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docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Softface posted:

I've found that a lot of the intimidatingly large groups of monsters SoD throws at you can be conveniently dealt with using a single Cloudkill spell, this one included. It's the first time I've ever really used the spell and it's paying huge dividends.

Wow, yeah, I only occasionally remember that Cloudkill exists (mostly when someone casts it at me), but it's proving pretty drat effective now. I'd mostly been using the old web (or entangle) + fireball/firewand/arrow of detonation one-two punch (which is still my go-to strategy for crowds of undead).

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docbeard
Jul 19, 2011


So, what you're saying, Dynaheir, is that we should break out the webs, the fireballs, the minute meteors, AND the improved invisibility?


Oh man, ankhegs. Now that's a blast from the past!


The confusion visual effect persisted for a few moments even after Minsc got cured of it. I was hoping it would be permanent, since that would be appropriate, but no such luck.


So, uh, can we come in or what?


Well yeah, that's the best time to attack a...I mean...FINE WE'LL HELP THE DRAGON


...no one tell Geneva about this, all right?


Sorry, wrong cave.


Shaw's a druid these days so she has a better grasp of zoology than most, but come on, lady. Those are NOT spiders!


M'Khiin thinks we should lure the rhinoceros beetle away with some spider eggs. We employ an alternate strategy.


Sorry, REALLY wrong cave. Man, we keep doing this.


This is my first time really through Siege (aside from Cassandra's brief foray) but I knew this dragon was here from reading folks' updates and also, you know, the subtle hints like calling this the Forest of Wyrms and the other green dragon that was just outside the area.

A couple fireballs, arrows of detonation, and M'khiin's spirit fire spell later, and it's, uh, toast. (Not seen: the stone golem figurine from the lich cave tanking some greater wyverns and younger dragons til we can sort them out with more fire.)



Sorry, wrong...eh, never mind.

Shaw is definitely not committing war crimes in the Forest of Wyrms.

Samuel Clemens
Oct 4, 2013

I think we should call the Avengers.

Yeah, Cloudkill is great. Even in BG2, a surprising number of enemies instantly fall to it.

docbeard posted:


Well yeah, that's the best time to attack a...I mean...FINE WE'LL HELP THE DRAGON

Are those new enemies? I don't recall seeing them in one of the other games.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Samuel Clemens posted:

Are those new enemies? I don't recall seeing them in one of the other games.

They're Hill Giants. Prior to Siege, I think I've only ever seen them in one or the other of the Icewind Dale games.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

Where were we. Oh yeah, Rincewind was still screwing about for the Thieves Guild.



Edwin, last seen never leaving Nashkel because he doesn't know how to play well with Neera or Minsc. Screw him.



He sends me assassinating, which is no big deal when Rincewind can cast Spell Thrust over his level.



I do post on Something Awful, good sir. Also I'm still not taking you along, you don't know how to behave around Minsc. On a no reload run that's bad.



For amusement, I Wild Magic up a Chaos Sphere on Mae'Var. It knocks out some of his goons and turns one into a rodent. Haha.



Then I go kill some pira...wow it's a *very* good thing I threw up Protection from Evil before I came here.



Ah, the real beauty of Wild Mages. Buying Limited Wish, casting way over Rincewind's head and cheating up lots of goodies.



Such as a sidequest. I would do the Unseeing Eye while down there but hell if I'm fighting Beholders without reflection.



But that's so far awaaaaaaaaay bitch moan



Korgan of course articulates things better than I.



Oh hi, endlessly amusing bane of my existence. She doesn't join yet.



And Biff Tanner runs away. Unpictured I murder his guards in short order. Rincewind the Wild Mage has kind of solved a murder but not really

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Shaw the Kensai->Druid has liberated Bridgeport

So after we do not in any way violate any treaties involving chemical warfare in dealing with the cave full of bugbears, we head into the Temple of Bhaal Cyric ?????.


...good for you? (pleasedon'tworshipmepleasedon'tworshipme)


Dragon Lady's poison breath packs a wallop, but she gets hers. Anyway, M'Khiin gets like four casts of the equivalent of Raise Dead a day now.


...what in the actual gently caress


Oh. poo poo. I'll bet I know who's moved in here.


Yup. Thought so. How superintelligent of you to hang out with your allies in an enclosed space with a handy chokepoint, and speaking of choking...

(I think I actually used more arrows of detonation than anything else here, but tentacleface and his friends don't last long in any event.)

I didn't get any shots of the Aspect of Shadow fight in the secret room but goddamn that was brutal, and I'd probably have been toast if I didn't have any Glitterdust scrolls on me since Invisibility Purge just wasn't cutting it. HOARDING PAYS OFF, PEOPLE. Stone Golem figurine proves useful once more, too.

So we turn the camp friendly, and with our new wardstone we pop into Bridgeport.


...well, poo poo.


That was way easier than I thought it would be.

A few sidequests later and we're off for the Epic Battle to break the siege.


drat, Minsc, you are just a damage magnet. (Seriously, I think he's about 75% of my healing potion consumption and, well, you saw what happened here.)


We are victorious without too much trouble, though. I'd have raised Minsc by now but M'Khiin got herself silenced and we were way too busy to rummage for the Raise Dead scrolls I have stashed somewhere.


We decide NOT to use the old Arrows of Detonation strategem here. A quick use of Chaos pretty much makes this fight trivial.


Because Shaw wasn't traumatized enough by witnessing Gorion's death, she gets to witness her actual father's murder. And then this MYSTERIOUS FELLOW WHO COULD HE BE shows up again.


LOOK IT WAS LIKE THIS WHEN WE GOT HERE.

We're off to the Coalition Camp now, where we promptly set out to do a bunch of busywork sorting out everyone's problems while suspicions and tensions grow.

Shaw gets a new weapon (though sadly not a +3 one, which I know I'll need for the final fight, and I've found a grand total of one Enchanted Weapon scroll in the entire game. Dynaheir's a sorcerer in this timeline and I'm not really looking to recruit anyone new at this late stage so I guess we'll have to make that scroll count! Or I could use my +3 buck-and-a-quarterstaff, but Shaw's got scimitar grandmastery. I SUPPOSE WE WILL SEE.) and we set out to explore a bit.


So are we, my friends. So are we.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

So let's go ahead and get Rincewind out of town so his allies will stop complaining.



But first I run into Neera again, who still makes no offer to join. I might have been tempted to take two Wild Mages if she did. Level 7 spells at this stage of the game is kind of fun.



