The next random rolling saw a dark moon monk and a wild mage (so Grond0 is this class in both duo and trio for the immediate future).
We make a quick exit from Candlekeep, deal with Shoal and pick up some ankheg plate. You have it. No you have it. Sold.
With very little under our belts we strike out for the basilisks. They are fun, both of us blinding any that get antsy.
Our flawless planning sees Damomo run out of throwing daggers on Mutamin's pet basilisk. Oh dear says Grond0 and I think he means we're in for a slow kill as the wild mage attacks from range. But no, what he means is he's just about to run out of daggers too.
Unleash the hounds oil of fiery burning potion. That's the basilisk down and we just have Mutamin to annoy now. Less suggests having a rest but Damomo is stupid and presses his luck. It is well and truly pressed, at one point Less almost sacrifices herself to keep the monk alive as he is running around scared. We have 5hp left between us and although Mutamin has been unsighted we are chased by gnolls. With no spells or ranged weapons we have to outrun them and rest.
Our rest is badly interrupted several times so we decamp and rest outside the Friendly Arm Inn. On our return we are pressganged by Korax so he helps with Mutamin.
As we weren't expecting Korax, we cannot rest without upsetting him. This means we press on to Kirian with Less having used her spells on Mutamin. She tries to blur herself and this proves to be costly. How much? All of our gold?
Damomo uses his blindness ability to blind Baerin and we set about them. At one point Damomo has to flee with Peter throwing spells at him and Lindin in hot pursuit. Very risky but the monk saves against the spells and Lindin returns to be clawed by Korax.
With all the enemies dead we are somewhat constrained by still not having any ranged weapons - so rest to get some spells with which to target Korax. That'll do.
Continuing any longer in this fashion will lead to certain death so we stop for the day.
After our unfortunate death at the bandit camp of the last Trio, we have once again started a new run. We made good progress, although not without the odd death here and there. Perhaps not surprisingly the person that died was the character that couldn't where armor. Apparently that really is a problem? Anyhow, on to the details:
1) Candlekeep chores mostly done, except Grond0 was a bit slow on responding to a question from Corey_Russell and we left Candlekeep without handing Hull his sword - sorry about that Hull!
2) We picked up the ring in the Elminster area, picked up the wizard's ring, and returned Joai's ring. We also beat up Tarnesh.
3) Like usual, picked on Shoal, this gave Lassiter a level
4) Did the usual Beregost quests, including assassinating Neira for her gem bag.
5) Worked our way south to Nashkel. Lassiter soloed Neira - the others didn't bother to help since they knew Lassiter would use enrage.
6) We then helped out the kid who lost his dog, and beat up Vax and Zal. Grond0 wanted to use unfair tactics, but Corey_Russell had none of that and attacked directly which worked.
7) We then beat up Kaldo and Krumm, returned a dead cat to a little girl, and got DEX gauntlets and CHA tome (which eventually went to London). Also went north to beat up a bear and get some boots from noble.
8) Forgot to mention, on the way to get the boots from the noble, we got ambushed by a bear. Due to MP lag, London got too close to the bear and one-shotted. He might have had his darts equipped.
9) So after the temple visit, we went to Nashkel Mines and beat up Greywolf for his sword. Then we went to get the fire resistance ring and Samuel nearby. Then we made a quick stop at Beregost to beat up the spiders and then dropped off Samuel at FAI and turning in Landarin's things.
10) We had some stuff to sell so went to High Hedge and got Perdue's sword and did some selling. We figured we might as well go south and get the Ashideena from Bassilus. But this did not go to plan. Corey_Russell saw the special ability was lit and thought he had an enrage available - he did not! Plus, even though we did the correct dialogue, the undead did not disappear and turned hostile. Lassiter was duly hit with rigid thinking by Bassilus. London bravely got in Bassilus' face to try to get his attention away from Lassiter - that worked, but London paid for his bravery with his life. Lassiter and Ulder were able to get the victory. We headed to the temple to raise London.
11) Our last action of the session was to go to the Carnival, bought a scroll of protection from petrification, and Ulder and Lassiter took down Zordral.
12) We rested and saved the session, and will continue next week.
We eliminate the spider problem in Beregost then tie up the loose end called Tranzig before heading over to the bandit camp. Steady progress is made there right up to the point where Steppytoes lines up a backstab on Venkt and clicks.
Unfortunately in multiplayer, other players actions around entry / exit can have unintended consequences. Corebard chose that exact moment to enter the tent under invisibility - so instead of a forced backstab Steppytoes starts to talk to Venkt. By the time we grab our thoughts together and pick up the pieces it's almost too late.
Steppytoes casts a healing ability and makes for the door, but he has to go the long way around three enemies and this halfling's legs aren't quite up to the job. Down he goes.
Given the lack of a decent plan on my part Steppytoes may well have died even if he'd landed a backstab so can't really complain
So, I had this great tale about Dragon's Eye Second Floor, but my phone battery died (I play on the notebook and post using my phone before going to bed). The long story short is:
* Entering this floor was easy, but everything was a mess pretty quickly when I got surrounded by a lot of trolls. I escaped to the first floor, cast Mirror Image and Invisibility and my new strategy was formed: group as many enemies as possible and blast them with Skull Trap.
* This floor gave me something very important: Mother Eugenia. Now I have a safe-rest-in-RP point. I really wish that she performed the healing services for free, though.
Things were boring as hell here because I had to retreat a lot to Kuldahar to rest and recover my Skull Traps. Really, really, really boring.
---
Now that I'm on the notebook, the next segment will have a screenshot or two to show Dragon's Eye 3 in a nutshell:
To prepare for the fight: Scroll of Monster Summoning I, Scroll of Shield, Oil of Speed.
I used the Monster Summoning I at the center of the room where the Yuan-ti Mages teleports.
The creatures were not there to fight but to die. And not to be killed by the snakes but by my hand. See, I had a problem: I couldn't make a Skull Trap trigger and hit all the mages at the same time - they appear too scattered. So I positioned my minions where I would fire the ST so they could make it trigger.
Worked like a charm, all three mages fell in a single hit. I was level 16 (so 16d6 of damage) and killing them gave me my 17th level.
Next, everything in the room where Madam Y was. As I advanced inside a little (to trigger the wizards) they were approaching the door (unfortunately Y itself didn't come too). I held the line a little waiting for them to choke themselves at the door and whey they did it, another ST was fired killing pretty much everyone.
I retreated to the room above (Rooms of Bleeding) to wait for the remaining minions and they came with Y herself. A third (and last) ST closed the deal. Now it was me and Y.
She fired a Cloudkill and I retreated even further to heal some damage delivered by some Elites. That was a bad move as that gave her time to cast Animate Dead and the damn fiend got two Skeleton Archers.
I used an Oil of Speed and ran past her and her minions to the final room (Yxunomei's Chamber) and it was kitting time. She couldn't touch me and Messenger of Sseth with all the +2 arrows I have hoarded so far was doing its job but the archers were reducing my HP quicker than I had planned. I made an "All In" call and focused on the fiend and she fell pretty quickly. I'm pretty sure I also activated all the traps that had to be activated in that room.
Changing to a melee weapon (Fast Flail +2), I ended up the fight killing the undead minions.
Severed Hand is next. Finally.
---
This run is not being exactly fun, to be honest. A lot of retreating and resting and hiding, and slowly walking and kitting and using pretty much the same technique over and over again (group enemies -> Skull Trap). Let's see if things get more interesting at the Severed Hand: the scrolls I'll find there (and possibly an elven chain mail) may change a little the way I'm fighting.
The Nine Hells have been interesting in the same sense as the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times!"
The demonknight almost killed Wulfgar who was stunned, but then inexplicably changed targets.
The fireball hurt the entire party but they somehow survived.
The party had hundreds of healing potions from the Section HQ and slowly but surely recovered their health.
Dritzz then used stealth to time and time again strike the Tanari before fleeing to avoid being hit himself.
Belhifet is usually killed in much the same way but upon this occasion Drizzt got trapped between Belhifet and his cohorts.
At this point the rest of the party joined in but her too late to save Drizzt.
This will make the rest of the Nine Hells exceedingly difficult and I don't know whether the party can now survive, unless they can exit by using stealth alone.
I do not know whether that is possible. Time will tell.
I wonder if Drizzt will be raised by Elminster if they survive.
EDIT
I forgot about my raise dead scrolls. Not many left, but raising Drizzt was of utmost importance.
Marilith was disposed of but Gavin was held despite wearing a ring that protects from hold.
Another bug it seems.
Because of being held he couldn't run away to heal himself.
I can now either use another resurrection scrolll which are becoming increasingly precious or call it a day as far as the Drizzt Saga is concerned.
If I complete the Drizzt Saga, I get a rod of resurrection, so it could be worth the risk. For the rest of the saga I do get some powerful allies, Bruenor for example.
Any thoughts? I won't be playing for a couple of hours or so.
We started off with a couple of wild surges, nothing too painful for these paupers.
Of more importance was how we drew to a conclusion. Damomo was charmed twice - surviving the first attempt but injuring Less at the second. She ran away, only to have to double back as three hobgoblins appeared with their bows at the ready. As Less crumpled to the ground time ran out on the still-charmed Damomo (and Grond0 surely can't want to continue given my terrible record of late).
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 182 (update 1) Strummer (male half-elf skald, Grond0); Rackrig (male human blade, Gate70) Previous run
Another day, another run starts - this time the random selection throwing up a bardic duo. After a series of early baths recently we were a bit more cautious early on - avoiding dangerous ambushes and being slightly less prone to wandering around with almost no HPs.
The fast-levelling bards got a couple of levels each from Shoal and a few minor encounters saw another level each before moving on to find some basilisks. Strummer knew PfP, along with LMD, while Rackrig only knew PfP - so there was no shortage of protection against gaze attacks. It didn't take long to deal with the basilisks, but the lack of spells to use on Mutamin was a potential problem. In line with our slightly more cautious approach that meant he was subcontracted to Korax.
Korax managed to paralyze Kirian and she was finished off before we ran away as Korax collapsed on the floor. After resting, Rackrig used his newly learned stinking cloud spell to disable Peter and Lindin to be shot down. Baerin had chased us a little way after Korax's death and after another rest he also got the cloud treatment.
On the way back to civilization a basilisk ambushed us looking for revenge. However, Rackrig still had PfP memorized, so that encounter just provided a bit more XP - along with a stinking cloud spell for Strummer .
Rackrig had taken short sword as a melee weapon proficiency, so stinking cloud was used on Zargal and his hobgoblin pals to get his +2 sword. Then we moved on to the coast to find some sirines. With 4 stinking clouds between us, the sirines were coughing their guts up and the first 2 failed to survive. We couldn't finish off the final one before the spells expired though and it charmed and poisoned Rackrig. Strummer ran away from his companion's arrows, but then had to spend quite a while kiting a pair of worgs before being able to go back and finish off the near-death sirine.
Sil & co was a similar story, with the 2 standard sirines being killed in the cloud and Sil still clinging on to life as the cloud lifted. However, in her case a fatal arrow hit her as she tried to cast a spell. Inside the cave we shared out Baerin's +1 arrows with the aim of shooting down the golems. Strummer spotted the first and Rackrig attempted to use offensive spin for the first time - only to find himself rooted to the spot as defensive spin was accidentally triggered instead. With the golem bearing down, Rackrig's future didn't look bright and Strummer reacted by throwing caution to the wind - running at the golem himself to get it to change target, ignoring the fact he was exposed not only to its fists, but also damage from the lightning glyph trap. He managed to survive though and run the golem around long enough for it to be shot down. The second golem was no problem before offensive spin taken for real helped stop the final one in its tracks before it could reach us.
With the Lighthouse encounters having been rather more reflective of our recent gung-ho approach than the cautious start, we decided to end the session before it ended us.
SIRINE looked over @ Despenser laying across the room in one of the common beds @ the FAI. She knew he did not know. He, like she, was a Tiefling. And he certainly did not realize the young girl he called his friend, Imoen, was also of fiendish origin. She had probed him with gentle questions, but he was oblivious. She knew he was aware that the random powers he was gaining were unusual to say the least, but she sensed that since they were mostly of a healing nature, he was pursuing a righteous path, nonetheless. She had used Detect Evil on him the first time she saw him @ the Song of the Morning in Beregost – otherwise she would not have travelled with him. She was amazed at what he had carried out in just under two months & she was extremely comfortable in the party of warriors & adventurers he had assembled around him. Still, she wondered about Despenser’s destiny – for it was obvious he had one & she was a part of it.
SIRINE
BANDIT CAMP (two days earlier): Sirine thought it was over. Suddenly the woods were full of Bandits & Hobgoblins led by a massive human male in Plate Armor who was obviously Hasted. Khalid had stirred up a hornet’s nest while conducting recon & when he returned, he came @ a run. It appeared there was no way to avoid catastrophe, & certainly no way of avoiding heavy casualties. But, being a Cleric of Τηρ, Despenser is a warrior @ heart, much like a Paladin. He at once called for a hasty withdrawal which they were able to carry out. She marveled as he circled them around to come at the camp from the south. It was clear this Cleric was also a leader who could think clearly in the face of adversity.
