A Visit with the Tako Demon

Leuthilspar Tales – Part V

About two years back I was working on a series of posts tagged as Leuthilspar Tales.  The idea was to recount what life was like, back in the day… or even today… for a player on TorilMUD who chose to roll an elf.  I had about a dozen topics to cover… and I managed to write about three and a half of them.  The I got distracted and went on to something else.

Recently, with the updates to TorilMUD, there has been something of a resurgence of interest in the game by myself and a few friends.  And so last night found Gaff and I roaming about Leuthilspar and the island of Evermeet looking for nostalgia.

We went to visit Kobold Village, which due to changes in the geography outside of Leuthilspar, is even more difficult to find and enter.  It isn’t just .10w4n from the gates any more.

Outside Leuthilspar

Once there, we wandered around slaying things.  There was not a lot of challenge.  Gaff was on as his level 50 conjurer, Nerral,  and I was on as a level 47 druid. (Used to be level 50, then I started a strange game… to be covered at a later date.)

We went and kill various key mobs on the surface.

Kobold Village - Surface

Then we headed down into the mines where, for no real reason, I lead us into the Kobold Temple of the Unholy.

There are not many rooms down there.  And most of them are occupied by mobs that were not going to be a problem for us.

So, of course, I lead us into one of the problem room, that of the high priest down there, who is really a mob a full group should be taking on.

He wailed on me, I had wimpy set, which caused me to flee when my hit points dropped below a certain threshold.

And then the real fun began.

You flee westward!

The Sacrificial Pit
Exits: -U

< 160h/835H 165v/165V >
< > You try to leave but are grappled backwards by a snaky tentacle!

< 160h/835H 165v/165V >
< > You try to leave but are grappled backwards by a snaky tentacle!

< 160h/835H 165v/165V >
< >
A summoned tako demon misses you with his pummel.

< 160h/835H 165v/165V >
< T: Zouve TC: pretty hurt E: tako EC: excellent >
You miss a summoned tako demon with your slash.
YIKES!  Another hit like that, and you’ve had it!!
You try to leave but are grappled backwards by a snaky tentacle!
PANIC!  You couldn’t escape!

A summoned tako demon misses you with his pummel.
You try to leave but are grappled backwards by a snaky tentacle!
PANIC!  You couldn’t escape!

A summoned tako demon barely wounds you with his weak pummel.
You try to leave but are grappled backwards by a snaky tentacle!
PANIC!  You couldn’t escape!

< 75h/835H 165v/165V >
< T: Zouve TC: awful E: tako EC: excellent >

You start chanting…

< 75h/835H 165v/165V >
< T: Zouve TC: awful E: tako EC: excellent >

You complete your spell…

Temple of Rillifane Rallathil
Exits: -N# -E
A young elven druid is standing here, getting in tune with nature.
A young elven druid is standing here, getting in tune with nature.

Fortunately, druids have the spell “Word of Recall” which return the caster to his guild hall.  It does not work in all rooms in the world, but it is apparently an escape from the Tako Demon.

I rejoiced in my escape!

You group-say ‘hah, was in with Tako demon!’

And then I got another, less joyful message.

Nerral stops following you.
Nerral has left the group.
You disband the group.
Nerral has quit the game, consent lost.

Oops.  Dead.  Never good, not in with the Tako Demon.

And, in TorilMUD, on which EverQuest was primarily based, when you die, you are faced with the naked run back to your corpse.  And the lair of the Tako Demon is not a place you want to go naked by yourself.

And I could not help out.  The Tako Demon is a world tracker, which means as soon as I step out of town, he gets up out of his lair and starts looking for me.  So I start seeing this.

A black rift in space opens next to you, and a summoned tako demon steps out of it grinning.

Yeah, that is bad.  Fortunately there is a couple second delay after somebody steps out of a dimension door like that before they can attack you.  Enough for me to scurry back to town.

Fortunately, there were quite a few people in the game, including Lilithelle, a player who has played on TorilMUD so much that she once gained so much experience, it broke the game.  In TorilMUD you apparently do not stop gaining experience when you hit the level cap of 50.  Lilithelle kept on to the point when her exp hit the most significant bit of the number, which was signed, which meant that her experience went negative and the whole MUD went down.  They had to fix the game just for her.

Anyway, she is the master of such rescues and had the time to help us, so Nerral’s corpse was recovered and restored to him.

But that is a lesson from the age of MUDs.  The deadly Tako Demon basically lives beneath what is mostly a level 5-20 zone.

Fun!