Still, it's not a serious fight. These soldiers are very easy foes. Four of them go down to Aerys' spell. And then we mop up in melee.
They don't land a single hit on us.
That gives us access to Karthis; we buy the potion case and rod of resurrection from him. We'll steal the rest of his good stuff later.
For the rest of the area, I indulge in a little silliness. Shuffle some equipment, then Nalia activates a Spell Trigger:
The third spell in there is wasted, but she has 5 APR and backstabs every hit for the next 20 rounds. Also double-hasted movement, since I left the boots on. Even at only 2x stabs, enemies go down fast.
She can't quite clear the map, though. After twelve soldiers, two giants, and a mage, her Mislead expires.
She still has three rounds of improved haste, though. Plenty to bug out so the party can reunite.
We attack the remainder conventionally, and it's not any harder.
We don't get out of this all entirely unscathed, but it's still no problem. Only the giants are remotely dangerous here.
With this very easy area clear, we have freedom of movement. And we use that to head back to Watcher's Keep. The first thing we do, on arrival, is to transfer all of our stashed junk from the room near the entrance to the pocket plane.
After that, it's time for the boss fight. Let's kill some statues. Buff up, including wish buffs and some shorter-duration options like Aura of Flaming Death.
The first group has a pair of priests, and one puts fire protection up. We cast a Remove Magic to deal with that. Then our clouds activate.
The one with Foebane falls next, leaving only the second priest. Which puts up a Sanctuary. Fire should take care of that ... oh, wait, that one has fire protection up too. Add another dispel.
That removes the Sanctuary, and Anomen finishes the job in melee.
Now, the second half of the battle. This can be delayed by getting the ritual wrong, but we're not interested in that. After all, we already have clouds up.
There are mages this time. We apply some dragon's breath.
Aerys' shot lands first. One mage down. Then Nalia's try.
That's the other mage, plus the one that looks like a golem. Unlike standard iron golems, it's not immune to fire.
Another enemy falls to the incendiary clouds, and we fall back to draw more of them in.
That's the thief and the gnoll, earning us Usuno's Blade. Only the archer and ogre remain. Charge for the archer, fall back again for the ogre.
Victory achieved. The only damage we took came from hits to Anomen, each of which resulted in more damage in retaliation from his fire aura.
We also gain some levels from opening the way down. Level 38 for Anomen and his final level 7 spell slot, level 28 for Nalia and her final level 7 spell slot.
Down on the second floor, it's time for the elemental theme level. There's going after weaknesses ... or we could just use fire on everything that's not immune.
We start with the fire library. They're immune.
And ouch. Critical Strike hurts. Anomen and Isra each take heavy damage before we can bring the enemies down.
On the other side, the spiders in the slime library aren't immune.
Mutated spiders are particularly good targets for AoE spells, with their low HP. Just one incendiary cloud, and they all die. Unfortunately, they also have a habit of not showing up in the kill counts when you burn them. I'm not sure why, but there's something about their deaths that does it.
All right, how about the mists in the ice library?
That's not so effective. There are vampiric mists in the mix, which slip through to inflict some level drain. And the other mists wander off to where we're not hurting them.
All right, heal up. Summon a planetar, which auto-heals Isra ... running straight into the Spell turning left over from the statue fight. Oops. Okay, one more spell to finish that up, and then the planetar can get back to the actual healing. With the drain removed, Isra reaches level 30 for bastard sword specialization and her third Greater Whirlwind.
Take out the stray mists, loot the three libraries we've cleared (timing out spell defenses and allowing regeneration to work), and then go for a wish-rest. Now we're ready for the golems in the air library. It takes a few tries to get that stubborn spawn point to activate ...
But once we do, self-targeted incendiary clouds do their thing. The stone and clay golems burn, and we kill the iron golem in melee.
Now, we take on the labs. Air first, of course, with some electricity protection added,
And once again, Nalia forgets to switch back to her fire control ring. Oops. Since she has more than 100% electric resistance, I just let her stand around to heal from the environmental lightning.
Anyway, four out of five elementals burn. I wait around for the lightning to heal us up ... and then I realize it has a physical component too. Oops. Just turn the wheel again. And afterward, renew our main buffs; it's been a while since we started on this dungeon.
On to the slime lab now. Open up the doors to blow the poison out, then apply fire.
It only kills a fraction of the enemies here; the slimes and snake are resistant, while one of the poison mists wandered off. Still, we have plenty of melee power too. And the snake's no-save stun on its melee attack is no threat with Chaotic Commands active. We take a bit of acid damage, and that's all.
Ice comes next, and the dance of trying to draw the golem out when it's leashed to the room.
Killing it is a weird one for credit; it dies by script, so you don't get credit normally. But it also freezes, so you can get wrong credit for a kill by breaking the frozen form. I re-attribute credit from Jaheira (broke the ice) to Anomen (burned it down to 1 HP with his fire storm). That's a new top fire kill for him.
Before I continue, I hop up to the pocket plane to upgrade a couple of weapons - Foebane and the Flail of Ages. Isra will be happy, especially with the former's free healing.
Next, we draw the fire elementals back to the ice room. Turn AI off for this, so we don't attack for bogus kills.
Jaheira reaches druid level 18 in the process, and takes Smite. For the giant himself, I add some physical resistance. Or, really, a lot of it. 80% for Isra, but only 25% for Anomen. Then we beat him up in melee without him taking a single swing.
While I didn't go for the kill that way, it's worth noting that this particular fire giant isn't immune to fire. He's only 75% resistant (50% innate, 25% from the Helm of the Rock).
Anomen upgrades to the new helmet for some acid resistance, and now only the Chromatic Demon remains.
For this fight, we wish-rest again and prepare contingencies. All fire, of course. Wait for it to take its ice form, and open the cage.
Then, the moment we do, it changes to slime form. All that fire damage, wasted. Fortunately, it changes right back at the first opportunity.
And, of course, incendiary clouds aren't a one-time thing. They stick around. Before long...
And Aerys gets the kill. 55K XP, tying Kangaxx for number 1 on his list.
1509 total fire kills. Not too many this time, but a lot of our attention went to boss fights with relatively few enemies. And we mostly didn't use fire spells on that segment outside.
"Fire lives the death of earth and air lives the death of fire, water lives the death of air, earth that of water."
— Maximus of Tyre
Of course, we're not stopping there. We continue on down, to the teleport maze and the Blood War. After visiting Yakman's room for the Circlet of Netheril (Aerys' new hat once we upgrade it), we head east to the dead magic areas.
Even if it weren't a dead magic zone, we wouldn't use fire here. Both sides of this fight are immune. So we just attack. Our fire immunity does serve us well, at least.
The balor stole one of our kills there, but otherwise it went smoothly. Anomen was at slight vorpal risk with his death save of zero, but that's not a chunking so I was willing to risk it.
Isra claims Purifier, and we move on to the second dead magic room.
Disarm the trap, then engage. And again, everything's immune to fire anyway. That's true of all the devils here; only the demons and tieflings have any vulnerability to fire.
Also, our passive defenses are excellent even without our usual buffs.
With the two rooms connected to it dealt with, we head over to Tahazzar for a chat. He's willing to talk, so we don't fight. Head back to the compass room, buff up again, and take the western exit instead.
I added Mass Invisibility as protection against targeted spells. It didn't help. Enemies that can see through invisibility ignore that protection.
We avoided any active spells for this wild magic room, so only the quasits' surges affected us. Nothing particularly notable this time.
From there, we head east to the other wild magic room.
And the mage's prebuffs are immune to wild surges. Too bad. Ah, well, we can just beat them down.
We're not casting spells. They are. And the mage gets one very lucky wild surge:
A double-level Remove Magic? There's no way our buffs will survive that...
... Except they do. Even Jaheira's Iron Skins, cast at level 18, are unaffected. Apparently, that wild surge doesn't actually work the way it says it does.
The thief activates Assassination and goes for an attack. Miss. And then dead.
We immediately turn to the dog Aranthis, which doesn't last much longer. Then the fighters, as we figure the mage can't be too dangerous with all the wild surges. We're proven wrong when the mage gets off a Time Stop - True Sight, Teleport Field, Stinking Cloud, and not a single surge problem.
Then again, only the Teleport Field really matters to us. We're all immune to the Stinking Cloud through poison immunity, and our invisibility wasn't really providing anything but a save buff.
That's one fighter down. As we're hitting the second, the mage's Stinking Cloud backfires:
Minor Globe? No protection against spells you cast yourself. That, of course, lets us whack the mage.
Just some magical swords left. I let Isra beat on them, and she takes both down with Foebane damage - though I do feed her a healing potion at one point.
And now, back to fighting with spells. We head to the compass room for a wish-rest, then back along the same path... wait, there's a new enemy.
With SCS, random fiends can spawn into already cleared rooms on this level. In this case, a balor. Nalia holds back to avoid prematurely triggering her chain contingency, and the rest of the party engages.
The demon goes to cast a Fire Storm, and ...
Oops. A demon. Specifically, the balor summoned a nabassu instead of the fire storm it wanted (which would, of course, have done nothing to us).
Ascension does have demons that can gate in reinforcements, but only at the Throne of Bhaal. This was just a one-off wild surge for perfect flavor.
Anyway, the fight. The balor makes one attack roll before being crushed - a critical miss. The nabassu doesn't last long enough to take any actions whatsoever.
With that distraction cleared, we can take on the next room ... the glabrezu summoners. In the vanilla game, there are two of them (one of each element) which summon an elemental/salamander once per round, a maximum of five times each. With SCS, they're still limited to five summons each ... but there are three of each color instead of one. Also, the glabrezu are considerably better at fighting themselves. It's a very dangerous fight, with the added annoyance that the cloud visual effects from the summoning spells seriously lag the game.
Anyway, we open with our usual contingent clouds.
Aerys goes for a Remove Magic so we can start killing summoners, but wild surges into a lighting bolt instead. An unexpected hazard of the part we took. Still, one ice salamander dies instantly.
After killing a few more minions, we finally get off an actual Remove Magic.
And now we can hurt the glabrezu. No more fireshields, no more PfMW. At least on that side of the room. Our incendiary clouds tick again removing some salamanders, and then the first summoner falls.
We add another dispel, to take out the initial buffs from the last summoner that has them. Now all of the glabrezu are taking damage from our clouds. And that pays off. Two more fall to the clouds.
And then the Dragon's Breath that Nalia cast arrives. Two more fall, leaving just one surviving summoner.
That last summoner is near death, with only 50% fire resistance. Well, then. Let's just focus on the fire elementals instead. One more tick of the clouds...
And from here, it's just mop-up. Before long, it's over.
With that, Anomen makes it to cleric level 39 and Jaheira to fighter level 22. We killed ten ice salamanders and eight fire elementals along with the six summoners; they only got a little more than half of their summons in. The most troublesome room of this floor has been dealt with.
All right, next target. North, west, south to the succubus. She dies almost instantly.
And by the time Nalia's contingency activates, an alu-fiend is down as well.
All right, add a Dragon's Breath and a Comet. We pick up an actual fire kill this way:
Then another, as the clouds clean up. Room clear.
With that done with, it's time to wish-rest and prepare contingencies for the next fight. I add a Mass Invisibility as well for absurdly good saves, and head off to face Ka'rashur.
That's an enemy fireball, completely wasted. The bone fiend's Cone of Cold is more troublesome. But as for our own clouds ... every single enemy in this room is immune. You can't burn devils.
So that leaves a melee slugfest. The cornugons are first to fall.
And that's a lot of invisible enemies. We focus on the boss, so he falls next.
There's a second chunk of cold damage for Nalia. Time to drink a healing potion, actually.
The stragglers take a bit of time to mop up, with the last to fall being a bone fiend - but not before casting another Cone of Cold.
Ouch. Good thing she drank that potion. And in hindsight, we really should have thrown around some Resist Fire and Cold spells.
Aerys reaches level 29 with that fight, an empty level. No new spells for him.
After another wish-rest, we return to Tahazzar with the heart. Hand it in for the Thieves' Hood, buff up, and pick a fight.
We kill one glabrezu quickly. Then the clouds go off.
Two quasits, two more glabrezu, and a succubus. Then the second round of Anomen's fire storm takes out the yochlol. There's really not much left of them.
We beat on Tahazzar, and the fire continues to work. Tahazzar's fire storm kills a quasit, while our own claims a skeleton warrior summoned by the newly arrived maurezhi. Then the maurezhi walk into the fire ...
Bad move there. Both die, one to our fire and one to the enemy's. And on the very next hit, Anomen kills Tahazzar.
This brings two new levels - level 31 for Isra (and her fourth Greater Whirlwind) and level 29 for Cernd. Also, Tahazzar is a new top kill for Anomen.
We now have two out of three scepter gems. It's time to head for the exit. After leaving the dead magic zone and re-establishing our buffs, we head toward the first of that path's unavoidable rooms.
Ah, a sneaky cambion. Let's clear up that invisibility.
It doesn't go entirely to plan; we can't stop the cambion from getting off a backstab. Then Nalia's contingency goes off, and it's dead.
Though that isn't much damage at all for a backstab.
Then, the reinforcements arrive. Several demon knights.
They're immune to fire, so there's no point in us trying to add to the fire we already have. We fight them in melee instead. And it hurts.
That's multiple levels drained on both Anomen and Isra. They don't have iron skins, so they get targeted far more than the rest of the party. Oh well. A planetar can clear all of that up, both the levels and the damage.
Now, for the next room, we add more buffs including spell defenses. No fire, though. The enemies there are all immune.
Instead, we're going for raw magic damage. But first, we need to lower some resistances. The demon wraith defends with Spell Shield, Spell Turning, and Minor Globe. We respond with a Spell Thrust to trade with the Spell Shield, then a triple Pierce Magic spell trigger. It's down to 20% MR now, and it didn't put up PfME. OK, that's good enough.
Now we get to the wilting. It takes a bit to get started and the demon knight reaches us by the time the first wilting goes off.
Hey, that's nice. The slave wraiths are 75% magic resistant, but two of them failed their MR rolls. And one of them failed its save too. We're attacking too, so the two seriously injured wraiths fall as well.
Then we wilt again.
That's it for the slave wraiths. Just the demon wraith left. And there's no point in beating on it, since it still has all of its combat defenses up. Instead, Aerys casts a third Horrid Wilting.
We couldn't use fire in this fight, but spells were still an option. And they worked. Anomen took a Black Blade of Disaster hit, but his Spell Turning absorbed the level drain effect (Shield of the Archons lost to previous level drain, so he used the Shield of Fyrus Khal). No serious harm taken. It helps, of course, that we had some very good ACs - the demon wraith missed on an attack roll of 17 in one case.
Now, for Aesgareth and some shameless save-scumming. Just talking to him brings level 29 for Nalia and her final spell slot.
First round ... Strife versus Triumph.
Victory. Spectral Brand is ours.
Second round ... Guile versus Empress. We lose. Reload. Take two ... Strength versus Defiance.
And that's the wish scroll. Also, that's druid level 19 for Jaheira. She takes Greater Elemental Summoning, and picks up the final improvement to her saves.
On to the final round, after a bit of preparation. Emperor versus Wheel, and we lose. But ... we're sore losers. The fight is on.
We drop some fire on them, of course. And some extra fun with a fire wand.
Also, some bad news. That Fell Cat gets a hit in on Anomen, and its melee attacks lower fire resistance by 25%. He can cover that for now with the other fire resistance ring, but any more hits are going to be trouble.
OK, what's up with that wand scorcher? Aerys, Anomen, and Nalia all have Spell Turning up, so a scorcher from one to another bounces back and forth several times before exhausting the protection. And once it's active, you can run the characters around to sweep the fire over enemies. Of course, you need the fire immunity too. Perfect for this party. Within moments...
Well, all right, the clouds are doing their thing too. Anomen even gets a kill with a reflected scorcher:
The last few enemies are protected from fire, so we have to take them out in melee. And ... the fell cats get to Aerys. Two hits taken, down to 70% resistance. He takes a bit of fire damage before we can clear things out completely.
In retrospect, using Anomen for the scorcher trick wasn't the best idea. His Spell Turning was largely depleted from that Black Blade hit earlier, so it went down after just a couple of reflections.
And now, we have the Deck. This calls for even more save-scumming. I'll allow for some options, but I definitely want the Warder's Signet in the second round.
Draw 1: Gem, Ruin, Ruin, Jester, Jester, Gem, Flames, Euryale, Jester, Donjon.
A bad draw, but harmless. And now the best draws are available.
Draw 2: Void, Star, Sun, Key.
That's the Warder's Signet. Replacing a +2 protection ring, it's effectively a free +1 to AC and saves for whoever wears it.
Draw 3: Comet, Fool, Skull, Comet, Throne.
I would have preferred Moon for the HP (to Nalia), but I'll take that too. Aerys reaches level 30 and learns True Sight, while Isra reaches level 32 for her third Critical Strike. Aerys also gets the ring, upgrading from his old +2 ring.
The way is clear now to leave this marathon level. We'll do that next session, and next update.
1541 total fire kills. We took all the opportunities we could, but there are a lot of fire-immune monsters in the maze.
"it's a beautiful day outside. birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you...
Should be burning in hell."
— Sans, Undertale
On the next floor, we start immediately with a cutscene, followed by a conversation with Carston. Until he gets bored and summons some mind flayers.
They go invisible. I unleash the Dragon's Breath.
Only three kills for us, though. The fourth flayer teleports away, never to be seen again.
And next, it's a pack of shades. We pull out the lightning wands again.
That's two devil shades and six shadow fiends. Four fiends and two devil shades die immediately, plus two more on the rebound. We finish off the injured second devil shade in melee, and that just leaves the four shadow fiends spawned by hitting the devil shades. We don't need spells for them.
Anomen and Isra each take some minor damage. Their regeneration and self-healing covers it easily.
We could head out to the mind flayer or githyanki camps now, but I'd rather clear out the rest of this hub area first. We start with some orogs:
An incendiary cloud takes care of them. Elsewhere in the same room, we run into some mimics.
They try several attacks, including their fire. They don't hit us for a single point of damage or other negative effect. Completely outclassed.
The last segment on this side has some regular shadows, for which I apply a Sunfire:
Also a wand fireball, which is completely wasted by arriving after the shadows are already dead.
All right, now for the other side. Some yuan-ti and a troll first:
One more incendiary cloud and a Comet for them.
The other side of the room is a bit more serious, with a stronger troll group:
They get our second Comet and a Sunfire.
With half of them dead to the fire and the rest close, there's not much left. Also, we left the last yuan-ti unconscious in the cloud, and that state has since become "dead".
Finally, one last segment.
Magic golems. Get out the nonmagical weapons - throwing dagger for Aerys (not shown), long sword for Isra, club for Anomen, staff for Jaheira, arrows for Nalia. And Cernd summons Kitthix for good measure.
When all is said and done, they don't hit us even once. The blue oil is ours.
There's a bit more to this hub section, but it's behind plot-locked doors. We need to hit the two camps first. And before that, wish-rest so we can renew our buffs and have some fire.
It takes two images to draw the rest, but we start things with party-wide Improved Haste and Hardiness, plus Armor of Faith on Anomen and Isra. My usual buffs are pretty solid against illithids, but I want some protection from Ballistic Attacks too.
... wait, no, we don't just have Hardiness going. We have two copies of it. 80% physical resistance to the whole party, plus another 25% for Anomen and Isra. They're outright immune to physical damage right now. The illithids can't do anything to us except suck brains.
Eh, all right. I'll figure out what happened later. For now, let's just fight.
The clouds go off. The enemies die.
One flayer rolls a natural 20 to brain-suck Jaheira. No damage taken.
Wish-rest so that we can apply contingencies to the next room, then open the door.
And that's our clouds going off way too early. If we want them to help, we'll have to draw the enemies in to that northern room.
Of course, we can also throw out some dragon's breath for the enemies that don't follow.
A very nice spell for Nalia there, with three kills. Add another mind flayer walking into the clouds, and the room is clear.
Wish-rest once again for the southern room; illithid magic resistance is something I don't want to mess with, and that means self-targeted contingency clouds are by far the best option.
Our clouds go off early again. Oops. This room also has a special challenge; the ulitharid leader has a wand of spell striking and knows how to use it. It targets Jaheira with the Breach - no more protections, so all she has to defend herself is a -2 spell save.
Oh well. Let's just kill them all to render that problem moot.
Only one enemy survives the blasts. We do take some damage here; Isra is no longer protected by double Hardiness, so the ballistic attacks hurt her.
Once the last enemy goes down in melee, we pause for Jaheira to level up. It's a threshold in both of her classes, simultaneously reaching fighter level 23 and druid level 20. Her new abilities are Whirlwind and Greater Whirlwind.
The side paths to the west are far less dangerous. In the north, it's just a few umber hulks.
I prepared for a full group of enemies, and got that instead. At least it ended so fast that Nalia's contingency is still intact.
That brings us to the last room.
No wish-rest this time. We just apply the existing contingency instead. And Nalia takes down both of the vampiric illithids.
That's the second color of oil, and the illithid camp is clear.
I have a bit of trouble reconciling kills; my count was off, and I lost track of one mind flayer. Everything I can find points to it being Aerys in the southern room, so I'm pretty sure it was with fire, but I can't be entirely sure. Also, one of the vampiric illithids didn't get credited properly. The vampire death script strikes again.
That brings us to the githyanki on the other side.
Six clouds incinerate the first room in no time, although the anti-paladin with Ir'revrykal gets a hit in on Anomen first. And unlike the level 30 dispel on Carsomyr, that's a 50% chance of dispelling with no level check. Anomen loses all of his buffs. Then SCS strikes ... the doors are open, and the enemies stream in. Only to die instantly.
Wait a few rounds for that to dry up and Anomen to re-buff, then head off to face the captain.
Two Dragon's Breath spells clear out the githyanki, while we attack the summoned deva in melee. The deva, of course, is immune to fire.
More hits on Anomen here. No big deal - he'll just use a Heal.
This brings mage level 30 for Nalia, and I give her katana proficiency. Not that she'll ever use it. The two side areas with bosses ... leave them for a bit later.
We have all the pieces we need now to open those doors in the central area. That leads to one last fight:
As usual, we have some clouds. The two minotaurs survive the damage, but fail morale checks. I add some fireballs and take down the ice salamanders, then chase down the fleeing minotaurs with attacks.
It's not quite a flawless victory; Nalia takes 5 points of damage from a salamander's cold shield. But at least these two epic warriors didn't land any attacks.
The unique weapon here, the Axe of the Unyielding ... no use in this party, except for giving Isra regeneration outside of combat.
And now, back to Carston.
He's free to go, and we're free to use the machine.
Strength goes to Aerys (20).
Charisma goes to Isra (18).
Intelligence goes to Anomen (11).
Constitution goes to Jaheira (19).
Wisdom goes to Cernd (19).
Dexterity goes to Nalia (19).
With the stat boosts spread around properly, Aerys operates the machine for the last three things. 5% more magic resistance for 40% total, Storm Star, and an open portal.
Before going down, we visit the pocket plane. Lots of new items, none of which we'll use. Well, OK, the clay golem manual is theoretically an option.
Renew buffs, wish-rest, and hit the first section.
Ah, spiders. Two incendiary clouds, a few ranged attacks, and they're toast.
Through the door, we find another strange device. Prepare contingencies, then start pushing buttons. Red.
And then red, red, and red. Why not summon all four rounds at once?
Well, OK, it can break things in the combat log - if something happens at the same time as the dialogue, it gets covered up. One kuo-toan captain's death doesn't get logged because of this.
With all the enemies present, I notice some of the fish-men outside the clouds. Add a fireball sequencer, then.
After very little time, it's over.
With our clouds still going strong, let's hit the next color. Blue, blue, blue, blue. None of the four mages last long enough to take any actions.
That's one kill with fire and three with physical damage.
Then comes green. I hide away my wands and push the button:
Ah, mutated spiders. In the interest of an accurate count, I only push the button one more time before taking care of them.
Once they're down and counted, I hit the button two more times.
Earth elementals and beholders. Including an elder orb, which is why I hid the wands. And indeed, Nalia takes an antimagic ray. But before that, she gets off her fireball sequencer - elementals down.
Add some dragon breath and the still active clouds...
Elder Orb dead, Hive Mother unconscious. Carsomyr to dispel the Improved Mantle, then on to the beatdown. Which isn't on an unconscious target. She throws out some more rays, including anti-magic for Aerys. That's half our party dispelled. Still, she can't last.
The danger has passed. There are just some summons left, easily mopped up.
So that's three out of four colors taken down in under ten rounds; the clouds we started with stayed active to the end. We pause to could kills, and Cernd picks up level 30 for a couple hit points.
And finally, purple. We'll take these one at a time.
Skeleton warriors come first, and they're simple. A new set of clouds wipes them out immediately.
Second, devil shades.
Since fire doesn't help here, we get out the lightning wands. One shade dies instantly. Two more die on the rebound, and the last falls to a melee attack. That just leaves the shadow fiends they spawned, some of which also die to lightning.
Isra took one level-draining hit before we finished off the shades. We'll cure that later. On to the third group of enemies.
And of course, Isra gets drained again. Twice, all the way down to level 23. Then the clouds finally tick.
That doesn't completely finish them, but it doesn't take long after that. Anomen's turning takes out one, and the last vampire goes down in melee.
For the last foes, I break for a round or two in order to put up some spell defenses.
And because of SCS, the spawn is slightly staggered - the generic lich doesn't show up right away, because the game hasn't decided which lich to use. That leaves us with an elemental lich, which is innately immune to fire. We'll have to break its physical defenses, then.
The lich has invisibility, abjuration immunity, and Spell Trap. Aerys casts a True Sight, and the lich responds with a Greater Malison/Remove Magic/Death Spell trigger. Many of our buffs are gone. Then, as I'm working on the spell defenses...
Oh, right. Anomen is a level 39 cleric. Splat.
I have to step out into the central area and come back for the other lich to show up. Once again, before we can land a Breach...
I didn't explicitly order Anomen to use Turn Undead. That's just the combat AI deciding it seems like a good idea. We did take a bit of pain; with PfME dispelled, the initial Horrid Wilting injured half the party.
And with that, we have the Mind Key. We'll use that next time. This last block with the globe machine would fit better with that next part, but issues of update length pushed it here.
1657 total fire kills. That's a new high point of 116 in a single update, though it is a long one. 38 of those kills come from the last part around the globe machine.
Ebenezar: "Anything magic they can shrug off to one degree or another. All-natural fire works just fine on 'em, though."
Harry Dresden: "What's the difference where the fire came from?"
Ebenezar: "The difference is, anything we just make out of our will, they can slip most of the punch."
— Peace Talks
We pick up immediately after playing with the globe machine to use the mind key. Aerys calls up a clone to break down some inconvenient spell defenses and then re-buff. Now we're ready. Our party has reduced MR from Pierce Shield and Greater Malison from the liches, but that won't be a problem.
After all, the Rilmani don't attack us with spells. Launch some dragon's breath, and then the clouds activate.
They failed some of their saves. They're toast. The Aurumach has a Time Stop, but didn't last long enough to use it.
Two stragglers were outside those clouds. They charged in after us and died quickly. Isra takes one melee hit, and levels up to 33 (two-weapon mastery, Critical Strike #3).
And of course, this fight brings one very important prize.
The upgraded Club of Detonation. Anomen's new primary weapon. He'll switch away from it when we're fighting nothing but fire immunes or there are innocents nearby, but other than that he'll use it all the time. It just does so much fire damage.
We now take a break from the final seal guardians, and head back up to the bosses on the previous level that we skipped. First, the demilich.
It has abjuration immunity and Spell Turning, plus the usual combat protections. I waste a Spell Thrust, then use Nalia's Spell Trigger to take down the two spell defenses. Follow with a Breach ... nope.
A Spell Deflection contingency eats it. Meanwhile, the demilich aimed a Spell Trigger containing Remove Magic at Jaheira. It did very little; all the buffs that matter have caster level 30+, and they stay up.
Anyway, I choose to clear away that Spell Deflection by overwhelming it. Apply a few Wand of the Heavens hits, then follow with a Breach. Before we can get there...
That's mage Imprisonment, not demilich Trap the Soul. Good thing Jaheira had Shield of the Archons up.
Then the Breach lands. Aerys breathes fire, and everyone else attacks.
Another high-value fire kill. A list of the damage we dealt in this fight, in chronological order:
Anomen: 3 crushing + 5 fire, along with a fireball that did nothing.
Cernd: 2 crushing + 3 fire.
Jaheira: 3 crushing + 6 fire.
Aerys: 32 fire.
Cernd: 2 crushing + 2 fire.
There's one script oddity I noted in this fight. The blocks for using Imprisonment all check for spell defenses - Spell Deflection, Spell Trap, Spell Turning. But they don't check for Shield of the Archons, despite it being functionally the same as Spell Deflection. So in a party like this, the mage will target priests protected by SotA, but not mages with any of their stronger spell defenses. That particular bit of SCS script construction needs work.
For the second fight, I wait out the demilich's Greater Malison. And also go for a wish-rest. Renew Jaheira's spell protection, apply Mass Invisibility for the saves, and provoke the dragon.
Because of SCS script tweaks, calling up a summon does it. The dragon has Improved Haste, divination immunity, spell deflection, and PfMW. All right, there's a clear hole there. Aerys applies a Remove Magic, while Nalia casts a Spell Trigger to lower his MR by 70%.
With Aerys' four-level advantage, the Remove Magic works. Summon a planetar and cast Greater Malison in the next round ...
And now, with the lowered saves, we can try for some crippling moves. The dragon tries a Remove Magic to no real effect, and we apply Insect Plague. Keep up with the beatdown ...
Isra gets the final blow. One extremely powerful dragon, killed without any in-battle healing. It's a new and very fitting top kill for her.
Back down in the final seal level, we memorize some contingencies and open a door.
A sand golem, two ice golems, and two iron golems. Sand and ice burn quickly, leaving only iron.
Those two go down in melee, of course.
We can't use that altar yet, of course. So instead, we wish-rest again and take the other door. Three trials await us. First, an orcish horde.
Ten rounds of orcs, spawning as quickly as we kill them. How many kills can we rack up? We have party-wide improved haste, which should help. And Isra will use her Greater Deathblow; all three varieties of orc here are vulnerable.
We have six incendiary clouds from our chain contingencies, and our two mages will cast more. One round into things...
That's eleven kills so far, nine of them with fire. The area around the entrance is well-covered with fire, so our new spells are aimed farther in. Also of note, since it won't show up in the pictures - the mages protect themselves with both PfMW and invisibility. Anything other than AoE spells simply won't kill them fast enough.
And that's round 2. Isra picked up the slack for this round - eight more kills, only one with fire. But her Greater Deathblow has expired, and an ordinary Deathblow won't help.
The third round comes, and Nalia is out of incendiary clouds. Call up a planetar instead. Also, it gets harder to estimate the rounds from here. Without continuous casting of full-round spells to guide the count, errors will accumulate.
Round 4 is done, and Aerys is done with incendiary clouds. Both mages drop a Dragon's Breath on whatever they can catch. And in a slight annoyance, one enemy mage avoids incineration long enough to hit Aerys with a Breach. Still, his passive defenses are solid enough against anything these mooks can do.
The planetar is fully active now, and has joined in the killing. And that gives me the opportunity to apply some fire storms. Also, we apply some Comets to that troublesome mage. Both it and another invisible mage die.
We're resorting to blindly spewing fire just about anywhere. Like this Sunfire:
And ... my count is clearly a bit off, because the original contingent incendiary clouds fade, and the battle is still going. The last shot I took was labeled as round seven, and there should be at least another full round for those clouds if that were accurate.
Still, even with the clouds fading, we continue to rack up kills.
And it ends. 73 total horde kills, 37 of them with fire. An excellent run.
The quest reward brings druid level 21 for Jaheira, and her second Greater Whirlwind. We took absolutely no damage in the entire fight; only that one Breach affected us.
We take a trip to the pocket plane, upgrading some weapons. Ixil's Spike and the Staff of the Ram are now my druids' non-shapeshift weapons. We also wish-rest and renew buffs. Time for the next challenge.
A green dragon. We have no need to fear its breath weapon - the whole party is poison-immune. However, I do add some physical resistance and Aura of Flaming Death to the usual longer-duration buffs.
The battle starts, and both sides use their opening moves.
Poison breath for the dragon, incendiary clouds for us. We win that exchange. It doesn't take long for the dragon to fall to half health ...
