Icewind dale party returned to get more ammo. They then returned to the Dragon's eye.
My paladin saw through the disguise of the priests there with the result that there was a major battle. Ther party were quite successfu7l at first, killing many of the enemy, but eventually they had to retreat having used most of their potions. EDIT
The party attempted sleeping, but were attacked by cold wights. This was beneficial in that they gained much experience, but Guy Hardwick, the paladin was reduced to 11 HP whereupon they decided to go somewhere safer to rest. After 16 hours of rest they felt ready to return to the fray.
8 NIGHTAL 1368: Silas, a servant & Lorekeeper of Oghma, to posterity, presents greetings.
It may be awhile before this page of parchment is seen. I sit in a small 12’x15’ cabinet room beneath Candlekeep – one I didn’t know existed until I was teleported here by Tethtoril after having been arrested by Ultruant for the murders of the leaders of the IT. The only way out appears to be through catacombs I also didn’t know existed. But I digress.
After meeting with Duke Eltan regarding the corruption of the IT & my defeat of Rieltar’s underlings there, he asked me to return to Candlekeep & spy upon the leaders of the IT that were meeting Knights of the Shield there. He teleported me from Baldur’s Gate on my acquiescence. I almost didn’t feel like I knew the place. Faces were familiar, but things have changed so much, even familiar faces are like strangers now. My first visit was to The Temple of Oghma where I made a long overdue donation to my lord of all knowledge of 5700gp. After that, I went directly to the Candlekeep Inn & took rooms. Other than an almost touching scene when Imoen & Winthrop saw each other, I had no interest in reacquaintances. Reevor was there but I didn't feel the need to speak.
After spending a few hours resting & in prayer, I gathered my followers & went to the keep without any further contact. Once there I was unavoidably detained a couple of times for conversation but I have a mission & I don’t feel the need to tarry. My feelings for Candlekeep are no longer fond ones, but there was a sense of urgency about moving the IT as far from here as possible which I don’t understand but it is what it is. I saw Tethtoril, Ultruant & various others, including Sarevok who I didn’t know & was using the name Koveras. It wasn’t until after the arrest when I was speaking to Tethtoril that I realized who he was.
KEY EVENT: (Battle of Candlekeep) Shortly after meeting Koveras, I found the Rieltar & the Knights of the Shield meeting in a back room on the 3rd floor of the library. The room that they were in is a very large room, 90’x30’ w/three large tables with oil lamps & chairs parallel to the longer wall from whence you enter. There are five bookcases against the far wall, two covered to offer a measure of privacy. The back wall is lined with several lampstands for extra lighting. The room is designed for reading, study, & meditation. Gatherings of this type are rare here, but not uncommon, however, they are usually scholarly in nature.
Rieltar challenged me for disturbing his meeting & insulted me all in the same breath. I told him in no uncertain terms who I was & challenged him to ‘draw steel.’ Maybe my temper is overtaking my wisdom, but I’d said what I said & the battle was on. Immediately, I called for offensive action. Khalid tossed an Oil of Fiery Burning right @ Rieltar & then pulled out of the room & spread out in the one beyond. I heard myself-saying, “Be careful. I don’t want any innocents hurt in this.” Neera cast Web through the doorway & then I called everyone to stay back & look for targets of opportunity. The first two were Knights of the Shield who were intermittently able to get loose of the webbing. As they drew nearer to us, they also became easy targets. The man in the enchanted Chain Mail got loose a time or two but he was never really a threat to any of us. I used both Command & Wand of the Heavens to pound both mercilessly. Imoen & Khalid were busy w/their bows wounding them & Minsc was smashing heads until they were both dead. Then I moved forward, using the Ring of Free Action to view the room beyond. Both Rieltar & a Rogue of some type were still tangled in the web. Faldorn tried to come forward but only managed to use her Summon Dread Wolf before the webbing tangled her as well. I used Wand of the Heavens on both as Minsc tore through the door beside me & ripped into them w/Spider’s Bane. It was over.
ONE TO GO
After the webs subsided, I had my retinue gather the bounty & we began to depart, when one of Watchers challenged me. I was accused of murder & while that is not the appropriate term, I killed them. I don’t really care about the IT or their activities, except that it tilts the balance in a way that might be dangerous to the protection of knowledge over an extended period. Whatever the case, I accepted arrest & was jailed at Candlekeep w/my followers. Ultruant is a fraud & as corrupt as the IT – if he’s not in league with them. Whatever the case, I’m fortunate to have Tethtoril as an ally.
The Catacombs are beyond this door. No one has ventured out except to drop trou. It’s time I made my way out of here.
Nearly all skill points to date had gone into locks and setting and finding traps. However, it was still possible to stealth past most of the kobolds in the Nashkel Mine to find Mulahey. I was prepared to use items if necessary there, to be in line with my 'better safe than sorry' approach this time. However, checking on a backstab I found Mulahey had been taken down to 2 HPs, so a LMD could finish him off.
I had no area damage available to quickly kill the amazons, but took the safe option there as well by stealth-shooting the first 3 of them before finishing with a backstab.
Back-up traps were put in place for Nimbul - but not needed. The same was true for Tranzig as well to open up access to the Bandit Camp.
Arriving there I quickly worked through some bandits before Taurgosz spotted me going into a tent - and didn't consider the problems associated with chasing a backstabber.
Inside Tazok's tent, traps killed Hakt and Britik, while Venkt was severely wounded and finished with LMD. Raemon thought he had escaped traps - until he followed me outside.
Reporting back to Officer Vai in Beregost took my reputation to 20, so I stocked up with equipment at that point. That included the Greenstone Amulet, which I actually made use of for once when tanking the sirines at the Lighthouse.
The golems then fell to stealth attacks.
I couldn't resist beating up the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower on the way to pick up the tome. I also took out the basilisks, using a green PfP scroll rather than trying anything fancy with traps or stealth.
Before going to the Cloakwood I killed an innocent and robbed a house in Beregost to reduce reputation to 9. I picked up the invulnerability potion from Laskal, but otherwise skipped everything on the way to the Cloakwood mine. Drasus' friends were charmed and drawn away for disposal before Drasus himself ran into some traps.
Contrary to my normal approach I didn't put on the boots of speed - partly because stealth is so poor without Worn Whispers and partly to reduce the chance of forgetting I was not protected by free action. After limited action on the way through the mine, the battle horrors were drawn back for some backstabbing around a wall.
Davaeorn's mirrors protected him from a backstab, but didn't do quite enough to save him from 7 traps laid at his first teleport destination.
After resting to get horror, I flooded the mine and headed for the City. Reputation was pushed back up to 20 for more shopping, while traps and stealth were used extensively to stay safe - for instance at the Iron Throne the roof allowed easy recharging for traps and Zhalimar's companions fell one by one until he was left without protection.
Back at Candlekeep there was an error in setting traps for Prat. The intention was to stay out of his sight while laying them in sight of the whole party. There's very little margin for error in doing that there and Prat spotted me laying the fourth trap - that was still enough to kill Bor and Sakul though and the others were cut down before they could do anything.
In the City once more, some pre-laid traps only wounded Krystin before Slythe failed to penetrate the full plate armor donned before talking to him. After waiting out Krystin's mirrors, she was hacked down without completing either of the 2 spells tried.
At the Palace I didn't go to the extreme of charming the dopplegangers, but did pre-lay traps that killed one of them. Potion buffs meant the others didn't last long and Liia and Belt both comfortably survived.
In the Undercity more 'round the corner' traps killed the party there.
Finally, sticking to the playing safe theme, a different sort of trap killed Sarevok's companions.
He was badly wounded and could have been finished off in the same way - but a single backstab did the job.
I'd amassed almost 400k XP in BG1, so was able to level up immediately in SoD.
With loads of resources taken into that game and money being no object, it ought to be possible to zip through there easily enough.
As usual in the SoD prologue, Porios was forced to surrender. I used PfU to avoid any problems with the undead going through and a single charge from the ring of energy was enough for Korlasz to give in.
I failed to finish him off there though, so completed the job when doing the quest for the Battle Tankard.
Selling equipment generated 108k gold, which is more than enough for the rest of the game, so there was no need for any more stealing.
After leaving the City the first port of call was the Coast Way Forest. A potion of invulnerability provided protection against spells there, while firebreath was used to finish off Isabella once it looked like she might threaten Tsolak.
Back at the Coast Way Crossing, I hid behind the tent as usual to avoid the fight at the bridge. Skipping everything on the way to the Forest of Wyrms, I stealthed through to find Ziatar and dealt with him through a combination of backstab and pre-laid traps.
Having suffered at the hands of the Neothelid recently, I took a potion of magic shielding before tackling it this time. That resulted in it staying underground while summoning lots of mordy swords, but after 4 of those were stranded outside the room, the Neothelid finally made itself vulnerable.
The Shadow Aspect was more trouble than I expected - it got lucky with both attack and defense and I had to use 2 potions of invisibility and a further one each of regeneration and speed to those started against the Neothelid before finally striking it down.
However, pre-laid traps ensured an easy time against Darskhelin - I also hit the XP cap there.
Akanna's aerial servants were backstabbed before a potion of stone form defended against her greater command.
My experience has been that Morentherene doesn't wake up when attacked on the way out (if you don't buff in the cave) and a 4th thrown dagger struck home.
At Boareskyre Bridge I fumbled a backstab on Vichand, but pre-laid traps helped cut him down anyway before he could buff.
Shortly afterwards I surrendered the fort and confronted the mage on the bridge. I've found that horror, confusion and area damage can all resulted in the barrels being destroyed there, but the ring of energy has always been a reliable way to take down the mage before he can complete his spells - and that performed as expected this time.
At the Coalition Camp I picked up the Bwoosh and some poison as well as a couple of choice items from Nazramu. I don't normally bother with the lucky boots, but did go to find a bear and get them made this time just in case I wanted to be able to boost saving throws without using consumables. I quickly rescued Skie at Dragonspear before heading to the Underground River. A potion of invulnerability protected against myconid spores and spider webs there before a backstab and firebreath persuaded the cyclops to hand over an entry token.
A quick retreat than allowed me to stealth past all the guards into the underground.
After placing the Bwoosh I talked my way into the Warrens and poisoned the food and water before showing myself to the guards to reopen the lift.
Going invisible again I ran all the way back to the Coalition Camp. Enemy forces were attacking there, but I had plenty of options to deal with them. Exploding arrows did the hard work against the trolls, while traps killed most of the mages in the second wave.
Traps also softened up the third wave for a quick exploding finish and I didn't worry about killing the Coalition Spies while exploding the final group.
At the castle I used a PfM scroll before going to find Ashatiel. I stayed at range with him and he failed to get any of the criticals he needed before disappearing into sanctuary - which was rendered useless by the ring of energy.
Inside the castle I chased after Caelar and ignored Ilaruel in the first area. I couldn't be bothered to ensure that the ring of energy damage hit the hamatula far enough away and took lots of barbed defense damage as a result without ever actually being threatened.
With that combat over Thrix presented me with a long sword and free passage in a lift. I buffed while going up that, including using lots of potions of heroism which I don't normally bother with. A few potions of power were added for the fight with Belhifet. I was hitting him with a 10 or 11 with the main hand and he couldn't stand that for long - so I didn't even need to make use of any restoration scrolls.
Unfortunately the game crashed during the epilogue and there was no autosave since going up in the lift. The second time round Belhifet did marginally better - killing Caelar, but still not getting my HPs down below 100.
I was then able to complete the epilogue and remembered to take the pantaloons out of the bag of holding - that ensured they would transfer to BG2, where I've just picked them up.
Croll the Cruel may have committed one-too-many heinous acts. After:
stealing the Dudley family necklace
murdering Kolssed (the unhelpful merchant)
cutting down Pallonia (the useless seer)
killing Roger (the wayward messenger)
taking out both a child priestess and the fishermen who stole her bowl, and
letting spirit serpents feed on both Silke and the gem thieves she betrayed;
the Flaming Fist caught on and sent enforcers to end Croll's reign of terror.
The Flaming Fist proved incapable of defeating Croll, especially with the help of his cruel new friends (Dorn, Viconia, Montaron, Xzar and Baeloth). But when they stopped in to Ulgoth's Beard to do some shopping, a powerful mage spotted them. "Shandalar," he called himself. Correctly identifying Croll as a danger to the town, the mage decided to do what the Flaming Fist could not: He teleported the party, without giving them a choice in the matter, to an icy island somewhere far from the Sword Coast.
Will Croll survive to get revenge on Shandalar? Or will he be stranded in this cold wasteland forever? Tune in next week to find out.
(Editorial note: I did not realize that poor reputation triggered the Ice Island quest. If I had, I probably wouldn't have visited Ulgoth's Beard... I can't remember the last time I tried to complete this section of the game, and I don't think I've ever done it in a no-reload context. Haha, this game always offers new surprises!)
@Grond0 Congrats on reaching the next stage. @Blind_Visionary There are different ways of being sent there involuntarilly. It is not usually a problem, but it is best to be stocked up before you go.
I've made a solid start to BG2:
- in the dungeon, I picked up Ulvaryl's XP on the way out.
- Officer Dirth handed over some full plate.
- I rather carelessly triggered the Suna Seni ambush without any traps available, but after the mage was backstabbed (hitting with a die roll of 2 using a non-proficient weapon) the others couldn't handle a plated warrior.
- bought some thieving potions and stocked up on stolen equipment.
- on the way to Watcher's Keep saved Renfeld and took a detour to drop him off. Eventually arriving, I bought Firetooth and the potion bag. There were no vampiric wraiths there, so I was also able to clear the top level - picking up my 12th thief and 10th fighter levels in the process as well as the nice Usuno's Blade as a proficient melee weapon.
- used a PfU scroll to clear the Upper Graveyard and traps and stealth underground (picking up Kitthix there). The orog ambush then got me a 13th thief level.
- with stealth now becoming much more reliable, that was used to deal with Prebek & Sanasha before the Harper HQ was robbed (more for the XP from traps and locks than the loot).
