Yep, BG1 NPCs. Great mod (for BGT or Tutu, I don't think it has been implemented yet for EE). Adds a lot of banter between all vanilla NPCs, plus romance options with Ajantis, Coran, Xan, Dynaheir, Branwen and Shar-Teel. Quite similar to BG2, well written. (My only criticism is that female gnomes and dwarves are excluded from romancing any of the male NPCs, female halflings may only romance Ajantis.)
[I've decided to correct the apparent bug in shadowkeeper and to raise Shar-Teel.]
In the Temple of Helm I paid Nalin 800 gold to raise Shar-Teel. "Men are pathetic" was the first thing she said. You're welcome darling... We rested in the Nashkell inn, and I took the time to read the letters I found in the orc priest's den, and they speak of a Tranzig who's to be found in Feldepost's inn. So we travel toward Beregost. First we visit Thalantyr to have him take a look at the toxic liquid I found as well as identify numerous enchanted items I had taken from the mines, the burial mounds and from Nimbul. In Beregost a Flaming Fist officer offered us 50 gold for every bandit scalp we would give her. I'm not inclined to work for that corrupt lot, but the money might come in handy. We went to Feldepost's to see if this Tranzig figure was still there. We found him upstairs. I entered his room, leaving Shar-Teel hidden in the shadows in the hallway. Told him to spill his guts. He thought he could frighten me by telling me he was a mage, but when I replied that I'm not necessarily afraid of mages, he turned hostile. His first move was to go invisible, which prompted me to leave to room and summon a skeleton. I really don't like it when my opponent has the initiative, let him dance with my skeleton. He became visible when he started casting a spell to against my skeleton. Shar-Teel seized the moment. She entered silently, manoeuvered herself behind Tranzig and killed him with a single backstab. She got blinded in the process though, because Tranzig just managed to complete his casting of a glitterdust spell. The temporary blindness was of little consequence, as Shar-Teel and I were going to rest anyway.
Tranzig was carrying a letter about secret activities in Larswood and Peldvale, northeast from here, by the same organization that was apparently behind the atrocities in the Nashkell mines. I don't think I can be arsed to go there and solve those problems. Let the Fist take care of those things. I'd rather figure out why there's a price on my head. Unless.. unless there's a relation between this secret organization and my predicament. Can't see how though.
....
Well rested, Shar and I step outside Feldepost's. Someone has traced me here, a stranger. This doesn't feel right. I'm putting away my journal. I'm going to act the innocuous litle halfling. Cyric guide me, and Shar-Teel.
NOTE: this is in my experience one of the hardest fights in SCS BG1. Teyl's going to try and beat Molkar's gang, but he's aware that he might be no match for them, with only Shar-Teel to aid him. He will keep an eye out for a possible escape route.
We fought and we prevailed. Cyric is with me. As soon as we'd done talking a fight ensued between Molkar's gang of four, and us. Shar-Teel softened up Molkar with a well-placed backstab, whereas I occupied myself with their mage, a gnome name Halacan. I tipped my frost dart in my poison and scored various poisonous hits, preventing the illusionist from casting any potentially devastating spells.
While I kept launching my dart at the gnome, I saw in a flash that Shar-Teel was beleaguered by not only Molkar but also two of his henchmen, a cleric named Drakar and a hard-hitting dwarf, Morvin. I shouted at her that she had to run, get herself into safety, and let me take over for a while. And so she did. (Both of us had taken a potion of speed when our confrontation with Molkar and co began.) The gnome fell before the rest could close in on me, so I sped away, in order to keep a distance and continue launching my poisoned dart. I picked Molkar as my target, since he was already injured after Shar-Teel's backstab. Besides his resistance against poison was likely to be less than that of the dwarf. My strategy worked, I managed to slow and to poison Molkar, until he fell too.
I was now up against the remaining two, Drakar the cleric, and Morvin the warrior. Drakar cast a hold spell on me, but to no effect, as my ring of free action protects against movement hampering spells. In response I managed to silence the priest, who then had to resort to melee combat.
When both Drakar and Morvin closed in on me I cast a hold person on both. It held Drakar, but not Morvin. In the distance I saw Shar-Teel approach from behind our enemies. Hidden, she seized the opoortunity to stab Drakar, while I occupied Morvin.
With a second backstab she finished him off.
[Drakar's death made Teyl reach level 7 as a cleric, and with that achievement, receive a second poison weapon ability as well as a dread blast as a special ability.] That left only Morvin, the toughest of the lot, between us. I weakened him (though only marginally) with my dread blast ability, and later with my newly poisoned frost dart.
Both Shar-Teel and I tried to surprise Morvin with sneak attacks from the shadows. It took two succesful backstabs by Shar-Teel to fell the hardy dwarf.
Time to gather their loot, and see if they have anything interesting or useful for us....
The past two or three days Shar-Teel and I spent travelling to different temples and vendors to acquire haling potions as we only had 3 left. Upon arrival in Nashkell, our first destination, to see if Nalin had any for sale, we were ambushed by four amazons sent by someone for my head. We were ill-prepared for this fight, still low on healing potions and moreover Shar-Teel was fatigued. She intended a backstab on their leader Lamalha but failed. Their priestess then successfully cast a Hold Person on her. Though I tried to distract the lot from Shar-Teel, one the women refused to lose her focus on her. My companion fell soon after. Apparently Lamalha's a priestess as well, as she also started casting Hold Person on me. My expensive ring of free action has been worth every penny I spent on it.
I ran and hid. The cover of the night was my friend although my enemies too had two assassins well versed in hit and fade tactics. [Besides they were so annoyingly scripted that when I was stealthed, they still came walking up to me like magnets, albeit without attacking.] I crossed the northern bridge, entering the town, where Amnish soldiers saw my plight and came to my aid. With the soldiers to distract them, it was easier for me to hide and return for sneak attacks from behind. With my poisoned weapon I managed to hurt them well, and in the end I prevailed.
I carried Shar-Teel and her gear to the Temple of Helm, where Nalin raised her. [No bug this time.] When we'd recovered we decided to try and use the scroll that Charleston Nib gave us, which supposedly gives access to a dungeon. Access we gained, but once inside I wasn't necessarily pleased. I entered the first chamber alone, hidden in shadows, and came upon an overwhelming amount of "Juju-Zombies" and two vampiric wolves and the terrible thing was, that when I looked behind, the exit was blocked by three of them. I feared I had nowhere to go when I discerned a stairway leading to a lower area. I immediately descended, aware that I wasn't going to be able to keep up my stealth in the zombie chamber. [I overwrote my screenshot, so no pic here.] Downstairs the sight didn't get much prettier. At least five vampires roaming a circular hallway with five separate chambers inside the circle. I moved to a shadowed wall, hid myself and downed a potion of speed, which in combination with my speed boots would make me difficult to catch, and two potions of master thievery to be able to open any locks. [Teyl hasn't spent a single skillpoint outside stealth and set traps.] Picking and looting a locked chest in front of three vampires went remarkably well. I also managed to run, but it took a potion of invisibility to get me into safety. I would have never undertaken this bold venture if it weren't for my helm of charm protection which wards off the vampires' domination attacks.
There was yet another stairway leading further down. Confident thanks to my invisibility potion I went down the stairs. The room I entered contained four or five sword and (astral) phase spiders, as well as an altar. Still invisible I checked out the altar and found an enchanted elven bow and an equally enchanted piece of elven chainmail. I picked them up, but not without betraying my presence. So I quaffed a second potion of invisibility, and made my way upstairs, to the first room, with the zombies and vampiric wolves. I saw that Shar-Teel had sneaked in, and at my sign we assaulted the zombies that were blocking the door. When the first fell, we found our way out. But the zombies and wolves followed us outside. There we committed a grave mistake in deciding to fight the lot, neither Shar-Teel nor I was aware of the vampiric wolves' paralyzing attack, until it was too late for Shar-Teel (who unlike me doesn't own a ring of free action). There was nothing I could do for her, so she fell for the second time in a few days.
With three divine traps, and backstabs I managed to kill my pursuers. (I wasn't impressed with the damage output of my traps though, I shall have to train more.)
I travelled with Shar-Teel's remains to the Temple of Lathander in Beregost. This time I bought a scroll of raise dead, and saw my companion raised for the third time. I asked whether she still stood by her pledge to aid me in my travels, but she snapped at me that I needn't be pretentious, that she'd been of good use to me, and will remain to be so. Thinking of my encounter with Molkar and his gang, I think she may be right.
