Ice Dragon Disaster: A Cautionary Tale (by Porter)      ||    This afternoon I
decided to go get myself a Circlet of Flame.  So, I grab three tanks, and a
psi, and head to Apollo's.  I was very concerned that one of the tanks was too
small, but after trying for quite a while, I couldn't find another and took
him anyway.  Mistake #2.  (Mistake #1 comes in a minute).  We start making
runs on the Ice Dragon, and every run the Too Small tank almost dies.  OK,
let's be honest, every other run he almost dies, and every fourth run he DOES
die.  As a party leader/tarm, this is a horrible position to be in.  When a
tank drops uncon, if you stay to cast deaths door and save him, you are
risking the remainder of your party to do so.  If you don't, the tanks wonder
what the point of having a tarmalen is.  Important Point #1: Discuss the
Deaths Door thing with your party BEFORE the situation comes up.  Do they ALL
want to risk death to help save one? or do you agree in advance that if there
are others badly injured, you let the tank die.   Here comes Mistake #1.  I
bought a Slimy Cloak today.  Its a very nice piece of +spr equipment, but it
has a bad side-effect.  About every 30 minutes or so, it poisons the wearer. 
I thought that would be no big deal, because as a Druid, I have "lessen
poison" and as a Tarmalen I have "remove poison".  It gives you a warning
BEFORE it poisons you, so I cast "lessen poison", get poisoned for very few hp
(usually only 25) then remove the poison from myself.  OK, we'll come back to
Mistake #1, let's handle Mistake #3.  Mistake #3: Don't do major partying when
there are potential real world conflicts.  My eleven-year-old daughter was
cooking herself lunch as we made a run on the Ice Dragon.  Her Kraft Macaroni
& Cheese boils over, which scares her and starts making a mess in the kitchen.
 I run us out of combat, but party gets pretty mad as a Not In Good Shape
dragon gets left to sit while I clean up the mess on the stove.   Now, back to
Mistake #1.  I'm in the middle of healing for a pretty ma jor party, when my
cloak lets me know its about to poison me.  I cast lessen poison on myself,
and do another Major Party Heal.  The dragon is in Bad Shape.  The cloak
poisons me.  WHILE POISONED ONE DOES NOT REGEN HP/SP!  I don't have enough sp
to remove the poison from myself!  Mistake #4:  Don't call people into a
dangerous situation without discussing the risks.  I shout out on Tarmalen
channel: Relocate Remove Poison on Porter!  *INSTANTLY* my dear Tarm brothers
and sisters respond.  (Without saying so) and I have four or five tarm there
in a heart-beat to remove my poison.  Unfortunately, one of my party members
has the Racism Bane and begins to attack them.  Being defenseless tarm, they
flee in random directions.  Some into the Ice Dragon, who kills them, and
others into the Draconian Captain, who kills them.  Meanwhile, I die from my
poison, leaving someone else as party leader.  They flee us to try to save the
Tarmalens, and we lose a tank (who was badly wounded from the dragon) to the
Draconian Captain, which promotes a Psi to row one, who also dies.    So . . .
. to recap:   #1: Don't wear a Slimy Cloak in Combat.  #2: Don't allow a
too-small tank into your party.  #3: Don't party serious monsters while
real-world potential conflicts on your time are nearby.  #4: Consider risks
before calling for help.  and #5: Discuss Deaths Door / Rescue situations
BEFORE combat with your party.  I hope my bad experience can be helpful to you
all.  (( We DID kill the dragon, a smallish one, only 302k, and we DID open
the chest, and use the Dragon Lance to open the secret room, which gave 27k
bonus xp to us for discovering it, but sadly, someone had already done the
Circlet of Flame that boot, so we didn't get it.)) NEXT TIME, this party will
go Much Much Smoother.  Really!