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[Blackraven]

Nice progress Corey, have fun in Spellhold

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 73 - (update 1)

Eyesore, gnome illusionist (Grond0) & Danya, elf fighter/mage (Gate70)

 

This magical pair made a generally solid start in Amn today.

 

There were no real problems getting through the dungeon.  Eyesore was felled by a color spray in the portal room, but Danya had everything under control by then.  Ulvaryl did manage to escape - changing into bat shape to flee an instant ahead of Eyesore's magic missiles.  The circus was then restored before the duo went to sort out the Copper Coronet.

 

Some invisible travel meant that Suna Seni had no chance after being hit by a web and fireball - even after Danya ventured into the web after her.  Arriving in the Bridge District Eyesore recovered the berserker horn while Danya solved the skinner murders (though the Rune Assassins were left for now).  At Watcher's Keep they bought a potion case and acquired a golem book and magic dart, but didn't open the main room in case vampiric wraiths were waiting.

 

Back in Ahtkatla they returned Renfeld and buffed up in a nearby house for the assault on Prebek.  They then chose to spend available cash with Gaelan Bayle rather than the cowled wizards and Danya picked up some improved equipment from Aran Linvail.

 

The final action of the session saw a quick tour of the Graveyard.  The main focus of that was recovering the ioun stone from Pai'Na using the golem on her and chaos on the spiders making them easy victims.  There was also a nearly tragic incident when Eyesore asked Danya if she could open a container that he was struggling with - she could, but investigating it took her to within a few HPs of death.

 

 

Stats:

Eyesore, illusionist 11, 71 HPs (incl. 6 from ioun stone), 206 kills

Danya, fighter 8 / mage 9, 71 HPs, 282 kills, 0 deaths

[Gate70]

Looks like I forgot a Blaggerd update so from memory. There was one very dodgy moment.

 

After exiting Spellhold, Blaggerd chose to travel with Saemon Havarian in order to collect part of a sword. This led to a trip to a sahuagin city of caverns where Blaggerd showed his true colours by killing both their king and prince before exiting into the Underdark. Ring invisibility saw a mind flayer take rapid poison damage, then after blatting a group of kuo-toa he repeats the invisible poison trick with added Bala's axe on an elder orb and beholder. Rather than clear the rest of the area he ducks out and heads to the western tunnels. After clearing two rooms (kuo toa and beholder/gauth) he warily sacrifices a summon onto the feet of a Demogorgon statue and kills two Demon Knights. A third demon knight is tackled alone and Blaggerd runs when injured...

 

getting stunned and standing helpless for several rounds, while the demon knight gnashes his teeth about 20 feet out of view.

 

Once recovered, Blaggerd soon finishes the demon knight off and the final one is no danger.

 

& a very short addition today.

A group of kuo-toa fared poorly, as did a group of drow guarding the Underdark exit. Blaggerd briefly retreated from the latter after bashing through a flameshield and dropping below 90hp (bearing in mind the previous stun and several multiplayer deaths due to stun at this point), and a trio of skeleton warriors followed. Turn Undead soon saw them return to finish off the drow wizard and mow through the next set of kuo-toa, one helping Blaggerd against their prince, who for the record took a huge amount of poison before dying.

[wing]

Good progress everyone, and fun reads all! My runs will have to lapse, sheep shearing season has started and I no longer have any free time. Will update when I get the chance. Good luck!

[Gate70]

Blaggerd isn't sure about dealing with a balor so he summons a skeleton warrior (still small at level 18) and a first occurrence of a fallen deva. This ensures a quick victory and a use of Stoneshape secures an audience with Adalon. On the way he stops to free Bedlen Dagglefoss - is the Blackguard going soft?

 

Into Ust Natha, disguised as a drow. A group of hunters are killed off, Nashtar surviving a poisoned axe for an uncomfortably long amount of time (I'd left him after one hit, mistake) and Boz running away scared. Blaggerd quickly tracks him down, eager for a fallen deva to hang around for the illithid. The deva departs after a round or two and Blaggerd is surrounded until his aura of despair sends the illithid fleeing (hmm, handy to know).

