@Neverused: Hard luck. That dragon is a nightmare.
I think Spider's Bane is indeed the only item-based source of poison immunity in IR at that point unless IR's Protection from Poison scrolls work that way. SR's Neutralize Poison should grant temporary immunity to poison damage.
@semiticgod The scroll is changed into Protection from Ailments, which I think prevents against the majority of statuses but not the actual damage. I could be wrong.
So new install! No Item Revisions, no Item Randomizer, no Divine Remix, and no additional assassin parties. SCS, Rogue Rebalancing, and Ascension are the main mods that change the game.
Introducing Theodosia, Half-elf Shaman. The 75 roll is more or less ideal: 11 INT for Mindflayers, 15 CON for max HP after tome, and... well... I wish I had a 17 in DEX, but that's not as important for non-frontline characters, and potions of Agility and the bracers exist.
Item Revisions locks out Shamans from arrows for some reason: a coded allow list rather than disallow list, I would guess? So that's not there. Since I've gotten through BG1 with a party already, I'm going to rush through BG1 solo. I've already finished Shoal for level 3, but that's all that Theodosia's done.
That lightning hitting Khalid was clearly an omen as he was pincushioned by multiple criticals from skeleton archers in the Firewine area. My fault for being stingy and travelling while he was sleepydrunk. We then poked Khark but he threw holy lightning and we therefore knew that Talos would be displeased if we were to kill him for now.
The Barbarian White was recruited in Ulcaster, and we cleared the ruins there with him. Sadly he subsequently fell into a Kobold Commando ambush in the wilderness and we were at last driven to start the main quest, bringing in Branwen, Monty & Xzar for Alora & Jaheira. The mines and their surrounds were quickly completed, though we did shuffle in Xan and Mur'neth for the Zhents now they were guarunteed to hang around.
In Nashkel a slight mishap occured as I discovered vs. Nimbul that RR's Skald song is bugged not to provide protection from fear, but we were soon off to deal with Tranzig and pick up Jaheira for Xan again as she had most of our good stuff! For now the party are currently knee-deep in Ankheg and will soon head into the forests and deal with some bandits. Current party is at 30,000 XP or so and consists of Chimeron (P of Talos), Jaheira, Branwen (F/C), Vynd (Assassin), Mur'neth (Err, slime thief Ghaundar thing), and Garrick (Skald). Probably should go lighter on the divine magic but will see how it goes!
I found the RR skald does not protect against anything, and only gives hit/damage bonuses. Bugged vs confusion pro. as well. Shame cause I like the changes RR made to it.
Really? I've no-reloaded a RR Skald successfully, and I don't recall getting affected by Fear, Stun or Confusion while the song was active.
Regardless, Theodosia has fallen to a stupid mistake in soloing: Mutamin apparently carried a Charm Person spell this time around, and Theodosia failed the save. Back to Candlekeep!
I read a post by the maintainer Wisp written awhile back that only the Skald themselves is protected by the immunities. Allies are not.
Chimeron goes on, did the spider forest and stone golem cave before Mur'neth bought it among the ankhegs. Stupid kid getting killed in there, Chimeron explains that this is the will of Talos before stomping off to grab Alora and getting ready to raid the bandits. Rep is getting too high, every time I feel sufficiently aggravated as to murder someone - Fists, gypsy fortune tellers, Noober- they don't drop rep!
After failing an attempt at an Undead Hunter to hordes upon hordes of kobolds in the mines, I'm back with another Shaman. This time, the stats are almost completely perfect. Introducing Kolin!
Kolin heads for the FAI early, getting the ring and selling it at Feldepost's inn. Using the 9k gold, he buys the Helm of Charm Protection, and after doing a couple of quests around Beregost including some mod ones, he reaches level 2.
Shoal is good for level 3, and a wolf and skeleton and chicken give Kolin a successful spell, and almost a level 4.
Kolin cuts south to Nashkel, buying Protection from Petrification as well as a Flesh to Stone scroll. Basilisks are cleared south to north, and using the Shaman's AoE level 2 spell, Kolin tried to take on Peter and company. It's moderately successful: two stay in the damage area and take 60 damage on average. It's enough time, though, that Korax turns on me, and I'm forced to slay my ghoulish helper.
I get lucky twice: Kirian targets me with Hold Person twice, and Kolin saves twices against the odds. I even had potions of freedom, I just didn't use them for whatever reason. Oops. Regardless, Kirian runs out of spells, and we shoot her down for level 6. Eventually.
I'm not soloing this time: I've picked up Alora from Gullykin, with plans to get Ajantis, Branwen, and possibly Quayle, and Kivan after the mines are complete.
Chimeron dealt with the bandit camp without too much difficulty, and then at Vynd's prompting cleared the upper floors of Durlag. Branwen was briefly petrified once again when her potion ran out but was recovered. We aided Kirinhale and dealt with Riggilo before exorcising the ghost.
After a little more wandering we killed Tenya- the will of Talos demanded it. The insolent ranger policing ankheg poachers also perished, finally bringing down rep. Then it was time to hit the Cloakwood, where we did Jaheira's quest and dealt with the Shadow druids. Unfortunately Vynd was the victim of a bug in more ways than one as he keeled over from spider poison in area 2 despite drinking an antidote. Since he'd already had one reprieve we brought in Xan. My carefree attitude to tanks better give way to some careful ambushing now.
Drasus and his goons fell quickly though Chimeron did run off and had to be sheperded to safety. We went through the mines but a misclick vs. guards on the 2nd floor left Garrick chunked by a rebounding lightning bolt. Xan was only saved because the only 4th level spell he has is Minor Globe! Yeslick joins our crew to make it a very divine heavy party now. Daeveron was then disposed of, and the looting can now commence.
Enjoying playing with low precision on Android. Playing in semi-real time much of the time rather than pausing, leading to some frantic screen stabbing!
Kolin, Half-elf Shaman. Introduction Alora is recruited, and Melium is shot down (both with arrows and with lightning) for his bracers: Shortbows and thus my sanity benefit greatly from an additional 2 damage per hit.
Recruiting Quayle from the Nashkel carnival, Neira is Held and then shot down.
Recruiting Ajantis and Branwen, we head west to the Gnoll fortress, mostly for the bracers of Dexterity. The CHA tome is picked up and used for absolutely no reason on Kolin.
Silence nullifies Basillus' abilities. He had a prebuff Physical Mirror, which I fortunately catch before Alora kills herself. Call Lightning finishes him off.
I do some reputation quests, thinking that I'll kill Dushai for her Ring. But then I realize Alora has a lot of points in Pick Pocket, so I decide to try... Success!
Sirenes and Flesh Golems are dealt with. Ironically, I think the Hobgoblin Elites were more troublesome than the Sirines. Flesh Golems are dealt with by dragging them into Kolin's Spirit animals.
Still trying to rack up experience, two Battle Horrors are killed with Call Lightning, and we raid Durlag's Tower for a tome and a couple Ghasts.
The Nashkel mines fall quickly, the worst thing being the Kobold Chieftain. Kolin summons his spirits, Mulahey is surrounded, and we kill them off. The Revenant is killed, and though Ajantis is taken low, we're fine. Narcillus is also killed: Ajantis and Branwen tank the Mustard Jellies, and somehow Narcillus ends up far north of his jellies.
Detect Illusions nullifies Nimbul, and Call Lightning kills him as well.
Magic Missile almost kills Quayle. I dunno why I'm not prebuffing him with Shield, but this is getting rather bothersome.
Kivan is recruited, and we start making our way to the Bandit Camp. Corsone is shot down under Web, since his dialogue (?) crashes the game under SCS.
The first ambush is set up. This is the one I've been worried about for awhile, since there's two potential backstabs that'll easily kill Alora or Quayle. So I've been setting up Invisibility on those two before every area transition.
Ajantis and Branwen tank. Kolin destroys their first Priest with Call Lightning. The others fall shortly.
Bandit camp: Web, Cloudkill, more Web, arrows and bolts everywhere.
Cloakwood mines: Drasus is pulled away by himself.
The two mages have Chaos spells. Somehow, a Potion of Magic Blocking doesn't stop it. Quayle is the only one who makes his save, and throws charges of wands of monster summoning to take attention away from my uncontrollable members.
Somehow, no one actually dies under the Chaos effect. We recover and kill the mages.
Fireballs and a Holy Smite kill Hareishan and guards, and we rush to Davaeorn.
