On the way to the playhouse, we run into a vampire and a pair of Shadow Thief defectors. The defectors attack, and are easily handled.
Inside, we find that Raelis and Haer'Dalis weren't quite truthful about the gem they wanted - but they do have a good reason for needing it. The troupe calls up a planar conduit to leave, and we help out killing the critters that show up ... until some bounty hunters come. The troupe, and Haer'Dalis with them, are gone.
Well, we're certainly going after Haer'Dalis. He's one of us. And we'd like to rescue the others too.
Still, we're one party member short, and he had some key capabilities. We need to recruit a temporary replacement. For that, we head over to the government district:
He levels up to 11/12, taking Detect Illusion to 100 and Set Traps to 95. Also, he picks up shortbow proficiency. He'll wield a +2 shortbow and acid arrows in combat, but he's mostly there to use wands. As his personal armor is pretty good, I give him AC 6 bracers and a protection amulet rather than conventional armor.
Now, back to the playhouse. Just before entering the portal, Magpie drinks a stolen strength potion (Str 22), Korgan enrages, and Keldorn casts True Sight.
Most of the hunters go down easily. Korgan takes a 31-point Flame Strike, but that's about it. The mage, on the other hand, has gone invisible and apparently dodged at least one tick of True Sight.
Now, track down that mage ... revealed, but Mantle is up. We don't have anything that can break through that. On the other hand, he's near death already. I try to have Rasaad burn him with his Flame Strike wand ... nope, can't target. Improved Invisibility is up. Instead, I have Jan use a Cloudkill wand.
The first tick disrupts his spell, and everyone except the poison-immune Rasaad switches to ranged weapons. Then the second tick comes and finishes the job, before that Mantle expired.
One yuan-ti mage kill for Jan and his wands. Looking it up ... initial Shadow Door, contingent Improved Invisibility. Two ticks of True Sight should have cleared things up for her to be targetable, but some combination of location and timing saved her.
For all that, she only got one successful offensive spell off - a Power Word: Silence on Jan. Absolutely harmless.
We earn lots of items from that encounter, but the two we'll use are Pixie Prick and the Boots of Speed. Sure, a set of +3 chain mail for Haer'Dalis looks nice, but we'd rather accept a slightly worse AC and use a protection item for better saves.
Now, we continue on to the east. A mage thrall comes at us, and weapons are ineffective - dispel. Sadly, I target that poorly and miss her. All right, do non-magical weapons work? Yes.
In fact, we have so many nonmagical weapons that we exhaust her stoneskins before she can finish her spell. With that spell lost and her defenses gone, she dies before she can do anything else.
There are some hidden containers around here, mostly filled with nonmagical ammunition ... and I see a blank spot. I look this one up ... it's NULL.itm in the files. This seems to be another aspect of the bug I noted in the last part; some random treasure items, instead of being converted into random scrolls when SCS is installed, become null. These can't be rerolled in game (they're always nothing), so I just leave them.
The next encounter to the east is a group of yuan-ti, including three mages. The first attackers are several warriors and one of those mages; the mage is defended with PfNM, PfMW, Minor Globe, and a fireshield - but no illusions. I throw a Cloudkill at it, but the first tick has no effect - magic resistance.
Still, I avoid spending one of Keldorn's dispels here. Since the mage isn't protected by illusions, a wand Flame Strike should work - and indeed that disrupts it. I add a second Cloudkill as the other two mages arrive.
While we disrupt most of their spells, one of them does get off a Confusion. Keldorn is the only party member affected, so I hit him with a dispelling arrow to clear that up.
Then a worse spell gets out. Jan is polymorphed into a squirrel ...
He can still use wands, right? Well, not if he's dead. One of the enemy mages follows up with a minute meteor to finish him off. I respond by resurrecting him right back into the battle - a first use of the rod.
Finally, the lead mage goes down to a bolt from Keldorn:
Another mage is still in the Cloudkill, and Rasaad's attack finishes it. One foe remains.
The summon just coming in is a sword spider, by the way. Magpie diverts her attention to it so that it won't hurt Jan too badly. This mage goes down without further trouble, but the yuan-ti mages have evened the score with Jan.
After the cloudkills expire, Magpie makes use of her shiny new boots. They are the most important magical item for a backstabber, after all.
Excellent. One enemy mage removed.
Despite her boots allowing her to retreat, Magpie stays to duel the Female Thrall as the party comes up in support. Kundane is hers, at the cost of some damage. Magpie equips it in her off hand despite a lack of proficiency; that brings her to a full 4 melee APR with the Boomerang Dagger.
Magpie goes for another stab on the wyvern ...
It's not quite fatal, and the wyvern's master spots Magpie through her invisibility. The Master of Thralls is coming to fight.
Its first move is a harmless Silence. The melee attacks are more dangerous, enough so that Magpie drinks a potion for safety. Then the demon teleports:
Right to the archers. Mazzy switches to melee, while Jan retreats. Deprived of its intended target, the nabassu falls to the party's melee attacks.
We've cleared out everything but the Warden and his immediate minions in the main area, but there are still a number of rooms accessible through those fleshy traps. We'll work on them too.
First, in the eastern part of the north corridor, the wolfweres. Magpie strikes with a backstab:
55 damage, out of 66 HP. Only a critical hit could have killed it. She sticks around to kill the greater wolfwere with a second hit before it can regenerate too much, then retreats.
The other wolfweres don't follow. Instead, the party kills a few wandering thralls, before Magpie returns down for more backstabs.
Our second target is the room full of githyanki, in the southern corridor. They are mainly a threat due to their mind blasts, which inflict sleep. We have no immunity items for that, so Magpie drinks a potion of invulnerability for guaranteed saves.
6 points short of the one-hit kill. The githyanki follow her up, knocking out Keldorn with a mind blast - but the rest of the party stays conscious and makes short work of them.
That brings us to the western passage. The first (southern) room isn't too bad:
That was the room's mage, taken out in one hit. From there, Magpie just solos the rest of the room in melee. She needs a couple healing potions, but that's no problem for us.
With the end of this room, Magpie's strength potion finally expires. She'll be doing a lot less damage on normal melee hits now.
The next room just north of that is considerably more dangerous. Magpie fails to kill the Prison Captain in one hit, and retreats from the now buffed mage - into the Warden's sight. The Warden's buffs go up as well, and it's way more than we can fight. Improved Haste and Black Blade of Disaster? Either we dispel those buffs, or we wait for them to expire.
I go for the latter strategy, having Magpie hide in the southern trap room for around twenty rounds. When she leaves, that attracts the attention of the stone golem from the northern trap room and the yuan-ti pack near the Warden. We can handle the warriors easily, but the mages are trouble.
I'm trying to dodge a Greater Malison in that shot, by having Keldorn run away with the boots of speed. It doesn't work, and the party suffers. The enemy follow up with a Confusion, catching the non-raging Korgan. And then, worse. A Flesh to Stone spell hits Keldorn:
We do have some blue Stone to Flesh scrolls, so he's not completely lost yet ...
And then, a Skull Trap takes out Rasaad.
Two party members down - I give up. Reload, and change up the strategy. We can't take on three yuan-ti mages at once without help from something like a Cloudkill or two.
The second try has both golems come after us, along with the snake-men. I summon some distraction critters ...
... but the Clay Golem takes out Rasaad. I abort this try as well.
On the third run, I just avoid that second trap room entirely. Instead, Magpie runs past its entrance under stealth (triggering the Warden's initial spells) and around into the northern corridor, ducking into the empty wolfwere room to throw off any pursuit.
There's still one more room for us to take care of - the western room in the north corridor, holding several efreeti. They can deal a lot of fire damage, so Magpie uses a green scroll and two potions of fire resistance. At 127% (truncated from 150%) resistance, she'll actually heal from fire, offsetting the other damage they deal.
That was a 57-point backstab on the noble. Nowhere near enough to kill it.
The enemies prolong the fight with their gaseous form, but eventually Magpie takes them down.
Now, we'd like to clear out some more of the Warden's spells. Breaking the orb would shut off the traps that allow us to hide, so we don't do that yet. Instead, it's a game of chicken as Magpie repeatedly runs forward to get the Warden's attention and then hides using the efreeti room. When she leaves, the exit puts her well to the east of that room, out of sight of the Warden.
The initial spells were Mirror Image, Improved Haste, Minor Globe, Minor Spell Turning, Shield, Stoneskin, PfMW, Spell Shield, 2x Mord's Sword, and Black Blade of Disaster. Most of that list have expired by now, of course.
The first round of our little game brings out a second PfMW.
The second is his Spell Trigger - Remove Magic, Greater Malison, and Death Spell.
That round also gets the attention of the yuan-ti mages, so we have to deal with them ... and they catch the party essentially unprepared again. Confusion, Skull Trap, and that's half the party in serious trouble.
Normally, we could dispel confusion. But here, with Magpie and Keldorn both affected, waiting it out is the only option.
The rest of the party takes out the enemy mages, but Magpie and Keldorn decide to focus on each other - with predictable results.
Once the Confusion expires, Magpie reverses her act with the rod of resurrection. Add some healing potions, and we're rback in fighting form.
Another run at the Warden draws out his third PfMW - that should be all of them. He had two memorized, plus a contingency. We wait it out, then break the orb. Magpie reaches fighter level 11 and Korgan reaches level 14 with this action.
Go in for the attack ...
Oops. Three PfMW wasn't everything. What's going on here ... the Warden has a few spells outside his main combat script. When he sees the PC after the orb is broken, he casts Sunfire and Mantle, and the remaining thralls die.
Of course, we do have an answer for this. Keldorn can dispel that Mantle, allowing the party to hurt him. He puts a new Stoneskin up after that, which we respond to with a dispelling arrow. And that's the last of his serious resistance.
There are just a few summoned elementals left; we beat them up in melee.
And now, we rescue Haer'Dalis. The quest experience brings new levels for Jan and Keldorn, but only Keldorn (level 13) stays in the party to enjoy that. After a serious challenge, the party is back together.
Incidentally, Haer'Dalis now has two instances each of Minor Sequencer and Contingency; he'll keep piling them up every time he leaves and rejoins the party for any reason. It doesn't matter this run, but I'll fix that next time I have a party that actually casts spells.
With the bard's loyalty secured, it's time for Magpie to win her stronghold. But first, we check out a few of the buildings in the area. One of them contains a horn to summon a warrior, while another contains a hostile party. We open with a backstab:
That's the mage dealt with. Magpie gets out immediately, before the others can retaliate.
She was noticed, however. The warrior Falahar and an Invisible Stalker follow her out.
Those two go down with minimal trouble, and Magpie is ready for the next step. Hide again, an go in for a backstab on the priest Pitre:
He responds by drinking a healing potion, and the rest of the party follows Magpie in to finish him off before he can cast anything. Mazzy switches to melee because of his Physical Mirror protection.
Valeria is still around throwing darts, mostly at Haer'Dalis. She takes him down to 38/56 HP before the warriors get to her and take her down.
Magpie has a choice of two strongholds - either the fighter or thief options. Since she leans more toward the fighting side, we're going to de'Arnise Keep. But first, Mae'var's hall could use a few more traps.
Once we're done there and finally out of the city, we are waylaid by a bunch of orogs and their slaver bosses:
It's not the best place to start; we begin the fight with a fear charge and try to hit the mage with a Sun Soulray, while Mazzy retreats out of the crush of bodies so she can bring her bow to bear.
Rasaad's action is canceled, as the mage has a Shadow Door. Time for a True Sight, then.
That lets Mazzy start focusing on the mage with her bow - but she still gets off a Chaos. Keldorn and Haer'Dalis are confused.
Naturally, Haer'Dalis stands there to get hit a lot, and then Keldorn goes after him. A vexing occurrence.
I can't think of any way to protect the vulnerable bard at first, but then I realize Magpie can distract Keldorn by standing next to him. That draws the paladin's attention, and the Chaos expires naturally without us losing anyone. Whew.
Incidentally, waylays are rare on most travel paths in SoA. The path from Athkatla to de'Arnise Keep is an exception, with a waylay every time. This goes away if you get the stronghold, but a non-fighter can run through all the interesting encounters by repeatedly traveling between Athkatla and the keep.
And now, the party arrives. Trolls greet us, including those infamous spirit trolls.
Well, whatever that one was trying to cast isn't happening. We focus on the spirit troll and kill it quickly, then deal with the rest. With 5 APR of acid arrows and 5.5 APR of melee fire weapons, this party doesn't have any trouble keeping trolls down.
The second group has their spirit troll get off a Greater Command. One party member down - Keldorn, who is the most vulnerable with his save of 5.
Magpie, Korgan, and Mazzy have better saves. Rasaad has magic resistance. Haer'Dalis has elven resistance. Greater Command is hard to disrupt with its casting time of 1, but this party is resistant enough that we can just keep fighting. And it will only get better as our levels and equipment improve.
After clearing the rest of the exterior without incident and speaking to Nalia, we enter the keep. The first big fight comes in the main hall, where we meet a pack with multiple spirit trolls:
The damage to our party in that shot comes from an Unholy Blight we weren't quick enough to disrupt. Four out of six party members are vulnerable due to being Good.
The regular trolls ... no problem. They just don't hit us very often.
Upstairs, we face several small packs and suffer a few spells - a Flame Strike and a pair of Unholy Blights.
That spot has a little trouble; there's a troll stuck in the wall, flickering in and out of visibility. I just move on; maybe it'll get out eventually.
Finally, this area has a yuan-ti mage. We draw off its support and go for a backstab...
Not quite lethal. Its spells go up before a second hit can land, so Magpie retreats. Haer'Dalis follows up with a Cloudkill from out of sight ...
Dead on the first tick.
Rather than waiting for the cloud to expire, I send Rasaad in to loot the room. The key is ours, opening up the rest of the level. Glaicus gets a dispel:
That's two flail heads for us.
A stuck-up noble lady isn't exactly grateful for her rescue ... this party has plenty to say to her.
Beyond her room, we walk past the golems to pick up the third flail head, and go back down to forge the Flail of Ages. Mazzy has a new primary melee weapon, and the only change to that will be further upgrades of it.
Now, we head outside. The otyugh hits Magpie and inflicts its slowing disease, while Haer'Dalis reaches level 17. Butcher the dogs, then open the drawbridge for the guards. We deal with a few monsters on the roof, then return to the golems.
The flesh and stone golems are trivial; surround them and beat them down practically before they can react. The clay golem is trickier, but we at least have magical blunt weapons everyone can wield. Mazzy and Rasaad are in the best shape, of course. It goes down without hitting anyone, and Mazzy reaches level 14.
Finally, there's the iron golem. Against that, I go for an unfair fight - throwing Azuredge from outside the door. Then the golem surprises me ...
I did not know that the golem could use that ability at range. And Magpie is vulnerable. After that, I change things up. The gas cloud is a save vs death at -2, and Magpie is at zero - not safe. If I switch over to Mazzy instead, she can get a save of -1 for immunity to the cloud.
Some time later ...
There. The axe will be a staple for Korgan; he now dual-wields troll-killing weapons.
Down in the basement, Rasaad sneaks past the umber hulks to plant the dog stew. Then we go to kill them.
That wand shot takes down four of them. The fifth hulk is a little off to the side, so Magpie sneaks in and melees it starting with a backstab.
Now, for the final room, we step out to bring in Nalia. She replaces Haer'Dalis, who goes back to Athkatla. And ... oops.
I really should have turned off AI. Well, at least I had a save right before that. Reload.
Nalia sets up with archery and wands. Incidentally, the studded leather on her mage paperdoll only shows up as a difference in belt and cuff colors. She levels up to mage 13 and takes longsword proficiency, but equips a short sword (Arbane, for the immunities).
Now, to the big fight against TorGal and his followers. My plan is to draw them toward the party, rather than fighting on their turf. Nalia puts on the boots of speed and heads forward to exchange some taunts before retreating. Put down a Cloudkill, then close the door.
The enemies stand around and take a lot of damage, but they don't die outright. Then, several rounds later, a giant troll figures out how to open the door. That's when it goes bad. The trolls attack, backed by a pair of level 14 yuan-ti mages. One of them throws out a sequencer of three Skull Traps ...
And that's not the end of it. Keldorn falls as well. Then Mazzy. With half the party down, I give up and reload.
All right, take two. This time, I'm going with two Cloudkills before I close the door. Nalia takes ten damage, but it's worth it. One of those mages dies outright.
Then the clouds expire, so I open the door for another shot. The Umber Hulk Elder was waiting at the door, and charges out to fight us. Alone.
A bit later, a Giant Troll reaches the door to open it, and the main fight is on. Fortunately, the other mage goes down to the Cloudkills. We just have to worry about the trolls now.
Mazzy switches to melee here because of her flail's slowing effect; hitting Tor'Gal with that would make things much easier for us.
A hit from TorGal slows Korgan, so I counter it with an oil of speed. The spellcasting spirit trolls fall, but we're taking serious damage in melee.
And then, the drawback of not having our bard strikes. Tor'Gal uses his Cloak of Fear, and Nalia panics.
Finally, the big troll goes down, to a hit from Korgan.
After a bit of a wait for lingering effects to clear up and some healing, we find the old lord's body. Without him, Nalia will lose the keep - but she has a plan. And Magpie agrees.
Spells may have power, but fighters rule. Magpie is now the lady of the keep.
The big fight with TorGal is, with SCS, very sensitive to difficulty. At Insane difficulty, TorGal's allies include those two level 14 mages I noted, which can be very dangerous. At lower difficulties, it's much less scary.
Quest completion XP brings Rasaad to level 15, and a major boost in his melee attack abilities. At 13.5 average damage per hit, the level 15 monk fist is on par with endgame weapons.
Now that we have the keep's treasure, we can start chapter 3. We head back to Athkatla, trading Nalia for Haer'Dalis. Then, an unexpected reward - talking to Samuel Thunderburp with Mazzy in the party earns us a free pair of stealth boots. We don't need them much, but it's always nice to have more reliable stealth.
Anyway, the party rests at the inn. Night falls, and we head out to the graveyard. Bodhi makes her pitch, and half the party argues against it. No. We're dealing with Gaelan instead. Pay him the 15K, and we're invited to the Shadow Thieves' basement.
In here, Keldorn's patience is tested:
Still, we can work with them for a greater end. The Amulet of Power is particularly useful; Keldorn wears it for instant-cast abilities and the level drain protection. Magpie gets the +2 ring, and is the first in the party to get her spell save down to 1.
We emerge from the guild hall to find the thief Sansuki menaced by vampires:
With two characters immune to drain and charm up front, we're in much better shape to fight vampires. Korgan takes a hit or two, but no level drain.
Talking to Mook scrambles the party's positions as usual, but it's not hard to get the right people out front against Lassal.
Sadly, he can't die here. His immortality item even makes him immune to Azuredge's instant death effect.
That quest reward brings some more levels. Magpie reaches thief level 14 (Detect Illusion +25 to 90) and Korgan reaches level 15 (hammer specialization).
On the way to the Promenade for some shopping, the party is waylaid by slavers.
Haer'Dalis hits them with a harp Confusion, and their mage hits back with a Chaos. We save, they don't.
Keldorn activates True Sight to spot the invisible thief, and we mop up easily. Not quite perfectly, but nothing the regeneration ring can't handle.
This trip is for shopping - we visit Deidre and buy the Mercykiller ring, so that Magpie can lay traps with a 100% success rate. The stealth bonus is nice too. We also take the opportunity to loot the fence Jayes, then head over to the bridge district to meet with some traitorous thieves. Magpie goes for a backstab ...
Oh well. It's not like these guys pose any real threat.
The thieving spree continues. To the cutpurse ... not present. How about the Black Market Thief in the slums?
On the way there, bandits waylay us. We spend another True Sight and a Confusion.
Their spell confuses Haer'Dalis, and the enemy thieves keep using invisibility potions despite the True Sight.
That leads Keldorn to use a dispel, clearing up both the invisibility and the confusion. Then we reach the slums, try to steal ... caught. Oops. I didn't notice that my thieving potion got dispelled along with the rest.
Reload, and the ambush doesn't happen this time. We loot the thief's stock without incident.
Now, I'd like to work on Hexxat's quest, but she conflicts with two party members. Some finesse is called for. I temporarily drop Mazzy (her conflict is harder to work around) and pick up Hexxat. Head outside, but no Cabrina. We'll have to wait. And with that, we let her go again; the conflict with Keldorn and the quest will have to wait for another day.
With that plan canceled, it's time for Rasaad's quest. We head over to the city gates and receive directions to the Twofold meeting. We also see the thief Hanj menacing a merchant, and put a stop to that. Instead, we loot the merchant's stock ourselves. 540 gold spent on a few cheap scrolls, nothing spent on all the other expensive items. Just ... skip the +1 medium shields. If you click on one, you have to buy both or exit.
Now, on to the amphitheater. We dispose of some angry bears, then Geld and his wolves.
A fireball to open the combat, and some missed backstabs. No damage taken on our side.
Continuing on, the party reaches the main meeting but turns south to find the Vagrant Blades. Magpie intervenes in their argument ... with greed. They don't take it well.
The leader Cless Ironeye is first to fall. Then the mage Aldun Forgecaster doesn't have any mantle-type spells up, so Mazzy hits him with an acid arrow. Whatever he was trying to cast, it just got disrupted.
The battle continues, with Jaden casting a lightning bolt ... that only hits Keldorn and one of her teammates. Not so good on the aim there. Soon, nearly all of them have fallen.
That last panicked foe goes down to one of Mazzy's arrows, and we reap all of the rewards. None of them are particularly great, but there are some slots where we don't have much of anything right now.
Now, back to the meeting. Mazzy switches to melee mode and activates her buffs, as monks move quickly and have bonuses against missiles. Rasaad speaks to Hammerhelm, and a big fight breaks out.
The end result ... we're just better than melee than they are. It doesn't help that some of the monks waste time drinking oils of speed to absolutely no effect; this is an oversight in the SCS routines that give potions to NPCs.
Korgan rages, Rasaad activates Greater Sun, and Haer'Dalis uses his last Confusion charge of the day:
Two confused, four saved. These monks don't have enough levels for magic resistance.
Magpie falls into the yellow, but regenerates back into the green before the battle is even over - and that's the worst we face.
That encounter earns us directions to the heretic temple, and we head that way. A group of monks accost us to accuse Rasaad of murdering a Sun Soul chapter - worrisome. Thankfully, we are able to convince them that he is not guilty, and these "Tears of Selune" leave.
At the temple, we deal with things outside first. Set some traps on the bridge, speak to a bear, unlock and open his cage ... the animal keeper objects, and several nearby monks join in the fight.
Oops. A few Sun Soulrays hit us, but I'm more worried about the unnecessary killing. As it turns out, that's not a problem.
We pass the trials inside, earning several useful items. The gauntlets are very nice for Rasaad, and the helmet is another AC booster with some nice abilities. Then news comes of an attack, and we choose to stand with the Twofold monks against the Sharran aggression.
Mazzy buffs up and switches to melee, potions bring the other warriors to strength 19, and we're ready to go. Add some shorter-duration buffs once we exit - Fight!
The assassins naturally drink invisibility potions as soon as they're revealed. Oh well. We'll catch them eventually. It's a chaotic mess of a fight, but Keldorn lands a dispel on the enemy mage and Mazzy rushes out to take advantage:
A Chaos spell gets Keldorn and Rasaad. I consider having Magpie pull out the Elven Court bow to dispel them ... no. Their missile AC is just too good; she would need a roll of 15 or so to hit them. Magpie goes after a priest instead. Then, Mazzy takes out the mage.
Victory comes before too long, and we drink some potions to heal.
With Rasaad confused as the battle ends, the Master of Combat runs off without any real conversation. The ending conversation in which Rasaad makes a choice between the Twofold Trust and the party just doesn't happen.
We still get the experience, and the romance progresses properly. Does skipping that dialogue do anything at all? Maybe.
Now, back to Athkatla ... where Haer'Dalis is arrested. I know what's coming, so before I go too far clearing his name, I rest and set some traps in the Balthis estate.
This quest involves some running around, and bandits waylay us - the same group that a reload wiped out earlier.
It's not a hard battle. Mazzy gets slowed, Magpie takes a minor hit, and that's it.
Then the bandit waylay happens again. They try to run instead of fighting:
We kill some of them before they can escape. Free experience and loot is always nice.
And then, with Haer'Dalis back in the party, we return to the Balthis estate. The three traps go off...
Janos drinks a healing potion, so we'll need more damage. Haer'Dalis uses the Cloudkill wand. The trap poison ticks, he drinks another healing potion, and he becomes visible...
Switch to ranged attacks for everybody but Rasaad. Our enemy's dialogue triggers, the missiles arrive ... dead.
Janos is a level 20 mage with 96 HP. A very dangerous fight - so we made it as unfair as possible.
I tried to fit in a typo I made writing this part, but it was a stretch. Instead, I decided this was the best place for that traditional mistaken class, the Rouge.
It took two hours for me to prepare this post, and that's with the content already written. So many failed upload rolls. On a related note, if you ever spot any issues with misplaced or duplicated pictures, please post them in the thread. There's no way I'm spotting them myself, since I usually fail to load the pictures when I open the thread to post.
With that little case of mistaken identity cleared up, it's time to work with another temporary party member. We return to the docks and pick up Jaheira, with Keldorn taking a break. The Harper hold comes first, and we must deal with some mages to prove our worth.
Two mages and some undead/construct help. Korgan goes after one mage and Mazzy the other, to keep them disrupted and not casting.
Also, that's Magpie with her Detect Illusion. Soon, the enemy defenses collaps and the mages die.
Some damage taken, of course. Jaheira is suffering from the animation of an MMM hit in that shot.
We pick up a bunch of scrolls, and the anti-bard scimitar Shazzellim. Since it can't be used by good characters, Jaheira is the most likely party member to wield it on the rare occasions that its ability matters.
The Harper building is a non-combat zone this time. We find the bird, and deliver it to Xzar:
Lucette is allowed to leave, and then Meronia picks up Jaheira. With this, Rasaad reaches level 16 and takes Single-Weapon Style, while Mazzy goes to level 15 and puts her third dot into flails.
While we wait for Jaheira to become available again, we pick up Keldorn. Over at the Bridge District, we rob the cutpurse blind and then go on a scribing spree. It takes three potions for Haer'Dalis to scribe with a 100% chance, but it's worth it. And since I don't have to worry about his spellbook being full when I'm done, I can just erase everything indiscriminately and move faster. The spree brings Haer'Dalis to level 18, Korgan to level 16, and Magpie to fighter level 12. She is now specialized in the katana. With that in mind, let's get her one.
Over at the guarded compound, a nishruu from the summoning trap is first to attack. Hide the charged items, and beat it up.
Something in SCS removes the fiend, so the summons don't fight each other here. The efreeti is the only dangerous one:
We take some damage from its fire, but nobody drops below the green.
Now, upstairs to the main fight. Several things happen very fast:
That's Sion eating a dispelling arrow before his buffs even go up, and Korgan tripping a harmless Breach trap. The 14d6 acid damage on the other side of the pillar ... that we'll avoid.
Since Stalman doesn't have Physical Mirror up, he's getting the next dispelling arrow. We fire off more ranged attacks targeting Sion ... down before he can do anything at all.
The Cloudkill is something of a liability now; it'll damage us just as much as the enemy if we go into it. Still, it disrupts Stalman's spell.
Koshi saves against the domination effect from Korgan' helm, and the arrow reaches Stalman to dispel his buffs.
Koshi comes into melee range, and I pull the lead elements back to focus on him. Then True Seeing ticks and reveals Ketta also in melee range:
Which one to target first ... no choice. Ketta immediately drinks an invisibility potion, so it's Koshi or nothing.
And then, Korgan takes out Koshi.
Haer'Dalis immediately identifies the weapon for Magpie's use. Celestial Fury will be her primary weapon for a very long time.
While all this is happening, Mazzy keeps shooting at Stalman - down. She basically soloed him.
With most of the party in melee position, the thief Ketta is quickly slaughtered.
That just leaves the two monstrous fighters. Haer'Dalis is distracting one, so we focus on the other - dead. Switch targets, and we have our victory shortly.
We hit the enemy spellcasters so hard and so fast they didn't get a single spell off.
Now, the loot. Magpie has claimed Celestial Fury, and Keldorn gets the Gift of Peace to boost his sadly lacking saves. There's a wand of paralyzation in one of the chests (our first of that type), and everything else goes in the bag.
On the way to our favorite inn for a rest, we run into another vampire in the streets:
She saves against the first Azuredge hit. She doesn't save against the Celestial Fury stun or the second Azuredge hit.
The thief, after being revealed by True Sight, drinks an invisibility potion. That doesn't last against Magpie's Detect Invisibility, and he is easily dealt with.
After resting, Jaheira comes back and we let Keldorn go again. She has been called back to the Harper Hold and wants to bring us along. A few buffs before entering ...
Two mages to deal with here. Bessen gets a dispelling arrow too early, before his buffs go up. Nadinal gets the second dispelling arrow, and Mazzy follows up with acid arrows so he can't recover. The Eyes of the Beholder helm claims its first victim:
Incidentally, Galvarey is an odd build. He has paladin abilities - Lay on Hands, 10x Detect Evil, 6x Protection from Evil - but is officially a (level 14) lawful evil fighter with grandmastery in his primary weapon. No paladin save bonus, and he's not scripted to use any of those paladin abilities.
While the fight is pretty smooth in general, Haer'Dalis fails his save against a Chaos.
I think I spent a dispel on him, but I'm not sure.
Galvarey comes out of his domination a turn later ... it's over in moments after that.
For most parties, the Reaching Ring is a major reward here. For this party, that's just some junk to sell.
I try to pick up Montaron's body ... and get a bugged item instead. Immovable, with no picture.
Edit the save to fix that, and we get the experience. Then I head over to the graveyard district to entomb him properly:
He may have been a nasty little thief, but he deserves better than a barrel. Maybe some necromancer will raise his body as a servant. Xzar would have liked that.
While we're here, we also return Wellyn's bear so he can rest. And then, we travel to run through Jaheira's quest. On this non-romance path, all but the last step are in-game timers.
A few other things happen along the way, like this vampire encounter:
Picking up Azuredge clearly made her a target. Well, I suppose a dispel is needed. Magpie shoots a dispelling arrow - success.
We've done pretty well at avoiding level drain hits until now, but that luck couldn't hold out forever. As seen in the picture, Haer'Dalis took one.
Then Mazzy gets dominated again, despite her spell save of 2. That's some serious bad luck. Another level drain hit comes in as well, on Rasaad this time. We didn't take that much damage, but we'll definitely need a rest to recover.
The dispelling arrows did work well; with Magpie's THAC0 of 1 using the Elven Court Bow, she hit Mazzy two times out of two. Jahiera took some hits as well, but she's protected from drain because of the Amulet of Power.
I check with the local priest ... scrolls of restoration are cheaper than temple Greater Restoration. I just use some of my stockpiled scrolls, then.
While I'm in the area, Magpie lays more traps for Mae'var's forces. Then rest at the Sea's Bounty, and trigger Baron Ployer's revenge plot.
After a bit of investigation, we confront him - dead before his hired mages can even teleport in.
Then two of the mages go down before they can do anything. Only one lasts long enough to put up a mirror image.
The last one is interrupted casting an enchantment spell, and dies soon after.
And then, one last bit of banter before we hit the road. Korgan hits on Mazzy in his extremely crude way:
Will they bridge their differences? Will Korgan be able to moderate himself for Mazzy's sake? You won't find out next time, because it's still Jaheira's turn in the spotlight. That's right, she has so much content that it doesn't all fit into one part.
Now we're in the pointless travel phase of things. Naturally, that leads to some random encounters. The bandits decide to fight this time, too.
This one's a bit of trouble, because that mage has a PfMW up and we don't have Keldorn along to dispel it. We can use nonmagical weapons, but that'll take some time to work through the defenses. Before we can do that, a Chaos takes Haer'Dalis and Mazzy out of the fight.
The mage becomes visible, and I try to hit him with a Sun Soulray to disrupt his next spell ... nope. He won't be targetable until Magpie can dispel his illusions. Thankfully, that next spell was just a useless PW: Silence.
The illusions go down, and Magpie attacks the mage - nope, contingency Improved Invisibility. He casts another spell - PW: Sleep. Haer'Dalis is really out of it now.
A Teleport Field goes up, and it looks like we've finally worn through the stoneskins to start dealing real damage.
And then, a thrown dagger from Rasaad finishes off the mage.
Now, to stop Mazzy from killing anyone. Magpie gets out the bow - success on the second shot. Mazzy is clear, and we just have to wait for the spells on Haer'Dalis to end. He snaps out of confusion just before waking, and we're good to go.
For all the stress of this encounter, it was rewarding. Rasaad goes up to level 17, and Mazzy goes to level 16.
After resting in safety at the keep and healing up, we're back to traveling. We arrive in the docks, and Reviane confronts us:
Jaheira gets out the killer scimitar ... critical miss. And on reflection, that was the wrong target anyway. Reviane was right there in the party's face, and Korgan gets the killing blow on her.
Put Shazzellim away and go back to animal forms. There's one more chance for that sword to do its thing.
But first, we have the rest of Reviane's party to deal with. Mazzy goes after the cleric with a dispelling arrow followed by acid arrows. This isn't quite fast enough to stop the Holy Smite, but that's a harmless spell since it targets a good party member some distance from Korgan.
The mage has PfMW up, so we get out the normal weapons. He has hit us with a Greater Malison, but no other offensive spells yet.
And then the Malison comes home to roost. A Chaos confuses half our team, and the mage follows up with a new Stoneskin. We're in trouble ...
But then, the PfMW runs out. The mage doesn't last long after that.
But it's not over. We need to stop the confused half of our party from killing any innocents. Mazzy is the first target - not only is she the most dangerous with her 5 APR, but she can use her bow to dispel more allies.
Success, but not before Mazzy lands a nasty crit on Haer'Dalis.
Magpie hits Haer'Dalis with her next arrow, while it takes two shots for Mazzy to hit Rasaad.
And there's the true victory. We'll take some time to recover, but no innocents were harmed. The battle brings Haer'Dalis to level 19.
Magpie lays a final set of traps in Mae'var's guildhall, and then we visit the government district for some reputation. Hand in a head and a body - reputation up to 15, so Jaheira will get the good reward at the end of her quest. This gets Mazzy's attention:
We travel some more, enduring a visit from Dermin. The fighter stronghold progresses; Magpie expels Lastin from the guard, pays for the medicine, and raises taxes for a profit; the happiness bonus for being nice in the events balances the penalty for taxing the peasants, and at a profit.
With this, Jaheira reaches druid level 11 for an insignificant hit point bonus. Another Dermin visit, and then Terminsel shows up - Magpie pickpockets him repeatedly for a lot of goodies.
All that bling is the real main reward for Jaheira's quest. We'll be able to give everyone +2 protection items before long, and that will be the end of ever using enchanted armor.
Of course, that means it's time to go to Jaheira. Back in Athkatla, a night encounter comes up. This one is added by UB - Arkanis and some friends slaughter vampires.
We add our support, getting some kills with no hits taken in return.
Korgan's rage expires just as we enter the Harper building. He'll be fighting those mercenaries with a penalty; the "winded" state is a -2 penalty to attack, damage, and AC, plus an inability to rage again for five rounds. Mazzy's buffs are still live, though.
Still, this bunch are easy to handle.
Jaheira rejoins the party, and we go back downstairs for the second batch of mercenaries.
That's two backstabs on Haer'Dalis, who is otherwise standing around doing basically nothing. The nonmagical weapons are out because the mage has a PfMW up.
Magpie catches the thief with her next Detect Illusion tick, and our attacks on the mage bear fruit.
Revealed and alone, that thief doesn't last.
Now that Mae'var's place is fully trapped, I start working on the Cowled Wizards. Lay some traps, use the Ring of Air Control to trigger a warning. We may not cast spells, but we're still going to take every opportunity to kill those jerks.
Then, at the keep, I lay some traps for Dermin. He shows up after one more rest.
Jeremon goes down first, and an enemy casts a Slow at us. Only Jaheira fails her save.
Of course, we've been fighting back; Mazzy has dispelled the enemy buffs with her arrows.
Then Rasaad takes down Dermin.
That's it. No more bards to fight. Well, aside from a hopelessly low-level one in Dorn's ToB content. Shazzellim's special ability will see no use this game.
We clear up the remaining foes with ease, and get back to pointless travel...
This leads to the final shadow war encounter - Bodhi herself killing a bunch of thieves.
We beat her down, but she doesn't stick around to die.
Then another keep event; the priest Bolumir joins. And this is where I realize my mistake; the final event of Jaheira's quest is a real-time wait, not anything in game. I wait that out ...
The Harper Pin is ours, along with two more +2 protection items. Korgan's old +2 plate is now completely useless. The pin isn't something we can use ... yet.
