sorophx

Brian Fargo said that Icewind Dale is his favorite of the Infinity games. I didn't realize he was such a cool dude

ok, so I've reverted to my previous save state to actually try and beat Iuz. the tactic was to put Lady C in front of him to tank and once C goes down to keep feeding other characters to him that can't do any damage in an attempt to keep him off the damage dealers. my best attempt was dealing 320 points worth of damage before St.Cuthbert came. but I did lose both Pidesco and Gromnir on the second turn, so it was mostly Thrommel who did all the damage. the problem is Iuz gets four attacks in a row and can target pretty much anybody regardless of where they're standing. so in the best case scenario I probably could deal another 100-150, that would still make only 60% oh his total HP. so yeah, without Scorpp and the rest of the party designed specifically for this fight I can't see how anyone could beat Iuz. also, I just found out that my characters don't cap at level 10, Tig is already half way to level 12. I think it's the Co8 mod and not the original settings though. because there are no monsters in the game for characters higher than 10 to level off.

man, I still cherish the memories! I mean, taking Leyton Orient through 3 divisions, winning the Premier League the first year, winning the champion's league and scoring a domestic hat-trick in the second year, and all that without reloads was so satisfying! I couldn't get into that game, the boss fights seemed very badly balanced and sometimes just plain unfair, and after going through 4 worlds it got really boring. meh. but since it's one of the few co-op games on PS2 I'm going to be returning to it eventually

they should make a survival/horror game in space in an original setting that copies Aliens as much as possible without putting the company under the threat of multiple lawsuits, ASAP. like, drop everything they're doing and work on that

and I take it, Ironman doesn't let you load a game mid-combat, either? because in this last update I mention two gamestopping bugs which would screw me big time if it wasn't for earlier saves. also, the quicksave feature is bugged. it's better not to use it ever. oh I forgot to mention, Paida is also bugged. if you don't have a free spot in your party when you initiate the dialogue with her, she will "join" your party but will not leave the temple because she's not in the party technically. if you try to talk to her again and ask her to wait, she'll just leave forever rendering the quest unfinishable. as you can see, under such circumstances Ironman can really drive one mad.

that's Valden, Paida's husband. he asks the party to find Paida. well, we just did! time to get her back to her family. good thing Hedrack dropped a scroll of Teleport. but first, woman, put something on... that's better. now off we go! sure feels nice bringing happiness to people. oh, prince Thrommel had to leave us here, too. we promised we'd get him out of the temple and we did. the party then spent a week in Hommlet trying to fully recover. and after two weeks they embarked on their journey back to the Temple. but on their way there another encounter took place. Lord Grundwell was sent by prince Thrommel to reward us for having helped him escape. he gives the party two badges each (the purpose of these escapes me), some dough (which we don't need anymore since we're pretty much the richest people in all of Greyhawk), and most importantly, Scather, the twin-sword to Fragarach. which is for some reason a bastard sword! well of course it is, you'd think. it *is* a twin. well, the walkthrough I used as a reference while generating the party had stated that Scather was a *greatsword*. and I designed Grommy to be a greatsword master. and now I'll have to either toss Scather or make Grommy use it in conjunction with Frostbite... so very unfortunate. but alas, we're almost done! join me next time as we'll be talking the difficulties that await us in the Elemental Nodes.

