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[Gate70]

Jon's journal, day 99
The Bhaalspawn have been delivered into my care at long last. My experiments are progressing nicely other than sawing Imoen in two, hence the sticky girdle. Raxik came with various goodies including the ring of Koveras and some golden pantaloons.

(edit, this is an artistic impression, taken with full buffs - inset portrait is without buffs...)

The rest of his gear has paid for another weeks rent of the chateau but Mae'Var informs me his 'colleagues' are planning a visit so I'll need to check the front door is properly secured before completing my research.

Day 104
Five days! Five days! There have been times where I felt like Tim Goldenhand; on the cusp of giving up; but my repertiore of spells has endured and I have almost got to the complex entrance. There was some further dilemma; do I bolt the front door properly so those accursed thieves are thwarted or do I go back and deal with Raxik?

The chateau-cam showed I could leave Raxik for later as the sneaky pink caster, oaf and strident harpy have made their own way out. I suspect this is as much a relief for Raxik in some ways as it is for me.

Geas-boy passed me a few minutes ago, clutching all he could carry and wearing what he couldn't so it appears Raxik is approaching the wandy statuey zappy room. I briefly thought my radiant portals had the better of him but no such luck. The mephit plane room was even more disappointing and as for the trapped cambion he won't be doing further business with me after falling to a single duhmkai blow.

The door is just around the next corner - I could have sent Bodhi or even teleported there myself but there are times when you have to stride melodramatically. Perhaps I should showboat outside for a while too?

Modifié par Gate70, 07 août 2013 - 06:27 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Thank you for your kind words, Blind_Visionary! But I think, I wouldn't overestimate my mastery in leading the Avatars with all those numerous deaths of the Crue members...

@Grond: Congratulations with finishing SoA! Safe travels in ToB! Hope to meet Maus in Amkethran' tavern to have a round of ale.

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 07 août 2013 - 08:44 .

[Gate70]

Day 104, later that evening just before dusk
Raxik the dwarven kensai has killed everything including Ulvaryl and is stood behind me, no doubt marvelling at my arcane demonstration of overwhelmingness. I'm too modest, it was a spectacle of evocational necromanceish mastery cranked up to 11.

The showboating was more than magnificent. So good in fact that I got carried away, as did Imoen. Raxik has trashed my old residence so my rental deposit has been well and truly dwarfed. It is fortunate indeed that the Cowled Wizards have been fooled into providing me with a new laboratory which is rent-free.

Another part of my scheming has paid off. Fearful that my subject might escape the coverage of the chateau-cam I adapted my jon-cam into a cluster of jon-cams and implanted them into the 3rd person perspective of Raxik. I now have an isometric wizards eye of his locale at all times. I shall be perusing it man-style (on fast-forward 60fps with the occasional juddering to freeze-frame during salubrious moments).

[Alesia_BH]

Wow: We have a lot of runs in ToB now.

Go get Mel guys!

A.

[Grond0]

Alesia_BH wrote...
Go get Mel guys!

trying ...

Maus - dwarven swashbuckler (Update 9)

Illasera failed to survive a time trap (dispelling her mirrors and WW during it).  Providing Sarevok with a bit of soul opened up the first pocket plane challenge, which was negotiated easily enough (Blackrazor WW providing the bit of healing necessary).

In Amkethran opened up access to Lazarus and used his scrolls to upgrade a couple of items.  However, despite having just done this area in MP I couldn't immediately see how to get into the castle (possibly Maus's evil alignment changes things).  Investigating the barracks Maus was trapped by some soldier reinforcements, but equipping his shield (to give AC-20 in addition to weapon immunity) meant he was safe while a few cloudkills cleared the area.  Eventually he hooked up with a vampire courtesan and got into the prison.