Ah. It had a Heal contingency. Continue the beatdown, then. And ignore another breath weapon - apparently, the dragon just can't conceive of a party that's entirely immune to poison.
We add some Comets, but the final blow is physical.
Sadly, the priests' fire auras weren't very effective. They were close enough to melee the dragon, but not close enough for the fire retaliation.
The 62K experience for this dragon brings Aerys to level 31, his cap. He takes Mass Invisibility as his final spell, for general convenience when buffing for boss fights.
Several more chunks of experience come without combat - the post-fight reward, the riddles, receiving the Heart Key, and putting it in. That brings Nalia to level 31.
Now, the seal fight. We do a little planning ... I look up where the Hive Mother is, and place some trap spells there. The image I brought out for the wish-rest casts five Skull Traps and some delayed blast fireballs. Then I add another image. It makes some wishes too...
One wish draws only bad choices. I take Miscast Magic as the best of the bad options. It's a spell save at -6, and Nalia saving on a -4 isn't quite good enough when she rolls a natural 1. Oh well. It's only ten rounds; we'll just wait it out.
All right, now we're ready.
That's twenty trap spells there, placed as close as possible to the coordinates the Hive Mother appears at.
Trigger the fight, watch the spells go off ...
And that's a lot less than I was hoping for. Only two of the delayed blast fireballs get through the Hive Mother's magic resistance, and the skull traps somehow miss completely. Oh well. We can fight it the normal way too.
Anyway, we open with some Dragon's Breath before pulling the mages as far back as possible from the Hive Mother. Isra engages it directly in melee with her +5 weapons, ignoring the Improved Mantle. And the rest of our party fights the humanoids.
Nalmissra puts up a red fire shield - OK, that calls for a dispel. And since Aerys took an antimagic ray, Anomen goes for the cast. Then we get our first kill.
There goes the kensai Xei Win Toh. Also, Anomen's spell is going to miss, badly. Nalmissra teleported over, and that means I need to wait for the antimagic debuff to fade so Aerys can cast successfully.
The second enemy to burn is the marilith Y'tossi.
Wait, what's that damage on Aerys? An enemy summoned a deva on him, which got in a melee hit. With the Hive Mother low enough that we can trust the clouds to finish it, we pull everyone over to hit the deva in melee.
Isra gets the kill, and we return to the main action.
That's the Huntress down. A useless unique bow - literally. No member of this party can even equip it.
The Hive Mother finally falls, but not before hitting Cernd with antimagic:
Then the yochlol Ameralis Zauviir.
Finally, the planetar gets the last of them.
We never did dispel that fire shield - because the miscast portrait icon was still on Aerys for the entire fight. Anomen gets the new gauntlets, relegating the Dex gauntlets to my pack.
I take a break to look things up ... and that's a bug with the SCS beholder tweaks. For the Hive Mother's antimagic ray with the changes, the portrait icon lasts five times as long as the actual miscast effect. Aerys could have been casting spells for most of the battle, but didn't out of fear of that icon.
We head over to the altar, and guide the spirit warrior through without incident. Then, as we prepare for the battle to come, a banter triggers:
Cernd is bad at compliments. Anyway, we're ready for the fight with buffs and spell defenses. No fire contingencies, though - the enemies in this one are all innately immune.
Turn the key, and Jaheira reaches fighter level 24. She takes two-handed specialization and her third Hardiness for this final level.
And this lich actually casts Spell Shield, but no abjuration immunity. Remove Magic is not recommended, though - Azamantes is level 33 and would most likely resist our level 31 spells. Instead, Anomen casts a Dispel Magic.
Of course, just because we aren't casting it ...
The Flaming Skulls put up some incendiary clouds. Hah. Then fireballs, and magma balls ... they're really no threat at all to us. Anomen's spell takes out most of the lich's protections, and a Spellstrike removes the rest.
Meanwhile, the planetar takes out a flaming skull.
Sadly, Azamantes took out some of our buffs with a Remove Magic. We don't have universal PfME anymore, so the death explosions of the flaming skulls can actually hurt us now. The first one doesn't, at least.
The lich is next.
With him down, it's simple beatdown from there. Cernd takes down one, and we come together for the last.
The only damage we took was from the death explosions, and we easily saved for half every time.
Isra reaches level 34, taking her fifth Greater Whirlwind. Only Cernd still has a level left to earn, and he's less than 100K from it. Anomen gets the Erinne sling as his ranged option, immediately upgraded. And with that, I end the session. The Imprisoned One can wait.
1707 total fire kills. We had both raw numbers with the horde and high-value kills with the demilich and hive mother. It was a bit disappointing not getting the trap explosions to work on the hive mother, but at least we burned that thing in the end.
"Cool guys don't look at explosions
The flames are hot, but their heart is chill
Walk fast from that boring explosion
And don't think about the people you've killed"
— The Lonely Island, Cool Guys Don't Look At Explosions
With only one fight left in Watcher's Keep ... we leave. There's no reward except experience, and we just don't need any of that. Instead, we pick up Neera for her quest. Before setting out, we fill her spellbook, pickpocketing any scrolls we don't already have from Karthis and Lazarus with Jan's expert aid. All but Neera are dismissed from the party for the actual scribing ... not quite level 18. All right, add a stack of Freedom scrolls. That brings her over the top, and she takes Dragon's Breath as her HLA.
I equip Neera with lots of good stuff: the Erinne Sling and +4 ammo, the 20 strength belt, the Cloak of Mirroring, a +2 protection ring, and a ring of Gaxx. Apply Spirit Armor, and her spell save will reach the negatives. Good enough. Anomen takes a break to make room.
And now, we're off. We travel to the clearing, wish-rest, and cast a dweomer.
Now prepare chain contingencies and rest properly. The trap works exactly as planned.
The Thayans are here. And our incendiary clouds are on the way.
Conversation ends, and the spells arrive. Before we can take any actions, Neera complains about her magic "not working"...
Uh, Vicross? Most of your forces are already dead, including all four mages. We don't need any spells we haven't already cast.
We attack, and Isra takes a small hit. Then the clouds tick for a second round.
All twelve kills were made with fire - four for each mage. Neera's wildness made no difference at all.
Sadly, Vicross is immortal here. With her minions down, she teleports back to Thay - and brings us along. We arrive in an arena, with a messy fight already in progress.
Some dragon fire should clear that up. Aerys' blast lands first, of course. Before even a round passes...
That's just one enemy left. Overwhelming fire is just so fun to play with. The yuan-ti elite are dangerous foes - level 18 fighters armed with +3 swords - but just one of them is nothing to us. Also, our gladiator allies are still around. Lea Gosh'Aar gets the final blow.
Then I arrive at the shopping area, and realize I've made a mistake. I don't have an arrow of detonation, so I can't buy/sell my way to a large collection. Oh well. I'll just have to make do with spells and melee weapons for my fire.
I also buy the unique items, of which the cloak of the lich is the one I'll actually use. Once I go back to my usual party, that'll go to Anomen. For now, Aerys wears it. Also, Nalia gets a +3 buckler for better defense in melee mode.
With our shopping done, we head off to the estate. This is a stealth-focused area, at least at first. Lots of alarm traps, and guards that will sound the alarm anyway if you don't kill them quickly. The staff of the magi is our best friend here, of course.
The first room is easy enough.
Just a couple guards. Nalia goes for a backstab, but she only has a 2x multiplier. Ah, well. Incendiary clouds and normal attacks finish them quickly enough.
One down.
For the next room, Nalia puts up the chain contingency. But ... this room has a red wizard. After Nalia deals with the alarm trap, the wizard casts Detect Invisibility.
The fight is on. Before long ...
There's the fire. No more enemies to worry about, no alarm raised.
Now we backtrack to the other side. Neera brings the contingency this time.
Also, that's another non-fatal backstab from Nalia. One guard dies instantly when the fire goes off, and the second falls to melee fire from Cernd.
The fourth room has another wizard, and we dodge the Detect Invisibility. Twice. With that exhausted, they're easy prey.
The wizard goes invisible. It doesn't help.
But ... in the aftermath, Nalia blunders into an alarm trap. For that, I reload. My save is just before that room, so here's take two:
It's actually more fire kills this time.
And now, on to the big room. Bait out Detect Invisibility, disarm the traps, prepare contingencies, cast Mass Invisibility...
We're in place. And give the wizard a whack. Well, after the dawn cutscene plays; this counts as an outdoor area.
Contingencies go off, and Aerys adds a Comet.
That's nearly all of them dead instantly. Isra whacks the lone survivor.
There's one last pair of guards in a smaller room.
The usual formula applies. Well, OK, I use a Comet instead of incendiary clouds.
With the perimeter clear, we take the time to loot some place and renew our two-hour buffs. Then we enter the courtyard to face Vicross herself.
We have spell defenses all around, Mass Invisibility, Spell Shield on the mages, and three triple-IC chain contingencies set to go off on the nearest enemies.
Naturally, Vicross opens with a True Sight and a Mass Invisibility. We'll need to counter that; our clouds won't trigger if we don't see anything. All right, then. Detect Invisibility.
Also, two Dragon's Breath spells.
One guard whirls, targeting Isra. She's the only one without Stoneskins, but she has 80% physical resistance going so that isn't going to hurt much. Actually ... add Defender of Easthaven. Now she has 100% resistance, and that won't hurt at all.
Moments later ...
Only the level 19 kensai still lives among the guards, and he's wasting his attacks on Isra. He goes down, and Neera goes to confront Vicross.
I just need that contingency to activate ...
Neera spent that last round ineffectively swinging her Boomerang Dagger in melee. Vicross tried to cast a spell, but didn't finish.
And ... actually, we still have two out of three chain contingencies active. We don't need new ones for the final fight. The mages cast abjuration immunity, and we ring the bell.
As he isn't hostile until his dialogue, the clouds don't hit him instantly and he has time to buff. Protection from Energy, red and blue fireshields, PfMW, Spell Turning.
But he's only level 29, so we hit him with a Remove Magic. And in case that doesn't work, I have two Pierce Magic/Pierce Magic/Breach spell triggers.
It does work. We beat down in melee, and phase 1 ends.
We could end it here, but we're not cowards. Taunt him some more, as he fully restores himself. And with that cutscene, the clouds finally trigger.
Of course, he still needs to be dispelled for that fire to actually hurt him. And once he is, it only takes four hits to end the fight. Szass Tam sends us away ...
What? Why, exactly, is leaving the area the trigger for that video?
I looked this one up. Here's the script block for the movie:
IF
Global("OH6400_movie","OH6400",0)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
StartMovie("neeraes")
SetGlobal("OH6400_movie","OH6400",1)
Continue()
END
Activate on entering the area, right? The thing is, OH6400 is the clearing. This is part of the script for OH6500, the estate. With that command, the video activates as soon as you enter the estate, but doesn't actually run until you return to the clearing.
Uh, right. Anyway, that's it for Neera. We get 35K XP each and the wand of whips for beating Szass Tam, and Cernd picks up his final level. Aside from her one required NRD, Neera didn't have any wild surges.
1747 total fire kills. A relatively short update, but still plenty of fire.
"Power in firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles! The breath becomes energy in your body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire!"
- Iroh, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Before we continue, I tweak something. Foebane has been bothering me - the tweaked version I've been using is just too good. The increase to maximum HP isn't supposed to stack, after all. Also, you get the full healing and HP bonus even if the target resists the damage.
So, I get into the weeds of exactly how these spells work.
In standard BG2EE 2.5.16.6, Larloch's Minor Drain does not heal you at all. Well, that's obviously wrong.
In standard BGEE 2.5.17.0, Larloch's Minor Drain uses the "Drain to max HP of caster" damage mode. This heals you and increases your maximum HP by the damage dealt. Once. After that, you have to wait until the two-turn duration wears off before you can get any more healing out of it. Hmm ... not ideal, especially when it's going to be a weapon effect that can repeat a lot. Foebane should heal you on pretty much every hit, even if it isn't granting unlimited maximum HP.
With the "hotfix" I've been using, LMD has a separate healing effect. Two turns of extra current and maximum HP, stacking with itself, regardless of the actual damage dealt.
The intended effect here ... two turns of increased maximum HP which doesn't stack, healing equal to the damage dealt. And as far as I can tell, there's no way to achieve that in 2.5. I tried various schemes, and they just didn't work right.
In the end, I decided to just discard the increased maximum HP and use the "Drain HP to caster" mode. That gets the healing reliably right, at least. And since the healing can be resisted, Foebane comes back down to a sane power level.
In 2.6, all of this should be unnecessary. I believe that "Drain to max HP of caster" has been fixed to match the intended effect.
Anyway, back to the game. And I've changed my mind about Watcher's Keep. Let's finish the place, now. Check on the Helmites one last time - there's nothing more I need from this merchant. And then, down to the final seal.
Opening the portal is 20K XP for everybody. Then we wish. Rest, improved haste, and some junk like free wands. Contingencies prepared.
We head down and speak to the voice. No, we don't trust it. Anomen? As the Helmite here, it's your job to read the scroll.
That's another 80K XP for everybody, and the entire party is at the cap. Also, the exits are closed.
Before confronting the voice again, I go for another round of wishes. Three wishes in, I have the party-wide Hardiness I was looking for, along with renewed Improved Haste. Good enough for me. Cast our spell defenses and short-duration buffs, then talk again.
Time for the fight. Demogorgon opens with Spell Turning, Stoneskin, Aura of Flaming Death, and Protection from Magical Weapons. We respond with two spell triggers - first 3x Pierce Magic, then 2x Pierce Magic and Breach.
Or, at least, that's the plan. Demogorgon casts Time Stop before we can cast either of those. I jumped the gun on starting the fight, with Aerys' aura timer still active.
Ouch. And what will the demon do with this power? He ... attacks Anomen. Anomen has 65% physical resistance and is immune to disease. Three rounds later, the Time Stop ends with Anomen still alive.
All right, Anomen did get level drained (Save vs spell at -4 or be drained 2 levels). We should have included Improved Invisibility in our buffs, to prevent that. He's still fully capable on offense, but his save boosts are all negated as long as those two lost levels are in place. So ... I have him retreat out of the melee and start casting spells.
The aura timer expires, and Aerys casts his spell trigger. Nalia follows with hers. Demogorgon's buffs are down, and he no longer has magic resistance.
He can renew some of his buffs, but he can't renew the Aura of Flaming Death. For the rest of the fight, he's stuck at 50% fire resistance. With Anomen retreated, he's spread his attacks around - including hits on both Cernd and Jaheira. That means every time the disease ticks on them, it deals zero damage but causes retaliation from their fire auras. 10 average damage per second for each of them, taking into account the 50% fire resistance.
We haven't been spending all our attacks on Demogorgon. For one thing, he was immune until that Breach landed. For another, some of the demons are dangerous. Like the balor.
Which we just killed. Although it stole two of our kills there, finishing off the two glabrezu with its fire storms. Only two minions and the boss remains, and we can now afford to focus all of our attacks on Demogorgon.
And that's the minions out. Aerys' incendiary clouds finished the cambion, and Nalia's Dragon's Breath got the marilith. Our fire is dealing damage very fast here.
Very soon after ...
The demon prince is defeated. 100K XP to each party member.
We don't get any kill credit, as Demogorgon dies by script. Still, the vast majority of the damage we dealt to him was fire. And that disease/fireshield aura in particular really wrecked him. About 10 damage per second each, plus additional bursts for every hit and every tick of that Storm of Vengeance.
The only significant injury we took was the beatdown on Anomen during the Time Stop. Cernd took enough hits to wear down his iron skins, but not enough beyond that to seriously hurt him.
The entire fight took about two rounds, not counting the stopped time. After all, that Storm of Vengeance was cast during the Time Stop by Demogorgon, and it was still going at the end of the fight.
With the demon defeated, we can leave. We summon a planetar once we're outside, to cure the level drain on Anomen. With the party healed, we head up to confront those false Helmites:
Add in the reward we demanded, and it's a total of 57K XP each, 10K gold, and a point of reputation. Not a bad haul, if we cared about any of that.
Now that the party is uniformly at the XP cap, a snapshot. Our standard long-duration buffs that we keep up all the time are included, but not any of the shorter-duration buffs we use for big fights.
First, Aerys.
Equipment: Robe of Vecna, Gauntlets of Weapon Skill, Circlet of Netheril, Amulet of Power, 3x Bullets +4, Firetooth +3, Staff of the Magi, The Warder's Signet +3, Ring of Gaxx, various wands, Cloak of Mirroring, Boots of Speed, Belt of Inertial Barrier.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
L1 spells: Sleep, Burning Hands, Blindness, Magic Missile, Shield.
L2 spells: Web, Mirror Image, Melf's Acid Arrow, Glitterdust, Blur.
L3 spells: Fireball, Spell Thrust, Slow, Remove Magic, Skull Trap.
L4 spells: Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility, Fireshield: Red, Greater Malison, Spirit Armor.
L5 spells: Chaos, Sunfire, Breach, Spell Immunity, Spell Shield.
L6 spells: Death Fog, Pierce Magic, Protection from Magical Weapons, Protection from Magical Energy, True Sight.
L7 spells: Project Image, Spell Turning, Delayed Blast Fireball, Mordenkainen's Sword, Mass Invisibility.
L8 spells: Incendiary Cloud, Pierce Shield, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Simulacrum.
L9 spells: Wish, Time Stop, Spellstrike, Spell Trap.
High-level abilities: all mage spells and extra slots.
Second, Isra.
Equipment: Full Plate, Beetle-Shell Bracers (15% physical resist, +1/2 APR), Helm of Brilliance, Amulet of the Seldarine, various arrows, Flail of Ages +4, Foebane +5, Carsomyr +5, Crom Faeyr +5, Ghadir Family Ring (+1 AC, +1 saves, non-removable), Ring of Fire Resistance, Book of Infinite Spells (Spell Turning), Efreeti Bottle, Potions of Superior Healing, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Bluntness.
Buffs active: Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High-level abilities: Deathblow, Greater Deathblow, Power Attack, 3x Critical Strike, Smite, Whirlwind, 5x Greater Whirlwind, 3x Hardiness
Third, Anomen.
Equipment: Red Dragon Scale, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, Helm of the Rock, Amulet of Spell Warding, 3x Bullets +4, Erinne Sling +5, Club of Detonation +5, Dragon Scale Shield +2, Holy Symbol of Helm, Ring of Gaxx, wands, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the Lich, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High-level abilities: all cleric spells.
Fourth, Jaheira.
Equipment: Full Plate, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Helm of Defense, Harper Pin, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Staff of the Ram +6, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Regeneration, wands, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of the North, Girdle of Bluntness.
Buffs active: Buffs active: Iron Skins, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High level abilities: all druid spells, fire and earth elemental tokens, Power Attack, Critical Strike, Smite, Whirlwind, 2x Greater Whirlwind, 3x Hardiness
Fifth, Cernd.
Equipment: Gloves of Missile Snaring, Helm of Defense, Periapt of Life Protection, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Ixil's Spike +6, Claw of Kazgaroth, Ring of Protection +2, wands, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the High Forest +1, Boots of Avoidance, Golden Girdle of Urnst.
Buffs active: Iron Skins, Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High level abilities: all druid spells, fire and earth elemental tokens.
Sixth, Nalia.
Equipment: Robe of the Good Archmagi, Bracers of Archery, Lavender Ioun Stone, Periapt of Proof Against Poison, Quiver of Plenty +2, 2x Arrows +3, Shortbow of Gesen, Boomerang Dagger +2, Buckler +3, de'Arnise Signet Ring, Ring of Fire Control, wands, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High-level abilities: all mage spells and extra slots.
The girdle of fortitude ... I haven't been using it before now, which is an oversight. With as often as we wish-rest, we can easily keep that effect up on Cernd full-time.
Nalia also carries thieving jewelry, for use when trapfinding or lockpicking is an issue. Since she only has one mutable ring slot and that's taken up by a fire resistance ring, wearing thieving rings regularly is not an option.
I don't always have Spirit Armor on everybody. Much of the time, I'm running on one Aerys image worth of buffs, which means only four or five party members get that one. If I have to skip someone, it's Jaheira and then Isra that lose out on the save boost. They still have negative spell saves even without that buff, after all.
Our detour into side quests and dungeon crawling is complete. It's time to get back to the plot now, with a trip to the Forest of Mir. We hop up to the pocket plane and buff as soon as we arrive there, because a fight is coming soon. Including lightning protection, because that fight includes devil shades.
All right. Time to move forward. And, naturally, we disbelieve everything. The wraith tries to punish Aerys, but that punishment consists solely of fire damage. And then, the fight starts.
As usual, we have fire. The swamp horrors are highly vulnerable, and die instantly. Devil shades and vampiric wraiths ... not so much. So we get out the wands of lightning for the shades.
That's two devil shades down. One entirely to lightning, one finished in melee. Only one remains. And unfortunately, Isra has taken level drain. Her lack of Stoneskin makes her a preferred target, and her AC is relatively poor as well.
One of our bolts rebounds, and hits the last devil shade. It's not quite lethal, but Cernd finishes the shade off easily enough. Then that bolt just keeps on bouncing back and forth - the trees act as a reflective wall as well. It doesn't do any damage since we're all immune, but it's very annoying.
And then, it ends.
The clouds finish the Master Wraith, and Anomen turns the last vampiric wraith.
The Master Wraith defended itself with PfMW. We just ignored that and let the fire do its job.
With that first fight over, we call up a planetar and reverse Isra's level drain. And then, with our clouds still going, Aerys pokes his head forward to attract some attention. Also, we cast some fire storms on the approach.
They have lots of MR. It doesn't help. I see the mage's buffs in the log ... protection from fire is included. And then I see "Unaffected by effects of Fire Storm". OK, cast the Remove Magic.
Success. The mage is burning. Also, the aerial servant reached the clouds and died.
Soon after, the mage and the two warriors follow. Only the cleric and assassin remain. The cleric never moves, so we head forward to burn it.
Nice and simple. Dragon's Breath does the trick, with a little help from other damage sources. That same spell also kills the assassin, which we never even saw.
This area also has some normal undead spawn points.
Since we already have a lot of fire going, they burn easily. We do need to add an incendiary cloud though, as the fire storms dissipate.
Then it's another spawn point upstairs, and more fire:
Step back, and they instantly respawn?
Uh, sure. They can die again.
Thankfully, that's the last of those ghasts and mummies. The only thing left to do is to talk with Nyalee. She gives us our quest - find her and Yaga-Shura's hearts, so the giant's invulnerability can be removed.
With that, we head out and travel to the Marching Mountains. Lava is everywhere, though none of it can be walked on out here. And of course convection isn't a thing - in this outdoor area, it's just set dressing for impassable terrain.
We also renew our buffs. The image I bring out for it wishes up a rest and Improved Haste. Add in Armor of Faith for some physical resistance on the divine casters, and head out.
Two fire giants at a time. They get a couple hits in on Isra before we take them down, though she's still in the green.
Up next, a silly encounter. And one that we can use fire on.
Nalia's clouds go off early, and miss. Aerys' clouds go off in the right place ...
... but Nalia was wearing the wrong ring. Her Dragon's Breath is canceled. Of course, we're still getting some fire kills in, and Aerys' breath is about to land.
It doesn't take long to clean up the rest of them.
Merlinious got in a hit, but that was a normal weapon against a protected foe. Weapon ineffective. The only damage we took was self-inflicted.
All right, heal Nalia. And then head back south.
Giants spawned where we came in. This time, they targeted Anomen, and brought him down into the yellow.
Turning east, we find a new enemy.
Burning Men. Basically, fire-themed golems. And on second thought, they really can't do anything to us. Hit the giant first. Before long, this pack is down, and the way in is clear. Next time, we will enter a very special area for us ... the fire dungeon.
1773 total fire kills. This is a fairly short update, and there were a lot of fire immunes. But that's nothing compared to what we'll find inside.
"Logically, convection should make the air in this chamber hotter than an oven, and we'd all roast alive.
But for some reason, that doesn't happen!"
— Foreman Jaak, RuneScape
Before we actually enter Yaga-Shura's lair, we take the time for some buffs. This is probably the most dangerous area in the game as far as pure melee threats go, after all. So we buff against physical damage. Hardiness for Isra, Regeneration for both Isra and Anomen.
Also, Anomen switches to Blackblood. All that fire damage on the Club of Detonation is useless, so Blackblood hits harder.
We're ready for a serious fight. And we get it right away.
The invisible giants there ... that's because the standard giant creature in here is instead a placeholder for deciding between several variants that carry different nonmagical weapons. We actually kill one of those placeholders before the real giant can warp in ... which doesn't stop the real giant from showing up as well.
The giants here are very fond of Critical Strike. The only way we can stop them from hitting us is to kill them before they can swing.
And five giants in, we still haven't taken any damage. We still have to do some tricky maneuvers - that's Aerys alone, with an elite that's just taken an oil of speed chasing him.
The elite that the party is about to engage there finally gets in a good whack. 36 net points of damage (39 slashing, -3 fire), then two more hits before we take it down.
Then the other elite engages, also targeting Anomen. Two more hits, and he has to retreat and regenerate. But the rest of the party gangs up on it ...
The entrance is clear, and Nalia switches to trap-clearing mode. By the time we're done with that, Anomen is fully regenerated, and those Regeneration spells expire. It's the easiest time any of my SCS parties have had with that fight.
Incidentally, party-wide fire immunity is a very nice perk here. For a normal party, those lava pools are navigation hazards to be avoided. For this party, they might as well be normal flooring. We just ignore them and fight wherever we want.
We don't see any more enemies ... until we start messing with stuff.
Open the first container, and enemies spawn in. Fire trolls. This calls for an equipment shuffle - Isra switches to Crom Faeyr main-hand and Ice Star off-hand. Along with Anomen's acid club, we shouldn't have any trouble keeping these trolls down.
Although they do cause some pain. Fire trolls hit hard. Isra will need a Heal before our next fight. She'll also switch her weapons - Ice Star main-hand, Crom Faeyr off-hand.
That container also gives us the 22 strength belt. Anomen gets that, passing his old 20 strength belt down to Nalia. The party's new strength levels: Isra 25, Anomen 23, Cernd 22, Jaheira 22, Aerys 20, Nalia 20.
That fight comes on the other side, which is populated with more giants.
No Regeneration spells, and our Improved Haste has expired. This will be tough.
Indeed, Anomen takes serious damage and has to back off. I have him cast Energy Blades to contribute some ranged damage. Then we split them up - attack the regulars, let the elites waste their time chasing mages.
With the regulars down, we turn our attention to the elites. Attack one, with Isra using 80% physical resistance to tank. The other keeps chasing Nalia.
One down. Now we go after the other. Nalia gets chased back to the entrance ...
And that's it for the giants on this floor. We'll see more upstairs, but for now we're just dealing with random fire-themed monsters.
After healing, we add some extra preparation for the next encounter.
There's an enemy here that isn't immune to fire. And we're definitely aiming for that fire kill. Open the container...
A Clay Golem. Our fire storm barrage does the trick, and we have claimed the one fire kill that's possible in here.
There are also two other golems. Isra's long sword takes down the magic golem, and the planetar's vorpal strike gets the adamantite golem.
Now we use the two wardstones to unlock the barriers. Two more side rooms are open to us.
Ah, the fire lich. We have nothing to fear from its selection of fire spells, but it's still a lich with all the threat that implies. And with Spell Turning, PfMW, PfME, abjuration immunity, and invisibility, we'll need to work a bit to break its defenses so we can do anything.
It aims a Remove Magic sequencer at Isra, so I split her from the party to hopefully absorb it alone. Then aim a Spell Thrust (wasted) and a Spellstrike at the lich, which we have the planetar reveal with True Seeing.
And ... oh, right. The lich isn't alone here. There are also noble efreeti to cast more fire spells, and fell cats for melee. Those cats are actually the most dangerous threats here with their resistance-lowering attack, so I have the melee focus on them.
Isra absorbs the Remove Magic losing only her PfME, and returns to the fight.
In round 2, we Breach that lich.
We also take down the cats - but Isra got hit twice. With only 70% fire resistance, she retreats from the fight. That leaves the efreeti for our remaining melee forces, and they don't last long.
The lich re-applies PfMW. Rather than getting into a Breach war, I decide to switch to magical damage. Magic Missile and Skull Trap ... wait, liches are immune to low-level spells. All right, go for the wilting.
It only takes one.
That failed save ... unlike many other liches, this one has the standard mage array for saves. Save vs spell on a 4, and it just got unlucky.
It threw a dispel at us just before the end, to little effect. We lost some mage buffs and Jaheira's iron skins, but most of our defenses stayed intact.
Still, it's time to replace the buffs we lost. Spirit Armor is expiring anyway. And after that, the image wishes up Hardiness and Improved Haste.
Turning to the other side, we face two more Fell Cats alongside some other fire monsters, with a Flaming Skull as the caster type.
Of course, that means we take out the cats first. Their resistance-lowering attack is the only actual threat here. Isra takes one hit down to 95% resistance - tolerable.
Then we beat down the skull. With PfME intact, even its death explosion is harmless.
Finish off the Burning Man, and the room is clear.
Anomen casts a Resist Fire and Cold on Isra so she won't be even slightly vulnerable to fire, and we open the container.
Greater fire elementals and Burning Men. They can do some physical damage, but this is fundamentally trivial.
... except for that Keening. I forgot to renew that Remove Fear, and Anomen failed his save (it has a -4 penalty). Since he's double-hasted, it's very hard to catch him with a Remove Fear now.
Anyway, we finish up and head over to the other container. Anomen can just wander for now - we don't need him for this.
Just some devils here. All fire-immune, of course. Beat them down with physical attacks.
Anomen snapped out of it in time to come back, but didn't really contribute.
With that, the way to the second floor is clear. It's time to face giants again, instead of all these random fire monsters.
Two of those giants face us on the stairs.
But ... well, our full party is hasted. They're helpless against us.
With out haste still active, we head for a side entrance to hit some more giants.
Those two regulars go down in moments, and we take on an elite next. Add a pair of Wiltings...
They really have a lot of hit points. Also, Aerys just stood there in his casting animation the first time I tried it - that's the second attempt now.
With more giants joining in, we retreat.
Aerys does get that wilting off on the way out, taking down a third regular giant. Our kills on that venture were three regular giants, one elite, and a fell cat. Then the fallen deva comes after us, and we whack it too.
We're getting low on high-level spells, and the haste ran out too. Time for some wishes. One image ... no rest, but we pick up both Hardiness and Improved Haste for the party. Let's head out again.
Also of note ... the game is slowing down, because of the dragon Brimstone moving around. That's our next priority, if only to restore decent performance.
Ah, the breath weapon. 24d10+12 fire, save for half. And since everything but that summon is immune to fire, it's basically irrelevant. The battle itself is simple, with no fancy tricks.
Just attack until it's dead. Brimstone is nearly identical to Firkraag - same combat stats and weapon, same combat script - but we're far more powerful now than we were back then.
After that, we take care of the elite fire giant; he wasted time chasing mages, but now we can go after him.
That just leaves Berenn. And he's a pure cleric with 1 APR. Moments later, Isra smashes him. A second aerial servant reveals itself with a stealth hit, then dies.
There are a couple more enemies in this room.
Without the numerical advantage, they go down quickly.
Our buffs are still up, so Nalia clears out a couple traps and we open the way forward ti Imix.
That's a nice spell. It's also pure fire, so it doesn't hurt at all. After recovering from being blown away, we continue the beatdown.
And there's the best item this dungeon has to offer us. Nalia can disarm traps and open locks without sacrificing her fire protection now. The AC bonus and silence immunity are nice too. It replaces the poison immunity amulet as her standard fare; we'll only pull that out for special occasions now.
The halberd? Nice weapon, but we're not going to use it. Same with the upgrade token for the Axe of the Unyielding; that's only useful as something for Isra to switch to when she wants regeneration.
The Burning Men where Imix was have traps at their feet, so we take them out with ranged attacks. Those are the very last enemies here. We pick up the loot, clear the traps, free the slave, and take the hearts. The fire dungeon is complete.
1774 total fire kills. We only added one to the count this time, because virtually everything in the area was immune. Counting by experience, we got 100% of the possible fire kills.
"We need... lava, of course, more lava and... deadly traps! Oh yeah!" (adds "even more lava" to the diagram)
— Bowser, Bowser's Evil Plan
We now return to Nyalee. Pause to buff and wish-rest ... one image suffices, which also draws Hardiness and Improved Haste. Then we talk to her.
