The second level consisted of a series of laboratories, the former experimentation rooms of four long dead elemental mages. Notes found littered about the labs suggested an intense rivalry between the mages, and detailed many of their petty plots and schemes, each designed to eliminate one another. In one of the studies, I found an impressive wand, allowing me to cast both the breach and pierce magic spells, this will improve my capacity to deal with enemy spell casters greatly.
In the central room was a caged, and peculiar demon, though not the imprisoned one I was seeking. The demon shifted from form to form, an impressive survival mechanism, designed to allow the demon to adapt instantly to any foe or given situation.
The demon, like so many before it offered me rewards and powers beyond my wildest dreams in exchange for its freedom. If I have learned one thing in my adventures since leaving Candlekeep, it is that deals made with devils rarely end well. That said, with my arcane training, I could sense the magical connection between the cage door, and the portal to the third level, if I am to descend deeper into the keep, I would need to release the demon. Fortunately, with the demon trapped, I would have ample time to prepare my battlefield, and stack the odds in my favour.
The prison door, required four elemental keys, each one held by a guardian of the former elemental wizards. Unfortunately, these guardians had impressive defenses, some even immortal or next to impossible to kill naturally. Using the journal entries of the four wizards, I was able to deduce that each guardian had a weakness, and that I could exploit these weaknesses by pitting each wizards defenses against each others guardians.
With the four keys in hand, I returned to the demon. The creature just stood their motionless, watching me with an amused expression. I once again resorted to my trusty Skull Traps, rarely had they failed me, would they be enough to defeat this ferocious foe? What if they failed to kill him outright, would he adapt, taking on a new form immune to their damage? Bah I'm being weak, this is no time for second doubts, I am Zuzhul Plaguebringer, heir to the Throne of Bhaal.
I carefully laid my traps around the edge of the cages exit, and then proceeded to call forth a contingent of skeleton warriors. Lets see just how desperately this creature wants its freedom. Once my battlefield was prepared, I began to insert the keys one by one.
As the last great lock fell to the ground, the giant iron gate swung open. The demon obviously confident in its own strength, and ability to adapt to my attacks charged straight for me. My traps exploded, and the demon crashed to the floor several meters from my feet. Prehaps all these years imprisoned had weakened the demon, I had certainly expected more from such an interesting and impressive creature.
Regardless, the path to the third level now lay open to me. Once again I descended deeper into the keep.
Haha getting my rear end handed to me by Ka'Rashur and his group in the watchers keep maze, by far the hardest fight I have come across in this challenge.
Enemies that see right through invisibility, and enemies that cannot be lured away, as soon as my summoned creatures die, they will track me down no matter where I have retreated too. Throw in the fact that there is a constant barrage of powerful demons being summoned in that don't stop until I can take down Ka'Rashur.
I think Zuzhul may have met his match in Watchers Keep.
Just realized it's at this point I have to stop reading QQ I still haven't done Watcher's Keep/ToB and want to avoid spoilers. Sorry . When I do finish Tob and such I'll come back to finish reading! n_n
Several hours of reloads, and countless failed strategies later...
13 Mirtul 1371
I have found myself in some kind of magical maze, portals are located to the north, east, south and west of each room, each taking me to different part of the maze. I could easily get lost in here if I am not careful.
Near the mazes entrance I discovered an Elf who calls himself Yakman. He must have been trapped here for many, many years to have descended into such depths of insanity, is this what is in store for me if I do not escape? Poking around his camp, I discovered an old journal. At first glance the entries looked like the ravings of a madman, however upon closer inspection they seem to be some kind of coded directions. With no better strategy of my own, I decided to follow the madman's journal.
As I make it further into the maze, it is becoming increasingly clear that I am not the only one trapped here. It seems like the eternal blood war has spilled over into the depths of Watchers Keep, at every turn I encounter battling Baatezu and Tanar'ri. Whats more, magic doesn't function as it should in some areas of the maze, there are countless dead magic zones, where magic cannot function, and there are also wild magic zones where my spells become wild and unpredictable.
I am extremely vulnerable in this place, I need to escape, and FAST! The demons all seem to possess some kind of native true sight ability, they see right through my staffs power of invisibity, and pursue me relentlessly, I have never felt so helpless.
My boots of speed have been a god send in this place, with my magical abilities severely limited, I cannot afford to be drawn into a fight with the demons, I would be torn limb from limb. Using Yakman's coded directions I quickly ran past any enemies I encountered and made my way through the maze, until I finally stepped through a portal, and stepped out right into the middle of a large Tanar'ri warband....
So this is where it ends? I almost let out a chuckle at the futility of the situation, and then the the great demon Tahazzar spoke. Some twisted deity must have been smiling on my this day, the demon wanted an alliance! Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and knowing refusal would probabally result in my demise, I hastily agreed.
Tahazzar believes that he and his troops have been trapped in the maze by a Baatezu General named Ka'Rahur. He believes that with the Baatezu dead, the Tanar'ri will be able to finally escape the maze. Tahazzar wants me to bring back Ka'Rahur's heart, so much for my close shave, out of the frying pan, and into the fire as they say...
Following Yakman's directions, I soon found Ka'Rahur and his group, a group just as large and imposing as Tahazzar's. I may die this day yet.
The demon was no fool, he could smell the scent of his enemy on me, and knew exactly what my orders were. With my invisibility useless against the demons, and with no time to get off a spell before I would have been overrun, I called forth my Flesh Golem ally.
With a towering 8ft meat shield now blocking the demons path to me, I hastily backed off. The demons charged the golem and I ordered the construct to run to the far eastern side of the room.
With the demon host now distracted, I quickly made my to the western most side of the room. From here I quickly began to summon my skeletons. I managed to summon two, when I heard a loud thud at the far end of the room, my golem had fallen..
The Demons must have had me in their scent, despite putting so much distance between me and the warband, the incredibly fast Ka'Rahur was on me in a flash, just as my third summoned skeleton began to rise from the ground. My skeletons engaged the enraged Pit Field, and I started to summon a fourth skeleton. Suddenly the rest of the war band caught up to their leader, and a mass brawl broke out between my walking dead, and the demon host.
I didn't have long, my skeletons couldn't survive such a battle for long. I fired off a wilting horror spell into the centre of the group. Despite their magic resistance, a number of the demons howled out in pain, and then a skeleton fell.
Whilst powerful, my Wilting Horror spell took too long to cast, my skeletons wouldn't hold out too much longer. I changed tact and fired off a skull trap into the crowd, praying that my skeletons magic resistance kept them safe. With my Robe of Vecna, and Amulet of Power I could cast the spell instantaneously, and one of the demons fell to the floor quite dead, unfortunately my victory was short lived, another demon appeared as if from thin air to take its place. It seems Ka'Rahur can summon allies on to the battlefield....
It didn't take long for the last of my skeletons to fall, and once again the demonic hoard were focused on me. Reaching deep into my pocket, I took out a potion of speed. Between the potion and my boots of speed, I could keep one step ahead of the mob, my cloak of mirroring also protecting me from their flame and lightning spells. Unfortunately I was powerless against the Salamander Archers, they were quickly draining me of healing potions.
I dug into my pack and pulled out a wand of resurrection, I once heard that if used on a living creature, a wand of resurrection would completely heal a person of all wounds. If ever there was a time to rest that theory, it was now.
With my vastly superior mobility I began to circle around the room, changing direction suddenly and doing everything I could to keep away from the demons. When ever I managed to put enough distance between them and me, I would stop, just long enough to cast a spell, always trying to focus my attacks in the direction of Ka'Rahur.
After what seemed like an eternity, the mighty Pit Field succumbed to his wounds, with their leader fallen, and unable to call for reinforcements I was able to pick off the remaining stragglers fairly easily. After the last demon fell, I set up camp, thankful I wasn't one of the unfortunate souls forced to fight for eternity in the endless bloodwar.
Several days later I made it back to Tahazzar, with the gift of the Baazetu's black heart. Much to my relief the demon was pleased, allowing me to live as reward for my deed. He also gave me a peculiar stone, similar to one I looted for Ka'Rahur. They seem to slot into a scepter I looted from Yakman's camp, I have a feeling this is my ticket out of this maze, though I'd best keep that to myself.
Days, maybe weeks later, I finally reached the end of the maze. There I encountered a Cambion guarding the portal to the fourth level. Aesgoroth the Cambion was trapped here just like everyone else I had encountered. Though he seemed to know of the scepter I had claimed from Yakman, the key to leaving this place, and he possessed the final stone required to activate it. He suggested a wager, a game of luck the winner taking the scepter.
Aesgoroth possessed a Deck of Many Things. A magical deck of cards, where each player draws a single card, and the highest valued card wins. However each card is enchanted, and drawing it will affect the player in some way, either negatively or bestowing some beneficial effect. The game look interesting, I have agreed to play along.
I drew first, revealing the 'Strife Card', a mid-value ranked card. As soon as I drew the card, the enchantment took effect, and I felt myself suddenly become sluggish, as if someone had cast a slow spell on me.
Next it was the Cambions turn, running his finger over the spine of the deck, he stopped suddenly and pulled out his chosen card. He slowly turned it over to reveal the 'Construct Card', a high ranked card. A giant hostile Adamintine Golem materialized, the cambion and his tiefling slaves were a sight to behold, taking the golem apart in a matter of moments.
I had lost the game...
The Cambion rather pleased with him self requested the scepter, offering to leave it with me once he had made his escape. I have no intention of honoring our deal, if he wants the scepter he can claim it over my dead body.
He was a powerful adversary, but no where near as deadly as the Baatezu I had defeated earlier, soon after the battle begun I stood victorious. I pocketed the Cambions card deck and then made my way to the portal, it was time to descend to level four.
This keep seems to breed war and suffering, as I entered onto the fourth level another battle was in full flow, Githyanki fought tooth and nail against their timeless foe the Illithids, in the center of the room a mad mage encased in a strange machine released a barrage of spells on the combatants forcing them to flee.
The clearly insane mage introduced him self as 'Carston the Magnificent', and the device that imprisoned him was the Machine of Lum the Mad. I recognized the name of Lum from a number of cryptic notes I have found throughout the keep.
The Machine, whilst a prison, protects Carston from both the ravages of time, and harm effectlively making him immortal, it also allows him to summon all manner of creatures and magical spells. His abuse of the machine is what brought the Illithids and Githyanki.
Over the next few hours I explored the level, fighting through both the Githyanki and Illithids compounds, I found several bottles of coloured oil, obviously meant for lighting the six giant braziers I had discovered in a specific colour sequence. As I explored I noticed six coloured floor tiles spread out over each side of the main hall, maybe it was coincidence, but their colour matched the oils I was carrying, maybe if I used that sequence?
Inside I found a crystal hammer, a journal that I found on the Githyanki leader suggested that this hammer could break the protective glass shielding Carston, making him vulnerable.
Deeper into the complex I stumbled upon another of Carston's summoned creatures. A magnificent Red Dragon, named Saladrex. Curiously, unlike the other imprisoned creatures, Saladrex didn't appear to distressed about his entrapment, he actually seemed to enjoy the entertainment Carston and his minions provided, I suspect the dragon knows full well he could easily bust through a wall if he wished to leave.
As I turned to leave, I spotted it, my prize and motivation for descending so deep into Watchers Keep, the legendary Staff of the Ram, casually sitting atop Saladrex's great treasure hoard, Gorions tales had proven true. Saladrex, more ancient and obviously much more powerful than any dragon I had faced before, would not relinquish such a treasure voluntarily. As I reached the steps, on the way out, a plan began to form in the back of my mind.
I placed a series of skull traps between myself and the dragon, a strategy that had rarely failed me, and then I proceeded to raise my undead allies.
I once again approached Saladrex, taking a wide berth around my traps. With the element of surprise I adopted another tactic that had served me well as a dragon slayer, I released a preemptive Finger of Death upon the unsuspecting beast. Saladrex, ancient even for a dragon was just too powerful for such a cheap shot, and let out a great laugh that shook the very room.
He triggered some kind of spell contingency, releasing protection and haste magics, and then made his pursuit of me. I quickly made it back to my waiting skeletons, Saladrex barreled right through my Skull Traps, and came right for me, unfortunately he was moving so swiftly that not a single trap was set off!
My skeletons engaged, and he quickly started to beat them down. The Dragon was just too powerful, I would need to weaken him if I was to have a chance at beating him. I called upon one of my darkest, and most powerful spells, Energy Drain. The dragon no match for such ancient necromancy, shuddered visibly as a large portion of his soul was ripped from his body.
One of my skeletons crumbled to the ground under the dragons onslaught, I closed my eyes and again focused of the dragons soul, his very life force. Once again the terrible creature shuddered visibly, almost buckling as more of his soul was tore away from him.
The second of my skeletons fell to the ground, even with so much of his power drained the Dragon was formidable, but maybe now he was sufficiently weakened to fall to my death magics? I pointed my finger at the scaled monster and uttered the required incantation, just as my third undead ally fell to the ground I fired off a second finger of death, and once again the dragon stood strong.
With my skeletons just about beaten, I backed off towards the stairway, and then raised several more skeletons to keep the mighty Saladrex busy, and give me a reprieve to come up with a new plan of attack.
My biggest problem was penetrating the dragons impressive magical defenses, I had some serious fire power at my disposal, but the dragons native magic resistance would simply nullify anything I threw at him.
Of course! That's it! I actually do have the means to cripple the Dragons magical defenses. Throughout my adventure into the depths of Watchers Keep I had acquired a number of Spell Strike wand, four wands in fact! I pulled one of the wands out of my pocket, and released a pierce magic spell, one of the creatures magical defenses fell, and its native magical resistance was significantly reduced.
I took aim once more, and released another burst from my wand, crippling the dragons defenses further. With the creature weakened, I threw everything I had and the beast. I began releasing a constant barrage of Wilting Horror spells into the room, eight in total. The fumes formed a cloud so dense I could see nothing beyond the great stairwell.
Once the cloud finally dissipated, all of my skeletons had been reduced to piles of bone at the beasts clawed feet, and I was left staring off with the mighty dragon, both of us admiring our adversary with mutual respect. He was certainly wounded now, though he still had plenty of fight in him, and my most powerful spells were now spent.
Haha! It then dawned on me that giant creature could not reach me! He was far to big to climb the narrow stairwell. I smirked at the Dragon, and he responded by bellowing out a huge stream of fire from his mouth. My Cloak of Mirroring, protected me, sending the blast back to its source, but the Red Dragon, a creature of flame was also immune.
I raised my wand again and sent another double barrage of Pierce Magic spells his way, with his defenses once again crippled, I moved onto my next assault, Finger of Death. The creature might be immune to the spells main function, instantly snuffing out life, but a resisted finger of death still hurts! I released every memorized Finger spell I had remaining, my foe now near death from my constant onslaught, but still very much a deadly opponent.
My spell book was now almost fully exhausted of offensive spells, and I had to resort to the weakest spell at my disposal Larloch's Minor Drain. Its been a long time indeed since I relied upon this spell, one by one I pelted him with drain spells, the weak spell little more than an annoyance to such an immense opponent, but slowly wearing him down none the less.
Finally, exhausted from the drawn out battle, I released my last memorized spell, yet still the dragon stood in defiance to my assault.
There we were, locked in a stalemate. The dragon couldn't reach me, and I had nothing left to throw at him. Behind the dragon far off to the distance, I could still make out my floating skull traps, bobbing up and down, undisturbed. What I wouldn't do to have access to those right now, but alas, with a furious dragon blocking the whole doorway they were lost to me.
Despite how futile the situation was, I couldn't bring my self to leave. If I left now, then by the time I had recovered, so to would the dragon, and what's more this time the dragon would be prepared for my treachery, I would no longer have the element of surprise. He is gravely injured, should I risk rushing him, and hope I can land a lucky blow before he rips me in two?
Then I felt a familiar stirring in the pit of my stomach, a building rage, a sensation I had not felt since being reunited with my soul in my battle with Irenicus. The Slayer wanted to come out to play, and I would gladly accept his assistance...
Fuelled with godlike power, I charged down the stairs, Saladrex taken aback by the relentless fury of the slayer. Even clinging on to life by the smallest thread, Saladrex was formidable landing blows that would have killed a lesser man, however he was just too weak to sustain his assault and finally I tore through the beasts throat.
We had fought to the wire, and I had emerged victorious. I claimed my hard won prize, the Staff of the Ram, and then retreated to my pocket plane to recover.
