On the other hand, it is a curse, because the improved Pit Friends are very, very, and I am not exaggerating here, very nasty…
Yeah I'd call a poison bite that does 999 points of damage 'nasty' too. These encounters can degenerate rapidly into chaos, especially when they summon another fiend who in turn summons another fiend and so on. You can end up with a kind of pit fiend carpet effect when the bodies start to mount up. At least you get experience for killing them though, assuming you can actually kill them...in the unseeing eye quest I just grabbed the gauntlets of dexterity and left them to it.
The sun is shining, the weather is sweet, its time for some pleasant time with the Shadow Thieves. After paying Renal a visit, he explained us that a traitor by the name of Mae’Var needed taken care of.
We infiltrated his guild, did some test, met up with Minsc’ old pal Edwin and did some more errands. When we finally had the trust of Mae’Var, Edwin showed us his true nature and helped us betray the evil thief. We brought the evidence to Renal, who in turn, asked us to take care of Mae’Var. No problem with that I thought and we went inside the guild. Word obviously got around that I betrayed Mae’Var, because I was immediately attacked by a few thieves. We killed them and quickly moved on to Mae’Var himself.
We did our usual pre-buffing. Upon entering Mae’Var’s little basement Jaheira summoned a Fire Elemental, Tashia used her Staff of Air to summon an Air Elemental and Yoshimo and I planted a few traps. The first thieves were quickly hit by the traps and hell broke lose. Not only the thieves, but also Mae’Var and a priest came looking for us. Unfortunately, Tashia doesn’t have True Sight memorized yet and Jaheira got more important spells in her druid collection. So Jaheira decided to cast Insect Plague. Ones again the spell proved his worth, because we could see every invisible thief this way. Tashia dispelled some protections, threw in a slow spell and moved on to the offensive spells, such as Flame Arrow, MM, etc. In the meantime, I was shooting my arrows at the thieves who were visible and Minsc and Dalis hacked happily away at the rest of the enemies. Soon everyone was dead except Mae’Var…
He’s really annoying if you don’t have a decent Invisible dispelling spell at your disposal. The good thing however, is that after an attack on Dalis, whom had stoneskin up and running, Mae’Var got visible. Everyone quickly threw everything he or she had at him and the thief went down fast. Celestial Fury proving its stunning ability ones more, it's truly a great weapon!
Only Yoshimo and Minsc were injured, suffering from the nasty Backstabs. These attacks do a lot of damage and you really need to watch out not to get hit too often.
Anyway, Renal was obviously very pleased and we got some gold and a pretty worthless sword from him. We sold the items we got from the encounter with Mae’Var and were suddenly approached by a woman named Valen. She said someone wanted to meet me at the Graveyard at night.
However, Delon, the little boy who asked us to help out Imnesville before, came with a new request for help. Since it was early in the morning and we couldn’t pay a visit to the Graveyard yet, we decided to help the small town out. On our way to Imnesville we dropped by at the Arnise Hold (yes, I have two nice Strongholds), solved some problems there and moved on to the Umar hills. We killed a few Orcs, saved the town again and moved back to the graveyard of Atkathla…
A mysterious figure awaited us there in the dim light of the still shining sun. He walked up to us and introduced himself. His name was Kurosian and he claimed to be after Celestial Fury. Unfortunately for him, Dalis is very fond of the sword and since we are fond of both him and the sword we were not willing to give it up. That apparently angered the guy and he attacked us. The nasty thing, is that he was fully buffed while we were still surprised by the attack. So we moved away from the battle and went to the closest area possible, which was the slum district. Everyone prepared himself and went back to the graveyard, where Kurosian was still waiting for us.
This time Tashia did have True Sight memorized, thanks to a level up, so Kurosian’s Mirror Image was quickly gone. Jaheira attacked with enchanted scimitars, Dalis with Celestial Fury in his main hand and a normal katana off-hand. Yoshimo was attacking with two normal longswords and Minsc with the Flail of Ages and a normal flail. When Tashia breached Kurosians defences, I shot a rain of normal arrows at the guy, doing some harm. Kurosian himself wasn’t sitting still either and decided to throw in a Death Fog. Jaheira in turn, removed it. When he saw his Fog failed, our enemy protected himself from Magical Weapons. This was something he was quite fond of, because he protected himself with this spells and stoneskin quite often. This meant that Tashia had to dispel his stoneskin and we had to hit him with normal weapons. Me and my normal arrows turned out to be the decisive factor in this battle later on…
Kurosian then attacked Dalis, which was a big mistake. Dalis had all his protections up, including Protection from Acid. Of course I have this spell memorized. Ever since I got CF, it's sitting still in Dalis his spell book... Anyway, with Kurosian attacking Dalis (who was buffing continuously so he wouldn’t be hit) Tashia kept removing his protections. In a few second our fearsome foe fell, because of a critical hit from me and a few hits from both Dalis and Minsc. No one was really seriously injured, except for the acid damage.