 

Back to Ust Natha, chop down a beholder then blag a swirf patrol leader helmet. Pretend to kill Solaufein (must roleplay blackguards better) then a night of what happens in Ust Natha stays in Ust Natha. The next morning a load of old cobblers about riches in a tower is spun to Blaggerd but he's in a rush, what with being tasked to clear out some slimes and oozes which he has no intention of doing. Instead he replaces the dragon eggs with some fakes supplied by Phaere and hands her a second set of fakes supplied by Solaufein. The golems turn hostile but Hardiness + AoF keeps Blaggerd reasonably fit as he and a Fallen Deva dismantle them.

 

The Matron Mother is deceived by fake eggs, as is Phaere. A Lesser Demon Lord flames them both into oblivion and turns to Blaggerd. A deal eh - well why not. Blaggerd has looted their corpses and left the city before anyone realises trouble is afoot.

 

Blaggerd summons a pair of skeleton warriors and realises they are full size (at level 19), adding a Fallen Deva and finally summoning Bob the wyvern. All to no avail as Adalon treats them to an icy reception then chases after Blaggerd. He cowers halfway up the stairs, then roots around in his bag of holding. The only missile weapon available is a plain shortbow and after using 4 arrows of dispelling he gets through 40 arrows of acid and about half his remaining set which are arrows of biting. An oil of speed is augmented by a potion of heroism as Adalon is hard to hit (what with Blaggerd only vaguely proficient with a longbow and not at all with a shortbow). His fourth set of poison is too much for Adalon.

[Gate70]

Bodhi suggests Blaggerd is outnumbered and needs to surrender. A couple of rounds later it is very much a different story.

[corey_russell]

Coracher Update - Spellhold

 

Corarcher has made it out of Spellhold alive - it was really smooth, except one detail - I forgot to use the discs to get my haste boots! Doh! But life must go on...

 

We didn't use any spells at all on Irenicus - our secret weapon was Joshua's dispelling arrows. Irenicus died so fast and was so disrupted, he wasn't even able to summon the clones. We were forced to fight Lonk again (We used the dialog "You only serve him out of fear..."). Fortunately, we were able to disrupt his spells, and thus he could died before he could do anything important, though just in case we did protect against horrid wilting best we could, e.g. SI:N and also Armor of faith x3 (the rangers, Cernd).

 

We have obtained the horn, and are just about to voyage with Saemon Havarian.

[corey_russell]

Nice progress Corey, have fun in Spellhold

Thanks! I got a good team.

[Gate70]

Blaggerd realises he has misplaced something, finding it eventually on a table next to Unger Hilldark. There are also three or four varieties of arrows and a composite longbow stashed there together with dryad acorns, a few arrows are left but the rest is equipped or bagged. Cromwell forges a shortbow of Gesen but not the item Blaggerd is keen to try, and the Blackguard decides to keep the shortbow for those little emergencies even though he is not proficient with it.

 

On to Umar where Fael and his mages take rapid poison damage, two of them receiving Blaggerd's vorpal "cure".

[Gate70]

Blaggerd considers the choices, he has Umar, Trademeet and Windspear all to do but instead ventures to Watchers Keep. The first area is fine, but desert trolls in the second are immune to anything Blaggerd has brought to the party. He retreats to consider his options (FoA, Blackblood) before realising the Dragons Breath halberd would have done the job, so returns to confirm.

 

After clearing the air room and poison room the ice golem is almost killed but Blaggerd has to attempt a slowed run with 1hp remaining. Despite retracing his steps a trap is sprung... and up goes his hand.

 

Rats. 

[Blackraven]

Sorry about Blaggerd Gate70
I liked him... Would invisibility have been an option?

[Aasim]

After clearing the air room and poison room the ice golem is almost killed but Blaggerd has to attempt a slowed run with 1hp remaining. Despite retracing his steps a trap is sprung... and up goes his hand.

