You are a talented storyteller and I thank you for sharing the tale! I am used to vanilla and am enjoying the twist that the mods provide as well.
You of course must decide if the game is worth continuing. Life is short after all and if you keep getting the feeling to restart, well, maybe you should.
Whatever you decide, I'll look forward to reading as long as you feel like sharing!
We continued our excursion in the Wood of Sharp Teeth to the north, toward the Peldvale. This area had less bandit activity than the Larswood in the south. But the few bandits we did encounter had a nasty surprise for us. We approached them to confront them and maybe get some information from them regarding their organization. At that moment, two previously invisible, hasted ogre mages came to the bandits' aid.
One of them cast a Slow spell on me, but my magic resistance saved me there. The second time I wasn't so lucky when a puny Charm Person, won me over to their side. Luckily I was surrounded by my temporary bandit friends, so I didn't really move to attack my companions. [Boy am I pigheaded or what? Again my character had her Helm of Charm protection in her pack rather than on her head, something my solo no-reload Cleric/Thief had to pay for with a "game over" a few days ago.]
A Confusion successfully cast on both Gavin and Kagain meant that only Isra was still capable of resistance.
We survived the encounter thanks to our good health [everyone in my party has around 70-80 or even more more hitpoints] and our enemies' mediocre fighting skills.
Given the aformentioned decrease in bandit presence, we decided to travel east, i.e. to the Eastwood. However as we advanced we didn't see any bandits at all. All we found was lots of big spiders and a quartet of the most nefarious folk that I know of: Red Wizards of Thay, involved in one of their dark rituals. They were as disturbed by our presence as I was by theirs. I told my companions to back away and immediately quaffed a potion of magic blocking, to protect myself against them. My first target was their leader, Denak. He looked to be the most menacing of thei group. He was protected by a (previously cast) stoneskin, though not against my magic disrupting hits. I got in two hits while he was casting his first spell, and thus imposed a spellcasting failure penalty [34% chance of spell failure] upon him. His spell failed indeed. He turned invisible and retreated, so I directed my attention to one of the other wizards, Lasala. I hit her once or twice, so she too became subject to my spell failure penalty, just like Denak. Among the spells Denak and his lackeys cast upon me were Greater Malison, Chaos, Slow, Glitterdust and Confusion. Thanks to my potion of magic blocking, none of these had any effect on me. Thus my enemies resorted to summoning many many monsters, and to pelting me with Melf's Minute Meteors, admittably with some success. I drank three healing potions at different moments to secure my good health. Interestingly, my companions got the first kill. Apparently one of the mages, Diana, had teleported herself to them. Before being dismissed from this plane of existence Diana managed to cast a Melf's Acid Arrow on Gavin.
I think it was as brave as it was stupid of him to come to my help, what with his wounds caused by Diana's spell. Either way Gavin came to heal me [this is scripted by the developers of the Gavin mod], but if there was anyone in need of healing at that moment, it was him... He fell. At least his appearance helped distract some of the monsters as well as Denak and Brendan (the fourth mage). This cleared the way for me to take on Lasala, who wasn't prepared for my axe and dagger.
This left Brendan and Denak, both of whom had fully restored their health with extra-healing potions. Besides they had rebuffed themselves, with Mirror Image (Brendan) and Haste and Stoneskin (Denak). Kagain and Isra came to my help. Isra occupied herself with two summoned ettercaps, and Kagain and I hacked at a fast pace through Brendan's mirror images, and through Brendan himself.
The three of us then had only Denak to worry about (apart from a number of remaining summoned creatures), but he was no match for us in spite of his succesfully cast Melf's Acid Arrow on Kagain. It was Isra who finally struck him down.
We killed off the summoned vermin, stripped the remains of the Thayvians of any valuables (amongst which an appealing magical tome), and picked up Gavin so that we may have him raised by Mrs. Mirrorshade at the Friendly Arm Inn. We need to go that direction anyway, as we were clearly astray from the bandit trail we had been following before.
@Dragonspear, thanks for your explanation. It clearly shows that in this case investing in weapon > investing in weapon style. Something I'll keep in mind. As to my character, I was more convinced about dualwielding than about axes really. It's not for nothing that I already put one pip in a second weapon (dagger). Nevertheless, right now I think I'm just going to max out axes anyway. Thanks once more for your input.
@JLee, thank you man, for expressing your appreciation. I'm truly glad you like reading all this
I also thank you for your recommendation. I really like the concept of the Wizard Slayer, and Grynne as a character has really "come alive" to me, but gameplay-wise I'm not enjoying her as much as my previous character, the Cleric/Thief who competes with an elven Mage/Swashbuckler multiclass I played a while ago, for the title of my favourite charname ever.
Perhaps I'll restart with the Cleric/Thief, powerplay my way up to the Cloakwood Mines, and then continue his story...
I can see myself play with both characters a bit.
What kind of character have you been playing as of late? Anything new since the successful solo sorcerer?
@Blackraven: could I ask you a courtesy? Could you please put in spoiler tag your screenshots and delete the thumbnails? I often follow the forum via mobile and sometimes loading the page with all these images is a real pain when there's low signal, and all the thumbnails in mobile view are really invasive, so scrolling is really a long task.
I'd edit them by myself but on mobile to edit is a pain too! XD
Alas my solo sorcerer met his end at the chapel in Durlag's Tower trying to get the wisdom book. I thought it was a petrify trap and forgot it was a charm trap. Game over. Arghhh. But that's what makes no reload so fun. Any moment could be your last!