Kivan takes the Pro. Magic scroll, everyone else up to the north. Alora and Quayle both need to quaff invisibility potions as Battle Horrors wander up there, but eventually Kivan kills off Daveaorn and ends the confrontation.
Kivan's encounter is outside with no ranged options. Lightning? Lightning.
Baldur's Gates quests bring level 8 to Kolin, and he takes Call Woodland Beings, and of course Spirit Fire. We use Invisibility to scout out the top level of the Iron Throne, and we return to Candlekeep. Tanking the Ogre Mages hurts, and my own Spirit Fire doesn't help either.
Catacombs, Ghasts, Tomes, Spiders, Doppelgangers, Pratt, Basilisks. Pratt was the only interesting fight, but that's only because he went invisible near the end of it. I found him by Quick-saving everywhere, and finally having it fail and Detecting Illusions. Back in Baldur's Gate, two rests give Quayle enough casts to get us all invisible and saving a grand duke.
And in the Cellars... Slythe is terrifying for a no-resurrection game. He's a F/T a ridiculous THAC0, good AC, cloak of Non-Detection, and like 5 Invisibility potions with a x4 Backstab multiplier. This game is no exception: Branwen dies.
Back to the FAI to recruit Yeslick, then to the ducal palace. Invisibility to Liia, Detect Illusions to try to get the Assassin down, and tons of summons and focus on the mage and shaman to finish the encounter off.
Thief's maze and Undercity are navigated invisibility, and I'm trying to use only one PfM scroll: Kivan has the best THAC0 due to elf bonuses, so he gets the first go. I... didn't account for Diarmid though, and he takes far too much damage and his morale breaks and he dies.
Great. Um. Ajantis up next? Answer: Diarmid and morale break, nope.
Last Warrior: Yeslick. Potions of Explosion are expended, bringing Tazok and Diarmid very low from out of vision, and kills Semaj. The other mage is away from the other group, and I manage to find a way to keep Yeslick safe behind an invisible wall.
I manage to keep him safe there until Sarevok is lured into the same position and killed.
In SoD: Quayle dies in a scrap, but everything else is snuck around with potions of invisibility. An arrow of dispelling and multiple arrows of Acid later, Korlasz offers to surrender, and we accept. Kolin strips the two remaining members, and we begin the Ducal Palace siege.
Nice work. Chimeron goes on a-questing through the big city. I did a few things I pretty much never do- clearing the Umberlee temple, finding ale for the captain at the Merchant league, and remembering where Arkion and Nemphere live . No casualties despite extensive looting of property and XP now up to around 90,000 each. Closest shave was probably when we backchatted Degrodel since we'd already looted the helm and had a hard fight. Would like to go to Werewolf's isle for the first time in a while, but no-one in this party can use a bastard sword so it's a little dicey if Karoug is as tough as I remember.
Kolin has fallen in facing swarms of undead in the cave with the dwarves. I wasn't ready for a Mummy, and a Mummy Fear destroyed any semblance of hope I had in that fight.
I think I'll take a break from this challenge: I need to figure out how to deal with SoD safely before trying a no-res there!
Hard luck. Chimeron has made it through Candlekeep with a few more casualties along the way:
Alora bought it on level 2 of Durlag's when I left her next to a skeleton who turned out to be a Skeleton Warrior.
Xan perished when we attacked the Iron Throne guys in Candlekeep along with a reader or two. Somehow the necklace of missiles shots Branwen and Yeslick were throwing ended up centred on him... clearly they bounced off a wall or something!
Then Safana perished due to another misclick, which sent her into a phase spider's web trap under Candlekeep.
Fortunately we got out... and now Eldoth & Skie (Shadowdancer) will swell our numbers. I was going to go to Werewolf Isle now but Duke Eltan seems to have swapped his rare book for the sea charts before so I'll have to see if they are lying around near his sickbed!
Victory! Chimeron quashes the threat of Sarevok in the company of Yeslick, Baeloth, Jaheira, Branwen (F/C), and Verr'sza. Several hiccups occured along the way, as an invisible Eldoth eloped with Skie (I didn't know being invisible meant she wouldn't join!), Coran was beaten to a pulp by a Stone Golem in Durlag's, and Viconia was incinerated by a hail of Arrows of Detonation. Due to my lack of grinding Branwen & Yeslick only got to level 7 as fighters when Sarevok fell under a hail of sling bullets, while Chimeron finished around 130,000 XP. His stats were 15/13/16/10/18/9 by the end. Far too heavy a toll in npcs in BG1 could mean trouble in the harder BG2 but we shall see. Will take a holiday then start putting an android BG2 install together. May try the Big Picture scripts for a different AI experience.
After an epic battle with installing BG2 with lotsa mods onto my tablet Chimeron, blessed of Talos, slouches warily into Amn. For once I did the opening dungeon and then got a party together to do the minor quests. So far we've done the Slavers (Arath perished while held), the Harpers (Ashar was pounded into paste while held), the Circus, and the skinner murders amongst others. SCS opponents ignore the helpless but vanilla AI just keeps bashing away... Present party is Anomen (F/C), Branwen (F/C), Adrian, Yoshimo, and Minsc. Adrian or Anomen will probably be next to perish . Jaheira has just gone to visit the Harpers, despite being under a curse, so Chimeron has been taking the opportunity to get acquainted with the Weathermistress in her absence. Must remember to take care...
Chimeron weathers all that can be thrown at him still, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake... primarily consisting of his own companions admittedly. I can barely remember all the dead, need a graveyard with engravable stones . He has defeated Mae'var, Faldorn, & Torgal and is now working on the Windspear Hills. I try to play cautious with him but he just keeps saying the wrong thing, like trying to fob Minsc off with a 200gp hamster rather than looking for Boo. I need to go back to rping charismatic geniuses again... I have changed his alignment to CN as it seems to suit him better anyway. The most recent amusing demise was Auren in the promenade. We were ambushed by Tanova and several other vampires and everyone except her could go invisible. She ran into the Adventurer's Mart and purchased a potion of invisibility (almost no Pro Undead scrolls in my install), while the shop's clientele ignored the vampire. Then that traitor Ribald cast a spell dispelling her invisibility as she left, leaving her to be chomped on! We took our revenge on Tanova in the Temple of Ilmater- rather expensively...- but Ribald's time will come...
Present party are Anomen (F/C), Keto (Skald), Nalia (F/M), Haldamir (F), and Dace Linton (Bounty Hunter), all around 800,000 XP.
Still Chimeron goes on, with a slightly improved rate of casualties. All stronghold quests have now been completed, with Keto's skald song and some stealthing helping to cut down on unecessary deaths. Anomen fell to a beholder on the Unseeing Eye quest when Dace carelessly got herself seen (and was replaced by Valygar), but I found a rather odd teleportation item called Mallon's shifting heart which allows for teleportation between areas while its charges last. Shamelessly abusing this to escape areas when someone was held or otherwise at risk cut back on casualties a little.... until I played a bit while err, in a tired and emotional state following the consumption of real ale. Both Dace and Yoshimo proceeded to then stumble onto some lethal traps in the Guarded Compound and the Planar Sphere... so currently Haer (F/T) is holding the fort on traps. Nalia was kidnapped by Isaea and seemed likely not to come back as Khellor didn't show up. In a regular rp run I would have had to leave it there but for this run I needed all my npcs so elected to smoke him out with some bugfixing. At 1,500,000 XP and going on fairly well, but the terror of having to go all through Spellhold and the Underdark with very few opportunities to replace casualties is going to be quite nerveracking, particularly as the party isn't set up very well to handle mages. Valygar may give way to Keldorn if we cut down Firkraag to help with that. Still having some fun anyway, and getting used to Android!
Rules: Insane vanilla. purely random. Everything about charname, up to party composition, is random. Weapon proficiencies are randomized. Alignment has to be role-played. Raising npcs is allowed but no other npc than those rolled for party composition can join in. Party composition is not known at the beginning of the game. I roll for my first npc; when the first npc joins, roll for the next, and so on until party is full.
She rolled Viconia as her first joinable NPC.
On her way to the FAI, killed the ogre and a few monsters, using her favored tactic: blind the enemy and throw darts. She easily disposed of a blinded Tarnesh. Hearing Unshey was offering a reward for his girdle, she handed it back to him. Things got heated quickly as Ravarel wasn't satisfied with the 60gp compensation offered by Unshey. Ravarel ended up blinding him and killing him. She proceeded to retrieve Joia's ring to clear her reputation. She then decided to hide in the forest for a few days to let the incident with Unshey fade away. She got into trouble again as she ran into a drow escaping from the Flaming Fist. Amazed by the drow's beauty, and tempted by the juicy plate mail that would surely be looted from the removal of the officer, she sided with the drow. Despite being blinded, the officer hit Viconia hard, bringing her down to Near Death. Ravarel didn't take any chances and used the scroll of Burning Hands she had looted of Tarnesh to finish off the officer. Viconia offered to travel with Ravarel.
