Martha, level 14 half-elven Totemic Great Druid, liberating the de'Arnise keep alongside Minsc, Yoshimo, Aerie, Edwina and Nalia
First screenie is taken because I was so confused:
What is this about? The voice was distinctively female, very different from the usual.
Yuan-ti mage on second floor was bombed by three traps from just around the corner of a bookshelf, after Kitthix and the bottle Efreeti had cast some spells and attacked it. Efreeti was unsummoned. Yoshimo sneaked in to check out the mage. Mage was silenced by the horn, and Yoshimo could also set another trap:
Yoshimo got killed by the Iron Golem because I was clumsy and underestimated how much damage they can do. So he's now down to a CON score that doesn't give him any bonus HP but he still has plenty of them. Minsc also received a poison protection scroll and finished the golem slaying. We rested and Aerie raised Yoshimo.
We managed to take the non-violent solution vs. Glaicas. A first for me.
Yoshimo sneaked past the umber hulk room and put the dog stew in their burrow. Every time he was visible, I saw messages of all five of them attacking him, no matter how far away from them he was. He used that to his advantage to slam the back door in the prison shut, then hide in shadows. He then scouted them out for Edwina who wiped them all out with a Death Spell.
In the SCS boosted keep, TorGal is accompanied by two giant trolls, two yuan-ti mages and an umber hulk elder. I left the party by the basement entrance and we buffed with long-lasting buffs. Martha with Chaotic Commands. You never know when you're going to need it.
Yoshimo opened the throne room door and let TorGal sniff him out. The troll leader pulled back a little. One of the mages cast Oracle, but it was of no use because of the Non-Detection cloak we found earlier in the keep. Eventually, TorGal decided to pursue Yoshimo by himself, just as I had hoped. Just before we reached the first room, Martha conjured up a spirit bear and Aerie Hasted us. Alone, TorGal was no match for us (but of course a quadruple trap pack that got him to Badly Injured instantly must have helped tremendously). The only special powers I noticed was that he can cast Cloak of Fear and that some of his hits drain Strength. Piece of cake:
The rest of the enemy party soon arrived. I sent in some summons but left the floor when a mage appeared in the room.
It chased us up and down a few times and it cast Web in the basement. We went upstairs before anyone had to make a save. It didn't follow us up this time, so Martha sprayed Pixie Dust on the party. I sent Joolon a bit further into the room so the doorway wouldn't be blocked. One of the mages started to cast one of those revealing Divination spells but we went upstairs to foil it. Being invisible allowed us to reach a better fighting position:
Minsc (holding Lilarcor for Confusion protection) acted as a door guard while Aerie and Edwina planned to cast Death Fog into the room with the enemies. Edwina's spell was mis-aimed so she started to walk towards the room. I stopped her, got her into a better spot and started the casting again. But by now, the enemies approached so Minsc shut the door with only Aerie's spell in there.
Hm, looks like the trolls can open the doors but the umber hulks can't. Anyway, that Death Fog was pretty efficient. I had Aerie and Edwina make themselves invisible again, once the melee critters had entered our room. They stopped just early enough so that Aerie and Edwina could stealth bomb again: Aerie with Skull Trap and Edwina with Death Fog. This had the desired effect:
Second mage was at near death. I thought first that Minsc could hit it with the FoA from his invisbility but decided to go the safest path using firebreath potion:
So, much better this time than last. Metagaming knowledge is powerful, but so was my party this time. I took the keep far later than last time.
Edwina has levelled up to 14 now. Aerie is jealous of his/her ability to cast 7th-level spells and feels it's unfair. Edwina has 1.5 million XP while Aerie has well over 2.4 million and can't cast them. To lift her spirits a little, Martha pointed out to Aerie that Edwina can't bring back the dead.
We found the Mace of Disruption in the throne room. Nice. Minsc has ** with maces so he gets if for now. Martha took over the Blackblood club and ditched the Pixie Pr* to the sales pile. Nobody ever seems to fail their save against it anyway. Then again, Martha usually prefers throwing her Boomerang Dagger rather than going melee.
Not sure what I am going to do now. Several NPC quests depend on them being in the party for a while. Edwina stays until she's transformed back, I suppose. Not sure if I want Nalia, Jan or Mazzy in the meantime. Then there's Anomen who I haven't even spoken to yet. It would be nice to level him up a little so I'd have the ability to summon skeleton warriors. In my setup, they are extra good vs illithids* (who only have their vanilla abilities, just with slightly smarter AI) and would be a staple in their sewers lair. Aerie can't summon them for a long time still.
(* The name of the installed aTweaks component is 'Prevent skeletal and incorporeal undead from being affected by Illithids' Devour Brain attack')
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