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 The time is upon us once more for the official(ish) 2024(ish) Something Awful Baldur's Gate* Ironman Challenge! As 2023 comes to an end, so too shall the adventures of many (but not all!) great heroes and heroines of the Sword Coast and similar regions. It is here that true champions will compete for honor, glory, and oh look it's a wolf and I have 4 hp runrunrun. Ahem. Gather your party and venture forth! You can buy the Enhanced Edition of the game and its sequels on Steam or on GOG.com. The EE editions are also available for tablets and have modern conveniences like widescreen support and zooming in and out of the game. Some people prefer to play the non-EE editions, but they're harder to come by. The older CD versions can be bought used off Amazon or something. ___ *The old ones, not the new one. Roll of Heroes Probably Somewhere Alive Postmodernist Beatings the Cavalier has liberated the Cloakwood Mines and made a mint in the process. Smartass the Berserker had his Powergaming manual upside-down. Best Buy Gamersclub (Ironling) the Elven Sorcerer has cleared the Beholder City in the Underdark. Alis the Kensai has begun her adventures. Aldren the Shadow Adept has cleared the Nashkel Mines and recruited Minsc and Xan. Zivio the Archer has avoided death and Imoen both, and is seeking some other friends to share his burdens. Beta Bequin, Agent of E.L.F. is in a tense battle with a wolf after an early training regimen. Dead And Out Of This World Angryface the Inquisitor was destroyed by the deadliest foe in Neera's introductory fight (Neera). Amazon Prime the Sorcerer buffed herself a little too well at Durlag's Tower. Marisol the Druid/Air Elementalist succumbed to a beta test gone awry. Rikan the Ice Priest of Auril has disappeared into the mists, perhaps to return one day. Silas the Firewalker of Kossuth/Thief survived an incident with a Greater Chaos Elemental, but not the subsequent ankheg spit. Skerin the Dragon Disciple misjudged the power of double-damage hobgoblins with bows. Madeleine the Berserker moved to a farm in upstate Amn where she and Xzar have plenty of room to run and play. Derrillee the Dragon Disciple was scared to death by Zordral. Nicodemus the Human Sorcerer was struck down by Seniyad's called lightning. Blind Faith the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric has vindicated the haters, alas, particularly the hater who was an ogre. Matilda "Not Daredevil" Murdock the Gnome Fighter Thief survived a precarious encounter with a basilisk and destroyed the bandits, only to be murdered by spiders in Cloakwood. Kangorolac the Dragon Disciple has fallen to the Wolf of Ulcaster. Jackie Daytona (Ironling) the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has fallen in honorable(?) single combat at the siege of Dragonspear Castle. Ramon Salazar (Ironling) the Gnome Fighter Cleric has fallen in combat with Ashatiel too! Joan d'Orc the Half-Orc Berserker was struck down by stray lightning on Ice Island. Windows XP the Lawful Neutral Mage has suffered a wolf-related hard crash outside the Nashkel Mines. Anders the Halfling Warlock got a bit overconfident in the Larswood and paid the pincushiony price. Gorok the Half-Orc Shadowdancer successfully infiltrated the bandit camp. Was less successful in exfiltration. Nothing There (Ironling) fulfilled its mission until it could no longer fulfil its mission. Moira Grimm and Mattea "DireDevil" Murdark (Ironlings) the Gnomish Evil Twins (Illusionist/Cleric and Fighter/Thief) managed not to fall victim to their new colleague, but did fall victim to an ill-placed trap. Cal (Ironling) the Elf Warlock did not have any remarkable adventures on his way to Dragonspear Castle before being eaten by spiders. Rogue AI Goddess the Elf Sorceress fell prey to the Cowled Wizard Rayic Gethras. Lyctor the Ninth the Fighter/Mage/Thief suffered a tragic death-by-ankheg. Grasped Victory Best Buy GamersClub the Sorcerer has defeated Sarevok with the power of invisibility and tactics, and made it to Amn! Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Battlemaster, Roleplayer, A God Among Men Ramon Salazar the Gnome Fighter/Cleric has braved the Cultists of Ulgoth's Beard, bypassed the Werewolves of Werewolf Island, and rescued victory from the jaws of an ill-timed chaos spell to defeat Sarevok! Honors: Ironling, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader. Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has finally gotten around to defeating Sarevok after an ill-fated series of vacations. Honors: Ironling, Strategist, Double Damage, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader, Battlemaster Mattea "DireDevil" Murdark the EVIL Gnome Fighter/Thief has killed Sarevok all on her lonesome, and is currently seeking level-cap-related medical care from David Warner, M.D. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Battlemaster, Roleplayer, A Goddess Among Women. Dishonors: Don't Hurt Me! (Normal) Moira Grimm the Gnome Illusionist/Cleric has, after a narrow escape at Durlag's Tower, defeated her brother and avenged her ex. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Librarian, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Victory for the Spiderqueen, Battlemaster. Dishonors: OP-ium Addict. Nothing There the RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND cunningly disguised as a Half-Orc Shadowdancer has murdered Sarevok and pretty much everyone else too. Honors: Ironling, Purist, Double Damage, Librarian, Melee Champion, Conan the Bhaalspawn, Honorable Trader, Iron Party, Battlemaster, Roleplayer, a God Among Men. Cal the Elf Warlock has overcome being framed for a crime he totally committed to defeat Sarevok and become the Hero of Baldur's Gate. Surely remarkable adventurers are in store for this lad... (Honors: Ironling, Strategist, Double Damage, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader) Father Gascoigne the Shapeshifter has defeated Sarevok! (Honors: Ironling, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader) Rogue AI Goddess the Elf Sorceress has defeated Sarevok with the power of books (and spells). Honors: Ironling, Purist, Iron Party, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Victory for the Spiderqueen, Honorable Trader, Roleplayer, Battlemaster Melicamp the Chicken Counter Melicamp Lived: 7 Melicamp Died: 10 Arabelle the Cow Counter Arabelle Lived: 6 Arabelle Died: FAQ Q: What exactly are the rules for an Ironman run? A: The rules of Ironman runs are simple. No savescumming or reloading games for any purpose other than resuming where you last left off, or in case of a gamebreaking bug or crash. If you are killed, your run is over. If you are unhappy with a dice roll or outcome of a fight and reload, your run is over. You may re-roll your stats and spend as much time as you'd like creating your character, but the moment you venture forth into the game proper, you are bound by the rules... Note that the whole thing runs on the honor system and is just for fun, so if your character dies and you want to keep playing your save file, feel free to, but please accept that for all intents and purposes, you are not Ironmanning anymore! Q: Can I post spoilers or discuss strategies in this thread? A: Absolutely. This is an Ironman thread, and it's assumed that everyone has played the series at least once. There are even people who have done a full Ironman run before! Discussion for approaching hard fights, surviving tough stretches of the game, or just talking about companions is welcomed. Q: How should I be posting or documenting my run? A: Many posters normally post screenshots of important events or fights to show progress, as well as write a few lines saying what they were able to do. Some may forego that and just say what they were able to accomplish, and others write up their runs like a short, simple Let's Play or present their run in a comical lens. Do whatever you'd like, but please don't be obnoxious about it. If you want to stream your run and link it here, feel free to let us know when you'll be going at it, and where you end up each session! Q: Can I use mods or play in a difficulty level other than Core Rules? A: Play your way, but please indicate what mods or difficulty you'll be using if not going for a vanilla core rules run. For fun, we have "honors" and "dishonors" so check those out if you want to get a particular accolade... or razzing! Q: Is this a competition? Is there any verification process? A: Like I said, this is purely for fun and works on the honor system. All we're playing for here is bragging rights and nerd cred, and some sweet, sweet honor badges that you can point to down the line and go, "Hell yeah, I Ironmanned one of the longest trilogies in CRPG history." If you really want to up the ante, like soloing on Insanity with a Shaman or something, that's up to you! Q: What do I get for finishing my run, or dying? A: You finished a run? Great! Look at the list of honors and dishonors below and list what "achievements" you were able to obtain in a well-deserved self-congratulatory post. You died? Boo! Say where and how you died (e.g. "Outside Candlekeep, to that goddamn wolf.") and your death will be memorialized in the Graveyard of Gorion's Wards. You can always try again with the same character or make a new one! Q: Do I have to start in Baldur's Gate 1 and end in Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal? A: No. You can start and end at any point you want. You'll be added to the Throne of Triumph if you succeed through at least one full game, and I'll indicate where you started and ended, as well as what (dis)honors you picked up on! Q: Can I do a solo run? Do I HAVE to do a solo run? Yes, you can, and no, you don't have to. People can and do play pretty possible party composition there is, and there've been some pretty memorable gimmick parties over the years (including a few attempts at a party full of wild mages). Q: Can I play through Baldur's Gate 3/Icewind Dale/Some Other Game Entirely instead? A: I mean, you can do whatever you want, but this thread is focused on the original Infinity Engine Baldur's Gate Trilogy-And-A-Bit. That being said, a run through Icewind Dale wouldn't be completely beyond the scope of things if you really felt like it, and I think someone played through the Baldur's Gate mod for one of the Neverwinter Nights games once. Q: How do I set up custom portraits? A: Thanks to biscuits and crazy for this copy-pasted answer. The measurements for player portraits are 38X60 pixels for the smaller portraits (8-bit color runs faster but it can be up to 24 bit color), and 110X170 pixels for the larger portraits. To use a custom portrait, place it in the Portraits directory (in the install directory for the game) and add an S to the end of the small portrait name and an L to the end of the large portrait - otherwise the two names must be identical. The names must be 1-7 letters long, maximum - so the filename with the S or L added to the end is no longer than 8 total characters. The portrait files must be in BMP format. For example: XXXXXXXS.bmp for small (38x60, 8-bit) XXXXXXXL.bmp for large (110x170, 24-bit) For the Enhanced Editions, the measurements for player portraits are 210x330 pixels. Portraits are automatically resized by the game, so you don't need to make small and large versions of the same portrait. (If downloading a portrait pack with multiple sizes of the same portrait, keep the largest one.) The portrait files must be in BMP format. The Portraits folder must be created in the game directory found in "My Documents." The file name cannot exceed 8 characters. If you're using a UI mod, it can get trickier, so look at your mod's instructions for details. Q: What are these "Melicamp the Chicken" and "Arabelle The Cow" counters? A: There's a sidequest in Baldur's Gate 1 with a chicken who is actually a polymorphed mage named Melicamp. The outcome of the quest has a 50-50 chance of turning him back into a human being or just killing him outright. For fun and as part of the tradition of whim and luck in an ironman world, we keep track of how often he lives or dies. Join in and let us know the fate of the man-chicken in your updates! There's also a cow called Arabelle who you come across being attacked by a group of xvarts. Someone had the idea to keep track of her survival rate as well one year. Other Information When you've made your character, include the name, class, and a screenshot of the character sheet upon creation (the Print Screen button will take a screenshot and deposit it in your Baldur's Gate folder). Irfanview is also an easy alternative. As the thread winds on we'll have a lot of images, so please use [timg] tags if you're posting large images. When posting an update for your character, please include his/her name and class in bold. For example, "Ashar the Assassin completed BG1". Also, if you post updates like "Krug the Barbarian has cleared the Nashkel Mines", I will update your status accordingly. The main Infinity Engine thread is over here... for now! If you want to check out mods, check out these sites. Gibberlings 3 Spellhold Studios Pocket Plane Group You can also look to the modding section of the Beamdog Forums and just generally ask around in the Infinity Engine thread here too, since there are folks there who use mods regularly. Below are the lists of honors and dishonors. Aim for them if you please, but feel free to ignore them if they aren't fun for you.   Ironling: Complete Baldur's Gate 1.Siege Breaker: Complete the Siege of Dragonspear expansion (requires Ironling).  Iron(wo)man: Complete Baldur's Gate 2 (requires Ironling, does not require Siege Breaker). Irongod: Complete Throne of Bhaal (requires Iron(wo)man). Strategist: Complete Baldur's Gate 1 with the Sword Coast Stratagems mod. Tactician: Complete Baldur's Gate 2 with either the Sword Coast Stratagems or the Tactics mod. Born Hero(ine): Do not reroll your stat total during character creation, take the first set given to you. Redistribution of stats is okay. If you choose not to reroll, say so and you'll get an "upgraded" honor! Purist: Do not use any mods that add/modify content (except Tutu, Ascension, SCS, or Tactics), do not create extra characters for your party, and do not modify existing NPCs. Using convenience mods like infinite stacks is okay. Double Damage: Complete the game on Insane difficulty.Lord of Murder: Complete the game on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty.  Overcoming Adversity: Complete the game as a Wizard Slayer, Shapeshifter, Beastmaster, or non-Blade Bard (requires Purist). Librarian: Find every stat tome in Baldur's Gate 1. Trap Dodger: Complete Durlag's Tower. Melee Champion: Complete Baldur's Gate 1 without member of your party ever using any missile weapons. Conan the Bhaalspawn: Complete the game without ever having an arcane or divine spellcaster in the party. Bhaalspawn powers and innate skills are okay. Honorable Trader: Do not steal any wares from merchants. Iron Party: Do not resurrect any dead party members (stone to flesh and freedom allowed) OR never have a party member fall in battle. Exception: Getting killed and revived by Shoal the Nereid does not invalidate this honor.Victory for the Spiderqueen: Kill Drizzt  Battlemaster: Kill Sarevok in Baldur's Gate 1 without summoning any creatures or laying any traps.Big Game Hunter: Kill the Green Dragon and both Liches in Siege of Dragonspear.  Dragon Slayer: Kill Firkraag, the Shadow Dragon, the Black Dragon at Suldanessellar, the Silver Dragon in the Undertark, and the Dragon in the underworld. Helm's Champion: Kill Saladrex and Demogorgon in Watcher's Keep.The End of Suffering: Destroy the leaders of the Twisted Rune.  Gaxkang's a Wuss: Kill Kangaxx in his demi-lich form. Legendary Arms: Acquire the Equalizer, Crom Faeyr, The Wave, The Silver Sword, and the Short Bow of Gesen. Swiss Valor Award: Complete the game with only neutral aligned characters in the party (lawful, true, or chaotic, must have at least 4 characters, requires Purist). Roleplayer: Do not have a good aligned character and an evil aligned character in the party at the same time (includes the PC's alignment, requires Purist). Leader of the Underdogs: Complete Baldur's Gate 2 or Throne of Bhaal with a full party of six without using Aerie, Keldorn, Edwin, or Haer'Dalis (requires Purist). A God Among Men: Complete the game solo. Do not remove or modify the level cap (requires Purist).  OP-ium Addict: Play as a Kensai/Mage, Kensai/Thief, Berserker/Cleric, Berserker/Mage, or Cleric/Mage. Scroll of Wuss: Use a scroll of Protection from Undead or Magic when fighting a lich, demi-lich or vampire. Don't Hurt Me!: Play the game on a difficulty lower than Core Rules.Note 1: Any honors that restrict choice of party members in any way (class, alignment, or anything else) do not apply inside Irenicus' Dungeon in Baldur's Gate 2. You may use anyone you want while inside it, but will have to boot the appropriate people once you reach Waukeen's Promenade. Note 2: Any honors/dishonors which do not apply to a specific game in the series can apply to any. For example, Double Damage can apply to any game in the series, and you can earn it up to four times if you go all the way from BG1 through BG2:ToB. Thanks to Gutrot for all the wonderful badges. (This has been shamelessly copied from biscuits and crazy's previous thread, which was shamelessly copied from Suspicious's previous thread, and I suspect it goes on like that for a while) docbeard fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Mar 4, 2024 |
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Dec 16, 2023 18:23
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After a bit longer playing the modding game than I'd intended, I'm now ready to play the actual game. This is Marisol, an Air Genasi Druid/Air Elementalist.  ...wait, what?!? I'm playing, as one might have gathered from my first sentence or, you know, knowing me, with a lot of mods, including one new one by the developer of SCS, called Talents of Faerun, which adds a lot of cool options. It's very much in beta and it's very much not been tested alongside a bunch of other mods, so this will be an adventure in every sense of the word (and already has been). A few of the cooler things it implements are subraces (including planetouched people), elemental (and other) specialist mages as well as the usual sort, and extra multiclass options for druids, including druid/mages.  So Marisol is an Air Genasi which gives her some fun stat bonuses and penalties, and a spell-like ability oh yeah and she doesn't need to breathe.  Elementalist wizards are pretty straightforward, they get bonus spells like any other specialist wizard, except instead of blocking out two or three schools of magic (ToF is a bit more brutal with specialist opposition schools than vanilla) Marisol loses access to spells that are earth-based or earth-themed. It's a real sacrifice (no stoneskin lmao, though hopefully her druid half will mitigate that some), but we'll see if it's worth it. I'm also playing with SCS with most of the tactical options enabled (with one notable exception) and at Insane difficulty. I also have a handful of NPC mods and a bunch of quest mods (one of which just got a major update and several that I've never used before. ADVENTURE!)  Meet Breagar, one of our guest NPCs. He's a bit cross because one of the other kids has run off to fetch his Book of Smithing and hasn't come back yet. (Breagar being a bit cross is going to be a recurring theme.) Anyway, off we go doing the usual Candlekeep intro stuff.  Check out Marisol's amazing bonus lightning damage. Hurray.  Here's Finch, an NPC cleric who we can recruit later but won't, but for now we can just chat with her about prophecies and books. She likes books. She really likes books. A lot.  After we recover Breagar's book for him he buys us a drink and wishes us well. We'll meet him again later. Skipping ahead a bit to when we get kicked out and watch dear old dad get got, and Imoen turns up.  I've decided to give Imoen the Sharpshooter kit from Song and Silence, which basically trades some extra bow proficiency and a poison weapon skill in for being able to backstab. The SCS customize NPC ability seems to work decently well these days, so I haven't installed the NPC customization mod I usually use in its place. You can't quite tell from this screenshot, but she's ALSO an Air Genasi for some reason. Eh, it's fine. IT'S FINE.  Thanks to the BG1 NPC project, we can go back and ask that Gorion get a proper burial. No mechanics here, but it's a sweet moment. Rather than take the usual route straight to the Friendly Arm Inn, we risk a detour down to High Hedge right away, because I want to do a bit of shopping. We meet someone on the way inside.  She's in a bit of a temper but she has good reason; her husband has come down with a bad case of werewolf, and we agree to try to find a cure. We pick up a sleep scroll but I'd forgotten that the restricted spells for my Air Elementalist kit included Protection from Petrification, so my plans to do a bit of early basilisk hunting hit a bit of a snag.  We get over this disappointment by raiding Thalantyr's bedroom. This is made possible by one of the quest mods (one I HAVE played before) called Shades of the Sword Coast.  In addition to a bit of minor treasure (seriously the most exciting thing here is an explosive potion) we meet a talking bookshelf, who would like us to keep an eye out for a particular book. After this, um, amazing adventure, we head on over to Beregost.  Which now has guards! I'm sure it's fine.
