[Part of the Cursed story line]
Despite his startling revelation, the team vote to keep Gale in the party which is a good call as his spells and ogre mercenaries come in handy in wiping out the duergars and their idiotic dark elf leader. While their ogre allies are slain, the enslaved deep gnomes (including the same one from the goblin's lair) are saved and show the team the way to the shadow-cursed lands near Moonrise Towers.
Conveniently, Elminster is here waiting for them to give Gale's bomb a "tune-up" so that he no longer needs to devour magic items and instead can self detonate at will. Does the great mage then join the party to stop this impending world-ending doom? Nope, he buggers off as usual to do something else.
Anyway, the shadow-cursed lands are aptly named as anything that doesn't have light takes damage in the darkness and anything dead (unless its a briar plant enemy) turns into a shadow zombie thing. It's an annoying area to traverse at the start due to all the hidden "shadow" enemies but clearing them out improves the situation. Eventually the team find their way up to a mountain pass and outside the cursed lands and, after fire walling some undead idiots, spot a huge ruined temple in the distance. Could this finally be Moonrise Towers? Halsin says no, they're going the wrong way.
Showing posts with label Elminster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elminster. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 March 2024
Baldur's Gate 3: Wrong Way
Friday, 28 January 2022
Neverwinter Online: Dragonbone Vale
Where Cryptic removes something else!
For those who have been doing the Echoes of Prophecy temporary "campaign" this is the culmination of your efforts! For those that didn't, well - Elminster needs you for a war against the Cult of the Dragon. Or is it just another battlefield in an ongoing conflict? Whatever. The Thayans and silly cultists are trying to raise dracoliches in what feels to be a shinier replacement for Dread Ring, except this time you can cosplay as Spiderman while treasure hunting! Don't worry though, the Dread Ring is still there (for now).
Magic grappling hooks for everyone!
What has been removed was the old enchantment system which went from rank 1 to 15 and needed absurd amounts of work / pay to get to the higher ranks. For those who don't play the game, each character is decked out with around 30 of these. Upon this modules release, congratulations! All those are now garbage! Well at least the ones from rank 1 - 9 which was the bulk of mine. If you have rank 10s and up you can trade them all in for points to get one or two of the NEW enchantments (at rank 1). Joy!?
I can just imagine the guys at Cryptic going "please work hard on ranking these ones up too (because its way more work / pay), we promise not to remove them in the future...", hiding the fingers crossed behind their backs. It boggles the mind why anyone gives these people money with all the shit they pull / remove but hey, as a free to player - I can just enjoy the ride!
Saturday, 30 October 2021
October 2021 Review: The Next Freedom
Happy Halloween! Lockdown lifted this month which is pretty good morale wise as it means our board game nights can resume! I was hoping to also resume adventures in Black Desert but I keep getting "bin\blackdesert32.dat" is broken even from a fresh install. What the heck? As such I've instead been helping Elminster out in Neverwinter Online with the Echoes of Prophecy campaign and it's just as easy as Shintar said - even starting late I completed the first progression bar whose rewards include a catch-up artifact set.
I also thought to myself - hey, Epic games gives free games every week - surely Steam has some free ones too? The answer to that is... Yep. A LOT. You can expect me to be posting about those soon.
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Monday, 6 January 2020
NWO: An Ode to the Forgotten Adventurer
There once was a man who helped those new to the shores of Neverwinter reach the city, but since the retooling of the intro quests he has been removed with Makos taking the spotlight, possibly having gone back through history to change the timeline.
While Cryptic would prefer this person to be forgotten, we will never forget Private Wilbur Winfred Wally uh... Dave. For those who don't know, Private Dave "the Dude" was an amazing ally. He heroically fell to Valindra about 5 minutes into the intro quest and would much later return as one of her officers since he managed to woo the lich despite being dead.
Everyone even remembers his favourite battle cry, "For the Nashers!" which he learned as a member of the Cult of the Dragon. It is a little known fact that he was a member of all the cults, and was a master of disguise, his favourite being a kenku as he mastered their "Cacaaaww!" cry, - even before being transformed into a tiefling when he equipped an unidentified item. As a result, all of Faerun (monsters and gods included) agreed to never have unidentified items ever again.
Wanting to lift his curse our favourite guy began studying magic under an alias starting with M. Marcos or Madros or something, and became a master of all the schools of magic. At one point he even became the Queen of the undead in Ebon Downs. Many look back fondly at fighting him in the Throne of Dave dungeon, which Cryptic has also removed, yet to no avail as it keeps coming back like some olden tales. Dave "the Dude" is now everywhere and everything. He is sometimes a five headed dragon, other times a charlatan named Elminster.
