Dragonheir: Better than Before

[Part of the Cursed story line.] 

With the holy river restored its time to destroy the source of the corruption down here in the Underdark which leads through many team based fights that need much swapping of line ups and many attempts before I manage to get through to the corrupted boss, an big ugly drider mama (level 165) who enjoys summoning adds. Fortunately the trick with her is rather easy, just turn off auto combat and make sure to use the ultimates on the adds before they get too overwhelming! The winning team was Fire Main / Garius / Voresh / Heksandra / Sigrid. Yes, I finally got the blonde archer on my roster and she is a freaking powerhouse if paired with a debuffer like Voresh who debuffs everything as her ultimate hits ALL debuffed enemies, and prevents them from healing!

It turns out destroying this creature is the last step in restoring my memories - I am also a child of Tiamat! Aka The child of chaos who tried to kill her so long ago but failed so she ripped my soul into two pieces (and the reason why this belongs in my "Cursed" journal). Obviously the next step is to reclaim my other half from the death lands but he isn't very happy to see me. To my great surprise this level 170 boss is the FINAL one (you mean there's an end!? yep!) and his phase two is not easy at all since he has a move that captures one of your team mates and if you don't destroy the hand before time runs out its insta-kill time for that person!

It takes me a few goes before eventually finding the winning team (but that's ok because he has some pretty nice boss music) of Fire MC / Horrus / Heksandra / Sigrid / Journ, all fire based heroes to get the "inspirational" damage bonus which is required for this boss. In addition, Journ - the legendary gnome inflicted with crystal disease, also debuffs with his AoE flamethrower and ultimate mine field abilities. Upon completing myself (and the game really), I run into Tiamat who this time - lets me go to continue adventures since "I've changed". The end! I know there's a season two coming / available but I just felt this was such a decent and unexpected end to this story so I'm stopping here. Thumbs up Dragonheir! You turned out to be a much better game than I originally thought you'd be.

One last arena flex because I doubt I'll reach this rank again. Big step from 15+k!

Dragonheir: You need an Army

[Part of the Cursed story line.] 

When I'm not training up heroes, I'm pushing further into the Underdark past the territories of the deep gnomes and their mining issues as well as the thieving rat folk whose leader needs help bringing his son into line, which happens to be a level 130 fight! We finally reach the drow city of Unyielding Silk, where nobles and paupers squabble over the broken "holy river" that no longer cures people of the rot disease.  After arresting many criminals we find that the river is actually plagued from some ruins it passes through inhabited by monsters that look like Zhar'loth - it turns out this is the result of full blown rot transformation on a deep elf.

Fights here now require 3 full teams so I'm adding a bunch of under trained people to the line up that I'm not too familiar with. However there is a stand out: Iola the lightning mage. Now Iola's not a legendary ranked hero, but her AoE stuns are freaking useful! After defeating a death knight boss who we helped be un-transformed from a turtle (damn my goody two shoes nature) the river is restored, the sick can be healed again, and the bridge leading to Terminus is reopened.

Alas this comes too late for the drow queen (150) who succumbs to the rot just in time to give us a boss fight. Note, all the heroes can only go up to level 100. Your choice of gear and strategy has to make up the difference against the ever increasing level of the enemies. It's a challenge sometimes, especially when fights demand multiple teams. 

I've also unlocked deeper levels of the Fey Meander and two similar "endless fight" modes, but all these feature the same thing: less and less choice of characters to field. Sometimes, you can't put legendaries. Sometimes you can't field the full five. Sometimes it asks for specific element types. Ugh. You know what that means? I need at least SIX full teams (one per element - necrosis, radiance, lightning, poison, fire and ice) of max level, fully geared heroes - each with a decent team structure (healer/tank/dps etc). LOL!

There's also this boss plant lady shows up every few levels
to check your gear score...

Dragonheir: Season of Darkness

[Part of the Cursed story line.] 

