Amelyssan priestess of Bhaal—Solo HoF Mode Run in Icewind Dale EE
Azzara
Member Posts: 184
I've been thinking about the best character to do a solo run with. I decided to try Amelyssan – priestess of Bhaal. I'm not using any mods so there won't be any special Bhaal cleric powers. Just a plain Cleric/Mage starting from level 1 in HoF mode.
Amelyssan has the following stats in Throne of Bhaal:
I won't be using any tomes or potions for changing the stats.
[spoiler=Eastheaven]
Felicia is eager to help the local folk and offers to kill a few pests for the innkeeper. Bored and itching for slaughter Amelyssan follows her to the basement. There the priestess claims her first kill for the tenday.
Emerging from the depths of the inn Amelyssan is now level 2. Her companion did not survive the encounter.
Amelyssan's attempts to slip out of town unnoticed are thwarted by a band of goblins. Bhaal's sanctuary spell wears off and the priestess has to run back to town chased by two of the little savages. Using the northern terrain and her superior speed to her advantage she manages to beat them two to one.
After the battle she prays at the local temple. Bhaal is extremely pleased with her and grants her three uses of his holy might per day.
Amelyssan waits for the nightfall and attacks the goblin leader from a safe point on a cliff. By beating the monster she finally proves herself as a warrior (and her THAC0 is no longer 20). Before the night is over the rest of the goblioids join their leader in the halls of Bhaal.
The priestess performs a ritual and rises a pack of six skeletons from the six freshly slain bodies. They follow her down the road. Everything falls before their might – wolves, orc bandits, even ogres.
The ogre's cave contains the remains of a pillaged caravan. Amelyssan sells some of it in town. Hrothgar confronts her about at and she tells him the truth. Impressed by her and her god's strength, he insists that she join an expedition to the south to Kuldahar. She reluctantly agrees. Once again the priestess is escorted by living companions. They hope to arrive in Kuldahar within a tenday. By Bhaal's will none of them would reach the settlement alive.
[/spoiler]
Amelyssan has the following stats in Throne of Bhaal:
I won't be using any tomes or potions for changing the stats.
[spoiler=Eastheaven]
Prologue
Bhaal demands that a faithful primistress of Bhaal do a killing every tenday. Amelyssan is wanted for murder and has to stay low for a while. Her companion Felicia is a bard of the north looking for work in the local tavern. A man called Hrothgar offered them an opportunity to make some money and hopefully score a few kills by escorting him trough the mountain pass.Felicia is eager to help the local folk and offers to kill a few pests for the innkeeper. Bored and itching for slaughter Amelyssan follows her to the basement. There the priestess claims her first kill for the tenday.
Emerging from the depths of the inn Amelyssan is now level 2. Her companion did not survive the encounter.
Amelyssan's attempts to slip out of town unnoticed are thwarted by a band of goblins. Bhaal's sanctuary spell wears off and the priestess has to run back to town chased by two of the little savages. Using the northern terrain and her superior speed to her advantage she manages to beat them two to one.
After the battle she prays at the local temple. Bhaal is extremely pleased with her and grants her three uses of his holy might per day.
Amelyssan waits for the nightfall and attacks the goblin leader from a safe point on a cliff. By beating the monster she finally proves herself as a warrior (and her THAC0 is no longer 20). Before the night is over the rest of the goblioids join their leader in the halls of Bhaal.
The priestess performs a ritual and rises a pack of six skeletons from the six freshly slain bodies. They follow her down the road. Everything falls before their might – wolves, orc bandits, even ogres.
The ogre's cave contains the remains of a pillaged caravan. Amelyssan sells some of it in town. Hrothgar confronts her about at and she tells him the truth. Impressed by her and her god's strength, he insists that she join an expedition to the south to Kuldahar. She reluctantly agrees. Once again the priestess is escorted by living companions. They hope to arrive in Kuldahar within a tenday. By Bhaal's will none of them would reach the settlement alive.
[/spoiler]
Post edited by Azzara on
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[spoiler=Kuldahar Pass]
Chapter One
Barely surviving an ambush and an avalanche Amelyssan continues to Kuldahar on foot. Bhaal's sanctuary offers some protection on the road. Eventually she finds shelter in an abandoned mill.During the night the goblins brave an attack. The priestess, Hrothgar and Hildeth (what's left of them) barricade themselves in the basement and manage to beat the goblins one by one on the narrow staircase. An innocent boy who is hiding in the closet hears everything. He runs away terrified when the travelers discover him.