 

Rats. 

Urgh. Ugly way to end, but great run.

 

Thadius, fighter/cleric, 1st update

 

Nothing actually. I exited the dungeon via Dungeon-B-gone (I install this mod AFTER I finish BG1, then uninstall it).

This is Thadius and his crew:

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop should be Circus I guess.

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear the end of Blaggerd, Gate70.

[Aasim]

Thadius, 2nd BG2 update

 

A short session saw the end of circus problems, demise of slavers

part 1:

 

part 2:

 

And exiting the city via well-established route Goverment-gates-Umar hills. There we killed some rangers and did the rest of small quests.

 

Then, a short visit to WK. Fasight revealed no Vampiric Wraiths, thus area was easy. We looted everything, but hadn't yet fought any of the statues (nobody uses bastard swords so I'm in no rush).

 

Party levels:

Thadius -9/9 fighter/cleric

Nabul - 10 barbarian

Skibi - 10 - wizard slayer - highest kill count. Go halflings!

Bunthis - 9/9 - thief/mage

Asya - 10 - sorcerer 

 

Gold: 12 K after selling WK stuff I don't need.

Plans are to return to the city and finish thieves' quests now. Pai-na is a very valid target as well (her ioun stone offers protection from criticals). Yea, Pai-na will die soon.

[Grond0]

Quad multiplayer attempt 2 - (update 1)

Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70

 

The Quad were last seen celebrating Sarevok's destruction in BG1 a month ago.  After Mae'Var finally ushered them into some cells in Jon's dungeon tonight they set about making their escape.  That was complicated early on by extreme lag - with Static often watching in bemusement as the others continued attacking creatures for half a minute after they had already been splattered over the walls.  

 

The dangers of lag were illustrated when Wewa suddenly got hit 4 times in a row by a non-existent opponent and narrowly escaped death.  That prompted a restart that provided some improvement, although the connection was still a bit ropey and we were forced to use text to plan attacks rather than the usual voice communications.  There were no real problems though working through the remaining opposition, such as in the portal room, but poor communications contributed to a staggered assault on Ulvaryl and she was able to kill the assassins and make her escape.

 

The circus provided a nice easy introduction to adventures in the City and the Quad have just reported in to Gaelan Bayle.

 

Stats:

Grond0 - Static, fighter 7/ thief 8, 68 HPs, 365 kills

Dogdancing - Wewa, monk 8, 51 HPs, 71 kills, 2 deaths

corey_russell - Corthief, fighter 7 / thief 8, 74 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 182 kills, 4 deaths
Gate70 - Carthus, monk 8, 47 HPs, 166 kills, 3 deaths

[Blackraven]

Streg, Half-Orc Cleric (of Talos)/Thief, 1st update

 

Fresh from the Sword Coast (see here), Streg had a busy first week in Amn. What applied to my BG1 updates of today, applies to the present update as well: 

 

As I said in my previous post I'm having problems with uploading images. I normally upload and post first on the Baldur's Gate (Enhanced) Forums, and then use links to my screenshots on those forums in my updates here. However today the Baldur's Gate Forum somehow rejects the jpg extension. Never had that before. I'm going to investigate whether this is something permanent or not. If I fail to get this sorted in the coming days, I'll probably resort to photbucket or something..

I'm sharing the words here, without images. You can find the same text with screenshots here.
 

Initially Streg found himself imprisoned in a dungeon run by a mad wizard. There were others who wanted to get out with him, but the Half-Orc had no use for them; he had his own means of escaping. Even his former neighbor Imoen was dismissed.