Using evasion it was easy for Maus to get his AC to the maximum of -24 and he had no problems with the vampires (or the fighters and thieves after them).  The mage tried to detect invisibility, but just found an incoming Carsomyr WW (spiced as usual by detect illusion).  A few orcs and orogs were swept aside to reveal a way into the palace.  A couple of WWs dealt with the first group and Maus headed on upstairs under improved haste.  A Carsomyr WW saw both Karun the Black (& blue) and the other mage dead before they could buff.  A second WW killed the thief and a third left Gromnir all alone.  Just for the hell of it Maus used his movement rate advantage to set a time trap - Gromnir didn't survive that (even though I again forgot to unequip Belm for the WW).

On the way to Yaga-Shura Maus came across a group of Il-Khan soldiers.  Even without any buffs or HLAs a newly upgraded Foebane was still enough to get his HPs up to a peak of 229 against them.  With level drain protection and high movement speed the Master Wraith and his gang at the Temple of Mir were no problem and Maus moved on to the Marching Mountains.  A couple of the Bhaalspawn there got away, though I didn't try too hard to kill them all and Maus is now on the threshold of the Fire Giant Temple.

stats (cont. from BG1)
Maus, swashbuckler L40, 147 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm, 12 from familiar),  kills 1,681

Modifié par Grond0, 08 août 2013 - 05:14 .

[Grond0]

Maus - dwarven swashbuckler (Update 10)

At the Fire Giant Temple Maus initially went in invisibly and disarmed all the traps.  Then he showed himself at the entrance, using evasion and WWs to rapidly eliminate the opposition.  Other preparation for this area included donning Roranach's Horn and red dragon armour (he typically wears ring of fire control anyway - so that gave 120% protection).  That preparation made the area simple - the entrance area was cleared for instance using 6 WWs, which got Maus up to 344 HPs.  Having confirmed that the giants struggled to hit him Maus moved rapidly on through the temple mainly using Foebane and Belm (FoA for clay golems & trolls and long sword for magic golems) and standing in lava to heal the rare hits that got through his defences.

Berenn had no more success than the rest of the temple's inhabitants and Maus moved on to take Yaga-Shura's heart.  I knew there were maze traps somewhere in this area, but wasn't sure where, so Maus was moving pretty slowly.  Even so he somehow managed to trigger this trap - fortunately not maze (though his equipment at the time was giving him 90% MR as a backup).  I couldn't resist fishing a halberd out of storage to Wave goodbye to Imix.

Off to see Nyalee - only to find I had somehow failed to pick up her heart.  Back to the temple ... and back to Nyalee.  On to the Siege Camp where Maus stealthed in, hit Yaga-Shura then re-stealthed to wait for him to return.  A couple of WWs put the giant down, though Maus took more damage than I expected in the process - probably should have put evasion on first or even equipped his shield!

As usual I found the second pocket plane challenge a real challenge.  After just doing this in MP I started off with the aim of slowing Maus's double with the FoA.  That was done, but he took significant damage in the process and the double was still moving extremely quickly.  However, a potion of speed did now give Maus a speed advantage and he used that to heal up (can't remember the last time I used healing potions) while the double was slowed.  Turning with a WW he managed to slow him again and get away before being hit and I hoped to be able to finish the job with Firetooth.  However, Maus still couldn't generate enough space to use that effectively in a WW, so maximised his AC again and turned to fight with a Blackrazor WW.  That had the double running and Firetooth finished it off.  A Carsomyr WW was too much for Semaj, leaving a straightforward task against Angelo and Tamoko.

Incidentally, I've realised for some time that it would have been useful to have the Golden Girdle available for many of these fights.  Having checked its location that seems to be only available as part of the mage stronghold quests, which seems a shame.

stats (cont. from BG1)
Maus, swashbuckler L40, 147 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm, 12 from familiar),  kills 1,763

[Grond0]

Maus - dwarven swashbuckler (final update)

Maus had caught up with Wallop & Dwarberg's progress, but failed to pass them.  As usual I just couldn't bring myself to take the safe option and paid the price against Vongoethe.