Mmm, chicken. Amelyssan is now level 8/9.
On the next evening the priestess arrives in Kuldahar alone. At the local inn she meets two women who turn out both to be her namefellows—Amelia and Lysan. Curious. They seem fascinated by her story and when Lysan notices her holy symbol she does not look afraid.
In the night her god sends her a vision. She is to leave the two women alone for they do not fit his design. When the time is right Bhaal will send a man of the north for her and more of his plan will be revealed. But first she is to meet his "brother" the Lord of the Dead.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Vale of Shadows]
Apparently there's an old tomb or a graveyard where the Lord of the Dead gathers his minions. The local people are afraid of it and call it the Vale of Shadows. Amelyssan travels there and claims one of the smaller tombs as her stronghold in the region. There's a small room with an altar. It looks nice.
Figting in a graveyard is a child's play for Amelyssan who by this point has mastered her control over undead.
The undead guardian of the complex calls himself Bone Dancer Mythos. He is a priest of Myrkul and offers to take her directly to the Lord of the Dead by smashing her skull with a hammer. Myrkul is a rival god of Bhaal and bhaalists don't honor him. Their armies finally meet at the Tomb of Kresselack and Amalyssan is victorious.
She takes Mythos' magical hammer which might be useful if she ever meets a monster immune to steel and bone weapons. Her own army is of course immune to most effects that affect the flesh.
After many days of exploring the labyrinth that is Kresselack's Tomb she finds his sarcophagus but it is sealed shut. Having fulfilled her mission in destroying the myrkulyte outpost in the Vale she is prepared to leave when the ghost of Kresselack himself appears. He informs her that her conquest has been for naught for it is Auril that will claim the tomb when she leaves.
He says that there's a another priestess in the Vale of Shadows that works to reclaim the whole of it for the ice goddess. Amelyssan decides to hunt down the rival priestess before returning to Kuldahar. After exploring the tombs of the Vale she notices that the torch on one of the entrances has been extinguished. She knows that she'll meet the aurilite there.
Surprisingly she recognizes the ice priestess as Lysan of Kuldahar. Before she could say something Lysan casts a spell that prevents her from speaking or casting prayers. Thus Amelyssan cannot call reinforcements during the battle with Lysan and her yeti servants. What's worse is that the enemy is invulnerable while in the Vale of Shadows. Amelyssan flees to her stronghold.
Lysan easily tracks her down trough the snow an attacks her there.
Even without an army Amelyssan is not entirely defenseless. It turns out that the enemy is not invulnerable against the magical hammer of the myrkulyte priest. It has been 23 days she has last slain another human being so she gladly accepts the challenge.
After the battle Amelyssan is now level 11/11.
[/spoiler]
Amelyssan gathers her belongings into a bag of holding and returns to Kuldahar. She barely has money to recharge a wand of Magic Missiles she found. It doesn't matter though. She's blackmailing the innkeeper so there's always a free room waiting for her in Kuldahar.
Bhaal is angry with her. The evil god remind her of her duty to slay a person each tenday. She missed her target while exploring the labyrinth crypts of the Vale of Shadows. Except Lysan there were only undead there to slay.
Furthermore, Bhaal believes that Amelyssan lacks the cunning required to serve him properly. In comparison, the rival priestess of Auril managed to kidnap at least 5 people from the village while she was away. Amelyssan offers to prove her worth by murdering Arundel—a powerful druid who leads the local community but her god forbids it. Instead she should gain the druid's trust and try to infiltrate the community.
Arundel tells her of the local concerns. There's a powerful scrying stone he needs. Amelyssan must retrieve it from a nearby temple. On her way trough the chilly mountain she acquires a powerful new ally—an aerial servant. She hopes to resolve the matter at hand trough diplomacy though.
Her mission quickly turns into a failure. The priests of the temple see trough her words and attack. They employ mighty giants and quickly her armies of skeletons are crushed into dust.
Fortunately, her new ally the aerial servant comes to the rescue. It's made out of air and the giants cannot touch it. Amelyssan casts haste on it—the most powerful mage spell she knows—to make it even deadlier and harder to catch. Her servant single-handedly clears the temple of giants while she rests in the library.
Other than that the people who reside in the temple are humble priests. Those "2-cent acolytes" do not carry arms or armor and fall easily. Amelyssan counts the cents after the battle and discovers that she has slain eleven of them. Bhaal should be pleased, hopefully.
