The Candlekeep Annex: RPed Baldur’s Gate No and Low Reload Adventures

[WiseGrimwald]

Hal once more took on Greywolf and again had to rely on help from the guards at the mine.
Then helped Rufie rejoin with his owner and helped a dryad.
Helped Brage and am currently trying to prove his innocence.
Recruited gavin for taking on the ankhegs and noticed that Tenya is a far better cleric. It only takes one of her command spells to defeat an ankheg. With Gavin it takes two.
A messenger has interrupted our ankheg hunt saying that the Temple of Lathander need our help.
It seems like an opportune time to sell the shells.

EDIT

We continued doing Gavin's quests and now only have to kill Mutamin to finish them.

On the way Dorn joined us, we killed Kryll and we bade farewell to Dorn.

Xzar and Montaron joined us, Montaron did a lot of pickpocketing and we bade them farewell also.

Now Sirine has joined us and I hope that she will stay: she had 32,000 experience.

Then Finch joined us with 700 experience. Clearly she needed to be recruited at the start of the game!!

I'm dropping her immediately. She can wait for another run

We went to pick up Dynaheir and failed. I was forced to flee whilst my comrades died. After using all but one healing potion I returned too late to the fray but did at least win the battle as the last man standing. I picked up most of the loot leaving behind a lot of ammunition.

Raising my comrades was expensive: 1600gp! Aerie however healed them for free.

We will return to the Gnoll stronghold but first I will recruit Tenya at least for a while.

In retrospect Gavin summoned skeletons too late. At least we are here to tell the tale.

We eventually got around to recruiting Tenya. What a difference! She had 40,000 experience, far more than she usually has when I recruit her.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Minor Encounters Around Athkatla- Still Practice, Practice

After a couple more practice battles against the remaining slavers...

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And the pirates...

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We decided to take on a group that's very nearly an even match to us in terms of levels: Valeria's crew in the Bridge District.

We're pre-buffed, they're pre-buffed, let's begin. Aerie's pre-cast True Sight is already doing work.

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We open with Mr. Efreeti from Minsc and a Spell Thrust on Dracandros from Haer'Dalis.

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Alena follows with Silence on Dracandros. It takes. With the Remove threat bottled up, we're willing to unleash our stationary AoE's, Alena's Firestorm and Aerie's Web sequencer. Life is getting rough for our enemies. Minsc has been struck by a lucky hit through his MIs, but aside from that we're injury free.

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Aerie finishes off Dracandros with a Skull Trap. Minsc's Mr. Efreeti is an insignificant casualty.

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We're on the march now. Minsc and Haer'Dalis lead the charge into the Web. Jaheira, Alena and Aerie use their ranged weapons on Falahar, who has run in panic.

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Only Valeria is left now. Despite being a higher level than any of our party members, she isn't a threat. Still, we make her save v hold three times per round with Haer'Dalis's Ghoul Touch + Offensive Spin. Minsc gets the kill.

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We did reasonably well here, but we could have done better. Aerie should have skipped her Web sequencer and gone with Breach on Dracandros instead. Minsc should have been running AoF. I've also decided that Alena should start battles with the Reflection Shield equipped, so as not to risk disruption via arrow. Alena's effective AC of -24 v missiles isn't enough, since crits are a thing. Next time.

Best,

A.

 

[Talamir]

Ghoul Touch + Offensive Spin, wow. *scribbles notes* Cheap/economical way to completely disable foeswith multiple chances to force a failed save. That's good stuff.
AoF = Armor of Faith?

 

[Alesia_BH]

Ghoul Touch + Offensive Spin, wow. *scribbles notes* Cheap/economical way to completely disable foeswith multiple chances to force a failed save. That's good stuff.

Within the Sticky Business battle plan Haer'Dalis's job is to disable enemies who make it through the Web. He usually uses Pixie Prick + Kundane. He keeps Ghoul Touch in his book in case he runs into an elf, or an enemy whose save v spells is lower than their save v death. He used Ghoul Touch against Valeria because she's an elf.

Ghoul Touch is also an interesting option against mages running one of the Mantles since it strike as a +6 weapon.

AoF = Armor of Faith?

Yes. I've been lazy about casting it in this run. Similar story with Bless and Chant. We should be using those more

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Harper's Quest, Part 1

Hey there, hi there, everyone! There's someone I'd like you to meet. You probably know him. He's pretty famous. His name is Jan, Jan Jansen.

The great thing about Jan is that he can wear so many hats. Here he is being a smarty, smarty.

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Here he is being a sexy, sexy.

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And here he is...I'm not sure what he's up to here. Oh, right! That was when he auditioned for Devo.

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If you're thinking there's no way Jan Jansen auditioned for Devo, you're wrong. He did. Just ask him. If you're thinking there was way too much eyebrow in that sexy, sexy picture, I'm with you. That's not sexy at all. If you'd like to see the absolute maximum amount of eyebrow congruent with sexiness, allow me to refer you to Valygar's manservant.

