Some good news for a change: I’ve dismantled the Iron Throne, revealed Sarevok’s agenda (thus salvaged my tarnished reputation in Baldur’s Gate) and I’ve slain my nemesis and his lackeys.
In Candlekeep I found a letter from Gorion in which he explained my heritage: Bhaal, the Lord of Murder was my father. This might explain my special abilities to lay on hands, slow poison, and my divine wrath, powers that have come to me in dreams. It also explains why the Moonmaiden never took these powers from me: they didn’t come from her in the first place.
Divine Wrath (was Vampiric Touch) Range: Caster Duration: Instantaneous Casting Time: 1 Area of Effect: 10' radius Saving Throw: Special
Through this ability, the Bhaalspawn can tap into the divine spark buried deep within his soul and release a portion of the raw power in a single, concentrated burst. The unleashed energy damages all enemies in the immediate vicinity of the Bhaalspawn and has a chance to push them away, knock them prone and make them flee in panic. The potency of this ability increases as the Bhaalspawn becomes more experienced: Level 1: deals 2d8 damage to all nearby enemies Level 6: deals 4d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn Level 12: deals 6d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn and knocking them prone for 1 round Level 18: deals 8d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn, knocking them prone for 1 round and making them flee in panic for the following 3 rounds A successful saving throw vs. breath halves the damage and negates all secondary effects. Exceptionally large creatures (Giants, Dragons, Iron Golems...etc.) are immune to all secondary effects.
This is from the aTweaks mod’s Revised Bhaalpowers component. Serene got this instead of Divine Might (i.e. DUHM) due to her rep. of 4.
The thought of being Bhaal’s daughter is upsetting, but I must say that I’ve never felt and still don’t feel any connection apart from the above-mentioned abilities I never even asked for. The question is whether Bhaal’s essence exerts some kind of subtle influence that I’m not even aware of. Was it his essence, his blood running through my veins, that had me take the fight with Nemphre outside and confused but good-natured Alora to kill innocents? I don’t know, but I do know that it makes little sense to dwell on this all the time. The past doesn’t matter, what I need to do is to stay in the moment, in the present, conscious of my actions.
In the Candlekeep library we met and confronted the Iron Throne leaders (except Sarevok). I had expected them to be older merchant-types but they turned out to be capable adventurers not unlike my party. We prevailed without too much difficulty though. Alora played an important part again. With a single backstab she slew their Thief, and she stunned and poisoned Rieltar, a Mage, who was subsequently finished off by Khalid. The other Iron Throne leaders, were taken care of by the party in a joint effort. Interestingly, we were arrested by a Candlekeep watcher after some of his own colleagues had helped us against Rieltar,
Tethoril visited us in our cell and was so kind to help us escape via the catacombs beneath Candlekeep, a deed I shan’t forget. Down there we got into a bloody fight with a band of mercenaries who had been waiting for Sarevok. Apparently Sarevok knew Candlekeep well… We were invisible but when we after we killed a Phase Spider us in a quiet space, one of the mercenaries, a Mage, came Dimension Dooring in. We slew him and two of his comrades with relative ease.
At that point, the worst had yet to come: a wizard-cum-timebomb named Sakul. He brought back memories of Natasha in the Cloakwood Mines. Protected by a Minor Globe of Invulnerability he used Teleport Field and Web to limit our room to manoeuver, and he hurt me with a Lightning Bolt and my party with two Sunfires. Khalid and Faldorn didn’t survive the onslaught and the rest of us just barely (by quaffing healing potions). Alora, Jaheira and I had to fight our way through his Stoneskins and Mirror Images before we could finish him off.
The party made a short trip to Durlag’s Tower, to look for a Tome. The Item Randomisation mod randomizes the Tome (so it could be a STR Tome that was waiting for me there instead of the vanilla WIS Tome) but also the location of the Tome in the Tower. The party explored the ground floor and the upper floors but the Tome was nowhere to be found, so I think it must be somewhere downstairs. I decided not to risk this no-reload run, so the party returned only with some extra XP, from killing Basilisks, Ghasts and Kirinhale.
Back in Baldur’s Gate we raised our fallen comrades, were informed of the latest news by a mysterious woman named Tamoko, saved Duke Eltan from a pseudo-healer that was in fact a Greater Doppelganger, and dealt with Sarevok’s lover Cythandria on the top floor in the Iron Throne building. She was a dangerous wizard with two massive golems by her side, but we had to take her on because she was holding incriminating evidence against Sarevok. Alora lured the golems downstairs, while Faldorn dispelled the wizard’s magical protections, allowing us to take her down with little difficulty. The brainless Golems were tricked by Invisible party members blocking the doorways, while so that I could pelt them without trouble.
On Cythandria we found letters mentioning two killers hired by Sarevok to take down the Dukes of Baldur’s Gate for him. They were supposed to be in the Undercellars below The Blushing Mermaid, and that’s where we found them: Slythe, a rogue and his girl Krystin, a wizard. We first took on Krystin. That went probably better than it could have, since Khalid managed to Horror her twice with his Sword of Rage. That being said, she did cause the party quite a lot of trouble. She successfully cast Chaos on a couple of my party members. When Faldorn started attacking a courtesan [Zizi the Lovebundle, no idea who she is], Dynaheir cast Invisibility (15’ Radius) on the harlot, in order to prevent any further reputation losses. Meanwhile Khalid got fried by Krystin’s Lightning Bolt, but then Alora stunned Krysting with a Dart of Stunning, after which Jaheira and I took finished her off with ranged attacks. [Confused Faldorn killed the bouncer by the way, but fortunately did so at no reputation loss.]
Slythe was easier to deal with. Dynaheir was Stoneskinned and Faldorn Ironskinned, they would take turns engaging the rogue in melee, while Jaheira, Alora and I would attack with our ranged weapons. This worked fine.
We found an invitation to the intended coronation of Sarevok as the new Duke of Baldur’s Gate at the Ducal Palace. When we arrived we saw the “public” turn into Shapeshifters and attack Duke Belt and Duchess Liia Janneth. The Shapeshifters would cast Horror all the time. I quaffed a potion of Magic Shielding and Khalid wanted to activate his sword’s Rage ability, but was (once again) too late. I was the only one fighting six Shapeshifters and desperately trying to protect the Dukes. I couldn’t save the Duchess and would have probably failed at protecting Duke Belt as well if it weren’t for Faldorn’s Insect Plague.