Ravarel, fascinated by Viconia's beauty, gladly accepted. She rolled Eldoth (and thus Skye) as the next joinable members. Ugh. No thief until Baldur's gate, but at least a there's a cleric and a wizard.
The pair headed to Beregost where they gained a few items and experience. They ran into trouble with Silke. They first murdered Silke's targets and then turned on Silke, thinking that double-crossing would optimize the compensation from the whole situation. Viconia silenced Silke, but was killed by a critical hit from Silke's quarterstaff. Luckily, Ravarel ran away to the temple with Silke unable to follow and raised her fallen comrade. She knew that Silke's silencing was running out.
They faced Silke again. Viconia's magic resistance luckily protected her from a lightning bolt. This allowed Ravarel to blind the witch, after which she was easily toppled.
Walking into the Red Sheaf, the duo encountered Karlat. Karlat was succesfully blinded, though he managed to corner Ravarel such that she couldn't escape the reach of his axe. Viconia casted all Commands she had left at him, but that wasn't sufficient to bring Karlat down. Reaching out to her scroll of Magic Missile in despair, Ravarel finished off Karlat. That was a close one.
Vicky and Ravy then headed south and were confronted by Flaming Fists after easily defeating ogrillons. Fearing the officers would recognize Viconia, they took the offensive. Viconia was killed in one hit (26 dmg) by one of the officers while trying to get off a hold spell. Cornered, Ravarel spooked them all and ran back to the temple in Beregost to raise her dead comrade again.
Prior to dealing with Bodhi Chimeron took an ill-advised detour to the Silent Swamps, where an even more ill-advised decision to fight an unecessary combat at the end led to Haer being splattered by a Shambling Mound. Had my thoughts been clearer he could have been saved, but... Fade came back in to deal with thiefing after we did some more companion quests.
From there things were smooth sailing to Brynlaw, where we made our way into Spellhold and through the Asylum with few problems. Irenicus was pincushioned like Kurosawa's Macbeth very quickly, and for once I had a good excuse to visit the Underdark as Chimeron trusted to the will of Talos.
The Sahaugin were no problem, but the Underdark was as tricky as usual. Some sort of death drive strikes me there due to the repetitive content, that always leads me to do something silly. On this occasion it was visiting the Beholder lair while invisible. Unfortunately Keto was set to sing at all times... and was disintegrated when I failed to think through what to do properly. Shaken I did only a few of the Ust Natha quests- though I did let Chimeron take more risks in Qilue's place where a large number of fire elementals saved the fighter's bacon. I'd grown too used to the Skald's song's benefits to protect them properly. From there we bribed our way out after dealing with the Kuo-Toa and enjoyed the sunlight.
Tashia has now come in as the 6th party member for now, and we shall see if I can get back into a decent groove now I've got back into non-linear land. Time for some unseen content by visiting modland perhaps . Have been feeling slightly jaded, can feel a CN Jester random playthrough of my own coming on!
Admoira is a half-elven sorceress with 75 overall stats. TN I'm playing her with the standard rules of the 75 stat no-reload challenge, no resurrection, insane difficulty, no mods.
As she walked out of Candlekeep, she grabbed Monty and Xzar as there is safety in numbers. She then picked Jaheira and Khalid and resolved to move towards Nashkell. In Beregost, she was delayed with some side business. Defended a wild mage against gangsters, was assaulted by an assassin, and was hired by a bardess under false pretenses. All challenges were promptly dealt with and Jaheira was pleased with her new magical staff.
The group reached Nashkell and decided to investigate the mines after replenishing their supplies at the carnival. Around Nashkell mines, she defended Prism against Greywolf and set to investigate the mines.
Her party easily dealt with the kobolds as they were going down. The first real challenge came when they encountered the boss of the ploy, Mulahey. Khalid was rigid-thought by Mulahey. This was extremely dangerous as he was wielding Varscona. He dealt a horrible blow to Monty who went down to 1 hp. In the meanwhile, Jaheira, guarding the entrance to Mulahey's chambers, fell to two lucky crits from skeletons before she could even drink a potion of healing. Admoira, Xzar and Imoen concentrated fire on Mulahey, alternating between scrolls and ranged weapons. Fortunately, Khalid remained passive and left Monty alone for the remainder of the fight. Monty drank a potion of healing and Mulahey was killed. By then helpless Khalid was surrounded by Mulahey's surviving critters, but thankfully, being in Ankheg plate and wielding a large shield, he survived the onslaught while the rest of the crew killed the minions.
The party recruited Xan to replace Jaheira and rested for almost a full day in Mulahey's chambers, studying the magic items they had found and healing their wounds. Xzar and Xan went into a heated argument as to who would be writing down the exciting Web spell they had found. Xan argued that the spell was useless in a spellbook and should be tried first from the scroll. Xzar threatened Xan with his dagger and Admoira agreed to let him copy down the scroll. As predicted by Xan, Xzar found he lacked the skills to cast the spell from memory, a mistake that would turn out to be costly.
They walked out of the mines only to be ambushed by a formidable foe - a hostile party of female mercenaries. Exactly the kind of enemy against whom a Web would have worked wonders.
The first amazon went down to a backstab by Monty. A second one was charmed by Xan. The cleric amazon casted a glyph of warding which claimed the live of Admoira's beloved sister, Imoen. Before she went down to Khalid's fire arrows, she cast another one, this time bringing down Xzar. Admoira's group did deal with the Amazons in the end, but at what price? Clearing the Nashkell mines had costed the lives of Imoen, Xzar, and Jaheira.
Imoen Xzar Admoira Monty Khalid Xan
Back in Nashkell, the group was ambushed again by a nimble assasin they weren't expecting. The party was exhausted from its flight from the Nashkell mines and was out of memorized spells. As soon as she detected magical motions from Nimbul's hands, Admoira drank a potion of magic protection she had looted from the Amazons' bodies, and started throwing at him the darts of wounding she had looted from the same place. Nimble however understood the situation well. He dispatched Khalid by casting Horror; then, he protected himself with mirror images. His images confused Admoira, allowing him to kill first Monty, and then Xan, with a volley of magic missiles. However the illusion was running out and Admoira poisoned him and dealt him the final blow. She regrouped with Khalid who had run to the other side of the river.
Admoira Khalid Montaron Xan
The duo claimed the reward from Ghastkill. Seeing as they were the continued objects of assassination attempts, they figured they would need new companions ASAP. They recruited a fierce warrior, Minsc, in exchange for a promise to rescue his "witch" Dynaheir. They also seized the opportunity to rescue a war priestess named Branwen from her petrified form. Branwen agreed to travel along with Admoira in payment for her rescue.
Admoira Khalid Minsc Branwen
Minsc is urging the group to rescue Dynaheir at the earliest possibility. Admoira likes the idea of heading out in the wilderness for a while, to avoid assasination attempts. However Branwen is suggesting that the party takes the offense by dashing to Beregost and confronting Tranzig. Admoira hasn't made her mind yet and has proposed to discuss the matter over wine and roasted meat.
Aaaand carelessness costs me. Chimeron went through a bit of mod content before defeating Bodhi and then Irenicus. The Atweaks fiends made me a bit nervous but the hell battle wasn't too difficult. We then proceeded past Grommir and to the third level of Watcher's Keep when I noticed that some items had gone missing during upgrades. A bit preoccupied by this we wandered on on the quest to the Forest of Mir, and just as I realised we hadn't rested we ran into the Master Wraith. Here... some weird things happened. Chimeron got confused despite a rather low save, but seemed to respond normally moving around with no icon present. Then suddenly I noticed that confusion had kicked in and he was hurt, even being energy drained despite wearing an item to protect against that. Despite him being both healed (via rod) and mazed he then perished to the wraiths around him, I guess there was too much of a delay.
*Sigh* So much for this challenge then. It was very doable... I hadn't lost any npcs in a long time. Loss of concentration- as usual from playing after work- doomed him. I've been meaning to turn to a randomised roleplaying playthrough soon so that will have to come next after I lick my wounds and perhaps play some other game for once!
The last chapter of Admoira ended after defeating Nimbul, leaving her group devastated, with only Khalid left. Admoira recruted Branwen and Minsc.