Anyhoo, Jan is with us. He's with us because we're broke, and we're hoping a little larceny will fix that. Here we see Jan plying his trade on the Bridge District cutpurse. The rest of the party is invisible, because we don't want heat from the man if it all goes sideways.

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I operate with a few restrictions when I steal things. First, no sell, steal, sell loops.. That's lame. Second, no stacking of potions of master thievery. That's lame, too. Jan was allowed a potion of mind focusing, a potion of perception and a potion of master thievery. One of each, no more.

We're about to lighten Roger's load here. We bought the super choice stuff, to make sure we'd get it. After that we stole everything we could. Happily, Jan never failed. Not here. Not in the Promenade. Not in Tradement. Not in the Umar Hills. Not anywhere. Yes, it was a full on crime wave, and no we don't feel bad about it. Alena is chaotic good, not lawful good. All these things will be put to good use. Very good use.

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We used our newfound wealth to buy Everard and the Sensate Amulet. Alena got the former, Aerie the latter. We then moved on to SoA's most baffling quest line, the Harper's Hold quests.

This quest line is a big deal for Jaheira. It's a major part of her story, and it's where she gets her personal item, the Harper Pin. Since it's so important for Jaheira, you'd think it would start in a Jaheira friendly way. Yeah, no: that's not how it works. You have to side with Xzar against the Harper's, something Jaheira would never do. I've actually never done this for that reason. Without Jaheira, you can’t. With her, it makes zero sense.

This time I shelved my objections because Jaheira really needs that pin. You know what that means, Prebek: It's going to be a bad day.

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The last time I did this was with Unfinished Business installed. It's a different and better fight with UB. The original, with the goblins, is a little silly. Who cares if Prebek is making goblins. A five year old could kill those things with a butter knife.

Since I didn't know what to expect from this version of the fight, we went all out with our buffs. We also skipped the web sequencers for fear of Remove. Minsc, equipped with Ages, is attacking Prebek, who had been Spell Thrust, not Breached. Jaheira, equipped with Belm, is attacking the secondary mage, the one that had been Breached. Makes sense, right? The only offensive action we witnessed with this Slow from Prebek. Sorry, dude, we're running Free Action. And, no, your goblins aren't going to foil Alena's Firestorm. You're all going to die. It's just a matter of time now.

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And there we are. Sanasha is the first to go.

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We're kind of a lot for SoA foes right now. We have Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, and Free Action all around. Fire resistance all around. Additional elements resistances when needed. Our most vulnerable character is Minsc, who's Mirror Imaged, II untargettable, and typically sporting an effective AC around -13. We roll heavy on Abjuration magick so we can strip mage's quick, neutralizing Remove threats. If you fail to pose a Remove threat, you get hit with the double Web Sequencer + Fire Storm combo more-or-less in round one. Even if you do get a Remove off, you're rolling against Alena's single class cleric level because she's the one who buffs the characters who aren't running SI:A. Eventually, Haer-Dalis's level with become a problem for Remove threats, too. In other words, don't worry Minsc and Jaheira, we've got you covered in the long run. For now you need to keep dancing around Remove.

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Onto Mr. Confirmation Bias. Good luck guys!

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We draw out Remove. Everyone except Jaheira is unaffected. Sorry, Jaccy, you're benched again. Quaff you emergency PoI and get off the field. You can summon fire elementals over in the hallway if it makes you happy. Everyone else, we're doing this. You know the drill.

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How are we doing? Mages stripped, check. Firestorm cooking, check. Minsc's MI's still holding strong, check. Melee threats held, check. Jaheira off the field, summoning her elemental, check. Assuming we don't hurt ourselves this should be another no damage win. I'm not sure that Silence is the right call, Alena, but that's ok: you do you. As for you, Aerie, yes: bring the Skull Traps. That's the right idea. Death is the best disabler of all.

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Hurry up with that fire elemental. Jaheira, they're dying fast over here.

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There it is! The fire elemental! But, oh, damn. They're already dead. Still, nice work, Jaheira. It's not your fault you were tagged with Remove. Seriously, though: Don't come any closer. You're pushing it as is.

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Best,

A.

 

[Borco]

Orrin, human archer: Part 2 - En route to Nashkel

Fishermen like to tell stories, alright. Krakens the size of a castle, undead pirate crews wandering the oceans for all eternity, flesh eating sirens with lovely voices, whirlpools that can drag you into another worlds - we all heard those with varying degree of exaggeration and fantasy. At the same time, there's presumably a grain of truth at the core of each of those claims. And so when Sonner's crew mentioned that there's a treasure hoard worth of a dragon inside the nearby ankegh lair, Orrin was keen to find out more. We were capable of managing our expectations even without Ajantis insisting that these men are liars and crooks that should not be trusted, but thank you nevertheless for your opinion, Captain Obvious.

Temping as it was, it would be a suicide to attempt storming the place with our L1-L2 party and nothing but few Commands in terms of crowd control. Alas, no one seemed particularly willing to venture into that dark tunnel. With one exception - our best thief, Viconia. Equipped with nothing but her infravision and an emergency PoI, she was perfect for the mission. With the use of Sanctuary, she navigated the corridors all the way to the treasure hoard, collected everything of value, took note of the hapless corpse, and reappeared triumphantly at the surface. Even Montarona was genuinely impressed.

