Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Planar Sphere, Part 1: The Hungry, Hungry Halflings
I'm going to regret this. Maybe? I think? I'm not sure. We'll see I guess.
I've always feared the lock in quests. There's something comforting about knowing you can run back to the Flagons if things go flooey. In the Planar Sphere and Planar Prison quests that's not an option. It's scary.
My discomfort is even greater now with the v35 scripts. Not only are we trapped, but I don't know what to expect. This could go sideways, for sure.
My anxiety aside, I'm pleased to report that Alena's team has cleared their first hurdle in the Planar Sphere: the Hungry, Hungry Halflings. And while we can't celebrate with a round of spiced wine, Alena is pleased. She's one step closer to freedom and one step closer to Imoen.
We started the quest by barging in on Valygar. We added him to the team, walked by alopecia Santa Claus here, and entered the Corthala family fun zone.
With Remove Curse on hand, clay golems are far less scary, but they still deserve respect. Aerie and Nalia took care of this one with Fleshy and Melf's.
"My honor is my life," that's the oath of the Solamanic Knight. So why does this crew hide under the table while the hungry, hungry halflings are on the rampage? Yes, they've been having a bad day, but still: it's not super honorable to let a bounty hunter solve your problems.
Yoshimo's traps sufficed to take down two of the three opening warriors. The last one was stubborn enough that we had to lead him to Minsc. I should probably give Yoshi Aerie's Bracers of AC 3 when she's not using them.
Time for the main event. Since the call for help ranges are large in v35, we didn't try to separate the front line warriors. Instead we took our buffs and charged in. We didn't slow down for the warriors because we wanted to maximize our buff time while facing Kayardi.
As is our practice in mage fights, Aerie and Nalia led the way. The party will join them once the Remove threat is neutralized. We used our standard Nalia: Death Fog, Aerie: Secret Word opening.
In round two we typically go Nalia: Spell Thrust, Aerie: Breach. Nalia was able to target her Spell Thrust but Kayardi shrewdly pulled back to evade both Nalia's Death Fog and Aerie's incoming Breach.
Mogadish clears the Death Fog with a Zone of Sweet Air. Kayardi returns with a Contingencied GoI. Nice move, but we're ready for it. Nalia has a Secret Word locked and loaded in her book. She even skipped her emergency Stoneskin for it. That hold effect on the Halfling near Aerie is from a Special Snare. The rest of the party hangs back, wary of Remove.
The Abjuration battle continues. Kayardi, at a spell equivalent action deficit, and a round behind due to Nalia's Death Fog, is on his heels. Nalia and Aerie go Secret Word and Breach respectively. We're playing our hand well, but so is Kayardi.
Aerie's Breach lands but Nalia's Secret Word won't come out. She's caught in one of those infinite casting animation loops. Damn! We were counting on that Secret Word. We went all Abjuration at 5, so that GoI is a problem. Still, we have Melf's and Kayardi's combat protections are gone. Maybe we can finish this, but we better get Minsc up here in case Kayardi goes ProMW. The downside of Melf's is you can't switch to unenchanted ammo on call. It's a pity our wand of the heavens is in Alena's inventory, not Aerie's. Flame Strike is the only damage spell we have that can get over a GoI. Note that Kayardi has landed a Secret Word on Nalia. If she had two L6s she'd have a Spell Deflection in place to catch that, protecting her Spell Immunities. Nalia and Aerie will continue to be vulnerable until they have Spell Shield and Spell Deflection.
Predictably, Kayardi goes ProMW. Where the hell is Minsc? The one time we want you near Aerie: the one time!
Kayardi pulls a sequencer. Shield, Stoneskin, MSD is a nice one. We had prepared for something like that, with a second Spell Thrust in Aerie's book, but since we were cheated out of our Secret Word, leaving that GoI in place, Kayardi will die with dignity, falling to darts of stunning instead of being beaten at his own game.
Kayardi finally gets an offensive spell off. It's a Death Fog. That's no threat to Aerie and Nalia, both running ProAcid, but it will nick Minsc, who's finally arrived. Nalia's damage is a downstream consequence of the Secret Word debacle. That Secret Word crowded out Nalia's emergency Stoneskin. Had it landed that would have been the right call. Kayardi would have died, allowing Nalia to pull back while the party, now safe from Remove, charged forward. Instead Nalia took some damage while chucking her darts off stunning at Kayardi. Had we anticipated this possibility we would have given Nalia Shield + Boots of Avoidance + Cloak of Displacement. I shouldn't have assumed that we'd neutralize the Remove threat before arrows could work through Nalia's illusions and Stoneskins. ProNM would have been an option, too, but we couldn't spare the L3. We needed that last slot for Haste, as an emergency counter to Slow, and or to buff the party in the endgame.
With Kayardi stunned and now poisoned by Nalia's darts, the party could join the fray, if only that Death Fog weren't there. Aerie's third Holy Smite should have been a Zone of Sweet Air instead. If it had been, the party would be here right now and Nalia, having deployed her Web x 2 sequencer would be out of harms way. Sorry, Nalia, I really screwed things up for you in this fight and we haven't even talked about my lazy decision to skip your Contingency. Kudos to you for still being the hero of this fight.
The party could come forward or Aerie, Nalia and Minsc could pull back. We chose the latter since only one person, Minsc, would be hurt. Also, an aerial servant, immune to Web, is on the way. Might as well pull him through the Death Fog and to Yoshi's traps.
The coast is clear. Time to reunite the party and hand out some beets.
Forward to the Web. Togan makes a save. Alena goes Defensive Harmony, while Nalia forces him to save again, via darts of stunning. He fails. This is over kill. Togan is not that dangerous, not on his own.
We'd tell you to go for the eyes, Boo, but that last enemy is a mordy sword. Aerie can handle this.
An acceptable performance for our first battle in the Sphere. I give it something in the B range. I’m not expecting many A’s in this run.
Best,
A.
