D&D session 2 - A black magic waltz

We had another D&D session yesterday and it was good. we had boss fights, secret facilities and near deaths. to recap from last time princess garnet of Alexandria fled the castle with her would be captors Richie, Joe and her captain of the castle guard Stuart. when trying to leave on the theatre ship, queen Brahne attempted to stop her from leaving by shooting the ship causing it to crash in nearby forest under the mist called the evil forest. in the evil forest the princess was captured by a tree monster and accompanied by Tantalus's (a thieves group) own blank. after killing the vine horror, the group fled the slowly petrifying forest, but unfortunately blank was caught and turned to stone.

So now they rest outside the forest, where they plan to get out of the mist by climbing up the valley through the ice cavern and to the village of dali. princess garnet requests their help to get to Lindbulm to which they agree. on the way to the ice cavern they are set upon some flying stirges, easily killed and no problem. it seems the mist hides many monsters, and secrets (que eerie music).

they enter the ice cavern which you can imagine is covered in ice, hence the name (clever lot are square enix aren't they :p). at one point the way is blocked by a wall of ice which after some mighty hammer strikes was broken. close to the exit they are ambushed by a robed, winged mage who bears the same pointy hat as Joe. connection? the mage, announces himself as "Black Waltz #1" and demands for the princess to come with him. her defenders rush to prevent that, starting their first boss battle. he is killed then striped of valuables.

they exited the cavern and came to the village of dali. upon arriving the two kids on the street point at joe and run away. connection? Richie secures their room at the inn, Joe sells the newly looted wares and stuart with garnet goes to a landed cargo ship to see if they can get a lift. garnet stares at the barels outside the ship whilst stuart questions a gardner about it. Richie secures a room at the inn and goes looking for joe who has been abducted and thrown in a barrel. garnet recognizes that she's seen the barrels outside the ship back at the castle. they learn of some stairs to an underground factory, so they meet up with richie and go deeper underground.

they sneak in and see rooms with boxes and a room with a chocobo on a tread mill. a chocobo is basically a giant riding chicken, the domesticated animal of all final fantasy (still not sure, look it up on Google). they sneak further in, when joe bursts out of a barrel in front of them. ahead they see a load of factory workers and barrels on a conveyor belt. near them however is a mist engine (an engine that runs on mist, keep up) and a door. they open the door to find a mist filled tunnel and a monster. they kill the relatively weak monster, and decide they've seen enough and rest at the inn.

They head to the cargo ship and board where they see in the engine room Black mages that also look like joe. outside they hear the princess and rush out to see her being harassed by another black mage with wings. He announces himself as "Black Waltz #2" and there last opponent, cocky? well when you can fly and do magic you can tell him otherwise. after the second boss fight of the day they rake in some more exp off the kill. they board the ship and head into the sky. of course the ship is headed to alexandria NOT Lindbulm so they need to make a u-turn. After going to the cockpit and killing the poor seemingly defenceless black mage that was piloting the ship they turn it around and head towards the Lindbulm airship gate (a huge gate in the mountain for, you guessed it airships!).

Things were looking up until yet another Black mage with wings shows up, do these people come from a factory or something?! wait, erm yes they do thinking about it. He as you can imagine calls himself "Black Waltz #3" and reveals to them that he is the last black waltz. before the battle begins the black mages on the ship come and form a wall between them and try to blast him away with magic. a huge explosion occurs but its the black mages that suffer as they all die and fall off the ship. A major boss battle ensues afterwards where the team nearly dies. If it wasn't for the timely healing magic from the princess they would be worm chow. with their last strength they manage to land the killing blow.

And that is where our story ends. what is up with magic soldiers being sent to alexandria? are the black waltz's really finished? will garnet reach Lindbulm? and will gareth show up at all this year??!?!? tune in next time.