16384 réponses à ce sujet

[corey_russell]

Nice work Aasim! Keep it up in Amn.

[Aasim]

Tnx Corey - hope to see you back there soon.

[Grond0]

Well done Aasim.  I like the way you kill all the clerics in order to ensure you concentrate on keeping everyone safe .

[Grond0]

Wrecking Crew {13} - dwarf fighters (update 7)

 

The session started with a trip to Ulgoth's Beard to talk to Shandalar.  The gang had already spoken to him previously, which meant he appeared not to realise that his daughters were no more and gave Al the option of taking the quest - which he accepted anyway.

 

To reduce the initial risks there Al used a scroll of magic protection for the first time on Carlo and he tripped the traps using invisibility.  The whole group then engaged with the mages though, but working through them took time and, after Carlo's scroll had run out, the others were even more exposed - which proved unfortunate for Mad Dog.  

Spoiler

Baby Face was almost killed as well - being saved from a chromatic orb by a last second potion of magic blocking with only 3 HPs left.

Spoiler

Eventually though Tellan was finished off

Spoiler

and, with not many HPs left in the party, Al used a dispelling arrow on Dezkiel to ensure there were no last-minute hiccups.

Spoiler

 

Before leaving the village they talked to Mendas and, back in Baldur's Gate, they raised Mad Dog and secured the charts in order to travel to Balduran's Isle.  They cleared the initial areas there without much trouble, although Vito was confused and Carlo charmed by the sirine queen.

Spoiler

In the ship Carlo took the lead on the first three levels, gathering the enemies together to make it easy for the others to finish them off - Carlo only got hit once doing that.  

Spoiler

For the final level he hopped up and down a few times dragging enemies downstairs for easy execution. Daese was almost the last to follow and got a dispelling arrow to ensure he didn't manage to cast a spell before changing to werewolf form.

Spoiler

 

I've been caught out by repeating traps in the ship before, so Carlo took 100% resistance to fire and lightning before looting.  Back in the village they then expended quite a lot of their magical ammunition while slaughtering all the doggies.  After exploring the maze they found Kaishas and gave her a good send-off.  By that stage the criticals had been mounting up a bit for Carlo, but he still had enough HPs in hand for Kaishas and a couple of late arriving werewolves who must have been hiding in the village somewhere.

 

Back in Ulgoth's Beard they rested 3 times to heal (lycanthropy takes a while to take effect) before tackling Mendas.  I didn't fancy risking his chaos spells at close quarters, so dodged those

Spoiler

while sorting out Baresh (and 3 clones that spawned as the gang jumped in and out).  

Spoiler

With him dead Mendas finally followed the gang outside, where dispelling arrows soon forced him to seek his inner wolf.  There were only 2 weapons that could then hurt him - but that proved no problem.

Spoiler

 

Now almost out of enemies, the gang have just arrived back at Durlag's Tower to finish off the last remaining tid-bit of opposition .

 

Al - L8, 89 HPs, 585 kills, ***** longbow / * long sword

Carlo - L8, 100 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 544 kills, 0 deaths, **** flail / ** sling

Baby Face - L8, 65 HPs (-14 from Claw), 563 kills, 0 deaths, **** 2-handed sword / ** crossbow

Bugsy - L8, 88 HPs, 305 kills, 2 deaths, **** katana / ** dart

Vito - L8, 84 HPs, 483 kills, 1 death, **** halberd / ** shortbow

Mad Dog - L8, 79 HPs, 387 kills, 1 death, ***** axe / * 2-weapon

[Aasim]

Hahaha...Loup Garou. Haven't seen him in a while. 

Take care in Durlag's - I think it makes some Air Elementals very annoying.

[Golden28]

Alexander 1st Episode, BG1.

 

Hey guys! Guess what, all your awesome runs motivated me to do another run! This will be a special one, I will make the pc as close to myself as possible to improve the immersion. I used this link: 

 

http://www.angelfire.../xstattest.html

 

..to decide my stats, and it resulted in the following man:

 

 

He even looks like me, although I'm not that pretty . 

 

Im going to play and write this one a lot different from the one with Eren. I'm going to narrate this story a bit and its going to be a lot more evil, at least in SOA. This is, among other things, because of a planned romance with Dorn (I'm bisexual so I dont really care). Alexander will fall in love with the brooding, dark half-blood. This wil only be in BG2 and I will give Dorn a more attractive picture haha.

 

I'm also going to fake a sort of amnesia in the beginning, as to make it so that Alexander plunges into Faerun without any knowledge of his background. 

 

Stick with me for the first part, its longish, from there on it will be shorter. Here we go!

 

Woke up feeling stiff.. Where was I? What happened? I could only remember fleeing something terrible, something bloody. A cute girl came up to me and claimed she was my best friend. She was crying. I held here a while and decided to at least see here safely to an inn. On the way to the closest inn she explained to me that my parent was murdered and that I wouldnt be safe, nowhere, not ever. I figured the girl was in shock and would have nothing of it, but one thing was for sure, I needed to clear my head and get a life going if I wanted to survive. 

