Pillars of Eternity: Gezzthemin Gutted

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Back at the Caed Nua stronghold, Gezzthemin has hired new guards to aid in its defense and among them are the familiar faces of Mercy, Crazy Lea, Alias and Arzang. Together with Gerrod they forge into the depths underneath the fortress once more and reach level eight and find a crazed, adra addicted fampyr looking to become king of the level by getting Gezzthemin's team to kill the rest of his kin and in exchange he will let them descend further.

Arzang's suggestion of simply killing this fampyr is outvoted and the squad ends up fighting a handful instead. They turn out to be deadly enemies due to their charms, an effect fully felt when Crazy Lea stabs Gezzthemin in the belly and carves out his insides - killing him. The team eventually slays all the other fampyrs and surprisingly the new "king" keeps his word - offering free passage downwards.

The team instead returns to the surface to rest and resupply, sending a messenger to Dulf's squad with news of their expedition. Upon hearing the news, Symm and Hort return to the stronghold to assist the dive teams while Dulf replenishes his own troop with the paladin Pallegina, werewolf druid Hiravias, and cipher (psychic) known only as the Grieving Mother.

Werewolf form is cool!

Insight: Fampyrs are faster than the other undead. This means if you have enough space to run, you can isolate them from their pawns.

Pillars of Eternity: Kana is Killed

[Part of the Cursed story line]

On the road to the city the party meets a short ranger named Sagani and her pet fox Itumaak who are looking for someone. Dulf offers to help so she comes along as the team makes a detour to scour the nearby areas first. This turns out to be a mistake as the next area is a drake breeding ground and one of the beasts has Kana for a snack!

Enraged, the team go on to hunt all the drakes including their big leader in the nearby flaming cave. Despite clearing everything in there and all the way to the ocean, there is no sign of the person Sagani is looking for so the team returns to the original plan of visiting Defiance Bay, stopping at the weapon vendors stall to purchase rifles and pistols all around.

No doorway? No problem! Narrow terrain works just fine even against "flying" creatures.

A local adventurer's guild called "The Dozens" isn't very helpful in giving out jobs so Dulf and company end up freelancing again, eliminating some drug dealers and cleaning the catacombs of monsters and scum. It turns out beneath the catacombs is the hideout of the Leaden Key! Not willing to spook them, Dulf uses an ingenious disguise to bluff his way in alone and collect intel on the shady group - leaving them none the wiser.

Insight: Firearms are slow to reload but using them as an opening salvo is a great alpha strike before switching out to your usual weapons.

Pillars of Eternity: Durance's Death

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Outside the ruins of Caed Nua the party meets the bard (chanter), Kana, who is interested in the relics below the keep. Knowing people are stronger together Dulf lets him join the party as they rid the courtyard of spirits and the basement of vermin.

They also find a mad man down there who and recognizes Dulf as a "watcher" like he himself is. Alas, this ends in a one sided fight in which the mad man is slain but at least he left a hint regarding a group known as the "Leaden Key" somewhere in the city of Defiance Bay. Since the path there is blocked, Dulf decided to make Caed Nua their new base of operations, calling in Gezzthemin and Gerrod to oversee the reconstruction of the road and the stronghold itself.

Meanwhile, the team explores the vast dungeon underneath the basement finding all sorts of creatures down here such as kobold-kin, ogres and a drake. At level seven Kana finds the tablet he is looking for but is disheartened to find it in tiny pieces. Worse still, a powerful lightning bolt from a wandering elemental hits Durance right in the nuts - killing the pyromaniac.

Doorway combat, a mainstay of RPGs.

A friendly ghost warns Dulf not to proceed further ("because you are too low level dawg") so the team retreats back to the surface just in time for the road to open to allow travel to Defiance Bay.

Insight: When outnumbered (which is almost always), doorways are a great place to setup for battle. Position everyone well then just send one person (usually the tank) to lure baddies back.

Pillars of Eternity: Raederic's Removal

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having found old allies Hort, Gerrod and Symm Haximus - Gezzthemin's party finds great success in helping out the people of the Gilded Vale, to the point where they ask them to deal with the cruel Lord Raederic. His castle is pretty easy to infiltrate with Hort's athleticism getting the team up the parapet walls, but the wall guards are no joke - forcing the squad to sneak around them.

Luckily the temple priests in the upper floor are less well armored and are easy to murder. Even their high priest contact who has a key to open a shortcut to the throne room is killed when he attempts to make bargains for it.

The priests are no problem, but the temple knights are a different story...

In no time at all, the team stands before Lord Raederic's throne and in a brief but intense battle they slay the lord and his cronies, allowing the rebel forces control of the keep. They return to the Gilded Vale as heroes, where the townsfolk are already taking down the corpses that had been strung up to the central tree.

Having been injured in the fight, Gezzthemin and Gerrod opt to stay behind to recuperate, leaving the team's leadership to Dulf. A crazed, ugly pyromaniac monk named Durance in the tavern recognizes Dulf's new "condition" and speaks of a man who has a similar aura in the ruins of Caed Nua. Without anything better to do, the team decides to head there next with Durance leading the way.

Insight: The fighter's knockdown ability is very handy. Eventually ranger pets get a version of this too!

Pillars of Eternity: Eder's End

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Dulf leant heavily on his staff as he approached the small town of Gilded Vale, whose main landmark was a great dead tree at its center and upon whose branches were hung human corpses. "Folk Lord Raederic didn't like," explained a pipe smoking man who later introduced himself as Eder.

Corpses as ornaments always makes an impression.

Dulf was greatful that the warrior helped him to the tavern to recover with some hot soup. He was only half way through when a pair of elven mages approached his table, one of whom he recognized from his time at the Thayan arena! "Dulf Ebonbeard, I am glad to see you also escaped that mad man," said Gezzthemin with a sly grin.  

It turns out most of the arena group escaped from Baeloth after the warp and now Gezzthemin and his new wizard friend Aloth were doing adventuring work at the local abandoned temple for some coin and invited Dulf and Eder along. "Come on old man, you'll feel better once you've cast a few spells."

Gezzthemin was a poor liar, but Dulf knew that meant the place was dangerous and thus he and Eder agreed to join the task. Sure enough the place was haunted by malevolent spirits and man sized bats which killed Eder. The three wizard party manages to clear the place out though, and gets a lot of coin in the process.

Insight: Arcane Assault is a cheap, fast and semi-spamable (2 per fight * number of wizards) AoE ability that's useful against clusters of weak enemies.

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: 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: 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.