And with that, we're done with Jaheira. We leave her in the keep's basement without talking to her, then head back to Athkatla to pick up Keldorn again.
With the party back together, what do we do first? Taunt some Cowled Wizards.
And kill them. This will be our spot for all of the Cowled Wizard killing; set traps, use the ring of air control, and watch them die.
Now, to actually deal with Mae'var's guild. Edwin hands over the key and goes to the Copper Coronet, leaving us to pick up the evidence. Renal orders us to kill Mae'var - gladly. We'll start from the top.
The traps kill one shadow thief; the reinforcements appear too late. The monk drinks an oil of speed, because she's an idiot. With several warriors in immediate melee range, she goes down quickly.
There are also a few reinforcements to kill - no big deal. We don't take any damage on this floor.
On the ground floor, it's Zyntris that the traps eliminate - too fast for him to summon reinforcements.
The other named thief gets a set of reinforcements in, but this floor is less populated than usual.
Those thieves do get one nasty hit in - a backstab on Haer'Dalis.
We deal with that thief, and then it's down to the basement.
So much for the leader, and any mage spells.
We head forward to deal with the rest of the party. Their thieves try going invisible, so Keldorn gets on the case with a True Sight.
With any backstabs eliminated, the priest is the only dangerous enemy. Mazzy shoots him down while our melee forces deal with the others, and the mop-up is easy.
Finally, it's back to Renal to report our success.
The non-stronghold offer, of course. Magpie reaches thief level 15, getting Detect Illusion up to 100 and starting to invest in stealth.
Now, it's time to resume our adventures with Hexxat. Mazzy takes a break in the Copper Coronet back rooms, and the vampire rejoins...
Goodbye, Hexxat.
Seconds pass.
Hello, Hexxat.
Keldorn will have no further problems working with Hexxat. Conflict successfully avoided.
And now we have to wait a bit more for nightfall. I decide to do something productive and upgrade that summoning horn we have with a diamond.
On the way to the edge of the promenade, night falls and Cabrina appears. Time to clear out a tomb.
After dealing with some traps, we meet some monks and choose to cooperate. The umber hulks are no big deal, but the illithids are a real threat:
No special preparation here; our saves are good enough that I'm not worrying. That comes back to bite me, as Rasaad gets stunned; his spell save is 4.
The monks charge forward and take the lead positions ... except that one of my own got there first. Korgan gets both of their attention, and pays the price.
Three hits, with the latter two in quick succession. We'll be using that rod of resurrection shortly.
And with that, Keno hands over the key and the way forward is clear.
There's a dialogue trigger here I haven't tripped before; if you bring Hexxat into the alhoon's room, she speaks a bit of her mother and her mortal life.
On forward, to some containers we are warned about. Naturally, we loot them - Jade Fang dagger acquired. The mummies attack, and we dispose of them with no damage taken.
One of the other containers here has an invalid item:
I do a manual reroll on this one, since I can't leave the area. Result: horn coral gem.
Now, time for the next challenge. The ghost wants us to face a party? I'm sure he won't mind if we, ah, prepare the field beforehand.
And then, a dirty trick - dismiss Hexxat for a moment to recharge her abilities.
With six traps instead of just three, we have a clear advantage. Hexxat would suggest just taking the key, but Magpie has never been one to run from a challenge.
The mage goes down instantly, just as planned. The cleric is near death, and we're in position to finish him immediately. That just leaves a bunch of warriors. Easy.
Oh, and those icons? It's been a long time since this party rested. We'll do that as soon as we leave the tomb.
After that, Nan Kung Chi is not much of a boss at all.
Sure, the lucky electrical hit there helped. We were going to win quickly anyway.
After that, divert to kill a bunch of ghostly monks and priests. They're easy enough to kill, and excellent experience. Keldorn reaches level 15 and takes bastard sword proficiency. Korgan reaches level 17 - base saves 0/0/4/4/1.
There's one little hiccup:
Keno lives to fight for a few seconds after that.
With that, we're done with this tomb. The party returns to the Copper Coronet to retake Mazzy and give the party a well-deserved rest.
The pictures in this part aren't quite in the order they were taken; I did a bit of backtracking at one point. Since this doesn't put any action shots out of order, I swapped two pictures for the sake of narrative clarity.
It's time to venture down into the sewers under Athkatla and deal with that cult problem the temples have been worrying about. We've been into the sewers before, but not very far.
First, we head toward the southwest corner of the area, where an otyugh waits. Since approaching too close will spawn in some trouble I don't want yet, I have Haer'Dalis throw a Cloudkill at the otyugh.
Ah ... that was Roger's troll. Huh. I didn't realize it was there even if you didn't get the quest. Incidentally, SCS upgrades standard trolls to 8 HD so they don't die to Cloudkill, but the Sea Troll is unchanged at 6 HD and vulnerable.
With the otyugh sufficiently softened up, I go close enough to trigger that trouble I was talking about - beholders.
And, as seen in the picture, my solution is to have Rasaad turn into a mustard jelly. 7/2 attacks per round at 5d4 damage, with immunity to everything a beholder can do - including the melee attacks, since they deal piercing damage. With the cloak of the sewers lasting 20 rounds, it's easily enough time to deal with a small pack like this. If the killing isn't fast enough for your tastes, you can also drink a strength potion to speed it up.
Doing things in this order does have one consequence: Roger only pays 250 gold for dealing with the troll. If you talk to him first and get the quest, he pays twice as much.
Down below, I discover something neat: it's possible to disarm a trap while wearing heavy armor:
Issue the order with the armor off, then put the armor on while in motion. In this case, I did that at the auto-pause for spotting the shadows. When you arrive, the disarm order goes through - and that heavy armor doesn't penalize the skill. A fighter/thief in heavy armor consistently works very well.
Retreat back toward the party, and an ambush comes.
It's ettercaps in vanilla; one of the mods I have changes that to the slightly more interesting hellhounds. We also face those shadows, and an ooze mephit from the other side. Still, not much trouble. The Ooze Mephit casts a Stinking Cloud, but we have no fear. Haer'Dalis only fails his save on a natural 1, and the rest of the party can't fail at all.
For the gas room, I send in Keldorn and an enraged Korgan, both drain-immune. They take some damage from the Cloudkill, but nothing they can't regenerate. We get the key from Gaal, and head over to the way down. There are some spectral undead in the way:
Mazzy goes after the wraiths with Azuredge, and good positioning handles the rest. Only Keldorn was ever in position to be attacked by wraiths; he took a hit, but was immune to the drain with his amulet.
Down in the lower reaches, there's a summoning trap that can be triggered five times. A Wandering Horror and two sword spiders each time ... with Bard Song, we're not afraid.
Well, all right, the fifth one lasts long enough to use its Death Fog and inflict a bit of damage.
Clear up a few monsters, answer some riddles to open a path, and it's time for the second group of beholders in this quest. They can't get up the stairs to follow properly, so I'm going with Cloudkills here. Magpie scouts under stealth, while Haer'Dalis uses the wands from a safe distance:
That's one. The beholders wander a bit, but not too far. Again, not quite in the same spot:
I see an "Injured" and a "Badly Injured" - time for a third shot. A Gauth is first to die.
Then a beholder, followed by two more. I send Rasaad in against the last gauth, but it falls to the toxic clouds before he can arrive. Five kills for the bard.
After waiting for the clouds to disperse, we press on. Some shadows and shadow fiends pose no problem. Against the Empathic Manifestation ... well, it's a good thing we're doing this before Spellhold. Although I do have some scrolls I could use if push came to shove.
Nice line from Mazzy, too. This forgotten temple should definitely have a feeling of wrongness.
Now that we have half the rod, it's time for the undead village. The regular undead are no match for us; we don't even take any hits clearing the outside.
Inside the hut, we initially avoid the infamous lich spawn trigger using the east entrance. That allows us to recover the gauntlets of dexterity and set a few traps:
Not the best; that's only three of the level 11-15 traps, which do 2d8+5 missile damage each along with some irrelevant poison. Still, it'll take some HP off the enemies.
Retreat, activate the spawn, and send Mazzy in buffed and alone. She plans to dodge any spells with her double-haste. First, the regular undead come out; since the lich hasn't noticed us yet, I have the party join in.
They're almost all dead when the lich notices and gets involved. A Horrid Wilting ...
Dodged. The remaining normal undead follow us out and are quickly destroyed.
Now, for the lich. It's protected by Spell Turning, Shield, Protection from Fire, Protection from Magical Energy, Stoneskin, Protection from Magical Weapons, and Immunity: Abjuration. I can't hurt it without a dispel, and I can't dispel it for 20 rounds.
All right, then, I'll wait. A few rounds later, the initial PfMW wears off. Mazzy goes in with Azuredge ...
One throw. One kill. The relevant stats ... Mazzy is level 16, with all three of her buffs active. Azuredge wielded without proficiency has 3 APR at THAC0 1, dealing 1d6+6 missile damage, plus undead disruption for an additional 1d6+4 missile damage and destruction unless the target saves at -4. Liches have great saves vs spell (1), but not versus death (8). AC 0, -2 vs missile; Mazzy hits on a 3 with a 55% chance of killing. No damage until the Stoneskin is down, of course.
And now, the beholder hive. For the larger numbers in here, I exploit a weakness of the SCS AI. One potion for Rasaad (currently level 17 for 51 MR), and he's immune to all of their attack rays.
But what about the anti-magic rays? Can't they just dispel that protection and go on to kill him? They could, but they won't. The vanilla beholder AI would, but the SCS improvements change the rules for when to use those rays. As they now grant temporary magic immunity protecting from other rays, beholders don't use their antimagic rays unless there's something to dispel or the spell failure debuff matters. The conditions under which an antimagic ray may be used:
(1) Target is another beholder, in a blind, confused, charmed, or swarmed state.
(2) Target has a spellcasting class (bard, cleric, druid, mage, shaman, sorcerer).
(3) Target is buffed with Physical Mirror, Chaotic Commands, Protection from Petrification, Death Ward, stoneskin, protection from magic weapons, invisibility, improved invisibility, Bless, Chant, haste, or mirror images. Spells and other temporary effects only; no while-equipped item effects.
As long as we avoid this list of effects - not hard for a warrior to do - we need not fear being dispelled.
So then, Rasaad goes in with his single potion protecting him, and kicks all the beholders' ... eyes.
Having some healing potions is a good idea, as the beholders do sometimes notice their eye rays are being resisted and move to attack in melee.
During this, Haer'Dalis levels up to 20 and Rasaad to 18. I take the levels mid-battle for the APR boost on Rasaad. Haer'Dalis takes two-weapon mastery.
After not very long at all, there aren't any more beholders to fight. Now, for the blind priests. Rather than charge in with everyone, I drop a Cloudkill on them and send in Rasaad:
No more summoned animals. And now, they try and fail to cast spells while standing around in the poisonous cloud and being beaten on by a monk.
16 damage taken, total. A complete success. They didn't get off a single offensive spell.
And now, the boss. Reform the Rift Device and use it on the Unseeing Eye:
... and, for the first time in my experience, that isn't enough. The Eye rebuffs, and summons in a pair of Death Tyrants.
Well, now it's time for the fourth anti-beholder tactic of the quest: scramble in the face of the ambush and hope to kill them before anything too bad hits us. Keldorn dispels the Improved Mantle and finishes off the Unseeing Eye.
Beholder disintegrate is a save vs spell with no modifier, and Keldorn saves on a 3 (level 15, +2 from equipment). That's a 10% chance of failing the save and needing a reload in the shot. Thankfully, he made the save.
The death ray - that's no problem. Only Haer'Dalis is vulnerable, and I'm getting him out. Before I can, he's hit by an antimagic ray followed by a Cause Wounds ray - a poor choice, since the first grants immunity to the second.
The beatdown continues, and soon the two death tyrants fall.
The only failed save we took was Mazzy getting paralyzed early on. Beholder paralyzation is a save vs spell at -1, and she saves on a 1 - that was a natural 1 on the roll.
All that remains is to release the diseased ones below and clear out the cult leaders above. Gaal has some buffs, but he doesn't last long against the onslaught.
The elite guards are more dangerous, particularly the one with the enchanted crossbow. Haer'Dalis falls into the yellow.
Loot the area, haul the junk up to sell to Roger - by the time we're done, everybody has regenerated to full. Reporting to the High Watcher brings reputation to 16 and Mazzy to level 17.
Up next, we work with evil - namely, Dorn. Keldorn takes a break in the temple of Lathander, and we pick up the blackguard in his place.
At least Korgan liked that.
At the wedding, Magpie starts by claiming she's with the groom - that causes a small fight. He isn't exactly well liked around here. After that, a claim of pregnancy causes the wedding to be canceled. With prejudice.
Colin does not survive the actions of the bride's father. And somehow, Rasaad doesn't have anything to say about this.
Then we get to our real business here. Dorn duels the priest and kills him in a cutscene.
No reputation loss, and we talk him out of any further bloodshed. Our work here is done.
The next phase of Dorn's quest needs a week to trigger. Time for some aimless travel, then. I kill a set of Cowled Enforcers, then get concerned at the lack of action at the keep - I think that quest has gone buggy.
A second set of enforcers:
Easy.
And then, Dorn is ready. We visit the temple of Helm, talk to Telwyn ...
No, we aren't going to kill him. That would just make things harder on us. He told us what we needed to know anyway.
With that, we know where to find the Helmite camp Dorn's target is at. We go there immediately.
They're all very happy to fight, of course. No matter what, the whole camp goes hostile here.
Confusion item charges, a dispelling arrow for Terpfen ... but Dorn headed off on his own to a group of Shield Knights, and that was a bad idea.
I reload for that. And this time, play it better. There are no mages here, so we can afford to buff up.
Magpie and Korgan drink strength potions, Dorn uses the girdle of fortitude, and Mazzy uses her Strength and Invoke Courage buffs. Start it up again, then apply the shorter-duration buffs once the battle starts (Mazzy's Haste, Korgan's rage, Rasaad's fireshield).
With the party already buffed, the opening moves go much better. That, and I keep most of the party together.
Nothing fancy at this point; we just beat on them until they're dead. Before long, the main force is dead and we're scouring the camp for stragglers.
The camp holds one innocent. We leave that cook alone. Everyone else dies, at a cost of 1 reputation. We're down to 14 now.
Leaving the camp immediately triggers a visit from a hit squad of priests and paladins. Most of our buffs are still active - there's no travel time - and that means we're well equipped for this smaller force.
That's one down, one confused, and more distracted chasing Haer'Dalis. The warriors go after one priest in melee and the other at range - don't want to shoot the one with Physical Mirror up after all. Before long, it's over.
Dorn got held, Magpie took some hits ... that's about it. Clean up the last of them, and Dorn can apparently speak even when paralyzed.
This continues through the demonic visit that follows.
The final act of this drama awaits. We head back to Athkatla for a rest and more wizard-killing, then go to the gorge.
After running around and killing a few aggressive animals, the dryad Yarrow sends us down into the depths. Enter the cave behind the waterfall, claim the stone, then emerge and talk to the nymph - she doesn't take it well. We kill her, earning two pearls and two potions of clairvoyance in addition to the summoning stone. The annoying faerie dragon dies too. That lets us pick up the wand of glitterdust - another very nice way of dealing with invisibility, although it sadly can't ever have more than five charges.
Finally, we reveal Xachrimos with a True Sight.
Mazzy's acid arrows are ineffective; this demon requires +2 to hit. And once the stun lands ... he's doomed.
Easy. And we have all three summoning stones now.
At the circle, we sacrifice an ogre and call up Azothet.
It's not necessarily the best for Dorn's story, but it's definitely the best material reward. And we're in it for the goods. Screw him.
Azothet has some nasty abilities. She opens with a Symbol:Stun that catches Rasaad and Dorn, then starts throwing paralysis around; those two get held as well.
Of course, the small half of our party has no problem fighting. Azothet goes down quickly, and Ur-Gothoz comes in for another chat with Dorn.
The Visage is the key reward here. And the only way to get it is to play nice with Ur-Gothoz. He gives it to you, but he doesn't drop it if you kill him. In the permanent party - Korgan is the only one who can use it right now, and so he takes it. We'll have more flexibility once UAI comes into play.
Incidentally, the Abyssal Blade isn't alignment-restricted. Keldorn can use it, but he'd rather stick to one-handed swords.
Now, back to town. Dorn leaves, Keldorn returns, and we rest. Mazzy takes a break to make room for Hexxat, and we're off to the next tomb.
I choose to pick a fight with the ghosts near the entrance, with some traps and a backstab after an initial peaceful talk:
Sadly, they don't all go hostile simultaneously; that's only possible if you offend them in the initial conversation. As such, only one of the ghosts dies in the opening move.
Buffs go up, and we respond with a dispel. It's not quick enough to catch all the fireshields, but we at least got the stoneskins and Improved Mantles. A little damage is a small price to pay.
And with that, they're dead again. While ghosts might be able to come back, they won't be our problem.
The corridor beyond brings spiders, and a succession of traps follows. Statues awakening to fight us ... with one HP each. Oops. The spiked floor is worse, and the furious djinni beyond inflicts more pain.
Oh well. We have potions.
Three mages follow, and we offend them all. Ranged attacks and Cloudkill are the order of the day - or, at least, ranged attacks for everybody that isn't immune to poison.
They take some time to get their stoneskins up, and we capitalize with a lot of damage. The first foe soon falls:
They don't cast anything in the Mantle line, so we don't need Keldorn to dispel them. Beating through the stoneskins is good enough for us. On the other hand, the Greater Malison and Chaos afflicting Rasaad and Hexxat are worth a dispel.
Seriously, shouldn't that 59 MR block things some of the time?
That dispel, of course, breaks what remains of their resistance. Hexxat reaches level 16 with this battle, for scimitar proficiency and more Detect Illusion.
A few spiders and a trap later, Magpie reaches fighter level 13. That's a pretty important level, with a big boost to saves and an APR increase.
Finally, we face Raffiyah. She goes for a Silence spell - a complete waste.
We don't need to talk in order to fight. We do, however, need to talk in order to exit this area. So, then, we wait for it to expire after killing her and claiming the Shroud. Back to Athkatla, and back to the standard party for what comes next.
The "tarts" in the title, is, naturally, a typo I made while writing this part.
With the usual party reunited, we return to the graveyard. It's time to take on Bodhi's lair. Since most vampires are immune to +1 weapons, Mazzy switches away from her bow. Keldorn will be the point man with his drain immunity from the Amulet of Power, so he drinks a strength potion and an oil of speed. Wait, no, take off the armor before drinking the oil of speed. We wasted one there, but we have plenty more.
Then we enter battle, and I realize the other mistake I made.
Huh? Oh, that's not the Burning Earth. It's a regular sword of flame, which is +1 against everything. Keldorn switches back to his usual melee weapon Namarra.
There's a clay golem in here, which I handle with Rasaad striking from stealth. No pictures, and I didn't record any details of that encounter.
Of course, for the vampire killing, Mazzy throwing Azuredge goes a long way.
She may not be proficient, but she's still effective with the undead disruption. Also, Durst drops a Minor Sequencer scroll, which is completely useless except to sell. That's a case of two SCS components interfering with each other. The innate sequencers/contingencies component removes all fixed drops of those scrolls, but the component for wider random scroll variety adds them back in. The scrolls are still in the files even if the spell can't be scribed, so that component detects them as wizard scrolls of the appropriate level and puts them in the random loot tables.
For the eastern corridor, I have Magpie borrow Azuredge and strike from stealth.
That's the fledgling. Tanova next.
It's not in that shot, but she saves. With a 7 after the save penalty. Her death save is 10 (mage array), so that must be the bonus from improved invisibility protecting her.
Of course, now she has PfMW up. I wait that out ... wait, what is she doing?
She summoned a fiend, then attacked it. Clearly, the scripts for making enemy fiend summons theirs to control didn't work right this time with the actors out of sight.
Anyway, I get my opportunity. The second throw does the job.
Given the choice between killing the glabrezu and waiting for it to go away, I send in the warriors. Korgan takes a big chunk of damage, and we're clear to explore the spike room. I do my best to avoid the actually trapped parts - nothing there right now.
Downstairs, Mazzy shines again.
Then back up for Lassal:
That was easy.
For Bodhi herself, there is one clear solution.
The solution? Don't fight her. Leave a disposable summon to draw her attention, and get out of sight. With SCS, she's on a timer here, and will leave after ten rounds no matter what.
Done. The experience for "defeating" her brings Haer'Dalis to level 21, and his last save boost.
My party didn't take any level drain hits in there; only Keldorn took any hits, and he was permanently immune. A very successful run at the vampire lair.
Up next, I head over to the keep and check - taxes are in, no event. It's definitely stuck. I'll force the issue later, but for now Rasaad takes a break (without leaving dialogue, so it doesn't end the romance) and we head over to Trademeet. There, we meet Cernd and have him join. He levels up to 13, unmemorizes his healing spells, takes two-handed style, and equips his greater werewolf token.
We meet with the genies and promise to bring back a head, deal with the animals - no trouble from that mage in the northeast this time.
In the grove, the sound goes glitchy, with the area's music somehow becoming a buzz. I turn it off for the sake of my sanity.
In battle, we meet lots of trolls:
Easily handled, of course. We didn't have trouble with them back at the keep, and we're even stronger now.
Near the mound, I hear necromancy - dodge Magpie and Keldorn away from the Unholy Blight spells.
The third blight is targeted better and does affect the good half of my party but it's just not much damage when only one spell is involved. Those spirit trolls go down.
Inside the mound, Keldorn gets knocked out by a Greater Command, but the rest of the party holds strong.
Cernd gets hit some, but the strength drain doesn't work on him - that's the immutable strength helping us.
Moving on, we deal with some elementals and other critters, then come on some local humans fighting trolls. When the trolls go down ...
They switch sides. And hey - thanks for the free nymph.
It's a weird bit of scripting; when those guys change allegiance, anything they summoned doesn't and is yours to control against them.
Anyway, that group goes down and we move on to the next pack of druids. Keldorn opens with a Namarra silence:
That got most of them. Battle is joined, with Kyland first to fall. When most of the enemy are down, I have the nymph use her healing spell.
With that, we're basically at full health party-wide.
Up next, it's the myconid bridge. And our party's saves are so good that I feel free to just charge forward and attack. Let the spore colonies try to summon help.
Some trolls join in, and make basically no difference. The spore colonies are defeated. We visit the Ogre's Tower, and Magpie picks up Belm for her off hand. It's not just an extra main hand attack, but also a weapon she's specialized in for the off hand attack.
In Adratha's cottage, we start in melee range of her. Attack as soon as the conversation ends and she goes hostile...
Cernd misses with a 5. Magpie hits with a 15. Save failed, stunned. Korgan hits, Mazzy hits, Cernd hits, Magpie hits. Dead.
On to the other two. One of them puts up a PfMW, so Keldon deals with that:
That takes out their mirror images and stoneskins as well, of course. Mazzy switches to her bow, and they don't get any more spells off.
Korgan gets the poison protection, so he can join Rasaad fighting in Cloudkills.
An encounter outside with shambling mounds:
That's level 16 for Keldorn.
A few more critters, and then we face the druids guarding their sanctum. Dalok manages to avoid being stunned long enough to get off a Call Lightning, but only one bolt lands.
A club we'll never use, and a better flaming sword for Keldorn. Now, if only we'd done this before taking on the vampires.
Inside, it's time for the duel to bring down Faldorn. Korgan stays near the pit so he can pass the greater werewolf token to Cernd, but I don't pass him any of his other equipment.
Cernd can only do one thing here - attack. It's enough. Faldorn's iron skins protect her for a while and let her get off some spells, but the overall outcome is never in doubt. Nymph summoned - kill it before it can cast anything. Second nymph, same. Dolorous Decay - okay, that hurts.
The poison inflicts its toll, but Faldorn's iron skins have run out. Her next spell is disrupted.
And that's it. A few more hits, and she's down.
Cernd stays with us for new, as we head back to Athkatla. He has some family issues to sort out. Run around and talk a bit, then confront Deril:
For this match, Cernd gets the poison immunity. We'll be throwing cloudkills around, and he doesn't have any ranged options.
Mazzy doesn't have her arrow in the air when the protections go up, but Deril doesn't have abjuration immunity. Keldorn can handle this one.
The Cloudkill disrupts his next spell, and ranged attacks quickly wear him down.
Plea for aid - rejected.
Cernd goes back to the grove, but Magpie keeps the greater werewolf token. It's an interesting option for a monk or a rogue with UAI; not the best on offense, but fantastic defensively. Still, I'll mostly just use it out of combat to speed up regeneration.
While I'm in town, I pick up Nalia for her father's funeral, then briefly take on Anomen to start his timer. After that, it's back to the grove to pick up Cernd and retrieve the equipment I gave him (plus a second shapeshift token). That's enough out of him; we leave him behind and head back to the keep to retrieve Rasaad. Also, I decide to force the issue and spawn the keep messenger - the stronghold plot is active again.
With the party reunited, we head over to Trademeet to receive the town's gratitude. Keldorn likes this improved reputation as well.
We gain some levels; Rasaad reaches level 19 for a major save improvement, and Magpie reaches thief level 16. She puts all 25 points into Pick Pockets, for enough to steal from the Trademeet merchants with impunity even without a potion.
After looting those merchants, we meet with Raissa. Keldorn demands immediate action:
We're happy to oblige. Off to meet the skin dancers, who try to fool us - but we brought a paladin.
After we kill off those monsters and use a restoration scroll, it's time to rest. Our reputation is up to 16 after delivering the good news.
With that rest, Magpie's relationship with Rasaad reaches a milestone.
Now they're committed.
We have more to do here. Mazzy's personal quest also takes place in Trademeet, but it refuses to even start - I've never gotten it to work properly. The initial timer expired long ago, so I force-spawn Danno outside - nope, he just gives his standard talk. Repeatedly.
All right, we need to change a variable too.
... Fix the typo in that shot (a period for a comma) and redo it. Now we're getting somewhere.
We go around and talk some, then head to the temple. Barl is guilty, and it's our job to confront him.
He summons two Poison Mists and attacks ... then dies immediately.
Mazzy wants to spend some time with her family after that - OK.
We're temporarily down a party member. That's a good opportunity for some character sidequests back in Athkatla.
First up, Nalia.
As usual from this spot, Khellor is up above the entrance where it takes a bit for him to find us. Talk to Barg, face Dirth ...
That cold death blows up his stuff aside from the documents. Actually, that bugs me enough that I reload an autosave and do it again.
We check out Isaea's place as well, then get Nalia released. And let her go, since she has nothing further to do. Uh - you can always hang out at the keep if you feel like it.
Jan comes next, and he levels up to thief 13 as soon as he joins - from the experience at the end of the Planar Prison quest. Step outside, and immediately get called back in to his home.
His quest is lots of running around, and only one fight.
That's Magpie in backstab position. Moments later ...
We surround the other to take him out in melee.
With that, the Hidden fixes things. Jan's quest is done.
All right, back to Trademeet. Mazzy's had long enough with her family, and it's time to get the party back together.
Over in Athkatla, we eliminate another batch of Cowled Enforcers:
Then, we head over to the Radiant Heart. Keldorn, Mazzy, and Korgan are all for helping out with the Fallen Paladin problem - though not all for the same reasons.
After a bit of back and forth, Anarg shows up and recognizes Keldorn. It's a fight. We hit them with a Confusion ...
Only one failed save there. Keldorn takes a severe beating in this battle, but we pull through.
The reward brings our reputation to 17. Not much more room left ...
And now, over to the Crooked Crane for a couple things. First, the lich. He opens with an Incendiary Cloud we can't dodge, then goes invisible before Mazzy can throw Azuredge - dispel that.
A Time Stop, a Meteor Swarm, more invisibility - dispel that again.
And then, he's down. Not to the undead-destroying axe, but merely to normal attacks.
The damage spells tick one more time before the barrier lifts and we can escape. Most of the party is badly hurt, but none of them died. Wait out the summons, then open the chests - Daystar acquired, at the cost of a few healing potions.
And now, upstairs for the other reason we came here. This is a UB quest, following up on Kalah.
That rakshasa can't be killed. We beat him to near death, and he leaves after casting a Death Fog. We do, however, get the command word to call up the genie.
Our choice of wish? Freedom for the genie. Our reputation reaches 18, and we gain a bit of experience. That's as far as we'll go on reputation - we don't want to scare off Korgan.
Aulava and Tiiro are up here too. We choose not to talk them into getting together - they really are bad influences on each other.
The party is at 18 reputation, for as much of a discount as we'll ever get in SoA. There are some things I'd like for later, but for now I'll just buy the Firetooth crossbow for Keldorn. And then, down into the keep.
There's some loot even before we encounter any enemies. The Wand of Sleep is useless, as it shares the HD limit of the Sleep spell; nothing remotely threatening will be affected. The paladin's bracers? Well, 18 Dex is a lot better for Keldorn than ten extra hit points. The bracers will be useful eventually at least, when Haer'Dalis can wear them.
The first foes we face are a golem and some trolls:
OK, one party member disabled and we took a few hits. No big deal, really. We loot a few more bits; nobody has enough Int to use the Golem Manual, so that goes into storage.
Open a door to the main room ...
Keldorn and Korgan are up front with their drain protection, and Mazzy uses Azuredge. We still take some level drain (Rasaad got close enough to take a hit), and Korgan takes a ton of damage.
Still, that's a victory. We use a restoration scroll, and rest up on the surface.
Mazzy reaches level 18 from some trap XP, and takes her fourth dot in flails. We get to work on the other side, where I make a mistake and get Haer'Dalis trapped with a bunch of spiders:
Defensive Spin makes a nice panic button for this situation. He takes another hit or two, but survives easily.
That clears the way to the rest of the level's loot. We now have unlimited +1 arrows and bolts for our archers.
Appeasing the priest brings Korgan to level 19, and now we're ready for the boss fight. Start the ritual, and the first four statues awaken.
There are two priests and two warriors in this group. We make sure to beat on the priests with elemental damage so they can't cast anything dangerous. Not much use for that dispelling arrow, though - the priests both have Physical Mirror up. The other level 6 defense, Blade Barrier - we just ignore that, since or melee forces always save.
Keldorn gets a mid-battle weapon upgrade with Foebane:
It's even his own kill. That last priest doesn't last, although his blade barrier does take out the berserk warrior.
Uh, the summoned berserk warrior dropped a free potion for us? Thanks, I guess.
Then Mazy gets the final blow.
We get a pile of XP for completing the ritual, and Haer'Dalis reaches level 22.
And now, straight on to the second and larger wave of statues. There are mages this time, which start off with invisibility. OK, true sight that ...
Immediately afterward, a Mass Invisibility/2x Mordenkainen's Sword chain contingency goes off. Oops. We respond with a second True Sight, from the gem Mazzy holds this time.
I aim a dispelling arrow at that mage, and send in Korgan with his elemental axes.
Then the other mage statue uses that same chain contingency, and hides everyone I was trying to attack.
The bubble around Mazzy there is a Globe of Minor Invulnerability, from her belt's trigger kicking in.
For all the trouble going around, including four swords we can't do anything about, we've still done a pretty good job disrupting the mages. They haven't managed to cast anything offensive yet aside from their initial Chain Contingency summons.
I think I canceled Mazzy's spell there; she was surrounded and unable to safely cast it.
I have Haer'Dalis add some wand summons to the battle as a distraction. Keep an eye on the mages, for when they cast anything that needs to be dispelled. And then, a pair of statues goes down.
The fewer targets we have to split or attention between, the more effective we get.
Magpie briefly falls to critically low HP levels (15) before drinking a potion. Then she takes down the golem statue.
The statue Korgan is fighting puts up an Improved Mantle, and Keldorn responds with his last dispel. Korgan takes down that mage, and Rasaad finishes off the rogue.
There's another +4 weapon for us. Also in that shot, the other mage has aimed a triple-Remove Magic sequencer at Mazzy. Her Haste baited it out.
I attack that mage - weapon ineffective. He must have a protection up. Nonmagical weapons ... no. It's not a PfMW. Here, Korgan, try this new +4 sword you're not proficient in. And in retrospect, I should have had Keldorn back up and shoot with Firetooth's auto-ammo.
I hear the sounds of a necromancy spell - Rasaad, disrupt that.
Before the Sun Soulray lands, Korgan gets in a blow with Usuno's Blade. Spell disrupted. Then the protection falls and we win very quickly, killing the last two statues nearly simultaneously.
With all the magical swords floating around, we take the opportunity to retreat.
It was a rough battle, with many healing potions used. Still, it worked. None of our forces died, and we kept the mages under enough pressure to prevent them from casting any offensive spells.
Then there's one last thing to do on this floor.
Pushovers. We use the portal and head down.
And ... I made a mistake. I didn't bother healing up after the last battle. Magpie engages a fire giant. Two hits. Dead. Reload, then.
The second time around, I go with all ranged attacks while Rasaad and Haer'Dalis play decoy. Korgan is getting some use out of the Dwarven Thrower's bonus here.
The first barely makes it into the room before going down. The second comes far enough in to chase Haer'Dalis before falling.
OK, I didn't actually need to heal up. Better tactics were enough.
Rasaad reaches level 20 there, for long sword proficiency. Also, his monk defenses level up and he has normal weapon immunity.
The air library holds golems. A gas cloud? No problem. As noted before, that's a save vs death at -2. Automatic success for everybody except Haer'Dalis.
The clay golems, on the other hand, do cause a bit of trouble. Mazzy takes a cursed hit.
Well, there's a priest up top. We detour outside to get that curse removed by Sister Garlena. 500 gold, and she's good.
The mutated spiders in the slime library are much less trouble.
3 APR (5/2 base, permanently hasted), good THAC0 (4), but not much physical damage (2d4+2). The most dangerous part of their attack is the poison - 5 damage per second for 30 seconds, save at -3 to prevent it. We always make the save, so they're mostly harmless.
Then the ice library has mists. Rasaad's new immunity to nonmagical weapons comes in handy, as he can take point without fear.
The second vampiric wraith goes invisible and gets past the front lines. Still, it's badly hurt and goes down easily. No drain taken.
And here, the reason we came down here this early.
We now have more ways to break mage defenses. In particular, abjuration immunity is no longer something that completely shuts us out.
We might as well clear the rest of the level as well. Rasaad turns into a werewolf for a bit more resistance against the electric shocks in the air room, then falls back to fight the elementals in human form.
Drawn out like this, the elementals aren't much trouble.
Over at the slime room, some poison mists at the back entrance bring Keldorn to level 17. Open up the other door to air the room out, and gang up on the snake in melee.
With that done, we pick up the poison flail head. Mess with some doors, and on to the ice room.
Mazzy's second Haste of the day expires here, and she's fatigued Apparently, her innate spell shares the mage spell's drawback. Still, slight fatigue won't stop her from taking down the ice mists with Azuredge.
The ice golem needs +3 to hit and is reluctant to emerge, so Korgan goes with the throwing hammer again.
Not quick, but safe.
Korgan and his hammer deal with the fire room as well. Draw the elementals over to the ice room to die, then start on the giant.
He doesn't want to leave his room? Fine. He can die in there.
We take the helm, and leave the four keys on a table. This party is not ready to take on the Chromatic Demon. We're leaving Watcher's Keep, and we won't come back until much later.
Back in Athkatla, I call up the Cowled Wizards again ...
The highest members. I really should have set the full seven traps. The initial Cowled Enforcer dies instantly, but the other three don't. With them surviving, Zallanora launches her initial Chain Contingency.
One Horrid Wilting and two magical swords. That hurt.
The mages all go invisible, and then the poison ticks.
Only Zallanora remains, and she just lost her spell.
The party runs around some, Zallanora goes for her next spell - Improved Alacrity - and then the poison ticks again.
Dead. The Cowled Wizards will trouble us no more.
Over at the Copper Coronet, we trigger a scene that we could have long ago:
We don't interfere, and Tiana wins easily.
She'll win most of the time due to her better combat stats, though it's not certain and there is dialogue for the other option.
And now, Minsc. He gets a quest with Unfinished Business, which is some wonderful silliness. Take him into the party, go to the docks, upgrade the Mace of Disruption.
A bit more travel after that, with some bandit waylays that try to flee. I start wondering why it hasn't triggered yet - oh, that's a two-day timer, not a one-day timer. Help out Chanelle at the keep (and pay for it by levying taxes), then travel a bit more.
And there it is.
We chase him down through a series of amusing conversations:
Incidentally, Minsc must be visible for this one. Billy won't talk at all unless he sees the big guy.
On to the animal shop, where Korgan interjects:
For the final encounter, Eleanya's three riddles do matter. It's on a point system - wrong answers are worth zero, right answers are worth 1, and flattering answers are worth two points. A total of four or more gets you the best result (20K XP and a special ability), 2 to 3 points gets you a middling result (15K XP), and one point at least gets Boo back. Zero points, and you basically have to fight.
