The Cursed: Not Winning

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Alias and Arzang survey the field of the fallen and are soon joined by the survivors of the rear guard, equally amazed that the Planar Hunters have all been defeated. Even a bloodied Symm shows up from another exit and proclaims that Dennaton has been "taken care of".

Suddenly the arena scribe appears and says he is actually a sorcerer of no small power, and with Dennaton out of the way he can take them all home, away from Thay. While some are hesitant, they eventually all agree. 

Surprise!

The scribe then throws off his disguise revealing himself to be Baeloth, whom each of them has heard of from Party Girl and Sir Erland. All weakened from the fighting, they have no opportunity do anything before Baeloth opens a gate underneath each of them. As they fall in, all they can hear his evil laughter as the world goes dark.

Insight: Wow, they went with a downer ending for Black Pits 2! It's like they've been reading some of my stories! Lol.

The Cursed: The Hardest Fight

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

The fallen planetar only has two allies left, so Shinordium (now an adamantine golem) goes to combat the salamander while the other, some wimpy looking mage, is ignored for now so that everyone else and their summons can focus on taking down the boss, who is weakened thanks to Gezzthemin's mass produced scrolls. Sir Erland goes in fast and hard, taking her down to less than half health before he is vorpaled (insta-killed / exploded) by her sword. A number of summons and Najim the genie meet the same end before the planetar is finally put down. 

The "wimpy" mage also turns out to be incredibly bad, slaying Dragonbait with a back stab. Party Girl sacrifices herself against his fire shield, burning herself alive, to hold him in place so Arzang can remove his shields, while Alias beheads him. In this time, the salamander has destroyed Shinordium but is equally almost dead and out of magic protections letting Arzang finish the battle with the most basic spell of all. Magic Missile!

The most reliable spell ever!

Insight: The wand of resurrection and mass resurrection abilities are almost mandatory here. I just edited out how much I actually used them (a lot). It's an insanely tough battle, the hardest in the entire series I think!

Sorry, second hardest. The hardest would winning at the tavern right at the start where they are full strength and pre-buffed while your team is surrounded and flat-footed.

The Cursed: Preparation is Half the Battle

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Gerrod, crazy Lea and Voghiln head back to assist in the rear guard while the team moves on to the next arena - this one occupied by guards led by Symm Haximus! Through careful dialogue Party Girl talks him down and with him abandoning the field, the remaining guards do the same.

They then proceed to the last arena where Dennaton awaits... with the Planar Hunters who have just returned in time to save him! Now is the time all that prep work pays off: Najim throws off his disguise, Joker suddenly turns into a man-sized mushroom and dies due to her earlier poisoning, and Shinordium uses the spirit transference scroll to trade bodies with the adamantine golem.

He then promptly smashes his old body with his new one in a single hit. It is now 7 against 3 in the parties favor. Dennaton wisely leaves his box seat to retreat elsewhere.

"The Winged" - Dennaton's Planetar still doesn't look concerned.

Insight: While not explicitly mentioned, the other preparations include being loaded with scrolls and potions to buff before entering the big fight. Since this combat system is ultimately based on math, everything counts!

The Cursed: Slave Rebellion

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

The time to escape is now. Joined by Dulf, Hort, Mercy, Gezzthemin and that douchebag Timmoth Goodtree, the squad begins their escape but quickly finds guards in their way. Guards alerted by Symm Haximus. Luckily, the other guards they bribed come through and turn off the anti-magic field making it an even fight. Even the two sous-chefs join the melee.

Alas both of them and all the guards save one, as well as Timmoth are killed when a group of Thayan knights and wizards arrive. The survivors fight through to the market area and loot some supplies, including the vault now open thanks to Brother Elraish. Unfortunately, his corpse is found within.

Thayans have some pretty funky armor.

The extras decide to hold position while the main team goes through the arenas to get to Dennaton, the first of which has a match in progress - umberhulks versus Voghiln, crazy Lea and Gerrod. The monsters are easily killed and Gerrod hands over the spirit transference scroll he just completed.

Insight: You can use the NPCs to do the fighting for you, and while not very RP-ish you can also rest at particular spots to recover spells.