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Viconia kept the light chain mail, Orrin took the magical darts and potions for safekeeping, while Xzar got the scrolls and the wand. Out of mercy to our halfling companion, it was decided to spend the gold to have Gellana Mirrorshare revert the effects of his/her cursed belt. Xzar also insisted on getting one of the intellect boosting potions sold in the temple - apparently, he'd been abusing Ritalin during his studies and claimed that he wished to try one of these to be able to work on those scrolls we'd found. He was vetoed down, for now.

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Our party then moved on south to Beregost, where we managed to obtain the gem bag and a mage's robe in spite Neera's indiscriminate use of Color Spray in the streets.

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After purchasing a long bow for Ajantis and a magical sling from the smithy, we resolved the situation with Marl and caught up with Firebeard. Thereafter we crashed Mr Borland's place for an afternoon nap and proceeded further south in search of Zhurlong's boots and Mirianne's correspondence.

During our first larger skirmish against the hobgoblin party, we had Ajantis lead the way under ProEvil, while Montaron, taking advantage of the cover of darkness, positioned himself quietly right behind the archer. Orrin, Viconia and Imoen held back at range. And Xzar? He was hiding inside the nearby cave, as he should be - at this stage, he's not much of use to us in combat and he's also the only member of our crew that can be shot down with a single arrow (unless he's got his extra hitpoints from LMD). The legend has it that he's still sitting there in the dark, shouting something about elves' eyes and the benefits of infravision.

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Montaron's backstab lands home and the rest of us are putting pressure on the melee frontline.

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Suddenly, in the midst of the battle, we heard a familiar "voice". It sounded like Korax. But Korax is a friend and he also shouldn't be here at all. It meant that a hungry ghoul was approaching. Very hungry, yum yum.

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Just as it appeared, our ranged attackers quickly fanned out. Meanwhile, Ajantis got hit by the last remaining hobgolin, but Viconia immediately Commanded him to sleep, thus saving us a healing potion.

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Eventually, Montaron gets the kill on the ghoul.

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Practice makes perfect and we soon force our party to test their mettle against another group of hobgoblins, this time in the area north of Nashkel. With our five ranged attackers, the melee grunts were shot down before they could barely reach us.

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For the archers, we let Ajantis charge - with his plate mail and large shield, he's relatively well protected against ranged attacks (for safety reasons, the Girdle of Piercing remains with Orrin). Here we can see Xzar joining the action with LMD, as soon as it was safe to do so.

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With the enemy cleared, we collected Colquetle's amulet and reached Naskhel. Despite the troubled times, we managed to have a fantastic layover there, with Viconia obtaining a new fancy armor (courtesy of Bioware developers) and everyone but Ajantis having a good laugh at the Great Gazib's show. Moreover, Vitiare, master thief and pickpocket extraordinare, involuntarily donated a few potions into our growing collection.

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I usually avoid Neira, as she tends to be more trouble than she's worth at this stage, but our group seemed to be well positioned to handle her. We first let Orrin and our thieves enter undetected and position them around the inn. The somewhat metagaming approach may hopefully be justified by arguing that a similar degree of precaution would likely be employed by any reasonable person with a price on their head in places such as these.

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Neira attacked the rest of our group on sight, opening with her signature move.

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Our casters respond to Neira's Hold Person with their own spells - Viconia with Command and Xzar with LMD, each with casting speed 1. Neira drops to the floor and suddenly there was too many APR for her to get up on her feet ever again. A clean, albeit easy, victory.

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We're now returning back to Beregost on some unfinished business.

Regards,

B.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Journal of Hal.

We kept Tenya long enough to do her quest and then bade her farewell.

Very Straightforward.

Thinking that it is time to pick up Safana and keep her.

The party should then be well balanced.

It also leaves room for recruiting the DSoSC NPCs

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Cleric Stronghold Quest

Sorry, Imoen, you're going to have to wait. We miss you and all, but Jaccy needs her pin.

As long as we're waiting, we might as well visit an old friend.

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I love Adratha. People say she isn't what she appears to be. I have no idea what they're talking about. She appears to be a lovely person, running a lovely little potion shop. As far as I'm concerned that exactly what she is. In any case, her ten potions of invisibility and ten oils of speed will buttress our supplies as we head off to Spellhold. Naturally, we didn't invite Jan on this trip.

While we were in the neighborhood, we picked up Cernd so we could complete his companion quest. We took the peaceful route, secured the little tomato, and then watched Cernd race off to ditch his kid again, this time at the druid grove. If there's a dead beat dad Olympics, Cernd should signup. The man doesn't waste time.

With little to do as we await the next stage of Jaheira's quest, we finished off the cleric stronghold quest line. This was super awkward. The problem was that we didn't send a scout in. Instead we just buffed outside, before we entered. That turned out to be a mistake.

We figured Mistress Ada was in her room, to the southwest, but we didn't want to risk having these storm knights converge on our position down there, so instead we wandered about the temple killing things.