The best result:
... except that it's bugged. She walks away without casting anything, and that reward fails. Oops.
I reload, and go for the middle option instead. That one works.
However you deal with Eleanya, the Cowled Wizards show up to thank you. A spellcasting license if you didn't have one, or 1000 gold if you did. That's why we waited this long for the quest.
The party reunites, and heads over to Aran Linvail to report success. 50K XP each, but we don't leave just yet. Magpie reaches fighter level 14 and takes Use Any Item. Korgan reaches level 20 and takes Hardiness. Mazzy reaches level 19 and Haer'Dalis reaches level 23.
What else is left ... oh, right. One big quest I still want to do. Also, a few quick bits.
Over in the graveyard district, we pay a visit to Pai'Na. She wants Spider's Bane destroyed? We'll check that out.
You know, I don't think we actually paid there.
The item we receive is already broken, and useless for anything but returning to Pai'Na. We do so ... and then kill her anyway.
Two spider figurines acquired, plus the Websack Wand and the Pale Green Ioun Stone. The wand has 10 charges of a super Web, non-rechargeable. It's usable by mages, bards, and Monks for some reason. The Ioun Stone is the first headgear Rasaad can use, and he'll wear it for a good long time.
And now, time for that last big quest before Spellhold. We head off to the Wild Forest, where Neera greets us.
Uh, about that. Haer'Dalis, you're out for now. We need room for Neera, after all. Second, wrong corvid. I'm not a raven. Think smaller.
Sadly, Neera doesn't come with dart proficiency or the ability to level up for it. Magpie lends her the Boomerang Dagger instead of the Crimson Dart nobody is using.
The illusionary Quaid is dispelled, and we pick up the goodies in the cart. An assortment of minor encounters ensued, made more annoying by the traps and enemy wild surges.
That was a nice one. The shaman successfully casts Entangle with his second spell, but with +4 to save. Dangerous to the kobolds, harmless to the party.
An ogre mage gives us some free gems:
And then I blunder into a repeating fireball trap that gets Neera killed. Oops. I reload that one, and don't get the gems. Instead, the wild surges explore the area for us.
We reach the camp, and do some errands for the wild mages within. Those extend to travel - pick up a hairband, some beer, and a bear. Back to the refuge to close out those quests, and then to the Bridge District again.
Neera gives Daxus the amulet as the Thayans arrive ...
... and then the traps go off.
That gets the wizard, but the fighters are a little later. Oh well. It's not like the fighters are a threat.
A flawless victory. We didn't take a single hit.
And then I remember something. Magpie can upgrade her off-hand weapon to the Scarlet Ninja-To now that she has UAI. Since we're in Athkatla, she visits Joluv to buy that and equip it.
Returning to the Hidden Refuge, we find it destroyed. Keldorn and Mazzy weigh in:
Yes, we'll help. And now, we know where to find the Red Wizards. Back to Athkatla, then.
At the enclave, we chop the bouncer to bits.
There's a dialogue option that has Neera blast him, but I didn't go for that. Swords are a better fit for us.
Inside, we play it calm. Nothing Gul Dukeem offers is of interest to us, but the other merchants have lots of stuff to steal. Drink a master thievery potion, put on the pickpocketing gloves, and take it all. Potions, scrolls, and wands, all ours now.
Magpie sets some traps, and then talks to the Gul. The option I was looking for isn't available due to a failed Int check, but there's an alternative. If you get a little threatening, he'll cooperate:
We follow his prompts, and he opens the door. A fight ensues.
One mage instantly down. Another badly hurt. Rasaad and Mazzy take down a third maage before he can react, while Keldorn attacks the already injured one.
The last mage has some defenses up, so Mazzy goes for a dispelling arrow.
It works. That mage doesn't last after that. Aside from the prebuffs, our enemies cast zero spells in this battle.
Over in the next room, as we're positioning for the coming fight, Mazzy and Neera have a chat.
Interesting. While half of our party - Keldorn, Mazzy, and Rasaad - strongly follow a code, the same can't be said for the other half.
And then, we get the mercenaries drunk. The party is positioned to hit the mages, but they get their defenses up.
Keldorn is aiming his dispel at the trio of mages near our melee, while Mazzy is aiming for the lone mage by the door with her dispelling arrow. Both work fully. Vulnerable mages don't last.
That's a bit of fireshield damage on Rasaad, and a Chromatic Orb on Neera.
The battle continues, with the isolated mage falling, and - wait, nonlethal damage?
All of the mercenaries should have either a spear, a bastard sword, or a long sword for melee. For some reason, that guy doesn't have any of them equipped and is punching the mage.
The unconscious mage is soon rendered dead, leaving only one more mage in the corridor to worry about. He gets off a Slow, but everybody saves or resists it.
Stunned, surrounded, dead. This battle is over. We mop up the side room, free the slaves, and wait out the Slow on Neera.
On to the next battle, against Lanneth and her minions with some allies from the city guard.
The mages like illusions, so we have a True Sight going. Lanneth puts up a PfMW, so Keldorn switches to normal bolts to keep her occupied; with Firetooth, that will do elemental damage to disrupt her spells.
Korgan's target also casts a PfMW, so he gets out a normal axe. The last wizard goes down to a stun from Magpie and an axe hit from Ghallus.
Then Lanneth runs, and Korgan finishes his target in one skullbreaking blow.
That wizard has 42 HP. I don't recall how much he was already injured, but it wouldn't have mattered at all.
Our allies leave, leaving us to face Lanneth and her final allies without them.
The unprotected wizard there dies before he can do anything. A dispel and a bolt from Keldorn finish off the already badly injured Lanneth.
That just leaves a couple of fighters. They're easily mopped up.
Now we figure out the puzzles and save everybody. A visit to Trademeet, and we kill the traitor Hayes - 7K experience, some potions, and some weapons.
That did take a dispel, but it was very quick after that.
Back at the camp, a few more rewards come in. Korgan keeps the Brick, but ends up never actually using it. Rasaad reaches level 21; we're no more than a single level-up away from high level abilities on any of our party members.
Back in Athkatla, Haer'Dalis rejoins us. We have a few more small things to take care of before we get on the boat.
First, Stein and his graverobbing crew.
Backstabs are about all they've got, so a True Sight destroys them. This is one of the bits I've tweaked; I moved Stein slightly so that he isn't stuck in a wall and can more easily be interacted with.
Second, after a rest, Mencar Pebblecrusher. He has a beef with Korgan:
Naturally, we choose to fight. Korgan's not about to give up gold unless he's getting something good for it.
Amon does get off a Chaos, confusing Haer'Dalis. We're so close to being able to ignore that sort of thing ...
Mazzy solos the berserker in melee, taking a lot of damage in the process. But then, she's a high-level warrior. She has a lot of hit points.
That just leaves the mage and imp. They don't have a lot left after that.
Rather than dispel the confusion, I just wait it out - and give Mazzy the girdle of piercing when Haer'Dalis targets her.
At this point, I notice something. I left the ring of regeneration with Neera. That's another two-day detour to get it back. Oops.
Magpie steals a magic fish from Mira (this is part of the Wilson mod) and eats it to increase her Dex to 21. A scribing session follows, bringing Magpie to thief level 17 - 15 points of stealth, 10 points of Set Traps, and Hardiness. Keldorn switches out his personal armor for nonmagical full plate and a +2 protection item. I buy a few things - the second Rod of Resurrection, the Ring of Energy, the scrolls of Freedom, and the Reflection Shield. Other expensive items we might want are left behind.
Finally, one last character quest I'd like to do now. Edwin joins up, and we take a trip to see Neveziah.
The dispel Keldorn is casting there does the trick, of course. Nether Scroll acquired. Also, Keldorn reaches level 18 - bastard sword specialization and Summon Deva taken.
And now, finally, we get on the boat. Day 76.
This was a longer update than I would have liked, but that's how the natural break points shook out. Clear breaks at the beginning and end, with a big stretch in the middle that I wanted to leave together.
The voyage to Brynnlaw is uneventful, but trouble finds us the moment we set ashore.
Vampires. Bodhi's influence extends even here. We shuffle some equipment around; Magpie wields the Mace of Disruption without proficiency, Mazzy throws Azuredge, Korgan rages, and Rasaad stays back. All three front-liners are drain-immune.
Mazzy gets the first kill ...
... and Magpie gets the second.
Undead-disrupting weapons are wonderful. The last vampire falls to damage, with Keldorn getting the killing blow. We take some damage, but no level drain. Plan successful.
As we traverse the docks, I hear attackers but don't see anything - True Sight.
Just the one. No problem.
Haer'Dalis baits the next pirate into wasting his initial invisibility:
Move around right, and they'll commit to an attack that you can dodge.
Of course, once again, this pirate dies quickly once he's revealed.
A third pirate attacks Haer'Dalis from stealth ... with a crossbow. No backstab there.
Once these nuisances are dealt with, we enter the Vulgar Monkey. Sanik drinks a healing potion and then takes two arrows to die ... weird, since his creature file has him at 1/1 HP. The generic melee AI he gets will only drink a healing potion at less than full hit points, so apparently he's getting a boost to maximum hit points somehow.
Anyway, that assassin falls easily. Mazzy is rather annoyed:
We do get some useful leads, at least.
There's another magic fish for sale at the temple of Umberlee - bought. Magpie has 22 Dex now.
Over at the festhall, we talk ourselves in and get to the intrigue. Get the guards unconscious with sleeping draughts, and then kill them. That clears the way to Galvena herself:
Note Magpie already in position to attack the mage, When hostilities break out, she stuns him with her first attack. He goes down in moments.
After that, it's Galvena's turn. She doesn't last long enough to make an attack. Six total damage taken - from a fireshield - and the whole thing lasts less than a round.
Out on the path to Spellhold, we run into a madman. It's a trivial fight, with an interesting reward. The Boots of Hastened Departure grant a massive undispellable 20-second boost to saves and AC - at the cost of being unable to attack, cast spells, or use thieving abilities. Then you can use it again as soon as your aura clears; this is an ability with unlimited uses. Most parties don't have a use for it, but here? Perfect for Haer'Dalis. He never attacks, never picks pockets, and isn't allowed to cast spells. So activating it costs him nothing.
Now, back to fighting. We visit Perth the Adept:
While I could break that defense with illusion detection, two Pierce Magic shots, and then a dispel, I choose not to. It's not worth it - and I didn't realize it was possible at the time, thinking the Spell Trap would render Pierce Magic ineffective. Instead, I step out to wait out that Improved Mantle.
A hakeashar follows us, and we kill it easily. Rasaad steps inside to pull the other hakeashar, and gets a triple Lower Resist spell trigger for his trouble. Huh, I thought he was invisible for that.
The Improved Mantle expires, and Magpie goes in briefly. Perth comes out after her, we attack - Absolute Immunity. More door-dodging, then.
The Absolute Immunity expires. Four hits, and another Improved Mantle goes up.
Wait out that one, then go after Perth again. He responds with a triple Flame Arrow sequencer on Magpie:
Ouch.
Even saving every time, that was 130 damage. Down to seven hit points, from full health before.
A level 20+ mage casting that sequencer deals 84 average fire damage and 42 average piercing damage, assuming saves but no resistance. I thought bard song luck should have helped, but clearly it didn't.
But now, Perth's defenses are down, and we're on the attack. Perth throws a minute meteor at Haer'Dalis and misses, then dies.
We turn the page on the Book of Infinite Spells - Spell Turning on the first try. And then we never use it.
We could walk into Spellhold now, but instead we go to Desharik. Magpie claims that she's the daughter of a god, and that's crazy enough to get her in with her high charisma.
The experience reward brings level 21 for Korgan, who takes his fourth dot in hammers and Whirlwind Attack. Mazzy also reaches level 20, taking Hardiness.
Between potions and the ring of regeneration, Magpie is back to full health when Irenicus arrives. We are all captured, and the mage takes Magpie for a strange procedure.
In the dream, she goes after the Bhaal image with a backstab:
Oops. But of course, she's wearing boots of speed. Retreat, go invisible, and repeat. 57 damage the second time, down to "injured". 62 damage the third time, and near death.
After that ... it drinks two extra healing potions. We'll need to hit it some more. Another stab, for only 32. Finally, one more attack - she places herself wrong and only gets a normal attack, but gets lucky with the 20 bonus lightning damage. We've done enough damage.
At the door, Magpie gives up a point of Wisdom. And then, she has an inordinate amount of trouble convincing the Bhaal-thing to follow her in. After at least five tries and a few hits taken, it finally follows her. Once it's in sight of Imoen, it dies. No further hits needed.
Coming out of that, Haer'Dalis reaches level 24. Enhanced Bard Song is ours, and he takes two-handed style as well.
Imoen greets us, but we tell her to leave. There's just no place for her in this party.
And no, Keldorn, you can't stay here in her place. We need you.
The first challenge we face is the Clay Golem. Rasaad uses stealth to take it down without being hit back.
You don't need backstabs to make this work. Strike from stealth, then retreat and re-hide. Two or three hits, and the golem goes down.
The yuan-ti pack on the opposite side is more troublesome. I'm trying to save Keldorn's dispels - I don't plan on resting until I'm out of the asylum - so I use Cloudkills to disrupt the mages.
See that "Weapon Ineffective" message? Yeah, there are a lot of enemies we can just ignore now that we have Enhanced Bard Song. The warrior yuan-ti are included in that.
As for the mage - no protection from normal missiles. Mazzy and Keldorn switch to normal arrows and bolts.
Then I hear "This isn't working" from Mazzy. On closer examination...
... She was hit by Greater Malison into Chaos, and has decided to attack a fellow party member. Since she's using normal arrows, that's nothing but a waste of ammunition.
I add a second Cloudkill now that a second mage has joined the party, and just let Mazzy keep shooting.
One of those mages targets Keldorn with a Polymorph Other. Even under a Malison, he still saves on a 3. No problem.
The final blow in this fight is a Cloudkill tick.
Mazzy was hit by a Magic Missile spell, and Rasaad took a bit of damage earlier. They didn't hurt us otherwise.
We answer some riddles; Haer'Dalis gets an ioun stone and the party picks up a second ring of regeneration. There's another group of yuan-ti beyond, but this bunch only has one mage. Without backup, the mage only manages a single minute meteor hit on Haer'Dalis before dying.
A side room holds a bunch of mephits and a rakshasa Rukh. Magpie goes for a backstab on the rakshasa ...
The bard song wore off, and she rolled the minimum. Only 32 damage. At 80 HP, it would have either taken a crit or a 7+ roll with EBS active to kill that foe in one hit.
Magpie tries to retreat, but the mephits are in the hallway blocking her. Instead, she runs around letting the mephits hurt themselves with friendly fire while the party approaches.
That area opens up, and Magpie retreats. We wait off the PfMW and a Cloudkill, then charge with the full party.
It doesn't take much more from there.
Now, time to use those stones we found at the portal.
The first summons a greater wolfwere, which dies before it can do anything.
The second summons a pit fiend:
Stunned and torn apart, without doing anything that even had a chance of working. After all, the bard song protects from fear.
The third stone brings a genie that gives us a useless piece of plate armor, and we're done here.
On to the second half of this area, taking the fourth set of stairs from where we entered. Enhanced Bard Song protects from confusion, trivializing the Umber Hulks.
What's Magpie doing there? She's running around with her armor off unlocking everything for free XP. It's slightly risky - umber hulk attacks do count as magic - but she gets through it by moving quickly. One hit on Korgan, and the enemies fall.
We deal with some undead in the corridor, and then it's time to face that lich group. Magpie hides and equips Azuredge along with the boots of speed ...
Well, that was easy.
For the minions, we use simple force. No specialized anti-undead weapons needed, and they wouldn't work anyway on the bone golems.
Continuing on, we run into a vampiric mist - one of the many enemies neutered by normal weapon immunity.
A book that summons monsters ... kobold, spider, umber hulk, mind flayer. The mind flayer goes invisible and teleports to attack Haer'Dalis:
Nope. He has -17 AC versus crushing, and he dodged the attack anyway.
There's one more summon - a beholder. It gets off one ray before dying. Anti-magic on Haer'Dalis.
Really, it should have gone for a Cause Wounds ray. That would have at least had a chance of doing something.
We are rewarded with some scrolls and a ring of free action. Rasaad puts on the ring, since the rest of the party might want haste.
The kobolds and their crystal are trivial - that just leaves Dace, recently turned into a vampire. We switch to our anti-undead configuration:
One hit taken. Korgan was immune to the level drain with his rage.
Dace is staked, and his hand opens the door forward. Next time, we step through it.
On the other side of that mouth, we face a number of minor encounters. A small group of trolls fall easily. The minotaurs in the next room have nonmagical weapons. Rasaad turns into a werewolf and uses his magic immunity to deal with the trapped paintings.
Then, Magpie heads forward to face Bodhi, alone.
She beats on the vampires until they leave, and stays away from the party until her berserk state ends. Of course, she equipped the mace of disruption first for level drain immunity.
On to the Gauth in the next room, which we charge as a party. It targets Korgan with a lightning bolt and Magpie with a Cause Wounds ... wait, immune?
Apparently, that initial Slayer transformation granted an immunity to magical damage, which lasted long enough for this encounter as well. Neat.
The minotaurs with the Gauth are, of course, completely irrelevant.
After clearing out the minotaurs on the other side and picking up the tokens, we backtrack to the other path from the entrance. There's a pack of yuan-ti and a mage ...
Ah. Now there's the kind of backstab I like. Enhanced by the mage's unarmed status, that's 52-97 damage without EBS or 73-117 with. The mage has 63 HP. Instant death was extremely likely.
Magpie then retreats to the main group, where the normal yuan-ti wield their ineffective weapons in complete futility.
Now, to open the painting doors. Mazzy rolls a 1 against the spirit troll's Command ...
She saves, of course. The troll doesn't last after that.
The Ulitharid opens with a psionic blast - saves 12, 0, 12.
Not that it matters, since the bard song made us immune anyway.
The Noble Djinni opens with a Stinking Cloud - Haer'Dalis retreats a bit. The rest of the party has no problem fighting in the cloud.
Then it gets stunned on a backstab. Dead moments later.
Finally, the last path. The Umber Hulk here actually deals some damage, rolling a crit on Rasaad. He regenerates as a werewolf before we continue.
The wolfweres are easily slaughtered, at the cost of a bit of damage. The stone golem fails to either hurt or slow anyone.
That brings us to the room with three clay golems. I choose to attack first rather than springing the trap.
Magpie and Keldorn are nonproficient in the weapons we're using here. Korgan, Mazzy, and Rasaad are the real stars.
After taking out that first golem from surprise, the remaining two wake up to fight. And fail.
They didn't hit us. No curses taken.
We grab the room's loot, use the machine to dispense boots of speed and of cold resistance, and move on.
Many riddles and minor fights ensue. Korgan gets the cloak of reflection, and the party gets lots of experience. Now, we just have to fight some mages to secure our escape. For this, I have some special preparation:
Why am I switching to normal weapons and putting away everything else? Because the SCS version of Irenicus here spawns actual clones of your party, with copies of all the same equipment. And with Enhanced Bard Song running, that means we'll be able to ignore the clones' attacks. Well, aside from Rasaad. Once the clones come out, I'll get the good stuff back out.
Anyway, Magpie gets improved invisibility and the cloak of non-detection. She steps behind Lonk ... not fast enough. Retreat!
I wait for a while, so that the swords go away. Then back to the fight
A dispel, three hits, and it's over. One of those hits was a non-critical 40-point hit from Rasaad.
Magpie reaches fighter level 15 with that fight, taking staff proficiency and a Spike Trap.
Now, Irenicus. We appear right next to him, and get off four hits before he can even cast anything - already near death.
He spawns the clones, but they're not attacking us. Huh?
A few more whacks at Irenicus, and he's out.
His initial spells go off as he's teleporting away. Keldorn fails his save against the Horrid Wilting for about 90 damage, and has to drink a healing potion.
Then the murderers show up. Mazzy uses her true sight gem:
Not that it matters; the murderers don't have magical weapons.
I kill the still-neutral clones to see if I get XP for them - no. And those attack orders lead to the party turning on each other for some self-inflicted damage.
A complete anticlimax of a fight, plus that bizarre glitch of non-hostile clones. I'm so bemused that I let the game sit for a while ... and crash. Hard reboot needed.
The most recent reboot is just before we killed Lonk. It's a bit messier this time, and he gets off an Incendiary Cloud when we don't dispel him. Then, back to Irenicus. Down to Near Death before his prebuffs fire, but at least the clones are properly hostile this time.
Haer'Dalis fails his save against that Horrid Wilting and dies. I raise him immediately, so that he can sing up some protection. Also, re-equip the good weapons.
Still, we've done enough to Irenicus. He leaves.
We focused down the Rasaad clone first - the only foe with a magical weapon. Now, there's nothing left here that can hurt us at all, so I just run the rest of the battle on pure autpilot. Don't issue any orders, and just let the AI choose targets to attack.
Lots of murderers go after Haer'Dalis, but they're completely helpless against his song.
This battle brings levels for the whole party. Magpie reaches thief level 18, and invests her skill points in stealth. Korgan reaches level 22, and takes his first Greater Whirlwind. Keldorn reaches level 19 and takes Hardiness. Rasaad reaches level 23 and takes Whirlwind Attack. Mazzy reaches level 21, taking flail grandmastery and Whirlwind Attack. Haer'Dalis reaches level 25 and takes Use Any Item.
That last ability allows some new equipment for Haer'Dalis - and he can now reach the AC cap at will.
Base AC 1 from the full plate. -1 for the helmet, -2 for the cloak. Then -10 for Enhanced Bard Song and -8 for activating the boots: a total of -20 AC before Dex. He can't cast spells or attack, but he wasn't going to do that anyway.
A conventional build for him would balk at the full plate (no spells!) and especially at activating the boots (no spells or attacks!), but in this party it all makes sense. EBS is just that good, especially when it's a full party of warriors receiving the buff.
There are a few monsters to kill outside the asylum, and some things to retrieve in the office we couldn't reach before. Then it's back to Brynnlaw, where we sell off some junk and steal from the merchant. We also buy the crushing AC belt from the priest.
Saemon has a plan, but we'll have to wait for night. Therefore, we rest.
Magpie dreams of that warped Candlekeep again, and a dream comes. A malicious spirit uses Imoen's voice...
... and awakens a sinister power. Magpie can become the Slayer at any time - but at a cost. Still, it's a useful ability to have when she needs to lower her reputation.
Upon waking, Magpie and Korgan drink potions for strength 19. We'll be fighting a lot, and there won't be a lot of dispels going around. Cayia is awake enough to call for guards...
... but these guards are not up to the task of stopping us.
Horn retrieved.
Some pirates try to cause trouble on the way to the ship. Since they brought a mage, I use a dispelling arrow:
The arrow is effective, breaking the mage's defenses and ensuring a quick death. The few enemies that carry magical weapons fall equally quickly, and we mop up the rest.
No damage or other negative effects taken.
Naturally, leaving the island isn't as smooth as Saemon suggested. Desharik sets a few goons on us, which we have to dispose of before leaving.
And then, out at sea, githyanki show up.
Mazzy is in melee range of one, so I have her drink a strength potion and switch to her flail. One other thing to note in this battle - the githyanki leader is immortal. We do our best to kill the others instead.
These enemies have some spellcasting capability, and a Remove Magic wipes out Korgan's strength potion. Thankfully, both Magpie and Mazzy are unaffected.
Also in that shot - a Confusion got some pirates. While Haer'Dalis doesn't have his song up yet, everyone in the party made their saves.
Then, the enemies follow up with a nastier spell. Psionic Maze on Haer'Dalis, and he fails the save. He's out of the battle, and we won't be getting that song on our side.
The timer runs out, and sahuagin join in. Only the githyanki captain survives to retreat.
A couple of those die, and the scene ends. Fade to black, wake up captured in a strange new place.
Down in this underwater city, we are brought before the king:
Incidentally, that's Haer'Dalis visible despite still being mazed. The maze effect plays oddly with these cutscenes.
He's even briefly controllable at the ettin fight:
Then he vanishes again. The fight itself is trivial, of course.
Before we head out to find the rebels, we pickpocket the king. Treasury key acquired, and we have the scroll and rod.
Solving the imps' riddles earns a set of boots and another +2 protection item - neither is useful for us at this point. Sure, the +2 cloak is great - but we have six other items that fit that role. All it offers is a bit more flexibility when we get enough good amulets.
Conversing with the Spectator is a wisdom check - but having Haer'Dalis gets us a free pass. We didn't need it (Keldorn was speaking, and would have passed), but it's nice.
There's the tooth. We can now meet with the rebels.
Of course, before we can reach the rebel leadership, we have to slaughter every rebel we see. Along with the loyalists that fight them. Our strength potions expire, so I renew them. A faster killing speed is always appreciated, even against such easy foes.
While most of these encounters don't matter, there is one priestess with a special item.
The Cloak of Mirroring. Magpie puts it on - she will have no more near-death experiences from Flame Arrow sequencers.
Against the sea zombies, Magpie takes a disease hit from their lord:
It's a 10% chance with no save, dealing 6 damage per second for 60 seconds. I could drink an elixir of health, but choose to give her the periapt of protection from poison instead - immunity to the damage.
As for the Cloudkill - my front line are all immune. Monk, periapt, cloak of mirroring. There's no reason not to just keep fighting in it. We easily crush the remaining undead and move on.
Finally, we meet with the prince. And with this party, there's a clear right choice. We side with the king, because that's the only way to get the gauntlets of crushing.
Battle is joined. The prince activates Whirlwind Attack ...
... and doesn't get a single attack off. Hah. It's a good thing for us, too - the prince hits hard.
The other rebels are easy to clear out, and we head back to the priestess to sell things. Lots of crossbows, spears, and even a few generic magical items, with the best prices we've seen so far in the game. But the really big money is in the ammunition, selling several stacks of bolts of biting. By the time we're done, we're back up to over 80K gold, from under 20K before. I buy a few scrolls, but only the Invisibility scrolls that we'll need several of to upgrade cloaks of protection.
The king gives us the gauntlets of crushing and a second Rod of Lordly Might. Then I let him go, because I've already taken everything he had worth taking.
With that, we're done with this city and chapter 4. The underdark awaits.
Our first steps in the underdark are to the north, where a trio of mind flayers await.
The psionic blast is not a problem - we're immune. The Detonate will hurt.
There are a range of psionic attacks already in the game in vanilla; SCS allows illithids to use them in addition to their basic stunning blasts. In this case, Detonate is an AoE spell that does magic damage. We can save for half, but that's it.
Anyway, that gets four party members for about 20 damage each. Korgan is out of raange, and Magpie is protected by her cloak. We engage in melee, where Korgan gets brain-sucked once - but all except Mazzy can survive two hits. We're fine.
Preparation? To fight a few mind flayers? Don't make me laugh.
This encounter also inspires me to shuffle belts around. Magpie doesn't need the belt of inertial barrier if she has the cloak of mirroring, so Haer'Dalis gets it instead.
Carlig has some good stuff (mostly scrolls), so Magpie puts on the pickpocket gloves and loots him. It's definitely not worth buying anything; before the drow disguise, he has the worst prices of any merchant in the game both buying and selling.
We beat up some elementals next. They hit back fairly effectively, though fighting 5-1 keeps it from being too bad.
And then, at the fire portal ... a glitch.
We kill one of the fire elementals by freezing it, so the game sees it dying twice - and replaces it with two new fire elementals. Our numerical advantage is reduced for the rest of the fight. Thankfully, the total number of elementals at the portal doesn't change.
These fights bring Haer'Dalis to level 26; he takes his first Spike Trap.
Now that the area is safe, we free Vithal. That grants another chunk of experience, and Mazzy reaches level 22. She takes her first Greater Whirlwind.
A large group of drow stands to the north, and Magpie opens with a backstab.
With that priestess stunned, she follows up with two more attacks to kill her before retreating. Magpie then drinks another strength 19 potion; it'll either boost her in combat or convince a mage to waste time dispelling her.
Instead of that, one mage goes for a triple-fireball sequencer. As we have very little resistance gear, that hurts a lot.
Only the split party saves us, really. Magpie is immune, Rasaad has magic resistance, and Korgan takes the full brunt, while the rest are out of range. Korgan retreats, leaving the others to fight.
A mage follows up with a Death Fog, while Keldorn dispels the enemy defenses.
It's troublesome, but Magpie and Rasaad can fight in it without too much trouble. An Aerial Servant goes after Korgan and gets in a hit, while the other mage also casts a Death Fog - this time behind the lines, forcing Mazzy and Keldorn to retreat.
That leaves just Magpie and Rasaad in the fight, but we've thinned out the enemy a lot already. One mage is down, while the other remains under invisbility. That won't last in the face of Magpie's detection ... but it doesn't matter.
Friendly fire kills that mage. Well, all right.
With the drow defeated but the Death Fog still active, Magpie and Rasaad go west to fight some spore colonies. Rasaad takes a hit, but they handle the situation easily.
That opens the way to the gnome village. We accept the quest to deal with the monster they dug up, but we don't take it on right away. Balors are very nasty with SCS, with a particular emphasis on fire damage. They have a fireshield (actually an Aura of Flaming Death variant) that can't be either dispelled or breached, and tend to also cast fire storms immediately. If you aren't immune to fire or at least heavily resistant, you shouldn't get close to them. And as we are now ... we have very little fire resistance gear. Potions and scrolls are the only real option, and the balor can dispel that.
So then, we'll go get some fire resistance gear first. We could use traps instead, but we only have two spike traps right now. It would take two days worth to get a reliable kill.
On the other hand, one days' worth of traps is plenty for the foes imprisoned in the soul cage.
The madman Aganalo in the first face goes down easily, with no traps. The second face holds Reavilin Strathi - two normal traps.
We won't have to worry about any high-level spells here. 59 HP loses out to our traps. Landing a Heal spell on him can get you the unique sword Albruin, but that's rather hard to pull off; it'll be blocked by any spell defenses he puts up and is also easy to disrupt. Killing him instead is much easier.
The third face holds the githyanki Riti - another easy one, with no traps. The fourth face holds the lich Alchra Dialgott. One normal trap and one spike trap:
Done. The last two faces aren't hostile at all. The experience rewards for all this bring Rasaad to level 24, and he takes club proficiency.
Now, to "help" Vithal. He starts in on the portals as soon as we deliver the book of rituals, and we have to deal with the guardians. Earth first:
The leader opens with an Earthquake, which knocks down two party members. But after that, Celestial Fury stun renders it helpless, and the party tears it apart. Some party members drop into the yellow, but no further.
Fire comes next, and the fire guardian is stunned on the first swing.
It is unable to take any actions before dying, and the party takes no damage in the encounter. Korgan reaches level 23, taking Power Attack.
Air follows, with similar results to fire. Vithal leaves to grab the treasure before we even finish off the minions.
We set the last two traps once combat really ends ...
... and greed pays off. All of the loot is ours.
Over to the east, there are some kuo-toa in the way. They bring a mage - but not one with and Mantle-type protection.
So then, we just hit it with a dispelling arrow. After the initial Magic Missile at Korgan, it's too disrupted to do anything else. There's another group past the bridge that gets the same treatment. Mages that can't cast at least 6th level spells are trivial by this point.
We enter the eastern tunnels - illithids. The party is stunned and captured by act of plot, despite what should be immunity. We'll have to fight our way out of this - but first, we wait. And regenerate.
The first opportunity for something different comes when we're taken to an arena - though the umber hulks there are no trouble.
Do watch out there - if a party member gets confused and launches a ranged attack at one of the "masters", it's game over. And EBS was temporarily down when we were brought into the arena.
Cooperation with the githyanki comes next. We kill off a few kuo-toa and escape the arena.
That was easy. Up next, the ogre jailkeep is quite tough, with 240 HP and 50% physical resistance ...
... but he has a non-magical weapon. Sucks to be him.
Moving on, we begin to face illithids. What defenses do we need? Enhanced Bard Song, and that's it. Potions of invulnerability would help against some of the effects with save penalties, but the stun immunity from EBS is by far the most important.
That, and our spell saves are all excellent. We're not quite immune to everything, but we're all highly resistant.
Anyway, we just send in the party to fight the mind flayers as a group. Any party member that gets brain-sucked retreats.
After that first fight, I do bring out some buff potions - strength 19 and 20. We free the slaves and get the control devices, then head north. Against the first plot-locked door, Magpie turns into the Slayer:
We'll be gaining some reputation, so lowering it first is necessary. And this use preserves the control devices so I can choose not to use them later.
Next, a room full of illithids get sone hits in. Magpie is brain-sucked...
... and then again. Time to back off and throw daggers.
Fortunately, that intelligence drain only lasts five rounds. I just wait once the battle is over.
The tadpole room is next, where a Detonate only hits two of our party:
It's easy from there. We grab the brine potions - to never be used - and move on.
The illithids in the next room open with a pair of Detonates and a Ballistic Attack to damage the whole party. Even the Cloak of Mirroring doesn't protect against the latter.
There are enough enemies here that they get in hits on both Keldorn and Korgan, but at the same time we wear them down quickly:
They also keep going invisible, but Magpie's 100% Detect Illusion means that never lasts. Rasaad is taken out of the battle with a Psionic Maze - at a -4 save penalty and his 2 to save, that was a 25% chance.
Then Haer'Dalis gets hit by two Ballistic Attacks:
Yeah, he needs a potion after that.
The enemy follow up with another Psionic Maze and remove Haer'Dalis. We'll have to wait for him to come out of that before we take on any more rooms. Fortunately, there aren't any enemies left in this room.
Also, that's a brain-suck on Magpie. One hit each on three characters. They don't seem to like targeting Mazzy, presumably because her AC is a little better - but she's the only one that would die in two hits, and they're only hitting on natural 20s anyway.
Once Haer'Dalis comes out of that, we go south and pick up the Ring of Fire Control - the main prize we wanted out of the dungeon this early.
Then it's the penultimate room in the north. The enemies bunch up at the doorway trying to make it difficult for us ...
... but can't actually stop us. We claim the Staff of Command, and use some potions to heal up before the boss.
Magpie transforms to open this door, and comes out slightly fatigued - apparently, the Slayer transformation is much like a Haste spell in that way. Still, that isn't going to cause us serious problems. Attack!
The strength potions expired too, but that's OK. Mazzy uses her personal Strength spell as a partial replacement.
Once we're in melee - the brain is vulnerable both to Celestial Fury stun and to Scarlet Ninja-to poison. It goes down quickly, and doesn't even summon any brain golems.
Our reputation dropped to 16 from the two uses of Slayer form, but goes back up to 17 when the slave leader talks to us on the way out. There's a lot of experience too, though no new levels.
And one last loose end - Simyaz. We yell at him a bit for not helping, and refuse to give up the silver blade. It's a fight.
But not much of one. They don't have magic weapons. And only Simyaz had any spellcasting ability.
After the fatiguing effects of the slayer transformation, Magpie needs a rest. But first, I'd like to tackle the potential level-draining threats in the underdark - the demon knights in the western tunnels. It's best to stack up those reasons to rest and do it all at once.
We take on a side room on the way; Rasaad turns into a werewolf and clears out the room of beholderkin with his 117 MR.
We had plenty of other options, but I just didn't feel like putting any effort into it.
Magpie absorbs the undetectable trap, and the party comes to the demon knights' room. A berserk warrior is sacrificed to awaken them...
Oh right, fireballs. We can handle it, but I'll be watching those HP totals. More fire follows:
At this point, I'm thinking about getting Haer'Dalis out, and Mazzy needs that Lay On Hands healing.
Then even more:
Good luck this time - Haer'Dalis blocks it with his 10% MR. Two out of five enemies are down at this point.
That's it for the fireballs, but they get in some melee hits and we drink some healing potions. And then, it's over.
The precautions worked, and we didn't take any level drain. That's thief level 19 for Magpie, with more Pick Pockets and a Greater Whirlwind. No thieving potions will be needed to loot the underdark merchants.
Of the three powerful magical items the leader drops, only the belt goes into use. The armor would improve AC by 1 at the cost of 2 to saves - not worth it. The only party member who would consider two-handed swords is Keldorn, and he can't use this one. But the belt? That's a big deal to Magpie, who is still working with a flat 18 base strength when not using potions.
And now, after a rest at the gnome village, it's time to face the demon. Magpie equips the ring of fire control and drinks a potion for 100% fire resistance, with another potion in reserve.
Also, that's Arbane in the off-hand - protection from Implosion hold, even if she can't hit the demon with it.
The rest of the party sets up at long range. Haer'Dalis stands to the north and sings. Rasaad just avoids the battle completely. Mazzy and Keldorn switch to their +3 and +4 auto-missiles, while Korgan goes for the Dwarven Thrower.
We open with a pair of spike traps:
140 total damage, exactly average. A third would have instantly won, but that would have taken more than one day worth of resources.
