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

[SupidSeep]

C'mon Tigranes, I'm hoping for an update this weekend ...

 

... as an aside, I never played a Bard class in BG2 so never experienced the Bard Stronghold questline ... I'm really looking forward to read how hilarous it would be under your typing.

[Tigranes]

24. Miss Me?

Click Here for Table of Contents

 

When I left off, we were to decide whether to travel to the Umar Hills and investigate the disappearances - or, well, travel to the Umar Hills and apprehend the rogue Valygar. (Clearly, it didn't occur to us to do both.) The decision paralysed us. Literally.

 

(Sorry for the long break. Mainly, I was reading linguistic anthropology. I'm sure you don't want to know more.) 

 

On the way out, we encounter a bunch of generic individuals attempting to burn a drow.

 

Nepenthe: But... look at her arms. She's not tied down, or anything. What's she doing?

Gorth: Shhh. Sprites are expensive.

Nepenthe: Hmph. What you really expect to see is a dramatic close-up. Shaky camera, loud music, a discrete cleavage shot, the works. Save me, Nepenthe! Save me!

 

Nepenthe:Press X to save me now, or forever lose thy karma!

 

The angry mob didn't count on the fact that we just bought a magic user license. 

 

TrueNeutral: But... Call Lightning is a divine spell. I could cast that anyway. 

 

True, but now I can cast Stoneskin and bask in my invulnerability while you lot take care of the business.

 

The Good Deed of the Month done, we shall depart the city of Athkatla once again. On the way, we spot a merchant in distress; but we shan't allow him to be accosted.

 

Pidesco: I thought you were done with this helping people business. What happened to the cause of Evil profiteering?

 

You mean, I'm protecting the filthy, profit-loving capitalist who refuses to pay the working man for his labours?

 

Pidesco: Ah.

[Tigranes]

Indeed, the merchant offers a one-time opportunity to partake of his goods before he wanders off. He has several rarely-found scrolls in the repertoire, but we can only afford one: quite possibly my single favourite spell, if only for the visual effect. You don't know power until you can fire giant green balls that turn your enemies into dust.

 

Die.

 

En route to Umar Hills we come upon another random encounter. By now, however, we are more powerful, and our saving throws & HP are sufficient to give us a turn or two to work our magic.

 

Chaos + Emotion...

 

...chunky time.

 

Finally, we are in the remote village of Umar Hills. The nomenclature is derived entirely from the witch that spells their impending doom, and the terrain feature. It's like they're asking to be wiped out horribly, horribly.

 

Immediately we are presented with three possible reasons for the disappearances: (1) monsters, (2) wolves, (3) Umar. 

 

Nepenthe: They should realise that none of those are the real reasons for their current plight. Why are they forced to eke out this pathetic rural existence, continually at the mercy of the elements? It is none other than the bourgeoisie, and it is their false consciousness that prevents their emancipation-

Pidesco: Was he always like this?

Gorth: Back when he joined us in the Sword Coast all he wanted was boobs and alcohol. 

Pidesco: And he's gotten any since?

Gorth: Nope.

Pidesco: Ah.

 

The local inn yields another chattermouth, though the authority of his tales are undermined by his snarky stable-boy.

 

More talk.

 

If you think about it, 'bleedin' banana' is a terrifying thing to call a man.

 

Well, armed with our Three Theses, we must now explore the surrounding areas. We come upon a Cowled Wizard who doesn't know much, preoccupied with building a Stone Golem. 

 

TrueNeutral: Uh... he does know that there are a lot of stone golems around the realms, right?

Gorth: We killed a couple in De'Arnise Keep. Nothing special.

TrueNeutral: Poor guy. 

[Tigranes]

The first thesis to test is that of Evil Monsters . Madulf and his pack try and explain that their own kin are disappearing, too.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure why any sensible person would choose to believe them here. There are no clues to vindicate them other than their own claim, and we don't have any good way of monitoring them or checking facts. The pragmatic thing to do is kill them all. So we do.