He isn't pleased though. Yet again a priest of a rival faith surprises her and steals the scrying stone. This time it's a priest of Talona.
Amelyssan gains no cleric levels after this mission whatsoever but she is now a mage level 12. She learns Skull Trap and Ghost Armor during her stay in the temple library.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Dragon's Eye]
On the way to the talonite hideout in the mountains Amelyssan is ambushed by ice trolls. She learns the hard way that in Icewind Dale ice trumps wind when the aerial servant is destroyed in a matter of seconds. Good thing she leads an army of skeletons as well because on entering the mountain cave she is immediately swarmed from all sides.
Unlike the frigid mountain side this place is warm and attracts all kind of creatures that creep, crawl, slither and in some cases walk. She's been neglecting her studies in magic and now she finds that her few fire based spells are no match for an army of trolls who can only be defeated by flames. For some reason those trolls can't hurt the aerial servants but sword spiders can. It seems their blades are so sharp they can cut air. Fortunately, there's always a barricade of troll bodies between the spiders and the cleric.
She finds the talonites soon enough as well as their prisoners. She meets a dying cleric of Ilmater who calls herself mother Egenia. There are a lot of Kuldahar villagers there. It's almost a small village. Amelyssan introduces herself as mother Mel and assures them she is there to help.
Bhaal is pleased with her slaying the talonites and grants her access to the most powerful spells of his church. He also sends another aerial servant from the halls of Yan-C-Bin to aid her. She vows to sweep the caverns and find the elusive scrying stone.
On the next morning "mother Mel" says goodbye to the villagers and continues on her journey deeper into the dungeons. With two servants at her command and an army of skeletons she is unstoppable. Next she faces a huge skeleton carrying two bastard swords like daggers. It speaks in a female voice and leads a horde of undead who can only be hurt by magical weapons. Amelyssan doesn't bother swinging her hammer though. She simply sends one of her servants against them and walks on.
The next horde is even bigger. She sends the second servant against them and continues onward on her mission blasting skeletons left and right with her wand of magic missiles.
At some point the rival necromancer offers to meet her in a duel to decide which one has better mastery of the "arts". The two women face each other and when the fight starts immediately cheat. Presio summons skeletons and so does Amelyssan.
When the necromancer falls all hell breaks loose. The crowd of mindless zombies turns hostile. Another woman appears and starts hurling spells and another man runs out of Presio's tent and attacks.
Presio's room contains the most disturbing collection of items. Besides the three human skulls in her drawer the priestess also finds a bottle of wine and a scroll of confusion. All of the treasure chests are heavily trapped. What's that about?
Amelyssan catches a glimpse of a fourth human who slips into a suspicious stone doorway. It looks like a little girl. She prepares for battle and follows her inside.
[/spoiler]
Maybe you should put screenshots in spoilers but post the text without using spoiler tags. This is a common practice on this forum when it comes to posting your playthrough, so maybe you should also use it.
I've noticed that I always open the spoiler tags anyway so I wanted to minimize the amount of clicking required.
Speaking of images, how do you upload images without them appearing as attachments below the post?
Regarding images, upload it, click 'add image' and then once the image code is added into your post click 'delete image'.
The priestess finds herself in a temple. She recognizes the holy symbol on the walls as the soundless waterfall of Eldath. Amelyssan and Albion—the priest who greets her—spend some time convincing each other that they are clerics of Tempus and Eldath respectively. Their two churches are supposedly in opposition to each other—one being militant and the other pacifist—but the eldathyns welcome her warmly. A priestess called Sharra heals her and offers her a place to rest and she buys all the spells of Geelo the librarian. Strangely almost all of them are offensive spells. The moment Geelo and Albion show their true intentions she curses Albion with a withering curse.
[spoiler=Geelo and Albion]
[/spoiler]
Suddenly all eldathyns start behaving strangely as if they are trying to imitate the movements of a snake and become translucent like chameleons. They are unarmed but somehow conjure real poison out of their fingers. Somebody sends more hostile trolls from the depths of the temple. It turns out to be a Yuan-Ti priest that summons them. Amelyssan liberates his summoning staff. Its long reach will be of use when fighting enemies from behind a wall of undead soldiers (and she just got promoted to cleric level 16 for killing Albion).
The holy symbols deeper into the temple are not familiar to the priestess but the statues suggest that the snake people might be worshiping a marilith.