Then the bonus HP from high difficulty kicks in, and the demon isn't at Near Death anymore. It opens with a Fire Storm on Magpie. Keldorn dispels its stoneskin ... oh, oops, that took out Magpie's fire resistance too.
As such, she drinks that second potion right away. Definitely some poor planning here.
On the other hand, it doesn't take long to finish the battle:
Korgan gets the finishing blow with a critical throw. The only damage we took was a single off-hand melee hit to Magpie.
Returning to the gnome leader, the experience brings Haer'Dalis to level 27.
While we could go to Adalon now, I'd rather not. First, a drow ambush in the northeast:
With one cleric and a bunch of warriors, they're easy to clear out without any fancy tricks. Magpie takes a couple hits, and that's it. Magpie sets some traps, and the party heads to the southeast corner of the map.
Now, on to the beholder hive. Haer'Dalis activates his boots before going in - and the party meets two beholders.
That first one went down absurdly quickly, with the help of the critical hits. The second doesn't last much longer. The rays they hit us with? Two disintegrate and one death at Korgan, one antimagic on Haer'Dalis. Nothing dangerous at all.
For the main enemy force, saving throws won't be enough - they have damaging rays too. so, then, it's time to break out the potions of magic protection. I have enough to make four party members immune; Keldorn and Haer'Dalis stay behind.
The first encounter is a group of drow attacking a beholder.
We manage to get in fast enough to get credit for the beholder kill. And then wipe out the drow. That's enough for a few more levels - 25 for Rasaad (GWW #2), 23 for Mazzy (GWW #2), and fighter 16 for Magpie (Spike Trap #2).
Up next, a fight between gauths and mind flayers.
While our first attacks went to the gauths, we change targets as soon as the mind flayers become visible. They're a much bigger threat.
Some beholders join in:
The beholders themselves aren't much trouble, but the way they block our path to the last mind flayer is. I get an opening and send in Rasaad...
That was targeted at a Gauth, but Rasaad was caught in the blast radius. And he rolled a 1 on his save. Oops.
Well, then. I suppose the rest of us need to help him out. While Korgan charges in, it's Mazzy that gets the final blow with her arrows.
And now, we only have to worry about melee attacks.
Incidentally, Magpie keeps stunning beholderkin - and those same foes get dispelled moments later by their friends' antimagic rays. We've got them confused enough that they use the rays to dispel transient debuffs on their own but not lasting buffs on the party.
The mobile trio goes south to clear out a pair of Death Tyrants, while a beholder comes up on the still-stunned Rasaad:
Now, if that beholder switched to its melee attack, we might have cause to worry. As it is, we easily make it back to protect him.
And now, an Elder Orb. Improved Mantle - run away. Remove Magic cast at Magpie? Run harder.
Still, that spell tracks her down and dispels her buffs. That ... wasn't supposed to happen. We could continue, but I step back and rethink ... oh. Her fire protection potion was still up. That doesn't inspire antimagic rays, but it does inspire Remove Magic.
I reload a save from before entering. That potion buff has to go before we take on the hive.
I could just wait for the two-hour duration to expire, but that would be boring. Instead, I head back to the western tunnels to kill some kuo-toa.
And ... their mage had a dispel. No more fire resistance potion. That mage gets a dispelling arrow to wipe out its stoneskin, mirror images, and fireshield.
We grab some corrupted tadpoles for later. What do they do? They remove an item from the prince that grants 10/sec regeneration and 90% magic resistance. No effect on the others, but that reduction definitely makes the prince easier to kill. And since the prince usually stays in his room, you don't have to slip by the others to activate that effect.
Another group follows, and another mage gets a dispelling arrow.
They call for help, extending the battle with the next room's forces. That wizard actually affects some of our party with a Slow spell.
While we're focused on that wizard and its visible allies, a Whip gets through to backstab Haer'Dalis:
I divert Korgan to deal with that. Incidentally, the nonmagical spear kuo-toa drop isn't the melee weapon they actually use. The weapon they use is magical and inflicts Slow on a failed save.
After all that, the prince is an anticlimax. Fighting alone, he goes down very quickly. Using the tadpoles was nice, but not very relevant. Magpie reaches fighter level 16, and takes that second Spike Trap.
All right, back to the beholders - and this time, without that stray fire resistance potion to cause problems. The beholders at the entrance spread their rays more and get in a bit of damage:
Antimagic on Haer'Dalis. Disintegrate, Death, and Flesh to Stone on Keldorn. Cause Wounds, Death, and Paralyze on Korgan. Nothing that we risked losing a save on.
That's enough XP for Rasaad to reach level 25 and Mazzy to reach level 23. They each take Power Attack this time.
Buff up, and send in everybody but the bard. We picked up more stuff from the kuo-toa, so we have a full nine magic protection potions to make all but Haer'Dalis magic immune.
The drow get the finishing blow on the beholder this time, and inflict substantial damage on Magpie. Still, it's not enough to sow our advance.
Back to the gauth and mind flayers again:
Focus on the mind flayers first, of course. They go down without incident.
Only beholderkin remain in the area.
Of course, that drew in some extra beholders, some of which came from the northeast. I go after them, and that gets close enough to activate the Hive Mother.
I have no desire to face that Improved Mantle, and no weapon that can cut through it. Korgan and Rasaad pull back. I take a mid-combat level here - Korgan to level 24, for grand mastery in hammers and his second Greater Whirlwind.
Now, I split the party. The melee go south to take on the Death Tyrants, while the ranged attackers handle that last beholder from the central area.
When I move to reunite ... the Hive Mother arrives.
Improved Mantle still active. Back off into the tunnel to buy a bit more time ...
And now it's not. We can engage with the full party, and tear it apart. No need to even dispel those stoneskins with arrows, since five warriors tear through them quickly enough.
And ... hey, when I said "the full party", I didn't mean you. Get away, Haer'Dalis!
A few daily charges got zapped by that antimagic ray, but nothing lasting. Whew.
The Hive Mother got in one melee attack just before the end. It does hit considerably harder than lesser beholders with that.
Another minor hit comes up in the northeast; a Gauth bites Magpie.
Also, the cloak of mirroring got snatched and I didn't even notice. Backtracking, we find it at the Hive Mother's corpse.
Now, time for the first Elder Orb. It opens with an Improved Mantle, which we respond to by backing off and attacking from another direction.
The Stinking Cloud in that shot was cast by a summoned djinn.
With the Improved Mantle run out, we can hit the Elder Orb:
Also, the Cloak of Mirroring has been snatched again. That's rectified quickly as we bring down the Orb.
And now that we've retrieved it, we put it away for the moment. The amulet of spell warding is much more important, granting Rasaad better spell saves. The equipment shuffle that inspires leaves the cloak with no place to go - at least in here, where it doesn't matter much.
We still have a summon to put down. That djinn casts PfMW, so we get out the nonmagical weapons.
There's one last enemy to fight - an Elder Orb hiding in the last chamber.
I go after the summons (since a dispel would wipe out my own protections), but this enemy has spells. And it casts one that actually matters.
That - ouch. I'll have to use one of the scrolls I stole.
With the Elder Orb eliminated, Magpie casts Freedom from a scroll.
Thankfully, getting Rasaad back like this doesn't break the romance.
The magical sword follows us around as we loot the place, even following the party out of the hive entirely. We drop off a bunch of stuff in the crates near the gnome village. It's time to meet Adalon and face the city of Ust Natha.
The anti-beholder tactic featured here is definitely one of my favorite innovations. It's specific to the improved SCS AI, and when you have as many non-casters as this party, it's an impressively fast method while still being very safe. Just be careful not to get any extraneous buffs in there. Even the brief haste effect that is a Whirlwind can get you hit by an anti-magic ray so you lose your immunity.
Our potions have worn off by the time we reach Adalon, and she disguises us all as drow.
933 - Drow illusion
Since this party doesn't use shapeshifting in combat, I have no need to remove the illusions from anybody - and I've stashed the greater werewolf tokens anyway, to remove any chance of accidental crashes. There's nothing left to do but enter the city, so we go in.
Once inside, the first order of business is to loot the merchants. Magpie puts on her pickpocket gloves for a score of 195 and proceeds to steal everything of value.
Next, we meet with Solaufein - and Korgan offers a warning.
The mission is given, and we're off to rescue Phaere.
We step outside the gates, and ...
War Dog, N'ashtar, Simbja, Skeleton, Pitch, Chandrilla, Boz. All dead to the traps. So much for that ambush.
The scripts indicate there should be a thief Damien too, but I never hear anything from him. From all the evidence, he just didn't spawn in at all.
Well, at least we get a nice halberd out of it.
As for the illithids ...
After what we did to the illithid city, there's no need to buff for this small group.
Except ... Haer'Dalis let his song lapse. And he's short on permanent save gear. He pays the price.
A mind flayer goes for him, and thankfully Mazzy lands a slowing hit before it can get more than one attack in.
It goes down, we dispose of the umber hulks, and then it's just a matter of waiting for Haer'Dalis to come out of the stun. (Psionic Blast stun can't be dispelled)
Back in the city, an aboleth demands our aid - we're killing Qilue. Sure, we could talk our way out of this, but I'd rather just kill some drow.
We act quickly against that mage right in front of us ...
I'm pretty sure that was a PfMW that I interrupted. Without that protection, he goes down quickly.
The other servant on the starting platform, just past Qilue, succeeds in casting Mantle - so we'll just switch to +4 weapons. Still, Qilue comes first. No ranged attacks, since she's using Physical Mirror.
Easy. On to that servant, and you can see all the +4 weapons in use. A PW:Silence is cast on Haer'Dalis, so I give him the Amulet of Power - he can keep singing.
Another servant comes over ... this one's using PfMW.
Switch it up; nonmagical weapons for that one. Also, one of those mages cast a Chaos - completely ineffective due to EBS.
The servant that had the Mantle goes down, and another PW:Silence on the already silenced and vocalized Haer'Dalis - bad idea there.
I take the battle to the other platform, where more mages join in. Chaos, Chaos, PW:Silence ... they just don't get it, do they?
They do at least get a little damage in there. We take down a priest and five mages without using a single daily ability, and the only thing that even scratches us is that one acid arrow.
After returning the brain to conclude our business, it's time for some tavern entertainment. One patron has a fun story to tell ...
Unfortunately for him, the local priestess objects and kills Merinid. Incidentally, it's possible to intervene and buff Merinid enough to win the fight. If you do, he reveals that he's a follower of Vhaeraun before leaving.
That leaves the pit fights. First, Magpie duels the monsters Szordrin handles.
An Umber Hulk is first; she goes for a backstab but can't get into position.
Still, it's stunned on the first hit and quickly torn apart without taking any actions.
A nabassu follows:
Again, stunned on the first hit. It gets in 9 points of damage with a gaze, and that's it.
A sahuagin prince comes next. It hits hard if you let it ...
... which she doesn't.
Finally, a beholder. Stealth into range ...
A very hard hit (52 damage without even a crit), but the beholder saves - and that's only a little over half its hit points. It gets to act and throws out a few rays she saves against easily before going down.
Another flawless victory. The battle didn't last long enough for the enemy to notice the cloak and yank it off. So that's all four enemies down with only the 9 damage from the demon's gaze taken.
Next up, the dueling pit. First, Magpie takes on Lasaonar:
It's a simple fight, and she's better.
One hit taken. On the flip side, one of Magpie's hits dealt 15 slashing, 4 cold, and 20 electric. The sword is nice, giving Keldorn a good elemental option.
Chalinthra follows.
And ... well, a priest just doesn't do well against a high-level warrior in their face. All she has is that blade barrier, which Magpie doesn't have to worry about because she always saves.
After the fight, I cheat slightly and use Ctrl-J to pick up the stuff she dropped (and kill the Aerial Servant).
No more duels are possible; the remaining duels all require a mage, and a bard isn't an allowable substitute. Keldorn reaches level 21, taking two-handed style and his first Greater Whirlwind.
We explore the city some before resting, and Korgan recites some poetry to Mazzy with mixed results:
One detail of note there - we know the Red Sheaf Inn. Apparently, Korgan has been to Beregost.
After that rest, it's time for more of Phaere's tasks. First, a beholder:
Disintegrate on Haer'Dalis (save with a 4), death on Keldorn (MR).
Picking up the next mission, Keldorn can't help himself:
Psst ... we're undercover. Drow don't care whether their victims are evil.
Once outside, Magpie shows him how the subterfuge is actually done. Dismiss Solaufein, talk to the patrol leader ...
See? No need to kill an innocent.
We take this opportunity to stash more stuff and shoplift Carlig's new inventory.
Back in the city, Phaere demands Solaufein's death. No. We let him escape instead. Still, his cloak is enough to earn her favor. We are brought before Matron Mother Ardulace, who wants ingredients for a grand summoning ritual. The favor of House Despana will take us far in this city.
We could turn in the ingredients right away, but intrigue comes first. Visaj offers a magic rope, and we go after Deirex. It was a trick, but we get a second chance at it. Mazzy throws Azuredge before the defenses go up ...
Nope. He saved with a 4. Most liches would have died, but this one is made of sterner stuff - base saves all 3 except spells at 1.
Anyway, there's no abjuration immunity in that list of defenses. That means we can just dispel him.
He may have 123 hit points, but that doesn't last in the face of a full party of warriors once his defenses are down. After the initial flurry, his next spell attempt was interrupted, and he didn't get anything off.
It's theoretically possible to lay traps in the moment you have control on the first visit; a pair of spike traps would kill him when you come back, and I've done it before. I missed the opportunity this time.
We beat on the magical swords for a while, slowing them with the Flail of Ages to reduce their threat level. Once they unsummon, Magpie can take off her armor and get to the treasure.
Jarlaxle was lying to us, of course. Korgan wants revenge:
But he'll settle for killing and profit - Jarlaxle directs us to a rival house we can slaughter.
While we're at it, Haer'Dalis reaches level 28. He takes halberd proficiency and Magic Flute.
Over at House Jae'llat, the reception is immediately hostile. Melee warriors go after the named one, and the archers target the mage (called "Jae'llat Priestess").
The many guards will just have to wait for the higher-priority targets to fall.
Mazzy's initial dispelling arrow takes out the mage's prebuffs, but not his initial PfMW cast.
OK, then, switch to nonmagical ammo. Since we cleared out the stoneskin, it doesn't take long to finish off that mage's 75 HP. Haer'Dalis runs around playing distraction, and the melee forces take out Rilloa.
Now, it's time to thin out the guards. There are a lot of them, and they can hit hard. Exceptional strength, grand mastery, and +3 drow weapons. Keldorn and Mazzy switch to melee for this part of the fight.
Still, they're only level 12 fighters. Our party of high-level warriors outclasses them severely. Once this bunch are dealt with, Keldorn and Mazzy go back to their ranged weapons.
More named enemies approach, and we're back to splitting attention carefully.
Most of the party goes after the fighter Ist'tar, while Keldorn switches to his +4 innate bolts against the Mantle-protected mage Valas. Magpie heads for the priestess Hindra with Detect Illusion active; that should clear up Valas' mirror images.
And then I change my mind. Magpie's taking too much damage, so she drinks a potion. And Valas is coming over here, so there's no need to stick herself that far forward.
And there goes the level 18 fighter Ist'tar.
The guards pile up, and I need another round of potions:
Also, we're retreating from Hindra and her nearby allies. Rasaad adds to the pressure on Valas, and that's enough to finish him.
Now Magpie can switch back to Celestial Fury, and Keldorn can switch back to +1 bolts for the extra damage.
Hindra wastes time on a Sanctuary while we focus on the guards ... without support, she won't last.
Then she breaks Sanctuary by casting Harm. She never makes the attack. Dead.
We used a few healing potions. Then the enemies dropped more. This battle was a net gain in consumables, and we didn't use any daily abilities. We loot the place, and we're done with Jarlaxle's intrigue.
Next, a priestess Taso Kala orders us to deal with a bunch of Ghanadaur worshippers.
The priest leader is our first target, going down quickly. Unfortunately, Korgan takes an otyugh disease hit. No save on that.
He's wearing an amulet for poison immunity that protects him from the damage, but the slow effect is still there. Elixir of health, then.
Then the mage gets Korgan with a Slow. It's just not his day, is it?
I think he's at a -2 spell save; he had to roll a 1.
Next, it's a Delayed Blast Fireball targeted at Keldorn. An odd choice, since he has 70% fire resistance. I try to scatter, but ...
Only Mazzy manages to dodge. Keldorn and Haer'Dalis both take damage.
The ammo choices in that shot are because the mage used a PfMW, of course. Magpie adds to the pressure with a regular katana, and the Stoneskin fails.
The remaining oozes are trivial to clean up after that.
One last sidequest here - we free some slaves.
Reputation back up to 18.
With two cases completely full of stolen scrolls, I go on a scribing spree. Together with the next plot bit, it's enough for new levels all around. Magpie reaches thief level 20, Korgan reaches 25, Keldorn reaches level 22, Rasaad reaches level 26, Mazzy reaches level 24, and Haer'Dalis reaches level 29. The new HLAs are greater whirlwinds for Magpie and Keldorn, hardiness for the other three warriors, and Spike Trap for Haer'Dalis. Aside from that, Magpie gets some strength and Mazzy takes her first dot in two-weapon style.
And now, back to the plot. We hand in the goodies, and then get on to the three-sided egg swap. With our two sets of fake eggs, we head into the temple.
The guards are alerted when the door is opened, so we have no choice but to kill them. Still, they're quite weak.
Inside the chamber, making the switch will activate the golems, so we hit them first. The clay golems are the priority targets, of course.
One clay golem goes down to brute force, while the other saves against the Rod of Smiting. Gather the party against the survivor ...
It goes down, but Korgan gets cursed. The stone golems are easy to handle after that. With no temple services available, I use one of my precious scrolls of Remove Curse. In retrospect, I could have summoned a deva to do it, but I didn't realize that was possible at the time.
Finally, it's time for the ritual.
That chunk of XP brings Rasaad to level 27, and his second Greater Whirlwind.
And now, we get out. Or do we? Yes, we do. This party can't handle the combined forces of Ust Natha. I know. The hard way.
Adalon gives us a pointless crossbow and oodles of XP, then sends us to the exit.
The enemy mage puts up an Incendiary Cloud, so we retreat. Between the cloud and Adalon, the drow at the exit are quickly eliminated.
Now, with some free time to work with, we can level up. Magpie reaches fighter level 17 and takes her third Spike Trap, Korgan reaches level 26 for his third Greater Whirlwind, and Mazzy reaches level 25 for her second Greater Whirlwind.
Past the doors, there are a few more drow.
They had a mage. Rasaad got to him.
More warrior drow follow, fighting surface elves. We deal with them, and head back down to the gnomes. After all, I'd like to get some gold for all that drow junk. Once that's done and we collect what we stashed earlier, we finally exit to the surface and chapter 6.
Up on the surface, the elves drag us off to meet their general Elhan, who interrogates us in his usual annoying way. He's at least willing to hand over some stakes and holy water. And now, it's time to go back to Athkatla.
On the way back to Athkatla, Magpie meets someone she's encountered before.
Thankfully, he doesn't remember how that turned out (see part 1). And Magpie would rather not jog his memory.
The key here ... if you have one or more of his items when you import the character, he'll know. We left that stuff behind just before the BG1 endgame, so we can get away with asking for his help now.
And he agrees. We'll have Drizzt's help when we take on Bodhi again.
The bridge district is our target, and we are accosted by a githyanki when we arrive.
The conversation quickly degenerates into a fight. Kruin wants the Silver Blade back, and he won't take no for an answer.
One gith teleports right on top of us, and gets slaughtered immediately. Kruin's protections include a PfMW; we could fight through it, but it's a lot more convenient to throw a dispel. He doesn't last long after that.
That leaves a Gish, a Warlock, and a Captain. Mirror images go down to Detect Illusion skill - no more Gish.
Then the Warlock - no stoneskin, and not very many HP.
While we've been doing this, Magpie and Keldorn have been attacking the Captain. He doesn't last long either.
We came to the Bridge District because that's our stash spot - the playhouse. Many items go into the stash, and we pick up a few parts for making items.
Now, a bit of character work. Haer'Dalis takes a break, and we invite Edwin into the party. He immediately reveals that he's been studying the Nether Scroll.
Okay, that's enough of him for today.
Anomen follows, and discovers his sister's murder. We convince him to follow the law. While we're in the area to talk to Bylanna, Magpie picks Tolgerias' pockets for his magic ring.
And now, after recruiting the Radiant Heart and the Shadow Thieves for the big fight, we're off to Cromwell. Drop some bits, and assemble the Gesen Bow for Mazzy.
After that, the one-day timer has expired and Edwin is ready to cast the spell he has learned:
Silly mage. Don't you know that nothing good comes from casting spells?
All right. Now Haer'Dalis can rejoin for some actual adventuring.
First, we check in on the keep, where some trouble has come up in our absence.
We pay for full relief and rebuilding, then tax the peasants to recoup part of the costs. We spend 7000 gold, and earn back 1500 of it.
Now, back to the shade temple. We stopped short of the first lich when we came here before, but we can handle liches now.
So much for the easy way. With abjuration immunity up, I'm not getting a quick dispel in. But then, this lich hasn't actually seen us - so Magpie just retreats to wait out the PfMW.
While she's doing that, the lich casts Remove Magic on itself. Twice.
Huh? Well, if it feels like wasting spells, I don't mind.
This appears to be a necromancer; it has no illusion defenses. As such, Magpie heads in to throw Azuredge.
A critical hit. Oh, did that hurt? No? Retreat, then.
The lesser undead follow, and the lich casts a Time Stop into three rounds of nothing. That has some interesting effects:
The burning effects piled up, then all hit the moment the time stop ended (they use a projectile). That was too much for that poor Animate Dead summon.
The remaining lesser undead make it to the bridge, at least.
We just engage them in melee. No problem for our high-level warriors.
And then, another shot at the lich.
Save failed. The second hit does the trick.
To retrieve the items in the lava room, Haer'Dalis puts on the Helm of the Rock and the ring of fire control. Added to his innate 25%, that's full fire immunity.
A ghost helps out, and then it's time for the second lich.
No time for a throw there. Abjuration immunity and no illusions again, so the same tactics apply. It follows those initial spells up with a Time Stop into nothing - so much for that PfMW. All right, go for a throw ... saved. The minions follow us out:
Those get some nasty hits in on us ... oh, Haer'Dalis is out of position, and the front-liners aren't buffed.
After finishing those enemies off, we pause for a bit of healing. During this wait, a brief conversation comes up in which Keldorn compliments Korgan:
True enough. Korgan is definitely worth it.
Reusable healing - the tankard from Neera's quest - brings Magpie up to 100 HP, safe from Power Words.
Now, back to the lich. Magpie attacks from stealth - save made, lich casts Remove Magic to deal with the nonmagical invisibility that is no longer active. The next try is just a little slow, and runs into a new PfMW. Wait that out, go again ...
Wow. She actually missed. But that Chromatic Orb is a wasted cast, and that means she has a round to try again. Hit, save made, PW: Blind. All right, retreat again to wait that out.
Finally, after getting her vision back, Magpie makes another throw.
Six throws for the kill. Slower than I'd like, but at least the lich didn't do much of anything dangerous.
Pressing on, we cross the letter board and pick up some goodies. We accept a shadow's bargain to take it across...
That was a very foolish betrayal. One shadow against a team of well-equipped high-level warriors?
Fatigue has caught up to most of the party; apparently, the rest at Cromwell's came at the beginning of the day spent there. We rest, and Magpie sees a vision of what can only be the elven realm:
Sorry, Ellesime, it'll be a while before we can get around to helping you. We have some quests to deal with first - like killing the dragon we're about to meet.
You may note that this is slightly out of order; the rest actually came before the last gameplay picture. This is also another typo-inspired title.
Picking up where we left off last, the party descends into the Shadow Dragon's chamber. While I often just pass through and leave it for later, this is Chapter 6. We're taking it on right now. I summon up a deva and a less important minion, then Magpie goes Slayer and Korgan berserks ...
The second summon woke the dragon, and Magpie is caught with her aura down. Um ... reload, and use someone else for that summoning.
The second time around works better, and Slayer Form now has a 2 reputation penalty.
The dragon wakes with the summoning, and we attack. 68 damage later, the initial PfMW contingency triggers.
And now, the dragon breathes, targeting Mazzy. At the same time, we dispel that defense.
Mazzy saves easily, but four levels and blindness mean she can't use the bow any more. She switches to flail and moves forward, while the other warriors whirl. Well, except Keldorn, who has to wait a round.
Massive damage ensues, and the dragon goes for a wing buffet.
Only Mazzy, the deva, and the summoned berserk warrior failed their saves. Ah, the perks of running with warriors - we can keep up the attack uninterrupted even by a wing buffet.
About two rounds to kill a dragon. Nice.
Now, on to the Shade Lord. Magpie stays in Slayer form, since this is another battle with level drain.
Mazzy goes after Patrick, and the others attack the Shade Lord. All of the party except Mazzy and Rasaad are currently drain-immune.
Shadow Patrick crits with an arrow ... ineffective. He's using nonmagical arrows. Also, Magpie's control slips, and she goes berserk.
She's still attacking the Shade Lord, at least.
A protection goes up ... and then down again.
It doesn't last long after that. While Magpie dealt a good chunk of damage, it's Korgan that gets the final blow.
And through all of that, not a single level drained. We killed it so fast that its aura didn't have time to work.
While we clean up the altar and the remaining shadows, the drawback of that berserk state comes up. Korgan is Magpie's next target.
Incidentally, Magpie's character sheet says she deals 20-34 physical damage. The berserk state is applying a damage bonus that doesn't display properly.
In reaction to this, Korgan uses Hardiness. He can't have enough AC to stop her, but he can mitigate the damage.
One round after the trouble started, Magpie regains control. She takes the opportunity to transform back immediately. There's no need for level drain protection anymore, so the Slayer is more of a liability than a help.
Once the fight is over, Mazzy builds a memorial ...
... and then a very out-of-place dialogue triggers.
Gorf is long dead. Well, I suppose this is why the option to duel him in the Copper Coronet's ring never came up. Bugged, like so much of Mazzy's content. Apparently, it only works properly if you clear the shade temple and restore the altar as a memorial before doing it.
That scene also advances time to the next morning, so that Korgan regenerates to full. This marks the first time I've ever used Slayer form in combat - in this case, the tweaked version from Ascension. It's certainly effective, but the chance of berserking is a nasty drawback. And after using it - special occasions only. I don't think I'll ever pull it out outside situations that the reputation loss is actually desired.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 30 and his fourth Spike Trap. We explore the area, put down a few aggressive animals, and go back down for the trapped container in the talking statue.
Back at the village, the mayor offers his reward. A bit of gold, some experience, a useless piece of armor, and a point of reputation. That last is why we used Slayer form, of course.
A bit of side questing follows - buy a beljuril cheap, confront Fael.
We force attack him. He doesn't get away.
We talk to the wizard next, and visit the cave. Those idiot kids need our help with a diseased gibberling ...
... but we're really here for the mimic.
It only really has the one trick. Save vs breath or be paralyzed. Only two of our party can possibly fail that save, and they didn't. Also, it attacks with a nonmagical weapon.
Back with the mage, his golem goes berserk and is eliminated in moments.
The reward is ours. One utility sword, which will stay in a bag never actually being used. And the chance to loot the home for minor treasures.
Now, on to the Windspear Hills.
These "monsters" fall easily. With their nonmagical weapons, they can't even hurt us. And then, Keldorn makes a tragic realization.
You know, Magpie really should have recognized him too. She certainly got close enough back in Baldur's Gate.
The lord Garren Windspear offers sanctuary, but bandits invade his home:
A fight breaks out, Plath's prebuffs activate ...
... and Keldorn and Mazzy change targets. No sense shooting the mirrored foe with arrows.
One hit taken on our side, and that was a mirrored arrow after losing discipline.
Rasaad levels up to 28, taking his last proficiency - short sword - and a third Greater Whirlwind.
Now, we head out to explore. It's a pretty area, with lots of relatively easy monsters. The gnolls drop some nice random items - scrolls of Mislead and Improved Haste.
The werewolves they were fighting don't, but they go down quickly.
I play with some orcs by sneaking up on them:
Sure, attacking normally would have worked too - but this way we get all the arrows when they either switch to melee or try to make distance rather than shooting.
And finally, our oldest quest is resolved.
Sure, they had to wait a full season. That's nothing to a tree, right?
Next time, we delve into the dungeon to face the mastermind behind the monsters here.
Just inside the ominous door, a bunch of hobgoblins are on guard.
DigDag leaves, and the hobgoblins attack. Since only one archer in the back has any magic weapons, it's a trivial fight.
After crushing another band of hobgoblins, we meet some kamikaze kobolds.
With our many ranged attacks, they die well before they can reach us. That eaves their boss, the Rukh Transmuter.
With that PfMW on top of natural immunity to normal and +1 weapons, that calls for a dispel. It doesn't last long after that, and we pick up another piece of fire resistance gear.
Farther west in the cave, orcs and vampiric mists await us. Naturally, we focus on the most dangerous enemies first - the orc archers.
When the mists arrive, they won't be able to hurt us. The melee orcs have nonmagical weapons too. I love Enhanced Bard Song.
Anyway, we kill the archers and recover most of their +1 arrows.
The rest of the encounter is trivial.
And now, down into the dungeon. The first room here is one of the few places thieving in combat is a big deal, so Magpie takes off her full plate armor and drinks a potion of invulnerability to replace the AC.
It takes time to reveal the first door, long enough that we take some of the orcs down with our ranged attacks. Then Magpie unlocks and opens the door. Along with Rasaad, she goes after the remaining orcs on that side in melee.
And before we can even reorient and open up the other side, those orcs fall. We end up recovering 68 out of 80 fire arrows.
The next challenge is a group of golems. Rasaad goes after one clay golem from stealth:
29 damage. 21 HP left. Rasaad retreats, closes the door, and re-hides. Another round:
But there's still another clay golem in the group, and now the golems have all hasted up. This second one won't be as easy to fight without retaliation.
And now, Korgan is cursed. Ouch.
The remaining golems ... no problem.
What do we do about that curse? Nothing, for now. We just use a ring of regeneration to gradually heal Korgan.
After killing a couple orcs, it's the troll cook's turn.
Nice and quick. The hobgoblins are no problem at all, with the mage casting a mere Dire Charm (saved easily) before they die. The otyugh doesn't get in a single attack before it dies.
Forward from there, a batch of orcs manages to hit Korgan with an arrow:
Just the one, though. 6 damage isn't a big deal.
And now, vampires. Rasaad backs off, Keldorn switches to melee mode, Korgan rages, and we get out the anti-undead weapons.
The mummies at the door come first, though.
And ... uh, oops. I forgot to have Korgan rage.
Better late than never A but more, and - let's Sunray this.
Now that's better. The survivors are easily cleaned up.
With the rage still active, we hit the spectral undead. The greater wraith is first at the door ...
... and first to fall. The remaining foes are no problem.
Keldorn reaches level 23 here, taking his third greater whirlwind.
We could live with that level drain on Korgan for a while. It's just a few hit points lost, and deactivates his save-boosting items. Still, I have Haer'Dalis use a restoration scroll. Some fatigue on the non-warrior isn't a big deal.
Opening the next door, Samia presents us with a key - OK, we'll take a side trip. Magpie takes the fire resistance gear for immunity and heads in to the first guardian ...
Oops. The rest of the party didn't get far enough out of the way.
She refines the formula for the next guardian. Immune to fire and spell damage, Detect Illusion ... they really can't do anything.
Guardians go down, and we hit the Director.
It may look like a beholder, but it's just not that scary in practice. No damage taken.
Finally, we gather all the mask pieces and head forward to the final guardian.
Easy. It's just a fire elemental.
Samia wants to start trouble now, so we prepare the field - four normal traps.
The dwarf Legdoril is the only survivor.
And one arrow later, he isn't a survivor anymore.
Anyway, back to the path forward. Some greater wolfweres are in the hall, and the first dies almost instantly.
Regeneration? It doesn't matter if they don't have time to use it. Also, Mazzy reaches level 26 with that battle, taking her third Greater Whirlwind.
Another group of golems follows, piling up with some orogs at the door. The already-cursed Korgan takes point:
The first clay golem goes down cleanly, but the second gets a hit in on Rasaad.
It's still not a reason to turn back and regroup. We have two rings of regeneration, and Rasaad can get faster regeneration with a greater werewolf token.
So then, we keep fighting and take the golems down.
Korgan gets some revenge for his earlier cursing there.
We pull up a helmet and kill an elemental:
It's a nice piece of gear; resistances are important.
We intervene in an argument between some minions...
... by just killing all of them.
And now, how should we handle an adamantite golem? I know. Just send in the party.
That's a nice crit there. 6 damage and a stun. The golem does get out a gas cloud - harmless, since none of the warriors can possibly fail the save. Other than that, it stays stunned and we beat it down.
The stone golems there get in a couple of hits, but nothing serious.
Some wolfweres try to ambush us:
They don't have what it takes.
Forward, then, to Tazok. He has apparently been resurrected in Firkraag's service.
He inflicts some damage, but we outnumber him. Dead again
There's some magic gear there, but the one item that matters to us is the sewer key.
And now, down into the dragon's lair for some taunts. Still, we're here for Garren's kid, and Conster holds the key. Pop back up for him ...
Oh, right. We set a pair of spike traps. It's not a fight.
Between two cursed party members, a fatigued bard, and overfull bags of holding, I choose not to fight the dragon. We'll come back later for Firkraag. Instead, we report to Garren Windspear for the quest reward. The reward isn't quite enough for any levels, but Magpie is less than a dragon's worth away from one. And there I end the session.
After selling off the junk we're carrying, the party takes on a quest to boost their reputation - retrieving Waukeen's mantle for the leader of Trademeet.
A few skeletal warriors is a trivial fight, even with the summoned help. Logan gets the mantle, and we get back up to 18 reputation.
After that, it's off to meet Valygar. We talk his ranger friends down, then hear his side of the story - he'll join us to open up the sphere.
Haer'Dalis goes back to Athkatla on his own.
We get our rest at the forge making Shadow Dragon Scale armor, then open the sphere ... and leave Valygar inside.
Drop him from the party, then head out for Haer'Dalis and to stash some things. Incidentally, he gets another instance of Prepare Minor Sequencer and Contingency each time I do this; he's up to eight of each now. I'll fix that for my next run.
On the way back to the inn, we are waylaid.
These "travelers" are soon revealed to be shapeshifters wanting to impersonate us, but they've missed a key detail.
A bunch of spellcasters? Nobody would ever believe that was us.
While we take out two before their defenses can go up, that still leaves four foes with stoneskins and mirror images. Mazzy gets to work with dispelling arrows.
Since none of them put up absolute defenses, they're all fully vulnerable four arrows later.
And seconds later, they're all dead. That was easy.
Inside the sphere, the first challenge is the clay golem in the side room. Rasaad hits it, it goes for a haste ...
... and then Korgan whacks it. Dead, without getting a chance to attack. No curse this time.
Picking a lock in that side room brings Magpie to thief level 21; she takes more stealth skill and a Time Trap.
And then, we activate the sphere. No going back now, until we're done.
The knights in the next room mention cannibal halflings.
That very idea offends Magpie. She will have to do something about that.
Still, we head north first, sneaking up on the priestesses with stealth:
The enemies get a bit of damage in, but none of our team drop below the green.
And then, the halflings. They're spaced out a bit, with three, then one, then three, and a named foe retreating. They can pile up more, but we kill them fast enough to avoid that.
And, of course, they don't have magical weapons. They can't possibly hurt us.
The next group, which Togan retreated to, is more troublesome. Entu is a fighter with psionics, Togan is a plain fighter, Kayardi is a mage, and Mogadish is a cleric. So, then, we open with a backstab.
He had 58 HP. With the bonuses from bard song and his lack of a melee weapon, Magpie deals a minimum of 79 HP there. Guaranteed chunking, unless she rolls a 1 on the attack.
The survivors follow up with a bit of taunting:
Yeah, no. We bring up the rest of the party. Magpie's EBS protection lapses and she takes a hit, then Entu adds a Detonate, but we can handle that.
We pick up gauntlets of ogre strength here, which Korgan claims. They're effectively +1 attack and +2 damage for him, an improvement over his old +1 attack.
A few spiders in the next room bring Haer'Dalis to level 31 and his fifth Spike Trap. Then it's north for the last of the Athasians in this sphere. This group has two mages, so Magpie goes for a stab on the more dangerous one:
Another guaranteed chunking. He has 45 HP, and it's a minimum of 59 damage with his melee weapon there.
As we retreat, the other mage Taibela puts up a PfMW. Rather than dispelling that, Keldorn and Mazzy just switch to nonmagical ammo.
The stoneskins don't last, and Keldorn gets the kill.
We activate the furnaces, killing the fire elementals with no damage taken.