I open a random door in a pub and they're keeping a Lich in there. Well I'll just take him down...



Uh, good grief. Change of plans, we're just leaving him here for later.



Let's not and say we did, Nalia. My thieving is covered and my mageing is covered.



Storming the castle, I manage to rescue Glaicus through a Mental Domination. I wonder if he'll go back to being crazy when that wears off.



Sanctuary gets me past the Golem legion and later the Umber Hulks. Viconia is pretty good.



And to Torgal. Get him my minions!



Retreat my minions! Torgal's guards are silly enough to follow my mutts back here. Sucks for them.



Torgal is not so easily fooled, but Torgal is also alone, so.



And it's off to Trademeet, where Jaheira luckily agrees to step in and spare me actually having to take Cernd along for this quest. Rincewind the Wild Mage is in Trademeet about to murder druids

Samuel Clemens
Oct 4, 2013

I think we should call the Avengers.



Trying to save Arabelle taught Mickey that there is such a thing as excessive force. :(



Murdering Drizz't doesn't get me anything, but it's kind of a tradition by this point.



There's really only one way to end this playthrough properly.



Mickey has killed Squirrelvok!

Honors: Ironling, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader, Battlemaster

cigaw
Sep 13, 2012

Samuel Clemens posted:

There's really only one way to end this playthrough properly.



Mickey has killed Squirrelvok!
:coal: That's awesome and I think it may be a first.

How'd you do it? Just spam the Wand of Polymorphing?

Samuel Clemens
Oct 4, 2013

I think we should call the Avengers.

I softened him up with Greater Malison first. Even so, it took about a dozen tries for the polymorph to stick.

Samuel Clemens
Oct 4, 2013

I think we should call the Avengers.

Sorcerer Mickey arrives in Amn.



I was worried that the opening dungeon would be a giant hurdle with a solo caster, but it didn't turn out to be too bad. Being able to rest as often as you want definitely helps.



Web status: still amazing.



There's something oddly satisfying about standing back and watching as your summons carve their way through hordes of enemies.



Their weapon immunities can be handy as well.



I think I've said this before, but there are few problems in life which can't be solved by turning into a jelly and spamming wands.

Tumblr of scotch
Mar 13, 2006

Please, don't be my neighbor.
The continuing ending adventures of Rekka Bashensmash!


It takes a fair amount of time to kill Nazramu after buying what I want from him, since he keeps misting. Still manage though, but not before his Cloudkill takes out one of the Flaming Fists.


This is what I've been afraid of with every beetle fight. :(


Here lies Rekka Bashensmash, slayer of Sarevok, killed by a beetle's fart.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

So we last left Rincewind faffing about in Trademeet. I don't know if that's a word but it is now.



Rasaad, last seen in Nashkel getting murdered by Nimbul. No I'm not taking you along, you suck.



Let's just go get everyone's fortune told while we're here. Minsc: Translation, you will Leeroy Jenkins yourself in the epilogue.



Jaheira: Translation, you're probably getting ditched as soon as a better party member comes along.



Yoshimo: Translation, you're doomed, doooooooomed!



Korgan: Translation, the writers were apparently too lazy to put anything here for you.



Viconia: Translation, a goddamn romance subplot awaits you if you don't change your ways.



And we're off to murder some druids. Only made complicated by Yoshimo getting horrored into dragging in more druids than I wanted. I only brought one shot of Remove Fear and it didn't hit him as he sprinted off...



But Sphere of Chaos prevails again. That thing is funny.



After the Rakshasa, which I remember being much harder than she is. Korgan hilariously gibs her.



It takes me for goddamn ever to find this little path to the tower where the last stage of the Gong quest is...



I think I would have been pissed if I hadn't been happening to carry this thing around.



Past Faldorn's minions. I wanted to just send critters after them but NPC Cernd felt the need to cast spells on them like they were enemies. You idjit.



Faldorn, last seen...uh, hell if I know. I never even bothered picking up Faldorn.



Faldorn is a cheating rear end in a top hat who regenerates. She's also really dumb and endlessly chases Jaheira around while ignoring the mutt biting her ankles off.



She cheats some more upon near death, full healing into a leopard. So I cheat some more and summon up a Nymph who holds her still long enough for Jaheira to beat her to death with a stick. Take that.



Rincewind is the Hero of Trademeet! They should have given the Nymph a statue

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

A crazy busy week of work and a bout of the Plague derailed this run for a bit, but let's check in with Shaw and her mighty hero friends and see what epic deeds they're doing.


Oh god...


Ah, mimics, the reason I reflexively attack any treasure chest in Dark Souls even when I know better.


Displacer beasts, just for the hell of it, I guess


An antimagic ambush? Cool cool.


You're really starting to get on my nerves, Mystery David Warner


Shaw is apparently Queen of the Ogres now


You're REALLY starting to get on my nerves, Mystery David Warner


After 1 and a half games, Shaw finally has some clothes. (Actually, she was wearing the cleric vestments I found earlier.)


Sorry, wrong cave


We help out Drowmio and Juliet. I'm not really sure why


We meet a ghost dragon


Sorry man, but given the choice between evil wizard and ghost dragon, I'd much rather fight an evil wizard. Or five evil wizards.


Oh no, a lich! If only I had a magic lich-killing rock! Like this one. It sure is a good thing I'll always have this magic lich-killing rock and that it won't soon be arbitrarily take away from me along with the rest of my gear or anything.

But never mind that.

Shaw has finally found some clothes.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Well, at least Shaw didn't die naked.

RIP Shaw, fallen during the (actual) Siege of Dragonspear.

Suspicious
Apr 30, 2005
You know he's the villain, because he's got shifty eyes.
Vincenzo the fighter/thief wraps up Shadows of Amn.



Firkraag is the last major encounter I carefully prepared for...



before entering "gently caress it, YOLO" mode. I started using a fallen planetar for easy victories, such as in the Twisted Rune HQ and the Bodhi fight. Jaheira died vs the Suldanessallar dragon, somehow. Not permanently though.



You can still cheese Irenicus with traps.



Final fight too, but I only have 2 spiked traps per rest so I couldn't chunk the whole group. Still, Slayer Irenicus was chopped liver in about 30 seconds.

Honors: Ironman, Purist, Honorable Trader, Gaxkang's a Wuss, Roleplayer

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

My last (probably) Iron Run for the year takes me back to familiar territory.


