16394 replies to this topic

[Gate70]

Murb, CG male halfling swashbuckler.

Hareishan and a lightning bolt lead to a temple visit for Kivan. On our return we attack Davaeorn and a skeleton kills him. We speak to Yeslick on our way out, and he replaces Branwen.

Dynaheir uses two fireballs on Imanel Silversword and her wolves while Minsc takes some collateral damage. As Kivan retrieves his own bow he hands Hakts bow to Minsc and gestures for Yeslick to switch from sling to war hammer.

He manages to stay alive as we explore the sewers underneath Baldurs Gate, but is held by a final set of sewerfolk and has to be raised.

[corey_russell]

Grond0 - since you are a cleric/mage Grond0, did you consider just sanctuary throughout the entire mines and just fight Mulahey? anytime I play a solo class and are cleric or part cleric that's what I do to be safe. Plenty of experience to be had when solo, so not missing much loot or experience wise that way.

[Cowboy_christo]

Hello pals!!! Had a break from BG and now im fresh to start out a new no reload game from bg1 to tob.
My last attempt didnt end well with Tana Bondo the halfling cleric of ilmater getting basilisked. But since ive gotten fond of her while roleplaying her in nwn2 she will be coming back and hoping to atleast reach bg2.

I will be playing with plentyfull of mod that i dont recall. Most are fluff and the only major mods i got are Divine remix, SCS, BGtweaks, RR, Hardtimes and Song and silence for adventurer kit for my Alora.

Name: Tana Bondo
Alignement: Lawfull neutral
class: Cleric of ilmater
Stat:
12 Str
19 Dex
16 Con
10 Int
18 Wis
17 Cha
Roleplay main idea: Will only side with little people(Be it evil or good), otherwise will try to avoid contact with bigger gents.

Edited by Cowboy_christo, 01 January 2011 - 03:08 AM.

[Cowboy_christo]

oups double post XD sowwy

Edited by Cowboy_christo, 01 January 2011 - 03:07 AM.

[Bhryaen]

igneous.sponge wrote...

Bhryaen wrote...
I'm starting to feel almost guilty not playing it no-reload now.

You've been corrupted, haven't you? Oh dear. Maybe you should take a step back... before it's too late!

Having tested out the majority of issues with my modded BGTutu... and tired of the slacker approach of unlimited reloads... going to give this "challenge" a try... Make way, Grond0. I'm about to break your record for masochism! Have at thee! (I'm definitely not as good as Enuhal apparently is at decisive victories...)

I'm entering with my time-worn fighter-thief type char, now a gnome with the powerful name... Kruklio Dagger (a combo of old NWN names I've used)... I was going to use a party of three chars as I just did in my many-reload challenge (nowhere near completion), but I didn't install all the NPC mods for nothing. Here goes...

Kruklio: (yes, I did roll this, albeit after enough time I don't want to mention)
STR 18(00), DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 18, CG
OL30, FT20, PP25, MS65, 2pts Single-handed-weapon, 1 pt longsword, 1pt longbow

Using the following mods in this order [Edit- WeiDU said differently]:
EasyTutu v4.0
Degreenifier v4
Tutufix v18
Hard Times v2
Herbs & Potions v1.03
BG Miniquests v6
Sirine’s Call (Tutu v10)
Grey Clan, Part 1 (Tutu v1.11)
Stone of Askavar v1.5
BG1 NPC Project v18
BG1 Unfinished Business v12
Coran Friendship Extension v2
Xan Friendship v6
Ajantis Friendship Extension
Finch (BG1 NPC) v3
Mur'Neth (BG1 NPC) v10
Gavin (BG1 NPC) v8
One Pixel Productions (1PP) v2.7
Spell Revisions v3
Sword Coast Strategems v16
Rogue Rebalancing v438
BG2 Tweakpack v9
aTweaks v330
Item Revisions v2 (Part 2)
Ashes of Embers v27
Level1NPCs
Item Randomizer v6.2
Infinity Animations v5
TutuGUI v18
Widescreen v2.60
A6Charm Patch

A number of advantages for my char, plenty of disadvantages for my char, same old mortality probability. Don't want to belabor the issue unless it is an issue...