the rest of the level is pretty boring. there were a few tough spots but nothing our party couldn't handle. this one for example can be a real showstopper for a lower level party. just look at their numbers! and that's not even all of them in that room. while plowing through endless waves of ettins and ogres the party found an interesting note: Zaxis is a bard that can be coerced into joining your party. sadly, he's a random encounter on the world map and I haven't been able to meet him. I'm really curious how he'd react to this note. anyway, right next to that note is another interesting character. Kella here was acting really strange. but I should tell the story from the beginning. Monte came across a hill giant standing in a corridor. I didn't want to alert his buddies so decided to take him out quiet and fast, I positioned the party in the adjacent room and initiated combat. with Monte I stood in front of the giant trying to lure him into the room. but he wouldn't move. I kept coming closer and closer, still nothing. it didn't even come across my mind that the giant could be friendly. well on the fifth turn the giant turned into a beautiful young lady. it was my first clue to try and end the combat. Kella is a druid and a joinable NPC to boot, she has a ring that allows shape-shifting into a hill giant. the problem is she won't talk to anyone except a fellow druid. so we had to leave her there. there was one more obstacle on the way to Hedrack. it's a huge electrical trap. it will kill an unbuffed character in seconds. there are three ways of passing it. one is to buff up and make a run for it. not the best of actions since there's a pretty big fight waiting for the party on the other side. the other is to try and find a password. that's easy because each of the Commanders drops a scarab emblem with four letters "TYZG" engraved on it. for some reason (another bug probably) the control panel for the trap wouldn't let me enter the password. so the party had to rely on Monte to disable it (this is probably the only place in the game where Disable Device is actually required to progress). it was finally time to meet Hedrack. now, there are a couple of ways of dealing with him. first, if our heroes had completed all three tasks for any given lesser Temple, they would've been brought to Hedrack for an evaluation. this is the first possible end of the game (that's right, if you join Hedrack and complete his quest, which is killing Scorpp, the game will end). the other way is to engage Hedrack in a conversation and with Sense Motive and Gather Information try to talk him out of anything that he has been plotting. I believe it can only go two ways from there, either you eventually join him or fight him. our party chose the third way. the enemies' AI is pretty weak when it comes to judging who is to engage the party and when. most of the time even if the character is standing right beside the other character, and your party attacks that other character with ranged weapons or spells, and at the same time the first one is behind the Fog of War he will not even budge. that's why I chose the following tactic. I decided to bring the fight to Hedrack. as you can see he's surrounded by pretty tough minions. two wizards that could be potentially very dangerous. two ettins and a crapton of bugbears (these are definitely the most dangerous in this battle, because they always go for the weakest members first). also, I switched my meta-gamer mode on and it turns out if you get Hedrack into red you'll be forced to fight him and every monster that is still standing again, fully refreshed. let's say Lady could sense an evil presence and the party decided to apply their Web/Ice Storm tactic first. they chose to strike in Hedrack's flanks. first Web went off, then an Ice Storm which killed the wizards and a couple of bugbears. the next five turns were Tig casting Ice Storm again and again and Hedrack buffing himself and healing his troops. here's the result: Hedrack is pretty much the only one left standing. our tactic has once again payed off. there is a possibility of ending the fight right there, if the warriors get to go before Hedrack and manage to kill him in one turn. otherwise he will do this: Breathing heavily and bleeding through his armor, Hedrack suddenly boes down before you) HEDRACK: I call on thee, O Old One, in my time of need. Iuz, I summon thee to deal with these infidels! Iuz! LADY CRIMSON: Your foul god cannot save you now! MONTE: Oh, crap, something is happening. Quick, Grommy, shut the bugger up before something bad happens! Suddenly a huge figure dressed in black robes appears before the heroes. Iuz the Old, the demigod of oppression, deceit, wickedness and pain, turns to face Monte as his knees turn to jelly and his mind grows numb in terror. IUZ: Greetings, Monte Carlo. I have been watching you. MONTE: Wha- what? Why would a god be watching me? IUZ: You possess something that interests me. Something I want. MONTE: I don't care what you want, Iuz. I will never cooperate with you. IUZ: Foolish mortal! I should kill you where you stand! Everyone can feel the power of Iuz wash over Monte like a foul tide. And they can feel Monte trying desperately to resist succumbing to its pull. GROMNIR: Maybe we are to reconsider? We doesn't fear death or some demigod, but we do think Monte's life is more precious to us than some golden skull. Pidesco nods his head in agreement with Gromnir's words and embraces Monte. PIDESCO: Snap out, friend, hold me LADY CRIMSON: No! I will never allow the Orb to fall into your hands, Iuz! Fight me now! Leave Monte alone! Suddenly Lady feels Monte overcoming Iuz's persuasion! Iuz clenches his fist in rage. IUZ: Bah! (turns to Hedrack) Why do you find it necessary to force my presence, Hedrack?! Hedrack fidgets noticeably around his god, then wheels and points to the party. HEDRACK: This! This is the source of the problems we've been having here as relayed in my recent reports to you. I beg your mercy to help take care of this problem. IUZ (frowns at Hedrack): No matter. I will take care of this problem here and now. And then, Hedrack, you and I will have a little talk about your role in this temple! Hedrack turns pale and swallows convulsively. Iuz looks Lady Crimson up and down, like a butcher sizing up a slab of beef. IUZ: What have you to say before I wipe the slate of reality clean of your existence? TIGRANES: Is this really necessary, Iuz? I am sure there is a solution to our mutual benefit. Iuz begins to laugh, a horrible sound like rocks being ground together. IUZ: You now seek to bargain with me? You have nothing I want, mortal, except perhaps your soul! LADY CRIMSON: Bring it on! unfortunately in the game it's not so dramatic. after your character resists Iuz's persuasion the dialogue just ends and... nothing happens. Iuz just stands there, so does Hedrack. I'm not sure if it's a bug or the result of Monte being so good at resisting demigods, but the game lets you heal your entire party and reapply all the buffs (maybe it even lets you leave the area, I didn't try). with that said, next time you try to talk to Iuz it will end up in combat. you'll then have 3 turns to kill him. and believe me it's very hard (I couldn't because I wasn't prepared, I was busy taking screenshots and forgot about buffs altogether). he attacks two times per round, his attack is capable of one-shotting weaker characters like Monte or Tigranes. on top of that he has a very nasty damage resistance which can only be beat by Frostbite or Fragarach (other Holy weapons work too, but the rest of my party couldn't handle what we had in stock). I didn't feel like trying to kill him again and again, it's not mandatory anyway. it's quite possible though, especially if you get Scorpp and train your other fighters in spears or long swords beforehand. Dismissal works on him too, but that won't count as a kill. anyway, after three rounds another character will make an appearance and stop the fight. St.Cuthbert himself! how nice of him to have dropped by. as you can see, I lost most of my party to Iuz's rage. that's how tough he is. after St.Cuthbert interferes Iuz will disappear, but not before healing Hedrack and every single minion on the screen (that's why we got rid of them first). he'll also raise every dead minion in the form of a zombie (oh come on, lv 1 monsters, was that supposed to be scary?). St,Cuthbert will do the same for our party, though. raise every fallen hero (with no xp penalties!) and fully refresh everybody. of course killing Hedrack after that was very easy. that's pretty much it for this level of the temple. their next task was to visit the Elemental Nodes and recover the Gems. oh I completely forgot! in Hedrack's personal quarters the party found two of his concubines (read: mentally possessed naked women). they didn't respond nicely to the news of Hedrack's death. but Tigranes noticed a scroll of Dispel Magic on one of the tables and used it on one of them. hey, what do you know! it's Paida! oh, wait, you don't know who Paida is. time for a flashback

another jail, this time with a husband and wife locked inside. I bet you really want to hear Whitman's story. "I am Whitman. And this here is my wife, Mandy. Those goblins been eyein' us now for a few days. They made quick work of our friend Charlie. Course, at the end of the day, we're all just here to be eaten anyway. They come in and grab one of us whenever they get hungry. They don't seem to care which one of us they get. Me, Mandy and Charlie joined up with some tough looking guy named Derrick who came through Nulb recruiting anyone who'd go with him. he promised us all sorts of wealth and power. So a lot of us poor farmers joined up with him and came down here. There must have been close to 30 of us back then. We didn't think anything could stop us. We marched on down all the way to the Greater Temple, just one level below us now. That's where they had their tap set. Derrick was dead. But our cleric led us back to this room with a pillar of light in it. Grank went inside only briefly. He said he was able to communicate with Zuggtmoy herself. And that she is alive, but held captive somewhere! He said we needed to get out of there quick. We ran down a side corridor chased by hill giants. And then we were trapped. One by one, some of the party gated off to where I do not know. The hill giants caught up to us before we could gate through. They caught me, Mandy and Charlie and brought us here to this prison. I don't know what ever happened to Grank and the men who got away. He must have a dozen or so with him." okay, I have two questions. why would anyone take his fat wife on an expedition to the heart of evil? and how did Mandy manage not to get eaten first? You're welcome, Mandy. their cell had a secret door that led to a cave with two Leucrottas. I totally forgot to take a pic of them. they're supposed to be very tough but thanks to the fact that they spend first two turns buffing up, the party had plenty of time to rip the beasts to shreds. next, the heroes came across a pack of Jackalweres. this tactic is becoming favored by the party very fast. most creatures don't have enough wisdom to save against and enough strength to break free of the Web. and Ice Storm is the only spell Tig has got in that particular slot so spamming it is never a problem. not to mention all warriors are equipped with rings of Freedom of Movement. the dreaded Will-o-Wisps. they can be very dangerous if you let them swarm the party. Endure Electricity is highly recommended on tanks. these things are hard to hit, too, due to their small size. that's a Lamia. surrounded by some kind of man-eating mushrooms. one Fireball was enough to wipe the 'shrooms out, the Lamia hs a couple of nasty attacks, like mind control tricks, but at this point she's no threat to us (you can see Grommy taking a nap in the corner, that's how boring it all was). and that's it for level 3. Lamia was guarding two exits, one leading to the Greater Temple, the other to the Water Temple. the party decided to use this opportunity to see the Water Temple High Priest one last time. Belsornig was better prepared than any of his peers. the single bugbear, water snakes, gargoyles, two clerics can all be ignored. they're pretty weak at this point. Belsornig has some nasty abilities, so Monte and Lady Crimson dealt with him. but the real threat is that huge crab-like thing in the center of the picture. it's a Juggernaut (duh!), it's completely immune to fire, attacks 2-3 times per round with devastating results in case it actually hits someone. it also has a very high Spell Resistance. since the party was all out of magic missiles and Ice Storm charges, they had to take the monster down the hard way. prince Thrommel proved indispensable once again here. and that was that for level 2. completely devoid of all life thanks to our heroes' efforts. good job, guys! next stop, level four and the High Priest of the Greater Temple. the guy in purple robes is Barkinar, Hedrack's lieutenant (one of many), he had some nice loot on him, including the Boots of Speed which went to Gromnir (as if he wasn't tough enough already). he was guarding the door that led to the Temple's Troops Commander. he proved to be sneakier then Barkinar and tried a different approach. his charms (or whatever it was that he tried on Monte) didn't work and Monte in a state of rage cut him up with a couple of lightning-fast moves. after looting his corpse and chest the party checked the next room and stumbled upon yet another lieutenant, this time a wizard. this guy is actually very tough if you try a direct approach. I had to reload because the first time I really underestimated his abilities. as soon as the party enters he will cast improved invisibility on himself and start summoning elementals. as you can see there are already four of those in the room, well in 4 rounds their number will raise to eight. furthermore, if you don't kill the wizard fast enough he will teleport away to Hedrack. so the party once again had to resort to Web (a real lifesaver in a lot of situations). the wizard failed his first saving throw and became immobilized for the rest of the battle. which meant no interfering while our heroes were dealing with his elemental guardians. without them he was a pushover. and he left behind some great things for Tigranes, a +3 AC bracers and a +5 AC robe. he was the last serious foe in the east wing of the level.

