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I don't even have to actively explode people any more, they do it by themselves!
Update #89: Through The Bowels
We have permanently lost 15 HP, it seems. I am going to restore those with ShadowKeeper for the next update.
Horned helmets and bathrobes do not go well together visually.
We have postponed killing Gromnir long enough, time to kill the bastard.
This means going through the sewers.
I smell...
A foul stench?
That too, but I meant a recycled map.
Good thing sewers beneath Baldur's Gate didn't have any devil shades in them, or I would have died. Hard.
Fuck, that's a lot of shady monsters.
With the side-note that only this one was an actual threat.
They seem to get extra damage from this hammer's lightning strike.
Finally, a level up. I haven't got one since before defeating Irenicus, I think?
If I keep using these whirlwinds, I will turn into a human merry-go-round.
Elven merry-go-round.
Go and fuck yourself with a rake.
Oh, great, yet another shade.
And it was one of those, which split into two shadow fiends to annoy me more!
And who the fuck are you?
That is not a backstab weapon.
I am not trying to backstab him. I just want to whack him on the head.
Damn, this took a while, the guy was like a brick wall!
And this one kept retreating a few paces back, every time I got close!
That is some truly exceptional enemy AI. I bet you would love to have a disengagement strike mechanic now.
...No.
And that's th- Ah, shit.
Let's play it smart.
Surprise!
No lock can stop me!
What.
Fuck me, they really are gibberlings.
It's like smacking flies with a newspaper, except easy.
It is worth noting that they respawn like motherfuckers, if we even move two steps away from their spot.
Oh, I forgot about you.
Well, this is an unexpected turn of events.
For some reason I have not made a screenshot of The Codex fleeing and hiding in shadows.
'Retreating and employing a more subtle approach.'
Yeah, that.
Orog, meet knife.
Knife... Uh, nevermind.
And since this tactic is so successful...
What you are unable to see here, is that The Codex was clearly winning this fight. The duergar just would not die.
Death Count: 363
Loading.
Fuck, were duergars always such damage sponges?
You have not fought that many so far, so it is hard to tell.
I shall overcome this obstacle with superior AC.
To be honest, a 45 damage opener is but a scratch.
I win.
Moving on, we encounter this scene:
No, they won't.
No, it won't.
How about getting ripped apart by me?
What? Where?
You should probably retreat, you might not be able to defeat all of them at once.
Not true. But I shall retreat just because I feel like it.
Let's just go behind this corn- Well, shit.
I guess asking you to move out of the way is pointless?
Note the horde of freshly-respawned gibberlings chasing us from the north.
Check out what my armor can do!
I have a feeling that getting surrounded by hordes of enemies will be the theme of this expansion.
Let's speed this up!
Alright.
I haven't forgotten about you.
I love seeing desperation and fear in their eyes when they realize no spell will save them.
No running away.
Why haven't you joined the group fight back there?
Seeing you stuck on duergar sappers while their friends attack you from afar reminds me of Pillars of Eternity and its 'Eder the human roadblock' tactic.
Luckily they shoot arrows +1, so I can just ignore them.
Yet another copy-pasted encounter. Oh, the thrill.
Stay still...
So, why exactly have you not used the dagger and backstabbed him?
I didn't care enough.
I can always retreat a bit, the mages never follow.
Here is how the exciting duergar sapper duels proceed. Anyone cares to count how many HP that is?
Those fire shields are pretty annoying.
Here, I backstabbed someone, uh, something. Happy?
Yeah, sure.
Can we stop with the fucking umber hulks? I think I've grown beyond them like fifteen levels ago, if not more.
Yay, fucking.. whatever...
Die already.
GAAAH!
GTFO my sewers!
A bunch of gibberlings later...
And now I am in a fucking basement. I guess that makes two of us.
This cheers me up a bit.
'Elite orc'. It even sounds wrong.
Boom!
BOOM!
AHA!
Oh?
Do I even have this sword? Fuck if I remember.