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That's not great when your buffs are on the clock. Here we see Jaheira doing what she does best: standing around watching the rest of the party kill stuff. Sorry, Jaccy, we didn't mean it this time. You were a victim of weird movement physics. These walkways weren't built for parties. Why don't you just hang back and summon your elementals, like at the Harper Hold? Oh, right, you've been silenced. Don't worry. You'll get an important job next time. I promise. You're trailing us all now, but you'll be in the lead position when we turn around to face Ada.

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Onto the final confrontation with Mistress Ada. None of this went as expected. None of it. We expected a fight with Mistress Ada, a cleric. Instead, Mistress Ada was laying on the floor unconscious while a mage with an earth elemental watched over her. Weird. If there's a story element to explain this, I missed it. Why is she asleep when everyone else is awake, and why is she sleeping on the floor instead of her bed? Was she drunk? Was she drunk and loving that cold stone floor? Since that was my best guess, and I was pretty sure it was wrong, I DuckDuckGoed Mistress Ada. This, too, did not go as expected. Word to the wise: If you DuckDuckGo Mistress Ada be sure to include something about Baldur's Gate, lest your tastes tend towards Khalid's.

Anyhoo, we let Jaheira try to charm the elemental with her Ring of Earth control. No dice. Instead, Minsc killed it with ranged support from Jaheira. Once we got by the elemental, we nixed Ada ASAP, for fear she'd wake up or something. That left Minsc and Jaccy alone in this tiny room with a well buffed mage named Shalline. You wanted action, Jaheira: here you go.

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You can probably guess what happened next. Jaheira was dispelled, forcing her to withdraw from combat. The good news, Jaccy, is that you can talk again, so you can whinge about it all you want. Now clear out and go summon your elemental. We'll take it from here.

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What's that, Jaheira? Your "friend" said what? Oh, right: the nymph thing. Sure, now's a good time to try that. Summon your nymphs. Aerie will be waiting with her Malison.

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Even confused, Shalline turned out to be a nuisance. Since we weren't expecting a mage, we went a little light on abjuration magicks. Worse still, our one and only Secret Word was devoured by the hakeashar, who full on wouldn't stop harassing Aerie. On top of that, Shalline got a Teleport Field down before the nymphs confused her, making it semi-awkward to kill the still buffed mage. Lucky for us, the nymphs saved the day.

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They even healed Minsc when it was all over. All we need to do now is get Jan in here on traps and locks duty. Awkward, but done. Nice work, everyone- especially you, Jaheira. Your nymphs were the heroes today.

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Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

It’s good to see Orrin in action, Borco!

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Harper's Hold Quest, Part 2

It's time to face a disturbing reality. Aerie is the greatest threat to our party.

That's not just Jaheira's opinion. It's objectively true.

I say it's objectively true, because it is. It is if you register threat by the amount of damage done. With the exception of the storm knights outside of the Temple of Talos, who had caught us off guard with an Unholy Blight, we're on a multi-battle streak where the only damage we've taken has been from Aerie. Jaheira thinks Aerie has finally lost it. Alena fears she's right. I prefer to think she's in her Wilson Phillips phase. She wants to be impulsive, reckless.

Whatever. Here we are, back at the Harper Hold, killing Harpers or people who are pretending to be Harpers- we're still not clear on that.

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Warriors don't scare us, so there was little sense in squandering resources in this fight. We went with the good old fashion fast/slow approach: Haste on us, Slow on them. Aside from that, we let Minsc use his Ilbratha MIs. You sure about that, Big Fella? Aerie is going to be casting soon, and we all know how that plays out.

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We also let Haer'Dalis try his harp. He's auditioning for a role alongside the nymphs. I, for one, think that makes perfect sense. Haer'Dalis accompanying four nymphs with his harp should totally be a thing.

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That reminds me, since Haer'Dalis is here to stay, I should re-read Sorsha's run sometime soon. First, though, we should grab Jaccy and kill the rest of these Harpers.

As is our custom, we opened with a coordinated abjuration assault on the mage. Meanwhile, Alena summons her Firestorm, while Jaheira tries Cloak of Fear for the first time. Everything is looking great except....Oh, no: Aerie is tossing Skull Traps.

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You know what that means everyone...

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Is everyone safe? Minsc? Minsc! By Lathander, where's Minsc? Oh, no...

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Oh, the humanity. Don't worry, though, buddy. Alena's Firestorm is here, and that'll heal you. Speaking of which, we shouldn't be at 100% fire resistance in this battle plan: we should be at 127%

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Jaheira's Aura of Fear did diddly squat. That cleric probably pre-cast Remove Fear. As for everyone else, let's see...Alena is casting AoF, because a thief just quaffed a PoI near her. Aerie's True Sight will negate that threat soon enough, but still: better safe and all. Haer'Dalis is going Malison, in advance of Aerie's sequencer. Meanwhile, Minsc is running for safety. I can't say I blame him. Who knows what's in Aerie's sequencer. See Aerie, Boo? Run, MFer. Run.

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Aerie's True Sight reveals the thief, as expected. We're rocking steady.