The Cursed: Symm Haximus

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Arzang is again one of the last standing (hiding) in round sixteen facing six fallen devas (just one step down from planetar) while Symm wins it for them somehow using insta-kill moves. Not to be outdone Hort and Dragonbait get their chance to shine against twin demi liches whose penchant for mazing doesn't work on enraged berserkers.

One of the hardest fights!

Still, it is Symm who is taken for the last two fights: the first against a trio of dragons and the second against two Bhaalspawn, one of whom goes into slayer form both made really easy as he insta-kills the "boss" creatures easily. Upon returning to the pens, they learn that the Planar Hunters are out - making this the most opportune time to escape.

As the gladiators make their way to the meeting point, Party Girl asks Symm one more time if he wants to escape with them. He flatly refuses, saying they all should get used to being gladiators and returns to the training area. Why are the strongest always so stubborn?

Insight: Don't take Symm into battles where he can get charmed or confused. Obviously his axe has an equal chance to insta-kill your party members!

The Cursed: Merciful Victories

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Apart from freeing Najim, Party Girl also meets with a guard lieutenant whom Mercy had used her charms on and bribes him 20k gold for his squad to assist in their escape. Voghiln also has a drink session with Joker and poisons her with one provided by the team (Concocter's poison). It is then back to the fight pits as the show must go on.

The next battle has monks whom "Brother" Elraish helps with, an easy fight since their speed is matched by a haste spell and they have no immunity to imprisonment. The same with the lich battle, where Dulf helps with the accompanying bone fiends and Rakshasa round where crazy Lea remembered she also has spells (she must be fighter/mage/thief)!?

Dulf also helps in the mind flayer battle, summoning a planetar of his own to aid against hapless illithids. The most difficult fight in this tier is against a clay "shattering" golem who kept splitting into two, and the team only wins thanks to Mercy's archery and skill. She and Arzang were the last ones standing, though in Arzang's case it was "just barely, invisible, and hiding in the far corner".

Are these ever in the shape of a fat dude?

Insight: Remember you still need to spell strike (or otherwise remove protections of) the magically protected foes before imprisonment will work. Always worth trying off a save for a quick win but some enemies are just immune to it, no matter what. Obviously if it works you'll get no loot though.

The Cursed: Free the Genie

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Dulf's Drow "equal", Gezzthemin, has no senility issues but is a much lousier companion to the arena team in round nine against a halfling mage and his elementals as the Drow basically acts like a shielded tank for most of it. It ultimately takes time stop and comets to bring the halfling down. Fortunately Gezzthemin is still of some use, as he can make something from the planetar's wing the team stole previously in the Hunter's Lounge: a scroll to weaken her. Due to an odd bug, he starts mass producing these - making enough for everyone!

I keep mentioning Planetars - this is what they look like.

Round ten has demons versus devils and the team in between. Luckily they mostly kill each other after eating the murderer Feldrak who was left behind as bait. The remaining enemies are planetared down. After this fight the shops have a better stock of equipment which the team eagerly purchases. Using it, they free Najim the genie and defeat the Efreeti hunter. Najim then locks up this foe into the jar that once contained him and shapeshifts to take his place to ensure that no one will notice he is missing.

Insight: Mass invisibility is very handy in the arena matches and is often one of my opening moves.

The Cursed: The Sorcerer and the Wizard

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Having scouted the Hunter's Lounge the arena squad gets back to the fights, taking the powerful warrior Hort the orc to face vampires in round six, and is very impressed by Arzang as he can now time stop, cast imprisonment, and summon a fallen planetar of his own.

Round seven is against Githyanki, and they party up with old ally and booze hound Voghiln who says a crazy mage named Irenicus restored his flayer eaten brain somehow before selling him here. More importantly, he lets on that one of the Planar Hunters, a female bard called Joker, likes drinking with him on occasion.

I suppose the "bard" class makes sense?

The eighth match is surprisingly difficult against a Sahaugin prince and his water weirds due to all their paralyzation attacks but old senile man Dulf "Dulfy" Ebonbeard, who needs a regular potion dose for his condition, saves them with his amazing array of spells. He also reveals that the adamantine golem of the Planar Hunters is a soul-switched mage: a spell that can be undone.

