Safe travels in Amn to Brat and Kathleen!
Rhythm, Half-elf Skald, update 1 (2?)
I suppose the last one was both an introduction and update. I had stopped last time at the Friendly Arm Inn with Khalid and Jaheira just joining Imoen and the passive-aggressive bard. We pick up doing a number of easy quests, returning Joia's ring and getting a couple more quest items from the southern road heading to Nashkel. Ogrillons and Hobgoblins are killed for a letter and an amulet respectively, usually with Khalid tanking and Jaheira and Imoen shooting with slings and bows. As such, in Nashkel he's outfitted with the Ankheg armor before we kill Neira. We didn't get the interrupts immediately, so zoning inside and outside still proved mightily effective, even with four rather than one.
Greywolf dies a rather painful projectile death, and Rhythm and Imoen became fatigued. Resting almost killed me as a host of kobolds spawned and targeted Rhythm without any of his defenses running. We backtracked to Nashkel rather quickly after that, and resting at the inn gives Rhythm his first Bhaalspawn CLW. For the heck of it, we go to the carnival and kill that one mage with that magic word - I forget his name. But after the number of times I've died to him, it only seems right to mob him with arrows and sling bullets aplenty.
In the mines, the Kobolds fall one by one below Varscona and more boosted projectiles. It felt rather good to actually disarm the traps; almost none of my solo characters were thieves, it seems! Two spiders and two ghouls were also murdified before resting in Mulahey's cave to reset the damage Khalid took from the critical arrows, the only variety that could hit him. Mulahey was a simple matter, since one of those kobolds dropped a scroll of Blindness, which Rhythm finally overcame his reluctance to learn. The second one hit, Khalid and Jaheira tanked all the kobolds and skeletons, and Imoen shot the half-orc to death. A dagger was returned to a revenant before we headed into assassin party #1.
The Amazon party was... interesting. I should really have had the Necklace of Missiles from when I visited the carnival, but I didn't have it. And Hold Person is still really, really annoying. The plan was to have Rhythm singing invisibly, Khalid taking the attention of the missiles while shooting his longbow, Jaheira casting Call Lightning, and Imoen shooting the casters every time they started a spell. This failed almost instantly as Jaheira took the aggression instead of Khalid, a Rigid thinking was successfully cast and very luckily successfully saved against. Khalid and Imoen finished off the first priest... Which was Jaheira's target of her Call Lightning that somehow the poison didn't interrupt. The spell was useless. Quickly changing plans, Khalid drops his longbow, re-equips sword and shield, and rushes their back lines before any more missiles come from their ranks. Imoen and Jaheira kill the second priest, and both the dart-thrower and archer were using their melee weapons and therefore no longer a threat. Success, no deaths, two Antidotes used that probably shouldn't have been necessary. Both Rhythm and Imoen hit level 6 somewhere around this fight.
Back in Nashkel, we return Joseph's ring and Mulahey's Holy Symbol before we gank Nimbul first. Imoen stealthed in and interrupted the casting of MI, and without that, Jaheira and Khalid easily cleared the distance and murdered him before he could even start his Horror. Back in Beregost, we do numerous small fetch-quests before encountering Neera, and having her join. I must admit this is motivated slightly by BG2EE's "recent" update, which allows romance variables from BGEE carry on to BG2EE. I need an aggressive mage anyways (well, not NEED, but it's nice to be able to actually use my Wands of frost and fire.) She came at level 4 instead of level 6 as I hoped, meaning blank level 3 spell book instead of her normal, deadly repertoire. Oh well. Tranzig and Silke die quickly with her added on; with Magic Missiles and even non-proficient darts, spell casters have a hard time not being interrupted.
We need experience, so back to High Hedge to kill skeletons, a gnoll for a shortsword, and south for a chicken and Bassilus. A straight-up charge finished the mad cleric off, and he too is unable to get a spell off. Melicamp is restored, tons of useless loot is sold, and Ioun stones purchased for Imoen and Rhythm. And since I'm really trying to clear the maps... South back to Nashkel, and west all the way to the Gnoll stronghold. Only iffy spot was on the bridge vs the Hobgoblin archers and the Berserkers, since I accidentally got Khalid stuck in my own web. Fortunately, all the attackers were all trapped as well and sniped off one by one by the other three. The tome of CHA is given to Rhythm, boosting it up to 19 for no good reason other than that I can. Dynaheir is freed, and sent back to the FAI as well in case things go poorly with Neera.
Neera asks about her personal quest as we're returning to civilization, so east of Nashkel we go to Adoy's Enclave. I made one very, very fortunate stop on the way, taking out the burial grounds where the caves let out. I forgot entirely about the Wand of Summoning that's there, but that is the one item that makes Skald's +2 to hit and to damage so very scary. I'm generally very wary of the Red Wizard fight in the Enclave: Ekandor has two castings of Stoneskin, if I'm not mistaken, and he has two higher-than-level-four guards, a backup mage, and an Ogre berserker with him. He's at least level 9, since one of his spells is Cone of Cold which fortunately he was denied this time.
The fight went down as follows: before I talked to Adoy, and thus the Red Wizards teleporting in, I used a charge of the wand. To my delight, it spawned something like 8 Hobgoblin archers. Having done this battle before and knowing these dangers, I hide Imoen and Neera behind a table with Hobgoblins blocking either side, and Jaheira and Khalid placed almost directly on where the mages will teleport. I talk to Adoy, and the Wizards teleport in. Rhythm immediately restarts his song; dialogue caused it to lapse. Imoen, Neera, and Jaheira all focus their attacks on Ekandor trying to interrupt the Stoneskin and Khalid starts on the second mage. Both spells are interrupted, and the melee reinforcements are trying to deal with the Hobgoblins, who are firing as their AI tells them to. Ekandor falls under the weight of 7 or so archers picking at his soft un-stoneskinned flesh, and Neera's magic missile interrupts the second mage just as Khalid scores a second hit and kills him as well. It's now everyone at almost-full health and 5 or so Hobgoblins vs 3 melee warriors. The end is inevitable, and fin.
The rest of play is rather mundane as we get Samuel back to the FAI for healing, and mass-killing off Ankhegs at the farm, Jaheira's worries about the ecology notwithstanding. Neera is the only level up here, and she's now level 5, capable of casting 2 level 3 spells... that she has none of currently. Whoops.
Rhythm: Level 6 Skald. 0 kills. Favorite weapon: Sap. Favorite spell: CLW.
Khalid: Level 6 Fighter. 124 kills. Favorite weapon: Longsword (Varscona). Most powerful vanquished: Lamalha
Jaheira: Level 5/6 Fighter/Druid. 94 kills. Favorite weapon: Sling and bullet. Favorite spell: CLW. Most powerful vanquished: Bassilus.
Imoen: Level 6 Thief. 113 kills. Favorite weapon: Shortbow. Most powerful vanquished: Shoal the Nereid
Neera: Level 5 Wild Mage. 23 kills. Favorite weapon: Darts. Most powerful vanquished: Zargal.
Retour en haut
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I got her chunked once as well, but she carries on. I think the BGT wipes away only Minsc and Jaheira, and possibly Viconia.
. The effects of a death spell are supposed to be potentially reversable by a wish, so Imoen was obviously wishing she could be a mage!
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