@Elrandir, ouch... I was just wondering why the "romance" had stalled on a more serious note, I think me rep has gone up to 12, too high for Shar-Teel...
Travelling North from Keldath's Temple we reached the Larswood, which indeed showed great bandit activity. As they operated in small groups, Shar-Teel and I had little difficulty taking them on, using either backstabs or our ranged weaponry. We also had to deal with better equipped and better disciplined Black Talon Elite fighters, but they fell just as well. Interestingly we met two feuding druids, who turned against us. First one, later the other. They are no more. As we proceeded northward, entering Peldvale, we were confronted with more bandits and Black Talons, none of whom managed to impress us. Confident that we could stand against them if necessary,we feigned interest in joing the bandits, to see what's going on in their organization. We were brought to their camp, where a fierceful half-ogre, apparently their leader, challenged us in order to gauge our fighting prowess. I slew him with my poisoned frost dart [which made Teyl reach level 8 as a thief; a level 7/8 cleric thief, he has now almost reached the original XP cap]. Curiously, a witness didn't really respond to this display of power and the fact that they were now without their leader.
As the camp remained disturbingly quiet, at nightfall we decided to explore the camp a bit more. Maybe the ogre wasn't anyone of importance. We sneaked around and came upon a big tent, which we gathered had to be place where the leaders of the organization were to be found. We entered stealthily and counted ten people, one of them a mage, the others fighters equipped with both swords and bows. I hinted at Shar-Teel to get behind the mage and take thim down, preferably with one hit. Unfortunately, she didn't make it that far. She got caught. We both tried to take down the mage anyway, Shar-Teel with her bow and I with my poisoned dart. However the mage had already protected himself with previously cast mirror image and ghost armor, so we weren't very succesful. Shar-Teel got in one good hit, and I did some minor poison damage, not enough for the kill. As I was getting hit by arrow after arrow, I quaffed one of only two invisibility potions I had with me. Pretty much at the same time the mage managed to charm Shar-Teel. With Shar-Teel on their side, all the bandits walked toward me as if I were sanctuaried rather than invisible.
[This is really annoying: enemies just keep on following you around and if you're unlucky as I was in this case, they swarm you, and you've got no place to go.]
Completely stuck but safe from any harm for as long as the invisibilty would last, I quaffed healing potion after healing potion until I was completely healed. When the charm spell wore off, Shar-Teel, unable to see me, threw a potion of explosions in our direction, killing off the mage and one bandit, and injuring all the others. Luckily I had already restored my health, so I survived that attack relatively unscathed.
The bandits retalliated against Shar-Teel's assault. And unable to quaff a healing potion she was vulnerable to the bandits' ranged attacks, and fell. I was still surrounded by seven fighters, with nowhere to go. I cast holy power while still invisible (this increased my resilience and my fighting prowess), and threw another potion of explosions right on the ground. The explosion killed two more bandits, just enough for me to set myself free. There were now five of them still alive.
My Cyric-given Holy Power helped me slay one more bandit, but again I saw my health deplete rapidly due to the remaining bandits' rain of arrows hitting me. I moved to the other side of the tent, and drank my last potion of invisibility.
Once more the bandits came to me as moths to a lantern. This time however I made sure no to get surrounded by them, I kept moving and healing myself with potions until my health was restored. Then I drank a potion of speed so that I could distance myself easier from the group, especially since one of them, a man named Raemon had done the same. When they were grouped together, and I at a safe distance, I threw another potion of explosions (my last). Disturbingly all four survived the explosion, and I was visible again without any means to hide (except for a Sanctuary if I were lucky to cast it without getting interrupted). The tides turned when I managed to charm their strongest, the aforementioned Raemon, with Lord Foreshadow's ring of human influence.
My new friend in close combat, and I at range with my newly poisoned frost dart, managed to kill off the other three bandits. And then it was between Raemon and me. "Well, I didn't know you had it in you, guess I'll have to do the dirty work myself," he said confidently. "I am death, come for thee," I replied, "Surrender, and thy passage shall be quicker." (I had picked that up from an assassin in Nashkel.) His bow was no match for my poisoned dart, and so he at last he fell too.
I spoke with a pacific roguish type, apparently a captive. He told me that the organization I'd been dealing with, in Nashkell and also here in this Bandit Camp, is the Iron Throne, active in the Cloakwood. On my way out, I noticed that the entire camp had gone hostile. I managed to take down the Black Talon leader with three divine traps and two backstabs with my spirit longsword, but then I decided to flee from the multitude of dangerous archers, heading toward the Friendly Arm Inn, for some well-deserved rest...
It's been a few uneventful days in which Shar-Teel and I mainly sold some loot, did a few minor quests in the Cloudpeaks, killed the famous drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden with my traps after he'd asked me to help him take on a group of gnolls but refused to fight them himself [this was to me the more appealing way to lower Teyl's reputation, compared to killing a commoner]. Things got more interesting when Shar-Teel and I went treasure hunting in the maze below the Firewine ruins, which was supposed to harbor all manner of riches for the taking. Unfortunately it was not so. What we did find was an ogre mage, with a dangerous wizard and others as his lackeys. The wizard surprised us as he came walking up to us. Shar-Teel and I both reached for our ranged weapons. With arrows of biting and my poisoned frost dart, we managed to poison him. He nevertheless managed to protect himself with a globe of invulnerability, but Shar-Teel dispelled the protective sphere with an arrow of dispelling.
Though the poison from Shar-Teel's arrows and my dart were doing their destructive job perfectly well, the wizard successfully (and admirably, it must be said) managed to cast a lightning bolt our way. It hit and injured Shar-Teel (but not me).
A critical hit by Shar-Teel with her bow, meant the end of the wizard.
We sneaked further through the maze, until we encountered the aforementioned ogre mage. A devestating backstab by Shar-Teel finished him off before he could do us any harm.
This was Shar-Teel's last feat in my company. I told her that I prefer to work alone, as it keeps the senses astute. I travelled to Ulgoth's Beard to buy the Greenstone Amulet as I had long intended to. 28,500 gold is no joke, but by now it's a bearable expense, considering I still have about 20,000 gold left (thanks not in the least to the good money people are willing to pay for various magical wands I've picked up in my adventures).
From Ulgoth's Beard I made my way southward, to the Cloakwood, to get an idea of what this Iron Throne is up to. The Cloakwood is a vast, beautiful forest, though as most forests not without its dangers. I entered from the South East, where I had retrieved Gurke's Cloak of Non-Detection before. This area was relatively quiet, with only one incident worth mentioning: my involvement in a conflict between a foppish nobleman from Baldur's Gate, who had been hunting in the woods, and a druid. I sided with the druid, but was rather disappointed with him after he let me do all the work in taking on the hunter, and scarcely rewarded me for my effort. So I confronted him, which resulted in battle. He had a very nifty spell, an insect plague he conjured up, one that went straight for me, and not only injured me but also made me panic. Nothing that made me have to fear for my life, but nevertheless a warning signal of what these druids are capable of. It was my poisoned frost dart, backed by the will of Cyric, that once again decided a conflict in my favour. Deeper in the forest I trespassed on spider territory, replete with giant spiders, phase spiders, sword spiders, ettercaps etc. Their web traps cannot harm me thanks to my ring of free action, nor do I gravely fear their poison (due to my affinity with poisons). Their paws however do present a risk. I managed to clear most of the area using backstabs and ranged attacks. An obese female, possibly human, inhabited a den filled with even more spiders. Inside I might have fallen to that multitude of strong and venomous monsters, but luring them outside gave me the edge. I separated them and took them on one by one. Inside I found an enchanted greatsword and a body. I took the sword, and left the body. I also came upon a Druid community. They were far from hospitable, especially when I told them I just wished to pass through unharmed and unmolested. Turning downright hostile, they displayed little care for my wish. In return I displayed little care for their lives. Bunch of bigots, claiming the moral high ground all the time. I enjoy and respect this grand forest just as they do. I continued my way until I reached a heavily guarded mine. Another mine, the presence of Black Talons... this must the Iron Throne base, I thought. A the entrance a group of four assassins, hired to kill me, were waiting for me. Two mages, a fighter and a cleric. It seems there is some sort of connection between this Iron Throne and all the assassins after all. Before confronting them I made sure that the surrounding areas were free of any guards that might try to stop me. Then I dispatched one of the two mages with a single backstab.
