Then the chaos hit and hit hard - despite the lack of malison only the shaman saved against that (in the unmodded game the standard greater dopplegangers get no saving throw - I'm not sure if that was still the case here).
The unmodded greater doppelgangers are level 1; Sleep works against them if you get lucky with saves. The SCS version (tactical BG1 group, doppelganger component) gives them reasonable levels, which means that Chaos is no longer a no-save effect. It merely has to deal with exceptional base saves - 3 vs spell, 2 vs everything else. For most of them to fail on the first try ... you got pretty lucky there.
@Borco & @Grond0: Congratulations on dealing with Big S! Impressive perfomance! @Alesia_BH : I'm glad to hear you've got thy groove back! That's encouraging Keep on that! @All: It's such a delight to follow all of your stories that I barely have time to play myself..!
Yes I am well aware that a half-orc mage has the disadvantage of less than optimal intelligence, but I wanted a half-orc party for role-playing reasons. For the first time I am intending to recruit Dorn and keep him.
[Usually I just have him for the duration of his quests]
Journal of Sprach the Half-orc Berserker and his cohort Magitho.
Upon leaving the orcish horde with Gorion we found ourselves in a minority of two at Candlekeep. I no longer have any time for Gruumsh and upon investigating the various gods of the pantheon have decided that Tempus is the god for me. Magitho has no interest in religion and though a little self-absorbed he does have some morals.
Due to the fact that it looks like I probably have some divine blood, religion most definitely interests me.
In @Borco's honour I had Alesia backstab Jenkal on exit from the ruins. She didn't have luck active though and Jenkal survived that - though not the other attacks on him.
And congratulations on finishing BG1! Masterfully done.
Now, we started doing various sidequests and tasks in Baldur's Gate. First, we take down Cyrdemac. Next, the wizards at Sorcerous Sundries. After we summon and buff up, Grond0 rages in order to lead the summons into combat. I manually have the nymph cast confusion, because none of their spell protections will be able to block it. The results speak for themselves:
We help Petrine and move on to Jardak's house. After a few tries, we are able to lure the butler outside. The party is able to overwhelm his MSD with spells, but any followup spells get blocked by magic resistance. Meanwhile, our foe casts emotion: hopelessness on us, but everyone succeeds their saving throws.
We cast strength of one and blow through his stoneskins - he renews defenses via minor sequencer (blur+MI) and re-casts stoneskin, but true sight counters the illusion buffs, and we easily cut through the additional stoneskins:
We go upstairs to deal with Jardak - with limited spells left, we use a wand of monster summoning to block off the narrow corridor while trying to hit him with spells and arrows - his magic resistance works in his favor, only a few magic missles get through. We have to use a second wand charge until Grond0 is able to take Jardak down with arrows.
Corey picks up a new helm and we move on to Vay-ya. We go for a massive attack with lions and magical ammo - she's lacking defenses, having relatively weak pre-buffs:
The gauntlets of ogre strength are a huge upgrade for Grond0. We also take down Yago, with a somewhat unfair icelance while he's still neutral:
Larriaz falls to strength of one + melee attacks as we dodge her slow spell by leaving the house. We help Nadine, getting another necklace of missles - we buy another one from the Elfsong merchant, so now everyone has access to fireballs. That also means we can leave Shandalar's daughters alive and just use invisibility + a sandthief ring charge to get the airship parts. We do all of Narlen's quests before turning these in, though.
While taking the second sling of unerring accuracy, I get caught stealing and have to deal with two flaming fist mercenaries who chase us around as we take down the mustard jelly:
Luckily, I'm able to lose the guards as I leave the tavern. Larze is kited and shot down, Alesia drinks two potions of master thievery to steal Balduran's cloak:
We also kill Taxek and Michael, deliver Nestor's dagger and take the Helm of Balduran with us before leaving the city to buy and sell for a while and steal some more things, using more potions of master thievery - Dushai's ring and Algernon's cloak.
Back in the city, we deal with Ragefast - while he starts with fireshield: red, he actually doesn't have stoneskins - big mistake. His PFNM doesn't help him much as we true sight his MI and shoot him down with magical arrows. As we enter Ramazith's tower, we are able to kill the wizard before he can react. The two fighters deal with most of the upstairs action, clearing the remaining tower:
Grim Face uses the intelligence tome, Enuhal levels up, and we help the twins by killing Gervisse. Next up, we assist Aldeth with his doppelganger trouble:
With the new bastard sword, we also clear out the Seven Suns. Now, we set up summons and buffs in the south-western part of the map - first luring out the shadow thieves:
Sunin is lured out of his house as well, running into the same summons. We get through his stoneskins before he can do anything dangerous, though Alesia takes some damage from two arrows:
I also buy another Destroyer of the Hills from the nearby merchant and the composite longbow +1 from Beregost, because with the strength gauntlets, we can now get good longbows for both of our fighters. After that, it's time to take on the Maulers of the Undermountain. Quick victory is achieved by using our very first insect plague here:
Now, we enter the sewers - a few spiders fall, and the sewer king is next:
We take a corpse back upstairs, deal with Arkion and Nemphre and return to the central sewers, where Ratchild is shot down:
His commandos follow - we have great options for AC against missle weapons now, so they barely deal damage to us. We move on to the east and use true sight and a quick skull trap against the ogre mage - only one more hit is needed:
Time to meet Marek&Lothander - during that questline, we obtain the sea charts the peaceful way and loot 4 arrows of dispelling from the nearby store. To help with Jalantha, we bring in a few summons, though she dies before Enuhal can even finish his insect plague as we stun her allies with icelances:
We surround and kill Lothander after turning in the quest, getting another pair of boots of speed in the process:
Marek is surrounded as well, we summon and buff up. Our foe is able to cast his first spell uninterrupted despite Grim Face getting through his stoneskins with his hammer:
It's a huge monster summoning spell - they're surrounding Enuhal, though he has great AC at this point and can survive this for a while. AoF also helps. Meanwhile, we start getting through Marek's stoneskins as he uses his next round for a chromatic orb sequencer on Grond0, which does very little:
Marek dies soon after, and it's easy enough to rescue Enuhal after that (he even manages to heal himself during the fight despite being surrounded). He also gets to use another wisdom tome. Alesia takes her new bow, and after we rest, the fighters prepare for Degrodel's house with hill giant strength potions. We buff up, they enter and the others follow after most foes are gathered around our more sturdy characters. We start blasting wand charges (mostly fire in the scorcher mode and frost, also some heavens) and magic missles, dealing great damage, though Grond0 has to retreat at some point:
Though wounded, the party eventually triumphs:
We use a nymph and some spells to heal up a bit, kill the statues after using the scrolls on them for some extra XP and return to surround Degrodel. There is a risk here - he can't escape with the helmet. But we have saved our spirit animals and skeletons for this (who are now upgraded, because Grim Face has leveled up - that also means we get Recitation and PfE 10' radius in future battles). The surround succeeds:
Wand charges, magic missles and the new addition of static charge deal with the remainder of Degrodel's summons:
The only thing in the city left to do is the Iron Throne. We prepare our spellbook with 5 fire protection spell (4 of them divine, one arcane) so we can freely blast the area with wands of fire and necklaces of missles - which is our opener:
Two more wands of fire, and everything but the two fighters and one near death rogue are gone. True sight reveals the rogue again after he uses a PoI, we take him down and add static charge to help with the fighters - Grond0 does take quite a lot of damage again, but over all, this is a convincing victory:
Finally, we rest again after changing our spellbook and return to Candlekeep. We immediately drink 5 invisibility potions to escape the ogre mage ambush, turning this from a potentially deadly encounter into a one-sided stomp: Our summons and buffed fighters easily take out all ogres with the help of true sight:
Next time: Candlekeep and the return to Baldur's Gate.
