Ceres rushed through the Maze, killing only the Slimes and the unavoidable Doom Guards. The Skeletons were ignored and passed by running with a Prot. from Undead scroll which I shouldn't have used here.
The Undercity welcoming party saw a warm reaction from Ceres to their reception. They were webbed and bombarded with charges from the Necklace of Missiles. The Ogre survived the initial bombardment but he didn't survive that Wand of Heavens that finally cooked him.
Tamoko wasn't there. This is weird, but whatever, I don't care, onto the big guy.
I rebuilt Ceres' spellbook, rested once, and entered the Temple. Made use of the usual prebuffs, Ironskins, Chaotic Commands, etc, in addition to Potions (Power, Mind Focusing and Magic Resist) and Divine Might (Bhaalspawn DUHM renamed by aTweaks).
First, I showered Sarevok and his acolytes with three Smashing Waves, weakening them for Spike Growth. Ceres then talked to him before anyone would die, so that she could get Diarmid and Angelo to spawn. Semaj died right after they spawned, and Tazok followed him shortly afterwards our Necklace of Missiles bombardment had begun. Angelo died to the Spikes while invisible and Diarmid was burnt to death with Potions of Explosions, Oils of Fiery Fire and one Potion of Firebreath, since they're non-magical and thus can get past his PfM scroll. I kited Sarevok in Spider form for a while and used around 20 Wand of Heavens charges until he was done. One grilled Sarevok, ready to serve!
Our stats at the very beginning of SoA.
I only managed to find the STR and CON tomes, which is sad because we could've used the WIS ones, but whatever, I don't think we'll need them, and I'm taking a party from now on, so it's not going to be a problem.
the Dex book is in the thief guild where you get teleported running after Sarevok... just sitting in a barrel waiting to be picked up mate
I have the Item Randomiser installed, so finding the Tomes is a bit more than just meta-gaming (many get placed on dangerous places, which I'd rather skip, since realistically all I need to get as a Druid from BG1 is enough XP to survive early SoA, stats are superfluous for spellcasters).
the Dex book is in the thief guild where you get teleported running after Sarevok... just sitting in a barrel waiting to be picked up mate
I have the Item Randomiser installed, so finding the Tomes is a bit more than just meta-gaming (many get placed on dangerous places, which I'd rather skip, since realistically all I need to get as a Druid from BG1 is enough XP to survive early SoA, stats are superfluous for spellcasters).
Whilst dex isn't super-important, surely it still gives you a better armour rating.
Having teamed up with Gavin, I was given a series of quests which we completed: The killing of Bassilus, the killing of Mutamin for which I recieved 6 potions of mirroring. I didn't use them but a scroll which nearly lasted long enough. At that point I did use a potion, saving the others for later.
We then killed lady Valeria after which we picked up Tenya and dropped off gavin who was level 6 by that time. Tenya was also level 6 with slightly more experience, but not much more.
We then went to rescue Dynaheir, found her jornal and went down into the Nashkel mines which were relatively easy.
We dropped of Sirene in Aerie's tent and went to pick up Xan.
Upon reaching Nashkel, Xan charmed Oublek who fought a baby wyvern for us. Sadly he was killed, but at least he died a hero's death, something he would never have achieved without our help. He still had the emeralds in his possession which makes me a little suspicious about his honesty. he also had a large amount of gold. That made me even more suspicious. We didn't tell anyone about that though, better that he is remembered as a hero.
We were given a reward for clearing the mines and were then set upon by two assassins. Neither of them survived.
Just north of Nashkel Xan was able to improve the diet of two lady ogres. A halflng was very relieved by the change in diet since he was about to be eaten.
We then rescued some traders in the basilisk area but later on had to kill them as it came to light that it was elven slaves who were being traded. We took them to the Friendly Arms Inn where they would be safe. This brought Xan up to level 6.
At that point we dropped him off and picked up Sirene once more.
I've started a couple of undocumented solo runs in BG1 of late and I also have a solo Transmuter in SoA, but somehow I've come to love full party, completionist runs the most, especially with themed parties. My LG Cleric/Ranger Amahoro led a crusader party of sorts (with Anomen, Jaheira, Mazzy, and Haer'Dalis backed by Imoen) pretty much to the Throne of Bhaal. Alma the Transmuter saw her party of specialist mages fail at Boareskyr Bridge in SoD, and Faera the recently fallen Gnome Illusionist tended to surround herself with mostly fellow wizards too. This time I'm going with a mercenary/rogue-oriented party.
A fantastic portrait of a female Dwarf helped me create Arwynn the Fighter/Thief:
Arwynn's optimal physical stats I lazily explain by her being a gifted warrior Bhaalspawn (like Sarevok). An astute thinker and strategist, Arwynn is perceptive and often quite analytical, justifying her 16 INT. However her excitable temperament makes her act on impulse occasionally, and she has a natural curiosity that's likely to get her into trouble time and again, all in keeping with her low 7 WIS. Arwynn isn't gorgeous or even cute, at least by non-Dwarven standards, but she has an upbeat personality, excellent social skills, and a great sense of humor, making her a lot of fun to be around, hence her 16 CHA. These personality traits she developed as a kid in Candlekeep, hoping to find acceptance as a dwarf among mostly humans. The citadel's close-knit and overtly heightist - if not outright racist - community of permanent residents never really appreciated her efforts though, with the exception of Gorion and Imoen and maybe Winthrop. But what else could be expected of a place where Reevor, a decorated soldier - and a dwarf - holds the lowly position of "guard of the store house" while incompetent men with more prestigious jobs are free to hang out at the barracks while on duty, or to walk around hung-over and without their gear while they're supposed to be guarding the gate.
Most notable mods: SCS v32 (Insane), Anthology Tweaks, aTWeaks
Arwynn left Candlekeep under less than propitious circumstances with two dead assassins in her wake as well as a hostile priest of Oghma who hadn't taken kindly to her nicking a potion of healing for the road from the infirmary.
Things got worse when a band of brigands slew Gorion right in front of her. There was sadness and fear in her heart. Sadness because Gorion had fallen, sacrificing his life for her, and fear because the killers had been after her, not Gorion. The thought that her foster father had been very old and couldn't have lived much longer, only did so much to console her. On a positive note, there was the excitement about her new life, one full of opportunity, away from Candlekeep and its heightist people, in a wide open world that would surely accept her just the way she was.
Imoen found her the next morning, and they set out to the FAI where they were to meet two of Gorion's friends. They ran into a human Necromancer and a halfling Assassin who were willing to accompany them to the FAI. It didn't take Arwynn long to figure out that the wizard was the one pulling the strings, and the halfling was his little helper. This shocked Arwynn deeply. Could it be that the Sword Coast, or Gods forbid, the entirety of Faerun, was as heightist as Candlekeep? She told herself not to jump to conclusions as it may have been sheer happenstance, but she did find herself struggling to respect Montaron, as the halfling was called, for voluntarily serving Xzar, the wizard.
Arwynn and Imoen slew a rogue ogre with their bolts and arrows and the party met another human male, a Bard by the name of Eldoth, south of the FAI. Eldoth joined the party and the five reached the FAI about four hours later. A black-robed wizard with a grim demeanor was standing at the top of the stairs leading to the entrance. Arwynn, well-aware there were people out to kill her, snuck up on him together with Montaron, ready to strike from the shadows in case he should display any hostile intentions.
When Xzar approached, the wizard proved hostile indeed. He had somehow divined Arwynn's presence in the group. Montaron lunged at the mage with his short blade, but to his and Arwynn's horror the halfling struck a Mirror Image rather than the actual man. Arwynn, whose slower scimitar had prevented her from striking as fast as Montaron, changed her plan and quickly descended the stairs, still hidden for some seconds. The wizard meanwhile cast a Sleep spell on Montaron the area of effect of which she was happy to escape. Imoen tried to distract the mage with her arrows. She was a good shot but she, like Montaron, failed to hit him. A second Sleep spell, this time directed at Xzar, followed. Both Montaron and Xzar were now asleep. Eldoth, who had been bragging about his ability to make poisoned arrows yet had forgotten to bring his longbow was next to useless, so it was up to Imoen and Arwynn to deal with the dangerous wizard. But Imoen was then nearly killed by a Magic Missile, so Arwynn told her to retreat. The wizard dispatched Xzar and Montaron with more Magic Missiles and his staff. Thankfully a guard witnessed the wizard's assault on Xzar and proceeded to attack the mage. Arwynn had no time to wonder whether the guard would have stepped in if it had been her instead of lanky Xzar being under attack. It didn't matter now. She did see the guard's intervention as an opportunity. The Mirror Images were gone, and Arwynn saw the guard actually hit the wizard. She hid in shadows again, approached the wizard from behind, and finished him off.
Gellana Mirrorshade, a kindly gnomish priestess in charge of a temple dedicated to Garl Glittergold, revived Montaron and Xzar. Inside the FAI Arwynn finally met Gorion's friends, Khalid and Jaheira, but the encounter would be an unpleasant one. Having lost Gorion and barely survived an enocunter with a deadly wizard Arwynn was definitely more tense than usual. When Jaheira greeted Arwynn rather rudely, basically calling her a disgrace to her late foster father without even knowing her,
the dwarf immediately decided against bothering with their company. Her mood even fouler now, Arwynn also dismissed Xzar and spineless Montaron with little more than a brief thank you for helping out against the mage.
Arwynn traveled to Beregost with Eldoth and Imoen, and that's where things started to pick up for the dwarf. She was joined by three interesting companions of the shorter races, and thankfully free, independent folk each one of them, unlike Montaron. First there was Aura, a genius gnomish inventor, trapper, and illusionist (Artificer/Illusionist) originally from Lantan, but on a mission to find an adversary from Kozakura, which had been her home for several years before coming to the Sword Coast. Kagain, a dwarven Fighter (kitless) and owner of an escort company joined at least temporarily to search a for missing caravan. He wasn't as talkative to a fellow dwarf as Arwynn would have liked, but she was willing to give him a chance. And thirdly Arwynn was joined by Tiax in Feldepost's inn, a gnomish rogue priest of Cyric (Strifeleader of Cyric/Thief). Tiax seemed to be as cruel and megalomaniacal as the deity he worshipped. But in the bigoted, heightist world they lived in, Arwynn felt empathy and compassion rather than disdain for the gnome. Like him, she too had screamed for recognition for all those years back in Candlekeep. It was only their methods that had differed.
The party found Kagain's missing caravan. The travelers had just been slain by bandits. Aura cast a Sleep spell on the bandits and Tiax summoned a fearsome ghast to help the party. Kagain took two arrows remarkably well, the others didn't suffer any injuries so their mission could be called a success.
Kagain didn't see it that way though. One of the bandits' victims was a Silvershield, the son of one of Baldur's Gate Grand Dukes: Kagain's reputation was in ruins. He suggested they kept working together and Arwynn was happy to have him remain with the group.
The party did some questing around Beregost. Aura's Sleep spell affecting only one out of three huge spiders, the first one blocking the others, was nice.
Southwest of Beregost the party ran into Drizzt Do'Urden, by all means a memorable encounter. The heroic ranger had been a childhood hero of Arwynn's by overcoming all adversity, making a name for himself and eventually becoming a hero of the realms as a drow. She had even chosen to train herself in the use of scimitars thanks to Drizzt. No, she didn't kill him nor did she get him killed by the gnolls. She actually helped him, and they parted on friendly terms.
Back in Beregost Imoen chose to stay behind with Firebead Elvenhair. She had picked up the FAI mage's spellbook, and was quite intent on learning magic. Firebead was willing to guide her. Eldoth on the other hand was dismissed for being of little use to the party, for being rather pedantic, and for sticking out as a sore thumb as the only tall figure in the group.
The party had done many a good deed by then, but earned little to no recognition for them. Retrieving a ring from three hobgoblin thugs for Joia north of the FAI, and a necklace from some other hobgoblins for Mr Coquetle in Beregost, buying Firebead Elvenhair a book, slaying four half-ogres to avenge a wounded paladin, rescuing cattle from attacking xvarts, babysitting in Nashkel, being honest to Oublek the bounty handler in Nashkel instead of accepting the sum he mistakenly wanted to give him, sparing captain Brage and escorting him to the temple of Helm, whatever good deeds they did, it didn't seem to matter to the rest of the world. The only way for the party to boost their reputation seemed to be to donate thousands of GPs to a temple. They didn't have that much, and Arwynn was principally opposed to paying more than a few tithes anyway. It was all proof to Arwynn that she was indeed living in a corrupt and unabashedly heightist society.
(A 50% chance of gaining a rep point in each rep quest per SCS saw the party only receive one out of about seven possible rep increases up to that point, convenient for the narrative of this run.)
Without discussing it with her companions, she decided that Imoen and Eldoth's replacements had to be shorties. The short races had to stick together, that much had become clear to Arwynn. The party found those replacements in Quayle, a gnome Cleric/Illusionist whose bragging was an obvious expression of his insecurity and his height issues to Arwynn, and Alora, a halfling Swashbuckler and an exceptionally gifted pickpocket who seemed genuinely care-free and as such served as an example for Arwynn.
The party of Arwynn, Aura, Kagain, Tiax, Quayle, and Alora proceeded to do good, not so much anymore for recognition from others as to live up to their own standards, and to advance in their adventuring careers, with more experience, more gold, and better gear.