She does what she said she would, but then changes her mind and fights us.
That was quick. Nyalee doesn't even last long enough to put up any defenses. All that remains are the creatures she summoned.
Then our clouds go off.
That's a nymph and a spider down. I aim a comet at the other nymph ... moot, as the clouds get it anyway.
That just leaves the shambling mounds. They're immune to fire. They're also immune to crushing damage. Time for some alternate weapons.
Ixil's Spike for Jaheira. Greater werewolf form for Cernd. Sling and bullets for Anomen. And ... uh, scratch that for Jaheira. Our clouds burn her badly, and she retreats out of them to cast Protection from Fire on herself. I forgot that she needs her elemental form to protect herself from fire. By the time she's ready to rejoin ...
... the battle is over. That self-inflicted burn was the only damage we took.
We make one last trip to Saradush, selling a bunch of weapons and ammo to Sister Farielle. By the time we're done with that, we have about 500K gold banked.
And now, we travel to the siege camp. We arrive with all of our buffs down, and have a limited time until trouble arrives.
We're still working on the buffs when things start, but we have the most important parts in place.
And since we don't see any actual enemies yet, we just keep buffing. Most of the peasants even get away before the threat they're running from arrives. By the time they do, we have Death Ward and Chaotic Commands up all around, though we aren't quite done with Protection from Magical Energy.
Those first three soldiers go down in moments, and our incendiary clouds trigger.
All right, now for the army. The spawning rules for this battle:
- There are three classes of enemy. First, soldiers; either melee humans or archer orcs. Up to seven of these can be active at any time. They don't have magical weapons, so they're very little threat.
- Second, specialists. Officers, hammer-wielding giants, mages, or clerics. Up to four of these can be active at any one time.
- Third, elites. Yaga-Shura elites with +2 weapons and axe-wielding giants. Up to one of these can be active at any one time.
- A total of sixty enemies will spawn, not counting the three soldiers that kick things off. All enemies spawn off-screen and move to attack, and there's a delay so they don't spawn instantly after you kill one.
- Killing Yaga-Shura will stop any further army spawns, regardless of the count. Push to him quickly enough, and you might not have to fight all of them.
Naturally, we're going to ignore that last bit and fight the whole army. A round later, and the first of them arrive ...
Hey! Those enemies were supposed to appear off screen! Why are the elite and giant right on top of our mages?
Anyway, we drop a comet there and send our forces to cut down the giant. It gets some good hits in on the planetar before we can finish it.
The battle continues, and more enemies arrive.
Including two more giants. They're not in a troublesome place like the first batch, so they go down more smoothly. Meanwhile, Aerys' image is wishing.
More enemies come, including a cleric and a mage. They get some dragon's breath.
That's a fireshield protecting the mage. It dies anyway immediately afterward, from something obscured by the wish dialogue. No fire on the graphic, so I'll assume that's a non-fire kill.
After two rest wishes, we draw something better. Improved Haste for the party. The clouds are starting to clear up, but we should really tear through the enemies now.
And then the next wish after that is Greater Deathblow. Instant death for the mooks.
Finally, the image unsummons. It's time for the real Aerys to get casting. And with all of those initial clouds gone ...
He's going for a (very) rare use of Improved Alacrity, to get all of his clouds out as quickly as possible.
Two rounds later...
That's not quite all of the clouds, but it's enough. And we haven't stopped killing while that was going on. We fall back behind the clouds and just let the enemies walk into our killing field:
Well, OK, it couldn't last forever.
There are giants, after all. We have to kill those with physical damage. Back off after that kill, wait some more ... and the planetar unsummons.
Our second wave of incendiary clouds is fading too, and soon vanishes completely. I spend some other fire spells instead, along with melee attacks.
A mage shows up ... OK, that calls for some fire storms.
The storms catch an officer as well. And with that, the fight ends. We have completely exhausted the army.
We didn't need any non-wish healing during the battle, or any non-damage spells after the initial buffs. In fact, the entire party is fully healed when it ends. 63 enemies, of which 15 were giants and 38 of the other 48 died to fire.
Wish-rest for Yaga-Shura ... first try. OK, whack the image and move on. I aim some ranged attacks at the giant, and he leaves. That gives us two turns to prepare.
I go for something a little different this time. Both Aerys and Nalia create simulacra; as level 31 mages, those come out as level 19 mages capable of using 9th level spells and chain contingencies. Also, I try something a little weird - Isra takes off her fire resistance ring and wears the cloak of mirroring for protection instead.
While we wait, that simulacrum of Aerys spends its 9th level spell slots on wishes. Haste for everybody, an irrelevant party haste, and the third wish is just starting when Yaga-Shura shows.
Then the lieutenants arrive, and so do our twelve incendiary clouds.
... wait, the Nalia clone took fire damage from the clouds and lost her spell? Apparently, her signet ring doesn't get cloned.
If I had known beforehand, I definitely would have given her a fire protection spell. Meanwhile, the cleric gets dispelled.
With predictable results. We're working on the mage's defenses too, but not quite fast enough to stop the Time Stop. Spellstrike is in the air when it goes off.
Alacrity, Dark Planetar, Teleport Field, Skull Trap, Spider Spawn, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Magic Missile, and an Acid Arrow just after it ends.
The Skull Trap deals zero damage to us, and kills the mage's summoned spider. Only the Dark Planetar is actually relevant from that flurry. Time Stop and Improved Alacrity, and that's all?. Also, the fighter advances into our heavier cloud.
We also take down the deva and move on to the planetar. The mage is breached, and soon falls.
Then Isra whacks the planetar, leaving just Yaga-Shura and the still-invisible thief. The thief keeps taking occasional fire damage, but we have no idea where it is.
And my plan with Isra's equipment shuffle ... succeeds and fails.
It succeeds, in inspiring Yaga-Shura to cast Aura of Flaming Death and reduce his base fire resistance to 90%. It fails, in that doesn't make him vulnerable to fire; he's still wearing Shuruppak's Plate for a total of 110% fire resistance.
And - hey, there's the thief. In the cloud, with an attack order. He should be dead soon, right?
With the ridiculous achievement I was aiming for impossible, I move on to just beating Yaga-Shura down in the conventional way.
He's highly resistant to everything, but we deliver so many hits that it doesn't matter.
Oddly enough, the lieutenant thief lives. He never actually entered the clouds to complete that attack order we saw. And when we come back down after talking to the Solar, he's gone completely.
Looking things up in NI ... the lieutenants have effects on them to grant 100% fire resistance. These effects don't work. Instead, they have to settle for spells and potions of fire resistance.
Back up in the pocket plane, it's time for the second challenge. We gave good answers, so we'll be facing an evil version of Aerys. I shuffle equipment; Isra trades her cloak of protection, plain full plate, and helm of brilliance for the cloak of the sewers, Shuruppak's plate, and a helm of defense. One point worse saves, two points better AC, and a bit of cold and electric resistance.
Also, for this fight specifically, Anomen gets the amulet of power and Isra switches to a Crom Faeyr/Runehammer setup. Evil Aerys wields Blackrazor, and I don't want my front line taking level drain.
The fight is on. The clouds go off.
That's some serious resistance on Tamoko. Looking it up ... she's a kensai with a ring of fire resistance, armor with another 50% fire resistance, and a helmet. Cheater.
The mage Semaj also has a fire resistance ring, but that's more manageable as the only source. And our dispel arrives before his abjuration immunity can snap into place.
We beat fake Aerys down to near death, then turn to Tamoko.
Semaj and fake Aerys should go down soon, but Angelo is hiding. Drop a Comet to speed things up.
Just the summons and Angelo left. Beat on that hakeashar while waiting for Angelo to show...
Ah. There you are. Have some fire.
He drank a potion of magic protection, which didn't help. I tried a Dragon's Breath, but he somehow dodged it; in the end, it was physical attacks that finished things.
Aerys gains the Mass Healing ability for his trouble - about 65 points of healing to everyone in the party, once per rest.
Before ending the session, Anomen asks a question of Aerys:
Becoming a new god of fire does have a nice ring to it ...
In response to that, Anomen expresses caution. Don't let the taint take over. Purify it first. With fire.
1821 total fire kills. We're back to properly flammable enemies. At least, most of them.
"You have to respect anything that can just stand there, on fire."
— David Morgan-Mar, Irregular Webcomic!
With the lull in the main quest after killing Yaga-Shura, I traditionally knock off some EE character quests. This run is no exception. Aerys uses Slayer form to lower his reputation, and recruits Dorn. Isra sits this one out, as she has irreconcilable differences with the blackguard.
On recruitment, Dorn levels up to 16 and stops there. I give him Foebane and the Shield of the Order as his primary weapon and shield. For fire immunity, he puts on Shuruppak's Plate, the Helm of Brilliance, and the ring of fire resistance that Isra isn't using right now. Add some AC accessories, and he's good to go.
His saves are pretty solid, too. With our usual Spirit Armor, he'll be in the negatives for both death and spell saves.
That brings us to the waiting phase. It takes one week to trigger Dorn's quest, which we do with aimless travel. We sleep in the wilderness a few times, and draw a random encounter once.
Oh, them. Immune to fire and crushing. An annoying fight, though not actually dangerous.
And then, trouble finds us.
I kept track of the time. We have contingencies ready for an attack.
The clouds spread. Several of the crusaders die instantly, along with ... Ur-Gothoz?
Huh. I guess that disembodied voice isn't immune to a fiery death. The remaining forces are easily mopped up, with the only damage we take coming from an arrow reflected off a Physical Mirror spell.
The voice's death doesn't actually cause a problem, as the dialogue that voice is supposed to have triggers anyway. Maybe it respawned?
Now, we buff before going in. In addition to the standard priest buffs, I give Dorn a Fire Giant Strength potion - we have lots of them, and they're literally no use with our usual party.
We spend a couple images wishing up a rest, and pick up some other buffs along the way. Also, Jaheira gets a phantom kill ... which was definitely an image. Its illusion death script failed, and it left a body. We've been getting a trickle of those phantom kills ever since Aerys started using Project Image, but this is the first time I've seen the body.
In Lunia, we soon come to a planetar handing out sigils. Well. We want one of those. Pick a fight:
Wow, that planetar went down quickly. The ensuing fight is rather short, with three other foes dying immediately to the clouds. Dorn picks up his first ToB kill here:
And that's a deva being summoned in. We whack it just like all the rest.
Some peaceful exploration follows, until we run into a familiar face.
Bollard Firejaw. And Dorn kills him again, somehow poaching it from Anomen.
That angers some nearby low-level petitioners and a crusader. They're easy kills, of course.
This area spawns hit squads if any of your fights last too long. That hasn't happened yet. Our party is extremely good at killing enemies quickly.
Next, the tree. I'd like to pick some fruit, so I try to silence Dorn. When he saves twice against that, I get out a Maze scroll to hide Dorn away ...
Wait, no effect? Oh. Chaotic Commands blocks that.
Reload to avoid that waste of a scroll. All right, give him a whack with the Staff of the Magi ... no dispel. Right, that's a level 30 effect rather than an "always". All right, if he makes his saves, I'll just let him defile the tree.
He doesn't. That gives us 40 rounds without any interruption from him, unless I let him borrow the amulet of power. We get three silver apples we'll never use, and move on.
That brings us to the pavilion. We have contingencies prepared, for when the subtle approach fails ...
That was quick. Only the mage Naiman Alore, who put up a Protection from Fire before the clouds could reach him, remains. He gets a dispel and a Dragon's Breath.
With that, we're free to erase our names from the Scroll of Retribution and write in new ones. Our options are Abazigal or Sendai for something vaguely practical, Yaga-Shura for a complete waste, Noober or Saemon Havarian for a joke, or even Ur-Gothoz or Azothet if we want Dorn to lose his blackguard status.
I go for the practical option, inscribing Sendai and Abazigal.
Since we used contingencies, Aerys makes an image to start wishing. A hit squad interrupts.
And the planetar casts True Sight, popping the image before it can talk to the djinn. At least the image gets off a Comet first.
Then the djinn is considerate enough to talk to the real Aerys, and gives the party Improved Haste. It's all over very quickly.
The enemy planetar got in a vorpal hit. No kill, because of Death Ward. No dispel, because we have such a big level advantage. And no damage, because that was one of the party members with stone skins.
All right, back to wishing. We draw a rest on the first try, then whack that image. Get moving again ... there's another hit squad.
All right. Hit them with an incendiary cloud and a fireball sequencer. The fireballs take out the dogs, we bash the planetar, and then some wand hits finish the fighter.
That just leaves the priest to finish in melee. Anomen does take a good chunk of damage here, so we heal him before continuing.
Up north, we face the thought police.
We didn't defile the tree, though Dorn certainly would have if he got the chance. And that's enough for this bunch to come after us.
We keep AI off here, because the ones that look like civilians are innocent, and we'd rather not completely wreck our reputation. Also, we go for weapons only rather than any area spells. And put the club of detonation away.
We take some hits in the fight, but nothing too bad. Even the two devas they summoned on us weren't a serious threat.
We clear out a few more stragglers - dogs, a crusader.
This one didn't go hostile. We kill her anyway. Same with another crusader to the south.
And then, no more delay. We're ready for the toughest fight of the EE content. Two dragons at once. Since they're silver dragons with cold breath, I shuffle some equipment around and cast Resist Fire and Cold on everyone. The four melee warriors are immune, and the mages are resistant. Add our usual shorter-duration buffs, and engage.
They have some serious buffs. Spell Turning, abjuration immunity, PfMW, Protection from the Elements, Improved Haste. They're not immune to fire, but they're resistant enough that we'll definitely need to take those protections down.
To that end, we hit both of them with our spell triggers (2x Pierce Magic + Breach) and follow up with Remove Magic.
Then Aerys gets Breached ... I should have put up spell defenses. And so does Nalia.
The dragons take advantage. A breath weapon shot brings her to near death. Then a wing buffet, and she's down.
All right, raise her.
Oops. There goes one instance of Mass Raise Dead. A second succeeds, giving her time to at least put her fire resistance ring on.
There's also some good news, as our beatdown and clouds are doing their job.
But ... you can already see what's coming. Another shot of the breath weapon ...
Nalia takes twice her current HP in cold damage. She's not just dead. She's an ice sculpture, impossible to revive.
We'll accept the occasional death, but not the permanent loss of a character. Reload.
For the second try at this fight, I add Breach protections. Spell defenses all around.
Not a bad start. One of the dragons doesn't even have fire protection up, and we're making serious dents in their HP.
Of course, they go for the breath weapon.
Silver dragon breath deals 24d10+12 cold damage, save for half. That's an average of 144 before save and resistance. Ixthezzys rolled high for 160 damage here, but Aerys' save and 70% resistance dropped it to 24 damage taken. Total. Across the entire party. What a difference having protections up makes.
Anyway, Ixthezzys still has protections up, so we dispel him. And finish off Dolrassa.
Ah, another breath shot. Nalia isn't as resistant as Aerys, but she can still take a hit like this.
And for the final blow, a Comet.
Both Aerys and Nalia have new top kills with this fight, and the threat level is definitely worthy of the high experience value.
We already have our anti-mage buffs up, so we head straight for the exit. Hit them with a pair of incendiary clouds:
They have some fire protection up. All right, dispel them.
And ... they apparently decide that two clouds isn't enough. One petitioner adds his own, self-targeted in a Chain Contingency.
That's not the last of the friendly fire, either.
Uh, thanks? Only the petitioner that put up abjuration immunity is still alive. And for stealing our kills, we hit him with a sequence of Spell Thrust, Remove Magic, and Comet.
That just leaves some swords. We clear them out with a Death Spell, take out the Crusader near the portal, and leave. That's it for Dorn.
1842 total fire kills. Not a terribly high number this update, but the kills we got were quite valuable. The two dragons are second and third on our list of high-value fire kills, and the two petitioners are first and second on the list of high-value fire kills by enemies.
"Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
— Genesis 3:24, The Bible
We go straight from one temporary party member to another. Isra returns, Cernd takes a break, and Rasaad joins the party. Since Rasaad can't wear armor or helmets, we can't do much with his fire resistance (unless we allow him to borrow a shapeshift token, and I'm not doing that). Instead, he'll wear the cloak of mirroring for immunity to damage spells. He also borrows the Claw of Kazgaroth from Cernd, and uses a belt of strength alongside the gauntlets of crushing to hit very hard in melee.
We travel, and are set on immediately. Sharrans are here to ambush Rasaad.
Since it's a zero-time transition, I had the party buff before going. And then our clouds go off during the cutscene, as can be seen behind the dialogue box.
The mage goes invisible, and I aim a Dragon's Breath at where he disappeared ...
OK, then. That was unnecessary. The crusader doesn't quite die, but he's near death. Rasaad finishes him off with a wand.
That leaves the assassin and monk. The clouds can take care of them without further actions from us.
Done. Who needs attacks?
With that map, we can now reach Mount Deepstone, and we travel there immediately. Meet with the local dwarves, re-establish our buffs.
Now that we have a plan, we head off toward the lumber camp. There's an ambush along the way, featuring an archer with exploding arrows. For that, I have Rasaad lead the way under stealth, and get into melee range before he can shoot. That one goes down cleanly, without firing any arrows.
Then the dwarf who warned us charges at the other guards ... right. Party-friendly fire is the way to go here.
One Dragon's Breath, one Comet. Five out of eight enemies burned. Rolf did take a bit of collateral damage from a fireball Anomen triggered, but nothing serious.
And then, the next fight has friendlies too ... make an image to wish up a rest. And add more buffs. After all, I screwed up the first time around - Rasaad doesn't have a Death Ward.
Now, the lumber camp.
We go with two shots of Dragon's Breath.
That's not quite all of them, but it's close enough. The last two don't last long.
I threw in some wand flame strikes there, but they didn't get any of the kills.
The conversation with Cuddy brings up an alternate plan of entry, and we take it. Straight through to the mine, where we finally meet resistance.
Monks. And all I have for party-friendly fire is Comet. I use it, but magic resistance limits its impact.
Mostly, we just beat them with melee attacks.
And then, we head right back up. I'd like to fight the front gate guards too.
This fight doesn't have friendlies. We make some contingent incendiary clouds. And for that mage, I hit him with a Remove Magic and a Comet. Can't let him have any fire resistance spells up.
Meanwhile, the melee goes after Tallus. Not fast enough to stop his bad breath, though.
Right after that shot, our second set of clouds triggers, and a bunch more guards die.
The sorcerer puts up abjuration immunity. Too late. Our Remove Magic already landed, and he's in the cloud. I just have to wait now.
Then Tallus goes down, and we withdraw to bring the remaining guards into the fire.
There's still a clone of the sorcerer there, just out of the shot to the north. It's unconscious. Easily smacked.
At this point, I save and work on updating my kill counts ... hard freeze in the middle of that. At least I don't lose any game progress.
We head back in, and run into a snag. The elevator down doesn't seem to be working. All right, then. We'll just clear out the ground floor first.
Starting from the kitchen area, a group of assassins are the first foes we find. They get fire.
That's the leader down. Then the other assassins run into our blindly cast clouds ...
Two more follow after that shot. We never saw them until they were dead.
The rooms here have two more foes - a priest and someone in robes.
They're not much trouble - but the dwarves are. They're heading away from our clouds for now, but that means they're heading to the main hall. We won't be able to use our indiscriminate spells for that fight without hurting allies. On top of that, we've used up our party-friendly AoE fire spells ... this could get messy.
After all, there are a lot of enemies here. Aerys sets up an image for wishes ... the first one is nothing special, Greater Restoration for the party. The second is a dud, for which I take halved caster HP. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is taking heavy damage.
Hey, there's a named enemy going down. Not our kill, though.
Then I draw a rest. Nalia immediately casts a Dragon's Breath.
That's better. But ... not really good enough. Two party members are seriously injured, and there are a lot of enemies left. I pause to rethink, and decide to abort and retry.
We'll do some things differently this time, in order to make that hall fight run more smoothly. First, we hit those assassins again - our plan for them was just fine.
This time, our fire gets all of them, without ever seeing any of them. Phyllidus even walks into it as well.
After that ... we don't go after the priest. We don't want to rescue any dwarves yet. Instead, we head back to a safer spot and start wishing. Improved Haste. 25 stats. Rest. Irrelevant. Hardiness.
We prepare our contingencies, and head out for the big fight. We're much better prepared this time around.
And with no dwarves in the mix, we can fill the battlefield with incendiary clouds. Torcadahl, a monk, and two mercenaries burn instantly. Anomen kills two more monks.
Reinforcements arrive. And immediately start dying.
All right, the archers force us to move some. They aren't going to walk into the cloud on their own, after all. Still, we have plenty of melee power.
And the clouds are still doing their job. Another named Sharran, Theyeradahl, burns up.
A priest pauses outside our cloud to cast spells ... Anomoen has his own spells.
That Flame Strike finishes him. And with that, the main hall is clear.
Up next, Alorgoth's quarters. The door is guarded.
Two Comets take care of them. No need to get through a fighter/mage's defenses.
Well, all right. The pure fighter Jassar goes down in melee.
That lets us open the door and head in. Shani is hostile, but can still be talked into giving up the goods. Then we fight her.
A fire shield and Protection from Energy. That calls for a dispel. Then hit her with a Dragon's Breath and a Fire Storm:
The room can be explored at leisure now. I think I tripped the trap, but it didn't matter with the good stuff already in our inventory.
One straggler didn't join the big fight.
And then there's Taddaus.
The dwarves are rescued. And there's nothing left for them to fight. Now they won't die.
Now, back down to the mines, through the only path we can use right now. Wish first, picking up a rest, Improved Haste, and Hardiness.
With allies nearby, we're not using anything indiscriminate. Anomen even puts the club of detonation away.
Our buffs make this a very short fight. Same with the next encounter.
Cuddy was already fighting those guards. We arrived fast enough to save him.
The mining site comes next. And with the layout here, we can afford a few fireballs.
Aerys launches his fireball sequencer. Nalia gets interrupted by the dialogue prompt and loses it? Well, OK, she just loses the ability to activate it until she rests. It isn't that bug.
A few enemies burn, but mostly we just blitz through all of them with terrifying speed.
It takes barely more than a round to slaughter all of them.
There's one more force for us to face. It's a pretty substantial group, with high-level warriors to pose a threat and magical support.
We hit them with simple dragonfire. Both shots land during the cutscene, killing the sorcerer. And blowing the Shadow Guard away so they can't fight us effectively. I add some incendiary clouds for round two.
It's all over very quickly after that.
I don't think the portal even had time to spawn any shadow creatures.
Enter the Shadow Plane, get out the anti-undead weapons.
Mace of Disruption for Anomen, Runehammer for Isra. The shadow creatures aren't vulnerable to fire, but a good whack with a blessed weapon does them in.
Seven shadow creatures later, I get a lull long enough to memorize a chain contingency. Though, not my usual trigger condition ...
Instead of "when you see an enemy", I go with "when hit". And then force it with zero damage from the necklace of missiles.
Death is immediate.
She hits us with a wing buffet, but that's all. She simply doesn't have enough HP to last. One weapon hit for 35+1 damage, then five incendiary cloud ticks for a total of 124 (all saved). And she only has 160 HP - same as Thaxll'ssylia. Except SCS gives dragons triple hit points, and that script misses Yxtrazzal.
After that, it's just a run to the exit. Alorgoth drops to 1 HP running through our clouds, and we beat on him some more until the timer runs out and Rasaad's dialogue triggers.
The grateful dwarves give us some gold, and we head out. Rasaad can rest.
1898 total fire kills. Many foes burned, in and around this dwarven fortress.
8th Felsisite, 1064
All burn. Children burn fastest. Less fat. Locked lot crazy nobles in statue garden. Won't move until they all stop moving. And burning. Some escaped. Still burning. All burn.
The very stones themselves are burning. Nothing can stand in the heat.
The fires have claimed all of the second hall. There are only five of us left, and Unib Berog walks back and forth, carrying objects uselessly, not understanding anything.
The tales are true... adamantium is cursed. We did naught but uncover the vein, and doom befell us.
Cerol Likotag told me he had to "fill the pool" and wandered into the fires. Poor creature.
Berog declared that he wants new Bonobo leather trousers.
— The Chronicles of Boatmurdered
With Rasaad gone, we sort out the final disposition of the loot from his quest. Most of it goes into storage, but the Cloak of the Dark Moon is too good to ignore. That goes to Aerys, and the Cloak of Mirroring goes into storage. Sure, it's nice - but we resist so much spell damage that we just don't need it.
And now, we travel to Amkethran. Not directly, as we could, but through the sige camp and the oasis. After a rest, because that's enough distance to invite fatigue.
Well, all right. We can clear out an interruption. And then another one. The giants actually inspire Aerys to use a rare debuff spell - Slow.
The third attempt at rest succeeds.
We wake, and it will be another twelve hours of travel to the oasis. None of our buffs will last that long. Still, we can set some contingencies.
Our clouds are already on the way. As soon as the conversation ends, Jamis and three of his soldiers die. Then I drop a Comet on the mage.
Anyway, that comet takes out the mage and three archers. It only takes a few melee attacks to finish clearing this first group.
After another round - now the mages at least have stoneskins up - we move forward. The mages add some new clouds, now that we've left the protection of the first set.
The clouds land, and archers immediately start dying.
The ones that saved follow in the next round, and others walk into the fire to die.
That's pretty much it for the battle in the north. There are some archers south of the tents that we have to whack in melee, but we're ready to move forward again.
And after that, there's only one more cluster of enemies.
One Dragon's Breath, and they are no more. Even the dog dies to fire.
The force in the oasis is numerous and well-equipped, but seriously lacking in levels. Only the leader Jamis Tombelthen can resist a Deathblow. Which we didn't use, because we really didn't need it.
Since it's less than twelve hours to Amkethran now, we have the druids cast Iron Skins. Wish up a rest, then travel.
After conversing with Balthazar, our first encounter here is the unwelcome return of an old acquaintance, Saemon Havarian.
Setting his enemies on us. Typical. The fight is trivial, of course.
And ... you know, I'd like to take care of Captain Erelon and his bunch too.
We use Dragon's Breath, of course.
Hmm. I expected more out of that. Oh well. We can still just attack. Erelon put up what must have been Improved Mantle, so Anomen and Isra can just attack over it. Dispelling it would risk him casting PfMW instead, which is far worse for us (and anybody else, since he's inexplicably immune to normal weapons).
We take a goodly chunk of melee damage, but win through. Anomen gets the fiery kill.
And now, time for the final EE companion. Isra takes a break, and Hexxt joins. She gets white dragon scale, the cloak of mirroring, and our usual buffs ... plus the mage spell Protection from Fire. It's dispellable, but it's better than nothing. And the end boss of the area can use Dragon's Breath, so the cloak of mirroring alone isn't good enough.
One thing to note with our buff sequence ... that was "haste everybody", not "haste the party". And all the enemies here are pre-placed. Indeed, the very first enemy takes advantage.
The thief Phreya activates Assassination, and gets two backstabs with it. Ouch. Fortunately, she's merely using a dagger with 1d6+4 physical damage and a lot of poison. Anomen can take two hits from that, especially since he's immune to the poison.
After that, it's just mummies for a while.
They are vulnerable to fire, so we're going to take advantage.
Flame strikes, melee fire ... it's all good. A group of three at once gets more firepower.
Contingent incendiary clouds. We just stand there and watch them die. This bunch can trip people up sometimes - the leader is a cleric that casts Physical Mirror, so the party can take surprise damage if you attack blindly.
The first quadrant ends with another fight with Phreya. She doesn't get a single hit in this time.
The main enemies of the second quadrant are bone fiends.
Unfortunately for us, they're immune to fire. We just have to smash them the old-fashioned way.
Not that we're done with the mummies. There are some of them around too.
For the end of the quadrant, we get mummies and bone fiends at the same time, plus Phreya.
Fire for the mummy, melee hits for the bone fiends. In addition to the incendiary cloud shown, I add some wand action. The mummy goes down on the second round, and the incidental damage provokes Phreya. She gets one stab in on Anomen this time.
Backtracking, there's one more fight in a side room: Umolex.
He can't take a Comet.
The third quadrant gets harder, with lots of sand golems. Since I left Isra and her hammer of instantly killing golems behind, we'll have to be a bit sneakier. Wish for a rest ... I don't get it on the first image, but I do get Magic Resistance on everyone. All those golems get their MR reduced to 40%, and that means we can go hunting.
The image takes the lead, protecting itself from melee hits. Then we cast incendiary clouds.
It works. That's two down, and we have a nice killing field set up. Let's lure in some more of them.
That's three. There are two more in the hallway beyond...
Of course, this does take time. That image unsummons, so some of those clouds are now orphans; we're risking not getting credit for our kills. I'll accept that risk.
For those last two, Nalia cast PfMW and Comet. She got credit for one, while the other died to anonymous damage from the departed image.
Move the party up, make another image. This one actually draws a rest, and Nalia makes a contingency for the golems guarding the next door:
Invisibility and a chain contingency. They never even get the chance to act. One even dies in the first round.
The next room has death tyrants instead, and Aerys will take this one on with his own invisibility and chain contingency.
Except ... he's not fully invisible. They see him, and he has to retreat. Fortunately, they didn't go for an antimagic ray. One round later, they're dead and that bit of trouble is over.
Phreya was there too. Those incendiary clouds took care of her without us having to get anywhere close.
We could move forward, but there's still a side path to clear. Two more sand golems on the way ...
We give them Dragon's Breath and fire storms. But it's not quite a perfect run against them - we take one cursed hit. (The planetar clears that up easily)
At the end of the path, we face Culak and friends. They don't go hostile right away, so we burn them unprovoked.
Two fire storms, two incendiary clouds. No more Culak.
The spiders still aren't technically hostile for some reason, but they're chasing the planetar with intent to attack. We lead them back into the fire, and add some more.
Culak drops a second 19 strength belt. We don't even have a use for one of those.
With that, we enter the final quadrant. We're back to bone fiends, and pretty much only bone fiends. Fire won't do us any good.
But of course, we can just bash them.
This leads into that annoying door-switching section that only Hexxat can pass safely. Well, all right, a character immune to level drain and piercing damage could move through it safely. Jaheira could actually do that ... except that it requires earth elemental form so she can't fit through the doors. So Hexxat goes out, and leads bone fiends back to us ...
Oh. I didn't know they were vulnerable to Turn Undead. Well, that makes for easy fights.
Including T'lassus. Oddly enough, it's worth the same XP as the lesser bone fiends despite having twice the HP and nearly twice the levels.
The necromantic trap is clear, but our turn/level buffs are wearing off. And with the boss coming up, it's time to renew everything. Plus wish up a rest, and apply spell defenses. Three images later, we're ready. We face Phreya for the last time, and the decoy lich.
They don't do anything of note. It's a very easy fight.
Wait, no kill credit? Looking it up, the decoy lich is worth 22K XP. But, if you drop it to under 10 HP without killing it, it has a suicide script, and that doesn't grant XP. It has 90 HP. We dealt 87 fire damage and no damage of other types. That brought it down to the right range, and poof. I don't think I've ever seen that before; unlike most enemies with low-HP suicide scripts, this one doesn't have a min-HP item.
Our buffs were wasted on that very brief fight, but there's still Korkorran.
He has a unique combat script, so SCS doesn't overwrite it. And that means no precast fire resistance.
The simulacrum is down, and the real lich just took even more damage? I think this fight is already over.
And indeed, it is. Hexxat uses the casque on the still completely invisible lich, and we have a very odd conversation.
Hexxat got zero kills during this dungeon crawl. She was just along for the ride, really. It's also less experience than any of the other EE character's ToB quests; about 80K XP per party member, all from monster kills.
There's just one final event to take care off. Hexxat meets with L, and we let her have what she wants.
Hexxat chooses mortality, and dies of old age. Who are we to stand in her way?
1951 total fire kills. We're using fire pretty much every chance we get here.
"You may have heard that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To Azula, everything looks like kindling."
— The Take, Avatar: The Last Airbender: A Fire Personality, Explained
Before we move on to chasing Bhaalspawn, there are a few things to sort out in Amkethran. First, just outside of the inn, we run into trouble with some mercenaries.
When you want to hit the mercenaries and not their victim, go for that precision tool - a giant flaming rock. I add some flame strikes to kill one of the mercenaries, and finish the other in melee.
This earns us a point of reputation, back up to 19.
Second, we help out a priest.
