After talking with Melissan, Dorn realizes that he can use the pocket plane to leave Saradush. Well, actually, the interface there just changes to allow it. The game doesn't want you to be able to skip fighting Gromnir.
In any case, we take this new ability and head out.
We immediately enter a fight. But these guys are just regular soldiers. They don't have many levels, and only the officers have magic weapons. We barely even need to do anything to slaughter them.
Once the soldiers are elminated, Karthis comes out.
Option 1 gives you a little gold and a point of rep. Option 2 gives you more gold. And option 3 means you don't get to access his shop with the best prices in the game for selling items. We're going with option 2 here. And then stealing the good stuff in his shop, because we can. Well, we buy the rod of resurrection so we have the option of recharging it. Not that we'll need to; I haven't used any rod charges so far.
Now, on to the rest of the area. More soldiers await, along with giants.
Not a terribly dangerous version, though. They may be level 20 fighters who hit hard, but they only have 127 HP, their weapons are slow, and they're fairly easy to hit at only a -2 AC. That backstab panics its victim, leaving our melee forces to gang up on the remaining giant and take it down without trouble.
After clearing out a few regular soldiers and the backstab victim, we cross the next bridge. Or rather, Hexxat does alone.
Because backstabbing mages is always worth it if they don't have stoneskins up.
Then the party joins in for the regular soldier, and we keep moving forward. Hexxat looks for new backstab targets, and finds one in a cleric:
But in the process, I've let the giants here get their bearings. They're my next target ...
... but it isn't really enough. They save agains the Commands, outlast the initial wait to attack, and put some serious hurt on Korgan despite their -4 penalty attacking short folk. It continues after taking out the first giant ...
... and Korgan has to disengage.
Hexxat backstabs down the second cleric, Korgan fights some mooks and finishes the battle with no further damage. Dorn ends the battle at full health plus 4, because his Blackrazor/Foebane combo is ridiculous.
With the end of the battle, the area is clear. Hexxat reaches level 39, taking +20 Pick Pockets so she'll never need the pickpocket gloves, +5 Find Traps for that one trap outside Sendai's lair, and a second Time Trap. The party returns to Saradush to rest at the Tankard Tree, and I end the session.
In the new session, the party heads back out on the road. And rather than going east for our quest, we head west to Watcher's Keep. It's time to retrieve our stash, then head down and deal with the Imprisoned One.
Opening the portal provides 20K XP each. Level 37 for Viconia.
And then, we talk.
Anomen senses something odd - but is it the force imprisoned here, or is it something else? Or is it a lie? In any case, the Imprisoned One is trying to tell us something.
It claims that the so-called Knights are false, and have been playing us. But we're not going to trust it that easily. Read the scroll.
That's another 80K experience for everyone. Korgan reaches level 34, and takes another Greater Whirlwind. But the Imprisoned isn't lying. The way out is sealed. So then, we return to make a deal.
Screwing over the Knights who tried to imprison us? Now that's something we can get behind. We lie to the knights so they will enter that lair ... and then get an unexpected guest.
We get another 25K experience for receiving the scroll. And then 80K for using it. Because while he might not be as devoted to Helm as he once was, Anomen can still identify a messenger of the god. And with the eye of Helm upon us, we will perform the duty he wishes. There is no sense in testing his wrath.
The final room of Watcher's Keep is sealed, and Odren's group are locked within as they wished to do to us. Or likely dead already. A good enough ending, and we didn't have to risk ourselves in any fights.
This short excursion earned us a total of 205K experience each. In addition to the two levels noted before, Anomen reached level 37 with that last step and Dorn reached level 31. He took his fourth Greater Whirlwind.
And now, we have no reason to ever come here again. The rest of the keep is still open, but there's nothing left there.
We take the shortcut back to where we were before through the pocket plane - no travel time. And then, we continue forward to the spooky swamp temple.
A brief pause at the area's entrance brings a conversation:
It seems our party isn't entirely immune to conflict. But Anomen and Hexxat agree to shelve their issues, at least until the armies are dealt with. After that - all bets are off.
Then we move forward, and are accosted by some strange being.
It takes the appearance of a man that Dorn never met. And it thinks accusing him in this form will mean something? What a fool.
Still, it can inflict harm with its "judgment". And demand answers again.
Dorn sees no need to play along. He has no guilt. A truly honest answer.
Then it's Anomen's turn.
The being calls up an apparition of Moira to taunt Anomen. Why not the girl he actually personally murdered?
Ah. So that's the twisted logic it's trying for. Anomen "caused" Moira's death by fleeing their father. Nonsense. Own your deeds, and the evil done by your hand - but don't take blame for the deeds of others.
After this final act of disbelief, the battle is on. The enemy reveals itself as a wraith, and calls up an assortment of insubstantial undead. We activate our level drain protections and enjoy the Neera battle music.
But it's always annoying when backstabs fail. ToB strikes again. We breached him first thing, but there's no quick kill.
Edwin has to run around some when an enemy tries to chase him; he's not drain-immune. But I still find an opportunity to cast a spell.
That clears out most of the trouble. Three enemies killed by the wilting itself, three more killed by direct blows. Only two vampiric wraiths and a shadow fiend remain. Those two go down, though not before dealing more damage to Dorn. Even without their level drain, vampiric wraiths hit hard with their 10 magic damage every hit. By the time it's over, he's down below half health.
The end of the battle brings some talk. Anomen is feeling angry.
You get a version of this talk with whatever romance partner the wraith taunted. In the case of a double romance, that's still only one of them. Viconia didn't have her loved one brought up, so she doesn't get a talk here.
After drinking a healing potion, we press on. Skeletons await.
They get another wilting, which takes out the cleric. Also, Dorn has True Seeing going to disable the assassin's backstabs. Korgan and Anomen go after the mage, while Dorn and Hexxat go after the assassin.
And that's success. Only the warriors remain. They're well armed, but we've got plenty of power to kill them.
After that, there are a few spawn points worth of lesser undead - ghasts and mummies.
Wait ... why is Foebane dealing magic damage? Larloch's Minor Drain shouldn't work on undead.
I checked. This one's a bug. Foebane+5 casts SPIN104A, the payload subspell of innate LMD. Unconditionally. The "not against undead or constructs" filter is in the primary spell SPIN104. Which means that Foebane needs it too. Reported to the Fixpack.
Then we meet the one who lives here, somehow unmolested by the many undead.
She has power, indeed. And she offers help; she can make her adopted son Yaga-Shura mortal for us.
We're in. Though we should expect betrayal. Hexxat, set some traps.
Next time, our quest takes us to the burning heart of the fire giants' domain in the Marching Mountains.
They're very dangerous foes, as level 20 fighters with high-damage weapons and 22 strength. Their weapons aren't very fast, but it takes a lot of power to bring them down fast enough for that to matter. So we add some spells, and first strikes. A backstab and a Command bring down the first of the pair, leaving the party to gang up on the second.
That second giant still manages to land two hits on us, one each on Dorn and Hexxat. And at an average of 26 slashing plus 1d12 fire per hit, that hurts.
Then another pair of giants spawns in behind us.
This time, the first giant saves against the Command. But we still have a backstab to take out more than half of its health and bring it down quickly. The other one still gets its chance to hit us, though - and it's Korgan taking the damage this time.
With that pair down, Viconia makes it to level 38 and earns her final level 7 spell slot.
Then, things get silly.
Four tiny Bhaalspawn. Who aren't even evil, but fight you no matter what. Also, Edwin? Switch to your Dragon's Breath. That won't be any good against anything else around here, after all.
Most of these enemies are pretty straightforward. Toop the Brave is a level 15 fighter with a dagger and darts. Merlinious is a level 17 kensai with a katana, and is resistant to physical damage and magic. Tibbit is a level 18 archer with a shortbow and short sword, and is resistant to physical and elemental damage as well as magic.
Chinchilla is trickier. She starts as a spellcaster with extreme resistance to physical damage and magic, then at low health transforms into a werewolf which is resistant to elemental damage and magic but vulnerable to physical attacks. Her spellcaster side has some troublesome tricks like an upgraded version of Polymorph Other, so it's good to get it out of the way first - like with that Dragon's Breath.
Toop burns. Chinchilla takes enough damage to transform. Then we focus on Tibbit and Merlinious.
Only Chinchilla remains. And once our warriors turn to her, she goes down very quickly.
We head back ... wait, more giants?
I thought spawn points required you to leave the area before they could go again. But no, this one can just go again right away. Well, we're used to killing giants by now.
Now, we turn toward the actual entrance. Now enemies await.
1694 - Burning Men
The Burning Men are basically fire golems. They have a Cinder Shower ability, which did considerable damage to Hexxat there. But she got her revenge; despite these being golems and appearing only in ToB, they're vulnerable to backstabs. And unconsciousness, and magic in general. They lack most of the standard golem immunities, instead being generally vulnerable to what fire elementals are.
As for the giant ...
Hexxat knocks it out, and it doesn't recover.
Wait, what? The Staff of the Ram +6 specifically says "large creatures such as a dragons or giants will not be knocked back or stunned".
Checking on what the item actually does ... it's a Wing Buffet (knockback) effect and a Sleep (unconsciousness) effect. Neither of those have any sort of filters. However, knockback is hardcoded to do nothing against certain animations (including fire giants and Burning Men). This, naturally, does nothing to the unconsciousness effect. I've reported this to the EE Fixpack, but there doesn't appear to be a good solution available. The hardcoded knockback immunity doesn't match up to any detectable stat we can use to grant immunity to the unconsciousness.
Also, that description needs a grammar fix.
Anyway, moving on. Edwin hits level 28 and picks up another level 7 spell slot with it. Then I wait for the party to regenerate, and a banter drops.
Edwin just has to get the last word, doesn't he?
That is shortly followed by another chat:
I'll interpret that as a fart. And yet another look into the conflicts inherent in this party. They're all going to kill each other the moment Dorn isn't there to keep the "peace", aren't they?
As we enter the temple, I add some buffs. Fire protection for Korgan, PFE 10' for the party. Both Korgan and Anomen can ignore the fire hazards now, which is handy for moving around in here.
Battle is joined immediately, in one of the toughest melee fights in the game.
Fire giants. A lot of fire giants. They haven't even all arrived yet.
So ... I bring out the spells. Viconia casts a Greater Command.
Which is far more successful than I could have expected. Three out of four go down, despite the excellent saves their level grants them.
That lets us focus on the elite. And once that one falls, the elite from the other side arrives and becomes our new target.
There's still one giant alive, but it's unconscious. The battle is won, and nobody dropped below the yellow. Though Korgan would have if he hadn't used Hardiness.
Killing that last giant brings level 35 for Korgan; he takes a fourth Hardiness.
Now, we get a breather. Disarm some traps, head up - and then open a container.
Enemies spawn in. Fire salamanders and fire trolls. Also, that's a nice belt; my strength belt users upgrade.
As for killing the monsters? Cold or acid damage is needed against the fire trolls ... unless you have something like Crom Faeyr. Korgan slays them all with no trouble.
On the other side, we're back to fighting fire giants. And Edwin drops a Symbol: Stun.
With the -6 save modifier, that's very effective even against high-level foes. Two out of the three giants in the spell's range are stunned - one elite and one regular. The battle isn't too hard with the foes reduced that way.
And then, this side has a container too.
No high-end loot this time. Just golems. One clay, one magic, one adamantite. Most of the party gangs up on the adamantite golem, while Korgan goes after the other two.
It's painful for him, but Korgan takes out both of his targets before the other five party members can even the adamantite golem below half health. At least Viconia landed a slowing hit, so it didn't hurt us much.
The final blow is a draining hit from Blackrazor. Wait, golems aren't immune to level drain?
The two wardstones we have found act as keys to open the last two sections of this lower level. But fatigue is catching up to us - it's time to rest. While we're at it, I shuffle spell memorization so we can be better protected from fire.
And with that rest ...
... Viconia is sleeping with Dorn once more. Of course he says yes to that offer.
This talk is also the first option to sway Viconia toward neutrality, as she asks why Dorn would love her. I take an option that doesn't move the counter, amounting to "Why not?".
We're rested. Let's head back down for the rest of the temple. And of course, cast some fire protection spells. We enter the next encounter with party-wide fire immunity.
This one brings a flaming skull, a Burning Man, and an assortment of lesser fire-aligned creatures. Edwin, wilt them.
That helped. Now the skull gets ranged attacks while we chase the remaining lesser creatures in melee. Everyone's still in the green when the last enemy falls, and I ignore the container for the moment.
The other side is more of the same.
And so they get the same response. It works just as well over here.
Once those enemies fall, I open the container.
Devils. Specifically, bone fiends and one erinyes. They're all fire-immune, naturally. The worst part here is the bone fiend Viconia gets stuck in melee with; it drops her to the yellow.
The container also has a notable item - the +5 two-handed sword "Psion's Blade". Not bad, but not good enough for Dorn to ever use. Between Soul Reaver, the Unholy Reaver, and even the Abyssal Blade, he's set already.
Returning to the first side we cleared, opening that container releases fire elementals and Burning Men.
The "fiery humanoids" theme, I see. Wave would trivialize this section by one-hitting everything, but Dorn's so effective with his dual draining swords that I don't bother. The only annoying thing they do is hit Anomen with a Keening so I have to use a Remove Fear.
With all four containers looted, we have the wardstones we need to activate the device in the center of the area. The stairs up are now passable.
And upstairs, we are immediately greeted by more giants.
So Hexxat evens the odds with a backstab, knocking her target out. The party doesn't give it time to recover.
The rest of the level is mostly walled off. It contains passages that a humanoid can get through but a giant can't. So ... I let Hexxat have some fun.
Two backstabs to kill a giant. Or maybe three, or more for an elite. And since she can retreat to our side of the wall, she can keep it up for a while.
I don't have her kill all the giants, though. When it's down to just one elite chasing her, and a second near death and unconscious, I move in.
Which means I take some damage as that last giant gets hits on Korgan, but that's tolerable.
Berenn also didn't pull with the other giants. So he gets some group attention.
He's also a pure cleric, attacking a mere once per round and spending most of his time trying to cast spells. While he has a lot of hit points and he prebuffs with Regenerate, he's not nearly as dangerous as the fighters without support. In this fight, he tried to cast a spell and didn't live to finish it.
I pop back up to the pocket plane to upgrade the Axe of the Unyielding, and Viconia takes the moment to speak with Dorn.
It's another opportunity to influence her morality. And that's not a neutral choice. It's very much in character for Dorn, and it'll push Viconia to remain evil.
Back down in the fire giants' base, there's a bit more to do. A straggler giant, a fell cat or two, and some traps. Then Hexxat opens the door to the back room and draws out the elemental prince Imix ...
The power of Wave. Dorn eliminates the elemental in a single hit. Our reward is an amulet that we can't ever use, and the Ravager halberd which we can upgrade to its +6 version.
Hexxat returns to the back and disarms the traps while under invisibility. In the process, she walks by someone who can see through that to talk to her.
A captive. Her information isn't much use, but killing her wouldn't be worth anything either. She can leave.
And then, Hexxat cashes in that invisibility.
Oh, so close. One point away from a failed save and an instant kill. No matter. The party can finish those two off.
And so the session comes to an end. We have the hearts, and I grab the upgrades for the Ravager and the newly found bullet bag. Next time, we take a side trip away from our main quest.
[Edited. Somehow, my flaky internet connection let only part of the post through when I hit "Post Comment".]
Before we return to Nyalee and progress the plot, I'd like to take care of something else - a character quest. Rasaad is far too much of a goody-goody for his ToB quest to be viable with this party, but Neera is neutral. As long as we have Edwin take a break so they're not in the same party, we can bring her along for a bit.
I also visit Lazarus in Saradush and filch some scrolls, filling up most of Neera's spellbook. The scribing spree sees Viconia ding level 39 and Korgan level 36; he takes his third dot in flails and a Resist Magic.
Then we leave town.
A warning is delivered immediately. And Neera has an idea...
We will turn this around on our enemies and ambush the Order. Naturally, we head to the clearing immediately.
Once there, I have Neera try to set some Skull Traps. She doesn't have the spell memorized, so she has to do so via NRD ...
Attempt one: failed. Again? Let's use Chaos Shield to boost her chances ... nope. That wild surged too (caster held, but she saved). Just cast the second NRD, then ... nope. I guess we're doing this without traps.
We rest. Time advances to night, and Vicross arrives.
It's an impressive force. Four mages plus Vicross, eight level 15 fighters. But I have a plan ...
Lots of AoE. Two wand Cloudkills, two instances of Holy Smite, two potions of magic protection. Our party will be immune or highly resistant to the poison clouds so they can fight safely in them, and the enemy mages will be constantly disrupted.
It's quite effective. One mage and one fighter are down already, and the mages aren't getting any spells in. Though Neera took some ranged heat there...
And a third shot. The auto-pause triggers, and I have her retreat away from the fray. Time shenanigans made it impossible to pre-cast a Stoneskin before the rest, and she's paying the price. And since she gets 100% spell failure during this fight, only item casting is available right now. A charge of the Shield Amulet wasn't nearly enough protection. So ... I have her drink an extra healing potion.
Dorn and Korgan have also taken a lot of damage, but they regenerate so fast that I'm not worried about them.
That's the last of the fighters down. Just two mages left to beat up. And, since they know how to use PFMW, I just back off and let the cloudkills finish things.
This does let them cast a few offensive spells. Invisible Stalker. Power Word:Stun, getting lucky against Dorn's 90% MR.
Dorn's out for 1d4 rounds. Which ends up being no problem at all. The stalker goes down, and cutscene ensues.
Vicross flees, and we are dragged in her wake to an arena.
The gladiators have their moment to speak.
Having not played through Siege of Dragonspear personally, I can't say for sure whether that's Dorn or Viconia he recognized. But either of those is plausible.
Anyway, the battle is on. And enough time passed during the cutscene that Dorn can act again. The randomizer replaced the Neera battle music this area normally has with Black Pits battle music - very appropriate.
As for our plan? More cloudkills, to deal with the multiple yuan-ti mages. Though these are less effective due to magic resistance. As for the warrior snakes, they get Greater Command spells to thin their ranks.
This works, but there's a side effect.
Voghiln is caught in the cloud's area of effect, and gets mad at us. Well, I suppose that means he can die too. Same for Lea Gosh'Aar a bit later. Meanwhile, Dorn and Korgan drink healing potions for a bit of a safety net.
The mages aren't entirely disabled, though. As the last of the warriors fall, they manage to cast lightning bolts for a bit of extra damage. But now we're attacking them directly. It won't be long.
All right, there's one warrior still alive. But it's unconscious.
And Dennaton's epithet for Dorn is accurate for once, referring to his deeds in the north rather than the past of a dead man.
During this fight, Dennaton has hype lines for the party. All voiced, but easy to miss in the chaos or by ending the battle before they're done. For this bunch:
Dorn: That HALF-ORC sneers, and the arena SHUDDERS! You dare not look; you dare not look away! There stands a BLACKGUARD before us!
Neera: Behold the fearsome HALF-ELF! Do not be deceived by her pink hair; surely this is an ARCHMAGE that fights before us!