Kruklio's notes:
The Go-man said I should keep a journal since he thinks we gotta scram the Keep. Whatever. So first of all, I robbed the Keep better than I ever done! Best send-off I could hope for! Well, got caught swipin from Phylly an' she spread the word bad on me. ****. An' I ain't even took her nice ring. Almost got caught takin' swords out'a chests at the barracks, and the healer hut acolyte actually blocked me leaving when the guard came after me there for swipin' a little healing potion! Ridiculous. Dodged him around a table. Damn, he was gonna kill me! Don't they know I'm Gorion's ward? Gimme a break. At least I swiped another healing potion out of the head dude's pocket. Couldn't swipe the longbow from that trainer dude even though he shot me. Shot me with an arrow! Really drew blood an' everything! Oh, an' I backstabbed a couple suspicious dudes creepin' around in other people's houses... like I was... How dare they! Other than that, I guess I'll go tell the Go-man I'm ready to go. Got me some leather an' a nice composite bow. 'Bout all I need, ain't it? Guard in the barracks gimme a magic dagger for a 1gp set of bolts. Dude, I'm short, but I need a longsword!

Edited by Bhryaen, 01 January 2011 - 03:43 PM.

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...
Grond0 - since you are a cleric/mage Grond0, did you consider just sanctuary throughout the entire mines and just fight Mulahey? anytime I play a solo class and are cleric or part cleric that's what I do to be safe. Plenty of experience to be had when solo, so not missing much loot or experience wise that way.

The first incarnation of the cleric/mage did try going through invisible, but there is a phalanx of kobolds blocking the path on the 3rd level and attempting to get through (for instance with a holy smite) would mean being attacked by large forces from both sides.

Bhryaen wrote...
Kruklio: (yes, I did roll this, albeit after enough time I don't want to mention)
STR 18(00), DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 18, CG

Is there some reason for not maximising your constitution bonus?  As the magical adjustment for wisdom was not implemented there seems to be almost no game benefit of having wisdom above 3 for a fighter / thief.

One last attempt at a cleric / mage.  Incanta has 15 Con, 3 Cha and others 18.

[Enuhal]

Happy new year!

Arinja explored the area around the mines, killed some winter wolves here and then and finally talked to Prism. Greywolf was blinded and commanded and only dropped a longsword +1.

Not counting the mages, the Mines of Nashkell are the first area here where SCS really improves the difficulty - the kobold groups are extremely big, always have both archers, melee kobolds and kobold guards and sometimes even a kobold shaman. The Sleep spell, though, makes them rather easy. Sadly, I only had 2 of those memorized when entering the mines (well, not having this free nice ring that doubles your level 1 spellslots sure makes a difference). Eventually, my party got hurt quite a bit. I had to lure the kobolds around corners, use my hold person spells and everything I had to survive some of the battles in level 3, and eventually I decided that it would be better to rest up outside since there is no respawn in the mines of Nashkell anyway.
After returning, only one of the level 3 groups gave me some trouble: A kobold shaman managed to sleep parts of my party.

For the kobold group in level 4 I still had a sleep spell ready, but didn't even need it.
Mulahey was a bit tricky, mainly due to bad positioning on my part: as you can see here, he was in a position that was considered to be out of line of sight for all but one of my party members, while he still could cast his hold person spells on my group.

Luckily, I managed to sleep most of the kobolds, Branwen managed to turn almost all of the Skeletons and Mulahey "only" held Khalid, Jaheira and Kivan before he died due to Branwens command spell and some melfs acid arrows. The other 3 party members killed his lesser minions, and the obtained loot was a short sword +1 (...great...) and a Wand of Fire (AWESOME!).
The group fought theit way out of the mines, encountered an Ankheg (had to use some more healing potions with Khalid - in total, he had to use about 4-5 healing potions in the mines), which means I can now give the blacksmith the shell. I rested and prepared new spells - Branwen reached level 5, so she has 1 Holy Smite spell right now. I expected to get ambushed by the amazon party, but it didn't happen. Instead, I only had to defeat 2 half ogres and a ghast.

