3 decades of dungeon crawling: Let's play the Eye of the Beholder series

An archival space for the threads that made it.

EOTB 7: Ate Nine
Level 7 is the start of drow territory, and we are immediately confronted by their guards. Listen to them be absolutely not intimidating here.

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I try to bribe them but don't have what they want right now.

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This is not enough to make them hostile, which is good because a fight with them would be a pain in the ass. There's no room to maneuver and these drow can paralyze with their hits, which we currently have no way to remedy. I go back and get what he's hinting at:

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NB: Be sure to leave at least three eggs behind, they are still used for something later. Yes, I did just sell kenku into slavery, but I also just explained why fighting the drow would be annoying, so I clearly made the right moral choice. :colbert:

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Here's the layout. The orange arrows are paths of fireballs, and the letters are places their launchers are activated. Note that one of the arrows goes through a red circle. That means the drow's brilliant security posted a guard where he can get hit by a fireball. If that happens, it counts as an attack against them and earns their hostility. My destination is the northeast corner. The button at the first tile marked B will close the pit ahead of it and launch a fireball over the next one. The other B tile will launch a fireball every time you step on it, but that won't harm you if you just wait for it. Incidentally, the B tiles are also the area where drow guards start spawning after they become hostile.

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We get there to find three doors all opened by this plate.

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Two of them are occupied by skeletal lords, which are among the most dangerous monsters in this game. They move and attack very quickly, and can do damage up to the teens with each hit. They also take half damage from sharp weapons - the Chieftan Halberd's bonuses give it damage on par with a mundane blunt weapon with better chance to hit. Luckily they only approached one at a time, to the 2x2 room where the plate is (this is the second one).

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The third door has the remains of the half-elf cleric Ileria. Their presence here suggests she was going to be turned into another skeletal lord. The holy symbol might be what prevented that.

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On the way back I use a key I got to unlock some stairs up.

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This leads to a small, isolated section of level 6 where we find the key to that level's portal.

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There are several items on this level guarded by drow that you can only get by attacking them. All of the drow here are male. There is exactly one drow woman in the game, who we won't meet until we leave their territory (on that note, this is the only drow level that actually has them). Strange considering their matriarchal society is one of the few bits of D&D lore I'm aware of.

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Ileria has her name spelled differently in her introduction. The skeletal lords we fought were likely her previous companions. If her offer is refused:

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I take her and also drop Taghor to increase everyone else's experience gain. The dwarves are not going to be in the final party.

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Ileria has the minimum possible wisdom for a cleric, and is also "officially" male in a presumable error.

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This is the northwestern "A" plate. I step on it and quickly dodge the fireball it launches, thereby declaring war on the drow. The loot I get from this includes a Luckstone Medallion (which I think improves saving throws but I'm not entirely sure) and several scrolls, including some I got while they were still peaceful:
Bless
Create Food (brings everyone's hunger meter to full, making rations pretty much obsolete)
Fireball (the only mage scroll)
Protection From Evil 10' Radius (whole party defense buff)
Remove Paralysis (does what is says for the whole party, right when it becomes relevant)
Slow Poison (despite the drow love of spider motifs, there are no spiders anywhere further on, nor any other monster that poisons)

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The southeast portion of level 7 is separated from the rest by a section that goes through all three drow levels.

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It is a series of short hallways with lots of stairs and locked doors. I find a red gem and a drow key here.

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This is an illusory wall, leading to a locked door. The key I just picked up is not the one to unlock it. Annoyingly, the locks are all identical-looking for three different key types.

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A button will turn a gem on this shelf into a jeweled key.

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On the opposite side of that room, there is text we can't translate.

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Until now. Dorhum won't be a member of the final party so I don't mind doing that. I bring the party gender balance while I'm at it.

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Translated or not, the writing marks level 9's special quest. Throw or fire an object over it to remove the wall and get three orbs of power. They allow items to be identified at the Oracle of Knowledge in level 4.

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A different section of level 9 labeled "Storage" gives an early introduction to one of its monsters, the displacer beast. If they have their image projection ability here it's in the form of being harder to hit. The room next to this has scrolls of Armor and Flame Blade.

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This sneaky button removes the wall next to it. That opens a path to another illusionary wall with a spider mark which hides a drow key. This one does not directly open a door, but is instead used here:

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The button will turn any key on the shelf into a red gem.

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Put that gem in here to open this door. Behind it is a ruby key, the type needed to open the door at the start of this section. (I slightly cheat and use ASE's teleport to get there and back to save myself having to remember or look up where all the stairs go).

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These items are in the room behind it, along with another ruby key. The drow bow is functionally identical to the one I already have, but better-looking IMO. Vampiric Touch drains life from an enemy and can bring the mage's HP above max, but requires them to be in the front row to do so.

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The gem door goes to a short hallway with an upward staircase on each end. The western one leads here. There is a skeletal lord behind a door next to this message. It's in a 2x2 room, but likely to meet you at the door due to its fast movement and thus force you to fight with no space to move. The Aid bug saved me some healing here.

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Past that, you must give up a small item to proceed further.

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In one corner of a square hall is the only pit which will not cause fall damage. Another corner has a Ring of Protection +2.

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It leads here. This teleporter goes back to the gem door. There is a room behind it with a scroll of Raise Dead and a Potion of Extra Healing.

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The east stairs go into this hallway. It has two doors that will close behind you, along with another message saying "Fight for your freedom." This will lock you into the final section of level 7 in the southeast, which will be covered in the next update.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:11 am, edited 4 times in total.

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Okay, couple of things. First up, there's a reason all the drow soldiers are male. Because that, and magicians, are one of the few positions of relative power that they will ever have. And they'll still be some drowish princess' toy (in multiple senses.)

As to the Displacer Beasts, yes, they do in fact have their ability, however, there is no visrep, only the crunch. Essentially, you'll miss attacks on them more than you normally would. This used to frustrate me to no end, but is not a big deal unless you're in a tightly enclosed space.

Oh, did you notice that there are far more encounters in corridors now, less open spaces? Yes, the developers were easing you in at this point. They know damn well what they were doing.

And Drow technically cast sleep, but since I can't recall if the status is in the game, it may be represented as single target paralyse. Any which way, as much as it burns your ass, yes, being peaceful with the drow is the best way. Any which way, folks playing along? you'll be grateful for the anti-paralysis very soon.

Because my lovely baes will be entering the picture at some point. :smuggo:

Well uh that's a cleric, I guess.

Sleep not being implemented seems weird but being replaced with paralysis is definitely the sort of fuck you I'd expect.

JamieTheD wrote:
Sun Aug 15, 2021 10:33 am
Okay, couple of things. First up, there's a reason all the drow soldiers are male. Because that, and magicians, are one of the few positions of relative power that they will ever have. And they'll still be some drowish princess' toy (in multiple senses.)

As to the Displacer Beasts, yes, they do in fact have their ability, however, there is no visrep, only the crunch. Essentially, you'll miss attacks on them more than you normally would. This used to frustrate me to no end, but is not a big deal unless you're in a tightly enclosed space.

