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

[Borco]

Orrin, human archer: Part 3 - All good deeds, mostly

We're not yet the heroes some of us aspire to be (we're looking at you Ajantis), but to some residents of Beregost our actions at least provided a varying degree of solace in their lives.

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It felt good to be useful.

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I'm not sure what books does Kalat read in his spare time, nor whether if he's an Arnold fan, but he certainly came across as over-motivated.

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Speaking of helping other people, Landrin and Melicamp were next on the list.

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While in the Red Canyons, our party also had the opportunity to try out our newly acquired Wand of Sleep from Thalantyr against Zargal and friends.

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Montaron got a new sword, Perdue got his old sword back, and all the halflings in the world were happy.

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Speaking of happy, I should mention that given our party's composition I've decided to install the "NPCs don't complain about reputation" component of BG Tweaks. I don't usually need it because of mostly playing solo, but I had always found the original behaviour to be a bit too arbitrary for my tastes (not to mention the inconvenience). Apart from extreme cases, it should be perfectly possible to justify why an evil character can be incentivised ride the wave of a good PR.

And what's this? A random drop Infravision scroll? Xzar's going to get zoomies when he finds out!

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Too bad for us I suppose - one of his L1 spell slots is now dedicated exclusively to that. No discussions. Just like the elves!

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After taking care of Bjornin's half-ogre problem, we were rewarded with a magical shield and also earned a group wide level-up. All of our party members were now L2-L3.

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Montaron's improved lockpicking abilities were immediately put to "good" use - we got the magical bastard sword from the smithy (which will go to Ajantis, just don't tell him that it's stolen), the Stupefier from the Burning Wizard for Viconia, Potion of Heroism from one of the houses and PoI and other goodies by looting the local manor.

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One next destination were the basilisks. While we didn't have the funds to do a full-monty spell scribing session with Potion of Genius + Potion of Mind Focusing, we still allowed Xzar to try and memorize one of the two ProPetrification scrolls from High Hedge with his default INT score of 17. Unfortunately, he failed. We did not want to risk the second scroll at this stage and Orrin decided to proceed without it.

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After all, who needs ProPetrification when you have Korax?!

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Orrin and Montaron kept scouting the area under stealth, picking up appropriate targets for Korax and assisted him at range with finishing paralyzed basilisks.

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The XP bonanza allowed us to level up everyone but Ajantis before seeking out Mutamin - Orrin got his third pip in shortbows and also his first +1 damage and to hit bonus with ranged weapons via his archer kit, Xzar's now able to cast L2 spells and Montaron and Imoen have further developed their thieving abilities.

Speaking of that, I really should've done a better job with allocating the thieving abilities of our two rogues. The main issue was that I've failed to properly recognize the much slower level curve for a full party of six and instead I've approached the distribution of points as if I was playing solo. The result was that, for much of the adventure, both Montaron and Imoen ended up being relatively inefficient, with their abilities being spread too thin (especially for Imoen, whom should not have been spending any points on Set Traps in addition to Detect Illusions and Find Traps) and too focused on the end-game. Next time, I should know better.

For Mutamin and his two basilisks, we had Korax leading the way under ProEvil and Chant. Viconia remained in the front line under Sanctuary, ready to apply CLW as needed.

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As soon as Korax landed his Ghoul Touch on Mutamin, Orrin and Montaron attacked from the shadows at range, keeping out of the basilisks' sight.

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All clear, thank you Korax. You're a good friend. Now off you go to feed on some gnolls or whatever you might fancy.

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Xzar scribed the Horror scroll from Mutamin as his first L2 spell, Orrin used our Stone to Flesh scroll on Tamah and we're off to Gullykin, leaving Kirian's party for later.

 

[Borco]

Orrin, human archer: Part 3 - All good deeds, mostly (continued)

In the halfling village, Montaron unscrupulously raided the homes of his kin for Potion of Defense, Wand of Magic Missiles and our second magical sling.

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We stopped briefly at Durlag's Tower only to find out that the Battle Horrors are still a bit too much for us to handle at this stage. We managed to kill one, with a heavy use of Xzar's MM, Montaron's backstabs, Imoen's Wand of Magic Missiles and Viconia's Chants and CLWs on the tanking Ajantis, but afterwards it was deemed inefficient to proceed any further.

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Instead, we turned our attention to the Firewine Bridge and Meilum. His braces will provide a significant boots to our core damage sources - Orrin's bow and Montaron's backstabs. And yes, Xzar's running Infravision again.

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Back in Beregost, we bought shortbow +1 for Orrin and decided to hunt down Bassilus. Our party prepared with Remove Fear, Chant, Shield (Xzar), Infravision (Xzar!) and ProEvil (Ajantis). Here's the opening sequence of the battle - Viconia is casting her Silence while Montaron, preparing for a backstab, is immediately recalled from action due to Bassilus' precast Blade Barrier.

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Notice Xzar's movement towards the battlefield - he was about to get into the line of sight for MM to assist with the spellcasting disruption. Unfortunately, I lost track of him, which resulted in him getting too close to the archers and also within the range of our Silence. Bassilus made his save. Xzar did not and he's now out of play, save for the possibility of emergency Wand of Fire use.

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Meanwhile, Montaron takes a beating from the archers and needs to quaff a healing potion while retreating. Orrin breaks his stealth, targeting Bassilus - a successful hit breaks his necromancy incantation, most likely an incoming Unholy Blight aimed at Ajantis.

