Astarta & party, longest post ever (will be definitely when I add the pictures):
Traveled to Cromwell. Forged Poseidon's Wrath +5 halberd. This weapon grants 100% cold res, immunity to ADHW spell, has a 30% chance per hit to inflict 30 cold damage. A +4 ring for PC too (the rest have a +3 and +2 rings still, except Torham, who has two +2 rings because of his enchanted +5 armor (can't combine a +3 or higher protective item with another or with enchanted armor in IA - there are but a few unique exceptions). Forged a cloak +3 out of two +2 ones - will be needed later.
Went to Watcher's keep. Defeated a green wurm. That one uses poison, his melee attack diseases, and uses Storm of Vengeance and Horrible clouds (similar to Cloudkill, but much more damaging). At present party levels, all I had to do was spam Remove Magics under Alacrity with PC and simply watch the fighters kill the beast. Didn't even trouble to activate Criticals. Used a couple of ProPoison green scrolls though - on PC and on Jack Sparrow. Sorry - *Captain* Jack Sparrow.
Several good items here. Short sword of Mask +4 (the other good piercing weapon - this one for Bane), Boots of the Woodlands (like boots of Speed, grant Haste to wearer, but useable only by Rangers), Green Wurm scales (used those to forge a full plate +4, whnich grants immunity to Poison). Also a couple of scrolls - Wish, Hand of Undoing...nothing that great.
Having cleared WK lvl 3 beforehand, the party simply ascended to lvl 4 after receiving the Scepter of Radiance from Helm's Supreme Golem.
Lvl 4 - vanilla parts (or so I thought, and had to battle 3 elemental golems + 2 greater bone golems at once) cleared, including the Mindflayer area. Didn't go for the Gith - that fight's scary, party needs some more items before attempting it. Left.
Went to Underdark. Using the old squrrel's Wardstone, called a Guardian from the pits. He's easy to kill. Dropped a device called 'magical pull'. Didn't remember what was it for until much later.
Went to the Illithid area - the Master Brain. The monsters are almost vanilla, save from some Kuo-Toans, some Ulitharids and a maddened Dwarven warrior with the Ring of Fire Control. Nothing that unusual. The Master brain has some Brain golems and an Elemental golem, and casts Purge Magic on random intervals (5 rounds)? He didn't live that long, nor did his guardians (those were slain first). Although first Purge magic hit more party members than expected. Loot: The sling of Everard +5, but most importantly - a third scroll of Improved Haste! Excellent. Now the party can forge a powerful item.
Back to Athkatla. Used 1 permanency scroll to forge a second pair of Boots of Speed. Used the 2 pairs, 3 scrolls of IHaste, another Permanency scroll and the Woodland boots to forge the Boots of the Ranger Lord (grant Improved Haste to wearer, not useable with UAI unfortunately). Oh well, Torham has an excellent pair of boots now.
Hmph. For the further upgrade of these boots the party lacks 2 items - the Gauntlets of Dexterity and the Gloves of Missile snaring. Paid a visit to Teshal first (how did I skip that in chapters 2 and 3 dunno). He's easy at present levels, despite the fact that he has a Skeleton Grandlord, and 2 more were in the random undead group. Loot - manual of Elaboration, Skin of the Ghoul (static), Gauntlets of Dexterity (static, vanilla location).
Unfortunately, the Gloves are in the possession of the Twisted Rune. Well, back off for now.
Went to the Planar Sphere. Completed Marvella's final task. Used a bunch of very powerful summons (two greater djinnies - yeah, via Wish for Rest), the Guardian Golem inside the sphere, a Noble Spider, a Planetar (not very powerful, but needed for the Heal), and via a careful strategy, sent the fighters one by one in the fight while Alia was casting ProEnergy on them from a safe distance (fighter approaches her, she starts casting, fighter rushes in melee, she finishes casting although the fighter is miles away from her). Needed to speed things up because there is a neutral fighter in that mess, Pasha Mahmoud, who has to survive in order for the other Planar Sphere quests to trigger at all (not to mention he helps in the final fight). Astarta was well protected from everything and debuffed enemies successfully via Remove Magic (rakshasas, mariliths). Pasha even managed to kill the Noble Rakshasa -stole a kill from the party. No matter. Loot from battle: Foreknowledge scroll, Monster Summoning V scroll (summons Salamander Nobles).
