The journey to Moonrise should mark goodbye to herb sellers Arron, Derryth and Blurg, as well as void bulb seller Omeluum. I now have about forty void bulbs, and used the resetting trader inventory on levelup to collect as many hyena ears and haste spores as possible, since the creche made me run out of speed potions. I plan to meet the convoy at the Mountain Pass, after casting Light on Seven and equipping torches, then tell them I have something to do, go to the Shadowlands via the Underdark, find Last Light Inn, go to the ambush site, and see if the convoy turns up. (Spoiler: no. Once I've spoken to Kar'niss, he'll travel with me or wait forever.)
Going to Trielta Crags waypoint, Esther is still there, still has the owlbear egg (!) and invites us to drop in at the Lodge when we're in Baldur's Gate. Off to the Shadow-Cursed Lands: whoops, forgot about Elminster, out-Galing Gale in the verbosity department. Gale, who I think slurped up only two artefacts, won't be ridding us of magical trash any more. Through the looking glass, er, into the Shadow-Cursed Lands, greeted by goblin brawler, and apparently I can still teleport to Wilderness waypoints? Yes I can! Sold a load of cruft to Arron. Back to Trielta Crags and into the Ruined Battlefield; goblin brawler is now dead! Killed by shadows, she says during Speak with Dead, which doesn't make her eyes glow green as with most corpses.
A scroll of Animal Handling came in useful to persuade a hyena to escape its goblin masters; only to dash into the darkness and get shadow-cursed, but this act netted me companion approval. I failed the roll when plucking the lyre: Kar'niss was not amused. Told him to wait, popped over to Grymforge, took the elevator; good thing I did, there is loot here.
Emerged into the Shadow-Cursed Lands at a different location: Kar'niss is still said to be nearby. Except for Light-ed Seven, the team has equipped torches, but apparently these must be lit. Astarion dips his in candle flame, it shows as lit in his inventory screen but not in the game itself. Ditto Karlach. Wyll hadn't equipped a torch so dips his rapier in flame, then equips his torch which unwields his burning rapier, and his torch is clearly burning. A bug? Recruited Gale instead, he equips and lights his torch from a flame in camp and the burning animation shows up. Then we leave camp for the Shadow-Cursed Lands and all torches need re-lighting. Gale's visibly burns, Karlach's still only burns in the inventory screen. I also recruited Shart, for whom the Blood of Lathander suffices, and who Karlach calls "Shaddy" in an apparent attempt to flirt, where Shart plays the ice queen. Meanwhile, found a dead druid. Karlach's torch has decided to show a flame after all.
Saved the Harpers from the shadows! Got invitation to Last Light Inn. Wasted a good healing potion by not aiming right. Will first reconnoiter, maybe intercept convoy, so as to be right on time to save Rolan when he goes off on his rescue mission. He Who Was is near the Abandoned Camp in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, surrounded by kitchenware that I'll loot after his quest is done. Karlach found Dammon and had her heart upgraded even though the necessary chunk of infernal iron was in a bag in the camp chest; it magically transferred itself. And I borked all but one of the remaining sussur blooms that really can't be taken out of the chest above ground, not even in the darkness of the shadow curse. Attending Yonas's funeral, again the magic that a sword I stowed in a sack in the camp chest can be handed over, in return for what? What did Meygan give me? I can't find anything in my inventory. (She gave me gold.) At least Shart gets an inspo and there are flowers on the grave to nab and alchemize after the mourners are gone.
Spoke to Mattis, Jaheira, Dammon (trading), Alfira (justice for the tieflings!), Bex, and Rolan, who ran off to save his siblings after we briefly retired to camp, and who we must now find and save south of Reithwin. Where the shadow curse is too strong for torches, so we need a moon lantern. And because the Harpers in ambush are automatically hostile because we already spoke to Kar'niss, meaning we had to use invisibility to sneak past them, we must go back to where the convoy is waiting for us and then side with the Harpers when they attack. And Karlach has been waiting ever since her heart upgrade to spend the night snuggling!
Wiki: "He can be found (and saved) on his rescue mission at the Ruined Battlefield, on the eastern shore of the river, south of the bridge that leads to the Reithwin Tollhouse at X: -54 Y: -111, about to be attacked by Shadows." So no need for that convoy yet. We sneak up, still invisible, Karlach being the first to spot him and comment. It's a long jump down to get directly to where Rolan is, and he's already at very low health, so Karlach lobs her pike at the shadow nearest to Rolan and a superior healing potion at Rolan himself. Shadowheart uses an action to dimension-door Seven and herself close to the jumping point and a bonus action to mistystep next to Rolan and wave her blinding mace at the shadows; Seven jumps, even though this will hurt and prone him, because he's only needed to spot the other shadow with his invisible-seeing Volo eye. Wyll runs round the long way: he and Seven will be eldritch-blasting. Rolan is saved!!! We return to the inn to make sure he's really there, safe and sound. Enough for today, looting can wait. Snuggles. But nope! First a glitchy Mizora turns up to demand Wyll save her. Then Ast wants me to read the "poem" on his back (I'm NOT taking him to Last Light!) and finally the Dream Guardian manifests. Talking to Karlach the next day: still no snuggles. She wants a hug so bad, why can't I do it?
I don't want to waste another invis potion sneaking past the Harper ambush, so because I can still return to Act I waypoints, I'm going to Trielta Crags to enter the Shadow-Cursed Lands via the Mountain Pass again; poor Kar'niss should still be waiting for me. Poor Kar'niss indeed, because I'll be siding with the ambushers.
Small re-kit: since Karlach is immune to being charmed after her second upgrade, her Ring of Mind Shielding goes to Lae who trades it for the Bracing Band.
I'll never join the convoy again, because whether I use turn-based or just try to keep up, the party always has stragglers who end up outside the bubble of light, so spiderman is constantly stopping to wait and loudly complaining. (The half-orcs and goblins can't keep up either, but he doesn't care.) The ambushers are angry at me after the fight, despite all the healing and potion-throwing my gang did to keep them alive, but I tell them (a deception roll even though I'm not deceiving them, Jaheira tasked me with this) that I'm trying to infiltrate the cult and they ruined it; they give me the lantern by way of apology, meaning I can release the pixie. But first, to hear Astarion's exhilarated "it's a pixie!" line, I pass the lantern to him, which automatically starts the cutscene of freeing Dolly Thrice, and reveals, through investigating the mechanism, that a moonlantern burns through a steady supply of pixies. As in a previous playthrough, the corpse of Kar'niss has no tadpole, so "your Majesty" that he kept referring to may be the Absolute, but it wasn't talking to him through a tadpole. One of the enemies is only knocked out, so I equip Spellthief to get a spell slot back, but before I can take aim, he dies and rises as a shadow-cursed zombie. Quickly dispatched, sadly no XP.
The pixie bell will have to be sounded when I go to Reithwin or Moonrise (but at least the party can put the torches away and wield weapons again) so, not wanting to see Ketheric just yet, I'm going to paint Reithwin Town red, swapping Ast for Wyll, as both can give me Bardic Inspiration, and Shart can cast Guidance, which I'll need to beat beerbelly Thorm without a fight. But first, the meazels in the abandoned pottery (where it pays to investigate every vase - one contains a key). Throwing a Haste Spore Grenade is like smashing a speed potion, except the area is wider, the party members have to walk in and out of the spore cloud to regain their second action, and they don't seem to be paralysed by lethargy when the effect ends (it ends on the turn that it begins). And, at a pinch, a spiritual weapon can be a light source. Then, summon and kill (and waste valuable turns being frightened of, cowering inside a Spirit Guardians ring) the shadow mastiffs that threatened True Soul Korliss; they drop the Shadow-Cloaked Ring, which we could have used in fighting them, and which goes to Wyll, who is most likely to use melee attacks, as Shart and Seven use magic, and Karlach chucks things.
