Sendai's enclave - spoilers

[Celacena]

I have not played ToB as far as Sendai for a while - I enjoy BGII and often don't carry on the parties.

I have been on cruise control for most of the game - after splattering Yagga-Shura and his nasty mum - I kicked Marlowe's lich's butt all the way to the 9th circle and back. after a slightly challanging situation with drow and a Hive Mother, when I eventually got to the enclave, I wandered through the first part with little difficulty - Jaheira has the exploding club, Anomen Crom, Mazzy a selection of death-dealing weapons and the PC has the staff of the ram +6.

I used a simulcrum to cast from a scroll of protection from undead and protection from magic on Sir Anomen and he destroyed the lich - Sir Anomen hitting him with Crom and the PC with the Ram, he was recent history without much sweat.

SHOCK and AWE

Imagine my surprise a few doors away in Sendai's enclave to have faced what must literally have been an army of Duergar beserkers - hell - I lost 5 of my party pretty quickly - as more and more enemies came from all sides - I was surrounded by the bodies of the tens we had slain, but still more came. I went after the slave-master and then gangs of ogres turned up. even a level 23 mage can need to retreat sometimes. I was bashing them to pieces in about 2 hits with the staff of the ram +6 and 22 STR, but there were just so many that even planetars couldn't remove them quick enough.

even with our capacity to deal serious damage, both magical and physical - that army seemed almost unstoppable. The PC had to retreat to the plane to recuperate. going back, I used invisibility to get close to the slave master and summoned a planetar - he unleashed a fire storm and used his globe of blades to enter the fray - we soon saw off the slave master (who it must be said must have been scripted to avoid my 'maze') - once the slave master was down, we set to work on the rest, who did not seem to get any more reinforcements. I had a hell of a job finding the equipment of the NPCs who had been killed - I was collecting the spoils in piles and nipping back to the pocket plane with the loot - I have sooo many suits of plate, +2 katanas, +2 two handed swords, crossbows etc -and a fair amound of elven chain. I'm thinking of holding a garage sale, if anybody is interested.

the point of all this?

a lesson in humility! even with an uber-party with level 9 spells aplenty and lots of HLA - sheer numbers of tough opponents can take you to the edge.


edit - I sold a batch of the weapons and armour to the guy near the wrecked convoy - plate, elven chain and chain +1 - well over 50 suits sold - and that was just the best that I looted. I have sold at least 32x 2 handed swords +2 and have some left, together with +2 short-swords, crossbows (+1 light/heavy and +2/3) - in my massive golf sale I netted over 300k in coin.