 

I dropped of the sobbing girl at the inn and wandered of in the wilderness, dazed and confused. I would've perished if I wouldnt have met Behzad and his gang. They were monster-hunters, and were willing to adopt me in their group, if I was willing to work hard. "Do you know your way with a blade", he asked? And I told him I was skilled with both the longsword and the warhammer. 

 

I travelled with Behzad for 6 months, hunting smaller game at first. But one night he told me about a prize he had his eyes on for years: a group of basilisks. The money he would receive for their eyes would be substantial. We binded off our eyes as to not get petrified and engaged the beasts. My blood was pumping. But then disaster. The beasts' eye-rays were useless but they simply used their teeth to engage. We felled half a dozen of the beasts, but lost every man. Even Behzad, the greatest warrior I ever saw, was torn down by the basilisk alpha male. Anger overcame my fear, and with a great and final blow, I felled the beast.

 

Having lost all my companions, i needed to go on. I sold some of my companions' equipment and both enriched with some gold and battle experience, I wandered into the village of Nashkel. 

 

//NOTE: Obviously I've worked around the quick basilisk xp and the early diamond and ring gold with a bit of fantasy. Behzad is actually one of my best friends in RL haha//

 

An officer came up to me and offered me gold, mistaking me for a bounty hunter. I quickly took it. A survivor has to do things he isnt proud of.. 

 

A stout-looking man named Berrun Ghastkill gave me something to do. Apparently kobolds hunted a mine. I've killed those critters before, and they should not be to difficult for me, so I accepted. 

 

On the way to the mines, I met a strange looking man. He said his name was Edwin, and he needed my help to kill a witch. He was willing to reward me greatly and lend me his magic. I agreed, and soon found out that was a fantastic choice. The mage could speed us up and throw powerful magic spells at our foes. 

 

We visited a carnaval to stock up for the journey. A  thief tried to steal from us, but Edwin quickly shot him down. This one is quick to anger...

 

With the help of Edwin, we easily cleared out the kobolds and their leader, a cleric. Edwin simply blasted them with 2 powerful wands, one a frost wand, one a fire wand. I was impressed and decided to learn more about magic in the future.

 

//NOTE: I would actually be able to dual to a mage, with my own stats!, if I can get my hands on some tomes... also sorry I forgot to take a screen of dying Mulahey, it was over so quickly hehe//

 

On our way back to civilization, we came across an elf ranger, named Kivan. He asked to join us and we accepted. After having received a reward from Berrun, Edwin and I, counting our coin, decided to have a rest at the near inn. Then disaster struck. We were ambushed by not one, but TWO assassins. The first was a mage. He would've slain us if Edwin hadn't reacted quickly by blasting him with a pre-emptive frost wand charge. Before he could react a monk came up to him and kicked his head in!

 

Stumbling into the inn, ANOTHER assassin attacked us.

 

That night, I couldnt sleep. I found a letter on the first assassin:

 

Apparently my past was still haunting me.. But I refused. All I wanted to do is be a simple vagabond. I didnt care about fate! I chose to ingore these attacks and go on..

 

The next morning we went to honour the dead at the local graveyard, but got attacked by an insane summoner, called Dear-Ragh. It was a grand battle. 

(yielding hilariously low XP btw ). 

 

Edwin demanded we went on killing his witch. On the way there, our small party hunted and killed some ogres and worgs.

 

And some powerful looking warriors.

 

When we finally caught up with the witch, I wanted to parly, but Edwin wanted absolutely nothing but her death, brutally slaying her. This guy...

 

I wasn't too pleased, but Edwin was very happy. He offered his service for a year, and I accepted.

After this things would get to normal, I hoped. We stayed in a local village for a couple of days, which gave me time to read some interesting books. 

 

But then everything changed, again. We met a group led by a priest called Molkar. He claimed he was a bounty hunter coming to get me. After all these months, assassins are still coming for me. WHY?! 

 

I found a letter on Molkar, naming a certain Tazok in Peldvale. When I read this Kivan went pale. "Tazok!", he screamed. He explained why we absolutely had to accompany him to Peldvale. I agreed, hoping to find a hint as to why there were all these bounty hunters after me. I couldn't run from the past it seemed, so i'd better face it head on!.. 

 

I hope you all like this first episode.

 

Cheers!

[Aasim]

@ Golden - Fantastic! GL.

[Blackraven]

Awesome Golden! Long may you run!!

[Gate70]

Blaggerd and co make a bit more progress.
A few unavoidable bits of reputation are gained to remain un-despised (currently 10: Average) and keep the towns from getting too hostile.
(Kagain has a nice line every time reputation increases "You buncha chumps! What the hell do ya think you was doing?")
 
Kryll falls to Command and stays down due to poison.

Spoiler

Dorn gets all stony-faced when Mutamin's pet basilisk switches gaze.

Spoiler

After a trip to pick up some Stone to Flesh scrolls he is re-recruited; n.b. his dialogue isn't particularly suited to when he has been forcefully removed.
 