so, a couple of trolls and hill giants later the party found one very peculiar character. everyone, meet prince Thrommel. the last addition to our party. it's probably a good time to tell you about the prelude to this campaign. 10 years ago from this point in the game the Emridy Meadows had been the site of an epic battle between forces of Verbobonc and Furyondy on one side and the Temple of Elemental Evil on the other. the Temple forces were led by a demon queen named Zuggtmoy. and prince Thrommel commanded the Verbobonc/Furyondy armies. at first the good guys were losing badly but then the mages of the Circle of Eight arrived on the battlefield and turned the tide of battle. Thrommel was about to destroy Zuggtmoy with his sword, the Fragarach, but the demon queen managed to escape and hide inside the Temple. the Circle of Eight then proceeded to seal the Temple's doors. fast forward to 3 years after the battle prince Thrommel had been kidnapped and brought inside the Temple where he was put to sleep. 6 years later our party found the prince and agreed to lead him out of the Temple. for some reason the Co8 guys changed his name from "SleepingMan" to "Vampire" (which he's not). but he's a friggin' powerhouse non the less. he has the same amount of HP as Grommy, very high AC (like Pidesco), and the Fragarach (which is what we came for, really). his sword never misses Evil aligned targets, always counter-attacks and is a +4 weapon. we can't just take it from him though, so we'll have to wait for a chance to take it from his dead body (knocking him unconscious would work, too). we're not going to kill him ourselves. time to finish exploring this level, Zuggtmoy awaits. another Gelato Cube, it can hardly scratch any of our heroes, it's still pretty funny looking though. a new enemy, Ettin. these guys can be compared to two Hill Giants each. they attack four times on a full turn and have very high strength. the idea was to kite it with one tank and chop at it's health with others. no casualties on our side this time. one of the rooms was packed with Shadows. you can't see them on this picture (they're hard to spot as it is) but Monte was able to spot them without being spotted himself which gave Tig enough time to make the first strike. this room hints at the malicious nature of it's inhabitants with blood on it's walls and floor, you can see Shadows lying in wait in case some adventurers decide to enter the room to admire the paintwork. this next battle was pretty nasty at first. it's a Groaning Spirit (a Banshee in other words). as soon as it saw us it attacked, it packs a punch, can cause Fear, poisons and has some kind of damage resistance. well, that last part has a chance of bugging you out of the game: more than one and a half billion temporary hit points, good luck with that. needless to say I had to reload. for some reason it didn't happen on my second attempt and the party killed it quite easily (thanks to prince Thrommel and his uber sword). Yellow Molds. other than poisoning on each hit they're nothing special. they have wicked damage resistance but very few hit points. and I don't know what these yellow fumes are supposed to be, didn't hurt anybody. Umber Hulks. I hated these bastards in Icewind Dale 2. they're just as nasty in ToEE. a group of these can cause a lot of havoc. mainly due to their ability to Confuse party members. you can see in this picture that we lost 3 members to it. but a good saving throw is usually enough to get close to them and chop them into pieces.