I generated a new BG2EE installation with Ascension and SCS installed. As with BGEE, I installed all the SCS components that improve enemies, but not necessarily the ones that nerf your own performance.
The party was imported to BG2EE. Doing that rerolled HPs for Grond0. Despite his last few rolls being very good ones, his HPs were still on the low side and the importing process increased them from 91 to 113. However, I decided that wasn't in the spirit of the run and used EEKeeper to take them back down.
The demise of the run was a pretty extended story in itself, so I'll just briefly summarize what happened prior to that:
- there was an early scare in Jon's dungeon when the ogre mage latched on to Alesia and an ice lance nearly killed her, but there were no more particular problems there.
- the circus was sorted out, with true sight making the werewolves easy. Kalah was much more dangerous than in unmodded and his MMMs had Alesia worried before he was cut down.
- Corey's lack of his lovely BGEE equipment had made him much less effective as a tank, so I decided next to get him some plate armor. With the use of web Mencar's gang were sitting ducks.
- we reported into Gaelan Bayle, then moved on to the Copper Coronet. The Beastmaster was shot down there to get Alesia an early bow upgrade.
- at the Graveyard we cleared the top level without problems. Returning the bear to Wellyn gave Corey the XP for L9 and everyone levelled up. From this point on though further levelling would have been a grind. Thanks to the unusual XP curve for druids, the party would need to more than double their XP to get another level, then double it again to level once more - then double it yet again for a further level (which would have triggered HLAs).
- invisible travel was used to handle the Suna Seni and Renfeld ambushes and web and cloudkill dealt with Prebek to get access to the Harper building. We took revenge for Xzar by trapping and cutting down Lucette. Some nearby pirates were also dealt with.
- at the Bridge District some muggers tried their luck, but true sight helped expose the would-be backstabbers. Hareishan appeared at this point and killed the thieves before I was ready to attack her. She left behind another stoneskin scroll that Alesia was successful in learning.
- I tried to pull Rune Assassins upstairs by showing them an invisible character, but they didn't want to play that game. Eventually Enuhal went down visible and pulled all the enemies upstairs. That was still a relatively comfortable fight with summons ready for them.
Then it was on to the main event. Those who know my play will recognise that I don't like to pay a license fee to the Cowled Wizards. In the unmodded game many solo characters can kill them all easily enough, so I don't generally worry too much about summoning them. With SCS things are rather different though and I really should have been more careful. I'd already been warned about spell casting once when I arrived outside Dracandros' hideout. Initially I was hoping to pull them out individually to be butchered and that worked with Valeria, but the others were all reluctant to come. To encourage them, I decided to use the tactic I mentioned before of sending a hidden character in to prompt enemies to come back out. Alesia tried to hide to do that - but her stealth failed repeatedly. Getting tired of waiting, I absent-mindedly got her to use invisibility instead - resulting in a hunting posse of cowled wizards arriving. Even worse, Alesia had gone inside by the time they appeared and that had indeed prompted Dracandros and Falahar to exit - blocking the ability for the others to dodge inside to avoid any spells from the cowled wizards.
Grond0 raged and stayed close to make himself a target, while the others split up and ran for it with the spirit wolves attempting to keep Dracandros and Pitre occupied.
Corey didn't have a route to clear space, so ran back and managed to get into the hideout at the cost of some damage from an unholy blight. Dracandros and Pitre followed him, so Corey used an invisibility potion and came back out again, together with Alesia. I thought they were safe for a moment and was concentrating on Enuhal and Grim Face being chased by a magical sword when red suddenly erupted on Corey and Alesia's portraits. That was the result of a summoned djinni casting a lightning bolt - it appears that they are able to see through invisibility in this installation. There was nothing I could immediately do to protect against the bouncing lightning and just had to watch as another hit almost killed both of them.
However, as the djinni came in to try and melee, they did manage to get back into the hideout and avoid further lightning bounces.
Meanwhile, Grim Face and Enuhal had decided to take a stand against the magical sword. Enuhal summoned a spirit bear to occupy it while they used magic damage on it, but before they could kill it one of the cowled enforcers arrived - and an immediate spell sequencer of Mordenkainen's Force Missiles killed Grim Face.
A second enforcer appeared at the same time from the other direction, but Enuhal managed to get an insect plague off while under fire from MMMs and started running again, leaving the spirit bear to occupy the wizards.
Back at the hideout things looked grim as the text showed Dracandros summoning a Cacofiend. Corey responded by casting PfE on himself, but couldn't do the same for the invisible Alesia and the Nabassu tried to attack her. It was stuck behind Dracandros and unable to do so physically, but after a few rounds its gaze proved deadly in any case.
I was busy monitoring Corey to see if he would come under attack when I found that one of the cowled wizards had caught up with Enuhal - I thought he would have successfully broken contact given how far away he'd gone while the spirit bear was occupying things. Several MMMs took him down close to death before he could get out of sight again. I then noticed in the text the nabassu was attacking Corey and hastily reapplied PfE for him. Enuhal ran the rest of the way to the edge of the map, but the cowlie was persistent in the chase. Enuhal tried to summon some beetles, but another MMM hit took him down to a single HP. A bit more running and now he found that a second enforcer was on his tail. A last gasp bid for freedom saw him use an invisibility potion to break contact and he summoned a pair of nymphs to get a few HPs back.