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Dec 19, 2023 04:03
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So I've decided I can't deal with fighting the bugs and/or weird interactions in the drat Talents of Faerun mod every three seconds, so alas poor Marisol, uh, fell into a rift or something. I'll be back with a new character soon (and will update the OP here in a bit). Glad to see other people are having fun at least!
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Dec 20, 2023 03:39
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Congrats to our first victory! I'm waiting out what I hope to god is my final installation and hope to get back to playing soon
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Dec 21, 2023 02:30
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So a few rearrangements and reinstalls later, I think I've returned to a stable(ish) mod configuration just in time for the long holiday weekend! Which means it's time to meet... Silas, Half-Orc Cleric/Thief using the Firewalker of Kossuth cleric kit from Divine Remix. Just because I've set Talents of Faerun for the moment certainly doesn't mean I can't indulge in some unbalanced modding fun! Like most cleric kits, this one's benefits are pretty straightforward. Some free fire resistance, and a 1/day Sunfire. Which is very nice at low levels, to be sure, though since I'm no longer using Spell Revisions I no longer get the party-friendly version of Sunfire so I need to be a bit careful, which is as it should be.  As before we run into our future best bud Breagar indulging in some casual Dwarven swearing. He gives us a small quest to recover a book for him, which nets us a whopping ten gold and a beer. (We did it for the beer)  We also give Firepants the Noober treatment. It pays off. (It was an embarrassingly long time before I found out this was possible. I also have to turn the volume down when I do this because my roommate once threatened me with death because SO HARD TO FIND GOOD HELP NOWADAYS was boring its way into her soul.)  Some might suggest that a virtuous soul would actually wait for the assassin to threaten me in any way before striking, but mine is not a god of virtue, but of vengeance, chaos, and hitting people with sticks.  This dude has Breagar's book.  This is Recorder, a Lorekeeper bard. We could recruit her later. We won't in this playthrough probably, but I like her a lot so I wouldn't be surprised if she found her way into a future one. For now, we can go back to the inn and rouse her knightly companion, which nets us her heartfelt thanks and a lore potion. We did it for the heartfelt thanks.  Don't mind me, just using a divine miracle to avoid the consequences of stealing a healing potion from a locked cabinet. Moving ahead.   I'm using NPCs Enhanced for Everyone rather than SCS's customization component because I find it to be a bit more functional (and honestly a bit more reliable). I've just used it to assign the Arcane Trickster kit to Imoen. This is a multiclass mage/thief kit from Artisan's Kitpack, and it gives her some benefits to casting from stealth and an ability to steal spells (sort of) from enemy casters in exchange for decreasing her sneak attack power and thief skill point allotment. Very much a worthwhile tradeoff. We take a detour to High Hedge and while we're in the neighborhood, we head south to see a man about a chicken.  Or something like that.  Sadly things do not end well for poor Melicamp.  This is definitely not the worst random encounter we could have gotten on our way to Basilisk Hell.  You know, after fighting a bunch of basilisks and Mutamin without any real problems (nailing Mutamin with Hold Person before he could even notice us ftw), this is just embarrassing. Anyway, back to Beregost, post powerleveling.  This is an early hook to the Gorgon's Eye mod, which adds a thieves guild to Beregost. I've played an earlier version of this mod but it's just had an update with a lot of new content.  This is Emily, an arcane archer we could recruit. Not today, Emily.  This is Tonder, a werewolf we can try to cure but for now we'll just run.  This is a component of the cure, or at least one of the possible cure options.  And this is Illasera who, before becoming a speed bump at the start of Throne of Bhaal, is the protagonist of Black Hearts, a quest mod I've never tried before. For now she just gives us the brush-off, but suggests that we come back after we've made a bit more of a name for ourselves (i.e. after we've cleared out the Nashkel Mines).  This guy sees interdimensional beetles. We can indulge him a bit if we want (and we will).  This is the Captain of the Beregost City Watch, who's part of the new Gorgons Eye content. I gather from reading that we'll eventually have to pick sides, but for now she's just someone to talk to.  Breagar's in Taerom's smithy, and he's in a good humor about the Iron Crisis. This is his initial hook for joining the party, he wants to find some decent iron for a special project and figures that Nashkel's the place to look.  I end up fighting Silke a bit sooner than I'd intended thanks to a pickpocket check going south, but a well-timed Horror spell completely neutralizes her and I just miss out on getting the potion(s) of defense from Feldepost's guys.  This quest (like the beetle guy's) comes from Shades of the Sword Coast, which I HAVE played before and which I really enjoy. He'd like us to find an amber flower for use in a disease cure.  And here's a new assassin, added by something called Epic Enhanced Encounters or some poo poo like that. Another one that's generally new to me (though I think I've played part of an older version in the past).  We treat Tarnesh as he deserves.  This is who we came here to meet, right?  Eldoth's just recruited us to help abduct Skie Silvershield a lot earlier than we normally could, courtesy of a mod fittingly called The Vanishing of Skie Silvershield. I haven't yet decided if I can be bothered since I have no intention of having her in the party, though there's some decent treasure in it for us so we may as well. But that's for next time.
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Dec 22, 2023 06:51
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Silas the Firewalker of Kossuth/Thief has made his very roundabout way to Nashkel. This is going to be mostly a mod content update, focusing predominantly of The Vanishing of Skie Silvershield and the first bit of the Gorgon's Eye. But before we get to that, I forgot to mention last time that I (a) recruited Neera and (b) changed her from a Wild Mage to a Chaos Sorcerer (from the mod of the same name), which is essentially a wild magic sorcerer. I haven't given Eldoth a kit since he won't be here long enough for that to matter. (Oh, and Kagain's here too I guess.)  Bentley is not super thrilled to see Eldoth here at the Inn. While he's in the party, we only get peasant lodgings and no gear to speak of for sale. (He'll talk normally to us if we send Eldoth way across the room though.)  Bentley does have some extra work for us (courtesy of Shades of the Sword Coast). Apparently some ne'er-do-wells have invaded the Inn's basement and he'd like us to sort them out. We'll do so (eventually). But for now we head upstairs to retrieve a figurine that's the key to Eldoth's plan to infiltrate the Silvershield estate.  We find the figurine easily enough, and are able to talk our way past its extremely drunken owner without a hitch. Step 2 will take us to Beregost to meet up with an old acquaintance of Eldoth's.  On our way out we're recruited for still another Shades quest, this one involving several magical circles throughout the Sword Coast.  This fellow by the name of Jiggy Moose agrees to smuggle the figurine (which has been inscribed with a magical symbol) into the estate. We're left to cool our heels for a couple of days til the deed is done.  We spend some of the intervening time over at High Hedge, getting a potion that has a chance of curing the Beregost werewolf. Basically a coin flip as to whether it will work or not.  We bum around for a bit until Eldoth announces that it's time to go ahead.  His associate, Urnn Indigospit (god, the names in this mod) teleports Eldoth and Silas into the estate, where we pick up Skie. This doesn't really let us sequence-break because we can't leave the building, or even the floor we're on. Though we can get a bit of decent loot for our trouble.  Once we're done, we're teleported back to the Friendly Arms Inn and we bid Eldoth and Skie a fond farewell. Kagain also parts ways with us and we recruit Khalid and Jaheira. I give the Totemic Druid kit to Jaheira, and Khalid becomes an Eldritch Knight, a multiclass kit from Artisan's Kitpack. In exchange for a slower spell progression he gets some fun benefits:   This is definitely a pretty major powerup for Khalid, but really, who deserves it more than him?  Back in Beregost, we agree to go to the temple to do drugs with an old man in the hopes that we'll see some interdimensional beetles. Eh, why not? We also find our way into a tunnel behind Feldepost's Inn which leads to...  The headquarters of the Gorgon's Eye, a thieves guild operating out of Beregost. A much smaller outfit than the main Guild up in Baldur's Gate, much less the Shadow Thieves, but they're trying to make a name for themselves.  This is Baldwin, the guild leader and the driver for the mod's main quest. He welcomes us to the guild but tells us that we need to pass a couple of trials before we can properly join.  Said trials are assigned to us by this fellow, Rigaldo. The first one involves stealing a diamond from a traveling merchant in Feldepost's Inn. In the previous version of the mod, this was just a straight pickpocket check that we could do even before getting the quest. Now it's a little more elaborate. He's got guards throughout the Inn, and if they spot us with the gem, we're hosed.  Unless, you know, someone were to charm one of the guards, steal the gem, and sneak back out invisibly.  Trial#2 involves a visit to Gerard Travenhurst, who's been showing a bit of disinterest in paying protection money. We're off to teach him a lesson by stealing an heirloom and confronting him with said stolen heirloom to convince him that he needs the Guild's protection.  Only when we get there, we find that someone else has beaten us to the punch. So we, er, beat them to the punch.  We try to use this independent operator's attempted theft to convince Gerard to get back on the Gorgon's Eye Train. I suspect this is a charisma check, which we fail, and we're forced to kill his guards to browbeat him into playing ball. Rigaldo's not super impressed that things got messy but he's fine with it in the end, and we're in the guild proper now. While we're in the neighborhood, we decide to see if Thalantyr's potion cures our wayward werewolf.  ...it does not.  We are forced to administer an, um, alternative cure. With swords. Meanwhile, back at the Gorgon's Eye, we have a couple of additional quest givers:  Ariosh has some general thieving jobs around the city for us. (These quests are completely new to me.)  Leidel has some bounties for us to collect, or not collect, as we please. Most of these bounties have multiple approaches  Baldwin, meanwhile, fills us in on his ultimate goal, the acquisition of a powerful and dangerous magical artifact called the Kerykeion, which is presently in a couple of pieces. The first piece is in the Gibberling Mountains near Nashkel, conveniently enough for us.  But before that, we have a couple of local jobs to do. The first one involves separating a couple of nobles from their coinpurses at a party outside of the Jovial Juggler. Again, this is a bit more complicated than sending someone over and just hitting the ol Thievery button. There's a bouncer watching them like a hawk. There are a couple of things we can do, first of all convincing one of the courtesans, who've been ordered to stay away from the staff, to go against those orders, and second, convincing the bartender to serve heavier liquor so that we can instigate a drunken brawl. This allows us to collect the coinpurses in the confusion and no one's the wiser. This update is already getting quite long and I'm not going to go through chapter and verse of all the sidequests, but this is some truly impressive and elaborate work so far. The previous version of the mod was good, but much much simpler. In any event, after picking up some cached valuables without alerting the City Watch, dealing with a traitor within the guild, and bringing some independent thieves into the fold, we decide it's time to make our way south at last, washing the slightly illicit taste of thieves work out of our mouth with some epic heroism.  Epic. Heroism.