Prepared contingencies carefully. Meaning ProMW, ProEnergy, Foreknowledge, ProElec. Should've prepared Spell Turning instead of ProElec. No matter. Prepared trigger with GoI, ProMagicalEnergy and ProAcid. Old one appeared, told his sad story, and proposed that we both challenge 3 grave liches. Ok. PC managed to cast Alacrity pre-teleport. Rest of the party held, PC's buffs dispelled upon entering. Contingencies triggered. PC drank an Invisibility potion, the three grave liches thanx to the stupid script started ALL to cast True Sight. OK. PC activated trigger, cast Spell Turning, ProMW and SI:Abjuration. Turning is important, else grave liches will start casting Larloch's Interruptor (5th lvl spell, deals 1d6 damage 4 times in a row, thus disrupting effectively casting for 1 round). Turning is nerfed as well, in IA v6 lasts only 15 rounds. Liches approached PC and the Old one in order to do combat. PC debuffed them (casting speed reduced by 4, it took only 6 casting time to release 6 Ruby Rays - 2 for each lich. And afterwards a Remove magic. Liches wasted their next round to cast ProMW. All of them. Remove magic under still running Alacrity. Next turn they also cast ProMW. In the meantime, the Old one started casting Improved Disrupt undead. Had to do something else he'd steal all the kills. Used CC to summon 3 Elite Trolls. Also tried killing one Grave lich by using the 3 7th level slots I could spare on Disrupt Undead. Got the lich to Injured. Doesn't work. Summoned a Greater Djinni and a Noble spider subsequently, those (together with trolls) managed to deliver the finishing blows to the remaining 2 Grave Liches. Got the Cloak of the Old One. And a Barbarian essence potion. And a new apprentice.
Oh yeah. Tried Wishing. Doesn't work in here.
The new apprentice: Researched a new spell for PC. Needed items: History of the Chosen of Mystra (book - WK lvl 3, lying on the ground in the Demon Wraith room) and a Manual of Elaboration. Got a scroll of Recast Vital Energy. This spell offers a random choice of options. More often, it offers only 2 options, chosen between: Regeneration on the entire party (for 1 turn or a bit more presumbably), Mental Agility for PC(decrease casting speed by 1, lasts only a couple of rounds), Remove disabling effects on party, Heals party, adds 10% to PC's physical resistances(lame). However, necromancers have the benefit of (sometimes) getting a great variety of options, namely:
100% magic resistance on PC (dunno how long it lasts though)
long lasting regeneration for PC (lame)
Magical rest for PC (but this option, when chosen, cannot be picked again before resting normally)
Animate powerful undead ally - calls a Skeleton Lord to fight for PC, for 2 or 3 turns. Skeleton Lords have good resistances and immunities, and are valuable tanks vs many of the IA monsters or even bosses. Not good vs golems though. But vs anyone wielding slashing or especially piercing weapons... unkillable.
50% bonus to the HP of the entire party - priceless, although doesn't stack with itself. Still, seeing the fighters to suddenly gain 60-100 extra hp is very good.
the listed above 5 choices (regeneration on all, mental agilty, etc.) are also present in the list.
RVE may also fizzle, causing a Skeleton Grandlord to appear and attack the party. This is annoying mostly because it pre-triggers contingencied spells.
Some of the options stack with each other. For example,stacking several*Regeneration on the entire party gives thremendous boost to regeneration, which literally makes fighters to regain 100 or more HP per single round. Mental Agility also stacks, thus PC can receive decreased casting time by 9 (even though for a short time). The best use of this spell I've found is pre-combat buffing the party with 50% HP bonus, and several Regenerations, plus (as bonus) Mental Agility + magical rest for PC (and thus having a second shot with the spell in actual combat). The casting time of the spell is 4, thus it can be easily spammed under Alacrity, but it dispels all party illusions when cast, so careful timing is required nonetheless.
