Evil's eve
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
One thing about evil people; just because they're all rotten to the core doesn't mean that they'll like each other. I mean, Hitler and Stalin weren't exactly best buds. I finally managed to corral some extremely shifty looking types, to help me go tomb robbing. (I suspect we're the sort of people that Lara Croft was always fighting).
I ended up with MyChar, Jaheira, Korgan, Viconia, Edwin and Hexxat. I was almost going to have Jaheira camp out also and give Yoshi a call up, but then sanity reasserted itself. We may need her various abilities; you never know when a fire elemental or an insect plague will come in useful. Insect plague, btw is really nasty for incapacitating entire groups of foes; those bugs spread like flies on a midden heap.
Right at the start, Korgan makes a pass at Hexxat, stating that he "likes dark meat". Hexxat replies to the effect that she likes dwarves also, but that they rarely have enough "juice" to satisfy her. The double entendres fly; "Once I start" she says, "I just can't stop". This gives even the Battlerager (the technical term for a dwarf berserker) a bit of a pause. Viconia then passes some snarky remark about the subservient position of males in Drow society. All this before we even get out of the door!
These guys were also woefully underequipped. Luckily I had saved up a slew of stuff and was packing it in my ... errr, Hexxat's ... bag of holding. Yes, the little bag she gave me with her coffin in it can hold a lot of other junk as well. If she ever wants it back, I am SO screwed; I'll have to sell most of that stuff.
Korgan: Looking much more effective after I gave him plate mail, +2 large shield and +2 axe.
Hexxat: Underequipped for a level 11 vampire thief. Gave her +2 studded leather, +1 buckler, and Gnasher.
Viconia: Wandering around essentially naked; sexy but ineffectual. Now she's AC -7 and armed with Ashedena.
Edwin: A great mage, but a terrible selection of spells. Would you believe he didn't even know Stoneskin? Also, he couldn't learn any new ones when I passed him some scrolls. I had him erase a bunch of stuff and then he was able to learn something more useful. Then I passed him +1 ring, +1 dagger, and bracers AC4.
None of these ingrates even thanked me; well, that's Evil for you. No manners.
Just getting this looting expedition ready took me an hour, and left me even more impoverished than before. We need to score big time just for me to break even! We'll be off to the cemetery later tonight (after I have dinner).
I ended up with MyChar, Jaheira, Korgan, Viconia, Edwin and Hexxat. I was almost going to have Jaheira camp out also and give Yoshi a call up, but then sanity reasserted itself. We may need her various abilities; you never know when a fire elemental or an insect plague will come in useful. Insect plague, btw is really nasty for incapacitating entire groups of foes; those bugs spread like flies on a midden heap.
Right at the start, Korgan makes a pass at Hexxat, stating that he "likes dark meat". Hexxat replies to the effect that she likes dwarves also, but that they rarely have enough "juice" to satisfy her. The double entendres fly; "Once I start" she says, "I just can't stop". This gives even the Battlerager (the technical term for a dwarf berserker) a bit of a pause. Viconia then passes some snarky remark about the subservient position of males in Drow society. All this before we even get out of the door!
These guys were also woefully underequipped. Luckily I had saved up a slew of stuff and was packing it in my ... errr, Hexxat's ... bag of holding. Yes, the little bag she gave me with her coffin in it can hold a lot of other junk as well. If she ever wants it back, I am SO screwed; I'll have to sell most of that stuff.
Korgan: Looking much more effective after I gave him plate mail, +2 large shield and +2 axe.
Hexxat: Underequipped for a level 11 vampire thief. Gave her +2 studded leather, +1 buckler, and Gnasher.
Viconia: Wandering around essentially naked; sexy but ineffectual. Now she's AC -7 and armed with Ashedena.
Edwin: A great mage, but a terrible selection of spells. Would you believe he didn't even know Stoneskin? Also, he couldn't learn any new ones when I passed him some scrolls. I had him erase a bunch of stuff and then he was able to learn something more useful. Then I passed him +1 ring, +1 dagger, and bracers AC4.
None of these ingrates even thanked me; well, that's Evil for you. No manners.
Just getting this looting expedition ready took me an hour, and left me even more impoverished than before. We need to score big time just for me to break even! We'll be off to the cemetery later tonight (after I have dinner).
2
Comments
Apparently, all butlers are given the same name when they graduate from Butling Academy. Where, amongst other subjects, they learn how to ... kiss butt. ::rimshot::
Exploring several sepulchres, we encountered some minor undead, including one yahoo who called himself the "Crypt King". So, we "crowned" him. Finally we found an entrance into a tomb that seemed somewhat larger than the others; and indeed it led to a cavern that seemed, by the echoing of our footsteps, to be fairly large.
Heading downward into the real tombs, ready to take on hordes of undead from the Bowels of Hell itself, we encountered ... an entire colony of giant spiders?? WTH? OK, had I known, we would have stocked up on cure poison potions. Luckily I have 2 slow poisons as an innate ability, and Jaheira usually has 2 of those spells memorized (charm person/mammal being basically useless in high level scenarios), so we proceeded onward, although cautiously.
The group functioned surprisingly well, without any conflicts. I guess the prospect of facing combat with implacable (and rather hungry) foes does a great deal to foster comraderie in a group. Going on, I was reminded of the spider scenario in the Cloakwood in BG1. There was a spider queen here also, who even took time out to chastise Viconia for killing spiders. What's with this trend here, anyway? Spiders are NOT colonial type insects. In fact they're not even insects at all, they belong to the family Arachnidae, not Insectivorae. And what the heck do they eat underground? There can't be all THAT many adventuring parties stumbling in.