Back in Nashkell, I gave back a ring, the emeralds and talked to the major. Eventually I encountered Nimbul. His saves seem to be pretty good, but eventually the group managed to tear down both mirror images and stoneskins before he could do anything noteworthy. He then used a minor sequencer with invisibilty, but as he used a healing potion, I knew where he was. Branwen commanded him down as soon as he reveald himself, and that was it for him. Got the boots of avoidance for Khalid and two invisibilty potions (can never have enough of those). Also, Girdle of Slashing for Khalid!

In Beregost, I talked to the blacksmith and searched for Tranzig. This battle was actually rather close, because he starts, like Mulahey, in a pretty superior position: He can see me as soon as I enter upstairs, and only Imoen could actually attack him - the others would have to walk into his room. He managed to cast a Horror spell, and this was REALLY close - I didn't prebuff, and Branwens remove fear was ready exactly at the moment everybody in the group would have been affected by the horror: as you can see here, they all got the symbol over their heads (Jaheira doesn't, but still, it would've been extremely dangerous). Well, instead it worked out pretty well, he only got off one melfs acid arrow, and was killed while commanded. Oh, and he dropped a glitterdust scroll - quite nice!

So now, the next thing to do is the bandits - and this time, I will need my fairy dragon again (which I foolishly didn't use for Mulahey or Tranzig).

Edited by Enuhal, 01 January 2011 - 01:33 PM.

[Enuhal]

I was so excited to see if my plan to stealthclear Tazoks tent would work out that I just continued playing after a short pause. So, here's what happened:

After making sure my familiar has his spells, I travelled to Larswood. And THERE I was ambushed, by the party that you usually meet at Gullykin. I totally didn't expect this, but I had the spells memorized I planned to use for Tazoks tent, so I was kind of ready.
The two enemies on the left received Glitterdust and Hold Person, while their fighter used a potion of heroism and attacked Branwen. I managed to disrupt the enemy clerics spellcasting, and eventually Branwen held the fighter. And I had to deal with some annoying dread wolves. Well, anyway, got the chainmail of death +2 here for Branwen, the other stuff was uninteresting.

Well, after this episode, I rested and used invisibilty 3m to find Teven. Talked to him, but I screwed up the dialogue and mentioned Tazoks name. Sleep + Hold Person had to be used to kill the bandit group. Oh well.

Luckily, there is still Peldvale, where I found Raiken. This time, I managed to chose the right dialogue options and was dragged along to the bandit camp. When talking to Tazok, again I chose the right dialogue, so there was no battle - so I was free to rest up in the camp to regain the invisibilty 3m radius I wanted.
So, I buffed with Remove Fear, Bless and Chant + a potion of invulnerability for Khalid and entered the tent.

I knew that SCS would improve the fight, and so it did - a group  of black talon elites and hobgoblin archers assisted the regular enemies. Branwens Holy Smite was extremely effective, blinding some enemies, taking out some others: Great spell. One of the Archers kept attacking Arinja, and to be safe, I used a potion of invisibilty (because it was REALLY close). Commanded and killed the mage, used Glitterdust and Hold Person on the enemies, spammed healing spells on Arinja (at one time, another arrow would have killed her - so far definetly the most dangerous encounter in this playthrough - I should just not have used Glitterdust with her at all so she would still be invisible), but eventually, I was victorious. Great battle, and Kivan got the Longbow of Marksmanship - awesome! The other loot was underwhelming. Familiar used the invisibilty 3m radius, the group sneaked out of the camp, went back to Beregost.

No risk of Kivan leaving the party - now I can take my time!

[Bhryaen]

Grond0 wrote...
Is there some reason for not maximising your constitution bonus?  As the
magical adjustment for wisdom was not implemented there seems to be
almost no game benefit of having wisdom above 3 for a fighter / thief.

I know... it's just that if either WIS or INT go below 10 you end up pretty much having no lore the entire game. And I detest having to get someone to identify +1 arrows, swords, etc., for me. Actually with a party including a bard it makes no difference, so clearly I was apportioning for another solo char like I usually do, but am using him differently this time. So for the sake of a paltry lore rating on my main char, I'll now not have the max possible HP and possibly die from that 1HP extra dam I take on something. *sigh* I make choices like this sometimes...

