Xanthi, human barbarian: Early Days
Xanthi's progress has been swift. She's like Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction - she thinks fast, she talks fast, and she needs people around her to act fast if they wanna keep up. And I'm lagging behind, at least insofar as the coverage of the run is concerned. While she's dealing with the slavers in Amn, I'm just about to post on how was her first visit to Beregost, how she killed her first wolf and what happened to Melicamp. I'll do my best to get up to speed with my duties.
So yeah, Beregost. Are you also always looking forward to all those juicy experience points for appeasing Marl? I am, totally. But not Xanthi - she was in for a brawl, bare fists and all that. Spaghetti Western style.
Marl was drunk, so the fight might not have been completely fair. In India, they have these official road signs that read like "
After whisky, driving risky." or "
You drive, you booze, you lose.", so maybe they ought to put one up at Feldepost's - "
After whisky, driving fighting risky."
Thank you Dunkin, I can tell. But he also cost us two health potions, so we don't like him either. We'll just grab the History of the Fateful Coin from the bar we're outta here. Goodbye.
Did you know that Mr Borland living across the street from the Red Sheaf will let you couch surf at his place for free?! I did not!
We took a nap, bought sling +1 from the smithy and set about dealing with the ogrillions and hobgoblins south of town. Xanthi even bumped into a Flaming Fist patrol while fighting off large bands of hobgoblins, but they just kept asking questions and did not seem to care at all about helping out. I can see why she hates cops.
Roe's letter was delivered to Mirianne and Zhurlong got his boots back. He was so grateful that he even tipped off Xanthi that one of the local Flaming Fist officers keeps a valuable potion locked up in a chest at his home. Flaming Fist, you say? We'll rob 'em clean.
Xanthi got to level 2 (I'll note that all my characters are allowed MAX HP roll for the first level up) and moved on to High Hedge, where we bought Wand of Sleep, Potion of Magic Blocking, Potion of Freedom and the potion case. With access to Sleep, Perdue's gnolls, Melickamp's wolf, Zargal's band and Landrin's spiders all became easy targets.
Karlat, the hired gun in the Red Sheaf, was slightly more tricky. He likes to quaff strength potions and can pose a serious threat. Using her movement speed advantage, Xanthi kited him at range. One thing I've been struggling with during the run was is 1.5 APR of our sling - I can kite with 3 APR darts, 2 APR bows or even 1 APR slings, but with 1.5 APR I could not get the hang of the proper timing. More often than not, Xanthi ended up attacking only once per round. Nevertheless, the extra 1/2 APR at level 7 was on the horizon and that should fix it.
Xanthi then wanted a magical shield and so I took her to the lake area to earn it by defeating Bjornin's half-ogres. While there, I decided to check out Teyngan's three-man band. I usually avoid them, because they're more trouble than they're worth, but Xanthi felt confident enough to handle them.
Alright then, what have we here? A fighter, a mage and an archer. That's a pretty heavy combination for early stages of the game.
After Teyngan opened with an Oil of Speed quaff, I realized that we shouldn't be here. Xanthi countered Jemby's Sleep via Barbarian Rage and retreated.
With the hasted fighter at her heels, Xanthi got tagged by another enchantment spell from Jemby. What could it be? Another Sleep? Unlikely. Dire Charm? We should be safe against that. But we were wrong.
It's my first playthrough on Insane and I don't recall Hardcore SCS mages using Ray of Enfeeblement. I like it, despite putting Xanthi into this sticky situation. We had two options - either Potion of Magic Blocking or Potion of Invisibility. We opted for the cheaper alternative, of course only relatively speaking given that PoIs are not easily accessible at this stage of the game.
We were at risk of divination, but fortunately Jemby did not seem to have any. Xanthi waited for her strength to recover and escaped. She now carries an emergency Potion of Strength, should Ray of Enfeeblement come into play once again in the future.
Oh yes, and Melickamp died. We take comfort from the fact that he at least hadn't become wolf food.
Regards,
B.
