@Arvia Here is the required information for the hall of heroes - Priest of Tempus can also be removed from the list of classes/kits not yet in the hall of heroes.
Let's try that one again (not the exact same one, mind you).
Starting: In BG1EE.
Mods: Full SCS 34.3, extra on the nasty.
Difficulty: Insane with no difficulty-based damage increase.
Protagonist: Amarande, Half-Elven Fighter/Mage. I actually lack a screenshot of his initial stats, but it's the typical FM min-max at 18/18/18/18/4/18 (exceptional STR only 18/10 though).
Amarande starts with ++ Long Swords, ++ Two Weapon Style, and will be branching out into ++ Bastard Sword as he progresses through BG1EE. To no immediate benefit whatsoever, of course, but the payoff will come in mid SoA/early ToB (also, swords for everyone!).
Long swords will be more than good enough until we reach that point, anyway. Naturally his starting spells include Find Familiar.
Projected BG1EE party: Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia. Because Kagain is boss.
Densifying the first few updates, since 95% of BG1EE is (nearly) without risk once you get a hold of a few Invisibility potions.
Amarande takes off running. Carbos, Shank, Tarnesh (the latter thanks to heroic sacrifices by Montaron and Xzar)... none can stand before him. The party is swiftly assembled, and we go to work on the Sword Coast.
Since Imoen will be dualing, I figure we may as well set-up Durlag's for some easy experience retrieval once she makes the transition (i.e. get rid of the traps while we can, come back for the experience later). So, once Kagain has enough levels to survive a few hits (60 HP... beast) we head for Durlag's.
And it goes rather well! Obviously Imoen still needs potions to help her at this stage, but we clear the entire above-ground areas of traps and most locks (she'd have to go visible and thus we'd lose some Ghast experience to open all of them). We even head into the Warder level, de-trapping as we go, and have Viconia loot some snazzy gear under Sanctuary. Practical Defense +3 really isn't half-bad when you get it at level 4. Still worse than Ankheg plate, though.
We even go as far as de-trapping Ulcaster Ruins in preparation for the dual. Bit overkill, the traps there aren't much to write home about. Anyway, around here Amarande is getting tired of using a shield (with the Fine Weapons component, there are hardly any magical weapons available... in particular, beyond Varscona +2, the next best Long Sword without delving deep into Durlag's is Harrower +1), so we opt to advance the plot to allow for some dual-wielding, as Harrower +1 is held by the Amazons. There we go...
Not pictured: Amazons dropping like flies. A single Detect Invisibility neuters the two Thieves that start invisible, and the Clerics just lack any potent spell slots. Well, things are going swimmingly, so how about a (kind of) close call? Bandit camp!
Alright, so what happened was that Grease + Entangle are not adequate replacements for Web. I had the scroll, but in keeping with being ultra-stingy, there's been no scroll scribing on Amarande's part aside from when he first hit Mage L3, so he couldn't cast it. I figured Grease + Entangle would at least delay the bandit hordes enough so we could just firebomb at our leisure (and it kind of worked), but unfortunately the Black Talon Elites are quite capable of firing back at you... it was looking hairy for a moment, but we had the firepower to come out ahead.
That bit of nastiness aside, Imoen hit L6 as we reached the spidery part of Cloakwood forest, and dualed. Centeol just got firebombed, Molkar and his merry mugs did even less of a dent than the Amazons, and we cleared the path up to the Cloakwood mine, but left Drasus and his cronies alone for now. Time to level-up Imoen.
We return to Durlag's and clear out everything we de-trapped, leaving the Warders alive for now. Mutamin's garden gets a visit as well, along with the Ulcaster ruins, Narcillicus and his slimes, Red Wizards, Sirines.. basically all high-xp stuff we left alone until now. Even vacuuming the Sword Coast for experience though, it's not enough to push Imoen to Mage L7, so we wind up back at Cloakwood Mine.
Alright. We're seriously high-level; Drasus should drop easily enough. And he does. We take him down first using regular melee/ranged (and by noticing that Alicorn Lance does not allow a saving throw any more than Doom does, so Drasus' initial Potion of Magic Protection doesn't really matter).
Skeleton Warriors and a Nymph are keeping the rest of the group occupied, but we opt to charge in anyway, firmly in the belief that they really can't do much to us at this stage. And we're correct; Imoen actually helps out a bit by relentlessly spamming the Wand of Paralyzation (-4 penalty will get even higher-level Mages eventually). Kysus can't do anything worse than a fairly harmless Vitriolic Sphere aimed at Khalid before he drops, and Rezdan failed his first save against the Wand so fared even worse.
Pre-Davaeorn Mine goes fine. Hareishan neglects MGoI in her prebuff and is roasted along with her guard cohort; Natasha simply can't stand up to three Skeleton Warriors at a time (and if she could, we had a few Animal Summoning I from Viconia and even two wands to whip out), and the Ogre Mage doesn't have more than L3 slots. Nothing else down here is even remotely a threat by now.
So, we withdraw to rest up. I think the plan was to have everyone sneak invisibly by Davaeorn (we'd sacrifice a few potions to pull it off), since he never teleports into his treasury room to the south of the map; then we'd send a summon to trigger him, let the unending tides of guards pour in, then firebomb them along with D since by then his MGoI should've run out.
This turned out entirely unnecessary. Apparently, at some point this encounter changed (or it was always like this and I didn't notice?). His two Battle Horrors move to engage and the guards start spawning the moment anyone moves into visual range of D. But crucially, if D can't percieve you (say, you're invisible) he won't actually join in. So, we take down all of his reinforcements (there were only four waves of guards) completely uninterrupted.
That certainly makes this a real cake-walk. We give D some summons to chew on, and once he's low on dangerous stuff, Kagain and Khalid just wail on him until he keels over.
Good stuff. Loot, flood, escape. There's almost nothing left in the wilderness now (Gullykin and Firewine Bridge, and the trappy parts of Durlag's), so we head for Baldur's Gate. Clearing out the top floor of the Sorcerous Sundries and a wayward Greater Basilisk in the harbour finally nets us enough experience to regain Imoen's thief levels. Huzzah!
This seems a good spot to stop. Next time we'll go on a scroll scribing bonanza for both Amarande and Imoen, then proceed to breeze through Baldur's Gate proper, do some Durlag's... sky's the limit.
Amarande is now a L6/L6 Half-Elven Fighter/Mage.
Unga-Bunga take peyote and rest with adventurers, ask spirits for guidance. Unga-Bunga have vision of little girl sprouting many arms, each holding blade and hear spirits whispering words... "Magic sharp as blade when stuck in back..."
When awake, Unga-Bunga decide Shaman Hjollder wait, time to find Heartstone Gem once and for all. Unga-Bunga pack up things, say farewells to adventurers, and return to Yuan-ti hold.
Unga-Bunga peer into chamber, see little girl still there, summon three elementals to watch back, like spirits say. Unga-Bunga summon two more elementals, have stand just outside gate ready to rush in. Unga-Bunga use all magics spirits taught to make him strong, then slowly creep closer to little girl, see two Yuan-ti priests, many elite Yuan-ti in back of chamber:
Unga-Bunga summon Earth Elemental between Yuan-ti priests and throw axe:
Little girl see Unga-Bunga, ask what Unga-Bunga doing there. Unga-Bunga tell little girl he seek Heartstone Gem. Little girl say many things: snake people aren't snake people, little girl name is Yxonemei, is soldier and has vendetta, Heartstone Gem is divination tool she use for secret reasons and will give to Yuan-ti when done with it.
Unga-Bunga even more confused, tell little girl to give over Gem now. Little Girl Yxonemei change into being in Unga-Bunga's vision. Yxonemei and Yuan-ti attack:
Unga-Bunga tell two elementals near gate to attack Yxonemei, summon Insect Plague, try to summon over Yxonemei and Yuan-ti priests at same time. Unga-Bunga succeed but Yxonemei resist, summon Cloudkill cloud and undead.
Unga-Bunga know elementals no breathe so safe from cloud. Unga-Bunga go back into hallway to check elementals guarding back, see three Yuan-ti mages battling elementals. Unga-Bunga summon Insect Plague on them too, leaving bug-free space in between for Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga return to chamber, find elemental battling priests dead. Unga Bunga tell remaining two elementals to pull back to guard gate, not let anything pass. Unga-Bunga call on Spike Stones as Yxonemei and Yuan-ti get near:
Unga-Bunga watch spikes slay many Yuan-ti and undead, but Yxonemei resist all Unga-Bunga's magics. Unga-Bunga summon more elementals when first elementals die, until unable to summon more:
Unga-Bunga out of summoning magic save for animals, know only elementals can hurt Yxonemei. Unga-Bunga know not have much battle magic other than spike stones but out of spike stones, too. Yxonemei destroying all Unga-Bunga's minions. With fear in heart, Unga-Bunga begin to dance, summon spirits to battle:
Unga-Bunga watch Earth Spirit conk Yxonemei on head and cheer, keep dancing:
Yxonemei slay many spirits, but Unga-Bunga dance like life depend on dancing. Yxonemei slowly wearing down...
Until, finally, Yxonemei fall. Little Girl Yxonemei no more:
Unga-Bunga watch spirits run into chamber then disappear from sight, know more enemies lurking in chamber, only can summon animals:
Animals run into chamber to fight... skeletons and zombies:
Unga-Bunga worn and exhausted but still laugh that mighty battle finally end with battle of weakest minions of all. Unga-Bunga and animals make undead dead again. Unga-Bunga safe now, claim Hearstone Gem from one of Dead Little Girl Yxonemei's many hands:
Unga-Bunga not strong enough to bash open many chests in stronghold, including all in Yxonemei's chamber. Unga-Bunga sigh but beat chest for many minutes, thank spirits for great victory. Unga-Bunga gather up all things left behind by dead, then make way to surface and rest before return to Kuldahar.
Unga-Bunga make long journey to Kuldahar, find town under attack, summon elementals and save town:
Once town safe, Unga-Bunga go to see Archdruid Arundel, tell of great victory. Archdruid Arundel say Archdruid Arundel not Archdruid Arundel and thank Unga-Bunga for destroying his enemy, say real Archdruid Arundel dying upstairs before porting away:
Unga-Bunga rush upstairs, find real Archdruid Arundel. Arundel tell Unga-Bunga must bring Heartstone Gem to Larrel in Severed Hand. Unga-Bunga try to save Archdruid Arundel but fail.
Unga-Bunga decide to rest before making journey to Severed Hand, hope to find answers from Elf Wizard Larrel...
Current Spell Picks:
Armor of Faith, Cure Light Wounds, Entangle, Protection from Evil, Sunscorch
Barkskin, Charm Person or Mammal, Find Traps, Flame Blade, Goodberry
Call Woodland Beings, Death Ward, Giant Insect, Protection from Lightning, Static Charge
Animal Summoning II, Insect Plague, Iron Skins, Pixie Dust
Animal Summoning III, Conjure Fire Elemental, Entropy Shield, Heal
Conjure Earth Elemental, Impervious Sanctity of Mind, Nature's Beauty, Shield of the Archons
Just 1 5th and 1 6th level pick left.
[Definitely worried about damage output and survivability of summons as enemies get stronger. Yxonemei was a nice victory, though. Wasn't sure how that would go ]
Journal of Obsidian
Apart from going to Ice island and Balduran's Island, most of the quests that can be done prior to the Nashkel Mines have been done apart from the lower reaches of Durlag's Tower.
The party consists of Obsidian, Radiant, Tenya, Coran and Dynaheir.
I am trying to decide whether to stay with a five man team, or whether to use Branwen or Xan.
Neera was dropped off after getting Adoy's belt.
WE have spent most of our gold. We were down at 25gp but it is up to 550gp now.
WE definitely need more gold to charge up the necklace of missiles etc.
We do have some spare weapons that we could sell in order to do the recharging.
EDIT
We went ankheg hunting to get some more gold but were told that the shells are now worthless.
We therefore returned to Durlag's and were doing quite well until we took on the Dwarven Doom Guards who killed Dynaheir before dying themselves.
We therefore left to raise her and while outside we picked up Thorin before returning to the tower. Raising her was rather expensive since our gold is in short supply. Thorin looks like he could be an asset. He has decent armour and a +1 hammer.
It looks like we need to hunt more ankhegs at an earlier stage in future.
After resting Unga-Bunga make journey through mountain passes Archdruid Arundel show Unga-Bunga before dying. As approach, Unga-Bunga see why Severed Hand called Severed Hand, lots of little towers off main tower but think should be called Broken Severed Hand now.
Unga-Bunga see dead elf wizard cast fireball at squirrel before going back inside tower. Unga-Bunga get angry...
Inside broken towers, Unga-Bunga battle many dead goblins, orcs and ogres. Tower broken in many places, Unga-Bunga unable to reach all parts of tower on each level. Unga-Bunga think dead enemies might climb up tower and trap Unga-Bunga, so Unga-Bunga search all stairs and lifts, make sure search every nook for foes and treasures:
In darkest corners of tower, Unga-Bunga battle dead spirits and skeletons casting fire. Skeletons hit elementals hard, but Unga-Bunga oversee battle, make sure elementals win:
Unga-Bunga reach fourth level of tower, see dead elven warrior. Elf not attack like other dead things, so Unga-Bunga talk to elf:
Unga-Bunga tell dead elf not there to cause trouble. Dead elf say name Bladesinger Lethias, explain how horde of evil attacked tower, but all things in tower killed when Larrel and other mages destroyed artifacts to keep from horde hands. Bladesinger Lethias say Larrel in Labelas tower.
Unga-Bunga search rest of level, find other dead elves like poor little dead elf girl whose mother ran tavern for visitors, make Unga-Bungs sad. Unga-Bunga find dead elf merchant, sell lots of things. Unga-Bunga bite coins, make sure coins not dead like merchant but coins real.
Unga-Bunga ask which tower Labelas tower, go up stair but not get far. Larrel break tower. Unga-Bunga get angry but take deep breaths, try Solonor tower instead.
On first level of Solonor tower, Unga-Bunga meet dead elf priestess Denaini. Denaini say Solonor tower shrine to elven gods, where elven priests and acolytes live before not living anymore, say everyone in Hand killed when Larrel and other mages tried to cast mythal to protect Hand and area around it. Unga-Bunga say Mythal not work so good, Denaini agree. Unga-Bunga remember Orrick wanted book about mythals, make note to tell Orrick not good idea.
Unga-Bunga go up stair, battle many dead elven priests and acolytes. Even though Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, dead elves swarm Unga-Bunga, trap Unga-Bunga between them and benches. Unga-Bunga worried, but summon elementals on other side of chamber, trick dead elves to leave to battle them:
Unga-Bunga battle to top of tower, kill all dead elves, find barrel of holy water and bring back to Priestess Denaini. Denaini thank Unga-Bunga, give sling and pretty flower circlet. Unga-Bunga feel pretty, oh so pretty, but save circlet for special occasions, put Helm of Charm Protection back on, thank Denaini and go back to fourth level.
Unga-Bunga next try Corellon tower, battle dead elf clerics, wizards, and warriors still planning battle against horde:
Unga-Bunga reach top of tower, meet dead elf Valestis. Valestis say top of tower once arboretum but nothing lives in tower anymore. Unga-Bunga tell Valestis less dead things in tower now at least. Valestis ask Unga-Bunga look for seeds to grow new plants, pure water to help make grow, small animals looking for new home and bring back to arboretum. Unga-Bunga tell Valestis about squirrel Larrel fireballed outside tower, get angry again. Valestis tell Unga-Bunga Larrel send projection to wander Hand, not in right mind. Unga-Bunga not know what 'projection' mean but nod anyway and leave, return to fourth level and climb stairs of Sheverash tower.
Unga-Bunga meet Dead Weaponmaster Kaylessa on first level of Sheverash tower. Kaylessa say Sheverash tower once place where she trained elven warriors, ask Unga-Bunga to honor dead elven warriors by making dead for good. Kaylessa also say she have piece of Larrel's broken astrolabe and fixing astrolabe might help Larrel not be crazy anymore, will give piece to Unga-Bunga once dead elven warriors really dead. Unga-Bunga agree, figure have to kill dead elven warriors anyway.
Unga-Bunga climb Sheverash tower, kill many dead elven archers, dead warriors and dead spiders:
Unga-Bunga return to Kaylessa, say dead elves really dead. Kaylessa ask Unga-Bunga to honor her by making her dead, too. Unga-Bunga summoned many elementals in battle up tower, not able to summon any more, so summon beetles instead. Beetles spit acid on Kaylessa and kill her without letting her attack once. Unga-Bunga stunned too, pat beetles on head for good work:
Unga-Bunga take astrolabe piece from Kaylessa and nice boots, make Unga-Bunga run faster.
On way up Sheverash tower, Unga-Bunga notice walkway between Sheverash and another tower of Hand, hope other tower Labelas tower. Unga-Bunga rest a bit, then toss Pixie Dust and return to walkway, see dead elves guarding other tower. Unga-Bunga creep up, see dead elven wizard and cleric in back near to tower, summon elemental behind wizard so all elves attack that way.
While elves attack elemental, Unga-Bunga summon more elementals behind them, elementals beat dead elves down:
Once inside tower, Unga-Bunga find more dead elves, many dead elf wizards. Unga-Bunga summon elemental to block archway, then summon more elementals into central room of tower, summon many Insect Plagues to bite wizards as they keep coming to battle elementals:
Once all elves dead again, Unga-Bunga search tower, find book by Larrel's daughter Evayne, say elves and dwarves fight because elves think dwarves sold artifacts to horde but Evayne doesn't think dwarves did. Unga-Bunga keep book just in case.
On next level of tower, Unga-Bunga meet Dead Librarian Custhantos, ask about tower and books. Custhantos show Unga-Bunga books, say one book about mythals. Unga-Bunga take book though not sure will give Orrick yet, then climb stair to top of tower, see Larrel and dead elf.
Unga-Bunga watch Larrel, make sure won't fireball Unga-Bunga, then try talk but Larrel still crazy:
Unga-Bunga shake head and sigh, then talk to other elf. Gelarith. Gelarith think fixing astrolabe help fix Larrel's head, so Unga-Bunga give Gelarith strange items found around tower. Gelarith fix astrolabe with items, thank Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga feel rush of power:
Unga-Bunga see Larrel look less crazed, try talk again:
Larrel thank Unga-Bunga for clearing head, tell about horde and war and mythal. Unga-Bunga feel sorry for Larrel but still angry about squirrel. Then Unga-Bunga show Larrel book by daughter:
Larrel go crazy again. Unga-Bunga sigh and go rest, hope Larrel not so crazy in morning...
Unga-Bunga talk to Larrel again next day, ask Larrel to use Heartstone Gem, learn where evil causing blight on land lies. Larrel use Gem, have vision of Dorn's Deep where elves and dwarves once lived in peace, so Larrel say. Larrel offer to send Unga-Bunga to Dorn's Deep by magic, but Unga-Bunga not sure if Larrel still a little crazy or not, ask Larrel to send back to Kuldahar instead.
Unga-Bunga go see Orrick, explain all about mythals. Orrick seem disappointed until Unga-Bunga show Orrick mythal book. make Orrick promise not go crazy like Larrel. Orrick so grateful to Unga-Bunga give Unga-Bunga magic cloak, say Mithran's Cloak. Unga-Bunga not know who Mithran is but glad cloak Unga-Bunga's Cloak now. Unga-Bunga decide to rest a bit before making journey to Dorn's Deep...
Final spell picks:
Armor of Faith, Cure Light Wounds, Entangle, Protection from Evil, Sunscorch
Barkskin, Charm Person or Mammal, Find Traps, Flame Blade, Goodberry
Call Woodland Beings, Death Ward, Giant Insect, Protection from Lightning, Static Charge
Animal Summoning II, Insect Plague, Iron Skins, Pixie Dust, Spike Stones
Animal Summoning III, Conjure Fire Elemental, Entropy Shield, Heal, Sol's Searing Orb
Conjure Earth Elemental, Impervious Sanctity of Mind, Nature's Beauty, Shield of the Archons
Final weapon proficiencies:
Axe
Dagger
Club
Spear
Quarterstaff
Shortbow
Dart
Sling
Single Weapon Style
Shaman don't get many weapon options. All weapon proficiencies were chosen. The only other options were the other weapon styles. I haven't found a magical buckler yet, the only shield Shaman can use, and since the only 2-H weapons available were Spear, Quarterstaff and 2-H Axe, I figured Single Weapon Style had the broadest application.
We defeated the Demonknight who simultaneously killed Obsidian who was confused. Forgot to use Radiant's dispell magic. Stupid of me! If Obsidian had survived that battle the rest would have been relatively easy.
End of no reload run.
Subsequently too late found that defeating the demonknight wasn't that hard. Just needed to alter tactics somewhat.
Unga-Bunga make journey through mountain passes to Dorn's Deep, beat down Orog sentries guarding Deep and enter caves:
In caves, Unga-Bunga battle down many Shroom Head Fungus, hear Ettins further in caverns battling Shrooms too. Unga-Bunga try to make friends with Ettins maybe:
Unga-Bunga see forge further in caverns, battle way to forge to escape Shrooms, meet Wizard Bandoth inside forge:
Bandoth seem paranoid, Unga-Bunga wonder if Bandoth eat Shrooms for food, careful not threaten Bandoth. Bandoth say swarms of undead in old dwarf home far below caves, say Larrel's daughter Evayne went there to find dwarves. Bandoth ask Unga-Bunga to find ravorvine extract he send apprentice to find, say if Unga-Bunga bring back apprentice with extract that fine, too. Unga-Bunga tell Bandoth will try find both, try to not upset Bandoth, see Bandoth have nice potions for barter.
Unga-Bunga go back into caves to battle Shrooms, look in smaller caves for apprentice and extract. Unga-Bunga find ettins, try to parley. Ettins not parley, so Unga-Bunga send elementals to parley ettins down instead:
Unga-Bunga find dead apprentice and extract in Ettin cave, bring back to Bandoth:
Bandoth take extract, tell Unga-Bunga about narrow bridge over chasm in southeast of caves that lead down further into Deep, say secret door in dwarven chamber leading further into Deep. Unga-Bunga leave Bandoth, rest outside caves, then toss Pixie Dust so battling Ettins and Shrooms not see Unga-Bunga, find bridge and follow path to Deep stronghold.
Unga-Bunga spy massive Drow and Orog force guarding bridge into Deep. Unga-Bunga retreat, summon elementals, toss Pixie Dust on elementals too. Unga-Bunga need lots of Pixie Dust:
Unga-Bunga send elementals to take bridge. Nasty spiders appear behind elementals, bite and poison them. Orc archers shoot at elementals and Drow Sorcerers and Spellswords cast magics. Unga-Bunga tell elementals to battle on bridge, summon Insect Plagues on drow and summon spikes into army:
Drow resist Unga-Bunga's magic but slowly battled down by elementals. Unga-Bunga search rest of hall, battle many groups of Orogs, Orcs and Drow:
Drow Vanguard greatest fighters Unga-Bunga ever see, take many elementals to bring down. Unga-Bunga finally battle down last Drow force guarding passageway into caves:
Unga-Bunga enter caves, find Umber Hulk. Umber Hulk look sad and tired, call out to Unga-Bunga, say name Saablic Tan:
Saablic Tan say Saablic Tan not really Umber Hulk but Red Wizard, say used to serve master, protect Deep by breeding Orogs to guard but master not like Saablic Tan anymore. Saablic Tan say master turned him into umber hulk, made live in caves with Orogs, say Orogs want him dead.
Unga-Bunga tell Saablic Tan he's crazy. Saablic Tan say Krilag new master in Deep now, serve Saablic Tan's old master, say old master gave Krilag badge Saablic Tan used to have. Saablic Tan tell Unga-Bunga kill Krilag and take badge, say only way to find master is to have badge.
Unga-Bunga tell Saablic Tan will search caves first, decide later. Saablic Tan not happy with Unga-Bunga but not attack, so Unga-Bunga go to search caves, battle down ettins and many orogs, especially guarding southeast caves:
Unga-Bunga sneak around bend in caverns, spot huge Orog Chieftain with orog friends. Unga-Bunga summon elemental and approach Orog Chieftain:
Orog say name Krilag, say Krilag will kill Unga-Bunga now. Unga-Bunga call in other elementals from around bend. Unga-Bunga not born yesterday:
Unga-Bunga watch elementals beat Krilag and orogs down, search Krilag and find badge like Saalbic Tan say, also find note from master to Krilag. Note say Malavan now in charge of magic instead of Saablic Tan, say giving Saablic Tan's badge to Krilag make Krilag lieutenant of master now, say Kreg Frostbeard in Wyrm's Tooth is nearest lieutenant and ask him for help if need. Note signed by 'RBP'.
Unga-Bunga not know names but think Saablic Tan tell truth, so go back to Saablic Tan and show badge:
Saablic Tan thank Unga-Bunga, say must rest now. Unga-Bunga think Saablic Tan maybe not happy as clam but happy as Umber Hulk can be, so return to stronghold. Unga-Bunga not see another way deeper into Deep until remember Bandoth say secret door in dwarven chamber. Unga-Bunga look around, find dwarf statue with hammer lever, then spy secret door nearby, open door and go down stairs.
Unga-Bunga enter chamber from stairs, see glowing crystals on floor in center of chamber, go look at crystals:
Unga-Bunga hear clicking noises, zapped by lightning as walk across rune circles. Unga-Bunga glad had protections up before walking on runes, always tell young in tribe to use protection.
Unga-Bunga study runes in circles, runes remind Unga-Bunga of stone table upstairs. Unga-Bunga go back upstairs, see three circles of runes on table, all runes in each circle same. Unga-Bunga go back downstairs to chamber and step on same runes as on table upstairs. Unga-Bunga not get zapped, hear loud noise from upstairs. Unga-Bunga go upstairs and push hammer lever, hear even louder noise downstairs. Unga-Bunga go badk down, now see stairway in rune circles leading down:
Unga-Bunga go down stair, find dead thief near trap. Unga-Bunga search thief and find note. Unga-Bunga read note, say thief name Dver, say Dver feel evil presence in Deep making Dver's mind and thoughts confused. Unga-Bunga feel same confused as normal, so think Unga-Bunga okay for now, really glad not eat Shrooms. Unga-Bunga avoid trap and take passage, come to large dead dwarven forge.
As Unga-Bunga begin to search forge, Unga-Bunga confronted by dwarven spirit:
Unga-Bunga remember Lethias in Severed Hand, think dead dwarves like dead elves, not want things defiled. Unga-Bunga tell dwarven spirit not here to deflle Deep but to search for evil plaguing land. Dwarven spirit say name Norlinor, was Priest of Moradin.
Dead Priest Norlinor talk Unga-Bunga ear off, tell Unga-Bunga more how dwarves and elves split apart by elves accusing dwarves of betrayal by selling artifacts to Horde. But Norlinor say he not think there was betrayal at all, instead think artifacts were stolen by someone else, sold to Horde to cause mistrust between elves and dwarves on purpose, cause downfall of both races. Unga-Bunga think Larrel might fireball entire Spine of the World if hear that, so not say anything:
Norlinor also tell Unga-Bunga that while dwarves battled Horde, negative energy vortice opened in Hall of Heroes, where dwarves inter greatest heroes of their people, that undead gather and attack stronghold. Norlinor say vortice lure necromancer named Terikan to Hall, say Terikan steal power from dwarven forge and become Lich, desecrate Tiers of the Dead. Norlinor say to destroy Terikan, must take Terikan's phylactery to Tomb of Jamoth in Hall of Heroes and toss into vortice:
Unga-Bunga overwhelmed. Norlinor see Unga-Bunga overwhelmed, say he think Terikan not do Lich ritual right, maybe not as powerful as normal lich. Unga-Bunga ask Norlinor if Norlinor think that or know that, but Norlinor uncommital.
Unga-Bunga wonder if asking spirits for Vision Quest was good thing after all, ask Norlinor to watch over as Unga-Bunga rest, ask spirits for aid and wisdom for next day...
Unga-Bunga, Half-Orc Shaman - an Icewind Dale solo HoF no-reload campaign:
Unga-Bunga wonder if asking spirits for Vision Quest was good thing after all, ask Norlinor to watch over as Unga-Bunga rest, ask spirits for aid and wisdom for next day...
Sorry about Unga-Bunga.
I'm starting a new unmodded run core rules. Only modification was giving Gorion a bag of holding. A Dwarven Lawful Good Priest of Helm.
Happy to be back playing Lawful Good in unmodified game.
However I may switch back to modded game after this one. It's good to ring the changes.
The portrait uses a photo that I took for the background, the dwarf being slighhtly modified to give him a Helmite shield using photoshop. I like the way that the positioning of the dwarf fits with the stones from the photo.
Helmuth and Imoen have picked up the equipment at the site of the ambush.
Unga-Bunga, Half-Orc Shaman - an Icewind Dale solo HoF no-reload campaign:
Happy to be back playing Lawful Good in unmodified game.
Good luck with Helmuth! I was trying to avoid reading too much of the BG campaigns because it's been so long since I've played, I was thinking of starting a fresh one and experiencing it again. I might not be able to resist, though...
So the Trio had just finished off Shoal and were making their way back to Beregost. We wanted Neera's gem bag, but she got too close and we had to fight her enemies. This was a hard fight for us since were basically level 1. Egg and Saile tried their best but both died. Coremage XXV only managed to kill the mage by using the magic missile wand at extreme range so he didn't get attacked back. After collecting people's things he want to the Beregost Temple and raised his friends. We tried dumping things on the floor but this didn't work too well as Egg's armor poofed and so did his composite bow. The end result was he had bad armor until we could get ankheg plate for him and for a long time was using a non-proficient range weapon (short bow).