We searched the dead body and found a great new weapon for Dalis; Sanchuudoku +4. What a marvellous weapon this is! It has regeneration, protection from acid and it launches an acid arrow at an attacker whenever the wielder is hit. Whether it is a spell that hits him or a weapon, an acid arrow will be shot up our enemy his ass. Now Dalis is wielding this new weapon off hand and Celestial Fury in his main hand. According to Minsc, a new havoc wrecking machine has landed in Faerun. So watch out evil-doers!!
My limbs hurt when I woke up at the Den of the Seven Vales. After our hard battle with Kurosian we figured some sleep would be a welcome relief. Especially Tashia seems to be very fond of the occasional nap.
After everyone was ready we travelled to the Graveyard again. We met up Bodhi and she offered us her help, more or less. Half of the party did not like the look of her and the information she gave or held back. We declined her proposal and left the district.
At this point Jaheira wondered if we could go back to Trademeet to solve the problems there. I figured it would be possible to go there now, since we’re strong enough. Especially Jaheira, who was now a level 10 fighter, level 12 Druid.
When we arrived in Trademeet everyone was acting as cold as before. After a short talk with the Lord of Trademeet, the captured druid named Cernd and a few Genies, we paid a visit to the Druid Grove. Let me start by saying that the Druid Grove has seriously been improved, entering it with a low level party will quickly result in death now.
Upon arrival a druid warned us not to venture further. Letting the name “Cernd” drop in the conversation luckily solved a few problems and we moved on deeper into the Grove.
The first thing we encountered was a troll, accompanied by a few small wyverns. They were quickly killed and we moved on. Soon we were ambushed by a few trolls and later some spiders. Nature embraced them too.
When we came to the entrance of the Troll Cave, a couple of Umberhulks, Giant Trolls and Spirit Trolls were guarding it. I was pretty much the same group as in the Arnise Hold. Beating it wouldn’t be too hard I figured and we attacked with only a few buffs up and running, such as Stoneskin and Mirror Image. But boy ohh boy we were in for a nasty surprise! Suddenly a few more Spirit Trolls appeared out of nowhere! I have no idea how many there were, but I am guessing eight Spirit Trolls in total or something. The nasty thing is that they were all throwing sleep spells around. The first round only Tashia, Yoshimo and Dalis were still awake. So they had to protect the rest of the party, including me. Luckily I was at the back of the party, since I was planning to shoot arrows there. Dalis buffed up some more and started attacking the Umberhulks and Yoshimo was distracting a couple of trolls by running in circles. Meanwhile Tashia was casting a few spells; Slow and two times Teleport Field. After some fighting time, the Umberhulks were dead, killed by Dalis.
All the trolls were still alive and well though and after another round of sleep spell casting, only Yoshimo was awake. This pretty much sucked, because we were sitting ducks for the trolls. The good thing is that most trolls could only attack someone one time before being teleported. A life-saving spell; Teleport Field.
A few trolls also went after Yoshimo, who was doing what he’s getting very good at, namely running. The bad news is that most trolls were hacking away at Dalis, who died in the process. A few seconds later however, me and Jaheira woke up and killed most of the Spirit Trolls. Ohh, how I love my abilities as an Archer.
Some seconds later, the rest of the party woke up and the remaining trolls were quickly dispatched.
Jaheira resurrected Dalis and we cleared the cave. We moved on, dispatched some Greater Earth Elementals, Shambling Mounds, the Rakasha the Genies were looking for and few other creatures. However, on our way we encountered the usual group of Druids. This time they were a lot, and I mean, ALOT stronger. A couple of werebears and -wolves accompanied the druids and every druid decided to throw an Insect Plague at me. So when every plague moved to me, I stepped away from the battle, running as far away as possible so my comrades wouldn’t be infected. Jaheira threw in an Insect Plague herself and Tashia also threw in the occasional mage spells while Minsc, Dalis and Yoshimo were trying to kill the werebears and –wolves. When these creatures were killed, the druids soon followed. During this entire battle I was far away, absorbing all the damage from the plagues and drinking a healing potion.