Ouch!! I never knew what kind of trap it was... Somehow it never ever triggers when I pick up the tome. Either petrification would have been equally deadly (unless you sorcerer had protected himself). I agree that no-reload is as fun as it can be frustrating
An underrated axe in BG1 that's available early? You mean the Axe +1? Not that good IMO compared to weapons such as Ashideena or the Long Sword +2 on Greywolf. In BG2 I really like Azuredge, but my char won't be able to wield it due to alignment restrictions. But is's true that there are other good axes available. I'm playing with an Item randomization mod, so I can't plan ahead much, e.g. with Crom Faeyr...
Nah, you can get a +1 throwing axe and switch it to melee early for rather cheap if I remember. That said you do get a miscast magic non-enchanted axe (for offhand) and a golden axe that dispels on hit (if you're willing to kill the guy)
I didn't know about any +1 throwing axe available early on... Does it return to hand? My playthrough isn't in BG:EE. Is this a BG:EE only weapon? I know the Golden Axe is, but my lawful neutral charname wouldn't kill an innocent man for his axe.
Its available for purchase and its not returning. As I said you use it in melee mode and its like 70g or something for a +1 weapon. It only does 1d6 instead of 1d8 though, but you make up for that (talking level 1-2) with the thac0 boost. You can buy it from the smithy in beregost
Yeah, I'm using mobile right now and it's much better thanks to both, for asking and for doing @Dragonspear the Throwing Axes+1, "Beruel's Retort" were added in the EE.
Grynne is back on track, here my latest installment:
***
After Gellana Mirroshade had restored Gavin back to life, we rested at the Inn, and travelled back through the Larswood and the Peldvale to see if we could trace the bandit trail again. We succeeded. In the Peldvale we came upon a group of bandits led by a guy named Raiken. Rather than to take them on (and thus to risk losing track of the bandit trail again), I decided to have us try and infiltrate in their ranks. Kagain told this Raiken that that we knew wich way the wind was blowing, and that the opportunities for a good life were with the bandits. Raiken fell for this line of reasoning, and led us to the bandit camp. We were brought before the bandit leader, an imposing half-ogre named Tazok, who challenged us to a fight in order to test our mettle. He was soon impressed by the four of us, and told us that we could stay on, but not before striking down Kagain in one hit. [This seems to be an auto-kill of the party leader, coded in the game.]
Fortunately, Gavin had two scrolls of Raise Dead with him, from the Temple of Lathander. He raised Gavin, we rested for Gavin's sake and because Tazok had said that he would leave with a party that night for a raid. This would mean less bandits at the camp, and better opoortunities for us to take a look around. We saw a big tent and decided to enter, supposedly on Tazok's orders in case we were going to need an excuse. An excuse we did need, as we were confronted by nine hostile men in the tent. They didn't believe our story, and attacked. There was one mage, whom we took on first. My orders.
Once the mage was down it was our steel against their arrows. We prevailed, although Kagain took some severe posion damage.
We searched the place and found two letters that hinted at more bandit activity in the Cloakwood and spoke of the 'Iron Throne'. A name for this bandit organization? I'm confused. As far as I know the Iron Throne is a ruthless yet reputable mercantile group, not a gang of bandits. Nevertheless, a captive of the bandits, an elf named Ender Sai we released in the tent, confirmed my suspicions. We left the tent, only to see how the entire camp had turned hostile on us... I would have gladly tried to teach the scum a lesson or two, and loot the place, but their arrows hit hard. I saw Gavin and Kagain suffering, so we fled the scene. [I sure hope the Item Randomizer hasn't put anything particularlry useful in the Bandit Camp, or I might just have to return that way.].
Displeased with the cowardly way in which my party and I had left the Bandit Camp, I insisted that we return there before going anywhere else. Kagain was only thinking in terms of bandit scalps and their worth to Officer Vai of the Fist in Beregost, so he had no objections. Gavin and Isra weren't swayed so easily. But I was adamant, and told them that thay could stay out of this affair if they wished to. When we appoached the camp, I told my companions to give me all their healing potions, and t stay back. I donned my Large Shield +1, put on a pair of Boots of Avoidance normally worn by Gavin, and the Crystal Helmet I had looted from Morvin's remains a few tendays before. (The helmet gives some extra protection, +1 AC.) Admittedly many arrows hit me, a few of them even poisoned, so I had to keep on taking healing potions but by Helm did I feel powerful slaying them all. This is how it must feel to be a God, purging the the land without anyone stopping you. Even when I was surrounded by smaller groups of both swordsmen and archers.
Nevertheless, I shall remain humble and alert. These were no knights nor assassins, trained from a young age to kill if need be. Their strength lay in their numbers, but invidually they were decent fighters at best.
Kagain has counted 77 scalps, so he's about as content as I am.
***
We're going to replenish our stock of healing potions, and the we'll investigate the Cloakwoods.