No kills here. That gets us another reputation point to 20.
With that dealt with, we do some shopping. A potion case, an ioun stone, make some new items. We can't use the ranger cloak, and we don't want the druid ring. But we'll have them anyway.
And then, the smuggler's cave.
Nalia uses her Comet here, killing two of the monks. That lets us do more shopping - Rod of Reversal, Enkidu's Plate, Gargoyle Boots, K'logarath, recharge other rod of reversal.
We've left the most involved of Amkethran's issues for last - Marlowe and Vongoethe. Wish-rest and prepare, trade for Malla's soul, then attack this soul-dealing monster.
Our contingent clouds take out two skeleton warriors and a banshee instantly. They don't quite finish the lich, but ...
... it only takes one more hit. His precast stoneskin wasn't active yet, apparently.
Also, oops. Nalia needed the ring of lockpicks in the smugglers' cave, and forgot to switch back to fire protection.
For the remaining undead here, we throw around some dragon breath.
That's not quite all of them, but flame strikes clear out the ones on the walkway easily enough.
Marlowe lives, and gets the soul stone to restore his daughter. With him out of the cave, we turn our focus to the summoning traps on that central platform. I prepare the field with incendiary clouds and fire storms ...
Then start turning wheels. Air.
Slime.
Three out of four burn up, while the other one at least takes some fire damage and doesn't split.
Our fire storms have worn off, but ice golems aren't magic immune.
The fire elementals, of course, go down to simple attacks.
With nothing left to do in Amkethran, there are two places we could go. And with this party, the choice is clear. Abazigal's lair offers a ton of item upgrade potential, and Sendai's enclave doesn't. Let's go hunt some dragons.
Wish up a rest before we go - actually, a double rest. Nalia gets to memorize a chain contingency and get those spells back afterward.
Now, with my contingencies for this fight, I've gone with "nearest enemy" targeting. We'll have to lower Draconis' magic resistance, but we have a lot of Pierce Magic shots available for that. And with the transition bug, it's particularly important to take down all of his spell defenses before he transforms.
Buffing at the site uses another image, and we draw a free rest again. We'll be going into this fight as prepared as possible. No party-wide Hardiness, but we do pick up Improved Haste. Everyone has spell defenses, all but Isra have stoneskins, Isra has 80% physical resistance, and the priests have Armor of Faith and Aura of Flaming Death. Top it all off with Mass Invisibility so we can't fail a breath weapon save, and engage.
Huh. It looks like our incendiary clouds aren't the only ones in this fight. Draconis puts up PfMW, abjuration immunity, and elemental protections. Then our clouds go off, and the three invisible stalkers die instantly.
The prebuffs continue. Spell Turning, Minor Globe. And no Spell Shield - our Spell Thrust worked. Hit him with a Pierce Magic spell trigger ...
Oops. Despite Pierce Magic being able to target enemies with Improved Invisibility, that spell trigger can't. We need to cast real spells instead for the moment.
The True Seeing and Pierce Magic do their job. Spell Turning down, and he's visible.
Now we can unleash a spell trigger. Pierce Magic, Pierce Magic, Breach. Draconis is vulnerable, and immediately starts taking heavy damage.
Immediately after that, he transforms and fully heals. By the time I get control back, his dragon form is near death as well.
And dead.
Anomen gets the kill. Sadly, it's with physical damage. All six members of the party now have dragons as their "official" top kills.
Checking the log ... we dealt 98 physical, 112 fire, and 4 magic damage to Draconis in dragon form, a total of 214. Eight attack rolls, out of our 36 total APR. Dragon-form Draconis has 210 total HP before the SCS tripling kicks in, which it didn't this time. If he had gotten his extra HP as intended, he might have lasted for another round. Might.
Since we took no damage in that dragon fight and our protections are still up, we head in without further preparation.
These lizard men are dangerous - they're epic warriors. Still, the comets weaken them enough that our attacks can take them out quickly. We take one 3-point hit on Isra, and that's it.
We pause to prepare chain contingencies, and Isra has something to say.
Yeah, we should have guessed. And we'll be seeing a lot more dragons before this one is done.
And now, the fight. We dive through the passage and meet more lizard men.
Our contingencies trigger instantly this time. Aerys adds a Dragon's Breath, and two lizards are dead before it can finish landing.
The shamans have elemental protection up, though. Nalia casts a Remove Magic to clear that. Then the Dragon's Breath lands, killing the captain and another regular warrior.
The dispel lands.
No more protection for the shamans. Meanwhile, our melee forces are chasing after fire elementals. The clouds tick again ...
So much for that scary fight. There are just some elementals left, and they don't last long.
Three fights, three total damage taken. Which was healed, because Foebane. Our Aura of Flaming Death expires here - we've finally reached ten rounds total. This party is scary sometimes.
Forward, then, to Anadramatis. Our Improved Haste expires, so we'll be fighting this dragon at normal speed. Also, they're fire immune, so no point in going for those spells.
It doesn't go very well to start. Our short-duration buffs are wearing off, and Aerys rolls badly - his Remove Magic fails to dispel the dragon's buffs.
All right, then. Secret Word into Breach?
Nope. Anadramatis has a Spell Deflection contingency. Cernd uses a Mass Raise Dead for healing, but we're still taking heavy damage.
A second go at breaking those defenses works. We're finally dealing damage. And for the first time all game, one of our druids casts Greater Elemental Summoning.
I don't usually use it because they're only fire immune some of the time, but we're not using fire in this fight.
We revisit some highlights of the old Firkraag strategy as well. Greater Malison, Horror, Insect Plague. And then another GM, because the first was resisted. Still, it's the beatdown that gets results.
And finally, we win.
No deaths, but that taxed our resources more than any other fight in recent memory. Including that Isra used multiple healing potions.
Anadramatis hands over an amulet we won't use, and we fill the breath potion flask.
I try to do something sneaky ... no dice. I can't get close enough to pick the dragon's pockets. The scales aren't flagged as non-stealable, but they're protected anyway by sheer size.
There's one more fight on the way back. Devils teleport in to the room formerly occupied by the lizard party.
They're all fire immune, so we stick to normal attacks. Well, that and lightning bolts reflected by Spell Turning.
Actually, those bolts get to be a problem. We pull back into the dragon room and they go away, but not before Isra's spell protection is exhausted and she drops into the red.
Fire will be useful again in the next fight, so we wish for a rest. And get two. We have three chain contingencies to work with now.
The breath potion opens up a path, and we take it. Kuo-toa and water elementals await us.
Aerys takes the first room, with Nalia staying back. The clouds go off ...
Looks like one water elemental was out of range. We can deal with it easily enough. Beat down on the enemies, add some targeted fire for the surviving elemental ... neat, Anomen killed the warrior he was beating on with a fireball.
And then we're straight into the next room's fight. Nalia comes up to add her contingency to the battlefield.
The elementals are out of range, so they get normal incendiary clouds. And the melee go after the last few fish-men.
Huh. Cernd takes backstab damage? They've actually broken through his iron skins. Well, he can heal easily enough. I retreat to make sure ...
Yep, clear. And fire takes out the elementals.
Wait for "in combat" to clear, then Nalia prepares another chain contingency.
Go in invisibly, and just let the spells do their thing. Two rounds for the greater water elementals. Three for the prince.
The enemies are dealt with. That just leaves the monk at the end. He has an upgrade token for us ... but no rope.
And in a very contrived bit, we need to head back to town for that. It has to be the right kind of rope, see - the ropes we're already carrying aren't good enough. On that note of twisted game logic, I end this part. Next time, we'll finish the area and face Abazigal himself.
2000 total fire kills. A nice round number to end on.
"Someone's on fire just around the corner. This area's closed off until he puts himself out."
— NoxGuard, Anachronox
The very first thing we meet after returning from Amkethran ... dragons. Two of them.
Of course, we prepared. All our usual buffs, plus Protection from Acid for the mages. The rest of our party isn't immune to acid, but they all have substantial resistance - 45% for Isra and Jaheira, 50% for Anomen, 55% for Cernd.
Aerys' buffing image made some wishes - the most notable effect is global haste. That does include the two dragons, unfortunately.
Since the introduction cutscene triggered our contingencies slightly early, the dragons don't start in the clouds. We pull back a bit to draw them in. And dispel them, to hopefully get rid of that Improved Haste.
Then the dragons use their breath weapons ...
... and we take the first one out. Also, that's a pleasingly low amount of damage for a double breath weapon. I have Cernd use a Mass Raise Dead to heal it up.
And that's the first two dragons dealt with. Cutscene mode ensues, and the green dragon joins the fray. Nalia switches amulets for this, so I can have full-party poison immunity.
And the dragon uses its breath weapon anyway. To absolutely no effect. Hah.
Also, why are the mages casting Pierce Magic? They're doing it so I can follow up with Comets and Flame Strikes. Green dragons in this game are tanky enough that I want the extra firepower.
Sadly, that's not the end. A contingent Heal activates, and we'll need to do another 700 damage.
Breath weapon again, Greater Malison and Dragon's Breath on our side. A wing buffet pushes the druids away, and Nalia's breath lands ...
We did lots of fire damage, but the killing blow was physical.
And now, another cutscene. The final dragon arrives, and this one is red. Fire won't help us here.
Also, "tired and wounded"? Clearly, Carnifex hasn't been paying attention. We're nearly at full strength here, aside from spending a lot of fire damage spells that wouldn't matter against a red dragon anyway.
It has been long enough for our incendiary clouds and flaming death auras to dissipate. And if this were a different color of dragon, I might care. I'll have to watch for Isra's Hardiness running out, though. That's something to replace if it goes down.
Anyway, Carnifex buffs.
It's more than the previous dragons, but we have one simple answer: Remove Magic. After all, there's no abjuration immunity in there.
It works. But of course, that doesn't make the fight trivial. Wing buffets blow Cernd and Jaheira away, twice. And more seriously, they take down Anomen's boot stoneskins - which suddenly makes him the preferred target for the dragon's attacks. Time to replenish those ...
This is AI-manipulation trickery. When choosing which target to strike with physical attacks, the SCS AI for "smart" creatures will preferentially target victims without stoneskins. Even if they're highly resistant. We have five party members with stoneskins up and no more than 25% physical resistance, or Isra with no stoneskins and 80% resistance. They go for Isra every time, and thus she tanks dragons for us.
Anyway, back to the fight. It's not visible in my shot there, but Carnifex is down to 2/5 bars of health. The beatdown is going well.
The dragon has one last trick for us ... a spell sequencer of Stoneskin, Spell Deflection, and Remove Magic.
Both Anomen and Jaheira lose their stoneskin protection. They're very vulnerable to melee attacks now.
My response ... use my spell triggers. Pierce/Pierce/Breach, twice. No more spell protections, no more stoneskin, no more magic resistance. I go for a Wilting ...
... but it's over already. Isra slays three dragons in one battle.
We only took one healing action in that battle - that Mass Raise Dead in response to black dragon breath. Even without it, everyone would have survived.
After a bit of time to regenerate, we continue forward. All of the pools can be traversed now, which means we can reach the Cave of Eyes.
OK, that's what I call it. The in-game cheat menu has a boring name for it instead.
The place can get very annoying, especially with those Vigilants that like to sit on people while not being hostile. I intend to kill them on sight so they can't get in our way. Well, after killing the hostile eyeballs, anyway.
I go to cast some clouds ... with less than stellar results.
Aerys kills one enemy with his cloud. Nalia gets hung up on nothing and just stands there not casting; I have to interrupt her and lose the spell.
Anomen takes some damage from the Eagle Eyes ... you know, they don't actually attack. Instead, they cast spells with various arrow/bolt/dart/bullet projectiles. I try out PfNM from his shield to see if that helps.
But really, that's moot.
Incinerating them helps far more.
One more of those eyes goes down to flame strikes ... but then a new threat appears. Tyrant Golems, a new enemy with SCS. They're construct versions of beholders, with immunity to magic and all elements, plus extremely high physical resistance. They detect invisible foes too. A formidable, and very tough, enemy. But they have one key weakness ... they only have 9 hit dice. Isra, this one's yours.
She's buffed for immunity to everything. If they hit her with an antimagic ray, she's still immune to everything for another round. And if that round runs out, she's still guaranteed to save against everything so only the damage rays matter. It won't come to that.
Activate Deathblow. One. Antimagic. Two. Three.
The last two beholders there are Death Tyrants. They're immune to Deathblow (14 HD), but not to our magic. Isra retreats, and the mages take over.
Two rounds later ...
2350 - Tyrants down
The death tyrants are dead. They hit Aerys with an antimagic ray, but his Spell Shield (left over from the dragon fight) ate that so his buffs are still up. Hey, nice. Spell Shield helps against beholders.
All right, there are still some eyeballs. And that efreet one of them summoned, which survived by entering gaseous form. We clear up the local threats, and move on.
A big group of eyeballs? Hit them with a fireball sequencer.
That's it for the enemies in the room. Now, we need a token to exchange for the scroll of progression ... let's subcontract.
Time advances several days. The party is massively fatigued and all of their buffs are gone. But we have that token, and something else as well. Time to head back to town for a rest ... and some crafting.
On the way out, some eyes respawn.
It's so much safer to cast from outside their sight range. Two spells. Twelve kills.
Back in Amkethran ...
Oh yes. A suit of armor, a launcher, and three types of ammo.
Aerys uses the Rod with the scorcher ammo; even with the five-point nonproficiency penalty, that's a better THAC0 than his +3 throwing dagger. It only hits as +1, but that's easily remedied by keeping Enchanted Weapon active on him.
Nalia uses Firetooth with pulse ammo.
Isra uses the Unit, going back to the helm of brilliance for her fire resistance. Her AC isn't a weak link anymore.
I actually end the session there, on that sense of accomplishment. The kill count is very messy due to the eyes' death scripts, but I kept track in my logs. Also, the eyes are worth a lot of XP - 300K XP from kills just in that area.
In the next session, we head right back. And face more eyes.
Three simultaneous fireballs. Dead.
Now, since Spell Shield worked against the death tyrants earlier, I add it to my buff routine for the Elder Orbs. Add on Mass Invisibility for the first-strike advantage ...
Well, that's strike one against us. My chain contingencies targeted the gauth, in the instant before it despawned. Then they fizzled. No clouds for us.
Well, we won't let that stop us. Attack, and cast spells the normal way. The orbs put up PfMW, so we can't hit them unless we dispel them first. Still, that won't stop Dragon's Breath.
Aerys is targeting a sword to try to hit the orb with line damage. Unfortunately, animated swords have ridiculously good AC; he can only hit on a 20. Just cast a Comet instead ... magic resistance. Oh, all right, try an incendiary cloud.
That finishes off the elder orbs. They summoned some help - swords and invisible stalkers - so I add a Horrid Wilting.
And now, with the battle won. We take stock. The Spell Shields did their job. None of the party were dispelled by antimagic rays. And ... actually, Spell Shield is better against antimagic rays than I thought. Not only did it block them, it's still active. Spell Shield eats antimagic rays and sticks around to do it again, an unlimited number of times. That's just busted.
Seriously. I wish I knew about this earlier. With that, it's possible to buff for complete immunity to beholder rays; even the SCS trick of snatching the Shield of Balduran or Cloak of Mirroring wouldn't help them when it's all spells, protected from antimagic rays by the shield..
Mechanically, Spell Shield gives you one level of deflection against spells of the "magic attack" type. Antimagic rays have the "magic attack" type, and hit as level zero. So they get blocked, and don't use up that level. Unlike other spells of that type - Spell Thrust is level 4, Secret Word and Breach are level 5, Pierce Magic is level 6, Ruby Ray and KWW are level 7, Pierce Shield is level 8, Spellstrike is level 10. (This includes some SCS tweaks. Breach gets its own "breach" type which is also deflected by Spell Shield, and Spellstrike gets boosted to level 10 so it can take down Protection from Magic.)
Well, no more beholders to worry about in this dungeon. Call up an image, wish-rest, and continue. There's another respawned batch of eyes to blast.
Eventually, we find the right pool. Iycanth gets his eyestalk, we get the scroll. And the last page for the golem book.
Off to confront Fll'Yissetat. And for once, I choose a fight.
The dragon opens with a breath weapon. Poison. Only the planetar takes damage. One tick of the clouds later ...
A contingent heal. We keep beating down, and the dragon heals again. We still haven't needed to, with only Isra taking any damage so far.
Well, that can't last forever. A second wing buffet breaks Anomen's stoneskins, and he starts taking melee damage. Since the dragon isn't even taking damage from his flame aura, I have him fall back and heal himself.
Moments later, Nalia's cloud finishes things. Fll'Yissetat only had the two Heals available.
In addition to the plot token, we get the Specter's Ring - 1/day Improved Invisibility with super-long duration. Also, 60K XP for the kill.
And now, those spell defenses we put up to discourage Breach are inconvenient - they block us buffing for the next battle. So I have the planetar burn through most of the party's defenses, and bounce some buffs off Isra to finish the last of them.
Preparing for the battle ... go for wishes. Rest. Magic resistance. Haste. Wand. Rest again. Add individual buffs and a Mass Invisibility. Forget to apply lightning resistance spells, make it up with potions.
We enter the final room, exchange taunts, and the fight is on. Tamah is our first target ... wait, we only have half the clouds we should. Aerys forgot to make a chain contingency. Reload, and correct that oversight.
All right, take two. With the proper six clouds.
We pull back a bit, and have some momentary breathing room with Tamah out of frame. Also, Abazigal can just be avoided in this phase; he's a pure melee attacker.
Wait, what did that Shadow Drake do?
Looking it up, the drakes have breath weapons. For the shadow drake, it's 4d10 magic damage, save for half. Also one level drained for five rounds, slow for two rounds, and a brief "Pause Target". The "Stunned" text is a lie.
The other three drakes get damage (fire, cold, acid) without any secondary effects.
Tamah comes in. Time to hit her with a Spell Trigger (to remove that immunity to divination and abjuration) and then a dispel.
The clouds tick as well. That's one drake down.
Moments later, the other three clouds tick. Abazigal has now taken enough damage to transform.
Well, we're fighting two dragons now. Plus a bunch of mooks, because that was too fast. Also, Abazigal poaches a kill with the minimal damage on his "blow away" transformation effect.
Abazigal buffs now. Spell deflection, abjuration immunity, improved haste, PfMW. Rather than hit the deflection with a spell-breaker, I opt to burn through it with wands of fire, then use a spell trigger to destroy all his remaining protections.
The timing on our plan is a bit off. Nalia's Remove Magic comes out too early, and is wasted.
Also, our clouds are still doing their thing. And those frost salamanders are vulnerable.
The Spell Trigger goes off. No more spell defenses for Abazigal ... but he still has a PfMW. We'll need another Breach.
Meanwhile, we've been focusing damage on Tamah. She's down to one bar of health now - Near Death.
That was a wand shot, by the way. Our clouds tick again, and more salamanders die. Aerys has been using one as a target to try to put a line through a dragon ... but he can't do that any more.
Still, Tamah is in that line ...
Zorched. Aerys gets the kill with his shiny new scorcher ammo.
Abazigal is alone now, and he's sitting inside six incendiary clouds. He takes damage fast. Down to near death ... re-up PfMW. Breach him again.
And then, it's over.
The cutscene there robs us of the kill. Abazigal's script kills him, so only quest completion and the mooks grant experience here.
There are still a couple drakes left. Not for long. The shadow drake goes down first, then the fire drake.
Now, it's really over.
Facing Abazigal took less than ten rounds from start to finish. Our incendiary clouds were still going strong at the end. And six clouds can really put a dent in even a massive HP pool like Abazigal (about 1500, with SCS). The only in-battle healing we used was a single potion drunk by Jaheira.
2054 total fire kills. Many eyes burned this day. But the real star is Aerys' new weapon.
"Mac wants the flamethrower!"
— Windows, The Thing
Before taking on the next major quest area, we have a pocket plane challenge. I chose the good answers, so the reward will be a buff for Aerys rather than a debuff for enemies. Still, I'm not likely to use either. And the fight's the same either way.
We also upgraded the Flail of Ages for Isra. This fight calls for Foebane instead ... once I notice and make the switch, anyway.
It's a trivial fight. The Slayer is scripted to move to Aerys and take swings at him, but it just couldn't reach him. If that goes on long enough, it'll blow away the rest of the party, but that didn't happen either. With no meaningful enemy action, that just leaves a beatdown.
On arriving at Sendai's enclave, the "woodcutter" directs us to the southwest. I buff before triggering the fight, and the image wishes four times. Improved Haste on the party, 25 stats for the party, magic resistance on everyone, rest. So much for drow MR.
With that in place plus some extra buffs, we trigger the ambush.
The Hive Mother is the most dangerous foe, but Spell Shield goes a long way toward neutralizing her. Anomen and Isra will concentrate on her, while the mages draw her antimagic rays and the druids hit targets of opportunity.
The clouds go off, and the umber hulk elders die instantly.
So do a "squirrel", a "deer", and one of the drow in the ambush. Nalia moved forward before her clouds triggered; once they do, she backs off a bit. Isra gives the Hive Mother a whack with Carsomyr, dispelling its Improved Mantle so everyone can get in on the action.
Before long, the ambush party is destroyed.
Rays attempted: anti-magic on Aerys, death on Anomen, wounds on Nalia, petrification on Isra, paralysis on Isra. None of them had any effect whatsoever.
But ... the disguised drow are mad. You see, we killed two of them at the beginning of the fight. So now all of them assume their true forms to attack. There's just one left down here, already being shot in that last picture.
Heading north brings more drow in. Like this hapless fellow.
That warrior drank a magic shielding potion. It wasn't anywhere near enough, against massed clouds and scorchers.
Next, the guards at the entrance.
One was visible. He's already dead. The others are sneakier, hiding in hopes of getting off a backstab. Which is why we throw some area-effect fire at them. Between the cloud, a Dragon's Breath, and a sweep with scorchers, they take enough damage to panic.
And ... this is the point at which I notice something slightly unfortunate. Despite dealing no physical damage, Aerys' scorchers burn through stoneskins. We'll have considerable difficulty keeping them up on our front line.
I add a second cloud, and one of those drow dies. The second is still hiding somewhere ... use a True Seeing.
There. And not there any more.
Before heading south, we refresh our contingencies.
One set of clouds triggers early, while the other doesn't. We move back and forth to let the enemies come after us and die, though they tend to fail morale checks first.
Ah, there's the not-woodcutter.
The swords are here, and I saw a Protection from Fire in the log. Aim a Remove Magic at where I think that wizard is ...
Got him. That just leaves the swords and some panicked warriors further south. Nalia and Isra take down the swords with magic damage attacks, Aerys takes down the warriors with his scorchers.
The only damage we take, against all of the threats up here, is a single hit from a magical sword. Cernd switches to greater werewolf form for a round to regenerate that away.
After looting the cabin, we head down. It's all cave creatures at first, starting with myconids and umber hulks.
They really can't do anything to us no. We're always immune to confusion, and we have plenty of AC.
Then the spiders join in.
We've got their trick negated too - poison isn't going to hurt our front line.
Of course, we also have incendiary clouds going to speed up the killing.
There's a lull after that, with the fight only resuming when we reach a bridge.
I go with fireballs here, instead of clouds. Still just the critters, though. That may be drow architecture, but they're just not here.
More follow at the end of the bridge.
Targeting the second fireball sequencer gets a little weird - Aerys tries to run all the way there, and I have to issue the order again - but it basically wipes the group when I finally launch it.
The kill tracking here gets messy, with both human and machine errors. I missed one umber hulk kill, and the game didn't count some spiders. Since the missing hulk kill was by Aerys, I can say with certainty that it was done with fire.
We have used a lot of our daily fire though. Re-memorize sequencers, then call up an image for a rest. We get haste and hardiness as well. Into the guard room, then.
And that's a premature contingency. Two of them, actually. Inconvenient, despite the immediate kill.
All right, plan B. Hit the mage with Dragon's Breath and the priestess with Remove Magic (she's the one with fire protection). Then pull back into the clouds of doom.
No more mage. And two other kills as well. But the priestess absorbs the hit just before her protection can be dispelled.
Moments later, the second half of that plan pays off.
It's not just the clouds, too. Aerys gets a scorcher kill, and Anomen gets one with his flaming club.
Nalia moves forward to launch her Dragon's Breath at the priestess.
Alive. And in Sanctuary. We'll need more fire for her. The pit fiend, on the other hand, will require the attention of our melee attackers.
For the priestess, I just have Aerys run around with the scorchers he already has going.
The last drow goes down to the scorchers as well, and Jaheira whacks the pit fiend.
We took one hit for damage in that room, and Cernd recovered his health just by walking through scorchers. All of the drow burned. A flawless victory. We did burn through the stoneskins of everybody except Aerys, but that's life.
I also realize another issue ... Isra had the FoA equipped while we were buffing, and didn't get the Improved Haste. That slowed her down considerably. We'll have to be more careful with that in the future.
It takes four images to draw a rest for the next challenge - we want our full allotment of fire for it. This also allows us to renew our two-hour buffs.
The first passage I take ... slaves.
The clouds trigger moments later, and that's five dead derro.
We also deal 136 damage to the slavemaster before he can teleport out. If not for his min-HP item, he would be near death.
The enemies in this area are on a timer; four of them every two rounds, or slightly longer once you see the slavemaster for the third time. The potential numbers are unlimited, so this is an excellent farming spot; either XP from the derro or items to sell for gold from the orogs. Since we're all well past the XP cap and don't have anything left to buy, we just push forward.
And there's the second conversation down, along with a bunch more derro.
Since we've moved past our initial clouds, we cast new ones. Even Isra picks up a fire kill with the flail. We have three clouds down when the next wave of reinforcements comes ...
... and immediately dies. Well, at least the ones that spawned behind us do. The ones in front of us face thinner clouds and weapon attacks, so they last a bit longer.
As the next round of reinforcements arrives, we reach the slavemaster again.
From now on, the reinforcements are orogs. There are still pre-placed derro on the map, but they're finite.
Continue forward, and meet the slavemaster for the last time.
He joins the fray himself now. All right, how about some fire that ignores MR?
That does it. Anomen's fire storm even gets a kill - an orog. I draw the last few stragglers back into denser fire, where they die easily.
From my kill counts, there were four rounds of reinforcements. About eight rounds from the start to killing the slavemaster. And that's another 400K kill XP, even taking this quickly.
All right, next. Wish up another rest, then backtrack for the spider path. Nalia uses a Protection from Fire spell and the ring of anti-venom here for poison immunity while maintaining full trapfinding strength.
As usual, I start with a lot of fire. Many spiders die instantly. Then I just stand there for a bit and let them come to me. Party AI is off, so my melee forces don't charge off into the web traps (even though their saves are good enough for immunity).
More than twenty spiders later, the flood slows. Aerys moves forward to draw some more attention.
Ah, there's the boss. OK, fall back now.
Lashar'ra can teleport, and eventually jumps among us.
Hey, the melee gets to hit something now. A non-fire kill, though I don't really mind. The fireball is completely wasted, though.
Meanwhile, Aerys keeps shooting down lesser spiders. Seven of them, and they stop coming. We didn't take a single hit in here.
This room only has 228K worth of kill XP, and no item drops. No infinite spawning potential, either.
I'll break here; like Abazigal's lair, Sendai's enclave just has too many big fights to put all in one update. Until next time, then.
2170 total fire kills. 116 in this update, tying the record from back in Watcher's Keep. Hordes of minions are perfect for racking up the numbers, after all.
"Fire washes the skin off the bone and the sin off the soul. It cleans away the dirt. And my momma didn't raise herself no dirty boy."
— Franko Tildon, Starcraft
We're about to reach the cityscape hub of Sendai's enclave. But first, our buffs are wearing off. I call up an image and re-buff ... no free rest, but we do pick up both Hardiness and Improved Haste. That's good enough for me.
While we'll be facing bosses throughout this part, we start with more of what we've been dealing with. A pack of spiders.
They get a triple fireball, some melee attacks, and an incendiary cloud ... only the cloud arrives after everything's dead already.
Incidentally, this bunch includes vortex spiders. They have a save-or-die attack. Either poison immunity, Death Ward, or a death save of -1 will protect you. Nothing to fear for us.
After that, it's a pack of drow and demons.
That double Dragon's Breath doesn't kill all of them - after all, the priestess has fire protection - but it does a very good job of thinning them out.
Add in some attacks, and we're down to just the invisible yochlol in very short order.
Then it attacks, revealing itself. It doesn't last long after that.
We need a key to go forward now, and that key is in the possession of the lich in that building. Time for a wish-rest to refresh our firepower. I end up with double hardiness and haste as well as the rest ... oh, that's the loophole. Wish Hardiness applies effects to the party, but only removes effects of other Hardiness/Defensive Stance effects for the caster. I'll fix that bug next session.
Incidentally, since I've been mixing in the occasional Protection from Acid ... Jaheira is literally immune to all types of damage right now.
Anyway, on to the fight.
Odamaron doesn't put up abjuration immunity, but he's level 34. A Remove Magic isn't going to be reliable. I could use Anomen's level 39 dispel instead, but I'll have to be careful not to get my own party caught in it.
And ... cancel that. I forgot to have Aerys memorize a chain contingency. Reload, and do this again.
The clouds are plenty for the skeletons, but they're not going to help against the lich. For him ...
That's my answer on the way. One level 39 Dispel Magic, two Comets.
The dispel lands just before Odamaron finishes casting. Time Stop.
Three rounds later ...
He literally cast nothing at all during that Time Stop. He was in sight the whole time. What, were our defenses so comprehensive he couldn't think of anything to do?
Anyway, the comets land.
Odamaron survives, but his lich apprentice doesn't. We finish him off with simple attacks.
That just leaves the vampire apprentice. It gets a Remove Magic, then succumbs to scorchers and clouds.
All right, there are some summoned swords too. Nalia and Isra can take those down.
Our buffs are intact, so we just head right out after picking up the loot.
Sendai has sent a group of drow. Well, mostly drow. They get some breath.
Only three warriors that got out in front and one badly injured beholder survive. I zap that beholder with a flame strike to finish it, though it does hit Cernd with antimagic before going down.
Without even pausing to re-buff Cernd, we head for the exit. It's guarded by a few umber hulks.
Aerys thins them out with a fireball sequencer, and we finish them off with weapon attacks. The druids actually stay back so as not to waste their iron skins.
Before taking that door, we re-buff Cernd and wish up a rest. No free party-wide buffs this time.
The first fight in that next room is Ogremoch. He can be a pain. Immune to fire, repeatedly casts stoneskins ... so let's just cut all of that short.
One hit. Dead.
That was the Staff of Earth. It's only a +2 weapon and Ogremoch needs +3 to hit, so we added Enchant Weapon. Jaheira got a casting of invisibility to sneak by the other elementals. With no strength item ... THAC0 -4 against AC -11. Hit on a 7, save vs spell (6) or die. That's a 17.5% chance of the instant kill, and she got lucky.
The ordinary elementals get some fire.
After all, they're not immune or even resistant.
And that brings us to the other side. Diaytha. The Hive Mother caught me in my last run, but this party is much better prepared against that sort of threat. Aerys and Nalia make chain contingencies and cast Spell Shield, while Isra switches to normal full plate so she can get through the door.
The mages moved forward for cloud placement. Once those trigger, they back off a bit. The wolves and nabassu die instantly.
The ancient vampire ... gets off a level-drain hit before it dies.
Isra lost five levels there. No real penalty to her combat stats, but it also nullifies her save boosts. As such, she falls back out of beholder ray range. And Cernd took an antimagic ray, so his buffs are down. I have him pull back during the magic immunity grace period.
Diaytha started with fire protection. I've hit her with a Remove Magic.
So of course, her end comes as no surprise. Our remaining two melee take out the demon knight, and that just leaves the Hive Mother.
Slightly painful, but I'll take it. A planetar can cure the level drain, and restoring the lost buffs is equally easy.
The next room brings a duel.
We didn't go for a wish-rest. No fresh spells needed. Just lots of scorchers and one Dragon's Breath. Plus a contingent Greater Malison, since all of the damage is save-or-half.
Easy. Pure fire carries it.
Now, it's time for a wish-rest. Fresh contingencies, buffs for Cernd, and renew that Spirit Armor that's wearing off. It takes two images to get that rest, during which time we also pick up Hardiness and Improved Haste. They're doomed, even if double Hardiness is no longer possible.
The vampiric illithids don't seem to want to show up, but the next group of foes teleports in ...