Cespenar has offered to improve upon my new toy by combining it with my Ring of the Ram. Now I truly hold a weapon of legend. It took several weeks to fully recover from my battle with Saladrex, once I was back at full strength I returned to Watchers Keep, it was now time to deal with Carston.
Using the crystal mallet, breaking Carston out of the machine was a simple matter, he begged for his life, which made claiming it all the sweeter. Using Carstons Journal, and the scattered notes of Lum the Mad, the machine was quite easy to activate. Bestowing a number of physical and mental benefits upon me, as well as opening the portal to the fifth level.
Now with my physical and mental capacity augmented by the machine, I made my way down to the next level of the keep, curious to learn more of this Imprisoned One, just who was he to be locked away in such a formidable prison?
I always knew that you could haste summoned creatures, making them twice as awesome. Unfortunately with my restricted playthrough that hasn't been possible.
However...
Clay Golems tend to self haste whenever they spot a target. I didn't realize it until I upgraded my Golem Manual, but this little dude can haste my skallywags for me!
I would have made a beeline for Watchers Keep much earlier during SOA if I had realized. I'll certainly be making extensive use of this feature during future playthroughs, heck I don't even think I'll bother fully upgrading the manual from now!
The final level consisted of several trials, designed by the Helmites to test various aspects of a persons character, their bravery, strength of arm and cunning to name but a few. Only those capable of passing the trials would be deemed worthy enough to bypass the great seal and gain an audience with the Imprisoned One.
The trials were standard affair, and what you would expect of Helmites, combat against waves of weak cannon fodder, riddles with devious Imps, you know the usual. As I passed each trial, I received a key, obviously meant to unlock the great seal in the central chamber.
If this imprisoned one was so powerful, why had the trials been so easy? Not to spit on my good fortune, I inserted the first key into he great seal, click!
Curse my big mouth, I had spoken too soon! As soon as I had released the first lock, a powerful Lich materialized behind me. I turned around, just in time to witness him summon forth his allies, flaming, fire breathing skulls, that zipped around the battlefield at incredible speeds. Having had plenty of experience dealing with Liches I knew full well he would have at least one death spell memorized that could wipe out my summoned skeletons.
I quickly ordered one of my skeletons to engage the lich, a small sacrifice to eat the liches death spell and spare the rest of my minions. Whilst the lich was tied up, I turned my attention to the skulls, they were completely immune to my magic, but other than that they were quite weak. My skeletons quickly took the skulls out of commission, though many were damaged as the skulls all self destructed in a massive fireball upon defeat.
With the minor distractions taken care off, I returned my attention back to the Lich. My Staff of the Magi, and wands of Spell Striking quickly stripping him of his magical defenses. Defenseless, the Lich quickly succumbed to my hacking and slashing swarm of skeleton warriors.
I inserted my second key, this time prepared for an ambush, click! Once again, another challenge materialized. This time it was a group of knights and a mage, I didn't recognize the race, they were obviously not native to the prime material realm. I quickly discovered that they were completely immune to my spells. I used my Staff of the Magi to vanish and retreat from the fight.
I made it to one of the rooms to the East, and there I began raising my army. I called forth 4 skeletons, and my trusty clay golem. Unlike many of the creatures I had fought here in the keep, these warriors could not pierce my invisibility. If I was careful I would be able to pick them off one at a time. Ordering my minions back, I returned to the main chamber and proceeded to lure any stragglers off to my waiting skeletons. One by one, these extra planar travelers fell.
The caliber of opponent was improving with each battle, and with the very real possibility that I would be faced off against the Imprisoned One very soon, I didn't want to take any more chances. I began setting a series of traps around the perimeter of the third lock, I spent the next couple of days carefully laying my great trap, and only when I was confident that there could be no escape did I insert the final key.
As suspected, more potent adversaries than the last emerged, demons, beholders and various champions of evil. But I had laid enough firepower at their feet to take down an army. The room shook violently under the immense force of the resulting explosion. Even safely out of the blast radius, my ears were ringing. Once the dust had settled, I ventured back to the site of the explosion, expecting to find six dead bodies.
I don't know whether it was due to some divine intervention from her evil goddess, or thanks to her races natural magic resistance, but there in the centre of the room stood a Drow Priestess, completely unscathed by the blast. She muttered an incantation under her breath, and great shards of jagged metal, debris from the explosion began to rise from the ground. The shards started to revolve around the priestess, picking up speed and forming a deadly protective barrier, this was going to be tough...
Using my superior speed, I quickly retreated, giving me time to summon my skeleton allies. Quite dead, and not held back by inconveniences such as pain my skeletons barreled right through her barrier of blades. They were quickly being torn apart, but then so too was the cleric. After what seemed like an eternity, the clerics defenses began to falter, and slowly but surely I wore her down.
That's it, three locks down. Its time to finally meet this Imprisoned One.
I think beating Demogorgon on this playthrough is a lost cause...
Been trying for several hours now, and the best I have managed is knocking him down to barely wounded status. Guess they don't call him the Prince of demons for nothing!
Finally! I have been fighting a war of attrition against the defenses of Watcher Keep for months, and I have made it to the central prison at last.
At first glance the room appeared empty, until the clinking of chains caught my attention. The creature, was invisible at the moment, though obviously bound in the centre of the room by the huge chains. A voice crept into my mind, I have been deceived it told me. The scroll I carried, would reinforce the holding spell, but it would trap me down here as well.
I couldn't tell whether the creature hoped to deceive me, or was being sincere, but it mattered not. Here was a creature imprisoned my Helm himself, an immense power I was certain. To test my god blood against such a creature, the thought positively thrilled me. I would defeat his creature, but first I would prepare.
A two sided staircase encircled half of the room, converging at a balcony that overlooked the area the demon was bound. This could give me a tactical advantage...
The beast was not hostile, as it seemed to think I would free it, I took advantage of this fact and used the reprieve to rest and rememorize several sets of skull traps, which I used to booby trap one of the stair cases. I then proceeded the summon five skeletons, four that I ordered up onto the balcony, and the fifth that I sent down to the Imprisoned One.
With my trap set, and the battlefield prepared to my liking, I focused my mind and tried to connect to the voice once more. Again the creature filled my mind with images of the Helmite Knights, and feelings of betrayal. I cared not, as far as I was concerned, there was only one way this could end, and now the creature knew my intentions.
The great demon finally revealed himself, there stood Demogorgon, Prince of Demons. I hit him with a blast of my spell strike wand, trying to soften up his magic resistance. My lone skeleton at the bottom of the stairs engaged the prince, just as he called forth a couple of demonic allies, Mariliths. I knew my skeleton was no match for the demonic trio, and so ran back up the stairway and all the way around to the opposite stairwell, stopping just short of my traps.
I knew that the Mariliths in their blood rage, would take the most direct route to my location, I just had to wait for them. As planned, my skeleton fell within moments, taken out by one of Demogorgons death spells, and the Mariliths turned around to pursue me, c'mon just a little closer!
A familiar flash of light illuminated the room, as a chain reaction of traps tore through and decimated the demonesses. Demogorgon was all alone now, and I had the perfect plan, tonight I slay royalty..
I summoned another skeleton bringing my total back upto five, and then proceeded down the staircase. I knew my skeletons were no match for this most deadly of foes, but I believed they could distract him long enough for me to empty my wand of spell striking onto him, with the pierce magic spells crippling his magic resistance. With my boots of speed, and superior mobility I would be able to use the stairs to my advantage, pelting him with my most powerful spells from the high ground.
Oh how wrong I was, I reached the bottom of the great staircase, and as my skeletons moved in to engage, I fired off another blast of pierce magic from my wand, The demon laughed allowed as another portal opened, this time a pair of Glabrezu stepping out, and into the fray. No worry, I can handle a pair of demons, I fired off another blast from my wand, then the portal widened, and another pair of Glabrezu added to the chaos.
I wouldn't have time to empty my wand, my skeletons were just about finished, I needed to act now! I backed off and released a Wilting Horror spell into the centre of the room ...nothing happened, despite my best efforts to lower his magical defense my spell was impotent against the demon hoard. My final skeleton collapsed, and then the portal widened, two, four then six more Glabrezu stormed into the room!
Is there no end to this onslaught of demon filth? I need to close that portal! I ran up the stairs Glabrezu giving chase, but there was nowhere to go! The portal out of here was now dead, I ran back down the opposite staircase, just trying to buy a little time to formulate a new plan. More Glabrezu spilled into the room, cutting off any escape at the bottom of the stairwell, I was surrounded and trapped.
If I am going to hell this day, then I am going kicking and screaming. I began chanting, putting all my hate and fury into this one spell. Again my Wilting Horror spell filled the room, and this time Demogorgon felt it, but it was too little too late. Demon claws hacked and slashed at me from all directions, and then nothing but darkness.........
[CHARNAME Reloads a previous save]
A Necromancer is not so easily killed, especially one descended from Bhaal. I knew that in my line of work, one day I would fall, and I had made the necessary preparations ahead of time, my black magics had brought me back to the land of the living. When I came too, the room was once again quiet, the hoards of Glabrezu returned to their home plane.
Again Demogorgons familiar voice invaded my thoughts, he wasn't angry, he was actually amused by my failed assault. Curse him, curse him to hell for laughing at ME! The demon, knowing it had put me firmly in my place once again offered a deal. He had been storing power to open a portal, he didn't have enough to free him self, but could open a rift just big enough to free me. In exchange I would inform the Knights of the Vigil that I had defeated Demogorgon (He chuckled at the point, oh the nerve!), the knights in needing to verify this them selves would be walking into a trap, by killing the knights, Demogorgon would earn his freedom.
I don't really have a choice, I took the demons offer and returned to the knights. They tried to bury me alive, I'll at least get some satisfaction by sending them to their doom. The knights were mortified when I told them the news, rushing off quickly to verify my story. As they left, a ghostly apparition appeared, a champion of helm long dead.
She explained everything, the story of Demogorgon's Imprisonment, the knights failure of their sacred duty, all of it. She offered me a second ritual scroll, one that would not imprison me along with the Demon. But I have tired of the Helmites and their games, Odren can rot in hell for all I care, let them clean their own mess up, I wash my hands of all of them.
I cant put off my hunt for pursuit of the remaining members of the five forever, after my detour into Watchers Keep, it was time to focus once again on the Fire Giant Yaga Shura.
Using Melissan's intel, I first headed to the old Temple of Bhaal, deep in the Mir Wood. Even so many years after Bhaal's demise, this place radiates evil. I was intercepted by the Ghostly Apparition of Gorion as I approached, so some shade wearing his guise. He tried placing the blame for his death, for ruining his years of work, his legacy.
Ha! Gorion and his plans are in tatters, for one reason and one reason only, he was a weak fool. He might not have been the real Gorion, but I still took great pleasure from crushing his throat beneath my boot.
Deeper into the temple, I found my answers. A witch and former priestess of Bhaal, had set up home in the temple. Nyalee was also the adoptive mother of Yaga Shura, and after being betrayed by her ward and cast aside, she was only to happy to give up the secret of the Giants immortality.
Nyalee had performed a ritual on the giant, removing his heart and sealing it away. As long as the heart remains intact, no harm can come to the Bhaalspawn General. If I can recover the heart from Yaga Shura's base in the Marching Mountains, then Nyalee will dispel the protective magics, making the giant vulnerable.
The way was treacherous, the giants were deadly, able to make short work of my skeletons, and robust enough that they cost me far to many spells to take down. I decided stealth was my best course of action here, using my Staff of the Magi to quickly run through the facility undetected, avoiding combat where ever possible.
For the most part it was smooth sailing, the giants totally oblivious to my passage. However some of the guard posts held a number of Fell Cat sentries, that could see through my illusion and alert the fire giant guard to my location. Fortunately they were of poor constitution and fell easily, giving me plenty of time to vanish into thin air before the giants could respond.
I finally made it to the great Throne Room, and location of Yaga Shuras greatest treasure, his black heart. Yaga Shura was not foolish enough to leave it unprotected however, a unit of his elite fire giant troops were stationed in the room, led by his loyal lieutenant Berenn. Whats more, a couple of Fell Cats patrolled the perimeter of the room, guarding against any sneaky intruders such as my self. If I want that heart, then I will need to clear out the room.
Using my invisibility to my advantage, I lured the Fell Cats away from the giants, quietly dispatching them out in the hall way. With the easy part over, it was time to focus my attention on the big guys. I walked my way into the center of the room, and then disengaged my staffs invisibility, materializing suddenly in the middle of the room.
The giants caught unaware, were surprised only momentarily and then quickly closed in on me. With my boots of speed, I quicky made my way in the direction of the small door I had entered from, and then I waited.
I waited until the last possible second, just as they were about to surround me, and then POOF! I used my staff to vanish once again. The giants stood around dumbfounded, and I quickly retreated through the smaller doorway, and began my first incantation. A cloud of gas was released into the room as I fired off a Wilting Horror spell. The giants coughed and wheezed, now aware of my location but unable to reach me. I released another barrage of spells, the giants powerless to resist.
Soon only Berenn remained, protected from the brunt of my assault by some kind of magic resistance. I began reciting spells of summoning, skeletons began to rise from the ground at the giants feet. Berenn was stronger than my skeletons, but I was not finished yet. I opened my Golem Manual, and called forth my trusty Clay Golem. The Golem activated a haste aura, greatly increasing the offensive capabilities of both it, and the skeletons. Berenn was quickly overwhelmed, and I was free to claim Yaga Shuras heart.
Returning the hearts to Nyalee, triggered some kind of maternal instincts in the witch. After dispelling the enchantment, she was overcome with guilt at the thought of betraying her boy, and turned upon me suddenly.
Her summoned allies were pretty weak, all but the shambling mounds falling to my death spells. I quickly retreated to safe distance and summoned some allies of my own. With my skeletons at my side, I returned to the battle, firing off Wilting Horror spells at the Shambling Mounds, before sending in my skeletons.
With her allies fallen Nyalee did not put up much of a fight, a blast from my wand of spell striking and Nyalee was defenseless, no longer a match for my minions. Now its time to discover just how mighty this Yaga Shura is.
I could smell Saradush, long before I could see it. The smell of thick smoke, mingled with the smell of burning flesh. My excursion to Watchers Keep had proven costly for the people of Saradush.
Yaga Shura's camp lay over a badly damaged, crumbling bridge. As I approached I could hear screams, desperate prisoners begging for mercy, a group of escapees came running by suddenly, pursued by the Bhaalspawn Generals merceneries. It was time...
The Saradushian prisoners ran by me, their pursues stopping suddenly in their tracks when they spotted me at the foot of the bridge. "Hey, that's the one the boss wants!" one of them shouted, breaking off their pursuit of the villagers, and turning their attention towards me.
Within moments my skeletons were clawing their way out of the ground at the mercenaries feet. The low ranking foot soldiers didn't stand a chance. The commotion of our battle must have alerted the army to my presence, as when I made it over the bridge Yaga Shura was waiting for me.
The giant was immense, but he was also over confident, unaware that his enchantment had been dispelled, and he was completely vulnerable. We exchanged words, the giant trying to intimidate me with his exploits of wiping out all the Bhaalspawn here in Saradush. They were weak, I am not.
I cut our conversation short, as his mercenaries had begun to circled around behind me, trying to cut off any escape, I was surrounded.
POOF! I vanished from thin air, wondering if I'd ever have made it this far, if I hadn't liberated the Staff of the Magi from the Twisted Rune. The foot soldiers rushed in to my last known location, trying to find any trace of me. But I was long gone, circling around the small island trying to find a better position to attack from.
As I turned to run around the side of an old wooden cabin, Yaga Shura stepped out in front of me, grinning menacingly. Attuned to my Bhaal Spawn essence there would be no hiding from this foe. I had almost made it around the perimeter of the small island, I could see the bridge in the distance, and my skeletons waiting patiently for my return.
Boots of speed allowing me to keep one step ahead of my fire giant brother, I made my way back to the bridge. With my Skeletons now at my back, and no access from the sides, I knew I could no longer be surrounded, the only way to reach me was now head on. I set a lone skull trap at the foot of the bridge and waited for my nemesis to catch up.
The giant still believing himself invulnerable, walked up to the trap laughing to himself, obviously a tactic meant to fill me with dread and demonstrate his powers of invincibility. His laugh was cut short however, just as mine began. BOOM! The giant stood there monuntarily stunned, the realization that he was now vulnerable, slowly beginning to dawn on him, finally understanding the witch Nyalee had betrayed him.