We presented the evidence against Sarevok to Duke Belt, after which the former was teleported away by a wizard. Belt divined their whereabouts and sent us their way. We had to find our way through a trapped maze, guarded by undead, to reach the Undercity and Sarevok’s Sanctum. Before entering though, we had to deal with a group of Iron Throne hirelings from another region. They were on the same mission as us, stopping Sarevok, but found it necessary to attack us anyway. Their wizard was stunned by one of Alora’s darts, and their Priest was repeatedly interrupted by my arrows and taken down together with their fighters by Alora, Jaheira and Khalid. When the stun effect on the Mage wore off she triggered a lot of protections and managed to kill Dynaheir with a Lightning Bolt before Faldorn could dispel her protections allowing the rest of us to finish her off.
Alora scouted ahead and ran into Tamoko in front of the entrance to Sarevok’s sanctum. She told Alora she would not let us pass, and he triggered a Blade Barrier and a number of other clerical buffs and protections. Alora ran away and hid until Tamoko’s protections had worn off. With overwhelming physical force we downed our foe.
We then entered Sarevok’s temple. My companions all quaffed potions of invisibility, and I cast a green scroll of Protection from Magic on myself. Sarevok had four guards we had to slay first before Sarevok could be touched: Diarmid (an archer), Angelo, Semaj (both wizards), and resurrected Tazok. I took them on in that order: Diarmid and Semaj mostly with ranged attacks, and Angelo and Tazok in melee. There was little risk involved. Two or three times Sarevok noticed me and came after me, but I countered by quaffing invisibility potions and going after the lackeys first.
Sarevok himself was more difficult to deal with because he was hasted. My companions would formed an invisible wall to facilitate my ranged attacking. When he was near death, I quaffed another invisibility potion and we all surrounded Sarevok, we attacked at the same time. It was Alora’s backstab that did him in.
We reported our victory to Belt and are now on our way to Amn. We might stop in Nashkel to see how Minsc has been doing…
Finally another successful no-reload through BG1. Call me a stick-in-the-mud but I’m not overly pleased (which may be notable from the perfunctory journaling this time). Of my current and former party members only Alora, who joined at a very late stage, and Serene haven’t died. Coran has died six times, Khalid four I think, Faldorn once or twice, Dynaheir five or six times, and Minsc twice iirc. That’s about 20 Raise Deads. At one point NPC deaths completely stopped making an impact. I feel like I've played a regular reload game. Having five “meat shields” that I can raise whenever I want takes away a lot of the fun/challenge I notice. I still have to decide whether or not to continue, and if so whether to do it right away, or to do a “test run” (allowing reloads) through BG2 with another character because it’s been quite a long time since I’ve played it. What I do know is that in subsequent playthroughs I’ll go back to soloing or I’ll apply a resurrection limit of 1 or 2 per party member.
At the moment I'm inclined to let Serene rest for a while and do a speedrun with a FIghter/Thief or see how my Halfling Barbarian/Druid works.
Aw, I like Serene. I'd definitely like to see more of her, and how you handle SCS BG2. I find it a lot harder then SCS BG1, but you see so few reports about it, as many of the people doing reports are playing no reload and never make it through BG1!
(If only you had taken Kivan in to the party... if you're not using BG2EE (just plain old BG2) so he still works, I would consider him a prime candidate for Serene. No heartbreak, generally sweet guy recovering from his old pain, slowly falling in love together... it's very touching.)
@CrevsDaak, hahaha thanks. Yes, I'm kind of decided on getting my Maztican Halfling going. It'll be roleplayed. but with some metagming I think, and soloing the first part for some easy XP. @Twani, yeah I've never done the Kivan romance (BG2), so he would have been a great candidate not only personalitywise but also for being new to me. Now Serene is going to ignore him because if I ever do the romance I'll want the lovebirds to have a past from BG1. Btw I'm not going to abandon Serene. I think I just need a break. I think I'm going to take her to BG2 (definitely want to redeem her as a Ranger), while playing my insane Halfling in BG1. Thanks for liking Serene.
'Grats! I love that the super sweet halfling lass finished off the big bad 'Vok. XD Anyways, I think it makes perfect sense to at least take a break for the sake of practicing. I can't wait for her return, though!
I’m hoping to keep it short this time. There is too much to be done to be extensively chronicling all recent events. On a mission for Belt to Amn, we – i.e. Alora, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, Dynaheir, and Faldorn – were somehow poisoned, and subsequently captured by a group of bandits. I have no idea who they were, but I vaguely recall the name Mae’Var. I woke up a prisoner in a nightmarish dungeon, stripped of all my gear. Mysteriously, Imoen appeared and opened my cell. I hadn’t seen her since my last visit to Candlekeep. For a moment I thought I was dreaming, but apparently word had spread that I had gone on a trip to Amn, and Imoen had followed me. Of my traveling companions only Silver, Minsc and Jaheira remained, the latter two devastated over the loss of Dynaheir and Khalid respectively. I must say that the news of or their deaths struck me deeply as well. Dynaheir had been the first companion I traveled with and the one I’ve spent most time with ever since I left Candlekeep with Gorion. She has been a friend, an adviser, and a lifesaver. Khalid was one of the bravest and kindest souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of befriending. Both have died at the hands of my former captor, a formidable wizard by the name of Irenicus. Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir and I searched the dungeon for Alora and Faldorn, but they were nowhere to be found. In order to escape we had to confront an Ogre Mage, numerous Duergar, a Cambion, countless Mephits, a Vampire and a number of Assassins:
We were lucky to find some of our gear (Full Plate for Minsc, Ankheg Plate for Jaheira, Cloak of Balduran, Cloak of Non-Detection, Boots of Stealth and Shadow Armor) at one point. It helped us protect ourselves better against the dungeon’s many threats (and prevented us from having to rest more than once in that horrible place). We got help from a Kara-Turan Bounty Hunter who appeared to have been a captive as well. When we finally found our way out, we had to face Irenicus, but before it came to a confrontation, the local arcane law enforcers intervened and arrested both Irenicus and Imoen for the “illegal use of magic”. We later discovered that we were in Athkatla, Amn, and that unlicensed magic use is probihited. It was quite a shock to see Imoen disappear. I feel I should at least try to rescue her, but I have no idea how to go about that. I don’t know where they keep her, and the only person who’s offered me to help find her, asks a 40,000 GP payment for his services. This is tremendous amount of money for a party of broke adventurers.