A new "season" update has showered gifts on players with something like 100+ hero dice which net me a few more legendary ranked heroes who I immediately take my new superstars to the arena and... still get thrashed because obviously I'm not great at team composition LOL. Now also available to me is the "champion arena" which is more PvP that the other arenas where you just face preset teams of other players but don't really interact with them in any way. In the champion arena mode which opens only every few hours, you are head to head in picking your line up for battle. Again, I got thrashed there too. :P

For the new arena, you start at rank 15K+ but most of the opponents are just
NPC squads until around the 200 mark.

At least I make progress against the orc invasion, basically stopping it in its tracks and then defeating the obviously evil high mage who orchestrated everything and turns into a purple dragon (that's new to me)! He's a son of Tiamat so he's kinda strong and my lev 100 fire main actually has to tank while back row Garius (90) / Ripekas (90) / Zhar'loth (90) / and Voresh (90) clinch the win. With his defeat this boss has also turned into another available weekly challenge pinata.

The adventure then leads to what I suppose is the Underdark, where we find the isolated city of Terminus inhabited by rot stricken deep elves and one of their number offers to accompany us back to the main city (breaking quarantine) via the long route - the first section of which is most exciting as it involves an undying spider that continuously pursues you once you reach its territory. You can beat it up, but it gets up after 10 seconds and the chase is on again! Ironically we ultimately escape by sending the spider falling down a deep chasm, because spiders aren't good at falling or climbing? Erm...

Baldur's Gate 3: Wrong Way

[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.

Baldur's Gate 3: Interesting Condition

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The warlock Wyll meets the team at the entrance to the Underdark to try slay Karlach on orders from his patron, the cambion Mizora, but is convinced not only to stand down but to join the party instead. For this he is turned by hellish magics to look a bit more devilish but it doesn't seem to bother anyone much. Especially not the minotaurs, hook horrors, duergar or really annoying bullette that attack the party members equally.

Luckily there's a friendly Myconid colony nearby and a big shroom guy named Glut helps the party clear out this zone until he is slain by a spectator (beholder type thing) near the end, but the team is free to take a rowboat down to the duergar controlled Grym Forge and again via parasite-psionics trick them into being allies for now.

Deciding to explore first the team completes the jumping puzzle to get to the forge itself, fighting animated armors on the way but it is a lava mephit ambush (and the fact they explode on death) that kills Karlach on the steps leading down to it. They opt to back off for now, which is the perfect time for Gale to reveal that his "condition" is worsening, and that he's a living bomb.

Baldur's Gate 3: Left or R... Yeah, we're going Left

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Back at the druid camp the team are welcomed as heroes since Halsin turns out to be their leader! Halsin does pass that role off to someone else though so that he can accompany the team to Moonrise Towers, where he believes the solution or cure for the tadpoles resides. Volo first wants to try his hand at removing a tadpole and fails, removing Catharina's eye instead but replacing it with a machine version that lets her see invisible things. A decent upgrade!

Volo then waves them good bye as they set off and en route they find the berserker and ex-soldier of Zariel named Karlach who has an infernal engine for a heart and joins them after they help her defeat some evil paladins hunting her down.

One gnoll warband later they also rescue Chancellor Florrick and a few other Flaming Fist soldiers from a burning tavern en route to the mountain pass that leads to Moonrise Towers, only to find that an entire Gith patrol AND their red dragon block the way. As they don't look like they'd be leaving anytime soon the team decides to try out the second path - via the Underdark. Because that sounds MUCH safer right?

Baldur's Gate 3: The Buffet

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team opt to try quietly handle the rest of the goblins in what turns out to be a very humorous and fun sequence which involves a lot of pushing guards off high ledges into the yawning Underdark below (insta-kills). The drow leader suffers the same fate while the hobgoblin leader gets his minions exploded via volatile barrel (hilarious) and then is bear food when his throne is wrecked out from under him, leaving him prone and vulnerable to Halsin's fury.