Now very much mortal, and not wanting to take any chances, the giant turned and ran, trying to rally his troops and send them to my location. I used hit and run tactics, using my staff to escape after each assault, but there were too many of them. Then Yaga Shura returned, confident that with his reinforcements at his back he could finally crush me.
I retreated back to the bridge once more, ensuring I wouldn't be surrounded, and could focuses solely on whatever stood in front of me. Yaga Shura came charging me once again, the initial fear of feeling mortal for the first time, now replaced by the blood lust brought on by our fathers blood.
I planted my feet firmly into the ground, and commanded my skeletons forward, it will end here. The giant was intercepted by my minions before he could reach me. Surrounded from all sides, even the mighty giant found himself hard pressed to defend himself, I released a constant stream of Wilting Horror spells upon the giant, many of his allies falling before they even got within striking distance.
Before long, the Terror of Saradush also lay motionless at my feet. That's two down and three to go.
Melissan once again appeared from no where as the second of the five went down. There is something odd about that one, still she has knowledge of the five, knowledge I need, I'll play her games for now.
She has directed me to one of her allies, a monk from the ancient city of Amkethran by the name of Balthazar. Apparently he has ties to two other members of the five, Sendai and Abazigal. I should pay him a visit if I want to continue my pursuit of the remaining Bhaal spawn.
24 Elisias 1371
My reputation proceeds me. For crimes against humanity, I have been sentenced to death. On my way to Amkethran I was set upon by a waiting army, an entire army! Finally they are beginning to treat my power with the respect it deserves, finally they understand it will take more than a few bounty hunters to take me down!
Unfortunately for them, they have yet to realize that it doesn't matter if it is one weak fool, or a hundred weak fools, a weak fool is still a weak fool. A well placed death spell and their forces were in tatters, the remaining stragglers with the strength of mind to resist my necromancy were easily picked off with out back up from the rest of the army.
I felt a sense of nostalgia as I picked through the corpses of my assailants and found a letter of bounty. A price of 100,000 gold pieces has been placed upon my head, a damn sight higher than in my days of being hunted by the Iron Throne back in Baldurs Gate. Once I ascend to godhood, I think I'll pay Queen Zaranda Rhindaun, and the rest of Tethyr's leadership a visit, examples need to be made.
Balthazar was less than flattering, however he gave me what I needed, I now know the location of both Sendai's and Abazigals base. The ancient city is currently under martial law, its citizens living in poverty, are often bullied and abused by both Balthazar's monks and his hired mercenaries. Whilst exploring the streets I witnessed a Priest of Waukeen executed in the street by a monk for trying to stand up for the citizenry, I watched a young girl get stabbed for stealing a loaf of bread to feed the poor.
All around me, the weak begged for my aid, the city can fall from within for all I care. On one street corner I met a face from my past, the treacherous pirate captain Saemon Havarian, or Esamon as he is know here in Amkethran. As usual he had found himself in a spot of bother, and once again he saved his skin by planting his troubles at my feet! Saemon, the leader of the smugglers guild here in Amkethran had been stealing equipment from Balthazar's Mercenaries, before they could cut him down, he spotted me in the crowd, and then told them that I had been sold their equipment. By the time I had dispatched the mercenaries, Saemon was long gone, I WILL have his head.
I located Saemon's base of operations soon afterwards. As expected he was once again in trouble, or at least his operations were. Amkethran monks had turned up, seized their inventory and were in the process of arresting Saemon's men. I wasn't willing to let the monks steal my vengeance, and I put a stop to their plans and their lives.
Saemon's second in command informed me that Saemon was not there, and that they too wanted his head, can that man even make friends? For sparing them from Balthazar's men, they offered me a discount on all their stock. I found an incredible pair of boots stashed away in their inventory, I now have the ability to cast the stoneskin spell.
Before I left, I was encountered for one more lesser being begging for my help, and this one intrigued me. A powerful lich had stolen his daughters soul, and she was slowly dying, a fate I knew all too well. I agreed to help him, not because of any desire to help his daughter, but because a soul is a valuable commodity, one I would claim for my self once I had dealt with the Lich.
It seems Marlowe, the girls father has not been entirely truthful. He had offered his soul freely to the lich in exchange for wealth and prosperity, but when it came time to pay up, Marlowe got cold feet and fled. The Lich instead took his daughters soul, and holds it random, until he can claim what he is due. The Lich has offered me Malla's soul in exchange for her fathers. I have betrayed the father, and lured him to his death at the hands of the Lich.
I encountered a glitch that made this fight a walk in the park. The knock back effect from my Staff of the Ram kicked in on the deathblow of Draconis's human form, knocking him back behind a large pillar. Once he transformed, the dragon was stuck in the small space, unable to move. A little cheesy, I know, but after a handful of failed attempts already, I decided to run with it.
29 Elisias 1371
Waiting for me at the entrance to Abazigal's great complex was Draconis a conjurer of no small power, and Abazigal's son to boot. Over confident like all before him, the mage promised to end my existence there and then.
Draconis, quickly went invisible conjuring wave after wave of Efreeti and Invisible Stalkers, I countered his minions with skeletons and death magic. Draconis's own death spells, destroyed my first couple of skeletons, however unlike me, he had not dedicated himself to the school of necromancy, his death spells were all but spent, whereas I had only consumed the tip of my powers iceberg. His summoned minions, the bread and butter of the conjurers arsenal were easily wiped out, and before long the mages spell book was exhausted, the mage forced into hand to hand combat.
My skeletons engaged the Bhaalspawns son, the mage unarmed with no weapon at his disposal could not harm my boneguard. I joined in the battle, my trusty Staff of the Ram in hand, Draconis, had promised me death and I wanted to wipe the smug smile off his face personally.
The power of the staff was incredible, knocking Draconis through the air as if he had been hit by a giant. Bang! Once again I landed a solid blow on the mage, throwing him clean through the air, landing hard against the wall in the corner of the courtyard. The mage was durable if nothing else!
Once again Draconis rose to his feet, grinning menacingly. "I promised you a death, and now it is time to deliver", suddenly the mage began to transform. Draconis was not human afterall, but a terrible dragon, and what's more that meant that Abazigal was also a dragon, a dragon with god blood coursing through his veins....
I was almost worried, but Draconis in his haste and bloodlust had transformed in a small alcove, he was pinned inside and completely trapped. I raised my wand of spell striking, and fired of a couple of pierce magic blasts, stripping the dragons defenses and lowering his magic resistance.
Then I fell back to my trusty spell repertoire, I bombarded the great beast with Wilting Horror spells and skull traps, quickly dealing with his summoned minions between assaults with my death spells. The dragon, helpless and with nowhere to run, was quickly overwhelmed.
The fight had been easy, but that was in no small part due to Tymora smiling on me this day, and Draconis's stupidity. Abazigal was a Bhaalspawn with god blood, he could quite possible be my biggest challenge to date....
The base consisted of a number of caves, linked by a complex series complex underwater tunnels. It took several days to navigate my way successfully to Abazigal's Lair.
Abazigal's Lair was huge, but fortunately I had not been spotted yet. In the centre of the room, I could make out Abazigal, presently in his humanoid form, around the room were a number of Salamander sentries. Abazigal and his men looked distracted, probabally planning his assault on Amkethran, and still totally oblivious to my intrusion. I took the opportunity to set a trap for the Bhaalspawn.
I took a stealthy approach, using my staff of the magi to vanish from sight, I made my way slowly around the perimeter of the cave, picking off the Salamander one by one, I wanted no distractions once the battle with Abazigal commenced.
With his minions taken care off, I quietly placed more traps near Abazigal in the centre of the room, and then I turned my attention to the great Bhaalspawn, trying to find some weak point I could exploit, some advantage that would swing the fight my way.
Strapped to his back, Abazigal carried a massive greatsword. The large slashing weapon would make short work of me, but a creature of clay? I pulled out my Golem Manual, summoning a clay construct, knowing full well that Abazigal would be unable to wound the creature. I applied my defenses, Spirit Armour, and a Stoneskin enchantment courtesy of my new Boots of the Gargoyle, and then I made my presence felt.
Abazigal was a powerful warrior for sure, employing the Kai ability of the Kensai, an ability that would be devastating with that massive great sword, however as suspected my Golem was impervious to the Bhaalspawns attacks. Unfortunately, Abazigal was also immune to anything my Golem could throw at him, they were at a stalemate, and the magic animating my Golem would not last for long.
I couldn't afford to use my magic on Abazigal, I would need every spell at my disposal when he decides to take dragon form. Instead I focused on my taint, calling forth my alter ego the slayer. Within moments I had transformed, large clawed hands clumsily fumbling with my Ring of Gaxx, I activated it's Improved haste ability and then rushed in.
Never have I struck so swiftly, as tough as the mighty Bhaalspawn was, he was quickly overwhelmed by my onslaught, with no way out, he too transformed. Great wings buffeted me across the room, and I set off several of my own skull traps.
I quickly dropped my energy draining transformation, and used my wand of resurrection to recover my health to full. Within moments Abazigal was upon me, I removed my last remaining Wand of Spell striking from my robes (I hope I can find a merchant who can recharge these for me!), and used pierce magic spells to lower the dragons magical resistance. The great dragon, to big to walk around my placed skull traps, set off a large number, wounding him severely.
I quickly tried to run around the dragon, but its great wings flapped once again, knocking me to the ground, and he was then upon me. My protections didn't last for long, and I soon found my self sorely pressed, I somehow managed to get to my feet, and then I ran.
I had one more skull trap field planted, in the centre of the room near where I first encountered Abazigal. I ran as fast as I could, but the Dragon was faster, snapping at my heels the whole way, I didn't have time to run around it, instead I barreled right through my own trap, praying that my protective equipment would spare me.
A loud explosion, and a brilliant flash of white followed my reckless strategy. I was completely stunned, I couldn't see of hear anything, however I couldn't take any chances, I carried on running stumbling forwards. Slowly my vision returned, I glanced back and saw the prone corpse of the Bhaalspawn Dragon. Abazigal had fallen, and now there remained only two, the Drow Sendai, and the elusive fifth member of the five, who somehow yet escapes me.
I've returned to Amkethran to resupply before my pursuit of Sendai. I have sold two almost expended wands of spell striking to the cities Priest of Waukeen. The priest of commerce always looking to turn a profit as recharged the wands back upto full capacity, and placed them back for sale. I bought both of them back, I suspect I will need every charge at my disposal fighting a Bhaalspawn with the magic resistance of a Drow.
2 Marpenoth 1371
I met an Elvan woodsman in the forest, he claims to have seen dark skinned elves in a clearing to the west. Summoning my Golem and a small undead war host, I set off to investigate.
I was ambushed by a drow raiding party as I approached the clearing, however with my golem hasting all my allies, the party were quickly outmatched. Searching the corpses revealed nothing of my target, so I made my way back to the woodsman.
On my way back to the elf, I stumbled upon an old grave site. The graves were freshly dug, yet made to look old, they were obviously fake graves, but set up for what purpose?
I returned to the woodsman and explained what had happened back in the clearing, he claimed to have seen more drow, near his 'wifes' grave to the north, the grave I had already ascertained to be fake, was this woodsman allied with the drow? Was he trying to lure me into an ambush?
I took no chances, I set my minions upon the elf. Low and behold, his illusion magics were dispelled, revealing him to be a drow himself. Suddenly his allies appeared from nowhere, we fought tooth and nail, my spells all but useless, but my skeletons enhanced by my golems haste aura took the flimsy elves down with ease.
With the elf dead, the illusion hiding the entrance to Sendai's Enclave was dispelled.
Sendai's defenses were impressive, she had left nothing to chance. The moment I entered into her enclave, I was set upon by wave after wave of denizens from the Underdark. By the time the onslaught was over, I had to climb over a small mountain of bodies to progress through the complex.
Further into the complex I found myself faced with a choice, two paths leading to the same destination. One the mating grounds for Sendai's pet spiders, the other, the slavers stockades. Either path would involve fighting through more of Sendai's forces, I opted for the spiders, figuring the stupid creature would make easy target practice for my spells.
Deeper into the dungeon I descended, until I came to a magically warded door. My progress had been stalled for now, just off to the north was a strange structure, a building of sorts, I decided to explore. Inside I awakened a Lich, the creature unlike others I had encountered, seemed more intent on blasting me to smithereens than applying any kind of magical defenses of his own. My powerful armor and equipment protected me from the brunt of his assault, and with no defenses of his own, he was quickly taken down. On his corpse I discovered a runestone that I believe will open the warded door that blocked my path earlier.
Through the warded door, I encountered one of Sendai's commanders, Diaytha. I have been challenged to defeat her most powerful minion Ogremoch, an elemental prince of earth! Only then will I get a crack at taking down the priestess.
I called my undead allies, and then tentatively stepped into the princes lair. I was guarded by two greater elementals, I lured them both outside the room, and dispatched away from the prince. The prince was a terrible foe indeed, I set 6 skull traps in the centre of the room, and lined my skeletons up behind me. Once I had prepared, I approached the prince. As soon as he saw me, he triggered a stoneskin spell, I countered it with my wand, and then waited for him to advance. My traps went off, greatly wounding the prince, he bore down upon me, but I had my skeletons intercept him.
He was making short work of my skeletons, dropping them sometimes with single blows. I wouldn't have time to release enough spells to end Orgremach before my skeletons fell, so I called upon the slayer. My slayer form combined with the Improved haste ability from my Ring of Gaxx, was just too much for the elemental prince. Weakened by my skull traps, he just didn't have enough strength left to defend him self, and before to long victory was mine.
I took advantage of the short reprieve from combat by rememorizing my spells, and summoning new allies.
Whilst tied up with the prince, Diaytha had plenty of time to prepare, when I finally reached her, she had surrounded herself with powerful allies. Knowing I couldn't possible win this fight alone, I called my skeletons into the room and then quickly sneaked off out of the room myself.
My skeletons did not last long, but they lasted long enough for me fill the room with Wilting Horror spells. By the time my final skeleton fell, I had taken out both her Vampire and Demon ally. The remaining members of Diaytha's group had lost track of me in all the commotion, all except for the Eye Tyrant, who immune to my magics was still completely unharmed. Knowing I would have a hard time beating the Beholder with my arcane might, I shifted my focus to physical might and reverted to the slayer once more. As all before it, the Beholder proved little match for the mighty avatar of Bhaal.
With the Beholder dead I reverted back to my human form, another wilting horror spell into the room, and the Cambion lay dead, leaving only the Drow Priestess. I used my remaining animate dead spells and reentered the room. Without her allies, Diaytha proved weak, and once again I proved victorious. Sendai was certainly prepared for me, surely she cannot have many allies remaining?
I have ran into my old 'friend' the spectator beholder I met back in the Sahaguin city, once again he has found him self bound to the whims of the drow. The drow were all but ready to jump for my throat when the beholder interjected. He suggested a one on one contest, playing on the leaders pride in is martial ability, the spectator knows full well the commander cannot win, I guessing he is once again trying to prematurely get out of his contract with the dark elves. The Beholder has placed a geas on everyone in the room, the winning side lives, and the losing side dies.
I quickly called a couple of allies before he could close the gap and engage me, and then stayed back and watched. True to his word, the Spectator's geas caused the entire room to fall down dead, the moment their commander did.
There seems to be no end to Sendai's defenses, I now find my self faced off with a group of mindflayers, led by another of Sendai's commanders an Illithid named Mithykyl. The Illithid portion of the complex was actually smaller than I expected, my summoned allies were able to deal with the illithids in short order.
Finally I have fought my way to Sendai, and she has been busy. She has performed some kind of ritual, setting a trap for me. Seven stone statues encircle the room, each one seeming to represent a different discipline of war.
I felt a sense of Deja Vu as I once again exchanged threats with a Bhaalspawn. And then it began, Sendai vanished in a flash of light and there was a momentary silence, suddenly too my left I heard a loud cracking sound, the first statue had began to crumble, and there stood in its place was Sendai, in the garb of a fighter/druid.
She began casting almost instantly, releasing some kind of insect plague. Knowing that I would be hard pressed to successfully cast my spells engulfed in a cloud of stinging insects, I backed off as fast as I could, and quickly summoned a skeleton, knowing that it could very well be my only protection until the insects dispersed.
Sendai proceeded to summon fire elementals, whilst calling down pillars of fire from the sky to engulf my skeleton. I backed away out of range, trying to swat away the insects, whilst my skeleton was assaulted from all sides. As my ally fell, so to did the insects disperse, I summoned two more skeletons, and launched a deathspell in Sendai's direction to eliminate her elementals, and then I engaged her. Slowly we wore the druid down, her spells expended she resorted to melee combat, managing to beat one of my skeletons before falling herself.
