Cursed Valygar play-through.
Aerie
Member Posts: 226
Previously I did a play-through with the party member Aerie as charname, this time I'm using Valygar. I'm going to be using all of the cursed items or as many as I possibly can in this play-through. I'm also going to make Valygar a fallen ranger, make him romance Dorn and try to make Dorn lose his Blackguard status.
Don't be surprised to see deliberate permanent stat losses going on also. I'm aiming for a more neutral-chaotic neutral run (last time as Aerie was basically chaotic evil). Minimal reload, core rules etc. Without further adieu, it begins!
Valygar is somehow a Bhaalspawn (don't ask me how) maybe part of his magical wizard Bloodline? As an extra prisoner he ''found'' some items. Mainly the Claw of Kazgaroth (Lowers constitution by 2 points among other effects), Kiel's Morning Star (auto-berserk weapon) and Elander's Gloves of Misplacement (-2 dex and -10 THAC0 penalty).
I equipped the ring on myself, gave Minsc the morning star and Jaheira the gloves. Only a few minutes in and by equipping the claw Valygar can no longer use his family blade
. Jaheira also has a THACO of 25. Yes 25!
Here are all the Prisoners in Irenicus's dungeon (note the OG Bhaalspawn John, he's being left behind). Anyways the main tactic was Valygar, Imoen and later on Yoshimo all used shortbows and fired arrows while Minsc took on all the enemies. It wasn't that simple though, especially in the Mephit room when Minsc just chased after our party and nearly killed Yoshi. Other screenshots below, including deliberately giving Yoshimo cursed scrolls and Jaheria's terrible THACO.
Don't be surprised to see deliberate permanent stat losses going on also. I'm aiming for a more neutral-chaotic neutral run (last time as Aerie was basically chaotic evil). Minimal reload, core rules etc. Without further adieu, it begins!
Valygar is somehow a Bhaalspawn (don't ask me how) maybe part of his magical wizard Bloodline? As an extra prisoner he ''found'' some items. Mainly the Claw of Kazgaroth (Lowers constitution by 2 points among other effects), Kiel's Morning Star (auto-berserk weapon) and Elander's Gloves of Misplacement (-2 dex and -10 THAC0 penalty).
I equipped the ring on myself, gave Minsc the morning star and Jaheira the gloves. Only a few minutes in and by equipping the claw Valygar can no longer use his family blade
. Jaheira also has a THACO of 25. Yes 25!Here are all the Prisoners in Irenicus's dungeon (note the OG Bhaalspawn John, he's being left behind). Anyways the main tactic was Valygar, Imoen and later on Yoshimo all used shortbows and fired arrows while Minsc took on all the enemies. It wasn't that simple though, especially in the Mephit room when Minsc just chased after our party and nearly killed Yoshi. Other screenshots below, including deliberately giving Yoshimo cursed scrolls and Jaheria's terrible THACO.
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Using Yoshimo to hide and backstab, one of the people who stood in the way of the group and that sword was lured down. Unfortunately he single-handedly killed Yoshimo and Minsc, which means they are gone forever. Valygar sure made him pay for that.
Getting to witness the full power of the berserking sword while hiding outside the inn, Valygar listened as the wielder of the sword attacked his own party members, a guard and a commoner. Valygar desired that sword even more now. Eventually he crept back into the inn killed the last remaining members of that group and picked up his new sword. Just look at that combat log, absolute madness.
Although possessing 2 berserking weapons, Valygar's party appeared extremely weak. (Sounds like a fine time to pick up Valygar's future boyfriend Dorn, aye?)
Thanks so much Rao. I might write out of character this time, more describing Valygar's tale. Thanks for that, I'm glad you found it entertaining and find this one even more so!
Just tagging @Balrog99 because he suggested a Valygar playthrough to me (the whole cursed theme, was my idea though).
Haha, I sure hope I get lucky, because this playthrough has the potential to be very tough (especially in TOB).
I forgot to mention, Valygar ''found'' another item while back in Irenicus's dungeon. A strange and peculiar looking belt, he had handed it to Jaheira to try and it turns out this was the gender belt. So Jaheira is now a man. Valygar then teamed up with Nalia (cannon fodder, I suppose) and the party left for the temple district.