I don't want to set the world on fire


I just want to start a flame in your heart


In my heart I have but one desire


And that one is you, no other will do


I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim


I just want to be the one you love


And with your admission that you'd feel the same


I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of, believe me


I don't want to set the world on fire


I just want to start a flame in your heart

Corbomite E. Hayes. Coming soon to some bandits near you.

(Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, Arabelle lives again.)

Samuel Clemens
Oct 4, 2013

I think we should call the Avengers.



It's kind of silly how little the Robe of Vecna costs. Infinite cosmic power for 20.000 gold? What a bargain!



Few things are as satisfying in this game as instantly killing a whole bunch of annoying enemies with Death Spell.



Now the real fun begins. :getin:



Time to get my revenge on the Twisted Rune.



I start by luring Shangalar back into the starting room. On his own, he can't really do anything to the Mustard Jelly form.



Neither can Vaxall.



Layenne can't see through invisibility, so Improved Invisibility + Spell Immunity: Divination renders her harmless.



Surprisingly enough, Shyressa turned out to be the toughest of the bunch. I was pretty much out of spells at this stage and had trouble overcoming her respectable regeneration. In the end, spamming the Wand of Fire did the trick.



Mickey has a new toy to play with.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

When last we left Rincewind, he was somehow named the hero of Trademeet.



First let's go ahead and solve the Skinner murders because no loose ends.



Ajantis, last seen sitting on his rear end in an Ankheg field because he can't play nice with Dorn. Now dead. I weep.



Firkraag's castle is a bunch of level draining jerks and some Holding jerks. Nothing Harper's Call and Restoration can't fix, but still annoying.



You mean that massive group of orcs patiently waiting right there for us to finish our conversation? Okay then.



Tazok didn't handle his demotion from somewhat relevant character to throwaway minion very well.



I deal with the Adamantite Golem by getting him stuck in a doorway and using the good old Lower Resist/Lower Resist/Greater Malison/Polymorph to Squirrel. Tee hee.



Let's just double back and spring Samia's little ambush. Which I am not messing with and just chuck the Cloudkill wand I've been holding forever at her. Whoops.



Rincewind agrees with Minsc that running away from the large dragon is best. We'll be back. Maybe. Probably not.



Conster surprises me by pulling a Finger of Death out of his rear end and murdering Yoshimo when he falls, but otherwise can't hold up to high level spell protection removals. Wild Magic is fun.

Rincewind the Wild Mage has rescued a child and cowardly avoided a dragon

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.



So Rincewind goes off to settle a few more things. First grabbing Captain Charisma and booting Yoshimo because I never forgave him for killing Westley :bahgawd:



Back to town to finish the Gong quest...



Searching for the house with the Horn of Valhalla, accidentally walking into the Twisted Rune instead. Wait hold up



I try to get clever and make everyone chase Korgan into the Meteors one of them called up, which kind of works. Problematic though when I can't even hurt the lich...



I'm still doing okay all things considering. Valygar gets Mazed, Viconia holds her own through sick magic resist, Rincewind is Dominated by the stupid vampire...



Uh. Viconia gets killed and I get a game over in spite of Rincewind clearly still being alive, albeit under a Dominate.

RIP Rincewind the Wild Mage. Temporarily made some vampire's biddy?

USDA Choice
Jul 4, 2004

BIG TEN PRIDE
After a miserable false start and many more undocumented failures, time for a dynamic duo!


Our protagonist, Fire! And her unpictured custom sidekick, Fury. Fury is a Fighter/Cleric half-orc dual wielding warhammers


Nearly instagibbed the belt ogre.


Making an instant detour to pick up Ashideena. This is why our main is the ranged combatant!


Melicamp status: alive. Also, Arabelle lived too because Sleep makes that encounter trivial.


Totally forgot to take any Nashkel screen shots because it goes so quickly when it's your 6th time in a couple weeks and you make a beeline for Mulahey. This trap after hitting Nashkel was the closest I came to death before getting into the city was from a trap I forgot about.


Seniyad casts a call lightning that's uninterruptible by damage and does something on the order of ~10d8. I know this because it ended a run a couple weeks ago. :v: Easy call to burn an Absorption here after he makes the save vs my Command.


Fury died once before this to a ghast elsewhere, but in Cloakwood 4 you are 60 hours from a temple. Even with a potion of strength to pick up his armor, Fire didn't have enough inventory slots so a couple wands dissolved in the 120 hour round trip.


After Cloakwood we spent very little time in the BG proper. Fire & Fury hit the experience cap shortly after arriving so I just needed to get Balduran's helm/cloak, kill Ramazith and Ragefast, and collect a couple final items to get fully kitted out. Pictured: the Iron Throne already silenced and unable to start dialog, about get dunked on with web, skull trap, and some summons.


I never understood how after the entire city becomes a Flaming Fist danger zone we can just walk into the palace with invitations and they don't recognize us. :shrug:


Definitely should have memorized Resilient Sphere instead of Greater Malison. For those that are able to keep both dukes alive, kudos to you because those greater doppelgangers made a beeline for Liia and just pasted her in 1 round. Thankfully Duke Belt is beefy and my skeleton army did major work.


This was my method for getting through every group encounter. Prat, Lamalha, Drasus, etc... all died to copious helpings of Web usually paired with Fireballs or Glyph of Warding and range attacks. No holds barred for ironman runs!


Absolutely no Battlemaster honor here.


When Fury landed a hit on a natural 9 I felt pretty good about how the fight would go. And Sarevok died just 2 rounds after this, from a sequenced double Magic Missile and a couple more hits.

Fire the Mage/Thief has slain Sarevok together with her friend Fury!

Honors: Ironling, Honorable Trader

Gridlocked
Aug 2, 2014

MR. STUPID MORON
WITH AN UGLY FACE
AND A BIG BUTT
AND HIS BUTT SMELLS
AND HE LIKES TO KISS
HIS OWN BUTT
by Roger Hargreaves
So I'm going to try streaming my Ironman run/s

Please come join and chat as we go!

https://www.twitch.tv/griddead


Scrap the previous it was bad and I had to figure out how to stream properly.

Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Feb 25, 2018

Gridlocked
Aug 2, 2014

MR. STUPID MORON
WITH AN UGLY FACE
AND A BIG BUTT
AND HIS BUTT SMELLS
AND HE LIKES TO KISS
HIS OWN BUTT
by Roger Hargreaves
Ok so I'm going to try doing this again:

https://www.twitch.tv/griddead

Come laugh at me/help me not be bad at a game I haven't finished in years.