 

The nearby cave yields a mimic jumping out a chest. This would be the mimic blood the Wizard wanted for his golem.

 

We now move closer to the second and third theses. Merella, the ranger, had lived alone in a large home far from any other inhabitants - which strikes me as rather imprudent, but I suppose it's easier to say that now animals have eviscerated her and carried off her remains.

 

"Hey, there are some wolves around. So, uh, just in case I'm brutally killed, here's a map! Not that I'll think of moving out of my isolated and defenseless home, you know."

 

It seems another party had got this far, and had too ventured into the wolf den. 

 

Azure: Maybe they had a better dagger I can lift off their cold, dead bodies.

 

Finally, while we're here, we stop by Valygar's home. He had cunningly hidden himself in a gigantic house at the top of a hill overlooking the village, and posted a guard who would ask everyone passing by, "YOU'RE LOOKING FOR VALYGAR, AREN'T YOU? YEAH, I'M ASKING BECAUSE THERE'S A MASSIVE BOUNTY ON HIS HEAD."

 

(From what I remember, Valygar's stupidity is confirmed by the fact that you then enter his home and he's there. With Unfinished Business, though, he quickly flees in response to your searching; we will need to return to Athklatla for clues to his whereabouts.)

 

We return to the town Minister and report our findings. Surely ogre-killing is worth a reward on its own?

 

The Minister takes seven hours to retrive our reward, and now says there are more disappearances. 

 

Nepenthe: A filthy capitalist trick to deny us of our rightful payment.

 

Indeed.

[Tigranes]

There's nothing to be done but follow the map to the dark forest. We find the wolf den, and a lone...

 

TrueNeutral: A werewolf! 

 

Anath tells us of a light crystal, part of the equipment for the original purpose of the temple: the worship of the Sun God, Amaunator. Presumably, his followers all deserted him because at some point everyone started praying to Amanuator instead. 

 

TrueNeutral: Look, it's a werewolf! Like me!

Gorth: You're not a werewolf, you're a shapeshifter.

TrueNeutral: I've... I've never met another werewolf before. I... I feel like we've known each other forever. I... 

TrueNeutral: *swoon*

 

We follow Anath. She kindly tells us how to kill all the shadows, then is promptly killed by the shadows.

 

TrueNeutral: Nooooo!

 

TrueNeutral: *sniff* I'll... I'll never forget you. 

 

The shadows prove easy enough to dispatch. 

 

Inside the temple ruins, however, there are slightly more challenging opponents; the lumbering skeleton warriors are joined by not only disposable shadows, but slightly tougher shade wolves and shadow fiends. I break out the big guns by...entangling Nepenthe.

 

We rescue Mazzy. Asked how we can trust her, she answers that she has never lied. Yeah, that doesn't quite cut it, you know.

 

Our object here is to find and reassemble the symbol of the Sun God, which helps us lower the barriers towards the cause of the evil. (I suppose I should be mortified that I can actually remember the rituals exactly. There are three rituals, and the dialogue options are 2-3-1, 3-1-1, and 1-3-2. Yep.) 

 

Ambush on a narrow bridge overlooking a bottomless chasm? Yeah, should really have seen that coming.

 

The poor navigation actually creates some problems for us. Nepenthe blocks the path on one end, but shadow fiends swarm from behind, and they are capable of paralysing enemies. We'd Turn Undead, but of course, all our useless clerics keep dying. 

 

Gorth: I'm dying! 

[Tigranes]

 

TrueNeutral is tasked with healing the man, but he too is paralysed, and the spell fizzles just before firing. We attract the shades' attentions with arrows and flails. The only way to save Gorth is to make all the opponents redirect their attack; to do so, we have to attack them all. I run over; major AOE spells are out of the question, but a well placed Aganazzar's Scorcher to the right of Gorth should take two, maybe three, of the shades off him.

 

 

Or, you know, the beam is a bit wider than I thought...