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Dec 23, 2023 02:10
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Ginette Reno posted:Neera is a told wild card on no reload runs, but I find wild magic hilarious. It's true, she just for example hilariously summoned a hostile greater chaos elemental while trying to put some ankhegs to sleep. Fortunately we managed to deal with the situation but it was a bit touch and go. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, Silas ended up mulched by an ankheg in a completely unrelated incident.
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Dec 23, 2023 10:46
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Time for some real grade-A OP-ium powergaming.  ...am I doing it right?  Meet Jackie Daytona who is a perfectly normal human who also happens to be half of an orc. (Never mind which half.) He's a Warhorn Shaman, which is a custom kit from Artisan's Kitpack.   He basically gets Barbarian rage, the ability to specialize in a few weapons, and a higher hit die, and a different set of unique Shaman spells in exchange for a bit of Detect Illusions prowess and 1 spell/level/day. Definitely a bargain, and definitely an upgrade to the vanilla class, and it all almost, almost makes up for the Shaman class in general being hot dogshit with a signature ability designed by an absolute loving sadist. I'm also using the Improved Shaman Dance mod which lets you move at half speed while dancing. Which is good because the AI script I'm using likes to kick him into Dance Mode every time someone looks at him funny. The warrior spirits this kit summons are actually really good, if they can be bothered to wander toward or attack the things that are attacking the party.   The first and second level spells are decent combat buffs. I go through the usual early game rigamarole, including a trip to Basilisk Hell to get some XP under my belt. I didn't actually intend to do the Mutamin fight now but I accidentally wandered into his line of sight.  It went super well. Figured it was time to start over when Jackie got nailed with that Icelance but then Korax managed to paralyze him and beat him to death while Jackie watched, frozen. But let's skip past all the boring stuff and introduce (most of) the party. Imoen's an Arcane Trickster again, and we've recruited Breagar the Dwarven Smith once more.  This is Emily. We've made her an Arcane Archer/Mage, another Artisan multiclass kit. (The NPC mod she comes from actually has the option to install her with the class but it's really fiddly and it's much easier to just assign it with NPC EE.)  And this is Drake, an extremely reverent Priest of Tyr (and we won't be adjusting his kit or anything) who would like some help with the Bassilus contract.  We won't be picking up our sixth member for a little bit. Mostly because I haven't 100% decided who it will be, plus I need to grab Kagain long enough to get the Entar Silvershield brooch quest, and then deal with Eldoth's nonsense and...yeah.
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Dec 24, 2023 01:00
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has either rescued or kidnapped a noble teenager and cleaned out a basement. I forgot to mention in my previous update, but Melicamp died. Bit of a meat grinder for poor ol Chickenman this year. Before we headed up to the Inn, we decided to do the initiation rites for the Gorgon's Eye. Since I don't think I showed it last time, we do get a bit of a cool reward for passing the first trial (pickpocketing the gem off the fence without getting spotted).  Between this ring and her natural points, Imoen is now at 100 pickpocketing, and while I know that higher is eventually better, this will definitely do for now.  As for the second trial (convincing Gerard Travenhurst to resume his protection payments) Jackie has much better charisma than Silas did (though I think there are other attribute checks that would have worked and I just picked the wrong one last time) and actually manages to talk him into cooperating without murdering his guards. We give him back his heirloom necklace as a gesture of good faith. ...and then Imoen pickpockets it right back, lol. I half-expected this to break the quest but the mod had foreseen her (my) larcenous ways and we get a pat on the back from Rigaldo. No fun magic items for this quest but we get some gold.  I grab the bounties but hold off on the other quests because their language suggests they may be timed (though this mod likes to say that things are urgent when there is no timer or anything enforcing that, so who knows).  Emily starts chatting us up as we head north. She's from a noble family, and is in a bit of a succession war with her brother, complicated by the fact that it's an open secret that she's an illegitimate daughter, the product of a dalliance her father had with an elf in Baldur's Gate. (Her father's wife acknowledges her as her daughter, but, well, she's pretty obviously a half-elf so people have largely figured it out. OR IS SHE...) She's taking some time away from home at her father's suggestion (more of a mental health break than an exile, from the way she describes it), and is hoping to meet her birth mother, about whom she knows nothing beyond her name.  This is Helga, another NPC by the same person who created Emily. We don't recruit her but she tells us about an ogre chief she wants to bring down and we agree to keep our eyes open.  We find a hidden cave (prominent enough to have a map marker) but there's nothing inside. I suspect future mod content so we'll just make a note of this for now.  Oh Breagar, you lovable racist.  Just wanted to mention this spell, a level one spell for mages and druids, added by the aptly-named Weasels! mod. The cut off text here points out that these summoned weasels only do nonlethal damage so they're primarily useful as a distraction. I haven't picked it up for Jackie but Imoen's learned it off a scroll Tarnesh dropped.  In addition to his open hatred of Eldoth, Bentley's not exactly stoked to see Drake either. Fortunately in his case it's just a bit tense rather than open warfare. Apparently Drake is not just a frequent drunk, he's a rather obnoxious one. He's also from Amn. He mentions this. A lot.  While we're in the neighborhood, we look in on one of the Gorgon's Eye's bounties. This fellow owes the Zhentarim some money and decided that an all-you-can-eat buffet was a better choice than paying his debts. Rather than execute him, we agree to pay his debt ourselves, because he's honestly too pathetic to kill.  Also while we're in the neighborhood, we head back up to Ankheg Country to do a bit of dumpster diving. Imoen also takes the opportunity to pursue the accelerated path through Tenya's quest by just pickpocketing the Water Elemental Bowl.  Among other things in the treasure cache in the Ankheg Dungeon, we find this Unusual Shard. We'll find more of them later.  Emily has a chat with us about how she feels almost literally compelled to do good. We suggest she's just a decent person with a conscience, but she doesn't think that's the whole story at all.  Our guild contact isn't super impressed with our act of leniency but it's fine, really.  Thalantyr's cure for "Lycantrophy" fails again. I swear this thing sometimes works! This fight's a bit of a dice roll early on because while Tonder is a low-level werewolf, he is still a werewolf and is immune to nonmagical weapons, hence my scrounging trip so that I could afford magical ones for at least our heavy hitters. Speaking of magic weapons, I don't think it showed up in the initial screenshots, but Jackie's proficiencies are in shortbows and clubs. I want to mostly do one-handed weapons with him so I can use a buckler (currently the +1 con one from Bentley's store) and Breagar's an axe specialist, so my choices were clubs and daggers. So I naturally chose the shittier option. Though honestly, there are some nice clubs in the game, and there's one in particular I'm about to grab from Larswood.  On our way we rescue some dogs from some dire wolves.  ...y'know...  Eldoth makes himself vaguely useful and hits Osmadi with a horror spell that sends him (and us) screaming halfway across the map. At which point we confront his not-so-fellow fellow druid, who's (gasp) a Shadow Druid! We kill him and take his club, The Root of the Problem, which is a +1 club that's actually +3 vs Anything Where That Would Matter. We'll be hanging onto this for a while. Jackie hits Level 6 around this point, and that means third level spells, including this bit of kit-based goodness:   I love the way this spell description is written. "Blah blah enhancement bonus blah blah bonus elemental damage (oh yeah and it hastes you)" I don't know that I'd call this broken by any means since it brings us to a whopping two attacks per round, but it's definitely nice.  Thanks to the relevant piece from Tweaks Anthology, we can dip our toes into the Cloakwood early, and while most of this stuff can wait, there are a few things I want to pick up now.  This was not one of the things.  After grabbing the Nondetection Cloak which basically breaks the cheating mage gently caress YOU I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, INVISIBLE PERSON ai that SCS likes to deploy, we head to the second region and grab not only a free +2 scimitar but this Shades encounter, a soldier who's befriended a wounded myconid and asks us to heal her. We do so and get a loving WAND OF CLOUDKILL in return. Hell yeah. It's only got three charges though, and recharging it is expensive, but what are the odds that we'll ever have a frankly ridiculous amount of gold at any point in this game? It's about this time when Eldoth announces it's time to 'rescue' his 'girlfriend', so we had back to the Inn to do that, send them packing, and then come back to the third Cloakwood area. I've decided who our sixth permanent party member will be. (It's Faldorn) I've never had her in the party long-term before so this will be an adventure in many ways. I've given her the Avenger kit, which I feel fits her motif perfectly.   We also deal with a couple of chatterbox Shadow Druids. Since Jaheira's not with us we can tell them we're here to hunt bandits and they leave us alone.  That portal in the screenshot is tied to the circles quest in Shades of the Sword Coast, which we're not going to do quite yet.  Instead, we head back to the Friendly Arms Inn, dealing with three goddamn random Cloakwood encounters on the way, and clean out Bentley's basement. There are a few monster-infested levels, mostly dire rats and spiders but there are a couple of carrion crawlers to keep us on our toes, and it all culminates in the ruins of an old Bhaal shrine, complete with Bhaal-specific treasure hunters. Any actual treasure (aside from Bentley's old cloak of protection) has been absconded with, and the treasure hunters decide to take their frustration with this fact out on us. We sort them out, grab the cloak, and Bentley rewards us with said cloak and a bit of ominous exposition about how there's a symbol of Bhaal out there somewhere.
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Dec 24, 2023 06:36
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has cleared the Nashkel Mines and made a certain grouchy dwarf very happy.  Breagar and Imoen form a fun friendship based entirely off (his) annoyance, and we're at the point where he's teaching her to speak Dwarvish.  That's really a sidebar to the main event, which is us taking drugs with a possibly-delusional old man and possibly hallucinating some interdimensional giant beetles that may or may not actually be there.  Pictured, the one spirit out of three summoned by Jackie's dance that can actually be bothered to participate in the fight doing a credible job against a vampiric wolf.  Pontag's a bit down since the Beetle Sighting, and says he'd like to meet us back here in a few days after he tries something else.  After sorting out some Gorgon's Eye quests in town, we head north for a shopping trip of sorts. Along the way we meet Zee, a kobold who's more interested in setting up shop somewhere than he is in loving around with iron in mines. We agree to help him realize his dream. We make our way up to Ulgoth's Beard and legitimately acquire a ring of freedom of movement, which goes to Jackie for one specific reason. So the Improved Shaman Dance mod, as I've mentioned, allows him to move at half-speed while dancing. Well, with this ring, he's immune to slowing effects, so he can in fact move at normal speed. (It should technically make him immune to haste effects too but I have another mod to, uh, fix that.) Still can't cast spells or attack or do literally anything at all while dancing, but at least he's not trudging along behind the party while his summoned spirits do their best to ignore him any more. There are some mechanical exploits I would feel bad about, but making Shaman Dance slightly remotely tolerable to use is absolutely not one of them.  Back in Beregost, we meet up with Pontag's daughter instead of him. Turns out he's died in the last few days. But she tells us he's been more engaged and happy these last few days than she's seen him in years. So bittersweet, but not miserable. She gives us a gift from him, a beetle figurine that casts Detect Invisibility once per day. Which...yeah, makes sense.  So, uh, Breagar, he, uh, the thing is, he's not fond of Drow. We still rescue Viconia and send her on her way in peace.  Once we're in Nashkel we're asked to recover some magical ice from, you know, wherever you get such things.  You may recall from like two characters ago that Thalantyr's bookshelf wanted a particular book. It's this one, found in the manor house here.  Another Shades quest, this one at the gnoll fortress where we're being asked to duck into an adjacent shadow dimension and recover some notes.  And another quest, this one from Ascalon's quest pack, also at the gnoll fortress. There's a lot to do there. A lot. But first there's the whole mine situation to deal with.  Yeah, that's...that's helpful.  Breagar insists on picking a fight with Mulahey and won't take "I surrender" for an answer. Which is fine, neither would we, and now he's in the ground.  In addition to the usual expository notes, we find this note on a dead messenger from a group seeking an alliance with the Iron Throne. We gather that Mulahey declined.  We also find this intriguing note that suggests there might be more to the story of Commander Brage.  Finally, we come across this kobold trying to sneak away. On his person we find both a magic shortbow and  Apparently the last good chunk of iron in Nashkel.
