Thoughts and comments - my journey in IWD 2 so far

[magisensei1]

Hi everyone, so here we are a brief post on my thoughts, comments and rants about playing IWD2 so far - there may be spoilers so be warned....and my bard may take over the narration as well so don't be too confused when it seems a party member is speaking...

3e rules:

Designing characters: 3e rules allow for some amazing character designing. If you enjoy customizing your character to do what you want (not talking about powergaming or efficient characters) ie. that is role-playing with characters from different classes or the jack of all trades then 3e gives you this amazing option to build as you want. You can build the great or the very odd characters with 3e - I made a 3e ninja sort of (following 3e Oriental adventures and some use of DK2 but I was still able to make an almost legal ninja...cool sort of). Or you can make the strange e.g. 1 paladin/1monk/1wizard/1ranger - etc and have a character that is so indecisive that s/he is one of everything but really nothing (for the character that is so indecisive - like when you couldn't choose a major in university) - so have fun building.

Oddities: Skill points - while an interesting idea I still have no idea what they are really used for. How many do I need to do one thing or another? How much concentration to take for the different classes? And the most annoying thing for me is the pick pocketing skill but I will get into that later.

The Journey so far in IWD 2 - I am at the Black Raven Monastery at the moment but I will get to that later as well and offer comments on the game play with some bardic assistance.

The funny thing about Armor: Have you noticed that having a high DEX is so much better than getting armor? Well it is - so if you are making a character always include a high dex if possible. The funny thing about armor in IWD2 is that there is really only one choice in the early chapter - leather armor (if you are lucky you can find chain mail) but nothing really great in terms of armor - actually the best armor I had to get Oswald to make for me and even then it cost a lot. The funny thing is that an unarmored character can have a better AC than someone that is dressed like a tin can. Sidenote: If you have installed the mod that has Oswald selling a selection of armor and have 7000 gp you can get some great cursed armor that works very well - yes you can't get out of it (so showering will be a pain) but it will protect you and if you stink maybe it will give you a bonus to hit monsters from the smell - lol... but don't sleep next to me when camping for the night.

Shields: Are pretty good in the early chapters so far and so much better in my opinion than the armor choices - such a nice variety from monsters and what you can find and or buy. Always a plus to have.

Magical accessories for AC: I found that this was a bit unusual. If you have a magical item that in the description says deflection bonus and you have two items that you are wearing you get only the one bonus but if the description is different in some small way then you get the bonus. I will check to see if you actually get the other bonus (e.g. saving throws) if you are wearing an item that does multiple things (e.g. amulet of protection +1 to AC/saving throws).

Magical weapons: If you are coming from the BG2 or IWD1 games you will notice that magical weapons while are present are not the greatest and tend to be cursed as well. The best weapons really up to chp 4 are small weapons - daggers and short swords - why the designers made it this way is really unknown but it seems to fit the play for dual wielding attacks. So can't find a magical weapon in the early chapters don't worry just buy some mastercraft weapons to hold you over until you find or can afford to buy some.

Bows/missile attacks - in one word -- suck - and missile attacks really make no sense in 3e rules - I mean really a bow that fires only once/round is fired at the same rate as a heavy crossbow that is just crazy!!! - having fired both (in real life) I have to say that there is a huge difference in speed if you are firing. On the plus side if you use a sling you can a huge variety of ammo (magical) to play with which can be fun. So if you have to use missiles I vote for slings over bows for variety of ammo but crossbow for the best for attacking. Sidenote: On a odd note when you go into a shop selling items you will notice some shops will buy ammo as well - sell them if you don't need them especially the magical arrows/bolts - what an amazing price point - check and see for yourself.
On an interesting note there sure are a lot of returning weapons that in IWD1 was limited to the amazing throwing axe...but attack rates are horrible in 3e so it really isn't that great anymore.

Potions: Don't have a cleric for chapter 1 don't worry there is a ton of potion of healing out there for the taking and creatures tend to be humanoid in nature with no special abilities [ ie poison, disease etc] - I think my cleric only healed a few times by the end of chp1 so no worries about healing yourself if you are a low level cleric. In IWD 2 the potions also have been changed a lot and there are so few of the good ones as well - invisibility anyone - "I have 1 so far and am saving it for a souvenir of my journey in the icy north...lol" (*narrator switches -my bard is speaking*)

Thoughts on being a mercenary: What?! I'm no mercenary I am a HERO !!! - Well no you are not it seems - you are a mercenary with pretensions to being a hero wanna be. So remember get PAID by someone after each mission so you have enough gp to buy things otherwise you will be very poor. (lol - with my first party in chapter 1 - I forgot to get paid [well didn't know I would get paid beside getting xp] so I didn't have any money - and yes I played chp 1 with different parties even before finishing the game to test out character classes and game play.) lol ...

Annoyances/Pet Peeves in IWD2: Okay here is my rant ..... pick pocketing is horribly done in IWD2 - I have to tell you it is almost impossible to do outside of 3 characters that were a success (without reloading) - I couldn't even pick pocket a sick person who can't move - this showing us thieves that IWD2 is really unfriendly to us...so be warned. I attempted with a dex of 20 (without the magical boost yet), maxed pick pocketing skill for that level, cat grace spell added , luck spell added, and bard song (of luck and skill bonus) to pick pocket everything and everyone and failure was the result 9 out of 10 times - so if you can't even pick pocket a sick person with success then the game really doesn't want you to pick pocket anyone unless you are willing to commit to reloading a few hundred times. So what the *&%^ does the skill point for pick pocketing really mean if you can't pick pocket with a more than 10% success rate by the end of chp 1...nonetheless my pick pocketing expert on the team will give it the old college go and try again and again as she travels through this cold landscape.

Not feeling brave today: So not feeling well today or a little under the weather from injuries or from living up here in the icy north for this adventure and caught a horrible illness that your cleric can't cure yet (lol no cure for the common cold) no worries because there are opportunities for non-violent XP. My advice talk to everyone/thing and try even the odd things - and don't let a paladin talk to anyone 'evil' or you will fight instead.

On the same topic...Feeling itchy and want to bash things but you cleared the area already no worries - even in chp 1 monsters spawn regularly so if you'd rather fight than sleep there are a lot of monsters that like to re-spawn [ using two different teams on different plays I went through an area where 1 team went through it without sleeping and got 2 chain mails from battling while the party that decided to sleep got an amazing 6 chain mail armor from re-spawning + some mastercraft arrows and gold]. So its up to you whether you want to sleep or bash...

Want some easier kills - the thrill of using poison - well no it doesn't work so well in 3e so if you are looking for an easier kill don't look at poisons.

Area Spells: Whats a discussion without talking about spells. So what about them they seem to work well even if they are somewhat changed from 2e. Well yes, but the difference I find is the targeting of monsters. No using area spells to real great effects - e.g. web, tangle, confusion like spells, sleep, emotion spells - they all affect your own party + because of casting time the monsters who really can move fast to close the distance between you and them will have moved and as such because you targeted where they were and not where they might be - area spells that are smaller tend not to work so well - or at least for me they haven't so far - slowly getting the hang of it.

Taking a bard along for the trip: "Hey I resent that - I am most useful and not just for recording the tales," my bard says with indignation as she glares at me a bit angrily. So true - the best so far with being a support is a bard - helps with luck and bonus skills for removing traps safely/pick pocketing and for some amazing assistance with songs for a quick moral boost and for a spell that will stop a monster in their track - charm works so well (if you added 1 pt in spell focus - enchantment early on - as a bard you have to be able to charm an unruly audience with success... *my bard glares a me rudely*).

Well more on my/our travels through the Ten-Towns later - hope you enjoy the adventure as much as me....until then...

[magisensei1]

Hi everyone,

Continuing some of my posts from the other day.

Well it seems while deflection bonuses don't stake if you have two magical items with the same description (e.g. deflection bonus) the extras are given even if the AC bonus is not - which allows for the extra magical items like help for saving throws to be used --- of course there is hardly any such type of equipment but its good to know.

Pick Pocketing continued:

Well still trying to pick pocket in Targos but this time my pick pocket expert downed a potion of mastery thievery along with everything else and the percentage improved some what - its about 25-30% chance now instead of 10%. This allowed for some fun pick pocketing around town from everyone that seemed a bit annoying and for those that we didn't feel where nice to us ahmmmm a certain wood merchant. I was able to lift some good stuff but only the magical ring, and two scrolls and the mastercraft dagger made the expense of buying the potion worth it (God, imagine trying to explain to your accountant why you bought a potion of thievery only not to be able to make back the gold you spent on it - I would never hear the end of it - but luck was with me it seems and the expense was warranted.) Of course the % also depends on the person you are pick pocketing it seems so if you are doing some "lite-finger shopping" be careful still...