Anyway, the spiders and their "queen" went down fairly easily. Fire elemental, skeletal warrior, summon monster II from Edwin ... Hexxat even called up some children of the night (and yes, they did make "beautiful music"). Keeping a barrier of summoned critters between us and an army of spiders kept the number of spider bites down to a controllable minimum.
I was almost going to tack on a spoiler notice up above, but then I decided that would be insulting to everyone reading. Really, after going through the Cloakwood in BG1, is there anybody here who DOESN'T know how to deal with spiders?
Then there's one of those annoying doors at the end of one corridor. You know, the ones you can't open even with knock spells, prybars, dynamite or a small yield tactical nuke. No clue about that one. There is also a corridor that appears to lead further downwards; we'll explore that avenue of approach after a good night's sleep.
Those locked doors are important for a future quest, later. Don't dwell on it. Also, I am sure you know but a friendly reminder:always check for traps when looting an ancient crypt, tomb, dungeon or cellar.
It roxxorz! It pwns fingerwagglers!
Ahem. What I mean to say is yes, I agree, it's quite effective at neutralizing enemy spell casters. In fact, Jaheira took the spell users in all three Harper attacks out of commission by casting this spell on round 1 of each combat.
Well, I could have written something like "We went looking for undead, but found a bunch of spiders instead, so we killed them all and rested up for the night". That conveys pretty much everything that happened in a rather concise manner, but ... who wants to read drivel like that?
Also, this is the sort of stuff that occurs to me as I play through a scenario, in a sort of stream of consciousness manner. I find myself asking the air "Why is Elminster being such an enigmatic twit?", or "What WOULD an underground colony of Giant Spiders find to eat underneath a cemetery?".
And the bit with the woman with all those butlers named Jeeves was hilarious.
"When danger reared its ugly head,
Sir MyChar bravely turned and fled ...
Brave, brave Sir MyChar!"
Basically, fewer summoned animals, some restoration and protection from evil and a cure disease went into the mix. Also casting a few more buffing spells before going back down. The second time around saw us showing a bit more bravery. The undead were defeated after a moderately fierce struggle; only one level drain was suffered. The big problem with restoration is the strain it places on the casting cleric; Viconia being exhausted, we had to rest up. Luckily nothing disturbed our repose, but we did sleep with one eye open.
This combat raises several questions in my mind (as usual). What the heck is a Vampyre? A vampire with a
speech defect? He escaped us by assuming gaseous form, leading me to the Hexxat questions below.
Can Hexxat assume gaseous form? Doesn't look like it. If not, why not?
Is Hexxat immune to level drain? She should be.
Can Hexxat drain levels if she hits in melee combat? I suspect not, although there hasn't been much of a test so far; the only melees she has been in were with the spiders last night (Can spiders be level drained?)
I'd think Hexxat would be able to at least have a chat with some of the undead down there; maybe some amusing interplay like that between Viconia and the Spider Queen. Apparently not; I guess undead are territorial and resent her intrusion on their "turf". A Bloods vs Crips sort of thing.
What happens if Hexxat dies? In some rules versions, raise dead spell destroys undead targets. Can she be raised? How about being raised via Jaheira and her Harper's Call instead of a clerical spell?
I took her cloak off to raise her stats, figuring she'd be ok underground; the other undead sure didn't seem bothered by the time of day. But, without her cloak, what happens if I have Viconia cast False Dawn? I suspect the spell doesn't distinguish between friendly and unfriendly undead.
Edwin was tossing some acid arrows around, with no effect. Are all undead immune to this, or just the incorporeal ones? (He was targeting the level drainers, as the most potent threat). Magic missile worked.
I noticed that Hexxat regenerates HP slowly, but not fast enough to be really useful in the heat of battle. It does mean that she can take minor damage from traps and such without needing cures. NOWHERE in the description of her abilities is this even suggested. She's also immune to poison, but heck, so am I (periapt).
Conclusion: Forget the stuff about Hexxat being a vampire; just use her as a regular thief with a couple of extra abilities. Do traps and locks with her, give her a missile weapon and let her hang back in combat. She has neither the AC nor the HP to be able to duke it out to-to-toe with an enemy except as a last resort.
Down yet another corridor, we found the object of Korgan's quest, the resting place of the Book of Kaza! (which is why we were suckered into coming down here in the first place). Well, almost but not quite; what we actually found was an empty crypt. Korgan was quite upset, although he didn't strike me as being much of the reading sort. He grew quite upset at some dud who was apparently named after a racetrack; we agreed to accompany him on his quest for vengeance.
Whoever said that there was honor among thieves had no clue what he was talking about.
I will also note that I've had success using Hexxat as a melee damage dealer, due to her high strength score, but you definitely do have to manage her carefully and run her away if she starts taking hits. You also generally want to build her for two-weapon fighting, which takes a frustratingly long time. In the meantime, throwing daggers are probably your best bet, since they take advantage of her high strength.
If I pump her up a bit more and give her some oil of speed and potions of extra healing she can go into melee and if things start going bad, she can run back out and heal up. Since she has the equivalent of a permanent protection from negative plane, she should be quite useful against her fellow vampires.
Another most useful bug ( I never exploited it on purpose but it won me a fight or two) is that if she is stunned, she won't go below 1 HP, neither will she turn into gaz, which makes it an unkillable decoy. Add to this that if you heal her before the stun wears off, she will not transform to gaz and you won't have to sleep/rest.