Now that we're done with the SoA campaign, it's a good time to take a bit of a break and look back. Story posts will resume Monday.
I took a snapshot of the party's kill stats here:
Magpie killed 700 foes for a total of 2319077 XP. Her strongest kill was a Balor for 46K in the final battle with Irenicus, eclipsing the earlier shadow dragon's 45K.
Korgan killed 623 foes for a total of 2251378 XP. His strongest kill was a Balor for 26K in the Underdark.
Rasaad killed 582 foes for a total of 2516490 XP. His strongest kill was Bodhi for 91K.
Haer'Dalis killed 42 foes for a total of 296686 XP. His strongest kill was Shangalar of the Twisted Rune for 50K.
Keldorn killed 232 foes for 823050 XP. His strongest kill was the demilich Kangaxx for 55K.
Mazzy killed 384 foes for 1546389 XP. Her strongest kill was the red dragon Firkraag for 64K.
So - fairly balanced. Keldorn lags well behind in kills, but his dispelling powers were absolutely crucial. And Haer'Dalis hardly got any kills at all, but that just wasn't his job.
We've come a long way from humble beginnings. Back in Irenicus' dungeon, we chose not to fight an ogre mage because it was too tough. By the end, we were casually wrecking mages capable of casting 9th level spells. In fact ... here's where I reloaded when things went wrong:
Aataqah's ogre mage - I avoided the fight the second time.
Kalah multiple times - I used a lucky run but also figured out a reliable item-based method.
Sewer bandits - I adjusted wand targeting so my bard didn't just stand there doing nothing.
Planar Prison twice - Yuan-ti mages got me, and I eventually scaled back my ambitions there. Mostly, I just didn't have the tools to simultaneously take on multiple mid-level mages at that point.
TorGal - Yuan-ti mages again. The second time around, I got them with cloudkills.
Watcher's Keep level 2 - A fire giant got me because I engaged it in melee without healing from the previous battle. Fix that blunder, and it was fine.
Wild Forest - I blundered into a repeating trap and got Neera killed. Merely playing cautiously did the trick the second time, but I could have just popped over to Watcher's Keep and raised her.
Beholder hive - I miscalculated, and went in with a buff that inspired a Remove Magic. I could have cleared the area anyway with the rest of my warriors, but reloaded and did it right.
Ust Natha's forces - I always expected this to be a non-canon diversion, but I had to try. Multiple times. And then I reloaded and just got out.
Thaxll'ssillyia - I woke the dragon unexpectedly with a summon, and reloaded to do things in a way that didn't catch Magpie with her aura down. We almost certainly would have won anyway.
The last time I actually needed to reload was against TorGal. Seven parts in out of 33 in the campaign. After that, the party really hit their stride. Mages couldn't do anything dangerous because we kept disrupting them. Illithids couldn't disable us because we always saved. Beholders couldn't do anything at all when we prepared fully and couldn't instantly kill us even when we didn't prepare at all. Even the fearsome demilich went down like a chump without casting anything.
Looking forward, I expect it to get harder from here. The party has already gained pretty much all they're going to get from levels, so only equipment will improve. Then again, there's a lot of good equipment in ToB ...
Part 54: Black Ravers, a Hoard, and an Angle's Voice
After what is simultaneously a long time and no time at all, the party arrives in Tethyr, to consult with some talking stone heads. We take the opportunity to shuffle some gear around; Keldorn gets the Beetle-Shell Bracers to maximize the effectiveness of Blackrazor haste.
Before we actually do the talking, we set some traps. I'm not aiming for Illasera herself, but taking some of the Black Reavers out early will greatly simplify the fight.
Talk to the heads. Wait.
After a bit, Illasera arrives.
A brief conversation, and the enemy goes hostile. Traps activate ... not quite what I was hoping for, but at least the mage is out.
The cleric didn't protect with a physical mirror, so we finish them off with an arrow. Then target Illasera so she can't spam her ridiculously damaging arrows. Before long, she retreats by going ethereal, and we can afford to go after the fighters.
Then the boss returns. We may have her surrounded, but she can still dish out massive damage.
Yeah, that's a potion for Keldorn. On the flip side, Illasera's insistence on using ranged attacks makes it easy to land big hits on her in melee. Even with her Hardiness, she doesn't last long.
On victory, we are brought to a new place - a pocket plane formed of Magpie's Bhaal essence.
Sarevok gets the help he was looking for, but there's no room for him in this party. He's seriously underleveled for our party's state, too.
Cespenar forges lots of stuff for us, including three improved cloaks of protection. And then, it's on to the first challenge.
The early stages of the horde are quite easy, and once Blackrazor gets going Keldorn is a killing machine.
The enemies escalate, and soon we face drow.
And then, a trio of bosses.
Sarevok, Irenicus, and Bodhi. Sarevok's just a fighter here, so we don't have to worry much about him. Bodhi is a massive threat, and we go for drain protection to take her out ASAP. And of course, Irenicus is a mage.
No easy dispel, then. Keldorn can at least reveal him with true sight, and I can hit him with normal weapons. That's Mazzy casting her cloak Improved Haste, by the way - 8 APR normal arrows with elemental damage attached are just what I need for Irenicus.
Unfortunately for us, Irenicus has -5 casting time. We can't stop his first spell.
Comet and Dragon Breath cast, targeting Magpie. At least that's running out his PfMW as well.
The cloud there is a self-targeted Incendiary Cloud, which means it ignores magic resistance. I didn't realize this immediately, so Rasaad tries to fight in it. The stopped time also ends our enhanced bard song protection, and Haer'Dalis takes substantial damage from Bodhi's cloud of bats.
I move the fire resistance rings over to protect Magpie before the spells land ... successful.
Also, that's Sarevok eliminated. Rasaad's melee attacks do the trick.
The half of our party attacking Irenicus is first to succeed.
No more stoneskin, and that means his hit points evaporate quickly. This is also where I notice that the cloud is hurting Rasaad despite his over 100% MR.
The end comes swiftly after that. First Irenicus, then Bodhi.
Whew. Magpie reaches thief level 23; 5 more points of Pick Pockets (for the higher difficulty of ToB merchants) and 20 points of stealth. For her high-level ability, she takes Smite.
And now, Saradush. We arrive, and Melissan is a jerk who immediately forces a fight.
Oh, the guards would have fought us anyway, but it's the principle of the thing. Can we have at least the opportunity to talk?
The guards here have plenty of levels, but rather uneven equipment quality.
The humans don't have magical weapons. Their Whirlwind Attacks are completely wasted against our song. Not that it mattered for the first one; he died before he could attack even once. The orcs at least have +2 halberds, so they matter.
Anyway, we finish this bunch, and Melissan exposits.
We may not be inclined to follow her, but we don't have much choice about it. We have to deal with the paranoid Gromnir before we can do anything about the siege.
A nearby child mourns his fallen father, so we help him out.
Reputation 19. And Korgan doesn't have a problem with it now. We'll be at the maximum 20 soon, and stay there for most of ToB.
To the southwest, we run into a "Cold Mistress":
She puts up a Mantle. The Staff of the Magi takes it down. Victory comes quickly after that.
At this point, a random mage like that just isn't a threat.
We scare off some brawlers and soldiers, then find sanctuary for some elves - that's reputation 20. These little errands also bring Haer'Dalis up to level 35, and he takes Avoid Death. Then, we enter the tavern.
Those greasy grabby gits at least have good gear. Had, I should say. It's ours now. And then we can "shop" with the bartender - +4 bullets, +3 arrows, Yamato +4, the fourth boots of speed. And we're not paying.
I try Aura of Command from the upgraded Helm of the Rock on Viekang ... no effect. It's not one of the fear spells he recognizes.
I suppose we'll just have to find a mage scroll for that.
We help out Lazarus and warn Hectan:
That opens up another new shop to loot. We take the fifth boots of speed, a sixth scroll case, a 2000-item bag of holding, a neutral archmage robe, a second potion case, a second ring of fire resistance, and a scroll of Spook.
That did the trick.
The guard barracks comes next.
It's an autopilot fight. There are a lot of them, but none of them have any magical weapons. So then, I just fight without issuing any orders.
OK, we'd pick up a few more potions if we focused down individuals. I didn't feel like it.
We will take on the real dangers of Saradush next time.
We've picked up a key, and we use it to enter the vampire-infested prison.
As the only member of the party with permanent level drain immunity, Keldorn takes point. Magpie puts the mace of disruption in her off hand to add to that.
Killing a few more lesser vampires brings Mazzy to level 30; she masters two-weapon style and takes Deathblow. Then we come to a grave; we kept the extra holy water from chapter 6, so we can sanctify it immediately.
And for that, the useless bronze ioun stone is ours.
There's one door in here that resists Magpie's 110 lockpick skill, and even the 135 for adding the ring of lockpicks. I'm not carrying any master thievery potions, so I use a mind focusing potion instead to reach 150...
Success. And beyond that door, we face the vampire leader Phlydian.
She's a bit annoying to fight, as Magpie and Keldorn have trouble with both getting into things.
Still, no serious harm done. We have plenty of regeneration. I reroll an invalid item for 29 gold, and continue to the basement.
In there, the staff of the magi lets Magpie complete the stealth mission of disarming the traps...
... but then I just go in normally to fight the guards.
The last guard is a mage that can cast 9th level spells. She uses a PfMW defense, so Keldorn dispels her.
A dispelled mage just doesn't last against us. Korgan reaches level 31, taking Greater Deathblow. After releasing the prisoners, we continue forward to the "elite" orcs and orogs. What's elite about them? They have +1 weapons.
We loot the containers, picking up the scabbard to upgrade Foebane. One trap eludes Magpie's detection, and drains her level. After a quick trip to the pocket plane for that upgrade, I head down to the sewer ... and notice the drain. Haer'Dalis spends a scroll to restore her.
Down in the sewer, devil shades await. Time for that mace of disruption again.
This bit calls for a division of labor, actually. The drain-immune half of the party fights the shades, while Mazzy and Rasaad take on the sapper on the other side. Soon, the undead are eliminated - but more conventional forces come from the sapper's side.
Oh, and a bunch of gibberlings spawned into the chamber we entered from. That's where Rasaad and Mazzy went.
We clear out those reinforcements, and the moment of calm brings level 33 for Rasaad. He takes Greater Deathblow.
Over in the west, we find the first mage among the invaders.
He's only protected by Mantle, so I just reveal him with True Sight and send in attackers with +4 or +5 weapons.
Despite all the elemental damage on those weapons, the mage somehow gets off a Greater Malison. Oh well. At least it wasn't anything dangerous.
The central chamber holds a large group of sappers introduced by a cutscene:
As usual, they inflict some damage. Just not much. And the shadows streaming in don't include any devil shades.
There's another mage in the east. I leave out the True Sight this time, using Magpie's thief skills instead.
Not a very scary spell trigger there. We'll take a little damage from the Chain Lightning, but the Chaos won't do anything at all.
The mage reveals himself to try to cast something ...
No. And then, he's dead. With the area clear, we head up into Gromnir's headquarters.
The first floor holds a party, including an Il-Khan Battle Mage we'll have to pay attention to.
The mage opens with a 2x Mordenkainen's Sword and Mass Invisibility trigger, along with a PfMW. Dispel that.
Immediately after that, we gang up on the mage.
And now we can take care of the warriors. Once they're out of the way, I take the party back down to wait out the magical swords. They follow down the stairs, but they can't open doors we close behind us.
That just leaves Gromnir himself. Head up ...
The cutscene breaks. I have no choice but to force quit.
Fortunately, I made a save right there. This time around, Keldorn activates True Sight before going up.
Both mages have PfMW up. Neither has abjuration immunity. That calls for an immediate dispel.
While the dispel works, the follow-up attacks aren't fast enough to stop Karun's Time Stop.
An Improved Invisibility/Stoneskin/Minor Spell Deflection sequencer. Improved Alacrity. Summon Dark Planetar. Dragon Breath. We attack the planetar and try to dodge the Dragon Breath, but both Magpie and Rasaad are still hurt.
And ... I recall an old option for disrupting mages. We haven't used it in a while, but there are two mages in this battle that it might help with. Time for a Cloudkill or two.
That's one spell disrupted, but we're pretty well pinned down by the warriors. And then, the planetar starts throwing fire storms around.
The end is inevitable from there. Keldorn goes down, and Magpie follows.
Time to reload.
All right, take two. This time, I'm using that Cloudkill at the first opportunity. With so many dangerous warriors on the field, I need the mages disrupted for minimal effort.
It still doesn't prevent Karun from getting his Time Stop off. We have a dark planetar to deal with again.
Haer'Dalis adds more poisonous clouds, as Karun tries to escape their influence. And all the warriors use Hardiness.
This time, the planetar goes down without using any fire storms.
Gromnir uses Whirlwind. He's a very dangerous attacker ... but he decides he wants to go after Haer'Dalis, so the bard just runs around playing bait.
And then the Cloudkills pay off.
That's one mage out of the way. And Karun is near death. We haven't attacked either one physically even once.
Magpie uses Critical Strike on the rogue:
We're getting close now. And then Karun goes down.
Three Cloudkill charges. Two mages destroyed, and they barely did anything offensive.
With just Gromnir and a soldier left, I have Keldorn and Korgan whirl. I switch Korgan's weapons, but this turns out not to matter; Gromnir has 25% innate physical resistance and Hardiness, but he doesn't wear Roranach's Horn.
Of course, the enemy whirled too. He hits hard enough that Keldorn is forced to retreat. Haer'Dalis takes the opportunity to eliminate the magical swords.
Finally, we finish the job.
It would have been easier if our Hardiness had lasted, but the upgraded Berena Elkan inflicts not only spell failure but also Breach with every hit.
Melissan comes in for a chat, and we can now leave Saradush. Things have opened up for us.
Now that we can leave ... we don't. First, we have some intrigue to deal with. Also, Magpie summons a familiar for 24 more HP. Rest, then on to investigate a traitor.
The enemy fighters use Power Attack ... and die without getting a single attack in. They have decent weapons, but they just die too fast. Kiser is equally ineffective.
Since there are thieves around, I use a True Sight ...
He won't be around much longer.
The enemy mage is back out of sight; once we approach, the initial chain contingency goes off. It includes a djinn summon, which casts a Stinking Cloud ...
Well, then. I'd like to take advantage of that.
My initial attacks run into PfMW, and the mage gets up to cast a Time Stop. Also, the rest of her prebuffs trigger.
She does come toward the party and into visibility long enough to cast a spell - but it's just a Greater Malison. Then the Time Stop ends, and whatever she was casting next is disrupted.
The rest is predictable. Keldorn reaches level 27 when we close the quest, taking halberd proficiency and Deathblow.
I steal some high-level scrolls for potential later use (that never materializes) and hit the road. That takes the party right into elements of Yaga-Shura's army.
This lot doesn't have a single magical weapon, so it's a trivial fight.
Once they're dealt with, we gain access to a new merchant - Karthis. He provides some scrolls, a potion case, a magic fish, and a rod of resurrection. We even pay for that last one.
The area doesn't just have soldiers, though. There are a few fire giants here, too.
They can hit hard, but they're not too bad if we gang up on them. And since they don't come in large numbers here, that's always an option. The second giant in this pair activates a greater whirlwind when we engage - and doesn't get a single attack in.
A mage follows, and this one has PfMW up. All right, I can just get out the normal weapons.
With three attackers, the stoneskin doesn't last. And this mage can't throw 9th level spells at us.
That leaves us to beat on the normal soldiers; only the officers can hurt us back ... wait, there's another pair of fire giants. That requires actual attention.
Okay. The giants are dealt with. Back to killing soldiers.
There are a couple clerics further north; without any soldiers to distract us, they die before they can cast anything. And that's the map. Nothing here required more than simple attacks.
We leave the map, traveling to the creepy temple in the forest. But on the way, followers of Shar interrupt us.
That assassin is definitely invisible, so Keldorn activates True Seeing. The mage used Mantle, so Korgan goes after him. And the rest of the party gangs up on the Crusader.
Scratch that - we're not going after the mage just yet.
The assassin is revealed, and then re-ups invisibility; True Sight doesn't stop him from using his stack of four invisibility potions. And as a level 21 assassin, we really don't want him landing that backstab.
Then the mage casts a Lightning Bolt ... targeting Haer'Dalis, who has the Harper Pin on.
Also, he dodged it, and the rest of our party wasn't anywhere near the bolt's path. That spell really never had a chance.
Then Magpie's illusion detection goes off, and the assassin is visible with no way to hide again so soon. Magpie and Keldorn take advantage.
The mage follows soon after, and we pick up the loot. The way is open to Deepstone and Rasaad's ToB quest.
Oh, and there was a monk in this ambush too. He was so little of a threat that I never mentioned him in my log. Only a taunt in one of the pictures proves his presence.
Before we go off to the dwarven stronghold, we head to our original traveling destination. Magpie equips the Mace of Disruption in her off hand in preparation.
We target the devil shades first. While they're not the only level-drainers in this battle, they're the only ones that have magical attacks. Also, dispel the Master Wraith's protections.
Before long, those shades are down.
No drain taken, and we can fight the remaining forces more normally. Magpie switches back to her usual off-hand weapon (Crimson Ninja-to) and we go after the Master Wraith.
There are plenty of remaining forces after that, but the mists and shadow fiends all lack magical attacks. It's a trivial fight.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 36 here, taking mace proficiency and Evasion. We wait out Korgan's rage and the winded period, then step forward for the skeletons.
Draw them out piecemeal. The warriors and assassin come first, and Keldorn uses True Sight. It doesn't immediately reveal the assassin, and I start wondering if non-detection is in play ... no, it must have just been behind something.
That's the mage at the door, and I think an aerial servant in the party's face.
The assassin is revealed and becomes the party's main target, while Keldorn charges with double-haste for the mage. A dispel breaks its defenses, and he attacks.
No more assassin. Before Keldorn can finish the job, the mage goes for a defensive spell trigger... PfMW, but no new stoneskin. Keldorn just switches to nonmagical swords.
No more mage. The rest of the party finishes off their warriors immediately after, and we reunite for the cleric.
This cleric can do some nasty things ... but if it's alone, it doesn't stand a chance. It didn't get a single spell off aside from its prebuffs.
We chat with Nyalee, and that's it for the first trip here. Now, it's time to divert from the main plot for some character quests.
Since Rasaad is in the party already, his ToB quest comes first. We picked up the map to Deepstone last time, and now we travel there. A dwarf by the name of Lemp Coldhearth greets us.
Our mission is clear. We need to get in to the fortress, and we have several leads now.
After leaving the camp, another dwarf warns us of trouble, and we fight our first Sharrans.
That first guard, Ovidiu, has arrows of detonation. We make sure to kill him quickly; he only manages to fire one of them off. Haer'Dalis takes 9 damage from that auto-hit explosion.
The other guards are armed conventionally with +1 arrows. They actually deal more damage.
Still, we sweep through them easily. The way is clear to the lumber camp, and we've picked up a key to the front gates as well.
Over at the lumber camp, the monk overseer is quick to die.
A 67-point critical hit. The inability of monks to wear helmets can really hurt them.
Among the other foes present, only the mercenaries and the priest matter. The regular overseers are armed with nonmagical clubs, making them no threar.
Once the enemies are dealt with, Cuddy offers an alternate plan to get in - sneak by on a raft. We'll take it.
This brings us directly down into the mine, where we face some Dark Moon monks.
Taking them down brings fighter level 20 form Magpie, and Assassination. The 6 million XP point is also the final improvement to the Slayer transformation, not that we'll use that.
We clear out a few more Sharrans, and Mazzy reaches level 31:
Her new HLA is Greater Deathblow, another ability that won't see much use.
Also, note all the healing potions that enemy dropped? We're picking up a ton here, and we haven't used any.
We could continue toward Alorgoth, but we head back up into the stronghold instead. There are more Sharrans to fight up here, after all.
The main room brings a crowd. They have a wizard slayer, Torcadahl.
We have no wizards. That spell failure effect really doesn't matter to us.
This fight is tough enough, mostly from the sheer number of enemies, that two of our warriors drop below half health.
It's still not bad enough to break out the superior healing potions.
An assassin gets involved - keep up that illusion detection.
Wait, no. There are two assassins.
They still aren't very effective, and it's not a crowd of enemies any more. The battle comes to an end, and we can claim some new levels. Rasaad reaches level 34 and Korgan reaches level 32, each taking additional greater whirlwinds.
Actually, that latter level comes after a side room.
He may have some pretty strong equipment, but he can't stand up to five epic warriors at once. Fighting alone was not a good plan.
The next challenge here is Alorgoth's room - not to defeat the enemies, but to get the items before they burn.
First, the door is guarded by a fighter and a fighter/mage. The fighter/mage goes for PfMW, so I have Keldorn and Mazzy use normal ammo. Keldorn adds a Whirlwind to that.
... Wait, she forgot to put up Stoneskin? That's a bad move. It gets her killed before the round is even over.
Kind of a waste of a Whirlwind, but I don't mind. The plain fighter, of course, doesn't last long either.
We beat the five-round timer to get inside the room, and that means we can talk to Shani. With our high charisma, she just hands over the items.
Then we kill her. PfMW again, normal weapons. Sure, we could kill her faster with Keldorn's dispel, but we just don't need it. There's a contingent invisibility in there, and Magpie removes the illusion. Another easy mage kill.