Taugosz Khosann was pissed in a big way. He had sent all his Black Talon Elite (BTE) to Peldvale and Larswood at Tazok’s direction. He had argued the point as long as he could, but Tazok thought they were better served there to put a stop to the band of mercenaries that had destroyed the mining operation in Nashkel. With no word from his middleman, Tranzig, Tazok was worried & sensed, rightly, that they would be headed toward the Bandit Camp where his caravan raiding operation was centered. Tazok wanted them destroyed well before they made it & he thought the BTE his best bet at succeeding. He did not know the BTE had failed.
Now, the mercenaries were here & all Khosan had was bandits & Chill Hobgoblins, the former worthless, the latter stupid. Ardenor Crush, the Chief of the Chill was little better. To top it off, he was frustrated to the point of rage because the little band that amounted to nothing more than common adventurers kept evading him & the 30 some odd allies he had to defeat them with. Time & again, they would hit & run, first from the east, then from the south, each time depleting him by one or more of his troops. If only he had his BTE, he could be enjoying the spoils & notoriety defeating them would bring to him. Instead they’d already taken out about 10 of his assets. He decided, one more time, to run them down when they hit from the east. He was surprised when the adventurers spread out & let him come @ them. Then he realized he had outrun his support with his Potion of Speed & was all alone. The leader of the group used a Command on him & suddenly, as he fell, he felt strangely vulnerable. He had fallen facing them & could see one of them firing arrows at him – at least one of which hit him. But, even now, he wasn’t worried, he had been a warrior a long time – he was the best & he could take a few puny arrows. He was glad they weren’t the Arrows of Ice that are standard with his BTE. As quickly as he fell, he regained control of his ability to stand, no much worse for the wear after a couple of sword thrusts & a Magic Missile had also penetrated his armor. He knew the first one that needed to go was the one who had cast that spell. But he could not get there. Despite his best efforts, the cleric or paladin got off another, a Hold Person spell, & he was locked in the last position he had been. He was more angry than scared as they closed on him. He took hits from every direction & felt his strength fading. It was a female that came at him head on with a glowing two-handed sword that would be the last person he would ever see.
The leaders of the Bandit Camp were now vulnerable. They were powerful indeed, but they had hoped the BTE would return to eradicate Despenser once & for all. It was not to be. They were actually off-guard when the door burst open. Raemon had barely a moment to challenge his adversaries when the Oil of Fiery Burning exploded in their midst. Within a minute the Bandit Camp was no more than a ghost town.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Party info
Order of March: Khalid & Imoen (Recon team), Sirine* (shock), Despenser (lead), Valerie (Arcane), Isra* (Rear guard)
*Alternate as recon team lead & rear-guard team lead
After my last game which didn't really get started, I thought that I would try the Holy Redeemer kit which looks fairly well balanced and which I haven't tried before.
Tormpujari literally means priest of Torm or worshipper of Torm in Nepali/Hindi.
Command was extremely effective against the upgraded assassins in Candlekeep that brought my last game to a very quick end.
Sanctuary was used when Tarnesh attacked. The guards then attacked him and when he was almost dead Tormpujari again used command before moving in for the kill. At least by killing him myself, the one who had been attacked, neither the guards nor I have had any twinge of conscience about his death.
Upon going northwards, the hobgoblins were killed using command and sling. Joia's ring was then returned to her.
A merchant has a staff +3 for sale, but that is way beyond my means at the present. Tormpujari therefore headed northwards to a fishing hamlet.
Leila told about a monster that was bothering her, and when he discovered that it was a zombie, Tormpujare had no compunction about killing it.
Sonner wanted the party to attack a priestess of Umberlee to the north, however when the Redeem spell was used on him he died and thus the party gained possession of the bowl plus a +1 flail, the weapon in which Tormpujari is skilled.
The bowl was given to Tenya who then joined the party. She then helped in the killing of an Ankheg. Rajpujari went up a level at that point.
Tenya then decided that at present they should be called "The deific duo" due to them both being priests. This could of course change. She is currently level 5 and Rajpujari is a level 2 fighter and cleric.
The duo arrived in Beregost after killing a few monsters and gaining a cloak. There Drake, a follower of Tyr joined the party. Rajpujari thought that you can never have too many gods on your side, though he realised that getting an evil one on his side would be next to impossible due to his own Lawful Good Alignment. Drake is level 4.
The solo LoB Archer run is done! I mentioned some time ago that I would avoid posting on it for a while since I had to start over so frequently, but once I finally got past Belhifet, both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal were eminently doable, with few close calls. We did die once at Melissan, but since it was due to the teleport bug (a fairly recent bug in which teleporting critters can teleport on top of your circle and prevent you from moving), we had a chance to try again, and the next time around, we nailed her with Strength drain via Called Shot and the Scorcher Ammunition.
The whole thing is on video, but the run is 50 videos with nearly 40 hours of gameplay. I had hoped to edit it and speed some sections up and add commentary, but I have no experience editing videos and it could take a while. I might end up just posting the videos as they are, without commentary, but I'd like to make it a more polished product if possible.
I've discussed the run's progress over at the solo LoB thread in the Challenges and Playthroughs section, and the start of the successful run (after the restarts from Candlekeep) is right here, though it doesn't include details on early BG1 (that stuff is only mentioned in previous posts from unsuccessful attempts). It ends here.
Since I forgot to mention it earlier: @histamiini completed the first v2.5 solo LoB no-reload run yesterday! Mine was just today. His entry, Triss the Fighter/Illusionist, has already been added to the Hall of Heroes.
Tormpujari has arrived at the Nashkel mines having picked up more allies all of whom are clertics of one sort or another.
There is Aura, an Artificer/Priestess, the only thief in the party.
There is Drake a cleric of Tyr.
There is Heraldine a cleric of Kelemvor
There is Gavin a cleric of Lathander and finally
There is Tenya a cleric of Umberlee.
All are either Good or Neutral.
Tormpujari is of the opinion that you cannot have too many gods on your side.
South of Beregost he killed three of the Flaming Fist. This meant that he didn't need to buy armour for his allies.
Zargos Flintblade has just been killed.
Greywqolf is next on the agenda after which the party will attempt to complete a number of quests that they have been given: Helping Charleston Nib, Brage, killing Bassilus and the like.
I haven't played Heraldine before.
In one sense it would have been better to have had a certain gnome who is a cleric/illusionist just to have a mage in the party. However, I am curious concerning Heraldine as I don't as yet know what she has to offer.
EDIT
Forgot to mention that Aura got one-shotted by an ankheg, but as she was only level 1 it only took 100gp to raise her. Sadly she missed out on the experience of killing the ankheg as she needed it.
Tormpujari is still at level 1, Aura is level 2 in thievery but still level 1 as a cleric, Drake is a level 3 cleric, Gavin, and Helarine are level 1 clerics whilst Tenya is at level 5.
Clearly Tenya and Drake are shielding the rest of the party currently. Hopefully Greywolk's death will get some of the other clerics to level 2.
Back to the restless run! At the Cloakwood, we use the Wand of Fire and Wand of Fire to get in some quick damage and disable Genthore for 15 whole rounds. The Wand of Monster Summoning keeps the mages at bay off-screen, while Drasus moves in for the kill. Coran uses Acid Arrows to bring down Drasus, but Drasus has good AC and is very sturdy... unlike Khalid, who is a bit squishy and needs a bard song to help him maintain his morale when he feels the shadow of death descending upon him.
We finally pin down Drasus before he can kill anyone, but Jaheira is in bad shape, too. We throw more Wand of Monster Summoning charges at the mage to the northeast as we fall back. When we try to move in for the kill, though, Khalid falls to a Flame Arrow. These mages all have Stoneskins, so disrupting an early spell is not easy.
After that Flame Arrow, though, the enemy is low on spells and their defenses are running thin. We pin down the mages as well, and the fight is ours. Kagain now has the Boots of Speed!
Sneaking through the Cloakwood mines is not an option for a party as large as ours, so we have to fight our way through. We can bomb the fighters just fine, but the mages of the area are immune as long as MGOI lasts. Jaheira deploys her Wands of Fear to scatter the enemy fighters while Bardy McBardface keeps Hareishan busy with some trash summons.
We move in, thinking Hareishan won't have any game-ending spells after Chaos, but it turns out she has another casting. Fortunately, only Minsc gets confused, but even then, Hareishan is not done, and manages to paralyze Coran as well, our primary damage dealer.
Hareishan throws out Dire Charm and Charm Person, while we respond with the Wand of Fear, but none prove effective. Hareishan finally lands a charm spell on Kagain, but we still have three fighters and some summons on hand. We box her in and put her down.
We skip Natasha and the ogre mage and proceed to Davaeorn. After first using summons to lure the Battle Horrors out, Coran downs a Potion of Magic Blocking and starts firing away at Davaeorn. Davaeorn teleports over to where the party would normally be, but I know his pattern and the party is already tucked away in a side room, sparing them from his opening Sunfire. He teleports away and Coran gives chase. Coran's spectacular THAC0 makes it very easy to hit Davaeorn, and the acid from his arrows goes right through Davaeorn's defenses.
While Coran tanks Davaeorn's spells and chips away at his defenses, the rest of the party holds the line up north with the help of the Wand of Monster Summoning. The fight is already locked down, and Davaeorn can't stay afloat forever.
We now have access to Baldur's Gate! We get some thieving potions for Coran so we can do some looting over at Durlag's Tower. The local enemies yield thousands of XP, though leveling up wasn't my original goal--I'm just trying to raise funds to keep our item-dependent party flush with healing potions and wand charges and such.
We buy a trove of magical gear from Ulgoth's Beard and Sorcerous Sundries, and Coran lands fatal backstabs on both Silke and the ogre mage in the sewers. Now that I know where to get a Wand of Polymorphing, I pay a visit to a special house in BG and nail a mage with the Wand of the Heavens, which goes right through MGOI and Stoneskin.
We kill Ragefast with an Arrow of Dispelling and proceed to the Iron Throne headquarters. Only one of us can use the Wand of Fire, but several of us can use Arrows of Detonation, and Zhalimar Cloudwulfe's party can only handle so many explosions in one round.
We shoot down Aasim soon after and kill Shennara after a backstab, but the other Shennara clone is still out and about, and makes a beeline for Bardy McBardface, ignoring our fighters tanking Zhalimar and Gardush. We almost die in one hit.
Not trusting a healing potion, we instead opt for a Potion of Invisibility--a rare and precious resource, but definitely our only safe option here.
Alai re-casts Mirror Image, forcing another Arrow of Dispelling out of Coran. Since we're having difficulty getting past Zhalimar's AC, Jaheira finishes him off quickly with the Wand of the Heavens.
Shorn of his Mirror Images, Alai falls, and Gardush can't handle the pressure, either. We stave off one last backstab with the Wand of the Heavens. Notice how well-distributed the damage is across the party by the end of the fight--everyone is pretty deep in the red, but we didn't let anyone take enough heat to boil over.
We go pretty much bankrupt buying new potions and paying for healing, but our inventory is absolutely stacked with goodies. It's time to head to Candlekeep.
Speaking of restarting old runs, we also need to get back to our solo FMC! You can reasonably infer that this stuff happened a while ago and I'm still catching up to the reports, but we're going to keep using present tense because it's more suspenseful!
Anyway, we finally got past SoD, and now we have a whole new realm of monsters to stomp all over. For the first time in years, I take down the Chateau Irenicus Cambion, because I finally have the sheer power necessary to do it safely.
We avoided leveling up beyond the normal cap in SoD, but since the XP cap is removed, we still retain a lot of XP from SoD--enough to already gain access to level 5 spells like Sunfire. Early game enemies have trouble handling Sunfire, especially mages whose MGOI spells are useless against it.
We bash the Shade Lord under Protection from Undead and hike back to Athkatla to deal with the Renfeld questline, in which both Prebek and Sanasha fail saves against a fatal Greater Command spell.
With cleric buffs, mage buffs, and fighter levels, Viora is more or less invincible against anything that doesn't require epic levels and stuff. We might not be able to take a dragon, but early SoA stuff is no problem. Even Dalok isn't dangerous when we summon an efreeti to bomb him.
We try our hand against the Ruhk Transmuter, but after many rounds, I realize that the rakshasa has too many anti-magic attacks for us to hold on to our defenses long enough to get through its incredible AC and survive its strong damage output. I decide to call it quits on grabbing Batalista's Passport and head back to Athkatla, where we burn lots of gold on Vhailor's Helm, a precious item once we hit epic levels.
I'm trying to avoid exploits in this run, which means we have to fight Rayic Gethras fairly--no blasting him with his own repeating Fireball trap. Instead, we nail him with Harm and finish him off with a Flame Strike from our efreeti.
Mae'Var is hopeless. He fails a save against Chaos and then Greater Command, and his allies can barely scratch our piercing-resistant skeletons.