Checking back on Corey I saw his PfE expire, but by this time the nabassu had unsummoned, so I thought with a bit of luck he could stay in there - I wasn't sure if the djinni was still active outside, as it would have been easy to miss a text message about that with so much happening. However, it appeared that Pitre had heard some scuffling noises and was about to discover his whereabouts, so Corey had to risk making an exit and found the djinni had indeed gone.
He called in at the local temple and paid for some healing then spotted the 2 cowled wizards that had been chasing Enuhal, without them reacting. That allowed the nymphs to target them with confusion - successfully getting one of them. The nymphs followed up with hold monster on the other wizard - that appeared to be successful, but in fact did nothing (I'm not sure what protection was being used, but it appeared to be very long-lasting, so might have been an equipped item).
A horrid wilting made Grond0 back off and killed a nymph before we finally picked up a victim by finishing off the confused one.
The other one though appeared to have an inexhaustible supply of MMMs and mixed in a chromatic orb minor sequencer that spelled the end of Enuhal.
Corey pressed the attack, but had to retreat when an incendiary cloud was used to kill the remaining nymph. Grond0 took advantage of the distraction to get into the temple himself to get some healing and then swapped again with Corey as he emerged in turn. The wizard was still chucking fireballs and magic missiles and re-establishing stoneskins, but I thought he must be running low on the latter by now. He managed a death fog, but finally seemed to be out of defenses and started taking damage. That disrupted his last attempted spell and Grond0's greatly reduced team claimed another victim - gaining a whole 120 XP for that kill.
At that point I felt honour had been satisfied and went back to the temple to raise the other 3 party members. However, once I did that 2 more cowled wizards entered the temple.
I suspect that means I was correct earlier that Enuhal had broken contact, but that a script function along the lines of move to nearest enemy had allowed him to be located again. I presume that script function was still active for one of the characters that had been dead, allowing the wizards to home in on them once raised - that sort of behavior is one of the reasons I found the sort of game play I prefer didn't mix well with SCS and stopped using it . Grond0 used the final invisibility potion we had, which successfully broke the spell being aimed at him. That should have given time to exit, but as everyone dashed for the door, overlapping icons prevented an immediate exit and the next spell by the visible wizard chunked Alesia.
The others did eventually exit after that, but with some sort of bug operating - Grond0 had vanished and couldn't be selected, though he hadn't apparently been targeted and there was no effect showing on his character record. At that point the cowled wizards decided they'd done enough damage and disappeared, but with Alesia gone the run ends there anyway irrespective of the bug ...
@Grond0: I'm just speechless... what a drama! And all because of a handful of coins saved... But you fought to the last nonetheless! It seems we all should be careful tenfold from now on since our ranks are running thin already...
Anyway, your run was fantastic, no doubt! We all are proud to have Grond0 the Barbarian in our midst.
@Grond0 Oh no What a rough way to end the run. I guess at this level, dealing with a party of SCS cowled enforcers would be next to impossible without very extensive preparation, and calling them in by accident seems like an almost unwinnable situation - you held on really long, sad to see that it's over.
Journal of Sprach the Half-orc Berserker and his cohort Magitho.
I was able to solve the problem of Linda and Sir Trun and as a result my reputation increased somewhat.
It increased yet more after giving nearly all my gold away. Then, when I broke into a chest in the inn I was spotted and the watchers took the rest of my gold. I broke into another chest and was caught after stealing a pearl.
The guard who caught me took advantage of me in a way that he shouldn't have! Not that I'm complaining, but I'm not going to write it down here as little eyes could be looking!! Magitho broke into yet another chest, this one containing a jewel worth 1000gp.
This time we were undetected!
I gave yet more gold to the temple and again my reputation went up. With the rest of the gold I furnished myself.
Two assassins, Shank and Carbos attacked me and died for their pains as did Mendas who was much better equipped having plate armour and a +1 long sword.
Later on Gorion and I left Candlekeep only to be ambushed once more. Gorion died.
We found Joia's ring and returned it.
Later on we helped Mellicamp get back into shape.
We calmed Marl and took a tome to Firebead before heading to the FAI. On the way Magitho was badly hurt by a wolf.
At the FAI we killed Tarnesh when he attacked us.
We had a minor altercation with Dorn before heading to Nashkel. En route we picked up a letter and the Colquetle Amulet and Lord Foreshadow gave me a charisma increasing ring.
I chatted to Noober, found some armour and turned down a reward from Oublek. After doing some babysitting I became a hero.
At the Carnival I killed Zordral.
Dorn nearly got killed when we were involved in another ambush.
We then returned to the Carnival for R&R.
The joining of Dorn lowered our reputation somewhat to 16.
We then killed Zargos Flintblade and Greywolf. Isra would fain have joined us, but Blackguards and Paladins in the same party are not a good combination, even when the paladin is as laid back as Isra.
We then hunted Kryll and killed her.
[I have noticed that if you try to help Dorn in the ambush by healing him, he dies. Does anyone know how that works?]
@Grond0 : you resilience and determination to survive in that fight are incredible. Sorry you did not make it, that would have been quite a recovery from a desperate situation...
Just a quick note on Daelat's game - despite couple of hiccups, he's been doing well in Amn so far. We're just starting to fiddle with Spell Sequencers and Spell Triggers, trying to get the hold of it. I'll start posting soon, conscious of the fact that I've got some catching up to do.
The Avatars 2023: Drasus and Co. (Or Drink First, Work Later)
My crew entered the Cloakwood with one goal in mind: Get to the mines. We passed through each of the areas and all of the ambushes invisible, pausing only to retrieve Spider's Bane for our beloved Grond0. Our success, as it was, was a direct result of maintaining our priorities. Focus on the goal. Do the important stuff first. That is the path to victory.
Sadly, our Corey struggled to keep his priorities straight once we actually got to the mines. He insisted on getting to work before drinking and as we all know that's a terrible idea. Drink first, work later. Keep your priorities straight.
Once again, my thief led crew opened with a targeted assassination. My Alesia went with a backstab + Potion of Firebreath combo on Kysus. Kysus fell immediately.
Rezdan dropped soon after, thanks to an arc maneuver. No hostile spells were cast.
Genthore survived the opener, but Grim Face quickly finished him off with a Wand of Heavens charge. All that remained was Drasus. Your turn Corey! Equip that Girdle of Bluntness, drink that Potion of Absorption and then get to work. All you need to do is stand your ground. We'll handle the rest.