We moved on and attacked the last three druids guarding the entrance to Faldorn. Being with only three of them and six of us, they didn’t last long. We entered the cave and prepared Jaheira. To the max that is, because I’ve heard horror stories of this Improved Faldorn. Jaheira got the best equipment and potions we could gather. We pre-buffed her with Death Ward, Iron Skins, Chaotic Command, Resist Fire and Cold, Remove Fear and Magic Resistance. Before I started the dialog, she took a Potion of Speed and the combat started. We quickly threw all the equipment to Jaheira who put it on and swallowed a Potion of Generation. She then summoned a Fire Elemental and Minsc start shooting arrows at Faldorn, using the Guard-Button tactic. This however, failed miserably, because Faldorn has some sort of permanent Physical Mirror on her! Minsc was being hit by his own arrows and had to stop shooting before he killed himself…
Faldorn then casts Creeping Doom at Jaheira while attacking (yes, she does the two things at the same time!). This is just too much and Jaheira quickly goes down.
What an incredible bummer and now our best equipment is even in the middle of the pit! I resurrected Jaheira, but I figured she wouldn’t stand a chance if I would send her in battle again...
So I went to get Cernd and told Yoshimo to wait for us outside. Cernd was luckily a level 13 Shapeshifter, which meant he could shapeshift into a Greater Werewolf. We took a nap, memorized every powerful spell available and went inside to face Faldorn again. We buffed Cernd with almost the identical spells. That, and Champions Strength, since his THACO sucks (although transforming into a Greater Werewolf largely takes care of this problem). We challenged Faldorn again and Cernd was send into the pit. Here he took Jaheira’s former equipment, which was still lying around from the former battle, and put it on. Then he transformed and took a Potion of Speed. He attacked Faldorn who in turn threw a Creeping Doom at him, twice. The first time Cernd failed his saving throw and thus took damage, but the second time he succeeded. He took care of the small werewolves first (or how they are named) and moved on to Faldorn. He kept hitting her and hitting her. I believe she used about four Iron Skins or something, truly ridiculous!
When Cernds own Iron Skin wore out, he took some damage. However, because of a Healing Potion and his own massive regeneration, Cernd never got into real trouble. Faldorn blinded Cernd with a Nature’s Beauty, but it was already too late for her. A fully equipped and buffed Cernd in Greater Werewolf form who consumes a Potion of Speed now and then (two in total, idem with the healing potions) is an incredible fearsome foe. It was only a matter of time before Faldorn would go down. After a few minutes of fighting and smashing she finally fell. What an incredible battle between these two powerhouses! It’s true that Faldorn is waaay to overpowered now, but luckily the improved shapeshift abilities make up for that. Should Jaheira get chunked sometime, I certainly know who her replacement will be.
With Faldorn dead, Cernd returned us our equipment and decided to help restore nature. Our party moved to Trademeet, accompanied by Yoshimo, where we collected our rewards. While being there, we helped out a boy, by killing the Skin Dancers who we first met at the Bridge District and we cleared some haunted tomb.
Our reputation got better, we bought some nice items, took a look at our lifelike statues and decided it was time to move back to Atkathla. We were all relieved to have survived this hard ordeal. Although Jaheira didn’t seem to like the fact that someone else had to the job she failed at…
Good job When I gather the time to start BG2 again, I'll attempt something similar since this just sounds too fun. Until exams are over though, I'll just settle with reading your thread instead
Vicsun, I certainly agree with your assertion that you are an unpleasant person.~Chanak
@Kaitsuburi and kopywrite:
Thanks for reading all of this, I wondered if anyone was actually interested, but seeing the number of views of this thread, I guess they are
@Vicsun:
Playing the game like this (no deaths/reloads) actually brings back a bit of the excitement I had when I first played the game. However, I am afraid I won’t be able to complete my mission before the summer holidays. Unless I die in the game
Next few months will be incredible busy for me, considering I got a knee-operation next week (thanks to an old soccer-injury), I've got exams at the beginning of June and I’m going on a holiday from half of June till the end of July. Can’t wait!
However, until that time I will keep you all informed.
Just a little question out of curiosity, do you use longer time playing the game this way. You need to plan every move and don't make any stupid mistakes, thinking carefully. But when playing with reloads you might just strom in and hope for the best, i cant even imagine how many reloads I've taken in bg2.
So do you use more or less time this way?
Keep up the great telling of your adventure, I'm eagerly awaiting the next part
@Julian: No, I dont spend more time playing this game. Probably less actually.
You see, if I play the game without dying or reloading, I dont have to fight battles 3 or 4 times. The fights themselves do take longer of course, because I pause the game more often, use almost every single spell available and I activiate abilities of both items and (N)PC('s) now.
@Mr.Waesel: Imoen will be exchanged for Yoshimo.