We bought some healing potions from Gellana, Keldath and that odd wizard Thalantyr who for some reason charged me more for his potions than the others did - I guess the distrust is mutual. Anyway, we headed for the Cloakwood where upon arrival we slew a troop of Tasloi and found a magical cloak on one of them. We also met a merchant from Baldur's Gate who had gotten into a conflict with a number of druids when he was out hunting with his friends. I tried to resolve their dispute peacefully as I had no idea who had done what, but to no avail. The druids attacked us. They paid for that with their lives. The merchant thanked us with a potion of heroism, one of the many magical potions I've no use for. We trekked deeper into the forest until we reached an area infested with spiders and ettercaps. Gavin (despite his arachnofobia) and I made short work of the vermin and managed to reunite a young man with his brother. Unfortunately the latter was dead, the work of a witchlike creature who somehow co-existed with the spiders. We ended her wretched existence as we had done with her pets. In a treasure cove in the woman's lair we found an enchantd twohanded greatsword we'll have to get identified when we get the chance. It might serve Isra. ... The Cloakwood houses a community of druids who weren't happy to see us at all until they found out that we were after the Iron Throne. Apparently they've been having their own problems with the bandits. In a giant treehouse we met a barkskinned or ironskinned oldtimer who chided us for trespassing on druid territory whilst a Shadow Archdruid looks on. Slightly annoyed by these druids' incessant alpha male territorialist tendencies, I asked him 'What's an Archdruid?' He took offense, but I managed to prevent a fight. These particular druids, Shadow Druids they call themselves, apparently desire to cleanse the woods of all humanoid activity or even existence, except for themselves of course. We've become temporary allies in combating the Iron Throne. The Archdruid, Amarande, referred me to one of his community, a fierce young Avenger druid named Faldorn. She's going to guide us toward the Iron Throne base and I have no doubt that if we succeed, they'll want to get rid of us as soon as possible. We'll see how things evolve. ... On our way toward the Iron Throne base, we almost lost our new party member in a fight against a hamadryad and her animal companions.
The increasing presence of Black Talons and guards tells me that we're nearing the Iron Throne base. They are no match for our party. More imposing were the Wyverns, though these too fell to our physical might. Right in front of the Iron Throne base, a mine to be precise, we were stopped by a druid, of all people. Another self-pronounced Archdruid to be precise. Strangely, Faldorn's presence in our group didn't make a difference to him. He was convinced that we were allies of the Iron Throne. Our enemy wreaked havoc in our group with his Insect Plague spell, and a few Call Lightnings.
Meanwhile we had no way of breaking through the druid's defenses. As brave young Isra fell, we saw how the druid had a couple of bears and at one point, and this I really don't understand, even Iron Throne guards coming to his aid.
Surrounded by hard hitting bears, Iron Throne guards and this cursed druid with a summoned Woodland Nymph, I activated my Shatter Magic ability and managed to breach the druid's defenses. I commanded my comrades in arms to focus all our efforts on the druid now that he was at his most vulnerable. The Nymph had a blinding beauty ability which seemed to have blinded us permanently.
This breach of the druid's defenses however proved misleading as none of my band managed to hit the druid. These cowardly tricks made him look no better than the average mage in my eyes. Where we failed the druid managed to kill Faldorn and charm Kaigan. The latter was a blessing in a way as Kagain, whose health had suffered greatly, remained where he was without having to fear any further assaults by the bears or the guards.
Gavin and I managed to kill off all the bears and all the guards except one, and then we split up. I would be fighting the druid, and Gavin the last remaining guard, a man named Lakadaar. I wasn't advancing much, but at least I managed to hold my ground against my foe. He decided to tst my morale, casting a Heal on himself, but I just kept on hacking and stabbing. Meanwhile Gavin had great difficulty with the Iron Throne guard, partly caused by another swarm of the druid's Summoned Insects and in part by the guard's velocity (could it be that he was wearing a pair of the fabled Boots of Speed?). When the charm on Kagain wore off, he came to my help, but I signalled him to help Gavin with the guard. Unfortunately he couldn't, as he got stunned by the druid's blade.
In a desperate attempt to save the dwarf's life I tried to spirit the druid away from my stunned companion, and with succes, blessed be Helm. Before I knew it though, it was my turn to get stunned by the druid's weapon. That my life didn't end there and then was thanks to Gavin, who distracted and occupied both Lakadaar and the druid. The stun on Kagain wore off. He used the occasion to try and charm Lakadaar with the help of Lord Foreshadow's Ring of Human Influence, but this didn't work. Gavin tried to Hold both the guard and the druid, but both remained unaffacted by the spell. When I found my bearings again, the three of us managed to strike down Lakadaar in a joint effort.
We surrounded the druid, but simply couldn't touch him. While he was occupied with Kagain, Gavin cast a Dispel Magic in the hope that this might end our blindness, but it didn't. Gavin's second spell, Call Lightning, did only minor damage. When we got in a few scarce hits, our hopes revived. [Only critical hits did any damage for some reason.] However the druid had greater healing potions with which he undid the damage we had caused him, and managed to stun Kagain a second time. Two more (critical) hits, one of which with my offhand Dagger of Venom, depleted our opponents' health again. Kagain, released from the stun effect of the druid's scimitar, got in a hit as well, bringing the druid at the point of dying. Gavin scored a good hit too, but the druid still wouldn't fall. Thankfully we didn't see him quaffing any healing potions either, so that we still had hopes of soon ending the fight once and for all. At long last, another stab with my venomous dagger did him in.
Time to gather what loot we may find, and decide whether we shall continue without Isra and Faldorn, now that we're so close to our destination, or travel all the way back to the Mirroshades to try and get the two of them raised.
Wow! What a fight! Looks like Grynne earned that level! What loot did you get? Must've been some exceptional stuff from the way you described their abilities. Woah! Does Faldorn actually look attractive in the modded portrait?! XD Also, does the mod make her, well, y'know... Worth while to even have as a party member? =p I saw you said she was an Avenger. Did she get a stat boost too?