After that session:

Han Hansen the Halfing Fighter/Thief was Flaming Fisted in Beregost after putting in a good effort and having been caught thieving. I failed to manage his Reputation and whilst trying to fix it I ran face first into a Flaming Fist spawned patrol that wrecked me.

Jenny Jensen cousin to Han Hansen is also a Halfling Fighter/Thief and is going strong with her crew. She's made it to Nashkel and is preparing to storm the Gnoll Fort so we can recruit Edwin.

Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Feb 25, 2018

Gridlocked
Aug 2, 2014

MR. STUPID MORON
WITH AN UGLY FACE
AND A BIG BUTT
AND HIS BUTT SMELLS
AND HE LIKES TO KISS
HIS OWN BUTT
by Roger Hargreaves
Heeey, Jenny Jensen is back today with my continued Ironman stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/griddead

Come and mock me!

Edit: Session over, Jenny has cleared the Gnoll Fort and saved Melincamp.

Kahlid died like a bitch about 5 times this run.

Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Mar 3, 2018

Gridlocked
Aug 2, 2014

MR. STUPID MORON
WITH AN UGLY FACE
AND A BIG BUTT
AND HIS BUTT SMELLS
AND HE LIKES TO KISS
HIS OWN BUTT
by Roger Hargreaves
Stream time!

https://www.twitch.tv/griddead

Going again for another few hours.

Is anyone even still watching these?

Ulvino
Mar 20, 2009
I'm stuck at work for another 6:30 hours and I cannot settle on a character for another run so, yeah, I'll be watching.

Gridlocked
Aug 2, 2014

MR. STUPID MORON
WITH AN UGLY FACE
AND A BIG BUTT
AND HIS BUTT SMELLS
AND HE LIKES TO KISS
HIS OWN BUTT
by Roger Hargreaves
Whelp Jenny Jansen the Halfling Fighter/Thief has died. I hosed up against Kahrk and didn't do the kite away trick to dispel his poo poo. Got double bolted and died :smith:

I did clear Nashkel mines first though.

Tumblr of scotch
Mar 13, 2006

Please, don't be my neighbor.
Alright, after a bit of a break, I'm back for probably not my last attempt (unless I'm successful), but definitely my last solo attempt, with Liz the Shadowdancer.


Autoroller got these stats in less time than it took to go to the bathroom.


Beat it, Imoen. Forever.


You two, too.


Also you.


And you.


And especially you.


Now, onto the meat and potatoes. Shadowdancing makes it pretty easy to string out the spiders and take them out one by one.


(Yeah sure you can die too, why not.) Quick duplication of some diamonds later, and southward bound.


Very lucky first strike, but given that stealthing cancels spellcasting targeted at you, I think I would've been alright anyway.


Doot de doo.


Fucka you.


I think I have more screenshots of killing potential party members than I do of important things.


You know who I don't kill, though? Melicamp. Because he lives.


And after a quick jaunt to some of the unnamed wilderness to the southwest, we help bring Brage to justice, also conveniently saving a trip as Liz has reached Nashkel.

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Rina the Berserker begins her travels.


Berserker/Mage is not a dishonor. :smuggo:

Rina has a first encounter with the BG1 Mini Quests mod, meeting a woman that cut her fiancé's arm off to save him from being dragged away into a magical portal by monsters on their way to Candlekeep.


En route to the Friendly Arm, Imoen kites an ogre, while Montaron nearly dies a hero's death valiantly holding off not one but two gibberlings.


Even with SCS installed, Tarnesh simply has very little to offer that would unsettle a Berserker. Montaron uses his slightly diminished HP to bait Tarnesh into using his magic missiles on him and gets his glorious death at last.
The party risks a horrible game over by ankheg spit to pick up Ajantis and continues on to Beregost. Where I stumble into Neera's fight with the Red Wizards. That wasn't planned because it can go horribly wrong with an AI-controlled Neera running around, but I forgot where she actually is on the map. Neera refrains from loving up too badly, though, catching no party members in her Color Spray and only rushing into melee with her 4 HP when the fight is basically over.

Also in Beregost, Rina picks up an anime gnome:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/65891/npc-mod-aura-a-gnome-artificer-npc-for-bg-ee-sod-v0-8-2
She's an Artificier from Lantan, which as far as I know is the most technologically advanced place in the Forgotten Realms and full of mad scientist gnomes. But she spent most of her life in Kozakura, glorious not-Nippon.
This and her slightly pedo-ish portrait don't immediately inspire confidence, but the kit looks fun and what I've seen of the writing so far isn't bad.
I don't know what the automata she learns to craft later look like but I'm almost expecting gundams.

Visiting the local temple, Rina runs into a tiefling paladin:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/42721/npc-mod-sirene-npc-for-bg-ee-and-bg-sod-v2-3
Same modder, another snowflakey background, but again the writing doesn't seem bad judging by the little I've seen so far.
e: That kit looks awful, though.

The party is completed by Quayle, moved to the Nashkel Carnival by the grace of mods. Quayle is legit one of the most powerful NPC in the game at this level, or at least would be if he hadn't failed to learn literally every spell I told him to copy into his spellbook.


Anyway, the party wins the first real mage fight of the game and will now go adventuring in search of easy XP.

Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Mar 8, 2018

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Rina the Berserker travels the realm in pursuit of XP, getting to know her newfound companions in the process.


It's a start.


Another part of the Mini Quests and Encounters mod. After some insisting that the pet we killed was in fact a wyvern trying to eat the boy (while waving the wyvern's head around), everything is cleared up.

This mod also lets you earn some experience and reputation for babysitting two annoying children in Nashkel. I pass on the opportunity.


Rina gets to know Aura while I start actually using her kit abilities and special items. The runes she crafts aren't destroyed on rest, so this is a very abusable ability.
She also has a special bow with healing arrows (she can craft 5 a day) that save Sirene's life a couple of times.

Sirene, despite being a tiefling, doesn't have the physical damage resistances that Haer'Dalis gets and as the one melee-only party member naturally gets hurt a lot. She does finally die for the first time in the fight against Bassilus, which makes her miss out on the big XP payout of turning in his holy symbol at the very same temple we raise her at.


We also return Melicamp to Thalanthyr. He survives.

I remember I took another quest that comes with the Mini Quests and Encounters mod:

I didn't solve it at the time because that requires visiting the inn where Karlat, the bounty hunter, is waiting, and SCS gives him potions. And even without those he's a real threat to a level 1 party. But now everyone is at least level 2, so I can take him and there's no reason to let that man stay a slime any longer.

Of course, she loves him just the way he is.
The party has opinions about the matter:




Aura paints and divulges backstory.