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Dec 24, 2023 23:29
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has been exploring the Sword Coast, knocking out mod content and vanilla content alike.  Between a sneak attack breaking his morale and a magic missile to the face finishing the job, Imoen deals with Nimbul so fast that we don't even have to talk to Rasaad afterwards. We head immediately to the Gibberling Mountains.  This lady has the first piece of the Kerykeion, a magical staff with various snakelike properties that the leader of the Gorgon's Eye would like. She can't be talked out of fighting whatever we say or do, and she lets slip that we're not the first to make a play for the artifact piece. The fight's fairly straightforward, though she does do that bullshit 'advance time' trick to make sure we can't prebuff. Then again, she seems largely exempt from the prebuffing SCS does to mages so she's still a pushover and her summoned snakes aren't much more of a problem.  Faldorn doesn't have a lot of pre-Cloakwood content even with the NPC project but she does get pissy the first time we fight a bear. Telling her that the bear started it doesn't seem like it would impress her but telling her that keeping watch for hostile bears is her job now actually does.  Bentley, when presented with the request to give Zee the Kobold some space to open a shop, very sensibly tells us to ask his wife. (She says it's fine.) And then with that detour out of the way, we're finally back in Beregost.  ...what do you mean 'made'? Breagar leaves the party at this point and heads to Thunderhammer Smithy. If we go visit him at night, we can watch while he creates his masterpiece, a Ring of Elemental Control.  It goes super well. Despite having several healers in the party, we're sent to the Temple to get a cleric called Revaniel, who manages to save Breager's life, but not his left arm.  Breagar is, perhaps not unreasonably, in a bit of a temper about this when he wakes up, but we manage to calm him down and he, though clearly not thrilled about any of this, agrees to rejoin the party. He's down one arm and 2 points of constitution, and can't use shields or equip more than one ring. He used to still be able to use two-handed weapons but that's since been fixed. While we're here, we meet up with the messenger from the Serpents of Abbathor whose note we found in Mulahey's lair.  He's not stoked to hear that Mulahey is dead and it turns into a fight. He's carrying a note that tells us that his organization plans to ambush someone called "Bashrik Sparklehammer".  We turn in our bit of the artifact and are given our next assignment for the guild, grab some magic rings from Nashkel woman called Karp. But first, some different mod content, from Black Hearts  Illasera (yes, that Illasera, at least I think so) has decided that, after clearing out the Nashkel Mines, we're worth her time, or more specifically, that we're worth dealing with the sorts of bounties she can't be bothered to pursue. The first one is a group of adventurer shitheads who trashed the Burning Wizard. We point out that this shouldn't be a capital offence, she points out that Beregost doesn't exactly have a police force (aside from the Flaming Fist contingent living in the Jovial Juggler, and the City Watch from a different mod, but fine, whatever) and we can try to talk them down if we want but it probably won't happen. Also she doesn't give a poo poo.  Speaking of the Passing Murderous Adventurer system of justice, there's Tranzig upstairs to deal with. We ask at the Burning Wizard and are told that they talked about going to the temple next, and it didn't sound like they had atonement in mind. We get there and  They're not a particularly tough fight though Imoen gets herself cornered and killed. Fortunately we're in the right place to deal with that.  Our next targets are some Hobgoblin bandits who we're being paid to eliminate by an anonymous patron. Illasera suspects it's the Chill trying to get rid of the competition, but whatever, we're fine with that.  We're pointed in the direction of the Red Canyons, which is convenient because we need to deal with Bassilus anyway.  Drake's funeral service leaves a bit to be desired. He asks to stick around and we're happy to let him. The portal there is one of the magic circles we've been asked to investigate.  Inside, there's an object for us to retrieve in the center, and retrieving it summons monsters, in this case Ochre Jellies. The catch is we can't cast spells or use items in here (though in practice this restriction is a bit hit-or-miss). Don't mind the salamander, Faldorn's just showing off.  The next time we camp, Breagar opens up a bit about exactly what brought him to the Sword Coast in the first place. He's from a family who are traditionally bakers, but he's in love with the daughter of the master smith of his clan (who's already been betrothed to someone else, the smith's apprentice). It's all very political, and his only option is to become a master smith himself, which is not a popular decision with his family. And now he's hosed that up and lost an arm beside. So naturally he's a bit down.  For those who've not used it, one of the, uh, enhancements that SCS adds is to turn two of the assassin parties into random encounters. We deal with them easily enough. The Amazons too, though I forgot to grab a screenshot of them.  Breagar dies to the naiad's kiss (I thought this wasn't supposed to happen any more but that seems to only be true sometimes, I've had people die, I've had people get reduced to 1 hp, and I've had people save against the effect and be completely fine). She brings him back and we give Breagar the ogre mage's Helm of Defense as a consolation prize.  Constitution tome goes to Jackie.  We return Brage to Nashkel, but there's a bit more to this story thanks to the Mini-Quests and Adventures mod. He tells us a bit about what happened before he picked up the cursed sword, but doesn't have a lot to say.  We then chat with Oublek who would very much like this matter settled and could we PLEASE prove that Brage was not in fact the victim of a cursed sword and in fact did the crime? (We will be doing the exact opposite.) The local Helm priest confirms that the cursed sword is indeed cursed and when we head back out of the temple...  Brage's cousin gives us some further clues, specifically that she's been looking into a merchant who sells cursed items, last seen at the circus. We talk to the dubious potion seller and he points us in the direction of, look, we all know it's Borda, right? We all know that.  Meanwhile, on the crime-committing side of things, we talk to Karp and, instead of trying to steal or trick the rings away from her, we level with her, and she in turn levels with us. She's trying to raise money to get herself and her child away from her abusive husband, and agrees to give us the rings if we can help her out. Fortunately we're on good terms with the smuggling specialist at the Gorgon's Eye so that's easy enough, and she gives us the rings as well as  This. It's not useful yet but it might be later.  And our next bounty from Illasera is sending us back to the Nashkel Mines. Hooray.
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Dec 25, 2023 22:57
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theshim posted:Just want to say that while I'm nowhere near good enough at the game to do a run, I appreciate this thread every year Join usssssss....
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Dec 26, 2023 02:59
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has explored the Western Sword Coast and cleared out the Gnoll Fortress. Oh man did we clear out the Gnoll Fortress.  To start with, though, we head back into the Nashkel Mines to deal with a necromancer that's set up shop. The guards are kind enough to escort us right there.  Yup, one necromancer, a poo poo-ton of "crumbling skeletons" and some leftover kobolds for good measure. Not a big deal for us and we're more than happy to grab his spellbook (the trophy Illasera wants as proof of the deed) and beat feet.  We beat feet quite a ways, in fact (and Arabelle lives).  Enhanced Extra Etc. Encounters adds a wizard slayer called Bimmy to this band of idiots but it's not really a problem, possibly because we're a tad overleveled at this point. Like we'd be close to brushing up against the XP cap if such a thing existed.  Here's the custom Level 4 spell for Warhorn Shaman, basically a lightning-based fire shield.  So you may recall that among the things we're heading to the Gnoll Fortress to sort out is a kidnapped boy called Aaron who was ambushed while having a picnic with his fiancee. She wasn't fortunate enough to be taken alive, but even worse, her ghost has stuck around because he told her to stay awake and wait for him to give her a gift just before they were attacked.  I do like Faldorn's directness sometimes.  On our way past genociding a xvart village, we encounter Borda, who has already heard that we're looking for him. He's a bit more trouble than you might expect because he's got some magic resistance but he gets his in the end, and we find a nice incriminating letter on his person (as well as the uncursed +1 sword that Brage was supposed to have gotten from Amazon Waterdeep).  There's something about this encounter that makes me laugh.  And now we're at the Gnoll Fortress. There's a component of Extra Encounters that adds some additional gnolls.  Okay a lot of additional gnolls.  Okay a LOT of  You get the idea. (That Black Pudding in the pit proved to be surprisingly difficult because it splits when you do anything but blunt damage to it. Which includes electrical damage so Drake's hammer and Jackie's spell-enhanced club were a bit counterproductive.)  About a hundred gnolls after rescuing Dynaheir and sending her on her way, we come across this ring.  And here we find Aaron himself. So we're done, right? Lol no of course not.  There's also a portal here to the Plane of Shadow (where you may recall we've been asked to retrieve some lost research material). The bad news is, instead of gnolls we have shadows. That's also the good news because I am really tired of gnolls at this point.  The fights here aren't too bad for us at this point, mostly shadows and shade wolves, and there's a bit of decent treasure including a diamond and a fear wand (with 1 charge). We finally make our way inside through a crack in the wall and find our way to this Shade Wyvern  And his owner, a shadow mage. (That big electrical blur is Jackie trying out his new spell. Good lord.) We recover the notes (there are three note and book items scattered throughout the place) and head back to the real world where we next head down to grab the Charisma tome.  Oh look more gnolls.  We also meet this conveniently-labeled psychopath.  Among some other minor treasure he's carrying this. This will become relevant here in a bit.  There's some extra bears in the tome cave (and a named Red Bear in one of the other ones that drops a specific hide).  Jackie is now one point hotter. So are we done now? Oh, don't be silly, there's a new area transition here to Orrmyr Peak.  Some snakes and bugbears are about as bad as it gets here, and there's a bit of minor treasure to be had (like some hidden darts of stunning).  But the real main event are these two orrmyr skeletons whose spirits have stuck around. They'd like us to decorate them (seriously) in exchange for some news about a hidden treasure cache.   This treasure had better be worth it, those are some pricy adornments. We already have everything with us (including the silver crown we just got) but the golden teeth.  There's a small graveyard to the south. Those sparkly bits are the corpses of some Mountain Lights, which are a bit of a pain but no real threat. Note also the empty grave of someone whose headstone says he loved dogs.  We find the golden teeth in another grave. Look, game, this wasn't our idea okay?  In a cave to the south we find this Ettin Revenant who is a pretty nasty customer. He hits like a truck and is magic resistant.  And he drops, among other things, this absolute justification for taking 2 dots of club proficiency.  There's also some bones that we'll find a use for later.  There's also some dog bones lying about that I forgot to screenshot and when we add them to the dog friend's grave we get a bit of XP and a nice warm feeling.   Y'know... They are at least as good as their word and they send us back to the graveyard armed with the location of a hidden cache beneath one of the headstones. (It's inaccessible without doing the quest.) In addition to a decent amount of gold and a rogue stone we get  Okay yeah that's worth it.  Truer loving words, Aaron.
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Dec 27, 2023 17:43
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I pretty much always do everything, unless it's like my fifth attempt and I want to finish at least once. Besides, Durlag's Tower is my favorite dungeon in the entire series. The Ulgoth's Beard cultist fight can be a real meat grinder (though I'm not running with Spell Revisions this year so hooray for unnerfed invisibility durations).
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Dec 27, 2023 22:05
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Thread's updated to this point. On the topic of a completely blind Ironman attempt, I say do what you like, but yeah, understand that it's a very uphill challenge (and also that this is not a spoiler-free thread).
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Dec 28, 2023 20:18
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman is off to Bandit Camp. We break the bad news about his fiancee to Aaron when we get back to Nashkel, and promise to deliver his Engagement Ring of Protection to her ghost, which we will get around to doing eventually.  We also return Sistrya's notes and get a Wand of Hold Undead in return.  We get our next mission from the Gorgon's Eye, and this one's pretty straightforward, just do some pickpocketing from the Gamesmen in the tents at the Nashkel Carnival. The fact that Nashkel is in Shadow Thief territory gives us a little pause but we're told that psh it's fine.  We also get our next bounty from Illasera, this one hitting a little close to home. Seems an Ogre Mage has been mugging travelers for their books, though weirdly he hasn't actually hurt anyone. On our way to this confrontation, we arrive just in time for the (cutscene) ambush of Bashrik Sparklehammer by the Serpents of Abbathor. We're too late to do anything but loot the bodies, and in addition to his, er, sparklehammer (a +2 electric hammer identical in nature but not in appearance to the one we got off Bassilus) we get  his journal. We'll just hang onto this for now.  We head to the site of Gorion's murder to find the ogre mage in question, calling himself The Gentleman. Seems he was denied entry and has been conducting what he believes to be civil disobedience and what everyone else believes to be book-specific highway robbery. It turns out that the book he wants (a) is essentially the Elf Kama Sutra and (b) that our old friend Firepants has a copy, so there's a peaceful resolution possible here, and since gently caress fighting an ogre mage that we don't have to, we go for the peaceful resolution. The Gentleman agrees to hand over all the books he's 'borrowed' but  welp. He's still got the particular book that Illasera wants though, which is convenient enough.  Up next, more troublemaking adventurers, this time a group that was hired to protect some archaeologists and ended up slaughtering them instead. This group has a reputation for rowdiness but this level of ultraviolence is a bit outside their motif.  We don't really get a chance to talk it over til most of them are dead.  Apparently a PC cleric or one of the vanilla NPCs can cure her of the evil influence from the artifact she's holding, but this does not extend to NPC clerics from mods and we have to 'cure' her like Ol' Yeller. We head back to Nashkel to get on with things.  Vitiare get's a...personal...lesson from Breagar about the perils of pickpocketing dwarves.  Eight pickpocket checks later, and our guild folks are ready to do the robbery. We don't have to participate in this, we just head back for our reward.  On our way we check in with Oublek who is completely thrilled that Brage might actually deserve a fair trial after all.  Illasera pays us off and tells us that she's headed north to Baldur's Gate so that's all the bounties from her for now. She has a drink and a chat with Jackie before she leaves.  Bolstered by our initial success, the Gorgon's Eye has decided to formally expand into Nashkel, and we're going to be the ones facilitating that expansion. As before, we're told that the Shadow Thieves aren't likely to pose a problem. We're also told that Liedrel has more bounties for us and that Gilbald who runs the gaming annex might have some work. And sure enough  Someone's been spending counterfeit gold both at his tables and at the brothel. We're pointed in the direction of someone who frequented both called Xevec.  He appears, however, to be a victim himself of someone who hired him to kill someone in Nashkel called 'Sam' and paid him with that counterfeit coin.  One of our bounties is this charming fellow, a necromancer. We're told that we can double-dip on this one, as he'd like the Guild's help in securing a body for his research, and we can both help and kill him for double the payoff. However, we decide we're not going to help him murder some rando just on the basis of having blue hair so Imoen just stabs him and we call it a day. Liedrel isn't entirely happy with our choice but eh, whatever, if she wants to put up with annoying psychopaths she can do these bounties herself. We deduce that 'Sam' is probably Lady Samantha in Nashkel and sure enough   We convince her to turn herself in and tell Xevec that we'll explain that he was duped to the Guild and let them sort it out, which he seems to think is more reasonable than summary execution.  Here's our contact for the next couple missions. Job 1 is establishing a base of operations, which involves encouraging the owner of the nearby merchant tent to leave. We throw a bit of money his way and that's that.  Job 2 is recruiting some fresh blood, most notably this would-be pirate captain. She agrees to join up if we liberate some incriminating evidence that the Amnian Guard has in their barracks. Again, pretty simple.  Especially since we have a good reason to be in the barracks anyway, as we witness Brage's acquittal. Job 3 involves getting some operating capital in the form of some bags of coin that are stashed here and there. Once again, pretty straightforward.  We decide to take the scenic route back, cutting through Ulcaster.  This is where we could recruit Recorder if we were of a mind to. We won't be doing that just now but we do still agree to go into the ruins and rescue her friends.  SCS turns this throwaway fight into a bit of a nuisance, since halfway through he gets a powerup and advances time wrecking any buffs we've got going on. He still gets his in the end, though.  This is a member of Recorder's party, who gives us a bit of info about what happened. Basically they were all betrayed by the party wizard, Rick Harris.  At the end, we find Rick as well as two other survivors from the party, the paladin Mark and Ruby whose class I don't know. We also find the WOLF OF ULCASTER, which is what SCS did to the vampiric wolf that's normally at the end of these dungeons. This is a fairly challenging foe, since in addition to the usual vampiric wolf stuff it can cast Horror, Dispel Magic, and summon both ghasts and wolves more or less at will.  We win in the end, but it's too late for Mark.  Thanks to Shades, there's a level below the ruins where we meet some ghosts who've been plagued by a ghost spider because hey, why not?  This area's a bit of a maze but it's not too bad. Some higher-level spiders including one Astral Phase Spider that proves a bit of a challenge.  And this spellcasting spider. We defeat it and the ghosts turn up to finish the job.  Second-rate bounty hunters, that's us. The 'prize' in question is an escaped slave and we've been told to either return her or her collar (which can normally only be removed when she's dead). And yeah, gently caress this, we take her to the Friendly Arms Inn instead, get her collar removed in a nonlethal fashion with the help of Bentley's wife, and even though Liedrel is skeptical about our story about finding her dead, she also isn't thrilled about the whole slavery thing either and lets it go.  Our last bounty involves this dryad in Larswood. We've been asked to convince her to leave one way or another.  She's been trying to convince these hunters to go somewhere else (and they're the ones who took out the bounty). They have a bit of a strong reaction to "hey could you please maybe hunt elsewhere" and it all ends in violence. The Dryad gives us a periapt of proof against poison, and Liedrel gives us the stinkeye about taking matters into our own hands. Like I care. Our next job from the Guild proper involves convincing Borland, who's been dealing black lotus out of his boardinghouse, to partner up. Or we can just put him out of business and take his stock for ourselves. We decide on a partnership. But no sooner do we return with the good news than  ...well poo poo. There's shadow thieves all around the city. This used to be much more of a pain in the rear end with SCS installed as they would basically all be invisible. Now only a few of them are. It's still a pain in the rear end, but we eventually clear them out and find some coded instructions on their leader's person.  Their 'true plan' is to intercept the second piece of the Kerykeion from its owner...at the Bandit Camp. That's where we're headed next.
