Lets Play The Temple Of Elemental Evil

[sorophx]

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.

[sorophx]

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

[sorophx]

 

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.

[sorophx]

Ironman does delete the save game.

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.

Edited January 30, 2011 by sorophx

[sorophx]

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.

[Tigranes]

Well, basically, ironman means you can't reload because the fight isn't going well for you or because someone got killed. Sometimes people will say ironman should delete your saves, etc., but because of bugs like you encountered I tend to think that's rubbish. Anyway, you reloading to refight battles is definitely not ironman, but that's ok - better for the LP if you don't get wiped out, I uppose.

 

he Temple forces were led by a demon queen named Zuggtmoy. and prince Thrommel commanded the Verbobonc/Furyondy armies.

 

Lovely. Are those names from the original module?

[sorophx]

Lovely. Are those names from the original module?

as far as I know, yes and I think for the most part Troika has managed to stay very close to the original

 

oh, and there was only one instance in the game where I was really close to wiping out (Lareth fight in the moathouse where he engaged the party along with the rest of his minions, that was brutal). since then I'd reload only if more than one character died (which also happened only once). the latter reloads were due to the fact that I didn't want to suffer the 10000 xp penalty after Raise Dead.

Edited January 31, 2011 by sorophx

[Nightshape]

Ironman does delete the save game.

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.

 

Quicksave? SAVE! HA! You save by quitting out. You can only load when you boot up, no such thing as "reloading".

 

I really do wish I hadn't actually gone Ironman proper when playing as I'd still be playing now.

 

Also because of bugs I feel you made a senisble move.

Edited January 31, 2011 by Nightshape

[sorophx]

I really do wish I hadn't actually gone Ironman proper when playing as I'd still be playing now.

yeah, playing the game for the first time in Ironman mode is a very bad idea. there are some fights that can't be just beaten without some serious preparations. and there's no way to know about the enemy behavior beforehand, (for example the Co8 modpack adds some extra creatures to the more challenging encounters, I didn't know about it and had been unpleasantly surprised on a couple of occasions). I wiped yesterday to a couple of mobs in one of the Nodes, would have sucked to lose all that progress

Edited January 31, 2011 by sorophx

[sorophx]

I've encountered another very serious bug during combat if the character with Fragarach or Scather attacks the enemy and kills it but at the same time the enemy has an elemental shield up, that damages the Fragarach/Scather wielder, an attack of opportunity will kick in (it always does with these swords when being damaged) and your character will attempt to hit a dead body, which is impossible. needless to say combat breaks at this point an you have to force shut the game and restart. I couldn't understand what had caused it at first and spent two hours trying to win one particularly hard fight. only being forced to reboot again and again... this is getting very tiresome

Edited January 31, 2011 by sorophx

[Azure79]

I've encountered another very serious bug during combat if the character with Fragarach or Scather attacks the enemy and kills it but at the same time the enemy has an elemental shield up, that damages the Fragarach/Scather wielder, an attack of opportunity will kick in (it always does with these swords when being damaged) and your character will attempt to hit a dead body, which is impossible. needless to say combat breaks at this point an you have to force shut the game and restart. I couldn't understand what had caused it at first and spent two hours trying to win one particularly hard fight. only being forced to reboot again and again... this is getting very tiresome

 

Ugh, sounds horrible.

 

I hope it doesn't make you rage quit, I'm quite enjoying this LP. I think I'll try ToEE. It's been a while since I got a D&D fix.

[sorophx]

no, I'm too close to completing the game and I have loads of back-up saves. I just want to figure out how to avoid it in the future. it's definitely linked to the swords. I'll try using other weapons.

[sorophx]

I just want to figure out how to avoid it in the future.

and I did, turns out it's a very common issue and there a pretty easy way to fix it. but let me tell you how it all began.

 

The party is approaching the Temple. Suddenly Monte spots something, a human figure in the distance, sitting near the Temple's doors. He brings it to everyone's attention.

 

MONTE: Hey, there's someone there at the gates!