But after we find Arabella and spot shadow-cursed Harpers, I see Shart is running out of spell slots to cast Spirit Guardians, so she's swapped for Gale to help Mol win against Raphael at Last Light Inn. Nicking bottles of alcohol, we go upstairs and on the roof to find a key in a bird's nest (these nests are always worth investigating) and check out the hole in the roof, which needs patching against winged horrors. The Harpers from the ambush site are here, still very wounded, although they heal themselves fully after Seven throws a healing potion at both of them. Helped Mol win, talked to Barcus, met Florrick who'd been kind enough to wait for us, examined Art Cullagh, made Halsin come over at the mention of Thaniel, did more looting and discovered the Snowburst Ring for Gale. Longrest, finally! Karlach promises me snuggles! Astarion interrupts to sound out Seven's attitude towards using the Absolute cult's power for ourselves. Snuggle time NOW!! (No idea why Karlach is so excited about this pot-bellied little halfling.) Next morning, Astarion gently dumps me. Phew.
Got yelled at by a Harper when about to leave Last Light Inn before having called the pixie for protection against darkness. Solved the puzzle in the Sharran sanctuary for some huge buffs; I should use them to explore all of Reithwin, find Art's lute and Arabella's parents, fight githyanki, enter Moonrise Towers (and speak with Lann Tarv - requires Lae?), deal with Yurgir, explore around the House of Shadows and help Halsin get Thaniel back. And I've already had the first short rest. Oof. Sharran altar did yield Potion of Angelic Reprieve. I wish Wyll had enough bard levels for Song of Rest. Maybe I'll re-level him in camp.
Waning Moon: used up all inspiration points despite Shar's skill augmentations. Found ledger, jumped on roof to grab last bottles, heard white raven from He Who Was cawing at me to bring the ledger NOW (was it following us?). Found basement too, with trapped door. Didn't feel like recruiting Ast, so got Karlach to break the door down with a hammer. Finding the Brewer's Alchemical Stash will lead me into a githyanki ambush. So, first brought ledger to He Who Was and let him stab himself, which netted me an inspiration point for Shart.
No idea how to kill Gerringothe through dialogue, so we shot at her from the roof. She and her Visages dashed up to meet us. Seven used a Scroll of Phantasmal Killer on Gerringothe to keep her busy while Karlach fired arrows and lobbed explosives at the flying skulls. We got pretty hurt, but also gained three more inspos. There were some rotten planks above the room whose door is covered by shadow vines, but they couldn't be broken; instead, the only way to enter the room was to have Karlach throw the Returning Pike at the shadow vines at 4 points of damage per throw, the vines having 160 HP. It took awhile.
Arabella didn't take the news of her parents' death well, but at least it inspired Lae'Zel. House of Healing: talking Malus Thorm into letting his nurses stab him is good for two more inspos; and to think, I only invited Lae to the party because Shart was running out of Spirit Guardian spell slots. Level up, everybody; another level of bard, and Wyll is now good for a third short rest. The sisters run around, squawking hoarsely. One of them, sister Geanne, has lost her nurse's cap, showing what their faces look like. Her eyelids are sewn shut.
Had to refresh Dolly's protection after fast-travelling to the Myconid Colony for ingredients, and back to Last Light Inn. Tested protecting the portal: failed. Reload save. How to use those buffs of Shar? First, with the key I got for free from Mattis using the Power of Persuasion, I should turn the stonemason's house inside out. Then Last Light Inn (leaving some window-dressing for after the charge on Moonrise Towers, I'm not going to steal every cup and plate) and I'll patch its roof. Then, provoking an attack by talking to Isobel. Then, a visit to Moonrise Towers (with Ast) to get to know all the vendors, maybe re-class to level 1 to buy their approval cheaply.
Things didn't go as planned: the hole in the inn's roof is unpatchable, as chests can only be placed around its edge. Halsin is waiting by the portal, which means one less helping hand against winged horrors that enter through it. Sick of waiting until I found the right keys, I had Ast lockpick all locked chests we picked up along the way, thereby discovering more artifacts. I plundered the inn's cellar and gave Lae'zel the Rippling Force mail, as well as the githyanki sword Soulbreaker, Varsh Ko'kuu's boots and the Ichorous Gloves to go with the Caustic Band. Then I busked in the inn with Ast, who I'd taken along to see His Majesty. Both the cat and Mol came up to listen, though when I spoke to Mol after, she would not talk about Raphael and could not be traded with. Discovery: if Seven and Ast both play an instrument, succeeding their Performance check, and Ast stops first, the audience throws gold, and then again when Seven stops. Still slim pickings.
Stonemason's secret basement, infested with shadows: apparently protected against the shadow curse. I light candelabras, they stay lit and unextinguished. No way to light the candles on the wall though. Prize: the Penumbral Armour, a third stealth-related drow armour artefact for Ast, and a marker on the map for treasure in Moonrise Towers.
Back to Last Light Inn to help Halsin find Thaniel so he can join us at camp. We'll be protecting a portal against undead, and last time I tried the portal was destroyed, so this time: barrelmancy. And focusing on undead who have ranged weapons. And Shart's remaining two Guardian Spirits spell slots. And Seven twinning haste on the DPS Duo, as I'll call my bruisers. It went perfectly, only I forgot to have Karlach wear Oak Father's Embrace. Zombie pilgrims, Fists, Harpers, githyanki, Shadowlands creatures; during the last turn, there were no enemies left. A big mess of bodies and broken containers. So much loot to donate to Barcus and win his favour, so he'll sell his bombs and arrows more cheaply. And the book with the poem I was looking for ("Her love for it was like a plum"). Once Halsin's joined, I give him druid-related gear like Nature's Snare, the Thorn Gloves and the Raven Gloves, the Wood Woad Shield and the Ironvine Shield, the Hedge Wanderer Armour (ha, glad I bought it!) and Shart's healing-related artefacts, as Halsin will be replacing her for the trip to Moonrise Towers after he's levelled up as Circle of the Moon druid to retain his unique bear wildshape. His dexterity is actually higher than his strength, so he gets the Finesse swords Phalar Aluve and Larethian's Wrath. As bow, the Spellthief, for now. As footwear, the Boots of Genial Striding, because he'll be summoning dryads that leave trails of twisty vines. He can wear medium armour, so maybe he'll get the medium Sparkstruck gear later.
Before the steps to Moonrise Towers, the narrator warns me about bringing the untadpoled Halsin along, so I leave him outside. Like W'a'argaz, Roah chooses to believe I massacred the Goblin Camp, when I expressly did NOT, and will be saving Fezzerk (and Sazza!) in a moment. I'll switch between putting Roah's inventory in a bag and going back outside to raise Halsin a level, so she'll have amassed plenty of stuff before we kill her; after a few inventory resets, her gold is no longer refilled. Seven correctly guesses Araj Oblodra's intentions and gets 200 gold and a potion in exchange for blood. Was hoping to leave Ast out of it but drat, she's already heard about him and wants me to bring him. To the kitchen to free the gnolls and enlist them for the fight to come. Then, use up inspos to get Minthara pardoned and the goblins, including Sazza, freed. The goblins outside the throne room are not quite as grateful as I remember (one does call me the "best True Soul" when I talk to him later), and Lae huffs that compassion is not a virtue. Seven spontaneously mentions that this is the last chance to save Minthara. Scout the outskirts before reporting to Z'rell.
Ghoul: "We are favoured. We are blessed!"
Karlach: "Yeah yeah, sure you are."
Find Z'rell for the order to locate Balthazar and the "relic": she kills her ogre attendant for funsies and doesn't mention Lann Tarv. Pop down to the prison to free Minthara, as it seems urgent. Minty wants to kill the guards (sorry Mint, we're still infiltrating) and is displeased that Seven pretends he made her into his personal slave when stopped by the guards, so I hit turn-based, throw an invisibility potion on her and we run to the hall. A Scrying Eye is patrolling, and these things See Invisible, so Lae who happens to be close enough, dimension-doors Minty across the hall to where the vendors are. We go outside where Halsin is waiting. (Ouch. He can't be pleased.) Once there, Minty's cutscene plays and Seven gets an inspo. In camp, Minty has set up a tent and wants to join us. Oops. Did she displace Halsin? Am I going to lose him? I still need him for the fight with the githyanki on the bridge, not to mention healing Thaniel. Back to Moonrise Towers - this time, Halsin joins us and gives an impromptu history lesson - go to Lann and at least get the soul coins for Karlach. After this plays out, I have the chance to impress Lann and get another inspo via Lae. I buy the cheaper artefacts and sell him a backpack to stuff the rest in, for when we storm Moonrise Towers and kill everyone.