... and our clouds go off.
Nothing clears a room of illithids faster. And the vampiric illithids were there, just invisible. Only one umber hulk and one vampiric illithid survive the initial blast. One round later, it's over.
With the first room clear, we move on to the second. Well, we open the door and let them come to us.
All right, we throw some Dragon's Breath at the other room. One shot, at least; Nalia's spell is disrupted when the fighter draws the scorcher line across her.
A wizard comes into sight next, and gets a dispel.
Aerys' stream of fire should take care of the rest. Well, until the PfMW goes up. That calls for a spell. Comet.
Boom. And then Aerys just keeps shooting at 10 APR. An umber hulk. An umber hulk elder. Mithykyl.
Aerys starts moving forward at this point, and continues killing. There are still a few more enemies over there, after all.
That's the last of the illithids. Just two thralls left - the fighter in the shot, and a currently invisible wizard. The fighter charges as the incendiary clouds disperse, though hit reaction animations keep him pretty close to stunlocked. And then, the wizard is revealed.
Dispel, burn. Less than a round later, it's over.
Only Sendai remains. We wish for a rest, and also pick up Hardiness, Improved Haste, and Magic Resistance. Mass Invisibility is in place, and so are spell defenses. Contingencies are ready. Let's do this.
The clouds go off immediately with the start of the battle, and two statues awaken.
That's a cleric and a mage up first. Neither of them have fire protection. Scorchers for the cleric, spells for the mage.
Two drow warriors fall in melee, and the first statue goes down.
The next statue is a kensai/thief. It's already in the clouds when it awakens. Two more warriors arrive as well. Meanwhile, we've put some fire storms on the mage statue. It's just a matter of time there.
But the kensai/thief withers under a stream of fire first. Then, just as the melee fighter awakens, the mage goes down as well.
Even with at least one statue guaranteed to awaken every round, we're down to one at a time. As for the fighter ...
No protection against fire, and the attention of the whole party. That didn't last long. And in this brief moment, there are no enemies at all on screen.
The cleric/mage statue is next to awaken. Dispel, apply fire storm and scorchers.
OK, melee hits too. Anomen actually finishes this one off with melee fire.
The next statue is an archer, which can dodge our spells by teleporting around.
Unless it teleports into an active fire storm. That was a bad idea. With that, the final statue awakens. An assassin, which doesn't even start invisible.
Our incendiary clouds are still going strong. Time for the main event.
No conscious actions needed. Just let the fire, already in place, do its thing. It's over before her buffs even finish going up.
Cutscenes play, and the clouds expire. One drow warrior is still alive, so we shoot them down before being whisked away to the pocket plane.
2240 total fire kills. Not as many as last time, but still a lot. Including all seven of Sendai's statues. Those scorcher beams are something else.
"If you were standing in the path of the beam, you would obviously die pretty quickly. You wouldn't really die of anything, in the traditional sense. You would just stop being biology and start being physics."
— xkcd, 'What If?' entry Sunbeam
This is on my schedule as the Monday update ... but hey, it's technically Monday. And I don't like my chances at posting it anywhere near my usual mid-day time, given the weather. So instead, I'll post it now.
...
Part 75: Preparing for the End
There's not much left now. Just the last of the Five, some pocket plane challenges, and some cleanup before we hit the point of no return.
We'll start with one of those challenges. Up in the pocket plane, Cyric visits.
God of murder? Nah, Cyric can keep that. Aerys has his eye on a different portfolio.
Despite that reassurance, he sets assassins on us anyway. It's a four-round timer, which we will spend making the area as inhospitable as possible.
Incendiary clouds, fire storms, and a True Seeing.
Ah, there they are.
They do manage three attack rolls. Only one hit, though.
That's two down, both to planetar fire storms, already. Aerys' clouds finish the last of them, and this challenge is clear. For the second time in two battles, the planetar gets a new top fire kill.
There's one more character quest to take care of now - Wilson's quest, added by his mod. It's triggered by visiting the outdoor area of Sendai's enclave with him in the party, which is why it's so late here.
Isra takes a short break to make room, we give the bear the essential buffs, and we're off. Incidentally, the crash I've run into before on the cutscene is a case of the polymorph crash, and our equipment loadouts get us through despite having transformed druids.
The quest has one fight.
It's a dragon. We didn't bother refreshing our spells after the last encounter, so we'll make do with the limited fire available. No incendiary clouds, but we still have spell triggers to lower MR and comets to deal damage.
It works well enough. Also, add some fireballs.
And Nalia burns another dragon.
Wilson learns Bearomancy, and we're done with him. Isra returns, and the party won't change again. We make the dragon armor, but I've nerfed it down to sane levels - it no longer works with protection items, so none of the party will wear it. It's a reasonable option for Nalia, but she'd rather have three points of saves than some AC and THAC0.
And now, back to Amkethran. We wish-rest to restore our sequencers before traveling, then call up an image to buff on arrival - which adds magic resistance and improved haste. And then I throw in a Mass Invisibility. First stop: the tavern.
No AoE effects here, and minimal XP. We're just clearing out these mercenaries for completion's sake.
The smuggler's cave comes next, and we don't see any hostile mercenaries on the way. Saemon brings us through the gates very conspicuously ...
They ... have to know it's us, right?
Indeed, they know. They just thought Saemon would have us drugged. But this time, he's actually on our side.
That doesn't stop them from fighting at the door, but we can handle it. Dragon's Breath ... monk and one fighter down, but the mages have protection. Dispel them, then.
That leads very rapidly to their deaths, of course.
Inside, Balthazar is willing to talk. And at wisdom 19 with a paragon reputation, it's downright easy to convince him.
He'll join us for the final battle.
The Solar drags us up to the pocket plane for one last conversation. And this time, I go for some less good responses, because the passive evil reward is just better than the active good reward.
Back down in Amkethran, we head out. And monks attack.
Clearly, they didn't get the message. We'll just have to kill them, then. We also prepared some contingencies for this fight ...
That makes this part much faster. Before long, mercenaries start joining in.
They actually hit pretty hard. The standard melee mercenaries here are level 12 berserkers with 18/50 strength, +2 short swords, and grand mastery; THAC0 3 piercing, 1d6+12 damage, 2.5 APR (for as long as their Enrage lasts). Except they cheat, with 3 base APR instead of 1 and a base THAC0 of 2 instead of 9. Make that -4 THAC0 and 4.5 APR. As seen in that shot, they don't need near-perfect rolls to hit us.
So, after that hit, I pull Cernd off to heal. Stand in scorchers ... not fast enough. Isra uses her Lay on Hands instead.
Soon, we exhaust the monks spawning at the gate.
It's time to move out and find more foes. We head south first.
And Cernd takes more hits, needing to retreat in werewolf form. That's what we get for fighting without either wish buffs or incendiary clouds covering us. He's not the last of those that need to retreat and heal, too.
That's Anomen and Isra taking turns away from the front. Jaheira follows soon after. Still, the enemies don't spawn forever, and we have plenty of power.
There's just one more weak archer after that, and a stray monk. No more mercenaries and monks disturbing the peace of Amkethran.
Before we go for the last challenges, we sell off all sorts of junk. By the time we're done, the party has over 2 million gold stored up. And nothing to spend it on.
That just leaves one last fight before the point of no return. The Ravager. It's immune to fire (and other elements), so we change up our spell selection - Nalia actually memorizes something other than incendiary clouds in her 8th level slots.
That's not just the standard party. I've also added simulacra for both of the mages, and those simulacra have memorized chain contingencies and spell triggers just like the standard mages. What did I go with? Pierce/Pierce/Malison for all four spell triggers. 3x Horrid Wilting for all four chain contingencies. Those contingencies are set to self-targeting, triggered when hit.
So, then, we start with the spell triggers. No more MR for the Ravager, and weakened saves (save vs spell on a 9 instead of a 5). And then we detonate the bomb.
The spark is a necklace fireball from Isra. It won't do damage, but it will count as a hit and trigger those chain contingencies.
Unfortunately, that fireball only catches Nalia and her simulacrum. The Ravager makes those saves, taking 251 damage.
So, we apply another spark. Anomen launches a fireball to catch Aerys and his simulacrum. That does the trick.
It fails its saves this time, and Aerys deals 280 damage. With the physical damage we've dealt (49 total), that's enough for the kill. Of course, the fourth set of wiltings would have finished the job too.
The party took zero damage, although one simulacrum was slightly injured by a bone blade's cold damage. That's a 534-HP monster with absurd resistances to everything killed in one round. Plus six bone blades, five of them with wiltings. The nuclear option is a beautiful thing.
Assigning credit ... the official totals give credit for three bone blades to Aerys. I'll assign the other two wilted blades and the Ravager to his simulacrum. It's also likely the game made a mistake due to death scripts, but I have no way of distinguishing between an uncredited kill and a clone kill here.
We also memorized Skull Trap sequencers that we didn't need. I cast them to get rid of them, and set them off with a character immune to magic damage.
And now, before we enter the Throne, a final snapshot. This is our fully-buffed state, prepared for the fight we'll face when we enter.
Aerys:
Equipment: Robe of Vecna, Gauntlets of Weapon Skill, Circlet of Netheril, Amulet of Power, Scorcher Ammo, 2x Bullets +4, Firetooth +3, Big Metal Rod, The Warder's Signet +3, Ring of Gaxx, various wands, Cloak of the Dark Moon, Boots of Speed, Belt of Inertial Barrier.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Acid, Protection from Lightning, Enchant Weapon, Spirit Armor, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Remove Fear, Shield, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, Immunity: Abjuration.
Isra.
Equipment: Big Metal Unit, Beetle-Shell Bracers (15% physical resist, +1/2 APR), Helm of Brilliance, Amulet of the Seldarine, various arrows, Flail of Ages +5, Foebane +5, Crom Faeyr +5, Reflection Shield, Ghadir Family Ring (+1 AC, +1 saves, non-removable), Ring of Fire Resistance, Book of Infinite Spells (Spell Turning), Efreeti Bottle, Potions of Superior Healing, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Avoidance, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Acid, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Armor, Armor of Faith, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, Hardiness, Draw Upon Holy Might.
Also, before the actual fight, I make one more equipment tweak. Swap in the Runehammer +5 as her weapon for level drain protection against Bodhi.
Anomen.
Equipment: Red Dragon Scale, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, Helm of the Rock, Amulet of Spell Warding, 3x Bullets +4, Erinne Sling +5, Club of Detonation +5, Dragon Scale Shield +2, Holy Symbol of Helm, Ring of Gaxx, Wand of the Heavens, Horn of Blasting, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the Lich, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Fire Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Spirit Armor, Shield of the Archons, Remove Fear, Armor of Faith, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, Aura of Flaming Death, Physical Mirror.
Again, Anomen switches weapons before the actual fight, to the Improved Mace of Disruption. He'll switch back as soon as Bodhi isn't an issue.
Jaheira.
Equipment: Full Plate, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Helm of Defense, Harper Pin, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Ixil's Spike +6, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Regeneration, Wand of the Heavens, Wand of Fear, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of the North, Girdle of Bluntness.
Buffs active: Buffs active: Iron Skins, Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Shield of the Archons, Remove Fear, Improved Invisibility, Armor of Faith, Improved Haste, Aura of Flaming Death, Physical Mirror.
Cernd.
Equipment: Gloves of Missile Snaring, Helm of Defense, Periapt of Life Protection, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Staff of the Ram +6, Claw of Kazgaroth, Ring of Protection +2, Wand of the Heavens, Wand of Fear, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the High Forest +1, Boots of Speed, Golden Girdle of Urnst.
Buffs active: Iron Skins, Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Armor, Shield of the Archons, Remove Fear, Improved Invisibility, Armor of Faith, Improved Haste, Aura of Flaming Death, Physical Mirror.
Nalia.
Equipment: Robe of the Good Archmagi, Bracers of Archery, Lavender Ioun Stone, Amulet of the Master Harper, Pulse Ammo, Frag Grenade, Kuo-toan Bolts, Firetooth +5, Boomerang Dagger +2, Buckler +3, de'Arnise Signet Ring, Ring of Fire Control, wands, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Acid, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Armor, Enchant Weapon, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Remove Fear, Shield, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste.
I could have buffed a bit farther - a potion of agility for Anomen, for example - but I think that's enough. Aerys has all six rows of portrait icons filled. We're ready ... for the end.
2268 fire kills, as we prepare to enter the Throne. Not that many this update, but it wasn't a terribly long one. And while the Ravager wasn't killed by fire ... we certainly nuked it. Prepare the bomb, get it in place, then detonate it.
"There are no problems which cannot be solved by judicious use of high explosives."
— British Commando motto, World War 2
And now, we step through that last door. It's time for the end.
We are immediately greeted by Melissan, who brings up shades of the past - Irenicus and Bodhi, resurrected. We also face Imoen transformed into the Slayer and some fallen celestials. After some taunts, the battle is on. I let it go for a moment ...
That's Bodhi already near death, and we haven't taken any conscious actions. That changes now.
First, with that sequencer in the air, Nalia moves away from the party. She might lose some buffs (she forgot abjuration immunity), but this way she won't jeopardize anyone else's buffs when those spells reach her.
On the flip side, Irenicus didn't put up abjuration immunity, so I aim a Remove Magic at him. He's only level 30 to our mages' 31, so we have pretty good odds of success on both sides of that.
Results ... no and no. Imoen gets dispelled, Irenicus doesn't.
Still, our clouds do their work.
That's one fallen solar down, in only two ticks of the cloud. The other follows quickly, to our melee beatdown. Meawhile, both Bodhi and Imoen are near death. But since we didn't get Irenicus dispelled ...
He gets off a Time Stop. There is a bright spot, though. Balthazar is still active. He takes advantage of this to bring down some helpless foes. As soon as I tell him to stop wasting his time on magical swords, anyway.
That's Bodhi and Imoen down. Once time resumes, we won't need our anti-drain weapons anymore. Only Irenicus, and some summoned swords remain.
I can't see Irenicus - I didn't put up True Seeing/True Sight anywhere in my buff routines - but that's no obstacle to Balthazar. He can see through invisibility.
Time resumes, and I rectify that mistake. The newly summoned planetar casts True Seeing. And after that, it'll be restoration for Balthazar (he took some level drain).
With Irenicus visible, Aerys targets him with that 10 APR stream of death. It's not doing any damage yet, but it is very reliable disruption. And for the damage ... have another Remove Magic.
The results are predictable.
As for the swords ... wilt them.
Only Anomen took any significant damage in that encounter, from Bodhi's bats and the solars' melee attacks. Nalia lost her buffs to that Remove Magic sequencer, and it looks like our buffs with less than a round per level duration expired - the opening dialogue sequence appears to take several rounds of in-game time.
All right. Now that the battle's over, we can apply some buffs and make some wishes. Balthazar gets our standard package plus Protection from Fire, and Nalia gets her buffs renewed. Two images later, we have the rest we were looking for ... plus Hardiness and Improved Haste.
Prepare some contingencies, and hit the first pool.
One glabrezu dies instantly. The balor casts a fire storm, which won't hurt any of us but might kill some demons. I see another balor - start shooting.
Incidentally, Aerys is having trouble finding targets he can shoot. Too many of these enemies are outright immune to fire.
As our melee fighters reorient, the clouds tick again.
And that's even more of the non-immune demons eliminated. A marilith, a succubus, a glabrezu. But ... wait, there are still two balors out there?
It seems they're chain-gating. The demons at the Throne have the ability to gate in reinforcements, once. And it's not just balors that can summon balors.
This pool started with one balor. Two more were summoned by gates; I think that was a succubus calling up a balor, and then that balor calling another.
We also started with one marilith, and picked up another marilith from a gate.
Still, we get on with the beatdowns. Several cambions fall, and the marilith burns to friendly fire. Then we start hitting the balors.
Just the one balor left. And Nalia finishes it.
Then Balthazar runs up to Aerys and takes a ton of fire damage? I buffed him with Protection from Fire! But ... he loves to use Flip Resistances. That's a "set" effect. Just like PfF is. And the more recent effect wins. In this case, the priest spell would actually be better - harder to dispel if Anomen casts it, and it's an "increment" effect instead which stacks properly with his self-modifications. It's a shorter duration so we'd have to recast it for every fight, but if we have to do that anyway ...
But then, I didn't realize this difference at the time. We might have some trouble keeping Balthazar alive on our preferred battlefields.
A brief informative break here, on the gate mechanics for the Ascension final area. There are seven special gate spells (technically eight). One of those is used by Melissan only, to call her fallen solars. The others are all used by the various demons, with the strongest of them being used by Melissan to call demonic allies once the Five are down. Demons will only use their gate spells when none of their enemies are nearby and there are no more than two demons in the area that the party doesn't control.
- Balors get this strongest gate spell, being able to call any of the eight kinds of demon the final area sports. They always get something, and if it's one of the weaker types they get multiples. In theory, they can cast their gate spell any number of times.
- Mariliths only have a 35% chance of getting anything, but they can call up anything except a balor. They can only use this gate once.
- Glabrezus have a 50% chance of getting something, and that something is always a balor, marilith, or glabrezu. They can only use this gate once.
- Babaus have a 40% chance of getting something, either a babau or two cambions. They can use this gate once.
- Nabassus have a 45% chance of getting something, either a nabassu or two cambions. They can use this gate twice.
- Succubi have a 40% chance of calling a balor, and never anything else. They can use this gate once.
- Alu-fiends and cambions can't gate in any help.
Except ... the part of the scripts that count how many demons there are seem to act oddly. I'm not sure they work at all. The enemy numbers definitely weren't whittled down when that first balor was gated in.
Anyway, back to the action. With the demons cleared out, Aerys can activate the pool. Permanent Death Ward, and the Unleash ability he won't use. Wish-rest again, and renew our 2-hour buffs. We pick up hardiness and improved haste again for the second pool.
On to the fight.
There aren't any balors this time, and that makes things considerably easier for us. A nabassu is first to fall, followed by a pair of alu-fiends. Then we finally pick up some fire kills:
That, plus Isra kills a glabrezu with melee fire. Since we never bothered to remove its PfMW, the marilith lasts the longest.
Activating that pool earns Aerys the ability to teleport. It's an important ability, because Melissan likes to teleport on top of the protagonist and prevent them from moving any other way. The immunity to Maze is far less important, since we always have Chaotic Commands up anyway.
For the third pool, our wish routine doesn't draw a Hardiness. Still, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Indeed, it isn't. Cernd takes significant melee damage from a cambion, but the overall picture is good.
That's the balor down, after all. And this one didn't gate in another of its kind. Nalia's clouds finish off the marilith, and that just leaves a nabassu.
Anomen's fire storm gets that one, and the battle is won.
I check some scripts ... it's five rounds from activating the final pool to the start of the final battle. We'll spend that on shorter-duration buffs, and handle the longer-duration stuff now.
Actually, Anomen got silenced. And we don't really have any cure for that except to wait it out, so we do.
Now, preparations. In addition to our spells, I pull out some potions. 24 strength for Anomen and Jaheira, power and defense for the two mages, agility for Anomen and Isra, invulnerability for the warriors, magic protection for everybody. They're all quite vulnerable to dispels, but there's no reason not to use them.
We start wishing. The first image gets a rest. The second image gets Improved Haste and another rest. I could fish for Hardiness, but I think that's good enough. And ... one of those wishes left us with what I thought was no good option. I chose "Lose 10000 gold". That had ... unexpected results.
When an image makes that wish, the party doesn't lose any gold. And then, if you kill the image, it drops that much gold. An utterly ridiculous bug, that allows for unlimited gold if you have a spellcaster with Project Image, Wish, and 18 or more wisdom.
Utterly irrelevant to this party, of course, since I only found out after leaving any chance of ever shopping behind.
Then we hit the pool. Aerys gains the very useful ability to ignore Time Stop (if he activates it), and our spell deflection/turning effects are eaten through by the healing effect. Oops. And we're not set up to recast those; we'll just have to live without them.
Five rounds later, Melissan arrives and resurrects the Five to fight us. Minus Balthazar (on our side), plus Sarevok. The battle is on.
(I love those shots of portraits completely full of icons. This party can just put out so many buffs when they really go for it.)
We open by aiming dispels at the two mages. They don't have abjuration immunity. Sendai is made fully vulnerable, while Abazigal seems to still have PfMW up. Naturally, this means that Aerys turns his attacks to Sendai.
For Abazigal, we have a backup plan. Direct Balthazar to use his Dragon Fist ability.
Incidentally, that minor damage on Yaga-Shura? This incarnation of him isn't immune to fire. He's highly resistant to everything, but he'll still take a trickle of fire damage.
Our melee forces mostly went after Illasera, but were forced to change targets when she went invisible. Gromnir is the victim of this shift.
As with all of the Five, that's a script death that won't count toward anyone's totals. Only summoned and gated foes can add to our counts in this fight.
Melissan arrives, and moments later Abazigal joins Gromnir.
Also, Illasera is visible again. Send the melee after her, then.
After practically no time at all...
So much for the enemy mages. Then I notice that Balthazar is taking fire damage again ... should have used the priest spell. Also, Illasera can't take our focused attention.
Aerys has turned his fire stream to Yaga-Shura. Together with the incendiary clouds, that burns the fire giant.
With five enemies down and only Sarevok remaining, Melissan finally manages the spell she's supposed to cast when she arrives. Two fallen solars join the fight.
And that's Sarevok eliminated. It's just Melissan, her gated allies, and a few leftover summons now. We move our forces to attack her.
This point brings the first casualty. Anomen takes heavy melee damage, and I pass him one of Sendai's full-heal potions ... not fast enough.
All right, plan B. Use a rod of resurrection instead. And since he was using armor for part of his fire resistance, get him out of melee.
Melissan's demons arrive, and we quickly take some out. Still, there are a lot of them.
Hey, a fire kill. That Balor is a concern, though. I can't even burn it. The bulk of Melissan's demons arrive a little later, and we kill a lot of them right away. Then we add in some Dragon's Breath:
And that's it for the solars. Also, there's a spell in the air ... succubus charm, aimed at Anomen. In his current unbuffed state, he's highly vulnerable to that ... apply the Shield of Harmony, immediately. Charm attempt negated.
Also, as soon as I unpause, I see that succubus die from Aerys' breath spell. Then Isra lands a Slow effect on Melissan, Balthazar crushes some demons with Hand of Murder, and Nalia shoots down her target.
Our foes are looking a lot sparser now. We're in good shape here.
Melissan repositions with a teleport, and then puts up a Divine Mantle ...
OK, that gets an instant Breach. Or, well, at least a Breach. Aerys is on cooldown for his spells. Also, we're nearly done clearing out the demons.
Correction ... Melissan casts Divine Cleansing, dispelling her own Divine Mantle. Well, thanks. Now Aerys can cast a fire spell instead. And since the demons are all gone and he doesn't have the THAC0 to hit his allies with scorchers, he switches to a sling and +4 ammo for the final phase of the beatdown. Nalia switches weapons as well, to the Gesen bow's auto-ammo.
And then, it's over.
Melissan falls low enough in hit points that the final cutscenes play. Aerys is victorious.
This run went very smoothly on the whole for the final battle. An easy win on the first try. Melissan didn't really do anything dangerous except her summons because we kept her off balance with constant pressure, and we only needed a little healing. One rod of resurrection charge, one of Sendai's full heal potions, a few superior healing potions, and one use of Balthazar's Lay On Hands.
All that remains now is one final choice.
We finish BG2 with a total of 2281 fire kills. With all those enemies that either resist fire or don't die normally, there just weren't that many opportunities on the Throne.
"Choose me or your pyre!
Be mine or you will burn!"
— Judge Claude Frollo, "Hellfire," The Hunchback of Notre Dame
This is a marvellous testament to the skill at which you play the game. Congratulations and thanks A LOT for sharing all the wisdom in those comments! The whole topic is full of treasures, insights and just general tips for anyone who wants to beat the game.
"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire"
— Ferdinand Foch
Your player's soul was definitely on fire during the whole playthrough. ?
Finding that quote while I was writing this would definitely have been worth it. But I didn't - a limit of the sources I was working with. Anyway, here's the epilogue and stats.
Epilogue
While many of his companions try to argue against it, there is only one choice for Aerys. The fires of his soul have purified the taint of Bhaal, and it is only right that he take his place as a new god ...
... of Fire! His name shall be a beacon in times of darkness, offering a simple message. Light a fire to drive the darkness away.
The following epilogues use elements of the existing in-game epilogues, but are largely my own work.
After the victory at the Throne of Bhaal, most of the party remained in Tethyr to aid in the rebuilding. They had their part in scorching the land, and it was only right that they take their part in forging a new normal. Isra and Anomen even courted for a time, though they found themselves incompatible with each other and separated before moving on.
Isra eventually returned to Crimmor, renewing her ties to the Ruby Rose. Though she never married, she did bear a daughter Rhaella, blessed with sorcerous power and a remarkable aptitude for fire. Gossip speculated widely on the identity of Rhaella's father, with some even claiming that he had been a god. Isra never publicly confirmed any answer to the question.
Illustrious though her later career was, no quest could ever compare to the one undertaken in her youth, and Isra retired from active service at a younger age than she might have liked. Instead, she went into politics, striving to introduce compassion into a system sadly devoid of it.
Rhaella did not follow her mother into adventuring, choosing instead to devote her time and skill to artistic pursuits. She gained renown as the "Flame Sculptor", with her best known work being the eternal beacon fire atop the new temple to Aerys in Trademeet. Though the fire always burned strong and could be seen from leagues away at night, it also shifted constantly to show fleeting images of beauty both familiar and fantastic.
When Nalia returned to Amn, she found her old home of de'Arnise Keep in the hands of none other than Isaea Roenall. There, she finally brought him to justice for his many misdeeds and declared herself inheritor of her father's ducal title. Many among the Amnian nobility objected to this declaration, though none were willing to move openly against an archmage of such power.
Still, the quiet grumbles against Nalia continued until she announced her marriage to Anomen Delryn, ensuring the ducal succession. Nalia eventually rose to a seat on the Council of Six itself, leaving her personal lands in the hands of her son. She would be a prominent figure in Amn for many years, constantly fighting for the good of the common folk and making many frustrated enemies among the nobility and Cowled Wizards alike.
All was not well in this noble marriage, though, as the two had joined more for convenience than for love. Even their friendship could not hold them together forever, and Anomen eventually departed to resume his travels. He eventually found himself in Maztica during the revolt of Yamash, an evil cleric that raised a demonic conquering horde.
Anomen found himself drawn into this conflict, first to organize the besieged soldiers and later to lead them to the front. He would go on to found a new order devoted to Helm from the soldiers he led, while also inspiring others to the worship of Aerys when the fire storms he called forth broke the horde in the conflict's greatest battle. Here he settled down, leading his disciples in Helm's worship and advising the new Church of Aerys. The strange duality between order and chaos within him was finally reconciled.
Cernd traveled widely righting wrongs in nature, whether to burn away rot and corruption or to encourage new growth. This took him away from his old grove for many years, and when he returned they offered him the title of Great Druid. But before he could ascend, he learned of his son Ahsdale and called the ritual off.
In Cernd's long absence, Ahsdale had grown to adulthood and chosen a dark path wielding twisted magics. He had raised an army against Amn, and was even then marching to war. In response, Cernd walked alone to the army's camp to confront his wayward son. Little is known of the encounter, but the few survivors among the army spoke of a great clash of elements. The aftermath of the battle showed far more. All that remained of the camp was a vast field of ash and scraps, with a simple mound at the center. The charred bones of Ahsdale lay under the mound, and an oak sapling stood at the top.
The oak would grow to become a well-remembered landmark, center of the newly named Ashen Dale. Cernd would pass into legend, never to be seen again.
Jaheira did not return from the Throne of Bhaal. Little tied her to the material plane any more, and according to the monk Balthazar's later writings, the new power Aerys offered her a place at his side as an elemental spirit. Still, her influence would be felt. The "angel of the ashes" would frequently appear at the sites of great conflicts in the years and centuries to come, heralding the power of fire to cleanse and renew. Fire came with her, and new growth came in her wake.
...
And now, the stats. I have a lot of them.
As of my final save, just before the battle with Melissan, the party ranged from just under 10 million XP to just over 11 million. If the XP cap were lifted, classes gained levels at a linear rate, and my party spent the other 950 Freedom scrolls I had in storage, their levels would be as follows:
- Aerys: Dragon Disciple 43 (12,434,773 XP)
- Jaheira: Fighter 31/Druid 26 (11,877,114 XP)
- Cernd: Shapeshifter 38 (11,531487 XP)
- Isra: Cavalier 45 (11,383,379 XP)
- Nalia: Thief 4/Mage 41 (11,758,358 XP)
- Anomen: Fighter 7/Cleric 59 (11,639,741 XP)
Now, the final kill stats.
First, overall kills by character for the BG2 portion of the run. I'm lumping clones in with their creators, but grouping kills by other summons based on what the summon was rather than who summoned it.
"MonSum" is short for creatures from Monster Summoning spells and wands. Clara is the fake "Hexxat" you initially recruit.
It's much less balanced than the BG1 counts. Aerys accounts for more than 30% of the kills, and nearly that much of the XP. Cernd comes off worst among the primary party members in both kills and XP; his shapeshifted forms are great at tanking, but not so good at dealing damage. But of course, that's still 2 million kill XP, including the single most valuable kill in the game.
Those "unknown" kills are those that, despite my best efforts, I couldn't specifically attribute to anyone with any accuracy. Most of them came during the first pocket plane challenge, and all came while I was using my standard party.
Second, overall kills by enemy type in BG2. This is a very long list, so I'm hiding it in a spoiler.
Many of these names are somewhat abbreviated. Hopefully, it's understandable. Names are reported as they were when I killed them - e.g, that entry for a 3000 XP elven battle mage is actually a rakshasa in disguise. Kills are lumped together if the name and XP match, not for an exact match of the creature.
To make those long lists more manageable, some leaderboards. Top ten monster kills, by number:
Name XP Num Combined XP
Drow Warrior 4000 145 580000
Goblin 20 108 2160
Shadow 420 91 38220
Troll 1400 74 103600
Umber Hulk 4000 71 284000
Mind Flayer 9000 60 540000
Shadow Fiend 2000 58 116000
Giant Rat 1 56 56
Sword Spider 2000 52 104000
YS Soldier 650 52 33800
Incidentally, #11 on this list is worth zero XP - summoned skeleton warriors.
And by combined XP:
Name XP Num Combined XP
Fire Giant 16000 44 704000
Drow Warrior 4000 145 580000
Mind Flayer 9000 60 540000
Beholder 14000 32 448000
Mutated Spider 9000 46 414000
Ulitharid 19000 20 380000
Balor 26000 12 312000
Stone Golem 8000 38 304000
Umber Hulk 4000 71 284000
Spirit Troll 12000 23 276000
Two more beholderkin (hive mothers and gauths) occupy the next two slots.
Next, the fire kills. First, by character.
Name F kills Fire XP Top fire kill F kill% Fire XP %
Aerys 1281 6241391 Dolrassa 58000 81.4% 85.2%
Anomen 60 384940 Ice Golem 25000 12.1% 13.5%
Cernd 83 586645 Bodhi 91000 18.0% 29.0%
Isra 26 82335 Maevar 14000 4.4% 2.2%
Jaheira 70 314175 Ulitharid 19000 13.6% 11.1%
Nalia 669 4013295 Ixthezzys 61000 74.3% 81.6%
Planet. 77 391390 Fav Cyric 25000 56.6% 42.3%
Neera 12 97000 Vicross 14000 92.3% 97.0%
Rasaad 3 18475 Shar Crus 14500 30.0% 29.6%
Total 2281 12129646 47.6% 48.4%
No cred 8 55000 Sand Golem 14000
Enemy 22 188400 Marilith 23000
The mages got the overwhelming majority of their kills with fire, Isra got barely any, and the priests were somewhere between the two extremes. On the whole, just a bit less than half of our kills were done with fire.
Those last two lines, not included in the total, are for kills that didn't grant XP to the party. First, kills by clones (all belonging to Aerys) that expired or were dispelled with incendiary clouds still active. Second, kills by enemies (mostly balors) with their own fire.
Finally, fire kills by enemy. Again, this is a very long list and I'm putting it in a spoiler.
Back in BG1, the experience totals were low enough that single notable kills could make the XP leaderboard. That isn't the case in BG2. Even Bodhi is down at #26 on the fire kill XP list. There is considerable overlap between the lists here, with drow warriors, umber hulks, and mind flayers making all four top tens.
