Malavon, Pale Justice

With Marketh out of the way relatively easily, I was starting to get cocky – that Umber Hulk ambush put me in my place.  I was going to take it easy, rest with the gnomes, buy some stuff from Nym, and max out my equipment.  Rhino shield is one thing, but Pale Justice for Venecia is quite another.  So we creep back into the Artian’s district, where I had previously ventured unaware and been reduced to single-digit HPs by Umber Hulks.  I figure we’ll scout around, go into the building and get the sword, and then head back.

Only thing is, I thought Pale Justice was INSIDE a building.  So I look around – killing hulks and minotaurs – until the big green building is all that is left.  And like an idiot, I walk inside – killing more umber hulks, then walking unawares into a Malavon trap.  Iron Golems, poison clouds – the whole shebang.

Wow.  Not what I intended.  Looks like I was ‘glossing over’ the walkthrough again.

Elementals and summoned skeletons form up as shock troops, while the main party blesses and takes out Umber Hulks.  Eventually the Iron Golems break through, so Rolf takes on one, while Callien uses his horn to summon berserkers to fight the other.  Beetles and monsters come out from the Orgonneys, and the golems fall.  By the time we go back into the main room, Malavon was lying dead from his own gas!  Or so it appeared.

The real Malavon appeared behind us, out of range of any of our summoned monsters.  We trained bows on him, and aimed spells, but by the time they were ready he had dimension door’d to another part of the complex.  Rolf, Venecia, and the elementals followed him, taking damage from his Cloudkill and avoiding his Web spells.  By the time they closed, he was firing off Malavon’s Rage, completely obliterating the remaining Viking warriors and damaging the elementals.  Then, before Rolf could strike, he again disappeared.

Apparently he miscalculated, because he appeared again right in front of Jaylen and Kaylen, who were keeping their distance and providing spell support.  They quickly abandoned their magic and raised their weapons – Kaylen the Frostbrand, Jaylen the Holy Mace.  With Spivey and Callien arching, the wizard was unable to get off further spells, and Jaylen ruthlessly bashed him into oblivion. 

With the remaining elementals providing cover, we slowly went through Malavon’s belongings, with Jaylen scribing about 12 spells into his book.  He drank a Potion of Genius to assist.  We also got seeds (for the Arboretum) and an oil of null effect for Ginefae.  Once Jaylen was done collecting, we visited Ginafae and cured her.  Then, we went to Nym to purchase the animals – birds and squirrels – and then set off for the Severed Hand. 

Delivering the water, seeds, squirrels and birds restored the arboretum and satisfied the spirit.  It also freed up more backpack space, allowing us to continue on our quest. 

We returned to Lower Dorn’s Deep, and immediately sought out Dirty Lew, collecting the Rhino Beetle shield and equipping it on Kaylen.  It’s meager +1 AC bonus is disappointing, but perhaps I can have it enchanted when I have more time.  For now, rested and ready, we move on to the Palace to take on Perdiem.  The walkthrough said this was relatively simple – rush in and take on the idol, avoiding all other creatures.  In practice, it turned into one of the toughest battles of the game, requiring skill, planning, and precision.

First, we came in from the courtyard, so the spiked skeletons attack, about 5 of them.  We summon monsters and elementals to assist – the elementals are torn apart quickly, but distract the skeletons long enough for us to break through.  From there we summon more creatures – undead, mainly – and gently push forward, to where Zombie Lords and Greater Mummies await.  Their spells are incredible – hopelessness, wracking pains, and then orbs, making the party useless – so we have to keep our distance.  We use area of effect spells to cause damage, and snipe while our summoned creatures go toe to toe and use all the mummies spells.  We take out the batch of lords and mummies undamaged (!!). 

Now, the great rush.  With more summoned creatures to take the brunt, we bless and haste ourselves and make a rush on the idol.  The idol is tremendously powerful – Finger of Death and other hugely damaging spells are cast several times.  Meanwhile mummies and zombie lords tear into our summoned creatures.  Just as our creatures fall, and the mummies begin to tear into us, the idol finally falls, adn order is restored.  The undead all fall, and Perdiem and his remaining followers return to their senses. 

With Perdiem’s key, I now have 5 – only Ilmadia remains.  I return to the gnome village before heading to the mines, to free Beorn and take down the Salamander king.  After that, I just have a decision to make – take down Poquelin, or head to the expansion first.  Logic would dictate the expansion would wait, but Poquelin’s destruction might end the game…so I am unsure.

