Revisiting Pool of Radiance (1988), Part 3

Neither are any of us, you bigot.

      

As we closed last time, the party had finished clearing the slums district Sokol Keep, and Kuto's Well, including the bandit hideout beneath the well. As we started this session, the Council had given us several missions, and by the end I had a couple more:

    

• Councilor Cadorna, whose motivations I covered last time, wanted us to retrieve a treasure from his family's old estate in the textile complex. 

• "The Council is offering a reward for books, maps, tomes, etc., which provide useful information about Phlan before the fall." The module indicates that this mission is coming from Cadorna, too, although in the game you get it from Sasha. Cadorna is obsessed with figuring out who the ruler of the evil monsters is.

    

How do you put a value on information?

         

• Infiltrate an auction at Podol Plaza and figure out what "weapon of great power" is being sold. In the module, you're not supposed to get this mission until you've cleared the textile complex.

• Clear out a large group of thieves at Kovel Mansion.

• Braccio, bishop of Tyr, asked me to clean out an evil temple to Bane on the other side of the river. He offered an acolyte named Dirten to accompany us.

• Stop a tribe of nomads from allying with the evil forces.

       

I decided to proceed in roughly this order. Our adventure starts at Mendor's Library's ridiculously difficult front door. Multiple rounds of bashing and picking failed to open it, but Galadreish had learned "Knock" from a scroll, and that got me through.

   

As with Sokol Keep, the map for the area in Ruins of Adventure is entirely different, although it has many of the same encounters, and it doesn't even mention that the front door is locked. In fact, where in the RPG, the library is a 13 x 12 structure within the 16 x 16 map, in the module, the library takes up the entire map. Its north doors open directly into Kuto's Well and its west doors open directly into the textile complex. It has southern and eastern doors, too, but don't ask me where they go, as even in the module, there's supposed to be ocean in those directions.

      

Mantor's Library in the module (left) and Mendor's Library in the game (right).

       

The bigger change is that the area is called Mantor's library in the module and Mendor's library in the game. However, an encounter in Sokol keep in the module confusingly refers to "the sage Mendor," so I'm guessing the name was changed for the module but they forgot to change it in all places. It was a dumb change; "Mantor" was the villain in Questron (1984).

   

Both libraries feature a few rooms of "library stacks" in which the players can search for useful books. In both the module and the game, the "Mathematics" section never has anything useful; the module has an additional "Rhetoric" section with useless items. The "History" section has three items and the "Philosophy" section two. Some comments on these items and other findings from the library:

    

• In both products, the characters can find an atlas of Phlan and areas to the north. These maps are actually shown in the game's adventurers' journal, while the module doesn't actually depict them.

• Both products have a book called The History of the North in which the characters find a "passage of particular interest." It appears in the journal as entry 8. It describes a "barren and dead country called Lee-wai" located "ten days' ride north of the Varm." As far as I can tell, this country is never mentioned again, let alone "the Varm." I have no idea why it's supposed to be of "particular interest."

• The module says that the characters have to search about an hour to find all the useful material. My team in the game had to search for well over a day, passing round after round. I bet a lot of players give up well before they find all the texts. 

• There are miscellaneous texts that you only find by title, but which have no passages in the journal. These include Meditations, The Harmony of the Rock, and The Chronicles of Arram. They are again identical between both products, and I think they just improve your city council reward.

• There's a "scholar's garden" in both products. It serves as the home to several green slime colonies that the party might encounter. In the module, you can fight them in regular combat, but in the game, you just either avoid them or take damage from them without actually being able to kill them.

• One of the most confusing findings in the game are several sheets of gold foil that you find in the librarian's chambers. There are three per location, and they seem to do nothing and sell for nothing. The module makes it clear that the foil was used to illuminate manuscripts, and each piece is supposed to be worth 3 gold pieces. Something got screwed up in the programming.

    

Not to mention the grammar.

       

• The game has you find three potions of healing in the master librarian's chambers where the module has you find Keoghtium's Ointment.

• Both products have a collapsed area in which a basilisk has made his home. Whether you kill it without getting any of your characters stoned is a matter of luck or foresight (if you bought mirrors back in town). The module says that he has a Potion of Strength, a Potion of Healing, and a Bag of Holding. In the game, I found two potions and a Cloak of Displacement. However, there are online discussions that insist there's a Bag of Holding in Pool of Radiance, so I'm not sure what the real story is.

• Both have an encounter with kobolds who will surrender and "describe the surrounding area." In the case of the game, that means sketching a rough map of the textile complex that you can see in a journal entry.

