Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy - Ch26 (Mae'Var)

[Tigranes]

Two interesting things now I'm back playing the save. (1) The newer members are Level 5, not 3. Still long way to go but that does mean they can actually contribute to the battles, making the island a doable challenge. (2) TrueNeutral's shapeshifter abilities are broken. I'm not sure what that means for the long-term survivability of the character.

[Gorth]

Maybe allow a "class swap"?

 

Depending on what "broken" means in this context of course.

[Tigranes]

Apologies. What I mean is that the command does nothing at all. Thus TrueNeutral is currently just a priest that can't wear any armour.

[Gorth]

Oh, that explains why he took an arrow in the face... and the knee...

[Deraldin]

Apologies. What I mean is that the command does nothing at all. Thus TrueNeutral is currently just a priest that can't wear any armour.

 

That hardly seems fair. :/ Swap him over to a normal druid or one of the other kits maybe?

[213374U]

Apologies. What I mean is that the command does nothing at all. Thus TrueNeutral is currently just a priest that can't wear any armour.

Chances are one mod or another b0rked the spell. Either the spell itself was modified and now points to a non-existent script or .cre file, or the character has the wrong version of the .spl assigned as an innate. With a bit of time you can probably fix it with Shadowkeeper and NearInfinity, but it's kinda tedious and Shapeshifter abilities were bugged in the vanilla game anyway.

 

If a mod broke it, rule of thumb is, install another mod on top of it to fix it!

 

http://www.spellholdstudios.net/refinements/#c30

 

D:

[Blarghagh]

No badass Werewolf for me?

[Tigranes]

14. We Defeat Our Enemies With The Power of Capitalism

 

Last we left the Obsidianites, they were washed up ashore on Balduran's Island. We speak to the little girl near the shipwreck, and learn that speaking in mean ways might make people not like us. This means that we would have to actually speak to people a second time, and act nicer in order to make them forgive us and provide necessary information. Yep, this isn't a game for casual gamers.

 

The village is small and rustic, and everyone talks funny. The headswoman informs us that they were descended from Balduran's shipmates.

 

The werewolf island probably has the worst writing in all of BG1. The 'foreshadowing' is awful, and the faux-rustic speak is about as effective as Hagrid in Harry Potter. (Wait, I guess... that's pretty effective.) That's a pity, because the setting and backstory itself is still very interesting - Balduran's travels, his mysterious end, and now, of course, signs which suggest some form of lycanthropy has infected the survivors. One might even speculate that most/all of the lycanthropes we now find are descended from Balduran's crew, and some have simply lost their 'humanity' faster than others.

 

In any case, we march beyond the walls of the village to defeat the nasty wolves and progress the plot. This area is beset with some 'traps' for unwary adventurers. Which makes little sense, as we're the only potential targets of such traps in a century or more, but ah well. They attack us either way.

 

The human one-shots half of TrueNeutral's health, who proceeds to run away and hide in a bush.

[Tigranes]

Nevertheless, the werewolves prove surprisingly easy to dispatch. Walsingham and Nepenthe tank pretty well, well enough to make up for Oner, and in general everyone is able to pull their weight, to my surprise.

 

The only real survivor we find is Dradeel, a mage on Balduran's ship who has gone somewhat mad.

 

Mass Effect 3 ain't got nothing on this cinematic beauty.

 

And now we come to the most challenging part of the island; Balduran's own shipwreck, made up of 4 levels full of monsters. First, a collection of wolves including vampiric.

 

The cluttered environment makes tactical navigation difficult.

[Tigranes]

But we do fine.

 

Level 2 brings us face to face with some werewolves. Tale takes one swipe to the face and decides to spend the rest of the battle in a corner.

 

Werewolves deal a lot of damage, have a lot of health, and regenerate. The only real answer here is to pound on them one by one faster than they do us. But remember how we spent the entire fortune of Durlag's Tower on wands? Tale can now proceed to paralyze wolves to lessen the threat. They actually have good saves and magic resistance, but it does tend to work every two or three tries.

 

Merry Christmas.

 

Floor three is the same. For the sake of minimizing cheese, I'm not resting through these floors (which would require us to exit the ship); I think at this point we've already guzzled a dozen health potions.

[Tigranes]

And at last, the final floor with Karoug, some form of head honcho. I sent Sorophyx up invisible to scout, but the dialogue trigger fires anyway. Luckily, this doesn't break our cover, even though they just had a conversation with us.

 

Sorophyx: Remember, talking is a free action!

 

Daese, the mage, has some nasty spells, so she's our first target. The backstab doesn't take her out completely..

 

...but the rest of the gang pop up at the same time, and TrueNeutral blasts a wand of the heavens in her face, while Tale conjures up some monsters to keep the werewolves at bay. Yes, it's all a bit like a Harry Potter movie.

 

But the biggest problem is Karoug, who has transformed into the Loup Garou form. I think they're immune to something like all but +2 weapons, which rules out half the party, and is a lot more powerful. We never picked up +1/+3 Bastard Sword vs. Lycanthropes for some reason, either. Sorophyx quickly nips over and loots the table for the Sword of Balduran.

 

Walsingham: You'd think he'd have destroyed the sword, or something.

Gorth: You haven't been on a lot of adventures, have you?

[Tigranes]

. Luckily, the wand of paralysis once again comes to the rescue; it gets the big LG in one try.

 

Tale, TrueNeutral and Nepenthe help by pretending to kill the big baddie.

 

The final blow comes in the form of a Wand of Frost.

 

Sorophyx: Truly, there is nothing that money cannot defeat.