We decided to first explore the city. The market square we found ourselves on, had a circus that was closed due to unnatural goings on: violence, disappearing people etc. We entered and were explained the situation by an Ogre with a girl’s voice. Kalah, a megalomaniacal Gnome, had cast illusory magics on almost everything and everyone in the circus tent. We dispelled the illusion on the Ogre, and saw her transform into her natural form, that of an Elf. She presented herself as Aerie, a Chorister Bard:
CHORISTER: Music, whether hymn, symphony or dark chanting intonation, plays an important part in the services of most deities. For aiding in performing rituals or just leading the faithful in worship, most holy places have at least one bard, known as a Chorister. Choristers are not only to be found within temple walls, however; many faiths use them as missionaries, helping to bring new worshippers into the fold. Many an adventuring bard with a religious bent can also end up as a Chorister, finding their prayers answered by the deity they venerate. Advantages: - Knows a small selection of divine spells. These are accessed and memorized as Mage spells: Level 1: Armor of Faith, Cure Light Wounds, Doom Level 2: Chant, Draw Upon Holy Might, Slow Poison Level 3: Cure Medium Wounds, Glyph of Warding Level 4: Defensive Harmony, Holy Power Level 5: Mass Cure Level 6: Bolt of Glory Disadvantages: - Only has one-half normal Lore value - Only has one-half Pick Pockets percentage
She joined us in our search of Kalah, who was very hostile leaving us little choice but to defend ourselves against him and his minions, until he fell. It was quite sad actually. Kalah had only done what he’d done because he’d been ridiculed his entire life.
On the Market Square there’s a so-called Adventurers’ Mart with amazing items for sale. We didn’t buy anything, as we didn’t have much gold and didn’t know what to spend it on. We did run into Alora though. That made my day. I don’t have as long a history with her as with some others, but that doesn’t stop me from adoring her. She joined our party, and immediately boosted our spirits.
In the Slums District we met the man who’s willing to help us get to Imoen, mentioned above. If we ever obtain the gold he asks for, we might seek him out. We also visited one the city’s most infamous taverns: The Copper Coronet, a cesspool of base corruption if ever there was one. The owner explained to us the despicable forms of entertainment to be had, including gladiator fights and prostitution, all of it forced, using slaves. The five of us, aided by a Wizard [edited into a Fighter 3/Invoker] by the name of Nalia, were unanimous that these atrocities had to be dealt with. We entered the backrooms where the slaves were held, had to fight many guards, and much to my horror, a number of great animals to get to the jailor and his keys. It was painful for me to see that great animals such as bears and wild cats no longer bond with me, and to have to kill them in self-defense.
We released the prisoners and decided to try and cleanse the slaver compound. We entered via the sewers (where we found a useful two-handed sword for Minsc by the way), invisible thanks to Silver. We then positioned ourselves strategically so that we could surprise and engage pretty much all the slavers. Minsc took on their captain, Alora poisoned a Priest of Cyric with Darts of Wounding, Nalia cast a Chaos over a few of the guards, and Jaheira and I fought more guards in melee combat. This worked splendidly.
In one of the captain’s pockets we found a key with which we could liberate several more imprisoned slaves. We had to kill two Trolls which was difficult because I had only a few fire arrows. Fortunately Nalia managed to kill one with Melf’s Acid Arrow. We would fight more slavers, including two mages , but enraged Minsc would absorb most of their nasty spells, so that they were easily taken care off after they were done casting.
We took some well-deserved time off in the Copper Coronet, where the released slave leader Hendak was most grateful for our help. Nalia told us a bit more about herself. She was the daughter of nobles who lived in a Keep not far from Athkatla. The Keep was besieged by Trolls however, and she wanted us to help her.
*** The next day we made a small tour through the city, to speak with a little boy in the Government District who, according to another boy we met in the Slums District was looking for adventurers like us. The child was from Imnesvale, a village east of Athkatla, in the Umar Hills. The village was plagued by mysterious creatures, and a number of people had died or gone missing. So we had two reasons to leave the city, much to my contentment: Nalia’s Keep and Imnesvale. We also entered the City Council building, where we bought a spallcasting license for 15,000 GP (most of our gold). On our way to the City Gate we passed through the Bridge District, where a Lieutenant Aegisfield warned us of vicious crimes: beggars that had been flayed alive by unknown people. We found a number of clues that pointed to the local Tanner, and when we went to take a look, he admitted his involvement, and fled. His shop was replete with decaying bodies and the stench was almost unbearable. Alora, sweet Alora, had to disarm various traps in our pursuit of the Tanner. We saw him escape in a boat from a small dock under the shop, and were attacked by Ghasts and two Rune Assassins, causing us to flee back upstairs. The Rune Assassins followed us upstairs [something they never did in my game setups] and with two synchronic backstabs they slew [chunked] her.
Sweet, ever well-intentioned Alora’s permanent death has been the severest blow I’ve suffered since Gorion’s death. It hurts more than all of Coran’s lies and insults combined, more than our killing of innocents while under the effect of Confusion, and more than Khalid’s and Dynaheir’s deaths as I was never able to prevent those. Alora was like a little sister to me (similar to Imoen), and I just stood there, paralyzed, watching how she fell. Thankfully Minsc was more resolute and slew the assassins before they could do anymore harm.
*** Defeated, I went with my comrades to see Aegisfield and report him our findings. He was sympathetic and thankful, but that did little to console me. On my instigation we rested for a while in the Copper Coronet where I took a room and locked myself inside, unwilling to speak with anyone, until Nalia came to me and asked me if I still wanted to help her. I felt sorry for her, and agreed to set out, with the others, to the Keep.
Near the City Gate we ran into Coran, of all people. My first thought was to tell him I would have wished him dead instead of Alora, but I held my anger back. We spoke for a while. He had been in another doomed relationship, with a woman named Safana, and seemed to have had enough of women for the time being. He offered to join us again: this time no games, no love affair, just as friendship. His words seemed genuine, and I liked the idea of finding the friendship and confidence again that we had had before things got complicated between us. Jaheira and especially Minsc were open to Coran’s return as well, and Nalia and Aerie had no objections either, and so it was settled.