- more thief XP from the guilds meant that stealing a necklace from the Temple of Talos was enough for an 11th fighter level.
- Rayic's buffs protected him from initial trap damage, but not the ongoing poison. With the remaining tasks out of the way, Mae'Var failed to see his doom coming.
- reporting back to Renal was enough for another thief level. In clicking through the responses there I also found I'd inadvertently accepted the thief guild. I think it will be managed by an absentee landlord ...
- at the Bridge District, the berserk warrior was added to the available summons, Dracandros and Captain Dennis were led into traps, the kidnappers provided a further pair of pantaloons and the skinner murders were solved (reporting to Lt Aegisfield was enough for fighter level 12).
- in the Slums the Copper Coronet was no problem and I went on to use traps and stealth to take down the slaver ship, getting a 15th thief level as a result and putting points into detect illusion now that my stealth is pretty reliable in dark areas.
- at this point I went to take on Mencar and his friends. My normal routine there is to disable Brennan Riesling to ensure he couldn't get away and I tried to get Kitthix out for the first time to do that - only to find I didn't have him . I'm not sure if I failed to pick him up initially or lost him somewhere along the way. However, a round the corner trap dragged Brennan into more traps and a backstab ensured he wouldn't be running anywhere.
- by this time all the vampire ambushes had triggered, so I paid off Gaelen Bayle and picked up the goodies from Aran Linvail. A potion of invisibility avoided any chance of Lassal charming me, while the Guild Contact was no threat. Before dealing with the host of vampires in the Graveyard though I'll be doing a bit more work in the City and improving my saving throws.
F12/T15, 107 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 382 kills (532 in BG1)
Leaving most of my party the other side of two doors, my paladin used a potion of invisibility and killed off the allies of Yxunomei. (All but two) They positioned themselves next to the door which was locked. The paladin killed two of them, Yxunomei summoned some skeletons and a zomnie. The Paladin moved away, killed them, used healing potions and went for Yxunomei with his bow and arrows. Occasionally Yxunomei landed a blow (Should have used oil of speed perhaps) but eventually paladin won. Party rested and will now go to Kuldahar after I have rested.
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3
I took a break from BG to do an Irregulator playthrough of Dark Souls III. I happened to obtain the Profaned Greatsword from Pontiff Sulyvahn which had inconceivably high Strength scaling, so much so that it let me kill bosses in two or three hits with its weapon art, trivializing the entire game. I didn't finish the playthrough.
Last time I left off, I had just finished Watcher's Keep 4 and decided to leave for Spellhold to get Yin some Boots of Speed. The shadow thieves' tasks are completed forthwith. Bodhi and Irenicus are beaten, Saemon is imprisoned.
In the Underdark, a planetar, the Nightwalker, and our Perfect Clay golem exterminate the beholder hive. The golem is destroyed by a 3x Lower Resistance spell trigger followed by Power Word Kill...which is weird because I thought golems were supposed to be immune to death magic.
The Nightwalker crushes all competition in every area of the underdark. Drow busywork is completed. Deirex is on the receiving end of many anti-magical attacks through aura cleansing and is stymied utterly by Power Word Silence from Yang. A combo of Shar's Blessing and Shadow Blade cause a painful end for the lich. With these two spells and his frost giant belt, Yin's strength surges to 25, his THAC0 plummets to -15, and he gains 6 attacks/round, making him more capable than most fighters!
-Shadow Blade (lv.5): For 2 turns, creates a magical longsword that gets more powerful every 7 caster levels after level 9, up to level 30. Yin's Shadow Blade has the following properties:
Shadow Blade +6:
+6 THAC0
1d8+6 slashing, +6 cold
20% chance to inflict Essense Drain on hit
10% chance to inflict Shadow Binding on hit
10% chance to inflict Nightshade on hit
2% chance to inflict Death Mark on hit
+1 attack/round
100% cold resistance
Wielded with Grandmastery
We are totally exterminating the city of Ust Natha again. Yin levels up early on.
After a few rounds, things get quite a bit more intense as the drow rally their forces. Both sorcerers use aura cleansing and call in their HLA summons, start using their short-term buffs, and throw out some debuffs. Merciless Blizzard helps greatly to slow and confine the drow army.
After the aura cleansing subsides, both sorcerers go invisible for a while while their summons clean up. The waves that replace this current wave start piling on the pressure, and thanks to Merciless Blizzard, the HLA summons are soon killed. Drow priestesses start casting True Sight, revealing Yin, though Yang counters with SI: Divination. Yang casts Wish a couple of times but only gets 18 STR in 30' radius and Improved Haste on all party members. Yin activates his multi-shadow spell sequencer.
This buys a bit of time but it just isn't enough. The wraiths are easily culled. The pressure is mounting... Yin has to maintain PfWfW constantly because it is a bad idea to rely on Shadeskin alone to stop physical attacks when there are this many drow, but it lasts longer than usual because of his WIS-based spell duration bonus. Another Nightwalker is summoned and Matron Mother Ellaviir makes her appearance along with her demonic entourage who gate in more demons.
This is looking dicey. Yin casts Relentless Assault again and casts Annulment, then summons his Shadow Double. Now that Yin is pretty high level, his clone has access to 8th level spells which should make him quite helpful. Shadow-Yin casts PfWfW as his first action to keep him from dying instantly. Yin enters melee mode with Shar's Blessing and Shadow Blade since he only has one 9th level spell left. Yang also only has one 9th level spell remaining and opts to use a scroll of Horrid Wilting instead. Both Yins cast Merciless Blizzard, snaring most of the drow in them.
Horrid Wilting finishes off the weakened drow and Yin goes ballistic with his Shadow Blade. Yang goes invisible with a potion since there's not much else he can contribute. Yin and the Nightwalker tear through the drow but they are replaced as quickly as they fall. Shadow-Yin keeps summoning wraiths and devil shades when left to his own devices, though he is eventually killed due to a lack of a self-preservation instinct in his AI.
Another Nightwalker is killed by the drow, so Yin uses his last 9th level spell to summon one more. The drow's numbers are finally falling so it is relatively safe for Yin to not cast PfWfW. The second matron mother Finadryl is killed. Shadow Blade is pretty awesome.
Soon, all the drow are wiped out. Ust Natha is no more. Every single area is now devoid of life except for the sorcerers. The dog that I spared last time was caught in a Wish-induced Horrid Wilting in the tavern.
Also, I traded Adalon's eggs to the demon lord for Blackmist +4. She was not happy, but squirrelification shut her up pretty fast.
We're finally out of the Underdark. Ribald has an extremely powerful shadow magic staff for sale in his special shop. This is now Yin's main weapon. I think it's the same staff that Kryn Darkflame wields since it shares the exact same silver and purple colors.
On the way to Cromwell to forge several items, another regular incident with the local constabulary provides Shar the last of the 50 sacrifices needed to gain her favor via Nightsinger's Tithe. Yin's casting speed is now -7 while buffed with a Potion of Mind Focusing (-5 from 25 INT, -1 from Amulet of Power, -1 from Nightsinger's Boon).
Bodhi and Venduris stand no chance. Just have to toss a Merciless Blizzard and Incendiary Cloud into Bodhi's room while under (Twin) Mislead and it should be easy as that. A Nightwalker should make a feast out of Venduris while aura cleansing will dismantle his goons.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 35
Yang - Dragon Disciple 35
21 NIGHTAL 1368: Silas, a servant & Lorekeeper of Oghma, to posterity, presents greetings.
I’ve freed myself from the Candlekeep Catacombs, those that I never knew existed until 10 days ago despite living in Candlekeep for as long as I recall. The whole area had been sealed off from the public & very few would have had the means of accessing the place regardless. Evidently, the Catacombs once served as a peaceful resting place for the fallen of Candlekeep, but the crypts had been overrun w/ undead, spiders, & more recently, w/ Doppelgangers. To be certain, the architecture here is splendid, yet there wasn’t anything in the library that would have suggested this. Beyond the maze of crypts that were undoubtedly for those who were deemed more important residents of the keep, was a grand mausoleum 150’x80’ running east to west as you entered from the SE corner. In the center was an ornate 100’x40’ central area marked off by columns @ 10’ apart, & again in thirds w/ columns down the center running perpendicular. Evidently this was the place common folk were laid because the hall had six 20’x20’ rooms off it, three on each side that folks were probably just laid without much thought beyond whatever grief came from their demise. At the center on the far west end of the hall, up three large steps, was a 20’x10’ hallway that led 40’ to the east, then south 100’ (w/ three more 20’x20’ rooms on either side), then back west another 40’ & finally, into a network of caves that eventually empty out on the south side of Candlekeep. This whole area, unlike the central crypts, was filled w/ Skeletons or Doppelgangers, (more recent arrivals I think). Just about everyone I had known growing up had the face of a Doppelganger down here. Interestingly, I think Arkanis & Deder were there to help me, but I turned them away.
The central crypts were inhabited, by & large, by Ghasts & Phase Spiders. I garnered much bounty in the crypts.
I was very strict here, especially once I realized that every step could be my last.
Order of march throughout: Khalid & Imoen (reconnaissance), Minsc, Me, Neera, Faldorn (rear guard).
On rest: Ground only helms, belts, bracers (enchanted items must stay in place)
KEY EVENT: (Minsc to Rubble) The caves proved deadly. After a particularly difficult & protracted battle w/two knights (in Plate Mail) & two mages, which could easily have been my end, Minsc was petrified by a Greater Basilisk (actually two). Khalid had scouted them, so I knew they were there. Easy enough though. I directed Minsc to use a Potion of Mirrored Eyes, which I took out of my Potion Case, & handed to him. I held everyone back & let him go, thinking it wouldn’t take more that a minute. Instead, after a few grunts & the telltale sign of Spiders Bane cutting into flesh, suddenly there were no sounds. After a couple of minutes, I motioned Khalid forward using Stealth, only to have him return & tell me not only that Minsc was petrified (which I could have reversed w/ a Stone to Flesh scroll), but that the Basilisk had evidently shattered him as well. He was a dolt, but he was a bruiser. I’m gonna miss that sword. I guess he got so excited by the prospect of the fight that he forgot to use the potion as soon as I handed it to him – it was still in his belt. Eventually, Faldorn cast Summon Dread Wolf & I Animated Dead. We let them go forward, & they did the trick. A couple of more spiders & another of Sarevok’s knights (in Splint Mail) & we were standing on the south side of the keep. Once we’d found the tunnel out, I had everyone return to the cabinet room where we’d first started to collect up what loot could be carried. My first stop was to see Thalantyr @ High Hedge, then to Taerom Fuiruim @ the Thunderhammer. While visiting Thalantyr, I purchased a Fragment of Enlightenment, very nice.
MINSC, YOU DUNCE!
I am wanted for murder by The Flaming Fist, who answer to the corrupt powers in Baldur’s Gate. I decided to remain in Amn for a while, so I returned to Nashkel. I plan to adventure here in the south & hopefully allow the heat to die down. At any rate, I have no intention of returning to Baldur’s Gate for the foreseeable future. I may just stay south & east of the town for awhile.
I’ve been moving so fast, I haven’t taken the time to soak up all there is to know around me. Knowledge is central to all things, & I intend to begin by spending time seeing, doing, learning. I took some time to visit the Nashkel Carnival. I had to dispose of four Ogre Berserkers & some Kobolds, oh, & one mouthy mage, oh, & a pesky Rogue but I relaxed a bit. Not too much mind you – but a bit. I did enjoy looking @ the wares of the various merchants there. I recruited a warrior maiden, a Battleguard of Tempus, truly an ugly woman, short, stocky & well, yeah. But all she wants to do is fight, so I hope she can makeup for the hole Minsc is leaving, a gaping one both literally & capability wise. Talking to her, I don’t think she carries any non-offensive spells, so, here’s hoping. I bought her a set of Chain +1 (back from Thalantyr), outfitted her w/ a Medium Shield +1 & Gauntlets of Weapons Skill to go w/a Warhammer +1. Well see.
Priests of Talos live by the storm and die by the storm ...
Progress was pretty serene in Athkatla as we grabbed the Helm of Glory and used skeletons to distract the Iron Throne residents from the dwarf chopping their legs off from behind.
Back in Candlekeep, Rek found his saving throw of 1 was insufficient to protect him from phase spider poison, but Storm was close by to slow the poison.
Rek also took a lot of damage when Prat fired a lightning bolt which bounced through his location at least 4 times - despite the bouncing being over a very considerable distance.
There were still no deaths in the run though as we arrived back in Athkatla. Slythe was commanded to die there - and did.
Skeleton hordes then proved sufficient to save both dukes at the palace.
That only left Sarevok as an easy challenge to complete BG1.
Of course, first we had to get there . After beating up a few initial inhabitants of the maze, scrolls of PfU were used to allow us the time and space to carefully bypass the traps in front of the skeleton warriors. Rek went first and carefully triggered a lightning bolt which slammed repeatedly across the corridor - fortunately not where Rek was, but it did badly damage one of the skeletons. Seeing an opportunity there, Storm followed on behind and decided that he would improve on Rek's performance by triggering both another lightning trap and a fireball one. That proved successful from the point of view of quickly killing both skeleton warriors. The collateral damage of killing himself could of course be considered by some as a downside to this particular tactic .
Before going after the vampires I wanted to get saves into negative territory and decided to use the Ring of Gaxx to do that. While scouting out the way to the liches that meant passing through the Temple sewers - acquiring a new cloak from a rakshasa and using traps, backstabs and stealth shots on Tarnor's gang (getting to fighter level 13 with the last of those).
A PfU scroll meant the liches lasted only seconds. There's always a danger that the transformation of Kangaxx himself won't work properly, but this time there were no problems and attacking with Daystar quickly saw the end of the demi-lich despite its attempt to escape by panicking.
Nearly all the time so far, I've been dressed in the Shadow Armor, to benefit from stealth. However, I put on full plate for the vampires to both improve AC and allow the use of the +2 ring to ensure saves against domination. Not using another PfU scroll there did mean I was vulnerable to level drain though, so had to keep potions ready for emergencies - and in fact I had to glug down some clarity against only the second vampire faced.
