Magic Realm: Day 25

Today is day 25 in the Magic Realm, and there are only four days remaining until the end of the game.  The Black Knight is currently unhidden in the middle of the Cliff, with a swarm of monster and treasure sites surrounding him.

I know I said earlier that, with the Black Knight's equipment and treasure, he is well-nigh invulnerable.  That is not entirely true:  if too many tremendous monsters arrive at the same time, the Black Knight could still suffer an untimely death.  The Lost Castle is a dangerous place, even for a character as well-equipped as the Black Knight now is.

Yesterday, the Black Knight recovered the Lucky Charm.  That treasure allows the Black Knight to roll one die, instead of two, for such actions as hiding and searching.  That improves his chances of hiding from 70% to 84%, and chances of obtaining the first treasure at a site from 3% to 16%.  The Lucky Charm is another game-changing treasure that you seldom find in the Magic Realm, but makes a huge difference in your chances of succeeding.

Our plan for day 25 is to hide and loot the Vault.  With the Lucky Charm in our possession, we should have a better time of recovering any treasures at the Vault.  Thereafter, we will travel to the Inn and finish off the Rogues.

For day 25, we record one hide action (using our Cloak Of Mist), and four search actions.

The prowling monster roll is a 4.  That means Trolls and Giants are prowling today.  Not a good result for the Black Knight.

The Black Knight is currently at the Vault of the Tremendous Troll, so the Tremendous Troll will arrive at the end of the day.  To complicate matters, a Giant will also arrive.  From hiding, the Black Knight can easily dispatch one of those Monsters.  The second will be more challenging.  Good thing we recorded a hide action this turn!

Our hide roll is a 6.  We fail to hide.  Okay, now we're in really deep crap.  It would be a challenge to finish off both the Troll and a Giant when we begin combat hidden.  Unhidden, the Troll or Giant will both attack in combat round 1, virtually assured of hitting the Black Knight, as the Troll gets one attack and the Giant, two, and there are only three avoiding maneuvers available to the Black Knight.

There are four treasures left at the Vault.  The Black Knight's first search roll nets us a 4.  We discover the Mouldy Skeleton.  The Mouldy Skeleton is a cursed treasure: the skeleton wears a gold helmet, silver breastplate and jade shield (which are added to the treasure pile) and when the skeleton is discovered, the discovering player rolls to see what curse his character is inflicted with.  We roll a 6, and the Black Knight is cursed with Disgust, which makes his accumulated Fame points worthless.  We need those Fame points to win the game.  We will have to travel to the Chapel before the end of the month, since that is the only location where curses can be removed.

There are now 6 treasures remaining in the Vault, since the gold helmet, silver breastplate and jade shield have been added to the Vault's treasures.  Our next search roll is a 1, and we recover the gold helmet.

The gold helmet is heavy armor, compared to normal helmets, which act as medium armor.

The Black Knight's next search roll is a 6.  Since there are only five treasures remaining, he recovers nothing.  His last search roll is a 2, and he recovers the jade shield.

We end the day, unhidden at the Vault.

As I mentioned earlier, both a tremendous Troll and a giant appear during the combat round at the end of the day.  Both monsters are deadly.  If the Troll makes a successful attack in combat round 1, he will automatically rend us apart in round 2.  In comparison, the Giant gets two attacks per round, one as he tries to stomp us underfoot, and the second as he swings his mighty club.  But because the Troll will rend us apart next round if he strikes us this round, he will be our first target.

The Troll has an attack speed of 4.  As a result, we can't use our Warhorse during combat round 1, since the Warhorses fastest move speed is 5, and the Troll will automatically hit us unless our move speed is 4 or less.  Therefore, we must use our MOVE H4**.  That means we must play a slower attack.

At the end of combat round 1, we get extremely lucky and kill the Troll.  The Troll lines up with our maneuver, and therefore should have grabbed us, but, as you may remember, during combat round 1, weapon length determines who strikes first.  The Troll, with his claws (weapon length of 0) hits after the Black Knight, with his Morningstar (weapon length of 6). 

The Giant misses us during combat round 1, as his attacks do not line up with our move, and his attack speeds are slower than our move speed.  



During combat round 2, we use our H4** chit to alert our Morningstar.  We can use our Warhorse to maneuver, as the Giant's attack speed, and the Warhorse's maneuver speed are both 5.  The Giant will be unable to undercut our move.

With an attack speed of 3, the Black Knight undercuts the Giant's move speed of 5, killing the Giant.

We got very lucky with those two rounds of combat.  We could have just as easily been hit by the Giant during round 1, destroying our Armor and resulting in our death in round 2.

As a result of those two rounds of combat, the Black Knight suffers another two points of fatigue.  As a result of the Monster kills, the Black Knight collects another 24 Fame and 24 Notoriety (8 for the Troll, and 2x8 for the Giant).  The curse that we suffered makes our Fame worthless, but once that curse is lifted, we will have 56/10 Fame, 112/60 Notoriety and 63/30 Gold.