Joining up with the half-orc Dorn, Valygar agreed to slaughter some members of the radiant heart and Dorn was gifted the berserking sword. Greeted at the door it tuns out an event was being held, a wedding! Valygar wanted to gatecrash it despite Nalia and the half-elf man's moans about doing so.
Nalia watched in horror as the berserking duo of Valygar and Dorn slaughtered wedding guests, Bollard Firejaw and innocents alike. She vowed as soon as this was over to leave the company of these madmen.
He will still be in the cursed run as Valygar will romance him, but he sadly cannot use cursed items. He might not be able to use cursed items but he will still experience permanent stat decreases many more in future now.
The bug below in spoilers: An explanation.
curse cast on him he starts speaking and acting like normal.
Things worked out for the best.
Nalia hastily left the party and Korgan was recruited by Valygar. Korgan was then gifted the cursed berserking sword, a new addition to the party!
Valygar headed back to the Copper Coronet, he'd promised Hendak he would free him but had forgotten all about him. Better late than never. Within minutes Hendak was freed. As the Coronet guards fought Valygar a commoner walked into the crossfire, Valygar switched his attention to her. Not being able to control himself he chased the fleeing woman and killed her (luckily the rest of the tavern didn't see this or else they would of turned on the party which would of got ugly).
Promising to extinguish the slavers ,Valygar and Co snuck through the sewers on the way picking up a talking sword. They sold the sword on the way up to pay for Korgan's resurrection, an unavoidable accident caused by a madman wielding a cursed morning star.
Safe distancing, as demonstrated by Korgan and Valygar:
In the slaver building Korgan praised and complimented Valygar's berserking abilities. There was also a close call with the slavers too, Korgan was very close to death but was luckily hit by a Cleric (who had no weapons but his fists) so he only fell unconscious. The slavers for an unknown reason left the unconscious dwarf on the floor to attack the party leader. Their mistake.
After finishing the slavers quest the group took a break. Aerie note: I had been thinking in this cursed run, how to find a fair middle ground between Dorn using cursed items (the point of this play-through) and him not being able to use them (my decision as explained above). I found one. I consoled in the ''Vial of mysterious liquid'', about maybe 15 vials. If you didn't know drinking them makes the user permanently lose a point of constitution. Dorn drank them all, pretend he found them in sewers idk.
Going from 78 hitpoints to 51 is a fair middleground for not using cursed items.
Valygar had never felt more cheated or ripped off in his life! A pair of pants?! What could this mean? He threw them to the floor in rage, he wanted gold or some kind of sweet weapon. ''Bah''.
Afterwards he accepted a job from the temple of helm and work from Renal Bloodscalp. After a few fetch type tasks and an annoying run-in with Baron Ployer, Valygar eventually collected the information Renal seeked and was given one last task. That would have to wait however. You see why this was going on Valygar received an ominous threat whilst walking in the government district. I forgot to mention while in the government district, Valygar killed an ungrateful little art sculptor.
Next up: Korgan and his book, one last task for Renal Bloodscalp and a trip to the Umar Hills.
The final task for Renal Bloodscalp was due and that meant killing Mae'Var. Valygar and his group started from the top down of the building and gradually descended killing Mae'Var's men in battle. It wasn't a walk in the park though. A thief backstabbed a full-health Dorn and Jaheira's Harpers Call was required.
With an unidentified 'protection' scroll sitting in his backpack, Valygar thought it a good idea to use it upon himself before facing Mae'Var. Ohoh. It was cursed! Who would have seen that coming? Valygar's strength was set to 4 for a time meaning he would be no help at all in the battle to come. It didn't matter, Korgan single handedly battered Mae'Var and his goons.
Promising his berserking buddy Korgan that they would help him in his quest to raid a tomb, Valygar led the group (through his uncontrollable rage caused by his bizarre weapon choices) in an exciting pursuit of treasure.
Once that matter was resolved, a trip to the Umar Hills was next on the agenda. Promising to only save the village in exchange for about 18,000 gold which the mayor thought was some kind of bad joke, in Valygar's head this sounded like a good idea. If the village didn't pay up once he had saved them their would be hell to pay.
