Baldur's Gate 3: Obliteration

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The party group up with Gortash to head to the elder brain's lair and try re-establish control of it with the netherstones. This ultimately fails as the brain has evolved into a netherbrain which power word kills Gortash. The D20 warps the party out of there as the brain begins to float up to the city, turning the many infected people into mindflayers while also summoning more nautiloids from realm space to take over the world. To combat this the D20 manifests itself as a mindflayer too and suggests one of the heroes also goes mindflayery.

Karlach volunteers, turning into a cute squidface. They then manage to meet up with their allies: Councillor Florrick who offers three soldiers, three vampire hunters, Volo and Sarevok (those last two just give passive buffs) before heading into a massive battle against pretty much everything they've fought up to this point but it is Varanna who is the MVP with her bow and a lot of exploding arrows (which she can shoot multiple times per turn apparently).

In the end it is Gale who is the hero though, climbing up onto the brain as it hovers far above Baldur's Gate and self detonates his bomb - obliterating it from existence. This causes fatal headaches to the enemy flayers and giving the citizens the upper hand against the invaders. Karlach and the D20 then go into hiding, Varanna returns to working for the guild, and Catharina (who went against Bhaal's wishes of dominating the brain) quickly degrades into a killer flesh puppet for the god of murder.

Baldur's Gate 3: Trading Up

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The trap is not a very good one and the Stone Lord is revealed to be... Minsc!? Didn't he die in some sewers before? And he's here with Jaheira no less. Seems the worm guys have wormed these two as well. At this point Catharina's patience is wearing thin so she just annihilates them all and the thieves guild thanks her by loaning out their highly skilled hireling Varanna to join the crew. Catharina then locates a hidden Bhaal Murder Tribunal run by Sarevok (whom Catharina killed before) and the ghosts of other Bhaalspawn as well!

They are quite pleased with Catharina's actions thus far - giving her directions to the underground temple of Bhaal, deep down past the grease filled sewers. The place is well guarded by other Bhaal cultists who manage to push poor Kerz into a yawning chasm of instadeath. Beyond is Orin who duels with Catharina (in slayer form) and Orin is literally ripped a new one as Catharina forcefully removes her netherstone then loots that sexy blood armor of hers.

Before going back to Gortash the team visits Cazador, Astarion's vampire master, who it seems was expecting him as he immediately yanks the assassin into being part of the helpless sacrificial victims that explode into giblets when Cazador completes his ascension ritual. Catharina isn't impressed as even the ascended vampire can do little against her slayer form and her friends. Wtih all the vamps dead, the vampire hunters are happy and offer their aid when the time comes, which will be real soon...

The Cursed: Charming Lady of Murder

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Mariliths require severe magic piercing/negation to damage, and even force Catharina into slayer form to defeat. However, with all the focus on them - a sneaky succubus charms Sarevok who then relentlessly slays Imoen before Catharina can dispel it. Obviously he does the same to the succubus after. Alas, Imoen is in too many pieces to revive.

Healing up with potions the remaining pair destroy the last well and face Melissan and her glabrezus for the final showdown. They basically throw everything they have at her, and with Catharina down to 20% health, Sarevok and Melissan exchange killing blows and both crumble to the ground. The remaining minions vanish as a Solar sent by the gods appears.

She says Catharina is strong enough now to make a choice: relinquish all her power to become mortal and destroy Bhaal's taint for good, or take the throne and ascend to god hood. Covered in blood and shivering with power, she chooses the latter - becoming a balancing force for the world: The new Lady of Murder.

All hail the Red Lady!

Insight: Charm protection. It's a thing. I even had a helmet that auto-does it, but was it equipped? Nope!

The Cursed: The Last Well

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The second well of power is defended by ice themed guards led by Cryonax (Prince of Evil Cold Creatures) and while his minions are easy enough he is quite resilient. Catharina uses a projected image to time stop and imprison him while Imoen destroys the well.

Cryonax is one ugly customer.

As expected Melissan appears again, this time with shadow slayer demons who are kept busy by summoned skeletons and sword spiders - just long enough for Sarevok and a planetar to beat Melissan down again. Once more she retreats to power up and the team heads for the final well, guarded by a fallen Solar and high level demons!

The Solar destroys the teams planetar but Sarevok manages to finish it off. Catharina's images don't work in this battle so she and Imoen go through many summoning scrolls to handle the others - using djinns, efreets, mord-swords, an adamantine golem and demons of their own but those Mariliths just won't go down!