last time we left our heroes they were about to explore the lower levels of the Temple Tower. that's a very interesting place actually. first the party came upon an assassin who attacked them on sight. this is tricky battle. when you deal enough damage to her she'll initiate a dialogue. after you finish talking she'll just disappear (which can lead to a pretty nasty bug). so I took some time to read up on this encounter. Smigmal is of course lying. in reality she's the leader of the bandits our heroes have just killed. and the only way to uncover her true identity is to have the leader of the party with a high enough Sense Motive skill. for some reason Tig's wasn't high enough. and the party really wanted Smigmal dead (Lady Crimson could sense her evil nature and knew it would be a mistake to let Smigmal go). so I reloaded. the heroes had to devise a strategy to kill her in one-two turns. what they did was send two heaviest hitters in there under Invisibility (that would include Monte naturally, since he's pretty much always invisible thanks to Hide and Move Silently his drow heritage). when they had taken their positions around Smigmal, Monte opened up with a quadruple Sneak Attack (he gets 4 attack on a full-action turn). Smigmal never stood a chance. She left behind a great set of armor for Monte, too, a Blue Elven Chain. now that that had been dealt with it was time to explore the rest of the tower. in the other room Monte found a wizard and his pet Quasit. and there you have it, the Elemental Nodes contain Gems that make the Orb even more powerful. and Falrinth had the Orb and wouldn't part with it no matter how bad Monte asked. "You are insane and should be eliminated", with these words Monte cut his throat before he could do anything to protect himself. there was a secret room behind one of the walls, in that room a chest. and in the chest: the Orb of Golden Death. as soon as you take the orb out of the chest a cutscene starts. for some reason I can't make pics during cutscenes. but it shows that having the orb in your possession opens a secret passage in the throne room of the Temple. we'll check it out later. the party decided to visit Alrrem now that they had the Orb. but not to give it back to him, to kill him rather. that fight was over so fast that I completely forgot to take pics of Alrrem's troops being slaughtered. there was one last fight in the Fire Temple worth seeing. Bassanio is a whimp but that chest he's guarding contains a very good weapon, a +2 greatsword called Frostbite, Gromnir could really use it. but when Monte tried opening the chest Bassanio attacked him immediately. as you can see he's not the biggest problem, as soon as combat starts his 8 friends reveal themselves. they're relatively weak but the bigger-sized salamanders have a habit of targeting your weakest member and tossing Fireballs at him (in our case it was Tigranes with the lowest HP). the worst thing is they can target him no matter where he stands on the level. somehow they are able to launch magical attacks through multiple walls. I wasn't prepared for that and had to reload because Tig kept failing his saving throws. on my second try I buffed the party up with Elemental Resistance and initiated the combat first after positioning my warriors next to the big guys. this time it went rather smooth. and that was the last of the Fire Temple. time to pay Kelno a visit. there's nothing special about this fight. other than two dozens of berserk bugbears (seeing a trend? this is the most common and dangerous enemy in this game so if you have a ranger make sure to pick bugbears as a favored enemy ASAP). this was the last of the Air Temple. only the Temple of Water left. but we'll deal with them later. for it was time to descend to the third level of the Temple of Elemental Evil. level three is occupied by Greater Temple forces mostly. which is bugbears, ogres and trolls for the most part. nothing we haven't already seen so I won't be covering these fights, they're pretty trivial. the first interesting encounter happened as soon as the party went down the stairs. meet Scorpp, the Hill Giant and his worg buddy. Scorpp is actually a joinable NPC but at the same time he's the subject of two quests. one of them - finding Wonnilon's stuff. Scorpp has both the crossbow and the scroll. but he really is a very good NPC (the best permanent NPC, that's for sure, seriously, he can dual wield bastard swords, how awesome is that), so it would be a tough decision for me if the giant didn't attack my party on sight. I have no idea why it happened (maybe because Tig was dressed in Greater Temple robes). so we had to kill him and his pet. maybe it's for the better, as far as I know if you decide to bring Scorpp to Hommlet the villagers will attack your party. another interesting foe they encountered in the corridors. the Black Pudding these things have a tendency to multiply if attacked with slashing weapons, and our party only had two blunt weapons. good thing there was only one to deal with. what this level has in abundance is Giants. these guys are still pretty tough because they still are able to bypass the party's tanks' AC half the time and when their hits connect it really hurts. this time it was only two of them, but there were more where we were going.

well it's pseudo-ironman really but all right, Nodes will be covered in full yep you certainly did seems like it's time for another update. I'm already sorting through the 100+ screenshots for it (maybe better make two updates though)

and one more to get it out of the way. remember the tower where Lareth tried taking us way back when? I figured it was a good idea to visit it now. the guard mistook the party for a batch of new recruits. they had to shut him up. and Elmo got a nice hat out of it, too! and they entered the tower next. yeah, Tigranes was able to talk the party out of it, but since they actually wanted to pick a fight with the bandits Tig's last word came in the form of a Fireball aimed at the crossbowmen up on the staircase. there are two witches, one wizard, two commanders and a bunch of soldiers. witches love to spam Silence but that's what 5-Foot Step is for, getting out of the affected area. Gromnir's Great Cleave was doing wonders again, dropping as many as 5 enemies per round in a good spot. this fight is definitely tough with Lareth on the team and for a lv 3 party, but as it was now, lv 6 and no crazy elves around - a walk in the park. there's a trap door under one of the beds. it leads to an underground passage. the way to the left leads to a new map which doesn't seem to have anything going on there (it's a very picturesque place though) the right corridor leads to the rest of the bandits' tower. that's where we're going to go tomorrow (or whenever this thread hits page 9).