The cleric was easily taken care of as well. Their leader Drasus, the fighter was more difficult to handle. Nevertheless, a couple of backstabs did him in.
Then only one mage remained, this one was quite generous with his stoneskins, and thus more difficult to hit. Therefore I summoned a number of skeletons to take him on. Once they got their first hit in, I knew that it was time for me to attack from the shadows and finish him off with my upgraded dagger of venom (the dagger of venom as upgraded by Thalantyr has come to replace the weary cudgel club as Teyl's primary melee and backstab weapon).
[Teyl is now a level 8/9 Cleric/Thief, and therefore one level beyond what the XP cap would allow for each class in BG1-TotSC. I intend not to level Teyl up any further. But the *4 backstab multiplier and the opportunity to invest another weapon proficiency point (in daggers), were to good to neglect in this heavily modded setup. His weapon proficiencies are: *daggers, *darts, *clubs, *single weapon style]
In BG:EE it's supposed to be possible to CLUA-Console or EE:keeper a bag into to your inventory. In my BGT run I installed a mod which makes Thalantyr sell containers. I'm not sure which mod if any will do the same for BG:EE.
As to the boots, I have a fun mod installed in BGT, called Aurosra's shoes and boots, it adds a gnomish lass in BG1 who sells all kinds of boots. In BG2 it's her brother and Aurora herself who sell these goods. The shoes and boots aren't OP, though there is one pair of speed boots available early on in Nashkell if you have the coin. Usually they're one of my first investments. I know that the mod is compatible with EE but I'm not sure whether it's BG2:EE only or BG1:EE as well. Another option if you're lucky, is the item randomiser mod which randomly changes the locations of all items each game. (For example thanks to this mod I only have a girdle of bluntness, the least useful of them all).
Entering the Cloakwood Mines Teyl had to dispatch a number of guards. Backstabs were working fine though. Only one of those was hard to kill, due to very high hit points.
Once inside Teyl didn't have any problems on the first level. However as soon as he descended things started to change. He one-hit-killed one of two guards at the entrance, but then he saw a multitude of guards coming after him, which prompted Teyl to retreat to the previous level. The guards followed in hot pursuit.
Among these guards was a mage, Hareishan, whose Chaos spell made Teyl go and kill a number of miners until he stopped, very inconveniently, right in front of the mage. Frustratingly, the Chaos effect, which brought on Teyl's demise as I will explain hereafter, could have been avoided by a timely activation of the Greenstone amulet. Though Hareishan wasn't doing Teyl any serious damage with her Melf's Minute Meteors, once the Chaos spell expired she managed to (dire) charm or dominate Teyl at lightning speed. There was no way he could have avoided this.
I'm going to keep my last save, because I'd like to explore the class a bit further. Except for a narrow escape in the bandit tent, I hadn't been in any avoidable trouble at all (against all kinds of enemies).
EDIT: what saddens me most is that I'd forgotten about my Helm of Charm Protection (instead I'd been wearing the Helm of Glory for better shop prices)
I'm sad to see him fall... Does this actually count as a death since she made the charm hit because of the chaos first? Since you've said previously you might not count a charm as a death.
Hey @Elrandir, I was saddened as well. To be honest charm death makes no sense to me. If you get stunned there is no game over, while it's supereasy to kill off a stunned character. (Although a character who manages to quaff a potion of invisibility before being hit may survive.) Anyhow, the game developers apparently intended the game over for charmed solo characters, and I've decided to respect that. Maybe I'll play Teyl a bit more at one point, just to see what he's capable of... But I've already developed a new charname
Oooh! I've been thinking about what a Wizard Slayer solo would be like. (I assume you mean a solo. Or semi-solo, like with Teyl) And nah, it's been kind of a busy weekend between being unable to sleep at night, (During which time I beat BG1 with my bard and his party) sleeping most of the next day, and then all the stuff that always happens on Sunday for me. I'll get back on it tomorrow.
Edit: Ah. Never mind. After seeing the new thread, (though I have yet to read much) I see you'll be operating in a small group. =p
Aah I wonder which came first: insomnia and then Baldur's Gate, or vice versa? hehe Didn't know you were running two campaigns at the same time. Congrats on your bard!
That's a good question... =p And yeah, my bard is a standard playthrough that I've been working on for quite a while. Thanks! He'll make a good test for BG2 before I get there with Roisin.
Yes, I think some practice is always nice. I know I'll need some with whatever typo of character, if/when I make it to BG2 with Grynne. That way I won't screw up my no-reload too easily hehehe
About a tenday ago my solo/duo no-reload run with Teyl the NE halfling Cleric/Thief (kitted as a Strifeleader of Cyric) ended abruptly when he got dire charmed by Hareishan, a female wizard in the Cloakwood Mines and namesake of a vampire in Amn. Charm equals death for a solo character in this game. It also meant the end of this thread, in which I related Teyl's progress.
Since I really liked both the character and keeping his journal on here, I decided a week ago to start anew, to speed my way through the game, again no-reload mode, until I reached the same point in the Cloakwood Mines, to continue my journal.
Unfortunately my game setup has a number of incongruencies, or bugs. Anyone interested, can read about this here:
I've learned that that the Ring of Free Action I was wearing didn't protect against Stun (even though I had a mod installed that makes Free Action protect against Stun). This was very disappointing but, reluctantly, I started a new game nonetheless, my third run with the same character. I discovered that in my game Potions of Mirrored Eyes do not protect against 'improved' basilisks' petrifying gaze, despite that according to the potion description: "This potion will protect the drinker from all gaze attacks, including those of Basilisks, Umber Hulks, Vampires, and other creatures. The effect will last for 10 rounds or until dispelled." These kinds of incongruencies could be the consequence of having specific mods installed, I don't know. What I do know is that I really couldn't be bothered with restarting yet again. So I'm going to allow myself a reload if an item doesn't behave in the way it's supposed to as in the above examples. It's not like I've been using cursed items or murky potions or anything. However I know now that Free Action in my game doesn't necessarily protect against stun, and that Potions of Mirrored eyes are no guarantee against petrification, so these won't count as valid excuses for a reload in my next runs.
In my current third run, I've tackled almost all optional areas before heading into the Nashkel Mines. This is more or less the order in which I did things:
Beregost quests => Melicamp/Thalantyr (lucky anti-chikenization) => Nashkel: Neira + purchase of Boots of the Cheetah from Karaea => Friendly Arm Inn => Cloudpeaks => Basilisks => Red Canyons / Bassilus => South Coast: Brage and Nib => Prism => Deviously recruited Minsc solely to serve as my decoy in a room full of undead in Nib's (mod) quest in hidden Firewine chambers, allowing me to acquire Elven Chainmail of the Firewine after which I dumped him => Lighthouse Area => Ankhegs North of FAI => Nashkel Mines => North Coast / Shoal (not recommendable to take her on at early levels because she's got charms and hold spells in my setup) => Bandit Camp => Cloakwood.
Strategywise Teyl, though being a Cleric/Thief multi, behaves mostly as a Thief (Assassin) type of character. This wasn't planned but it simply happened, evolved that way. The only thieving abilities he's trained have been HiS-MS and set traps [except for one level up in which I put 25 skillpoints in his find traps ability]. For any locks/pockets he wants to pick and harder traps he needs to disarm, he uses potions of master thievery and perception respectively. (Most traps until late game have really low checks, so Teyl has hardly used potions of perception). His weapons of choice are darts, daggers and clubs. Both the dagger of venom and a returning frost dart +1 (which does +1 cold damage) have been really useful in taking on mages. His club is mainly for enemies with high piercing resistance. Teyl's most used spells are Santuary, Command, Silence, Hold Person, Animate Dead and occasionally Holy Power.
Here are a number of screenshots with my commentary, to give an idea of how Teyl has run through the game, up to the Cloakwood Mines:
In his earliest adventuring days, Command + Darts (if necessary poisoned) would help Teyl with defeating Mages like Tarnesh:
Once he became aware of his excellent hiding and sneaking skills, Teyl started to rely heavily (and successfully) on backstabbing, being able to take down strong foes like Tazok:
In Tazok's tent, where Teyl the First's run had almost ended against an overwhelming majority of foes, especially hard-hitting Black Talon archers, Teyl the Third applied a (somewhat cheesy) trick. He entered hidden and found a corner in the tent where Raemon wouldn't see him. There he summoned a small skeleton army to his aid, cast Protection from Evil 10' Radius, took down their mage with a backstab, and successfully fought the remaining enemies together with his undead allies.