Anytime now Corey: Drink that potion.
Thanks for showing us. We know you have it in your hand. Now drink it.
Please?
Of course, my Corey wasn't really at fault here. This was rusty me flubbing something simple once again. I clicked the potion and then cancelled the action by activating an attack. Rookie mistake, lol.
Predictably, Corey got walloped. Sorry, buddy! That looks painful. Not as painful as getting chunked in a temple five seconds after you were raised, but painful nonetheless, lol.
I noticed the mistake just in time to save Corey from death. We had him disengage, quaff a PoI and heal a bit. He re-joined us for the finish and, happily, scored the kill.
So, yes: let that be a lesson to us all: Drink first, work later. Don't let your friends down.
Btw, you had requested some backstabs from the Avatar crews. Please accept the ones on Venkt and Kysus as a down payment. We'll deliver some proper knocks once we acquire the right tools. We only have Luck and Chant now and those only help a smidgen. The real BG1 backstabbing gem is at Sorcerous Sundries. I will crush!
Sorry to hear that @Grond0 , your crew did put up quite the fight .
Is my understanding correct that the run ends with a single chunked character? That does sound quite harsh, although I fully respect the choice.
That's not a general understanding, just my own specific choice. Although I play mostly solo characters, I do from time to time run full parties (usually of identical classes to test out in more detail their strengths and weaknesses) and always use the 'no chunking' rule in those. I guess that probably started as a way to increase the challenge and certainly does do that - it's the most common way for my party runs to end . While I don't think the Avatar run actually needed any more challenge, I'm used to that rule now and it wouldn't feel right to me to continue. However, continuing in such circumstances does offer a different set of challenges - like for instance how you incorporate a much lower-level character into an existing party. Therefore I recognise that continuing would in fact seem to be the more logical option, so feel free to look a bit askance at me on this one ...
The Avatars 2023:The Cloakwood Revisited (Or We’re Down with O.P.E.)
I’ve fallen into a bit of a 90´s nostalgia rabbit hole. Sorry about that. I’ll chill with the semi-obscure references soon enough. To my Millenial and Gen Z readers, all you need to know is that O.P.E is Over-Powered Enuhal, our totemic druid. And yes, we are down with him. Also, yes: he is over-powered.
After finishing off Drasus we assessed our standing heading into the Davaeorn fight. We noticed that three of our five members were a few thousand XP point away from leveling up. We decided to take care of that.
First we wiped out the doggos over by the Beregost temple, letting Enuhal’s spirit snakes lead the way. The spirit snakes proved devastating. They couldn’t hurt the vampiric wolves, obviously, but their AC of -2 (L5) and poisonous attacks made them deadly, especially with a bit of micromanagement to maximize the efficacy of the poison.
Still in need of XP, we decided to return to the Cloakwood and let the spirit snakes do their thing there. Poison immunity and free action, with poisonous attacks? That sounds like a win.
First we let the snakes take on the ettercaps aided by a pair of skeleton warriors. We provided range support but before long it became clear that that wasn’t really necessary. The spirit snakes had it under control.
Next we tried some spiders. Funny thing about spiders: they’re usually not immune to poison, not even the poisonous ones, like phase spider. The spirit snakes had this again. The range weapons definitely weren't needed- we weren’t even needed. That gave us an idea.
Why don’t we take a break? We deserve it. We rested, summoned two spirit snakes and two skeleton warriors, and then took a full round of invisibilities on ourselves. We then marched around the area invisible and ate popcorn while the spirit snakes destroyed everything. And I mean everything. They took on all comers, barely taking any damage. It was a massacre.
I feel pretty confident that you could take down a lot of BG1 -I mean a lot of BG1- this way. Just marching around invisible behind some wisely chosen spirit animals, and perhaps a few helper summons. In any case, they got us where we wanted to be. Once Grim Face and I leveled up, we were ready for Davaeorn.
Running a roguish crew in BG poses a theoretical dilemma. The logic of rogue combat is to fight on your terms. You sneak. You plot. You strike. You kill- preferably before your enemy has a chance to attack. Rogues are backstabbers and trap layers. Life isn’t fair and neither are rogues.
At the same time, Infinity Engine encounters often assume certain parameters of behavior and those parameters aren’t roguish at all. A rogue doesn’t walk in the front door and introduce himself, but BG encounters are often designed with that expectation in mind. What to do?
My inclination is to strike a balance. Sometimes I do it my way as a rogue. Sometimes I go along with the logic of the encounter. When we met Davaeorn we did it his way. Rather than trying to assassinate Davaeorn or separate him from his protectors, we fought him more or less head on, albeit with judicious spacing. I’m glad we did.
For this battle we shifted our items around a bit. I took Corey’s Boots of Speed. Grondo took my Boots of Avoidance. Grond0 buffed with a Pro Magic scroll. I used the Potion of Magic Shielding from that chest over by Drasus, along with Shield, MSD, and a full complement of elemental protections, minus Pro Acid. Grond0 and I -now enjoying a movement rate bonus, protection from missile weapons and protection from spells- intended to take the lead. The rest of the party spread out behind us.
Game on, Davaeorn.
Noticing our enemies’ tight formation, we had Grim Face lay down a pair of webs while Grond0 took point. Looking good.
Davaeorn was trapped by his protectors and our vulnerable characters were out of reach of his spells. We lobbed in some AoE damage. A battle horror responded. Time to show off those Boots of Speed.
We had no intention of separating our foes, but with Davaeorn stuck, this battle horror separated himself. Fair game.
Time to press the advantage on the still trapped Davaeorn.
Davaeorn’s ranks grew thin. It was time to go for the kill. I landed a Spell Thrurst, taking down his spell turning, and clearing the way for targeted attacks. My MSD elapsed leaving me vulnerable to an MAA but that was expected (NW: Protection from Acid had been deliberately skipped during buffing because I judged MAA to be an acceptable risk, given my 50% protection from acid via Potion of Magic Shielding. In a solo run I would have used Pro Acid)
Shrugging off the damage, I finished him with a Wand of Frost blast. We’re off to Baldur’s Gate!
@Borco First one for you. And we're just getting warmed up. That wasn't a crit
Excuse my ignorance, but what's that?
Nevertheless I'm still grateful and congratulations for completing another chapter! It's been a textbook performance so far (although I'm not aware of any textbooks discussing drinking before working) - I especially appreciate the bold approach with Drasus & Co and Davaeorn. Enjoy the Gate!