Then, to the east, it's a pack of golems. I go for a simultaneous stealth attack on the two clay golems...
Save made against the Rod of Smiting, so no instant death. Rasaad finishes his target off with a second attack, while Magpie retreats and switches to her usual weapons to attack a stone golem. As we do this, the party joins in.
The surviving clay golem charges off in a direction that looks like "away", with Rasaad and Korgan in hot pursuit. And then, they catch up.
The remaining golems aren't hard to clean up, though Rasaad takes a hit.
And now, we have enough to activate the golem to open the doors. It attacks a beholder... and we join in.
Mazzy gets the kill. Incidentally, while this beholder is called an "Elder Orb", it doesn't get mage spells. It also doesn't get the SCS beholder AI.
Now, on to face Lavok. I've usually brought in Valygar for this, but I'll do it without him this time.
Looking it up ... he has 96 HP. This battle is already over; he just hasn't realized it yet. So, then, I just pull Magpie back and wait a bit.
One lucky roll, and it's the easiest version of that fight I've ever faced. The spore colonies and lizard men in the side rooms are easy, and we pick up the useless items.
Over at the runes ... the trap spell goes right through the cloak of mirroring. I shuffle gear around so Keldorn gets 110% fire resistance, and have him solve the puzzle. The door is open, but we're not taking it yet. Instead, we head outside for some demon hearts.
The imps and quasits do a bit of damage with their fire spells, and the first nabassu silences two party members:
Still, silence? That's just not something we care about.
The second nabassu is even less effective.
No damage, no failed saves.
And then, there's the strongest one and its summoned Maurezhi.
With that many targets to divide our attention, Korgan falls into the yellow. Still, we win through without any real trouble.
On to navigation then, and the second mage boss of the dungeon.
64 damage doesn't kill him. Neither does the 24 damage on the second hit. He somehow has 96 HP, far more than a level 21 mage can normally achieve.
And then, his prebuffs go up. Absolute Immunity is one of them. But we have a solution - Cloudkill. Magpie uses a wand ...
Oh right, forgot that weakness of the Cloak of Mirroring. It doesn't protect from your own spells.
Incidentally, those summons Tolgerias brought in are hakeashars. Harmless.
Haer'Dalis throws in a second Cloudkill so Tolgerias can't run away...
That just leaves the cleanup. Two harmless summons to kill, two clouds to wait out.
We take on the ice room next.
It's easy enough to deal with. That earns us a second helm of defense - our fifth resistance helmet, since we bought the helm of radiance earlier. Everybody but Rasaad can have some fire resistance from their helmets now.
And with that resistance, we take on the fire room. That one's more troublesome, especially because of the noble efreet.
Remember, no amount of magic resistance helps against Fire Storm. Rasaad is using his Greater Sun ability there for some actual resistance. Soon, the efreet falls.
Now it's time to get out of the fire storm. The melee go forward, while the ranged contingent turn back.
And then, when I finish off the last enemies, I notice that Magpie faced that whole encounter unarmored. Oops.
In the engine room, we start out by entering through the ice room and going northwest, avoiding the golem spawn triggers. There's one clay golem that starts in the room; two hits from Rasaad, and it's dead. We can insert the demon heart at our leisure, and claim the treasure off to the side.
But those triggers are still there, and I didn't come here to not fight enemies. I go back to the fire entrance and spawn in the enemies.
Two hits without retaliation, one golem down. We fall back through the door to lose them, then return.
Rasaad goes after a juggernaut golem next - a hit and a critical miss. For the next move, the second clay golem in that group has been separated. Take it out, retreat ... oops. I caught the attention of the other golem group, and two of the party fail their saves against Slow.
We head back to the ice entrance after the Slow expires, and get a perfect ambush on a third clay golem.
We take out a juggernaut golem as well before retreating; another Slow caster off the board.
Our next attack takes down several stone golems, before the last clay golem arrives.
As it's already hasted, we retreat.
Also, half the party is slowed again. We wait for that to expire, and head back in - juggernaut down, then a stone golem at the other entrance. But we still have a clay golem to deal with...
That hit, and one more - dead. Now, we've won. We took out a total of eight clay golems in the planar sphere, and none of them landed a single cursed hit. Truly an impressive feat.
There's one last stone golem to kill, and then we insert the demon heart to return to Faerun.
Finally, Lavok gets to see some sunlight before he dies. After that, we pick up Valygar.
All right, that's enough. You can go back home to the Umar Hills now.
We have something else to do in the city today - it's time to use that sewer key. It opens up a hidden door, and we pass through.
A psychic blast to stun the party - nope. The song grants us immunity, and we keep going without delay.
The passage leads to a chamber with illithid architecture; clearly, the creatures have laired here for some time. That first room is empty, but the next is occupied. The illithids have their thralls here.
I target the mage ... nope, invisible. Also, PfMW. Given that circumstance, I redirect my attention to a mind flayer.
That flayer goes down first, and an assassin whiffs on Haer'Dalis.
The mage gets in a bit of damage with a Chain Lightning, but the thralls here are rather short on magical weapons. Only the assassin has one, a +1 sword.
Before long, only the two protected spellcasters remain.
The mage is next to fall, leaving only the cleric under Sanctuary. That cleric casts Harm and moves to attack Haer'Dalis ... which still doesn't break the sanctuary. Annoying.
Still, he dodges that, and the protection falls eventually. No harm from that Harm.
The next room holds an umber hulk and a bunch of illithids.
The ensuing brawl gets Magpie brain-sucked. Twice. As one more hit would kill her, she retreats to throw daggers instead.
Korgan is next to take a hit, but only one. Then a mind flayer pops up next to Magpie:
Uh, time to move again. Thankfully, that one wants to attack Haer'Dalis and his ridiculously good AC instead. Victory comes soon after.
With that, Magpie reaches fighter level 18. She takes her second dot in staves and her third Greater Whirlwind.
And now, the final room. We wait for the brain damage to expire, and head in. The alhoon buffs with Improved Haste, Minor Globe, Spell Turning, and Mirror Image ... that calls for a dispel. I can't have such a dangerous enemy running around hasted.
And ... it dodges my instant-cast dispel. Oh well, at least that got some Improved Invisibility effects.
Before we can go for a second dispel, Korgan takes another melee hit. He needs to retreat now.
And then, the second dispel lands properly.
The alhoon is vulnerable now. Of course, we're not in a position to attack it very hard yet.
We keep thinning the enemy ranks:
No more umber hulks. Incidentally, Korgan is dueling a magical sword somewhere off-screen.
Then a ballistic attack hits Haer'Dalis, dropping him into the orange (29 HP). He drinks an extra healing potion, as we finish off the last normal illithids ...
Oops. I should have gone for a 40-point superior healing potion. He was still just barely in reach for Power Word: Kill.
A third dispel takes out the alhoon's renewed defense, and we finally take it down.
We raise Haer'Dalis with a rod charge, as it's much cheaper than temple Raise Dead. And then, I get tired of magical swords chasing us.
With combat over, Mazzy takes her new level. She's a level 27 fighter now, with her second dot in dual-wielding and Critical Strike.
Back to loot that last room, and we get the Hammer of Thunderbolts. All of the ingredients are in place. It's time to forge a legendary weapon.
Korgan wields it main-hand, because even ignoring the strength bonus it's better at killing than anything else available at this stage of the game. He'll keep it for the rest of the game, only ever not using it when he's throwing weapons.
And now, what's next? The sun's still out, so I don't feel like progressing the plot with a graveyard visit. Instead, it's time to hunt some liches.
As you can see, we have no intention of fighting.
Just killing is better.
Keldorn reaches level 24, mastering two-weapon style and taking Power Attack.
Let's do that again.
Hello, lich. Goodbye, lich.
That's a new top kill for Haer'Dalis. And Korgan reaches level 28, taking Power Attack. A few random monsters spawn on the way out; an otyugh and a green slime are no problem.
And now, Kangaxx. His two phases call for a more elaborate setup. We set a pair of spike traps for the lich form on the central platform, and normal traps for the demilich form near the room's edges. Magpie's traps still deal fire damage at this time. Everybody gets out their +4 weapons as well, aside from Haer'Dalis.
The spike traps take care of the first form. Before his prebuffs even go off, he's ready for phase 2.
The transformation still takes a bit to trigger, but he doesn't do anything in that time.
And now, the demilich.
Less than a round later, it's over. We beat him so hard, Kangaxx literally didn't do anything.
There's 57 damage in that log. Kangaxx has 52 HP, with the 2 HP/round regeneration of his ring. The time represented in that log is considerably less than a round. And that's it.
The ring of Gaxx is ours, after this ridiculously easy fight. Magpie will wear it most of the time, though we'll pass it around when regeneration is needed elsewhere in the party. I got lucky on two low chances of elemental damage, but there was plenty more coming. Even Rasaad could have joined in with Flaming Fists.
We're ready to face Bodhi - but first, some special non-canon content for Christmas. The main story will resume next Monday, December 28.
This party can't handle the combined forces of Ust Natha. I know. The hard way.
What is the "hard way"? It means that I tried. This two-part holiday special will show exactly how it panned out.
The vanilla game turns all of the Ust Natha drow hostile when you're found out, and calls in a few more to attack you. SCS adds to that massively, with fifteen waves (on Insane; fewer on lower difficulties) of drow to attack you.
The earliest waves are small; five fighters and a mage, then four fighters. But soon, it picks up. Wave 5 is a full fifteen drow: ten level 9 fighters (6 melee, 4 ranged), a level 10 cleric, a level 14 cleric, a level 10 mage, a level 14 mage, and a level 10/9 fighter/cleric.
That same wave repeats six more times, with some variations mixed in. A round of four berserkers and three mages. A round featuring a level 18 matron mother, a glabrezu, and two nabassu, plus some lesser drow. A round with a level 18 archmage, four stone golems, and three more lesser mages. And finally, a round with another level 18 matron mother, 11 assorted fighter and cleric followers, and six demons including two balors.
These waves spawn primarily on a timer - four or five rounds. There's a secondary check that there aren't too many enemies out at any given time, but that still lets you be overwhelmed by nearly thirty foes if your kill speed can't keep up.
So, that's what I'm testing my party against. Insane difficulty SCS Ust Natha. brutal challenge - but if you can win through, it's worth more than a million XP.
We pick up immediately after the disrupted ritual - and in this timeline, I head to the tavern instead of the exit. I set up just inside the entrance, where the long walkway will reduce their numbers. Then I start the action with a backstab on one of the bar patrons.
A few rounds later, the first wave arrives.
They're just a warmup, really. Some drow warriors, easily killed.
Another wave brings a priestess, who wastes her time with a Flame Strike on Magpie.
Cloak of Mirroring. Nope.
Also ... where are all the other drow? It's been a while, and we;ve only seen a few of them. They should be coming in huge waves.
So then, I try something. I step outside, and a bunch of drow appear. Step back in, and the bridge is suddenly crowded.
That mage has a Mantle up, which is why Magpie is using Usuno's Blade and Keldorn is using the auto-ammo.
Then the mage goes with something offensive.
Ouch. Resistance only goes so far.
And then a second mage gets involved. Another instance of the same creature file, which means the same sequencer.
With two party members dead, I abort this run.
I try again, and try to figure out what happened ... oh.
Many of my enemies spawned inside the locked area, and got trapped in there.
A few more rounds of this; once the trap fills up, leaving either to outside or upstairs causes massive numbers of enemies to appear right there with you.
At this point, I decide that the strategies I've been using don't stand a chance, and I just go for the exit instead.
But it doesn't end there. The ideas keep nagging at me, and I decide to try something else. This time, I use the Female Fighters' Society as my base; no traps, but there is a door I can dodge through. Also, all but Rasaad and Magpie drink potions of magic protection, to reduce the threat that the enemy mages pose.
It works better, for a while. The full strength waves are already under way in this shot.
And then, I dodge out the door to cancel a Death Fog ... and a bunch of drow appear instantly. Oops.
Apparently, despite there not being any full-on traps in this area, the enemies were still piling up out of sight - and using the door lets them back into the action.
I keep fighting, though. An enemy Cone of Cold hits them just as hard as it hits us:
That even includes a kill.
Then Korgan drops to the brink of death ...
One rod of resurrection use, successful. Just in time too, as the enemy keep targeting him. He's down in the red again when I use a second charge.
That's also a Death Fog I didn't bother dodging, and Hardiness for all the warriors. But = well, there's just too much there. Before long, I give up on this run. Using the door at all was a mistake.
Another try in the FFS ... well, it's at least amusing. The enemies saturate the battlefield with Death Fog, and then summon some spiders into it.
Oops. Poor situational awareness there.
But ... well, this exposes the fundamental problem. We just aren't killing enemies fast enough.
And with that, I give up. So much for trying to fight fair.
But if this saga ended there, it wouldn't be two updates. I come back in another session, and decide to embrace the unfairness - plus some outright cheating.
We head back to the tavern, fighting dribs and drabs while the trap fills up. Then, Magpie teleports in with Ctrl-J and unleashes her fury - six Cloudkills, using the wand of lightning trick.
To the sharp eye, they're in flight in that shot.
Those cloudkills finish off a great many drow warriors, and that means the numbers thin out enough for more waves to arrive.
Hey, there's a glabrezu.
Clearly, the first matron mother wave has arrived. Korgan takes significant damage from this group, and a Death Fog soon reduces our battlefield options.
Still, we get through that. Ellavir herself is in the cage.
The archmage appears next, and Magpie takes him on alone, protected by the Cloak of Mirroring.
He casts Time Stop ... and follows up with a truly pathetic sequence of spells.
All right, the lightning bolt is potentially troublesome. But the party isn't in the line of fire, and that makes it just as harmless as everything else.
The mage does manage to protect himself for a while, long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
See that glabrezu? The final wave has arrived. Well, at least that Incendiary Cloud the archmage cast is helping us out here; it's dealing a lot of damage to the drow.
Then a Balor gets in on things, adding even more friendly fire with some Fire Storms. Since they ignore magic resistance, the drow are extremely vulnerable.
After some more mass damage spells, most of the party falls back. Only Magpie, with her cloak protection, can handle the storms of fire.
A balor teleports over ... stun it and beat it down.
And now, the second.
With the two most dangerous enemies eliminated, we're past the climax and into mop-up. Finadryl goes down, the clouds expire, and I can finally get to that archmage.
We've dealt with everything outside the cage
Teleport back in to unleash the poison clouds.
Uh, that's a lot of drow. The deaths come fast and furious - but it's not all of them. Repeat.
For round four, I'm thinking it's just the stone golems left, so I teleport the whole party in to fight them.
Oops. There are still quite a few drow, and a demon as well. That was a bad move.
Those drow included multiple mages, with predictable results. I salvage things by teleporting the party out.
Then Magpie goes back in for another round of Cloudkills...
Nope. Power Word: Stun gets her. She dies to her fatal burst of overconfidence. Even with cheating, we have failed.
I was so close that time. What does that mean? Try again, of course.
Only a few drow come at us before the cage fills up this time. I launch a wave of Cloudkills, then pop out again. After a bit ...
They're fighting each other now. Apparently, some of them went berserk from morale failure.
After the second round of cloudkills, we see more attackers outside the cage trickling in ... oh, look, there's one of those level 14 mages.
One of those is manageable. He gets a dispel so I can take him down quickly.
And then, the last wave comes. Matron Mother Finadryl is here; the cage must be absolutely stuffed.
Unfortunately, with her come the demons. And I make a fatal mistake. I step out to avoid all that fire damage, and the army gets out of the cage. Failed.
All right, another try. And less waiting this time; I just teleport over to use the wands whenever I feel like it. After a few rounds of that, and an intense bout of combat involving a nabassu, I pop over for a fumigation:
As you can see, I've been keeping the crowd smaller.
More fighting follows, icluding several mages at once - and then a balor arrives. The last wave is here.
I use a wand Breach to take down its stoneskins, and attack. Korgan engages in melee (70% fire resistance) while three others fight at range.
We make progress, but the other Balor is here. And it announces its presence with a Fire Storm. The one we were fighting adds a second. And we can't dodge.
So then, I cheat in the same style I have been - teleport away to escape. It's not really enough, and Rasaad falls.
But ... I'm using the rod of resurrection anyway. Bring him back, and he's right back to full strength since he doesn't wear armor.
Finally, the Balor falls.
So too, the matron mother. Before long, everything outside the cage is clear. Now, for that pit of trouble. Two more rounds of Cloudkill, and I send in the party ...
Oops. There was still a mage in there, with plenty of fireball power. Back out, then.
All right, plan B. Magpie goes in alone for a more measured approach.
And that, finally, is the last of them. We could clean up the rest of the city, but this isn't canon anyway. Forget it, and move on.
The next session ... I still can't get this impossible dream out of my head. Can I do it without cheating outright? There's another area I haven't explored the potential of - upstairs. Specifically, there's a cage that drow can spawn into, and we can see into it to bombard it when necessary without teleportation.
The patrons die quickly, and we set up near the lust chambers. It doesn't take long for caged drow to start showing up.
A few rounds of small groups make it to me, and I see my first mage with a Mantle.
Or, rather, I know where the mage is. Invisibility is a thing. Apply magic protection potions now.
As enemies attack from two sides, we put out some disposable minions:
Then the enemies start throwing Death Fogs around. We retreat, and the minions are off the table.
But that retreat brings its own problems; drow can spawn anywhere offscreen, so the less we see, the less likely they are to show up in the cage. The drow deal plenty of damage to their own, but also to us; I'm using the rod of resurrection to heal now.
Korgan falls to near death, and I go for double healing:
It still isn't fast enough. The rod finds him already dead, which means now he's fighting without armor. And I'm not carrying any AC bracers. How soon can he drink a potion of invulnerability? Not soon enough.
The battle continues, and Korgan dies yet again. At this point, I see the writing on the wall. Once I lost control of that platform, I was doomed.
And that, finally, is enough to convince me to stop replaying this impossible dream. No matter how many tricks I exploited, this party of warriors simply couldn't kill their enemies fast enough to win the war. That will have to be reserved for other parties with more firepower.
What could a party of warriors do here? Well, most of the enemy are level 9 fighters. The Deathblow HLA tears through them; if you take enough instances of that, you could keep the numbers down. With this party, I didn't. After all, Deathblow is very weak in most circumstances.
Spellcasters? Well, I am planning to take this challenge on in my next run. And I'll definitely report it when I get there.
After that interlude, it's time to get back to the story. As a reminder, we've finished up the stronghold quests, forged the amazing Crom Faeyr, and killed off some liches for fun and profit.
Now, it's time to take on Bodhi, and put her to rest for good. We travel to the graveyard, and time advances to midnight. Bodhi is there to greet us.
Huh. That isn't a power he ever showed off before. Ah well, if it means he won't be turned against us, I'm not complaining.
Keldorn and Korgan take point for us as we clear out the vampires wandering around. And apparently, the mourners around here are exceptionally brave.
These vampires are basically just mooks, and we kill them quickly. Korgan stays enraged long enough to reach the entrance to the vampire lair, then runs out inside.
The first room holds a group of paladins, who are content to wait the five rounds for Korgan to end his winded state. Then we move forward, reaching the named vampire Valen and a fledgling.
The paladins stay back while we handle this, only for a fledgling to show up back there.
Out where the rest of the party is, Del has joined in. We deal with that easily. And now we have a paladin tagging along being mostly useless.
The next target is the blood pool room, where Drizzt and his companions are.
Haer'Dalis dominated? Dispelling arrow for that. After that, he uses his boots for better resistance to any future attempts.
Then Keldorn goes unresponsive - wait, what even happened? I scroll, and can only find one thing in the log that makes sense:
Looking it up... this is a vampire power added by SCS. And it's built wrong. It's a clone of vampire Domination, with the effect changed to feeblemind and the save penalty changed from -2 to -4. But that only applies to the actual effect. The charm portrait icon and its -2 save are unchanged, as is the elven charm resistance. Keldorn saved against the cosmetic effects but not the actual feeblemind, so he just stands there without any clear indication of why.
It is, at least, dispellable. And it only lasts eight rounds. So I shoot him, and he's back in the fight.
I reach the blood pool with some holy water:
That affects all remaining vampires on this floor. Less strength, less damage.
After the main force in this room is dealt with, an elder vampire sneaks behind the lines to backstab Haer'Dalis. No picture available, but that's the first level drain we've taken.
And also, I'm pretty sure the paladin leader got level drained to death. They really should have sent someone with protection in. Come on, can't the order find any Undead Hunters?
We go back to the coffin room to stake some vampires, and for Haer'Dalis to use a restoration scroll. Being level-drained does terrible things to his saves, and it's not like fatigue is a big deal for his role.
And now, out to the main hall. The thieves are here, invisible as they should be.
Tanova is the biggest threat here with her magic, and she has a PfMW up. Dispel that.
Mazzy shoots her down before long, leaving us with just some rats to clear out.
We could go down, but the spike room to the east beckons.
On the way over, there's another mage "Guard". PfMW, dispel, Mazzy.
The spike traps are harder to avoid in this version of the room than they were in act 3, so Keldorn takes some hits. We'll have him regenerate before moving on - but the mists are dead and the gauntlets are ours.
And now, down to Bodhi. I'd like to disarm the traps, but Arkanis gets to them first. We get a bit of trash-talking in:
And then the fight is on. We've used the holy water, and there are a couple of mage vampires to dispel.
The dispel works, and also dispels the malison on Korgan - along with Keldorn's strength potion. Oh well, can't have everything.
One mage causes a bit of a stir by jumping into the midst of the half of our party without drain protection, and activates an Improved Invisibility contingency.
Can't hide from us with that spell protection graphic, though. We dodge away from that. Meanwhile, Korgan is engaging Bodhi in melee, with his 70% cold resistance as protection.
A mage goes down:
The other follows quickly, and we're down to just Bodhi and some irrelevant Grimwarders. I go for a Sunray ... but before I can complete the casting, it's over. Or rather, Bodhi gets her second wind.
Full healing, but she's still alone. We resume the beatdown, and Bodhi takes 18 magic damage. She resisted half of the Sunray and saved as well.
Our attacks, however, are not so easy to resist. Before long ...
Rasaad gets the kill. That 91K experience is enough for another level (32) for Haer'Dalis; he takes two-handed sword proficiency and his sixth Spike Trap.
There's another big chunk of quest experience after that, which brings Rasaad to level 30. He takes Smite.
Outside the vampire lair, the rest of the area is different from its previous iteration. This includes some unique monsters.
They may look intimidating, but they don't have magical weapons. The chests nearby have some good scrolls, at least.
Once the area is clear, we head back into the vampires' section and out into fresh air. It's time to rest, and that means a trip to Cromwell. The Equalizer is ours now. And that leads to the final SoA love talk with Rasaad:
Just friends. The nerve!
Leaving Cromwell's shop, a messenger arrives.
It's time for the final stronghold event.
And ... oops, there's a bad script there. The mage guard doesn't have a script that makes him hostile, so he just stands there and doesn't get involved. SCS wiped the vanilla script which contained both combat actions and hostility once he hear's his lord's shout, but didn't replace the latter bit.
As such, I force the issue and attack him.
We make sure to take down the Roenall soldiers before their lord, but it isn't quite a flawless victory. One de'Arnise guard falls to their attacks.
Moments later, it's all over.
50K experience, plus the foes we defeated in battle and their loot. Lord Roenall had +1 full plate, which is especially lucrative to sell.
We have one more substantial character quest left: Wilson's mod. So then, we head over to the Wild Forest and pick up our ursine friend. We have to get through his talks, which means some real-time waits. No problem; I can do other things while the game runs (paused) in the background. This comes with a few other talks as well:
That's a conversation based on Wilson sniffing Haer'Dalis. The weirdness just struck me.
After a while, we come to the interesting part.
We don't have any rangers or druids in the party. Just how does Magpie understand this conversation so well?
We talk to Wilson's brother Wilbert, help out a ranger by picking up a book (the mayor doesn't mind), and then head off to face the giant beetle.
It's a simple melee brute. The archers can't hurt it with their +1 ammunition, but Magpie stuns it on the first hit.
Then Keldorn's +2 swords don't work either. It is a pretty tough critter. But, since it's stunned, that doesn't help it at all. Keldorn switches to +3 weapons and finishes the job.
Wilbert rewards us with a token to boost Wilson's strength, and the beetle's shell can be converted into a set of bracers - 15% physical resistance and +1/2 APR. Those are fantastic, endgame-quality gear, combining two very rare and useful modifiers.
Wilson's second quest involves corrupted ducklings - but first, we need to get through more friendship talks. And the next one can be tricky to trigger; it requires the protagonist to be injured.
Anyway, we get through that and start hunting the ducklings down.
They're not very intimidating with those looks, and to this party they're harmless - they don't have a magical weapon.
We need to fight four groups of them, and four can be found in Athkatla: the lower tombs (shown above), the sewers under the slums, the sewers under the temple district, and the lower reaches. After the fourth group ...
It's basically a normal nabassu. It can cause some damage, but it's no real threat at this point.
Rasaad took a bit of damage from the gaze. Everybody saved against or resisted the silence. And then it was over.
For our reward, we get a cursed amulet that boosts lore, and Wilson gets a new ability. Nothing we care about. There's one final talk with Wilson:
And now we're done with him.
We follow up with a smaller character quest - finishing out Edwin's bit.
No, we're not turning a party member over to a Red Wizard. Even a temporary member.
I choose to spend the two-day timer forging (Wave, Silver Sword). We're still in Cromwell's shop when Degardan returns.
A conversation ensues, and Edwin's masculinity is restored.
And now, the fight. Degardan's first spell is interrupted, and he dies before he can cast another.
With that, Edwin leaves the party for good. He never cast a single spell for us.
We have one last character quest to finish. Anomen rejoins us for his trial.
Good. Now go be a knight somewhere else.
Korgan rejoins the party; since I avoided his leaving dialogue, he doesn't need to be bribed. He gets the Beetle-Shell Bracers, and we're off for some unfinished business with a dragon.
Attempting to rest in the Windspear Hills gets us interrupted by orcs:
Easily smashed, of course.
Then the second attempt gets interrupted by more orcs. We're picking up so much junk from this.
The third try is the charm. Now that we're properly rested, we enter the dungeon.
There are some respawned monsters on the way down; several groups of goblinoids, undead ...
I was worried for a bit, but it's just mummies and ghasts. No vampires.
Finally, we reach Firkraag. I boost Magpie and Rasaad by 50% fire resistance each; a scroll and the innate fireshield. With that, every member of the party is at or above 50% fire resistance.
We add Hardiness and rage, then launch the attack.
Firkraag opens with a self-targeted Remove Magic along with Improved Invisibility and Haste. Keldorn dispels him, and then Magpie charges in to join the melee.
He re-buffs with Improved Haste and Stoneskin, so I switch Mazzy to melee mode. In hindsight, I probably should have used a dispelling arrow instead of hoping for a slowing hit.
There's also a wing buffet in that shot; only Rasaad failed his save.
Near death, he puts up another stoneskin ... but his hit points are so low that it doesn't matter.
Our little dragonslayer pulls it off. And she earns a level from it too (28), taking Smite. The loot ... we're not going to use the armor, and we're not going to use Carsomyr either. Keldorn takes the weapon, but he prefers dual-wielding long swords and bastard swords.
Firkraag didn't use his breath weapon in this fight; he only used melee attacks, buffs, and a wing buffet.
After selling the junk we picked up in Trademeet - and taking a couple more trips for the stuff we stashed because there was too much - we're off to explore those small areas that opened up at the beginning of chapter 6. First, the forest of Tethir.
Random monsters abound, and soon we face a scary fight ...
Nah, just kidding. Enhanced Bard Song trivializes it. We're immune to all of their attacks and most of their spells. I kill them all on autopilot, taking no damage.
The wyvern cult has a mage that casts Mantle, but we have enough +4 weapons to just ignore that.
Well, we do need to wait for the mage to become invisible. The other cultists and their beasts fall before that happens.
And once the mage is visible, we pile on so many attacks so quickly that he has no chance. We took a bit of fireshield damage, but no offensive spells were cast.
Sadly, that mage doesn't drop a Wyvern Call scroll.
We've spoken to Coran, so we head over to help him out - wolfweres.
It's an easy fight, of course.
More random monsters come, and Magpie reaches thief level 22. She now has 100 or more in every thief skill even before any equipment boosts. For her ability, she takes Power Attack.
Finally, we come to a cave. It's populated by kuo-toa, and more spawn in behind us.
Most of the damage seen in that shot is self-inflicted, from attacking a fireshield-protected mage in melee. Kuo-toa can be dangerous with their stunning bolts, but we've focused on saving throws to the point that those have no chance of success. Without that trick, they're just fodder for our blades.
The cave also has a notable piece of loot - the Mana Bow. When Magpie wants to shoot her allies with a dispelling arrow, that's what she'll use.
Small Teeth Pass is the least interesting overworld area in the game. We kill some random monsters (orcs, wolfweres, ankhegs) and move on.
That brings us to the North Forest. This area, at least, has some challenge to its monsters. We start with some yuan-ti:
That mage was protected with a PfMW. It didn't help. We just kept going with normal arrows.
An efreet and a Dao follow.
We take some damage from the efreet's fireball and firesheld, but kill them easily.
After some random trolls and a greater wyvern, we face a hostile party.
The enemy mage puts up a Mantle, and for this group I dispel that. No messing around here. I start shooting, Haer'Dalis takes a backstab, and the mage responds with his sequencer.
Invisible again, stoneskinned, and with a teleport field for melee protection. Not bad. Also, that thief drank a potion to go invisible again.
Now it's my turn. Keldorn uses True Sight ...
That mage really wants to be invisible, apparently.
The mage is revealed and disrupted with elemental damage, while the thief goes invisible again. It's really annoying how that goes, and late-game enemy thieves can have a lot of potions.
Of course, disrupted isn't far from dead. The mage's stoneskin fails, and he dies. The thief's supplies run out, and he follows.
We gained enough experience for more levels in this last battle. Korgan goes up to level 29 and takes Smite. Haer'Dalis goes up to level 33 and takes his seventh Spike Trap.
There's one last encounter I want to face here; the vampires that spawn at night. After a rest, it's hour 20 and we wander over ...
Nope. Too early. They just turn into bats and vanish. I settle for killing some mists instead, and head back to Athkatla. There's only a little more to do before the end.
Now that we're back in Athkatla, what's next? The Twisted Rune. They're the last major optional challenge of SoA, a cabal of mostly powerful spellcasters hiding in a lair accessible from the bridge district.
We use a shoplifted Rogue Stone to open the door and enter. Lay a couple spike traps in the vestibule and summon Keldorn's deva...
At this point, I realize that the deva can cast Remove Curse, three times. Until now, I've been treating curse removal as a limited resource; something I can only get from temples and a small number of arcane scrolls. Going forward, this means I can clear out curses basically any time I want.
Oh well. We're here for a fight, not to second-guess past decisions. Magpie steps forward to provoke Shangalar, who teleports over to the party...
That's one high-level mage dealt with.
Now, the rest of the Twisted Rune show up ... and I had a third trap that I somehow forgot about. The elder orb Vaxall takes 79 damage from it. Vaxall puts up an Improved Mantle, but Korgan can just attack right over it. Also, Keldorn throws out a dispel, aiming for Layene but hoping to catch Vaxall as well.
Yes. It works. And on top of that, Magpie stuns the vampire Shyressa.
Vaxall dies to Korgan's next attack and Shyressa goes down to an Azuredge throw, leaving only two of the original foes.
Layene re-buffs with Improved Alacrity into Mantle. That's just not good enough.
That's the warrior Revanek down. Keldorn and Mazzy are attacking Layene with +4 auto-ammo, Korgan is attacking with the +5 Crom Faeyr, and Rasaad is using his +4 fists. Plus, she doesn't have Stoneskin up since she decided Mantle was a higher priority than refreshing that after being dispeled.
The results are predictable. Layene falls, and all we have left to deal with are a bunch of summons. Beat down the djinni, use the Skull of Death on the swords.
The Staff of the Magi is ours, usable by the two rogues. Instant invisibility any time we want it, plus guaranteed dispels when we hit an enemy with it. Magpie will find plenty of use for the item.
The fight's experience also brings Keldorn to level 25; he takes Critical Strike.
Now, it's time for a few (limited) wishes. We wished for a powerful magic item (+2 full plate) long ago; now there are three more. Haer'Dalis has enough wisdom for all of them.
First, to be rich. We get a Black Opal, a Horn Coral Gem, an Emerald, and 2000 gold.
Second, for adventure. We get a note.
Third, for experience.
Two crushing hits, and the Sand Golem is down. No curse taken.
Three more hits, and the Juggernaut golem is eliminated. That just leaves the Adamantite Golem, which has put up a Gas Cloud.
But of course, we have no fear of that gas. We just keep fighting. And immediately after that picture, the golem gets stunned. It's trivial from there.
Korgan took one hit for 27 damage. Other than that, nothing. 75K experience earned.
Next, we make use of that note for a very silly quest.
But of course, it's not that simple. Dennis has a good reason for what he's doing - that drunken idiot stole his gong and sold it to a fence. It falls to us to track down the gong ...
Oh, Korgan. There will be a very worthwhile reward at the end of this. Experience. And some gold, since we stole the item reward long ago.
The troll shaman Grae threatens to destroy us with magic - yeah, right. A little beating gets us the gong's location.
And then we kill her. She's a troll that attacked first. She doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.
We drop our 50 and 100 charge wands of frost outside the ogre's tower, going in with only a six-charge wand. And then, we make the trade.
The gong now reeks, after what the ogre used it for.
But hey - at least it won't be our problem for long. We rest, then return to Athkatla.
Done. And we get to loot the chests too, once the serving wench and patron wander away.
Since we're almost ready to go to Suldanesselar, I go on a selling spree - all that accumulated magical and expensive gear, to Ribald. By the time I'm done, we have about 750K gold in reserve, and have bought a few more things. From Deidre: Senate Amulet, Harp of Pandemonium, Vhailor's Helm, Sword of Balduran bought. We already had the Mercykiller Ring, and the other five items are useless to us. Rasaad off-hands the sword and puts on the 10% MR amulet; that gets him to 98% MR, or 103% in combat. From Joluv, the Sling of Everard, adding to the Defender of Easthaven and Scarlet Ninja-To we already have. From Ribald, Warblade +4, the Helm of Brilliance, the AC 3 bracers, the Staff of Rhynn, the Fortress Shield, and the two Protection from Magic scrolls. Basically, everything we might use is ours.
One more combat excursion - we return to Watcher's Keep, ready to face the Chromatic Demon. I shuffle some equipment around and drink potions to make the whole party lightning immune, equip some wands, and wait for slime form.
We use the two wands of lightning immediately, along with multiple weapons with electric damage. The wands deal 45 damage, while Keldorn takes 47 and is briefly held.
Then, round 2. Magpie gets off a second wand shot, but the demon switches to fire form before Haer'Dalis can fire his.
Two fireballs hurt us, but luck is on our side. The demon goes green again.
It's near death from those two shots, and I even get a rebound on one. Then Mazzy gets the final blow with her bow.
This may be the toughest enemy in the game for this party - because it's so hard to make progress. A warrior-focused party just isn't built for the massive elemental damage you need here. Note that I didn't even try until after UAI let me use two wands at a time instead of one.
That also allows us to go forward. We meet Yakman on the next floor, and sadly he will remain un-healed. There are no items that cast the spell he needs. Wait for regeneration, then head east.
In that dead magic room, it's three cornugons fighting a balor. We join in to kill them. A dead magic zone is not a problem for us at all.
First, the two nearer cornugons. Then, the balor.
The last cornugon is immediately stunned and taken apart. The only damage we took was the balor's fire aura.
And then, Keldorn claims the prize we came here for.
That will be his off-hand weapon for pretty much all of the rest of the game. 20% magic resistance, +4 on the attack, and it'll only get better when we upgrade it.
We follow this up with one last trip to Athkatla. I sell/steal some wands to recharge them, sell/buy some other items that I don't want flagged stolen, buy 200 scrolls of Freedom, and pick up the ammo we haven't sold yet.
During the travel for this, an ambush comes up:
Rakshasas. Mazzy hits two of them with dispelling arrows, but the last Rukh casts PfMW.
That calls for Keldorn to add his dispel.
One rakshasa down already, all the rest defenseless ... it doesn't take long from there.
Incidentally, we could have bought a lot more scrolls of Freedom and scribe/erased our way to maximum level. I chose not to; those extra levels really wouldn't add anything notable to this party, and we'll get enough experience in ToB anyway.
And with that, we're done with chapter 6. One last check-in at the keep, and we head out to return the Lanthorn to the elves.
Entering Suldanesselar brings a massive infusion of experience, but we're not at the right point for that to translate into levels for anybody. Instead, we just get straight to the fighting.
The first encounter of note is a pack of golems:
They're a lot easier with Crom Faeyr providing instant kills. In fact, Korgan and Magpie both kill their clay golem targets instantly.