There are a few more bits to deal with on this floor - a priest and some assassins.
The leader Danys uses Assassination after backstabbbing Rasaad ... wait, that was a 4x backstab. What's she doing with such a low multiplier? Oh, she's a shadowdancer.
She dies before she can cash in that backstab. A revealed thief is a dead thief.
After some regeneration, it's back out to the surface. If we clear the whole mine, the door guards go away - and I'd like the rewards for killing them.
Having never faced this bunch before, that was a surprise. Tallus is no threat with weapons, but his breath is lethal. In retrospect, I should have opened with a backstab on him.
Anyway, we have other foes to worry about - like the high-level mage at the door.
He's protected with illusions and PfMW, so I have Magpie deal with the illusions and then let Keldorn and Mazzy use their ranged attacks.
Then Tallus uses the grog again.
With Haer'Dalis unconscious and near death, I use a rod of resurrection charge on him. It's not fast enough to get in before the Time Stop ...
... but it does still heal him before any enemies can kill him with opportunistic attacks.
Also, that Time Stop should have run out the sorcerer's PfMW. Keldorn switches to kuo-toa bolts. Once we clear out most of the warriors, Magpie joins him in attacking at range.
That soon wears down the sorcerer's stoneskin, with predictable results.
Only a few flying swords remain; we head back inside, and they don't follow.
Now, for the last part of the mine. Across a bridge, we find a group of Sharrans overseeing mining efforts.
The mage protects herself with magical weapons, and this time I go for a dispel in the interest of speed.
The rest of the battle is pretty routine; the mage falls quickly, and the warriors aren't a match for us.
After the battle, we convince the surviving dwarves to fall back. We'll take on the remaining foes on our own.
There's a large group in the last room here, and it's a serious fight. I go for ranged attacks against the spellcasters, and Confusion for the warriors.
And ... oh. The warriors were all berserkers. So much for that crowd control. At least we confused the spellcasters?
The warriors here aren't quite strong enough for HLAs, but they are well beyond Deathblow levels. I go for whirlwind instead - though, in retrospect, Hardiness was what I really needed. Both Magpie and Korgan are badly injured, so I use a rod of resurrection charge.
Not on Korgan, though. He can wait, and drink potions.
With nearly all of the guards dead, some Shadow Creatures spawn in. They're level 11, so I have Mazzy use Greater Deathblow ... no. They're immune to "slay" effects as part of their general undead immunities.
All right, set up some level drain protection and engage them in melee. They're not too hard to just beat down. Immune to elements, but only 30% physical resistance.
With that, we enter the shadow plane. More of these shadow creatures await, and Mapgie takes the off-hand mace of disruption.
At least one draining hit is averted by our precautions:
There's a dragon up next, so I prepare. Magpie, Korgan, and Mazzy use the improved cloaks of protection to give themselves Improved Haste. After some posturing, the fight is on.
The dragon briefly goes invisible and adds some defenses, but she only lasts moments against our onslaught. Actually, looking it up ... she doesn't get the bonus dragon HP, or the SCS improvements in general. With only 160 HP, she just can't hold up.
We beat on the immortal Alorgoth for a bit, then head to the exit. Rasaad is stubborn, but we eventually convince him of the need to leave.
Deepstone belongs to the dwarves again, and Rasaad has found a measure of peace.
Now, it's time for Neera's quest. We head back to the North forest, and swap out Korgan for Neera. Neera gets the Staff of the Magi and turns off auto-attacks; she might throw a dagger or use a wand on occasion, but mainly she's just there so the quest can happen.
Anyway, we head out, and Neera immediately gets a message. We're off to the clearing with her.
We set some traps, and then cast the one exception to the no-spells rule. Neera casts NRD into Glitterdust, targeting an empty area.
Spell cast successfully, for no effect.
We rest, and the action begins. The traps don't do quite what I wanted; three knights die, but none of the mages are affected.
In retrospect, I would have been much better off with normal AoE snares. The triggering was slightly delayed, so they would have caught multiple targets.
The cutscene continues with Neera attempting to cast a spell and failing:
Hey - you know the rules. No spells!
Vicross taunts us, and that opens up a perfect retort.
We don't need wild magic for this. We don't need any magic for this.
Well, OK, wands help. I go for a triple Cloudkill to deal with the enemy mages. Keldorn and Mazzy aren't poison-immune, so they switch to ranged weaponry.
That's PfMW and abjuration immunity on the strongest mage. No problem. We're not trying to hit him with weapons.
Unfortunately, that mage also opened with a chain contingency including a self-targeted Incendiary Cloud. Rasaad gets burned despite his magic resistance.
I pull him back, leaving only the cloak-protected Magpie in that cloud. The fire also leads to one wizard's early death - he didn't put up fire protection.
More mages fall, but one escapes the cloud. And I'm pretty sure it's the high-level one.
Magpie adds a fourth Cloudkill. He doesn't have anywhere left to run.
Soon, the clouds of fire and poison eliminate the fighters as well, and only the one mage remains. He's an invoker focused on damage, so Magpie just duels him and relies on the protection of the cloak of mirroring.
The fight drags out. The mage keeps putting up defenses, and eventually the clouds disperse. That allows the party to join in, and Keldorn strikes the final blow with a non-magical bolt.
Well, there was one survivor - Vicross, who didn't get involved in the fight at all. Cutscenes play ...
... and we are dragged off to Thay.
With multiple yuan-ti mages, I throw in another Cloudkill. The regular snakes are irrelevant, but the yuan-ti elites have +3 weapons.
That's one of the dangerous enemies down already. Knowing our targets means we can focus them down quickly.
Then our "ally" Voghiln casts a Lightning Bolt. It hits Neera for more than half of her hit points, then kills her on the rebound.
Oh, all right. I hit her with the rod of resurrection immediately.
After a bit more fighting to thin out the melee foes, the party charges into the poison cloud to take out the mages quickly.
Success. There's only one dangerous enemy left, and we mop up quickly.
With the battle complete, Magpie levels up. Thief level 24, Greater Whirlwind #4, 25 more points in stealth.
We leave the arena and enter the staging area. Szass Tam has a mission for us, but we can shop first.
The Weapon Merchant sells +1 to +3 weapons of all sorts ... and some special ammo. One stack of ten arrows of detonation. Sell our ten, buy ten stacks, repeat ...
And now we have that option. It's difficult for this party to take advantage of it, since our melee forces would be vulnerable to our own arrows, but it's nice to be able to unleash rapid-fire fireballs when we need to.
Incidentally, arrows of detonation have different stats in BG2EE than in BGEE. They both auto-hit and cause the same explosion, but the BGEE arrows also deal physical damage and the BG2EE arrows don't.
Molzahn of Tymora has priest scrolls and temple services. We buy some of those scrolls, not that we're likely to use them.
Hue Greenleaf has a Helm of Defense and a +4 shield with lightning protection. The Helm of Balduran is finally superseded. We also buy a +3 buckler, though none of the current party wants it.
The Magical Item Merchant offers the unique Cloak of the Lich, another ring of regeneration, some AC belts, and another ring of invisibility. We leave the wands, though - we're already well-supplied.
From Bellowgulp's potion stocks, we pick up some anti-magic potions, including the otherwise unavailable potions of magic blocking.
The Book Merchant sells us a few high level scrolls, in case we ever decide to use them.
And now, on to Vicross' estate. Incidentally, the area has unique battle music - awesome.
For the guards around the edges, stealth and backstabs are the order of the day.
I considered getting out the Staff of Striking for this, but decided regular Celestial Fury stabs were good enough. Shuffling our equipment a bit, it's 68-113 physical damage, a guaranteed kill on the mages.
Of course, after an initial stab, we send in the party to finish the job.
A mage comes next:
Level 37 for Haer'Dalis, and Greater Evasion.
Then the other side:
The dawn movie comes up - huh, I guess this counts as an outside area.
And now, the last of the wizards.
Lots of guards join in, but we've disarmed all of the alarms. It's a pretty routine fight.
Now we loot the containers and head in to face Vicross. Neera stands out of the way and invisible.
We start with a conversation, as usual:
She goes hostile, and puts up some defenses...
Dispel them. The Mass Invisibility especially needs to go, since it's protecting her guards as well as her.
We hit her hard, but not quite hard enough to kill her before her invisibility contingency activates. Time to fight the guards instead. And those elite guards hit hard.
Both Rasaad and Mazzy down to below half health. That calls for immediate healing.
Meanwhile ... Vicross isn't fighting. She's running around trying to find Neera instead. Well, I'll take it. The guards fall, and it's time to hunt a new target.
Vicross tries to get through the same door we did - revealed.
One last gasp at defense with her sequencer - Stoneskin and a fireshield. It's not enough.
She didn't cast anything offensive, despite certainly having time.
The one key piece of loot from this area? It's not anything Vicross had. Instead, it's from one of her elite guards - a rod of reversal. Three charges to start, rechargeable up to ten. We can take down any spell defenses now, and everyone but Rasaad (in our normal party) can use it.
Now, we set a couple of traps and ring the bell.
The traps go off. The first phase is over instantly.
He wishes for healing and spells. Protections go up, and I aim a dispel at him.
And even an epic lich can't last long without his protections up.
We don't get the satisfaction of killing him, but we do get the Wand of Whips he had. There's also a bunch of experience, enough for Keldorn to reach level 28 and take his fourth Greater Whirlwind.
With that, Neera's quest is done. We leave her behind and take back Korgan. Watcher's Keep is next.
Over at the keep, we first pick up the stuff we stashed here in SoA and buy the short sword of Mask. Now, back to the action.
Our stash included lots of strength potions, so I use some on Keldorn and Mazzy. All of our warriors have 19+ strength with the potions active.
We're back in the maze we briefly dipped into earlier, and I choose to deviate from my usual path. I intend to face Ka'rashur first, and that means heading west first from the compass room.
That first room, then, is the wild magic room full of quasits. They get a bit flashy with their wild surges:
Eh, just a nabassu. We crush it easily once it comes in properly. The quasits themselves die easily whenever they become visible.
South next, to the succubus. And that means we get out the drain protection.
Scratch that - she teleported over first thing and we tore her apart. The alu-fiends are very little trouble after that.
A few hits there, but no troublesome effects. Rasaad reaches level 35 for Hardiness #3, and Mazzy reaches level 32 for GWW #5.
Continuing south takes us to Ka'rashur.
Wait ... I thought good characters weren't offered the deal? Looking closer ... there are two alignment checks. If player 1 is lawful good or a paladin, no deal. If the player talked to is lawful good or neutral good, no deal.
The demons are more restrictive - no cleric, paladin, or lawful good player 1, no good or lawful neutral for who they talk to.
You enter the room in standard formation, so you might be able to manipulate who gets talked to a bit. Put someone less good on point, and you might be able to get the deal even if your protagonist doesn't pass the second alignment check.
And no characters interject to object. Keldorn has no problems with this deal with devils.
From there, we head north and west to the dead magic room with assorted devils. Wait our Korgan's winded state, then enter. Dead magic wipes out our strength potions, but otherwise isn't a problem.
There's a trap near the entrance - a resetting Slow trap. We just ignore it. Everyone saves or resists.
This bunch goes down fast to our melee power.
That was the pit fiend. We already got the cornugons. The last two foes don't last.
We disarm the traps and regenerate. Now, for the demons.
Since we've accepted a deal, it's a fight right away.
A fire storm comes down, so I move the party out of the way. Once in that stronger position, we re-engage.
And ... oh, that stings. Tahazzar's allies can heal him.
New plan - kill the yochlol first.
Eventually, the fire storm expires and Tahazzar goes down.
It took quite a few healing potions to get there, but it doesn't take any more after that. The last few foes fall easily.
We pick up the loot and head back to Ka'rashur. Also, regenerate and drink new strength potions.
Oh, you didn't get to leave? We can send you back to Hell.
It's not a hard fight.
The next fight, though ... I save before entering the room. The summoners are brutal.
First, planning. The ice summons don't have magical weapons, so they're irrelevant. The fire summons are real threats, and that means the fire summoners are our highest priority. They have too many hit points for deathblows, but they do have the "summoned" gender ... OK, I have a plan B.
We choose our first target. Dispel defenses, attack.
The fiends are throwing around Remove Magic spells too, so our buff potions won't last. Heal as necessary, but don't bother with anything else.
On to the next target, which also needs a dispel.
That's one. Dispel the next target and keep going.
It looks like we have two of each element left. At least some are still protected by PfMW, so there's another dispel.
I see one fire and one ice left; the fight is chaotic enough that I may have miscounted at some point. Anyway, we go after that fire summoner next. It makes things easier for us by wandering over to some of our party.
And with that, the tide is turned. We just have to clear out the fire elementals to guarantee victory.
That goes well. Soon, victory is assured.
Oh, there's still a summoner - but those ice salamanders don't matter at all. And one glabrezu has no chance against our party.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 38 in this fight, taking a second Exploding Trap.
Now, I'd like to show plan B.
Death Fog. Ten rounds of instant death for all of the summons caught within it, activating once per round. You don't get XP for the summons killed this way, but it's all over very quickly.
Actually, I cheated a little for this. I wasn't actually carrying a Death Fog scroll, so I created one for demonstration purposes. Death Spell can mass kill summons too, but you would have to cast it repeatedly to get the same effect, since new summons come in every round.
Back on the canon path, we head west to the tiefling party. After regenerating, of course.
The mage ... goes down before her defenses even go up.
The warrior uses Whirlwind, and dies before he can attack. The backstabber misses. The dog wild surges into blindness.
The backstabber is revealed with another missed attack, and falls shortly after.
That just leaves the dog, and it's actually done at least as much as any of the others, with some damage dealt to Magpie. Of course, now that it's alone, we focus it down.
The next room has a cambion and some demon knights, so we get out the drain protection.
Only ... the cambion is invisible, and the demon knights haven't arrived yet. True sight.
Oh, that again. You know, True Sight sets a state called "CANNOT_TURN_INVISIBLE". This state does not actually stop any enemies from becoming invisible. Only party member AIs respect it.
Still, we can detect illusions and reveal twice per round, faster than the enemy can use potions. The demon knights teleport in and we get to fighting them - Remove Magic zaps our strength potions again.
Three invisibility potions in, we finally get a good chance to swarm the cambion and take him down. There's only one demon knight left at that point, and we finish it off. Korgan reaches level 33, taking spear proficiency and a third Hardiness.
I meant to have another picture here, but somehow I didn't take it.
Now, for the wraith room. I turn off party AI so I won't blunder into the traps. That first one is a Wail of the Banshee, after all. The rest aren't nearly as bad, but they're still dangerous high-level spell effects. Magpie also takes off her armor and drinks a potion of defense.
Lots of protections, but nothing to block a dispel. Keldorn goes for it.
Haer'Dalis isn't attacking - he's activating Sunray.
Minimal damage ... oh. They're not undead, despite their looks. All of the wraiths here are demonic. I switch to +3 arrows and bolts for the demon wraith, while the party goes after the slave wraiths in melee.
All of the foes here are very tough; immune to elements, highly resistant to magic, and highly resistant to physical damage. Still, we can reliably disrupt the demon wraith's spells. If nothing else, Mazzy's zero electric damage will always do it.
Meanwhile, the demon wraith wants to attack Haer'Dalis and can't reach him. It finally settles on taking a swing at Magpie...
... just in time to die.
We're down to one of Keldorn's daily dispels, so we head up to the pocket plane for a rest and to make some new gear. White Dragon Scale? Nah, Magpie will just stick with her full plate and protection ring.
Korgan decides to speak with Magpie on what is to come ... but he actually just speaks with whoever's nearest.
Lots of choices in that dialogue, but none of them actually affect the conversation. Magpie is okay with wealth and lavish spending, but there wasn't any option to claim that without also endorsing the slaughter and slavery. Considering that there are remnant script bits conditioned on Korgan being Chaotic Good, I wonder if this was originally meant to be part of a redemption path for him.
On to Aesgareth, and we will shamelessly save-scum the results of the Deck of Many Things.
First roll, for Spectral Brand. Plague for Magpie (low-Con curse), Construct for Aesgareth. We lose. Same rolls the second time. Plague versus Triumph the third time, and still a loss. Fourth roll, Strife for Magpie (slow curse), Triumph for Aesgareth. That's a win.
That's Magpie's new weapon for when she needs a +4 or elemental damage.
Second round, for a scroll of Wish. Guile (fight some assassins) versus Defiance. We lose. Second roll. Strength (low-Str curse) against Defiance. We win.
Rasaad reaches level 36, taking GWW #6. Then Keldorn summons his deva to break the curses on Magpie.
And now, the third round for the way out. High Priestess silences Magpie, and the deva we already have out breaks the curse. Magpie reaches fighter 21, taking two-weapon mastery and her second Hardiness. Mazzy reaches level 33, taking short sword specialization and her third Hardiness.
Aesgareth draws the Wheel and wins. Sore loser time.
A greedy, dastardly act. Not one of them are evil. We'll kill them all anyway.
The mage has abjuration immunity and PfMW up. We can't dispel that easily, so Keldorn reveals her with True Sight instead.
We go for the nonmagical weapons ... not fast enough to prevent the Time Stop.
She doesn't cast anything too dangerous, and that runs out her PfMW. Back to the regular equipment. And since we've already taken down most of her stoneskins ...
... it's over quickly.
The archer follows up by using a Greater Whirlwind, so that's our next target. I'm not sure if he got off any of those attacks.
The cleric falls next - we have no problem going into melee against a blade barrier.
Aesgareth is the last of them. Then he gets stunned. Moments later, he's dead.
We have the way out, which we would have had anyway.
And also, we have the Deck. Star on Magpie or Haer'Dalis would be good - a point of AC - but the +1 AC and +1 saves from Key is better. The others would gain strength, which isn't worth it for any of them. Korgan going from 18/77 to 19 would be nice, but he uses Crom Faeyr full time. On the third draw, any of Comet, Moon, or Throne would be acceptable.
After the Teleport Field ends, I can save. Now, we play.
First draw: Euryale, Jester, Donjon.
A pretty bad string there. Keldorn's saves are relatively poor, so he gets the Warder's Signet. I put away one of my +2 cloaks, getting out the cloak of displacement for Haer'Dalis instead.
Third draw: Moon.
All right. Magpie will gladly take the ten hit points.
We draw one last time to send the deck away, and move on to the next floor.
We've faced the Blood War level; now, it's the Astral War between githyanki and illithids. We start in the middle between the two sides, next to Carston in the machine. He gets mad when we talk to him, and unleashes a Minor Lightning Bolt ... which ignores both magic resistance and the Cloak of Mirroring.
Oh well. We'll regenerate that quickly enough anyway. In retrospect, I should have gone for one of the other dialogue options - summoned mind flayers are at least worth XP.
The first combat is a shade pack near the northern doors. Since it includes Devil Shades, I get out the drain protections.
Still, most of them are the harmless shadow fiends. We focus down the devil shades, and it goes quickly.
Heading east, I run into a seriously anemic pack - only a troll and three yuan-ti?
That's the sort of thing you would see in the de-Arnise Keep. Without the upgrades SCS made. At this stage of the game, it's just laughable.
Looking it up, the spawn points on this level each pick between several possible monster groups - and some of them really are that weak.
The other side of that section at least has some better trolls:
They still go down trivially. Mixing in a few spirit trolls just isn't enough against a party of epic warriors.
The last encounter on this side is a pair of magic golems guarding the Blue Oil.
Everyone but Rasaad gets out nonmagical weapons, and the golems go down quickly. They didn't hit us at all. This is related to a key weakness of magic golems - their only attack is ranged, so they take a massive penalty to THAC0 in melee range, and suffer extra damage from melee attacks. With only one attack per round, at effective THAC0 10 once we're in melee with them, their chance of hitting anything is terribly low.
Over in the other half of the area, there are some mimics. They try their one trick ...
Nope. Everyone saves. In some cases, they were 100% guaranteed to save.
After clearing out a few more critters, we can't do anything more with this area until we retrieve some key items. On to the illithids. Mazzy drinks a potion of mind focusing so she can survive two hits, Keldorn drinks a potion of agility for better AC, and Keldorn and Mazzy drink strength 20 potions.
We take precisely one brain-sucking hit from this first room's denizens.
Well, no reason to slow down. We open the door to the south, and the next room's mind flayers come to us.
They trickle in one or two at a time, and don't get any brain-sucking hits off. There's a bit of damage from their spells, but that's all. Magpie reaches thief level 25 here, taking more stealth and her sixth Greater Whirlwind.
After talking to the apprentice and looting the room, we continue south.
Our first target drops the Illithid Rod, part of this area's key. Haer'Dalis takes two ballistic attacks, and I have him drink a healing potion - the first we've needed in here.
Incidentally, that wand that dropped? Illithids do know how to use it, and will remove buffs like Chaotic Commands and Protection from Magic Energy. We just aren't using anything like that in this party.
For all the crowd in this room, none of the illithids hit us in melee even once. It's all spell damage - a lot of it, but spread around enough that it isn't a problem.
So far, that potion of mind focusing Mazzy drank has been irrelevant. Haer'Dalis picks up level 39 here and takes his eighth Spike Trap. Only one more level for him, and it'll be a while.
Back in the north, we pick up the other key half - and this room is mostly empty, with any illithids that were there having teleported over to us earlier. That opens the way to the vampiric illithids...
