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"Maybe this time" [NO-RELOAD THREAD]: "The Tale of TEN THOUSAND Trials"

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  • EnuhalEnuhal Member Posts: 920
    Great work @semiticgod ! Congratulations on getting a new class into the hall!
    semiticgoddessCorey_RussellCrevsDaak
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 996
    Hard Hitters micro-update (Plurem and his gang of fighters)

    Irenicus has been defeated at the Tree of life. He did manage to kill Imoen in an ice storm, but that was about it before he was sent to Hell. Since I want to keep using Azuredge, I did all the good challenges. Also, no one really can use the blackrazor effectively in my group.

    By the point the battle with Irenicus and his demons started, we did have WW, so we used those. Before the battle, I had used potions of invulnerability on all our characters (well except Imoen of course), and that seemed to help. Irenicus eventually teleported to three snares, and combined with our melee/ranged attacks, that was enough to force him to give it up.

    1st TOB Update:
    ****************


    Illsaera was defeated, as expected. First pocket plane challenge was easy for 6 fighters. By this point, we subbed Sarevok for Imoen. We have completed all Saradush quests except penetrating Gromnir's place, the vampires, and of course Gromnir himself. We are gulping lots of heal potions, but fortunately those are in good supply in ToB. We'll keep at it.

    I'm pretty busy today with work and chess club, so likely will be able to make good progress on my run tomorrow night (PST).
    Grond0EnuhalBlackravenStummvonBordwehr
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I forgot to post this earlier: attached is my WeiDU log. Notably missing is the Better Enchanted Weapon mod, which I think got copied over from an override folder by accident. It's a pretty plain SCS install with a few extra rule tweaks from CDTweaks and so forth, but otherwise no major content additions beyond Ascension. The main difference between this install and a bare-bones SCS install is the presence of IWD spells due to IWDification.
    Grond0StummvonBordwehr
  • EnuhalEnuhal Member Posts: 920
    edited October 2018
    Arinja II, solo F/M/T, Update 1

    Previous updates:


    Before starting the main questline, the following goals had to be achieved in the wilderness areas:
    a) get to 20 reputation
    b) get some gold
    c) get as much experience as possible
    d) get the three available tomes

    This was easily accomplished, mostly thanks to casting sleep on some ankhegs to get access to a wand of fire, which allowed me to kill some relatively powerful enemies, such as battle horrors. I was able to rely on minor spell deflection for most of my defense against spellcasters, only having to use the greenstone amulet three times for the three siren groups in the sword coast areas. Once I had wands of frost, fire, paralyzation and monster summoning, I cast invisibility to run directly to Mulahey and take him down. I pretended to join the bandits to get access to Tazok's tent, buffed up and killed everyone within:


    Because I wanted both his weapon and his armor, I also lured Taurgosz out of the camp, eventually managing to hit him with hold person:


    I made my way through Cloakwood invisibly and challenged Drasus, using an oil of speed. A wand of fire hit and a charge from the victor took down both mages, and Drasus himself was hit with the paralyzation wand:


    Davaeorn was taken down via PfM, and I gathered some items and tomes in the City of Baldur's Gate. I also did some quests for money, though I didn't need any experience, having already hit the xp cap while clearing Tazok's tent. Eventually, the Iron Throne party was taken down by luring them downstairs, summoning some monsters to distract them and beating them to death:


    Combat was skipped in Candlekeep, I only made sure to get the tomes. Back in BG, Slythe was taken down via paralyzation wand:


    For the ducal palace event, I used some damage-improving potions and the greater malison + chaos combo. While it did affect every doppelganger, they didn't really stop attacking Belt:


    This turned out to be somehwat close: Belt died, and I was lucky that the two remaining doppelgangers didn't decide to randomly attack Liia:


    Still, victory was ours:


    I snuck through the thieve's maze and made my way to Sarevok. The lure via arrow of dispelling was a sucess, though with a bunch of spells from Semaj flying at me, I had no choice but to use a potion of magic blocking while hitting the mage with more dispelling arrows:


    Semaj ended up dimension dooring away and never rejoining combat. All I had to do was to kite Sarevok and shoot him until he was dead. I eventually got bored of this and used some monster summoning wand charges to speed up the process:


    Time to move on to SoD!