Dave's worst adversaries came in the form of Great Weapon Fighters though, and on more than one occasion he called them barbarians. Now everyone else calls them barbarians too! To train up against this threat, he's practiced their two handed ways and joined the recent Hell Pit event under his super secret alias "Wilfred". See Cryptic, you can never be rid of "the dude", because we know you work for him. The proof is with the Githyanki who still yell "For the Nashers!". I'm sure they learned it from Dave.
While Cryptic would prefer this person to be forgotten, we will never forget Private Wilbur Winfred Wally uh... Dave. For those who don't know, Private Dave "the Dude" was an amazing ally. He heroically fell to Valindra about 5 minutes into the intro quest and would much later return as one of her officers since he managed to woo the lich despite being dead.
"It is I... Dave the Dude!"
Everyone even remembers his favourite battle cry, "For the Nashers!" which he learned as a member of the Cult of the Dragon. It is a little known fact that he was a member of all the cults, and was a master of disguise, his favourite being a kenku as he mastered their "Cacaaaww!" cry, - even before being transformed into a tiefling when he equipped an unidentified item. As a result, all of Faerun (monsters and gods included) agreed to never have unidentified items ever again.
Wanting to lift his curse our favourite guy began studying magic under an alias starting with M. Marcos or Madros or something, and became a master of all the schools of magic. At one point he even became the Queen of the undead in Ebon Downs. Many look back fondly at fighting him in the Throne of Dave dungeon, which Cryptic has also removed, yet to no avail as it keeps coming back like some olden tales. Dave "the Dude" is now everywhere and everything. He is sometimes a five headed dragon, other times a charlatan named Elminster.
Dave's worst adversaries came in the form of Great Weapon Fighters though, and on more than one occasion he called them barbarians. Now everyone else calls them barbarians too! To train up against this threat, he's practiced their two handed ways and joined the recent Hell Pit event under his super secret alias "Wilfred". See Cryptic, you can never be rid of "the dude", because we know you work for him. The proof is with the Githyanki who still yell "For the Nashers!". I'm sure they learned it from Dave.
Saturday, 6 December 2014
Neverwinter Online: Tiamat has arrived!
I wasn't going to do a boss write-up today but this one seems to be needed at the moment. Despite the new and, as expected, grindy zone of the Well of Dragons being out for awhile it was only a few days ago did Tiamat actually begin trying to emerge from her temple (on the live server anyway).
Currently, the only requirement is that you can access the Well of Dragons to reach the temple to fight her. Doors open for 5 minutes every top of the hour. You will then get put into a small antechamber with 24 random players. Less random if you go in at the exact same second - use the count down timer to help with that.
After the 5 minutes prep time in which you really should decide as a group if you are sending 5 people a head or zerging half and half, you will have 20 minutes to win. First step is kill the summoner (of your color - Rath Modar is "red"), take the dragon soul orb (of your color) and put it in a quick slot. Alternatively you can kill summoners 2 and 4 then jump to 1, 3 (Rath), and 5 which is supposedly quicker.
Remember to use this soul orb wisely as it will protect you and your allies from the otherwise insta-kill breath weapon of each head (and only the head of the matching color). Then kill cult leader Severin. All of this should be smooth sailing so go hard and go fast, ala the Dragon Herald zerg circuit. You'll know what that is when you hang around the Well of Dragons long enough.
The next part involves rounds of defending 3 clerics (Linu in the middle has the hardest time here) from demonic forces as they complete their spell to push Tiamat back in her hole. As clerics take damage their already slow filling progress meter is reduced. Use your best judgement and keep an eye on the progress bars to see who needs help. Ideally fight far away from the clerics too. If you stand at the edges you can make enemies throw themselves off for insta-kills which is great since all the adds are level 65 here.
When the cleric spell fires you have 2 minutes to damage each of the five heads as fast and as much as you can. Afterwards it becomes the cleric phase again then heads phase again and so on until you run out of time (at which point Elminster has to reverse time to cover your retreat) or you win.
How do you win? ALL FIVE heads must die in the SAME 2 minute gap. If any heads die early, they will be regenerated to 25% on the next cycle meaning you have just lost this hour's round for everyone. Characters also get various boons depending on how much treasure was recovered in the hour leading up to the temple doors opening but that is even more out of your control than this boss fight (unless you and your allies are crazy prepared), so just prep to fight without any boons. Health potions and injury kits aplenty are a good idea. :P
Tiamat is also one of the rare bosses in this game where adds should be ignored when the heads are open for attack. Nice going Cryptic!
Currently, the only requirement is that you can access the Well of Dragons to reach the temple to fight her. Doors open for 5 minutes every top of the hour. You will then get put into a small antechamber with 24 random players. Less random if you go in at the exact same second - use the count down timer to help with that.
The flames of your hate burn hotter than any of my breath attacks!