Before I could catch my breath, I heard a familiar cracking sound, looking up I saw the statue depicting a sorceress begin to crumble, what's worse, a couple of drow reinforcements had made their way into the room. I ordered my skeleton to attack the two foot soldiers, before it could reach them a death spell blasted it, crumbling it to dust before my very eyes. I could hear Sendai chuckle to her self in the background.
I ran back up the stairs to the rooms exit, luring the drow soldiers away from Sendai. As soon as they reached me, I gripped my staff tightly and engaged its invisibility power. I quietly crept back down to Sendai's position, leaving the confused back up behind me and temporarily out of the fight.
I knew that the sorceress would be weak without her defenses, I used my spell strike wand to strip her defenses and then proceeded to melee with her, using my powerful staff of the ram. I managed to interrupt most of her spells, until she managed to open a gate to the lower planes. I quickly switched to my Staff of the Magi, the native protection from evil spell, protecting me from the terrifying Pitfiend that stepped through the portal. Sendai was not quite so fortunate, ripped to pieces by her own summoned creature.
Protected as I was from the demon, I decided to use it to my advantage, if Sendai or her allies came within range the demon would attack indiscriminately. To the west the familiar sound of a crumbling statue filled my ears, this time Sendai had assumed the form of a deadly rogue, and two more drow reinforcements arrived.
I ran back to the entrance luring the four reinforcements back down to the Pitfiend. Before vanishing from sight once again, with no other target available, the drow turned upon the Pitfiend, getting torn to shreads for their efforts.
With the minor drow taken care of, and no more distractions to worry about, I could focus my attention on Sendai the rogue. I called forth the last of my remaining allies in one of the northern alcoves, four skeleton warriors, and my clay golem, and then lured Sendai to my waiting ambush. She was quickly overwhelmed by my golem hasted skeletons.
Next Sendai took on the form of a Berzerker warrior, quickly entering an enraged state. I threw everything I had at Sendai but still she kept coming, managing to take down two of my skeletons before succumbing to her wounds. By now there were four more drow reinforcements, and Sendai had once again adopted the form of a powerful mage. I quickly dispersed my summoned creatures sending them to opposite corners of the room, in an attempt to protect as many as I could from the inevitable death spell that Sendai would release.
Both the drow reinforcements, and Sendai released a death spell, taking down two of my skeletons. I then sent my remaining allies, a lone skeleton and my Golem at Sendai, whilst again trying to lure the drow reinforcements to the Pitfiend. It almost worked too, unfortunately both my Golem and the Pitfiend had spent as much time on the mortal plane as they could, and both unsummoned before my eyes.
I quickly lured the drow to where the demon had been, and then vanished once again into thin air, making my way back to Sendai and leaving the reinforcements behind.
Much like the last mage form, Sendai proved weak once her defenses had been stripped away, and between me and my remaining skeleton attacking simultaneously, the Drow didn't survive for long.
To the east I could make out Sendai beginning to assume her sixth form, an Archer, to the west more reinforcements were spilling into the room. From my position in the northern most alcove, neither Sendai nor her men could see me. I released three blasts of wilting horror spells towards the door, where the drow troops were amassing. Their magic defense was impressive, but against such a high concentration of spells, most of the drow succumbed to my magic, those that remained made for easy pickings by me and my skeleton.
With the battlefield once again cleansed of annoyances, I returned my focus towards Sendai. The Archer was deadly at a distance, but if I could close the distance and get in close then this should be easy!
In full sprint with my boots of speed on, I got in close and swung my staff, connecting squarely with the drows jaw, within an instant she had teleported across the room, and towards another alcove. I chased her down again, as she pelted me with arrows. Each time I managed to land a blow, she would vanish only to appear in an alcove on the opposite side of the room. So much for getting in close!
There wasn't much I could do about it, except chase her down and hope she missed more of her arrows than she landed. Slowly but surely I wore the Bhaalspawn down, and eventually I beat the archer, though I had consumed a large percentage of my healing potions in the process.
Finally she was down to her last statue, an assassin, she poisoned her blades and then came at me, before being intercepted by my skeleton. More drow reinforcements swarmed the room. I needed to end this soon, I couldn't maintain this pace for much longer. Whilst my skeleton was engaged I took the opportunity to change my boots, equipping my boots of the gargoyle, to reapply my stoneskin, and to protect from any sneak attacks the assassin might throw my way.
My remaining skeleton didn't last long assaulted by the three drow, I hit Sendai with a blast from my wand of spell striking, and then proceeded to pelt her and her men with my spells. The two drow fell, though Sendai appeared unharmed. Clutching my staff of the ram I went toe to toe with the assassin, exchanging blow for blow strikes, and chugging down potions as required.
Sendai used invisibility potions to strike me from the shadows, but my boots protected me. A well placed blow, threw the Assassin Sendai clean across the room, knocking her unconscious to boot. I quickly finished her off. With the last of her Statues destroyed, the real Sendai returned.
Hopefully I have managed to save enough spells, to deal with this one. She summoned a large host of invisible horrors, which were easy pickings for my death spell.
I emptied an entire wand of spell striking onto the drow, the pierce magic spell not only stripping her defenses, but lowering her native magic resistance. The Sendai adopted the same tactics her archer statue had earlier, warping from alcove to alcove. However, with her magic resistance now crippled, I was easily able to keep up, firing wilting horror and skull traps into the alcoves as and when she warped.
Unfortunately the real Sendai was much tougher than her statues, and I had already expended far too much energy on those. Sendai a powerful priestess, had no problem recovering from her injuries, and my offensive spells were all but spent.
The battle went on for what seemed an eternity, I spent most of my time dealing with her summoned skeletons and spiders, thankfully my large reserve of death spells outlasted her summoning magics and eventually we were forced into melee with one another. Sendai was recovering from my attacks far too quickly, I knew I needed more power to defeat her. I turned inwards to my dark taint, summoning the slayer once again.
The battle was nothing short of epic, Sendai's healing magics were potent and I had to ride my slayer form to its very limits, almost losing control to the taint, and being overwhelmed. But I had finally beaten Sendai in a marathon battle, I returned to my pocket plane and collapsed with exhaustion.
I have returned to Amkethran only to find myself under attack by Balthazar's men. I once again bumped into Seamon Havarian, he seeks vengeance against Balthazar and has offered to get me into the monastery.
Hahaha! The fool has cried wolf one to many times, I tried to gut him where he stood, but the fool somehow once again managed to escape. I'll never trust Saemon again as long as I live, I'll find my own way into the monastery.
I decided to tackle the problem head on, and assault the gates directly. My minions and necromancy tore through Balthazars forces, on one of the bodies I discovered a gate key. It is time to end this!
I hated doing it, but I ended up dropping the difficulty all the way down for this fight, and it still took a lot of luck to win, I was getting creamed. Balthazar can cast Bigby's crushing hand, and whenever he did, it was pretty much game over for me, in the end it took a lot of reloads to avoid the attack.
15 Marpenoth 1371
I have made it inside the monestary, I took a moment to set a trap and summon some back up, and then headed further inside.
Balthazar has revealed himself to be the final member of the Five. Though unlike the others, he didn't join lured by promises of power or to raise Bhaal from the dead, Balthazar joined to infiltrate the group, to learn the identities it's membership, so that he could crush them ending the curse of Bhaal's Taint once and for all. How 'noble' of him...
Unfortunately he still needs to defeat me if he expects his plans to come to fruition, and it will be a cold day in hell before that happens. He has also revealed the puppet master behind the Five, Melissan! It was she who brought the Five together and organized the alliance, it was she who orchestrated the demise of Sarasush and plotted to turn both me and the five against one another. I don't know what she expects to gain from this, but I am certain she is no friend.
Balthazar has used me for his own goals, and that demands punishment. The moment our conversation was over I tossed a skull trap at Balthazar, setting it off in the middle of his group of monks. Without checking to see how many were wounded, I ran back to the monasteries main entrance and my waiting allies.
My skeletons clashed with the monks and I began my casting, releasing a series of wilting horror spells. Balthazar was unaffected, he suddenly vanished only to appear on the opposite staircase, my traps exploded in unison, but again the monk was unaffected. I could be in trouble here.
My skeletons were quickly dispatched, the monks were fast, even with my boots of speed, I'd be hard pressed to outpace them. I chugged down a potion of speed to give myself an advantage, and then began to run. I'd never beat Balthazar in a martial contest, and his magic resistance is just to potent to punch through, I pulled out one of my recently recharged wands and began firing piece magic spells, hoping to reduce his magic resistance enough for my spells to take effect.
Around the main chamber I ran, outpacing my pursuers whilst focusing my efforts on crippling the monks magic resistance. On the third blast of my wand, I tested another spell. Success! The monk was taken aback by my wilting horror spell, if only momentarily, there was now a chink in his armour, I needed to throw everything I had at the monk before the opening closes again.
Using my superior speed, I carried on circling around the great chamber, throwing whatever spells I could at the deadly monk, slowly but surely I wore him down, killing his men in the process. Eventually I beat the monk down to within an inch of his life, however with my spells exhausted and the monk able to heal himself, I could take no chances. Calling upon my slayer form I went toe to toe with the monk.
Even at deaths door, the monk was formidable hitting me with amazing force, and launching me across the room, even in slayer form. I drank so much healing draught trying to stay alive, that I thought I would vomit. Still in the end Balthazar couldn't hope to win against Zuzhul Plaguebringer, and now I truly am the last of the Bhaalspawn.
Like with all the previous bhaalspawn, I found myself dragged to my pocket plane upon Balthazar's defeat. This time I was met by Mellisan, or rather Amellisan the Black, favoured priestess of Bhaal. All was revealed, she had been chosen by bhaal to perform a ritual that would ensure his revival once all his essence had returned to the Throne of Bhaal. Mellisan however had other ideas, she has claimed the essence for her own, planning to ascend to godhood herself, she plans to steal my birthright!
There is only one thing left to do, hunt her down and end her miserable existence once and for all. But before I can warp to the Throne of Bhaal, I must complete the remaining four pocket plane trials, the ones I started with Sarevok when I first arrived here.
Again lots and lots of reloads, this is starting to get really tough now. I have my strategies nailed down, but they are starting to require a lot of luck on dice rolls, manipulation of enemy A.I., and at times significant cheese. If an enemy resists too many of my spells back to back, or I fail a saving throw it is pretty much game over and time to reload. But I am slowly but surely grinding through the trials.
1 Nightal 1371
The trials have been tough, much tougher than when I fought with Irenicus.
The second of my five trials, involved a what if scenario. What if mine and Sarevoks fates had been reversed? I was forced to fight with my Alter-Ego and his Lieutenants from Baldur's Gate, Tomoko, Angelo and Semaj. I focused my initial efforts on the mage Semaj, dispelling his defensive magics, and then setting my skeletons on him. I used my Golem to distract the remaining three, its native damage resistances, making it impervious to what ever they could throw at it.
Whilst the party were engaged with my minions, I retreated back to the exit, and then proceeded to fill the room with dense clouds of Wilting Horror. Even my alter ego, could not handle such a large concentration of the deadly fumes, and the party collapsed one by one.
[Had to lower difficulty again slightly to make it through this fight] In the third trial, I faced off against the slayer. Using my minions to shield me from the avatars attacks, I assumed the slayer form myself, and we fought tooth and claw. However, augmented with an improved haste spell, from my amulet of cheetah speed, I was able to overcome the beast, though my own wounds were great.
In my fouth trial I was encountered by none other than Cyric himself, the current Lord of Murder. My exploit's have him worried, and so they should, he has claimed my birthright for his own, and I will reclaim it.
In this trial I faced off against agents of Cyric, his most favoured assassins. Their sneak attacks were deadly, causing great damage to my skeletons, however my boots of the Gargoyle protected me from any sneaky attacks. With their main strength all but useless against me, I was able to take down the assassins relatively easy, my skeletons hasted by my great golem, made short work of Cyrics men. That leaves one trial remaining.
The Ravager is causing me some major problems, I am quickly overwhelmed by his endless summoning of boneblades long before I can wear him down. It's like Demogorgon all over again, I just don't have the resources to deal with an endless supply of enemies. At best I have got him to badly wounded, before my last summon falls and I am overwhelmed.
I've spent several hours on him now, with no luck, I'm going to take a break and try again tomorrow.
Finally! Once again I wimped out, lowering my difficulty right down to novice. Interesting fact, the Ravager will not summon any bone blades on this difficulty, making the fight considerably easier.
11 Nightal 1371
My final trial pitted me against murder incarnate, the Ravager! A more terrible and deadly incarnation of the slayer, and it was no push over.
As soon as he turned hostile I set my allies upon the brute, distracting him whilst I prepared my assault. I pulled out my faithful wand, and released a barrage of pierce magic spells, three in total, knowing full well that against such a mighty opponent I'd need to decimate its magic resistance if I was to have a chance.
With its, resistances crippled I wasted no time, beginning with my most powerful spells first. I used the most ancient of my necromancy arsenal, crippling the beast with an energy drain spell. Then I proceeded to release every wilting horror spell I had at my disposal, all eight of them.
Noxious fumes filled the room, I could barely see more than a foot in front of me. But I could still hear the battle raging deep inside the deadly cloud of gasses, my skeletons and magical construct completely immune to the effects, and the Ravager too powerful to be felled with a few spells.
I readied my next assault, firing off several skull traps at the great beast, my skeletons native magic resistance protecting them for the most part, whilst the Ravagers now crippled defense meant that he took some serious damage from the explosions.
Before long the smoke and gasses from my assault dispersed and I could see that the beast was now badly wounded, but I had no offensive spells left at my disposal. Whats more my golem had unsummoned, and my skull traps had injured two of my skeletons, turning them hostile. I turned my skeletons against each other and took down the two renegades.
I then realized that the creature was unable to wound my skeletons, taking advantage of his distraction I transformed into the slayer, and struck from behind.
I ripped chunks out of the creature, but the beast's fortitude was great. I could once again feel my self control slipping, I could feel my self being consumed, Bhaal's essence trying to claw its way up and grasp control. I grit my teeth, and narrowed my focus, I couldn't transform back, not yet.
I felt myself weakening, as my energy drained. But eventually I tasted success, the Ravager was no more.
15 Nightal 1371
It was almost time for my assault on Mellisan, but I needed to be prepared. I returned to Amkethran, getting the Priest of Waukeen to recharge my wands one last time, and then I returned to my pocketplane to organize my gear.
Alone, the members of the five had all been exceptionally powerful beings. Now Mellisan had control of their taint, their power, just how strong would she be now, could I even beat her? I checked through my scroll case, I had been stockpiling scrolls for a moment like this, knowing full well that I could potentially exhaust my repertoire of spells long before Melissan falls. Taking no chances I pulled out my catalogue of spell pages, I hope this will be enough....
I approached the planes portal, the doorway to whatever devious trap Melissan has set for me, and then stopped to prepare myself. Spirit Armour, Stoneskin, and Improved Haste from my amulet, it was time...
This may take a while, as I am well and truely stuck now, and I doubt very much that I am going to beat her, with the rules I have imposed.
Since yesterday, I have only managed to defeated Mellisan's first incarnation, and cut off her supply of essence at the first conduit, it was a great relief to be able to save my game mid battle at this little check point.
However I am really struggling to take her down again in our second encounter. Melissan can heal back to full health at any point in the fight, it is not a spell and cannot be interupted, and it seems to be completely random when she does this. My self imposed limitations mean that our fight is a slow grinded out affair, and I just cannot seem to get her down before she heals back to full.
I've tried laying skull traps where she spawns for some big spike damage, but her magic resistance is so high that they explode harmlessly before I can even fire off a pierce magic charge from my wand. I've tried setting traps elsewhere and luring her over, however she prefers ranged combat and in the end her minions tend to set off the traps.
My skeletons are all but useless, she periodically shouts "Undead be gone" I assume she is using turn undead, being a priestess and all, at which point all my skeletons die.
My strategy so far has involved, using my wand to cripple her magic resistance, and then running around the throne in circles, keeping away from her summons, whilst pelting her with spells, and slowly wearing her down until she heals, on a couple of occasions I have gotten her down to Near Death, but never fully defeated.