Lower Dorn’s Deep

So, how do you know when you’ve reached the truly elite stages?  Nevermind tough battles.  Nevermind blogging for nearly a year about the game.  Nevermind getting to the second-to-last real area in the game. 

You know you’ve reached an elite status when you’ve found something not in the Dan Simpson Walkthrough.

Lower Dorn’s Deep is an immediate challenge.  The Tarnished Sentries, these huge, throwing-axe weilding undead, resist anything but blunt weapons, hit any AC, and see invisible/hiding characters.  They also come in packs of 3, usually aided by flaming salamanders.  This makes the whole main area of Lower Dorn’s a true nightmare, especially when 2 of my 3 spellcasters like summoning Flame Elementals.  We have to rest and reboot, give things a second go, but eventually enough is cleared out to start exploring.

First is the elevator down to the gnomes – but I’ll skip that for now.  We head through to the abandoned village, and are totally walloped by Umber Hulks.  So many.  Wow.  Packs.  Summons, fireballs, hanging on by the skin of our teeth.  We take on about 4 sets of them, surviving the feeblemind effects.  then its back outside to rest.  Whew.

At this point I decide to take the walkthrough more to heart.  We talk to the gnome Norl, gaining nothing. Then we head to the palace entrance, and Callien the bard can bluff Seth into thinking we are affiliated with the Kraken society.  We take a quick detour south to see the gnome girl with her tonge slashed out – terrible.  We take the key and head into the tower, bravely scaling the steps and killing the archers in a tough battle.  Then it’s off to the palace, first fighting screamers and mushroom people, then going on to Marketh’s minions.  Callien convinces the one to become and artist – but the other, stupider one fights us.  Summoned undead and dangerous dwarven axe tear him apart.  Thieves jump out and attack, but never more than 1 or two at a time – silly, with all the summons we have. 

After grabbing the sack of potatoes, its upstairs to clear out hiding theives, and then threaten Marketh.  He dumps his stuff and agrees to leave – but before going over all his spoils, Seth and a Kraken Society mage appear and attack.  The mage drops a robe I’ve never seen – which Jaylen collects.  And the Kraken mage is not in Dan Simpson’s walkthrough!  So, we email him about that!  Clearing out Marketh’s area is tough, as he has SO MANY potions and crap that I can’t carry. 

From here it’s back to the gnome village – I need the inventory space, so the potatoes can be dumped.  We fight several Rhino beetles (i didnt know there were SEVERAL), mostly from afar with arrows, bullets and flying axe.  Then the Umber hulks start – just one or two at first, no biggie.  I have no summons, just thinking I’ll find a passage to the rest of the gnomes.  Then, the walls fly open, and the Hulks just start pouring out.  6, 9, holy.  By the time I realize I’m in trouble, two party members are confused, and they’re closing in on Jaylen.  Callien summons an Earth elemental, and the ice lances start flying.  We lose Rolf to confusion, and everyone off and on – it ends up a very, very hard-fought battle, but we come through okay.  Finally, gnome city and relative safety. 

Some decently fun battles, but many of the one-villian-on-entire party ones that take away.

Party Review

Just a quick note to clarify that yes, my party is kicking ass.  And most of it is due to planning.  I still find some things I goof up (Jaylen can use a shield, now that his Cleric skills are back.  Jeesh) – but regardless, using the dual-class makes those two characters much, much more utilitarian.  Jaylen can cast all kinds of spells – about four screens worth.  Kaylen can go toe to toe when necessary.  Those two – fantastic.

Next tier is the great ones – Rolf, first of all.  Pure fighter, with super strength and Con and Dex.  AC of -9 (now with +4 shield).  5 Proficiency points in Axe -he’s dropped crossbows entirely with the throwing axe that always returns, and pretty much never misses.  So many attacks, so much damage.  Wow.  Callien Cane, also tremendously useful – whether firing the bow, swinging a great sword or poking with a halberd.  And then, the instant-identifying, using mage stuff, casting those extra spells – summongs, attacks, webs, etc.  Plus all the bard options in the game – all the conversations and extra bits.  Truly, this game MUST be played with a bard.

Venecia, with her -12 AC, huge strength, and paladin abilities, is great for tanking – she takes so few hits it’s incredible.  The Paladin charms don’t come in nearly as handy as I’d hoped.  It’s great that she has high Charisma and is a good lead character, and I needed someone with all these shields.  But 2 spells is all she has, and the other abilities are minor gains if any.  I love her being in the front, but slightly disappointing. 