I really want to hit 3 million XP and start getting HLAs, but we're running out of safe quests. We grab the Shield of Balduran and start the Unseeing Eye questline, but our attempts to score a quick kill on the Unseeing Eye prove ineffective--it can still cast PFMW!
Feeling anxious about 4 rounds of total helplessness, I withdraw. A Death Tyrant floats after Viora, and I take the time to land a Harm spell.
Our skeletons slay the Death Tyrant, but the Unseeing Eye has a PFMW Spell Trigger on hand as well as a PFMW Contingency, and it even steals our Shield of Balduran when we get too close. Plus, there's a bug that causes it to constantly re-cast Spell Deflection. Afraid that the beholder might close in on us and wipe us out with an Anti-Magic Ray followed by a Death Ray or something, we summon an efreeti and try to get some damage past its defenses using Fireball. Finally, the beholder falls!
We grab the Silver Pantaloons by ransoming Lady Elgea, deliver Neb's head to earn back the lost reputation, and stop by Mencar Pennypincher et al. We disarm Smelly Porkslicer with a Remove Curse spell and fail to hit Brennan Risling with Harm, but by now... we have Power Attack! We can stun him!
Power Attack has always been the most underrated HLA in my opinion. It does so many awful things to SoA enemies, especially mages.
Forgot to mention that Aura got one-shotted by an ankheg, but as she was only level 1 it only took 100gp to raise her. Sadly she missed out on the experience of killing the ankheg as she needed it.
Tormpujari is still at level 1, Aura is level 2 in thievery but still level 1 as a cleric, Drake is a level 3 cleric, Gavin, and Helarine are level 1 clerics whilst Tenya is at level 5.
Clearly Tenya and Drake are shielding the rest of the party currently. Hopefully Greywolk's death will get some of the other clerics to level 2.
EDIT
Greywolf died.
Tormpujari is still level 1, but everyone else is now at level 2 or higher.
To kill him Tormpujari used Redeem and then just fought. Heladine used armour melt and fought whilst Tenya used her Holy Smite spells. Both Gavin and Drake tried command, but both were ineffective.
Opon speaking to Oublek Tormpujari became popular for turning down one reward and gained some gold for the emeralds. He is still level 1, but only just, 37 experience needed.
The party fought Neira and prevailed after Drake used command. Tormpujari became a level 2 priest, but is still a level 1 fighter.
A number of people want me to head west to help them whilst others want me to go down the mines. Tormpujari doesn't feel that he is ready to face demons yet so west it is for the moment.
EDIT
One blow from Krumm was enough to bring Tormpujari dangerously close to death, and despite trying to flee, Krum killed him with the second blow.
In my next game, I will allow him to level up before taking on other party members. Much safer!
Tormpujari II
This time I had a bit of a scare against Tarnesh.
Again cast sanctuary and the guards had started attacking him but then the script caused Tormpujari to cast command. He therefore attacked immediately causing severe damage and he began to think he was safe, but then the spell wore off!!!
To Tormpujari's relief by then Tarnesh was panicking and he was therefore able to complete the job with his sling. (Memo to self: Always ensure that the script is not running)
He then went to Beregost and agreed to Garrick's offer. When Silke went hostile he cast Sanctuaryu whilst Silke cast invisibility. He went to an inn to rest, cast sanctuary again and returned. Silke was now visible and he cast command followed by a melee attack. Silke was almost dead when the command spell wore off. Tormpujari cast another command spell (A further melee attack might have worked better) but Silke saved and cast lightning. End of game.
(That was a new tactic for me against Silke. A shame that it didn't work. With two party members it probably would have worked so long as the second stayed out of sight until Silke was unconcious)
I will try another character before returning to Tormpujari III
Against the upgraded assassins in Candlekeep she had to use four healing potions to survive. However, survive she did. Most of the equipment that the thieves were carrying was useless to her, however there was a sword that was highly beneficial and a belt that turned out to be cursed! However, that belt was not all bad though it could be downright dangerous to wear it in certain situations. She was unaware that it was cursed until she tried it on as she didn't have the reserves to pay for it to be identified.
She was able to buy another healing potion before she left much to her relief.
On Gorion's body there was the sort of equipment that you would expect a mage to possess, but none of it was any use to Hope other than some containers.
In Beregost she calmed Marl down and took a tome to Firebead.
EDIT
She then headed south and killed a couple of ogrillon with her crossbow before helping a little girl get her rabbit back. She took a letter to its intended recipient and is now level 2.
She then reunited Rufie with his master and was 1 point short of levelling up. She therefore went in search of an enemy to fight. A squirrel would have been fine, but she found a xvart and reached level 3. She put one point in dual weilding.
She then returned the Colquetle Amulet before taking a well-earned rest.
Durin now wants me to win back the family axe from the sirenes. He is located near the smithy in Beregost.
We put down Ramazith with an Arrow of Dispelling and a Wand of the Heavens strike before heading to Candlekeep, where the ogre mages start hurling out disablers. Unlike my solo runs, I don't have the power to cover the whole party with Potions of Clarity or Potions of Invisibility, which means we have to make some saving throws and adapt. Coran unfortunately gets blinded, crippling our top damage dealer, and Khalid gets both charmed and dominated--good for us, actually, since it means the ogre magi wasted a powerful charm spell on him.
Jaheira is blind as well, but her primary role here is to use the Wand of Fear, and blindness has no impact on it. We send the ogre magi into disarray and then tackle them one by one. With all our fighters, we are very well equipped to cut through Mirror Images.
We bomb Rieltar et al and pummel the survivors, Coran handles the traps in the catacombs, and Jaheira comes close to death when I inadvertently let her get paralyzed by a ghast, but an Arrow of Dispelling fixes her up just fine.
We blast Prat's group with fire wands and pin him down with an Arrow of Dispelling. BG1 gameplay is really dominated by items; the strength of a character isn't nearly as critical as their gear.
Next up, Cythandria! I don't take many precautions against the golems, assuming that we can simply crush them with sheer offensive power, but the penalties from Golem Slow are pretty crippling, rendering Kagain and Minsc pretty much useless against them. Bardy McBardface, Coran, and Khalid have to do the work with magical arrows.
Notice Kagain trying to drink a Potion of Absorption to make it harder for the remaining golem to hit him. As he approaches death, I realize that's a mistake, and have him down a Potion of Invisibility instead.
That leaves Minsc as the golem's next target, but Cythandria is active now, and a Web spell nets half the party because Minsc didn't have Spider's Bane equipped. Coran fortunately avoids the Web and can therefore cure Bardy McBardface and Minsc with a couple Arrows of Dispelling. With Minsc now handling Spider's Bane and our archers outside the Web, we can finish off the second golem safely.
Now we have to deal with Cythandria. Since I don't want to take the Ring of Free Action off of Bardy McBardface, I have Coran drink a Potion of Magic Blocking so he can wade through the Web spell and nail Cythandria with an Arrow of Dispelling. Minsc's HP pool will let him survive any big damage spells from Cythandria even without a Potion of Magic Blocking, but Cythandria doesn't get the chance.
For Slythe and Kristin, we wait out Kristin's PFMW (as usual, Quenash soaks up a backstab) and Kagain makes three lucky saving throws against Domination and a double Ray of Enfeeblement Minor Sequencer, letting us land an Arrow of Dispelling on Kristin. Slythe chops up Kagain very efficiently, but Kristin is highly vulnerable without her mage buffs in place.
Before Slythe can land the final blow, Kagain scurries away and we slow Slythe down with an Arrow of Dispelling before ganging up on him.
The Ducal Palace fight starts out smoothly, with Coran landing an Arrow of Dispelling on the mage on the first round.
Coran takes a big backstab from the Doppelganger Assassin, but with a charmed Ithtyl on our side, we confuse every doppelganger except for the mage and assassin. We tear apart the former before it can cast Mirror Image and then crowd around the second. The doppelgangers are in disarray.
Belt and Liia both survive the fight, and the one of the most dangerous fights goes down without a hitch largely thanks to Ithtyl's disablers and Coran's arrows--not to mention an Invisibility spell on Liia Jannath from Ithtyl before combat started.
We do some last-minute shopping and resource gathering before entering the maze.
If you remember that post a long time ago when I mentioned that Green Slimes--the pathetic, low-HP trash enemies that basically no one considers a serious threat--can actually land an instant and permanent kill on a party member who fails a save vs. death at +4. Against all odds, a Green Slime lands a hit on Khalid in the short time it has to fight, and Khalid fails his saving throw. Seconds later, Khalid explodes.
Since, again, SCS is supposed to prevent permanent deaths (and the most recent version, v32, may actually fix this bug), I can actually reload to get Khalid back, but... meh. I'll just take the hit and replace him with Shar-teel.
Here we are at the end of BG1. We haven't stopped to rest a single time since the beginning of the game, but we can rely on our gear alone to carry the party. We have almost every high-powered item in the game; it's absurd how many resources we have at our disposal.
Our battle plan for Sarevok is a little different than normal. Kagain marches into combat with a Protection from Magic scroll active and we bomb him from afar. None of our Fireballs will hurt him, but neither will they get past the same Protection from Magic scroll on Diarmid... which is why Kagain has Potions of Firebreath just to burn down the enemy archer.
Kagain takes heavy damage while trying to outrun Sarevok and company, but when I get accustomed to the kiting, he stays afloat even as the rest of the enemy suffers poison damage from a Cloudkill scroll. Meanwhile, down south, Angelo approaches us and wastes a Remove Magic spell on a fast-moving Coran who guides the spell away from the rest of the party. Angelo is not equipped to tank us when Coran has Arrows of Dispelling and such excellent THAC0.
Jaheira burns down Angelo with a Wand of the Heavens, Semaj dies in the Cloudkill, Sarevok loses his haste effect to an Arrow of Dispelling, and soon the enemy has no spells left and no ranged attackers. Missile attacks take down Tazok, and Sarevok is finally mortal.
We break apart the Skeleton Warriors and throw trash summons at Sarevok with the Wand of Monster Summoning while we strike from afar. Sarevok is doomed.
Done! Turns out a restless run of BG1 is very possible if you use quick saves and the Reform Party trick to prevent and cure fatigue, as long as you have Kagain to soak up damage and save money on healing. It's a very expensive kind of run, though, and requires some careful resource management, because every option at your disposal is cutting into your money supply.
Now we have to deal with Siege of Dragonspear. This will be a bit tougher since per-day spells become more important at higher levels, but we have an excellent trove of items to trample the opposition in SoD, and we're going to get a huge upgrade in archer quality when we switch from Coran to Corwin.
Now it's time to tackle the Shadow Thief hideout. As a Fighter/Mage/Cleric, Viora has a powerful instant kill option on certain enemies, and it's not Power Attack. It's Harm, which strikes as a +6 weapon, followed by an instant-casting Sunfire courtesy of the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power. It's pretty much just instant death unless the target has magic resistance or something.
Our clone isn't high enough level to do it, but it does have a free Power Attack, a nice backup on the off chance that Harm+Sunfire fails, as it does when we roll a critical miss against the rakshasa in the Temple sewers.
Power Attack takes down Mekrath, Sanctuary gets us past the Yuan-ti in the same area, Harm+Sunfire kills the Yuan-ti mage in the De'Arnise Keep, and Power Attack brings down the local golems and Glaicas. That just leaves TorGal himself, who doesn't have the AC to dodge a Harm spell. We follow up with Magic Missile to make sure he doesn't regenerate too much before his script checks his HP.
But TorGal stubbornly refuses to die, and the other enemies close in on us. We lose all of our buffs to Remove Magic, which seems terribly unfair--if TorGal's script was more responsive, he should have fallen down the moment we landed the Harm spell.
TorGal regenerates more than 150 HP due to his script failing to trigger and eventually we're forced to flee. More annoying still, we nearly get boxed in on the way and have to use some precious Potions of Invisibility to wiggle around the trolls, and we miss a Harm spell on our second attempt at TorGal's life.
Frustrated at the Yuan-ti's attempts to remove our buffs, we nail the one nearby mage with Power Attack, cut through its defenses, and tank TorGal without relying on Harm. That proves sufficient--as long as our buffs remain undispelled, we can handle him.
Still hungry for XP, we decide to tackle the Planar Sphere. Power Attack and Smite wreck every spellcaster except Lavok; we have the weapons to get past anything besides Absolute Immunity.
Lavok is immune to disablers due to his MINHP1.itm, but we can still get through his defenses. His Improved Mantle buff and numerous Stoneskins are difficult for a Fighter/Mage/Cleric to get past, since we can't use the Darts +5 from the Cloak of Stars, but now that we're at epic levels, we can use Whirlwind Attack on Viora and her clone to achieve 20 collective APR even with the Sling of Everard, more than enough to get through Lavok's Stoneskins.
All that's left is to kill the Tanar'ri so we can steal its heart, but it deals several dozen damage to us via Vampiric Touch, inspiring us to go grab the Belt of Inertial Barrier from Trademeet when we get back. Having 50% item-based magic damage resistance is a strong alternative to the Cloak of Mirroring, since we'll only get the cloak after Spellhold.