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Dec 28, 2023 21:16
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Flowing Thot posted:I forgot to mention in my last update that for full disclosure I ended up spawning with the dev console the quest NPC Anomen needed for his quest to progress. I tried all the methods available to me to not have to do that and none of them worked. If I had to guess based on what you were describing I'd say something hosed up your timer variables. I think I ran into the exact same problem with Anomen once (and I think I used the same solution you did).
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Dec 29, 2023 02:07
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has conquered his last mine lol no So we've still got to clear out Peldvale before we hit up the Bandit Camp, or at least we need to pass through to get there, so we may as well.  Kind of an odd thing to leave lying around.  ...okay not even we are this stupid. (This just results in a tough fight, since it takes +3 or better weapons to hit the resulting golem, and there's no particular reward other than XP, so yeah, gently caress that.) Nothing much else to speak of here, the usual Black Talon Elites are the only real threat. We head north.  ...uh, okay, man.  This guy's here to sell his piece of the Kerykeion to the Shadow Thieves. We try bluffing like mad, and it doesn't go super well.  ...for him either. The Shadow Thieves have already arrived, taken out his men, and murder him in front of us. He seems willing enough to talk, though, and talk we do. Apparently the magical artifact that Baldwin's had us searching for is a bit dangerous, and they're just trying to prevent a disaster. Not sure I really believe him, and anyway it doesn't matter, there's nothing to be done but fight. He also lets slip that the attack on Beregost wasn't just a distraction, they were hired to do it by someone unknown. We don't get a name, unfortunately. It's a bit touch and go like most rogue fights where they come pre-equipped with invisibility potions (which, thanks to SCS, is ALL OF THEM) but we win in the end.  Also in the area, this, uh, Gardener. She's apparently especially annoyed at Garclax the Gnoll who, uh, vandalized her garden. Frankly she had us at "please kill some gnolls".  The fight against the Bandit Camp is one of my favorite things that SCS does. Instead of doing it piece by piece, we're basically left to fight everyone at once. It's a chance to absolutely cut loose and it's challenging, but quite fun. Looting everything afterwards takes some time, though.  We find this letter among the wreckage. I think it's something related to Black Hearts, since the Redwaters are the band of hobgoblins that we killed for Illasera earlier. But she never told us anything about "creepy priests", though we've certainly been finding holy symbols of Bhaal among the bodies. I wonder if there's something she's not telling us?  Not only can Emily make good use of this bow, she can upgrade it. (She basically gets to upgrade one 'named' missile weapon per playthrough.)  Look, it would be a pleasure even if we hadn't been asked.  The Gardener rewards us with a healing flower, and offers to give us more in exchange for bandit scalps (5 per flower). Not sure if it's technically better than selling them and using the gold to buy potions but it seems like a good deal.  In case we needed even more evidence about Brage's innocence, I guess.  You know, a 'thank you' costs nothing, Baldwin We chat a bit more and he tells us that his ultimate ambition is in fact to displace the Shadow Thieves as the pre-eminent thieves guild in this part of the world, and that they're just trying to mess with us telling stories about the Kerykeion being dangerous. He also tells us there's a lot of guild business to attend to. Most of the new quests (and these are mostly completely new to me, with the latest version of this mod) require us to have access to Baldur's Gate, but there are a few things we can do now.  The first is to collect the dues from the local innkeepers. One pays up without question, but the other three have a bit more nuance. One just plain doesn't have the gold, and we let him off with a warning. One supposedly already paid, and we have to hunt down the person who pretended to be us. And one pays, says something cryptic about only doing what he had to, and we're jumped by the City Watch outside.  We're told next that there's a new Flaming Fist Inspector in town and he's a bit more dangerous than the local rabble in the Watch. We're tasked with infiltrating a meeting at night and assassinating him. Not really our style, but eh, AFFAB. Except it turns out to be a setup, the 'Inspector' is a dupe, and the whole thing was a ruse to flush out our mole in the Watch. The next leg of this quest sends us to Baldur's Gate as well. However, there's still one matter to attend to. One of the girls, Ilena, has gone missing from the Eye's brothel, and we're asked to investigate. We find out that the person she was with, a soldier called Isley, has killed his wife and abducted Ilena. We track him to Nashkel and there's a tense standoff that we resolve with our amazing quick-draw skills. (There are a bunch of possible stat checks and it can be quite tricky to resolve this without Ilena dying, but we're able to do so this time.) So it's off to Baldur's Gate. But first  Shades adds a couple of additional quests to Gullykin, and this one's the most interesting  A mysterious dog has been showing up at her house every night. We agree to follow it.  It leads us to a cave where we find a halfling's body, apparently that of a friend of hers who disappeared a while back. We report in and she gives us a magic flute for sharing the bad news. The real assignment here of course is Firewine Dungeon. And normally we could just pop in through the secret entrance, deal with the ogre mage, and be back in time for an early supper.  But of course SCS can't allow that. This is not, however, the worst mod-added trick that Firewine has to play. Shades of the Sword Coast turns the entire area into a Wild Magic zone. This makes the dungeon an absolute nightmare, even more than normal, but there are some upsides.  The first time I played this mod, the ogre mage killed himself with a falling cow. No such luck here, though the wizard here throws treasure at us rather than magic. There's more to do in the Firewine region but like gently caress am I taking on Kahrk without an Arrow of Slaying now that they should actually work on him. (I've previously used the Spell Revisions mod, which turns Protection From Normal Missiles into Protection From Every drat Missile Weapon And Effect In The Game. SCS now turns it into Protection From Slightly More Than Just Vanilla Arrows but Arrows of Slaying should still be fine.) We head off to Cloakwood.  Normally if we have Jaheira around, there's a peaceful solution possible, but no such luck this time. That's okay though, seriously gently caress this guy.  Emily takes a couple days to upgrade the Dead Shot bow, giving it a minor dexterity bonus as well.  Not sure what Jaheira has to do with anything, but whatever. We're told to come back to visit the archdruid after we've cleared out the mines. We do all the usual Cloakwood stuff, dealing with Centeol, the idiot Wyvern Breeder, and  Something new. There's a too-strong wild animal around the mine entrance that the Iron Thrown have brought in and we have to restore the balance of nature something something.  Something else new. She's not much of a threat on her own, though and the couple of Black Talon Elites with her barely count as not on her own.  The Wyvern Cave is a bit scarier though, with a couple of Greater Wyverns and a Fire Drake. Nothing we can't handle and there's decent loot  Including our fourth and final Unusual Shard. We hold onto it for now. Once we're at the mine itself  Faldorn gets a bit...enthusiastic.  Despite some issues with a web spell getting out of hand, we put these jokers in the ground.  And here's the animal we've got to kill for the greater good. It's apparently possible to polymorph it instead but I've never gotten that to work.  Breagar may be a grump but he's got a good soul, and he's really taking this personally.  Yeah okay buddy. Not really much out of the ordinary in the mines. Hareishan is the only real threat on the way down, and things get a bit hairy because she spams Chaos and there are only so many anti-confusion spells and effects to go around. No one dies though (except her).  I don't think I captured this earlier, but when we first got into the Cloakwood, we're met by a woman whose son has been kidnapped. This is the son. We free him and send him outside to wait for us.  And eventually it's the big event. Sometime SCS Davaeorn can be very tricky.  Not this time, though. Imoen gets off a decent backstab and while Jackie and Breagar fight off the Battle Horrors (in the SCS version of this fight, they're always there, not triggered by the traps) Emily finishes the job before he has a chance to do much of anything but cast Slow on Imoen.  Hooray! Next stop, Baldur's Gate, where we'll finally get on with things (and still do a bunch of mod content).
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Dec 29, 2023 18:29
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has entered the big city. We do have some loose ends to tie up before we commit to exploring Baldur's Gate.  For example, once we set foot outside the mines...  Breagar gets a celestial visitation! And a Holy Quest (TM). Specifically, the Silver Dwarf tells him that his accident wasn't so much an accident as sabotage, but that details of that will be forthcoming later (i.e. in Baldur's Gate II). A more pressing matter is a giant that's stolen some holy artifacts and would he please go kill it. On our way out of the Cloakwood, we turn in a few quests. The dryad that wanted the leopard dealt with gives Jackie a permanent 5% fire resistance boost. Amarande the Shadow Archdruid gives Faldorn a shield. And Perwell's mother gives us a magic bow that's basically an off-brand Dead Shot. Since Emily's already using the upgraded version and no one else can use longbows, we just stash it for now. We decide to pop into Baldur's Gate for a quick shopping trip before we go giant hunting.  On our way, we give Zee the good news that he can set up shop in the Friendly Arms Inn.  At the city gates, we get word that someone's looking for Drake.  Emily wants to start looking for her mother, which we will absolutely get around to doing at some point.  And Illasera sends us a singing telegram telling us to meet her at the Elfsong right away, there's someone she'd like us to meet.  This is Vance, aka Stoneheart. He and Drake have a history together.  But this isn't about catching up on old times, this is about dealing with a Shadow Thief incursion into Baldur's Gate. (This is completely unconnected to the OTHER Shadow Thief incursion we're dealing with in a completely different mod, but I still like to think of Jackie trying to keep a straight face.) We agree to meet Stoneheart in the sewers to pursue this lead. Later.  Illasera introduces us to her friend, a Red Wizard with some info to share, but he doesn't quite get around to telling us before someone explodes into spiders and kills him. Seriously.  Faldorn recognizes the handiwork as that of Reizen, a druid who was a bit too extreme even for her Shadow Idiots. Someone who's also a Harper. Illasera's got a contact called Nerys who might have some more info, so she's our next stop. Well, not our next stop.  One of our current Gorgon's Eye missions has us trying to track down some stolen books from the monks of Candlekeep. Again. Whatever. Alatos suggests we check out the local black market.  And Black Lily has some suggestions about ways to get leverage on the Flaming Fist Inspector who's proven to be a thorn in the Eye's, er, eye.  While we're here, we grab the Dexterity Tome for Jackie.  We then head to the Fire Leaf Forest before Breagar gets too impatient.  Yrrmyr is a giant berserker, and a hard hitter, but we beat him down without too much trouble.  The Silver Dwarf turns up afterwards to give Breagar his reward, which comes in two parts:  The Axe of Berronar, a (currently) +2 axe  And a loving ROBOT ARM. Yup, Breagar gets a golem arm grafted to his body. He still can't wear a second ring, but the arm itself functions as the equivalent of a +2 ring of protection.  Our celebrations are a bit short-lived as we get an urgent message. Revaniel, the cleric who saved Breagar's life a bit ago, has disappeared while out dealing with an undead infestation at a local graveyard. Breagar feels he owes her a favor so we go to check it out.  Yup, definitely got some undead in the walls here, yessiree.  We fight some mages in a cave, who don't appear the ultimate source of evil here. Also, Faldorn takes this moment to get a bit weird. Er. Weirder.  We find the petrified Revaniel a bit further in.  And...oh dear. That's a lich. A level-appropriate lich, but still a lich.  We manage to kill it. And among its treasures we find  A second dexterity tome! Jackie's now rocking 20 dex.  Taerom's extremely grateful for Revaniel's rescue. (We're pretty sure she's his girlfriend.) He offers us our choice of rewards, and we choose a magical returning throwing axe for Breagar. Next, we decide we should probably clear out the rest of Firewine. Which, remember, is a Wild Magic zone. So, at one point, someone gets hurt and Drake starts casting a healing spell because I very intelligently left the AI script that heals my people up running. And then we get the cow cutscene.  I'm bracing for a game over but it's really not that bad. We do pop back through the Firewine shortcut to get healed up at the Gullykin Temple though. (And fight a bunch of respawning kobold commandoes on the way there and back, of course.)  Oh here we loving go. I've got Protection from Magic on Emily - the wild magic zone doesn't effect magic from items, mostly - and an arrow of slaying, as well as a couple arrows of dispelling (since Kahrk comes preloaded with Protection from Magic Weapons).  He manages to score a few hits on Emily before she kills him, but that could have gone so much worse. We also turn in a few quests that I'm just gonna skip over in the interest of time, and do the Stone of Askavar quest mod which I'm also gonna skip over in the interest of time. But, remember those shards we've been collecting?  Combining them summons a demon knight, though he's nowhere near as tough as the one in Durlag's Tower and basically lives long enough to go AHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHA! (dies). He drops a few evil items that we can't really use. And now we're (really) on our way to Baldur's Gate
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Dec 30, 2023 05:47
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman has been bimbling around the city.  She'll take thieves (and ONLY thieves) to the Black Market between midnight and 4 AM. (This was a bit bugged in my EET install and I had to do some quick NearInfinity surgery to make the return trip work.)  The Black Market has afew vendors of thief equipment, weapons, potions, etc.  It also has this guy, who trades information. He's got info on both Isla Darkcloak, one of our bounties, and on the person who stole a particular tome from Candlekeep. For that info he wants some evidence out of Flaming Fist HQ and for us to report on a covert meeting of the Flaming FIst with some foreign merchants about a weapons shipment for the Fist.  Now, it transpires that Isla Darkcloak is standing right across the room, but attacking her here would be suicide. She offers to face us in honorable combat if we defeat everyone else in the Gorgon's Eye fighting pits first, but who has that kind of time? Soren instead tells us where she likes to go drinking and we confront her there. She's happy enough to challenge our entire party and while she's pretty tough, it doesn't go all that well for her. As for the missing tome, it's going to change hands tonight at the docks.  This would have been confusing one character ago. We intercept the transaction, it's another fight, and the tome is ours.  On our way out of town to turn in the quest, we interrupt a very intense D&D session on the top floor of Sorcerous Sundries. (I think they're actually Zhentarim, which makes me feel perfectly good about murdering them. I played the Gold Box games, I know ALL ABOUT Zhentil Keep, thanks)  Rigaldo's got nothing more for me for now. (If I remember correctly from the previous version, there's a specific trigger that gets us into the endgame for this mod, but I don't know if that's changed for the new version. We shall find out together, but in the meantime, there are still some side missions.)  We get poisoned by these losers in spite of Jackie being completely immune to poison thanks to various gear. Ah, DM fiat, is there anything you can't do?  These guys hunt extraplanar beings, and want us to help them track down an extraplanar elven archer. Something about their story stinks, but we agree to play along til we know what's going on.  Emily wanted us to ask around the Blade and Stars about her mother, so we do, only to be told that it's much more likely that someone like that is drinking at the unnamed tavern in the area.  This high-end courtesan is a favorite of the Inspector who's been plaguing the Gorgon's Eye. To get her on side we need to steal a particular necklace from the Silvershields. Fortunately we have to stop by the place to give them the bad news about their son anyway (and hope that no one asks any pointed questions about who helped their daughter run off with that idiot Eldoth).  Yup, elf, archer, apparently extraplanar. Unsurprisingly though, they were up to no good and we agree to deal with them for her. They put up a bit of a fight but we are frankly overleveled at this point. Afterwards, Emily asks about her mother.  Adalgisa gets a little cagey but gives Emily a journal written in a cryptic language that she seems to instinctively understand. Emily decides to take some time to read through it.  Part 2 of our plan for the Inspector is this very expensive wine.  While we're working on the poison cure, we come across this woman begging for coins. Turns out she's from Luskan and she got teleported here by the child she was caring for. We suspect there's probably more to this story.  Here's another Shades quest, we've got to infiltrate and destroy the necromantic Cult of the Dragon before they finish building...something.  At the Temple of Helm, we find word of the author of the journal we took off the corpse of the person the Serpents of Abbathor killed. We're directed to the sewers, where we'll soon enough be headed anyway. Oh joy.  Also in the Temple, we meet this fallen paladin who killed a child he believed to have been a demon in disguise. Turns out the child was only being controlled by the demon, and he's been praying for guidance (and hiding from an angry mob) ever since. We go talk to the child's parents and find out that their story is very similar to that of the teleported nanny from Luskan, and we share the news with Sir Dauron, who decides to go try to avert a second similar tragedy there. We wish him the best.  This is Nerys. She's an extremely enthusiastic gnomish bard. Right now she's spying on some apparent smugglers, though she's quite disappointed when it turns out that what they're smuggling was some exotic baby clothes because one of their wives is expecting.  She's also our contact about the Harper assassin that interrupted our meeting with Illasera.  We follow her to her house (or we try; there's another bugged cutscene that we need to fix before this works) and she digs up some info. Turns out our Harper is actually an ex-Harper, and he seems to have gone south mentally after a mission in the Underdark. He's apparently hiding out in a gorge somewhere but Nerys doesn't know where.  Illasera, however, apparently does. We go to talk to her and while she researches the Red Wizards, we're told where to find this gorge. We'll put a pin in that til we're cured of our poison and can leave town, though.  This dwarf is missing his halfling buddy. We agree to keep an eye out.  Ah, doppelgangers. Even SCS can't make you a real threat.  After fighting alongside Gorpel Hind and his loving Morons, we decide to turn in for the evening, and Emily shares what she's learned so far from Adalgisa's journal. Apparently she ALSO knew Emily's father, and didn't seem to have an especially high opinion of him during their adventuring days. She tells us that she's going to keep reading, but I'm pretty sure we can all see where this is leading.  Here's another bounty, an advisor to Lord Belt who's made some enemies at court. Enemies who seem to be trying to start a war with Amn, with mysterious backers among a merchant cartel...oh. Oh dear. We tell him it's not safe, but he refuses to leave town or back down. All we can do is let him walk away. Man, Liedrel's gonna LOVE this.  We make the rounds and deal with Ramazith, and Jackie's now slightly less of a mind flayer snack than before.  We meet up with a friend of Breagar's from back home. He shares some news about Reggik, an apprentice smith and a rival for the woman Breagar loves, who's trying to forge the same ring that cost Breagar his arm. He also tells us that the clan has signed a contract with the Iron Throne, and while he could never do anything to act against that contract, if I, a completely random individual, were to retrieve it, well, that would be different.  ...we're all trying to find out who did this, and who dressed Jackie up in this hot dog costume. (I haven't actually decided what I'm going to do with the Wisdom tomes yet. They're useless to Jackie, but my divine spellcasters won't be around for the entire trilogy, and that feels like a waste. My best options are either give them to Drake, who will at least be around through Siege of Dragonspear, or Emily (who IS in Baldur's Gate 2 and whose stats apparently carry over), who has 14 wis now, so the three tomes will put her within one point of using Wish spells with impunity.)  We sort out our poison problems...  ...deal with this baby-cursing fool...  ...and investigate this Shades-added ghost ship.  The ship itself has bones scattered all over the place. Put the bones in the captain's bunk, and we summon the captain, who's sticking around trying to find the remains of his sons. We have two of three of his son's bones already, so we'll come back when we have the complete set. For now we're going to head out of town to attend to a few matters before finishing things up in the city.