I won't combine much between the two games, but Aerys and Jaheira were there for both. They deserve to at least have their combined totals mentioned.
Aerys racked up 2293 total kills for 7,581,268 XP. 1695 of those kills were with fire, for 6,355,810 XP.
Jaheira totaled 803 kills for 3,062,347 XP. 133 of those kills were with fire, for 359,205 XP.
And the whole party combined for 3089 fire kills over the two games. Aerys accounts for more than half of that, the pyromaniac.
Monster types don't overlap much, but a few still carry over. We killed another 25 7 XP kobolds in BG2, 17 with fire. That brings their total to 252, 105 with fire. 65 XP skeletons still hold the #1 spot for most fire kills with 108, despite their complete absence from BG2.
Ghasts were on all four top ten lists in BG1. In BG2, they drop to #24 in total kills, #16 in fire kills, and far lower in XP. 650 XP each just doesn't cut it any more.
That's enough stats. Now for some final thoughts. This was a very fun and powerful party to play; the fire theme just works well. It does require planning - had a document in which I planned in advance how my characters would get their fire resistance and which spells Aerys would take.
Would I recommend it for someone else? Absolutely. Don't take every detail of my builds and strategies as gospel; those specifics depend on an exact patch and mod setup that you're unlikely to match. For example, the 2.6 update changes some things which affect the strategies here - the AI exploit I used to get Drizzt's scimitar early is closed, and the loophole of self-targeted area spells ignoring magic resistance may be closed as well.
The general pattern of "make party immune to fire, apply indiscriminate fire damage spells", though, should hold true. That's the core of this idea, and it'll work regardless. Spellcasters are the stars here, but there's also a place for items. And I'd like to single out the necklace of missiles for special recognition. It's available pretty early, it offers reasonably cheap fireballs for anybody to use, and some quirks let it be useful even in the extreme late game. I even used it while I was fighting the Ravager - not to deal damage, but to trigger contingencies.
The worst annoyance was the kill-counting. The game just loves to not credit kills properly when there's a death script involved. Especially when you kill with fire. I doubt I'll ever go quite that detailed on the counting again.
About two thousand and five hundred pictures, totaling more than 700 megabytes of disk space. Compressed, because I didn't save the larger originals. Another six auxiliary files for two megabytes, most of it plain text. Many hours spent trawling for quotes ... mostly collected from TvTropes. Half a year to post it. Done.
Signing off with one last quote...
"I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you... fire!"
— Arthur Brown, Fire
It was a hand count, yes. Pretty much had to be, too. It's not like the game keeps any stats on what kind of damage killed the enemies. And even the stats the game does keep are wrong sometimes.
There was a process to it, of course. Log the kills as I go in a text file - at first just the fire kills, but later I kept temporary records of all kills - then record in a spreadsheet and check against the character record counts to detect any errors. Some rounds of this took longer than others. Reconciling the kill counts for the Ust Natha battle (because of course there were mistakes) took literally hours. Not playing it, just trying to get numbers to match between a spreadsheet and the partial data the game gave me. All complicated by the fact that the battle included kills by summons, kills by clones, kills by enemy friendly fire, kills that I didn't get credit for because the clone that set the fire storms was popped by a True Sight ... that was a mess. Nothing else was quite as complicated as that, of course.
This also requires frequent pausing during play. If you wait too long, you won't be able to scroll that far back in the in-game log. Playing it definitely would have gone quicker if I wasn't counting everything.
Oh, and I also edited the first post's title to add a "Complete" marker. I forgot to do that when I first posted today.
As others have said before, thank you for sharing all that information. I admit I'm still stuck somewhere on page 2, as this takes time to read, but it's obvious how much effort you've put into this, how much you planned this playthrough and with how much attention to detail you organized and documented everything.
Such threads don't usually get very many reads at first, but this is something you do for yourself to record your playthrough, and it's a huge source of knowledge and information for people to look at later, which will be very much appreciated, I'm sure.
Comments
Leaving Saradush dumps us straight into a fight.
That gives us access to Karthis; we buy the potion case and rod of resurrection from him. We'll steal the rest of his good stuff later.
For the rest of the area, I indulge in a little silliness. Shuffle some equipment, then Nalia activates a Spell Trigger:
We attack the remainder conventionally, and it's not any harder.
With this very easy area clear, we have freedom of movement. And we use that to head back to Watcher's Keep. The first thing we do, on arrival, is to transfer all of our stashed junk from the room near the entrance to the pocket plane.
After that, it's time for the boss fight. Let's kill some statues. Buff up, including wish buffs and some shorter-duration options like Aura of Flaming Death.
That removes the Sanctuary, and Anomen finishes the job in melee.
Now, the second half of the battle. This can be delayed by getting the ritual wrong, but we're not interested in that. After all, we already have clouds up.
Another enemy falls to the incendiary clouds, and we fall back to draw more of them in.
We also gain some levels from opening the way down. Level 38 for Anomen and his final level 7 spell slot, level 28 for Nalia and her final level 7 spell slot.
Down on the second floor, it's time for the elemental theme level. There's going after weaknesses ... or we could just use fire on everything that's not immune.
We start with the fire library. They're immune.
On the other side, the spiders in the slime library aren't immune.
All right, how about the mists in the ice library?
All right, heal up. Summon a planetar, which auto-heals Isra ... running straight into the Spell turning left over from the statue fight. Oops. Okay, one more spell to finish that up, and then the planetar can get back to the actual healing. With the drain removed, Isra reaches level 30 for bastard sword specialization and her third Greater Whirlwind.
Take out the stray mists, loot the three libraries we've cleared (timing out spell defenses and allowing regeneration to work), and then go for a wish-rest. Now we're ready for the golems in the air library. It takes a few tries to get that stubborn spawn point to activate ...
Now, we take on the labs. Air first, of course, with some electricity protection added,
Anyway, four out of five elementals burn. I wait around for the lightning to heal us up ... and then I realize it has a physical component too. Oops. Just turn the wheel again. And afterward, renew our main buffs; it's been a while since we started on this dungeon.
On to the slime lab now. Open up the doors to blow the poison out, then apply fire.
Ice comes next, and the dance of trying to draw the golem out when it's leashed to the room.
Before I continue, I hop up to the pocket plane to upgrade a couple of weapons - Foebane and the Flail of Ages. Isra will be happy, especially with the former's free healing.
Next, we draw the fire elementals back to the ice room. Turn AI off for this, so we don't attack for bogus kills.
Jaheira reaches druid level 18 in the process, and takes Smite. For the giant himself, I add some physical resistance. Or, really, a lot of it. 80% for Isra, but only 25% for Anomen. Then we beat him up in melee without him taking a single swing.
While I didn't go for the kill that way, it's worth noting that this particular fire giant isn't immune to fire. He's only 75% resistant (50% innate, 25% from the Helm of the Rock).
Anomen upgrades to the new helmet for some acid resistance, and now only the Chromatic Demon remains.
For this fight, we wish-rest again and prepare contingencies. All fire, of course. Wait for it to take its ice form, and open the cage.
Then, the moment we do, it changes to slime form. All that fire damage, wasted. Fortunately, it changes right back at the first opportunity.
1509 total fire kills. Not too many this time, but a lot of our attention went to boss fights with relatively few enemies. And we mostly didn't use fire spells on that segment outside.
— Maximus of Tyre
Of course, we're not stopping there. We continue on down, to the teleport maze and the Blood War. After visiting Yakman's room for the Circlet of Netheril (Aerys' new hat once we upgrade it), we head east to the dead magic areas.
Isra claims Purifier, and we move on to the second dead magic room.
With the two rooms connected to it dealt with, we head over to Tahazzar for a chat. He's willing to talk, so we don't fight. Head back to the compass room, buff up again, and take the western exit instead.
We avoided any active spells for this wild magic room, so only the quasits' surges affected us. Nothing particularly notable this time.
From there, we head east to the other wild magic room.
We're not casting spells. They are. And the mage gets one very lucky wild surge:
... Except they do. Even Jaheira's Iron Skins, cast at level 18, are unaffected. Apparently, that wild surge doesn't actually work the way it says it does.
The thief activates Assassination and goes for an attack. Miss. And then dead.
Then again, only the Teleport Field really matters to us. We're all immune to the Stinking Cloud through poison immunity, and our invisibility wasn't really providing anything but a save buff.
And now, back to fighting with spells. We head to the compass room for a wish-rest, then back along the same path... wait, there's a new enemy.
The demon goes to cast a Fire Storm, and ...
Ascension does have demons that can gate in reinforcements, but only at the Throne of Bhaal. This was just a one-off wild surge for perfect flavor.
Anyway, the fight. The balor makes one attack roll before being crushed - a critical miss. The nabassu doesn't last long enough to take any actions whatsoever.
With that distraction cleared, we can take on the next room ... the glabrezu summoners. In the vanilla game, there are two of them (one of each element) which summon an elemental/salamander once per round, a maximum of five times each. With SCS, they're still limited to five summons each ... but there are three of each color instead of one. Also, the glabrezu are considerably better at fighting themselves. It's a very dangerous fight, with the added annoyance that the cloud visual effects from the summoning spells seriously lag the game.
Anyway, we open with our usual contingent clouds.
After killing a few more minions, we finally get off an actual Remove Magic.
And then the Dragon's Breath that Nalia cast arrives. Two more fall, leaving just one surviving summoner.
All right, next target. North, west, south to the succubus. She dies almost instantly.
With that done with, it's time to wish-rest and prepare contingencies for the next fight. I add a Mass Invisibility as well for absurdly good saves, and head off to face Ka'rashur.
So that leaves a melee slugfest. The cornugons are first to fall.
The stragglers take a bit of time to mop up, with the last to fall being a bone fiend - but not before casting another Cone of Cold.
Aerys reaches level 29 with that fight, an empty level. No new spells for him.
After another wish-rest, we return to Tahazzar with the heart. Hand it in for the Thieves' Hood, buff up, and pick a fight.
We beat on Tahazzar, and the fire continues to work. Tahazzar's fire storm kills a quasit, while our own claims a skeleton warrior summoned by the newly arrived maurezhi. Then the maurezhi walk into the fire ...
This brings two new levels - level 31 for Isra (and her fourth Greater Whirlwind) and level 29 for Cernd. Also, Tahazzar is a new top kill for Anomen.
We now have two out of three scepter gems. It's time to head for the exit. After leaving the dead magic zone and re-establishing our buffs, we head toward the first of that path's unavoidable rooms.
It doesn't go entirely to plan; we can't stop the cambion from getting off a backstab. Then Nalia's contingency goes off, and it's dead.
Then, the reinforcements arrive. Several demon knights.
Now, for the next room, we add more buffs including spell defenses. No fire, though. The enemies there are all immune.
Then we wilt again.
Now, for Aesgareth and some shameless save-scumming. Just talking to him brings level 29 for Nalia and her final spell slot.
First round ... Strife versus Triumph.
Second round ... Guile versus Empress. We lose. Reload. Take two ... Strength versus Defiance.
On to the final round, after a bit of preparation. Emperor versus Wheel, and we lose. But ... we're sore losers. The fight is on.
Also, some bad news. That Fell Cat gets a hit in on Anomen, and its melee attacks lower fire resistance by 25%. He can cover that for now with the other fire resistance ring, but any more hits are going to be trouble.
In retrospect, using Anomen for the scorcher trick wasn't the best idea. His Spell Turning was largely depleted from that Black Blade hit earlier, so it went down after just a couple of reflections.
And now, we have the Deck. This calls for even more save-scumming. I'll allow for some options, but I definitely want the Warder's Signet in the second round.
Draw 1: Gem, Ruin, Ruin, Jester, Jester, Gem, Flames, Euryale, Jester, Donjon.
Draw 2: Void, Star, Sun, Key.
Draw 3: Comet, Fool, Skull, Comet, Throne.
The way is clear now to leave this marathon level. We'll do that next session, and next update.
1541 total fire kills. We took all the opportunities we could, but there are a lot of fire-immune monsters in the maze.
Should be burning in hell."
— Sans, Undertale
On the next floor, we start immediately with a cutscene, followed by a conversation with Carston. Until he gets bored and summons some mind flayers.
And next, it's a pack of shades. We pull out the lightning wands again.
Anomen and Isra each take some minor damage. Their regeneration and self-healing covers it easily.
We could head out to the mind flayer or githyanki camps now, but I'd rather clear out the rest of this hub area first. We start with some orogs:
The last segment on this side has some regular shadows, for which I apply a Sunfire:
All right, now for the other side. Some yuan-ti and a troll first:
Finally, one last segment.
There's a bit more to this hub section, but it's behind plot-locked doors. We need to hit the two camps first. And before that, wish-rest so we can renew our buffs and have some fire.
It takes two images to draw the rest, but we start things with party-wide Improved Haste and Hardiness, plus Armor of Faith on Anomen and Isra. My usual buffs are pretty solid against illithids, but I want some protection from Ballistic Attacks too.
The clouds go off. The enemies die.
Wish-rest so that we can apply contingencies to the next room, then open the door.
Of course, we can also throw out some dragon's breath for the enemies that don't follow.
Wish-rest once again for the southern room; illithid magic resistance is something I don't want to mess with, and that means self-targeted contingency clouds are by far the best option.
Oh well. Let's just kill them all to render that problem moot.
Once the last enemy goes down in melee, we pause for Jaheira to level up. It's a threshold in both of her classes, simultaneously reaching fighter level 23 and druid level 20. Her new abilities are Whirlwind and Greater Whirlwind.
The side paths to the west are far less dangerous. In the north, it's just a few umber hulks.
That brings us to the last room.
I have a bit of trouble reconciling kills; my count was off, and I lost track of one mind flayer. Everything I can find points to it being Aerys in the southern room, so I'm pretty sure it was with fire, but I can't be entirely sure. Also, one of the vampiric illithids didn't get credited properly. The vampire death script strikes again.
That brings us to the githyanki on the other side.
This brings mage level 30 for Nalia, and I give her katana proficiency. Not that she'll ever use it. The two side areas with bosses ... leave them for a bit later.
We have all the pieces we need now to open those doors in the central area. That leads to one last fight:
The unique weapon here, the Axe of the Unyielding ... no use in this party, except for giving Isra regeneration outside of combat.
And now, back to Carston.
Strength goes to Aerys (20).
Charisma goes to Isra (18).
Intelligence goes to Anomen (11).
Constitution goes to Jaheira (19).
Wisdom goes to Cernd (19).
Dexterity goes to Nalia (19).
With the stat boosts spread around properly, Aerys operates the machine for the last three things. 5% more magic resistance for 40% total, Storm Star, and an open portal.
Before going down, we visit the pocket plane. Lots of new items, none of which we'll use. Well, OK, the clay golem manual is theoretically an option.
Renew buffs, wish-rest, and hit the first section.
Through the door, we find another strange device. Prepare contingencies, then start pushing buttons. Red.
With all the enemies present, I notice some of the fish-men outside the clouds. Add a fireball sequencer, then.
With our clouds still going strong, let's hit the next color. Blue, blue, blue, blue. None of the four mages last long enough to take any actions.
Then comes green. I hide away my wands and push the button:
Once they're down and counted, I hit the button two more times.
Add some dragon breath and the still active clouds...
So that's three out of four colors taken down in under ten rounds; the clouds we started with stayed active to the end. We pause to could kills, and Cernd picks up level 30 for a couple hit points.
And finally, purple. We'll take these one at a time.
Second, devil shades.
Isra took one level-draining hit before we finished off the shades. We'll cure that later. On to the third group of enemies.
For the last foes, I break for a round or two in order to put up some spell defenses.
The lich has invisibility, abjuration immunity, and Spell Trap. Aerys casts a True Sight, and the lich responds with a Greater Malison/Remove Magic/Death Spell trigger. Many of our buffs are gone. Then, as I'm working on the spell defenses...
I have to step out into the central area and come back for the other lich to show up. Once again, before we can land a Breach...
And with that, we have the Mind Key. We'll use that next time. This last block with the globe machine would fit better with that next part, but issues of update length pushed it here.
1657 total fire kills. That's a new high point of 116 in a single update, though it is a long one. 38 of those kills come from the last part around the globe machine.
Harry Dresden: "What's the difference where the fire came from?"
Ebenezar: "The difference is, anything we just make out of our will, they can slip most of the punch."
— Peace Talks
We pick up immediately after playing with the globe machine to use the mind key. Aerys calls up a clone to break down some inconvenient spell defenses and then re-buff. Now we're ready. Our party has reduced MR from Pierce Shield and Greater Malison from the liches, but that won't be a problem.
Two stragglers were outside those clouds. They charged in after us and died quickly. Isra takes one melee hit, and levels up to 33 (two-weapon mastery, Critical Strike #3).
And of course, this fight brings one very important prize.
We now take a break from the final seal guardians, and head back up to the bosses on the previous level that we skipped. First, the demilich.
Anyway, I choose to clear away that Spell Deflection by overwhelming it. Apply a few Wand of the Heavens hits, then follow with a Breach. Before we can get there...
Then the Breach lands. Aerys breathes fire, and everyone else attacks.
Anomen: 3 crushing + 5 fire, along with a fireball that did nothing.
Cernd: 2 crushing + 3 fire.
Jaheira: 3 crushing + 6 fire.
Aerys: 32 fire.
Cernd: 2 crushing + 2 fire.
There's one script oddity I noted in this fight. The blocks for using Imprisonment all check for spell defenses - Spell Deflection, Spell Trap, Spell Turning. But they don't check for Shield of the Archons, despite it being functionally the same as Spell Deflection. So in a party like this, the mage will target priests protected by SotA, but not mages with any of their stronger spell defenses. That particular bit of SCS script construction needs work.
For the second fight, I wait out the demilich's Greater Malison. And also go for a wish-rest. Renew Jaheira's spell protection, apply Mass Invisibility for the saves, and provoke the dragon.
With Aerys' four-level advantage, the Remove Magic works. Summon a planetar and cast Greater Malison in the next round ...
Back down in the final seal level, we memorize some contingencies and open a door.
We can't use that altar yet, of course. So instead, we wish-rest again and take the other door. Three trials await us. First, an orcish horde.
We have six incendiary clouds from our chain contingencies, and our two mages will cast more. One round into things...
The quest reward brings druid level 21 for Jaheira, and her second Greater Whirlwind. We took absolutely no damage in the entire fight; only that one Breach affected us.
We take a trip to the pocket plane, upgrading some weapons. Ixil's Spike and the Staff of the Ram are now my druids' non-shapeshift weapons. We also wish-rest and renew buffs. Time for the next challenge.
The battle starts, and both sides use their opening moves.
We add some Comets, but the final blow is physical.
The 62K experience for this dragon brings Aerys to level 31, his cap. He takes Mass Invisibility as his final spell, for general convenience when buffing for boss fights.
Several more chunks of experience come without combat - the post-fight reward, the riddles, receiving the Heart Key, and putting it in. That brings Nalia to level 31.
Now, the seal fight. We do a little planning ... I look up where the Hive Mother is, and place some trap spells there. The image I brought out for the wish-rest casts five Skull Traps and some delayed blast fireballs. Then I add another image. It makes some wishes too...
All right, now we're ready.
Trigger the fight, watch the spells go off ...
Anyway, we open with some Dragon's Breath before pulling the mages as far back as possible from the Hive Mother. Isra engages it directly in melee with her +5 weapons, ignoring the Improved Mantle. And the rest of our party fights the humanoids.
Nalmissra puts up a red fire shield - OK, that calls for a dispel. And since Aerys took an antimagic ray, Anomen goes for the cast. Then we get our first kill.
The second enemy to burn is the marilith Y'tossi.
The Hive Mother finally falls, but not before hitting Cernd with antimagic:
I take a break to look things up ... and that's a bug with the SCS beholder tweaks. For the Hive Mother's antimagic ray with the changes, the portrait icon lasts five times as long as the actual miscast effect. Aerys could have been casting spells for most of the battle, but didn't out of fear of that icon.
We head over to the altar, and guide the spirit warrior through without incident. Then, as we prepare for the battle to come, a banter triggers:
Turn the key, and Jaheira reaches fighter level 24. She takes two-handed specialization and her third Hardiness for this final level.
Of course, just because we aren't casting it ...
Meanwhile, the planetar takes out a flaming skull.
The lich is next.
Isra reaches level 34, taking her fifth Greater Whirlwind. Only Cernd still has a level left to earn, and he's less than 100K from it. Anomen gets the Erinne sling as his ranged option, immediately upgraded. And with that, I end the session. The Imprisoned One can wait.
1707 total fire kills. We had both raw numbers with the horde and high-value kills with the demilich and hive mother. It was a bit disappointing not getting the trap explosions to work on the hive mother, but at least we burned that thing in the end.
The flames are hot, but their heart is chill
Walk fast from that boring explosion
And don't think about the people you've killed"
— The Lonely Island, Cool Guys Don't Look At Explosions
With only one fight left in Watcher's Keep ... we leave. There's no reward except experience, and we just don't need any of that. Instead, we pick up Neera for her quest. Before setting out, we fill her spellbook, pickpocketing any scrolls we don't already have from Karthis and Lazarus with Jan's expert aid. All but Neera are dismissed from the party for the actual scribing ... not quite level 18. All right, add a stack of Freedom scrolls. That brings her over the top, and she takes Dragon's Breath as her HLA.
I equip Neera with lots of good stuff: the Erinne Sling and +4 ammo, the 20 strength belt, the Cloak of Mirroring, a +2 protection ring, and a ring of Gaxx. Apply Spirit Armor, and her spell save will reach the negatives. Good enough. Anomen takes a break to make room.
And now, we're off. We travel to the clearing, wish-rest, and cast a dweomer.
Conversation ends, and the spells arrive. Before we can take any actions, Neera complains about her magic "not working"...
We attack, and Isra takes a small hit. Then the clouds tick for a second round.
Sadly, Vicross is immortal here. With her minions down, she teleports back to Thay - and brings us along. We arrive in an arena, with a messy fight already in progress.
Then I arrive at the shopping area, and realize I've made a mistake. I don't have an arrow of detonation, so I can't buy/sell my way to a large collection. Oh well. I'll just have to make do with spells and melee weapons for my fire.
I also buy the unique items, of which the cloak of the lich is the one I'll actually use. Once I go back to my usual party, that'll go to Anomen. For now, Aerys wears it. Also, Nalia gets a +3 buckler for better defense in melee mode.
With our shopping done, we head off to the estate. This is a stealth-focused area, at least at first. Lots of alarm traps, and guards that will sound the alarm anyway if you don't kill them quickly. The staff of the magi is our best friend here, of course.
The first room is easy enough.
For the next room, Nalia puts up the chain contingency. But ... this room has a red wizard. After Nalia deals with the alarm trap, the wizard casts Detect Invisibility.
Now we backtrack to the other side. Neera brings the contingency this time.
The fourth room has another wizard, and we dodge the Detect Invisibility. Twice. With that exhausted, they're easy prey.
And now, on to the big room. Bait out Detect Invisibility, disarm the traps, prepare contingencies, cast Mass Invisibility...
Contingencies go off, and Aerys adds a Comet.
There's one last pair of guards in a smaller room.
With the perimeter clear, we take the time to loot some place and renew our two-hour buffs. Then we enter the courtyard to face Vicross herself.
Naturally, Vicross opens with a True Sight and a Mass Invisibility. We'll need to counter that; our clouds won't trigger if we don't see anything. All right, then. Detect Invisibility.
One guard whirls, targeting Isra. She's the only one without Stoneskins, but she has 80% physical resistance going so that isn't going to hurt much. Actually ... add Defender of Easthaven. Now she has 100% resistance, and that won't hurt at all.
Moments later ...
And ... actually, we still have two out of three chain contingencies active. We don't need new ones for the final fight. The mages cast abjuration immunity, and we ring the bell.
It does work. We beat down in melee, and phase 1 ends.
I looked this one up. Here's the script block for the movie:
IF Global("OH6400_movie","OH6400",0) THEN RESPONSE #100 StartMovie("neeraes") SetGlobal("OH6400_movie","OH6400",1) Continue() ENDActivate on entering the area, right? The thing is, OH6400 is the clearing. This is part of the script for OH6500, the estate. With that command, the video activates as soon as you enter the estate, but doesn't actually run until you return to the clearing.Uh, right. Anyway, that's it for Neera. We get 35K XP each and the wand of whips for beating Szass Tam, and Cernd picks up his final level. Aside from her one required NRD, Neera didn't have any wild surges.
1747 total fire kills. A relatively short update, but still plenty of fire.
- Iroh, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Before we continue, I tweak something. Foebane has been bothering me - the tweaked version I've been using is just too good. The increase to maximum HP isn't supposed to stack, after all. Also, you get the full healing and HP bonus even if the target resists the damage.
So, I get into the weeds of exactly how these spells work.
In standard BG2EE 2.5.16.6, Larloch's Minor Drain does not heal you at all. Well, that's obviously wrong.
In standard BGEE 2.5.17.0, Larloch's Minor Drain uses the "Drain to max HP of caster" damage mode. This heals you and increases your maximum HP by the damage dealt. Once. After that, you have to wait until the two-turn duration wears off before you can get any more healing out of it. Hmm ... not ideal, especially when it's going to be a weapon effect that can repeat a lot. Foebane should heal you on pretty much every hit, even if it isn't granting unlimited maximum HP.
With the "hotfix" I've been using, LMD has a separate healing effect. Two turns of extra current and maximum HP, stacking with itself, regardless of the actual damage dealt.
The intended effect here ... two turns of increased maximum HP which doesn't stack, healing equal to the damage dealt. And as far as I can tell, there's no way to achieve that in 2.5. I tried various schemes, and they just didn't work right.
In the end, I decided to just discard the increased maximum HP and use the "Drain HP to caster" mode. That gets the healing reliably right, at least. And since the healing can be resisted, Foebane comes back down to a sane power level.
In 2.6, all of this should be unnecessary. I believe that "Drain to max HP of caster" has been fixed to match the intended effect.
Anyway, back to the game. And I've changed my mind about Watcher's Keep. Let's finish the place, now. Check on the Helmites one last time - there's nothing more I need from this merchant. And then, down to the final seal.
Opening the portal is 20K XP for everybody. Then we wish. Rest, improved haste, and some junk like free wands. Contingencies prepared.
We head down and speak to the voice. No, we don't trust it. Anomen? As the Helmite here, it's your job to read the scroll.
That's another 80K XP for everybody, and the entire party is at the cap. Also, the exits are closed.
Before confronting the voice again, I go for another round of wishes. Three wishes in, I have the party-wide Hardiness I was looking for, along with renewed Improved Haste. Good enough for me. Cast our spell defenses and short-duration buffs, then talk again.
Or, at least, that's the plan. Demogorgon casts Time Stop before we can cast either of those. I jumped the gun on starting the fight, with Aerys' aura timer still active.
The aura timer expires, and Aerys casts his spell trigger. Nalia follows with hers. Demogorgon's buffs are down, and he no longer has magic resistance.
We haven't been spending all our attacks on Demogorgon. For one thing, he was immune until that Breach landed. For another, some of the demons are dangerous. Like the balor.
Very soon after ...
We don't get any kill credit, as Demogorgon dies by script. Still, the vast majority of the damage we dealt to him was fire. And that disease/fireshield aura in particular really wrecked him. About 10 damage per second each, plus additional bursts for every hit and every tick of that Storm of Vengeance.
The only significant injury we took was the beatdown on Anomen during the Time Stop. Cernd took enough hits to wear down his iron skins, but not enough beyond that to seriously hurt him.
The entire fight took about two rounds, not counting the stopped time. After all, that Storm of Vengeance was cast during the Time Stop by Demogorgon, and it was still going at the end of the fight.
With the demon defeated, we can leave. We summon a planetar once we're outside, to cure the level drain on Anomen. With the party healed, we head up to confront those false Helmites:
Now that the party is uniformly at the XP cap, a snapshot. Our standard long-duration buffs that we keep up all the time are included, but not any of the shorter-duration buffs we use for big fights.
First, Aerys.
Equipment: Robe of Vecna, Gauntlets of Weapon Skill, Circlet of Netheril, Amulet of Power, 3x Bullets +4, Firetooth +3, Staff of the Magi, The Warder's Signet +3, Ring of Gaxx, various wands, Cloak of Mirroring, Boots of Speed, Belt of Inertial Barrier.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
L1 spells: Sleep, Burning Hands, Blindness, Magic Missile, Shield.
L2 spells: Web, Mirror Image, Melf's Acid Arrow, Glitterdust, Blur.
L3 spells: Fireball, Spell Thrust, Slow, Remove Magic, Skull Trap.
L4 spells: Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility, Fireshield: Red, Greater Malison, Spirit Armor.
L5 spells: Chaos, Sunfire, Breach, Spell Immunity, Spell Shield.
L6 spells: Death Fog, Pierce Magic, Protection from Magical Weapons, Protection from Magical Energy, True Sight.
L7 spells: Project Image, Spell Turning, Delayed Blast Fireball, Mordenkainen's Sword, Mass Invisibility.
L8 spells: Incendiary Cloud, Pierce Shield, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Simulacrum.
L9 spells: Wish, Time Stop, Spellstrike, Spell Trap.
High-level abilities: all mage spells and extra slots.
Second, Isra.
Equipment: Full Plate, Beetle-Shell Bracers (15% physical resist, +1/2 APR), Helm of Brilliance, Amulet of the Seldarine, various arrows, Flail of Ages +4, Foebane +5, Carsomyr +5, Crom Faeyr +5, Ghadir Family Ring (+1 AC, +1 saves, non-removable), Ring of Fire Resistance, Book of Infinite Spells (Spell Turning), Efreeti Bottle, Potions of Superior Healing, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Bluntness.
Buffs active: Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High-level abilities: Deathblow, Greater Deathblow, Power Attack, 3x Critical Strike, Smite, Whirlwind, 5x Greater Whirlwind, 3x Hardiness
Third, Anomen.
Equipment: Red Dragon Scale, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, Helm of the Rock, Amulet of Spell Warding, 3x Bullets +4, Erinne Sling +5, Club of Detonation +5, Dragon Scale Shield +2, Holy Symbol of Helm, Ring of Gaxx, wands, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the Lich, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High-level abilities: all cleric spells.
Fourth, Jaheira.
Equipment: Full Plate, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Helm of Defense, Harper Pin, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Staff of the Ram +6, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Regeneration, wands, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of the North, Girdle of Bluntness.
Buffs active: Buffs active: Iron Skins, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High level abilities: all druid spells, fire and earth elemental tokens, Power Attack, Critical Strike, Smite, Whirlwind, 2x Greater Whirlwind, 3x Hardiness
Fifth, Cernd.
Equipment: Gloves of Missile Snaring, Helm of Defense, Periapt of Life Protection, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Ixil's Spike +6, Claw of Kazgaroth, Ring of Protection +2, wands, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the High Forest +1, Boots of Avoidance, Golden Girdle of Urnst.
Buffs active: Iron Skins, Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High level abilities: all druid spells, fire and earth elemental tokens.
Sixth, Nalia.
Equipment: Robe of the Good Archmagi, Bracers of Archery, Lavender Ioun Stone, Periapt of Proof Against Poison, Quiver of Plenty +2, 2x Arrows +3, Shortbow of Gesen, Boomerang Dagger +2, Buckler +3, de'Arnise Signet Ring, Ring of Fire Control, wands, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear.
High-level abilities: all mage spells and extra slots.
The girdle of fortitude ... I haven't been using it before now, which is an oversight. With as often as we wish-rest, we can easily keep that effect up on Cernd full-time.
Nalia also carries thieving jewelry, for use when trapfinding or lockpicking is an issue. Since she only has one mutable ring slot and that's taken up by a fire resistance ring, wearing thieving rings regularly is not an option.
I don't always have Spirit Armor on everybody. Much of the time, I'm running on one Aerys image worth of buffs, which means only four or five party members get that one. If I have to skip someone, it's Jaheira and then Isra that lose out on the save boost. They still have negative spell saves even without that buff, after all.
Our detour into side quests and dungeon crawling is complete. It's time to get back to the plot now, with a trip to the Forest of Mir. We hop up to the pocket plane and buff as soon as we arrive there, because a fight is coming soon. Including lightning protection, because that fight includes devil shades.
All right. Time to move forward. And, naturally, we disbelieve everything. The wraith tries to punish Aerys, but that punishment consists solely of fire damage. And then, the fight starts.