Now I want to deal with Kangaxx. The Elemental Lich dies to the Mace of Disruption very quickly, but the Shade Lich survives and gets Time Stop off the ground. We wait out the lich's PFMW spells in the hall and hurry back, quickly casting SI: Conjuration and SI: Abjuration to avoid an Insect Plague and Remove Magic from a Fallen Planetar and Cornugon. By excellent luck, we land a quick kill and get to hurry away without fussing with demons or celestials.
Before fighting Kangaxx, we use Smite to slay Gaius in the Temple sewers and the Ruhk Transmuter over at Firkraag's place just in case we have to tank any Comet or Dragon's Breath spells.
Unfortunately, we can't use a Protection from Undead scroll on Kangaxx himself--not just because this is a low- or zero-exploit run, but because we can't remove it with an Arrow of Dispelling due to cleric weapon restrictions. That means we can't halt his script and instead have to use the scroll on ourselves. We have SI: Abjuration on hand, but by steering clear of Kangaxx's summons, we can dodge a Remove Magic rather than blocking it.
Liches fighting characters with Protection from Undead scrolls active have to use visible targets to cast Remove Magic, so they can only cast Remove Magic on themselves or a summoned critter.
We kite the Cornugon with the Sling of Everard and eventually start making progress on Kangaxx himself, who fails to summon a Fallen Planetar to pester us. Without the Cornugon, his only target for Remove Magic is the Magical Sword, and we can easily outrun it.
Kangaxx transforms, and both Viora and her newly-spawned clone nail him with the Ring of the Ram. The nonmagical magic damage goes right past all of his defenses, but unfortunately it's not enough to take down his 50 maximum HP, and we have to fight him normally.
He summons some Glabrezus, but thankfully they get into a fight with each other and don't bother us much. We do lose our clone to imprisonment, however.
We knock down the demons with the Sling of Everard and get to work on Kangaxx with the Mace of Disruption +2. With his mediocre save vs. death, it's only a matter of time before he collapses.
Hope headed south and killed a couple of ogrillon with her crossbow before helping a little girl get her rabbit back. She took a letter to its intended recipient and reached level 2.
She then reunited Rufie with his master and was 1 point short of levelling up. She therefore went in search of an enemy to fight. A squirrel would have been fine, but she found a xvart and reached level 3. She put one point in dual weilding.
She then returned the Colquetle Amulet before taking a well-earned rest.
Durin now wants me to win back the family axe from the sirenes. He is located near the smithy in Beregost.
Hope headed North, picking up a ring of protection +1 before progressing to the FAI where she fought Tarnesh.
She used her true sight to get rid of Tarnesh's mirror image. The ensuing fight caused Tarnesh to die simultaneously with Hope being panicked! Hope therefore had to wait some time before the spell wore off.
However, wore off it did. It just needed patience, one of the other fruits other than Hope that are available to those who are good.
It was now time to go hunting hobgoblins who might have Joia's Flamedance Ring.
After killing the hobgoblins, Hope headed North and helped a woman by killing her undead husband.
Some fishermen then told her a cock and bull story about an evil priestess of Umberlee. However upon casting detect evil she discovered that the fishermen were the evil ones. She therefore killed them rather than the priestess.
If the priestess turns out to be evil too, she might well have to die also.
She then went south where she bought a rabbit and went on to an area where she found a ring of resistance to fire. In the same area she met Samuel and took him to the FAI. She took the ring to Joia and then went to High hedge. She tried to help Mellicamp but was unsuccessful, and the same went for helping Tonder. However she was given a decent sword (Long Sword +1, +1 Fire Damage) for taking the body to High Hedge.
By that time she was level 4.
EDIT
She is well aware that a belt that she took from the assassins in Candlekeep is in fact cursed. It helps her against slashing weapons, so it helped the assassin against her by increasing his armour protection, but on the down side it reduces armour protection against crushing weapons. She is therefore reluctant to take on Bassilus as she is well aware that a cleric will in all probability use a crushing weapon. At present, she does not have the gold to remove the belt as she spent nearly all her gold on the bolts of lightning which she used to kill the werewolf. She only has twelve of those left.
She went to the ankheg fields next, taking care not to fight more than one at a time as fighting just one she was often seriously injured and had to leave to find somewhere safe to rest. However, their shells will bring in a considerable amount of wealth and they also give considerable experience, so she slowly plugged away at them until the nest was empty and she had returned the body of Farmer Brun's son to him.
By that time she had reached level 5. However there were a few ankheg still to clear, which she did before going to sell the shells. With the gold she bought all the green scrolls from the Nashkell Carnival, the necklace of missiles and a couple of critical healing scrolls. She now has 61 gp left so anything else will have to wait.
Whilst at the Carnival she helped Bentha.
And then went to deal with Mutamin and others:
She has now joined up with level 7 Cleric of Lathander, Gavin and Priestess/Artificer Aura
(Level 5 Cleric/Level 5 Thief). Unlike other thieves she is of Lawful Good alignment and so is of the same alignment as Hope. Needless to say, with that alignment, she won't be doing much in the way of pickpocketting, though she did get Algernon's Cloak.
She then went to Gullykin where Indira, a level 4 fighter/ level 4 mage joined the party. This leaves the party fairly well balanced.
The bold bard breezed through Upper Dorn's Deep. Stoneskin, Mirror Image and Fireshield made sure no Orog could touch him.
A Potion of Absorption was used to deal with all the Ettins in a single run. Ditto for a Potion of Clarity against the myconids.
The drow did try to stop me but in IWDEE they're not half as scary as in BG2EE. And I'm getting lucky with Skull Trap as it is bypassing their MR quite often.
Cone of Cold is another beast. As I'm level 29 now, it delivers 29d4+29 damage. Enough to stop pretty much everything (and a great spell for chocking spots, by the way).
I found a merchant that gave me more scrolls. He is my new rest stop but I didn't rest so far.
With the Axe of Caged Souls and the Fast Flail the undead at the dwarven cemetery were no threat - even the lich and greater mummies. I also got the White Bishop and a chain mail that gives me regeneration what closes the only weak spot of this character.
Definitely IWDEE was not designed for a single-character. You're either too weak or too strong and concentrating all the loot over one person changes the balance.
I'm now at the wyrm tooth glacier (IIRC the name) and something finally gave me trouble: snow trolls. Precisely a bug with snow trolls were they can't be killed at all. Neither fire or acid could kill them for good once they've fell.
I wonder if Ctrl+Y them after dealing a fire/acid blow (that should kill them) is ok by this thread's rules. Otherwise I'll just run past them invisible - that breaks my "kill everything on the map" rule but I'm okay with that as it is due to a bug.
This section of the game is quite easy, even with a regular level party so I believe I won't give interesting reports for a while.
I started this game wondering if I would be able to reach Yxunomei, now I wonder if Belhifet will put up a fight.
@Raduziel: If a bug makes an enemy immortal, CTRL-Y is equal to a bugfix. I've actually used CTRL-Q on some bugged ToB Fire Trolls so I could use Reform Party to get them off the map.
~ The Vale of Shadows: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie ~
Fights in the Vale mostly follow the same formula. When possible, we send in our summons first to take the flak; now we also have Beetles from Anaya and more Skeletons/Zombies from Phlebas. I used to spam Quicksave/Quickload till I got all Skeletons from Animate Dead; now I accept whatever comes my way, and actually, in their way, Zombies are pretty powerful here (although painfully slow-moving), since they deal crushing damage, which is good against enemy Skellies.
The game designers have one trick they use repeatedly. On entering a new area, they often like to drop you in the middle of a large group of enemies, which leads to an intense and exciting battle where you have to expend quite a few resources. The result is usually pretty immersive, though may start to grow a little stale after the 100th time. It also makes summoning a harder tactic to use, because the enemies immediately target our party members, forcing us to expend auras on crowd-control and self-buffs; these can buy us a little more time/tanking ability to allow summoning later.
~ Tomb-o Numero Uno ~
We enter, and hey-presto, we’re surrounded by Skellies! Carefully positioning our front-liners we attract enemy attention, whilst the back rows toss Grease to slow down the crowd. Fango gets to work summoning some support. Gradually we wear down their ranks, taking a fair bit of damage in the process, and eventually dispatch the last Skelly in the foyer.
Linaea starts exploring under Stealth, alternating resetting her timer and Detecting Traps. Note that Stealth is one ability I allow myself to reload on, since in the Original IWD it’s quite buggy (the timer doesn’t reset if you break Stealth with another action, so either you wait 10 seconds after reactivating Stealth [which means no other actions allowed], or you Q and L to reset it). Around the corner she sneaks up on a Carrion Crawler: a slow but deadly foe, since its attack can Paralyse. She sticks an arrow in it, lures it back round the corner to the party, then Dundas stuns it with an Orb, which allows us to take it down safely.
The rest of the tomb follows the shape of Playing It Very Safe. Linaea sneaks up and disarms traps, then looses an arrow at an enemy to lure it round the corner, where a front-liner like Hwynevyr or Anaya takes its attention and tanks it while the rest hammer it down with missiles. Dundas, naturally, is always singing. We take a few hits, but eventually clear the place out.
We head back to Kuldahar to replenish our spells and health.
~ Tomb-o Numero Due ~
On the way along the ledges and cliffs of the Vale we find and kill a few Yetis using Orbs and missiles. Hwynevyr’s HP are now the same as Anaya’s, and she has Prot. from Evil so I will usually give her the lead from now on.
In the second tomb we encounter another more significant nasty: a Ghast, which can inflict Disease and Paralysis on hit. For some reason those abilities had slipped my mind, or I had imagined Paladins were better at tanking, or something else idiotic, since we send Hwynevyr in to take its attention and lo and behold, she gets Paralysed. She’s surrounded by Skeletons, and attacks on her are auto-hits.
Thankfully Fango had earlier begun casting Animate Dead, which kicks in at around the same time. Hwyn takes some damage but by carefully attacking and positioning the undead allies we manage to draw the enemies’ attention away from our almost doomed Paladin, eventually taking out the Ghast. Anaya applies Spike Growth and Entangle, plus some Grease from Phlebas and Linaea, to immobilise and wear down some of the enemy Skeletons. I eventually send in Fango to help in melee, but for some reason his combat skills seem fairly lacking, and he takes heavy damage. Hwyn’s still taking damage, so I send Phlebas on Cure Serious Wounds duties, then her Paralysis wears off and she escapes, so I pull all three back, and our summons plus missiles finally finish them off. A close call, and I would have to be more careful from now on.
We space Bombardier Beetles around then Anaya activates the Lesser Shadows Trap. The beetles' acid stuns the Shadows, and our missiles send them back to the grave. We also find a precious Potion of Genius, hoarding it for later.
Back to Kuldahar to rest. Then moving to the central piazza we Orb and Beetle-Bomb Yetis, their Chieftain giving us a Long Sword +1. Hwyn is starting to get pretty mean in melee, though HoF nasties still hit harder, we just gang up on ‘em.
~ Abominab-b-b-ble Snowmen ~
We buff up with our remaining spells then step into the Ice Cave, getting surrounded almost instantly. Orbs fly and Dead rise, and we eventually put the Yetis down, using much the same tactics as before. Here, though, we can apply Horror, since the Yetis aren’t (yet) dead, which breaks up their ranks a bit.
We find another Mind Focusing Potion, plus a Mace +1 which goes to Fango. These magical weapons will be crucial in Kresselack’s Tomb. Then we return Mirek’s necklace for more XP, and rest again since we’re out of spells.
~ Tomb-o Numero Tre ~
Stepping inside, we try crowd-control to break up the attack on us, but the fight drags on and eventually Hwyn has to step up to the front. I make a miscalculated decision, using Anaya to summon Beetles, which turn out to be Bombardiers. They immediately let loose their acid, and despite Hwyn’s decent and buffed saves, she gets stunned, surrounded by enemy Skeletons, quickly taking massive damage.
Sadly she’s not as lucky this time. (The pressures of the front line.) Anaya and Fango take point, taking plenty of damage, but eventually we put the Skellies back in their grave.
Here’s a little trick I’ve not seen anywhere else: buy Raise Dead Scrolls from Temples, since they’re cheaper than the Spell, don’t scale up in price by level of the character to be Raised, and save you the time of traipsing back to town. Phlebas now uses one I bought earlier.
We rest a bit then carefully clear out the remaining Skeletons. Linaea finds a Huge Bow, which she uses for now, since her THAC0 and APR are pretty good and increasing her Damage output even just a couple of points per hit is a boost to whittling down deep HP pools.
~ Tomb-o IV ~
Here we discuss the ethics of tomb-raiding with Therik, who disagrees with us, so we kill him ‘cause we’re on a mission from a druid. He gives us a useless potion and a sword only our Bard is proficient in. We’ll stockpile these items along with everything else. [In fact until Dundas has bought and successfully scribed Friends we will avoid selling as much of our high-gains loot as possible, instead storing everything in the chest we looted in Conlan’s smithy. We won’t be doing any scribing for a while…]
Then we go and kill a lot more undead nasties.