    This was Arinja's equipment at the end of BG1:
    Robe of the Neutral Archmagi, Legacy of the Masters, Helm of Balduran, Greenstone Amulet, Ahsideena +2, The Dead Shot +2, Shield of the Falling Stars +1, The Guard's Ring +2, Evermemory, Cloak of Balduran, The Paws of the Cheetah, Golden Girdle of Urnst - plus various rings and amulets in my gem back, tons of potions, some green scrolls, a full plate, Elve's Bane and the Destroyer of the Hills, Talos's Gift, a War Hammer +1 and a buch of different wands and arrows for certain situations.
    StummvonBordwehrCorey_RussellAerakarCrevsDaak
  • aldainaldain Member Posts: 303
    edited October 2018
    Cassius, Elf Diviner, SoD Update 3
    BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
    SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4


    Alright, the plan was to head for the Underground River, and we shall! But there are a few minor areas (Dead Man's Pass, Bloodbark Grove), so let's clear them first.

    En route to Dead Man's Pass, we are intercepted by a Shadowy Figure. He can be a real nuisance what with constantly backstabbing your Mages that can't get their Stoneskins up as it's a Dead Magic Zone.. but turns out three simultaneous strikes from Wands of the Heavens and a Scorcher from a Wand of Fire is just enough to bring him down. His Shortsword isn't much use to us, but Glint happily snatches up the Shadow Armor.




    The trash mobs in Dead Man's Pass aren't much to write home about. Web, Fireball, a few simultaneous Confusion from Nymphs with occasional free meatshields from M'Khiin settle most accounts here (with a couple Cloudkill thrown in against Hobgoblins/Displacer Beasts), and Jaheira/M'Khiin get some good mileage out of Call Lightning against the tougher enemies. I'm quite liking Khalid as a replacement for Corwin: Obviously his ranged damage doesn't measure up, but it's still good, and unlike Corwin he has the melee THAC0 and AC to stand his ground against anything foolish enough to close to melee distance with him.

    We enter the Killer Mimic's cave. As always, something goes wrong: The plan was for Jaheira and Khalid, both under Free Action, to handle the encounter while the rest of the party waited invisibly.
    Unfortunately, I managed to activate Voghiln's Bard Song.. which breaks Invisibility. And of course, he failed his save against the Killer Mimic's initial attack. But despite having a Save vs Death of 9, Voghiln makes that save 4 (!) times in a row against the poison of the various Phase Spiders that converge upon him, and we are able to clear them out with a Scorcher charge. Hooray! Voghiln's beard is smoldering slightly, but he's a good sport about it.




    As is undoubtedly known to all, Khalid sports a measly Strength of 15, meaning he cannot use Composite Bows. So, he'll be using our new-found Bow of the Banshee +2 for most of the game. For truly major fights, I'll let him quaff a Strength potion and equip Corinth's Bow +2 when we get it, but the Bow of the Banshee is actually quite decent... the Cloak of Fear procs often, and it usually affects 1-2 enemies, making fights against trash easier.

    M'Khiin gets her final SoD level, 11, around here.
    I went with the following new spells:
    Charm Person or Mammal: The other options are even worse.
    Protection from Fire: Making Jaheira immune to Fire damage and sending her as the focal point of Fireballs is (almost) never a bad idea.
    Neutralize Poison: I had trouble finding something worthwhile. If this was SoA I'd have gone Death Ward, but there's almost no such effects in SoD (a Mage somewhere with Chromatic Orb at most).
    This is alright if you're desperate for a quick heal (10 HP, casting time 1) and it does clear up Poison as well as Disease.
    True Seeing: I agonized over whether to go with this or Chaotic Commands. I finally figured that there are scrolls of Chaotic Commands, but none of True Seeing, but it was 50/50. Iron Skins is cool but M'Khiin tends to hang out far to the back (especially since I gave her Fleshripper +2, which gives her serious mobility and thus the ability to avoid getting hit).