After the 5 minutes prep time in which you really should decide as a group if you are sending 5 people a head or zerging half and half, you will have 20 minutes to win. First step is kill the summoner (of your color - Rath Modar is "red"), take the dragon soul orb (of your color) and put it in a quick slot. Alternatively you can kill summoners 2 and 4 then jump to 1, 3 (Rath), and 5 which is supposedly quicker.
Remember to use this soul orb wisely as it will protect you and your allies from the otherwise insta-kill breath weapon of each head (and only the head of the matching color). Then kill cult leader Severin. All of this should be smooth sailing so go hard and go fast, ala the Dragon Herald zerg circuit. You'll know what that is when you hang around the Well of Dragons long enough.
The next part involves rounds of defending 3 clerics (Linu in the middle has the hardest time here) from demonic forces as they complete their spell to push Tiamat back in her hole. As clerics take damage their already slow filling progress meter is reduced. Use your best judgement and keep an eye on the progress bars to see who needs help. Ideally fight far away from the clerics too. If you stand at the edges you can make enemies throw themselves off for insta-kills which is great since all the adds are level 65 here.
When the cleric spell fires you have 2 minutes to damage each of the five heads as fast and as much as you can. Afterwards it becomes the cleric phase again then heads phase again and so on until you run out of time (at which point Elminster has to reverse time to cover your retreat) or you win.
How do you win? ALL FIVE heads must die in the SAME 2 minute gap. If any heads die early, they will be regenerated to 25% on the next cycle meaning you have just lost this hour's round for everyone. Characters also get various boons depending on how much treasure was recovered in the hour leading up to the temple doors opening but that is even more out of your control than this boss fight (unless you and your allies are crazy prepared), so just prep to fight without any boons. Health potions and injury kits aplenty are a good idea. :P
Tiamat is also one of the rare bosses in this game where adds should be ignored when the heads are open for attack. Nice going Cryptic!
Sunday, 22 June 2014
Neverwinter Online: One Year Jubilee!
Well designed game wise. Poor design story wise. :P
Elminster is in town this week to send players around as carrier pigeons and to convince them to protect the city while Lord Neverember makes his speech in a repeatable skirmish instance to earn currency items that can be used to buy the rather affordable rewards on offer. This is all great because it means you don't need to rely on RNG to get your loot. Furthermore, the skirmish is designed in three waves of randomized enemies, each with a short timer that grants a reward if you complete said wave before it runs out.
A number of groups think that the best way to do this is to Zerg. I disagree, and am usually the one off on his own skirting past all the enemies to handle the actual objectives in time. If you need to go destroy catapults then don't stand around fighting what's pushing them guys!
Ok that's a bit unfair since my two characters (rogue and ranger) are specifically built for infiltration and aggro dropping which makes all the trash redundant, especially in timed challenges. Regardless of the method you take it's still a pretty cool experience to be fighting again in Protectors Enclave, something which was last done during Valindra's Invasion many months ago.
Story/Lore wise though, this event showcases how worthless the city guards are as EVERY ENEMY FACTION (in random groups of three) can get in with ludicrous equipment. At least the rebels and wererats are somewhat believable since they're just looting the place but when giant witches and cyclopses manage to drag huge cauldrons in, or Shadar-kai manage to put large shards of the Deathknell about, or the orcs manage to roll in some CATAPULTS into the town proper... um... Side note, if Elminster is actually in town then none of those things should actually be a problem.
Anywho, that aside it's still a fun experience and one with decent rewards. I only hope that this trend continues. Long live Neverwinter! :)
Elminster is in town this week to send players around as carrier pigeons and to convince them to protect the city while Lord Neverember makes his speech in a repeatable skirmish instance to earn currency items that can be used to buy the rather affordable rewards on offer. This is all great because it means you don't need to rely on RNG to get your loot. Furthermore, the skirmish is designed in three waves of randomized enemies, each with a short timer that grants a reward if you complete said wave before it runs out.
A number of groups think that the best way to do this is to Zerg. I disagree, and am usually the one off on his own skirting past all the enemies to handle the actual objectives in time. If you need to go destroy catapults then don't stand around fighting what's pushing them guys!
Ok that's a bit unfair since my two characters (rogue and ranger) are specifically built for infiltration and aggro dropping which makes all the trash redundant, especially in timed challenges. Regardless of the method you take it's still a pretty cool experience to be fighting again in Protectors Enclave, something which was last done during Valindra's Invasion many months ago.
Story/Lore wise though, this event showcases how worthless the city guards are as EVERY ENEMY FACTION (in random groups of three) can get in with ludicrous equipment. At least the rebels and wererats are somewhat believable since they're just looting the place but when giant witches and cyclopses manage to drag huge cauldrons in, or Shadar-kai manage to put large shards of the Deathknell about, or the orcs manage to roll in some CATAPULTS into the town proper... um... Side note, if Elminster is actually in town then none of those things should actually be a problem.
*ahem* I would likely flatten the city if -I- did it, adventurer.
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