Arbane provided protection from ghast hold though, so despite a couple of further drains the enemies were all cleared before I used a restoration scroll and rested.
Bodhi was then persuaded to run in the time it took her to shred the berserk warrior.
After doing the Sir Sarles quest, upgrading the MoD and buying some ordinary studded leather for general use (that's just as good for AC as the Shadow Armor anyway, even before accounting for a ring of protection, if wearing the AC3 bracers) I decided to venture out of the City to the Umar Hills. I mis-clicked there on the dialogue option with Madulf, losing the chance to get a magic shield - but that wasn't a significant loss.
I very rarely make use of Ilbratha, but picked that up anyway before going to the Umar Temple. I killed Mazzy there, in case I wanted to make use of her sword - though I don't think that's something I've ever bothered with before.
The liches there were allowed to cast their spells from a distance, though that was another sign of my 'safety first' approach breaking down a bit - I deliberately didn't buff at all against those, although there was a 5% chance of failing a save against symbol fear which could have been a problem if I was unlucky enough). The liches were then hacked down in straight melee, while the greater mummies and support troops got backstabs. Thaxy got poison traps, while Gaxx improved haste was too much for the Shade Lord.
That lot got me a thief and fighter level and my first HLAs.
F14/T17, 111 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 554 kills (532 in BG1)
In the last session I found myself drifting into old habits and starting to take risks for the hell of it. I tried to force myself to play more safely this morning, but that eventually proved to be a losing struggle .
After forging the Shadow Dragon Scale and upgrading the berserk warrior, I returned briefly to Umar to collect Valygar's body to provide entrance to the Planar Sphere. Inside there I did allow Kayardi into close proximity, but was keeping a close eye on him and took a potion of invisibility at one point (just in case he was thinking about maze) before finishing him with a backstab.
Another level each for fighter and thief provided the greater evasion ability and that was activated while going to get a demon heart.
Lavok was struck down while neutral by the berserk warrior. Tolgerias would not be that oblivious to what was going on, so he got a direct attack. He actually did well to survive a backstab and buff up, but his improved mantle wasn't good enough to keep my swords at bay and he only lasted a few seconds longer.
Some plentiful XP for golems helped boost me up with a further thief level.
A quest for the Temple of Lathander and another for the paladins brought a couple more levels.
I decided then it was time to speed things up by going to the Planar Prison. As usual I entered under stealth in order to be able to dispose immediately of the mage and moments later the boots of speed were all mine.
With saving throws all in safe territory against most attacks, clearing the area was pretty simple in principle. However, in the final prison cell I found myself short on HPs after killing everything except a nearly-dead clay golem (that was taking much longer than other enemies as I only had a single non-proficient weapon that could damage it). I had a few options, but decided to use a potion of invisibility and wait to regenerate a bit before finishing it off. Unfortunately, I almost immediately reflexively picked up a replacement potion of invisibility from the floor. I really should have internalized by now that using the quick loot bar in v2.5 breaks invisibility, but I obviously haven't fully done so. I was alerted to my mistake by a sudden blur of movement on the screen, but regrettably the golem had been close to me already and I only slammed the pause button as the fatal fist crunched home ...
Grond0/Gate70 multiplayer attempt 173 (first and only update) (172) Tinhead (male Paladin, Gate70); Fly (female Assassin, Grond0)
Not much to say about this duo other than they whipped around Candlekeep, through Shoal, down to Nashkel to pick up ankheg plate and then explored an ankheg nest. Tinhead promptly broke his two handed sword on the first ankheg, rued the day he'd sold a second one taken from a flind and beat it to death with the trusty but non-proficient quarterstaff.
We made a quick detour to pick on Arghain and relieved him of his two handed sword +1. With the correct weapon at our disposal we returned to the ankheg nest and killed three more. A fourth had other ideas and Tinhead steadily gulped blue potions. Each ankheg hit took a few more hit points than each potion restored so Tinhead took a steady path downwards.
Fly was sniping away, having given up hiding. There may have been a discussion about whether to retreat but Tinhead almost had the ankheg dead. Almost.
30 NIGHTAL 1368: Silas, a servant & Lorekeeper of Ογημα, to posterity, presents greetings.
I spent the better part of the past few days adventuring in the south in the vicinity of the Nashkel Mines. The landscape is rocky with a few small peaks north and west, fading to open more arable soil, covered with grass and cedars to the south-southeast. The northwest corner is dominated by the mine itself. From an adventuring standpoint, there is little of interest here: Xvarts, Wolves & a few stray Kobolds likely lost without Mulahey to give them purpose. There were two Ghasts wandering near a storehouse just east of the mine site – no telling where they came from. I did come across a fugitive artist who’d stolen some Emeralds to complete a sculpture in a cliff wall south of the mine. He was being guarded by a Paladin from the Order of the Ruby Rose (of the goddess Σθναι). This is one of those time when I just let Imoen do her thing, & she elected to help keep watch over the sculptor, Prism, until he was through. In short order, a bounty hunter named Greywolf showed up looking for trouble. We defeated him easily, but the sculptor died in a bittersweet final act – having completed his sculpture. Imoen was a little miffed but, the emeralds were coming with.
KEY EVENT: Leaving the Nashkel Mines, I returned to the Valley of the Tombs which is where I’d originally exited the mines from level 4. This area is extremely rocky, & footing was difficult at times. A loose rock could lead to a rolled ankle at any time. There are low mountain peaks and cliffs dispersed across the entire area. Immediately, I came upon a band of Amazon’s that were looking for me. They challenged & this time Imoen wasn’t as sweet when she told them to, “Bring it.” They were, I think two Warrior/Clerics & two Rogues. I used Command, as did Branwen, which put two of them on the ground quickly. Neera dropped a Fireball from her Wand of Fireballs dead in their midst. Khalid & Imoen did their thing with brutal efficiency. They were all dead so fast, I didn’t have time to make mental notes. Actually, one of the Rogues had gone invisible & popped up behind Neera after I thought the skirmish was through, but she managed to escape unharmed & we descended on & eliminated the threat.
ENTERTAINING
I was dismayed to see Branwen fall when we came upon a mage w/two Mustard Jellies as we were avoiding immediate contact w/three Ghasts we’d just discovered in a tomb. The mage had done something to give the Mustards magic resistance & Imoen got us in a small pinch when her inquisitive, but unrestrained mind and mouth, asked him if he would write down and share his recipe. My retinue dealt with the Ghasts on our flank, but Branwen ended up dead – again not exactly sure what she did. In that respect, she’s acting just like Minsc & costing me gold, but she’s certainly not offsetting that with martial power like he had. Branwen had been tough in her first action, albeit vs Gnolls & Skeletons, so I am sobered to see her fall like this. The skirmish itself was tough, first because initially we had enemies on in front of us and on out flank, and second, because those damned Jellies were almost unkillable. The fact that we are all to the point where every weapon we have is enchanted looks to be a potential problem down the road and I think I will have everyone pick up a standard version of their arms just in case. The mage was a little bit of a challenge, but he went down long before the creatures he’d been experimenting upon.
My last encounter of significance centered around a dagger some Rogue had lifted from another tomb. I had my band of followers swatting some Kobolds when the panicked fool ran up to Faldorn and practically made her take the dagger from him. As he ran off, falling as he went, I decided to see what had him so afraid. We found the tomb in question. It contained an irate undead, a Revenant. I’d read very little about this creature in my time of study, although there was plenty on the more common types of undead like Skeletons, Ghouls, Zombies. He was a tough bird. I usually leave the bulk of the fighting to those who follow me, preferring to cast the timely spell here and there, but on this one I took the kill. They gathered the treasure, & we were done clearing the black.
As an aside, Imoen made me a birthday present a few weeks ago while everything was moving so fast. It’s a necklace made from a pin she says belonged to Gorion. Whatever its origin, that girl could make even the most lawful or chaotic evil creature smile. Ugh.
I & my followers, Khalid, Imoen, Faldorn, Neera & Branwen wish you knowledge in all that you do.
“An idea has no weight, but it can move mountains.” Σιλας
Grond0/Gate70 multiplayer attempt 173 (first and only update) (172) Tinhead (male Paladin, Gate70); Fly (female Assassin, Grond0)
Not much to say about this duo other than they whipped around Candlekeep, through Shoal, down to Nashkel to pick up ankheg plate and then explored an ankheg nest. Tinhead promptly broke his two handed sword on the first ankheg, rued the day he'd sold a second one taken from a flind and beat it to death with the trusty but non-proficient quarterstaff.
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4
The Nightwalker obliterates Bodhi's vampires on the first level. And I do as I said was going to do to Bodhi, minus the (Twin) Mislead: just toss a Merciless Blizzard and Incendiary Cloud into the room and close the door. I've had a really bad time with Bodhi's Cloud of Bats on casters before, so I won't even let her do anything to me this time.
Venduris and co. is next. Yin borrows Yang's Robe of Vecna and Wizzard Hat to ensure instant casting since both sorcerers are completely unbuffed (-4 from Robe of Vecna, -3 from 22 INT, -1 from Amulet of Power, -1 from Wizzard Hat, -1 from Nightsinger's Boon = -10 casting speed). Umbral Stasis is invoked before any of the rogues have a chance to move or do anything at all.
Thanks to the Staff of the Magi, Yang can take this opportunity to buff as well. Yin gives Yang the Amulet of Power and Wizzard Hat so he'll have at least some kind of casting speed boost since he can't return the Robe of Vecna. He moves to the side and readies an Improved Alacrity while Yin waits for his aura to be cleansed to instantly cast Relentless Assault.
Once that is done, he casts Shar's Blessing for double-strength Haste (which Grok also has) and buffs heavily since he can cast everything instantly. Then he moves to the middle of the pack of rogues. Casting spells close to their point of impact will let the spells resolve in the correct order after Umbral Stasis wears off, so Yin moves away from the group of rogues a little bit after casting each of these spells:
Expunge Magic -> Sigil of Misfortune -> Curse -> Dread Silence -> Inertia -> Negastorm -> Shadowblast -> another Negastorm -> Shadow Dragon Breath -> Night Terrors -> Unmask -> Summon Nightwalker.
Yang still isn't finished casting Improved Alacrity by the time Yin finishes this shadow magical onslaught. That's pretty much all the AoE spells that Yin can safely use, so he waits for Yang. Yang finally gets IA off and then buffs with fast-casting but effective buffs, then places a Greater Malison into the middle of the pack of rogues and summons a planetar. When IA and Relentless Assault are almost expired, the sorcerers buff with PFMW/PfWfW and await the carnage. Yang starts casting another Improved Alacrity to help offensively now that he is adequately buffed. Yin's Relentless Assault is still active due to his WIS-based duration bonus.
Notice Venduris takes far less elemental damage due to his ioun stone providing +3 Luck.
Right away, Bodak Hangthorn and Selina Shadowstorm are killed by Shadowblast and the double Negastorms. Zaeron T'ane has taken nearly-fatal damage, so Yin finishes him with Nightsinger's Tithe. Yin casts Nightshade at Venduris and Grok to deal 40% of their max HP in damage, which ends up killing Grok. The planetar has cast Insect Plague on the rogues and the Nightwalker kills Venduris, as I deemed him to be far too dangerous to let the AI decide for itself who to attack.
Kerith the Bleak is the only one left standing but a lone cleric can't do anything to us. Yin lays into him by casting Shadow Missile, Blackfire Arrow, Inertia, Shadow Binding, and spamming more Shadow Missiles and Blackfire Arrows at him until he dies.
If I was playing with a pair of normal sorcerers, I think I actually would've intimidated Venduris into retreating instead as there is no way to reliably protect yourself fast enough while completely unbuffed even with equipment providing casting speed boosts. Chain Contingency is too unreliable to fire when enemies are sighted. Illusions are of no help since they can use the detect illusions skill to destroy them which bypasses SI:Divination. Venduris, Grok, and Zaeron T'ane can easily kill a sorcerer protected only by PfMW since they carry normal weapons specifically to deal with that. That would mean a Spell Trigger of Mirror Image (or PfMW)+Stoneskin+Spell Shield is the only thing I could foresee working against them for long enough to get either Time Stop or Improved Alacrity off the ground, assuming the sequencer of Greater Malison+Chaos+Slow from Selina Shadowstorm doesn't disable you first (and the sequencer is casted in a special way that makes the spells resolve in the correct order instead of all at once), or if Bodak Hangthorn doesn't hit you with an Arrow of Dispelling.
The sorcerers survived solely because of Yin's casting speed boost from high Intelligence and Nightsinger's Boon. They would have been VERY dead if not for that.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 36
Yang - Dragon Disciple 36
The previous session had seen work on the walls of Durlag's Tower, so we started this time by clearing the roof of basilisks. After grabbing the wisdom tome, despite that being of virtually no benefit to anyone, we moved on to Nashkel Mine to see how Mulahey fared against a stinking cloud. The answer was quite well - but it didn't do him much good anyway.
Outside the mine the amazons were blinded, before Tabetha demonstrated the effectiveness of her newly learned web spell on Nimbul. Yertone didn't wait for any of this sissy spell business against Tranzig though and he went down the old-fashioned way.
At the Bandit Camp, Yertone led the way while clearing the exterior. He then made use of the Greenstone Amulet to draw out Venkt's horror, before the others joined in a mopping-up operation.
Investigating a chest in the tent produced a pair of bracers and brought Meilum to mind - he was then the next victim.
Going through the Cloakwood, the only significant event was Yertone marching into Centeol's nest and successfully tanking the spider hordes there.
On arrival at the mine, Tabetha was up to her tricks again when Genthore and Kysus were blinded. A few seconds later though, both of them were totally ignoring their disability and fighting back as hostilities commenced - they found it rather harder to ignore being dead, however.
After cruising through the mine, Yertone as usual led the way to test out Davaeorn's defences - he punched enough of a hole in those for one of Gery's arrows to skewer the mage.