After discussion, Branwen convinced the group to head straight to Beregost. They were hailed as heroes and confronted Tranzig. Tranzig saved against Admoira's attempts to blind him, which left him time to throw an acid arrow at Branwen. Tranzig was chunked, but Branwen couldn't keep up with the damage of the acid arrow, even drinking a potion of healing per round. Her sole consolation will have been to see Tranzig die before she did.
Tranzig did reveal the location of the bandit camp; however as promised, Admoira's party wandered off to the wilderness to rescue Dynaheir. She recruited Garrick before departing.
Garrick was hoping to sing the tale of the Dynaheir's glorious rescue. His projects came to an abrupt end when a kobold commando, hiding in a bush, one-shot him on the way to the fortress.
Admoira & co arrived at a bridge guarded by ogres berzerkers. Minsc bravely decided to get close with them, trying to draw their attention while Khalid would pelt them. Admoira did her best but only managed to blind one of them. Minsc stumbled on a rock; this gave an ogre enough time to land a blow that killed him outright, his head splattering in red liquidworks. Thankfully Khalid had enough time to finish them off before they could charge Admoira.
Admoira Khalid MinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan Jaheira
Khalid and Amoira resolved to rescue Dynaheir despite the heavy losses. They knew that gnolls were not as formidable as ogres berzerkers. Accordingly, the fortress dwellers easily fell to Admoira's sleep magicks. Dynaheir was chagrined by the loss of Minsc, but offered to join the group nevertheless. Admoira welcomed this new input of firepower from the exotic Invoker.
Admoira - Khalid Dynaheir MinscGarrickBranwen Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan Jaheira
On the way back towards Beregost, the party stumbled upon Brage. Dynaheir's intelligence allowed her to solve his riddle; he was escorted to the temple of Helm in Nashkell. The party headed towards High Hedge, to join forces with Kivan, whom Admoira knew would be happy to join in an expedition against the bandit camp.
Although Kivan was eager to go East at the first opportunity, Admoire convinced him that finding Bassilus and claiming the 5,000 gp bounty on his head would allow the party to equip properly for such a dangerous task. Kivan reluctantly agreed. While exploring the wilderness on the lookout for Bassilus, the group met with Safana, a gorgeous thief with outrageous manners. Kivan was so enthralled that he agreed to help her find Alaric's treasure. His elven complexion would prove decisive in defeating the Sirine's charms guarding the entrance to the cave. Judging that the flesh golems inside the cave were too dangerous, Admoira ordered Kivan to avoid them and stealth his way to the treasure. Safana complained, saying the wished to see such a strong man in combat. Admoira knew that Safana was plotting to reduce the number of heads between which the loot would be divided, and reasserted her leadership. Safana was so impressed that she offered to remain with the group after the treasure was recovered by Kivan.
The party walked back to Beregost with a new confidence. They claimed the reward for Bassilus and set out for the bandit camp, scalping the bandits to the every last of them. In Peldvale, Admoira happily welcomed the addition of Viconia, which would bring much needed divine casting to the group.
The bandits at the camp were easily slaughtered, including the tent bosses, who barely blinked before they were all dead. Admoira went back to Officer Vai with 70 scalps, bought equipment and potions, and set out to the Cloakwood forest. Tensions between Kivan and Viconia were rising, which worried Admoira. She feared she would eventually have to choose between the powerful cleric, or the adept archer.
Along the way, Dynaheir's intelligence came into play again. "What if, she said, we took advantage of the iron shortage to reap an astronomical price on ankheg shells? Look at this odd potion thou hast purchased at the Nashkell carnival; I will drink it, and haul the shells back to Thunderhammer."
Admoira loved the idea of more gold and agreed to Dynaheir's plan. The hunt for Ankhegs was going well, and just about when Dynaheir's inventory was almost full, Kivan was critically hit by an ankheg. Admoira ordered Viconia to Command the Ankheg so as to save Kivan. Viconia took an unusually long time to cast the spell, giving the ankheg enough time to decapitate Kivan. Did Viconia deliberately let her comrade fall? Admoira will likely never know.
Admoira part 3. TN elven sorceress, 75 total stats, no-resurrect no-reload, insane. Admoira's party headed to the Cloakwood after selling ankheg shells to Thunderhammer.
SASHENSTAR OR THE DRUIDS? Admoira agreed to defend Aldeth against savages. However, when she realized the "savages" were in fact druids protecting the forest, her mind changed. She knew the way to the mines would be long; she couldn't afford to be harassed by druids all along. She turned on Aldeth and won over the friendship of the druids. She then met Coran, who warned the party against wyverns and offered to join forces. Given that an archer was badly needed since Kivan's death, Admoira welcomed Coran with opened arms.
AMBUSHED BY ETTERCAPS On the way to the 2nd Cloakwood, the party was ambushed by ettercaps that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the group. Dynaheir realized in horror that she was surrounded by two ettercaps. She was hit once and poisoned; as she was reaching for an elixir of health, she was hit a second time. She fell to the ground and died a horrible, painful death. Though the ettercaps were easily dispatched afterwards, Admoira found herself genuinely saddened by the death of Dynaheir. She admired her methodical, scientific approach to magic, and her noble, selfless temper. After the incident, Admoira decreed that from now on, every arcane spellcaster in the group would travel invisibly between points of interest.
THE CLOAKWOOD SPIDERS The next cloakwood area was infested by spiders and ettercaps. Admoira wouldn't have bothered. She was so upset with Dynaheir's death that she resolved to clear the forest of every spider. She even dared enter a cave that looked like their central breeding nest. Luckily, her anger won over, and Centeol was killed without any loss to the party.
DRINKING WITH A SCOUNDREL Eldoth wasn't exactly Admoira's kind of man. But this time Admoira felt like some wine would soothe her mind. She sat down and drank; as Eldoth spoke of mischievous plans, she barely listened. She did catch the phrase "I will travel with you"; and that was enough to let him join the group. Admoira had needed the wine and the firepower; Eldoth would probably end up being yet another expendable fool.
DEALING WITH WYVERNS The druids informed Admoira that the Iron Throne was raising wyverns to scare intruders away from their hidden base. This have the group yet even more motivation to track the beast. They found a cave to the east and easily brought down the massive creatures. Admoira wondered to herself how such big and strong creatures could be spooked so easily, with the slinging of a single spell she already mastered as a teenager.
THE MINES Coran scouted ahead and reported how strongly guarded the mines were; a group of mercenaries wielding robes and magical weapons was on guard, he said. Admoira announced the strategy to the group. "This mine is a deathtrap; we can't stay in there for too long, lest reinforcements trap us inside. This will have to be settled without rest." The party nodded in agreement, and everyone carefully prepared their equipment to have their most crucial potions, wands, and scrolls handy. The mercenaries at the entrance were slaughtered in less than 10 seconds; though Admoira didn't show it, she was relieved, as they did look tough. The party easily cleared the first level of the mines, and reached for the second. All was going well in the second level. They cleared a room full of enemies, liberated Yeslick and refused his offer to join the group, seeing as they were already full. It wasn't long until Admoira regretted her decision; a few seconds later, Safana clumsily stepped over a trap she had detected and was trying to disarm. This cost her her life. Before Admoira could turn to Yeslick to fill in the vacant slot, he had already disappeared in the darkness.
THE THIRD LEVEL Coran offered himself to be in charge of the traps. Admoira knew that he wasn't nearly as skilled as Safana, but kept the thought to herself, for now. The party went down to the third level. Despite the loss of Safana, the third level was easily cleared. Judging from the appearance of it, Admoira understood that waiting for them below would be Davaeorn, the dreaded wizard. She also feared the way to his chambers would be trapped, and that Coran lacked the skills to properly do the screening. She ordered the group to prepare for battle. Everyone drank their best potions, casted their best defensive spells, and took the stairs below. Viconia drank a potion of magic resistance; with her innate resistance, she would be entirely resistant to magic. Admoira whispered to Viconia's ear: "you will walk point for the traps that Coran will inevitably fail to disarm. Do this for the group, and your life debt to us will be considered paid." Viconia nodded in agreement. Not that she ever took seriously her "debt" towards Admoira; but the knew that as the leader of the group, Admoira rather than herself, was entitled to the potion. Viconia figured that the potion would increase, rather than decrease, her chances of survival down there.