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Dec 31, 2023 03:33
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Thread is updated to this point. Good luck to our blind runner! Finnish Flasher posted:
I don't think I've ever used this mod before, and will be curious to hear your impressions!
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Dec 31, 2023 03:54
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Jackie Daytona the Warhorn Shaman is finally going home. We have a lot of poo poo to wrap up before we go, though.  Emily has some more info from Adalgisa's journal to report, mostly about how the planar hunters are capital-B Bad. She resolves to keep reading.  We head back to Beregost with Ishani to lay our trap for the Inspector. The plan is that she'll contact him to ask for a meeting at the Jovial Juggler, with the promise of dirt on the Gorgon's Eye, and will order the expensive wine, which is now expensive drugged wine.  Ariosh has a bit of an insurance policy in mind, though, in the form of a bomb that we plant in the back. If things go seriously south we can detonate the bomb and kill the Inspector (and a bunch of bystanders so, er, let's not.)  While we're here I realize I never turned in the quest where we saved Ilena. Madame Meredia is sufficiently grateful.  We also turn in the two of our outstanding three bounties that we've managed to complete. As expected, Liedel is not thrilled with our mercy toward the Duke's advisor, but it turns out not to matter, because someone else offed him anyway, and we still got paid. Hooray? Isla's bounty is a more straightforward reward since we, you know, actually killed her.  The Inspector comes to the meeting and...of course, he knows it's a trap. Rather than blow the place sky-high, we challenge him to a game of riddl-, naah, we just kill him. (After the game crashes because there's another bugged cutscene we need to fix. Ah, newly-updated mods.)  Not the most elegant of solutions but Ariosh seems fine with it. Our next job is to take out the Watch Commander's two lieutenants, ideally as stealthily as possible. There's no actual penalty as far as I can tell for "not stealthy" but we manage to pull it off. Backstabbing and then using a potion to go invisible again is not just a trick that SCS-enhanced NPCs can use, it turns out.  Finally, we're tasked with taking on the Commander herself, and we're aided by dissension in the ranks of the City Watch. There's fighting in the streets as we make our way to the Temple where she and her Templar Knights are making their last stand.  You know, it's maybe just possible that we are in fact the baddies.  Yup. We're the baddies. But we're baddies who still have a 20 reputation, so that's all right then.  There's still a bit more Gorgon's Eye stuff to do but for now we're moving on.  Specifically, we're moving on to finally track down the ex-Harper assassin for Illasera. And yeah, sure does seem like we're dealing with an evil druid.  And here he is. We can chat a bit, but...  ...it turns out he's read the Evil Overlords list and won't tell us poo poo.  After the fight, we find yet another coded journal.  When we reconnect with Illasera, she tells us that Nerys has requested a meeting at nightfall outside the Drakon Tavern.  While we wait for night to fall, we hit the sewers to deal with this Completely Original Ogre Mage Scheme, Do Not Steal.  Oh, and with Drake's ex-friend (who we find out later is in fact his ex) Stoneheart, who leads us to the Shadow Thief incursion that he's been tracking. It's a bit of a fight and afterwards...  Stoneheart had assumed they were here to partner with whoever's trying to stir up tensions with Amn. Turns out they were in fact investigating those tensions and we were (sort of) on the same side. Well that's a bit awkward. Stoneheart heads back to Amn but not before rewarding us with, among other things,  This rather nice amulet that used to be Drake's (and now is again). We head topside again to make our meeting with Nerys.  ...well, poo poo.  I cannot express how little I care about whatever the gently caress the Red Wizards are up to, that's Illasera's jam. But Nerys is a relative innocent and we're not going to let her suffer for this, so off we go to the rescue. Er, eventually. We do still have one last Gorgon's Eye bounty to deal with, an alchemist called Alaric who's created a cure for some disease that he refuses to part with. We've been ordered to separate him from the cure by whatever means necessary, and have been told that he's been doing animal experimentation so, you know, anywhere the wildlife is acting strange is a good place to start.  I think this may be the place.  We offer to buy the cure, but no dice, he doesn't want to cure diseases, he wants to Jackie Daytona has fallen to a mad poultry alchem... just kidding. No, he's a pushover.  We feel like a little redemption so we decide to give the cure to the healers rather than just sell to the highest bidder. Liedel's not 100% on board but she'll follow our lead.  The next job the Eye has for us is...drug smuggling? Ugh.  We ask if there's a not-drug-smuggling job we can do instead, and just this once, Rigaldo agrees. Turns out there's someone at the Lotus Tent who's been there for days and his wife would like him to come home badly enough that she's enlisted the Eye's help. As before, we bring up the whole Shadow Thief thing and as before we're told 'pshh, it's fine'.  We get to him and he's very insistent on getting to the exact right stage of being high to achieve enlightenment. We figure, sure, why not, we'll help him with that.  Oh look a Shadow Thief ambush who could ever have seen this coming. They're here once again to warn us off the Kerykeion, and in fact we could choose to betray the Guild at this point. Naah, though. At this point there's no more work for us, at least til A Thing happens. But first  Emily read in Adalgisa's journal that a friend of hers was staying at Feldepost's Inn, so we head there for maybe some more info about her mother. Which, yeah, he does...  oh i can't believe this how could  Oh yeah and it's ALSO a Planar Hunter trap. They kill Rodwyn. We kill them.  I think this is pretty much the end of Emily's story stuff for this game. Her race changes to Aasimar on her character sheet too.  This encounter is supposed to trigger when we leave Beregost next. We have to take matters into our own hands though, more bugs, joy. Anyway, we meet this dying Gorgon's Eye agent, who gives us a coded note for Baldwin.  CRAVENSWORTH, er, TRAVENHURST! He's the one who sicced the Shadow Thieves on us, it turns out, AND he has the last piece of the Kerykeion. So we're off to pay him a visit.  Except it's a Shadow Thief ambush. And not just any Shadow Thief, but Baldwin's brother, who once more tries to warn him just how dangerous the Kerykeion is.  Uh...boss?  Oh. Well. Okay then. We call an emergency truce with the Shadow Thieves so we can collectively beat down this super-snake who used to be Baldwin. He's pretty formidable in this form with a stunning poisoning attack and a bunch of resistances, but  we prevail, this weird dude who's spent most of the mod hanging out in the corner tells us we're Guildmaster now, and that's it for the Gorgon's Eye mod. (There is technically stuff we can supposedly do with getting income from the Guild but I can't be hosed.) While we're out and about, we decide to take down the Cult of the Dragon, who are holed up in a cave in the Rocky Coast area.  These cultists, sixteen in all, are building a monster, and we would rather they didn't. The cultists themselves are pushovers.  This...is not a pushover. It's a mini-Aec, though thankfully not quite as dangerous. (It's still got the ol' death gaze though.) We could dress up in cultist robes and sneak past but gently caress that. Instead we just kill it before it kills us.  And here's the lead cultist and the...thing...they were building. We're not sure what this thing is and we don't care. We kill them both, and then head up to Ulgoth's Beard to deal with a few matters, like Shandalar's quest.  Breagar is not thrilled about this development. (Wait til you see how he feels about Werewolf Island).  It's hard to see even with the highlighting on, but here's a bit of magical ice that a questgiver asked us for in Nashkel about a thousand years ago.  I guarantee you this is not the last joke we will ever make. As usual for Ice Island, the biggest threat is the group of mages near the entrance, and we deal with them by nuking them from invisibility before they can do much more than start a conversation. The other individuals mostly don't get one-shot by Imoen's backstabs but it's enough to easily sort them out after.  And Imoen gets a backstab crit on Dezkiel.  Emily picks now to have a I Like U Do U Like Me conversation. We tell her she's a good friend. I might pursue a romance later (if I haven't just locked myself out of it, but I think the BG2 romance track is completely separate) but for now, let's keep it profesh.  We're not going to Werewolf Isle yet, just getting the ball rolling for later.  We do, however, get a tip on a ghost in the lighthouse. Apparently there's some restless dead underneath that won't let her get any rest either.  We...have some fun.  And find the third of the Ghost Pirate's sons, who apparently fell in with a bad crowd at some point. (We get a cursed scimitar for our trouble. Yay.)  She still can't be at peace though, apparently she needs to catch the scent of her boyfriend, and we're sent to the Friendly Arms Inn to buy some perfume he used to favor. We pick some up and will swing by when we're next in Ulgoth's Beard.  We finally reconnect with Illasera, who is less concerned about Nerys being kidnapped by the Night Knives than she is about the Red Wizard hideout. But she sees how one is connected to the other, and she at least has some advice, namely that we should check in with either the local Thieves Guild or the Flaming Fist to see where they might be holed up. Thieves Guild is closer, but Alatos has hosed off since we finished his quest, so we head to Scar.  He points us in the direction of a warehouse in the Docks district. But first..  Okay, just one question. Who the gently caress is Sarevok?  SCS adds a couple of additional enemies to this fight, and it's a tough one, but we come through the other side in pretty good shape. (You're seeing us after everyone runs around like an AI-scripted healbot, of course.) Before we head on to Candlekeep there are a couple matters left. Most immediately, rescuing Nerys and dealing with the Red Wizards.  Scar's intel is good and we come across the Night Knives holed up in this warehouse. For vampire spawn, they're not much of a threat, even if they did trap the place.  Nerys tells us about a secret passage in the sewers into a Thayvian hideout.  This is one of two big fights inside the compound (aside from some mooks along the way). This guy summons portals which in turn summon mephits, imps, quasits, and other such things til we kill them. (There are for some reason two of the same ogre mage here. It doesn't really help him.)  And here's the big bad from Thay. She's about to wipe the floor with us when...  ...turns out we were just one prong of a two-pronged attack. Cherise fucks off to try to deal with what I assume to be Illasera, while we mop up her lackeys.  We find a letter left behind from a mysterious S, and an equally mysterious gem.  We reconnect with Illasera who tells us about her side of the fight, which was inconclusive. The gem, she thinks, will let her get back into Cherise's astral sanctum, but it's going to take a while for her to do the research. I'm gonna skip ahead a bit, because this is getting long, but there's really just one last loose end to tie up: the Serpents of Abbathor quest. Through a long and convoluted series of encounters, we end up back at the Nashkel Mines, which have been taken over by the Serpents. We find Emerson holed up in one of the nearby buildings, but really we're here to stop the schemes of the Serpents' boss, a cleric called Lugosch.  Trust me, this would not make much more sense if I'd shown you the entire quest. The Gungmator is an artifact that summons Dwarf Shadows, or something. Anyway we kill them.  Emerson tells us after all this that if we go back and rest at the inn, the next time we come back things will be back to normal. Lol we're never coming here again.