Ok, other tasks for my new apprentice. It seems he can create some Barbarian Essence potions. Great! Missing a vital component here. Oh. He still created some other powerful potions for gold though - 2 of Magic Shielding, 2 of Magic Protection. Also tells me he needs a Time Stop scroll for an important research. Where to find one...Ribald solds 0, other vanilla locations also negative. Suldanesselar.
Oh, before that - PC needs a better cloak. Using the Scholastic cloak found in Spellhold, the Cloak of the old one and a +3 cloak, Cromwell forged the Cloak of Arcane Immortality, which grants 3 bonus to AC and saves, 15 to max hp, 3 hp regeneration rate/round, and also - can be used together with another protective item of +3 or better enchantment. Useable with UAI, but Jack has a +4 cloak...
But first...PC needs a better amulet. Have to tangle with Orcus.
Orcus, prince of the Undead, is on the 2nd level of the catacombs and requires Daystar blade. Nope. Decided not to pre-buff with barbarian essence potions. Decided to rely on Defense potions for the Riskbreakers, making them extremely hard to hit (even by Skeleton Grandlords), ProLvlDrain scrolls sacrificed here (3) for all the fighters except Torham, the R-C. He'd watch the battle from afar anyways, since Orcus' first deed was to Grave Silence him, thus Torham can't cast, and is vulnerable when his Iron Skins are peeled. Oh - pre-combat used multiple Recast Vital Energy spells for 50% hp and of course, several Regenerations. It turned out that under these conditions, and with good physical resistances (Riskbreakers have 65 via Hardiness + Chain Breaker Stance, Assassin-Fighter has 70 under Hardiness), the 8 Skeleton Grandlords cannot harm the fighters fast enough - the regeneration rate is simply overwhelming. Moreover, upon entering, 4 Elite Trolls were contingencied (2 Astarta 2 Alia), and Astarta was under Mental Agility (reduced casting time by 7 total) and entering under Alacrity, managed to summon a fifth one before conversation triggered. Those 5 trolls lured several Grandlords.
PC entered under SI:Abjuration, Spell Turning and GoI, but still Mass Invisibility was applied as well, so that Orcus would waste a round on casting it as well. PC was a spell (Ruby Ray of Reversal) magnet, otherwise Orcus might get the idea to start Breaching fighters, which is a no-no.
Torham rushed left, bypassing Orcus and heading out of his field of vision. Alia rushed right with much the same idea. This way only one of them could be Grave Silenced. Unfortunately - Torham the R-C. One Skeleton Grandlord followed him to do battle. Bad. Torham has only one +4 club. Grandlords are immune to +3 or lower weaponry. Torham, silenced, accepted combat one on one, while in the same time:
Astarta activated 8 Disrupt Undead spells, killing one Grandlord in an instant. In the meantime fighters have reduced another to Badly Injured with powerful +4 or higher crushing weapons. Astarta finished that one via her remaining 3 Disrupt Undead spells. She retreated a bit far away from the enemies and watched (for now), ready to cast an occasional ProMW if she drew enemy attention. She didn't. Saros, Bane and captain Sparrow eliminated one Grandlord after another. Orcus gated in a Master Vampire, who in turn gated in 2 Vampire Brides. Orcus is immune to any weapon or magic while his 8 grandlords are still alive. Torham battled 1 far away, but still summoned a Greater Djinni from a ring, and afterwards a Noble Spider from the figurine. Alia Wished. Nothing great or even good from these wishes btw. No rest, no nothing. Mediocre stuff. Grandlords fell (Jack helped Torham for the last one, the grandlord was at near-death, but Torham had maybe 1 skin left), Only PC's spell turning was removed - that's how fast the fighters worked (Orcus had time only for Grave Silence, True Sight and one Ruby Ray of Reversal - 3 rounds)They also managed to kill the Master Vampire, when Orcus gated 2 new ones, and almost immediately afterwards several Skeleton Lords. Most importantly, he's vulnerable now. Melee, Remove Magics, Remove Magics under Alacrity - and he fell.