Sometimes, Teyl discovered, it's better to run. When he left Tazok's tent, he tried to murder heavily armoured Taugosz, the Black Talon leader, but his backstab attempts failed and he soon saw himself surrounded by bandits. He tried to lure Taugosz into a few traps he had set. But he had to observe how another much less imposing bandit tripped the snares and suffered severe damage but didn't die. This was the signal for Teyl to leave the bandit camp behind.
In the Cloakwoods and outside the Cloakwood mines, Teyl would operate at dusk so as to take optimal advantage of his stealth skill. Thus druids, wild animals and Iron Throne guards that dared hinder Teyl's path were dealt with in a devastating manner.
The Arch Druid [sic, mod enemy: a level 13 Druid with 100+ hitpoints, OP gear, Insect Plague and 2 Conjure Animals] was succesfully silenced in two attempts, after which Teyl's skeletons and backstabs consumed the Druid's Ironskins and finished him off.
Teyl then proceeded to enter the mines, without encountering mcuh resistance at the first level, until he reached the second level with Hareishan and many, many guards.
Thanks Elrandir! Yep, things have gone very smooth for Teyl, compared to Grynne. I always play characters who can use stealth and/or invisibilty. With the arch druid it proved to be very useful again: he sneaked past the druid, cleared the area of hostile guards and met the druid on Teyl's terms rather than being surrounded with hostile bears and guards.
*** When I entered the Cloakwood Mines I had a vivid, terrifying vision: right here in this mine I was up against an overwhelmig number of guards and a beautiful female enchanter mage who managed to enter my mind with her magic, leaving me but a helpless prey for the guards. This must have been my Dread Lord warning of what may happen to me if I stray from His path. I would have meditated more on the meaning of all this, if I hadn't been accosted by a guard. Regardless, I shall make sure to be doubly careful here. I'm sure all manner of stupid mouse traps await my toes in the dark. The guard told me I had no business in the mines, and proceeded to attack me. His attempt at my life was pathetic, so I took his with little difficulty. The first floor was practically unguarded. I spoke with an enslaved miner who told me that the easiest way to deal with the Iron Throne operation would be to flood the mine, but for that I needed a key to open a lock plug. This key was supposed to be in the hands of the leader of the operation. I headed one level down, and there the vision returned. Or so I thought. Until I realized this was no vision but harsh reality: about 20 guards and Black Talons, possibly more, and the stunning sorceress, a woman named Hareishan, gathered together by the entrance. I fled back upstairs and hid myself. Various guards had followed me, but hitting and fading I had little difficulty taking them on one by one, sometimes even fighting two at a time. I descended a second time, thinking I might pull off the same trick again. When I arrived I saw the mage right in front of me. Still hidden I tried to stab her to death, but my attack didn't hurt her in the slightest. She must have had some magical protection up, a Stoneskin most likely. I retreated before she could do anything and attacked a second time, and in the same way a third, a fourth, even a fifth, but without any result. Sometimes a few guards would follow me upstairs, where I had no difficulty dispatching them. I started to worry that the woman might be untouchable, but at one point her protection must have worn off; my backstab killed her instantly.
I finished off the remaining guards, and said a silent prayer to my Lord of the Three Crowns for his warning. My exploration of the floor was otherwise uneventful although I ran into a few more captured miners, amongst whom a dwarf who was willing to lend his Warhammer to my cause. Well actually I would have to lend him an enchanted Warhammer I had taken long before from Bassilus' corpse, since the Dwarf had no weaponry, no armour, no helmet, nothing. I thanked him for his offer but I made it clear to him that I prefered to work alone. This dwarf's lack of finesse and dexterity would only cause me trouble I reckoned. Thus I sneaked my way down to the third level of the Mine. This level too was populated with all kinds of Iron Throne lackeys, including an Ogre Mage, another sorceress, more guards, and many Hobgoblins. My boon was that they were all scattered. The exception were the Hobgoblins who appeared to work in small groups of three to six, but these creatures were the least of my worries. I silently cleared out the entire floor until only the spellcasters remained. Then I quaffed a potion of speed, which increased not only my movement speed but also the velocity with which I would be able to launch my frost dart at my opponents. I felled the sorceress first. She was protected by Stoneskin, but the frost damage came through everytime my dart hit her, keeping her from casting any spells my way.
The Ogre Mage was initially more difficult to handle due to his invisibility. I was hidden as well when I (unknowingly) approached him in a room filled with decaying corpses. He nevertheless spoke to me, threatened me, apparently perceiving my presence. Having no way of attacking him either physically or through my Cyric-given magic, I threw an oil of fiery burning in his general direction, betraying my exact whereabouts but also hurting my foe. He became visible when he started casting a spell at me, a Charm. The spell couldn't hurt me as I was protected against charms by my Helmet of Charm Protection. I retreated and hid, which provoked the Ogre to pursue me. My Frost dart tore down his magical defenses and two sneak attacks did him in.
With the entire level cleared, I descended yet another level, and came upon the leader's lair. A guard tried to stop me from entering but he went down in no time. I cast a Sanctuary and started looking for traps. My skills at detecting and disarming traps are mediocre at best, but to my surprise I found three and managed to disarm two of them. This made me realize that I've become an Assassin more than anything else. I'm no regular thief; I hardly know how to pick a lock or detect a trap, and my few attempts at picking peoples' pockets have all failed. Neither am I a typical adherent who tries to spread his Faith to others. All I do is follow what guidance the Dark Sun may give me. And so far he seems to approve, given His bestowal of increasingly potent divine powers upon me. Perhaps it's because my path isn't that different from His when He walked the Realms in His mortal days as an Assassin as subtle as He was deadly. Maybe I am who I am due to the life I've been leading ever since I left Candlekeep. I've had to hide a lot, I've been persecuted, I've faced many foes and learned their tricks: ambushing my foes like Molkar and his gang did with me, using backstabs rather than open melee just as Nimbul did in Nashkel, poisoning my enemies whenever I get the chance. Stealth, subtlety and quick, effcient deaths have beome the tools of my trade, together with the occasional debilitating spell my Dread Lord allows me to cast.
Anyway the invisible chief executive of the operation, called Davaeorn spoke to me in clear terms: I was to die by his hand. His invisibilty told me he was another magic wielder. By his side he had two Battle Horrors.
I retreated and triggered the trap I had failed to disarm, but fortunately it didn't harm me. Knowing my safety from harm while I was sanctuaried I tried to invent a plan to take on my three foes. However Davaeorn helped speed up my decision-making as he somehow cast a simultaneous Web/Stinking Cloud/Teleport Field my way, and then teleported right toward me. I retreated further, back to the previous level, and hid myself. Daveorn, blind to my presence, had followed me upstairs but the Battle Horrors hadn't. I decided to leave Daveorn where he was and descended a second time to take on the Battle Horrors without having to worry over Davaeorns tricks. Both creatures fell to my backstabs.
[Note that I uninstalled a mod component called 'Pnp Battle Horrors' because I disliked their ability to see through invisibility and most of all the fact that they attack and hurt even sanctuaried charnames.]
Apart from the Battle Horros the floor housed another mage and a Mustard Jelly. Both fell to my backstabs.
Mustard Jellies have no backs, but they sure can be backstabbed. I had to use my club though, the Root of teh Problem, because my Dagger of Venom had no effect on him.
Upstairs I used the same strategy I had used with Hareishan to take down Daveorn, hitting with my dagger and fading, hitting again and fading, until his Stoneskin wore off. My first actual hit, a poisoned backstab, meant his death. First I looted his body, and found some correspondence between Davaeorn and Iron Throne superiors from Baldur's Gate. I checked some more letters I'd saved, including one from Davaeorn to Tazok, and Davaeorn was the one the one who had hired Nimbul to lay me down. There seems to be a relation indeed between this Iron Throne and the attemps on my life. I think I'll need to get into Baldur's Gate if I want to know more of what's going on, but I recall the last time I went there the City guards had barred the gates and wouldn't let me in. Before I left, I drank a potion of master thievery to allow me to loot many chests on the two lower levels I had failed to unlock before. I didn't bother with flooding the mine, and with an ample selection of magical items I made my way back up toward the open sky, certainly none the poorer.
