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

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 7

Before heading into the big city, we made sure to wash away the sins of our past with gold at the FAI temple, raising Rissa’s reputation to 15 in preparation for the shopping spree at Sorcerous’ Sundries. After buying several potions and an entire stack of arcane scrolls, Rissa uttered the Power Word: Fafhrd, collected the DEX tome, and booked a room in the Elfsong, where she drank the Red Potion and deep-dived into a lengthy spell scribing session.

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The next day we picked up the Helm of Balduran as well as the second WIS tome via the Marek & Lothander questline, in the course of which Rissa also extinguished the Umberlee priests in the docks and eventually hunted down Marek at the Blushing Mermaid. The latter was handled together with two summoned skeletons while running Remove Fear, Death Ward, ProEvil, ProPetrification, Strength, Shield, ProFire, MSD, Free Action, MI, and II. In terms of offense, Rissa went for Spell Thrust (to remove his MSD) -> Silence (whereby my lousy targeting resulted in us being silenced as well) -> Wand of Heavens -> sling & swords for the finish.

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Ramazith parted ways with his possessions, notably the RoP +2 and the INT tome, after Rissa hijacked him in his tower with Aule’s and a Potion of Explosion, running Oil of Speed, DuHM, and Greenstone Amulet for the occasion (among others).

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After that we quickly cleared the Seven Suns, broke into the Iron Thone HQ, and got dispatched to Candlekeep, where Potion of Magic Blocking allowed us to escape the ogre magi ambush.

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In the catacombs, Rissa used Shield, ProFire, ProElectricity, Free Action, and Sanctuary to foil the traps and avoid the phase spiders. She unlocked the crypts with Knock, collected the last two ability tomes and, unnoticed by anyone, escaped under Invisibility.

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There was one thing that we had to take care before returning to the Gate and that was obtaining the last missing piece in our inventory ahead of the Ducal Palace – the Golden Girdle. Having had to wait for us all this time, Kirian and her companions certainly deserved special treatment to compensate them for their patience. As a homage to our old friend Korax, Rissa suggested Ghoul Touch. I liked that - Baerin, Lindin, and Peter less so.

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With that, we were almost ready for the final push, but then I realized that Rissa’s about to receive her final Bhaalspawn power (the previous one being DuHM). Vampiric Touch would not only be more valuable, but further diversifying the powers would also be a better fit for Rissa’a neutral alignment. And since at that point in time we no longer had any need for discounted shop prices, it was decided that we commit another murder.

I wish there was another way, like for example storming a church with a lawyer and demanding the repayment of all the past donations on the basis that these should actually be deemed interest bearing loans, but it is what it is. And so, please send thoughts and prayers to the family of Spen Gil'meh of Beregost. I’m not sure if you know him, I certainly did not, but the thread of Fate has decided to make him a reputation management tool for an otherwise kindhearted Bhaalspawn.

Regards,

B.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Let me take a wild wild guess:

Lol. No. That was a good choice. I said this one was perfect. Here it is. Tell me I didn’t nail it.

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I’m pretty sure that’s my all time favorite match. My bounty hunter’s is a great match too.

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[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 8

The BG1 finale ended up being not much more than a rushed succession of fights completed under with a single set of buffs, as Rissa steamrolled through the Undercellar and the Ducal Palace and did not stop until Sarevok lay dead at her (ogre) feet. But let’s take it one by one.

For Slythe, Rissa summoned two skeletons, smacked one with Vampiric Touch*, and subsequently applied green ProMagic scroll, the Violet Potion, Potion of Fortitude, Potion of Agility, Potion of Mind Focusing, added 100% fire resistance (via green ProFire scroll and Potion of Fire Resistance), and equipped her ankegh plate.

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*Note: This was pointless since the bonus HP got dispelled by ProMagic – I suspected as much, but still wanted to give it a shot.

Despite catching our Wand of Fire charge with his magic resistance, Slythe still came down quietly in just a few rounds, with Rissa dishing out 20-25 damage at THAC0 4 with 2APR.

