sorophx

selling cinema tickets and selling games is a little different, though. in Russia for example, there is no tax on the tickets sold at a cinema, every penny goes straight into the owner's pocket. that's why going to a movie premiere costs only ~7$, which isn't a lot in my opinion. a video game on sale costs 3 times as much. everything is relative.

ahaha, somehow I have the same feelings as Gorgon

gah... don't make me watch the whole video again

yeah... not a very good name for a town guess it's the taste of things to come.

the game looks fantastic. almost like a live-action movie in the scenes with the city guards I don't like what I'm hearing, though. a bunch of ideas struck me as ... amateurish.

hey, I take it back, there was some stuff in Hommlet worth showing. I think it's enough for a whole update. there's even a fight, and a tricky one too! anyway, we took Elmo with us, as promised. I can already feel the electricity between him and Lady C actually, this update is full of love and matchmaking! and it's all thanks to Tig and his awesome speech skills. first, we went to visit the woodcutter to tell him that the giant spiders had been dealt with. he didn't seem to be happy about it, so Tigranes pressed him a little to make him open up. turned out his little daughter Amii had been very ill. and Terjon refused to heal her (probably just wasn't capable and didn't want St.Cuthbert's name stained). the woodcutter told us to try Jaroo instead, the local druid of the Old Faith. hey, Jaroo, weren't you killed in Neverwinter during the attack on the city's academy? regardless, time to look for the Swamp Lotus, and we have a pretty good idea of where it might be. but first! we really wanted to pay homage to the great heroes of Verbobonc we've been hearing so much about: a green dragon, aye? sounds like something kids made up. let's go ask the heroes themselves. hmmm, I guess it's true then, why would they lie to us, right? and of course the mighty heroes wanted us to help them out. it was something about the castle and it's build orders being constantly altered or stolen to hinder with it's construction. Tig assured Rufus that finding the culprit would be a piece of pumpkin pie and enabled his Sherlock mode. first, he went to the camp to ask about. there he heard about a guy named "Feefee", who had been hired by the foreman to handle the papers. Tig went straight to this Feefee character, who turned out to be a the guy Rufus was looking for. Feefee suckered the foreman into hiring him, then took over the logistics and kept sabotaging the construction in order to keep himself employed for as long as possible. for 100 gold he spilled the beans. He was hired by Rannos Davl and his companion Gremag, the two were running a business in Hommlet. it smelled fishy, so Tig and the gang decided to investigate and see where the thread would take them. Rannos and Gremag had a very nice establishment. the party decided to take a peek inside. at first glance they seemed like an honest bunch, a couple of respectable traders with reasonable prices. but why would they want to sabotage the castle's construction? Tig asked around some more. this time he was told that some shady character had been visiting the store every other night, only at nights. after checking the store's barn, Tig found the guy. approaching the hooded figure TIGRANES: Hey there! I was wondering if you could answer some questions about your stock here. You do have a very nice selection, I must say~ HOODLUM: Oh, excuse me, miss. I do not work here. If you would like to barter here, you need speak with the owners, Rannos or Gremag. MONTE: As if this wasn't the point, do you really think we would go to a barn to look for supplies? Come on~ TIGRANES (stopping Monte): Well, I had a talk with the teamster who lives next door. And he thinks you are very suspicious. Going in and out of town at night, evading other villagers, what is it that you do for Rannos and Gremag? HOODLUM: Sef holds suspicion over everyone ere he lost that cart of his. 'Tis best to let it pass and take no bother to him. GROMNIR: You'd like that, ain't it so, huh? What's your name, boy? TIGRANES: Gromnir, please... HOODLUM (with a shaking voice, intimidated by Gromnir's presence): It's Rocutio. TIGRANES: Well, Rocutio, you look like a smart guy. Certainly a proud intelligent man like yourself doesn't want to get mixed up with the likes of Rannos and Gremag, though. ROCUTIO: I have no quarrel with those two and yet I care for them not. Methinks they have overspent their welcome. They're getting careless. in short, it's time we got some new spies down at the Temple. LADY CRIMSON: What? Spies for the Temple? Is that what they do? ROCUTIO: Yes, yes. Spies for the Temple of Elemental Evil. They report to me and I report back to the Temple. (looking Tig over as if sizing him up) This week's report will be very interesting to say the least. Now, let me go. Farewell. with these words Rocutio pushed small Tig away and before Grommy had time to react slipped through the barn's doors. Grommy and Monte were about to pursue, but C stopped them. LADY CRIMSON: Let him go, he's but a pawn in this game. We'll meet him soon enough, s it seems all roads in this country lead to the Temple of Elemental Evil. We'd better go inform Rufus or Burne of our findings. so they did, Rufus promised to look into the matter personally. but it wasn't enough for our guys. they decided to check on the spies for themselves. entering the shop LADY CRIMSON: Huh? Funny seeing you here still... GREMAG: Beg your