Blaggerd has splashed out on a sling +1 for Viconia and Safana has become proficient with a shortbow. Kagain is given three more cheap axes and told not to break them as quickly. One shatters almost immediately.
 
Nashkel Mine: Mulahey fails to call for help as a Command and Poison combo accounts for his miserable life.  The Amazons outside are the strong silent type.

Spoiler

 
Safana sneaks in for a backstab.

 
With Maieira and Telka down, Lamahla is Commanded. Zeela is on her own but hangs on long enough to resist a Command but Blaggerd has poisoned her with fatal effects.

Blaggerd gets a 14hp level, and on returning Joseph's ring to his wife Dorn gets a 5hp level. That is 53hp to 23hp at level 4 so Blaggerd is becoming much less vulnerable than Dorn. After handing some emeralds to Oublek and a holy symbol to Berrun Ghastkill, Kagain is chumping away about the reputation soaring to 13: Popular.

Nimbul will never know why he was hired to deal with the likes of Blaggerd. He was clearly not up for the job despite being given chance to introduce himself. Safana gets a delicate backstab in, convincing Blaggerd that he should look for some stealthy gear for her. Later. In fact at 13000gp+ for Shadow Leather armour, forget it.

Spoiler

Chloe calls the company "real nice folk". Kids!

Tranzig almost kills Kagain, resisting two Commands. Kagain attacks Viconia as she heals him, so her next action is to Command him. Blaggerd decides it is time to hit the bar before searching for a bandit camp.

[Alesia_BH]

Welcome back, Golden!

 

As you may be aware Serg once successfully no reloaded the Trilogy with a party of characters all based on forum members, including himself, Corey Russell, Gate70, Grond0, Potty 1, USSNorway, and me. A number of us ran the same party. We called them the Avatars runs.

 

A link to Serg's final post:

 

http://forum.bioware...nge/?p=15856728

 

If we ever do a set of Avatar V2 runs, maybe you and Alexander can participate.

 

Good hunting!

 

Best,

 

A. 

[Gate70]

After Viconia Commands her way through an ankheg nest the next stop is a bandit camp. Everybody there is cut down, including the recently freed hostage (reputation -5, down to 9).
 
Aldeth Sashenstar marvels at Command and Poison Weapon.

Spoiler

In Cloakwood a man is crying out for help in finding his brother. The party burst into laughter, telling him to dream on.
 
Blaggerd picks up his final party member, telling them to identify anything that moves in their backpacks.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

This party member has heard about the missing brother and regales a tale of a mystical two handed sword. Blaggerd and Dorn resolve to return and look for the brother sword.

[Grimwald the Wise]

GL Gate. Maybe you should consider changing your PC's name- Blaggerd may be jinxed or something. 

@ Wise - gratz, GL further. Will you adopt some party or continue your crusade alone?

 

I am planning on assembling a small party in Amn. Probably Nalia, Saerileth and Krondor. Saerileth will probably get dumped after her rescue to be replaced by Keldorn. Always assuming that things go according to plan. Nalia is in the habit of getting chunked recently.

[corey_russell]

Yeenter the Dwarf Update

Traveling with: Minsc, Viconia, Imoen, Dynaheir, Xan

Permanently gone/dead: Xzar, Montaron, Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira

 

The party continues to make progress. Yeenter just made level 5. Most encounters were pretty smooth, except the battle with the Amazons was bloody. In the quad, we didn't have to much more than simply 2x silence - we tried that this time, but most of enemies saved - uh, oh. Montaron went for a backstab, while Kagain charged. At first, Yeenter was attacking with his throwing axes. One of the clerics were casting, but Kagain was able to resist - that's good. But the enemy thieves were putting a beating on Kagain. Viconia tried to move up to heal him, but he died too fast!

Spoiler

 

Montaron did what he could, but soon he had to retreat as well. Viconia tried to heal him, while Yeenter equipped his melee axe and attacked. Montaron tried to retreat but he too was slain.

Spoiler

 

The survivors, however were able to mop up the remaining enemies. Because there are no resurrections (run restriction), this means I needed replacements -  thus we recruited Minsc and Dynaheir. The replacements so far are carrying their weight.

[Gate70]

Blaggerd, Dorn and Kagain run around Centeol's lair, chasing scared enemies (Blaggerd and Eldoth both cast horror).

Spoiler

Blaggerd grabs the Spiders Bane sword and moves on. The druids past Eldoth's clearing hand over a potion before a subterranean tree is explored. Viconia Commands Peter and his two baby wyverns and evidently two fully grown wyverns take exception to this and ambush the party. Blaggerd is feeling confident and soon he is kicking their skulls into the undergrowth.

Spoiler

A hamadryad is subjected to Horror and the next minute or two are spent chasing after her. More horror in a second, larger, wyvern cave,

Spoiler

Dorn is as sympathetic as ever.

Spoiler

Blaggerd allows Drasus to shoot his mouth off, then allows Viconia to Silence him.

Eldoth has cast Horror as Kysus Dimension Doors, so Blaggerd and Dorn turn their poisoned weapons to Rezdan.