How many orcs and orogs do they keep in this basement?
The amount of flying guts in today's update puts a smile on my face.
You can come out now.
Boom!
Gotcha!
I am starting to pity these orcs. They were probably sent to the basement with the hope someone shows up and kills them.
WHOA! A Human!
WHOA! Flying guts!
WHOA! You scared me there.
Hope you don't need these ribs any more!
Boom!
A mage! Encounter diversity!
Can't hide from me!
Told ya.
A trap!
What?
What!?
For a moment there I thought it was you I am saving, but then I realized, you would not actually want to leave the basement.
Fuck off.
Yay, reputation. Except it doesn't matter since everyone will still hate me!
Thieves abusing invisibility potions. Haven't seen that before.
At least thieves don't have that many HP.
Blackrazor, here I come.
We should probably invest more in those high-level traps.
That was close...
You there!
Ah, fuck!
Quaff this!
What a coincidence, I am randomly executing everyone named Gromnir. And everyone else I don't like.
Although I think I already know...
I believe you failed to notice I have actually come from THE OTHER WAY.
What.
Hey, is this not...
The old prison. Yeah.
We must have missed this entrance before... Hey, that means we could have skipped the sewers!
(We would not have skipped the sewers anyway.)
Up we go, then..
Next time: The Codex: Ascension to the Throne (in a way).
That brings back memories... Horrible, unpleasant memories of a time when I was weak as a kitten.
Update #90: Khaaaaaan!
I have restored Codex's missing fifteen hit points (we shall see for how long), but even ShadowKeeper has not been able to bring back our hero's minor bhaalspawn powers, meaning we must have broken something with a single character collecting over 18.5 million XP (over twice more than Throne of Bhaal's cap). Maybe we can even see what happens when we reach 24 million XP, which will mean The Codex will be over the experience cap with each of his classes. If we manage that, obviously.
All of our hero's thief skills are now >100 even while wearing armour, which is how we want them to be.
Having long sword proficiency allows to have some fun with Blackrazor. Something we are definitely going to try.
Funny how having a godlike Strength of 25 still only gives you 80% chance to force a door or chest.
20% magic resistance is just not enough against magic-users, meaning Carsomyr will remain a frequently used weapon even later in the game.
I have my doubts whether Bodhi really was the strongest enemy I've defeated.
This setup with -19 AC is enough to defeat most enemies without any spell or ability use, although it is not the fastest way.
Let's do this! I am hoping for some entertainment at least.
Alright, this is a reasonably promising start.
One of you guys is dead already, and you have not even scratched me yet. You need to up your game, and fast.
I hope what you just said will not end up in our 'famous last words' section.
Did something just happen?
Uhm... no. Not really.
I'm starting to doubt if these guys pose an actual threat.
Fine, fine. I've spoken too soon.
Also, apparently that was a 'friendly fire' ball.
That fucking archer escaped downstairs!
Oh yea- Wait, did he just cast horrid wilting?
Yup.
Shiiii-
-iiiit... Oh, hi there!
FFS. he escaped again.
WHOA!
Fucking jump scares! Now, where was I?
The archer.
Oh yeah.
Stop doing that!
Got you now!
Fuck, that was a lot of unnecessary stairway running.
Trust me: you do not even want to know.
And here is a picture which we can put as a definition of 'overkill'.
After the basement was so vast, I expected the actual palace to be bigger than one room.
I think I am interrupting something... which is the way I like it.
Is she really threatening the guy? Seems like she is not exactly the kind shepherd she poses to be.
Gromnir 'We Is No Idiot' Il-Khan's insight is surprisingly accurate.
We'll see how that 'never meet' will work out for him.
Does that make her special in any way? I thought it was just a woman thing...
It might have been wise to heal first...
I kind of like his cheerful approach.
Bioware did not even try pretending we could negotiate with Gromnir. I guess we should be grateful for not wasting our time.
Well, this looks like it's going to be a fair fight.