With his knowledge and what the team looted from his room previously, Gerrod (the wild mage befriended before) is tasked to inscribe a scroll to handle this.

Insight: Much like the previous Black Pits, your party is restored fully after each match. That's good or this would be a very short side story! :P

The Cursed: Backroom Bargains

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

With the first four matches under their belt, the arena squad continues battling and recruiting allies for their escape - but also deciding who not to include. Feldrak is a murderous halfling scum who is happy to gloat upon all his past crimes and shows he has the skill to back it up by chopping up a Drow party in round five. That's not someone that should be let loose.

With some reputation and money now, Party Girl makes some deals in between matches - getting the key to the Planar Hunter's lounge by bribing fellow prisoner "Brother" Elraish, who is humorously trying hard to pretend he is a monk. She also gets disguises to access the inner areas, and acquires a variety of poisons - one to use on the megalomaniac cook who is promptly replaced by his two sous-chefs, both eager to support any escape.

Brother Elraish is kinda funny, but not as funny as Brother Silence.

There are no exits at the Hunter's lounge, but since they are all out Alias breaks some locks to try gauge what they are up against. Most importantly they find a bottle containing Najim in the room of the Efreeti hunter, but unwilling to tip their hand just yet leave him there for the time being.

Insight: No thief? You can force attack locked containers and doors to try break them open. This works  best with high strength characters.

The Cursed: Web of Connections

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Sir Erland and Party Girl spend some time meeting the other captives and it's clear that most are scum, even asking for gold (they were all given some to shop for equipment) to assist in each arena fight. One, a cleric named Timmoth Goodtree, even flatly refuses as he would rather spend his energy finding a way out. Not such a bad idea, but someone has to fight upstairs. Guess who.

The four prisoners they best get along with join the team permanently - Alias the warrior and her saurian companion Dragonbait as well as Shinordium the mage and his evil compatriot Arzang the sorcerer. For the first round against orcs, they also get the dwarven gladiator champion Symm Haximus who is the only fighter there voluntarily, for the pay and the glory. He has no interest in escape.

Symm sounds a bit like Crixus!

Round two is against Thayan gladiators and minotaurs, and the team picks the unliked wild mage Gerrod to assist. He is just happy to make friends and clearly wants out. The third round they are joined by Mercy the archer to kill lizardmen, and after the battle she agrees to keep an eye on the guard routines.

To face umber hulks in the fourth match they bring crazy Lea who is immune to their confusion due to her insanity. Unfortunately due to the same condition, they can't tell if she and her imaginary frenemy will assist in any escape attempt.

Insight: Web is very handy for these fights and the arenas are small enough to get some good coverage.

The Cursed: Black Pits Too

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Party Girl found Sir Erland drinking his sorrows away at a tavern, having been shaken with the horrible acts he committed during the siege of Dragonspear. She needed to get him straightened out quick as to meet the others to try rescue Catharina from her arrest. Fate had other ideas.

Najim the genie they rescued from Baeloth's Black Pits appeared and to give warning that they were being hunted but he was too late. A squad of hunters - "the Planar Hunters" - suddenly portaled in, led by a powerful fallen planetar (almost a minor demi-god) and easily thrashed all of them.

When they came to, they found themselves in a large, anti-magic underground facility among others victims stripped of their belongings. In short order, their "host" Dennaton made his appearance and declared that each of them was chosen because they were "champions". Now, they would fight for the entertainment of his crowd here in Thay or die. Having the fallen planetar at his side made even the most stalwart hesitate on fighting back.

"Don't worry," Sir Erland said quietly, still recovering from his bender. "We'll get out of these Black Pits too!"

The arenas aren't underground this time.

Insight: Apparently you can win that initial fight in the tavern, though I'm not clear on the "how" as those hunters are really tough and get a free round to fully buff before combat.

The Cursed: Fresh Lich of Dead Air

[Part of the Cursed story line]

While exploring the woods the team finds a nearby dwarven dig site that seems to keep spewing undead. The remaining dwarves who are barricading the entry admit to digging too deep (a common flaw according to Tolkien) and tunneling into some cursed burial chambers. Naturally, the team investigates and discovers this was intentional by the expedition leader who has transformed himself into a lich!