Blaggerd finds time to use his Aura of Despair.

Kysus re-appears so the Blackguards switch to him while Eldoth thins down Rezdan's Mirror Images with a set of Magic Missiles.

The Blackguards return to Rezdan as Kysus drops, then on to Genthore who is subjected to a fatal Command.

Drasus is still running scared and proves difficult to pin down as he beats two Commands.

Unfortunately for him, Viconia has two more but her third is successful. Kagain shatters another axe (note the pugs line, funny).

Spoiler

Into Cloakwood Mine, brushing aside the first set of guards. Blaggerd charges in to Hareishan and once everybody focuses on him Safana pops out of the shadows and tickles Hareishan for a backstab of 9. Blaggerd is less eloquent.

Spoiler

 

At one point Blaggerd is poisoned and glugs a green potion before thinking an Elixir of Health may have been wiser. A decision not to use Horror has allowed the party to fight instead of chase though, and as Dorn cuts through the left-most group everybody else carves the larger cluster into pieces.

Spoiler

The next group of hobgoblins see Safana get her first backstab kill, a chunky one too. The hobgoblins manage to account for the last Battle Axe so Kagain switches a throwing axe to melee mode instead. Dwarven genius, although a smarter person would have seen the armoury just around the corner. Two more axes and a few throwers are there as well as a few other items of interest or value.
 
Natasha casts Mirror Image but with everybody attacking her they don't last long and she fails to cast another spell. The Ogre Mage Jailor does better, confusing both Blaggerd and Safana. Kagain arrives to kill the ogre, then runs Blaggerd around to keep Safana safe because the 165lb of armour Dorn threw at Blaggerd fails to encumber him.

Spoiler

More peons are peon'd, until finally Safana is removing snares from under the nose of Davaeorn. Blaggerd uses a Potion of Magic Blocking, but without any poison left Davaeorn can teleport around and the party struggle to attack him. Dorn glugs a healing potion when he suspects a spell is incoming but the resulting lightning bolt is aimed at Blaggerd and bounces by the aforementioned potion.
 
After several teleports Davaorn is a spent force and fails to hold the mine.

Spoiler

 
Blaggerd, Blackguard 5. 119 kills, Shoal.
Dorn, Blackguard 5. 91 kills, Davaeorn.
Kagain, Fighter 5. 36 kills, Genthore.
Safana, Thief 6. 19 kills, Sword Spider. 1 death (Shoal scripted).
Viconia, Cleric 5. 25 kills, Natasha.
Eldoth, Bard 5. 10 kills, Giant Spider.

[Alesia_BH]

Hooray for Blaggerd the Nth!

 

Nice work, Gate!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Dagny, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (take 3), 2nd & final BG1 report

Dagny and friends had barely left behind the Wood of Sharp Teeth when they headed out to another vast forest: the Cloakwood. They protected Aldeth Sashenstar against four vindictive Druids by Silencing and then slaying the latter, and they took a Cloak of Non-Detection for Imoen from a Tasloi they killed.
Imoen removed numerous traps in Spiderland, and Dagny extinguished the monsters with her Wand of Fire. The party brought Chelak's body to Tiber, and kept Spiders' Bane (to sell it later).
The only battle the crew fought in Druidland was against Peter of the North and his Baby Wyverns. Deeper in the woods the companions slew more Wyverns with fire and ranged weapons.

They cleared the area surrounding the Cloakwood Mine, and then Dagny summoned a number of Skeletons, applied an oil of speed, and lured Drasus away from his friends. She injured him with her Wand of Fire, and battled him with her Skellies but went invisible when Kysus and Rezdan arrived. The warrior and the wizards slew one Skeleton after the other, but the last Skeleton managed to kill Drasus before it fell.

Spoiler

With Dagny invisible, and the Skellies down, Kysus and Rezdan with Genthore in their wake didn't take long in finding a new target: Quayle. (One of the wizards Dimension Doored, I guess Kysus.) The Gnome saved against a Chaos, and used his Wand of Monster Summoning to distract the enemy. Dagny picked up Drasus's gear, including the Boots of Speed, and fried Kysus as soon as (most of) his protections expired.

Spoiler

Rezdan died somewhat embarrassingly, for him, at the hands (or rather: teeth) of Quayle's summoned Dire Wolves, and Genthore fell to a ranged assault after Dagny managed to Blind him.

The five opted for a stealthy approach in the mines, with only Imoen showing herself at opportune moments to organize the liberation of the miners. It was also Imoen who disarmed Davaeorn's traps before Dagny stepped forward to confront the wizard. She protected herself from fire through potions and had a MSD up to absorb any Lightning Bolts coming her way (which indeed indeed they would). She finished the wizard's Battle Horrors with her Wand of Frost,

Spoiler

and would have soloed Davaeorn himself as well, if it weren't for his powers of detection that revealed Dagny's up till then invisible companions. Skeletons were summoned to rapidly eat away Davaeorn's Stoneskins. Imoen (Shortbow +1, Bracers of Archery, Deep Red Ioun Stone for +1 DEX) had proven herself a skilled archer, and she contributed here as well with acid arrows thwarting the wizard's spell casting attempts. A skeleton got the killing blow.