hokay, since you lot don't want to participate, I'm going to throw this mini-update in, regard it as an intermission. I finally figured out how to get Skole to open up. all that needed was to send Gromnir to talk to him. gah, of course! why did I even bother sending Tigranes to speak to a rugged pirate? SKOLE: Hullo again, what can I get for you? GROMNIR: It's a dangerous place you gots 'ere. SKOLE: Danger? (spits) Right here in the Boatman's Tavern? Well I suppose that all depends on your business. And how much attention you bring to yourself. GROMNIR (raising his voice): Well we is ready to take on anything. Bring it on! SKOLE: Well it's nice to see a person who speaks same language as me. (spits) I do gots a rather unpleasant job, but I'm not sure you'd be right for it. GROMNIR: Oh we is the right person for it. (angrily stares down Skole) Now what's the job, you stupid little runt? SKOLE (pulls something out of his pack and starts chewing on it): All right then, since you're not from around here, I can let you in on this. I need Lodriss dead. You hear me? And no trail back to me. You in? GROMNIR: Huh? Lodriss? The servin' wench? Why would you want to kill her? SKOLE (stares Grommy down a while, then spits): You ask too much questions. I just need her dead. Now you in or not?! GROMNIR: What's the pay? SKOLE (reaches into his pocket): I have this violet garnet here. It's worth about 500 gold. (spits) This can be yours right now. When she's dead, you'll get another one worth about the same. GROMNIR: Give it here (grabs the gem and stares at Skole) SKOLE (excited): Great! This mean you'll do it, right? (then more calm) I mean, good to have you on board. (spits) Now, you have three days to get this done, you hear? After that, me and the boys will be coming after you to get back our payment. GROMNIR: We sure you will. Seein' how you want that Lodriss wench dead. SKOLE (laughs out loud showing hideously crooked teeth): Now that is funny. I actually kind of like the poor old hag. She just owns this place. And I want it. Nothing personal, you know? GROMNIR: You wants 'er dead for that? (shakes his head) SKOLE: Yeah, the place is all mine if she's out of the way. It didn't used to bother me much to work for her (spits), but it does now. So she must die. GROMNIR: I seems to us these pirate folk here won't appreciate us killin' Lodriss, won't they attack us? SKOLE: That's why it needs to be an outsider. No strings attached that way. You do the job and then stay clear of those pirates if you know what's good for you. Unless 'n you find a way to kill her without them knowing... GROMNIR: Ha! Good fun! (turning around, saying over the shoulder) One word of advice to ya, you spit too much. let's see what Lodriss has to say about this. LODRISS: Now what can I be doin' for you? GROMNIR: We knows a little something about Skole 'ere you might wants to hear. LODRISS (looking around): Skole? Now what be the matter with Skole? A bit mischievous maybe, but he's not the type to be gettin' into any real trouble. GROMNIR: Ha! No, no real trouble for Skole. More like trouble for you, if you catch us. Now what's it worth to ya? LODRISS: Now why should I be payin' you for unfounded rumors. You got anything to show me? GROMNIR: How about this? (shows her Skole's gem) LODRISS (looks over it): Hmm... well, that does belong to Skole all right. Or at least it did. And he don't part with them too kindly. I don't like this. What this all be about? GROMNIR: He payed us to kill you, he wants the tavern all to himself. LODRISS: Bah! Skole? Be tryin' to assassinate me? No one could be that dumb, not with all the river pirates bein' right here. Tolub would put a piece on your head so fast. Skole's, too. You got any proof of what you say? GROMNIR: We showed you the gem, did we not? LODRISS: How do I know you didn't just steal it? GROMNIR: Well go ask him yourself, he's right there. Just remember when you do, he's gonna know you on to him. If we's right. LODRISS: Maybe you just be tryin' to cause trouble between Skole and me. I'll tell you what. You give me that gem and I take it to Tolub to check this out and see if true. It be his gem anyhow. GROMNIR: Have it your way. We don't care about no gem. What we do care is your well-being (hands her the gem). LODRISS: Thank you for this. This will make it easier for me to be provin' that Skole be up to no good. If what you say is be true, it will not go well for him. And I will owe you much thanks. GROMNIR (shrugs): Just don't take it out too hard on Skole (starts laughing). LODRISS: Take it out too hard on him? He be the one tryin' to kill me. I don't expect things to go well for him. Farewell now. GROMNIR: Take a look at Skole now. We bets he can smell something ain't right. Things are about to get hot around 'ere, you might want to take a breather. LODRISS: Oh? GROMNIR: We will saves you the trouble and take care of him. LODRISS: Well that's awfully kind of you sweetie. Just try not to break anything, will you? now that we have the whole place to ourselves time to confront Skole and see what he'll do about it. GROMNIR: We tells Lodriss all about yer plan. We thinks you're in trouble now. SKOLE: Now why you gone and done a fool thing like that, son. Things won't go well for you, I think. Lodriss and I go way back. Who's she going to believe, a long time friend or an outsider? GROMNIR: Oh we thinks she's gonna believe us, pal. We shows her yer gem. SKOLE: Well, then, thanks for the tip. (spits) I guess it's time for me and boys to~ GROMNIR: What boys? We don't see any boys in 'ere. You're all alone. SKOLE (angrily): Looks like I should get out of town and quick. But not before we have a little fun with you first! GROMNIR: No, please don't hurt me. that last line was a joke of course, Grommy splattered Skole's guts all over the place. and then invited Lodriss for a walk on the pier while Bertram was cleaning the place.

haha, Monte, you crack me up

ugh, it's Nodes, typo. and never mind, I looked it up and another source states the Nodes are obligatory, there's only one mini-boss I'd have to kill in every Node so I guess I'll just make a run for the bosses, they're worth showing too. and there's a funny companion to be acquired in one of them too, so that settles it.

ok, forget what I said about balance. it all goes to hell in the last dungeon of the Temple before the mini-boss. my party has gotten two levels during the last leg, they're now capped at 54,999 points. I even kept some of them at lv 9 because I couldn't see the point in leveling up. besides, I can't make up my mind what spells to select with the sorcerer (level 6 spells just plain suck, I think I'll go with Cone of Cold eventually). this brings me to my next issue. as far as I know the next logical step would be to go to the dreaded elemental nods, but if they are completely optional I see no reason to go there since we're pretty much powerful enough to take on the final boss anyway. do you guys want to see them? the completionist in me insists on doing them all anyway, but I'm reluctant. also, there's one other thing I'm still thinking of doing as an extra challenge. but if it falls through I'd rather not have to replay the whole thing from the control saving point... ah so many choices, so little will the next update is going to be huge, I'll take you right to the point where I have to make a choice which will decide the rest of the game. so just leave 5 comments here so I could post the update tomorrow

and it's not even the worst part

a couple of videos back they talk about NV being inferior to FO3, so you shouldn't be surprised these people like games for other reasons apparently.

it's supposed to show you what actions you can do in a turn. the green area means you can move and attack. one attack drains the green half. or if you decide to move before attacking, while the character is moving the whole hourglass slowly drains. if you stop in the yellow zone you cannot attack anymore. and then there are different options in the radial menu. for example choosing "Ready vs. Approach" while in the green will let your character intercept a passing enemy and attack it *and* still have a chance for an attack of opportunity. and there are a lot of these options, tactical and offensive. like single attacks, fleeing, 5-foot step etc.

this game actually does a lot of things better than BioWare's RPGs. I'd say this is now officially my favorite AD&D game after the IWD series. the story sucks but the engine is fantastic. so is the level design. it's been a very well balanced game so far, too, though I do not know who to thank for that, Troika or Co8. but I'd definitely want to play a high-level campaign based on this engine. compared to NWN it looks and plays fantastic. I urge you to give ToEE a try if you haven't already