There wasn't much time to explore in Baldur's Gate, but the ogre mage in the sewers became an early victim, while Gery has just inherited a pair of greasy boots from Lothander.
18 Hammer 1369: Silas, a servant & Lorekeeper of Ογημα, to posterity, presents greetings.
My adventures in Amnish territory continued as the calendar turned over to 1369, & already it’s the 8th day of the second tenday of Hammer. I have explored both the Gibberling Mountains & the Cloudpeaks to their west. The weather is cold, but even in these low mountainous areas there is no snow.
I first went to the Gibberling Mountains that lie a few hours SW of the Valley of the Tombs. The entire range is dotted w/peaks and high, steep cliffs & the landscape falls sharply, north to south. The area swarmed w/Gibberlings, as the name implies. I helped a poisoned man by transporting him to Gellana @ the FAI – another of Imoen, & Khalid’s benevolent efforts that took entirely too long for the reward I received. This was not something I was keen to do, but I hoped to be rewarded. I am not comfortable being that near to BG quite yet.
From the Gibberling Mountains I travelled west, through the Nashkel Mines area to the Fire Leaf Forest in the Cloudpeak Mountains. The Fire Leaf is dominated by a solid peak in the center that runs in a ridge to the north and drops in low foothills in the north. The eastern side of the landscape is cut north to south by a small river that can be forded easily enough.
KEY EVENT: (Winter Wolf & Skeleton Skirmish) Almost immediately, after trying to get a few hours rest, we were attacked by 10 Skeletons which should have been simple enough, except that in the course of the skirmish, three Winter Wolves were drawn to the commotion. This made things difficult b/c we were all tired and had a battle to our right front & to our left front far enough apart that I had to split my forces to deal with them. The Winter Wolf threat was the most pressing & I had Branwen & Neera w/me handling that while Khalid, Imoen & Faldorn were in the wood line beating back skeletons. I fought a lot of Winter Wolves over the next few days & Neera always gave me a head start by singeing them w/her Wand of Fire. Branwen & I each used Command during the outset as well. My problem was that my archers were to the north & they were busy. I had turned several of the skeletons, but they were returning like gnats & had to be dealt with. The Winter Wolves continued to fight on but wounded as they already were, they slowly went down one by one. Once I had to provide a Healing Touch to Branwen, but we wrapped up the skirmish & gained three of the 15 Winter Wolf pelts we would pick up over these few days.
WINTER WOLF PELTS
My final leg of this foray was to Dryad Falls, which is also in the Cloudpeak range. This whole range has a steep decline from NE to SW and the central southwest contains a crystal-clear lake and waterfall. Not much to report here, except intercession on behalf of a dryad with two imbecilic ruffians who were trying to cut down an ancient tree. On this one, Faldorn got fired up & those two guys, all 10 IQ points between them, are now worm food. A bit of humor here when Faldorn tried to Charm Person or Animal on a Cave Bear so that we wouldn’t have to battle him. She normally does this & then sends them far away to an area we’ve already been to for safety. But before she could get the spell off the thing sprinted 40-50 yards & swung a Cave Bear paw at her. We couldn’t beat that thing into the ground far enough – truly a case of, ‘Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You.’ There was some serious laughter at her expense after that episode.
Speaking of Faldorn, I have an estrogen problem on my hands. She & Branwen just really don’t like one another, & I am waiting for them to have a catfight. Twice, Faldorn has refused to provide Cure Light Wounds to an injured Branwen. Branwen doesn’t like to carry the spell, preferring offensive ones, but I told her to consider it until the two of them can figure it out.
Until next I place quill to parchment, I & my company wish my reader fuller knowledge.
“Knowledge, particularly the raw knowledge of ideas, is supreme.” Σιλας
Since my "no magic items" run has been pretty challenging, I decided to try something a little easier: a solo run with a dwarven Shadowdancer. I won't be using most exploits, but I will be using @Grum's stealth trick to play a little safer. Our Charname this time is... yes, it's Frisky Bits again.
I follow my normal plan for early BG1: kill Algernon, sell the Ring of Wizardry for big money, kite Shoal, charm Silke to help kill the Beregost spiders, and charm the Friendly Arm Inn guards to kill Tarnesh for me. For the first time ever, I actually purchase the Wand of Sleep without immediately selling it back (as I did long ago, when I deemed the wand useless in a normal run with mages and clerics in the party).
When I first began the run, I intended to use the basilisk XP loop to crank up my main character's levels and speed things up. But after doing it, I felt a little bored and decided to start over, this time without doing the basilisk XP loop, getting XP normally instead. Korax munches on Mutamin once I uninstall the Korax NPC mod (in which he joins the party if you don't have 6 party members already).
Now at level 6, Frisky Bits has the skills to maintain invisibility almost indefinitely, as long as it's not daylight and we get reasonably decent luck. We buy Aule's Staff from Ulgoth's Beard at ludicrous expense and use it to splash around in poor Dushai's brains. Mulahey meets his typical demise: being charmed and then ordered to fight the nearby kobolds with his bare hands, giving his attackers +4 to hit and damage against him.
We do some reputation quests here and there and collect a few key items, such as the Claw of Kazgaroth (which I never actually equip) and Greenstone Amulet. Hide in Plain Sight lets us escape the post-Nashkel bounty hunters, and Tranzig falls to backstabs once we use Detect Illusions to remove his Mirror Images.
Tazok is a huge, huge pain. We wait out his Oil of Speed by hiding and resting, but when we try to kite him, he runs away from us constantly. He doesn't even try to engage us. I end up having to charm one of the nearby guards to help me pin him down, after I spent many minutes struggling to catch up with him.
A Potion of Absorption lets us survive the lightning bolt trap at the bandit camp, and we steal the documents without fighting anyone.
A Shadowdancer has no spells and one base attack per round, so dealing with mages is an extremely sluggish process before we reach Baldur's Gate and gain access to Arrows of Dispelling. Rather than fight Kysus and Rezdan conventionally, we just charm them outside of Drasus' field of vision and send them to die against the nearby guards.
This is one of the reasons I was interested in a run without magic items. If you use BG1 items to their fullest, some fights simply don't pose any threat anymore. But for a solo run, that's the best choice.
We sneak past everyone in the Cloakwood mines. Why do anything else if you're a solo character with access to stealth or invisibility? The mines possess lots of dangerous fights, but no unique loot. We head straight to Davaeorn and charm the guard, who lures over the Battle Horrors so we can backstab them to death.
Turns out abusing Davaeorn's AI works in my install. I send the guard out to kill him, then pull back. Sure enough, the guard takes him down without my help.
In other runs, I wasn't able to do this; I had to fight him normally. It's best not to fight enemies normally as a solo character. I was a little disappointed I didn't get to use my normal strategy, though, which involved a lot of Potions of Magic Blocking.
We buy lots of high-end arrows in Baldur's Gate and go kill Ragefast, who likely would have killed us if we hadn't buffed with the Greenstone Amulet, as Frisky Bits failed their save against Confusion. Ramazith falls quickly thanks to an Arrow of Dispelling.
Again, BG1 items are frankly pretty broken. They might not be as strong as BG2 items in absolute terms, but they're much better at breaking the difficulty.
A Potion of Invisibility lets us escape the Ogre Magi outside Candlekeep without incident and we bomb Rieltar et al with the Necklace of Missiles before vanishing to backstab the survivors.
The loot from Candlekeep bumps our STR from 18 to 19, giving us +2 to hit and +5 to damage (though the STR bonus won't get multiplied during backstabs), and the money lets us recharge the Necklace of Missiles, Greenstone Amulet, and Shield Amulet, as well as buy the last remaining Arrows of Detonation.
Cythandria is extremely dangerous due to the backstabbers at the start and the magic-immune golems, but Hide in Plain Sight makes us safe from almost any threat, and while we always have the chance of failing a skill check, we also have Shadowstep and lots of Potions of Invisibility as backups. We land a backstab and a couple of Arrows of Dispelling before finishing her off.
Quenash takes a brutal backstab from Slythe, earning us the Cloak of Balduran, and Slythe's poor AC proves no match for Frisky Bits' backstabs.
Notice that we could land a hit even on a roll of 2. Being invisible grants +4 to hit, and that does a lot to compensate for a thief's poor THAC0.
I use quick saves to detect Krystin (if you can't save, you know an enemy is within your field of vision), reveal her with Detect Illusions, keep the Greenstone Amulet's immunities active with two or three charges, and pepper her with Arrows of Dispelling to shear away her Stoneskins and pave the way for backstabs.
At the Ducal Palace, I charm what I thought was the Doppelganger Mage and shepherd him over to the southernmost room, only to find the mage emerge in the main room. My second Arrow of Dispelling makes contact, and when it fails a save against Ithtyl's Chaos spell, the mage can no longer reveal Liia Jannath by confusing her and making her break invisibility (Ithtyl covered Liia Jannath with invisibility before the fight) by attacking someone. However, the Doppelganger Shaman's Detect Invisibility spell reveals Liia Jannath just fine.
But spamming Slow spells allow us to keep the doppelgangers from breaking through the line, and Acid Arrows help thin the herd. The enemy fails to even kill Belt, much less threaten Liia Jannath.
Sarevok still kills her afterward, but Belt stays safe because I lured him into the southernmost room before speaking with Sarevok.
Tazok is a huge, huge pain. We wait out his Oil of Speed by hiding and resting, but when we try to kite him, he runs away from us constantly. He doesn't even try to engage us. I end up having to charm one of the nearby guards to help me pin him down, after I spent many minutes struggling to catch up with him.
@semiticgod are you sure you need to kill him? In my installations (whether SCS or unmodded), not only is there a dialogue route to avoid a fight but even if he attacks you can just disappear and leave him while you loot his tent. There used to be a big reward for a party to kill him - to get his bracers of weapon expertise - but the EE now places those in his tent anyway, so the gain is really only a bit of XP (which is pretty meaningless for a solo).
In the vanilla past you could fight for a while and after certain amount of time or damage (one of these at least) he could find you worthy enough to join and he would just walk off. Try that if everything else fails.
@semiticgod Well done in the ducal palace. I believe that to be the hardest battle in BG1
semiticgod wrote: »
Tazok is a huge, huge pain. We wait out his Oil of Speed by hiding and resting, but when we try to kite him, he runs away from us constantly. He doesn't even try to engage us. I end up having to charm one of the nearby guards to help me pin him down, after I spent many minutes struggling to catch up with him.
Whenever I have killed him, my game has crashed. I have had to use tthe method that @lroumen uses since EE changed the game. I don't know if they have now stopped it crashing,
EDIT
My party in Icewind Dale has battled through the undead goblins and suchlike and has reached the area where they can sleep. They got badly hurt on the way there, but now they can take on just a few at a time, so it will be a bit safer.
I have forgotten this game almost completely, so it is rather challenging.
In preparation for SoD, we burn the last of our money on Arrows of Dispelling from Black Lily and finally hit 18 DEX using the tome in the thieves' guild. Frisky Bits doesn't have the skills to disarm the traps in the maze, so we just tank them with a pair of Potions of Magic Protection and backstab the skeletons for good measure.
Now for Sarevok. Historically, I've only been able to charm one or two members of the Undercity party to use against Sarevok, since the Nymph Cloak only had one charge per day in my installs. However, it looks like this might be a factor of me placing the cloak in the Bag of Holding: this time, I never put it away, and it retained its normal charges. This allows me to bring everyone but the head of the Undercity and the elven mage (since she has 90% immunity to charm by virtue of being an elf) into the fight with Sarevok.
I use the typical strategy: once I place our charmed allies in the southwest corner, I lure Sarevok into the southeast corner before vanishing, running away, and then engaging Angelo, whose buffs I can remove with Detect Illusions and Arrows of Dispelling.
But, due to sheer luck, I don't have to actually bait out any of his spells. A lucky critical hit gives us the highest-damage backstab of the run so far, and Angelo explodes.
I leave the game alone for 10 minutes to wait out Diarmid's Protection from Magic scroll, then use quick saves to divine Semaj's position so I know where I can safely break invisibility without getting targeted. It takes a lot more charges from the Necklace of Missiles than I expected, but even the fighters go down in flames.
I bring over our charmed characters to break apart the skeletons and finally deal with Sarevok. The skeletons are no trouble, since Gorf and Haseo both hit very hard, but none of them can handle much pressure from Sarevok himself. They deal a lot of damage to Sarevok, but Sarevok cuts down them all.
In the end, charming the Undercity party only sped things up; it didn't change the difficulty much. With Hide in Plain Sight on our side, Sarevok is helpless to Frisky Bits' incessant backstabs.
Done! BG1 isn't so bad for a Shadowdancer, but SoD is going to pose some unique challenges that invisibility alone cannot solve.
High STR allows us to intimidate Porios, while a Protection from Undead scroll lets us safely deal with the local undead using backstabs and the Necklace of Missiles. The human enemies fall to backstabs as well.
The enemy thief is using stealth, however, and Detect Illusions cannot reveal him. Without any summons (I don't consider charming a beetle or mephit and bringing them over), I have to let him backstab me before I can target him, but he only deals 9 damage on the backstab.
Korlasz falls to an Arrow of Dispelling and we burn the last of our money on a bunch of Greater Restoration scrolls. In some of my installs, the scrolls are normal Restoration scrolls, but these ones also heal the target to full--really overpowered, and very useful for tanks. We might need them against Belhifet.
In Baldur's Gate, I pick up the Spectacles of Spectacle and sell off a bunch of stuff at Sorcerous Sundries (they buy stuff at higher prices than Belegarm does later on) so I can buy some more Arrows of Detonation and Arrows of Dispelling.
Frisky Bits now has an unbuffed save vs. spell of -1! Those dwarf save bonuses are really helpful.
In the undead dungeon at Coastway Crossing, a bug erroneously removes one of the quest item amulets, but I console it back in. A Protection from Undead scroll lets me deal with most of the enemies deeper in the dungeon, but the Bronze Sentry can see through both the scroll and normal invisibility, and its strong melee damage output forces me to kite it to death.
