The Hills aren't alive ... but they do have eyes!
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
[Editorial note: I wish I had used "The Hills have Eyes" as the thread title earlier; this scenario does remind me of the plot of a bad horror flick more than some movie musical]
Both our nocturnal encounter with the shades and the folks in Umar who blamed wolves for the problem proved prophetic. Heading north toward some newly discovered temple ruins, we encountered a forest shrouded in perpetual darkness, where we were attacked by ... shade wolves? We also found a cave with a "normal" werewolf, whose pack had been converted to shade wolves by some evil force that had taken up residence in (surprise!) an old ruined temple to the east. He said he wanted revenge and would scout the way for us. Even though he was chowing down on a fresh corpse, we agreed. Heck, this crew wasn't going to be put off by a little bit of anthropophagy.
Cutting to the chase: we explored the woods but found nothing but some more shady wolves, which proved no threat. At the entrance of an old temple, we found our new pal the werewolf dying from wounds. He advised us that we should use a mirror nearby to help drive off the shades in the area, after which he bit the big one and about 2 dozen of the suckers, shades and shade wolves combined, jumped us.
Our valiant scout's sacrifice was pretty much wasted; we couldn't find a damned mirror anywhere! So we decided "screw these beggars" and just piled into them. It was a slaughter; they had no chance. In the interest of brevity, I will gloss over the dozens of combats we had with yet more shades, and will merely say that we encountered and freed the elusive Mazzy, whom we mocked and called Shorty, and sent on her way. (A halfling warrior? Really?) We then found a mouthy statue; "Big Al" got a real boost to his self esteem (which had suffered a severe blow after totally missing that "Terminsel is Elminster" bit a while back) by solving the statue's three riddles without the three sheets of clues. (The whole puzzle is pretty simple and logical for a change, unlike most). As a reward we got the three pieces of the symbol of "The Amunater", who apparently was the former bossman here.
The only even semi-challenging combat was with a bunch of stronger undead; bone golems and greater mummies. Defeating those, we picked up a wardstone to protect us from some sort of dragon; a shady dragon, of course. Descending, we did indeed encounter said dragon; big and dark and menacing! He seemed inclined to let us pass, and we were going to take advantage of that when Edwina pointed out that his name was "Thax the Silly". Well, Hell! We weren't going to cower before anybody whose nickname was "The SIlly"! We decided to fight!
We started summoning up a whole slew of critters; one summoned monster got too close to Thax, who apparently dispelled it away by just sneezing at it. He didn't even get upset by this incident; either he was stupidly complacent, or had well founded self-confidence. Hmmm, he might not be so silly after all. We altered our original battle plan and decided to pile onto him in waves instead of all at once.
Without going into the grim details, suffice it to say that, 3 summoned monsters, one efreet, one air elemental, two fire elementals, two skeletal warriors, one pack of wolves and one kitchen sink later, we had ... Victory! Such as it was, that is; even Phyrrus would have been appalled. "Al" was on his last legs, Hexxat was busy regenerating while whimpering in a corner, every single summoned creature was slain or dispelled, and Viconia, Jaheira, Edwina and Korgan were all pushing up daisies. Thax the Not-So-Silly proved to be no joke after all. Thank the gods for the Rod of Resurrection!
And thanks for good soundproofing! A combat on a scale just short of Armageddon had to have created quite a ruckus, but none of the baddies upstairs came down to investigate; we were able to rest up undisturbed. Next morning, we girded our respective loins and prepared for the ultimate throwdown.
Now, the Shade Lord upstairs was certainly no wimp, but he wasn't in the same class as Thax. It was a hard fight indeed, but nobody even got killed. And I was rather disappointed with that silly symbol; as far as I could see, it did nothing much. I was really hoping that The Amunater would show up and say "Hasta la vista, baby!" but alas, no such thing happened.
The Shade Lord being defeated, we suddenly found ourselves out in the open, with the sun shining and the birds singing, and not a shadow in sight. We all relaxed ... except for Hexxat, who began smoking and screaming. Oooops! Sorry, babe, my bad; get that cloak back on!
Back to town now, to receive the adulation of an adoring populace, and plan our next move.
Both our nocturnal encounter with the shades and the folks in Umar who blamed wolves for the problem proved prophetic. Heading north toward some newly discovered temple ruins, we encountered a forest shrouded in perpetual darkness, where we were attacked by ... shade wolves? We also found a cave with a "normal" werewolf, whose pack had been converted to shade wolves by some evil force that had taken up residence in (surprise!) an old ruined temple to the east. He said he wanted revenge and would scout the way for us. Even though he was chowing down on a fresh corpse, we agreed. Heck, this crew wasn't going to be put off by a little bit of anthropophagy.
Cutting to the chase: we explored the woods but found nothing but some more shady wolves, which proved no threat. At the entrance of an old temple, we found our new pal the werewolf dying from wounds. He advised us that we should use a mirror nearby to help drive off the shades in the area, after which he bit the big one and about 2 dozen of the suckers, shades and shade wolves combined, jumped us.
Our valiant scout's sacrifice was pretty much wasted; we couldn't find a damned mirror anywhere! So we decided "screw these beggars" and just piled into them. It was a slaughter; they had no chance. In the interest of brevity, I will gloss over the dozens of combats we had with yet more shades, and will merely say that we encountered and freed the elusive Mazzy, whom we mocked and called Shorty, and sent on her way. (A halfling warrior? Really?) We then found a mouthy statue; "Big Al" got a real boost to his self esteem (which had suffered a severe blow after totally missing that "Terminsel is Elminster" bit a while back) by solving the statue's three riddles without the three sheets of clues. (The whole puzzle is pretty simple and logical for a change, unlike most). As a reward we got the three pieces of the symbol of "The Amunater", who apparently was the former bossman here.