LADY CRIMSON: Where?

MONTE: Right there, see? This could be a trap.

GROMNIR: Ha! Somebody is actually stupid enough to try an' ambush us? Good fun!

LADY CRIMSON: No, Monte, don't even think about going there alone to scout. Everybody stay close.

 

Once the party is at the gates, the unidentified person gets up on it's feet and turns to the heroes, then waves at them.

 

PIDESCO: Prince!

MONTE: Huh? What prince? You mean that guy we saved?

TIGRANES: That certainly looks like him. Maybe it's a shape-shifter...

ELMO: It is! It is Prince Thrommel! Oh goody goody! The biggest bestest hero with us again!

LADY CRIMSON: Well, I don't know about that, Elmo. Just be on your guard.

 

Prince gets up and walk up to the party, making a greeting jesture.

 

THROMMEL: Hello again, my friends!

LADY CRIMSON: Prince! What are you doing here?

THROMMEL: My dear lady, why, the same thing you are! I couldn't just let you face the biggest evil in the land on your own. And I had to finish what I started. Me and the demon queen have a score to settle.

LADY CRIMSON: But what about your wedding?

THROMMEL: You should not worry about lady Jolene. She had waited for my return for 6 years. It was she who insisted on my coming here. Milady knows what's best for our land is best for her. Lady Jolene of Veluna can wait for a little more. And I see you already have Scather! Good to know Lord Grundwell had little trouble finding you.

TIGRANES: Well, Prince Thrommel, it's certainly good to have you with us. I am sure with your help we will be able to banish Zuggtmoy from this plane.

THROMMEL: Oh no, banishing the queen just won't do, I intend to destroy her once and for all!

LADY CRIMSON: Then let's not waste any more time. Onward to victory!

 

yeah, I reloaded the game to the point where Thrommel was still in the party and went straight for the Nodes without visiting Hommlet. I actually intend to never go there. I have enough potions and scrolls in the Extraplanar Chest for 3 parties, so the supplies question is out of the way. and there are no more quests there (almost). I thought it would be cool to reenact the Battle of Emridy Meadows sa for Scather, I used the console to generate it for the party

 

anyway, the nodes. the nodes are small pocket-planes which can be accessed via the main hall of the Greater Temple now that Hedrack is dead. there are four entrances, air, earth, water and fire. we'll tackle them in that order.

 

 

the Air Node is the easiest of the four. they're all very small, but this one has almost no enemies except for a few lost souls.

 

 

that's Vortexes (you can see their eyes glowing), there also were a couple of Large Air Elementals but they look exactly the same. just admire the scenery.

 

we also met one friendly human, Taki.

 

 

he's nothing special except his Masterwork Composite Bow, and besides the party didn't have any more room. Let's pretend Tig teleported him out of there after they had defeated the guardian. same goes for this guy:

 

 

he clearly had lost his marbles long ago. but he was pleased to hear Alrrem was dead.

 

 

these are called Ildrisses. I have no idea what they're supposed to be. they have very little health and couldn't penetrate my warriors' AC. they were the last obstacle on the way to the guardian demon.

 

 

oh, it's only a Vrock, this should be easy.

 

this fight is so uninspiring that I'm not even going to show pictures of it. the only thing vrock has got going are two summoned air elementals, Sound Burst-esque scream attack and mirror image. downing him was very easy. on his body Monte found an Air Gem that fitted the socket on the Orb. one down, three to go.

 

much to Monte's pleasure the Earth Node turned out to be a set of tunnels with monsters (read: a lot of fighting). but there still were interesting encounters.

 

 

this is an interesting fellow actually. he's rather weak but has a supply of hand-crafted "fireballs". they are woven balls filled with fire (duh). he will even give the rest of his stock to the party after they save him from that mini-plane. but at this point a couple of extra fireballs definitely aren't anything to write home about.