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Just come a little closer to the Cuisanart, Mr Thiefy-Thief. There you go!

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Haer'Dalis's Malison takes. But yikes: Aerie's sequencer is on the way....

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Huh? She went with something party friendly, Glitterdust + Horror. I did not see that coming. Neither did the mercenaries, what with them being blind and all. Nice work, everyone. Nice work.

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Since this Harper's Hold quest is long and weird, I took a peek at a walkthrough. I therefore knew that sleeping outdoors, invisible was the move. We chose Watcher's Keep so we'd get the most dramatic music.

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So, step one is to trigger the encounter. Step two is too sneak off and buff.

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Okay, everyone. Let's get ready. Hey! What are you doing here?

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Little did I know Dermin the Vermin detects the invisible. He's a caster and we're unbuffed, so we don't love this. What have you got, Dermin? Chaos? Fine, that works for us. Minsc, you're on Lilacor. Alena, Harmony. Aerie, with Vecna you'll be able to get a CC off. As for you, Haer'Dalis and Jaheira, take your potions of clarity. Don't worry. We have enough. I think.

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Ok, let's try this again. Aerie, give us another Invisibility 10' Radius. Maybe we can shake him this time.

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By now we had learned that Demin not only detected the invisible, but was out for Alena specifically. Once he nicked Alena with his sword, the gloves came off. Ok, Dermin, you've pissed us off now. Minsc, peg him with a dispelling arrow. Alena, Jaheira, Aerie ready your Wands of the Heavens. We're roasting this creep.

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Time to murder those poor fools Dermin left behind. I'm not sure what was up with Lennah here. Everyone else pre-buffed as expected. Minsc takes the lead flanked by Kitthix and the rest of the party starts casting.

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With Lennah poisoned and panicked, Minsc turns his attention to foiling Chrost. Success. Haer'Dalis, your Stoneskins from last night have expired. Better fix that before Mr Dwarfy-Dwarf decks you. He's not playing.

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In come our spells. Aerie had squandered her True Sight on Dermin, but aside from that we're happy with where we are. The secondary mage reveals himself. Aerie targets him with a Secret Word.

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Without Aerie's True Sight we can't properly debuff the mage, since he's II untargettable and therefore unbreachable. Going forward we need to find room for a second True Sight. Jaheira via Wondrous Recall sounds right to me.

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All that remains is that mage and a stray aerial servant. The mage has vanished, but Aerie and Alena are tossing Silence's at his last known position. He's probably going to Vocalize, but if he fails against that -5 we'll see an animation and we'll know where he is.

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Gotcha. Ready your Skull Traps, Aerie.

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Everyone else.

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There's one. Ready the next one, Aerie. Minsc, Jaheira, Alena: you've got the right idea. Give her space. As for you, Haer'Dalis, I'm not sure what you're up to. You're not about to rush that guy, are you? Because that would be bad. Ask Minsc.

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You really do have a death wish, don't you, Haer'Dalis. We don't have a problem with that in theory. It's your life after all. The thing is, no one else can wield the Chaos Blade. Next time we'll give you a MGoI. How about that? Fair compromise? As for everyone else, don't worry: those Limited Wish baby globes are a priority. We just need an L7. Until then stay on your toes. Aerie is coming for you.

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Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Indiana Jansen and the Quest for the Non-Existent Spell Shield Scroll

We're almost ready for Spellhold. Almost. Ok, not really. Actually, we’re nowhere near ready for Spellhold. In fact I'm pretty sure we'll never be.

The problem is that we don't have Spell Shield. Without Spell Shield our mages can't defend themselves from high level mages. We have no answer to Spellstrike. We have no answer to Khleben's. We have a limited ability to overwhelm abjuration attacks with multi-layer defenses. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.

We'll secure one Spell Shield scroll in the Underdark, but that's one, and we need three. Pre-Underdark, Spell Shield scrolls are only available in wealthy treasure random drops. Our drops have been terrible in this run and it's driving me insane. Seriously. Insane. I'm pretty sure this is a fresh install, which has never had SCS's random drop component installed. But since our drops have been so awful, I'm afraid it isn't. Maybe I installed it and uninstalled it and that broke something? I'm sure that's not it. But I'm also sure it must be it because something is whacked. Like I said, it's driving me insane.

Since there's at least one wealthy treasure in the graveyard district, and lots of monsters to kill, we decided to play grave robber. We brought Jan because of traps and all. Here we see Jan opening our first container.

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Color Spray! Color Spray!

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Get out of our way, mummies. We're opening containers and we have exactly zero time for you. Tell us where the skeleton warriors are or else. Fine. Have it your way.

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As you've surely gathered, we had no luck downstairs. Back upstairs we go. Skeleton warriors...Nice. We've got another shot, everyone. Read your Luck scrolls if you've got'em

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Ok, so what did we get?

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They didn't even drop scrolls? Not one? Not even a Color Spray?

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Come on everyone, there's got to be more skeleton warriors here- or maybe some greater ghouls. I know it. We just need to keep at it and we're going to find one...

