Running out of the tower to the top of the fort as my party attempted to raise a gate for support troops while we were being chased by a sizable pack of goblins, we stopped dead in our tracks. As I turned around to survey our surroundings and to come up with an attack plan to launch against the pursuing goblins, a gigantic leg greeted me. An armored cyclops. Spotting me, the cyclops raised its club and charged. Ducking back into the tower was no longer an option as the goblins had caught up to us and were ready to strike. My party was in a tough spot with a wall one direction and a huge drop off that assured death in the other, effectively negating any other directions to head towards.
As the cyclops started up its relentless assault on my party, a rogue goblin struck a massive blow against my pawn that handled the healing duties for my party, knocking her off the fort and putting her too far out of reach for me to revive her. Stuck facing multiple goblins from one direction and a gigantic, armored cyclops in the other, I decided to concentrate on a near suicidal offensive against the cyclops with my two remaining pawns. While it might not seem like the brightest move, I thought that if I kept hitting the cyclops, it might take out a few goblins in its fury. A bold, perhaps foolish, plan, but without a healer and my supplies running thin, I decided to go by the old motto of “fortune favors the bold.”
My main pawn, a fighter, drew its attention while my remaining pawn, a mage, had its attention split trying to keep the goblins at bay and hitting the cyclops with as much magic as it could muster. I did my best to tear apart the armor on the cyclops with Tenfold Fury while keeping the goblins off my mage pawn. Finally killing the last goblin with a well-placed (mostly well-timed, as it lunged at my mage pawn), arrow to the head, we concentrated our efforts and finally fell the cyclops. Beaten and battered, we had cleared the last resistance in the area and I was eager to lick my wounds and regain a pawn with some healing magic.
With this rather tough quest finished, I notice I forgot a ferrystone, an item that instantly teleports you back to the main hub city of Gran Soren. A sense of dread came over me as I weighed my options. Most of my items spent, I tried to remember what enemies were where on the path back to the nearest camp site. With nightfall so close, I planned on avoiding as much confrontation as possible on my way back to restock my nearly spent supplies and heal my considerable wounds.
Two-thirds of the way back, I notice a couple of boars roaming around. Approaching them to take a few down to have some meat to recover my stamina so I could run the rest of the way back to the camp, I suddenly hear one squeal in torment. Swinging around to the source of the sound, my heart sinks as I discover what ended the life of the boar: a drake. Woefully underpowered, undermanned, and undersupplied, I decide to forego the boar meat and take my chances running to put some distance between my party and the drake.
I apparently took a second too long in this decision as the drake brought its fury on my party. Charging at my main pawn, I pondered coming to his aid. Realizing now was not the time for chivalry, I, much to my dismay and embarrassment, sent my two pawns towards the drake to distract it while I turned tail and ran back to camp. Just as the camp came into view, I see the two icons representing my pawns turn to skulls. My pawns made the ultimate sacrifice for me, the Arisen.