That's not a general understanding, just my own specific choice. Although I play mostly solo characters, I do from time to time run full parties (usually of identical classes to test out in more detail their strengths and weaknesses) and always use the 'no chunking' rule in those. I guess that probably started as a way to increase the challenge and certainly does do that - it's the most common way for my party runs to end . While I don't think the Avatar run actually needed any more challenge, I'm used to that rule now and it wouldn't feel right to me to continue. However, continuing in such circumstances does offer a different set of challenges - like for instance how you incorporate a much lower-level character into an existing party. Therefore I recognise that continuing would in fact seem to be the more logical option, so feel free to look a bit askance at me on this one ...
That makes sense. After all, self-imposed limitations are often the most difficult ones to circumvent, and that does not necessarily only apply to no-reloading. Anyway, thank you for clarifying and best of luck with your future attempts!
THAT is the weapon being used. In this case it is a morningstar. It appears to be the standard one rather than a +1 or other type, but that is by no means certain as mods don't always use the correct symbols. Other weapons have other symbols.
[I have noticed that if you try to help Dorn in the ambush by healing him, he dies. If you don't, he survives. Does anyone know how that works?]
Journal of Sprach the Half-orc Berserker and his cohort Magitho.
We hunted Kryll and killed her.
We rescued Tonder from lycanthropy before killing Droth and Shoal.
I actually had to fight this battle twice. The first time Dorn was killed but the game crashed upon saving. The second time Magitho was killed. I would have preferred it if Dorn had died as I could have boosted reputation to do shopping before dropping it again before resurrecting him.
We then collected a ring and killed some sirines. That turned out to be much more dangerous than it should have been as I was poisoned and had run out of antidotes.
However, I did survive, albeit with few health points.
THAT is the weapon being used. In this case it is a morningstar. It appears to be the standard one rather than a +1 or other type, but that is by no means certain as mods don't always use the correct symbols. Other weapons have other symbols.
I believe, @Borco is well aware of that The thing is that Alesia is Mage/Thief multi and she couldn't use Morningstars, or Flails or whatever unless she has UAI ability but that's still a long road there...
In Candlekeep, we keep the Iron Throne leaders alive but take down the greater doppelganger upstairs. In the catacombs, Enuhal gets the wisdom tome, Corey the strength one. We stay on the western side of the map in the next level to avoid the skeletons in the middle. True sight and magic missles help out with another greater doppelganger as Enuhal and Grond0 level up.
Once reaching the caves, we summon, buff and open with insect plague, which pretty much wins the fight for us:
Alesia gets confused due to opening with a backstab and being a bit isolated/unprotected, but she didn't do anything dangerous during the duration.
Grond0 uses the green PfP scroll and takes the spirit lions along for some basilisk hunting - we also take down the spiders here before moving back to the Gate, where we speak with Tamoko and buy chaos scrolls for the coronation while we avoid the Flaming Fist. Corey lures their mercenaries away and we enter their HQ after buffing up - they throw unholy blights, but we're able to interrupt two of those with icelance and attacks, so we only take medium damage while our insect plague goes off:
As greater malison hits our foes, Grim Face follows up with a devastating hold person against the bunched-up group of mercs, which ends the fight in our favor:
Upstairs, we save the duke and deliver him to the harbor master before entering the Iron Throne HQ. We summon our army for Cythandria and move the summons in with an invisible Grond0 leading them. True sight puts Cythandria under immediate pressure, the others use magical ammo to shoot down the golems - Cythandria's shroud of flames fails, her Mordenkainen's force missles do very little, except for killing her own ally:
At this point, her stoneskins are mostly gone, and we easily get through another round of new ones before she can do anything dangerous:
On to the undercellar. We buff up again, use true sight and Grond0 + summons again. Easy enough to take down Slythe, but Krystin has many protections including PFMW going. She starts casting chaos on Corey, who counters with an invulnerability potion - still 10% chance of saving throw failure, but he wasn't in range to receive the greenstone amulet or a potion of clarity:
He saves against one chaos and resists the second one outright, and once PFMW runs out, the battle is over right away:
For the coronation, we add haste from a scroll to our pre-buffs and go with greater malison + chaos + insect swarm as our primary plan. True sight helps greatly with the assassin and the mage. In the end, every foe is affected by something, and the cleanup is easy with both dukes staying quite healthy:
Alesia levels up, and we go for *Katana, because we're going after Kahrk next. Since we're playing TotSC and SoD, we have plenty of time to enjoy his SCS weapon. The ogre mage is dealt with in the safest way possible - we summon 3 skeletons and 2 spirit wolves, buff up everything and let them attack. Corey assists with a true sight from far away. His powerfull pre-buffs such as improved haste don't help Kahrk - eventually, he fails his save against the wolves and gets paralyzed, and Grond0 joins in to finish the fight:
It doesn't hurt that the wolves can deal their frost damage through stoneskins. I'm going to use them more and more now - at level 10, lions are still slightly better fighters (and faster), but the elemental damage, paralyzation chance and level drain chance are quite valuable.
Next, it's time for a big Grond0 solo mission - the ice island. He equips our best gear and uses a PfM scroll. The wizards here can do very little - they throw their initial MMMs and if they have summoning spells prepared, they can use those. Early on, Grond0 gets hit by two elemental summons and a big monster summoning spell - he actually gets surrounded and is forced to use a sandthief ring charge, waiting until the summoned monsters despawn due to their short duration:
The elementals stay active for a very long time though - Grond0 goes on to visit all of the wizards so their buffs start running out and starts off taking down the weaker ones:
The ankhegs can barely hit him due to his shield bonus against missles:
Finally, some of the wizards, realizing that they're helpless, just start going invisible. To draw them out, Enuhal and Grim Face gather some summons - the wizards fall for it, trying in vain to deal substantial damage to these, and Grond0 is ready to finish them off, though he has to use a second PfM scroll due to the first one running out:
We gather up all of the scrolls and go for our second big scroll learning session. We only have this one stoneskin scroll because we aren't doing EE quests here - I decide to give it to Alesia for now, because Grim Face can wear shields and has access to defensive cleric spells as well, though for now, Alesia isn't really using it because I want to have access to both positive emotion spells.