Viconia: The lovely DROW undoubtedly draws on DARKER POWERS! Do not stare OVERLONG lest she turn her eyes toward YOU!
Anomen: A HANDSOME man of MARTIAL MIGHT and GODLY MAGIC! Combatants, guard YOURSELVES; husbands, guard your WIVES!
(The battle ended here)
Korgan: A MURDEROUS DWARF is a welcome sight in any arena! Take COURAGE, my friends, and welcome the CARNAGE!
Hexxat: I hope you brought your WOODEN STAKES! It will take a bloodbath to satisfy the VAMPIRE VIXEN that fights before us!
Player 1: Wait a moment—do my eyes DECEIVE ME? Could it BE? You know the TALES. You've heard the RUMORS. They were the short-lived HERO of Baldur's Gate, the VICTORS of the Dragonspear Crusade, and the SAVIORS of Suldanessellar! It's GORION'S WARD!
All right, I'm glad I didn't get to that last one. Because it's just plain wrong about Dorn.
All potential companions have hype lines, even including Wilson. Except for the two that died during SoA (fake Hexxat and Yoshimo) and Edwin. Because Edwin absolutely refuses to work with Neera.
With nothing else we can do, we leave the arena for the gladiators' staging area. In there, Szass Tam awaits. And there's something he wants us to do for him. We have some questions. First, why?
To discredit a rival, of course. That makes sense.
But ... what's in it for us?
Ah. Yes, that is a good reason for us to act. But at the same time, we will prepare for his response. We can't trust him to not decide to just kill us anyway.
Before we take up his offer, we visit the merchants.
The weapons merchant has lots of generic stuff and some rare ammo. I buy a few arrows of detonation, though I haven't been using the ones I have.
Molzahn of Tymora has priest scrolls. With two epic clerics, we don't need any help there.
Hue Greenleaf has a couple shields worth buying - a +3 buckler and the unique Kazrah's Shield. Though neither of those are going in our standard loadout. Also a helm of defense, but we have two of those we're not using already.
The Magical Item Merchant has the Cloak of the Lich. That one goes straight into use, replacing the Cloak of Reflection on Anomen. He now has full immunity to fire, cold, and electric damage.
The Book Merchant has all of the arcane scrolls. I pick up a few of them for scroll-casting purposes. Which I probably won't even do, but whatever.
With all of that done, we're at just over 1.5 million gold. All right, let's go and take the fight to Vicross. After a regeneration break, we return to Szass and are transported to the woman's estate.
We immediately meet a slave, Thallis. She's sensible enough to keep quiet and tell us useful information. She gets to live. Unlike everyone else here.
And now, stealth mission. We don't want to raise the alarm, which means we have to disarm all the traps and kill the guards quickly.
But before we get to that ...
Neera gets silly. No, she doesn't get to insert herself into this romance. Dorn is a jealous man. As soon as we're done here, she's gone forever. Forever!
Hexxat enters the first room, disarming an alarm trap, and goes to backstab a guard...
Oops. Still, we have a whole party. That pair is silenced before they can raise the alarm.
Hexxat turns to the other side next.
That's better. But not lethal. These guards have 120 HP, and Hexxat deals a maximum of 105+8+4=117 damage with her staff backstabs on a non-critical hit. No instant kills here. But oh, so close.
The party finishes those two off easily enough.
Now, for the next room. This one has three warrior guards and a wizard.
Correction: had a wizard. Hexxat switches to two-weapon mode and stays in there, while the rest of the party comes up. One more room clear.
The library on the opposite side is similar.
We can't take out guards in one hit, but the wizards are a lot squishier at only 64 HP. Anything but a critical miss will take them out in a single swing.
Finally, the back room.
This room's a lot bigger, so Hexxat falls back to re-hide instead of switching to two-weapon mode. That way, we won't fight all of the guards at once.
The plan succeeds. We kill all of the guards fast enough, and no alarm is raised. Vicross will only have what's with her in the central courtyard.
Since I've cleared out everything without raising an alarm, Vicross and her elite guards aren't hostile yet. Can I set a trap?
Yes, but. Setting the trap alerts the enemies, so we can't set any more. And it goes off instantly, only hurting one of them.
Now that she's active, Vicross opens with a Mass Invisibility. Dorn uses his True Seeing gem, but that's limited by line of sight. And with invisible guards attacking - the first one gets off a stealth attack.
Thankfully, the log warned me. Korgan protects himself with Hardiness, and the guard captain only manages two hits despite using a Greater Whirlwind. Also, Hexxat's sneak attacks are a lot more effective.
The berserker guard follows.
More hits taken there, on Anomen and Viconia. But all of us on one enemy makes for a quick fight.
The kensai guard is already in sight, and comes next. We try a pair of Command spells ...
Nope. Saved both times. But we deal damage fast enough that it's not a problem.
Only Vicross herself remains. She's dangerous if you let her get going, casting carefully tuned "wild surges" that always summon substantial help. But since she's currently alone, we can charge in and disrupt her with our elemental weapons.
It takes less than a round to bring her down. She doesn't cast a single offensive spell.
All that remains is to ring the bell. But first, we must prepare for Szass Tam's inevitable betrayal.
We expected nothing less. Eat two spike traps.
He would let us go ... but we're the ones that want a fight now. Szass wishes to recover spells, and we attack. Four hits land before his defenses go up, for 91 total damage ... out of 79 HP. He's beaten; he just hasn't acknowledged it yet. Viconia casts a dispel, and then one more hit brings our victory.
The reward for going two phases instead of one? 20K experience to each party member. A nice boost.
We're back in Tethyr, and Neera leaves now. Her little excursion, including spell-scribing, was good for about 200K experience on each party member other than Edwin.
Next time, we return to the main plot and bring down a giant.
As a side note, I've actually shuffled my strength belt setup recently. Now Anomen is using the strength 22 belt, Viconia is using the strength 20 belt, and Edwin is using the strength 19 belt. The party's strength totals are 25, 24, 23, 21, 20, and 19.
With Edwin back in the party, it's time to resume the plot. We've gotten all we needed out of Saradush - though we ignored a number of encounters in the main city area - and so we head to Nyalee's spooky temple.
Well, at least she does her thing before turning on us. Yaga-Shura is mortal now.
And now, we make her regret her decision.
That didn't take long. Nyalee dies instantly, along with both of her nymphs and her vortex spider. Only the two shambling mounds survive the barrage.
Since the shambling mounds are immune to crushing damage, Anomen switches to ranged mode. It's not a big deal, though; Dorn and Korgan provide plenty of slashing attacks. The enemies only manage a couple hits before going down.
Now, after a rest, we move to the siege camp. And Saradush is sacked behind us. There is no going back to that city now. Instead, we must face Yaga-Shura's army.
That's three archers we've killed so far. But more will come. As we reach the other side of the bridge, they start appearing.
At this stage, I usually stay in one place to kill the army until they stop spawning (about 60 of them). But this time, I scout forward ... and draw Yaga-Shura's personal attention. He comes, and so I have Edwin act.
A simple Magic Missile spell. It does a few points of damage to him, and that scares the giant into leaving.
While Yaga-Shura is gone, the army actually keeps spawning in. We have plenty of mooks to kill for the next few rounds. And giants, which cause significant pain.
Then, he comes back. And he brings his lieutenants.
We have spells for them. A Greater Command, a Horrid Wilting, a cleric Finger of Death. That last one targets the fighter.
Hexxat tries to slip by going for a backstab ...
Ouch. The Runehammer got her there. But she's immune to the instant death, so we're still good. And she's even still invisible. Backstab that cleric.
(Hexxat doesn't have full death protection, but her min-HP effect grants her immunity to some instant kill effects. DIE.EFF as used by undead disruption weapons is one of those.)
As for that backstab ...
Oh, come on. How is a human cleric immune to backstabs? All four lieutenants are, for no good reason at all.
Well, at least we've dealt with the thief - felled by Greater Command. And for the rest of them, Edwin casts a second wilting.
Looks like it's only Yaga-Shura now. And he's near death. It won't be long now.
Korgan gets the final blow. Fitting, really, that such a powerful giant would fall to a dwarf's axe.
As a side note, that Battle Axe of Mauletar +2 in one of the shots? It's the weapon of one of the generic giants in this fight. The other one has the fire giant axe, a two-handed weapon that deals 2d12 slashing and 1d12 fire damage with +3 to hit and isn't droppable. But it has the Battle Axe of Mauletar description, so ... easy to see how that would go wrong. Definitely a mistake; this giant should, like all other generic fire giants, be using one of the two non-droppable fire giant weapons.
While I'm identifying equipment and moving things around, Korgan glitches back to full health. This happens sometimes when regeneration is active, and I have no idea why. But it's really just a time-saver, so I won't worry about it.
Then Dorn is pulled back to the pocket plane, for another conversation with the solar.
What does it want to talk about now? The past. Specifically, where Gorion's ward came from. Dorn knows nothing and cares nothing for such matters. And refuses to take any responsibility for what came of the decisions back then.
Back down at the camp, Melissan shows up again. Of course. She's here to tell us that, once again, we have no choice but to fight more Bhaalspawn.
Then, a more interesting conversation comes up.
Viconia reflects on the events here and in Saradush. It's a chance to turn her toward neutrality ... or to cement her evil ways.
Dorn chooses the latter, of course. And thankfully, the universe doesn't decide to strike him down for uttering those cursed words.
This sequence has also brought a good chunk of experience. Dorn reaches level 33, taking scimitar specialization and a fifth Greater Whirlwind. Korgan reaches level 37, taking a second Critical Strike.
And now, we return to the pocket plane. A second challenge room has opened up.
This time, Dorn faces an alternate version of himself, as a good paladin instead of a blackguard. And a party to support him, variations on Sarevok's followers.
Edwin casts a Slow, catching the mage Semaj. I'm not sure about Korgan, but I think he went in to provide melee damage on Semaj. Viconia and Hexxat gang up on the archer Angelo, and a stunning hit ruins his day. Dorn takes on his double. That leaves Anomen battling melee warrior Tamoko ... and his fight doesn't go so well. Before long, I have to reposition him.
Anomen to Semaj, Korgan to Tamoko. This version of Tamoko is a level 20 kensai with dual-wielded +3 katanas, +6 attack and damage from the kit, grand mastery, and even extra APR. Plus she knows how to use Kai. No wonder she hurt Anomen that badly.
But Anomen got in plenty of hits of his own; Korgan gets the kill immediately after that shot. The cascade begins, as enemies fall and our party concentrates. Then ... oh, that's brutal.
Enemy Dorn tried to Whirl, but a well-time slowing hit countered that. After all, part of what Whirlwind does is haste the user for a round. The poor paladin doesn't get a single swing in after that.
Dorn gets the final blow on his counterpart, as is right and proper. It's even a level-draining hit, one of several Dorn landed during the fight.
With that, the arena reverts to its true hellish form. Viconia even burns herself on the lava as we leave. And Dorn is another step closer to his apotheosis.
There is only one way forward now, toward Amkethran. But we still have a stop to make along the way.
This oasis is not a restful place. Instead, we face a contingent of the Tethyrian army, under the command of General Jamis Tombelthen.
Dorn is certainly guilty of many crimes, but what is he accused of here?
The destruction of Saradush? Get your facts straight! That was Yaga-Shura, not Dorn. Well, if you insist on being so foolish, then you can die.
The general is the first target, as he has the most levels and his unique "Answerer" sword is rather dangerous. While Hexxat backstabs an archer for the first kill, Jamis is the second.
Edwin casts a Stoneskin first. After that, he spends a round throwing daggers until his aura is clear. With that clear aura ...
A Skull Trap. That takes out the enemy mage, and weakens the others around him.
The cleric in that shot is also casting a spell. Specifically, Silence. Our party members all save or resist. The cleric herself doesn't. Oops.
After cleaning up the remaining enemies here, we start walking forward. But Viconia has something to say.
What are Dorn's plans? Power. It's always about power. Though Viconia worries.
Will she be left behind? Well, when Dorn is a god, he will need clerics ...
It's possible. Glad to see things working out.
This army contingent is not yet fully defeated, of course. There's another major cluster of enemies at the eastern edge of the map.
And they get a bigger spell. Horrid Wilting kills several archers outright along with the mage. The battle is good for another level on Edwin, bringing him to 29.
A few more warriors remain after that, but they're nothing. This area is never really a challenge - it's a reminder of just how much power the epic protagonist and their companions have at this stage of the game. An army of ordinary folk, even well-equipped, has no chance.
We have slain a giant. Next time, we move on to a new chapter of the game as we explore Amkethran.
And another note ... gameplay is now finished. Expect three more weeks to finish posting this one.
He's brusque, but reasonably helpful. We now know the ways to Sendai's enclave and Abazigal's lair. Then he returns to his monastery, leaving us to fend for ourselves in the village.
The village is full of trouble. The mercenaries have not been good to it. As we soon see, with a pair threatening a woman with death for stealing from them.
Korgan takes the lead here, and it's the mention of a magic trinket that sways him. That is a worthy price for our party's aid in this matter.
This is not about justice. We threaten the mercenaries, they fight, and they die.
The reward is a cloak. Useless on its own, but Cespenar can restore its power. And a point of reputation, because people like it when you stand up for them against oppression. Even if you do it for money.
After that, we run into an old ... acquaintance.
Naturally, he deflects blame and convinces the mercenaries to attack us. While escaping himself. If we ever get a proper shot at him ...
The attacking mercenaries are no threat, of course.
It's not just the mercenaries who are causing problems. A priest argues with a monk, and the monk decides to silence him with violence.
Let's whack that jerk!
Sadly, the monk lives, whisked away by a mage in Balthazar's service. The priest, however, thanks us.
Money? No, you're not getting any money from us. We'll just settle for that 2K experience each and the Oaken Ring.
Incidentally, you can also get the ring if the priest dies. He's actually carrying it. Not that it matters for this party with no druids. And the upgraded ring is a rather lackluster item even for a druid, offering bonus spells and nothing else.
Wandering around some more, we find a mercenary summoning creatures as target practice.
Does it bug you when we kill your creatures, Erelon?
How about now?
That did it. Erelon gets a backstab and three normal hits.
That just leaves some archers. Easily handled. The Darkfire Bow is ours ... not that there's any reason to ever use it.
After cashing in the upgrades - Hexxat claims Montolio's Cloak as her night/dungeon option - we enter the tavern. After we speak with a local man Marlowe, Hexxat is greeted by Cabrina.
That Casque? It'll take up a slot in Hexxat's inventory for the rest of the game. She's stuck with it.
That also means that Hexxat's final dungeon segment is available. But there's something I'd like to do first ...
This item is now in Zakhee's shop. And who could resist an invitation like that? We buy the scroll.
Naturally, we step outside and use the scroll immediately.
And so it begins. Noober's Game, incorporated into the campaign. This is restored/repaired content from an unused (and very silly) sixth tier in Black Pits 2.
After a bit of dithering, we get to the interesting part.
Dorn goes with the fighter option, because he basically is one. And because it's the one with random elements; the other two paths are completely deterministic and I know them too well.
Then ...
It breaks. Before even leaving the starting town. Oops. This component will need an update.
Looking into things ... the issue is that there's a delay between a "set variable" action and that variable actually being available to test for conditions. The lone reply to the previous state set a variable, and the reply that should be available here tests for that variable.
This is not an error I introduced; it's a problem with the original dialogue file that I didn't know I needed to repair.
Fortunately, there's a flag I can set to make actions execute instantly. Apply that about thirty times, and I've got the next version of this component ready.
Reload. Go through the initial talks in a different order, so that state doesn't break it. We manage to leave the starting town this time.
And I choose to take a different path than the forum playthrough. What's down this road? Orcs. Dorn plays it patiently, and his fighter kills the initial group of orcs ... but they have a shaman.
Throwing the sword is a desperate move, but it works. The shaman is distracted, and Dorn's fighter is able to close and kill him.
The reward for defeating the orcs? A magic helm. We'll see if that helps with anything.
Soon, Dorn's fighter comes to the mountain. And rather than face the troll, he tries his luck with the guards.
The bluff doesn't work. The patrol already got back, and so Dorn's fighter must fight. But these guards are drunk, and they fall easily.
Still, it's not over yet. The guards have a captain too - and he isn't drunk.
This will be tough.
The quest fails. Dorn's fighter is killed by the guard captain.
He could play again ... but no. Once was enough for Dorn.
After some aggravation, Noober finally lets Dorn go.
Wait, no item reward? ... Oh. I got the item's code in the script action wrong. Another bit to fix for the next version of the mod.
And so Noober departs. We have endured the largest single conversation in the entire game. Nothing else even comes close.
All right. Now it's Marlowe's turn.
That's ... tempting. But no, we're here to talk. Marlowe has a problem with a lich, and he suggests that the lich is likely to have magic stuff we could take. Sure, that's good enough for us to go on.
Then we talk to the lich ... and find out why Marlowe had a problem.
A soul? To use for our own purposes? Now that sounds like a good reward. OK, we'll bring Marlowe. But ... also set some traps. We'd like an advantage if any sort of fight happens.
The deal is done. Marlowe dies. We get the soul. And now ...
After all, the lich should still have some good stuff, right?
Vongoethe dies instantly. But he still summoned some minions ... skeleton warriors, banshees, and skeleton archers.
The archers are the most troublesome, as they're up on the ledge where we can't easily hit them in melee. And of course, being skeletons, they're resistant to missile attacks. Edwin ends up using magic to clean them up - a Skull Trap and a Magic Missile.
Now that the lich is gone, we can examine the devices on the platform. And turn them. Fire elementals. Ice golems.
These are rather powerful brutes. And in addition to their melee attacks, they have "Scalding Steam"; if hit with fire, they release a burst of cold. 10d3 cold damage, save versus breath for none, blocked by MR and by the Cloak of Mirroring. Our party is highly resistant to that without even trying.
Next, fission slimes.
Special weapons equipped. Stonefire for Korgan, Abyssal Blade for Dorn, melee mode for Viconia. No problem.
The last of the devices calls up air elementals, and we're done here. Though we're no closer to deciphering the purpose of this elemental array.
Malla's soul stone acts as an ioun stone granting +1 Dex, +1 Con, and 1/day Neutralize Poison. Every member of the party can use it, but won't. Blocking critical hits is just more important than a few hit points and maybe a point of AC. Or in Edwin's case, hit points and spell slots are better than getting nothing at all. Hexxat would gain thief skills ... but she's basically maxed out, succeeding every time at everything unless there's a critical failure.
Other value? It's just some girl's soul. Nothing special really, now that Marlowe is dead so it's no use as leverage. Dorn is after special souls like Bhaalspawn and other powerful beings, not average souls like this. Very well. Malla can have her soul back.
20K XP each? An excellent reward. The soul was worth something. No reputation, though, as we didn't give Malla any gold.
As for what else Vongoethe was carrying ... a ring of antivenom. We'll take it, but that's a definite disappointment.
There's just one thing left to do here - visit the smugglers' cave.
It's occupied, with an argument. Naturally, we butt in.
And pick a fight.
The monks use Quivering Palm. Log says ... attacking Dorn and Korgan. No chance of a failed save. I'm not worried.