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Second Silence from Viconia lands home and not even an extra healer could then save Bassilus from our concentrated offense. Eventually, he fell to Imoen's trap waiting for him further to the west. A questionable victory, but a victory nevertheless.

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We collected the reward and decided to finally run a proper spell scribing session with Xzar, starting by purchasing all the useful arcane scrolls from High Hedge and Feldepost's (Glitterdust) and both INT boosting potions form Gellana. What remained were the L4 scrolls from Ulgoth's Beard.

Since the ankegh lair was on the way, we decided to recover the unfortunate body discovered earlier by Viconia. Ajantis led the way, with Girdle of Piercing borrowed from Orrin, while the others deployed Commands and Wand of Sleep charges to take the ankeghs down as soon as they appeared.

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We reported the sad news to Brun and continued north. After an initial misunderstanding with Tenya, we agreed to assist her with Sonner and recovered the bowl. Finally in Ulgoth's Beard, we bought the Greenstone Amulet for Orrin and L4 scrolls for Xzar. Once again, I proved to be completely ignorant of the level progression - Xzar will not be able to cast L4 until Baldur's Gate and there was no point whatsoever in getting those spells into his book at this stage. Instead, we should have saved that gold for Cloak of Displacement, which is still missing in our inventory. Even so, the good news was that our arcane book was now duly populated, although notably lacking Invisibility and Mirror Image.

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Regards,

B.

 

[Alesia_BH]

A Blade Barrier in BG1. Yikes. Good thing you noticed in time

 

[Borco]

Orrin, human archer: Part 4 - Money & Glitter(dust)

In our next session, we ventured south in search of monetary gains. Thanks to the iron crisis, the market for magical longswords was quite bullish and they traded at inflated prices. Greywolf had one and we didn't need any - a fortunate constellation, that is.

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Successful Glitterdust + Hold Person resulted in K.O. in round 1. Varscona and shiny emeralds, that's easy money right there.

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Bracers of Archery can fetch a good price as well, however we'll want to use those ourselves. The battle with Vax and Zal was won before it started thanks to Montaron's fatal backstab on Zal, the potency of which can now be regularly augmented via the Strength spell from Xzar's book. What a team they are, right?!

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The newly acquired bracers went to Orrin, whom in turn passed his Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise onto Montaron.

Further ahead, while scouting, Orrin discovered another armed party. Our prior experience with similar encounters commanded caution. Montaron and Orrin took up their positions under stealth and Viconia went under Sanctuary. Our valiant paladin then walked up to the strangers and started to exchange pleasantries. They were Amnish. And quite assertive, to put it diplomatically. Just as Ajantis was trying to calm down the situation with their leader, Montaron's blade peeked out one of her companions. Oops, so much for the de-escalation!

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In an instant, our halfling was rewarded for the deed with a well aimed arrow from Delgod. Meanwhile, the rest of our team were already on the move - Orrin readied his Darts of Stunning, Xzar launched Glitterdust and Viconia tagged Sendai with Hold Person.

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The results of our coordinated action were more than satisfying.

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And the same goes for the booty - we got another magical longsword for sale, +1 arrows for Orrin and studded leather +2 for Monty.

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The action continued in the Cloud Peaks with a remake of the famous western of The Good, the Evil and the Stupid.

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In order to earn the Girdle of Bluntness and the gratitude of the local dryads, we needed nothing more than brute force, peppered with a pinch of Glitterdust.

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Helping Drienne with her kitty was a pleasant diversion from just killing things. That ProUndead will prove useful once we reach certain tombs to the southeast.

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With Gnarl and Hairtooth, we were back to dirty business.

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Gauntlets of Dexterity will hopefully make Ajantis less clumsy, although we don't have high hopes that he'll also become less stiff.

Clearing the gnoll fortress with 6 ranged attackers and a spellbook full of Sleep proved to be a relaxing exercise.

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After all that adventuring, it was time for shopping, whereby the cart comprised of the Cloak of Displacement, acid arrows and Darts of Stunning. Viconia was now level 5 and that meant access to L3 divine spells, including our first meaningful summons.

 

[Borco]

Orrin, human archer: Part 4 - Money & Glitter(dust) (continued)

We could now return to Durlag's Tower to finish what we had started in the previous session. After dealing with the one remaining Battle Horror with MMs and Wand of Frost (from the tree at Nashkel Mines), we entered the tower proper where Montaron took care of the ghasts with fast backstabs, stealth and his sling.

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We looted what we could, including the Tome of Wisdom for Viconia, and proceeded to the roof. Without Korax to do the heavy lifting, the basilisks' hunt befell to Ajantis, Orrin and Montaron, each of them protected by Xzar's ProPetrification.

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Darts of Stunning, backstabs and ranged attacks were more than sufficient to get the job done.

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Unfortunately, the random scroll drops proved to be Non-Detection and Spell Thrust - the former is useless, the latter will be available at Bandit Camp whereas until then it's not needed. Were I to have a wish list, it would have been ProNormal Missiles, Slow and Detect Illusion, in this particular order (I'm disregarding Haste, which would otherwise be on the top of the list, as it would seriously undermine the game balance at this stage).

Upon returning from Durlag's Tower, we emptied our coffers on purchasing some last minute supplies ahead of the mines, comprising Potion of Magic Blocking, Potion of Freedom, Shield Amulet and Necklace of Missiles.