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Ignoring Krystin, we collected the invitations and rushed to the palace. Before engaging with the dukes, Rissa donned the Golden Girdle, quaffed Potion of Regeneration + Potion of Power, summoned some cannon fodder via Wand of Monster Summoning, and applied her Bhaalspawn DuHM.

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The doppes open the battle with the most underwhelming backstab in the history of late game backstabs. Even Rissa’s rabbit strikes harder, lol. This is going to be easy!

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We press forward with Aule’s and Wand of Heavens. Liia, being at the top of her game, swipes the battlefield with Remove Magic.

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After escaping into the lobby, the mage wastes his Chaos cast on the two summons trailing him.

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One by one, the doppelgangers fall until only the mage remains.

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Rissa switches to electric bullets to bypass his Stoneskins and then introduces him to the sheer brutality of strength-stacking sling damage at STR 25.

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See you in a minute, brother!

 

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 8 - continued

As soon as Rissa got teleported to the Thieves’ Guild, she quaffed a PoI and hurried towards the Temple of Bhaal in the Undercity. She paused in front of the gate, dressed into her robes, equipped her Girdle of Piercing, and checked her remaining gear. We were ready.

Out of the four acolytes, Diarmid was the first to show up. Instead of saying hi, Rissa sent a bullet flying right into his face.

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We followed up with a Potion of Firebreath loop, catching invisible Semaj and Angelo in the flame jet.

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Tazok has already arrived to the scene as well - we should greet him too.

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Rissa burns her second Firebreath and then finishes Tazok with a big crowd-pleaser.

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I know Diarmid, being crit-zoned is even tougher than being friend-zoned.

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Note that we now had ProAcid, Potion of Regeneration, and ProUndead among our buff mix. Angelo, Semaj, and Diarmid are all eliminated with the third Firebreath potion.

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Showtime!

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Come again, brother - Lord of Murder? Don’t be silly, you're just a melee brute with positive saving throws. Have you ever seen a Lord of Murder fail his save against Wand of Paralyzation?

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And Rissa will crush!

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See you in Athkatla!

Regards,

B.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

@Borco

Not just yet as I have set off for Dragonspear.

The prologue is finished with ease, but without a mage or thief some quests could not be finished. There are chests that cannot be opened even with 25 strength.

A shame that!

That won't happen in my next game. Not having mages and thieves makes the game less interesting.

A mistake I have made is not getting more equipment in BG1. I've made life more difficult for myself.

Just before the final battle in BG1 I helped Drizzt and he pushed into the party so I dropped Conchobhair Strongblade.

Despite being at a higher level, Drizzt wasn't much stronger. However his resistance to magic could be useful in SoD.

I don't know whether I will see Gavin and Sirene again. I hope that I do. After all, I'm engaged to Gavin!!

 

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 9

BG 2 Technical Notes:
Game version: BG2EE 2.6.6.0
Mods: SCS (v34.3); BG Tweaks (cosmetic changes)
Difficulty: Insane
Modified SCS components: Giant Spiders (Tactical), Smarter Mind Flayers (Improved), Improved Fiends and Celestials (Hardcore)
Omitted SCS component (tactical challenges): Shade Lord, Vampires, Bodhi, Beholder Hive, Fire Giant Temple, Sendai's Enclave, Abazigal's Lair

Rissa entered Amn with a level-up for both classes and was now L8 cleric/L8 mage. She had her spell slots optimized for the Irenicus' dungeon already during the BG1 finale (see the full list below), so she would probably be able to do this on her own. Still, Rissa's is not the one to refuse extra help, especially from a friend that can remove traps or fry our enemies with lightning.

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Mage: 2x Blindness, 2x Magic Missiles (here I completely forgot about Find Familiar), Mirror Image, Strength, Web, Fireball, Skull Trap, Spirit Armor
Cleric: 3x Command, 2x Sanctuary, Remove Fear, 2x Chant, 2x DuHM, 1x Hold Person, 1x Silence, 4x Animate Dead, 2x Defensive Harmony, 1x Mental Domination, 1x Pro Evil 10'

Our second tier skeleton warriors proved to be super-efficient against the otherwise pesky mephits.