Streg soon became a level 8/10 Cleric/Thief thanks to XP already aqcuired in BG1 and to accomplishing some quests and more lucrative kills in terms of XP, most notably an Otyugh, Ulvaryl, and Frennedan. He shunned the Duergar as much as he could, and managed to pick up some BGTTweaks-imported gear right in front of them whilst Sanctuaried. (I only allowed the use of the Shadow Armor and Boots of Stealth, and Semaj's Cloak which gives 10 MR and Blurs the wearer. Other gear was picked up and sold at the Adventurer Mart; the proceeds shadowkeepered away). He didn't bother with Ilych's acorns or with Sarevok's sword in the plane of air. The portal room was tackled surprisingly easily, considering the fact that Streg had barely summoned a single Skeleton when the Mephits came barging in... That single Skeleton made quite a difference though.

 

Thus the Half-Orc escaped and found himself at Waukeen's Promenade in Athkatla, where Imoen (who had also managed to escape) and Irenicus were arrested by Cowled Wizards, and where Streg promptly restored a circus that had been transformed into a place of torture and suffering by a megalomaniacal Gnome, to its former self. He bought the Staff of Rhynn +4, then spoke with Gaelan Bayle in the Slums about ways to find Imoen and Irenicus, and was shown the way to the Docks District by Bayle's cousin Brus. However, he first halted at the Copper Coronet, to free a number of slaves and to see one of them, Hendak, become the establishment's new manager.

Streg then traveled to the Docks District to become a member of the Shadow Thieves. He first had to prove himself though, finding evidence of betrayal in one of the smaller guildhouses. The priest undertook the first of a number of missions (a simple burgling job) and from Merina at the Thieves Guild he bought a batch of master thievery potions for a shoplifting session. Fencing stolen items enabled him to purchase Vhailor's Helm, the Mercykiller Ring and the Ring of Air Control. During his walks through different areas of the city he was ambushed twice. First by a party of slavers whose leader he slew with a backstab and took Arbane's Sword from, and second by a band that had poisoned Renfeld. Streg didn't fight the latter party but spirited Renfeld away to the Docks, only to be meagrely rewarded for his good deed.

 

In the Bridge District Streg investigated a series of murders for Lieutenant Aegisfield. He found out the culprit, Rejiek the tanner, and tried to catch him. But he came to late and had to deal with a Rune Assassin that followed him on his way out of the Tanner's Shop. Fortunately Streg had just reached level 9 as a Cleric and learnt to cast tier 5 spells: Animal Summoning II, Cause Critical Wounds, Chaotic Commands, Cure Critical Wounds, Flamestrike, Greater Command, Insect Plague, Iron Skins, Mass Cure, Pixie Dust, Raise Dead, Repulse Undead, Righteous Magic, Slay Living and True Seeing. Both Ironskins and Insect Plague (and an oil of speed) helped the priest survive the Rune Assassin's attacks.

He received a Spider Figurine from Pai'Na for bringing her Spiders' Bane from the sewers and had the item upgraded by Cromwell. Improved Kitthix' webs and poisons proved crucial in Streg's encounter with Rayic Gethras' Mephits, and she was also a great aid against two Stone Golems. Summoned Woodland Beings and Skeletons soaked up lots of spells from Rayic Gethras himself before summoned Insects (level 3 spell) would render the wizard harmless. After two more missions for the smaller guildhouse he found the evidence of the betrayal, a flirt with the Night Masks, and was then ordered by the principal guildhouse to deal with the betrayers. This he did, buffed with potions of speed and immune to backstabs thanks to the Alathis' Guard cowl. Two synchronized backstabs, one by Streg himself one by his Vhailor simmy, finished off a Priest of Cyric before he could become dangerous. Kitthix helped with the others. The Half-Orc was appointed as the new leader of the guildhouse.

 

At the Graveyard District he cast Chaotic Commands on himself and went Improved Invisible to defeat a Crypt King. Insect Plague and eventually his Divine Wrath Bhaalpower were instrumental here. Streg paid Gaelan Bayle 15k GP for the Shadow Thieves' help in finding Imoen/Irenicus, and - more immediately - for the Amulet of Power and the ring of Protection +2 (that he would later see merged by Cromwell with Ribald's Ring of Regeneration into a Ring of Regeneration +2).