Coran’s entry into the party seemed to bring us ill luck. Still within the city we were waylaid by slavers, who failed to impress us after their Mage had wasted a number of spells on enraged Minsc. (I’m happy to see that his stay with Nalin and the Amnish Guard in Nashkel has taught Minsc a degree of discipline when enraged that he didn’t have before. His rages are much better controlled now.)
When we finally left the city, we got in another fight. A number of bandits or slavers were poisoning a man. Jaheira’s Insect Plague kept their Mages in check, while the rest of us fought them, and two fighter types, in physical combat.
We brought the poisoned man to the Docks District where he said he would be taken care of, and where we had to fight yet more scum, a couple of ruffians, and a Priest of Cyric.
------------------------- End of journal update. -------------------------
When the party left the Docks District, they got waylaid again. A bit over the top: three area transitions, four ambushes. This latest ambush was particularly annoying: four slavers, one of them a wizard, and a horde of Orogs. For some reason SCS (I think) always makes sure that one or two of the party’s mages or archers are stuck, surrounded by the Orogs. (How one gets surrounded by these slow creatures is beyond me, but I’ll assume that it was done on purpose to create a challenging situation).
Anyway, in all honesty the party got annihilated. Nalia and Aerie failed to activate their Stoneskins, Jaheira didn’t even try with Ironskins, which takes much longer to cast, and their nicely buffed Mage (Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Mirror Image, Stoneskin) slung all kind of nasty spells our way: Slow, PW Sleep, and Chaos. One after the other, Serene’s companions would fall.
In the last picture, Serene had only 17 HP left, so one or two hits would have finished her off. At the same time the Chaos effect must have been close to wearing off, which would have allowed Serene to quaff a potion of extra healing or one of invisibility, or to flee the area (leaving valuable gear behind).
However, the screen miraculously switched from the wilderness/ambush area to the Docks District exit. I waited for one hour (see pics below), but nothing happened. Serene remained confused, the slavers were no longer fighting her, but the screen wasn’t frozen (I could still look at the map, the character record etc), but I the visible area remained to be the Docks area, while Serene was still outside Athkatla in the ambush area…
I've never had this or anything like it happen before. I guess that without this glitch Serene's run would have probably ended here, since she was still confused at the moment the glitch occurred, and only one or two arrows from the warriors or hits from the Orogs would have killed her... Still a rather unsatisfying way to see this end, after previous crashed prevented of ther characters' progress (Grynne, Aya).
I've missed the momentum but WHAT A JOY (regarding the Sarevok defeat)! And the story-telling is EPIC!
Oh, THAT bandit ambush in the wilderness of the SCS BG2... I feel your pain, maybe more than anyone else. Without the Chaotic Commands Spell (or Lilarcor, or Shield of Harmony) it's always an end of the run.
Your character has survived. To me, this is the single reason enough to continue. Serene is still ALIVE, take that, Orogs! Serene is still ALIVE, take that, slavers! Maybe her Bhaal's essense has saved her in the last moment.
@Blackraven I understand your pain of losing equipment but YOU CAN STILL MAKE IT! There will be many good items in the future, you can revive everyone and more importantly, this moment will no doubt make Serene more powerful in terms of the RP, in terms of her character. This catastrophe is not the end yet!
As I understand it, you have had a technical glitch and need to reload. I would treat it RP-wise as a dream sequence warning. Bhaal powers and all that. After all, the game crashed so Serene would not die. Who are you to defy the Gods? :-)
I was delighted to see you had decided to continue Serene’s story after all. But wow, what an unlucky start. Coran, that bad penny… It has to be Coran.
It's all up to you my friend, I know you often lose interest in your character/run when you got killed once.
So is this the case here ? Like the others, I think a technical glitch happened to you (maybe in the best moment) and that you are of course allowed to reload, plus I like @MacHurto explanation about a possible dream warning. But if you have lost interest in the run, it's going to be painful to continue.
I really want to see Serene finish Baldur's Gate 2, or at least to die in Selune's arms by redeeming herself first.
Good luck and congratulations for completing BG1 SCS no-reload with a Fallen Beastmaster !
Wow! Big update! =D Poor Alora... No one who manages to kill the 'Vok should be chunked... As for the strange glitch, I would attest it to your heritage and keep going, but, like, not revive your allies or something. True you already lost gear, but isn't a corpse necessary for revival? (In PnP. Obviously not in game terms. =p) It would be a sad thing to happen, but at least she's still alive. At the very least you'd be taking a serious penalty. I know it's hard for you to justify your continuation of a series without serious penalties.
I agree with @Elrandir. Reload, considering it's a glitch, but sacrifice your group of companions and say they fell to the ambush Serene only barely managed to escape. It's a heavy sacrifice- Coran, Jaheira, Minsc, Nalia, and Aerie all gone in a wave of the hand, but I know you like handicaps if you have to 'restart' with a character.
And aww, Alora. I feel bad for her. Well, I feel bad for everyone, actually. That ambush sucks.
Thanks everyone, I think I'll continue this run in the way @bengoshi, @Twani, and @Elrandir proposed (losing all my companions and their equipment). Don't know what's worse: starting over with a new character, or losing all this... Either way, this run can become my 'test run' for BG2 of which my knowledge has become a bit rusty. Thanks everyone for their input.
How did this fly under my radar? I only noticed this thread last night. After finally catching up, I have a few things to say.
First, again thanks for the awesome story! There were a few parts in your tale that had me really laughing. Minsc and Alora killing the commoners was priceless, though I'm sure it pissed you off as it happened. My eyes went O.O at the part where Alora got chunked, followed by a wide grin and guffaw. Again sorry, I'm sure it wasn't funny for you at the time. I find the aspect of you gaining your ranger class back very intriguing, and I'm excited to see that you've decided to pick up the reigns once again. Look forward to your next post.
All the Orogs form the ambush are untouched by SCS (level and stat wise), so using Cloudkill will kill them all. That's what I did with Darhaina (Kensai/Conjurer/Assassin) to survive from the Orogs. I was surprised to see an SCS Mage casting PW: Sleep over Aerie; and it makes me wonder if you haven't edited her into a Half-Elf. The Rune Assassins are very tough, they have 19 STR and a backstab multiplier of 4, I always do that part of the quest if I have 3 > Stoneskins to cast (if I don't have SCS one Stoneskin can handle both very well).
