The Cursed: A Previous Victory

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team catch up to the reverend and he reveals himself to be the demon Belhifet! He explains the whole Kuldahar threat was simply a ruse to weaken Easthaven as it is here that he needs to open the portal to hell (not sure why he needed to wait till -now- to do that, guess he's an idiot). Unwilling to let him do that the squad rushes him and his remaining cronies for one last epic combat!

Providing ranged support, Reise is suddenly squished into a mist of fine blood by an iron golem who then proceeds to kick Iholikan around, severely wounding the elf. Meanwhile Belhifet hacks Wylfdene to pieces and then quarters Cristiana before finally being put down by Farcol and Sofie. His defeat also powers down the iron golem, and the threat is finally over!

I needed... a bigger... army...

Belhifet, being a demon, rematerializes in Avernus - upset at the loss of his Northern gambit. All his hopes now ride with his servant in the South... Hephernan. As for the three survivors, they are now trapped in a frozen town with no where to go till spring. Fortunately there is plenty of food in the form of cyclops meat. All they have to do is wait.

Insight: Belhifet wisely opens with a dispel so pop a bless and haste as your opening moves.

The Cursed: Almost the Last Lieutenant

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The townsfolk of Kuldahar give the team a wide berth now that they've returned with Wylfdene in their number. They are glad the team doesn't stay long - just to rest and resupply before heading back to lower Dorn's deep to finish their mission.

Using the invisibility method proves most efficient as they find the last remaining mini-boss, an evil drow mage, and slaughter him without issue. With this, the stairs at the back of the temple are opened and the team faces off with the reverend - the main evil that wants to freeze the entire North.

With his disappointing cyclops army? Really?

They don't really wait to hear his monologue and instead attack as he summons a gang of monsters to his aid. Combat is cut short when they are all inexplicably teleported back to a frozen Easthaven though, now patrolled by Cyclopes. While the one eyed monsters are easily wiped out, their mirror-imaging lieutenant is a bit of a nuisance but Farcol works out the most logical way to defeat him:

Shoot all of him at the same time.

Insight: It sounds stupid but that is actually the solution to the mirror man. Using ranged attacks, everyone picks a different target and fires. Then it's up to the player to check the combat log to see which one didn't hit a "false" bad guy (lots of pausing). Once you know the real one, everyone focus fire and he'll drop pretty quick.

The Cursed: Superior Numbers

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Angry at the previous detour, the party agrees to hunt down the spirit dragon to teach it a lesson - "That humans are superior and always have been." They sail with the barbarians to its base in the Sea of Moving Ice and then using invisibility simply walk past all the defenders until they reach the bottom floor - a sahaugin throne room.

Here they fight a literal army of fish men and Marchon gets overwhelmed and impaled by a hundred spears. The remaining five fight manage to clear the place and find the spirit dragon nearby - in physical form!

He also has a tornado breath which is interesting to dodge.

Summons are used heavily to keep it and the respawning sahaugin busy while the team arrows the beast down. The same method is used to destroy its soul stone. Thankfully, by this time, the barbarians had cleared the way out for the survivors and are very grateful for the assist.

Wylfdene's spirit, now back in his own corpse, has his own reward for them: by joining the party to help them end the threat in Kuldahar!

Insight: The dragon fight is a marathon. Stay at a distance and dodge the tornados. Goblin arrows (bought at Lonelywood and the desert castle) really helped here once my casters ran out of summons. Basically each arrow fired also summons a friendly goblin to help you - right at the target. They are great distractions!

The Cursed: Sofie the Soft Hearted

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Adjacent to the temple is a mushroom garden easily cleared of more myconids which also provides access to a nearby stately home guarded by hidden, back stabbing thieves! While the hostile ones are dealt with violently, Sofie is hesitant to attack the friendlier ones who just seem to be working there. This includes their leader who willingly surrenders and strips down.