However, before we could even reach the mine, we recorded our first death when Xzar fell during a hobgoblin ambush. It was quick and ruthless. All four of them managed to fire their arrows and even though Xzar got his Shield up, it only came after the to-hit rolls were made.

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The timing could not have been better. We were completely broke and had to go on a fire sale with some of our potions to be able to pay the temple fee.

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Anyway, despite this inconvenience, we're optimistic about our preparedness to confront Mulahey and his kobolds.

Regards,

B.

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH I finally managed to catch up with your latest progress. Great stuff - it's nice to see your characters maturing into their specific roles, with each of them having their distinct set of strategies and tricks. I suppose I'm starting to understand the appeal of a party play, though it does seem fairly challenging to me to be able to develop and implement that as the battles become more and more complex.

Couple of questions, thoughts and comments:

1) The tactical error in the drow city: It may be that my mind is currently too preoccupied occupied with kobolds and bandits, but I failed to spot it. Could you maybe offer another hint?

2) Spell Shield vs Antimagic Ray: Interesting indeed. I recall the discussion we've had on the topic some time ago and testing it with Sorsha back then. Apologies for the misleading intel, though I'm pretty sure that the interaction between the two in my install has been different from what you've now observed.

3) Chill Touch vs Mantle: I had thought that Chill Touch was subject to the same adjustment as the MMMs and was not worth considering for purposes of being able to hit things that require high level enchanted weapon. Point noted, thanks!

4) A novel? Considering how much I tried to like to the Drizzt books but failed, I'd certainly be in the market for some quality writing from the Realms!

5) Firestorm: I'm super excited to see so much screen time for one of my favorite divine spells. Unfortunately, I never managed to fully utilize it in my solo cleric runs, primarily due to its slow casting time, but also because it often got out-prioritized by SoA. Putting aside the HLAs, Holy/Unholy Words might have made it to the book more regularly than Firestorm.

Anyway, thanks for all the posts!

 

[Borco]

A Blade Barrier in BG1. Yikes. Good thing you noticed in time

It's fierce, true, but seeing an invisible Aerial Servant in the log (which was the case in the past) might be even scarier! Edit: The pun was not intended!

 

[Alesia_BH]

Chill Touch vs Mantle: I had thought that Chill Touch was subject to the same adjustment as the MMMs and was not worth considering for purposes of being able to hit things that require high level enchanted weapon. Point noted, thanks!

I need to verify this in game. The original version of Chill Touch was unenchanted, with the cold part bypassing Stoneskins, making it an interesting choice against ProMW. In this game I tried it against ProMW and it didn't work. I checked the resource file and was surprised to find that is was marked +6 now, just like Harm. I then went to the Wiki and found that it was listed as +6 enchanted there, too.

The only thing left to do is test in game, which is basically what I was doing with Haer'Dalis in the Underdark exit fight. I'll let you know when I do test.

For your reference, here's a semi-related thing that I have tested. The spell Enchanted Weapon has changed. It used to create a +3 weapon for limited time. Now it enchants whatever weapon the target has equipped. I wasn't sure if this applied to magical weapons. It does. I tried it with Flame Blade in particular.

Firestorm: I'm super excited to see so much screen time for one of my favorite divine spells. Unfortunately, I never managed to fully utilize it in my solo cleric runs, primarily due to its slow casting time, but also because it often got out-prioritized by SoA. Putting aside the HLAs, Holy/Unholy Words might have made it to the book more regularly than Firestorm.

Firestorm has been a beast in this run. We started using a hostile environment strategy in early SoA, via our Web sequencers. When Alena got Firestorm it fit right into our plan. Since then it has become the party's best damage spell.

I was initially concerned that Remove threats would make it too dangerous- especially when used in conjunction with Web. That's why I spent so much time testing it in lesser encounters. In the end I decided that the fire damage risk was manageable, but that Firestorm + Web was too risky when Remove is on the field. That's why we changed up our sequencers and started working Malison + Harp of Discord into our opening.

I didn't use it much with Astrid, partly on style grounds and partly because of the casting time. Our L7s typically went to Gate and Shield of the Archons, IIRC.

The casting time is less of an issue in party play. It's less scary in that context, too. Wielding the Reflex has helped, as has running Spell Turning from the Book of Infinite Spells, along with Blade Barrier. I don't recall her ever being disrupted.

2) Spell Shield vs Antimagic Ray: Interesting indeed. I recall the discussion we've had on the topic some time ago and testing it with Sorsha back then. Apologies for the misleading intel, though I'm pretty sure that the interaction between the two in my install has been different from what you've now observed.

No worries. Not your fault, ofc.

I wonder who changed it, SCS or the EE. What's your EE version?

1) The tactical error in the drow city: It may be that my mind is currently too preoccupied occupied with kobolds and bandits, but I failed to spot it. Could you maybe offer another hint?

Only one character took damage in that encounter, Minsc. Why did he get hurt? What could have stopped it?

 

[Borco]

I wanted to give you a bit of an update (including a spoiler), just to let you know that we've not been idle - Orrin and his party have just defeated Slythe and Krystin and they're getting ready for their trial by fire at the Ducal Palace. I'll catch up with the detailed reports next week, as I'll be away for a couple of days because of a music festival, but I can say that we did terribly in the Bandit Camp, breezed through Drasus and Davaeorn, and faced some unexpected difficulties at Candlekeep.