@Elrandir: The loot from the Iron Throne guard was completely mundane, not even Boots of Speed . The Archdruid gear otoh was ridiculous, even if Druid only: an AC 0 leather armor that gives a +3 bonus to all saves, a scimitar +3 with a stun (save vs death) and +2 AC bonus as well as Charm person/mammal 3x per day, a ring that gives another +4 AC bonus plus fire resistance), and a crown that gives a bonus level 1-3 spell... Faldorn is happily wearing/wielding it all, but Drynne intends to ditch her after the Cloakwood business has been concluded. She's sees this as a temporary alliance, and she's no friend of the Shadow Druids. But who knows, I never use Faldoren, maybe she's a fun companion if you get to kno her better with the BG1 NPCs mod. (I'll nerf her gear though, if she's to stay on.) Yep, I gave her a new portrait that matches her CHA because if there's anything that may justify her CHA score it must be her looks, not her personality (as she's aggressive, fanatical and self-righteous). I boosted her CON to 16 as vanilla Faldorn has really mediocre stats (with 16 CON she still only has 84 stat points in total).
@Elrandir I think he's part of Dark Side of the Sword Coast, which introduces a number of new NPCs and optional quests. The quests are superchallenging (for example Charleston Nib giving you access to a dungeon with vampires). The only problem I have with the mod is that many of the powerful items it offers are very useful in those modquests but overwpowered in the traditional quests, which is why I use these items sparingly. I usually pick up a good piece of chainmail which allows for stealth and arcane casting, plus a few nice arcane spells (for example there is one called "Ettins Healing" which allows a mage to regenerate during a short period.
*** With two dead companions, a serious lack of healing potions, and many unidentified items, we deemed it wise to travel back to the 'civilized' world, and made another tour past Mrs. Mirrorshade, Thalantyr and even a wizard or alchemist who resides in a tower in the Cloakwood. We had our fallen comrades raised and got all our loot identified: many great druid items for Faldorn [OP actually, but she won't be around for very long], a fine 2h sword for Isra, and as usual not much of interest for me.
We made our way back through the Cloakwood to the Iron Throne base. Outside the complex, on a bridge, more guards tried to stop us, but they were dealt with easily enough. At the entrance we met a group of assassins hired to kill us: a fighter, a priest and two mages. While my party took on the fighter I slew one of the two wizards, using my Shatter Magic ability.
My companions killed off the fighter and joined me in taking on the priest, which was complicated by a Teleport Field spell that the mage I killed had cast before. There was no trace of the second mage, or I would gone for him.
Then the mage showed up, well protected, and successfully cast a Chaos spell on Faldorn and Gavin. Faldorn walked off, but Gavin kept on fighting the priest. I lost side of Isra and Kagain, but instead of looking for them, I enabled my second Shatter Magic ability [Grynne got that one when she reached level 8], stripped the mage of his protections, and made short work of him. After that I ran toward Gavin to help him out against the priest.
We then had to finish off two more guards before we could rest, see to our injuries, and check for loot. Only the fighter had some interesting looking items. A quartermaster named Sellanio, who was actually willing to deal with us, identified the goods. We were enthralled with a pair of Boots of Speed. I would have given them to Gavin, but his mediocre armor class called for his continued use of the a pair of Boots of Avoidance. The Boots of Speed went to Isra. We cleared the entire ground area of its guards, rested (becasue I wanted to restore my Shatter Magic ability), and descended into the mine. The daily operation of the mine was carried out by slaves. One of them had a plan for releasing the slaves and shutting down the mine. But for that we had to descend further and get a key from the leader of the operation.
On the next level we were a horde of guards, and a sorceress who used a Teleport Field and a Chaos spell to debilitate my party. Luckily we had already killed most of the guards, and the Teleport Field prevented the confused ones among us from doing each other too much harm. Nevertheless Faldorn almost fell to confused Kagain's blades so we had to heal her.
The rest of the floor was relatively quiet. We encountered an imprisoned slave and didn't hesitate to give him some gold so he could bribe a number of guards and set the other slaves free. We were joined by a dwarven warrior cleric who had been held captive by the Iron Throne. Yeslick is his name. Said he knew the premises well (the mine used to be run by dawrves of his clan), and that he'd guide us to the chief of the current Iron Throne operation down here, a man named Davaeorn. With Yeslick in our midst we descended another level. It was guarded mainly by Hobgoblins, creatures who had ceased to be threat long since I first ventured out of Candlekeep. A more serious threat was an Ogre Mage who had been storing corpses in a room much to our dismay. He fell soon enough after I used my innate ability to shatter the beast's combat protections.
We also encountered another mage in the employ of the Iron Throne. She was stoneskinned, but we downed her with overwhelming physical force ([and many APR].
We cleared the remainder of the floor, and I had a bonding moment with Faldorn.
We descended one more level, and that's where we met Davaeorn, the brain behind the mine operation, a cursed wizard he had to be. He had two fearsome Battle Horrors at his side, though he didn't really need them to make an impression what with the Webs and Stinking Clouds and Fireballs he kept blasting our way. Besides I was unable to shatter his magic, because he simply teleported away everytime I came close.
...
This is Gavin. I want to finish Grynne's journal. Inbetween being held by Davaeorn's webs our party, thanks not in the least to to Grynne, killed off one of the Battle Horrors, but then she lost consciousness due to the Stinking Cloud's vapours. The remaining Battle Horror started pounding at Grynne, rapidly depleting her health. Only Faldorn and I remained to defend Grynne, that is, to kill off the Battle Horror before it could kill Grynne. Faldorn proposed casting Improved Invisibilty on Grynne, but before I finished telling her that Battle Horrors can somehow see through invisibility, we both passed out as well.