(The scary face is a horror spell cast from our wand od fear.)
Iii feeeeeel sooomeeewhaaat sluuuggiiish.
So sad.
Death Count: 364
Load game.
My high self-esteem as it is, I believe some preparation before this fight is in order.
Like this.
Are you sure you do not want to cast some more spells?
For that bunch? Nah. They don't deserve more. I'll kill them with minimal effort, like the trash mob they are.
All healed up and ready to rumble!
So, where do I start...?
Why am I not surprised you have decided to kill the woman first.
I'm not exactly winning, though.
Let's change this!
Well, that's a start.
I admit... that stung a bit...
Whew!
That was too close.
Who would have thought you would be running into your safe basement at the first sign of trouble.
Fuck off.
I'm actually kind of surprised they did not come down after me.
Yes. We shall abuse the hell out of this, obviously.
Well on the bright side fire giants are probably the most annoying enemies in ToB, so you're in a pretty good spot once you're through the Yaga Shura bit.
Nothing really special, just that they have a boatload of HP, basically never miss regardless of your AC, do lots of damage, and there are lots of them.
I'm preeeeetty sure I didn't kill you. Although I probably should have.
WHOA!
Is this about me being chaotic evil again? Because, I'm kind of fed up with this shit.
You've got a lot of spunk in you, for a dead man.
Goddamnit!
Will you, now?
Missed.
Give me your best shot.
Parachuting reinforcements? Cheap.
That's a lot of devils, wraiths and horrors...
...But nowhere near enough.
Watch me actually regain my health during this combat.
That's the last of your underlings.
That was underwhelming. I hope there are tougher enemies inside that temple.
Me and my big mouth.
Death Count: 367
Game -> Load
Should skeleton warriors even be that strong?
Probably not.
I need to lure out just one of them.
Well, that didn't work. But since they've left, I guess I can explore the temple further.
Damn, and I was THIS close to getting my own undead army.
How can they cast spells if they don't have brains any more?
How can you?
But... Ok, I admit I walked right into that one.
It would be more fun if they, you know, actually tried to defend themselves.
Well, this one at least tried.
Ah, shit, it came out of nowhere!
I love this mace.
Unique icon! This must mean good loot.
...Or a quest item, maybe?
Hardly. I doubt I can encounter anything more dangerous than myself here.
As for you...
HEADS UP!
Shit, shit, shit! Why do you fail me so, mace?
Alright! That was some entirely unnecessary tension!
Ghasts and mummies?
Hardly worth bothering.
Alright. What can change the nature of a man?
Half-giant? That brings some disturbing images into my head.
Oh, he's half-giant, half-god! That's ok then. I guess.
Very interesting.
I knew I should have kept the Heartseeker bow.
Fire mountains sound like a pleasant place. I am of course being sarcastic.
tl;dr: Yaga-Shura removed his heart to become invincible (just roll with it). We need to bring it to Nyalee, along with her own heart, to make him mortal again.
More necro-fodder.
Why are these even here.
Area completed (although we will be back).
Next time: The Codex shall fight some very big and some very small enemies.
The expansion would have been much more awesome had we gotten the chance of recruiting that undead army of our own. Or generally to build up our own cult like some of our siblings do.
I've always found it annoying that you can't immediately tell pseudo-Gorion : "Fuck off, you're obviously just a monster using illusions." Nobody could genuinely believe that it's Gorion we're talking to, it'd be even stupider than trusting Melissan until the Solar tells you not to.
I wanted to post some this week, but work is kicking my ass again. :/ Hopefully I will still manage to write at least one until Friday, because the next opportunity will in November.
About the 100%+ fire resistance leading to fire healing you? EVE Online has a similar "bug" in its system. If you manage to combine enough bonuses to make a ship have 100%+ resistance in any field, and then hit it with any amount of damage in that field...the ship is insta-destroyed by the attack.
There's another one involving turret tracking, where if you pump the tracking bonus high enough you get turrets that always hit their target, and always for maximum damage.