The idea was for the stone golem to occupy him while Maus attacked with Carsomyr.  That seemed to be going to plan, but at some stage during his various contingencies Vongoethe had obviously switched targets from the golem to Maus and aimed a maze at him.

Although Maus was equipped with items giving 90% MR, I hadn't bothered putting other things on and off after equipping Carsomyr (which resets MR to 50%) and thus only had a half chance of resisting the spell - and that proved insufficient.

Modifié par Grond0, 08 août 2013 - 07:07 .

[Gate70]

Still got to read your final pair of updates but caught the final word, sorry to hear it Grond0.

Grond0 wrote...
However, despite having just done this area in MP I couldn't immediately see how to get into the castle (possibly Maus's evil alignment changes things).

It does indead, the priestess won't hand over a key to those of an evil nature so courtesans in the tavern is one way to go after speaking to the scared man. There is also a third way which I haven't used for years and that is to clear the barracks out. Not sure which of the two alternatives you did as I think that also leads to courtesans but takes you in via the sewers?

Modifié par Gate70, 08 août 2013 - 07:42 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Oh no, Grond...!  

[ussnorway]

Sorry Grond0... I was looking forward to seeing our two theves finish together.

p.s. You can Pickpocket/ kill her as well but ask her to save the Elves first before you go that path.

[ussnorway]

Update 2.7; Trust Noone!

Pirate island or best of 3;

Perth and Puk have a bit of history… Puks run came to a dead end here and then Daemonique played it safe against him on her run by luring him outside onto traps so there is bad blood between me and this guy because I haven’t yet managed to find a fool proof tactic.

R1, I wanted to set a trap before the battle started but was too slow on the pause button so Cassia opened with a ‘Insect Plague’.

Next couple of rounds are frustrating, with normal casting locked down Perth used his triggers to counter our attacks with some impressive buffs… Edward countered his invisibility so that Puk and Trishia could drop his resistance with ‘Doom’ & ‘Greater Malison’.

Last rounds, despite a good start my second ‘Insect Plague’ was about to run out and I was getting desperate when Cassia remembered that she still had one ‘nymph’ so we tried a ‘Domination’.



So now I’m out of spells while Perth is ‘Time stop’[ped] and under my ‘Domination’. I was hoping he had a ‘Maze’ or even a Planetar but was out of luck so I ordered him to stand against the far wall while Edward kicked out a trap.



We win… this time.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 24 - (final update - but not in a good way)
Wallop, dwarf berserker (Grond0) & Dwarberg, dwarf berserker (Gate70)

The duo saw Melissan starting to look a touch apprehensive, but were ultimately not able to get far enough to confront her.

The early stages of the session saw drow being the main obstacle to progress.  The woodcutter and his friends nearly killed Dwarberg and had Wallop running before they were finished off.  Then, in Sendai's enclave, letting the drow build up while concentrating on Sendai clones made it hard for Wallop and an extermination campaign was needed before turning back to Sendai.  With her out of the way the 3rd pocket plane challenge saw the Slayer smacked down rapidly.

The next problem was draconic, i.e. Draconis.  His human form had Dwarberg worried when attacking during a timestop saw lots of HPs melt away.  Then, in dragon form, he made Dwarberg retreat before chasing hard after Wallop and only being foiled by a hidey-hole.  With both berserkers healed and newly buffed though he was soon turned into high-quality dog-meat.  Abazigal went one better - he was nearly dead and Dwarberg thought he would be able to outlast him.  That was almost true in that Abazigal died without having taken any more damage - but his dying bite took Dwarberg with him.

After resurrecting Dwarberg, the duo moved on to the 'simple' 4th pocket plane challenge.  Just hardiness and rage were deemed to be sufficient buffs as 3 backstabbers appeared.  Two concentrated on Wallop and he was badly damaged while killing one of them.  As a result he ran down to where Dwarberg had been, while Dwarberg ran up to replace him.  Unfortunately, Wallop found out the hard way that Dwarberg's opponent had not actually been killed, but had just gone invisible - a backstab ending this run.