    On to Bloodbark grove! After retreating and resting, of course.. no need to be heroic.
    There aren't many encounters here (it's a small area) and what few there are get resolved by area-of-effect damage spells, Web and Major Spirit Animals. We had a scroll of Protection from Petrification so apply it to Khalid and let him handle the Greater Basilisk.
    Finally, we descend into the dark cellars to do battle with a Vampire! Fortunately only a Fledgling one, and not the SCS version either.
    He gets quite a few Wolves of varying shapes and sizes, but they're mostly harmless. Jaheira and Khalid get Chaotic Commands (Jaheira has two 5th level slots) and Negative Plane Protection, and go to work.
    Once the Vampire drops, everyone joins in and the Wolves are swiftly put down.




    Unfortunately, no one has need of the Sundermaul +3. Maybe I should've given Glint Warhammer proficiency (I gave him Maces for some reason...) but I get the feeling we'll be alright anyway against Big B.
    We depart for another well-earned rest, and then move to the Underground River exterior.

    Fortunately we remembered to have Jaheira memorize 2x Chaotic Commands, so the Myconid encounter to the east is painless. The trash mobs are handled as previously, via damaging and debilitating spells.

    We run into what I'd call either a bug or a strange feature here: Apparently, the first character that speaks with the Ogres is the designated champion, should you choose to fight for Murs.
    Since invisible Glint was the first one that spoke to them, when I have Cassius engage Arbinge and the other Ogre, almost the entire camp goes hostile (they interpret it as the duel having been violated). I considered reloading, but decided against it since I don't know if this is a feature or a bug.. and even if it is a bug, it can hardly be called game-ending; you can still save Slug for Murs.

    Alright, slightly disappointing, but everything is cleared.. time to move into the cave system.
    Another interesting behaviour: Invisible Glint moves close to the Cyclops, which (despite not being able to see him) goes hostile and starts searching for the party along with the rest of the Crusaders. Pfeh.
    I think they started searching because a pair of stealthed Crusader Scouts could see the rest of the party, but still.

    We end up having to buff and summon on the fly, but still carry the day: The Crusaders get some reinforcements, including two Mages, but they're quite low-level, and seem to have made the classic mistake of going too heavy on defense and too light on offense.
    Note the Crusader Scout in the first screenshot taking a swing at Cassius just as his Stoneskin goes up: The combat log does not show it, but that was a triple backstab with critical damage! He most likely would've survived, but it was stupid to (almost) take the risk. Let's keep Stoneskin active whenever we're in a hostile area from now on.






    We leave Rigah and Julann for now (I'll bring Minsc and Dynaheir to see them before we advance to the next chapter). Into the caves we go.
    Jaheira under Chaotic Commands handles the first group of Myconids on her own, but then comes a small tactical blunder.
    There are two groups of Gargantuan Spiders, Shambling Mounds, Dark Treants and Hamadryads/Nymphs rather close to each other here. And somehow (don't ask) we manage to be seen by both... Glint has just enough time to cast Free Action on Jaheira, and Khalid quaffs a potion of the same.
    Unfortunately, that means 2/3 of the party are unprotected. Voghiln, M'Khiin and Glint are all Web Tangled at the same time! There's too darn many Gargantuan Spiders running about. Cassius was staying in the back, but rushes in and drops an Invisibility 10' Radius in the nick of time.




    Things actually look pretty bleak for a while: Khalid gets Dominated by the Nymph several times, turning his not-so-tender mercies on Jaheira, who remains the only party member with immunity to all effects currently in play (what with Free Action and Chaotic Commands up). She quaffs a fair few Potions of Extra Healing, and after a few rounds, is ordered to quaff a Potion of Fire Resistance: Cassius has decided that the events warrant a Sunfire. It deals a fair bit of damage (and does not reveal Cassius), and Jaheira eventually manages to put down the Gargantuan Spiders. With the threat of Web Tangle and certain death to follow removed from the equation, the rest of the party joins in, Khalid being Charmed back onto our side, and victory is ours! Huzzah!





    That was a lot of nasty status effects (Web, Domination, Entangle) at once.
    But the day is not over yet. We stumble upon the oozing Crusaders, trade our Myconid Bloom Sac to Ferrusk for a potion, and rescue them. We then return to Ferrusk, intent on dealing with him.
    But... one of the allies he summons is a Gargantuan Spider. Yeah, you can figure out what happens (don't worry, it's not Cassius that bites it).