One of our bolts rebounds, and hits the last devil shade. It's not quite lethal, but Cernd finishes the shade off easily enough. Then that bolt just keeps on bouncing back and forth - the trees act as a reflective wall as well. It doesn't do any damage since we're all immune, but it's very annoying.
And then, it ends.
The Master Wraith defended itself with PfMW. We just ignored that and let the fire do its job.
With that first fight over, we call up a planetar and reverse Isra's level drain. And then, with our clouds still going, Aerys pokes his head forward to attract some attention. Also, we cast some fire storms on the approach.
Soon after, the mage and the two warriors follow. Only the cleric and assassin remain. The cleric never moves, so we head forward to burn it.
This area also has some normal undead spawn points.
Thankfully, that's the last of those ghasts and mummies. The only thing left to do is to talk with Nyalee. She gives us our quest - find her and Yaga-Shura's hearts, so the giant's invulnerability can be removed.
With that, we head out and travel to the Marching Mountains. Lava is everywhere, though none of it can be walked on out here. And of course convection isn't a thing - in this outdoor area, it's just set dressing for impassable terrain.
We also renew our buffs. The image I bring out for it wishes up a rest and Improved Haste. Add in Armor of Faith for some physical resistance on the divine casters, and head out.
Up next, a silly encounter. And one that we can use fire on.
It doesn't take long to clean up the rest of them.
All right, heal Nalia. And then head back south.
Turning east, we find a new enemy.
1773 total fire kills. This is a fairly short update, and there were a lot of fire immunes. But that's nothing compared to what we'll find inside.
But for some reason, that doesn't happen!"
— Foreman Jaak, RuneScape
Before we actually enter Yaga-Shura's lair, we take the time for some buffs. This is probably the most dangerous area in the game as far as pure melee threats go, after all. So we buff against physical damage. Hardiness for Isra, Regeneration for both Isra and Anomen.
We're ready for a serious fight. And we get it right away.
The giants here are very fond of Critical Strike. The only way we can stop them from hitting us is to kill them before they can swing.
The elite that the party is about to engage there finally gets in a good whack. 36 net points of damage (39 slashing, -3 fire), then two more hits before we take it down.
Incidentally, party-wide fire immunity is a very nice perk here. For a normal party, those lava pools are navigation hazards to be avoided. For this party, they might as well be normal flooring. We just ignore them and fight wherever we want.
We don't see any more enemies ... until we start messing with stuff.
That container also gives us the 22 strength belt. Anomen gets that, passing his old 20 strength belt down to Nalia. The party's new strength levels: Isra 25, Anomen 23, Cernd 22, Jaheira 22, Aerys 20, Nalia 20.
That fight comes on the other side, which is populated with more giants.
Indeed, Anomen takes serious damage and has to back off. I have him cast Energy Blades to contribute some ranged damage. Then we split them up - attack the regulars, let the elites waste their time chasing mages.
After healing, we add some extra preparation for the next encounter.
There are also two other golems. Isra's long sword takes down the magic golem, and the planetar's vorpal strike gets the adamantite golem.
Now we use the two wardstones to unlock the barriers. Two more side rooms are open to us.
It aims a Remove Magic sequencer at Isra, so I split her from the party to hopefully absorb it alone. Then aim a Spell Thrust (wasted) and a Spellstrike at the lich, which we have the planetar reveal with True Seeing.
Isra absorbs the Remove Magic losing only her PfME, and returns to the fight.
In round 2, we Breach that lich.
The lich re-applies PfMW. Rather than getting into a Breach war, I decide to switch to magical damage. Magic Missile and Skull Trap ... wait, liches are immune to low-level spells. All right, go for the wilting.
It threw a dispel at us just before the end, to little effect. We lost some mage buffs and Jaheira's iron skins, but most of our defenses stayed intact.
Still, it's time to replace the buffs we lost. Spirit Armor is expiring anyway. And after that, the image wishes up Hardiness and Improved Haste.
Turning to the other side, we face two more Fell Cats alongside some other fire monsters, with a Flaming Skull as the caster type.
Then we beat down the skull. With PfME intact, even its death explosion is harmless.
Anomen casts a Resist Fire and Cold on Isra so she won't be even slightly vulnerable to fire, and we open the container.
Anyway, we finish up and head over to the other container. Anomen can just wander for now - we don't need him for this.
With that, the way to the second floor is clear. It's time to face giants again, instead of all these random fire monsters.
Two of those giants face us on the stairs.
With out haste still active, we head for a side entrance to hit some more giants.
With more giants joining in, we retreat.
We're getting low on high-level spells, and the haste ran out too. Time for some wishes. One image ... no rest, but we pick up both Hardiness and Improved Haste for the party. Let's head out again.
Also of note ... the game is slowing down, because of the dragon Brimstone moving around. That's our next priority, if only to restore decent performance.
After that, we take care of the elite fire giant; he wasted time chasing mages, but now we can go after him.
There are a couple more enemies in this room.
Our buffs are still up, so Nalia clears out a couple traps and we open the way forward ti Imix.
The halberd? Nice weapon, but we're not going to use it. Same with the upgrade token for the Axe of the Unyielding; that's only useful as something for Isra to switch to when she wants regeneration.
The Burning Men where Imix was have traps at their feet, so we take them out with ranged attacks. Those are the very last enemies here. We pick up the loot, clear the traps, free the slave, and take the hearts. The fire dungeon is complete.
1774 total fire kills. We only added one to the count this time, because virtually everything in the area was immune. Counting by experience, we got 100% of the possible fire kills.
— Bowser, Bowser's Evil Plan
We now return to Nyalee. Pause to buff and wish-rest ... one image suffices, which also draws Hardiness and Improved Haste. Then we talk to her.
Then our clouds go off.
That just leaves the shambling mounds. They're immune to fire. They're also immune to crushing damage. Time for some alternate weapons.
We make one last trip to Saradush, selling a bunch of weapons and ammo to Sister Farielle. By the time we're done with that, we have about 500K gold banked.
And now, we travel to the siege camp. We arrive with all of our buffs down, and have a limited time until trouble arrives.
- There are three classes of enemy. First, soldiers; either melee humans or archer orcs. Up to seven of these can be active at any time. They don't have magical weapons, so they're very little threat.
- Second, specialists. Officers, hammer-wielding giants, mages, or clerics. Up to four of these can be active at any one time.
- Third, elites. Yaga-Shura elites with +2 weapons and axe-wielding giants. Up to one of these can be active at any one time.
- A total of sixty enemies will spawn, not counting the three soldiers that kick things off. All enemies spawn off-screen and move to attack, and there's a delay so they don't spawn instantly after you kill one.
- Killing Yaga-Shura will stop any further army spawns, regardless of the count. Push to him quickly enough, and you might not have to fight all of them.
Naturally, we're going to ignore that last bit and fight the whole army. A round later, and the first of them arrive ...
Anyway, we drop a comet there and send our forces to cut down the giant. It gets some good hits in on the planetar before we can finish it.
The battle continues, and more enemies arrive.
More enemies come, including a cleric and a mage. They get some dragon's breath.
After two rest wishes, we draw something better. Improved Haste for the party. The clouds are starting to clear up, but we should really tear through the enemies now.
Finally, the image unsummons. It's time for the real Aerys to get casting. And with all of those initial clouds gone ...
Two rounds later...
We didn't need any non-wish healing during the battle, or any non-damage spells after the initial buffs. In fact, the entire party is fully healed when it ends. 63 enemies, of which 15 were giants and 38 of the other 48 died to fire.
Wish-rest for Yaga-Shura ... first try. OK, whack the image and move on. I aim some ranged attacks at the giant, and he leaves. That gives us two turns to prepare.
I go for something a little different this time. Both Aerys and Nalia create simulacra; as level 31 mages, those come out as level 19 mages capable of using 9th level spells and chain contingencies. Also, I try something a little weird - Isra takes off her fire resistance ring and wears the cloak of mirroring for protection instead.
While we wait, that simulacrum of Aerys spends its 9th level spell slots on wishes. Haste for everybody, an irrelevant party haste, and the third wish is just starting when Yaga-Shura shows.
Alacrity, Dark Planetar, Teleport Field, Skull Trap, Spider Spawn, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Magic Missile, and an Acid Arrow just after it ends.
And my plan with Isra's equipment shuffle ... succeeds and fails.
And - hey, there's the thief. In the cloud, with an attack order. He should be dead soon, right?
With the ridiculous achievement I was aiming for impossible, I move on to just beating Yaga-Shura down in the conventional way.
Looking things up in NI ... the lieutenants have effects on them to grant 100% fire resistance. These effects don't work. Instead, they have to settle for spells and potions of fire resistance.
Back up in the pocket plane, it's time for the second challenge. We gave good answers, so we'll be facing an evil version of Aerys. I shuffle equipment; Isra trades her cloak of protection, plain full plate, and helm of brilliance for the cloak of the sewers, Shuruppak's plate, and a helm of defense. One point worse saves, two points better AC, and a bit of cold and electric resistance.
Also, for this fight specifically, Anomen gets the amulet of power and Isra switches to a Crom Faeyr/Runehammer setup. Evil Aerys wields Blackrazor, and I don't want my front line taking level drain.
The mage Semaj also has a fire resistance ring, but that's more manageable as the only source. And our dispel arrives before his abjuration immunity can snap into place.
We beat fake Aerys down to near death, then turn to Tamoko.
Aerys gains the Mass Healing ability for his trouble - about 65 points of healing to everyone in the party, once per rest.
Before ending the session, Anomen asks a question of Aerys:
In response to that, Anomen expresses caution. Don't let the taint take over. Purify it first. With fire.
1821 total fire kills. We're back to properly flammable enemies. At least, most of them.
— David Morgan-Mar, Irregular Webcomic!
With the lull in the main quest after killing Yaga-Shura, I traditionally knock off some EE character quests. This run is no exception. Aerys uses Slayer form to lower his reputation, and recruits Dorn. Isra sits this one out, as she has irreconcilable differences with the blackguard.
On recruitment, Dorn levels up to 16 and stops there. I give him Foebane and the Shield of the Order as his primary weapon and shield. For fire immunity, he puts on Shuruppak's Plate, the Helm of Brilliance, and the ring of fire resistance that Isra isn't using right now. Add some AC accessories, and he's good to go.
That brings us to the waiting phase. It takes one week to trigger Dorn's quest, which we do with aimless travel. We sleep in the wilderness a few times, and draw a random encounter once.
And then, trouble finds us.
The voice's death doesn't actually cause a problem, as the dialogue that voice is supposed to have triggers anyway. Maybe it respawned?
Now, we buff before going in. In addition to the standard priest buffs, I give Dorn a Fire Giant Strength potion - we have lots of them, and they're literally no use with our usual party.
We spend a couple images wishing up a rest, and pick up some other buffs along the way. Also, Jaheira gets a phantom kill ... which was definitely an image. Its illusion death script failed, and it left a body. We've been getting a trickle of those phantom kills ever since Aerys started using Project Image, but this is the first time I've seen the body.
In Lunia, we soon come to a planetar handing out sigils. Well. We want one of those. Pick a fight:
Some peaceful exploration follows, until we run into a familiar face.
That angers some nearby low-level petitioners and a crusader. They're easy kills, of course.
Next, the tree. I'd like to pick some fruit, so I try to silence Dorn. When he saves twice against that, I get out a Maze scroll to hide Dorn away ...
Reload to avoid that waste of a scroll. All right, give him a whack with the Staff of the Magi ... no dispel. Right, that's a level 30 effect rather than an "always". All right, if he makes his saves, I'll just let him defile the tree.
That brings us to the pavilion. We have contingencies prepared, for when the subtle approach fails ...
I go for the practical option, inscribing Sendai and Abazigal.
Since we used contingencies, Aerys makes an image to start wishing. A hit squad interrupts.
Then the djinn is considerate enough to talk to the real Aerys, and gives the party Improved Haste. It's all over very quickly.
All right, back to wishing. We draw a rest on the first try, then whack that image. Get moving again ... there's another hit squad.
Up north, we face the thought police.
We keep AI off here, because the ones that look like civilians are innocent, and we'd rather not completely wreck our reputation. Also, we go for weapons only rather than any area spells. And put the club of detonation away.
We take some hits in the fight, but nothing too bad. Even the two devas they summoned on us weren't a serious threat.
We clear out a few more stragglers - dogs, a crusader.
And then, no more delay. We're ready for the toughest fight of the EE content. Two dragons at once. Since they're silver dragons with cold breath, I shuffle some equipment around and cast Resist Fire and Cold on everyone. The four melee warriors are immune, and the mages are resistant. Add our usual shorter-duration buffs, and engage.
To that end, we hit both of them with our spell triggers (2x Pierce Magic + Breach) and follow up with Remove Magic.
Then Aerys gets Breached ... I should have put up spell defenses. And so does Nalia.
All right, raise her.
There's also some good news, as our beatdown and clouds are doing their job.
We'll accept the occasional death, but not the permanent loss of a character. Reload.
For the second try at this fight, I add Breach protections. Spell defenses all around.
Of course, they go for the breath weapon.
Anyway, Ixthezzys still has protections up, so we dispel him. And finish off Dolrassa.
And for the final blow, a Comet.
We already have our anti-mage buffs up, so we head straight for the exit. Hit them with a pair of incendiary clouds:
And ... they apparently decide that two clouds isn't enough. One petitioner adds his own, self-targeted in a Chain Contingency.
1842 total fire kills. Not a terribly high number this update, but the kills we got were quite valuable. The two dragons are second and third on our list of high-value fire kills, and the two petitioners are first and second on the list of high-value fire kills by enemies.
— Genesis 3:24, The Bible
We go straight from one temporary party member to another. Isra returns, Cernd takes a break, and Rasaad joins the party. Since Rasaad can't wear armor or helmets, we can't do much with his fire resistance (unless we allow him to borrow a shapeshift token, and I'm not doing that). Instead, he'll wear the cloak of mirroring for immunity to damage spells. He also borrows the Claw of Kazgaroth from Cernd, and uses a belt of strength alongside the gauntlets of crushing to hit very hard in melee.
We travel, and are set on immediately. Sharrans are here to ambush Rasaad.
The mage goes invisible, and I aim a Dragon's Breath at where he disappeared ...
With that map, we can now reach Mount Deepstone, and we travel there immediately. Meet with the local dwarves, re-establish our buffs.
Now that we have a plan, we head off toward the lumber camp. There's an ambush along the way, featuring an archer with exploding arrows. For that, I have Rasaad lead the way under stealth, and get into melee range before he can shoot. That one goes down cleanly, without firing any arrows.
Then the dwarf who warned us charges at the other guards ... right. Party-friendly fire is the way to go here.
And then, the next fight has friendlies too ... make an image to wish up a rest. And add more buffs. After all, I screwed up the first time around - Rasaad doesn't have a Death Ward.
Now, the lumber camp.
The conversation with Cuddy brings up an alternate plan of entry, and we take it. Straight through to the mine, where we finally meet resistance.
And then, we head right back up. I'd like to fight the front gate guards too.
Meanwhile, the melee goes after Tallus. Not fast enough to stop his bad breath, though.
The sorcerer puts up abjuration immunity. Too late. Our Remove Magic already landed, and he's in the cloud. I just have to wait now.
At this point, I save and work on updating my kill counts ... hard freeze in the middle of that. At least I don't lose any game progress.
We head back in, and run into a snag. The elevator down doesn't seem to be working. All right, then. We'll just clear out the ground floor first.
Starting from the kitchen area, a group of assassins are the first foes we find. They get fire.
The rooms here have two more foes - a priest and someone in robes.
Then I draw a rest. Nalia immediately casts a Dragon's Breath.
We'll do some things differently this time, in order to make that hall fight run more smoothly. First, we hit those assassins again - our plan for them was just fine.
After that ... we don't go after the priest. We don't want to rescue any dwarves yet. Instead, we head back to a safer spot and start wishing. Improved Haste. 25 stats. Rest. Irrelevant. Hardiness.
We prepare our contingencies, and head out for the big fight. We're much better prepared this time around.
Reinforcements arrive. And immediately start dying.
A priest pauses outside our cloud to cast spells ... Anomoen has his own spells.
Up next, Alorgoth's quarters. The door is guarded.
That lets us open the door and head in. Shani is hostile, but can still be talked into giving up the goods. Then we fight her.
One straggler didn't join the big fight.
Now, back down to the mines, through the only path we can use right now. Wish first, picking up a rest, Improved Haste, and Hardiness.
Our buffs make this a very short fight. Same with the next encounter.
The mining site comes next. And with the layout here, we can afford a few fireballs.
A few enemies burn, but mostly we just blitz through all of them with terrifying speed.
There's one more force for us to face. It's a pretty substantial group, with high-level warriors to pose a threat and magical support.
Enter the Shadow Plane, get out the anti-undead weapons.
Seven shadow creatures later, I get a lull long enough to memorize a chain contingency. Though, not my usual trigger condition ...
Death is immediate.
After that, it's just a run to the exit. Alorgoth drops to 1 HP running through our clouds, and we beat on him some more until the timer runs out and Rasaad's dialogue triggers.
The grateful dwarves give us some gold, and we head out. Rasaad can rest.
1898 total fire kills. Many foes burned, in and around this dwarven fortress.
All burn. Children burn fastest. Less fat. Locked lot crazy nobles in statue garden. Won't move until they all stop moving. And burning. Some escaped. Still burning. All burn.
The very stones themselves are burning. Nothing can stand in the heat.
The fires have claimed all of the second hall. There are only five of us left, and Unib Berog walks back and forth, carrying objects uselessly, not understanding anything.
The tales are true... adamantium is cursed. We did naught but uncover the vein, and doom befell us.
Cerol Likotag told me he had to "fill the pool" and wandered into the fires. Poor creature.
Berog declared that he wants new Bonobo leather trousers.
— The Chronicles of Boatmurdered
With Rasaad gone, we sort out the final disposition of the loot from his quest. Most of it goes into storage, but the Cloak of the Dark Moon is too good to ignore. That goes to Aerys, and the Cloak of Mirroring goes into storage. Sure, it's nice - but we resist so much spell damage that we just don't need it.
And now, we travel to Amkethran. Not directly, as we could, but through the sige camp and the oasis. After a rest, because that's enough distance to invite fatigue.
The third attempt at rest succeeds.
We wake, and it will be another twelve hours of travel to the oasis. None of our buffs will last that long. Still, we can set some contingencies.
After another round - now the mages at least have stoneskins up - we move forward. The mages add some new clouds, now that we've left the protection of the first set.
And after that, there's only one more cluster of enemies.
The force in the oasis is numerous and well-equipped, but seriously lacking in levels. Only the leader Jamis Tombelthen can resist a Deathblow. Which we didn't use, because we really didn't need it.
Since it's less than twelve hours to Amkethran now, we have the druids cast Iron Skins. Wish up a rest, then travel.
After conversing with Balthazar, our first encounter here is the unwelcome return of an old acquaintance, Saemon Havarian.
And ... you know, I'd like to take care of Captain Erelon and his bunch too.
And now, time for the final EE companion. Isra takes a break, and Hexxt joins. She gets white dragon scale, the cloak of mirroring, and our usual buffs ... plus the mage spell Protection from Fire. It's dispellable, but it's better than nothing. And the end boss of the area can use Dragon's Breath, so the cloak of mirroring alone isn't good enough.
One thing to note with our buff sequence ... that was "haste everybody", not "haste the party". And all the enemies here are pre-placed. Indeed, the very first enemy takes advantage.
After that, it's just mummies for a while.
The first quadrant ends with another fight with Phreya. She doesn't get a single hit in this time.
The main enemies of the second quadrant are bone fiends.
Not that we're done with the mummies. There are some of them around too.
Backtracking, there's one more fight in a side room: Umolex.
The third quadrant gets harder, with lots of sand golems. Since I left Isra and her hammer of instantly killing golems behind, we'll have to be a bit sneakier. Wish for a rest ... I don't get it on the first image, but I do get Magic Resistance on everyone. All those golems get their MR reduced to 40%, and that means we can go hunting.
Of course, this does take time. That image unsummons, so some of those clouds are now orphans; we're risking not getting credit for our kills. I'll accept that risk.
Move the party up, make another image. This one actually draws a rest, and Nalia makes a contingency for the golems guarding the next door:
The next room has death tyrants instead, and Aerys will take this one on with his own invisibility and chain contingency.
Phreya was there too. Those incendiary clouds took care of her without us having to get anywhere close.
We could move forward, but there's still a side path to clear. Two more sand golems on the way ...
At the end of the path, we face Culak and friends. They don't go hostile right away, so we burn them unprovoked.
Culak drops a second 19 strength belt. We don't even have a use for one of those.
With that, we enter the final quadrant. We're back to bone fiends, and pretty much only bone fiends. Fire won't do us any good.
This leads into that annoying door-switching section that only Hexxat can pass safely. Well, all right, a character immune to level drain and piercing damage could move through it safely. Jaheira could actually do that ... except that it requires earth elemental form so she can't fit through the doors. So Hexxat goes out, and leads bone fiends back to us ...
The necromantic trap is clear, but our turn/level buffs are wearing off. And with the boss coming up, it's time to renew everything. Plus wish up a rest, and apply spell defenses. Three images later, we're ready. We face Phreya for the last time, and the decoy lich.
Wait, no kill credit? Looking it up, the decoy lich is worth 22K XP. But, if you drop it to under 10 HP without killing it, it has a suicide script, and that doesn't grant XP. It has 90 HP. We dealt 87 fire damage and no damage of other types. That brought it down to the right range, and poof. I don't think I've ever seen that before; unlike most enemies with low-HP suicide scripts, this one doesn't have a min-HP item.
Our buffs were wasted on that very brief fight, but there's still Korkorran.
Hexxat got zero kills during this dungeon crawl. She was just along for the ride, really. It's also less experience than any of the other EE character's ToB quests; about 80K XP per party member, all from monster kills.
There's just one final event to take care off. Hexxat meets with L, and we let her have what she wants.
1951 total fire kills. We're using fire pretty much every chance we get here.
— The Take, Avatar: The Last Airbender: A Fire Personality, Explained
Before we move on to chasing Bhaalspawn, there are a few things to sort out in Amkethran. First, just outside of the inn, we run into trouble with some mercenaries.
This earns us a point of reputation, back up to 19.
Second, we help out a priest.
With that dealt with, we do some shopping. A potion case, an ioun stone, make some new items. We can't use the ranger cloak, and we don't want the druid ring. But we'll have them anyway.
And then, the smuggler's cave.
We've left the most involved of Amkethran's issues for last - Marlowe and Vongoethe. Wish-rest and prepare, trade for Malla's soul, then attack this soul-dealing monster.
Also, oops. Nalia needed the ring of lockpicks in the smugglers' cave, and forgot to switch back to fire protection.
For the remaining undead here, we throw around some dragon breath.
Marlowe lives, and gets the soul stone to restore his daughter. With him out of the cave, we turn our focus to the summoning traps on that central platform. I prepare the field with incendiary clouds and fire storms ...
With nothing left to do in Amkethran, there are two places we could go. And with this party, the choice is clear. Abazigal's lair offers a ton of item upgrade potential, and Sendai's enclave doesn't. Let's go hunt some dragons.
Wish up a rest before we go - actually, a double rest. Nalia gets to memorize a chain contingency and get those spells back afterward.
Now, with my contingencies for this fight, I've gone with "nearest enemy" targeting. We'll have to lower Draconis' magic resistance, but we have a lot of Pierce Magic shots available for that. And with the transition bug, it's particularly important to take down all of his spell defenses before he transforms.
Buffing at the site uses another image, and we draw a free rest again. We'll be going into this fight as prepared as possible. No party-wide Hardiness, but we do pick up Improved Haste. Everyone has spell defenses, all but Isra have stoneskins, Isra has 80% physical resistance, and the priests have Armor of Faith and Aura of Flaming Death. Top it all off with Mass Invisibility so we can't fail a breath weapon save, and engage.
The prebuffs continue. Spell Turning, Minor Globe. And no Spell Shield - our Spell Thrust worked. Hit him with a Pierce Magic spell trigger ...
The True Seeing and Pierce Magic do their job. Spell Turning down, and he's visible.
Checking the log ... we dealt 98 physical, 112 fire, and 4 magic damage to Draconis in dragon form, a total of 214. Eight attack rolls, out of our 36 total APR. Dragon-form Draconis has 210 total HP before the SCS tripling kicks in, which it didn't this time. If he had gotten his extra HP as intended, he might have lasted for another round. Might.
Since we took no damage in that dragon fight and our protections are still up, we head in without further preparation.
We pause to prepare chain contingencies, and Isra has something to say.
And now, the fight. We dive through the passage and meet more lizard men.
The dispel lands.
Three fights, three total damage taken. Which was healed, because Foebane. Our Aura of Flaming Death expires here - we've finally reached ten rounds total. This party is scary sometimes.
Forward, then, to Anadramatis. Our Improved Haste expires, so we'll be fighting this dragon at normal speed. Also, they're fire immune, so no point in going for those spells.
It doesn't go very well to start. Our short-duration buffs are wearing off, and Aerys rolls badly - his Remove Magic fails to dispel the dragon's buffs.
A second go at breaking those defenses works. We're finally dealing damage. And for the first time all game, one of our druids casts Greater Elemental Summoning.
We revisit some highlights of the old Firkraag strategy as well. Greater Malison, Horror, Insect Plague. And then another GM, because the first was resisted. Still, it's the beatdown that gets results.
Anadramatis hands over an amulet we won't use, and we fill the breath potion flask.
I try to do something sneaky ... no dice. I can't get close enough to pick the dragon's pockets. The scales aren't flagged as non-stealable, but they're protected anyway by sheer size.
There's one more fight on the way back. Devils teleport in to the room formerly occupied by the lizard party.
Fire will be useful again in the next fight, so we wish for a rest. And get two. We have three chain contingencies to work with now.
The breath potion opens up a path, and we take it. Kuo-toa and water elementals await us.
Huh. Cernd takes backstab damage? They've actually broken through his iron skins. Well, he can heal easily enough. I retreat to make sure ...
Wait for "in combat" to clear, then Nalia prepares another chain contingency.
And in a very contrived bit, we need to head back to town for that. It has to be the right kind of rope, see - the ropes we're already carrying aren't good enough. On that note of twisted game logic, I end this part. Next time, we'll finish the area and face Abazigal himself.
2000 total fire kills. A nice round number to end on.
— NoxGuard, Anachronox
The very first thing we meet after returning from Amkethran ... dragons. Two of them.
Aerys' buffing image made some wishes - the most notable effect is global haste. That does include the two dragons, unfortunately.
Since the introduction cutscene triggered our contingencies slightly early, the dragons don't start in the clouds. We pull back a bit to draw them in. And dispel them, to hopefully get rid of that Improved Haste.
Also, why are the mages casting Pierce Magic? They're doing it so I can follow up with Comets and Flame Strikes. Green dragons in this game are tanky enough that I want the extra firepower.
Breath weapon again, Greater Malison and Dragon's Breath on our side. A wing buffet pushes the druids away, and Nalia's breath lands ...
And now, another cutscene. The final dragon arrives, and this one is red. Fire won't help us here.
It has been long enough for our incendiary clouds and flaming death auras to dissipate. And if this were a different color of dragon, I might care. I'll have to watch for Isra's Hardiness running out, though. That's something to replace if it goes down.
Anyway, Carnifex buffs.
It works. But of course, that doesn't make the fight trivial. Wing buffets blow Cernd and Jaheira away, twice. And more seriously, they take down Anomen's boot stoneskins - which suddenly makes him the preferred target for the dragon's attacks. Time to replenish those ...
Anyway, back to the fight. It's not visible in my shot there, but Carnifex is down to 2/5 bars of health. The beatdown is going well.
The dragon has one last trick for us ... a spell sequencer of Stoneskin, Spell Deflection, and Remove Magic.
My response ... use my spell triggers. Pierce/Pierce/Breach, twice. No more spell protections, no more stoneskin, no more magic resistance. I go for a Wilting ...
We only took one healing action in that battle - that Mass Raise Dead in response to black dragon breath. Even without it, everyone would have survived.
After a bit of time to regenerate, we continue forward. All of the pools can be traversed now, which means we can reach the Cave of Eyes.
The place can get very annoying, especially with those Vigilants that like to sit on people while not being hostile. I intend to kill them on sight so they can't get in our way. Well, after killing the hostile eyeballs, anyway.
I go to cast some clouds ... with less than stellar results.
Anomen takes some damage from the Eagle Eyes ... you know, they don't actually attack. Instead, they cast spells with various arrow/bolt/dart/bullet projectiles. I try out PfNM from his shield to see if that helps.
But really, that's moot.
One more of those eyes goes down to flame strikes ... but then a new threat appears. Tyrant Golems, a new enemy with SCS. They're construct versions of beholders, with immunity to magic and all elements, plus extremely high physical resistance. They detect invisible foes too. A formidable, and very tough, enemy. But they have one key weakness ... they only have 9 hit dice. Isra, this one's yours.
Activate Deathblow. One. Antimagic. Two. Three.
All right, there are still some eyeballs. And that efreet one of them summoned, which survived by entering gaseous form. We clear up the local threats, and move on.
That's it for the enemies in the room. Now, we need a token to exchange for the scroll of progression ... let's subcontract.
On the way out, some eyes respawn.
Back in Amkethran ...
Aerys uses the Rod with the scorcher ammo; even with the five-point nonproficiency penalty, that's a better THAC0 than his +3 throwing dagger. It only hits as +1, but that's easily remedied by keeping Enchanted Weapon active on him.
Nalia uses Firetooth with pulse ammo.
Isra uses the Unit, going back to the helm of brilliance for her fire resistance. Her AC isn't a weak link anymore.
I actually end the session there, on that sense of accomplishment. The kill count is very messy due to the eyes' death scripts, but I kept track in my logs. Also, the eyes are worth a lot of XP - 300K XP from kills just in that area.
In the next session, we head right back. And face more eyes.
Now, since Spell Shield worked against the death tyrants earlier, I add it to my buff routine for the Elder Orbs. Add on Mass Invisibility for the first-strike advantage ...
Well, we won't let that stop us. Attack, and cast spells the normal way. The orbs put up PfMW, so we can't hit them unless we dispel them first. Still, that won't stop Dragon's Breath.
Seriously. I wish I knew about this earlier. With that, it's possible to buff for complete immunity to beholder rays; even the SCS trick of snatching the Shield of Balduran or Cloak of Mirroring wouldn't help them when it's all spells, protected from antimagic rays by the shield..
Mechanically, Spell Shield gives you one level of deflection against spells of the "magic attack" type. Antimagic rays have the "magic attack" type, and hit as level zero. So they get blocked, and don't use up that level. Unlike other spells of that type - Spell Thrust is level 4, Secret Word and Breach are level 5, Pierce Magic is level 6, Ruby Ray and KWW are level 7, Pierce Shield is level 8, Spellstrike is level 10. (This includes some SCS tweaks. Breach gets its own "breach" type which is also deflected by Spell Shield, and Spellstrike gets boosted to level 10 so it can take down Protection from Magic.)
Well, no more beholders to worry about in this dungeon. Call up an image, wish-rest, and continue. There's another respawned batch of eyes to blast.
Off to confront Fll'Yissetat. And for once, I choose a fight.
Well, that can't last forever. A second wing buffet breaks Anomen's stoneskins, and he starts taking melee damage. Since the dragon isn't even taking damage from his flame aura, I have him fall back and heal himself.
And now, those spell defenses we put up to discourage Breach are inconvenient - they block us buffing for the next battle. So I have the planetar burn through most of the party's defenses, and bounce some buffs off Isra to finish the last of them.
Preparing for the battle ... go for wishes. Rest. Magic resistance. Haste. Wand. Rest again. Add individual buffs and a Mass Invisibility. Forget to apply lightning resistance spells, make it up with potions.
We enter the final room, exchange taunts, and the fight is on. Tamah is our first target ... wait, we only have half the clouds we should. Aerys forgot to make a chain contingency. Reload, and correct that oversight.
All right, take two. With the proper six clouds.
Wait, what did that Shadow Drake do?
The other three drakes get damage (fire, cold, acid) without any secondary effects.
Tamah comes in. Time to hit her with a Spell Trigger (to remove that immunity to divination and abjuration) and then a dispel.