 

Gorth dies his second death. He has one remaining.

 

 

A quick revival & rest later, we're back on track. Our next obstacle is a lake of lava, with several caches of treasure in the centre. 

 

Nepenthe: Me again, right?

 

You've got to earn your keep somehow.

 

There's the somehow.

 

Nepenthe:Look, I'm sick of this. Why can't someone else do this for a change?

 

Fine, fine. Well you've taken care of all the lava, I can take that stone tower-container thing at the back-

 

Ah. This is why you're on trap duty.

 

We find the ghost of Amuana, restoring to her coffin the bones we found earlier. Our reward is a wardstone that allows us to remain unnoticed by the Shadow Dragon.

 

Pidesco: You mean, our reward is finding out there is a Shadow Dragon.

 

That too.

 

Little of the ruins remain now. Obviously, we can spell Amaunator to get across in safety.

 

A shadow tries to trick us by bartering, but we aren't fooled. (Seriously, why would the undead lock up a shadow? Really isn't a great plan.)

 

In the cache, we find but a second scroll of Disintegrate! 

 

Alright, this isn't funny anymore.

 

Disintegrate-less, and blessed with not a single level-up this update, we now approach the end of our quest. Beyond lies the chamber of the Shadow Dragon, then the undead lord responsible for the disappearances. We possess a wardstone so that the Shadow Dragon will not notice us, but of course, that goes out the window if we attack it. So, Obsidianites, my question is an easy one. 

 

Dragonfight?

[Enoch]

Oh, what did poor Thassyl'xillia ever do to you? 

[Zoraptor]

Having recently played that area what Thax (to her friends) did to me was try and drain something like 10 levels a pop with her breath.

 

Personally, I wouldn't dream of attempting her in chapter 2 in even semi ironman conditions.

[Azure79]

Fighting a dragon at this point seems like a bad idea. That level drain is scary and he is enhanced with SCS. 

[sorophx]

I remember taking my thief and cheesing all the dragons with traps. 20-30 should do the trick

[Zoraptor]

I think the great philosopher Kryten could find three small problems with doing that.

 

(There is no thief available, hence Nepenthe setting all the traps off rather than a thief disarming them)

[Blarghagh]

Fighting the dragon seems like a horrible idea so obviously you should do it!

[Pidesco]

You should attack the dragon as long as you can guarantee I won't die. Everyone else can jump in a lava lake, though.

[Gorth]

Noooo.... You Only Live Thrice!

 

As for the dragon, it helps a lot with a few clerics/druids in the party, especially the spell that gives you immunity to level drain and the mace of disruption given to one of your front line fighters. A pair of lower resistances and dooms to start off with before it becomes aggressive and it becomes susceptible to hasted fighters and wands of nastiness (lightning being my favourite, because with bit of geometry skill you can to some degree avoid your party members),

[Enoch]

Noooo.... You Only Live Thrice!

 

As for the dragon, it helps a lot with a few clerics/druids in the party, especially the spell that gives you immunity to level drain and the mace of disruption given to one of your front line fighters. A pair of lower resistances and dooms to start off with before it becomes aggressive and it becomes susceptible to hasted fighters and wands of nastiness (lightning being my favourite, because with bit of geometry skill you can to some degree avoid your party members),

 

Wait, you can lower resistance an neutral party without making it attack? 

 

I tended to rely on brute force for BG2 dragonfights.  Hasted fighters, summoned elementals and aerial servants, etc.  Wizard-types would be on-hand with appropriate counter-spells, but the prospect of lowering resistances and saving throws just felt like it took too many combat rounds for too-uncertain results.  I had better luck with crossbow bolts.  (Seriously-- my first Firkraag kill was attributed to a critical hit from Jan Jansen.) 

[Nepenthe]

 

(Sorry for the long break. Mainly, I was reading linguistic anthropology. I'm sure you don't want to know more.) 