 

[Alesia_BH]

I'm starting to understand the appeal of a party play, though it does seem fairly challenging to me to be able to develop and implement that as the battles become more and more complex.

Have you run parties before? It's like riding a bicycle. More precisely, it's like riding a bicycle on ketamine. You'll feel super-wobbly at first, but it'll come back to you and you'll get stronger as time goes on.

By now it feels far, far easier than solo play, at least at this juncture. It will become hard again when we need to develop battle specific plans against dangerous enemies.

I don't love our odds in ToB. With practice, sure. On a first try, not so much. Of course that's true with solo play, too. The Throne battles in particular require very specific strategies and it's hard to come up with a winner without some trial and error.

 

[Borco]

For your reference, here's a semi-related thing that I have tested. The spell Enchanted Weapon has changed. It used to create a +3 weapon for limited time. Now it enchants whatever weapon the target has equipped. I wasn't sure if this applied to magical weapons. It does. I tried it with Flame Blade in particular.

I'm curious to see this applied to ranged weapons in my current run, should we manage to get that far. Also, it could offer some interesting options for Polymorph: Self, Avengers and Shapeshifters.

I was initially concerned that Remove threats would make it too dangerous- especially when used in conjunction with Web. That's why I spent so much time testing it in lesser encounters. In the end I decided that the fire damage risk was manageable, but that Firestorm + Web was too risky when Remove is on the field. That's why we changed up our sequencers and started working Malison + Harp of Discord into our opening.

That makes perfect sense. Slow on offence, fast on defense!

I wonder who changed it, SCS or the EE. What's your EE version?

I found the relevant post. The indirect evidence seems to point towards SCS as the culprit. I'm running EEv 2.6.6.0.

Only one character took damage in that encounter, Minsc. Why did he get hurt? What could have stopped it?

Improved Invisibility or MIs, but since we can see two mages on the battlefield it should be the former.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Improved Invisibility or MIs, but since we can see two mages on the battlefield it should be the former.

Right. That's why Imoen's use of Mass of Invisibility was a clue. It implied that Minsc still had RoAC II in reserve. He should have activated his ring before charging the mage

 

[Alesia_BH]

Great stuff - it's nice to see your characters maturing into their specific roles, with each of them having their distinct set of strategies and tricks.

Thanks! Developing each character along the lines suited to them, and in the context of a team strategy, is one of the most enjoyable things about party play.

I'm good with Imoen and Aerie because I used them in my last party game, with my sorcerer(*). That's where their nicknames come from. Aerie is the Tank of Doom (ToD) because that's how I developed her in Aphril's game. Imoen is the Disco Infiltrator because at high levels I made heavy use of her thief levels, via Time Stop->Mislead.

Aside from my earliest runs when I didn't know what I was doing, I haven't used Haer'Dalis, Minsc or Jaheira before. I'm not as good with them.

I'm confident my Haer'Dalis will come around, thanks to my experience with my jester, Alisa. He'll be deadly and uniquely dangerous, due in part to the Chaos Blade.

As for Minsc and Jaheira, they're still works in progress and the truth is they'll probably never reach their potential in my hands. I'm good enough with Alena, Aerie, Imoen, and Haer'Dalis to win most fights with ease, making experimentation with Minsc and Jaheira a low priority. If there's one thing I'd like to learn to do with them it's keep them on their feet in complex battles. They could be difference makers in the late game battles. I just need to figure out how to keep them alive so they’ll be there for that final push

* On a few occasions I’ve said that my last party game was led by my sorcerer, Alicia. After reading my old runs I realized I was wrong about that. Alicia was my solo sorcerer. My party sorcerer was named Aphril. I doubt anyone else cares about this but it's been bothering me, so I had to say it, lol

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Return to Athkatala

Don't look now, but we're all grown up. That's how it feels, at least.

It's not because we have reached an arbitrary level, and it's not because we've been winning fights. It's because we can now stand our ground against high level foes. The key abilities here are Spell Shield and Ruby Ray. The former stopping Spell Strike and Khleben's, the latter granting us an efficient attack avenue against Spell Trap. For once our kit feels complete. As long as we can buff, we can win.

Speaking of buffing, we ran into some old friends on the way to the Flagons.

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Gith aren't super dangerous, but they require buffs. The tricky part of this encounter was finding a place to sneak off to, away from both the gith and the Cowleds. We ultimately chose the berserker horn house. The goth followed us in, but they did not follow us to the second floor, which is where we buffed.

Fully buffed, we went back downstairs. It's go time.

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Haer'Dalis tosses a Malison while Alena preps her Firestorm. Meanwhile, Imoen and Aerie hold their aura, waiting for buffs to fire so they can plan their attack.

The Captain, who had been running Stoneskins, has planar traveled to Alena. We don't like that. We don't like that at all. Aerie Breaches him immediately. Minsc continues his assault on the gith front line, but you know who has been Removed again. The good news, Jaheira, is that it's a pleasant evening. Enjoy the Bridge District by moonlight. Just remember to quaff your PoI before you go. We don't want the gith following you.

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Firestorm two is on the way. That Captain is still near Alena and we don't like it. His position, outside the Firestorm, and in a corner, blocked by Alena, who's currently casting, makes him hard to finish. Imoen solves the problem by lifting him out of the corner and into the Firestorm with Teleport Field.