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We collected Staff Spear +2 and the magical quarterstaff, retrieved the golem's shem under Sanctuary, and moved on to the sewage room. Rissa dominated one of the duegars to assist us against his comrades - the reward for his efforts was being offered as a sacrifice to the otyugh a few moments later.

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Rissa manages to blind the otyugh on her second attempt and, after first finishing the fleeting duegar with her Chromatic Orb, Imoen takes it down with backstabs by Staff Spear + Magic Missile.

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Our skeleton warriors carve us a path into Jon's room, from which Rissa blasts the portal guards with Fireball.

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We recover the Amulet of Metaspell Influence and the Claw, and jog back to the security golems - we decide to pre-emptively destroy them while they're chilling in their day room, utilizing Haste, MIs, and DuHM in addition to our long duration buffs (Spirit Armor, Strength, ProEvil 10').

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Taking advantage of the momentum, we continued towards the remaining duegar groups.

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Illych did not seem to heed to calls for help and, instead of getting intercepted by his party in the library, we had to seek him out ourselves. Imoen dropped her Web into the room - unfortunately two of our skeletons got caught in its range, while the rest of us fall back behind the corner to try and draw some of the enemies away from the main hall.

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Surprise, surprise - we've got three more duegar incoming from the library in an attempted pincer maneuver. I don't know where they came from, as we must have cleared all the other rooms by that time, but what's important is that we manage to eliminate them before our Haste expires.

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We rush back into Illych's room, cover the floor with Stinking Cloud, silence the mage, and proceed to shoot and/or chop down everything that moves (or doesn't).

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Some say that superiority in numbers is at the core of any successful military strategy. The cambion would not disagree.

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[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 9 - continued

We skipped the Plane of Air, promised the dryads to deliver their acorns, raided the furniture in Ellesime's room, and moved on to second level of the dungeon. Rissa has gained a level, which surprisingly turns out to be in her mage class - I never fully realized that the clerical level progression follows this strange curve, as usually I played single class characters for which the XP distance between the levels is less pronounced. I find them to be at the lowest end of their relative power curve at levels 7-8, and Rissa has already been taking long time to progress further.

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On the other side of the portal, we dismissed Yoshi, adjusted our books, and rested. First thing in the morning (not that we'd have any idea what time it actually is), Rissa summoned her familiar and tucked it into her bag. In preparation for the mephit portal room, we also summoned three skeleton warriors and buffed with Spirit Armor, Haste, Chant, and MGoI, among others. It was smooth sailing.

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The same set of buffs propels us through the enemies in the adjacent corridor.

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The trio of assassins was eliminated by Rissa under MIs, II, and MSD, using Glliterdust to reveal the invisible rogues before they could do anything meaningful.

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Chaos and Silence allowed us to storm the forges and recover our Girdle of Bluntness.

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Finally, we reminded ourselves of all the good times we had with doppelgangers back at Baldur's Gate by chunking Frennedan, picked up the RoP +1 and collected couple of wands from the trap pedestals, and escaped to the surface.

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Regards,

B.

 

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 10

By selling all the excess loot from Irenicus’ dungeon we ended up with a balance of more than 7k. We could either start spending the gold right away or, depending on Rissa’s readiness to face Kalah, storm the circus tent first and get more bang for our buck later with the Ring of Human Influence + Friends.

At mage level 9, Rissa already had decent base saves vs spells and was capable of casting L5 arcane spells. Chaotic Commands would save us a lot of headaches but, unfortunately, at the time we were still more than 100k XP away from being able to cast divine L5s. Our inventory was looking reasonably good as well, especially after we bought an emergency PoI and Potion of Freedom from the Adventurer's Mart. We decided to take our chances!

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The orcs in the lobby were handled by our summoned skeleton warriors + Vampiric Touch. While the ogre form of Polymorph: Self certainly has its uses, Aerie was still more than happy to regain her fairer looks – and noting that Rissa’s a fellow cleric/mage, she thanks her by giving away her mage robe.

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For Kalah, Rissa was running Spirit Armor, ProEvil, Remove Rear, Shield, ProElectricity, ProFire, Blur, Chill Touch (with an ordinary morning star in the off-hand), MIs, Haste, II, Holy Power, and DuHM. She approached invisible and attacked at close range.