A noteworthy encounter took place with an Amnian huntress named Sendai. She was held by Tiax's ghast but her archers stopped the party from finishing her, and they slew Quayle. The party nevertheless managed to finish Sendai away from the deadly marksmen and Arwynn was thrilled to find no less than two enchanted scimitars and a suit of enchanted studded leather armor on her foe.
She's had two scimitars break before, so she was more than happy that would no longer happen.
More adventures in the southern regions included the defeat of bandits Vax and Zal thanks much to Tiax's ghast (who was making a huge difference in several battles), reuniting Albert and Rufie, dispatching knuckleheads Caldo and Krumm thanks to Aura's Sleep spell, fetching young Drienne's dead cat, and taking Samuel the deserter to Gellana Mirrorshade at the FAI. Tellingly, it was only the latter act of kindness that earned them a scarce reputation point.
Tiax's ghast was good for more easy kills in Nashkel and Beregost (Neira, Karlat the sell-out, and Silke). Up north the party looted an ankheg treasure hoard under stealth (Arwynn), retrieved a bowl for the priestess Tenya, and slew a single ankheg near Tenya's home with a Sleep from Aura. In Ulgoth's Beard Edventar's Gift became Alora's gift, to Arwynn. Arwynn was thankful and appreciative of Alora's skills. However when she learned of the source of Alora's gift she also told the halfling and her other thieving companions that other shorties shouldn't be duped without provocation. The lanky folk on the other hand, were fair game.
In Nashkel the party refused to travel with a red wizard to a gnoll stronghold in order to kill another wizard held captive there, but they decided to investigate on their own. Dispatching the gnolls was hard work, and took some healing potions,
but the party prevailed. They freed the wizard and let her go, and they picked up a tome of leadership and influence that Arwynn read with great interest as well as a pair of brawling hands gauntlets, that fit Kagain really well.
To conclude this rather long post, the party cleared a basilisk-ridden area after they de-petrified Corianna, who showed them the way to the area.
The basilisks weren't much of a problem because Arwynn had read a green scroll of PfPetrification and Aura's glasses made her immune to gaze attacks. A charmed ghoul made short work of the master of the basilisks, a wicked gnomish wizard.
More interesting was the party's encounter with four trouble-seekers. Aura read a scroll of Stinking Cloud she had just found on the gnome's dead body. It affected a swordsman and a priest, but an archer escaped its area of effect, and their leader Kirian also managed to get out of the cloud and withstand the party's undead's paralyzing attacks. She put Kagain and Tiax under the effects of a Sleep spell. Arwynn immediately engaged the archer in melee, preventing him from wreaking havoc on the party's more vulnerable members. She would defeat her foe with difficulty, requiring two healing potions. The priest cast a Silence that affected Kirian as well as Alora and Arwynn.
Quayle Held the priest and the sword fighter, and Aura used a Sleep against some flinds. These foes were finished with raged attacks. Aura finished Kirian with a wand of fire scorcher.
With the tall people's world against them, the companions had no qualms about engaging in questionable business practices that included theft, fencing of stolen property, and money laundering. It netted them some very good but over-priced gear from shops that were well-protected against theft, such as archmagi robes for Aura and Quayle, a dagger of venom and the claw of Kazgaroth for Alora, a suit of shadow armor and the army scythe for Arwynn, Aule's staff for Tiax, and a suit of full plate armor and an enchanted axe for Kagain.
The party isn't really in a rush to pursue the main quest line (without Khalid and Jaheira or Xzar and Monty urging them on and with bounty hunter violence subsided for now), so they may well explore some more before visiting the Nashkel Mines. Arwynn, Kagain, and Aura have just over 10k XP. Tiax, Quayle, and Alora a bit more, around 13k, as their lowest joining levels were still higher than Arwynn's.
Arwynn, Dwarven Fighter/Thief
I've started a couple of undocumented solo runs in BG1 of late and I also have a solo Transmuter in SoA, but somehow I've come to love full party, completionist runs the most, especially with themed parties.
I too have come to love full party, completionist themed parties. They can have very different themes: Single race, single class, or worshippers of the same deity. F n P helps with the latter considerably.
I do like the female dwarf portrait.
Journal of Seth the Seer
Tenya learned how to use her bowl and I beat Meilum single sanded, but the death spell of the Mighty Khark killed the weasels, Isra, Sirene, Agantis and finally me....
That is some spell to kill so many of the party!! Clearly either silence or web was needed.
Thael, update 6: Introduction Update 1 Update 2 Update 3 Update 4 Update 5
After the Underdark, there're a couple loose ends and quests I haven't touched: De'Arnise Keep, the Unseeing Eye and the rest of the Clerical quests, Firkraag's dungeon, the Planar Prison, the Planar Sphere, any of the EE NPC quests, and Kangaxx. We start with Rasaad's quest first, since the Gem of True Seeing is rather nice to have. There's not too much of a threat: apparently the only things I thought noteworthy enough to screenshot was a Dangerous Moose, and that mage fighting for a belt that starts off with an ADHW. It's not even a good belt!
The Heretic Temple itself is solved mostly by a Chaos spell, as well as the fact that for some reason monk's fists are doing nonlethal damage. The only damage I think I took was from a pair of backstabs on Skie I didn't True Seeing in time to stop.
Cernd gets called away for his personal quest, so we solve it quickly: fighting high level mages is generally just a waiting battle to strip down their incessant PfMW spells. A couple summons and kiting and specifically NOT fighting that lich means we get through without casualties. Cernd heads for the Druid Grove, and since we're there, we take care of a couple of Rakshasas for the Periapt Against Poison.
Back to the De'Arnise keep, after picking up Nalia for Rasaad for the additional gold, I belatedly notice that I have all of one Charm or Dispel spell memorized by anyone. I also dislike resting unnecessarily, so we try it anyways. Fortunately, it works.
The Periapt against poison is put to work against the Iron Golem: if my summons had fallen, I'd just do the same thing at the doorway since it can't fit. Back outside, we take care of the two Spirit Trolls that almost ended my run earlier while hunting some dogs for some experience making a stew. Somehow making a dog stew is worth like 3 levels to a level 1 character. It doesn't make sense. Oh well. Finally, Torgal is separated by invisibility and then slaughtered: gear post-Underdark is just that much better.
Next up is Windspear Hills: we set the kamikazes on fire from afar, and the Rakshasa transmuter is little enough trouble I forgot any details about it. Someone got level drained by a Vampiric Mist, but Thael has a spell prepared and the penalty for exhaustion is low enough I don't feel like resting. Vampires themselves are subjected to the old "invisible wall" trick, enough fire resistance is pumped onto my tanks to take out the fire guardian things, low level parties aren't safe enough vs Chaos, and golems are just fat. We rest just prior to taking on Firkraag.
I have 6 Protection from Fire Mage spells on Thael, and give one to each. Beyond that, we have Chaotic commands on everyone, Death Ward on Thael, Fear immunity from spells or equipment, Improved Haste on Mazzy, regular Haste on everyone else, and Mass Invisibility from Imoen. We have 4 Shambling Moulds, because somehow the things are immune to fire damage despite all of us knowing that fire is Super Effective versus grass types. We also have 3-4 Potions of Fire Resistance and 3 potions of Ice Dust that I keep forgetting about.
Firkraag caught Cernd, Rasaad, Mazzy, and Skie within two Remove Magics while Imoen and Thael are in another area trying to break down Firkraag's magical defenses, or using spells that ignore them (Assassin Vines, for example). Skie retreats entirely: her THAC0 isn't high enough to reliably help, and I don't really want to spend more fire resistance on her. I give Rasaad Thael's sling for the same reason, and because he dies to a single critical hit from Firkraag. Mazzy continues being a machine gun after drinking a fire resistance potion, and finally he runs out of both Stoneskins and PfMW spells. Both he and Conster falls.
Since we know we can kill dragons, we trade Rasaad for Valygar, and do a repeat performance in Umar Hills.
Next up after making 2 sets of dragon scale armor: Planar Sphere. 3 problematic fights: the halfling cannibal mages, Lavok, and Tolgerais. Halfling mages we can bomb from afar with Cloudkill, Assassin Vines, and Death Fog. Lavok we have to actual take down in a spell-fight so we can break through his PfMW: Ray of Reversal and Secret Word were enough to break him. Tolgerais didn't protect himself with Protection from normal missiles, and Mazzy snipes him down. Golems are invisibility-blocked again.
Turned in Yoshimo's heart, found out Bernard doesn't know that Jaheira's chunked and dead, and started the Unseeing Eye. We retune our spellbooks for area of effect damage and Skeleton Warriors, and we end up having to actually fight only a single beholder that roamed near us. A CLW gets Amaunator's apparition appeased, and no lich spawns in the undead village. Oh, for some reason, Thael got HLAs early, so for the Unseeing Eye itself, we use a summoned Deva and an Incendiary Cloud to murderify it from afar. Turning it in finally gets us to 20 reputation.
We craft the iMoD after continuing the Temple's quests. Lich's: City Gate Lich: Deva manages to get an Undead Disruption hit. Cernd is Imprisoned, but we have a Freedom scroll in our scroll case. Docks and sewers lich: Protection from Undead. Kangaxx:
........ Uh. Um. Dark Planetar. I should've fled immediately and waited for a despawn. Instead, we try fighting it and both Imoen and Cernd end up vorpal'd.
We need another Mage and probably a Thief, and a front liner: my initial thoughts are Nalia for the M/T, but something's only giving her 16k experience and she needs 1m experience to level. Probably a bug, but I'll just take Jan then. There's a bit of a bug with recruiting him, but some console use later and he's talking and the script functions correctly. I'll take up Haer'Dalis as my front liner. So back into the sewers we go!
A mistake in the dialogue means we fight Mekrath rather than hunt an Imp, but Cloudkill is really good against all non-Lich mages.
We dodge all Disintegrate spells by Mass Invisibility when entering the Prison, and slowly work our way east. More area-of-effect spells gets us through the Yuan Ti, and a use of Elemental Summoning breaks the demon that holds the key quickly. We try our Deva vs the Warden itself, and it dies really, really quickly. We throw a pair of Boots of Cheetah speed on Valygar and Mazzy, and waited out the PfMW spells to get an Arrow of Dispelling on the Warden to strip it of its speed. A spell trigger including 2 Chain Lightnings and a Chaos spell is almost completely dodged correctly: Mazzy was targeted, so Valygar passed on the Cloak of Mirroring to her, and she changed to a 1h weapon to get the Shield of Harmony. Unfortunately Valygar passed too close to her as the spell actually went off, and he ended up confused. Fortunately, the Warden chases Mazzy, and a bit of kiting later now that he has no spells left...
We're all at ~2.9m experience, and to get there we'll probably return to the Underdark to earn that extra experience.
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
Being of orcish lineage, we always had problems with being accepted in Candlekeep. That was until a Champion of Bane came along. He accepted us for what we are and so we reciprocated with all our being, becoming blackguards, Champions of Bane, Fists of Bane, Clerics of his son Xvim and a fighter/thief who also worships Bane.
We headed for Beregost at first where we helped Alanna's neighgbour get back into shape, killed Silke and Karlat, rewturned Perdue's sword, calmed down Marl and got Mellicamp and Tonder back into shape at High Hedge.
To the south we killed some ogrillon who hurt me quite badly and some officious Flaming Fist Mercenaries. (Little experience, but we now have good armour) We then killed Tristan and Isolde.
Hopefully with the plate armour we won't get hurt quite so easily.
Unfortunatelt Xvamma can't wear it, though she can wear the splint mail +1 that we have just acquired.
Dispenser was ready to get the hell out of Durlag’s madness. He did not know what lay beyond that door, but he had come too far to turn back now - & he was confident in his quintet of warrior ladies: Isra, Sirine, Indira, Valerie, & . . . Imoen – how far she had come. Clair De’Lain, a previous tower adventurer, thought it a fool’s errand to enter & face the Demon Knight, as she called it. But she also exposed the demon’s pride & confidence. This is where Dispenser chose to strike. He allowed them to rest, recover spells, heal - banking on the demon’s disinterest.
After resting, he cast Protection from Evil 10’, Defensive Harmony & Divine Might. Indira cast Invisibility 10’ to cover the party & Improved Invisibility to cover her own actions. Valerie protected herself w/ Blur. There were no Potions of Strength, Invulnerability or Heroism so Isra & Sirine quaffed those they thought might be useful, e.g., Absorption.