The Coldhearth Lich promises to help us against Caelar's crusade once we give him the amulets. His skeletons are the best choice for the first wave of enemies at the Coalition Camp invasion.
I sneak past all enemies until I arrive in the troll cave, where I foolishly decide to try backstabbing the trolls. It ends up getting me boxed in, and I have to painstakingly wear down the trolls with non-backstab attacks from invisibility in order to escape.
I go back to sneaking past enemies until I reach Morentherene, who falls to a nonmagical throwing dagger after I eventually land a critical hit.
Uninterested in additional XP (I can only get one more, mostly useless level in SoD, far into the future), I avoid the bugbears and cultists and head straight to Ziatar, who falls to backstabs. Good timing disrupts her Sanctuary spell, preventing her from healing.
A Potion of Stone Form ensures that my saves vs. death are subzero, ensuring that I'll be immune to the Neothelid's stunning attacks (you also need subzero saves vs. spell to block its equally deadly charm spells). It's a frustratingly long fight, however, since the Neothelid will remain buried for many rounds before emerging only for a few seconds. Plus, since the Neothelid hides if you try to use ranged weapons, you have to engage it in melee, exposing yourself to the Magical Swords' attacks. It's a very long fight that drains many potions.
Akanna and Darskhelin fall to two backstabs apiece, and the mind flayer's allies don't put up much of a fight either, since they have no answer for Hide in Plain Sight.
Then I do the level drain quest at Bridgefort, but fail to take it seriously. I don't buff up Frisky Bits enough to quickly kill the crusader guarding the scroll, and the whole camp goes hostile! I manage to grab the scroll and slip away, but I'm sure this will mess with the Flaming Fists who would normally appear beside me to tackle the Crusaders.
Sure enough, by the time I speak with Khalid, the fight has already begun. I hurry back to join the fight, using a Potion of Magic Shielding to ward off the mages so I can run past the enemy wall and deal damage with Potions of Firebreath. This is much more productive than backstabbing, and helps prevent the Flaming Fist from getting overwhelmed.
It actually does a lot to thin the herd, and the Flaming Fist holds fast. Eventually, I torch the last of the enemies. Potions of Firebreath apparently bypass MGOI, making them very effective against mages. It's especially useful against the mage on the bridge when Frisky Bits fails to land an Arrow of Dispelling early on. That lets us keep up the pressure until I can land the Arrow of Dispelling and finish off the mage.
As usual, I reveal Nazramu with the Spectacles of Spectacle at the Coalition Camp, sell him all of our loose stuff, and use the tens of thousands of gold to buy all the potions and arrows and other resources I want but will probably never use. I backstab the Greater Basilisk so I can bring the potion to Dosia, which is necessary to complete a quest for Simonetta Two-Edged, who gives us an amulet with +2 THAC0 (very nice against low-AC Belhifet).
Backstabs get us past the guards to the Underground River. Shadowdancers are very slow at killing enemies, but they're very safe. They're one of the best classes for no-reload runs, though they're not as fun or as flashy as spellcasters or fighters.
We beat up Ferrusk so we can heal the tree thing whatever, then nail Strunk with an Arrow of Dispelling and a backstab. Notice that Ferrusk is immune to backstabs for some reason.
We don't need to mess with anyone else here. The only useful item would be a cloak that blocks critical hits (very useful for characters that can't wear helmets), and the Cloak of Balduran is frankly superior, anyway. We poison the Crusaders' food and water, use Potions of Perception to disarm the Maze trap (I still drank 2 Potions of Magic Protection anyway to block it), and hurry out.
Here we are after dealing with the Underground River.
@semiticgod Ferrusk is immune to backstabs because the armor he is wearing (the Bloody Bone Plate) grants him this property. The player can loot it and use it to gain the same effect. Good luck with the later stages of SoD!
Comments
My paladin saw through the disguise of the priests there with the result that there was a major battle. Ther party were quite successfu7l at first, killing many of the enemy, but eventually they had to retreat having used most of their potions.
EDIT
The party attempted sleeping, but were attacked by cold wights. This was beneficial in that they gained much experience, but Guy Hardwick, the paladin was reduced to 11 HP whereupon they decided to go somewhere safer to rest. After 16 hours of rest they felt ready to return to the fray.
It may be awhile before this page of parchment is seen. I sit in a small 12’x15’ cabinet room beneath Candlekeep – one I didn’t know existed until I was teleported here by Tethtoril after having been arrested by Ultruant for the murders of the leaders of the IT. The only way out appears to be through catacombs I also didn’t know existed. But I digress.
After meeting with Duke Eltan regarding the corruption of the IT & my defeat of Rieltar’s underlings there, he asked me to return to Candlekeep & spy upon the leaders of the IT that were meeting Knights of the Shield there. He teleported me from Baldur’s Gate on my acquiescence. I almost didn’t feel like I knew the place. Faces were familiar, but things have changed so much, even familiar faces are like strangers now. My first visit was to The Temple of Oghma where I made a long overdue donation to my lord of all knowledge of 5700gp. After that, I went directly to the Candlekeep Inn & took rooms. Other than an almost touching scene when Imoen & Winthrop saw each other, I had no interest in reacquaintances. Reevor was there but I didn't feel the need to speak.
After spending a few hours resting & in prayer, I gathered my followers & went to the keep without any further contact. Once there I was unavoidably detained a couple of times for conversation but I have a mission & I don’t feel the need to tarry. My feelings for Candlekeep are no longer fond ones, but there was a sense of urgency about moving the IT as far from here as possible which I don’t understand but it is what it is. I saw Tethtoril, Ultruant & various others, including Sarevok who I didn’t know & was using the name Koveras. It wasn’t until after the arrest when I was speaking to Tethtoril that I realized who he was.
KEY EVENT: (Battle of Candlekeep) Shortly after meeting Koveras, I found the Rieltar & the Knights of the Shield meeting in a back room on the 3rd floor of the library. The room that they were in is a very large room, 90’x30’ w/three large tables with oil lamps & chairs parallel to the longer wall from whence you enter. There are five bookcases against the far wall, two covered to offer a measure of privacy. The back wall is lined with several lampstands for extra lighting. The room is designed for reading, study, & meditation. Gatherings of this type are rare here, but not uncommon, however, they are usually scholarly in nature.
Rieltar challenged me for disturbing his meeting & insulted me all in the same breath. I told him in no uncertain terms who I was & challenged him to ‘draw steel.’ Maybe my temper is overtaking my wisdom, but I’d said what I said & the battle was on. Immediately, I called for offensive action. Khalid tossed an Oil of Fiery Burning right @ Rieltar & then pulled out of the room & spread out in the one beyond. I heard myself-saying, “Be careful. I don’t want any innocents hurt in this.” Neera cast Web through the doorway & then I called everyone to stay back & look for targets of opportunity. The first two were Knights of the Shield who were intermittently able to get loose of the webbing. As they drew nearer to us, they also became easy targets. The man in the enchanted Chain Mail got loose a time or two but he was never really a threat to any of us. I used both Command & Wand of the Heavens to pound both mercilessly. Imoen & Khalid were busy w/their bows wounding them & Minsc was smashing heads until they were both dead. Then I moved forward, using the Ring of Free Action to view the room beyond. Both Rieltar & a Rogue of some type were still tangled in the web. Faldorn tried to come forward but only managed to use her Summon Dread Wolf before the webbing tangled her as well. I used Wand of the Heavens on both as Minsc tore through the door beside me & ripped into them w/Spider’s Bane. It was over.
ONE TO GO
After the webs subsided, I had my retinue gather the bounty & we began to depart, when one of Watchers challenged me. I was accused of murder & while that is not the appropriate term, I killed them. I don’t really care about the IT or their activities, except that it tilts the balance in a way that might be dangerous to the protection of knowledge over an extended period. Whatever the case, I accepted arrest & was jailed at Candlekeep w/my followers. Ultruant is a fraud & as corrupt as the IT – if he’s not in league with them. Whatever the case, I’m fortunate to have Tethtoril as an ally.
The Catacombs are beyond this door. No one has ventured out except to drop trou. It’s time I made my way out of here.
Best Kill Competition:
1. Minsc (Davaeorn – 6000 exp)
2. Khalid (Sword Spider), Imoen (Taurgosz Khosann) (2000 exp each),
3. Faldorn (Phase Spider – 1400 exp)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Fighter/9, Kestor, Tuth, Fighter/9, Thief (Swashbuckler)/8, Brunos, Rieltar, Mage/6,
CASUALTIES: None
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 18,092gp) Armor & weapons: Chain Mail +1; Gauntlets of Weapon Skill, Helmet of Charm Protection, Long Sword +1, Medium Shield +1 (2), Morning Star +1, Plate Mail; Gems/jewelry: Sphene Gem; Potions: Extra healing, Frost Giant Strength; Genius, Invulnerability, Magic Protection; Scrolls: Blur, Polymorph Self, Hold Person, Minor Globe of Invulnerability; Misc: & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: In a small library underneath Candlekeep, resting, praying
NEXT STEPS: Enter the its Catacombs
LEVEL UP: Khalid, Ranger (Archer)/6
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 9)
• Silas Cl/5 (Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP26) S/mail +1 & Boots/Grounding (w/Gauntlets of Dexterity) & Ring of Free Action, M/star*, & Rg of Energy; Spells: A/Dead, C/Disease, Zone of Sweet Air, Holy Might, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, P/Evil; S/ability: Divine Wrath, Heal Touch (2), Affliction, Friends; (Drasus) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/6(Archer)(HP50) S/Leather +1 w/Clk/Non-det, L/bow*** & B/sword +1* w/Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp; Skills: MS 62,
HS 55 (Sword Spider) (AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
• Imoen Th/6 (Adventurer)(HP36) S/Leather +2 w/Eagle Bow +2* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1*; Skills: OL 70, FT 65, PP 40, MS 55, HS 50, DI 20, ST15; (Taurgosz Khosann) (Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
• Minsc Ftr/5 (Barbarian)(HP41) C/mail +1 & Spiders Bane +2; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Davaeorn) (AI: Ftr Def)
• Faldorn Dr/6 (HP31) S/Leather +1 w/Club*, Dart of Fire +1* (Q/Staff*) & Gauntlets of Ogre Power; Spells: Moonblade, Summon Insects, Barskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Phase Spider) (Cl agg)(5)
• Neera Mg/5 (Wild Mage)(HP14), Traveler’s Robe w/Bracers of Def AC6 & Clk of Prot +1, Q/Staff +1*, Spells: Melf’s Minute Meteors, Haste, C/Shield, Web, Blur, Blindness, Chromatic orb, MM, Armor, Nahal’s RD; (none) Mage Def) (6)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Toduched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
Previous updates:
Nearly all skill points to date had gone into locks and setting and finding traps. However, it was still possible to stealth past most of the kobolds in the Nashkel Mine to find Mulahey. I was prepared to use items if necessary there, to be in line with my 'better safe than sorry' approach this time. However, checking on a backstab I found Mulahey had been taken down to 2 HPs, so a LMD could finish him off.
I had no area damage available to quickly kill the amazons, but took the safe option there as well by stealth-shooting the first 3 of them before finishing with a backstab.
Back-up traps were put in place for Nimbul - but not needed. The same was true for Tranzig as well to open up access to the Bandit Camp.
Reporting back to Officer Vai in Beregost took my reputation to 20, so I stocked up with equipment at that point. That included the Greenstone Amulet, which I actually made use of for once when tanking the sirines at the Lighthouse.
I couldn't resist beating up the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower on the way to pick up the tome. I also took out the basilisks, using a green PfP scroll rather than trying anything fancy with traps or stealth.
Before going to the Cloakwood I killed an innocent and robbed a house in Beregost to reduce reputation to 9. I picked up the invulnerability potion from Laskal, but otherwise skipped everything on the way to the Cloakwood mine. Drasus' friends were charmed and drawn away for disposal before Drasus himself ran into some traps.
After resting to get horror, I flooded the mine and headed for the City. Reputation was pushed back up to 20 for more shopping, while traps and stealth were used extensively to stay safe - for instance at the Iron Throne the roof allowed easy recharging for traps and Zhalimar's companions fell one by one until he was left without protection.
Back at Candlekeep there was an error in setting traps for Prat. The intention was to stay out of his sight while laying them in sight of the whole party. There's very little margin for error in doing that there and Prat spotted me laying the fourth trap - that was still enough to kill Bor and Sakul though and the others were cut down before they could do anything.
In the City once more, some pre-laid traps only wounded Krystin before Slythe failed to penetrate the full plate armor donned before talking to him. After waiting out Krystin's mirrors, she was hacked down without completing either of the 2 spells tried.
In the Undercity more 'round the corner' traps killed the party there.
I'd amassed almost 400k XP in BG1, so was able to level up immediately in SoD.
F8/T10, 95 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 348 kills
Thus far, my findings are: Shadowdancers are spectacular at 90% of the game, and total crap at 10% of the game.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049671/#Comment_1049671
As usual in the SoD prologue, Porios was forced to surrender. I used PfU to avoid any problems with the undead going through and a single charge from the ring of energy was enough for Korlasz to give in.
After leaving the City the first port of call was the Coast Way Forest. A potion of invulnerability provided protection against spells there, while firebreath was used to finish off Isabella once it looked like she might threaten Tsolak.
Back at the Coast Way Crossing, I hid behind the tent as usual to avoid the fight at the bridge. Skipping everything on the way to the Forest of Wyrms, I stealthed through to find Ziatar and dealt with him through a combination of backstab and pre-laid traps.
At Boareskyre Bridge I fumbled a backstab on Vichand, but pre-laid traps helped cut him down anyway before he could buff.
At the Coalition Camp I picked up the Bwoosh and some poison as well as a couple of choice items from Nazramu. I don't normally bother with the lucky boots, but did go to find a bear and get them made this time just in case I wanted to be able to boost saving throws without using consumables. I quickly rescued Skie at Dragonspear before heading to the Underground River. A potion of invulnerability protected against myconid spores and spider webs there before a backstab and firebreath persuaded the cyclops to hand over an entry token.