Do you have your favorite magical items (not including weapons/armor), well I do. And my favorites showed up here in this game as well which was nice to see and they work the same as well which is even better plus I got them at the same time...of course they cost a huge amount - so while I am item rich I am really poor now barely a copper piece between us - no fine dining for my team for awhile. My favorite items that I try to get for my rogue type character is the "necklace of missiles" - my thief when she happened to be sneaking up on a huge group of monsters would let a missile go and "KABOOM"!!! instant fireball and tenderized bad guy that are about 25% or more cooked to a nice medium rare. Of course this necklace cost a whole lot of gold so she has to make it up to the team by finding more gold and making battles easier or someone is going to be paying back that 20000 gp with interest if the magical item is not used to its full potential.

The other item that I found was the "Horn of Valhalla" if you haven't used this horn before it summons warriors from Valhalla to lend a hand (about 3 of them) and they are very good and hardy in a tight situation - of course you need a bard to use it (which we had) and you can only use it once/day but its an item that is a must have for a bard since it gives an instant audience plus muscle power for crowd control if you need it. *my bard just glared at me for the last comment*

Until later, the team is getting ready to travel on an airship and there is some excitement and trepidation as its Oswald who is flying and he just happens to crash a lot. My bard well write an account on the flying ship once her stomach settles.

[magisensei1]

The Airship trip by Kazumi the Poet

It was the best of times it was the worse of time, it was a time... *aheemmmm what are you writing?* {Okay, okay...}

It was a dark and stormy night when we set off to parts unknown. The bitter wind was a premonition of things to come when we boarded *ahemmmm - you're doing it again - just tell the tale already well you* {long suffering sighhhh.... -" heathens the lot of you with no appreciation of the arts, my art" ...sigh..."surrounded by heathens...sometimes I wonder why I even bother ...shessshhhh...."}

Bard's Log IceWind Dale Date 4502.13: We departed on the Airship Oswald to meet with the Neverwinter allies unknown to us at the moment that a simple meet and greet would lead us to another harrowing adventure in the frigid north. *sighhhhhh... write it any way you want...* {"hahah I knew I would win," Kazumi says with a cheeky grin and twinkle in her eyes as she rubs her hands and gets ready to tell her tale.}

Honestly its not much of a tale if it would be told. The trip was uneventful for the most parts, blue skies with the occasional cloud marred the wild and cold beauty of the northern region. The Spine of the World in the distance seemed to harken to great exploration and untold treasures for the brave and foolhardy that would rise to the challenge of tackling its cold heights and unknown depths. But for us this was meant as a simple trip to meet the commander of the Neverwinter forces and see if everything was on track, unknown to us this side trip would take a long time to complete and the soft comforts of a bed would be few and far between.

On an off topic note lets compare some modes of transportation to compare the airship to other modes of travel.

Teleportation: Wow is it fast but it has no scenery worth mentioning nor any inflight meals or anything for that matter. If you are in a real rush than take this but be warned there is always a chance you might wind up in a wall or getting consumed by the the things that live inbetween time and space. Not a mode of travel I enjoy unless its life or death.

Dragon: Great way to travel. It has the plus of being able to see everything around you plus you get a companion that's great in a fight if you happen to be attacked and is great at conversation {dragon's are great for talking and oh so smart}. The downside to this, well the seat is not the most comfortable, imagine sitting on scale for hours at a time - your tush will be very sore and in need of a massage. Plus there is the fact that your mode of transport if it gets annoyed at you for some reason might very well just swallow you and forget the whole trip. Overall a very good way to travel, good scenery if you can see it from the heights, very fast but no in service meals and the fact you can't complain about the trip and the fact that it can get pretty drafty when riding on its back (really its neck area).

Giant Raven: A very good way to travel. More comfortable than a dragon because of the feathers. But its a bird and then tend to be flighty {a pun get it flighty flight ....oh well not a literate bunch in the lot of you...grumbles} and so you might get somewhere but it might not be your destination and like the dragon you have to be careful about what you say since giant birds don't grow to be giants by eating seeds.

Airship (jn this case Oswald's airship): What it has over the other methods of transportation is that it is comfortable. We got a state room with room to stretch and roam around. If the weather got bad we could go in and watch the scenery through a window in comfort. It was a self-service airship but it had adequate food and warm much better than hardtack plus we had wine and spirits to drink. While not as quick as a dragon or raven it was comfortable -- that is until we got struck down by some crazed druids but that's a tale for a different time and really not a whole lot to tell - one moment clear skies and a quiet ride the next moment - we where hit with gale force winds - "batten down the hatches, bring in the main sail, fasten your seat belts" because the ride got rough really fast as we where rocked by crazed winds and plunged to the earth - the last thing I remember was hearing the sound of ripping cloth and floating in the air as we plunged downward to the earth - by some miracle we all survived and this lead us to our next adventure.

Overall, take the mode of transportation that you like but I can see the future is probably with airships for comfort rather than dragon flight.

[magisensei1]

Hi everyone, pickpocketing adventure and updates.

Pick Pocketing continued.

I have to say that pick pocketing in the north is so hard to do probably because everyone is covered in furs in order to keep the cold out and as such you have to dig through several layers of furs just to find their money pouch. Leaving Targos I have to say there was not a whole lot of opportunity to try out my light-finger skills but nevertheless there where a few opportunities that arouse between battling mad druids and priestess to fighting rather mindless battles in what is someone idea of a game room but really was almost a waste of time.

The ice temple proved to be a big bust for pick pocketing and was just one big bash and trash them in order to get to the pass via the glacier that they built. It was amazing that they could make a glacier but sadly it was so misplaced and misconceived that we had to bring it down. We meet two remarkable women while here in the temple - the half-dragon and the priestess L who were great for a brief conversation but sadly could not be turned away from the path they had chosen. My aunt told me of her adventures some twenty odd years ago when she had to destroy the avatar of Auriel the ice-goddess and our adventures in the ice temple was just a sad footnote to a misguided girl fooled by a crazed religion - very sad - I had hoped to be able to save them from themselves but their zeal and anger at others and the real bigotry that pervades the northern regions of Faerun is so uncomfortable for those that are different that you can see why the dream of a peaceful and equal north was such a temptation for them to join their ranks - but like all dreams that seem to be too good - it would probably be too good to be true since the dream of a free and accepting north was started by two demons and who can ever know what runs in the minds of demons... [Demons you say - "Yes, I know I skipped a part of the tale where we meet the masterminds of everything but to make a long story short - we meet the masters and they were two sibling demons who had grand dreams - which we agree with even though their methods leaves much to be desired but knowing the hard headness of the humans here and everywhere - its not surprising that a war was needed to change the world - but still very brutal of them and we can't help but wonder if another method would have been possible - after all the world is such a large space.]

Well back to pickpocketing and the thrill of seeing what can be gotten, which in the ice temple proved to be nothing as their were no opportunities really to use my skills. On a quick side note: if you don't complete at least 3-5 levels of battlesquares [ which is really a waste of time and rather uninspiring ] than it will be really hard to raise the 100,000 + gp that is needed for the awesome book of adventurer - not knowing at the time that we needed to raise that amount of gold to buy the book as you can't lift it - but if you do need it than more than a few levels in the battle square room is needed to get the gold otherwise there is no real way to get the gold needed - after getting the 100,000 in gold through selling - really its not worth buying the book and we didn't since we didn't need it plus its nice to have a lot of gold to buy what you want and to live in comfort during our travels.

The Wandering village proved to be an interesting place to ply our skills and there where some interesting things to get. The local healer had a potion that we hadn't seen in any of the shops we went to and a few others had some useful trinkets but overall it was a village with not a lot of wealth and as such not a lot of things to lift. I think the most interesting part of the trip was the murder mystery that we got involved in - people still kill for lust and love up here in the north just like they do everywhere else - but on a happy note we did help young love and hopefully it turns out better for them than the love triangle murder did for the triangle that ended in murder most awful.

The most interesting part of our pickpocketing adventures actually takes part after descending into the Underdark and meeting the duegars. Before we get to them let me tell you it is seemingly and humanly/halflingly/elvenly impossible almost to pickpocket the witch that kidnaps children and the monks at the monastery but one is a witch who is centuries old and the others monks that can sense everything so not to surprising. Back to the duegars, while a truce was to be had between us as we mutually used the other I wandered their complex and happen to be able to lift a most remarkable item a mace+3 which was absolutely amazing so if you are in need of a more powerful weapon and you feel that luck is one your side there is one ripe for the lifting.

Side Note: Black Raven Monastery: Eight Chambers - who thinks of crazy rooms that are one endless battle and demented puzzle- while it was not horribly damaging the sheer amount of battle got weary on us and we just wanted to pass through their basement - god what an annoying bunch of monks and after we saved them from the Legion of Chimera - talk about lack of gratitude on their part.