It was, “Go time.” They entered a large, circular room, w/ a ledge 20’ up from the floor going all the way around the room, w/ four staircases descending to the floor below. This would allow them to maneuver around the room high above their foe. Entering unmolested & invisible, Dispenser directed everyone into position, separating everyone so that no single demonic strike could win the day. He wanted Isra & Sirine coming from opposite directions 90’ & 180’ & Valerie & Indira casting from 90’ & 270’. Imoen was free to roam to where her bow could be most effective. But, when the Demon Knight Detected Invisibility & their maneuvers were challenged, the ruse was up & there was no time to lose. Sirine & Isra descended the steps as quickly as their armor allowed, while Indira & Valerie loosed their twin artillery barrages of Magic Missile, again, & again - they had five & six, respectfully – pounding the demon. Dispenser knew there was no time for spellcasting after he had cast the Divine Might of Τυρ & he rushed to the side of his Paladin’s, but he was too late. Sirine had been rocked by two brutal blows from the demon & was in critical condition, bleeding profusely through the cracks in her Plate Mail – she fell. Indira & Valerie’s continuous rain of Magic Missiles staggered the Demon Knight– but he was not defeated – not yet. He continued swinging his massive spiritual sword, gashing Dispenser twice & forcing him to withdraw for healing. As he ascended the northeast stair to where Imoen was firing off Arrows of Fire @ a torrid pace, he heard Isra’s familiar, “a-ha,” the exclamation she inevitably made whenever she landed a critical hit. It was the most important critical hit she had ever landed, & it felled the demon, returning its essence to the abyss.
BACK TO THE ABYSS
They left Durlag’s Tower for the last time on 20 Mirtul 1369 w/ the aid of Islanne’s Ghost. Dispenser thought back as they marched. It had been more than eight tendays since they sailed from the Isle of Balduran to confront Mendas & the defeat of the Demon Knight. The assault on Durlag’s Tower had been arduous, backbreaking work that required extreme perseverance, both physically & mentally. The treasure rooms on the 1st & , especially the 4th, Labyrinth levels had been beyond his wildest imagination but he was not sure they were worth the strain required to secure them. To see the pride on Imoen’s face when she slayed a Battle Horror & the increase in skill of each party member were satisfying, maybe more than the treasure. Then again, Indira continued to struggle to memorize spells, missing out on both Monster Summoning III & II that she had really wanted to learn. Potions of Genius had helped her in the past but they were not in great supply. He was also alarmed @ how vulnerable Sirine was to being Held in battle w/ Greater Ghoul’s, despite wearing Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1. Defeating the Warders on the 1st Labyrinth level was as gratifying as the beat down the Dwarven Doom Guards administered to them on level 2 was frustrating & disappointing. He had prayed for Raise Dead but Τυρ had not granted the divine spell, so he had had to return several times to seek the aid of Kelddath @ the Song of the Morning. He blamed himself for each tactical lapse & was thankful that none had been injured beyond what Kelddath could perform. He was thankful that he had been spared death but would gladly change places w/ anyone of those who had served him so faithfully these past months.
He remembered the Soultaker Dagger. He would take it to Hurgan Stoneblade in Ulgoth’s Beard after resting @ Beregost & unloading the immense booty they were carrying. He was beyond worrying about being confronted by the Flaming Fist for murder – he would deal w/ that when the time came - it was his destiny that it would.
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating & resupplying @ Beregost
NEXT STEPS: Ulgoth’s Beard
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 20 - Heroic) Dispenser: Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/8 (HP 56) Mail of the Dead +2, Shield of the Stars +1 & Cloak of Displacement w/Girdle of Bluntness & Ring of Free Action; L/Sword +2/+1* & Warhammer +2/ (+1)* (SWS*, SSS*) & Wand of the Heavens; Spells: Holy Power, Defensive Harmony, Protection/Evil 10’, Animate Dead, Dispel Magic, Miscast Magic, Cure Disease, Chant, Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command (2), Doom, Remove Fear; Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Strength of One; Divine Might; (None) (1)
DISPENSER
DISPENSER INVENTORY
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar (Martyr)/8 (HP 63) Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1; Two-handed Sword +3, ** (Flail**, THWS**) & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise; Abilities: Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Lay on Hands (3), D/Evil (8); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/9 (HP 69) Plate Mail football +3 w/2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane)** & Morning Star +1** (THWS**)w/ Gauntlet’s of Weapon Skill, (THWS**, Mc/MS*), ), Abilities: Remove Fear (6), Prot/Evil (6), Lay Hands, D/Evil (9), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Indira: Fighter/Mage 7/7 (HP 35) Indira’s Chain Vest, Ring of Protection +2,Girdle of Piercing & Boots of Speed; Composite Short Bow +2*** w/Bracers of Archery & L/Sword +1***; Spells; Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Flame Arrow, Invisibility 10’, Agannazar’s Scorcher, Detect Invisibility, Invisibility, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile (3); (Advanced AI) (5)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//10 (HP 58) Leather w/Ring/Prot +1 & Darkveil; S/bow +1* & Short Sword
+2, (SWS*); Skills: OL 100, PP 45, FT 100, MS 65, HS 85, DI 30, ST 35, w/Master Belt & Boots of Stealth; (Thief Ranged) (6)
Valerie: Sorcerer/9 (HP 25) Robe of the Good Arch-Magi & Cloak/Protection +2; Ring Energy, Necklace of Missiles, Arla’s Dragonbane Sling +3 * (Dart*) & Aule’s Staff +3; Spells: Greater Malison (3), Minor Sequencer (4), Melf’s Meteors (6), Remove Magic (5), Spell Thrust (5), Melf’s Acid Arrow (6), Ray of Enfeeblement (6), Stinking Cloud (6), Web (6), Blindness (6), Chromatic Orb (6), Magic Missile (5), Sleep (6), Spook (6); Abilities: Scribe Scrolls; (Advanced AI) (4)
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
[Being of orcish lineage, we always had problems with being accepted in Candlekeep. That was until a Champion of Bane came along. He accepted us for what we are and so we reciprocated with all our being, becoming blackguards, Champions of Bane, Fists of Bane, Clerics of his son Xvim and a fighter/thief who also worships Bane.
What a cool party my friend. Question, how do you make the characters beyond your PC? I always thought I was limited to my PC and either the standard npc's, i.e., Imoen, Jaheira, or npc's thatb are available in places like G3?
Question. How come when you kill Aec'Letec, no one in the party is given credit? I think either Valerie or Indira got the final blow but it doesn't reflect. CT
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
[Being of orcish lineage, we always had problems with being accepted in Candlekeep. That was until a Champion of Bane came along. He accepted us for what we are and so we reciprocated with all our being, becoming blackguards, Champions of Bane, Fists of Bane, Clerics of his son Xvim and a fighter/thief who also worships Bane.
What a cool party my friend. Question, how do you make the characters beyond your PC? I always thought I was limited to my PC and either the standard npc's, i.e., Imoen, Jaheira, or npc's thatb are available in places like G3?
I did have to use EE-Keeper to create some of those characters. Even with mods there were some combinations that were impossible: Fist/mage and Fighter/Cleric of Xvim being the cases in point. With them I had to roll a fighter/mage and assign the kit afterwards and a fighter/cleric and assign the kit afterwards, remembering to change the innate spells as well as the kit and also update the bonus stats. I don't know if the latter was necessary.
The method before EE came out was to play multi-player.
However with EE it is a little easier.
I don't know whether it is a mod or EE that has caused this but you just click on Create Party.
I presume that you can still do it using the multi-player mode, but haven't checked.
With the old system after creating a game in multi-player mode I would copy the save from the mpsave folder into the save folder.
Question. How come when you kill Aec'Letec, no one in the party is given credit? I think either Valerie or Indira got the final blow but it doesn't reflect. CT
It could be because you don't actually kill him.
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
All of my party have now reached level 6 apart from the multiclass members who are level5/level5.
We went to Beregost where we calmed down Marl, got Alanna's neighbour back into shape and killed Silke and Karlat.
We then headed south where we killed some ogrillon, some Flaming Fist Mercenaries who inadvertently supplied us with plate armour, followed by Tristan and Isolde.
We then proceeded to High Hedge where we helped Melicamp and Aiwell.
We then proceeded southward along the road to Nashkel, clearing it of bandits, hobgoblins and the like as we went, ending up just south of nashkel where we killed Zargos Flintblade and Greywolf.
The spiders in Beregost were then killed.
We then started clearing the road northwards from Beregost ending up at the Friendly Arms Inn where the assassin Tarnesh attacked us and subsequently died.
Between areas we were assaulted by bandits who soon began to rue their actions.
After that the area north of the Friendly Arms Inn was cleared of ankhegs. This boosted our experience considerably. At first killing them came at the cost of getting hurt, but as our experience increased, it became less dangerous.
We then killed Bassilus, Zargal and his cronies who used poison to great effect.
When we told Kelddathh of our exploits a number of the party levelled up and we were sent in search of Mutamin.
We were then sent to deal with Lady Valeria.
We dropped off Gavin and killed Vax, Zal, and a winter wolf after reuniting Rufie with his owner.
Heading for Durlag's Tower, we cleared it down as far as the four warders, and as we left the area a basilisk attacked. I took one of the remaining potions to protect myself, and shouting to my allies to keep clear, I waded in and killed it.
Upon our return to Nashkel we were asked to rescue Aaron. This we did, rescuing Dynaheir at the same time. We then helped Drizzt who helped us to find her journal. We left Dynaheir there.
In transit we were attacked by bandits of some sort only to be helped by another half-orc called Dorn.
and he joined the party since we seem to be most compatible. He seems to be slightly weaker than the rest of us, but has some strengths to compensate for that. He is another half-orc and like me is a blackguard so I can't see that there will be any conflict of interests.
Whilst resting he intimated that a visit to Tyris in Nashkel would please him. She told us where to find those he is searching for.
We killed another assassin in Nashkel and then proceeded to search for them. Apparently they are to the east of Nashkel.
After dealing with them, the lead led us to Baldur's Gate. There Jhaeros Auglathla ambushed us, but we managed to separate him from his cohorts and kill him. Web and fireballs were then most effective on the others.
Today's session started in the Pocket Plane where we thought the second challenge awaited us. After buffing up we entered the challenge area - and nothing happened. Wondering if we had actually done the challenge we wandered around for a while and back into the main area before re-entering - at which point the challengers suddenly appeared. Our short-term buffs had expired, which meant Reprise took rather more damage than intended while sorting out his clone. However, with that done he could retreat and switch to his throwing axe.
With the other challengers struggling to operate in an Incendiary Cloud, the challenge was quickly completed. The third challenge was then a simple matter of standing and slugging it out with the Slayer.
Moving on to Abazigal's Lair, Reprise went to find Draconis. His human form could be a real problem for some characters, but Reprise's saving throws defeated spell attempts and Draconis had once more forgotten to bring a magic weapon to make his mislead and timestop combination lethal.
Once he transformed he tried remove magic on Reprise, but his acid protection stayed intact. That allowed him to melee the dragon, in combination with a planetar, and after Kaliara threw in a breach the end came swiftly.
The Greater Werewyvern's very high regeneration rate would have made Reprise work hard to chew through its HPs - but Kaliara cut its innings short by raising her finger.
Kaliara gave Reprise some cold protection to deal with some frost salamanders before asking if he wanted some fire protection for the next area. He didn't really see the need, but light dawned (along with heat) as some water elementals and kuo-toa started burning up.
After killing the salamanders around Abazigal, some missile attacks started working through his protections. Kaliara was hit once during that and retreated a bit more after that to slow things down - but then threw in a planetar to speed them up again. There was a nasty moment on my screen when Reprise hit Abazigal with K'Logarath - causing a knock-back effect at the same time as Abazigal changed into dragon shape. That initially appeared to have happened on top of Kaliara, but she had been hit by a wing buffet and the screen changed a moment later after she was apparently thrown clear.
However, her being unconscious so close to the dragon did mean Reprise coming straight into combat rather than buffing first and he was quickly taken down to below 100 HPs as a result. With Kaliara back on her feet he tried to run Abazigal round while using a potion of regeneration, but the combination of the odd additional hit from the hasted dragon with ancillary damage from buffets and earthquakes meant his HPs continued to decline - until that was arrested by being mazed (Abazigal sneakily got a couple of additional hits in during the maze animation to take HPs down further to 33).
Abazigal had apparently forgotten about Kaliara at this point though and stayed where it was. She tried using a couple of summons to drag it away from the point where Reprise would re-emerge and was partially successful in that, but the dragon still started chasing Reprise immediately he arrived back. However, its haste had now expired and Reprise was able to take an oil of speed while the dragon was briefly distracted by a couple of invisible stalkers Kaliara had summoned while waiting for Maze to expire.
That oil of speed was enough to allow Reprise to now be able to keep away from Abazigal and he gradually started building his HPs up again with the help of another regeneration potion. He'd only got a bit above 50 again though - too low to consider going back into melee - when Kaliara decided to gamble on getting involved again. She attempted to pay the dragon in its own coin with a maze, but it shrugged the attempt off and a moment later its great jaws chomped shut and bit Kaliara's head entirely off .
Rather than quit the game immediately, Reprise let his HPs build up to over 100 to test his intended battle plan out. He used defensive stance to increase his damage resistance to 70 and found, using GWWs with Blackrazor, the damage he took was indeed roughly balanced by the healing from the sword - and it didn't take long to get a measure of revenge for Kaliara.
That battle was made significantly harder by mistakes - not just in the battle, but previously (like not buying the Defender of Easthaven to push damage resistance to 90, or Ras to occupy the dragon for a few rounds while its stoneskins were destroyed). However, it also illustrated the problems with the abjurer as a class. The lack of battle protections like PfMW and stoneskin makes getting into the thick of combat against powerful enemies a distinctly chancy affair, while not having mordy swords to occupy melee specialists also takes away one of the best mage strategies.