Not a single dread wolf in the first area out of Candlekeep this time, much smaller groups of gibberlings, and somehow shooting one wolf didn't trigger the other as per SCS. Hmm. Gibberlings came as a group though, albeit far fewer. Same shift of the Shadow Armor to the Feldepost Inn as the last randomized time despite having Option 1 on... Looks like mod issues again... Have to start over after all... Well, that was short-lived...

[Enuhal]

Small update for Arinja: I cleared both of the Cloudpeak areas. Imoen reached level 6 and I instantly dualled her to mage.
Sendai and her group managed to deal quite a bit of damadge to Arinja, due to all archers in the game obviously focusing mages (I assume SCS does that). Still, No chance for those lowly adventurers. Same goes for Vax and Zal, Caldor and Krum and all the minor enemies here. No significant loot whatsoever (well, the invisibilty scroll I obtained from a group of gnolls was nice). Now, only few of the easy areas remain. I will try to gain as much XP for Imoen as possible.

[corey_russell]

Likol the fighter/thief FINAL Update:

The party has cleared much of the sword coast. I finally managed to afford the shadow armor for Likol, which he wears pretty much everywhere. We successfully dealt with the Gullykin assassins, cleared out the Ogre Mage in Firewine bridge, defeated the mighty Khark in Firewine Bridge surface area (i used two batches of summons and a key dispel magic from Imoen to get rid of his protections and haste).

We had also cleared all the areas same level as Nashkel and below. We decided now would be the time to work our way to the bandit camp. So we headed to Larswood and started clearing the area there. It was all going to plan, but somehow, despite supposed to being in the back, Likol was in front and started getting hammered from Black Talon Elite archers. But ironically he was finished off not by the archers but by a poorly aimed fireball of Imoen's:



Will re-roll a new character. Not sure what exactly, but he will be in the back of the party.

[Grond0]

Hard luck corey - self-inflicted wounds always seem a bit more painful don't they.

Incanta's Itinerary
Summary of progress as follows:
- summoned a familiar
- cleared Candlekeep and inital area without damage.  Took belt from ogre and then went on to Friendly Arm to pick up a pretty ring.  Used sanctuary to leave Tarnesh to the (not so) Friendly Arm guards
- calmed Marl down and took Algernon's cloak
- picked up some fancy armour in Nashkel
- blinded Neira and shot her up
- travelled to Ulgoth's Beard under sanctuary and acquired a ring of free action
- used up almost a backpack full of sling bullets to kill a score of zombies.  I was sure that the local farmer would be pleased with this, but he wouldn't even talk to me (don't have friends spell yet).  Thought about pinching his prize cloak as punishment, but couldn't get into the chest even with strength boosted to 19
- retrieved a bowl for a priestess of Talos and blinded and shot a nearby ankheg
- tried to find a good home for some boots I retrieved from a hobgoblin, but no one would talk to me about them
- puchased a helm of charm protection in Beregost (Incanta feeling much more secure about being in contact with magic users now)
- found a cool(ing) ring and took an ex-soldier for urgent surgery
- doomed and held Zordral at the carnival
- nearly came unstuck when ambushed by a bear in the mountains.  Initially intended to sling it to death only to get a nasty shock as it was suddenly hasted by an invisible ogre mage.  Tried to cast sanctuary, but was interrupted by a hit from the bear.  Magic missiles from the ogre mage took me perilously close to extinction before managing to escape past the bear and several ogrillons and off the edge of the map.

[corey_russell]

Entering no-reload challenge (Trilogy):

Candar, the chaotic good dwarven fighter
STR 18/97 DEX 17 CON 19 INT 16 WIS 10 CHA 4

Current Party: Khalid, Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen, Candar, Dynaheir

Started a new no-reload character today. He made it to level 3 so think has a chance. The party has cleared the road areas from Candlekeep to Nashkel. We have also cleared Nashkel Mines (above ground), saved a tree for a forest spirit, took out a Xvart village, and defeated all hostiles in the Gnoll Fortress area. There were a TON of runs to the temple in the early going, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir died a lot. Candar is staying in the back using a heavy crossbow.