Further accomplishments included: bringing Wellyn his stuffed bear, insulting Sarles with fake illithium and helping with the theft of a dawn ring for his Talassan colleagues, slaying Tirdir's buriers, dealing with two people who weren't happy with his new position as guild leader, and saving Sansuki from three vampires.

Lastly, the Half-Orc taught Mencar Pebblecrusher and his friends not to mock him. Kitthix finished of Pooky, while traps and a backstab meant the end of Smaeluv Orcslicer. Amon followed Streg downstairs to get his Stoneskins removed by a guard, so that the Half-Orc could finish him off in a single (critical) backstab. The remaining two, Mencar and Brennan, were softened up by a Cloudkill (which in Divine Remix is an innate power for Talassan Clerics once they reach level 7), and entangled and charmed by Streg's Woodland Beings. Mencar finished off entangled Brennan, and Streg, helped by summoned Skeletons and a succeful Poison, took down the Dwarf. All this activity helped the Half-Orc crawl approach levels 11 (Cleric) and 13 (Thief). Blackraven hopes to see Streg obtain said levels in the Umar Hills.

 

(Blackraven is also growing a bit tired with the gaming and the journaling. He'll do his best to make Streg ascend, but after that he'll probably return to his writing on Ánhaga's novelized playthrough, and to other activities not related to BG.)

 

Ah one more thing a failed pickpocket attempt (committed out of curiosity) saw Lady Irlana and Sir Cadril turn hostile on Streg. I wonder if it'll have any consequences. If they stick around I might try to use Dryad charms to find a reputation-friendly solution. Maybe I can set them up against the sewer party.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 73 - (update 2)

Eyesore, gnome illusionist (Grond0) & Danya, elf fighter/mage (Gate70)

 

A bit more action yesterday continued this pair's record of no deaths to date - though they continue to push their luck a bit.

 

They started with a trip to Trademeet, though suffered from an ambush on the way - Danya had not been using stoneskin to date and unbuffed he was taken to badly wounded.  On arrival a wolf took an immediate bite out of him taking him to single figures HPs and he was grateful for the AoP that allowed him to cast invisibility before the wolf could get another attack in and allow a safe finish to that combat.  After resting they buffed up for the genies before moving on to the Grove.  That was quickly completed with summons helping distract trolls and cloudkill demolishing Kyland Lin's druids.  Cernd was given the chance for a light snack against Faldorn.  Back at Trademeet they helped Tiris and cleared the tomb.

 

The next target was the Ring of Gaxx.  Opening up a route through the Temple Sewers provided a new cloak, though Danya had a nasty moment there when she fell over in the mephit stinking cloud next to some green slimes.  Fortunately they were tripping over each other and failed to get an attack in until Danya managed to recover.  Another ambush without any buffs showed they were still vulnerable in melee, but defeating Kangaxx provided some increased confidence.

 

After starting the Sir Sarles quest they travelled to WK rather than rest until the alloy was available.  There were no vampiric wraiths there and they quickly cleared the top level.  Danya did put stoneskin on for the first time against the statues, but over-relied on that and woke up to find herself critically injured before managing to withdraw slightly and renew it to finish things off.

 

Stats:

Eyesore, illusionist 12, 72 HPs (incl. 6 from ioun stone), 270 kills

Danya, fighter 9 / mage 11, 78 HPs, 335 kills, 0 deaths

[Aasim]

Thadius, 3rd BG2 update

 

A rather straightforward morning session saw the end of Pai-na. Rest of the graveyard was also cleaned up. Returning to city from Graveyard area is sure to trigger an ambush,  hence we pre-buffed before - leaving Suna Seni with little possibility of doing  us harm. 

 

In search for money, Mecar was next. Amon died before the real battle started, a single critical but him below his chunking treshold.

 

Chaos did all the rest, with only Mencar left operational.

 

Then, Shadow thieves. For some odd reason, Mae'var chose not to dispel us - which proved to be his quick demise.