For my current run I decided to go for the paladin class. I've always found them rather stoic and dull for my liking and that is why Nauti, my champion, comes with a little twist. She's got an adventurer's spirit with a whiff of individuality and not all her virtues would necessarily overlap with that of your regular paladin order with its strict by-laws. For her, and despite sharing most elemental tenets, Ajantises and Anomens of this world are tragi-comical figures straight out of cheesy novels. Of all the Faerûn deities, Nauti favours Tymora and her "church" for endorsing liberal and daring endeavours.
As a result, she's been allowed to change her alignment to neutral good and relocate 2 ability points from CHA into INT.
Nauti's unorthodox attitude also translated into her starting proficiencies whereby all the pips have been allocated between staves and two-handed weapon style. Instead of relying on throwing axes or shields, her early style will revolve around 0 weapon speed factor. Here's Nauti's character record at Candlekeep:
Mods: SCSv32, JimFix, BGTweaks (for removing helmet animations, removing item blur effects and some other minor adjustments) SCS difficulty slider: Hardcore
Let us start by calling for a staves' appreciation day. There's zero cost involved, they do not decompose (unlike metal swords and axes of the Sword Coast) and you can melee ogres with them. What's not to like here?
As for the actual progress - we hit level 3 by completing various minor quests around FAI and Beregost involving Joia, Mirianne, Zhurlong, Marl, Firebead, Landrin's house and Perdue. With safe amount of HP to soak up damage and a brand new long sword proficiency pip, Nauti was now ready for more adventurous stuff.
She proceeded to collect Melicamp in his poultry form, dispersed Zargal's band with Wand of Sleep and then continued to Nashkel via Barge, earning her first strength enhancing potion.
In Nashkel Nauti escapes Noober and...wait, what?! Must be some form of black magic!
Anyway, she collects the Ankheg Plate and returns north to deal with Bjornin's half-ogres. The reward is worth the effort and Nauti reaches level 4.
FAI is still off-limits because of the threat of Sleep by Tarnesh. Instead, we visit the farmlands to the north and assist Brun with the ankheg trouble.
This opens up the road to Ulgoth's Beard where Nauti buys three essential pieces of equipment for her - Aule's Staff, Cloak of Displacement and Greenstone Amulet.
Korax does a great job of dealing with Mutamin and all his basilisks, which brings Nauti us all the way to level 6.
Now we may finally enter FAI, where we deal with Tarnesh and trigger Dorn's encounter. Nauti refuses help from Jaheria and Khalid but eventually does accept their Potion of Invisibilty as a parting gift.
After dealing with Dorn's former partners Senjak and Dorothea, Nauti seeks out Prism and agrees to protect him. Unsurprisingly, Greywolf didn't like that arrangement - he quaffed a strength potion and attacked. Despite his dual-wielding speed he could not match Nauti's staff. Maybe next time think about brining an Oil of Speed.
Witnessing the tragic death of Prism, Nauti didn't have the heart to remove the gems from Ellesime's sparkling eyes, despite the outstanding bounty. As usually, few paladins would understand...
Our next pairing saw another sturdy Bhaalspawn with an arcane sidekick. Chantelle only shared her portrait once the game had started and as we headed straight into the session her face will only appear properly next time. Gurbo hopes he will recognise her when that happens.
We made a typical start, terminating Shoal the nereid...
...before picking up ankheg plate in Nashkel. Gurbo started his inquiries about how to fight basilisks and on getting a satisfactory answer that Chantelle knows protection from petrification he promptly forgot about all this and picked up some reputation gains.
After returning for the basilisks we made short blind work of Kirian's crew before heading to the coast in search of sirines.
There they are were (look at some other near-coastal creatures instead).
We then headed northwards and despite a reputation beyond 20 (Ardrouine was also 20+) decided to help Farmer Brun and fill our backpacks with ankheg treasures.
Everything is going well so far, next time we might start to look into the problems of the region.
With constant access to ProEvil and equipped with Ankheg Plate, Aule's Staff (with Varscona and +1 medium shield as a back-up) and Girdle of Piercing, there was little for Nauti to be afraid of in the southern parts of the Sword Coast. Note: Meilum's bracers were off-limits to us on RP basis - we'll have to wait until the Bandit Camp to get that extra offensive boost.
Nauti steamrolled through Zal & Vax...
Caldo & Crumm (in case you're wondering which one of them is the evil one and which one is just ugly)...
as well as Gnarl and Hairtooth.
I tend to avoid sirines in 99% of my no-reload runs since fighting them usually requires to tap into your resources and the net gain is not worth the cost. However, with a cavalier, it would have been a shame not to put those charm and poison immunities for a show. The sirines would only pose a threat in melee and that's the area where Nauti's speed factor still dominates the battlefield.
In the cove, Nauti uses Greenstone Amulet to foil the traps (I couldn't remember which enchantment effects those traps carry and confusion/hold could be deadly), kites the golems with her staff and retrieves the treasure including the Manual of Bodily Health.
By increasing CON to 19 we now felt comfortable to switch to the Claw of Kazgaroth purchased at High Hedge. Nauti then paid a quick visit to Durlag's Tower where she dealt with the Battle Horrors with Aule's and Wand of Magic Missiles. She also bought some Hill Giant Strength potions from the local souvenir vendor and retrieved the WIS tome from the tower itself.
Nauti is now level 7, enjoying 2 APR with her melee weapons, and she's ready to enter the Nashkel mines. Here's an updated character record.
We're taking things steady today. Our venture begins with a save "Rest and poisoned then Sunin". Whatever could it mean?
Well, first we rest. Then the poison takes effect on Milam so we leave Sunin for a little while longer, and hunt down Lothander. Our summons are placed nicely, and a grease is cast. We wait a little while and speak to Lothander. He tells us what we need to know and promptly runs away. We manage to pause briefly and target him - but he makes good his escape and we have to make do with Coremage being slower than the rest of the party.
We'd better take care of Marek, he'll be at the Blushing Mermaid. That poison looks sickly.
Marek doesn't last long, but he does confuse Milam. Coremage quickly backs away while Harvey the bouncer does his best to keep local passers-by away from Milam. He does a good job at this and Milam recovers without attacking anybody.
Outside Sunin's house Milam is studiously buffing when he realises one or both of his companions has already started the fight. By the time he enters to throw a dagger, Sunin is dead from an overdose of Melf's Minute Meteors. Coremage picks an Evermemory ring out of the smouldering remains and unceremoniously plonks it onto his finger.
Milam decides to go for Ramazith next - Ragefast has already died at our hands - so he teleports upstairs. Milam gives Coremage a slight buff with Improved Invisibility and shoves him upstairs. Only after the fight does Milam remember Coremage "lost" Spiders Bane last time he died.
It gets worse, on joining the fight I for some reason thought Harvey was Milam and started to throw daggers at the ghasts at point blank range instead of what I thought was a safe distance. Fortunately the ghasts had acquired a taste for mage and declined to dine on druid today. Phew. Hopefully Harvey and Coremage were too occupied to notice this, or if they did they made sure to say nothing. They won't read this so my secret is safe wahahaha rats.
The last couple of combats had been tough so the sensible thing to do would be taking on an easy target or having a rest. But no, instead Milam fancies taking on Drelik and Jardak. Oh they were tough and we had to use all some of our wits to best them. The stone giant strength potion Harvey had used to bash a container with certainly helped our cause.
After completing the quests we wanted in the city, we fought the Iron Throne HQ mercenaries. A slightly low-placed stinking cloud would cause us problems, so Milam lobbed in four webs and shifted to spider form while Harvey and Coremage used ranged methods to thin down the hapless opposition.
This was enough for us to be awarded free entry to Candlekeep (you can read all about that in a valuable book which we gave away), where everything went to plan, or better, right up until Prat and his gang cut Harvey down in the prime of his life.
After punishing them suitably, we picked up Harvey and his belongings and headed outside to a temple. Harvey took it well, and not once did he complain about Coremage not doing a good enough tanking job. OK, he might have mentioned it once. Jokingly.
At the coronation a reversal of fortune saw Harvey hitting hard and Coremage getting shredded while trying to use a bow with a greater doppelganger too close. Harvey redoubled his efforts while Milam eventually decided to use a second insect plague rather than use Improved Invisibility on Belt. Suffice to say the coronation went our way and Sarevok went on his own way in a foul mood.
We nipped out to a temple and got Coremage raised again. After handing him all his gear back we realised that the Evermemory ring had evaporated into thin air, just like the earlier one. At least this seems feasible, it's a bit harder for us to believe that a two handed sword like Spiders Bane can vanish in the same way.
Our next episode has a reminder name of "Thieves Maze". Whatever can it mean.
I haven't touched the poverty run in a while, but I lost another solo run, this time a Cleric/Druid in SoD. Apparently Morentherene and the enemies she spawns in Insane mode can cut through 90 HP in 6 seconds even if you have -15 AC vs. slashing, even if you don't have double damage enabled.
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
We were unable to get through to those that Dorn wanted to kill so we went down the Nashkel Mines.
We left a party member down the mine in order to pick up Xan.
We brought Xan up to the surface and then returned for our party member.
Upon doing so, we looted the caves and killed the Revenant.
We then once more picked up Xan and dropped off a party member.
(I want to do Xan's Quest )
EDIT
We then visited Joseph's widow and gave her his ring. Xan charmed Oublek who then helped us fight a baby wyvern. He died in the process, but at least he died a hero's death. I certainly won't be the one to tell them that he was charmed at the time.
We gained a reward from the mayor for clearing the mines and our reputation cannot get any higher. It is amusing that people think that we, followers of Bane are great heroes. I believe that they think that we are good, but the major things that we have done, the killing of Bassilus, Mutamin and Mulahey were defeating servants of Cyric who is a sworn enemy of Bane, the god whom we worship. The other things that we have done have been trivial things that we have done purely to get a better reputation.
We killed another assassin before leaving Nashkel.
Just north of Nashkel of Nashkel we rescued David Jansen from being eaten by lady ogres. We did this by offering them a better diet. Now we are off to realms unknown. Well, not realms exactly as we will still be in the same realm.
North of Beregost my thief scouting ahead spotted Malious and others. Web and fireball sorted them out, though we did have to use missiles on one who escaped being webbed.
However I want the run to be primarily one of Half-orcs. If I had known what I know now, I would have delayed picking up Dorn until the way was clear to go to Baldur's Gate.
murder and mayhem
I wanted to work on our rep so we killed the tanner but couldn't report our good deed because those giff murdered the city guards... on the up side it did give us some nice armour
then we looked at our gear and had some other items made; shortbow for sis, halberd and silver sword for party loot
we tracked a murderer back to Umber hills and sorted him along with some other minor issues... a Dragon and Shade Lord both died due to skull traps
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
Elminster pointed us in the right direction to find the bandit camp. Tazok attacked us but left before we could kill him. We then got in an archery battle with the bandits. When there was a crowd of them together web followed by fireballs were used. Dorn accidentally got caught in the web and we had to protect him from his attackers.
We prevailed and then took on Deker and the caravan bandits followed by Tranzig.
Tranzig wasn't given a second chance to surrender as command stopped him uttering a sound.
We returned to the camp where we killed Brotus Bloodthirsty before looting Tazok's tent.
We then proceeded to ther Friendly Arms Inn where we were attacked by Najara and Valius. They were swiftly killed.
Davenport ambushed us, but web disabled his cohorts, so he was quite easy to kill.
Since we have a high reputation we then went shopping. We now have 23 gp.
We then killed Firebead thinking that this would lose us reputation and gain us horror as an innate spell. However EE is different and there is no reputation loss for killing him.
Perhaps we should now go and see the Cleric of Ilmater who wants you to give up all youir wealth.
EDIT
That is exactly what we did, but to our surprise he no longer takes your money.
We are now investigating the Section HQ. It will be interesting to discover if Nikita's reactions are different in this game where we actually ARE evil.
We are acquiring very good equipment.
EDIT
Dorn went walking into our own web without instructions to do so. This immediately put him in danger from the section archers, therefore those in the party who were immune to hold dashed through the web to kill the archers. In this they were successful but too late to save Dorn's life.
After picking up his gear and that of the Section operatives, a 10' invisibility spell was used to get us out safely.
The temple raised him and then we healed him. We will probably now sell some of the loot to make room for more and then return to the fray.
We once more entered the fray and after killing more of the Section, Dorn died once more. We therefore raised him and headed for Cloakwood. We can return to the Section HQ once Dorn has levelled up.
By the time Nauti reached the Nashkel mines, she was already overpowered for the challenges that awaited inside. Running Stone Giant Strength, she cut through Mulahey's kobolds like they were butter.
The priest himself presented not much of a threat either. Nauti first healed up the damage suffered from the various traps, buffed with ProUndead (green scroll), ProEvil and Greenstone Amulet and then charged.
One Wand of Sleep charge to dilute the kobold lines.
And finish.
Avoiding Narcillicus, she looted the surface tombs, collected the green ProMagic scroll from Hafiz and travelled to the carnival area to enjoy a well earned rest. There was hardly a better way of praying for Tymora's good fortune than by gambling - "Come in poor, walk out rich!" they said. You bet!
