Even on my first run-through as Simmene, I could tell immediately that this was a trap. Going for the chest triggers the boss battle with the big troglodyte boss of the instance and four medium monstrous scorpions. When I ran through the instance with Galtero, I made sure to use all my buffs before going for the chest and triggering the battle. I whipped out the Maul and started laying the hammer down, smashing the crap out of the scorpions and giving the boss what for. I looted the chest, headed for the escape rope and got the hell out of there.
My next quest was for Ulcana Braddock, a military-looking chick, and had me going back down into the sewers to kill more kobolds and troglodytes and learn the whereabouts of two adventuring parties that went missing. I used the maul again on most of the kobolds, as well as the bow on a few more enemies (including two goddamned oozes that were mixed in with the Warriors and Throwers, making for a nice little frantic fight). The remains of the two parties were gathered around the two major rest shrines in the instance, with two of them from each party rising as zombies that I had to take down. I used the hammer on the first two of them, and the sword on the other two. Afterwards, I had to fight two troglodyte bosses, both of them spellcasters that liked to use Melf's Acid Arrow (a nasty damage-over-time spell that I hated with a passion) as well as more kobolds. Throwing the switches activated the signal crystals for the final door and also set off some nasty traps in their particular section of the instance. Since I had run through the dungeon before with other characters, I knew which switches I had to throw to disable the spike traps, but the other set of traps, the ones involving lightning, I could not disable because the switches needed to disable them were hidden behind secret doors that I could not open because my Search skill was too low. After hitting both switches to activate both signal crystals, I killed both kobolds guarding the final door, then brought the troglodyte boss to me by means of using the bow before laying into him with the hammer. After using a Lay on Hands to heal myself, I proceeded to pound the crap out of the four Kobold Shamans in the alcoves to either side of the main boss room, looted the chest, then finished out.
The next quest, for Basil Tallbarrow, had me going into the guy's basement to kill some big fucking spiders. I had first run through the quest with my rogue Simmene, and that particular instance was a nightmare for her, not the very least because of the goddamn room full of poison traps, which at one point reduced poor Simmene to zero Strength, meaning she couldn't do anything other than move. If those things had drained Constitution instead of Strength, Simmene would have been dead. My runthrough of this with my other characters was a bit easier due to me knowing the layout of the instance so I could avoid the traps a bit more easily. As Galtero, I ended up fighting only one of the sub-bosses (Venom) out of up to three that I faced (one of them being a goddamned rust monster that I fought as either Simmene or Elricia, my elven ranger who I have on the Arcane Archer path). Aside from all the spiders and scorpions, I also had to fight a lot of Baby Glass Spiders that spawn from Egg Sacs all over the instance, which you have to shoot or else they'll poison you for Constitution damage. After defeating Redfang and looting what he had in the chest, I finished out and collected my reward.
After this, I was a little lost as to what other quests I could take on in the Marketplace. There were two that required a party, which I wasn't going to fuck with, and another one was level 5 (and being level 3, I decided to forego this until I was high enough level to stand a chance). And then I ended up finding the Quickfoot hideout. I had fought the Quickfoots before in an earlier quest at second level that had me killing Quickfoot thieves and blowing up their explosive barrels, and I decided it was time to fight them again. After checking the net to find out where my questgiver was, I ended up heading to the Phoenix Tavern and accepted the quest from Grinwhite.