I was unsure whether there had actually been 4 backstabbers originally, so loaded the autosave and redid the fight.  This time Wallop didn't buff at all and hardly attacked, but the fight was still won - so it was pretty reasonable originally to expect the fight to be simple.  That's the trouble with backstabs - a fight seems easy if they miss, but if they don't they can be painful!

Looks like Melissan will have to wait for MP25!

[corey_russell]

@Grond0/Gate70: Ouch! Sorry to hear the end of your MP runs - I like summons for distractions on that challenge - I usually buff the PC to the max too (Ilbratha, etc.)
@Grond0: If I must deal with Van Goethe, Pro Undead scroll works nice against him.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Bad news, guys... but impressive run nonetheless!
For the future you could consider Enkidu's Full Plate +3 and Gargoyle Boots from Amkethran (both provide immunity vs backstab).

[Grond0]

Thanks all.  We did have Enkidu's and Gargoyle boots and I'd even worn the Gargoyle Boots a couple of times, but hadn't expected it to be necessary that time.  Perhaps I'll be a bit more cautious on the next occasion.

[Blind_Visionary]

Argh. Three intrepid Bhaalspawn dead! I think that General Patton said, "I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom." So, I'm sure that you're in for a big rebound on your next run, Grond0 and Gate!

[Gate70]

Day 114, hour 19
(I've lost several journal entries somewhere in this new base. Never mind, they should bio-degrade)

Now that Spellhold is under my governance my attention can go back to the dwarven kensai. I've instructed Yoshimo to get him to me as soon as possible but Raxik had already gone into the circus. Yoshimo has returned various items of value and laid out a trail of jobs (Suna Seni > Renfeld > Mad cleric > Prebek > Xzar) which has enriched Gaelan Bayle, and I am informed that Aran Linvail has started work on arranging transport here.

I'm a bit worried as Raxik keeps visiting Watchers Keep. So far he's just stashing items but his kleptomaniac tendencies are of concern. Witness the ring of air control, ring of human influence, girdles of bluntness / piercing, an offhand Arbane shortsword and a ring of protection +2 together with glasses of identification. He's either going to blunder further into the keep or follow up one of the other jobs he's heard about (Trademeet, Umar, Windspear and de'Arnise Hold all opened up plus Tolgerias has spilled the beans about the Planar Sphere).

edit, the mad cleric got scared and ran through a wall - Raxik used the door nearby to enter the thief hq but no sign of the cleric.

Modifié par Gate70, 08 août 2013 - 09:29 .

[ussnorway]

Update 2.8; Trust Noone!

Spell hold with harsh language;
Irenicus caught us without busting a sweat and stripped us of our gear before sending me into a bad dream, where Edward had to drop a point of intelligence just to move the plot along… The only good news was his traps finishing the battle without a fuss.

I tripped over a Yuan-Ti mage on the first level… that 'Chaos' spell is nasty, then settled down and found my rhyme, Casta tanked like a trooper (at -18 armour) with Valando backing her up.

The final battle was a cake walk this time;



R1, as luck would have it, Daemonique arrived next to Irenicus so she popped an ‘Insect Plague’ on herself which latched onto him and our doubles… for the next three rounds we killed off the peons.



R4, Edward tossed out a stun trap which everyone was surprised to see functioned impeccably…

With that unevenness dealt with, we decided to take a delightful sail home… Edward can now change into the slayer which I doubtless will use at least once in the near future.

[Gate70]

Interesting choice to drop intelligence there.

Day 118 hour 21
How I laugh. Raxik has only fitted 20 minutes work into the last few days while I have been experimenting wildly. I fear however that his cack-handed approach has delivered better rewards though, while I have little to show for my efforts other than Imoen wailing mournfully.