Quayle quayles.

Other great things the party achieves:
Kill some half-ogres for Bjornin in Beregost.
Return Perdue's sword.
Deliver a letter to a lady in Beregost since the original postman was eaten by Ogrillons.
Kill a bunch of bandits and a village full of xvarts, yielding a bunch of gems, a few scalps and the Whistling Sword for Rina.
Neera nearly kills herself with her first wild surge (giving Chromatic Orb an AoE, meaning the entire party got hit by that one). :toot:
Return Brage to Nashkel, but not before giving Aura a chance to show off her 19 Intelligence:

Well, that is certainly another red flag going up right there. I still reserve judgment about the mod, but the diggers are outraged:



And lastly, the gnoll stronghold is assaulted. The first stat tome is found and Ajantis gets the Dex gloves.
(I let Dynaheir join the party for long enough to do part of her NPC Project quest and reunite her with Minsc but won't have her or Minsc in the party afterwards.)

Next up, the mines.

Rina is level 3 now, by the way, and will possibly hit 4 before Mulahey dies. That means bounty hunter parties might start ambushing her any time now courtesy of SCS. So I should see the first potential run killers soon.

Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Mar 8, 2018

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Rina the Berserker has cleared the Nashkel mines.

Before getting on with the story, the party saves a dryad and a resurrectably deceased cat.
I'm also slightly paranoid about the bounty hunter fights that await Rina, so I make a few short detours. This involves robbing the mansions in Beregost and Nashkel and doing a quick smash and grab at the Nashkel Carnival, stealing the actually legit good potions the dude selling you the Red and Violet Potion has lying around in his tent. I also buy the Necklace of Missiles and two magic molotovs.

The party also clears the tomb area east of Nashkel.


I don't know what spells this guy has and the jellies are enough of a problem, so I take no chances here:

Web scroll!
Neera even succeeds in learning it.


Neera's quest starts.


So does Dorn's, but I'll wait for a while before doing that one.

After clearing the area around the mines, I have the Wands of Frost, Lightning and Monster Summoning in addition to the Necklace of Missiles and a molotov. At this point I feel suitably prepared for whatever SCS is going to throw at me.


The mines are uneventful and not in any way a challenge at this point. The kobolds down there carry poisoned weapons, though, so I wouldn't really have wanted to do it sooner.
Mulahey leaves me a second magical short sword for Rina and a second Web scroll. Quayle unexpectedly also manages to learn the spell.

The party returns to Nashkel, where Nimbul awaits.

Nimbul is the most annoying sack of poo poo in an SCS installation. He has the Boots of Avoidance, several potions of healing and invisibility, Mirror Images, Horror, Magic Missiles for days, and theoretically he can even backstab you although he rarely manages to hit.
He starts the fight by going invisible. Rasaad doesn't quite understand, probably assuming he just left.

At some point Quayle manages to land a Hold Person, but Nimbul goes invisible about a millisecond before it takes effect. Quayle is out of Detect Invisibility casts at that point and Aura doesn't manage to detect Nimbul either. So the party decides to just take another break for a minute. Rina and Sirene have a chat.

The Hold spell wears off, Nimbul cancels his invisibility by attempting to stab Rina. At this point everyone is mostly out of spells. After watching everyone flail around for a minute without any attack ever connecting I run out of patience and sacrifice a charge of the Wand of Frost, which one-shots Nimbul.

As annoying as he is, he is a Mage/Thief with no Con bonus.


Aura and Ajantis banter.

The party moves out to Beregost and meets Officer Vai.

Part of Aura's backstory is that she's looking for someone in the area, although so far this hasn't really appeared to turn into a quest any time soon.


Quayle and Aura banter.
I also give Taerom a sample of the corrupted iron from the Nashkel mines to examine (part of the Unfinished Business mod).

This leaves Tranzig to take care of. I'm not really in the mood for an extended fight, so I just lure him down the stairs and let my casters unleash everything they've got. He still manages to get a Sleep off but goes down quickly:

"I'm not gonna go down without a fight!" he says the second his morale breaks.

And Thalanthyr gets the compound the kobolds used to corrupt the iron to study:


A look at Rina after the first real chapter boss battle:

She's 1 HP below the maximum she could have right now. I've set HP rolls to be restricted to the upper half of the range of possible results (NWN style, apparently), but even so, that's pretty nice.

Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Mar 9, 2018

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Rina the Berserker finds herself beset by bounty hunters, bandits and Red Wizards while berserking along the Sword Coast.

I'm not quite ready to go to the bandit camp, so I clear most of the wilderness areas. I start with the basilisk area because that's a lot of essentially free XP. Mutamin the crazy gnome almost makes it interesting by getting a Dispel off, but at that point his basilisks are webbed and Rina is berserking, so there's no actual danger anyway.


These guys prove to be more of a challenge, mainly because one of the first things I do is telling Rina to run into the AoE of a Web spell Neera just cast. :downs:
e: I should add, this happened while I watched one of Gridlocked's streams and accordingly wasn't able to pay full attention to the game. So this gently caress-up isn't my fault; it's his.

But in the end that area is cleared without any major issues and we move on to

Well, gently caress.
These guys can be one of the hardest fights in the early game and SCS allows them to jump you as soon as your main character is level 3 and has cleared the Nashkel mines. Of course, Rina is level 5 because I delayed going after Mulahey, but they can still be a challenge.

They turn out not to be one because I luck out - their Cleric is unceremoniously disposed of by some summoned monsters, the dwarf is torn apart by Rina and Sirene, and Quayle actually hits the leader with a Spook spell. That leaves the Fighter/Illusionist to run rampant and he manages to put half the party to sleep at some point, but it's too little, too late.

And we move on to search for Adoy the wild mage to make Neera happy.

Another tough fight unless you spawn camp Ekandor, and Ajantis actually dies when he gets hit by a Flame Arrow and the Ogre Berserker in short succession. I have to use both the Wands of Monster Summoning and Cold to make sure things don't get away from me here.


After that, the party goes on to kill the fastest dart thrower to ever walk the Sword Coast, meet Larry, Darryl and Darryl and get their autograph, return a hellhound to his distraught owner.
Along the way, Rina's personal hygiene is called into question:

Sendai's slanderous words are answered with Web and a lot of arrows.

With that taken care of, the party moves on to

...get ambushed again. Well, fine.
This fight actually starts really badly since Quayle gets focused down by the dart thrower and quickly dies to poison. That means he can't Detect Invisibility either and Neera gets backstabbed before she can cast Mirror Images. Not before webbing two of the bounty hunters, though, and in the end the fight goes fairly smoothly. After those two deaths, that is.