    I think it's safe to say that I hate Gargantuan Spiders. It's a strong word, but there it is. M'Khiin fails her save against that damnable Web Tangle and is beaten into the ground as everything in the chamber homes in on her. Fortunately the damage isn't enough to chunk her.
    With the major threat removed (the Gargantuan Spider.. grr) Ferrusk is sent to fertilize the ground.
    We loot up, retreat to the camp, rest, have Jaheira Raise M'Khiin and return, reporting our success to the Druids outside on the way in. Root of the Problem says that it's +3 against unnatural creatures... I wonder if it works on Big B? I'd wager no, but I think I'll try it.

    There are two nasty spawns left (Myconids/Umber Hulks and another group of Gargantuan Spiders/Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds/Nymphs), but with both Chaotic Commands and Free Action available, we push through. Into Kanaglym!

    This time I remember that there is a very large Undead spawn to the east, and prepare accordingly. A few Cleric buffs (including Strength of One) to soup up our five Skeleton Warriors lets them last quite a long time, and a couple of Skull Traps clears out the annoying enemy Skeleton Archers and Shadowed Souls.
    We proceed across the bridge, after encouraging M'Khiin to use the Robe and Staff found in the trash pile.

    We've been saving our Haste for the Mages here, and it works splendidly in conjunction with M'Khiin's True Seeing: The grand total of spells the enemy Mages get off are 1x Detect Invisibility... and that's it. They fall swiftly to Khalid and M'Khiin pelting them with Arrows of Ice/Acid. We do not press Halatathlaer for a reward, and as such she tells us to seek out Daeros Dragonspear (who will reward us with a fine suit of magical armour).





    On our way out, we use our last charge of the Spectacles of Spectacle (we previously rescued the Tiefling and got her ring as a reward) to pull Zadroth into the Prime and, using The Secret Revealed, promptly kill him for his incredible treasures: A Ring of Regeneration (1 HP/round) and a Robe that allows us to cast Spell Sequencer 1/day. Now granted only Cassius can use the Robe, but still: Instant triple Skull Trap, or a triple Slow, or a triple Confusion... it's all good, there are limitless excellent choices. The Endless Watcher at the exit cannot be talked out of a fight, and so unfortunately must be killed as well (yielding a Crossbow we'll just sell).




    Though we're quite low on spells, we press on. After popping an Invisibility 10' Radius, we enter the cave filled with spectral Undead. Cassius leads with a Sunfire, causing the Undead to scatter in all directions (it did kill most of them). Jaheira attacks a Shadow and is thus exposed, so Cassius can cast Detect Invisibility unmolested: This reveals the Wraiths, so we can focus them down before they have a chance to Level Drain Jaheira, as we did not have a Negative Plane Protection available. The undead cleared, we help out the trapped spirits by dropping their remains in the portal to the Fugue Plane back in Kanaglym.





    This time I remember the unpleasant Hold effect that the Albino Wyrmlings can induce (or was it Paralyze? Either way, Free Action protects against it). Jaheira and Khalid under Free Action clear the cave, while the rest of the party is invisible and/or under Sanctuary.




    We've almost cleared the interior! Further west we run into Strunk, and end up in a brawl.
    Strunk gets his defenses up, but we have both True Seeing and Breach still available. The would-be elemental-enslaver soon falls, and we are rewarded with a fancy Ioun Stone by a Nereid, as not a single Water Elemental died in the fight (good to not have them show up at the actual siege later.. one of them hit Jaheira for 37 damage!).




    Finally, we have a chat with the Ettin Ghost farther west. After returning to the cave with the spectral Undead, we find that the Ettin corpse is now searchable, yielding a club which we are all too happy to return to the Ettin itself. We are less happy about recieving its somewhat odorous loincloth as a reward, but c'est la vie.

    Now, before we push further and advance the plot, we'll circle back to Dragonspear Castle proper and do the quests in the courtyard (we now have the requisite Seal of Caelar). Also, we could do with a rest and a full set of spells, in case things go wrong when we infiltrate Hephernaan's chambers.