After another twenty minutes or so of me dragging everyone around, the party sent a message through Special Agent Boo.

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Ok, fine. We'll go to Spellhold. I can't hold you back forever just because I want my stupid Spell Shield scrolls. Spell Shield was essential for Alicia's team, but you're not Alicia's team, are you? You're your own crew, living out your destinies. I need to respect that. I'm going to post a pre-Spellhold party update for the reader folk over in my world, and then I'll send you on your way. Deal? Deal.

Pre-Spellhold Party Update

NW: For those wondering about our day total, yes, we've been resting a lot, but it's massively inflated because of a rest until healed under cursed wounds incident, and a whole bunch of back and forths to the Umar Hills, hoping to trigger the Harper's Hold encounters.

Jaheira the Unsung

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Minsc the Undefeated

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Aerie the Impulsive

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Haer'Dalis the Doomsayer

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Alena the Morning Light

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Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Journal of Hal.

Having Safana in the party to disable traps made the Nashkel Mines significantly easier.

We killed Deke et al and sold their scalps.

Sirine pleaded with me to be lenient towards Tranzig when he pleaded for mercy, something that I was only too pleased to do.

Now back to the camp.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Brynnlaw, Part 1

Well, we finally did it. We finally left for Spellhold. Are we ready? Will we succeed? Who knows. All we can say is that we're here.

We'll talk about the party's island escapades soon. But first, a little personal history. Does anyone remember what my bounty hunter looks like? Medium brown with red accents? Guess where I got that idea from?

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That's right: Sime. She looked so cool to me, that I just had to try a thief. I also couldn't help but steal her look. Ok, now look at my long time forum portrait, over to the left. See the resemblance? Sime made me want to play a thief with a mid brown and red color pattern. Seeking a portrait with a mid brown and red color pattern, I found the one you all know. I was super-lucky that it also happened to be a pretty cool work of art. It was originally a painting by David A. Cherry. That painting was later selected as a book cover. The original painting sold to one of David Cherry's friends. Since then, there has been a limited edition print series:

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And a trading card:

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Since I travel so much a print doesn't make sense, but I have considered buying one of the trading cards on a few occasions. I should do it. They're super cheap, like a dollar or so.

Anyways, that's enough self indulgent navel gazing- at least for this post. I can't promise you it won't happen again in the future.

Right, so where were we? Brynnlaw. Brynnlaw means vampires. Let's get this done quick. Hey, ToD, can we interest you in some killing?

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Aerie never says no to killing things. But wait, what: An attack roll from Minsc? Why? What is he up to? We didn't give him any orders.

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He went berserk. Huh. A question for the party players: Has this always been a thing? I don't remember it from my early runs, but those were long, long ago.

Let's get back to Aerie. Our defenses are in place. Our Blade Barrier is up. We have the iMod in hand. All we need is a Malison.

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Ok, bring it on, vamps. Oh, and by the way, look who has ProMW now

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The ToD has very nearly arrived. All she needs now is a third L6, and -for the love of all that is good- a Spell Shield scroll.

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Are you with us again, Minsc? Good. Let's get to the Monkey.

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Weirdly, Minsc still appears to be in his berserk state, even though he's under control. I guess I don't know how that works. What I do know is that Alena wasn't in the mood to waste time with Mr. Assassin here. Crit, and done.

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We helped out Ginia by bonking Chremy over the head with Ages.

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And then we charged into Galvena's crib. Predictably, the hardest fight was the one we refused to buff for. It's a different world without buffs. In retrospect, we should have taken out the +2 halberd with ranged fire and fed the rest of these tools a fire elemental, maybe even Fleshy.

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Ok, let's try one with buffs and spells now. Get ready, Galvena. It's go time. Here we see Vadek's buffs. No Spell Shield. No II. No Spell Deflection. Thanks for making life easy for us, kiddo. Breach'em, Aerie. And Haer'Dalis, why don't you swipe away that MGoI for good measure.

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Contingency MGoI? You didn't think that one through, did you Vadek? Feel free to Spell Thrust him again, Haer'Dalis, but we're pretty sure he won't make it to the next round.

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Yup, dead. Stand down on that Spell Thrust, Haer'Dalis.

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Ok, now it's a melee fight. How are we looking? Minsc is running II + MI + AoF + Chant + Bless + Defensive Harmony. Jaheira has Ironskins + AoF + Chant + Bless + Defensive Harmony and she has a Harm on the way. The ToD is ToD'in. Alena is a step back from the action, running her Blade Barrier, casting party friendly spells, for Claire's sake. Did we finally do it? Did we finally get a battle right? Wait a minute...I forgot to check on Haer'Dalis. What are you up to? Ghoul Touch? Really? Didn't you noticed that Galvena opened with a potion of freedom? So close.

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We're still not where I want us to be, but our buffing is getting better, at least.

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We may look like a party you don't want to mess with, but this all feels very sketch to me. We're weak against the abjuration school and that's the one school you don't want to be weak too. We're crushing it these days, but behind it all we're very easy to kill. All we can hope is that no one figures that out.