[spoiler=Inner sanctum]
[/spoiler]
She once again finds the odd little girl at the beginning of a long winding corridor. Amelyssan really hates children.
[spoiler=Sidereal translations spell out chaotic events in your future]
Beware.
[/spoiler]
This place is the barracks of a Yuan-Ti force. Presio's confusion spell quickly turns them against each other.
[spoiler=Presio's spell]
[/spoiler]
There are some zombie-like creatures about but when she encounters the "baptizing" chamber of the Yuan-Ti she realizes those are humans transformed into grotesque shapes. She performs some more experiments on them by casting Slay Living and Wither spells just to make sure. The not yet transformed patients thank her and quickly leave.
[spoiler=Test 1]
[/spoiler]
Finally Amelyssan arrives at a treasure room. The creepy little girl is there alone and recites some more bad poetry. She introduces herself as Yxunomei—a soldier. It is a trap. This is the lair of the marilith and the door closes behind them. The only other doorway leads to another part of the underground complex which turns out to be a dead end. Still a doorway offers enough strategic advantage to hold the marilith and her companions at bay.
[spoiler=NSFW]
[/spoiler]
After the battle Amelyssan finds the scrying stone and more precious gems in the treasury. She discovers that the villagers have managed to escape and have already left for Kuldahar. The aerial servant takes the scrying stone and flies away with it as is the will of her god and of its master Yan-C-Bin. She keeps the rest of the treasure for herself.
When she arrives in Kuldahar she finds the villagers fighting against an invasion. They welcome her as mother Mel and protect her from the monsters. Unprepared she still has a few skeletons left but no aerial servants. One of the people in the village she has never met before. He knows of her from a vision. This must be the man of the north she was expecting. He casts a spell and they start floating up above the battlefield and into the clouds.
[spoiler=Bye, Arundel]
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Neigh, aye?]
[/spoiler]
Her god The Lord of Murder has sent her as a missionary among the barbarians, hoping to convert those bloodthirsty savages away from the church of Tempos into Bhaalism. This doesn't look easy since the barbarians are more united than ever under the rule of Wylfdene—an immortal hero of legend. Her god says that if this Wylfdene is to be converted he would be the perfect candidate to "give birth" to a child of Bhaal, figuratively speaking of course. She met the king briefly and it didn't go well.
[spoiler=Mel is evil]
\spoiler
[/spoiler]
Melissan is blackmailing yet another innkeeper who used to be a powerful mage. He's helping her with her magical studies as well so she doesn't have to rely on Bhaal's powers on every turn. She hasn't slain anyone in many days and all that talk about converting barbarian women and taking care of their children does not sound appealing at all. She is considering leaving the Icewind Dale for some place where her talents might be more useful to the church. Unfortunately the man of the north who brought her here has recently lost the favor of this tribe and is exiled on some graveyard island.
[spoiler=Heya, it's you, Melissan]
[/spoiler]
She uses her magic to create clones of herself to help her search the island faster and fight the undead. Her last simulacrum wanders off when she tries to convince her to try a piece of armor they found. The monsters on the island are really tough. She tries summoning water elementals but they turn out to be ineffective against the bloated corpses of the drowning dead.
[spoiler=Drowning Dead]
[/spoiler]
After trying many new spells and failing to destroy the undead who rise again and again Amelyssan casts sanctuary on herself and sneaks around them to the surface. There she finds Hjollder the wind walker. He has also expended his spells or simply refuses to use them to leave his exile. She spends the night in prayer on the island. She senses that she has failed her god by relying too much on wizard spells where a simple sanctuary has proven way more effective. The priestess shields herself again and tries to return the way she came. On her way back she encounters the grave of Wylfdene himself. It is guarded by the spirits of the virgins sacrificed at his funeral. They sense that she like them has failed her Lord. They ignore her divine protections and attack.
[spoiler=Wailing Virgins]
[/spoiler]
Amelyssan runs back to the surface in terror and the specters follow her. They push her back to the edge of a small pier. She's not ready to become one of the drowning dead yet. Some of the skeletons buried on the island rise to defend her and block the advance of the wailing virgins. Bhaal has not forsaken her yet.
[spoiler=Hjollder's camp]
[/spoiler]
Hjollder sees and hears everything and realizes that the graveyard has been defiled by some evil magic. He flies off again and Amelyssan tries to follow him by teleporting trough the body of water back on the main island where hungry undead are waiting for her and runs as fast as her magic allows back to her boat. The monsters don't chase after her.
