Forgotten World, 3: Spearpoint and Single Player Combat.

  Tonight we return again to August Star, who is trying to make his way in the great, but under siege, city of Bastille. Having explored the surroundings of Bastille, he made his way north, to a small town by the name of Spearpoint.

This is an excellent map of the realm of Forgotten World I found at The Bastille Gazette. Unfortunately it doesn't list names, these are tied into links on the website.

   The way north was unreasonably treacherous, August encountering a group of thieves with a  walking, hostile tree. He could not fathom why a tree would feel the need to attack him, but obviously some evil magic had animated it. It's numerous branches could strike at once, being very deadly. 

  In addition to these foes, the road through the forest was frequented by lizard men and pyro snakes. The pyro snakes had glands which could spew liquid that ignited upon it entering the air, causing no small amount of pain and suffering. Against these foes August's use of sleep and snake charming magic was invaluable.

Their firebreath works like dragon's breath, doing their max hps in damage. This is deadly as a single character, it's best to disable the pyro snakes quickly.

   If I haven't made it clear enough already, adventuring solo in Forgotten World is tough! However, once I started looking at each battle, whether random or not, as a life or death situation, I started doing okay. I think going solo it's important to have spells, and not be afraid to use them. Being a triple class character has been my saving grace many times, it's hard for me to imagine soloing without being able to use mage spells at the least.

  The most important thing, for me in particular to avoid, is taking a lot of melee attacks. Even three lizardmen, with their three attacks each, took me from 54 to 3hp before I was able to get off a spell to disable all of them. The problem being that your hit points go fast, and as you get hit, your life-saving spells are not castable. I chose mirror image over invisibility, which I think wasn't the best choice. Mirror image will help you survive for a few rounds, but I think being able to run, hide, and regroup with invisibility is probably more useful. That will be the next spell I get.

  After a rough trip through the forests North of Bastille, August was relieved to see white smoke drifting into the sky in small puffy clouds, indicating he must be close to civilization. Indeed, he gladly paid a platinum piece for a bed and a warm meal at Spearpoint's Inn.

  Upon waking in the morning, it became immediately apparent that all was not well in Spearpoint, as the streets were empty of citizens, and occasionally filled with monsters and thieves! August went from door to door, generally finding scared citizens. The Mayor himself had barricaded his door, only letting August in after he was convinced of his safety. The local jeweler was ransacked, and the town hall overrun with ogres and other nasties.

 

    The town hall and office of the Lord Sheriff were connected. August had heard rumors from the townsfolk that the Sheriff had been tortured and killed. This seemed likely, as the town hall was filled with gnolls, bugbears, and they were led by a massive, green-skinned and horned ogre. August's magic saved his hide, as he was able to incapacitate the frightening ogre, who could wield magic, with a nauseating stinking cloud spell. Being locked in combat with the gnolls and bugbears, he drew a club from his belt, and launched it with all his strength at the ogre. The club flew end over end, hitting it's target dead-on, caving in the ogre's skull. With most of the other monsters dead or disabled, the last few fled for their lives.

  Can our singular hero liberate Spearpoint, or will the hordes prove too much for him? Come back next time... for This Bard's Tales!