Oh, did you notice that there are far more encounters in corridors now, less open spaces? Yes, the developers were easing you in at this point. They know damn well what they were doing.

And Drow technically cast sleep, but since I can't recall if the status is in the game, it may be represented as single target paralyse. Any which way, as much as it burns your ass, yes, being peaceful with the drow is the best way. Any which way, folks playing along? you'll be grateful for the anti-paralysis very soon.

Because my lovely baes will be entering the picture at some point. :smuggo:
I edited in the correction about displacer beasts, as well as a note on where drow start spawning after they become hostile. I also pointed out a small bit of environmental story-telling about Ileria's remains.

The game manuals talk about (half-) elves being resistant to charm and sleep despite those spells not otherwise existing in this series. The cluebook for the first game says that the drow guards coat their swords in a paralyzing substance, which of course is no longer on them after you pick them up. It does only happen if they land hits. Speaking of drow, the details of the way their society is stratified along gender lines doesn't really explain why there's just one female drow in the game. Guess the others are all hiding somewhere out of reach.

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Alpha3KV wrote:
Mon Aug 16, 2021 5:51 pm
The game manuals talk about (half-) elves being resistant to charm and sleep despite those spells not otherwise existing in this series. The cluebook for the first game says that the drow guards coat their swords in a paralyzing substance, which of course is no longer on them after you pick them up. It does only happen if they land hits. Speaking of drow, the details of the way their society is stratified along gender lines doesn't really explain why there's just one female drow in the game. Guess the others are all hiding somewhere out of reach.
Essentially, this is an expeditionary force led by said Drow maiden, I can't remember if it's implied she's dominated by Xanathar, but the drow don't send big forces for things like this because another part of their character is that they're overconfident. It also might be, due to politics, that she's literally on her own with what forces she has to muster.

But in terms of outside that... Well, we have to speculate, because the designers no doubt thought "Shit, it's the Realms, and it's Undermountain, gotta have drow somewhere."

That doesn't explain my baes or kenku however, but, y'know, Undermountain big, Undermountain has lots of portals leading to pretty much everywhere in the Realms and at least a few other planes of existence, and Undermountain often shifts. So... Anything goes.


EOTB 8: Magic Stones, Swords, and Darts
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The last major challenge of level 7 is a prison area with ten cells. Most of have one or two skeletal lords within them. You open the cells yourself, and there's a 3x3 room in the middle, which make this manageable. As you can see here, they can be turned like other undead, though a 6th level cleric won't often do it successfully.

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The main reward is four keys (two drow, two jeweled) that will allow you out of here. Other loot includes the second-best armor type and a scroll of Lightning Bolt, which damages a single column of enemies and won't bounce off walls like in other games.

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The four locks all look the same, so it takes guessing/trial and error or a guide to know which key to use for each.

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This leads to a hub with five stone portals. These are the medallion portal to level 4, the necklace portal to level 5, the dagger portal to level 9, and two more (on perpendicular walls not visible from here) we don't have keys for.

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Across from the portals are three shelves. One has a wand with no magic (amusingly identified as "Wand of Stick"), one has the item you "sacrificed" in the trial from the previous update, and one has this black rock which is +1. Level 7's special quest is to put a stone portal key on each shelf, which creates scrolls with hints about where some of them go:
Around the neck
Made of gold
The sign of dwarves
You've been told

The light of the stars sparkles in the gem.
Follow one to see the other.

The orb leads to great evil.
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Past stairs down to level 8, there is a cell with two more skeletal lords across from a teleporter to a vault room. The vault has three doors with a single item behind each, and opening one permanently locks the other two. They each have labels on the opposite side:
Weapon - Slicer, a +3 short sword
Armor - Bracers of Protection +3
Magic - A Ring of Wizardry, which doubles a mage's 4th and 5th level spells.
I take the last one since it's the most unique. I'll find things that are the same as or better than the others in the first half of the second game.

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One of the first items found in the main part of level 8 is this. It's -3 though that's still a net improvement over no armor (equivalent to scale mail) and it can be taken off with no problem.

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Level 8 is one in which both monster types occupy the same area. In front is a hell hound, which attacks quickly and requires a lot of hits to bring down. Behind it is a drider, who throws spears, but not over the hell hound despite the height difference. The manual suggests that they can cast spells, but they don't.

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There are two scepter portals in level 8. One in the west, one in the east. Using the western one will take you down to level 10, and using the one there will bring you to the eastern one, which cannot be activated.

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A hallway in the south re-introduces rotation tiles and the much more annoying hidden teleporters. Getting past those and a drider leads to this. If it has any special effects I have no idea what they are.

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This is the start of a gauntlet. Certain tiles will launch fireballs from the north, the direction you are trying to go, with three two-tile alcoves to dodge on the sides. Two of those have pits in one tile. Past that and more hidden teleporters, I find a Ring of Sustenance in the northeast corner. It's supposed to keep the wearer's hunger meter from depleting, but doesn't seem to actually work in this game.

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Behind an unmarked illusory wall in the northern part, you can find a +3 longsword.

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A row of pits toggled by plates to the west (the direction I came from) and another +1 rock.

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In the southeast there is a split hallway. The one you go into first will close off a section of the other, blocking access to an item. I take the northern one to take scroll of Ice Storm (does damage over five tiles in a + shape, the most likely spell to harm your own party) over a set of lockpicks, which are entirely useless at this point.

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This room has twelve empty launchers. Putting a dart into each one solves level 8's special quest.

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Activating the trap causes ten of them to come out upgraded to +5. This room also happens to be close to the stairs down to level 9.

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The start of level 9 is a room with doors at each corner. The northeast one leads to two of these doors. The item needed is not a gem like before.

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Rather, a hall to the south drops another two +1 rocks which can open them. However, neither room has anything I really need, so I just keep the rocks.

The northwest door leads to several displacer beasts and a locked door. The key is behind one of the rock doors, but there is another way to the same places:

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The southwest door leads to another with four plates requiring certain item types. This one says "sword" but any weapon besides a bow, sling, staff, or dart will work. The others ask for "armor" (otherwise-useless helmets work for this), "food" (rations), and "missile" (arrow, dart, or rock).

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Level 9 is mostly populated by displacer beasts, but also has a few rust monsters. Their hits do very little damage, often none at all, but they can eat any metal item that character's inventory. This includes weapons, armor (including helmets, shields, and bracers), rings, and even wands. Axes strangely don't seem to count as metal, which is probably an error. I made sure my front-liners only had useless metal items before coming here.

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This hallway has a gauntlet of dart launchers on the north and south sides. They can be dodged by speeding through it.

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At the end of it are the remains of Beohram. Despite what this holy symbol might lead you to believe, he is actually a fighter. His other items are plate mail, a helmet, a shield, and Severious, a +5 longsword. That's the best weapon in the entire series right there.