DAVAEORN Viconia sanctuarized herself and walked down the corridor towards Davaeorn's chambers, triggering several traps along the way. She shouted at the others that the way was clear, and the battle began. Khalid tanked the Battle Horrors and Coran launched acid arrows at them. In the meanwhile, Viconia failed to silence Davaeorn. Davaeron took the opportunity to cast a lightning bolt at Khalid. Khalid was fried on the spot, opening the way towards Eldoth and Admoira who he was protecting. Thankfully, the lightning bolt also damaged one of the horrors, leaving it injured; the other was badly injured from Khalid's attacks.
Coran opted to chase Davaeorn with arrows of biting, while Viconia was trying to purge his invisibility. This left Admoira and Eldoth alone against the Horrors. They faced them bravely, killing them both with scrolls of Aganazzar's scorcher, and a wand of fire, before either could land a single blow through the mirror images. Viconia, again, failed to purge Davaeorn's invisibility, as he was out of range.
Coran wasn't as fortunate as Admoira and Eldoth. Davaeorn detonated a fireball at him, roasting him on the spot. The fight definitely wasn't going as expected. Davaeorn was still mirror imaged, immune to normal missiles, and improved invisible, preventing Admoira from spooking him. Admoira had darts of stunning and wounding, which aren't magical. Viconia had a paltry 1 apr with her sling and she would fall to Davaeorn's summons before she could kill him, despite the magic resistance. Eldoth had magical arrows, but was highly vulnerable to Davaeorn's spells.
Viconia rushed Davaeorn with her mace, and Eldoth approached. Davaeorn dire charmed Eldoth!!! At this point I realized that Davaeorn's summons could be put to sleep, which Admoira did. In the meanwhile, Viconia saved the day by holding Eldoth. With a magical longbow and arrows +1, Eldoth would have been in a position to turn Admoira to mincemeat. Davaeorn, by then, had run out of spells. In a tedious and clumsy melee battle, he was eventually injured. Eldoth awoke from his paralysis and landed the final blow with his longbow.
Bloodied and battered, the survivors gathered the most valuable equipment from the room and the bodies, leaving a lot behind. As both Coran and Safana had died, they weren't able to open the chests. Such an epic fight creates unique bonds between comrades. Admoira's opinion of Eldoth changed drastically as Eldoth had earned her respect.
They flooded the mines and headed to Beregost to claim the prize on the wyvern head, and get some rest.
Comments
I think Spider's Bane is indeed the only item-based source of poison immunity in IR at that point unless IR's Protection from Poison scrolls work that way. SR's Neutralize Poison should grant temporary immunity to poison damage.
So new install! No Item Revisions, no Item Randomizer, no Divine Remix, and no additional assassin parties. SCS, Rogue Rebalancing, and Ascension are the main mods that change the game.
Introducing Theodosia, Half-elf Shaman. The 75 roll is more or less ideal: 11 INT for Mindflayers, 15 CON for max HP after tome, and... well... I wish I had a 17 in DEX, but that's not as important for non-frontline characters, and potions of Agility and the bracers exist.
Artist is Claparo-Sans over at Deviantart.
Item Revisions locks out Shamans from arrows for some reason: a coded allow list rather than disallow list, I would guess? So that's not there. Since I've gotten through BG1 with a party already, I'm going to rush through BG1 solo. I've already finished Shoal for level 3, but that's all that Theodosia's done.
Spellpicks: level 1: Cure Light Wounds, Entangle, Doom
That lightning hitting Khalid was clearly an omen as he was pincushioned by multiple criticals from skeleton archers in the Firewine area. My fault for being stingy and travelling while he was sleepydrunk. We then poked Khark but he threw holy lightning and we therefore knew that Talos would be displeased if we were to kill him for now.
The Barbarian White was recruited in Ulcaster, and we cleared the ruins there with him. Sadly he subsequently fell into a Kobold Commando ambush in the wilderness and we were at last driven to start the main quest, bringing in Branwen, Monty & Xzar for Alora & Jaheira. The mines and their surrounds were quickly completed, though we did shuffle in Xan and Mur'neth for the Zhents now they were guarunteed to hang around.
In Nashkel a slight mishap occured as I discovered vs. Nimbul that RR's Skald song is bugged not to provide protection from fear, but we were soon off to deal with Tranzig and pick up Jaheira for Xan again as she had most of our good stuff! For now the party are currently knee-deep in Ankheg and will soon head into the forests and deal with some bandits.
Current party is at 30,000 XP or so and consists of Chimeron (P of Talos), Jaheira, Branwen (F/C), Vynd (Assassin), Mur'neth (Err, slime thief Ghaundar thing), and Garrick (Skald). Probably should go lighter on the divine magic but will see how it goes!
Regardless, Theodosia has fallen to a stupid mistake in soloing: Mutamin apparently carried a Charm Person spell this time around, and Theodosia failed the save. Back to Candlekeep!
I read a post by the maintainer Wisp written awhile back that only the Skald themselves is protected by the immunities. Allies are not.
Chimeron goes on, did the spider forest and stone golem cave before Mur'neth bought it among the ankhegs. Stupid kid getting killed in there, Chimeron explains that this is the will of Talos before stomping off to grab Alora and getting ready to raid the bandits. Rep is getting too high, every time I feel sufficiently aggravated as to murder someone - Fists, gypsy fortune tellers, Noober- they don't drop rep!
Kolin heads for the FAI early, getting the ring and selling it at Feldepost's inn. Using the 9k gold, he buys the Helm of Charm Protection, and after doing a couple of quests around Beregost including some mod ones, he reaches level 2.
Shoal is good for level 3, and a wolf and skeleton and chicken give Kolin a successful spell, and almost a level 4.
Kolin cuts south to Nashkel, buying Protection from Petrification as well as a Flesh to Stone scroll. Basilisks are cleared south to north, and using the Shaman's AoE level 2 spell, Kolin tried to take on Peter and company. It's moderately successful: two stay in the damage area and take 60 damage on average. It's enough time, though, that Korax turns on me, and I'm forced to slay my ghoulish helper.
I get lucky twice: Kirian targets me with Hold Person twice, and Kolin saves twices against the odds. I even had potions of freedom, I just didn't use them for whatever reason. Oops. Regardless, Kirian runs out of spells, and we shoot her down for level 6. Eventually.
I'm not soloing this time: I've picked up Alora from Gullykin, with plans to get Ajantis, Branwen, and possibly Quayle, and Kivan after the mines are complete.
After a little more wandering we killed Tenya- the will of Talos demanded it. The insolent ranger policing ankheg poachers also perished, finally bringing down rep. Then it was time to hit the Cloakwood, where we did Jaheira's quest and dealt with the Shadow druids. Unfortunately Vynd was the victim of a bug in more ways than one as he keeled over from spider poison in area 2 despite drinking an antidote. Since he'd already had one reprieve we brought in Xan. My carefree attitude to tanks better give way to some careful ambushing now.
Drasus and his goons fell quickly though Chimeron did run off and had to be sheperded to safety. We went through the mines but a misclick vs. guards on the 2nd floor left Garrick chunked by a rebounding lightning bolt. Xan was only saved because the only 4th level spell he has is Minor Globe! Yeslick joins our crew to make it a very divine heavy party now. Daeveron was then disposed of, and the looting can now commence.
Enjoying playing with low precision on Android. Playing in semi-real time much of the time rather than pausing, leading to some frantic screen stabbing!
Introduction
Alora is recruited, and Melium is shot down (both with arrows and with lightning) for his bracers: Shortbows and thus my sanity benefit greatly from an additional 2 damage per hit.
Recruiting Quayle from the Nashkel carnival, Neira is Held and then shot down.
Recruiting Ajantis and Branwen, we head west to the Gnoll fortress, mostly for the bracers of Dexterity. The CHA tome is picked up and used for absolutely no reason on Kolin.
Silence nullifies Basillus' abilities. He had a prebuff Physical Mirror, which I fortunately catch before Alora kills herself. Call Lightning finishes him off.
I do some reputation quests, thinking that I'll kill Dushai for her Ring. But then I realize Alora has a lot of points in Pick Pocket, so I decide to try... Success!
Sirenes and Flesh Golems are dealt with. Ironically, I think the Hobgoblin Elites were more troublesome than the Sirines. Flesh Golems are dealt with by dragging them into Kolin's Spirit animals.
Still trying to rack up experience, two Battle Horrors are killed with Call Lightning, and we raid Durlag's Tower for a tome and a couple Ghasts.
The Nashkel mines fall quickly, the worst thing being the Kobold Chieftain. Kolin summons his spirits, Mulahey is surrounded, and we kill them off. The Revenant is killed, and though Ajantis is taken low, we're fine. Narcillus is also killed: Ajantis and Branwen tank the Mustard Jellies, and somehow Narcillus ends up far north of his jellies.
