Orrin, human archer: Part 12 - An Overly Long and Unnecessarily Dramatic Post About Candlekeep
My initial concern regarding the Candlekeep homecoming was how to deal with the SCS ogre magi ambush at the gates. They're a lot, they're annoying and usually the most efficient course of action (at least when soloing) is to quaff a Potion of Magic Blocking or PoI and run. For a full party that doesn't have access to arcane Invisibility, direct confrontation seemed inevitable. As we're approaching the BG1 endgame, the stakes are getting higher and this warrants a more conservative approach when it comes to planning our defenses. Conveniently, we'll also have access to the numerous vendors in the big city and therefore we're less concerned about single-use resources, such as potions and scrolls.
We didn't exactly go 6x Potion of Magic Blocking, but we're not far from that either - Ajantis and Orrin each used one, Montaron went for Potion of Invulnerability, Viconia quaffed a Potion of Magic Protection (for 100% MR) and Xzar and Imoen both applied a PoI.
Following this collective potion tasting, Imoen goes straight into the illusion detect mode and Orrin carefully readies his single Arrow of Slaying (specifically purchased from Sorcerous Sundries for the occasion).
You see that yellow-red ogre on the left? Can you imagine he's been able to tag Xzar with Magic Missiles despite Auto-pause: See Enemy + immediate PoI quaff?! That's pretty impressive, if you ask me, and I believe he deserves a song!
Do you remember "The Quick and the Dead"? Now the shootout between Orrin and the purple ogre mage has a clear winner!
The enemy Glitterdust bounces off our immunities, MR and saving throws. We're off to a promising start.
Ajantis and Viconia pick up the tanking duty, while Imoen paves the way for our ranged attackers by removing the MIs.
The second mage is down, but we're wondering where's the last one. Ahh, there he is! Imoen, remove those illusions, if you please!
Time for our invisible acters to join the fray. Xzar's already got his Shield up and has readied his MMMs. And his fast and loose!
Ajantis gets the final kill, setting the final score between himself, Orrin and Xzar at 2:2:1.
Once inside the library walls, we were greeted by Hull who had some wise words to share with the no-reloading community.
We also checked out the upper floor of the Candlekeep Inn to see if the Potion of Clarify and the Star Saphire are still there. And indeed they were!
Despite my earlier comment made in connection with the Iron Throne battle avoiding unnecessary fights in the future, I was inclined to take on Rieltar and his entourage. I always leave them to Koveras and this time around I wanted to spice things up a bit. What I didn’t realize is that it’s not possible to leave the library interior (we wanted to take a rest at the inn before the fight) without being intercepted by the Watchers in case you’ve already spoken to Sarevok. No worries, we’ll get them next time - let’s now know focus on navigating the catacombs.
Our first mistake came too early. Imoen accidentally tripped the lighting trap in the southeastern tomb before she could detect it. Although barely, she survived, however the same cannot be said for poor Montaron who was closely trailing her (as Imoen’s own lockpicking abilities were insufficient to unlock the crypts).
Of course, why would I bother giving them Boots of Grounding or buffs when the plan was to remove the traps rather than trigger them? If there’s one lesson for me to take away from this completely avoidable error it’s that, whenever possible, one should not hesitate to memorize and use the divine Find Traps spell to safely navigate heavily trapped areas unless you rogue is rocking a 100% detection chance.
Viconia quickly rushed to the scene to calm down panicked Imoen with Remove Fear and patched her up with CLWs. Loosing her too would’ve been a complete disaster and it was just by mere luck that she survived.
We collected the Tome of Wisdom, for which we paid such a heavy price, and removed the lightning trap leading to the phase spider hall (this time Imoen was already wearing the Boots of Grounding). Protected by ProPoison scroll, buffed with Potion of Hill Giant Strength and carrying Spider’s Bane, Ajantis was just about to charge into the room and eliminate all the spiders on his own, when we saw this:
While playing solo, one doesn’t really appreciate how effectively these guys can teleport to the most vulnerable party members at huge distances. Suddenly, we had a completely different type of fight on our hands. Luckily, both Viconia and Orrin (with his racial enemy bonuses) were nearby and did a good job in protecting our arcane caster.
Imoen joining them shortly, while Ajantis just stood there in an empty room with his sword drawn, admiring the beautiful web patterns.
Although this time we didn’t suffer any injuries nor casualties, we still learned our second lesson of this session – be especially careful around teleporting enemies when playing with a party. With the Manual of Strength in our possession, we could proceed to the next area.
I got the geas removal scroll and thn killed the High Priest of Umberlee. I'm thinking that killing her caused a bug. 