The first time I encountered the githyanki on the bridge, they wiped us with their proning crossbow shots. New strategy:
Ah, so the undead near the House of Healing were guarding the Morgue? A ridge over the Morgue entry has two unfortunate spies (Harpers?) and two buried chests, and gives a better view of Ketheric's army.
Thaniel is neither with Halsin nor by Minty's tent where Halsin's used to be. This is worrying. The wiki says Thaniel will join camp when Oliver is brought back, and Reddit says that displacing Halsin by letting Minthara join may bug the quest.
Lost all inspos trying to disarm poison traps in Morgue - the old "steam to dispel poison" trick didn't work - then gained three by replacing Halsin with Gale and reading literature found there. Then switched Gale to Ast to disable/lockpick some more. Then Ast to Lae to fight oozes with her acid-resistant boots. Entered Mausoleum (and had that unavoidable chat with Raphael) because I thought the secret entrance to the Morgue's acid pit was there. (It's not; it's in the hidden fishpeople village.) The party is almost out of magic and resources. Time for sleep!
Long rest: summoned Scratch goes poof and the Scratch I can talk to reappears. Gale wants to see me tonight. Had a brief convo with Mint before reloading the save, because yes I managed to piss her off. When she says she wants to use the Absolute's power to make a perfect world, I swear Seven rolls his eyes. Dialogue bug: ask what she thinks of Shart, then third option: wouldn't she like Sharran dogma? No answer, and my next options are join and leave. After a night of cheering Gale up, in the morning, another dialogue bug: he says he's lucky to have Seven as a friend, Seven says the feeling is mutual and suddenly Gale thinks he's invited to join the party. Scratch has a present for me: sandals! Karlach gets an inspo for our first night spent in the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Arabella accidentally teaches Seven the shadow entangle spell when he addresses Withers to get reclassed back to level 1.
Today I'm going to tie up the last ends of Act I, and also ingratiate myself with all sellers except Lann Tarv who already loves me, and Roah WHO WILL DIE (and let's see how that affects Rugan). First, I'll knock Seven down to level 1 by asking Withers to reclass him, and bring Gale and Ast to Araj for their potion, to butter her up by donating cheap stuff to her, and to get the awkward convo with Ast out of the way. Have Withers reclass Astarion and level him up all the way to get as many Potions of Angelic Reprieve as possible from Lann. Next, swap the guys for Wyll, and Minthara to see if she gets her own potion too (and if she has any scathing lines about House Oblodra). Next!
While we're in Moonrise Towers, the camp site does have separate tents for Halsin and Minthara; anywhere else that I can see, Halsin is simply moved away (proof that I should have saved Thaniel/Oliver before Minthara?). Minty, who has little to say to Araj, shows her camp clothes by default, so I ticked the toggle to show armour, because she looks magnificent in the Helmet of Smiting. Xyanyde, which I returned to her, has disappeared, probably because I dragged it into her second weapon slot while she wasn't in the party. (There's a similar bug with equipping torches on non-party members.) RIP Xyanyde. We barely knew ye.
To Sister Lidwin; sell her all our collected bottles for the few potions she has on offer. (Aside from her usual low-worth wares, she sells Karabasan's Poison!) Next!
Take Minthara to Last Light Inn, butter up Talli, Mattis, Barcus and maybe Dammon with donations, then use Mint's levelling to constantly reset their inventory. No need to dash from vendor to vendor after each level; station a character near each, sell each a bag and put the stuff we want to buy in the bag after each refresh; after the last level, go to each merchant and buy the bag. Levelling up Minty shows she gets the spell Faerie Fire because she's a drow. Also, this bagging of merchant inventory goes much faster when holding down the Shift key to select a range of squares.
Now to abduct Roah for her overflowing bag of accumulated merchandise. With all the Act I locations still in the fast travel list, improvisedweaponing her to another waypoint is tricky for my low reaction speed, but with a long enough trajectory, I just succeed in tossing her to the Moonrise Towers waypoint. She starts running back over the bridge, her two accomplices inside joining combat. Karlach throws her back, proning her. Due to Minthara wearing Malus Thorm's amulet and scoring a critical hit, Roah is both paralysed and (temporarily) knocked out, which ends the battle. Oh well, killing her will have to wait until I need to restore a spell slot with Spellthief. LOOOOTZZ!!!
It turns out that all throwables and scrolls have a stack maximum of 20, not just void bulbs.
Back to Act I! For this, neither Halsin nor Minthara should be in the party (they will deposit a rucksack of their belongings in Seven's inventory when we leave). Swap Minthara for Fuzzalump (to brew potions) and re-level Wyll. The most important vendors are Derryth and Blurg, who will return in Act III. Further back, there's Arron and Brem, the Zhent trader (who doesn't have much, once his "special stock" has been bought). Have Seven get them in the green, station a chara near each, then level Wyll: 4xWarlock, 4xBard College of Valour, he can now wear medium armour and gets the Jolty Vest and other Sparkstruck items Seven can't have, he learns Expeditious Retreat for bonus-dashing with the Speedy Lightfeet, and of his two feats: Alert and Actor (for that extra Charisma point), the latter goes well with the Musical Proficiency bestowed by Bard class because it gives Performance proficiency, which a busker needs to encourage coin-tossing. Sell our surplus raw food to Arron - the Grove should be happy about that - in exchange for lovely dishes like the salmon pie. Switch Fuzzalump for Lae, send Seven to camp with his 10 hitpoints; go to Grymforge to beat those slimes we snuck past on our way to the runepowder keg. Switch Lae for Ast to pickpocket Brem and Arron.
How to outfit Ast for this. It's a toss-up between the Leather Armour +2 (+1 to stealth AND dexterity checks), the Penumbral Armour (+3 to stealth checks IF obscured, in fog or darkness) and the Cloth of Cat's Grace (+2 dex, advantage on all dex checks incl. stealth); the Acrobat Boots also give advantage on dex checks. Plus, the Gloves of Thievery (advantage on sleight of hand), the Covert Cowl (+1 to dex save throws), the Smuggler's Ring (+2 to stealth and sleight of hand), wielding the Assassin's Shortsword (advantage on stealth checks), having Pass Without Trace (+10 to stealth) cast on him by Shart, who temporarily replaces Karlach; getting Guidance from Seven, and maybe Bardic Inspiration from Wyll; and a Scroll of Greater Invisibility. I forgot to check while leveling Ast: does he have stealth proficiency? Ooh yes, expertise even, in both stealth and sleight of hand.
Cloth of Cat's Grace it is. Once kitted out, we teleport to the Emerald Grove environs waypoint, where, in the pool of blood from when we KO-ed Minty, Findal is standing! Does this mean we can finally pillage Mol's old hideout? Yes and no; nothing is "owned" any more, but all items have been cleared away (by Findal?) leaving only a book about the Guild. To Arron: heist shamefully successful, didn't need to talk to him (his back remains turned) or even use invisibility. Hello to an accumulated pile of scrolls, arrows, herbs and dyes.
Dyes, too, have a maximum stack of 20.
To Zhent hideout, this time in Penumbral Armour. Brem is not distracted by busking, so back to Cloth of Cat's Grace. Wyll casts Greater Invisibility on Ast, who pickpockets Brem. Got caught, reloaded. Ast empties Zhent crate: one light crossbow. Not worth it. Pickpockets Brem for some money. Waits next turn. Pickpockets Brem for bag of wares, steals remaining smokepowder keg. My nerves break, we jump back to camp. Exchange Wyll for Karlach, who asks Withers for a reclass.
Next region, Esther; re-level Karlach, who was given the Alert feat that barbs don't need due to Feral Instinct and Ambusher gear, and put stuff in bag to be stolen by Astarion who, after a fail and reloaded save, is on a roll and successfully steals aaalll Esther's money. (Minthara doesn't have Alert either, she'll just have to chug an Elixir of Vigilance when she ventures out.)