Thanks @FinalFront, and @Ygramul! I've failed to respond earlier because I keep getting logged off the site. Sorry about that.
I'm going to continue this run as a test run through BG2. I'll keep on trying to journal not only Serene's progress but also RP aspects. But first I want to have a proper no-reload character in BG2. I'm working on that with an Undead Hunter. (@CrevsDaak, Sampariy the wicked Halfling Barbarian/Druid has got to wait a bit, because that one is going to be RP'ed character, and I still need to flesh him out a bit.)
@FinalFront, don't worry about laughing. I also tend to laugh or at least smile when I read about other players' ordeals. The setbacks, the narrow escapes, the changes of plans help make these kinds of journals very interesting. Plus as fellow gamers we can all imagine how one feels in given situation. @Ygramul, you can find my WEIDU log here. Just scroll down to the middle of the page... Some of the mods aren't available yet for EE I'm afraid. I hope that mods like aTweaks, Hard Times and Item Randomization do become available at some point. They've become staples for me to play with. Serene is still fallen, but I don't need to find an RP context to restore her to Ranger status, as the game provides two of them:
completing the Ranger Stronghold Quests, and the Hell Trials.
@CrevsDaak, Cloudkill Good tip! Thanks. Btw I hadn't edited Aerie into Half-Elf...
Comments
In Candlekeep I found a letter from Gorion in which he explained my heritage: Bhaal, the Lord of Murder was my father. This might explain my special abilities to lay on hands, slow poison, and my divine wrath, powers that have come to me in dreams. It also explains why the Moonmaiden never took these powers from me: they didn’t come from her in the first place.
Divine Wrath (was Vampiric Touch)
Range: Caster
Duration: Instantaneous
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 10' radius
Saving Throw: Special
Through this ability, the Bhaalspawn can tap into the divine spark buried deep within his soul and release a portion of the raw power in a single, concentrated burst. The unleashed energy damages all enemies in the immediate vicinity of the Bhaalspawn and has a chance to push them away, knock them prone and make them flee in panic. The potency of this ability increases as the Bhaalspawn becomes more experienced:
Level 1: deals 2d8 damage to all nearby enemies
Level 6: deals 4d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn
Level 12: deals 6d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn and knocking them prone for 1 round
Level 18: deals 8d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn, knocking them prone for 1 round and making them flee in panic for the following 3 rounds
A successful saving throw vs. breath halves the damage and negates all secondary effects. Exceptionally large creatures (Giants, Dragons, Iron Golems...etc.) are immune to all secondary effects.
This is from the aTweaks mod’s Revised Bhaalpowers component. Serene got this instead of Divine Might (i.e. DUHM) due to her rep. of 4.
The thought of being Bhaal’s daughter is upsetting, but I must say that I’ve never felt and still don’t feel any connection apart from the above-mentioned abilities I never even asked for. The question is whether Bhaal’s essence exerts some kind of subtle influence that I’m not even aware of. Was it his essence, his blood running through my veins, that had me take the fight with Nemphre outside and confused but good-natured Alora to kill innocents? I don’t know, but I do know that it makes little sense to dwell on this all the time. The past doesn’t matter, what I need to do is to stay in the moment, in the present, conscious of my actions.
In the Candlekeep library we met and confronted the Iron Throne leaders (except Sarevok). I had expected them to be older merchant-types but they turned out to be capable adventurers not unlike my party. We prevailed without too much difficulty though. Alora played an important part again. With a single backstab she slew their Thief, and she stunned and poisoned Rieltar, a Mage, who was subsequently finished off by Khalid. The other Iron Throne leaders, were taken care of by the party in a joint effort. Interestingly, we were arrested by a Candlekeep watcher after some of his own colleagues had helped us against Rieltar,
Tethoril visited us in our cell and was so kind to help us escape via the catacombs beneath Candlekeep, a deed I shan’t forget. Down there we got into a bloody fight with a band of mercenaries who had been waiting for Sarevok. Apparently Sarevok knew Candlekeep well… We were invisible but when we after we killed a Phase Spider us in a quiet space, one of the mercenaries, a Mage, came Dimension Dooring in. We slew him and two of his comrades with relative ease.
At that point, the worst had yet to come: a wizard-cum-timebomb named Sakul. He brought back memories of Natasha in the Cloakwood Mines. Protected by a Minor Globe of Invulnerability he used Teleport Field and Web to limit our room to manoeuver, and he hurt me with a Lightning Bolt and my party with two Sunfires. Khalid and Faldorn didn’t survive the onslaught and the rest of us just barely (by quaffing healing potions). Alora, Jaheira and I had to fight our way through his Stoneskins and Mirror Images before we could finish him off.
The party made a short trip to Durlag’s Tower, to look for a Tome. The Item Randomisation mod randomizes the Tome (so it could be a STR Tome that was waiting for me there instead of the vanilla WIS Tome) but also the location of the Tome in the Tower. The party explored the ground floor and the upper floors but the Tome was nowhere to be found, so I think it must be somewhere downstairs. I decided not to risk this no-reload run, so the party returned only with some extra XP, from killing Basilisks, Ghasts and Kirinhale.
Back in Baldur’s Gate we raised our fallen comrades, were informed of the latest news by a mysterious woman named Tamoko, saved Duke Eltan from a pseudo-healer that was in fact a Greater Doppelganger, and dealt with Sarevok’s lover Cythandria on the top floor in the Iron Throne building. She was a dangerous wizard with two massive golems by her side, but we had to take her on because she was holding incriminating evidence against Sarevok. Alora lured the golems downstairs, while Faldorn dispelled the wizard’s magical protections, allowing us to take her down with little difficulty. The brainless Golems were tricked by Invisible party members blocking the doorways, while so that I could pelt them without trouble.
On Cythandria we found letters mentioning two killers hired by Sarevok to take down the Dukes of Baldur’s Gate for him. They were supposed to be in the Undercellars below The Blushing Mermaid, and that’s where we found them: Slythe, a rogue and his girl Krystin, a wizard. We first took on Krystin. That went probably better than it could have, since Khalid managed to Horror her twice with his Sword of Rage. That being said, she did cause the party quite a lot of trouble. She successfully cast Chaos on a couple of my party members. When Faldorn started attacking a courtesan [Zizi the Lovebundle, no idea who she is], Dynaheir cast Invisibility (15’ Radius) on the harlot, in order to prevent any further reputation losses. Meanwhile Khalid got fried by Krystin’s Lightning Bolt, but then Alora stunned Krysting with a Dart of Stunning, after which Jaheira and I took finished her off with ranged attacks.