Detect Illusions nullifies Nimbul, and Call Lightning kills him as well.
Magic Missile almost kills Quayle. I dunno why I'm not prebuffing him with Shield, but this is getting rather bothersome.
Kivan is recruited, and we start making our way to the Bandit Camp. Corsone is shot down under Web, since his dialogue (?) crashes the game under SCS.
The first ambush is set up. This is the one I've been worried about for awhile, since there's two potential backstabs that'll easily kill Alora or Quayle. So I've been setting up Invisibility on those two before every area transition.
Ajantis and Branwen tank. Kolin destroys their first Priest with Call Lightning. The others fall shortly.
Bandit camp: Web, Cloudkill, more Web, arrows and bolts everywhere.
Cloakwood mines: Drasus is pulled away by himself.
The two mages have Chaos spells. Somehow, a Potion of Magic Blocking doesn't stop it. Quayle is the only one who makes his save, and throws charges of wands of monster summoning to take attention away from my uncontrollable members.
Somehow, no one actually dies under the Chaos effect. We recover and kill the mages.
Fireballs and a Holy Smite kill Hareishan and guards, and we rush to Davaeorn.
Kivan takes the Pro. Magic scroll, everyone else up to the north. Alora and Quayle both need to quaff invisibility potions as Battle Horrors wander up there, but eventually Kivan kills off Daveaorn and ends the confrontation.
Kivan's encounter is outside with no ranged options. Lightning? Lightning.
Baldur's Gates quests bring level 8 to Kolin, and he takes Call Woodland Beings, and of course Spirit Fire. We use Invisibility to scout out the top level of the Iron Throne, and we return to Candlekeep. Tanking the Ogre Mages hurts, and my own Spirit Fire doesn't help either.
Catacombs, Ghasts, Tomes, Spiders, Doppelgangers, Pratt, Basilisks. Pratt was the only interesting fight, but that's only because he went invisible near the end of it. I found him by Quick-saving everywhere, and finally having it fail and Detecting Illusions. Back in Baldur's Gate, two rests give Quayle enough casts to get us all invisible and saving a grand duke.
And in the Cellars... Slythe is terrifying for a no-resurrection game. He's a F/T a ridiculous THAC0, good AC, cloak of Non-Detection, and like 5 Invisibility potions with a x4 Backstab multiplier. This game is no exception: Branwen dies.
Back to the FAI to recruit Yeslick, then to the ducal palace. Invisibility to Liia, Detect Illusions to try to get the Assassin down, and tons of summons and focus on the mage and shaman to finish the encounter off.
Thief's maze and Undercity are navigated invisibility, and I'm trying to use only one PfM scroll: Kivan has the best THAC0 due to elf bonuses, so he gets the first go. I... didn't account for Diarmid though, and he takes far too much damage and his morale breaks and he dies.
Great. Um. Ajantis up next? Answer: Diarmid and morale break, nope.
Last Warrior: Yeslick. Potions of Explosion are expended, bringing Tazok and Diarmid very low from out of vision, and kills Semaj. The other mage is away from the other group, and I manage to find a way to keep Yeslick safe behind an invisible wall.
I manage to keep him safe there until Sarevok is lured into the same position and killed.
In SoD: Quayle dies in a scrap, but everything else is snuck around with potions of invisibility. An arrow of dispelling and multiple arrows of Acid later, Korlasz offers to surrender, and we accept. Kolin strips the two remaining members, and we begin the Ducal Palace siege.
Deaths: Branwen, Kivan, Ajantis, Quayle.
I think I'll take a break from this challenge: I need to figure out how to deal with SoD safely before trying a no-res there!
Alora bought it on level 2 of Durlag's when I left her next to a skeleton who turned out to be a Skeleton Warrior.
Xan perished when we attacked the Iron Throne guys in Candlekeep along with a reader or two. Somehow the necklace of missiles shots Branwen and Yeslick were throwing ended up centred on him... clearly they bounced off a wall or something!
Then Safana perished due to another misclick, which sent her into a phase spider's web trap under Candlekeep.
Fortunately we got out... and now Eldoth & Skie (Shadowdancer) will swell our numbers. I was going to go to Werewolf Isle now but Duke Eltan seems to have swapped his rare book for the sea charts before so I'll have to see if they are lying around near his sickbed!
Present party are Anomen (F/C), Keto (Skald), Nalia (F/M), Haldamir (F), and Dace Linton (Bounty Hunter), all around 800,000 XP.
Urixipha CE half-elf fighter/mage/cleric. Killed at level 3/3/2 by the amazon party.
[name forgotten], CG human ranger. Killed at level 1 by a kobold archer at the crossroads between the FAI and Beregost.
Rules: Insane vanilla. purely random. Everything about charname, up to party composition, is random. Weapon proficiencies are randomized. Alignment has to be role-played. Raising npcs is allowed but no other npc than those rolled for party composition can join in. Party composition is not known at the beginning of the game. I roll for my first npc; when the first npc joins, roll for the next, and so on until party is full.
She rolled Viconia as her first joinable NPC.
On her way to the FAI, killed the ogre and a few monsters, using her favored tactic: blind the enemy and throw darts. She easily disposed of a blinded Tarnesh. Hearing Unshey was offering a reward for his girdle, she handed it back to him. Things got heated quickly as Ravarel wasn't satisfied with the 60gp compensation offered by Unshey. Ravarel ended up blinding him and killing him. She proceeded to retrieve Joia's ring to clear her reputation. She then decided to hide in the forest for a few days to let the incident with Unshey fade away. She got into trouble again as she ran into a drow escaping from the Flaming Fist. Amazed by the drow's beauty, and tempted by the juicy plate mail that would surely be looted from the removal of the officer, she sided with the drow. Despite being blinded, the officer hit Viconia hard, bringing her down to Near Death. Ravarel didn't take any chances and used the scroll of Burning Hands she had looted of Tarnesh to finish off the officer. Viconia offered to travel with Ravarel.
Ravarel, fascinated by Viconia's beauty, gladly accepted. She rolled Eldoth (and thus Skye) as the next joinable members. Ugh. No thief until Baldur's gate, but at least a there's a cleric and a wizard.
The pair headed to Beregost where they gained a few items and experience. They ran into trouble with Silke. They first murdered Silke's targets and then turned on Silke, thinking that double-crossing would optimize the compensation from the whole situation. Viconia silenced Silke, but was killed by a critical hit from Silke's quarterstaff. Luckily, Ravarel ran away to the temple with Silke unable to follow and raised her fallen comrade. She knew that Silke's silencing was running out.
They faced Silke again. Viconia's magic resistance luckily protected her from a lightning bolt. This allowed Ravarel to blind the witch, after which she was easily toppled.
Walking into the Red Sheaf, the duo encountered Karlat. Karlat was succesfully blinded, though he managed to corner Ravarel such that she couldn't escape the reach of his axe. Viconia casted all Commands she had left at him, but that wasn't sufficient to bring Karlat down. Reaching out to her scroll of Magic Missile in despair, Ravarel finished off Karlat. That was a close one.
Vicky and Ravy then headed south and were confronted by Flaming Fists after easily defeating ogrillons. Fearing the officers would recognize Viconia, they took the offensive. Viconia was killed in one hit (26 dmg) by one of the officers while trying to get off a hold spell. Cornered, Ravarel spooked them all and ran back to the temple in Beregost to raise her dead comrade again.
Viconia lvl 3, Ravarel lvl 2. To be continued.
One-shot by an arrow in the Dorn ambush on the way to Nashkell mines.
Prior to dealing with Bodhi Chimeron took an ill-advised detour to the Silent Swamps, where an even more ill-advised decision to fight an unecessary combat at the end led to Haer being splattered by a Shambling Mound. Had my thoughts been clearer he could have been saved, but... Fade came back in to deal with thiefing after we did some more companion quests.
From there things were smooth sailing to Brynlaw, where we made our way into Spellhold and through the Asylum with few problems. Irenicus was pincushioned like Kurosawa's Macbeth very quickly, and for once I had a good excuse to visit the Underdark as Chimeron trusted to the will of Talos.