Edit: IA's Carsomyr, although not dispelling anything on hit, has its original (lost) bonus of 5 dmg vs Chaotic evil opponents, which makes it an excellent choice vs enemies who are not resistant to slashing damage.
With the Black Blood of Orcus was forged the Lord of the underworld necromantic amulet, who offers even better protection than the Amulet of Hades, but most importanty - PC may use it to summon a Skeleton Lord for 2 or 3 turns.
Also looted 7 Barbarian Essence potions.
Time for the Twisted Rune. Will not describe the fight so much, just several tips:
In V6, party starts all around the table where Shangalar appears. In the WORST possible order. Changing places in the battle order doesn't help at all. The R-C is in the worst possible place, very close to Vexaal's spawning point. He has to quickly escape before becoming target to either teleporting Shangalar's Grave Silence, or Vexaal's Improved Anti-magic ray.His place is in the upper right corner of the room. Unfortunately, micromanagement with summons blocking his way has to be very precise otherwise he loses precious moments, which may prove fatal.
PC has to move to the starting point ASAP. Being immune to Silence, she's the only one who can debuff Shangalar (Grave lich) without trouble. And in the meantime she has to be 100% out of Vexaal's field of vision, else she's dead.
One fighter is required to kill Shangalar. Vexaal will not shoot an Anti-magic ray at a pure fighter. Neither will Shangalar release Grave Silence on such a party member. Astarta cannot approach to cast multiple Disrupt Undead spells, because she'll fall into Vexaal's field of vision and...bye world.
The other fighters + Alia have to be in the upper right corner of the map. Alia should immediately Breach Shyressa (this time done via a trigger - fastest) and the 3 fighters should chop her to pieces ASAP.
Mages should be protected by Absolute Immunities! At all times! Layene's Twisted or Greater Twisted golems which she gates in fight with both magical +5 and nonmagical (offhand) weapon, and their hit dispels specific protections and applies Miscast Magic on target. Luckily, those don't start with the original Rune, but are gated later.
Strategy (fulfilled excellently): Pre-buff with RVE and other buffs (multiple RVE + Mass Invisibility as final). Immediately teleport. Defense potions for the Riskbreakers may win the fight, don't forget the prebuff. Aura is cleansed while animation runs. Release powerful summons upon entering (Skeleton Lord, Greater Djinni, Noble Spider, Elite Berserker Warrior from Adamantite Horn of Valhalla).
Use what's remaining of PC's alacrity to cast 3*Farsight spells, lighting the entire battlefield, for best control upon summons. Use the last microsecond to cast Limited Wish for NPP (Shyressa doesn't need more than that). After Shangalar gives speech, immediately activate last Riskbreaker buff, ChainBreaker stance.
Micromanagement is essential, especially for the mages and the Ranger-Cleric - they have to move faster and with utmost precision/swiftness to designated places. Cast Alacrity with PC and Breach on Shyressa with sorceress.
Cast 2*RRR and multiple Remove Magics to deprive both Shangalar and Vexaal of their starting and subsequent buffs/contingencies/promw etc. Kill Shyressa with alpha strike of 3 fighters (she wears a helmet, so criticals are best preserved here). Control summons so that Shangalar attacks either an Elite berserker warrior or a Noble Spider. Use second fighter (Riskbreaker Bane in this case) to kill Shangalar with Criticals! He has many HP, even under Criticals it takes a whole round to slay him. Watch his movements and use PC to debuff him immediately via Remove Magic if he manages to cast ProMW. Cast True Sight with R-C and load a CC of the sorceress with triple RRR spells. In this particular fight, used even the Greater Djinni to cast Oracle:
Keep Absolute Immunities up(last pre-combat Alia buff was AI, and first after-alacrity Astarta spell was AI). CC should hit true, if Layene manages to hide after Torham's True Sight and before Alia's contingency, use PC with Oracle.