Considering the Archer-Thief: Numinor is correct here, I use the Generic Archer kit from the Ease-of-Use Mod. If you want to know how to make such a PC, check this thread.
Returning back to Atkathla, we all figured it was time to pay Gaelen Bale a visit. Having more then enough gold, some nice equipment and plenty experience, it was time to find Imoen. After paying Gaelen, our party continued on to Aran Linvail, the true and highest Shadow Thief leader in Atkathla.
He explained us the situation and gave us some assignments. Claiming that these needed taken care before I could find my beloved sister. On top of that, we got some nice items, although Jaheira felt bought off because of that. Overall, the meeting went better then expected, considering we just met the Shadow Thief leader. He was actually quite a charming fellow.
Our first assignment was guarding a ship cargo. We succeeded in that. Well, partially anyway, and reported back to Aran. Our next task was to find out where the opposing vampire group was located. So we met up with some guys who planned on betraying the Shadow Thieves. The confrontation ended, as always, in battle. However, we did found out where the Vampires were located.
Returning to Aran, some thugs attacked us, then we were harassed by some harpers and, finally, attacked by a couple of vampires. It was a pretty average night one could say.
Aran seemed pleased with the information we gave him. He now knew where the enemy was hiding, and thus asked us to take care of them. We prepared ourselves, bought some potions, upgraded a few weapons at Cromwell’s place and journeyed to the Graveyard District. We pretty much emptied every tomb of the evils that took refuge there. Like mummies, shadows and other beings. We travelled on until we got near a large hall. Entering every passage leading to, or near it, Jaheira found a huge spider web. We sneaked inside and, surprisingly enough, this did not end in battle.
A drow, who seemed to be the leader of all the spiders there, asked us to retrieve a Sword. In exchange, we would be granted free passage. Jaheira liked the woman, probably because she was a druid and the cause was just, so we went to get the sword from the Sewers. A fairly easy job, and after we gave the drow the sword she was looking for, she held her word and granted us passage.
Walking on and on and encountering a few more spiders, Minsc finally saw the huge stone door, which was obviously the entrance to Bodhi’s Lair. As promised, Aran delivered us the mage and a Golem to open the door. We readied ourselves when the Golem moved the large stone and we were immediately attacked. The mage was killed very fast, but our Skeleton opponents did not last long either.
Dalis, Jaheira and I moved on into the hall because we were the only ones with protection from negative energy. The hall was richly decorated with gold and artefacts. I had a truly beautiful look. When Dalis set his first step in the hall, two vampires dived on him. A backstab from me and a few hits from Jaheira and Dalis took care of the vamps. We moved on and encountered two other bloodsuckers. Females this time and one was a spellcaster on top of that. Dalis attacked the spellcaster with his two powerful weapons and I switched to my bow and started releasing a rain of arrows. Meanwhile, Jaheira was taking care of the other vamp and the job was over very fast. Looking around, we saw that in front of us there was a strange room, filled with blood and spikes. None of us liked the look of it, so we moved back, meeting up with the rest of the party.
We entered a hallway leading to a deeper located room and killed a few creatures until we came to a door. Preparing ourselves with defensive spells, we also protected ourselves from mind control. When Dalis first stepped in, he was attacked by vampires and skeleton archers. Combing all our strengths with a couple of mage spells from Tashia, the room was quickly empty. We looted the Skeleton bodies, searched for some treasures and moved back upstairs, hunting some vampire who seemed to flee from us. No one was yet injured.
The vampire was in the spike room we saw earlier. After a discussion with Jaheira and Tashia, I decided that I and Dalis would enter the room. Walking very carefully and staying as close to the walls as possible, we saw the vampire at the back of the room. He was taunting us, although he apparently overrated himself enormously. In the following fight only Dalis got hurt, and that was because of some sort of spear that came out of the ground. Doing quite alot of damage. Luckily, Dalis has Sanchuudoku in his possession, so he regenerates swiftly. The katana was healing his wounds as if he were a troll.
Coming back to the rest of the party, Tashia urged us to move on. Apparently she got nervous because of the dark and evil place. We moved on, until we entered a different room...
This was more a tomb then a room, the stench of death penetrating into our very fibres. We prepared ourselves with every single combat spell available, before staking the defeated vampires which retreated into there coffins. Yoshimo and I planted all the traps we could and we stepped back, making way for Minsc, Dalis and Jaheira.
Since they were the fighters of our group they got the protection from Negative Energy items. While Minsc staked the retreated vampires, Yoshimo hid himself in Shadows and me and Tashia took a few steps back, bow, arrows and spells at the ready. When Minsc staked the last vampire, the vampire leader and a six or seven Skelton Archers appeared out of nowhere! An enlightening conversation started, but we all knew this would end in battle anyway. When the vampire women, by the name of Bodhi, said her piece, she attacked...