 

We trot back to the village to tell them the good news. And of course, we are totally surprised to find out that the innocent villagers too are lycanthropes, and we have been infected with the disease during our battles. More choice & consequences: if you tell them you DO want to stay lycanthropes, they still get mad and you have to kill them all anyway. I guess a werewolf on the throne of murder wasn't quite plausible.

 

The domesticated village werewolves pose no challenge. Tale nearly gets himself one-shotted, but the wand of paralysis does its job again.

[Tigranes]

Finding a hidden tunnel complex in one of the homes, we finally arrive at the one and only serviceable ship in the entire island, one which the werewolf-villagers had been preparing in secret. Only the mother werewolf remains between us and freedom.

 

Mother werewolf steps on some traps...

 

...then gets chunked. For 463XP? You've got to be kidding me.

 

The journey back.

 

Just when you thought it was all over, it turns out Mendas the scholar was also part of the whole scheme the entire time. (Quelle surprise.)

[Tigranes]

His plan was to send us so that his wife, Kaishas Gan, might use us to return the entire people to the Sword Coast.

 

In other words, we were just glorified sea-chart delivery boys.

 

In past games, I've found this battle extremely difficult. With Sword Coast Strategems' upgrades, Mendas/Selaad is immune to most weapons found in the game, regenerates at something like 3-4HP per turn, and just keeps on hitting. I've had games in the past where I was only damaging him as fast as he was regenerating.

 

We dispatch his bodyguard first.

[Tigranes]

TrueNeutral tries a wand, but predictably, it does little damage. We are doing OK, but with party members having to retreat periodically to avoid death.

 

Eventually, Tale lands a wand of paralysis, and the last werewolf falls with no real threat to the party.

 

I have to say that I was surprised how well the werewolf island went. Without all of the SCS upgrades, and with the new party members having levelled up to a decent amount, the sheer quality of our loot and wand-investment carried us through. Apologies for the lack of banter/description, but those take the longest, and I wanted to keep updates going.

 

But next update will see us take on the granddaddy of Tales of the Sword Coast, Aec'Letec, and yes, there will be permanent deaths. In fact, I am currently in a rather odd situation, and will need some suggestions on what to do next - but that will become clear in the next update. Which I shall endeavour to do after my 2-day trip to NYC...

[Blarghagh]

Yes! Survived another update! SCORE!

[Nepenthe]

But next update will see us take on the granddaddy of Tales of the Sword Coast, Aec'Letec, and yes, there will be permanent deaths. In fact, I am currently in a rather odd situation, and will need some suggestions on what to do next - but that will become clear in the next update. Which I shall endeavour to do after my 2-day trip to NYC...

*waves everyone goodbye*

[Gorth]

But next update will see us take on the granddaddy of Tales of the Sword Coast, Aec'Letec, and yes, there will be permanent deaths. In fact, I am currently in a rather odd situation, and will need some suggestions on what to do next - but that will become clear in the next update. Which I shall endeavour to do after my 2-day trip to NYC...

I do not like the sound of this

[Walsingham]

Nor do I. I can't believe we're taking on that tremendous freaking demon.

 

I can imagine a lime flavoured souzaphone with the eyes of Deng Xiao Ping. But I can't imagine us winning that fight.

 

I say we ignore the bloody demon and run off to BG 2.

 

Seriously.

 

Otherwise we'll all just die and that will be it.

[Deraldin]

Oh! Oh! TrueNeutral is the only one that survived the fight! Right?! :D

[Gorth]

There are rumors of massacres in the Baldurs Gate area, entire parties wiped out and tavern tales of woe flourishing up and down the Sword Coast. Maybe some entrepreneurial cleric of Waukeen should get the idea of setting up a life insurance company.

[Deraldin]

There are rumors of massacres in the Baldurs Gate area, entire parties wiped out and tavern tales of woe flourishing up and down the Sword Coast. Maybe some entrepreneurial cleric of Waukeen should get the idea of setting up a life insurance company.

 

Oooh... interesting idea you've got there. Can I convert to Waukeen? :D

[Gorth]

There are rumors of massacres in the Baldurs Gate area, entire parties wiped out and tavern tales of woe flourishing up and down the Sword Coast. Maybe some entrepreneurial cleric of Waukeen should get the idea of setting up a life insurance company.

 

Oooh... interesting idea you've got there. Can I convert to Waukeen? :D

We could turn it into a franchise...

 

G&D Life Insurance: Always there for that failed saving throw.

 

If you don't make any claims the next three adventures, we throw in a free resurrection *)

 

*) Terms and conditions apply, please consult your local cleric.

[Deraldin]

There are rumors of massacres in the Baldurs Gate area, entire parties wiped out and tavern tales of woe flourishing up and down the Sword Coast. Maybe some entrepreneurial cleric of Waukeen should get the idea of setting up a life insurance company.

 

Oooh... interesting idea you've got there. Can I convert to Waukeen? :D

We could turn it into a franchise...

 

G&D Life Insurance: Always there for that failed saving throw.

 

If you don't make any claims the next three adventures, we throw in a free resurrection *)

 

*) Terms and conditions apply, please consult your local cleric.

 

I think this is that start of a beautiful limited liability partnership.

[Nepenthe]

There are rumors of massacres in the Baldurs Gate area, entire parties wiped out and tavern tales of woe flourishing up and down the Sword Coast. Maybe some entrepreneurial cleric of Waukeen should get the idea of setting up a life insurance company.

Oooh... interesting idea you've got there. Can I convert to Waukeen? :D

Now we just need somebody to figure out quick if Waukeen was dead at this particular phase of FR history or not... I know I keep forgetting.