The only even semi-challenging combat was with a bunch of stronger undead; bone golems and greater mummies. Defeating those, we picked up a wardstone to protect us from some sort of dragon; a shady dragon, of course. Descending, we did indeed encounter said dragon; big and dark and menacing! He seemed inclined to let us pass, and we were going to take advantage of that when Edwina pointed out that his name was "Thax the Silly". Well, Hell! We weren't going to cower before anybody whose nickname was "The SIlly"! We decided to fight!
We started summoning up a whole slew of critters; one summoned monster got too close to Thax, who apparently dispelled it away by just sneezing at it. He didn't even get upset by this incident; either he was stupidly complacent, or had well founded self-confidence. Hmmm, he might not be so silly after all. We altered our original battle plan and decided to pile onto him in waves instead of all at once.
Without going into the grim details, suffice it to say that, 3 summoned monsters, one efreet, one air elemental, two fire elementals, two skeletal warriors, one pack of wolves and one kitchen sink later, we had ... Victory! Such as it was, that is; even Phyrrus would have been appalled. "Al" was on his last legs, Hexxat was busy regenerating while whimpering in a corner, every single summoned creature was slain or dispelled, and Viconia, Jaheira, Edwina and Korgan were all pushing up daisies. Thax the Not-So-Silly proved to be no joke after all. Thank the gods for the Rod of Resurrection!
And thanks for good soundproofing! A combat on a scale just short of Armageddon had to have created quite a ruckus, but none of the baddies upstairs came down to investigate; we were able to rest up undisturbed. Next morning, we girded our respective loins and prepared for the ultimate throwdown.
Now, the Shade Lord upstairs was certainly no wimp, but he wasn't in the same class as Thax. It was a hard fight indeed, but nobody even got killed. And I was rather disappointed with that silly symbol; as far as I could see, it did nothing much. I was really hoping that The Amunater would show up and say "Hasta la vista, baby!" but alas, no such thing happened.
The Shade Lord being defeated, we suddenly found ourselves out in the open, with the sun shining and the birds singing, and not a shadow in sight. We all relaxed ... except for Hexxat, who began smoking and screaming. Oooops! Sorry, babe, my bad; get that cloak back on!
Back to town now, to receive the adulation of an adoring populace, and plan our next move.
5
Comments
I think the symbol of Amaunator is a key to one of the doors in the dungeon. You probably just didn't notice because you already had it. I think maybe it's also involved in an annoying quest that might pop up much later in the game, but I'm not sure and I don't think you'll run into it regardless. I'd just stash the thing somewhere safe and get it out of your inventory.
And please; its "The Amunater". I kept picturing him as a huge glowing Arnold Schwartzenegger, hence the "Hasta la vista, baby!" comment.
As per usual, I have some post scenario questions and comments. Some of them might verge on the borders of the spoiler category, so I'll post the usual "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" warning.
(Anyone remember "Lost in Space"? Even as a kid I wondered why they didn't just shove the good doctor out the nearest airlock.)
I can see why they included a "free passage" stone to get by the Shadow Dragon. Several levels ago when we tried to take out Firekraag, he opened up a can of good old-fashioned Whoop-ass and kicked our butts. Old Thaxy looked about as tough, so I wanted to see how we fared. It was a seriously close thing; an attack or two missing instead of hitting and we'd have been toast. A weaker party would never have made it.
Here is where I miss having a reference Monster Manual. I really have no idea what the Shadow Dragon was doing, or what his powers and weaknesses were. It LOOKED like he was able to dispel things, including summoned monsters, possibly with a breath attack, and he was able to buffet us with wing flaps which blew us around the room and knocked some of the party unconscious. It was hard to tell what hit him and what didn't; I just tossed everything I could think of at him, hoping some of it would stick. I guess some of it did.
Also, once we defeated the Shade Lord, we were back outside, and the entrance to the lower area seemed to disappear. If we had decided to take the free passage and perhaps come back and fight Thax the Silly at another time, would we have been able to? Or is it a one time only decision?
Shadow dragon has a level draining breath that can drain huge amount of levels if the victim fails a save vs breath weapon. It can permanently destroy npcs very easily! (Any npc that dies of level drain has a very big chance of going pop:vaporised) Guess you were smart enough to let summoned fodder suffer that fate instead of your party. (And ofcourse, Hexxat is conveniently immune to bad mojo like that!)
What?? Egads! Now this is the sort of thing I would really like to see in a reference somewhere. I thought he was dispelling the summoned critters, but I guess he was just killing them outright. Are dragons limited to using their breath weapons just 3x per day? If so, then by the time the real attack force (me and Korgan, initially) got to him, he was out of that type of attack and had to resort to beating us over the head with his wings. I know that none of the dead needed restoration magic, so they died from purely physical damage then.
NPC-five levels drained
NPC-Four levels drained
NPC-death' messages in the combat log and that would have been the end for that npc.
Death and resurrection cures the level drain, AFAIK, so they were lucky I guess.
Dragons can use their breath once every five or ten rounds or so, I think. Shadow dragonS breath is especially difficult to defend against, hence he can be a nuisance for the unprepared.
Hang on; are you saying that berserk rage in general prevents level draining? Or is it some dwarven thing?
Totally accidental, since I didn't even know he had a life draining ability. We lucked out.
Well, that sort of makes sense, actually. Otherwise dragons would be pushovers for a mass assault by summoned flunkies.
That's legit. I mean, who there has never abused summons and summoned 30 hobgoblins to kill Drizzt in BG1?
I am somehow glad this cannot be done in BG2