Most of the quests were rather unremarkable except for the rescue of Dynaheir. We did this quest very low level (most of us level 1 few level 2s). Minsc got killed by a winter wolf in a waylay. So we headed back to Nashkel, raised him and tried again. On way to the gnoll fortress we got waylaid again, this time by an Ogre Mage and two ogrillions. The Ogre Mage killed Khalid. We know Minsc's quest is timed so we gave Minsc Khalid's best stuff temporarily and continued on and worked on rescuing Dynaheir without Khalid's help. We raised Khalid after Dynaheir was rescued and Gnoll Fotress area cleared. However on the way back to Nashkel, we got waylaid again, and this almost ended my run. The party got mauled by a cave bear and two ogrillions. I kept my cool however and made sure Candar was as far away from trouble as possible. See what happened to my party:



The party had a lot of deaths, but less occured after we got a few levels under out belts.

Current Party status and tanking order:
Khalid, level 3 fighter, 24 HP, -3 AC
Minsc, level 3 ranger, 17 HP, -4 AC
Jaheira, level 3 fighter/level 3 druid, 29 HP, 3 AC
Imoen, level 4 thief, 21 HP, 3 AC
Candar, level 3 fighter, 38 HP, -1 AC
Dynaheir, level 2 invoker, 9 HP, 8 AC

Edited by corey_russell, 02 January 2011 - 07:45 AM.

[Grond0]

Incanta's Itinerary
- recruited some half-ogres to help me deal with the bandit party in Drizzt's area.
- recruited 2 of the bandits in the zombie area to help deal with Bassilus and managed to hold him on the second attempt.
- this run Mellicamp actually succeeded in his resurrection roll.  While at High Hedge invested in invisibility and friends spells.
- worked down to the gnoll stronghold.  Avoided the Dark Horizons party there, but acquired an interesting book.
- despite my improved charisma and use of friends the merchant was still unwilling to part with his boots and While I routinely pickpocket him for them I couldn't justify killing him
- with holy smite and invisibility now available headed for the mines.  Blinded Greywolf, but had to chase him for ages all round the map before eventually finishing him off.  Then tried to rest just outside the mines and was ambushed by a winter wolf that appeared in the middle of all the guards!  He got one breath in to send me back to Nashkel, but a nice bit of XP as well as a warm winter coat.
- lucky to escape the mines.  Used sanctuary to try and get through the second level, but was surrounded and trapped by kobolds.  A sleep dealt with most of them and managed to get off a holy smite under fire from a couple of others.  After escaping and resting came back to the third level and used invisibility to get me to where there is a kobold road block.  A holy smite cleared that and a sanctuary kicked in just before reinforcements arrived - so far according to plan.  Unfortunately I hadn't banked on the kobold chieftain and his gang following me down onto the fourth level and surrounding me.  I hacked a way out and under heavy fire ran back onto the third level where I found just enough space to get another sanctuary off and get out of the mines.
- coming back this time I charmed the duergar with a view to using them to help with the kobolds, but something in their script kept making them turn hostile and I ended up killing them all.  There were 40+ mixed kobolds waiting on the 4th level and it took 2 rests to work through them with holy smites and invisibility.  Mulahey himself was also a problem - the kobolds went down under holy smites and the skeletons were turned, while an injured Mulahey was also trying to run due to the smiting damage he had taken.  However, I didn't manage to finish him off with sling bullets before he recovered (I could have burned a scroll or two, but thought he wouldn't be able to do more than hurt me) and he hit me with rigid thinking which I had forgotten about.  Fortunately, unlike charming, that does not end the game and my sub-conscious impulses to attack were enough to finish him off.
- using invisibility and turning I went to recover wand of monster summoning from a tomb and then, after resting, went back to Nashkel.  Nimbul also caused some problems with his use of multiple invisibility spells and drained all Incanta's healing potions, but he eventually fell.
- returned Brage to the temple and lifted the curse from an old tomb
- looted a treasure cave (using invisibility)
- with no way to get the helm of defense as a single player I was planning to settle for killing the ogre tribe in the area, but was ambushed by Lamalha.  Used a potion of invisibility to disappear, but all the amazons kept following me all across the board (though not attacking).  Tried charming one of them, but they instantly went hostile again.  Used my last invisibility potion to get away again to the edge of the board and summoned some ogres who helped me deal with the pesky followers.
- now with the ability to cast 3rd level magic user spells stocked up with skull trap and Melf's minute meteors at High Hedge.  Also took a quick trip to Ulgoth's Beard to get the greenstone amulet with the proceeds of the amazon's equipment (also some reasonably priced ice bullets).
- back in Beregost returned Perdue's sword, confirmed Bjornin's woes were at an end and got a book for Firebead before tackling Tranzig.  He put up a fight and saved against 3 disabling spells before being Melfed to death.