 

most of this area is swarming with these guys:

 

 

can you see them? the mini-earth elementals. these are called Galeb Duhrs. I've read a lot about this part of the game. for some reason people have trouble with these things. I wasn't bold enough to charge at them all at once (they stay underground and only pop up when your party gets close), I used Monte to scout ahead and lure Galeb Duhrs to the party one-two at a time. they did have some kind of damage resistance but not a whole lot of health. and since everyone in my party seem to be able to attack 3-4 times per round these encounters were a breeze.

 

 

Chaggrins. again, no idea what these are. they go down in one good hit and can't do any harm to our party. it was almost like slaughtering little kids. Lady Crimson felt very bad about it.

 

 

and that's a Gorgon. you can see it on the picture, half of my party is petrified. now, I remember in BG2 (at least I think so) if you didn't have Stone To Flesh in the party, a successful petrification would always result in a "load game" (correct me if I'm wrong). in ToEE though it only means that these characters can't fight for a number of rounds. big deal.

[sorophx]

one last creature on this level before going against the guardian.

 

 

what a funny guy. he thought our heroes were demons and did his best to try and bargain with them for his life. Lady C almost cried after listening to his mad ramblings. don't worry, Sargen, we're almost done here and then you can go home.

 

 

oh, how nice, a Glabrezu. as you can see talking to him is of no use. even though Tig was able to pass the speech checks it didn't help. the demon was so bent on eating the whole party that attacked first.

 

 

after summoning two elementals he put up Mirror Image and engaged the party in close combat. as any gigantic creature he's got quite a reach and makes it very hard to approach him. he also uses Slay Living. but our heroes were able to resist his foul magic this time around. no casualties, second guardian down, second Gem retrieved. next stop is the Water Node.

 

the Water Node is considered to be the hardest area of the four. for a couple of reasons. first, you are thrown into the fight as soon as you enter it. the entry point is surrounded by enemies.

 

 

the big creatures in the pic are two Vodyanoi (which means "water dweller" in Russian). they're essentially Umber Hulks with area-of-effect Confusion instead of a gaze attack. they start the battle with it so buffing up before entering is a good idea.

 

I wasn't prepared for this fight so the party barely made it through. as you can see the beasts were supported by a pack of lizard men and a small number of ghouls. which are actually the low-level creatures and don't pose any threat whatsoever.

 

to the south we found a camp occupied bu bandits.

 

 

they're relatively weak. after his troops had been slayed their leader tried talking sense into Lady C and the gang.

 

 

so this is what happened to Grank. poor bastard, he had lost it already by the time our heroes arrived, like pretty much everyone else in this place. he literally jumped Pidesco's sword. oh well, at least he wasn't suffering anymore.

 

and now it's time to show you the toughest battle of this area (the reason why everybody hate this place so much). meet the Eyes of the Deep!

 

 

originally they used to be a weaker version of beholders with a bunch of mildly dangerous spells. but. then came the Co8 modders and decided this battle wasn't tough enough. so they renamed the creatures and added a couple of charges of Cone of Cold to each of them.

 

now, in ToEE Cone of Cold is almost like Fireball, it has a very wide area of effect and hits for 40-50 points of damage if it passes the resistance and saving throws. as you can see there are four of them. which means around 150 points of damage to every party member on every turn. fighting them head-on is as productive as putting yourself on fire.

 

we needed a strategy. see that huge figure in red with a cleaver? that's Lady C. what I did was put the Spell Resistance robe on her, buff her with Protection from Energy: Ice, buff her with Spell Resistance (adds 20), plus Aid, Prayer and Bless to help with saving throws in case the resistances don't hold. Lady Crimson then tanked the bastards while Tig bombarded them with fireballs. took the party five turns to dispatch the damned eyes. I believe this is the only way to kill them with no casualties. as a reward the party looted the chest the beholders were guarding. it contained a Holy Greataxe. oh goody.

 

 

this swarm of ogres is the only thing standing between us and the guardian. sorry guys, you should've stepped aside, because we're on FIRE!