But the adventure must continue!
We carefully make our way down to Nashkel, although Coremage XXV decided to double back to get the scroll case and while we were at it Saile took down Zhurlong and Egg returned Merrianne's letter. Then we proceeded to Nashkel without incident. Egg was eager to get his armor upgrade, then Coremage suggested using what meager funds we had to purchase PfP scrolls from Thalantyr (Coremage XXV neglected to mention to his comrades was one reason the money was so low was Coremage couldn't be bothered to ask to go to High Hedge to get some throwing daggers, so bought a bunch at high prices from Thunderhammer Smithy. Instead he let his companions think their resurrections took all our money).
Saile thought we could afford it and he was right. It was good thing as we had to buy two scrolls to successfully scribe it once. But before we got basilisk hunting Egg wanted a detour pick up a magic sword from a nearby ogrillion. Coremage XXV relented. Saile suggested getting a sword from Brage, but Egg was hearing none of it. Argain was easy to kill so, if it keeps the paladin happy it's all good I guess. Coremage spends most of his time throwing daggers over's Egg's shoulder at enemeis, though sometimes Coremage XXV will dual wield if it seems safe.
The basilisks went very smooth, Egg tanked great here. Kirian's group got the 4 x web/ 1 x stinkiing cloud treatment. One of them resisted all of this and was about to get a spell off but he died first.
After a discussion of tactics, the party headed to the Pirate's Cave area. The Candlekeep clarity potion once again proving its worth with Egg courteously acting as the target for the sirines while his buddies poured in ranged fire and the occasional call lightning. In the golem cave, Egg nervously edged the hold trap, so Coremage XXV reminded Egg he was immune. The clarity potion was still active so the charm trap was no problem. The golems fell pretty fast. Egg got the CON since he gets the most benefit, plus is helpful since he's usually taking punishment for the group.
We decided to the next batch of sirines a bit north (though we did this at the end of the session). Web and stinking cloud once again proving their worth.
We then started from the far south and helped a "boy" get his dog back. Zax and Val didn't survive our greetings. Kaldo and Krumm didn't fare any better. Gnoll fortress enemies beaten fairly easily, even the carrion crawler since Egg remembered he was immune. With the CHA tome Egg now has 18 CHA. A bit more money and we could afford the robe of the good arch magic for Coremage. Egg and Saile don't like to buy equipment they want to kill enemies for it, but couldn't complain since there was no enemy for us to get this robe from. Egg suggested Bassilus and helpfully mentioned he wouldn't mind being confused as he was sure the rest of us could finish Bassilus off before he could kill Egg. Egg was spot on, magic missiles and call lightning was too much for Bassilus.
We collected the reward, bought the robe of the Good Arch Magi, and at the end of the session finished off the northern sirines as mentioned previously. We were out of time and saved our session here. Till next week!
Unga-Bunga wake up from rest, let out deep breath. Unga-Bunga not given vision or dream by spirits this time, know that sometimes spirits allow shaman to be tested, prove strength and worth. Unga-Bunga gather up things, cast protection spells, then bid farewell to Norlinor and step through archway into Tiers of the Dead:
Unga-Bunga see many undead swarming over marble stone but not see lich yet. Unga-Bunga summon elementals to do battle, see more dead swarming:
Unga-Bunga command elementals to battle way to coffins up stair north of archway, hold off more undead so not overrun:
Unga-Bunga and elementals clear most undead but undead keep spawning. Unga-Bunga think Lich Terikan summoning undead, not able to clear all before more come. Unga-Bunga summon elemental, send up stair to top level of Tiers:
Unga-Bunga hear Lich Terikan casting dark magics, hear other casters, too. Unga-Bunga hear fireballs thrown, see elemental frozen at top of stair. When Unga-Bunga creep closer to see why elemental not move, hear Terikan shrieking magics, steal all Unga-Bunga's protection magics away:
Unga-Bunga forget elemental and scurry away, hope elemental still block stair. Unga-Bunga cast protective magics again, summon more elementals and send them to stair. Once elementals on stair, Unga-Bunga creep closer, cast Insect Plagues at top of stair, hope to keep Terikan and other casters from casting magics, summon Spike Stones to pierce all things atop Tier:
Unga-Bunga hear Terikan still casting dark magics, see Greater Mummies casting too, Unga-Bunga hoped biting insects would bother undead, keep from casting, but Unga-Bunga guess dead not feel bugs biting bone or cloth. Terikan and mummies cast Symbols of Pain and Hopelessness on marble and stone, paralyze elementals. As elementals fall, Unga-Bunga summon beetles behind undead to spit acid on them:
Slowly, very slowly, mummies and undead swarms summoned by Terikan begin to fall:
Unga-Bunga dance feverishly, summon spirits to rush Terikan so not able to cast more dark magics, but Terikan summon more dead:
Finally, Unga-Bunga see Lich Terikan crumble to ground, cry out with joy. But Unga-Bunga know battle only half over, rush to door leading down to Hall of Heroes, but door locked. Unga-Bunga begin heaving stone lids off coffins, search for key. Unga-Bunga spring trap after trap but put pain out of mind:
Unga-Bunga finally find key in coffin but hear Terikan shrieking once again:
Unga-Bunga run for door to Hall of Heroes, shove key into lock and tear down stair as Terikan chase Unga-Bunga. Once Unga-Bunga reach Hall, Unga-Bunga begin summoning elementals as quick as can. Unga-Bunga wince when Terikan reach bottom of stair, turn to battle, but Terikan rush past Unga-Bunga. Terikan fly down Hall, stop at entrance to two tombs and summon undead. Unga-Bunga think Lich Terikan just told Unga-Bunga where phylactery is:
Unga-Bunga realize Terikan summon dead from Negative Energy Vortice, will be overwhelmed. Unga-Bunga send elementals further into Hall, battle Terikan and undead minions once more:
Unga-Bunga summon Spike Growth, command elementals attack only Terikan. Elementals and spikes strike Terikan, keep from casting many dark magics. Lich Terikan crumble to stone floor once more:
Unga-Bunga command elementals to battle remainder of dead minions while Unga-Bunga search tombs, look for Terikan phylactery. Unga-Bunga trigger more traps, find phylactery atop trapped pedestal, wince as caught in great fire:
Unga-Bunga take phylactery, search for vortice while elementals battle undead:
Unga-Bunga search tomb after tomb, finally find Tomb of Jamoth, feel great evil as phylactery fly from Unga-Bunga's hands into vortice, hear Lich Terikan's spirit unravel:
Unga-Bunga help elementals battle down rest of undead then fall to knees, try to catch breath, barely believe what happened, barely believe still alive. Unga-Bunga search rest of tombs, make sure no more undead in Hall of Heroes, then return to dwarven forge. Unga-Bunga greeted by Dead Priest Norlinor:
Norlinor thank Unga-Bunga for returning dead to rest, allowing forge to come to life once more, say a great treasure was left inside forge to be claimed one day by great hero who served dwarven people, say also a key that opens great bronze doors in Hall of Heroes to Wyrm's Tooth glacier also within. Unga-Bunga thank Norlinor and wish him rest:
Unga-Bunga take axe and key from forge, then rest a long while in warmth of forge before return to Hall of Heroes, search each tomb for magical items and weapons. Unga-Bunga not leave powerful items for undead should they return. Unga-Bunga find many items in tombs, many journals left behind by entombed.
Unga-Bunga find Tomb of Evayne, Larrel's daughter, admire great monument erected in Evayne's honor. Inside tomb, Unga-Bunga find journal of Evayne, tell story of how Evayne came to Dorn's Deep to parley with dwarves, slowly won dwarves over, and battled alongside dwarves when Horde and Undead came, even to her death.
Unga-Bunga remember Norlinor tell about axe in forge left for great hero, take axe from pack and set atop pedestal in Tomb of Evayne, where true hero lies. Unga-Bunga wonder if should write journal of Unga-Bunga's life someday, wonder if anyone would read journal or just use to start fire and clean up. Unga-Bunga wipe eyes tearing up from smell of dead, no other reason. Unga-Bunga take Evayne's journal, think Larrel will want to read.
Unga-Bunga then open bronze door, find bronze sentries guarding gate to glacier. Bronze sentries attack Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga summon elementals to battle down sentries:
Unga-Bunga about to enter gate to Wyrm's Tooth glacier but remember Bandoth, decide not to leave Dorn's Deep without letting Bandoth know all things happening under Bandoth's snotty nose:
Bandoth pretend not be impressed, but Unga-Bunga know better:
Unga-Bunga make journey to Severed Hand once more, hope to give Larrel peace:
Unga-Bunga take long rest before returning to Dorn's Deep, then approach bronze gate leading to Wyrm's Tooth glacier once more...
Swords for everyone! The Amarande Story II PreviousNext
So... where were we? Ah, right, Baldur's Gate proper and ToTSC were at our feet.
So, scrolls were scribed (although I forgot giving Imoen invisibility...). Since there's no moratorium on easter eggs this run, we also swung by Ulgoth's Beard and relieved Dushai of her Ring of Free Action, going to Kagain: Amarande is all offense, and needs the speed from Paws of the Cheetah.
Pretty much as expected, we breezed through Baldur's Gate. Four fighter-types (and now access to Haste) will have that effect.
Most of the time we didn't even bother softening up enemy mages using our bone bros; we can overwhelm most mage defenses, given that they're typically only L8 - L10, before they get more than a single Remove Magic off. The only real snafu was killing Phandalyn and dropping to reputation 6... he doesn't like evil party members (and packs a surprising punch as Amarande found out).
Not much else to report, the city was cleared in short order. Figuring Jaheira could do with a weapon upgrade (though why we bother I don't know, she always seems to underperform), we went after the Shadow Archdruid, Amarande. Imposter!
Though supposedly SCS does not cheat, Druid Amarande certainly did, as he was somehow immune to all targetted spells because of.. reasons. Didn't help him though. While in the wilderness, we also swung by Firewine Bridge and the ruins, clearing them without incident (Skeleton Warriors annihilating both Lendarn and the Ogre Mage in short order).
Alright, Durlag's, then Ice Island, then Werewolf Island, then on to SoD.
Kagain proved that not even he can tank Pride indefinitely, but he held his ground long enough for us to clear the other Warders, and the way was opened.
Underground levels 3 and 4 went by completely without incident. The Chessboard got firebombed, same procedure as every year James every time. Really, the Warders are more trouble than the rest of the tower combined: Level 5 was also cleared with all due haste, and again as customary we stopped just short of tackling the Demon Knight, owing to poor reward vs risk ratio.
Normally I use PfM-scrolls for Ice Island, but this time we were strong enough to just bulldoze through. Andris and his cronies got a single charge of the Wand of Monster Summoning to cover our initial assault; Andris himself fled rather quickly as his attendants croaked, and found a warm reception upon teleporting back in.
It seems SCS made him an Enchanter this time, as all he really did was summon things and try to Confuse us. That works best if you have companions to do the actual fighting, though. For the Ankheg mage and Cuchol, some Wand of Paralyzation misuse spelled their doom (MGoI gives no protection, and they usually fail their saving throws in short order as the battle outside the Cloakwood Mine demonstrated). Tellan butchered an initial batch of monster summons, but then started killing his own summoned monsters; I expect it's a remnant of his original script since he can be persuaded to, rather ineffectually, help you escape by darting/short swording enemies. In the end, he couldn't out-fight Skeleton Warriors, and indeed, neither could Dezkiel.
Werewolf Island was over in a flash. We had plenty of magical ammunition, plenty of buffs, plenty of potions. Even Karoug only lasted a few rounds under Sword of Balduran/Werebane assault combined with Magic Missiles (his attendant mage never even got a Remove Magic off owing to The Victor). We left for the mainland, where Mendas and his fellow Loup Garou actually did a fair bit of damage before we could put them down, Amarande coming within a few solid swipes of ignominious death (but we pulled through, and had plenty of Potions of Invisibility at hand should things have gotten truly hairy).
Alright, let's finish this. Sarevok's acolytes barely did anything to us, beyond Gardush getting a single swing in at Imoen. The Ogre Mage ambush was dealt with in good order (they're too low-level to pose a threat, even when they had us surrounded). Interestingly, one of them dropped Invisibility 10' Radius. Not that it matters, since it's mostly useful in SoD and there you get it in the starting dungeon anyway, but still. We pushed through the catacombs and Prat alike, heading back for the city.
We had to kill Slythe twice, since (in addition to demonstrating her usual buggy behaviour of going instantly invisible once a round without any status text update) Krystin tried to pop Monster Summoning I, crashing the game... I suspect it's trying to summon some monster with a broken file, since SCS modifies this a bit. Anyway, we overwhelmed Slythe a second time before he could even pop an invisibility potion, and even though tedious, we took Krystin down as well using brute force.
This kind of no-holds-barred, caution-to-the-wind approach really only works because we've got such a beastly melee protagonist. Normally it'd be a lot slower and more careful going.
Anyway: Coronation battle. Over before we knew it, Liia took no damage and Belt was at Barely Injured. The Assassin got a solid backstab (42 hitpoints) on Viconia owing to her having her sling equipped, but otherwise no damage; Skeleton Warriors held the line while we took down the Mage, Assassin and Shaman in order.
The Maze was navigated entirely without incident. Rahvin and gang got some fireballin', leaving Shaldrissa alive just long enough to pop down a Teleportation Field.
Bolstered by a Potion of Insight, Amarande actually succeeded in talking Tamoko down. Not sure why I bother, but I do.
OK, final battle.
All four fighter-types (Kagain, Amarande, Khalid, Jaheira) get PfM along with select potions (strength, Heroism, Power, Haste, Invulnerability etc.). Imoen and Viconia just summon some crud, then go invisible. Crud moves to engage, so do the fighter-types.
At some point, Kagain and Jaheira somehow got all of their buffs bar PfM dispelled. Maybe Angelo or Diarmid had Arrows of Dispelling? Unclear. Anyway, they reapplied some potions and got back into the thick of things.
Semaj as always was a massive headache, demonstrating the same behaviour as Krystin in that he kept going invisible without casting a spell or using a potion, but after 5x Detect Invisibility we were able to bring him down, and shortly afterward, S himself. S got a number of hits in on both Kagain and Amarande as we were racing around, but we had a dozen Potions of Extra Healing, and they made up the difference easily.
And another BG1EE SCS no-reload run completed, with no real close calls since the Bandit Camp. Good stuff.
I forgot, amidst all the excitement, to get a picture of Amarande's final stats, but you can imagine (L7/L7 Fighter/Mage, stats 19/19/19/19/7/19, ++ Long Sword, ++ Bastard Sword, ++ TWS). Time for things to get mildly interesting; SoD awaits.
The weird effects of leveling up new NPCs with SCS means that they start with no spells memorized (and sometimes no spells known for wizards in edge cases), and with only one rest available... we'll have to be careful with our health and fights. Fortunately with the Duergar, we have crossbows available for Aquinus, which he has GM in. We clear with the aid of health potions - Minsc manages to avoid taking any damage in the two largest damage areas (Otyugh and Air Elemental Room) by either stealth-hitting or ignoring respectively. We take our rest after getting Yoshimo - from there, it's a pretty simple clear. Aquinus levels up in the meantime.
With the extra Duergar gold, I actually remember to use it to increase reputation - it'll easily save us more than the 2k gold we spend here in the long run. We rescue the circus and take Aerie along with us before getting to Gael and then the Copper Coronet. As almost always, we start with the Slavers there. Yoshimo's BH traps do most of the damage to the animals, and it's a clean melee fight from there. Next up is the sewers for Lilaarcor and the Slaver ship. Outside of having to use a Burning Hands scroll to finish a Troll since I didn't have any other Fire or Acid sources, there were no real problems outside of HP attrition. To fix this, well...
There's a handy Thief that you can allot all her points to Pickpocket. Don't mind me, Bernard, just borrowing this...
And we dispose of both Clara and Hexxat soon after that. Dragomir didn't even attempt a Charm for some reason.
We deal with the ambushes... decently, I suppose, though I somehow didn't pick up Arbane's sword during the first one. We had been traveling invisibly using Pixie Dust, so we avoid deaths at least. Prebek and co. are dealt with quickly, but Yoshimo dies here to... traps... as somehow his Detect Traps score of 100 wasn't finding them. Something might've caused a bug but I have no idea what would've done it. One run back to the Copper Coronet and a Raise Dead fixes that. A fetch-quest gets Xzar killed, and we're ready to continue on to some of the Stronghold quests.
First up is Trademeet. Jaheira gets summoned as we rest there to prepare for the Dao Djinni. 3x Pro. Petrification from Aquinus and 1 from Aerie resolves that particular issue for us.
With the Ring of Regeneration, most of the Grove wasn't a threat, though we skipped the Troll cave - bracers of Archery and Spear of the Unicorn wasn't enticing enough at the time to risk that fight. There was an exception against the last Druid grouping - the druid got off a Call Lightning that probably would've chunked Aerie or killed Yoshimo if they failed a save. I didn't have any spells to counteract it, so had to just hope, and got lucky. Faldorn herself isn't too big of an issue - Cernd starts the fight Improved Invisible, and summons a Fire Elemental. She gets interrupted while Cernd casts Insect Plague, and she can't recover in time.
Aquinus gets the usual buys here: Tansheron's bow, Belt of Inertial Dampening, Ras, and the Cloak of Blurriness and Tearing My Eyes Out. I had intended to continue using Cernd, but I forgot Rasaad was found in Trademeet as we were heading to the shop in the north, and we take him along for his quest.
Back in Athkatla, it's time for the Harper's Hold. I... don't remember details of this fight, only remember that this was considerably easier than I remember from previous runs. It might be the newer system of SCS set on Tactical (I haven't gotten safely to BG2 in a hot minute) or it could be because I'm actually buffing with at least the basics. Ignore the screenshot, everything got Dispelled, but Aquinus had at least Chaotic Commands and Death Ward up at the beginning of the fight, and everyone started invisibly, so Jaheira got an Insect Plague on their important casters before they could wreck us.
Rasaad's final fight is significantly harder than I remember - either I did something to bolster the temple's forces last time, or to weaken the Dark Moon Monks, but we're very easily overwhelmed by the two Aerial Servants + the high level Monks. Rasaad himself falls as we're pushed back to the doorway, and Aerie completes her Invisibility 15" spell right as she lost all her Stoneskins. We retreat back to the right staircase, and start casting AoE spells from out of range, and luring them to us one by one. Druids continue being... silly.
The rest of the fight was cleaned up after this, with no major spell threats remaining.
I've gotten further, as I've mentioned in the Adventurer's Lounge, but I think this is where I'll end this update.
Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust then step through Dorn's Deep gate onto Wyrm's Tooth Glacier, into sunlight and horde of Greater Ice Trolls and Snow Trolls. Unga-Bunga summon elementals, call lightning on foes, bond with elemental spirits strong:
Unga-Bunga and elementals press on through trolls, battle across ice bridge, approach large building carved into ice. Unga-Bunga battle Ettins down, reach door:
Unga-Bunga see more trolls further down glacier, not want get pinned against building. Unga-Bunga and trolls run down more trolls and yeti, find three doors into another building and rope bridge over chasm. Rope bridge seen better days, look like Unga-Bunga after long night dancing:
Unga-Bunga return to first building, toss Pixie Dust and enter, see Frost Salamanders guarding way inside. Since only two salamanders, Unga-Bunga shake off Pixie Dust and approach, say Unga-Bunga want to see leader of salamanders. Unga-Bunga taken to Chief Kerish. Chief Kerish wriggly like standing snake, think Unga-Bunga sent by someone named Marketh, maybe master or lieutenant of master:
Chief Kerish tell Unga-Bunga many things. Kerish say Joril Frostbeard kill father Kreg, take badge and say he new lieutenant of master. Kerish say master might be mad at Joril since master picks own lieutenants. Kerish say Joril rule caverns southwest. Unga-Bunga think caverns across broken rope bridge.
Unga-Bunga ask Kerish why dead bodies all over. Kerish say human slaves revolted, salamanders kill most but some escaped to level below, say below too hot for salamanders to go, ask Unga-Bunga to kill slave leader because slaves make Kerish look bad.
Unga-Bunga not want fight all salamanders yet so say will consider killing slave leader while thinking will kill salamander leader, instead. Unga-Bunga allowed to walk around building, see many salamander, ice trolls and wolves looking at sea creatures frozen in ice. Down one passage, salamander say he hear something around corner of passage but not see anything there. Unga-Bunga tell salamander will look around. Unga-Bunga go look around corner and see woman hiding from salamanders:
Unga-Bunga tell woman salamander hear her make noise. Woman thank Unga-Bunga, say name Vera but not want tell Unga-Bunga much else. Unga-Bunga tell Vera Unga-Bunga won't tell Vera there, tell salamander guard hearing things. Vera and salamander both thank Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga find strange room with knobs and lights but not touch anything, then go down stair guarded by frost salamanders. Salamanders guards won't move away from stair, Unga-Bunga get minor frostbite.
Unga-Bunga really want kill salamanders...
Unga-Bunga glad room downstairs much warmer, find slave leader Gareth. Gareth tell Unga-Bunga building museum of water creatures, say been slaved here long time. Gareth say one slave, Vera, tried to escape, found room with lights and knobs, turned nobs and made downstairs warmer so slaves safe from salamanders.
Unga-Bunga tell Gareth Unga-Bunga saw Vera upstairs, say Vera hiding from salamanders. Gareth glad Vera alive but say slaves trapped with no food or water, will die if can't escape. Gareth say slaves found way out but gate locked, ask Unga-Bunga to get key from Kerish. Unga-Bunga have good reason to kill salamanders now, tell Gareth will get key.
Unga-Bunga go back upstairs, tell Vera will free slaves soon, then tell Kerish Unga-Bunga need key to gate below. Kerish ask why Unga-Bunga need key. Unga-Bunga say trick slaves out into open to kill. Unga-Bunga almost say salamanders but stop himself in time:
Unga-Bunga take key, unlock gate, see three doors from building Unga-Bunga found below. Unga-Bunga think salamanders will chase slaves once slaves out onto glacier, summon elementals to guard stair leading to top of glacier. Unga-Bunga tell elementals not kill humans, only cold things. Unga-Bunga think elementals understand but will watch to be sure:
Unga-Bunga give key to Gareth, tell Gareth to escape, then go down to gate, see many guards Kerish sent to kill slaves:
Unga-Bunga hold off guards until slaves outside, lead guards to stair. Unga-Bunga glad elementals didn't kill slaves, command elementals to kill guards, call lightning onto guards:
Unga-Bunga lead elementals to top level of museum, summon more elementals, then run inside, taunt Kerish. Kerish command guards to kill Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga lead Kerish and minions into elemental army:
Unga-Bunga slay Kerish and all minions outside, go inside and slay all minions left:
Unga-Bunga find Vera, tell Vera slaves free:
After long battle, Unga-Bunga go down to warm room to rest, surprised to see some slaves still there. One slave say name Soth, give Unga-Bunga book about fixing bridges, say something about paying it forward:
Unga-Bunga thank slaves then rest. Unga-Bunga wake next day, use book to fix bridge:
Unga-Bunga cross bridge, soon approach cave to enter ice caverns...
Dragomir didn't even attempt a Charm for some reason.
I looked up the script when it happened to me. The culprit is a "!HasImmunityEffects()" check. If your character is immune to anything, he won't attempt his domination. Dorn goes in, immune to fear and level drain? Don't try to dominate him. And so on.
It would make sense to just check for charm immunity, but no. That's not how Dragomir does things.
Unga-Bunga near cave to ice caverns, toss Pixie dust, go inside. Unga-Bunga see many winter wolves, know wolves breathe cold so summon earth elemental behind wolves, elemental not mind so much:
Unga-Bunga summon fire elementals behind wolves, elementals beat wolves down. Further inside cave, Unga-Bunga find white wyrms. Wyrms not attack elementals, so Unga-Bunga shake off Pixie Dust, speak to wyrms. One worm say name Frostbite, say wyrms eat humans:
Unga-Bunga not tell Frostbite Unga-Bunga half human, leave wyrms alone for now, hope freed slaves not come here...
Further in cave, Unga-Bunga see Frost Giants, Giants real tall. Frost Giants not attack elementals, so Unga-Bunga speak with frost giants, say Unga-Bunga want see Frost Giant Chieftain. Frost Giants point Unga-Bunga around bend in cave, Unga-Bunga see even larger frost giant sitting on giant throne, go speak to giant.
Frost Giant Chieftain say name Joril Frostbeard, say ruler of Frost Giants and slaves. Unga-Bunga remember Salamander Kerish tell Unga-Bunga Joril killed father Kreg to become new chieftain and lieutenant of master, want see what Joril says:
Unga-Bunga ask Joril how Joril kill father. Joril proud, say challenged father Chieftain Kreg to battle white wyrms, prove worth as Chieftain. Before battle, Joril go to wyrms, tell wyrms to pretend dead, then attack Kreg when Kreg turn away, tell wyrms will give one slave a day for food. Joril say wyrms agreed:
Unga-Bunga remember Salamander Kerish afraid of master, think Joril even more coward, really afraid of master. Unga-Bunga tell Joril master mad, Unga-Bunga sent to get badge:
Dumb Joril give Unga-Bunga badge. Unga-Bunga tell Joril want to look around caves. Even though Unga-Bunga have badge, Unga-Bunga not want leave slaves to get eaten, so Unga-Bunga look for slaves further in cave. Unga-Bunga see many Frost Giants and Winter Wolves around caves, come to slave pen with frost giant watching over slaves.
Unga-Bunga speak to slaves. Slave Leader Davin ask Unga-Bunga to slay wyrms so slaves not be food anymore. Unga-Bunga tell Slave Leader Davin will kill wyrms. Davin not sure believe Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga go back through caves, summon elementals and tell Frostbite slaves not food anymore. Frostbite get angry:
Unga-Bunga tell Frostbite not get angry, say Frostbite not need food anymore when dead. Elementals make wyrms not hungry anymore. Unga-Bunga go back to slaves, tell Davin good news:
Davin thank Unga-Bunga, ask Unga-Bunga help free slaves, say small cave nearby. Davin say giants not fit through small cave, but Frost Giant Gorg always watch slaves, make sure not escape. Davin say not sure caves safe, say hear noises coming from caves.
Unga-Bunga tell Davin will search caves, make safe. Unga-Bunga find small cave, toss Pixie Dust and enter cave, see entire tribe of Glacier Yeti. Unga-Bunga summon Earth Elemental into tribe...
...then Fire Elementals behind yeti once yeti backs exposed:
Fire Elementals clear cavern of yeti, pummel yeti into ice, leave only treasures behind. Unga-Bunga proud of elementals, wipe tear from eye:
Further south in caves Unga-Bunga see wall of bone, Black Ice Knight guarding wall. Black Ice Knight remind Unga-Bunga of Kresselack, Unga-Bunga not happy. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, slowly move toward wall, see what else there:
Unga-Bunga see two huts, five Black Ice Knights and Human Mage. Unga-Bunga see mage protected by many magics, think mage powerful, make Unga-Bunga uneasy.
Unga-Bunga back away, return to warm room in museum to rest, ask spirits for aid. Once awake, Unga-Bunga return to cave with mage and knights, summon three elementals, toss pixie dust on two elementals, not dust one elemental:
Unga-Bunga not sure if mage attack, but make plan just in case, have knights chase elemental further into caves, have hidden elementals rush mage when knights lured away. Unga-Bunga cast protective magics, then slowly approach mage.
Mage say name Kontik, say Kontik commanded by mistress to await Unga-Bunga in cave. Unga-Bunga ask Kontik who mistress is. Kontik tell Unga-Bunga mistress Auril, Frost Maiden Goddess, say Auril not happy with Unga-Bunga for killing Lysan. Kontik say will kill Unga-Bunga now:
Unga-Bunga summon beetles at feet of Kontik, send hidden elementals to battle Kontik but dumb elementals attack Ice Knights first. Ice Knights follow elementals into battle, not follow elemental luring knights away:
Kontik Archmage of great power, cast horrible magics, scorch and freeze beetles and elementals at same time. Unga-Bunga run outside wall, one Ice Knight follow, attack Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga summon elemental to battle Ice Knight, have another elemental seal port in wall of bone, cast Insect Plagues and Spike Stones onto Kontik and Ice Knights:
Kontik resist nearly all magic of Unga-Bunga, Black Ice Knights strong beyond measure. Unga-Bunga struggle with elements, summon lightning and sunlight into caves:
Unga-Bunga use all magic to strike down Ice Knights, dance to summon spirits to battle Kontik. Kontik have unlimited magic and strength of ten warriors, stand alone in battle with greater spirits and knock to ground with colorful visions:
Unga-Bunga know must stay near Kontik for spirits to battle but not want to be so close magic of Kontik hurt Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga not able to summon lighting very far in cave, decide to risk getting closer, hope lightning strike Kontik. Unga-Bunga wait for Kontik to cast:
Unga-Bunga rush Kontik after magic colors pass, move behind Kontik so Kontik between Unga-Bunga and spirits, barely avoid more magic colors:
Unga-Bunga dance feverishly, try to summon new spirits to battle when Kontik slays others with magic. Unga-Bunga finally able to summon one last bolt of lightning to strike Kontik down:
Unga-Bunga exhausted, fall to ground and pass out. Unga-Bunga finally awaken again, gather up treasures of Kontik and Black Ice Knights, make sure way outside through cave safe, then return to Davin. Unga-Bunga say way through cave clear, now will kill frost giant guarding slaves. Unga-Bunga go around corner where guard not see and summon beetles.