Another problem I have faced, is that something in the battle can drain my magical equipment of charges much like the purple magic golems in watchers keep, though I haven't figured out what enemy or attack is causing this now. I went to summon my golem, only to discover the charge was drained, I checked my other equipment, boots of the gargoyle etc and all were empty. My wands of spell striking were also half emptied, meaning I probably don't have enough charges remaining to last the fight!
Anyone have any suggestions, I'm so close, I'd hate to have to quit now. If I haven't managed to beat her by the end of the day I may call it quits on the challenge, and/or reload my last save and allow myself the use of some HLA, I think even allowing myself only Improved Alarcrity would have made a huge difference in this fight.
Also does anyone know how the mechanics for casting from scrolls work?
Spells cast from my scrolls seem very weak, as if cast by a mage of a much lower level (I had never noticed this before), my animate dead scrolls summon the old weaker small skeletons (The 7-10th level 5HD ones), and my skull traps cast from scrolls seem to do extremely low damage, compared to my memorized ones.
I assume there is some kind of level cap imposed on scrolls in determining their effectiveness?
Comments
The second level consisted of a series of laboratories, the former experimentation rooms of four long dead elemental mages. Notes found littered about the labs suggested an intense rivalry between the mages, and detailed many of their petty plots and schemes, each designed to eliminate one another. In one of the studies, I found an impressive wand, allowing me to cast both the breach and pierce magic spells, this will improve my capacity to deal with enemy spell casters greatly.
In the central room was a caged, and peculiar demon, though not the imprisoned one I was seeking. The demon shifted from form to form, an impressive survival mechanism, designed to allow the demon to adapt instantly to any foe or given situation.
The demon, like so many before it offered me rewards and powers beyond my wildest dreams in exchange for its freedom. If I have learned one thing in my adventures since leaving Candlekeep, it is that deals made with devils rarely end well. That said, with my arcane training, I could sense the magical connection between the cage door, and the portal to the third level, if I am to descend deeper into the keep, I would need to release the demon. Fortunately, with the demon trapped, I would have ample time to prepare my battlefield, and stack the odds in my favour.
The prison door, required four elemental keys, each one held by a guardian of the former elemental wizards. Unfortunately, these guardians had impressive defenses, some even immortal or next to impossible to kill naturally. Using the journal entries of the four wizards, I was able to deduce that each guardian had a weakness, and that I could exploit these weaknesses by pitting each wizards defenses against each others guardians.
With the four keys in hand, I returned to the demon. The creature just stood their motionless, watching me with an amused expression. I once again resorted to my trusty Skull Traps, rarely had they failed me, would they be enough to defeat this ferocious foe? What if they failed to kill him outright, would he adapt, taking on a new form immune to their damage? Bah I'm being weak, this is no time for second doubts, I am Zuzhul Plaguebringer, heir to the Throne of Bhaal.
I carefully laid my traps around the edge of the cages exit, and then proceeded to call forth a contingent of skeleton warriors. Lets see just how desperately this creature wants its freedom. Once my battlefield was prepared, I began to insert the keys one by one.
As the last great lock fell to the ground, the giant iron gate swung open. The demon obviously confident in its own strength, and ability to adapt to my attacks charged straight for me. My traps exploded, and the demon crashed to the floor several meters from my feet. Prehaps all these years imprisoned had weakened the demon, I had certainly expected more from such an interesting and impressive creature.
Regardless, the path to the third level now lay open to me. Once again I descended deeper into the keep.
Enemies that see right through invisibility, and enemies that cannot be lured away, as soon as my summoned creatures die, they will track me down no matter where I have retreated too. Throw in the fact that there is a constant barrage of powerful demons being summoned in that don't stop until I can take down Ka'Rashur.
I think Zuzhul may have met his match in Watchers Keep.
I still haven't done Watcher's Keep/ToB and want to avoid spoilers. Sorry
13 Mirtul 1371
I have found myself in some kind of magical maze, portals are located to the north, east, south and west of each room, each taking me to different part of the maze. I could easily get lost in here if I am not careful.
Near the mazes entrance I discovered an Elf who calls himself Yakman. He must have been trapped here for many, many years to have descended into such depths of insanity, is this what is in store for me if I do not escape? Poking around his camp, I discovered an old journal. At first glance the entries looked like the ravings of a madman, however upon closer inspection they seem to be some kind of coded directions. With no better strategy of my own, I decided to follow the madman's journal.
As I make it further into the maze, it is becoming increasingly clear that I am not the only one trapped here. It seems like the eternal blood war has spilled over into the depths of Watchers Keep, at every turn I encounter battling Baatezu and Tanar'ri. Whats more, magic doesn't function as it should in some areas of the maze, there are countless dead magic zones, where magic cannot function, and there are also wild magic zones where my spells become wild and unpredictable.
I am extremely vulnerable in this place, I need to escape, and FAST! The demons all seem to possess some kind of native true sight ability, they see right through my staffs power of invisibity, and pursue me relentlessly, I have never felt so helpless.
My boots of speed have been a god send in this place, with my magical abilities severely limited, I cannot afford to be drawn into a fight with the demons, I would be torn limb from limb. Using Yakman's coded directions I quickly ran past any enemies I encountered and made my way through the maze, until I finally stepped through a portal, and stepped out right into the middle of a large Tanar'ri warband....
So this is where it ends? I almost let out a chuckle at the futility of the situation, and then the the great demon Tahazzar spoke. Some twisted deity must have been smiling on my this day, the demon wanted an alliance! Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and knowing refusal would probabally result in my demise, I hastily agreed.
Tahazzar believes that he and his troops have been trapped in the maze by a Baatezu General named Ka'Rahur. He believes that with the Baatezu dead, the Tanar'ri will be able to finally escape the maze. Tahazzar wants me to bring back Ka'Rahur's heart, so much for my close shave, out of the frying pan, and into the fire as they say...
Following Yakman's directions, I soon found Ka'Rahur and his group, a group just as large and imposing as Tahazzar's. I may die this day yet.
The demon was no fool, he could smell the scent of his enemy on me, and knew exactly what my orders were. With my invisibility useless against the demons, and with no time to get off a spell before I would have been overrun, I called forth my Flesh Golem ally.
With a towering 8ft meat shield now blocking the demons path to me, I hastily backed off. The demons charged the golem and I ordered the construct to run to the far eastern side of the room.
With the demon host now distracted, I quickly made my to the western most side of the room. From here I quickly began to summon my skeletons. I managed to summon two, when I heard a loud thud at the far end of the room, my golem had fallen..
The Demons must have had me in their scent, despite putting so much distance between me and the warband, the incredibly fast Ka'Rahur was on me in a flash, just as my third summoned skeleton began to rise from the ground. My skeletons engaged the enraged Pit Field, and I started to summon a fourth skeleton. Suddenly the rest of the war band caught up to their leader, and a mass brawl broke out between my walking dead, and the demon host.
I didn't have long, my skeletons couldn't survive such a battle for long. I fired off a wilting horror spell into the centre of the group. Despite their magic resistance, a number of the demons howled out in pain, and then a skeleton fell.
Whilst powerful, my Wilting Horror spell took too long to cast, my skeletons wouldn't hold out too much longer. I changed tact and fired off a skull trap into the crowd, praying that my skeletons magic resistance kept them safe. With my Robe of Vecna, and Amulet of Power I could cast the spell instantaneously, and one of the demons fell to the floor quite dead, unfortunately my victory was short lived, another demon appeared as if from thin air to take its place. It seems Ka'Rahur can summon allies on to the battlefield....
It didn't take long for the last of my skeletons to fall, and once again the demonic hoard were focused on me. Reaching deep into my pocket, I took out a potion of speed. Between the potion and my boots of speed, I could keep one step ahead of the mob, my cloak of mirroring also protecting me from their flame and lightning spells. Unfortunately I was powerless against the Salamander Archers, they were quickly draining me of healing potions.
I dug into my pack and pulled out a wand of resurrection, I once heard that if used on a living creature, a wand of resurrection would completely heal a person of all wounds. If ever there was a time to rest that theory, it was now.
With my vastly superior mobility I began to circle around the room, changing direction suddenly and doing everything I could to keep away from the demons. When ever I managed to put enough distance between them and me, I would stop, just long enough to cast a spell, always trying to focus my attacks in the direction of Ka'Rahur.
After what seemed like an eternity, the mighty Pit Field succumbed to his wounds, with their leader fallen, and unable to call for reinforcements I was able to pick off the remaining stragglers fairly easily. After the last demon fell, I set up camp, thankful I wasn't one of the unfortunate souls forced to fight for eternity in the endless bloodwar.
Several days later I made it back to Tahazzar, with the gift of the Baazetu's black heart. Much to my relief the demon was pleased, allowing me to live as reward for my deed. He also gave me a peculiar stone, similar to one I looted for Ka'Rahur. They seem to slot into a scepter I looted from Yakman's camp, I have a feeling this is my ticket out of this maze, though I'd best keep that to myself.
Days, maybe weeks later, I finally reached the end of the maze. There I encountered a Cambion guarding the portal to the fourth level. Aesgoroth the Cambion was trapped here just like everyone else I had encountered. Though he seemed to know of the scepter I had claimed from Yakman, the key to leaving this place, and he possessed the final stone required to activate it. He suggested a wager, a game of luck the winner taking the scepter.
Aesgoroth possessed a Deck of Many Things. A magical deck of cards, where each player draws a single card, and the highest valued card wins. However each card is enchanted, and drawing it will affect the player in some way, either negatively or bestowing some beneficial effect. The game look interesting, I have agreed to play along.
I drew first, revealing the 'Strife Card', a mid-value ranked card. As soon as I drew the card, the enchantment took effect, and I felt myself suddenly become sluggish, as if someone had cast a slow spell on me.
Next it was the Cambions turn, running his finger over the spine of the deck, he stopped suddenly and pulled out his chosen card. He slowly turned it over to reveal the 'Construct Card', a high ranked card. A giant hostile Adamintine Golem materialized, the cambion and his tiefling slaves were a sight to behold, taking the golem apart in a matter of moments.
I had lost the game...
The Cambion rather pleased with him self requested the scepter, offering to leave it with me once he had made his escape. I have no intention of honoring our deal, if he wants the scepter he can claim it over my dead body.
He was a powerful adversary, but no where near as deadly as the Baatezu I had defeated earlier, soon after the battle begun I stood victorious. I pocketed the Cambions card deck and then made my way to the portal, it was time to descend to level four.
This keep seems to breed war and suffering, as I entered onto the fourth level another battle was in full flow, Githyanki fought tooth and nail against their timeless foe the Illithids, in the center of the room a mad mage encased in a strange machine released a barrage of spells on the combatants forcing them to flee.
The clearly insane mage introduced him self as 'Carston the Magnificent', and the device that imprisoned him was the Machine of Lum the Mad. I recognized the name of Lum from a number of cryptic notes I have found throughout the keep.
The Machine, whilst a prison, protects Carston from both the ravages of time, and harm effectlively making him immortal, it also allows him to summon all manner of creatures and magical spells. His abuse of the machine is what brought the Illithids and Githyanki.
Over the next few hours I explored the level, fighting through both the Githyanki and Illithids compounds, I found several bottles of coloured oil, obviously meant for lighting the six giant braziers I had discovered in a specific colour sequence. As I explored I noticed six coloured floor tiles spread out over each side of the main hall, maybe it was coincidence, but their colour matched the oils I was carrying, maybe if I used that sequence?
Inside I found a crystal hammer, a journal that I found on the Githyanki leader suggested that this hammer could break the protective glass shielding Carston, making him vulnerable.
Deeper into the complex I stumbled upon another of Carston's summoned creatures. A magnificent Red Dragon, named Saladrex. Curiously, unlike the other imprisoned creatures, Saladrex didn't appear to distressed about his entrapment, he actually seemed to enjoy the entertainment Carston and his minions provided, I suspect the dragon knows full well he could easily bust through a wall if he wished to leave.
As I turned to leave, I spotted it, my prize and motivation for descending so deep into Watchers Keep, the legendary Staff of the Ram, casually sitting atop Saladrex's great treasure hoard, Gorions tales had proven true. Saladrex, more ancient and obviously much more powerful than any dragon I had faced before, would not relinquish such a treasure voluntarily. As I reached the steps, on the way out, a plan began to form in the back of my mind.
I placed a series of skull traps between myself and the dragon, a strategy that had rarely failed me, and then I proceeded to raise my undead allies.
I once again approached Saladrex, taking a wide berth around my traps. With the element of surprise I adopted another tactic that had served me well as a dragon slayer, I released a preemptive Finger of Death upon the unsuspecting beast. Saladrex, ancient even for a dragon was just too powerful for such a cheap shot, and let out a great laugh that shook the very room.
He triggered some kind of spell contingency, releasing protection and haste magics, and then made his pursuit of me. I quickly made it back to my waiting skeletons, Saladrex barreled right through my Skull Traps, and came right for me, unfortunately he was moving so swiftly that not a single trap was set off!
My skeletons engaged, and he quickly started to beat them down. The Dragon was just too powerful, I would need to weaken him if I was to have a chance at beating him. I called upon one of my darkest, and most powerful spells, Energy Drain. The dragon no match for such ancient necromancy, shuddered visibly as a large portion of his soul was ripped from his body.
One of my skeletons crumbled to the ground under the dragons onslaught, I closed my eyes and again focused of the dragons soul, his very life force. Once again the terrible creature shuddered visibly, almost buckling as more of his soul was tore away from him.
The second of my skeletons fell to the ground, even with so much of his power drained the Dragon was formidable, but maybe now he was sufficiently weakened to fall to my death magics? I pointed my finger at the scaled monster and uttered the required incantation, just as my third undead ally fell to the ground I fired off a second finger of death, and once again the dragon stood strong.
With my skeletons just about beaten, I backed off towards the stairway, and then raised several more skeletons to keep the mighty Saladrex busy, and give me a reprieve to come up with a new plan of attack.
My biggest problem was penetrating the dragons impressive magical defenses, I had some serious fire power at my disposal, but the dragons native magic resistance would simply nullify anything I threw at him.
Of course! That's it! I actually do have the means to cripple the Dragons magical defenses. Throughout my adventure into the depths of Watchers Keep I had acquired a number of Spell Strike wand, four wands in fact! I pulled one of the wands out of my pocket, and released a pierce magic spell, one of the creatures magical defenses fell, and its native magical resistance was significantly reduced.
I took aim once more, and released another burst from my wand, crippling the dragons defenses further. With the creature weakened, I threw everything I had and the beast. I began releasing a constant barrage of Wilting Horror spells into the room, eight in total. The fumes formed a cloud so dense I could see nothing beyond the great stairwell.
Once the cloud finally dissipated, all of my skeletons had been reduced to piles of bone at the beasts clawed feet, and I was left staring off with the mighty dragon, both of us admiring our adversary with mutual respect. He was certainly wounded now, though he still had plenty of fight in him, and my most powerful spells were now spent.
Haha! It then dawned on me that giant creature could not reach me! He was far to big to climb the narrow stairwell. I smirked at the Dragon, and he responded by bellowing out a huge stream of fire from his mouth. My Cloak of Mirroring, protected me, sending the blast back to its source, but the Red Dragon, a creature of flame was also immune.
I raised my wand again and sent another double barrage of Pierce Magic spells his way, with his defenses once again crippled, I moved onto my next assault, Finger of Death. The creature might be immune to the spells main function, instantly snuffing out life, but a resisted finger of death still hurts! I released every memorized Finger spell I had remaining, my foe now near death from my constant onslaught, but still very much a deadly opponent.
My spell book was now almost fully exhausted of offensive spells, and I had to resort to the weakest spell at my disposal Larloch's Minor Drain. Its been a long time indeed since I relied upon this spell, one by one I pelted him with drain spells, the weak spell little more than an annoyance to such an immense opponent, but slowly wearing him down none the less.
Finally, exhausted from the drawn out battle, I released my last memorized spell, yet still the dragon stood in defiance to my assault.
There we were, locked in a stalemate. The dragon couldn't reach me, and I had nothing left to throw at him. Behind the dragon far off to the distance, I could still make out my floating skull traps, bobbing up and down, undisturbed. What I wouldn't do to have access to those right now, but alas, with a furious dragon blocking the whole doorway they were lost to me.
Despite how futile the situation was, I couldn't bring my self to leave. If I left now, then by the time I had recovered, so to would the dragon, and what's more this time the dragon would be prepared for my treachery, I would no longer have the element of surprise. He is gravely injured, should I risk rushing him, and hope I can land a lucky blow before he rips me in two?