[Enuhal]

Update for Arinja:

Cleared two other areas: The one north of Gnoll Fortress, were I ran into some Bandits. Khalid was struck 3 or 4 times by lightning in this area, which was pretty annoying and dealt a lot of damadge (I had to cast healing spells on him and use a healing potion once). I could have just rested, but that would've been too easy.

Far more interesting was the encounter with Laurel and the Gibberling Horde: At first I thought it would be easy with the single Sleep spell I had left, but suddenly Gibberlings from everywhere started surrounding me. Since I had to effective AOE-spells left (Holy Smite doesn't work against them) I took quite a lot of damage and had to use some healing potions, because my position was really bad. Well, that will teach me not to underestimate gibberlings in the future. 
In this area, Imoen also received her first level up as a mage.

Next up was the Brage area. Dealt with the archaeologists problems, no problems here, and met the big kobold commando group, but all of them were sleeped.
Not counting the Cloakwood areas, the western and middle side of the map not including the two swordcoast areas is clear now. Next up, I'll explore some of the eastern areas.

[Grond0]

Final update for Incanta
Decided to try and get the wisdom tome from Durlag's Tower before I forgot about it.  The aim was to go in invisible, but was ambushed by the other peripatetic group - like the amazons they followed me about, surrounding me and making it difficult to move.  Thus left the map and went elsewhere for a few days.  On return they were immediately aware again of my presence.  Led them to the other end of the area to try and open up a small gap and then tried to charm Morvin, but he ignored the attempt (like an undead didn't even bother saving against it) and then cut Incanta down with a single chop before she could escape off the map.  This must have either done more than 50 hits (non-critical as I was wearing a helmet) or had some sort of instant death effect.  In either case I was not expecting it.  Serves me right I suppose for not just leaving them alone when I had the chance.

[corey_russell]

Sorry about your loss Grond0. I hope Candar doesn't meet a grisly end like that...

[Grond0]

Having given up for the time being on a cleric / mage I've rolled up an excellent berserker with druidic pretensions.  Getty has Str 18(96), Dex 18, Con 18, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 16; specialising in daggers.  So far just gone through Candlekeep and picked up Imoen, Zxar and Montaron.

[corey_russell]

Grond0, am I to understand you intend to dual to a druid? You won't be able to dual with those stats of course, you need 17 in WIS & CHA to do so.

[Enuhal]

Well, that's what tomes are there for I guess - especially since you can get Wis and Ch pretty early on.

[Grond0]

Enuhal wrote...

Well, that's what tomes are there for I guess - especially since you can get Wis and Ch pretty early on.

That's right.  Actually, if I'd thought longer about it, I would have left intelligence at 7 and pushed wisdom up a point as you can get a second intelligence tome from the grey clan mod.  I wouldn't expect to dual until well into BG2 anyway so it's not really an issue for me about when the tomes are available in BG1.

Edited by Grond0, 02 January 2011 - 09:01 PM.

[Gate70]

Some good reading/thoughts here guys, keep it up.

Murb, CG male halfling swashbuckler.

We are having so much fun on the fifth floor of the Iron Throne HQ we fail to notice that Gardush is overwhelming Minsc. Our fireballs, webbed entangles and missiles have eliminated the other threats but Minsc is dead before we realise his danger. Gardush is soon dropped and Minsc can be raised to fight another day.

After grabbing something to read from Durlags Tower we head to Candlekeep and dispose of Rieltar. Tethtoril helps us evade justice and we loot our way to Prat and his gang. It's another fireball frenzy but Minsc and Kivan fall to lightning bolts. Yeslick and Dynaheir are confused so Imoen and I finish Prat and Tam on our own. Yeslick has wandered off and is playing with spiders, luckily his armour keeps him alive until we can rescue him.

Dynaheir takes a strange turn when I refuse to show mercy to Cythandria (red ring, still in party, won't talk). I pretend to dump her than reconcile our differences and she is soon back in line.