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This room has buttons that activate Magic Missile launchers, but you don't need to interact with any of them. You can just pick up a key on the floor and unlock the door at the opposite corner. The remnants of a scrapped puzzle, I guess.

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It leads to this, a puzzle that definitely wasn't scrapped. It's one of the more complicated and least intuitive ones in the game. It might look like you should just throw an item over this pit to the plate, but doing that just makes it come back at you. Instead, you throw it through the top of the north wall, where it ends up landing in the middle. That uncovers another plate to the west (past another pit), which opens up another way in from the south. That's how you press that plate to close the pits. This ultimately leads to one way into level 10, but I'll be taking the other.

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The southeast door from the entrance leads to this corridor full of shelves. They will each take a small item from your party as you walk past, true to the name.

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At the end is this plate, which deactivates the robbery and changes the message at the end to "You forgot something." That allows you to go back and retrieve your stuff.

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The other end of the dagger portal, and another pair of drow boots. I don't know if those are any different from other boots.

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Behind another unmarked illusory wall is a +3 shield, the best one in this game.

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Giving up a small item to this shelf removes the north wall, leading to a Wand of Fireballs and the other way to level 10. Before that, I take the portal to identify my items and revive our new companion, Beohram:

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If you refuse him:

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He replaces Dorhum, though is a bit of a downgrade:

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One last thing in level 9:

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This works like the Oracle of Knowledge in level 4, but destroys the orb in the process. The Oracles are both very close to the portals in their levels, connected by the hub in level 7, so there's not much point in using this one over the other. Granted, Orbs of Power only have one other marginal use anyway. I take the south path to level 10, fighting one more rust monster along the way.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:12 am, edited 3 times in total.

Little odd that the guy you're meant to think is a paladin and certainly has all the reqs to actually be one isn't but I guess that's not terribly relevent in this game either way. Having less HP than everyone else despite being a fighter with 18 CON is a bit depressing though.

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Ah, the Scepter of Kingly Girthiness Might. I don't think it does anything this game, although in the other two, it becomes a common mace. I suspect it might have been cut content along the lines of saving somebody, then giving them the scepter to upgrade them from a handsome plinth. Or maybe an important component in the 12th secret quest of the game. In any case, it does nothing that I remember.

Ah yes, driders. They, too, suffered under the rushyness, although that's compensated for by the rust monsters. Aren't you grateful the portal stones are, in fact, stone, and thus don't count? I'm not sure if that applies to a McGuffin, but either way, we're shot of them. I hate them in tabletop, I hate them in this game, but they are still not the biggest dick move in terms of monsters this game has to pull.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Sat May 21, 2022 12:24 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Oh boy... There's a lot to unpack in this one. Let's start with Shindia, because she's actually pretty easy to deal with.

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Hey, remember this? Oh, look, it's Shindia, and, as you might expect from her being on Level 10, she is the last of the named minions of Xanathar, whoever they are. In the game, she is, for her brief screentime, not very drowish at all. Drow are schemers, not cowards, so, uhhh... Well, pretty much everyone who's played this game was disappointed with Shindia, moreso than Ilserv, who was basically "Arrogant Minion #53"

And, sad to say, she's no better in the comic. Repeatedly dunked on in the final two fights, she ignonimously falls into a swamp and is eaten by alligators after a brief hostage situation. Honestly, every villain's fate in the EoB arc was shite and SatAm-ish.

Aaaanyway, onto our monsters! There's three, and the origins of all three was in 1e, believe it or not! In fact, the Mind Flayer predates both the Xorn and Thri-Kreen as far as official statblocks go, and yes, Thri-Kreen have been a fixture of the Realms from the beginning, albeit in a "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" way.

But where Thri-Kreen were most famous was Dark Sun, because they finally got one of the more comprehensive splatbooks in AD&D

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That's right, an entire book about my sleepless, hierarchy and hunting obsessed bug-baes. And yes, they do coat their weapons in paralytic poison quite often. It's one function of their spit.

The Xorn are an interesting one, because they have an ability you don't actually see unless you're specifically looking for it, or you're running the fuck away: They can walk through walls, just like Xorn from 1e onwards. The first time you're likely to notice this is when you suddenly get ambushed from behind when you know damn well no-one was behind you previously. Beyond this, there's really not a lot to say.

Finally... Mindflayers. What Alpha's not mentioned is one of the most aggravating thing about Mindflayers in this game...

There is no visrep for their mass paralyze, iirc. Not a fucking sausage. And, being a spell, it's ranged.

Good fucking luck.

I somehow forgot to include my shot of a mind flayer initially. I have rectified that now.

Fuckin' mind flayers, of course you actually have to fight some.
JamieTheD wrote:and yes, Thri-Kreen have been a fixture of the Realms from the beginning, albeit in a "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" way.
Oh, I guess that explains a few things.

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RandomKesaranPasaran wrote:
Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:55 am
Fuckin' mind flayers, of course you actually have to fight some.
JamieTheD wrote:and yes, Thri-Kreen have been a fixture of the Realms from the beginning, albeit in a "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" way.
Oh, I guess that explains a few things.
Yeah, even I was a bit surprised at this. In 5E, they were mostly in the Shaar, but before that, Vilhon Reach.

Which, considering very few games even bother with the Vilhon Reach (I certainly can't remember any FR computer games that went there), means... Well, like I said, nobody really associates my bug-baes with Forgotten Realms.

And I like it that way, because the Dark Sun setting is fucking cool, even if the meta-plot and a lot of the splatbooks were fucking awful.


EOTB 10: End of the Beholder
We return to the dwarves on level 5 and give them the potion. Voiced version here.

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Here's what we're given:

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Wand of Slivias? Excuse me, it was supposed to be the Wand of Silvias. Bunch of scam artists here. As with any other wand, only a mage can use it. We can also take care of that right now by reviving Kirath.

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Here are his stats and initial spell list:

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Two standouts among his spells. Burning Hands causes damage to enemies in front of you, which increases with the caster's level. It is notable mainly because it has no scrolls, so recruiting Kirath is the only way to cast it in this game. Stoneskin is an incredible buff. It nullifies a certain number of physical attacks, dependent on the caster's level (1d4+3 at level 7). Better yet, it is not time-limited. It will stay on after rest, so you can easily cast it on the whole party. Since only a few enemies are capable of anything other than physical attacks, this essentially means nigh-invulnerability. It does not protect against spells, however. A scroll for it is also behind one of the rock doors in level 9.

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I also have him scribe some of the scrolls we've collected. I cancelled out after the first screen since it was listing spells he already knew. The most useful among these is Haste, which lowers the whole party's attack cooldown. Unlike some other games, it has absolutely no drawbacks in this series. Time to make use of some of these spells.

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I'm getting revenge on the dwarves for their misspelled wand bullshit. This is two of them lined up in a row near the door. That latter part is important because it gives me an escape to avoid being surrounded. Nothing other than the party can open doors, not even the humanoids who built these places.

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Kirath is not a high enough level to cast Cone of Cold, but I have four Wands of Frost. Here's a nice property of the spell: It can be cast through partially open doors. Any other spell would just hit the door, and the party if that spell was Fireball or Ice Storm. With this you can use it to kill enemies before they have a chance to reach you.

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I use Hold Person on these stragglers and show what Burning Hands looks like.

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The way into level 12 is a portal behind a locked door in the southwest room of level 11. There are two xorns in the room and a mind flayer behind the door, so you can encounter both enemies in the same place.

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Level 12 starts in a closed square room with no visible door. These things found around the level are fireball launchers, though this one seems to be inactive.

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The way out of the starting room is clicking this lamp to remove the wall behind it.

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When you do, you see this message on a wall. In the next room, accessed by a normal door, is another sign saying "You were warned."

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That room has a door to the west and this pixel-hunt button that removes the wall to the north.

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Taking that path disables a fireball launcher and allows us to get the drop on this level's main enemy type, the stone golem. These are weaker versions made by shortcuts, and they can be hit by non-magical weapons. Spells don't seem to work against them, though. There are four in this room, one of which drops a skull key.

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To the north we find where they are made. Two other pedestals are labeled "Stone for substance." and "Potion for strength." Anything besides the Dwarven Healing Potion will work, including Potions of Poison. When each pedestal has the appropriate item, pressing the button on the right will create a hostile stone golem. The only reason to do this is getting some additional experience.

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In the south there's another room with three pedestals. The middle one has another skull key. The outer two have Potions of Extra Healing and useless jewelry, but will steal small items from you if you take them. It's best just to ignore them.

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This locked door is unique because it will close and re-lock itself when you come back out.

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It leads here, with three golems in a corridor at the end. However, they don't come for you until you cross between the two pedestals, unless the whole party is invisible. You can also just pelt them with projectiles from here and never face retaliation. The shelves contain Potions of Invisibility and Vitality, which bring a character's hunger meter to full.

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Level 12 is split into three isolated sections: west (where we started), central, and east. Each one has a room arranged like this. Two of the buttons will warp you to one of the other rooms, and the third will push you into the east wall, where you can go forward into another room or back where you came from.

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The east section has a different room with three buttons. The outer ones create shelves with items: an Orb of Power to the south, a Potion of Speed to the north. The middle one launches two fireballs that turn onto its location.

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North from there you can find a Wand of Magic Missiles between two locked doors.

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The northwestern room of this section has a pedestal with three Orbs of Power. They can be used in the central section.

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There we find this room at the end of a long hallway. Put an Orb of Power on each outer pedestal to remove the large eyeball. Put another orb there to remove all three pedestals. The orbs will return to the pedestal they came from. The room behind this has two doors that only open from the inside, connecting to that room with the orb pedestal and the golem factory. With the three sections connected, it's time to go back east and finally confront the titular beholder, Xanathar.

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Beholders are extremely terrifying monsters that can very literally kill you just by looking at you and are immune to magic. Taking him on in a fight could be a very deadly mistake, so I do the sensible thing and surrender.

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Your characters drop everything in their hands if you do that.

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Damn, who could have guessed the villain was untrustworthy? Xanathar has two "insta-kill" abilities, the death spell and disintegration, that do exactly 100 damage. As you can see here, death doesn't happen at 0 HP, but -10. From 0 to -9, a character is unconscious: not able to do anything, but can still be healed back into action. Anya would survive this. In this case, Ileria is not a high enough level to cast Raise Dead, and I forgot to take any of its scrolls along. Oops. Luckily, the Wand of Inconsistent Spelling is still in Kirath's inventory. What it does is push Xanathar back. This is important because he stupidly put a deathtrap that he is vulnerable to right in his own quarters.

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You have to get him through a corridor first, which reveals another mistake I made: neglecting invisibility. The beam launches a fireball from the north, but is not broken if the whole party is invisible. Granted, invisibility is no help against Xanathar himself, who follows this up with his own more powerful fireball that kills Kirath. I'll have to go back for my weapons and do this the old-fashioned way.

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This is going pretty badly. Discretion is the better part of valor, so Ileria flees the battle and drags the barely-alive Tod Uphill with her. Obviously, when your last party member gets killed, that's a game over. But if you drop the last survivor, that last kill never happens. That means you can keep playing even with your entire party dead. In this state, while unable to attack or cast spells, you can still pick up items and throw them to damage enemies. I could kill Xanathar that way, but I'm not letting a perfectly good deathtrap go to waste.

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That conspicuous bloodstain marks its location. The shelf behind it contains one of each stone portal key. Since I'm no longer able to push him back, I make him follow me instead. Protip: that's a better way of doing it even if you're keeping your characters alive and not using ridiculous exploits. To actually get him in there, I'll have to use the A.I. of the Beholder to my advantage. When an enemy is at your front-left position, it will move ahead to flank you. But if you move forward at the same time, the monster will keep going in the same direction. This also works with groups of four staying in formation.

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It took a few tries to do this since he often turns around at the last tile. It seems to work most reliably when you follow him closely but don't bump into him.

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When this happens, the special quest sound will play. I'm not entirely sure if specifically for getting him into his own trap, or just killing him by any means. In any case, we have achieved (pyrrhic) victory!

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In the DOS version, the ending sequence is an anticlimactic text dump.

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Completing all special quests gets you this as well before abruptly kicking you back to DOS. I have no idea where the password is used.

Videos
My absurd strategy in motion.
The Amiga ending, in which the Lords of Waterdeep act like pricks.
Sega CD endings with unused voice lines added.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:14 am, edited 5 times in total.

Incredible. Simply incredible.

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On the one hand, it is for getting the special quest. And you only have the one hint for this, which is that the wand will save you in your darkest hour. And it is the only item in the game that does this, to my knowledge.

By the way, you can run out of charges for the fucking thing. And you can also trigger that trap yourself, if you're a real berk.

Well... Onward, to Eye of the Beholder 2: The Anagram, An Oddly Friendly Khelben, And The Bullshit Encounters!

To be fair, though, EoB2 definitely has some interesting, if under-utilised things. I'll save talking about the DC Forgotten Realms comics in a bit more detail until later, because it can serve as a nice complete sidenote (EoB2 and 3 were not represented in the comics), but, of the trilogy (we do not talk about the GBA game), 2 is definitely my favourite.

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This was great! I love the dead party glitches and such in these games.


Bonus Update: Extras of the Beholder
Before moving on to the second game, I'll be showing a few more things from the first. I played through the Sega CD version to record videos, so I'll detail a few of its other unique features.

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One of the first things is a different portrait selection. Many of them are very anime, and show up in other Capcom-developed versions of the game. This version supports multiple save files and has background music. It also has a default party, with characters creatively named Fighter, Thief, Mage, and Cleric.

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This is also the only version with in-game maps. These aren't automaps, but items which look like scrolls on the ground. Trying to pick them up immediately puts them into a special map slot, where they don't take up space and can be accessed from any character's inventory screen. Green squares indicate doors, and blue ones represent movable or illusory walls. Squares that are red or yellow (which can be hard to see on this background) indicate stairs/ladders, but have no consistency about which direction they go. The white square, which flashes, is the party's current location. Any map can be seen from any level. If you look at a level you have no map for, the only feature (aside from the party marker if you're there) will be a flashing red square showing its location.

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Maps are also one of the things tracked on the screen after the credits. "Quest" got changed into "search" by the translation into and back from Japanese. For some reason arrows are the other thing reported here. This playthrough set out to get all the voice lines. I obviously skipped a lot of other things but didn't really rush it. How quickly can this game be beaten? The current world record on the DOS version is just under six minutes. It takes teleporters to skip large portions of levels 2 and 3, dives into a pit as a shortcut to level 5, and from there uses stone portals to immediately get to level 9.

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Speaking of the DOS version, let's go back to that for a while. There's no autosave after killing Xanathar, so my last save is just before meeting him. Back to level 11.

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And from there to the hub in level 7.

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Using ASE's teleport feature, I show the unique graphic of the short sword I passed on for the Ring of Wizardry. I then take the portal to level 9.

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In the previous update, I mentioned that Cone of Cold will go through partially-open doors. Turns out that was underselling it. A partially-open door is for all intents and purposes still closed. Here are two displacer beasts dying to a Cone of Cold from behind a locked door. Notice that other red circle in the middle of the walls. I use ASE to go there too.

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It's a rust monster. Stoneskin doesn't just prevent damage from physical attacks, it also stops any other effect of the hit landing. That means poison, paralysis, or in this case, the rust monster eating items. That's good here since wands count as metal. Kirath has Vampiric Touch active.

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Hitting with it brings his HP up significantly above max. Nobody has Aid cast on them here. I finish it off with the other mage melee spell, Shocking Grasp. However going into the walls wasn't necessary to do this. Closed doors are functionally the same thing as solid walls. Cone of Cold can can go through those too, as shown here:

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Near the northwest corner of level 5, there's an isolated room with two spiders in it. There's normally no way in there. The pits in level 4 go to the corridor east of it. The only real indication of it is the spiders' very annoying walk sound when you're in an adjacent room. Unless you chose no sound on startup. Speaking of those options:

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:yeshaha: There's a CGA mode for those who can't get enough of magenta and cyan.

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The drow levels are the ones that come out looking best in this mode. This portal has no key item. The stone gem doesn't even seem to exist in the game data. The Cutting Room Floor has more details on unused things. There is an unofficial version 1.9 of this game that adds it and makes it go to an unfinished part of level 2. Since I'm not using that, I go to level 5 instead.

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Levels 10 and 11 look kind of similar to the dwarf levels. Our final party is unable to translate anything, though still have a decent idea of what "pantry" is.

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Other dwarf text will just give this.

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Orc runes are also no longer translatable, though it still gives a good idea of what they mean. It's a gnome that specifically identifies them as such. You may have noticed that despite these runes, there are no orcs in this game. There aren't any in the sequels either. On the way here, I encountered a zombie that respawned. Ileria's turn undead instantly destroyed it.

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That's enough of that. Back to the grind:

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The kenku in level 6 don't just have abnormally high experience values, they also have one of the fastest spawn rates of the game's monsters. Just walking around the level can make a lot of them. There's apparently a limit, and spawning one can't be done without killing another at that point. You can get experience from them without directly engaging them or even just blasting them with Cone of Cold from behind a wall. I get everyone above 200K experience like this (they were fairly close to start) and then add 1 million with ASE. That brings everybody up one level each time XP is gained. Hit Dice are still rolled in this game after levels where that should have stopped by AD&D rules. Which ultimately leads to this:

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Anya started with 45 HP at 4th level and gained 12 for each level up to the max of 11. 12x7=84+45=129, but character HP is a signed byte in this game so it wraps around to the negatives. She gets the faded unconscious portrait but is otherwise treated as dead. She gains no experience but also takes no further damage in this state, even from things like fireballs. Perhaps our strongest warrior has ascended to Valhalla. With that, now seems like a good time to move on.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 1:27 am, edited 6 times in total.

Oh of course they used signed bytes for HP and forgot to put in the early D&D HP gain parking brake. Ain't nothing like dying because you became too good at not dying.

Also lol cone of cold being able to fire through walls, that's definitely not the kind of busted I'd have expected.

If Garry Stew from the starting party stuck around, he could have 135 HP (-121) at level 9. A player-created dwarf fighter can overflow even at a "legal" level.

I finally got around to rendering and uploading the higher quality version of my "battle" with Xanathar, now edited into that post:
https://www.polsy.org.uk/play/yt/?vurl= ... OlPb9e-1UA


Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
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This game was released within a year of the first, built on the same engine. It doesn't have graphics and sound options at startup. Sounds can still be toggled at the in-game Preferences menu. The intro scene can be watched here.
You were settling in for an evening by the fire. Then a note was slipped to you. It was from your friend Khelben Blackstaff, Archmage of the city. The message was urgent.
The contents of this letter are shown in the manual.

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As indicated it comes with an attachment, which is twice the length of the letter.

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That attachment has its own attachment, which is three pages. That's five pages of attachments to a single-page letter.

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The party heads to Khelben's place.

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Going by what the letter in the manual says, the party should damn well know this considering they've already agreed to his task.

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The party climbs some stairs...

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...and finally meets the man himself.

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Khelben wrote: Ancient evil stirs in the Temple Darkmoon. I fear for the safety of our city.
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Khelben wrote: Three nights ago I sent forth a scout. She has not yet returned. I fear for her safety. Take this coin.
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Khelben wrote: I will use it to contact you. You must act quickly. I will teleport you to Darkmoon. May luck be with you my friend.
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And so the next adventure begins.

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I'm making the spellcasters Kirath and Ileria required. The other two will be decided by a poll.

:siren: VOTE HERE :siren:

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:17 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Ah, EotB 2. As with a few Westwood products of the time, it was a reaction to people saying the 1st game was too easy. We'll see how that went. XP

But while there's not much to note here, beyond Khelben being unexpectedly friendly (Seriously, if you see a book with Khelben in it, the odds are about 60-75% that he's either irritable, or outright being an asshole)... Except that intro stuff in the manual. It's a useful document, in its way, and spoils a few minor points. As a good intro document should for an RPG, give you a little info for the early game.

It's a shame, really, that we don't have a Paladin in our party for this one. Because we're going to miss out on something in the first damn update, iirc. Hope you know about that one, Alpha!

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Sat May 21, 2022 3:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

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It's sort of a theme of this game, really. You have to be an asshole to get anywhere. I originally thought that the cleric or paladin would leave the party if you desecrated all the graves (which does, in fact, have a potential use), but I can find no mention, so it may well be misremembering.

Anyway, yes, if you start this with a fresh party, you're going to have a harder time, because the priests have some nasty damage for this early on. All the Darkmoon guards do. Not really much to say at this point, however, beyond that this is definitely the hardest iteration in the trilogy, and that's a very Westwood thing to do.

