Borco
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Ryland (human blade) & Kalam (halfling assassin by @Finarfin), multiplayer run: Part 10 - Slythe and the Dukes
With all the tomes and Bhaalspawn powers under our belt, we were finally ready for the finale at the Gate. Our plan was to go big with a ProMagic scroll and sweep through the last three battles in one go before its two hour duration expires.
We were not only ready, we were also completely broke. Having spent all of our money on stocks of ammo, potions, scrolls, and wands, we closed our bank account and kept just enough cash to be able to book the best room in the Blade and the Stars (fry-up breakfast included), where we sorted out the gear and finalized our preparations ahead of the summit push. Had the entry fee to the Undercellar been only slightly higher, we'd probably need to pretend that we were staff or something in order to get in the next morning.
Once at the spot, Kalam unrolled the precious parchment and read the incantation. Looking good with that blue globe, my friend!
He then looked at the small violet bottle in his potion case. "What's the worst that can happen?", he asked Ryland, confident that his friend always knows things about exotic stuff. But no matter how high is your Lore, drinking an unknown liquid from an unlabelled test tube you had bought at a local festival from a nameless vendor in one of the party tents is guaranteed to produce sketchy results at best. "I dunno; it could be death-related.", Ryland replied. Kalam chugged the thing in one gulp.
No one ever said that the area he excels at most is sound judgement. On the contrary. Just check out his starting character sheet if you need proof. In an instant, Kalam started to feel just as nimble and durable as he was wise. Might have been a very bad idea altogether, were it not for the enormous rush of power that accompanied the symptoms, even though you couldn't tell which one was actually the unintended side effect.
But the thing about substances is that sometimes you just have to mix 'em up right. Uppers and downers, right? As it turned out, with potions of Agility, Fortitude, and Mind Focusing, the violet stuff worked like a super steroid. Throw in a Potion of Defense, a Potion of Power, a Potion of Regeneration, and an Oil of Speed, and you're all set for a couple of battles followed by a full-fledged weekend rave in Berlin. Let's just hope this cocktail gets dispelled before it wears off, otherwise I'm not looking forward to seeing the withdrawal.
Time to meet Slythe and Krystin. I'm not sure they were expecting us. In case they did, they'd be expecting to find Ryland and his short companion. That Ryland was nowhere in sight, and that Kalam turned out to be pretty high that day, must have certainly caught them off-guard.
Blade fodder? You got the wrong memo, Slythe. Ryland's a blade, so that much is correct. And also that's Kalam's blade sticking out of your belly, if you're looking at it that way. But I'm afraid you're the only fodder around here. Coffin fodder.
25 strength hits hard and the fight was over before our summoned reinforcements could properly join in.
Sorry Krystin, but we've got places to be. Hope you don't mind if we just take those invitations. Your plus one just got chunked so it seems that you won't be needing them anyway.
Onto the palace. Ryland joined the buff party with Spirit Armor, Shield, MSD, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, and opened the battle with Haste, casting from the safety of one of the foyer rooms while Kalam held the front line.
With the mage closing in, Ryland went invisible.
Meanwhile, Kalam did the heavy lifting against the main doppelganger group in the audience room, assisted by Belt and a few surviving Flaming Fist officers. Most of the damage on Kalam came from a single backstab by the doppelganger assassin.
The mage kept itself busy by butchering the doormen at the entrance, which gave us* the time to clear the remaining enemies.
*Note: That's a rather stereotypical example of a manager's use of "us". In fact, Ryland was just chilling there under invisibility and counted the free XP coming his way.
As soon as the mage showed up, Kalam's dispel arrow removed its Stoneskins and MIs, paving the way for a quick melee finish thanks to our superior numbers. I think we never saw Chaos or Remove Magic in this fight.
To be on the safe side, Sarevok was distracted by a Wand of Monster Spamming charge. Lately I've found the interaction with Winski Perorate to be somewhat unpredictable and, combined with the fact that it's not always possible to aggro him, I believe there's a real risk that he'd strike down the dukes if his teleport gets delayed.
After we got teleported to the maze ourselves, we rushed through as fast as possible under Oils of Speed and invisibility to preserve our buffs' duration, only stopping to allow Kalam to disarm the traps.
We'll cover the final BG1 battle in the next post.
Regards,
B. & F.
With all the tomes and Bhaalspawn powers under our belt, we were finally ready for the finale at the Gate. Our plan was to go big with a ProMagic scroll and sweep through the last three battles in one go before its two hour duration expires.
We were not only ready, we were also completely broke. Having spent all of our money on stocks of ammo, potions, scrolls, and wands, we closed our bank account and kept just enough cash to be able to book the best room in the Blade and the Stars (fry-up breakfast included), where we sorted out the gear and finalized our preparations ahead of the summit push. Had the entry fee to the Undercellar been only slightly higher, we'd probably need to pretend that we were staff or something in order to get in the next morning.
Once at the spot, Kalam unrolled the precious parchment and read the incantation. Looking good with that blue globe, my friend!
No one ever said that the area he excels at most is sound judgement. On the contrary. Just check out his starting character sheet if you need proof. In an instant, Kalam started to feel just as nimble and durable as he was wise. Might have been a very bad idea altogether, were it not for the enormous rush of power that accompanied the symptoms, even though you couldn't tell which one was actually the unintended side effect.
But the thing about substances is that sometimes you just have to mix 'em up right. Uppers and downers, right? As it turned out, with potions of Agility, Fortitude, and Mind Focusing, the violet stuff worked like a super steroid. Throw in a Potion of Defense, a Potion of Power, a Potion of Regeneration, and an Oil of Speed, and you're all set for a couple of battles followed by a full-fledged weekend rave in Berlin. Let's just hope this cocktail gets dispelled before it wears off, otherwise I'm not looking forward to seeing the withdrawal.
Blade fodder? You got the wrong memo, Slythe. Ryland's a blade, so that much is correct. And also that's Kalam's blade sticking out of your belly, if you're looking at it that way. But I'm afraid you're the only fodder around here. Coffin fodder.
As soon as the mage showed up, Kalam's dispel arrow removed its Stoneskins and MIs, paving the way for a quick melee finish thanks to our superior numbers. I think we never saw Chaos or Remove Magic in this fight.
Regards,
B. & F.
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