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Firestorm two hits home. The position of this Firestorm, closer to the party, reveals two mistakes. Haer'Dalis did not receive his ProFire from Jaheira. Buffing errors are unavoidable across an entire adventure, but to date they've been inconsequential errors, moving us away from optimality rather than putting us in danger. This error was not okay. Secondly, Alena's ProFire has been dispelled, even though the rest of her buffs remain. This isn't dangerous, since Alena has the Helm of Defense, the Dragon Scale Shield and Balista's passport at the ready, but we should have noticed this sooner, even if Alena wasn't exposed to Firestorm at that time. Meanwhile, Aerie readies her Harm in case another gith gets too close. In fact, there's one there right now. See him, Aerie?

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Nicely done.

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The battle is winding down now. Jaheira, enjoying the night sky, has identified her 9th constellation. She's pretty good at that, apparently. Who knew?

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Haer'Dalis has patched the hole in his fire resistance with a potion. Alena, meanwhile, has retreated to the second floor. The rest of the team has got this. Why stress? Minsc tosses his axe at the few gith remaining.

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Aerie gets the final kill with a Laroch's. One HP isn't much, but sometimes it's all you need. Nice work, everyone.

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On our way to Cromwell's we were waylaid. We were just about to run off and buff when we noticed these were not bandits, but adoring fans. Sorry, y'all: No time for autographs. We have a date with a dwarf.

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Is that all for this post? Ooh, no: One more thing. Now that we very nearly have our endgame equipment it's time for an official Shadows of Amn fashion show, complete with soundtrack. And remember: we're not just wearing this stuff for show. It's our proper combat gear, down to the last cloak. Alena and Aerie just agreed to switch helmets.

Fashion Show

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Contestant #1: Jaheira

Contestant #2: Minsc

Contestant #3: Alena

Contestant #4: Haer'Dalis

Contestant #5: Aerie

Contestant #6: Imoen

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Liches Gots to Learn

Minsc! What are you doing over there? And what's with the hat?

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Seriously, what’s up? Be quiet? Why do I have to be quiet? Fine, why do I have to be very, very quiet?

Liches. Right, we're back from the Underdark so it's time to hunt liches. Sure...I still don't get why I have to be very, very quiet.

(Whatever. I give up. Sometimes there's just no reasoning with that guy, am I right?)

So, to the liches. We have something special for the liches. It's Jaheira. The new and improved Jaheira.

Remember that comment I made about Jaheira, how I need to get better at keeping her in the fight? Well, believe it or not, Special Agent Boo read that and relayed the message to Jaheira. She thought about it, and she sent back some ideas. Some of them were solid.

The problem is that she keep getting dispelled. Ok, then what if getting dispelled didn't matter? She already has the Shield of Harmony. Her saves aren't great, but they're low enough that an emergency potion of invulnerability could keep her safe. We have tons of those. The only remaining problem is fire resistance. If we could fix that, and give Jaheira some offensive ways of using her aura, it would be a major improvement. If only there was a way...

Of course! The Helm of Brilliance! Perfect. If we pair that with Batalista's Passport, we're in business. All it would take is an AoF to get her back up to one hundred percent. I like where this is going.

Even better, why not give Jaheira extra copies of key buffs, just like Alena. That way she can sneak off and rebuff if she gets dispelled. No more contemplating the night sky while everyone else fights. One more thing. If we're using Wondrous Recall for an additional CC, why not work Magic Resistance into the mix? It's not fabulous but it helps and it fits. This could work. Let's give it a try.

Our first lich fight was a bit sloppy, mostly because we neglected to fully reorganize our spell books. Chalk it up to late night fuzziness. This slowed us down and cost us a scroll, but in the end no harm was done.

We started with the Shade Lich. Jaheira, equipped with her boots of speed, and her newly acquired Helm of Brilliance, takes the lead, opening with a Sunray. She did good damage, but the lich answered back with a wilting, hurting her. That's ok. Jahiera is a warrior. She can take it. Still, we should fix that for the next battle.

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We check the lich's buffs. He's running Spell Trap. Imoen is positively giddy. Time to use her newest spell, Ruby Ray of Reversal.

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The lich stops time. We'd be worried about Jaheira, but her buffs are still up. On top of that, she's running Spell Turning from the Book of Infinite Spells. Meanwhile, Alena is running Shield of the Archons, Minsc MST via the Ring of Spell Turning. The SI:A kids are full buffed as usual, including Spell Shield. Do your worst, Mr Lich- so long as your worst doesn't include a pair of Wiltings on Haer'Dalis. His aura is clouded so he can't pull his Mirror Image + Luck trigger.

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His worst was a Cloudkill, a Remove and a contingencied Spell Deflection. We can live with that. Aerie and Imoen step back from the Cloudkill. Alena and Minsc, who had been dispelled, are rebuffing and cautiously engaging respectively. As for that Spell Deflection, we have plenty of Secret Words, so... So we're screwed, actually. Did anyone remember to prep a Pierce Magic? Imoen?

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Actually no, Imoen, there's two ways: yes or no...I guess we know which one it is. Alena, flip your scroll case over to Imoen. Imoen, you know what to do. It's ok, we have a few burners. But remember to prep a Pierce next time, ok? And don't look at me like that. It's not like I'm the one who forgot.

Imoen lands her Pierce via scroll, clearing the way for Aerie's Breach. Minsc gets the kill with Azuredge. Not our finest hour, everyone. C-. Let's do better next time.

