Book 40 -- Forbidden Fire Lore (last revised 9/18/00)
Author unknown (this message was found in a bottle on the Antar beach)

My masters would roast me alive if they knew I was writing this down.
But those thickheads aren't half as smart as they think they are.

Dim-witted, drooling oafs, that's what they are. Ordering me to help
them with their experiments and then threatening me with the Lava
torture if I tell another soul. And I thought I was dumb to get
captured by slavers.

I am hoping this text is found by someone intelligent enough to
recognize its worth. Described below is the secrets of the Lavogres.
Dear reader, go forth and spread the news far and wide, so that these
evil beasts that pretend to be cultured mages can be destroyed.

Upon reaching a power level of 2000 or more, a Lavogre can develop
the Firebreath skill by consuming a Lavastone. I suppose if I were a
Lavogre and wanted to do such a thing I would use the Extra Action
Destroy Item [ID# of Lavastone], after procuring one of course.

My masters spoke of a race unknown to me, the Drakan, who are also
able to develop the Firebreath skill in exactly the same fashion,
with exactly the same requirements.

I'm not sure if there's any pain or costs involved with the procedure
besides the digesting of the Lavastone. The few instances I witnessed
did not seem either pleasant or unpleasant for the eating Lavogre.
Still they do make a huge ceremony of it, sort of a "coming of age"
ritual, so there may be something going on that is simply not
displayed by the new Firebreather.

Very soon after consuming the Lavastone small firebursts are
possible. The amount and range of the firebreath grows slowly as the
Lavogre devotes time and effort into developing the skill. The damage
possible from the flames increases with each new level, but the range
possible starts at short range, goes to medium at level four, long
range at level nine, and out about three feet further for each five
levels after that.

The Lavogres talk reverantly of a dragon able to breathe fire onto a
target sixty feet away. I pray never to view such a thing. The
experiments I did witness displayed the secondary damage from
Firebreath. Anyone within about three feet of the intended target was
also likely to get burned, though not as badly.

Something within the Firebreathing Lavogre needs to recharge or
recover, as the number of times Firebreath could be used in a typical
combat is rather limited. At trained once was possible. At skill
level two the same number of Firebreaths could be performed. At level
four this raised to three, and so on with plus one breath per two
skill levels.

Firebreathing also seems to take a lot of time compared to other
combat actions.

Defenses against Firebreath are few. Armor does seem to reduce the
damage a bit. Having Fire Resistance helps immensely. Blinking away
from the fire seems the ideal defense. Dwarves with their magic
resistance and other slaves hiding behind protection gems fared very
badly. It is interesting that the Burn spell was lessened in
effectiveness by Magic Resistance, while Firebreath is not. My theory
is that Burn is trying to heat the flesh of the target directly,
while Firebreath (and Fireball) are simply fire, even though created
by magic in a sense.

I will try to send out more messages later, but am not sure when I'll
have the next opportunity. If it's not too much bother come on over
to Deathsgate and raid the Lavogre city. My many slave friends and I
will give anything possible for being rescued from our captors.
The End

Back to The Library

 Create your own free wiki!Support CommunityPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS