It definitely seems like a bug. There's always the control+q-command which force-adds the targeted creature to your party (debug mode needs to be active to use it), maybe you can get her back with that.
Good tip @enuhal ! Yes, using CTRL Q did put Mazzy back into my party. She seems to be working OK. It does seem what happened to me is a known bug so I can continue with Mazzy back - thanks!
microupdate 2: Coredruid III the human totemic druid
Well, I went through the trouble of getting Mazzy in the party after she wouldn't talk to me when she was returned from imprisonment.. She and April (my MP berserker) did great in the Kua-toa lair. Problem? She gets chunked by the demon knights lol. Oh well, I guess I can play five party members for now and recruit Sarevok in ToB. Will keep at it...
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 241, Core rules + unmodded (link to writeup for session 1+2 and 3
Stick and Pic had survived three sessions so were confident. It didn't take Stick long to spot the discrepancy, realising we were at the start of session 3 rather than the end. A brief hunt located the correct save and we resumed our grand hunt - having made a decent start in the city rather than staring at the entrance to Cloakwood (a long way back)
We had not sorted out the ogre in the sewers, Pic being braver than Stick. Soon remedied today although it was confusion rather than fear that we faced
Pic failed to chat up Desreta and we ended up with less than ennui as she stalked off. Never mind, we headed into the Iron Throne HQ and taught them a lesson they won't easily forget, not to mention whoever cleans up the fifth floor is going to wonder what happened. A bit of everything
Duke Eltan sent us back to Candlekeep, where we upset a few people and ransacked our way out of the catacombs. Prat was silenced, both his grunts blinded meaning his magelet friend succumbed first to our missiles and spells. Stick wanted to pull the legs off some spiders but Pic was more inclined to blast them with a wand
On our return to the city we tracked down Slythe and realised we hadn't got the cloak of Balduran so decided to pick that up at the same time - with strategic positioning of a skeleton so Krystin cloudkilled the appropriate courtesan. Krystin managed to hit Stick with a lightning bolt, and repeated this trick on Pic with a second bolt
Matters took quite the turn at the coronation, our hasty chantblessed skeletons doing much of the work
We made our way through the thieves maze without incident, although at one stage time slowed to a crawl. Pic impatiently tapped his knives on the wall while Stick used a club to bash two mustard jellies. Tick tock. No Pic your fists won't help either
We moved on. Rahvin and his gang fell to silence, a single web, several wand fireballs, missiles and finally melee. To Sarevok!
We carefully drew Sarevok away from his buddies. OK that failed - Semaj arrives first, gets two sets of mirror images but still departs under the weight of skeletons surrounding him but not before getting a cloudkill to cover much of the area.
We attempt to draw Sarevok into the cloudkill but fog of war and other skeletons moving when they spot him cause issues. We drag them and him back to the cloud but Angelo has arrived and Tazok appears moments later.
We focus on Angelo and Pic manages a bit of melee to end his threat. Pic then runs Sarevok and Tazok around the cloudkill - he is protected while they are not. Stick finally drops Tazok with a +2 bullet and we start on Sarevok. It doesn't end well. For him
Siege of Dragonspear
It fells like a long time since I've had a character get this far, and in single player I usually make a fatal mistake in the opening dungeon. Grond0 did his best to ease me through the first level and then decided scorchers would make short work of the second level. I did wonder about his lack of defence other than a neutral magi robe and this almost tripped him up. Almost
Physician... a well timed run. Not the last either, a later one seeing Pic sprint to the healer with 6hp left and poisoned
At about this point Stick reached level 8 of cleric so regained his beastmaster abilities.
Pic continued to take the strain, reluctantly admitting at one point that his cookie was cooked. His biscuit was broken. His gingerbread man was gone. Oh stop said Stick, I have remove paralysis. At least I did, right up to the coronation when I swapped it for skeletons. Not a lot of use here
So turn undead, summon a skeleton, turn undead, use your club, turn undead, sling a bullet, turn undead, heal your stricken companion.
Despite the wight magnetism to Pic and then only being turned for a moment, Pic survives. You never ever forget an experience like that so it won't happen again (or, this is Grond0 and it won't be long before getting held surfaces once more)
Anyway, we mentioned excess poison and low health earlier. The evidence surfaces
Korlasz was shown no mercy, although she did script herself an immediate recovery from Command. The insolence
We finished up trading at Sorcerous Sundries, and next time we hope not to die to the intruders upstairs
There is, of course, no truth in the rumour that Pic was given a piccy for every icky, or that Stick had at least as many sticky moments but never remembered to incriminate himself with mere screenshots. Here they are at the session end
Trio 66 - Update 1
Droon II - human bard, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Dacre - dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - human cavailer (Gate70)
The party made it out of Candlekeep and did our usual things of taking down Shoal and Neera for her gem bag. The party had very little trouble this session, with two fighter types leading the way. We did a few early tasks:
* We beat up some skeletons for Dacre as he needed daggers as his range weapon
* We carefully made our way to Arghain to get his magical sword for Blub. While Droon II was going to use two hand sword too, but instead he'll use halberd. For now though Droon II is using a non-proficient staff, though he usually is just using his crossbow or singing.
* We obtained ankheg armor for Blub in field at Nashkel. Noober bothered us and then did not survive.
* We obtained a free +2 dagger for Dacre in the field of tombs.
* We lead Greywolf around until he was shot dead. We were pretty low level so this took a while with our poor thac0 however Blub lead Greywolf around quite well. While we were in the area picked up a frost wand for Droon II.
* We made it to the area just south of Nashkel and ran out of time so saved here. It's clear Droon II won't be leading the kills as he only was able to make 1 kill....
Micro-update 3: Coredruid III the human totemic druid
Traveling with: April (MP berserker), Sarevok, Jaheira, Viconia, Imoen
We've made it out of the Underdark, killed the shadow dragon and Firkraag, defeated Bodhi, cleared Suldanesslar, defeated Ireincus at the Tree of Life and Hell and have just made it to the pocket plane. As was my intention I have swapped out Anomen for Sarevok. We will attempt the pocket plane challenge #1 next.
Micro-update 4: Coredruid the totemic druid
Traveling with: April (MP berserker), Sarevok, Jaheira, Viconia, Imoen
We've finished Saradush quests, got through Yaga Shura's temple and have wiped out Nylee. Yaga-Shura will be our next target. One thing new I realized is that energy blades can be incredibly helpful for tough fights. The really tough fight with the fire giants when you enter their temple, Viconia and Coredruid III used energy blades to very rapidly tear those giants down. No chunkings this time, I'll have to remember this for future runs.
Small update from Lucius.
We made it through the return to Candlekeep. We rushed through the library and killed the Iron Throne leaders to get the revenge for Yeslick. Alora went trap hunting buffed with a potion of absorption.
Then we got to the catacombs where we prebuffed with haste, resist fear and chant and then fought all the doppelgangers.
Before leaving we scribe scrolls with Quayle and then took a long rest, three times being interrupted in our sleep by one doppelganger.
Next we buffed again and handled Prat. That is always a tight space, but we got the mages/clerics quite quickly and we were soon outside.
Next is Ulgoths Beard. We stand in front of Shandalar who doesn't know we stole his items.
Micro-update 5: Coredruid iII the human totemic druid
Traveling with: April (MP berserker), Sarevok, Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia
We have taken down Yaga-Shura. There were a few deaths but we prevailed all the same. We cleared out the oasis without too much trouble (summons helped a lot). Sendai's lair was cleared and Sendai herself was also defeated. Sarevok and Viconia died but we were able to resurrect them.
The key challenge will be Draconis. I don't have snares this time so will have to beat him in a fair fight. Wish me luck.
Thanks @Grond0 - my only sure fire way is snares, but that wasn't an option for this group. I've had some success with GWW and slings if there is inquisitor dispel in the party since that can dispel targeted at a ground area, but that wasn't an option for this group either. Our core problem was Draconis was doing far more damage then our group could do to him. Only got him to maybe 1/2 life.
Trio 66 Update 2
Droon II - human bard, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dacre - dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - human cavalier (Gate70)
So the party had a lot of cash, but Grond0 didn't want to spend it. So Droon II spent it on some spells like PfP and we headed to the baslisks' area. With the PfP protection on Dacre and Bulb, the party made good progress clearing the basilisks. Thanks to Blub's resist fear, Mutamutin wasn't much trouble either. Droon II managed to blind Peter and Lindin then with a berserker leading the way Kirian's party got wiped.
Blub thought we could take on ankhegs Ok and he was right we cleared them without much trouble, it was only near the end the anhkegs got any hits on us. After helping Brun out our reputation was high (20) and with friends we were able to afford dagger of venom for Dacre and crossbow of speed for Droon II.
Sirines seemed like a natural target for our berserker and cavalier who is immune to charm but first we took down Bassilus and some nearby hobgoblins. Droon II tried horror but that didn't work out well as that brought even more hobgoblins and a ghast to the fight, though the party prevailed all the same. Horror never seems to work as well for me as it seems to work for the enemies.
In any case, with a berserker leading the way the two groups of sirines at the pirate cave area were easy enough. The fighters took some damage against the golems but we prevailed there as well. After selling we headed off to the next group of sirines at the Mad Arcand's map and we had a close scare. Blub got pinned by ogres and could not move. Dacre waded in and Droon II managed to paralyze 3 of the strongest ogres with the wand of paralyzation - this was just enough to keep Blub alive though it was close, he go to a sliver of life. It did give the nearby healer some work to do but the party was miffed he didn't fully heal everyone. The sirines of course had no chance.
Droon II decided to pay Brage's area a visit. First we took down the Doomsayer, magic missiles, scorcher from wand and melee was enough to take it down. As usual we also returned Brage to the temple. Somewhere around here we got full plate for Dacre.
It seemed like the party was well equipped so we worked on the main quest. There was no problem getting to Mulahey's lair. While Dacre did enrage it didn't matter much as Droon II managed to paralyze Mulahey almost immediately with his wand of paralyzation. We ran out of time so we saved our session here.
This pair continue to surprise me, with Stick's leather armour holding out better than expected. We started the session by siding with a vampire (aiming for a regenerative item)
On our way back we got to visit the troll cavern, Stick was a bit wary but Pic was happy to break out a scorcher against carrion crawlers and continue scorching the trolls. Stick picked up the nice little sling down there which has additional fire damage
Next was a temple of Bhaal which had been taken over by followers of another faith. Stick used fire and cold protection on Pic which kept damage to a minimum, and we were making decent progress until a backstab badly wounded Stick. He gulped a potion and took another hit (down to 11hp) but moving away and summoning skeletons allowed them and Pic to prevail.
It would make sense to rest before taking on Ziatar but Stick felt the skeletons had plenty in hand. Pic made sure of it by stunning Ziatar with a dart and we all piled in for some one-sided melee
After releasing prisoners, we faced the neothelid - Stick suggesting magic potions to give us three turns of automatic saving throws. The neothelid seemed to spend almost an entire turn underground but when it eventually surfaced we meleed it as did our skeletons
We probably took a risk against the mind flayers party, but a near-dead skeleton led, web followed, then potions of fire and arrows of detonation eliminated everybody apart from the dwarf who got a brief moment of melee
With a full set of containers we'd merrily looted our way back outside, taking down a green dragon on the way. Party gear / loot
Trio 66 Update 3
Droon II - lvl 8 human bard, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dacre - lvl 7 dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - lvl 7 human cavalier (Gate70)
So the party finds themselves in Mulahey's cave with the enemies (except a kobold) dead. We rest then make our way outside. A couple of webs and a skull trap were far too much for the Amazons and they went down easily. We belatedly realized we hadn't rescued Samuel yet so we did that.
Then we headed to Firewine Bridge for a match against the "greatest swordsman". Meilum went down very fast. While we were in the area, we also took down Molkar's gang. A web helped there, though Droon II got badly wounded but he survived.
Next up we took on the Bandit Camp. Our party handled the outside pretty well, though Blub took huge damage but he lived as well. He also appreciated the full plate upgrade from Khosahnn. Next,, a berserker led the way against the enemies in Tazok's tent, with Droon II paralyzing the hobgoblin archer - success! While we were at it, we also took down Bjornin's ogres, though none of will be using the shield.
About here we made a stop at Durlag's Tower. We cleared the high experience enemies at the surface without too much trouble. The poor thief was once again killed (Rigilio). We also used the PfP spell to take on basilisks the only hitch we had to wait until the stun trap effect wore off on Droon II.
Time to head into the Cloakwood. We skipped the first area. In the 2nd area, Droon II gave a freedom potion to Dacre then Dacre lead the way against the enemies here. We also went into the cave to fight the minions there and get the Spider's Bane for Bulb. Success! We skipped area 3. The dryad was taken down like usual. We also took on some Wyverns, as Bulb wanted to show off his poison immunity. Success here as well.
Time for the main event the battle against Drassus. Some webs and fireballs were unsurprisingly too much for the enemies and ended up being a clear victory. As usual, we skipped most encounters on our way to Davaern. 2nd level could have been tricky but an invis potion saw us to level 3. We had to fight the battle horrors guarding Davaeorn though they didn't last long. Droon II fired a single fireball out of sight out of sight but did neglible damage so instead he gave a magic blocking potion to Dacre, who promptly enraged and charged. Somehow Davaeorn failed to get his mirrors up and got poisoned so he died quickly.
On the the great City of Baldur's Gate.
* The ogre mage and his carrion crawlers were engaged. Droon II went down invisible so he was fine, and Bulb had spider's bane so he couldn't be held. We looted a body here.
* We found out we couldn't turn the body in as we were all too charismatic. So we killed Akrion instead. We then gave the goods to Nemphre then killed her as well.
* Basilisk taken down in warehouse with the help of a potion of mirror eyes.
* Vayya and Deserta taken down for their gauntlets.
* Razamith taken down as well as the minions in his tower. We had to use a STR potion to open his chest upstairs.
We ran out of time about here, so saved our session here. Dacre is leading the kills as expected with his dual-wielding.
Can I ask the no-reloaders here if they've ever seen anything like this?
I was in Durlag's Tower and had just killed some skeletons with Minsc. So next I was going through the inventory and moving things between characters. I have auto-pause on for when enemies are spotted.
All of a sudden, the screen went weird and I got a Game Over. I can't see in the log any harm coming to my main character; and bizarrely, all of the portraits are black.
Wondering whether I'm justified in reloading from an earlier stage...
@lego_pirate Yes, sadly this is a known bug that can sometimes (though very rarely) occur, and it's specifically defined by the blacked out portraits; Hasn't happened to me in ages, but I've seen it a few years ago once in Durlag's Tower and once in SoD during the Dragonspear siege. I think it was theorized that it mostly happens in very long running sessions on busy maps late in the game when a ton of magical effects are happening/have happened, but I don't think it can be reliably reproduced. A reload is 100% justified for that one, as it is clearly a bug and there are zero ways to prevent/counter it. I was actually hoping that it might've been fixed since it's been so long since I've seen it, but your screenshot is a very clear example, so it seems to be still around.
@lego_pirate Yes, sadly this is a known bug that can sometimes (though very rarely) occur; Hasn't happened to me in ages, but I've seen it a few years ago once in Durlag's Tower and once in SoD during the Dragonspear siege. I think it was theorized that it mostly happens in very long running sessions on busy maps late in the game when a ton of magical effects are happening/have happened, but I don't think it can be reliably reproduced. A reload is 100% justified for that one, as it is clearly a bug and there are zero ways to prevent/counter it.
Thanks, that's a relief! I was enjoying this run. Funnily enough, when I clicked 'reload' the whole game crashed and needed to be reloaded.
For once, Rayic Gethras caused no problems after his initial spell was interrupted by a shot from Sting. After a couple more minor tasks the Elementals invaded Mae'Var's guild. The master thief was felled by a glyph - once again Rime was in range of that, but this time he had plenty of HPs to ensure his safety.
At Trademeet the genies failed to petrify a fire elemental. One of them got a fitting death when petrified himself by a chromatic orb from Blast, while Lucid went one better by outright killing the other with his orb. Although the efreeti is a creature of fire, its physical attacks don't do fire damage so the Elementals are not permitted to make use of it. They did though buy Blackblood to give Lucid a melee weapon. That leaves Blast as the only one without a weapon at the moment, but he is well able to make a contribution anyway with spells and MMMs.
At the Grove, various trolls caused no problem. Kyland Lind attempted to retreat, but was caught by a glyph before he could get away. The final group of druids provided a Flame Tongue long sword, as an upgrade for Toxic, before the Elementals watched Cernd make a light snack out of Faldorn. Before leaving the Elementals cleaned out the local tomb, Lucid helping the sterilization efforts with a first use of chain lightning.
At that point I'd paused this run for a month or so before deciding I should make an effort to clear the decks of the 7 or 8 runs of various types I've currently got underway. After completing one solo effort, I came back to this run and immediately found trouble when the Elementals returned to Athkatla and ran into Sansuki in the Bridge District. The first screenshot suggested to me that the Cowled Wizards were about to appear and I couldn't remember if I'd had a previous warning from them. I feared the worst though and that was quickly confirmed. By that time though the Elementals were already on the move and managed to get into a nearby house without the wizards following - and a couple of vampires that did follow soon regretted that. They couldn't rest in the house, but Toxic sneaking outside encouraged the wizards to cast spells on themselves. One of them died in a fireball and the perpetrator of that was then knocked unconscious in retaliation. I would have chosen to attack after that, but by that time the rest of the wizards had decided they were getting bored and disappeared.
The skinner quest was completed, though Toxic nearly got into trouble when leading the first Rune Assassin upstairs into an ambush. The intention was for the fire elemental to be subjected to a backstab, but Toxic was slightly too slow to move away and got targeted himself. There was no problem with the other enemies though. While in the area they taught Captain Dennis and his mercenaries a lesson and pulled Dracandros and his mates outside to their doom.
The Elementals were now able to return to Trademeet to help Tiris, which raised reputation to 19. For the final point needed to maximise that they did the Fallen Paladins - this time remembering not to use any arcane magic in the fights.
Berserker 10, 124 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 107 kills (+488 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Archer 10, 89 HPs, 65 kills (+357 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Priest of Talos 10, 74 HPs, 23 kills (+85 in BGEE/SoD)
Assassin 12, 73 HPs, 16 kills (+178 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths
Avenger 12, 86 HPs, 22 kills (+66 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths
Dragon Disciple 11, 59 HPs, 103 kills (+244 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths
@enuhal@lego_pirate Yes the unexpected death characterized by all the portraits going black is a known bug and reload is 100% justified. It has something to do with missiles being lost track of.
A late start yesterday, and we managed about 35 minutes before Grond0 had a distraction and I called a halt as tired
No notes or screenshots were taken so artistic licence / incorrect order of events follows. We were standing by the corpse of a green dragon, having been there for a week it was fair to say the foul smelling cave was even more rank from the reek of death caused by a large rotting carcass
We stepped outside and headed back to Boareskyr Bridge, only for a random encounter (can't remember the order for certain but let's assume it is goblins first). Pic uses a Sunfire to clear out most of the goblins and the remaining trio are easy pickings where two skeletons don't really get a look in. We buff a bit, Stick cursing as he had previously used Chaotic Command, and head down into a myconid cavern. Pic set about these rapidly and didn't really need the skeleton summoned to support him
Boareskyr Bridge then. Vichand is silenced but craftily casts vocalise. Pic suggests this will cloud his aura longer than the dagger of venom requires so we cut him down and retrieve a scroll from his body without alerting the rest of the encampment. With this scroll and a wardstone we move north and enter the fort. After speaking to Khalid and Jegg we speak to the mage, which distracts him from defensive incantations. We kill a wraith and use the scroll to nullify the void shard (insert real name here), then return to Jegg to craft some void bullets for Stick and either armour or a shield
At about this time Pic asks if we bought the +3 quarterstaff from Ulgoth's Beard. Of course not, since neither of us had staff proficiency. Only, Pic now has that proficiency and is already planning on sharing suitable weapons with Belhifet since his +2 daggers won't cut the mustard. The demon near the Hellevator has a +3 staff so we'll ask nicely, or something, if we get that far
Stick decides we will head outside, and can't resist the orc cave slightly to the north. Pic suggests a fireball so Stick uses a wand of Heavens (something like 45 charges left) on the witch doctor. Another easy victory before we return to camp. Nope, time for another random encounter. Stick summons two skeletons then we move ahead to find a young green dragon and two hill giants have patiently waited for us. We kill the giants then Pic tries but just fails to kill the dragon (apparently an act of mercy as it has no parents, what with the nearest green dragon having succumbed to daggeritis)
At camp Stick tells Lt Otilda where to stick it, then can't find the words to tell Corwin when to join our attack. He can't tell Otilda either, at which point he remembers he really should have spoken to Khalid on the fort grounds. Back we go.
I thought we had another random encounter at some point, but given the time we played maybe there were only two. Certainly didn't get to the invisible assassin
As we reach Khalid my resolve/interest in combat has gone and we follow Grond0's usual approach of surrendering the fort. With this done we close the session, giving the Crusaders another week or more to light a spectacular barrel-fire on the bridge
Another run ticked off here, though rather less successful this time thanks to a combination of risk taking and a lapse in concentration …
Diving into the Temple sewers, Sting stealth shot a bunch of kobolds before the Elementals took down a rakshasa to inherit his cloak. Nearby, Mekrath offered an easy target. Tarnor and his henchmen could have been trickier, but a sneak attack successfully killed Gaius before he could buff and the others didn't last long.
More ambitiously, they also attacked the Shade Lich. Rime took the bulk of the damage there and eventually expired from the small amout of damage caused by a Finger of Death.
With the lich having apparently used all its nastier range spells though, Sting was able to shoot the lich down with his crossbow before anyone else could be endangered. Flash had a Raise Dead spell already memorized so the group were soon back together.
Underground, Sting checked ahead of the bridge and saw that there were just 3 gauths guarding that. That meant no instant death effects to be worried about and I took no real care in attacking them. I did notice just before the last gauth died that one of the party had been badly injured by a lightning bolt, but didn't register that was Flash (the PC) - he could actually have protected against that both by spell and special ability, but almost never used such protections. The final screenshot doesn't show what killed him, but I suspect that was cause wounds taking effect just before Flash got posthumous revenge on the gauth.
Well we managed to get past Sarevok though poor Imoen got chunked. We got badly wounded with our fight with Sarevok but we did prevail without any paladins dying - on to Amn!
Stick knew it was going to be a lucky number 7 session. For someone - hopefully us
We had to make our way across Boareskyr Bridge. Easier said than done, although done it was
Having made the camp, we tracked down a druid. Stick miscalculated how long it would take to summon a skeleton and got himself stunned, meaning Pic had to dig into his repertoire and keep the party leader alive.
He then got himself dominated by a vampire, Pic once again saving the day.
A shambling mound pounded away at Pic, forcing him to go invisible while entangled. Pic suggested Stick should watch out but he too was entangled. The shambling mound raised it's mighty arms only for both of us to strike and successfully defeat it
Stick then glugged a potion of mirror eyes as a precaution having foolishly wandered into sight of a greater basilisk
On to the UnderGround River map. Not much of note initially as we killed some greater wyverns and aa gargantuan spider failed to cause problems
Near the entrance to the Underground River we silenced and blinded a cyclops, and killed a pair of guards before a mage turned up. Pic had the bright idea to use a scorcher-wand but at leas three of them hit him with missiles and he stumbled
Stick stepped back, just as Pic expired
A couple of hasted crusaders lost an arrows vs bullets fight, then Stick retrieved his companion and headed back to camp. He searched in vain for Mizhena, refused to speak to Dosia and finally rested before casting raise dead himself
The remaining crusaders didn't put up much of a fight, other than only one succumbing to Greater Command
Stick had once more had his fill of Dragonspear, being able to take only small doses, so we decided to end the session at this point
After several months of inaction in this run I've got up to date with all my other games, leaving this as the only outstanding one to resolve. I had generally been playing quite carefully recently and successfully completed 3 of my long-life runs in a row before a bit of carelessness saw a cleric/ranger scared and then breathed on by Draconis. Perhaps that indicated that concentration was going downhill and my last attempt with a diviner in that challenge certainly seemed to give further evidence of that - the run ending early in SoA when an attempt to summon a skeleton warrior during a travel ambush produced a skull trap instead to kill myself.
That premature end meant the Crew finally got the chance to see some more action. They had last been seen having successfully invaded an illithid stronghold in the Underdark and their next port of call was a drow city where they were immediately tasked with a rescue mission. An ambush on the way there was quickly dealt with, though there was a slight delay waiting for Baby Face to come out of his maze. The illithid that had kidnapped Phaere were no more successful in their fight. I don't normally bother with the drow city as my solo characters are likely to have hit the XP cap before then, but the Crew did the quest there for the matron mother. They also entered Deirex's tower and successfully defeated the lich there - it survived a Daystar sunray, but a blast from the Ring of Energy was too much for it. After the Matron Mother and Phaere were killed by a summoned demon, the Crew hastily left the City. Rather than get Adalon to help them escape they chose to attack her. Everyone took heavy damage there from her wing buffets and breath weapon, but just survived and picked up enough XP for another level.
On the way back to Athkatla, Drizzt and his companions appeared to be spoiling for a fight, but found they'd picked the wrong group to confront this time. On arrival, Kruin and his goons made the same mistake. The Crew went to Cromwell and forged a few items, but found they didn't have the scroll describing how to make Crom Faeyr. That wasn't still at Umar and I've no idea where it might have been dropped, so Bugsy will have to do without that.
With the iMod providing level drain protection, the vampires at the Graveyard were quickly dealt with and Bodhi made her last stand. Before heading for Suldenesselar the Crew took a trip to the North Forest. This is another area I very rarely visit, but I seemed to remember it being the home of a better long bow for Al. Prospecting there found nothing though and the Crew moved on to the Forest of Tethir where they did indeed find the Mana Bow. Then it was on to Suldanesselar. The XP for discovering that was enough for another level, giving everyone their first HLA.
Al (PC) - L20, 143 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 217 kills (+305 in BGEE/SoD), ***** 2-handed sword / ***** longbow
Baby Face - L20, 144 HPs, 339 kills (+298 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths, ***** long sword / ***** crossbow
Bugsy - L20, 138 HPs, 239 kills (+260 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths, ***** hammer / ***** shortbow
Carlo - L20, 148 HPs, 254 kills (+283 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths, ***** flail / ***** sling
Mad Dog - L20, 158 HPs, 460 kills (+290 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths, ***** axe / ** dagger / ** dual wielding
Vito - L20, 141 HPs, 226 kills (+286 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death, ***** scimitar / ***** darts
Nascent Necromancer: A Random Run, Part 2
Part 1 found here
It's been a while since I played this run, so my memory is a bit sketchy... I'll piece together what I can from the screenshots.
Apparently, we went offkilter for a bit by heading back out into the wilderness instead of clearing the city.
Droth as always was no match for Command (we let Shoal live), a local Ogre clan was beaten up, and though Fighter / Thief got Dire Charmed, the resident Sirines were also disposed of.
To the south, more Sirines were Webbed after having their Improved Invisibility dispelled by Priest of Helm's True Sight (not before they got a few Dire Charm off, which thankfully Blackguard just shrugged off).
Sil and her friends were handled using Skeleton Warriors (whom also helped clear some Flesh Golems we pulled outside Black Alaric's Cave for disposal).
The CON tome went to Blackguard, who now has decent yet not at all great hitpoints.
Alright, that's about it for western areas. Let's deal with some Basilisks.
Of course, by now Basilisks are no threat, not even when supported by Mutamin, as the latter found out to his detriment: Priest of Helm's Skeleton Warriors more or less clear the area on their own, with a woefully slow Korax trailing behind; the adventuring party had no way of dealing with Web (they never do).
This resulted in several levels, and we got some serious good luck with spell choices for Dragon Disciple: He managed to pick up Blindness, Agannazar's Scorcher (well, not THAT great but at least not useless), and Skull Trap (... this is actually really good!).
Shaman compensated this good fortune by snagging Sunscorch (eh), Resist Fire and Cold (eeeeh...), and Cloudburst (... I don't think I've ever cast this, and most likely I never will).
We also picked up some good gear here: Robe of the Good/Neutral Archmagi for Necromancer/Dragon Disciple.
With that out of the way, there's almost no wilderness areas left, so we finally start clearing the city proper.
We managed to take Lothander out before he ran, so now both frontliners have Boots of Speed.
The Wisdom tome went to Priest of Helm as he's the only one that gets any use out of it.
Oh, and the run came close to ending due to Larriaz.
Yes, the Sirine in a house in the Harbor district with like 5 hitpoints that apparently has access to L3 arcane spells, since she unloaded a Lightning Bolt on us before we could slap her down.
Necromancer doesn't have the hitpoints for miscalculations like that...
Anyway.
The rest of the city went smoothly, apart from Fighter / Thief having too miserable Find Traps to disarm the trap protecting the Helm of Balduran (though he survived the ensuing detonation handily).
The only encounter here that can be a bit iffy is Sunin: Though his AI, indeed almost any SCS Mage AI, seemingly always prioritizes a Remove Magic, so there's typically enough time to tear down his spell defenses and set to work before he pops anything too dangerous.
With the City cleared, apart from the Iron Throne Headquarters, we went for Durlag's.
Above ground, not much to report: The Ghost passed not so peacefully at the hands of Skeleton Warriors, and Priest of Helm got another Wisdom boost.
Around here, we picked up another round of levels.
Shaman at least managed not to completely botch his first 4th level spell, as he picked up Death Ward.
I'll probably end up casting that using Priest of Helm most of the time since he'll have much better caster level, but still, it isn't useless.
Dragon Disciple, however, continues being the absolute MVP of random spell selection: Don't ask me how, but he somehow rolled Contagion (blech), Greater Malison (oh), and Stoneskin (oh!!) as his potential picks.
I agonized for a moment, but it has to be Stoneskin.
Blindness, Mirror Image, Agannazar's Scorcher, Skull Trap, Invisibility 10' Radius, Stoneskin... we've got options in spades.
Could've been so, so much worse...
Anyway, the Warders guarding the way to the second level are dispatched in standard fashion: We use Dragon Disciple's new-found tankiness to excellent effect, as he holds off first Avarice, then Pride after the latter chewed his way through our Skeleton Warriors.
Blackguard slowly but surely wears down Love, and Fear for some reason didn't want to engage in melee, but was content to stay at range, and died unceremoniously right after Avarice.
And that's where we leave off; this was a short update, but I'll have some time to play within a few weeks and wanted to catch up writing-wise to where we're at.
Unfortunately, we're still out of luck on the proficiency front, as the party stats in the spoiler below indicates: Fighter / Thief picked up a pip in Sling at Fighter level 6, though I'm not complaining.
Probability states we're reasonably likely to get at least one specialization before ToB, and even if not, well.. that'll just add to the challenge.
Protagonist
Name: Necromancer
Lawful Good Male Human Necromancer L8
STR 17 DEX 12 CON 11 INT 19 WIS 17 CHA 18
Quarterstaff *, Dagger *
33 HP (6 from familiar)
Name: Priest of Helm
Lawful Evil Male Dwarf Priest of Helm L7
STR 14 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 11 WIS 16 CHA 7
Sling *, Two-Handed Weapon Style *, Two-Weapon Style *
51 HP
Name: Dragon Disciple
Chaotic Neutral Male Elf Dragon Disciple L8
STR 10 DEX 19 CON 15 INT 11 WIS 12 CHA 15
Sling *, Dart*
Blindness, Burning Hands, Friends, Larloch's Minor Drain, Sleep
Agannazar's Scorcher, Mirror Image, Vocalize
Invisibility 10' Radius, Skull Trap
Stoneskin
48 HP
Name: Fighter / Thief
Chaotic Evil Male Halfling Fighter L6 / Thief L7
STR 13 DEX 18 CON 17 INT 14 WIS 9 CHA 10
Axe *, Bastard Sword *, Dagger *, Quarterstaff *, Shortbow *, Sling *
Open Locks 65, Find traps 40, Pick Pockets 40, Move Silently 60, Hide in Shadows 85, Detect Illusion 25, Set Traps 30
57 HP
Name: Blackguard
Neutral Evil Female Human Blackguard L7
STR 14 DEX 10 CON 18 INT 6 WIS 16 CHA 18
Club *, Dagger *, Two-Handed Sword *, War Hammer *, Single-Weapon Style *, Spear *
81 HP (5 HP from Helm of Balduran)
Name: Shaman
Neutral Evil Male Human Shaman L8
STR 11 DEX 11 CON 16 INT 11 WIS 12 CHA 14
Axe *, Dart *, Sling *, Two-Weapon Style *
Armor of Faith, Cure Light Wounds, Doom, Entangle, Spirit Ward, Sunscorch
Charm Person or Mammal, Cure Moderate Wounds, Resist Fire and Cold, Writhing Fog
Cloudburst, Cure Disease, Spiritual Clarity
Death Ward, Spirit Fire
60 HP
We leave the party preparing to rest on the ground floor of Durlag's before descending.
Next up is clearing the underground levels, which should be (nearly) enough to get everyone their final BG1EE levels; we'll then rush through the endgame and come out the other side in SoA.
Onward!
Trio 66 Update 4
Droon II - lvl 10 human bard, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dacre - lvl 8 dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - lvl 7 human cavalier (Gate70)
The party made good progress. Here are some of things we did in the city:
* Jardak and his servant defeated.
* Mountain Maulers wiped out pretty fast.
* Party took down Degrodel's minions.
* Dead boy returned to his father
* Ragefast defeated.
* Poison quest completed
* Larze gets hit with stunning dart and fails his save
* Cloak of Balduran retrieved for Dacre
* Sunin defeated quickly by Dacre
* Fifth floor of iron thone Dacre was protected by protection from magic scroll. Droon Ii was then going to use web but Blub says, "Hey I'm fine I have spider's bane." Well problem was mage did chaos and Blub failed his save so Droon II and Dacre did most of the work.
While we had no thief for the Crypts, Dacre used a protection from magic scroll and Droon II used knock to open up the crypts. The protection from magic was still active by the time we made it to Prat so Dacre led the way with his buddies assisting success! We also took down the spiders here. We a little scare when Docre got poisoned by a phase spider (Grond0 doesn't use heal potions or antidotes) but a protection from poison scroll saved him - whew. Basilisks were easy thank to our last two mirror eyes potions one for each fighter.
Slythe was killed pretty quick and Krystin did not escape either. Droon II used haste spell for Duchal Palace fight and also slow - this enabled easy victory for the party. The party battled their way through the thieve's maze pretty easily. Some potions allowed Dacre to trip the 4 traps by the skeleton warriors. Droon II skipped the Iron Throne party in the Undercity. He was just about to do Sarevok when Gonr0 mentioned by not deal with the skeleton warriors to get Droon II's last level for BG 1 (level 10), so Dacre was given a protection from undead to do just that.
Not a lot of buffs for Sarevok fight. Dacre successfully only pulled Sarevok and Semaj. Droon used all his magic missiles on Semaj and he died farily quickly. He then tried to cast slow on Sarevok. The fighters were tanking very well for some reason and Blub got the kill shot on Sarevok.
Only a few minutes left we made it to Irenicus' dungeon and killed a few goblins here. We saved our session here.
Another session saw the party well into ToB. They started at Suldanesselar by making pretty short work of various golems. The dragon may have been a bit tougher, but was still no match for a first concerted use of everyone's new WW ability. On the Tree of Life Jon's protection spells allowed him to survive quite a while and he actually managed to claim a victim when Carlo (who had taken a lot of damage from a ADHW earlier) was PW:stunned and could thus not escape fire shield damage while the others were beating Jon with their fists. He was resurrected a moment later though when everyone was pulled down to hell in Jon's wake.
Al took the good options for Pride, Fear and Selfishness. Technically he also followed the good option for Greed, but being in fact greedy he did fancy keeping hold of Blackrazor and a group attack killed the genie before he could teleport away. As Al is already evil he had no compunction about following the evil line in the Wrath challenge. The final conflict with Jon saw him remain invisible for quite a while after his mislead was destroyed, but once he could be attacked he didn't last long - opening the way to ToB.
A WW apiece was sufficient to kill Illasera and her supporters. The first pocket plane challenge proved simple, with Baby Face tanking (using Blackrazor to keep his HPs up) and the others firing missiles. Moving on to Saradush, the Crew recovered a spell book before Al allowed himself to be lured into the prison. A potion of invisibility let him escape the vampires and go and get the others. The iMod provided protection while working through the vampires before Baby Face switched back to Blackrazor again to deal with flesh and blood enemies. Al's loss of XP in the hell trials meant he was now 50k behind the others, but he got enough down there to allow everyone to level up again. For the fight with Gromnir everyone arrived invisible (4 by ring and 2 by potion), making killing the mages at the start easy. Everyone but the thief died in the first round and he followed as soon as he attacked.
They shot down enemies in the North Forest on the way to the Forest of Mir. PfU scrolls were used there to give the Master Wraith no chance. Next up was the Marching Mountains and the Fire Giant temple. Everyone entered there buffed with fire protection and negative saving throws. Baby Face led the way, standing in lava every now and then to top up HPs. Buffs had expired by the time they got upstairs, but the fire giants there were balked by a doorway and shooting a few of those was enough to earn the Crew another level.
With the hearts acquired, the Crew returned to the Forest of Mir. Nyalee changed her mind about what she wanted, but that proved a poor decision for her. Before going after Yaga-Shura, the Crew decided to return to Watcher's Keep to collect another flail head. Other than the need to rest to heal trap damage there was no problem there and Carlo soon had an improved flail to use. Then it was on to the Siege Camp to demonstrate to Yaga-Shura that, without his immunity, he was easy to kill.
They slaughtered everyone in the Oasis, on the way to Amkethran. They fought some monks there to get access to Carras' store and picked up another level in the process. Arriving at Sendai's Enclave they killed a number of drow while exploring the area. I had a vague memory there was a hive mother there, but didn't find one, so was probably remembering somewhere else (or possibly it's level dependent). Inside the enclave they picked up a key from Thelynn'ss and cleared both alternative passage on the way to find Odamaron. The Crew got another level shortly after that before Carlo used Roranach's Horn, the Defender of Easthaven and hardiness to give him 100% crushing resistance while beating up Ogremoch. A full set of GWWs then overpowered the hive mother. There were no particular alarms with the statues. Sendai herself can be troublesome to finish off for some solo characters, but the weight of damage the Crew could put out was too much for her.
After that they nipped back to Amkethran to sell some junk. While there they decided to help Marlowe with a lich problem. They hadn't rested after dealing with Sendai though and found it more difficult than expected to kill the lich and his skeleton archers - with the result the party was more battered than they've been for quite a while before finishing the job.
At Abazigal's Lair Al took on the job of dealing with the human form of Draconis. His immunity to physical damage and good saving throws meant there was no immediate danger there, but I failed to move away in time when Draconis took dragon shape and got stuck under him. For a solo player that would probably be fatal, but the rest of the Crew were there to shoot down the dragon before it could get going. They moved through the network of tunnels to find Iycanth and picked up a little job from him. Normally I sub-contract that to Bondari, but this time chose to undertake it directly - and the elder orbs were duly shot down before they could do too much damage. The reward for that was enough for another level. On the downside, I hadn't realized that Bondari only had the bronze pantalettes if you sent him on the quest. The Crew should though have too much firepower for Melissan even without the easter egg items. Abazigal's human form is immune to missile damage as long as his hardiness lasts, but once that had gone it didn't take long to wear him down. A single round of GWWs was then enough to deal with the dragon.
Back in Amkethran the Crew agreed to let Saemon lead them into the monastery. Surprise, surprise he'd set up an ambush but it wasn't hard to chew through that. Inside, the Crew killed Balthazar's supporting monks before turning on him - the attacks then coming in too quickly to give him a chance to use his various healing abilities.
Catching up on their pocket plane challenges they did the second and the third in sequence - levelling up after that. Then it was straight on to the 4th where the Gargoyle boots prevented backstabs from fully landing. After a bit of regeneration they moved on to the 5th challenge. Essentially Baby Face sucked all the attacks onto himself, using the reflection shield to damage the Ravager, while the others attacked directly with missiles. That didn't take too long, opening up the opportunity to tackle Mel.
However, none of the Crew had yet learned smite and I thought they probably should - so headed back to Watcher's Keep. They completed the second level by beating up the Chromatic Demon and went on to the 3rd. It's a long time since I did that but working through a variety of demons wasn't too hard and a few rooms later everyone was ready to level up once more.
Rather than continue in Watcher's Keep I decided it was time for the end. A bit of buffing later and they confronted Mel's first incarnation. After all the fuss in Watcher's Keep smite didn't work on Mel anyway. However, the volume of attacks, even without the use of GWWs, was sufficient to make her soon run in search of more power. I tried an immediate attack on her second incarnation, but everyone was rendered unconscious before they could attack, giving her the chance to complete a time stop. That could have been the end of the run as she had the chance to attack Al immediately but chose not to do so until late in the time stop duration. Again it didn't take too long to send Mel away once attacks started, though this time the Crew took far more damage in the process and Bugsy was also sent running by a symbol of fear. I should have immediately loaded him down with equipment to immobilise him and give everyone the chance to regenerate, but didn't do that in time and he ran straight over to activate Cryonax. Cryonax tried hard to take Bugsy down and dealing with the other enemies while trying to protect him was difficult, but in the end the others did just enough to save him.
After regenerating, a bit more buffing was accompanied by summoning a simmy for Al before cutting the flow to the pool. The simmy got a couple of whacks in with Soul Reaver before Mel teleported away. The others followed her to keep the pressure up while the simmy distracted the slayer shadows until Mel made a run for it once more. The reflection shield helped to some extent with the Fallen Solar, although he did manage to dispel a couple of the Crew with his missiles. Mel's final incarnation came under attack from everyone using GWWs and, by the time she was slowed by the FoA, she was already down to a single HP. The attack was then broken off so that she had the chance to realise it was all over. Al chose to remain mortal to keep the Crew together, though I don't suppose they'll be adventuring any more in the near future.
Final stats:
Al (PC) - L27, 156 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 284 kills (+305 in BGEE/SoD)
Baby Face - L27, 159 HPs, 473 kills (+298 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths
Bugsy - L27, 153 HPs, 357 kills (+260 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths
Carlo - L27, 163 HPs, 392 kills (+283 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Mad Dog - L27, 173 HPs, 583 kills (+290 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths
Vito - L27, 156 HPs, 330 kills (+286 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Comments
Good tip @enuhal ! Yes, using CTRL Q did put Mazzy back into my party. She seems to be working OK. It does seem what happened to me is a known bug so I can continue with Mazzy back - thanks!
Well, I went through the trouble of getting Mazzy in the party after she wouldn't talk to me when she was returned from imprisonment.. She and April (my MP berserker) did great in the Kua-toa lair. Problem? She gets chunked by the demon knights lol. Oh well, I guess I can play five party members for now and recruit Sarevok in ToB. Will keep at it...
Stick and Pic had survived three sessions so were confident. It didn't take Stick long to spot the discrepancy, realising we were at the start of session 3 rather than the end. A brief hunt located the correct save and we resumed our grand hunt - having made a decent start in the city rather than staring at the entrance to Cloakwood (a long way back)
We had not sorted out the ogre in the sewers, Pic being braver than Stick. Soon remedied today although it was confusion rather than fear that we faced
Duke Eltan sent us back to Candlekeep, where we upset a few people and ransacked our way out of the catacombs. Prat was silenced, both his grunts blinded meaning his magelet friend succumbed first to our missiles and spells. Stick wanted to pull the legs off some spiders but Pic was more inclined to blast them with a wand
We moved on. Rahvin and his gang fell to silence, a single web, several wand fireballs, missiles and finally melee. To Sarevok!
We carefully drew Sarevok away from his buddies. OK that failed - Semaj arrives first, gets two sets of mirror images but still departs under the weight of skeletons surrounding him but not before getting a cloudkill to cover much of the area.
We attempt to draw Sarevok into the cloudkill but fog of war and other skeletons moving when they spot him cause issues. We drag them and him back to the cloud but Angelo has arrived and Tazok appears moments later.
We focus on Angelo and Pic manages a bit of melee to end his threat. Pic then runs Sarevok and Tazok around the cloudkill - he is protected while they are not. Stick finally drops Tazok with a +2 bullet and we start on Sarevok. It doesn't end well. For him
Siege of Dragonspear
It fells like a long time since I've had a character get this far, and in single player I usually make a fatal mistake in the opening dungeon. Grond0 did his best to ease me through the first level and then decided scorchers would make short work of the second level. I did wonder about his lack of defence other than a neutral magi robe and this almost tripped him up. Almost
Physician... a well timed run. Not the last either, a later one seeing Pic sprint to the healer with 6hp left and poisoned
Pic continued to take the strain, reluctantly admitting at one point that his cookie was cooked. His biscuit was broken. His gingerbread man was gone. Oh stop said Stick, I have remove paralysis. At least I did, right up to the coronation when I swapped it for skeletons. Not a lot of use here
Despite the wight magnetism to Pic and then only being turned for a moment, Pic survives. You never ever forget an experience like that so it won't happen again (or, this is Grond0 and it won't be long before getting held surfaces once more)
There is, of course, no truth in the rumour that Pic was given a piccy for every icky, or that Stick had at least as many sticky moments but never remembered to incriminate himself with mere screenshots. Here they are at the session end
Droon II - human bard, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Dacre - dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - human cavailer (Gate70)
The party made it out of Candlekeep and did our usual things of taking down Shoal and Neera for her gem bag. The party had very little trouble this session, with two fighter types leading the way. We did a few early tasks:
* We beat up some skeletons for Dacre as he needed daggers as his range weapon
* We carefully made our way to Arghain to get his magical sword for Blub. While Droon II was going to use two hand sword too, but instead he'll use halberd. For now though Droon II is using a non-proficient staff, though he usually is just using his crossbow or singing.
* We obtained ankheg armor for Blub in field at Nashkel. Noober bothered us and then did not survive.
* We obtained a free +2 dagger for Dacre in the field of tombs.
* We lead Greywolf around until he was shot dead. We were pretty low level so this took a while with our poor thac0 however Blub lead Greywolf around quite well. While we were in the area picked up a frost wand for Droon II.
* We made it to the area just south of Nashkel and ran out of time so saved here. It's clear Droon II won't be leading the kills as he only was able to make 1 kill....
Traveling with: April (MP berserker), Sarevok, Jaheira, Viconia, Imoen
We've made it out of the Underdark, killed the shadow dragon and Firkraag, defeated Bodhi, cleared Suldanesslar, defeated Ireincus at the Tree of Life and Hell and have just made it to the pocket plane. As was my intention I have swapped out Anomen for Sarevok. We will attempt the pocket plane challenge #1 next.
Traveling with: April (MP berserker), Sarevok, Jaheira, Viconia, Imoen
We've finished Saradush quests, got through Yaga Shura's temple and have wiped out Nylee. Yaga-Shura will be our next target. One thing new I realized is that energy blades can be incredibly helpful for tough fights. The really tough fight with the fire giants when you enter their temple, Viconia and Coredruid III used energy blades to very rapidly tear those giants down. No chunkings this time, I'll have to remember this for future runs.
We made it through the return to Candlekeep. We rushed through the library and killed the Iron Throne leaders to get the revenge for Yeslick. Alora went trap hunting buffed with a potion of absorption.
Then we got to the catacombs where we prebuffed with haste, resist fear and chant and then fought all the doppelgangers.
Before leaving we scribe scrolls with Quayle and then took a long rest, three times being interrupted in our sleep by one doppelganger.
Next we buffed again and handled Prat. That is always a tight space, but we got the mages/clerics quite quickly and we were soon outside.
Next is Ulgoths Beard. We stand in front of Shandalar who doesn't know we stole his items.
Traveling with: April (MP berserker), Sarevok, Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia
We have taken down Yaga-Shura. There were a few deaths but we prevailed all the same. We cleared out the oasis without too much trouble (summons helped a lot). Sendai's lair was cleared and Sendai herself was also defeated. Sarevok and Viconia died but we were able to resurrect them.
The key challenge will be Draconis. I don't have snares this time so will have to beat him in a fair fight. Wish me luck.
We failed to beat Draconis and we all died. Back to the drawing board!
Droon II - human bard, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dacre - dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - human cavalier (Gate70)
So the party had a lot of cash, but Grond0 didn't want to spend it. So Droon II spent it on some spells like PfP and we headed to the baslisks' area. With the PfP protection on Dacre and Bulb, the party made good progress clearing the basilisks. Thanks to Blub's resist fear, Mutamutin wasn't much trouble either. Droon II managed to blind Peter and Lindin then with a berserker leading the way Kirian's party got wiped.
Blub thought we could take on ankhegs Ok and he was right we cleared them without much trouble, it was only near the end the anhkegs got any hits on us. After helping Brun out our reputation was high (20) and with friends we were able to afford dagger of venom for Dacre and crossbow of speed for Droon II.
Sirines seemed like a natural target for our berserker and cavalier who is immune to charm but first we took down Bassilus and some nearby hobgoblins. Droon II tried horror but that didn't work out well as that brought even more hobgoblins and a ghast to the fight, though the party prevailed all the same. Horror never seems to work as well for me as it seems to work for the enemies.
In any case, with a berserker leading the way the two groups of sirines at the pirate cave area were easy enough. The fighters took some damage against the golems but we prevailed there as well. After selling we headed off to the next group of sirines at the Mad Arcand's map and we had a close scare. Blub got pinned by ogres and could not move. Dacre waded in and Droon II managed to paralyze 3 of the strongest ogres with the wand of paralyzation - this was just enough to keep Blub alive though it was close, he go to a sliver of life. It did give the nearby healer some work to do but the party was miffed he didn't fully heal everyone. The sirines of course had no chance.
Droon II decided to pay Brage's area a visit. First we took down the Doomsayer, magic missiles, scorcher from wand and melee was enough to take it down. As usual we also returned Brage to the temple. Somewhere around here we got full plate for Dacre.
It seemed like the party was well equipped so we worked on the main quest. There was no problem getting to Mulahey's lair. While Dacre did enrage it didn't matter much as Droon II managed to paralyze Mulahey almost immediately with his wand of paralyzation. We ran out of time so we saved our session here.
Stick (human Beastmaster > Cleric and Pic (elf fighter / mage)
This pair continue to surprise me, with Stick's leather armour holding out better than expected. We started the session by siding with a vampire (aiming for a regenerative item)
It would make sense to rest before taking on Ziatar but Stick felt the skeletons had plenty in hand. Pic made sure of it by stunning Ziatar with a dart and we all piled in for some one-sided melee
Droon II - lvl 8 human bard, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dacre - lvl 7 dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - lvl 7 human cavalier (Gate70)
So the party finds themselves in Mulahey's cave with the enemies (except a kobold) dead. We rest then make our way outside. A couple of webs and a skull trap were far too much for the Amazons and they went down easily. We belatedly realized we hadn't rescued Samuel yet so we did that.
Then we headed to Firewine Bridge for a match against the "greatest swordsman". Meilum went down very fast. While we were in the area, we also took down Molkar's gang. A web helped there, though Droon II got badly wounded but he survived.
Next up we took on the Bandit Camp. Our party handled the outside pretty well, though Blub took huge damage but he lived as well. He also appreciated the full plate upgrade from Khosahnn. Next,, a berserker led the way against the enemies in Tazok's tent, with Droon II paralyzing the hobgoblin archer - success! While we were at it, we also took down Bjornin's ogres, though none of will be using the shield.
About here we made a stop at Durlag's Tower. We cleared the high experience enemies at the surface without too much trouble. The poor thief was once again killed (Rigilio). We also used the PfP spell to take on basilisks the only hitch we had to wait until the stun trap effect wore off on Droon II.
Time to head into the Cloakwood. We skipped the first area. In the 2nd area, Droon II gave a freedom potion to Dacre then Dacre lead the way against the enemies here. We also went into the cave to fight the minions there and get the Spider's Bane for Bulb. Success! We skipped area 3. The dryad was taken down like usual. We also took on some Wyverns, as Bulb wanted to show off his poison immunity. Success here as well.
Time for the main event the battle against Drassus. Some webs and fireballs were unsurprisingly too much for the enemies and ended up being a clear victory. As usual, we skipped most encounters on our way to Davaern. 2nd level could have been tricky but an invis potion saw us to level 3. We had to fight the battle horrors guarding Davaeorn though they didn't last long. Droon II fired a single fireball out of sight out of sight but did neglible damage so instead he gave a magic blocking potion to Dacre, who promptly enraged and charged. Somehow Davaeorn failed to get his mirrors up and got poisoned so he died quickly.
On the the great City of Baldur's Gate.
* The ogre mage and his carrion crawlers were engaged. Droon II went down invisible so he was fine, and Bulb had spider's bane so he couldn't be held. We looted a body here.
* We found out we couldn't turn the body in as we were all too charismatic. So we killed Akrion instead. We then gave the goods to Nemphre then killed her as well.
* Basilisk taken down in warehouse with the help of a potion of mirror eyes.
* Vayya and Deserta taken down for their gauntlets.
* Razamith taken down as well as the minions in his tower. We had to use a STR potion to open his chest upstairs.
We ran out of time about here, so saved our session here. Dacre is leading the kills as expected with his dual-wielding.
I was in Durlag's Tower and had just killed some skeletons with Minsc. So next I was going through the inventory and moving things between characters. I have auto-pause on for when enemies are spotted.
All of a sudden, the screen went weird and I got a Game Over. I can't see in the log any harm coming to my main character; and bizarrely, all of the portraits are black.
Wondering whether I'm justified in reloading from an earlier stage...
Thanks, that's a relief! I was enjoying this run. Funnily enough, when I clicked 'reload' the whole game crashed and needed to be reloaded.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209938/#Comment_1209938
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209978/#Comment_1209978
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1210154/#Comment_1210154
For once, Rayic Gethras caused no problems after his initial spell was interrupted by a shot from Sting. After a couple more minor tasks the Elementals invaded Mae'Var's guild. The master thief was felled by a glyph - once again Rime was in range of that, but this time he had plenty of HPs to ensure his safety.
At Trademeet the genies failed to petrify a fire elemental. One of them got a fitting death when petrified himself by a chromatic orb from Blast, while Lucid went one better by outright killing the other with his orb. Although the efreeti is a creature of fire, its physical attacks don't do fire damage so the Elementals are not permitted to make use of it. They did though buy Blackblood to give Lucid a melee weapon. That leaves Blast as the only one without a weapon at the moment, but he is well able to make a contribution anyway with spells and MMMs.
At the Grove, various trolls caused no problem. Kyland Lind attempted to retreat, but was caught by a glyph before he could get away. The final group of druids provided a Flame Tongue long sword, as an upgrade for Toxic, before the Elementals watched Cernd make a light snack out of Faldorn. Before leaving the Elementals cleaned out the local tomb, Lucid helping the sterilization efforts with a first use of chain lightning.
At that point I'd paused this run for a month or so before deciding I should make an effort to clear the decks of the 7 or 8 runs of various types I've currently got underway. After completing one solo effort, I came back to this run and immediately found trouble when the Elementals returned to Athkatla and ran into Sansuki in the Bridge District. The first screenshot suggested to me that the Cowled Wizards were about to appear and I couldn't remember if I'd had a previous warning from them. I feared the worst though and that was quickly confirmed. By that time though the Elementals were already on the move and managed to get into a nearby house without the wizards following - and a couple of vampires that did follow soon regretted that. They couldn't rest in the house, but Toxic sneaking outside encouraged the wizards to cast spells on themselves. One of them died in a fireball and the perpetrator of that was then knocked unconscious in retaliation. I would have chosen to attack after that, but by that time the rest of the wizards had decided they were getting bored and disappeared.
The skinner quest was completed, though Toxic nearly got into trouble when leading the first Rune Assassin upstairs into an ambush. The intention was for the fire elemental to be subjected to a backstab, but Toxic was slightly too slow to move away and got targeted himself. There was no problem with the other enemies though. While in the area they taught Captain Dennis and his mercenaries a lesson and pulled Dracandros and his mates outside to their doom.
The Elementals were now able to return to Trademeet to help Tiris, which raised reputation to 19. For the final point needed to maximise that they did the Fallen Paladins - this time remembering not to use any arcane magic in the fights.
Berserker 10, 124 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 107 kills (+488 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Archer 10, 89 HPs, 65 kills (+357 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Priest of Talos 10, 74 HPs, 23 kills (+85 in BGEE/SoD)
Assassin 12, 73 HPs, 16 kills (+178 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths
Avenger 12, 86 HPs, 22 kills (+66 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths
Dragon Disciple 11, 59 HPs, 103 kills (+244 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths
Stick (human Beastmaster > Cleric and Pic (elf fighter / mage)
A late start yesterday, and we managed about 35 minutes before Grond0 had a distraction and I called a halt as tired
No notes or screenshots were taken so artistic licence / incorrect order of events follows. We were standing by the corpse of a green dragon, having been there for a week it was fair to say the foul smelling cave was even more rank from the reek of death caused by a large rotting carcass
We stepped outside and headed back to Boareskyr Bridge, only for a random encounter (can't remember the order for certain but let's assume it is goblins first). Pic uses a Sunfire to clear out most of the goblins and the remaining trio are easy pickings where two skeletons don't really get a look in. We buff a bit, Stick cursing as he had previously used Chaotic Command, and head down into a myconid cavern. Pic set about these rapidly and didn't really need the skeleton summoned to support him
Boareskyr Bridge then. Vichand is silenced but craftily casts vocalise. Pic suggests this will cloud his aura longer than the dagger of venom requires so we cut him down and retrieve a scroll from his body without alerting the rest of the encampment. With this scroll and a wardstone we move north and enter the fort. After speaking to Khalid and Jegg we speak to the mage, which distracts him from defensive incantations. We kill a wraith and use the scroll to nullify the void shard (insert real name here), then return to Jegg to craft some void bullets for Stick and either armour or a shield
At about this time Pic asks if we bought the +3 quarterstaff from Ulgoth's Beard. Of course not, since neither of us had staff proficiency. Only, Pic now has that proficiency and is already planning on sharing suitable weapons with Belhifet since his +2 daggers won't cut the mustard. The demon near the Hellevator has a +3 staff so we'll ask nicely, or something, if we get that far
Stick decides we will head outside, and can't resist the orc cave slightly to the north. Pic suggests a fireball so Stick uses a wand of Heavens (something like 45 charges left) on the witch doctor. Another easy victory before we return to camp. Nope, time for another random encounter. Stick summons two skeletons then we move ahead to find a young green dragon and two hill giants have patiently waited for us. We kill the giants then Pic tries but just fails to kill the dragon (apparently an act of mercy as it has no parents, what with the nearest green dragon having succumbed to daggeritis)
At camp Stick tells Lt Otilda where to stick it, then can't find the words to tell Corwin when to join our attack. He can't tell Otilda either, at which point he remembers he really should have spoken to Khalid on the fort grounds. Back we go.
I thought we had another random encounter at some point, but given the time we played maybe there were only two. Certainly didn't get to the invisible assassin
As we reach Khalid my resolve/interest in combat has gone and we follow Grond0's usual approach of surrendering the fort. With this done we close the session, giving the Crusaders another week or more to light a spectacular barrel-fire on the bridge
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209938/#Comment_1209938
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209953/#Comment_1209953
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209978/#Comment_1209978
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1210154/#Comment_1210154
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1210819/#Comment_1210819
Another run ticked off here, though rather less successful this time thanks to a combination of risk taking and a lapse in concentration …
Diving into the Temple sewers, Sting stealth shot a bunch of kobolds before the Elementals took down a rakshasa to inherit his cloak. Nearby, Mekrath offered an easy target. Tarnor and his henchmen could have been trickier, but a sneak attack successfully killed Gaius before he could buff and the others didn't last long.
More ambitiously, they also attacked the Shade Lich. Rime took the bulk of the damage there and eventually expired from the small amout of damage caused by a Finger of Death.
Underground, Sting checked ahead of the bridge and saw that there were just 3 gauths guarding that. That meant no instant death effects to be worried about and I took no real care in attacking them. I did notice just before the last gauth died that one of the party had been badly injured by a lightning bolt, but didn't register that was Flash (the PC) - he could actually have protected against that both by spell and special ability, but almost never used such protections. The final screenshot doesn't show what killed him, but I suspect that was cause wounds taking effect just before Flash got posthumous revenge on the gauth.
Well we managed to get past Sarevok though poor Imoen got chunked. We got badly wounded with our fight with Sarevok but we did prevail without any paladins dying - on to Amn!
Stick (human Beastmaster > Cleric and Pic (elf fighter / mage)
Stick knew it was going to be a lucky number 7 session. For someone - hopefully us
We had to make our way across Boareskyr Bridge. Easier said than done, although done it was
Stick then glugged a potion of mirror eyes as a precaution having foolishly wandered into sight of a greater basilisk
On to the UnderGround River map. Not much of note initially as we killed some greater wyverns and aa gargantuan spider failed to cause problems
Near the entrance to the Underground River we silenced and blinded a cyclops, and killed a pair of guards before a mage turned up. Pic had the bright idea to use a scorcher-wand but at leas three of them hit him with missiles and he stumbled
Stick stepped back, just as Pic expired
The remaining crusaders didn't put up much of a fight, other than only one succumbing to Greater Command
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208151/#Comment_1208151
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208190/#Comment_1208190
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208288/#Comment_1208288
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208297/#Comment_1208297
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208312/#Comment_1208312
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208385/#Comment_1208385
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209255/#Comment_1209255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209577/#Comment_1209577
After several months of inaction in this run I've got up to date with all my other games, leaving this as the only outstanding one to resolve. I had generally been playing quite carefully recently and successfully completed 3 of my long-life runs in a row before a bit of carelessness saw a cleric/ranger scared and then breathed on by Draconis. Perhaps that indicated that concentration was going downhill and my last attempt with a diviner in that challenge certainly seemed to give further evidence of that - the run ending early in SoA when an attempt to summon a skeleton warrior during a travel ambush produced a skull trap instead to kill myself.
That premature end meant the Crew finally got the chance to see some more action. They had last been seen having successfully invaded an illithid stronghold in the Underdark and their next port of call was a drow city where they were immediately tasked with a rescue mission. An ambush on the way there was quickly dealt with, though there was a slight delay waiting for Baby Face to come out of his maze. The illithid that had kidnapped Phaere were no more successful in their fight. I don't normally bother with the drow city as my solo characters are likely to have hit the XP cap before then, but the Crew did the quest there for the matron mother. They also entered Deirex's tower and successfully defeated the lich there - it survived a Daystar sunray, but a blast from the Ring of Energy was too much for it. After the Matron Mother and Phaere were killed by a summoned demon, the Crew hastily left the City. Rather than get Adalon to help them escape they chose to attack her. Everyone took heavy damage there from her wing buffets and breath weapon, but just survived and picked up enough XP for another level.
On the way back to Athkatla, Drizzt and his companions appeared to be spoiling for a fight, but found they'd picked the wrong group to confront this time. On arrival, Kruin and his goons made the same mistake. The Crew went to Cromwell and forged a few items, but found they didn't have the scroll describing how to make Crom Faeyr. That wasn't still at Umar and I've no idea where it might have been dropped, so Bugsy will have to do without that.
With the iMod providing level drain protection, the vampires at the Graveyard were quickly dealt with and Bodhi made her last stand. Before heading for Suldenesselar the Crew took a trip to the North Forest. This is another area I very rarely visit, but I seemed to remember it being the home of a better long bow for Al. Prospecting there found nothing though and the Crew moved on to the Forest of Tethir where they did indeed find the Mana Bow. Then it was on to Suldanesselar. The XP for discovering that was enough for another level, giving everyone their first HLA.
Al (PC) - L20, 143 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 217 kills (+305 in BGEE/SoD), ***** 2-handed sword / ***** longbow
Baby Face - L20, 144 HPs, 339 kills (+298 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths, ***** long sword / ***** crossbow
Bugsy - L20, 138 HPs, 239 kills (+260 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths, ***** hammer / ***** shortbow
Carlo - L20, 148 HPs, 254 kills (+283 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths, ***** flail / ***** sling
Mad Dog - L20, 158 HPs, 460 kills (+290 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths, ***** axe / ** dagger / ** dual wielding
Vito - L20, 141 HPs, 226 kills (+286 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death, ***** scimitar / ***** darts
Part 1 found here
Apparently, we went offkilter for a bit by heading back out into the wilderness instead of clearing the city.
Droth as always was no match for Command (we let Shoal live), a local Ogre clan was beaten up, and though Fighter / Thief got Dire Charmed, the resident Sirines were also disposed of.
To the south, more Sirines were Webbed after having their Improved Invisibility dispelled by Priest of Helm's True Sight (not before they got a few Dire Charm off, which thankfully Blackguard just shrugged off).
Sil and her friends were handled using Skeleton Warriors (whom also helped clear some Flesh Golems we pulled outside Black Alaric's Cave for disposal).
The CON tome went to Blackguard, who now has decent yet not at all great hitpoints.
Alright, that's about it for western areas. Let's deal with some Basilisks.
Of course, by now Basilisks are no threat, not even when supported by Mutamin, as the latter found out to his detriment: Priest of Helm's Skeleton Warriors more or less clear the area on their own, with a woefully slow Korax trailing behind; the adventuring party had no way of dealing with Web (they never do).
This resulted in several levels, and we got some serious good luck with spell choices for Dragon Disciple: He managed to pick up Blindness, Agannazar's Scorcher (well, not THAT great but at least not useless), and Skull Trap (... this is actually really good!).
Shaman compensated this good fortune by snagging Sunscorch (eh), Resist Fire and Cold (eeeeh...), and Cloudburst (... I don't think I've ever cast this, and most likely I never will).
We also picked up some good gear here: Robe of the Good/Neutral Archmagi for Necromancer/Dragon Disciple.
With that out of the way, there's almost no wilderness areas left, so we finally start clearing the city proper.
We managed to take Lothander out before he ran, so now both frontliners have Boots of Speed.
The Wisdom tome went to Priest of Helm as he's the only one that gets any use out of it.
Oh, and the run came close to ending due to Larriaz.
Yes, the Sirine in a house in the Harbor district with like 5 hitpoints that apparently has access to L3 arcane spells, since she unloaded a Lightning Bolt on us before we could slap her down.
Necromancer doesn't have the hitpoints for miscalculations like that...
Anyway.
The rest of the city went smoothly, apart from Fighter / Thief having too miserable Find Traps to disarm the trap protecting the Helm of Balduran (though he survived the ensuing detonation handily).
The only encounter here that can be a bit iffy is Sunin: Though his AI, indeed almost any SCS Mage AI, seemingly always prioritizes a Remove Magic, so there's typically enough time to tear down his spell defenses and set to work before he pops anything too dangerous.
With the City cleared, apart from the Iron Throne Headquarters, we went for Durlag's.
Above ground, not much to report: The Ghost passed not so peacefully at the hands of Skeleton Warriors, and Priest of Helm got another Wisdom boost.
Around here, we picked up another round of levels.
Shaman at least managed not to completely botch his first 4th level spell, as he picked up Death Ward.
I'll probably end up casting that using Priest of Helm most of the time since he'll have much better caster level, but still, it isn't useless.
Dragon Disciple, however, continues being the absolute MVP of random spell selection: Don't ask me how, but he somehow rolled Contagion (blech), Greater Malison (oh), and Stoneskin (oh!!) as his potential picks.
I agonized for a moment, but it has to be Stoneskin.
Blindness, Mirror Image, Agannazar's Scorcher, Skull Trap, Invisibility 10' Radius, Stoneskin... we've got options in spades.
Could've been so, so much worse...
Anyway, the Warders guarding the way to the second level are dispatched in standard fashion: We use Dragon Disciple's new-found tankiness to excellent effect, as he holds off first Avarice, then Pride after the latter chewed his way through our Skeleton Warriors.
Blackguard slowly but surely wears down Love, and Fear for some reason didn't want to engage in melee, but was content to stay at range, and died unceremoniously right after Avarice.
And that's where we leave off; this was a short update, but I'll have some time to play within a few weeks and wanted to catch up writing-wise to where we're at.
Unfortunately, we're still out of luck on the proficiency front, as the party stats in the spoiler below indicates: Fighter / Thief picked up a pip in Sling at Fighter level 6, though I'm not complaining.
Probability states we're reasonably likely to get at least one specialization before ToB, and even if not, well.. that'll just add to the challenge.
Name: Necromancer
Lawful Good Male Human Necromancer L8
STR 17 DEX 12 CON 11 INT 19 WIS 17 CHA 18
Quarterstaff *, Dagger *
33 HP (6 from familiar)
Name: Priest of Helm
Lawful Evil Male Dwarf Priest of Helm L7
STR 14 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 11 WIS 16 CHA 7
Sling *, Two-Handed Weapon Style *, Two-Weapon Style *
51 HP
Name: Dragon Disciple
Chaotic Neutral Male Elf Dragon Disciple L8
STR 10 DEX 19 CON 15 INT 11 WIS 12 CHA 15
Sling *, Dart*
Blindness, Burning Hands, Friends, Larloch's Minor Drain, Sleep
Agannazar's Scorcher, Mirror Image, Vocalize
Invisibility 10' Radius, Skull Trap
Stoneskin
48 HP
Name: Fighter / Thief
Chaotic Evil Male Halfling Fighter L6 / Thief L7
STR 13 DEX 18 CON 17 INT 14 WIS 9 CHA 10
Axe *, Bastard Sword *, Dagger *, Quarterstaff *, Shortbow *, Sling *
Open Locks 65, Find traps 40, Pick Pockets 40, Move Silently 60, Hide in Shadows 85, Detect Illusion 25, Set Traps 30
57 HP
Name: Blackguard
Neutral Evil Female Human Blackguard L7
STR 14 DEX 10 CON 18 INT 6 WIS 16 CHA 18
Club *, Dagger *, Two-Handed Sword *, War Hammer *, Single-Weapon Style *, Spear *
81 HP (5 HP from Helm of Balduran)
Name: Shaman
Neutral Evil Male Human Shaman L8
STR 11 DEX 11 CON 16 INT 11 WIS 12 CHA 14
Axe *, Dart *, Sling *, Two-Weapon Style *
Armor of Faith, Cure Light Wounds, Doom, Entangle, Spirit Ward, Sunscorch
Charm Person or Mammal, Cure Moderate Wounds, Resist Fire and Cold, Writhing Fog
Cloudburst, Cure Disease, Spiritual Clarity
Death Ward, Spirit Fire
60 HP
We leave the party preparing to rest on the ground floor of Durlag's before descending.
Next up is clearing the underground levels, which should be (nearly) enough to get everyone their final BG1EE levels; we'll then rush through the endgame and come out the other side in SoA.
Onward!
Droon II - lvl 10 human bard, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dacre - lvl 8 dwarven berserker (Grond0)
Blub - lvl 7 human cavalier (Gate70)
The party made good progress. Here are some of things we did in the city:
* Jardak and his servant defeated.
* Mountain Maulers wiped out pretty fast.
* Party took down Degrodel's minions.
* Dead boy returned to his father
* Ragefast defeated.
* Poison quest completed
* Larze gets hit with stunning dart and fails his save
* Cloak of Balduran retrieved for Dacre
* Sunin defeated quickly by Dacre
* Fifth floor of iron thone Dacre was protected by protection from magic scroll. Droon Ii was then going to use web but Blub says, "Hey I'm fine I have spider's bane." Well problem was mage did chaos and Blub failed his save so Droon II and Dacre did most of the work.