While accumulating Esther's goods, Karlach acquires feats Tavern Brawler (adds 1 Strength, her stats are now perfect) and Performer (adds 1 Charisma - dammit) so her last feat should be Resilient-Charisma to even things out again. Hm, now she has 12 CHA and 8 INT. Reclass, start out with 17 STR (Tavern Brawler adds 1), 9 CHA (Performer adds 1) and 9 INT (Resilient-Intelligence will add 1, plus Proficiency for saving throws of what used to be her dump stat). She re-levels in front of Derryth, of whom I keep dumping her reset gold, ingredients and bottled wares into a bag, so she'll have lots to trade once we're in Baldur's Gate. I don't steal from domestic abuse victims (yet), so she gets to keep it all.
Ingredients, too, have a maximum stack of 20.
Tried out Lime, Lemon & Lichen dye on Astarion's stealing outfit. Lovely natural colours, not very stealthy-looking.
Return to Act II by going to Last Light Inn and summoning Dolly Thrice to scold me and reapply protection against the Shadow Curse. Check the vendors; Mattis and Dammon still have artifacts to sell.
Ast now has two kits, one for stealing and one for fighting:
That done, enter Grand Mausoleum, where Ast dismantles all the traps, and Shart gets the honour of clicking on the umbral gem. We explore the westward passage until it starts to look too dangerous, and return to find the centre hall with Shar's statue and the umbral gem so covered in void cloud that we can't cross over to the other side. Reload a save from shortly before, and this time go north. Reconstituted duellists (who hurt me very bad when I throw holy water on them). Reload save to go east, the doorway is covered in void cloud, but we can jump through it in turn-based mode. Did we set off traps without noticing? The cloud doesn't clear up after a few seconds. East is a dead end. North again. Seven HAS to level up, there are enemies whichever we way go and his measly 10HP won't cut it. Basically, the whole Gauntlet of Shar is too dangerous right now. We can't enter Moonrise Towers yet, Roah's colleagues will still be in a fighting mood: but we now have the perfect party to play hide and seek with Oliver.
Having the Gloves of Dexterity and the Club of Hill Giant Strength, these two attributes are Seven's new dump stats. Meaning he can no longer carry the fortune he amassed, or the vast library of scrolls he has assembled. The gold goes to Karlach, and all but five per scroll type go to Sir Fuzzy Lumps, who, as camp caster and alchemist, is a fixture.
Won Oliver's game, got the ring, swapped Ast for Halsin, back to Oliver's house. (There should be a nasty shadow plant ambush somewhere near. Where are those plants?)
Taking a moment to unpack Halsin's and Minthara's backpacks and sort their inventories, now they're back in camp. Halsin gets the gloves that do unarmed damage and will hopefully work when wildshaped, and the Warped Headband of Intellect for his abysmal Intelligence. Minthara has only one ring, so she gets the racially appropriate Poisoner's Ring to go with Cruel Sting. Only Minthara has an alchemy pouch, and both lack a keychain. Do the hirelings need keychains? Does Zenith Feur'sel need an alchemy pouch? No? Yoink.
Tavern Brawler Karlach could use both the Marksmanship Hat and the Ring of Flinging, but as long as we're in the shadowlands, with wraiths that can't be flung, she gets the Holy Lance Helm and the Oak Father's Embrace: the first does radiant damage to anyone who misses her, the second to undead who hit her. Normally, she wears the Yuan-ti Scale Armour which adds the full Dex modifier to AC, and the Helmet of Autonomy for better Wisdom saves. Her now almost complete reverb kit, lacking only Nyrulna, consists of the Boots of Stormy Clamour (reverb on causing a condition, like Prone), Gloves of Belligerent Skies (reverb on thunder, lightning or radiant damage), Ring of Absolute Force (one cast of Thunderwave), Sentient Amulet (one cast of Shatter), Thunderskin Cloak (reverbing enemy that hits her, becomes dazed) and Ring of Spiteful Thunder (reverbing enemy that she causes thunder damage to, becomes dazed). When the Ring of Absolute Force can't be used due to berserk raging, the Ring of Flinging goes back on, while the Sentient Amulet can be replaced by Minthara's Amulet of Branding that inflicts a condition, which causes reverb; as does her crossbow Giantbreaker. Using the Returning Pike for throwing, she hits with Hamarhraft (thunder AOE on jump) or the Punch-Drunk Bastard (thunder AOE on attack). The first only works on bonus actions; the second triggers twice for someone with an extra attack and requires drinking alcohol as bonus action, which means more actions. Oliver's "parents" won't know what hit them.
As it turned out, these "parents" were dangerous enough (every "lullaby" put Seven to sleep) that the party retired inside Shart's circle of Spirit Guardians, Halsin summoned a flaming sphere that tanked very nicely, though it can't attack incorporeal beings and all attempts to heal it failed, and Karlach was back to throwing the Returning Pike. Afterwards, Thaniel appeared by Minthara's tent as forewarned. I sent Halsin to speak with him, and Thaniel started reciting "The druid Halsin spoke to me in my sleep", but he does that to Seven and every other character.
Found the nasty plants: three are waiting inside a ruined tower, more will emerge from the surroundings. Made us all invisible by splashing two invis potions over the group. Snuck to the ladder and onto the platform. The worst enemy is the shambling mound which resists most things including magic; but not acid or thunder. It's immune to piercing from the Returning Pike, but not to the extra Tavern Brawler damage. So: first cast Evard's Black Tentacles on the tower's floor to slow and weaken the group. Then Cloud of Daggers at the base of the ladder. Oops, the shambling mound lashes out with its Adhesive Whip and pulls Shart right into the Cloud of Daggers. She gets passed a Scroll of Misty Step to zoom back onto the platform. Despite the void bulbs to draw them into the dagger vortex, needle blights and a vine blight manage to climb the ladder; killing the needle blights skewers all except Shart who mistystepped to an adjacent platform. Soon, only the shambling mound is left. Karlach pelts it with acid vials, caustic bulbs (pathetic amount of damage), holy water (no damage), smokepowder bombs and the trusty Returning Pike (which she once throws at Seven by accident, OUCH), and even manages to daze it for one turn, after it's pulled down Halsin, who knows Misty Step; then Karlach is pulled down herself, and pelts it on ground level. Dead at last, and since it's been a LONG day: rest? Not yet, first we deal with the shadow-cursed kuo-toa.
Which turns out to be really easy. From a high vantage point we can shoot arrows, fire Eldritch Blast and lob holy water and smokepowder bombs at three groups and destroy a section of wall to reach one individual. By the time we get close enough to trigger combat, there are four survivors. Two are killed at range and two are enwebbed with a web grenade. We collect not one but two Lightning Jabbers. Karlach gets a victory kiss, and that evening we play "Sing For Me" together at camp. (Karlach switches her violin for a drum and finds this song has no drum part, so she continues on lute.) Then Astarion wants to talk to me about Araj Oblodra, but he already dumped me, so I can't offer to be his friend instead, and the convo is over quite abruptly. Since the re-level has set Seven's draconic scales back to default, I redo them in the Magic Mirror, and note that the facial scar is precisely over the eye that Volo gouged out and replaced. Apt.
(And also that Blue Draconic Sorcerer sucks. All it has to offer is more HP, inbuilt Mage Armour and an extra spell. Storm Sorcerer is much better, giving both thunder and lightning immunity, but I've made my bed and Seven shall lie in it.)
Next morning, time to deal with Marcus and his winged ghouls before I free the prisoners. My, Shartless, radiant lineup:
All party members get a scroll of Banishment, Hold Monster, Conjure Elemental and Telekinesis: the result of shaking down Roah, who is back inside Moonrise Towers with 1 hitpoint. Speaking of which, Seven nips back there on his own to load Lann's inventory of the day into his bag, visits Z'rell in the office to persuade her to unlock Lann's extra stuff (she sneers about my decision to just let the goblins go) then to Lann, whose inventory has been reset when his extra stock is unlocked, to again put everything in his bag. There will be so much loot when he's killed.
