Haywire Disco!

This week our instance group took on Haywire Foundry, the last normal quest of Vault of Night.

The usual suspects were there again from last week - my fighter/thief Marty, the thief thief Lobilya Sackfill, Mr. "Have reapeating heavy crossbow, will travel" Worstof, and the incomparable Karayasama.

Karayasama's usual sorcerous tricks had be modified this week since the Haywire foundry has almost nothing that qualifies as a "person", being populated mostly by warforged, and mechanical dogs, in this mithril defenders. With the occasional ooze and elemental. So "charm person" and "dominate person" are out.

Instead, we had an attack of dance fever. More than once, we'd get 15-20 seconds into a combat and all the warforged attacking us would be dancing. I believe this is an application of Otto's Resistable Dance, but it seemed pretty irresistable when Karayasama was playing the tune. Do you know how easy it is to beat the crap out of someone who is doing a fairly awkward version of "The Twist".

But the warforged got their licks in. A couple of times, it seems that I felt tired, and just took a little nap, right there on the foundry floor. Mmmm, that felt good. Do you suppose those mutterings and gestures that warforged was making had anything to do it. I sure felt tired.

Nevertheless we got deep into the foundry without too much trouble. We defeated the three iron golems (with mithril defender companions) in the locked puzzle chamber by kiting them around and slowly eliminating them. Given that we are about level 9 now, there were a few deaths, but they weren't really a problem.

But then there's the destruct button.

Once you hit this sucker, it's hell-for-leather to the exit. Well, the real problem is, it's not actually to the exit, though it's near the exit. So you can't use Dimension Door to solve this problem. Such a pity...

No, you have to climb up pipes over lava, fend off maybe 20 Mithril Defenders, run down corridors, not fall into the collapsing pit and make it through the blast door before it closes. I did not make it. I was the first to climb up the pipes, but I waited there for the others, when I should have been tanking and killing a few mithril defenders to clear the way some. But I first waited, and then ran through them. Their damage plus the traps I hit did me in about 2/3rds of the way through.

Lobilya had a floor collapse into a pit of lava beneath her. She could perch on a rock, but the "Grease" spewed by the Mithril Defenders meant that she kept slipping off of it into the lava and taking damage. She died.

Worstof was slower than me, but made it through to the blast doors. Which had already closed. Either because of time, or because Karayasama had gone through them already. When the countdown expired, he died.


Karayasama made it through the blast doors, but got singed by all the fire elementals that spawn during the explosion. Her pet was able to eventually kill them all. But we were all dead, and with no rez shrine nearby. Cleric hirelings had succumbed, too.

Now as it turns out, the final chamber, where Karayasama had died was in the same large chamber that we entered through, after fighting an earth elemental and a couple of fire elementals. To finish the dungeon, you must cross this room on a high catwalk and grab an item in a small room.

So, this is what we did: Lobiliya recalled, and hired a level 9 cleric. Worstof dismissed his to make room. Lobilya re-enters and goes to the big chamber below where Karayasama's ghost is. Karayasama drops down (in ghost form, you get feather fall for free, what's going to happen? You might die?) and gets Raise Dead cast on her. But Karayasama does not confirm the rez until she is pulled back to her soulstone - up high above the chamber. Then the rez is in, the item is grabbed and the dungeon is completed.

Now that's winning ugly.

We don't really have enough people to do the raid that comes next, so this was probably the last we'll see of Vault of Night for a while. Though Lobilya suggested that if we each bring a hireling that will be 8 characters ... Maybe with a few more? (I have no idea what raid content is like in DDO).

Next we'll probably start on Ataraxia's Haven.