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Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Brynnlaw, Part 2- Aerie Get Out Your Cane

We're almost ready to enter the Asylum. We just have one hurdle left: Perth the Adept.

Perth is a level 20 mage. He could be dangerous- he should be dangerous. Nonetheless, we felt confident that Aerie could take him down on her own. She's at level 12 on the mage side now, and that's enough.

Why is that enough? It's enough because SCS mages tend to go cheap on Abjuration magics. They allocate too few slots to the Abjuration school, and the ones the do allocate often aren't the ones they need. There is a logic behind this. SCS can't prepare books for all cases; they need to target the average case. Unfortunately for Perth, Aerie isn't average.

So: What resources does Aerie have at her disposal? She has two L6s, five L5s, five L4s and five L3. She also has a Minor Sequencer and Fleshy, not to mention the cleric side. We can work with that.

She'll be fighting a high level mage and probably some summons. What does she need? She'll need to take a full complement of specific protections from the party, and she'll need to lock those in with SI:A + SI: D + II. At L6 we have a decision to make. Pro Magic Energy is tempting, in light of the Wilting risk, but we need L6 to protect the spell immunities, so we'll go with Spell Defection and GoI. We'll take our Wilting defense from L5, via SI:N. We'll also keep a Mirror Image + Luck Minor Sequencer in reserve, and let Perth lead. We'll take an additional Spell Immunity to be held as a counter. That leaves us with one slot for Breach. That's fine. We need to take down his specific protections, not his combat protections. If he triggers or contingencies something post Breach it'll surely be a combat protection. Still, we should pack Aerie up with a couple of Breach scrolls. They're plentiful.

At L4 we want to go heavy on Secret Words. We don't want to risk being overwhelmed. Four sounds right. At three we want at least two Spell Thrusts, along with an emergency MSD as a last line of defense against Breach. This isn't perfect but it's the best we can do.

As long as he doesn't exploit our lack of Spell Shield with a Spellstrike or Khleben's, or negate our Secret Words with a Spell Trap, we should be fine. If he does, our move is Sanctuary and gone, because we don't have an answer.

Ok, ready Aerie? Let's do this. And don't worry, the party is outside, fully buffed, if you need them.

The battle begins. Let's put Fleshy in his face, and take a look at his protections. We have Spell Shield, Spell Turning, MGoI, some combat protections and ProFire. Finally a reasonably well buffed mage. Aerie is all over it, though. We need to take down that Spell Shield, followed by the Spell Turning. Then, we either need to Breach the ProFire or Spell Thrust/Secret Word the MGoI. Either one works, since we have Skull Traps and two Wands of the Heavens.

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Keep those djinnis occupied, Fleshy, we're going after the Spell Shield, tapping L4.

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Time Stop. What do you have in mind, Perth?

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Just a Ruby Ray and some junk. Works for us. Our Spell Deflection catches your Ruby Ray, and that means we've won. Since you didn't go Abjuration at L9, and almost certainly don't have a Khleben's, your Time Stop was your only chances to overcome your magic number deficit. Right now you're at two. We're technically at two as well, due to the efficacy of your Remove against our specific protections, but our reserved Spell Immunity gives us the advantage.

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A Stinking Cloud Minor? Was that what that was? If so you must be buff stumped because that's a no go. Meanwhile, we've taken down your Spell Turning, giving us a decisive magic number advantage.

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Now that the Spell Turning is gone, we get to chose. We can go with Breach, and let Fleshy give you a beat down, or Spell Thrust your MGoI. Since you appear to be buff stumped we'll go with all of the above, starting with the Breach. Your djinni has finally peeled off from Fleshy, but we're not worried about him. He's buff stumped, too.

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Keep on him, Fleshy. Now that that MGoI is down we can tap L3 for the kill. And there it is.

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As for you, djinnis, we don't even need to kill you, but, hey, why not. How about a little Sanctuary + Blade Barrier?

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One more to go.

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Yeah, you better run.

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Nice work, Aerie. Drinks are on us tonight.

Best,

A.

PS: Finally some good luck! Once Jaheira has an L7 everyone will have a Breach stopper. Practically speaking, everyone has one now, since our enemies aren't divining. RoAC II.

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[Serg_BlackStrider]

He went berserk. Huh. A question for the party players: Has this always been a thing? I don't remember it from my early runs, but those were long, long ago.

I believe, it always been a thing even for the classic BG. Usually I only take Minsc with me to save Dynaheir and then bench him but at least a couple of times he indeed went berserk when fighting some Gnolls en-route to the Gnolls' Stronghold. That's one more reason I don't like him as a team member.

I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I love your narrative in this run and see it as one of the finest and most insightfull and entertaining out there!

 

[Alesia_BH]

I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I love your narrative in this run and see it as one of the finest and most insightfull and entertaining out there!

Thanks, Serg. I appreciate the feedback.

I wasn’t satisfied with my play or my writing early on, but I feel like I’m hitting my stride now. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I hope others are too.

Cheers!