Insight: Unlike the Black Pits 2 finale which is super intense and short, this is a marathon of a fight since you cannot rest on the platform at all. Though, if you have high enough wisdom (naturally or via potion/gear) a wish spell can rest/recover all your spells and fatigue. That's why Catharina has it memorized. ^_~

The Cursed: Contingencies

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Upon arrival at the Throne of Bhaal, which is a large platform floating in Abyssal space - the pocket plane is destroyed by Melissan, aka Amelyssan the Blackhearted now in her battle gear, grinning on the notion that she's trapped her prey. She is caught by surprise then at the instant trio of horrid wilting cast upon her as Catharina has learned the chain contingency spell (Insta Cast 3 spells of your choice on nearest enemy upon sighting an enemy).

So... what are the feathers for? Vanity?

She quickly flees to absorb more Bhaal essence she was collecting to power up... the fool didn't expect Catharina to be so strong! This gives the team the opportunity to destroy one of the wells of power nearby guarded by spirits and Yan-C-Bin (elemental Prince of Evil Air) whom Sarevok thrashes easily.

Melissan returns to fight again, summoning bone fiends and spirits this time but they are ineffective as the trio have protection from undead active (all attacks from undead insta-miss, letting Sarevok and his simulcarum beat her down with greater whirlwind attacks. She retreats to power up again, and there are two more wells of power to go.

Insight: Defeating Melissan also auto-defeats her summons!

The Cursed: Test of Ravaging

[Part of the Cursed story line]

After selling loot and spending all their gold on potions and scrolls the team returns to the pocket plane which Sarevok says can take them to the Throne of Bhaal. Unfortunately it refuses, as Catharina must pass two more tests first.

In one, Cyric himself sends his three favored champions to battle the team but they are easily dragon breathed to death. The final test is much more difficult - the Ravager, what Catharina will turn into if she lets the Slayer take over for too long, is a powerful demon that enjoys summoning bone blades.

For some reason the Ravager looks like these guys in Hexen...

The team fields all the summons they can and with Imoen and Catharina repositioning frequently to avoid the flying weapons and dragon breath and horrid wilting the monster till it finally dies. The pocket plane is finally happy to take them to their desired destination so the team rests up one last time before their battle with Melissan.

Insight: Dragon breath is quite handy in the Ravager fight as the blast also pushes back the bone blades. Your own summons are crucial though, since they too hold back the bone blades and the Ravager. Killing the blades just makes them respawn on your mages so focus on the big guy.

The Cursed: The Big M

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Upon returning to Amkethran the team finds that they are now being hunted by Balthazarr's monks and mercs. This doesn't stop them from selling loot, buying supplies or restoring that girl with her soul stone that Hexxat was borrowing. Once ready they find a quiet way into the monastery via the graveyard cavern, avoiding all the guards.

The unarmed guards.

Summoning up a small army they then confront Balthazarr, who wants to be "the one", and his few monks. As expected, fists and feet can't do much against planetars and mord-swords. Balthazar himself is cut down by Sarevok. At this point Melissan appears and reveals she was actually Bhaal's high priestess but instead of using the Bhaalspawn souls she's been collecting since forever to revive him, she's going to do a Jon Irenicus and use it herself to become the new goddess of murder.

Because she doesn't have a handy magic tree to drain, she just needs Catharina's soul as the final piece. However its now too strong to take here in the prime material realm so Melissan challenges her to battle at the Throne of Bhaal before vanishing into thin air.

Catharina just stared blankly at the space Melissan vanished from, then after a short silence she suddenly asked "Sarevok, you know where that is right?"

"Sister, you are an idiot," Sarevok sighed.

Insight: Yay, after the slog of getting through Sendai and Abazigal's lairs, Balthazarr is a breath of fresh air. He also doesn't cheat too much (that I saw) and is around the level of combat I enjoy. The designers really need to put it more normals / low level fights.

It's absurd that all those nameless soldiers after Irenicus have +1 to +3 gear and are backed by what must be a surplus of level 20 casters. Just like how liches are "common" now, it's a sign that the creators just wanted to make artificial challenge than follow the role playing world their game is set in. Stupid design!

The Cursed: Abazigal's Bath Time

[Part of the Cursed story line]

A summoned planetar (who happen to be fantastic healers) is able to resurrect Sarevok and restore him fully - leading to Imoen and Korgan making fun of him a bit. No such luck for Hexxat though - she's gone for good.

The interior of the lair is a network of underwater tunnels guarded by lesser enemies - frost salamanders, kuo-toa with water elementals including a very weak Olhydra (Elemental Princess of Evil Water), a lair of strange eyeballs and a geas-ed dragon whom Catharina just imprisons while it's monologuing.After the fight outside, she's had enough of dragons.