Fuck you, Command and Conquer addon packs.

The game is nicer looking than I remember it being, thought that was just the third game.

I also didn't remember the game having any amount of outdoors to check, let alone a NPC who basically exists to herd you to where the plot wants you to be.


TLOD 2: Cata-Cata-Cata-Comb
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They also look very brown. Better get used to that for the next few updates.

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The temple was built on top of old drow ruins, which gives some explanation why this area's tileset is a recolor from the latter parts of the first game. There are doors to the east and west. The east one is locked, forcing me to go west.

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There are two guards to the side of a door. They have a scripted event, and won't do anything until you step into the tile that triggers it behind the door. Cone of Cold still ignores walls, and does spread out as its name would imply. This can be used to pre-emptively kill a lot of enemies. The guards here are 7th level fighters and can have HP up to the 70's.

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This event still happens, but they don't attack due to already being dead. One of them had the key for the east door, so we head back there. But first an aside with the quick start party.

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North of that encounter are some barrels, which can be smashed. Rations are in these ones, as well as on shelves around the room.

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Going further on the path from the west door brings us a return of the classic "leave an item on the pressure plate" mechanic.

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This happens in the room it leads to. Unlike the two before, this guard can't be pre-empted by Cone of Cold. Not just because this party has no way of casting it, but because he actually doesn't exist until you step into the tile triggering this event. He throws a dagger, which the previous guards also do at the start if you properly fight them. No other guards have daggers to throw. He drops some lockpicks.

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North of there a barrel has magic dust, which can cure petrification and allow you to unequip cursed gear.

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This locked door conveniently has its key right next to it.

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Insal was mentioned in the journal at the beginning, having been briefly hired as Wently Kelso's guide. If you refuse his offer:

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If you accept:

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He starts off in terrible condition and with no items.

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I feed him then take a rest to heal him, since I need some spells restored anyway.

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He takes a sword, three rations, and two rings if your party has them. Any items in his own inventory will be dropped on the floor. He also leaves a note:

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May as well check that out.

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This comment has a chance of happening if there's a dwarf in the party. The short sword is back since I actually did this and the following before rescuing Insal.

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Here's where it leads.

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At the south end of the corridor we find three scrolls and a copper key that can be used on the upper level. One scroll is Neutralize Poison, one is Magic Missile, and the third is a partial map of this level.

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We're currently at the south end of the northeast section. At the east end:

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Giant spiders spawn on both sides of the party, prompting this comment from a fighter. Several monsters return from the first game, mostly among the most annoying and/or dangerous of its roster. Spiders are near the lowest end of that list.

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A thief will warn that this pit is slightly more complicated than just closing it from the east wall and moving on. This is the last we'll be seeing of the quick start party, back to the main one.

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A pressure plate will open a door with four guards behind it and also re-open the pit behind you. Backing up will drop you into a cell, which you can escape by throwing an item through the bars. Stairs will go up to a hallway with a hidden button at the end, also shown on that map. The guards will likely be back there to meet the party. One of them drops a key. A lever at the other end of this hall will close the pit so that you can go back to ground level.

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In the small cell block below, you can find this lock. There is no key for it, so the only way to open the door on the other side is by picking it. There's a scroll of Lightning Bolt in that cell.

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The corridor winds and goes past the guards' quarters, consisting of three rooms. The one on the north wall opens behind you when you step here. One of these two undressed guards has another key.

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The two rooms on the south must be unlocked by you and have four guards each.

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This note is found in the west room, along with the horn it's referring to:

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It can be worn as a ring, which can free up more inventory spaces.

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The east room has a dagger +1.

The stairs north of the barracks go down into a short landing, where a hidden button uncovers a shelf with a scroll of Raise Dead and a Sling. After that...

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The stairs down trigger copy protection, with the same scheme as the first game. The word is "greater" here, but again the GOG version is cracked to allow anything.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:20 am, edited 7 times in total.

Sure, just wear a bugle as a ring, that makes sense.

Actually having rudely awoken guards is a nice touch though, can't think of many RPGs that even try to come close to something like that.

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It's a nice touch. But yeah, those Guards hurt if you aren't prepared for them (I wish I'd known about the Cone of Cold exploit, coulda saved so much time.)

As to Insal, yeah, he's a little shit, and Wently's diary implies as much. One example of how reading the manual is useful in these old games.


TLOD 3: Assembling a New Party
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We enter the second level of the catacombs, and go west.

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This is the last door to be unlocked with a grey key. It leads here:

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A lever will make a skull key appear on the shelf next to it but also launch a fireball from the north. That key can unlock a door to the north, but I'm using it for a different one and going east.

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The east path leads to what looks like a dead end with an illusory wall. This is a good time to show how True Seeing works.

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This type of button is somewhat common in these levels, and they always remove the wall they're on.

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:skeltal:

The southernmost section is where the key found earlier will be used.

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After going a couple tiles through that door, another one opens. Enemies still can't open doors, even when they're humans. Any door that opens without the player doing it is a scripted event. These clerics can cast Hold Person, which is especially annoying in this game since the whole party being paralyzed is now a defeat condition. On of them drops a holy symbol, and the other drops a Dark Moon key.

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This pile of items is a +1 Helmet (that doesn't actually affect AC), Iron Rations, a Long Sword +1, Plate Mail +2, a Shield +1, a Skull Key, and a Spellbook. Some of these items, particularly the casting ones, seem to indicate characters who can use them nearby.

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Here's somebody in the same room. This is Calandra, the sister of Ira, the woman we met in the temple's entryway.

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If you refuse her:

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We accept her into the party and leave the cell.

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Just northwest of it is another pair of priests. Like the first guards we encountered, these two are part of a scripted event and won't do anything until it's triggered. Also like them, you can pre-empt it with Cone of Cold.

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There's no special screen for this one, so we get a warning from nobody.

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We find this in one of the northern cells. There are no elf NPC's to recruit in the first game.

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When you release him, one of two things can happen:

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He will either just leave on his own or offer to join you. The outcome can be changed by reloading a save.

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If you refuse him:

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Here are the stats and acceptance messages of our new recruits:

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I didn't heal or feed Shorn, he actually does start in perfect condition despite what the text might indicate.

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I'm going through this from the east, but it seems like the other way is what was intended. The party should be well aware of what this place is by now. Especially Shorn, who made this comment because most of them are randomly assigned.

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A mage will point out another illusory wall. I do still have True Seeing active, and can't recast it because of that. However, causes its effects to no longer be visible. If you're facing the wall when you get here or the other side, the mage will call it a "second-rate illusion."

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This is in another cell near where we found Calandra. We head back upstairs and rescue Insal, who replaces the literal dead weight Anya. Ileria has two 6th level spells, both of which are Heal. That restores a character's HP to full. I use it on Insal and Calandra, as well as Create food. From there we go back up to the entryway.