Tomb robbing: if you like me figure a bit of payback is in order for helping the ungrateful monks by doing some quick tomb robbing of their founder let me tell you something interesting - there are four count 1, 2, 3, 4 huge iron golems guarding the tomb and if you want to go toe to toe with them you will be in a lot of trouble - a brief tale is needed.

We had just descended into the tomb leading into the Underdark and noticed the tomb and wondered whether or not to take a quick peek inside when we where beset by the duegars are "allies" who decided they didn't like us anymore - well we did renege on our deal but whole sale murdering is bad for the karma - so we had a pitch battle with them - how they got a head of us is a secret that we never did figure out but hey they are duegars so they probably had tunnels everywhere. A hectic and bloody battle had us eventually victorious even if it was rather a pointless victory they could had just gone around us and attacked the monks but no they wanted their pound of flesh from us - so sad for those caught up in all this battle madness that seems to inflict everyone up here. So after some quick healing and gathering the spoils of battle the tomb robbing question arose again and since we had a moment to rest why not check to see if the founder of the monks had anything worth borrowing for awhile. Well let me tell you the ever vigilant guards who didn't notice the pitched battle moment ago with the duegars didn't take kindly to some looking at the tomb and our intrepid tomb robber had 4 golems attacking her - to make a short story even shorter - magic is useless on them and a few bashes has no lasting effect while a high AC doesn't help either but what really worked was fast feet as we made a quick getaway - this was the most difficult battle ever and so the moral of the story - be quick on your feet when tomb robbing since you have no idea how powerful whatever guardians are left to guard the tombs and always have a quick exit because if you don't you will likely join the tomb.

[magisensei1]

Hi everyone - some interesting but quick side notes:

Ice Temple pickpocketing:

Here we meet the architect of the ice temple who happened to be a great and powerful wizard as well in addition to be an architect with a weird sense of humor - considering what we found in the temple. Let me tell you if you try pickpocketing him its impossible since he is a great and powerful wizard probably but the interesting thing is he won't give a damn if you try and try and try and try - so give it a try if you are there and see what happens because he is too busy to notice you doing it.

Pre-Ice Temple challenge:

During our wandering through the outside of the temple in what I am calling the ice-temple lawn maze we encountered a knight of sorts who challenged us to a battle - well not us but more specifically challenged our paladin our holy knight to a one-to-one battle of arms - for a villain he was very gracious and we extended the graciousness by consenting to a battle of arms on equal terms.

Until our next journal - enjoy...

[LastDanceSaloon]

That Mace +3 is an awesome find!

[LastDanceSaloon]

I have a bit more time for a slightly lengthier post at the moment and I'll try and answer some of you queries.

The Amulets and Rings of resistance are a bit annoying because the Deflection Bonus to Armour Class doesn't stack, but the Saving Throws do. No Armour Class points stack in the game (well, a couple do, but they are rare) which did throw me a bit at first, particularly on things like the Bracers of Defence not effecting the Armour Class of anyone wearing Armour. Also on the subject of Armour, yes, you are right, it's heavily stacked in favour of Dexterity builds for the first half, but during the latter stages the bonuses on the Magical Full Plates outweighs Dex builds and Dex tends to have a cut-off point where it's quite hard to advance from.

On the subject of Bracers of Defence, you had some fun with the Iron Golums I see. I also noted that you were a bit perturbed at having loads and loads of Magical Bullets. Remember what I said about a lot of the game being puzzle based... Ah. There are other ways to have fun with the Golums other than running, but they tend to rely on character specifics where as the Bullets are a general free-for-all.

The Games Room is indeed a real bore-fest, but do get some really awesome gear if you persevere. Check out my full investigation (with many awesome contributions from Kmonster) of how this game operates and what rewards are available further down in the forum

I agree with you that one should be able to take any character through the game and, judging from my first party, I think you can, but there will be a lot of 'extremely' hard areas if the party is too experimental. However, many posters here have soloed the game with every character so as long as one character is pretty hardcore then this should be quite feasible.

I look forward to seeing what you thought of the last few Chapters and some of the other notorious sections!

I 'm quite surprised you haven't talked much about the puzzles, the crazy wood, the Necromancer, the Monk Trials (briefly mentioned), and many more, these are the areas most people have big WTFs about, lol.

[magisensei1]

Hello fellow travelers, this appendix in our continuing journey is entitled “The ‘Gods’ must be nuts” or ‘puzzles, oddities, nonsense and glitches through our journey’ so far.

This appendix begins with the first puzzle section that we encountered, actually calling it a puzzle is being nice it is more of an annoyance and full of nonsense rather than a puzzle; you guessed it – it’s the battle square room in the ice temple.

Battle Square:

One of the most annoying things about the ice temple chapter is the battle square room which is technically an optional area to go after completing the first level of rank 1. First of all when you first enter this section you meet the usual temple guards which are not too difficult to deal with but you have no idea what you are supposed to do here. Yes, the rather informative referee golem tells you what the room is but doesn’t state that you have to battle in the room so we decide to leave it and continue to deal with the third and final priestess in order to save Nathanial and the Ten-Towns from these ice loving nuts (I mean really you must be nuts to want to live in a glacier, talk about cold brrrrr). To make a short story of roaming around trying to figure out how to enter a certain room without a key (and that we can’t pick) we finally figured out that you had to enter the battle square room and battle. To conclude this journey here at the ice temple we battled for a key in level 1 rank 1 and won and finished this quest and saved Nathanial.

The battle squares itself I must say is one room that is full of difficulties and glitches. Is it just us or have you noticed that the monsters are all taking steroids and are all pumped up to do serious damage to you. I have never encountered so many monsters that can hit so readily and easily, not to mention the fact that I have never seen so many rolls of 1 – critical miss - 3 times in a row for us during one battle is just horrible luck but low roles in general shows a definite glitch in this room in addition to the odd duration of buffs inside the room versus outside of it. Plus the monsters hit more often than not – normally Deelit my ranger has an AC of 20 but if you add buffs (plus a potion of heroism and invulnerability it goes to 30+AC and they still hit with relative ease). To make a dull and uninspiring room adventure even shorter since it really offers nothing to the story let me tell you of some of the oddities we encountered.

The first 4 ranks (with all levels completed) while somewhat difficult - it proved to be not that difficult if you bothered to buff in advance and had a decent fighter type member tackling the monsters (even if the room favors the monsters). The best thing about the ranks was probably the assorted magical ammo that you got rewarded for clearing a level – ammo that we hadn’t seen before e.g. glass darts, +5 bullets etc – rather than the final reward at the end of each rank which in some cases was disappointing considering the time and effort it went to completing the levels. The most difficult part came when you started rank 5 in which if you were unlucky an encountered a remorhaz (a big lizard that has physical and fire attacks) than you were in trouble [we encountered one outside on the glacial lawn and even fought the remorhaz queen but the battle sq. remorhaz must have been on steroids since it dealt horrendous physical + fire damage in excess of 60 hp of damage with one hit - is that crazy or what – when we encountered the remorhaz outside they weren’t so difficult yes it was 6: 1 but it was over in a round or two unbuffed but here with a warrior type buffed to the max dealing 15-20 pts of damage per attack at 2 attacks per round the thing must have had at least 200 hp.] And that is not even the worse of the over powered monsters that you encounter – for example a frost giant (not even a storm giant) who deals 50 + points of damage with one hit is crazy (it is possible he got a critical hit but to do it so often should be implausible) plus he must have had way maxed out hit dice considering we hit him at least 10-12 times dealing 25 pts on average of damage each time for 200+ damage (side note: monster manual shows max 133 hp) and still it was a close thing and sometimes we even had to run and shut down the room or face dire consequences if we stayed and fought when facing a frost giant. The most annoying monsters were the ones that actually teleported from the room (this is definitely a glitch) and had the party members who should have been just spectators battling the battle square monsters (as at least two demons did this). Then we encountered the elder/regular elementals (the regular elemental was way overpowered) [ if we couldn’t defeat an elder elemental not a problem it’s an elder after all but even the regular ones where too difficult], greater werewolves (way over powered and very hard to hit) and demons – I have no idea how you are meant to defeat any of them in the time allotted given its immunities and the fact it does a staggering amount of damage that going toe-to-toe will result in a very long hospital stay – can you say broken everything or ripped to shreds. [Side note: The monsters in the battle squares were definitely not the regulation monsters from the monster manual.]

Overall if you were like us (level 9-10) and with limited luck or rather lots of luck than it is marginally plausible to complete rank 5 but rather impossible to pass rank 6 (at least for us) – without a special weapon e.g. club of disruption -- there really is no way to finish off the monsters in the time limit given (our best weapons was a halberd of corrosion +1 that did additional elemental damage and a +2 long and bastard swords). I mean is it fair to include demons and elementals that have huge HPs and partial/full immunities to all type of damage (although they shouldn’t be this powerful) and be able to defeat them within 60 seconds is just asking to be hurt – now without a time limit than it becomes plausible to beat them but sadly the room doesn’t give you that option. [side note - glitch – in one battle we faced an earth elemental (not an elder) and we lost because of the time limit but the monster did not disappear it stayed even when the next battle happened – imagine that two against one now – in this case one earth and one elder elemental – that was crazy – so we battled it to the end (after losing another square to the elder elemental) and it takes about 2-3 minutes of pounding to actually defeat it doing about 15 damage on average so it must have had 200+hp…talk about crazy steroid monsters.]