We add in level drain protection, but it doesn't matter. These two don't hit us at all. The red oil is ours now, so we head back to the hub and across to the githyanki camp.
Immediately after we enter, we face the dangerous anti-paladin.
He's dead before he can do anything. Many other gith follow, but most of them are irrelevant mooks with no magical weapons. The enemies stream into the first room and die as fast as they arrive. Eventually, we head out toward the leader, and an anyi-paladin deals the first damage we've seen here.
One hit for 25 damage is just not enough to matter.
Facing the last few of them, I let song protection lapse, and Korgan fails a save.
Chaos. With his save of -2, he had to roll a natural 1 for that to happen. Oh well, we can still take down the deva quickly enough without him.
Angurvadal is ours - nice sword, but it goes into storage.
And now, the demilich. I switch around weapons so that all of our primary weapons are +4 or better with non-physical damage and all of the off-hands are either +4 or better or grant an additional attack. No other buffs added, except the still active strength potions.
The Howl there comes at us in cutscene mode. But it's a save vs death with no penalty (unless the demilich is a necromancer), so only Haer'Dalis has to worry. As for the rest of the buffs ... no abjuration immunity. We aim a dispel at it, and commence the beatdown.
Less than a round later ...
The only harm we suffered was dispelling our own strength potions. Keldorn used Daystar for this fight, and dealt more damage than anyone else with its power. And after that initial flurry, the demilich was unable to cast anything. Whatever it was trying for, Magpie's first hit disrupted it.
Saladrex comes next. We buff with fire resistance; Magpie drinks a potion and Rasaad activates Greater Sun, leaving everybody at 50% or more.
Saladrex is protected by abjuration immunity and PfMW, so I go for normal weapons and greater whirlwinds.
The problem for us ... it's not the protections we really need to dispel. It's the Improved Haste. With that boosting the dragon's melee attacks, Magpie is forced to retreat and receive a heal.
Korgan gets healed too, and the dragon finally uses his breath weapon:
Not too bad there.
This is the point where I finally give in. It's time to break that spell defense and dispel him. Two hits of Pierce Magic from wands of spell striking, and Keldorn can dispel him.
Now we can get out our usual weapons again, and hit the dragon far more effectively. He's not hasted anymore either.
That's a level drain hit. No luck on a slowing hit, though. Another PfMW follows...
Dispel that immediately. Rasaad whirls, the attacks continue ...
Done. The Staff of the Ram is ours. And that's a lesson learned. We can fight pure mages without dispelling them sometimes, but ToB dragons are a different story.
We light the torches, regenerate, and pull out a couple more strength potions for Rock and Garock.
That graphic is a Power Attack. Power Attack allows a save. Utterly useless against us.
Since Garock teleported away, we focus on Rock, and he is first to fall.
Korgan equips the axe immediately in his off hand. Now all six of our party members have regeneration (1 HP/round or more) in their default configuration.
We turn to Garock:
Done. That just leaves some salamanders that don't have magical weapons.
At Lum's machine, I spread things around a bit. Korgan gets to break Carston out; we let him go, and get his journal.
Keldorn has the highest wisdom, so he boosts it further; none of our party actually uses the stat for anything.
Rasaad gets constitution, for a 9 HP increase.
Mazzy picks up Storm Star, which we have no real use for.
Haer'Dalis gets intelligence, so he can use the golem summoning book.
Magpie gets charisma (20), strength (19), dexterity (24), magic resistance, and opens the portal down.
With the experience reward for that last bit, Rasaad reaches level 37 and takes his seventh Greater Whirlwind.
I shuffle some equipment around to take the new stats into account - Magpie doesn't need a belt of strength, for one. With that in mind, here's a snapshot of Magpie as she is now:
The items, for those that don't recognize some of the graphics: Armor - Full Plate Mail. Gauntlet - Wondrous Gloves. Helm - Gift of Peace. Amulet - Heart of the Mountain. Ring 1 - The Guard's Ring +2. Ring 2 - Ring of Gaxx. Cloak - Cloak of Mirroring. Boots - Boots of Speed. Belt - Destroyer of the Hills. Weapon 1 - Celestial Fury +3. Weapon 2 - Firetooth +3. Off-hand weapon - Ninjato of the Scarlet Brotherhood +3. Quiver 1 - Arrows of Dispelling. Quiver 2 - Arrows of Dispelling. Quiver 3 - Arrows of Detonation. Quick 1 - Harp of Discord (or maybe Pandemonium). Quick 2 - Artifact of a True Furry Paragon (mod item, adds +2 to Str for one turn). Quick 3 - Potions of Superior Healing.
The pictures are taken with Enhanced Bard Song active, as we pretty much always fight that way. With her effective AC of -19 or -20 versus all types, anything that's not a high-level warrior or the equivalent just isn't going to hit Magpie.
We are ready to face the final seals, and the Imprisoned One ... next time.
On the final seal level, our first target is the globe machine. Blue comes first, with traps.
One dead mage, with no fight. Repeat three times.
Green comes next. Mutated Spiders. Umber Hulks. Greater Earth Elementals. These are no problem, and Mazzy reaches level 34 with the hulks. She takes her sixth Greater Whirlwind.
The fourth globe calls beholders, so we prepare just a bit. Haer'Dalis uses the boots of hastened departure.
The Hive Mother puts up an Improved Mantle, while the Elder Orb has PfMW. I hit them with a dispel, and that's pretty much it.
The Hive Mother is first to fall. Haer'Dalis backs off so he won't get targeted by any rays, and the fight is over nearly as soon as it began. Mazzy got slowed and tooka bit of damage, and that's it.
Red comes next. Hobgoblins, kuo-toa, trolls, and greater wolfweres. We don't break a sweat.
Last up, purple. We warm up with some skeleton warriors. Then come two rounds of level drainers.
There's still plenty of time on Korgan's rage when we finish them off, so I invite the next wave.
This brawl has Magpie's off-hand mace disrupt one:
Neat. Two of our front line don't have drain protection, and that doesn't hurt us. We take no level drain against either the shades or the vampires.
The last round here is a pair of liches, and I set a trap.
Ooh, too slow. The magical energy protection was faster than the trap. Both liches have protections up, including abjuration immunity. And with that self-targeted incendiary cloud, we go for plan B. Bug out.
The elemental lich goes into a Time Stop sequence:
Improved Alacrity, move to see the party, Cloudkill, Slow. We counterattack to take advantage of the PfMW expiring ...
Rasaad relies on magic resistance to tank spell damage, and that makes him extremely vulnerable here. I have him drink a healing potion and retreat, in fact.
Then the second lich casts its Time Stop. Symbol:Fear, Horrid Wilting, Cloudkill. Just as the spells arrive with the Time Stop's end...
That hurt. Actually, since damage spells are the trouble here ... I retreat most of the party and have Magpie go in alone against the remaining lich. The Cloak of Mirroring will protect her, and her ludicrously good saves will handle anything the cloak can't.
Equip Spectral Brand since liches will never fail a save against Celestial Fury Stun ...
Nice. Not that it matters, since the spell wouldn't have done anything to Magpie. It takes a while, but the lich inevitably falls.
Keldorn levels up - level 30 and his fifth Greater Whirlwind. The Mind Key is ours.
We use the key right away, and face the Rilmani. They're powerful melee attackers, their leader gets spells, and they're all immune to Time Stop. Seriously, don't use that Time Trap here. Also don't use spike traps - they're immune to magic damage.
The Aurumach is, of course, our first priority. Keldorn gets out Carsomyr for once, and dispels its illusion defenses. I start hearing immunity messages ... no, that's just the off-hand attacks. It wastes a spell silencing Haer'Dalis (Harper Pin) ...
And now we can relax a bit. If you don't kill the aurumach fast enough, it'll cast its own Time Stop. That is no longer an issue, and what remains is simply a fight with a bunch of warriors. They deal some damage, we wait a bit and regenerate.
Now, on to the three trials presided over by the Helmite Ghost. First, a horde of orcs.
This is on a timer - kill as many as you can in ten rounds. So I have Mazzy use her cloak for Improved Haste, then activate Greater Deathblow. The Tuigan bow means that's ten attacks per round, and every one should be a kill, right?
Wrong. You see, the mages buffed with Protection from Magical Weapons and Protection from Normal Missiles - so none of her ranged attacks can hit them.
Sure, she can kill the archers and melee warriors, but the rest of my party has them thinned out already. Oh well.
I killed plenty of orcs anyway. That PfMW is only four rounds of protection anyway; as level 12 mages, they only get one.
The next challenge is a green dragon. We initially spread out to reduce the breath risk:
This dragon doesn't cast much in the way of mage spells, but it makes up for that with cleric spells. A triple Unholy Blight sequencer is a nasty thing.
Magpie and Mazzy use one healing potion each. And then it's over.
Korgan hits level 35 here, taking Resist Magic.
The third challenge is a riddling imp. No combat, just do the math. Rasaad reaches level 38 and takes his eighth Greater Whirlwind.
We have now earned the Heart Key, and the right to face the assorted fiendish females. For this fight, we set a full array of traps. Five normal, two exploding.
Turning the key brings a level. Magpie is now a level 22 fighter, and has another Greater Whirlwind.
That's Nalmissra badly injured and knocked down in the upper left. Magpie gets to her before she can put up any defenses. Barely. One down.
Yes, that's a magical weapon hit landing the killing blow after PfMW went up. The attack roll secured the hit before that, so it was still good.
Three warriors go after the priestess Ameralis Zauviir. She is next to fall.
We get some force into melee range with the Huntress, deactivating her preferred archery. The rest focus on the kensai Xei Win Toh ...
Three down She didn't get very many attacks off. The Huntress is next.
It's just the marilith Y'Tossi and a Hive Mother now. After a bit of mostly fruitless pounding, I use a wand to Breach the marilith.
Without her protection, she doesn't last. And then it's the Hive Mother's turn.
Through all this, Haer'Dalis was standing out of sight. That was the only concession we made to beholder eye rays; the dangerous ones are all stopped by good enough saves, and this is a party in which a paladin wearing the Warder's Signet doesn't stand out as having good saves.
In retrospect ... we weren't actually safe. Some of the Hive Mother rays have tougher save penalties than standard beholder rays, and that could have burned us. Keep that in mind for later...
Magpie claims the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, going up to five total attacks per round. Once the Maze ends, Mazzy goes up to level 35, taking Resist Magic.
We don't bother regenerating before moving on to the last section. The altar is guarded by golems ...
Sand Golem instantly slain; it has the Clay Golem class, which is what Crom Faeyr checks for. It can also inflict curses with SCS, so it's a good thing we took it out quickly.
We use the altar, and guide the spirit warrior...
Success on the first try. And Magpie gets thief level 26. Pick Pockets to 200 without the gloves, 15 more points to stealth, and her fourth Spike Trap.
We set a few traps before using the Spirit Key ...
No more Azamantes. We just have to fight the Flaming Skulls now. They're a lot less dangerous, even with their death explosions - 20d6 magic damage, save for half. We just have to live with eating a lot of damage.
That was the last of them. We wait out the incendiary clouds, regenerate, and head up top one last time. I recharge some rods and wands (resurrection, reversal, spell striking, cursing) and head back down. It only cost about 15K.
Opening the portal brings level 31 for Keldorn, and Resist Magic. We talk with the Imprisoned One, set our remaining traps, and read the scroll. Four Spike Traps and one normal trap won't be everything, but it'll make a pretty big dent. Yet more levels come at this point - Korgan to level 36 and spear specialization, Rasaad to 39. Each takes another Greater Whirlwind.
Now, for the fight. I buff with a fire resistance potion for Rasaad and Hardiness for all of the warriors.
The traps deal 287 damage. Demogorgon has 390 base HP, and gets another 195 from SCS fiend improvements. We're about halfway there.
The demon opens with a PfMW, so we dispel it and whirl:
And ... Time Stop.
Demogorgon goes straight after Magpie with melee attacks. Hitting every time with no chance to retreat, regenerate, or heal ...
Dead. Is there anything we can do about that? Well, yes.
First, I try some dispel bait, to trick Demogorgon into not using that Time Stop.
1528 - Take 2
And then ... he does the same thing as the first time. Time Stop, attack Magpie, game over. Time for another approach.
For the third try, I go for resistance instead. I haven't upgraded the Staff of the Ram yet, so Magpie can equip Roranach's Horn for 90% resistance.
Korgan is targeted instead. One dwarf down. The time stop ends, and Magpie switches back to her usual helm of defense.
Then I raise Korgan so he can keep fighting.
Without his armor, Korgan quickly falls into the red. I hit him with the rod again.
A Stoneskin goes up, so I have Keldorn use another dispel. And heal him with the rod, since he's suffering too.
That works, but I should have been more concerned for Magpie. She takes a lot of damage, and a Fire Storm finishes the job.
That doesn't seem hopeless, but at this point I'm looking for plan D.
All right, back up to the pocket plane for a bunch of upgrades. And then, rest. With a full complement of abilities ready, we lay a full seven spike traps.
It's not a fight. The traps go off, and Demogorgon takes enough damage to trigger his death script even before the fiend bonus hit points can activate. 100K experience for everybody.
Mazzy reaches level 36, taking short sword mastery and her seventh Greater Whirlwind. The entire party is over 7 million experience now.
Up top, we demand a reward. It's not much, but it's something. We pick up another 50K experience each not shown in that shot, and we're done with Watcher's Keep for good.
On any difficulty lower than Insane, Demogorgon doesn't get that Time Stop. That's the element that really caused trouble here, and forced us to resort to full trap mode.
Now, back to the main plot. It's time to strike at the heart of Yaga-Shura's power. First, we head back to Saradush one last time, selling off some generic magical weapons at the temple and earning over 300K gold. Then, over to the Marching Mountains. We rest after arrival, since it has been 28 hours of travel since our last rest.
The exterior area has some random fire giants - dangerous, but easily isolated. One or two at a time, they're not too bad. And then, there are the tiny Bhaalspawn.
Don't take them too lightly - they do have the levels to back up their aggression. They just don't have the other tricks that a real threat needs at this stage of the game.
Toop goes down first. We follow up by revealing Merlinious with a True Sight and crushing him. Then Tibbit activates a Whirlwind ...
... into no attacks. Stunned, then dead.
Finally, Chinchilla gets bashed.
Her lycanthropic transformation is no protection from us; it only makes her more vulnerable to physical attacks.
The fire giants nearby are on a quick respawn timer, so we have to fight them again as we leave this nook. That causes some injury, and we pause for regeneration before entering the stronghold.
Inside, a veritable army of fire giants awaits. Some of them start out in a weird invisible state, not yet taking actions but vulnerable to attack - we take advantage of this to kill one.
The rest will be harder. We gang up on a second, start on a third ... see a Greater Whirlwind.
At that, we retreat for the doors. The other non-elite giant in that trio also whirls, but we escape and regenerate. Also, Keldorn drinks a potion for strength 20; I should have done this earlier.
After regenerating to full, we pop back in. One giant down, then two more HLAs...
Back out the door for that. We don't need much regeneration right now, so we can come back in shortly. The elite uses another Critical Strike...
... dead before it can attack even once.
We stay in the fight this time, and Rasaad becomes the target of a whirling giant - retreat.
Still, with the rest of the party, we can take down the two remaining giants. We disarm some traps, then regenerate.
This party is vulnerable to fire, so I note the ground hazards ... avoid lava pools, but the channels between them and the grates at the entrance are safe.
Still, lava pools can't be avoided completely. Korgan borrows another fire resistance ring and ventures into one to loot the container.
Fire trolls. They still die in one hit to Crom Faeyr. The worst trouble we run into here comes when Rasaad is an idiot and runs into the lava for about 40 damage.
Korgan reaches level 37 for his eighth Greater Whirlwind, Keldorn reaches level 32 for his second Hardiness, and we pick up the strength 22 belt. All five of our warriors now have 19 strength or better without the need for potions.
On the other side, Magpie goes for a backstab on an elite fire giant ...
Oops. That would have been over 100 guaranteed damage if it hit, plus a chance to stun and get in some follow-up hits. Instead, she retreats. One elite and two regulars see her and enrage.
I go for another stab ... bad angle. Just a regular attack for 32 damage. And now, the elite reaches the party. It drank an oil of speed, so I hit it with a dispelling arrow.
It works, though Magpie takes some hits.
Three more giants approach ... no, I'd rather not fight them all at once. We step out for a regeneration break, and to expire their rages. Keldorn's strength potion also expires, not that he needed it anymore.
With the giants' rages expired, having Keldorn use some kuo-toa bolts to stun them works very well.
So much for that group.
We head back up to the side room that the giants came from, and there's another elite. Oil of Speed and rage. That one gets a dispelling arrow too, but still inflicts enough damage to bring Magpie down to about a third of her full health.
It's time for another regeneration break - not too long, because I can shuffle gear around to stack multiple regeneration items on a single character. At about five HP per round, that's only a couple minutes real time.
After that, it's time to hit another container - golems.
Korgan goes for the clay golem (instant kill with Crom Faeyr) and then the magic golem (swap CF to off hand), while the rest of the party gangs up on the adamantite golem. A bit of bad luck, and Korgan is cursed despite killing the clay golem in one hit.
The curse ... Keldorn will summon his deva pretty soon, and we'll clear it up then.
We use the wardstones to open the blocked paths, and hit the next area. This one has the fire lich. I retreat immediately after triggering its prebuffs.
The lich doesn't chase us, but the other monsters do. Keldorn equips Foebane to attack the swords, while the rest of the party gangs up on the efreeti.
We suffer some pain, especially Rasaad with his lack of fire resistance, but the efreeti don't last long. And even the swords can die if you use the right weapon.
With the distractions out of the way, Keldorn summons his deva to remove Korgan's curse, and we engage the fire lich once more.
The deva is only level 25, so its dispel didn't clear away everything. Still, the lich doesn't get off any more spells.
The container here summons fire elementals and Burning Men. Nothing too bad, since Haer'Dalis is giving the party fear immunity.
The last side room has a Flaming Skull in it. It targets Korgan with an Incendiary Cloud, and we manage to mostly dodge that spell.
Still, that skull needs to die, immediately. We gang up on it, bringing it down in exchange for a good chunk of damage from its death explosion.
The last Burning Man hangs out in the lava unwilling to come out and fight, so we hit it with ranged attacks. This brings Magpie to thief level 27, and her third Hardiness.
The deva's remaining spells speed our healing, and we open up the last container.
Two bone fiends and an erinyes. Our position means the erinyes doesn't get to use its arrows, although we do have to reveal it with Detect Illusion when it goes invisible.
The way up brings another chunk of experience, and Magpie reaches fighter level 23, for her second Time Trap.
There are more fire giants upstairs, of course.
They're not the elite variety, though. And the fireball trap we accidentally triggered is no big deal.
Now, we're in an interesting position. The main doors can't be opened. The only way forward is a narrow passage - too narrow for fire giants. And that means we're in a perfect position to abuse backstabs, retreating to safety each time.
It does take a lot of stabs for these guys. That first one dies on the second stab. Two more, and a second giant is down.
An elite is next; it drinks an oil of speed, so Magpie gets out the Mana Bow and an arrow of dispelling (THAC0 -13, despite no proficiency). But ... no, it seems to have vacated the immediate area. Instead, Magpie draws out a Fell Cat; these see through invisibility, so she pulls it back to the party. Mazzy reaches level 37 with this, taking her eighth Greater Whirlwind.
And now, Berenn notices us.
Well, at least that elite isn't hasted any more. After another Fell Cat, Magpie gets back to backstabbing. The next stab on the elite gets the dragon Brimstone's attention - that will be trouble. Pulling back to the party, Berenn summons his deva ...
Nope. It dies before it can do anything. After all, it's vulnerable on the way in before it can act, and it doesn't have any support out here.
Berenn gets a stab for 106, Magpie gets burned by the dragon's breath weapon, and Berenn casts Heal.
Now, with the dragon's attention fully on us, the backstab plan is off. We head for the other door and engage properly.
We whirl, and the dragon's approximately 500 HP don't last long.
Now, back to the backstabbing.
After whacking an aerial servant, Magpie whiffs on Berenn with a critical miss. The next swing is a natural 20 for 130 damage. Then she goes after the other giants - two hits to kill the regular, two hits on an elite...
Unconscious? Magpie sticks around for a pair of non-backstab hits to finish that giant. It's not worth it, as she gets hit back by the other elite.
Twice. With Critical Strike active. Definitely not worth it.
The next swing is at Berenn, and he responds to the damage by going into Sanctuary. A hit on the remaining elite triggers a morale failure; Magpie goes for more hits, but only gets one off before she has to come back.
The next swing is at a regular, and her stealth expires before she can swing. No backstab, and Magpie takes a hit in return. Hit that regular on the next try, and it's another morale failure - the giants are getting pretty thin. Berenn wastes his Sanctuary with an ineffective Flame Strike, and now it's time to bring in the team. One more backstab, attack with all.
Rasaad gets the kill, and we head up to the pocket plane immediately to upgrade the Axe of the Unyielding. Korgan switches Crom Faeyr to his off hand, as the axe's vorpal chance is finally something close to a match for the hammer's damage.
The remaining giants, badly injured, are no threat. Yaga-Shura's heart is ours. Now, for the last little section.