pardon? RANNOS: What can I do for you, friend? May I offer you the services of my man-at arms? MONTE: So how's business, Rannos? Your prices seem a little high for the market. RANNOS: Our prices are quite fair. Still, we might be able to make a deal. Between friends. MONTE: Cut the crap! You're no friend of ours, scum. TIGRANES: I got your courier to talk, Rannos. I know you and Gremag work for the Temple. RANNOS: This messenger of yours is (teeth gritted) lying! I cannot say what little games you or he are playing, but he is simply an agent for our supplier. TIGRANES: Yet he told me your entire operation. I could even point out where you keep your log books from the Temple. RANNOS (stays silent for a moment, exchanging looks with Gremag, who is pale as a ghost): What is it that you want from us? MONTE: Money of course, stupid. GREMAG: Would 100 gold satisfy you? MONTE: Don't be a fool, you can afford to give more. RANNOS: Hmmm, perhaps a friendly gift might buy your silence on this rather sensitive issue? No cause alarming the good folk around here. This is not about them. What do you say to this exquisite sword. It's a work of art, don't you find? MONTE: I'll take that, thank you (grabbing the sword from Rannos's hands). LADY CRIMSON: What do you mean "it's not about them"? What is it about then? TIGRANES: Does it have anything to do with Rufus and Burne? GREMAG: I see no point in continuing this discussion, you got what you came here for, now we expect you to leave and never come back. LADY CRIMSON: What we came here for were answers. And so far we haven't gotten any. Keep talking. RANNOS: Guard, see this people out, this conversation is over! GROMNIR: It'll be over when we say it is (pushing the guard away) GREMAG: That's it! Rannos, I think it's time for us to disappear (readying some powder). GROMNIR (unsheathing his sword): Ha! Good fun! the fact is you can't provoke these two into fighting, but you can kill them without any immediate consequences. the tricky part is you have to kill them in one round, because at the start of the second round they both will flee the shop. I'm not sure if you're supposed to meet them later, but the party definitely could use the loot right now. most of the stuff these two are sporting is +1, with two notable items: a chainmail +3 and a neck chain that nets 20000 gold if sold. well, nice knowing you, but you really have overspent your welcome. the rest of Hommlet is pretty trivial, it's a converting/matchmaking fest. we'll go into that in greater details in a few moments. interlude. MONTE: So, Tig, how's your progress with Pidesco? He still doesn't talk much. TIGRANES: Actually pretty good. He seems to understand most of what he hears. PIDESCO: Ya. TIGRANES: We were having a conversation about this village just now. We seem to agree this place has a lot of misery and unhappiness going on for it. It's a little over-the-top for such a small community, don't you agree? MONTE: Yeah! Definitely. Just look at Lady, she's having the time of her life! PIDESCO: Ahahaha! MONTE: Hey, you do understand, good to know we got ourselves a savage with a sense of humor end of interlude. for the rest of this update I'm gonna be showing you some key points in Hommlet. they all revolve around marriage one way or another. first, Fruella. her father wanted to get rid of her so much, that he was prepared to give her to a complete stranger. First it was Kirottu. and not even a week had passed before Fruella was up fro grabbing again after his gruesome death. these people have no heart, I tell you. yeah, since Grommy's the only male character in the party, Tig had to persuade him to play along. but ever since the ceremony Grommy has been very grim. I fear Fruella will share Lareth's fate. and you know what, this isn't the only marriage in our party. That's right! Tig has grown so fond of the herdsman's little boy, our sorcerer feels it more than just an arrangement to save their family from being cast out. could this be love? we'll find out soon enough! anyway, that's it for Hommlet. I had 70 screenshots from this session but writing 7 posts didn't feel right I'll cover some of the more interesting stuff in the next update. we still have a couple of quests there which I have no idea how to resolve. I'll make a note here: 1) tattoos, 2) Corl, the boy who poisoned the sheep, 3) blacksmith's mysterious box that nobody knows how to open, 4) Valden's lost wife, 5) two suspicious character in the inn, the warrior and monk duo. this is what you can look forward too. but the next big update is going to be about Nulb. this is how the game greets us, once we've gotten there: Just a half-day's journey afoot from Hommlet lies the disreputable community of Nulb. this vile place has always been rumored to house thieves, brigands, smugglers and pirates. There are many bad folk in Nulb. The village is filthy and ramshackle. the buildings are of turf, mud brick, crudely hewn logs, and old timbers from boats. one or two have stone foundations and proper boards, but even these are in need of repair. The everyday inhabitants of the village are boatmen, fishers, herdsmen, farmers, and the like. It is apparent that no one manages to make much of a living in Nulb, and as it is such a poor place, it is generally ignored by lords and bandits alike. A small amount of commerce moves into Nulb from the Velverdyva, as Imeryds Run is wide and deep enough for the small river vessels to use for offloading cargo and likewise embarking it. What a ****hole well, 'til next time! when it's going to be Elmo time