As you can see Valygar is not good at what he does at all (being a Ranger). In his time in the Hills he threatened a man for a gem hidden in a chicken, killed the ogres (who he knew weren't behind the murders) and then assisted in making a Golem. Once the Golem turned hostile Valygar accidentally attacked and killed the Cowled Wizard. What. A. Shame.
Valygar then rested in *his* cabin plotting out his next move.
The company could not risk any run-in's with Shadows. Normally they can be deadly, but combined with not being able to control one's self it makes the Shadows even harder. Luckily Dorn had quite a few potions which allowed him to sneak undetected through the temple.
At one point Korgan bit off more then he could chew and needed to be resurrected. Which of course he was.
The Shade Lord was no more! Upon returning to the village there was bad news for a certain stalker. The Village didn't have his ransom! ''This is outrageous'' was one of many thoughts and temptations that ran through Valygar's head. The nerve of the mayor! He had given Valygar nothing except for a cabin, ''I already own a cabin!'' he screamed.
The mayor weakly stated that the cabin was Valygar's property. Stopping himself from going on a rampage in the village, Valygar thought. Perhaps being the ''protector'' of the Village had it's benefits after all. Valygar demanded gold and weapons in this new cabin of his right away, which the cowering villagers obeyed.
Selling off all the villagers gifts and trinkets, the party had enough gold to buy a helpful item. Vhailor's Helm! Why settle for one berserking dwarf, when you can have two?
Arriving at Trademeet, the mere presence of hostile animals sent Valygar into a rage. This resulted in a djinni getting caught in the crossfire. Valygar didn't mind, the djinni's were magic users and Valygar HATES magic. Anyway he got a nice errefti bottle.
Druids, Spiders and Trolls fell before the party. Then the party stumbled upon some truly dangerous not to mention, strange foes. Myconids. Myconid Madness! The Myconid's nearly wiped out the party, killing Korgan and coming oh so close to killing a second member of the party.
Long story short, Valygar and his party were the heroes of the town! They had solved the druid problem, the djinni problem (unknowingly), a certain run-in with a skin dancer and finally a dispute between two families.
''Maybe it was time to check in those fools in the Umar Hills'' Valygar thought. Valygar really wished he could just be the High Merchant of Trademeet instead of being some silly ranger.
Some forest spirit wanted to speak with Valygar. ''Oh, just great!''. Upon hearing her problems, Valygar asked for a reward. ''What!''. The sound of no reward made Valygar feel sick to the stomach. ''They're not even paying me here!''.
Valygar reluctantly promised to help. He really missed Trademeet already. They paid and appreciated him so much better. ''At the very least the ungrateful people of the Umar Hills could of built a statue of me, like they did in Trademeet'' the Stalker muttered.
The man in charge of the destruction of the forest was Lord Igen Tombelthen. Valygar agreed to help him find his ancestors Mithral in exchange that Lord Igen and his men would leave if the Mithral was found. Valygar soon found the Mithral necklace but it was so pretty Valygar, decided he would demand gold for it.
Negotiations soon fell apart and Lord Igen and his men's blood was shed. The necklace was so pretty Valygar decided to wear it, and as there are no cursed necklace's Valygar will wear it for the rest of this play-through.
The limited wish quest.
Following a trail for a lowly gong had left Valygar in a bad mood. This resulted in him promising the troll Grae he would not kill her before going back on his word and then making a fair trade with the ogre mage, for the gong only for Valygar to then kill the ogre mage. As you can see Valygar is a terrible ranger. Bonus screenshots below.
Speaking of being a terrible ranger, Valygar then did the unthinkable... siding with Bodhi (yes that happened).
''FINE THEN!'' Valygar screamed. Minister Lloyd may of taken away the 'official ranger cabin' from him but Valygar still had his own Ranger cabin right above the Umar Hills. Valygar entered the cabin (pictured below) and sulked.
And sulked some more, whilst planning his revenge on Minister Lloyd and the Village...
Tune in for Valygar's revenge on the village!
Step 1. Corrupt the Youth.
That means buying them alcohol and swords, something a REAL ranger wouldn't do.
Step 2. Petty Thievery.
Valygar stole numerous copies of the ''Umar Witch project journal'' and dumped them in his cabin.
Step 3. A (failed) attempt to kill the forest spirit.