 

Following that, we take on the fallen paladins quest, descend into sewers and deal with Tarnor's gang. Battle was opened with an Ice Storm and Skull Trap.

 

Then, some more disables and damage - Chaos, Skull trap and Greater Command

 

A single dwarf and his mage friend survived the initial onslaught. Dwarf was killed first, and I left my wizadslayer deal with Gaius. Barbarian got petrified here - I had to kill him to set him free  since I had no StF spells (petrification works differently with Spell Revisions).

 

Cloak from sewer Rakshasa was also aquired. Rather easilly, since sorcereress managed to succesfully cast a Remove magic onto him.

 

We finished the session with paying 15k to Shadow thieves, and ramping up fallen paladins. Our next mission will be helping out Nalia.

[Aasim]

Thadius, 4th BG2 update

 

Straying from the original plan, we decided to kill vampires before helping Nalia. Bought Mace of Disruption and Periapt of life Protection at Lathander temple, which drained my gold reserves. I didn't bother upgrading MoD yet, even w/o level drain protection it's a splendid weapon, and Lassal soon tasted it.

 

Next big battle was Tanova, the most annoying vamp in the game. Barbarian tanked her for a while (4 rounds) until her PFMW expired. Then Skibi rushes in with Tugian loaded with piercing arrows, removes her stoneskins and does her.

 

Bodhi, untouched by SCS (I started to avoid SCS vamps - too damn annoying imo), gave up the chase soon.

 

We reported back to Aran, but didn't want to sail away yet. Traveling to Nalia's keep wasn't nice - the damn Orog ambush happened, and I lost my sorceress - luckily, she died to melf's meteor and wasn't chunked. Skibi picked up her equipment (Dart, Amulet of Power and few potions is all she has) and we ran away.

 

In the keep, we took in Nalia temporary (for gold only). Skibi soloed Yuan-ti mage there with no problems by using his WS abilities as needed.

 

Torgal battle was chaotic. We buffed, and sorceress opened the battle with an Ice Storm on top of them all.

Dispels start flying, some work, others don't. Torgal chose to focus on Thadius, which was perfect - he's very tanky.

 

A breach hit Thadius, removing his Pro Fear and he started running around, evading Remove Fear from sorceress. No harm done still, he quicky recuperated. Skibi finds an opening in between the enemies, and launches two arrows in quick succession, downing the already badly wounded mages.

 

With them down, Torgal was alone and died quickly.

 

To end the session in style, we killed Shade Lord - no problems here. Secret word, Breach, done.

 

 

Plans for the future - Trademeet.

[corey_russell]

Quick Coarcher Update:

 

Coracher has cleared out the battles/quests in the Underdark Surface area. We used cloudkills vs. the first group of drow - we also used cloudkill on the spore colonies, instantly killing them - I should have been doing this in all my runs. We had to battle the mage who didn't reward us enough - we hit him with everything, including two snares, but I think the dispelling arrows was the biggest problem for him - Hanna appreciates all the high level spells.

 

We also tried to clear out the Beholder's lair. This was successful, but not smooth at all. Despite Misty's save vs. spells being 0, the illithids in the lair managed to stun her - uh oh! Yes she was slain. Then Forrest runs back to the party for assistance. We do end up killing the Illithids, but Forrest gets charmed and we run away to wait it out.

 

But wait, there were more issues. Against the Elder Orb Misty got Imprisoned - we used a freedom scroll to bring her back. Otherwise, the rest of the lair was cleared without incident.

 

We will take this as a clue because of our poor saves in general, The City of Mind Flayers would be too dangerous for us, and we don't have enough chaotic commands to go around either. So we will skip.

 

Thus, our next target will be the Kua-Toa lair, and then on to Us Natha quests.