The funniest thing about the whole ice temple chapter was that the one thing that we really wanted in terms of magical item was the only thing we couldn’t get regardless of how hard you tried – can you guess what it is? If you said Oria’s ‘staff of power’ – bingo – you win a prize – sadly she broke the staff and we never got a chance to get it. One of the oddities that we found in the temple was if the game room belonged to Oria than we wondered how far she actually got in her battles or did she use her oh so powerful staff of power and just blasted everything in her way because I really don’t see how she could battle her way pass rank 5 with success unless her goddess favors her a lot and sends a few lightning bolts against those who oppose her – lucky for us she must have been sleeping when we battled her.

Our next puzzle is entitled the “Forest Maze i.e. Fell Woods”. Probably the most annoying thing about the forest was that you wandered around somewhat lost if you didn’t bother to map the area (i.e. really mapping the area using pen and paper) plus the use of markings to remember which way you went. If you had someone with some forest sense than it made the journey somewhat easier but if you didn’t and didn’t bother mapping and marking you most likely spend a lot of time going in circles if you were not totally lost. Besides the obvious spookiness of the forest that houses the undead among other spooky creatures the Fell Woods adventure proved to be a task in old fashion gaming by mapping the area out. (Side note: try some older computer rpg game like Bards Tales or geomancer…to find a game where you actually had to map things out using graph paper since they didn’t have auto maps or if you play RPG and had a DM that had you map things instead of mapping things out for you for an exercise in mapping and patience.) Overall the forest maze was a study in patience and mapping skills otherwise not much of a puzzle.

Side note: The oddity about this entire chapter was that you really had no choice but to complete it in a satisfactory way that helped the village. We didn’t mind helping them as its good karma to help those in need but some if not all the task where just rather pointless – I mean the village had a cleric/mage leader that could raise the dead (the leader of the village) but she couldn’t solve the problem of the ghost warrior, the missing son, the missing children – if you think about it, if you can raise the dead (and have visions) than you are more than powerful enough to deal with whatever is in Fell Woods and solve all the problems of your village rather than wait for us to do it for you (since we are not powerful enough to raise the dead yet or make potions). And in the end she really didn’t help us pass through the forest (my bard muses on the outcome of our adventures here) so why did we help…(“plus,” my rogue pipes in, “we didn’t get paid for anything.”)

More oddities, puzzles and quirks from our adventures to come...

[magisensei1]

Hi everyone more thrills and shills from our intrepid travelers in the icy north, this time we explore the Underdark.

Can you imagine a world that is forever in the dark, with vaulting roofs that are so high you can’t see the top, where mushrooms grow to gigantic proportions and even come to life and where the light what light there is comes from glowing plants and moss. A place where the sun never shines and rain never falls and where the assortment of people and monsters are somewhat different from those that live in the light, where shadows might not be just shadows and mushrooms that might just bite you back if you consider picking them for a stir fry – this is the Underdark – where monsters of all sorts wander and where some of the darkest creatures emerge to cause havoc to the people that live under the sun. I think the only thing that we enjoyed about the Underdark was that it didn’t have any snow or rain but it really wasn’t a very warm place either nor particularly comfortable or welcoming to visitors. As we entered the main entrance of the Underdark we encountered a drow wizard – now you might be thinking what horrible luck and it’s what we thought as well but lady luck must have been on our side since this drow didn’t want to kill us surface dwellers.

I remember one story my aunt told me about a mad-wizard drow she had encountered in her adventures named Malavon Despana who was really quite mad from what she told me about him locking up his sister with magic, having pet umber hulks and cloning himself. Well we also encountered a drow with the same name and to our surprise it was the same drow that my aunt had encountered all those years ago but this one appeared sane. Well he told us his story which was interesting and which if given a chance after we get home a story to tell my aunt and what he wanted from us. Unlike the mad clones my aunt encountered we meet a rather sophisticated and well-spoken wizard who wanted to parlay or maybe use us for mutual benefit and gain. To make a long story a bit shorter we agreed to assist him if he agreed to help us leave the Underdark in the quickest way possible since wandering around down here probably wasn’t the healthiest thing for us to do plus we had a mission to complete. What we did learn from this encounter was that the Legion of Chimera certainly has its tentacles everywhere – even here in the Underdark since they were the cause of the difficulties Malavon was having. One of the most uncomfortable things about the Underdark was the spiders – to tell the truth I really don’t like spiders even when I am bigger than they are and here in the Underdark they are gigantic which makes me even more prone to wanting to leave this place as quick as possible and so we move to deal with the drieder problem as quick as possible. As we roamed the caverns we encountered various Underdark creatures some of who were threatening and some who while didn’t care for us where not overtly violent towards us. We did find some magical items while roaming the caverns as one of the drow clerics had mentioned from battles fought long ago – we wondered if they were still viable for who knows how long they lay here before we found them – nothing like having a miss functioning magical explosion to make your day a bit painful.

The drieder cavern was one place I didn’t want to stay too long due to my phobia with spiders and my team mates understood and so complied to finish and leave as soon as possible. As we wandered the cavern we encountered a mad mage transmuter from Thay – who would have thought a red wizard from Thay would come all the way down here just for experiments but then again maybe this way the only place he could do them without getting into too much trouble. The battle with the Thay wizard proved difficult for us and our rogue got turned to stone – which must have been painful but in the end we persisted in our battle and won the day and lucky for Hitomi that we had a stone to flesh scroll handy or she’d be a statue decorating the drieder cave forever. One of the most annoying thing about our dealing with Malavon was the general lack of assistance we received from Malavon after saving his sister and dealing with his problem with the drieders – he said, “harass the mindflayers to get into the their citadel” – what pointless advice that was and he provided no assistance what so ever – we were used and gained really nothing out of dealing with him and saving his butt – one day we’ll get back the pound of flesh he owes us for helping him. To make a rather long story about crawling through the mindflayer citadel shorter we snuck in and threatened the mindflayer boss – who was really just a big brain in a jar - with havoc and general mayhem in his home if it didn’t let us leave in peace and being able to read minds he concurred it was easier to let us go than to have blood shed – normally we would have taught him and his mindflayers a little bit of humility by giving them a really painful black eye for being so arrogant and keeping mind slaves but we didn’t feel that the ensuing blood bath would change them and what they thought of other races and so we left in relative peace – although a few did try to capture us as we were leaving and as such we taught them the errors of their way and left the Underdark and the mindflayers with a small lesson about picking on peoples that you look down on.

Departing the Underdark we were once again forced to take Oswald’s airship for our next leg in our journey – hopefully no one will try to bring us down this time – as we still have bruises from our last trip. Our trip with Oswald was thankfully uneventful – beautiful skies, the vast expanse of ice and snow below and then the green and warmth of Kuldahar a small remote village in the far north. What was interesting about Kuldahar was the general warmth of the town which was different from other areas that didn’t have the Great Tree and its Heartstone gem. The village my aunt had told me was prosperous with a small but booming population but now it was but a shadow of its former self with most of the population evacuated and the town mostly a ghost town now with boarded windows and doors. Here we meet with the Archdruid of Kuldahar to learn what was happening in the area and more importantly how to get to the Severed Hand the base of all the troubles the Ten-Towns were having. Like everyone else who were having difficulties with the Legion – Kuldahar was having problems as well – which we had to assist with in order to knock the Legion down a peg and get rid of the road blocks that hindered us and stop the general bloodshed their invasion had caused.

Pick Pocketing side note: There is no way that we found that we could pick pocket Malavon. We tried with no success but others can be tried and you can get some good stuff but nothing that was amazing.

[magisensei1]

This chapter in our travels I am calling “The Lost Children of Kuldahar” named for the fact that the problems that they were experiencing was mostly their own fault for being bigots, racist and in general being too narrow minded.

To tell the truth if it weren’t for the fact the Legions and their cause was so bloody and a bit out of control we wouldn’t have lifted a finger to help this town from the troubles they had started by trying to kill women and children and now those children who fled from being killed now returned as adults to get their piece of flesh - we couldn’t really blame them – but with little options available to us we agreed to seal the portal to the Yuan-ti jungle (a place that connected a far southern jungle to the cold north). One of the interesting things about our adventures everywhere we went was the persistence of restless ghosts and here we assisted Mother E with her restless spirit by telling her the truth of what happened to the children she raised after she had passed away – again all the troubles that ensued was because of their bigotry in the village against half-breed children who didn’t deserve the hatred that was directed at them and festered in them the need for vengeance and for a better society. Hopefully these lessons over the past several months will teach these northern people some tolerance or else we fear that this scene will happen over and over again until they are destroyed by their own intolerance – there won’t always be a group of adventurers like us who will aid them dig them out of the grave they made for themselves.