Thus forced to return to civilization, I take a detour to pick up the Flaming Fist deserter, have Neera and Quayle raised in Beregost, kill some spiders there, and travel to the Friendly Arm inn to deliver a dying human and a dead spider.
Afterwards, the party returns to the wilderness, kills an ogre mage that forced a mermaid to kiss Quayle, returns a cursed ring to a gnome, kills Neville, the fairest of all bandits, hunts a bear and protects the realm from gibberlings.


I was sure this was gonna turn into a quest, but it didn't.

With no companion quest to take care of, we move on to the lighthouse area, which the Lure of the Sirine's Call mod fleshed out a little:


Save boy.

Send invisible Quayle to talk to sirine queen despite recent traumatic death by mermaid kiss.

Expose pirates and kill them all after laying traps everywhere.

Be rewarded with stat tome.
19 Con for Rina. :toot:


Aura continues to be a bit of a polymath.

And with that, it's time to go after some bandits.

Red Wizards await on the way to the bandit camp. I installed an SCS component that adds 3 levels to all of them because I misclicked I'm so good at this that only the hardest fights are a challenge to me.
That means we're looking at four mages here, one being level 9, one level 8, and two level 6. And that means Stoneskin, Minor Sequencers, Minute Meteors, Confusion etc.
There's no way I can beat them in a fair fight, so I don't.

Instead I throw a Web at the leader, wait until he fails his save, and murder him, then lure the level 8 mage away from the other two (that are also webbed), kill her, and go back to kill the remaining two. At that point my own spells are mostly depleted, so I let Neera use a Wand charge to shoot a Lightning Bolt and get rid of one of them quickly.

There is precisely one NPC on this map besides the Red Wizards, by the way.

Neera is the best. :allears:

We don't dwell on Neera's accidental homicide and continue our travels in a banditward direction.


Luckily for Aura, the fight against the druid with his bear buddies crashes my game and I can't figure out what exactly causes the crash. So it remains unfixed and the party gives it a wide berth.

The bandit camp is easily my favorite fight in the game with SCS installed. It's also brutal and could easily end my run. With SCS installed, the entire camp, including the named enemies in the main tent, will gonverge on the party as soon as the first arrow is fired. And of course Taurgosz Khosann can easily tear through anything you throw at him.
I decide to deal with this on my own terms as much as possible by starting the battle with the main tent entrance in view (which is conveniently also close to the northern map border, just in case). It pays off, since Quayle gets off an amazing Glitterdust that blinds the named hobgoblin archer and spellcaster:

Not Taurgosz, though, who at this point is on a Speed and a Giant Strength potion and forces Sirene to go through tons of healing potions.
Despite the great start to the fight, at some point I have to realize that, even though most bandits are safely webbed, things aren't going my way. Especially once Black Talon Elites join the fight in numbers. I consider unloading a couple wand charges or just retreating, but try something different first.

I love you, Neera. :swoon:

Even with Taurgosz still hammering away, mopping up the rest is a formality.


Aura offers to upgrade a Long Bow +2 we found half a minute ago, because that's just not a strong enough weapon for early/mid BG1.


:jerkbag:
Good thing Aura is afraid of bears or I'd be tempted to go so far as to think she's intended to be almost perfect.


No! Not you! Anyone but you, Neera!

Anyway, time to free Ender Sai and loot the camp. We pick up a couple thousand gold worth of magic items and enough bandit scalps to bring us to a grand total of 69 bandits scalped over the course of the last few days before returning to Beregost to cash in.


Sirene offers her thoughts on the current main plot situation.

We now have a few of the eastern areas (mainly Ulcaster and Firewine) left to clear. And then, Cloakwood.

Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Mar 12, 2018

Tumblr of scotch
Mar 13, 2006

Please, don't be my neighbor.
The adventures of Liz the Shadowdancer continue!


Neira is pretty easy, but that Hold Person could've done me in if I hadn't saved.


RIP Minsc.


You too, bud.


Zordral, like almost all mages at this point, is almost pathetically easy.


Let's just go ahead and ruin Zeke's business. That statue was probably counterfeit anyway, right?


As a thief, I almost certainly can't take Greywolf in a straight-up fight.


As a shadowdancer, I don't have to.


I decide to mix things up a notch and catch Xan in my potion of explosions as I'm clearing the kobolds before I fight Mulahey.


He's pretty easy too.


Sendai and her bros, however, aren't. I managed to pop Delgod in one hit with a critical backstab, but Sendai got two in a row against me and hosed me up but good.


What a Krummy warrior you are.


A polar bear? Here? At this time of year?


Well, your ranger is dead, so I guess you should join him.


Ow. Bards, unlike mages, not so easy. It didn't help that the timing on stealth's availability didn't always line up the best with when Borda was casting his spells. Also shown: The first time I've ever seen armor or a shield being broken by anything other than a weapon attack, in this case a magic missile.


Sharted.


And, after a bit of basilisk hunting, Liz the Shadowdancer continues depopulating the Sword Coast.

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Rina the Berserker is on her way to Baldur's Gate.

Before heading to the Cloakwood, the party takes care of most side quest business left to attend to.


First, we kill Silke. Which is suicidal at low levels with SCS installed because for what I'm sure are perfectly good reasons she has Stoneskin and Magic Missiles that, since she's a mid-level Bard, will one-shot a lot of level 1-3 characters. But at the point we're at she just goes down in a round of combat without accomplishing anything.

Second, and much more importantly:

Arabelle lives.

Some ogres and bandits get killed as well, and we move on to Ulcaster. Where we run into Icharyd.

Icharyd is dumb with SCS installed. You hit him a lot, he does this:

He heals himself back to full, buffs himself and starts calling down lightning on one randomly determined party member once per round while you hit him more:

I'm not sure what masterful stratagems I'm supposed to employ sending some low-ish level adventurers in against a single enemy with a shitload of resistances. But at this point in the game my numbers are bigger than his, so whatever.

The Wolf of Ulcaster is a bit more interesting:

Apart from being a Vampiric Wolf with improved stats (he has lots of HP), he has some spellcasting abilities. He can call in Dread Wolves and Ghouls as well as cast Greater Malison and Horror. Which means a lot of what he does is force you to make lots of saving throws against annoying effects, but there is counterplay available even to low level parties (fear can easily be removed and Ghouls aren't hard to kill).