With the leaders gone, Halsin promptly evacuates with the other captive: Volo (master at getting himself into trouble). Lucky Kerz, a half orc paladin prisoner decides to help out, especially since Lae'zel has a brainfart and tries to murder Catharina while they rest. Catharina obviously kills her first.

The team murders their way out of there with Gale recruiting some ogre mercenaries in the process before he reveals he has a condition that requires him to consume magic items or "something bad will happen". In regular D&D this would be annoying or even dangerous. Here, there's a literal buffet of things to keep him satiated.

The Cursed: Sharing a Laugh

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Matron Mother summons forth a lesser demon prince, hoping to gain his aid in the war against the top side elves. Unfortunately, her fake egg offering results in the demon roasting her alive.

Phaere then attempts to offer fake eggs much to the demon prince's amusement, roasting her as well. Satisfied with the good laugh, he leaves the party alone and returns to hell. Catharina and company are satisfied too, but it's time to go.

Time is running out as a few denizens in Ust Natha have realized their charade - namely an aboleth and the merc Jarlaxle, both trying to blackmail the party into doing some dirty deeds in order to keep their secret.

I hate that Jarlaxle guy.

Instead of doing said tasks the team simply walks out of Ust Natha and delivers the eggs back to Adalon. In thanks, she teleports them to the exit closest to Irenicus... and right into a war zone!

Insight: I suppose if you want all the XP you'd want to do all the quests. Just be aware that a lot of the ones in Ust Natha come with time limits so you must be quick and efficient (not so much resting) as to not blow your cover.

The Cursed: Triple Cross

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the Matron Mother's ceremony quickly approaching Phaere approaches the team with an opportunity - swap the sacrificial silver dragon eggs for fake ones which would lead to Phaere taking her spot.

Catharina agrees as this at least gets them closer to the eggs. Ironically, Solaufein also shows up later and says to double cross Phaere as well with another set of fake eggs! His offer is readily accepted.

It's then on to the temple of Lolth where the team sneakily offs the pair of egg guards then Imoen gets her chance to shine - swapping the eggs in hasted stealth to avoid the guardian golems.

Being fast is as important as being unseen.

They then hand out the fake eggs to the stupid Drow females and wait for the ceremony to begin...

Insight: The haste was more important than the stealth in the last bit. Imoen made it back to the door which Nalia then closed, trapping the golems within. Fortunately no one but your party knows how to open doors. :P

The Cursed: Being Drow

[Part of the Cursed story line]

It's not all fun and games in Ust Natha as the team is soon tasked to assist the Drow warrior, Solaufein, to rescue the matron mother's daughter, Phaere, from some mind flayers. A perimeter of skull traps greatly helps this endeavor.

Unfortunately Phaere is quite the ungrateful bitch, promptly sending the group off to kill a spell jamming beholder smuggler (lol what?) followed by killing both the Svirfneblin and Solaufein. Those last two tasks are easily faked with the "victims" agreeing just to hand over proof that "they're dead".

Arr, would ye like some smuggled Hambrew coffee!?

(Hambrew being Minitature Giant Space Hamster poop)

This earns them a meeting with the Matron Mother who is planning some big ceremony but needs "noble" blood from of one of the nearby races. The Elder Eye actually counts for this, which means Jan and Elizabeth didn't die for nothing!

Insight: Instead of the elder eye, you could also go after a Kuo-toa prince or an Illithid elder brain. I'm kinda happy we just had the eye in the pack at that point.

The Cursed: What happens in Ust Natha

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The survivors eventually come across a friendly Svirfneblin village and after helping the deep gnomes with their balor problem (they dug too deep!) they introduce the party to the local silver dragon, Adalon, whose eggs were stolen by Irenicus and taken to the nearby Drow city of Ust Natha.

The team offers to help as the dragon can cast a powerful glamour to make them appear as Drow, which grants them access to Ust Natha. There's no sign of Irenicus, Bodhi or the eggs though - just a lot of slaves and fighting pits where Lu Lingqi shows her prowess.