Note: I did cheat code her in but she disappeared before Valygar could kill her.
Step 4. Find out the public opinion on him.
As you will see in the below screenshots, the village hates Valygar.
Valygar then killed Nelleck. Making him pay for his comments. Bonus screenshot of another person disliking the former ranger and Nelleck's death.
Step 5. Killing Minister Lloyd and his wife.
Revenge complete! ''That'll show the people of the Umar Hills'', Valygar stated with a big grin.
After successfully gaining revenge on the village of Imnesvale in the Umar Hills, Valygar hung out in the backrooms of the Copper Coronet for an entire week. Drunk, partying, celebrating and often passed out.
Unfortunately Valygar was beginning to run out of coin [503 gold left]. That meant having to do another quest of some sort. Nalia and her troll problem!
Desperate they accepted the quest to save the hold, kill some trolls and gain some money. Nalia could sense the parties desperation and even said that she couldn't trust them.
Anyways the party snuck through the hold, killing a large troll group and searching all the rooms. Nalia's family's stuff was stolen, dogs were killed, trolls were fought off and a flail was formed.
The party cleared out the roofs, opened the gate or doorbridge and cleared out the first and second levels.
Before advancing through the basement [3rd level], Valygar thought it best to recruit Nalia. She knew the way around these parts and besides she was an extra body and shield in case anything bad occurred.
I am very sorry that I have been inactive with this play-through. I will try to play more regularly haha.
Speaking of parties, Valygar was looking forward to celebrating once this quest was over and he got a payday. But first... TORGAL!
A difficult fight, but nonetheless, the Troll was killed. Nalia, was very sad as her father had died but Valygar didn't really care. Insincerely asking for his gold and then leaving.
After that? Valygar promised to clear out the sewers and solve some cult issue. However once coming face to face with the cultists Valygar decided to leave. This was to weird. Even for him.
Vowing to come back another day with a stronger party and a future permanent companion or two (look forward to that
Tune in for part 2 of the Planar Sphere, maybe there are some more cursed items inside? Valygar really wants to collect every single cursed item, you see.
Valygar and his cursed companions carefully crept through the Planar Sphere. There was a large manner of hostile foes, traps, Golems and strange creatures about.
Upon reaching the Navigator's room, Lavok tried to talk to Valygar, who shared the same bloodline as him. Valygar didn't want to hear any word of what Lavok had to say, in his twisted cursed rage.
Once the famed Necromancer was near-death Valygar had to be held back by his companions, in fear he would kill the Necromancer in his fury. After all they didn't know how to leave the Planar Sphere and return back home.
Once learning the secrets of how to escape, what Valygar described as a ''Cursed Sphere'', ironic I know. A demon was killed, it's heart ripped out and fed to the engine room.
Back home again!
Valygar doesn't seem very happy...
Things are also heating up between Dorn and Valygar
He wanted to be out and about looking for as many cursed items as possible, not travelling to some far away hills for who knows what reasons. Aerie note: Valygar had actually forgotten why he was meant to travel to the Windspear hills, he only had the location written in his journal.
Anyway upon the arrival at the hills, the party was greeted by monsters. A fight occurred. The monsters died and it tuned out they were actually humans, not monsters.
Then some fellow came along saying how this was really bad, ''it was an accident'' Valygar argued but the stranger started to make threats, mentioning the order of the most Radiant Heart.
This whole place was a big red flag, so Valygar left. Just in case people did come after him, Valygar reasoned that perhaps a new addition to the party was necessary. That new addition came in the form of Rasaad.
Rasaad once joining had some instant concerns but they were waved away. Onwards to the Temple District. Dorn had some new orders. Trying to show off in front of the recruit, Valygar tried to show off by threatening Guardian Telwyn.
Things soon turned hostile and the Temple of Helm was accidentally wiped out. What a shame.
All the bodies hit the floor.
In his personal hunt for Cursed items, in the monk temple Valygar found a cloak. A cloak which could just about pass as a cursed item. Then the party recruited Hexxat, as a disposable body.
Preparations for the attack on the Helm Camp began...