 

 

the last guardian is a Hezrou. I hate this type of lesser demons the most. the one from NWN2 comes to mind

 

 

it summons a smaller hezrou to its aid. what I hate about them the most is they have this aura that damages Strength. very, VERY annoying. and then they have massive HP, the guardian has around 450. and he summons Large Water Elementals, too. if it weren't for Pidesco and Thrommel I don't know what I would do.

[sorophx]

it's finally time for THE SUCK the Fire Node, that is

 

 

it starts off rather well, two Efreeti, nothing fancy. then a group of snakes and elementals. nothing we haven't seen before. but then...

 

 

Noble Salamanders. if you remember the fight with Bassanio in the Fire Temple you know these. they always use their first turn for tossing a Fireball in Tigranes, always. that means in two turns the party will probably lose Tig and then the salamanders will turn to Fruella. this is also the point where my game stopped responding because of the Scather/Fragarach bug. so I had to reload and think of a strategy that didn't involve using these swords. and in the meantime try and keep Tig alive for as long as possible. here's what I did.

 

first I buffed Tig with everything I had to help him survive the initial onslaught (silly me, putting up a Lesser Globe of Invulnerability would've been enough since Fireball is only a level 3 spell). then I positioned him right on top of salamanders to be able to spam Cone of Cold without hurting the whole party with it. I then sent Monte to cover the flank. then I made sure the combat would start with Tig and Monte on top of the initiative queue.

 

Tig would begin with a Cone of Cold, then Monte would sneak attack the bottom salamander killing it. scratch one grunt. once they were done I sent the whole party in. with a couple of lucky saving throws they were able to clear the area without losing anyone. and it only took me 3 hours! seriously, the game kept freezing for no apparent reason. took me a while to understand Fragarach was what had caused it. and then it took me some time to finish the fight with acceptable results because something kept going wrong, like Chain Lightning causing the game to crash.

 

oddly enough I seem to be the only one to have trouble with this fight. most people don't even bother to mention it in their walkthroughs. oh well, we've gotten through it after all.

 

 

here we have Bodaks. they're hard to spot on the screen. I think they're undead. and they have got this nasty death gaze move they kept spamming. other than that nothing special.

 

and here's a very interesting NPC. Meet Darley.

 

 

DARLEY: Um, hello there. Can you help me? I seem to be lost.

TIGRANES: Lost? You mean you have no idea what this place is?

DARLEY: Oh, I know I'm inside some kind of pocket dimension that Zuggtmoy made. But as for exactly where that is, I haven't a clue. (She shakes her head) Heavens, where are my manners? My name is Darley. I am a sorceress.

TIGRANES: And my name is Tigranes. I am wandering through this elemental node too. how did you get here, Darley?

DARLEY: I was part of a group that tried to destroy the temple a few years ago. We failed, and I was thrown in here.

TIGRANES: What happened to the rest of your group?

DARLEY: I don't know what happened to them. Maybe they were sent to other places, or maybe they were killed. I haven't seen them, or anyone else for that matter. it's terribly lonely here.

MONTE: You expect us to believe that a lone sorceress has survived in here for YEARS?

 

Darley glares at Monte for a moment and then her form shifts and wavers. Horns appear on her head and small bat-like wings sprout from her shoulders.

 

 

ELMO: By all that is holy! What the devil are you?

DARLEY (lifts her head proudly): I, Darley, am an alu-demon! My mother was a succubus, and my father was a lowly human. (She looks at the group as if expecting a response)

MONTE: A-what, now?

TIGRANES: What are you waiting for us to say, Darley?

ELMO: Maybe that she is a a-bum-nation!

LADY CRIMSON: Oh, be quiet, Elmo.

GROMNIR: And it's "abomination", nitwit.

DARLEY: My being a demon doesn not bother you? You do not run in terror, or attack me out of fear?

MONTE: Lady, with everything else I have seen lately, I really don't care WHO your parents were.

GROMNIR: I do not flee.

LADY CRIMSON: And I do not attack, but I also don't want to talk to you.

TIGRANES: Live and let live, I say.

DARLEY: I will never cease to be amazed by mortals.