Keeping Layene on defensive casting is important - first a summon has to be close by her at least until she casts her Absolute Immunity, thus wasting 1 round. Next 3*RRR should remove her SI:A, thus she'll have to refresh it (and she managed to hide and do it right before Alia's Remove Magic hit her).
However afterwards she'll be unsupervised for a while, so Torham is best moved out of her sight (Alia is safe under SI:Div and illusions, still Layene tried Remove magic) else he'd be Breached. In the meantime, with Shyressa and Shangalar dead, the party fighters cluster around Vaxaal, killing him with Criticals. He uses Wondrous Strike, a special ability which inflicts damage of many types (magical or physical, not certain), fighters were under combat protections and ProEnergy, and regenerated very fast, they took little damage from that btw. Vexaal doesn't use Anti-magic rays on pure fighters.
Takes quite some time to kill him (2-3 rounds with Criticals) in the meantime Layene starts gating in Twisted Golem or even worse, Greater twisted golems. Gates them very close to arcane casters, so casters should at all time be under Absolute Immunity. Golems went for new targets -one for a Greater Djinni, second for a spider. In the meantime, Vexaal died.
Astarta could finally leave her prison, and she did so under Alacrity, and removed Layene's buffs (illusion, spell immunity, combat) in an instant. Oh yeah...killed Ravanek.
Then Layene was forced to think of self-defense. She didn't manage to cast another AI scroll, she had to use her always-beneficial cleat-wish. For Rest. She can't die before that's used. She died the round after. Her 2 Greater Twisted golems are quite the scare, being resistant to all types of physical damage and immune to all other damage, plus anti-golem IA spells don't work on them. Used Mordy Swords (sorceress), but the golems still took care of those in a round or even faster! Regeneration gone, refreshed Hardiness and other buffs, and thanks to Torham's Greater Restorations, the party managed to slay these two (and thanks to multiple Criticals too, although these golems are almost as resistant as the Mitrhil golem in Spellhold).
Loot: Staff of the Magi +5 (IA tweaked to be +5 to hit, 1d6+5 damage, but doesn't dispel, doesn't offer Spell Trap, can be used only by evil mages, and permanently disables thieving and hide in shadows button - big deal, Captain Sparrow had those disabled a long time ago. An excellent crushing weapon, in many situations. The permanent ProEvil, the 2 bonus to saves and AC matter a lot in fights with multiple Purge magics. Gloves of Missile Snaring, Permanency scroll, Manual of Elaboration, Memory Boosting scroll, Blue Dragon plate, a +3 two-handed sword (hooray), a Monster Summoning VII for PC (double hooray, will summon Greater Yuantis...no). 7 AI scrolls (thanx Layene).
Cromwell: Forged the Warblade +5. This weapon allows some attributes to be chosen upon creation, PC chose the blade to be with +10 physical resistance bonus. It also grants immunity to Charm and Confusion.
Forged The Equalizer +3 (yeah, old news, forgot).
Forged the Improved Boots of the Ranger Lord. In addition to permanent Improved Haste, those now add +3 Dex bonus (good) and -7 AC bonus vs missiles (not very).
Suldanesselar: Killed some improved enemies. Some groups of not-so-scary golems, freed Dermin from her vanilla enemies, got the Girdle of Stone Giant Str (for Torham, at least now he has a belt and his str is 21 if buffs dispelled, thanx to the offhand Treefolk's Arm club +3). Killed Raamilat and his Ghost Spider (s)? turned out he had 2. Slain fast. Couldn't even chant one spell. Some ProMW scrolls and a +3 longsword here. Lost Jack and Saros when assaulting the temple 4 Horrid Rakshasas managed to dispel their protections via melee hits and then shower them with ADHW spells. That happens when one plays drowsy. Raised them. Thanx god no one was chunked.
However, Jack was almost chunked when facing the Harpist House's protectors - a Greater Elemental Golem and a Noble Rakshasa. The golem's purge magic dispelled only Torham's buffs due to quick micromanagement. However Jack was supposed to be knocked back by enemy's mighty blow, which also dispelled his specific protections, but rather because of narrow space, he was simply kinda stunned, and the golem brought him to 13 HP or so. Fortunately Torham managed to finish the Greater Restoration spell in time. The Noble Rakshasa was the first to fall anyway, and the golem had a couple of rounds to live.