[Grond0]

Wrecking Crew XII (update 1)

 

The Crew successfully completed BG1 without using any potions, but BG2 is likely to provide an even sterner test.  That became obvious with their very first encounter in the dungeon when a single lightning mephit gated in 4 others.  In itself that would have been easy enough, but all of them ignored the rest of the Crew and solely attacked Beater.  Their fast movement meant others couldn't easily attack or intercept them and their combined lightning strikes rapidly took Beater down to 3 HPs despite a use of his Bhaal healing touch.  Another healing touch here allowed him to keep going just long enough to get into the equipment room and do a circuit round the table - this time allowing the others to successfully block the mephits in and finish the contest.  

 

Beater hadn't even joined in the attack on the lightning mephits, but in future he tended to stay even further behind and out of sight.  Progress was made significantly easier when Ilyich was found guarding a cache of additional equipment imported by BGT Tweaks (including Cloak of Balduran, ring of free action and Greenstone Amulet) - although that arguably makes things too easy I decided that the Crew were going to need a bit of help and took the equipment.  There were two steam mephits in the elemental plane, but neither was successful with their gating attempt and the mephits there were killed pretty easily.  Similarly, only one of the mephits in the portal room succeeded in gating in a single ally, making that an easy victory.  Ulvaryl was stunned by the mage, which should have doomed her, despite only Hacker being able to hit her (with the Sword of Chaos).  However, she ignored the stun to turn into bat form and flap away.  The Crew found the Horn of Blasting on their way out.

 

There was a bit more AI cheese at the circus where the werewolf illusions were all attacking for real.  However, the Crew were still able to finish Kalah off comfortably enough.

 

At the Copper Coronet the Beastmaster was defeated easily, although it was again a concern there that the opposition continues to target Beater whenever possible - not sure whether that's because he's the PC or because he's got the fewest HPs.  Bernard didn't have Azuredge or Stonefire, but Mincer did buy the Sleeper morningstar - meaning everyone now had a magic weapon they were at least proficient with.

 

Searching for summons, the Crew went to the Bridge District, but the berserker horn was not in its standard place.  While there they solved the skinner murders - getting up to level 9 as a result - but left the Rune Assassins for now.

 

On the way to Trademeet they were ambushed by Suna Seni.  A surprisingly effective divine wrath from Beater killed the mage immediately and the others didn't last long.  At Trademeet a surprise attack on Taquee did enough damage to scare him and he didn't try using petrification - he had the efreeti bottle.  Crusher, who has the best saving throw, then went into the tent alone after using the Horn of Kazgaroth with the intention that he would soak up the petrification attempts before the others joined in the fun.  However, he blew the Horn of Blasting immediately and was pleased to find that stunned both genies inside - they then didn't recover under a hail of missiles.  There was nothing immediately useful on sale in Trademeet and the Crew didn't yet have much ability to kill trolls so they decided to leave the Grove for now and will be returning to Athkatla.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Beater, fighter 9, 60 HPs (incl. -18 for wearing the Claw), 353 kills

Slicer, fighter 9, 108 HPs, 271 kills, 2 deaths

Mincer, fighter 9, 92 HPs, 430 kills, 3 deaths

Crusher, fighter 9, 95 HPs, 473 kills, 2 deaths

Hacker, fighter 9, 86 HPs, 517 kills, 4 deaths

Slasher, fighter 9, 93 HPs, 405 kills, 1 death

[Aasim]

the opposition continues to target Beater whenever possible - not sure whether that's because he's the PC or because he's got the fewest HPs.  

It's the latter. SCS AI basically aims to kill quickly whoever is "easiest" to kill. In your instance (6 fighters) this usually means the one with least HP, I don't really know if there are other parameters checked (apart him being "hitable" aka no PfMW and similar).

If you had a mixed party, targeting is slightly different - but still the front-liner with least HP will take much of the focus. 

[Aasim]

Thadius, 5th BG2 update

 

In short, Trademeet is done. The loot from the mound was snatched under Sanctuary. Then we had a "discussion" with fungus infestation on the bridge.

That led us to druid bunch and Rakshasas in tower. We decided to do the druids first (they ate Skull traps), rest, and then do Rakshasas.