This turns out to be a mistake as the leader had activated a silent alarm which brings all his previously unslain hirelings to his rescue, leading to a massive battle in close quarters. Two of his bodyguards are particularly tough - one killing Naryu and the other slaying Farien in the fray.

The damage bonus is too high for Cristiana to heal!

Cristiana, Sofie, Farcol and Reise are victorious but barely survive the encounter and so quickly retreat back to Kuldahar to regroup with Marchon and Iholikan. Unfortunately the pair report that another threat is quickly coming from the north - an army of barbarians.

Insight: The hidden thieves make a bee-line for the people with the least hitpoints so keep your mage well back when exploring!

The Cursed: Goddess of Snakes

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team soon discover that the lizardmen are just minions to something deeper in the caves, and after fighting through legions of skeletons and their necromancer whom Olchyr wins a magic duel against, the team finds an out of place, friendly temple.

Naryu's snooping quickly reveals them to be Yuan-ti's though, and while Olchyr is killed in the mayhem, the team free another adventuring group comprised of Marchon, Iholikan Quinval, Reise Coppersky and Cristiana Knight who help them clear what turns out to be a large base of the snakemen - including their marilith "goddess" who hacks up Nessa in the final confrontation before being put down.

All the red areas are traps!

They find the scrying orb Arundel sent them to retrieve on the marilith, who is also not the "cold evil" given her entire mandate was to melt the ice for her followers. Upon returning to Kuldahar they find it under attack by Neo-Orogs (orogs taking performance enhancing drugs?) who are easily slain.

Unfortunately they got to Arundel who with his dying breath, instructs the team to take the orb to tower of the Severed Hand - and to the last person nearby who can use it. Iholikan and Marchon stay behind to guard the town while the remainder head back out to the mountains.

Insight: Blast skeletons are skeletons with IEDs strapped on. They explode upon death, so kill em from a far!

The Cursed: Lizard People

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Arundel seems to believe the words of the spirit boss so he sends the party to retrieve a powerful scrying orb next, but they find that someone has already stolen it. The trail leads to a cave infested with lizardmen, trolls, spiders and beetles. The beetles in particular are nasty (they fart stinking cloud a lot) and so must be dealt with at range.

The lizard people have also been abducting a huge number of slaves for their king who puts up a mighty battle - reflecting Lucia's lightning bolt back at her and beheading Tharmun before Olchyr can finish him off with magic missiles. With Lucia near death, the freed slaves offer to take her to safety. An offer Sofie eventually agrees to.

The Lizard King is unimpressed at this turn of events.

One of the slaves, an elf named Naryu Virian offers to join to get vengeance for her capture. Olchyr also finds a strange painting that featured a "trapped woman". He manages to release her with his magic and in gratitude also joins. Her name is Nessa.

Insight: While there are no recruitable NPCs here like there are in Baldur's Gate, you can supplement your party by using the multi-player option. It just involves moving save files around.

The Cursed: Spirit of Auril

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The expedition is short lived as all but Sofie, Lucia, Olchyr, Farien, Farcol and Tharmun are buried by an avalanche caused by Frost Giants high up the mountains who were playing catch with some boulders. The team survives through goblin territory and finds their way to Kuldahar - a small town nestled underneath a giant, magic tree that radiates warmth.

Their leader, arch druid Arundel, says that the magical warmth is actually fading due to some unknown but approaching evil cold and persuades the squad to go investigate the Vale of Shadows - a canyon that is home to yetis and numerous tombs, unsurprisingly filled with undead which gives Lucia a chance to show off her turn undead abilities.

Eventually they find the "spirit boss" who claims he will tell them about the evil they seek if they first deal with a priestess of Auril looking to freeze his tomb. While that doesn't sound too bad, the Aurilite actually just wants to spread winter's touch everywhere - including to Kuldahar by killing the magic tree. The team dispose of her post haste.

She's pretty... pretty crazy!

In thanks, the spirit boss tells them what he knows about the encroaching evil - best summarized as follows: "It isn't me." (because that excuse works for awful smells as well)

Insight: The majority of the foes in this campaign are undead.