MONTE: SO how did you get in the nodes?

LADY CRIMSON: Monte! I suggest we live Darley to herself and go on on our own business.

TIGRANES: Wait, C, this could be useful. Please continue, Darley.

DARLEY: A group of us assaulted the Greater Temple. Not every demon agrees with Iuz or his plans for domination of the Prime Material Plane. (she shakes her head) We were defeated, utterly, and I was banished to the nodes.

MONTE: Demons fighting demons. I love it!

TIGRANES: We have clashed with Iuz, too.

 

anyway, Darley is a joinable NPC as you might have guessed. she's not a very good sorcerer because despite being level 10 she doesn't have level 5 spells and her spell selection is very disappointing. but I did end up picking her up. why? for one thing Elmo has become useless. he can't damage anything with his Masterwork Battleaxe. for some reason I never bothered to shift him to a more common weapon (like a longsword, which are in abundance in this game or a greataxe, anything, really) I also never bothered with crafting. seemed pointless to me, a waste of time. and then I've always intended to replace Elmo, with Zaxis. but since I'd never actually had a chance to, taking Darley seemed like a good idea. I used the console to give her a level-up and picked a couple of more useful spells like Cone of Cold and Energy Resistance. it was about time I had a dedicated sorcerer for buffs and a supporting damage dealer. to ease Tig's work.

 

so, with their new member the party pressed on. Elmo couldn't stand Darley so refused to walk with them. Tig promised to teleport him back to Hommlet as soon as they were done with the Fire Node.

 

 

Fire Toads. nothing too dangerous. there was also a group of Noble Salamanders right before the guardian. this time only four. but with the Lesser Globe of Invulnerability on Tig, and Darley to help with Cone of Cold it came out rather well. not a single hit point lost. after resting for a couple of hours it was time to meet the last guardian demon.

 

 

a Balor. typical. that didn't look good.

 

this is considered to be the toughest obligatory fight in the game. and believe me it can be a major pain if you let it.

 

on his first turn he will summon two Efreeti and a demon. worst case scenario - a glabrezu. if you get lucky - a swarm of quasits. on my first serious attempt I got the former.

 

 

in this pic you can see: a dead glabrezu, an alive glabrezu, a dead hezrou, a vrock and one dominated Fruella. what a mess. the glabrezu, hezrou and vrock were summoned by our party with the Orb of Golden Death. once you insert a Gem into it you get the option to summon it's guardian demon.

 

so, on his second turn, balor will enable his aura of fear (which will hold for 5 rounds if I'm not mistaken) rendering most of your party useless (save for characters that have got Protection from Evil or Magic Circle against Evil up). on his next 5 turns balor will be spamming Slay Living (or Power Word: Kill, I'm not sure since it kills everything including summoned demons) again, only the person protected from Evil will be able to resist.

 

once he's out of spells and auras he will engage the closest character in melee combat. he attacks 4 times per round and deals around 70 damage with each hit. needless to say Stoneskin is a must-have.

 

so, the usual tactic is to surround him with summons, stand back and wait for him to be done with those, all the while dealing with his summons. you should also have one tank buffed and ready to hold balor off until his aura wears off.

 

on my first attempt I used prince Thrommel as the tank so he could chop balor up with his attacks of opportunity. one thing I didn't take into consideration was balor had a permanent fire shield up. so, again, the Fragarach bug kicked in. so I reloaded, gave him and Pidesco new weapons (long swords which they were not proficient with) and changed my tactic a little, switching to Lady C as the main tank.

 

on this second attempt I lost Fruella (and i mean lost, balor charmed her and then mind controlled her so she disappeared from the party list and became a hostile character he then killed her with one attack of opportunity), balor summoned a glabrezu (who's not exactly a gift himself), killed all 3 of our summons with death spells and then came for more. at first I thought we were in the clear now, I could've lived without Fru. but as luck would have it balor's AC is impenetrable without Scather or Fragarach (seriously, Gromnir with 27 Strength and a +3 weapon managed to land 1 out of 10 hits, ONE). coupled with balor's insanely high spell resistance there was no way we could even scratch him.