As a reward they are able to freely use the lust chambers in the tavern which is an odd way to rest, but after a couple of orgies (need to keep up appearances after all) they begin to enjoy it.

Or maybe they just played Beholder volleyball which is way more PG?
(art by Pokketmowse)

Insight: While the group arena is standard party combat, the duel arena can be cheesed if you get some summons in there. Should you win your summons remain there, meaning you can send another team member to duel and be supported by the previous summons!

The Cursed: Underdark

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Underdark is dark and full of terrors, mainly in the form of drow at the arrival area. Drow might not sound very terrifying, until you remember that their sun light averse gear is actually in the +5 range so fighting them on their home turf is quite challenging!

So... if we take her to the sunlight she becomes naked? :P

To make matters worse, the team learns from some duergar that a pair of other outsiders (Irenicus and Bodhi) were last seen entering the nearby Drow city. That same city keeps it gates closed to team (rightfully so, after they killed all those Drow patrols) so Jan suggest to look for a tunnel or something that leads under the walls.

The first tunnel they enter is home to a beholder and an elder eye, and the party uses almost everything they have to win the fight. Unfortunately Jan and Elizabeth are left lying dead there while the survivors retreat.

Insight: At this point your mage should be rocking Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting which does big area damage while not hurting allies. Perfect against those drow parties who like to close the distance. Even with their increased resistance, they'll take half damage.

The Legend of Drizzt (Boardgame)

Because the Underdark is... dark and full of terrors?

After completing Temple of Elemental Evil and Wrath of Ashardalon (in that order), my game group has moved on to the next of the D&D adventure system games - the Legend of Drizzt (which I'll abbreviate to LoD from here on out). I know we're sort of going backwards(?) but the general consensus is that the miniatures are getting better - which is interesting.

LoD uses the same tile and monster mechanics as the others, but now comes with twisting cavernous zones, some of which are -really- tight, and "dead end" tiles which I'm guessing are quite frequent in the Underdark: the main location of this campaign.

The tiles are more claustrophobic!

There are some strong bad guys here too but nowhere near as strong as the numerous player characters on offer - which is partly why we're still sticking with our initial Temple group. :)

There are a few variations of quests to the seek and destroy or seek and escape which is nice, but the inclusion of competitive adventures (player vs player) actually lessens the value for me. Also, since the campaign tries to follow Drizzt's adventures there are many gaps in the story where he isn't in the Underdark. For those reasons, this one only gets 4 driders out of 5. 

Score after re-review: 3 driders out of 5.

Neverwinter: Simril Festival 2015 Tips

It's that time of year again as Neverwinter Online rolls out the Simril Festival! In addition to racing, fishing and fighting low level demons (instead of trolls) on the ice this year you can also get bonus, random vouchers for your stronghold through an easy quest to hire refugees who had found their way to Twilight Tor from the Underdark.

Much like last October's Masquerade event, you also get handed an artifact for free which consumes event items for refinement. I strongly recommend holding on to ALL the refinement items till the double refinement event on the last few days of it though for your best chance of max leveling the Simril artifact of union. There's also a double enchants and runes right before it to help you build up your stockpile for the refinement period!

The current calendar is listed as follows:
2x Guild Marks - Dec 17 to Dec 24
2x Profession Resources - Dec 20 to Dec 27
2x XP - Dec 24 to Dec 29
2x Enchants & Runes - Dec 27 to Dec 30
2x Refinement Points - Dec 29 to Jan 4

There's also free stuff to be had simply by visiting the Zen Market (that's the "Z" on the top menu bar) and going to the "Free" sections on the correct date.

Saturday, 12/26 - Free Bag of Holding
Sunday, 12/27 - Free Stone of Health
Monday, 12/28 - Free Experience Booster
Tuesday, 12/29 - Free Blood Ruby
Wednesday, 12/30 - 3x Free Preservation Wards
Thursday, 12/31 - 5x Free Scrolls of Life
Friday, 1/1 - Free Winter Wolf Mount

Note: All dates listed are on server time so you might need to adjust accordingly.