She immediately got hit by the three or four traps from Yoshimo and me. Yoshimo then tried to backstab a Skeleton, but did no damage whatsoever. His thaco is till to low... I started shooting arrows and damaged Bodhi in the process, while Tashia attempted to breach Bodhi’s defences. Throwing spells in, like; Breach, Pierce Magic, Spell Thrust and what else.
Even though Dalis, Jaheira and Minsc had Protection from Negative Energy on, Bodhi still did quite alot of damage! So everytime one of them got injured, he or she had to step back from the battle and drink a healing potion, before going back into the onslaught. The Skeleton warriors were quickly taken out of action. Jaheira, Minsc and Yoshimo figured out what kind of weak points the skeleton archers had and used that to there full advantage. Within a few seconds Bodhi was also at near death, suffering attacks from Dalis his katana and my enchanted arrows. When Tashia finally threw in her third Breach and Pierce Magic, Minsc, who moved himself behind Bodhi, gave her such a fierce blow that she had to give in.
Fleeing the battle, she cried with her last words that we would meet again…
After informing the Shadow thief leader of what happened in our encounter with Bodhi, Aran kept his word and brought us, with the help of Saemon Havarian, to Brynnlaw. While being there, we practically cleaned the place of every single piece of scum. Dispatching some vampires, a couple of sailors and later the Guild mistress of the place. With the death of the Guild mistress, we also freed a few slaves and, finally, a mage under control by Irenicus. The mage carried an amulet which allowed us passage to Spellhold, so we moved on, after informing Sime about what happened. She, in turn, would inform Aran about the situation.
Walking a couple of minutes, we practically stumbled upon Spellhold. Not noticing it, because of some large, rising bridge. Spellhold truly looked like a place of doom with its wooden doors and ghostly appearance…
Surprisingly enough, we were not attacked when we entered the building, but instead greeted by some Cowled Wizard. Tashia seemed to distrust him and mentioned something about Yoshimo, but she quickly withdrew her comments. We got a tour through Spellhold when we finally saw Imoen. Then, everything went black… Yoshimo betrayed us.
When I woke up, after facing a monster in my nightmare, Bodhi threw our party in some sort of maze. And although I had Imoen with me this time, Yoshimo was lost to us. Further more, Irenicus stole my soul and Bodhi has Imoen’s. Emptiness now occupied the place where our soles ones had been…
After a small conversation, Bodhi gave us a challenge. We were given little time to escape and foil Irenicus his plans. Having no choice but to accept her challenge, we practically walked through the first level, solving riddles, killing foes and gathering items. The only opponent which made life harder in this place was a Lich and his Demon. However, combining our efforts, the two fell quickly. Having an amulet which protects the wearer from poison helps in beating the new and improved demons.
Level two of the maze was even easier. We could have escaped the place in over an hour, were it not for Bodhi who attacked us. During that attack, something strange happened...
My mind and body shifted, showing strange pictures and releasing unknown emotions. Dark emotions! I changed in the slayer itself! What happened next is all a blur. But when I turned into my normal self, every single one of my companions looked with amazement and horror at me…
Stumbling on in confusion and fear, we escaped the maze, only to see Saemon awaiting us at the exit. Fortunately enough for both him and us, he gave some advice if we were planning to face Irenicus. Jaheira suggested to follow his advice, so we did and released the inmates, confronting Irenicus. After some cries from both sides, the battle began. I shot a couple of arrows, while Tashia and Imoen breached his defences and Minsc, Dalis and Jaheira hacked away at him. In a matter of seconds, Irenicus was at near dead and fled the battle, but not before he killed the inmates.
What an easy battle this was. I hope this will be an indication for when I next meet him. And meeting him I will!
Moving back to where we first entered the asylum, Saemon was again waiting for us. He offered passage to the mainland if we could “borrow” a ship from him from the Pirate Lord. Figures, there’s always a catch. On top of that he practically threw me a sword at my head. He apparently was very grateful for his new ship.
So again, we set sail. This time with Imoen, but without souls…
What a smell! Unless they are served on a plate, I hate fish! Especially when they are strong and wearing spears and crossbows. What a nasty bunch those Sahuagin…
So, what happened after me and Saemon set sail? I tell you what happened.