The Yuan-Ti homeland was a lush vast tropical climate that was a warm welcome from the cold we had been experiencing since starting this adventure and we shed our warm cloaks and clothes for more comfortable clothing for this tropical environment. The rich jungle of the Yuan-ti homeland stretched for leagues around the portal we had stepped through as we made a plan to infiltrate the Yuan-Ti citadel and find a way to close the portal – lack of information was the biggest problem we had. Given the nature of the portal being stable and anchored there was no way we could disrupt it and as such we needed to find the secret to the portals stability and either disrupt it or end the threat of the Yuan-Ti invasion by killing everyone – not an option that we wanted to entertain or one that was plausible without an army and causing more bloodshed and hatred. Infiltrating the Yuan-Ti citadel through the use of robes that belonged to the initiates we encountered we snuck in and started our investigation of the Yuan-Ti people and the portal. One thing we discovered early on and rather painfully was that the citadel had various traps for the unwary and unwelcomed – we wondered if the traps were laid out for non-Yuan-Ti people for they didn’t seem to trip them and as such we figured that these traps were somehow calibrated for non-Yuan-Ti and as such we had to remove them whenever we encountered them. Our investigation showed us that the Yuan-Ti here were a blood thirsty lot with blood sacrifices happening every hour or so – we wondered to ourselves if it was better to just let these two group of people kill each other off but then we remembered that the innocents that had been changed because of unnecessary discrimination and hatred that had started all of this and hopefully we could end this invasion with minimum bloodshed.

As we investigated the citadel we encountered an envoy from Dragon’s Eye the home of the children that had fled from Kuldahar from prosecution and their desire for an alliance with their Yuan-Ti cousins and we knew time was a commodity that we didn’t have a lot of as the leader was still pondering whether or not to send aid to help to these cousins that lived far to the north. We also accidentally interrupted a class of assassins and priest by being too curious about certain things about the temple and had a pitch battle with assassins and their priests who didn’t take kindly to us being there but lucky for us the temple is so huge that a pitched battle in one corner of the temple was not heard in another part – maybe Lady Luck were smiling down on us for our audacity of infiltrating an enemy base without any real plan. One funny thing we encountered was that even battle-hardened assassins could fall for some admiration and flattery as one assassin before the chaos the later ensued told us about the treasure vault combination which we would break into to see if it had the information we needed to close the portal – where else to stick important documents about the portal if not the vault. To our dismay we were able to find out what was keeping the portal open through some more quick thinking and general flattery – it’s amazing but not overly surprising that everyone enjoys bragging about their success and is willing to spill a little bit of their secrets to someone who is generally interested. The secret was a black serpent who was magically sealed away to keep the portal open and this meant serious trouble for us since anything powerful enough to keep the portal open was something we didn’t really want to face without an army, or a fool hardy dragon slayer [which we weren’t], or someone who really had the favor of their gods or maybe a really powerful mage or two or three of some kind – all of which we didn’t have at the moment – although on a side note my aunt had friends that certainly filled those descriptions of dragon-slayers both warriors and wizards but sadly we had no time to track them down and beg for aid. Learning the secret to the portal we pondered our next move and decided on a two prong action: one to cause some chaos with the leaders of the Yuan-ti temple here in order to minimize bloodshed and two to face the dragon once we released it - maybe we could negotiate with it and it would be thankful for its release that it would grant us a boon and leave the area and as such closing the portal. Our plan was implemented with care and with a little help of some zombie type creatures that wanted their hearts back – thank the gods that Marlow [our sorceress] although not the brightest academically was a wanderer of Fearun and had heard of these types of zombies before and what they wanted – stealing the hearts and placing them throughout the temple to distract everyone (plus a little pay back for being so bloody-minded) we continued our plan to cause chaos and hopefully in the process convince the leaders to allow their northern cousins to come home at the very least at the most we would could I guess kidnap the leader or at the very least put him in a magical sleep so the leadership would be disrupted. The plan worked partially which I guess was the best we could hope for – general chaos lasted for a short time so we had the space to speak to the leader of the Yuan-ti but we couldn’t convince him to forgo the alliance – actually our presence decided the issue in their favor – which sort of back fired – but rather than letting us go (we could only be so lucky) he called in reinforcements and a battle happened – in the end we succeeded in our plan but it required slaying the leaders and bloodshed once again – at least we kept the carnage to a minimum – hopefully with the leadership disrupted the alliance would be put on hold.

[magisensei1]

Yuan-Ti chapter continued:


Phase two of our plan kicked in – a) no Yuan-ti leadership meant that the envoy had to stay here for the foreseeable future and this would give us time to pass through Dragon’s Eye and relieve the pressure on the Ten-Towns and Kuldahar and b) allow us to figure out how to deal with the dragon. Releasing the dragon itself from its imprisonment was not difficult in itself it was speaking with it that would be troublesome since a) it more than likely would not be happy and b) would not want to negotiate with someone it probably considered food. I have to say again that dragon-slaying is best left for those who are foolhardy or have a lot of favor with their gods of which we had little of and b) none of us were really that foolhardy even if we were a bit reckless at times. As me and the more invulnerable companions hid under a cloak of invisibility and watched the release of the dragon I have to say it was a magnificent specimen of its kind – shiny ebony scales the glittered in the rain, it stood larger than a house with a wingspan that seemed to stretch the expanse of the horizon, a powerful presence that sent shivers down your spine and a personality that seemed to say why should it negotiate with things that it considered food. Sadly the first part of our plan to speak with the dragon fell through since it didn’t acknowledge us and secondly it was really pissed off and it seemed wanted to take its frustration out on us. A very dangerous battle ensued for us – a fight we didn’t want but one we couldn’t really run from either and ensure the safety of everyone – yes I know too noble but I guess we get like that once in a while. While I hid taking notes of the battle that spread before me it was a battle for the ages as we engaged in battle with a dragon. We clashed – the sound of steeling ringing off scales sounded through the quiet jungle as we fought, the shouts of battle cries and the screams of pain echoed into the silent jungle as if the animals knew better than to attract the attention of a great wyrm – spells of all kind lit the jungle twilight sky with the power of suns as our spell casters flung spell after spell at the great wyrm. Great shadows, the undead and great bears and animals answered our call for aid and our cleric even summoned a demon to our cause in this epic battle. The sky opened up as we battled and lent a tearful and desperate feel to the battle as lightning flashed overhead and thunder echoed in the background. The rain lashed down unforgivingly on us as we battled slipping in pools of water and weapons suddenly slippery with rain water. The battle seemed to last for hours but really only lasted for a turn of a glass and in the end we stood battered, weakened and bloody but victorious over our foe – although glad in our triumph over such great odds it brought a pang of sadness in us at the loss of one of these great wyrms. With its defeat we had ensured the survival of Kuldadar and maybe for the Dragon’s Eye envoy and her party a new place to call home away from the unfeeling northern climate and so we left with mixed feelings – we had won the day – saved Kuldahar – gave a new start maybe to some lost children but it came with a steep price – the death of a great dragon…. The Legion would answer for all these troubles that now darkened and burdened our hearts and which gave us heavy and weighty issues to ponder.

[magisensei1]

Hello fellow adventures and travelers to the greater Faerun and Ice Wind Dale. This appendix is entitled “Dragon Slaying for Beginners” focusing mainly on the Black Dragon we encounter in the Chute jungle called the Guardian.

First let me say, if you think slaying dragons will be as easy as the ice dragons you faced earlier in your adventuring let me dissuade you of this notion. Those ice dragons were either very juvenile ice dragons or lesser dragons and can’t compare to the true might of an adult dragon and all its magnificence – this black dragon was at least twice those ice dragon in size. Normally if you can talk about slaying a dragon as a normal act; a battle with one would require lots of planning and preparation plus a friendly call to Elminister the Sage of the Dales for assistance and maybe a call to your friendly cleric-shrink to have your head examined and maybe committed to an institution for considering such an act but if you are set on dragon slaying for fame, fortune or madness here is a bit of advice (plus tactics and strategies) for you wanna-be dragon slayers.

First and foremost if your party of adventures does not have at least two high level spell-casters (ie cleric and a mage) then you might as well pack it in and go home since a sword and shield battle with a dragon that can bite you in two with one bit, has claws half the size as you are tall and breath weapon is suicidal since you won’t have the aid of any mounted fighters and lances. Secondly, be prepared for its dragon aura – an aura that causes panic and fear in all living creatures – and as such prepare appropriately to counter it if you have the means because if you can’t then you might as well be called lunch. [Side note: a party of paladins might work or a party with heavy melee fighters and a bard might work as well – why a bard – because of the anti-fear song they can sing but be prepared for at least some casualties in such a party.]