The Battle Horror finished off Grynne first. The rest of us we managed to flee, back to the upper levels. I think some of the miners managed to escape their lot as Davaeorn's slaves, so at least we got that right.
A week has passed, but I'm still very sad Grynne had to pass on, at such a young age. Our party disbanded after the catastrophe. Isra said she was going back to the relative safety of her homeland Amn, to report back to her Order. Kagain decided to try and set up a new business with the gold we had acquired in our adventures. Yeslick told me he would look for outside help, from other dwarves up north, to help him reconquer the Cloakwood Mines. Faldorn returned to her Druid order in the Cloakwoods. As to myself.. well I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I thought of travelling south with Isra, but with the impending war with Amn, I might not be a welcome face down there. The new Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate seems to be a real warmonger. Most likely I'll travel north to the peace and quiet of my hometown Ulgoth's Beard, pay my parents a visit and think for a while.
Nooooo! Darn... This run was going so well... Another great story, though once again with an unfortunate end. Honestly I think I liked this one a bit more than Teyl's story, though I liked it for different reasons than why I liked Teyl's story. The descriptions of their battles seemed... Meatier? I dunno. More in depth and visceral I guess.
Thanks @Elrandir, yes it was going pretty well, though Grynne's run had more precarious moments than Teyl's (who only had two charm issues iirc, one of them fatal). Grynne got charmed and confused and stunned and what not many times. Maybe all that made her story more exciting. A couple of really close calls. Plus I think i roleplayed her "better" in that I accepted people into my party because that made sense for the story. I'm going to try to get Teyl back into the Cloakwood Mines and then continue his journal. Hopefully I can give it more depth, maybe with more personal views like Grynne did when it came to mages.
Comments
You of course must decide if the game is worth continuing. Life is short after all and if you keep getting the feeling to restart, well, maybe you should.
Whatever you decide, I'll look forward to reading as long as you feel like sharing!
One of them cast a Slow spell on me, but my magic resistance saved me there. The second time I wasn't so lucky when a puny Charm Person, won me over to their side. Luckily I was surrounded by my temporary bandit friends, so I didn't really move to attack my companions.
[Boy am I pigheaded or what? Again my character had her Helm of Charm protection in her pack rather than on her head, something my solo no-reload Cleric/Thief had to pay for with a "game over" a few days ago.]
A Confusion successfully cast on both Gavin and Kagain meant that only Isra was still capable of resistance.
We survived the encounter thanks to our good health [everyone in my party has around 70-80 or even more more hitpoints] and our enemies' mediocre fighting skills.
Given the aformentioned decrease in bandit presence, we decided to travel east, i.e. to the Eastwood. However as we advanced we didn't see any bandits at all. All we found was lots of big spiders and a quartet of the most nefarious folk that I know of: Red Wizards of Thay, involved in one of their dark rituals. They were as disturbed by our presence as I was by theirs. I told my companions to back away and immediately quaffed a potion of magic blocking, to protect myself against them.
My first target was their leader, Denak. He looked to be the most menacing of thei group. He was protected by a (previously cast) stoneskin, though not against my magic disrupting hits. I got in two hits while he was casting his first spell, and thus imposed a spellcasting failure penalty [34% chance of spell failure] upon him. His spell failed indeed. He turned invisible and retreated, so I directed my attention to one of the other wizards, Lasala. I hit her once or twice, so she too became subject to my spell failure penalty, just like Denak.
Among the spells Denak and his lackeys cast upon me were Greater Malison, Chaos, Slow, Glitterdust and Confusion. Thanks to my potion of magic blocking, none of these had any effect on me. Thus my enemies resorted to summoning many many monsters, and to pelting me with Melf's Minute Meteors, admittably with some success. I drank three healing potions at different moments to secure my good health. Interestingly, my companions got the first kill. Apparently one of the mages, Diana, had teleported herself to them. Before being dismissed from this plane of existence Diana managed to cast a Melf's Acid Arrow on Gavin.
I think it was as brave as it was stupid of him to come to my help, what with his wounds caused by Diana's spell. Either way Gavin came to heal me [this is scripted by the developers of the Gavin mod], but if there was anyone in need of healing at that moment, it was him... He fell. At least his appearance helped distract some of the monsters as well as Denak and Brendan (the fourth mage). This cleared the way for me to take on Lasala, who wasn't prepared for my axe and dagger.
This left Brendan and Denak, both of whom had fully restored their health with extra-healing potions. Besides they had rebuffed themselves, with Mirror Image (Brendan) and Haste and Stoneskin (Denak). Kagain and Isra came to my help. Isra occupied herself with two summoned ettercaps, and Kagain and I hacked at a fast pace through Brendan's mirror images, and through Brendan himself.
The three of us then had only Denak to worry about (apart from a number of remaining summoned creatures), but he was no match for us in spite of his succesfully cast Melf's Acid Arrow on Kagain. It was Isra who finally struck him down.
We killed off the summoned vermin, stripped the remains of the Thayvians of any valuables (amongst which an appealing magical tome), and picked up Gavin so that we may have him raised by Mrs. Mirrorshade at the Friendly Arm Inn. We need to go that direction anyway, as we were clearly astray from the bandit trail we had been following before.
As to my character, I was more convinced about dualwielding than about axes really. It's not for nothing that I already put one pip in a second weapon (dagger). Nevertheless, right now I think I'm just going to max out axes anyway.
Thanks once more for your input.
I also thank you for your recommendation. I really like the concept of the Wizard Slayer, and Grynne as a character has really "come alive" to me, but gameplay-wise I'm not enjoying her as much as my previous character, the Cleric/Thief who competes with an elven Mage/Swashbuckler multiclass I played a while ago, for the title of my favourite charname ever.