Imix, the fire elemental prince. He has some nasty moves, like this one:
Massive fire damage, save vs breath for half, blows everyone away. It's basically a Dragon Breath, only with no delay so you can't dodge. With as low as she is on hit points, Magpie retreats.
We're waiting for regeneration anyway, so we head up to upgrade the Ravager. Magpie puts on the amulet; its +3 AC is an improvement over her old Heart of the Mountain, and it has some other perks too.
There are a couple of Burning Men where Imix was; they're standing on traps, so they get ranged attacks. We pick up the second heart, release the slave, and head out. Now, we're ready to make Yaga-Shura mortal.
The typo that inspired this part's title was made during another part. But since "fire" had no major role there, I used it here instead.
We travel to Nyalee, and for this fight she has a mirror of opposition. As such, I'll stack the deck with my weapon choices. I unequip my party's magical weapons before speaking to her.
Then ... she only summons clones one at a time. Once half the party have been summoned this way and can't do anything relevant, I return the magical weapons and fight more normally.
It goes on a while, and I use a couple healing potions, but there's never any real danger.
And now, we travel to the siege camp. A cutscene plays, and Saradush burns. A group of fleeing peasants appears, and we manage to save them - but then the army comes. This will be a long battle.
You can push forward and end the battle by reaching Yaga-Shura, but if you don't it's a fixed count. And with our song-protected party, the regular soldiers can't do anything. Only the officers, the giants, and the spellcasters matter.
So we settle in and fight. It's very routine, and we just have to keep the nonmagical weapons ready for the mages. Focus entirely on the actual threats, don't attack the regulars unless there's nothing else in sight. The mages aren't using any damaging spells, so I'm guessing they're enchanters.
Now ... we rely on saving throws as our main protection against unpleasant effects. These mages love to throw around Greater Malison spells. And thus, the inevitable happens. Mazzy fails her save against a Greater Command spell.
We do have a specific tool to clear that up. Use the bell, wake her.
Then another of those Greater Command spells knocks out Korgan and Keldorn. Oops. Both the bell and the innate dispel ability are out of reach. I get out the dispelling arrows instead, and have Magpie shoot both of them.
Rasaad takes a brutal crit from a fire giant:
The drawback of having a monk on the front lines. 2d12 slashing + 1d12 fire on the giant's weapon, additional +18 physical damage from strength, GM, rage, and 2H style. Give it a high roll of 21 on the 2d12, and that 86-point crit happens.
Rasaad lives though, and he's able to dodge out of the way and drink some healing potions. But of course, that's not the only giant.
Not quite so critical here, but still worthy of a healing potion. And that Slow is trouble. A cleric puts two party members to sleep, and I go for the dispel.
Goodbye, negative effects. No more slow or malison or sleep. The battle continues - and then, all of a sudden, the enemies stop coming. We've exhausted their numbers.
Korgan goes up to level 38, taking his ninth Greater Whirlwind.
After a regeneration break, we continue forward to Yaga-Shura. Hit him for some minor damage, and he leaves.
Now, there are no fixed spawn locations for what comes next. As such, I go for a ring of traps. Six spike traps around the outside, one time trap in the center. We should be able to catch something this way.
Wait ...
Yaga-Shura returns, and he triggers one of the spike traps.
And that's a waste against his ludicrous resistance. The party heads out to keep him away from the remaining traps.
The lieutenants start showing up ...
No dispel protection on a mage? No chance.
The party engages the fighter ...
Oh hey. That was nice. Goodbye, thief. There's also a deva out now, so we go after that and the cleric that summoned it.
Yaga-Shura is alone now. We pull back to the traps, and Yaga-Shura follows ...
Whirl for some extra attacks ... that was remarkably little damage. There's really no way to take down Yaga-Shura quickly in this fight; you have to wait for his resistances to lower. 2% per round, for 15 rounds. They start at 50% cold, immune to fire and poison, 99% everything else. They end at 20% cold, immune to fire and poison, 69% everything else. And it just hasn't been long enough for Yaga-Shura to become very vulnerable.
Oh well, we just crowd in and start swinging.
That helps. Slow makes his attacks a lot less dangerous.
The giant puts up an Aura of Flaming Death - breach that before we take too much damage. And then ...
His resistances still weren't all the way down, but it was good enough. Haer'Dalis gets the shield, to boost his AC and saves.
The Solar calls Magpie up, and she goes for good answers here. The next pocket plane challenge is open. But first, the experience rewards provide some levels - Keldorn to level 33 (two-handed specialization and his third Hardiness), Mazzy to level 38 (her ninth Greater Whirlwind).
We head up to the pocket plane immediately to take on that challenge. Since the alternate PC wields Blackrazor, I get out the drain protection - Amulet of Power for Keldorn, rage for Korgan, off-hand Runehammer for Magpie, off-hand Mace of Disruption for Mazzy.
We target "Magpie" first, while hitting the mage with a dispel and a Sun Soulray to disrupt him.
Before long at all, "Magpie" is dead and we can go back to our normal off-hand weapons. Semaj and then Tamoko are next.
A lone archer against the full weight of this party? Angelo doesn't last long. Kill the djinn, wait for the clouds to dissipate so we can save, and end the session.
Now, before progressing, it's Dorn's turn. Magpie turns into the Slayer to lower her reputation to 18, then summons him. Dorn takes Mazzy's place in the party and levels to 16. I give him Soul Reaver to wield.
Then we wander around aimlessly for a week. The timer runs out ...
Since the Planetar of Justice in this encounter is immortal, we target the crusaders first. They go down pretty fast.
We turn to the celestials, and when the planetar runs we take the portal into Lunia.
Not far in, we find a planetar giving out sigils - all right, we'd like one.
That calls in a hit squad, including a second planetar. It's no more effective than the first.
Incidentally, these are weaker than standard planetars in certain ways; they don't get the SCS improvements. In particular, they can't cast their spells instantly.
Down in the south, we meet a former acquaintance:
And kill him. Again.
After setting some traps, the tree in the is next - but first, we maze Dorn so that Magpie can pick some fruit in peace.
With most of the party good or neutral, those are some nice items.
I go back to the tree once the maze expires, and Dorn seems to no longer be interested in defiling it. Convenient.
Now, the scroll we came here for. We try to talk our way to it ... nope. This is a guaranteed fight.
Naiman gets a dispel, and dies immediately. The crusaders with him don't fare much better. Then another hit squad comes in.
The planetar wastes time with a Remove Magic on Haer'Dalis ... when the party has no dispellable buffs active. I think it's the Bless effect on Rasaad that inspired this. Then we're clear to attack, and the enemies go down.
Dorn and Magpie erased. Sendai and Abazigal inscribed. Now we head out. There's a group at the tree upset over the defining that didn't happen:
They hit hard, enough so that we need a few healing potions. Just make sure to ignore the ones that look like civilians and don't attack - they're innocents.
There's a lull after that, and I take some levels. Magpie reaches thief level 28, improving her stealth still more and taking her fifth Spike Trap. Korgan reaches level 39, taking spear mastery and his fourth Hardiness.
And now, dragons.
The traps go off ...
One dragon down, one badly injured. The survivor gets defenses up, so we use wands of spell striking to deal with the Spell Turning and abjuration immunity.
Follow up with a dispel ...
It only took one more hit. Like the shadow dragon in Rasaad's quest, these dragons don't get the triple hit points from SCS.
We wait for some regeneration, then head for the exit.
It's defended. The crusaders aren't that bad, but the petitioners have to go too - and those are high-level mages.
Abjuration immunity is in play. No easy dispel here. So instead, we get out the nonmagical weapons.
But ... oops. One of the petitioners cast an incendiary cloud, and the other two didn't put up fire protection.
Thanks for making our job easier.
The second petitioner falls easily, leaving only one. He's down beyond the incendiary cloud, where we can't bring much of our party to bear without burning them. Still...
Three warriors is enough. The portals are open again. Once the incendiary cloud disperses, we head for the exit.
We swap out Dorn, then head back down to the clearing. Most of the party has something to say, but Keldorn is silent.
And that's the end of that. The next chapter awaits.
Now we go forward. Mount Deepstone opens up a back way to Amkethran, but we'll head through the oasis anyway.
They brought lots of people. They didn't bring enough of the sort that matter. And one of the few dangerous ones ...
The leader doesn't get off a single attack. And since the battlemage doesn't have any sort of absolute protection up, I go for him right away.
That just leaves soldiers, at least in the immediate area. They're seriously outmatched.
While Keldorn falls into the yellow, we're never in position to need any healing potions. There's another mage on this side, but we clear everything up without incident. The way to Amkethran is clear.
In Amkethran, we meet with Balthazar first. He's brusque, but points us to Sendai and Abazigal. Captain Erelon comes next.
Erelon is a fighter/mage, and he puts up a Mantle. Magpie gets out the Staff of the Magi and whacks him with it.
We beat him to near death ... PfMW. All right, nonmagical weapons then.
Huh? Looking it up, Erelon is immune to nonmagical weapons for no particular reason. Lesson learned; I should have just switched to +4 or better weapons and gone over the Mantle.
So instead, I have Rasaad zap him for that final blow ... magic resistance. Oh, come on. Erelon also has an inexplicable 63% magic resistance. All right, Keldorn, just dispel him.
One hit later, Erelon is dead.
Saemon gets in trouble and blames us - so, nothing new. There are some mercenaries fighting each other in the west ...
I've gotten in trouble before by intervening here. This time, I just watch ... they break it off. It's nonlethal sparring. Okay. That's good to know.
We head back to the pocket plane for a rest, and then bring in Hexxat. Haer'Dalis stays back this time. We meet with Cabrina in the tavern, and we're off to the last tomb.
A couple fights in, I reach a milestone - Magpie reaches the experience cap. Fighter level 24, two-handed style, and her sixth spike trap.
The first notable enemy is a greater mummy with cleric spells:
With that Physical Mirror spell, Hexxat switches targets. No need for her throwing daggers to come back at her.
After some more mummies and bone fiends, we run into Umolex. He wants dead bodies.
We take exception. He goes down easily.
A bit later - actually, from some trap XP - Keldorn reaches level 34. He takes his sixth greater whirlwind with this last level. He's also the only party member who doesn't level up exactly at the cap.
Up next, it's sand golems. Korgan takes the lead, with Crom Faeyr in his main hand.
Ah, guaranteed one-hit kills. Definitely worth it.
The next golem after that room gets a hit in. Korgan is now cursed. But then, he's regenerating three hit points per round, and I still have a deva in reserve. I'm not worried.
Some beholders follow...
We don't need to do anything fancy. Everyone is guaranteed to save against the dangerous rays, so we can just charge in. Except for Hexxat; she stays back.
A side path leads to the gnome Culak:
Brute force is all we need.
He drops another strength 19 belt. We have no need for that; only Haer'Dalis would gain any strength from it, and he doesn't attack.
Finally, we're on to the last quadrant, and the barrier only Hexxat can traverse.
Well, OK, a character that was immune to piercing damage and level drain could do it too. That's not something this party can manage aside from brief periods with the Cloak of the Sewers for ooze form, so we just do it the intended way. It's all bone fiends here, including the named one T'lassus.
Twice the hit points, better THAC0 and AC ... but T'lassus has a secret weakness. No invisibility detection, and no backstab immunity. Unlike the regular bone fiends, you can stab him.
Not that we take advantage. We just draw him back and beat him up the conventional way.
With the barrier down, we can take on Phreya and the lich simulacrum.
This simulacrum doesn't put up any decent combat defenses, and dies without doing anything of note.
There's only one foe left - the real lich. Hexxat stays back, and Rasaad activates Greater Sun for resistance - this lich has burned me with Dragon Breath before.
He defends with Improved Mantle and summons a simulacrum. Beat down the simulacrum - it doesn't put up defenses - then turn to Korkorran. He gets a whack with the Staff of the Magi.
Like any mage, he doesn't last long without his combat defenses. The end script plays, and we head back to Amkethran. Rest at the tavern ...
... and we are transported elsewhere to meet with her patron. Hexxat wishes for mortality and death? All right.
She can have it.
Sadly, there's no option in the dialogue to just agree and let her have what she wants. We have to make deliberately bad arguments to let Hexxat die as she should.
We are teleported back to the tavern ... and Magpie has lost her Pocket Plane ability. Fortunately, resting again fixes that. We bring back Haer'Dalis, and head out to continue dealing with Amkethran's problems.
Omar and Asana first. Killing a few mercenaries is nothing to us. The reward of a cloak and a point of reputation is considerably better.
Then it's a priest's turn:
And just like that, we're back up to 20 reputation. Entering the temple lets us buy a fourth potion case, too.
Finally, some smugglers:
A one-time deal with excellent prices, but no stealing. We just buy the unique items and a few potions and scrolls.
Now that we've cleared up the smaller encounters, it's time to talk to Marlowe. We shuttle back and forth a bit, then bring Marlowe so that Malla's soul can be restored. Once we have the soul ...
Fight time. There's no abjuration immunity there, so we just dispel him. That works, but a contingency protection goes up.
While the rest of the party is trying to deal with the lich, Korgan is running around having fun with the Runehammer:
Vongoethe starts casting again ... Sun Soulray.
And now, Keldorn can dispel again. Immediately after ... Vongoethe replaces it with a third PfMW. Grr. He gets off his next spell - a Dragon Breath, and we dispel him yet again ... into a fourth PfMW.
The fourth dispel ... actually sticks.
Finally, we hit his limit. And this time, Marlowe survives. That's a bunch of experience and a wasted reputation point.
This is the first time I've had that ending; previous runs led to having to use the soul stone myself to restore Malla.
After clearing out some lesser undead, we spin the wheels.
Air elementals, fire elementals, ice golems - no problem. Fission slimes - get out Angurvadal and Stonefire.
One manages to split, but there's no third generation.
That concludes our business in Amkethran. Next time, we will continue our hunt of the Five.
Now, Abazigal or Sendai first? I look to my weapons to decide ... and the only one of the party's primary weapons that could use an upgrade is the Flail of Ages. Abazigal it is.
We are greeted by Draconis.
He doesn't have any dispel protection. Keldorn is on it.
We beat him down easily, taking no damage in this phase. And then he transforms.
Hey, that was nice. He killed his summons for us.
Unfortunately, this form has dispel protection. PfMW backed by abjuration immunity. We need to break his defenses...
The first Pierce Magic shot runs into a Spell Shield (left over from human form), so I follow up with three more - two rods or reversal and another wand of spell striking.
Well, all right. The Spell Shield is down. Unfortunately, the dispel still doesn't work. Also, Magpie is literally under Draconis, and can't move away from being the focus of his attacks; that's a Rod of Resurrection heal there. I try two more wand shots the next round, all while beating down with normal weapons.
Those still don't clear the way for a dispel. But the attacks ...
We win anyway, through sheer brute force. The PfMW wore off somewhere in there; after all, that's a monk fist attack dealing the final blow.
In retrospect, what I experienced with those spell-breaking attacks was a bug. Human-form Draconis must have had another defense in addition to the Spell Shield - probably a Spell Turning or Spell Deflection - and the transformation to dragon form made that defense unbreakable. Maybe I could have burned through it with targeted spells, but specific removal spells had no chance. All those wand and rod shots tried to remove it and failed, leaving the lower-level spell defenses like abjuration immunity in place. I didn't realize this, and yet I somehow won anyway.
The monk bracers go to Haer'Dalis, as an improvement over his paladin bracers. If we need the healing magic, we can always pull those out of storage.
After regenerating, we enter the lair. The greater werewyvern ...
... doesn't last at all. The lizard men, on the other hand, are high-level warriors.
And that's after having the two most injured party members drink healing potions. They dealt a lot of damage.
Of course, that just means we need a longer regeneration break. Once that's done with, we follow the one usable pool, to more lizard men. The shamans put up combat protections which we dispel immediately, and also launch Creeping Doom. Enhanced Bard Song can counter that, but it's not up yet after the trip through the tunnel.
Then one of the shamans gets a Time Stop off, into two more Creeping Dooms. Our song protection expires, and we take a bunch of damage.
The other shaman doesn't cast anything dangerous, because Korgan takes him out.
Then the halflings get their shaman too - we're in a much better position now with only warriors left to fight.
And ... huh? I'm still taking damage even with EBS active? ... Oh. I forgot to install my fix for that. Oops.
With us taking more damage than I expected, Korgan falls. I bring him back quickly, of course. We clear out those last few elementals, and this brutal fight is done.
Now, we take a break to regenerate. Mazzy reaches level 39, taking her fourth dot in short swords and a fourth Hardiness.
Once that's done, we're off to the next dragon fight.
This dragon puts up PfMW and Improved Haste, as usual ... but no abjuration immunity. One dispel, and we're beating down. Simple brute force does it.
In retrospect, I should have used Hardiness. As it is, I use a couple healing potions.
The amulet grants immunity to wing buffets. I won't use it. But then, I wouldn't have used the armor either.
After some regeneration, we head back to the travel pool. Some devils ambush us:
That's one cornugon down before it can even arrive properly. These fiends aren't putting up enough combat protections, and that means they die quickly.
OK, the pit fiend does get off a fire storm to deal a bit of damage. It's still over quickly. And with that battle, Korgan reaches the level 40 cap, taking his tenth Greater Whirlwind.
With the breath potion, we can take on the next area. This one is full of water elementals and kuo-toa.
Rasaad takes the lead in beating up elementals; his long reach gives him the advantage in striking their inaccessible locations.
Well, OK, he's not perfect for all of them.
The lack of cold resistance really hurts against Olhydra, and I have him retreat. Keldorn also retreats after taking heavy damage from the kuo-toa.
Once the fight is done, Rasaad takes his final level, and a fourth Hardiness.
This leads to a chat with an imprisoned monk, and Hindo's Hand ... but a lack of rope. We'll need to go back to town, because the rope we have is the wrong kind. We also take this opportunity for some upgrades - the bag of plenty, Hindo's Doom, the Heartwood Ring, and Montolio's Cloak. Only Hindo's Doom sees immediate use, replacing the Sword of Balduran in Rasaad's off hand.
We come back, and ...
One dragon dead. We laid some traps on the way out, and they paid off.
The other black dragon hastes up but doesn't add PfMW, so we hit him with the Staff of the Magi.
It's easy from there.
Next, a green dragon comes in. Continue the beatdown ...
A Heal contingency. All right then, whirl. That does it; we drink some healing potions, and then face the last and strongest of this group of dragons.
That hit actually disrupts the dragon's spell, but those initial buffs are still nasty. Particularly the improved haste, so Keldorn dispels it. Magpie has to retreat due to heavy damage, and our other four warriors whirl.
That deals massive damage, but Rasaad has to retreat soon after. Carnifex adds a PfMW, and Keldorn dispels it again.
And there it is. Four dragons defeated. Carnifex is Korgan's new top kill, too.
The ways are now open inside the lair; we can use all of the pools. On the second try, I find the cave of eyes.
This area has some cool unique enemies ... and some serious annoyances. Like that non-hostile vigilant standing on top of Keldorn so he can't move, and also not letting me select it to attack.
The other members of the party are fighting the Death Tyrants and Tyrant Golems; the latter are troublesome mainly because they're so resistant to damage. 90% physical resistance, 100% immunity to elemental damage and magic. Because of this, the fight takes a while - long enough for Korgan to get slowed and take heavy damage.
So, of course, I have him retreat. The others can handle this. I finish off the golems, then take a pool to free Keldorn. On returning, we can finally kill that Vigilant. Along with a bunch of other eyes that spawned in.
Now that the main battles in this area are over, we meet Iycanth - and do some subcontracting.
The gauth eyestalk and the bronze pantalettes are ours. Also, lots of time passed, so we head up to the pocket plane and rest.
Then we go after that cave anyway, and fight the elder orbs.
They get a dispel to clear out their combat protections, and two fall quickly.
The third still has PfMW up, so we switch to nonmagical weapons for it. Before long, it's over.
Another pool in the main cave leads us to Iycanth, and we make the trade. Haer'Dalis reaches the level 40 cap, taking Sword and Shield style and his ninth Spike Trap.
We free the guardian Fll'Yissetat, and that opens the way to Abazigal.
Entering the area ... oops. I forgot to apply another update I made, so the Planetar of Justice shows up immediately and just stays at the entrance. Oops. I set up spike traps here, anyway, in case I draw a dragon back here.
Activate Hardiness all around, go to speak with Abazigal.
We'll wait to go after him - not having a dragon active is good for his health, and human-form Abazigal is basically just a fighter. Keep him away, and we're good.
So then, it's the drakes first.
One drake down. Tamah gets a dispelling hit from the Staff of the Magi to remove her haste. Still, both she and Abazigal hit hard. Magpie has to fall back.
That's Korgan using the rod to heal her.
Then Haer'Dalis runs off playing distraction for Tamah, while the rest of the party takes on the drakes. We get the ice and fire drakes, but then Tamah breathes ...
Ouch. The breath weapon hits him multiple times, dropping him to the brink of death. It also kills the Shadow Drake; only Tamah, Abazigal, and the salamanders remain.
We deliver the rod heal ... success.
So now it's Tamah's turn. We go to beat on her, and she goes ethereal.
This also heals her, and ... she's out of the fight. I go to look for her, but this is actually a safety valve to keep you from killing her before Abizigal changes into dragon form.
After a bit, I give up on finding Tamah and go after Abazigal instead. Draw him back to the entrance ...
The spike traps are spent.