After placing the Bwoosh I talked my way into the Warrens and poisoned the food and water before showing myself to the guards to reopen the lift.
At the castle I used a PfM scroll before going to find Ashatiel. I stayed at range with him and he failed to get any of the criticals he needed before disappearing into sanctuary - which was rendered useless by the ring of energy.
Inside the castle I chased after Caelar and ignored Ilaruel in the first area. I couldn't be bothered to ensure that the ring of energy damage hit the hamatula far enough away and took lots of barbed defense damage as a result without ever actually being threatened.
Unfortunately the game crashed during the epilogue and there was no autosave since going up in the lift. The second time round Belhifet did marginally better - killing Caelar, but still not getting my HPs down below 100.
F9/T11, 95 HPs, 0 kills (532 in BG1)
Croll the Cruel may have committed one-too-many heinous acts. After:
the Flaming Fist caught on and sent enforcers to end Croll's reign of terror.
The Flaming Fist proved incapable of defeating Croll, especially with the help of his cruel new friends (Dorn, Viconia, Montaron, Xzar and Baeloth). But when they stopped in to Ulgoth's Beard to do some shopping, a powerful mage spotted them. "Shandalar," he called himself. Correctly identifying Croll as a danger to the town, the mage decided to do what the Flaming Fist could not: He teleported the party, without giving them a choice in the matter, to an icy island somewhere far from the Sword Coast.
Will Croll survive to get revenge on Shandalar? Or will he be stranded in this cold wasteland forever? Tune in next week to find out.
(Editorial note: I did not realize that poor reputation triggered the Ice Island quest. If I had, I probably wouldn't have visited Ulgoth's Beard... I can't remember the last time I tried to complete this section of the game, and I don't think I've ever done it in a no-reload context. Haha, this game always offers new surprises!)
@Blind_Visionary There are different ways of being sent there involuntarilly. It is not usually a problem, but it is best to be stocked up before you go.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049671/#Comment_1049671
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049752/#Comment_1049752
I've made a solid start to BG2:
- in the dungeon, I picked up Ulvaryl's XP on the way out.
- I rather carelessly triggered the Suna Seni ambush without any traps available, but after the mage was backstabbed (hitting with a die roll of 2 using a non-proficient weapon) the others couldn't handle a plated warrior.
- on the way to Watcher's Keep saved Renfeld and took a detour to drop him off. Eventually arriving, I bought Firetooth and the potion bag. There were no vampiric wraiths there, so I was also able to clear the top level - picking up my 12th thief and 10th fighter levels in the process as well as the nice Usuno's Blade as a proficient melee weapon.
- more thief XP from the guilds meant that stealing a necklace from the Temple of Talos was enough for an 11th fighter level.
- at the Bridge District, the berserk warrior was added to the available summons, Dracandros and Captain Dennis were led into traps, the kidnappers provided a further pair of pantaloons and the skinner murders were solved (reporting to Lt Aegisfield was enough for fighter level 12).
F12/T15, 107 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 382 kills (532 in BG1)
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3
I took a break from BG to do an Irregulator playthrough of Dark Souls III. I happened to obtain the Profaned Greatsword from Pontiff Sulyvahn which had inconceivably high Strength scaling, so much so that it let me kill bosses in two or three hits with its weapon art, trivializing the entire game. I didn't finish the playthrough.
Last time I left off, I had just finished Watcher's Keep 4 and decided to leave for Spellhold to get Yin some Boots of Speed. The shadow thieves' tasks are completed forthwith. Bodhi and Irenicus are beaten, Saemon is imprisoned.
In the Underdark, a planetar, the Nightwalker, and our Perfect Clay golem exterminate the beholder hive. The golem is destroyed by a 3x Lower Resistance spell trigger followed by Power Word Kill...which is weird because I thought golems were supposed to be immune to death magic.
The Nightwalker crushes all competition in every area of the underdark. Drow busywork is completed. Deirex is on the receiving end of many anti-magical attacks through aura cleansing and is stymied utterly by Power Word Silence from Yang. A combo of Shar's Blessing and Shadow Blade cause a painful end for the lich. With these two spells and his frost giant belt, Yin's strength surges to 25, his THAC0 plummets to -15, and he gains 6 attacks/round, making him more capable than most fighters!
Shadow Blade +6:
+6 THAC0
1d8+6 slashing, +6 cold
20% chance to inflict Essense Drain on hit
10% chance to inflict Shadow Binding on hit
10% chance to inflict Nightshade on hit
2% chance to inflict Death Mark on hit
+1 attack/round
100% cold resistance
Wielded with Grandmastery
We are totally exterminating the city of Ust Natha again. Yin levels up early on.
Also, I traded Adalon's eggs to the demon lord for Blackmist +4. She was not happy, but squirrelification shut her up pretty fast.
We're finally out of the Underdark. Ribald has an extremely powerful shadow magic staff for sale in his special shop. This is now Yin's main weapon. I think it's the same staff that Kryn Darkflame wields since it shares the exact same silver and purple colors.
On the way to Cromwell to forge several items, another regular incident with the local constabulary provides Shar the last of the 50 sacrifices needed to gain her favor via Nightsinger's Tithe. Yin's casting speed is now -7 while buffed with a Potion of Mind Focusing (-5 from 25 INT, -1 from Amulet of Power, -1 from Nightsinger's Boon).
Bodhi and Venduris stand no chance. Just have to toss a Merciless Blizzard and Incendiary Cloud into Bodhi's room while under (Twin) Mislead and it should be easy as that. A Nightwalker should make a feast out of Venduris while aura cleansing will dismantle his goons.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 35
Yang - Dragon Disciple 35
I’ve freed myself from the Candlekeep Catacombs, those that I never knew existed until 10 days ago despite living in Candlekeep for as long as I recall. The whole area had been sealed off from the public & very few would have had the means of accessing the place regardless. Evidently, the Catacombs once served as a peaceful resting place for the fallen of Candlekeep, but the crypts had been overrun w/ undead, spiders, & more recently, w/ Doppelgangers. To be certain, the architecture here is splendid, yet there wasn’t anything in the library that would have suggested this. Beyond the maze of crypts that were undoubtedly for those who were deemed more important residents of the keep, was a grand mausoleum 150’x80’ running east to west as you entered from the SE corner. In the center was an ornate 100’x40’ central area marked off by columns @ 10’ apart, & again in thirds w/ columns down the center running perpendicular. Evidently this was the place common folk were laid because the hall had six 20’x20’ rooms off it, three on each side that folks were probably just laid without much thought beyond whatever grief came from their demise. At the center on the far west end of the hall, up three large steps, was a 20’x10’ hallway that led 40’ to the east, then south 100’ (w/ three more 20’x20’ rooms on either side), then back west another 40’ & finally, into a network of caves that eventually empty out on the south side of Candlekeep. This whole area, unlike the central crypts, was filled w/ Skeletons or Doppelgangers, (more recent arrivals I think). Just about everyone I had known growing up had the face of a Doppelganger down here. Interestingly, I think Arkanis & Deder were there to help me, but I turned them away.
The central crypts were inhabited, by & large, by Ghasts & Phase Spiders. I garnered much bounty in the crypts.
I was very strict here, especially once I realized that every step could be my last.
Order of march throughout: Khalid & Imoen (reconnaissance), Minsc, Me, Neera, Faldorn (rear guard).
On rest: Ground only helms, belts, bracers (enchanted items must stay in place)
KEY EVENT: (Minsc to Rubble) The caves proved deadly. After a particularly difficult & protracted battle w/two knights (in Plate Mail) & two mages, which could easily have been my end, Minsc was petrified by a Greater Basilisk (actually two). Khalid had scouted them, so I knew they were there. Easy enough though. I directed Minsc to use a Potion of Mirrored Eyes, which I took out of my Potion Case, & handed to him. I held everyone back & let him go, thinking it wouldn’t take more that a minute. Instead, after a few grunts & the telltale sign of Spiders Bane cutting into flesh, suddenly there were no sounds. After a couple of minutes, I motioned Khalid forward using Stealth, only to have him return & tell me not only that Minsc was petrified (which I could have reversed w/ a Stone to Flesh scroll), but that the Basilisk had evidently shattered him as well. He was a dolt, but he was a bruiser. I’m gonna miss that sword. I guess he got so excited by the prospect of the fight that he forgot to use the potion as soon as I handed it to him – it was still in his belt. Eventually, Faldorn cast Summon Dread Wolf & I Animated Dead. We let them go forward, & they did the trick. A couple of more spiders & another of Sarevok’s knights (in Splint Mail) & we were standing on the south side of the keep. Once we’d found the tunnel out, I had everyone return to the cabinet room where we’d first started to collect up what loot could be carried. My first stop was to see Thalantyr @ High Hedge, then to Taerom Fuiruim @ the Thunderhammer. While visiting Thalantyr, I purchased a Fragment of Enlightenment, very nice.
MINSC, YOU DUNCE!
I am wanted for murder by The Flaming Fist, who answer to the corrupt powers in Baldur’s Gate. I decided to remain in Amn for a while, so I returned to Nashkel. I plan to adventure here in the south & hopefully allow the heat to die down. At any rate, I have no intention of returning to Baldur’s Gate for the foreseeable future. I may just stay south & east of the town for awhile.
I’ve been moving so fast, I haven’t taken the time to soak up all there is to know around me. Knowledge is central to all things, & I intend to begin by spending time seeing, doing, learning. I took some time to visit the Nashkel Carnival. I had to dispose of four Ogre Berserkers & some Kobolds, oh, & one mouthy mage, oh, & a pesky Rogue but I relaxed a bit. Not too much mind you – but a bit. I did enjoy looking @ the wares of the various merchants there. I recruited a warrior maiden, a Battleguard of Tempus, truly an ugly woman, short, stocky & well, yeah. But all she wants to do is fight, so I hope she can makeup for the hole Minsc is leaving, a gaping one both literally & capability wise. Talking to her, I don’t think she carries any non-offensive spells, so, here’s hoping. I bought her a set of Chain +1 (back from Thalantyr), outfitted her w/ a Medium Shield +1 & Gauntlets of Weapons Skill to go w/a Warhammer +1. Well see.
Best Kill Competition:
1. Khalid (Tuth), Imoen (Greater Doppelganger) (4000 exp each),
2. Faldorn (Phase Spider, exp)
3. Neera (Zordral, 900 exp)
4. Branwen (Skeleton, 65 exp)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Greater Basilisks (2), Greater Doppelganger, Sword Spider (2), Mage (Sakul – Mg/Enchanter//7), Phase Spiders (9), knight (Prat - Ftr/Mg 8/8), knight (Tam – Ftr/8), Wraith Spider, Doppelgangers (13), knight (Bor – Ftr/7), knight (Diarmid – Ftr/4), Ghasts (9), Skeleton Warrior’s (20); Nashkel Carnival: Mage (Zordral – Mage/Conjurer//6), Ogre Berserker (4), Rogue (Vitaire – Thief/7), Kobold (6)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (Basilisk – unresurrectable)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 9,175gp) Armor & weapons: Shadow Armor +3, Girdle of Piercing, Warhammer +1; Gems/jewelry: Laeral’s tear Necklace, Rogue Stone, Emerald, Diamond, Bloodstone Amulet (2); Scrolls: Protection from Magic; Potions: Frost Giant Strength, Invulnerability, Heroism, Invisibility; Wands & Artifacts: Wand of Fire
CURRENT DISPOSITION:
NEXT STEPS: Return to Nashkel Mines area & Valley of the Tombs
LEVEL UP: Minsc, Fighter (Barbarian)/6, Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/7
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 9)
• Silas Cl/6 (Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP26) S/mail +1, Boots/Grounding, Girdle of Piercing, w/Gauntlets of Dexterity & Ring of Free Action w/M/star* (Flail*), & Rg of Energy; Spells: A/Dead, C/Disease, Zone of Sweet Air, Holy Might, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, P/Evil; S/ability: Divine Wrath, Heal Touch (2), Affliction, Friends; (Drasus) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/6(Archer)(HP50) S/Leather +2 w/Clk/Non-det, L/bow*** & B/swor`d +1* w/Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp; Skills: MS 62, HS 55 (Tuth, Ftr/9) (AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(2)
• Imoen Th/7 (Adventurer)(HP41) Shadow Armor +3 w/Eagle Bow +2* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1*; Skills: OL 70, FT 75, PP 45, MS 65, HS 65, DI 25, ST 20; (Greater Doppelganger) (Thf Rgd Atk)(3)
• Faldorn Dr/6 (HP31) S/Leather +1 w/Club*, Dart of Fire +1* (Q/Staff*) & Gauntlets of Ogre Power; Spells: Moonblade, Summon Insects, Barkskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Phase Spider) (Cl agg)(4)
• Neera Mg/5 (Wild Mage), Traveler’s Robe w/Bracers of Def AC6 & Clk of Prot +1, Q/Staff +1* & Wand of Fire, Spells: Melf’s Minute Meteors, Haste, C/Shield, Web, Blur, Blindness, Chromatic orb, MM, Armor, Nahal’s RD; (Zordral, Mage/6) ( AI: Mage Def) (5)
• Branwen, Cl/6 (Battleguard of Tempus), (HP42), C/Mail +1 & M/Shield +1 w/Warhammer +1** (S&SS*) & Gauntlet’s of Weapons Skill; Spells: D/Magic, H/Smite, R/Thinking, DUHM, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, Spirit/Hammer, Armor/Faith, Cmd, Doom, P/Evil, Shillelagh; S/Ability: Enrage, Prayer (6), (Skeleton) (AI: Cl Agg)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Toduched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
Storm (male elf priest of Talos, Grond0); Rek (male dwarven defender, Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049097/#Comment_1049097
Priests of Talos live by the storm and die by the storm ...
Progress was pretty serene in Athkatla as we grabbed the Helm of Glory and used skeletons to distract the Iron Throne residents from the dwarf chopping their legs off from behind.
Back in Candlekeep, Rek found his saving throw of 1 was insufficient to protect him from phase spider poison, but Storm was close by to slow the poison.