[spoiler=Leap of faith]
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Edion's visitor's]
Surprise!
Alright, took care of th... what?
[/spoiler]
There's still no progress in converting the barbarians. With Hjollder disgraced and Wylfdene unwilling to side with her she seeks out another shaman in the region. Amelyssan travels to the frozen peaks of the Gloomfrost to meet her. This time she doesn't travel alone. She leads an army of undead, kobolds, elementals and even orges. No one from Lonelywood accompanies her. If a human presence is required she delegates it to a simulacrum of herself.
[spoiler=Mellisan's Army]
[/spoiler]
By the time she reaches the hermit's cave only few of her servants remain. Most of them fall in battles with trolls, ice salamanders and frost giants. Others desert. Her last enemy is a frost giant wielding a battle axe. She casts a slaying spell on him just as he decapitates her last servant.
[spoiler=The last frost giant]
[/spoiler]
Exhausted from days of traveling and battles Amelyssan decides not to push her luck anymore. She sets camp a good distance away from the ominous cave.
[spoiler=Goodnight]
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Yeti Summons]
[/spoiler]
She meets a blind dwarven blacksmith with a beard of icicles. He forges a few items for her out of pure ice. Among them is a mirror which unlocks the hideout of the Gloomfrost seer. While he works Amelyssan defends the forge.
[spoiler=Tiernon's Forge]
[/spoiler]
The next level of the caverns is completely dead. Nothing dwells here. Not even ice trolls. The perfectly polished tunnels only present the priestess with endless reflections of herself. The only guardians of this place are large humanoid statues also made of ice. They have no faces, just more reflections. Amelyssan wonders if it was Tiernon the blind dwarf who sculpted the faceless states in his forge.
[spoiler=Lifeless Level]
[/spoiler]
At last she finds the seer. She's an old barbarian woman wearing a cloak of human hair. According to the flying man Hjollder this is the woman who sacrificed the girls whose ghosts they fought against on the Burial Isle. Even Bhaal is not pleased with such deeds. He wants mothers of barbarian warriors not self-destruction.
The seer is expecting Amelyssan. She can see trough the eyes of all women so the priestess has no secrets from her. The old shaman tells her of the many women she will meet on her travels. She also tells her that she has been hiding from Amelyssan because she has foreseen that a priestess of Bhaal is going to murder her. The priestess casts a slaying spell on the seer and the body of the frail old woman explodes. An apparition of an icy blue rose appears above her corpse.
[spoiler=Rose of Cryonax]
[/spoiler]
A few days later Amelyssan appears before the halls of Hengorot dressed as a barbarian shaman and insists to speak with Wylfdene. Her body is completely wrapped in the cloak of human hair which used to be the old woman's only garment. She is also prominently carrying the tribal insignia she found on Wylfdene's grave so the barbarians have to let her pass.
[spoiler=Amelis the Seer]
[/spoiler]
Wylfdene recognizes her and starts speaking about disrespecting their culture but Amelyssan exorcises the spirit inhabiting his body by showing it his reflection. With Wylfdene destroyed the barbarian alliance is broken and a battle breaks out.
[spoiler=The hall explodes]
[/spoiler]
Her invisible servants come out of the shadows and start slaughtering the barbarians indiscriminately. Aerial servants, invisible stalkers and air elementals among others spread chaos on the battlefield. Even tornados come out of nowhere. She dedicates this victory to her lifelong supporter and benefactor—the lord of the air Yan-C-Bin.
[spoiler=Tornado]
[/spoiler]
None that have known Wylfdene survive. That is the will of Bhaal. After two full tendays of slaying no humans his bloodlust is properly sated. Well, technically, there was the old woman a few days ago but her last victim before that was Sharra the Healer—an eldathyn who didn't even retaliate.
[spoiler=More Carnage]
[/spoiler]
While Amalyssan's minions slaughter helpless barbarians at the camp square she encounters a lone shaman before the halls of Hengorot. He starts casting a spell at her and she recognizes the words of a slaying curse. She immediately utters a counter curse and interrupts him thanks to her superior casting speed. They exchange spells exactly three times. After the third exchange her opponent falls dead and an icy rose appears above his body.
[spoiler=Rose of Cryonax 2]
[/spoiler]
After the carnage Amelyssan is promoted to the highest possible rank in her class and is now Cleric/Mage level 30. Though with the barbarian alliance broken her holy mission in the north has only just begun...
The end?