Perhaps I'll restart with the Cleric/Thief, powerplay my way up to the Cloakwood Mines, and then continue his story...
I can see myself play with both characters a bit.
What kind of character have you been playing as of late? Anything new since the successful solo sorcerer?
Could you please put in spoiler tag your screenshots and delete the thumbnails?
I often follow the forum via mobile and sometimes loading the page with all these images is a real pain when there's low signal, and all the thumbnails in mobile view are really invasive, so scrolling is really a long task.
I'd edit them by myself but on mobile to edit is a pain too! XD
You're welcome.
Alas my solo sorcerer met his end at the chapel in Durlag's Tower trying to get the wisdom book. I thought it was a petrify trap and forgot it was a charm trap. Game over. Arghhh. But that's what makes no reload so fun. Any moment could be your last!
I agree that no-reload is as fun as it can be frustrating
1. There are a ton of good underrated axes in both games, often available early.
2. I was a dwarf
That said, I went after warhammers next, due to crom faeyr. Getting that weapon is going to be a PITA though without an arcane caster of any sort.
In BG2 I really like Azuredge, but my char won't be able to wield it due to alignment restrictions. But is's true that there are other good axes available.
I'm playing with an Item randomization mod, so I can't plan ahead much, e.g. with Crom Faeyr...
Does it return to hand? My playthrough isn't in BG:EE. Is this a BG:EE only weapon? I know the Golden Axe is, but my lawful neutral charname wouldn't kill an innocent man for his axe.
@Dragonspear the Throwing Axes+1, "Beruel's Retort" were added in the EE.
***
After Gellana Mirroshade had restored Gavin back to life, we rested at the Inn, and travelled back through the Larswood and the Peldvale to see if we could trace the bandit trail again. We succeeded. In the Peldvale we came upon a group of bandits led by a guy named Raiken. Rather than to take them on (and thus to risk losing track of the bandit trail again), I decided to have us try and infiltrate in their ranks. Kagain told this Raiken that that we knew wich way the wind was blowing, and that the opportunities for a good life were with the bandits. Raiken fell for this line of reasoning, and led us to the bandit camp. We were brought before the bandit leader, an imposing half-ogre named Tazok, who challenged us to a fight in order to test our mettle. He was soon impressed by the four of us, and told us that we could stay on, but not before striking down Kagain in one hit. [This seems to be an auto-kill of the party leader, coded in the game.]
Fortunately, Gavin had two scrolls of Raise Dead with him, from the Temple of Lathander. He raised Gavin, we rested for Gavin's sake and because Tazok had said that he would leave with a party that night for a raid. This would mean less bandits at the camp, and better opoortunities for us to take a look around. We saw a big tent and decided to enter, supposedly on Tazok's orders in case we were going to need an excuse. An excuse we did need, as we were confronted by nine hostile men in the tent. They didn't believe our story, and attacked. There was one mage, whom we took on first. My orders.
Once the mage was down it was our steel against their arrows. We prevailed, although Kagain took some severe posion damage.
We searched the place and found two letters that hinted at more bandit activity in the Cloakwood and spoke of the 'Iron Throne'. A name for this bandit organization? I'm confused. As far as I know the Iron Throne is a ruthless yet reputable mercantile group, not a gang of bandits. Nevertheless, a captive of the bandits, an elf named Ender Sai we released in the tent, confirmed my suspicions. We left the tent, only to see how the entire camp had turned hostile on us... I would have gladly tried to teach the scum a lesson or two, and loot the place, but their arrows hit hard. I saw Gavin and Kagain suffering, so we fled the scene. [I sure hope the Item Randomizer hasn't put anything particularlry useful in the Bandit Camp, or I might just have to return that way.].
EDIT: Ops... I bookmarked it by mistake, my fault.
Displeased with the cowardly way in which my party and I had left the Bandit Camp, I insisted that we return there before going anywhere else. Kagain was only thinking in terms of bandit scalps and their worth to Officer Vai of the Fist in Beregost, so he had no objections. Gavin and Isra weren't swayed so easily. But I was adamant, and told them that thay could stay out of this affair if they wished to.
When we appoached the camp, I told my companions to give me all their healing potions, and t stay back. I donned my Large Shield +1, put on a pair of Boots of Avoidance normally worn by Gavin, and the Crystal Helmet I had looted from Morvin's remains a few tendays before. (The helmet gives some extra protection, +1 AC.)
Admittedly many arrows hit me, a few of them even poisoned, so I had to keep on taking healing potions but by Helm did I feel powerful slaying them all. This is how it must feel to be a God, purging the the land without anyone stopping you. Even when I was surrounded by smaller groups of both swordsmen and archers.
Nevertheless, I shall remain humble and alert. These were no knights nor assassins, trained from a young age to kill if need be. Their strength lay in their numbers, but invidually they were decent fighters at best.
Kagain has counted 77 scalps, so he's about as content as I am.
***
We're going to replenish our stock of healing potions, and the we'll investigate the Cloakwoods.
We trekked deeper into the forest until we reached an area infested with spiders and ettercaps. Gavin (despite his arachnofobia) and I made short work of the vermin and managed to reunite a young man with his brother. Unfortunately the latter was dead, the work of a witchlike creature who somehow co-existed with the spiders. We ended her wretched existence as we had done with her pets. In a treasure cove in the woman's lair we found an enchantd twohanded greatsword we'll have to get identified when we get the chance. It might serve Isra.