The Sahaugin were no problem, but the Underdark was as tricky as usual. Some sort of death drive strikes me there due to the repetitive content, that always leads me to do something silly. On this occasion it was visiting the Beholder lair while invisible. Unfortunately Keto was set to sing at all times... and was disintegrated when I failed to think
through what to do properly. Shaken I did only a few of the Ust Natha quests- though I did let Chimeron take more risks in Qilue's place where a large number of fire elementals saved the fighter's bacon. I'd grown too used to the Skald's song's benefits to protect them properly. From there we bribed our way out after dealing with the Kuo-Toa and enjoyed the sunlight.
Tashia has now come in as the 6th party member for now, and we shall see if I can get back into a decent groove now I've got back into non-linear land. Time for some unseen content by visiting modland perhaps
I'm playing her with the standard rules of the 75 stat no-reload challenge, no resurrection, insane difficulty, no mods.
As she walked out of Candlekeep, she grabbed Monty and Xzar as there is safety in numbers. She then picked Jaheira and Khalid and resolved to move towards Nashkell. In Beregost, she was delayed with some side business. Defended a wild mage against gangsters, was assaulted by an assassin, and was hired by a bardess under false pretenses. All challenges were promptly dealt with and Jaheira was pleased with her new magical staff.
The group reached Nashkell and decided to investigate the mines after replenishing their supplies at the carnival. Around Nashkell mines, she defended Prism against Greywolf and set to investigate the mines.
Her party easily dealt with the kobolds as they were going down. The first real challenge came when they encountered the boss of the ploy, Mulahey. Khalid was rigid-thought by Mulahey. This was extremely dangerous as he was wielding Varscona. He dealt a horrible blow to Monty who went down to 1 hp. In the meanwhile, Jaheira, guarding the entrance to Mulahey's chambers, fell to two lucky crits from skeletons before she could even drink a potion of healing. Admoira, Xzar and Imoen concentrated fire on Mulahey, alternating between scrolls and ranged weapons. Fortunately, Khalid remained passive and left Monty alone for the remainder of the fight. Monty drank a potion of healing and Mulahey was killed. By then helpless Khalid was surrounded by Mulahey's surviving critters, but thankfully, being in Ankheg plate and wielding a large shield, he survived the onslaught while the rest of the crew killed the minions.
JaheiraAdmoira - half-elven sorceress, lvl2
Khalid - lvl2
Monty - lvl 1/1
Imoen - lvl 2
Xzar lvl - 2
Xan - lvl 2
The party recruited Xan to replace Jaheira and rested for almost a full day in Mulahey's chambers, studying the magic items they had found and healing their wounds. Xzar and Xan went into a heated argument as to who would be writing down the exciting Web spell they had found. Xan argued that the spell was useless in a spellbook and should be tried first from the scroll. Xzar threatened Xan with his dagger and Admoira agreed to let him copy down the scroll. As predicted by Xan, Xzar found he lacked the skills to cast the spell from memory, a mistake that would turn out to be costly.
They walked out of the mines only to be ambushed by a formidable foe - a hostile party of female mercenaries. Exactly the kind of enemy against whom a Web would have worked wonders.
The first amazon went down to a backstab by Monty. A second one was charmed by Xan. The cleric amazon casted a glyph of warding which claimed the live of Admoira's beloved sister, Imoen. Before she went down to Khalid's fire arrows, she cast another one, this time bringing down Xzar. Admoira's group did deal with the Amazons in the end, but at what price? Clearing the Nashkell mines had costed the lives of Imoen, Xzar, and Jaheira.
ImoenXzarAdmoira
Monty
Khalid
Xan
Back in Nashkell, the group was ambushed again by a nimble assasin they weren't expecting. The party was exhausted from its flight from the Nashkell mines and was out of memorized spells. As soon as she detected magical motions from Nimbul's hands, Admoira drank a potion of magic protection she had looted from the Amazons' bodies, and started throwing at him the darts of wounding she had looted from the same place. Nimble however understood the situation well. He dispatched Khalid by casting Horror; then, he protected himself with mirror images. His images confused Admoira, allowing him to kill first Monty, and then Xan, with a volley of magic missiles. However the illusion was running out and Admoira poisoned him and dealt him the final blow. She regrouped with Khalid who had run to the other side of the river.
Admoira
Khalid
MontaronXanThe duo claimed the reward from Ghastkill. Seeing as they were the continued objects of assassination attempts, they figured they would need new companions ASAP. They recruited a fierce warrior, Minsc, in exchange for a promise to rescue his "witch" Dynaheir. They also seized the opportunity to rescue a war priestess named Branwen from her petrified form. Branwen agreed to travel along with Admoira in payment for her rescue.
Admoira
Khalid
Minsc
Branwen
Minsc is urging the group to rescue Dynaheir at the earliest possibility. Admoira likes the idea of heading out in the wilderness for a while, to avoid assasination attempts. However Branwen is suggesting that the party takes the offense by dashing to Beregost and confronting Tranzig. Admoira hasn't made her mind yet and has proposed to discuss the matter over wine and roasted meat.
To be continued.
*Sigh* So much for this challenge then. It was very doable... I hadn't lost any npcs in a long time. Loss of concentration- as usual from playing after work- doomed him. I've been meaning to turn to a randomised roleplaying playthrough soon so that will have to come next after I lick my wounds and perhaps play some other game for once!
The last chapter of Admoira ended after defeating Nimbul, leaving her group devastated, with only Khalid left. Admoira recruted Branwen and Minsc.
After discussion, Branwen convinced the group to head straight to Beregost. They were hailed as heroes and confronted Tranzig. Tranzig saved against Admoira's attempts to blind him, which left him time to throw an acid arrow at Branwen. Tranzig was chunked, but Branwen couldn't keep up with the damage of the acid arrow, even drinking a potion of healing per round. Her sole consolation will have been to see Tranzig die before she did.
Admoira - Khalid - Minsc
Branwen-Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraTranzig did reveal the location of the bandit camp; however as promised, Admoira's party wandered off to the wilderness to rescue Dynaheir. She recruited Garrick before departing.
Garrick was hoping to sing the tale of the Dynaheir's glorious rescue. His projects came to an abrupt end when a kobold commando, hiding in a bush, one-shot him on the way to the fortress.
Admoira - Khalid - Minsc
Garrick-Branwen-Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraAdmoira & co arrived at a bridge guarded by ogres berzerkers. Minsc bravely decided to get close with them, trying to draw their attention while Khalid would pelt them. Admoira did her best but only managed to blind one of them. Minsc stumbled on a rock; this gave an ogre enough time to land a blow that killed him outright, his head splattering in red liquidworks. Thankfully Khalid had enough time to finish them off before they could charge Admoira.
Admoira
Khalid
MinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraKhalid and Amoira resolved to rescue Dynaheir despite the heavy losses. They knew that gnolls were not as formidable as ogres berzerkers. Accordingly, the fortress dwellers easily fell to Admoira's sleep magicks. Dynaheir was chagrined by the loss of Minsc, but offered to join the group nevertheless. Admoira welcomed this new input of firepower from the exotic Invoker.
Admoira - Khalid Dynaheir
MinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraOn the way back towards Beregost, the party stumbled upon Brage. Dynaheir's intelligence allowed her to solve his riddle; he was escorted to the temple of Helm in Nashkell. The party headed towards High Hedge, to join forces with Kivan, whom Admoira knew would be happy to join in an expedition against the bandit camp.
Admoira - Khalid - Dynaheir - Kivan
MinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraAlthough Kivan was eager to go East at the first opportunity, Admoire convinced him that finding Bassilus and claiming the 5,000 gp bounty on his head would allow the party to equip properly for such a dangerous task. Kivan reluctantly agreed. While exploring the wilderness on the lookout for Bassilus, the group met with Safana, a gorgeous thief with outrageous manners. Kivan was so enthralled that he agreed to help her find Alaric's treasure. His elven complexion would prove decisive in defeating the Sirine's charms guarding the entrance to the cave. Judging that the flesh golems inside the cave were too dangerous, Admoira ordered Kivan to avoid them and stealth his way to the treasure. Safana complained, saying the wished to see such a strong man in combat. Admoira knew that Safana was plotting to reduce the number of heads between which the loot would be divided, and reasserted her leadership. Safana was so impressed that she offered to remain with the group after the treasure was recovered by Kivan.
Admoira - Khalid - Dynaheir - Kivan -Safana
MinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraThe party walked back to Beregost with a new confidence. They claimed the reward for Bassilus and set out for the bandit camp, scalping the bandits to the every last of them. In Peldvale, Admoira happily welcomed the addition of Viconia, which would bring much needed divine casting to the group.