With that, Carras is now willing to sell to us. At rather good prices.
Though our poor reputation works against us. The four items we buy cost over 70K gold. K'logarath for Korgan. Enkidu's Plate, for one of our warriors. A rod of reversal. The Gargoyle Boots.
I end up giving the armor to Dorn, and replacing his +2 protection ring with a fire resistance ring. Better AC, worse saves ... but those saves are still at -5/-3/-4/-4/-2. He'll be fine.
The small quests of Amkethran have been dealt with. Next time, we take care of Hexxat's final task.
We return to the Cave of the Dead to tombwalk. While the Casque can be used anywhere, it is only proper to do so in the place most like a graveyard that we can reach.
Shortly after entering the tomb ... we trip a trap. Whoever got hit, they blocked it with magic resistance. And looking up the area, that was a Finger of Death trap ... let's not let any more of those happen to us. Fortunately, this last tomb doesn't have very many floor traps.
After that trap, we meet Phreya.
This absurdly lucky woman will dog us for the entire length of the dungeon. She goes hostile after a chat, we hit her a few times ... backstab failed, she's immune ... and then she vanishes.
A reprieve. Now we just have to worry about random undead. And one floor trap to disarm.
Specifically, we face one mummy at a time.
Sure, they're greater mummies - but that's just not very scary.
Then things ramp up a bit. Three mummies at once.
We just have to be careful with the priest, because of the Blade Barrier/Physical Mirror combo. Focus melee attacks on us, while letting the ranged attackers target the others.
This brings us to the second Phreya encounter. Her brilliant tactics include drinking invisibility potions ...
... and then throwing daggers point-blank. Sure, she has a melee dagger as well (1d6+4 physical damage, save or be poisoned). But she just isn't interested in using it, at least here. Backstabs? What are those?
Also, a calculation. Phreya shows +1 on that attack. She has 18 Dex for a natural +2 to her missile attacks and nothing from her nonmagical poisoned throwing daggers, while Dorn has a -3 missile AC modifier and there's the -8 attack modifier for a point-blank missile attack. That adds up to -9 overall, so she's getting +10 to hit from her +50 luck. Luck bonuses to attack rolls appear to be capped at +10.
Also, at base THAC0 zero versus overall AC -11, that was a bare minimum hit.
The new quadrant we enter after this fight has bone fiends. They're more dangerous than the mummies, at least. Or ... actually, there are still mummies too. Or even both mummies and bone fiends at once.
Phreya is here, too.
She's a bit confused. In one of the earlier encounters, if Hexxat is wearing the Cloak of Dragomir, Phreya steals it. But of course, this is a dungeon and Hexxat has been wearing her good cloak.
Phreya goes down easily as always. But hey, at least she figured out how to attack in melee.
Before moving on to the third quadrant, we do a bit of backtracking.
Umolex is one of two "living liches" in this dungeon; they're living humanoids, but they have lich immunities.
Which means that PFMW is absolute protection against weapon attacks, and can't be breached. But we've done 81 damage out of 90 HP, so all we need is that last little bit. Korgan gets out the Victor ... 6 damage. Then Umolex casts a Spell Trigger: True Sight, Dispel Magic, Death Spell.
She dispels her own defenses, and Dorn takes advantage immediately. Dead.
Umolex drops a journal, which mentions working with Korkorran on duplicates - a hint of things to come.
The third quadrant brings a new threat.
Sand golems. Hexxat sneak attacks one, then retreats so Korgan can go in with Crom Faeyr after it saves against the Rod of Smiting.
Then I realize ... sure, Hexxat's not proficient with hammers. But she can still use her dual-wield setup to get two hammer attacks per round, and the golems don't get to save against Crom Faeyr. It's a much better weapon for these sneak attacks than the old staff.
Like this. One swing, one dead golem.
Or this. Two swings, two dead golems.
After another pair of golems, we come to the end of this corridor. The room beyond has a different threat - beholders. Specifically, the undead "Death Tyrant" variety. Dorn borrows the MDR belt to go with his general resistance and saves, Korgan uses the cloak of mirroring, Anomen gets the shield of Balduran, and Viconia has 100% MR.
Phreya is also here.
She doesn't last any longer than usual.
Also, there's an interesting interaction in the log here. Phreya has 50% magic damage resistance and a min-HP item. LMD hits her when she's already down to 1 HP, and the drain-type damage gets zeroed out. You can't drain hit points the enemy can't lose.
There are two paths forward from this room; a secret door to the next quadrant and a non-hidden door to another section of this quadrant. We take the latter first. And after a couple more sand golems ...
We run into some spiders. And the gnome Culak, the second of this dungeon's living liches.
Also, I couldn't resist that joke after Viconia's line. Let the extermination begin. Culak's defenses go up, so I turn my attention to the spiders and ignore him.
Time Stop into a spell trigger, Symbol: Stun, and Symbol: Fear. Minimal harm done, and that should expire his PFMW. Culak goes down without any further trouble.
Meanwhile ...
Viconia and Edwin just couldn't handle their spider, and had to be bailed out by Dorn. Well, OK, I'm sure they could have handled it with spells. These spiders are buffed sword spiders - level 15, THAC0 6, and 90 HP instead of the standard 5, 12, and 45. With Viconia not built for melee defense and particularly vulnerable to piercing attacks, she just took a lot of hits.
Culak drops a 19 strength belt. This party has no need for that, ever. Two party members have more strength than that naturally, and our other four strength items cover the remainder of the party.
And now, the final quadrant.
Our introduction is three bone fiends at once - a serious fight. Korgan actually falls into the yellow from that battle, though he regenerates fast.
But then, I realize something. Unlike bone fiends elsewhere (demonic) and bone golems (golems) with the same animation, the bone fiends here (boneguards according to the actor names) are undead. And I have Anomen. Any more of those monsters should be easy to handle. In fact, if I had been using it, Turn Undead trivializes almost the entire dungeon's combat; only Phreya, the two "living liches", Culak's spiders, and the sand golems aren't undead.
That brings us to the "you need Hexxat" puzzle for this area.
The barrier deals piercing damage and level drain, repeatedly, to anyone that isn't undead. Not an easy thing to defend against, and we're not going to even try. Hexxat goes on ahead ... and finds more bone fiends in the first room.
Which I am now using cleric power against. Splat.
Then it's the maze of doors after that, which can be rather inconvenient. We have to open and close doors with our living party members, and that door from the staging room to the first necrotic area just doesn't like to be closed from the staging room side. Still, we manage to draw T'lassus in without too much trouble.
T'lassus is the elite version, upgrading from level 11 to level 20 and more than doubling the HP ... but losing the invisibility detection and backstab immunity that the lesser "bone fiends" have. Defeating him with Hexxat alone should actually be quite feasible. But of course, there's no reason to bother with that when we can just splat him with the level 39 cleric.
Hexxat disarms the barrier, and we press forward. This brings us to a lich - the actual undead variety.
I try to turn it ... nope. Apparently, its min-HP protection blocks that. But at least we can actually kill Phreya this time.
The lich goes through a Time Stop sequence ... more symbols that don't do anything. And then its PFMW expires.
A mage without combat defenses is a dead mage.
Dialogue ensues, with the characters wondering what just happened. And despite all the foreshadowing - two different books talking about simulacra - there's no way for the protagonist to mention that as a possibility.
Now, I know that Korkorran can use Dragon's Breath. So I buff everyone with fire resistance - Hexxat is at 90%, everyone else is at 100% or more. Loot a few containers, then enter the final chamber.
Some pre-battle taunting is always good. And Korkorran doesn't even get the chance to try and tempt Hexxat.
Naturally, Korkorran puts up protections.
Improved Mantle is nothing more than an inconvenience. We can just attack over that. The illusions are trickier, though. So Viconia casts a True Sight, while Hexxat uses Detect Illusion. The simulacrum dies, the original is revealed, and the beatdown is quick from there.
With the battle won, L speaks to us through Korkorran's body. Hexxat asks for her reward, and is told "Cabrina will contact you shortly". Which means, after a rest. Back to the tavern, then, to bring this overlong day to a close.
Upon attempting to rest at the inn, we are whisked away to a dark clearing. Cabrina awaits us, as does "L" in Korkorran's body - Larloch.
Hexxat wants to be human again, leaving her vampire nature behind. But that comes with a cost; she has already endured too long, and that would only end in her death.
Naturally, Dorn thinks that's a terrible idea. Time to convince her not to go through with it.
All three of the options here are checks on the protagonist. A gender check, a romance check, and a charisma check. The last is the only one Dorn passes. There's still a path to convince Hexxat even if you're built like Korgan and fail all the checks, but it's a narrow one. Much easier to go with an option that the protagonist actually passes.
There are two more steps after that.
Oh, and whatever you do? Don't ask her to make you a vampire. She really doesn't want to spread her "gift".
With that, the scene comes to an end and we are returned to the inn. At midnight, and we still need that rest. Both for the obvious reasons and because Dorn's pocket plane ability is unavailable until we do.
This time, Viconia speaks up.
Dorn understands attraction. Love? That's harder. But he has his priorities straight, and Viconia agrees. Power comes first.
Next time, an unexpected obstacle delays our assault on the remaining Bhaalspawn.
On our way to Abazigal's lair, we find ourselves in a strange forest clearing. And not alone.
Soon, we see the source of this trouble.
A planetar and a group of heavenly crusaders have come, with the intent to kill Dorn. Clearly, some of the good gods have taken exception to the blackguard and want him dead.
Spells are cast. The mortal crusaders cast Strength of One and Bless, the planetar casts True Sight, and we cast a Hold Person. Then Anomen casts a spell with his mace.
I'd say that our spells are coming out best here. Unfortunately, Hexxat didn't get a backstab there; I suspect she was at the wrong angle.
The planetar in this encounter is immortal, so we focus on the crusaders. Before long, they're all down.
Ooh, a vorpal hit on Anomen there. But he saved, and he has undispellable protection against instant death from his cloak anyway. Still, he's taking a lot of damage; I pull him back.
And then, the damage we've dealt to the enemy piles up far enough.
This encounter is over - but the threat remains. And it gets even worse, as the planetar plans to add Dorn's name to the scroll a second time. But we have a chance now - we can counterattack.
To war, then. Let the heavens themselves burn as we slaughter their forces.
The journal update there is a "quest closed" notice. Which is a little odd; that quest should really have been closed already.
Before entering the portal, Korgan takes his 38th level. I give him a third Critical Strike.
On arrival in Lunia, Hexxat and Dorn speak up.
Yes, this place would be hostile to a vampire. She needs her cloak, too; the light here is close enough to natural sunlight to burn her. Though thankfully, that burst of fire damage is a one-time problem.
Still, we take her advice. We won't waste any time in here.
The first thing we meet past the stairs is a planetar.
And Dorn is not interested in any sort of subtlety. This agent of "justice" must die. Dorn and Korgan charge the planetar, while the rest of the party engages the mortals.
Well, that's the planetar down. And quickly. But Anomen's having more trouble with that paladin, and Hexxat missed another backstab attempt due to a bad angle.
The planetar also dropped something that looks useful - a sigil of Tyr, which we may be able to use to bluff the god's servants.
With Dorn and Korgan reorienting, the crusaders die quickly enough. And Hexxat finally gets the proper angle for a backstab.
I haven't completely lost my touch yet. Also, this encounter is over, with no survivors to raise a general alarm.
At some point in the battle, Korgan rolled a vorpal hit on a priest, who didn't save ... but the priests here prebuff with Death Ward. No effect. Since so many enemies here have that divine spellcasting ability or exceptionally good death saves, I have Korgan switch to using his hammer in the main hand. That way, the elemental damage can disrupt spellcasting more often.
Dorn also reaches level 34 in the battle, and I give him a second Critical Strike. No more levels for him this game.
With Hexxat's natural regeneration slowed to a crawl by her need to wear the cloak (1/3 rounds instead of 1/round), I give her a regeneration potion. She'll get some decent recovery between battles that way.
Before long, Dorn encounters a familiar face.
Bollard Firejaw. Perhaps his murder is the offense that got Dorn's name put on the scroll? Before we can do anything, he notices us.
Time to silence him, and any witnesses with him. The first move goes to Hexxat.
Excellent. But now the petitioners have noticed. They die too. And the crusader off to the northwest. Thankfully, these petitioners are low-level pushovers, and the crusader is alone.
We return to where we fought the planetar next, and Hexxat sets a full array of spike traps. I know what's coming, after all.
Then, we turn north, to a courtyard holding a divine tree. Dorn's patron demands its corruption ...
And so Dorn acts. The tree is doomed.
It's possible to avoid this cutscene and pluck apples from the tree, but only by preventing Dorn from speaking - Silence or Maze are best. The fruit, however, is only useful to non-evil folk. This party isn't interested in that.
Finally, we reach the scroll. And we have a plan.
Look, Naiman, was it? There's been a clerical error. The same person's name was inscribed in the scroll twice. See? Dorn, Dorn Il-Khan. So if you'll just erase those names, we'll be on our way ...
No? I see the celestial bureaucracy is as inflexible as any other. Very well, then, we'll do this the hard way. Defend yourselves!
That's a priest and a paladin down already. Naiman lasts longer, with his defenses and the fact that the warriors aren't attacking him directly. When it's just him left ...
Reinforcements arrive. A planetar and some more crusaders have been added to the fight. The battle continues, with Dorn now attacking Naiman.
Ah, another quirk of Foebane +5. Normal LMD grants protection to its source, so it can't drain the caster when reflected. But directly casting the subspell avoids that protection, and so Dorn drains himself for 4. Four hit points lost, four gained in the very same tick. No harm done. It might kill you if you're down to 4 or less HP already, but anything else is a wash.
Then I throw in a spell.
A Greater Command. Two enemies fall unconscious ... and the enemy positions give me a perfect opportunity. The planetar has been stuck behind its allies unable to attack this whole time, and now two of those allies are unable to act. So while Dorn engages the one enemy still standing, the rest of the party backs off and pelts the planetar with ranged attacks.
The planetar was smart enough to at least do something while it couldn't reach us in melee, and cast spells. But level 25 Dispel Magic just doesn't cut it against a party like ours.
With both the planetar and the paladin down, Naiman and the priest are unable to resist. They die, and Dorn takes the ink and sand.
Now, we can edit the scroll.
Two names have been erased, and we can place two names in their place.
Yaga-Shura? He's already dead. Why is he even an option?
Sendai? Tempting, but Dorn would rather slay the Bhaalspawn himself.
Abazigal? Same as Sendai.
Ur-Gothoz? He still has his uses.
Noober? He didn't give Dorn a T-shirt. He needs to die.
Saemon? Anything else, and he'd just slip away. It's pure petty revenge, but I'll take it.
The choice is made. Noober and Saemon will die. Or, at least, they'll get planetars sent after them, which is good enough.
Now we head back toward the portals. And on the way ...
Ah. Our earlier actions have drawn a response. And it's quite a crowd. That calls for an area-of-effect spell.
I go party-friendly with an Unholy Blight. A great spell in theory, but there are so few places in this campaign that make it useful.
Also, just as the spell arrived, another reinforcement squad teleported in. The more, the merrier.
Only one enemy died outright to the Blight, but that "Fighter of Tyr" was apparently an innocent. The party's reputation drops by three points to 6.
Anomen casts a Greater Command next - one more enemy out of the fight, and this time it's one of the high-level ones. Dorn pops a Hardiness since he's surrounded by enemies, and the slaughter begins. It doesn't take long.
Sure, they got some hits in. But we were never in any real danger. None of these enemies were tough enough to cause serious problems.
After killing that last paladin and ambushing some still-neutral crusaders just because we can, we prepare for a more dangerous fight. Apply the cold resistance spells.
Two instances of Protection from Cold. Four of Resist Fire and Cold. Two Armor of Faith. Korgan is at 75% resistance, Dorn is at 95%, and everyone else is fully immune to cold. Now we're ready for silver dragon breath.
We walk forward, and the cutscene begins.
Two dragons. That's a lot of power. But we're ready, and not just with the spells we cast right now. You can see that trap indicator under Dolrassa's tail ...
And Ixthezzys had traps too. Three for one dragon, four for the other. Ixthezzys dies instantly, and Dolrassa takes damage equal to 225 of her 236 HP. It doesn't take much after that.
Dolrassa didn't get a Stoneskin up, so a single bullet finished the job. She got off a wing buffet for minor damage, but that was all. We didn't even get knocked back, because a bug allows magic resistance to block that effect of a dragon's wings.
Only one obstacle to our exit remains.
We face Baldwin, a few crusaders, and some mage petitioners that aren't even hostile yet. The crusaders don't last. The petitioners aren't ready for us.
I always like it when I get a zero-damage kill. The other two do get mad when we start dealing damage to them, but by then it's far too late for them.
With that, and one more stray crusader to kill, we take our leave of the heavens.
Absolutely worth celebrating. Or just basking in the glory of an epic adventure concluded.
Up in the pocket plane, Cespenar makes some armor out of the silver dragon scales. Both Anomen and Viconia take advantage of it, and I shuffle some other stuff around so the drow can still have her 100% magic resistance. Anomen doesn't have his old 100% fire resistance, but there are still spells if he ever really needs that.
I head back down, and ... wait, shouldn't the other party members have something to say? Checking the script, they only speak up if Dorn can't. Since removing him from the party isn't an option, I silence him instead.
Anomen doesn't have anything to say, but the others all do. Most companions have lines for this; the only exceptions are Anomen, Keldorn, Sarevok, Wilson, and the two that died during SoA.
We have assailed the heavens and returned victorious. Next time, we enter the dragon's lair.
Our travel continues, and soon we reach the entrance to Abazigal's lair - a cleared platform high up in the mountains. The coming fight is one of the most dangerous in the game, so I prepare:
I apply as many acid resistance buffs as I can without dipping into the consumables. Black Dragon Scale, Gorgon Plate, Armor of Faith, Protection from the Elements.
Oh, he thinks Abazigal will be the new god. How cute. No, he'll just be another corpse Dorn has to climb over on his path.
The fight is on, and the defenses go up. Draconis' humanoid form is a mage, and that's one of the things that makes this fight so dangerous.
Because every buff you don't take down while he's humanoid will carry over to the dragon form, and become unbreakable by effects such as Dispel and Breach. Fully piercing this forms's defenses is crucial to a smooth fight.
The initial defenses are Stoneskin, Improved Mantle, Spell Turning, and Globe of Invulnerability. Plus Improved Haste. I use a wand Pierce Magic and a Remove Magic to take down all but the Globe.
Done. But that's a nasty unarmed attack there. Hexxat backs off and drinks a potion. She's already low from the Horrid Wilting, and I'd prefer to avoid any deaths here.
Then Edwin gets a "weapon ineffective" notice ... ah. Contingent PFMW.
Which has now been Breached. We're good. Take him down.
And just in time, we pull back. Phase Two has arrived. Dragon form immediately casts a PFMW, so I have Hexxat go for a wand Breach ... no dice.
Draconis goes invisible and unleashes a breath weapon instead. All three of our warriors are caught in the effect and fall into the yellow.