Off to speak to Isobel, leaving Lae downstairs to protect the civilians; but first, of course, we loot Isobel's room. Then go turn-based; Seven wisely uses a scroll to cast Mage Armour on Isobel, who, if mage-armoured, gives radiant damage when attacked, before addressing her; a long cutscene, and do you hear what's happening? Iiiit's Marcus and his flying ghouls! More cutscene, my party approve of me warning Isobel, and Lae gets an inspiration point.
Despite being "surprised", Lae kills a winged horror, pops a speed potion, kills another winged horror and shoots a third. Mol is abducted as per the script, but the children are safe. Seven uses a Scroll of Banishment on Marcus - and it works! Minthara burns through spell slots radiant-smiting the winged horror next to Isobel. Karlach - another speed potion - kills that winged horror and shoots at another, who flies away. Jaheira casts Ice Storm, killing the winged horror near her and another just past the threshold of the room where the Flaming Fists gather; lucky, and luckier that she didn't kill any allies. Art Cullagh is now safe too. Are we counting? That's five winged horrors dead. The sixth lands next to and claws at Isobel, who succeeds a saving throw (due to Minty's paladin protection passive?), runs to a far corner of the balcony and casts Turn Undead. Fists and Harpers dash, but they're not needed. Back to Lae who jumps to the second floor instead of taking the stairs, uses an arrow of transposition to teleport near the last winged horror, and whaps it almost-dead with her sword. Not wasting a spell slot on that one: Eldritch Blast, and it's dead. Okay Marcus, we're ready for you! He appears, but takes no action yet. Karlach, no longer needing paralysis protection, takes a strength elixir, tosses Marcus inside, proning him, and whales on him. Ditto Minthara, using up more spell slots to divine-strike him. Karlach didn't move out of the way, so Lae'zel can't reach him and has to fire at him with her Arcane Force crossbow; she actually misses twice. Seven multi-Magic-Missiles him and now it's his turn, but he has reverb, radiating orb, noxious fumes, and 12 HP left. We're spread between blocking the doorway and standing in front of Isobel. Bring it.
Selune's Blessing may not have been needed against the Shadow Curse, but it does give resistance to necrotic. Marcus uses Vampiric Shout, healing himself for a teeny amount, but triggering Seven's Hellish Rebuke and Minthara's Charm, so he can no longer attack her; and gets Reeling and radiant damage from failing to hit Karlach. He is now Prone again, with 11 HP. Karlach has the honour of dealing the killing blow, just before the speed potion wears off. Hooray, we saved the day! Minthara didn't even use the Automaton gloves, nor Seven the free Haste cast or Big Boy's Chewtoy.
Wait, we just knocked him out; that means Minthara can shoot him with Spellthief to get one spell slot back. But that doesn't kill him; we have to shoot and wallop through over 100 HP to get his brainworm. Reward: Shifting Corpus Ring. Jaheira insists we remove Ketheric's source of immortality so she can charge Moonrise Towers, but first, we make the rounds and lap up the praise. Talking to Art Cullagh highlights the journal entry that should be triggered by talking to Thaniel, and gives the poor man peace of mind. The kids have another quest: find Mol. That means free the prisoners. For which I want Wyll along, but I also want to kill some extras, a job Minthara is aching to do.
On the docks at Moonrise Towers, I talk to Marls to make him admit to the
tadpole cargo, although I don't tell the poor man to jump in the lake because I
want his loot. So I kill the others, starting with the death-warded one, which
draws him into combat.
Log excerpt:
Zealot Arden was killed while Downed. The party gained 140 experience. Zealot Arden failed a saving throw against Reverberation. (Reverberation)Keep reverberating in those death throes.
Now to clear the prison, especially since all but one of its guards would have died in the Harper assault anyway, and I don't want to risk the prisoners. I'm trying to avoid the Scrying Eyes entering combat; they are virtually indestructible even with Arrows of Roaring Thunder. Failed; reload save. Consulted wiki: use Shatter. Karlach positions herself and waits and waits until the two Eyes are close enough (and the guards, coincidentally, out of sight) to cast Shatter using an amulet. Boom! Both Eyes gone. Next, slam the two torturers into each other: one confuses the party, which causes a very confused Lae to cast Hold Monster on her! Karlach becomes unconfused soonest, slams the caster down and frees everyone. Now Adept Keris comes running up; she gets all the reverbs, Reeling and Radiant Orb. This draws in the guard Ghulen, but not, oddly, the Lolth-Sworn Drow and the Seldarine Drow chatting by the door to the docks. They are tackled next. Not knowing if the Warden will spot us, we reconnoiter past Zealot Nadi, and find the hidden dock with waiting boat, and the walls to the cells, and the Oubliette where piles of viscera can hold nice surprises. To get there, we have to jump up a ledge from where we can shoot down at Nadi, halving his health before he can cast Abjure:Slow on Karlach, as if that's going to stop a throwzerker's ranged attacks.
The smokepowder bomb Karlach finishes him off with hurts the whole party, so we're done for the day. The Warden will be killed, and the prisoners freed, after a long rest. Next morning, after the camp casters have done their thing, I take a party including Halsin to Moonrise Towers and climb up in the rafters. Halsin just can't keep up and, as a result, is apprehended. He agrees to go to jail and is put in the cell between the tieflings and the Ironhands. That way, he can pick up the journal there, and chat with the tieflings who inform him that the gnomes are planning something. Meanwhile the tadpoled part of the party goes down to the cells and talks to Halsin through the bars, sending him to camp. Because the cell is so small, Halsin doesn't walk away into the distance, but paces to and fro until he disappears. (I didn't know it at the time, but this doesn't unset his "in jail" flag, so, once in camp, he can't leave.)
To be safe, I'll talk to the gnomes about escaping while bringing Karlach, Astarion and Minthara - I need to raise approval with the latter two - then switch Astarion for Wyll, and kill the Warden in the room that has a lever on the floor that will alert everyone. The internet tells me I should first destroy the Scrying Eye above that room, and also that I should keep Wulbren's hammer, which ignores the "Sturdy" condition, and give him another weapon. Speaking of, were the many clubs strewn around the boat by the hidden dock meant to be picked up by fleeing gnomes? Shart gets her mace and shield back, and the Oak Father's Embrace plus Luminous Gloves as a poor replacement for the Luminous Armour. The Warden deals fire and electricity damage, so Seven exchanges the Ring of Free Action for the Sparkswall, Minthara (who wears the Grymskull helm well, and should keep it) has the Gloves of the Automaton, Wyll will just have to hide behind us and Karlach will be on the roof with the Halbert of Vigilance and Returning Pike, both enchanted to do thunder damage, pulverizing the Scrying Eye by casting Shatter with the Sentient Amulet.
And before I even do that, I'll bag all the vendors' inventories. Even that of one-hitpoint Roah, who doesn't need to be bribed with a present this time, but simply does business with Seven. Because it was Minthara, not Seven, who knocked her out? (Yup. She's not speaking to Karlach, either.) I'm also following internet advice to hide the prison guards' corpses in containers, just in case.
To get to the Scrying Eye, I must find the spot to jump onto a wooden walkway, then circle the Warden's quarters until I find a ladder, then climb up to what is in fact the first floor and not the roof, through which I can see the room where this Warden stands; good, that means we won't have to use the red-outlined doors. Karlach, who ungrouped to go ahead, Shatter-casts the Eye behind its back; for one turn, the Sentient Amulet has her rolling in uncontrollable fits of laughter. Hm, that didn't happen at earlier casts. I remove the amulet and march the others to her. We sneak down invisibly. Karlach tosses the Warden, who strangely enough targets mostly Minthara, and who goes down in two turns; heat/electricity resistance not even needed. Looting time. The Evidence Chest contains the gear I gave to Halsin, as well as the Browbeaten Circlet and, wait for it, Xyanyde! Welcome back, magic mace.
Since there seems to be nothing special about Wulbren's hammer, I give it to him and, having forgotten to open his cell door so I can join him, absolutely tear around the cell block in turn-based mode to make it to the boat on time, poor short-legged little Seven using up his boots' Misty Step cast to catch up. The boat still being chained (and the escapees whaling on the chains) gives us valuable extra seconds. Triumphantly, we board in time to sail to Last Light Inn.