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Here he is, lichy-poo two. Jaheira takes point once again, activating her Helm of Brilliance. Note the nymphs to the north of Jaheira's fallback location. If she catches a Wilting again they'll be healing waiting for her.

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Let's see what we've got. Shadow Door, Spell Shield, Spell Turning. Aerie: True Sight (pre-cast) Imoen: Pierce, Haer'Dalis: Pierce, Aerie: Breach

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True Sight does its job. A few things to note here. Imoen, who followed Jaheira on the advance, is running Luck. That's her answer to the Wilting opener risk, just as the nymphs were Jaheira's. Also, check out that red buff on Haer'Dalis's portrait. That's Enchanted Weapon. It's bringing the Chaos Blade up to +3 in case we get a planetar.

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Imoen targets the Spell Shield while Haer'Dalis moves into position to take down the Spell Turning.

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Alas, our regularly scheduled program is interrupted. Fine, make us turn black and white. We're all II untargetable. We're all running a spell protection. We all have a full complement of buffs, albeit with openings for energy attacks. On that note, our low hitpoint characters have held their auras in reserve, and have their MI + Luck sequencers at the ready. Our only concern is that Imoen's Luck has literally run out.

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The lich activates Improved Alacrity. He targets Aerie's Spell Shield. Imoen launchs her Pierce.

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Aerie and Haer'Dalis follow as scheduled. The lich is Breached. Minsc and his Simmy, both wielding Azuredge, get to work. Poor Alena no longer has a target for her Sol's Searing Orb.

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We could leave the Mordies and roll, but Aerie likes to blow shit up. Have your fun, Aerie. Just stay the hell away from us with those Skull Traps.

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Back to the Flagons to celebrate.

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Jaheira, what do you think of all the changes? The Helm of Brilliance. Batalista's Passport. The Book of Infinite Spells. The spellbook tweaks. Does it all work for you?

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Shiny.

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: The Talent Show

After a few drinks at the bar in celebration of their successful lich hunt, the party retired to the playhouse. Inspired by spiced wine as much as judgement, they decided to hold a talent show.

Rallying the rodents of the bridge district, Boo orchestrated a magnificent circus. It was loved by all. Even more impressive, Boo succeessfully convinced Minsc that he had played a part.

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Haer'Dalis reprised his role as the lost lover from across the sea, with Aerie trying her hand at Lunisia. For an amateur Aerie did well, although she did drop out of character for a moment when Valygar made a surprise appearance.

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Last but not least, Imoen ascended the stage, promising to perform a magic trick. Jaheira wasn't sure this was a good idea, what with everyone being drunk, but she went along with it anyways.

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The trick, as it turned out, was to summon a wish granting djinni. After much debate, the party decided to wish for an adventure like none other.

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We settled the gong quest peacefully, letting Grae go and even granting Drush his wand of frost. Killing just didn't feel right, what with all this being in good fun. Besides, everyone was drunk.

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The next day, after everyone had sobered up, Alena performed a magic trick of her own. Hocus pocus: Watch these vampires disappear!

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If you're wondering why we were in the North Forest to begin with the answer is simple: Boo led us here. Imoen wanted a Time Stop scroll, so she asked Boo to put on his Special Agent hat and sniff one out. He brought us to the Promenade first, but when Alena balked at the price, we made the journey east. There was only one kink in Boo's plan. We'd need to kill a party first. That's ok. We're good at killing.

While I have little desire to ambush attack casters at this stage of the game, all bets are off when someone tries to divine. If we were all running SI: D we could let this slide, but with all six of us running illusions, and only two under SI: D, fast action was in order. We had two targets to deal with, a mage and a cleric. Aerie took care of the mage with Power Word: Silence, Imoen the cleric with a Laroch's.

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After that, things got ugly- for our opponents, that is. Aerie launches her Malison while Haer'Dalis plays his harp, in concert with Jahiera's nymphs. Minsc and Jaheira stealthily approach, as Alena preps her Firestorm.

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Confused and burning, our foes fought as well as could be expected. Imoen tightens the noose with a Slow, hoping to prevent our Confused enemies from wandering out of the Firestorm. Meanwhile, Aerie gives Minsc a hand by Breaching his target, the still silenced mage.

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With her Firestorms and Sol Searing Orb's Alena almost feels like a Pillars of Eternity priest. She's not just a healer and buffer: She brings the pain.

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Minsc is still the party XP leader, but Alena led last chapter and she's in the lead again this chapter.

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She's a force to be reckoned with and we haven't even gotten into this business yet.

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Clerics have a middling reputation in this game, but don't underestimate them. They have talent and it shows.

Our next stop was the Copper Coronet. First things first, we wanted to retrieve the Gloves of Pickpocketing from Yoshimo. Thanks for the good times, Yosh. We'll never forget how you cleared the Trademeet Dao with two swings of your katana.

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Next, we wanted the Watcher's Keep wardstone. Now felt like a good time to take on the statues.

Was it? I guess that's a matter of opinion. Maybe we should have done this sooner. At current levels it was yet another no damage beatdown, using our standard tactics.

This fight was a touch sloppy, at least in the buffing phase. Our tactics feel super overkill right now so I'm letting things slide a bit. The yellow you see is Aerie's Contingency: See Enemy- Defensive Harmony. As an fyi, Haer'Dalis is using Hit- ProMW and Imoen is using See Enemy Spell Shield. Aerie's Contingency was chosen to optimize the timing of our Defensive Harmony. Haer'Dalis and Imoen's were chosen to alleviate bottlenecks in their spellbooks.