Now, I'm wondering about the damage on Dorn. He has Protection from the Elements active, you see. Which should be 75% resistance ... oh. Acid isn't covered. You need either Protection from Acid or Protection from Energy. So Dorn has no acid resistance here. That breath weapon deals 24d6+18 (save for half) acid damage, an average of 102 before the save. Painful, but Dorn has over 200 HP and guaranteed breath saves. He can take it.
Draconis becomes visible again, and Edwin acts.
Spell Trigger. Pierce, Pierce, Breach. The PFMW is down, along with most of the dragon's magic resistance. Viconia throws in a Finger of Death, but it's mostly just melee attacks after that.
Victory is ours. None of the party ever dropped to critically low health, but it was still a serious challenge. And Viconia adds another dragon kill to her tally.
With Draconis' head, we can enter the lair. The first room inside poses only a minor challenge.
Lesser elementals? Here, this far into the game? What a joke.
Once all the enemies fall, our folk have a chat.
And if Korgan ever needed healing for his physical wounds, that threat might hold some bite. 3/round regeneration goes a long way toward rendering divine healing irrelevant.
Now, to get anywhere, we need to swim. And only one of the tunnels is usable right now.
We face frost salamanders. Their innate cold damage shield is painful, but they're fundamentally just mooks. And that sort of chip damage is something we heal from quickly.
The next room, with its inexplicably cozy design, has bone fiends.
They hit harder - that's a lot of damage on Korgan, since they focused on him exclusively. Though as usual, he'll heal quickly. The convenient pool here is full of the potion we need, and we loot the containers as well before heading back to the hub.
Again, we find our choices restricted.
Only one new path has opened up; we will need rope as well if we are to traverse the remaining two tunnels.
This new section has kuo-toan architecture, and the fish-men are joined by water elementals. Edwin casts a spell.
Well, that's a good hit on the elementals. But kuo-toa are 90% resistant to magic damage, so it's a complete waste on them. I won't be casting any more wilting spells in here.
And really, normal attacks are plenty.
That's another room down, including more water elementals. Kuo-toa stream in from the sides, and ...
See those chunks? That must be a level drain death. Which destroys equipment, so no bolts from that one. The warriors here are level 10 with 70 HP, so that's not a case of "drained to level zero", but instead merely that the level drain reduced the enemies maximum HP too far.
That brings us to the elemental prince.
Olhydra has a cold shield, so only Anomen enters melee with him. And he switches back to the dragon shield for cold immunity in this fight. No problem.
On a side note, this particular fireshield (SPCRYOD) wasn't updated to the 2.6 standard. Rather than using a projectile, it just deals damage with limited range.
Finally, we reach the exposition monk.
Hey, an explanation for "you can't heal him". Not that this party would; we're not in the business of dishing out healing to outsiders.
Anyway, we have a plan. Take the rope, get the reversal scroll, kill dragons. Got it. And thanks for the hand, too. Hindo's Doom gets an upgrade.
Now, back to the dungeon. We take a pool ...
This dragon can wait. We have more exploring to do first.
Ah. This is more interesting. A cave full of floating eyeballs. Oh, and Hexxat? Kill that Vigilant before it can sit on anybody. The rest of the party can fight the eyes that are actually hostile.
Battles continue, we spot a large group of eyeballs, and ...
Huh. You can actually backstab floating eyes. Weird. Anyway, that big clump deserves some magic.
A Skull Trap takes down two and severely wounds the others. We send in the party for the survivors, while Dorn goes after the new Vigilant.
Hexxat scouts another large group of eyeballs in the northeast. These, I've got the drop on ... Edwin, make that a Horrid Wilting. From outside visual range, so they can't react.
Five out of six die instantly, and a frontstab takes care of the last.
Then we reach Iycanth, and the infamous petrified newbies.
We'll do it. Or rather, they will.
Sure, we paid them some gold. It was worth it.
Also, we have to laugh at their incompetence. Can't backstab a floating eyeball? Hexxat can.
And now, since a lot of time has passed, we head back up to the pocket plane for a rest.
Fallen Anomen is very much in tune with Dorn here. Only a few more talks remain on the romance path, as we speed through the endgame.
Now, we take a pool ...
They're optional. I even already unlocked Iycanth's alcove. But I want to kill them. Beholder gear is on, including Hindo's Doom in Dorn's off hand for some added defensive security. Also, Edwin has both a Spell Shield and the Cloak of Mirroring for protection, since I don't normally send him after beholders.
Edwin gets hit by an antimagic ray. Spell Shield down.
But that's it. No second ray to break his defenses. Three elder orbs did almost nothing to us; just one cause wounds ray that didn't get resisted and one fireball that slightly injured two of the party.
All right. Now Iycanth can have his eyestalk.
Level 30 for Edwin. And now, we attack this madman who is clearly working for our enemy and populating this cave with monsters.
He summons a bunch of eyes, including some of types that we haven't seen before. Those need to die, quickly.
And so Edwin casts a Wilting. One "Eye of the Beholder" is still active, but Korgan will get it soon. Though the double Mislead from Iycanth is a bit much.
Well, that's convenient. The Chain Lightning proc finishes off the mage before killing his image can even reveal him.
Edwin took an antimagic ray from the beholder eye, canceling his stoneskin. Other than that, this encounter didn't do anything of note to us. What we do get out of it, though, is Dorn reaching the experience cap.
All right, time to face another dragon. Protection from its poison breath weapon is in place.
It wing buffets quickly for minor damage and no knockback, and then focuses on Korgan with its melee attacks. A simple slugfest.
Korgan pulled back before he could get dangerously low, and that Hardiness certainly did its job. Still, he's pretty low, and that would take a while to regenerate ... have a Heal.
We add a few more buffs, and now it's time for Abazigal himself.
But before we get to the boss fight proper, we have some mooks to clear out. Humanoid Abazigal is a pure melee fighter, so we just let him chase us while dealing with the salamanders.
Hardiness? Whirlwind? Kai? None of that matters when he can't reach anyone to take a swing. Also - sheesh, that's a lot of damage on Korgan from fighting the salamanders. Their retaliation damage is no joke.
Anyway, it doesn't take long to clear out all the minions.
Immune? Checking ... he has 80% innate missile resistance as a humanoid, so Hardiness took him to immunity there. Melee damage can still hurt him, though. And in the interest of speeding things up, I apply a wand Breach to remove that Hardiness.
After sufficient beatdown - and a bunch of hits from Abazigal on Dorn - he transforms. Phase 2 is on.
Abazigal has a knockback spell "abzaway" on transformation to prevent the bug seen with Draconis where you get stuck in him. Only it's type "MagicAttack", so Spell Shield blocks it. That shouldn't be.
Dorn drinks a potion, but Abazigal counters that with his breath. OK, back off again for a bit. But at the same time, we've been burning through the dragon's defenses - Pierce Magic and Lower Resistance reducing MR by 50%.
That means we're good to add some offensive spells. Mostly wand stuff, because I don't like the risk of interruption. And another Secret Word, because the dragon had two spell defenses I needed to take down rather than just one.
Abazigal is tough, but progress is inexorable.
And then, it's over.
Dorn gets the final blow. Victory is ours.
Korgan levels to 39; he actually got the experience he needed back when we were killing minions. I give him a fourth dot in flails and a fourth Critical Strike.
Another Bhaalspawn has fallen. Next time, we face the Underdark followers of Sendai.
(I really hate my flaky internet connection sometimes. Write up the post, wait for connection to start working, get all the pictures uploaded, check the formatting with a preview, hit post ... connection dies. And is completely dead for hours, until I finally decide to go to the library so I can actually see if it went up. It didn't.)
With Sendai dead, Dorn is again dragged off to speak with the Solar.
This time, it's all about the prophecy, and Dorn's usurped place in it. It's not easy to find lines here that actually fit Dorn's character - after all, the game assumes your protagonist was actually born with their dark power.
Then we make a proper visit to the pocket plane. First, to cash in some new upgrades. The Flail of Ages +5 is great, though Viconia losing her boots of speed is annoying. The Blue Dragon Plate is ... well, there aren't any more blue dragons to fight. What would we even need all that electric resistance for?
Anomen takes this opportunity to speak up.
No need to speak fancily. Dorn likes things direct and simple.
Second, there's a new challenge to face.
It opens with Dorn's "doubt" speaking to him. Bah. There is no place for doubt when so much power is on the line.
And so we fight. Against the Slayer.
It's an easy fight. The Slayer is tough, but it's dumb and very vulnerable to a party.
Before we head off to Sendai's enclave, there's one more thing to do.
We have now combined the pantaloons. Korgan gets to be the game's second largest dwarf now. Or the largest, given that he's already killed #1.
It's not only the armor that has its uses. Dorn takes the special ammo to use with his crossbow, on those rare occasions he isn't fighting in melee. And equipment gets shuffled again, since the upgraded flail gave Viconia a bit more magic resistance. She's back to the Fyrus Khal shield for slightly worse AC, but she's still quite good for melee.
Now we travel.
Ooh. It is a bad time, but yes. Dorn will accept your eternal commitment, And hold you to it once he's a god.
And here's the ring as a sign of that commitment. Which is wearable in-game, but you'd never actually do it unless you were a wizard slayer. Just assume that it's on a different finger than that hand's magical ring.
All right, now we can talk to the woodcutter.
We're a bit suspicious, so we prepare ... actually, I know exactly what's coming, so I get out the beholder gear. Including off-hand Hindo's Doom for Dorn, because Hive Mother disintegration rays have a save at -4, and his 60% MR and -2 spell saves aren't safe enough against that.
I do make a bit of a mistake, and lose some wand charges to an antimagic ray. I drop the wands on the ground after that.
But it goes well. With four party members I'm confident of using against the hive mother, we clear out the drow and umber hulks quickly enough. It only takes one more hit after that, from Anomen.
All right, back to the woodcutter. Hexxat sets some traps ...
... but we still go to check out the graves. What trap will it be this time?
Oh no, another ambush. Just a bunch of drow and a couple of gauths, though. Why am I even bothering with the beholder gear, anyway?
The ambush is crushed, and I even bring Hexxat in to stab down one of the crossbowmen.
All right, what does the woodcutter have to say for himself now?
Oh, he's disappointed that we're still alive. What a surprise. Also, a tip - try attacking before we get the chance to trap the area.
The woodcutter, and most of his nearby allies, fall instantly. Though there's still a wizard to worry about - get some force over there immediately.
Two rounds of Mislead, Improved Mantle ... not enough to stop us. Though the fireshield does inflict some damage.
For some reason, the game is really sluggish right now. I actually quit, close another program that was using a lot of resources, and come back. Does it help? Well, I'm fighting the rest of the drow on the map now.
In their smaller groups, these drow don't stand a chance. The only really notable enemy is the wizard in the southwest.
After all, mage defenses do make the wizards last a bit longer. But only a bit.
And now we enter the enclave.
We start off easy, with myconids. And ignore the spore colonies long enough for them to summon aid ... that was a mistake. Not because the myconids they summon are any trouble, but because the visual effects tank my performance again.
Also, some more critters are coming in. Umber Hulks and Mutated Spiders. More fodder to beat up, though more dangerous than the basic myconids.
We continue to press forward, and face some actual drow.
These look like fodder warriors. Dorn, pop a Deathblow.
And ... that doesn't help. Though in retrospect, using a Greater Deathblow would have. These fodder warriors are level 12. Still, we beat them up with damage easily enough. And, since the game is still performing badly, I quit again. Maybe it's the heat? I'll try another session when it's a bit cooler, on another day.
All right, new session. Hopefully without the horrible slowdowns this time. We're on to the next battle, in a drow guard post.
That is a lot of drow. Dorn, since you're out in front - use Hardiness.
Then the leader charges, so I hit him with a backstab and some focused attention...
The final blow is a surprise. A Chain Lightning proc from Anomen's mace? Thelynn'ss has 90% magic resistance. That's some serious luck getting that to land.
Also, as it turns out, the Hardiness was unnecessary. Dorn finishes the room at nearly full health thanks to the power of his life-draining swords.
The key opens up the next area, where Sendai has sent more minions to slow us down.
This cavern brings on the slaves. Derro to start with, two melee and two ranged every two rounds. And only moving forward will stop their spawning; this room allows for potentially unlimited grinding if you have the staying power for it. At 12K experience per dwarf, that works pretty fast.
We're all pretty close to the cap, and Dorn is already there. No need to dawdle. But even just fighting forward at a natural pace, Viconia reaches level 40.
She's the second member of the party to reach the experience cap. The level is ... well, two hit points gained and nothing else.
Near the middle of the room, we reach the Slavemaster again.
That changes up the spawns. Now it's orogs, who spawn a little slower at four every 14 seconds. The're also lower level and worth a tenth as much experience as the derro, but the gear that they carry sells for much better prices. Of course, we have to kill the derro currently on the field before we get around to the orogs.
And then, we meet the Slavemaster one last time.
He calls in a few umber hulk elders, and attacks personally. Once he's dead, no more enemies spawn in.
Though we still have to kill what's left. Including those hulks, which Anomen avoids due to his weak spell save. As we're mopping up, Korgan dings level 40; I give him a fifth Hardiness. Half of our party is now capped.
Now, we could continue forward ... but I feel like clearing the other path too.
This room has a horde of spiders instead. Once I deal with the initial bunch, I have Hexxat go invisible and look for traps.
Which requires no limited resources whatsoever, thanks to the power of the Staff of the Magi.
Hexxat also spots the boss, so ...
... she goes for a backstab. Looks like it'll take another.
Two hits, and dead. Now Hexxat retreats so the party can deal with those Vortex Spiders.
Oh hey, a rare spell. Vortex Spiders cast "Vortex Web", an innate clone of "Slow" which lasts 45 seconds. So Anomen won't be any good in combat for the next few rounds. Their attack also has instantly lethal poison on a failed death save at -2, which most of our party can safely ignore based on saves or immunity. Viconia's slightly vulnerable, though.
After clearing the remaining traps, the party is ready to move forward ... but this part is long enough already. Next time, we continue through the dungeon and face Sendai's elites instead of just her fodder troops.
Before we get to those elite forces, though, we still have an area to clear out - one that's full of ordinary drow.
This particular party guarding a building does a total of zero damage. But they're not the only ones. More parties like that are scattered around, and one even spawns in behind me.
These are all spawn points, using tokens for groups that are unique to Sendai's lair.
Also, with these fights, Anomen reaches his cap of 64K less XP than he would need for level 40. Edwin dings level 31, his last. And Hexxat hits the cap as well.
She takes crossbow proficiency, an eighth spike trap, and dumps all of her skill points into Pick Pockets for lack of anything better to do.
Of the two doors that lead somewhere we haven't been before, one is locked and requires a key. We take the other door, as it is the only way to move forward. And within, we face a lich. He's up on a platform protected by traps ... so I go for a long-distance attack.
I could just let that play out until the lich dies. But just to be sure, I disarm the traps on the direct route, have Anomen cast fire protection on himself, and send him in with Turn Undead active.
Splat. The lich cast his spell trigger (True Sight, Remove Magic, Death Spell) but didn't manage anything else offensive.
Those three items are two upgrade tokens and the key we need. We head up to cash those tokens in (nothing we regularly use), then continue forward.
Now we face the priestess Diaytha. But first, we have an elemental prince to kill. And this one, we actually have to fight. There's technically an instant kill option, but the Staff of Earth would require both an Enchant Weapon spell and a failed save - not worth it, and likely to become a real fight anyway.
That's three hits on Anomen to force him to retreat. Ogremoch hits hard. But no more hits after that, just chip damage from his earthquakes.
Korgan gets this kill.
The other door is now open. Diaytha and her minions await. And I'd prefer if they came to me.
They aren't too bad, one by one. But Diaytha casts Insect Plague and Creeping Doom - not normally cleric spells, but in flavor for a Lolth follower - and those are troublesome.
The vampire, the abishai, and the demon knight all come out to face us here. Two enemies remain - Diaytha herself and a Hive Mother. For this, we get out the beholder gear and leave much of the party behind.
There. But not without pain; the Hive Mother's Cause Wounds ray ignores MR for no good reason, and that catches Viconia. But we had full protection against the instant death effects, and that's what I cared about here.
The next room in this gauntlet is a duel.
Turn off AI, and just tell Dorn to attack. I don't need anything fancy here.
Dorn took a hit, but he healed it back with a Blackrazor drain. No net damage.
Next up, illithids. The ulitharid in the first room stuns Viconia, but it only has an umber hulk for company. I can avoid her taking any heat until the stun wears off. Whack the two vampiric illithids hiding behind doors, apply Chaotic Commands to the two clerics, and move forward to Mithykyl's room.
Five out of six party members have absolute charm immunity right now. So naturally, Edwin eats a Domination.
Maybe he should have gotten a Chaotic Commands too.
Fortunately, dominated Edwin isn't smart enough to cast spells. And he has THAC0 10 with his thrown daggers, so he needs a crit to hit anybody.
The actual enemies here are rather easy.
Even advanced illithids fold when they can't get you with status effects. Now we just have to wait out that domination.
Once we do, we head up to the pocket plane to make two more upgrades. The upgraded version of Angurvadal is no longer of any use to Dorn, but at least the +5 version of Firetooth is a strict improvement.
And now, Sendai herself.
She has used the time bought by her minions to prepare, animating statues to fight for her. Kill one statue, and the next activates along with a pair of fodder drow arriving. In order, the statues are a cleric, a mage, a kensai/thief, a berserker, a cleric/mage, an archer, and an assassin.
The initial cleric goes down quickly - I didn't even notice it casting anything - and that brings the mage.
That's the Staff of the Magi Hexxat is preparing to "backstab" with. No damage, but it'll dispel the mage's defenses. As the mage's backup defenses don't include a Stoneskin or any absolute weapon defenses, it dies almost immediately after that.
Meanwhile, Dorn and Viconia are holding the entrance. And I have Edwin summon a planetar to join them.
The kensai/thief manages to get in a backstab, but still falls quickly.
Also, Korgan can take it. A 91-point backstab is still less than half of his total hit points.
The berserker, seen in that last shot's log, gets some damage in on Anomen before we eliminate it. That brings out the cleric/mage.
An ordinary beatdown handles that. And while we do, our team clears out the doorway.
Two more statues remain. An archer, that is quickly shredded by our melee attacks, and an assassin.
So much for them. Time for Sendai herself. Plus four invisible stalkers, and the last remnants of her reinforcements. I leave the planetar in the doorway, while the rest of the party turns to Sendai and her summons.
Sendai has lots of buffs. Edwin has Remove Magic.
No more of that, please. Her reserve Improved Mantle only slows us down marginally.
Ooh, Implosion. But that only targeted the planetar rather than anyone who actually matters, and she doesn't have melee power to follow up on the immobilization. Also, thats another dispelling hit so the Improved Mantle is no longer an issue.
The only real trouble at this point is placement; on that platform, we can't get everyone in position to attack. But what we do bring to bear is more than enough.
Sendai is defeated. She speaks of Balthazar in her spite, but that we could have easily predicted - the man was never going to tolerate Dorn any longer than necessary.
Cutscenes follow. The Solar wishes to speak to Dorn again.