...
My second attempt to enter Baldur's Gate was more successful, although at the gate I was held up by an officer of the Fist, who somehow suspected that I had been involved in the Iron Crisis. I told him I might have been. I didn't want to be too frank with this stranger. He granted me access to the city and asked me to investigate the Seven Suns for him. I've no idea where this is, but I might look into it later. The city is large and very entertaining with a wealth of inns and taverns, a couple of good stores, and new allies. I associated myself with the Shadow Thieves' Guild. Hopefully their network of spies and informants can show me who may be of use to me in this City, and who to watch out for. I managed to gain the benevolence of one of the Guild's most popular members, a friendly enough fellow by the name of Narlen Darkwalk. This night we did to two break-ins together, one where I had to keep watch, the other with me doing the burgling. What my friend Narlen doesn't know is that I'm a lousy burglar and that without a Potion of Master Thievery I wouldn't have been of much use to him, but what Darkwalk doesn' t know won' t hurt him either.
Either way, I'm aware of my improved standing in the Guild. The leader, Alatos, has even asked me to do a job for him as well, so that's what I'm going to do next.
Comments
Adds a lot of banter between all vanilla NPCs, plus romance options with Ajantis, Coran, Xan, Dynaheir, Branwen and Shar-Teel. Quite similar to BG2, well written.
(My only criticism is that female gnomes and dwarves are excluded from romancing any of the male NPCs, female halflings may only romance Ajantis.)
In the Temple of Helm I paid Nalin 800 gold to raise Shar-Teel. "Men are pathetic" was the first thing she said. You're welcome darling...
We rested in the Nashkell inn, and I took the time to read the letters I found in the orc priest's den, and they speak of a Tranzig who's to be found in Feldepost's inn. So we travel toward Beregost. First we visit Thalantyr to have him take a look at the toxic liquid I found as well as identify numerous enchanted items I had taken from the mines, the burial mounds and from Nimbul. In Beregost a Flaming Fist officer offered us 50 gold for every bandit scalp we would give her. I'm not inclined to work for that corrupt lot, but the money might come in handy.
We went to Feldepost's to see if this Tranzig figure was still there. We found him upstairs. I entered his room, leaving Shar-Teel hidden in the shadows in the hallway. Told him to spill his guts. He thought he could frighten me by telling me he was a mage, but when I replied that I'm not necessarily afraid of mages, he turned hostile. His first move was to go invisible, which prompted me to leave to room and summon a skeleton. I really don't like it when my opponent has the initiative, let him dance with my skeleton. He became visible when he started casting a spell to against my skeleton. Shar-Teel seized the moment. She entered silently, manoeuvered herself behind Tranzig and killed him with a single backstab. She got blinded in the process though, because Tranzig just managed to complete his casting of a glitterdust spell. The temporary blindness was of little consequence, as Shar-Teel and I were going to rest anyway.
Tranzig was carrying a letter about secret activities in Larswood and Peldvale, northeast from here, by the same organization that was apparently behind the atrocities in the Nashkell mines. I don't think I can be arsed to go there and solve those problems. Let the Fist take care of those things. I'd rather figure out why there's a price on my head. Unless.. unless there's a relation between this secret organization and my predicament. Can't see how though.
....
Well rested, Shar and I step outside Feldepost's. Someone has traced me here, a stranger. This doesn't feel right. I'm putting away my journal. I'm going to act the innocuous litle halfling. Cyric guide me, and Shar-Teel.
NOTE: this is in my experience one of the hardest fights in SCS BG1. Teyl's going to try and beat Molkar's gang, but he's aware that he might be no match for them, with only Shar-Teel to aid him. He will keep an eye out for a possible escape route.
As soon as we'd done talking a fight ensued between Molkar's gang of four, and us. Shar-Teel softened up Molkar with a well-placed backstab, whereas I occupied myself with their mage, a gnome name Halacan. I tipped my frost dart in my poison and scored various poisonous hits, preventing the illusionist from casting any potentially devastating spells.
While I kept launching my dart at the gnome, I saw in a flash that Shar-Teel was beleaguered by not only Molkar but also two of his henchmen, a cleric named Drakar and a hard-hitting dwarf, Morvin. I shouted at her that she had to run, get herself into safety, and let me take over for a while. And so she did. (Both of us had taken a potion of speed when our confrontation with Molkar and co began.)
The gnome fell before the rest could close in on me, so I sped away, in order to keep a distance and continue launching my poisoned dart. I picked Molkar as my target, since he was already injured after Shar-Teel's backstab. Besides his resistance against poison was likely to be less than that of the dwarf. My strategy worked, I managed to slow and to poison Molkar, until he fell too.
I was now up against the remaining two, Drakar the cleric, and Morvin the warrior. Drakar cast a hold spell on me, but to no effect, as my ring of free action protects against movement hampering spells. In response I managed to silence the priest, who then had to resort to melee combat.
When both Drakar and Morvin closed in on me I cast a hold person on both. It held Drakar, but not Morvin.
In the distance I saw Shar-Teel approach from behind our enemies. Hidden, she seized the opoortunity to stab Drakar, while I occupied Morvin.
With a second backstab she finished him off.
[Drakar's death made Teyl reach level 7 as a cleric, and with that achievement, receive a second poison weapon ability as well as a dread blast as a special ability.] That left only Morvin, the toughest of the lot, between us. I weakened him (though only marginally) with my dread blast ability, and later with my newly poisoned frost dart.
Both Shar-Teel and I tried to surprise Morvin with sneak attacks from the shadows. It took two succesful backstabs by Shar-Teel to fell the hardy dwarf.
Time to gather their loot, and see if they have anything interesting or useful for us....
I ran and hid. The cover of the night was my friend although my enemies too had two assassins well versed in hit and fade tactics. [Besides they were so annoyingly scripted that when I was stealthed, they still came walking up to me like magnets, albeit without attacking.] I crossed the northern bridge, entering the town, where Amnish soldiers saw my plight and came to my aid. With the soldiers to distract them, it was easier for me to hide and return for sneak attacks from behind. With my poisoned weapon I managed to hurt them well, and in the end I prevailed.
I carried Shar-Teel and her gear to the Temple of Helm, where Nalin raised her. [No bug this time.] When we'd recovered we decided to try and use the scroll that Charleston Nib gave us, which supposedly gives access to a dungeon. Access we gained, but once inside I wasn't necessarily pleased. I entered the first chamber alone, hidden in shadows, and came upon an overwhelming amount of "Juju-Zombies" and two vampiric wolves and the terrible thing was, that when I looked behind, the exit was blocked by three of them. I feared I had nowhere to go when I discerned a stairway leading to a lower area. I immediately descended, aware that I wasn't going to be able to keep up my stealth in the zombie chamber. [I overwrote my screenshot, so no pic here.] Downstairs the sight didn't get much prettier. At least five vampires roaming a circular hallway with five separate chambers inside the circle. I moved to a shadowed wall, hid myself and downed a potion of speed, which in combination with my speed boots would make me difficult to catch, and two potions of master thievery to be able to open any locks. [Teyl hasn't spent a single skillpoint outside stealth and set traps.] Picking and looting a locked chest in front of three vampires went remarkably well. I also managed to run, but it took a potion of invisibility to get me into safety. I would have never undertaken this bold venture if it weren't for my helm of charm protection which wards off the vampires' domination attacks.
There was yet another stairway leading further down. Confident thanks to my invisibility potion I went down the stairs. The room I entered contained four or five sword and (astral) phase spiders, as well as an altar. Still invisible I checked out the altar and found an enchanted elven bow and an equally enchanted piece of elven chainmail. I picked them up, but not without betraying my presence. So I quaffed a second potion of invisibility, and made my way upstairs, to the first room, with the zombies and vampiric wolves. I saw that Shar-Teel had sneaked in, and at my sign we assaulted the zombies that were blocking the door. When the first fell, we found our way out. But the zombies and wolves followed us outside. There we committed a grave mistake in deciding to fight the lot, neither Shar-Teel nor I was aware of the vampiric wolves' paralyzing attack, until it was too late for Shar-Teel (who unlike me doesn't own a ring of free action). There was nothing I could do for her, so she fell for the second time in a few days.