Some scrolls in here, including a Time Stop one. Great. Niz'dramaniyt will have to wait, party has a more urgent business.
Back to Planar sphere. The apprentice Morid started researching the time machine. He researched it and made 4 keys to use the machine with (a gold one - requires gold, a ruby one - 3 Bloodstone gems and a catalyst, the Crimson Ioun Stone, so it cannot be made before the Squirreled away quest is finished, a wooden one - requires Sandalwood from Bodhi's coffin, and an Amber one - a precious chunk of amber, thankfully had one extra because in Suldanesselar the Greater elemental golem gated in one Amber golem before dying).
Made these 4 keys. Using the golden key, summoned 6 skeleton grandlords, and killed them. Buffs are dispelled, so the battle is not so easy as described - still used summons to distract enemies while the party fighters could rebuild buffs. Got the bones of the skeleton Grandlord, and forged the last key - the Bone key.
Used the wooden key. Talked with 'good' Bodhi (before the exile). She promised to hide a bottle of wine in her house for me to find in the present. Found it, in the House of the Horn.
Used the bottle of wine, barbarian warrior's blood (Smaeluv Orcslicer from Mencar's party), 5 Jasper gems (yeah, right, don't throw away ANY gems in IA v6, at least sell them in several locations so you may buy them if need be), 6 scrolls of Neutralize poison to create 5 Barbarian Essence potions. Good.
3 more keys. Used the Ruby key. Talked to young Lavok. He told me of the force that would possess him, and where it would hide after he's dead. Turns out party had to travel to the Demon Vale once again using the Bone key, and to travel back with the Amber one. And had to face a Lesser force (something equal to a god apparently).
Much more has to be wished from such 'godly' opponent. The fight is long. And tedious. First a wave of 6 Skeleton lords. Seriously? Party is under RVE buffing (that buffs can't be dispelled btw, which is also excellent). Next a wave of six Balors. Again, seriously? A couple of remove magics and fighters chopped them to pieces. Oh, something more serious, a wave of six Grandlords. And party buffs are dispelled!. Good thing that Alia had summoned a Greater Djinni and Astarta - a Skeleton Lord. Those distracted the Grandlords, but the lord died. The fighters, with refreshed Hardinesses and Improved Hastes, chopped the enemies to pieces. In the end of that fight party was healed, and all their spells and abilities restored as if they'd just rested. Expecting that, a Noble Spider was also summoned, thus now the three powerful summoning devices could be used once again. Alia summoned another Greater Djinni and passed the ring to Astarta. Astarta moved away from the rest of the party and cast Alacrity and serie of RVE spells - one for Magical Rest. Great. Can summon another genie. Party buffs were dispelled. Astarta started refreshing Improved hastes on party from a safe distance, and cast ProMW, which the Lesser force immediately Purged. Good. Other party buffs are untouched. Enemy brought to near-deat, but released a Purge before dying. Bad. All fighters were purged. They refreshed buffs, then were knocked back.
The force doesn't use spells. Just Purge magic. Is enveloped by Field of Dark Magic which acts as a fireshield inflicting magical damage. After the first time it's brought to Near-Death, it knocks back all party members and summons, and deals some damage (Alia was far-far-far away from the fight, but still she was hit and rendered unconscious). Lesser force gated in 5 Greater Bone Golems, which all used Hideous Laughter. Astarta had cast Resist Fear before the force could summon these, so the fear effect was negated, but Alia was stunned. Still, summons attracted some attention, bone golems were slaughtered with criticals and crushing weapons, rinse, repeat, but Jack (and 1 more fighter) ate a Purge, and Astarta had no more Improved Hastes to refresh his. The riskbreakers had 1 spare still. Torham was frightened by the next wave. Astarta managed to travel to him and cast Resist Fear. In the meantime riskbreakers + Jack took care of the second wave of Greater Bone Golems. However at the end of this RVE's regeneration waned, and the party killed the Force relying on Greater Restorations from Torham for healing.