What's complicated about it? Kill all the Bhaalspawn, claim their power, ascend.
But the exposition continues. The Solar brings back a shade of Yaga-Shura to tell of the Five's plan:
They wished to be demigods, serving a restored Bhaal. Hmph. Eternal service is no reward.
Clearly, for all their power, these Bhaalspawn had too little ambition.
Edwin reached the experience cap during the battle with Sendai; the post-battle experience rewards were wasted, as the entire party is now capped.
Clearing Sendai's dungeon has taken considerable time, and the sun has risen outside. As we leave, Hexxat puts on her cloak. And the old meddler shows up.
He has some advice for us on how to enter the monastery to reach Balthazar. Well, if we haven't gotten Saemon killed yet, we'll do that.
And no, Edwin, there's no point in picking a fight with Elminster. It just isn't worth it.
Now, back to the pocket plane. Our fourth challenge is ready.
This time, Cyric pokes his nose in. After all, he claimed the "murder" portfolio when Bhaal fell, and that makes Dorn a rival.
But even the gods have rules they must follow, and Cyric cannot openly attack us. He can, however, send a "challenge".
We have a few rounds to prepare. Set traps, cast True Seeing.
Three traps successfully laid. One enemy instantly killed. The other two are alive, but we have made them visible. The fight is on.
Sadly, these thieves can go invisible repeatedly, and one instance of True Seeing wasn't enough to stop their backstabs. Anomen takes one stab for 53 damage, and Edwin takes another for zero.
Sendai has fallen, and only one of the Five remains. Next time, we take on Balthazar and prepare for the end.
We return to Amkethran with a new goal - to reach Balthazar. We will not go unopposed, though - the mercenaries are hostile now.
Still, they don't accomplish anything. They may have powerfully enchanted gear, but they just don't have the levels to compete with us.
Now, we wish to meet with Saemon. He was working with the smugglers, so we'll start by heading to their cave. The path there from the inn is clear. And Saemon is there.
He's as much of a weasel as ever - but it seems he's on our side, for the moment.
We're in. Into the monastery, that is.
We pass by the gate guards on his word - do they truly not notice, or is something else at play? But then we reach the door to Balthazar's chambers, and the exact scheme becomes clear.
Saemon promised to deliver us. Drugged into compliance. He just neglected to perform the latter part, because it's Balthazar he wants to screw over now.
Of course, that's not the end of it. We still have to fight this batch of guards, and they have some real power. But not nearly enough to stop us.
Edwin used a Remove Magic. Anomen took symbols of stun and fear when one of the mages got a Time Stop off despite that. But we're still just fine. Dorn and Korgan switched to normal weapons when the last mage used a PFMW, and that was that.
After waiting for some spell effects to expire, we enter to meet Balthazar.
Well, that's a bit different. Balthazar isn't looking to raise Baal, or even to empower himself. He wants to destroy Bhaal's essence forever.
Not that it matters to us. Balthazar would be out to kill Dorn either way, and he must die for Dorn's plan to succeed as well. Time for the inevitable battle.
We haven't rested since Sendai's enclave, and Edwin's stoneskin has expired. He doesn't have one left to cast either - but he can still contribute, as long as he keeps his distance from the enemy combatants. First up, an Improved Haste on Korgan ... who adds a Critical Strike to that.
Balthazar himself is immune to critical hits, but his monk followers play by the rules. Korgan is putting out damage at an absurd rate. One round of that ability, and the minions go down.
OK, there's still one alive, and the Critical Strike ability has expired. But it only takes one more hit to finish that monk and leave Balthazar alone.
Meanwhile, Dorn is stunned in that shot - that's Balthazar's Tiger Strike ability. Balthazar has a lot of hit points, and a lot of neat tricks. Including a "Second Wind" that fully heals him. Still, we eventually corner him, and Dorn uses a Greater Whirlwind. That brings him down. We took lots of damage, but nobody died. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of this phase of the fight.
With Balthazar dead, the Solar whisks us away one last time.
This time, it's all about Melissan's plan.
She promised to raise Bhaal - but now that the time comes, she seeks only to raise herself. She is truly a foe worthy of Dorn - the final enemy on his path to godhood.
The final confrontation approaches. One will fall, and one will rise.
But first, we have a few things to take care of. Back down in the mortal realm, we walk out the front gate of Balthazar's monastery ... and are confronted by a group of monks.
Naturally, they're rather mad about what we did to their leader. Very well, they can die too.
I waited out the Lunar Malison before heading out - which also gave time for the party to regenerate. That's why they're all at full health now.
The monks fall easily enough, and we head out looking for any mercenaries ... but it seems that without their employer, they have deserted. Only a few remain.
For those whose loyalty transcended coin, the reward is death.
But what is this?
Saemon is dead, struck down by an agent of Tyr. The Scroll of Retribution has done its work.
Saemon drops a few things for us. His swords, to sell. A Rod of Shadowstep, allowing anyone to use that Shadowdancer ability. And a journal.
Which is a joke, like the whole option of inscribing Saemon's name.
Now, we visit the priest in Amkethran to sell some things, and Karthis to sell more things. By the time we're done ... we have over 3 million gold. If you understand the mechanics of how to sell high, this game lets you get absolutely stinking rich.
And now, time for the final pocket plane challenge.
A bit overdramatic there. Once the Ravager is defeated, we'll be able to go to the Throne. But we'll still have a choice.
I could have Edwin do some clever Chain Contingency tricks ... but nah. I'll just fight the thing head on.
And we get off to a good start, as Viconia lands a slowing hit in the first round. Next up, Dorn whirls with Soul Reaver.
The Ravager starts with an effective THAC0 of -14 (slashing). By the time Dorn's done whirling, that's about 6. And it only gets worse from there. It won't be hitting anything unless it gets lucky with a crit. Though, the bone blades have been piling up ... wilt them.
That's at least a quarter of the Ravager's hit points down. Injured. But clearing out the blades doesn't last, and they soon return to harassing the party. Edwin wilts again, and this time he walks out to distract the blades.
Also, the Ravager is badly injured now - below half health. Edwin keeps the blades chasing him, the party keeps bashing, and the Ravager falls to "Near Death" status. I have Dorn whirl again ...
... but it's Korgan that delivers the final blow.
I did drink a couple healing potions during the fight, since Viconia took considerable damage from the blade barrier and Dorn took a number of bone blade hits. The Ravager also has an "Urge to Kill" spell it uses on non-protagonist evil party members (2-round charm, save at -6), but that never connected and I didn't even notice it being used.
With the Ravager down, the last acts of romance follow. First, Viconia.
A clear message for Dorn. Trust in Viconia, and take comfort with her - but don't let that hold you back.
Then, Anomen.
Anomen isn't quite as sure - but he promises to support Dorn no matter his choice.
Now, we could head out to face Melissan now - but there's one last thing to do. We inscribed two names in the Scroll of Retribution, and only one of those names has faced justice so far.
I check the scripts ... it's a two-week timer? That long? It hasn't even expired yet. So we head back down for some aimless travel ... and then force it when I notice a BDOFFSCR in the save; the missing messenger bug struck again.
It is time for Noober to get what's coming to him.
That line from the planetar is voiced, by the way.
It slays Noober, but ...
The jig is up. This planetar remembers Dorn.
Anyway, here's the full dialogue:
And now, we must fight again. This planetar cannot be allowed to report back to Lunia.
But with one planetar alone against the full party, it doesn't stand a chance. It doesn't even get off a single spell or attack roll before dying.
And now, on day 117, we're ready. About ten of those days were spent running out Noober's timer and then realizing it didn't trigger properly. Nothing more remains to do on Faerun. Next time, we fight the final battle against Melissan.
We apply a few buffs, and then leave the pocket plane for the last time. The Throne of Bhaal manifests as a platform of bone, floating in a seemingly endless void. The platform is not alone; it is surrounded by several smaller platforms and pierced by a column of energy that is undoubtedly a manifestation of Bhaal's essence.
And we are not alone either. Melissan has come here already, and shed her human guise for a more monstrous form influenced by the dead god's power.
She says we're too late, but we know the truth. This can't end until either she is defeated, or Dorn is. The fight is on.
Melissan opens by summoning a pair of glabrezu, but we focus mainly on her ... and her stoneskin means it's quite a while before we even start doing damage. 10 skins, spell level 8, spell protections type - you need something like a Secret Word to break it quickly. Which we didn't use.
While our hits are being absorbed by the skins, Melissan is attacking Dorn back. And she hits pretty hard; before long, Dorn falls back to use Hardiness.
Still, we're hitting her now. But not enough to stop her big spell ...
If she felt like it, she could absolutely just walk over to Dorn and kill him. But she feels more like playing with her prey. She hits Anomen a couple times, then wanders off to cast summoning spells. Nobody dies.
At this point, I just want to inflict enough damage on her to end this fight. So Korgan gives it a whirlwind.
That brings her to "Badly Injured" - below half health. Which, according to her override script, means she should leave. But she doesn't. We keep the beatdown going, and she's all the way to Near Death (below 25%) when she finally gets the message.
A few of those summons remain, but we clean them up without any real trouble. While the fight was scary and not really under control, we got through it without any deaths.
Now, we set a few traps and get some healing in, before heading off to the side platform that has just been connected to.
Melissan has called forth an elemental prince, Yan-C-Bin. Along with some air elementals and vampiric wraiths. Anomen handles the undead mists, while Dorn and Korgan take on the boss in melee and the rest of the party provides ranged support.
Before long, only the prince remains. And now that he has our full attention, he doesn't last long.
Dorn claims the pool. Melissan can't just take this lying down, of course.
But this time, we're ready for her. Hexxat laid four spike traps. About two seconds later ...
Well, that worked out great. How about another four spike traps in the same place?
That brings us to the second pool, guarded by an elemental prince of ice.
Cryonax inflicts cold damage on anyone who hits him in melee, as do the two salamanders. We'll just bull through that. As for the Blizzard Trolls ... have Korgan deal with them. He's really good at that.
With how this party regenerates, a bit of damage spread out like that is nothing.
Dorn claims this second pool, and we are again returned to the central platform.
Melissan doesn't even bother saying anything for round three. She just comes, takes four spike traps, and leaves.
Unfortunately, we're out of spike traps. Hexxat places seven of her normal snares instead. But it just won't be the same.
The third and last of the side platforms is open - this time, with demonic guards.
A pair of mariliths, a succubus, an alu-fiend, and a fallen solar to lead them. Korgan rages, because I really don't want him getting charmed. Also, we concentrate on that succubus first. Then the fallen solar, because vorpal weapons should be taken seriously even when we have protection.
That just leaves the alu-fiend and the mariliths. The mariliths still have their PFMW protection up, so we can't hurt them ... until Edwin casts a Remove Magic.
The pool is clear. Only Melissan herself, in her final incarnation, awaits us. Wait out some timers, heal up, and claim the pool.
While we were waiting, Edwin prepared a Chain Contingency - just this once. Two Lower Resistance spells and a Pierce Shield, targeting the nearest enemy as soon as one is sighted.
The traps go off, dealing minimal damage. I suspect some may even have been absorbed by stoneskins. The contingency goes off, and Melissan has no magic resistance left. Then our warriors whirl. Dorn uses Soul Reaver targeting Melissan, while Korgan uses his axe targeting the Slayer Shadow.
That was Korgan's first hit. OK, pivot to Melissan.
Mel still has a stoneskin up, so Edwin Breaches it. No effect, since her version of the spell has the wrong type. But she's alone, and we're getting a lot of hits in; it doesn't take long to just burn through the skins naturally.
The whirlwinds expire, and Mel is already down below half health. Dorn and Korgan use Hardiness. About the only thing she actually did successfully was to dispel our Mass Invisibility with True Sight.
And then, it's over.
Zero damage taken in the final battle. A flawless victory. Wow.
Looking at the scripts, it was easier than it should have been. Mel is supposed to open the final battle by summoning two slayer shadows, a balor, and a cambion. Instead, she merely summoned that one slayer shadow which died nearly instantly.
The solar arrives, and decrees Dorn's victory. Melissan loses the Bhaal essence and dies. The time to choose has come.
Of course, the solar has more exposition to deliver - and her own opinion.
But that opinion doesn't matter. Dorn will accept only his own party's counsel, not that of some moralizing do-gooder from the heavens. Besides, she does not speak of opposing Dorn herself; her place in this is only to oversee.
Then the party gets their chances to weigh in. First, Hexxat.
Hexxat is ambivalent. She has never been comfortable with her own vampiric power, after all. But even she can recognize that Dorn is well-suited for this role.
Second, Dorn.
Dorn keeps it simple. If you've been paying any attention at all, you should know what he wants. Power. And slaughter.
Third, Korgan.
Korgan is mercenary as always. He thinks Dorn should take the power - and use it to reward his loyal companions. Well, if it's gold he wants ... just splitting the party's gold evenly leaves Korgan with more than half a million gold pieces. That should be enough for whatever he seeks to do next.
Fourth, Edwin.
Edwin just thinks Dorn should get it over with and do what he's been planning to.
Fifth, Viconia. With her romance in play, it's an actual conversation.
And she has a lot to say.
But for all that, her answer is clear. Romantic attachment is not more important than power. Dorn should take it and become a god - perhaps even her god.
And since Viconia went so long, the solar calls upon Dorn to make his choice without giving Anomen the chance to speak (actually, it's that the dialogues for romanced characters don't loop back to the state that everybody replies to, since the game assumes you won't be in multiple committed romances).
The choice is clear. Dorn will be the new Lord of Murder.
The solar gets in one last word...
... and so does Viconia.
Dorn's mortal life is over, as he takes his rightfully usurped place in the planes.
One more update after this, looking both forward and back.
And so we come to the end. A prologue, 19 parts in act 1, an interlude, 33 parts in act 2, 14 parts in act 3, and this epilogue. 69 total updates over 23 weeks.
First, some kill counts. These are from the latest save I have, which is the chapter save entering the final area. Obviously, the pool guardians and Mel's summons would add a bit to these.
Dorn: 1012 kills for 5101890 XP. His top kill was the green dragon Fll'Yissetat at 60K.
Korgan: 1153 kills for 6236184 XP. His top kill was the red dragon Saladrex at 64K.
Anomen: 573 kills for 2737982 XP. His top kill was a beholder Hive Mother at 50K.
Viconia: 246 kills for 1033928 XP. Her top kill was the brown dragon Draconis at 61K.
Hexxat: 606 kills for 3141607 XP. Her top kill was the red dragon Firkraag at 64K.
Edwin: 278 kills for 1313670 XP. His top kill was the Chromatic Demon at 55K.
Nothing really surprising there; I let the warriors take the lead, worked to get Hexxat lots of backstabs, and didn't use a whole lot of spells. Character XP totals ranged from about 8.2 million to about 8.7 million, only slightly ahead of the cap because I didn't go for the big grinding options.
And now, the last of the narrative. Some portions of the in-game epilogues are used here, but the bulk is my own work. With inspiration from another game's ending in the first part.
Reality in the outer planes is often more metaphorical than physical, and so it was for Dorn as he accepted the fallen god's power into himself. The solar, his companions, and even the bone platform itself faded away.
In its place, there now stood a seeming mountain, with a switchbacked path ascending it.
Dorn knew it now. This was the true Throne of Bhaal, and the god's power would be his when he completed his ascent.
Dorn's first step upon the path came with a crunch, and he looked down to see bones beneath his feet, streaked with the red of blood. Dorn could almost hear a voice now - "You got this coming!"
And with that voice came a memory - when he had turned on the Bhaalspawn Sod and taken the first step on the bloody path that led him here.
Dorn looked ahead. As far as he could see, the path was paved in bones, with a trickle of blood flowing downward. It seemed this ascent would take him through the last year of his life, over the blood and bones of his victims and defeated enemies, on the way to the summit's power.
At that, Dorn's resolve only hardened. Perhaps a lesser man would feel regret looking back on so much death and destruction, but not Dorn. With another step forward, he began a steady march.
Memories came with every step, some stronger than others.
Tarnesh.
Bassilus.
Greywolf.
Kirinhale.
Brage.
Entillis Fulsom.
Phandalyn.
Zhalimar Cloudwulfe.
Selaad and Baresh.
Krystin.
Patsy.
Suna Seni.
Rayic Gethras.
Embarl.
Bollard Firejaw.
Fil.
Xachrimos.
Raffiyah.
Rejiek Hidesman.
Alchra Diagott.
Chalinthra.
Deirex.
Catti-Brie.
Lea'liyl.
Vaelasa.
Kangaxx.
Drush.
Rock.
Azamantes.
Cless Ironeye.
Lanneth.
Nizidramanii'yt.
Wraith Sarevok.
Gromnir Il-Khan.
Imix.
Umolex.
Fll'Yissetat.
Abazigal.
Egeissag.
Inevitably, the path came to an end as Dorn reached the summit. The power was finally his. Let the heavens tremble, for Dorn is the new Lord of Murder!
Without their leader to unite them, Dorn's mortal companions scattered. But still, they all left their mark upon the realms.
Korgan took his share of the party's wealth and returned to Amkethran - only to find that Balthazar's fall had left the region in chaos. Without him to pay them, the mercenary army he had assembled deserted - but they did not all simply leave. Many remained in the area and turned to banditry.
To Korgan, this was an opportunity. Korgan took a commission from the Tethyrian government to hunt down the bandits. The job paid relatively little gold up front, but Korgan negotiated full rights to the salvaged arms and armor of the defeated bandits. With this windfall of heavily enchanted equipment, and numerous mercenaries that chose to join him rather than fall under his axe and hammer, the dwarf was able to found his own mercenary band - the Golden Company.
The Golden Company would become a major player in the region for decades to come, but eventually Korgan's thirst for carnage struck again. He took contingents of his company into the Underdark on several occasions, raiding drow settlements and returning with great wealth. Until one time, the drow were prepared for him. An alliance of several drow Houses encircled the small band that Korgan brought and overwhelmed them, with only a single scout escaping to tell the tale. Korgan was last seen burying his axe in the gullet of a high priest of Lolth, laughing as he struck.
Even without their founder, the Golden Company remained and spread the tale. Korgan's raids for drow riches were immortalized as a righteous crusade, and the scout's final memory of him became an icon of the company. History, it seems, finds more legends than madmen.
Edwin exploited the infamy he earned in his travels with Dorn to finally return to Thay. Those who had denounced him and driven him out found their fortunes suffer, and many ended up dead from mysterious causes. In time, he achieved enough influence to subjugate even the Red Wizards themselves, becoming the greatest leader they had known in recent memory. Very recent memory, it turns out, as he was deposed scant days later. Such is the brief nature of conquerors in Thay, and Edwin had made more enemies than most in his rise.
Still, Edwin survived this affair and went into exile again. But inevitably, his pride got the better of him and he challenged Elminster himself to combat. Without the warrior allies he once had, Edwin was unable to defeat the legendary wizard, and the short battle saw the end of Edwin's existence in the realms.
Edwina, however, tends bar in a Waterdeep tavern. She is a bitter, bitter woman.