With three divine traps, and backstabs I managed to kill my pursuers. (I wasn't impressed with the damage output of my traps though, I shall have to train more.)
I travelled with Shar-Teel's remains to the Temple of Lathander in Beregost. This time I bought a scroll of raise dead, and saw my companion raised for the third time. I asked whether she still stood by her pledge to aid me in my travels, but she snapped at me that I needn't be pretentious, that she'd been of good use to me, and will remain to be so. Thinking of my encounter with Molkar and his gang, I think she may be right.
on a more serious note, I think me rep has gone up to 12, too high for Shar-Teel...
Interestingly we met two feuding druids, who turned against us. First one, later the other. They are no more.
As we proceeded northward, entering Peldvale, we were confronted with more bandits and Black Talons, none of whom managed to impress us. Confident that we could stand against them if necessary,we feigned interest in joing the bandits, to see what's going on in their organization. We were brought to their camp, where a fierceful half-ogre, apparently their leader, challenged us in order to gauge our fighting prowess. I slew him with my poisoned frost dart [which made Teyl reach level 8 as a thief; a level 7/8 cleric thief, he has now almost reached the original XP cap]. Curiously, a witness didn't really respond to this display of power and the fact that they were now without their leader.
As the camp remained disturbingly quiet, at nightfall we decided to explore the camp a bit more. Maybe the ogre wasn't anyone of importance. We sneaked around and came upon a big tent, which we gathered had to be place where the leaders of the organization were to be found. We entered stealthily and counted ten people, one of them a mage, the others fighters equipped with both swords and bows. I hinted at Shar-Teel to get behind the mage and take thim down, preferably with one hit. Unfortunately, she didn't make it that far. She got caught. We both tried to take down the mage anyway, Shar-Teel with her bow and I with my poisoned dart. However the mage had already protected himself with previously cast mirror image and ghost armor, so we weren't very succesful. Shar-Teel got in one good hit, and I did some minor poison damage, not enough for the kill. As I was getting hit by arrow after arrow, I quaffed one of only two invisibility potions I had with me. Pretty much at the same time the mage managed to charm Shar-Teel. With Shar-Teel on their side, all the bandits walked toward me as if I were sanctuaried rather than invisible.
[This is really annoying: enemies just keep on following you around and if you're unlucky as I was in this case, they swarm you, and you've got no place to go.]
Completely stuck but safe from any harm for as long as the invisibilty would last, I quaffed healing potion after healing potion until I was completely healed. When the charm spell wore off, Shar-Teel, unable to see me, threw a potion of explosions in our direction, killing off the mage and one bandit, and injuring all the others. Luckily I had already restored my health, so I survived that attack relatively unscathed.
The bandits retalliated against Shar-Teel's assault. And unable to quaff a healing potion she was vulnerable to the bandits' ranged attacks, and fell. I was still surrounded by seven fighters, with nowhere to go. I cast holy power while still invisible (this increased my resilience and my fighting prowess), and threw another potion of explosions right on the ground. The explosion killed two more bandits, just enough for me to set myself free. There were now five of them still alive.
My Cyric-given Holy Power helped me slay one more bandit, but again I saw my health deplete rapidly due to the remaining bandits' rain of arrows hitting me. I moved to the other side of the tent, and drank my last potion of invisibility.
Once more the bandits came to me as moths to a lantern. This time however I made sure no to get surrounded by them, I kept moving and healing myself with potions until my health was restored. Then I drank a potion of speed so that I could distance myself easier from the group, especially since one of them, a man named Raemon had done the same. When they were grouped together, and I at a safe distance, I threw another potion of explosions (my last). Disturbingly all four survived the explosion, and I was visible again without any means to hide (except for a Sanctuary if I were lucky to cast it without getting interrupted).
The tides turned when I managed to charm their strongest, the aforementioned Raemon, with Lord Foreshadow's ring of human influence.
My new friend in close combat, and I at range with my newly poisoned frost dart, managed to kill off the other three bandits. And then it was between Raemon and me. "Well, I didn't know you had it in you, guess I'll have to do the dirty work myself," he said confidently. "I am death, come for thee," I replied, "Surrender, and thy passage shall be quicker." (I had picked that up from an assassin in Nashkel.) His bow was no match for my poisoned dart, and so he at last he fell too.
I spoke with a pacific roguish type, apparently a captive. He told me that the organization I'd been dealing with, in Nashkell and also here in this Bandit Camp, is the Iron Throne, active in the Cloakwood.
On my way out, I noticed that the entire camp had gone hostile. I managed to take down the Black Talon leader with three divine traps and two backstabs with my spirit longsword, but then I decided to flee from the multitude of dangerous archers, heading toward the Friendly Arm Inn, for some well-deserved rest...
Things got more interesting when Shar-Teel and I went treasure hunting in the maze below the Firewine ruins, which was supposed to harbor all manner of riches for the taking. Unfortunately it was not so. What we did find was an ogre mage, with a dangerous wizard and others as his lackeys. The wizard surprised us as he came walking up to us. Shar-Teel and I both reached for our ranged weapons. With arrows of biting and my poisoned frost dart, we managed to poison him. He nevertheless managed to protect himself with a globe of invulnerability, but Shar-Teel dispelled the protective sphere with an arrow of dispelling.
Though the poison from Shar-Teel's arrows and my dart were doing their destructive job perfectly well, the wizard successfully (and admirably, it must be said) managed to cast a lightning bolt our way. It hit and injured Shar-Teel (but not me).
A critical hit by Shar-Teel with her bow, meant the end of the wizard.
We sneaked further through the maze, until we encountered the aforementioned ogre mage. A devestating backstab by Shar-Teel finished him off before he could do us any harm.
This was Shar-Teel's last feat in my company. I told her that I prefer to work alone, as it keeps the senses astute. I travelled to Ulgoth's Beard to buy the Greenstone Amulet as I had long intended to. 28,500 gold is no joke, but by now it's a bearable expense, considering I still have about 20,000 gold left (thanks not in the least to the good money people are willing to pay for various magical wands I've picked up in my adventures).
From Ulgoth's Beard I made my way southward, to the Cloakwood, to get an idea of what this Iron Throne is up to. The Cloakwood is a vast, beautiful forest, though as most forests not without its dangers. I entered from the South East, where I had retrieved Gurke's Cloak of Non-Detection before. This area was relatively quiet, with only one incident worth mentioning: my involvement in a conflict between a foppish nobleman from Baldur's Gate, who had been hunting in the woods, and a druid. I sided with the druid, but was rather disappointed with him after he let me do all the work in taking on the hunter, and scarcely rewarded me for my effort. So I confronted him, which resulted in battle. He had a very nifty spell, an insect plague he conjured up, one that went straight for me, and not only injured me but also made me panic. Nothing that made me have to fear for my life, but nevertheless a warning signal of what these druids are capable of. It was my poisoned frost dart, backed by the will of Cyric, that once again decided a conflict in my favour.
Deeper in the forest I trespassed on spider territory, replete with giant spiders, phase spiders, sword spiders, ettercaps etc. Their web traps cannot harm me thanks to my ring of free action, nor do I gravely fear their poison (due to my affinity with poisons). Their paws however do present a risk. I managed to clear most of the area using backstabs and ranged attacks. An obese female, possibly human, inhabited a den filled with even more spiders. Inside I might have fallen to that multitude of strong and venomous monsters, but luring them outside gave me the edge. I separated them and took them on one by one. Inside I found an enchanted greatsword and a body. I took the sword, and left the body.
I also came upon a Druid community. They were far from hospitable, especially when I told them I just wished to pass through unharmed and unmolested. Turning downright hostile, they displayed little care for my wish. In return I displayed little care for their lives. Bunch of bigots, claiming the moral high ground all the time. I enjoy and respect this grand forest just as they do.
I continued my way until I reached a heavily guarded mine. Another mine, the presence of Black Talons... this must the Iron Throne base, I thought. A the entrance a group of four assassins, hired to kill me, were waiting for me. Two mages, a fighter and a cleric. It seems there is some sort of connection between this Iron Throne and all the assassins after all. Before confronting them I made sure that the surrounding areas were free of any guards that might try to stop me. Then I dispatched one of the two mages with a single backstab.