Olhydra is one gnarly wave dude.

There is one more to defeat though, Abazigal himself who transforms from fighter mode to a blue dragon! He's not as clever as his son but is immune to time stop meaning its back to waves of planetars, mord-swords and dragon breath spells for him. He manages to fatally toss Korgan against the cave wall before Imoen's summoned pit fiend (she was getting desperate) can finish him off.

Due to the state of his corpse, Korgan is unable to be resurrected.

Insight: If you're wondering why I'm not just casting Imprisonment of everything it's because most of the "bosses" are immune to it somehow. Just like being immune to time stop. It really undermines any "power gain" you as the player might feel wasting a slot on a spell that doesn't work against something - especially without any hints before hand that it won't work. Aka terrible design.

The Cursed: Biting Back

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With Sendai's demise a new "pocket test" is unlocked that the team easily passes: defeating Catharina's second demonic form: the slayer which happens to be good foreshadowing of what is to come. After selling stuff at the village they proceed on to Abazigal's lair which, unlike Sendai's, is not hidden at all.

The entrance is huge, opulent and guarded by one wizard, Abazigal's son. A fight ensues and Hexxat manages to sink her teeth into the fool. To her surprise, he then transforms into a green dragon and bites back - ripping her to shreds! Sarevok is also killed via claw impalement.

With things not looking good, Catharina uses the next cheesiest method to win the fight. Spell Strike (remove all magic defenses of target - no save), time stop, shape shift into a mind flayer, and then attack physically. Creatures affected by time stop are counted as "at your mercy" since they aren't moving so you will always hit, and mindflayers do tiny damage physically but each hit reduces INT by 5. When INT reaches 0... dead dragon.

So much for all your shields and hundreds of hit points.

Insight: This took me a few attempts to win against this guy as he was regularly re-upping his shields, using invisibility, full healing, using haste on himself and dispeling summons - projected images included. That's on top of the regular dragon abilities!

The Cursed: Mirrors of Sendai

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Sendai's base is quite well concealed in the forest, and humorously guarded by Drow disguised as woodland critters. Inside, more Drow, a lair of myconids, pet umberhulks, a slave army, a lich, mindflayers and minor demons all serve as guardians but they are all planetar-ed out of the way.

Even Ogremoch himself, the elemental Prince of Evil Earth (yeah, "Earth" not Faerun), is present but doesn't get to do much as Catharina imprisons it as her opening move. Finally they reach Sendai who proves to be an exciting battle as she makes seven statue clones of herself and has constant Drow reinforcements arriving during the fight.

You can imprison the Prince of Earth, in the Earth? Okay then!

Catharina and Imoen make good use of breach (anti magic), pierce (anti magic), horrid wilting, planetars, mord-swords, true sight and the dragon breath ability (20d10 fireball with knock back) coupled with projected images to prolong spell use (as their spells aren't tied to the original casters memory somehow). After an epic fight, Sendai finally is slain when Catharina "wishes" all magic defenses down and lands a Melf's acid arrow on her.

Insight: For extra cheese, project image also makes copies of the quick slot items so that one powerful scroll you have can be used as much as you like, as long as it is only ever used by a projected image. Obviously, one scroll means each image can only use it once though.

The Cursed: Unexpected Aid

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Eager to rest outside the pocket plane for a change, the squad goes to the Amkethran tavern where they are surprised to find the vampire Hexxat! Since she wasn't staked last time she's survived and using a day-walking cloak has found herself here, to ask Catharina for help with a lich. Not to kill it, but to enslave it for her master.

Guess we didn't kill her good enough last time.

That sounds all sorts of wrong but since help is hard to come by, Catharina agrees as long as the vampire helps her kill a few Bhaalspawn first. Hexxat finds this acceptable. There is a local lich in the village (these things are everywhere!) but this soul trader is not Hexxat's target. They do manage to get a young girl's soul stone from it though, by trading the one of her stupid father.

Instead of using it to restore the child, Hexxat keeps it for herself as it gives nice bonuses. With that, it's finally time to hit one of those Bhaalspawn bases so the team votes to head for the closer one: Sendai's enclave.

Insight: While the day walking cloak lets Hexxat not burn out in the sun, remember to take it off in dungeons as it significantly reduces her stats when worn.

The Cursed: Amkethran

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Whatever protection Amkethran village has going on is pretty powerful stuff, as the pocket plane refuses to teleport the team there. Instead they have to walk across the desert and at an oasis encounter a sizable force of Tethyr soldiers wrongly hunting Catharina for the crime of destroying Saradush.