Spoiler

This easy victory was followed by a sorrowful moment when a conversation triggered between Garrick, who had become Dagny's second best friend after BFF Imoen, and Dagny just as I clicked to move the party toward Davaeorn's treasure chests. This was the result:

Spoiler

The party flooded the mines, and made it safely to the High Hedge, where Thalantyr combined six mage robes into the Mage Robe of Practical Protection (+2 AC, +1 saves, +20 fire/cold/electricity resistance), and from there, to Baldur's Gate.

As the party was still rather far removed from the XP cap, they did more quests than I usually do, including Desreta (with Wand of Paralyzation, gauntlets for Xan) & Vay-Ya (melee with Skeletons, after suffering a Sunfire), and Yago (melee with critical 46 dmg by Xan). Reporting to Brielbara resulted in Dagny reaching lvl 6 as a Mage. Xan slew the Greater Basilisk in the Docks after being PfP by Dagny.
Marek (Wand of Paralyzation), and Lathander were slain and saved respectively, for the XP and for the Eagle Bow. Sunin was somewhat cheesily deprived of some of his most potent spells by leaving and entering his home while he was in the middle of casting. A poisonous critical with the Dagger of Venom by Xan, who was dual wielding at that point, did him in. Quayle equipped the Ring of Wizardry which combined with the Ring of Holiness gave him almost as many spells as Dagny. The Helm of Glory was secured by force (Wand of Paralyzation on Drelik, physical fury against Jardak), while guile yielded the Helm and Cloak of Balduran, and Arkion's and Nephre's necklace and ring.

Other more 'standard' quests and encounters included Larze, Ragefast (spared) & Ramazith (slain after successful paralyzation), the Thieves' Guild quests, Brevlik's telescope, and the Ogre Mage in the sewers, who Confused Imoen just before Dagny finished him with her Wand of Magic Missiles.

The companions showed themselves to Sarevok's acolytes on the Iron Throne's top floor, hoping that four simultaneous fireballs would instantly thin their ranks, but alas, that was not to be (not even the mages Alai and Naaman).

Spoiler

The friends retreated, fearful to fight all the acolytes at the same time. Aasim and Naaman followed them downstairs where they made Quayle their principal target: Wand of the Heavens plus Emotion. The Gnome managed to paralyze Aasim before he went to sleep.

Spoiler

Xan and Dagny finished the priest soon after. Naaman Horrored and Blinded Garrick, but Imoen with her acid arrows, and Dagny with her Ashideena stripped the wizard of his Stoneskins, allowing Xan to dispatch him.

Spoiler

Diyab (ranged assault to thwart spell casting), and Gardush (Spooked and Blinded, finished off with ranged attacks) followed. Alai injured Imoen with Magic Missiles before Xan took the wizard's life. (Again softened up first with elemental attacks.) The others, including Thaldorn, found no mercy either.

 

The party received a book from Duke Eltan that would offer them access to Candlekeep, but before making it there, they met Eldoth in the area where Gorion had fallen, and they traveled with him back to Baldur's Gate. They had to defend themselves in an inn from Phandalyn, a fight which ended with Phandalyn's death and a steep reputation drop. The party's reputation suffered further when Imoen got caught stealing at the Silvershield estate, where Eldoth was left behind with his girlfriend Skie. That night Dagny had a dark dream that culminated in her waking the next day with a Divine Wrath Bhaalpower. (Tiresome? Maybe, but I just can't bring myself to kill random commoners for reputation management purposes, especially with a neutralish party like Dagny's clique.)

Most companions' XP was in the 100k range. As I wanted to dualclass Imoen at lvl 9 (110k XP), the party made a side trip to the Firewine Ruins. First of all to slay Meilum for his gauntlets (which went to Dagny), and to fry Lendarn and an Ogre Mage (the former with difficulty, he sensed the companions' presence and forced them to use up all their potions of Absorption after a first damaging Lightning Bolt was followed by a second one).

Spoiler

And secondly, to recruit Alora to assume thieving duties and to consolidate the majority of the positive thinkers (Garrick, Imoen, Dagny) over the cynics (Xan, Quayle) in the party. Alora is a Burglar in my setup: +10% in HiS, MS, OL and FT, -20% in Pickpockets and Set Traps, possibility to specialize in Daggers, Darts and Slings, trap usage at half the rate of a regular Thief.

 

The party of six reached Candlekeep invisibly, postponing their encounter with five Ogre Mages. Alora released the library of all scrolls and valuables she could find, and did most of the work with the Iron Throne management:

Spoiler

Rieltar wasted most of his spells on Dagny's Skeletons before she toasted him with her Wand of Fire.

Spoiler

I must say them wands are superhandy, as they enable Dagny to focus on defense in her spellbook. Besides, as a multiclass caster with barely above average INT in a party of casters, she didn't have a lot of firepower in her repertoire of learnt spells anyway.