Saemon apparently stole his blade from the Ghityanki. Who, in turn, decided that they wanted there blade back while we were at open sea. So they pulled there ship next to us and started attacking. At open sea for crying out loud! Now, I don’t like water and sailing in the first place, but this didn’t increase my battle powers in the least. Luckily I got very competent friends and the Ghityanki were pretty easily beaten. At least, that’s what we thought. When the battle was almost over, a small army of Sahuagin invaded our little boat.
My luck never seems to abandon me here in Amn…
The Sahuagin entered our ship and all that I can remember next, is that my party stood in front of some strange altar. We were brought in front of some fish King, speaking of a strange prophecy. What is this? Do I attract prophesies or something? Anyway, we were ordered to kill a Sahuagin Prince and in exchange for that, we were allowed passage to the Underdark.
However, after a small conversation with a different Sahuagin, our goal changed. We weren’t planning on killing the Price anymore, but to help him instead. The mad Sahuagin King annoyed me so much, probably because he was so full of himself, that we happily welcomed this change of plans. Before we could meet this Prince, we had to get some sort of relic which would allow us passage to the Prince his lair though. So we travelled to the south-side of the Sahuagin kingdom. We dispatched a Bone Golem, some spiders and disarmed a couple of traps until we stumbled upon two mad Imps. It seemed they wanted to play a game with us in exchange for an item of power. Minsc, obviously liking the two Imps, urged me to play the funny game. Funny as the Imps may have been, the game was quickly over. We got our items, and the Imps left.
Moving on, we met another funny creature. A Beholder no less! I didn’t know these beasts could be funny! Anyway, after some strange dialog between the Beholder, Imoen and especially Dalis, we were able to retrieve to relic. With this we could enter the Sahuagin Prince his lair!
We moved back until we were standing under some strange mouth of a gigantic beast. No one had any real buffs on, except the regular stone- and ironskin. After taking a few steps, a couple of Sahuagin appeared out of nowhere! Three warriors and a priestess attacked us and the priestess even summoned an Avatar! Being experienced as hell now, my mages pulled on mirrorimage and a few other defensive spells. Minsc, me and Imoen started attacking the Sahuagin who were shooting at us with there stunning bolts. They easily died, although Minsc was seriously injured because of the arrow and bolt shooting. Meanwhile, Dhalis attacked the Avatar and Jaheira the priestess. This was where I made a huge mistake! I thought we were strong enough and that our saving throws were low enough, so I only let Dalis attack the Avatar.
But suddenly Dalis was gone! Imprisoned it seemed! I saw my mistake and had the rest of the party, except Jaheira, attack the Avatar. Tashia swung her most damaging spells at the Avatar, but did little damage, because she doesn’t have alot of (high level) damaging spells. Her repertoire consists mostly of “mage-disabling-spells". Luckily Minsc, Imoen and I were doing enough damage and the beast was after a ferocious battle almost dead. We thought the battle was over but the Avatar also imprisoned Imoen with his last strike! The overconfidence of me and my party! How misplaced it was!
In the distance Jaheira was still battling the priestess. Around her she was gathering bodies it seemed. A dead Sahuagin and some other beasts, which the priestess obviously had summoned, lied dead at her feet. Jaheira was holding her ground pretty well, having all the buffs she needed on her. However, she didn’t do any damage, so Tashia needed to help her. Disabling the buffs of enemy mages and priests is Tashia’s expertise, so the priestess fell within moments. Searching the corpses of our fallen enemies, we found an incredible powerful cloak and a couple of scrolls of Freedom. Casting them, we got Imoen and Dalis back…
This has been a good lesson for me. I could have been imprisoned myself instead of one of my friends. Being the leader, I will not overrate myself and my party this easily again!
After scouting the entire place, I came to the conclusion that there were around seven small armies, each consisting of four or more Sahuagin. Knowing the power of these beasts, I decided to try a new tactic, which Tashia and Jaheira came up with a while ago. She’s above level 15 now and can summon four Mordenkainen’s Sword and eight Skeleton Warriors. Considering that Tashia can also summon her own pet and Jaheira a few more Fire Elementals and an Improved Kitthix, I’d say we could make three powerful summon groups. Surprisingly enough, this tactic worked like a charm. First I had Jaheira wear the Shield of Reflection, so she would be protected against those annoying bolts. Then I had Tashia summon two Mordenkainen’s Swords and three Skeleton Warriors and Dalis hasted them, so there powers increased. The rest of the party had their usual defences on.
I scouted ahead, searching for a Sahuagin group. Jaheira then went in first, reflecting the wave of bolts that came her way. The Sahuagin, in turn, went melee. This is when I send the summons in, so they would take the damage. When the summons and the Sahuagin started fighting, I backstabbed one of them and the rest of the party came running into battle. The nasty fish-men fell within seconds like this! My first summon group outlasted three or four Sahuagin groups! You have no idea how fast these battles went. Getting everyone into place probably took more time then the battles alone!