My team consisted of: ranger, rogue, monk, druid, sorcerer and cleric – with the ranger and rogue basically sitting out of the battle or waiting in the wings as potential reinforcement in order to limit the amount of micro-management that is needed for a dragon battle (plus there is a limited amount of buff spells available). The optimal levels should be 13-14 (for any pure class characters – my druid was level 14, while the rest were at level 13). Why choose the monk you might wonder; well my monk was level 13 and as such had improved evasion to evade acid breath completely, had a better AC than anyone pre-buffed at 32 (much higher after spell buffs), could self-heal if needed; had great saving throws (if needed) – properly armed (+4 or better weapon and possessing the collar that gives panic/fear immunity), and could run faster to retreat if needed, and as such she tackled the challenge of facing the dragon toe-to-toe.

If you are like us and figured out through your infiltration of the Yuan-Ti temple that the guardian is a black serpent and sort of figured out that any species capable of opening a portal and keeping it open has to be very powerful then you should have come to the conclusion that we did and it was a black dragon. Now to prepare for battle is essential but you should already have sufficient buffs memorized so your spellcasters don’t have to study for the upcoming battle.

Pre-battle spell-casting to aid your teammates is essential – if you can cast it then cast everything that you can consider defensive/buffing spells – anything that can be cast for everyone should be used for example: mass protection against evil, mass haste, strength of one, bless, prayer, invisibility (for spell-caster defense) – any spells that can help the group should be cast. Secondly individual spells need to be chosen for the brave or foolish soul that has volunteered to distract the dragon – layer her with sufficient spells to aid her for example: aid, stoneskin, barkskin, bulls strength, cats grace, haste, protection against evil (the other version), armor, protection from acid (as this is a black dragon and that means acid breath), improved invisibility and anything else that you might consider helpful for surviving a dragon battle. Your spell-casters should also be prepared to cast recitation/prayer (early start of the battle), remove fear, impervious sanctity of mind (you must be at level 13 cleric to cast for protection against fear), and any 7th level spell you might consider helpful. Spells that we found to be the most useful are summoning spells – so if you have them use them and if you have scrolls or wands that can summon use them as these allies will be of great help during the battle.

Offensive spells that affect armor class of the dragon must be used – bane, doom, alicorn lance, faerie fire are essential to lowering the AC of the dragon or you might not be able to hit the bloody dragon – cast them as needed – the plus of using alicorn lance is that it does damage as well as lowering AC – so use the wand/spell if you have it.

Offensive damaging spells – dragons are highly resistance to spells but if you are lucky a few spells might get through to aid in this battle. Druid spells: call lightning (we cast twice), static charge (x1), wall of moonlight, smashing wave, sun beam (moderately useful will blind the dragon and cause lesser damage about 5-8 hp), ice storm and anything else you might deem useful to cast. Cleric spells are used for additional buffing, healing and protection. Sorcerer spells: lightning spells, magic missile, cold spells, anything but acid spells should be used.

Now each of your casters should be casting summoning spells for allies: animate dead is a great one to cast as the undead are immune to panic/fear aura; but any allies that you can call will be a boon to you and keep the dragon distracted as much as possible in addition the more powerful summoned allies can cause some damage to the dragon which is only a plus and makes surviving the battle that much more likely. Keep the dragon boxed in with enough summons because if you don’t it will teleport to weaker characters and can cause huge damage if you are not fully prepared (60 hp of damage with one hit is a lot of pain). We were able to cast 6 animate dead that called huge skeleton/mummy allies; greater shadows (very damage resistant but can be panic/feared); and lots of animal/monster allies.

Now formation is important if possible try to maneuver the dragon so it is in the middle and the spell-casters are surrounding it in some way – far enough that the panic/fear aura won’t affect their castings. Or try to box the dragon in a corner if possible.

Defensive spells: are important as back up for spell-casters for example: sanctuary, invisibility, turtle shell, basically any defensive shield that can save you should be prepared just in case the dragon decides to teleport in your direction.

Now as the battle commenced with summons and our brave volunteer (it should be noted that a magical weapon of +4 or better is needed) there are some interesting things you might want to avoid while battling or use more effectively than we did. Gating a demon while a great idea as they can take huge damage (and can hit the dragon) and is immune to panic/fear will attack anything that is not protected by protection against evil spell – so if you have undead or animal allies not protected than gating in a demon will prove to be dangerous to your allies as much as it is to the dragon – in addition once the demon attacks your summoned allies they turn away from the dragon to face the demon (which happened to us) so be prepared for this – the dragon will have many distractions still to choose from but your summoned allies will be thinned out a lot faster because of this. If you decide to use higher summoning spells (7th level summoning) be prepared for allies that are as dangerous to your allies as they are to the dragon – my druid used her 7th level nature summoning and called an elemental ( if you think about it is not a natural creature) who decided it didn’t like to be called here and bashed the other summons in addition to attacking the dragon – like the demon a hardy ally but dangerous to have as well. By the way creeping doom is not so useful as they tend not to be able to makes their saves.

Now as the battle has started, your spell-casters can cast whatever offensive spells that prove useful and if you are a cleric with very limited offensive spells and no one needs defensive spells at the moment than use missile weapons to aid in the battle (arrows of piercing and sure shoot arrows are a must have or if you have +4 or better missile ammo – this is the time to use them.) Instant kill spells like finger of death can be used but most likely won’t work unless you are very lucky (as for slay living spell – this spell is bugged in the game for me as we can’t even cast it). If everything goes to plan than you should maybe be able to defeat a dragon.

Once you have prepared with spells, magical items, and allies and a huge dose of courage you can commence dragon slaying – one last word of advice – avoid dragon slaying if possible since its very painful but if you can’t avoid it be prepared and know what you are facing, plus send a prayer to lady luck and write out a will because you never know the outcome of dragon slaying.

[Claudius]

Ahh, it's really a black dragon!! Next time protection from acid! I've beaten it before with a spellsword (MI + ultimate AC) with a sorceror pounding away with the summoned sword spell. Animate dead is also a good spell if I recall. I have also read that lightning is solid; my current party has a druid and cleric of talos

[Claudius]

Did you get the bracers from Nym's bottle in the wandering village? Those would help your tanker.

[magisensei1]

Pickpocketing adventure update:

Hi everyone, if you enjoy using all your thieving skills then pick pocketing is of course a must skill to have and use. Here is our pickpocketing adventure continued (as told by Hitomi the Cat - thief extraordinary):

The Underdark:

There is of course no one like a merchant to pick pocket and get quick gold if you need money. The merchants in the Underdark were no exception to this rule - as merchants are merchants everywhere - the only difference being that Underdark merchants may decide to steal from you as well. Of the 3 merchants and one bodyguard we were able to get a ring of knowing. amulet of protection +1, potion of extra healing, scroll of cure serious wounds, a few gems, and several hundred in gp (400+gp). Of course of the 3 merchants I was only able to pickpocket 2 of them since one of them seemed to be really hard to pick pocket from.

Continuing our brief lifting spree in the Underdark, did you know you can pickpocket a mindflayer - 'nooo you say what about all their vaunted mind reading abilities' - you say with some disbelief - yes you can pickpocket them and while they had no magical items they have gold (we got about 150gp) and gold is always good to have. Unfortunately but not surprising the slaves of the mindflayers had nothing on them to take.

I for one wanted to try to pick pocket a drieder but they were universally violent to everyone and as such I never got a chance to try it - of course they don't have pockets but who knows what they might keep in their spider-sack-hump thing. Oh well, an adventure to try another time.

Chult - Yuan-Ti temple:

The Yuan-ti people like those everywhere also had things for us to borrow. The envoy from Dragon's Eye had a ring of warrior which is always nice and of course gold is always good to have as well. The surprising thing was the Yuan-ti cook who had a variety of items to be lifted from his person: ring of acid resistance, skull, dead-stuffed cat (what he was doing carrying a dead-stuffed cat one can only speculate...lucky charm maybe or maybe ingredients for tonight's soup...hmmmmm...), and gold. As for the initiates, abominations, warriors and various priests and sorcerers that were scattered through the temple most had absolutely nothing not even a copper piece to be had - so sad to walk around without any gold to your name. I tried pickpocketing the leaders of the temple but without significant enhancement to pick pocketing skills (or more patience than me) or something they seem to be un-pickable. I think one of the sad part about the viper assassins that we encountered was that they also had no gold on them or anything for that matter. Imagine an assassin with no money - how sad is that - but since they are part of a cult not too surprising but sad nonetheless.