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Dec 31, 2023 22:21
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So, Jackie and crew meet up with Duke Eltan and he sends us first-class Teleport Without Error to Candlekeep's gates, with a book to secure our entry.  Oh look, the welcome wagon. One of SCS's fun little pranks is to move the ogre mage assassin's party. Of course there's no chance to prebuff because why would there be? Still, they're not really much of a threat to us at this point. We waste little time heading into the library.  Breagar has an appreciation for the finer things.  "Koveras The Human?" Checks out.  We decide not to murder Rieltar and company and content ourselves with Imoen pickpocketing them blind.  So, uh, anyone notice that? Anyone? Thoughts?  It's not long after that we find the letter from Gorion explaining our heritage, and then get arrested for a murder we probably didn't commit.  So your theory is, and let me be clear about this, that I, who GREW UP HERE AND KNOW YOU PERSONALLY, am an agent from Amn?  Thanks, Imoen, that's really...that's helpful.  Most NPCs are pretty supportive when we learn about Dear Ol' Dad, if they react at all. Breagar is a bit more pensive about it.   Our (almost) last tomes. Breagar gets the Strength one and Emily gets the Wisdom one (and the one from Durlag's tower, which I forgot to screenshot)  ...man, can you imagine if this had been real?  I like to think these later doppelgangers are taking the form of the Tutorial Monks. "Click Here To PERISSSSSSSHHHHHHHthsthsths"  Breagar decides our heroic reputation and sunny personality are more important than our death-god heritage. We leave Candlekeep and decide that getting out of town for a while sounds like just the thing. Yes, a nice little salvage mission to clear our heads.  Some are more skeptical about this plan than others.  This is the last loving time I fly ShandalAir.  In case it weren't quite clear, Breagar, uh, is not fond of the sea. Or sea travel. Or anything related to the sea. Or anything at all, really.  Wow, it sure would be a shame if all of us and this Selaad, who we've probably never met, ended up at each others' throats as a result of some stupid misunderstanding that either of you could clear up at any time, huh?  Oh, what is there really even to say about Werewolf Isle? We kill Karoug, make our escape, actually manage to talk Kaishas down (because of a timely Wisdom potion and some adjustments that I think SCS makes)  Oh. Okay then, Faldorn.  And then negotiations break down with our employer. Turns out that even if we're not proficient, the anti-werewolf weapons are the only things for this particular fight. Well after that disaster, we're still hoping for some R&R so we sign up for the Durlag's Tower Adventure Tour.  Hi our tour guide and most of our tour group was murdered and we were wondering who to see about a refund  Breagar, your sarcasm IS NOT HELPING...or was that not sarcasm?  Well this clearly wasn't the information desk.  Look we did not sign up for the escape room  So that's a no on the refund then?  Okay that's just uncalled for. We want to speak to your manager.  Turns out giving someone 4 stars out of 5 really does ruin their life  This is an odd overreaction to filing a complaint with the travel agency.  At last, the manager.  We decided we've put things off long enough. It's time to clear up this Sarevok mess once and for all.  It's VERY NEARLY time to clear up this Sarevok mess once and for all. (There is actually a decent pretext for interrupting the endgame to deal with Cherise, namely that it's better to fight her now than have her helping out Sarevok at the end.) Illasera can't join us in hunting Cherise in her astral hideout, since Cherise has warded the place against her specifically after her first attack, but she does give us some idea of what to expect, namely trolls, ice salamanders, and golems.  Most of these bodies were already here, a result of Illasera's previous invasion.  We come across one of Cherise's lieutenants, who, after a bit of talking, figures out that Cherise's mission wasn't exactly sanctioned by Thay. She's not willing to help but she'll give us one of the four gems that will unlock Cherise's panic room. She also tells us that Cherise has a cambion and a rakshasa on standby, and that there's a giant being held prisoner. The other gems are scattered around, mostly on corpses, some surrounded by freed monsters like this small army of golems and shambling mounds.  We at one point find a fiery wardstone that doesn't seem to be one of the portal keys. And here's a prisoner, a Herald of Yaga-Shura, whoever that is. He agrees to both give us a magic item and take out Cherise himself if we set him free.  But apparently he gets a message from his god that we're a Bhaalspawn and that he should probably kill us. He summons some souped-up fire elementals, which makes this a really annoying fight.  I'm glad I packed some Raise Dead scrolls.  We collect the last gems and make our way to Cherise. She reveals that she's an ex Bhaal cultist and some Mysterious Assassin I Wonder Who It Could Be killed most of her colleagues and set her on this path. She wants to ally with Sarevok for safety's sake, I think. Anyway, we finish the job that Illasera apparently started.  Illasera turns up when we're done and sends us back to deal with Sarevok himself.  "Hi, we have an invitation, ignore the blood and the crossed out names."  Belt and Liia Jannath both survive the fight. Liia gets the benefit of SCS mage enhancements so she's quite hard to kill. (The teleport field is her doing.) We go through the Thieves Maze as susual, and I decide to sneak past the mercenary group. I usually fight them but I really want to be done. I might double back and fight them later (which I can do because of the Endless BG mod) but for now, let's get this done.  Oh good, she's here to help. (She actually in fact is here to help, which is a welcome surprise.)  "But of course, you know my crew. Angelo, Semaj, Tazok, Diarmid, Count Rapula..." SCS makes this fight a bit tougher. Sarevok can't be hurt until all of his acolytes are dead. (And after they die they come back as skeleton warriors.) Faldorn falls at some point during the fight and I'm basically force-feeding half the party healing potions every few seconds.  That's right. It ends here underneath BALDUR'S GATE CITAAAAAAAAY  It takes some time, but we are victorious, and Sarevok falls to Jackie's hand (and poison from Jackie's club). Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has defeated Sarevok! Honors: Ironling, Strategist, Double Damage, Librarian, Trap Dodger, Honorable Trader, Battlemaster (I don't think Jackie even danced during this fight). And then a straggler skeleton warrior killed Emily. Whoops. Good thing I packed even more Raise Dead scrolls!
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Jan 1, 2024 19:36
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Ginette Reno posted:Next up was some Druids in Larswood. Or is it Peldvale? I always get the two mixed up. I was quick to launch a magical assault on these guys to ensure they didn't get off a nasty call lightning or insect plague on me. I forget if these guys can do insect plague, but I'm always terrified of Druids using that on me, and with my mods I'm not putting it past them being able to do that. I've definitely seen them cast Insect Plague before, yeah.
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Jan 2, 2024 22:45
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Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has not left a campsite better than he found it. So what's a perfectly normal human who is also half of an orc to do when he's just killed his murdergod-worshipping half-brother (and has the Endless BG mod installed)?    Loot that body, of course! The sword is a quest item only, there to be given to the Grand Dukes so it can be stolen by Korlasz's folks later. We get to keep the armor and helmet, though, and between the armor and the Cloak of Balduran, Breagar is now rocking 55% magic resistance. Endless BG does a couple of things, most immediately delaying the transition to Siege of Dragonspear so we're left to go back to the Ducal Palace under our own power. (Some Flaming Fist troops turn up to secure the Bhaal Shrine, and heal us up, though I'd already used scrolls to raise Faldorn and Emily so I dunno if they'd have done that for us.) I elect not to swing back after the mercenaries in the area just outside (or the high-level monster group added by Enhanced Extra Encounters Etc. or whatever the gently caress it's called) and instead sneak over to the exit. We're thankfully able to bypass the Thieves Maze completely this time (this will only work once).  On our way back to the palace, we get one last encounter with Elminster the Exposition Wizard.  Belt throws us a quick ceremony where he names Jackie the Hero of Baldur's Gate.  We have a couple options here, including 'loving off and doing anything we haven't already done in BG1' and 'skip straight to BG2'. I elect Option 1 which sends us straight to Korlasz's Tomb (which has an entrance in Central Baldur's Gate now).  Notice that Imoen is still in the party. This is the other thing that Endless BG does. She's still gone for the bulk of Siege of Dragonspear though. (Imoen 4Ever would let her stick around but I don't have that installed.)  This mummified dude wishes to lodge a noise complaint.  Goddammit, Faldorn, I'm glad I'm never gonna see you again after this unless we inexplicably end up on opposite sides of a conflict in Amn later on or something, but how likely is that?  If we let her surrender we just have to fight her later, so we opt to end things now.  Liia just likes casting Teleport Field I guess.  Again, we can choose to stick around, skip to Chateau Irenicus, or just get on with SoD. We choose the latter.  Breagar sticks around for SoD. He doesn't have a lot of specific content til BG2 but he's still a welcome good-aligned non-Minsc fighter for our ranks. (Nothing wrong with Minsc, but he and Dynaheir aren't ultimately going to fit into the party I've got in mind).  I love that our options here are "ultra-noble" and "a bunch of whining".  Oh well I guess I'll just have to fall back on my small fortune in gems. Commander Corwin of the Flaming Fist (who is either unaware of our Gorgon's Eye shenanigans or doesn't care) thinks we'd like to meet up with some old friends.  Sorry, no, never met any of these people.  I'm pretty sure I spoke to them once apiece.  Nope, not ringing any bells.  We do in fact run into a familiar face at the Three Old Kegs. Drake actually does have some SoD specific content, and he'll be coming along. We do all the boring preliminary stuff, and I recruit all the people available to me at this time (though Safana's the only one who will be sticking around, I turn her into a Swashbuckler).  Oh good, a mysterious hooded figure.  Oh come on, Mr. Silvershield, how likely is it that, for example, your daughter might be irrevocably killed and her soul sealed inside of a magical artifact and we're left to take the fall? You know, just as an example.  Recorder (and several other modded NPCs) are available in SoD, and we'll take her along this time since without Imoen or Emily (who will turn up later) I'm a bit short on good-aligned casters. She's a Lorekeeper, a Bard kit that gets more spellcasting and less fighty stuff.  Solid castery stats. You'll also notice that she's got ranks in Open Locks and Find Traps, thanks to the Skills and Abilities mod that gives Bards these options. So I don't technically need Safana and I may swap her out later but she's fine where she is for now.  ...he's a doppelganger! Get him!  Recorder is a mostly gentle and contemplative soul, and she'd like to know more about Caelar. So would we.  I don't have a lot of SoD-specific mods installed (NPCs aside), but there is one I'm trying out called Road to Discovery, which basically lets us pool and share the information we've gathered about Caelar and the Crusade. This guy is a junior exposition wizard and we can tell him whatever we learn throughout the journey. I'm hoping this will address the thing I like least about SoD, which is that it seems to insist that we play dumb about Hephernaan's plans long after we've blown them wide open.  Recorder can play her flute at the Menhirs.  Drake shares some backstory about a raid on the village where he was living with his uncle as a teenager. He's taking the absolute destructive swathe that Caelar's Crusade is cutting a bit personally as a result.  ...okay this is mostly not our fault.  Not pictured: Drake dying because the Call Lightning spell that the mercenaries cast kept going during the cutscene with Caelar.  Oh great, these losers again.  They don't really take "we killed some of you already" that well, but elect not to start anything while our army is just over the hill.  And here's Emily. She was trying to head home but the Crusade got in her way. She was also traveling with another Aasimar named Jacob that we agree to keep an eye out for, since she's afraid he might have been receptive to Caelar's pitch.  Emily could also sing to the Menhir but we stick with Recorder.  Oh good. It's hard not bringing M'Khiin along, since she's my favorite Beamdog NPC by a considerable margin, but it's really hard to justify two shamans (and I think the spirit summoning gets wonky if there's more than one shaman in the party, especially since because of Jackie's kit there'd be different summons entirely and it would just be a mess).  It is...somewhat easier not bring Rasaad along.  We could recruit Helga (though her name's hosed up in a mod bug that I thought had long since been fixed) the dwarven cleric if we want. I like her, but we're good, thanks.  Safana gets knocked out by a stinking cloud and then arrowed to death before I can do anything about it. Therre's a reason I'm stocking up on Raise Dead scrolls at this point. (Jackie's kit doesn't get the free Raise Dead spell that Shamans normally do.) This dungeon can be a real meat grinder especially at Insane SCS levels, but we persevere and eventually  Coldhearth got some 'splaining to do  Yeah, not so long and prosperous after we and our magic lich-killing rock get through with you, buddy. We kill him, grab his phylactery, kill him again, and chuck the thing in the fire, destroying him with (and this is important) one charge left on the lich-killing rock. Up next: Bridgefort.
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Jan 3, 2024 18:35
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Thread is updated to this point.
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Jan 4, 2024 01:28
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:"Murdark." As in "murder + dark". She is an ~edgy~ Evil Twin. (It is still pronounced "Murdock", so the rest of the family had no idea.) Whoops, sorry about that! Fixed now. Also, congrats on making it to the big city!
