Dagny, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (2nd & final SoA update)
Lack of familiarity with the Tactics components ended Dagny's run. Therefore I'm not pissed off or disappointed with myself (as I sometimes am). Besides there were many apparent bugs or glitches: a dialogue loop with Jaheira which made me decide to ditch her, half the Athkatlan community looked dark brown as if Barkskinned, I couldn't use Raise Dead scrolls to raise Anomen (had to use the Rod of Resurrection), and most annoyingly there was about zero intra-party banter.
I also dislike the Tactics random abushes. They happened way too often for my liking, so often that any sane Charname would say "F*ck it, I'm going back to Baldur's Gate and raise the money for Imoen there." Their repetitiveness is also off-putting.
Anyway Dagny's crew did rather well in yesterday's session and a short session this morning. They had to give their all on the roof of the Copper Coronet when one of the Tactics ambushes occurred. Maybe it were two ambushes even, because at the end the party counted 12 corpses: four casters, the others fighters and assassins. We had Irenicus' wands, which made a huge difference: Monster Summoning, Fire, Heavens were all used. Several Spooks were also effective crowd controllers. This was important because the party was still quite low level, so their buffs were few and brief.
The advantage is that these ambushes yield a lot of XP and valuable loot, but as I said, they happen too often. I'm not going to play with the respective component again.
Nalia's Hold was successfully negotiated in two instances. Fighting a few Trolls at a time was doable for Anomen, even the Spirit variants. The others could do little against them, except Aerie who as a Bard was the only one that could use the Tuigan Bow (Nalia's dual wasn't completed yet.) Aerie would finish the Trolls with acid arrows, even though she wasn't proficient in bows.
The Yuan-Ti Mage fled to the roof when Dagny dropped a Cloudkill in the library, so they didn't have to fight it. Glaicus had the upper hand against Anomen but Jan, who was using the Light Crossbow of Speed, stunned him with his Bruisers.
The Flail of Ages +3 was forged, and then I thought Anomen could try and best the Golems. Failing to separate three of them, we saw Anomen fall.
This was where I discovered the Raise Dead scrolls couldn't be used. We raised Anomen in Athkatla. The second time, invisible companions were used to enable Anomen to take on the Golems one at a time, using the Sling of Everard. Cloudkill finished the Umber Hulks, and TorGal was lured out of the ballroom by invisible Nalia. Only two Giant Trolls followed. PfFear Anomen and the others felled TorGal and the Giant Trolls, and later an Elder Umber Hulk and two Yuan-Ti Mages.
The second Yuan-Ti Mage didn't fail to confuse Aerie, prompting the Elf to kill Nalia with her returning Frost Dart +1.
The Skinner murder mystery was solved. Anomen swigged a potion of freedom because of the Ghasts and, dualwielding FoA and DoE, he defeated the Bone Golem and the Rune Assassins.
The Thief Guild quests were done this morning. Anomen had more problems with Rayic Gethras' Mephits than with the Golems. Jan set three traps and summoned 3x3 Hobgoblin archers for Rayic Gethras himself to waste his spells on. One of those spells was a Fireball with which he killed himself.
During one of their errands for Edwin or MaeVar they saved Sansuki by having invisible Jan, Aerie, Nalia and Dagny cheesily surround Del so that Anomen could kill the other Vampires first.
The dust-up must have caught the attention of one of Tactics' copious ambushers. They took the fight into the Sea's Bounty.
Anomen's attempt at casting Chaotic Commands was thwarted by one of the enemies. Their priest summoned an Aerial Servant (very difficult to deal with, at least the aTweaks version: they hit hard, entangle and go invisible at will), and Mage PW:Stunned Anomen. He fell soon after, and I realized that it was a shame that the only character that could dish out good physical damage, was also one of the most vulnerable characters. He fell soon after.
The presence of the Aerial Servant made the others hesitant to reveal themselves. In the end they didn't have to, as Officer Dirth killed the ruffians for them.
With Renal Bloodscalp's permission the party then proceeded to assault MaeVar's Guild. Anomen did most of the work upstairs, helped with a few Chaoses from Dagny and Jan. The arcane casters buffed extensively: Stoneskins already in place, Chaotic Commands (Dagny), Shield, Blur, Mirror Image, MSD, Improved Invisibility, and Spell Immunity, although the casting of the latter spell was messed up as I had the game paused and had various characters cast it, causing the school selection option to be lost. Anomen buffed with Chaotic Commands, and the holy triad of HP, DUHM and RM. Downstairs, Jan dropped a Teleport Field, and Dagny a Cloudkill.
The arcane casters occupied themselves with MaeVar by the stairs, Anomen fought the Priest of Cyric on the other side. They had a fairly easy time staying alive even though some of the Assassins switched to ranged attacks and peeled off Jan's Stoneskinsand evn though Aerie got Held at one point, an effect that Dagny canceled with a Remove Paralysis.
MaeVar's buffs couldn't be dispelled with Dispel/Remove Magic because he had a MGoI up, and the companions saw a number of their castings sizzle out due to MaeVar's quaffing of invisibility potions. Jan's Detect Illusions and a Breach by Dagny evenually exposed him.
The companions then attacked with spells and weapons, with Dagny getting the kill through a Holy Smite.
After a rest and after having received their reward from Renal Bloodscalp, the crew set out to report Anomen's sister's death to the authorities when the umpteenth Tactic ambush occurred. The party was invisible, so I considered simply leaving (as I had done before with these ambushes). But I decided to test the skills of my team. With the same buffs as in the MaeVar battle, except that Spell Immunity was properly cast this time, we had little difficulty with the enemy even though a priest's Cloak of Fear scared Anomen.
When the enemy priest and fighters were down pursued their Mage. She was panicked due to some Magic Missile damage we had inflicted, and she entered a nearby building. Little did we know that that building was also the abode of Tactics' Lich in the Docks.
We wanted to leave the building, but it was sealed. The (female) Lich nearly killed Jan and Nalia with triggered Skull Traps.
Dagny cast one of her green scrolls of PfUndead on herself. An instant later I heard several death cries; apparently they included Dagny's.
In the screenshot you can see that all companions were felled. I suspect a Wail of the Banshee or a Meteor Swarm. (If I have the creature file right, the Lich didn't have ADHWs.)
. I wasn't paying full attention as he was travelling to Trademeet and reflexively used horror when he triggered the orog ambush. In my basic installation that would have made sense, but in this one the orogs are accompanied by a mage (and enrage means fear doesn't affect them anyway). A chaos from the mage caught up with Dylan before he could leave the area and while his aura was still clouded.
Retour en haut
.. in fact Dyara fells a little bit lost in Athkatla 
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