Magpie then switches back to her normal weapons and the party gangs up on the adamantite golem. Except for Korgan, who slays the stone golems.
While we're still on that platform, a wandering iron golem comes around, and Haer'Dalis retreats out of the way.
It goes down quickly. After all, it doesn't have the adamantite golem's resistances.
The next platform brings another golem pack, and again we slay the clay golems before they can curse us.
Okay, Korgan took a hit from one of the other golems. Still, this party has more than enough brute force to slaughter golems.
Turning south to a side platform, we help some elves out against a pair of trolls:
I didn't record their deaths in that shot, but it was easy. Remember, Crom Faeyr kills trolls instantly too.
A trio of skeleton warriors comes next - simple melee brutes.
Still, those are some impressive random scrolls.
With that, we come to the first house we can enter - the priest's house.
With that, we have the talisman, first piece of this area's treasure hunt.
On the next platform, we face the level 20 drow mage Raamilat.
While he has a drow warrior's animation, he's a pure mage, and equipped like one. He also lacks magic resistance since he's on the surface, not that this party will try to take advantage. His defenses include Improved Mantle and abjuration immunity... time for the Staff of the Magi to come out.
Raamilat's first offensive action is a triple-Lower Resist sequencer on Rasaad. In response, since he can't rely on MR while that debuff is active, I switch Rasaad's amulet from Kaligun's to Spell Warding.
But that made the mage visible. We hit him. And then we hit him more, since his defenses have been wiped out. He's accompanied by hakeashars, which we can safely ignore until he's dealt with. That comes with Korgan's next off-hand attack after that shot.
The nearby house brings more combat, against a rakshasa trio.
Hitting by surprise, we take down one before it can put up any defenses. Keldorn's kuo-toa bolts and Magpie's Celestial Fury both succeeded at stunning that one.
Adsaan puts up a PfMW, so Keldorn dispels it. That takes out Demin's buffs as well, but that's a fair trade.
We waste a few projectiles; the rajah and Adsaan are both immune to +1 weapons. Still, it's over quickly.
Demin gives her exposition, and the strength 20 belt goes to Magpie.
On the next platform, a fight is in progress - golems are crushing elves.
Our intervention turns the battle around. The elves all survive the battle, although one fails a morale check and goes berserk.
That elf eventually provokes his comrade and dies when he retaliates.
We claim the Stone Harp from that house, and continue to the next platform. Actually, we leave and then return, at which point some elves and rakshasas start fighting there.
The one that walked up to us impersonates an elven mage, but we're wise to the trick. The others cast Mislead. And all of them put up PfMW. That calls for a dispel from Keldorn.
Three of four are dispelled; we'll just have to live with the impersonator for now.
We kill the vulnerable trio quickly, but the last one survives long enough to kill the elves and hit Korgan with a double-Magic Missile sequencer. Then its protection expires.
As you may have noticed, mages without absolute weapon protections die very quickly against this party. This fight is no exception.
Mazzy reaches level 29 at this point, and takes her fourth Greater Whirlwind.
Over at the temple, we face a large group of rakshasas. Keldorn uses his third dispel of the day to clear the PfMW they all used.
The maharajas recover with a second PfMW each ... but the one we were beating on was already near death and poisoned. Very near death, as it turns out.
That's the other bonus of the scarlet ninja-to. It hardly ever matters, but it got the kill here.
We beat up on the lesser rakshasas, and the protection on the maharajas eventually expires. So they cast a third PfMW each.
That earns another dispel. Dead. Now we just have to wait out the flying swords.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 34, and takes an exploding trap. It's not great, but it is at least an area of effect. And he doesn't need more spike traps.
In the House of the Horn, we face more golems - one clay and two stone.
Korgan goes for the clay golem, while the others split the stone golems. It's all easy enough with that instant kill on the dangerous one.
We follow the eastern path around the back to the palace and meet the balor there:
It forgets to put up its defenses for a bit there. And once it does, it gets stunned.
Simple beatdown is enough.
And now, the biggest fight of the area. It's time to face the black dragon Nizidramanii'yt. We open with a dispelling arrow..
No more Haste or Stoneskin. Unfortunately, Magpie takes some nasty hits - first melee, then the acid breath.
She backs off, leaving the battle to the others. Rasaad gets the kill.
We didn't use any active HLAs for that. They would have helped, of course.
After a lot of waiting to regenerate, the party heads into the temple. Suneer gets hit hard even before he can say his lines:
That's a crit from Mazzy, dispelling nothing. Also, I kind of have to wonder - what's a human mage doing here?
Suneer goes invisible and puts up conventional defenses, but he's already taken 46 damage. With 46 total HP ... I use a wand Cloudkill to finish the job. 3 on the first tick, 9 on the second.
While that was going on, the party handled the lesser threats. A glabrezu, an iron golem, a rakshasa. Only a summoned efreet outlasted Suneer.
Activating the avatar brings level 30 for Korgan and level 32 for Rasaad. Korgan takes shortbow proficiency and Deathblow, while Rasaad takes Deathblow and doesn't have any proficencies left to take.
After a stop at Reirra's shop to sell off a big pile of ammo, we move forward watching the spirits disintegrate everything in sight. Somehow, we even manage to get a kill of our own.
The palace is open, and we have the keys. Magpie speaks to her companions at the point of no return, and all agree to follow her. The Tree of Life awaits, and with it our fateful confrontation with Irenicus.
On the tree, there are a few parasites and elementals to deal with. They're nothing. Irenicus waits in a bubble, and we take advantage...
Fight him? Of course not.
We just kill him. Finish the last parasite, walk back, watch the traps do their thing.
And with that, we are dragged down into hell.
It's a curiously personal hell, tied to Magpie's status as a Bhaalspawn. Clearly, our journey isn't over.
I lay some traps - not for the final boss himself, but for his demons. Time will tell if this works. That includes a Time Trap, which might be eaten by the cutscene - but if that happens, the other six will still go off.
We start with Pride. Taking the good path, there's no fight and we just get the tear.
Fear comes second. We refuse the cloak - song protects us - and go after the beholders.
Yes, our defenses are in a good enough place that I feel safe just charging a group of beholders with the party. That's Magpie dispelling the elder orb's Improved Mantle in that shot.
We took a few damage rays there. We saved against everything else. And that was it.
Keldorn levels up to 26 here, taking Smite. We then claim the fear reward immediately - Magpie is permanently immune to normal and +1 weapons.
Selfishness is third, and I have a dirty trick for this one. Remove her magic resistance gear and hit her with a Maze (I had three scrolls available). Then open the good doors.
Sacrifices need not be made. We don't give up anything, and we get this tear.
Greed comes next. We take the good path, but not at the first opportunity...
We're in position. As soon as we hand it over, we attack the genie.
Blackrazor is ours. Keldorn will make use of it, as his primary melee weapon for the rest of the game. It really is that good.
Because of game mechanics, the only way to get it back after you hand it over is to kill the genie - which you don't have long to do. You have to burn through 113 HP at -8 AC - no problem with the full party of warriors here.
Magpie claims the tear reward immediately here; +2 saves.
Finally, Wrath.
It's a trivial fight. He doesn't get in a single attack roll, and couldn't hurt us even if he did.
Immune to magic and elements, 570 HP ... that's nothing.
Finally, I finish off the tears. I skip Wrath's Wis/Cha bonus and instead double up on the Selfishness MR. This is very easy to do; just drop the relevant tear from your inventory so the script can't take it after an activation.
And then, Irenicus comes out.
The trap placement looks good so far. They haven't gone off on him, which is the first half of what I was looking for.
Trash-talking ensues.
Everybody has lines, but I like this one best. I'm in tune with Korgan here.
The demons come out, the traps go off.
No more balors. A pair of glabrezus aren't nearly as much of a threat.
The first glabrezu falls quickly and we move on to the second, hitting Irenicus with a dispel while we're at it. He immediately re-ups some of his protections with a contingency, and follows with Improved Alacrity into Dark Planetar.
This is actually the first fallen planetar we've seen this game. All previous HLA-capable enemies have died too fast to get that spell off.
Against a fallen planetar ... the vorpal strikes are no big deal. It's a save vs death at -2, and we always make that. We don't care about the dispel that comes with it either. The spells are more trouble, though - especially Fire Storm, as seen in this picture.
So, of course, we send the party to kill the planetar before it can cause more trouble. Irenicus follows up with Dragon Breath ...
... and we dodge it. Completely. Two HLA spells down, and we've finished off the planetar.
We leave the firestorm, and dispel Irenicus again.
Commence the beatdown. It doesn't take long.
At this point, I'm just waiting for the script to fire.
And there it is. SoA complete. I'll have an update to reflect on this longest of the three campaigns, and then resume ToB on Monday.
Comments
On the way to the playhouse, we run into a vampire and a pair of Shadow Thief defectors. The defectors attack, and are easily handled.
Inside, we find that Raelis and Haer'Dalis weren't quite truthful about the gem they wanted - but they do have a good reason for needing it. The troupe calls up a planar conduit to leave, and we help out killing the critters that show up ... until some bounty hunters come. The troupe, and Haer'Dalis with them, are gone.
Still, we're one party member short, and he had some key capabilities. We need to recruit a temporary replacement. For that, we head over to the government district:
Now, back to the playhouse. Just before entering the portal, Magpie drinks a stolen strength potion (Str 22), Korgan enrages, and Keldorn casts True Sight.
For all that, she only got one successful offensive spell off - a Power Word: Silence on Jan. Absolutely harmless.
We earn lots of items from that encounter, but the two we'll use are Pixie Prick and the Boots of Speed. Sure, a set of +3 chain mail for Haer'Dalis looks nice, but we'd rather accept a slightly worse AC and use a protection item for better saves.
Now, we continue on to the east. A mage thrall comes at us, and weapons are ineffective - dispel. Sadly, I target that poorly and miss her. All right, do non-magical weapons work? Yes.
There are some hidden containers around here, mostly filled with nonmagical ammunition ... and I see a blank spot. I look this one up ... it's NULL.itm in the files. This seems to be another aspect of the bug I noted in the last part; some random treasure items, instead of being converted into random scrolls when SCS is installed, become null. These can't be rerolled in game (they're always nothing), so I just leave them.
The next encounter to the east is a group of yuan-ti, including three mages. The first attackers are several warriors and one of those mages; the mage is defended with PfNM, PfMW, Minor Globe, and a fireshield - but no illusions. I throw a Cloudkill at it, but the first tick has no effect - magic resistance.
Then a worse spell gets out. Jan is polymorphed into a squirrel ...
Finally, the lead mage goes down to a bolt from Keldorn:
After the cloudkills expire, Magpie makes use of her shiny new boots. They are the most important magical item for a backstabber, after all.
Despite her boots allowing her to retreat, Magpie stays to duel the Female Thrall as the party comes up in support. Kundane is hers, at the cost of some damage. Magpie equips it in her off hand despite a lack of proficiency; that brings her to a full 4 melee APR with the Boomerang Dagger.
Magpie goes for another stab on the wyvern ...
Its first move is a harmless Silence. The melee attacks are more dangerous, enough so that Magpie drinks a potion for safety. Then the demon teleports:
We've cleared out everything but the Warden and his immediate minions in the main area, but there are still a number of rooms accessible through those fleshy traps. We'll work on them too.
First, in the eastern part of the north corridor, the wolfweres. Magpie strikes with a backstab:
The other wolfweres don't follow. Instead, the party kills a few wandering thralls, before Magpie returns down for more backstabs.
Our second target is the room full of githyanki, in the southern corridor. They are mainly a threat due to their mind blasts, which inflict sleep. We have no immunity items for that, so Magpie drinks a potion of invulnerability for guaranteed saves.
That brings us to the western passage. The first (southern) room isn't too bad:
With the end of this room, Magpie's strength potion finally expires. She'll be doing a lot less damage on normal melee hits now.
The next room just north of that is considerably more dangerous. Magpie fails to kill the Prison Captain in one hit, and retreats from the now buffed mage - into the Warden's sight. The Warden's buffs go up as well, and it's way more than we can fight. Improved Haste and Black Blade of Disaster? Either we dispel those buffs, or we wait for them to expire.
I go for the latter strategy, having Magpie hide in the southern trap room for around twenty rounds. When she leaves, that attracts the attention of the stone golem from the northern trap room and the yuan-ti pack near the Warden. We can handle the warriors easily, but the mages are trouble.
And then, a Skull Trap takes out Rasaad.
The second try has both golems come after us, along with the snake-men. I summon some distraction critters ...
On the third run, I just avoid that second trap room entirely. Instead, Magpie runs past its entrance under stealth (triggering the Warden's initial spells) and around into the northern corridor, ducking into the empty wolfwere room to throw off any pursuit.
There's still one more room for us to take care of - the western room in the north corridor, holding several efreeti. They can deal a lot of fire damage, so Magpie uses a green scroll and two potions of fire resistance. At 127% (truncated from 150%) resistance, she'll actually heal from fire, offsetting the other damage they deal.
The enemies prolong the fight with their gaseous form, but eventually Magpie takes them down.
Now, we'd like to clear out some more of the Warden's spells. Breaking the orb would shut off the traps that allow us to hide, so we don't do that yet. Instead, it's a game of chicken as Magpie repeatedly runs forward to get the Warden's attention and then hides using the efreeti room. When she leaves, the exit puts her well to the east of that room, out of sight of the Warden.
The initial spells were Mirror Image, Improved Haste, Minor Globe, Minor Spell Turning, Shield, Stoneskin, PfMW, Spell Shield, 2x Mord's Sword, and Black Blade of Disaster. Most of that list have expired by now, of course.
The first round of our little game brings out a second PfMW.
The second is his Spell Trigger - Remove Magic, Greater Malison, and Death Spell.
That round also gets the attention of the yuan-ti mages, so we have to deal with them ... and they catch the party essentially unprepared again. Confusion, Skull Trap, and that's half the party in serious trouble.
The rest of the party takes out the enemy mages, but Magpie and Keldorn decide to focus on each other - with predictable results.
Another run at the Warden draws out his third PfMW - that should be all of them. He had two memorized, plus a contingency. We wait it out, then break the orb. Magpie reaches fighter level 11 and Korgan reaches level 14 with this action.
Go in for the attack ...
Of course, we do have an answer for this. Keldorn can dispel that Mantle, allowing the party to hurt him. He puts a new Stoneskin up after that, which we respond to with a dispelling arrow. And that's the last of his serious resistance.
And now, we rescue Haer'Dalis. The quest experience brings new levels for Jan and Keldorn, but only Keldorn (level 13) stays in the party to enjoy that. After a serious challenge, the party is back together.
Incidentally, Haer'Dalis now has two instances each of Minor Sequencer and Contingency; he'll keep piling them up every time he leaves and rejoins the party for any reason. It doesn't matter this run, but I'll fix that next time I have a party that actually casts spells.
With the bard's loyalty secured, it's time for Magpie to win her stronghold. But first, we check out a few of the buildings in the area. One of them contains a horn to summon a warrior, while another contains a hostile party. We open with a backstab:
She was noticed, however. The warrior Falahar and an Invisible Stalker follow her out.
Magpie has a choice of two strongholds - either the fighter or thief options. Since she leans more toward the fighting side, we're going to de'Arnise Keep. But first, Mae'var's hall could use a few more traps.
Once we're done there and finally out of the city, we are waylaid by a bunch of orogs and their slaver bosses:
Rasaad's action is canceled, as the mage has a Shadow Door. Time for a True Sight, then.
Naturally, Haer'Dalis stands there to get hit a lot, and then Keldorn goes after him. A vexing occurrence.
Incidentally, waylays are rare on most travel paths in SoA. The path from Athkatla to de'Arnise Keep is an exception, with a waylay every time. This goes away if you get the stronghold, but a non-fighter can run through all the interesting encounters by repeatedly traveling between Athkatla and the keep.
And now, the party arrives. Trolls greet us, including those infamous spirit trolls.
The second group has their spirit troll get off a Greater Command. One party member down - Keldorn, who is the most vulnerable with his save of 5.
After clearing the rest of the exterior without incident and speaking to Nalia, we enter the keep. The first big fight comes in the main hall, where we meet a pack with multiple spirit trolls:
The regular trolls ... no problem. They just don't hit us very often.
Upstairs, we face several small packs and suffer a few spells - a Flame Strike and a pair of Unholy Blights.
Finally, this area has a yuan-ti mage. We draw off its support and go for a backstab...
Rather than waiting for the cloud to expire, I send Rasaad in to loot the room. The key is ours, opening up the rest of the level. Glaicus gets a dispel:
A stuck-up noble lady isn't exactly grateful for her rescue ... this party has plenty to say to her.
Now, we head outside. The otyugh hits Magpie and inflicts its slowing disease, while Haer'Dalis reaches level 17. Butcher the dogs, then open the drawbridge for the guards. We deal with a few monsters on the roof, then return to the golems.
The flesh and stone golems are trivial; surround them and beat them down practically before they can react. The clay golem is trickier, but we at least have magical blunt weapons everyone can wield. Mazzy and Rasaad are in the best shape, of course. It goes down without hitting anyone, and Mazzy reaches level 14.
Finally, there's the iron golem. Against that, I go for an unfair fight - throwing Azuredge from outside the door. Then the golem surprises me ...
Some time later ...
Down in the basement, Rasaad sneaks past the umber hulks to plant the dog stew. Then we go to kill them.
Now, for the final room, we step out to bring in Nalia. She replaces Haer'Dalis, who goes back to Athkatla. And ... oops.
Nalia sets up with archery and wands. Incidentally, the studded leather on her mage paperdoll only shows up as a difference in belt and cuff colors. She levels up to mage 13 and takes longsword proficiency, but equips a short sword (Arbane, for the immunities).
Now, to the big fight against TorGal and his followers. My plan is to draw them toward the party, rather than fighting on their turf. Nalia puts on the boots of speed and heads forward to exchange some taunts before retreating. Put down a Cloudkill, then close the door.
All right, take two. This time, I'm going with two Cloudkills before I close the door. Nalia takes ten damage, but it's worth it. One of those mages dies outright.
A bit later, a Giant Troll reaches the door to open it, and the main fight is on. Fortunately, the other mage goes down to the Cloudkills. We just have to worry about the trolls now.
A hit from TorGal slows Korgan, so I counter it with an oil of speed. The spellcasting spirit trolls fall, but we're taking serious damage in melee.
The big fight with TorGal is, with SCS, very sensitive to difficulty. At Insane difficulty, TorGal's allies include those two level 14 mages I noted, which can be very dangerous. At lower difficulties, it's much less scary.
Quest completion XP brings Rasaad to level 15, and a major boost in his melee attack abilities. At 13.5 average damage per hit, the level 15 monk fist is on par with endgame weapons.
Now that we have the keep's treasure, we can start chapter 3. We head back to Athkatla, trading Nalia for Haer'Dalis. Then, an unexpected reward - talking to Samuel Thunderburp with Mazzy in the party earns us a free pair of stealth boots. We don't need them much, but it's always nice to have more reliable stealth.
Anyway, the party rests at the inn. Night falls, and we head out to the graveyard. Bodhi makes her pitch, and half the party argues against it. No. We're dealing with Gaelan instead. Pay him the 15K, and we're invited to the Shadow Thieves' basement.
In here, Keldorn's patience is tested:
We emerge from the guild hall to find the thief Sansuki menaced by vampires:
Talking to Mook scrambles the party's positions as usual, but it's not hard to get the right people out front against Lassal.
That quest reward brings some more levels. Magpie reaches thief level 14 (Detect Illusion +25 to 90) and Korgan reaches level 15 (hammer specialization).
On the way to the Promenade for some shopping, the party is waylaid by slavers.
This trip is for shopping - we visit Deidre and buy the Mercykiller ring, so that Magpie can lay traps with a 100% success rate. The stealth bonus is nice too. We also take the opportunity to loot the fence Jayes, then head over to the bridge district to meet with some traitorous thieves. Magpie goes for a backstab ...
The thieving spree continues. To the cutpurse ... not present. How about the Black Market Thief in the slums?
On the way there, bandits waylay us. We spend another True Sight and a Confusion.
Reload, and the ambush doesn't happen this time. We loot the thief's stock without incident.
Now, I'd like to work on Hexxat's quest, but she conflicts with two party members. Some finesse is called for. I temporarily drop Mazzy (her conflict is harder to work around) and pick up Hexxat. Head outside, but no Cabrina. We'll have to wait. And with that, we let her go again; the conflict with Keldorn and the quest will have to wait for another day.
With that plan canceled, it's time for Rasaad's quest. We head over to the city gates and receive directions to the Twofold meeting. We also see the thief Hanj menacing a merchant, and put a stop to that. Instead, we loot the merchant's stock ourselves. 540 gold spent on a few cheap scrolls, nothing spent on all the other expensive items. Just ... skip the +1 medium shields. If you click on one, you have to buy both or exit.
Now, on to the amphitheater. We dispose of some angry bears, then Geld and his wolves.
Continuing on, the party reaches the main meeting but turns south to find the Vagrant Blades. Magpie intervenes in their argument ... with greed. They don't take it well.
Now, back to the meeting. Mazzy switches to melee mode and activates her buffs, as monks move quickly and have bonuses against missiles. Rasaad speaks to Hammerhelm, and a big fight breaks out.
Korgan rages, Rasaad activates Greater Sun, and Haer'Dalis uses his last Confusion charge of the day:
Magpie falls into the yellow, but regenerates back into the green before the battle is even over - and that's the worst we face.
That encounter earns us directions to the heretic temple, and we head that way. A group of monks accost us to accuse Rasaad of murdering a Sun Soul chapter - worrisome. Thankfully, we are able to convince them that he is not guilty, and these "Tears of Selune" leave.
At the temple, we deal with things outside first. Set some traps on the bridge, speak to a bear, unlock and open his cage ... the animal keeper objects, and several nearby monks join in the fight.
We pass the trials inside, earning several useful items. The gauntlets are very nice for Rasaad, and the helmet is another AC booster with some nice abilities. Then news comes of an attack, and we choose to stand with the Twofold monks against the Sharran aggression.
Mazzy buffs up and switches to melee, potions bring the other warriors to strength 19, and we're ready to go. Add some shorter-duration buffs once we exit - Fight!
We still get the experience, and the romance progresses properly. Does skipping that dialogue do anything at all? Maybe.
Now, back to Athkatla ... where Haer'Dalis is arrested. I know what's coming, so before I go too far clearing his name, I rest and set some traps in the Balthis estate.
This quest involves some running around, and bandits waylay us - the same group that a reload wiped out earlier.
Then the bandit waylay happens again. They try to run instead of fighting:
And then, with Haer'Dalis back in the party, we return to the Balthis estate. The three traps go off...
I tried to fit in a typo I made writing this part, but it was a stretch. Instead, I decided this was the best place for that traditional mistaken class, the Rouge.
It took two hours for me to prepare this post, and that's with the content already written. So many failed upload rolls. On a related note, if you ever spot any issues with misplaced or duplicated pictures, please post them in the thread. There's no way I'm spotting them myself, since I usually fail to load the pictures when I open the thread to post.
With that little case of mistaken identity cleared up, it's time to work with another temporary party member. We return to the docks and pick up Jaheira, with Keldorn taking a break. The Harper hold comes first, and we must deal with some mages to prove our worth.
We pick up a bunch of scrolls, and the anti-bard scimitar Shazzellim. Since it can't be used by good characters, Jaheira is the most likely party member to wield it on the rare occasions that its ability matters.
The Harper building is a non-combat zone this time. We find the bird, and deliver it to Xzar:
While we wait for Jaheira to become available again, we pick up Keldorn. Over at the Bridge District, we rob the cutpurse blind and then go on a scribing spree. It takes three potions for Haer'Dalis to scribe with a 100% chance, but it's worth it. And since I don't have to worry about his spellbook being full when I'm done, I can just erase everything indiscriminately and move faster. The spree brings Haer'Dalis to level 18, Korgan to level 16, and Magpie to fighter level 12. She is now specialized in the katana. With that in mind, let's get her one.
Now, upstairs to the main fight. Several things happen very fast:
Since Stalman doesn't have Physical Mirror up, he's getting the next dispelling arrow. We fire off more ranged attacks targeting Sion ... down before he can do anything at all.
Koshi saves against the domination effect from Korgan' helm, and the arrow reaches Stalman to dispel his buffs.
While all this is happening, Mazzy keeps shooting at Stalman - down. She basically soloed him.
Now, the loot. Magpie has claimed Celestial Fury, and Keldorn gets the Gift of Peace to boost his sadly lacking saves. There's a wand of paralyzation in one of the chests (our first of that type), and everything else goes in the bag.
On the way to our favorite inn for a rest, we run into another vampire in the streets:
After resting, Jaheira comes back and we let Keldorn go again. She has been called back to the Harper Hold and wants to bring us along. A few buffs before entering ...
While the fight is pretty smooth in general, Haer'Dalis fails his save against a Chaos.
Galvarey comes out of his domination a turn later ... it's over in moments after that.
I try to pick up Montaron's body ... and get a bugged item instead. Immovable, with no picture.
While we're here, we also return Wellyn's bear so he can rest. And then, we travel to run through Jaheira's quest. On this non-romance path, all but the last step are in-game timers.
A few other things happen along the way, like this vampire encounter:
Then Mazzy gets dominated again, despite her spell save of 2. That's some serious bad luck. Another level drain hit comes in as well, on Rasaad this time. We didn't take that much damage, but we'll definitely need a rest to recover.
I check with the local priest ... scrolls of restoration are cheaper than temple Greater Restoration. I just use some of my stockpiled scrolls, then.
While I'm in the area, Magpie lays more traps for Mae'var's forces. Then rest at the Sea's Bounty, and trigger Baron Ployer's revenge plot.
After a bit of investigation, we confront him - dead before his hired mages can even teleport in.
And then, one last bit of banter before we hit the road. Korgan hits on Mazzy in his extremely crude way:
Now we're in the pointless travel phase of things. Naturally, that leads to some random encounters. The bandits decide to fight this time, too.
For all the stress of this encounter, it was rewarding. Rasaad goes up to level 17, and Mazzy goes to level 16.
After resting in safety at the keep and healing up, we're back to traveling. We arrive in the docks, and Reviane confronts us:
But first, we have the rest of Reviane's party to deal with. Mazzy goes after the cleric with a dispelling arrow followed by acid arrows. This isn't quite fast enough to stop the Holy Smite, but that's a harmless spell since it targets a good party member some distance from Korgan.
But it's not over. We need to stop the confused half of our party from killing any innocents. Mazzy is the first target - not only is she the most dangerous with her 5 APR, but she can use her bow to dispel more allies.
Magpie hits Haer'Dalis with her next arrow, while it takes two shots for Mazzy to hit Rasaad.
Magpie lays a final set of traps in Mae'var's guildhall, and then we visit the government district for some reputation. Hand in a head and a body - reputation up to 15, so Jaheira will get the good reward at the end of her quest. This gets Mazzy's attention:
We travel some more, enduring a visit from Dermin. The fighter stronghold progresses; Magpie expels Lastin from the guard, pays for the medicine, and raises taxes for a profit; the happiness bonus for being nice in the events balances the penalty for taxing the peasants, and at a profit.
With this, Jaheira reaches druid level 11 for an insignificant hit point bonus. Another Dermin visit, and then Terminsel shows up - Magpie pickpockets him repeatedly for a lot of goodies.
Of course, that means it's time to go to Jaheira. Back in Athkatla, a night encounter comes up. This one is added by UB - Arkanis and some friends slaughter vampires.
Korgan's rage expires just as we enter the Harper building. He'll be fighting those mercenaries with a penalty; the "winded" state is a -2 penalty to attack, damage, and AC, plus an inability to rage again for five rounds. Mazzy's buffs are still live, though.
Jaheira rejoins the party, and we go back downstairs for the second batch of mercenaries.
Magpie catches the thief with her next Detect Illusion tick, and our attacks on the mage bear fruit.
Now that Mae'var's place is fully trapped, I start working on the Cowled Wizards. Lay some traps, use the Ring of Air Control to trigger a warning. We may not cast spells, but we're still going to take every opportunity to kill those jerks.
Then, at the keep, I lay some traps for Dermin. He shows up after one more rest.
Then Rasaad takes down Dermin.
We clear up the remaining foes with ease, and get back to pointless travel...
This leads to the final shadow war encounter - Bodhi herself killing a bunch of thieves.
Then another keep event; the priest Bolumir joins. And this is where I realize my mistake; the final event of Jaheira's quest is a real-time wait, not anything in game. I wait that out ...
And with that, we're done with Jaheira. We leave her in the keep's basement without talking to her, then head back to Athkatla to pick up Keldorn again.
With the party back together, what do we do first? Taunt some Cowled Wizards.
Now, to actually deal with Mae'var's guild. Edwin hands over the key and goes to the Copper Coronet, leaving us to pick up the evidence. Renal orders us to kill Mae'var - gladly. We'll start from the top.
There are also a few reinforcements to kill - no big deal. We don't take any damage on this floor.
On the ground floor, it's Zyntris that the traps eliminate - too fast for him to summon reinforcements.
Those thieves do get one nasty hit in - a backstab on Haer'Dalis.
We head forward to deal with the rest of the party. Their thieves try going invisible, so Keldorn gets on the case with a True Sight.
Finally, it's back to Renal to report our success.
Now, it's time to resume our adventures with Hexxat. Mazzy takes a break in the Copper Coronet back rooms, and the vampire rejoins...
Seconds pass.
Hello, Hexxat.
And now we have to wait a bit more for nightfall. I decide to do something productive and upgrade that summoning horn we have with a diamond.
On the way to the edge of the promenade, night falls and Cabrina appears. Time to clear out a tomb.
After dealing with some traps, we meet some monks and choose to cooperate. The umber hulks are no big deal, but the illithids are a real threat:
The monks charge forward and take the lead positions ... except that one of my own got there first. Korgan gets both of their attention, and pays the price.
There's a dialogue trigger here I haven't tripped before; if you bring Hexxat into the alhoon's room, she speaks a bit of her mother and her mortal life.
On forward, to some containers we are warned about. Naturally, we loot them - Jade Fang dagger acquired. The mummies attack, and we dispose of them with no damage taken.
One of the other containers here has an invalid item:
Now, time for the next challenge. The ghost wants us to face a party? I'm sure he won't mind if we, ah, prepare the field beforehand.
After that, Nan Kung Chi is not much of a boss at all.
After that, divert to kill a bunch of ghostly monks and priests. They're easy enough to kill, and excellent experience. Keldorn reaches level 15 and takes bastard sword proficiency. Korgan reaches level 17 - base saves 0/0/4/4/1.
There's one little hiccup:
With that, we're done with this tomb. The party returns to the Copper Coronet to retake Mazzy and give the party a well-deserved rest.
The pictures in this part aren't quite in the order they were taken; I did a bit of backtracking at one point. Since this doesn't put any action shots out of order, I swapped two pictures for the sake of narrative clarity.
It's time to venture down into the sewers under Athkatla and deal with that cult problem the temples have been worrying about. We've been into the sewers before, but not very far.
First, we head toward the southwest corner of the area, where an otyugh waits. Since approaching too close will spawn in some trouble I don't want yet, I have Haer'Dalis throw a Cloudkill at the otyugh.
With the otyugh sufficiently softened up, I go close enough to trigger that trouble I was talking about - beholders.
Doing things in this order does have one consequence: Roger only pays 250 gold for dealing with the troll. If you talk to him first and get the quest, he pays twice as much.
Down below, I discover something neat: it's possible to disarm a trap while wearing heavy armor:
Retreat back toward the party, and an ambush comes.
For the gas room, I send in Keldorn and an enraged Korgan, both drain-immune. They take some damage from the Cloudkill, but nothing they can't regenerate. We get the key from Gaal, and head over to the way down. There are some spectral undead in the way:
Down in the lower reaches, there's a summoning trap that can be triggered five times. A Wandering Horror and two sword spiders each time ... with Bard Song, we're not afraid.
Clear up a few monsters, answer some riddles to open a path, and it's time for the second group of beholders in this quest. They can't get up the stairs to follow properly, so I'm going with Cloudkills here. Magpie scouts under stealth, while Haer'Dalis uses the wands from a safe distance:
After waiting for the clouds to disperse, we press on. Some shadows and shadow fiends pose no problem. Against the Empathic Manifestation ... well, it's a good thing we're doing this before Spellhold. Although I do have some scrolls I could use if push came to shove.
Now that we have half the rod, it's time for the undead village. The regular undead are no match for us; we don't even take any hits clearing the outside.
Retreat, activate the spawn, and send Mazzy in buffed and alone. She plans to dodge any spells with her double-haste. First, the regular undead come out; since the lich hasn't noticed us yet, I have the party join in.
Now, for the lich. It's protected by Spell Turning, Shield, Protection from Fire, Protection from Magical Energy, Stoneskin, Protection from Magical Weapons, and Immunity: Abjuration. I can't hurt it without a dispel, and I can't dispel it for 20 rounds.
All right, then, I'll wait. A few rounds later, the initial PfMW wears off. Mazzy goes in with Azuredge ...
And now, the beholder hive. For the larger numbers in here, I exploit a weakness of the SCS AI. One potion for Rasaad (currently level 17 for 51 MR), and he's immune to all of their attack rays.
(1) Target is another beholder, in a blind, confused, charmed, or swarmed state.
(2) Target has a spellcasting class (bard, cleric, druid, mage, shaman, sorcerer).
(3) Target is buffed with Physical Mirror, Chaotic Commands, Protection from Petrification, Death Ward, stoneskin, protection from magic weapons, invisibility, improved invisibility, Bless, Chant, haste, or mirror images. Spells and other temporary effects only; no while-equipped item effects.
As long as we avoid this list of effects - not hard for a warrior to do - we need not fear being dispelled.
So then, Rasaad goes in with his single potion protecting him, and kicks all the beholders' ... eyes.
During this, Haer'Dalis levels up to 20 and Rasaad to 18. I take the levels mid-battle for the APR boost on Rasaad. Haer'Dalis takes two-weapon mastery.
After not very long at all, there aren't any more beholders to fight. Now, for the blind priests. Rather than charge in with everyone, I drop a Cloudkill on them and send in Rasaad:
And now, the boss. Reform the Rift Device and use it on the Unseeing Eye:
The death ray - that's no problem. Only Haer'Dalis is vulnerable, and I'm getting him out. Before I can, he's hit by an antimagic ray followed by a Cause Wounds ray - a poor choice, since the first grants immunity to the second.
The beatdown continues, and soon the two death tyrants fall.
All that remains is to release the diseased ones below and clear out the cult leaders above. Gaal has some buffs, but he doesn't last long against the onslaught.
Loot the area, haul the junk up to sell to Roger - by the time we're done, everybody has regenerated to full. Reporting to the High Watcher brings reputation to 16 and Mazzy to level 17.
Up next, we work with evil - namely, Dorn. Keldorn takes a break in the temple of Lathander, and we pick up the blackguard in his place.
At the wedding, Magpie starts by claiming she's with the groom - that causes a small fight. He isn't exactly well liked around here. After that, a claim of pregnancy causes the wedding to be canceled. With prejudice.
Then we get to our real business here. Dorn duels the priest and kills him in a cutscene.
The next phase of Dorn's quest needs a week to trigger. Time for some aimless travel, then. I kill a set of Cowled Enforcers, then get concerned at the lack of action at the keep - I think that quest has gone buggy.
A second set of enforcers:
And then, Dorn is ready. We visit the temple of Helm, talk to Telwyn ...
With that, we know where to find the Helmite camp Dorn's target is at. We go there immediately.
Magpie and Korgan drink strength potions, Dorn uses the girdle of fortitude, and Mazzy uses her Strength and Invoke Courage buffs. Start it up again, then apply the shorter-duration buffs once the battle starts (Mazzy's Haste, Korgan's rage, Rasaad's fireshield).
Leaving the camp immediately triggers a visit from a hit squad of priests and paladins. Most of our buffs are still active - there's no travel time - and that means we're well equipped for this smaller force.
After running around and killing a few aggressive animals, the dryad Yarrow sends us down into the depths. Enter the cave behind the waterfall, claim the stone, then emerge and talk to the nymph - she doesn't take it well. We kill her, earning two pearls and two potions of clairvoyance in addition to the summoning stone. The annoying faerie dragon dies too. That lets us pick up the wand of glitterdust - another very nice way of dealing with invisibility, although it sadly can't ever have more than five charges.
Finally, we reveal Xachrimos with a True Sight.
At the circle, we sacrifice an ogre and call up Azothet.
Azothet has some nasty abilities. She opens with a Symbol:Stun that catches Rasaad and Dorn, then starts throwing paralysis around; those two get held as well.
Incidentally, the Abyssal Blade isn't alignment-restricted. Keldorn can use it, but he'd rather stick to one-handed swords.