~ The Tomb of the Black Wolf Level 1: Bone-dancing and Tomb-Raiding ~
Inside the main dungeon of the area we bait Skeletons, Zombies and Temple Guardians, luring them into the entrance foyer, since they don’t employ Call to Arms. In a treasure chest we find a second Long Sword +1, this time for Linaea. This sets us up for the Wight in the second left room from the radioactive jacuzzi: the first enemy to necessitate magical weaponry. We surround it with our four Plus-One-ers (actually Conlan’s Hammer has +1 THAC0 but hits as +5) as well as Boring Beetles to increase possible targets, and hack away. Eventually it falls. The Gauntlets of Weapon Skill (+1 THAC0) go to Linaea, currently our highest percentage killer with her bow. We find another Potion of Genius.
Mytos has some interesting things to say to our Paladin Hwynevyr, who debates the ethics of “Bone-dancing” (Necromancy) with him for extra XP. Then he drops all pretence and attacks, but since we’d already lured away his Temple Guardians with a Stealthed Linaea controlling undead minions, he doesn’t get much chance to do anything, and falls quickly.
Myrkul’s Sending is a much tougher beastie, also requiring magical weapons, and hitting hard, accurately and fast. We still nail it, using the same strategy as for the Wight, and pulling away anybody who gets overly injured.
Then there are more Skeletons to kill and trapped tombs to raid. (The Skellies are annoying because they fill the hallway behind you when you open the tomb, which can spell death to the would-be raider. We meta-game our way around it by summoning Not-So-Boring Beetles and spacing them out along the corridor. Then Linaea triggers the Skellies and slaloms out past the Beetles.)
We move to the right-hand corridor from Mytos’ Hallway. At the end of each long stretch there are Skeleton Archers with Fire Arrows: we want those arrows; so we carefully lure them back to the prior corner, then force them into melee against our summons, before they can use too many arrows.
The Mummy behind the secret door can be nasty, since it also hits hard, and causes Mummy Rot, which if left untreated will kill a character. We hack away again with our magical weapons, and careful positioning/targeting means only Fango gets the Rot, which Hwynevyr afterwards Cures.
We find a useless Giant Halberd (slow, inaccurate and gives an AC penalty to the wielder), then continue down the corridor. Beetles and missiles make short work of the Temple Guardians, and we’re through to level 2.
~ The Tomb of the Black Wolf Level 2: A Bony Mage is Still a Mage ~
We rest before entering, and Phlebas memorises his new Defensive Harmony (I love HoF just for getting high-level spells early!), since there’ll be cramped-quarter fighting coming up. Linaea Hides (just in case) and then triggers the hallway trap, causing Tattered Skeletons to rise from their graves, our own undead taking the initial heat. The fighting gets a bit tense with the Tattereds not always targeting whom I want, but with our buffs and melee weapons eventually we beat them down. Then we lure the Skeleton Archers from the staircase, stealing any nice arrows they leave behind.
We initiate combat with the Skeletal Mage, a dangerous foe, but we stay well back, choosing to send in our undead summons. His opener is always Stinking Cloud, which can prove fatal to party members, since the undead are immune to it. We surround him, up the missile pressure, and he also falls.
Our Skellies tank the Imbued Wights’ Magic Missiles, and then we pull back, allowing us to surround them and smash them with our magical weapons (turns out a lot of undead are immune to normal weaponry…)
We gradually beat our way through the rest of the undead on this level, finding a Reinforced Large Shield +1 (10% Slashing Resistance for Hwynevyr; IWD likes to give you plenty of physical damage resistance, unlike BG!), a Wand of Armory (casts Shield or Ghost Armor, 19 charges each, going to Linaea or Phlebas, as required), and the Black Wolf Talisman (+10HP, 10% Cold Res., +1 Save vs. Breath; I give it to Anaya, since we’ll need two front-liners shortly), which is the key to unlocking the next level. We rest, open the door, buff to our eyelids, and get cracking. Skulls, that is.
~ The Tomb of the Black Wolf Level 3: You Are the Chosen Zombie ~
The opening battle is a little tricky, but our tactics have all been explained before, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
We take some heavy damage, but careful micro-managing allows us to squeeze through. (Linaea knows the Shield spell, so she uses that, whereas Phlebas uses the new Wand.)
We heal up and press forward, to the right-hand room. There are floor traps (Magic Missile), Shadows and a Mummy. It might have been prudent to rest up completely, but by this point we’re starting to get more options available to us, and the doorway is a decent choke-point, so we try our luck. Linaea Sneaks in and then triggers the trap, absorbing it with her still active Shield. Then we block up the doorway with Entangle, Grease and start hitting the approaching enemies with Spike Growth (our normal missiles are useless against them). Phlebas tosses in Curse when they are grouped together, to hamper their Saves. The killing field takes out mostly everything, except the Mummy, which subsequently saves against Dundas’ last Chromatic Orb.
As it shambles towards us, we run through our options. Anaya hits it with Alicorn Lance, inflicting piddling damage and a useful AC penalty. Hwyn steps forward, relying on her saves to avoid the Mummy rot. Dundas fires a Melf’s Acid Arrow, every point of damage contributing, the other Plus-One-ers follow Hwynevyr, and at last we bring it down.
A few Shadows remain but they’re child’s play compared with the Mummy. Then with Beetles we clear out the rest of the main hall here, taking care not to stray too close to the left-hand room for now.
We rest on Level 2, then return and Linaea Shields up to take the Imbued Wights’ Magic Missiles in the other room. I forget that some of the Zombies here have been buried with a jar of steroids or something, and Linaea gets a glancing blow on her way out.
We set up another killing field, since we’re a bit bored of summons at this point. Linaea lures them around it, and any that get through are soundly beaten up. There’s another Mummy, but we have more health, buffs and grit, so we stand there and wail on it. Then Dundas lobs in an Orb and its game over.
Chosen Zombies hit hard, but Linaea gets her revenge here!
After we finish them off, we heal up and summon some minions: there’s another Skeletal Mage ahead. We lure as many of his allies away as possible, then trigger the battle. I try a tactic I’ve been considering: a scroll of Silence 15’ Radius to shut down the Mage. Annoyingly he saves! We move to a more traditional approach.
We smash up the remaining Skellies, and open the final door to confront Kresselack. He asks us to go beat up some tavern wench, in return for info on what’s going on. We agree, and head over without resting.
~ Lysan, It’s Your Birthday! ~
We trigger the combat with Hwyn and Linaea surrounding the poor lass, although Linaea’s backstab misses, and Lysan hits us with Silence 15’ Radius herself. (She’s left unaffected.)
Linaea takes heavy damage, and I decide to get the pair out.
It’s a bit naughty, but it was this or lose the battle: we were out of spells, surrounded by heavy hitters, and our two best tanks were on death’s door. We step outside and run away to rest. Back outside the ice cave, we buff properly. Inside, Dundas shows his worth with yet another Chromatic Orb. Linaea scatters the Yetis with Horror. Phlebas tries the Skeletal Mages’ trick: Stinking Cloud + Undead Minions. Lysan usually saves against the Sleep effect, but an Alicorn Lance keeps her from getting a spell off. For some reason she's immune to normal weapons (yeah, I don't really understand the logic), so it’s imperative we close with her soon.
At last Phlebas gets in his own Silence Spell, and it sticks. Now she’s just a melee-er.
We fell the Yetis, and then a Chromatic Orb spells her doom.
We head back to Kressy, who happily gloats that he knew nothing all along about any Tree, but then gives us his sword and armour for being such good sports. The two-hander doesn’t find much use from us, but that black armour and helmet look super sweet.
A random Fine Long Sword +1 (+2 THAC0) from the sarcophagus goes to Hwynevyr, and back at the Root Cellar Tavern we inform the barkeep about his barmaid’s worship of Auril, and he passes over her Mantle of the Coming Storm (+30%Fire/Cold Res.; for the life of me I can't see why she wasn't already wearing it?!). We rest up before we chat with Arundel, who asks us to go and find some Stone or Heart or Gem or something!
[I'm still trying to work out how much detail to go into here. The problem is that in HoF pretty much every early battle is tense and tricky, and I don't want to miss out tactics that others might be interested in for their similar play-through. Equally I don't want to bore people with an excessively blow-by-blow account. Thoughts?]
Hope joined up with Neera and then went to get an axe which a sirene has on the coast. However the sirene wouldn't talk and didn't go hostile even when hurt by Holy Smite spells, (My method of determining whether someone is evil) Hope killed it and got the axe.
Neera was chunked in the battle with Droth who was then killed, as was Shoal.
I didn't really want Neera in the party, but role-playing insisted that I take her. It was therefore not a big deal when she was killed.
@Raduziel: When documenting my runs, I tend to skim over the fights where nothing went wrong and our tactics were the same as normal. For fights where we use different tactics than I've discussed previously in a run, I'll go into more detail. I spend the most time and attention on fights where stuff went wrong and we had to improvise. The more unique the fight, and the harder the fight, the more time I'll spend on it. If multiple consecutive fights play out the same way, I'll skip over them entirely.
I make a point of taking screenshots at key turning points (a party members dies, a spell gets off the ground, an enemy appears, a status effect is applied, etc.) and calling attention to them in my reports.
Comments
Damomo (male dark moon monk, Gate70);Less (female wild mage, Grond0)
The next random rolling saw a dark moon monk and a wild mage (so Grond0 is this class in both duo and trio for the immediate future).
We make a quick exit from Candlekeep, deal with Shoal and pick up some ankheg plate. You have it. No you have it. Sold.
With very little under our belts we strike out for the basilisks. They are fun, both of us blinding any that get antsy.
Unleash the hounds oil of fiery burning potion. That's the basilisk down and we just have Mutamin to annoy now. Less suggests having a rest but Damomo is stupid and presses his luck. It is well and truly pressed, at one point Less almost sacrifices herself to keep the monk alive as he is running around scared. We have 5hp left between us and although Mutamin has been unsighted we are chased by gnolls. With no spells or ranged weapons we have to outrun them and rest.
Our rest is badly interrupted several times so we decamp and rest outside the Friendly Arm Inn. On our return we are pressganged by Korax so he helps with Mutamin.
Damomo uses his blindness ability to blind Baerin and we set about them. At one point Damomo has to flee with Peter throwing spells at him and Lindin in hot pursuit. Very risky but the monk saves against the spells and Lindin returns to be clawed by Korax.
Lassiter - gnomish berserker, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Ulder - half-elf cleric/ranger, 0 deaths (Gate70)
London - half-elf shapeshifter, 2 deaths (Grond0)
Entering challenge with these characters:
His groupmates:
After our unfortunate death at the bandit camp of the last Trio, we have once again started a new run. We made good progress, although not without the odd death here and there. Perhaps not surprisingly the person that died was the character that couldn't where armor. Apparently that really is a problem? Anyhow, on to the details:
1) Candlekeep chores mostly done, except Grond0 was a bit slow on responding to a question from Corey_Russell and we left Candlekeep without handing Hull his sword - sorry about that Hull!
2) We picked up the ring in the Elminster area, picked up the wizard's ring, and returned Joai's ring. We also beat up Tarnesh.
3) Like usual, picked on Shoal, this gave Lassiter a level
4) Did the usual Beregost quests, including assassinating Neira for her gem bag.
5) Worked our way south to Nashkel. Lassiter soloed Neira - the others didn't bother to help since they knew Lassiter would use enrage.
6) We then helped out the kid who lost his dog, and beat up Vax and Zal. Grond0 wanted to use unfair tactics, but Corey_Russell had none of that and attacked directly which worked.
7) We then beat up Kaldo and Krumm, returned a dead cat to a little girl, and got DEX gauntlets and CHA tome (which eventually went to London). Also went north to beat up a bear and get some boots from noble.
8) Forgot to mention, on the way to get the boots from the noble, we got ambushed by a bear. Due to MP lag, London got too close to the bear and one-shotted. He might have had his darts equipped.
9) So after the temple visit, we went to Nashkel Mines and beat up Greywolf for his sword. Then we went to get the fire resistance ring and Samuel nearby. Then we made a quick stop at Beregost to beat up the spiders and then dropped off Samuel at FAI and turning in Landarin's things.
10) We had some stuff to sell so went to High Hedge and got Perdue's sword and did some selling. We figured we might as well go south and get the Ashideena from Bassilus. But this did not go to plan. Corey_Russell saw the special ability was lit and thought he had an enrage available - he did not! Plus, even though we did the correct dialogue, the undead did not disappear and turned hostile. Lassiter was duly hit with rigid thinking by Bassilus. London bravely got in Bassilus' face to try to get his attention away from Lassiter - that worked, but London paid for his bravery with his life. Lassiter and Ulder were able to get the victory. We headed to the temple to raise London.
11) Our last action of the session was to go to the Carnival, bought a scroll of protection from petrification, and Ulder and Lassiter took down Zordral.
12) We rested and saved the session, and will continue next week.
Steppytoes - Halfling Fighter/Thief (Gate70)
Dizzy - Elf Wild Mage (Grond0)
Corebard- Human Bard (Corey_Russell)
We eliminate the spider problem in Beregost then tie up the loose end called Tranzig before heading over to the bandit camp. Steady progress is made there right up to the point where Steppytoes lines up a backstab on Venkt and clicks.