    

Both products offer a Grand Historian's Records of the Arts of War with identical passages on Tyranthraxus. They describe him as a "powerful general" who "strode before his armies cloaked in flame." He conquered the kingdoms of Barze, Horreb, and Vane, razing and murdering as he went. "But the flame that surrounded him consumed him, destroying his body." This allowed him to fly around and possess his men. Somehow, a baron named Schodt imprisoned him in a vial of water and tossed him into the "watery depths" of Lake Longreach.

    

This is a cool story, but I have no idea when it was supposed to have happened. The module makes it clear that Tyranthraxus first appeared in the Forgotten Realms a century ago, when he tricked a bronze dragon named Srossar into bathing in the Pool of Radiance. The Pool--more ancient than Tyranthraxus--was always "a portal to one of the darker planes," and all the legends of its supposed benefits had been fabricated to deceive powerful creatures into entering it, allowing entities from that plane to possess them. The module indicates that Tyranthraxus then headed down to Phlan from the north, conquering along the way, until he sacked the city and made his headquarters in Valjevo Castle. There he remains. When did this business with Baron Schodt supposedly happen, then? 

  

Elsewhere, we find Urgund's Description of Darkness, "an account of [Urgund's] imprisonment in the lower realms." This is the one that lists the "lesser  powers" found in the "Hall of Minor Courtiers": Maram of the Great Spear; Haask, Voice of Hargut; Tyranthraxus the Flamed One; Borem of the Lake of Boiling Mud; and Camnod the Unseen. These were the people that Tyranthraxus left behind when he jumped through the pool. And calling him "the Flamed One" makes sense in relation to the story in the Records of the Arts of War, but not in the backstory given by the module, where he immediately possesses the same bronze dragon that he's currently possessing, and nothing about him is "flamed."

    

You can encounter a Mad Man in both products. He rants some clues about Tyranthraxus and will accompany you back to Phlan if you insist. I don't believe I ever took him back in previous games. I didn't even mention him when I covered the game in 2011. If you take him with you, he stays with you indefinitely. He's a Level 1 true neutral fighter. In the module, if you take him back to town, "doctors, surgeons, and clerics who examine him" conclude that he can only be treated by having his mind wiped; otherwise, "he becomes a problem for the community, unable to control his actions or stay out of violent trouble." In the game, he does occasionally attack people at random as you walk around town, forcing you to fight or run away from the guards. 

     

This is a new role-playing challenge.

          

If you bring him to the Temple of Tyr, the priest recommends that you drop him from the party and they'll take care of him, but there's nothing scripted after this. You have to camp and drop the Mad Man through the usual interface. I decided to keep him just to see how long I could. He surrenders in almost every combat, which for some reason causes his hit points to drop to 0, and I have to spend a spell healing him. However, he seems to stick around if I cast "Bless" before the battle.

       

Forgive me if I don't necessarily trust psychiatric care in this pseudo-medieval society.

        

While I was wandering around looking to heal the Mad Man, I accidentally stumbled into the rear offices of the Temple of Tyr, where Braccio gave us Dirten. Dirten, spelled "Dirtan," is in Ruins of Adventure, and he's a Level 5 cleric just like in Pools, but he's a gnome in the module. (That goes better with his age of 67 years, frankly.) In the module, he approaches the party independently and asks their help in retrieving some relics from the old temple.

   

The textile house in the game bears little relation to the one in the module. The maps are entirely different and virtually none of the encounters line up. In the module, the entire place has been taken over by gnolls, led by a large gnoll chieftain, while the game map is full of hobgoblins led by an ogre. No undead escaped from Valhingen Graveyard prowl the streets of the module's textile house, and the party doesn't get the journal entry in which "the Boss" is said to be angry about the evil force gaining power in the cemetery. More crucially, the module map lacks the hidden Thieves' Guild beneath the streets of the textile house.

       

The textile house in the module (left) and game (right).

      

A thieves' guild appears in the module, but it is not given a physical location. It is only mentioned in the context of a couple of NPCs who do not show up in Pools. Phanal is a 12th-level dwarven thief, "high in the ranks of the guild," who will give the party information about the town in exchange for gold. Galarrian is a 15th-level human thief, second-in-command of the guild, "and in love with the prince who has become the head of the guild." Nothing else is said about this prince. Galarrian will help smuggle the party into Valjevo Castle. A guild agent also tries to extort the party for protection money in a random encounter.

    

Restal does not appear in Ruins of Adventure.