Korgan was tempted!

After slaying and looting those idiots dry, the team finally reaches Amkethran - a quaint little place that is brimming with mercenaries. Seems Balthazarr is also assembling an army of his own. The team ends up killing a few: the ones being ass hats to the locals and the idiots tricked by a weasel smuggler that the team, not him, are the smugglers.

For this, the team subsequently assists the mercs take out the local smuggler base which earns them a brief meeting with Balthazarr who follows Melissan's instructions and points out the base locations of Yaga-Shura's allies. Before leaving, the team finds another survivor from Saradush, a magic scroll vendor, whom they spend all of their 305k gold on in preparation for the battles ahead.

Insight: It pays to loot everything. Portable containers will help with that: gem bags, ammo bags, potion bags, bags of holding. Also don't forget your handy and accessible pocket plane that has three boxes you can use if overloaded!

The Cursed: Burning Yaga-Shura

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the ritual done, the team pocket plane deploy right into Yaga-Shura's face for an anti-climatic battle where Korgan beheads the fire giant, causing his army to scatter and flee. It is too late for Saradush though, as while they were gone Yaga-Shura's army breached it and killed almost everyone inside.

Fire Giant vs Dwarf!

Only a few non-Bhaalspawn folk remain, including Melissan who warns that Yaga-Shura's allies and their armies will most likely come for Catharina next. Catharina, eager to destroy these threats before they can react, is instructed to use the desert village of Amkethran as a staging point as it is protected by Melissan's friend, Balthazarr - apparently a person of some power having somehow survived a cataclysm long ago.

The team agrees but first faces the second "pocket test" which involves fighting a Catharina not raised by Gorion. This is very tough as evil Catharina exclusively hunts her twin, and is only solved by Imoen casting improved invis on good Catharina and making her "sit out" of the combat. Fortunately Imoen can also summon planetars at this point!

Insight: Enemies will swarm endlessly until Yaga-Shura dies. Don't let him live for too long.

The Cursed: Marching Mountains

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Melissan is upset at Gromnir's death, saying that the only chance Saradush has now is for someone to kill the general of the attacking force: Yaga-Shura. A towering fire-giant, said to be invincible and also a Bhaalspawn. Learning the squad can teleport around via pocket plane, she suggests they investigate his home in the Marching Mountains to find a weakness.

Since it sounds like a solid plan, the team do as instructed and are soon marching up those appropriately named mountains where they encounter a witch who knows a ritual to undo Yaga-Shura's invulnerability. She just needs the reagents found in his fortress, which is a lava filled sweat bath.

Looks like some of them have played Dark Souls.

The planetars actually take some serious damage here, but when backed by mord-swords and two crazies (Sarevok and Korgan) the fire giants and fire themed guards all die. The witch does her ritual, then tries to overstep and kill the party. Unlucky for her, Catharina has been working on a new spell that was previously used on her party in the Watchers Keep: Imprisonment.

There is no save.

Insight: The pocket plane is fantastic as you can port back to it at any time and then gate exactly to where you left off. This makes it the ideal place for uninterrupted rest.

The Cursed: Paranoia at Saradush

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having passed the test, the pocket plane spits out the party at the besieged city of Saradush and meet Melissan, a nun of sorts who has been working to collect and protect all the Bhaalspawn here, and there are many - most of whom are just commoners and cowards.

While the militia do their best to hold the walls, the actual lord of the place - Gromnir Il-Khan is more interested in saving himself. Melissan asks the team to try talk sense into him and they accept though getting to him is tricky as he's barricaded in.

It takes blackmailing a priestess to gain access to the old, vampire filled prison - then clearing it out as well as a number of Gromnir's orcs before getting to him. Gromnir, a Bhaalspawn himself, is filled with paranoia and claims Melissan is out to get him and all others like him. With no chance to reason with him, the general attacks the party and soon finds himself very, very dead.

Orcs are stupid cowards. Have always been. Will always be.

Just like Blizzard.

Insight: Don't idle out on the streets as fireballs from the attacking army seem to heatseek the party every now and then.

The Cursed: Time of Prophecy

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Imoen and Catharina spend a good amount of time with the elves, but the peace is broken by the arrival of a Bhaalspawn hunter who happens to be a Bhaalspawn herself. Unfortunately for her, she and her mercs are not equipped to deal with a planetar and are promptly killed.

Pretty sure this fella classifies as a Planetar too!

Right after she falls, the step-sisters are brought to a pocket plane dimension created by Catharina's subconscious where they meet a Solar (one step up from planetar) who vaguely says they must train as the prophesied time is at hand before vanishing again. Also present is ghost Sarevok, for whom the small price of a sliver of Catharina's soul lives again and joins the party!