I meant the creatures quest in particular. as for the first chapter, Lorax would be the toughest opponent for me. I don't recall fighting a pirate lord

this is actually a good idea if only for the feedback, this way the devs would know where their game falls through

it's an optional area with a "puzzle", a +1 exotic weapon and a bunch of fire beetles. two exits, one leads to the Tanglebrook estate in the pen-district, the other to prison's first floor. hmmm. I'll have to look into this FRAPS business, it seems. as for the dialogue, I guess I should screenshot the conversations directly related to the story.

I had sleep and grease, the bastards saved against both

welcome to Neverwinter! time to pick the story up from where we left our dark heroes the last time. first thing's first, do you guys care about the dialogues in this game? should I transcribe them/make screenshots? I should've asked earlier. so today's update won't have any of that (the fact that the game doesn't save screenshots in chronological order, isn't helping this at all), and by the time I'm doing the next part we better had come to a decision. I keep having technical issues. first of all, I can't take screenies on my laptop because the fn+prt scr combination doesn't work in-game. second, the guest-machine keeps freezing (graphic card issues), and sometimes I forget to save the character. other times the character saves overlap deleting my most recent progress. I now have a very nasty gap of 2000 xp between the two characters because of all this crap. but nobody said it was going to be easy. I'm Kaftan Barlast. Just shut up and answer my questions. but this is for another update. today we will pillage the City Core and liberate one of the districts, grabbing one of the ingredients for The Cure in the process. as soon as our duo left the dreadful Halls of Justice, some hysterical woman approached them begging for help. turned out her family got stuck inside the Peninsula District, which was closed off after the prison break started. somehow the timing of this riot seemed awfully convenient, and it attracted the drows' attention. it was then decided to go straight for the city prison. but not before Kaftan had looted every chest, barrel and building in the area. they needed the money. while KB was busy salvaging, Volo made a quick stop at the Cloaktower guildhall. seemed like a good idea to join, of course that Eltoora character wanted something fetched. gave Volo a key. well, got to keep an eye out for the secret laboratories. sounds easy. Volo decided to hire a bodyguard, because KB tends to forget about his sorcerer friend in the heat of the battle. a barbarian seemed like a good choice. enter Daelan Red Tiger. at least now Volo felt safe knowing he could alway hide behind this "wall". Peninsula district turned out to be pretty boring. Volo and KB had two immediate tasks: to burn the numerous corpse piles and to get inside the prison. of course Volo and KB couldn't care less about the clean streets, they're drow for god's sake, they're immune to disease. so the bodies of dead plague victims were left to rot on the streets. the prison gates were closed, naturally, barricaded from the inside. there was a way to get in still, through the back door. the key to which was in possession of one of the lieutenants of the bandit leader. Kaftan found him in the sewers and gutted him like the rat that he was. still, Volo had acquired some new information regarding the riot. turned out it had been started by the warden himself. the warden's cousin, lady Tanglebrook had disappeared around the time the riot started, her maid and butler both said that she used to visit her cousin via a tunnel between her home and the prison. Volo thought it was a much better idea to take this less known route in order to avoid unnecessary attention. finding the house was easy, and even easier to get inside. kind lady Tanglebrook left the key under the door mat. the party found lady Tanglebrook underground, dead, with her brains sucked out of the skull. only one thing could do that. there wasn't any doubt, one of the waterdhavian creatures was inside the prison and it caused all this. the peninsula district prison is one of the worst dungeons in the game. before going inside I went back to town and hired Linu to watch over KB, thus the party grew to 5 members. with this setup the whole prison is just opening doors, letting your NPCs see the enemy, wait 'til everything is dead, open next door, rinse and repeat. 3 levels of this... the only more or less interesting battle happened on the second floor, when an enemy sorcerer managed to pull off two fireballs, while Volo and KB were bumping into each other in the corridor. that was the first time I had to reload. these badly designed dungeons cultivate recklessness... this is us kicking some half-orcish butt. he had to die. then the party descended into the Pits to confront the notorious Head Gaoler. good thing the drow know how to handle Intellect Devourers. the Gaoler fell so fast I didn't even had time to make a screenshot, was busy running with Volo persuading the zombies to leave. this is arguably the toughest battle and the hardest ingredient to get of the 3. I didn't find it all that tough, probably because the brain-dog kept trying to stun my party and was being constantly interrupted. I can't remember the other 2, though. I had my usual crash during this battle losing Kaftan. had to retreat and regroup. well, that's one. two more to go in this chapter. that's it for today. sorry for the hasty update, I got really tired of the technical side of things. next time I'll be more thorough.