Abazigal has Spell Deflection, abjuration immunity, PfMW, Stoneskin, and Improved Haste. We can't let a dragon stay hasted, so I need some spell-breaking effects. Two shots from wands of spell striking, followed by a Keldorn dispel.
And of course, now Tamah comes back. Abazigal replaces his PfMW less than a round later, so we dispel him again - but we focus our attacks on Tamah. Fighting two dragons at once is someone we want to stop doing as soon as possible.
Also, that planetar is being less than helpful right now. Fire Storm? Please don't.
Still, Tamah doesn't last long.
Now, get out of that fire storm, and out into the open a bit. Abazigal follows, and it's back to the beatdown after yet another dispel.
We go to retreat the injured party members ...
... and it's over. Victory on the first try, and it wasn't that bad. Hardiness ran out, but only at the very end; for all the complexity, this still didn't take that long.
Back at the pocket plane, we talk with the solar again. The party gains a chunk of experience, and Mazzy reaches level 40. She takes her tenth greater whirlwind, and the entire party is at the experience cap with another full dungeon to go.
Back in Amkethran, Kerrick does his thing:
Keldorn has the worst AC, so he gets the armor - and he'll be using some of that special ammo too, since he's our crossbow user. We also make the Blue Dragon Plate, the Juggernaut Golem Manual, and the final form of the Flail of Ages. That has the unfortunate side effect of stopping Mazzy from using her boots of speed when she's in melee mode, but we can live with that.
I look at the characters ... wait, something's not right.
Why is Magpie's base THAC0 4? She's a level 24 fighter; it should be zero. Checking my saves, this happened sometime after reaching Amkethran, but before most of Abazigal's lair. I have no idea what did this, but it's obviously wrong - so I edit the save.
And now, one last thing - the third pocket plane challenge.
Sure, the Slayer has good resistances. That's nothing to us. This is simply an easy fight.
A short update this time, but that's just how things worked out. The dragon's lair was a little too long for one update, but short for two.
Now that Abazigal is dealt with, it's time to take on Sendai. We talk to the woodcutter on arrival, agree to investigate, and set some traps. They spring an ambush on us ...
... but that's just not a very scary force at this point. Even the hive mother is routine by now. Incidentally, Keldorn's haste (from Blackrazor) inspires the Hive Mother to us an antimagic ray on him, despite that buff not being dispellable.
Now, back to the woodcutter. We press him, and the drow reveal themselves.
Removing a mage without a fight is always a good idea. They have a backstabber, who attacks from stealth ... and misses despite rolling a 13. We mop this group up easily.
The gate guards come next:
Yeah, lots of backstabbing power here including an assassin. We go with True Sight to stop them, and they're not nearly so dangerous when they have to play as warriors.
Then the southwest, and this makes for some trouble. There's a drow wizard, and he manages to get off a Time Stop despite being dispelled.
That Time Stop leads to one dangerous spell - Imprisonment on Keldorn. We spend a scroll to clear that up, and kill the remaining foes.
Why isn't Keldorn visible in that shot? Because on coming out of imprisonment, he was stuck unable to move until I removed the BMU, and that was only possible once combat ended. Impassable tiles can surprise you.
And now, down into the underground enclave. The critters in the first area barely even slow us down.
Then some drow join in. More interesting? Yes.
Actually a threat? No. They just don't do any serious damage.
That brings us to a room full of drow. Lots of warriors, a mage, and a priestess. Physical Mirror? Hit her with scorchers. Mantle? Just go over it.
Mazzy takes some friendly fire, but this does a very good job of killing the spellcasters.
Now that they're down, it's just warriors. The kensai whirls and takes about a hundred hit points off Magpie, but she's tough. Victory is ours, and all it costs us is some time to regenerate.
Now, to the tunnels. We fight the slaves next; they are truly unlimited, spawning at a specific rate until you progress forward. We don't have any trouble killing them faster than they spawn, at least at first.
It gets a little harder when more enemy types join in, but we're still moving forward. Nothing but warriors, and none of them terribly high-level.
Finally, we come to the Slavemaster himself.
Kill him, and the flood stops. Shortly after, the bits of damage we took regenerate.
Now, back to the first area, and take the other path. I'd like to kill the spiders too.
There's a boss in here, the upgraded vortex spider Lashar'ra. THAC0 -2 piercing/slashing, 2d10+9 damage, 4 damage per second poison with no save, and kills on a failed save vs death at -2 (blocked by poison immunity). So against this party ... she hardly ever hits, and she never gets the instant kill. We would need an antidote, but that's all. As it is ...
We just kill her with no trouble.
Continuing to the next room, we face some normal vortex spiders alongside drow.
They still have that save or death, but they also have much worse THAC0 than the boss version. They would need a crit to hit anybody. That leaves only the drow as threats, and among them only the spellcasters are notable.
All right, demonic allies are troublesome. Slightly. But the mage is only protected by Mantle, so we just go over it and don't aim for any sort of dispel. Before long, they're all down and we can pause for Mazzy to regenerate.
That brings us to the lich Odamaron.
Abjuration immunity. And that cloud will ignore MR. On the other hand, his only other spell defense is a Spell Trap, so a single Pierce Magic renders him vulnerable to being dispelled.
And now that his defenses are down, his own cloud hurts him. Oops. Between the ranged attacks and the fiery cloud, he doesn't last long.
Odamaron's death triggers enemies to spawn in outside the room, and I suddenly get a bunch of damage/death notifications from the traps I laid. Huh. I didn't know it worked like that, but it's nice all the same.
The vampire got a separate dispel, and with the party's full attention it goes down quickly.
There's still one more enemy here - the lich apprentice, which didn't get involved at all before. We head over and start that fight. Abjuration immunity and Spell Turning - two Pierce Magic hits before the dispel.
It's trivial from there. As always, pure spellcasters need their buffs to survive.
We have three new upgrade tokens, but I'd like to check out the carnage outside first.
Impressive. The remaining warriors die very quickly, leaving only the priestesses under Sanctuary. Then the priestesses break Sanctuary, and quickly die.
Now we head back to the pocket plane and spend our upgrade tokens. Also, dump a bunch of adamantine dust, because I forgot I was carrying drow items. Oops. We upgrade Purifier, Spectral Brand, and the Short Sword of Mask. The +5 version of Spectral Brand is good enough to finally displace Celestial Fury as Magpie's primary weapon, and Keldorn was already using Purifier in his off hand.
Ogremoch comes next, and his chamber has a narrow entrance that forces Keldorn to take off the Unit. But after dealing with the preliminary earth elementals, he can put it back on for the main fight.
Against this party ... he's vulnerable to slow and level drain. Our weapons do their thing ...
... and it's over. Well, OK, he puts up another stoneskin. It's too late, as elemental damage finishes the job before the stoneskin even wears down. Magpie gets the kill with Spectral Brand's cold damage.
That opens the way to Diaytha. We draw them out rather than fighting on their turf.
The fiends teleport over first, and die.
Then the vampire follows.
Hear'Dalis gets silenced, so I send him the Amulet of Power. I want that song. Daiaytha goes down next ...
... leaving us to swarm the Hive Mother.
Uh, oops. Time to reload. Keldorn saves vs spell on a zero, which makes him safe from standard beholder disintegration ... but the Hive Mother version has a -4 modifier. He got unlucky, but not so unlucky that I'd call it a fluke. With how cavalier we've been about fighting Hive Mothers, something like that was bound to happen eventually.
Reloading puts us back to the beginning of the room. The second time around, Korgan takes out Ogremoch with a vorpal hit.
Victory, with no damage taken.
The other room goes similarly to last time - except that I only send in Magpie, Korgan, and Rasaad for the Hive Mother. The first two have safe saves, while Rasaad has 98% magic resistance.
And there. We have our vengeance. The dungeon will continue in the next part, because this part is long enough already.
We begin where we left off, with the duel in the next room. Magpie opens with an invisibility potion ...
... and whacks the Captain with the Staff of the Ram. He goes down to Near Death and unconscious in one hit. The second hit finishes the job.
The remaining drow die, and we continue forward.
The next area is a miniature illithid lair. We start with two of the vampiric variety:
Those two die without incident, and the reinforcements teleport in. This should be easy ...
... except that Rasaad gets stunned. Somehow, he was in the wrong place when the ability ticked and lost his Enhanced Bard Song protection. A flayer teleports over to him:
We reorient to target that foe, but we're not fast enough. Rasaad dies.
Then again, we can just resurrect him right back into the battle. He doesn't wear armor, after all. I use the daily Blessed Bracers for this, rather than a charge from a rod of resurrection.
We clear this bunch out, then open the door for the next battle.
The corridor is not really the best place to fight; after killing some initial targets, we fall back into the larger room. The mages are already active:
A scary spell, but not actually that bad for us. Only half the party even takes damage, and Haer'Dalis has resistance. The thrall fighters are far more of a problem, hitting the party very hard.
But of course, we hit hard right back. After the last of them go down, we beat down the wizard in the corridor, then send Magpie and Rasaad to face the other:
The wizard is helpless against our onslaught, and the way is clear to face Sendai herself.
We prepare with Hardiness all around, then two instant spike traps the moment we enter the room.
Only one of those traps is actually placed right to hit the first, but it means that cleric goes down practically instantly.
On to the second statue, which activates immediately on the first's death. This one is a mage. A dispel, and it's toast.
The third statue is a kensai/thief, built in a way players aren't allowed to. Since it starts visible, it dies before it can attack.
Fourth, a berserker. It doesn't last either.
The fifth statue is a cleric/mage.
OK, we need a dispel. Do that, and a vorpal hit follows quickly.
The sixth statue is an archer. It teleports around, but Keldorn is on it.
That's not a statue standing on the platform next to the door, by the way; it's one of the reinforcements that have been streaming in.
The last statue is an assassin.
We don't even need true sight.
And now, the real Sendai comes out. Throughout that fight, we were consistently faster in killing statues than the 8-second timer - which meant we never had to deal with multiple statues at once, and the fight wasn't any harder than it's vanilla version. We could even leave some party members back to thin out the reinforcements.
Sendai doesn't put up abjuration immunity, so she just gets dispelled. And even with her high hit points, she doesn't last.
We clean up, pick up the loot - or at least the loot we can keep - and head back up to the surface.
After a chat with Elminster, we head up to the pocket plane and grab Wilson for his final sidequest. Bring him back down, get called away for a fight. Since it's a dragon, we buff a bit for it.
That's Mazzy's innate Haste, and the Divine Gift epic Bhaalspawn ability. From here, we just attack.
No further active abilities needed.
Now, back to the pocket plane. We make Firetooth +5 for Keldorn, Angurvadal +5 for Haer'Dalis to hold, and the dragon scale armor from that mod dragon we just killed. It's ... kind of broken. Base AC -3 with chain mail mods isn't too bad, but it doesn't interfere with protection items, and nearly anyone can wear it. Only pure mages are excluded, and it doesn't block thieving or spellcasting.
In this party, it's 1-2 points better than full plate across the board, plus it comes with a THAC0 boost. I give it to Mazzy.
On to the fourth challenge, after a rest. And since Korgan is back in the party, I upgrade the Runehammer.
Cyric visits, and we set some traps:
It's not quite good enough. Only one of the three dies to our AoE traps, and one of the assassins gets off a backstab.
Still, we can just beat the remaining assassins up in melee. Magpie gains permanent immunity to level drain.
Now, for Balthazar ... oh, bother, I forgot to acquire the +1 wisdom ioun stone. And I don't realize that it's on a merchant I could just visit now (the Amkethran bartender). With it and a potion of insight, anyone can talk Balthazar into joining the party for the final battle. Without it, you need to have your alignment and reputation back you up at least a little. Magpie is good with a paragon reputation, so she won't have any trouble.
Back in Amkethran, the mercenaries go hostile.
They don't react fast enough to do anything.
That was easy.
Now, to get into the monastery. We accept Saemon's offer of help.
That gets us past the gates. It doesn't get us all the way in without a fight.
Not pictured: two mages, currently invisible. Hit them with a dispel, shoot them down with ranged attacks.
The fight is easy from there. We follow up by killing the magical swords - they're vulnerable to both Foebane's magic damage and to vorpal strikes. Where exactly is the head on a sword?
Inside, it's just talking.
The dialogue choices here (with Ascension) modify a hidden score variable. At 0 or less, it's a fight. At 1 to 3, Balthazar suicides. At 4 or more, he joins you for the final battle. Magpie scored a 7; a Wis 19 good character with paragon reputation could reach 8.
A conversation with the Solar follows, and I choose the less good responses here. The reward is considerably better that way.
Back down in Amkethran, we step out and regenerate. Back out the gate ... the mercenaries and monks didn't get the memo.
Monks spawn for a bit, but soon run out. Rasaad uses his self-heal here, since he takes significant damage.
There are some mercenaries as well, mostly farther from the gate. They spawn for a while too, before they run out too.
Now, we head up to the pocket plane to face the Ravager. Haer'Dalis switches to the Reflection Shield, Keldorn goes with Foebane, and Mazzy puts Ice Star in her off hand.
After a bit, it's whirling time.
The Ravager outlasts that, but not by much.
Victory. Magpie gets 25% physical resistance.
Before the end, one last selling trip. We have about 800K gold before we sell anything, and 2.4 million when we're done. We rest to clear fatigue (there was some travel, so we could sell to Karthis), and there's nothing left to do but enter the Throne.
Naturally, Melissan greets us with a fight. Two Fallen Solars, Bodhi, Irenicus, and Imoen turned into the Slayer.
Irenicus starts with abjuration immunity and invisibility, so it'll take a bit to get at him. He didn't go with divination immunity, so I have Keldorn use True Sight. That activates just as the Time Stop goes off.
Balthazar had Lunar Stance up. He uses the opportunity to go after Irenicus. Combat protections? Dragon Fist.
No more combat protections. A serious beating ensues. Unfortunately, that still isn't enough to stop Irenicus from getting off a pair of Horrid Wiltings, and the already injured Korgan dies.
Two RoR shots later, Korgan is back in the fight and Keldorn is healed. Balthazar continues chasing the mage, and gets the first kill.
Then Korgan falls again, because his lack of AC without armor does matter against the fallen solars. THAC0 zero, +5 to hit on their melee weapons. Korgan has -15 slashing AC with his armor, -2 without. That's the difference between being hit half the time and being hit all the time.
In particular, that final blow definitely wouldn't have hit if Korgan had his armor on.
Still, our attacks on the fallen solars bear fruit.
Wait, Keldorn is unselectable? Morale failure, berserk? This shouldn't be possible. He's under the effects of bard song, after all. I have no idea what set this one off.
Just two left. Balthazar finishes off Bodhi:
The rest of the party is already attacking Imoen. She changes back ... too late.
Oops. She's dead. Sorry about that ... I have a rod of resurrection?
With no pressure now, I use the Blessed Bracers to bring back Korgan. We drink some lesser potions to speed regeneration, and then start on the pools.
Now, the party gets no chances to rest during this sequence, as we're on Insane difficulty. That means I have a limited trap budget. Seven spike traps are reserved for the final battle, leaving 18 other traps for the three pools. Eight spike traps, two time traps, two exploding traps, and six normal traps.
The first pool gets HLA traps - this one summons a balor, and I want to kill it quickly.
Magpie and Balthazar kill some demons during that time stop window, but the balor only goes down to about half HP. I didn't realize that these balors get magic damage resistance.
Still, it's fairly simple from there. We don't need any further daily resources to put the demons down.
That pool gives Magpie the Focus ability. Time Stop immunity on demand.
The southern pool has no Balor, so I go with normal snares here. The poison won't help, but the AoE physical damage is excellent.
With them already injured, it's another simple battle.
We kill that straggler, wait for the Cloudkill to disperse, and move on to the last pool.
For the western pool, it's the other half of our HLA traps.
Knowing about the Balor's resistance, I hit it much harder this time. It falls soon after - but one of the other demons causes trouble.
Charmed. It's a dispelling arrow for him, then. And Balthazar smacks him, but that's just a bit of damage. He's not dead, after all.
We get fully healed by the pool, but I feed him a few extra healing potions anyway. I'm not going to use them during the final battle, after all.
Now, the final traps. Seven spike traps, six delayed blast fireballs (from two uses of the Magic Flute ability). I aim for Sendai and Abazigal with my trap placement here.
The traps aimed at Sendai hit Yaga-Shura instead - a complete waste, given his 99% magic damage resistance. The other side's traps work perfectly, with Abazigal dying before he can do anything.
All right now. One mage is out, but we don't want the other to be able to act. Sendai gets a dispel, followed by a barrage of scorchers. Meanwhile, the melee warriors go after Illasera and Gromnir. Melissan is back already, but there's no point in attacking her at this stage. Too much resistance to everything, and she gets free healing if you hurt her too much anyway, at a cost of nothing but time.
Illasera goes ethereal, protecting her for the moment. And it's not an illusion, so I can't remove it. Then Sendai's contingency goes off - PfMW, protecting her from further scorchers. Then her teleport field sends Keldorn to the side platform. He switches targets to Sarevok, at least until he can dispel Sendai again.
Then the melee forces get in a kill:
No more Gromnir. And all those enemies congregating near Keldorn is very nice for our melee forces. Illasera's round of complete protection is up, and she becomes their new target.
Melissan's solars enter the fray, and Keldorn is losing his ability to keep the attention of half the enemies by himself. Sendai also puts up yet another combat defense, an Improved Mantle. Then Melissan teleports on top of Magpie - literally. The only thing she can do is to use her own teleport ability to get away.
Ah, there's Illasera down. our foes are getting weaker
Keldorn dispels again and finishes Sendai, while our remaining forces concentrate on the Solars and Melissan. Melissan recasts her Divine Mantle, and that attention shifts entirely to the Solars.
Keldorn isn't stuck forever; he manages to get the Teleport Field to bring him back to the main arena. Then we get one of the Solars.
The second solar falls shortly.
Only Yaga-Shura, the irrelevant Sarevok, and Melissan remain. As Yaga-Shura is almost purely melee and doesn't move fast, we've just been avoiding him. That changes now.
Not that we've forgotten about Melissan. I hear a casting sound, so I use the ring of energy ...
[/img]
... disrupted. Whatever that spell was, it's not happening now. Then Yaga-Shura gets some whirls.
That does the trick. With some attacks still remaining, we turn to Sarevok.
We beat her while she's down ...
Nope. She has a second wind. She's back to full health, and she summons a whole bunch of demons.
Now, a fun fact: with the Ascension changes, Melissan isn't completely stab immune. She detects invisible, but...
Assassination is a very nice burst of damage. Still, that only gets her down to "Injured" status. And now the demons are here. The fight gets a lot messier with them; this is actually the hardest stage for this party.
In fact, Korgan falls. We use the rod on him, but that means he doesn't have any armor for the rest of the fight.
No, I don't actually have him attack unarmed. He re-equips everything but the armor before acting. Of course, he continues to suffer - charmed, dispelled, killed again.
That's another rod charge, then.
Rasaad falls next - but now Melissan is near death, and there are only a few demons left.
Haer'Dalis tries to raise him ... Bone Blades. No action possible. And then the damage catches up to Melissan, and it's over.
The cutscene raises Rasaad instead. Talking ensues.
And now, Magpie has a choice to make. Most of the party argues against godhood, but Korgan is all for it.
Still, after coming so far without magic ... Magpie chooses a mortal life. She has no wish to become a dog.
I'll add one more update after this, for epilogues and some final words. But this is the end of the gameplay. The experiment was a clear success.
Glad I inspired you. As I said, there's one more update this Friday to wrap it up. And then I'll be back to posting only one run at a time for a while.
The fire theme in IWD, huh? I don't have that game myself - if you do get that run off the ground, I might like to see it.
(The following epilogues use parts of the in-game epilogues, mixed with my own writing. After all, these characters have spent a long time together - they should affect each other.)
After the events in Tethyr, Magpie's company scattered. For while no foe could stand against their unified might, there were far too many threats to the peace for them to face them all together. While they might unite to face the greatest challenges, by and large they traveled in ones and twos.
Haer'Dalis found traveling with Magpie a fine introduction to the realms, and once they parted company, he was eager to see more. He attached himself to many adventuring groups over the years, always inspiring them to even greater deeds than they had accomplished before. And after parting ways with each group, he returned to the heroes he had grown with to exchange stories.
Perhaps his greatest adventure came when he befriended a female cambion and accompanied her to the Abyss, only to unintentionally end up leading a revolt on several layers that would depose a demon prince. For a time, Haer'Dalis was the most hunted man among the planes, but the ire of his enemies could not match his wanderlust. When the deposed prince's rivals eventually agreed to end their hunt in exchange for banishing the tiefling, he found his way to Sigil and reunited with Raelis' acting troupe. Through that reunion, the tales of Magpie and her band spread even to other material planes.
But even such a reunion could not last forever, and Haer'Dalis took up travel once again. No one knows where his travels ended, or even upon which plane.
The perils that Mazzy Fentan faced at the side of Magpie did nothing to dissuade her thirst for adventure. In fact, it was not long after the events in Tethyr that she formed the Fentan Knights, a stalwart band of heroes that spawned tales across the realms. They battled trolls to save endangered towns, turned back tides of orcs to preserve ancient forests, and faced a rogue dragon in its own lair just to make the world a better place.