The quest in question took me through two major parts. The first part had me fighting baby glass spiders again (as well as a glass spider boss and several bigger glass spiders), as well as a regular big spider boss. I ended up taking my hammer to most of them and using my collection of potions to heal myself afterward. After looting the chest and hitting the switch in the big room, it was time to storm the hideout proper. I had to kill 55 Quickfoot bandits in order to shatter the gang, and they were another group that liked to use numbers on me. The heaviest fighting was in the big chamber with the catwalks and the water, where I also faced my toughest opponents since the orcs at the end of the Nash Braza quest in the form of the Warforged Mercenaries. I had to burn through both of my Lay On Hands during the course of the battle with them, since they hit hard, and one of them was a mage that liked to use Sleep and Acid Arrow on me. After the Warforged fight was over, the game notified me that I had gained enough XP for the next level, but I wasn't going to recall just yet. I still had a ton of mobs left to kill, including a scorpion boss. Most of the Quickfoots I took down with either hammer or sword, but the Quickfoot archers I had to take down using my bow, since they liked to rain their fire down on me in hard-to-reach places. I used nearly all my item buffs during the course of the battle in order to keep myself alive, but I eventually got through the battle with only 19 Quickfoots remaining to kill. After battling through most of the rest of the instance, I faced a tough fight with a Quickfoot Caster (who gave me about as much grief as the Warforged Caster) and a good number of Quickfoot melee attackers I had to switch to sword and board to kill. I finished off the remaining caster with my bow before moving on and getting some well-deserved rest at the rest shrine and getting both of my Lay on Hands back. I fought the red-named boss (Quinn Quickfoot) who wasn't nearly as mighty as he made himself out to be, even with the dogs he used. After taking out the remaining Quickfoots and collecting what Grinwhite wanted, I took out one last Quickfoot who tried to get me after I was done and finished out.
As it turns out, the asshole didn't even want his signet back because it was rotted through. He did give me another nice set of +1 full plate which I immediately tried on. To my surprise, the armor looked very much what you would expect a paladin to wear, and so I made that my main armor and sold off the old armor, as well as everything else that I didn't need, including the signet that I looted and Grinwhite didn't want. Then I looked for the Paladin trainer in the Marketplace, where I leveled Galtero Ironhand up to Level 4, where he received not only the ability to turn undead, but also his first paladin spells. I ended up heading to the Auctions back in the Harbor and getting myself a nice +1 Devotion II shield that gives my healing abilities more power. While Galtero already had the abilities to smite evil and heal by laying on hands and is a stone-cold warrior badass, with these new abilities, more than ever, Galtero has now become a proper Paladin.
Where will Galtero go from here? I don't really have much of a clue at this point, but wherever the road takes him, he will be ready to face down whatever evil stands in his way.
The sewer crawl in question had two major paths. The first one, which I first took with my rogue Simmene, involved traversing and disabling a network of nasty traps. The other one, which I took with my other characters, including Galtero, involved fighting my way through more damned kobolds, a few doggies and some goddamned oozes. Most of the kobolds got the hammer of doom dropped on them (I love the Maul in general), while certain other enemies were picked off from long range with the bow. At the end of both paths, there was a big pool with a caged platform containing my treasure. Even on my first run-through as Simmene, I could tell immediately that this was a trap. Going for the chest triggers the boss battle with the big troglodyte boss of the instance and four medium monstrous scorpions. When I ran through the instance with Galtero, I made sure to use all my buffs before going for the chest and triggering the battle. I whipped out the Maul and started laying the hammer down, smashing the crap out of the scorpions and giving the boss what for. I looted the chest, headed for the escape rope and got the hell out of there.
My next quest was for Ulcana Braddock, a military-looking chick, and had me going back down into the sewers to kill more kobolds and troglodytes and learn the whereabouts of two adventuring parties that went missing. I used the maul again on most of the kobolds, as well as the bow on a few more enemies (including two goddamned oozes that were mixed in with the Warriors and Throwers, making for a nice little frantic fight). The remains of the two parties were gathered around the two major rest shrines in the instance, with two of them from each party rising as zombies that I had to take down. I used the hammer on the first two of them, and the sword on the other two. Afterwards, I had to fight two troglodyte bosses, both of them spellcasters that liked to use Melf's Acid Arrow (a nasty damage-over-time spell that I hated with a passion) as well as more kobolds. Throwing the switches activated the signal crystals for the final door and also set off some nasty traps in their particular section of the instance. Since I had run through the dungeon before with other characters, I knew which switches I had to throw to disable the spike traps, but the other set of traps, the ones involving lightning, I could not disable because the switches needed to disable them were hidden behind secret doors that I could not open because my Search skill was too low. After hitting both switches to activate both signal crystals, I killed both kobolds guarding the final door, then brought the troglodyte boss to me by means of using the bow before laying into him with the hammer. After using a Lay on Hands to heal myself, I proceeded to pound the crap out of the four Kobold Shamans in the alcoves to either side of the main boss room, looted the chest, then finished out.