Then I felt a familiar stirring in the pit of my stomach, a building rage, a sensation I had not felt since being reunited with my soul in my battle with Irenicus. The Slayer wanted to come out to play, and I would gladly accept his assistance...
Fuelled with godlike power, I charged down the stairs, Saladrex taken aback by the relentless fury of the slayer. Even clinging on to life by the smallest thread, Saladrex was formidable landing blows that would have killed a lesser man, however he was just too weak to sustain his assault and finally I tore through the beasts throat.
We had fought to the wire, and I had emerged victorious. I claimed my hard won prize, the Staff of the Ram, and then retreated to my pocket plane to recover.
Cespenar has offered to improve upon my new toy by combining it with my Ring of the Ram. Now I truly hold a weapon of legend. It took several weeks to fully recover from my battle with Saladrex, once I was back at full strength I returned to Watchers Keep, it was now time to deal with Carston.
Using the crystal mallet, breaking Carston out of the machine was a simple matter, he begged for his life, which made claiming it all the sweeter. Using Carstons Journal, and the scattered notes of Lum the Mad, the machine was quite easy to activate. Bestowing a number of physical and mental benefits upon me, as well as opening the portal to the fifth level.
Now with my physical and mental capacity augmented by the machine, I made my way down to the next level of the keep, curious to learn more of this Imprisoned One, just who was he to be locked away in such a formidable prison?
I always knew that you could haste summoned creatures, making them twice as awesome. Unfortunately with my restricted playthrough that hasn't been possible.
However...
Clay Golems tend to self haste whenever they spot a target. I didn't realize it until I upgraded my Golem Manual, but this little dude can haste my skallywags for me!
I would have made a beeline for Watchers Keep much earlier during SOA if I had realized. I'll certainly be making extensive use of this feature during future playthroughs, heck I don't even think I'll bother fully upgrading the manual from now!
The final level consisted of several trials, designed by the Helmites to test various aspects of a persons character, their bravery, strength of arm and cunning to name but a few. Only those capable of passing the trials would be deemed worthy enough to bypass the great seal and gain an audience with the Imprisoned One.
The trials were standard affair, and what you would expect of Helmites, combat against waves of weak cannon fodder, riddles with devious Imps, you know the usual. As I passed each trial, I received a key, obviously meant to unlock the great seal in the central chamber.
If this imprisoned one was so powerful, why had the trials been so easy? Not to spit on my good fortune, I inserted the first key into he great seal, click!
Curse my big mouth, I had spoken too soon! As soon as I had released the first lock, a powerful Lich materialized behind me. I turned around, just in time to witness him summon forth his allies, flaming, fire breathing skulls, that zipped around the battlefield at incredible speeds. Having had plenty of experience dealing with Liches I knew full well he would have at least one death spell memorized that could wipe out my summoned skeletons.
I quickly ordered one of my skeletons to engage the lich, a small sacrifice to eat the liches death spell and spare the rest of my minions. Whilst the lich was tied up, I turned my attention to the skulls, they were completely immune to my magic, but other than that they were quite weak. My skeletons quickly took the skulls out of commission, though many were damaged as the skulls all self destructed in a massive fireball upon defeat.
With the minor distractions taken care off, I returned my attention back to the Lich. My Staff of the Magi, and wands of Spell Striking quickly stripping him of his magical defenses. Defenseless, the Lich quickly succumbed to my hacking and slashing swarm of skeleton warriors.
I inserted my second key, this time prepared for an ambush, click! Once again, another challenge materialized. This time it was a group of knights and a mage, I didn't recognize the race, they were obviously not native to the prime material realm. I quickly discovered that they were completely immune to my spells. I used my Staff of the Magi to vanish and retreat from the fight.
I made it to one of the rooms to the East, and there I began raising my army. I called forth 4 skeletons, and my trusty clay golem. Unlike many of the creatures I had fought here in the keep, these warriors could not pierce my invisibility. If I was careful I would be able to pick them off one at a time. Ordering my minions back, I returned to the main chamber and proceeded to lure any stragglers off to my waiting skeletons. One by one, these extra planar travelers fell.
The caliber of opponent was improving with each battle, and with the very real possibility that I would be faced off against the Imprisoned One very soon, I didn't want to take any more chances. I began setting a series of traps around the perimeter of the third lock, I spent the next couple of days carefully laying my great trap, and only when I was confident that there could be no escape did I insert the final key.
As suspected, more potent adversaries than the last emerged, demons, beholders and various champions of evil. But I had laid enough firepower at their feet to take down an army. The room shook violently under the immense force of the resulting explosion. Even safely out of the blast radius, my ears were ringing. Once the dust had settled, I ventured back to the site of the explosion, expecting to find six dead bodies.
I don't know whether it was due to some divine intervention from her evil goddess, or thanks to her races natural magic resistance, but there in the centre of the room stood a Drow Priestess, completely unscathed by the blast. She muttered an incantation under her breath, and great shards of jagged metal, debris from the explosion began to rise from the ground. The shards started to revolve around the priestess, picking up speed and forming a deadly protective barrier, this was going to be tough...
Using my superior speed, I quickly retreated, giving me time to summon my skeleton allies. Quite dead, and not held back by inconveniences such as pain my skeletons barreled right through her barrier of blades. They were quickly being torn apart, but then so too was the cleric. After what seemed like an eternity, the clerics defenses began to falter, and slowly but surely I wore her down.
That's it, three locks down. Its time to finally meet this Imprisoned One.
Been trying for several hours now, and the best I have managed is knocking him down to barely wounded status. Guess they don't call him the Prince of demons for nothing!
Finally! I have been fighting a war of attrition against the defenses of Watcher Keep for months, and I have made it to the central prison at last.
At first glance the room appeared empty, until the clinking of chains caught my attention. The creature, was invisible at the moment, though obviously bound in the centre of the room by the huge chains. A voice crept into my mind, I have been deceived it told me. The scroll I carried, would reinforce the holding spell, but it would trap me down here as well.
I couldn't tell whether the creature hoped to deceive me, or was being sincere, but it mattered not. Here was a creature imprisoned my Helm himself, an immense power I was certain. To test my god blood against such a creature, the thought positively thrilled me. I would defeat his creature, but first I would prepare.
A two sided staircase encircled half of the room, converging at a balcony that overlooked the area the demon was bound. This could give me a tactical advantage...
The beast was not hostile, as it seemed to think I would free it, I took advantage of this fact and used the reprieve to rest and rememorize several sets of skull traps, which I used to booby trap one of the stair cases. I then proceeded the summon five skeletons, four that I ordered up onto the balcony, and the fifth that I sent down to the Imprisoned One.
With my trap set, and the battlefield prepared to my liking, I focused my mind and tried to connect to the voice once more. Again the creature filled my mind with images of the Helmite Knights, and feelings of betrayal. I cared not, as far as I was concerned, there was only one way this could end, and now the creature knew my intentions.
The great demon finally revealed himself, there stood Demogorgon, Prince of Demons. I hit him with a blast of my spell strike wand, trying to soften up his magic resistance. My lone skeleton at the bottom of the stairs engaged the prince, just as he called forth a couple of demonic allies, Mariliths. I knew my skeleton was no match for the demonic trio, and so ran back up the stairway and all the way around to the opposite stairwell, stopping just short of my traps.
I knew that the Mariliths in their blood rage, would take the most direct route to my location, I just had to wait for them. As planned, my skeleton fell within moments, taken out by one of Demogorgons death spells, and the Mariliths turned around to pursue me, c'mon just a little closer!
A familiar flash of light illuminated the room, as a chain reaction of traps tore through and decimated the demonesses. Demogorgon was all alone now, and I had the perfect plan, tonight I slay royalty..
I summoned another skeleton bringing my total back upto five, and then proceeded down the staircase. I knew my skeletons were no match for this most deadly of foes, but I believed they could distract him long enough for me to empty my wand of spell striking onto him, with the pierce magic spells crippling his magic resistance. With my boots of speed, and superior mobility I would be able to use the stairs to my advantage, pelting him with my most powerful spells from the high ground.
Oh how wrong I was, I reached the bottom of the great staircase, and as my skeletons moved in to engage, I fired off another blast of pierce magic from my wand, The demon laughed allowed as another portal opened, this time a pair of Glabrezu stepping out, and into the fray. No worry, I can handle a pair of demons, I fired off another blast from my wand, then the portal widened, and another pair of Glabrezu added to the chaos.
I wouldn't have time to empty my wand, my skeletons were just about finished, I needed to act now! I backed off and released a Wilting Horror spell into the centre of the room ...nothing happened, despite my best efforts to lower his magical defense my spell was impotent against the demon hoard. My final skeleton collapsed, and then the portal widened, two, four then six more Glabrezu stormed into the room!
Is there no end to this onslaught of demon filth? I need to close that portal! I ran up the stairs Glabrezu giving chase, but there was nowhere to go! The portal out of here was now dead, I ran back down the opposite staircase, just trying to buy a little time to formulate a new plan. More Glabrezu spilled into the room, cutting off any escape at the bottom of the stairwell, I was surrounded and trapped.
If I am going to hell this day, then I am going kicking and screaming. I began chanting, putting all my hate and fury into this one spell. Again my Wilting Horror spell filled the room, and this time Demogorgon felt it, but it was too little too late. Demon claws hacked and slashed at me from all directions, and then nothing but darkness.........
[CHARNAME Reloads a previous save]
A Necromancer is not so easily killed, especially one descended from Bhaal. I knew that in my line of work, one day I would fall, and I had made the necessary preparations ahead of time, my black magics had brought me back to the land of the living. When I came too, the room was once again quiet, the hoards of Glabrezu returned to their home plane.
Again Demogorgons familiar voice invaded my thoughts, he wasn't angry, he was actually amused by my failed assault. Curse him, curse him to hell for laughing at ME! The demon, knowing it had put me firmly in my place once again offered a deal. He had been storing power to open a portal, he didn't have enough to free him self, but could open a rift just big enough to free me. In exchange I would inform the Knights of the Vigil that I had defeated Demogorgon (He chuckled at the point, oh the nerve!), the knights in needing to verify this them selves would be walking into a trap, by killing the knights, Demogorgon would earn his freedom.
I don't really have a choice, I took the demons offer and returned to the knights. They tried to bury me alive, I'll at least get some satisfaction by sending them to their doom. The knights were mortified when I told them the news, rushing off quickly to verify my story. As they left, a ghostly apparition appeared, a champion of helm long dead.
She explained everything, the story of Demogorgon's Imprisonment, the knights failure of their sacred duty, all of it. She offered me a second ritual scroll, one that would not imprison me along with the Demon. But I have tired of the Helmites and their games, Odren can rot in hell for all I care, let them clean their own mess up, I wash my hands of all of them.
Hoping I can still make it through the rest of ToB...
I cant put off my hunt for pursuit of the remaining members of the five forever, after my detour into Watchers Keep, it was time to focus once again on the Fire Giant Yaga Shura.
Using Melissan's intel, I first headed to the old Temple of Bhaal, deep in the Mir Wood. Even so many years after Bhaal's demise, this place radiates evil. I was intercepted by the Ghostly Apparition of Gorion as I approached, so some shade wearing his guise. He tried placing the blame for his death, for ruining his years of work, his legacy.
Ha! Gorion and his plans are in tatters, for one reason and one reason only, he was a weak fool. He might not have been the real Gorion, but I still took great pleasure from crushing his throat beneath my boot.
Deeper into the temple, I found my answers. A witch and former priestess of Bhaal, had set up home in the temple. Nyalee was also the adoptive mother of Yaga Shura, and after being betrayed by her ward and cast aside, she was only to happy to give up the secret of the Giants immortality.
Nyalee had performed a ritual on the giant, removing his heart and sealing it away. As long as the heart remains intact, no harm can come to the Bhaalspawn General. If I can recover the heart from Yaga Shura's base in the Marching Mountains, then Nyalee will dispel the protective magics, making the giant vulnerable.
The way was treacherous, the giants were deadly, able to make short work of my skeletons, and robust enough that they cost me far to many spells to take down. I decided stealth was my best course of action here, using my Staff of the Magi to quickly run through the facility undetected, avoiding combat where ever possible.
For the most part it was smooth sailing, the giants totally oblivious to my passage. However some of the guard posts held a number of Fell Cat sentries, that could see through my illusion and alert the fire giant guard to my location. Fortunately they were of poor constitution and fell easily, giving me plenty of time to vanish into thin air before the giants could respond.
I finally made it to the great Throne Room, and location of Yaga Shuras greatest treasure, his black heart. Yaga Shura was not foolish enough to leave it unprotected however, a unit of his elite fire giant troops were stationed in the room, led by his loyal lieutenant Berenn. Whats more, a couple of Fell Cats patrolled the perimeter of the room, guarding against any sneaky intruders such as my self. If I want that heart, then I will need to clear out the room.
Using my invisibility to my advantage, I lured the Fell Cats away from the giants, quietly dispatching them out in the hall way. With the easy part over, it was time to focus my attention on the big guys. I walked my way into the center of the room, and then disengaged my staffs invisibility, materializing suddenly in the middle of the room.
The giants caught unaware, were surprised only momentarily and then quickly closed in on me. With my boots of speed, I quicky made my way in the direction of the small door I had entered from, and then I waited.
I waited until the last possible second, just as they were about to surround me, and then POOF! I used my staff to vanish once again. The giants stood around dumbfounded, and I quickly retreated through the smaller doorway, and began my first incantation. A cloud of gas was released into the room as I fired off a Wilting Horror spell. The giants coughed and wheezed, now aware of my location but unable to reach me. I released another barrage of spells, the giants powerless to resist.
Soon only Berenn remained, protected from the brunt of my assault by some kind of magic resistance. I began reciting spells of summoning, skeletons began to rise from the ground at the giants feet. Berenn was stronger than my skeletons, but I was not finished yet. I opened my Golem Manual, and called forth my trusty Clay Golem. The Golem activated a haste aura, greatly increasing the offensive capabilities of both it, and the skeletons. Berenn was quickly overwhelmed, and I was free to claim Yaga Shuras heart.
Returning the hearts to Nyalee, triggered some kind of maternal instincts in the witch. After dispelling the enchantment, she was overcome with guilt at the thought of betraying her boy, and turned upon me suddenly.
Her summoned allies were pretty weak, all but the shambling mounds falling to my death spells. I quickly retreated to safe distance and summoned some allies of my own. With my skeletons at my side, I returned to the battle, firing off Wilting Horror spells at the Shambling Mounds, before sending in my skeletons.
With her allies fallen Nyalee did not put up much of a fight, a blast from my wand of spell striking and Nyalee was defenseless, no longer a match for my minions. Now its time to discover just how mighty this Yaga Shura is.
I could smell Saradush, long before I could see it. The smell of thick smoke, mingled with the smell of burning flesh. My excursion to Watchers Keep had proven costly for the people of Saradush.
Yaga Shura's camp lay over a badly damaged, crumbling bridge. As I approached I could hear screams, desperate prisoners begging for mercy, a group of escapees came running by suddenly, pursued by the Bhaalspawn Generals merceneries. It was time...
The Saradushian prisoners ran by me, their pursues stopping suddenly in their tracks when they spotted me at the foot of the bridge. "Hey, that's the one the boss wants!" one of them shouted, breaking off their pursuit of the villagers, and turning their attention towards me.
Within moments my skeletons were clawing their way out of the ground at the mercenaries feet. The low ranking foot soldiers didn't stand a chance. The commotion of our battle must have alerted the army to my presence, as when I made it over the bridge Yaga Shura was waiting for me.
The giant was immense, but he was also over confident, unaware that his enchantment had been dispelled, and he was completely vulnerable. We exchanged words, the giant trying to intimidate me with his exploits of wiping out all the Bhaalspawn here in Saradush. They were weak, I am not.
I cut our conversation short, as his mercenaries had begun to circled around behind me, trying to cut off any escape, I was surrounded.
POOF! I vanished from thin air, wondering if I'd ever have made it this far, if I hadn't liberated the Staff of the Magi from the Twisted Rune. The foot soldiers rushed in to my last known location, trying to find any trace of me. But I was long gone, circling around the small island trying to find a better position to attack from.
As I turned to run around the side of an old wooden cabin, Yaga Shura stepped out in front of me, grinning menacingly. Attuned to my Bhaal Spawn essence there would be no hiding from this foe. I had almost made it around the perimeter of the small island, I could see the bridge in the distance, and my skeletons waiting patiently for my return.