 

so I decided to cheat. you can kill any outsider with the Dismiss spell. I've read reports that it works on balor if you manage to pass his spell resistance (of 28) and then his usually high saving throw. well, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get Dismiss through. I must have reloaded at least 40 times. things looked really grim.

 

and then I finally decided to google "toee fragarach bug". and what do you know, I found a solution

 

 

see that big encircled figure to balor's left? that's prince Thrommel. and balor will be dead in one round.

 

turns out you can work around the Fragarach bug, forcing the game to end the character's turn through the inventory window. I also found another bug. if you send an NPC to balor, the demon won't initiate combat. so I placed Thrommel behind him, started combat and chopped the bastard to pieces. that has been the easiest boss this game had.

 

and now the party could summon a balor!

[sorophx]

we're now one update away from finishing the game. there are some things left to do in Hommlet, but since I'll lose both prince Thrommel and Darley if I teleport there, I'm not doing them.

 

I will show you what can be accomplished by going to Hommlet at this point though

 

 

I'll let Burne do the talking, take it away, Burne!

 

The skull is pure evil, no good can ever come from that cursed thing. I know that it must be destroyed! To destroy it you must find some place of strong winds, cast a powerful fire spell upon it, and then strike it with a granite maul. Quickly then, you must throw it into a place of water. That is the only way to destroy it. My assistant will help you with that. That will shatter the skull and do considerable damage to whoever or whatever created that thing. Its destruction would certainly mean the end of the Temple and its evil. No matter how hard it may sound, you must try. That thing cannot be allowed to exist!

 

all in all, it's a giant fetch quest (well, not really THAT big, because 3 of the 4 ingredients can be found in Hommlet. for example Burne will suggest scribing the Scroll of Fireball for you if you give him 300 gold (or if you agree to answer a couple of riddles) seriosuly, what was Troika thinking? 300 gold? riddles? this is the end-game for heaven's sake!

 

you can of course scribe them yourself if your mage has the proper trait. I just used the console to generate the items and show you the next leg of the quest.

 

 

so you give the Orb and all the ingredients to Pishella.

 

Zuggtmoy, the creator of the orb, will be severely weakened for four days. Iuz will even suffer for his assistance in its creation. After four days, Zuggtmoy will be banished to her Abyssal Plane, but only for a short time. You have four days to kill her!

 

so join me next time to see how this campaign for complete destruction of evil ends. and don't forget to leave comments to help get this thread to page 11

 

P.S: remember the electrical trap in the Greater Temple? I accidentally found the password to turn it off!

 

 

whenever you knock down a troll in the Greater Temple, it will initiate dialogue. you then have to pass a sense motive or intimidate check to get the troll to give you the password. easy! now all that's left to do is to figure out what those scarabs were for.

[sorophx]

bumping to remind you all of this thread's existence. let's get to the new page already!

 

so I can switch to NWN

[Tigranes]

Disappointed that the bug forced you to cheat the game to keep going, but I guess it's all in the name of Troika. So we're pretty much to the final battle?

 

Would be cool to see some character stats at the end BTW, even if TOEE doesn't keep kill counts or the like.

[sorophx]

yep, the next update will be the final boss, Zuggtmoy. I will try to show all possible ways to finish the game (there are 5 or 6 in total iirc).

 

and I will show the characters and pics of the stats section of the log book

Disappointed that the bug forced you to cheat the game to keep going

it's not the bug really. I ended up reloading to an earlier state and replaying for real once I found a way to deal with the Fragarach bug.

 

the only thing I did cheat with was adding Scather to the party with prince Thrommel still being in it. for one reason or the other there are no walkthroughs or let's plays of ToEE with the Co8 pack installed. all players tend to show the vanilla game. and in that game Scather was a greatsword. so I built my party around Gromnir and Pidesco planning to give Scather to Grommy. well, in Co8 Scather is a bastard sword, and I ended up giving it to Pidesco.