Unga-Bunga talk to frost giant. Frost Giant say name Gorg. Unga-Bunga tell Frost Giant Gorg will kill Gorg now. Gorg not believe Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga command beetles to bite Gorg. Gorg swarmed by beetles, beetles spit acid on Gorg, Gorg dies. Unga-Bunga think about hanging Gorg carcass on wall like Gorg wanted to do with Unga-Bunga, but Gorg too heavy:
Unga-Bunga go to Davin, say slaves now free. Davin and slaves thank Unga-Bunga, leave through caves. Unga-Bunga follow, wait for slaves to escape over bridge, then summon elementals to guard in case giants follow:
Unga-Bunga not leave giants alive to chase slaves, go see Joril one last time, tell Joril Unga-Bunga kill all Frost Giants now that slaves free:
Joril get mad, tell guards kill Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga run past giants, lure outside where elementals waiting:
Once outside, Unga-Bunga call down lightning on giants, elementals pummel giants into ground:
Unga-Bunga search giants, see Joril coward to last, not come out to battle. Unga-Bunga and elementals bring battle to Joril, then sack rest of giants and wolves, take treasures:
Unga-Bunga take treasures, fresh water to Severed Hand. Unga-Bunga ask Lehland to appraise magic items, sell many things, bring water to Valestis for arboretum:
After long rest, Unga-Bunga make return journey to Wyrm's Tooth glacier, approach cave leading to lower part of Dorn's Deep stronghold...
When Gorion told me that we would have to leave Candlekeep he asked me if I would take my twin sister Sable with me. “I am rather concerned that things could turn out very badly without your influence,” he said. I didn’t take much persuading despite the fact that she is a blackguard, after all, she is my sister. I was actually quite pleased that she was with me when I was attacked by Mendas as without her watching my back, I could well have been killed.
The same was true when attacked by skeletons near High Hedge. On that occasion we needed each other. Being alone in such a place is quite dangerous.
I was pleasantly surprised to be able to help Melicamp get back into shape and when an ogre attacked we acquired some enchanted belts.
We made our way south to Nashkel and just south of there, we killed Zargos Flintblade who had a +1 Axe a weapon in which Sable is quite proficient.
We reunited Jumper with its owner and ridded Tonder of the curse of lycanthropy.
Next we killed Vax and Zal and to the West, Krumm, Caldo and Ingot.
In transit we killed a polar bear before returning to the Carnival where we killed Zordral and the Amazing Oopah.
We helped the archaeologist and Brage next.
We then spent some time ankheg hunting.
South of Beregost we killed some Flaming Fist Mercenaries. Their armour will be most useful for Sable
A Revenant was our next foe followed by Narcillicus Harwillger Neen.
.
Near Beregost we were attacked by wolves and Sable only just survived.
We then took on the ankheg area.
We returned Precious to Smeagol before taking on Molkar et al.
Meilum was next.
And we had to flee a basilisk.
At the Friendly Arms we slew Tarnesh.
We joined up with Xzar and Montaron before going to Ulgoth’s Beard where Montaron did some pick-pocketting.
When attacked by bandits, Dorn helped us.
After Dorn joined us we went in search of Kryll.
We then dropped off Dorn, Montaron and Xzar in Nashkel and went ankheg hunting with Tenya, Sirene and Coran.
EDIT
After picking up Dynaheir and Neera we went in search of Lethe. She killed Neera before dying herself.
We raised Neera which made us very poor.
We then went in search of Adoy and after helping him bade Neera farewell.
So the Trio found themselves near sirine corpses. We were wondering what to do then Egg found some ogres to play with. Saile did his usual call lightning and victory was ours once again. We let the nearby healer fix Egg up then we headed out. We picked up Brage, but Egg declined to use Brage's sword.
We figured it was high time to work on the Nashkel Mines. Kobolds were destroyed, and Egg was nice to enough to trigger some traps. Mulahey had no chance being hit with webs from out of sight. We then used stinking cloud and call lightning and paralyzation wand on the Amazons, they were destroyed as well. Coremage XXV mentioned Egg is an undead hunter, let's take out the undead which went almost to plan, though Coremage had to dodge some ghasts. Narcillus and his jellies didn't last long.
In Nashkel we returned a greenstone ring to a widow and then destroyed Nimbul pretty quickly. Call lightning and magic missiles were just too much. While we were here, we also tried to took out Neira. Egg got hit with rigid thinking and said there goes my paladin class (he was implying he was going to slaughter innocents). Not so fast said Coremage XXV - he hit Egg with the paralyzation wand and sure enough Egg couldn't kill anyone while paralyzed. Good thing Egg's saves weren't that great just yet. We then sought out Tranzig and Tranzig was wiped out by Saile's sword spider form. We also took down some spiders in a house in the area.
We went to FAI and returned Landarin's things. We noticed we hadn't done the Ankhegs yet so we worked on taking out those enemies. The party did well here. We ran into one hiccup though when Egg and Saile raced to the top of the map, leaving Coremage XXV far behind. And anhkeg attacks Coremage XXV but Coremage XXV managed to paralyze the ankheg with his wand and then he was OK. We returned a bowl to a priestess and bought some things at Ulgoth's Beard.
Coremage XXV said it was time to upgrade Egg's armor - Khosahnn would be happy to donate his right? So we assaulted the bandit camp. Our attacks were a bit disorganized, and Egg got to near death. However, Coremage summoned some critters with his monster summoning wand as well as parayzed Khosahnn, which allowed Egg to escape with his life. Close one! We assaulted Tazok's Tent with invisibility and that worked out quite well. At this point we noticed we still hadn't taken out Melium so we headed that direction.
Then we got the dreaded basilisk ambush! Uh, oh, no potion of mirror eyes in our bags! Coremage XXV did an invisibility potion. But Egg got petrified! (but not chunked). Right about here Grond0 lost his connection to the game. Coremage XXV protected himself from petrification and tried to get the attention of the basilisk and kill it as soon as possible. However, now the basilisk was targeting Saile! Incredibly, Saile was petrified saved vs the petrification 3 times before the basliisk was slain!
The party then obtained some potion of mirror eyes and a stone to flesh scroll and retriggered this map ambush. Only some dire wolves showed up. They were slain, Egg brought back to life and into the party! The Trio is whole once more!
Before making our way to Melium we dealt with Molkar's group with web and fireballs.
Melium himself was killed quickly, as expected. The party decided to push their luck and take on the basilisks at Durlag's Tower. This went much smoother. Saile got to demonstrate the deadly sword spider form/web combo against some minions at the outside of the tower.
Somewhere along the way we had also picked up Samuel and picked up a fire resistance ring. We skipped Cloakwood Area 1 and battled some poisonous critters in area two, but with Saile able to safely trigger the web traps with his sword spider form, this went pretty smooth. Saile tried to prove he was the better sword spider vs an actual sword spider and nearly died, but the extra damage from the nearby Coremage XXV was enough to keep Saile alive. We naturally battled some minions to get the Spider's Bane for Egg since he used two-hand swords. We ran out of time so saved our session here.
Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, enter Lower Dorn's Deep, see skeleton guarding entryway waving huge sword. Unga-Bunga sigh, know vision quests never easy, summon elementals. Skeleton not attack elementals though. Unga-Bunga about to speak to skeleton when elementals see salamanders, go to attack. Unga-Bunga tell elementals stay, wait for salamanders. Elementals stay, slay salamanders on entryway:
After battle, Unga-Bunga speak to skeleton. Skeleton say skeleton once paladin of Torm, vowed make peace between dwarves and elves while alive, killed by both during battle. Dead Paladin say still around because broken vow, serves Revered Brother Poquelin and Brother Harken, Harken commands Dead Paladin, sees through paladin's dead eyes:
Unga-Bunga tell Dead Paladin not sound like Dead Paladin serving true servants of Ilmater. Dead Paladin say must obey unless shown proof of evil, say Brother Harken see Unga-Bunga now, tell Dead Paladin attack Unga-Bunga.
Unga-Bunga tell elementals protect Unga-Bunga against Dead Paladin. Dead Paladin cuts down three elementals before crumbling to ground. Elementals keep beating Dead Paladin, Unga-Bunga tell elementals stop, know Dead Paladin will rise again. Unga-Bunga also know Dead Paladin not see through Pixie Dust, think Pixie Dust handy:
Unga-Bunga gather elementals, move slowly through cavern, battle many salamander and tarnished sentries. Sentries throw axes like Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga find lift to north, ambushed by thieves:
After elementals slay thieves, a deep gnome worker come up to Unga-Bunga, lay hand on Unga-Bunga's leg. Unga-Bunga greet worker but worker not able to talk. Unga-Bunga not make vows like paladins but decide will make Master Poquelin and all lieutenants pay for evil ways:
Further into cavern, Unga-Bunga find run down homes, meet Gemcutter Norl inside. Gemcutter Noril tell Unga-Bunga Norl's legs crushed by Marketh for trying escape, say Marketh say Marketh ruler of this part of Lower Dorn's Deep, say Marketh serves Revered Brother Poquelin:
Unga-Bunga think Poquelin master, Marketh lieutenant of master. Unga-Bunga thank Norl, promise Norl will try to help, leave house and explore further into cavern. Unga-Bunga see tower to southeast, tell elementals move toward tower, battle many more salamander and sentries on way:
On path leading to tower, little deep gnome girl walk up to Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga ask girl her name. Deep Gnome girl point to mouth, show tongue cut out, point to forearm. Unga-Bunga see name Fengla branded into skin. Unga-Bunga get angry, ask who branded her. Fengla point northeast to archway where Norl say Marketh's castle is:
Unga-Bunga ask where Fengla bring food Fengla carrying. Fengla point to tower, touch key on chain Fengla wear around neck. Unga-Bunga ask Fengla borrow key, touch axe on belt and smile at Fengla. Fengla smile back, give Unga-Bunga key. Unga-Bunga tell Fengla go somewhere safe, approach tower with elementals. Archers on tower taunt Unga-Bunga, shoot arrows at elementals. Unga-Bunga tell elementals back away, archers taunt Unga-Bunga more. Unga-Bunga get angry, take deep breaths.
Unga-Bunga see door of tower too small for elementals. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, cast protection magics, tell elementals approach tower from other side. While archers shoot elementals, Unga-Bunga sneak up to tower, use key and go inside:
Unga-Bunga know archers not shoot well if blind, cast blinding magic on archers, beat archers down. Archers so dumb not even have melee weapons. When archers dead, Fengla enter tower, thank Unga-Bunga and leave:
Unga-Bunga search tower, make sure safe, find comfy beds. Unga-Bunga leave tower and gather elementals, clear rest of cavern then return to tower. Unga-Bunga note ways deeper into Deep: Lift to northwest near way out of caverns, archway to north, archway to northeast lead to Marketh's palace, cave to southeast, warm air coming from cave. Unga-Bunga rest, toss Pixie Dust, make way northwest, take lift down deeper into caverns.
Unga-Bunga get off lift, see many deep gnomes mining crystal, met by Deep Gnome Tarnelm. Unga-Bunga say Tarnelm sound sick, ask if okay. Tarnelm say Unga-Bunga not really care about Tarnelm:
Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga many things, say if Unga-Bunga really want help deep gnomes to bring food from Marketh's palace, say Malavon raising many Umber Hulks to find deep gnomes hiding in caverns, say Malavon want enslave all deep gnomes. Tarnelm also say Elf Maiden Ilmadia commands Fire Giants, having giants tear down forge, use metal to build ship. Tarnelm say Priest Beorn say dwarves once used portal to elemental plane of fire to power forge, say salamanders came from portal.
Unga-Bunga thank Tarnelm, tell Tarnelm will bring food. Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga will believe it when see it. Unga-Bunga shrug, go back up lift to great cavern. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, go through archway leading to Marketh's palace into palace garden. Unga-Bunga see Dead Paladin of Torm awaiting Unga-Bunga in garden, but Paladin not see Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga summon elementals to search garden:
Unga-Bunga and elementals battle many shrieker mushrooms. Shrieker mushrooms summon Red Myconids and Blind Minotaurs, but elementals pummel them. In center of garden, Unga-Bunga see two deep gnomes. Deep Gnome tell Unga-Bunga name Callard, say other deep gnome Callard's son, say Marketh ordered them to build sculpture of Marketh in garden. Callard say he first refused to build statue so Marketh had son's tongue cut out.
Unga-Bunga get more angry at Marketh, tell Callard planning to make Marketh pay. Callard give Unga-Bunga picture of Marketh Callard use for sculpture, say Unga-Bunga know what Marketh look like now, wish Unga-Bunga luck:
Unga-Bunga leave garden through palace doors, enter first floor of palace, find Dead Paladin inside still searching for Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga think paladins like dog on bone, even dead ones. Unga-Bunga stay hidden with Pixie Dust, summon elementals. Elementals ambushed by thieves striking from shadows but elementals beat thieves down:
Unga-Bunga search first floor of palace, meet Human Flozem. Unga-Bunga tell Flozem have meeting with Marketh. Flozem tell Unga-Bunga go upstairs, find Marketh there. Unga-Bunga think Flozem not so bad, thank Flozem and continue searching floor. Unga-Bunga meet Fleezum in other room. Unga-Bunga think Fleezum not friendly like Flozem:
Unga-Bunga and elementals battle Fleezum down:
Unga-Bunga forget battle knock Pixie Dust off, go into hall, get attacked by Dead Paladin:
Unga-Bunga and elementals battle Dead Paladin until Paladin crumbles again. Battle noise make Flozen come into hall. Flozen see Fleezum dead in hall, get angry at Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga see elementals taking beating, summon beetles to help elementals:
Unga-Bunga see many battles today, hope no more Fleezums, Flozems or Freakums left in palace. Unga-Bunga and elementals continue searching floor, find palace kitchen. Unga-Bunga ask Cook for food for gnomes, Cook not argue with Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga and elementals search last room on floor, find Pretty Drow Elf Ginufae. Unga-Bunga see Ginufae's face bruised, ask Ginufae if Marketh hurt Ginufae. Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga she fell down stair, but Unga-Bunga know Ginufae lying, tell Ginufae Unga-Bunga planning to kill Marketh before anyway. Ginufae plead with Unga-Bunga not to hurt Marketh:
Unga-Bunga see Ginufae upset, tell Ginufae Unga-Bunga won't kill Marketh. Ginufae not see Unga-Bunga cross fingers behind back when tell her, though. Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga many things, say Brother Poquelin and allies met with Ginufae's drow people, wanted make alliance, say drow refused but Ginufae's brother Malavon wanted alliance. Ginufae say when Ginufae learned Malavon's desire for alliance, Malavon take her to Marketh as gift, say Malavon joined with Poquelin:
Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga Ginufae know Unga-Bunga searching for Poquelin, tell Unga-Bunga need all six lieutenant badges to remove invisible wall in back of Fallen Temple leading to Poquelin. Ginufae say Brother Perdium and other priests and hordes of undead guard temple. Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga Marketh have badge, plead again with Unga-Bunga not hurt Marketh:
Unga-Bunga thank Ginufae, tell Ginufae Unga-Bunga not look for Marketh today. Unga-Bunga leave palace, take lift down to deep gnomes mining crystals, give Tarnelm and deep gnomes food from kitchen. Tarnelm thank Unga-Bunga, ask Unga-Bunga to defend deep gnomes from Malavon's Umber Hulks trying to find secret deep gnome settlement. Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga once Umber Hulks dead, Unga-Bunga follow red crystals to settlement:
Unga-Bunga look over edge of cliff, see many Rhinoceros Beetles and Umber Hulks below, gather wits for battle...
Unga-Bunga summon elementals, lead elementals down cliff, battle Rhinoceros Beetles and Umber Hulks:
After elementals kill beetles and umber hulks, Unga-Bunga lead elementals to place where Deep Gnome Tarnelm say Umber Hulks burrowing. Many umber hulks burrow to surface, attack elementals:
Unga-Bunga worried, help elementals in battle, finally kill all umber hulks. Unga-Bunga take beetle shells and hulk hides, put in Holding bag, maybe have armor made if crafter can get rid of smell. Unga-Bunga slip through crevice in earth wall Umber Hulks burrowed, follow red crystals to smaller cavern, met by Deep Gnome.
Deep Gnome say Deep Gnome name Beorn, tell Unga-Bunga Priest Beorn, Eighth Facet of Callarduran, ask Unga-Bunga who Unga-Bunga and why there. Unga-Bunga say Unga-Bunga one and only Shaman Unga-Bunga, tell Priest Beorn Tarnelm told Unga-Bunga how to get to settlement. Unga-Bunga say helped Tarnelm and deep gnomes get food, asked by Tarnelm to help settlement. Priest Beorn ask Unga-Bunga to come to temple later, want ask Unga-Bunga's aid:
Unga-Bunga watch Priest Beorn return to temple, walk around settlement, find drow merchant. Merchant say name Nym:
Unga-Bunga see nice bracer and potions, buy rare birds and squirrels from Nym for Severed Hand arboretum, tell Nym Unga-Bunga return later. Unga-Bunga search settlement more, find dwarf merchant. Dwarf Merchant say Dwarf Merchant known as 'Dirty Llew'. Unga-Bunga see more nice potions, make note return merchants later:
Unga-Bunga walk to temple, speak to Priest Beorn. Priest Beorn tell Unga-Bunga Malavon using Umber Hulks to find settlement, want to enslave or slaughter deep gnomes. Priest Beorn also say Ruby Priest Guello went to mines. try save captured deep gnomes but Guello captured also. Priest Beorn ask Unga-Bunga rescue Priest Guello, help battle Umber Hulks when find settlement:
Unga-Bunga agree to help deep gnomes, thanked by Priest Beorn. Unga-Bunga rest in empty home, pass by merchants on way out of settlement next day, get to talking with Drow Merchant Nym:
Nym tell Unga-Bunga Nym sneaked into many secret places over years, including Dorn's Deep. Unga-Bunga ask Nym about Dorn's Deep, ask what Nym found:
Nym tell Unga-Bunga Nym stole artifacts from elves and dwarves, sold artifacts to goblinoids. Unga-Bunga not believe what Unga-Bunga hear, ask Nym why Nym would do what Nym did:
Unga-Bunga get more mad than ever in life, want strike Nym down right there but take deep breaths. Unga-Bunga remember Dead Paladin unable to enter afterlife because of broken vow, decide to tell Dead Paladin about Nym, see if Paladin want kill Nym first.
Unga-Bunga remember Drow Elf Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga about Fallen Temple, say Brother Perdiem and other priests there. Unga-Bunga remember Dead Paladin of Torm say Brother Harken commands Dead Paladin. Unga-Bunga decide will save Priest Guello later, find Fallen Temple now. Unga-Bunga return to Palace Garden, remember walkway to temple there.
Unga-Bunga follow walkway, enter temple, see many Boneguard Skeletons guarding chanting priest. Unga-Bunga see priest protected by magic aura, hear priest chanting names of armor pieces, think priest summoning Dead Paladin:
Unga-Bunga summon elementals to battle skeletons, elementals pummel skeletons to dust, break magic aura protecting priest. Unga-Bunga speak to priest:
Unga-Bunga tell Brother Harken not to torture soul of Dead Paladin anymore. Brother Harken tell Unga-Bunga Brother Harken obey Revered Brother Poquelin in Ilmater's absence, summon Dead Paladin to battle Unga-Bunga:
When Dead Paladin summoned, Unga-Bunga tell Dead Paladin about Drow Nym, how Drow Nym caused war between dwarves and elves:
Dead Paladin tell Unga-Bunga Dead Paladin finally free of guilt and vow, thank Unga-Bunga, ask Unga-Bunga to bring remains to temple grounds sacred to Holy Triad for burial:
Unga-Bunga glare at Brother Harken, Brother Harken back away from Unga-Bunga looking stunned. Unga-Bunga gather up paladin's remains then gather elementals, search temple grounds. Unga-Bunga and elementals battle legions of Boneguard Skeletons, Zombie Lords and Greater Mummies commanded by more priests protected by magic auras:
Unga-Bunga talk to priests after defeating skeletons and magic auras but priests only babble like idiots. Unga-Bunga think priests' minds possessed by someone or something else:
Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, search further into temple, see High Priest standing before throne calling down curses on temple intruders:
Unga-Bungs search even further into temple, find idol of evil protected by Greater Mummies and Zombie Lords:
Unga-Bunga gather elementals, cast protective magics, send elementals into battle. Unga-Bunga challenged by Brother Perdiem:
Greater Mummies cast horrific magics at Unga-Bunga and elementals, Unga-Bunga command elementals to battle back, blind undead with magic:
Unga-Bunga battle harder than ever in life, finally bring down legions of undead. Unga-Bunga send elementals to destroy idol, hear Brother Perdium shrieking curses and blasphemies:
Once idol destroyed, Unga-Bunga hear priests sobbing, crying out in anguish. Unga-Bunga speak to Brother Perdiem, listen to Brother Perdium tell Unga-Bunga how priests deceived by Brother Poquelin:
Unga-Bunga shudder as Brother Perdiem tell Unga-Bunga about Brother Poquelin:
Brother Perdiem give Unga-Bunga lieutenant badge. Unga-Bunga feel sorry for priests of Ilmater, know priests have long path to forgiveness for evil acts, make sure priests okay before returning to tower to rest.
Unga-Bunga gather things after resting for journey to Severed Hand and Kuldahar. Unga-Bunga bone tired from battle with undead, need time to recover. Unga-Bunga take mountain passes to Severed Hand, bring birds and squirrels to Valestis for arboretum:
Unga-Bunga bring paladin remains to Sister Calliana at Temple of Ilmater in Kuldahar. Sister Calliana know of fallen paladin, thank Unga-Bunga for kindness, give Unga-Bunga fancy cloak:
Unga-Bunga stay in Kuldahar for seven days, take much peyote, speak with spirits until Unga-Bunga's spirits high again, then make trek through mountain passes to Lower Dorn's Deep once more...
We hunted the wyverns that Coran told us about and recieved a hefty reward. Whilst doing so we acquired an excellent two handed sword and at Selene's request killed a small dragon. She also rewarded us but then, without any explanation Sable killed her. Selene was wearing aa ankh of acceptance and a ring of protection +2 which Sable donned and in the process turned her alignment to true neutral.
Perhaps Sable either thought or knew that the necklace was disguising Selene's true alignment.
At least from now on it will not be immediately apparent that there is evil in our party.
We cleared the Nashkel mines and killed the Amazons outside.
We are now raiding Durlag's Tower as we have become quite strong. Just finished the chess board successfully and after that killed the Demonknight. Sadly Dynaheir was killed in the battle, but we did have a scroll to raise her.
EDIT
i have since discovered that Selene was indeed true neutral, so perhaps Sable's assault was the fact that she was tired of being immediately identified as being evil and prefers to be thought of as neutral, after all with a reputation of 20 she clearly is not doing that much which is evil.
Unga-Bunga return Lower Dorn's Deep, make sure archer tower safe, then rest. Unga-Bunga know Poquelin have three more lieutenants Unga-Bunga must confront: Malavon the Wizard, Maiden Ilmadia the Priestess, Marketh, Ginufae's brother, not sure Marketh's trade. Unga-Bunga not want get ambushed by lieutenants planning together against Unga-Bunga, decide make sure any foes between Unga-Bunga and three lieutenants defeated before facing lieutenants.
Unga-Bunga remember Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga Malavon live in dome near Artisan District off Palace Garden. Unga-Bunga walk to garden, head east on path to district. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust and enter district.
Unga-Bunga see many Blind Minotaurs and Umber Hulks guarding district, summon elementals to battle:
One time Unga-Bunga order elementals to battle too hard, get carried away and throw axe at Umber Hulks, shake off Pixie Dust. Umber Hulks confuse elementals by staring at elementals. Unga-Bung pinned against rock by elementals, afraid elementals attack Unga-Bunga, toss Pixie Dust again, stay hidden until battle in control:
Unga-Bunga avoid rune of eye on ground, think Wizard Malavon watching Unga-Bunga defeat minions. Unga-Bunga lead elementals through district, slay many umber hulks, blind minotaurs. As Unga-Bunga search buildings in district, Unga-Bunga and elementals ambushed by many umber hulks:
Unga-Bunga and elementals defeat umber hulks. Unga-Bunga search buildings, find nice sword, wonder if Dead Paladin's sword. Unga-Bunga not use swords, though:
Unga-Bunga and elementals clear district of all guards up to door of Malavon's Dome. Unga-Bunga think Malavon's day coming, but not today. Unga-Bunga take rest, then return to Palace Garden, enter palace. Unga-Bunga tell Ginufae will confront Marketh now. Ginufae ask Unga-Bunga promise not hurt Marketh again, Unga-Bunga not say anything. Unga-Bunga cast protection magics, toss Pixie Dust, go up stair to top level of palace.
Unga-Bunga not see or hear anyone upstairs, summon elemental. Thieves come from shadows, ambush elemental. Unga-Bunga glad not forget Pixie Dust this time:
Unga-Bunga see bedroom chambers off main hall but have elementals search hall first. Unga-Bunga not want get ambushed by skulking thieves when confronting Marketh:
Once elementals clear hall of thieves, Unga-Bunga tell three elementals guard stair, bring other three elementals search bedroom chambers. Bedroom chamber nearest to stair empty but Unga-Bunga finally find Marketh in other chamber:
Marketh tell Unga-Bunga Marketh ruler of Dorn's Deep, say Marketh not let things like ethics keep Marketh from power:
Unga-Bunga ask Marketh why Marketh work for Poquelin. Marketh say Marketh was in adventuring band trying to overthrow Poquelin, band killed most of Poquelin's forces. Marketh say Poquelin confronted band, said band should work for him but not all in band agreed:
Unga-Bunga tell Marketh Unga-Bunga come for lieutenant badge. Marketh say will hand badge over to Unga-Bunga if Unga-Bunga let Marketh live:
Unga-Bunga feel sorry for Ginufae but know Marketh must die, order elementals to keep Marketh from escaping room:
Unga-Bunga hear incantations from hall, go check on other elementals, see elementals battle Kraken Mage:
Unga-Bunga return to Marketh's room, see Marketh dead, elementals battling two more Kraken Mages:
Unga-Bungs stay hidden under Pixie Dust, watch elementals pummel Kraken Mages. Unga-Bunga proud of elementals again:
Unga-Bunga claim many treasures from Marketh, claim Marketh's badge, relieved battle not as difficult as Unga-Bunga feared. Unga-Bunga go downstairs to tell Ginufae what happened. When time come, Unga-Bunga afraid, not say anything:
Unga-Bunga not believe Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga face legions of powerful foes in battle but too afraid tell Ginufae Marketh's evil deserved death. Unga-Bunga want elementals tell Ginufae but elementals not talk.
Unga-Bunga ashamed, storm out of palace back to tower to rest, decide to free Priest Guello next...
Unga-Bunga notice Lower Dorn's Deep not so noisy anymore when Unga-Bunga return tower. Unga-Bunga rest, gather things, decide search for mines, Priest Guello. Unga-Bunga remember hearing noises coming from cave in southeast of main cavern, go to cave, toss Pixie Dust, go inside.
Unga-Bunga see deep gnome slaves mining cavern, salamanders watching and guarding:
Unga-Bunga cast protective magics, summon elementals to battle:
After elementals kill salamander, deep gnome approach Unga-Bunga. Deep Gnome say Deep Gnome Priest Guello. Priest Guello say Priest Guello must return deep gnome settlement or many deep gnomes die. Unga-Bunga ask Priest Guello how best rescue Guello and deep gnomes. Priest Guello say Salamander King Shikata and salamander never stop watching deep gnome slaves, must be killed:
Unga-Bunga look further into mines, see many salamander, see rivers of fire with narrow walkways in between small spots free of fire. Unga-Bunga gather elementals, have elementals kill salamander in larger spots free of fire, lure salamander to free spots so many elementals fight only one salamander:
Unga-Bunga keep luring salamander to elementals until one salamander shout salamander Salamander King Shikata. Salamander King Shikata say Salamander King Shikata most powerful of all Salamander Kings, ask how Unga-Bunga dare trespass in domain of Marketh:
Unga-Bunga want tell Salamander King Shikata Unga-Bunga killed Marketh, kill Salamander King Shikata too, but Unga-Bunga not think say so at time. Salamander King Shikata say Unga-Bunga dead then attack Unga-Bunga with salamander guards:
Unga-Bunga and elementals kill all salamander, Unga-Bunga take nice spear from Shikata. Priest Guello thank Unga-Bunga, tell Unga-Bunga deep gnomes return to settlement when safe:
Unga-Bunga return deep gnome settlement, find Priest Guello already there:
Unga-Bunga take rest in empty home in settlement, remember caves in mine cavern leading to forge, think Maiden Ilmadia there.
After rest Unga-Bunga gather things, make way in mines to deeper caves. Unga-Bunga cast protective magics, toss Pixie Dust, enter cave.