...
The Cloakwood houses a community of druids who weren't happy to see us at all until they found out that we were after the Iron Throne. Apparently they've been having their own problems with the bandits.
In a giant treehouse we met a barkskinned or ironskinned oldtimer who chided us for trespassing on druid territory whilst a Shadow Archdruid looks on. Slightly annoyed by these druids' incessant alpha male territorialist tendencies, I asked him 'What's an Archdruid?' He took offense, but I managed to prevent a fight. These particular druids, Shadow Druids they call themselves, apparently desire to cleanse the woods of all humanoid activity or even existence, except for themselves of course. We've become temporary allies in combating the Iron Throne. The Archdruid, Amarande, referred me to one of his community, a fierce young Avenger druid named Faldorn. She's going to guide us toward the Iron Throne base and I have no doubt that if we succeed, they'll want to get rid of us as soon as possible. We'll see how things evolve.
...
On our way toward the Iron Throne base, we almost lost our new party member in a fight against a hamadryad and her animal companions.
The increasing presence of Black Talons and guards tells me that we're nearing the Iron Throne base. They are no match for our party. More imposing were the Wyverns, though these too fell to our physical might.
Right in front of the Iron Throne base, a mine to be precise, we were stopped by a druid, of all people. Another self-pronounced Archdruid to be precise. Strangely, Faldorn's presence in our group didn't make a difference to him. He was convinced that we were allies of the Iron Throne. Our enemy wreaked havoc in our group with his Insect Plague spell, and a few Call Lightnings.
Meanwhile we had no way of breaking through the druid's defenses. As brave young Isra fell, we saw how the druid had a couple of bears and at one point, and this I really don't understand, even Iron Throne guards coming to his aid.
Surrounded by hard hitting bears, Iron Throne guards and this cursed druid with a summoned Woodland Nymph, I activated my Shatter Magic ability and managed to breach the druid's defenses. I commanded my comrades in arms to focus all our efforts on the druid now that he was at his most vulnerable.
The Nymph had a blinding beauty ability which seemed to have blinded us permanently.
This breach of the druid's defenses however proved misleading as none of my band managed to hit the druid. These cowardly tricks made him look no better than the average mage in my eyes. Where we failed the druid managed to kill Faldorn and charm Kaigan. The latter was a blessing in a way as Kagain, whose health had suffered greatly, remained where he was without having to fear any further assaults by the bears or the guards.
Gavin and I managed to kill off all the bears and all the guards except one, and then we split up. I would be fighting the druid, and Gavin the last remaining guard, a man named Lakadaar. I wasn't advancing much, but at least I managed to hold my ground against my foe. He decided to tst my morale, casting a Heal on himself, but I just kept on hacking and stabbing. Meanwhile Gavin had great difficulty with the Iron Throne guard, partly caused by another swarm of the druid's Summoned Insects and in part by the guard's velocity (could it be that he was wearing a pair of the fabled Boots of Speed?). When the charm on Kagain wore off, he came to my help, but I signalled him to help Gavin with the guard. Unfortunately he couldn't, as he got stunned by the druid's blade.
In a desperate attempt to save the dwarf's life I tried to spirit the druid away from my stunned companion, and with succes, blessed be Helm. Before I knew it though, it was my turn to get stunned by the druid's weapon. That my life didn't end there and then was thanks to Gavin, who distracted and occupied both Lakadaar and the druid.
The stun on Kagain wore off. He used the occasion to try and charm Lakadaar with the help of Lord Foreshadow's Ring of Human Influence, but this didn't work. Gavin tried to Hold both the guard and the druid, but both remained unaffacted by the spell. When I found my bearings again, the three of us managed to strike down Lakadaar in a joint effort.
We surrounded the druid, but simply couldn't touch him. While he was occupied with Kagain, Gavin cast a Dispel Magic in the hope that this might end our blindness, but it didn't. Gavin's second spell, Call Lightning, did only minor damage. When we got in a few scarce hits, our hopes revived. [Only critical hits did any damage for some reason.] However the druid had greater healing potions with which he undid the damage we had caused him, and managed to stun Kagain a second time. Two more (critical) hits, one of which with my offhand Dagger of Venom, depleted our opponents' health again. Kagain, released from the stun effect of the druid's scimitar, got in a hit as well, bringing the druid at the point of dying. Gavin scored a good hit too, but the druid still wouldn't fall. Thankfully we didn't see him quaffing any healing potions either, so that we still had hopes of soon ending the fight once and for all. At long last, another stab with my venomous dagger did him in.
Time to gather what loot we may find, and decide whether we shall continue without Isra and Faldorn, now that we're so close to our destination, or travel all the way back to the Mirroshades to try and get the two of them raised.
What loot did you get? Must've been some exceptional stuff from the way you described their abilities.
Woah! Does Faldorn actually look attractive in the modded portrait?! XD
Also, does the mod make her, well, y'know... Worth while to even have as a party member? =p I saw you said she was an Avenger. Did she get a stat boost too?
The loot from the Iron Throne guard was completely mundane, not even Boots of Speed
Faldorn is happily wearing/wielding it all, but Drynne intends to ditch her after the Cloakwood business has been concluded. She's sees this as a temporary alliance, and she's no friend of the Shadow Druids. But who knows, I never use Faldoren, maybe she's a fun companion if you get to kno her better with the BG1 NPCs mod. (I'll nerf her gear though, if she's to stay on.)
Yep, I gave her a new portrait that matches her CHA because if there's anything that may justify her CHA score it must be her looks, not her personality (as she's aggressive, fanatical and self-righteous).