Unfortunately in multiplayer, other players actions around entry / exit can have unintended consequences. Corebard chose that exact moment to enter the tent under invisibility - so instead of a forced backstab Steppytoes starts to talk to Venkt. By the time we grab our thoughts together and pick up the pieces it's almost too late.
Steppytoes casts a healing ability and makes for the door, but he has to go the long way around three enemies and this halfling's legs aren't quite up to the job. Down he goes.
Problem solved.
* Entering this floor was easy, but everything was a mess pretty quickly when I got surrounded by a lot of trolls. I escaped to the first floor, cast Mirror Image and Invisibility and my new strategy was formed: group as many enemies as possible and blast them with Skull Trap.
* This floor gave me something very important: Mother Eugenia. Now I have a safe-rest-in-RP point. I really wish that she performed the healing services for free, though.
Things were boring as hell here because I had to retreat a lot to Kuldahar to rest and recover my Skull Traps. Really, really, really boring.
---
Now that I'm on the notebook, the next segment will have a screenshot or two to show Dragon's Eye 3 in a nutshell:
Lurk, gather, explode, repeat.
To prepare for the fight: Scroll of Monster Summoning I, Scroll of Shield, Oil of Speed.
I used the Monster Summoning I at the center of the room where the Yuan-ti Mages teleports.
The creatures were not there to fight but to die. And not to be killed by the snakes but by my hand. See, I had a problem: I couldn't make a Skull Trap trigger and hit all the mages at the same time - they appear too scattered. So I positioned my minions where I would fire the ST so they could make it trigger.
Worked like a charm, all three mages fell in a single hit. I was level 16 (so 16d6 of damage) and killing them gave me my 17th level.
Next, everything in the room where Madam Y was. As I advanced inside a little (to trigger the wizards) they were approaching the door (unfortunately Y itself didn't come too). I held the line a little waiting for them to choke themselves at the door and whey they did it, another ST was fired killing pretty much everyone.
I retreated to the room above (Rooms of Bleeding) to wait for the remaining minions and they came with Y herself. A third (and last) ST closed the deal. Now it was me and Y.
She fired a Cloudkill and I retreated even further to heal some damage delivered by some Elites. That was a bad move as that gave her time to cast Animate Dead and the damn fiend got two Skeleton Archers.
I used an Oil of Speed and ran past her and her minions to the final room (Yxunomei's Chamber) and it was kitting time. She couldn't touch me and Messenger of Sseth with all the +2 arrows I have hoarded so far was doing its job but the archers were reducing my HP quicker than I had planned. I made an "All In" call and focused on the fiend and she fell pretty quickly. I'm pretty sure I also activated all the traps that had to be activated in that room.
Changing to a melee weapon (Fast Flail +2), I ended up the fight killing the undead minions.
Severed Hand is next. Finally.
---
This run is not being exactly fun, to be honest. A lot of retreating and resting and hiding, and slowly walking and kitting and using pretty much the same technique over and over again (group enemies -> Skull Trap). Let's see if things get more interesting at the Severed Hand: the scrolls I'll find there (and possibly an elven chain mail) may change a little the way I'm fighting.
The demonknight almost killed Wulfgar who was stunned, but then inexplicably changed targets.
The fireball hurt the entire party but they somehow survived.
The party had hundreds of healing potions from the Section HQ and slowly but surely recovered their health.
Dritzz then used stealth to time and time again strike the Tanari before fleeing to avoid being hit himself.
Belhifet is usually killed in much the same way but upon this occasion Drizzt got trapped between Belhifet and his cohorts.
At this point the rest of the party joined in but her too late to save Drizzt.
This will make the rest of the Nine Hells exceedingly difficult and I don't know whether the party can now survive, unless they can exit by using stealth alone.
I do not know whether that is possible. Time will tell.
I wonder if Drizzt will be raised by Elminster if they survive.
EDIT
I forgot about my raise dead scrolls. Not many left, but raising Drizzt was of utmost importance.
Marilith was disposed of but Gavin was held despite wearing a ring that protects from hold.
Another bug it seems.
Because of being held he couldn't run away to heal himself.
I can now either use another resurrection scrolll which are becoming increasingly precious or call it a day as far as the Drizzt Saga is concerned.
If I complete the Drizzt Saga, I get a rod of resurrection, so it could be worth the risk. For the rest of the saga I do get some powerful allies, Bruenor for example.
Any thoughts? I won't be playing for a couple of hours or so.
Damomo (male dark moon monk, Gate70);Less (female wild mage, Grond0)
We started off with a couple of wild surges, nothing too painful for these paupers.
Bladeservant carried on into icewind Dale where the party was destroyed by a Dragon.
I think that this death could have been avoided using knowlege that I have, but the characters in the game didn't. I try to avoid powergaming though.
Good game though.
My next game didn't even get outide Candlekeep. The new and improved Mendas edited by yours truly killed my fighter/illusionist.
Strummer (male half-elf skald, Grond0); Rackrig (male human blade, Gate70)
Previous run
Another day, another run starts - this time the random selection throwing up a bardic duo. After a series of early baths recently we were a bit more cautious early on - avoiding dangerous ambushes and being slightly less prone to wandering around with almost no HPs.
The fast-levelling bards got a couple of levels each from Shoal and a few minor encounters saw another level each before moving on to find some basilisks. Strummer knew PfP, along with LMD, while Rackrig only knew PfP - so there was no shortage of protection against gaze attacks. It didn't take long to deal with the basilisks, but the lack of spells to use on Mutamin was a potential problem. In line with our slightly more cautious approach that meant he was subcontracted to Korax.
Korax managed to paralyze Kirian and she was finished off before we ran away as Korax collapsed on the floor. After resting, Rackrig used his newly learned stinking cloud spell to disable Peter and Lindin to be shot down. Baerin had chased us a little way after Korax's death and after another rest he also got the cloud treatment.
On the way back to civilization a basilisk ambushed us looking for revenge. However, Rackrig still had PfP memorized, so that encounter just provided a bit more XP - along with a stinking cloud spell for Strummer
Rackrig had taken short sword as a melee weapon proficiency, so stinking cloud was used on Zargal and his hobgoblin pals to get his +2 sword. Then we moved on to the coast to find some sirines. With 4 stinking clouds between us, the sirines were coughing their guts up and the first 2 failed to survive. We couldn't finish off the final one before the spells expired though and it charmed and poisoned Rackrig. Strummer ran away from his companion's arrows, but then had to spend quite a while kiting a pair of worgs before being able to go back and finish off the near-death sirine.
Sil & co was a similar story, with the 2 standard sirines being killed in the cloud and Sil still clinging on to life as the cloud lifted. However, in her case a fatal arrow hit her as she tried to cast a spell. Inside the cave we shared out Baerin's +1 arrows with the aim of shooting down the golems. Strummer spotted the first and Rackrig attempted to use offensive spin for the first time - only to find himself rooted to the spot as defensive spin was accidentally triggered instead. With the golem bearing down, Rackrig's future didn't look bright and Strummer reacted by throwing caution to the wind - running at the golem himself to get it to change target, ignoring the fact he was exposed not only to its fists, but also damage from the lightning glyph trap. He managed to survive though and run the golem around long enough for it to be shot down. The second golem was no problem before offensive spin taken for real helped stop the final one in its tracks before it could reach us.
Strummer, skald L6, 43 HPs, 37 kills
Rackrig, blade L6, 44 HPs, 30 kills, 0 deaths
SIRINE
BANDIT CAMP (two days earlier): Sirine thought it was over. Suddenly the woods were full of Bandits & Hobgoblins led by a massive human male in Plate Armor who was obviously Hasted. Khalid had stirred up a hornet’s nest while conducting recon & when he returned, he came @ a run. It appeared there was no way to avoid catastrophe, & certainly no way of avoiding heavy casualties. But, being a Cleric of Τηρ, Despenser is a warrior @ heart, much like a Paladin. He at once called for a hasty withdrawal which they were able to carry out. She marveled as he circled them around to come at the camp from the south. It was clear this Cleric was also a leader who could think clearly in the face of adversity.
Taugosz Khosann was pissed in a big way. He had sent all his Black Talon Elite (BTE) to Peldvale and Larswood at Tazok’s direction. He had argued the point as long as he could, but Tazok thought they were better served there to put a stop to the band of mercenaries that had destroyed the mining operation in Nashkel. With no word from his middleman, Tranzig, Tazok was worried & sensed, rightly, that they would be headed toward the Bandit Camp where his caravan raiding operation was centered. Tazok wanted them destroyed well before they made it & he thought the BTE his best bet at succeeding. He did not know the BTE had failed.
Now, the mercenaries were here & all Khosan had was bandits & Chill Hobgoblins, the former worthless, the latter stupid. Ardenor Crush, the Chief of the Chill was little better. To top it off, he was frustrated to the point of rage because the little band that amounted to nothing more than common adventurers kept evading him & the 30 some odd allies he had to defeat them with. Time & again, they would hit & run, first from the east, then from the south, each time depleting him by one or more of his troops. If only he had his BTE, he could be enjoying the spoils & notoriety defeating them would bring to him. Instead they’d already taken out about 10 of his assets. He decided, one more time, to run them down when they hit from the east. He was surprised when the adventurers spread out & let him come @ them. Then he realized he had outrun his support with his Potion of Speed & was all alone. The leader of the group used a Command on him & suddenly, as he fell, he felt strangely vulnerable. He had fallen facing them & could see one of them firing arrows at him – at least one of which hit him. But, even now, he wasn’t worried, he had been a warrior a long time – he was the best & he could take a few puny arrows. He was glad they weren’t the Arrows of Ice that are standard with his BTE. As quickly as he fell, he regained control of his ability to stand, no much worse for the wear after a couple of sword thrusts & a Magic Missile had also penetrated his armor. He knew the first one that needed to go was the one who had cast that spell. But he could not get there. Despite his best efforts, the cleric or paladin got off another, a Hold Person spell, & he was locked in the last position he had been. He was more angry than scared as they closed on him. He took hits from every direction & felt his strength fading. It was a female that came at him head on with a glowing two-handed sword that would be the last person he would ever see.
The leaders of the Bandit Camp were now vulnerable. They were powerful indeed, but they had hoped the BTE would return to eradicate Despenser once & for all. It was not to be. They were actually off-guard when the door burst open. Raemon had barely a moment to challenge his adversaries when the Oil of Fiery Burning exploded in their midst. Within a minute the Bandit Camp was no more than a ghost town.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Party info
Order of March: Khalid & Imoen (Recon team), Sirine* (shock), Despenser (lead), Valerie (Arcane), Isra* (Rear guard)
*Alternate as recon team lead & rear-guard team lead
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Taurgosz Khosann (Fighter/8), Corsone, Druid/7), Osmadi (Druid/7), Ardenor Crush (Hobgoblin/7), Teven (Fighter/6), Cave Bears (2), Raiken (Fighter/5), Brown Bear, Huge Spider, Black Talon Elite (BTE) (10), Dire Wolves (6), Flind (5), Hobgoblin Elite, Bandits (25), Gnoll Elite, Gnoll Slashers (2), Gnoll Veterans (2), Skeletons (4), War Dog, Zombies (4), Gibberlings (26), Hobgoblin Chill (7), Hobgoblins (4), Gnolls (2), Wild Dogs (4), Kobolds (3)
CASUALTIES: Khalid (Cave Bear)
LEVEL UP: Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/3,4, Sirine, Paladin of Ilmatar/3, Despenser, Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/3,4, Isra, Paladin (Cavalier)/3, Khalid, Ranger (Archer)/2,3, Valerie, Sorcerer/3
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE GAINED: (Gold = 4607gp)
Armor & weapons: Full Plate, Cloak/Prot +1, Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise,
Warhammer +1, M/Shields +1 (2), S/Sword +1, Boots of Grounding, Splint (10), Chain (2), CL/Bows (3), L/Bows
(14), B/Swords (8), S/bows (23), L/Swords (37), S/Swords (3), Arrows +1 (40), Arrows Ice
(14), Leather (3), Spear (cursed) +3, ,
Gems/jewelry: Star Sapphire, Pearl Necklace, Sphene Gem, Studded Necklace with Zios Gems, Flamedance Ring, Jade Ring,
Agna Mani Necklaces (2), Lol Gem, Jasper Gem, Andar Gems (2), Sunstone Gem, Greenstone Ring (3)
Potions: Magic Blocking, Fortitude, Heroism, Healing (3), Firebreath (2), Perception, Oil of Fiery Burning
Scrolls: Spell Thrust, Mirror Image, Blur, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Magic Missile, Prot/Evil, Skull Trap, Flame Arrow, Agannazar’s
Scorcher, Horror, Chromatic Orb, Strength, Animal Summon I, Color Spray, Friends
Wands: Fear
Misc & Artifacts: B/Scalp (56)
Tazok’s Treasure: 2800 gp, Potion (Magic Blocking), Scrolls (Melf’s Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Horror, Strength)
Best Kill:
1) Sirene: Taurgosz Khosann (2000 exp)
2) Dispenser, Greyworlf (1400 exp)
3) Isra, Raemon (1200 exp)
4) Imoen: Cosone (1000 exp each)
5) Khalid, Aredenor Crush (900 exp)
6) Valerie: Tranzig (975 exp)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: R4 in Beregost
NEXT STEPS: Cloakwood Forest
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 15)
Silas: Cleric/4 (Holy Justice of Tyr) (HP 30) Studded Leather w/ L/Sword +2/+1 Cold, Spells: Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command, Doom, Protection from Evil; Remove Fear, Abilities: Hold person; (None) (1)
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar/3 (Martyr) (HP 31) Full Plate w/2H/Sword +1 & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise, Abilities: Lay on Hands (2), Sacrifice, D/Evil (6); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin/3 (Cavalier) (HP 31) Full Plate & Cloak +1 w/2H/Sword** (THWS**), Abilities: Remove Fear (2), Prot/Evil (2), Lay Hands (2), D/Evil (6), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Khalid: Ranger/3 (Archer) (HP 20) St/Leather w/L/bow****, Bracers of Archery & B/Sword* (TWS**), Skills: MS 41, HS 41; (Fighter Ranged) (4)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//4 (HP 25) Leather w/S/bow*, S/Sword* & Master Belt; Skills: OL 60, PP 35, FT 50, MS 45, HS 40, DI 15, ST 10; (Thief Ranged) (5)
Valerie: Sorcerer/3 (HP 10) Mage Robe Cold Resistance, RoP +1, Ring Energy &, WoMMs, Sling* & Q/Staff, Spells: Magic Missile (5), Sleep (5) , Spook (5), (Advanced AI) (6)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched 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
(Current AI) (Chain of Command rank)
Just did the Severed Hand. After running like a mouse in Dragon's Eye I pretty much just threw myself into every mob here. In Level 24 at the moment.