Finally, I decide to clear the road to Sarevok for later. Corey uses another hill giant strength potion and we fight our way to the skeleton warriors, where our summons and buffs are used - we need to rest in the undercity anyway:
Once again, the party learns 5 fire protection spells. I don't want to throw webs at the undercity party this time around, because I had trouble with that strategy in my last run. Instead, we're opening with 5 fireballs:
We can just ignore their arrows of detonation while our fighters take down their heavily wounded ones:
Meanwhile, we hit them with malison and insect plague, though the enemy wizard is casting an abjuration spell, which can only be remove magic. However, since we have haste now due to our scroll scribing session (and it's now part of our buffing routine), Corey, who turns out to be the target, can easily move away from the others, so they keep their fire protection:
Insect plague hits, and the wizard is mostly helpless:
Tamoko has a bunch of powerful defenses, but is lacking in ways to actually deal with our summons or an enraged Grond0. As she casts divine protection, Grond0 retreats for a while, and he's able to quickly finish the job once the spell has run its course:
We're just below the experience cap now, which is perfect - tomorrow, I most likely have the time to play Baldur's Island, Durlag's Tower and Sarevok in a single session, which will allow me to import more overflow XP into SoD.
Comments
May our crews meet at the Copper Coronet!
Cheers,
A.
@Alesia_BH : I'm glad to hear you've got thy groove back! That's encouraging
@All: It's such a delight to follow all of your stories that I barely have time to play myself..!
[Usually I just have him for the duration of his quests]
Journal of Sprach the Half-orc Berserker and his cohort Magitho.
Upon leaving the orcish horde with Gorion we found ourselves in a minority of two at Candlekeep. I no longer have any time for Gruumsh and upon investigating the various gods of the pantheon have decided that Tempus is the god for me. Magitho has no interest in religion and though a little self-absorbed he does have some morals.
Due to the fact that it looks like I probably have some divine blood, religion most definitely interests me.
And congratulations on finishing BG1! Masterfully done.
The Avatars (Enuhal's version) - Update VIII
Now, we started doing various sidequests and tasks in Baldur's Gate. First, we take down Cyrdemac. Next, the wizards at Sorcerous Sundries. After we summon and buff up, Grond0 rages in order to lead the summons into combat. I manually have the nymph cast confusion, because none of their spell protections will be able to block it. The results speak for themselves:
We help Petrine and move on to Jardak's house. After a few tries, we are able to lure the butler outside. The party is able to overwhelm his MSD with spells, but any followup spells get blocked by magic resistance. Meanwhile, our foe casts emotion: hopelessness on us, but everyone succeeds their saving throws.
While taking the second sling of unerring accuracy, I get caught stealing and have to deal with two flaming fist mercenaries who chase us around as we take down the mustard jelly:
Back in the city, we deal with Ragefast - while he starts with fireshield: red, he actually doesn't have stoneskins - big mistake. His PFNM doesn't help him much as we true sight his MI and shoot him down with magical arrows. As we enter Ramazith's tower, we are able to kill the wizard before he can react. The two fighters deal with most of the upstairs action, clearing the remaining tower:
Ascension and most SCS options installed; playing on hardcore
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1194919/#Comment_1194919
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1194948/#Comment_1194948
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1194981/#Comment_1194981
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195006/#Comment_1195006
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195055/#Comment_1195055
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195109/#Comment_1195109
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195125/#Comment_1195125
The party was imported to BG2EE. Doing that rerolled HPs for Grond0. Despite his last few rolls being very good ones, his HPs were still on the low side and the importing process increased them from 91 to 113. However, I decided that wasn't in the spirit of the run and used EEKeeper to take them back down.
The demise of the run was a pretty extended story in itself, so I'll just briefly summarize what happened prior to that:
- there was an early scare in Jon's dungeon when the ogre mage latched on to Alesia and an ice lance nearly killed her, but there were no more particular problems there.
- the circus was sorted out, with true sight making the werewolves easy. Kalah was much more dangerous than in unmodded and his MMMs had Alesia worried before he was cut down.
- Corey's lack of his lovely BGEE equipment had made him much less effective as a tank, so I decided next to get him some plate armor. With the use of web Mencar's gang were sitting ducks.
- we reported into Gaelan Bayle, then moved on to the Copper Coronet. The Beastmaster was shot down there to get Alesia an early bow upgrade.
- at the Graveyard we cleared the top level without problems. Returning the bear to Wellyn gave Corey the XP for L9 and everyone levelled up. From this point on though further levelling would have been a grind. Thanks to the unusual XP curve for druids, the party would need to more than double their XP to get another level, then double it again to level once more - then double it yet again for a further level (which would have triggered HLAs).
- invisible travel was used to handle the Suna Seni and Renfeld ambushes and web and cloudkill dealt with Prebek to get access to the Harper building. We took revenge for Xzar by trapping and cutting down Lucette. Some nearby pirates were also dealt with.
- at the Bridge District some muggers tried their luck, but true sight helped expose the would-be backstabbers. Hareishan appeared at this point and killed the thieves before I was ready to attack her. She left behind another stoneskin scroll that Alesia was successful in learning.
- I tried to pull Rune Assassins upstairs by showing them an invisible character, but they didn't want to play that game. Eventually Enuhal went down visible and pulled all the enemies upstairs. That was still a relatively comfortable fight with summons ready for them.
Then it was on to the main event. Those who know my play will recognise that I don't like to pay a license fee to the Cowled Wizards. In the unmodded game many solo characters can kill them all easily enough, so I don't generally worry too much about summoning them. With SCS things are rather different though and I really should have been more careful. I'd already been warned about spell casting once when I arrived outside Dracandros' hideout. Initially I was hoping to pull them out individually to be butchered and that worked with Valeria, but the others were all reluctant to come. To encourage them, I decided to use the tactic I mentioned before of sending a hidden character in to prompt enemies to come back out. Alesia tried to hide to do that - but her stealth failed repeatedly. Getting tired of waiting, I absent-mindedly got her to use invisibility instead - resulting in a hunting posse of cowled wizards arriving. Even worse, Alesia had gone inside by the time they appeared and that had indeed prompted Dracandros and Falahar to exit - blocking the ability for the others to dodge inside to avoid any spells from the cowled wizards.
Grond0 raged and stayed close to make himself a target, while the others split up and ran for it with the spirit wolves attempting to keep Dracandros and Pitre occupied.
Meanwhile, Grim Face and Enuhal had decided to take a stand against the magical sword. Enuhal summoned a spirit bear to occupy it while they used magic damage on it, but before they could kill it one of the cowled enforcers arrived - and an immediate spell sequencer of Mordenkainen's Force Missiles killed Grim Face.