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We didn't get any mages in this spawn. That made Minsc and Jaheira very happy. Alena got most of the kills with her double Firestorms, as per usual, but Minsc got a vorpal in with the Silver Sword.

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It always feels like Aerie, Imoen and Haer'Dalis are doing all the work, but Minsc, Jaheira and Alena have 77% of the party's experience between them. That computes in Alena's case, since her Firestorms are crushing it. It also kind of makes sense for Minsc. He has a relatively high APR and I do let him run around a bit, at least while is illusions are up. Still, 37% on the game seems high. The crazy thing is that Jaheira has more XP than Aerie, Haer'Dalis and Imoen combined. Yes, Haer'Dalis and Imoen haven't been with us that long, but still. What's happening there, I think, is that my guesstimates are based on the screenshots, and it always looks like Jaheira is doing nothing. I mean, look at her back there, next to Imoen. She seems so small and out of the action.

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The reality, though, is that she's chucking sling bullets at 3 APR and 18-21 damage per hit. Her THACO is good, and since she's slinging she doesn't waste time moving around the battlefield. It's effective it just doesn't look cool.

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There's Minsc's vorpal hit. Ravager +6 is filthy in the demon battles at the throne, so I'm tempted to get that for him. I'm not sure I want to pay Azamantes a visit, though. I'm a coward and there's a ton of ugly between here and him.

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Alena's may be rocking it these days, but she has her private struggles. Case in point: It's been a long, long time since she's landed a Sol's Searing Orb. By the time she's done casting her second Firestorm, battles have entered the cleanup phase and each target is getting mobbed. They typically don't last the 6 round segments required to cast an orb.

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And here we are, ready for the next level. Jaheira looks far less badass than the rest of the team, but the numbers don't lie anymore than hips do. She's getting the job done.

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Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Watcher's Keep Level 2

I have a confession to make. I'm not sure I've ever done Watcher's Keep with a party. I'm pretty certain Alanis and Aphril didn't do it. Same with Alesia. That leaves only my early runs, and I find it hard to imagine myself doing it then. I know I tried at least once. I distinctly remember struggling mightily on Level 3, reloading over and over again. I'm not sure I ever succeeded. I feel like I would have remembered that, given how hard it had been for me.

Anyways, times have changed. I'm not awful at this game anymore, and I'm here with a party now. Will we finish Watcher's Keep? Who's to say. For now, we're just here scooping up XP like:

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Actually, no, that's not right. It's easier than that. There's no crying, no screaming- no kicking and tiny fists punching. None of that. If the denizens of Level 2 had any hope, it was that Big Daddy Chromy D would come beat us up. We'll see how that worked out.

First, it's showtime, Haer'Dalis.

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For those who are wondering, Haer'Dalis doesn't have a theme song yet. Jaheira floated You're So Vain by Carly Simon, but that's not cool. We can't do him dirty like that.

Speaking of dirty, Haer'Dalis is filthy with the Chaos Blade, or at least he will be. These days he's using Tenser's but soon it will be Time Traps. It'll be fun to see how many things can survive an Haer'Dalis Time Trap stack- especially now that we can bring the Chaos Blade up to +3 with Enchanted Weapon. Let's see, 5 APR, 2 points of Dex drain per hit, no save, no misses...Like I said: filthy.

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Forgive me, Boo, for I has sinned. I lazily sent your buddy Minsc into the Guardian of Air's playpen, even though he wasn't running electricity resistance.

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Jaheira, wearing her Harper Pin, was all:

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Aside from that everything went fine.

Onto the library. There were golems here. They caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting them. An emergency Invisibility 10' Radius from Vecna wearing Aerie allowed us a do over.

Aerie thinks she and Haer'Dalis should do more things together, so we let them have a little race to see who could kill the most golems. Aerie is rocking double fireshields, Blade Barrier, and the Rod of Smiting. Haer'Dalis, a single fireshield and the Chaos Blade. Since golems have single digits in the Dex column, it wasn't super obvious who would win. Luckily for Aerie, Haer'Dalis didn't activate Tenser's until it was too late.

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Haer'Dalis took down one clay golem. Aerie, the iron golem and everything else- save this one bloke between them right now. The race is on, Haer'Dalis, you better kill that last one or you'll never hear the end of it.

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And the winner is?

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Ouch, Haer'Dalis. If I were you I'd craw into that grave, like, stat. As for Imoen, her injury occurred because I lazily sent her into the room to scout with out detecting traps. Remind you of anything? Jaheira, with her three Find Traps at the ready, remained silent

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The poison room followed. It's been awhile since I've done these rooms, so maybe -maybe- I can be forgiven for screwing this up. Wait a minute? That gas isn't suppose to be there, is it?

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Minsc, can you run back to the air guardian room and flip the switch? Sorry, I mean Jaheira. Right, Jaheira? Oh, so now you don't want to go because there's a fight happening. Crikey. I just can't win. This is why I play solo, everyone.

We got everything squared and made our way to the ice room. The Free Actions weren't strictly necessary here, but then again, neither are 90% of the buffs we cast in 90% of the fights. I do find the slow effect in this room annoying, though. Plus, buffing practice is important. We'll keep overbuffing for the little fights to insure that we get it right when it counts.