All the enemies in the catacombs were slain (Phase Spiders, Ghasts, Skeletons, Doppelgangers), which resulted in many level-ups: Garrick (9), Imoen (9) Dagny (7 Cleric) and Quayle (7 Cleric). Imoen dualed here as planned. An extensive spell scribing session that saw most INT-raising potions consumed served to donate Imoen two new Mage levels. Rest-spamming Phase Spiders at the cave entrance was good for another level for Imoen as well as for Dagny's and Quayle's final Mage level-ups.
Alora cleared all traps in the cave, and Dagny slew Spiders and Basilisks with her ineluctable Wand of Fire. Sadly, one Phase Spider teleported away from Dagny straight to Xan, and killed the Elf with its poison before Quayle could heal him, the first casualty in this adventure. He would be raised at teh FAI.
Four of five Fireballs finished Sakul and two Lesser Air Elementals, but the others survived. Prat even disappeared. Tam was paralyzed and taken down with range attacks and Bor fell to a Wand scorcher. Prat was nowhere to be found, but he did find the companions, and forced them to leave the cave to heal after he proved too strong in melee combat. He followed them back into the catacombs, where he would Blind Alora and injure Quayle, and after a while Dagny, who was the only one with Stoneskin. With the help of Skeletons, Prat was eventually bested.

Spoiler

Back on the surface, Dagny's skill with the Wand of Fire started to show as she slew three of the Ogre Mages with a single scorcher charge.

Spoiler

The others too, were scorchered.

In Baldur's Gate, lacklustre pathfinding saw the friends arrested by a Flaming Fist Enforcer, which meant that after their escape with Neb, all Flaming Fists would be hostile. One of them in the eastern quadrant followed the party inside the Sorcerous Sundries when he saw Alora fail to HiS. The party managed to speak with Halbazzar once, to buy a number of potions and scrolls. But a second talk, to buy arrows of dispelling proved impossible. The wizard turned hostile; the companions fled.

Cythandria was thankful to be spared, her Golems were done in by Xan for 8000 XP a piece (Storm Giant Strength, Blur, Haste, PfE, Regen).

Spoiler

It helped Imoen to her fifth Mage level.

Alora injured Greater Doppelganger Rashad with backstabs until he panicked, at which point she switched to her returning throwing dagger +1 to finish him. She then hid Eltan in the party's Bag of Holding (a souvenir from Mulahey), snuck past Fist Enforcers, and left the Duke in the harbor master's care.
In the Undercellars, Alora was Hasted by an oil of speed and invigorated by a potion of strength (for better Thac0) in order to soften up Slythe. But she did a bit more than that. This was the consequence of two backstabs:

Spoiler

Krystin was left to her own devices.

At the Ducal Palace the strategy was to not place Hasted Skeletons or buffed Dagny, Xan and Alora near the Dukes, waiting instead for the Greater Doppelgangers to reveal their true nature so that Garrick could dispel their Haste first. However the Bard was immediately Horrored by one of the Doppelgangers, as was Alora (an oversight on my part not to have Dagny cast Remove Fear before battle, and an indication that I'm not really good at buffing, am simply too forgetful).
It didn't matter in the end as Xan (Storm Giant Strength, Defense, Invulnerability, Heroism, Speed, Magic Shielding, PfE), Dagny (Violet potion, Agility, Fortitude, Defense, Speed, Magic Shielding, PfE), and five Hasted Skeletons were more than enough to take care of the Doppelgangers.

Spoiler

Dagny removed Alora's fear after the battle, but Garrick was still panicked when Belt sent the party to the Thieves Guild. This caused a strange bug: Garrick stayed behind in the Ducal Palace even though he was still officially in the party. It was impossible to return to the palace as the party had to be gathered before venturing forth. I solved this with Clua Console area switches (though I guess I could have dismissed Garrick and return to the palace and re-recruit him).

Dagny, Xan and Alora were still heavily buffed, which allowed them to handle the Slimes, Doom Guards and Skeleton Warriors with ease. Much harder to deal with was Rahvin's party. I always skip them, but still wanting XP, most of all for Imoen, decided to fight them. I had completely forgotten about the arrows of detonation (never use them myself, and am unused to seeing enemies use them). It cost Quayle his life.
A couple of Fireballs and overwhelming melee force sufficed to get rid of the different enemies,

Spoiler

with the exception of Rahvin and Shaldrissa the mage. She went invisible and with a Sunfire nearly killed Imoen and Alora (who by my mistake attacked with the Dagger of Venom rather than her throwing dagger).

Spoiler

Imoen went invisible, and Alora retreated to heal. The Halfling had 35 arrows of dispelling (25 from Black Lily, 10 stolen at the Ducal Palace) and five phials of poison (also from Black Lily). They were meant for the final showdown, but Alora decided to make an exception for Shaldrissa. Alora was not proficient in bows but with 25 DEX thanks to Deep Red Ioun Stone plus 2x Mind Focusing, she had no difficulty removing Shaldrissa's protections, exposing the wizard to Dagny's hammer.

Spoiler

The Halfling did Rahvin herself.