The cleric was easily taken care of as well. Their leader Drasus, the fighter was more difficult to handle. Nevertheless, a couple of backstabs did him in.
Then only one mage remained, this one was quite generous with his stoneskins, and thus more difficult to hit. Therefore I summoned a number of skeletons to take him on. Once they got their first hit in, I knew that it was time for me to attack from the shadows and finish him off with my upgraded dagger of venom (the dagger of venom as upgraded by Thalantyr has come to replace the weary cudgel club as Teyl's primary melee and backstab weapon).
[Teyl is now a level 8/9 Cleric/Thief, and therefore one level beyond what the XP cap would allow for each class in BG1-TotSC. I intend not to level Teyl up any further. But the *4 backstab multiplier and the opportunity to invest another weapon proficiency point (in daggers), were to good to neglect in this heavily modded setup. His weapon proficiencies are: *daggers, *darts, *clubs, *single weapon style]
In BG:EE it's supposed to be possible to CLUA-Console or EE:keeper a bag into to your inventory. In my BGT run I installed a mod which makes Thalantyr sell containers. I'm not sure which mod if any will do the same for BG:EE.
As to the boots, I have a fun mod installed in BGT, called Aurosra's shoes and boots, it adds a gnomish lass in BG1 who sells all kinds of boots. In BG2 it's her brother and Aurora herself who sell these goods. The shoes and boots aren't OP, though there is one pair of speed boots available early on in Nashkell if you have the coin. Usually they're one of my first investments. I know that the mod is compatible with EE but I'm not sure whether it's BG2:EE only or BG1:EE as well.
Another option if you're lucky, is the item randomiser mod which randomly changes the locations of all items each game. (For example thanks to this mod I only have a girdle of bluntness, the least useful of them all).
Entering the Cloakwood Mines Teyl had to dispatch a number of guards. Backstabs were working fine though. Only one of those was hard to kill, due to very high hit points.
Once inside Teyl didn't have any problems on the first level. However as soon as he descended things started to change. He one-hit-killed one of two guards at the entrance, but then he saw a multitude of guards coming after him, which prompted Teyl to retreat to the previous level. The guards followed in hot pursuit.
Among these guards was a mage, Hareishan, whose Chaos spell made Teyl go and kill a number of miners until he stopped, very inconveniently, right in front of the mage. Frustratingly, the Chaos effect, which brought on Teyl's demise as I will explain hereafter, could have been avoided by a timely activation of the Greenstone amulet.
Though Hareishan wasn't doing Teyl any serious damage with her Melf's Minute Meteors, once the Chaos spell expired she managed to (dire) charm or dominate Teyl at lightning speed. There was no way he could have avoided this.
I'm going to keep my last save, because I'd like to explore the class a bit further. Except for a narrow escape in the bandit tent, I hadn't been in any avoidable trouble at all (against all kinds of enemies).
EDIT: what saddens me most is that I'd forgotten about my Helm of Charm Protection (instead I'd been wearing the Helm of Glory for better shop prices)
Anyhow, the game developers apparently intended the game over for charmed solo characters, and I've decided to respect that. Maybe I'll play Teyl a bit more at one point, just to see what he's capable of... But I've already developed a new charname
And you? Did you become bored with sharing Roisin's adventures?
Edit: Ah. Never mind. After seeing the new thread, (though I have yet to read much) I see you'll be operating in a small group. =p
Didn't know you were running two campaigns at the same time. Congrats on your bard!
About a tenday ago my solo/duo no-reload run with Teyl the NE halfling Cleric/Thief (kitted as a Strifeleader of Cyric) ended abruptly when he got dire charmed by Hareishan, a female wizard in the Cloakwood Mines and namesake of a vampire in Amn. Charm equals death for a solo character in this game. It also meant the end of this thread, in which I related Teyl's progress.
Since I really liked both the character and keeping his journal on here, I decided a week ago to start anew, to speed my way through the game, again no-reload mode, until I reached the same point in the Cloakwood Mines, to continue my journal.
Unfortunately my game setup has a number of incongruencies, or bugs. Anyone interested, can read about this here:
I've learned that that the Ring of Free Action I was wearing didn't protect against Stun (even though I had a mod installed that makes Free Action protect against Stun). This was very disappointing but, reluctantly, I started a new game nonetheless, my third run with the same character. I discovered that in my game Potions of Mirrored Eyes do not protect against 'improved' basilisks' petrifying gaze, despite that according to the potion description: "This potion will protect the drinker from all gaze attacks, including those of Basilisks, Umber Hulks, Vampires, and other creatures. The effect will last for 10 rounds or until dispelled."
These kinds of incongruencies could be the consequence of having specific mods installed, I don't know. What I do know is that I really couldn't be bothered with restarting yet again. So I'm going to allow myself a reload if an item doesn't behave in the way it's supposed to as in the above examples. It's not like I've been using cursed items or murky potions or anything. However I know now that Free Action in my game doesn't necessarily protect against stun, and that Potions of Mirrored eyes are no guarantee against petrification, so these won't count as valid excuses for a reload in my next runs.
In my current third run, I've tackled almost all optional areas before heading into the Nashkel Mines. This is more or less the order in which I did things:
Beregost quests => Melicamp/Thalantyr (lucky anti-chikenization) => Nashkel: Neira + purchase of Boots of the Cheetah from Karaea => Friendly Arm Inn => Cloudpeaks => Basilisks => Red Canyons / Bassilus => South Coast: Brage and Nib => Prism => Deviously recruited Minsc solely to serve as my decoy in a room full of undead in Nib's (mod) quest in hidden Firewine chambers, allowing me to acquire Elven Chainmail of the Firewine after which I dumped him => Lighthouse Area => Ankhegs North of FAI => Nashkel Mines => North Coast / Shoal (not recommendable to take her on at early levels because she's got charms and hold spells in my setup) => Bandit Camp => Cloakwood.
Strategywise Teyl, though being a Cleric/Thief multi, behaves mostly as a Thief (Assassin) type of character. This wasn't planned but it simply happened, evolved that way. The only thieving abilities he's trained have been HiS-MS and set traps [except for one level up in which I put 25 skillpoints in his find traps ability]. For any locks/pockets he wants to pick and harder traps he needs to disarm, he uses potions of master thievery and perception respectively. (Most traps until late game have really low checks, so Teyl has hardly used potions of perception). His weapons of choice are darts, daggers and clubs. Both the dagger of venom and a returning frost dart +1 (which does +1 cold damage) have been really useful in taking on mages. His club is mainly for enemies with high piercing resistance. Teyl's most used spells are Santuary, Command, Silence, Hold Person, Animate Dead and occasionally Holy Power.
Here are a number of screenshots with my commentary, to give an idea of how Teyl has run through the game, up to the Cloakwood Mines:
In his earliest adventuring days, Command + Darts (if necessary poisoned) would help Teyl with defeating Mages like Tarnesh:
Once he became aware of his excellent hiding and sneaking skills, Teyl started to rely heavily (and successfully) on backstabbing, being able to take down strong foes like Tazok:
In Tazok's tent, where Teyl the First's run had almost ended against an overwhelming majority of foes, especially hard-hitting Black Talon archers, Teyl the Third applied a (somewhat cheesy) trick. He entered hidden and found a corner in the tent where Raemon wouldn't see him. There he summoned a small skeleton army to his aid, cast Protection from Evil 10' Radius, took down their mage with a backstab, and successfully fought the remaining enemies together with his undead allies.
Sometimes, Teyl discovered, it's better to run. When he left Tazok's tent, he tried to murder heavily armoured Taugosz, the Black Talon leader, but his backstab attempts failed and he soon saw himself surrounded by bandits. He tried to lure Taugosz into a few traps he had set. But he had to observe how another much less imposing bandit tripped the snares and suffered severe damage but didn't die. This was the signal for Teyl to leave the bandit camp behind.
In the Cloakwoods and outside the Cloakwood mines, Teyl would operate at dusk so as to take optimal advantage of his stealth skill. Thus druids, wild animals and Iron Throne guards that dared hinder Teyl's path were dealt with in a devastating manner.
The Arch Druid [sic, mod enemy: a level 13 Druid with 100+ hitpoints, OP gear, Insect Plague and 2 Conjure Animals] was succesfully silenced in two attempts, after which Teyl's skeletons and backstabs consumed the Druid's Ironskins and finished him off.
