Things went well for the good guys this time around. For awhile, too well. You know that feeling, sort of like the calm before the storm, right?
But here's a journal excerpt from the man, the legend himself :
"Calm before the storm.. that's exactly how i felt after i smashed through the rest of the sword coast. Venturing into Cloakwood forest, it was like a walk in the park. Hamadryad was powerless to stop us. The rest of the baddies lurking about there performed even worse. Suddenly, the pieces began to fall in place, as me and my 5 friends were starting to become a force to be reckoned with!
Imoen decided that her intelligence is too great (i laughed on the inside when she told me this but i didn't wanna break the poor girl's heart) and should be used to it's full potential. As a result, she retired her lockpicks and arrows for awhile and specialized into a mage. With Edwin as her mentor, this could actually prove to be a fruitful endeavor for her and for the whole party. Edwin already expressed his interest in her, but i fear it may be for all the wrong reasons. The Thayvian clown has a Pink Fetish!! Nevertheless, his personality aside, he is an outstanding spellcaster and the reason i chose him over, say, Dynaheir.
But i digress.
So, with Imoen not being able to help the party with her thieving skills for the time being, i had to quickly find a replacement, before a random trap would be the doom of us. Fate works in mysterious ways, as just moments after her metamorphosis, we stumble upon Coran. To describe Coran briefly, i could say that his outstanding archery and thieving skills are only matched by his man whoring.
But who am i to judge.. the only action i've seen during my stay in Candlekeep was defiling a pair of Imoen's pink panties. She still doesn't have a clue. Ahh.. the simple teenage years..
Stay focused Alex.
Bad luck for Kivan, as he was now made redundant by Coran. But let's face it, we were all one sob Deheriana story away from commiting seppuku. So goodbye, and good riddance for now.
Since we ran out of ammo just as we drew near the Cloakwood mines, we had to backtrack and resupply. I also made the call to grow a little bit stronger and experienced before we face what would most likely be our biggest challenge yet. The Iron Throne elite guards inside the mines.
First off, we explore the seaside area of the western Sword Coast shore. Minsc manages to forget for a second the grief he feels because of Dynaheir's passing, when he falls for a lovely Sirine. Sadly, their romance ended quicker than Kim Kardashian's marriage (i had a little gossip with the Diviner in the area), as she literally took his breath away.. hehe. Probably shouldn't laugh, it's bad karma to laugh when a party member dies. But we quickly settled things around with the deathly charming lass, she revived our brutish friend and in turn we slayed her captor, an evil ogre mage (aren't they all though).
And speaking of ogre mages. Remember that feeling i told you about earlier, about the calm before the storm?
Well the storm was coming my friends! After we make our way into Ulcaster, and manage to slay both Icharyd and the Wolf without much hassle, we eventually end up in Firewine Bridge. Not much going on around here. Apart from the fact that Coran fell in love with a girl that turned out to be a soul sucking demon! (literally, not figuratively, since they are all figurative soul sucking demons, or so Coran says). But we quickly dispatch her back to the abyss she came from.
Viconia explained to me that i was charmed during the battle, and she had to cast a spell to Hold me in place, otherwise she feared i would have killed her. I have no such recollection of this occuring, but i would never harm this ebony beauty. In fact, i think i'm starting to develop feelings for her.. but i cannot let myself be distracted, need to remember all the lessons i've been taught in Candlekeep and stick to the righteous path. I feel i'm destined for big things, all arrogance aside.
Then there was this poser guy who thought he can match up to me. Fun duel ensued, i ended up with a spare Katana and Minsc got a new gift, a pair of lovely battle gauntlets. Let's see.. did i miss anything. Oh yeah, a FREAKIN' OGRE MAGE WHO KILLED HALF MY PARTY. Turns out he was hiding in the body of some mage girl, possessing her and whatnot. Took us a bit by surprise when he jumped out of her dying corpse and proceeded to lay havoc on my squad.
Managed to confuse Minsc right before he tried to go berserk, which complicated things a lot. Nevertheless, we prevailed after a very, very hard fought battle.
After that painful but yet satisfying battle, we made our way to the nearest temple and i shelled out much of our hard earned gold to get them back on their feet. For we would need every drop of our combined strength as we venture towards the mines of Cloakwood.
It is there, right at the entrance, that we would face an ever greater, perhaps the hardest battle yet.. which almost led to yours truly forever demise, if not for Edwin's quick stroke of genius..."
BATTLE REPORT
Alex & Co. Vs. The Party of Drasus (commentary by AlexDeLarge)
I made tons of preparation beforehand. Viconia casting Far Sight to see what i'm dealing with. Turns out to be two fighters and two mages, waiting for our arrival. I assume they are elite and thus a very hard encounter. Protection from Evil 10' Radius, Chant, Animate Dead, Greenstone Amulet applied to Alex. Shield/Blur/Mirror Image on my casters. Coran equipped with Ice Arrows so he can penetrate the mages defences. Prot. from Fire on Alex.
Note: enemy mages are SCS improved with pre-buffing capability (but not with BG2 spells in vanilla)
After i engage and throw around 3-4 fireballs into them, they quickly retaliate by casting Confusion. This turns out to be extremely bad for me, as all but Alex (thanks to Greenstone amulet) and Minsc (berserk), get confused.. The latter turns out to be an even worse problem, as he decides to target aggro exclusively on my protagonist. Minsc... best friend and worst enemy at the same time. There's a reason this semi-functional retard will be gone by SoA (provided i make it all the way there), replaced with Keldorn.
So i just run around with my main character, waiting and hoping the confusion will expire soon on the rest of my party. It eventually does, Viconia and Edwin become very useful after that (Coran and Imoen were not as useful, seeing as they dropped dead), as she makes full use of her Wand of the Heavens and dispatches the enemy mages, while Edwin uses Dispel/Greater Malison / Emotion - Hopelesness/Glitterdust/Flame Arrow/Magic Missiles in order to do the same. They do make some succesful saving throws, the Emotion didn't apply for example. During all this time however, my Mind Shield effect expired on Alex, and i forget to reapply the Greenstone Amulet. The result is he got charmed. All the while Minsc being RELENTLESS!! in chasing poor Alex and smacking him down. I think i was down to 25 or less HP on him, he was still charmed, Viconia couldn't dispel it. And Minsc kept happily pounding away at his party leader. I also ran out of most spells, while two members of the Drasus party were still alive and kicking. The thing that saved Alex and this entire run was me desperately checking Edwin's options for a solution, when i come across an unused Improved Invisibility spell. I quickly cast it on the hostile Alex and he disappears out of sight. The rest of the fight is taken care of afterwards and i breathe a major sigh of relief.
The rest of the Cloakwood Mines weren't problematic at all. In fact, with the Daevorn battle, i go overkill on the pre-buffing and he doesn't even do 1 hp of damage to my party.
So that's it for now, i made my way into Baldur's Gate City, where the next chapter of my story will unfold. Will keep you up to date with my progress in the near future.
P.S. Ran into a tooltip bug. Even though i almost exclusively use dual Katanas on my main, it appears the damage they do isn't recorded properly. As a result, i get War Hammer as favoured weapon, a weapon which i used in maybe 1% of the game, to fight Mustard Jellies. Anyone know how this can be fixed?
Modifié par AlexDeLarge, 07 janvier 2012 - 06:41 .
Retour en haut
You should be careful with Bassilus, I barely beat him just now with a party but Khalid died because his armor shattered! I will post about it soon.