Ugh, hullo! My name is Elmo! I am from Hommlet. I grew up with my brudder Otis, Otis is very good. Not like Elmo, no, sir. He's smarter than me. Otis went off to find his fortune. I always wanted to be a adventu- re.. adventurer! But Otis not take me with him. I got very sad and started drinking. I wus very lonely. But I ain't lonely no more! Elmo has friends now, yes, sir! They come to Hommlet yesterday. Elmo wus first to meet them, Elmo always greet guests, it's hostil- hospitality! There's a purdy lady with a creemsun heart on her chest. And creemsun lady says to her friends, "oh my, look at this poor creature. he can barely stand on his two feet. he obviously needs help" and then creemsun lady says to Elmo, "don't worry, Elmo, I will help you", and I remember, I need 200 gold to give back to inn keeper's wife. And creemsun lady said, "Elmo, will you promise me you'll quit drinking if I give you 200 gold?", and Elmo said, "yes, ma'am, creemsun lady!", and then lady and her friends left to fight bandits... And Elmo is all alone again. But as soon as creemsun lady comes back with 200 gold, Elmo will give it to inn keeper's wife and then Elmo be free! And then Elmo will go with creemsun lady and her friends, and then Elmo will find Otis! being the dungeon detector that he is, Monte led the team straight to the ruins of an old moathouse. Night already showed most of it. one good thing about the moathouse is that you can rest inside the small tower (after you get rid of the spider that lives there). clearing the structure itself is very easy, a couple of critters and a group of bandits, easily dispatched. we hit level 2 after this fight. I split Monte into a fighter/rogue to help ease the process of opening chests and disarming traps (and sneak attacks!). also split Grommy into a barbarian/fighter for the extra trait. by the end of this session Gromnir will have had the most kills under his belt, 53. MONTE: Wait! I feel a soft breeze coming from underneath this rock Monte pointed at a completely flat wall with no cavities or cracks of any kind on it's surface, there's bound to be a secret passage here, I know it! LADY CRIMSON: Pelor, give me strength! Why such a great affinity for caves and dungeons? GROMNIR: We think this could be a trap. Remember, the identity of this hoodlum is yet to be confirmed. MONTE: Hey! I wasn't the one, who insisted on coming here first. It was the "crimson lady's" idea. Those poor villagers have been suffering for so long, isn't that so? And then there's that Elmo character... LADY CRIMSON: Shut it. You couldn't possibly understand. I could see it in their eyes, the broken dreams, the lost souls. They need me. GROMNIR: Ha! Right, more like you needs them. LADY CRIMSON: I didn't expect you to understand either, and since we're talking about Elmo, yes, I think we should help him. He's a good soul, I can feel it. He just needs a little pushing. Don't forget, all the money we find here will go to Elmo. MONTE: Over my dead body. GROMNIR: We could arrange that, would amuse us greatly. LADY CRIMSON: Bah, don't worry, I'm kidding. I'm sure there's a lot more than 200 gold to be found here. MONTE: Okay, okay! You want to know why I'm so attracted to dungeons? I'll tell you. I'm half drow. GROMNIR: Ha! We has ourselves a thief who doesn't know whether he's mole or elf! Good fun! LADY CRIMSON: I should've guessed. Of course! I bet you spent your whole life fighting in tunnels. MONTE: Yes, as a matter of fact I did. I loved every minute of it. And guess what? In a couple of minutes you'll have a chance to appreciate the good old tunnel fighting! with these words Monte pressed several stones, and a large section of the wall slowly moved to the side, opening a narrow staircase leading deep underground MONTE (grinning): Ladies first. the hidden staircase leads straight to the ogre. he was easier than I expected (after what happened to Night's party, although I did reload twice after he'd killed Grommy with a single blow on