Kivan helps me deal with Rashad the 'healer', then we take Duke Eltan to the harbor master. I sneak past some minions to talk to Degrodel then obtain a cloak from Quenash and keep it for Yeslick. Minsc punches a couple of guards before they are rescued (ie Dynaheir holds them) so we can deal with Jardak and his butler. Yeslick entangles the guards on our way out so we look like we will escape another stint in prison.

Spells are changed then we rest up before the coronation. Minsc takes out Spiders Bane and grabs the best equipment so Yeslick can switch to casting. We head inside and summon three skeletons, an elite hobgoblin and a ogre while Imoen hastes us. As the doppelgangers attack we cast greater malison, web and entangle. Doom, slow, sleep, horror and magic missiles follow and both dukes are still in good shape. Yeslick protects Minsc from fire and we wait for Belt to break free.

Sarevok ignores the web, entanglement and our volleys of magic missiles. He hits Minsc twice before deciding we aren't worth the bother.

Belt pats Minsc on the back and sends us after Sarevok.

Minsc, ranger 7. 376 kills, Slythe.
Yeslick, fighter 6 cleric 6. 50 kills, Jalantha Mistmyr.
Dynaheir, invoker 8. 150 kills, Imanel Silversword.
Imoen, mage 7 thief 6. 59 kills, Seniyad.
Kivan, ranger 7. 270 kills, basilisk.
Murb, swashbuckler 8. 151 kills, greater basilisk.

[Grond0]

Getty's Guidebook (I know the alliterations are getting worse)
Couldn't resist a short session before bed.  After dispatching the ogre headed on up to the Friendly Arm.  Picked up a couple of rings (one from a hobgoblin).  Then, while Getty stayed away from the inn itself, the other 3 members of the party spread out widely so horror / sleep spells from Tarnesh could not get more than one of them at once.  In the event Imoen was hit by a sleep spell, but saved.  She failed to save against horror, but by that time Tarnesh was already dead thanks to Zxar's second LMD.

[Gate70]

Murb, CG male halfling swashbuckler.

We have to backtrack to Beregost for the golden pantaloons, buy some top-notch missiles then return to hunt down Sarevok. We could do with the experience of exploring the Sword Coast further but I'm not sure we have the patience. Instead we return to the maze and quickly find Winski. He summons Aravaata (not seen this before, part of Dynaheirs BG1NPC I assume as it was her wittering with Winski that started it) who to my untrained eye looks a bit like a cambion or a demonknight, or some such. Dynaheir and Imoen have both mis-heard and run around the corner thinking a Nishruu is being summoned. They return somewhat sheepishly to help out.

Aravaata FOD's Winski and fries Yeslick three times with a reverberating lightning bolt. As our dwarf falls to the ground the bolt courses through his body several more times. Minsc switches to melee just as mass confusion breaks out. Kivan and I are unaffected and our normal missiles are effective (phew). Then Kivan gets confused too but Minsc is fighting back and kills Aravaata.

Minsc is badly wounded, only being held together by his hamster. Dynaheir is getting stroppy so I heal him slightly before we leave. It's a long way through the maze to get Yeslick to a temple. After an absolute age we are back and I kick Winski's corpse as thanks.

Shaldrissa is the last of her party to die, followed by Tamoko. Despite our preparation we don't feel quite ready to face Sarevok (all 1 level off the 161k cap except Dynaheir who has no level 5 spells in her book). The alternative is the maze again, so we press on.

Yeslick realises he's too stupid to use the protection from magic scroll. I look for a potion of genius thinking that might help, then realise I dumped them. Instead I give him a potion of magic blocking and he lures our enemies out. Then he gets caught in a web (hmm so needed to use a freedom potion too) and Tazok/Angelo start to injure him. We're firing arrows of detonation and fireballs but cannot save him. We kill Tazok but Angelo retaliates. First Kivan dies, then Dynaheir. The next arrow sees Minsc heroically continuing on his own as two more bhaalspawn expire.

[corey_russell]

Hey there Gate70 - big consolation about your loss there. I have a number of runs that made it all the way to Sarevok and got stopped too -- hope it won't discourage ya. Still, good going to get that far.