Boots of speed allowing me to keep one step ahead of my fire giant brother, I made my way back to the bridge. With my Skeletons now at my back, and no access from the sides, I knew I could no longer be surrounded, the only way to reach me was now head on. I set a lone skull trap at the foot of the bridge and waited for my nemesis to catch up.
The giant still believing himself invulnerable, walked up to the trap laughing to himself, obviously a tactic meant to fill me with dread and demonstrate his powers of invincibility. His laugh was cut short however, just as mine began. BOOM! The giant stood there monuntarily stunned, the realization that he was now vulnerable, slowly beginning to dawn on him, finally understanding the witch Nyalee had betrayed him.
Now very much mortal, and not wanting to take any chances, the giant turned and ran, trying to rally his troops and send them to my location. I used hit and run tactics, using my staff to escape after each assault, but there were too many of them. Then Yaga Shura returned, confident that with his reinforcements at his back he could finally crush me.
I retreated back to the bridge once more, ensuring I wouldn't be surrounded, and could focuses solely on whatever stood in front of me. Yaga Shura came charging me once again, the initial fear of feeling mortal for the first time, now replaced by the blood lust brought on by our fathers blood.
I planted my feet firmly into the ground, and commanded my skeletons forward, it will end here. The giant was intercepted by my minions before he could reach me. Surrounded from all sides, even the mighty giant found himself hard pressed to defend himself, I released a constant stream of Wilting Horror spells upon the giant, many of his allies falling before they even got within striking distance.
Before long, the Terror of Saradush also lay motionless at my feet. That's two down and three to go.
Melissan once again appeared from no where as the second of the five went down. There is something odd about that one, still she has knowledge of the five, knowledge I need, I'll play her games for now.
She has directed me to one of her allies, a monk from the ancient city of Amkethran by the name of Balthazar. Apparently he has ties to two other members of the five, Sendai and Abazigal. I should pay him a visit if I want to continue my pursuit of the remaining Bhaal spawn.
24 Elisias 1371
My reputation proceeds me. For crimes against humanity, I have been sentenced to death. On my way to Amkethran I was set upon by a waiting army, an entire army! Finally they are beginning to treat my power with the respect it deserves, finally they understand it will take more than a few bounty hunters to take me down!
Unfortunately for them, they have yet to realize that it doesn't matter if it is one weak fool, or a hundred weak fools, a weak fool is still a weak fool. A well placed death spell and their forces were in tatters, the remaining stragglers with the strength of mind to resist my necromancy were easily picked off with out back up from the rest of the army.
I felt a sense of nostalgia as I picked through the corpses of my assailants and found a letter of bounty. A price of 100,000 gold pieces has been placed upon my head, a damn sight higher than in my days of being hunted by the Iron Throne back in Baldurs Gate. Once I ascend to godhood, I think I'll pay Queen Zaranda Rhindaun, and the rest of Tethyr's leadership a visit, examples need to be made.
Balthazar was less than flattering, however he gave me what I needed, I now know the location of both Sendai's and Abazigals base. The ancient city is currently under martial law, its citizens living in poverty, are often bullied and abused by both Balthazar's monks and his hired mercenaries. Whilst exploring the streets I witnessed a Priest of Waukeen executed in the street by a monk for trying to stand up for the citizenry, I watched a young girl get stabbed for stealing a loaf of bread to feed the poor.
All around me, the weak begged for my aid, the city can fall from within for all I care. On one street corner I met a face from my past, the treacherous pirate captain Saemon Havarian, or Esamon as he is know here in Amkethran. As usual he had found himself in a spot of bother, and once again he saved his skin by planting his troubles at my feet! Saemon, the leader of the smugglers guild here in Amkethran had been stealing equipment from Balthazar's Mercenaries, before they could cut him down, he spotted me in the crowd, and then told them that I had been sold their equipment. By the time I had dispatched the mercenaries, Saemon was long gone, I WILL have his head.
I located Saemon's base of operations soon afterwards. As expected he was once again in trouble, or at least his operations were. Amkethran monks had turned up, seized their inventory and were in the process of arresting Saemon's men. I wasn't willing to let the monks steal my vengeance, and I put a stop to their plans and their lives.
Saemon's second in command informed me that Saemon was not there, and that they too wanted his head, can that man even make friends? For sparing them from Balthazar's men, they offered me a discount on all their stock. I found an incredible pair of boots stashed away in their inventory, I now have the ability to cast the stoneskin spell.
Before I left, I was encountered for one more lesser being begging for my help, and this one intrigued me. A powerful lich had stolen his daughters soul, and she was slowly dying, a fate I knew all too well. I agreed to help him, not because of any desire to help his daughter, but because a soul is a valuable commodity, one I would claim for my self once I had dealt with the Lich.
It seems Marlowe, the girls father has not been entirely truthful. He had offered his soul freely to the lich in exchange for wealth and prosperity, but when it came time to pay up, Marlowe got cold feet and fled. The Lich instead took his daughters soul, and holds it random, until he can claim what he is due. The Lich has offered me Malla's soul in exchange for her fathers. I have betrayed the father, and lured him to his death at the hands of the Lich.
Now it is time to deal with Abazigal...
29 Elisias 1371
Waiting for me at the entrance to Abazigal's great complex was Draconis a conjurer of no small power, and Abazigal's son to boot. Over confident like all before him, the mage promised to end my existence there and then.
Draconis, quickly went invisible conjuring wave after wave of Efreeti and Invisible Stalkers, I countered his minions with skeletons and death magic. Draconis's own death spells, destroyed my first couple of skeletons, however unlike me, he had not dedicated himself to the school of necromancy, his death spells were all but spent, whereas I had only consumed the tip of my powers iceberg. His summoned minions, the bread and butter of the conjurers arsenal were easily wiped out, and before long the mages spell book was exhausted, the mage forced into hand to hand combat.
My skeletons engaged the Bhaalspawns son, the mage unarmed with no weapon at his disposal could not harm my boneguard. I joined in the battle, my trusty Staff of the Ram in hand, Draconis, had promised me death and I wanted to wipe the smug smile off his face personally.
The power of the staff was incredible, knocking Draconis through the air as if he had been hit by a giant. Bang! Once again I landed a solid blow on the mage, throwing him clean through the air, landing hard against the wall in the corner of the courtyard. The mage was durable if nothing else!
Once again Draconis rose to his feet, grinning menacingly. "I promised you a death, and now it is time to deliver", suddenly the mage began to transform. Draconis was not human afterall, but a terrible dragon, and what's more that meant that Abazigal was also a dragon, a dragon with god blood coursing through his veins....
I was almost worried, but Draconis in his haste and bloodlust had transformed in a small alcove, he was pinned inside and completely trapped. I raised my wand of spell striking, and fired of a couple of pierce magic blasts, stripping the dragons defenses and lowering his magic resistance.
Then I fell back to my trusty spell repertoire, I bombarded the great beast with Wilting Horror spells and skull traps, quickly dealing with his summoned minions between assaults with my death spells. The dragon, helpless and with nowhere to run, was quickly overwhelmed.
The fight had been easy, but that was in no small part due to Tymora smiling on me this day, and Draconis's stupidity. Abazigal was a Bhaalspawn with god blood, he could quite possible be my biggest challenge to date....
The base consisted of a number of caves, linked by a complex series complex underwater tunnels. It took several days to navigate my way successfully to Abazigal's Lair.
Abazigal's Lair was huge, but fortunately I had not been spotted yet. In the centre of the room, I could make out Abazigal, presently in his humanoid form, around the room were a number of Salamander sentries. Abazigal and his men looked distracted, probabally planning his assault on Amkethran, and still totally oblivious to my intrusion. I took the opportunity to set a trap for the Bhaalspawn.
I took a stealthy approach, using my staff of the magi to vanish from sight, I made my way slowly around the perimeter of the cave, picking off the Salamander one by one, I wanted no distractions once the battle with Abazigal commenced.
With his minions taken care off, I quietly placed more traps near Abazigal in the centre of the room, and then I turned my attention to the great Bhaalspawn, trying to find some weak point I could exploit, some advantage that would swing the fight my way.
Strapped to his back, Abazigal carried a massive greatsword. The large slashing weapon would make short work of me, but a creature of clay? I pulled out my Golem Manual, summoning a clay construct, knowing full well that Abazigal would be unable to wound the creature. I applied my defenses, Spirit Armour, and a Stoneskin enchantment courtesy of my new Boots of the Gargoyle, and then I made my presence felt.
Abazigal was a powerful warrior for sure, employing the Kai ability of the Kensai, an ability that would be devastating with that massive great sword, however as suspected my Golem was impervious to the Bhaalspawns attacks. Unfortunately, Abazigal was also immune to anything my Golem could throw at him, they were at a stalemate, and the magic animating my Golem would not last for long.
I couldn't afford to use my magic on Abazigal, I would need every spell at my disposal when he decides to take dragon form. Instead I focused on my taint, calling forth my alter ego the slayer. Within moments I had transformed, large clawed hands clumsily fumbling with my Ring of Gaxx, I activated it's Improved haste ability and then rushed in.
Never have I struck so swiftly, as tough as the mighty Bhaalspawn was, he was quickly overwhelmed by my onslaught, with no way out, he too transformed. Great wings buffeted me across the room, and I set off several of my own skull traps.
I quickly dropped my energy draining transformation, and used my wand of resurrection to recover my health to full. Within moments Abazigal was upon me, I removed my last remaining Wand of Spell striking from my robes (I hope I can find a merchant who can recharge these for me!), and used pierce magic spells to lower the dragons magical resistance. The great dragon, to big to walk around my placed skull traps, set off a large number, wounding him severely.
I quickly tried to run around the dragon, but its great wings flapped once again, knocking me to the ground, and he was then upon me. My protections didn't last for long, and I soon found my self sorely pressed, I somehow managed to get to my feet, and then I ran.
I had one more skull trap field planted, in the centre of the room near where I first encountered Abazigal. I ran as fast as I could, but the Dragon was faster, snapping at my heels the whole way, I didn't have time to run around it, instead I barreled right through my own trap, praying that my protective equipment would spare me.
A loud explosion, and a brilliant flash of white followed my reckless strategy. I was completely stunned, I couldn't see of hear anything, however I couldn't take any chances, I carried on running stumbling forwards. Slowly my vision returned, I glanced back and saw the prone corpse of the Bhaalspawn Dragon. Abazigal had fallen, and now there remained only two, the Drow Sendai, and the elusive fifth member of the five, who somehow yet escapes me.
I've returned to Amkethran to resupply before my pursuit of Sendai. I have sold two almost expended wands of spell striking to the cities Priest of Waukeen. The priest of commerce always looking to turn a profit as recharged the wands back upto full capacity, and placed them back for sale. I bought both of them back, I suspect I will need every charge at my disposal fighting a Bhaalspawn with the magic resistance of a Drow.
2 Marpenoth 1371
I met an Elvan woodsman in the forest, he claims to have seen dark skinned elves in a clearing to the west. Summoning my Golem and a small undead war host, I set off to investigate.
I was ambushed by a drow raiding party as I approached the clearing, however with my golem hasting all my allies, the party were quickly outmatched. Searching the corpses revealed nothing of my target, so I made my way back to the woodsman.
On my way back to the elf, I stumbled upon an old grave site. The graves were freshly dug, yet made to look old, they were obviously fake graves, but set up for what purpose?
I returned to the woodsman and explained what had happened back in the clearing, he claimed to have seen more drow, near his 'wifes' grave to the north, the grave I had already ascertained to be fake, was this woodsman allied with the drow? Was he trying to lure me into an ambush?
I took no chances, I set my minions upon the elf. Low and behold, his illusion magics were dispelled, revealing him to be a drow himself. Suddenly his allies appeared from nowhere, we fought tooth and nail, my spells all but useless, but my skeletons enhanced by my golems haste aura took the flimsy elves down with ease.
With the elf dead, the illusion hiding the entrance to Sendai's Enclave was dispelled.
Sendai's defenses were impressive, she had left nothing to chance. The moment I entered into her enclave, I was set upon by wave after wave of denizens from the Underdark. By the time the onslaught was over, I had to climb over a small mountain of bodies to progress through the complex.
Further into the complex I found myself faced with a choice, two paths leading to the same destination. One the mating grounds for Sendai's pet spiders, the other, the slavers stockades. Either path would involve fighting through more of Sendai's forces, I opted for the spiders, figuring the stupid creature would make easy target practice for my spells.
Deeper into the dungeon I descended, until I came to a magically warded door. My progress had been stalled for now, just off to the north was a strange structure, a building of sorts, I decided to explore. Inside I awakened a Lich, the creature unlike others I had encountered, seemed more intent on blasting me to smithereens than applying any kind of magical defenses of his own. My powerful armor and equipment protected me from the brunt of his assault, and with no defenses of his own, he was quickly taken down. On his corpse I discovered a runestone that I believe will open the warded door that blocked my path earlier.
Through the warded door, I encountered one of Sendai's commanders, Diaytha. I have been challenged to defeat her most powerful minion Ogremoch, an elemental prince of earth! Only then will I get a crack at taking down the priestess.
I called my undead allies, and then tentatively stepped into the princes lair. I was guarded by two greater elementals, I lured them both outside the room, and dispatched away from the prince. The prince was a terrible foe indeed, I set 6 skull traps in the centre of the room, and lined my skeletons up behind me. Once I had prepared, I approached the prince. As soon as he saw me, he triggered a stoneskin spell, I countered it with my wand, and then waited for him to advance. My traps went off, greatly wounding the prince, he bore down upon me, but I had my skeletons intercept him.
He was making short work of my skeletons, dropping them sometimes with single blows. I wouldn't have time to release enough spells to end Orgremach before my skeletons fell, so I called upon the slayer. My slayer form combined with the Improved haste ability from my Ring of Gaxx, was just too much for the elemental prince. Weakened by my skull traps, he just didn't have enough strength left to defend him self, and before to long victory was mine.
I took advantage of the short reprieve from combat by rememorizing my spells, and summoning new allies.
Whilst tied up with the prince, Diaytha had plenty of time to prepare, when I finally reached her, she had surrounded herself with powerful allies. Knowing I couldn't possible win this fight alone, I called my skeletons into the room and then quickly sneaked off out of the room myself.
My skeletons did not last long, but they lasted long enough for me fill the room with Wilting Horror spells. By the time my final skeleton fell, I had taken out both her Vampire and Demon ally. The remaining members of Diaytha's group had lost track of me in all the commotion, all except for the Eye Tyrant, who immune to my magics was still completely unharmed. Knowing I would have a hard time beating the Beholder with my arcane might, I shifted my focus to physical might and reverted to the slayer once more. As all before it, the Beholder proved little match for the mighty avatar of Bhaal.
With the Beholder dead I reverted back to my human form, another wilting horror spell into the room, and the Cambion lay dead, leaving only the Drow Priestess. I used my remaining animate dead spells and reentered the room. Without her allies, Diaytha proved weak, and once again I proved victorious. Sendai was certainly prepared for me, surely she cannot have many allies remaining?
I have ran into my old 'friend' the spectator beholder I met back in the Sahaguin city, once again he has found him self bound to the whims of the drow. The drow were all but ready to jump for my throat when the beholder interjected. He suggested a one on one contest, playing on the leaders pride in is martial ability, the spectator knows full well the commander cannot win, I guessing he is once again trying to prematurely get out of his contract with the dark elves. The Beholder has placed a geas on everyone in the room, the winning side lives, and the losing side dies.
I quickly called a couple of allies before he could close the gap and engage me, and then stayed back and watched. True to his word, the Spectator's geas caused the entire room to fall down dead, the moment their commander did.
There seems to be no end to Sendai's defenses, I now find my self faced off with a group of mindflayers, led by another of Sendai's commanders an Illithid named Mithykyl. The Illithid portion of the complex was actually smaller than I expected, my summoned allies were able to deal with the illithids in short order.
Finally I have fought my way to Sendai, and she has been busy. She has performed some kind of ritual, setting a trap for me. Seven stone statues encircle the room, each one seeming to represent a different discipline of war.
I felt a sense of Deja Vu as I once again exchanged threats with a Bhaalspawn. And then it began, Sendai vanished in a flash of light and there was a momentary silence, suddenly too my left I heard a loud cracking sound, the first statue had began to crumble, and there stood in its place was Sendai, in the garb of a fighter/druid.
She began casting almost instantly, releasing some kind of insect plague. Knowing that I would be hard pressed to successfully cast my spells engulfed in a cloud of stinging insects, I backed off as fast as I could, and quickly summoned a skeleton, knowing that it could very well be my only protection until the insects dispersed.