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Kalah fired off his pre-buffs and opened with a Confusion cast that bounced off Rissa’s negative saves.

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The Claw + RoP + II + Spirit Shield + Blur together account for -12 modifier, effectively grating Rissa saving throws vs spell of -2 (without taking into account the additional bonus via ProEvil). Assuming there’s no Malison at play, Rissa should be safe from majority of threats targeting saves vs spell that we may encounter at this stage of the game, maybe with the exception Chaos and specialist penalties, neither of which should be relevant with Kalah.

Rissa followed up with Detect Illusion, removing Kalah’s images, and was back at him in melee.

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Kalah tried Emotion: Hopelessness, but once it got caught by our saving throws. Rissa riposted with Melf’s Acid Arrow and continued to peel away his Stoneskins with her Chill Touch.

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Because of Qualye, our AoE options were limited (it’s been some time since I last tested it, but I don’t think that his form provides the standard resistances of the jelly form via Polymorph: Self). Therefore, Rissa’s first reaction to Kalah refreshing his images was Holy Smite, albeit with little effect.

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Eventually, we decided to burn the sole charge of our Wand of Fire, just in time to thwart Kalah’s dispel.

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Having secured the Girdle of Piercing, the Ring of Human Influence, and her first Stoneskin scroll, Rissa rested in the Den and triggered the first guild war encounter to maximize sellable loot before hitting the Promenade High Street. Our shopping list included the Reflex, a scroll case and a gem bag, and several scrolls (PfNW, Spell Shield, Enchanted Weapon, Polymorph: Other) together with Potion of Genius + Potion of Mind Focusing from the Temple of Ilmater to ensure a smooth scribing session.

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Broke as we are, it’s only fitting that we’re headed to the Slums next.

Regards,

B.

 

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part11

This is to provide a quick update on Rissa’s handling of the Copper Coronet.

Buffed with Potion of Mind Focusing (a leftover from the previous day’s spell scribing session), Spirit Armor, ProEvil, Shield, Remove Fear, Strength, and MSD*, she stormed the gladiator cells where she disposed of the guards with the help of Hold Person and Vampiric Touch.

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*Note: There is a minor graphic bug in my install, probably caused by the BG Tweaks component that removes the permanent graphic effects from certain selected items (including the Claw and the Reflex, among others), whereby the protective sphere via Minor Spell Deflection does not properly show around the character when the Reflex's equipped in the off-hand. That’s why MSD seems to be on and off on the screenshots.

In the pits, we used the cold-immune skeleton warriors to tank the winter wolf.

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After boosting her defenses with ProElectricity, ProFire, Blur, MIs, and II, Rissa taunted the beastmaster, waited for the cells to open, and unleashed a Lightning Bolt.

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We couldn’t hope for a sweeter bounce than this.

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Rissa pressed on with a Fireball, finished the beastmaster with her sling, and hunted down the remainder of his army with Commands.

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We rescued Hendak and wrapped up our pleasant stay in the inn by collecting the Gloves of Pickpocketing, murdering Lynis, and selling the accumulated goodies to fund the purchase of Sling of Seeking.

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Most importantly, Rissa's now reached cleric level 9 and that means access to Chaotic Commands – we’ll not be leaving home without it from now on, at least not until we can get our hands on Harmony.

Regards,

B.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Astrid smiles whenever you use a lightning bolt on the beast master, Borco

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH I mean it's like he's almost asking for it, right? And while we'll never really be able to compete with a Talassan, Rissa's been keeping regular Lightning practice sessions to stay in shape.

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[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 12

Apart from the all-important Chaotic Commands, L5 divine spells have brought some interesting offensive options onto the table. Slay Living is among them - and enemy clerics are the perfect targets.

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When Rissa had initially received the invitation to the boat party with the slavers, the dress code said “cocktail chic with touch of abjuration”. Her traveler's robe + Protection from Normal Weapons would do, but she decided to spice things up a bit Chaotic Commands, Spirit Armor, Remove Fear, Strength, ProEvil, Blur, MI, Haste, II, and DuHM.