Unga-Bunga pass through cave into large cavern, feel hot air rush by Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga see salamander guarding cave, see many more elementals and salamander in cavern just beyond. Unga-Bunga summon elementals, elementals attacked by all except lone salamander guarding cave:
Unga-Bunga's elementals better, beat down salamander and other elementals. Unga-Bunga approach lone salamander sentry, rub off Pixie Dust. Salamander say Unga-Bunga want close portals to Elemental Plane of Fire:
Unga-Bunga really just want confront Maiden Ilmadia but figure easier just kill salamander. Unga-Bunga and elementals kill salamander, battle many more salamander and elementals further into cavern:
Further into cavern Unga-Bunga see Fire Giant, make Unga-Bunga afraid. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, slowly approach Fire Giant with elementals. When Unga-Bunga see Fire Giant not attack elementals, Unga-Bunga decide scout ahead, see how many Fire Giants guarding forge. Unga-Bunga lead elementals back through cavern, tell elementals stay. Unga-Bunga walk back to Fire Giant, scout ahead:
Unga-Bunga count giants as pass through caverns. Unga-Bunga count many giants, find ship giants building Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga about:
Unga-Bunga slowly approach hut near ship, see Maiden Ilmadia guarded by two Priest-Mages of Vhaeraun and many Fire Giants, make Unga-Bunga very afraid:
Unga-Bunga see even more Fire Giants east of Maiden Ilmadia, across river of fire:
Unga-Bunga count 9 Fire Giants, 2 Priest-Mages of Vhaeraun and 1 Maiden Ilmadia in all. Unga-Bunga afraid, not think Unga-Bunga can get lieutenant badge from Maiden Ilmadia without defeating all enemies in battle. Unga-Bunga return to elementals, make note of narrow bridges over rivers of fire, return to tower. Unga-Bunga take peyote, ask spirits for aid.
Unga-Bunga have vision of Unga-Bunga running through forge cavern fast as possible, fire giants chasing Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga cross narrow bridge over river of fire, see friendly elementals, see Unga-Bunga turn and face giants...
Unga-Bunga come out of vision very sweaty, take deep breath and plan for Unga-Bunga's Mad Dash...
Unga-Bunga wake up next day, gather things, return to forge cavern. Unga-Bunga find spot in cavern with many rivers of fire, three bridges close to each other spanning rivers. Unga-Bunga summon Fire and Earth Elementals between rivers, tell elementals to stay, cast nearly all protection magics except Pixie Dust.
Unga-Bunga approach Fire Giant sentry:
Unga-Bunga tell Fire Giant Unga-Bunga want see Maiden Ilmadia. Fire Giant helpful, tell Unga-Bunga where Unga-Bunga already know to go:
Unga-Bunga cast remaining protection magics, slowly approach Maiden Ilmadia. Maiden Ilmadia greet Unga-Bunga not so warmly:
Unga-Bunga be nice to Maiden Ilmadia, try not battle entire camp. Unga-Bunga be smooth like goat butter when Unga-Bunga want to be:
Maiden Ilmadia tell Unga-Bunga many things, say Revered Brother Poquelin tell Ilmadia and giants break down forge, build giant ship, make plan to ram ship into cavern wall. Poquelin say broken cavern spill lava onto Drow City of Rilauven, Ginufae's people.
Maiden Ilmadia tell Unga-Bunga Poquelin want revenge on Drow for not making alliance with Poquelin, say Poquelin want kill Drow so not ambush from behind:
Maiden Ilmadia also tell Unga-Bunga Maiden Ilmadia and Malavon want create black unicorns, have Ilmadia lure unicorns, have Malavon corrupt unicorns with dark magics:
Unga-Bunga not able to help self, let Maiden Ilmadia know what color Maiden Ilmadia heart is:
Maiden Ilmadia and allies get mad, attack Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga ask spirits for aid, cast great magics, try blind enemies:
Unga-Bunga hear Maiden Ilmadia scream, see clutch at eyes. Unga-Bunga smile like Jack Nicholson killing cop in Batman movie. Then Unga-Bunga see Priest-Mages resist spell, Unga-Bunga not smile so much, begin Mad Dash:
Unga-Bunga nearly trapped by legion of Fire Giants, dodge back and forth, finally hit seam on outside:
Unga-Bunga run back to three bridges, yell at elementals to make way. Once Unga-Bunga across first bridge, command elementals to guard bridge so Fire Giants only able attack one elemental:
Unga-Bunga summon more Spike Stones and Spike Growth than ever in life, have more elementals defend bridge as elementals begin to fall:
Unga-Bunga see spikes whittling away Fire Giants but see many elementals fall, not know if Fire Giants or elementals die first. Unga-Bunga see Priest-Mages resist all magic of Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga cheer as last Fire Giants fall, retreat when Priest-Mages take bridge, send last elementals to battle Priest-Mages:
Priest-Mages battle back elementals, Unga-Bunga command elementals retreat to second bridge. Priest-Mages cast dark magics, dispel Unga-Bunga's protection magics:
Unga-Bunga afraid, retreat to third bridge. Priest-Mages dispel rest of Unga-Bunga's magics:
Unga-Bunga begin to dance, summon spirits, command elementals to hold bridge, wish Unga-Bunga knew how dispel magics. After long battle, Priest-Mages' magic protections start fade away:
Unga-Bunga cheer elementals, spirits as Priest-Mages beaten down one after other:
Unga-Bunga know battle not done, have last elemental retreat while spirits kill Fire Giant not slain by spikes:
After Fire Giant slain, Unga-Bunga creep forward with elemental, search for any survivors. Unga-Bunga come to Maiden Ilmadia's hut, see Maiden Ilmadia and Fire Giant guard stumbling around blind. Unga-Bunga not see any other survivors. Unga-Bunga dance, summon spirits to battle Fire Giant:
Once spirits slay Fire Giant, Unga-Bunga send spirits away. Unga-Bunga have something special in mind for Black-Hearted Maiden Ilmadia:
Unga-Bunga laugh as Maiden Ilmadia cast Hold Person at beetles, know Maiden Ilmadia now Blind Maiden Ilmadia, soon be Dead Maiden Ilmadia:
Unga-Bunga watch beetles chomp Maiden Ilmadia, summon lightning inside cavern:
Unga-Bunga cry out, beat chest for minutes, then claim Maiden Ilmadia's treasures and lieutenant badge. Unga-Bunga return to tower and rest, know now have 5 of 6 lieutenant badges. Unga-Bunga know Malavon last lieutenant, ask spirits for aid fighting powerful mage next day...
Unga-Bunga wake from rest, gather things, leave tower and make way through Artisan's District to Malavon's Dome. Unga-Bunga cast many protective magics, toss Pixie Dust, climb stair, enter dome. Unga-Bunga see two Umber Hulks guarding entry to dome, summon elementals:
Elementals beat down Umber Hulks. Unga-Bunga search western side of dome, see many deep gnome slaves with eyes cut out, have elementals battle down more Umber Hulks, deep gnomes scurry away:
Unga-Bunga see chambers filled with liquid, dead bodies in chambers, notes of Malavon on each chamber. Unga-Bunga get angry:
Once Unga-Bunga search western side of dome, Unga-Bunga gather elementals, begin search eastern side of dome. Not far from entryway, Unga-Bunga see many deep gnome slaves, wizard with two Iron Golems:
Unga-Bunga glad Unga-Bunga read through boring book of golems by Malavon night before, Unga-Bunga needed drink smart potion to make sense of book. Unga-Bunga maybe not as smart as Malavon every day but Unga-Bunga smart enough know when Unga-Bunga need be smart.
Unga-Bunga send one elemental northwest corner of dome, one elemental southwest corner of dome, one elemental in circle in between, keep three elementals with Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga drink another smart potion, cast more protective magics, shake off Pixie Dust and confront Malavon:
Unga-Bunga wait for right moment, try keep Malavon talking. When Malavon tell Unga-Bunga drop weapons and magic items, Unga-Bunga say Malavon crazy. Unga-Bunga know anyone who cut eyes out of people crazy, figure Malavon called crazy before, try make Malavon mad so not fight good:
Malavon tell Unga-Bunga deep gnomes stare at Malavon so Malavon cut eyes out, say not cut eyes from Ginufae so Ginufae see Marketh leer at Ginufae:
Unga-Bunga hear enough from Malavon, command golems attack Malavon:
Even with golems attacking Malavon, Malavon able dispel Unga-Bunga's protective magics:
Unga-Bunga curse, recast protective magics, send elementals after Umber Hulks in chamber Unga-Bunga not see at first:
Iron Golems and elementals pummel Malavon. Unga-Bunga cheer, then hear Malavon's voice behind Unga-Bunga:
Malavon threaten Unga-Bunga, Unga-Bunga know only Unga-Bunga or Malavon live after battle:
Unga-Bunga send Iron Golems and elementals to battle Malavon, Malavon summon Acid Cloud, hurt and choke Unga-Bunga:
Iron Golems and elementals force Malavon to port around dome, get free of enemies to cast. Malavon cast Webs throughout dome, but Golems and elementals stomp through webs:
Unga-Bunga stay step ahead of Malavon, have Golems or elementals ready in every place Malavon likely to port, send more to Malavon once Malavon show himself:
Malavon summon Phase Spiders, Invisible Stalkers to battle golems and elementals, cast magics but golems very resistant to magic, even Malavon's magic:
Elementals surround Malavon, begin pummeling, Malavon cry out:
Unga-Bunga beat chest when Malavon crumple to ground, not appear behind Unga-Bunga again:
Unga-Bunga stand over Malavon, claim Malavon's badge, search both Malavons and dome for all treasures:
Unga-Bunga feel vision quest nearly done, hold all six lieutenant badges in hands. Unga-Bunga so weary, want rest before return Fallen Temple. Before Unga-Bunga return to tower to rest first stop by Gemcutter Norl's house, let Gemcutter Norl know Marketh dead:
Next Unga-Bunga bring Oil of Null Effect Unga-Bunga found in Malavon's things to Ginufae, break Malavon's killing spells on Ginufae:
Unga-Bunga sigh when Ginufae won't leave without Marketh:
Unga-Bunga try explain to Ginufae that Marketh dead but Ginufae won't hear. Unga-Bunga give up, leave palace, return to tower.
Unga-Bunga barely make it upstairs in tower, crawl into bed. While sleep, Unga-Bunga have vision of man puttering around house, putter days, weeks, even months. Man in vision always have back turned to Unga-Bunga, finally turn around. Unga-Bunga see man's face...
Unga-Bunga wake up, remember poor Shaman Hjollder waiting in Kuldahar for Unga-Bunga! Unga-Bunga think spirits want Unga-Bunga aid Shaman Hjollder with Shaman Hjollder's vision quest before completing Unga-Bunga's vision quest.
Next day Unga-Bunga gather things, leave Dorn's Deep. Unga-Bunga bring seeds to Valestis in Severed Hand for arboretum. Valestis thank Unga-Bunga, finally pass into afterlife. Unga-Bunga think arboretum nice again too:
Afterward Unga-Bunga make long trek back to Kuldahar, see old friends, then go to house Shaman Hjollder stay while waiting for Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga find Shaman Hjollder still waiting...
After removing the curse from Sable, Sable has at last found redemption. Just in time as it was now time to bid the party farewell in order to join Drizzt in Icewinddale
We survived except for Wulfgar who was killed.
Upon reaching Cattie Brie she joined which meant that Wulfgar died permanently.
Upon leaving Icewind Dale we bade Cattie Brie farewell and Dynaheir rejoined us. I wanted Tenya to rejoin us too but couldn't fine her.
We are now at the bandit camp.
Doing the Drizzt Saga so early meant that the visit to Icewind Dale was slightly too hairy, but that getting to Dragonspear should now be a walk in the park.
Finished the Serpents of Abbiather Quest mainly with Regis finding the traps and enemies and Dynaheir using appropriate spells.
Similar tactics were used to mwipe out the Section.
Now heading to the North (NToSC) and after that intend to head for Candlekeep.
EDIT
Defeating the section provided us with so much valuable armour that we have become incredibly rich.
In addition each member of the party has dozens of healing potions.
I have learnt for future reference that having a party of a mage and a cleric would be optimal for the Drizzt Saga
The serpents quest was a new one for me and I liked it. Highly recommended.
We then killed Aec Laetec at Ulgoth's Beard.
We were then sent north by Reedrig
I have discovered that due to doing things early, certain quests could be bugged. I will therefore do things in an orderly manner. My next game will be very different, easier at the start and harder later, probably more balanced.
I'm really regretting not taking Tenya to Icewind Dale. My party is lobsided as a result.
Aquinus is just shy of the 15k necessary for the Shadow Thieves, and has so far only completed the Trademeet and Heretic Temple major area questlines. The others I consider... more or less easy... are the Umar Hills, D'Arnise Keep depending on how friendly the Spirit Trolls are feeling, and the Thief stronghold quest. He starts with the Umar Hills area: after negotiating a peace and getting some Mimic blood, we get to the temple. There's a bit of a worry as we're not invisible travelling among the shadows, and some Shadow Fiends spawning could be problematic, but we manage to get the mirror activated and all of us safe before they can make an attack roll.
The temple itself is fairly easy if no Lichs spawn, which I'm not nearly high enough level to get one. If it's even possible with my current setup, I don't even know. Azuredge and the Greater Werewolf Token (courtesy of Cernd and currently on Jaheira) make life easy here. We again get invisibly to the southwest for the Shade Lord, and engage with Shadow Patrick and the Altar before taking on the Shade Lord himself. We fail our stealth range attacks, and it becomes this weird kite where we're just running in circles while waiting for the PFMW to drop. Eventually, Azuredge is sufficient to kill it:
We make a quick trip back to Athkatla to pay the Shadow Thieves, mostly because this escapade made me realize just how weak I am to Level Drain at this point. the +2 Ring doesn't hurt either.
I don't travel invisibly, and Minsc and Jaheira are caught by a Greater Command from some slavers, which Aquinus either saved against or wasn't near them: probably the latter, since Minsc and Jaheira are frontliners while Aquinus is content to snipe with a crossbow. After two Raise Deads, we continue to the D'arnise keep, now a bit more wary about the potential Greater Commands from the Spirit Trolls. Nalia swaps for Yoshimo for the greater gold reward at the end.
The Spirit Trolls aren't nearly as oppressive as I remember from previous runs - they don't randomly go invisible between attacks, and seem to have a 2-3 round cooldown between spells instead of casting essentially every round. It's a bit slow going, but we get the gates open and continue to the upper floor. Then the game decided to remind me that it's not the Spirit Trolls I need to worry about, but the Yuan-ti mages. Domination connected with Aquinus, and Chaos on Minsc and Jaheira before it died, but Aquinus managed to kill my other warriors before the spells ended. Whoops.
One rest, two Raise Deads later, and Aerie frees Glaicus using her own Domination. The last piece of the Flail of Ages is gotten using summons to tank the Clay Golem, and the Fire Elementals even lived long enough to help finish off the Iron Golem.
We pull TorGal invisibly and slam the door behind us, and prebuffed with Remove Fear, he falls without much incident. Again, Greater Werewolf Form healing 3HP/round is super, super broken at this point in the game. The remainder of the mobs are cleared after dumping a few spells through the door, neutralizing the Yuan-ti mages this time around.
Picking the wrong dialogue choices gets Nalia to leave forever after giving us the gold.
I was debating whether or not to count Watcher's Keep locked until ToB - I usually do, as the items there can trivialize SoA items. The deciding factor wasn't even Firetooth (though it was one of two things I purchased) it was the stupid potion bag so I could stop the inventory potion minigame that I hate playing. The container isn't even bottomless, but it makes it so that the characters' inventories aren't just potion after potion bottle.
Aquinus decides that it's high time to go rescue Imoen after this short detour, with now two ranged weapons with unlimited ammo that could hit a Balor. Mook is killed, someone (probably Minsc) got level drained, and Yoshimo is really questioning why losing Jaylos would actually be a loss to the Thieves' guild. He could probably heal someone with his dagger more effectively:
As long as Charm is handled, the only difficulties of the Vampires' guild itself are Tanova and Bodhi, with a slight irritation of the Clay Golem that may force a rest to deal with the curse. I do NOT have SCS Vampires on fully - they have some supernatural abilities such as shifting into animals and calling rats and wolf packs, but most of them do not have the CON drain that makes tanking them more or less impossible without PfMW or summons. Tanova is in a large enough area she can be convinced to waste most of her offensive spells on summons while we move ever so slowly backwards, and eventually her PfMW falls (or she's Breached, can't remember), and Azuredge claims yet another kill.
For Bodhi, the plan was to kite her with Jaheira and exchange missile fire from Aquinus, Jaheira, and Minsc while our non-Warriors wait around outside. Aquinus drank a potion of Magic Shielding or Invulnerability to be safe from any of Bodhi's supernatural spells, and no one else succumbed to the... Sepulchural Sleep, if I recall the name correctly. Clean victory without any hassle this time. Onto Brynnlaw!
Aquinus deals with the local brothel issues rather quickly - the Ring of Regeneration and the Greater Wolfwere Token allows us to easily soak any damage from the hard-hitting guards, and Aerie preemptively Silences the mage in the brothel, and we kill Galvena and her mage fairly quickly, then awkwardly stand there and wait for the silence to drop so that Claire could give us her information.
Now that we're suitably haughty for no apparent reason, Mazzy volunteers to fight Perth. And then he triggers all his spell triggers and spell defenses, and we realize this was a terrible idea and run outside to reset the cloud spells... and he follows. A Remove Magic absolutely destroys all our defenses, and we scatter - last time I fought him, he blasted someone with a x3 Vitriolic Sphere combo, and it's still easily enough to kill one of us. Jaheira's caught by a PW:Stun, Mazzy's Blinded, and Minsc is Mazed, but Perth had PFMW up, and he's not a Lich or Vampire or Rakshasa that has immunity to normal weapons, so... Aquinus is doing his duty by simply not being on the screen at all so he doesn't randomly get blasted and die.
The Book of Infinite Spells is absolutely terrible, giving me one bad spell before landing on Burning Hands. Ah well, no lucky True Seeing or Improved Invisibility for me this time, it seems. Minsc and Yoshimo convince Deshirak we're mad anyways, making this entire Perth misadventure a reminder that we're not high enough level to be cocky. Yet.
Spellhold: Bhaal actually follows this time, so I don't have to use console commands to get him over here. In the maze, Imoen starts without spells due to the whole SCS NPC customization, and to my dismay, her spellbook is completely empty, which we attempt to patch up with two Potions of Genius. The Clay Golem quickly forces a rest to fix the Cursed Wounds anyways, and the first level is cleared pretty simply after that. Jaheira is given an additional 50% Fire Resistance to become immune before fighting the Pit Fiend solo, and everything else falls relatively quickly. On the second floor, I do like that Ring of Free Action - it'll be a good safeguard against all sorts of disablers until Aquinus' levels and gear are to the point where those saving throws can be safely made. Unfortunately, there's a Beholder, and those things still terrify me. Our summons are kind of lackluster due to Imoen's spellbook being so slapdash, and Aerie ends up having to blast and run. It dies, at least.
Bodhi comes and stalks us as we're rounding the corner here, and it's a tight corridor. Aquinus drinks a potion of Magic Shielding and tries to get out, but he's tagged by a Vampire and gets level drained, wiping out the saving throw bonus. Fortunately, it seems that these Vampires are added via Unfinished Business and not SCS as I had initially thought, and Bodhi doesn't have the save-or-suffer-immensely abilities, and we're able to clean up and then do a quick rest to reset levels.
In the next section of the maze, the Yuan-Ti Mage continues to be scary while petrifying one of my summons. And somehow, probably due to some oddity with Better Calls for Help and Improved Illithids (Planar Travel, especially), some of the creatures normally behind the painting doors join it in the fight. We again kite backwards, and manage to kill them off before we're tagged by anything too crazy. A trio of summons fights the Clay Golems with Imoen watching, and I think we manage that fight without another Cursed Wound? Regardless, we save our tokens for the Boots of Speed (given to Minsc for the time being) and approach Bodhi for the Slayer transformation and... nothing happens. Aquinus is just among 3 Vampires invisibly (with the Amulet of Power) looking foolish. We kill them and rest to see if the trigger would happen... still nothing. It's not as though I commonly use the ability anyways, so I shrug and move on.
After completing the trials successfully, getting the Electricity Mirror cloak or whatever it's called, we buff and fight Lonk the Sane... who promptly Removes Magic on us, and we retreat and rest to recast buffs and do it properly this time, darn it. We get through the second fight with buffs intact, and it's time for Irenicus. The plan is for Jaheira to Insect Plague one of our clones (Mazzy, in this case, as she has no way of becoming invisible) before letting the high level mages duke it out in the center. This works out better than usual - Jaheira isn't interrupted, and none of our characters are disabled themselves. Jon also didn't cast Sphere of Chaos, which has been the source of stress in this fight many, many times for me.
ADHW still hurts like heck. Aerie barely manages to avoid it and would've probably died even on a successful save, Aquinus lives with more than 10 HP only due to the Belt of Inertial Barrier, and Mazzy and Minsc are both pretty badly wounded. Jon has PFMW up, so that convinces our warriors beside Aquinus to go into melee to try to break his Stoneskins... And Jon still had a 9th level slot left, Imprisonment.
There's no Freedom scrolls available at this point of the game in my install, and no way back to Spellhold - Minsc is gone at least until ToB. On further reflection, I had forgotten that Imprisonment is a melee reach spell - I should just have kept all characters far away from Jon and wait for PfMW to drop or to try to get past his spell defenses. Regardless, there's enough time in the animation for Minsc to graciously give us all his equipment sans his Full Plate Mail, which he can't unequip due to being in battle.
To the Underdark, with only 5 characters!
Lost (maybe recallable via Fate Spirit in ToB): Nalia to dialogue choices, Minsc to Imprisonment
Gone forever: Yoshimo.
Unga-Bunga tell Shaman Hjollder Unga-Bunga ready help Hjollder. Hjollder summon spirits, spirits carry Unga-Bunga and Hjollder to Lonelywood village, near encampment of barbarians. Hjollder tell Unga-Bunga Hjollder must return to king now, tell Unga-Bunga learn way encampment from townspeople:
Unga-Bunga think Hjollder getting back at Unga-Bunga for taking long to help, smirk at Hjollder. Unga-Bunga watch Hjollder spirit away, look around Lonelywood village.
Unga-Bunga meet trading coster, speak to Trader Rawleigh. Rawleigh tell Unga-Bunga trading coster unable leave Lonelywood because winter, tell Unga-Bunga about island barbarians bury chieftains, say barbarians encamped on Bremen's Run few miles east:
Unga-Bunga meet Little Hailee Dunn. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga Hailee's brother fell down well, get father to help:
Unga-Bunga run to Hailee's house, barge inside. Unga-Bunga learn from Tybald Dunn, father of Hailee, not have brother. Tybald tell Unga-Bunga send Hailee home:
Unga-Bunga go back to Hailee, pretend angry but not really angry, tell Hailee what Hailie's Father said. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga Hailee hate father because always building barrels, hate mother because always drinking in inn. Unga-Bunga stay and talk with Hailee some, know Hailee need attention. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga Hailee have big secret, say won't tell Unga-Bunga secret. Unga-Bunga tell Hailee Unga-Bunga have big secret too, say secret about Hailee. Hailee promise tell Unga-Bunga secret if Unga-Bunga tell Hailee secret.
Unga-Bunga tell Hailee Unga-Bunga save Lonelywood from barbarians, say Hailee help Unga-Bunga by telling secret. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga secret, say Innkeeper Kieran have magic mirror:
Unga-Bunga thank Hailee, ask Hailee if want go home now, Hailee say no. Unga-Bunga go back to Tybald, let know Hailee okay. Tybald tell Unga-Bunga both Hailee and wife act wild, not know what to do. Tybald tell Unga-Bunga Tybald cooper, get work from Council Representative Baldemar. Tybald say Representative Baldemar not give Tybald much work. Tybald also say Ten-Towns Council sent representative to barbarian camp for parley, representative not return:
Unga-Bunga thank Tybald, go look around town more, meet Boywer Emmerich Hawk. Emmerich tell Unga-Bunga Emmerich caretaker of forest, make sure trappers not take too many animals. Emmerich say lost favor of Forest Father because three brothers trapping too much, say Forest Father sent Great White Wolf to slay Emmerich. Emmerich tell Unga-Bunga wolf bit Emmerich but Emmerich fought wolf off:
Unga-Bunga leave, find Temple of Waukeen, meet Priest Quinn Silverfinger. Priest Quinn tell Unga-Bunga Waukeen God of Commerce. Priest Quinn say Priest Quinn learn Targos village expanding shipping trade, want coopers, meaning to tell Tybald Dunn. Unga-Bunga tell Priest Quinn Unga-Bunga tell Tybald:
Unga-Bunga leave temple, meet Gravedigger Purvis. Unga-Bunga think Gravedigger Purvis mental runt of litter:
Unga-Bunga decide go tavern before tell Tybald about Targos, meet Roald Tunnelfist of Clan Battlehammer. Roald tell Unga-Bunga clan sent Roald and others scout barbarian camp, say barbarians killed all dwarves except Roald, say Roald got away by falling down cliff:
Roald tell Unga-Bunga Roald report to clan when injuries heal. Unga-Bunga thank Roald, confronted by halfling. Halfling say Halfling Hobart Stubbletoes. Hobart ask Unga-Bunga if Unga-Bunga hero of Icewind Dale. Unga-Bunga think Hobart trying lure Unga-Bunga away from vision quest. Hobart tell Unga-Bunga about haunted castle, say be grand adventure:
Unga-Bunga tell Hobart Unga-Bunga busy for now, ignore Hobart's pleadings, speak to lady standing nearby, think lady looks like Hailee Dunn. Lady say Lady Ambere Dunn, tell Unga-Bunga want leave Lonelywood, will do anything for Unga-Bunga if Unga-Bunga take Ambere with Unga-Bunga when Unga-Bunga leave. Unga-Bunga ask Ambere about Husband Tybald, Daughter Hailee. Ambere tell Unga-Bunga Ambere not love family anymore:
Unga-Bunga help young in tribe with such things, help find place in tribe. Unga-Bunga help Ambere open Ambere's eyes, see what Ambere truly has:
Ambere tell Unga-Bunga too much damage done in family, too late to fix. Unga-Bunga tell Ambere never too late to make amends. Ambere tell Unga-Bunga Ambere will try:
Unga-Bunga watch Ambere leave, speak to Murdaugh of Auckney. Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga Murdaugh wandering bard and failure extraordinaire. Unga-Bunga ask Murdaugh tell tale, offer ten gold pieces when Murdaugh say no. Murdaugh tell long tale, say tale true, tell how Murdaugh heard Princess of Auck to be married to town magistrate, say went to perform at wedding announcement. Murdaugh say king enjoyed performance so much king paid Murdaugh to stay in castle, perform at wedding.
Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga how Murdaugh spend every day with princess, princess tell Murdaugh princess not want marry magistrate, want be free marry for love, say Murdaugh fell in love with princess as spend time together. Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga at wedding princess tell king princess not want marry magistrate, want marry Murdaugh instead. Murdaugh say magistrate get angry, say princess not marry commoner.
Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga king not know what do until magistrate propose compromise. Magistrate say king could bestow knight title anyone who complete quest, suggest Murdaugh be given quest recover Glacier Rose. Murdaugh say Murdaugh happy, look for Glacier Rose for four years before give up, tell Unga-Bunga no such thing as Glacier Rose:
Unga-Bunga blink eyes, yawn and stretch, thank Murdaugh for story. Unga-Bunga speak to innkeeper. Innkeeper say Innkeeper Kieran Nye. Unga-Bunga ask Innkeeper Kieran about magic mirror Hailee tell Unga-Bunga about. Innkeeper Kieran surprised, ask Unga-Bunga to keep secret:
Unga-Bunga tell Kieran Unga-Bunga can't keep secret if Kieran not tell secret. Kieran sigh, explain Kieran once wizard in Host Tower of Arcane, say learned Host Tower evil wizards, left Host Tower:
Kieran tell Unga-Bunga Host Tower trying find Kieran, say will let Unga-Bunga barter for magic items if Unga-Bunga keep secret. Unga-Bunga tell Kieran Unga-Bunga like magic items, keep secret.
Unga-Bunga leave tavern, see rest of town but stop by well first, let Hailee know mother home now:
Unga-Bunga stop by Dunn house, glad Ambere and Hailee home, tell Tybald Targos need coopers:
Unga-Bunga leave Dunn house, find Representative Baldemar's house, meet Arden Thurlow, wife of Baldemar. Unga-Bunga learn Baldemar's wife not like Baldemar any more than Tybald's wife like Tybald. Unga-Bunga sigh, try fix another marriage. Unga-Bunga think Tybald's wife snobby, not easy fix:
Arden Thurlow tell Unga-Bunga Ten Towns Delegate come several days ago, meet with Baldemar all night, leave next morning. Arden Thurlow tell Unga-Bunga Baldemar upstairs. Unga-Bunga thank Arden Thurlow, go upstairs, meet Representative Baldemar.
Unga-Bunga ask Baldemar if know where barbarian camp is. Baldemar say not know where camp is. Unga-Bunga ask Baldemar about delegate from Ten Towns Council. Baldemar tell Unga-Bunga Ten Towns Council sent delegate to parley with barbarians. Unga-Bunga ask Baldemar how delegate know where go if not know where barbarian camp. Baldemar tell Unga-Bunga delegate not tell Baldemar where camp but must know. Unga-Bunga think Baldemar know more than Baldemar telling:
Unga-Bunga tell Baldemar Unga-Bunga be back soon, leave house, meet three trapper brothers. Trapper brothers say names Digby, Doogal and Dolan, say like trapping animals, not like Emmerich so much. Digby tell Unga-Bunga Emmerich really like animals:
Unga-Bunga leave trapper brothers, meet Shipbuilder Thom Farold. Thom Farold tell Unga-Bunga nearly done building ship, say maybe Young Jed take Unga-Bunga out on water when done:
Unga-Bunga meet Young Jed by shore of lake. Young Jed tell Unga-Bunga about Uncle Jed in Easthaven. Unga-Bunga tell Young Jed Unga-Bunga met Old Jed, say Old Jed is drunk, sit in hut all day. Young Jed tell Unga-Bunga that make Young Jed proudest nephew in Icewind Dale:
Unga-Bunga head reeling from meeting people, solving problems. Unga-Bunga rest in tavern, plan to leave for barbarian camp next day...