 

if you were to say "so what, just have one character with this sword, play it fair", you would be absolutely right. but to tell you the truth at this point it's not all that important since I end up using magic to kill most foes anyway and prince to kill the big bad guys. even if I had sent prince on his way and left Pidesco as the main damage dealer, it would have been the same.

[Azure79]

Good stuff. I like Gromnir's blue lightning sword.

[sorophx]

ok, to get things going a little in here I'll post the final party stats. first, character sheets.

 

TIGRANES

 

Charisma is a bit off because I forgot to remove Eagle's Splendor. other than that, here's Tig in all his sorcerer glory.

 

GROMNIR

 

Strength is almost 25, I removed his Mitts of Strength +6 for the pic. Grommy went through the rest of the game with Frostbrand +3, although he was initially designed to wield Scather. the only enemy Gromnir hadn't been able to damage was Balor.

 

PIDESCO

 

after getting Scather Pidesco became the party's most valuable asset when dealing with the toughest of enemies. four attacks per round and virtually endless attacks of opportunity made him deadly. we definitely wouldn't have suffered if we had lost prince Thrommel.

 

MONTE CARLO

 

I forgot to give him a second weapon, he's a dual-wielding thief (and a pretty good one at that). also, Dex is so high because of Cat's Grace.

 

LADY CRIMSON

 

last but not least, the leader of the party. she's got Divine Might up that's why Lady C looks huge. you might recognize the outfit, it's Hedrack's armor set. hence some of the attributes. the party's primary tank through most of the game (excluding fights where there was no need for one).

 

and now the log book. it contains a section called Ego. here are the highlights.

 

the reputation marks we'd gotten throughout the game

 

 

not much to say here, they speak for themselves. a lot is missing from the list as far as I know but who cares. next.

 

 

Most Experience From One Combat Session. the Balor fight of course.

 

 

the award for Most Critical Hits goes to Monte. naturally, since he's a thief. the number is pretty low in my opinion, goes to show how crappy I am at thief

 

next up is the award for Most Consecutive Hits, and it goes to:

 

 

Pidesco and his amazing bastard sword technique. almost 100 swings without a single miss, he'd make a great baseball player.

 

and here's what you all have been waiting for:

 

 

Most Kills - Gromnir, of course. it would've been at least 300 if not for Tig and his AoE spells.

 

I'm not gonna show the less important stuff. Pidesco was the one who had taken the most damage from a single physical attack, Iuz hit him for 36 damage. Gromnir had had the most damaging blow, 56 damage to a gnoll. Tig is in close second with his 52 spell damage caused by a Cone of Cold to a Noble Salamander. and like a tank should Lady C holds the record for most damage taken, 39 spell damage from an Ice Lizard (I don't even remember fighting these).

[sorophx]

finally, the Ego section holds every monster the party has ever defeated. I'll show you the first 20.

 

 

we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves since it shows Zuggtmoy already. should be a cue for you to drop a couple of comments, I've already finished the game and the last update is ready.

 

like I said, Balor is the toughest, meanest, challenging monster in the game. look at his Challenge Rating! he's even tougher than the final boss (Zuggtmoy has more HP though). the only surprise comes in the form of an assassin, Smigmal is placed third, as you can remember we had to kill her in one turn to get this entry, she didn't seem so tough then.

 

anyway, let's get to page 11 already

 

(oh, forgot to add, notice Tig's level, he had hit 13 right after defeating Zuggtmoy)

[Pidesco]

I kicked all sorts of ass.

[Tigranes]

Charisma is a bit off because I forgot to remove Eagle's Splendor. other than that, here's Tig in all his sorcerer glory.

 

Yeah, the CHA seems a bit low, am I diseased or something?

[sorophx]

Yeah, the CHA seems a bit low, am I diseased or something?

 

anyway, for some reason I can't trigger the two possible extra endings with Zuggtmoy, I'll keep trying but I don't want to edit my characters just for that. I'll probably just show the ones I could get and be done with it