both occasions). first, since he's too big to go through the archway, I started the fight by bombarding him with magic missiles and arrows. thus Monte and Tig took half of his HP away before we even had to engage him in close quarters. then I 'zerked with Grommy, threw a Bless his way, he went in and... with a single hit finished the beast. OFF WITH THY HEAD! (I lucked out, really, Grommy scored a critical on my third attempt, doing around 30 damage to the ogre, way to go!) in the ogre's room we found the remains of Night's party lying in the corner. that huge horned monster is non other than Gromnir in his Bhaal-spawn mode sadly enough, there was nothing to salvage, the only thing not chewed or torn was a magical cloak. guess it's better than nothing. we also found 3 torture victims in the prison cell adjacent to ogre's room. they were Gleem, Chanda and Nybble. Nybble kept saying something about people in strange robes, who had been visiting the ogre pretty often. before letting the losers go we extorted everything of value they had left (read: one lousy ring). clearing the rest of the dungeon was easy, we did lose a couple of guys to a Giant Crayfish, luckily there was an exit to the surface nearby, we used it to rest up a bit before checking the last big room of the dungeon. first we killed the single sentry, who was guarding a long corridor (it's possible to bluff your way past him or intimidate him into leaving, bluffing isn't the best of ideas because it will get your character in the center of the room right in front of the boss and his 12 henchmen, intimidating is pretty much the same as killing, just get rid of him before he can sound the alarm) once you reach the room, a battle will inevitably ensue. just look at this! 14 of them! including two lieutenants, (or mini-bosses) I was pretty certain that a direct approach would result in a very quick death. so we tried to work out a strategy. first, we lured the melee fighters away from the room, separating the enemy forces into two groups. then, after these had been finished, we used a decoy tactic: Lady Crimson (who has the most HP and the highest AC) would stand in front of the archers, drawing all fire, while Pidesco and Monte stuffed the bastards full of arrows. the result: one boss behind a closed door. easy prey he had some interesting things to say before we kicked his butt, though: As you will die soon anyway, I will tell you a little of what you have stumbled upon. This place is but an outpost for the Temple of Elemental Evil reborn. Here I rebuild our forces and gather loot for the full restoration! Soon the Temple will be fully operational once again. I shall ride to victory in the service of Lolth as her most favored priest! You have earned my wrath! he did give me trouble though. he can heal himself, and when he's not healing he casts Sound Burst, that damages everybody in the area of effect and has a chance of stunning them. good thing we have Grommy. 2 blows were enough to make Lareth reconsider. once at near-death, he was begging for his life. LARETH: Enough of this madness! I am Lareth (wiping the sweat from his brow). Some say The Beautiful (now a bit angry), but not in this undignified state to which you have subjected me. Now what is your reason for this most unkind intrusion? LADY CRIMSON: We came here to resolve the situation with the bandits that had been plaguing Hommlet. You are obviously their leader, no sense in denying it. LARETH: Yes, you are right of course. And there is nothing more for you to discover here. Your path is at an end. Now I beg of you to leave me be and disturb me no further. GROMNIR: You gots to be crazy. We not leaving here 'til your puny soul is crushed along with your mortal body. LARETH: I would like to see you try, you ugly beast. GROMNIR: Ha! Good fun! That will require a mere fraction of my power (makes a couple of steps towards Lareth readying his huge sword) TIGRANES: Wait, wait! We need information first. Spill the beans, Lareth, and