Sendai proceeded to summon fire elementals, whilst calling down pillars of fire from the sky to engulf my skeleton. I backed away out of range, trying to swat away the insects, whilst my skeleton was assaulted from all sides. As my ally fell, so to did the insects disperse, I summoned two more skeletons, and launched a deathspell in Sendai's direction to eliminate her elementals, and then I engaged her. Slowly we wore the druid down, her spells expended she resorted to melee combat, managing to beat one of my skeletons before falling herself.
Before I could catch my breath, I heard a familiar cracking sound, looking up I saw the statue depicting a sorceress begin to crumble, what's worse, a couple of drow reinforcements had made their way into the room. I ordered my skeleton to attack the two foot soldiers, before it could reach them a death spell blasted it, crumbling it to dust before my very eyes. I could hear Sendai chuckle to her self in the background.
I ran back up the stairs to the rooms exit, luring the drow soldiers away from Sendai. As soon as they reached me, I gripped my staff tightly and engaged its invisibility power. I quietly crept back down to Sendai's position, leaving the confused back up behind me and temporarily out of the fight.
I knew that the sorceress would be weak without her defenses, I used my spell strike wand to strip her defenses and then proceeded to melee with her, using my powerful staff of the ram. I managed to interrupt most of her spells, until she managed to open a gate to the lower planes. I quickly switched to my Staff of the Magi, the native protection from evil spell, protecting me from the terrifying Pitfiend that stepped through the portal. Sendai was not quite so fortunate, ripped to pieces by her own summoned creature.
Protected as I was from the demon, I decided to use it to my advantage, if Sendai or her allies came within range the demon would attack indiscriminately. To the west the familiar sound of a crumbling statue filled my ears, this time Sendai had assumed the form of a deadly rogue, and two more drow reinforcements arrived.
I ran back to the entrance luring the four reinforcements back down to the Pitfiend. Before vanishing from sight once again, with no other target available, the drow turned upon the Pitfiend, getting torn to shreads for their efforts.
With the minor drow taken care of, and no more distractions to worry about, I could focus my attention on Sendai the rogue. I called forth the last of my remaining allies in one of the northern alcoves, four skeleton warriors, and my clay golem, and then lured Sendai to my waiting ambush. She was quickly overwhelmed by my golem hasted skeletons.
Next Sendai took on the form of a Berzerker warrior, quickly entering an enraged state. I threw everything I had at Sendai but still she kept coming, managing to take down two of my skeletons before succumbing to her wounds. By now there were four more drow reinforcements, and Sendai had once again adopted the form of a powerful mage. I quickly dispersed my summoned creatures sending them to opposite corners of the room, in an attempt to protect as many as I could from the inevitable death spell that Sendai would release.
Both the drow reinforcements, and Sendai released a death spell, taking down two of my skeletons. I then sent my remaining allies, a lone skeleton and my Golem at Sendai, whilst again trying to lure the drow reinforcements to the Pitfiend. It almost worked too, unfortunately both my Golem and the Pitfiend had spent as much time on the mortal plane as they could, and both unsummoned before my eyes.
I quickly lured the drow to where the demon had been, and then vanished once again into thin air, making my way back to Sendai and leaving the reinforcements behind.
Much like the last mage form, Sendai proved weak once her defenses had been stripped away, and between me and my remaining skeleton attacking simultaneously, the Drow didn't survive for long.
To the east I could make out Sendai beginning to assume her sixth form, an Archer, to the west more reinforcements were spilling into the room. From my position in the northern most alcove, neither Sendai nor her men could see me. I released three blasts of wilting horror spells towards the door, where the drow troops were amassing. Their magic defense was impressive, but against such a high concentration of spells, most of the drow succumbed to my magic, those that remained made for easy pickings by me and my skeleton.
With the battlefield once again cleansed of annoyances, I returned my focus towards Sendai. The Archer was deadly at a distance, but if I could close the distance and get in close then this should be easy!
In full sprint with my boots of speed on, I got in close and swung my staff, connecting squarely with the drows jaw, within an instant she had teleported across the room, and towards another alcove. I chased her down again, as she pelted me with arrows. Each time I managed to land a blow, she would vanish only to appear in an alcove on the opposite side of the room. So much for getting in close!
There wasn't much I could do about it, except chase her down and hope she missed more of her arrows than she landed. Slowly but surely I wore the Bhaalspawn down, and eventually I beat the archer, though I had consumed a large percentage of my healing potions in the process.
Finally she was down to her last statue, an assassin, she poisoned her blades and then came at me, before being intercepted by my skeleton. More drow reinforcements swarmed the room. I needed to end this soon, I couldn't maintain this pace for much longer. Whilst my skeleton was engaged I took the opportunity to change my boots, equipping my boots of the gargoyle, to reapply my stoneskin, and to protect from any sneak attacks the assassin might throw my way.
My remaining skeleton didn't last long assaulted by the three drow, I hit Sendai with a blast from my wand of spell striking, and then proceeded to pelt her and her men with my spells. The two drow fell, though Sendai appeared unharmed. Clutching my staff of the ram I went toe to toe with the assassin, exchanging blow for blow strikes, and chugging down potions as required.
Sendai used invisibility potions to strike me from the shadows, but my boots protected me. A well placed blow, threw the Assassin Sendai clean across the room, knocking her unconscious to boot. I quickly finished her off. With the last of her Statues destroyed, the real Sendai returned.
Hopefully I have managed to save enough spells, to deal with this one. She summoned a large host of invisible horrors, which were easy pickings for my death spell.
I emptied an entire wand of spell striking onto the drow, the pierce magic spell not only stripping her defenses, but lowering her native magic resistance. The Sendai adopted the same tactics her archer statue had earlier, warping from alcove to alcove. However, with her magic resistance now crippled, I was easily able to keep up, firing wilting horror and skull traps into the alcoves as and when she warped.
Unfortunately the real Sendai was much tougher than her statues, and I had already expended far too much energy on those. Sendai a powerful priestess, had no problem recovering from her injuries, and my offensive spells were all but spent.
The battle went on for what seemed an eternity, I spent most of my time dealing with her summoned skeletons and spiders, thankfully my large reserve of death spells outlasted her summoning magics and eventually we were forced into melee with one another. Sendai was recovering from my attacks far too quickly, I knew I needed more power to defeat her. I turned inwards to my dark taint, summoning the slayer once again.
The battle was nothing short of epic, Sendai's healing magics were potent and I had to ride my slayer form to its very limits, almost losing control to the taint, and being overwhelmed. But I had finally beaten Sendai in a marathon battle, I returned to my pocket plane and collapsed with exhaustion.
I have returned to Amkethran only to find myself under attack by Balthazar's men. I once again bumped into Seamon Havarian, he seeks vengeance against Balthazar and has offered to get me into the monastery.
Hahaha! The fool has cried wolf one to many times, I tried to gut him where he stood, but the fool somehow once again managed to escape. I'll never trust Saemon again as long as I live, I'll find my own way into the monastery.
I decided to tackle the problem head on, and assault the gates directly. My minions and necromancy tore through Balthazars forces, on one of the bodies I discovered a gate key. It is time to end this!
15 Marpenoth 1371
I have made it inside the monestary, I took a moment to set a trap and summon some back up, and then headed further inside.
Balthazar has revealed himself to be the final member of the Five. Though unlike the others, he didn't join lured by promises of power or to raise Bhaal from the dead, Balthazar joined to infiltrate the group, to learn the identities it's membership, so that he could crush them ending the curse of Bhaal's Taint once and for all. How 'noble' of him...
Unfortunately he still needs to defeat me if he expects his plans to come to fruition, and it will be a cold day in hell before that happens. He has also revealed the puppet master behind the Five, Melissan! It was she who brought the Five together and organized the alliance, it was she who orchestrated the demise of Sarasush and plotted to turn both me and the five against one another. I don't know what she expects to gain from this, but I am certain she is no friend.
Balthazar has used me for his own goals, and that demands punishment. The moment our conversation was over I tossed a skull trap at Balthazar, setting it off in the middle of his group of monks. Without checking to see how many were wounded, I ran back to the monasteries main entrance and my waiting allies.
My skeletons clashed with the monks and I began my casting, releasing a series of wilting horror spells. Balthazar was unaffected, he suddenly vanished only to appear on the opposite staircase, my traps exploded in unison, but again the monk was unaffected. I could be in trouble here.
My skeletons were quickly dispatched, the monks were fast, even with my boots of speed, I'd be hard pressed to outpace them. I chugged down a potion of speed to give myself an advantage, and then began to run. I'd never beat Balthazar in a martial contest, and his magic resistance is just to potent to punch through, I pulled out one of my recently recharged wands and began firing piece magic spells, hoping to reduce his magic resistance enough for my spells to take effect.
Around the main chamber I ran, outpacing my pursuers whilst focusing my efforts on crippling the monks magic resistance. On the third blast of my wand, I tested another spell. Success! The monk was taken aback by my wilting horror spell, if only momentarily, there was now a chink in his armour, I needed to throw everything I had at the monk before the opening closes again.
Using my superior speed, I carried on circling around the great chamber, throwing whatever spells I could at the deadly monk, slowly but surely I wore him down, killing his men in the process. Eventually I beat the monk down to within an inch of his life, however with my spells exhausted and the monk able to heal himself, I could take no chances. Calling upon my slayer form I went toe to toe with the monk.
Even at deaths door, the monk was formidable hitting me with amazing force, and launching me across the room, even in slayer form. I drank so much healing draught trying to stay alive, that I thought I would vomit. Still in the end Balthazar couldn't hope to win against Zuzhul Plaguebringer, and now I truly am the last of the Bhaalspawn.
Like with all the previous bhaalspawn, I found myself dragged to my pocket plane upon Balthazar's defeat. This time I was met by Mellisan, or rather Amellisan the Black, favoured priestess of Bhaal. All was revealed, she had been chosen by bhaal to perform a ritual that would ensure his revival once all his essence had returned to the Throne of Bhaal. Mellisan however had other ideas, she has claimed the essence for her own, planning to ascend to godhood herself, she plans to steal my birthright!
There is only one thing left to do, hunt her down and end her miserable existence once and for all. But before I can warp to the Throne of Bhaal, I must complete the remaining four pocket plane trials, the ones I started with Sarevok when I first arrived here.
1 Nightal 1371
The trials have been tough, much tougher than when I fought with Irenicus.
The second of my five trials, involved a what if scenario. What if mine and Sarevoks fates had been reversed? I was forced to fight with my Alter-Ego and his Lieutenants from Baldur's Gate, Tomoko, Angelo and Semaj. I focused my initial efforts on the mage Semaj, dispelling his defensive magics, and then setting my skeletons on him. I used my Golem to distract the remaining three, its native damage resistances, making it impervious to what ever they could throw at it.
Whilst the party were engaged with my minions, I retreated back to the exit, and then proceeded to fill the room with dense clouds of Wilting Horror. Even my alter ego, could not handle such a large concentration of the deadly fumes, and the party collapsed one by one.
[Had to lower difficulty again slightly to make it through this fight] In the third trial, I faced off against the slayer. Using my minions to shield me from the avatars attacks, I assumed the slayer form myself, and we fought tooth and claw. However, augmented with an improved haste spell, from my amulet of cheetah speed, I was able to overcome the beast, though my own wounds were great.
In my fouth trial I was encountered by none other than Cyric himself, the current Lord of Murder. My exploit's have him worried, and so they should, he has claimed my birthright for his own, and I will reclaim it.
In this trial I faced off against agents of Cyric, his most favoured assassins. Their sneak attacks were deadly, causing great damage to my skeletons, however my boots of the Gargoyle protected me from any sneaky attacks. With their main strength all but useless against me, I was able to take down the assassins relatively easy, my skeletons hasted by my great golem, made short work of Cyrics men. That leaves one trial remaining.
I've spent several hours on him now, with no luck, I'm going to take a break and try again tomorrow.
11 Nightal 1371
My final trial pitted me against murder incarnate, the Ravager! A more terrible and deadly incarnation of the slayer, and it was no push over.
As soon as he turned hostile I set my allies upon the brute, distracting him whilst I prepared my assault. I pulled out my faithful wand, and released a barrage of pierce magic spells, three in total, knowing full well that against such a mighty opponent I'd need to decimate its magic resistance if I was to have a chance.
With its, resistances crippled I wasted no time, beginning with my most powerful spells first. I used the most ancient of my necromancy arsenal, crippling the beast with an energy drain spell. Then I proceeded to release every wilting horror spell I had at my disposal, all eight of them.
Noxious fumes filled the room, I could barely see more than a foot in front of me. But I could still hear the battle raging deep inside the deadly cloud of gasses, my skeletons and magical construct completely immune to the effects, and the Ravager too powerful to be felled with a few spells.
I readied my next assault, firing off several skull traps at the great beast, my skeletons native magic resistance protecting them for the most part, whilst the Ravagers now crippled defense meant that he took some serious damage from the explosions.
Before long the smoke and gasses from my assault dispersed and I could see that the beast was now badly wounded, but I had no offensive spells left at my disposal. Whats more my golem had unsummoned, and my skull traps had injured two of my skeletons, turning them hostile. I turned my skeletons against each other and took down the two renegades.
I then realized that the creature was unable to wound my skeletons, taking advantage of his distraction I transformed into the slayer, and struck from behind.
I ripped chunks out of the creature, but the beast's fortitude was great. I could once again feel my self control slipping, I could feel my self being consumed, Bhaal's essence trying to claw its way up and grasp control. I grit my teeth, and narrowed my focus, I couldn't transform back, not yet.
I felt myself weakening, as my energy drained. But eventually I tasted success, the Ravager was no more.
15 Nightal 1371
It was almost time for my assault on Mellisan, but I needed to be prepared. I returned to Amkethran, getting the Priest of Waukeen to recharge my wands one last time, and then I returned to my pocketplane to organize my gear.
Alone, the members of the five had all been exceptionally powerful beings. Now Mellisan had control of their taint, their power, just how strong would she be now, could I even beat her? I checked through my scroll case, I had been stockpiling scrolls for a moment like this, knowing full well that I could potentially exhaust my repertoire of spells long before Melissan falls. Taking no chances I pulled out my catalogue of spell pages, I hope this will be enough....
I approached the planes portal, the doorway to whatever devious trap Melissan has set for me, and then stopped to prepare myself. Spirit Armour, Stoneskin, and Improved Haste from my amulet, it was time...
Since yesterday, I have only managed to defeated Mellisan's first incarnation, and cut off her supply of essence at the first conduit, it was a great relief to be able to save my game mid battle at this little check point.
However I am really struggling to take her down again in our second encounter. Melissan can heal back to full health at any point in the fight, it is not a spell and cannot be interupted, and it seems to be completely random when she does this. My self imposed limitations mean that our fight is a slow grinded out affair, and I just cannot seem to get her down before she heals back to full.
I've tried laying skull traps where she spawns for some big spike damage, but her magic resistance is so high that they explode harmlessly before I can even fire off a pierce magic charge from my wand. I've tried setting traps elsewhere and luring her over, however she prefers ranged combat and in the end her minions tend to set off the traps.
My skeletons are all but useless, she periodically shouts "Undead be gone" I assume she is using turn undead, being a priestess and all, at which point all my skeletons die.
My strategy so far has involved, using my wand to cripple her magic resistance, and then running around the throne in circles, keeping away from her summons, whilst pelting her with spells, and slowly wearing her down until she heals, on a couple of occasions I have gotten her down to Near Death, but never fully defeated.
Another problem I have faced, is that something in the battle can drain my magical equipment of charges much like the purple magic golems in watchers keep, though I haven't figured out what enemy or attack is causing this now. I went to summon my golem, only to discover the charge was drained, I checked my other equipment, boots of the gargoyle etc and all were empty. My wands of spell striking were also half emptied, meaning I probably don't have enough charges remaining to last the fight!
Anyone have any suggestions, I'm so close, I'd hate to have to quit now. If I haven't managed to beat her by the end of the day I may call it quits on the challenge, and/or reload my last save and allow myself the use of some HLA, I think even allowing myself only Improved Alarcrity would have made a huge difference in this fight.
Spells cast from my scrolls seem very weak, as if cast by a mage of a much lower level (I had never noticed this before), my animate dead scrolls summon the old weaker small skeletons (The 7-10th level 5HD ones), and my skull traps cast from scrolls seem to do extremely low damage, compared to my memorized ones.
I assume there is some kind of level cap imposed on scrolls in determining their effectiveness?