Catharina is also able to summon any living previous ally which turns out to be a one name list. Korgan, the evil dwarf beserker is called and rejoins the team. He and Sarevok pass the first "pocket test" for the party, killing angry civilians and knights out for Bhaalspawn blood.

Insight: Sure hope this game is solo-able (winnable with a one person party), as it seems to quickly be heading that way!

The Cursed: Useless Girl

[Part of the Cursed story line]

For her actions in defeating Sarevok, Catharina is hailed as a hero of Baldur's Gate and is rewarded by the cleric lord of the city the resurrection of her allies Lu Lingqi and Sir Erland (who had been shipped in from Ulgoth's Beard).

Along with Party Girl and Elisabeth, they are given rooms in the Ducal Palace and get to relax for a few weeks. Imoen comes to visit, and is soon attacked by (really weak) assassins that manage to wound her.

Assassins so weak, just like Arno from AC: Unity.

Correspondence indicates that both she and Catharina were the targets of this attack, and that the men were in service to some rebellious knight up North named Caelar Argent. Reports from refugees indicate that she had assembled a rather large army and was marching towards Baldur's Gate.

Catharina immediately volunteers to assemble a team and mount an expedition to stop said force while Imoen immediately backs out, due to her new injury. That girl is useless.

Insight: When importing your final save from the last game, all characters are revived fully leading to some surprising revivals for me. :)

The Cursed: Sarevok

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team appears in the thieves guild, which is odd, but the residents helpfully point out that Sarevok ran down through the maze below so the girls follow fighting through middling monsters and traps with ease. After Durlag's tower, everything is easy in comparison.

It eventually leads to a large underground ruin populated by lesser undead. Inside a skull themed temple they find Sarevok waiting so Catharina cloud kills him from a distance. To her surprise he aggros and charges! Lu Lingqi gets in his path and despite Elizabeth's best healing, she dies to his blade.

Sarevok's allies then start arriving but it is too late as Catharina finishes him off with magic missile, killing her step brother. The remaining foes flee as Sarevok's corpse crumbles into dust, ending the story of Baldur's Gate.

Game over man.

Insight: Magic missile is one spell that is always better cast rather than using a wand. The reasons are two fold. One it is pretty fast to cast naturally so it's rare to get interrupted, and second a wand fires one missile while higher level mages launch multiple missiles by default.

The Cursed: Fool's Crown

[Part of the Cursed story line]

After breaking out of prison (again), the quartet head for the Iron Throne headquarters and find it in shambles with the remaining people furious at Sarevok for taking their funds to become the next Grand Duke. Only one Sarevok loyalist is found and killed, holding proof of his treachery.

The girls then use the sewers to avoid the guard patrols but instead run into an assassin pair employed by Sarevok, who have already killed Scar and Duke Eltan. The assassins are defeated and their invites to his coronation ceremony looted from their corpses. These trump being wanted apparently as the guards at the palace just wave the party through.

Sure enough, Sarevok is there wearing the same armor he used when killing Gorion. Half the audience shift into doppelgangers and attack the other lords but the party manages to save one of them who then looks over the evidence gathered and agrees that Sarevok is an asshat. The mighty Sarevok then runs away (via gate) like a little bitch but the duke manages to divine his location through his god (holy sheet!) and teleports the party in pursuit.

Because clerics can be bad ass too.

Insight: This is the only time you need to make sure you hang onto those important documents as they actually come into play.

The Cursed: Secrets of Candlekeep

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With all things Durlag finally out of the way, Catharina, Elizabeth, Lu Lingqi and Party Girl return to Baldur's Gate where Scar introduces them to Grand Duke Eltan who sends them immediately (via gate) back to Candlekeep to investigate the Iron Throne leadership. Wait... so the bad guys were there the whole time? Lol!

Back to the beginning!

Despite a cameo of said guys, Catharina is distracted by the presence of doppelgangers within the walls, finding out via letter from Gorion that her real father is actually a dead, murderous god and her blood brother Sarevok (same guy leading the conspiracy) is acting out a highlander style, "there can be only one" deal.

The team is soon arrested and convicted of the murder of those Iron Throne guys (framed) but manage to escape using some doppleganger filled tunnels. To speed things up, Catharina just turns everyone invisible and walks past them all escaping easily only to then wind up right back in prison when they return to Baldur's Gate and are arrested by the flaming fist.

Insight: You actually run into Sarevok here, but can't kill him since he's immune to damage.