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This button is between the staircases. It removes the wall to reveal a teleporter.

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This ankh is the only way to revive elves. As the plaque says, it can only be used three times, and there are two sets of elf bones to find. Those characters will just immediately join your party without even introducing themselves.

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We have another mage now. He scribes some scrolls brought over from the first game:

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He and Shorn memorize spells while I drop the remaining members of the previous party. The four character minimum is absolute. Insal can only run off from a party of five or six, not four. With that, it's possible to force him to stay around for longer, even up to the end of the game.

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The ankh room has two teleporters. One goes back to the entrance hall, and the other goes to an identical room with a non-functional ankh. Next time, the real challenge will start.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:23 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Huh, that's an interesting exploit I'd never thought of! Beyond that, there's really not anything to say that hasn't been said, including that Insal is a jerk, and so are the Darkmoon Guards.


TLOD 4: Nightmarish
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Back in the second level of the catacombs, I go to a secret passage in the west wall that I bypassed last time. A dwarf will point it out.

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It's connected to the illusory wall at the west end of the cell block. A thief makes this comment on a tile with potions of Cure Poison and Vitality. I go to the northwest section, past where I got the first skull key.

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A door opens on its own and re-introduces skeletal lords. They seem to be slightly nerfed from the first game, but are still dangerous, especially since they come in larger numbers now. You'll notice that Turn Undead is treated as a first level spell now. It no longer happens automatically, but can now be done without a holy symbol in hand since the spell menu stays open. These are the only monsters in this game affected by it anyway.

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The northwest hallway winds to get here. On the way, I have to fight through two groups of three skeletal lords, each accompanied by a priest. Before opening this door, ASE can preview what's behind it:

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Each of those six red dots is three skeletal lords plus a cleric. You'd better rest and then buff up for this one. Some of the enemies in the east end are in range for Wand of Frost cheese. It's not particularly effective against the skeletal lords due to their high magic resistance, but the clerics are the bigger problem anyway. I also have the front row characters drink Potions of Speed brought from the first game since I don't have the Haste spell right now. Mages created in this game don't start with it either.

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It's go time. I start with an Ice storm here, move back a tile behind the doorway, then cast another once enemies reach it. Again, it doesn't do much to the skeletons but the clerics are higher priority. After that I use retreating hit-and-run tactics to avoid getting overwhelmed. Fireballs connect just often enough to be worthwhile.

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I've generally avoided redundant shots of enemies, but I think it bears emphasis just how many of them there are here.

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All of that trouble was to get this key. There are also cleric scrolls of Cure Serious Wounds and Neutralize Poison in the room, as well as two +2 weapons, an axe named "The Bait" and a short sword named Sting (original weapon do not steal).

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The Dark Moon Keys are for these locks in the easternmost part of the level. Behind this door:

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This is what Khelben's Coin does. It won't happen without that in your inventory.

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That happens at an intersection. I open the west door and find a room with shelves. Those contain two Potions of Healing, a Potion of Speed, and the East Wind, along with a parchment:

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After that I go north and find another one:

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Why is it burned? Well, here's where it's found:

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This is the north intersection it mentions. It has pressure plates on each side except south, which activate one-time fireball launchers. East and west are just dead ends, but north is where we ultimately need to go. I step on the plate and quickly run to the southeast corridor to dodge the fireball. There I find a third parchment:
parchment wrote: ...I think I have found the passage way to the hidden level. I am excited. If only...
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This is referring to the eastern wall:

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It and the wall directly to its south have conspicuous gaps, but only the latter can be busted down.

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Two hits is all it takes to open the way to the lower floor.

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Stepping on this button will close the door behind you. This is your last chance to go back upstairs and rest. Why do you need to go back up for that?

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That's why.

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This door style returns for this stage.

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An altered sewer decoration is also used here.

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This comment isn't made until after you've already stepped inside the illusory wall. At this point I can't cast True Seeing since Shorn is still level 8 and therefor doesn't have 5th level spells.

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The first enemy of this level is the gelatinous cube. Its hits can paralyze and also eat items from that character's inventory. From what I've seen, it seems to use the same edibility list as the rust monster. This one doesn't move and drops a spider key. You can see the button on the wall through it, which is neat.

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The room to the south sets up a nasty ambush, which can also fall victim to Cone of Cold cheese. I leave two alive to show it at least semi-properly.

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The skull and staff (+1) can be picked up safely. Picking up the sword (cursed -2, named "Hath Kull") or the shield (+1) will close the door and remove the north and south portions of the east wall, giving you a rude introduction to this level's other monsters:

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Margoyles are notable as the first enemies in the trilogy that can't be hit by normal weapons. That shouldn't be an issue at this point, since even characters created in this game start with +1 weapons. They move quickly and can do a lot of damage - I've seen up to 30, though I think there's also some power scaling for imported parties. In this small space, you're guaranteed to get attacked from multiple sides at once if you didn't abuse Cone of Cold. Stay in a corner to make that two instead of three or four. Since Shorn is fully on support duty, he won't break his invisibility. This room is entirely optional. A pair of bracers +5 under the shield, the only +5 item found in this game, are the reason I went for it.

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This is what the spider key I got earlier looks like, along with its lock.

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It leads to another familiar sight. The tiles next to it have another spider key and a scroll of Haste, which San-Raal scribes.

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A room in the south of this level has a 3x3 grid of pressure plates, minus one on a tile directly in front of a door. To open it, the plates must be weighed down in an X formation. It goes to a hallway with several margoyles. You can step on one of the other plates to close it again and avoid fighting more than one at a time. If you're able to get in, Lightning Bolt will work wonders.

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This cache behind a hidden button has the first magical arrows of the trilogy, eight of them at +2. They come with a normal longbow (there are no magical bows in the series) and a +3 cloak called "Moonshade".

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A shelf on the north wall above a nonmagical axe has a couple of items we'll need later and the portal key never used in the first game. Another shelf has two arrows +1 and healing potions, plus another Dark Moon key.

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With that, we leave this terrible place.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Fri Jun 10, 2022 8:45 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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It's a short segment, but it's a mean one if you're not prepared for it. Although the skeletal lord room is also a fuck. It's also amusing to note that Westwood are working with the limited resources of the engine here, as Gelatinous Cubes do not paralyze... But they do suck people in to eat, which is the same difference. Same with the drow and mindflayers of the first game, with their sleep and psionics respectively.

Nonetheless, it's nice to see the portal return, because the Realms is full of portals. Undermountain alone has a metric fuckton, and the EoB method of activating them? That's pretty much the easiest method of activating a portal. Other portals require ridiculous things, and nobody really knows why. Some are obvious once you know their context (being an elf for a portal to a lost elven stronghold, for example), while others require passphrases, walking backwards through them (and yes, not all of them are visible), singing... I'm sure I could come up with something truly ridiculous, like making sure every single part of your body, items, weapons, etcetera are blue, and, because it's the Realms, it would probably exist.