Spivey is the wild card here – no spells or abilities, just raw thief.  I always have second thoughts, about making him fighter/thief, so he could use better armor.  There will be stretches where I don’t use him at all, then stretches where I use him immensely for scouting, trap removal, etc.  Most of my reason for keeping him as sole thief were related to role-playing, and not min/maxing everything.   I also like having a few other races besides boring humans.  However, Spivey is a weak point – but that may because I don’t backstab enough.  I’ll work on that.

Anyway, the IDEAL party for this game is definitely mostly dual-classed.  A gnome fighter would have been good, to use Helm of the Trusted Defender.  Bard is a must.  Druids are SO much more useful than clerics – but the cleric spells are good too (druids don’t get raise dead?  WTF?!?).  Having a cleric-turned-Necromancer is so incredibly awesome.  So ideally, 3 fighters, a druid, a bard, and a cleric-necromancer.  But one of the fighters needs to have thief skills….so dual?  i dunno.  Probably multi – too much thief stuff at the beginning, and too many HPs to miss out on to not be a fighter. 

Point is – this party has all kinds of strengths.  Put me in combat with any two, and I’ll find a way to eke out a win.

Wyrms Tooth

Where to start?  Wow. 

Well, first we spent tons of time cleaning out the Hall of Heroes.  So many potions and weapons to pick up – then returning to Bandoth’s shack to buy more spells.  I tried to give him his apprentice’s journal, but he doesn’t care!  Annoying.  I buy the last of his good scrolls (summons), have Jaylen and Callien split them, and head out to Kuldahar.  I attempt to sell off everything, and then also head to the Severed Hand to drop off that Elven lich’s daughter’s journal.  Poof, Larrel is happy.  Excellent. 

From here it’s up to Wyrm’s Tooth.  This icy area starts out with trolls attacking me – ice trolls, snow trolls.  I equip the normal, tons of fire stuff – but wow, these things keep popping up.  Once I finally get all the packs killed off, then its just chasing down some Yeti.  Then the outside is clear.

I’m not sure what to do from here, so I read all the guides.  Looks like I can visit the humans, get everything I need there, and then walk into the ‘Aquarium’ and present myself to the boss.  Then I get free reign of the whole area, to wander as I see fit.  Tons of ice salamanders – the kind that do area damage from their cold-ness – along with the frost-breathing wolves and more trolls.  Wow, what an annoying bunch.  Eventually, I summon a fire elemental and start wreaking havoc – and then we just roll.  I mean, roll through the whole aquarium.  Summon, roll, heal a bit, start over.  You can roam around, taking out a pack or two per summon – skeletons, goblins, beetles, elementals, etc.  I have about 9 or 10 layers of summons, with Callien, Jaylen and Kaylen each providing a few.  Eventually all is clear, the female thief is freed (after I convince that random salamander to buzz off), and I have all the treasure.  Way, too much treasure. 

I head downstairs, free the human slaves, and poof, all is done on the mainland.  Now it’s heading to the cave (fixing the bridge with the Dwarven Manual), and then another place that I can wander without any fights (well, the Yeti and the Auril priest, and his dark knights, but otherwise it’s not hostile).  So the party scopes out everything, speaks to the prisoner humans, and then marches down to the wyrm nest.  4 or 5 of these ultra-annoying things around – and these put up the biggest fight.  After we finally drop them all, the frost giants are STILL passive.  We just slaughtered the magical beasts they sacrifice humans to on an altar…and they don’t care the least bit.  Maybe they didn’t hear the fighting?

Anyway, all thats left is killing the lone guard, and then the humans can run out the path I cleared.  We quickly force-lance him and chop at his knees until he is dead, and then all is well.  Then we can mosey over to their leader, Joril – and demand that he free the slaves.  First, he’ll still talk to us – odd.  Then, he’ll agree to give us his badge and free the slaves, for more experience.  Wow.  But then we must fight him and his henchmen, so the Fire Elemental and wolves help out considerably while Rolf does his chop and roll maneuvers. 

From there is’s more of the same – go through bit by bit, summoning helpful allies, taking on 2-4 enemies at a time, rinse repeat.  Getting kind of boring.  And the treasure – so, so much, not enough room to take everything.  By the time the cave is clear every spot is filled with the best possible treasure.  So it’s back to Kuldahar to unload, and hope for a more challenging experience in Lower Dorn’s Deep.