then *maybe* we'll let you live. MONTE: Yeah, *Lareth*, where's the gold you've been storing here in the name of your beloved Lolth? LARETH: Huh? (amused by Monte's look) This is most peculiar, do I know you from somewhere? There is something to your eyes, I've seen that look before! Would you mind removing your hood, if only for a moment? MONTE: (makes a few steps back, annoyed) Don't change the subject. Where's the gold? LARETH: But why settle for gold, when I can offer you a lot more! LADY CRIMSON: And what would that be? LARETH: I offer you the chance of a lifetime! A place where you can find wealth beyond your wildest dreams and experience the stuff of legend. I can show you to the temple... the Temple of Elemental Evil! I can guide you to an unguarded passage inside! MONTE: That's not good enough, Lareth. Your surroundings here suggest you must have something to offer us right here and now. LARETH: (desperate) Fine! Take my golden chain - it is worth more than your pathetic life tenfold! (takes the massive chain off his neck and throws it at Monte) Now take it and begone! GROMNIR: We not think you be going anywhere without us (grabs Lareth's shoulder, grinning) LADY CRIMSON: That's right, I'll hold you to your promise. After we visit Hommlet, you'll take us to the temple. LARETH: Are you mad? Those villagers will kill me on sight! How about I wait for you here? MONTE: (digging in Lareth drawers) Fat chance. Hey, what's this? (takes out a small book, that looks like a diary) LARETH: That's personal! Give it here! well, basically, there's two choices here. take Lareth with you, he will join your party in that case. or kill him. killing Lareth updates the moathouse quest in Hommlet. if you decide to take him with you, he will leave your party once you enter Hommlet. I was too lazy to check if he goes back to his dungeon and I really wanted to see this secret passage to the temple. so I asked him to take me there. he'll lead the party to a small tower guarded by a single sentry. after seeing "Master Lareth" he will let you enter. if you're foolish enough to proceed inside, this is what's waiting you: yeah... Lareth will attack you at this point. for some reason I couldn't act (either a bug or a spell), after one turn, at some point, my characters' icons disappeared from the queue, and I could only watch as my party was being destroyed. so I reloaded and decided to kill Lareth. the thing is I couldn't find the dialogue option to make him hostile and I lost my savegame, made prior to him joining. so I figured "to hell with this quest", took Lareth out for a walk and fed him to bears. Lareth has some very cool things, a "freedom of movement" ring and a +6 Plate in particular. the only bad thing about this is I don't know how to find that tower again once I'm ready. probably should've left Lareth alone for a while. at least he was kind enough to mark a new location on the map, a village called Nulb. that dead giant in the pic is a part of another quest, the Blacksmith in Hommlet will ask you for the head of a giant. not sure what it does though, presumably the smith opens his special stock to you. whatever. the giant can be found in the middle of the Emridy Meadows. there's also some nice loot where he dwells, and a bear. the area itself is swarming with undead. they stay underground until you come close enough, at which point they pop up. there are 3-4 clusters with undead. one of them contains another quest item, an artifact of the Church of St.Cuthbert. it's under a rock called Rainbow Rock. once you grab it, a party of undead will pop up and attack, so have to be prepared. anyway, that's it for today. the party is lvl 4 already. the next update won't be coming for some time because I have to do all the quests in Hommlet off screen. when we come back, we'll travel to Nulb and see what's up in the north. P.S: sorry about these posts being text-heavy. I keep forgetting to make screenshots whenever I reach a point of interest.