After couple of drinks at the bar, Nauti got mixed up with Zordal and Bentha while trying to find a place to nap at one of the tents. To be fair, our protagonist was not in the mood for Zordral's antics. This lead an unfortunate turn of events for Bentha as she got PW: killed by Zordral before we're able to silence him with Aule's Staff.
Back in Nashkel, Nimbul resisted our melee pressure only for so long as his Stoneskins and MIs allowed. From there we went on to take care of Tranzig and Silke in Beregost. In all three encounters Nauti only took minimal buffs, such as Shield Amulet and/or ProEvil, instead relying on having potions of Magic Blocking and Mirrored Eyes ready for a counter. Our save v. spell of 7 still gave us a decent (albeit not risk-free) headroom for an odd Chromatic Orb sequencer, when quaffing a counter potion on time is not a viable option for a melee character.
En route from Beregost Nauti got ambushed by Molkar. Determined to stand her ground and fight, Nauti had to counter an early Hold Person with a Potion of Freedom shortly after the battle began.
Constantly on the move and using the extra reach of our weapon, we were trying to keep safe distance from the attackers. We also managed to sneak in a Hill Giant Strength potion when the enemy cleric uses his round to summon a skeleton, thus freeing our aura for offensive use (Nauti was not running Greenstone Amulet and Rigid Thinking could therefore require a defensive action).
One by one, Molkar's crew was getting thinner and thinner until we could call it a win.
Nauti reached the bandit camp by presenting a fake CV to Raiken and then passing the job interview with Tazok. Nevertheless, she was not intent on maintaining her camouflage for too long - she wanted to cause panic instead.
We tapped our resources for Potion of Mind Focusing, Frost Giant Strength, Potion of Heroism, 100% cold resistance (green scroll plus potion) and Oil of Speed. Nauti cast her ProEvil on top of that and ambushed the unsuspecting hobgoblin enclave - Ardenor Crush was the first victim of that day, far away from being the last.
Soon thereafter Taurgosz enters the picture and quaffs an Oil of Speed. Nice move for such an oaf. Nauti -> Potion of Absorption.
Having outpaced the rest of his army in pursuit of Nauti, isolated and under-buffed Taurgosz found himself facing our impregnable AC and deadly staff. Unfortunately for him, he'll not have the chance to contemplate on his mistakes ever again.
Seeing more and more enemies joining the fray, including Venkt and his tent crew, Nauti activated her Shield Amulet and launched a small pyroshow (not sure if that was Potion of Explosions or Necklace of Missiles).
Unlike the late Taurgosz, Venkt deserves some credit for his tactical approach. Correctly assessing our defences, he opted for a Hold Person cast - an interesting choice and a good move at that. Nauti's saving throws v. spells (7) were insufficient to guarantee a successful save - to counter the effect, she would have to choose between a Potion of Freedom and a Potion of Magic Blocking. Not wanting to sacrifice her Oil of Speed or other buffs, Potion of Invisibility seemed like the best course of action for us. In worst case scenario we'd have to wait out the Hold duration under invisibility (while hoping that Venkt does not come up with a divination cast).
False alarm everyone. We can continue.
Nauti then quaffs a Potion of Regeneration to heal up the occasional damage from critical hits and clears most of the field with another fire volley.
With the majority of his fodder gone, Venkt became an easy meal for Aule's.
And the last man standing award goes to the heavy hitting but oh-so-slow Britik.
Comments
The Undercity welcoming party saw a warm reaction from Ceres to their reception. They were webbed and bombarded with charges from the Necklace of Missiles. The Ogre survived the initial bombardment but he didn't survive that Wand of Heavens that finally cooked him.
Tamoko wasn't there. This is weird, but whatever, I don't care, onto the big guy.
I rebuilt Ceres' spellbook, rested once, and entered the Temple. Made use of the usual prebuffs, Ironskins, Chaotic Commands, etc, in addition to Potions (Power, Mind Focusing and Magic Resist) and Divine Might (Bhaalspawn DUHM renamed by aTweaks).
First, I showered Sarevok and his acolytes with three Smashing Waves, weakening them for Spike Growth. Ceres then talked to him before anyone would die, so that she could get Diarmid and Angelo to spawn. Semaj died right after they spawned, and Tazok followed him shortly afterwards our Necklace of Missiles bombardment had begun. Angelo died to the Spikes while invisible and Diarmid was burnt to death with Potions of Explosions, Oils of Fiery Fire and one Potion of Firebreath, since they're non-magical and thus can get past his PfM scroll. I kited Sarevok in Spider form for a while and used around 20 Wand of Heavens charges until he was done. One grilled Sarevok, ready to serve!
Our stats at the very beginning of SoA.
Super run.
gratz on making it to Sod
Whilst dex isn't super-important, surely it still gives you a better armour rating.
Having teamed up with Gavin, I was given a series of quests which we completed: The killing of Bassilus, the killing of Mutamin for which I recieved 6 potions of mirroring. I didn't use them but a scroll which nearly lasted long enough. At that point I did use a potion, saving the others for later.
We then killed lady Valeria after which we picked up Tenya and dropped off gavin who was level 6 by that time. Tenya was also level 6 with slightly more experience, but not much more.
We then went to rescue Dynaheir, found her jornal and went down into the Nashkel mines which were relatively easy.
We dropped of Sirene in Aerie's tent and went to pick up Xan.
Upon reaching Nashkel, Xan charmed Oublek who fought a baby wyvern for us. Sadly he was killed, but at least he died a hero's death, something he would never have achieved without our help. He still had the emeralds in his possession which makes me a little suspicious about his honesty. he also had a large amount of gold. That made me even more suspicious. We didn't tell anyone about that though, better that he is remembered as a hero.
We were given a reward for clearing the mines and were then set upon by two assassins. Neither of them survived.
Just north of Nashkel Xan was able to improve the diet of two lady ogres. A halflng was very relieved by the change in diet since he was about to be eaten.
We then rescued some traders in the basilisk area but later on had to kill them as it came to light that it was elven slaves who were being traded. We took them to the Friendly Arms Inn where they would be safe. This brought Xan up to level 6.
At that point we dropped him off and picked up Sirene once more.
I've started a couple of undocumented solo runs in BG1 of late and I also have a solo Transmuter in SoA, but somehow I've come to love full party, completionist runs the most, especially with themed parties. My LG Cleric/Ranger Amahoro led a crusader party of sorts (with Anomen, Jaheira, Mazzy, and Haer'Dalis backed by Imoen) pretty much to the Throne of Bhaal. Alma the Transmuter saw her party of specialist mages fail at Boareskyr Bridge in SoD, and Faera the recently fallen Gnome Illusionist tended to surround herself with mostly fellow wizards too. This time I'm going with a mercenary/rogue-oriented party.
A fantastic portrait of a female Dwarf helped me create Arwynn the Fighter/Thief:
Arwynn's optimal physical stats I lazily explain by her being a gifted warrior Bhaalspawn (like Sarevok). An astute thinker and strategist, Arwynn is perceptive and often quite analytical, justifying her 16 INT. However her excitable temperament makes her act on impulse occasionally, and she has a natural curiosity that's likely to get her into trouble time and again, all in keeping with her low 7 WIS. Arwynn isn't gorgeous or even cute, at least by non-Dwarven standards, but she has an upbeat personality, excellent social skills, and a great sense of humor, making her a lot of fun to be around, hence her 16 CHA. These personality traits she developed as a kid in Candlekeep, hoping to find acceptance as a dwarf among mostly humans. The citadel's close-knit and overtly heightist - if not outright racist - community of permanent residents never really appreciated her efforts though, with the exception of Gorion and Imoen and maybe Winthrop. But what else could be expected of a place where Reevor, a decorated soldier - and a dwarf - holds the lowly position of "guard of the store house" while incompetent men with more prestigious jobs are free to hang out at the barracks while on duty, or to walk around hung-over and without their gear while they're supposed to be guarding the gate.
Most notable mods: SCS v32 (Insane), Anthology Tweaks, aTWeaks
Arwynn left Candlekeep under less than propitious circumstances with two dead assassins in her wake as well as a hostile priest of Oghma who hadn't taken kindly to her nicking a potion of healing for the road from the infirmary.
Imoen found her the next morning, and they set out to the FAI where they were to meet two of Gorion's friends. They ran into a human Necromancer and a halfling Assassin who were willing to accompany them to the FAI. It didn't take Arwynn long to figure out that the wizard was the one pulling the strings, and the halfling was his little helper. This shocked Arwynn deeply. Could it be that the Sword Coast, or Gods forbid, the entirety of Faerun, was as heightist as Candlekeep? She told herself not to jump to conclusions as it may have been sheer happenstance, but she did find herself struggling to respect Montaron, as the halfling was called, for voluntarily serving Xzar, the wizard.
Arwynn and Imoen slew a rogue ogre with their bolts and arrows and the party met another human male, a Bard by the name of Eldoth, south of the FAI. Eldoth joined the party and the five reached the FAI about four hours later. A black-robed wizard with a grim demeanor was standing at the top of the stairs leading to the entrance. Arwynn, well-aware there were people out to kill her, snuck up on him together with Montaron, ready to strike from the shadows in case he should display any hostile intentions.
When Xzar approached, the wizard proved hostile indeed. He had somehow divined Arwynn's presence in the group. Montaron lunged at the mage with his short blade, but to his and Arwynn's horror the halfling struck a Mirror Image rather than the actual man. Arwynn, whose slower scimitar had prevented her from striking as fast as Montaron, changed her plan and quickly descended the stairs, still hidden for some seconds. The wizard meanwhile cast a Sleep spell on Montaron the area of effect of which she was happy to escape. Imoen tried to distract the mage with her arrows. She was a good shot but she, like Montaron, failed to hit him. A second Sleep spell, this time directed at Xzar, followed. Both Montaron and Xzar were now asleep. Eldoth, who had been bragging about his ability to make poisoned arrows yet had forgotten to bring his longbow was next to useless, so it was up to Imoen and Arwynn to deal with the dangerous wizard. But Imoen was then nearly killed by a Magic Missile, so Arwynn told her to retreat. The wizard dispatched Xzar and Montaron with more Magic Missiles and his staff. Thankfully a guard witnessed the wizard's assault on Xzar and proceeded to attack the mage. Arwynn had no time to wonder whether the guard would have stepped in if it had been her instead of lanky Xzar being under attack. It didn't matter now. She did see the guard's intervention as an opportunity. The Mirror Images were gone, and Arwynn saw the guard actually hit the wizard. She hid in shadows again, approached the wizard from behind, and finished him off.
Arwynn traveled to Beregost with Eldoth and Imoen, and that's where things started to pick up for the dwarf. She was joined by three interesting companions of the shorter races, and thankfully free, independent folk each one of them, unlike Montaron. First there was Aura, a genius gnomish inventor, trapper, and illusionist (Artificer/Illusionist) originally from Lantan, but on a mission to find an adversary from Kozakura, which had been her home for several years before coming to the Sword Coast. Kagain, a dwarven Fighter (kitless) and owner of an escort company joined at least temporarily to search a for missing caravan. He wasn't as talkative to a fellow dwarf as Arwynn would have liked, but she was willing to give him a chance. And thirdly Arwynn was joined by Tiax in Feldepost's inn, a gnomish rogue priest of Cyric (Strifeleader of Cyric/Thief). Tiax seemed to be as cruel and megalomaniacal as the deity he worshipped. But in the bigoted, heightist world they lived in, Arwynn felt empathy and compassion rather than disdain for the gnome. Like him, she too had screamed for recognition for all those years back in Candlekeep. It was only their methods that had differed.
The party found Kagain's missing caravan. The travelers had just been slain by bandits. Aura cast a Sleep spell on the bandits and Tiax summoned a fearsome ghast to help the party. Kagain took two arrows remarkably well, the others didn't suffer any injuries so their mission could be called a success.
The party did some questing around Beregost. Aura's Sleep spell affecting only one out of three huge spiders, the first one blocking the others, was nice.
Back in Beregost Imoen chose to stay behind with Firebead Elvenhair. She had picked up the FAI mage's spellbook, and was quite intent on learning magic. Firebead was willing to guide her. Eldoth on the other hand was dismissed for being of little use to the party, for being rather pedantic, and for sticking out as a sore thumb as the only tall figure in the group.
The party had done many a good deed by then, but earned little to no recognition for them. Retrieving a ring from three hobgoblin thugs for Joia north of the FAI, and a necklace from some other hobgoblins for Mr Coquetle in Beregost, buying Firebead Elvenhair a book, slaying four half-ogres to avenge a wounded paladin, rescuing cattle from attacking xvarts, babysitting in Nashkel, being honest to Oublek the bounty handler in Nashkel instead of accepting the sum he mistakenly wanted to give him, sparing captain Brage and escorting him to the temple of Helm, whatever good deeds they did, it didn't seem to matter to the rest of the world. The only way for the party to boost their reputation seemed to be to donate thousands of GPs to a temple. They didn't have that much, and Arwynn was principally opposed to paying more than a few tithes anyway. It was all proof to Arwynn that she was indeed living in a corrupt and unabashedly heightist society.
(A 50% chance of gaining a rep point in each rep quest per SCS saw the party only receive one out of about seven possible rep increases up to that point, convenient for the narrative of this run.)