Now, back to town. Dorn leaves, Keldorn returns, and we rest. Mazzy takes a break to make room for Hexxat, and we're off to the next tomb.
I choose to pick a fight with the ghosts near the entrance, with some traps and a backstab after an initial peaceful talk:
The corridor beyond brings spiders, and a succession of traps follows. Statues awakening to fight us ... with one HP each. Oops. The spiked floor is worse, and the furious djinni beyond inflicts more pain.
Three mages follow, and we offend them all. Ranged attacks and Cloudkill are the order of the day - or, at least, ranged attacks for everybody that isn't immune to poison.
That dispel, of course, breaks what remains of their resistance. Hexxat reaches level 16 with this battle, for scimitar proficiency and more Detect Illusion.
A few spiders and a trap later, Magpie reaches fighter level 13. That's a pretty important level, with a big boost to saves and an APR increase.
Finally, we face Raffiyah. She goes for a Silence spell - a complete waste.
The "tarts" in the title, is, naturally, a typo I made while writing this part.
With the usual party reunited, we return to the graveyard. It's time to take on Bodhi's lair. Since most vampires are immune to +1 weapons, Mazzy switches away from her bow. Keldorn will be the point man with his drain immunity from the Amulet of Power, so he drinks a strength potion and an oil of speed. Wait, no, take off the armor before drinking the oil of speed. We wasted one there, but we have plenty more.
Then we enter battle, and I realize the other mistake I made.
There's a clay golem in here, which I handle with Rasaad striking from stealth. No pictures, and I didn't record any details of that encounter.
Of course, for the vampire killing, Mazzy throwing Azuredge goes a long way.
For the eastern corridor, I have Magpie borrow Azuredge and strike from stealth.
Of course, now she has PfMW up. I wait that out ... wait, what is she doing?
Anyway, I get my opportunity. The second throw does the job.
Downstairs, Mazzy shines again.
For Bodhi herself, there is one clear solution.
My party didn't take any level drain hits in there; only Keldorn took any hits, and he was permanently immune. A very successful run at the vampire lair.
Up next, I head over to the keep and check - taxes are in, no event. It's definitely stuck. I'll force the issue later, but for now Rasaad takes a break (without leaving dialogue, so it doesn't end the romance) and we head over to Trademeet. There, we meet Cernd and have him join. He levels up to 13, unmemorizes his healing spells, takes two-handed style, and equips his greater werewolf token.
We meet with the genies and promise to bring back a head, deal with the animals - no trouble from that mage in the northeast this time.
In the grove, the sound goes glitchy, with the area's music somehow becoming a buzz. I turn it off for the sake of my sanity.
In battle, we meet lots of trolls:
Near the mound, I hear necromancy - dodge Magpie and Keldorn away from the Unholy Blight spells.
Inside the mound, Keldorn gets knocked out by a Greater Command, but the rest of the party holds strong.
Moving on, we deal with some elementals and other critters, then come on some local humans fighting trolls. When the trolls go down ...
Anyway, that group goes down and we move on to the next pack of druids. Keldorn opens with a Namarra silence:
Up next, it's the myconid bridge. And our party's saves are so good that I feel free to just charge forward and attack. Let the spore colonies try to summon help.
In Adratha's cottage, we start in melee range of her. Attack as soon as the conversation ends and she goes hostile...
On to the other two. One of them puts up a PfMW, so Keldon deals with that:
An encounter outside with shambling mounds:
A few more critters, and then we face the druids guarding their sanctum. Dalok manages to avoid being stunned long enough to get off a Call Lightning, but only one bolt lands.
Inside, it's time for the duel to bring down Faldorn. Korgan stays near the pit so he can pass the greater werewolf token to Cernd, but I don't pass him any of his other equipment.
Cernd stays with us for new, as we head back to Athkatla. He has some family issues to sort out. Run around and talk a bit, then confront Deril:
Mazzy doesn't have her arrow in the air when the protections go up, but Deril doesn't have abjuration immunity. Keldorn can handle this one.
While I'm in town, I pick up Nalia for her father's funeral, then briefly take on Anomen to start his timer. After that, it's back to the grove to pick up Cernd and retrieve the equipment I gave him (plus a second shapeshift token). That's enough out of him; we leave him behind and head back to the keep to retrieve Rasaad. Also, I decide to force the issue and spawn the keep messenger - the stronghold plot is active again.
With the party reunited, we head over to Trademeet to receive the town's gratitude. Keldorn likes this improved reputation as well.
After looting those merchants, we meet with Raissa. Keldorn demands immediate action:
With that rest, Magpie's relationship with Rasaad reaches a milestone.
We have more to do here. Mazzy's personal quest also takes place in Trademeet, but it refuses to even start - I've never gotten it to work properly. The initial timer expired long ago, so I force-spawn Danno outside - nope, he just gives his standard talk. Repeatedly.
All right, we need to change a variable too.
We're temporarily down a party member. That's a good opportunity for some character sidequests back in Athkatla.
First up, Nalia.
We check out Isaea's place as well, then get Nalia released. And let her go, since she has nothing further to do. Uh - you can always hang out at the keep if you feel like it.
Jan comes next, and he levels up to thief 13 as soon as he joins - from the experience at the end of the Planar Prison quest. Step outside, and immediately get called back in to his home.
His quest is lots of running around, and only one fight.
All right, back to Trademeet. Mazzy's had long enough with her family, and it's time to get the party back together.
Over in Athkatla, we eliminate another batch of Cowled Enforcers:
Then, we head over to the Radiant Heart. Keldorn, Mazzy, and Korgan are all for helping out with the Fallen Paladin problem - though not all for the same reasons.
And now, over to the Crooked Crane for a couple things. First, the lich. He opens with an Incendiary Cloud we can't dodge, then goes invisible before Mazzy can throw Azuredge - dispel that.
And now, upstairs for the other reason we came here. This is a UB quest, following up on Kalah.
Aulava and Tiiro are up here too. We choose not to talk them into getting together - they really are bad influences on each other.
The party is at 18 reputation, for as much of a discount as we'll ever get in SoA. There are some things I'd like for later, but for now I'll just buy the Firetooth crossbow for Keldorn. And then, down into the keep.
There's some loot even before we encounter any enemies. The Wand of Sleep is useless, as it shares the HD limit of the Sleep spell; nothing remotely threatening will be affected. The paladin's bracers? Well, 18 Dex is a lot better for Keldorn than ten extra hit points. The bracers will be useful eventually at least, when Haer'Dalis can wear them.
The first foes we face are a golem and some trolls:
Open a door to the main room ...
Mazzy reaches level 18 from some trap XP, and takes her fourth dot in flails. We get to work on the other side, where I make a mistake and get Haer'Dalis trapped with a bunch of spiders:
Appeasing the priest brings Korgan to level 19, and now we're ready for the boss fight. Start the ritual, and the first four statues awaken.
Keldorn gets a mid-battle weapon upgrade with Foebane:
Then Mazy gets the final blow.
And now, straight on to the second and larger wave of statues. There are mages this time, which start off with invisibility. OK, true sight that ...
Then the other mage statue uses that same chain contingency, and hides everyone I was trying to attack.
For all the trouble going around, including four swords we can't do anything about, we've still done a pretty good job disrupting the mages. They haven't managed to cast anything offensive yet aside from their initial Chain Contingency summons.
I have Haer'Dalis add some wand summons to the battle as a distraction. Keep an eye on the mages, for when they cast anything that needs to be dispelled. And then, a pair of statues goes down.
Magpie briefly falls to critically low HP levels (15) before drinking a potion. Then she takes down the golem statue.
I attack that mage - weapon ineffective. He must have a protection up. Nonmagical weapons ... no. It's not a PfMW. Here, Korgan, try this new +4 sword you're not proficient in. And in retrospect, I should have had Keldorn back up and shoot with Firetooth's auto-ammo.
I hear the sounds of a necromancy spell - Rasaad, disrupt that.
It was a rough battle, with many healing potions used. Still, it worked. None of our forces died, and we kept the mages under enough pressure to prevent them from casting any offensive spells.
Then there's one last thing to do on this floor.
And ... I made a mistake. I didn't bother healing up after the last battle. Magpie engages a fire giant. Two hits. Dead. Reload, then.
The second time around, I go with all ranged attacks while Rasaad and Haer'Dalis play decoy. Korgan is getting some use out of the Dwarven Thrower's bonus here.
Rasaad reaches level 20 there, for long sword proficiency. Also, his monk defenses level up and he has normal weapon immunity.
The air library holds golems. A gas cloud? No problem. As noted before, that's a save vs death at -2. Automatic success for everybody except Haer'Dalis.
The mutated spiders in the slime library are much less trouble.
Then the ice library has mists. Rasaad's new immunity to nonmagical weapons comes in handy, as he can take point without fear.
And here, the reason we came down here this early.
We might as well clear the rest of the level as well. Rasaad turns into a werewolf for a bit more resistance against the electric shocks in the air room, then falls back to fight the elementals in human form.
Over at the slime room, some poison mists at the back entrance bring Keldorn to level 17. Open up the other door to air the room out, and gang up on the snake in melee.
Mazzy's second Haste of the day expires here, and she's fatigued Apparently, her innate spell shares the mage spell's drawback. Still, slight fatigue won't stop her from taking down the ice mists with Azuredge.
The ice golem needs +3 to hit and is reluctant to emerge, so Korgan goes with the throwing hammer again.
Korgan and his hammer deal with the fire room as well. Draw the elementals over to the ice room to die, then start on the giant.
Back in Athkatla, I call up the Cowled Wizards again ...
The mages all go invisible, and then the poison ticks.
The party runs around some, Zallanora goes for her next spell - Improved Alacrity - and then the poison ticks again.
Over at the Copper Coronet, we trigger a scene that we could have long ago:
And now, Minsc. He gets a quest with Unfinished Business, which is some wonderful silliness. Take him into the party, go to the docks, upgrade the Mace of Disruption.
A bit more travel after that, with some bandit waylays that try to flee. I start wondering why it hasn't triggered yet - oh, that's a two-day timer, not a one-day timer. Help out Chanelle at the keep (and pay for it by levying taxes), then travel a bit more.
And there it is.
On to the animal shop, where Korgan interjects:
The best result:
I reload, and go for the middle option instead. That one works.
However you deal with Eleanya, the Cowled Wizards show up to thank you. A spellcasting license if you didn't have one, or 1000 gold if you did. That's why we waited this long for the quest.
The party reunites, and heads over to Aran Linvail to report success. 50K XP each, but we don't leave just yet. Magpie reaches fighter level 14 and takes Use Any Item. Korgan reaches level 20 and takes Hardiness. Mazzy reaches level 19 and Haer'Dalis reaches level 23.
What else is left ... oh, right. One big quest I still want to do. Also, a few quick bits.
Over in the graveyard district, we pay a visit to Pai'Na. She wants Spider's Bane destroyed? We'll check that out.
The item we receive is already broken, and useless for anything but returning to Pai'Na. We do so ... and then kill her anyway.
And now, time for that last big quest before Spellhold. We head off to the Wild Forest, where Neera greets us.
Sadly, Neera doesn't come with dart proficiency or the ability to level up for it. Magpie lends her the Boomerang Dagger instead of the Crimson Dart nobody is using.
The illusionary Quaid is dispelled, and we pick up the goodies in the cart. An assortment of minor encounters ensued, made more annoying by the traps and enemy wild surges.
An ogre mage gives us some free gems:
We reach the camp, and do some errands for the wild mages within. Those extend to travel - pick up a hairband, some beer, and a bear. Back to the refuge to close out those quests, and then to the Bridge District again.
Neera gives Daxus the amulet as the Thayans arrive ...
And then I remember something. Magpie can upgrade her off-hand weapon to the Scarlet Ninja-To now that she has UAI. Since we're in Athkatla, she visits Joluv to buy that and equip it.
Returning to the Hidden Refuge, we find it destroyed. Keldorn and Mazzy weigh in:
At the enclave, we chop the bouncer to bits.
Inside, we play it calm. Nothing Gul Dukeem offers is of interest to us, but the other merchants have lots of stuff to steal. Drink a master thievery potion, put on the pickpocketing gloves, and take it all. Potions, scrolls, and wands, all ours now.
Magpie sets some traps, and then talks to the Gul. The option I was looking for isn't available due to a failed Int check, but there's an alternative. If you get a little threatening, he'll cooperate:
Over in the next room, as we're positioning for the coming fight, Mazzy and Neera have a chat.
And then, we get the mercenaries drunk. The party is positioned to hit the mages, but they get their defenses up.
The battle continues, with the isolated mage falling, and - wait, nonlethal damage?
The unconscious mage is soon rendered dead, leaving only one more mage in the corridor to worry about. He gets off a Slow, but everybody saves or resists it.
On to the next battle, against Lanneth and her minions with some allies from the city guard.
Our allies leave, leaving us to face Lanneth and her final allies without them.
Now we figure out the puzzles and save everybody. A visit to Trademeet, and we kill the traitor Hayes - 7K experience, some potions, and some weapons.
Back at the camp, a few more rewards come in. Korgan keeps the Brick, but ends up never actually using it. Rasaad reaches level 21; we're no more than a single level-up away from high level abilities on any of our party members.
Back in Athkatla, Haer'Dalis rejoins us. We have a few more small things to take care of before we get on the boat.
First, Stein and his graverobbing crew.
Second, after a rest, Mencar Pebblecrusher. He has a beef with Korgan:
Amon does get off a Chaos, confusing Haer'Dalis. We're so close to being able to ignore that sort of thing ...
At this point, I notice something. I left the ring of regeneration with Neera. That's another two-day detour to get it back. Oops.
Magpie steals a magic fish from Mira (this is part of the Wilson mod) and eats it to increase her Dex to 21. A scribing session follows, bringing Magpie to thief level 17 - 15 points of stealth, 10 points of Set Traps, and Hardiness. Keldorn switches out his personal armor for nonmagical full plate and a +2 protection item. I buy a few things - the second Rod of Resurrection, the Ring of Energy, the scrolls of Freedom, and the Reflection Shield. Other expensive items we might want are left behind.
Finally, one last character quest I'd like to do now. Edwin joins up, and we take a trip to see Neveziah.
And now, finally, we get on the boat. Day 76.
This was a longer update than I would have liked, but that's how the natural break points shook out. Clear breaks at the beginning and end, with a big stretch in the middle that I wanted to leave together.
The voyage to Brynnlaw is uneventful, but trouble finds us the moment we set ashore.
Mazzy gets the first kill ...
As we traverse the docks, I hear attackers but don't see anything - True Sight.
Haer'Dalis baits the next pirate into wasting his initial invisibility:
Of course, once again, this pirate dies quickly once he's revealed.
A third pirate attacks Haer'Dalis from stealth ... with a crossbow. No backstab there.
Once these nuisances are dealt with, we enter the Vulgar Monkey. Sanik drinks a healing potion and then takes two arrows to die ... weird, since his creature file has him at 1/1 HP. The generic melee AI he gets will only drink a healing potion at less than full hit points, so apparently he's getting a boost to maximum hit points somehow.
Anyway, that assassin falls easily. Mazzy is rather annoyed:
There's another magic fish for sale at the temple of Umberlee - bought. Magpie has 22 Dex now.
Over at the festhall, we talk ourselves in and get to the intrigue. Get the guards unconscious with sleeping draughts, and then kill them. That clears the way to Galvena herself:
Out on the path to Spellhold, we run into a madman. It's a trivial fight, with an interesting reward. The Boots of Hastened Departure grant a massive undispellable 20-second boost to saves and AC - at the cost of being unable to attack, cast spells, or use thieving abilities. Then you can use it again as soon as your aura clears; this is an ability with unlimited uses. Most parties don't have a use for it, but here? Perfect for Haer'Dalis. He never attacks, never picks pockets, and isn't allowed to cast spells. So activating it costs him nothing.
Now, back to fighting. We visit Perth the Adept:
A hakeashar follows us, and we kill it easily. Rasaad steps inside to pull the other hakeashar, and gets a triple Lower Resist spell trigger for his trouble. Huh, I thought he was invisible for that.
The Improved Mantle expires, and Magpie goes in briefly. Perth comes out after her, we attack - Absolute Immunity. More door-dodging, then.
Even saving every time, that was 130 damage. Down to seven hit points, from full health before.
A level 20+ mage casting that sequencer deals 84 average fire damage and 42 average piercing damage, assuming saves but no resistance. I thought bard song luck should have helped, but clearly it didn't.
But now, Perth's defenses are down, and we're on the attack. Perth throws a minute meteor at Haer'Dalis and misses, then dies.
We could walk into Spellhold now, but instead we go to Desharik. Magpie claims that she's the daughter of a god, and that's crazy enough to get her in with her high charisma.
The experience reward brings level 21 for Korgan, who takes his fourth dot in hammers and Whirlwind Attack. Mazzy also reaches level 20, taking Hardiness.
Between potions and the ring of regeneration, Magpie is back to full health when Irenicus arrives. We are all captured, and the mage takes Magpie for a strange procedure.
In the dream, she goes after the Bhaal image with a backstab:
At the door, Magpie gives up a point of Wisdom. And then, she has an inordinate amount of trouble convincing the Bhaal-thing to follow her in. After at least five tries and a few hits taken, it finally follows her. Once it's in sight of Imoen, it dies. No further hits needed.
Coming out of that, Haer'Dalis reaches level 24. Enhanced Bard Song is ours, and he takes two-handed style as well.
Imoen greets us, but we tell her to leave. There's just no place for her in this party.
The first challenge we face is the Clay Golem. Rasaad uses stealth to take it down without being hit back.
The yuan-ti pack on the opposite side is more troublesome. I'm trying to save Keldorn's dispels - I don't plan on resting until I'm out of the asylum - so I use Cloudkills to disrupt the mages.
As for the mage - no protection from normal missiles. Mazzy and Keldorn switch to normal arrows and bolts.
Then I hear "This isn't working" from Mazzy. On closer examination...
I add a second Cloudkill now that a second mage has joined the party, and just let Mazzy keep shooting.
One of those mages targets Keldorn with a Polymorph Other. Even under a Malison, he still saves on a 3. No problem.
The final blow in this fight is a Cloudkill tick.
We answer some riddles; Haer'Dalis gets an ioun stone and the party picks up a second ring of regeneration. There's another group of yuan-ti beyond, but this bunch only has one mage. Without backup, the mage only manages a single minute meteor hit on Haer'Dalis before dying.
A side room holds a bunch of mephits and a rakshasa Rukh. Magpie goes for a backstab on the rakshasa ...
Magpie tries to retreat, but the mephits are in the hallway blocking her. Instead, she runs around letting the mephits hurt themselves with friendly fire while the party approaches.
Now, time to use those stones we found at the portal.
The first summons a greater wolfwere, which dies before it can do anything.
The second summons a pit fiend:
The third stone brings a genie that gives us a useless piece of plate armor, and we're done here.
On to the second half of this area, taking the fourth set of stairs from where we entered. Enhanced Bard Song protects from confusion, trivializing the Umber Hulks.
We deal with some undead in the corridor, and then it's time to face that lich group. Magpie hides and equips Azuredge along with the boots of speed ...
For the minions, we use simple force. No specialized anti-undead weapons needed, and they wouldn't work anyway on the bone golems.
Continuing on, we run into a vampiric mist - one of the many enemies neutered by normal weapon immunity.
A book that summons monsters ... kobold, spider, umber hulk, mind flayer. The mind flayer goes invisible and teleports to attack Haer'Dalis:
There's one more summon - a beholder. It gets off one ray before dying. Anti-magic on Haer'Dalis.
We are rewarded with some scrolls and a ring of free action. Rasaad puts on the ring, since the rest of the party might want haste.
The kobolds and their crystal are trivial - that just leaves Dace, recently turned into a vampire. We switch to our anti-undead configuration:
Dace is staked, and his hand opens the door forward. Next time, we step through it.
On the other side of that mouth, we face a number of minor encounters. A small group of trolls fall easily. The minotaurs in the next room have nonmagical weapons. Rasaad turns into a werewolf and uses his magic immunity to deal with the trapped paintings.
Then, Magpie heads forward to face Bodhi, alone.
On to the Gauth in the next room, which we charge as a party. It targets Korgan with a lightning bolt and Magpie with a Cause Wounds ... wait, immune?
The minotaurs with the Gauth are, of course, completely irrelevant.
After clearing out the minotaurs on the other side and picking up the tokens, we backtrack to the other path from the entrance. There's a pack of yuan-ti and a mage ...
Magpie then retreats to the main group, where the normal yuan-ti wield their ineffective weapons in complete futility.
Now, to open the painting doors. Mazzy rolls a 1 against the spirit troll's Command ...
The Ulitharid opens with a psionic blast - saves 12, 0, 12.
The Noble Djinni opens with a Stinking Cloud - Haer'Dalis retreats a bit. The rest of the party has no problem fighting in the cloud.
Finally, the last path. The Umber Hulk here actually deals some damage, rolling a crit on Rasaad. He regenerates as a werewolf before we continue.
The wolfweres are easily slaughtered, at the cost of a bit of damage. The stone golem fails to either hurt or slow anyone.
That brings us to the room with three clay golems. I choose to attack first rather than springing the trap.
After taking out that first golem from surprise, the remaining two wake up to fight. And fail.
We grab the room's loot, use the machine to dispense boots of speed and of cold resistance, and move on.
Many riddles and minor fights ensue. Korgan gets the cloak of reflection, and the party gets lots of experience. Now, we just have to fight some mages to secure our escape. For this, I have some special preparation:
Anyway, Magpie gets improved invisibility and the cloak of non-detection. She steps behind Lonk ... not fast enough. Retreat!
Magpie reaches fighter level 15 with that fight, taking staff proficiency and a Spike Trap.
Now, Irenicus. We appear right next to him, and get off four hits before he can even cast anything - already near death.
A few more whacks at Irenicus, and he's out.
Then the murderers show up. Mazzy uses her true sight gem:
I kill the still-neutral clones to see if I get XP for them - no. And those attack orders lead to the party turning on each other for some self-inflicted damage.
A complete anticlimax of a fight, plus that bizarre glitch of non-hostile clones. I'm so bemused that I let the game sit for a while ... and crash. Hard reboot needed.
The most recent reboot is just before we killed Lonk. It's a bit messier this time, and he gets off an Incendiary Cloud when we don't dispel him. Then, back to Irenicus. Down to Near Death before his prebuffs fire, but at least the clones are properly hostile this time.
Still, we've done enough to Irenicus. He leaves.
This battle brings levels for the whole party. Magpie reaches thief level 18, and invests her skill points in stealth. Korgan reaches level 22, and takes his first Greater Whirlwind. Keldorn reaches level 19 and takes Hardiness. Rasaad reaches level 23 and takes Whirlwind Attack. Mazzy reaches level 21, taking flail grandmastery and Whirlwind Attack. Haer'Dalis reaches level 25 and takes Use Any Item.
That last ability allows some new equipment for Haer'Dalis - and he can now reach the AC cap at will.
A conventional build for him would balk at the full plate (no spells!) and especially at activating the boots (no spells or attacks!), but in this party it all makes sense. EBS is just that good, especially when it's a full party of warriors receiving the buff.
There are a few monsters to kill outside the asylum, and some things to retrieve in the office we couldn't reach before. Then it's back to Brynnlaw, where we sell off some junk and steal from the merchant. We also buy the crushing AC belt from the priest.
Saemon has a plan, but we'll have to wait for night. Therefore, we rest.
Magpie dreams of that warped Candlekeep again, and a dream comes. A malicious spirit uses Imoen's voice...
Upon waking, Magpie and Korgan drink potions for strength 19. We'll be fighting a lot, and there won't be a lot of dispels going around. Cayia is awake enough to call for guards...
Some pirates try to cause trouble on the way to the ship. Since they brought a mage, I use a dispelling arrow:
Naturally, leaving the island isn't as smooth as Saemon suggested. Desharik sets a few goons on us, which we have to dispose of before leaving.
And then, out at sea, githyanki show up.
These enemies have some spellcasting capability, and a Remove Magic wipes out Korgan's strength potion. Thankfully, both Magpie and Mazzy are unaffected.
Then, the enemies follow up with a nastier spell. Psionic Maze on Haer'Dalis, and he fails the save. He's out of the battle, and we won't be getting that song on our side.
The timer runs out, and sahuagin join in. Only the githyanki captain survives to retreat.
Down in this underwater city, we are brought before the king:
He's even briefly controllable at the ettin fight:
Before we head out to find the rebels, we pickpocket the king. Treasury key acquired, and we have the scroll and rod.
Solving the imps' riddles earns a set of boots and another +2 protection item - neither is useful for us at this point. Sure, the +2 cloak is great - but we have six other items that fit that role. All it offers is a bit more flexibility when we get enough good amulets.
Conversing with the Spectator is a wisdom check - but having Haer'Dalis gets us a free pass. We didn't need it (Keldorn was speaking, and would have passed), but it's nice.
Of course, before we can reach the rebel leadership, we have to slaughter every rebel we see. Along with the loyalists that fight them. Our strength potions expire, so I renew them. A faster killing speed is always appreciated, even against such easy foes.
While most of these encounters don't matter, there is one priestess with a special item.
Against the sea zombies, Magpie takes a disease hit from their lord:
As for the Cloudkill - my front line are all immune. Monk, periapt, cloak of mirroring. There's no reason not to just keep fighting in it. We easily crush the remaining undead and move on.
Finally, we meet with the prince. And with this party, there's a clear right choice. We side with the king, because that's the only way to get the gauntlets of crushing.
The other rebels are easy to clear out, and we head back to the priestess to sell things. Lots of crossbows, spears, and even a few generic magical items, with the best prices we've seen so far in the game. But the really big money is in the ammunition, selling several stacks of bolts of biting. By the time we're done, we're back up to over 80K gold, from under 20K before. I buy a few scrolls, but only the Invisibility scrolls that we'll need several of to upgrade cloaks of protection.
The king gives us the gauntlets of crushing and a second Rod of Lordly Might. Then I let him go, because I've already taken everything he had worth taking.
With that, we're done with this city and chapter 4. The underdark awaits.
Our first steps in the underdark are to the north, where a trio of mind flayers await.
There are a range of psionic attacks already in the game in vanilla; SCS allows illithids to use them in addition to their basic stunning blasts. In this case, Detonate is an AoE spell that does magic damage. We can save for half, but that's it.
Anyway, that gets four party members for about 20 damage each. Korgan is out of raange, and Magpie is protected by her cloak. We engage in melee, where Korgan gets brain-sucked once - but all except Mazzy can survive two hits. We're fine.
This encounter also inspires me to shuffle belts around. Magpie doesn't need the belt of inertial barrier if she has the cloak of mirroring, so Haer'Dalis gets it instead.
Carlig has some good stuff (mostly scrolls), so Magpie puts on the pickpocket gloves and loots him. It's definitely not worth buying anything; before the drow disguise, he has the worst prices of any merchant in the game both buying and selling.
We beat up some elementals next. They hit back fairly effectively, though fighting 5-1 keeps it from being too bad.
These fights bring Haer'Dalis to level 26; he takes his first Spike Trap.
Now that the area is safe, we free Vithal. That grants another chunk of experience, and Mazzy reaches level 22. She takes her first Greater Whirlwind.
A large group of drow stands to the north, and Magpie opens with a backstab.
Instead of that, one mage goes for a triple-fireball sequencer. As we have very little resistance gear, that hurts a lot.
A mage follows up with a Death Fog, while Keldorn dispels the enemy defenses.
With the drow defeated but the Death Fog still active, Magpie and Rasaad go west to fight some spore colonies. Rasaad takes a hit, but they handle the situation easily.
That opens the way to the gnome village. We accept the quest to deal with the monster they dug up, but we don't take it on right away. Balors are very nasty with SCS, with a particular emphasis on fire damage. They have a fireshield (actually an Aura of Flaming Death variant) that can't be either dispelled or breached, and tend to also cast fire storms immediately. If you aren't immune to fire or at least heavily resistant, you shouldn't get close to them. And as we are now ... we have very little fire resistance gear. Potions and scrolls are the only real option, and the balor can dispel that.
So then, we'll go get some fire resistance gear first. We could use traps instead, but we only have two spike traps right now. It would take two days worth to get a reliable kill.
On the other hand, one days' worth of traps is plenty for the foes imprisoned in the soul cage.
The madman Aganalo in the first face goes down easily, with no traps. The second face holds Reavilin Strathi - two normal traps.
The third face holds the githyanki Riti - another easy one, with no traps. The fourth face holds the lich Alchra Dialgott. One normal trap and one spike trap:
Now, to "help" Vithal. He starts in on the portals as soon as we deliver the book of rituals, and we have to deal with the guardians. Earth first:
Fire comes next, and the fire guardian is stunned on the first swing.
Air follows, with similar results to fire. Vithal leaves to grab the treasure before we even finish off the minions.
We set the last two traps once combat really ends ...
Over to the east, there are some kuo-toa in the way. They bring a mage - but not one with and Mantle-type protection.
We enter the eastern tunnels - illithids. The party is stunned and captured by act of plot, despite what should be immunity. We'll have to fight our way out of this - but first, we wait. And regenerate.
The first opportunity for something different comes when we're taken to an arena - though the umber hulks there are no trouble.
Cooperation with the githyanki comes next. We kill off a few kuo-toa and escape the arena.
Moving on, we begin to face illithids. What defenses do we need? Enhanced Bard Song, and that's it. Potions of invulnerability would help against some of the effects with save penalties, but the stun immunity from EBS is by far the most important.
That, and our spell saves are all excellent. We're not quite immune to everything, but we're all highly resistant.
After that first fight, I do bring out some buff potions - strength 19 and 20. We free the slaves and get the control devices, then head north. Against the first plot-locked door, Magpie turns into the Slayer:
Next, a room full of illithids get sone hits in. Magpie is brain-sucked...
The tadpole room is next, where a Detonate only hits two of our party:
The illithids in the next room open with a pair of Detonates and a Ballistic Attack to damage the whole party. Even the Cloak of Mirroring doesn't protect against the latter.
Then Haer'Dalis gets hit by two Ballistic Attacks:
The enemy follow up with another Psionic Maze and remove Haer'Dalis. We'll have to wait for him to come out of that before we take on any more rooms. Fortunately, there aren't any enemies left in this room.
Once Haer'Dalis comes out of that, we go south and pick up the Ring of Fire Control - the main prize we wanted out of the dungeon this early.
Then it's the penultimate room in the north. The enemies bunch up at the doorway trying to make it difficult for us ...
Magpie transforms to open this door, and comes out slightly fatigued - apparently, the Slayer transformation is much like a Haste spell in that way. Still, that isn't going to cause us serious problems. Attack!
Once we're in melee - the brain is vulnerable both to Celestial Fury stun and to Scarlet Ninja-to poison. It goes down quickly, and doesn't even summon any brain golems.
Our reputation dropped to 16 from the two uses of Slayer form, but goes back up to 17 when the slave leader talks to us on the way out. There's a lot of experience too, though no new levels.
And one last loose end - Simyaz. We yell at him a bit for not helping, and refuse to give up the silver blade. It's a fight.
After the fatiguing effects of the slayer transformation, Magpie needs a rest. But first, I'd like to tackle the potential level-draining threats in the underdark - the demon knights in the western tunnels. It's best to stack up those reasons to rest and do it all at once.
We take on a side room on the way; Rasaad turns into a werewolf and clears out the room of beholderkin with his 117 MR.
Magpie absorbs the undetectable trap, and the party comes to the demon knights' room. A berserk warrior is sacrificed to awaken them...
Then even more:
That's it for the fireballs, but they get in some melee hits and we drink some healing potions. And then, it's over.
Of the three powerful magical items the leader drops, only the belt goes into use. The armor would improve AC by 1 at the cost of 2 to saves - not worth it. The only party member who would consider two-handed swords is Keldorn, and he can't use this one. But the belt? That's a big deal to Magpie, who is still working with a flat 18 base strength when not using potions.
And now, after a rest at the gnome village, it's time to face the demon. Magpie equips the ring of fire control and drinks a potion for 100% fire resistance, with another potion in reserve.
The rest of the party sets up at long range. Haer'Dalis stands to the north and sings. Rasaad just avoids the battle completely. Mazzy and Keldorn switch to their +3 and +4 auto-missiles, while Korgan goes for the Dwarven Thrower.
We open with a pair of spike traps:
Then the bonus HP from high difficulty kicks in, and the demon isn't at Near Death anymore. It opens with a Fire Storm on Magpie. Keldorn dispels its stoneskin ... oh, oops, that took out Magpie's fire resistance too.
On the other hand, it doesn't take long to finish the battle:
Returning to the gnome leader, the experience brings Haer'Dalis to level 27.
While we could go to Adalon now, I'd rather not. First, a drow ambush in the northeast:
Now, on to the beholder hive. Haer'Dalis activates his boots before going in - and the party meets two beholders.
For the main enemy force, saving throws won't be enough - they have damaging rays too. so, then, it's time to break out the potions of magic protection. I have enough to make four party members immune; Keldorn and Haer'Dalis stay behind.
The first encounter is a group of drow attacking a beholder.
Up next, a fight between gauths and mind flayers.
Some beholders join in:
Well, then. I suppose the rest of us need to help him out. While Korgan charges in, it's Mazzy that gets the final blow with her arrows.
Incidentally, Magpie keeps stunning beholderkin - and those same foes get dispelled moments later by their friends' antimagic rays. We've got them confused enough that they use the rays to dispel transient debuffs on their own but not lasting buffs on the party.
The mobile trio goes south to clear out a pair of Death Tyrants, while a beholder comes up on the still-stunned Rasaad:
And now, an Elder Orb. Improved Mantle - run away. Remove Magic cast at Magpie? Run harder.
I reload a save from before entering. That potion buff has to go before we take on the hive.
I could just wait for the two-hour duration to expire, but that would be boring. Instead, I head back to the western tunnels to kill some kuo-toa.
Another group follows, and another mage gets a dispelling arrow.
After all that, the prince is an anticlimax. Fighting alone, he goes down very quickly. Using the tadpoles was nice, but not very relevant. Magpie reaches fighter level 16, and takes that second Spike Trap.
All right, back to the beholders - and this time, without that stray fire resistance potion to cause problems. The beholders at the entrance spread their rays more and get in a bit of damage:
That's enough XP for Rasaad to reach level 25 and Mazzy to reach level 23. They each take Power Attack this time.
Buff up, and send in everybody but the bard. We picked up more stuff from the kuo-toa, so we have a full nine magic protection potions to make all but Haer'Dalis magic immune.
Back to the gauth and mind flayers again:
Of course, that drew in some extra beholders, some of which came from the northeast. I go after them, and that gets close enough to activate the Hive Mother.
Now, I split the party. The melee go south to take on the Death Tyrants, while the ranged attackers handle that last beholder from the central area.
And ... hey, when I said "the full party", I didn't mean you. Get away, Haer'Dalis!
Another minor hit comes up in the northeast; a Gauth bites Magpie.
Now, time for the first Elder Orb. It opens with an Improved Mantle, which we respond to by backing off and attacking from another direction.
With the Improved Mantle run out, we can hit the Elder Orb:
We still have a summon to put down. That djinn casts PfMW, so we get out the nonmagical weapons.
There's one last enemy to fight - an Elder Orb hiding in the last chamber.
The magical sword follows us around as we loot the place, even following the party out of the hive entirely. We drop off a bunch of stuff in the crates near the gnome village. It's time to meet Adalon and face the city of Ust Natha.
The anti-beholder tactic featured here is definitely one of my favorite innovations. It's specific to the improved SCS AI, and when you have as many non-casters as this party, it's an impressively fast method while still being very safe. Just be careful not to get any extraneous buffs in there. Even the brief haste effect that is a Whirlwind can get you hit by an anti-magic ray so you lose your immunity.
Our potions have worn off by the time we reach Adalon, and she disguises us all as drow.
Once inside, the first order of business is to loot the merchants. Magpie puts on her pickpocket gloves for a score of 195 and proceeds to steal everything of value.
Next, we meet with Solaufein - and Korgan offers a warning.
We step outside the gates, and ...
The scripts indicate there should be a thief Damien too, but I never hear anything from him. From all the evidence, he just didn't spawn in at all.
Well, at least we get a nice halberd out of it.
As for the illithids ...
Except ... Haer'Dalis let his song lapse. And he's short on permanent save gear. He pays the price.
Back in the city, an aboleth demands our aid - we're killing Qilue. Sure, we could talk our way out of this, but I'd rather just kill some drow.
The other servant on the starting platform, just past Qilue, succeeds in casting Mantle - so we'll just switch to +4 weapons. Still, Qilue comes first. No ranged attacks, since she's using Physical Mirror.
Another servant comes over ... this one's using PfMW.
The servant that had the Mantle goes down, and another PW:Silence on the already silenced and vocalized Haer'Dalis - bad idea there.