In his brief time Raxik has bagged 3 djinn to grab an efreeti bottle and a cloak of displacement. Fortunately he can afford neither the dwarven throwing hammer nor the belt of inertial barrier. I almost breathed a sigh of relief but in that brief time he nipped over to Umar and helped himself to a many bladed short-sword (Ilbratha). He may prove to be more of a thorn in my side than the Cowled Wizards and Shadow Thieves.

[Alesia_BH]

Hi all. I'm just writing to let everyone know that Ashanti is now truly actually factually back in action: she completed the De'Arnise and Mae'Var quests this afternoon.

The only reason I haven't posted a progress report is that my Photobucket account is at its bandwith limit and I'm not feeling inclined to shell out. If anyone is aware of a viable free alternative, let me know.

Best,

A.

[Gate70]

Another Photobucket account?

[ussnorway]

I host Puk and co from my bioware account...under your profile tab press <My Content > <Albums> but you tend to need lots of pics, yes?

p.s. FYI you get about 30 widescreen screenshots to every mb (assume jpeg) of spare space.

Modifié par ussnorway, 10 août 2013 - 01:22 .

[ussnorway]

Update 2.9; Trust Noone!

Fish cakes for dinner;
Call me speciest but the only good shark is a dead shark & Cassia took serious exception to being called slave by her dinner!



Pre-battle, we popped some adds and set a single trap but the crazed look in Cassia eyes gave everyone nerves so we just sicked her onto them and tried not to wince as she ate.



Then the rebel prince showed up to gloat before she finished eating… a bad mistake on his part.

[Gate70]

Day 121 hour 10
Raxik is occupying my thoughts more and more. His kleptomania seems to have switched from items to scrolls and before I could instruct Yoshimo to steal everything in the city the dwarf has purchased green scrolls to protect against poison and undead. I managed a long-distance summoning of a sea troll in the sewers but he used DUHM > Ilbratha > Kundane > melee > efreeti acid arrow to foil my scheme and pick up a potion of frost giant strength from Roger.

Yoshimo has arranged a rakshasa and kobolds, but my attempt to bolster them with a distant flame strike turned awry and ended up with me summoning a bag of holding for Raxik instead. I won't be using Kruin the gith as a conduit for my magic again, that's for sure.

Raxik then worked his way to Gaal followed by Sassar. He may have heard my howl of rage as he side-steps Yoshi's level drain trap before using storm giant strength > PfU > oil of speed. A shade lich is down then he avoids the trap a second time on his way to the city gates. It takes him longer to spot a hidden door with the efreeti's help than to kill the lich within, then he is off to the Bridge district.  Ilbratha > RoAC sees him bust open two doors (saved vs both traps) and quickly deal with an elemental lich.

The mirrors and invisibility both wear off as he opens another trapped door - drained down to level 9 but the dwarf continues on and destroys Kangaxx twice. With both the protection and strength active he goes for a quick temple restoration and then starts clearing out the graveyard crypts and Uncle Nevin.

Modifié par Gate70, 10 août 2013 - 09:28 .

[Gate70]

Day 123 hour 22
I've over-planned. Raxik is stumbling across my many schemes and delaying his arrival in Spellhold. He is hunting down Anarg the rogue paladin and his fallen companions as well as dealing with Mae'Var,a smaller group of kidnappers and the skinner district murders. Meanwhile my muggers and orog slavers have been as useless as the other ambushes I have arranged. At this rate he will forget about Imoen and myself. 

At least my muggers stopped Rampah spilling the beans and Lt Aegisfield refused to investigate further. Raxik is proving to be stubborn though and investigated the tannery in more detail. For a few moments I was convinced Rejiek would deliver everything but his dwarven hide to me but instead the tanner escaped as his two assassins, two ghasts and bone golem were out-buffed.

Finally, a small victory. Raxik has refused to release a kidnapped noblewoman without reward. The silver pantaloons may turn out to be insignificant but I see a slight possibility that Raxik can be made to do as I please.
(Raxir, male dwarf kensai 12, 552 kills - Kangaxx)