At Keldorn's urging, the Radiant Heart even named Mazzy a paladin, and her Fentan Knights as a partner in the fight against evil. For all her risks, Mazzy passed peacefully at a ripe old age, knowing she could take pride in everything she had done.
After leaving Magpie's company, Korgan Bloodaxe joined the Fentan Knights for a time. In their company, he led from the front in slaughtering evil, even gaining a new name when he single-handedly slew an entire tribe of trolls with his legendary hammer. However, he found the knights' code of conduct restrictive, and after a disagreement over whether to negotiate with an orcish tribe that had not yet taken violent action, he left the order.
Instead, Korgan Trollhammer took over the battered Deepstone clan of dwarves, and brought them to new depths of power. While some suspected him of foul play in the takeover, these tales were eclipsed by those of the clan's deeds as they pushed deep into the Underdark. Even the dark elves were pushed back for a time, but holding territory in the home of the drow is a hopeless proposition. Korgan was last seen decapitating a high priestess of Lolth with his axe, laughing even as the drow overwhelmed his clan's battle lines in a vicious counterattack. Dwarven legend immortalized the image, and his bloodlust is now called a crusade. History, it seems, finds more heroes than madmen.
Keldorn Firecam thought his travels with Magpie marked the end of his active career, both as an adventurer and in service to the Order. He retired to Athkatla, hoping to live in as much peace as an old warrior can expect, but the call to serve came twice more. First, he joined Magpie and Rasaad to expose a cabal of Sharran infiltrators in the Sun Soul order, and finally restore Rasaad's good name among his fellow monks.
The second call came years later, in his sixtieth winter. Keldorn and five knights of the Order, supported by the bard Haer'Dalis, held a strategic pass against an army of giants until a relief force of Amnian soldiers and Fentan Knights could arrive. He won the day, but his wounds were severe, and the old paladin fell on the battlefield. As his knights watched, the hand of Torm descended upon the scene, and when it departed, Keldorn was gone. From that day, visions of the True God were accompanied by the stalwart ghostly form of Keldorn at his right hand.
Though Alorgoth was not seen for many years after the events in the Deepstone mines, he somehow survived that day. But by the time Alorgoth resurfaced, Rasaad's focus had moved from avenging his dead family members to caring for his new ones. Though he had eventually convinced the Sun Soul order of his good intentions, the strict conduct of monastic life no longer appealed to him. Instead, he and Magpie married and made a home together at Magpie's keep in the former de'Arnise lands. They often traveled in their early years together, but the frequency of these trips decreased as their children grew in number.
Their seven children were all taught the tenets of the Sun Soul philosophy, but only the youngest chose the monk's path.
Still, it was only a matter of time before the darkness that plagued Rasaad found this family as well. One pleasant spring evening, after all of the children had grown to adulthood and moved out, Rasaad and Magpie were set upon and killed by Sharran assassins. Another victory for Alorgoth, but one that would cost the Dark Moon dearly. That youngest child discovered the bodies and rallied a great force against the evil order. Monks of the Sun Soul, knights of both the Radiant Heart, dwarves of Deepstone, all seven of Magpie and Rasaad's children, and even Mazzy Fentan herself united against the Dark Moon sect, dealing them a blow they would never fully recover from.
End notes
Near-final kill counts - this is from the save just before the final battle against Melissan.
Magpie: 1008 kills for 5048652 XP. Her strongest kill was the nameless green dragon in Watcher's Keep, at 62K.
Korgan: 957 kills for 4806803 XP. His strongest kill was the red dragon Carnifex outside Abazigal's lair, at 64K.
Rasaad: 935 kills for 5284116 XP. His strongest kill was the vampire Bodhi, at 91K.
Haer'Dalis: 57 kills for 573186 XP. His strongest kill was the silver dragon Dolrassa in Lunia, at 58K.
Keldorn: 463 kills for 2423313 XP. His strongest kill was the red dragon Saladrex in Watcher's Keep, at 64K.
Mazzy: 612 kills for 3193388 XP. Her strongest kill was the red dragon Firkraag in the Windspear hills, at 64K.
Some things I planned never panned out. Exploding arrows? I never used them; my party was too vulnerable to fire. High-level scrolls stolen in ToB? I never used them either; I didn't need the experience or the combat boost. I recharged all of my spell-breaking items for the final battle, and then didn't use them either - Keldorn and Balthazar had the defense-breaking covered.
I took some snapshots of the characters' state just before the final battle with the resurrected Five. Hardiness and Enhanced Bard Song are active here, contributing to the stats.
Magpie:
Korgan:
Keldorn:
Rasaad:
Mazzy:
Haer'Dalis:
Then, after taking those shots, I played it out, just for fun. A few things were done differently, notably pre-summoning deva and placing traps slightly differently in another attempt at hitting Sendai.
My traps on that side hit Sarevok instead. The trio on the right still wend down easily enough, and Keldorn occupied Sendai on his own. I got to the stage of Melissan alone and summoning demons just fine. Then the charms started flying and characters started dying, and I quit. I might well have won anyway, but I didn't feel like it. Failing to disrupt Melissan's time stop hurt too.
I followed up with another run at the battle, and yet another trap placement. On the side platform? Nope; those don't fire at all.
Again, I get to the last phase easily enough. This time, I use some exploding arrows to thin out the demons, and the battle isn't too hard from there.
At this point, I look into the mechanics of Melissan's summons. Five gates on entering the final phase (Insane difficulty), each of which summons one to four demons. But all of these shut off if she needs to draw power. What happens if I beat her into retreating and drawing power before that final phase even starts?
Also, this time I put Sendai's traps on the bridge. They finally hit her ... but she's resistant. Not fully immune, but her buffs went up including an Armor of Faith. She lives, and it's not close. All right, lesson learned - it's just not worth it trying to hit her with spike traps.
Abazigal also avoids an instant death, but doesn't last long after that. We take one casualty in the first stage, losing Rasaad to Melissan's time stop - but he gets back up easily. We approach the end:
Korgan eventually gets a vorpal hit on the remaining Fallen Solar, then rejoins the party against Melissan.
Or... he tries, anyway. That Teleport Field sends him to the side platform, and he has to wait to be teleported back onto the main battlefield.
The beatdown succeeds ...
Now, kill Sarevok. He goes down just as Melissan finishes healing...
She still gets her demons. Checking ... the recovery spell resets that variable. There's no way to prevent the summoning.
Oh well. We play it out anyway, including the nastiness that is two Balors (11% chance of one per Gate). Rasaad dies again and gets raised ... hey, there's something new.
Bone Blades first to stop him from running, melee attacks from the Balors to finish the job.
Melissan manages a Time Stop ... then focuses on Balthazar.
He hits her a bit, then gives her the runaround. No real harm done.
Before too long ...
I choose godhood this time to see the slight epilogue difference ...
Uh, what? Rasaad never joined the Twofold. Something's odd here. Looking things up, Rasaad has three epilogues. There's only one romance epilogue, but there are two non-romance options - and apparently, choosing godhood shifts things to a non-romance choice.
Well, at least I know that this bunch can consistently win the final battle. When I played it out, I was three for three. And that's it for the saga. You don't need spellcasting to thoroughly beat this game and all of its challenges.
Wow this was an awesome read! I toyed with the idea of a "no arcane magic" run with a wizard slayer Charname but thought it impossible with SCS + Ascension. And you even did it without divine spells. That was great!
Comments
Now that we're done with the SoA campaign, it's a good time to take a bit of a break and look back. Story posts will resume Monday.
I took a snapshot of the party's kill stats here:
Magpie killed 700 foes for a total of 2319077 XP. Her strongest kill was a Balor for 46K in the final battle with Irenicus, eclipsing the earlier shadow dragon's 45K.
Korgan killed 623 foes for a total of 2251378 XP. His strongest kill was a Balor for 26K in the Underdark.
Rasaad killed 582 foes for a total of 2516490 XP. His strongest kill was Bodhi for 91K.
Haer'Dalis killed 42 foes for a total of 296686 XP. His strongest kill was Shangalar of the Twisted Rune for 50K.
Keldorn killed 232 foes for 823050 XP. His strongest kill was the demilich Kangaxx for 55K.
Mazzy killed 384 foes for 1546389 XP. Her strongest kill was the red dragon Firkraag for 64K.
So - fairly balanced. Keldorn lags well behind in kills, but his dispelling powers were absolutely crucial. And Haer'Dalis hardly got any kills at all, but that just wasn't his job.
We've come a long way from humble beginnings. Back in Irenicus' dungeon, we chose not to fight an ogre mage because it was too tough. By the end, we were casually wrecking mages capable of casting 9th level spells. In fact ... here's where I reloaded when things went wrong:
Aataqah's ogre mage - I avoided the fight the second time.
Kalah multiple times - I used a lucky run but also figured out a reliable item-based method.
Sewer bandits - I adjusted wand targeting so my bard didn't just stand there doing nothing.
Planar Prison twice - Yuan-ti mages got me, and I eventually scaled back my ambitions there. Mostly, I just didn't have the tools to simultaneously take on multiple mid-level mages at that point.
TorGal - Yuan-ti mages again. The second time around, I got them with cloudkills.
Watcher's Keep level 2 - A fire giant got me because I engaged it in melee without healing from the previous battle. Fix that blunder, and it was fine.
Wild Forest - I blundered into a repeating trap and got Neera killed. Merely playing cautiously did the trick the second time, but I could have just popped over to Watcher's Keep and raised her.
Beholder hive - I miscalculated, and went in with a buff that inspired a Remove Magic. I could have cleared the area anyway with the rest of my warriors, but reloaded and did it right.
Ust Natha's forces - I always expected this to be a non-canon diversion, but I had to try. Multiple times. And then I reloaded and just got out.
Thaxll'ssillyia - I woke the dragon unexpectedly with a summon, and reloaded to do things in a way that didn't catch Magpie with her aura down. We almost certainly would have won anyway.
The last time I actually needed to reload was against TorGal. Seven parts in out of 33 in the campaign. After that, the party really hit their stride. Mages couldn't do anything dangerous because we kept disrupting them. Illithids couldn't disable us because we always saved. Beholders couldn't do anything at all when we prepared fully and couldn't instantly kill us even when we didn't prepare at all. Even the fearsome demilich went down like a chump without casting anything.
Looking forward, I expect it to get harder from here. The party has already gained pretty much all they're going to get from levels, so only equipment will improve. Then again, there's a lot of good equipment in ToB ...
After what is simultaneously a long time and no time at all, the party arrives in Tethyr, to consult with some talking stone heads. We take the opportunity to shuffle some gear around; Keldorn gets the Beetle-Shell Bracers to maximize the effectiveness of Blackrazor haste.
Before we actually do the talking, we set some traps. I'm not aiming for Illasera herself, but taking some of the Black Reavers out early will greatly simplify the fight.
After a bit, Illasera arrives.
On victory, we are brought to a new place - a pocket plane formed of Magpie's Bhaal essence.
Cespenar forges lots of stuff for us, including three improved cloaks of protection. And then, it's on to the first challenge.
The early stages of the horde are quite easy, and once Blackrazor gets going Keldorn is a killing machine.
Unfortunately for us, Irenicus has -5 casting time. We can't stop his first spell.
The cloud there is a self-targeted Incendiary Cloud, which means it ignores magic resistance. I didn't realize this immediately, so Rasaad tries to fight in it. The stopped time also ends our enhanced bard song protection, and Haer'Dalis takes substantial damage from Bodhi's cloud of bats.
I move the fire resistance rings over to protect Magpie before the spells land ... successful.
The half of our party attacking Irenicus is first to succeed.
The end comes swiftly after that. First Irenicus, then Bodhi.
And now, Saradush. We arrive, and Melissan is a jerk who immediately forces a fight.
The guards here have plenty of levels, but rather uneven equipment quality.
Anyway, we finish this bunch, and Melissan exposits.
A nearby child mourns his fallen father, so we help him out.
To the southwest, we run into a "Cold Mistress":
We scare off some brawlers and soldiers, then find sanctuary for some elves - that's reputation 20. These little errands also bring Haer'Dalis up to level 35, and he takes Avoid Death. Then, we enter the tavern.
I try Aura of Command from the upgraded Helm of the Rock on Viekang ... no effect. It's not one of the fear spells he recognizes.
We help out Lazarus and warn Hectan:
The guard barracks comes next.
We will take on the real dangers of Saradush next time.
We've picked up a key, and we use it to enter the vampire-infested prison.
Killing a few more lesser vampires brings Mazzy to level 30; she masters two-weapon style and takes Deathblow. Then we come to a grave; we kept the extra holy water from chapter 6, so we can sanctify it immediately.
There's one door in here that resists Magpie's 110 lockpick skill, and even the 135 for adding the ring of lockpicks. I'm not carrying any master thievery potions, so I use a mind focusing potion instead to reach 150...
In there, the staff of the magi lets Magpie complete the stealth mission of disarming the traps...
We loot the containers, picking up the scabbard to upgrade Foebane. One trap eludes Magpie's detection, and drains her level. After a quick trip to the pocket plane for that upgrade, I head down to the sewer ... and notice the drain. Haer'Dalis spends a scroll to restore her.
Down in the sewer, devil shades await. Time for that mace of disruption again.
We clear out those reinforcements, and the moment of calm brings level 33 for Rasaad. He takes Greater Deathblow.
Over in the west, we find the first mage among the invaders.
The central chamber holds a large group of sappers introduced by a cutscene:
There's another mage in the east. I leave out the True Sight this time, using Magpie's thief skills instead.
The mage reveals himself to try to cast something ...
The first floor holds a party, including an Il-Khan Battle Mage we'll have to pay attention to.
That just leaves Gromnir himself. Head up ...
Fortunately, I made a save right there. This time around, Keldorn activates True Sight before going up.
While the dispel works, the follow-up attacks aren't fast enough to stop Karun's Time Stop.
All right, take two. This time, I'm using that Cloudkill at the first opportunity. With so many dangerous warriors on the field, I need the mages disrupted for minimal effort.
Haer'Dalis adds more poisonous clouds, as Karun tries to escape their influence. And all the warriors use Hardiness.
And then the Cloudkills pay off.
Magpie uses Critical Strike on the rogue:
With just Gromnir and a soldier left, I have Keldorn and Korgan whirl. I switch Korgan's weapons, but this turns out not to matter; Gromnir has 25% innate physical resistance and Hardiness, but he doesn't wear Roranach's Horn.
Melissan comes in for a chat, and we can now leave Saradush. Things have opened up for us.
Now that we can leave ... we don't. First, we have some intrigue to deal with. Also, Magpie summons a familiar for 24 more HP. Rest, then on to investigate a traitor.
Since there are thieves around, I use a True Sight ...
The enemy mage is back out of sight; once we approach, the initial chain contingency goes off. It includes a djinn summon, which casts a Stinking Cloud ...
My initial attacks run into PfMW, and the mage gets up to cast a Time Stop. Also, the rest of her prebuffs trigger.
I steal some high-level scrolls for potential later use (that never materializes) and hit the road. That takes the party right into elements of Yaga-Shura's army.
Once they're dealt with, we gain access to a new merchant - Karthis. He provides some scrolls, a potion case, a magic fish, and a rod of resurrection. We even pay for that last one.
The area doesn't just have soldiers, though. There are a few fire giants here, too.
A mage follows, and this one has PfMW up. All right, I can just get out the normal weapons.
There are a couple clerics further north; without any soldiers to distract us, they die before they can cast anything. And that's the map. Nothing here required more than simple attacks.
We leave the map, traveling to the creepy temple in the forest. But on the way, followers of Shar interrupt us.
The assassin is revealed, and then re-ups invisibility; True Sight doesn't stop him from using his stack of four invisibility potions. And as a level 21 assassin, we really don't want him landing that backstab.
Then the mage casts a Lightning Bolt ... targeting Haer'Dalis, who has the Harper Pin on.
Then Magpie's illusion detection goes off, and the assassin is visible with no way to hide again so soon. Magpie and Keldorn take advantage.
Oh, and there was a monk in this ambush too. He was so little of a threat that I never mentioned him in my log. Only a taunt in one of the pictures proves his presence.
Before we go off to the dwarven stronghold, we head to our original traveling destination. Magpie equips the Mace of Disruption in her off hand in preparation.
Before long, those shades are down.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 36 here, taking mace proficiency and Evasion. We wait out Korgan's rage and the winded period, then step forward for the skeletons.
Draw them out piecemeal. The warriors and assassin come first, and Keldorn uses True Sight. It doesn't immediately reveal the assassin, and I start wondering if non-detection is in play ... no, it must have just been behind something.
The assassin is revealed and becomes the party's main target, while Keldorn charges with double-haste for the mage. A dispel breaks its defenses, and he attacks.
We chat with Nyalee, and that's it for the first trip here. Now, it's time to divert from the main plot for some character quests.
Since Rasaad is in the party already, his ToB quest comes first. We picked up the map to Deepstone last time, and now we travel there. A dwarf by the name of Lemp Coldhearth greets us.
After leaving the camp, another dwarf warns us of trouble, and we fight our first Sharrans.
The other guards are armed conventionally with +1 arrows. They actually deal more damage.
Over at the lumber camp, the monk overseer is quick to die.
Among the other foes present, only the mercenaries and the priest matter. The regular overseers are armed with nonmagical clubs, making them no threar.
This brings us directly down into the mine, where we face some Dark Moon monks.
We clear out a few more Sharrans, and Mazzy reaches level 31:
Also, note all the healing potions that enemy dropped? We're picking up a ton here, and we haven't used any.
We could continue toward Alorgoth, but we head back up into the stronghold instead. There are more Sharrans to fight up here, after all.
This fight is tough enough, mostly from the sheer number of enemies, that two of our warriors drop below half health.
An assassin gets involved - keep up that illusion detection.
Actually, that latter level comes after a side room.
The next challenge here is Alorgoth's room - not to defeat the enemies, but to get the items before they burn.
We beat the five-round timer to get inside the room, and that means we can talk to Shani. With our high charisma, she just hands over the items.
There are a few more bits to deal with on this floor - a priest and some assassins.
After some regeneration, it's back out to the surface. If we clear the whole mine, the door guards go away - and I'd like the rewards for killing them.
Anyway, we have other foes to worry about - like the high-level mage at the door.
Then Tallus uses the grog again.
Also, that Time Stop should have run out the sorcerer's PfMW. Keldorn switches to kuo-toa bolts. Once we clear out most of the warriors, Magpie joins him in attacking at range.
Now, for the last part of the mine. Across a bridge, we find a group of Sharrans overseeing mining efforts.
After the battle, we convince the surviving dwarves to fall back. We'll take on the remaining foes on our own.
There's a large group in the last room here, and it's a serious fight. I go for ranged attacks against the spellcasters, and Confusion for the warriors.
With nearly all of the guards dead, some Shadow Creatures spawn in. They're level 11, so I have Mazzy use Greater Deathblow ... no. They're immune to "slay" effects as part of their general undead immunities.
With that, we enter the shadow plane. More of these shadow creatures await, and Mapgie takes the off-hand mace of disruption.
Now, it's time for Neera's quest. We head back to the North forest, and swap out Korgan for Neera. Neera gets the Staff of the Magi and turns off auto-attacks; she might throw a dagger or use a wand on occasion, but mainly she's just there so the quest can happen.
We rest, and the action begins. The traps don't do quite what I wanted; three knights die, but none of the mages are affected.
The cutscene continues with Neera attempting to cast a spell and failing:
Vicross taunts us, and that opens up a perfect retort.
Well, OK, wands help. I go for a triple Cloudkill to deal with the enemy mages. Keldorn and Mazzy aren't poison-immune, so they switch to ranged weaponry.
Unfortunately, that mage also opened with a chain contingency including a self-targeted Incendiary Cloud. Rasaad gets burned despite his magic resistance.
More mages fall, but one escapes the cloud. And I'm pretty sure it's the high-level one.
Soon, the clouds of fire and poison eliminate the fighters as well, and only the one mage remains. He's an invoker focused on damage, so Magpie just duels him and relies on the protection of the cloak of mirroring.
... and we are dragged off to Thay.
Then our "ally" Voghiln casts a Lightning Bolt. It hits Neera for more than half of her hit points, then kills her on the rebound.
After a bit more fighting to thin out the melee foes, the party charges into the poison cloud to take out the mages quickly.
With the battle complete, Magpie levels up. Thief level 24, Greater Whirlwind #4, 25 more points in stealth.
We leave the arena and enter the staging area. Szass Tam has a mission for us, but we can shop first.
The Weapon Merchant sells +1 to +3 weapons of all sorts ... and some special ammo. One stack of ten arrows of detonation. Sell our ten, buy ten stacks, repeat ...
Incidentally, arrows of detonation have different stats in BG2EE than in BGEE. They both auto-hit and cause the same explosion, but the BGEE arrows also deal physical damage and the BG2EE arrows don't.
Molzahn of Tymora has priest scrolls and temple services. We buy some of those scrolls, not that we're likely to use them.
Hue Greenleaf has a Helm of Defense and a +4 shield with lightning protection. The Helm of Balduran is finally superseded. We also buy a +3 buckler, though none of the current party wants it.
The Magical Item Merchant offers the unique Cloak of the Lich, another ring of regeneration, some AC belts, and another ring of invisibility. We leave the wands, though - we're already well-supplied.
From Bellowgulp's potion stocks, we pick up some anti-magic potions, including the otherwise unavailable potions of magic blocking.