Teyl then proceeded to enter the mines, without encountering mcuh resistance at the first level, until he reached the second level with Hareishan and many, many guards.
Yep, things have gone very smooth for Teyl, compared to Grynne. I always play characters who can use stealth and/or invisibilty. With the arch druid it proved to be very useful again: he sneaked past the druid, cleared the area of hostile guards and met the druid on Teyl's terms rather than being surrounded with hostile bears and guards.
When I entered the Cloakwood Mines I had a vivid, terrifying vision: right here in this mine I was up against an overwhelmig number of guards and a beautiful female enchanter mage who managed to enter my mind with her magic, leaving me but a helpless prey for the guards. This must have been my Dread Lord warning of what may happen to me if I stray from His path. I would have meditated more on the meaning of all this, if I hadn't been accosted by a guard. Regardless, I shall make sure to be doubly careful here. I'm sure all manner of stupid mouse traps await my toes in the dark. The guard told me I had no business in the mines, and proceeded to attack me. His attempt at my life was pathetic, so I took his with little difficulty. The first floor was practically unguarded. I spoke with an enslaved miner who told me that the easiest way to deal with the Iron Throne operation would be to flood the mine, but for that I needed a key to open a lock plug. This key was supposed to be in the hands of the leader of the operation.
I headed one level down, and there the vision returned. Or so I thought. Until I realized this was no vision but harsh reality: about 20 guards and Black Talons, possibly more, and the stunning sorceress, a woman named Hareishan, gathered together by the entrance. I fled back upstairs and hid myself. Various guards had followed me, but hitting and fading I had little difficulty taking them on one by one, sometimes even fighting two at a time. I descended a second time, thinking I might pull off the same trick again. When I arrived I saw the mage right in front of me. Still hidden I tried to stab her to death, but my attack didn't hurt her in the slightest. She must have had some magical protection up, a Stoneskin most likely. I retreated before she could do anything and attacked a second time, and in the same way a third, a fourth, even a fifth, but without any result. Sometimes a few guards would follow me upstairs, where I had no difficulty dispatching them. I started to worry that the woman might be untouchable, but at one point her protection must have worn off; my backstab killed her instantly.
I finished off the remaining guards, and said a silent prayer to my Lord of the Three Crowns for his warning. My exploration of the floor was otherwise uneventful although I ran into a few more captured miners, amongst whom a dwarf who was willing to lend his Warhammer to my cause. Well actually I would have to lend him an enchanted Warhammer I had taken long before from Bassilus' corpse, since the Dwarf had no weaponry, no armour, no helmet, nothing. I thanked him for his offer but I made it clear to him that I prefered to work alone. This dwarf's lack of finesse and dexterity would only cause me trouble I reckoned.
Thus I sneaked my way down to the third level of the Mine. This level too was populated with all kinds of Iron Throne lackeys, including an Ogre Mage, another sorceress, more guards, and many Hobgoblins. My boon was that they were all scattered. The exception were the Hobgoblins who appeared to work in small groups of three to six, but these creatures were the least of my worries. I silently cleared out the entire floor until only the spellcasters remained. Then I quaffed a potion of speed, which increased not only my movement speed but also the velocity with which I would be able to launch my frost dart at my opponents. I felled the sorceress first. She was protected by Stoneskin, but the frost damage came through everytime my dart hit her, keeping her from casting any spells my way.
The Ogre Mage was initially more difficult to handle due to his invisibility. I was hidden as well when I (unknowingly) approached him in a room filled with decaying corpses. He nevertheless spoke to me, threatened me, apparently perceiving my presence. Having no way of attacking him either physically or through my Cyric-given magic, I threw an oil of fiery burning in his general direction, betraying my exact whereabouts but also hurting my foe. He became visible when he started casting a spell at me, a Charm. The spell couldn't hurt me as I was protected against charms by my Helmet of Charm Protection. I retreated and hid, which provoked the Ogre to pursue me. My Frost dart tore down his magical defenses and two sneak attacks did him in.
With the entire level cleared, I descended yet another level, and came upon the leader's lair. A guard tried to stop me from entering but he went down in no time. I cast a Sanctuary and started looking for traps. My skills at detecting and disarming traps are mediocre at best, but to my surprise I found three and managed to disarm two of them.
This made me realize that I've become an Assassin more than anything else. I'm no regular thief; I hardly know how to pick a lock or detect a trap, and my few attempts at picking peoples' pockets have all failed. Neither am I a typical adherent who tries to spread his Faith to others. All I do is follow what guidance the Dark Sun may give me. And so far he seems to approve, given His bestowal of increasingly potent divine powers upon me. Perhaps it's because my path isn't that different from His when He walked the Realms in His mortal days as an Assassin as subtle as He was deadly. Maybe I am who I am due to the life I've been leading ever since I left Candlekeep. I've had to hide a lot, I've been persecuted, I've faced many foes and learned their tricks: ambushing my foes like Molkar and his gang did with me, using backstabs rather than open melee just as Nimbul did in Nashkel, poisoning my enemies whenever I get the chance. Stealth, subtlety and quick, effcient deaths have beome the tools of my trade, together with the occasional debilitating spell my Dread Lord allows me to cast.
Anyway the invisible chief executive of the operation, called Davaeorn spoke to me in clear terms: I was to die by his hand. His invisibilty told me he was another magic wielder. By his side he had two Battle Horrors.
I retreated and triggered the trap I had failed to disarm, but fortunately it didn't harm me. Knowing my safety from harm while I was sanctuaried I tried to invent a plan to take on my three foes. However Davaeorn helped speed up my decision-making as he somehow cast a simultaneous Web/Stinking Cloud/Teleport Field my way, and then teleported right toward me. I retreated further, back to the previous level, and hid myself. Daveorn, blind to my presence, had followed me upstairs but the Battle Horrors hadn't. I decided to leave Daveorn where he was and descended a second time to take on the Battle Horrors without having to worry over Davaeorns tricks. Both creatures fell to my backstabs.
[Note that I uninstalled a mod component called 'Pnp Battle Horrors' because I disliked their ability to see through invisibility and most of all the fact that they attack and hurt even sanctuaried charnames.]
Apart from the Battle Horros the floor housed another mage and a Mustard Jelly. Both fell to my backstabs.
Mustard Jellies have no backs, but they sure can be backstabbed. I had to use my club though, the Root of teh Problem, because my Dagger of Venom had no effect on him.
Upstairs I used the same strategy I had used with Hareishan to take down Daveorn, hitting with my dagger and fading, hitting again and fading, until his Stoneskin wore off. My first actual hit, a poisoned backstab, meant his death. First I looted his body, and found some correspondence between Davaeorn and Iron Throne superiors from Baldur's Gate. I checked some more letters I'd saved, including one from Davaeorn to Tazok, and Davaeorn was the one the one who had hired Nimbul to lay me down. There seems to be a relation indeed between this Iron Throne and the attemps on my life. I think I'll need to get into Baldur's Gate if I want to know more of what's going on, but I recall the last time I went there the City guards had barred the gates and wouldn't let me in.
Before I left, I drank a potion of master thievery to allow me to loot many chests on the two lower levels I had failed to unlock before. I didn't bother with flooding the mine, and with an ample selection of magical items I made my way back up toward the open sky, certainly none the poorer.
...
My second attempt to enter Baldur's Gate was more successful, although at the gate I was held up by an officer of the Fist, who somehow suspected that I had been involved in the Iron Crisis. I told him I might have been. I didn't want to be too frank with this stranger. He granted me access to the city and asked me to investigate the Seven Suns for him. I've no idea where this is, but I might look into it later.
The city is large and very entertaining with a wealth of inns and taverns, a couple of good stores, and new allies. I associated myself with the Shadow Thieves' Guild. Hopefully their network of spies and informants can show me who may be of use to me in this City, and who to watch out for. I managed to gain the benevolence of one of the Guild's most popular members, a friendly enough fellow by the name of Narlen Darkwalk. This night we did to two break-ins together, one where I had to keep watch, the other with me doing the burgling. What my friend Narlen doesn't know is that I'm a lousy burglar and that without a Potion of Master Thievery I wouldn't have been of much use to him, but what Darkwalk doesn' t know won' t hurt him either.
Either way, I'm aware of my improved standing in the Guild. The leader, Alatos, has even asked me to do a job for him as well, so that's what I'm going to do next.