Spoiler

There was no sign of Tamoko in front of the entrance to Sarevok's temple. Apparently she doesn't spawn if you don't meet with her in the city. (The party never had the opportunity due to Halbazzar Drin wanting their hides and following them outside the Sorcerous Sundries.)

Dagny taunted Sarevok, prompting him to follow her back to the entrance, where Alora dispelled his Haste. Diarmid, Semaj, and Tazok appeared there as well. For some reason Semaj didn't cast any detection spells, so the four enemies just stayed there, waiting for something to happen.

Spoiler

Something did indeed happen, not far from them. Alora and Dagny, who had found a good mutual understanding soon after they'd met, made short work of Angelo. Dagny engaged the Fighter/Mage in melee while Alora kept dispelling his buffs and protections. The Halfling had to swig a potion of magic shielding when a Chaos came her way, but otherwise there were no issues.

Spoiler

Semaj, was the duo's next target. He went invisible after the first dispel, but Garrick revealed the wizard's presence with a Detect Invisibility. A series of ranged attacks later, Semaj was down.

Spoiler

The only remaining problem was Diarmid, whose well-placed arrows forced Alora to disengage and heal even after his Haste was dispelled. Xan then came to the girls' aid. Hasted, Blurred, PfE (I have him use that lvl 1 spell a lot), and strong as a Storm Giant, he downed Diarmid in no time.

Spoiler

Imoen reached Mage lvl 6 here.

Dagny occupied Sarevok and two Skeleton Warriors so that Xan and Alora could finish Tazok and a third Skeleton Warrior (that hit Alora several times with its bow). The three then dealt with the Skeleton Warriors together, and defeated Sarevok with range attacks.

Spoiler

 

End of BG1 stats and screenshots:
Dagny:

Spoiler

259 kills (Battle Horror - doesn't Sarevok count?), XP value of kills = 141,800

Imoen:

Spoiler

0 deaths, 342 kills (Greater Basilisk), XP value of kills = 99,056

Garrick:

Spoiler

0 deaths, 62 kills (Doppelganger), XP value of kills = 2,665

Quayle:

Spoiler

No inventory screen because he was still dead when screenshot was taken.

1 death, 42 kills (Phase Spider), XP value of kills = 12,580
Xan:

Spoiler

1 death, 202 kills (Kirinhale), XP value of kills = 176,107

Alora:

Spoiler

0 deaths, 33 kills (Angelo), XP value of kills = 49,315

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats to Dagny and Blackraven!

 

When I saw the words "final report" I immediately stopped reading, and scanned down, hoping to find Sarevok's name. When I opened the last screenshot I was very pleased to see a dead 'Vok instead of a dead Dagny.

 

When you get to Amn head over to the Flagons. Aerie would love to trade casting tips with a C/I.

 

Best,

 

A. 

[Blackraven]

Congrats to Dagny and Blackraven!

 

When I saw the words "final report" I immediately stopped reading, and scanned down, hoping to find Sarevok's name. When I opened the last screenshot I was very pleased to see a dead 'Vok instead of a dead Dagny.

 

When you get to Amn head over to the Flagons. Aerie would love to trade casting tips with a C/I.

 

Best,

 

A. 

Haha thank you! Dagny is very interested in tip trading, but first that nasty dungeon...

[corey_russell]

Congratulations Blackraven! I hope Dagny can go far in SoA and ToB...

Traveling with: Minsc, Viconia, Imoen, Xan, Dynaheir

Permanently gone/dead: Xzar, Montaron, Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira

 

Yeenter the dwarf continues to make progress - he just go to level 6. Despite having two very vulnerable party members (Dynaheir and Xan), there have been no more deaths, and thus no more losses of NPCs. Most of the bottom 3 rows on the map cleared, except Durlag's. We did take out the battle horrors, a paralyzing wand was quite helpful for that.

 

One thing unusual for me, is when the party took out Kirian's group, we had a lot of skeletons left. Minsc decided to put on his leather armor, and he escorted the skeletons around, looking for baslisks and Minsc supported with his bow, once it was safe. This worked pretty good - however we did run out of skeletons before we were quite done getting all the basilisks, and thus Minsc had to recruit Korax to get the last few baslisks left.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 82 - (4th and final update)

Petra, half-elf fighter/mage/thief (Grond0) & Ayce, human dark moon monk (Gate70)

 

We didn't heed the lessons of a dodgy session and finally found disaster at the palace.

 

Things started well enough with stinking cloud and blind accounting for Desreta and Vay-ya.  The same tactics were used at the Iron Throne, with the final caster being blinded as the stinking cloud ended.  With everyone running around blind and EE losing target lock when an enemy is out of sight even momentarily finishing them off (without lots of pausing) was still not easy and both Petra and Ayce saved against a chaos before the job was done.

 

After picking up some easy XP at the Seven Suns they were off to Candlekeep.  The tombs were looted without problems and a few dopplegangers cleared on the way to Prat.  He was saved initially when Petra went into her own stinking cloud when trying to cast a skull trap and, when she eventually did release the spell it placed a skull trap next to Prat's head, but still didn't detonate.  However, Prat and his gang still died easily enough and Petra started exploring for spiders.  That immediately caused a problem when she didn't notice that a web trap tripped earlier by Ayce was still functioning.  That looked like the end there, but Petra found she could move again just before the end came.  