and of course we found the local jail. with some creepy characters locked inside. the guy's name is Wicked (yeah, I know). and he's a joinable NPC. but I'd hate to have him die on level 3 to empty the last party slot so Lady decided to send him on his way. in the adjacent cell the party found a group of elves. Countess Tillahi and Sir Juffer along with their escort. they were traveling from Hommlet past the Moathouse when they got ambushed by Lareth's thugs and brought to the Temple. Lady asked if the Countess needed escort out of the Temple, but she only asked to tell them how to find the exit, a very proud woman she was. Monte did whisper into Lady's ear that they should've sent the elves the wrong way to get themselves killed. but Lady wouldn't have any of it, she made sure to direct them towards the closes exit to the surface. it was time once again to visit Alrrem. after hearing about the ogres he immediately ordered the party to descend to level 3 and find a rogue sorceror there, who had a very important item in his possession. they were to retrieve the Orb of Golden Death. Alrrem wanted to summon something called Zuggtmoy with the help of that device. and he insisted that the party should not try to use it because it could prove disastrous. Tig wanted a second opinion on the matter and asked Antonio, Alrrem's assistant about the Orb. something about the Nodes. but what are these Nodes? we'll just have to wait and see. of course bringing the orb to Alrrem was out of the question. the party would eventually have to kill him anyway. Antonio is involved in a small quest. there's another priest in the same room, Tubal. the half-orc wants Antonio's weapon. it's nothing special so keeping it now doesn't make sense, nor does skipping this quest, since we'll be killing them both shortly. Antonio and Tubal love to gamble and the mace is the only thing Antonio has got left. we just had to play a game of dice with him and then take the mace from him after he'd lost. easy money. oh, I completely forgot about Belsornig and Kelno! now that the Earth Temple is no more and Oohlgrist is dead we can go and see what they have for us next. Kelno was very happy and even provided the party with a choice as to who they wanted to kill, Alrrem or Belsornig, Kelno then would poison the other. well, we kinda made up our minds already. but not before speaking to Belsornig. the Water Temple High Priest wasn't particularly happy about Oohlgrist's death, he'd rather have him as an ally, but at least Alrrem was stripped of that privilege, too. Belsornig them proceeded to order the party to kill Alrrem. how convenient, we were about to do just that. but first there was one more thing to take care of. there was still Greater Temple presence in the area that our heroes couldn't allow. this is actually a very tough battle. most of these bugbears are warriors with potions of Bull's Strength. some are barbarians. as soon as combat starts they swarm on the party. I had to use the door to bottle-neck them and keep bombarding the rest with Fireballs while the tanks were busy staying alive and chopping at the enemy. we did lose someone during the hardest part of the battle. poor Fru. Elmo grew to love her, kinda. I had wanted her to die at some point but she proved really tough. so now that she was dead I decided to go back to Hommlet to have her resurrected. ok I lied, I didn't want to resurrect her at first. you may remember this from Night's part, there is an NPC in Hommlet, Meleny, if one of your characters marries her, her father will give the party a Holy +1 longsword. I couldn't get Gromnir to initiate the needed dialogue with her (turns out you need at least 16 charisma) and I thought it was because Fruella was in the party (and there is no way of getting rid of her other than feeding Fru to the bears). well now that Fruella was out of the picture, the party decided Gromnir had to try and get that sword. Lady Crimson cast Eagle's Splendor on Grommy before he knocked on Filliken's door. TIGRANES: Just remember that she can't see your true face so act accordingly. She's a young girl so try not to scare her with your "HA! GOOD FUN!" routine, ok? LADY CRIMSON: I still don't think we should be doing this, what about Fruella? MONTE: What about her? Don't be so grim, C, we're about to have a wedding, remember? Filliken opens the door, "Yes, how may I help you?" GROMNIR: Er, good day, sir. We was just passin' by your house and we was thinkin' about the swords~ MONTE (elbowing Gromnir): Ahem, what he wanted to say was we were just talking about your beautiful daughter, Meleny and decided to come in and say "hello" to her, and to the rest of your family, sir... FILLIKEN: Oh, aren't you the ones that persuaded my darling Mathilde to finally consider my marriage proposal? Yes, it's you! Come in! Come in, you're always welcome in my house. Meleny! Come here, girl, there's somebody here to see you! MELENY: Well hello there, handsome! What can a little girl like me do for a big man like you? MONTE (to Lady C, struggling not to burst in laughter): Did you hear that? "Handsome", oh boy, this is gonna be good. GROMNIR: Er, good to see you... again, Meleny. (looking at Lady C and Monte waiting for cues) Er, how's it goin'? MELENY: I'm doing quite well, thank you. I wish the local merchants would bring in more books, though. I just love to read about adventures! Gromnir is lost for a second, Monte approaches him and starts whispering in his ear, "Maybe a smart and intelligent girl like you~ ..." GROMNIR: Er, maybe a smart and intelligent girl like yourself should experience more of the real world than this small village... MELENY: Aren't you the charmer? You're kind of cute, yourself. (Monte's suppressed laughter can be heard from behind Gromnir) Say, I don't recall seeing you around these parts before. Are you new here or just passing through? MONTE (whispering): This is priceless! GROMNIR: ...We is adventurin' in these parts and had not intended to stay long, but we is enjoying your company. MELENY: Oh, an adventurer! You must lead such an exciting life. One that I can only dream of. GROMNIR: 'Tis not as glamorous as you might think... Perhaps some day I shall tell you of our journeys. MONTE (whispering): No! God dammit, tell her now! Ask her if she ever been on any adventures... GROMNIR: Er, Meleny, has you been on an adventure yourself? MELENY: No (saddens), but I always thought about going to Deklo Grove, my dad says it's very dangerous there because of all the Ochre Jellies. He says they like to ambush people on their way to the grove. He says they're really scary, but I'm not afraid of any ochre jelly (stomps her foot). GROMNIR: We would gladly protect beautiful maiden such as yourself from foul advances of an ochre jelly! MELENY (does a little clap): My hero! I'm really enjoying talking to you. You're not at all like the other boys around here. They're all so... boring! MONTE (to Lady C): That was very smooth indeed, I must admit. GROMNIR: We's verily enjoyin' conversing with you's well. Perhaps we shall call on you again once we is around these parts, m'lady. MELENY (with a flirting smile): See that you do. Gromnir takes a few steps back to exit the house but Monte stops him. MONTE: Are you out of your mind? This girl is on fire! I'm not waiting a whole week while we're in some dungeon just for you to talk about weather with her next time we're here. She's ripe for the taking. Go on! GROMNIR: But what should we say t'er? MONTE: I don't know, ask her out or something, anything. GROMNIR (to Meleny): Er, we cannot wait 'til we sees you again. Please, you must join us on our adventure! LADY CRIMSON: What? MONTE: Ugh, that's a little overkill... MELENY (looks up in excitement): Oh, that sounds like so much fun! Yes, I will come with you! (Reality sets in). Oh wait, father would never allow it. I cannot disobey him. MONTE: You leave the old geezer to me, I'll make him reconsider~ MELENY (thinks for a second): Wait, I know how we can persuade him. (Looks up at Gromnir shyly). Well, I know it's a bit sudden, but if you were to ask for my hand in marriage, father would have to let me go. MONTE (whispering not able to hold the excitement): Brilliant! (Kicking Gromnir in the leg making the giant drop on one knee). Ask for her hand, now! GROMNIR (groans): ...Meleny, will you marry us? MELENY (Excited): Yes, I will marry you! But first you must go ask father for permission. Once he's given his blessing, then we shall marry, and I can join you on your adventure. Oh, I'm so excited, honey! GROMNIR: It be great to have you with us. We go talk to Filliken right away. MELENY: Oh, that would be wonderful. I love you. GROMNIR: We just met and yet we feels like we knows you for a lifetime. MONTE: That was a nice touch, was that something out of a book? Oh, wait, do you actually read books? LADY CRIMSON: Shut up, Monte. Let's get this over with, I'm uneasy about this whole deal. A few momets later. FILLIKEN: ...Well that would make Meleny next in line. But I have to tell you, she's really special to me. She's not running off with the first good-looking stranger she meets, I can tell you that. MONTE: Now wait just a second. First Althea and Marek, then you and Mathilde. Right? Remember who arranged all of these? Well, how about a triple wedding? FILLIKEN: Oh, you just know what to say to old Filliken, to make me mellow... Alright! You'll have your wedding. (Filliken starts crying). I'm so happy. (Calls Gromnir). Here, I want you to have this (takes the silver sword off the wall and hands it to Gromnir). It was with our family for so long and I can't think of anybody who deserved it more than you. Wear it with pride. MONTE: Yes-s-s! Suddenly, Tigranes enters the home and goes straight to Lady and Monte. TIGRANES: I don't know what you have been up to in here, but Fruella has just been resurrected by Jaroo and is well on her way here. I suggest we take Gromnir and flee before this disaster strikes. MONTE: Wait, who in Nine Hells told her that Gromnir was here? TIGRANES: I think Pidesco accidentally did while trying to articulate something meaningful. LADY CRIMSON: Ok, forget the marriage, let's go. MONTE: What do you mean "forget the marriage"? After all we've gone through? No way! I'm not leaving here without that sword. Fruella's voice can be heard in the distance, "Honey?" MONTE (whispering to Gromnir): Just grab the sword and let's get the hell out of here! MELENY (noticing the sudden change in Gromnir's face): What is it, honey? GROMNIR: Er, we needs to go now, darlin'. Our friend is in trouble. But we is gonna be back for wedding, just wait for us, you hear? And without waiting for her or Filliken's reply the whole party flees. The last thing Meleny is able to hear is Gromnir's "Ha! Good fun!" from where the inn stands. tune in next time, when we will be destroying the Temples of Fire and Air.

