Sieged Castle

• 
  Sieged Castle under attack by the Wandering Fleet.

Zone Writer:

Eagle

Directions:

Just outside Skara Brae's east gate north of the road.  You know, past the catapults.

Reset Time:

60 minutes (occupied)

History:

King DeGrance's stronghold deep in the heart of the forests near Skara Brae has been bombarded by assaults of the worst kind. All efforts at a diplomatic solution have failed, and the force sent across the Great Sea to return with reinforcements has never returned. In the bowels of the castle, the wisest of men practice their arcane arts in hopes of saving their king, and immortalizing themselves.

Mobs of Note:

Wounded minotaur (clues to finding Doom), Count Cagliostro (Philosopher's Stone), Nurse ("Plaque Slayer" runed sword), King deGrance (woman's diamond ring), Queen deGrance (man's diamond ring, silky auburn hair bracelet), The Black Knight (longbow), The Royal Blacksmith (Smith's Hammer), The Vault Protector (onyx memorial stones ), Armor-clad Fighters (iron girth), Brave Knights (Silver Platemail),  Altotus' greyhound (jeweled collar), Wei Po-Yang (kau-sin ke).

The zone writer originally wrote the area with a King and Queen "Le Grance" but it was implemented by JediMUD instead as "de Grance."

General Zone Strategies:

Navigating the square map is fairly straightforward. You can speed run the map to the Inner Courtyard of the Keep without engaging the armored fighters or brave knights. Otherwise, the armored fighters wander, are aggro! and have memory.   The brave knights are sentinel mobs (stationary) , are good aggro! and will assist highest alignment during melee. A knight is added to each of the stations per zone reset. They are calmable but also have memory, so get calms off quickly. The squires are hidden wimpy neutral mobs. They will attack sleepers. Watch the bashers at the main gate as they will fido your corpse.

The elite guards located at the Keep Entrance block in specific directions: 

• An elite guardsman stands here protecting.   - blocks n, w, e
• An elite guardsman stands here, protecting.  - blocks u, d   (note the comma in the desc)

The up/down blocking elite also tosses.

If you can get them into the same room, have one toss the other into a configuration that allows you to pass unhindered, and run the keep for the entire uptime without the hassle of killing them.

Kill the east blocking elite first (no comma in description), located in the Entryway. This elite pzars! entropies and areas, so prepare accordingly. Once you have removed the first elite, get your high CHA B30 to scare the "here, protecting" up/down blocking elite, located in the Stairway, west, where he can no longer block.  This elite tosses.

Once you remove the first elite and move the second, let the zone reset before you proceed to the next step.

Because the elites assist and area, use either a GOOD aligned character to attack the up/down blocking elite (the elite with the comma in his long description) or wait for an area affect spell from your adversary. The other elite will assist your character, and eventually the up/down elite will toss the east blocker into another room.  This may take a few iterations to get them into the proper configuration.

Count Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo) steps forward, so your squad is useless down there.  The Count is also !strike. Use cleric/bard summon/pet strategy to take the Count down. The Count saves alot, so be patient. The Count has no memory.

Geber (Jābir ibn Hayyān), Hermes Trismegistus, Altotus, and his student, Paracelsus, are standard mobs. These great Alchemists, precusors to modern scientists, are all super wimpy, so bring a mage to cast 'hold' on them.  

On the other hand, Wei-Po Yang is a magic user mob and will area, toss, and entropy, as well as qhealing and prevents flee. Debuff him as usual as he doesn't step. Wei-Po prevents flee.

Altotus' greyhound eats corpses.

Bring a picking thief for the vault protector and his onyx memorial stones.  The vault protector (aggro!, toss, area spells and entropy) can be squadded down the hallway (the room just west is !gate), or you can leave your cleric outside the room to summon/heal. Close the vault door to prevent toss outside.  Full debuffs (bard, mage, cleric) and a disarmer helps.

Equipment:

ITEM	TYPE	AREA	MOB / OBJECT	LOAD %	MOB HP	DISPLAY
jeweled collar	neck	Sieged Castle	Altototus' Greyhound			mL 0 !rests 5 hp
iron girth	waist	Sieged Castle	armored fighter		525	mL 10 !mtn 8 ac -3 acM 1 str
longbow	fire-weapon	Sieged Castle	Black Knight	100.0%	875	mL 13 mrb! 15D3 30.0 avg 5 charges
longbow	fire-weapon	Sieged Castle	Black Knight archer	55.0%		mL 13 !c 3D5 9.0 avg 15 / 6
breast plate, shiny new	body	Sieged Castle	brave knight	45.0%	675	mL 12 !mctnrb 25 ac -4 acM
philosopher's stone	light	Sieged Castle	Count Cagliostro	4.0%	3300	mL 20 !twnr 30 mana 10% mnR
ring, woman's diamond	ring	Sieged Castle	King De Grance	60.0%	3750	mL 0 !rests 1 hit
sword, runed "Plaque Slayer"	weapon	Sieged Castle	nurse	80.0%		mL 10 !mc 2D5 6.0 avg 1 hit
tightly-woven bracelet of silky auburn hair	wrist	Sieged Castle	Queen De Grance	7.0%	875	mL 22 !mcb !e 1 ac 3 dam -4 hp
man's diamond ring	ring	Sieged Castle	Queen Julia De Grance	60.0%	875	mL 15 !twpn !g 1 dam 6 mana cursed
dented templar shield	shield	Sieged Castle	Royal Blacksmith		2250	mL 12 !mcjsrb !n 5 ac 8% hpR
hammer, smith's	weapon	Sieged Castle	Royal Blacksmith		2250	mL 13 !mtns 3D5 9.0 avg
onyx memorial stones	body hold component	Sieged Castle	vault protector		2550	mL 5 !m !e 2 wis 5% mnR
kau-sin-ke	weapon	Sieged Castle	Wei-Po Yang	15.0%	2850	mL 15 !rests 4D6 14.0 avg 3 hit 15 hp !donate

Maps:

Dank's hand drawn map c. 1996