[Confused Faldorn killed the bouncer by the way, but fortunately did so at no reputation loss.]
Slythe was easier to deal with. Dynaheir was Stoneskinned and Faldorn Ironskinned, they would take turns engaging the rogue in melee, while Jaheira, Alora and I would attack with our ranged weapons. This worked fine.
We found an invitation to the intended coronation of Sarevok as the new Duke of Baldur’s Gate at the Ducal Palace. When we arrived we saw the “public” turn into Shapeshifters and attack Duke Belt and Duchess Liia Janneth. The Shapeshifters would cast Horror all the time. I quaffed a potion of Magic Shielding and Khalid wanted to activate his sword’s Rage ability, but was (once again) too late. I was the only one fighting six Shapeshifters and desperately trying to protect the Dukes. I couldn’t save the Duchess and would have probably failed at protecting Duke Belt as well if it weren’t for Faldorn’s Insect Plague.
We presented the evidence against Sarevok to Duke Belt, after which the former was teleported away by a wizard. Belt divined their whereabouts and sent us their way. We had to find our way through a trapped maze, guarded by undead, to reach the Undercity and Sarevok’s Sanctum.
Before entering though, we had to deal with a group of Iron Throne hirelings from another region. They were on the same mission as us, stopping Sarevok, but found it necessary to attack us anyway. Their wizard was stunned by one of Alora’s darts, and their Priest was repeatedly interrupted by my arrows and taken down together with their fighters by Alora, Jaheira and Khalid. When the stun effect on the Mage wore off she triggered a lot of protections and managed to kill Dynaheir with a Lightning Bolt before Faldorn could dispel her protections allowing the rest of us to finish her off.
Alora scouted ahead and ran into Tamoko in front of the entrance to Sarevok’s sanctum. She told Alora she would not let us pass, and he triggered a Blade Barrier and a number of other clerical buffs and protections. Alora ran away and hid until Tamoko’s protections had worn off. With overwhelming physical force we downed our foe.
We then entered Sarevok’s temple. My companions all quaffed potions of invisibility, and I cast a green scroll of Protection from Magic on myself. Sarevok had four guards we had to slay first before Sarevok could be touched: Diarmid (an archer), Angelo, Semaj (both wizards), and resurrected Tazok. I took them on in that order: Diarmid and Semaj mostly with ranged attacks, and Angelo and Tazok in melee. There was little risk involved. Two or three times Sarevok noticed me and came after me, but I countered by quaffing invisibility potions and going after the lackeys first.
Sarevok himself was more difficult to deal with because he was hasted. My companions would formed an invisible wall to facilitate my ranged attacking. When he was near death, I quaffed another invisibility potion and we all surrounded Sarevok, we attacked at the same time. It was Alora’s backstab that did him in.
We reported our victory to Belt and are now on our way to Amn. We might stop in Nashkel to see how Minsc has been doing…
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Finally another successful no-reload through BG1.
Call me a stick-in-the-mud but I’m not overly pleased (which may be notable from the perfunctory journaling this time). Of my current and former party members only Alora, who joined at a very late stage, and Serene haven’t died. Coran has died six times, Khalid four I think, Faldorn once or twice, Dynaheir five or six times, and Minsc twice iirc. That’s about 20 Raise Deads. At one point NPC deaths completely stopped making an impact. I feel like I've played a regular reload game. Having five “meat shields” that I can raise whenever I want takes away a lot of the fun/challenge I notice.
I still have to decide whether or not to continue, and if so whether to do it right away, or to do a “test run” (allowing reloads) through BG2 with another character because it’s been quite a long time since I’ve played it. What I do know is that in subsequent playthroughs I’ll go back to soloing or I’ll apply a resurrection limit of 1 or 2 per party member.
At the moment I'm inclined to let Serene rest for a while and do a speedrun with a FIghter/Thief or see how my Halfling Barbarian/Druid works.
Congratulations on beating Sarevok & co. I would like a lot to read about you Evil B/D Maztica Halfling
(If only you had taken Kivan in to the party... if you're not using BG2EE (just plain old BG2) so he still works, I would consider him a prime candidate for Serene. No heartbreak, generally sweet guy recovering from his old pain, slowly falling in love together... it's very touching.)
@Twani, yeah I've never done the Kivan romance (BG2), so he would have been a great candidate not only personalitywise but also for being new to me. Now Serene is going to ignore him because if I ever do the romance I'll want the lovebirds to have a past from BG1. Btw I'm not going to abandon Serene. I think I just need a break. I think I'm going to take her to BG2 (definitely want to redeem her as a Ranger), while playing my insane Halfling in BG1. Thanks for liking Serene.
I’m hoping to keep it short this time. There is too much to be done to be extensively chronicling all recent events. On a mission for Belt to Amn, we – i.e. Alora, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, Dynaheir, and Faldorn – were somehow poisoned, and subsequently captured by a group of bandits. I have no idea who they were, but I vaguely recall the name Mae’Var. I woke up a prisoner in a nightmarish dungeon, stripped of all my gear. Mysteriously, Imoen appeared and opened my cell. I hadn’t seen her since my last visit to Candlekeep. For a moment I thought I was dreaming, but apparently word had spread that I had gone on a trip to Amn, and Imoen had followed me. Of my traveling companions only Silver, Minsc and Jaheira remained, the latter two devastated over the loss of Dynaheir and Khalid respectively. I must say that the news of or their deaths struck me deeply as well. Dynaheir had been the first companion I traveled with and the one I’ve spent most time with ever since I left Candlekeep with Gorion. She has been a friend, an adviser, and a lifesaver. Khalid was one of the bravest and kindest souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of befriending. Both have died at the hands of my former captor, a formidable wizard by the name of Irenicus. Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir and I searched the dungeon for Alora and Faldorn, but they were nowhere to be found. In order to escape we had to confront an Ogre Mage, numerous Duergar, a Cambion, countless Mephits, a Vampire and a number of Assassins:
We were lucky to find some of our gear (Full Plate for Minsc, Ankheg Plate for Jaheira, Cloak of Balduran, Cloak of Non-Detection, Boots of Stealth and Shadow Armor) at one point. It helped us protect ourselves better against the dungeon’s many threats (and prevented us from having to rest more than once in that horrible place). We got help from a Kara-Turan Bounty Hunter who appeared to have been a captive as well. When we finally found our way out, we had to face Irenicus, but before it came to a confrontation, the local arcane law enforcers intervened and arrested both Irenicus and Imoen for the “illegal use of magic”. We later discovered that we were in Athkatla, Amn, and that unlicensed magic use is probihited. It was quite a shock to see Imoen disappear. I feel I should at least try to rescue her, but I have no idea how to go about that. I don’t know where they keep her, and the only person who’s offered me to help find her, asks a 40,000 GP payment for his services. This is tremendous amount of money for a party of broke adventurers.