of course the shrine was protected. but what's one Earth Elemental against a rag-tag team like ours. and we stopped by Romag's quarters to deliver him a message from Belsornig (read: kill him). he had some nice loot, and his journal proved to be very informative. Belsornig continues to send me threats in his desperation to have me join him. I hate him, yet he would make a strong ally. Fire and Air could not stand against Earth and Water. Alrrem knows Belsornig shall soon turn on him with the remnants of Air. If I do not ally with him, he will surely be the next to fall. Once Alrrem has been destroyed, Belsornig will be in full control of Level Two, which will win him much honor within the Greater Temple, This must be avoided. But can it possibly make sense to ally with Alrrem? He has lost his sanity. The destruction of Air is almost complete. But how can one live without air? I certainly have no plans for it's demise. Kelno is simply a puppet to the Greater Temple. With the betrayal of Ashrem, the Air Temple was effectively brought down. Kelno has no real hope. He can play at pitting Fire against Water, but I need not be involved. Hartsch has been bitter since he was passed over for promotion yet I do not think he will turn on me. Clearly, Barkinar was a powerful and respected former leader. It has not been easy as his successor. I know he is enjoying some success in the Greater Temple. Yet he still must defer to Hedrack. That cannot be easy for him. I wonder how much time Hedrack has left. When it finally is Hedrack's time, I am certain Barkinar will succeed him and I will be selected as the favorite Temple and possibly even promoted. Yet I must take care if Barkinar is killed first. Yes, that would foil my plans. well, that's it for level 1, the only living thing left here is Wonnilon, but we still have use for him. time to explore level 2 more thoroughly. the other half of the level is almost empty, occupied by Greater Temple forces where it's not. there were some strange encounters, like a carrion crawler which went down in two hits. or this guy: a mini-troll guarding a barrel with some minor loot. there was also a minotaur guarding a treasure chest. he was supposed to have Stoneskin up at the start of the battle, but I didn't notice anything at all, he went down just as fast. we also met a pack of ogres led by a Shaman. and some thing called a Drelb. one good thing about this encounter was the party found a Holy +1 weapon in Drelb's room. what's more, it was a spear-type weapon. a character equipped with it can attack enemies from the back row, which will come in really handy. Gromnir took it, it was about time he switched from his rusty Two-Handed Sword (this thing made Grommy even more of a beast than he was, with Great Cleave and this thing that can reach pretty far (it's a +3 weapon effectively by the way) his body count went sky high. one other interesting place was a room with a mirror. as soon as the party stepped into the room, an image of a Celestial appeared in the mirror. it promised to bless the party's equipment, all they had to do was leave *everything* in the room and step out. it's a good thing that between Monte's greed and Tig's awareness there was nothing that could make them comply. there was definitely something odd about that place. soon enough Monte found a secret door leading behind the mirror. only god knows how many adventurers had been tricked by these werevolves before we showed up. these guys are pretty tough with lots of attacks and HP, not to mention they can only be killed with silver arrows or critical hits. but our heroes prevailed in the end. that's a Hydra, it didn't even have a chance to attack. and that's an Owlbear, gah, what an abomination. good thing we have Grommy on our side, who's even more of a monster. one battle that proved a little trickier was with a band of brigands. unlike any other creature on this level they still attacked the party even though Tigranes and Monte were sporting robes of Greater Temple. as you can see there are a lot of them, luckily most of them were wiped with the first Fireball, leaving only the toughest Commander and Lieutenant standing. in their chest Monte found a mysterious note that read: On three in six lies nine - but none shall ever see Vile Good cloaked by Fair Evil for eternity Will you answer, Answerer? Where is your power, pray? With the whelp of Mitrik, and there until doomsday. huh? what's that all about? I guess we'll find out later.