Beyond her acquaintance with Dorn before his ascension, little is known of Hexxat, which is doubtless how she preferred it. Cabrina continued to tell tales of the vampire to new agents of Larloch - but replaced the cautionary tale of her loss in Dragomir's Tomb with the inspirational one of her return seemingly from death to complete the mission she was assigned.
Decades later, tales would spread through Chult of the Faded Woman, a vengeful, demonic entity who targeted clerics of Ubtao and drained their bodies of blood. A young crusader sworn to Lathander by the name of Baran heard these tales and sought out their source, finally tracking it down as the last of the priesthood fell.
Baran easily recognized the signs of a vampire, but the circumstances were odd. As the dawn skies brightened and night passed into day, the creature he sought sat motionless upon a temple roof in seeming prayer. Wary of whatever strange magics it had protected itself from daylight with, Baran stayed back and watched. Then a miracle occurred. A bolt of divine power fell from the cloudless sky to utterly obliterate the vampire and all of its possessions.
In Baran's mind, this could only have been the work of his god. He told the tale far and wide, converting many former followers of Ubtao to the worship of Lathander. Only a few pockets of Ubtao worship remain, scattered among Chultan immigrant communities in other lands.
Unlike the other members of their party, Anomen and Viconia stayed together. They had been closest to Dorn, and their shared bond tied them to each other as well. They continued their worship of Shar and Helm for a time, but that loyalty was soon tested.
A spark of divine inspiration drew the pair to a nearby dwarven stronghold, Mount Deepstone. But the stronghold had fallen. Shadowy undead creatures roamed both inside and out, feasting on both dwarves and invaders marked with Sharran symbols. Clearly, some battle had taken place here and both sides had fallen to the creatures. Anomen and Viconia delved into the mines beneath the stronghold together, slaying the undead along the way and finding nothing alive. Until, deep beneath the earth, they found the portal the creatures were entering through. Anomen stayed at the portal, ensuring no more creatures could survive crossing its threshold, while Viconia passed through to seek out and destroy its source.
On the other side of the portal, Viconia found a shadow dragon holding it open, the first truly living creature she had seen at the mountain. It spoke, and its words were a devastating truth. This was all Shar's work. An invasion of undead seeking to destroy all life, the callous sacrifice of her own servants - Viconia had not been drawn here to stop the invasion, but to celebrate it.
That was too far for Viconia. She had been drawn to Shar as the mistress of shadows, secrets, and loss - not this mad goddess seeking to destroy all life. Viconia renounced her former allegiance on the spot, slaying the dragon and escaping through the collapsing portal before it could close. The threat at Mount Deepstone was ended, but at a terrible personal cost.
Yet all was not lost. Viconia sat in prayer at the gates of Deepstone, and found her divine powers restored. From that day forth, she was the first of Dorn's clerics, the high priestess of Murder.
Two days later, Anomen's prayer brought a vision from Helm. In it, the Watcher spoke to him with the truth that Anomen had denied himself for many months. In his anger and vengeance, Anomen had drifted far from the precepts of Helm. Yet now, there was a true alternative. Anomen could turn to the new power Dorn, and Helm would not stop him - for the two gods were not enemies. And with that, Anomen joined Viconia as the second of Dorn's priesthood.
Under Viconia and Anomen's leadership, the priesthood of Dorn spread throughout the realms from their stronghold in Tethyr. The followers of Murder had many enemies, and places they could worship openly were rare, but cults hid in practically every city of note. Their most constant enemies were the followers of Tyr, as murder is always unjust and Dorn had incurred the god's enmity even before his ascension.
Three years after their temple's founding, Viconia and Anomen announced the birth of their daughter, a gray-skinned half-elf by the name of Moiratha. Yet as she grew, she manifested innate powers similar to those the Bhaalspawn once had, and whispers spread that she was the daughter of Dorn as well as his two priests.
In addition to the enemies of Dorn, Anomen and Viconia had enemies of their own. When Moiratha was but ten years old, Sharran assassins infiltrated the temple and slew her mother Viconia. Anomen and a contingent of his loyal followers struck out in revenge and razed the nearest temple of Shar, but the damage was done already. The first of Dorn's priests was murdered.
Ten more years passed, and Anomen gradually let down his guard. Thinking himself secure one night, he lay down to sleep - only to be ambushed by an enemy long forgotten. Yusef, son of Saerk Farrahd, finally came for his revenge. He had learned some of the mage's craft, and scried for the perfect opportunity. With a single blow, the sleeping Anomen was slain.
But Yusef had neglected one thing in his preparations. Moiratha was awake nearby, and rushed into the room on hearing what happened. She slew Yusef on the spot, completing the cycle of revenge and taking her place in Dorn's priesthood.
With the murder of Anomen, the tale of Dorn's mortal companions came to an end. Viconia and Anomen would go on to take high places within Dorn's immortal court after their deaths - higher for certain than the devil Ur-Gothoz, who had been Dorn's patron in life but found the position reversed with his ascension.
Comments
After talking with Melissan, Dorn realizes that he can use the pocket plane to leave Saradush. Well, actually, the interface there just changes to allow it. The game doesn't want you to be able to skip fighting Gromnir.
In any case, we take this new ability and head out.
Once the soldiers are elminated, Karthis comes out.
Now, on to the rest of the area. More soldiers await, along with giants.
After clearing out a few regular soldiers and the backstab victim, we cross the next bridge. Or rather, Hexxat does alone.
Then the party joins in for the regular soldier, and we keep moving forward. Hexxat looks for new backstab targets, and finds one in a cleric:
Hexxat backstabs down the second cleric, Korgan fights some mooks and finishes the battle with no further damage. Dorn ends the battle at full health plus 4, because his Blackrazor/Foebane combo is ridiculous.
With the end of the battle, the area is clear. Hexxat reaches level 39, taking +20 Pick Pockets so she'll never need the pickpocket gloves, +5 Find Traps for that one trap outside Sendai's lair, and a second Time Trap. The party returns to Saradush to rest at the Tankard Tree, and I end the session.
In the new session, the party heads back out on the road. And rather than going east for our quest, we head west to Watcher's Keep. It's time to retrieve our stash, then head down and deal with the Imprisoned One.
Opening the portal provides 20K XP each. Level 37 for Viconia.
And then, we talk.
This short excursion earned us a total of 205K experience each. In addition to the two levels noted before, Anomen reached level 37 with that last step and Dorn reached level 31. He took his fourth Greater Whirlwind.
And now, we have no reason to ever come here again. The rest of the keep is still open, but there's nothing left there.
We take the shortcut back to where we were before through the pocket plane - no travel time. And then, we continue forward to the spooky swamp temple.
A brief pause at the area's entrance brings a conversation:
Then we move forward, and are accosted by some strange being.
Still, it can inflict harm with its "judgment". And demand answers again.
Then it's Anomen's turn.
After this final act of disbelief, the battle is on. The enemy reveals itself as a wraith, and calls up an assortment of insubstantial undead. We activate our level drain protections and enjoy the Neera battle music.
Edwin has to run around some when an enemy tries to chase him; he's not drain-immune. But I still find an opportunity to cast a spell.
The end of the battle brings some talk. Anomen is feeling angry.
After drinking a healing potion, we press on. Skeletons await.
After that, there are a few spawn points worth of lesser undead - ghasts and mummies.
I checked. This one's a bug. Foebane+5 casts SPIN104A, the payload subspell of innate LMD. Unconditionally. The "not against undead or constructs" filter is in the primary spell SPIN104. Which means that Foebane needs it too. Reported to the Fixpack.
Then we meet the one who lives here, somehow unmolested by the many undead.
Next time, our quest takes us to the burning heart of the fire giants' domain in the Marching Mountains.
The Marching Mountains are full of fire giants.
That second giant still manages to land two hits on us, one each on Dorn and Hexxat. And at an average of 26 slashing plus 1d12 fire per hit, that hurts.
Then another pair of giants spawns in behind us.
With that pair down, Viconia makes it to level 38 and earns her final level 7 spell slot.
Then, things get silly.
Most of these enemies are pretty straightforward. Toop the Brave is a level 15 fighter with a dagger and darts. Merlinious is a level 17 kensai with a katana, and is resistant to physical damage and magic. Tibbit is a level 18 archer with a shortbow and short sword, and is resistant to physical and elemental damage as well as magic.
Chinchilla is trickier. She starts as a spellcaster with extreme resistance to physical damage and magic, then at low health transforms into a werewolf which is resistant to elemental damage and magic but vulnerable to physical attacks. Her spellcaster side has some troublesome tricks like an upgraded version of Polymorph Other, so it's good to get it out of the way first - like with that Dragon's Breath.
Toop burns. Chinchilla takes enough damage to transform. Then we focus on Tibbit and Merlinious.
We head back ... wait, more giants?
Now, we turn toward the actual entrance. Now enemies await.
As for the giant ...
Wait, what? The Staff of the Ram +6 specifically says "large creatures such as a dragons or giants will not be knocked back or stunned".
Checking on what the item actually does ... it's a Wing Buffet (knockback) effect and a Sleep (unconsciousness) effect. Neither of those have any sort of filters. However, knockback is hardcoded to do nothing against certain animations (including fire giants and Burning Men). This, naturally, does nothing to the unconsciousness effect. I've reported this to the EE Fixpack, but there doesn't appear to be a good solution available. The hardcoded knockback immunity doesn't match up to any detectable stat we can use to grant immunity to the unconsciousness.
Also, that description needs a grammar fix.
Anyway, moving on. Edwin hits level 28 and picks up another level 7 spell slot with it. Then I wait for the party to regenerate, and a banter drops.
That is shortly followed by another chat:
As we enter the temple, I add some buffs. Fire protection for Korgan, PFE 10' for the party. Both Korgan and Anomen can ignore the fire hazards now, which is handy for moving around in here.
Battle is joined immediately, in one of the toughest melee fights in the game.
So ... I bring out the spells. Viconia casts a Greater Command.
That lets us focus on the elite. And once that one falls, the elite from the other side arrives and becomes our new target.
Killing that last giant brings level 35 for Korgan; he takes a fourth Hardiness.
Now, we get a breather. Disarm some traps, head up - and then open a container.
As for killing the monsters? Cold or acid damage is needed against the fire trolls ... unless you have something like Crom Faeyr. Korgan slays them all with no trouble.
On the other side, we're back to fighting fire giants. And Edwin drops a Symbol: Stun.
And then, this side has a container too.
The final blow is a draining hit from Blackrazor. Wait, golems aren't immune to level drain?
The two wardstones we have found act as keys to open the last two sections of this lower level. But fatigue is catching up to us - it's time to rest. While we're at it, I shuffle spell memorization so we can be better protected from fire.
And with that rest ...
This talk is also the first option to sway Viconia toward neutrality, as she asks why Dorn would love her. I take an option that doesn't move the counter, amounting to "Why not?".
We're rested. Let's head back down for the rest of the temple. And of course, cast some fire protection spells. We enter the next encounter with party-wide fire immunity.
The other side is more of the same.
Once those enemies fall, I open the container.
The container also has a notable item - the +5 two-handed sword "Psion's Blade". Not bad, but not good enough for Dorn to ever use. Between Soul Reaver, the Unholy Reaver, and even the Abyssal Blade, he's set already.
Returning to the first side we cleared, opening that container releases fire elementals and Burning Men.
With all four containers looted, we have the wardstones we need to activate the device in the center of the area. The stairs up are now passable.
And upstairs, we are immediately greeted by more giants.
The rest of the level is mostly walled off. It contains passages that a humanoid can get through but a giant can't. So ... I let Hexxat have some fun.
I don't have her kill all the giants, though. When it's down to just one elite chasing her, and a second near death and unconscious, I move in.
Berenn also didn't pull with the other giants. So he gets some group attention.
I pop back up to the pocket plane to upgrade the Axe of the Unyielding, and Viconia takes the moment to speak with Dorn.
Back down in the fire giants' base, there's a bit more to do. A straggler giant, a fell cat or two, and some traps. Then Hexxat opens the door to the back room and draws out the elemental prince Imix ...
Hexxat returns to the back and disarms the traps while under invisibility. In the process, she walks by someone who can see through that to talk to her.
And then, Hexxat cashes in that invisibility.
And so the session comes to an end. We have the hearts, and I grab the upgrades for the Ravager and the newly found bullet bag. Next time, we take a side trip away from our main quest.
[Edited. Somehow, my flaky internet connection let only part of the post through when I hit "Post Comment".]
Before we return to Nyalee and progress the plot, I'd like to take care of something else - a character quest. Rasaad is far too much of a goody-goody for his ToB quest to be viable with this party, but Neera is neutral. As long as we have Edwin take a break so they're not in the same party, we can bring her along for a bit.
I also visit Lazarus in Saradush and filch some scrolls, filling up most of Neera's spellbook. The scribing spree sees Viconia ding level 39 and Korgan level 36; he takes his third dot in flails and a Resist Magic.
Then we leave town.
Once there, I have Neera try to set some Skull Traps. She doesn't have the spell memorized, so she has to do so via NRD ...
We rest. Time advances to night, and Vicross arrives.
Dorn and Korgan have also taken a lot of damage, but they regenerate so fast that I'm not worried about them.
This does let them cast a few offensive spells. Invisible Stalker. Power Word:Stun, getting lucky against Dorn's 90% MR.
Vicross flees, and we are dragged in her wake to an arena.
Anyway, the battle is on. And enough time passed during the cutscene that Dorn can act again. The randomizer replaced the Neera battle music this area normally has with Black Pits battle music - very appropriate.
As for our plan? More cloudkills, to deal with the multiple yuan-ti mages. Though these are less effective due to magic resistance. As for the warrior snakes, they get Greater Command spells to thin their ranks.
This works, but there's a side effect.
The mages aren't entirely disabled, though. As the last of the warriors fall, they manage to cast lightning bolts for a bit of extra damage. But now we're attacking them directly. It won't be long.
During this fight, Dennaton has hype lines for the party. All voiced, but easy to miss in the chaos or by ending the battle before they're done. For this bunch:
Dorn: That HALF-ORC sneers, and the arena SHUDDERS! You dare not look; you dare not look away! There stands a BLACKGUARD before us!
Neera: Behold the fearsome HALF-ELF! Do not be deceived by her pink hair; surely this is an ARCHMAGE that fights before us!
Viconia: The lovely DROW undoubtedly draws on DARKER POWERS! Do not stare OVERLONG lest she turn her eyes toward YOU!
Anomen: A HANDSOME man of MARTIAL MIGHT and GODLY MAGIC! Combatants, guard YOURSELVES; husbands, guard your WIVES!
(The battle ended here)
Korgan: A MURDEROUS DWARF is a welcome sight in any arena! Take COURAGE, my friends, and welcome the CARNAGE!
Hexxat: I hope you brought your WOODEN STAKES! It will take a bloodbath to satisfy the VAMPIRE VIXEN that fights before us!
Player 1: Wait a moment—do my eyes DECEIVE ME? Could it BE? You know the TALES. You've heard the RUMORS. They were the short-lived HERO of Baldur's Gate, the VICTORS of the Dragonspear Crusade, and the SAVIORS of Suldanessellar! It's GORION'S WARD!
All right, I'm glad I didn't get to that last one. Because it's just plain wrong about Dorn.
All potential companions have hype lines, even including Wilson. Except for the two that died during SoA (fake Hexxat and Yoshimo) and Edwin. Because Edwin absolutely refuses to work with Neera.
With nothing else we can do, we leave the arena for the gladiators' staging area. In there, Szass Tam awaits. And there's something he wants us to do for him. We have some questions. First, why?
But ... what's in it for us?
Before we take up his offer, we visit the merchants.
The weapons merchant has lots of generic stuff and some rare ammo. I buy a few arrows of detonation, though I haven't been using the ones I have.
Molzahn of Tymora has priest scrolls. With two epic clerics, we don't need any help there.
Hue Greenleaf has a couple shields worth buying - a +3 buckler and the unique Kazrah's Shield. Though neither of those are going in our standard loadout. Also a helm of defense, but we have two of those we're not using already.
The Magical Item Merchant has the Cloak of the Lich. That one goes straight into use, replacing the Cloak of Reflection on Anomen. He now has full immunity to fire, cold, and electric damage.
The Book Merchant has all of the arcane scrolls. I pick up a few of them for scroll-casting purposes. Which I probably won't even do, but whatever.
With all of that done, we're at just over 1.5 million gold. All right, let's go and take the fight to Vicross. After a regeneration break, we return to Szass and are transported to the woman's estate.
And now, stealth mission. We don't want to raise the alarm, which means we have to disarm all the traps and kill the guards quickly.
But before we get to that ...
Hexxat enters the first room, disarming an alarm trap, and goes to backstab a guard...
Hexxat turns to the other side next.
The party finishes those two off easily enough.
Now, for the next room. This one has three warrior guards and a wizard.
The library on the opposite side is similar.
Finally, the back room.
Since I've cleared out everything without raising an alarm, Vicross and her elite guards aren't hostile yet. Can I set a trap?
Now that she's active, Vicross opens with a Mass Invisibility. Dorn uses his True Seeing gem, but that's limited by line of sight. And with invisible guards attacking - the first one gets off a stealth attack.
The berserker guard follows.
The kensai guard is already in sight, and comes next. We try a pair of Command spells ...
Only Vicross herself remains. She's dangerous if you let her get going, casting carefully tuned "wild surges" that always summon substantial help. But since she's currently alone, we can charge in and disrupt her with our elemental weapons.
All that remains is to ring the bell. But first, we must prepare for Szass Tam's inevitable betrayal.
We're back in Tethyr, and Neera leaves now. Her little excursion, including spell-scribing, was good for about 200K experience on each party member other than Edwin.
Next time, we return to the main plot and bring down a giant.
As a side note, I've actually shuffled my strength belt setup recently. Now Anomen is using the strength 22 belt, Viconia is using the strength 20 belt, and Edwin is using the strength 19 belt. The party's strength totals are 25, 24, 23, 21, 20, and 19.
With Edwin back in the party, it's time to resume the plot. We've gotten all we needed out of Saradush - though we ignored a number of encounters in the main city area - and so we head to Nyalee's spooky temple.
Since the shambling mounds are immune to crushing damage, Anomen switches to ranged mode. It's not a big deal, though; Dorn and Korgan provide plenty of slashing attacks. The enemies only manage a couple hits before going down.
Now, after a rest, we move to the siege camp. And Saradush is sacked behind us. There is no going back to that city now. Instead, we must face Yaga-Shura's army.
At this stage, I usually stay in one place to kill the army until they stop spawning (about 60 of them). But this time, I scout forward ... and draw Yaga-Shura's personal attention. He comes, and so I have Edwin act.
While Yaga-Shura is gone, the army actually keeps spawning in. We have plenty of mooks to kill for the next few rounds. And giants, which cause significant pain.
Then, he comes back. And he brings his lieutenants.
Hexxat tries to slip by going for a backstab ...
(Hexxat doesn't have full death protection, but her min-HP effect grants her immunity to some instant kill effects. DIE.EFF as used by undead disruption weapons is one of those.)
As for that backstab ...
Well, at least we've dealt with the thief - felled by Greater Command. And for the rest of them, Edwin casts a second wilting.