There were still no deaths in the run though as we arrived back in Athkatla. Slythe was commanded to die there - and did.
Of course, first we had to get there
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049671/#Comment_1049671
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049752/#Comment_1049752
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1050292/#Comment_1050292
Before going after the vampires I wanted to get saves into negative territory and decided to use the Ring of Gaxx to do that. While scouting out the way to the liches that meant passing through the Temple sewers - acquiring a new cloak from a rakshasa and using traps, backstabs and stealth shots on Tarnor's gang (getting to fighter level 13 with the last of those).
A PfU scroll meant the liches lasted only seconds. There's always a danger that the transformation of Kangaxx himself won't work properly, but this time there were no problems and attacking with Daystar quickly saw the end of the demi-lich despite its attempt to escape by panicking.
Nearly all the time so far, I've been dressed in the Shadow Armor, to benefit from stealth. However, I put on full plate for the vampires to both improve AC and allow the use of the +2 ring to ensure saves against domination. Not using another PfU scroll there did mean I was vulnerable to level drain though, so had to keep potions ready for emergencies - and in fact I had to glug down some clarity against only the second vampire faced.
After doing the Sir Sarles quest, upgrading the MoD and buying some ordinary studded leather for general use (that's just as good for AC as the Shadow Armor anyway, even before accounting for a ring of protection, if wearing the AC3 bracers) I decided to venture out of the City to the Umar Hills. I mis-clicked there on the dialogue option with Madulf, losing the chance to get a magic shield - but that wasn't a significant loss.
I very rarely make use of Ilbratha, but picked that up anyway before going to the Umar Temple. I killed Mazzy there, in case I wanted to make use of her sword - though I don't think that's something I've ever bothered with before.
F14/T17, 111 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 554 kills (532 in BG1)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049671/#Comment_1049671
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1049752/#Comment_1049752
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1050292/#Comment_1050292
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1050596/#Comment_1050596
In the last session I found myself drifting into old habits and starting to take risks for the hell of it. I tried to force myself to play more safely this morning, but that eventually proved to be a losing struggle
After forging the Shadow Dragon Scale and upgrading the berserk warrior, I returned briefly to Umar to collect Valygar's body to provide entrance to the Planar Sphere. Inside there I did allow Kayardi into close proximity, but was keeping a close eye on him and took a potion of invisibility at one point (just in case he was thinking about maze) before finishing him with a backstab.
A quest for the Temple of Lathander and another for the paladins brought a couple more levels.
Tinhead (male Paladin, Gate70); Fly (female Assassin, Grond0)
Not much to say about this duo other than they whipped around Candlekeep, through Shoal, down to Nashkel to pick up ankheg plate and then explored an ankheg nest. Tinhead promptly broke his two handed sword on the first ankheg, rued the day he'd sold a second one taken from a flind and beat it to death with the trusty but non-proficient quarterstaff.
We made a quick detour to pick on Arghain and relieved him of his two handed sword +1. With the correct weapon at our disposal we returned to the ankheg nest and killed three more. A fourth had other ideas and Tinhead steadily gulped blue potions. Each ankheg hit took a few more hit points than each potion restored so Tinhead took a steady path downwards.
Fly was sniping away, having given up hiding. There may have been a discussion about whether to retreat but Tinhead almost had the ankheg dead. Almost.
Fly sighed. Dead Paladin.
I spent the better part of the past few days adventuring in the south in the vicinity of the Nashkel Mines. The landscape is rocky with a few small peaks north and west, fading to open more arable soil, covered with grass and cedars to the south-southeast. The northwest corner is dominated by the mine itself. From an adventuring standpoint, there is little of interest here: Xvarts, Wolves & a few stray Kobolds likely lost without Mulahey to give them purpose. There were two Ghasts wandering near a storehouse just east of the mine site – no telling where they came from. I did come across a fugitive artist who’d stolen some Emeralds to complete a sculpture in a cliff wall south of the mine. He was being guarded by a Paladin from the Order of the Ruby Rose (of the goddess Σθναι). This is one of those time when I just let Imoen do her thing, & she elected to help keep watch over the sculptor, Prism, until he was through. In short order, a bounty hunter named Greywolf showed up looking for trouble. We defeated him easily, but the sculptor died in a bittersweet final act – having completed his sculpture. Imoen was a little miffed but, the emeralds were coming with.
KEY EVENT: Leaving the Nashkel Mines, I returned to the Valley of the Tombs which is where I’d originally exited the mines from level 4. This area is extremely rocky, & footing was difficult at times. A loose rock could lead to a rolled ankle at any time. There are low mountain peaks and cliffs dispersed across the entire area. Immediately, I came upon a band of Amazon’s that were looking for me. They challenged & this time Imoen wasn’t as sweet when she told them to, “Bring it.” They were, I think two Warrior/Clerics & two Rogues. I used Command, as did Branwen, which put two of them on the ground quickly. Neera dropped a Fireball from her Wand of Fireballs dead in their midst. Khalid & Imoen did their thing with brutal efficiency. They were all dead so fast, I didn’t have time to make mental notes. Actually, one of the Rogues had gone invisible & popped up behind Neera after I thought the skirmish was through, but she managed to escape unharmed & we descended on & eliminated the threat.
ENTERTAINING
I was dismayed to see Branwen fall when we came upon a mage w/two Mustard Jellies as we were avoiding immediate contact w/three Ghasts we’d just discovered in a tomb. The mage had done something to give the Mustards magic resistance & Imoen got us in a small pinch when her inquisitive, but unrestrained mind and mouth, asked him if he would write down and share his recipe. My retinue dealt with the Ghasts on our flank, but Branwen ended up dead – again not exactly sure what she did. In that respect, she’s acting just like Minsc & costing me gold, but she’s certainly not offsetting that with martial power like he had. Branwen had been tough in her first action, albeit vs Gnolls & Skeletons, so I am sobered to see her fall like this. The skirmish itself was tough, first because initially we had enemies on in front of us and on out flank, and second, because those damned Jellies were almost unkillable. The fact that we are all to the point where every weapon we have is enchanted looks to be a potential problem down the road and I think I will have everyone pick up a standard version of their arms just in case. The mage was a little bit of a challenge, but he went down long before the creatures he’d been experimenting upon.
My last encounter of significance centered around a dagger some Rogue had lifted from another tomb. I had my band of followers swatting some Kobolds when the panicked fool ran up to Faldorn and practically made her take the dagger from him. As he ran off, falling as he went, I decided to see what had him so afraid. We found the tomb in question. It contained an irate undead, a Revenant. I’d read very little about this creature in my time of study, although there was plenty on the more common types of undead like Skeletons, Ghouls, Zombies. He was a tough bird. I usually leave the bulk of the fighting to those who follow me, preferring to cast the timely spell here and there, but on this one I took the kill. They gathered the treasure, & we were done clearing the black.
As an aside, Imoen made me a birthday present a few weeks ago while everything was moving so fast. It’s a necklace made from a pin she says belonged to Gorion. Whatever its origin, that girl could make even the most lawful or chaotic evil creature smile. Ugh.
I & my followers, Khalid, Imoen, Faldorn, Neera & Branwen wish you knowledge in all that you do.
“An idea has no weight, but it can move mountains.” Σιλας
Best Kill Competition:
1. Khalid (Tuth), Imoen (Greater Doppelganger) (4000 exp each),
2. Faldorn (Phase Spider, exp)
3. Neera (Zordral, 900 exp)
4. Branwen (Skeleton, 65 exp)
ORDER OF MARCH: throughout: Khalid (reconnaissance), Branwen, Imoen Me, Neera, Faldorn (rear guard)
MONSTERS DEFEATED:
Nashkel Mines: Greywolf (Ftr/7), Ghasts (2), Wolves (5), Xvarts (4), Kobolds (2);
High Hedge: Gnoll Slasher, Gnoll Veteran, Skeletons (6), Gnoll (7)
Valley of the Tombs: Revenant, Mage (Narcillus – Mage/Enchanter//7), Amazon (Lamahla – Cleric/5), Amazon (Zeela – Cl/6),
Amazon (Maneira – Ftr/Th//4/4), Amazon (Telka – Ftr/Th//4/4), Gnolls (4), Wild Dogs (5), Kobolds (8)
Wandering: Gibberlings (7)
CASUALTIES: Branwen (Narcillus encounter)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 17,718gp) Armor & weapons: Gems/jewelry: Scrolls: Flame Strike; Potions: Extra Healing, Frost Giant Strength, Oil of Fiery Burning; Wands & Artifacts: Wand of Monster Summoning
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recovering, resupplying in Nashkel
NEXT STEPS: Gibberling Mountains, Fireleaf Forest, Dryad Falls
LEVEL UP: Neera, Mage (Wild Mage)/6
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 10)
• Silas Cl/6 (Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP26) S/mail +1, Boots/Grounding, Girdle of Piercing, w/Gauntlets of Dexterity & Ring of Free Action w/M/star* (Flail*), & Rg of Energy; Spells: A/Dead, C/Disease, Zone of Sweet Air, Holy Might, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, P/Evil; S/ability: Divine Wrath, Heal Touch (2), Affliction, Friends; (Revenant) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/6(Archer)(HP50) S/Leather +2 w/Clk/Non-det, L/bow*** & B/swor`d +1* w/Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp; Skills: MS 62, HS 55 (Tuth, Ftr/9) (AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(2)
• Imoen Th/7 (Adventurer)(HP41) Shadow Armor +3 w/Eagle Bow +2* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1*; Skills: OL 70, FT 75, PP 45, MS 65, HS 65, DI 25, ST 20; (Greater Doppelganger) (Thf Rgd Atk)(3)
• Faldorn Dr/6 (HP31) S/Leather +1 w/Club*, Dart of Fire +1* (Q/Staff*) & Gauntlets of Ogre Power; Spells: Moonblade, Summon Insects, Barkskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Phase Spider) (Cl agg)(4)
• Neera Mg/6 (Wild Mage) (HP17) Traveler’s Robe w/Bracers of Def AC6 & Clk of Prot +1, Q/Staff +1* & Wand of Fire, Spells:Melf’s Minute Meteors, Haste, D/magic, C/Shield, Web, Blur, Blindness, Chromatic orb, MM, Armor, Nahal’s RD; (Zordral, Mage/6) ( AI: Mage Def) (5)
• Branwen, Cl/6 (Battleguard of Tempus), (HP42), C/Mail +1 & M/Shield +1 w/Warhammer +1** (S&SS*) & Gauntlet’s of Weapons Skill; Spells: D/Magic, H/Smite, R/Thinking, DUHM, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, Spirit/Hammer, Armor/Faith, Cmd, Doom, P/Evil, Shillelagh; S/Ability: Enrage, Prayer (6), (Skeleton) (AI: Cl Agg)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Toduched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4
The Nightwalker obliterates Bodhi's vampires on the first level. And I do as I said was going to do to Bodhi, minus the (Twin) Mislead: just toss a Merciless Blizzard and Incendiary Cloud into the room and close the door. I've had a really bad time with Bodhi's Cloud of Bats on casters before, so I won't even let her do anything to me this time.
Venduris and co. is next. Yin borrows Yang's Robe of Vecna and Wizzard Hat to ensure instant casting since both sorcerers are completely unbuffed (-4 from Robe of Vecna, -3 from 22 INT, -1 from Amulet of Power, -1 from Wizzard Hat, -1 from Nightsinger's Boon = -10 casting speed). Umbral Stasis is invoked before any of the rogues have a chance to move or do anything at all.
Once that is done, he casts Shar's Blessing for double-strength Haste (which Grok also has) and buffs heavily since he can cast everything instantly. Then he moves to the middle of the pack of rogues. Casting spells close to their point of impact will let the spells resolve in the correct order after Umbral Stasis wears off, so Yin moves away from the group of rogues a little bit after casting each of these spells:
Expunge Magic -> Sigil of Misfortune -> Curse -> Dread Silence -> Inertia -> Negastorm -> Shadowblast -> another Negastorm -> Shadow Dragon Breath -> Night Terrors -> Unmask -> Summon Nightwalker.
Yang still isn't finished casting Improved Alacrity by the time Yin finishes this shadow magical onslaught. That's pretty much all the AoE spells that Yin can safely use, so he waits for Yang. Yang finally gets IA off and then buffs with fast-casting but effective buffs, then places a Greater Malison into the middle of the pack of rogues and summons a planetar. When IA and Relentless Assault are almost expired, the sorcerers buff with PFMW/PfWfW and await the carnage. Yang starts casting another Improved Alacrity to help offensively now that he is adequately buffed. Yin's Relentless Assault is still active due to his WIS-based duration bonus.
Right away, Bodak Hangthorn and Selina Shadowstorm are killed by Shadowblast and the double Negastorms. Zaeron T'ane has taken nearly-fatal damage, so Yin finishes him with Nightsinger's Tithe. Yin casts Nightshade at Venduris and Grok to deal 40% of their max HP in damage, which ends up killing Grok. The planetar has cast Insect Plague on the rogues and the Nightwalker kills Venduris, as I deemed him to be far too dangerous to let the AI decide for itself who to attack.
If I was playing with a pair of normal sorcerers, I think I actually would've intimidated Venduris into retreating instead as there is no way to reliably protect yourself fast enough while completely unbuffed even with equipment providing casting speed boosts. Chain Contingency is too unreliable to fire when enemies are sighted. Illusions are of no help since they can use the detect illusions skill to destroy them which bypasses SI:Divination. Venduris, Grok, and Zaeron T'ane can easily kill a sorcerer protected only by PfMW since they carry normal weapons specifically to deal with that. That would mean a Spell Trigger of Mirror Image (or PfMW)+Stoneskin+Spell Shield is the only thing I could foresee working against them for long enough to get either Time Stop or Improved Alacrity off the ground, assuming the sequencer of Greater Malison+Chaos+Slow from Selina Shadowstorm doesn't disable you first (and the sequencer is casted in a special way that makes the spells resolve in the correct order instead of all at once), or if Bodak Hangthorn doesn't hit you with an Arrow of Dispelling.