Have you ever sat in on the ceremony that takes place at the temple? Can you say - cult and brain washing anyone - it was interesting to listen to as I hid in a dark corner but rather scary as they were chanting to Sseth and saying things like 'the willingness to throw themselves in Sseth's fangs' in other words suicide missions and fighting to the last instead of surrendering - this makes battling cults that much more difficult - hopefully our plan to leave the Dragon's Eye envoy stranded in her new home won't back fire on the Ten-Towns sometime in the future.

Enjoy pick pocketing everyone ...more news and updates as they happen.

[LastDanceSaloon]

If there's one thing you can never have enough of in IWD2 it's dead cats, dead people, assorted bones, broken armor and weapons! (lol). The warrior ring is an awesome find though, a fighter-type with a Belt of Beautification and two Rings of the Warrior is amassing a very healthy +3 to attack, that's got to be worth a free level or two!

There's some awesome adventuring taking place here and +1 for taking out The Guardian. When The army of Charitable Salvation took it on they lured the beast to the small encampment of native hunters who were more than happy to sacrifice themselves to our noble cause. While The Guardian was busy splatting these needles in it's side we concocted many a nasty surprise for it, though our challenge ended in a very similar state of exhaustion to your own party. Later, once home and try and distributing our new-found wealth to the deserving many in the party told a very different tale, many of which included some devilishly crafty ways to defeat the Dragon should they ever get a second go

As the new stories of similar adventures gradually seep into the mission camp from far and wide, the various party members gather round and find great pleasure in the details of the latest adventures, cursing many missed 'donations' and giving thanks that at least none of them ever got turned to stone (at least that's what they say as they quickly change the subject...).

"Bah" Father Superior snorts "If they ain't even been through Dragon's Eye then they ain't true Dalers yet!"
"Shush your pomposity" Her Holiness the Pope exclaims "No-one in their right mind would go in there, you'd need a darn Timelord in the party just to scrape together a dull copper. If my limbs weren't brittle enough to break tripping over a daisy, why, I'D'VE dug me own darn tunnel rather than go though that hell hole!"
"Aye to that!" The others chant in unison.

[magisensei1]

Hello fellow adventurers this appendix is entitled “Ghost sweeping/hunting for beginners” focusing on the Lost Followers.

Ghost hunting let me tell you are for the brave, the somewhat fool hardy and those dedicated to bringing peace to those that have not moved on rather than the regular adventurer but if you have no choice but to exorcise some ghosts from a particular area please remember to use caution and bring a long a priest/cleric/shaman at the very least.

Now what do you need for ghost hunting besides a cleric/shaman/priest person in your party of ghost hunters; well magical weapons are definite asset to hit ghostly beings but being brave and having a true heart is also needed …. no I’m joking but really no special equipment is needed unless your ghost/poltergeist is a very special type of ghost.

Generally ghost exorcisms tend to be really easy – bring a powerful shaman/cleric/priest and have them chant the exorcism prayer/spell and there it is finished but if they are powerful and persistent in their haunting then some old fashion butt kicking is needed and as such magical weapons are needed just in case that of this.

For us the battle with the Lost Followers followed a very orderly procedure and planning. If you have no information about these 6 individuals we suggest finding information on them before deciding you want to exorcise them otherwise it will be a very short and futile venture on your part.

Preparing for battle: protective/defensive/buff spells are needed the usual will do as long as it affects the entire party and the monsters you summoned – e.g. protection from evil; mass haste; armor; stone skin; strength etc and then there are the individuals defensive spells like iron skins; bark skin; holy power; blur; etc that you can cast as you need them. As the battle starts remember to place your members in a defensive formation with summons facing outwards and taking the brunt of the first rush by these ghosts giving you and your spell-casters time to cast the needed spells at the start of the battle.

Like all huge battles with villains, the first rule is to take out/incapacitate the spell-casters as quick as possible – this can be done via melee attack or spells that are strong enough to hopefully incapacitate them immediately. For us, we exorcised the spell-casters first with the following strategy: 1) Our druid cast creeping doom and sunbeam on one of them and effectively sent the ghost to the after-life; while our range, rogue and monk exorcised the other spell-caster using melee attacks and this effectively removed two of the more dangerous players from the field of battle. While this is going on our sorceress placed one of the 4 remaining fighters in ‘jail’ by casting [url='http://www.gamebanshee.com/icewinddaleii/spells/sorcererwizardlevelfour.php#null']Otiluke's Resilient Sphere[/url] – which effectively removed temporarily another enemy combatant from the field leaving us with 3. Meanwhile our summoned allies are effectively delaying and distracting the other 3 fighters – it is time to gang up on one of them and exorcise them from this plane of existence – we exorcised the archer and that left us with 3 remaining ghosts. Now as all of this is going on remember to cast prayer/recitation etc to assist in these melee battles because these remaining ghosts are quiet hardy and dangerous to handle. Now you have a choice about who to exorcise next but remember pay close attention to who you are attacking since they each have individual weaknesses that can be exploited to your advantage. If everything has gone right for you with only minimal bruising then there should only be one left and as such when the ‘jail’ spell duration has ended have everyone do what is necessary to exorcise this last remaining ghost. Overall a well-planned strategy that eliminated some rather nasty ghosts but remember planning is key and having the right information to do the battle.

While the plan seems simple always have a cleric/priest handy to cast healing spells since you will need them still and don’t forget to continue to call for allies and renew certain spells that have expired. And always remember to have protective spells for your casters – sanctuary for example (spell, potion, wand), circle of blades (works well for a short defensive spell and keeps the bad guys away even ghosts it seems) etc. and be prepared to retreat your fighters for some healing just in case they get really hurt during the battle.

Mirco-management is the key to this exorcism so keep careful track of everything that is happening to add support in terms of spells or change weapons as needed to handle these restless ghosts.

[magisensei1]

Hello fellow adventurers and travelers, this chapter in are ongoing adventures in IceWind Dale is entitled “Home away from Home” since we are exploring the home of the exiled half-Yuan-ti children of Kuldahar.

Now the first thing that we noticed after trekking through the icy mountains was that the passage into Dragon’s Eye was not only heavily guarded but also heavily trapped. There is paranoia which is understandable given the fact that the people of Kuldahar wanted to kill them and then there is excessive paranoia mixed in with a supreme desire to be left alone and we think that this combined with the influence of the Legion caused the half-yuan-ti and those that now reside here to fortify the mountain into a fortress. Getting to the top of the mountain was an exercise in patience and cold-weather battling as the Legion had found perfect outside guards in the form of ice salamanders. After battling what seemed like a hundred guards we finally reached the front door to Dragon’s Eye only to bump into another obstacle, this time a sorceress blocked our path and even though in general our intentions were not hostile we couldn’t negotiate a safe passage through the mountain and as such a sorcerer battle took place a top the mountain.

Imagine two sorceress each facing each other, the cold of the icy snow calmly reflected their image as they stared each other down waiting for the other to move first. The chill of the morning air made their breaths into little puffs of clouds as the silence of the mountain seemed to indicate that it was holding its breath as well waiting for the inevitable clash of arcane might that would soon be unleashed on these snowy steeps. Elderitch power gathered around the two sorceress as we stood back and watched the air begin to be charged with their power and in a blink of an eye later the two mages started hurling spells at each other. Explosions of fire, ice, light and magical energies ripped through the calm morning air charging the air with electricity and smoke as they battled to bring the other down. Defenses were seen glowing in the aftermath of explosions as the two sorceress battled into the morning unleashing terrible magical energies onto the mountain.

If there is one thing my aunt would always tell me as I listened to her tales of adventure and exploration through Faerun was that always stand back and duck down and let mages battle it out because if you attempt to help or interfere you might get hit by a stray bolt and wind up as a frog for the rest of your short life – so we stayed well back watching from a safe distance as the magical duel lit up the morning sky.

As we watched the duel unfold before us with neither mage getting the upper hand for any real length of time, Lady Deelit our druid suddenly stood up with a look of impatience in her eyes strode up the path towards the two sorceress – we called for her to return but she ignored us as she often did especially when she did what she thought was best. Standing a few paces behind the battling mages, Deelit began chanting her voice barely heard over the wind and explosions – she stood before us with a faint green glow about her that she always got when she called upon natures might and as always when she stood in the natural environment her power was something to behold as even the sky answered her call and hurled lightning bolts down on the unwary sorceress faced with already one mage now she battled two. Unexpectedly but not surprisingly her involvement surprised both spell-casters and we got the upper hand as the enemy sorceress was thrown to the ground bleeding, bloody with smoke rising from her charred clothes. Surprisingly she stood up again rather shakily, brushed off her clothes with a bloody hand and said something about an appointment with a brave if weak smile and just like that teleported away leaving us winners by default but a win is still a win and it’s even better without having to bury anyone at the end of the battle. And so we entered Dragon’s Eye expecting a rather cold reception and many difficult battles ahead of us but we prayed for a safer passage and perhaps someone willing to let us pass as we were sympathetic to their plight although we disagreed with how they decided to rectify their situation with violence and chaos.