Without discussing it with her companions, she decided that Imoen and Eldoth's replacements had to be shorties. The short races had to stick together, that much had become clear to Arwynn. The party found those replacements in Quayle, a gnome Cleric/Illusionist whose bragging was an obvious expression of his insecurity and his height issues to Arwynn, and Alora, a halfling Swashbuckler and an exceptionally gifted pickpocket who seemed genuinely care-free and as such served as an example for Arwynn.
The party of Arwynn, Aura, Kagain, Tiax, Quayle, and Alora proceeded to do good, not so much anymore for recognition from others as to live up to their own standards, and to advance in their adventuring careers, with more experience, more gold, and better gear.
A noteworthy encounter took place with an Amnian huntress named Sendai. She was held by Tiax's ghast but her archers stopped the party from finishing her, and they slew Quayle. The party nevertheless managed to finish Sendai away from the deadly marksmen and Arwynn was thrilled to find no less than two enchanted scimitars and a suit of enchanted studded leather armor on her foe.
More adventures in the southern regions included the defeat of bandits Vax and Zal thanks much to Tiax's ghast (who was making a huge difference in several battles), reuniting Albert and Rufie, dispatching knuckleheads Caldo and Krumm thanks to Aura's Sleep spell, fetching young Drienne's dead cat, and taking Samuel the deserter to Gellana Mirrorshade at the FAI. Tellingly, it was only the latter act of kindness that earned them a scarce reputation point.
Tiax's ghast was good for more easy kills in Nashkel and Beregost (Neira, Karlat the sell-out, and Silke). Up north the party looted an ankheg treasure hoard under stealth (Arwynn), retrieved a bowl for the priestess Tenya, and slew a single ankheg near Tenya's home with a Sleep from Aura. In Ulgoth's Beard Edventar's Gift became Alora's gift, to Arwynn. Arwynn was thankful and appreciative of Alora's skills. However when she learned of the source of Alora's gift she also told the halfling and her other thieving companions that other shorties shouldn't be duped without provocation. The lanky folk on the other hand, were fair game.
In Nashkel the party refused to travel with a red wizard to a gnoll stronghold in order to kill another wizard held captive there, but they decided to investigate on their own. Dispatching the gnolls was hard work, and took some healing potions,
To conclude this rather long post, the party cleared a basilisk-ridden area after they de-petrified Corianna, who showed them the way to the area.
More interesting was the party's encounter with four trouble-seekers. Aura read a scroll of Stinking Cloud she had just found on the gnome's dead body. It affected a swordsman and a priest, but an archer escaped its area of effect, and their leader Kirian also managed to get out of the cloud and withstand the party's undead's paralyzing attacks. She put Kagain and Tiax under the effects of a Sleep spell. Arwynn immediately engaged the archer in melee, preventing him from wreaking havoc on the party's more vulnerable members. She would defeat her foe with difficulty, requiring two healing potions. The priest cast a Silence that affected Kirian as well as Alora and Arwynn.
With the tall people's world against them, the companions had no qualms about engaging in questionable business practices that included theft, fencing of stolen property, and money laundering. It netted them some very good but over-priced gear from shops that were well-protected against theft, such as archmagi robes for Aura and Quayle, a dagger of venom and the claw of Kazgaroth for Alora, a suit of shadow armor and the army scythe for Arwynn, Aule's staff for Tiax, and a suit of full plate armor and an enchanted axe for Kagain.
The party isn't really in a rush to pursue the main quest line (without Khalid and Jaheira or Xzar and Monty urging them on and with bounty hunter violence subsided for now), so they may well explore some more before visiting the Nashkel Mines. Arwynn, Kagain, and Aura have just over 10k XP. Tiax, Quayle, and Alora a bit more, around 13k, as their lowest joining levels were still higher than Arwynn's.
I too have come to love full party, completionist themed parties. They can have very different themes: Single race, single class, or worshippers of the same deity. F n P helps with the latter considerably.
I do like the female dwarf portrait.
Journal of Seth the Seer
Tenya learned how to use her bowl and I beat Meilum single sanded, but the death spell of the Mighty Khark killed the weasels, Isra, Sirene, Agantis and finally me....
That is some spell to kill so many of the party!! Clearly either silence or web was needed.
Introduction
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After the Underdark, there're a couple loose ends and quests I haven't touched: De'Arnise Keep, the Unseeing Eye and the rest of the Clerical quests, Firkraag's dungeon, the Planar Prison, the Planar Sphere, any of the EE NPC quests, and Kangaxx. We start with Rasaad's quest first, since the Gem of True Seeing is rather nice to have. There's not too much of a threat: apparently the only things I thought noteworthy enough to screenshot was a Dangerous Moose, and that mage fighting for a belt that starts off with an ADHW. It's not even a good belt!
Cernd gets called away for his personal quest, so we solve it quickly: fighting high level mages is generally just a waiting battle to strip down their incessant PfMW spells. A couple summons and kiting and specifically NOT fighting that lich means we get through without casualties. Cernd heads for the Druid Grove, and since we're there, we take care of a couple of Rakshasas for the Periapt Against Poison.
Back to the De'Arnise keep, after picking up Nalia for Rasaad for the additional gold, I belatedly notice that I have all of one Charm or Dispel spell memorized by anyone. I also dislike resting unnecessarily, so we try it anyways. Fortunately, it works.
The Periapt against poison is put to work against the Iron Golem: if my summons had fallen, I'd just do the same thing at the doorway since it can't fit. Back outside, we take care of the two Spirit Trolls that almost ended my run earlier while hunting some dogs for some experience making a stew. Somehow making a dog stew is worth like 3 levels to a level 1 character. It doesn't make sense. Oh well. Finally, Torgal is separated by invisibility and then slaughtered: gear post-Underdark is just that much better.
Next up is Windspear Hills: we set the kamikazes on fire from afar, and the Rakshasa transmuter is little enough trouble I forgot any details about it.
I have 6 Protection from Fire Mage spells on Thael, and give one to each. Beyond that, we have Chaotic commands on everyone, Death Ward on Thael, Fear immunity from spells or equipment, Improved Haste on Mazzy, regular Haste on everyone else, and Mass Invisibility from Imoen. We have 4 Shambling Moulds, because somehow the things are immune to fire damage despite all of us knowing that fire is Super Effective versus grass types. We also have 3-4 Potions of Fire Resistance and 3 potions of Ice Dust that I keep forgetting about.
Firkraag caught Cernd, Rasaad, Mazzy, and Skie within two Remove Magics while Imoen and Thael are in another area trying to break down Firkraag's magical defenses, or using spells that ignore them (Assassin Vines, for example). Skie retreats entirely: her THAC0 isn't high enough to reliably help, and I don't really want to spend more fire resistance on her. I give Rasaad Thael's sling for the same reason, and because he dies to a single critical hit from Firkraag. Mazzy continues being a machine gun after drinking a fire resistance potion, and finally he runs out of both Stoneskins and PfMW spells. Both he and Conster falls.
Since we know we can kill dragons, we trade Rasaad for Valygar, and do a repeat performance in Umar Hills.
Next up after making 2 sets of dragon scale armor: Planar Sphere. 3 problematic fights: the halfling cannibal mages, Lavok, and Tolgerais. Halfling mages we can bomb from afar with Cloudkill, Assassin Vines, and Death Fog. Lavok we have to actual take down in a spell-fight so we can break through his PfMW: Ray of Reversal and Secret Word were enough to break him. Tolgerais didn't protect himself with Protection from normal missiles, and Mazzy snipes him down. Golems are invisibility-blocked again.
Turned in Yoshimo's heart, found out Bernard doesn't know that Jaheira's chunked and dead, and started the Unseeing Eye. We retune our spellbooks for area of effect damage and Skeleton Warriors, and we end up having to actually fight only a single beholder that roamed near us. A CLW gets Amaunator's apparition appeased, and no lich spawns in the undead village. Oh, for some reason, Thael got HLAs early, so for the Unseeing Eye itself, we use a summoned Deva and an Incendiary Cloud to murderify it from afar. Turning it in finally gets us to 20 reputation.
........ Uh. Um. Dark Planetar. I should've fled immediately and waited for a despawn. Instead, we try fighting it and both Imoen and Cernd end up vorpal'd.
We need another Mage and probably a Thief, and a front liner: my initial thoughts are Nalia for the M/T, but something's only giving her 16k experience and she needs 1m experience to level. Probably a bug, but I'll just take Jan then. There's a bit of a bug with recruiting him, but some console use later and he's talking and the script functions correctly. I'll take up Haer'Dalis as my front liner. So back into the sewers we go!
A mistake in the dialogue means we fight Mekrath rather than hunt an Imp, but Cloudkill is really good against all non-Lich mages.
We dodge all Disintegrate spells by Mass Invisibility when entering the Prison, and slowly work our way east. More area-of-effect spells gets us through the Yuan Ti, and a use of Elemental Summoning breaks the demon that holds the key quickly. We try our Deva vs the Warden itself, and it dies really, really quickly. We throw a pair of Boots of Cheetah speed on Valygar and Mazzy, and waited out the PfMW spells to get an Arrow of Dispelling on the Warden to strip it of its speed. A spell trigger including 2 Chain Lightnings and a Chaos spell is almost completely dodged correctly: Mazzy was targeted, so Valygar passed on the Cloak of Mirroring to her, and she changed to a 1h weapon to get the Shield of Harmony. Unfortunately Valygar passed too close to her as the spell actually went off, and he ended up confused. Fortunately, the Warden chases Mazzy, and a bit of kiting later now that he has no spells left...
Being of orcish lineage, we always had problems with being accepted in Candlekeep. That was until a Champion of Bane came along. He accepted us for what we are and so we reciprocated with all our being, becoming blackguards, Champions of Bane, Fists of Bane, Clerics of his son Xvim and a fighter/thief who also worships Bane.
We headed for Beregost at first where we helped Alanna's neighgbour get back into shape, killed Silke and Karlat, rewturned Perdue's sword, calmed down Marl and got Mellicamp and Tonder back into shape at High Hedge.
To the south we killed some ogrillon who hurt me quite badly and some officious Flaming Fist Mercenaries. (Little experience, but we now have good armour) We then killed Tristan and Isolde.
Hopefully with the plate armour we won't get hurt quite so easily.
Unfortunatelt Xvamma can't wear it, though she can wear the splint mail +1 that we have just acquired.
Dispenser was ready to get the hell out of Durlag’s madness. He did not know what lay beyond that door, but he had come too far to turn back now - & he was confident in his quintet of warrior ladies: Isra, Sirine, Indira, Valerie, & . . . Imoen – how far she had come. Clair De’Lain, a previous tower adventurer, thought it a fool’s errand to enter & face the Demon Knight, as she called it. But she also exposed the demon’s pride & confidence. This is where Dispenser chose to strike. He allowed them to rest, recover spells, heal - banking on the demon’s disinterest.
After resting, he cast Protection from Evil 10’, Defensive Harmony & Divine Might. Indira cast Invisibility 10’ to cover the party & Improved Invisibility to cover her own actions. Valerie protected herself w/ Blur. There were no Potions of Strength, Invulnerability or Heroism so Isra & Sirine quaffed those they thought might be useful, e.g., Absorption.
It was, “Go time.” They entered a large, circular room, w/ a ledge 20’ up from the floor going all the way around the room, w/ four staircases descending to the floor below. This would allow them to maneuver around the room high above their foe. Entering unmolested & invisible, Dispenser directed everyone into position, separating everyone so that no single demonic strike could win the day. He wanted Isra & Sirine coming from opposite directions 90’ & 180’ & Valerie & Indira casting from 90’ & 270’. Imoen was free to roam to where her bow could be most effective. But, when the Demon Knight Detected Invisibility & their maneuvers were challenged, the ruse was up & there was no time to lose. Sirine & Isra descended the steps as quickly as their armor allowed, while Indira & Valerie loosed their twin artillery barrages of Magic Missile, again, & again - they had five & six, respectfully – pounding the demon. Dispenser knew there was no time for spellcasting after he had cast the Divine Might of Τυρ & he rushed to the side of his Paladin’s, but he was too late. Sirine had been rocked by two brutal blows from the demon & was in critical condition, bleeding profusely through the cracks in her Plate Mail – she fell. Indira & Valerie’s continuous rain of Magic Missiles staggered the Demon Knight– but he was not defeated – not yet. He continued swinging his massive spiritual sword, gashing Dispenser twice & forcing him to withdraw for healing. As he ascended the northeast stair to where Imoen was firing off Arrows of Fire @ a torrid pace, he heard Isra’s familiar, “a-ha,” the exclamation she inevitably made whenever she landed a critical hit. It was the most important critical hit she had ever landed, & it felled the demon, returning its essence to the abyss.
