Grond - kensai (update 3)
The next destination was Trademeet. The main reason for going there was to complete Grond's primary selection of weapons with Belm, but there were other things on offer as well. The first was the efreeti bottle - a
kai assault doing the trick there. The djinn in the tent got treated to a Gaxx haste each.
In the Druid Grove a
combination of 3 giant trolls and a spirit troll did a reasonable amount of damage to Grond, but also provided him with level 13 and a welcome improvement in his APR and saving throws.
The efreeti got a first outing against Kyland Lind, though it was
Kitthix's web that made sure he would not be able to escape. Grond picked up Belm and tested his new capability of 9 APR by
chunking both spore colonies before they could produce any myconids. Dalok was hacked down, but the rakshasas left alone for now. Cernd punished Faldorn, while Grond looked on admiringly. Back in Trademeet Grond reported in and then bought the Dwarven Thrower, Ras, Cloak of Displacement, Belt of Inertial Barrier and Necklace of Missiles.
Just for the hell of it he used a
daystar sunray in clearing the tomb.
Back in Athkatla Grond bought a few potions and scrolls and the rod of resurrection. He has now got most the things on his originally list. One still outstanding is Ilbratha, so next he took a quick trip to Umar Hills. Did the quests around the town, including getting Ilbratha and picking up Valygar's dead body, but didn't bother travelling to the ruined temple. There was a pathfinding problem getting round one of the rangers that spawn to protect Valygar and, as a result a few seconds were wasted. That was enough for Grond, who only had DUHM on, to take severe damage (down to 23 HPs) and be forced to retreat. Gaxx healed him as he ran, meaning there was no problem in
picking off the enemies with Azuredge. Just a reminder there of the need to be careful with a kensai - Grond learnt a lesson though, achieving level 15 there. Incidentally his unbuffed THAC0 is now -6 with his main hand, so he doesn't miss most things very often.
Back in the city again Grond opened the Planar Sphere and then went to pay Gaelen Bayle. That gave him immediate access to one of the few desired items now missing (a +2 ring of protection - which soon replaced the Claw of Kazgoroth) and led toward another. The route started with Mook; Grond got drained by Lassal there pointing up the need to get some protection against that. Then on to the Guild Contact in the Bridge District and finally to vampire HQ. To avoid any more embarassment in that area Grond used another protection from undead scroll. I wasn't sure what would happen if I killed Lassal before he could talk, so left him alone, but killed the rest. The Grimwarders ignored the undead protection, but were no threat on their own - Grond got to level 15 here. After resting,
Lassal was Azuredged using Arbane haste and Grond went to confront Bodhi. Kitthix and the efreeti occupied her attention for the short time needed for
Grond to go to work with the FoA.
On the way out of the Graveyard Grond found a paladin a new daughter and agreed to track down some kidnappers. After reporting in to Aran that's what he did and he kindly told the noblewoman that she was free to go ... just as soon as a ransom had been paid. Fortunately for her that was done almost immediately.
There was a bit of unfinished business with the mace of disruption. However, Sir Sarles was soon packing to leave the city in disgust, while Grond was left with some illithium
courtesy of Neb (who got one backstab in, but didn't manage to hide again). The mace got an early workout when I decided to help the temple of Lothander recover a sacred item and
ran into Tanova (level 16).
The last item on Grond's list of desired equipment was the berserker horn. The only way to get that was to use a scroll or potions of magic protection, which seemed like rather a waste, so he decided to stretch the scroll a bit further. First he picked up the horn using scroll and potion of speed. Then he went to confront the Twisted Rune, adding storm giant strength, heroism and defense to the buffs. Shangalar took his time in arriving so the efreeti had already disappeared. Grond followed him, courtesy of II, before the beholder could target him and went back to confont Shangalar. Revanek followed and soon died. A sunray hurt Shangalar, but didn't finish him off, so Grond had to wait until his buffs died down and Azuredge could take effect.
He then summoned Ras for the first time - it didn't last long, but caused enough of a distraction for Grond to finish off the beholder without being debuffed. Shyressa saved several times against Azuredge strikes before expiring from one of Layene's spells, while the pit fiend and Layene were successfully Azuredged.
Deciding to maximise benefit from the protection from magic scroll Grond headed immediately for the Guarded Compound. He ran past the spawning enemies on the ground floor to tackle the main group immediately. Ketta missed his first backstab, but got the second - though paying with his life. Meanwhile Grond had been debuffed by Sion, so took another potion of defense while running away. Koshi followed him - to his death. Olaf also walked in - straight into Grond's last Gaxx haste. That lasted long enough to also get through Sion's stoneskins and he only lasted a second or two more. Maferan took another round or so, leaving Stalman to be Azuredged past his blade barrier.
You might notice in that sequence that his HPs are staying stubbornly low. That's because I'm aiming to do this run without using any healing potions (or rod of resurrection) if possible. That does of course introduce a certain element of risk. Here, with the job pretty much done, I carelessly walked the wrong side of the pillar when heading back downstairs and into an acid trap (going down from about 70 HPs to just over 30). However, the enemies downstairs didn't have any range attacks that could hurt him so he continued down immediately and used a potion of speed and Azuredge to finish them off.
Finally Grond took ship for Spellhold. At Brynnlaw the opening ambush by vampires was a trivial annoyance. Grond helped Ginia and then a single critical blow persuaded Perth to give up his wardstone. The book of infinite spells went straight from fireball to true seeing and Grond happily left it there.
He beat up various undead on the way into Spellhold, getting to level 17 in the process. He's just lost his Bhaal powers and given up a bit of wisdom in order to be able to meet Imoen again. Grudging those losses he immediately told her to get lost!
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