Loot: Carmine Ioun Stone - 1 THAC0, 10 physical resistances (Necro only or UAI), 5 potions of Magic shielding.
That's it for the Improved mage stronghold quests. Have to obtain the Ruby of the Gods...
Traveled to Temple ruins. Used the 'magical pull' device on the pedestal which harbored the Sun Gem. Got the Ruby of the Gods. Using it, Crimson and Carmine Ioun Stones, created Scarlet Ioun Stone: 3 AC bonus, 2 THAC0 bonus, 15 physical resistance. An item IMO totally wasted on a necro, but extremely good for a fighter-thief, or in this case, an Assassin-fighter. With it, and Warblade, Jack has 55% physical resistances, 95% under Hardiness. Not bad at all, plus the HP bonus is always good.
Bad thing is that now again Alia has no head protection, and Astarta had to rely on the King Strohm's mask again. Too many helmets, too few ioun stones.
WK lvl 4: Prebuff included Free Action on all fighters (immediately after Improved Haste of course), and RVE for multiple regenerations. Both CC include 3*ADHW, for quicker gith clearing.
Entered. Summoned all powerful summons (except Skeleton Lord, PC has other business). Bane cast True Sight from The truth's longsword special ability. PC cast three Farsight spells - very important as will be seen later from pictures. One on the entrance area. Killed some gith. CC killed few enemies, but still, killed some. Forgot to re-set spells in PC's book so she could cast CC again. Oh well. Kept fighters a bit closer to the entrance, mages a bit ahead and summons with them. Killed some gith with fighters. Supreme Leader approached. Gave his speech. Cast True Sight. Oh no. PC's under SI:A, while Alia's under SI:Div. Most importantly, the moron took the bait (PC summoned a Skeleton Lord in the meantime) and attacked the clustered group of summons - the Elite berserker warrior, the noble spider and the Greater Djinni. Good luck with that. Fighters now quickly sneaked by him and deeper into enemy territory to the ship. Alia moved forward to clear the way via her CC with another 3*ADHW spells, while Astarta cast Alacrity and used her 12 Acid arrows and 12 Magic missiles as well as her 7 Rays of Fragmentation to kill some gith and damage a Coin golem significantly, clearing the way for the fighters to enter. Debuffed the Supreme Leader via 3 RRR and a couple of Remove Magics. Then tne two mages followed, leaving only the Supreme Leader to battle with the summons.
Killed a couple of Clay/Stone golems (thanx Crom Faeyr). Reached the 2 golem makers.
Attacked Hracknir (golem maker, produces clay/stone golems each round). Bad idea. He's immune to damage while Mlar (the other golem maker, constructs a Gem and Coin golem each round) is alive. OK Mlar. Time to die. Criticals with piercing weapons main, and he fell in a couple of rounds. Forgot to change weapons, turns out Hracknir is vulnerable to crushing damage, thus an Anti-Inquisitor appeared and even dispelled Alia's combat protective and specific protective buffs via his Torturous Inquisition ability. Alia had just cast Monster Summoning VII though, and used the Yuanti to distract the 2 Anti-Inquisitors (because in the meantime Hracknir died too). Fighters started killing gith/lesser golems. 2 more anti-inquisitors were near the Supreme Leader and together were killing the Skeleton Lord. Oh well. PC cast Alacrity, Foreknowledge and unleashed a lightning storm upon the first Elite Inquisitor. Meaning 2 sequencers with 3 Lightning bolt each, 6 more lightning bolts memorized, plus 4 Chain Lightning spells. Ops. Overdid it. Enemy died on the 3rd such spell. Continued releasing lightning bolts and chain lightnings on the second inquisitor. But the first bolts somehow rebounded and hit him hard too! He fell quick, but Astarta used up her remaining Chain Lightning spells, followed by Malison and 2 ADHW spells, killing all remaining gith. In the meantime via Farsight was seen that the Greater Djinni is almost dead, because of the Supreme Leader's GWW. Navigated him and successfully cast his ProMW spell, and he survived!