BACK TO THE ABYSS
They left Durlag’s Tower for the last time on 20 Mirtul 1369 w/ the aid of Islanne’s Ghost. Dispenser thought back as they marched. It had been more than eight tendays since they sailed from the Isle of Balduran to confront Mendas & the defeat of the Demon Knight. The assault on Durlag’s Tower had been arduous, backbreaking work that required extreme perseverance, both physically & mentally. The treasure rooms on the 1st & , especially the 4th, Labyrinth levels had been beyond his wildest imagination but he was not sure they were worth the strain required to secure them. To see the pride on Imoen’s face when she slayed a Battle Horror & the increase in skill of each party member were satisfying, maybe more than the treasure. Then again, Indira continued to struggle to memorize spells, missing out on both Monster Summoning III & II that she had really wanted to learn. Potions of Genius had helped her in the past but they were not in great supply. He was also alarmed @ how vulnerable Sirine was to being Held in battle w/ Greater Ghoul’s, despite wearing Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1. Defeating the Warders on the 1st Labyrinth level was as gratifying as the beat down the Dwarven Doom Guards administered to them on level 2 was frustrating & disappointing. He had prayed for Raise Dead but Τυρ had not granted the divine spell, so he had had to return several times to seek the aid of Kelddath @ the Song of the Morning. He blamed himself for each tactical lapse & was thankful that none had been injured beyond what Kelddath could perform. He was thankful that he had been spared death but would gladly change places w/ anyone of those who had served him so faithfully these past months.
He remembered the Soultaker Dagger. He would take it to Hurgan Stoneblade in Ulgoth’s Beard after resting @ Beregost & unloading the immense booty they were carrying. He was beyond worrying about being confronted by the Flaming Fist for murder – he would deal w/ that when the time came - it was his destiny that it would.
ORDER OF MARCH: Imoen (Traps), Sirine (or Isra) (shock) , Dispenser (leader), Valerie (Arcane support), Isra (or Sirine) & Indira (rear guard)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Demon Knight, Greater Basilisks (3), Grael, Greater Wyverns (3), Astral Phase Spider (SD), Greater Doppelgangers (13), Battle Horrors (3), Skeleton Warriors (3), Ghost, Succubus (Kirinhale), Fission Slime, Invisible Stalkers (3), Kaldran the Bear, Love, Avarice, Pride, Fear, Ashirukuru (2), Doom Guard, Dwarven Doom Guards (4), Flesh Golem, Helmeted Horror (2), Mustard Jellies (2), Sword Spiders (2), Moorlock, Lesser Basilisk, Phase Spiders (4), Wraith Spiders (4), Greater Ghouls (27 – 2 = SD), Winter Wolf, Bullrush, Ettercaps (2), Ghasts (23), Crypt Crawlers (5), Doppelgangers (10), Ghouls (12), Skeletons (29), Zombies (12), Gnolls (41 - SD), Gibberlings (6 -RWE), Hobgoblins (4 – RWE), Wolves (2 - RWE), Xvarts (6 – RWE)
Legend: Unless otherwise noted all monsters were defeated in Durlag’s Tower. Random or Wilderness Encounter (RWE), Sleep Disturbed (SD)
LEVEL UP: Dispenser, Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/8, Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/9 & 10, Indira, Mage/7//Fighter/7, Valerie, Sorcerer/9, Sirine, Paladin (Martyr of Ilmater)/8, Isra, Paladin (Cavalier)/8
CASUALTIES: Imoen (Ghast, Greater Doppelganger), Indira (Ghost, Fear, Chess, Grael), Valerie (Avarice, Dwarven Doom Guard, Ashirukuru, Chess), Isra (Dwarven Doom Guard), Sirine (Greater Ghoul, Grael)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Gold = ~ 31,538 gp [81,911])
Armor & weapons: Plate Mail +3, Two-handed Sword +3, Aule’s Staff +3, Arla’s Dragonbane Sling +3, Kiel’s Helmet, Two-handed Sword +1 (3), Ring of Protection +1, Shield +1, Leather +1
Gems/jewelry: Rogue Stone, Ruby Ring, Star Sapphire, Emeralds (3), Diamonds (2), Pearl Necklace, Fire Opal Ring, Moonbar Gem, Water Opals (2), Black Opal, Bloodstone Amulets (2), Sphene Gems (2), Pearls (4)
Potions: Storm Giant Strength, Cloud Giant Strength, Fire Giant Strength, Frost Giant Strength (3), Genius, Invulnerability, Extra Healing, et al
Scrolls: Monster Summoning III, Invisibility 10’ Radius, Hold Monster
Wands: Lightning, Fire, Frost
Misc & Artifacts: Tome of Leadership & Influence, Balduran’s Log Book (5000 gp), Sea Charts (100 gp), Cloak of Displacement
BEST KILL:
1) Isra, Demon Knight (exp 15,000)
2) Valerie: Greater Wolfwere (8000 exp)
3) Dispenser, Sirene: Greater Basilisks (7000 exp each)
4) Indira & Imoen, Battle Horrors (4000 exp)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating & resupplying @ Beregost
NEXT STEPS: Ulgoth’s Beard
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 20 - Heroic)
Dispenser: Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/8 (HP 56) Mail of the Dead +2, Shield of the Stars +1 & Cloak of Displacement w/Girdle of Bluntness & Ring of Free Action; L/Sword +2/+1* & Warhammer +2/ (+1)* (SWS*, SSS*) & Wand of the Heavens; Spells: Holy Power, Defensive Harmony, Protection/Evil 10’, Animate Dead, Dispel Magic, Miscast Magic, Cure Disease, Chant, Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command (2), Doom, Remove Fear; Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Strength of One; Divine Might; (None) (1)
DISPENSER
DISPENSER INVENTORY
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar (Martyr)/8 (HP 63) Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1; Two-handed Sword +3, ** (Flail**, THWS**) & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise; Abilities: Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Lay on Hands (3), D/Evil (8); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/9 (HP 69) Plate Mail football +3 w/2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane)** & Morning Star +1** (THWS**)w/ Gauntlet’s of Weapon Skill, (THWS**, Mc/MS*), ), Abilities: Remove Fear (6), Prot/Evil (6), Lay Hands, D/Evil (9), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Indira: Fighter/Mage 7/7 (HP 35) Indira’s Chain Vest, Ring of Protection +2,Girdle of Piercing & Boots of Speed; Composite Short Bow +2*** w/Bracers of Archery & L/Sword +1***; Spells; Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Flame Arrow, Invisibility 10’, Agannazar’s Scorcher, Detect Invisibility, Invisibility, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile (3); (Advanced AI) (5)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//10 (HP 58) Leather w/Ring/Prot +1 & Darkveil; S/bow +1* & Short Sword
+2, (SWS*); Skills: OL 100, PP 45, FT 100, MS 65, HS 85, DI 30, ST 35, w/Master Belt & Boots of Stealth; (Thief Ranged) (6)
Valerie: Sorcerer/9 (HP 25) Robe of the Good Arch-Magi & Cloak/Protection +2; Ring Energy, Necklace of Missiles, Arla’s Dragonbane Sling +3 * (Dart*) & Aule’s Staff +3; Spells: Greater Malison (3), Minor Sequencer (4), Melf’s Meteors (6), Remove Magic (5), Spell Thrust (5), Melf’s Acid Arrow (6), Ray of Enfeeblement (6), Stinking Cloud (6), Web (6), Blindness (6), Chromatic Orb (6), Magic Missile (5), Sleep (6), Spook (6); Abilities: Scribe Scrolls; (Advanced AI) (4)
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)
What a cool party my friend. Question, how do you make the characters beyond your PC? I always thought I was limited to my PC and either the standard npc's, i.e., Imoen, Jaheira, or npc's thatb are available in places like G3?
Question. How come when you kill Aec'Letec, no one in the party is given credit? I think either Valerie or Indira got the final blow but it doesn't reflect. CT
I did have to use EE-Keeper to create some of those characters. Even with mods there were some combinations that were impossible: Fist/mage and Fighter/Cleric of Xvim being the cases in point. With them I had to roll a fighter/mage and assign the kit afterwards and a fighter/cleric and assign the kit afterwards, remembering to change the innate spells as well as the kit and also update the bonus stats. I don't know if the latter was necessary.
The method before EE came out was to play multi-player.
However with EE it is a little easier.
I don't know whether it is a mod or EE that has caused this but you just click on Create Party.
I presume that you can still do it using the multi-player mode, but haven't checked.
With the old system after creating a game in multi-player mode I would copy the save from the mpsave folder into the save folder.
It could be because you don't actually kill him.
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
All of my party have now reached level 6 apart from the multiclass members who are level5/level5.
We went to Beregost where we calmed down Marl, got Alanna's neighbour back into shape and killed Silke and Karlat.
We then headed south where we killed some ogrillon, some Flaming Fist Mercenaries who inadvertently supplied us with plate armour, followed by Tristan and Isolde.
We then proceeded to High Hedge where we helped Melicamp and Aiwell.
We then proceeded southward along the road to Nashkel, clearing it of bandits, hobgoblins and the like as we went, ending up just south of nashkel where we killed Zargos Flintblade and Greywolf.
The spiders in Beregost were then killed.
We then started clearing the road northwards from Beregost ending up at the Friendly Arms Inn where the assassin Tarnesh attacked us and subsequently died.
Between areas we were assaulted by bandits who soon began to rue their actions.
After that the area north of the Friendly Arms Inn was cleared of ankhegs. This boosted our experience considerably. At first killing them came at the cost of getting hurt, but as our experience increased, it became less dangerous.
We then killed Bassilus, Zargal and his cronies who used poison to great effect.
When we told Kelddathh of our exploits a number of the party levelled up and we were sent in search of Mutamin.
We were then sent to deal with Lady Valeria.
We dropped off Gavin and killed Vax, Zal, and a winter wolf after reuniting Rufie with his owner.
Heading for Durlag's Tower, we cleared it down as far as the four warders, and as we left the area a basilisk attacked. I took one of the remaining potions to protect myself, and shouting to my allies to keep clear, I waded in and killed it.
Upon our return to Nashkel we were asked to rescue Aaron. This we did, rescuing Dynaheir at the same time. We then helped Drizzt who helped us to find her journal. We left Dynaheir there.
In transit we were attacked by bandits of some sort only to be helped by another half-orc called Dorn.
and he joined the party since we seem to be most compatible. He seems to be slightly weaker than the rest of us, but has some strengths to compensate for that. He is another half-orc and like me is a blackguard so I can't see that there will be any conflict of interests.
Whilst resting he intimated that a visit to Tyris in Nashkel would please him. She told us where to find those he is searching for.
We killed another assassin in Nashkel and then proceeded to search for them. Apparently they are to the east of Nashkel.
After dealing with them, the lead led us to Baldur's Gate. There Jhaeros Auglathla ambushed us, but we managed to separate him from his cohorts and kill him. Web and fireballs were then most effective on the others.
Reprise (male dwarven defender, Grond0); Kaliara (female human abjurer, Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1092559/#Comment_1092559
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1092815/#Comment_1092815
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1093046/#Comment_1093046
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1095922/#Comment_1095922
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1096251/#Comment_1096251
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1096927/#Comment_1096927
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1097055/#Comment_1097055
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1097806/#Comment_1097806
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1097960/#Comment_1097960
Today's session started in the Pocket Plane where we thought the second challenge awaited us. After buffing up we entered the challenge area - and nothing happened. Wondering if we had actually done the challenge we wandered around for a while and back into the main area before re-entering - at which point the challengers suddenly appeared. Our short-term buffs had expired, which meant Reprise took rather more damage than intended while sorting out his clone. However, with that done he could retreat and switch to his throwing axe.
Moving on to Abazigal's Lair, Reprise went to find Draconis. His human form could be a real problem for some characters, but Reprise's saving throws defeated spell attempts and Draconis had once more forgotten to bring a magic weapon to make his mislead and timestop combination lethal.
The Greater Werewyvern's very high regeneration rate would have made Reprise work hard to chew through its HPs - but Kaliara cut its innings short by raising her finger.
After killing the salamanders around Abazigal, some missile attacks started working through his protections. Kaliara was hit once during that and retreated a bit more after that to slow things down - but then threw in a planetar to speed them up again. There was a nasty moment on my screen when Reprise hit Abazigal with K'Logarath - causing a knock-back effect at the same time as Abazigal changed into dragon shape. That initially appeared to have happened on top of Kaliara, but she had been hit by a wing buffet and the screen changed a moment later after she was apparently thrown clear.
That battle was made significantly harder by mistakes - not just in the battle, but previously (like not buying the Defender of Easthaven to push damage resistance to 90, or Ras to occupy the dragon for a few rounds while its stoneskins were destroyed). However, it also illustrated the problems with the abjurer as a class. The lack of battle protections like PfMW and stoneskin makes getting into the thick of combat against powerful enemies a distinctly chancy affair, while not having mordy swords to occupy melee specialists also takes away one of the best mage strategies.
Ahoy fellow adventurers,
For my current run I decided to go for the paladin class. I've always found them rather stoic and dull for my liking and that is why Nauti, my champion, comes with a little twist. She's got an adventurer's spirit with a whiff of individuality and not all her virtues would necessarily overlap with that of your regular paladin order with its strict by-laws. For her, and despite sharing most elemental tenets, Ajantises and Anomens of this world are tragi-comical figures straight out of cheesy novels. Of all the Faerûn deities, Nauti favours Tymora and her "church" for endorsing liberal and daring endeavours.
As a result, she's been allowed to change her alignment to neutral good and relocate 2 ability points from CHA into INT.
Nauti's unorthodox attitude also translated into her starting proficiencies whereby all the pips have been allocated between staves and two-handed weapon style. Instead of relying on throwing axes or shields, her early style will revolve around 0 weapon speed factor. Here's Nauti's character record at Candlekeep:
Mods: SCSv32, JimFix, BGTweaks (for removing helmet animations, removing item blur effects and some other minor adjustments)
SCS difficulty slider: Hardcore
Regards,
B.