The next quest, for Basil Tallbarrow, had me going into the guy's basement to kill some big fucking spiders. I had first run through the quest with my rogue Simmene, and that particular instance was a nightmare for her, not the very least because of the goddamn room full of poison traps, which at one point reduced poor Simmene to zero Strength, meaning she couldn't do anything other than move. If those things had drained Constitution instead of Strength, Simmene would have been dead. My runthrough of this with my other characters was a bit easier due to me knowing the layout of the instance so I could avoid the traps a bit more easily. As Galtero, I ended up fighting only one of the sub-bosses (Venom) out of up to three that I faced (one of them being a goddamned rust monster that I fought as either Simmene or Elricia, my elven ranger who I have on the Arcane Archer path). Aside from all the spiders and scorpions, I also had to fight a lot of Baby Glass Spiders that spawn from Egg Sacs all over the instance, which you have to shoot or else they'll poison you for Constitution damage. After defeating Redfang and looting what he had in the chest, I finished out and collected my reward.
After this, I was a little lost as to what other quests I could take on in the Marketplace. There were two that required a party, which I wasn't going to fuck with, and another one was level 5 (and being level 3, I decided to forego this until I was high enough level to stand a chance). And then I ended up finding the Quickfoot hideout. I had fought the Quickfoots before in an earlier quest at second level that had me killing Quickfoot thieves and blowing up their explosive barrels, and I decided it was time to fight them again. After checking the net to find out where my questgiver was, I ended up heading to the Phoenix Tavern and accepted the quest from Grinwhite.
The quest in question took me through two major parts. The first part had me fighting baby glass spiders again (as well as a glass spider boss and several bigger glass spiders), as well as a regular big spider boss. I ended up taking my hammer to most of them and using my collection of potions to heal myself afterward. After looting the chest and hitting the switch in the big room, it was time to storm the hideout proper. I had to kill 55 Quickfoot bandits in order to shatter the gang, and they were another group that liked to use numbers on me. The heaviest fighting was in the big chamber with the catwalks and the water, where I also faced my toughest opponents since the orcs at the end of the Nash Braza quest in the form of the Warforged Mercenaries. I had to burn through both of my Lay On Hands during the course of the battle with them, since they hit hard, and one of them was a mage that liked to use Sleep and Acid Arrow on me. After the Warforged fight was over, the game notified me that I had gained enough XP for the next level, but I wasn't going to recall just yet. I still had a ton of mobs left to kill, including a scorpion boss. Most of the Quickfoots I took down with either hammer or sword, but the Quickfoot archers I had to take down using my bow, since they liked to rain their fire down on me in hard-to-reach places. I used nearly all my item buffs during the course of the battle in order to keep myself alive, but I eventually got through the battle with only 19 Quickfoots remaining to kill. After battling through most of the rest of the instance, I faced a tough fight with a Quickfoot Caster (who gave me about as much grief as the Warforged Caster) and a good number of Quickfoot melee attackers I had to switch to sword and board to kill. I finished off the remaining caster with my bow before moving on and getting some well-deserved rest at the rest shrine and getting both of my Lay on Hands back. I fought the red-named boss (Quinn Quickfoot) who wasn't nearly as mighty as he made himself out to be, even with the dogs he used. After taking out the remaining Quickfoots and collecting what Grinwhite wanted, I took out one last Quickfoot who tried to get me after I was done and finished out.
As it turns out, the asshole didn't even want his signet back because it was rotted through. He did give me another nice set of +1 full plate which I immediately tried on. To my surprise, the armor looked very much what you would expect a paladin to wear, and so I made that my main armor and sold off the old armor, as well as everything else that I didn't need, including the signet that I looted and Grinwhite didn't want. Then I looked for the Paladin trainer in the Marketplace, where I leveled Galtero Ironhand up to Level 4, where he received not only the ability to turn undead, but also his first paladin spells. I ended up heading to the Auctions back in the Harbor and getting myself a nice +1 Devotion II shield that gives my healing abilities more power. While Galtero already had the abilities to smite evil and heal by laying on hands and is a stone-cold warrior badass, with these new abilities, more than ever, Galtero has now become a proper Paladin.
Where will Galtero go from here? I don't really have much of a clue at this point, but wherever the road takes him, he will be ready to face down whatever evil stands in his way.