Comments
Congratulations! I'll make sure to catch up with the entire run.
Starting: In BG1EE.
Mods: Full SCS 34.3, extra on the nasty.
Difficulty: Insane with no difficulty-based damage increase.
Protagonist: Amarande, Half-Elven Fighter/Mage. I actually lack a screenshot of his initial stats, but it's the typical FM min-max at 18/18/18/18/4/18 (exceptional STR only 18/10 though).
Amarande starts with ++ Long Swords, ++ Two Weapon Style, and will be branching out into ++ Bastard Sword as he progresses through BG1EE. To no immediate benefit whatsoever, of course, but the payoff will come in mid SoA/early ToB (also, swords for everyone!).
Long swords will be more than good enough until we reach that point, anyway. Naturally his starting spells include Find Familiar.
Projected BG1EE party: Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia. Because Kagain is boss.
Densifying the first few updates, since 95% of BG1EE is (nearly) without risk once you get a hold of a few Invisibility potions.
Swords for everyone! The Amarande story I
Next
Since Imoen will be dualing, I figure we may as well set-up Durlag's for some easy experience retrieval once she makes the transition (i.e. get rid of the traps while we can, come back for the experience later). So, once Kagain has enough levels to survive a few hits (60 HP... beast) we head for Durlag's.
And it goes rather well! Obviously Imoen still needs potions to help her at this stage, but we clear the entire above-ground areas of traps and most locks (she'd have to go visible and thus we'd lose some Ghast experience to open all of them). We even head into the Warder level, de-trapping as we go, and have Viconia loot some snazzy gear under Sanctuary. Practical Defense +3 really isn't half-bad when you get it at level 4. Still worse than Ankheg plate, though.
We even go as far as de-trapping Ulcaster Ruins in preparation for the dual. Bit overkill, the traps there aren't much to write home about. Anyway, around here Amarande is getting tired of using a shield (with the Fine Weapons component, there are hardly any magical weapons available... in particular, beyond Varscona +2, the next best Long Sword without delving deep into Durlag's is Harrower +1), so we opt to advance the plot to allow for some dual-wielding, as Harrower +1 is held by the Amazons. There we go...
Not pictured: Amazons dropping like flies. A single Detect Invisibility neuters the two Thieves that start invisible, and the Clerics just lack any potent spell slots. Well, things are going swimmingly, so how about a (kind of) close call? Bandit camp!
Alright, so what happened was that Grease + Entangle are not adequate replacements for Web. I had the scroll, but in keeping with being ultra-stingy, there's been no scroll scribing on Amarande's part aside from when he first hit Mage L3, so he couldn't cast it. I figured Grease + Entangle would at least delay the bandit hordes enough so we could just firebomb at our leisure (and it kind of worked), but unfortunately the Black Talon Elites are quite capable of firing back at you... it was looking hairy for a moment, but we had the firepower to come out ahead.
That bit of nastiness aside, Imoen hit L6 as we reached the spidery part of Cloakwood forest, and dualed. Centeol just got firebombed, Molkar and his merry mugs did even less of a dent than the Amazons, and we cleared the path up to the Cloakwood mine, but left Drasus and his cronies alone for now. Time to level-up Imoen.
We return to Durlag's and clear out everything we de-trapped, leaving the Warders alive for now. Mutamin's garden gets a visit as well, along with the Ulcaster ruins, Narcillicus and his slimes, Red Wizards, Sirines.. basically all high-xp stuff we left alone until now. Even vacuuming the Sword Coast for experience though, it's not enough to push Imoen to Mage L7, so we wind up back at Cloakwood Mine.
Alright. We're seriously high-level; Drasus should drop easily enough. And he does. We take him down first using regular melee/ranged (and by noticing that Alicorn Lance does not allow a saving throw any more than Doom does, so Drasus' initial Potion of Magic Protection doesn't really matter).
Skeleton Warriors and a Nymph are keeping the rest of the group occupied, but we opt to charge in anyway, firmly in the belief that they really can't do much to us at this stage. And we're correct; Imoen actually helps out a bit by relentlessly spamming the Wand of Paralyzation (-4 penalty will get even higher-level Mages eventually). Kysus can't do anything worse than a fairly harmless Vitriolic Sphere aimed at Khalid before he drops, and Rezdan failed his first save against the Wand so fared even worse.
Pre-Davaeorn Mine goes fine. Hareishan neglects MGoI in her prebuff and is roasted along with her guard cohort; Natasha simply can't stand up to three Skeleton Warriors at a time (and if she could, we had a few Animal Summoning I from Viconia and even two wands to whip out), and the Ogre Mage doesn't have more than L3 slots. Nothing else down here is even remotely a threat by now.
So, we withdraw to rest up. I think the plan was to have everyone sneak invisibly by Davaeorn (we'd sacrifice a few potions to pull it off), since he never teleports into his treasury room to the south of the map; then we'd send a summon to trigger him, let the unending tides of guards pour in, then firebomb them along with D since by then his MGoI should've run out.
This turned out entirely unnecessary. Apparently, at some point this encounter changed (or it was always like this and I didn't notice?). His two Battle Horrors move to engage and the guards start spawning the moment anyone moves into visual range of D. But crucially, if D can't percieve you (say, you're invisible) he won't actually join in. So, we take down all of his reinforcements (there were only four waves of guards) completely uninterrupted.
That certainly makes this a real cake-walk. We give D some summons to chew on, and once he's low on dangerous stuff, Kagain and Khalid just wail on him until he keels over.
Good stuff. Loot, flood, escape. There's almost nothing left in the wilderness now (Gullykin and Firewine Bridge, and the trappy parts of Durlag's), so we head for Baldur's Gate. Clearing out the top floor of the Sorcerous Sundries and a wayward Greater Basilisk in the harbour finally nets us enough experience to regain Imoen's thief levels. Huzzah!
This seems a good spot to stop. Next time we'll go on a scroll scribing bonanza for both Amarande and Imoen, then proceed to breeze through Baldur's Gate proper, do some Durlag's... sky's the limit.
Amarande is now a L6/L6 Half-Elven Fighter/Mage.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
Unga-Bunga take peyote and rest with adventurers, ask spirits for guidance. Unga-Bunga have vision of little girl sprouting many arms, each holding blade and hear spirits whispering words... "Magic sharp as blade when stuck in back..."
When awake, Unga-Bunga decide Shaman Hjollder wait, time to find Heartstone Gem once and for all. Unga-Bunga pack up things, say farewells to adventurers, and return to Yuan-ti hold.
Unga-Bunga peer into chamber, see little girl still there, summon three elementals to watch back, like spirits say. Unga-Bunga summon two more elementals, have stand just outside gate ready to rush in. Unga-Bunga use all magics spirits taught to make him strong, then slowly creep closer to little girl, see two Yuan-ti priests, many elite Yuan-ti in back of chamber:
Unga-Bunga summon Earth Elemental between Yuan-ti priests and throw axe:
Little girl see Unga-Bunga, ask what Unga-Bunga doing there. Unga-Bunga tell little girl he seek Heartstone Gem. Little girl say many things: snake people aren't snake people, little girl name is Yxonemei, is soldier and has vendetta, Heartstone Gem is divination tool she use for secret reasons and will give to Yuan-ti when done with it.
Unga-Bunga even more confused, tell little girl to give over Gem now. Little Girl Yxonemei change into being in Unga-Bunga's vision. Yxonemei and Yuan-ti attack:
Unga-Bunga tell two elementals near gate to attack Yxonemei, summon Insect Plague, try to summon over Yxonemei and Yuan-ti priests at same time. Unga-Bunga succeed but Yxonemei resist, summon Cloudkill cloud and undead.
Unga-Bunga know elementals no breathe so safe from cloud. Unga-Bunga go back into hallway to check elementals guarding back, see three Yuan-ti mages battling elementals. Unga-Bunga summon Insect Plague on them too, leaving bug-free space in between for Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga return to chamber, find elemental battling priests dead. Unga Bunga tell remaining two elementals to pull back to guard gate, not let anything pass. Unga-Bunga call on Spike Stones as Yxonemei and Yuan-ti get near:
Unga-Bunga watch spikes slay many Yuan-ti and undead, but Yxonemei resist all Unga-Bunga's magics. Unga-Bunga summon more elementals when first elementals die, until unable to summon more:
Unga-Bunga out of summoning magic save for animals, know only elementals can hurt Yxonemei. Unga-Bunga know not have much battle magic other than spike stones but out of spike stones, too. Yxonemei destroying all Unga-Bunga's minions. With fear in heart, Unga-Bunga begin to dance, summon spirits to battle:
Unga-Bunga watch Earth Spirit conk Yxonemei on head and cheer, keep dancing:
Yxonemei slay many spirits, but Unga-Bunga dance like life depend on dancing. Yxonemei slowly wearing down...
Until, finally, Yxonemei fall. Little Girl Yxonemei no more:
Unga-Bunga watch spirits run into chamber then disappear from sight, know more enemies lurking in chamber, only can summon animals:
Animals run into chamber to fight... skeletons and zombies:
Unga-Bunga worn and exhausted but still laugh that mighty battle finally end with battle of weakest minions of all. Unga-Bunga and animals make undead dead again. Unga-Bunga safe now, claim Hearstone Gem from one of Dead Little Girl Yxonemei's many hands:
Unga-Bunga not strong enough to bash open many chests in stronghold, including all in Yxonemei's chamber. Unga-Bunga sigh but beat chest for many minutes, thank spirits for great victory. Unga-Bunga gather up all things left behind by dead, then make way to surface and rest before return to Kuldahar.
Unga-Bunga make long journey to Kuldahar, find town under attack, summon elementals and save town:
Once town safe, Unga-Bunga go to see Archdruid Arundel, tell of great victory. Archdruid Arundel say Archdruid Arundel not Archdruid Arundel and thank Unga-Bunga for destroying his enemy, say real Archdruid Arundel dying upstairs before porting away:
Unga-Bunga rush upstairs, find real Archdruid Arundel. Arundel tell Unga-Bunga must bring Heartstone Gem to Larrel in Severed Hand. Unga-Bunga try to save Archdruid Arundel but fail.
Unga-Bunga decide to rest before making journey to Severed Hand, hope to find answers from Elf Wizard Larrel...
Current Spell Picks:
Just 1 5th and 1 6th level pick left.
[Definitely worried about damage output and survivability of summons as enemies get stronger. Yxonemei was a nice victory, though. Wasn't sure how that would go
Apart from going to Ice island and Balduran's Island, most of the quests that can be done prior to the Nashkel Mines have been done apart from the lower reaches of Durlag's Tower.
The party consists of Obsidian, Radiant, Tenya, Coran and Dynaheir.
I am trying to decide whether to stay with a five man team, or whether to use Branwen or Xan.
Neera was dropped off after getting Adoy's belt.
WE have spent most of our gold. We were down at 25gp but it is up to 550gp now.
WE definitely need more gold to charge up the necklace of missiles etc.
We do have some spare weapons that we could sell in order to do the recharging.
EDIT
We went ankheg hunting to get some more gold but were told that the shells are now worthless.
We therefore returned to Durlag's and were doing quite well until we took on the Dwarven Doom Guards who killed Dynaheir before dying themselves.
We therefore left to raise her and while outside we picked up Thorin before returning to the tower. Raising her was rather expensive since our gold is in short supply. Thorin looks like he could be an asset. He has decent armour and a +1 hammer.
It looks like we need to hunt more ankhegs at an earlier stage in future.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
After resting Unga-Bunga make journey through mountain passes Archdruid Arundel show Unga-Bunga before dying. As approach, Unga-Bunga see why Severed Hand called Severed Hand, lots of little towers off main tower but think should be called Broken Severed Hand now.
Unga-Bunga see dead elf wizard cast fireball at squirrel before going back inside tower. Unga-Bunga get angry...
Inside broken towers, Unga-Bunga battle many dead goblins, orcs and ogres. Tower broken in many places, Unga-Bunga unable to reach all parts of tower on each level. Unga-Bunga think dead enemies might climb up tower and trap Unga-Bunga, so Unga-Bunga search all stairs and lifts, make sure search every nook for foes and treasures:
In darkest corners of tower, Unga-Bunga battle dead spirits and skeletons casting fire. Skeletons hit elementals hard, but Unga-Bunga oversee battle, make sure elementals win:
Unga-Bunga reach fourth level of tower, see dead elven warrior. Elf not attack like other dead things, so Unga-Bunga talk to elf:
Unga-Bunga tell dead elf not there to cause trouble. Dead elf say name Bladesinger Lethias, explain how horde of evil attacked tower, but all things in tower killed when Larrel and other mages destroyed artifacts to keep from horde hands. Bladesinger Lethias say Larrel in Labelas tower.
Unga-Bunga search rest of level, find other dead elves like poor little dead elf girl whose mother ran tavern for visitors, make Unga-Bungs sad. Unga-Bunga find dead elf merchant, sell lots of things. Unga-Bunga bite coins, make sure coins not dead like merchant but coins real.
Unga-Bunga ask which tower Labelas tower, go up stair but not get far. Larrel break tower. Unga-Bunga get angry but take deep breaths, try Solonor tower instead.
On first level of Solonor tower, Unga-Bunga meet dead elf priestess Denaini. Denaini say Solonor tower shrine to elven gods, where elven priests and acolytes live before not living anymore, say everyone in Hand killed when Larrel and other mages tried to cast mythal to protect Hand and area around it. Unga-Bunga say Mythal not work so good, Denaini agree. Unga-Bunga remember Orrick wanted book about mythals, make note to tell Orrick not good idea.
Unga-Bunga go up stair, battle many dead elven priests and acolytes. Even though Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, dead elves swarm Unga-Bunga, trap Unga-Bunga between them and benches. Unga-Bunga worried, but summon elementals on other side of chamber, trick dead elves to leave to battle them:
Unga-Bunga battle to top of tower, kill all dead elves, find barrel of holy water and bring back to Priestess Denaini. Denaini thank Unga-Bunga, give sling and pretty flower circlet. Unga-Bunga feel pretty, oh so pretty, but save circlet for special occasions, put Helm of Charm Protection back on, thank Denaini and go back to fourth level.
Unga-Bunga next try Corellon tower, battle dead elf clerics, wizards, and warriors still planning battle against horde:
Unga-Bunga reach top of tower, meet dead elf Valestis. Valestis say top of tower once arboretum but nothing lives in tower anymore. Unga-Bunga tell Valestis less dead things in tower now at least. Valestis ask Unga-Bunga look for seeds to grow new plants, pure water to help make grow, small animals looking for new home and bring back to arboretum. Unga-Bunga tell Valestis about squirrel Larrel fireballed outside tower, get angry again. Valestis tell Unga-Bunga Larrel send projection to wander Hand, not in right mind. Unga-Bunga not know what 'projection' mean but nod anyway and leave, return to fourth level and climb stairs of Sheverash tower.
Unga-Bunga meet Dead Weaponmaster Kaylessa on first level of Sheverash tower. Kaylessa say Sheverash tower once place where she trained elven warriors, ask Unga-Bunga to honor dead elven warriors by making dead for good. Kaylessa also say she have piece of Larrel's broken astrolabe and fixing astrolabe might help Larrel not be crazy anymore, will give piece to Unga-Bunga once dead elven warriors really dead. Unga-Bunga agree, figure have to kill dead elven warriors anyway.
Unga-Bunga climb Sheverash tower, kill many dead elven archers, dead warriors and dead spiders:
Unga-Bunga return to Kaylessa, say dead elves really dead. Kaylessa ask Unga-Bunga to honor her by making her dead, too. Unga-Bunga summoned many elementals in battle up tower, not able to summon any more, so summon beetles instead. Beetles spit acid on Kaylessa and kill her without letting her attack once. Unga-Bunga stunned too, pat beetles on head for good work:
Unga-Bunga take astrolabe piece from Kaylessa and nice boots, make Unga-Bunga run faster.
On way up Sheverash tower, Unga-Bunga notice walkway between Sheverash and another tower of Hand, hope other tower Labelas tower. Unga-Bunga rest a bit, then toss Pixie Dust and return to walkway, see dead elves guarding other tower. Unga-Bunga creep up, see dead elven wizard and cleric in back near to tower, summon elemental behind wizard so all elves attack that way.
While elves attack elemental, Unga-Bunga summon more elementals behind them, elementals beat dead elves down:
Once inside tower, Unga-Bunga find more dead elves, many dead elf wizards. Unga-Bunga summon elemental to block archway, then summon more elementals into central room of tower, summon many Insect Plagues to bite wizards as they keep coming to battle elementals:
Once all elves dead again, Unga-Bunga search tower, find book by Larrel's daughter Evayne, say elves and dwarves fight because elves think dwarves sold artifacts to horde but Evayne doesn't think dwarves did. Unga-Bunga keep book just in case.
On next level of tower, Unga-Bunga meet Dead Librarian Custhantos, ask about tower and books. Custhantos show Unga-Bunga books, say one book about mythals. Unga-Bunga take book though not sure will give Orrick yet, then climb stair to top of tower, see Larrel and dead elf.
Unga-Bunga watch Larrel, make sure won't fireball Unga-Bunga, then try talk but Larrel still crazy:
Unga-Bunga shake head and sigh, then talk to other elf. Gelarith. Gelarith think fixing astrolabe help fix Larrel's head, so Unga-Bunga give Gelarith strange items found around tower. Gelarith fix astrolabe with items, thank Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga feel rush of power:
Unga-Bunga see Larrel look less crazed, try talk again:
Larrel thank Unga-Bunga for clearing head, tell about horde and war and mythal. Unga-Bunga feel sorry for Larrel but still angry about squirrel. Then Unga-Bunga show Larrel book by daughter:
Larrel go crazy again. Unga-Bunga sigh and go rest, hope Larrel not so crazy in morning...
Unga-Bunga talk to Larrel again next day, ask Larrel to use Heartstone Gem, learn where evil causing blight on land lies. Larrel use Gem, have vision of Dorn's Deep where elves and dwarves once lived in peace, so Larrel say. Larrel offer to send Unga-Bunga to Dorn's Deep by magic, but Unga-Bunga not sure if Larrel still a little crazy or not, ask Larrel to send back to Kuldahar instead.
Unga-Bunga go see Orrick, explain all about mythals. Orrick seem disappointed until Unga-Bunga show Orrick mythal book. make Orrick promise not go crazy like Larrel. Orrick so grateful to Unga-Bunga give Unga-Bunga magic cloak, say Mithran's Cloak. Unga-Bunga not know who Mithran is but glad cloak Unga-Bunga's Cloak now. Unga-Bunga decide to rest a bit before making journey to Dorn's Deep...
Final spell picks:
Final weapon proficiencies:
Shaman don't get many weapon options. All weapon proficiencies were chosen. The only other options were the other weapon styles. I haven't found a magical buckler yet, the only shield Shaman can use, and since the only 2-H weapons available were Spear, Quarterstaff and 2-H Axe, I figured Single Weapon Style had the broadest application.
We defeated the Demonknight who simultaneously killed Obsidian who was confused. Forgot to use Radiant's dispell magic. Stupid of me! If Obsidian had survived that battle the rest would have been relatively easy.
End of no reload run.
Subsequently too late found that defeating the demonknight wasn't that hard. Just needed to alter tactics somewhat.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
Unga-Bunga make journey through mountain passes to Dorn's Deep, beat down Orog sentries guarding Deep and enter caves:
In caves, Unga-Bunga battle down many Shroom Head Fungus, hear Ettins further in caverns battling Shrooms too. Unga-Bunga try to make friends with Ettins maybe:
Unga-Bunga see forge further in caverns, battle way to forge to escape Shrooms, meet Wizard Bandoth inside forge:
Bandoth seem paranoid, Unga-Bunga wonder if Bandoth eat Shrooms for food, careful not threaten Bandoth. Bandoth say swarms of undead in old dwarf home far below caves, say Larrel's daughter Evayne went there to find dwarves. Bandoth ask Unga-Bunga to find ravorvine extract he send apprentice to find, say if Unga-Bunga bring back apprentice with extract that fine, too. Unga-Bunga tell Bandoth will try find both, try to not upset Bandoth, see Bandoth have nice potions for barter.
Unga-Bunga go back into caves to battle Shrooms, look in smaller caves for apprentice and extract. Unga-Bunga find ettins, try to parley. Ettins not parley, so Unga-Bunga send elementals to parley ettins down instead:
Unga-Bunga find dead apprentice and extract in Ettin cave, bring back to Bandoth:
Bandoth take extract, tell Unga-Bunga about narrow bridge over chasm in southeast of caves that lead down further into Deep, say secret door in dwarven chamber leading further into Deep. Unga-Bunga leave Bandoth, rest outside caves, then toss Pixie Dust so battling Ettins and Shrooms not see Unga-Bunga, find bridge and follow path to Deep stronghold.
Unga-Bunga spy massive Drow and Orog force guarding bridge into Deep. Unga-Bunga retreat, summon elementals, toss Pixie Dust on elementals too. Unga-Bunga need lots of Pixie Dust:
Unga-Bunga send elementals to take bridge. Nasty spiders appear behind elementals, bite and poison them. Orc archers shoot at elementals and Drow Sorcerers and Spellswords cast magics. Unga-Bunga tell elementals to battle on bridge, summon Insect Plagues on drow and summon spikes into army:
Drow resist Unga-Bunga's magic but slowly battled down by elementals. Unga-Bunga search rest of hall, battle many groups of Orogs, Orcs and Drow:
Drow Vanguard greatest fighters Unga-Bunga ever see, take many elementals to bring down. Unga-Bunga finally battle down last Drow force guarding passageway into caves:
Unga-Bunga enter caves, find Umber Hulk. Umber Hulk look sad and tired, call out to Unga-Bunga, say name Saablic Tan:
Saablic Tan say Saablic Tan not really Umber Hulk but Red Wizard, say used to serve master, protect Deep by breeding Orogs to guard but master not like Saablic Tan anymore. Saablic Tan say master turned him into umber hulk, made live in caves with Orogs, say Orogs want him dead.
Unga-Bunga tell Saablic Tan he's crazy. Saablic Tan say Krilag new master in Deep now, serve Saablic Tan's old master, say old master gave Krilag badge Saablic Tan used to have. Saablic Tan tell Unga-Bunga kill Krilag and take badge, say only way to find master is to have badge.
Unga-Bunga tell Saablic Tan will search caves first, decide later. Saablic Tan not happy with Unga-Bunga but not attack, so Unga-Bunga go to search caves, battle down ettins and many orogs, especially guarding southeast caves:
Unga-Bunga sneak around bend in caverns, spot huge Orog Chieftain with orog friends. Unga-Bunga summon elemental and approach Orog Chieftain:
Orog say name Krilag, say Krilag will kill Unga-Bunga now. Unga-Bunga call in other elementals from around bend. Unga-Bunga not born yesterday:
Unga-Bunga watch elementals beat Krilag and orogs down, search Krilag and find badge like Saalbic Tan say, also find note from master to Krilag. Note say Malavan now in charge of magic instead of Saablic Tan, say giving Saablic Tan's badge to Krilag make Krilag lieutenant of master now, say Kreg Frostbeard in Wyrm's Tooth is nearest lieutenant and ask him for help if need. Note signed by 'RBP'.
Unga-Bunga not know names but think Saablic Tan tell truth, so go back to Saablic Tan and show badge:
Saablic Tan thank Unga-Bunga, say must rest now. Unga-Bunga think Saablic Tan maybe not happy as clam but happy as Umber Hulk can be, so return to stronghold. Unga-Bunga not see another way deeper into Deep until remember Bandoth say secret door in dwarven chamber. Unga-Bunga look around, find dwarf statue with hammer lever, then spy secret door nearby, open door and go down stairs.
Unga-Bunga enter chamber from stairs, see glowing crystals on floor in center of chamber, go look at crystals:
Unga-Bunga hear clicking noises, zapped by lightning as walk across rune circles. Unga-Bunga glad had protections up before walking on runes, always tell young in tribe to use protection.
Unga-Bunga study runes in circles, runes remind Unga-Bunga of stone table upstairs. Unga-Bunga go back upstairs, see three circles of runes on table, all runes in each circle same. Unga-Bunga go back downstairs to chamber and step on same runes as on table upstairs. Unga-Bunga not get zapped, hear loud noise from upstairs. Unga-Bunga go upstairs and push hammer lever, hear even louder noise downstairs. Unga-Bunga go badk down, now see stairway in rune circles leading down:
Unga-Bunga go down stair, find dead thief near trap. Unga-Bunga search thief and find note. Unga-Bunga read note, say thief name Dver, say Dver feel evil presence in Deep making Dver's mind and thoughts confused. Unga-Bunga feel same confused as normal, so think Unga-Bunga okay for now, really glad not eat Shrooms. Unga-Bunga avoid trap and take passage, come to large dead dwarven forge.
As Unga-Bunga begin to search forge, Unga-Bunga confronted by dwarven spirit:
Unga-Bunga remember Lethias in Severed Hand, think dead dwarves like dead elves, not want things defiled. Unga-Bunga tell dwarven spirit not here to deflle Deep but to search for evil plaguing land. Dwarven spirit say name Norlinor, was Priest of Moradin.
Dead Priest Norlinor talk Unga-Bunga ear off, tell Unga-Bunga more how dwarves and elves split apart by elves accusing dwarves of betrayal by selling artifacts to Horde. But Norlinor say he not think there was betrayal at all, instead think artifacts were stolen by someone else, sold to Horde to cause mistrust between elves and dwarves on purpose, cause downfall of both races. Unga-Bunga think Larrel might fireball entire Spine of the World if hear that, so not say anything:
Norlinor also tell Unga-Bunga that while dwarves battled Horde, negative energy vortice opened in Hall of Heroes, where dwarves inter greatest heroes of their people, that undead gather and attack stronghold. Norlinor say vortice lure necromancer named Terikan to Hall, say Terikan steal power from dwarven forge and become Lich, desecrate Tiers of the Dead. Norlinor say to destroy Terikan, must take Terikan's phylactery to Tomb of Jamoth in Hall of Heroes and toss into vortice:
Unga-Bunga overwhelmed. Norlinor see Unga-Bunga overwhelmed, say he think Terikan not do Lich ritual right, maybe not as powerful as normal lich. Unga-Bunga ask Norlinor if Norlinor think that or know that, but Norlinor uncommital.
Unga-Bunga wonder if asking spirits for Vision Quest was good thing after all, ask Norlinor to watch over as Unga-Bunga rest, ask spirits for aid and wisdom for next day...
Sorry about Unga-Bunga.
I'm starting a new unmodded run core rules. Only modification was giving Gorion a bag of holding. A Dwarven Lawful Good Priest of Helm.
Happy to be back playing Lawful Good in unmodified game.
However I may switch back to modded game after this one. It's good to ring the changes.
The portrait uses a photo that I took for the background, the dwarf being slighhtly modified to give him a Helmite shield using photoshop. I like the way that the positioning of the dwarf fits with the stones from the photo.
Helmuth and Imoen have picked up the equipment at the site of the ambush.
Coremage XXV - half-elf fighter/mage (Corey_Russell, protagonist)
Egg - human undead hunter (@Gate70)
Saile - half-elf avenger (@Grond0)
So the Trio had just finished off Shoal and were making their way back to Beregost. We wanted Neera's gem bag, but she got too close and we had to fight her enemies. This was a hard fight for us since were basically level 1. Egg and Saile tried their best but both died. Coremage XXV only managed to kill the mage by using the magic missile wand at extreme range so he didn't get attacked back. After collecting people's things he want to the Beregost Temple and raised his friends. We tried dumping things on the floor but this didn't work too well as Egg's armor poofed and so did his composite bow. The end result was he had bad armor until we could get ankheg plate for him and for a long time was using a non-proficient range weapon (short bow).
But the adventure must continue!
We carefully make our way down to Nashkel, although Coremage XXV decided to double back to get the scroll case and while we were at it Saile took down Zhurlong and Egg returned Merrianne's letter. Then we proceeded to Nashkel without incident. Egg was eager to get his armor upgrade, then Coremage suggested using what meager funds we had to purchase PfP scrolls from Thalantyr (Coremage XXV neglected to mention to his comrades was one reason the money was so low was Coremage couldn't be bothered to ask to go to High Hedge to get some throwing daggers, so bought a bunch at high prices from Thunderhammer Smithy. Instead he let his companions think their resurrections took all our money).
Saile thought we could afford it and he was right. It was good thing as we had to buy two scrolls to successfully scribe it once. But before we got basilisk hunting Egg wanted a detour pick up a magic sword from a nearby ogrillion. Coremage XXV relented. Saile suggested getting a sword from Brage, but Egg was hearing none of it. Argain was easy to kill so, if it keeps the paladin happy it's all good I guess. Coremage spends most of his time throwing daggers over's Egg's shoulder at enemeis, though sometimes Coremage XXV will dual wield if it seems safe.
The basilisks went very smooth, Egg tanked great here. Kirian's group got the 4 x web/ 1 x stinkiing cloud treatment. One of them resisted all of this and was about to get a spell off but he died first.