LET THE BATTLE BEGIN
Now strangely enough, Dorn's dialogue after the battle never occurred. Perhaps as Valygar was in a rage, unable to talk at that moment? I don't know because it should of happened. All enemies had died. Hopefully the quest isn't ruined, but it would be funny if it had as this would be even more of a ''cursed'' run.
One of Valygar's goals was to free Dorn from his demon problem. Clearing away what Valygar noted as, 'annoying' residents, inside of the Tree and the Gorge was a lengthy process but was eventually completed.
The summoning stones were gathered. The party would need help to take on two Demons, though. Anomen was made welcome and recruited. He would be a useful ally. 'Hopefully' Valygar thought.
Valygar was also considering bringing as many possible party members as he could into the tree, they might not be part of the party, but would they really stand idly by when looking at forces of evil such as Demons and Devils?
The goal was to free Dorn of both his demon masters. This would be hard because it would be two tough demon fights after another. The party managed to overpower the first demon, Azothet. Despite Anomen's death.
Despite defeating Azothet (on TWO different occasions) I run into another nasty bug. Because of the cursed weapons, and the main character losing control in battle, the dialogue/Azothet's death was unable to trigger. Eventually it finally triggered on the 3rd attempt.
Images below of that.
Next up was Dorn's current demon master and what a hard fight this would be. Valygar and the party had to pull out all the tricks in the book. Korgan died (but was resurrected) and a lot of animal summons were sacrificed.
Dorn's foul demon master and the other demon lady thing were dead! Dorn was free, but the cost was his powers (HEHE).
Aerie Note - This Cursed run is going great so far.
Now. Remember when the party choose to leave the Unseeing Eye problem to another day (see a previous post in the series)? Well that day was now. Valygar and his party waltzed through and took down the entire Unseeing Eye Cult by force.
No fetch quests or Mr. Nice Guy. No.
I'm confident I said it somewhere in the start of this thread, but I actually did do that! So great minds really do think alike.
That's actually what I did. Consoled the belt in lol.
STATUS UPDATE:
Valygar and Jaheira.
A battle was about to begin. Forced to fight with the Heretic Monks, the battle went well and soon all of the Dark Moon monks were dead. As usual, in most hard battles Korgan died. But then was revived so it was all-good. Screenshots below of the battle.
The blood-shed wasn't over yet. The party of course deliberately started a brawl with the remaining Heretic Monks, and laid waste to their temple. Typical Valygar.
Onwards to Bodhi's final misson! Valygar started a conversation with himself in the Shadow Thief Guildhall. Interesting. Countless thieves were killed and the party drew ever closer to Aran Linvail.
Check in for the next part, because it gets so much better and more entertaining from here!
The leader of the thieves and his body guards were ruthlessly and effectively murdered. It was almost too easy. Minus the fact that someone in the party died. No. Not Korgan, it was Rasaad this time. The Monk fell to an invisible stalker.
By now you should be accustomed to Valygar being a complete jerk in this play-through. But the Ranger has taken his jerkish behaviour to new levels. After killing Aran Linvail, he opened the prison door releasing one of Bodhi's allies, Tizzak who was held captive.
Without even listening to what Tizzak had to say, Valygar attacked and killed him on sight. For no reason. Not fully satisfied, Valygar traveled to Bodhi's Graveyard lair and killed more of Bodhi's allies, in front of her! Bodhi didn't even object!
So after all that, Bodhi had a chat with the party. Each member received 50,000 experience. Plans for sailing away to SpellHold were stalled. What happened next? Breaking into a mage's house the party killed the mages and all of their pets, and were allowed access to the Harper building in the city.
After snooping around in the Harper building, Valygar got into more trouble. Things ended on a little bit of a sour note, and a mysterious Harper took Jaheira away. Always on the look out for new companions, Valygar visited the Temple of the Radiant Heart...
Please welcome the newest companion, Keldorn to the party! Strangely, he had no issues with travelling in the same party as Dorn.
Let's pretend, Keldorn was tricked into thinking Dorn had turned good. After all, Dorn has no demon/devil masters. So that's a good start.
Phew! Long post.
It is weird. You would think the one person Keldorn would for sure fight would be Dorn. Same with Anomen. Dorn is pure evil! It makes no sense in my opinion. Even Valygar and other rangers like Minsc, Druids like Cernd would refuse to travel with Dorn!