Previous posts: Introduction
As for the actual progress - we hit level 3 by completing various minor quests around FAI and Beregost involving Joia, Mirianne, Zhurlong, Marl, Firebead, Landrin's house and Perdue. With safe amount of HP to soak up damage and a brand new long sword proficiency pip, Nauti was now ready for more adventurous stuff.
She proceeded to collect Melicamp in his poultry form, dispersed Zargal's band with Wand of Sleep and then continued to Nashkel via Barge, earning her first strength enhancing potion.
In Nashkel Nauti escapes Noober and...wait, what?! Must be some form of black magic!
Anyway, she collects the Ankheg Plate and returns north to deal with Bjornin's half-ogres. The reward is worth the effort and Nauti reaches level 4.
FAI is still off-limits because of the threat of Sleep by Tarnesh. Instead, we visit the farmlands to the north and assist Brun with the ankheg trouble.
This opens up the road to Ulgoth's Beard where Nauti buys three essential pieces of equipment for her - Aule's Staff, Cloak of Displacement and Greenstone Amulet.
Korax does a great job of dealing with Mutamin and all his basilisks, which brings Nauti us all the way to level 6.
Now we may finally enter FAI, where we deal with Tarnesh and trigger Dorn's encounter. Nauti refuses help from Jaheria and Khalid but eventually does accept their Potion of Invisibilty as a parting gift.
After dealing with Dorn's former partners Senjak and Dorothea, Nauti seeks out Prism and agrees to protect him. Unsurprisingly, Greywolf didn't like that arrangement - he quaffed a strength potion and attacked. Despite his dual-wielding speed he could not match Nauti's staff. Maybe next time think about brining an Oil of Speed.
Witnessing the tragic death of Prism, Nauti didn't have the heart to remove the gems from Ellesime's sparkling eyes, despite the outstanding bounty. As usually, few paladins would understand...
Regards,
B.
Gurbo (male Undead hunter, Gate70); Chantelle (female human Invoker, Grond0)
Our next pairing saw another sturdy Bhaalspawn with an arcane sidekick. Chantelle only shared her portrait once the game had started and as we headed straight into the session her face will only appear properly next time. Gurbo hopes he will recognise her when that happens.
We made a typical start, terminating Shoal the nereid...
There they are were (look at some other near-coastal creatures instead).
Previous posts: Introduction, Part 1
Nauti steamrolled through Zal & Vax...
Caldo & Crumm (in case you're wondering which one of them is the evil one and which one is just ugly)...
as well as Gnarl and Hairtooth.
I tend to avoid sirines in 99% of my no-reload runs since fighting them usually requires to tap into your resources and the net gain is not worth the cost. However, with a cavalier, it would have been a shame not to put those charm and poison immunities for a show. The sirines would only pose a threat in melee and that's the area where Nauti's speed factor still dominates the battlefield.
In the cove, Nauti uses Greenstone Amulet to foil the traps (I couldn't remember which enchantment effects those traps carry and confusion/hold could be deadly), kites the golems with her staff and retrieves the treasure including the Manual of Bodily Health.
By increasing CON to 19 we now felt comfortable to switch to the Claw of Kazgaroth purchased at High Hedge. Nauti then paid a quick visit to Durlag's Tower where she dealt with the Battle Horrors with Aule's and Wand of Magic Missiles. She also bought some Hill Giant Strength potions from the local souvenir vendor and retrieved the WIS tome from the tower itself.
Nauti is now level 7, enjoying 2 APR with her melee weapons, and she's ready to enter the Nashkel mines. Here's an updated character record.
Regards,
B.
Milam (Avenger)
Harvey (Sun Soul Monk)
Coremage (Fighter / Mage)
We're taking things steady today. Our venture begins with a save "Rest and poisoned then Sunin". Whatever could it mean?
Well, first we rest. Then the poison takes effect on Milam so we leave Sunin for a little while longer, and hunt down Lothander. Our summons are placed nicely, and a grease is cast. We wait a little while and speak to Lothander. He tells us what we need to know and promptly runs away. We manage to pause briefly and target him - but he makes good his escape and we have to make do with Coremage being slower than the rest of the party.
We'd better take care of Marek, he'll be at the Blushing Mermaid. That poison looks sickly.
Milam decides to go for Ramazith next - Ragefast has already died at our hands - so he teleports upstairs. Milam gives Coremage a slight buff with Improved Invisibility and shoves him upstairs. Only after the fight does Milam remember Coremage "lost" Spiders Bane last time he died.
It gets worse, on joining the fight I for some reason thought Harvey was Milam and started to throw daggers at the ghasts at point blank range instead of what I thought was a safe distance. Fortunately the ghasts had acquired a taste for mage and declined to dine on druid today. Phew. Hopefully Harvey and Coremage were too occupied to notice this, or if they did they made sure to say nothing. They won't read this so my secret is safe wahahaha rats.
This was enough for us to be awarded free entry to Candlekeep (you can read all about that in a valuable book which we gave away), where everything went to plan, or better, right up until Prat and his gang cut Harvey down in the prime of his life.
At the coronation a reversal of fortune saw Harvey hitting hard and Coremage getting shredded while trying to use a bow with a greater doppelganger too close. Harvey redoubled his efforts while Milam eventually decided to use a second insect plague rather than use Improved Invisibility on Belt. Suffice to say the coronation went our way and Sarevok went on his own way in a foul mood.
Our next episode has a reminder name of "Thieves Maze". Whatever can it mean.
All it takes is multiple critical hits in a row.
Journal of Obsidian the Orcish Blackguard and co-adventurers.
We were unable to get through to those that Dorn wanted to kill so we went down the Nashkel Mines.
We left a party member down the mine in order to pick up Xan.
We brought Xan up to the surface and then returned for our party member.
Upon doing so, we looted the caves and killed the Revenant.
We then once more picked up Xan and dropped off a party member.
(I want to do Xan's Quest )
EDIT
We then visited Joseph's widow and gave her his ring. Xan charmed Oublek who then helped us fight a baby wyvern. He died in the process, but at least he died a hero's death. I certainly won't be the one to tell them that he was charmed at the time.
We gained a reward from the mayor for clearing the mines and our reputation cannot get any higher. It is amusing that people think that we, followers of Bane are great heroes. I believe that they think that we are good, but the major things that we have done, the killing of Bassilus, Mutamin and Mulahey were defeating servants of Cyric who is a sworn enemy of Bane, the god whom we worship. The other things that we have done have been trivial things that we have done purely to get a better reputation.
We killed another assassin before leaving Nashkel.
Just north of Nashkel of Nashkel we rescued David Jansen from being eaten by lady ogres. We did this by offering them a better diet.
North of Beregost my thief scouting ahead spotted Malious and others. Web and fireball sorted them out, though we did have to use missiles on one who escaped being webbed.
However I want the run to be primarily one of Half-orcs. If I had known what I know now, I would have delayed picking up Dorn until the way was clear to go to Baldur's Gate.
I wanted to work on our rep so we killed the tanner but couldn't report our good deed because those giff murdered the city guards... on the up side it did give us some nice armour
then we looked at our gear and had some other items made; shortbow for sis, halberd and silver sword for party loot
we tracked a murderer back to Umber hills and sorted him along with some other minor issues... a Dragon and Shade Lord both died due to skull traps
Elminster pointed us in the right direction to find the bandit camp. Tazok attacked us but left before we could kill him. We then got in an archery battle with the bandits. When there was a crowd of them together web followed by fireballs were used. Dorn accidentally got caught in the web and we had to protect him from his attackers.
We prevailed and then took on Deker and the caravan bandits followed by Tranzig.
Tranzig wasn't given a second chance to surrender as command stopped him uttering a sound.
We returned to the camp where we killed Brotus Bloodthirsty before looting Tazok's tent.
We then proceeded to ther Friendly Arms Inn where we were attacked by Najara and Valius. They were swiftly killed.
Davenport ambushed us, but web disabled his cohorts, so he was quite easy to kill.
Since we have a high reputation we then went shopping. We now have 23 gp.
We then killed Firebead thinking that this would lose us reputation and gain us horror as an innate spell. However EE is different and there is no reputation loss for killing him.
Perhaps we should now go and see the Cleric of Ilmater who wants you to give up all youir wealth.
EDIT
That is exactly what we did, but to our surprise he no longer takes your money.
We are now investigating the Section HQ. It will be interesting to discover if Nikita's reactions are different in this game where we actually ARE evil.
We are acquiring very good equipment.
EDIT
Dorn went walking into our own web without instructions to do so. This immediately put him in danger from the section archers, therefore those in the party who were immune to hold dashed through the web to kill the archers. In this they were successful but too late to save Dorn's life.
After picking up his gear and that of the Section operatives, a 10' invisibility spell was used to get us out safely.
The temple raised him and then we healed him. We will probably now sell some of the loot to make room for more and then return to the fray.
We once more entered the fray and after killing more of the Section, Dorn died once more. We therefore raised him and headed for Cloakwood. We can return to the Section HQ once Dorn has levelled up.
Previous posts: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2
The priest himself presented not much of a threat either. Nauti first healed up the damage suffered from the various traps, buffed with ProUndead (green scroll), ProEvil and Greenstone Amulet and then charged.
One Wand of Sleep charge to dilute the kobold lines.
And finish.
Avoiding Narcillicus, she looted the surface tombs, collected the green ProMagic scroll from Hafiz and travelled to the carnival area to enjoy a well earned rest. There was hardly a better way of praying for Tymora's good fortune than by gambling - "Come in poor, walk out rich!" they said. You bet!
After couple of drinks at the bar, Nauti got mixed up with Zordal and Bentha while trying to find a place to nap at one of the tents. To be fair, our protagonist was not in the mood for Zordral's antics. This lead an unfortunate turn of events for Bentha as she got PW: killed by Zordral before we're able to silence him with Aule's Staff.
Back in Nashkel, Nimbul resisted our melee pressure only for so long as his Stoneskins and MIs allowed. From there we went on to take care of Tranzig and Silke in Beregost. In all three encounters Nauti only took minimal buffs, such as Shield Amulet and/or ProEvil, instead relying on having potions of Magic Blocking and Mirrored Eyes ready for a counter. Our save v. spell of 7 still gave us a decent (albeit not risk-free) headroom for an odd Chromatic Orb sequencer, when quaffing a counter potion on time is not a viable option for a melee character.
En route from Beregost Nauti got ambushed by Molkar. Determined to stand her ground and fight, Nauti had to counter an early Hold Person with a Potion of Freedom shortly after the battle began.
Constantly on the move and using the extra reach of our weapon, we were trying to keep safe distance from the attackers. We also managed to sneak in a Hill Giant Strength potion when the enemy cleric uses his round to summon a skeleton, thus freeing our aura for offensive use (Nauti was not running Greenstone Amulet and Rigid Thinking could therefore require a defensive action).
One by one, Molkar's crew was getting thinner and thinner until we could call it a win.
Coming up next - the bandit camp.
Regards,
B.
Previous posts: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
We tapped our resources for Potion of Mind Focusing, Frost Giant Strength, Potion of Heroism, 100% cold resistance (green scroll plus potion) and Oil of Speed. Nauti cast her ProEvil on top of that and ambushed the unsuspecting hobgoblin enclave - Ardenor Crush was the first victim of that day, far away from being the last.
Soon thereafter Taurgosz enters the picture and quaffs an Oil of Speed. Nice move for such an oaf. Nauti -> Potion of Absorption.
Having outpaced the rest of his army in pursuit of Nauti, isolated and under-buffed Taurgosz found himself facing our impregnable AC and deadly staff. Unfortunately for him, he'll not have the chance to contemplate on his mistakes ever again.
Seeing more and more enemies joining the fray, including Venkt and his tent crew, Nauti activated her Shield Amulet and launched a small pyroshow (not sure if that was Potion of Explosions or Necklace of Missiles).
Unlike the late Taurgosz, Venkt deserves some credit for his tactical approach. Correctly assessing our defences, he opted for a Hold Person cast - an interesting choice and a good move at that. Nauti's saving throws v. spells (7) were insufficient to guarantee a successful save - to counter the effect, she would have to choose between a Potion of Freedom and a Potion of Magic Blocking. Not wanting to sacrifice her Oil of Speed or other buffs, Potion of Invisibility seemed like the best course of action for us. In worst case scenario we'd have to wait out the Hold duration under invisibility (while hoping that Venkt does not come up with a divination cast).
False alarm everyone. We can continue.
Nauti then quaffs a Potion of Regeneration to heal up the occasional damage from critical hits and clears most of the field with another fire volley.
With the majority of his fodder gone, Venkt became an easy meal for Aule's.
And the last man standing award goes to the heavy hitting but oh-so-slow Britik.
Hooray to Cloakwood!
Regards,
B.
"Naughty" seems strange for a paladin
In Cloakwood everything had been going fine.
We had killed the dragon and were about to talk to Beanor when a Hamadryad charmed three party members.
She was killed, but they proceeded to kill other party members until only three were left.
We returned to the temple to raise them and after doing so only had 125gp left !!!