BTW Supreme Leader activated quite a lot of protections while battling summons. ProMW, stoneskins...even his Hardiness.
Fighters quickly eliminated the golems. The dangerous enemies are the anti-inquisitors anyway. Alia cast ProEnergy, Foreknowledge, Alacrity, and finally the Greater Djinni and Noble Spider were moved closer to the party. Spider was slain by the Supreme Leader, but not before Alia successfully unleashed her own ligtning storm upon the two remaining Anti-Inquisitors - a sequencer and trigger with a total of 6 Lightning bolts, and 4 more (she had only 4 3rd level spells). This however was more than enough to kill one anti-inquisitor and harm severely the second, despite the fact that they quaffed Insulation potions (but too late). Fighters chopped them eventually, but these are quite physical-damage resistant, so the fighters would have one hell of a tough time without lightning support. The Greater Djinni from behind cast his one and only Chain Lightning spell as well. Note to self: Remember to use the Staff of Thunder and lightning's bolts with UAI next time for quicker damage. Second note to self: Use more Limited Wishes before combat to regain all sorcerer 3-rd level wasted slots.
In the meantime, Astarta activated Alacrity and cast 7* Recast Vital Energy. Very bad. 3 times 'heal', 2 times 'physical resitances to PC'. Only 1 'regenerate' and 1 'powerful undead ally'. Well, the Skeleton Lord will help immensely. The party cannot use their regenerations anyway, since the Supreme Leader had cast Hardiness only a couple of rounds back. He breached Torham though. Afterwards the fighters dispersed, leaving the Supreme Leader to battle only a Greater Djinni and a Skeleton Lord. See him how he'll fare vs these.
In short, the party's well buffed, on max health, with many options, while the Supreme Leader is quickly running out of options and is even now facing an opponent which he cannot kill fast - a Skeleton Lord. Will have to wait his Hardiness to wane though, because he's immune to Breach. Party also used few criticals up to this point, and the leader doesn't wear a helmet. He's a good F/M though, so the party should plan for his Comet and 3*ADHW CC spells.
Conclusion of that fight: Looks that the Supreme Leader has more than 1 Hardiness, and is actually quite good at killing Skeleton Lords. Summoned a bit more fodder, but he used a Death spell seeing 2 Mordy swords, an elite troll and a greater yuanti. Right at that moment the Farsight waned and the Djinni, without supervision, fell quickly (Djinni's all stoneskins were exausted, but he still has an amazing HP quantity and good regeneration rate, so basically he can survive by circling around, buying precious rounds). Party's Free Action waned, making it possible to refresh IHaste. The party counted rounds and attacked the enemy under Mass Invisibility near the time when his hardiness would wane. (8th round or so). Enemy under heavy barrage managed to cast True Sight! But right at this point his luck ran out, and party fighters activated Criticals, taking him out in a single round with heavy hits. Poor guy couldn't even activate his Body Equilibrium.
Edit: Please note Torham's miss on a roll of 17. He wields +4 Rimed Club mainhand, and although he has a base AC of 3 (being an 18-th lvl ranger) his current base THAC0 is -2 thanx to the Holy Power buff + Helm of Balduran + Aid spell. Moreover, he has 25 str and all bonuses applied by it (+7 THAC0, +14 dmg). Weapon bonus to Thac0 is 4. He also has equipped the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, and has **in Clubs, for 2 more THAC0 bonus. This means that his THAC0 with main-hand is -2-7-4-2 = -15 at present. And he misses on a roll of 17. That's some enemy AC.
Loot: Gesen's Bow Shaft (of course, NOW, when it would be most useful in this fight vs the Inquisitors), Angurvadal long sword +4, lock of cloud giant's beard, some other not so significant items.
Most importantly, now the way is opened to the 5th lvl of WK, and also to the lairs of Saladrex and the Demilich. But this post's getting too long, will write in a next one.
Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 09 mai 2012 - 08:12 .
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