I remember my aunt telling me about her adventures here in Dragon’s Eye with her companions and what the mountain fortress was like. I remember being dazzled by the description of the caves natural beauty mixed with the elegant comforts that would be found in the deeper levels of the mountain fortress. I think one of the reasons I agreed to go on this adventure was for the chance to see with my own eyes the majestic heights and depths of Dragon’s Eye that had dazzled me as a child through my aunts tales and now as I stood before the entrance one of my childhood dreams stood ready to be fulfilled. Would the mountain cave fortress be as I imagined in the stories or had thirty years of new occupants changed the once great mountain fortress it something that was totally unrecognizable to me and the tales I remembered.

[magisensei1]

Here and Now or Then and Back a Time Paradox

Hi there fellow adventurers and unfortunate time travelers this brief chapter is entitled “Here and Now or Then and Back a Time Paradox.”

Now traveling through Dragon’s Eye and its various levels proved to be a bit disappointing to me especially the lower levels. The first two levels were as my aunt described to me in her stories – it was rough, carved from the mountain itself with an abundance of monsters that roamed the dark cavern hallways of Dragon’s Eye. Thirty years of occupation had changed the interior somewhat but that was to be expected whenever new occupants decide to take up residency.

As we carefully wandered our way through the caves and hallways we came to a place for prisoners that were being tortured and changed and decided to rescue them which required a small pitch battle with the guards but otherwise it was a successful rescue. One of the prisoners turned out to be a very odd fellow who was studying the yuan-ti and actually wanted to try one of their magical potions that made them into histachi (a rather mindless zombie of sorts) and we agreed to assist him in his quest since we had to journey through the various levels it wasn’t too difficult for us to pick up some of potion that he required.

Our journey through the mountain fortress was in itself not too difficult in terms of encounters but it was a bit disappointing since it had been changed a lot from what my aunt and her stories had told me – the rooms with carved stone paving in which the demon-snake-goddess had stayed and used where no longer there anymore.

One annoying thing that we did encounter was a giant rolling boulder that flattened our scout as she wandered through the hallways – talk about painful bruises – but she survived and we were able to help another restless ghost.

Journeying to the forth level of Dragon’s Eye we encountered the strangest event that we thought was very odd – we got stuck in a reverse time loop of sorts that sent us back in time one day at a time. There were several odd things about this adventure that remain to this day rather odd to us.

The over-priced boat ride was certainly not something we enjoyed and it cost us up to 12,000 gp in are various time trips to use talk about inflation but I guess if you are the only boat on a lava river then you can charge what you like.

We finally got to the heart of the matter for the time loop – a miscast spell by a certain sorceress that we had already encountered. Traveling backwards allowed us to see everything that would happen – her murder – the sending of assassins – other murders – just showed us how unstable and chaotic the Legion really was and needed a serious put down or something to stop some of the general madness that seemed to infect their troops. As we traveled back we got a measure of satisfaction by defeating the fire giant king who murdered the sorceress but we knew that he would reappear again as we traveled another day back but for a moment there was a moment of satisfaction for us to bring justice in a little dark corner of the world.

Having travelled many days back into the past we finally came upon the crucial day that started the time loop the day of casting. We rushed to meet the sorceress and with what elegance we had attempted to convince her of the error she made in her spell-casting and the consequences that would follow if she didn’t change the spell. Sadly we were unable to convince her – as she was determined to save Dragon’s Eye from a volcanic eruption and we had no choice but to physically restrain her which ended in her death. For all our mutual hostility to one another her fate seemed locked as she died no matter what we did or tried to do. There is no cheating Death if she comes for you. But to tell you a small secret if we had the time we really wanted to teach King Lothar another lesson before leaving but sadly no time remained for us to do that.

One funny tale to tell about this time traveling trip was the firewalker play we went to watch - they really need help with their dialogue and everything since they seemed to have no idea how to perform...it actually put us to sleep - so if you are sleep deprived give it a try but if you are critic you are bound to pull out your hair and scream at them. Another amusing thing we saw was the all firewalker jury talk about an impartial jury - really funny - only if you were not the defendant otherwise it was very serious for you.

Now here we were four days in the past – which is a bit unusual and scary – since everything we did the defeat of the yuan-ti head priest, the defeat of the assassins, saving the prisoners, saving the ghost all had not happened yet – so what did it all mean as the eruption started to shake Dragon’s Eye. What did it all mean – where we still in the past we wondered? If we wandered up to the entrance would we meet ourselves as we travelled along the trails that lead to Dragon’s Eye and what would that mean for us and them? As we escaped from the eruption these thoughts plagued us and scared us since we didn’t know what would happen to the us right now and the us back then – does the priest still rule? Is the ghost we saved at peace? Are the prisoners waiting to be rescued or did everyone perish in the volcanic eruption that had just happened and did we actually travel through Dragon’s Eye? The evidence before us and we being on the other side of Dragon’s Eye says we went through the mountain fortress but did we since it is four days ago and one group of us is still traveling towards the mountain fortress and what awaits them when the reach the summit of the mountain entrance? These paradoxical questions plagued us as we were suddenly swept away by a magical force to repay a debt and save a certain mage who was a bit to careless in his summoning of demons. But the question remained for us - where are we - are we traveling to Dragon's Eye - what would happen if we traveled to the mountain bridge - would we encounter ourselves - all very scary questions - which we decided to ignore for now or better yet find a very powerful wizard and ask our questions...

[magisensei1]

Pick Pocketing and assorted thieving continued:

Hi fellow thieves, burglars, and rogues I hope you are enjoying these journals of my adventure through Ice Wind Dale and the nice donations we got from our generous donors.

Today we are looking through Kuldahar and the remaining brave or crazy souls that remained in the little village. Let me tell you first and foremost as we landed her and disembarked from Oswald’s ship that we encountered a rather lusty cleric of Bane who decided to join with the Legion. Although this meeting was nothing special what was truly odd given the general atmosphere was that he propositioned us – he wanted to marry us or maybe just me – but it had to be the oddest proposal (really my first) that I/we received since I wasn’t sure if he was just talking to me or the group of us (all of us being women). Well it gave us a chuckle to us but who would want to marry someone that hangs around with ghosts and undead things not to mention all the dark armor of his - talk about fashion challenged – this proposal had to be the oddest thing for us in our adventures so far. And this was the second time which villains it seemed wanted to breed with us (not a term I like to use since we are not cows) and while we are a comely group to have random people/demons asking to mate with us was disconcerting and we wandered if romance for villains/monsters was really lacking.....

Pick pocketing through the rather limited people here proved to be profitable for me as I got some nice wands, rings, jewels, and of course the thing I like most – gold. While everyone we meet had something nice on them and the Archdruid proved to have pockets that were sealed and I couldn’t get anything from him no matter how often I tried…sigh… and I had such high hopes of getting something unique from him to.

As we departed Kuldahar for Dragon’s Eye and wandered among the caves there – there wasn’t a lot of people to use our lite-finger skills on but still we did try it on the prisoners and anyone we had to pass by with no luck – we even tried to pickpocket the disguised boy-priest who proved to be unpickable, and even the fake Nathaniel who proved to have pockets that were all sealed up. What a fake Nathaniel? Yes – for some odd reason there was a fake Nathaniel that proved a bit useful to us by healing us but who didn’t do anything violent to us – may be a spy or sorts – but we only found out after we went back to Kuldahar that there was a fake there pretending to be him – which we thought was really rather funny – we left him standing there I guess waiting for us to return.

Now as we continue our tales I have to say I am the one usually doing the thieving but here in Dragon’s Eye one of the rescued prisoners who just happen to be a mage or sort decided to rob me which I found remarkable and rather refreshing. I mean we had rescued him a while back and now he decides to rob us – what funny irony of sorts. Well he got a serious butt kicking from us for trying this as personally I don’t mind thieves but to try to forcefully rob us and we had just saved you really got me going and as such thieves with no sense of honor don’t really deserve a second chance.

In general pickpocketing in Dragon's Eye proved to be a real bust - I even tried it during our adventures back in time with no luck - I recommend all thieves to give it a go but sadly Dragon's Eye is no more after being engulfed by a volcano...does this mean the threat from the half-yuan-ti is over for Kuldahar or is it another of those time paradoxes that confuses the pants off of me....hmmmmm???

Returning to Kuldahar again I noticed that Shemish seems to have a warehouse full of fire wands as he had another to take to add to our collection from him – of course this probably because he lives in a wizard tower and who knows what kind of interesting treasures exist hidden all over the place.

And a note to all those that defeated the Lost Followers - if you are like us and really have no need for the sword (having no paladin with us) it sells for quite a lot (some 30,000gp) but we decided to keep it as a souvenir for the fireplace mantle to show we had something we got from a very dangerous battle and for our time in this icy climate besides frostbite to show for it.