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Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.
Level 17: "This place looks uninteresting"
But the magic mushroom patch makes it look a whole lot more interesting. Once the hallucinations fade she returns and shoots it.
Another scan for evil reveals the presence of uruks, a baby multi-hued dragon, and forest trolls in the region. Not having encountered any before, Marash assumes them all to be dangerous and heads around.
More orcs up north! Nothing for it but to get through them. She rambles around and everything seems fine until a Master Yeek summons a swarm of assistance. Two gnome mages, three cave orcs and- what's that? A clear hound, whatever that is. She is lucky to be able to see it.
Very. Risky. Situation. She assumes. Relatively healthy, but not in perfect condition. Low on opportunities to call on divine help. Protected from evil, blessed and resistant to fire. Worn down from the ochre jelly, still.
She took the risk of aiming her latest-found wand at the orc before her, scaring it. The rabble shifted, Master Yeek out of sight, replaced by the baby multi-hued dragon she'd wanted nothing to do with earlier. Bad situation indeed, and her fire resistance has faded.
Nervous, nervous, but what can she do? There's that scroll of *Destruction*... which seems so tempting to save that keeping it might be her death.
Do what you can. Bigger weapons for bigger foes... and right now she has a bead on two cave orcs. Two rods of light, one use each and one orc shrivels into nothing, leaving the dragon to take its place. The dragon dies when Marash drains its life and she breathes easier again.
More orcs down, a gnome mage too, feeling more confident. And yet... that hound is still out there, plus maybe the forest trolls (if the dragon found its way to her, why not them too?), and whatever else the gnomes and yeek have called from the depths.
She peeks around the corner. Just a solitary hound, another gnome mage, and nothing else that worries her. She pulls back to wait.
An orc, blasted away by light. She puts an arrow into the gnome's scruffy hobbit friend, the gnome shatters some potions of Cure Serious Wounds with a bolt of frost. A second arrow puts an end to that.
The hound approaches and she tries her wand of fear on it to no effect. She sends a couple of arrows its way and... dead? She shakes her head. Wounded, and fled beyond range of her infravision.
Marash collects her expended arrows waiting for the hound's return, then kills it and fills out her kit with a nice pair of leather gloves dropped by a gnome mage. Nothing special, except she's never had gloves before.
After had consideration, torn between greed and prudence, Marash finally decides to take the prudent path and return to town, rather than chase down the remnants of that ambush. She reads a recall scroll and waits for her exit.
Level 17: This Place Looks Uninteresting
The area immediately arround her is dark, and empty, but in the distance she spies another magic mushroom patch. Dread.
One arrow teaches her they can teleport themselves. The second destroys it.
As she wanders this place, Marash feels unchallenged. Black orcs, which worried her when last they met, fell easily. Black nagas too, and the place is sparsely populated. Just when it seems time to proceed down she spies Brodda, the Easterling. Perhaps cleansing the world of him is something worth doing before she departs this place.
With her protection up, she tries a rod of light on him. Nothing. Repeatedly she tries her rod of drain life; Brodda covers half the distance between them before it activates. It hurts him, but not enough. Marash switches to arrows from her shortbow until he flees and then dies.
She can see he dropped something. As she examines it, Marash realises this is The Phial of Galadriel, precious indeed. She tucks it away safely, with her lantern.
Marash locates some stairs, calls forth protection. Time to head down...