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Jan 4, 2024 15:24
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Mattea "DireDevil" Murdark, EVIL Gnome Fighter/Thief, has killed Sarevok. Wow, congratulations! Not sure I'm going to get to any OP updates tonight yet, but the record of history shall soon, uh, record your mighty deeds
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Jan 5, 2024 03:57
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 Skie is adjusting well to life in the Flaming Fist. While Jackie and crew bear witness to her pushback against traditional military discipline, we meet someone at the edge of the Troll Claw woods camp who needs some help for a friend.  The friend turns out to be a chimera, being hunted by some Icewind Dale 2 refugees. (Seriously. Legion of the Chimera is namechecked, at least.)  They're no pushovers but we're freshly rested and buffed and we make short work of them.  Honestly I prefer Breagar calling me 'foolish half-orc' all the time to this poo poo.  Kava and company open up to a fellow half-orc about the treasure they got separated from and we agree to let the matter rest. We don't really need more treasure at this point.  Oh is THAT why this place is called Troll Claw Woods  ...okay buddy. I do briefly consider swapping Safana out for him or Jaheira, but in the end I decide to stick with the party I've got, mostly because I can't be bothered to gently caress with anyone else's equipment.  Nice to see that Caelar's people honor the traditional Ask A Passing Adventurer system for search and rescue missions.  Ah, chemical warfare.  Sure, fine, why not?  Okay, thanks for warning us that spiders are the worst things we'll run into in this area.  Um...so not to be rude...  BUT DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT A loving SPIDER IS? We actually get criminally lucky with Morentherene, as she gets stunned by an early Icelance and doesn't get a chance to use her poison breath on us at all.  Bugbears are really not a problem by comparison  This temple's changed hands once twice since the olden days when it was home to a Bhaal cult, but she's a remnant of the before times.  They don't believe us when we tell them we got separated from the tour for some reason.  Oh, Morentherene was your sister? Uh, soz?  Hooray, a reward from the Crusade!  We tell Madele to go and sin no more  Oh what the gently caress  I pick a completely unnecessary fight with the shadow aspect and prevail. Glitterdust is extremely useful here, as well as the other usual anti-invisibility tricks. Even so, Jackie's health gets a bit lower than I like. This would be an extremely stupid death considering none of us are short sword users. Fortunately, it's only a very stupid near miss.  ...well poo poo. We win but not before the mind flayer chows down on a bit of Jackie's brain. Fortunately he's got just enough brainpower to spare that this ends up being a second near miss.  She's supposed to hand over the wardstone peacefully at this point but something's bugged and she doesn't. So we acquire it a different way.  On our way back to the bridge encampment we run into a lot of goblins. This is after two fireballs.  And just like that, we're in the camp. There's a little bit to do here before we head into Bridgefort proper.  ...yeah okay buddy.  We'll, uh, get right on that.  This is slightly promising. We have a chance to witness Caelar's priest giving the troops a divine blessing.  Turns out it's not much more than some inspirational rhetoric and a light show. No actual gods involved.  Hey, Uncle Khalid (What? Imoen's not here so someone's got to give him poo poo)  It's Old Home Week for people we've barely met before around here  Drake has one Lesser Restoration prepped, and when the anti-life meteor hits he promptly uses it on himself. Thanks, bro.  Recorder is our resident Smart Person and gives us the lowdown.  He's a bit less thrilled to hand over the scroll than usual, I think possibly because of the mod I have installed, but he still does it, and we beat feet in case the flavor text about him maybe raising an alarm isn't just flavor text.  Drake pokes holes in this "Lathander" cleric's story straight away but we still go and try to locate Ymori, the priest she tries to blame for some missing items from the bodies.  You've cracked the mystery, Detective Drake! (And then I completely forget to give Kendra's necklace back to her brother. Oh well!)  Recorder is full of inspiring words as we decide it's time to bring the fight to the Crusade. We don't bother waiting for the Flaming Fist. Khalid is still level 1 so into the bubble he goes.  The fight goes pretty well for us til we get word that a mage is planning on pulling the Blow Up The Bridge trick again. Some dispel arrows sort his lunch out though.  In the end, everything's fine  Er...  Okay, so, I know this looks bad...  Let's just get on to the castle. Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has ruined another bridge. Naah, not ruined. That'll buff right out.
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Jan 5, 2024 19:03
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Thread's updated to this point. (I actually updated it before my last post but forgot to say.)
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Jan 5, 2024 22:50
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:What's the established protocol for custom parties in the context of class-based honors/dishonors? I'd say both, probably, but just do whatever feels right, it's really no big deal
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Jan 6, 2024 15:15
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 Eh, sure, no stranger than dancing up some ancestral spirits, I guess, we'll see what we can do.  We meet a wounded Ilmater follower who doesn't want to be healed. We talk him into letting us heal him in exchange for taking a bit of damage ourselves, on Drake's advice.  The Passing Adventurer principle applies to many civic institutions in the Sword Coast, ranging from jurisprudence and criminal investigations to debt servicing and health care.  Drake lets on that he's written home to request some support against the crusade, and the group of supplies and reinforcements that was promised hasn't turned up yet, and he's getting a little concerned. We agree to keep an eye out.  Safana's stumbled across a traitor while indulging in some freelance pickpocketry, but she doesn't know who she stole the treasonous stuff from.  ...of loving course.  Our main objective is to find our way underneath Dragonspear Castle and plant some explos-, some, uh, BWOOSH to undermine things. Also if we could poison the troops' supplies that would be swell. We can act shocked, SHOCKED, at these devilish battle tactics but Jackie doesn't give a poo poo.  ...good for you, buddy.  ...  We ask around and the trail of evidence eventually leads us to Malden Col, who gets arrested.  We find that Skie has been cornered by Crusade mercenaries outside the castle. We rescue her and send her home.  And we get some new boots for the dwarf sentry.  I forget to screenshot any of it but we killed a basilisk for a druid hermit and he gave us the cure. I don't have any druids in the party myself at the moment or we could have mixed up the cure myself, which is my usual approach to this quest, but this works out fine.  Yeah, we definitely don't want anything to happen to Skie.  Emily invites us to come home with her when this is over, but gets a little skittish when we bring up the implications of what this might mean. She's caught between personal feelings (which she has) and her duty to her family, who are already a bit skeptical about her due to her not being fully human (and they just think she's a half-elf). Hooking up with a half-orc Child of Bhaal isn't going to do wonders for her claim to her noble title.  Speaking of succession battles, we come across some ogres in the midst of one. We decide to support Murs (whose mate, their former chief, was captured by the 'Shiners') and she agrees to send some support our way when the time is right.  Well it WAS a secret place. He doesn't really buy our story about being with the crusade, so a fight it must be.  Even with some support from the local druids, this ends up being a pretty tough fight, tougher than I usually remember it being anyway, and Drake's got his hands full unconfusing half the party at one point. We eventually prevail  And get ourselves an official Caelar Argent Secret Decoder Ring for our trouble. We decide to do a little bit of good old fashioned espionage before we press onward.  On our way to the Crusade encampment, we come across that party from Amn that Drake was worried about being beset by orogs. We pitch in to help, naturally.  Among the party is Drake's little brother Tomas. We'll reconnect with them all at the coalition camp but first  If you'll just look at this badge, no, wait, ignore that, that's just an old invitation to the Baldur's Gate ducal palace, ah, here we go, don't mind the bloodstains, you'll see that we're members of the Crusade in good standing. Jackie Daytona the Half-Orc Warhorn Shaman has infiltrated the Crusade.
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Jan 6, 2024 15:49
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Jackie Daytona has fallen in single combat with that cheater Ashatiel during the final push into Dragonspear. (I guess opening with a Greater Command that left him helpless isn't TECHNICALLY cheating but still...) Tried to get someone else in position with a dispel but no one was fast enough. Whew. I think I've still got at least one more attempt in me. Not sure as what yet, though.
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Jan 6, 2024 19:21
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Ginette Reno posted:drat. Sucks to die that deep into SOD. My condolences! That fight's never really been a problem for me before. It shouldn't have been this time either but she caught me while I was waiting out the cooldown on the shaman dance so I couldn't buff or use potions or anything at all. Oh well!
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Jan 6, 2024 22:25
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Meet Anders the Halfling Warlock.  The last time I played this (mod) kit, it was extremely broken, both in the "very powerful" sense and the "very bug-ridden" sense. But it's had a few updates since then so let's see if either is still true! Functionally it's a bard kit but gets no conventional spellcasting (and only gains the ability to use mage scrolls at level 12). (If we survive that long Anders will also get the mage stronghold rather than the bard one.) Instead we get access to a once-per-round eldritch blast that can be modified in a number of ways as Anders levels, and a small handful of at-will Invocations.  We're starting with this invocation, a long-term dexterity and movespeed buff.  BEHOLD MY ELDRITCH MIGHT We leave Candlekeep as usual and proceed to powerlevel a bit. Well, that's the plan.  We grab this invocation too. A number of Warlock invocations and abilities get buffed with extra-high charisma so we're going to try to get ours as extra-high as possible. The +2 from this nets us an extra point of dexterity from Leaps and Bounds already.  Things go...poorly...outside of High Hedge. To make a long story short, between this and a couple encounters we can't avoid, Imoen dies and we go through our early supply of healing potions making sure Anders doesn't join her. We trudge off to raise her up and then go back because there's a chicken with a date with destiny.  And after all that, Melicamp doesn't even survive.  After a brief stint in Basilisk Hell, Anders hits level 5 and we pick up this invocation next. I'll probably swap it out later for a different one (we only get three Least invocations ever, but we can swap one out every time we hit an odd-numbered level) but for now this AC boost is pretty significant for our early survival.  Mutamin falls, though we chew through even more health potions to make it happen. And now it's time to gather a party together.  Once more, I pick up Breagar, what can I say, I love the guy.  We've seen Finch, Cleric and Librarian, before cooling her heels in Candlekeep and she helps us out in the fight against Karlat. This time I'm recruiting her. And giving her the Lorekeeper of Oghma kit from Divine Remix -- she's actually a Deneir cleric but that's about as close as the kits I have installed will let me get. We head to the Friendly Arms to pick up Jaheira, Khalid, and some ankheg treasure before heading south.  Here's Anders trying out a new blast shape, which fires in a line, and a modified Hellfire Blast, which does fire damage. The line attack is not party-friendly, and there's a brief but embarrassing incident where Anders sets Jaheira on fire.  Neira's down and we're in Nashkel.
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Jan 7, 2024 23:16
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Thread updated to this point. Rogue AI Goddess posted:Joan d'Orc, half-orc berserker has set out from Candlekeep to follow her visions. Here's hoping she won't get martyred early! Yesssss... Did you retire Mattea or did she meet a grim fate at the hands of David Warner? Or neither?
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Jan 9, 2024 02:08
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:As is her wont, she is hiding in shadows (of Amn) and biding her time. So noted! Meanwhile, Anders the Halfling Warlock's continuing adventures, uh, continue...  ...which apparently include civic improvement. This is the heart of Finch's NPC quest, which is to gather some rare volumes suitable for Nashkel's new library, which makes it sound a whole lot more involved than "collect some books we run across in various places" needs to be but so it goes. Our first book is sitting in a chest at the carnival. But first...  ...no, we didn't skip ahead to BG2, and no she won't be joining our party, but yes this is that Aerie, and she's here courtesy of a little mod that didn't install properly during my last run. She's here primarily as a hook for the Zordral-Bentha hostage situation, and becomes a temple and merchant ...assuming you survive the fight with Zordral.  (Which we do)  And there's our first book.  Good question! Moving on. We head up to Ulgoth's Beard for our traditional five-finger discount on a ring of freedom, and clear out the rest of the ankhegs in Ankheg Hell along the way, because we need some decent armor for my people.  Armor costs money and this lunatic's bounty will cover our costs nicely. Bassilus can be a bit frightening in SCS, but not when he's been stunned three seconds into the fight by a handy Icelance. Imoen's an Arcane Trickster again, and Artisan's Kitpack has been updated since the last time I played, and what I'm getting around to saying is that her backstab progression is now at an even more significant penalty than before. (I *think* she just hit x2 backstabs.) But the Impromptu Sneak Attack ability that Arcane Trickster gets inflicts a save penalty, so a stab followed immediately by a spell can be a very potent combo. It's a combo I plan to abuse a lot.  Breagar's not just talking here, these are both things that he really, really cares about.  Please don't insult the nice man until he actually pays us, Jaheira.  With Jaheira in the party, this kicks off a brief bit of sniping between the two.  Unusual sword, you say?  New sword, you say?  Wow, it's a very nearly magical katana.  As Ginette Reno mentioned, this fight against the kobold shaman that SCS throws in can get a little intense. He didn't get a lightning bolt off but he did get a snowball swarm and a slow and as you can see we're a bit banged up afterwards. We get some rest (eventually, it takes quite a few tries) and press on.  Mulahey falls to the same one-two sneak-attack/icelance punch and the rest is just cleanup.  Khalid seeks some reassurance that we're not just in this for revenge. We assure him that we aren't, and we're probably not lying.  Now look, what good's a dagger gonna do a dead man anyway?  Has the combination of 'wizard' and 'experiment' ever resulted in good things?  It certainly didn't for him!  Imoen strikes down the famed assassin NIMBUL and gets a lecture for her trouble. Anders the Halfling Warlock is playing second fiddle to Imoen the Arcane Trickster. For now.
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Jan 9, 2024 05:06
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DeadButDelicious posted:When would anyone say is the cut off point for starting a run? I realise we're still early into January but I'm coming up on some parts of SoD that I'm quite convinced will be the death of lil' Ramon and I have an idea for a new character in mind just in case. There's no real cutoff. As long as people are playing and having fun I'm happy to keep updating the thread. Speaking of, work's been a little busy and I've been a little dead outside of it these past couple days, but I expect to have the thread up-to-date later today.
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Jan 10, 2024 14:38
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DeadButDelicious posted:Ramon Salazar has been slain in 1-on-1 combat with Ashatiel, thus ending his run drat, another notch on Ashatiel's belt! Condolences, friend. OP updated to this point.
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Jan 10, 2024 22:30
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 06:45 |
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Anders the Halfling Warlock has been getting on with things across the Sword Coast.  The werewolf quest from Ascalon's Questback has a happier ending this time, as Thalantyr's potion works and the poor fellow is restored.  The reward (a +1 flaming longsword) is exactly the same as if we'd killed him (though it takes a bit more busywork to get it) but the warm and fuzzy feeling is a nice bonus.  So what's that old saying about overconfidence?  It's...it's good, right?  Yeah, it's fine.  These guys ambush us but we're more than up to the challenge.  I really kind of dislike BG1 NPC's version of Jaheira.  Rather than dying and being raised, this time Breagar ends up unconscious and with one hp, which is in some ways worse, because it's very easy for him to die in the ensuing fight with Droth and, you know, NOT get raised. That doesn't happen this time, thankfully, and we get ourselves a free helmet.  We deal with some sirines and some pirates (the latter added by yet another mod) and some flesh golems (against which Anders' eldritch blast is basically useless. He'll eventually get access to an acid-based blast that bypasses magic resistance but that's not available til at least level 13). The Constitution tome that is our prize goes to Breagar, though he won't see the benefits til he gets his ROBOT ARM and his damaged constitution gets restored.  I love this goddamned stupid reference so much. I am sadly old enough to legitimately recognize it.  The tougher of our two wandering assassin fights. Imoen ends up dying again. A million trillion gnolls later and  This one goes to Anders. His 'natural' charisma is now 19, +2 from Algernon's cloak, +2 from Beguiling Influence. He gets bonuses to Leaps and Bounds, and the saves against Brimstone Blast's catch-on-fire effect for every couple of points, too, so this isn't just for show.  We have a rather martial bounty and Anders decides we need a cleric with a bit more muscle than Finch, so we temporarily sub in Branwen. (This is actually because there's an alternate resolution to one of the missions in Black Hearts that requires an NPC cleric that the mod actually recognizes as an NPC cleric, so none of these modded NPCs need apply.)  We're fighting a bunch of possessed adventures. It gets a bit touch and go especially after the cleric gets very lucky with a silence spell and literally none of us can cast spells. (Though said cleric undoes part of it with a dispel a moment later, which goes to show that the thing about overconfidence cuts both ways).  We wait out the silence and talk to the last survivor. Branwen offers to do an exorcism, which means we're going to have to fight a demon.  As demons go it's kind of a chump.  The survivor tells us a tale, hands over what's left of the cursed mirror that possessed everyone, and goes on her way. And so do we, to pick Finch back up.  Illasera (our quest-giver for Black Hearts) is not too broken up about the mirror's broken up state, but she tells us that she's got things to do. So do we. Anders will be heading for the Bandit Camp soon. Probably.
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Jan 11, 2024 04:27
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