Moments later, the other three clouds tick. Abazigal has now taken enough damage to transform.
Abazigal buffs now. Spell deflection, abjuration immunity, improved haste, PfMW. Rather than hit the deflection with a spell-breaker, I opt to burn through it with wands of fire, then use a spell trigger to destroy all his remaining protections.
The timing on our plan is a bit off. Nalia's Remove Magic comes out too early, and is wasted.
The Spell Trigger goes off. No more spell defenses for Abazigal ... but he still has a PfMW. We'll need another Breach.
Meanwhile, we've been focusing damage on Tamah. She's down to one bar of health now - Near Death.
Still, Tamah is in that line ...
Abazigal is alone now, and he's sitting inside six incendiary clouds. He takes damage fast. Down to near death ... re-up PfMW. Breach him again.
And then, it's over.
There are still a couple drakes left. Not for long. The shadow drake goes down first, then the fire drake.
Facing Abazigal took less than ten rounds from start to finish. Our incendiary clouds were still going strong at the end. And six clouds can really put a dent in even a massive HP pool like Abazigal (about 1500, with SCS). The only in-battle healing we used was a single potion drunk by Jaheira.
2054 total fire kills. Many eyes burned this day. But the real star is Aerys' new weapon.
— Windows, The Thing
Before taking on the next major quest area, we have a pocket plane challenge. I chose the good answers, so the reward will be a buff for Aerys rather than a debuff for enemies. Still, I'm not likely to use either. And the fight's the same either way.
On arriving at Sendai's enclave, the "woodcutter" directs us to the southwest. I buff before triggering the fight, and the image wishes four times. Improved Haste on the party, 25 stats for the party, magic resistance on everyone, rest. So much for drow MR.
With that in place plus some extra buffs, we trigger the ambush.
The clouds go off, and the umber hulk elders die instantly.
Before long, the ambush party is destroyed.
But ... the disguised drow are mad. You see, we killed two of them at the beginning of the fight. So now all of them assume their true forms to attack. There's just one left down here, already being shot in that last picture.
Heading north brings more drow in. Like this hapless fellow.
Next, the guards at the entrance.
And ... this is the point at which I notice something slightly unfortunate. Despite dealing no physical damage, Aerys' scorchers burn through stoneskins. We'll have considerable difficulty keeping them up on our front line.
I add a second cloud, and one of those drow dies. The second is still hiding somewhere ... use a True Seeing.
Before heading south, we refresh our contingencies.
Ah, there's the not-woodcutter.
The only damage we take, against all of the threats up here, is a single hit from a magical sword. Cernd switches to greater werewolf form for a round to regenerate that away.
After looting the cabin, we head down. It's all cave creatures at first, starting with myconids and umber hulks.
Then the spiders join in.
Of course, we also have incendiary clouds going to speed up the killing.
There's a lull after that, with the fight only resuming when we reach a bridge.
More follow at the end of the bridge.
The kill tracking here gets messy, with both human and machine errors. I missed one umber hulk kill, and the game didn't count some spiders. Since the missing hulk kill was by Aerys, I can say with certainty that it was done with fire.
We have used a lot of our daily fire though. Re-memorize sequencers, then call up an image for a rest. We get haste and hardiness as well. Into the guard room, then.
All right, plan B. Hit the mage with Dragon's Breath and the priestess with Remove Magic (she's the one with fire protection). Then pull back into the clouds of doom.
Moments later, the second half of that plan pays off.
Nalia moves forward to launch her Dragon's Breath at the priestess.
For the priestess, I just have Aerys run around with the scorchers he already has going.
I also realize another issue ... Isra had the FoA equipped while we were buffing, and didn't get the Improved Haste. That slowed her down considerably. We'll have to be more careful with that in the future.
It takes four images to draw a rest for the next challenge - we want our full allotment of fire for it. This also allows us to renew our two-hour buffs.
The first passage I take ... slaves.
The enemies in this area are on a timer; four of them every two rounds, or slightly longer once you see the slavemaster for the third time. The potential numbers are unlimited, so this is an excellent farming spot; either XP from the derro or items to sell for gold from the orogs. Since we're all well past the XP cap and don't have anything left to buy, we just push forward.
And there's the second conversation down, along with a bunch more derro.
As the next round of reinforcements arrives, we reach the slavemaster again.
Continue forward, and meet the slavemaster for the last time.
From my kill counts, there were four rounds of reinforcements. About eight rounds from the start to killing the slavemaster. And that's another 400K kill XP, even taking this quickly.
All right, next. Wish up another rest, then backtrack for the spider path. Nalia uses a Protection from Fire spell and the ring of anti-venom here for poison immunity while maintaining full trapfinding strength.
More than twenty spiders later, the flood slows. Aerys moves forward to draw some more attention.
Lashar'ra can teleport, and eventually jumps among us.
Meanwhile, Aerys keeps shooting down lesser spiders. Seven of them, and they stop coming. We didn't take a single hit in here.
This room only has 228K worth of kill XP, and no item drops. No infinite spawning potential, either.
I'll break here; like Abazigal's lair, Sendai's enclave just has too many big fights to put all in one update. Until next time, then.
2170 total fire kills. 116 in this update, tying the record from back in Watcher's Keep. Hordes of minions are perfect for racking up the numbers, after all.
— Franko Tildon, Starcraft
We're about to reach the cityscape hub of Sendai's enclave. But first, our buffs are wearing off. I call up an image and re-buff ... no free rest, but we do pick up both Hardiness and Improved Haste. That's good enough for me.
While we'll be facing bosses throughout this part, we start with more of what we've been dealing with. A pack of spiders.
Incidentally, this bunch includes vortex spiders. They have a save-or-die attack. Either poison immunity, Death Ward, or a death save of -1 will protect you. Nothing to fear for us.
After that, it's a pack of drow and demons.
We need a key to go forward now, and that key is in the possession of the lich in that building. Time for a wish-rest to refresh our firepower. I end up with double hardiness and haste as well as the rest ... oh, that's the loophole. Wish Hardiness applies effects to the party, but only removes effects of other Hardiness/Defensive Stance effects for the caster. I'll fix that bug next session.
Incidentally, since I've been mixing in the occasional Protection from Acid ... Jaheira is literally immune to all types of damage right now.
Anyway, on to the fight.
And ... cancel that. I forgot to have Aerys memorize a chain contingency. Reload, and do this again.
The dispel lands just before Odamaron finishes casting. Time Stop.
Three rounds later ...
Anyway, the comets land.
Our buffs are intact, so we just head right out after picking up the loot.
Without even pausing to re-buff Cernd, we head for the exit. It's guarded by a few umber hulks.
Before taking that door, we re-buff Cernd and wish up a rest. No free party-wide buffs this time.
The first fight in that next room is Ogremoch. He can be a pain. Immune to fire, repeatedly casts stoneskins ... so let's just cut all of that short.
That was the Staff of Earth. It's only a +2 weapon and Ogremoch needs +3 to hit, so we added Enchant Weapon. Jaheira got a casting of invisibility to sneak by the other elementals. With no strength item ... THAC0 -4 against AC -11. Hit on a 7, save vs spell (6) or die. That's a 17.5% chance of the instant kill, and she got lucky.
The ordinary elementals get some fire.
And that brings us to the other side. Diaytha. The Hive Mother caught me in my last run, but this party is much better prepared against that sort of threat. Aerys and Nalia make chain contingencies and cast Spell Shield, while Isra switches to normal full plate so she can get through the door.
The ancient vampire ... gets off a level-drain hit before it dies.
Diaytha started with fire protection. I've hit her with a Remove Magic.
The next room brings a duel.
Now, it's time for a wish-rest. Fresh contingencies, buffs for Cernd, and renew that Spirit Armor that's wearing off. It takes two images to get that rest, during which time we also pick up Hardiness and Improved Haste. They're doomed, even if double Hardiness is no longer possible.
The vampiric illithids don't seem to want to show up, but the next group of foes teleports in ...
With the first room clear, we move on to the second. Well, we open the door and let them come to us.
A wizard comes into sight next, and gets a dispel.
Only Sendai remains. We wish for a rest, and also pick up Hardiness, Improved Haste, and Magic Resistance. Mass Invisibility is in place, and so are spell defenses. Contingencies are ready. Let's do this.
Two drow warriors fall in melee, and the first statue goes down.
The cleric/mage statue is next to awaken. Dispel, apply fire storm and scorchers.
The next statue is an archer, which can dodge our spells by teleporting around.
Cutscenes play, and the clouds expire. One drow warrior is still alive, so we shoot them down before being whisked away to the pocket plane.
2240 total fire kills. Not as many as last time, but still a lot. Including all seven of Sendai's statues. Those scorcher beams are something else.
— xkcd, 'What If?' entry Sunbeam
...
There's not much left now. Just the last of the Five, some pocket plane challenges, and some cleanup before we hit the point of no return.
We'll start with one of those challenges. Up in the pocket plane, Cyric visits.
Despite that reassurance, he sets assassins on us anyway. It's a four-round timer, which we will spend making the area as inhospitable as possible.
Ah, there they are.
There's one more character quest to take care of now - Wilson's quest, added by his mod. It's triggered by visiting the outdoor area of Sendai's enclave with him in the party, which is why it's so late here.
Isra takes a short break to make room, we give the bear the essential buffs, and we're off. Incidentally, the crash I've run into before on the cutscene is a case of the polymorph crash, and our equipment loadouts get us through despite having transformed druids.
The quest has one fight.
Wilson learns Bearomancy, and we're done with him. Isra returns, and the party won't change again. We make the dragon armor, but I've nerfed it down to sane levels - it no longer works with protection items, so none of the party will wear it. It's a reasonable option for Nalia, but she'd rather have three points of saves than some AC and THAC0.
And now, back to Amkethran. We wish-rest to restore our sequencers before traveling, then call up an image to buff on arrival - which adds magic resistance and improved haste. And then I throw in a Mass Invisibility. First stop: the tavern.
The smuggler's cave comes next, and we don't see any hostile mercenaries on the way. Saemon brings us through the gates very conspicuously ...
Indeed, they know. They just thought Saemon would have us drugged. But this time, he's actually on our side.
Inside, Balthazar is willing to talk. And at wisdom 19 with a paragon reputation, it's downright easy to convince him.
The Solar drags us up to the pocket plane for one last conversation. And this time, I go for some less good responses, because the passive evil reward is just better than the active good reward.
Back down in Amkethran, we head out. And monks attack.
So, after that hit, I pull Cernd off to heal. Stand in scorchers ... not fast enough. Isra uses her Lay on Hands instead.
Soon, we exhaust the monks spawning at the gate.
Before we go for the last challenges, we sell off all sorts of junk. By the time we're done, the party has over 2 million gold stored up. And nothing to spend it on.
That just leaves one last fight before the point of no return. The Ravager. It's immune to fire (and other elements), so we change up our spell selection - Nalia actually memorizes something other than incendiary clouds in her 8th level slots.
So, then, we start with the spell triggers. No more MR for the Ravager, and weakened saves (save vs spell on a 9 instead of a 5). And then we detonate the bomb.
Unfortunately, that fireball only catches Nalia and her simulacrum. The Ravager makes those saves, taking 251 damage.
The party took zero damage, although one simulacrum was slightly injured by a bone blade's cold damage. That's a 534-HP monster with absurd resistances to everything killed in one round. Plus six bone blades, five of them with wiltings. The nuclear option is a beautiful thing.
Assigning credit ... the official totals give credit for three bone blades to Aerys. I'll assign the other two wilted blades and the Ravager to his simulacrum. It's also likely the game made a mistake due to death scripts, but I have no way of distinguishing between an uncredited kill and a clone kill here.
We also memorized Skull Trap sequencers that we didn't need. I cast them to get rid of them, and set them off with a character immune to magic damage.
And now, before we enter the Throne, a final snapshot. This is our fully-buffed state, prepared for the fight we'll face when we enter.
Aerys:
Equipment: Robe of Vecna, Gauntlets of Weapon Skill, Circlet of Netheril, Amulet of Power, Scorcher Ammo, 2x Bullets +4, Firetooth +3, Big Metal Rod, The Warder's Signet +3, Ring of Gaxx, various wands, Cloak of the Dark Moon, Boots of Speed, Belt of Inertial Barrier.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Acid, Protection from Lightning, Enchant Weapon, Spirit Armor, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Remove Fear, Shield, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, Immunity: Abjuration.
Isra.
Equipment: Big Metal Unit, Beetle-Shell Bracers (15% physical resist, +1/2 APR), Helm of Brilliance, Amulet of the Seldarine, various arrows, Flail of Ages +5, Foebane +5, Crom Faeyr +5, Reflection Shield, Ghadir Family Ring (+1 AC, +1 saves, non-removable), Ring of Fire Resistance, Book of Infinite Spells (Spell Turning), Efreeti Bottle, Potions of Superior Healing, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Avoidance, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Acid, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Armor, Armor of Faith, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, Hardiness, Draw Upon Holy Might.
Also, before the actual fight, I make one more equipment tweak. Swap in the Runehammer +5 as her weapon for level drain protection against Bodhi.
Anomen.
Equipment: Red Dragon Scale, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, Helm of the Rock, Amulet of Spell Warding, 3x Bullets +4, Erinne Sling +5, Club of Detonation +5, Dragon Scale Shield +2, Holy Symbol of Helm, Ring of Gaxx, Wand of the Heavens, Horn of Blasting, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the Lich, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Fire Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Spirit Armor, Shield of the Archons, Remove Fear, Armor of Faith, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, Aura of Flaming Death, Physical Mirror.
Again, Anomen switches weapons before the actual fight, to the Improved Mace of Disruption. He'll switch back as soon as Bodhi isn't an issue.
Jaheira.
Equipment: Full Plate, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Helm of Defense, Harper Pin, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Ixil's Spike +6, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Regeneration, Wand of the Heavens, Wand of Fear, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of the North, Girdle of Bluntness.
Buffs active: Buffs active: Iron Skins, Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Spirit Armor, Shield of the Archons, Remove Fear, Improved Invisibility, Armor of Faith, Improved Haste, Aura of Flaming Death, Physical Mirror.
Cernd.
Equipment: Gloves of Missile Snaring, Helm of Defense, Periapt of Life Protection, 3x Bullets +4, Fire Elemental token, Staff of the Ram +6, Claw of Kazgaroth, Ring of Protection +2, Wand of the Heavens, Wand of Fear, Potions of Superior Healing, Cloak of the High Forest +1, Boots of Speed, Golden Girdle of Urnst.
Buffs active: Iron Skins, Girdle of Fortitude, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Armor, Shield of the Archons, Remove Fear, Improved Invisibility, Armor of Faith, Improved Haste, Aura of Flaming Death, Physical Mirror.
Nalia.
Equipment: Robe of the Good Archmagi, Bracers of Archery, Lavender Ioun Stone, Amulet of the Master Harper, Pulse Ammo, Frag Grenade, Kuo-toan Bolts, Firetooth +5, Boomerang Dagger +2, Buckler +3, de'Arnise Signet Ring, Ring of Fire Control, wands, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength.
Buffs active: Stoneskin, Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from Acid, Protection from Evil, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Armor, Enchant Weapon, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Remove Fear, Shield, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste.
I could have buffed a bit farther - a potion of agility for Anomen, for example - but I think that's enough. Aerys has all six rows of portrait icons filled. We're ready ... for the end.
2268 fire kills, as we prepare to enter the Throne. Not that many this update, but it wasn't a terribly long one. And while the Ravager wasn't killed by fire ... we certainly nuked it. Prepare the bomb, get it in place, then detonate it.
— British Commando motto, World War 2
And now, we step through that last door. It's time for the end.
We are immediately greeted by Melissan, who brings up shades of the past - Irenicus and Bodhi, resurrected. We also face Imoen transformed into the Slayer and some fallen celestials. After some taunts, the battle is on. I let it go for a moment ...
First, with that sequencer in the air, Nalia moves away from the party. She might lose some buffs (she forgot abjuration immunity), but this way she won't jeopardize anyone else's buffs when those spells reach her.
On the flip side, Irenicus didn't put up abjuration immunity, so I aim a Remove Magic at him. He's only level 30 to our mages' 31, so we have pretty good odds of success on both sides of that.
Results ... no and no. Imoen gets dispelled, Irenicus doesn't.
Still, our clouds do their work.
I can't see Irenicus - I didn't put up True Seeing/True Sight anywhere in my buff routines - but that's no obstacle to Balthazar. He can see through invisibility.
With Irenicus visible, Aerys targets him with that 10 APR stream of death. It's not doing any damage yet, but it is very reliable disruption. And for the damage ... have another Remove Magic.
All right. Now that the battle's over, we can apply some buffs and make some wishes. Balthazar gets our standard package plus Protection from Fire, and Nalia gets her buffs renewed. Two images later, we have the rest we were looking for ... plus Hardiness and Improved Haste.
Prepare some contingencies, and hit the first pool.
As our melee fighters reorient, the clouds tick again.
It seems they're chain-gating. The demons at the Throne have the ability to gate in reinforcements, once. And it's not just balors that can summon balors.
This pool started with one balor. Two more were summoned by gates; I think that was a succubus calling up a balor, and then that balor calling another.
We also started with one marilith, and picked up another marilith from a gate.
Still, we get on with the beatdowns. Several cambions fall, and the marilith burns to friendly fire. Then we start hitting the balors.
But then, I didn't realize this difference at the time. We might have some trouble keeping Balthazar alive on our preferred battlefields.
A brief informative break here, on the gate mechanics for the Ascension final area. There are seven special gate spells (technically eight). One of those is used by Melissan only, to call her fallen solars. The others are all used by the various demons, with the strongest of them being used by Melissan to call demonic allies once the Five are down. Demons will only use their gate spells when none of their enemies are nearby and there are no more than two demons in the area that the party doesn't control.
- Balors get this strongest gate spell, being able to call any of the eight kinds of demon the final area sports. They always get something, and if it's one of the weaker types they get multiples. In theory, they can cast their gate spell any number of times.
- Mariliths only have a 35% chance of getting anything, but they can call up anything except a balor. They can only use this gate once.
- Glabrezus have a 50% chance of getting something, and that something is always a balor, marilith, or glabrezu. They can only use this gate once.
- Babaus have a 40% chance of getting something, either a babau or two cambions. They can use this gate once.
- Nabassus have a 45% chance of getting something, either a nabassu or two cambions. They can use this gate twice.
- Succubi have a 40% chance of calling a balor, and never anything else. They can use this gate once.
- Alu-fiends and cambions can't gate in any help.
Except ... the part of the scripts that count how many demons there are seem to act oddly. I'm not sure they work at all. The enemy numbers definitely weren't whittled down when that first balor was gated in.
Anyway, back to the action. With the demons cleared out, Aerys can activate the pool. Permanent Death Ward, and the Unleash ability he won't use. Wish-rest again, and renew our 2-hour buffs. We pick up hardiness and improved haste again for the second pool.
On to the fight.
For the third pool, our wish routine doesn't draw a Hardiness. Still, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I check some scripts ... it's five rounds from activating the final pool to the start of the final battle. We'll spend that on shorter-duration buffs, and handle the longer-duration stuff now.
Actually, Anomen got silenced. And we don't really have any cure for that except to wait it out, so we do.
Now, preparations. In addition to our spells, I pull out some potions. 24 strength for Anomen and Jaheira, power and defense for the two mages, agility for Anomen and Isra, invulnerability for the warriors, magic protection for everybody. They're all quite vulnerable to dispels, but there's no reason not to use them.
We start wishing. The first image gets a rest. The second image gets Improved Haste and another rest. I could fish for Hardiness, but I think that's good enough. And ... one of those wishes left us with what I thought was no good option. I chose "Lose 10000 gold". That had ... unexpected results.
Utterly irrelevant to this party, of course, since I only found out after leaving any chance of ever shopping behind.
Then we hit the pool. Aerys gains the very useful ability to ignore Time Stop (if he activates it), and our spell deflection/turning effects are eaten through by the healing effect. Oops. And we're not set up to recast those; we'll just have to live without them.
Five rounds later, Melissan arrives and resurrects the Five to fight us. Minus Balthazar (on our side), plus Sarevok. The battle is on.
We open by aiming dispels at the two mages. They don't have abjuration immunity. Sendai is made fully vulnerable, while Abazigal seems to still have PfMW up. Naturally, this means that Aerys turns his attacks to Sendai.
Incidentally, that minor damage on Yaga-Shura? This incarnation of him isn't immune to fire. He's highly resistant to everything, but he'll still take a trickle of fire damage.
Our melee forces mostly went after Illasera, but were forced to change targets when she went invisible. Gromnir is the victim of this shift.
Melissan arrives, and moments later Abazigal joins Gromnir.
After practically no time at all...
This point brings the first casualty. Anomen takes heavy melee damage, and I pass him one of Sendai's full-heal potions ... not fast enough.
Melissan's demons arrive, and we quickly take some out. Still, there are a lot of them.
Also, as soon as I unpause, I see that succubus die from Aerys' breath spell. Then Isra lands a Slow effect on Melissan, Balthazar crushes some demons with Hand of Murder, and Nalia shoots down her target.
Melissan repositions with a teleport, and then puts up a Divine Mantle ...
Correction ... Melissan casts Divine Cleansing, dispelling her own Divine Mantle. Well, thanks. Now Aerys can cast a fire spell instead. And since the demons are all gone and he doesn't have the THAC0 to hit his allies with scorchers, he switches to a sling and +4 ammo for the final phase of the beatdown. Nalia switches weapons as well, to the Gesen bow's auto-ammo.
This run went very smoothly on the whole for the final battle. An easy win on the first try. Melissan didn't really do anything dangerous except her summons because we kept her off balance with constant pressure, and we only needed a little healing. One rod of resurrection charge, one of Sendai's full heal potions, a few superior healing potions, and one use of Balthazar's Lay On Hands.
All that remains now is one final choice.
We finish BG2 with a total of 2281 fire kills. With all those enemies that either resist fire or don't die normally, there just weren't that many opportunities on the Throne.
Be mine or you will burn!"
— Judge Claude Frollo, "Hellfire," The Hunchback of Notre Dame
"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire"
— Ferdinand Foch
Your player's soul was definitely on fire during the whole playthrough. ?
While many of his companions try to argue against it, there is only one choice for Aerys. The fires of his soul have purified the taint of Bhaal, and it is only right that he take his place as a new god ...
The following epilogues use elements of the existing in-game epilogues, but are largely my own work.
After the victory at the Throne of Bhaal, most of the party remained in Tethyr to aid in the rebuilding. They had their part in scorching the land, and it was only right that they take their part in forging a new normal. Isra and Anomen even courted for a time, though they found themselves incompatible with each other and separated before moving on.
Isra eventually returned to Crimmor, renewing her ties to the Ruby Rose. Though she never married, she did bear a daughter Rhaella, blessed with sorcerous power and a remarkable aptitude for fire. Gossip speculated widely on the identity of Rhaella's father, with some even claiming that he had been a god. Isra never publicly confirmed any answer to the question.
Illustrious though her later career was, no quest could ever compare to the one undertaken in her youth, and Isra retired from active service at a younger age than she might have liked. Instead, she went into politics, striving to introduce compassion into a system sadly devoid of it.
Rhaella did not follow her mother into adventuring, choosing instead to devote her time and skill to artistic pursuits. She gained renown as the "Flame Sculptor", with her best known work being the eternal beacon fire atop the new temple to Aerys in Trademeet. Though the fire always burned strong and could be seen from leagues away at night, it also shifted constantly to show fleeting images of beauty both familiar and fantastic.
When Nalia returned to Amn, she found her old home of de'Arnise Keep in the hands of none other than Isaea Roenall. There, she finally brought him to justice for his many misdeeds and declared herself inheritor of her father's ducal title. Many among the Amnian nobility objected to this declaration, though none were willing to move openly against an archmage of such power.
Still, the quiet grumbles against Nalia continued until she announced her marriage to Anomen Delryn, ensuring the ducal succession. Nalia eventually rose to a seat on the Council of Six itself, leaving her personal lands in the hands of her son. She would be a prominent figure in Amn for many years, constantly fighting for the good of the common folk and making many frustrated enemies among the nobility and Cowled Wizards alike.
All was not well in this noble marriage, though, as the two had joined more for convenience than for love. Even their friendship could not hold them together forever, and Anomen eventually departed to resume his travels. He eventually found himself in Maztica during the revolt of Yamash, an evil cleric that raised a demonic conquering horde.
Anomen found himself drawn into this conflict, first to organize the besieged soldiers and later to lead them to the front. He would go on to found a new order devoted to Helm from the soldiers he led, while also inspiring others to the worship of Aerys when the fire storms he called forth broke the horde in the conflict's greatest battle. Here he settled down, leading his disciples in Helm's worship and advising the new Church of Aerys. The strange duality between order and chaos within him was finally reconciled.
Cernd traveled widely righting wrongs in nature, whether to burn away rot and corruption or to encourage new growth. This took him away from his old grove for many years, and when he returned they offered him the title of Great Druid. But before he could ascend, he learned of his son Ahsdale and called the ritual off.
In Cernd's long absence, Ahsdale had grown to adulthood and chosen a dark path wielding twisted magics. He had raised an army against Amn, and was even then marching to war. In response, Cernd walked alone to the army's camp to confront his wayward son. Little is known of the encounter, but the few survivors among the army spoke of a great clash of elements. The aftermath of the battle showed far more. All that remained of the camp was a vast field of ash and scraps, with a simple mound at the center. The charred bones of Ahsdale lay under the mound, and an oak sapling stood at the top.
The oak would grow to become a well-remembered landmark, center of the newly named Ashen Dale. Cernd would pass into legend, never to be seen again.
Jaheira did not return from the Throne of Bhaal. Little tied her to the material plane any more, and according to the monk Balthazar's later writings, the new power Aerys offered her a place at his side as an elemental spirit. Still, her influence would be felt. The "angel of the ashes" would frequently appear at the sites of great conflicts in the years and centuries to come, heralding the power of fire to cleanse and renew. Fire came with her, and new growth came in her wake.
...
And now, the stats. I have a lot of them.
As of my final save, just before the battle with Melissan, the party ranged from just under 10 million XP to just over 11 million. If the XP cap were lifted, classes gained levels at a linear rate, and my party spent the other 950 Freedom scrolls I had in storage, their levels would be as follows:
- Aerys: Dragon Disciple 43 (12,434,773 XP)
- Jaheira: Fighter 31/Druid 26 (11,877,114 XP)
- Cernd: Shapeshifter 38 (11,531487 XP)
- Isra: Cavalier 45 (11,383,379 XP)
- Nalia: Thief 4/Mage 41 (11,758,358 XP)
- Anomen: Fighter 7/Cleric 59 (11,639,741 XP)
Now, the final kill stats.
First, overall kills by character for the BG2 portion of the run. I'm lumping clones in with their creators, but grouping kills by other summons based on what the summon was rather than who summoned it.
"MonSum" is short for creatures from Monster Summoning spells and wands. Clara is the fake "Hexxat" you initially recruit.
It's much less balanced than the BG1 counts. Aerys accounts for more than 30% of the kills, and nearly that much of the XP. Cernd comes off worst among the primary party members in both kills and XP; his shapeshifted forms are great at tanking, but not so good at dealing damage. But of course, that's still 2 million kill XP, including the single most valuable kill in the game.
Those "unknown" kills are those that, despite my best efforts, I couldn't specifically attribute to anyone with any accuracy. Most of them came during the first pocket plane challenge, and all came while I was using my standard party.
Second, overall kills by enemy type in BG2. This is a very long list, so I'm hiding it in a spoiler.
Many of these names are somewhat abbreviated. Hopefully, it's understandable. Names are reported as they were when I killed them - e.g, that entry for a 3000 XP elven battle mage is actually a rakshasa in disguise. Kills are lumped together if the name and XP match, not for an exact match of the creature.
To make those long lists more manageable, some leaderboards. Top ten monster kills, by number: Incidentally, #11 on this list is worth zero XP - summoned skeleton warriors.
And by combined XP: Two more beholderkin (hive mothers and gauths) occupy the next two slots.
Next, the fire kills. First, by character.
The mages got the overwhelming majority of their kills with fire, Isra got barely any, and the priests were somewhere between the two extremes. On the whole, just a bit less than half of our kills were done with fire.
Those last two lines, not included in the total, are for kills that didn't grant XP to the party. First, kills by clones (all belonging to Aerys) that expired or were dispelled with incendiary clouds still active. Second, kills by enemies (mostly balors) with their own fire.
Finally, fire kills by enemy. Again, this is a very long list and I'm putting it in a spoiler.
And to make those long lists manageable, some leaderboards. First, the top ten fire kills by number:
Second, by combined XP:
Back in BG1, the experience totals were low enough that single notable kills could make the XP leaderboard. That isn't the case in BG2. Even Bodhi is down at #26 on the fire kill XP list. There is considerable overlap between the lists here, with drow warriors, umber hulks, and mind flayers making all four top tens.
I won't combine much between the two games, but Aerys and Jaheira were there for both. They deserve to at least have their combined totals mentioned.
Aerys racked up 2293 total kills for 7,581,268 XP. 1695 of those kills were with fire, for 6,355,810 XP.
Jaheira totaled 803 kills for 3,062,347 XP. 133 of those kills were with fire, for 359,205 XP.
And the whole party combined for 3089 fire kills over the two games. Aerys accounts for more than half of that, the pyromaniac.
Monster types don't overlap much, but a few still carry over. We killed another 25 7 XP kobolds in BG2, 17 with fire. That brings their total to 252, 105 with fire. 65 XP skeletons still hold the #1 spot for most fire kills with 108, despite their complete absence from BG2.
Ghasts were on all four top ten lists in BG1. In BG2, they drop to #24 in total kills, #16 in fire kills, and far lower in XP. 650 XP each just doesn't cut it any more.
That's enough stats. Now for some final thoughts. This was a very fun and powerful party to play; the fire theme just works well. It does require planning - had a document in which I planned in advance how my characters would get their fire resistance and which spells Aerys would take.
Would I recommend it for someone else? Absolutely. Don't take every detail of my builds and strategies as gospel; those specifics depend on an exact patch and mod setup that you're unlikely to match. For example, the 2.6 update changes some things which affect the strategies here - the AI exploit I used to get Drizzt's scimitar early is closed, and the loophole of self-targeted area spells ignoring magic resistance may be closed as well.
The general pattern of "make party immune to fire, apply indiscriminate fire damage spells", though, should hold true. That's the core of this idea, and it'll work regardless. Spellcasters are the stars here, but there's also a place for items. And I'd like to single out the necklace of missiles for special recognition. It's available pretty early, it offers reasonably cheap fireballs for anybody to use, and some quirks let it be useful even in the extreme late game. I even used it while I was fighting the Ravager - not to deal damage, but to trigger contingencies.
The worst annoyance was the kill-counting. The game just loves to not credit kills properly when there's a death script involved. Especially when you kill with fire. I doubt I'll ever go quite that detailed on the counting again.
About two thousand and five hundred pictures, totaling more than 700 megabytes of disk space. Compressed, because I didn't save the larger originals. Another six auxiliary files for two megabytes, most of it plain text. Many hours spent trawling for quotes ... mostly collected from TvTropes. Half a year to post it. Done.
Signing off with one last quote...
— Arthur Brown, Fire
This has been an epic tale, I know it took you a lot to document and present it. Well done! This will serve hundreds of BG users in years to come.
There was a process to it, of course. Log the kills as I go in a text file - at first just the fire kills, but later I kept temporary records of all kills - then record in a spreadsheet and check against the character record counts to detect any errors. Some rounds of this took longer than others. Reconciling the kill counts for the Ust Natha battle (because of course there were mistakes) took literally hours. Not playing it, just trying to get numbers to match between a spreadsheet and the partial data the game gave me. All complicated by the fact that the battle included kills by summons, kills by clones, kills by enemy friendly fire, kills that I didn't get credit for because the clone that set the fire storms was popped by a True Sight ... that was a mess. Nothing else was quite as complicated as that, of course.
This also requires frequent pausing during play. If you wait too long, you won't be able to scroll that far back in the in-game log. Playing it definitely would have gone quicker if I wasn't counting everything.
Oh, and I also edited the first post's title to add a "Complete" marker. I forgot to do that when I first posted today.
Such threads don't usually get very many reads at first, but this is something you do for yourself to record your playthrough, and it's a huge source of knowledge and information for people to look at later, which will be very much appreciated, I'm sure.