Admoira - Khalid - Dynaheir -Kivan - Safana - Viconia
MinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraThe bandits at the camp were easily slaughtered, including the tent bosses, who barely blinked before they were all dead. Admoira went back to Officer Vai with 70 scalps, bought equipment and potions, and set out to the Cloakwood forest. Tensions between Kivan and Viconia were rising, which worried Admoira. She feared she would eventually have to choose between the powerful cleric, or the adept archer.
Along the way, Dynaheir's intelligence came into play again. "What if, she said, we took advantage of the iron shortage to reap an astronomical price on ankheg shells? Look at this odd potion thou hast purchased at the Nashkell carnival; I will drink it, and haul the shells back to Thunderhammer."
Admoira loved the idea of more gold and agreed to Dynaheir's plan. The hunt for Ankhegs was going well, and just about when Dynaheir's inventory was almost full, Kivan was critically hit by an ankheg. Admoira ordered Viconia to Command the Ankheg so as to save Kivan. Viconia took an unusually long time to cast the spell, giving the ankheg enough time to decapitate Kivan. Did Viconia deliberately let her comrade fall? Admoira will likely never know.
Admoira - Khalid - Dynaheir - Safana - Viconia
KivanMinscGarrickBranwenImoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraAdmoira buried Kivan's body in the temple area of Beregost and sold the lot of ankhegs for the kingly sum of 8,000 gp.
To be continued.
TN elven sorceress, 75 total stats, no-resurrect no-reload, insane.
Admoira's party headed to the Cloakwood after selling ankheg shells to Thunderhammer.
SASHENSTAR OR THE DRUIDS?
Admoira agreed to defend Aldeth against savages. However, when she realized the "savages" were in fact druids protecting the forest, her mind changed. She knew the way to the mines would be long; she couldn't afford to be harassed by druids all along. She turned on Aldeth and won over the friendship of the druids. She then met Coran, who warned the party against wyverns and offered to join forces. Given that an archer was badly needed since Kivan's death, Admoira welcomed Coran with opened arms.
Admoira - Khalid - Safana - Viconia - Coran - Dynaheir
Kivan Minsc Garrick Branwen Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraAMBUSHED BY ETTERCAPS
On the way to the 2nd Cloakwood, the party was ambushed by ettercaps that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the group. Dynaheir realized in horror that she was surrounded by two ettercaps. She was hit once and poisoned; as she was reaching for an elixir of health, she was hit a second time. She fell to the ground and died a horrible, painful death. Though the ettercaps were easily dispatched afterwards, Admoira found herself genuinely saddened by the death of Dynaheir. She admired her methodical, scientific approach to magic, and her noble, selfless temper. After the incident, Admoira decreed that from now on, every arcane spellcaster in the group would travel invisibly between points of interest.
Admoira - Khalid - Safana - Viconia - Coran
Dynaheir Kivan Minsc Garrick Branwen Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraTHE CLOAKWOOD SPIDERS
The next cloakwood area was infested by spiders and ettercaps. Admoira wouldn't have bothered. She was so upset with Dynaheir's death that she resolved to clear the forest of every spider. She even dared enter a cave that looked like their central breeding nest. Luckily, her anger won over, and Centeol was killed without any loss to the party.
DRINKING WITH A SCOUNDREL
Eldoth wasn't exactly Admoira's kind of man. But this time Admoira felt like some wine would soothe her mind. She sat down and drank; as Eldoth spoke of mischievous plans, she barely listened. She did catch the phrase "I will travel with you"; and that was enough to let him join the group. Admoira had needed the wine and the firepower; Eldoth would probably end up being yet another expendable fool.
DEALING WITH WYVERNS
The druids informed Admoira that the Iron Throne was raising wyverns to scare intruders away from their hidden base. This have the group yet even more motivation to track the beast. They found a cave to the east and easily brought down the massive creatures. Admoira wondered to herself how such big and strong creatures could be spooked so easily, with the slinging of a single spell she already mastered as a teenager.
THE MINES
Coran scouted ahead and reported how strongly guarded the mines were; a group of mercenaries wielding robes and magical weapons was on guard, he said. Admoira announced the strategy to the group. "This mine is a deathtrap; we can't stay in there for too long, lest reinforcements trap us inside. This will have to be settled without rest." The party nodded in agreement, and everyone carefully prepared their equipment to have their most crucial potions, wands, and scrolls handy.
The mercenaries at the entrance were slaughtered in less than 10 seconds; though Admoira didn't show it, she was relieved, as they did look tough.
The party easily cleared the first level of the mines, and reached for the second.
All was going well in the second level. They cleared a room full of enemies, liberated Yeslick and refused his offer to join the group, seeing as they were already full. It wasn't long until Admoira regretted her decision; a few seconds later, Safana clumsily stepped over a trap she had detected and was trying to disarm. This cost her her life. Before Admoira could turn to Yeslick to fill in the vacant slot, he had already disappeared in the darkness.
Admoira - Khalid - Viconia - Coran - Eldoth
Safana Dynaheir Kivan Minsc Garrick Branwen Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraTHE THIRD LEVEL
Coran offered himself to be in charge of the traps. Admoira knew that he wasn't nearly as skilled as Safana, but kept the thought to herself, for now. The party went down to the third level. Despite the loss of Safana, the third level was easily cleared. Judging from the appearance of it, Admoira understood that waiting for them below would be Davaeorn, the dreaded wizard. She also feared the way to his chambers would be trapped, and that Coran lacked the skills to properly do the screening. She ordered the group to prepare for battle. Everyone drank their best potions, casted their best defensive spells, and took the stairs below. Viconia drank a potion of magic resistance; with her innate resistance, she would be entirely resistant to magic. Admoira whispered to Viconia's ear: "you will walk point for the traps that Coran will inevitably fail to disarm. Do this for the group, and your life debt to us will be considered paid." Viconia nodded in agreement. Not that she ever took seriously her "debt" towards Admoira; but the knew that as the leader of the group, Admoira rather than herself, was entitled to the potion. Viconia figured that the potion would increase, rather than decrease, her chances of survival down there.
DAVAEORN
Viconia sanctuarized herself and walked down the corridor towards Davaeorn's chambers, triggering several traps along the way. She shouted at the others that the way was clear, and the battle began.
Khalid tanked the Battle Horrors and Coran launched acid arrows at them. In the meanwhile, Viconia failed to silence Davaeorn. Davaeron took the opportunity to cast a lightning bolt at Khalid. Khalid was fried on the spot, opening the way towards Eldoth and Admoira who he was protecting. Thankfully, the lightning bolt also damaged one of the horrors, leaving it injured; the other was badly injured from Khalid's attacks.
Coran opted to chase Davaeorn with arrows of biting, while Viconia was trying to purge his invisibility. This left Admoira and Eldoth alone against the Horrors. They faced them bravely, killing them both with scrolls of Aganazzar's scorcher, and a wand of fire, before either could land a single blow through the mirror images. Viconia, again, failed to purge Davaeorn's invisibility, as he was out of range.
Coran wasn't as fortunate as Admoira and Eldoth. Davaeorn detonated a fireball at him, roasting him on the spot. The fight definitely wasn't going as expected. Davaeorn was still mirror imaged, immune to normal missiles, and improved invisible, preventing Admoira from spooking him. Admoira had darts of stunning and wounding, which aren't magical. Viconia had a paltry 1 apr with her sling and she would fall to Davaeorn's summons before she could kill him, despite the magic resistance. Eldoth had magical arrows, but was highly vulnerable to Davaeorn's spells.
Viconia rushed Davaeorn with her mace, and Eldoth approached. Davaeorn dire charmed Eldoth!!! At this point I realized that Davaeorn's summons could be put to sleep, which Admoira did. In the meanwhile, Viconia saved the day by holding Eldoth. With a magical longbow and arrows +1, Eldoth would have been in a position to turn Admoira to mincemeat. Davaeorn, by then, had run out of spells. In a tedious and clumsy melee battle, he was eventually injured. Eldoth awoke from his paralysis and landed the final blow with his longbow.
VICTORY!!!
Admoira - Viconia - Eldoth
Coran Khalid Safana Dynaheir Kivan Minsc Garrick Branwen Imoen Xzar Montaron Xan JaheiraBloodied and battered, the survivors gathered the most valuable equipment from the room and the bodies, leaving a lot behind. As both Coran and Safana had died, they weren't able to open the chests.
Such an epic fight creates unique bonds between comrades. Admoira's opinion of Eldoth changed drastically as Eldoth had earned her respect.
They flooded the mines and headed to Beregost to claim the prize on the wyvern head, and get some rest.
To be continued