anyhoo, we finally made it to level 3 of the Temple of Elemental Evil. as you can see, there are three distinct patterns on the floor marking three available paths. these lead to three remaining lesser Temples, fire, water and air. we'll go to the Temple of Air first. initially my goal was to complete as many quests here as possible without being brought before the Greater Temple High Priest (which will inevitably happen after you complete the last quest for any of the Elemental Temple High Priests). but since half of their quest directly contradict each other and require killing one High Priest or the other, I had to find a way to avoid accepting last quests and at the same time stay on good terms with all High Priests. that's why I went to visit Kelno first. Kelno was having the hardest time. He was the only remaining cleric of the Air Temple and he desperately needed help. Tigranes agreed to his terms and accepted his first task: to speak to the chieftain of the Water Temple's bugbears and convince them to join the Air Temple. sounded pretty easy. the best part of this task was the bugbears were being stationed right next door. ha, that was easy enough. all Tig had to do was show up in Air Temple's robes for the bugbears to deflect to the Temple of Air. and after bringing Kelno the good news the party went back and killed the beasts. Lady Crimson decided they couldn't afford to be reinforcing their enemies. Kelno's next task was to desecrate the Earth Shrine. but we still had Romag's last request: to kill the Water Temple High Priest. Lady C proposed to go visit the Temple of Water and do a little recon. this is the site of an epic battle, that is yet to happen. turned out Belsornig had been waiting for them. Belsornig already knew Romag had asked the heroes to kill him. oddly enough he didn't seem defensive in any way, on the contrary he extended every courtesy. Tigranes figured him out right away though, he was the most dangerous of all four chief clerics, and shouldn't have been taken lightly. of course Belsornig had a task of his own to ask of the party. they had to deal with a small tribe of trolls that had settled on this level. the party was to find the troll chieftain Oohlgrist and persuade him to join the Temple of Water. while talking to him was never Lady's plan, finding his lair was a good idea, so they agreed. this wasn't the first time I've encountered trolls. unlike IWD and BG in ToEE you actually have to deal a certain amount of acid/fire damage to kill these bastards. but there's a trick. if you deal enough "non-lethal" damage, the troll will collapse and remain unconscious until he regenerates some health. while it's down, a rogue can cut the troll's head off with a Coup de Gras. Oohlgrist was a tough cookie though, he has a high AC (26 I believe) and spell resistance to fire (scratch out Fireball). Tig had to keep him glued to his spot while the rest of the party dealt with his minions. anyway, he drops some very nice loot. the best non-warrior set of armor in the game (I think), Troll Bone Armor and Helm, and a ring of fire resistance which will come in handy in the next update. he's also a joinable NPC by the way, with sufficient Intimidation he can be persuaded to join the party, but we need that last spot for another, more useful person. seeing as Oohlgrist camped right between the Temples of Water and Fire, the party decided to finally visit Alrrem. coincidentally, he also wanted Oohlgrist on his side, and when Tigranes told him the troll was dead, he didn't even mind and went straight to the second task. which was to locate a small tribe of ogres and hire them for the Temple of Fire. easy as pie. there we go, nice choice, ogres. let's go back to Alrrem and bring him the good news. on the other hand, this would be the perfect time to revisit the Temple's level 1. we still have unfinished business there. like killing everything that still breathes. I completely forgot about these. there were 5 rooms on the first level packed with monsters, ripe for the taking. and while we were having a good time scorching the level we figured it wouldn't hurt to desecrate the shrine as per Kelno's request.

the party had to leave the Temple temporarily to visit Nulb and run some errands. first, they went to the inn and gave Romag's message to Rentsch. there's a funny quest involving Rentsch and Wat here, available only after they both had given us jobs with their Temples. there's a possibility to rat them out to each other. as a result, one of them will end up belly-up in the swamp. I figured turning old friends against each other would be a fun thing to do. but not before we resolved another "serious" matter. Pearl here thought her darling, Wat, had been cheating on her with some wench named Alira. Tig detected Temple business right away and promised to speak to her. So it's true, Alira is another spy for the Temple of Fire. since we're kind of on the same side, for now, Lady thought it would be a good idea to warn Wat about Pearl's suspicions (read: blackmail the bastard). he'll most probably end up dead soon anyway. one more thing left to do in Nulb was speaking to the tavern proprietor, Skole. this guy has a pretty interesting quest, he'll hire the party to assassinate him associate if you pass some check when initiating a conversation with him. for some reason even Tigranes couldn't get him to talk (it's probably an alignment check, or a bug). so, the party then made it's way to Hommlet to check on the village (and the villagers' reaction, too, since now we have a "member of the Temple" entry in the reputation section of the log book). but look what they found in the swamps when approaching the village: hell yeah! this is our chance to do one last good deed before disappearing in the depths of the Temple forever. first thing they did once they reached Hommlet was go straight to Jaroo, of course. JAROO: Your welcome here in the Grove is wearing thin. Did you think you could come back here after you've joined the dreaded Temple? Who~ LADY CRIMSON: Wait, Jaroo, there's no time for that now, we have found the Swamp Lotus you were looking for! (gives the flower to Jaroo) JAROO: Oh my... (studying the delicate flower) Praises to Beory! The Great Mother has once again chosen to share her bounty! LADY CRIMSON: Can you cure Amii now? JAROO: No time for questions... I must work quickly. (grabs a stone pestle and mortar to grind the flower into fine dust) minutes pass, Lady C is very agitated. JAROO: Now to brew this dust into a tea... (Jaroo begins to brew tea in a jade tea pot that has been carved into the shape of an owlbear) LADY CRIMSON: How much longer is this going to take? JAROO: Patience, child. I have to be very careful with the dosage, don't rush me. MONTE: Yeah, C, relax. This Amii girl has held for so long, she can wait a little more. LADY CRIMSON: No, you don't understand. Every minute counts, I can feel her strength fading... TIGRANES: Say, that tea pot is quite interesting looking. JAROO: Ah, yes, this was a gift from a friend, my mentor actually. I am quite fond of it. Too often we forget that all creatures share Oerth's gift... even the heinous owlbear. It is important that we do not lose sight of the balance. It is so easy to view the world in black and white... good and evil... life is after all the greatest gift. All creatures have that in common. TIGRANES: Your mentor was a wise man, Jaroo. JAROO: It is ready! Now we must go to Amii, quickly! the party accompanies Jaroo to woodcutter's house. JAROO: Here Amii, drink this... (Amii trembles as she takes the steaming tea from Jaroo) LADY CRIMSON: It's not working... I can feel it's not working! Do something, you old fool! TIGRANES: Take it easy, C, we've done all we could, so has Jaroo... JAROO: It is done. There is nothing more we can do... Lady Crimson bursts into tears, Amii's father not able to hold much longer, approaches Lady Crimson and embraces her. The party's faces are very grim, even Monte looks extremely sad. JAROO: Wait... Everyone's eyes instantly turn to Jaroo. JAROO: Yes! I can sense a change. Amii, your life energy seems much stronger. It appears to be working! Praises to Beory! This is a happy day indeed!Rejoice in the gift of life! Lady Crimson can't believe her ears. She looks at Amii, and the girl slowly gets up from the bed and sits up with a weak smile on her pale face. LADY CRIMSON: You're all right! Oh, Pelor be praised! JAROO: Thank you everyone! You have done a great service today. May Beory watch over you as you have watched over Amii. and so our heroes save the day once again. they still had a couple of things to take care of. first, Monte finally managed to crack open the blacksmith's mysterious chest. there was a strange horn inside, that the smith let them keep. better than nothing I suppose. then they went to check up on Laszlo and his kid. and there you have it. Tigranes has found love *and* a family. this was a beautiful day indeed. I won't waste your time describing the wedding. let's leave our heroes for now, this seems like a perfect moment, let them enjoy themselves. 'til next time when they'll finally see the second level of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

bumping the thread to remind you all of it's existence. don't forget that we can't continue until we're on the next page EDIT: oh, that was the last post needed. ok, new update coming up