Onwards to Gullykin.


If you install the Improved Miscellaneous Encounters component of SCS the secret passage leading directly to the ogre mage is blocked because...gently caress you?


I did not install the Improved Miscellaneous Encounters component.

Neither do I do anything else in the Firewine dungeon. The only thing I do before moving on to the Cloakwood is killing Meilum for his Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise.


Could have sided with him for an extra quest in Baldur's Gate, but this gives me a decent sword for Ajantis that will soon become relevant. Although I'll probably forget to switch him from ranged to melee then.
And helping the druids is the right thing to do, probably.


Come on, Aura, you've got 19 Intelligence. You should know there's only one way to handle this conversation.

There's also some follow-up content to that baby wyvern encounter in Nashkel that is entirely new to me:

I don't know what the egg does yet. You can use it like an ioun stone, so Neera now has an egg orbiting her head.
e: I tried hitting her with fire damage and let her cast Fireshield through Nahal's to see if that does anything considering the now former delivery man warned me about getting it too hot but nothing happened. Maybe it'll do something in the fire area in Durlag's or something like that. We'll see.


This could have been the hardest fight in the Cloakwood but magical explosives solve a lot of problems in BG1.
Nothing else in the Cloakwood mines is particularly hard. There are two mages and an ogre mage to take care of on the way to Davaeorn, but between Spell Thrust on Neera, Detect Invisibility on Quayle and all the damage my party can dish out at this point they are no problem.


Thanks, Aura.


SCS spawns endless waves of guards if you take too long to kill Davaeorn. He also starts the fight firing a Minor Sequencer with Web and Stinking Cloud and has a pre-cast Minor Globe up that I just let run out, so yeah, I do take a minute before committing to the fight. The guards aren't much of a problem when you have Spider's Bane and your own Web spells, but Sirene still gets beat up a little.


Davaeorn goes down in a fairly anticlimactic fashion. His only real contributions to the fight were a Sunfire that hit only Rina (wearing the Ring of Fire Resistance) and throwing two Minute Meteors at Quayle.


And with that, chapter four is done.

Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Mar 16, 2018

Tumblr of scotch
Mar 13, 2006

Please, don't be my neighbor.
Onward, Liz, onward.


RIP Alora, nobody ever liked you.


First strike doesn't kill him, but does make him freak out enough to not be a threat.


Sigh. At least I ran far enough away (while stealthed, too) that I didn't get clobbered while helpless.


SIGH.


There. gently caress off.


Give the Ulcaster ghost from UB a body, then take advantage of his slower form (and protection from undead) to take him out without having to worry about him running into a corner and disappearing from view.


RIP.


You too, buddy, and your revenant pal.


Arabelle lives.


Neera does not, since the Thayans do my job for me.


Between the Beregost smith and the temple next door, I can identify just about everything, so after turning in the tainted vial, Thalantyr has outlived his usefulness.


I got very lucky here. First hit poisoned Shoal, stunlocking her enough that I could get away before her automatic conversation.


Worthless.


l8r h8r


Reputation is already tanked from killing Thalantyr, so why not?


Another one down.


I think that just leaves Yeslick, Dorn (who I wasn't able to kill during his wilderness encounter), Coran, Faldorn, and Skie. Also Baeloth but I wandered the area where he's supposed to show up for like two minutes and he never spawned, so whatever.


And, after that bit of murder, Liz has reached the Cloakwood.

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist

Tumblr of scotch posted:


Between the Beregost smith and the temple next door, I can identify just about everything, so after turning in the tainted vial, Thalantyr has outlived his usefulness.
Poor Melicamp, survives being turned into a chicken by ancient magic only to be killed anyway.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

The previous Corbomite definitely wandered off into the sunset after I decided to take a break from BG for a little while, and certainly didn't have his face melted off by ankhegs or anything.

Anyway, breaktime's over. Now is the time for Silas the Cleric/Thief to beat people with sticks.



Sure, there's lots of great cleric weapons that he can use (and eventually he'll be able to use pretty much anything he drat well pleases) but if I want to backstab (and I do), I'm pretty much in Sticktown for the foreseeable.



One of the neat little touches that the BG1 NPC Project adds is the ability, if you go back to chat with the Keeper of the Portal, to arrange to have Gorion buried in Candlekeep. (Imoen may need to be in the party for this to happen.)

Anyway, we do the usual sweep through the first area, deal with suicide attempts, dodge bears, nearly get eaten with wolves, find mystery diamonds, rob some passing ne'er-do-wells, etc., and then head straight to Beregost to pick up some cheap muscle boon companions to make the journey to the Friendly Arms Inn. Oh and also rob the place blind.



...no. Just no.



We take a bit of a risk to arrange for a slightly better stick for Silas. It works out okay. (Not pictured, our temporary recruitment of Kagain.)



Sorry, Finch. Not this time.



As for Garrick, well, Imoen's clearly on board. (We also sneak over and pick up Kivan.)



Oh GOOD. It's Neera.

...fine, you can cast Sleep, which is more than Poor McJudgement over there can manage at the moment. You can stay for now.



Kivan turns out to be a better bard than our actual bard.



PARDON ME, HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE GOD OF STICKS' WONDERFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE?



No thanks, man, we're currently very well served in the bardic area.



Oh god, it's another bard.



I went to some trouble to set up a backstab only for it not to be necessary, thanks to Garrick.

...okay, you can stick around for a while.

We pick up Jaheira (and just Jaheira) and head south. We get back to Beregost, deal with Spider House, and pop over to High Hedge to pick up some extra spells and also deal with, well...



Ascalon's Quest Pack adds this sidequest, in which you attempt to cure this dude's lycanthropy. There are a couple of options, but the best one available without going to Werewolf Island gives me a fifty-fifty shot of curing him. DOES IT WORK?!?



...it does not. And Silas is the only person with a magic weapon just now, which makes for a fun fight. Fortunately the werewolf in this case can't hit the broad side of a barn, so we eventually wear him down with magic missiles. His wife is not super impressed by our heroic efforts on her behalf, but Thalantyr rewards us.



Well this fight went super well.



This one, in Nashkel, goes somewhat better.



We swap out Neera for mod-companion Valerie. Neera takes this news with grace and maturity.



Sorry, man, it's just, we're on our way to recruit a paladin and it could get super awkward.

We pick up mod-companion Isra and head into the mines.



Valerie gets in some trash talk.



Mulahey survives a backstab-crit from Silas, but panics and ends up running in circles for about a week until Valerie manages to magic missile him to death.