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For the fire giant we just sent some summons ahead and punked him with ranged weapons. Aerie gave a Harm a go, because she had it in her book and why not. Magic resistance foiled it.

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Ok! Time for the Chromatic Demon! Finally a real fight! Scorcher minor sequencers, check. Lightning sequencer, check. Aerie on Contingency: See Enemy- Defensive Harmony, check. Imoen on Contingency: See Enemy- Greater Malison, check. Finally, Haer'Dalis on Contingency: See Enemy-ProMW. Our weapons are ready. Our books are ready. Let's do this!

It took awhile to set everything up, but it was worth it. It was worth it because....Actually, not even a little.

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The fight lasted one round segment, plus however long it took Aerie's Finger of Death to reach Big Daddy Chromy D. Imoen's Malison Contingency, combined with our triple FoD opener made our odds of a first round knockout pretty good. Still, I say the buffing was worth it. Better safe than sorry. Practice makes perfect. Maybe even another cliche, if you can think of one. Most importantly, our buffs made our final screenshot look cool, and that's all that matters in the end. Why carve a path of glory if you can't look fabulous in the process?

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Bodhi's Lair

I'm not sure who I feel most sorry for. Drizzt, who had to watch us buff for a month and a day; Bodhi and her kin, who were summarily executed; Or Haer'Dalis, who's going to hear even more gloating from Aerie. It's a tough one, to be sure.

Let's start with the case for Bodhi's kin. First off, if I were a vampire I'd be nice to clerics. I mean, really nice. Take them out to dinner. Shower them with praise. Maybe even pick up their tab at the Flagons. Why, you ask? Because you should always be nice to people who can kill you just by going "awwww!"

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In the case of Alena, picking up that Flagons tab would be rough. No doubt. But it sure beats the alternative. Pick a fight, and, ya dead.

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That's all it takes: one little spell and, ya dead.

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That's if you're lucky. If you're lucky, like Tanova, you die by Sunray, a spell. There's some dignity in that. For most of the vamps it didn't even take that much. Alena just waltzed in and, ya dead.

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All those rats and puppy-wups were kind of a nuisance. Fortunately Imoen has Wilting now so she can play the game too. Hold on, let me say my vita and mortis....Annnnnd, ya dead.

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Things got a little tricky when the hidden wall prevented us from targeting our foes. Minsc didn't love that.

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But then Aerie showed up. Ya dead.

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By now we were out of Sunrays. That's ok. We have False Dawns and Azuredge, so, sorry, vamps: ya still dead.

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So, yeah: I feel pretty bad for Bodhi's kin. They had it rough. As for Drizzt, he had to watch us buff not once but twice, thanks to a casting order mistake that sent Imoen's Improved Haste cast into Haer'Dalis's MSD. it was rough for me, too, and I have the patience of a saint. A comatose saint. I'm not certain, but I seriously think Drizzt just got bored and bailed. Let's see if we can find him in the screenshots. I see Eric over there, weeping in the corner. No Drizzt, though.

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So: What was the plan, you ask? Kill Bodhi. Actually, let Bodhi kill herself. The love birds went ahead, under ProMW, running Fireshield: Red. We wanted anyone in contact with Bodhi running ProMW, Fireshield:Red and SI:A.The rest of the team stayed back and chucked their ranged weapons while dodging the rabble. We kept Imoen back, too, just in case Bodhi's caster friends started causing grief. Don't ask me why Imoen is targeting Bodhi with an LR here. That made no sense given our plan. She should have gone ProMW. Oh! I remember now. Hazarmaveth and Manasseh hadn't shown up yet when Imoen started casting. Without those two on the field the LR made more sense.

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Almost all the damage we took came from Cloud of Bats. Alena, Jaheia and Minsc were affected. The Si:A kids were not. Their Fireshields must have stopped it. It wasn't their spell protections, since Alena, under Spell Turning, was swarmed. It wasn't II because Minsc had activated his RoAC. Had I know Fireshields block bats, like insects, we would have passed the Staff of Fire around like it was the last joint at Woodstock. Still no sign of Drizzt, by the way.

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Yes, Bodhi, your stolen soul is leaving your body, but you've got bigger problems. Your little portrait there is not flattering at all. You need to check in with your stylist.

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And there we have it: Bodhi succumbs to Aerie's Fireshield. Like I said, we were going to make her kill herself. As an FYI, the fireshield collisions bug does not apply to Deathly Shroud.

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We're in the cleanup phase now. Haer'Dalis sure wishes he had gotten to Bodhi first. Maybe then Bodhi would have killed herself on his Fireshield instead. That would have been a coup. No such luck, though. First the golems, and now this. It's going to be a long trek to Suldanessallar for Haer'Dalis.

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Agreed, Jaheira. It is about time. About time we hit the Flagons. We're in dire need of tasty beverages.

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Speaking of tasty beverages: Has everyone seen the official D&D cocktail book, Puncheons & Flagons? It's coming out later this month, the 27th. Hooray!

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Best,

A.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

After two weeks in RL looking after grandchildren, I am now back home.

Tenya as dropped off. Jet'Laya recruited after which we killed her Banshee Sister without difficulty.

We have now been requested to kill a dragon near Nashkel.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Good to see you again, Wise! Glad you got to spend sometime with your grandkids.

@Borco has been doing RL stuff too recently. He mentioned a music festival. I hope you’re having fun, B!

Back to BG: A dragon near Nashkel? That’s crazy. Where did it come from?