I boosted her CON to 16 as vanilla Faldorn has really mediocre stats (with 16 CON she still only has 84 stat points in total).
I usually pick up a good piece of chainmail which allows for stealth and arcane casting, plus a few nice arcane spells (for example there is one called "Ettins Healing" which allows a mage to regenerate during a short period.
With two dead companions, a serious lack of healing potions, and many unidentified items, we deemed it wise to travel back to the 'civilized' world, and made another tour past Mrs. Mirrorshade, Thalantyr and even a wizard or alchemist who resides in a tower in the Cloakwood. We had our fallen comrades raised and got all our loot identified: many great druid items for Faldorn [OP actually, but she won't be around for very long], a fine 2h sword for Isra, and as usual not much of interest for me.
We made our way back through the Cloakwood to the Iron Throne base. Outside the complex, on a bridge, more guards tried to stop us, but they were dealt with easily enough. At the entrance we met a group of assassins hired to kill us: a fighter, a priest and two mages. While my party took on the fighter I slew one of the two wizards, using my Shatter Magic ability.
My companions killed off the fighter and joined me in taking on the priest, which was complicated by a Teleport Field spell that the mage I killed had cast before. There was no trace of the second mage, or I would gone for him.
Then the mage showed up, well protected, and successfully cast a Chaos spell on Faldorn and Gavin. Faldorn walked off, but Gavin kept on fighting the priest. I lost side of Isra and Kagain, but instead of looking for them, I enabled my second Shatter Magic ability [Grynne got that one when she reached level 8], stripped the mage of his protections, and made short work of him. After that I ran toward Gavin to help him out against the priest.
We then had to finish off two more guards before we could rest, see to our injuries, and check for loot. Only the fighter had some interesting looking items. A quartermaster named Sellanio, who was actually willing to deal with us, identified the goods. We were enthralled with a pair of Boots of Speed. I would have given them to Gavin, but his mediocre armor class called for his continued use of the a pair of Boots of Avoidance. The Boots of Speed went to Isra.
We cleared the entire ground area of its guards, rested (becasue I wanted to restore my Shatter Magic ability), and descended into the mine. The daily operation of the mine was carried out by slaves. One of them had a plan for releasing the slaves and shutting down the mine. But for that we had to descend further and get a key from the leader of the operation.
On the next level we were a horde of guards, and a sorceress who used a Teleport Field and a Chaos spell to debilitate my party. Luckily we had already killed most of the guards, and the Teleport Field prevented the confused ones among us from doing each other too much harm. Nevertheless Faldorn almost fell to confused Kagain's blades so we had to heal her.
The rest of the floor was relatively quiet. We encountered an imprisoned slave and didn't hesitate to give him some gold so he could bribe a number of guards and set the other slaves free. We were joined by a dwarven warrior cleric who had been held captive by the Iron Throne. Yeslick is his name. Said he knew the premises well (the mine used to be run by dawrves of his clan), and that he'd guide us to the chief of the current Iron Throne operation down here, a man named Davaeorn.
With Yeslick in our midst we descended another level. It was guarded mainly by Hobgoblins, creatures who had ceased to be threat long since I first ventured out of Candlekeep. A more serious threat was an Ogre Mage who had been storing corpses in a room much to our dismay. He fell soon enough after I used my innate ability to shatter the beast's combat protections.
We also encountered another mage in the employ of the Iron Throne. She was stoneskinned, but we downed her with overwhelming physical force ([and many APR].
We cleared the remainder of the floor, and I had a bonding moment with Faldorn.
We descended one more level, and that's where we met Davaeorn, the brain behind the mine operation, a cursed wizard he had to be. He had two fearsome Battle Horrors at his side, though he didn't really need them to make an impression what with the Webs and Stinking Clouds and Fireballs he kept blasting our way. Besides I was unable to shatter his magic, because he simply teleported away everytime I came close.
...
This is Gavin. I want to finish Grynne's journal. Inbetween being held by Davaeorn's webs our party, thanks not in the least to to Grynne, killed off one of the Battle Horrors, but then she lost consciousness due to the Stinking Cloud's vapours. The remaining Battle Horror started pounding at Grynne, rapidly depleting her health. Only Faldorn and I remained to defend Grynne, that is, to kill off the Battle Horror before it could kill Grynne. Faldorn proposed casting Improved Invisibilty on Grynne, but before I finished telling her that Battle Horrors can somehow see through invisibility, we both passed out as well.
The Battle Horror finished off Grynne first. The rest of us we managed to flee, back to the upper levels. I think some of the miners managed to escape their lot as Davaeorn's slaves, so at least we got that right.
A week has passed, but I'm still very sad Grynne had to pass on, at such a young age.
Our party disbanded after the catastrophe. Isra said she was going back to the relative safety of her homeland Amn, to report back to her Order. Kagain decided to try and set up a new business with the gold we had acquired in our adventures. Yeslick told me he would look for outside help, from other dwarves up north, to help him reconquer the Cloakwood Mines. Faldorn returned to her Druid order in the Cloakwoods.
As to myself.. well I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I thought of travelling south with Isra, but with the impending war with Amn, I might not be a welcome face down there. The new Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate seems to be a real warmonger. Most likely I'll travel north to the peace and quiet of my hometown Ulgoth's Beard, pay my parents a visit and think for a while.
I'm going to try to get Teyl back into the Cloakwood Mines and then continue his journal. Hopefully I can give it more depth, maybe with more personal views like Grynne did when it came to mages.