The Cursed: Shortcut to Death

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The "shortcut" exit leads into a plateau littered with small tombs. In one such cave, Minsc (and Boo) are dragged under the soil by a trio of ghouls, removing them from the party and causing Dynaheir to cry.

Xan also gets beheaded by an ogre berserker with a magical two hander, which triggers Khalid's PSTD. Still, the team accomplish a few other tasks such as saving a crazy sculptor from a bounty hunter and turning in a deserter to the flaming fist authorities.

He's got everything under control.

The team also encounter the "legendary" Drizzt Do'Urden fighting a huge pack of gnolls. Faced by her familiar captors Dynaheir crumbles during combat. Once all the gnolls are dead Drizzt whisks her away to get healed instead of helping to unravel the goings on in the region. Thanks hero!

Insight: You can actually fight Drizzt if you so choose, but be prepared for an ass whooping as he has unfair stats.

The Cursed: Another Detour

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Finally convinced by Jaheira to go to Nashkel as the situation is dire (really? doesn't feel that way), Catharina and company run into more elite hobgoblins who almost kill Neera with poisoned arrows. Fortunately Jaheira can cure it, but in doing so leaves herself open to a hobgoblin backstab which cripples her. Khalid is in tears as his wife is put on a random wagon back to the Friendly Arms Inn for medical attention. As usual, Baeloth makes snide and inappropriate comments.

"At least she wasn't backstabbed with a flaming sword... up the ass!"

This results in the drow sorcerer being voted out of the party at Nashkel proper. The low HP Neera is also side lined to recover from her near death experience after defeating yet another would be assassin at the inn. Replacing them is Rasaad the monk who immediately gets along with Khalid, Minsc (and his miniature giant space hamster Boo) who want to save a woman named Dynaheir from gnolls, and the Thayan Edwin who wants to kill a woman named Dynaheir. Party Girl wonders if it's the same woman. She has low INT.

While almost everyone else is asking that the party investigate the nearby Nashkel mines to solve the iron shortage (because random adventurers are qualified to do that apparently), Catharina wants to avoid having another walk out like Montaron so they delay heading there again and instead head West to the gnoll stronghold to find Dynaheir.

Insight: If left to their own devices, party members will converse with each other. This can also lead to in party fighting if they don't get along - mainly stemming from alignment differences. If you keep everyone busy though, they'll never get a chance to act out.

Photo Story: Never Adventures (Part 1) - #IntPiPoMo2015

[Part of my photo story folder and part of IntPiPoMo2015!]

I've always been a fan of table top gaming.

I'm also a collector of board games!

So it's no surprise that I found my way to Neverwinter Online.

Here I found some familiar faces.

And the occasional god.

Lord Neverember rules the city without ever sitting down.

He used to have a huge statue of himself in the plaza too.

But that's since been replaced by a magical tree.

Nearby floats the Moonstone Mask, a tavern full of those people your parents warned you about. Yup, it's full of role players. :P

Regardless, for the time being this city is my home.

Current #IntPiPoMo2015 Count - 10 / 50

Neverwinter Online: Beyond Elemental Evil

Neverwinter Online: Module 6 (aka "Elemental Evil") is out and it increases the level cap to 70. While there isn't a "campaign" (that I can see anyway), there are new adventure zones to level up in featuring enemies of the four planes (earth, water, fire, and air). Talk Sergeant Knox at Protector's Enclave to get that quest line started. If you have a free character slot or are new to the game, you may also want to try out the new paladin class.

What it doesn't make clear is that the new level cap also has changed ALL the old campaigns. Sharandar, the Dread Ring, Icewind Dale and the Well of Dragons now have level 70+ enemies. Expect a very difficult time if you decide to continue doing quests there as a level 60!

I also have a feeling we might be seeing a Spelljammer module sometime in the future. Why?

Because of this bald guy behind me.

That's Minsc, who some players may have encountered in Baldur's Gate. He has a pet named Boo.

• Boo is a minature giant space hamster. Giant versions power vessels in Spelljammer.
• Cryptic's other game is Star Trek Online. A space game where players own star ships.
• The air ship in pirates skyhold has gotten a lot of upgrades since I last saw it.
• Owning / Upgrading a vessel would cause a lot of people to invest in more Zen / Astrals / Time. Cryptic likes money.
• Spelljammer is not in the faerun universe? Neither was the base elemental evil (World of Greyhawk).
• Being able to Spelljam might open doors to other D&D realms such as Greyhawk or Krynnspace!

For now though, there are lots of crazy elemental forces that need killing rebalancing which will keep everyone busy. When the foundry comes back up, you can try scratch the Spelljammer fix with this player made quest (not one of mine):

'To Infinity, and BEYOND!'
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I haven't tried it myself yet, but at least I'm not the only one with Spelljamming in mind! Let's kill some Neogi! :D