 

Unlike druids, Raks are fairly dangerous. I made a mistake of attacking them with arrows since they used PFMissiles (instead of casting a Remove magic on them), which cost us some healing potion. It was quite ugly at one moment, barby came close to dying.

 

Regardless, we weren't disabled, and could heal up with potions - which was enough to survive the magical onslaught and strike back in melee, dropping the monsters.

 

The only "out of ordinary" thing that happened was that druid bunch spawned again as we were leaving (I didn't discuss my intentions with a friendly druid before). Since we were unbuffed, casualties were almost imminent - summoned leopards downed Skibi, bringing the death toll to two total in BG2. Nothing my protagonist can't deal with however, and the rest of the druids were slain (again).

 

We returned to Trademeet, sold a lot of stuff, bought Belt of Inertial Barrier and Cloak of Displacement, and have now returned to Alkathla.

Now we're pondering if we should pay a visit to WK again, or leave for Spellhold. Probably WK, there's quite a few easy lootable goodies there I want.

[Aasim]

Thadius, 6th BG2 update

 

Finished 1st and 2nd WK level (apart Chromatic). The only thing I had left to do since my first visit there was ringing the bell etc. and defeating the statues. Somewhat rough; but given the mage statues didn't spawn due to low levels upon first entry, quite doable.

 

 

Thadius used a sling for the first time in the game here.

 

One bad occurence - we placed the scepter keys in place, and tried to run outside. Unfortunately, this can be tricky (exit works kind of odd) - Chrom was in Air form and hit us with Lightning, killing the sorceress.

 

We got back in, picked up her treasure, and ran outside again. Luckily, demon morphed again to Ice form, and hit us with a perfectly harmless Remove magic.

Sold most of the loot there, but for very little gain. I decided to ramp up my gold before going to Spellhold since I would need lots of it for some Underdark items I want. Hence - assault on Slaver's compund in Temple District was next. The newest SCS version doesn't include demon spawn at the bottom floor, but djinni are also troublesome.

 

That was all he had however. With it gone, we do our long prebuff, ending with Invisibility 10'radius. This spell lasts for very short with SR, but it can be a lifesaver. What happens next depends on one thing alone - either our enemies will use some invis.detection or not.

 

Apperantly, they didn't.

We take the standard defensive positon as far as we can from the enemy group (after removing the traps).

Sion and Ketta seem to be invisble as well.

 

First, AoE. 2x Ice Storm is cast to trigger the battle. 

 

SR Ice Storm has a nasty effect of slowing everyone cought in it, which gives us time to cast one more + Skull Trap. Chaos is added in mix as well, for total nastyness.

 

Sion shows up, unharmed. We hit him with a Secret word immidiately.

 

Next, he starts his Wish. This can be rather devastating, so we scatter - but he gets Hardiness on everyone. Great, actually - this won't save them.

 

Koshi now rushes in. He's badly wounded, and a single shot of Flame Arrow does him, before he even landed a single blow. My sorceress and Sion are casting anti-magic at each other.

 

The two lumbering morons now join the fray. They hit like a truck, but are very slow - barbarian rushes to meet them head-on. Sion uses up Time Stop to cast True Seeing and Secret Word + breach on Thadius; who cast Free Action on himself asap.

 

Skibi, my WS, gets an opening - Disruptive strike lays on Sion, removes his stoneskin protection, and he's gone. Barby took heavy damage and retreats back, Thadius now goes to tanking them.

 

It doesn't last long now, and their loot is mine.

 

 

Finally, we sort out a gated demon and are out of here.

 

 

Selling everything (apart Helmet of Defence) got us about 20K gold. Not much, but it's something to stash for Underdark goodies. I should probably do one more "big" quest before Spellhold, but I'm unsure which one. Planar Prison  is out of the question, Planar Sphere is doable but I'm reluctant to take a likely possible Wail of the Banshee at this stage. Thus, it's either beholders or Firkraag's lair.

[Blackraven]

@Aasim, Firkraag would probably be your safest bet then no? Meaning the dungeon, not the dragon...