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH I'm fairly positive that I always got one Spell Shield scroll circulating between Bernard/Ribald/Trademeet smithy/Kich (Trademeet)/Jayes (Promenade), so I thought that it's actually guaranteed. Kudos for embracing the scarcity and deciding to proceed nevertheless!

 

[Alesia_BH]

@Alesia_BH I'm fairly positive that I always got one Spell Shield scroll circulating between Bernard/Ribald/Trademeet smithy/Kich (Trademeet)/Jayes (Promenade), so I thought that it's actually guaranteed. Kudos for embracing the scarcity and deciding to proceed nevertheless!

You mean for sale?

SCS used to add Spell Shield scrolls to shops via their rare scrolls component. IIRC, the Cutpurse received one but don't quote me on that.

Without mods, Carlig is the only one who sells Spell Shield scrolls. That's been my experience. It's also what's documented by various sources.

There's one source that claims there are two in SoA pre-Spellhold, one on Bessen in the Harper's Hold quest line, the other in the Jysstev estate. The source is incorrect, though. They mistook random drops for guaranteed locations.

In any case, thanks for the input!

 

[Borco]

I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I love your narrative in this run and see it as one of the finest and most insightfull and entertaining out there!

You can quote me on that as well! The stuff of legends, yay!

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Spellhold, Part 1- Pandemonium

Haer'Dalis has a new favorite item. It's the Harp of Pandemonium. He used it for the first time in the slaver ambush. It was a smashing success, confusing our enemies and knocking some away, separating our foes in time.

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These days Haer'Dalis keeps both of his harps at the ready at all times. Six shots at confusing foes per day without an incantation is pretty helpful. It also makes Haer'Dalis feel more bardy. I like it. I like it a lot.

You know what else I like? Lizard men. I've always liked them- they're just so chunkable. Now I like them more. Why, you ask?

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That's right, dear readers, we finally, finally, finally, got a Spell Shield scroll, and just in time for Spellhold. That went a long way toward quelling the pandemonium in my brain. The slow burn freakout has ended. At least for now.

By now I have used the word pandemonium three times in this post. It makes sense, what with Haer'Dalis's harp, but there's also a little foreshadowing at play here. We had an unbelievably chaotic incident in Spellhold. Pandemonium is the only word for it.

Speaking of words, this is a pretty impressive insight from Minsc. And well said, too. Has Minsc been cured? Has Spellhold cured him? That's an unequivocal no. You'll see why soon enough.

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There are a lot of little nooks and crannies in this game that I've never explored. I've done that intentionally, to preserve some mystery in the game world. Since this run is special, harkening back to my earliest runs, I've been exploring some, if not all of those little unknowns. No crevice untouched, I guess you could say.

One of those previously untouched crevices is just north of the riddle room. I don't know what I expect to find there. All I know is that I did not expect a yuan-ti mage.

Chaos. Oh, no. We're unbuffed. We're not ready for this.

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Given our battlefield spacing, and Aerie's quick cast Chaotic Commands, we expected to contain the problem. Haer'Dalis is the only one at risk. Since our potion of clarity supply isn't infinite, we decided to ride this one out. He'll probably make his save anyways.

Alas, Haer'Dalis failed. Is this it? Is this were the world turns upside down?

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Noppers. Not at all. Minsc popped him with a dispelling arrow and all was chill again.

How about the monster tome?

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Guess not. Maybe the undead encounter? Nope. That went fine, too.

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No damage here save, you guessed it...

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So, Dace is dead.

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The Bodhi encounter is done. The yuan-ti mage battle is won with ease, thanks to Haer'Dalis in chorus with Jaheira's nymphs.

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What, pray tell, could have caused us grief, then? This:

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Did you notice that cursed wound on Minsc? That was the cause of much woe. Not just woe, full on panic.

Since we didn't have a Remove Curse memorized, a rest was in order. It was our first rest post Bodhi, but I wasn't concerned. I never really thought about it, but I guess I kind of assumed that the slayer change was something that happened after you escaped the maze, not on your first rest wherever you are. If I had recent party experience, I might have thought this through, but since the transformation is a non-event in solo play, I didn't think about it at all. That's what led to pandemonium.

Alena went slayer. She immediately attacked Aerie. Aerie, seeking safety, ran down the hallway, only to find that the werewolfs had respawned.

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Crap on a stick. And it gets worse. Much worse. Aerie circles back. Alena strikes down Aerie. Minsc goes berserk in defense of his witch. Now Alena and Minsc are fighting and I can't control either of them. On top of that, the wolfweres have joined in. This is a nightmare. Total nightmare.

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Thankfully, Alena survived. Minsc too. Phew! Now all we need to do is raise Aerie, via Wondrous Recall. Simple, right?

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Damnit, Minsc! Not this again. We raised her. We're saving her life. You need to chill. Minsc wouldn't listen.

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With Ages and his newly acquired boots of speed, Minsc is a nuisance. The solution here is invisibility, but I was feeling stingy with potions, so I let Haer'Dalis try to cast instead. He failed. That's what had happened to Aerie, too. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson.

Thankfully -thankfully- Haer'Dalis survived, none the worse. As for me, I'm pretty sure I'm dead.

Best,

A.