This fresh lich is bad news as he keeps getting up after being downed, and is only killed when the team destroy his phylactery. The tide of undead is halted, and the remaining dwarves agree to join the army. This delay also lets a few others join as well, namely Edwin the Thayan and Rasaad the monk who wants to redeem himself from his ridiculous defeat to a dart throwing bandit previously.

Catharina then scouts the bridge her force needs to cross in the morning and finds Caelar's troops already there. In the ensuing scuffle the crossing is destroyed, and Catharina and Caelar have a stare off on opposite ends of the broken bridge, both forgetting that in this world of magic a simple gap doesn't really offer much safety. It's now a race to the next crossing, Boareskyr Bridge.

Oh man if only I had some sort of ranged attack...

Insight: This turned out to be a difficult dungeon. Remember to use crushing weapons on skelies, ranged on slow things, and to return to camp to undo level drains.

The Cursed: Baeloth's Shallow Pit

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Good thing Corwin has some pull with the Flaming Fist, as the captain manages to recruit a good number of them, including Skie - the runaway daughter of a prominent lord. Catharina doesn't mind, an extra sword is an extra sword.

A few random mercs also join the line up, one being Viconia who keeps conversations short and shares many awkward silences with Safana. Catharina decides this retinue is large enough and begins the march North to meet the incoming threat.

The column makes camp once it nears Caelar's territory, and gives Catharina and company an opportunity to explore the woods... finding a small animal fight pit run by... Baeloth? Turns out his "disintegration" was just another of Neera's wild magic teleports.

Fight pits still exist to this day.

The team put a stop to his sorry arena, freeing a very thankful goblin shaman named M'khiin. Both are sent back to the camps to join the campaign.

Insight: While skull trap is still very useful, the designers mitigate it somewhat by having critters running about. Nothing is quite as annoying as having your trap triggered early by a rat or a squirrel.

The Cursed: Friends Old and New

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Flaming Fist Captain Shael Corwin is assigned to Catharina's team to help her assemble her squad, and the first step is funding! Alas, all of the hard earned gold from the previous adventures have been lost thanks to an inept guard and desperate refugees.

Corwyn has a lot of facial scars, I imagine to represent her combat experiences.

Personally, I think it just shows that she likes to block with her face.

The guard is berated, and the thieving refugees once found explain they already shared the sizable wealth with all the other needy refugees pouring in. They don't seem to understand that the reason doesn't matter (nor does it ever when it comes to crime), so Catharina and company execute the lot of them on the spot.

By chance, both Minsc (and Boo) and Dynaheir are in this same tavern having survived their ordeals with ghouls and injuries from gnolls. Safana too, though the thief doesn't say what she and Viconia had to do to get out of those kobold tunnels. They all accept to join the campaign.

Insight: Going after the gold as hard as I did was probably a more "evil" approach, but I am very possessive.

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: Durlag's Legacy

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team returns to Ulgoth's Beard to return a knife taken from the demon knight. Alas, they are jumped by a band of cultists who put up a decent fight. While this group is slain, one of them does manage to steal said knife and escape.

Turns out this knife holds the soul of the greater demon Aec'letec, whom Durlag had defeated long ago. Party Girl tracks the cultists to the arch mages home and after dealing with the guards, Catharina (while invisible) finds the remainder performing a summoning ritual in the basement.

Greater demons still can't see invisible things though!

A cloud kill deals with the last of the cultists but it is too late - Aec'letec (also magic immune/resistant) comes forth. Fortunately he doesn't see Catharina slip by invisibly to prep her team upstairs. Using the same plan that defeated the demon knight, the team engages and slays the mighty demon - though Sir Erland gives his life in the process.

Insight: These cultists were actually bad news, as they had hidden back stabbers! Remember to use cover when you can to lower the dps of enemy archers and mages. As for the hidden guys, they are opportunistic and go for who they can reach so keep your weaker members in the center of your formation.