The sorcerers survived solely because of Yin's casting speed boost from high Intelligence and Nightsinger's Boon. They would have been VERY dead if not for that.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 36
Yang - Dragon Disciple 36
Gery - half-elf archer (Grond0)
Yertone - human inquisitor (Corey_Russell)
Tabetha - gnome illusionist / thief (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047141/#Comment_1047141
The previous session had seen work on the walls of Durlag's Tower, so we started this time by clearing the roof of basilisks. After grabbing the wisdom tome, despite that being of virtually no benefit to anyone, we moved on to Nashkel Mine to see how Mulahey fared against a stinking cloud. The answer was quite well - but it didn't do him much good anyway.
Outside the mine the amazons were blinded, before Tabetha demonstrated the effectiveness of her newly learned web spell on Nimbul. Yertone didn't wait for any of this sissy spell business against Tranzig though and he went down the old-fashioned way.
At the Bandit Camp, Yertone led the way while clearing the exterior. He then made use of the Greenstone Amulet to draw out Venkt's horror, before the others joined in a mopping-up operation.
Going through the Cloakwood, the only significant event was Yertone marching into Centeol's nest and successfully tanking the spider hordes there.
After cruising through the mine, Yertone as usual led the way to test out Davaeorn's defences - he punched enough of a hole in those for one of Gery's arrows to skewer the mage.
There wasn't much time to explore in Baldur's Gate, but the ogre mage in the sewers became an early victim, while Gery has just inherited a pair of greasy boots from Lothander.
Archer - L6, 77 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 235 kills
Inquisitor - L6, 84 HPs, 113 kills, 0 deaths
Illusionist/thief - L5/6, 28 HPs, 44 kills, 1 death
My adventures in Amnish territory continued as the calendar turned over to 1369, & already it’s the 8th day of the second tenday of Hammer. I have explored both the Gibberling Mountains & the Cloudpeaks to their west. The weather is cold, but even in these low mountainous areas there is no snow.
I first went to the Gibberling Mountains that lie a few hours SW of the Valley of the Tombs. The entire range is dotted w/peaks and high, steep cliffs & the landscape falls sharply, north to south. The area swarmed w/Gibberlings, as the name implies. I helped a poisoned man by transporting him to Gellana @ the FAI – another of Imoen, & Khalid’s benevolent efforts that took entirely too long for the reward I received. This was not something I was keen to do, but I hoped to be rewarded. I am not comfortable being that near to BG quite yet.
From the Gibberling Mountains I travelled west, through the Nashkel Mines area to the Fire Leaf Forest in the Cloudpeak Mountains. The Fire Leaf is dominated by a solid peak in the center that runs in a ridge to the north and drops in low foothills in the north. The eastern side of the landscape is cut north to south by a small river that can be forded easily enough.
KEY EVENT: (Winter Wolf & Skeleton Skirmish) Almost immediately, after trying to get a few hours rest, we were attacked by 10 Skeletons which should have been simple enough, except that in the course of the skirmish, three Winter Wolves were drawn to the commotion. This made things difficult b/c we were all tired and had a battle to our right front & to our left front far enough apart that I had to split my forces to deal with them. The Winter Wolf threat was the most pressing & I had Branwen & Neera w/me handling that while Khalid, Imoen & Faldorn were in the wood line beating back skeletons. I fought a lot of Winter Wolves over the next few days & Neera always gave me a head start by singeing them w/her Wand of Fire. Branwen & I each used Command during the outset as well. My problem was that my archers were to the north & they were busy. I had turned several of the skeletons, but they were returning like gnats & had to be dealt with. The Winter Wolves continued to fight on but wounded as they already were, they slowly went down one by one. Once I had to provide a Healing Touch to Branwen, but we wrapped up the skirmish & gained three of the 15 Winter Wolf pelts we would pick up over these few days.
WINTER WOLF PELTS
My final leg of this foray was to Dryad Falls, which is also in the Cloudpeak range. This whole range has a steep decline from NE to SW and the central southwest contains a crystal-clear lake and waterfall. Not much to report here, except intercession on behalf of a dryad with two imbecilic ruffians who were trying to cut down an ancient tree. On this one, Faldorn got fired up & those two guys, all 10 IQ points between them, are now worm food. A bit of humor here when Faldorn tried to Charm Person or Animal on a Cave Bear so that we wouldn’t have to battle him. She normally does this & then sends them far away to an area we’ve already been to for safety. But before she could get the spell off the thing sprinted 40-50 yards & swung a Cave Bear paw at her. We couldn’t beat that thing into the ground far enough – truly a case of, ‘Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You.’ There was some serious laughter at her expense after that episode.
Speaking of Faldorn, I have an estrogen problem on my hands. She & Branwen just really don’t like one another, & I am waiting for them to have a catfight. Twice, Faldorn has refused to provide Cure Light Wounds to an injured Branwen. Branwen doesn’t like to carry the spell, preferring offensive ones, but I told her to consider it until the two of them can figure it out.
Until next I place quill to parchment, I & my company wish my reader fuller knowledge.
“Knowledge, particularly the raw knowledge of ideas, is supreme.” Σιλας
Best Kill Competition:
1. Khalid (Tuth), Imoen (Greater Doppelganger) (4000 exp each),
2. Faldorn (Phase Spider, 1400 exp)
3. Neera, Branwen (Winter Wolf, 975 exp ea)
ORDER OF MARCH: throughout: Khalid (reconnaissance), Branwen, Imoen Me, Neera, Faldorn (rear guard)
MONSTERS DEFEATED:
Gibberling Mountains: Dire Wolves (3), Wild Dogs (2), Gibberlings (28), Xvarts (6)
Fire Leaf Forest: Winter Wolves (6), Bandits (2- Vax, Ftrs/6), Skeletons (14), Xvarts (8)
Dryad Falls: Winter Wolves (9), Ruffians (2 – Caldo, Krumm, Ftrs/3), Dire Wolf, Gnolls (4),
Wandering: Xvarts (8)
CASUALTIES:
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 16,717gp) Armor & weapons: Bracers of Def AC8; Gems/jewelry: Scrolls: Potions: Wands & Artifacts: Winter Wolf Pelts (15)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recovering, resupplying in Nashkel
NEXT STEPS: Return to Gnoll Stronghold & explore Bear River
LEVEL UP: Silas, Cleric (Lorekeeper of Oghma)/7
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 11)
• Silas Cl/7 (Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP35) S/mail +1, Boots/Grounding, Girdle of Piercing, w/Gauntlets of Dexterity & Ring of Free Action w/M/star* (Flail*), & Rg of Energy; Spells: D/Harmony, Prot/Evil 15’, A/Dead, C/Disease, Zone of Sweet Air, Holy Might, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, P/Evil; S/ability: Divine Wrath, Heal Touch (2), Affliction, Friends; (Revenant) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/6(Archer)(HP50) S/Leather +2 w/Clk/Non-det, L/bow*** & B/swor`d +1* w/Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp; Skills: MS 62, HS 62 (Tuth, Ftr/9) (AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(2)
• Imoen Th/7 (Adventurer)(HP41) Shadow Armor +3 w/Eagle Bow +2* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1*; Skills: OL 70, FT 75, PP 45, MS 65, HS 65, DI 25, ST 20; (Greater Doppelganger) (Thf Rgd Atk)(3)
• Faldorn Dr/6 (HP31) S/Leather +1 w/Club*, Dart of Fire +1* (Q/Staff*) & Gauntlets of Ogre Power; Spells: Moonblade, Summon Insects, Barkskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Phase Spider) (Cl agg)(4)
• Neera Mg/6 (Wild Mage) (HP17) Traveler’s Robe w/Bracers of Def AC6 & Clk of Prot +1, Q/Staff +1* & Wand of Fire, Spells:Melf’s Minute Meteors, Haste, D/magic, C/Shield, Web, Blur, Blindness, Chromatic orb, MM, Armor, Nahal’s RD; (Zordral, Mage/6) ( AI: Mage Def) (5)
• Branwen, Cl/6 (Battleguard of Tempus), (HP42), C/Mail +1 & M/Shield +1 w/Warhammer +1** (S&SS*) & Gauntlet’s of Weapons Skill; Spells: D/Magic, H/Smite, R/Thinking, DUHM, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, Spirit/Hammer, Armor/Faith, Cmd, Doom, P/Evil, Shillelagh; S/Ability: Enrage, Prayer (6), (Skeleton) (AI: Cl Agg)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Toduched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
Part 1: Baldur's Gate
Since my "no magic items" run has been pretty challenging, I decided to try something a little easier: a solo run with a dwarven Shadowdancer. I won't be using most exploits, but I will be using @Grum's stealth trick to play a little safer. Our Charname this time is... yes, it's Frisky Bits again.
When I first began the run, I intended to use the basilisk XP loop to crank up my main character's levels and speed things up. But after doing it, I felt a little bored and decided to start over, this time without doing the basilisk XP loop, getting XP normally instead. Korax munches on Mutamin once I uninstall the Korax NPC mod (in which he joins the party if you don't have 6 party members already).
Tazok is a huge, huge pain. We wait out his Oil of Speed by hiding and resting, but when we try to kite him, he runs away from us constantly. He doesn't even try to engage us. I end up having to charm one of the nearby guards to help me pin him down, after I spent many minutes struggling to catch up with him.
A Shadowdancer has no spells and one base attack per round, so dealing with mages is an extremely sluggish process before we reach Baldur's Gate and gain access to Arrows of Dispelling. Rather than fight Kysus and Rezdan conventionally, we just charm them outside of Drasus' field of vision and send them to die against the nearby guards.
We sneak past everyone in the Cloakwood mines. Why do anything else if you're a solo character with access to stealth or invisibility? The mines possess lots of dangerous fights, but no unique loot. We head straight to Davaeorn and charm the guard, who lures over the Battle Horrors so we can backstab them to death.
We buy lots of high-end arrows in Baldur's Gate and go kill Ragefast, who likely would have killed us if we hadn't buffed with the Greenstone Amulet, as Frisky Bits failed their save against Confusion. Ramazith falls quickly thanks to an Arrow of Dispelling.
A Potion of Invisibility lets us escape the Ogre Magi outside Candlekeep without incident and we bomb Rieltar et al with the Necklace of Missiles before vanishing to backstab the survivors.
Cythandria is extremely dangerous due to the backstabbers at the start and the magic-immune golems, but Hide in Plain Sight makes us safe from almost any threat, and while we always have the chance of failing a skill check, we also have Shadowstep and lots of Potions of Invisibility as backups. We land a backstab and a couple of Arrows of Dispelling before finishing her off.
I use quick saves to detect Krystin (if you can't save, you know an enemy is within your field of vision), reveal her with Detect Illusions, keep the Greenstone Amulet's immunities active with two or three charges, and pepper her with Arrows of Dispelling to shear away her Stoneskins and pave the way for backstabs.
But spamming Slow spells allow us to keep the doppelgangers from breaking through the line, and Acid Arrows help thin the herd. The enemy fails to even kill Belt, much less threaten Liia Jannath.
@semiticgod are you sure you need to kill him? In my installations (whether SCS or unmodded), not only is there a dialogue route to avoid a fight but even if he attacks you can just disappear and leave him while you loot his tent. There used to be a big reward for a party to kill him - to get his bracers of weapon expertise - but the EE now places those in his tent anyway, so the gain is really only a bit of XP (which is pretty meaningless for a solo).
semiticgod wrote: »
Tazok is a huge, huge pain. We wait out his Oil of Speed by hiding and resting, but when we try to kite him, he runs away from us constantly. He doesn't even try to engage us. I end up having to charm one of the nearby guards to help me pin him down, after I spent many minutes struggling to catch up with him.
Whenever I have killed him, my game has crashed.
EDIT
My party in Icewind Dale has battled through the undead goblins and suchlike and has reached the area where they can sleep. They got badly hurt on the way there, but now they can take on just a few at a time, so it will be a bit safer.
I have forgotten this game almost completely, so it is rather challenging.
Part 2: Baldur's Gate
In preparation for SoD, we burn the last of our money on Arrows of Dispelling from Black Lily and finally hit 18 DEX using the tome in the thieves' guild. Frisky Bits doesn't have the skills to disarm the traps in the maze, so we just tank them with a pair of Potions of Magic Protection and backstab the skeletons for good measure.
But, due to sheer luck, I don't have to actually bait out any of his spells. A lucky critical hit gives us the highest-damage backstab of the run so far, and Angelo explodes.
Part 3: Siege of Dragonspear
High STR allows us to intimidate Porios, while a Protection from Undead scroll lets us safely deal with the local undead using backstabs and the Necklace of Missiles. The human enemies fall to backstabs as well.
Korlasz falls to an Arrow of Dispelling and we burn the last of our money on a bunch of Greater Restoration scrolls. In some of my installs, the scrolls are normal Restoration scrolls, but these ones also heal the target to full--really overpowered, and very useful for tanks. We might need them against Belhifet.
In Baldur's Gate, I pick up the Spectacles of Spectacle and sell off a bunch of stuff at Sorcerous Sundries (they buy stuff at higher prices than Belegarm does later on) so I can buy some more Arrows of Detonation and Arrows of Dispelling.
Frisky Bits now has an unbuffed save vs. spell of -1! Those dwarf save bonuses are really helpful.
In the undead dungeon at Coastway Crossing, a bug erroneously removes one of the quest item amulets, but I console it back in. A Protection from Undead scroll lets me deal with most of the enemies deeper in the dungeon, but the Bronze Sentry can see through both the scroll and normal invisibility, and its strong melee damage output forces me to kite it to death.
I sneak past all enemies until I arrive in the troll cave, where I foolishly decide to try backstabbing the trolls. It ends up getting me boxed in, and I have to painstakingly wear down the trolls with non-backstab attacks from invisibility in order to escape.
Backstabs get us past the guards to the Underground River. Shadowdancers are very slow at killing enemies, but they're very safe. They're one of the best classes for no-reload runs, though they're not as fun or as flashy as spellcasters or fighters.
Here we are after dealing with the Underground River.