We decided to first explore the city. The market square we found ourselves on, had a circus that was closed due to unnatural goings on: violence, disappearing people etc. We entered and were explained the situation by an Ogre with a girl’s voice. Kalah, a megalomaniacal Gnome, had cast illusory magics on almost everything and everyone in the circus tent. We dispelled the illusion on the Ogre, and saw her transform into her natural form, that of an Elf. She presented herself as Aerie, a Chorister Bard:
CHORISTER: Music, whether hymn, symphony or dark chanting intonation, plays an important part in the services of most deities. For aiding in performing rituals or just leading the faithful in worship, most holy places have at least one bard, known as a Chorister.
Choristers are not only to be found within temple walls, however; many faiths use them as missionaries, helping to bring new worshippers into the fold. Many an adventuring bard with a religious bent can also end up as a Chorister, finding their prayers answered by the deity they venerate.
Advantages:
- Knows a small selection of divine spells. These are accessed and memorized as Mage spells:
Level 1: Armor of Faith, Cure Light Wounds, Doom
Level 2: Chant, Draw Upon Holy Might, Slow Poison
Level 3: Cure Medium Wounds, Glyph of Warding
Level 4: Defensive Harmony, Holy Power
Level 5: Mass Cure
Level 6: Bolt of Glory
Disadvantages:
- Only has one-half normal Lore value
- Only has one-half Pick Pockets percentage
She joined us in our search of Kalah, who was very hostile leaving us little choice but to defend ourselves against him and his minions, until he fell. It was quite sad actually. Kalah had only done what he’d done because he’d been ridiculed his entire life.
On the Market Square there’s a so-called Adventurers’ Mart with amazing items for sale. We didn’t buy anything, as we didn’t have much gold and didn’t know what to spend it on. We did run into Alora though. That made my day. I don’t have as long a history with her as with some others, but that doesn’t stop me from adoring her. She joined our party, and immediately boosted our spirits.
In the Slums District we met the man who’s willing to help us get to Imoen, mentioned above. If we ever obtain the gold he asks for, we might seek him out. We also visited one the city’s most infamous taverns: The Copper Coronet, a cesspool of base corruption if ever there was one. The owner explained to us the despicable forms of entertainment to be had, including gladiator fights and prostitution, all of it forced, using slaves. The five of us, aided by a Wizard [edited into a Fighter 3/Invoker] by the name of Nalia, were unanimous that these atrocities had to be dealt with. We entered the backrooms where the slaves were held, had to fight many guards, and much to my horror, a number of great animals to get to the jailor and his keys. It was painful for me to see that great animals such as bears and wild cats no longer bond with me, and to have to kill them in self-defense.
We released the prisoners and decided to try and cleanse the slaver compound. We entered via the sewers (where we found a useful two-handed sword for Minsc by the way), invisible thanks to Silver. We then positioned ourselves strategically so that we could surprise and engage pretty much all the slavers. Minsc took on their captain, Alora poisoned a Priest of Cyric with Darts of Wounding, Nalia cast a Chaos over a few of the guards, and Jaheira and I fought more guards in melee combat. This worked splendidly.
In one of the captain’s pockets we found a key with which we could liberate several more imprisoned slaves. We had to kill two Trolls which was difficult because I had only a few fire arrows. Fortunately Nalia managed to kill one with Melf’s Acid Arrow. We would fight more slavers, including two mages , but enraged Minsc would absorb most of their nasty spells, so that they were easily taken care off after they were done casting.
We took some well-deserved time off in the Copper Coronet, where the released slave leader Hendak was most grateful for our help. Nalia told us a bit more about herself. She was the daughter of nobles who lived in a Keep not far from Athkatla. The Keep was besieged by Trolls however, and she wanted us to help her.
***
The next day we made a small tour through the city, to speak with a little boy in the Government District who, according to another boy we met in the Slums District was looking for adventurers like us. The child was from Imnesvale, a village east of Athkatla, in the Umar Hills. The village was plagued by mysterious creatures, and a number of people had died or gone missing. So we had two reasons to leave the city, much to my contentment: Nalia’s Keep and Imnesvale. We also entered the City Council building, where we bought a spallcasting license for 15,000 GP (most of our gold).
On our way to the City Gate we passed through the Bridge District, where a Lieutenant Aegisfield warned us of vicious crimes: beggars that had been flayed alive by unknown people. We found a number of clues that pointed to the local Tanner, and when we went to take a look, he admitted his involvement, and fled. His shop was replete with decaying bodies and the stench was almost unbearable. Alora, sweet Alora, had to disarm various traps in our pursuit of the Tanner. We saw him escape in a boat from a small dock under the shop, and were attacked by Ghasts and two Rune Assassins, causing us to flee back upstairs. The Rune Assassins followed us upstairs [something they never did in my game setups] and with two synchronic backstabs they slew [chunked] her.
Sweet, ever well-intentioned Alora’s permanent death has been the severest blow I’ve suffered since Gorion’s death. It hurts more than all of Coran’s lies and insults combined, more than our killing of innocents while under the effect of Confusion, and more than Khalid’s and Dynaheir’s deaths as I was never able to prevent those. Alora was like a little sister to me (similar to Imoen), and I just stood there, paralyzed, watching how she fell. Thankfully Minsc was more resolute and slew the assassins before they could do anymore harm.
***
Defeated, I went with my comrades to see Aegisfield and report him our findings. He was sympathetic and thankful, but that did little to console me. On my instigation we rested for a while in the Copper Coronet where I took a room and locked myself inside, unwilling to speak with anyone, until Nalia came to me and asked me if I still wanted to help her. I felt sorry for her, and agreed to set out, with the others, to the Keep.