After returning the brain to conclude our business, it's time for some tavern entertainment. One patron has a fun story to tell ...
That leaves the pit fights. First, Magpie duels the monsters Szordrin handles.
An Umber Hulk is first; she goes for a backstab but can't get into position.
A nabassu follows:
A sahuagin prince comes next. It hits hard if you let it ...
Finally, a beholder. Stealth into range ...
Next up, the dueling pit. First, Magpie takes on Lasaonar:
Chalinthra follows.
After the fight, I cheat slightly and use Ctrl-J to pick up the stuff she dropped (and kill the Aerial Servant).
No more duels are possible; the remaining duels all require a mage, and a bard isn't an allowable substitute. Keldorn reaches level 21, taking two-handed style and his first Greater Whirlwind.
We explore the city some before resting, and Korgan recites some poetry to Mazzy with mixed results:
After that rest, it's time for more of Phaere's tasks. First, a beholder:
Picking up the next mission, Keldorn can't help himself:
Once outside, Magpie shows him how the subterfuge is actually done. Dismiss Solaufein, talk to the patrol leader ...
We take this opportunity to stash more stuff and shoplift Carlig's new inventory.
Back in the city, Phaere demands Solaufein's death. No. We let him escape instead. Still, his cloak is enough to earn her favor. We are brought before Matron Mother Ardulace, who wants ingredients for a grand summoning ritual. The favor of House Despana will take us far in this city.
We could turn in the ingredients right away, but intrigue comes first. Visaj offers a magic rope, and we go after Deirex. It was a trick, but we get a second chance at it. Mazzy throws Azuredge before the defenses go up ...
Anyway, there's no abjuration immunity in that list of defenses. That means we can just dispel him.
It's theoretically possible to lay traps in the moment you have control on the first visit; a pair of spike traps would kill him when you come back, and I've done it before. I missed the opportunity this time.
We beat on the magical swords for a while, slowing them with the Flail of Ages to reduce their threat level. Once they unsummon, Magpie can take off her armor and get to the treasure.
Jarlaxle was lying to us, of course. Korgan wants revenge:
While we're at it, Haer'Dalis reaches level 28. He takes halberd proficiency and Magic Flute.
Over at House Jae'llat, the reception is immediately hostile. Melee warriors go after the named one, and the archers target the mage (called "Jae'llat Priestess").
Mazzy's initial dispelling arrow takes out the mage's prebuffs, but not his initial PfMW cast.
More named enemies approach, and we're back to splitting attention carefully.
And then I change my mind. Magpie's taking too much damage, so she drinks a potion. And Valas is coming over here, so there's no need to stick herself that far forward.
The guards pile up, and I need another round of potions:
Hindra wastes time on a Sanctuary while we focus on the guards ... without support, she won't last.
Next, a priestess Taso Kala orders us to deal with a bunch of Ghanadaur worshippers.
The priest leader is our first target, going down quickly. Unfortunately, Korgan takes an otyugh disease hit. No save on that.
Then the mage gets Korgan with a Slow. It's just not his day, is it?
Next, it's a Delayed Blast Fireball targeted at Keldorn. An odd choice, since he has 70% fire resistance. I try to scatter, but ...
The ammo choices in that shot are because the mage used a PfMW, of course. Magpie adds to the pressure with a regular katana, and the Stoneskin fails.
One last sidequest here - we free some slaves.
With two cases completely full of stolen scrolls, I go on a scribing spree. Together with the next plot bit, it's enough for new levels all around. Magpie reaches thief level 20, Korgan reaches 25, Keldorn reaches level 22, Rasaad reaches level 26, Mazzy reaches level 24, and Haer'Dalis reaches level 29. The new HLAs are greater whirlwinds for Magpie and Keldorn, hardiness for the other three warriors, and Spike Trap for Haer'Dalis. Aside from that, Magpie gets some strength and Mazzy takes her first dot in two-weapon style.
And now, back to the plot. We hand in the goodies, and then get on to the three-sided egg swap. With our two sets of fake eggs, we head into the temple.
Inside the chamber, making the switch will activate the golems, so we hit them first. The clay golems are the priority targets, of course.
Finally, it's time for the ritual.
And now, we get out. Or do we? Yes, we do. This party can't handle the combined forces of Ust Natha. I know. The hard way.
Adalon gives us a pointless crossbow and oodles of XP, then sends us to the exit.
Past the doors, there are a few more drow.
More warrior drow follow, fighting surface elves. We deal with them, and head back down to the gnomes. After all, I'd like to get some gold for all that drow junk. Once that's done and we collect what we stashed earlier, we finally exit to the surface and chapter 6.
Up on the surface, the elves drag us off to meet their general Elhan, who interrogates us in his usual annoying way. He's at least willing to hand over some stakes and holy water. And now, it's time to go back to Athkatla.
On the way back to Athkatla, Magpie meets someone she's encountered before.
The bridge district is our target, and we are accosted by a githyanki when we arrive.
We came to the Bridge District because that's our stash spot - the playhouse. Many items go into the stash, and we pick up a few parts for making items.
Now, a bit of character work. Haer'Dalis takes a break, and we invite Edwin into the party. He immediately reveals that he's been studying the Nether Scroll.
Anomen follows, and discovers his sister's murder. We convince him to follow the law. While we're in the area to talk to Bylanna, Magpie picks Tolgerias' pockets for his magic ring.
And now, after recruiting the Radiant Heart and the Shadow Thieves for the big fight, we're off to Cromwell. Drop some bits, and assemble the Gesen Bow for Mazzy.
After that, the one-day timer has expired and Edwin is ready to cast the spell he has learned:
All right. Now Haer'Dalis can rejoin for some actual adventuring.
First, we check in on the keep, where some trouble has come up in our absence.
Now, back to the shade temple. We stopped short of the first lich when we came here before, but we can handle liches now.
While she's doing that, the lich casts Remove Magic on itself. Twice.
This appears to be a necromancer; it has no illusion defenses. As such, Magpie heads in to throw Azuredge.
The lesser undead follow, and the lich casts a Time Stop into three rounds of nothing. That has some interesting effects:
The remaining lesser undead make it to the bridge, at least.
And then, another shot at the lich.
To retrieve the items in the lava room, Haer'Dalis puts on the Helm of the Rock and the ring of fire control. Added to his innate 25%, that's full fire immunity.
A ghost helps out, and then it's time for the second lich.
After finishing those enemies off, we pause for a bit of healing. During this wait, a brief conversation comes up in which Keldorn compliments Korgan:
Reusable healing - the tankard from Neera's quest - brings Magpie up to 100 HP, safe from Power Words.
Now, back to the lich. Magpie attacks from stealth - save made, lich casts Remove Magic to deal with the nonmagical invisibility that is no longer active. The next try is just a little slow, and runs into a new PfMW. Wait that out, go again ...
Finally, after getting her vision back, Magpie makes another throw.
Pressing on, we cross the letter board and pick up some goodies. We accept a shadow's bargain to take it across...
Fatigue has caught up to most of the party; apparently, the rest at Cromwell's came at the beginning of the day spent there. We rest, and Magpie sees a vision of what can only be the elven realm:
You may note that this is slightly out of order; the rest actually came before the last gameplay picture. This is also another typo-inspired title.
Picking up where we left off last, the party descends into the Shadow Dragon's chamber. While I often just pass through and leave it for later, this is Chapter 6. We're taking it on right now. I summon up a deva and a less important minion, then Magpie goes Slayer and Korgan berserks ...
The second time around works better, and Slayer Form now has a 2 reputation penalty.
Massive damage ensues, and the dragon goes for a wing buffet.
Now, on to the Shade Lord. Magpie stays in Slayer form, since this is another battle with level drain.
Shadow Patrick crits with an arrow ... ineffective. He's using nonmagical arrows. Also, Magpie's control slips, and she goes berserk.
A protection goes up ... and then down again.
While we clean up the altar and the remaining shadows, the drawback of that berserk state comes up. Korgan is Magpie's next target.
In reaction to this, Korgan uses Hardiness. He can't have enough AC to stop her, but he can mitigate the damage.
Once the fight is over, Mazzy builds a memorial ...
That scene also advances time to the next morning, so that Korgan regenerates to full. This marks the first time I've ever used Slayer form in combat - in this case, the tweaked version from Ascension. It's certainly effective, but the chance of berserking is a nasty drawback. And after using it - special occasions only. I don't think I'll ever pull it out outside situations that the reputation loss is actually desired.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 30 and his fourth Spike Trap. We explore the area, put down a few aggressive animals, and go back down for the trapped container in the talking statue.
Back at the village, the mayor offers his reward. A bit of gold, some experience, a useless piece of armor, and a point of reputation. That last is why we used Slayer form, of course.
We talk to the wizard next, and visit the cave. Those idiot kids need our help with a diseased gibberling ...
Back with the mage, his golem goes berserk and is eliminated in moments.
Now, on to the Windspear Hills.
The lord Garren Windspear offers sanctuary, but bandits invade his home:
Rasaad levels up to 28, taking his last proficiency - short sword - and a third Greater Whirlwind.
Now, we head out to explore. It's a pretty area, with lots of relatively easy monsters. The gnolls drop some nice random items - scrolls of Mislead and Improved Haste.
I play with some orcs by sneaking up on them:
And finally, our oldest quest is resolved.
Next time, we delve into the dungeon to face the mastermind behind the monsters here.
Just inside the ominous door, a bunch of hobgoblins are on guard.
After crushing another band of hobgoblins, we meet some kamikaze kobolds.
Farther west in the cave, orcs and vampiric mists await us. Naturally, we focus on the most dangerous enemies first - the orc archers.
Anyway, we kill the archers and recover most of their +1 arrows.
And now, down into the dungeon. The first room here is one of the few places thieving in combat is a big deal, so Magpie takes off her full plate armor and drinks a potion of invulnerability to replace the AC.
The next challenge is a group of golems. Rasaad goes after one clay golem from stealth:
The remaining golems ... no problem.
After killing a couple orcs, it's the troll cook's turn.
Forward from there, a batch of orcs manages to hit Korgan with an arrow:
And now, vampires. Rasaad backs off, Keldorn switches to melee mode, Korgan rages, and we get out the anti-undead weapons.
And ... uh, oops. I forgot to have Korgan rage.
With the rage still active, we hit the spectral undead. The greater wraith is first at the door ...
Keldorn reaches level 23 here, taking his third greater whirlwind.
We could live with that level drain on Korgan for a while. It's just a few hit points lost, and deactivates his save-boosting items. Still, I have Haer'Dalis use a restoration scroll. Some fatigue on the non-warrior isn't a big deal.
Opening the next door, Samia presents us with a key - OK, we'll take a side trip. Magpie takes the fire resistance gear for immunity and heads in to the first guardian ...
She refines the formula for the next guardian. Immune to fire and spell damage, Detect Illusion ... they really can't do anything.
Guardians go down, and we hit the Director.
Finally, we gather all the mask pieces and head forward to the final guardian.
Samia wants to start trouble now, so we prepare the field - four normal traps.
Anyway, back to the path forward. Some greater wolfweres are in the hall, and the first dies almost instantly.
Another group of golems follows, piling up with some orogs at the door. The already-cursed Korgan takes point:
So then, we keep fighting and take the golems down.
We pull up a helmet and kill an elemental:
We intervene in an argument between some minions...
And now, how should we handle an adamantite golem? I know. Just send in the party.
Some wolfweres try to ambush us:
Forward, then, to Tazok. He has apparently been resurrected in Firkraag's service.
And now, down into the dragon's lair for some taunts. Still, we're here for Garren's kid, and Conster holds the key. Pop back up for him ...
Between two cursed party members, a fatigued bard, and overfull bags of holding, I choose not to fight the dragon. We'll come back later for Firkraag. Instead, we report to Garren Windspear for the quest reward. The reward isn't quite enough for any levels, but Magpie is less than a dragon's worth away from one. And there I end the session.
After selling off the junk we're carrying, the party takes on a quest to boost their reputation - retrieving Waukeen's mantle for the leader of Trademeet.
After that, it's off to meet Valygar. We talk his ranger friends down, then hear his side of the story - he'll join us to open up the sphere.
We get our rest at the forge making Shadow Dragon Scale armor, then open the sphere ... and leave Valygar inside.
On the way back to the inn, we are waylaid.
While we take out two before their defenses can go up, that still leaves four foes with stoneskins and mirror images. Mazzy gets to work with dispelling arrows.
Inside the sphere, the first challenge is the clay golem in the side room. Rasaad hits it, it goes for a haste ...
Picking a lock in that side room brings Magpie to thief level 21; she takes more stealth skill and a Time Trap.
And then, we activate the sphere. No going back now, until we're done.
The knights in the next room mention cannibal halflings.
Still, we head north first, sneaking up on the priestesses with stealth:
And then, the halflings. They're spaced out a bit, with three, then one, then three, and a named foe retreating. They can pile up more, but we kill them fast enough to avoid that.
The next group, which Togan retreated to, is more troublesome. Entu is a fighter with psionics, Togan is a plain fighter, Kayardi is a mage, and Mogadish is a cleric. So, then, we open with a backstab.
The survivors follow up with a bit of taunting:
A few spiders in the next room bring Haer'Dalis to level 31 and his fifth Spike Trap. Then it's north for the last of the Athasians in this sphere. This group has two mages, so Magpie goes for a stab on the more dangerous one:
As we retreat, the other mage Taibela puts up a PfMW. Rather than dispelling that, Keldorn and Mazzy just switch to nonmagical ammo.
We activate the furnaces, killing the fire elementals with no damage taken.
Then, to the east, it's a pack of golems. I go for a simultaneous stealth attack on the two clay golems...
The surviving clay golem charges off in a direction that looks like "away", with Rasaad and Korgan in hot pursuit. And then, they catch up.
And now, we have enough to activate the golem to open the doors. It attacks a beholder... and we join in.
Now, on to face Lavok. I've usually brought in Valygar for this, but I'll do it without him this time.
Over at the runes ... the trap spell goes right through the cloak of mirroring. I shuffle gear around so Keldorn gets 110% fire resistance, and have him solve the puzzle. The door is open, but we're not taking it yet. Instead, we head outside for some demon hearts.
The imps and quasits do a bit of damage with their fire spells, and the first nabassu silences two party members:
The second nabassu is even less effective.
And then, there's the strongest one and its summoned Maurezhi.
On to navigation then, and the second mage boss of the dungeon.
And then, his prebuffs go up. Absolute Immunity is one of them. But we have a solution - Cloudkill. Magpie uses a wand ...
Incidentally, those summons Tolgerias brought in are hakeashars. Harmless.
Haer'Dalis throws in a second Cloudkill so Tolgerias can't run away...
We take on the ice room next.
And with that resistance, we take on the fire room. That one's more troublesome, especially because of the noble efreet.
And then, when I finish off the last enemies, I notice that Magpie faced that whole encounter unarmored. Oops.
In the engine room, we start out by entering through the ice room and going northwest, avoiding the golem spawn triggers. There's one clay golem that starts in the room; two hits from Rasaad, and it's dead. We can insert the demon heart at our leisure, and claim the treasure off to the side.
But those triggers are still there, and I didn't come here to not fight enemies. I go back to the fire entrance and spawn in the enemies.
Rasaad goes after a juggernaut golem next - a hit and a critical miss. For the next move, the second clay golem in that group has been separated. Take it out, retreat ... oops. I caught the attention of the other golem group, and two of the party fail their saves against Slow.
Our next attack takes down several stone golems, before the last clay golem arrives.
Also, half the party is slowed again. We wait for that to expire, and head back in - juggernaut down, then a stone golem at the other entrance. But we still have a clay golem to deal with...
There's one last stone golem to kill, and then we insert the demon heart to return to Faerun.
Finally, Lavok gets to see some sunlight before he dies. After that, we pick up Valygar.
We have something else to do in the city today - it's time to use that sewer key. It opens up a hidden door, and we pass through.
The passage leads to a chamber with illithid architecture; clearly, the creatures have laired here for some time. That first room is empty, but the next is occupied. The illithids have their thralls here.
That flayer goes down first, and an assassin whiffs on Haer'Dalis.
Before long, only the two protected spellcasters remain.
Still, he dodges that, and the protection falls eventually. No harm from that Harm.
The next room holds an umber hulk and a bunch of illithids.
And now, the final room. We wait for the brain damage to expire, and head in. The alhoon buffs with Improved Haste, Minor Globe, Spell Turning, and Mirror Image ... that calls for a dispel. I can't have such a dangerous enemy running around hasted.
Before we can go for a second dispel, Korgan takes another melee hit. He needs to retreat now.
We keep thinning the enemy ranks:
Then a ballistic attack hits Haer'Dalis, dropping him into the orange (29 HP). He drinks an extra healing potion, as we finish off the last normal illithids ...
A third dispel takes out the alhoon's renewed defense, and we finally take it down.
Back to loot that last room, and we get the Hammer of Thunderbolts. All of the ingredients are in place. It's time to forge a legendary weapon.
And now, what's next? The sun's still out, so I don't feel like progressing the plot with a graveyard visit. Instead, it's time to hunt some liches.
Keldorn reaches level 24, mastering two-weapon style and taking Power Attack.
Let's do that again.
And now, Kangaxx. His two phases call for a more elaborate setup. We set a pair of spike traps for the lich form on the central platform, and normal traps for the demilich form near the room's edges. Magpie's traps still deal fire damage at this time. Everybody gets out their +4 weapons as well, aside from Haer'Dalis.
And now, the demilich.
The ring of Gaxx is ours, after this ridiculously easy fight. Magpie will wear it most of the time, though we'll pass it around when regeneration is needed elsewhere in the party. I got lucky on two low chances of elemental damage, but there was plenty more coming. Even Rasaad could have joined in with Flaming Fists.
We're ready to face Bodhi - but first, some special non-canon content for Christmas. The main story will resume next Monday, December 28.
Back in the Underdark sequence, I said this: What is the "hard way"? It means that I tried. This two-part holiday special will show exactly how it panned out.
The vanilla game turns all of the Ust Natha drow hostile when you're found out, and calls in a few more to attack you. SCS adds to that massively, with fifteen waves (on Insane; fewer on lower difficulties) of drow to attack you.
The earliest waves are small; five fighters and a mage, then four fighters. But soon, it picks up. Wave 5 is a full fifteen drow: ten level 9 fighters (6 melee, 4 ranged), a level 10 cleric, a level 14 cleric, a level 10 mage, a level 14 mage, and a level 10/9 fighter/cleric.
That same wave repeats six more times, with some variations mixed in. A round of four berserkers and three mages. A round featuring a level 18 matron mother, a glabrezu, and two nabassu, plus some lesser drow. A round with a level 18 archmage, four stone golems, and three more lesser mages. And finally, a round with another level 18 matron mother, 11 assorted fighter and cleric followers, and six demons including two balors.
These waves spawn primarily on a timer - four or five rounds. There's a secondary check that there aren't too many enemies out at any given time, but that still lets you be overwhelmed by nearly thirty foes if your kill speed can't keep up.
So, that's what I'm testing my party against. Insane difficulty SCS Ust Natha. brutal challenge - but if you can win through, it's worth more than a million XP.
We pick up immediately after the disrupted ritual - and in this timeline, I head to the tavern instead of the exit. I set up just inside the entrance, where the long walkway will reduce their numbers. Then I start the action with a backstab on one of the bar patrons.
Another wave brings a priestess, who wastes her time with a Flame Strike on Magpie.
Also ... where are all the other drow? It's been a while, and we;ve only seen a few of them. They should be coming in huge waves.
So then, I try something. I step outside, and a bunch of drow appear. Step back in, and the bridge is suddenly crowded.
Then the mage goes with something offensive.
And then a second mage gets involved. Another instance of the same creature file, which means the same sequencer.
I try again, and try to figure out what happened ... oh.
A few more rounds of this; once the trap fills up, leaving either to outside or upstairs causes massive numbers of enemies to appear right there with you.
At this point, I decide that the strategies I've been using don't stand a chance, and I just go for the exit instead.
But it doesn't end there. The ideas keep nagging at me, and I decide to try something else. This time, I use the Female Fighters' Society as my base; no traps, but there is a door I can dodge through. Also, all but Rasaad and Magpie drink potions of magic protection, to reduce the threat that the enemy mages pose.
And then, I dodge out the door to cancel a Death Fog ... and a bunch of drow appear instantly. Oops.
I keep fighting, though. An enemy Cone of Cold hits them just as hard as it hits us:
Then Korgan drops to the brink of death ...
Another try in the FFS ... well, it's at least amusing. The enemies saturate the battlefield with Death Fog, and then summon some spiders into it.
But ... well, this exposes the fundamental problem. We just aren't killing enemies fast enough.
But if this saga ended there, it wouldn't be two updates. I come back in another session, and decide to embrace the unfairness - plus some outright cheating.
We head back to the tavern, fighting dribs and drabs while the trap fills up. Then, Magpie teleports in with Ctrl-J and unleashes her fury - six Cloudkills, using the wand of lightning trick.
Those cloudkills finish off a great many drow warriors, and that means the numbers thin out enough for more waves to arrive.
Hey, there's a glabrezu.
The archmage appears next, and Magpie takes him on alone, protected by the Cloak of Mirroring.
The mage does manage to protect himself for a while, long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Teleport back in to unleash the poison clouds.
Then Magpie goes back in for another round of Cloudkills...
I was so close that time. What does that mean? Try again, of course.
Only a few drow come at us before the cage fills up this time. I launch a wave of Cloudkills, then pop out again. After a bit ...
After the second round of cloudkills, we see more attackers outside the cage trickling in ... oh, look, there's one of those level 14 mages.
All right, another try. And less waiting this time; I just teleport over to use the wands whenever I feel like it. After a few rounds of that, and an intense bout of combat involving a nabassu, I pop over for a fumigation:
More fighting follows, icluding several mages at once - and then a balor arrives. The last wave is here.
Finally, the Balor falls.
The next session ... I still can't get this impossible dream out of my head. Can I do it without cheating outright? There's another area I haven't explored the potential of - upstairs. Specifically, there's a cage that drow can spawn into, and we can see into it to bombard it when necessary without teleportation.
The patrons die quickly, and we set up near the lust chambers. It doesn't take long for caged drow to start showing up.
As enemies attack from two sides, we put out some disposable minions:
What could a party of warriors do here? Well, most of the enemy are level 9 fighters. The Deathblow HLA tears through them; if you take enough instances of that, you could keep the numbers down. With this party, I didn't. After all, Deathblow is very weak in most circumstances.
Spellcasters? Well, I am planning to take this challenge on in my next run. And I'll definitely report it when I get there.
After that interlude, it's time to get back to the story. As a reminder, we've finished up the stronghold quests, forged the amazing Crom Faeyr, and killed off some liches for fun and profit.
Now, it's time to take on Bodhi, and put her to rest for good. We travel to the graveyard, and time advances to midnight. Bodhi is there to greet us.
Keldorn and Korgan take point for us as we clear out the vampires wandering around. And apparently, the mourners around here are exceptionally brave.
The first room holds a group of paladins, who are content to wait the five rounds for Korgan to end his winded state. Then we move forward, reaching the named vampire Valen and a fledgling.
The next target is the blood pool room, where Drizzt and his companions are.
Then Keldorn goes unresponsive - wait, what even happened? I scroll, and can only find one thing in the log that makes sense:
It is, at least, dispellable. And it only lasts eight rounds. So I shoot him, and he's back in the fight.
I reach the blood pool with some holy water:
After the main force in this room is dealt with, an elder vampire sneaks behind the lines to backstab Haer'Dalis. No picture available, but that's the first level drain we've taken.
And also, I'm pretty sure the paladin leader got level drained to death. They really should have sent someone with protection in. Come on, can't the order find any Undead Hunters?
We go back to the coffin room to stake some vampires, and for Haer'Dalis to use a restoration scroll. Being level-drained does terrible things to his saves, and it's not like fatigue is a big deal for his role.
And now, out to the main hall. The thieves are here, invisible as they should be.
On the way over, there's another mage "Guard". PfMW, dispel, Mazzy.
And now, down to Bodhi. I'd like to disarm the traps, but Arkanis gets to them first. We get a bit of trash-talking in:
One mage causes a bit of a stir by jumping into the midst of the half of our party without drain protection, and activates an Improved Invisibility contingency.
A mage goes down:
Our attacks, however, are not so easy to resist. Before long ...
There's another big chunk of quest experience after that, which brings Rasaad to level 30. He takes Smite.
Outside the vampire lair, the rest of the area is different from its previous iteration. This includes some unique monsters.
Once the area is clear, we head back into the vampires' section and out into fresh air. It's time to rest, and that means a trip to Cromwell. The Equalizer is ours now. And that leads to the final SoA love talk with Rasaad:
Leaving Cromwell's shop, a messenger arrives.
We make sure to take down the Roenall soldiers before their lord, but it isn't quite a flawless victory. One de'Arnise guard falls to their attacks.
We have one more substantial character quest left: Wilson's mod. So then, we head over to the Wild Forest and pick up our ursine friend. We have to get through his talks, which means some real-time waits. No problem; I can do other things while the game runs (paused) in the background. This comes with a few other talks as well:
After a while, we come to the interesting part.
We talk to Wilson's brother Wilbert, help out a ranger by picking up a book (the mayor doesn't mind), and then head off to face the giant beetle.
Wilbert rewards us with a token to boost Wilson's strength, and the beetle's shell can be converted into a set of bracers - 15% physical resistance and +1/2 APR. Those are fantastic, endgame-quality gear, combining two very rare and useful modifiers.
Wilson's second quest involves corrupted ducklings - but first, we need to get through more friendship talks. And the next one can be tricky to trigger; it requires the protagonist to be injured.
Anyway, we get through that and start hunting the ducklings down.
We need to fight four groups of them, and four can be found in Athkatla: the lower tombs (shown above), the sewers under the slums, the sewers under the temple district, and the lower reaches. After the fourth group ...
For our reward, we get a cursed amulet that boosts lore, and Wilson gets a new ability. Nothing we care about. There's one final talk with Wilson:
We follow up with a smaller character quest - finishing out Edwin's bit.
I choose to spend the two-day timer forging (Wave, Silver Sword). We're still in Cromwell's shop when Degardan returns.
We have one last character quest to finish. Anomen rejoins us for his trial.
Korgan rejoins the party; since I avoided his leaving dialogue, he doesn't need to be bribed. He gets the Beetle-Shell Bracers, and we're off for some unfinished business with a dragon.
Attempting to rest in the Windspear Hills gets us interrupted by orcs:
Then the second attempt gets interrupted by more orcs. We're picking up so much junk from this.
The third try is the charm. Now that we're properly rested, we enter the dungeon.
There are some respawned monsters on the way down; several groups of goblinoids, undead ...
Finally, we reach Firkraag. I boost Magpie and Rasaad by 50% fire resistance each; a scroll and the innate fireshield. With that, every member of the party is at or above 50% fire resistance.
Near death, he puts up another stoneskin ... but his hit points are so low that it doesn't matter.
Firkraag didn't use his breath weapon in this fight; he only used melee attacks, buffs, and a wing buffet.
After selling the junk we picked up in Trademeet - and taking a couple more trips for the stuff we stashed because there was too much - we're off to explore those small areas that opened up at the beginning of chapter 6. First, the forest of Tethir.
Random monsters abound, and soon we face a scary fight ...
The wyvern cult has a mage that casts Mantle, but we have enough +4 weapons to just ignore that.
Sadly, that mage doesn't drop a Wyvern Call scroll.
We've spoken to Coran, so we head over to help him out - wolfweres.
More random monsters come, and Magpie reaches thief level 22. She now has 100 or more in every thief skill even before any equipment boosts. For her ability, she takes Power Attack.
Finally, we come to a cave. It's populated by kuo-toa, and more spawn in behind us.
The cave also has a notable piece of loot - the Mana Bow. When Magpie wants to shoot her allies with a dispelling arrow, that's what she'll use.
Small Teeth Pass is the least interesting overworld area in the game. We kill some random monsters (orcs, wolfweres, ankhegs) and move on.
That brings us to the North Forest. This area, at least, has some challenge to its monsters. We start with some yuan-ti:
An efreet and a Dao follow.
After some random trolls and a greater wyvern, we face a hostile party.
Now it's my turn. Keldorn uses True Sight ...
The mage is revealed and disrupted with elemental damage, while the thief goes invisible again. It's really annoying how that goes, and late-game enemy thieves can have a lot of potions.
We gained enough experience for more levels in this last battle. Korgan goes up to level 29 and takes Smite. Haer'Dalis goes up to level 33 and takes his seventh Spike Trap.
There's one last encounter I want to face here; the vampires that spawn at night. After a rest, it's hour 20 and we wander over ...
Now that we're back in Athkatla, what's next? The Twisted Rune. They're the last major optional challenge of SoA, a cabal of mostly powerful spellcasters hiding in a lair accessible from the bridge district.
We use a shoplifted Rogue Stone to open the door and enter. Lay a couple spike traps in the vestibule and summon Keldorn's deva...
At this point, I realize that the deva can cast Remove Curse, three times. Until now, I've been treating curse removal as a limited resource; something I can only get from temples and a small number of arcane scrolls. Going forward, this means I can clear out curses basically any time I want.
Oh well. We're here for a fight, not to second-guess past decisions. Magpie steps forward to provoke Shangalar, who teleports over to the party...
Now, the rest of the Twisted Rune show up ... and I had a third trap that I somehow forgot about. The elder orb Vaxall takes 79 damage from it. Vaxall puts up an Improved Mantle, but Korgan can just attack right over it. Also, Keldorn throws out a dispel, aiming for Layene but hoping to catch Vaxall as well.
Vaxall dies to Korgan's next attack and Shyressa goes down to an Azuredge throw, leaving only two of the original foes.
Layene re-buffs with Improved Alacrity into Mantle. That's just not good enough.
The fight's experience also brings Keldorn to level 25; he takes Critical Strike.
Now, it's time for a few (limited) wishes. We wished for a powerful magic item (+2 full plate) long ago; now there are three more. Haer'Dalis has enough wisdom for all of them.
First, to be rich. We get a Black Opal, a Horn Coral Gem, an Emerald, and 2000 gold.
Second, for adventure. We get a note.
Third, for experience.
Korgan took one hit for 27 damage. Other than that, nothing. 75K experience earned.
Next, we make use of that note for a very silly quest.
The troll shaman Grae threatens to destroy us with magic - yeah, right. A little beating gets us the gong's location.
We drop our 50 and 100 charge wands of frost outside the ogre's tower, going in with only a six-charge wand. And then, we make the trade.
Since we're almost ready to go to Suldanesselar, I go on a selling spree - all that accumulated magical and expensive gear, to Ribald. By the time I'm done, we have about 750K gold in reserve, and have bought a few more things. From Deidre: Senate Amulet, Harp of Pandemonium, Vhailor's Helm, Sword of Balduran bought. We already had the Mercykiller Ring, and the other five items are useless to us. Rasaad off-hands the sword and puts on the 10% MR amulet; that gets him to 98% MR, or 103% in combat. From Joluv, the Sling of Everard, adding to the Defender of Easthaven and Scarlet Ninja-To we already have. From Ribald, Warblade +4, the Helm of Brilliance, the AC 3 bracers, the Staff of Rhynn, the Fortress Shield, and the two Protection from Magic scrolls. Basically, everything we might use is ours.
One more combat excursion - we return to Watcher's Keep, ready to face the Chromatic Demon. I shuffle some equipment around and drink potions to make the whole party lightning immune, equip some wands, and wait for slime form.
That also allows us to go forward. We meet Yakman on the next floor, and sadly he will remain un-healed. There are no items that cast the spell he needs. Wait for regeneration, then head east.
In that dead magic room, it's three cornugons fighting a balor. We join in to kill them. A dead magic zone is not a problem for us at all.
And then, Keldorn claims the prize we came here for.
We follow this up with one last trip to Athkatla. I sell/steal some wands to recharge them, sell/buy some other items that I don't want flagged stolen, buy 200 scrolls of Freedom, and pick up the ammo we haven't sold yet.
During the travel for this, an ambush comes up:
Incidentally, we could have bought a lot more scrolls of Freedom and scribe/erased our way to maximum level. I chose not to; those extra levels really wouldn't add anything notable to this party, and we'll get enough experience in ToB anyway.
And with that, we're done with chapter 6. One last check-in at the keep, and we head out to return the Lanthorn to the elves.
Entering Suldanesselar brings a massive infusion of experience, but we're not at the right point for that to translate into levels for anybody. Instead, we just get straight to the fighting.
The first encounter of note is a pack of golems:
The next platform brings another golem pack, and again we slay the clay golems before they can curse us.
Turning south to a side platform, we help some elves out against a pair of trolls:
A trio of skeleton warriors comes next - simple melee brutes.
With that, we come to the first house we can enter - the priest's house.
On the next platform, we face the level 20 drow mage Raamilat.
Raamilat's first offensive action is a triple-Lower Resist sequencer on Rasaad. In response, since he can't rely on MR while that debuff is active, I switch Rasaad's amulet from Kaligun's to Spell Warding.
The nearby house brings more combat, against a rakshasa trio.
Adsaan puts up a PfMW, so Keldorn dispels it. That takes out Demin's buffs as well, but that's a fair trade.
On the next platform, a fight is in progress - golems are crushing elves.
We claim the Stone Harp from that house, and continue to the next platform. Actually, we leave and then return, at which point some elves and rakshasas start fighting there.
We kill the vulnerable trio quickly, but the last one survives long enough to kill the elves and hit Korgan with a double-Magic Missile sequencer. Then its protection expires.
Mazzy reaches level 29 at this point, and takes her fourth Greater Whirlwind.
Over at the temple, we face a large group of rakshasas. Keldorn uses his third dispel of the day to clear the PfMW they all used.
We beat up on the lesser rakshasas, and the protection on the maharajas eventually expires. So they cast a third PfMW each.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 34, and takes an exploding trap. It's not great, but it is at least an area of effect. And he doesn't need more spike traps.
In the House of the Horn, we face more golems - one clay and two stone.
We follow the eastern path around the back to the palace and meet the balor there:
And now, the biggest fight of the area. It's time to face the black dragon Nizidramanii'yt. We open with a dispelling arrow..
After a lot of waiting to regenerate, the party heads into the temple. Suneer gets hit hard even before he can say his lines:
Suneer goes invisible and puts up conventional defenses, but he's already taken 46 damage. With 46 total HP ... I use a wand Cloudkill to finish the job. 3 on the first tick, 9 on the second.
Activating the avatar brings level 30 for Korgan and level 32 for Rasaad. Korgan takes shortbow proficiency and Deathblow, while Rasaad takes Deathblow and doesn't have any proficencies left to take.
After a stop at Reirra's shop to sell off a big pile of ammo, we move forward watching the spirits disintegrate everything in sight. Somehow, we even manage to get a kill of our own.
The palace is open, and we have the keys. Magpie speaks to her companions at the point of no return, and all agree to follow her. The Tree of Life awaits, and with it our fateful confrontation with Irenicus.
On the tree, there are a few parasites and elementals to deal with. They're nothing. Irenicus waits in a bubble, and we take advantage...
And with that, we are dragged down into hell.
I lay some traps - not for the final boss himself, but for his demons. Time will tell if this works. That includes a Time Trap, which might be eaten by the cutscene - but if that happens, the other six will still go off.
We start with Pride. Taking the good path, there's no fight and we just get the tear.
Fear comes second. We refuse the cloak - song protects us - and go after the beholders.
Keldorn levels up to 26 here, taking Smite. We then claim the fear reward immediately - Magpie is permanently immune to normal and +1 weapons.
Selfishness is third, and I have a dirty trick for this one. Remove her magic resistance gear and hit her with a Maze (I had three scrolls available). Then open the good doors.
Greed comes next. We take the good path, but not at the first opportunity...
Because of game mechanics, the only way to get it back after you hand it over is to kill the genie - which you don't have long to do. You have to burn through 113 HP at -8 AC - no problem with the full party of warriors here.
Magpie claims the tear reward immediately here; +2 saves.
Finally, Wrath.
Finally, I finish off the tears. I skip Wrath's Wis/Cha bonus and instead double up on the Selfishness MR. This is very easy to do; just drop the relevant tear from your inventory so the script can't take it after an activation.
And then, Irenicus comes out.
Trash-talking ensues.
The demons come out, the traps go off.
The first glabrezu falls quickly and we move on to the second, hitting Irenicus with a dispel while we're at it. He immediately re-ups some of his protections with a contingency, and follows with Improved Alacrity into Dark Planetar.
Against a fallen planetar ... the vorpal strikes are no big deal. It's a save vs death at -2, and we always make that. We don't care about the dispel that comes with it either. The spells are more trouble, though - especially Fire Storm, as seen in this picture.
So, of course, we send the party to kill the planetar before it can cause more trouble. Irenicus follows up with Dragon Breath ...
We leave the firestorm, and dispel Irenicus again.