The Cursed: The Depths of Durlag

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Taking stairs down from the chess chamber, the party ventures through a large labyrinth of surprisingly more manageable traps and monsters. The focus here is to answer historical questions about Durlag, which isn't too hard since the material is easily accessible on this floor and the floors above.

Passing all the tests, Durlag's spirit opens a door to the deepest part of the tower. There the team finds the last surviving member of another adventure group - this one losing her allies to the demon knight and his magical mirror. Apparently it makes evil duplicates of whoever looks at it.

A chair is important when waiting for heroes.

Sure enough the demon knight waits in the next chamber, and he can't be cheesed as he is magic immune. Catharina opts for the next best thing then, casting haste and invisibility on the party. This lets the heavy hitters close distance safely and in a fast but intense confrontation the demon knight and Yeslick lie dead on the floor. Thankful for their service, the ghost teleports all the survivors out of the tower.

Insight: Haste is an amazing buff for fighters as it increases their attack rate. Useful for encounters such as this where direct spell damage is less effective.

The Cursed: Durlag's Cheese

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Good thing nothing respawned in Durlag's basement, so the team can continue where they stopped previously with Catharina using the skull trap nuke to eliminate all four doom guards in the guard chamber. Lu Lingqi then has to face tank a x10 fireball trap to the face to get a wardstone and only survives through severe potion use. This finally opens the stairs down.

The next floor opens with a perpetual explosion room but moving individually avoids any damage. They then find another adventuring team here (there was a way around the doom guards lol), and they join forces to slay greater wyverns guarding the bones of a large dragon. The other adventurers all die in the process.

After that are chambers of elemental guardians. The polar bear is easy enough, and Sir Erland can tank the air aspect. The phoenix guard fails his save against confusion making him easy pickings which leaves the fission slime the worst of the lot as it splits into two upon death. This is a problem solved by fireball.

Stupid rules only govern stupid people.

The team is then teleported to a giant chessboard complete with rules given by a mysterious voice. Catharina ignores this and just cloud kills, fire balls and skull traps the opposite end, wiping out all opposition without playing the game.

Insight: Enemies only aggro when they see you. Using AoE spells means you can blind fire and win without ever entering combat.

The Cursed: Beast Masters

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Needing party members Catharina decides its finally time to return to the basilisk garden, this time fully prepared for the beasts and wiping them and their crazy mage master out easily. Unfortunately the mage seemed to have had his fun with Yuria, and her mangled statue which looks more like a pleasure toy is in no shape to be restored.

Fortunately Lu Linqi, Sir Erland, Elizabeth, and one other random victim are freed with the first three rejoining the team. They head into Baldur's Gate where Scar, impressed by their investigation in the merchants league, tasks them with unraveling the mystery of vanishing citizens.

Close, but not quite.

A quick jaunt through the sewers reveals the culprit to be an ogre mage feeding his pet carrion crawlers. With the easy warm up out of the way and new tactics learned from lycanthrope island, Catharina decides that it's time to return... to Durlag's tower.

Insight: I've pretty much used all the game party NPCs at this point so I had to get my original characters back. Really not sure what happened to Yuria though as her statue was just gone.

The Cursed: Stopping the Unstoppable

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Catharina gets quite a shock when her group reaches an area that is home to basilisks as the slow lizards manage to petrify Lu Lingqi, Sir Erland, Yuria, and Elisabeth - removing them from the party! Catharina and Party Girl flee for their lives all the way back to Beregost.

They can also be found in Neverwinter Online's Undermountain!

After a good wash of their soiled clothes they encountered Imoen at the tavern and meekly asked to join her team Xzar, Montaron, Garrick, and Kagain who is always looking for more female talent for his escort business.

Imoen accepts, and shows just how lousy her leadership is when the party heads to visit the nearby mage tower as both Xzar and Garrick are slain by knife throwing bags of bones (skeletons).

On the plus side, Catharina finally learns the identify spell from said mage and finds out that half the magic gear they are carrying is actually cursed.

Insight: For the more prepared, petrification is actually easy to get around with protection spells, mirrored eyes potions and stone to flesh scrolls but I didn't know of these at the time. When I finally did learn about them I decided to play this out as it was anyway so that I wouldn't curb stomp the game with six overleveled characters.