After a discussion of tactics, the party headed to the Pirate's Cave area. The Candlekeep clarity potion once again proving its worth with Egg courteously acting as the target for the sirines while his buddies poured in ranged fire and the occasional call lightning. In the golem cave, Egg nervously edged the hold trap, so Coremage XXV reminded Egg he was immune. The clarity potion was still active so the charm trap was no problem. The golems fell pretty fast. Egg got the CON since he gets the most benefit, plus is helpful since he's usually taking punishment for the group.
We decided to the next batch of sirines a bit north (though we did this at the end of the session). Web and stinking cloud once again proving their worth.
We then started from the far south and helped a "boy" get his dog back. Zax and Val didn't survive our greetings. Kaldo and Krumm didn't fare any better. Gnoll fortress enemies beaten fairly easily, even the carrion crawler since Egg remembered he was immune. With the CHA tome Egg now has 18 CHA. A bit more money and we could afford the robe of the good arch magic for Coremage. Egg and Saile don't like to buy equipment they want to kill enemies for it, but couldn't complain since there was no enemy for us to get this robe from. Egg suggested Bassilus and helpfully mentioned he wouldn't mind being confused as he was sure the rest of us could finish Bassilus off before he could kill Egg. Egg was spot on, magic missiles and call lightning was too much for Bassilus.
We collected the reward, bought the robe of the Good Arch Magi, and at the end of the session finished off the northern sirines as mentioned previously. We were out of time and saved our session here. Till next week!
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
Unga-Bunga wake up from rest, let out deep breath. Unga-Bunga not given vision or dream by spirits this time, know that sometimes spirits allow shaman to be tested, prove strength and worth. Unga-Bunga gather up things, cast protection spells, then bid farewell to Norlinor and step through archway into Tiers of the Dead:
Unga-Bunga see many undead swarming over marble stone but not see lich yet. Unga-Bunga summon elementals to do battle, see more dead swarming:
Unga-Bunga command elementals to battle way to coffins up stair north of archway, hold off more undead so not overrun:
Unga-Bunga and elementals clear most undead but undead keep spawning. Unga-Bunga think Lich Terikan summoning undead, not able to clear all before more come. Unga-Bunga summon elemental, send up stair to top level of Tiers:
Unga-Bunga hear Lich Terikan casting dark magics, hear other casters, too. Unga-Bunga hear fireballs thrown, see elemental frozen at top of stair. When Unga-Bunga creep closer to see why elemental not move, hear Terikan shrieking magics, steal all Unga-Bunga's protection magics away:
Unga-Bunga forget elemental and scurry away, hope elemental still block stair. Unga-Bunga cast protective magics again, summon more elementals and send them to stair. Once elementals on stair, Unga-Bunga creep closer, cast Insect Plagues at top of stair, hope to keep Terikan and other casters from casting magics, summon Spike Stones to pierce all things atop Tier:
Unga-Bunga hear Terikan still casting dark magics, see Greater Mummies casting too, Unga-Bunga hoped biting insects would bother undead, keep from casting, but Unga-Bunga guess dead not feel bugs biting bone or cloth. Terikan and mummies cast Symbols of Pain and Hopelessness on marble and stone, paralyze elementals. As elementals fall, Unga-Bunga summon beetles behind undead to spit acid on them:
Slowly, very slowly, mummies and undead swarms summoned by Terikan begin to fall:
Unga-Bunga dance feverishly, summon spirits to rush Terikan so not able to cast more dark magics, but Terikan summon more dead:
Finally, Unga-Bunga see Lich Terikan crumble to ground, cry out with joy. But Unga-Bunga know battle only half over, rush to door leading down to Hall of Heroes, but door locked. Unga-Bunga begin heaving stone lids off coffins, search for key. Unga-Bunga spring trap after trap but put pain out of mind:
Unga-Bunga finally find key in coffin but hear Terikan shrieking once again:
Unga-Bunga run for door to Hall of Heroes, shove key into lock and tear down stair as Terikan chase Unga-Bunga. Once Unga-Bunga reach Hall, Unga-Bunga begin summoning elementals as quick as can. Unga-Bunga wince when Terikan reach bottom of stair, turn to battle, but Terikan rush past Unga-Bunga. Terikan fly down Hall, stop at entrance to two tombs and summon undead. Unga-Bunga think Lich Terikan just told Unga-Bunga where phylactery is:
Unga-Bunga realize Terikan summon dead from Negative Energy Vortice, will be overwhelmed. Unga-Bunga send elementals further into Hall, battle Terikan and undead minions once more:
Unga-Bunga summon Spike Growth, command elementals attack only Terikan. Elementals and spikes strike Terikan, keep from casting many dark magics. Lich Terikan crumble to stone floor once more:
Unga-Bunga command elementals to battle remainder of dead minions while Unga-Bunga search tombs, look for Terikan phylactery. Unga-Bunga trigger more traps, find phylactery atop trapped pedestal, wince as caught in great fire:
Unga-Bunga take phylactery, search for vortice while elementals battle undead:
Unga-Bunga search tomb after tomb, finally find Tomb of Jamoth, feel great evil as phylactery fly from Unga-Bunga's hands into vortice, hear Lich Terikan's spirit unravel:
Unga-Bunga help elementals battle down rest of undead then fall to knees, try to catch breath, barely believe what happened, barely believe still alive. Unga-Bunga search rest of tombs, make sure no more undead in Hall of Heroes, then return to dwarven forge. Unga-Bunga greeted by Dead Priest Norlinor:
Norlinor thank Unga-Bunga for returning dead to rest, allowing forge to come to life once more, say a great treasure was left inside forge to be claimed one day by great hero who served dwarven people, say also a key that opens great bronze doors in Hall of Heroes to Wyrm's Tooth glacier also within. Unga-Bunga thank Norlinor and wish him rest:
Unga-Bunga take axe and key from forge, then rest a long while in warmth of forge before return to Hall of Heroes, search each tomb for magical items and weapons. Unga-Bunga not leave powerful items for undead should they return. Unga-Bunga find many items in tombs, many journals left behind by entombed.
Unga-Bunga find Tomb of Evayne, Larrel's daughter, admire great monument erected in Evayne's honor. Inside tomb, Unga-Bunga find journal of Evayne, tell story of how Evayne came to Dorn's Deep to parley with dwarves, slowly won dwarves over, and battled alongside dwarves when Horde and Undead came, even to her death.
Unga-Bunga remember Norlinor tell about axe in forge left for great hero, take axe from pack and set atop pedestal in Tomb of Evayne, where true hero lies. Unga-Bunga wonder if should write journal of Unga-Bunga's life someday, wonder if anyone would read journal or just use to start fire and clean up. Unga-Bunga wipe eyes tearing up from smell of dead, no other reason. Unga-Bunga take Evayne's journal, think Larrel will want to read.
Unga-Bunga then open bronze door, find bronze sentries guarding gate to glacier. Bronze sentries attack Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga summon elementals to battle down sentries:
Unga-Bunga about to enter gate to Wyrm's Tooth glacier but remember Bandoth, decide not to leave Dorn's Deep without letting Bandoth know all things happening under Bandoth's snotty nose:
Bandoth pretend not be impressed, but Unga-Bunga know better:
Unga-Bunga make journey to Severed Hand once more, hope to give Larrel peace:
Unga-Bunga take long rest before returning to Dorn's Deep, then approach bronze gate leading to Wyrm's Tooth glacier once more...
Previous Next
So, scrolls were scribed (although I forgot giving Imoen invisibility...). Since there's no moratorium on easter eggs this run, we also swung by Ulgoth's Beard and relieved Dushai of her Ring of Free Action, going to Kagain: Amarande is all offense, and needs the speed from Paws of the Cheetah.
Pretty much as expected, we breezed through Baldur's Gate. Four fighter-types (and now access to Haste) will have that effect.
Most of the time we didn't even bother softening up enemy mages using our bone bros; we can overwhelm most mage defenses, given that they're typically only L8 - L10, before they get more than a single Remove Magic off. The only real snafu was killing Phandalyn and dropping to reputation 6... he doesn't like evil party members (and packs a surprising punch as Amarande found out).
Not much else to report, the city was cleared in short order. Figuring Jaheira could do with a weapon upgrade (though why we bother I don't know, she always seems to underperform), we went after the Shadow Archdruid, Amarande. Imposter!
Though supposedly SCS does not cheat, Druid Amarande certainly did, as he was somehow immune to all targetted spells because of.. reasons. Didn't help him though. While in the wilderness, we also swung by Firewine Bridge and the ruins, clearing them without incident (Skeleton Warriors annihilating both Lendarn and the Ogre Mage in short order).
Alright, Durlag's, then Ice Island, then Werewolf Island, then on to SoD.
Kagain proved that not even he can tank Pride indefinitely, but he held his ground long enough for us to clear the other Warders, and the way was opened.
Underground levels 3 and 4 went by completely without incident. The Chessboard got firebombed, same procedure as every year James every time. Really, the Warders are more trouble than the rest of the tower combined: Level 5 was also cleared with all due haste, and again as customary we stopped just short of tackling the Demon Knight, owing to poor reward vs risk ratio.
Normally I use PfM-scrolls for Ice Island, but this time we were strong enough to just bulldoze through. Andris and his cronies got a single charge of the Wand of Monster Summoning to cover our initial assault; Andris himself fled rather quickly as his attendants croaked, and found a warm reception upon teleporting back in.
It seems SCS made him an Enchanter this time, as all he really did was summon things and try to Confuse us. That works best if you have companions to do the actual fighting, though. For the Ankheg mage and Cuchol, some Wand of Paralyzation misuse spelled their doom (MGoI gives no protection, and they usually fail their saving throws in short order as the battle outside the Cloakwood Mine demonstrated). Tellan butchered an initial batch of monster summons, but then started killing his own summoned monsters; I expect it's a remnant of his original script since he can be persuaded to, rather ineffectually, help you escape by darting/short swording enemies. In the end, he couldn't out-fight Skeleton Warriors, and indeed, neither could Dezkiel.
Werewolf Island was over in a flash. We had plenty of magical ammunition, plenty of buffs, plenty of potions. Even Karoug only lasted a few rounds under Sword of Balduran/Werebane assault combined with Magic Missiles (his attendant mage never even got a Remove Magic off owing to The Victor). We left for the mainland, where Mendas and his fellow Loup Garou actually did a fair bit of damage before we could put them down, Amarande coming within a few solid swipes of ignominious death (but we pulled through, and had plenty of Potions of Invisibility at hand should things have gotten truly hairy).
Alright, let's finish this. Sarevok's acolytes barely did anything to us, beyond Gardush getting a single swing in at Imoen. The Ogre Mage ambush was dealt with in good order (they're too low-level to pose a threat, even when they had us surrounded). Interestingly, one of them dropped Invisibility 10' Radius. Not that it matters, since it's mostly useful in SoD and there you get it in the starting dungeon anyway, but still. We pushed through the catacombs and Prat alike, heading back for the city.
We had to kill Slythe twice, since (in addition to demonstrating her usual buggy behaviour of going instantly invisible once a round without any status text update) Krystin tried to pop Monster Summoning I, crashing the game... I suspect it's trying to summon some monster with a broken file, since SCS modifies this a bit. Anyway, we overwhelmed Slythe a second time before he could even pop an invisibility potion, and even though tedious, we took Krystin down as well using brute force.
This kind of no-holds-barred, caution-to-the-wind approach really only works because we've got such a beastly melee protagonist. Normally it'd be a lot slower and more careful going.
Anyway: Coronation battle. Over before we knew it, Liia took no damage and Belt was at Barely Injured. The Assassin got a solid backstab (42 hitpoints) on Viconia owing to her having her sling equipped, but otherwise no damage; Skeleton Warriors held the line while we took down the Mage, Assassin and Shaman in order.
The Maze was navigated entirely without incident. Rahvin and gang got some fireballin', leaving Shaldrissa alive just long enough to pop down a Teleportation Field.
Bolstered by a Potion of Insight, Amarande actually succeeded in talking Tamoko down. Not sure why I bother, but I do.
OK, final battle.
All four fighter-types (Kagain, Amarande, Khalid, Jaheira) get PfM along with select potions (strength, Heroism, Power, Haste, Invulnerability etc.). Imoen and Viconia just summon some crud, then go invisible. Crud moves to engage, so do the fighter-types.
At some point, Kagain and Jaheira somehow got all of their buffs bar PfM dispelled. Maybe Angelo or Diarmid had Arrows of Dispelling? Unclear. Anyway, they reapplied some potions and got back into the thick of things.
Semaj as always was a massive headache, demonstrating the same behaviour as Krystin in that he kept going invisible without casting a spell or using a potion, but after 5x Detect Invisibility we were able to bring him down, and shortly afterward, S himself. S got a number of hits in on both Kagain and Amarande as we were racing around, but we had a dozen Potions of Extra Healing, and they made up the difference easily.
And another BG1EE SCS no-reload run completed, with no real close calls since the Bandit Camp. Good stuff.
I forgot, amidst all the excitement, to get a picture of Amarande's final stats, but you can imagine (L7/L7 Fighter/Mage, stats 19/19/19/19/7/19, ++ Long Sword, ++ Bastard Sword, ++ TWS). Time for things to get mildly interesting; SoD awaits.
Imoen and i made our way to the FAI picking up a ring of protection on the way. I left Imoen with Joia before completing Joia's quest.
Then went to Sonner et al who were killed thus providing a +1 flail.
I then made my way to Beregost.
I now intend to calm Marl, take a tome to Firebead and buy a +1 sling.
Until now all battles have been tough. Perhaps now they will be a little easier.
Aquinus, start of BG2, update 3:
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184868#Comment_1184868
The weird effects of leveling up new NPCs with SCS means that they start with no spells memorized (and sometimes no spells known for wizards in edge cases), and with only one rest available... we'll have to be careful with our health and fights. Fortunately with the Duergar, we have crossbows available for Aquinus, which he has GM in. We clear with the aid of health potions - Minsc manages to avoid taking any damage in the two largest damage areas (Otyugh and Air Elemental Room) by either stealth-hitting or ignoring respectively. We take our rest after getting Yoshimo - from there, it's a pretty simple clear. Aquinus levels up in the meantime.
With the extra Duergar gold, I actually remember to use it to increase reputation - it'll easily save us more than the 2k gold we spend here in the long run. We rescue the circus and take Aerie along with us before getting to Gael and then the Copper Coronet. As almost always, we start with the Slavers there. Yoshimo's BH traps do most of the damage to the animals, and it's a clean melee fight from there. Next up is the sewers for Lilaarcor and the Slaver ship. Outside of having to use a Burning Hands scroll to finish a Troll since I didn't have any other Fire or Acid sources, there were no real problems outside of HP attrition. To fix this, well...
There's a handy Thief that you can allot all her points to Pickpocket. Don't mind me, Bernard, just borrowing this...
And we dispose of both Clara and Hexxat soon after that. Dragomir didn't even attempt a Charm for some reason.
We deal with the ambushes... decently, I suppose, though I somehow didn't pick up Arbane's sword during the first one. We had been traveling invisibly using Pixie Dust, so we avoid deaths at least. Prebek and co. are dealt with quickly, but Yoshimo dies here to... traps... as somehow his Detect Traps score of 100 wasn't finding them. Something might've caused a bug but I have no idea what would've done it. One run back to the Copper Coronet and a Raise Dead fixes that. A fetch-quest gets Xzar killed, and we're ready to continue on to some of the Stronghold quests.
First up is Trademeet. Jaheira gets summoned as we rest there to prepare for the Dao Djinni. 3x Pro. Petrification from Aquinus and 1 from Aerie resolves that particular issue for us.
With the Ring of Regeneration, most of the Grove wasn't a threat, though we skipped the Troll cave - bracers of Archery and Spear of the Unicorn wasn't enticing enough at the time to risk that fight. There was an exception against the last Druid grouping - the druid got off a Call Lightning that probably would've chunked Aerie or killed Yoshimo if they failed a save. I didn't have any spells to counteract it, so had to just hope, and got lucky. Faldorn herself isn't too big of an issue - Cernd starts the fight Improved Invisible, and summons a Fire Elemental. She gets interrupted while Cernd casts Insect Plague, and she can't recover in time.
Aquinus gets the usual buys here: Tansheron's bow, Belt of Inertial Dampening, Ras, and the Cloak of Blurriness and Tearing My Eyes Out. I had intended to continue using Cernd, but I forgot Rasaad was found in Trademeet as we were heading to the shop in the north, and we take him along for his quest.
Back in Athkatla, it's time for the Harper's Hold. I... don't remember details of this fight, only remember that this was considerably easier than I remember from previous runs. It might be the newer system of SCS set on Tactical (I haven't gotten safely to BG2 in a hot minute) or it could be because I'm actually buffing with at least the basics. Ignore the screenshot, everything got Dispelled, but Aquinus had at least Chaotic Commands and Death Ward up at the beginning of the fight, and everyone started invisibly, so Jaheira got an Insect Plague on their important casters before they could wreck us.
Rasaad's final fight is significantly harder than I remember - either I did something to bolster the temple's forces last time, or to weaken the Dark Moon Monks, but we're very easily overwhelmed by the two Aerial Servants + the high level Monks. Rasaad himself falls as we're pushed back to the doorway, and Aerie completes her Invisibility 15" spell right as she lost all her Stoneskins. We retreat back to the right staircase, and start casting AoE spells from out of range, and luring them to us one by one. Druids continue being... silly.
I've gotten further, as I've mentioned in the Adventurer's Lounge, but I think this is where I'll end this update.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust then step through Dorn's Deep gate onto Wyrm's Tooth Glacier, into sunlight and horde of Greater Ice Trolls and Snow Trolls. Unga-Bunga summon elementals, call lightning on foes, bond with elemental spirits strong:
Unga-Bunga and elementals press on through trolls, battle across ice bridge, approach large building carved into ice. Unga-Bunga battle Ettins down, reach door:
Unga-Bunga see more trolls further down glacier, not want get pinned against building. Unga-Bunga and trolls run down more trolls and yeti, find three doors into another building and rope bridge over chasm. Rope bridge seen better days, look like Unga-Bunga after long night dancing:
Unga-Bunga return to first building, toss Pixie Dust and enter, see Frost Salamanders guarding way inside. Since only two salamanders, Unga-Bunga shake off Pixie Dust and approach, say Unga-Bunga want to see leader of salamanders. Unga-Bunga taken to Chief Kerish. Chief Kerish wriggly like standing snake, think Unga-Bunga sent by someone named Marketh, maybe master or lieutenant of master:
Chief Kerish tell Unga-Bunga many things. Kerish say Joril Frostbeard kill father Kreg, take badge and say he new lieutenant of master. Kerish say master might be mad at Joril since master picks own lieutenants. Kerish say Joril rule caverns southwest. Unga-Bunga think caverns across broken rope bridge.
Unga-Bunga ask Kerish why dead bodies all over. Kerish say human slaves revolted, salamanders kill most but some escaped to level below, say below too hot for salamanders to go, ask Unga-Bunga to kill slave leader because slaves make Kerish look bad.
Unga-Bunga not want fight all salamanders yet so say will consider killing slave leader while thinking will kill salamander leader, instead. Unga-Bunga allowed to walk around building, see many salamander, ice trolls and wolves looking at sea creatures frozen in ice. Down one passage, salamander say he hear something around corner of passage but not see anything there. Unga-Bunga tell salamander will look around. Unga-Bunga go look around corner and see woman hiding from salamanders:
Unga-Bunga tell woman salamander hear her make noise. Woman thank Unga-Bunga, say name Vera but not want tell Unga-Bunga much else. Unga-Bunga tell Vera Unga-Bunga won't tell Vera there, tell salamander guard hearing things. Vera and salamander both thank Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga find strange room with knobs and lights but not touch anything, then go down stair guarded by frost salamanders. Salamanders guards won't move away from stair, Unga-Bunga get minor frostbite.
Unga-Bunga really want kill salamanders...
Unga-Bunga glad room downstairs much warmer, find slave leader Gareth. Gareth tell Unga-Bunga building museum of water creatures, say been slaved here long time. Gareth say one slave, Vera, tried to escape, found room with lights and knobs, turned nobs and made downstairs warmer so slaves safe from salamanders.
Unga-Bunga tell Gareth Unga-Bunga saw Vera upstairs, say Vera hiding from salamanders. Gareth glad Vera alive but say slaves trapped with no food or water, will die if can't escape. Gareth say slaves found way out but gate locked, ask Unga-Bunga to get key from Kerish. Unga-Bunga have good reason to kill salamanders now, tell Gareth will get key.
Unga-Bunga go back upstairs, tell Vera will free slaves soon, then tell Kerish Unga-Bunga need key to gate below. Kerish ask why Unga-Bunga need key. Unga-Bunga say trick slaves out into open to kill. Unga-Bunga almost say salamanders but stop himself in time:
Unga-Bunga take key, unlock gate, see three doors from building Unga-Bunga found below. Unga-Bunga think salamanders will chase slaves once slaves out onto glacier, summon elementals to guard stair leading to top of glacier. Unga-Bunga tell elementals not kill humans, only cold things. Unga-Bunga think elementals understand but will watch to be sure:
Unga-Bunga give key to Gareth, tell Gareth to escape, then go down to gate, see many guards Kerish sent to kill slaves:
Unga-Bunga hold off guards until slaves outside, lead guards to stair. Unga-Bunga glad elementals didn't kill slaves, command elementals to kill guards, call lightning onto guards:
Unga-Bunga lead elementals to top level of museum, summon more elementals, then run inside, taunt Kerish. Kerish command guards to kill Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga lead Kerish and minions into elemental army:
Unga-Bunga slay Kerish and all minions outside, go inside and slay all minions left:
Unga-Bunga find Vera, tell Vera slaves free:
After long battle, Unga-Bunga go down to warm room to rest, surprised to see some slaves still there. One slave say name Soth, give Unga-Bunga book about fixing bridges, say something about paying it forward:
Unga-Bunga thank slaves then rest. Unga-Bunga wake next day, use book to fix bridge:
Unga-Bunga cross bridge, soon approach cave to enter ice caverns...
I looked up the script when it happened to me. The culprit is a "!HasImmunityEffects()" check. If your character is immune to anything, he won't attempt his domination. Dorn goes in, immune to fear and level drain? Don't try to dominate him. And so on.
It would make sense to just check for charm immunity, but no. That's not how Dragomir does things.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
Unga-Bunga near cave to ice caverns, toss Pixie dust, go inside. Unga-Bunga see many winter wolves, know wolves breathe cold so summon earth elemental behind wolves, elemental not mind so much:
Unga-Bunga summon fire elementals behind wolves, elementals beat wolves down. Further inside cave, Unga-Bunga find white wyrms. Wyrms not attack elementals, so Unga-Bunga shake off Pixie Dust, speak to wyrms. One worm say name Frostbite, say wyrms eat humans:
Unga-Bunga not tell Frostbite Unga-Bunga half human, leave wyrms alone for now, hope freed slaves not come here...
Further in cave, Unga-Bunga see Frost Giants, Giants real tall. Frost Giants not attack elementals, so Unga-Bunga speak with frost giants, say Unga-Bunga want see Frost Giant Chieftain. Frost Giants point Unga-Bunga around bend in cave, Unga-Bunga see even larger frost giant sitting on giant throne, go speak to giant.
Frost Giant Chieftain say name Joril Frostbeard, say ruler of Frost Giants and slaves. Unga-Bunga remember Salamander Kerish tell Unga-Bunga Joril killed father Kreg to become new chieftain and lieutenant of master, want see what Joril says:
Unga-Bunga ask Joril how Joril kill father. Joril proud, say challenged father Chieftain Kreg to battle white wyrms, prove worth as Chieftain. Before battle, Joril go to wyrms, tell wyrms to pretend dead, then attack Kreg when Kreg turn away, tell wyrms will give one slave a day for food. Joril say wyrms agreed:
Unga-Bunga remember Salamander Kerish afraid of master, think Joril even more coward, really afraid of master. Unga-Bunga tell Joril master mad, Unga-Bunga sent to get badge:
Dumb Joril give Unga-Bunga badge. Unga-Bunga tell Joril want to look around caves. Even though Unga-Bunga have badge, Unga-Bunga not want leave slaves to get eaten, so Unga-Bunga look for slaves further in cave. Unga-Bunga see many Frost Giants and Winter Wolves around caves, come to slave pen with frost giant watching over slaves.
Unga-Bunga speak to slaves. Slave Leader Davin ask Unga-Bunga to slay wyrms so slaves not be food anymore. Unga-Bunga tell Slave Leader Davin will kill wyrms. Davin not sure believe Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga go back through caves, summon elementals and tell Frostbite slaves not food anymore. Frostbite get angry:
Unga-Bunga tell Frostbite not get angry, say Frostbite not need food anymore when dead. Elementals make wyrms not hungry anymore. Unga-Bunga go back to slaves, tell Davin good news:
Davin thank Unga-Bunga, ask Unga-Bunga help free slaves, say small cave nearby. Davin say giants not fit through small cave, but Frost Giant Gorg always watch slaves, make sure not escape. Davin say not sure caves safe, say hear noises coming from caves.
Unga-Bunga tell Davin will search caves, make safe. Unga-Bunga find small cave, toss Pixie Dust and enter cave, see entire tribe of Glacier Yeti. Unga-Bunga summon Earth Elemental into tribe...
...then Fire Elementals behind yeti once yeti backs exposed:
Fire Elementals clear cavern of yeti, pummel yeti into ice, leave only treasures behind. Unga-Bunga proud of elementals, wipe tear from eye:
Further south in caves Unga-Bunga see wall of bone, Black Ice Knight guarding wall. Black Ice Knight remind Unga-Bunga of Kresselack, Unga-Bunga not happy. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, slowly move toward wall, see what else there:
Unga-Bunga see two huts, five Black Ice Knights and Human Mage. Unga-Bunga see mage protected by many magics, think mage powerful, make Unga-Bunga uneasy.
Unga-Bunga back away, return to warm room in museum to rest, ask spirits for aid. Once awake, Unga-Bunga return to cave with mage and knights, summon three elementals, toss pixie dust on two elementals, not dust one elemental:
Unga-Bunga not sure if mage attack, but make plan just in case, have knights chase elemental further into caves, have hidden elementals rush mage when knights lured away. Unga-Bunga cast protective magics, then slowly approach mage.
Mage say name Kontik, say Kontik commanded by mistress to await Unga-Bunga in cave. Unga-Bunga ask Kontik who mistress is. Kontik tell Unga-Bunga mistress Auril, Frost Maiden Goddess, say Auril not happy with Unga-Bunga for killing Lysan. Kontik say will kill Unga-Bunga now:
Unga-Bunga summon beetles at feet of Kontik, send hidden elementals to battle Kontik but dumb elementals attack Ice Knights first. Ice Knights follow elementals into battle, not follow elemental luring knights away:
Kontik Archmage of great power, cast horrible magics, scorch and freeze beetles and elementals at same time. Unga-Bunga run outside wall, one Ice Knight follow, attack Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga summon elemental to battle Ice Knight, have another elemental seal port in wall of bone, cast Insect Plagues and Spike Stones onto Kontik and Ice Knights:
Kontik resist nearly all magic of Unga-Bunga, Black Ice Knights strong beyond measure. Unga-Bunga struggle with elements, summon lightning and sunlight into caves:
Unga-Bunga use all magic to strike down Ice Knights, dance to summon spirits to battle Kontik. Kontik have unlimited magic and strength of ten warriors, stand alone in battle with greater spirits and knock to ground with colorful visions:
Unga-Bunga know must stay near Kontik for spirits to battle but not want to be so close magic of Kontik hurt Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga not able to summon lighting very far in cave, decide to risk getting closer, hope lightning strike Kontik. Unga-Bunga wait for Kontik to cast:
Unga-Bunga rush Kontik after magic colors pass, move behind Kontik so Kontik between Unga-Bunga and spirits, barely avoid more magic colors:
Unga-Bunga dance feverishly, try to summon new spirits to battle when Kontik slays others with magic. Unga-Bunga finally able to summon one last bolt of lightning to strike Kontik down:
Unga-Bunga exhausted, fall to ground and pass out. Unga-Bunga finally awaken again, gather up treasures of Kontik and Black Ice Knights, make sure way outside through cave safe, then return to Davin. Unga-Bunga say way through cave clear, now will kill frost giant guarding slaves. Unga-Bunga go around corner where guard not see and summon beetles.
Unga-Bunga talk to frost giant. Frost Giant say name Gorg. Unga-Bunga tell Frost Giant Gorg will kill Gorg now. Gorg not believe Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga command beetles to bite Gorg. Gorg swarmed by beetles, beetles spit acid on Gorg, Gorg dies. Unga-Bunga think about hanging Gorg carcass on wall like Gorg wanted to do with Unga-Bunga, but Gorg too heavy:
Unga-Bunga go to Davin, say slaves now free. Davin and slaves thank Unga-Bunga, leave through caves. Unga-Bunga follow, wait for slaves to escape over bridge, then summon elementals to guard in case giants follow:
Unga-Bunga not leave giants alive to chase slaves, go see Joril one last time, tell Joril Unga-Bunga kill all Frost Giants now that slaves free:
Joril get mad, tell guards kill Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga run past giants, lure outside where elementals waiting:
Once outside, Unga-Bunga call down lightning on giants, elementals pummel giants into ground:
Unga-Bunga search giants, see Joril coward to last, not come out to battle. Unga-Bunga and elementals bring battle to Joril, then sack rest of giants and wolves, take treasures:
Unga-Bunga take treasures, fresh water to Severed Hand. Unga-Bunga ask Lehland to appraise magic items, sell many things, bring water to Valestis for arboretum:
After long rest, Unga-Bunga make return journey to Wyrm's Tooth glacier, approach cave leading to lower part of Dorn's Deep stronghold...