That ProElectricity was just a leftover from the Lilarcor riddle we had completed earlier - I tend to mix up the sequence with the pipes and so my characters usually have to suffer a lightning or two. I’ll note that, expect for the kobolds, Rissa had avoided all the enemies in the sewers with Sanctuary, while the petrification trap had been foiled with MSD.

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Ok, so where were we? Ah yes, the boat! With the priest out of play, Rissa turned her attention to Haegan and his guards, although her initial Hold Person failed to land.

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Slavers are evil and evil can be smitten!

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Or impaled with the Staff Spear, as an alternative.

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Rissa then blinds Haegan, drops Sunfire at her feet, and charms one of the surviving guards with the Ring of Human Influence.

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The last thing Captain Haegan remembers before collapsing under Rissa’s Command, was cutting down one of his own in a complete darkness. I’d call that a fitting end.

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Apart from one Melf’s Acid Arrow, Rissa did not have the right tools to deal with the trolls and therefore we needed to take a rest. The task of killing them eventually befell to Polymorph: Self + Vampiric Touch.

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With her HP in the safe zone, Rissa braved the acid blob trap and, further down, countered the Prismatic Spray trap with the jelly form’s MR.

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Our preparations for the second slaver party included True Seeing and Holy Power in addition to Rissa’s standard set of pre-buffs. She introduced herself in the jelly form and activated her Wand of Cloudkill.

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Her subsequent Fireball swept the floor and, those that survived, quickly fell either to Rissa’s weapons or the poisonous fumes.

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We report the good news to Hendak and swing by the Adventurer’s Mart to purchase the Staff Mace, the Victor, 2x Potion of Firebreath, and the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength.

 

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 12 - continued

En route to the Bridge, we’re intercepted by Suna Seni. Not that it was unexpected – which is why Rissa has been transitioning between the areas exclusively under Sanctuary or Invisibility.

She took the time to prepare her spells and summon two skeletons.

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Our attempt at instantly killing Suna with Slay Living failed, but Rissa quickly fixed the score with a Firebreath potion, killing the mage on the spot.

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Performing a half-loop with the scorcher under Haste removed the archer and the priest, while Suna only needed a gentle nudge with a sling to join them.

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Eldarin and the rogue were cut down without the need for spending further resources.

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Street fighting is certainly more convenient when you’re a cleric/mage and don’t have to worry about the Cowled Wizards bossing you around for showering your foes with offensive spells.

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By the time we fought those Shadow Thieves at the Promenade, Rissa had already solved the murders in the Bridge District, reconnected Littleman with his owner at the Graveyard, and recovered Namarra from the Crypt King.

We used the spare cash to fund the Ring of Air Control and ran a quick scribing session (under Potion of Genius + Potion of Mind Focusing, as usual) to load up our arcane book with fresh spells (with notable additions of Spell Immunity, Minor Sequencer, Breach, and Death Fog). Our brand new minor sequencer was immediately put to use when we ran into Renfeld’s friends at this spot.

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At first, I had been disappointed when a bit of testing confirmed that it’s not possible to launch a sequencer loaded up with Chant + Doom to get some sort of a mini-Malison. Nevertheless, Rissa came up with two alternative ideas for the sequencer use, the first one being Chant + Sanctuary that we can see here.

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Chant’s a really potent spell, with an effect that’s stackable with other bonuses (be that Bless, Aid, Luck, or others), but its casting time is just too long to be used offensively in the majority of solo situations. Sequencing it removes the casting speed downside, making it a perfect fit.

Rissa’s plan was to use the sequenced Sanctuary to allow for her aura to clear, and fire up DuHM + Ghoul Touch (with Staff Mace in the off-hand) before re-engaging.

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First enemy down, Defensive Harmony up.

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Two and three.

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With only the mage left, Rissa has plenty of time to tag him with Doom and bring his save penalties to -3.

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And finish.

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We’re off to the Docks.

Regards,

B.