As a side note, that Battle Axe of Mauletar +2 in one of the shots? It's the weapon of one of the generic giants in this fight. The other one has the fire giant axe, a two-handed weapon that deals 2d12 slashing and 1d12 fire damage with +3 to hit and isn't droppable. But it has the Battle Axe of Mauletar description, so ... easy to see how that would go wrong. Definitely a mistake; this giant should, like all other generic fire giants, be using one of the two non-droppable fire giant weapons.
While I'm identifying equipment and moving things around, Korgan glitches back to full health. This happens sometimes when regeneration is active, and I have no idea why. But it's really just a time-saver, so I won't worry about it.
Then Dorn is pulled back to the pocket plane, for another conversation with the solar.
Back down at the camp, Melissan shows up again. Of course. She's here to tell us that, once again, we have no choice but to fight more Bhaalspawn.
Then, a more interesting conversation comes up.
This sequence has also brought a good chunk of experience. Dorn reaches level 33, taking scimitar specialization and a fifth Greater Whirlwind. Korgan reaches level 37, taking a second Critical Strike.
And now, we return to the pocket plane. A second challenge room has opened up.
Edwin casts a Slow, catching the mage Semaj. I'm not sure about Korgan, but I think he went in to provide melee damage on Semaj. Viconia and Hexxat gang up on the archer Angelo, and a stunning hit ruins his day. Dorn takes on his double. That leaves Anomen battling melee warrior Tamoko ... and his fight doesn't go so well. Before long, I have to reposition him.
But Anomen got in plenty of hits of his own; Korgan gets the kill immediately after that shot. The cascade begins, as enemies fall and our party concentrates. Then ... oh, that's brutal.
With that, the arena reverts to its true hellish form. Viconia even burns herself on the lava as we leave. And Dorn is another step closer to his apotheosis.
There is only one way forward now, toward Amkethran. But we still have a stop to make along the way.
Dorn is certainly guilty of many crimes, but what is he accused of here?
The general is the first target, as he has the most levels and his unique "Answerer" sword is rather dangerous. While Hexxat backstabs an archer for the first kill, Jamis is the second.
The cleric in that shot is also casting a spell. Specifically, Silence. Our party members all save or resist. The cleric herself doesn't. Oops.
After cleaning up the remaining enemies here, we start walking forward. But Viconia has something to say.
This army contingent is not yet fully defeated, of course. There's another major cluster of enemies at the eastern edge of the map.
A few more warriors remain after that, but they're nothing. This area is never really a challenge - it's a reminder of just how much power the epic protagonist and their companions have at this stage of the game. An army of ordinary folk, even well-equipped, has no chance.
We have slain a giant. Next time, we move on to a new chapter of the game as we explore Amkethran.
And another note ... gameplay is now finished. Expect three more weeks to finish posting this one.
On arrival in Amkethran, Balthazar greets us.
The village is full of trouble. The mercenaries have not been good to it. As we soon see, with a pair threatening a woman with death for stealing from them.
This is not about justice. We threaten the mercenaries, they fight, and they die.
After that, we run into an old ... acquaintance.
The attacking mercenaries are no threat, of course.
It's not just the mercenaries who are causing problems. A priest argues with a monk, and the monk decides to silence him with violence.
Sadly, the monk lives, whisked away by a mage in Balthazar's service. The priest, however, thanks us.
Incidentally, you can also get the ring if the priest dies. He's actually carrying it. Not that it matters for this party with no druids. And the upgraded ring is a rather lackluster item even for a druid, offering bonus spells and nothing else.
Wandering around some more, we find a mercenary summoning creatures as target practice.
How about now?
After cashing in the upgrades - Hexxat claims Montolio's Cloak as her night/dungeon option - we enter the tavern. After we speak with a local man Marlowe, Hexxat is greeted by Cabrina.
That also means that Hexxat's final dungeon segment is available. But there's something I'd like to do first ...
Naturally, we step outside and use the scroll immediately.
After a bit of dithering, we get to the interesting part.
Then ...
Looking into things ... the issue is that there's a delay between a "set variable" action and that variable actually being available to test for conditions. The lone reply to the previous state set a variable, and the reply that should be available here tests for that variable.
This is not an error I introduced; it's a problem with the original dialogue file that I didn't know I needed to repair.
Fortunately, there's a flag I can set to make actions execute instantly. Apply that about thirty times, and I've got the next version of this component ready.
Reload. Go through the initial talks in a different order, so that state doesn't break it. We manage to leave the starting town this time.
The reward for defeating the orcs? A magic helm. We'll see if that helps with anything.
Soon, Dorn's fighter comes to the mountain. And rather than face the troll, he tries his luck with the guards.
Still, it's not over yet. The guards have a captain too - and he isn't drunk.
He could play again ... but no. Once was enough for Dorn.
And so Noober departs. We have endured the largest single conversation in the entire game. Nothing else even comes close.
All right. Now it's Marlowe's turn.
Then we talk to the lich ... and find out why Marlowe had a problem.
Vongoethe dies instantly. But he still summoned some minions ... skeleton warriors, banshees, and skeleton archers.
Now that the lich is gone, we can examine the devices on the platform. And turn them. Fire elementals. Ice golems.
Next, fission slimes.
The last of the devices calls up air elementals, and we're done here. Though we're no closer to deciphering the purpose of this elemental array.
Malla's soul stone acts as an ioun stone granting +1 Dex, +1 Con, and 1/day Neutralize Poison. Every member of the party can use it, but won't. Blocking critical hits is just more important than a few hit points and maybe a point of AC. Or in Edwin's case, hit points and spell slots are better than getting nothing at all. Hexxat would gain thief skills ... but she's basically maxed out, succeeding every time at everything unless there's a critical failure.
Other value? It's just some girl's soul. Nothing special really, now that Marlowe is dead so it's no use as leverage. Dorn is after special souls like Bhaalspawn and other powerful beings, not average souls like this. Very well. Malla can have her soul back.
As for what else Vongoethe was carrying ... a ring of antivenom. We'll take it, but that's a definite disappointment.
There's just one thing left to do here - visit the smugglers' cave.
The monks use Quivering Palm. Log says ... attacking Dorn and Korgan. No chance of a failed save. I'm not worried.
I end up giving the armor to Dorn, and replacing his +2 protection ring with a fire resistance ring. Better AC, worse saves ... but those saves are still at -5/-3/-4/-4/-2. He'll be fine.
The small quests of Amkethran have been dealt with. Next time, we take care of Hexxat's final task.
We return to the Cave of the Dead to tombwalk. While the Casque can be used anywhere, it is only proper to do so in the place most like a graveyard that we can reach.
After that trap, we meet Phreya.
Specifically, we face one mummy at a time.
Then things ramp up a bit. Three mummies at once.
This brings us to the second Phreya encounter. Her brilliant tactics include drinking invisibility potions ...
Also, a calculation. Phreya shows +1 on that attack. She has 18 Dex for a natural +2 to her missile attacks and nothing from her nonmagical poisoned throwing daggers, while Dorn has a -3 missile AC modifier and there's the -8 attack modifier for a point-blank missile attack. That adds up to -9 overall, so she's getting +10 to hit from her +50 luck. Luck bonuses to attack rolls appear to be capped at +10.
Also, at base THAC0 zero versus overall AC -11, that was a bare minimum hit.
The new quadrant we enter after this fight has bone fiends. They're more dangerous than the mummies, at least. Or ... actually, there are still mummies too. Or even both mummies and bone fiends at once.
Before moving on to the third quadrant, we do a bit of backtracking.
Umolex drops a journal, which mentions working with Korkorran on duplicates - a hint of things to come.
The third quadrant brings a new threat.
Then I realize ... sure, Hexxat's not proficient with hammers. But she can still use her dual-wield setup to get two hammer attacks per round, and the golems don't get to save against Crom Faeyr. It's a much better weapon for these sneak attacks than the old staff.
After another pair of golems, we come to the end of this corridor. The room beyond has a different threat - beholders. Specifically, the undead "Death Tyrant" variety. Dorn borrows the MDR belt to go with his general resistance and saves, Korgan uses the cloak of mirroring, Anomen gets the shield of Balduran, and Viconia has 100% MR.
Also, there's an interesting interaction in the log here. Phreya has 50% magic damage resistance and a min-HP item. LMD hits her when she's already down to 1 HP, and the drain-type damage gets zeroed out. You can't drain hit points the enemy can't lose.
There are two paths forward from this room; a secret door to the next quadrant and a non-hidden door to another section of this quadrant. We take the latter first. And after a couple more sand golems ...
Also, I couldn't resist that joke after Viconia's line. Let the extermination begin. Culak's defenses go up, so I turn my attention to the spiders and ignore him.
Meanwhile ...
Culak drops a 19 strength belt. This party has no need for that, ever. Two party members have more strength than that naturally, and our other four strength items cover the remainder of the party.
And now, the final quadrant.
But then, I realize something. Unlike bone fiends elsewhere (demonic) and bone golems (golems) with the same animation, the bone fiends here (boneguards according to the actor names) are undead. And I have Anomen. Any more of those monsters should be easy to handle. In fact, if I had been using it, Turn Undead trivializes almost the entire dungeon's combat; only Phreya, the two "living liches", Culak's spiders, and the sand golems aren't undead.
That brings us to the "you need Hexxat" puzzle for this area.
Then it's the maze of doors after that, which can be rather inconvenient. We have to open and close doors with our living party members, and that door from the staging room to the first necrotic area just doesn't like to be closed from the staging room side. Still, we manage to draw T'lassus in without too much trouble.
Hexxat disarms the barrier, and we press forward. This brings us to a lich - the actual undead variety.
The lich goes through a Time Stop sequence ... more symbols that don't do anything. And then its PFMW expires.
Dialogue ensues, with the characters wondering what just happened. And despite all the foreshadowing - two different books talking about simulacra - there's no way for the protagonist to mention that as a possibility.
Now, I know that Korkorran can use Dragon's Breath. So I buff everyone with fire resistance - Hexxat is at 90%, everyone else is at 100% or more. Loot a few containers, then enter the final chamber.
Naturally, Korkorran puts up protections.
Upon attempting to rest at the inn, we are whisked away to a dark clearing. Cabrina awaits us, as does "L" in Korkorran's body - Larloch.
Naturally, Dorn thinks that's a terrible idea. Time to convince her not to go through with it.
There are two more steps after that.
With that, the scene comes to an end and we are returned to the inn. At midnight, and we still need that rest. Both for the obvious reasons and because Dorn's pocket plane ability is unavailable until we do.
This time, Viconia speaks up.
Next time, an unexpected obstacle delays our assault on the remaining Bhaalspawn.
On our way to Abazigal's lair, we find ourselves in a strange forest clearing. And not alone.
Spells are cast. The mortal crusaders cast Strength of One and Bless, the planetar casts True Sight, and we cast a Hold Person. Then Anomen casts a spell with his mace.
The planetar in this encounter is immortal, so we focus on the crusaders. Before long, they're all down.
And then, the damage we've dealt to the enemy piles up far enough.
The journal update there is a "quest closed" notice. Which is a little odd; that quest should really have been closed already.
Before entering the portal, Korgan takes his 38th level. I give him a third Critical Strike.
On arrival in Lunia, Hexxat and Dorn speak up.
Still, we take her advice. We won't waste any time in here.
The first thing we meet past the stairs is a planetar.
The planetar also dropped something that looks useful - a sigil of Tyr, which we may be able to use to bluff the god's servants.
With Dorn and Korgan reorienting, the crusaders die quickly enough. And Hexxat finally gets the proper angle for a backstab.
At some point in the battle, Korgan rolled a vorpal hit on a priest, who didn't save ... but the priests here prebuff with Death Ward. No effect. Since so many enemies here have that divine spellcasting ability or exceptionally good death saves, I have Korgan switch to using his hammer in the main hand. That way, the elemental damage can disrupt spellcasting more often.
Dorn also reaches level 34 in the battle, and I give him a second Critical Strike. No more levels for him this game.
With Hexxat's natural regeneration slowed to a crawl by her need to wear the cloak (1/3 rounds instead of 1/round), I give her a regeneration potion. She'll get some decent recovery between battles that way.
Before long, Dorn encounters a familiar face.
We return to where we fought the planetar next, and Hexxat sets a full array of spike traps. I know what's coming, after all.
Then, we turn north, to a courtyard holding a divine tree. Dorn's patron demands its corruption ...
It's possible to avoid this cutscene and pluck apples from the tree, but only by preventing Dorn from speaking - Silence or Maze are best. The fruit, however, is only useful to non-evil folk. This party isn't interested in that.
Finally, we reach the scroll. And we have a plan.
No? I see the celestial bureaucracy is as inflexible as any other. Very well, then, we'll do this the hard way. Defend yourselves!
Then I throw in a spell.
With both the planetar and the paladin down, Naiman and the priest are unable to resist. They die, and Dorn takes the ink and sand.
Now, we can edit the scroll.
Yaga-Shura? He's already dead. Why is he even an option?
Sendai? Tempting, but Dorn would rather slay the Bhaalspawn himself.
Abazigal? Same as Sendai.
Ur-Gothoz? He still has his uses.
Noober? He didn't give Dorn a T-shirt. He needs to die.
Saemon? Anything else, and he'd just slip away. It's pure petty revenge, but I'll take it.
The choice is made. Noober and Saemon will die. Or, at least, they'll get planetars sent after them, which is good enough.
Now we head back toward the portals. And on the way ...
Also, just as the spell arrived, another reinforcement squad teleported in. The more, the merrier.
Only one enemy died outright to the Blight, but that "Fighter of Tyr" was apparently an innocent. The party's reputation drops by three points to 6.
Anomen casts a Greater Command next - one more enemy out of the fight, and this time it's one of the high-level ones. Dorn pops a Hardiness since he's surrounded by enemies, and the slaughter begins. It doesn't take long.
After killing that last paladin and ambushing some still-neutral crusaders just because we can, we prepare for a more dangerous fight. Apply the cold resistance spells.
We walk forward, and the cutscene begins.
Only one obstacle to our exit remains.
With that, and one more stray crusader to kill, we take our leave of the heavens.
Up in the pocket plane, Cespenar makes some armor out of the silver dragon scales. Both Anomen and Viconia take advantage of it, and I shuffle some other stuff around so the drow can still have her 100% magic resistance. Anomen doesn't have his old 100% fire resistance, but there are still spells if he ever really needs that.
I head back down, and ... wait, shouldn't the other party members have something to say? Checking the script, they only speak up if Dorn can't. Since removing him from the party isn't an option, I silence him instead.
We have assailed the heavens and returned victorious. Next time, we enter the dragon's lair.
Our travel continues, and soon we reach the entrance to Abazigal's lair - a cleared platform high up in the mountains. The coming fight is one of the most dangerous in the game, so I prepare:
The fight is on, and the defenses go up. Draconis' humanoid form is a mage, and that's one of the things that makes this fight so dangerous.
The initial defenses are Stoneskin, Improved Mantle, Spell Turning, and Globe of Invulnerability. Plus Improved Haste. I use a wand Pierce Magic and a Remove Magic to take down all but the Globe.
Then Edwin gets a "weapon ineffective" notice ... ah. Contingent PFMW.
Now, I'm wondering about the damage on Dorn. He has Protection from the Elements active, you see. Which should be 75% resistance ... oh. Acid isn't covered. You need either Protection from Acid or Protection from Energy. So Dorn has no acid resistance here. That breath weapon deals 24d6+18 (save for half) acid damage, an average of 102 before the save. Painful, but Dorn has over 200 HP and guaranteed breath saves. He can take it.
Draconis becomes visible again, and Edwin acts.
With Draconis' head, we can enter the lair. The first room inside poses only a minor challenge.
Once all the enemies fall, our folk have a chat.
Now, to get anywhere, we need to swim. And only one of the tunnels is usable right now.
The next room, with its inexplicably cozy design, has bone fiends.
Again, we find our choices restricted.
This new section has kuo-toan architecture, and the fish-men are joined by water elementals. Edwin casts a spell.
And really, normal attacks are plenty.
That brings us to the elemental prince.
On a side note, this particular fireshield (SPCRYOD) wasn't updated to the 2.6 standard. Rather than using a projectile, it just deals damage with limited range.
Finally, we reach the exposition monk.
Anyway, we have a plan. Take the rope, get the reversal scroll, kill dragons. Got it. And thanks for the hand, too. Hindo's Doom gets an upgrade.
Now, back to the dungeon. We take a pool ...
Battles continue, we spot a large group of eyeballs, and ...
Hexxat scouts another large group of eyeballs in the northeast. These, I've got the drop on ... Edwin, make that a Horrid Wilting. From outside visual range, so they can't react.
Then we reach Iycanth, and the infamous petrified newbies.
Also, we have to laugh at their incompetence. Can't backstab a floating eyeball? Hexxat can.
And now, since a lot of time has passed, we head back up to the pocket plane for a rest.
Now, we take a pool ...
Edwin gets hit by an antimagic ray. Spell Shield down.
All right. Now Iycanth can have his eyestalk.
Edwin took an antimagic ray from the beholder eye, canceling his stoneskin. Other than that, this encounter didn't do anything of note to us. What we do get out of it, though, is Dorn reaching the experience cap.
All right, time to face another dragon. Protection from its poison breath weapon is in place.
We add a few more buffs, and now it's time for Abazigal himself.
Anyway, it doesn't take long to clear out all the minions.
Abazigal has a knockback spell "abzaway" on transformation to prevent the bug seen with Draconis where you get stuck in him. Only it's type "MagicAttack", so Spell Shield blocks it. That shouldn't be.
Dorn drinks a potion, but Abazigal counters that with his breath. OK, back off again for a bit. But at the same time, we've been burning through the dragon's defenses - Pierce Magic and Lower Resistance reducing MR by 50%.
Abazigal is tough, but progress is inexorable.
Korgan levels to 39; he actually got the experience he needed back when we were killing minions. I give him a fourth dot in flails and a fourth Critical Strike.
Another Bhaalspawn has fallen. Next time, we face the Underdark followers of Sendai.
(I really hate my flaky internet connection sometimes. Write up the post, wait for connection to start working, get all the pictures uploaded, check the formatting with a preview, hit post ... connection dies. And is completely dead for hours, until I finally decide to go to the library so I can actually see if it went up. It didn't.)
With Sendai dead, Dorn is again dragged off to speak with the Solar.
Then we make a proper visit to the pocket plane. First, to cash in some new upgrades. The Flail of Ages +5 is great, though Viconia losing her boots of speed is annoying. The Blue Dragon Plate is ... well, there aren't any more blue dragons to fight. What would we even need all that electric resistance for?
Anomen takes this opportunity to speak up.
Second, there's a new challenge to face.
Before we head off to Sendai's enclave, there's one more thing to do.
It's not only the armor that has its uses. Dorn takes the special ammo to use with his crossbow, on those rare occasions he isn't fighting in melee. And equipment gets shuffled again, since the upgraded flail gave Viconia a bit more magic resistance. She's back to the Fyrus Khal shield for slightly worse AC, but she's still quite good for melee.
Now we travel.
All right, now we can talk to the woodcutter.
All right, back to the woodcutter. Hexxat sets some traps ...