Spoiler

Ayce, who had come in as a distraction, was also trapped though and an attempted paralysation on a sword spider failed which seemed to seal her doom.  Once more though the gods relented at the last moment and she was thrown an invisibility potion to keep her safe while Petra killed the spiders with scorchers.

Spoiler

 

Back in Baldur's Gate Slythe saved against a couple of stinking clouds for several rounds, but once he was down he didn't manage to get up again.

 

At the palace we decided to put down a grease field to try and prevent the dopplegangers attacking the dukes - that proved to be a grave mistake.  The transformation of the dopplegangers cleared all status effects and they didn't have to save again until they had surrounded the dukes - pretty much ignoring Ayce and the summons among them.  We've noted before how horribly vulnerable the dukes are in the EE if you're unlucky and the dopplegangers all attack them and that was demonstrated again this time.  It only took a couple of rounds or so (Petra had just cast her second slow) and the dukes had fallen with only one doppleganger dead.

Spoiler

I think we might have to resort to making Liia invisible with casters in future.

[Alesia_BH]

 

Sorry to hear that, guys.

 

Sarevok is a jerk. 

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Btw. Who came up with the Grease idea? 

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 83 - (update 1)

Pasha, half-elf druid (Grond0) & Rholfre, half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)

 

There was a comedy of errors trying to get our new game under way after the end of the previous run.  Initially Gate70 was annoyed when he got a nice roll, but then lost it by not redistributing stats as he desired.  Meanwhile, I was struggling to get an ideal roll (druid being a very difficult class to do this with), but eventually was satisfied with a 93.  I finished generating my character, but then commented that once more the picture chosen was somewhat inappropriate for the stated gender .  Gate70 was so busy laughing at me that he didn't realise until too late that he had once more failed to redistribute stats before the new game was under way ...

 

I said that it wouldn't take long to reroll characters - and indeed that would have been true if I hadn't skipped over a very nice roll of 95 almost immediately.  However, continued rolling for quite some time after that failed to throw up another match for the earlier 93 and I finally settled for 92 - that means that dexterity has been compromised on in addition to intelligence.

 

All that preparation meant there wasn't much time left in the session, but we did manage to account for Shoal and do a bit of work in Beregost (including blinding Silke).  HP rolls so far have been horrible though (dragon disciples use a d6 - so Rholfre rolled a 1, while Pasha has got a 1 and a 2 with her d8s).

 

 

Stats:

Pasha, druid 3, 17 HPs, 14 kills

Rholfre, dragon disciple 2, 11 HPs, 7 kills, 0 deaths

 

The randomly generated characters for our previous couple of runs have been well-matched, with genuine prospects of going all the way if well-handled.  I'm struggling to see how this pair will be able to do that.  However, looking at our MP record I see that this is our 100th run (this is the 83rd separate pairing of characters, but some pairings have had multiple attempts), so we should perhaps try hard to make it a good one.

[Grond0]

Btw. Who came up with the Grease idea? 

I think it was probably me who suggested it for the palace .  My memory is that it was Gate70 who originally suggested the tactical uses for grease and we have found it to be very successful in the right circumstances - in that run for instance it was comical watching Lothander desperately trying to run through a grease field in order to reach the stairs.  

 

To be fair to us I think the game mechanics in the situation at the palace are a bit unfair.  When grease is first cast it requires an immediate saving throw from anyone in the area.  I think it's fair enough that the dopplegangers changing form allows them to clear existing status effects, but if that is done it should really be followed by an immediate requirement for them to roll saves again against existing area effects (just as if they were newly cast).  With 6 grease spells operating at the time it's unlikely that many of the dopplegangers would then have been able to launch attacks on the dukes. 

[corey_russell]

@Gate70, Grond0: Sorry to hear of your debacle at the Duchal Palace. Even in vanilla, it's possible to get a bit unlucky with super concentrated Doppleganger attacks on the dukes. Hopefully, this new pairing will do the trick for you guys.

[corey_russell]

Yeenter the dwarf update:

Traveling with: Minsc, Viconia, Imoen, Dynaheir, Xan

Permanently dead/gone: Xzar, Montaron, Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira

 

Yeenter has finally has some fun fights. We had a brief duel with Melium, but he failed a save vs. hold person, so Melium's gauntlets went to Yeenter. We were pretty sure Viconia's skeletons would be enough for Kahrk, so we battled him. Yeenter did use a potion of magic blocking, since he was tanking - yes success!

Spoiler

 

Since Molkar was nearby, we challenged him as well. Molkar said his group was much stronger than the assassins that have went after Yeenter before. Perhaps he should have taken a brief look around and noticed our massive skeleton army arrayed against him?

 

We'll take a brief foray into Firewine Ruins next session - for now though, Corey_Russell needs to sleep. Good luck to the rest of the runs going!