While we had no thief for the Crypts, Dacre used a protection from magic scroll and Droon II used knock to open up the crypts. The protection from magic was still active by the time we made it to Prat so Dacre led the way with his buddies assisting success! We also took down the spiders here. We a little scare when Docre got poisoned by a phase spider (Grond0 doesn't use heal potions or antidotes) but a protection from poison scroll saved him - whew. Basilisks were easy thank to our last two mirror eyes potions one for each fighter.
Slythe was killed pretty quick and Krystin did not escape either. Droon II used haste spell for Duchal Palace fight and also slow - this enabled easy victory for the party. The party battled their way through the thieve's maze pretty easily. Some potions allowed Dacre to trip the 4 traps by the skeleton warriors. Droon II skipped the Iron Throne party in the Undercity. He was just about to do Sarevok when Gonr0 mentioned by not deal with the skeleton warriors to get Droon II's last level for BG 1 (level 10), so Dacre was given a protection from undead to do just that.
Not a lot of buffs for Sarevok fight. Dacre successfully only pulled Sarevok and Semaj. Droon used all his magic missiles on Semaj and he died farily quickly. He then tried to cast slow on Sarevok. The fighters were tanking very well for some reason and Blub got the kill shot on Sarevok.
Only a few minutes left we made it to Irenicus' dungeon and killed a few goblins here. We saved our session here.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208151/#Comment_1208151
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208190/#Comment_1208190
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208288/#Comment_1208288
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208297/#Comment_1208297
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208312/#Comment_1208312
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208385/#Comment_1208385
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209255/#Comment_1209255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209577/#Comment_1209577
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1211029/#Comment_1211029
Another session saw the party well into ToB. They started at Suldanesselar by making pretty short work of various golems. The dragon may have been a bit tougher, but was still no match for a first concerted use of everyone's new WW ability. On the Tree of Life Jon's protection spells allowed him to survive quite a while and he actually managed to claim a victim when Carlo (who had taken a lot of damage from a ADHW earlier) was PW:stunned and could thus not escape fire shield damage while the others were beating Jon with their fists. He was resurrected a moment later though when everyone was pulled down to hell in Jon's wake.
Al took the good options for Pride, Fear and Selfishness. Technically he also followed the good option for Greed, but being in fact greedy he did fancy keeping hold of Blackrazor and a group attack killed the genie before he could teleport away. As Al is already evil he had no compunction about following the evil line in the Wrath challenge. The final conflict with Jon saw him remain invisible for quite a while after his mislead was destroyed, but once he could be attacked he didn't last long - opening the way to ToB.
A WW apiece was sufficient to kill Illasera and her supporters. The first pocket plane challenge proved simple, with Baby Face tanking (using Blackrazor to keep his HPs up) and the others firing missiles. Moving on to Saradush, the Crew recovered a spell book before Al allowed himself to be lured into the prison. A potion of invisibility let him escape the vampires and go and get the others. The iMod provided protection while working through the vampires before Baby Face switched back to Blackrazor again to deal with flesh and blood enemies. Al's loss of XP in the hell trials meant he was now 50k behind the others, but he got enough down there to allow everyone to level up again. For the fight with Gromnir everyone arrived invisible (4 by ring and 2 by potion), making killing the mages at the start easy. Everyone but the thief died in the first round and he followed as soon as he attacked.
They shot down enemies in the North Forest on the way to the Forest of Mir. PfU scrolls were used there to give the Master Wraith no chance. Next up was the Marching Mountains and the Fire Giant temple. Everyone entered there buffed with fire protection and negative saving throws. Baby Face led the way, standing in lava every now and then to top up HPs. Buffs had expired by the time they got upstairs, but the fire giants there were balked by a doorway and shooting a few of those was enough to earn the Crew another level.
With the hearts acquired, the Crew returned to the Forest of Mir. Nyalee changed her mind about what she wanted, but that proved a poor decision for her. Before going after Yaga-Shura, the Crew decided to return to Watcher's Keep to collect another flail head. Other than the need to rest to heal trap damage there was no problem there and Carlo soon had an improved flail to use. Then it was on to the Siege Camp to demonstrate to Yaga-Shura that, without his immunity, he was easy to kill.
They slaughtered everyone in the Oasis, on the way to Amkethran. They fought some monks there to get access to Carras' store and picked up another level in the process. Arriving at Sendai's Enclave they killed a number of drow while exploring the area. I had a vague memory there was a hive mother there, but didn't find one, so was probably remembering somewhere else (or possibly it's level dependent). Inside the enclave they picked up a key from Thelynn'ss and cleared both alternative passage on the way to find Odamaron. The Crew got another level shortly after that before Carlo used Roranach's Horn, the Defender of Easthaven and hardiness to give him 100% crushing resistance while beating up Ogremoch. A full set of GWWs then overpowered the hive mother. There were no particular alarms with the statues. Sendai herself can be troublesome to finish off for some solo characters, but the weight of damage the Crew could put out was too much for her.
After that they nipped back to Amkethran to sell some junk. While there they decided to help Marlowe with a lich problem. They hadn't rested after dealing with Sendai though and found it more difficult than expected to kill the lich and his skeleton archers - with the result the party was more battered than they've been for quite a while before finishing the job.
At Abazigal's Lair Al took on the job of dealing with the human form of Draconis. His immunity to physical damage and good saving throws meant there was no immediate danger there, but I failed to move away in time when Draconis took dragon shape and got stuck under him. For a solo player that would probably be fatal, but the rest of the Crew were there to shoot down the dragon before it could get going. They moved through the network of tunnels to find Iycanth and picked up a little job from him. Normally I sub-contract that to Bondari, but this time chose to undertake it directly - and the elder orbs were duly shot down before they could do too much damage. The reward for that was enough for another level. On the downside, I hadn't realized that Bondari only had the bronze pantalettes if you sent him on the quest. The Crew should though have too much firepower for Melissan even without the easter egg items. Abazigal's human form is immune to missile damage as long as his hardiness lasts, but once that had gone it didn't take long to wear him down. A single round of GWWs was then enough to deal with the dragon.
Al (PC) - L25, 156 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 275 kills (+305 in BGEE/SoD), ***** 2-handed sword / ***** longbow / ** 2-handed weapon
Baby Face - L25, 159 HPs, 459 kills (+298 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths, ***** long sword / ***** crossbow / * mace / * dual wielding
Bugsy - L25, 153 HPs, 341 kills (+260 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths, ***** hammer / ***** shortbow / ** dual wielding
Carlo - L25, 163 HPs, 376 kills (+283 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death, ***** flail / ***** sling / ** dual wielding
Mad Dog - L25, 173 HPs, 583 kills (+290 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths, ***** axe / **** dagger / *** dual wielding
Vito - L25, 156 HPs, 321 kills (+286 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death, ***** scimitar / ***** darts / * sling / * dual wielding
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208151/#Comment_1208151
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208190/#Comment_1208190
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208288/#Comment_1208288
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208297/#Comment_1208297
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208312/#Comment_1208312
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1208385/#Comment_1208385
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209255/#Comment_1209255
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1209577/#Comment_1209577
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1211029/#Comment_1211029
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1211040/#Comment_1211040
Back in Amkethran the Crew agreed to let Saemon lead them into the monastery. Surprise, surprise he'd set up an ambush but it wasn't hard to chew through that. Inside, the Crew killed Balthazar's supporting monks before turning on him - the attacks then coming in too quickly to give him a chance to use his various healing abilities.
Catching up on their pocket plane challenges they did the second and the third in sequence - levelling up after that. Then it was straight on to the 4th where the Gargoyle boots prevented backstabs from fully landing. After a bit of regeneration they moved on to the 5th challenge. Essentially Baby Face sucked all the attacks onto himself, using the reflection shield to damage the Ravager, while the others attacked directly with missiles. That didn't take too long, opening up the opportunity to tackle Mel.
However, none of the Crew had yet learned smite and I thought they probably should - so headed back to Watcher's Keep. They completed the second level by beating up the Chromatic Demon and went on to the 3rd. It's a long time since I did that but working through a variety of demons wasn't too hard and a few rooms later everyone was ready to level up once more.
Rather than continue in Watcher's Keep I decided it was time for the end. A bit of buffing later and they confronted Mel's first incarnation. After all the fuss in Watcher's Keep smite didn't work on Mel anyway. However, the volume of attacks, even without the use of GWWs, was sufficient to make her soon run in search of more power. I tried an immediate attack on her second incarnation, but everyone was rendered unconscious before they could attack, giving her the chance to complete a time stop. That could have been the end of the run as she had the chance to attack Al immediately but chose not to do so until late in the time stop duration. Again it didn't take too long to send Mel away once attacks started, though this time the Crew took far more damage in the process and Bugsy was also sent running by a symbol of fear. I should have immediately loaded him down with equipment to immobilise him and give everyone the chance to regenerate, but didn't do that in time and he ran straight over to activate Cryonax. Cryonax tried hard to take Bugsy down and dealing with the other enemies while trying to protect him was difficult, but in the end the others did just enough to save him.
After regenerating, a bit more buffing was accompanied by summoning a simmy for Al before cutting the flow to the pool. The simmy got a couple of whacks in with Soul Reaver before Mel teleported away. The others followed her to keep the pressure up while the simmy distracted the slayer shadows until Mel made a run for it once more. The reflection shield helped to some extent with the Fallen Solar, although he did manage to dispel a couple of the Crew with his missiles. Mel's final incarnation came under attack from everyone using GWWs and, by the time she was slowed by the FoA, she was already down to a single HP. The attack was then broken off so that she had the chance to realise it was all over. Al chose to remain mortal to keep the Crew together, though I don't suppose they'll be adventuring any more in the near future.
Final stats:
Al (PC) - L27, 156 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 284 kills (+305 in BGEE/SoD)
Baby Face - L27, 159 HPs, 473 kills (+298 in BGEE/SoD), 2 deaths
Bugsy - L27, 153 HPs, 357 kills (+260 in BGEE/SoD), 0 deaths
Carlo - L27, 163 HPs, 392 kills (+283 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death
Mad Dog - L27, 173 HPs, 583 kills (+290 in BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths
Vito - L27, 156 HPs, 330 kills (+286 in BGEE/SoD), 1 death