Getting Two-Weapon Style definitely put my low APR in the past. Now I have 3 (Fast Flail + TWS).
Got the armor from the elven warrior. And a scroll of Stoneskin. And of Fireshield. And Cloudkill.
Nothing worth mentioning, to be honest. At least it was quick.
I'm at Dorn's Deep now, let's see if the drow/giant/salamander can put up a fight.
Tormpujari literally means priest of Torm or worshipper of Torm in Nepali/Hindi.
Command was extremely effective against the upgraded assassins in Candlekeep that brought my last game to a very quick end.
Sanctuary was used when Tarnesh attacked. The guards then attacked him and when he was almost dead Tormpujari again used command before moving in for the kill. At least by killing him myself, the one who had been attacked, neither the guards nor I have had any twinge of conscience about his death.
Upon going northwards, the hobgoblins were killed using command and sling. Joia's ring was then returned to her.
A merchant has a staff +3 for sale, but that is way beyond my means at the present. Tormpujari therefore headed northwards to a fishing hamlet.
Leila told about a monster that was bothering her, and when he discovered that it was a zombie, Tormpujare had no compunction about killing it.
Sonner wanted the party to attack a priestess of Umberlee to the north, however when the Redeem spell was used on him he died and thus the party gained possession of the bowl plus a +1 flail, the weapon in which Tormpujari is skilled.
The bowl was given to Tenya who then joined the party. She then helped in the killing of an Ankheg. Rajpujari went up a level at that point.
Tenya then decided that at present they should be called "The deific duo" due to them both being priests. This could of course change. She is currently level 5 and Rajpujari is a level 2 fighter and cleric.
Thank you my friend.
The whole thing is on video, but the run is 50 videos with nearly 40 hours of gameplay. I had hoped to edit it and speed some sections up and add commentary, but I have no experience editing videos and it could take a while. I might end up just posting the videos as they are, without commentary, but I'd like to make it a more polished product if possible.
I've discussed the run's progress over at the solo LoB thread in the Challenges and Playthroughs section, and the start of the successful run (after the restarts from Candlekeep) is right here, though it doesn't include details on early BG1 (that stuff is only mentioned in previous posts from unsuccessful attempts). It ends here.
Since I forgot to mention it earlier: @histamiini completed the first v2.5 solo LoB no-reload run yesterday! Mine was just today. His entry, Triss the Fighter/Illusionist, has already been added to the Hall of Heroes.
There is Aura, an Artificer/Priestess, the only thief in the party.
There is Drake a cleric of Tyr.
There is Heraldine a cleric of Kelemvor
There is Gavin a cleric of Lathander and finally
There is Tenya a cleric of Umberlee.
All are either Good or Neutral.
Tormpujari is of the opinion that you cannot have too many gods on your side.
South of Beregost he killed three of the Flaming Fist. This meant that he didn't need to buy armour for his allies.
Zargos Flintblade has just been killed.
Greywqolf is next on the agenda after which the party will attempt to complete a number of quests that they have been given: Helping Charleston Nib, Brage, killing Bassilus and the like.
I haven't played Heraldine before.
In one sense it would have been better to have had a certain gnome who is a cleric/illusionist just to have a mage in the party. However, I am curious concerning Heraldine as I don't as yet know what she has to offer.
EDIT
Forgot to mention that Aura got one-shotted by an ankheg, but as she was only level 1 it only took 100gp to raise her. Sadly she missed out on the experience of killing the ankheg as she needed it.
Tormpujari is still at level 1, Aura is level 2 in thievery but still level 1 as a cleric, Drake is a level 3 cleric, Gavin, and Helarine are level 1 clerics whilst Tenya is at level 5.
Clearly Tenya and Drake are shielding the rest of the party currently. Hopefully Greywolk's death will get some of the other clerics to level 2.
Part 3: Baldur's Gate
Back to the restless run! At the Cloakwood, we use the Wand of Fire and Wand of Fire to get in some quick damage and disable Genthore for 15 whole rounds. The Wand of Monster Summoning keeps the mages at bay off-screen, while Drasus moves in for the kill. Coran uses Acid Arrows to bring down Drasus, but Drasus has good AC and is very sturdy... unlike Khalid, who is a bit squishy and needs a bard song to help him maintain his morale when he feels the shadow of death descending upon him.
Sneaking through the Cloakwood mines is not an option for a party as large as ours, so we have to fight our way through. We can bomb the fighters just fine, but the mages of the area are immune as long as MGOI lasts. Jaheira deploys her Wands of Fear to scatter the enemy fighters while Bardy McBardface keeps Hareishan busy with some trash summons.
Alai re-casts Mirror Image, forcing another Arrow of Dispelling out of Coran. Since we're having difficulty getting past Zhalimar's AC, Jaheira finishes him off quickly with the Wand of the Heavens.
Part 4: Shadows of Amn
Speaking of restarting old runs, we also need to get back to our solo FMC! You can reasonably infer that this stuff happened a while ago and I'm still catching up to the reports, but we're going to keep using present tense because it's more suspenseful!
Anyway, we finally got past SoD, and now we have a whole new realm of monsters to stomp all over. For the first time in years, I take down the Chateau Irenicus Cambion, because I finally have the sheer power necessary to do it safely.
I'm trying to avoid exploits in this run, which means we have to fight Rayic Gethras fairly--no blasting him with his own repeating Fireball trap. Instead, we nail him with Harm and finish him off with a Flame Strike from our efreeti.
Tormpujari is still at level 1, Aura is level 2 in thievery but still level 1 as a cleric, Drake is a level 3 cleric, Gavin, and Helarine are level 1 clerics whilst Tenya is at level 5.
Clearly Tenya and Drake are shielding the rest of the party currently. Hopefully Greywolk's death will get some of the other clerics to level 2.
EDIT
Greywolf died.
Tormpujari is still level 1, but everyone else is now at level 2 or higher.
To kill him Tormpujari used Redeem and then just fought. Heladine used armour melt and fought whilst Tenya used her Holy Smite spells. Both Gavin and Drake tried command, but both were ineffective.
Opon speaking to Oublek Tormpujari became popular for turning down one reward and gained some gold for the emeralds. He is still level 1, but only just, 37 experience needed.
The party fought Neira and prevailed after Drake used command. Tormpujari became a level 2 priest, but is still a level 1 fighter.
A number of people want me to head west to help them whilst others want me to go down the mines. Tormpujari doesn't feel that he is ready to face demons yet so west it is for the moment.
EDIT
One blow from Krumm was enough to bring Tormpujari dangerously close to death, and despite trying to flee, Krum killed him with the second blow.
In my next game, I will allow him to level up before taking on other party members. Much safer!
This time I had a bit of a scare against Tarnesh.
Again cast sanctuary and the guards had started attacking him but then the script caused Tormpujari to cast command. He therefore attacked immediately causing severe damage and he began to think he was safe, but then the spell wore off!!!
To Tormpujari's relief by then Tarnesh was panicking and he was therefore able to complete the job with his sling. (Memo to self: Always ensure that the script is not running)
He then went to Beregost and agreed to Garrick's offer. When Silke went hostile he cast Sanctuaryu whilst Silke cast invisibility. He went to an inn to rest, cast sanctuary again and returned. Silke was now visible and he cast command followed by a melee attack. Silke was almost dead when the command spell wore off. Tormpujari cast another command spell (A further melee attack might have worked better) but Silke saved and cast lightning. End of game.
(That was a new tactic for me against Silke. A shame that it didn't work.
I will try another character before returning to Tormpujari III
Against the upgraded assassins in Candlekeep she had to use four healing potions to survive. However, survive she did. Most of the equipment that the thieves were carrying was useless to her, however there was a sword that was highly beneficial and a belt that turned out to be cursed! However, that belt was not all bad though it could be downright dangerous to wear it in certain situations. She was unaware that it was cursed until she tried it on as she didn't have the reserves to pay for it to be identified.
She was able to buy another healing potion before she left much to her relief.
On Gorion's body there was the sort of equipment that you would expect a mage to possess, but none of it was any use to Hope other than some containers.
In Beregost she calmed Marl down and took a tome to Firebead.
EDIT
She then headed south and killed a couple of ogrillon with her crossbow before helping a little girl get her rabbit back. She took a letter to its intended recipient and is now level 2.
She then reunited Rufie with his master and was 1 point short of levelling up. She therefore went in search of an enemy to fight. A squirrel would have been fine, but she found a xvart and reached level 3. She put one point in dual weilding.
She then returned the Colquetle Amulet before taking a well-earned rest.
Durin now wants me to win back the family axe from the sirenes. He is located near the smithy in Beregost.
Part 4: Baldur's Gate
We put down Ramazith with an Arrow of Dispelling and a Wand of the Heavens strike before heading to Candlekeep, where the ogre mages start hurling out disablers. Unlike my solo runs, I don't have the power to cover the whole party with Potions of Clarity or Potions of Invisibility, which means we have to make some saving throws and adapt. Coran unfortunately gets blinded, crippling our top damage dealer, and Khalid gets both charmed and dominated--good for us, actually, since it means the ogre magi wasted a powerful charm spell on him.
That leaves Minsc as the golem's next target, but Cythandria is active now, and a Web spell nets half the party because Minsc didn't have Spider's Bane equipped. Coran fortunately avoids the Web and can therefore cure Bardy McBardface and Minsc with a couple Arrows of Dispelling. With Minsc now handling Spider's Bane and our archers outside the Web, we can finish off the second golem safely.
The Ducal Palace fight starts out smoothly, with Coran landing an Arrow of Dispelling on the mage on the first round.
We do some last-minute shopping and resource gathering before entering the maze.
If you remember that post a long time ago when I mentioned that Green Slimes--the pathetic, low-HP trash enemies that basically no one considers a serious threat--can actually land an instant and permanent kill on a party member who fails a save vs. death at +4. Against all odds, a Green Slime lands a hit on Khalid in the short time it has to fight, and Khalid fails his saving throw. Seconds later, Khalid explodes.
Here we are at the end of BG1. We haven't stopped to rest a single time since the beginning of the game, but we can rely on our gear alone to carry the party. We have almost every high-powered item in the game; it's absurd how many resources we have at our disposal.
Now we have to deal with Siege of Dragonspear. This will be a bit tougher since per-day spells become more important at higher levels, but we have an excellent trove of items to trample the opposition in SoD, and we're going to get a huge upgrade in archer quality when we switch from Coran to Corwin.
Part 5: Shadows of Amn
Now it's time to tackle the Shadow Thief hideout. As a Fighter/Mage/Cleric, Viora has a powerful instant kill option on certain enemies, and it's not Power Attack. It's Harm, which strikes as a +6 weapon, followed by an instant-casting Sunfire courtesy of the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power. It's pretty much just instant death unless the target has magic resistance or something.
Frustrated at the Yuan-ti's attempts to remove our buffs, we nail the one nearby mage with Power Attack, cut through its defenses, and tank TorGal without relying on Harm. That proves sufficient--as long as our buffs remain undispelled, we can handle him.