    The questing in the courtyard goes off without a hitch. We declare Corinth innocent, his accuser attacks and is killed, and Corinth rewards us with his bow, going to Khalid (for use with a Strength potion when the situation warrants it). We also shuffle back and forth to the coalition camp, getting stone shards blessed and dealing with the Sentry (whose Large Shield +2 with Fire Resistance also goes to Khalid).
    Finally, Glint quaffs 6x Potions of Master Thievery and successfully pickpockets a Token of Faith.

    Since we're finishing off little odds and ends, we also bring Dynaheir and Minsc to see their Rashemen counterparts. And yet another bug: M'Khiin disappears from the game, despite being told to wait in camp.
    Sigh. I reload (this is clearly a bug, and I certainly don't intend to let a bug that's not even got anything to do with combat destroy my intended party) and have Jaheira and Khalid wait at camp instead of M'Khiin and Voghiln, and it works better.
    Hopefully there's no horrible side-effect in wait further down the road. Cassius stores the Dragon Blade +3 in the stash, for later importing into SoA.

    We make our way back into the Underground River interior, and talk our way into the Warrens. Slug is freed, we loot, buy anything and everything that might be useful off Crusader Priest Polvi here (we did the same with the potion vendor in the previous area), then Glint gets Rhonda to talk the Ogres into hauling us up into the basement.

    Upon arrival in the basement, Belben and his merry band assault us. A simple dual Web sorts them out.




    Again, we loot (it's an obsession...). Then, we apply only long-duration buffs in case something goes terribly wrong, pop Invisibility 10' Radius, and move to listen in on Hephernann. Everyone has 2x Potions of Invisibility just in case. I'd rather not fight here, as last time things nearly turned quite sour due to the unending reinforcements (we could've lost Dynaheir to a chunking).

    My plan was to listen invisibly to Hephernaan, steal everything in his room, loot the magical Full Plate Mail on the way out, then give Hephernaan a little tap and escape.
    Unfortunately, there are a fair few Mages and Clerics here, and they all have multiple castings of Detect Invisibility/Invisibility Purge. We are spotted several times, and apparently a single Magic Missile from the dito wand is not enough to cause Hephernaan to flee. We throw caution to the wind, engage him in earnest, and soon thereafter are able to retreat down the elevator. But in the midst of combat we forgot to loot the magical Full Plate Mail! We'll get it when we invade the Castle, if it's still there... if not, eh.




    On the way out, we sneak invisibly by the (still neutral) Crusaders in the Warrens. However, someone spots us in the Underground River, turning all Crusaders there hostile. Fine by me... they lack any significant Mage/Cleric support, and so are entirely vulnerable to our mighty spellworks. We carve our way out.





    We actually have to go back and fetch the Ogre's cache in here (Glint gets the Flail +2).
    While back, we talk to Slug in the Ogre Camp and get a Ring of Fire Resistance. Good stuff!
    We now do a tour of shopping: Onoroth and every single merchant in camp recieves a visit. After buying everything that might concievably be useful, we still have 100000 gold... next time through SoD I'll probably refrain from selling items to the Genie, he pays way too much.

    And here we shall leave our heroes for now. We are expected at Dead Man's Pass to take part in negotitations, but will do so only once we've given our spell selection some thought.
    The final chapters await us.
    Cassius is now a L11 Elf Diviner.



    Post edited by aldain on
    StummvonBordwehrAerakarEnuhalCrevsDaak
  • Alesia_BHAlesia_BH Member Posts: 759
    Congrats, Enuhal!
    EnuhalCrevsDaak
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Excellent! I have added it to the Hall.
    EnuhalJuliusBorisovCrevsDaak
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    Longtooth, after going to the med to see how the Hospitallers are doing against the Corsairs returned to find 128 unread posts in this thread alone. I'm afraid half-orcs aren't able to read that amount of literrature, good though it may be.

    Upon returning to the Sword Coast he took on Gnarl and Hairtooth and prevailed. He then started to leave and as he did so, discovered that Garrat an invisible thief was trying to attack him. He will just have to wait for me to get a bit stronger before Longtooth fights him.

    Longtooth then went to kill Sonner and friends before killing the ankheg who ate Nester.
    Grond0EnuhalStummvonBordwehr
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