Does that make you a cunning linguist, now 

 

 

 

 

Noooo.... You Only Live Thrice!

 

As for the dragon, it helps a lot with a few clerics/druids in the party, especially the spell that gives you immunity to level drain and the mace of disruption given to one of your front line fighters. A pair of lower resistances and dooms to start off with before it becomes aggressive and it becomes susceptible to hasted fighters and wands of nastiness (lightning being my favourite, because with bit of geometry skill you can to some degree avoid your party members),

 

Wait, you can lower resistance an neutral party without making it attack? 

 

I tended to rely on brute force for BG2 dragonfights.  Hasted fighters, summoned elementals and aerial servants, etc.  Wizard-types would be on-hand with appropriate counter-spells, but the prospect of lowering resistances and saving throws just felt like it took too many combat rounds for too-uncertain results.  I had better luck with crossbow bolts.  (Seriously-- my first Firkraag kill was attributed to a critical hit from Jan Jansen.) 

 

In the original release game you could cast "resist magic" or whatever, which would overrule the dragons' much higher magic resistance and not count as a hostile action. I've never gotten to abuse that, as it was already sorted by the Baldurdash fixpack.

 

Also, am I just pointing the obvious when I say that something was changed recently in the way the forum editor handles quotes, and it's ****ing terrible now.

[Deraldin]

Dragonfight? Dragonfight. I think we determined that total party wipes didn't add to the death counter, so you've got a few tries at taking down Thaxll'ssillyia at least.

 

More importantly, if you don't kill the dragon now, you never get another shot at it and lose out on that wonderful black dragon scale and Crom Faeyr.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Deraldin

[Spider]

Of course you have to fight the dragon. Carnage and mayhem is what we're all here for

[Calax]

I say dragonfight!

[BBMorti]

[Tigranes]

Well, that seems to be a majority for Dragonfight. We will see if that was such a great idea...

 

In terms of brute force Thax isn't as tough as Firkraag, and certainly easier to take down; the game changer is her breath attack, which I think is enhanced somehow in SCS. I'll have to check what cleric pool spells TrueNeutral (as a Shapeshifter druid) has at his disposal, but I doubt we can equip everyone with Negative Plane Protection, and more importantly, Cold Protection to prevent permadeath upon hit. 

 

My usual strategy is to set up summons and thieves, have all the fighters line up surrounding the dragon (so they aren't all caught by one breath blast), and then start off with a Breach / Lower Resistance combo, follow that with another Lower Resistance and maybe Greater Malison, etc. The pre-hasted fighters are still the main source of damage, though. Tricky thing with this party is that Nepenthe is really the only tank; Azure is still pretty useless at the moment even if I have him wield the Flail of Ages. He'll have to be backed up in damage by TrueNeutral in werewolf form & Gorth with his best enchanted arrows, but that means we can't actually heal anyone during the fight, only drink potions. So we have to bring him down within 10 rounds, max, or he'll start chunking everyone. 

 

Oh, and once this is done: Mae'Var. We should have done it earlier, but depending on how many party members don't make it, it might still be a challenge...

[Gorth]

Wait, you can lower resistance an neutral party without making it attack?

Not quite, but if you do it as the first thing, you sort of get it as a free "opening" shots (if you have two spell casters). It does count as a hostile action and initiates combat, but getting the first shot can be crucial when dealing with over sized lizards

[Azure79]

I guess that settles it. This should be interesting. 

 

I remember tackling the Shadow Dragon pretty early in my playthroughs, so its definitely possible. Of course I had the option to reload until I got it right. Good luck man. 

 

Also I demand more TrueNeutral werewolf romance. He should hook up with Faldorn when the time comes. 

[Gorth]

Also I demand more TrueNeutral werewolf romance. He should hook up with Faldorn when the time comes.

Yeah. Strange nobody wrote a romance mod for Anath and a shapeshifter protagonist.

[Chilloutman]

If you choose dragon fight I am pretty sure I will show up in next update as ingame character