Nimbul, on the other hand, is astonished by Silas's stick doctrine.



Sure thing, buddy. We'll be sure to confine any future attempts on our life to more private locales.

Silas is off to preach the Stick Gospel to some bandits.

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Rina the Berserker is doing things of no consequence to the main plot in and around Baldur's Gate.

The party has finished up pretty much every side quest in Baldur's Gate and the areas surrounding it, killing ankhegs, doppelgangers, several wizards (all but Ragefast, since Rina respects a man with such a name and is currently considering an apprenticeship), rabid chickens, a couple slimes including Schlumpsha the Sewer King, and so on. At some point Rina punched a recently orphaned child when she got involved in a fight between two evil deities. Artifacts and stat tomes were uncovered, some gloves and dead children returned to their rightful owners/parents, and the Iron Throne tried to poison the party.


Didn't work because although SCS turns this into a mage fight since you can never have enough of those, there's not much that's a threat to the party at this point.
Especially since I managed to pick up enough loot in the Cloakwood to sell and buy back Neera's Wand of Monster Summoning, bringing it up to 100 charges. Aura is also level 8 now and can craft an automaton (60 HP, lots of resistances, one hard-hitting attack, but can't be healed). So I'm bringing an army to every fight.

Since all the stuff mentioned above involves so many different side quests I mostly won't post screenshots of base game stuff and only post some mod content, not necessarily in chronological order:

Breaking and entering in the fishing village yields another part of the Mini Quests and Encounters mod.

Despite Ajantis fairly strict stance on the matter of prenuptial agreements and how they pertain to necromancy, Rina does decide to kill the zombie:

The heroic battle earns the party 65XP and some gratitude:


Also, an update on the mysterious egg currently circling Neera's head:

We bring it to the magic shop in Baldur's Gate, where it's revealed to be a wraith spider egg. I'm presented with the option of either safely killing the wraith spider and turning the egg into a proper magic item or alternatively letting nature take its course.
Needless to say, I choose the latter.
I hope the spider accepts Neera as her mother and I get to add a baby wraith spider to my growing army. Unfortunately, it hasn't hatched yet.


The party also murders this elf because she has Elven Chain Mail that Quayle wants.
Had we brought Kivan along, she might have given us a legitimate reason for killing her, but we don't really need that.


And now, Aura time. Aura's personal quest triggered and took over the game for a while. So here it is in its entirety for all that wish to see:

Backstory that we know so far is that Aura spent a few years in Kozakura/not-Japan and is worried about some people from there that are also running around the Sword Coast.

As soon as the party enters the city, an NPC demands attention:


So to the Undercellars we go, despite Ajantis' protestations.

What happens next is that the mod spawns waves of invisible ninjas, who seem to be decently leveled Assassins judging by the party's antidote consumption. They all also seem to have one or two invisibility potions on them.

That in combination with them coming in waves means I run out of ways of detecting invisible enemies fairly quickly. (I haven't leveled Aura's Detect Illusion skill at all.) Oh yeah, and the ninjas seem to spawn right next to party members, so although I try to block access to my squishier party members by parking all my summons in the doorway, Aura kicks off her personal quest by dying to a backstab.


We raise Aura at the nearest temple, go to an inn, and...get ambushed by more ninjas. One of them is an Elite Ninja, who as it turns out have a a special trick:



Brielbara doesn't let the immolation of two innocent children right before her eyes keep her from entrusting her daughter's fate to Rina.

Anyway, for the next two rests, the party is ambushed by ninjas (who I manage to kill without further collateral damage). After the last of these ambushes, Aura has had enough:


We actually solve a couple more side quests before resting as requested. Anyway, Aura disappears, Fubuki comes back, and it's time for the great showdown:

Aura, slightly blurred by the Claw of Kazgaroth, runs around setting traps while the party approaches, by the way.
Some words are exchanged, and Saito divulges plot:

Not pictured: the screen shaking like crazy for half a minute as Aura's traps go off.

It was a really obvious trap, Saito, don't try and act like you didn't walk into it like a complete idiot.

Anyway, time to fight. Saito is a high level Kensai - I checked in NearInfinity afterwards; he's level 13 - but melts away when he fails his save against one of the Web spells I throw at him.


I send in Sirene (with Spider's Bane) to take care of the Cleric the temple-defiling, god-killing Saito brought to the fight only to reveal a couple more enemies that didn't feel like getting involved at first:

The Mage throws a lot of direct damage spells at the party, as well as Confusion and Chaos which nobody besides Rina has any real defense against. So I retreat and keep sending summons to their death while an invisible Quayle watches. An ogre nearly manages to bring the Mage down but is unsummoned before landing the killing blow. In the end, Rina heroically slays him when he's out of spells.


Aura, most honorable gaijin.

I probably got really lucky here, all things considered. If I'd taken a step forward and activated Saito's backup, or Saito had made his saving throws against my Webs, things could have gone a lot differently. It was a fun fight after the three additional enemies got involved but by then Saito was already dead and I had two active Webs and a bunch of summons.

The whole quest leaves me with around 20k XP (10k for the quest and whatever I got from killing Saito and all his people) and a similar amount of gold from loot sales. Also, some really good items:


We also loot Aura's Hanzo steel that Saito wanted to cut all the gods with but it's not usable at this point. We return to Baldur's Gate.



Another rest later:


Aura wants to destroy the sword, but you can ask her to give it to you. Which she won't do if she doesn't trust you judging by the dialogue, but Rina has been nice enough.
Now, in the actual ironman save I just let Aura destroy it, but then I reloaded the auto-save before the conversation just because I wanted to see how good it is.


...it's okay.

Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Mar 18, 2018

Wizard Styles
Aug 6, 2014

level 15 disillusionist
Also:

docbeard posted:



Ascalon's Quest Pack adds this sidequest, in which you attempt to cure this dude's lycanthropy. There are a couple of options, but the best one available without going to Werewolf Island gives me a fifty-fifty shot of curing him. DOES IT WORK?!?
I didn't even know Ascalon's Quest Pack had been translated. I remember installing it years ago without realizing that it was only available in German. And by then it had already been out for a while.

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docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Wizard Styles posted:

Also:

I didn't even know Ascalon's Quest Pack had been translated. I remember installing it years ago without realizing that it was only available in German. And by then it had already been out for a while.

Yeah, it's in the Big World thing. Some of the translations are...kind of special (though I played Space Rangers 2 before they cleaned up the translations and I honestly think I liked it better before they did), but I like the general content.

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