      

Both products feature an agent of Cadorna's, a fighter, who meets the party in the map. In the module, this happens as soon as the party enters the map, and the man is called Tarask. In the game, he is a prisoner of the hobgoblins and his name is Skullcrusher. (I couldn't take him because I already had the Mad Man and Dirten.) Both situations end similarly: the party finds Cadorna's treasure chest. In the module, it contains only treasures (statuettes and such) and the party cannot keep it. They get shook down by guards when they return to Phlan. In the game, the party not only can open the box and keep the treasures, which include Gauntlets of Ogre Power, they get far more experience for doing so than for finishing the quest honestly--around 1,900 experience points vs. 600. The only negative is a tongue-lashing from Cadorna when they return to the council chambers. Moreover, there's a way that the party can visit the thieves' guild and have them re-forge the broken seal on the chest so Cadorna doesn't know they've opened it.

     

Oh, no. The evil man doesn't like me.

     

Podol Plaza swings the other way and is virtually identical between the module and game, including the maps. The council sends you there on a rumor that a "powerful magic item is to be auctioned." The party is just supposed to collect intelligence. As you enter the area in the game, you're given three options: stride boldly forward, sneak, or disguise the party as monsters. The module offers that the party's "best chance for success is to disguise themselves as evil denizens of the city." It has various rules for which races have the best chance of success and what the odds are. I don't know if the game implemented those probabilities. We weren't discovered in any event.

   

As you wander the streets of the plaza, the rumors you hear are the same between the two products: wondering what's going to be sold, wondering if "the Boss" will show up in person, and so forth. When you approach the auction block, the action begins. I don't know if I played this section optimally in any previous attempt at Pools, but I tried several routes here, reloading frequently. The best route seems to be to move closer to the action, at which point the party realizes that the "item of great power" is a simple Wand of Fear. Tyranthraxus's agent, accompanied by an ogre bodyguard, bids on the wand, and you can piss him off by upping the bid. At that point, he casts a darkness spell and escapes with the wand while the ogre serves as a distraction. If you get close enough, you hear the auctioneer say, "Garwin, I'll get you!" At that point, the event is over, and you can return to the clerk with your account of it as a reward.

     

I don't think I got this far in any previous game.

      

The module has the same facts, including Garwin (Tyranthraxus's agent) and Buldwar, the ogre bodyguard. It goes into more detail about Garwin and Buldwar's capabilities and attributes (including the fact that Garwin can cast "Darkness 15' Radius"). The module outlines a path by which the party can obtain the wand and return it to the council, but I couldn't find one in the game.

   

Beyond the auction, the game has three special areas in Podol Plaza that the module doesn't have: a secret Temple of Ilmater, a Minor Temple of Bane, and a monster bar called the Pitt where the party gets into a one-on-one fight with a buccaneer (and loots some magic items) and a huge brawl with some monsters.

   

I'm trying to get more use out of "Stinking Cloud" this time.

    

When I got back from the Podol Plaza mission, the clerk gave me the mission to clear out Valhingen Graveyard, which is way ahead of our current level. But the mission came with a two-handed sword +1, +3 versus undead, and several scrolls with "Restoration" on them. This got me thinking and I chanced one of the "Restoration" spells on the Mad Man. Sure enough, his level rose to Level 4. I'm guessing he entered Mendor's Library a hale mid-level fighter and got busted down by the specter who guards the entrance. Unfortunately, increasing his level didn't cause him to stop his erratic behavior, and he still surrenders in every battle unless I cast "Bless" first.

    

It's been useful to play the Gold Box combat at the same time as the newer system introduced in Dark Sun. Despite my initial enthusiasm for Sun, I must conclude now that I still favor the Gold Box system. I like the clarity of the tiled tactical map. In Sun, I'm finding it too hard to gauge distances--is my fighter in melee range of the enemy? Will the "Grease" spell affect my party if I cast it here? Can my gladiator maneuver between these two other characters, or does she have to go around? There's never any such confusion when every character and enemy occupy discrete squares. I also don't like that Sun requires you to interpret visual feedback to determine whether a spell was effective, while the Gold Box system tells you quite clearly in the message window. But I also recognize that part of my preference is based on spell familiarity, not just with the Gold Box but with the Forgotten Realms in general, and I may change my opinion after more experience with Sun. Both combat systems are better than 90% of games on the market, in any event.

   

That's three entries comparing Pool of Radiance to Ruins of Adventure. What do you think? Is it worth continuing with these, or should I just do a final wrap-up entry comparing the major story developments?