We collect rewards from Rolan, Alfira, Barcus and Bex. Three of the party need to level up, so again, bagging up inventory of vendors across Act II. Sister Lidwin sells Purple Worm Toxin now, and arrow-selling vendors have added smokepowder arrows. Ast the lockpicker, who replaces Minty for our snooping expedition to the upper floors of Moonrise Towers, levels up and while I considered the feat "Moderately Armoured" a mistake the first time, I use it to raise his DEX to 18, and because who knows, he may need a shield one day; his next feat will be Sharpshooter or Spell Sniper. Then we play music at Last Light Inn. Seven casts Guidance on himself first, and would you know it, everyone in the party succeeds their Performance check except him. Maybe because the lute is the quietest of instruments, easily drowned out by violin and flute. Another performance to console Isobel, who mutters darkly at the marble bust of Ketheric in her room.
Party switchup: Gale gets two, count'em, TWO inspos just for discovering a way into Balthazar's secret room. Yet even with the Mage's Friend ring and Guidance cast on him, he fails a Religion check when reading the Apostle Diary. Made the Evil Moonlantern, passed through Z'rell's office and closed the door to kill the two guards outside. Back into office, Seven uses scroll of Shatter on Scrying Eye while outside its cone of vision, Z'rell just says "Hey!" until we attack her: Shart has cast radiant Spirit Guardians and stands next to Z'rell, then Karlach throws her pike. Z'rell counterspells Gale when he casts Haste on Karlach, but is hit by the spirit ring and so blinded by Radiant Orb that she skips her turn anyway. Dead in two rounds.
If I attack Radija and the necromites, this draws in Zealot Klen and a Scrying Eye. So I sneak round through Balthazar's room and, while out of sight, use a scroll of Shatter on the Eye, while Klen doesn't even react ("It must have been the wind...") and back to camp, because two more party members need to level up, so I want to make the rounds of vendors at Moonrise Tower (Roah, Lann, Araj), House of Healing (sister Lidwin) and Last Light Inn (Mattis, Barcus, Dammon, Talli) to bag up merchandise for later. But when I pop back out of camp, Seven is suddenly accused by Klen, so we off him.
Then, a mistake: I invite Halsin into the party to level up. He can't fast-travel, doesn't have the dialogue to let me dismiss him, and I can't switch him out for another party member. He does have spells to rival Gale's, though. Like Dominate Beast, which I need to try out something I saw on Youtube, but don't have scrolls of. As he refuses to leave camp, I try another dialogue option which luckily leads to an option to dismiss him.
Why is there fresh mushroom soup in the room before Balthazar's lab in the mausoleum? The rats didn't prepare it, and Balthazar can't eat it. Got bell for Flesh. Attempt 2 on Radija: take Ast along, sneak in via roots and platforms and Balthazar's study, party invisible, Ast sneak-attacks Radija, Karlach tosses necromites at each other (which means no damage from their Armour of Agathys) and the fight is over in, again, two rounds, without drawing attention. Then we finally find the (meager) hidden Harper's treasure behind a cracked wall outside Mig's quarters.
Unlike her two roomies, Mig will not be lured outside onto the balcony with a kittycat. Shart casts a bubble of Silence over the area surrounding the door, and closes the door once each victim is outside, to be slaughtered without detection. As implied, Mig stays inside, but while we attack her in turn-based, she does nothing, just restores all her hitpoints when it's her turn; Ast tries to bone-chill her with an arrow of Ilmater, after first wasting a coating of Malice, but she succeeds a save against it. At last we knock her out in one turn and Seven successfully shoots her with Spellthief to get one spell slot back.
(Poor Mig, though. Her roomies kept threatening to send her to the frontline, and she kept agitatedly saying she would "behave".)
The two ground-level patrolling Scrying Eyes both drift past Araj and the cowering pilgrim into a dead corner; Karlach improvisedweapons the pilgrim outside, Shart shuts the door, and Karlach throws the pilgrim, killing him instantly. We go back inside, wait for the Eye to drift into the far corner with its back to us, and Karlach uses the Sentient Amulet to cast Shatter, destroying the Eye and getting a hysterical gigglefit. Araj seemingly doesn't react, but to be sure, we zap back to camp and enter Moonrise Towers through the gate again. The message log tells me that Zealot Niram, at least, noticed. The second Eye was dispatched in the same way, this time without comments from guards. Prison staff, dock staff, Radija, Z'rell, Mig & co, that's it; the Harpers can mop up the rest when they storm the fort. I just want to wipe the roof before tackling Shar's Gauntlet.
Read wiki to find winged horrors: from the balcony where the charred prayerbook is found, up roots to wooden walkway, series of jumps to balcony where they prowl, off them, down roots to not otherwise accessible small balcony with treasure chest. Retrace steps. Go through hall and ornate door, be looked down the nose at by Susdera, toss her down the stairs, be rushed by necromites who are killed on and around stairs (ranged attack because they have Armour of Agathys, so no touchy). Ketheric doesn't react. Time for bed, Mausoleum tomorrow.
In camp: Speak with Animals is active, but Scratch doesn't speak and can be petted twice. Owlbear cub does speak. Bug?
Back to Grand Mausoleum: use Glutted Catacombs so Gale can summon a shadow with his Shadow Lantern without needing a corpse (if a corpse was needed in the first place). Down platform, north through hall; well well, the three patrolling Justiciar skellies are in fact Balthazar's Reconstituted Duellists/Marksmen and fight with us against actual undead Justiciars. Two die in the fight, the third goes poof when the battle is over. Why take Gale to fights? One word: Counterspell.
Reconnoitering the west passage and picking up a lever handle; wasted 3 inspos trying to determine the motivations of a rat. Discover a name: Lyrthindor. Where is Yurgir?
Retrace steps, try east: Nessa runs off when she spots us. We jump down, then up again over broken staircases, and spot Yurgir. Combat! He clearly felt ambushed by the direction we took. Reload save. Down the north staircase this time, towards the campfire and the stack of boxes and containers which we loot. Talk to Yurgir (who displays an excellent sense of smell) and offer to find the last Justiciar (we know where he is). Don't lick the dead spider, Minthara disapproves and her approval is low as it is. I'll skip Nessa's lovestruck dialogue. The boxes and baskets we plundered are now red-outlined, the Hoarding Merregon leans against them. Got 5 befuddling bombs for free from Hoarding Merregon after reading his thoughts and saying I would dose the displacer beast.
Seven: "Do you get much business down here?"
Hoarding Merregon: "Groan."
Back to the shadow who, we found, can't jump across gaps and is basically useless here. All the time, tremors. Killed rats (beware, the pink ones make you sleep), killed Lyrthindor, ratted (heh) Raphael out to Yurgir. After both are gone, Seven shares a kiss and a dopey smile with Karlach, who carries a violin on her back. During the close-up, the violin's end that sticks up is shown to be carved into a humanoid face - Milil?
Gauntlet of Shar: only for Seven and Shart, as this is her show, and she donates blood every time. Soft-Step Trial: after claiming the gem we sneak back invisibly, but the shades are gone, so that was a waste of two invis potions. Also, the wiki says the transporter there could have teleported us back to the start of the maze. Self-Same Trial: we crowd into the lobby and only Shart/Seven go past the second door, but oops, going through the first door is enough to make copies of the whole party. Reload, the two trial-takers split off and strip to their underwear, go through both doors, then re-armour and re-arm in order to fight unarmed, unarmoured copies of themselves. Oops again, Shart and Seven are primarily casters. Faith-Leap Trial: despite throwing bones ahead of us to map the path, and setting out a walkway of candles (while finding out why they don't stack: some "white" candles are purple ones) Shart and Seven both die; after resurrection, Seven has lost Loviatar's Love. Reload! We're going to cheese this. Instead of the Faith-Leap Trial, this will be the Leap Trial, completed by Karlach, a Potion of Glorious Vaulting and the Eversight Ring; first Karlach jumps from platform to platform to the altar, then Shart starts the trial which makes the gem appear, and Karlach will just snatch the gem and be transported back. The last jump to the altar is always deadly, so Karlach uses Misty Step for that.