We know that it's mostly safe to traverse these portals in the games. But in the Realms, unless you know damn well what a portal does and where it goes (kinda awkward, eh? Sorry, you hosers landed in the Elemental Plane of Fire without your thermal undies...)

...Well, you don't fucking go through it unless you're desperate.

Well that no rest floor is a rude as heck trick if youdon't see it coming.


TLOD 5: Burglary and Vandalism
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The portal takes us up to the priests' quarters, and we get the drop on one of them right away. Unlike those in the catacombs, these ones don't cast any spells. They can attack immediately once in melee range and consistently do more damage than their flails should - I think imported parties take double damage.

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That single priest was just enough to level San-Raal up to 9. He can cast 5th level spells now. I grab a couple items from a shelf and open the door out of this room. It's around the southwest corner of a roughly square-shaped hallway, and I head north first.

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Let's do some eavesdropping.

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Remember the old woman from the start of the game who offers to guide you to the temple? Turns out her cause was hopeless from the start. They also mention of the name Dran, who seems to be in charge here. One of the parchments in the previous update was a letter addressed to him.

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There are a few instances of doors opening and priests coming out on this floor. Most of the ones tied to events are men, as are the majority spawned around the floor in my experience. This event guarantees one man and one woman. This hallway ultimately ends with a door that can only be unlocked from the other side, so I go to the south one.

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There are four locks like this around the level. They have no keys. The first one goes to the portal room, which can be opened from inside. All others can only be picked. None of them contain something essential, and only this one has anything particularly interesting:

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We've found that scout Khelben sent before us. There's a note with her remains:

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Foreshadowing for the next area of the game, as well as the skeletal lords if you came here earlier than I did. It seems she was done in by hubris.

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These decorations can be seen all around this floor. Those sculptures can be destroyed by any melee attack.

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One in the southeast has a hidden button behind it.

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It removes the wall, opening the way to three teleporters. Two of them will take you to either corner of the south hallway. The western one will disappear after you walk into it.

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That one takes you to this room. It's square, with a shelf in the middle of each wall. Each one has a gem in it, except the north one, which has a copper key. Putting all three gems into the same shelf will remove that wall, opening the way to a door. This means you can only go to one of the rooms. I'm making a save and going through each.

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First is north. After you go through the door, two darts will be launched at you, then three priests will spawn in the corridor behind you. This includes an elite who can cast Flame Strike, which is basically cleric Fireball. That gem on the gound is called a Tropelet Seed, and there is one in each of the four rooms. No other loot to be found here other than the darts from before.

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I go counter-clockwise and check the west room second. It has four shelves, each with two iron rations. In this same level I also found two scrolls of Create Food. On the ground with another Tropelet Seed is a normal two-handed sword. While this room isn't actively harmful like the last one it's a bit of a dud.

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Next I check the south room. It's an improvement over the previous two with actual magic items. The shelves contain a scroll of Lightning Bolt, a wand of Magic Missile, another Tropelet Seed, and four potions: three healing plus one vitality.

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Finally, the east room. It has yet another Tropelet Seed, a scroll of Raise Dead, and some good enchanted gear seen here along with this note found among bones. It also mentions the name Dran, so I think it's safe to say we've identified the main villain of this game.

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What could these ominous messages mean?

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Oh. The wall you removed to get there comes back after you go through the door. Time to reload then. Given what's available and what happens in each room, there's obviously only one choice:

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East. Wall of Force makes a temporary barrier that only your party can go through. Here it also stops that wall from coming back while it's active, so we can make off with that nice shiny armor. Just be sure not to hang around there too long and get out before the spell expires. After successfully escaping the east room, what about the central one?

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That's what the Tropelet Seeds are for. This takes you to the southeast corner of the main hallway.

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While you can come here pretty early on, this floor mainly serves as a hub for the second half of the game. Getting past this requires finishing the next area. Once you do, there are more elite priests behind this and on the way to the final area.

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I need to get this from the northeast quadrant in order to unlock all the doors here.

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This shelf has lockpicks and a spellbook, items for Amber the thief/mage. Yes, she's a thief NPC that you need a thief to be able to recruit. You can only revive her after the only section of the game you would want a thief for, but another mage isn't bad to have. Speaking of reviving her, I complete the path back to the stairs to do just that after resting.

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She also learns Armor, Shield, and Invisibility from scrolls. There are a total of six recruitable NPCs in this game, and the last one is near the entrance of the next area. I intend to have them all together, no matter how briefly. That means she can't memorize any of those spells until then. Luckily, I still have wands for her.

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As it happens, we also have some unfinished business in the nightmare level. Since I'll be encountering monsters whose attacks can paralyze, I put Shorn in the spot where he's least likely to be hit. Having the only caster of Remove paralysis himself be paralyzed would obviously suck.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Wed May 25, 2022 5:25 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Afaik, no, the Priests of Darkmoon hit just that hard, always. I got killed by them a lot while fumbling through my first time.

And yes, the Old Woman is being misled by the Darkmoon Temple, blackmailed with... Well, her family, which is already dead. Fucking sucks, and all the more reason to hate Dran.

Finally... Amber. Amber's got some serious Gaston Chin going on, but she's an a'ight character, honestly.

Still... Dran... If only we had a last name, we could know more...

Ah, of course there's a deathtrap room that can only be thwarted by one spell. Although I guess unlike a certain other game I could mention *coughstartrailcough* it actually has something decent in it.

That poor old woman though.

Last edited by Alpha3KV on Sat May 21, 2022 5:04 am, edited 3 times in total.

Gee I wonder if this cult with an initiation trial that involves mass thri-kreen murder and likely has a ridiculously high attrition rate is evil. No wonder that one was ornery about being healed.

But no seriously, where the heck are they getting all these thri-kreen from.

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RandomKesaranPasaran wrote:
Thu Dec 09, 2021 7:00 pm
Gee I wonder if this cult with an initiation trial that involves mass thri-kreen murder and likely has a ridiculously high attrition rate is evil. No wonder that one was ornery about being healed.

But no seriously, where the heck are they getting all these thri-kreen from.
You know?

...

...I actually don't have a fucking clue. Like, seriously, even considering who the final boss is, I have no fucking idea. Giant wasps? Sure, you can just get 'em from any Underdark merchant, same with the ants. Cultists? Eh, you can't swing an arm in the Realms without hitting someone who belongs to some evil faction. Although, to be fair, this is usually because they're chasing you constantly if you fuck with them in tabletop games. Undead? Easiest of the lot.

Kreen, though? Best guess is they took eggs, since Kreen traditionally have racial memory, and know almost everything they need to know to be Kreen pretty much from birth. After that, it's proving that you're the bigger bastard, and, well... The big bastard is rather big indeed, although whether that's in skill, size, or both, I leave it up to you to work out. The sole clue is a big one.

Anyway, yes, this entire section is torture if you're not already prepared for it. Thankfully, unlike EoB1, 2 and 3 have multiple saves. I'd still say to filescum just in case if you're playing it.

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