Now I want to deal with Kangaxx. The Elemental Lich dies to the Mace of Disruption very quickly, but the Shade Lich survives and gets Time Stop off the ground. We wait out the lich's PFMW spells in the hall and hurry back, quickly casting SI: Conjuration and SI: Abjuration to avoid an Insect Plague and Remove Magic from a Fallen Planetar and Cornugon. By excellent luck, we land a quick kill and get to hurry away without fussing with demons or celestials.
Unfortunately, we can't use a Protection from Undead scroll on Kangaxx himself--not just because this is a low- or zero-exploit run, but because we can't remove it with an Arrow of Dispelling due to cleric weapon restrictions. That means we can't halt his script and instead have to use the scroll on ourselves. We have SI: Abjuration on hand, but by steering clear of Kangaxx's summons, we can dodge a Remove Magic rather than blocking it.
We kite the Cornugon with the Sling of Everard and eventually start making progress on Kangaxx himself, who fails to summon a Fallen Planetar to pester us. Without the Cornugon, his only target for Remove Magic is the Magical Sword, and we can easily outrun it.
He summons some Glabrezus, but thankfully they get into a fight with each other and don't bother us much. We do lose our clone to imprisonment, however.
She then reunited Rufie with his master and was 1 point short of levelling up. She therefore went in search of an enemy to fight. A squirrel would have been fine, but she found a xvart and reached level 3. She put one point in dual weilding.
She then returned the Colquetle Amulet before taking a well-earned rest.
Durin now wants me to win back the family axe from the sirenes. He is located near the smithy in Beregost.
Hope headed North, picking up a ring of protection +1 before progressing to the FAI where she fought Tarnesh.
She used her true sight to get rid of Tarnesh's mirror image. The ensuing fight caused Tarnesh to die simultaneously with Hope being panicked! Hope therefore had to wait some time before the spell wore off.
However, wore off it did. It just needed patience, one of the other fruits other than Hope that are available to those who are good.
It was now time to go hunting hobgoblins who might have Joia's Flamedance Ring.
After killing the hobgoblins, Hope headed North and helped a woman by killing her undead husband.
Some fishermen then told her a cock and bull story about an evil priestess of Umberlee. However upon casting detect evil she discovered that the fishermen were the evil ones. She therefore killed them rather than the priestess.
If the priestess turns out to be evil too, she might well have to die also.
She then went south where she bought a rabbit and went on to an area where she found a ring of resistance to fire. In the same area she met Samuel and took him to the FAI. She took the ring to Joia and then went to High hedge. She tried to help Mellicamp but was unsuccessful, and the same went for helping Tonder. However she was given a decent sword (Long Sword +1, +1 Fire Damage) for taking the body to High Hedge.
By that time she was level 4.
EDIT
She is well aware that a belt that she took from the assassins in Candlekeep is in fact cursed. It helps her against slashing weapons, so it helped the assassin against her by increasing his armour protection, but on the down side it reduces armour protection against crushing weapons. She is therefore reluctant to take on Bassilus as she is well aware that a cleric will in all probability use a crushing weapon. At present, she does not have the gold to remove the belt as she spent nearly all her gold on the bolts of lightning which she used to kill the werewolf. She only has twelve of those left.
She went to the ankheg fields next, taking care not to fight more than one at a time as fighting just one she was often seriously injured and had to leave to find somewhere safe to rest. However, their shells will bring in a considerable amount of wealth and they also give considerable experience, so she slowly plugged away at them until the nest was empty and she had returned the body of Farmer Brun's son to him.
By that time she had reached level 5. However there were a few ankheg still to clear, which she did before going to sell the shells. With the gold she bought all the green scrolls from the Nashkell Carnival, the necklace of missiles and a couple of critical healing scrolls. She now has 61 gp left so anything else will have to wait.
Whilst at the Carnival she helped Bentha.
And then went to deal with Mutamin and others:
She has now joined up with level 7 Cleric of Lathander, Gavin and Priestess/Artificer Aura
(Level 5 Cleric/Level 5 Thief). Unlike other thieves she is of Lawful Good alignment and so is of the same alignment as Hope. Needless to say, with that alignment, she won't be doing much in the way of pickpocketting, though she did get Algernon's Cloak.
She then went to Gullykin where Indira, a level 4 fighter/ level 4 mage joined the party. This leaves the party fairly well balanced.
The bold bard breezed through Upper Dorn's Deep. Stoneskin, Mirror Image and Fireshield made sure no Orog could touch him.
A Potion of Absorption was used to deal with all the Ettins in a single run. Ditto for a Potion of Clarity against the myconids.
The drow did try to stop me but in IWDEE they're not half as scary as in BG2EE. And I'm getting lucky with Skull Trap as it is bypassing their MR quite often.
Cone of Cold is another beast. As I'm level 29 now, it delivers 29d4+29 damage. Enough to stop pretty much everything (and a great spell for chocking spots, by the way).
I found a merchant that gave me more scrolls. He is my new rest stop but I didn't rest so far.
With the Axe of Caged Souls and the Fast Flail the undead at the dwarven cemetery were no threat - even the lich and greater mummies. I also got the White Bishop and a chain mail that gives me regeneration what closes the only weak spot of this character.
Definitely IWDEE was not designed for a single-character. You're either too weak or too strong and concentrating all the loot over one person changes the balance.
I'm now at the wyrm tooth glacier (IIRC the name) and something finally gave me trouble: snow trolls. Precisely a bug with snow trolls were they can't be killed at all. Neither fire or acid could kill them for good once they've fell.
I wonder if Ctrl+Y them after dealing a fire/acid blow (that should kill them) is ok by this thread's rules. Otherwise I'll just run past them invisible - that breaks my "kill everything on the map" rule but I'm okay with that as it is due to a bug.
This section of the game is quite easy, even with a regular level party so I believe I won't give interesting reports for a while.
I started this game wondering if I would be able to reach Yxunomei, now I wonder if Belhifet will put up a fight.
Icewind Dale: The Heart of Fury (update 3)
Previous parts:
Part 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1063863#Comment_1063863
Party composition:
Anaya, Half-Elf F/D
Fango, Gnome F/C
Phlebas, Half-Elf F/M/C
Linaea, Elf F/M/T
Dundas, Half-Elf Bard
~ The Vale of Shadows: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie ~
Fights in the Vale mostly follow the same formula. When possible, we send in our summons first to take the flak; now we also have Beetles from Anaya and more Skeletons/Zombies from Phlebas. I used to spam Quicksave/Quickload till I got all Skeletons from Animate Dead; now I accept whatever comes my way, and actually, in their way, Zombies are pretty powerful here (although painfully slow-moving), since they deal crushing damage, which is good against enemy Skellies.
The game designers have one trick they use repeatedly. On entering a new area, they often like to drop you in the middle of a large group of enemies, which leads to an intense and exciting battle where you have to expend quite a few resources. The result is usually pretty immersive, though may start to grow a little stale after the 100th time. It also makes summoning a harder tactic to use, because the enemies immediately target our party members, forcing us to expend auras on crowd-control and self-buffs; these can buy us a little more time/tanking ability to allow summoning later.
~ Tomb-o Numero Uno ~
We enter, and hey-presto, we’re surrounded by Skellies! Carefully positioning our front-liners we attract enemy attention, whilst the back rows toss Grease to slow down the crowd. Fango gets to work summoning some support. Gradually we wear down their ranks, taking a fair bit of damage in the process, and eventually dispatch the last Skelly in the foyer.
Linaea starts exploring under Stealth, alternating resetting her timer and Detecting Traps. Note that Stealth is one ability I allow myself to reload on, since in the Original IWD it’s quite buggy (the timer doesn’t reset if you break Stealth with another action, so either you wait 10 seconds after reactivating Stealth [which means no other actions allowed], or you Q and L to reset it). Around the corner she sneaks up on a Carrion Crawler: a slow but deadly foe, since its attack can Paralyse. She sticks an arrow in it, lures it back round the corner to the party, then Dundas stuns it with an Orb, which allows us to take it down safely.
~ Tomb-o Numero Due ~
On the way along the ledges and cliffs of the Vale we find and kill a few Yetis using Orbs and missiles. Hwynevyr’s HP are now the same as Anaya’s, and she has Prot. from Evil so I will usually give her the lead from now on.
~ Abominab-b-b-ble Snowmen ~
We buff up with our remaining spells then step into the Ice Cave, getting surrounded almost instantly. Orbs fly and Dead rise, and we eventually put the Yetis down, using much the same tactics as before. Here, though, we can apply Horror, since the Yetis aren’t (yet) dead, which breaks up their ranks a bit.
~ Tomb-o Numero Tre ~
Stepping inside, we try crowd-control to break up the attack on us, but the fight drags on and eventually Hwyn has to step up to the front. I make a miscalculated decision, using Anaya to summon Beetles, which turn out to be Bombardiers. They immediately let loose their acid, and despite Hwyn’s decent and buffed saves, she gets stunned, surrounded by enemy Skeletons, quickly taking massive damage.
~ Tomb-o IV ~
Here we discuss the ethics of tomb-raiding with Therik, who disagrees with us, so we kill him ‘cause we’re on a mission from a druid. He gives us a useless potion and a sword only our Bard is proficient in. We’ll stockpile these items along with everything else. [In fact until Dundas has bought and successfully scribed Friends we will avoid selling as much of our high-gains loot as possible, instead storing everything in the chest we looted in Conlan’s smithy. We won’t be doing any scribing for a while…]
~ The Tomb of the Black Wolf Level 1: Bone-dancing and Tomb-Raiding ~
Inside the main dungeon of the area we bait Skeletons, Zombies and Temple Guardians, luring them into the entrance foyer, since they don’t employ Call to Arms. In a treasure chest we find a second Long Sword +1, this time for Linaea. This sets us up for the Wight in the second left room from the radioactive jacuzzi: the first enemy to necessitate magical weaponry. We surround it with our four Plus-One-ers (actually Conlan’s Hammer has +1 THAC0 but hits as +5) as well as Boring Beetles to increase possible targets, and hack away. Eventually it falls. The Gauntlets of Weapon Skill (+1 THAC0) go to Linaea, currently our highest percentage killer with her bow. We find another Potion of Genius.
The Mummy behind the secret door can be nasty, since it also hits hard, and causes Mummy Rot, which if left untreated will kill a character. We hack away again with our magical weapons, and careful positioning/targeting means only Fango gets the Rot, which Hwynevyr afterwards Cures.
~ The Tomb of the Black Wolf Level 2: A Bony Mage is Still a Mage ~
We rest before entering, and Phlebas memorises his new Defensive Harmony (I love HoF just for getting high-level spells early!), since there’ll be cramped-quarter fighting coming up. Linaea Hides (just in case) and then triggers the hallway trap, causing Tattered Skeletons to rise from their graves, our own undead taking the initial heat. The fighting gets a bit tense with the Tattereds not always targeting whom I want, but with our buffs and melee weapons eventually we beat them down. Then we lure the Skeleton Archers from the staircase, stealing any nice arrows they leave behind.
We initiate combat with the Skeletal Mage, a dangerous foe, but we stay well back, choosing to send in our undead summons. His opener is always Stinking Cloud, which can prove fatal to party members, since the undead are immune to it. We surround him, up the missile pressure, and he also falls.
~ The Tomb of the Black Wolf Level 3: You Are the Chosen Zombie ~
The opening battle is a little tricky, but our tactics have all been explained before, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
We heal up and press forward, to the right-hand room. There are floor traps (Magic Missile), Shadows and a Mummy. It might have been prudent to rest up completely, but by this point we’re starting to get more options available to us, and the doorway is a decent choke-point, so we try our luck. Linaea Sneaks in and then triggers the trap, absorbing it with her still active Shield. Then we block up the doorway with Entangle, Grease and start hitting the approaching enemies with Spike Growth (our normal missiles are useless against them). Phlebas tosses in Curse when they are grouped together, to hamper their Saves. The killing field takes out mostly everything, except the Mummy, which subsequently saves against Dundas’ last Chromatic Orb.
We rest on Level 2, then return and Linaea Shields up to take the Imbued Wights’ Magic Missiles in the other room. I forget that some of the Zombies here have been buried with a jar of steroids or something, and Linaea gets a glancing blow on her way out.
~ Lysan, It’s Your Birthday! ~
We trigger the combat with Hwyn and Linaea surrounding the poor lass, although Linaea’s backstab misses, and Lysan hits us with Silence 15’ Radius herself. (She’s left unaffected.)
We head back to Kressy, who happily gloats that he knew nothing all along about any Tree, but then gives us his sword and armour for being such good sports. The two-hander doesn’t find much use from us, but that black armour and helmet look super sweet.
[I'm still trying to work out how much detail to go into here. The problem is that in HoF pretty much every early battle is tense and tricky, and I don't want to miss out tactics that others might be interested in for their similar play-through. Equally I don't want to bore people with an excessively blow-by-blow account. Thoughts?]
Neera was chunked in the battle with Droth who was then killed, as was Shoal.
I didn't really want Neera in the party, but role-playing insisted that I take her. It was therefore not a big deal when she was killed.
I make a point of taking screenshots at key turning points (a party members dies, a spell gets off the ground, an enemy appears, a status effect is applied, etc.) and calling attention to them in my reports.