When Gorion told me that we would have to leave Candlekeep he asked me if I would take my twin sister Sable with me. “I am rather concerned that things could turn out very badly without your influence,” he said. I didn’t take much persuading despite the fact that she is a blackguard, after all, she is my sister. I was actually quite pleased that she was with me when I was attacked by Mendas as without her watching my back, I could well have been killed.
The same was true when attacked by skeletons near High Hedge. On that occasion we needed each other. Being alone in such a place is quite dangerous.
I was pleasantly surprised to be able to help Melicamp get back into shape and when an ogre attacked we acquired some enchanted belts.
We made our way south to Nashkel and just south of there, we killed Zargos Flintblade who had a +1 Axe a weapon in which Sable is quite proficient.
We reunited Jumper with its owner and ridded Tonder of the curse of lycanthropy.
Next we killed Vax and Zal and to the West, Krumm, Caldo and Ingot.
In transit we killed a polar bear before returning to the Carnival where we killed Zordral and the Amazing Oopah.
We helped the archaeologist and Brage next.
We then spent some time ankheg hunting.
A Revenant was our next foe followed by Narcillicus Harwillger Neen.
Near Beregost we were attacked by wolves and Sable only just survived.
We then took on the ankheg area.
We returned Precious to Smeagol before taking on Molkar et al.
Meilum was next.
And we had to flee a basilisk.
At the Friendly Arms we slew Tarnesh.
We joined up with Xzar and Montaron before going to Ulgoth’s Beard where Montaron did some pick-pocketting.
After Dorn joined us we went in search of Kryll.
We then dropped off Dorn, Montaron and Xzar in Nashkel and went ankheg hunting with Tenya, Sirene and Coran.
EDIT
After picking up Dynaheir and Neera we went in search of Lethe. She killed Neera before dying herself.
We raised Neera which made us very poor.
We then went in search of Adoy and after helping him bade Neera farewell.
He's hanging in there
Helma and Sable are quite an interesting pair, look forward to reading more of their adventure
Coremage XXV - half-elf fighter/mage (Corey_Russell, protagonist)
Egg - human undead hunter (@Gate70)
Saile - half-elf avenger (@Grond0)
So the Trio found themselves near sirine corpses. We were wondering what to do then Egg found some ogres to play with. Saile did his usual call lightning and victory was ours once again. We let the nearby healer fix Egg up then we headed out. We picked up Brage, but Egg declined to use Brage's sword.
We figured it was high time to work on the Nashkel Mines. Kobolds were destroyed, and Egg was nice to enough to trigger some traps. Mulahey had no chance being hit with webs from out of sight. We then used stinking cloud and call lightning and paralyzation wand on the Amazons, they were destroyed as well. Coremage XXV mentioned Egg is an undead hunter, let's take out the undead which went almost to plan, though Coremage had to dodge some ghasts. Narcillus and his jellies didn't last long.
In Nashkel we returned a greenstone ring to a widow and then destroyed Nimbul pretty quickly. Call lightning and magic missiles were just too much. While we were here, we also tried to took out Neira. Egg got hit with rigid thinking and said there goes my paladin class (he was implying he was going to slaughter innocents). Not so fast said Coremage XXV - he hit Egg with the paralyzation wand and sure enough Egg couldn't kill anyone while paralyzed. Good thing Egg's saves weren't that great just yet. We then sought out Tranzig and Tranzig was wiped out by Saile's sword spider form. We also took down some spiders in a house in the area.
We went to FAI and returned Landarin's things. We noticed we hadn't done the Ankhegs yet so we worked on taking out those enemies. The party did well here. We ran into one hiccup though when Egg and Saile raced to the top of the map, leaving Coremage XXV far behind. And anhkeg attacks Coremage XXV but Coremage XXV managed to paralyze the ankheg with his wand and then he was OK. We returned a bowl to a priestess and bought some things at Ulgoth's Beard.
Coremage XXV said it was time to upgrade Egg's armor - Khosahnn would be happy to donate his right? So we assaulted the bandit camp. Our attacks were a bit disorganized, and Egg got to near death. However, Coremage summoned some critters with his monster summoning wand as well as parayzed Khosahnn, which allowed Egg to escape with his life. Close one! We assaulted Tazok's Tent with invisibility and that worked out quite well. At this point we noticed we still hadn't taken out Melium so we headed that direction.
Then we got the dreaded basilisk ambush! Uh, oh, no potion of mirror eyes in our bags! Coremage XXV did an invisibility potion. But Egg got petrified! (but not chunked). Right about here Grond0 lost his connection to the game. Coremage XXV protected himself from petrification and tried to get the attention of the basilisk and kill it as soon as possible. However, now the basilisk was targeting Saile! Incredibly, Saile was petrified saved vs the petrification 3 times before the basliisk was slain!
The party then obtained some potion of mirror eyes and a stone to flesh scroll and retriggered this map ambush. Only some dire wolves showed up. They were slain, Egg brought back to life and into the party! The Trio is whole once more!
Before making our way to Melium we dealt with Molkar's group with web and fireballs.
Melium himself was killed quickly, as expected. The party decided to push their luck and take on the basilisks at Durlag's Tower. This went much smoother. Saile got to demonstrate the deadly sword spider form/web combo against some minions at the outside of the tower.
Somewhere along the way we had also picked up Samuel and picked up a fire resistance ring. We skipped Cloakwood Area 1 and battled some poisonous critters in area two, but with Saile able to safely trigger the web traps with his sword spider form, this went pretty smooth. Saile tried to prove he was the better sword spider vs an actual sword spider and nearly died, but the extra damage from the nearby Coremage XXV was enough to keep Saile alive. We naturally battled some minions to get the Spider's Bane for Egg since he used two-hand swords. We ran out of time so saved our session here.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185418#Comment_1185418
Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, enter Lower Dorn's Deep, see skeleton guarding entryway waving huge sword. Unga-Bunga sigh, know vision quests never easy, summon elementals. Skeleton not attack elementals though. Unga-Bunga about to speak to skeleton when elementals see salamanders, go to attack. Unga-Bunga tell elementals stay, wait for salamanders. Elementals stay, slay salamanders on entryway:
After battle, Unga-Bunga speak to skeleton. Skeleton say skeleton once paladin of Torm, vowed make peace between dwarves and elves while alive, killed by both during battle. Dead Paladin say still around because broken vow, serves Revered Brother Poquelin and Brother Harken, Harken commands Dead Paladin, sees through paladin's dead eyes:
Unga-Bunga tell Dead Paladin not sound like Dead Paladin serving true servants of Ilmater. Dead Paladin say must obey unless shown proof of evil, say Brother Harken see Unga-Bunga now, tell Dead Paladin attack Unga-Bunga.
Unga-Bunga tell elementals protect Unga-Bunga against Dead Paladin. Dead Paladin cuts down three elementals before crumbling to ground. Elementals keep beating Dead Paladin, Unga-Bunga tell elementals stop, know Dead Paladin will rise again. Unga-Bunga also know Dead Paladin not see through Pixie Dust, think Pixie Dust handy:
Unga-Bunga gather elementals, move slowly through cavern, battle many salamander and tarnished sentries. Sentries throw axes like Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga find lift to north, ambushed by thieves:
After elementals slay thieves, a deep gnome worker come up to Unga-Bunga, lay hand on Unga-Bunga's leg. Unga-Bunga greet worker but worker not able to talk. Unga-Bunga not make vows like paladins but decide will make Master Poquelin and all lieutenants pay for evil ways:
Further into cavern, Unga-Bunga find run down homes, meet Gemcutter Norl inside. Gemcutter Noril tell Unga-Bunga Norl's legs crushed by Marketh for trying escape, say Marketh say Marketh ruler of this part of Lower Dorn's Deep, say Marketh serves Revered Brother Poquelin:
Unga-Bunga think Poquelin master, Marketh lieutenant of master. Unga-Bunga thank Norl, promise Norl will try to help, leave house and explore further into cavern. Unga-Bunga see tower to southeast, tell elementals move toward tower, battle many more salamander and sentries on way:
On path leading to tower, little deep gnome girl walk up to Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga ask girl her name. Deep Gnome girl point to mouth, show tongue cut out, point to forearm. Unga-Bunga see name Fengla branded into skin. Unga-Bunga get angry, ask who branded her. Fengla point northeast to archway where Norl say Marketh's castle is:
Unga-Bunga ask where Fengla bring food Fengla carrying. Fengla point to tower, touch key on chain Fengla wear around neck. Unga-Bunga ask Fengla borrow key, touch axe on belt and smile at Fengla. Fengla smile back, give Unga-Bunga key. Unga-Bunga tell Fengla go somewhere safe, approach tower with elementals. Archers on tower taunt Unga-Bunga, shoot arrows at elementals. Unga-Bunga tell elementals back away, archers taunt Unga-Bunga more. Unga-Bunga get angry, take deep breaths.
Unga-Bunga see door of tower too small for elementals. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, cast protection magics, tell elementals approach tower from other side. While archers shoot elementals, Unga-Bunga sneak up to tower, use key and go inside:
Unga-Bunga know archers not shoot well if blind, cast blinding magic on archers, beat archers down. Archers so dumb not even have melee weapons. When archers dead, Fengla enter tower, thank Unga-Bunga and leave:
Unga-Bunga search tower, make sure safe, find comfy beds. Unga-Bunga leave tower and gather elementals, clear rest of cavern then return to tower. Unga-Bunga note ways deeper into Deep: Lift to northwest near way out of caverns, archway to north, archway to northeast lead to Marketh's palace, cave to southeast, warm air coming from cave. Unga-Bunga rest, toss Pixie Dust, make way northwest, take lift down deeper into caverns.
Unga-Bunga get off lift, see many deep gnomes mining crystal, met by Deep Gnome Tarnelm. Unga-Bunga say Tarnelm sound sick, ask if okay. Tarnelm say Unga-Bunga not really care about Tarnelm:
Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga many things, say if Unga-Bunga really want help deep gnomes to bring food from Marketh's palace, say Malavon raising many Umber Hulks to find deep gnomes hiding in caverns, say Malavon want enslave all deep gnomes. Tarnelm also say Elf Maiden Ilmadia commands Fire Giants, having giants tear down forge, use metal to build ship. Tarnelm say Priest Beorn say dwarves once used portal to elemental plane of fire to power forge, say salamanders came from portal.
Unga-Bunga thank Tarnelm, tell Tarnelm will bring food. Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga will believe it when see it. Unga-Bunga shrug, go back up lift to great cavern. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, go through archway leading to Marketh's palace into palace garden. Unga-Bunga see Dead Paladin of Torm awaiting Unga-Bunga in garden, but Paladin not see Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga summon elementals to search garden:
Unga-Bunga and elementals battle many shrieker mushrooms. Shrieker mushrooms summon Red Myconids and Blind Minotaurs, but elementals pummel them. In center of garden, Unga-Bunga see two deep gnomes. Deep Gnome tell Unga-Bunga name Callard, say other deep gnome Callard's son, say Marketh ordered them to build sculpture of Marketh in garden. Callard say he first refused to build statue so Marketh had son's tongue cut out.
Unga-Bunga get more angry at Marketh, tell Callard planning to make Marketh pay. Callard give Unga-Bunga picture of Marketh Callard use for sculpture, say Unga-Bunga know what Marketh look like now, wish Unga-Bunga luck:
Unga-Bunga leave garden through palace doors, enter first floor of palace, find Dead Paladin inside still searching for Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga think paladins like dog on bone, even dead ones. Unga-Bunga stay hidden with Pixie Dust, summon elementals. Elementals ambushed by thieves striking from shadows but elementals beat thieves down:
Unga-Bunga search first floor of palace, meet Human Flozem. Unga-Bunga tell Flozem have meeting with Marketh. Flozem tell Unga-Bunga go upstairs, find Marketh there. Unga-Bunga think Flozem not so bad, thank Flozem and continue searching floor. Unga-Bunga meet Fleezum in other room. Unga-Bunga think Fleezum not friendly like Flozem:
Unga-Bunga and elementals battle Fleezum down:
Unga-Bunga forget battle knock Pixie Dust off, go into hall, get attacked by Dead Paladin:
Unga-Bunga and elementals battle Dead Paladin until Paladin crumbles again. Battle noise make Flozen come into hall. Flozen see Fleezum dead in hall, get angry at Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga see elementals taking beating, summon beetles to help elementals:
Unga-Bunga see many battles today, hope no more Fleezums, Flozems or Freakums left in palace. Unga-Bunga and elementals continue searching floor, find palace kitchen. Unga-Bunga ask Cook for food for gnomes, Cook not argue with Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga and elementals search last room on floor, find Pretty Drow Elf Ginufae. Unga-Bunga see Ginufae's face bruised, ask Ginufae if Marketh hurt Ginufae. Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga she fell down stair, but Unga-Bunga know Ginufae lying, tell Ginufae Unga-Bunga planning to kill Marketh before anyway. Ginufae plead with Unga-Bunga not to hurt Marketh:
Unga-Bunga see Ginufae upset, tell Ginufae Unga-Bunga won't kill Marketh. Ginufae not see Unga-Bunga cross fingers behind back when tell her, though. Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga many things, say Brother Poquelin and allies met with Ginufae's drow people, wanted make alliance, say drow refused but Ginufae's brother Malavon wanted alliance. Ginufae say when Ginufae learned Malavon's desire for alliance, Malavon take her to Marketh as gift, say Malavon joined with Poquelin:
Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga Ginufae know Unga-Bunga searching for Poquelin, tell Unga-Bunga need all six lieutenant badges to remove invisible wall in back of Fallen Temple leading to Poquelin. Ginufae say Brother Perdium and other priests and hordes of undead guard temple. Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga Marketh have badge, plead again with Unga-Bunga not hurt Marketh:
Unga-Bunga thank Ginufae, tell Ginufae Unga-Bunga not look for Marketh today. Unga-Bunga leave palace, take lift down to deep gnomes mining crystals, give Tarnelm and deep gnomes food from kitchen. Tarnelm thank Unga-Bunga, ask Unga-Bunga to defend deep gnomes from Malavon's Umber Hulks trying to find secret deep gnome settlement. Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga once Umber Hulks dead, Unga-Bunga follow red crystals to settlement:
Unga-Bunga look over edge of cliff, see many Rhinoceros Beetles and Umber Hulks below, gather wits for battle...
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185418#Comment_1185418
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185531#Comment_1185531
Unga-Bunga summon elementals, lead elementals down cliff, battle Rhinoceros Beetles and Umber Hulks:
After elementals kill beetles and umber hulks, Unga-Bunga lead elementals to place where Deep Gnome Tarnelm say Umber Hulks burrowing. Many umber hulks burrow to surface, attack elementals:
Unga-Bunga worried, help elementals in battle, finally kill all umber hulks. Unga-Bunga take beetle shells and hulk hides, put in Holding bag, maybe have armor made if crafter can get rid of smell. Unga-Bunga slip through crevice in earth wall Umber Hulks burrowed, follow red crystals to smaller cavern, met by Deep Gnome.
Deep Gnome say Deep Gnome name Beorn, tell Unga-Bunga Priest Beorn, Eighth Facet of Callarduran, ask Unga-Bunga who Unga-Bunga and why there. Unga-Bunga say Unga-Bunga one and only Shaman Unga-Bunga, tell Priest Beorn Tarnelm told Unga-Bunga how to get to settlement. Unga-Bunga say helped Tarnelm and deep gnomes get food, asked by Tarnelm to help settlement. Priest Beorn ask Unga-Bunga to come to temple later, want ask Unga-Bunga's aid:
Unga-Bunga watch Priest Beorn return to temple, walk around settlement, find drow merchant. Merchant say name Nym:
Unga-Bunga see nice bracer and potions, buy rare birds and squirrels from Nym for Severed Hand arboretum, tell Nym Unga-Bunga return later. Unga-Bunga search settlement more, find dwarf merchant. Dwarf Merchant say Dwarf Merchant known as 'Dirty Llew'. Unga-Bunga see more nice potions, make note return merchants later:
Unga-Bunga walk to temple, speak to Priest Beorn. Priest Beorn tell Unga-Bunga Malavon using Umber Hulks to find settlement, want to enslave or slaughter deep gnomes. Priest Beorn also say Ruby Priest Guello went to mines. try save captured deep gnomes but Guello captured also. Priest Beorn ask Unga-Bunga rescue Priest Guello, help battle Umber Hulks when find settlement:
Unga-Bunga agree to help deep gnomes, thanked by Priest Beorn. Unga-Bunga rest in empty home, pass by merchants on way out of settlement next day, get to talking with Drow Merchant Nym:
Nym tell Unga-Bunga Nym sneaked into many secret places over years, including Dorn's Deep. Unga-Bunga ask Nym about Dorn's Deep, ask what Nym found:
Nym tell Unga-Bunga Nym stole artifacts from elves and dwarves, sold artifacts to goblinoids. Unga-Bunga not believe what Unga-Bunga hear, ask Nym why Nym would do what Nym did:
Unga-Bunga get more mad than ever in life, want strike Nym down right there but take deep breaths. Unga-Bunga remember Dead Paladin unable to enter afterlife because of broken vow, decide to tell Dead Paladin about Nym, see if Paladin want kill Nym first.
Unga-Bunga remember Drow Elf Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga about Fallen Temple, say Brother Perdiem and other priests there. Unga-Bunga remember Dead Paladin of Torm say Brother Harken commands Dead Paladin. Unga-Bunga decide will save Priest Guello later, find Fallen Temple now. Unga-Bunga return to Palace Garden, remember walkway to temple there.
Unga-Bunga follow walkway, enter temple, see many Boneguard Skeletons guarding chanting priest. Unga-Bunga see priest protected by magic aura, hear priest chanting names of armor pieces, think priest summoning Dead Paladin:
Unga-Bunga summon elementals to battle skeletons, elementals pummel skeletons to dust, break magic aura protecting priest. Unga-Bunga speak to priest:
Unga-Bunga tell Brother Harken not to torture soul of Dead Paladin anymore. Brother Harken tell Unga-Bunga Brother Harken obey Revered Brother Poquelin in Ilmater's absence, summon Dead Paladin to battle Unga-Bunga:
When Dead Paladin summoned, Unga-Bunga tell Dead Paladin about Drow Nym, how Drow Nym caused war between dwarves and elves:
Dead Paladin tell Unga-Bunga Dead Paladin finally free of guilt and vow, thank Unga-Bunga, ask Unga-Bunga to bring remains to temple grounds sacred to Holy Triad for burial:
Unga-Bunga glare at Brother Harken, Brother Harken back away from Unga-Bunga looking stunned. Unga-Bunga gather up paladin's remains then gather elementals, search temple grounds. Unga-Bunga and elementals battle legions of Boneguard Skeletons, Zombie Lords and Greater Mummies commanded by more priests protected by magic auras:
Unga-Bunga talk to priests after defeating skeletons and magic auras but priests only babble like idiots. Unga-Bunga think priests' minds possessed by someone or something else:
Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, search further into temple, see High Priest standing before throne calling down curses on temple intruders:
Unga-Bungs search even further into temple, find idol of evil protected by Greater Mummies and Zombie Lords:
Unga-Bunga gather elementals, cast protective magics, send elementals into battle. Unga-Bunga challenged by Brother Perdiem:
Greater Mummies cast horrific magics at Unga-Bunga and elementals, Unga-Bunga command elementals to battle back, blind undead with magic:
Unga-Bunga battle harder than ever in life, finally bring down legions of undead. Unga-Bunga send elementals to destroy idol, hear Brother Perdium shrieking curses and blasphemies:
Once idol destroyed, Unga-Bunga hear priests sobbing, crying out in anguish. Unga-Bunga speak to Brother Perdiem, listen to Brother Perdium tell Unga-Bunga how priests deceived by Brother Poquelin:
Unga-Bunga shudder as Brother Perdiem tell Unga-Bunga about Brother Poquelin:
Brother Perdiem give Unga-Bunga lieutenant badge. Unga-Bunga feel sorry for priests of Ilmater, know priests have long path to forgiveness for evil acts, make sure priests okay before returning to tower to rest.
Unga-Bunga gather things after resting for journey to Severed Hand and Kuldahar. Unga-Bunga bone tired from battle with undead, need time to recover. Unga-Bunga take mountain passes to Severed Hand, bring birds and squirrels to Valestis for arboretum:
Unga-Bunga bring paladin remains to Sister Calliana at Temple of Ilmater in Kuldahar. Sister Calliana know of fallen paladin, thank Unga-Bunga for kindness, give Unga-Bunga fancy cloak:
Unga-Bunga stay in Kuldahar for seven days, take much peyote, speak with spirits until Unga-Bunga's spirits high again, then make trek through mountain passes to Lower Dorn's Deep once more...
We hunted the wyverns that Coran told us about and recieved a hefty reward. Whilst doing so we acquired an excellent two handed sword and at Selene's request killed a small dragon. She also rewarded us but then, without any explanation Sable killed her. Selene was wearing aa ankh of acceptance and a ring of protection +2 which Sable donned and in the process turned her alignment to true neutral.
Perhaps Sable either thought or knew that the necklace was disguising Selene's true alignment.
At least from now on it will not be immediately apparent that there is evil in our party.
We cleared the Nashkel mines and killed the Amazons outside.
We are now raiding Durlag's Tower as we have become quite strong. Just finished the chess board successfully and after that killed the Demonknight. Sadly Dynaheir was killed in the battle, but we did have a scroll to raise her.
EDIT
i have since discovered that Selene was indeed true neutral, so perhaps Sable's assault was the fact that she was tired of being immediately identified as being evil and prefers to be thought of as neutral, after all with a reputation of 20 she clearly is not doing that much which is evil.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185418#Comment_1185418
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185531#Comment_1185531
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185535#Comment_1185535
Unga-Bunga return Lower Dorn's Deep, make sure archer tower safe, then rest. Unga-Bunga know Poquelin have three more lieutenants Unga-Bunga must confront: Malavon the Wizard, Maiden Ilmadia the Priestess, Marketh, Ginufae's brother, not sure Marketh's trade. Unga-Bunga not want get ambushed by lieutenants planning together against Unga-Bunga, decide make sure any foes between Unga-Bunga and three lieutenants defeated before facing lieutenants.
Unga-Bunga remember Ginufae tell Unga-Bunga Malavon live in dome near Artisan District off Palace Garden. Unga-Bunga walk to garden, head east on path to district. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust and enter district.
Unga-Bunga see many Blind Minotaurs and Umber Hulks guarding district, summon elementals to battle:
One time Unga-Bunga order elementals to battle too hard, get carried away and throw axe at Umber Hulks, shake off Pixie Dust. Umber Hulks confuse elementals by staring at elementals. Unga-Bung pinned against rock by elementals, afraid elementals attack Unga-Bunga, toss Pixie Dust again, stay hidden until battle in control:
Unga-Bunga avoid rune of eye on ground, think Wizard Malavon watching Unga-Bunga defeat minions. Unga-Bunga lead elementals through district, slay many umber hulks, blind minotaurs. As Unga-Bunga search buildings in district, Unga-Bunga and elementals ambushed by many umber hulks:
Unga-Bunga and elementals defeat umber hulks. Unga-Bunga search buildings, find nice sword, wonder if Dead Paladin's sword. Unga-Bunga not use swords, though:
Unga-Bunga and elementals clear district of all guards up to door of Malavon's Dome. Unga-Bunga think Malavon's day coming, but not today. Unga-Bunga take rest, then return to Palace Garden, enter palace. Unga-Bunga tell Ginufae will confront Marketh now. Ginufae ask Unga-Bunga promise not hurt Marketh again, Unga-Bunga not say anything. Unga-Bunga cast protection magics, toss Pixie Dust, go up stair to top level of palace.
Unga-Bunga not see or hear anyone upstairs, summon elemental. Thieves come from shadows, ambush elemental. Unga-Bunga glad not forget Pixie Dust this time:
Unga-Bunga see bedroom chambers off main hall but have elementals search hall first. Unga-Bunga not want get ambushed by skulking thieves when confronting Marketh:
Once elementals clear hall of thieves, Unga-Bunga tell three elementals guard stair, bring other three elementals search bedroom chambers. Bedroom chamber nearest to stair empty but Unga-Bunga finally find Marketh in other chamber:
Marketh tell Unga-Bunga Marketh ruler of Dorn's Deep, say Marketh not let things like ethics keep Marketh from power:
Unga-Bunga ask Marketh why Marketh work for Poquelin. Marketh say Marketh was in adventuring band trying to overthrow Poquelin, band killed most of Poquelin's forces. Marketh say Poquelin confronted band, said band should work for him but not all in band agreed:
Unga-Bunga tell Marketh Unga-Bunga come for lieutenant badge. Marketh say will hand badge over to Unga-Bunga if Unga-Bunga let Marketh live:
Unga-Bunga feel sorry for Ginufae but know Marketh must die, order elementals to keep Marketh from escaping room:
Unga-Bunga hear incantations from hall, go check on other elementals, see elementals battle Kraken Mage:
Unga-Bunga return to Marketh's room, see Marketh dead, elementals battling two more Kraken Mages:
Unga-Bungs stay hidden under Pixie Dust, watch elementals pummel Kraken Mages. Unga-Bunga proud of elementals again:
Unga-Bunga claim many treasures from Marketh, claim Marketh's badge, relieved battle not as difficult as Unga-Bunga feared. Unga-Bunga go downstairs to tell Ginufae what happened. When time come, Unga-Bunga afraid, not say anything:
Unga-Bunga not believe Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga face legions of powerful foes in battle but too afraid tell Ginufae Marketh's evil deserved death. Unga-Bunga want elementals tell Ginufae but elementals not talk.
Unga-Bunga ashamed, storm out of palace back to tower to rest, decide to free Priest Guello next...
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185418#Comment_1185418
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185531#Comment_1185531
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185535#Comment_1185535
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185542#Comment_1185542
Unga-Bunga notice Lower Dorn's Deep not so noisy anymore when Unga-Bunga return tower. Unga-Bunga rest, gather things, decide search for mines, Priest Guello. Unga-Bunga remember hearing noises coming from cave in southeast of main cavern, go to cave, toss Pixie Dust, go inside.
Unga-Bunga see deep gnome slaves mining cavern, salamanders watching and guarding:
Unga-Bunga cast protective magics, summon elementals to battle:
After elementals kill salamander, deep gnome approach Unga-Bunga. Deep Gnome say Deep Gnome Priest Guello. Priest Guello say Priest Guello must return deep gnome settlement or many deep gnomes die. Unga-Bunga ask Priest Guello how best rescue Guello and deep gnomes. Priest Guello say Salamander King Shikata and salamander never stop watching deep gnome slaves, must be killed:
Unga-Bunga look further into mines, see many salamander, see rivers of fire with narrow walkways in between small spots free of fire. Unga-Bunga gather elementals, have elementals kill salamander in larger spots free of fire, lure salamander to free spots so many elementals fight only one salamander:
Unga-Bunga keep luring salamander to elementals until one salamander shout salamander Salamander King Shikata. Salamander King Shikata say Salamander King Shikata most powerful of all Salamander Kings, ask how Unga-Bunga dare trespass in domain of Marketh:
Unga-Bunga want tell Salamander King Shikata Unga-Bunga killed Marketh, kill Salamander King Shikata too, but Unga-Bunga not think say so at time. Salamander King Shikata say Unga-Bunga dead then attack Unga-Bunga with salamander guards:
Unga-Bunga and elementals kill all salamander, Unga-Bunga take nice spear from Shikata. Priest Guello thank Unga-Bunga, tell Unga-Bunga deep gnomes return to settlement when safe:
Unga-Bunga return deep gnome settlement, find Priest Guello already there:
Unga-Bunga take rest in empty home in settlement, remember caves in mine cavern leading to forge, think Maiden Ilmadia there.
After rest Unga-Bunga gather things, make way in mines to deeper caves. Unga-Bunga cast protective magics, toss Pixie Dust, enter cave.
Unga-Bunga pass through cave into large cavern, feel hot air rush by Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga see salamander guarding cave, see many more elementals and salamander in cavern just beyond. Unga-Bunga summon elementals, elementals attacked by all except lone salamander guarding cave:
Unga-Bunga's elementals better, beat down salamander and other elementals. Unga-Bunga approach lone salamander sentry, rub off Pixie Dust. Salamander say Unga-Bunga want close portals to Elemental Plane of Fire:
Unga-Bunga really just want confront Maiden Ilmadia but figure easier just kill salamander. Unga-Bunga and elementals kill salamander, battle many more salamander and elementals further into cavern:
Further into cavern Unga-Bunga see Fire Giant, make Unga-Bunga afraid. Unga-Bunga toss Pixie Dust, slowly approach Fire Giant with elementals. When Unga-Bunga see Fire Giant not attack elementals, Unga-Bunga decide scout ahead, see how many Fire Giants guarding forge. Unga-Bunga lead elementals back through cavern, tell elementals stay. Unga-Bunga walk back to Fire Giant, scout ahead:
Unga-Bunga count giants as pass through caverns. Unga-Bunga count many giants, find ship giants building Tarnelm tell Unga-Bunga about:
Unga-Bunga slowly approach hut near ship, see Maiden Ilmadia guarded by two Priest-Mages of Vhaeraun and many Fire Giants, make Unga-Bunga very afraid:
Unga-Bunga see even more Fire Giants east of Maiden Ilmadia, across river of fire:
Unga-Bunga count 9 Fire Giants, 2 Priest-Mages of Vhaeraun and 1 Maiden Ilmadia in all. Unga-Bunga afraid, not think Unga-Bunga can get lieutenant badge from Maiden Ilmadia without defeating all enemies in battle. Unga-Bunga return to elementals, make note of narrow bridges over rivers of fire, return to tower. Unga-Bunga take peyote, ask spirits for aid.