Best of luck to everyone else - I'm relying on you all to uphold the honour of the Avatars
{when I googled "honour of the avatars" I came across a link saying "It is the history of the Avatars which makes us know that the Avatars come at every great human crisis or in the awakening of humanity to a broader vision ..." While the religious theme of that is not really to my taste, it does make me think that perhaps the Avatars will be needed around 2033 - I'm already looking forward to the next runs
Anyway, your run was fantastic, no doubt! We all are proud to have Grond0 the Barbarian in our midst.
I was able to solve the problem of Linda and Sir Trun and as a result my reputation increased somewhat.
It increased yet more after giving nearly all my gold away. Then, when I broke into a chest in the inn I was spotted and the watchers took the rest of my gold. I broke into another chest and was caught after stealing a pearl.
The guard who caught me took advantage of me in a way that he shouldn't have! Not that I'm complaining, but I'm not going to write it down here as little eyes could be looking!! Magitho broke into yet another chest, this one containing a jewel worth 1000gp.
This time we were undetected!
I gave yet more gold to the temple and again my reputation went up. With the rest of the gold I furnished myself.
Two assassins, Shank and Carbos attacked me and died for their pains as did Mendas who was much better equipped having plate armour and a +1 long sword.
Later on Gorion and I left Candlekeep only to be ambushed once more. Gorion died.
We found Joia's ring and returned it.
Later on we helped Mellicamp get back into shape.
We calmed Marl and took a tome to Firebead before heading to the FAI. On the way Magitho was badly hurt by a wolf.
At the FAI we killed Tarnesh when he attacked us.
We had a minor altercation with Dorn before heading to Nashkel. En route we picked up a letter and the Colquetle Amulet and Lord Foreshadow gave me a charisma increasing ring.
I chatted to Noober, found some armour and turned down a reward from Oublek. After doing some babysitting I became a hero.
At the Carnival I killed Zordral.
Dorn nearly got killed when we were involved in another ambush.
We then returned to the Carnival for R&R.
The joining of Dorn lowered our reputation somewhat to 16.
We then killed Zargos Flintblade and Greywolf. Isra would fain have joined us, but Blackguards and Paladins in the same party are not a good combination, even when the paladin is as laid back as Isra.
We then hunted Kryll and killed her.
[I have noticed that if you try to help Dorn in the ambush by healing him, he dies. Does anyone know how that works?]
Is my understanding correct that the run ends with a single chunked character? That does sound quite harsh, although I fully respect the choice.
Previous posts (BG 1): Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Technical notes:
Game version: BG2EE 2.6.6.0
Difficulty: Hardcore
Mods: SCS (v34.3); BG Tweaks (cosmetic changes)
Modified SCS components: Giant Spiders (Tactical), Smarter Beholders (Tactical), Smarter Mind Flayers (Improved), Improved Fiends and Celestials (Basic), Improved Golems (no cursed wounds)
Omitted SCS components: Improved Vampires, Improved Shade Lord, Improved Bodhi, Improved Beholder Hive, ToB tactical challenges (Watcher's Keep, Fire Giant Temple, Sendai's Enclave, Abazigal's Lair)
Here's Daelat's character sheet at the begining of Irenicus' dungeon. He's sitting on 45 HP and has proficiencies in darts and daggers.
Spellbook (level 9):
L1 - Blindness, Shield, Magic Missile, ProEvil, Chromatic Orb
L2 - Invisibility, MIs, Resist Fear, MAA
L3 - Skull Trap, MMMs, Remove Magic
L4 - II, Stoneskin
Cheers,
A.
My crew entered the Cloakwood with one goal in mind: Get to the mines. We passed through each of the areas and all of the ambushes invisible, pausing only to retrieve Spider's Bane for our beloved Grond0. Our success, as it was, was a direct result of maintaining our priorities. Focus on the goal. Do the important stuff first. That is the path to victory.
Sadly, our Corey struggled to keep his priorities straight once we actually got to the mines. He insisted on getting to work before drinking and as we all know that's a terrible idea. Drink first, work later. Keep your priorities straight.
Once again, my thief led crew opened with a targeted assassination. My Alesia went with a backstab + Potion of Firebreath combo on Kysus. Kysus fell immediately.
Rezdan dropped soon after, thanks to an arc maneuver. No hostile spells were cast.
Genthore survived the opener, but Grim Face quickly finished him off with a Wand of Heavens charge. All that remained was Drasus. Your turn Corey! Equip that Girdle of Bluntness, drink that Potion of Absorption and then get to work. All you need to do is stand your ground. We'll handle the rest.
Anytime now Corey: Drink that potion.
Thanks for showing us. We know you have it in your hand. Now drink it.
Please?
Of course, my Corey wasn't really at fault here. This was rusty me flubbing something simple once again. I clicked the potion and then cancelled the action by activating an attack. Rookie mistake, lol.
Predictably, Corey got walloped. Sorry, buddy! That looks painful. Not as painful as getting chunked in a temple five seconds after you were raised, but painful nonetheless, lol.
I noticed the mistake just in time to save Corey from death. We had him disengage, quaff a PoI and heal a bit. He re-joined us for the finish and, happily, scored the kill.
So, yes: let that be a lesson to us all: Drink first, work later. Don't let your friends down.
Best,
A.
Btw, you had requested some backstabs from the Avatar crews. Please accept the ones on Venkt and Kysus as a down payment. We'll deliver some proper knocks once we acquire the right tools. We only have Luck and Chant now and those only help a smidgen. The real BG1 backstabbing gem is at Sorcerous Sundries. I will crush!
That's not a general understanding, just my own specific choice. Although I play mostly solo characters, I do from time to time run full parties (usually of identical classes to test out in more detail their strengths and weaknesses) and always use the 'no chunking' rule in those. I guess that probably started as a way to increase the challenge and certainly does do that - it's the most common way for my party runs to end
I’ve fallen into a bit of a 90´s nostalgia rabbit hole. Sorry about that. I’ll chill with the semi-obscure references soon enough. To my Millenial and Gen Z readers, all you need to know is that O.P.E is Over-Powered Enuhal, our totemic druid. And yes, we are down with him. Also, yes: he is over-powered.
After finishing off Drasus we assessed our standing heading into the Davaeorn fight. We noticed that three of our five members were a few thousand XP point away from leveling up. We decided to take care of that.
First we wiped out the doggos over by the Beregost temple, letting Enuhal’s spirit snakes lead the way. The spirit snakes proved devastating. They couldn’t hurt the vampiric wolves, obviously, but their AC of -2 (L5) and poisonous attacks made them deadly, especially with a bit of micromanagement to maximize the efficacy of the poison.