The Book Merchant sells us a few high level scrolls, in case we ever decide to use them.
And now, on to Vicross' estate. Incidentally, the area has unique battle music - awesome.
For the guards around the edges, stealth and backstabs are the order of the day.
Of course, after an initial stab, we send in the party to finish the job.
A mage comes next:
Then the other side:
And now, the last of the wizards.
We start with a conversation, as usual:
We hit her hard, but not quite hard enough to kill her before her invisibility contingency activates. Time to fight the guards instead. And those elite guards hit hard.
Meanwhile ... Vicross isn't fighting. She's running around trying to find Neera instead. Well, I'll take it. The guards fall, and it's time to hunt a new target.
The one key piece of loot from this area? It's not anything Vicross had. Instead, it's from one of her elite guards - a rod of reversal. Three charges to start, rechargeable up to ten. We can take down any spell defenses now, and everyone but Rasaad (in our normal party) can use it.
Now, we set a couple of traps and ring the bell.
With that, Neera's quest is done. We leave her behind and take back Korgan. Watcher's Keep is next.
Over at the keep, we first pick up the stuff we stashed here in SoA and buy the short sword of Mask. Now, back to the action.
Our stash included lots of strength potions, so I use some on Keldorn and Mazzy. All of our warriors have 19+ strength with the potions active.
We're back in the maze we briefly dipped into earlier, and I choose to deviate from my usual path. I intend to face Ka'rashur first, and that means heading west first from the compass room.
That first room, then, is the wild magic room full of quasits. They get a bit flashy with their wild surges:
South next, to the succubus. And that means we get out the drain protection.
Continuing south takes us to Ka'rashur.
The demons are more restrictive - no cleric, paladin, or lawful good player 1, no good or lawful neutral for who they talk to.
You enter the room in standard formation, so you might be able to manipulate who gets talked to a bit. Put someone less good on point, and you might be able to get the deal even if your protagonist doesn't pass the second alignment check.
And no characters interject to object. Keldorn has no problems with this deal with devils.
From there, we head north and west to the dead magic room with assorted devils. Wait our Korgan's winded state, then enter. Dead magic wipes out our strength potions, but otherwise isn't a problem.
This bunch goes down fast to our melee power.
We disarm the traps and regenerate. Now, for the demons.
Since we've accepted a deal, it's a fight right away.
Eventually, the fire storm expires and Tahazzar goes down.
We pick up the loot and head back to Ka'rashur. Also, regenerate and drink new strength potions.
The next fight, though ... I save before entering the room. The summoners are brutal.
First, planning. The ice summons don't have magical weapons, so they're irrelevant. The fire summons are real threats, and that means the fire summoners are our highest priority. They have too many hit points for deathblows, but they do have the "summoned" gender ... OK, I have a plan B.
We choose our first target. Dispel defenses, attack.
On to the next target, which also needs a dispel.
Haer'Dalis reaches level 38 in this fight, taking a second Exploding Trap.
Now, I'd like to show plan B.
Back on the canon path, we head west to the tiefling party. After regenerating, of course.
The mage ... goes down before her defenses even go up.
The next room has a cambion and some demon knights, so we get out the drain protection.
Only ... the cambion is invisible, and the demon knights haven't arrived yet. True sight.
Still, we can detect illusions and reveal twice per round, faster than the enemy can use potions. The demon knights teleport in and we get to fighting them - Remove Magic zaps our strength potions again.
Three invisibility potions in, we finally get a good chance to swarm the cambion and take him down. There's only one demon knight left at that point, and we finish it off. Korgan reaches level 33, taking spear proficiency and a third Hardiness.
I meant to have another picture here, but somehow I didn't take it.
Now, for the wraith room. I turn off party AI so I won't blunder into the traps. That first one is a Wail of the Banshee, after all. The rest aren't nearly as bad, but they're still dangerous high-level spell effects. Magpie also takes off her armor and drinks a potion of defense.
Haer'Dalis isn't attacking - he's activating Sunray.
We're down to one of Keldorn's daily dispels, so we head up to the pocket plane for a rest and to make some new gear. White Dragon Scale? Nah, Magpie will just stick with her full plate and protection ring.
Korgan decides to speak with Magpie on what is to come ... but he actually just speaks with whoever's nearest.
On to Aesgareth, and we will shamelessly save-scum the results of the Deck of Many Things.
First roll, for Spectral Brand. Plague for Magpie (low-Con curse), Construct for Aesgareth. We lose. Same rolls the second time. Plague versus Triumph the third time, and still a loss. Fourth roll, Strife for Magpie (slow curse), Triumph for Aesgareth. That's a win.
Second round, for a scroll of Wish. Guile (fight some assassins) versus Defiance. We lose. Second roll. Strength (low-Str curse) against Defiance. We win.
And now, the third round for the way out. High Priestess silences Magpie, and the deva we already have out breaks the curse. Magpie reaches fighter 21, taking two-weapon mastery and her second Hardiness. Mazzy reaches level 33, taking short sword specialization and her third Hardiness.
Aesgareth draws the Wheel and wins. Sore loser time.
The mage has abjuration immunity and PfMW up. We can't dispel that easily, so Keldorn reveals her with True Sight instead.
The archer follows up by using a Greater Whirlwind, so that's our next target. I'm not sure if he got off any of those attacks.
The cleric falls next - we have no problem going into melee against a blade barrier.
And also, we have the Deck. Star on Magpie or Haer'Dalis would be good - a point of AC - but the +1 AC and +1 saves from Key is better. The others would gain strength, which isn't worth it for any of them. Korgan going from 18/77 to 19 would be nice, but he uses Crom Faeyr full time. On the third draw, any of Comet, Moon, or Throne would be acceptable.
After the Teleport Field ends, I can save. Now, we play.
First draw: Euryale, Jester, Donjon.
Third draw: Moon.
We draw one last time to send the deck away, and move on to the next floor.
We've faced the Blood War level; now, it's the Astral War between githyanki and illithids. We start in the middle between the two sides, next to Carston in the machine. He gets mad when we talk to him, and unleashes a Minor Lightning Bolt ... which ignores both magic resistance and the Cloak of Mirroring.
The first combat is a shade pack near the northern doors. Since it includes Devil Shades, I get out the drain protections.
Heading east, I run into a seriously anemic pack - only a troll and three yuan-ti?
Looking it up, the spawn points on this level each pick between several possible monster groups - and some of them really are that weak.
The other side of that section at least has some better trolls:
The last encounter on this side is a pair of magic golems guarding the Blue Oil.
Over in the other half of the area, there are some mimics. They try their one trick ...
After clearing out a few more critters, we can't do anything more with this area until we retrieve some key items. On to the illithids. Mazzy drinks a potion of mind focusing so she can survive two hits, Keldorn drinks a potion of agility for better AC, and Keldorn and Mazzy drink strength 20 potions.
After talking to the apprentice and looting the room, we continue south.
For all the crowd in this room, none of the illithids hit us in melee even once. It's all spell damage - a lot of it, but spread around enough that it isn't a problem.
Back in the north, we pick up the other key half - and this room is mostly empty, with any illithids that were there having teleported over to us earlier. That opens the way to the vampiric illithids...
Immediately after we enter, we face the dangerous anti-paladin.
Facing the last few of them, I let song protection lapse, and Korgan fails a save.
Angurvadal is ours - nice sword, but it goes into storage.
And now, the demilich. I switch around weapons so that all of our primary weapons are +4 or better with non-physical damage and all of the off-hands are either +4 or better or grant an additional attack. No other buffs added, except the still active strength potions.
Saladrex comes next. We buff with fire resistance; Magpie drinks a potion and Rasaad activates Greater Sun, leaving everybody at 50% or more.
This is the point where I finally give in. It's time to break that spell defense and dispel him. Two hits of Pierce Magic from wands of spell striking, and Keldorn can dispel him.
We light the torches, regenerate, and pull out a couple more strength potions for Rock and Garock.
Since Garock teleported away, we focus on Rock, and he is first to fall.
We turn to Garock:
At Lum's machine, I spread things around a bit. Korgan gets to break Carston out; we let him go, and get his journal.
Keldorn has the highest wisdom, so he boosts it further; none of our party actually uses the stat for anything.
Rasaad gets constitution, for a 9 HP increase.
Mazzy picks up Storm Star, which we have no real use for.
Haer'Dalis gets intelligence, so he can use the golem summoning book.
Magpie gets charisma (20), strength (19), dexterity (24), magic resistance, and opens the portal down.
With the experience reward for that last bit, Rasaad reaches level 37 and takes his seventh Greater Whirlwind.
I shuffle some equipment around to take the new stats into account - Magpie doesn't need a belt of strength, for one. With that in mind, here's a snapshot of Magpie as she is now:
The items, for those that don't recognize some of the graphics: Armor - Full Plate Mail. Gauntlet - Wondrous Gloves. Helm - Gift of Peace. Amulet - Heart of the Mountain. Ring 1 - The Guard's Ring +2. Ring 2 - Ring of Gaxx. Cloak - Cloak of Mirroring. Boots - Boots of Speed. Belt - Destroyer of the Hills. Weapon 1 - Celestial Fury +3. Weapon 2 - Firetooth +3. Off-hand weapon - Ninjato of the Scarlet Brotherhood +3. Quiver 1 - Arrows of Dispelling. Quiver 2 - Arrows of Dispelling. Quiver 3 - Arrows of Detonation. Quick 1 - Harp of Discord (or maybe Pandemonium). Quick 2 - Artifact of a True Furry Paragon (mod item, adds +2 to Str for one turn). Quick 3 - Potions of Superior Healing.
We are ready to face the final seals, and the Imprisoned One ... next time.
On the final seal level, our first target is the globe machine. Blue comes first, with traps.
Green comes next. Mutated Spiders. Umber Hulks. Greater Earth Elementals. These are no problem, and Mazzy reaches level 34 with the hulks. She takes her sixth Greater Whirlwind.
The fourth globe calls beholders, so we prepare just a bit. Haer'Dalis uses the boots of hastened departure.
Red comes next. Hobgoblins, kuo-toa, trolls, and greater wolfweres. We don't break a sweat.
Last up, purple. We warm up with some skeleton warriors. Then come two rounds of level drainers.
The last round here is a pair of liches, and I set a trap.
The elemental lich goes into a Time Stop sequence:
Then the second lich casts its Time Stop. Symbol:Fear, Horrid Wilting, Cloudkill. Just as the spells arrive with the Time Stop's end...
Equip Spectral Brand since liches will never fail a save against Celestial Fury Stun ...
We use the key right away, and face the Rilmani. They're powerful melee attackers, their leader gets spells, and they're all immune to Time Stop. Seriously, don't use that Time Trap here. Also don't use spike traps - they're immune to magic damage.
Now, on to the three trials presided over by the Helmite Ghost. First, a horde of orcs.
The next challenge is a green dragon. We initially spread out to reduce the breath risk:
The third challenge is a riddling imp. No combat, just do the math. Rasaad reaches level 38 and takes his eighth Greater Whirlwind.
We have now earned the Heart Key, and the right to face the assorted fiendish females. For this fight, we set a full array of traps. Five normal, two exploding.
Turning the key brings a level. Magpie is now a level 22 fighter, and has another Greater Whirlwind.
Three warriors go after the priestess Ameralis Zauviir. She is next to fall.
In retrospect ... we weren't actually safe. Some of the Hive Mother rays have tougher save penalties than standard beholder rays, and that could have burned us. Keep that in mind for later...
Magpie claims the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, going up to five total attacks per round. Once the Maze ends, Mazzy goes up to level 35, taking Resist Magic.
We don't bother regenerating before moving on to the last section. The altar is guarded by golems ...
We use the altar, and guide the spirit warrior...
We set a few traps before using the Spirit Key ...
Opening the portal brings level 31 for Keldorn, and Resist Magic. We talk with the Imprisoned One, set our remaining traps, and read the scroll. Four Spike Traps and one normal trap won't be everything, but it'll make a pretty big dent. Yet more levels come at this point - Korgan to level 36 and spear specialization, Rasaad to 39. Each takes another Greater Whirlwind.
Now, for the fight. I buff with a fire resistance potion for Rasaad and Hardiness for all of the warriors.
The demon opens with a PfMW, so we dispel it and whirl:
First, I try some dispel bait, to trick Demogorgon into not using that Time Stop.
For the third try, I go for resistance instead. I haven't upgraded the Staff of the Ram yet, so Magpie can equip Roranach's Horn for 90% resistance.
Then I raise Korgan so he can keep fighting.
All right, back up to the pocket plane for a bunch of upgrades. And then, rest. With a full complement of abilities ready, we lay a full seven spike traps.
Mazzy reaches level 36, taking short sword mastery and her seventh Greater Whirlwind. The entire party is over 7 million experience now.
Up top, we demand a reward. It's not much, but it's something. We pick up another 50K experience each not shown in that shot, and we're done with Watcher's Keep for good.
On any difficulty lower than Insane, Demogorgon doesn't get that Time Stop. That's the element that really caused trouble here, and forced us to resort to full trap mode.
This part's title was inspired by a typo.
Now, back to the main plot. It's time to strike at the heart of Yaga-Shura's power. First, we head back to Saradush one last time, selling off some generic magical weapons at the temple and earning over 300K gold. Then, over to the Marching Mountains. We rest after arrival, since it has been 28 hours of travel since our last rest.
The exterior area has some random fire giants - dangerous, but easily isolated. One or two at a time, they're not too bad. And then, there are the tiny Bhaalspawn.
Toop goes down first. We follow up by revealing Merlinious with a True Sight and crushing him. Then Tibbit activates a Whirlwind ...
Finally, Chinchilla gets bashed.
The fire giants nearby are on a quick respawn timer, so we have to fight them again as we leave this nook. That causes some injury, and we pause for regeneration before entering the stronghold.
Inside, a veritable army of fire giants awaits. Some of them start out in a weird invisible state, not yet taking actions but vulnerable to attack - we take advantage of this to kill one.
After regenerating to full, we pop back in. One giant down, then two more HLAs...
We stay in the fight this time, and Rasaad becomes the target of a whirling giant - retreat.
This party is vulnerable to fire, so I note the ground hazards ... avoid lava pools, but the channels between them and the grates at the entrance are safe.
Still, lava pools can't be avoided completely. Korgan borrows another fire resistance ring and ventures into one to loot the container.
Korgan reaches level 37 for his eighth Greater Whirlwind, Keldorn reaches level 32 for his second Hardiness, and we pick up the strength 22 belt. All five of our warriors now have 19 strength or better without the need for potions.
On the other side, Magpie goes for a backstab on an elite fire giant ...
I go for another stab ... bad angle. Just a regular attack for 32 damage. And now, the elite reaches the party. It drank an oil of speed, so I hit it with a dispelling arrow.
With the giants' rages expired, having Keldorn use some kuo-toa bolts to stun them works very well.
We head back up to the side room that the giants came from, and there's another elite. Oil of Speed and rage. That one gets a dispelling arrow too, but still inflicts enough damage to bring Magpie down to about a third of her full health.
It's time for another regeneration break - not too long, because I can shuffle gear around to stack multiple regeneration items on a single character. At about five HP per round, that's only a couple minutes real time.
After that, it's time to hit another container - golems.
We use the wardstones to open the blocked paths, and hit the next area. This one has the fire lich. I retreat immediately after triggering its prebuffs.
The container here summons fire elementals and Burning Men. Nothing too bad, since Haer'Dalis is giving the party fear immunity.
The last side room has a Flaming Skull in it. It targets Korgan with an Incendiary Cloud, and we manage to mostly dodge that spell.
The last Burning Man hangs out in the lava unwilling to come out and fight, so we hit it with ranged attacks. This brings Magpie to thief level 27, and her third Hardiness.
The deva's remaining spells speed our healing, and we open up the last container.
The way up brings another chunk of experience, and Magpie reaches fighter level 23, for her second Time Trap.
There are more fire giants upstairs, of course.
Now, we're in an interesting position. The main doors can't be opened. The only way forward is a narrow passage - too narrow for fire giants. And that means we're in a perfect position to abuse backstabs, retreating to safety each time.
An elite is next; it drinks an oil of speed, so Magpie gets out the Mana Bow and an arrow of dispelling (THAC0 -13, despite no proficiency). But ... no, it seems to have vacated the immediate area. Instead, Magpie draws out a Fell Cat; these see through invisibility, so she pulls it back to the party. Mazzy reaches level 37 with this, taking her eighth Greater Whirlwind.
And now, Berenn notices us.
Berenn gets a stab for 106, Magpie gets burned by the dragon's breath weapon, and Berenn casts Heal.
Now, with the dragon's attention fully on us, the backstab plan is off. We head for the other door and engage properly.
After whacking an aerial servant, Magpie whiffs on Berenn with a critical miss. The next swing is a natural 20 for 130 damage. Then she goes after the other giants - two hits to kill the regular, two hits on an elite...
The next swing is at Berenn, and he responds to the damage by going into Sanctuary. A hit on the remaining elite triggers a morale failure; Magpie goes for more hits, but only gets one off before she has to come back.
The next swing is at a regular, and her stealth expires before she can swing. No backstab, and Magpie takes a hit in return. Hit that regular on the next try, and it's another morale failure - the giants are getting pretty thin. Berenn wastes his Sanctuary with an ineffective Flame Strike, and now it's time to bring in the team. One more backstab, attack with all.
The remaining giants, badly injured, are no threat. Yaga-Shura's heart is ours. Now, for the last little section.
There are a couple of Burning Men where Imix was; they're standing on traps, so they get ranged attacks. We pick up the second heart, release the slave, and head out. Now, we're ready to make Yaga-Shura mortal.
The typo that inspired this part's title was made during another part. But since "fire" had no major role there, I used it here instead.
We travel to Nyalee, and for this fight she has a mirror of opposition. As such, I'll stack the deck with my weapon choices. I unequip my party's magical weapons before speaking to her.
It goes on a while, and I use a couple healing potions, but there's never any real danger.
And now, we travel to the siege camp. A cutscene plays, and Saradush burns. A group of fleeing peasants appears, and we manage to save them - but then the army comes. This will be a long battle.
You can push forward and end the battle by reaching Yaga-Shura, but if you don't it's a fixed count. And with our song-protected party, the regular soldiers can't do anything. Only the officers, the giants, and the spellcasters matter.
Then another of those Greater Command spells knocks out Korgan and Keldorn. Oops. Both the bell and the innate dispel ability are out of reach. I get out the dispelling arrows instead, and have Magpie shoot both of them.
Rasaad takes a brutal crit from a fire giant:
Rasaad lives though, and he's able to dodge out of the way and drink some healing potions. But of course, that's not the only giant.
Korgan goes up to level 38, taking his ninth Greater Whirlwind.
After a regeneration break, we continue forward to Yaga-Shura. Hit him for some minor damage, and he leaves.
Yaga-Shura returns, and he triggers one of the spike traps.
The lieutenants start showing up ...
The party engages the fighter ...
Oh well, we just crowd in and start swinging.
The giant puts up an Aura of Flaming Death - breach that before we take too much damage. And then ...
The Solar calls Magpie up, and she goes for good answers here. The next pocket plane challenge is open. But first, the experience rewards provide some levels - Keldorn to level 33 (two-handed specialization and his third Hardiness), Mazzy to level 38 (her ninth Greater Whirlwind).
We head up to the pocket plane immediately to take on that challenge. Since the alternate PC wields Blackrazor, I get out the drain protection - Amulet of Power for Keldorn, rage for Korgan, off-hand Runehammer for Magpie, off-hand Mace of Disruption for Mazzy.
Now, before progressing, it's Dorn's turn. Magpie turns into the Slayer to lower her reputation to 18, then summons him. Dorn takes Mazzy's place in the party and levels to 16. I give him Soul Reaver to wield.
Then we wander around aimlessly for a week. The timer runs out ...
Not far in, we find a planetar giving out sigils - all right, we'd like one.
Down in the south, we meet a former acquaintance:
After setting some traps, the tree in the is next - but first, we maze Dorn so that Magpie can pick some fruit in peace.
I go back to the tree once the maze expires, and Dorn seems to no longer be interested in defiling it. Convenient.
Now, the scroll we came here for. We try to talk our way to it ... nope. This is a guaranteed fight.
Dorn and Magpie erased. Sendai and Abazigal inscribed. Now we head out. There's a group at the tree upset over the defining that didn't happen:
There's a lull after that, and I take some levels. Magpie reaches thief level 28, improving her stealth still more and taking her fifth Spike Trap. Korgan reaches level 39, taking spear mastery and his fourth Hardiness.
And now, dragons.
We wait for some regeneration, then head for the exit.
But ... oops. One of the petitioners cast an incendiary cloud, and the other two didn't put up fire protection.
We swap out Dorn, then head back down to the clearing. Most of the party has something to say, but Keldorn is silent.
Now we go forward. Mount Deepstone opens up a back way to Amkethran, but we'll head through the oasis anyway.
That just leaves soldiers, at least in the immediate area. They're seriously outmatched.
In Amkethran, we meet with Balthazar first. He's brusque, but points us to Sendai and Abazigal. Captain Erelon comes next.
So instead, I have Rasaad zap him for that final blow ... magic resistance. Oh, come on. Erelon also has an inexplicable 63% magic resistance. All right, Keldorn, just dispel him.
One hit later, Erelon is dead.