 

[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 13

After unloading Renfeld at the Harpers’ HQ, Rissa pays a mandatory visit to the Temple of Oghma, where she offers a symbolic donation of 100 GP as a compensation for the Potion of Invisibility that she’s picked up among the tomes. It’s not much, but after all we’re not priests of Waukeen and the more Rissa thrives the more glory to her god she’ll bring through her deeds rather than through funds.

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A single Sunfire was sufficient to wipe out the necromancer lair with Xzar’s apprentices.

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With the first one having been obliterated earlier on in the slaver compound, the priests of Cyric seem to be having a bad time in Rissa’s proximity.

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Completing the Harper Hold quest brought us to level 10/11 and we decided to travel via Watcher’s Keep (where Rissa gets her potion case and few missing scrolls) to Trademeet. Wasting no time, Rissa proceeded straight to confront the djinnis – Taquee gave in to the power of her Flame Strike.

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The fight inside the tent became a bit messy, as Khan Zahraa proved to be immune to Rissa’s Ghoul Touch (despite the failed saving throw and the corresponding animation, he remained completely unaffected by the paralysis).

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We fought on, bringing in Malison, Slow, and Sunfire.

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Unfortunately, I failed to notice that our divine ProFire was already gone and launched a fireball...

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Ouch. Sorry for that Rissa! Let’s get it up and running again.

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Much better!
With Harmony in hand, we moved on to the Druid Grove. Rissa used Invisiblity to reach Adratha’s cottage, placed two Glyphs of Warding at the bridge, and prepared for the Shambling Mounds. Running Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Holy Power, and dual-wielding Spiritual Hammer + Staff Mace, she waited for the glyphs to go off, activated DuHM, and charged.

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Those colors certainly are lovely. And Rissa’s combat stats when buffed are not bad either.

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We finish the remaining mounds and the sword spider, leeching some additional hitpoints via Vampiric Touch along the way.

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While the Glyphs of Warding may not be entirely useless, especially when facing neutral aligned creatures immune to Holy Smite/Unholy Blight, I definitely need to improve my timing and distancing to avoid tripping them myself. Like this.

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Nevermind the wasted glyph, we have our efreeti and Greater Command take care of these cave bears.

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[Borco]

Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 13 - continued

I’m not sure exactly what I wanted to achieve with the druids, but it certainly didn’t work out. I mean, we still won the fight, without taking a single point of damage, but this fight should have been over in few rounds – instead, it ended up being quite a frustrating affair and we had to spend our entire book to pull through.

Here we are at the beginning of the battle - Rissa’s buffs can be read from the portrait, plus she’s running II and Blur. With two skeletons at her side, she opens with a Chant + Sanctuary sequencer.

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She activates Slay Living, waits for a clear aura, and strikes at Dalok. He makes his save.

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While the druids are keeping themselves busy with the skeletons, Rissa follows with Mental Domination on the fighter. He briefly joins our ranks, however the spell breaks shortly thereafter (despite us immediately redirecting our surviving summon to attack Dalok instead). There goes another wasted round.

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The enemy summons were starting to pile up and we needed some respite. Let go Sunfire!

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Uhm, that didn’t really make much difference, right? Dalok’s Iron Skins are down, but otherwise we still have plenty on our plate. To make things worse, here comes Mass Cure from the nymph that must have narrowly avoided our Sunfire.

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Rissa presses on with a Fireball and finally manages to cut down Dalok.

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This adherent needs to go down quickly, otherwise he could become a problem. Hoping to be able to debuff his THAC0, Rissa activates Chill Touch, equips Staff Mace in the off-hand, and engages in melee.

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The net result of our effort was that Rissa failed to land a single successful THAC0 penalty, despite dishing out decent non-lethal damage, while our MIs were quickly being chopped away.

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Okay, let’s think. Which spell has reliably pulled us through the most battles? That’s right, Hold Person – go for it, Rissa!

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Aargh! The sheer frustration of the moment must have materialized in Rissa’s next punch which sent the adherent flying to the ground.

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We finish the summoned bear, trigger Shadow Door, and position ourselves for our coup de grâce de la Skull Trap.

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I mean, come on…

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You really want to make this as difficult as possible for us, do you? Fair enough, we have time. And we’ll be systematic - starting with Breach on the druid.