if you read closer, you'll see, that KB is going to be a fighter/rogue once I rack up in levels. I made it through most of the game as a ranger with a barbarian henchman, health was never a problem

Gromnir is the shiznit.

ha, actually, I do have one more laptop, I could make it 3, but that would be very hard to pull off

exactly!

they're not new applicants. they removed two female students and took their place

well, first draft. meet the party: Volourn Kaftan Barlast I picked these two because I like their forum handles. and they seem to me like the right type to be playing a lawful/evil and a chaotic/neutral drow. Volo is going to be the weapon of mass destruction. I gave him Spell Focus in Evocation and Necromancy schools. because I can't remember which one is better, I'll probably go with Evocation in the end. KB is going to be a fighter4/rogue(infinity). I'll try and make him a dual-wielding weapon master later. I won't show the tutorial area. basically, the story is: our two drow agents were sent by their house to the surface to investigate the Wailing Death business in Neverwinter. they infiltrated the city's academy under the guise of soon-to-graduate students (they are protected by a powerful illusion, making them appear as elven females from the academy). with their skills it was only a matter of time before they'd have gotten the assignment. luckily for them, a new figure appeared on the scene. as a result of an attack on the academy, the rare creatures, held there, escaped. our fearless duo was chosen (being the only survivors of the attack) by Lady Aribeth herself to find the creatures and return them, because they might be the key to finding the cure for the plague. well, here they are, and I'll see you next time, we're going to go to the zoo and, probably, visit an ancient tomb.

