Down on third level, party turned right and shot some wiverns, using statues as tanks. Then they sent Imoen to clear the middle way. With scroll of protection from undead it wasn’t too hard. Skeletons had some arrows of dispelling and lots of acid arrows, so it was worth the trouble.
In the ice cave things didn’t look nice, so party sent Coran to assassinate the bear. He found a good spot and fired a dispelling arrow, hoping to slow the bear down, so that he could kill him with acid arrows. I forgot that
this bear had a ranged attack. Despite high AC versus missles, Coran got hit, failed his save and was paralyzed.
Party charged to save him, but bear continued his attack on Coran and killed him right before 3 fireballs (from necklaces of missles) exploded, ending the fight.
With Coran dead things were about to get difficult. He did most of the party killings, often soloing (Boots of Speed do that to people). Mrtyudasa took the boots, assuming the role of the lead assassin, while Tiax got the Mithrill Chain Mail and Helm of Balduran. When party tried to enter the slime cavern game crashed and I had to replay the whole level. I didn’t want to take an advantge of the crash and reenacted Coran’s death as best as I could.
Slime didn’t cause any trouble. ‘Air Aspect’ looked like a nasty piece of wivern (even if somewhat small), so Mrtyudasa and Tiax used scrolls to protect themselves from poison. Plan was to use Tiax as a tank, while others did the backstabbing, running outside, hiding and returning if needed. It was needed. Moreover, Skie got too close and was targeted. While escaping, she alarmed some invisible stalkers, and Imoen had to hold them off. Meanwhile, Tiax got badly wounded, panicked and died. And thus, party have been cleared of any non-rogue elements.
Mrtyudasa, Skie and Eldoth escaped, leaving Imoen behind. But she was properly equiped and drunk an invisibillity potion. Party sneaked backed, and together managed to finish the wyvern with backstabs. Then, they run away from stalkers and hid in shadows. Upon their return they found out that the stalkers did the same and were nowhere to be seen. Mrtyudasa cast a fiery detection spell, but it wasn’t enough to make the enemies visible enough to be backstabbed. So, Eldoth used a wand to summon some gnolls. When stalkers were dead, party deided to carry some of the items upstairs, to stash them in some chest. Way to the first level was still closed, so they had to carry on. Back in the third level game crashed again, when loading the fire cavern, but this time there wasn’t much to replay (only some inventory management).
Phoenix Guardian had to be killed before she raised her, party had been told. And that was exactly that, what they liked best. But the Guardian just couldn’t stay in one place and with only four of them, they had trouble immobilizing her. Finally it was she, who attacked first as Mrtyudasa became visible before actually striking (should have used invisibillity on the whle party). Explosion didn’t kill anyone, as everyone had some sort of protection, but it became very crowded. Imoen got surrounded, but she quickly killed one of the enemies and broke free.
After successful retreat, Mrtyudasa and Imoen sneaked back to try assassination once again. Appareantly, 13 damage was all that was needed (Guardian turned at the last moment, avoiding backstab). Surprisingly, the game of chess did not begin. Only now, looking at the screenshots, I see that going after the Guardian with the bow, party passed by another, a swordmen. I probably had kill both of them to progress. Anyway, Mrtyudasa started assassinating the Guardians, until they all panicked, which made killing them much easier. Finally, he must have killed the right one, and the game begun. Mrtyudasa decided that with no pawns, rooks or knights, the game is just not fair. So, the party drunk potions of absorption and started merrily running up and down the chessboard (while remaining stealthed or otherwise invisible, that is).
It was fun – especially when one of the pawns had panicked and got promoted to a queen – but when Imoen have failed her stealth roll, Mrtyudasa had to end the game with a checkmate.
After reaching the third level party agreed to Islanne’s offer and were teleported outside. They drunk themsleves dead in Nashkel, burried their dead beside Montaron and went to Baldur’s Gate to welcome Safana back. Also, they recruited Alora, the halfling thief encountered while robbing the Hall of Wonders. She had level 6, low stealth skill (so had to wear Shadow Armor) and only two proficiency points – bows and missles. She wasn’t suited for backstabbing, so I equipped her with a sling +1 and darts of stunning. She also took Kiel’s Buckler, which gave her minor increase in stealth. Safana took Crossbow of Speed as before, so Skie had to take a simple shortbow.
Party status:
Mrtyudasa – thief 10, 54 HP
Imoen – thief 10, 64 HP
Skie – thief 9, 42 HP
Safana –thief 7, 26 HP
Alora – thief 6, 19 HP [!]
Eldoth – bard 9, 53 HP
Modifié par Blackmalkin, 11 mars 2012 - 02:47 .
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And that played a part in deciding on the theme for this run .. shorties only! 