Saemon gets in trouble and blames us - so, nothing new. There are some mercenaries fighting each other in the west ...
We head back to the pocket plane for a rest, and then bring in Hexxat. Haer'Dalis stays back this time. We meet with Cabrina in the tavern, and we're off to the last tomb.
A couple fights in, I reach a milestone - Magpie reaches the experience cap. Fighter level 24, two-handed style, and her sixth spike trap.
The first notable enemy is a greater mummy with cleric spells:
After some more mummies and bone fiends, we run into Umolex. He wants dead bodies.
A bit later - actually, from some trap XP - Keldorn reaches level 34. He takes his sixth greater whirlwind with this last level. He's also the only party member who doesn't level up exactly at the cap.
Up next, it's sand golems. Korgan takes the lead, with Crom Faeyr in his main hand.
The next golem after that room gets a hit in. Korgan is now cursed. But then, he's regenerating three hit points per round, and I still have a deva in reserve. I'm not worried.
Some beholders follow...
A side path leads to the gnome Culak:
Finally, we're on to the last quadrant, and the barrier only Hexxat can traverse.
Not that we take advantage. We just draw him back and beat him up the conventional way.
With the barrier down, we can take on Phreya and the lich simulacrum.
There's only one foe left - the real lich. Hexxat stays back, and Rasaad activates Greater Sun for resistance - this lich has burned me with Dragon Breath before.
... and we are transported elsewhere to meet with her patron. Hexxat wishes for mortality and death? All right.
We are teleported back to the tavern ... and Magpie has lost her Pocket Plane ability. Fortunately, resting again fixes that. We bring back Haer'Dalis, and head out to continue dealing with Amkethran's problems.
Then it's a priest's turn:
Finally, some smugglers:
Now that we've cleared up the smaller encounters, it's time to talk to Marlowe. We shuttle back and forth a bit, then bring Marlowe so that Malla's soul can be restored. Once we have the soul ...
While the rest of the party is trying to deal with the lich, Korgan is running around having fun with the Runehammer:
After clearing out some lesser undead, we spin the wheels.
That concludes our business in Amkethran. Next time, we will continue our hunt of the Five.
Now, Abazigal or Sendai first? I look to my weapons to decide ... and the only one of the party's primary weapons that could use an upgrade is the Flail of Ages. Abazigal it is.
We are greeted by Draconis.
We beat him down easily, taking no damage in this phase. And then he transforms.
Unfortunately, this form has dispel protection. PfMW backed by abjuration immunity. We need to break his defenses...
Those still don't clear the way for a dispel. But the attacks ...
In retrospect, what I experienced with those spell-breaking attacks was a bug. Human-form Draconis must have had another defense in addition to the Spell Shield - probably a Spell Turning or Spell Deflection - and the transformation to dragon form made that defense unbreakable. Maybe I could have burned through it with targeted spells, but specific removal spells had no chance. All those wand and rod shots tried to remove it and failed, leaving the lower-level spell defenses like abjuration immunity in place. I didn't realize this, and yet I somehow won anyway.
The monk bracers go to Haer'Dalis, as an improvement over his paladin bracers. If we need the healing magic, we can always pull those out of storage.
After regenerating, we enter the lair. The greater werewyvern ...
Of course, that just means we need a longer regeneration break. Once that's done with, we follow the one usable pool, to more lizard men. The shamans put up combat protections which we dispel immediately, and also launch Creeping Doom. Enhanced Bard Song can counter that, but it's not up yet after the trip through the tunnel.
Once that's done, we're off to the next dragon fight.
The amulet grants immunity to wing buffets. I won't use it. But then, I wouldn't have used the armor either.
After some regeneration, we head back to the travel pool. Some devils ambush us:
With the breath potion, we can take on the next area. This one is full of water elementals and kuo-toa.
Well, OK, he's not perfect for all of them.
Once the fight is done, Rasaad takes his final level, and a fourth Hardiness.
This leads to a chat with an imprisoned monk, and Hindo's Hand ... but a lack of rope. We'll need to go back to town, because the rope we have is the wrong kind. We also take this opportunity for some upgrades - the bag of plenty, Hindo's Doom, the Heartwood Ring, and Montolio's Cloak. Only Hindo's Doom sees immediate use, replacing the Sword of Balduran in Rasaad's off hand.
We come back, and ...
The other black dragon hastes up but doesn't add PfMW, so we hit him with the Staff of the Magi.
Next, a green dragon comes in. Continue the beatdown ...
The ways are now open inside the lair; we can use all of the pools. On the second try, I find the cave of eyes.
The other members of the party are fighting the Death Tyrants and Tyrant Golems; the latter are troublesome mainly because they're so resistant to damage. 90% physical resistance, 100% immunity to elemental damage and magic. Because of this, the fight takes a while - long enough for Korgan to get slowed and take heavy damage.
Now that the main battles in this area are over, we meet Iycanth - and do some subcontracting.
Then we go after that cave anyway, and fight the elder orbs.
Another pool in the main cave leads us to Iycanth, and we make the trade. Haer'Dalis reaches the level 40 cap, taking Sword and Shield style and his ninth Spike Trap.
We free the guardian Fll'Yissetat, and that opens the way to Abazigal.
Entering the area ... oops. I forgot to apply another update I made, so the Planetar of Justice shows up immediately and just stays at the entrance. Oops. I set up spike traps here, anyway, in case I draw a dragon back here.
Activate Hardiness all around, go to speak with Abazigal.
So then, it's the drakes first.
Then Haer'Dalis runs off playing distraction for Tamah, while the rest of the party takes on the drakes. We get the ice and fire drakes, but then Tamah breathes ...
We deliver the rod heal ... success.
Abazigal has Spell Deflection, abjuration immunity, PfMW, Stoneskin, and Improved Haste. We can't let a dragon stay hasted, so I need some spell-breaking effects. Two shots from wands of spell striking, followed by a Keldorn dispel.
Still, Tamah doesn't last long.
Back at the pocket plane, we talk with the solar again. The party gains a chunk of experience, and Mazzy reaches level 40. She takes her tenth greater whirlwind, and the entire party is at the experience cap with another full dungeon to go.
Back in Amkethran, Kerrick does his thing:
I look at the characters ... wait, something's not right.
And now, one last thing - the third pocket plane challenge.
A short update this time, but that's just how things worked out. The dragon's lair was a little too long for one update, but short for two.
Now that Abazigal is dealt with, it's time to take on Sendai. We talk to the woodcutter on arrival, agree to investigate, and set some traps. They spring an ambush on us ...
Now, back to the woodcutter. We press him, and the drow reveal themselves.
The gate guards come next:
Then the southwest, and this makes for some trouble. There's a drow wizard, and he manages to get off a Time Stop despite being dispelled.
And now, down into the underground enclave. The critters in the first area barely even slow us down.
That brings us to a room full of drow. Lots of warriors, a mage, and a priestess. Physical Mirror? Hit her with scorchers. Mantle? Just go over it.
Now, to the tunnels. We fight the slaves next; they are truly unlimited, spawning at a specific rate until you progress forward. We don't have any trouble killing them faster than they spawn, at least at first.
Now, back to the first area, and take the other path. I'd like to kill the spiders too.
Continuing to the next room, we face some normal vortex spiders alongside drow.
That brings us to the lich Odamaron.
The vampire got a separate dispel, and with the party's full attention it goes down quickly.
We have three new upgrade tokens, but I'd like to check out the carnage outside first.
Now we head back to the pocket plane and spend our upgrade tokens. Also, dump a bunch of adamantine dust, because I forgot I was carrying drow items. Oops. We upgrade Purifier, Spectral Brand, and the Short Sword of Mask. The +5 version of Spectral Brand is good enough to finally displace Celestial Fury as Magpie's primary weapon, and Keldorn was already using Purifier in his off hand.
Ogremoch comes next, and his chamber has a narrow entrance that forces Keldorn to take off the Unit. But after dealing with the preliminary earth elementals, he can put it back on for the main fight.
That opens the way to Diaytha. We draw them out rather than fighting on their turf.
Then the vampire follows.
Reloading puts us back to the beginning of the room. The second time around, Korgan takes out Ogremoch with a vorpal hit.
The other room goes similarly to last time - except that I only send in Magpie, Korgan, and Rasaad for the Hive Mother. The first two have safe saves, while Rasaad has 98% magic resistance.
We begin where we left off, with the duel in the next room. Magpie opens with an invisibility potion ...
The next area is a miniature illithid lair. We start with two of the vampiric variety:
Then again, we can just resurrect him right back into the battle. He doesn't wear armor, after all. I use the daily Blessed Bracers for this, rather than a charge from a rod of resurrection.
We clear this bunch out, then open the door for the next battle.
We prepare with Hardiness all around, then two instant spike traps the moment we enter the room.
The last statue is an assassin.
And now, the real Sendai comes out. Throughout that fight, we were consistently faster in killing statues than the 8-second timer - which meant we never had to deal with multiple statues at once, and the fight wasn't any harder than it's vanilla version. We could even leave some party members back to thin out the reinforcements.
Sendai doesn't put up abjuration immunity, so she just gets dispelled. And even with her high hit points, she doesn't last.
After a chat with Elminster, we head up to the pocket plane and grab Wilson for his final sidequest. Bring him back down, get called away for a fight. Since it's a dragon, we buff a bit for it.
Now, back to the pocket plane. We make Firetooth +5 for Keldorn, Angurvadal +5 for Haer'Dalis to hold, and the dragon scale armor from that mod dragon we just killed. It's ... kind of broken. Base AC -3 with chain mail mods isn't too bad, but it doesn't interfere with protection items, and nearly anyone can wear it. Only pure mages are excluded, and it doesn't block thieving or spellcasting.
In this party, it's 1-2 points better than full plate across the board, plus it comes with a THAC0 boost. I give it to Mazzy.
On to the fourth challenge, after a rest. And since Korgan is back in the party, I upgrade the Runehammer.
Cyric visits, and we set some traps:
Now, for Balthazar ... oh, bother, I forgot to acquire the +1 wisdom ioun stone. And I don't realize that it's on a merchant I could just visit now (the Amkethran bartender). With it and a potion of insight, anyone can talk Balthazar into joining the party for the final battle. Without it, you need to have your alignment and reputation back you up at least a little. Magpie is good with a paragon reputation, so she won't have any trouble.
Back in Amkethran, the mercenaries go hostile.
Now, to get into the monastery. We accept Saemon's offer of help.
Inside, it's just talking.
A conversation with the Solar follows, and I choose the less good responses here. The reward is considerably better that way.
Back down in Amkethran, we step out and regenerate. Back out the gate ... the mercenaries and monks didn't get the memo.
Now, we head up to the pocket plane to face the Ravager. Haer'Dalis switches to the Reflection Shield, Keldorn goes with Foebane, and Mazzy puts Ice Star in her off hand.
Before the end, one last selling trip. We have about 800K gold before we sell anything, and 2.4 million when we're done. We rest to clear fatigue (there was some travel, so we could sell to Karthis), and there's nothing left to do but enter the Throne.
Naturally, Melissan greets us with a fight. Two Fallen Solars, Bodhi, Irenicus, and Imoen turned into the Slayer.
Still, our attacks on the fallen solars bear fruit.
Just two left. Balthazar finishes off Bodhi:
With no pressure now, I use the Blessed Bracers to bring back Korgan. We drink some lesser potions to speed regeneration, and then start on the pools.
Now, the party gets no chances to rest during this sequence, as we're on Insane difficulty. That means I have a limited trap budget. Seven spike traps are reserved for the final battle, leaving 18 other traps for the three pools. Eight spike traps, two time traps, two exploding traps, and six normal traps.
The first pool gets HLA traps - this one summons a balor, and I want to kill it quickly.
The southern pool has no Balor, so I go with normal snares here. The poison won't help, but the AoE physical damage is excellent.
For the western pool, it's the other half of our HLA traps.
Now, the final traps. Seven spike traps, six delayed blast fireballs (from two uses of the Magic Flute ability). I aim for Sendai and Abazigal with my trap placement here.
Illasera goes ethereal, protecting her for the moment. And it's not an illusion, so I can't remove it. Then Sendai's contingency goes off - PfMW, protecting her from further scorchers. Then her teleport field sends Keldorn to the side platform. He switches targets to Sarevok, at least until he can dispel Sendai again.
Then the melee forces get in a kill:
Melissan's solars enter the fray, and Keldorn is losing his ability to keep the attention of half the enemies by himself. Sendai also puts up yet another combat defense, an Improved Mantle. Then Melissan teleports on top of Magpie - literally. The only thing she can do is to use her own teleport ability to get away.
Keldorn dispels again and finishes Sendai, while our remaining forces concentrate on the Solars and Melissan. Melissan recasts her Divine Mantle, and that attention shifts entirely to the Solars.
Now, a fun fact: with the Ascension changes, Melissan isn't completely stab immune. She detects invisible, but...
In fact, Korgan falls. We use the rod on him, but that means he doesn't have any armor for the rest of the fight.
Rasaad falls next - but now Melissan is near death, and there are only a few demons left.
And now, Magpie has a choice to make. Most of the party argues against godhood, but Korgan is all for it.
Thanks for this awesome playthrough ! I've really enjoyed reading your updates, very insightful as always.
Congratulations on completing it !
Your "kill it with fire" playthrough makes me want to try the same in iwd:ee with the npc mod Karihi (pyromancer kit) by AionZ https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/79340/v1-01-karihi-a-fire-genasi-pyromancer-npc-for-iwd-ee
Adam
The fire theme in IWD, huh? I don't have that game myself - if you do get that run off the ground, I might like to see it.
(The following epilogues use parts of the in-game epilogues, mixed with my own writing. After all, these characters have spent a long time together - they should affect each other.)
After the events in Tethyr, Magpie's company scattered. For while no foe could stand against their unified might, there were far too many threats to the peace for them to face them all together. While they might unite to face the greatest challenges, by and large they traveled in ones and twos.
Haer'Dalis found traveling with Magpie a fine introduction to the realms, and once they parted company, he was eager to see more. He attached himself to many adventuring groups over the years, always inspiring them to even greater deeds than they had accomplished before. And after parting ways with each group, he returned to the heroes he had grown with to exchange stories.
Perhaps his greatest adventure came when he befriended a female cambion and accompanied her to the Abyss, only to unintentionally end up leading a revolt on several layers that would depose a demon prince. For a time, Haer'Dalis was the most hunted man among the planes, but the ire of his enemies could not match his wanderlust. When the deposed prince's rivals eventually agreed to end their hunt in exchange for banishing the tiefling, he found his way to Sigil and reunited with Raelis' acting troupe. Through that reunion, the tales of Magpie and her band spread even to other material planes.
But even such a reunion could not last forever, and Haer'Dalis took up travel once again. No one knows where his travels ended, or even upon which plane.
The perils that Mazzy Fentan faced at the side of Magpie did nothing to dissuade her thirst for adventure. In fact, it was not long after the events in Tethyr that she formed the Fentan Knights, a stalwart band of heroes that spawned tales across the realms. They battled trolls to save endangered towns, turned back tides of orcs to preserve ancient forests, and faced a rogue dragon in its own lair just to make the world a better place.
At Keldorn's urging, the Radiant Heart even named Mazzy a paladin, and her Fentan Knights as a partner in the fight against evil. For all her risks, Mazzy passed peacefully at a ripe old age, knowing she could take pride in everything she had done.
After leaving Magpie's company, Korgan Bloodaxe joined the Fentan Knights for a time. In their company, he led from the front in slaughtering evil, even gaining a new name when he single-handedly slew an entire tribe of trolls with his legendary hammer. However, he found the knights' code of conduct restrictive, and after a disagreement over whether to negotiate with an orcish tribe that had not yet taken violent action, he left the order.
Instead, Korgan Trollhammer took over the battered Deepstone clan of dwarves, and brought them to new depths of power. While some suspected him of foul play in the takeover, these tales were eclipsed by those of the clan's deeds as they pushed deep into the Underdark. Even the dark elves were pushed back for a time, but holding territory in the home of the drow is a hopeless proposition. Korgan was last seen decapitating a high priestess of Lolth with his axe, laughing even as the drow overwhelmed his clan's battle lines in a vicious counterattack. Dwarven legend immortalized the image, and his bloodlust is now called a crusade. History, it seems, finds more heroes than madmen.
Keldorn Firecam thought his travels with Magpie marked the end of his active career, both as an adventurer and in service to the Order. He retired to Athkatla, hoping to live in as much peace as an old warrior can expect, but the call to serve came twice more. First, he joined Magpie and Rasaad to expose a cabal of Sharran infiltrators in the Sun Soul order, and finally restore Rasaad's good name among his fellow monks.
The second call came years later, in his sixtieth winter. Keldorn and five knights of the Order, supported by the bard Haer'Dalis, held a strategic pass against an army of giants until a relief force of Amnian soldiers and Fentan Knights could arrive. He won the day, but his wounds were severe, and the old paladin fell on the battlefield. As his knights watched, the hand of Torm descended upon the scene, and when it departed, Keldorn was gone. From that day, visions of the True God were accompanied by the stalwart ghostly form of Keldorn at his right hand.
Though Alorgoth was not seen for many years after the events in the Deepstone mines, he somehow survived that day. But by the time Alorgoth resurfaced, Rasaad's focus had moved from avenging his dead family members to caring for his new ones. Though he had eventually convinced the Sun Soul order of his good intentions, the strict conduct of monastic life no longer appealed to him. Instead, he and Magpie married and made a home together at Magpie's keep in the former de'Arnise lands. They often traveled in their early years together, but the frequency of these trips decreased as their children grew in number.
Their seven children were all taught the tenets of the Sun Soul philosophy, but only the youngest chose the monk's path.
Still, it was only a matter of time before the darkness that plagued Rasaad found this family as well. One pleasant spring evening, after all of the children had grown to adulthood and moved out, Rasaad and Magpie were set upon and killed by Sharran assassins. Another victory for Alorgoth, but one that would cost the Dark Moon dearly. That youngest child discovered the bodies and rallied a great force against the evil order. Monks of the Sun Soul, knights of both the Radiant Heart, dwarves of Deepstone, all seven of Magpie and Rasaad's children, and even Mazzy Fentan herself united against the Dark Moon sect, dealing them a blow they would never fully recover from.
Near-final kill counts - this is from the save just before the final battle against Melissan.
Magpie: 1008 kills for 5048652 XP. Her strongest kill was the nameless green dragon in Watcher's Keep, at 62K.
Korgan: 957 kills for 4806803 XP. His strongest kill was the red dragon Carnifex outside Abazigal's lair, at 64K.
Rasaad: 935 kills for 5284116 XP. His strongest kill was the vampire Bodhi, at 91K.
Haer'Dalis: 57 kills for 573186 XP. His strongest kill was the silver dragon Dolrassa in Lunia, at 58K.
Keldorn: 463 kills for 2423313 XP. His strongest kill was the red dragon Saladrex in Watcher's Keep, at 64K.
Mazzy: 612 kills for 3193388 XP. Her strongest kill was the red dragon Firkraag in the Windspear hills, at 64K.
Some things I planned never panned out. Exploding arrows? I never used them; my party was too vulnerable to fire. High-level scrolls stolen in ToB? I never used them either; I didn't need the experience or the combat boost. I recharged all of my spell-breaking items for the final battle, and then didn't use them either - Keldorn and Balthazar had the defense-breaking covered.
I took some snapshots of the characters' state just before the final battle with the resurrected Five. Hardiness and Enhanced Bard Song are active here, contributing to the stats.
Magpie:
Korgan:
Keldorn:
Rasaad:
Mazzy:
Haer'Dalis:
Then, after taking those shots, I played it out, just for fun. A few things were done differently, notably pre-summoning deva and placing traps slightly differently in another attempt at hitting Sendai.
My traps on that side hit Sarevok instead. The trio on the right still wend down easily enough, and Keldorn occupied Sendai on his own. I got to the stage of Melissan alone and summoning demons just fine. Then the charms started flying and characters started dying, and I quit. I might well have won anyway, but I didn't feel like it. Failing to disrupt Melissan's time stop hurt too.
I followed up with another run at the battle, and yet another trap placement. On the side platform? Nope; those don't fire at all.
Again, I get to the last phase easily enough. This time, I use some exploding arrows to thin out the demons, and the battle isn't too hard from there.
At this point, I look into the mechanics of Melissan's summons. Five gates on entering the final phase (Insane difficulty), each of which summons one to four demons. But all of these shut off if she needs to draw power. What happens if I beat her into retreating and drawing power before that final phase even starts?
Also, this time I put Sendai's traps on the bridge. They finally hit her ... but she's resistant. Not fully immune, but her buffs went up including an Armor of Faith. She lives, and it's not close. All right, lesson learned - it's just not worth it trying to hit her with spike traps.
Abazigal also avoids an instant death, but doesn't last long after that. We take one casualty in the first stage, losing Rasaad to Melissan's time stop - but he gets back up easily. We approach the end:
The beatdown succeeds ...
Oh well. We play it out anyway, including the nastiness that is two Balors (11% chance of one per Gate). Rasaad dies again and gets raised ... hey, there's something new.
Melissan manages a Time Stop ... then focuses on Balthazar.
Before too long ...
Well, at least I know that this bunch can consistently win the final battle. When I played it out, I was three for three. And that's it for the saga. You don't need spellcasting to thoroughly beat this game and all of its challenges.