So this is how every battle with the Sahuagin went; getting everyone into place, sending Jaheira in first, then the summons, then the party and slice and dice away baby! When I came to the Prince, almost all my summons were dead or un-summoned, but no one was injured.
After talking with the prince, we came to the conclusion that we would definitely betray the King. We informed the King of our so-called "victory" and gave him a fake heart. While the Sahuagin started feasting and partying, the Prince and his troops attacked the city. This, however, resulted in the King attacking us! That was unfortunate for the King, because our party was strong enough, and he only had a few allies left. Royal blood soon coloured the floor and the Prince was now the leader of the City of Caverns. The new ruler gave us a few magical items and kept his word; we could enter the Underdark if we wished so.
So here we are now, standing in front of a large, deep hole that would lead us into the Underdark. A place of horrors and dangers beyond every corner…
Upon entering, Dalis mentioned that he stole something from the Prince. It was some sort of piece belonging to a halberd. He told us a story about a once very powerful weapon, the Wave and that we already had the shaft in our possession. Strange guy, that Thiefling…
Blackness all around, stone heights beyond one’s imagination… Yep, this is the Underdark from the stories all right.
After a climb and walk of a couple of hours, we came to a gigantic cave. Stretching further then our Elvish eyes could see.
We walked a couple of minutes until Minsc noticed a strange, faint sound. Much like the wind blowing by, but with just one difference: this wasn’t a natural sound. Not trusting the situation at all, I decided to hide myself in shadows and scout the surroundings. I carefully walked north when I suddenly saw three strange creatures, with tentacles waving on there heads. Remembering the lessons from Candlekeep, I immediately recognised them as Mindflayers; creatures far beyond the imagination of the normal man and with powers greater then the average adventurer.
While I thought that I was safe from them, hiding in shadows and all, the Mindflayers suddenly turned invisible! What’s more, they attacked me! Two of the three Mindflayers shot some kind of stone object at me, each doing around thirty hit points of damage. I was almost dead! So I ran as fast as I could back to my party, hoping that Jaheira could heal me. Suddenly the three Mindflayers teleported themselves right between our party, but not alone! No! A couple of Umberhulks accompanied them! I feared the worst; would this be the end of my journey??
Tashia urged me to remove myself from the battlefield. So I did something which I don’t normally do, and don’t like doing whatsoever; I ran as far away from the battle as possible. Tashia and Dalis covered my escape route by killing the pursuing Umberhulks, while Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira were working there magic on the Mindflayers. While I was running away, I decided to drink a few healing potions, because I didn’t want to leave my friends alone too long.
When I came back the ground was littered with blood and body parts. Looking around nervously, I saw Imoen standing still, apparently stunned, and Minsc and Jaheira wandering around a bit, mumbling and stumbling.
I asked Dalis what happened and, being the Bard he is, he told precisely what happened. Apparently, when I ran away, Dalis and Tashia dispatched the Umberhulks very easy, but the Improved Mindflayers were a different story. Minsc and Jaheira often got intelligence drained and had to step back from the battle every now and then. Else they would’ve died because of the brain drain. Especially Minsc, who doesn’t have that much brains in the first place…
Dalis explained that the “walking away-coming back” tactic worked and slowly the flayers started losing there ground until they were finally dead. “But what about Imoen”? I asked. Dalis responded with the simple answer that the last flayer stunned her with his psionics. She would be in her normal state in a matter of seconds.
Dalis was right about Imoen’s condition and we travelled on. None of my comrades were blaming me of my, in my eyes, cowardly escape. They were more worried about my well-being then anything else. We walked on for a couple of minutes when we met three Gnomes. They gave us some valuable information about Irenicus and an imprisoned mage. On top of that, they sold us a couple of nice scrolls. Imoen certainly needed them, because her mage book is quite empty ever since we picked her up at Spellhold.
In the distance I noticed three strange looking portals, so we checked them out. It appeared that they were Elemental Portals; summoning “new” elementals whenever the “old” ones died. I figured the party could use some experience, so we battled every elemental that came out of the portal until there was none left to battle against. We moved on when we saw a small drow party. A fight quickly broke out. The Drow party was quite weak and after the battle Jaheira, Minsc and Imoen decided to wear the Drow armour. Well, for Imoen it wasn’t much of a choice since she wasn’t wearing armour at all.
Behind the drow party stood some strange device, holding a few crystals. It seemed as if the crystals could be moved. Imoen decided we should try them out and when she moved one of the crystals, a figure appeared. This happened each time she touched a crystal. Some were friendly, others attacked us on sight, including a Lich and his demon, although they were easily dispatched.