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Magic Missile, the mother of all the spells in Faerûn, finishes the unconscious fighter.

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That, as well as subsequently crushing the druid and his nymph into mashed potatoes with Spiritual Hammer, has brought at least some degree satisfaction to the whole thing.

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C’mon Cernd, you take it from here, okay?

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Thanks! I’m sorry you’ll not get your statute in Trademeet, but we’ll make sure to put in a good word regarding your contribution to the locals.

Regards,

B.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

A run with three elves. We all have the same mother but clearly being a half-elf, my father is not the same.

Mendas, an assassin from a mod proved to be quite dangerous, however killing all three assassins proved to be advantageous as all of them had a moonblade in their possession, presumably stolen. They are usable by elves and so each member of the party has a good weapon whether or not they are proficient in using it.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

We headed Northward where we found Joia's ring, killed Sonner et al and recruited Tenya who is an excellent cleric despite her lack of strength.
Whilst ankhegs have valuable shells and give substantial experience, they can be dangerous if given a chance.

Killing Tarnesh was not a problem.

Neither was Zordral, a mage that we encountered at the Carnival.

To the south we killed Greywolf before returning Samuel to the FAI.

Tenya told us of a wise woman who could have helped us. However she only helped us in her death!

Dorn joined us until we killed Kryll. However we were uncomfortable with his presence so we bade him farewell.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

We took on Bassilus using summoned skeletons which were immune to his spells!! We used those same skeletons to take on Zargal and were triumphant once more.
We proceeded to the lighthouse area and after resting successfully used skeletons against the sirenes and flesh golems.
We used the same tactics against Shoal and sadly killed her before Droth arrived on the scene.
We then took Brage to the temple after which we rescued Dynaheir

We took her to the Carnival where we left her with Aerie. She is currently a level 5 Invoker. For her safety we equipped her with a +2 dagger, a robe of the traveler, a sling and bullets. With her spells, she should be safe there, particularly as she has Aerie with her. She told us that she would be happy to join us again in future.

We then returned to Gullykin where Indira joined us. Her sword was broken so we gave her Varscona. We healed her before wending our way to Beregost where we reprovisioned ourselves. We need to recharge an Ettin's Wand in our possession. For that we need gold, so we will hunt ankhegs. That will also give Indira some greatly neeeded experience as that is her greatest lack along with poor constitution.

After killing a few ankhegs Indira is now a level 5 mage, level 5 fighter. This means that she can now cast ghost armour so she is far less vulnerable.

We returned to Gullykin and fought a horde of gibberling commandos. We killed all the gibberlings, an ogre mage et al and also returned the armour to the ghost knights.

We arrived back at the carnival and have rested.

We then entered the mines and rescued Miner Beldin.

I love doing this sort of rescue even though there is no real benefit in doing it.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

A summoned skeleton terminated the life of Mulahey.

Afterwards we recruited Xan and left Indira there.

We game grain and turnips to some lady ogres and managed to kill Nimbul though in the process he killed Oublek. We left Xan with Aerie and Dynaheir.

We returned for Indira and after returning to the surface plundered the caves there.

We sold our surplus ankheg shells, recharged the etin wand and bought a wand of the heavens. We are now back at the ankheg nest as we would like to recharge our wand of monster summoning.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Having recharged our wand of monster summoning we went to the bandit camp where we killed some assassins who had some good bracers.The rest of their equipment we will sell when gold is needed.

WE killed Deke and his bandits and some more so attacked us while sleeping. We sold the scalps and later on Tranzig attacked us. Sirene pleaded with us to be merciful and we agreed to be so, but it was too late. He died. He should have asked earlier. No mercy was asked for at the camp and none was given. We didn't need the wand, but it may come in handy later.

We then had a lot of assassins to deal with.

Now working our way through Cloakwood.

We killed Centeol, a Dragon, Selene, and Izfezia, followed by a few wyvern in transit.

We took the wyvern's tail to the temple and received a substantial reward which we spent getting some useful equipment in Cloakwood. Rather expensive, but it was superior to our current equipment which was already pretty good.