Still in need of XP, we decided to return to the Cloakwood and let the spirit snakes do their thing there. Poison immunity and free action, with poisonous attacks? That sounds like a win.
First we let the snakes take on the ettercaps aided by a pair of skeleton warriors. We provided range support but before long it became clear that that wasn’t really necessary. The spirit snakes had it under control.
Next we tried some spiders. Funny thing about spiders: they’re usually not immune to poison, not even the poisonous ones, like phase spider. The spirit snakes had this again. The range weapons definitely weren't needed- we weren’t even needed. That gave us an idea.
Why don’t we take a break? We deserve it. We rested, summoned two spirit snakes and two skeleton warriors, and then took a full round of invisibilities on ourselves. We then marched around the area invisible and ate popcorn while the spirit snakes destroyed everything. And I mean everything. They took on all comers, barely taking any damage. It was a massacre.
I feel pretty confident that you could take down a lot of BG1 -I mean a lot of BG1- this way. Just marching around invisible behind some wisely chosen spirit animals, and perhaps a few helper summons. In any case, they got us where we wanted to be. Once Grim Face and I leveled up, we were ready for Davaeorn.
I’ll post on that fight soon.
Best,
A.
Running a roguish crew in BG poses a theoretical dilemma. The logic of rogue combat is to fight on your terms. You sneak. You plot. You strike. You kill- preferably before your enemy has a chance to attack. Rogues are backstabbers and trap layers. Life isn’t fair and neither are rogues.
At the same time, Infinity Engine encounters often assume certain parameters of behavior and those parameters aren’t roguish at all. A rogue doesn’t walk in the front door and introduce himself, but BG encounters are often designed with that expectation in mind. What to do?
My inclination is to strike a balance. Sometimes I do it my way as a rogue. Sometimes I go along with the logic of the encounter. When we met Davaeorn we did it his way. Rather than trying to assassinate Davaeorn or separate him from his protectors, we fought him more or less head on, albeit with judicious spacing. I’m glad we did.
For this battle we shifted our items around a bit. I took Corey’s Boots of Speed. Grondo took my Boots of Avoidance. Grond0 buffed with a Pro Magic scroll. I used the Potion of Magic Shielding from that chest over by Drasus, along with Shield, MSD, and a full complement of elemental protections, minus Pro Acid. Grond0 and I -now enjoying a movement rate bonus, protection from missile weapons and protection from spells- intended to take the lead. The rest of the party spread out behind us.
Game on, Davaeorn.
Noticing our enemies’ tight formation, we had Grim Face lay down a pair of webs while Grond0 took point. Looking good.
Davaeorn was trapped by his protectors and our vulnerable characters were out of reach of his spells. We lobbed in some AoE damage. A battle horror responded. Time to show off those Boots of Speed.
We had no intention of separating our foes, but with Davaeorn stuck, this battle horror separated himself. Fair game.
Time to press the advantage on the still trapped Davaeorn.
Davaeorn’s ranks grew thin. It was time to go for the kill. I landed a Spell Thrurst, taking down his spell turning, and clearing the way for targeted attacks. My MSD elapsed leaving me vulnerable to an MAA but that was expected (NW: Protection from Acid had been deliberately skipped during buffing because I judged MAA to be an acceptable risk, given my 50% protection from acid via Potion of Magic Shielding. In a solo run I would have used Pro Acid)
Shrugging off the damage, I finished him with a Wand of Frost blast. We’re off to Baldur’s Gate!
Best,
A.
They're fun! The skellies were effective there too. I just emphasized the spirit snakes in keeping with the theme of the post
Nevertheless I'm still grateful and congratulations for completing another chapter! It's been a textbook performance so far (although I'm not aware of any textbooks discussing drinking before working) - I especially appreciate the bold approach with Drasus & Co and Davaeorn. Enjoy the Gate!
That makes sense. After all, self-imposed limitations are often the most difficult ones to circumvent, and that does not necessarily only apply to no-reloading. Anyway, thank you for clarifying and best of luck with your future attempts!
THAT is the weapon being used. In this case it is a morningstar. It appears to be the standard one rather than a +1 or other type, but that is by no means certain as mods don't always use the correct symbols. Other weapons have other symbols.
[I have noticed that if you try to help Dorn in the ambush by healing him, he dies. If you don't, he survives. Does anyone know how that works?]
Journal of Sprach the Half-orc Berserker and his cohort Magitho.
We hunted Kryll and killed her.
We rescued Tonder from lycanthropy before killing Droth and Shoal.
I actually had to fight this battle twice. The first time Dorn was killed but the game crashed upon saving. The second time Magitho was killed. I would have preferred it if Dorn had died as I could have boosted reputation to do shopping before dropping it again before resurrecting him.
We then collected a ring and killed some sirines. That turned out to be much more dangerous than it should have been as I was poisoned and had run out of antidotes.
However, I did survive, albeit with few health points.
I believe, @Borco is well aware of that
The Avatars (Enuhal's version) - Update IX
In Candlekeep, we keep the Iron Throne leaders alive but take down the greater doppelganger upstairs. In the catacombs, Enuhal gets the wisdom tome, Corey the strength one. We stay on the western side of the map in the next level to avoid the skeletons in the middle. True sight and magic missles help out with another greater doppelganger as Enuhal and Grond0 level up.
Grond0 uses the green PfP scroll and takes the spirit lions along for some basilisk hunting - we also take down the spiders here before moving back to the Gate, where we speak with Tamoko and buy chaos scrolls for the coronation while we avoid the Flaming Fist. Corey lures their mercenaries away and we enter their HQ after buffing up - they throw unholy blights, but we're able to interrupt two of those with icelance and attacks, so we only take medium damage while our insect plague goes off:
Next, it's time for a big Grond0 solo mission - the ice island. He equips our best gear and uses a PfM scroll. The wizards here can do very little - they throw their initial MMMs and if they have summoning spells prepared, they can use those. Early on, Grond0 gets hit by two elemental summons and a big monster summoning spell - he actually gets surrounded and is forced to use a sandthief ring charge, waiting until the summoned monsters despawn due to their short duration:
Finally, I decide to clear the road to Sarevok for later. Corey uses another hill giant strength potion and we fight our way to the skeleton warriors, where our summons and buffs are used - we need to rest in the undercity anyway:
Got it - you may ignore the question. Sorry for being so slow today!
Lol! I was loving that y'all weren't getting it.
As for everyone else, you can continue to guess. I will (continue to) crush!