All right, what does the woodcutter have to say for himself now?
For some reason, the game is really sluggish right now. I actually quit, close another program that was using a lot of resources, and come back. Does it help? Well, I'm fighting the rest of the drow on the map now.
And now we enter the enclave.
We continue to press forward, and face some actual drow.
And ... that doesn't help. Though in retrospect, using a Greater Deathblow would have. These fodder warriors are level 12. Still, we beat them up with damage easily enough. And, since the game is still performing badly, I quit again. Maybe it's the heat? I'll try another session when it's a bit cooler, on another day.
All right, new session. Hopefully without the horrible slowdowns this time. We're on to the next battle, in a drow guard post.
Then the leader charges, so I hit him with a backstab and some focused attention...
Also, as it turns out, the Hardiness was unnecessary. Dorn finishes the room at nearly full health thanks to the power of his life-draining swords.
The key opens up the next area, where Sendai has sent more minions to slow us down.
We're all pretty close to the cap, and Dorn is already there. No need to dawdle. But even just fighting forward at a natural pace, Viconia reaches level 40.
Near the middle of the room, we reach the Slavemaster again.
Now, we could continue forward ... but I feel like clearing the other path too.
Hexxat also spots the boss, so ...
After clearing the remaining traps, the party is ready to move forward ... but this part is long enough already. Next time, we continue through the dungeon and face Sendai's elites instead of just her fodder troops.
Before we get to those elite forces, though, we still have an area to clear out - one that's full of ordinary drow.
Also, with these fights, Anomen reaches his cap of 64K less XP than he would need for level 40. Edwin dings level 31, his last. And Hexxat hits the cap as well.
Of the two doors that lead somewhere we haven't been before, one is locked and requires a key. We take the other door, as it is the only way to move forward. And within, we face a lich. He's up on a platform protected by traps ... so I go for a long-distance attack.
Those three items are two upgrade tokens and the key we need. We head up to cash those tokens in (nothing we regularly use), then continue forward.
The other door is now open. Diaytha and her minions await. And I'd prefer if they came to me.
The next room in this gauntlet is a duel.
Next up, illithids. The ulitharid in the first room stuns Viconia, but it only has an umber hulk for company. I can avoid her taking any heat until the stun wears off. Whack the two vampiric illithids hiding behind doors, apply Chaotic Commands to the two clerics, and move forward to Mithykyl's room.
Fortunately, dominated Edwin isn't smart enough to cast spells. And he has THAC0 10 with his thrown daggers, so he needs a crit to hit anybody.
The actual enemies here are rather easy.
Once we do, we head up to the pocket plane to make two more upgrades. The upgraded version of Angurvadal is no longer of any use to Dorn, but at least the +5 version of Firetooth is a strict improvement.
And now, Sendai herself.
The initial cleric goes down quickly - I didn't even notice it casting anything - and that brings the mage.
Meanwhile, Dorn and Viconia are holding the entrance. And I have Edwin summon a planetar to join them.
The kensai/thief manages to get in a backstab, but still falls quickly.
The berserker, seen in that last shot's log, gets some damage in on Anomen before we eliminate it. That brings out the cleric/mage.
Two more statues remain. An archer, that is quickly shredded by our melee attacks, and an assassin.
Sendai has lots of buffs. Edwin has Remove Magic.
The only real trouble at this point is placement; on that platform, we can't get everyone in position to attack. But what we do bring to bear is more than enough.
Cutscenes follow. The Solar wishes to speak to Dorn again.
But the exposition continues. The Solar brings back a shade of Yaga-Shura to tell of the Five's plan:
Clearly, for all their power, these Bhaalspawn had too little ambition.
Edwin reached the experience cap during the battle with Sendai; the post-battle experience rewards were wasted, as the entire party is now capped.
Clearing Sendai's dungeon has taken considerable time, and the sun has risen outside. As we leave, Hexxat puts on her cloak. And the old meddler shows up.
And no, Edwin, there's no point in picking a fight with Elminster. It just isn't worth it.
Now, back to the pocket plane. Our fourth challenge is ready.
But even the gods have rules they must follow, and Cyric cannot openly attack us. He can, however, send a "challenge".
We have a few rounds to prepare. Set traps, cast True Seeing.
Sendai has fallen, and only one of the Five remains. Next time, we take on Balthazar and prepare for the end.
We return to Amkethran with a new goal - to reach Balthazar. We will not go unopposed, though - the mercenaries are hostile now.
Now, we wish to meet with Saemon. He was working with the smugglers, so we'll start by heading to their cave. The path there from the inn is clear. And Saemon is there.
We pass by the gate guards on his word - do they truly not notice, or is something else at play? But then we reach the door to Balthazar's chambers, and the exact scheme becomes clear.
Of course, that's not the end of it. We still have to fight this batch of guards, and they have some real power. But not nearly enough to stop us.
After waiting for some spell effects to expire, we enter to meet Balthazar.
Not that it matters to us. Balthazar would be out to kill Dorn either way, and he must die for Dorn's plan to succeed as well. Time for the inevitable battle.
We haven't rested since Sendai's enclave, and Edwin's stoneskin has expired. He doesn't have one left to cast either - but he can still contribute, as long as he keeps his distance from the enemy combatants. First up, an Improved Haste on Korgan ... who adds a Critical Strike to that.
Meanwhile, Dorn is stunned in that shot - that's Balthazar's Tiger Strike ability. Balthazar has a lot of hit points, and a lot of neat tricks. Including a "Second Wind" that fully heals him. Still, we eventually corner him, and Dorn uses a Greater Whirlwind. That brings him down. We took lots of damage, but nobody died. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of this phase of the fight.
With Balthazar dead, the Solar whisks us away one last time.
But first, we have a few things to take care of. Back down in the mortal realm, we walk out the front gate of Balthazar's monastery ... and are confronted by a group of monks.
I waited out the Lunar Malison before heading out - which also gave time for the party to regenerate. That's why they're all at full health now.
The monks fall easily enough, and we head out looking for any mercenaries ... but it seems that without their employer, they have deserted. Only a few remain.
But what is this?
Saemon drops a few things for us. His swords, to sell. A Rod of Shadowstep, allowing anyone to use that Shadowdancer ability. And a journal.
Now, we visit the priest in Amkethran to sell some things, and Karthis to sell more things. By the time we're done ... we have over 3 million gold. If you understand the mechanics of how to sell high, this game lets you get absolutely stinking rich.
And now, time for the final pocket plane challenge.
I could have Edwin do some clever Chain Contingency tricks ... but nah. I'll just fight the thing head on.
The Ravager starts with an effective THAC0 of -14 (slashing). By the time Dorn's done whirling, that's about 6. And it only gets worse from there. It won't be hitting anything unless it gets lucky with a crit. Though, the bone blades have been piling up ... wilt them.
I did drink a couple healing potions during the fight, since Viconia took considerable damage from the blade barrier and Dorn took a number of bone blade hits. The Ravager also has an "Urge to Kill" spell it uses on non-protagonist evil party members (2-round charm, save at -6), but that never connected and I didn't even notice it being used.
With the Ravager down, the last acts of romance follow. First, Viconia.
Then, Anomen.
Now, we could head out to face Melissan now - but there's one last thing to do. We inscribed two names in the Scroll of Retribution, and only one of those names has faced justice so far.
I check the scripts ... it's a two-week timer? That long? It hasn't even expired yet. So we head back down for some aimless travel ... and then force it when I notice a BDOFFSCR in the save; the missing messenger bug struck again.
It slays Noober, but ...
Anyway, here's the full dialogue:
And now, on day 117, we're ready. About ten of those days were spent running out Noober's timer and then realizing it didn't trigger properly. Nothing more remains to do on Faerun. Next time, we fight the final battle against Melissan.
We apply a few buffs, and then leave the pocket plane for the last time. The Throne of Bhaal manifests as a platform of bone, floating in a seemingly endless void. The platform is not alone; it is surrounded by several smaller platforms and pierced by a column of energy that is undoubtedly a manifestation of Bhaal's essence.
And we are not alone either. Melissan has come here already, and shed her human guise for a more monstrous form influenced by the dead god's power.
Melissan opens by summoning a pair of glabrezu, but we focus mainly on her ... and her stoneskin means it's quite a while before we even start doing damage. 10 skins, spell level 8, spell protections type - you need something like a Secret Word to break it quickly. Which we didn't use.
While our hits are being absorbed by the skins, Melissan is attacking Dorn back. And she hits pretty hard; before long, Dorn falls back to use Hardiness.
At this point, I just want to inflict enough damage on her to end this fight. So Korgan gives it a whirlwind.
Now, we set a few traps and get some healing in, before heading off to the side platform that has just been connected to.
Dorn claims the pool. Melissan can't just take this lying down, of course.
That brings us to the second pool, guarded by an elemental prince of ice.
Dorn claims this second pool, and we are again returned to the central platform.
Unfortunately, we're out of spike traps. Hexxat places seven of her normal snares instead. But it just won't be the same.
The third and last of the side platforms is open - this time, with demonic guards.
While we were waiting, Edwin prepared a Chain Contingency - just this once. Two Lower Resistance spells and a Pierce Shield, targeting the nearest enemy as soon as one is sighted.
Mel still has a stoneskin up, so Edwin Breaches it. No effect, since her version of the spell has the wrong type. But she's alone, and we're getting a lot of hits in; it doesn't take long to just burn through the skins naturally.
And then, it's over.
Looking at the scripts, it was easier than it should have been. Mel is supposed to open the final battle by summoning two slayer shadows, a balor, and a cambion. Instead, she merely summoned that one slayer shadow which died nearly instantly.
The solar arrives, and decrees Dorn's victory. Melissan loses the Bhaal essence and dies. The time to choose has come.
Then the party gets their chances to weigh in. First, Hexxat.
Second, Dorn.
Third, Korgan.
Fourth, Edwin.
Fifth, Viconia. With her romance in play, it's an actual conversation.
And since Viconia went so long, the solar calls upon Dorn to make his choice without giving Anomen the chance to speak (actually, it's that the dialogues for romanced characters don't loop back to the state that everybody replies to, since the game assumes you won't be in multiple committed romances).
The solar gets in one last word...
One more update after this, looking both forward and back.
And so we come to the end. A prologue, 19 parts in act 1, an interlude, 33 parts in act 2, 14 parts in act 3, and this epilogue. 69 total updates over 23 weeks.
First, some kill counts. These are from the latest save I have, which is the chapter save entering the final area. Obviously, the pool guardians and Mel's summons would add a bit to these.
Dorn: 1012 kills for 5101890 XP. His top kill was the green dragon Fll'Yissetat at 60K.
Korgan: 1153 kills for 6236184 XP. His top kill was the red dragon Saladrex at 64K.
Anomen: 573 kills for 2737982 XP. His top kill was a beholder Hive Mother at 50K.
Viconia: 246 kills for 1033928 XP. Her top kill was the brown dragon Draconis at 61K.
Hexxat: 606 kills for 3141607 XP. Her top kill was the red dragon Firkraag at 64K.
Edwin: 278 kills for 1313670 XP. His top kill was the Chromatic Demon at 55K.
Nothing really surprising there; I let the warriors take the lead, worked to get Hexxat lots of backstabs, and didn't use a whole lot of spells. Character XP totals ranged from about 8.2 million to about 8.7 million, only slightly ahead of the cap because I didn't go for the big grinding options.
And now, the last of the narrative. Some portions of the in-game epilogues are used here, but the bulk is my own work. With inspiration from another game's ending in the first part.
Reality in the outer planes is often more metaphorical than physical, and so it was for Dorn as he accepted the fallen god's power into himself. The solar, his companions, and even the bone platform itself faded away.
Dorn's first step upon the path came with a crunch, and he looked down to see bones beneath his feet, streaked with the red of blood. Dorn could almost hear a voice now - "You got this coming!"
Dorn looked ahead. As far as he could see, the path was paved in bones, with a trickle of blood flowing downward. It seemed this ascent would take him through the last year of his life, over the blood and bones of his victims and defeated enemies, on the way to the summit's power.
At that, Dorn's resolve only hardened. Perhaps a lesser man would feel regret looking back on so much death and destruction, but not Dorn. With another step forward, he began a steady march.
Memories came with every step, some stronger than others.
Tarnesh.
Without their leader to unite them, Dorn's mortal companions scattered. But still, they all left their mark upon the realms.
Korgan took his share of the party's wealth and returned to Amkethran - only to find that Balthazar's fall had left the region in chaos. Without him to pay them, the mercenary army he had assembled deserted - but they did not all simply leave. Many remained in the area and turned to banditry.
To Korgan, this was an opportunity. Korgan took a commission from the Tethyrian government to hunt down the bandits. The job paid relatively little gold up front, but Korgan negotiated full rights to the salvaged arms and armor of the defeated bandits. With this windfall of heavily enchanted equipment, and numerous mercenaries that chose to join him rather than fall under his axe and hammer, the dwarf was able to found his own mercenary band - the Golden Company.
The Golden Company would become a major player in the region for decades to come, but eventually Korgan's thirst for carnage struck again. He took contingents of his company into the Underdark on several occasions, raiding drow settlements and returning with great wealth. Until one time, the drow were prepared for him. An alliance of several drow Houses encircled the small band that Korgan brought and overwhelmed them, with only a single scout escaping to tell the tale. Korgan was last seen burying his axe in the gullet of a high priest of Lolth, laughing as he struck.
Even without their founder, the Golden Company remained and spread the tale. Korgan's raids for drow riches were immortalized as a righteous crusade, and the scout's final memory of him became an icon of the company. History, it seems, finds more legends than madmen.
Edwin exploited the infamy he earned in his travels with Dorn to finally return to Thay. Those who had denounced him and driven him out found their fortunes suffer, and many ended up dead from mysterious causes. In time, he achieved enough influence to subjugate even the Red Wizards themselves, becoming the greatest leader they had known in recent memory. Very recent memory, it turns out, as he was deposed scant days later. Such is the brief nature of conquerors in Thay, and Edwin had made more enemies than most in his rise.
Still, Edwin survived this affair and went into exile again. But inevitably, his pride got the better of him and he challenged Elminster himself to combat. Without the warrior allies he once had, Edwin was unable to defeat the legendary wizard, and the short battle saw the end of Edwin's existence in the realms.
Edwina, however, tends bar in a Waterdeep tavern. She is a bitter, bitter woman.
Beyond her acquaintance with Dorn before his ascension, little is known of Hexxat, which is doubtless how she preferred it. Cabrina continued to tell tales of the vampire to new agents of Larloch - but replaced the cautionary tale of her loss in Dragomir's Tomb with the inspirational one of her return seemingly from death to complete the mission she was assigned.
Decades later, tales would spread through Chult of the Faded Woman, a vengeful, demonic entity who targeted clerics of Ubtao and drained their bodies of blood. A young crusader sworn to Lathander by the name of Baran heard these tales and sought out their source, finally tracking it down as the last of the priesthood fell.
Baran easily recognized the signs of a vampire, but the circumstances were odd. As the dawn skies brightened and night passed into day, the creature he sought sat motionless upon a temple roof in seeming prayer. Wary of whatever strange magics it had protected itself from daylight with, Baran stayed back and watched. Then a miracle occurred. A bolt of divine power fell from the cloudless sky to utterly obliterate the vampire and all of its possessions.
In Baran's mind, this could only have been the work of his god. He told the tale far and wide, converting many former followers of Ubtao to the worship of Lathander. Only a few pockets of Ubtao worship remain, scattered among Chultan immigrant communities in other lands.
Unlike the other members of their party, Anomen and Viconia stayed together. They had been closest to Dorn, and their shared bond tied them to each other as well. They continued their worship of Shar and Helm for a time, but that loyalty was soon tested.
A spark of divine inspiration drew the pair to a nearby dwarven stronghold, Mount Deepstone. But the stronghold had fallen. Shadowy undead creatures roamed both inside and out, feasting on both dwarves and invaders marked with Sharran symbols. Clearly, some battle had taken place here and both sides had fallen to the creatures. Anomen and Viconia delved into the mines beneath the stronghold together, slaying the undead along the way and finding nothing alive. Until, deep beneath the earth, they found the portal the creatures were entering through. Anomen stayed at the portal, ensuring no more creatures could survive crossing its threshold, while Viconia passed through to seek out and destroy its source.
On the other side of the portal, Viconia found a shadow dragon holding it open, the first truly living creature she had seen at the mountain. It spoke, and its words were a devastating truth. This was all Shar's work. An invasion of undead seeking to destroy all life, the callous sacrifice of her own servants - Viconia had not been drawn here to stop the invasion, but to celebrate it.
That was too far for Viconia. She had been drawn to Shar as the mistress of shadows, secrets, and loss - not this mad goddess seeking to destroy all life. Viconia renounced her former allegiance on the spot, slaying the dragon and escaping through the collapsing portal before it could close. The threat at Mount Deepstone was ended, but at a terrible personal cost.
Yet all was not lost. Viconia sat in prayer at the gates of Deepstone, and found her divine powers restored. From that day forth, she was the first of Dorn's clerics, the high priestess of Murder.
Two days later, Anomen's prayer brought a vision from Helm. In it, the Watcher spoke to him with the truth that Anomen had denied himself for many months. In his anger and vengeance, Anomen had drifted far from the precepts of Helm. Yet now, there was a true alternative. Anomen could turn to the new power Dorn, and Helm would not stop him - for the two gods were not enemies. And with that, Anomen joined Viconia as the second of Dorn's priesthood.
Under Viconia and Anomen's leadership, the priesthood of Dorn spread throughout the realms from their stronghold in Tethyr. The followers of Murder had many enemies, and places they could worship openly were rare, but cults hid in practically every city of note. Their most constant enemies were the followers of Tyr, as murder is always unjust and Dorn had incurred the god's enmity even before his ascension.
Three years after their temple's founding, Viconia and Anomen announced the birth of their daughter, a gray-skinned half-elf by the name of Moiratha. Yet as she grew, she manifested innate powers similar to those the Bhaalspawn once had, and whispers spread that she was the daughter of Dorn as well as his two priests.
In addition to the enemies of Dorn, Anomen and Viconia had enemies of their own. When Moiratha was but ten years old, Sharran assassins infiltrated the temple and slew her mother Viconia. Anomen and a contingent of his loyal followers struck out in revenge and razed the nearest temple of Shar, but the damage was done already. The first of Dorn's priests was murdered.
Ten more years passed, and Anomen gradually let down his guard. Thinking himself secure one night, he lay down to sleep - only to be ambushed by an enemy long forgotten. Yusef, son of Saerk Farrahd, finally came for his revenge. He had learned some of the mage's craft, and scried for the perfect opportunity. With a single blow, the sleeping Anomen was slain.
But Yusef had neglected one thing in his preparations. Moiratha was awake nearby, and rushed into the room on hearing what happened. She slew Yusef on the spot, completing the cycle of revenge and taking her place in Dorn's priesthood.
With the murder of Anomen, the tale of Dorn's mortal companions came to an end. Viconia and Anomen would go on to take high places within Dorn's immortal court after their deaths - higher for certain than the devil Ur-Gothoz, who had been Dorn's patron in life but found the position reversed with his ascension.