There is an elevator/platform near the gauntlet waypoint that goes down to the library nearby the last trial, which requires finding a missing lever handle; this is the only way to bring Gale's summoned shadow to the lower levels. I take the party members down individually, as they may otherwise drop off the platform to their deaths. If only Karlach enters the library and snipes the Justiciars from the top of the stairs, she can eliminate two without starting combat, before attacking the portal that is the Librarian; when that's gone, so is the silence, and the whole party can enter the fray. (Karlach is still silenced, but she's not a caster, so it doesn't matter.) The library has so many traps, I should have brought Ast, but I just let Seven suffer the acid splashes. Seven is now completely out of spell slots, so I call it a day. (Drat, I barely used Flesh.) Tomorrow we kill Roah and Balthazar, free the Nightsong, and storm Moonrise Towers with Jaheira.
The bug with Scratch is resolved, Seven can talk to him again.
In the morning, I want to kill not only Roah, but her bodyguards Erna and Yerle. In turn-based, Lae improvisedweapons one of them to almost outside the door while Karlach stays behind for the other one. Throwing, then cancelling is tricky and, when almost out the main gate, Lae accidentally smacks her burden to the ground and combat starts, which the Absolutists ignore, but in which Lann is on our side?? Are Roah's bodyguards right when they keep complaining that he looks at them funny? Not that it matters, since Karlach finishes the other in two blows and knocks out Roah. Now KO-ed NPCs can be improvisedweaponed (throw then cancel) out of doors but corpses can't, and in this case neither can they be picked up or looted, as that counts as theft. Shooting an Arrow of Darkness, despite positioning the cloud away from NPCs, starts a fight (because the cloud envelops not-yet-dead Roah?) so we leave the corpse there to loot after storming the tower, and just improvisedweapon out Roah so we can use her loot to buy all of Barcus's bombs. Wyll uses Jack Of All Trades (and Seven's lockpicks) to unlock one of the watchtowers by the bridge, which has loot consisting mainly of lockpicks. Zealot Brinn was attracted by the illusion Wyll cast to lure the bodyguard, so Karlach and Lae improvisedweapon Brinn outside the gate in turn-based together, as he keeps walking back during the environmental turn, so it's two steps forward, one step back. What a relief to finally just throw and demolish him outside the gate. Turn-based is not needed for Roah, who doesn't move: Karlach carries her all the way into Reithwin, where she dies to the Shadow Curse, rises as a shadow-cursed zombie, and is killed again, for good. Justice for Rugan! Her loot does indeed buy most of Barcus' bagged-up inventory, leaving nothing for the other vendors, so Seven just takes infernal iron to Dammon to have three flawed Helldusk items made - the helmet, protecting against spells, goes to Karlach to replace the Helmet of Autonomy - and unloads crap items onto Sister Lidwin in return for poison.
Discovery: elixirs stack to 20, potions to 99, arrows to 100.
Last run, I killed Balthazar in the Shadowfell. This time I'll do it in his office, taking his assistants with him. Flesh has a deep HP pool, but hates fire. First, from the doorway, use the locket that casts Evard's Black Tentacles. Now all enemies are stuck, and we're safe outside the lab. Then we pelt them, Seven using lots of Fireball scrolls, Lae shooting fire arrows, Shart using Sunbeam and Guidance Bolt, and together destroying, among other things, a vegetable crate, a row of books and Mother Dearest; the crate is on fire, so Karlach throws a water bottle on it, but the impact breaks the crate apart. Flesh goes berserk, killing one of the ghoul medics for us before kicking the bucket. All undeads contain alchemical ingredients; Flesh, fittingly, Putrefied Tumours. The lab was the last part of this area that needed ransacking, so now we go to the altar that needs the umbral gems, save, and go down on the platform to another altar and a new waypoint: Verge of the Shadow. Before the pool, Shart prays. Seven slips into her mind (using her Guidance) and hears Shar telling her devotee to make a sacrifice, and that a companion is spying on her thoughts. Ahem.
"Shadowfelling!" is the reason Karlach gives for not talking in the scary environment where asteroids zoom by and collide with stone structures, the reason for the tremors in the temple. Shadowheart will not stop talking, affirming her devotion to Shar. Protected by location-based Feather Fall, we follow the glowing gems and the ghostly apparitions that turn to skeletons as we approach. While we're lootgoblining the bone piles around Aylin's force cage, the cutscene starts. Seven wastes four inspos and a scroll of Charm Person to try and dissuade Shart, then Aylin sees an opening by mentioning Shart's fear of wolves, and Seven stops Shart with no checks needed. Big cutscene of Aylin being released, magically growing armour, soaring over Last Light Inn. Shart gets Moonlight Glaive. We finish looting the skeletons, hop into the portal, emerge at the Grand Mausoleum entrance in turn-based. I send the glaive from Shart to Minty, there is a cutscene/convo between Seven and Shart about her being unconscious for a moment and then she drops down, I can't do anything or quit turn-based any more. Only solution: talk to Shart again, tell her to go to camp. As soon as she's out of the party - she drops again, gets up, walks away - I can exit turn-based. Perfect, because we're storming the Bastille - sorry, Moonrise Towers - and I want Lae and Minty with me to start refilling inspos.
Zap to Last Light Inn: Isobel practically shakes me by the shoulders to tell me to join the assault on Moonrise Towers, but first, I check who's still at the inn. Everyone has something to say about the streak of light when Aylin flew over; Rolan jocularly suggests I go save the day. Since we're Shartless, Lae will trade the Ichorous Gloves and Caustic Band for Hellrider's Pride and Whispering Promise so she can lob healing potions. Appear at Moonrise Towers; just enough time to chat with a Flaming Fist, and Jaheira's pep talk starts. I did well to off so many extras, now it's just two Absolutists on the floor, one in the rafters, and Lann Tarv; I can't see the pilgrims, nor the goblins, nor the corpse of Fist Ulthred (will he be all right?). It's those four against all the Harpers and Fists and three gnolls. I ask Jaheira to join my party, so she won't get killed, and my first move is to dimension-door Seven and Karlach up on the rafters so Karlach can push the cultist on top of Lann (he dodges); followed up by Seven's Agonizing Eldritch Blast: that's the first enemy down. Jaheira electrifies Lann, who is knocked out by Lae. The gnolls shoot at the two remaining cultists. But what's that? Two more emerge, including Adept Nola, who I thought I'd killed. Minthara, in spider-loving drow style, throws a web grenade that covers all four, but they jump out of it. They hit Karlach! And kill one of the gnolls! On the upside, Fist Ulthred is alive; he's dashing in with the Harpers. As the enemy is still close together, Jaheira casts Ice Storm on them. Seven electrocutes one with a Chromatic Orb, Lae shoots lightning arrows at another. Most of the cultists' casts are counterspelled, but one manages a Hunger of Hadar. One cultist has slipped and the other two are both casters, which of them is concentrating on that spell? Karlach aims a bomb between them that kills both. All the allies finish off the slipped one, running through a pool of caustic brine (which kills the unconscious Lann) to spread throughout the first floor. We splash water on the brine to avoid further hurt, loot the cultists and try to loot Yerle; it's still considered theft! Oh well; Talli lets us off with a warning. Good night, sweet Tomelia; at least you gave us two barbed arrows and a hyena ear.
The inside of Moonrise Towers is a red zone, so we run out over the bridge, past spots of Aylin's Holy Fire, until we're in the clear - Jaheira leaves the party - so I can go to camp, drop off Minthara, recruit Shart and switch gear back for a fight against undead in the prisons, because that's where the Fists will be, and these undead (I took a peek, then reloaded) don't have Radiant Retort, so Blood of Lathander and Guardian Spirits are safe. And because I want to speak to all camp members and hear their "Fight! Fight!" lines; Wyll's sounds particularly heated. On my return, Talli and Jaheira are fighting the four pilgrims who turned up again, and who really don't stand a chance. Their inventories are empty, and I can't find the stones they must have thrown. Shart casts Guardian Spirits (radiant) before going down the stairs to prison. And holy hell is it full of necromites. Karlach slams the Death Shepherd into two of them, Seven kills three with a scroll of Chain Lightning. What do I see: three necromancers at the back; these must be dealt with ASAP. Karlach and Lae throw and fire to dispel Armour of Agathys on the necromites so the Fists can take them on. Seven eldritch-blasts and Shart spirit-blenders, healing on every bonus action. We win, and we don't even need a speed potion. Fist Ulthred is SAVED!!! The necromite bone piles contain a surprising amount of loot, but for some reason we're not allowed to loot the necromancers. Run out for a short rest before the final battle, and Shart can have Seven's Amulet of Pearl of Power to recover a level 3 spell slot.