Unga-Bunga have vision of Unga-Bunga running through forge cavern fast as possible, fire giants chasing Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga cross narrow bridge over river of fire, see friendly elementals, see Unga-Bunga turn and face giants...
Unga-Bunga come out of vision very sweaty, take deep breath and plan for Unga-Bunga's Mad Dash...
Unga-Bunga wake up next day, gather things, return to forge cavern. Unga-Bunga find spot in cavern with many rivers of fire, three bridges close to each other spanning rivers. Unga-Bunga summon Fire and Earth Elementals between rivers, tell elementals to stay, cast nearly all protection magics except Pixie Dust.
Unga-Bunga approach Fire Giant sentry:
Unga-Bunga tell Fire Giant Unga-Bunga want see Maiden Ilmadia. Fire Giant helpful, tell Unga-Bunga where Unga-Bunga already know to go:
Unga-Bunga cast remaining protection magics, slowly approach Maiden Ilmadia. Maiden Ilmadia greet Unga-Bunga not so warmly:
Unga-Bunga be nice to Maiden Ilmadia, try not battle entire camp. Unga-Bunga be smooth like goat butter when Unga-Bunga want to be:
Maiden Ilmadia tell Unga-Bunga many things, say Revered Brother Poquelin tell Ilmadia and giants break down forge, build giant ship, make plan to ram ship into cavern wall. Poquelin say broken cavern spill lava onto Drow City of Rilauven, Ginufae's people.
Maiden Ilmadia tell Unga-Bunga Poquelin want revenge on Drow for not making alliance with Poquelin, say Poquelin want kill Drow so not ambush from behind:
Maiden Ilmadia also tell Unga-Bunga Maiden Ilmadia and Malavon want create black unicorns, have Ilmadia lure unicorns, have Malavon corrupt unicorns with dark magics:
Unga-Bunga not able to help self, let Maiden Ilmadia know what color Maiden Ilmadia heart is:
Maiden Ilmadia and allies get mad, attack Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga ask spirits for aid, cast great magics, try blind enemies:
Unga-Bunga hear Maiden Ilmadia scream, see clutch at eyes. Unga-Bunga smile like Jack Nicholson killing cop in Batman movie. Then Unga-Bunga see Priest-Mages resist spell, Unga-Bunga not smile so much, begin Mad Dash:
Unga-Bunga nearly trapped by legion of Fire Giants, dodge back and forth, finally hit seam on outside:
Unga-Bunga run back to three bridges, yell at elementals to make way. Once Unga-Bunga across first bridge, command elementals to guard bridge so Fire Giants only able attack one elemental:
Unga-Bunga summon more Spike Stones and Spike Growth than ever in life, have more elementals defend bridge as elementals begin to fall:
Unga-Bunga see spikes whittling away Fire Giants but see many elementals fall, not know if Fire Giants or elementals die first. Unga-Bunga see Priest-Mages resist all magic of Unga-Bunga:
Unga-Bunga cheer as last Fire Giants fall, retreat when Priest-Mages take bridge, send last elementals to battle Priest-Mages:
Priest-Mages battle back elementals, Unga-Bunga command elementals retreat to second bridge. Priest-Mages cast dark magics, dispel Unga-Bunga's protection magics:
Unga-Bunga afraid, retreat to third bridge. Priest-Mages dispel rest of Unga-Bunga's magics:
Unga-Bunga begin to dance, summon spirits, command elementals to hold bridge, wish Unga-Bunga knew how dispel magics. After long battle, Priest-Mages' magic protections start fade away:
Unga-Bunga cheer elementals, spirits as Priest-Mages beaten down one after other:
Unga-Bunga know battle not done, have last elemental retreat while spirits kill Fire Giant not slain by spikes:
After Fire Giant slain, Unga-Bunga creep forward with elemental, search for any survivors. Unga-Bunga come to Maiden Ilmadia's hut, see Maiden Ilmadia and Fire Giant guard stumbling around blind. Unga-Bunga not see any other survivors. Unga-Bunga dance, summon spirits to battle Fire Giant:
Once spirits slay Fire Giant, Unga-Bunga send spirits away. Unga-Bunga have something special in mind for Black-Hearted Maiden Ilmadia:
Unga-Bunga laugh as Maiden Ilmadia cast Hold Person at beetles, know Maiden Ilmadia now Blind Maiden Ilmadia, soon be Dead Maiden Ilmadia:
Unga-Bunga watch beetles chomp Maiden Ilmadia, summon lightning inside cavern:
Unga-Bunga cry out, beat chest for minutes, then claim Maiden Ilmadia's treasures and lieutenant badge. Unga-Bunga return to tower and rest, know now have 5 of 6 lieutenant badges. Unga-Bunga know Malavon last lieutenant, ask spirits for aid fighting powerful mage next day...
We defeated the Demonknight but no helm of opposite alignment.
Also no assassins when we leave the Demonknight room.
Is this because we haven't accepted the quest from the dwarf at Ulgoth's Beard?
There was no problem with my last run.
We returned to Ulgoth's Beard, talked to the dwarf, and upon returning to the Dragonknight killed him again.
With the helm, Sable is now Lawful Good, well on the road to redemption
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185418#Comment_1185418
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185531#Comment_1185531
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185535#Comment_1185535
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185542#Comment_1185542
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185568#Comment_1185568
Unga-Bunga wake from rest, gather things, leave tower and make way through Artisan's District to Malavon's Dome. Unga-Bunga cast many protective magics, toss Pixie Dust, climb stair, enter dome. Unga-Bunga see two Umber Hulks guarding entry to dome, summon elementals:
Elementals beat down Umber Hulks. Unga-Bunga search western side of dome, see many deep gnome slaves with eyes cut out, have elementals battle down more Umber Hulks, deep gnomes scurry away:
Unga-Bunga see chambers filled with liquid, dead bodies in chambers, notes of Malavon on each chamber. Unga-Bunga get angry:
Once Unga-Bunga search western side of dome, Unga-Bunga gather elementals, begin search eastern side of dome. Not far from entryway, Unga-Bunga see many deep gnome slaves, wizard with two Iron Golems:
Unga-Bunga glad Unga-Bunga read through boring book of golems by Malavon night before, Unga-Bunga needed drink smart potion to make sense of book. Unga-Bunga maybe not as smart as Malavon every day but Unga-Bunga smart enough know when Unga-Bunga need be smart.
Unga-Bunga send one elemental northwest corner of dome, one elemental southwest corner of dome, one elemental in circle in between, keep three elementals with Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga drink another smart potion, cast more protective magics, shake off Pixie Dust and confront Malavon:
Unga-Bunga wait for right moment, try keep Malavon talking. When Malavon tell Unga-Bunga drop weapons and magic items, Unga-Bunga say Malavon crazy. Unga-Bunga know anyone who cut eyes out of people crazy, figure Malavon called crazy before, try make Malavon mad so not fight good:
Malavon tell Unga-Bunga deep gnomes stare at Malavon so Malavon cut eyes out, say not cut eyes from Ginufae so Ginufae see Marketh leer at Ginufae:
Unga-Bunga hear enough from Malavon, command golems attack Malavon:
Even with golems attacking Malavon, Malavon able dispel Unga-Bunga's protective magics:
Unga-Bunga curse, recast protective magics, send elementals after Umber Hulks in chamber Unga-Bunga not see at first:
Iron Golems and elementals pummel Malavon. Unga-Bunga cheer, then hear Malavon's voice behind Unga-Bunga:
Malavon threaten Unga-Bunga, Unga-Bunga know only Unga-Bunga or Malavon live after battle:
Unga-Bunga send Iron Golems and elementals to battle Malavon, Malavon summon Acid Cloud, hurt and choke Unga-Bunga:
Iron Golems and elementals force Malavon to port around dome, get free of enemies to cast. Malavon cast Webs throughout dome, but Golems and elementals stomp through webs:
Unga-Bunga stay step ahead of Malavon, have Golems or elementals ready in every place Malavon likely to port, send more to Malavon once Malavon show himself:
Malavon summon Phase Spiders, Invisible Stalkers to battle golems and elementals, cast magics but golems very resistant to magic, even Malavon's magic:
Elementals surround Malavon, begin pummeling, Malavon cry out:
Unga-Bunga beat chest when Malavon crumple to ground, not appear behind Unga-Bunga again:
Unga-Bunga stand over Malavon, claim Malavon's badge, search both Malavons and dome for all treasures:
Unga-Bunga feel vision quest nearly done, hold all six lieutenant badges in hands. Unga-Bunga so weary, want rest before return Fallen Temple. Before Unga-Bunga return to tower to rest first stop by Gemcutter Norl's house, let Gemcutter Norl know Marketh dead:
Next Unga-Bunga bring Oil of Null Effect Unga-Bunga found in Malavon's things to Ginufae, break Malavon's killing spells on Ginufae:
Unga-Bunga sigh when Ginufae won't leave without Marketh:
Unga-Bunga try explain to Ginufae that Marketh dead but Ginufae won't hear. Unga-Bunga give up, leave palace, return to tower.
Unga-Bunga barely make it upstairs in tower, crawl into bed. While sleep, Unga-Bunga have vision of man puttering around house, putter days, weeks, even months. Man in vision always have back turned to Unga-Bunga, finally turn around. Unga-Bunga see man's face...
Unga-Bunga wake up, remember poor Shaman Hjollder waiting in Kuldahar for Unga-Bunga! Unga-Bunga think spirits want Unga-Bunga aid Shaman Hjollder with Shaman Hjollder's vision quest before completing Unga-Bunga's vision quest.
Next day Unga-Bunga gather things, leave Dorn's Deep. Unga-Bunga bring seeds to Valestis in Severed Hand for arboretum. Valestis thank Unga-Bunga, finally pass into afterlife. Unga-Bunga think arboretum nice again too:
Afterward Unga-Bunga make long trek back to Kuldahar, see old friends, then go to house Shaman Hjollder stay while waiting for Unga-Bunga. Unga-Bunga find Shaman Hjollder still waiting...
After removing the curse from Sable, Sable has at last found redemption. Just in time as it was now time to bid the party farewell in order to join Drizzt in Icewinddale
We survived except for Wulfgar who was killed.
Upon reaching Cattie Brie she joined which meant that Wulfgar died permanently.
Upon leaving Icewind Dale we bade Cattie Brie farewell and Dynaheir rejoined us. I wanted Tenya to rejoin us too but couldn't fine her.
We are now at the bandit camp.
Doing the Drizzt Saga so early meant that the visit to Icewind Dale was slightly too hairy, but that getting to Dragonspear should now be a walk in the park.
Finished the Serpents of Abbiather Quest mainly with Regis finding the traps and enemies and Dynaheir using appropriate spells.
Similar tactics were used to mwipe out the Section.
Now heading to the North (NToSC) and after that intend to head for Candlekeep.
EDIT
Defeating the section provided us with so much valuable armour that we have become incredibly rich.
In addition each member of the party has dozens of healing potions.
I have learnt for future reference that having a party of a mage and a cleric would be optimal for the Drizzt Saga
The serpents quest was a new one for me and I liked it. Highly recommended.
We then killed Aec Laetec at Ulgoth's Beard.
We were then sent north by Reedrig
I have discovered that due to doing things early, certain quests could be bugged. I will therefore do things in an orderly manner. My next game will be very different, easier at the start and harder later, probably more balanced.
I'm really regretting not taking Tenya to Icewind Dale. My party is lobsided as a result.
Previous updates:
BG1 End
BG2 Start
The temple itself is fairly easy if no Lichs spawn, which I'm not nearly high enough level to get one. If it's even possible with my current setup, I don't even know. Azuredge and the Greater Werewolf Token (courtesy of Cernd and currently on Jaheira) make life easy here. We again get invisibly to the southwest for the Shade Lord, and engage with Shadow Patrick and the Altar before taking on the Shade Lord himself. We fail our stealth range attacks, and it becomes this weird kite where we're just running in circles while waiting for the PFMW to drop. Eventually, Azuredge is sufficient to kill it:
We make a quick trip back to Athkatla to pay the Shadow Thieves, mostly because this escapade made me realize just how weak I am to Level Drain at this point. the +2 Ring doesn't hurt either.
I don't travel invisibly, and Minsc and Jaheira are caught by a Greater Command from some slavers, which Aquinus either saved against or wasn't near them: probably the latter, since Minsc and Jaheira are frontliners while Aquinus is content to snipe with a crossbow. After two Raise Deads, we continue to the D'arnise keep, now a bit more wary about the potential Greater Commands from the Spirit Trolls. Nalia swaps for Yoshimo for the greater gold reward at the end.
The Spirit Trolls aren't nearly as oppressive as I remember from previous runs - they don't randomly go invisible between attacks, and seem to have a 2-3 round cooldown between spells instead of casting essentially every round. It's a bit slow going, but we get the gates open and continue to the upper floor. Then the game decided to remind me that it's not the Spirit Trolls I need to worry about, but the Yuan-ti mages. Domination connected with Aquinus, and Chaos on Minsc and Jaheira before it died, but Aquinus managed to kill my other warriors before the spells ended. Whoops.
One rest, two Raise Deads later, and Aerie frees Glaicus using her own Domination. The last piece of the Flail of Ages is gotten using summons to tank the Clay Golem, and the Fire Elementals even lived long enough to help finish off the Iron Golem.
We pull TorGal invisibly and slam the door behind us, and prebuffed with Remove Fear, he falls without much incident. Again, Greater Werewolf Form healing 3HP/round is super, super broken at this point in the game. The remainder of the mobs are cleared after dumping a few spells through the door, neutralizing the Yuan-ti mages this time around.
I was debating whether or not to count Watcher's Keep locked until ToB - I usually do, as the items there can trivialize SoA items. The deciding factor wasn't even Firetooth (though it was one of two things I purchased) it was the stupid potion bag so I could stop the inventory potion minigame that I hate playing. The container isn't even bottomless, but it makes it so that the characters' inventories aren't just potion after potion bottle.
Aquinus decides that it's high time to go rescue Imoen after this short detour, with now two ranged weapons with unlimited ammo that could hit a Balor. Mook is killed, someone (probably Minsc) got level drained, and Yoshimo is really questioning why losing Jaylos would actually be a loss to the Thieves' guild. He could probably heal someone with his dagger more effectively:
As long as Charm is handled, the only difficulties of the Vampires' guild itself are Tanova and Bodhi, with a slight irritation of the Clay Golem that may force a rest to deal with the curse. I do NOT have SCS Vampires on fully - they have some supernatural abilities such as shifting into animals and calling rats and wolf packs, but most of them do not have the CON drain that makes tanking them more or less impossible without PfMW or summons. Tanova is in a large enough area she can be convinced to waste most of her offensive spells on summons while we move ever so slowly backwards, and eventually her PfMW falls (or she's Breached, can't remember), and Azuredge claims yet another kill.
For Bodhi, the plan was to kite her with Jaheira and exchange missile fire from Aquinus, Jaheira, and Minsc while our non-Warriors wait around outside. Aquinus drank a potion of Magic Shielding or Invulnerability to be safe from any of Bodhi's supernatural spells, and no one else succumbed to the... Sepulchural Sleep, if I recall the name correctly. Clean victory without any hassle this time. Onto Brynnlaw!
Aquinus deals with the local brothel issues rather quickly - the Ring of Regeneration and the Greater Wolfwere Token allows us to easily soak any damage from the hard-hitting guards, and Aerie preemptively Silences the mage in the brothel, and we kill Galvena and her mage fairly quickly, then awkwardly stand there and wait for the silence to drop so that Claire could give us her information.
Now that we're suitably haughty for no apparent reason, Mazzy volunteers to fight Perth. And then he triggers all his spell triggers and spell defenses, and we realize this was a terrible idea and run outside to reset the cloud spells... and he follows. A Remove Magic absolutely destroys all our defenses, and we scatter - last time I fought him, he blasted someone with a x3 Vitriolic Sphere combo, and it's still easily enough to kill one of us. Jaheira's caught by a PW:Stun, Mazzy's Blinded, and Minsc is Mazed, but Perth had PFMW up, and he's not a Lich or Vampire or Rakshasa that has immunity to normal weapons, so... Aquinus is doing his duty by simply not being on the screen at all so he doesn't randomly get blasted and die.
The Book of Infinite Spells is absolutely terrible, giving me one bad spell before landing on Burning Hands. Ah well, no lucky True Seeing or Improved Invisibility for me this time, it seems. Minsc and Yoshimo convince Deshirak we're mad anyways, making this entire Perth misadventure a reminder that we're not high enough level to be cocky. Yet.
Spellhold: Bhaal actually follows this time, so I don't have to use console commands to get him over here. In the maze, Imoen starts without spells due to the whole SCS NPC customization, and to my dismay, her spellbook is completely empty, which we attempt to patch up with two Potions of Genius. The Clay Golem quickly forces a rest to fix the Cursed Wounds anyways, and the first level is cleared pretty simply after that. Jaheira is given an additional 50% Fire Resistance to become immune before fighting the Pit Fiend solo, and everything else falls relatively quickly. On the second floor, I do like that Ring of Free Action - it'll be a good safeguard against all sorts of disablers until Aquinus' levels and gear are to the point where those saving throws can be safely made. Unfortunately, there's a Beholder, and those things still terrify me. Our summons are kind of lackluster due to Imoen's spellbook being so slapdash, and Aerie ends up having to blast and run. It dies, at least.
Bodhi comes and stalks us as we're rounding the corner here, and it's a tight corridor. Aquinus drinks a potion of Magic Shielding and tries to get out, but he's tagged by a Vampire and gets level drained, wiping out the saving throw bonus. Fortunately, it seems that these Vampires are added via Unfinished Business and not SCS as I had initially thought, and Bodhi doesn't have the save-or-suffer-immensely abilities, and we're able to clean up and then do a quick rest to reset levels.
In the next section of the maze, the Yuan-Ti Mage continues to be scary while petrifying one of my summons. And somehow, probably due to some oddity with Better Calls for Help and Improved Illithids (Planar Travel, especially), some of the creatures normally behind the painting doors join it in the fight. We again kite backwards, and manage to kill them off before we're tagged by anything too crazy. A trio of summons fights the Clay Golems with Imoen watching, and I think we manage that fight without another Cursed Wound? Regardless, we save our tokens for the Boots of Speed (given to Minsc for the time being) and approach Bodhi for the Slayer transformation and... nothing happens. Aquinus is just among 3 Vampires invisibly (with the Amulet of Power) looking foolish. We kill them and rest to see if the trigger would happen... still nothing. It's not as though I commonly use the ability anyways, so I shrug and move on.
After completing the trials successfully, getting the Electricity Mirror cloak or whatever it's called, we buff and fight Lonk the Sane... who promptly Removes Magic on us, and we retreat and rest to recast buffs and do it properly this time, darn it. We get through the second fight with buffs intact, and it's time for Irenicus. The plan is for Jaheira to Insect Plague one of our clones (Mazzy, in this case, as she has no way of becoming invisible) before letting the high level mages duke it out in the center. This works out better than usual - Jaheira isn't interrupted, and none of our characters are disabled themselves. Jon also didn't cast Sphere of Chaos, which has been the source of stress in this fight many, many times for me.
ADHW still hurts like heck. Aerie barely manages to avoid it and would've probably died even on a successful save, Aquinus lives with more than 10 HP only due to the Belt of Inertial Barrier, and Mazzy and Minsc are both pretty badly wounded. Jon has PFMW up, so that convinces our warriors beside Aquinus to go into melee to try to break his Stoneskins... And Jon still had a 9th level slot left, Imprisonment.
There's no Freedom scrolls available at this point of the game in my install, and no way back to Spellhold - Minsc is gone at least until ToB. On further reflection, I had forgotten that Imprisonment is a melee reach spell - I should just have kept all characters far away from Jon and wait for PfMW to drop or to try to get past his spell defenses. Regardless, there's enough time in the animation for Minsc to graciously give us all his equipment sans his Full Plate Mail, which he can't unequip due to being in battle.
To the Underdark, with only 5 characters!
Lost (maybe recallable via Fate Spirit in ToB): Nalia to dialogue choices, Minsc to Imprisonment
Gone forever: Yoshimo.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1184998#Comment_1184998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185119#Comment_1185119
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185145#Comment_1185145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185255#Comment_1185255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185316#Comment_1185316
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185329#Comment_1185329
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185380#Comment_1185380
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185418#Comment_1185418
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185531#Comment_1185531
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185535#Comment_1185535
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185542#Comment_1185542
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185568#Comment_1185568
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1185581#Comment_1185581
Unga-Bunga tell Shaman Hjollder Unga-Bunga ready help Hjollder. Hjollder summon spirits, spirits carry Unga-Bunga and Hjollder to Lonelywood village, near encampment of barbarians. Hjollder tell Unga-Bunga Hjollder must return to king now, tell Unga-Bunga learn way encampment from townspeople:
Unga-Bunga think Hjollder getting back at Unga-Bunga for taking long to help, smirk at Hjollder. Unga-Bunga watch Hjollder spirit away, look around Lonelywood village.
Unga-Bunga meet trading coster, speak to Trader Rawleigh. Rawleigh tell Unga-Bunga trading coster unable leave Lonelywood because winter, tell Unga-Bunga about island barbarians bury chieftains, say barbarians encamped on Bremen's Run few miles east:
Unga-Bunga meet Little Hailee Dunn. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga Hailee's brother fell down well, get father to help:
Unga-Bunga run to Hailee's house, barge inside. Unga-Bunga learn from Tybald Dunn, father of Hailee, not have brother. Tybald tell Unga-Bunga send Hailee home:
Unga-Bunga go back to Hailee, pretend angry but not really angry, tell Hailee what Hailie's Father said. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga Hailee hate father because always building barrels, hate mother because always drinking in inn. Unga-Bunga stay and talk with Hailee some, know Hailee need attention. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga Hailee have big secret, say won't tell Unga-Bunga secret. Unga-Bunga tell Hailee Unga-Bunga have big secret too, say secret about Hailee. Hailee promise tell Unga-Bunga secret if Unga-Bunga tell Hailee secret.
Unga-Bunga tell Hailee Unga-Bunga save Lonelywood from barbarians, say Hailee help Unga-Bunga by telling secret. Hailee tell Unga-Bunga secret, say Innkeeper Kieran have magic mirror:
Unga-Bunga thank Hailee, ask Hailee if want go home now, Hailee say no. Unga-Bunga go back to Tybald, let know Hailee okay. Tybald tell Unga-Bunga both Hailee and wife act wild, not know what to do. Tybald tell Unga-Bunga Tybald cooper, get work from Council Representative Baldemar. Tybald say Representative Baldemar not give Tybald much work. Tybald also say Ten-Towns Council sent representative to barbarian camp for parley, representative not return:
Unga-Bunga thank Tybald, go look around town more, meet Boywer Emmerich Hawk. Emmerich tell Unga-Bunga Emmerich caretaker of forest, make sure trappers not take too many animals. Emmerich say lost favor of Forest Father because three brothers trapping too much, say Forest Father sent Great White Wolf to slay Emmerich. Emmerich tell Unga-Bunga wolf bit Emmerich but Emmerich fought wolf off:
Unga-Bunga leave, find Temple of Waukeen, meet Priest Quinn Silverfinger. Priest Quinn tell Unga-Bunga Waukeen God of Commerce. Priest Quinn say Priest Quinn learn Targos village expanding shipping trade, want coopers, meaning to tell Tybald Dunn. Unga-Bunga tell Priest Quinn Unga-Bunga tell Tybald:
Unga-Bunga leave temple, meet Gravedigger Purvis. Unga-Bunga think Gravedigger Purvis mental runt of litter:
Unga-Bunga decide go tavern before tell Tybald about Targos, meet Roald Tunnelfist of Clan Battlehammer. Roald tell Unga-Bunga clan sent Roald and others scout barbarian camp, say barbarians killed all dwarves except Roald, say Roald got away by falling down cliff:
Roald tell Unga-Bunga Roald report to clan when injuries heal. Unga-Bunga thank Roald, confronted by halfling. Halfling say Halfling Hobart Stubbletoes. Hobart ask Unga-Bunga if Unga-Bunga hero of Icewind Dale. Unga-Bunga think Hobart trying lure Unga-Bunga away from vision quest. Hobart tell Unga-Bunga about haunted castle, say be grand adventure:
Unga-Bunga tell Hobart Unga-Bunga busy for now, ignore Hobart's pleadings, speak to lady standing nearby, think lady looks like Hailee Dunn. Lady say Lady Ambere Dunn, tell Unga-Bunga want leave Lonelywood, will do anything for Unga-Bunga if Unga-Bunga take Ambere with Unga-Bunga when Unga-Bunga leave. Unga-Bunga ask Ambere about Husband Tybald, Daughter Hailee. Ambere tell Unga-Bunga Ambere not love family anymore:
Unga-Bunga help young in tribe with such things, help find place in tribe. Unga-Bunga help Ambere open Ambere's eyes, see what Ambere truly has:
Ambere tell Unga-Bunga too much damage done in family, too late to fix. Unga-Bunga tell Ambere never too late to make amends. Ambere tell Unga-Bunga Ambere will try:
Unga-Bunga watch Ambere leave, speak to Murdaugh of Auckney. Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga Murdaugh wandering bard and failure extraordinaire. Unga-Bunga ask Murdaugh tell tale, offer ten gold pieces when Murdaugh say no. Murdaugh tell long tale, say tale true, tell how Murdaugh heard Princess of Auck to be married to town magistrate, say went to perform at wedding announcement. Murdaugh say king enjoyed performance so much king paid Murdaugh to stay in castle, perform at wedding.
Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga how Murdaugh spend every day with princess, princess tell Murdaugh princess not want marry magistrate, want be free marry for love, say Murdaugh fell in love with princess as spend time together. Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga at wedding princess tell king princess not want marry magistrate, want marry Murdaugh instead. Murdaugh say magistrate get angry, say princess not marry commoner.
Murdaugh tell Unga-Bunga king not know what do until magistrate propose compromise. Magistrate say king could bestow knight title anyone who complete quest, suggest Murdaugh be given quest recover Glacier Rose. Murdaugh say Murdaugh happy, look for Glacier Rose for four years before give up, tell Unga-Bunga no such thing as Glacier Rose:
Unga-Bunga blink eyes, yawn and stretch, thank Murdaugh for story. Unga-Bunga speak to innkeeper. Innkeeper say Innkeeper Kieran Nye. Unga-Bunga ask Innkeeper Kieran about magic mirror Hailee tell Unga-Bunga about. Innkeeper Kieran surprised, ask Unga-Bunga to keep secret:
Unga-Bunga tell Kieran Unga-Bunga can't keep secret if Kieran not tell secret. Kieran sigh, explain Kieran once wizard in Host Tower of Arcane, say learned Host Tower evil wizards, left Host Tower:
Kieran tell Unga-Bunga Host Tower trying find Kieran, say will let Unga-Bunga barter for magic items if Unga-Bunga keep secret. Unga-Bunga tell Kieran Unga-Bunga like magic items, keep secret.
Unga-Bunga leave tavern, see rest of town but stop by well first, let Hailee know mother home now:
Unga-Bunga stop by Dunn house, glad Ambere and Hailee home, tell Tybald Targos need coopers:
Unga-Bunga leave Dunn house, find Representative Baldemar's house, meet Arden Thurlow, wife of Baldemar. Unga-Bunga learn Baldemar's wife not like Baldemar any more than Tybald's wife like Tybald. Unga-Bunga sigh, try fix another marriage. Unga-Bunga think Tybald's wife snobby, not easy fix:
Arden Thurlow tell Unga-Bunga Ten Towns Delegate come several days ago, meet with Baldemar all night, leave next morning. Arden Thurlow tell Unga-Bunga Baldemar upstairs. Unga-Bunga thank Arden Thurlow, go upstairs, meet Representative Baldemar.
Unga-Bunga ask Baldemar if know where barbarian camp is. Baldemar say not know where camp is. Unga-Bunga ask Baldemar about delegate from Ten Towns Council. Baldemar tell Unga-Bunga Ten Towns Council sent delegate to parley with barbarians. Unga-Bunga ask Baldemar how delegate know where go if not know where barbarian camp. Baldemar tell Unga-Bunga delegate not tell Baldemar where camp but must know. Unga-Bunga think Baldemar know more than Baldemar telling:
Unga-Bunga tell Baldemar Unga-Bunga be back soon, leave house, meet three trapper brothers. Trapper brothers say names Digby, Doogal and Dolan, say like trapping animals, not like Emmerich so much. Digby tell Unga-Bunga Emmerich really like animals:
Unga-Bunga leave trapper brothers, meet Shipbuilder Thom Farold. Thom Farold tell Unga-Bunga nearly done building ship, say maybe Young Jed take Unga-Bunga out on water when done:
Unga-Bunga meet Young Jed by shore of lake. Young Jed tell Unga-Bunga about Uncle Jed in Easthaven. Unga-Bunga tell Young Jed Unga-Bunga met Old Jed, say Old Jed is drunk, sit in hut all day. Young Jed tell Unga-Bunga that make Young Jed proudest nephew in Icewind Dale:
Unga-Bunga head reeling from meeting people, solving problems. Unga-Bunga rest in tavern, plan to leave for barbarian camp next day...