Actually, the rest of the Underdark, except for two different areas, went like a breeze.
We met a strange gnome race named "Svirfneblin" and helped them out by killing a demon. This beast was practically meat for Dalis his Celestial Fury. In return for the deed, we received a Light Gem. With this we could find a creature named Adalon, who could help us enter Ust’Natha. At least, that was what the Svirfneblin leader told us.
After that, we paid a visit to a Kua-Toa dungeon. This was so easy that Dalis and I could’ve practically cleared the dungeon by ourselves. Even the Prince joined his legion of followed after a small fight. The only time when we actually needed the backup of the rest of the group, was against the Demon Knights. They have the nasty habit of dispelling protections. However, the knights were no match for us all.
The next on our list was a dungeon infested with Beholders. This unfortunately did not go like a breeze.
Upon entering, the first beholders were easily dispatched. A few Drow followed them in death a few minutes later.
But this is not what scared me. I was afraid we would encounter hordes of beholders together, so I did something else. I gave Dalis every powerful piece of equipment available. This meant that, next to the two katana’s he was fighting with, he also carried the cloak of mirroring, the citadel helmet, the boots of speed and our most powerful rings. One of them was the ring of free action, so Dalis wouldn’t be slowed. Further more, the amulet Dalis was carrying protected him from poison. You see; I discovered in the Kuo-Toa dungeon, that a Beholder can poison his opponent with a successful melee attack. It’s strange that I didn’t experienced or noticed that in the Unseeing Eye quest…
Dalis moved deeper into the dungeon and he destroyed about a quarter of the Beholders and Gauths, until the battles became too dangerous for him. The Hive and Elder Beholders did too much damage to him in melee fights, so Dalis had to back away from the fights. In the meantime, the rest of the party (including me) was killing another quarter of beholders that were unlucky enough to hover our way.
However, due to the danger in melee battles, Dalis and I switched our equipment. But, unlike Dalis, I am also a master of ranged attacks, so I tried killing the Hive and Elder beholders one by one. This went fairly well actually. The combination of the cloak of mirroring, the boots of speed, a ring of free action and a powerful ranged fighter work like a charm on beholders. The dungeon was empty in about five minutes. The only thing, which took a while, was removing the stoneskins from some of the Elder beholders.
Gathering the loot, our next stop would be the dungeon next door…
(note: I actually had a hard time writing this piece. Not sure why though...)
Hmmm....I'm goign to be really uncourteous and bump it, because I heard there were PM troubles and thought Sytze might not have got it. So without further adue...
Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes right down to the bone
Really good story, i've just read it all, with no breaks and with great interest. You get to know the NPC's better, and appreciate their skills more, i find this very nice
I hope you will continue you're story-telling!
Btw. the "rules" for Deathless Journey, you must not load the game if you've lost some NPC's or whatever, but what does the no-deaths mean?
Sorry for the long waiting my fans.
A few weeks ago I had exams, so there was too few time for me to play the game and write my progress here. When the exams were finally over, I wanted to update the story on a Friday, but the forums were off-line all day then. The unfortunate thing (well, it depends from which side you are looking ), was that I went on a vacation for two weeks to the southern of France.
I just got back from my vacation. Great weather by the way. However, I will be leaving again in two days towards Rimini (Italy). I’ll be spending two weeks at the Italian coast. Truly a heavenly month for me!
So I will try to update this thread in the next two days, but I can't promise anything. Washing my clothes and discussing with friends "what to bring with us and who will bring it" takes a lot of time and is a pain in the behind.
If anything, after those two weeks, I will have some spare time. So definitely expect updates then
@ estaze: No deaths means that, if a NPC gets chunked, it’s over for him/her.
If I can resurrect the NPC in a normal way, the game also continues as normal. So only a chunk causes me to lose the NPC.
No deaths also means that if I die, the game is over (unless I think it is a game error, like the critical hit from a duergar in the beginning of the game and the pause-dialog problem).
I might also consider continuing the story, even if I died, if there are enough requests for that. However, I will evaluate that when the time comes. If it comes
*Starts slow clapping and gradually speeds up* wow..... dude, this is like poetry. I just read the whole thing non-stop. AWESOME. I may have to try what you are doing soon . But seriously... Whens the Hard Back book coming out? or maybe the movie, I'd buy it
"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." -Sun Tzu, the Art of War
When I gather the time to start BG2 again, I'll attempt something similar since this just sounds too fun. Until exams are over though, I'll just settle with reading your thread instead 