Near the City Gate we ran into Coran, of all people. My first thought was to tell him I would have wished him dead instead of Alora, but I held my anger back. We spoke for a while. He had been in another doomed relationship, with a woman named Safana, and seemed to have had enough of women for the time being. He offered to join us again: this time no games, no love affair, just as friendship. His words seemed genuine, and I liked the idea of finding the friendship and confidence again that we had had before things got complicated between us. Jaheira and especially Minsc were open to Coran’s return as well, and Nalia and Aerie had no objections either, and so it was settled.
Coran’s entry into the party seemed to bring us ill luck. Still within the city we were waylaid by slavers, who failed to impress us after their Mage had wasted a number of spells on enraged Minsc. (I’m happy to see that his stay with Nalin and the Amnish Guard in Nashkel has taught Minsc a degree of discipline when enraged that he didn’t have before. His rages are much better controlled now.)
When we finally left the city, we got in another fight. A number of bandits or slavers were poisoning a man. Jaheira’s Insect Plague kept their Mages in check, while the rest of us fought them, and two fighter types, in physical combat.
We brought the poisoned man to the Docks District where he said he would be taken care of, and where we had to fight yet more scum, a couple of ruffians, and a Priest of Cyric.
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End of journal update.
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When the party left the Docks District, they got waylaid again. A bit over the top: three area transitions, four ambushes. This latest ambush was particularly annoying: four slavers, one of them a wizard, and a horde of Orogs. For some reason SCS (I think) always makes sure that one or two of the party’s mages or archers are stuck, surrounded by the Orogs. (How one gets surrounded by these slow creatures is beyond me, but I’ll assume that it was done on purpose to create a challenging situation).
Anyway, in all honesty the party got annihilated. Nalia and Aerie failed to activate their Stoneskins, Jaheira didn’t even try with Ironskins, which takes much longer to cast, and their nicely buffed Mage (Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Mirror Image, Stoneskin) slung all kind of nasty spells our way: Slow, PW Sleep, and Chaos. One after the other, Serene’s companions would fall.
In the last picture, Serene had only 17 HP left, so one or two hits would have finished her off. At the same time the Chaos effect must have been close to wearing off, which would have allowed Serene to quaff a potion of extra healing or one of invisibility, or to flee the area (leaving valuable gear behind).
However, the screen miraculously switched from the wilderness/ambush area to the Docks District exit. I waited for one hour (see pics below), but nothing happened. Serene remained confused, the slavers were no longer fighting her, but the screen wasn’t frozen (I could still look at the map, the character record etc), but I the visible area remained to be the Docks area, while Serene was still outside Athkatla in the ambush area…
I've never had this or anything like it happen before. I guess that without this glitch Serene's run would have probably ended here, since she was still confused at the moment the glitch occurred, and only one or two arrows from the warriors or hits from the Orogs would have killed her... Still a rather unsatisfying way to see this end, after previous crashed prevented of ther characters' progress (Grynne, Aya).
Oh, THAT bandit ambush in the wilderness of the SCS BG2... I feel your pain, maybe more than anyone else. Without the Chaotic Commands Spell (or Lilarcor, or Shield of Harmony) it's always an end of the run.
Your character has survived. To me, this is the single reason enough to continue. Serene is still ALIVE, take that, Orogs! Serene is still ALIVE, take that, slavers! Maybe her Bhaal's essense has saved her in the last moment.
@Blackraven I understand your pain of losing equipment but YOU CAN STILL MAKE IT! There will be many good items in the future, you can revive everyone and more importantly, this moment will no doubt make Serene more powerful in terms of the RP, in terms of her character. This catastrophe is not the end yet!
So is this the case here ? Like the others, I think a technical glitch happened to you (maybe in the best moment) and that you are of course allowed to reload, plus I like @MacHurto explanation about a possible dream warning. But if you have lost interest in the run, it's going to be painful to continue.
I really want to see Serene finish Baldur's Gate 2, or at least to die in Selune's arms by redeeming herself first.
Good luck and congratulations for completing BG1 SCS no-reload with a Fallen Beastmaster !
And aww, Alora. I feel bad for her. Well, I feel bad for everyone, actually. That ambush sucks.
Either way, this run can become my 'test run' for BG2 of which my knowledge has become a bit rusty.
Thanks everyone for their input.
First, again thanks for the awesome story! There were a few parts in your tale that had me really laughing. Minsc and Alora killing the commoners was priceless, though I'm sure it pissed you off as it happened. My eyes went O.O at the part where Alora got chunked, followed by a wide grin and guffaw. Again sorry, I'm sure it wasn't funny for you at the time. I find the aspect of you gaining your ranger class back very intriguing, and I'm excited to see that you've decided to pick up the reigns once again. Look forward to your next post.
I was surprised to see an SCS Mage casting PW: Sleep over Aerie; and it makes me wonder if you haven't edited her into a Half-Elf.
The Rune Assassins are very tough, they have 19 STR and a backstab multiplier of 4, I always do that part of the quest if I have 3 > Stoneskins to cast (if I don't have SCS one Stoneskin can handle both very well).
Must have taken almost as long to compile as to play.
Did you post your mod list anywhere? (Are they all available on EE as well?)
Lastly, is Serene still Fallen? (How would you find a RP context to "raise" her status, I wonder?)
I've failed to respond earlier because I keep getting logged off the site. Sorry about that.
I'm going to continue this run as a test run through BG2. I'll keep on trying to journal not only Serene's progress but also RP aspects. But first I want to have a proper no-reload character in BG2. I'm working on that with an Undead Hunter. (@CrevsDaak, Sampariy the wicked Halfling Barbarian/Druid has got to wait a bit, because that one is going to be RP'ed character, and I still need to flesh him out a bit.)
@FinalFront, don't worry about laughing.
@Ygramul, you can find my WEIDU log here. Just scroll down to the middle of the page... Some of the mods aren't available yet for EE I'm afraid. I hope that mods like aTweaks, Hard Times and Item Randomization do become available at some point. They've become staples for me to play with.
Serene is still fallen, but I don't need to find an RP context to restore her to Ranger status, as the game provides two of them:
completing the Ranger Stronghold Quests, and the Hell Trials.
@CrevsDaak, Cloudkill