well, there's no point in waiting for you, guys, to contribute, so I'll just continue from where I left off. now, I had to reroll the whole party due to alignment conflicts. and while on it I decided to change Pidesco and Monte a little bit. Pidesco wasn't out-of-this-world enough for me, so we went all Grace Jones (of Conan fame): a slightly different stats and an undying affliction for bastard swords. Monte, on the other hand, wasn't enigmatic enough. here's the new him: I had to go into my meta-gaming mode and switch from rogue to fighter, I'll split him in a couple of levels, for now I'd rather have a back-up tank for the upcoming fights. and that's it! we're ready to roll. here's an introduction (where our characters get to see each other for the first time, and upon meeting, are pulled into a whirwind of happenings, which binds them together and sends them on an epic journey). 'twas a warm summer night in Mitrik. the tavern packed full with all sort of bad folk. but, as with any story about heroes, among those one could find a few brave and noble souls, their hearts yearning for an epic adventure. and that day destiny had picked four warriors, for a mission that was anything but suicidal. a group of four exits the tavern. and what a colorful bunch they are. a giant half-orc fronts them, seemingly absent from the discussion, juggling his greatsword lost in thought. a few feet behind him, a small gnomish figure, covered in robes tries to keep up with a heavily armored dwarven woman. they're having an argument. dwarf is the leader of the band, it seems. she has a noble stature about her and an emblem of a crimson heart on the chest-plate, undoubtedly the mark of a knight. they are followed by a tall woman, she is listening to their conversation, but judging by her grimace she can hardly understand them. the giant sword on her back only confirms her alien nature, you don't see a lot of obsidian bastard swords in Greyhawk, let alone Veluna. suddenly, a shadow jumps at them from behind a corner. the green giant takes the full blow to the body, which doesn't seem to bother him one bit. the barbarian is more than twice the size of the attacker. the hooded figure drops on the ground in front of the group. BARBARIAN: What in Nine Hells? the assailant jumps on her feet and without a word attempts to run off into an alley. BARBARIAN: Where do you think you're going? the half-orc, with an amazing speed for his size, throws out his arm and manages to grab the woman by the hood. the rest of the party surrounds them. and at the same moment they hear an inhuman cry: staggered, the group tries approaching the man, but then they see a dead body lying at his feet. looks like a fight is inevitable. KNIGHT: Who are you? What have you done to the woman? Is she dead? MAGE: Wait, who's he speaking to? I think these two know each other. points at the roguish woman in barbarian's hands. what happened next happened so fast, nobody had any time to interfere. the hooded woman reached for a throwing knife at her belt with her free hand, and before anyone could stop her, let it fly. the knife pierced the bandit's skull, dropping him dead. MAGE: Gromnir! Can't you hold her tighter? You look like someone capable of subduing a small-frame elf. And a woman too! GROMNIR: Shuddup. We isn't seeing no immediate threat to us. Easily could break her in half if we wanted to. *pfft* MAGE: Hey! You, elf, what's your name? Who are you? ELF: Who I am is of no importance. What is important is that dead woman over there. KNIGHT: And what's so important about her? GROMNIR: Obviously it's important enough to have gotten her killed. We say search her. MAGE (turning to the knight): Gromnir's right, my lady. Might pour some light on this mysterious figure we were so lucky to encounter. they search both bodies, finding nothing but a small golden symbol and a letter with a seal of the church of St. Cuthbert. ELF: I know this woman. It's Canoness Y'dey. MAGE: And how, may I ask, do you know her? I'm beginning to suspect, this man was after you. Why? Maybe it was you who killed Canoness? ELF: It's a possibility. But before you jump to conclusions, hear me out. The closest church is in Hommlet, I suggest we take this letter and the emblem there, show it to the chief cleric and... KNIGHT: Excuse me, "we"? Who is this "we"? I see no reason to drag you along. What's more, I see no reason to trust anything you say either! We should just drop you at the jail and let the sheriff deal with this mess. ELF: Look, my name is Monte Carlo, I'm from Hommlet myself, I was a guard for one of the trading caravans. There's some serious trouble with the bandints in Hommlet. They could use people like you there! You'll kill two birds with one stone. And I'll get to confirm my story. It's a win-win situation. MAGE: Hmmm, for a brute you make too much sense, maybe we should go to this town of Hommlet, what say you, Lady? KNIGHT: Well, how far is it? MONTE: Only 1 day away, if we march immediately, we'll get there before dusk. Besides goes to whisper, I heard there's a dungeon nearby, overrun with undead, lots of treasure to be found, I reckon. KNIGHT: Great... Bandits *and* a dungeon with the undead. What could be better? This is exactly what we need right now, bump some bandits' heads and spend the next couple of weeks underground, plowing through hordes of undead... GROMNIR: Ha! Good fun! end of introduction. anyway, I'm not going to show you the town business, since Night had already done that. when we come back, I'll show you a couple of battles. ta-ta~

there's a great NWN2 OC+MOTB let's play on the lparchive.org I see no reason to compete with him on the other hand, NWN OC doesn't have complete text/screenshot LPs

do enemies get tougher when a player joins a game, like in Diablo?

I'd be interested.

first time I played it I made a ranger. it was a nice build, but the dragons proved otherwise. for this play through I was thinking of a sorcerer/cleric tandem. because I don't know much about fighters. on the other hand, dual-boxing a fighter should be a lot easier, than two spellcasters

oh, then this is going to be awesome! and yes, the whole point is to make it annoying in order to start feeling sadistic pleasure in the thing. it's actually very easy, since any player can pause the game, I move them on the bigger screen (WSAD for one, following with the other with the point-and-click).

they're obviously not right in the head, because there's a million different ways of spending one's money better than this