Tried the fight on the (pleasantly pre-emptied) tower roof twice. Destroyed Scroll of Her Glory both times, because Ketheric is tough and needs fire and bombs to take damage. Both times, the party jumped on the high stone structures which may be destroyed when the tentacle comes out, leaving party members hovering in the air. Second time, idiot Aylin attacks Keth, keeps missing, is KO-ed. Shart uses Scroll of Telekinesis to haul Aylin up beside her to safety. That's twice she saved Aylin's life! After whittling down Keth's health to two-thirds, he flees; Jaheira waits by the hole he jumped down, and won't join the party unless someone else leaves. The party returns to camp; Wyll is needed for the next step, so Lae'Zel stays behind.
(Looked up Scroll of Her Glory on wiki: "An instructional missive to zealots of the Absolute offered an audience." Basically refers to tadpoling in flowery prose.)
Shart's spell slots are close to exhausted, so she drinks a Superior Elixir of Arcane Cultivation to get another level 3 spell slot back, and takes one of the exactly 69 Potions of Angelic Reprieve collected from Lann Tarv from the camp chest for the lower-level spell slots. Karlach, always using two-handed weapons, carries the Moonlight Glaive along with the Halbert of Vigilance and the Returning Pike. Does Seven need to cast Feather Fall on the party before jumping down the hole in the tower roof? Nope, the fleshy bottom apparently cushions their fall. Wyll reminds us he's here to save a devil.
The map shows we're close to the Oubliette where we heard Chop, so first, liberate Us. Seven is sick and tired of not keeping up, and will wear Crusher's ring for extra running distance until a fight starts and he needs the Callous Glow ring. Karlach walks round to the semi-transparent membrane that separates the Morgue from the Oubliette, and, through it, dimly sees a partly dismembered body suspended in liquid, flakes or bubbles rising around it. She's standing under the nozzle that releases a corpse, so the corpse ends up plugging the nozzle and has to be picked up and dropped. Chop offers no dialogue to give us the key to Us's cage, but does want to die, so we oblige.
Finding the rune: seems we can understand Illithid script, which happens to be dots and dashes? Sounds like Morse code. Another rune tells of an uprising, yet another of an awakening before three painful points of light.
The sound drops a lot during the interaction with Chop and Mizora, so for the Mizora dialogue I saved and reloaded, which fixed it. Thank you, Mizora, for reminding us that you basically molest your warlock on the job. Wyll gets his cambion-summoning rapier. When we look at the empty brine pool, the Dream Guardian says there's a parasite nearby, but I can't find it. ("Interacting with the brine pool near Mizora (DC 16 Perception check) yields a Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen." That means Karlach should have it - nope, it was added to the tadpole total.) We free the prisoners from their pods and toss speed potions that splash Zevlor; good move, because he slays. Meaning, he kills a mind flayer and an intellect devourer in one turn. The three remaining mind flayers stun Wyll and almost kill Shart. After the victory, we stealthily pick up the javelins the Fists threw, and show no intention of reclaiming. To the barracks, where Kressa Bonedaughter awaits. The sound is giving out again, so I save, quit, restart: let's rob all the barracks rooms before adressing Kressa. We get caught in the last room, and choose Attack. On the plus side: Kressa and her husband are now near us while the others are still in Kressa's little auditorium, so we can whale on those two first, and she might not have blessed them yet. On the downside: no Myrkul's blessing for us. After the fight, we collect all the documents that prove everyone else is scared of crazy Kressa. Wyll proves his value as bard by giving us a third Short Rest.
Next stop: Balthazar's circle with Profane Womb pods. His undead spot us as soon as we go through the door, which puts us behind a chokepoint where, using scrolls, Wyll lays down a protective Wall of Fire, Seven summons a fire elemental in front of the wall to tank for us (the undead attack it rather than go through the fire), and Shart uses scrolls of Sunbeam to burn whole rows of zombies. Karlach chucks her pike and Alchemist's Fire. After this fight, and the satisfying smashing of the pods, we're ready to level up! Wyll takes another level in warlock to learn Counterspell. Seven takes his fifth sorceror level to learn Lightning Bolt, the third spell (following Shocking Gasp and Chromatic Orb:Lightning) that uses his draconic element.
Found the Resonance Stone (Wyll carries it after drinking an Elixir of Psychic Resistance), the Waking Mind, and the Slack-Skinned Head. Shoot! I should have brought the two brain jars from the nautiloid. Having read that polymorphed characters can fast-travel from red zones, I save, then use a scroll to polymorph Seven and send him to camp to collect them. It doesn't work. Reload save, polymorph Karlach, send her to a waypoint outside Moonrise Towers where she looks like she's in gaseous form. When sheep-Karlach poofs back into Karlach, she materializes at that waypoint and can go to camp, sort the camp chest and send the two brain jars to Wyll. Then she goes to Moonrise Towers and runs to the roof where Jaheira still stands by the hole, only to find that she can no longer jump down to the mind flayer colony. NO WAY are we fighting Ketheric without Karlach. Reload save.
Turned Wyll invisible and had him sneak to Aylin, to free her as soon as combat starts, while the rest of the party prepared itself. Tried a few ways to beat the Avatar of Myrkul, as I always talk Keth into taking the plunge. Casting Silence on it didn't work. What did work was pre-summoned elementals, two fire, one air, and Wyll's cambion and imp; speed potions; killing the mind flayer before its first turn; constantly destroying the skeletal involucres before they turn into necromites; Karlach throwing stuff, Eldritch Blasts, some Sacred Flame from Shart, whose Blood of Lathander one-shots the involucres, a few well-aimed wallops from Aylin, and us lesser mortals keeping a safe distance from bone daddy and his scythe. After the defeat, a lot of exposition from the Dream Guardian that I don't remember from the earlier run, featuring villainously scowling projections of the other Chosen.
A handy portal appears that will take us back to the throne room, Jaheira saying that a certain she is no longer well-liked on the surface (talking about Viconia?) to Minty sitting on the throne. Maybe this scene is why Mint's name doesn't appear in the list of characters I can send items to right now. I go along with Mint's power dreams to win her confidence and increase her disposition, even though Karlach and Wyll disapprove. Wyll tells me the whole story about Mizora. Withers is here for exposition. Jaheira offers to join, and has more exposition. I can't remember this much talking on the previous run! And now Minty is talking. Blah blah send her to camp, talk to everyone, send Aylin to camp, go to prison where only Fist Ulthred remains, he thinks we still need to kill Keth and can't be told otherwise, and we still can't loot the three necromancers! Okay, Seven will busk to distract Ulthred and Wyll can crouch in hiding, loot them, and flee to camp. We've already properly looted the tower, including Araj's corner, but I'll talk to Mattis before we go to Last Light Inn. What, Alfira is writing a song to cheer the children up about Mol? I don't remember that either. And now the Dream Guardian is doing its spiel about recruiting allies.
Where is Talli? Outside on the steps. We trade one last time, with her and with poor undead Sister Lidwin who will crumple up in the sun when the shadow curse breaks, then loot the last items from the inn. Strangely, the whole Act II area seems darker than before we killed Ketheric. There are very, very few characters left in the inn, especially outside - so we can safely gather the firewine barrels and red-outlined wares Talli left on display - and they all think Keth isn't dead yet. At camp, Seven talks to everyone, and Shart talks to Aylin, but do I see Selune's spear appearing? Sigh. Start long rest. Oho, exclamation mark over Aylin's head, exposition, Selune's Spear of Night delivered. Made the rounds to hear everyone about the new subquest: find Shart's parents. Seven kissed Karlach again; they get more lovey-dovey with each kiss. And on that note, Act II ends.