The Cursed: Lab Rats

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The prison transport never made it to Baldur's Gate, as Catharina was abducted by the mage Jon Irenicus. Deep in his dungeon, she endured his experiments for sometime until the location came under attack by some rival faction. With Irenicus distracted, Catharina is freed by fellow captive Imoen! Hey she's not so useless after all. The pair also rescue familiar faces Minsc, Jaheira, Elizabeth, and Lu Lingqi as well as the pair of thieves Yoshimo and Raven Skinnybastard on their way out, all of whom were lab rats to Irenicus.

Irenicus thinks too much, look at all those veins.

Alas both Khalid and Dynaheir were also prisoners here but they did not survive the torture. Reaching the surface they find themselves in Athkatla, Jewel of Amn. Irenicus is nearby absolutely annihilating the opposition which draws the attention of the local enforcers, the Cowled Wizards - a number of whom he slays as well. During this Imoen takes a cheap shot to magic missile Irenicus, and since magic is outlawed in the city the Cowled Wizards eventually capture both of them and whisk them away.

Yoshimo, having had enough of this shit, peaces out and leaves to go to the pub. The rest of the group, Raven Skinnybastard included, decide to try help Imoen from her legal issues.

Insight: Don't rush to escape the prison. There's lots of EXP in there and you can camp as much as you like.

The Cursed: Avernus

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Avernus, the first layer of hell. With no way but forward, Catharina and company help the quickly diminishing crusader forces against hell cats, lemures, imps, and a variety of colorful devils. They eventually catch up with Caelar, who is facing off against the treacherous Hephernan and his actual master - Belhifet. Catharina offers to assist, and Caelar joins the team for this battle! Good thing too since she's really strong.

Yeah, she'd win against that in game.

Hephernan is taken down first, but then Glint is gibbed by Belhifet and Jaheira and Khalid are KOed by demonic reinforcements. Fortunately between Caelar and Party Girl, Belhifet is destroyed (haste and ultra magic arrows) and Caelar uses the greater demons blood to send the survivors out of hell while she herself has to remain to seal the portal.

Khalid and Jaheira are taken to the medics while Catharina and Party Girl are celebrated as heroes... for one night. This is because Catharina has a bad dream coming from hell and all, and in a sleepwalking state murders Skie. She is immediately detained by the Flaming Fist and sent back to Baldur's Gate in shackles... (and onto Baldur's Gate 2)!

Insight: Caelar is a fantastic tank, especially if you toss her some health pots.

The Cursed: War is Hell

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team find themselves back in the crusader supply tunnels and this time follow the path into Castle Dragonspear itself where they begin poisoning the remaining food supply. It's only at this point that the alarm is raised because through sheer bad luck, they run into Hephernan!? The mage is too powerful, and too clever (running back to guards) to defeat so Catharina and company get out of there as quickly as possible, with Baeloth making good use of his chaos spell to get the crusaders to fight each other.

By the time they get back to the war camp the crusaders are on the offensive, sending waves of attackers to try break through the siege. Having fantastic timing, Baeloth decides to abandon the party and the war here,  but the team is still successful in holding ground. Once the crusaders are on the retreat, it is the Flaming Fist's turn to attack, launching a full scale invasion of Dragonspear castle.

The giant moon looks down upon the battlefield.

The walls are breached and the crusaders are smashed, with Catharina cloud killing, ice storming and skull trapping their leadership. With their army in disarray, Catharina advances into the keep - locating Caelar and her few remaining crusaders in the vault. Hephernan is here too, and uses this moment to show his true colors, sending everyone to HELL!

Insight: Once you breach the walls the Flaming Fist have an infinite stream of soldiers running in. Let them do all the dirty work.

The Cursed: Dark Magician

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Before going into the tunnels the team returns to pick up Khalid and Jaheira, and to visit Dragonspear castle itself where Skie is busy doing some recon. Apparently the crusaders are dumb enough to let anyone wearing a Caelar necklace in which gives the team a good opportunity to scout around and generally mess with them, like stealing supplies and murdering the entire troll handling team without notice.

They then enter the tunnels where again, the depot guards just let them through. More than that, they actively assist in fighting monsters from a nearby corrupted grove (which Jaheira fixes eventually). In one corner the team discovers ruins guarded by a dragon ghost. The ruin is actually home to a cabal of dark sorcerers who are preparing to raise a massive army once the war outside is complete. They turn out to be a really difficult fight, but thanks to Neera the ghost dragon comes to their aid after her wild magic frees it.

Because there weren't enough types of dragon.

Alas, for her trouble one of the dark mages magic missiles her off into a bottomless chasm. The ghost dragon avenges her, and once the dust settles tells Catharina that Caelar is just being played by her advisor Hephernan - the leader of this cabal. The dragon then vanishes to the after life, and the team heads back to camp to rest up and recruit someone to fill the spot. Baeloth, having forgotten that he previously quit, accepts!

Insight: While you have to attack the cult speaker to free the ghost dragon, you should definitely let the dragon do most of the fighting here. Note, if you don't attack the speaker fast enough the dragon will show up as an enemy.

The Cursed: The Battle of Bridgefort

[Part of the Cursed story line]

While scouting the crusader camp the team find Dorn "the sackless" imprisoned within. They free the abused orc and send him to join the army then use the magic stone to teleport into Bridgefort where they find the defense is being led by Khalid! Apparently he survived his swim from that werewolf island. Also present is the wild mage Neera, but she is crazier than usual now.

After helping the defenders a little, Catharina organizes a counter strike - opening with a feint of surrender. Many crusaders are killed by the skull traps she had left earlier, and a pincer attack from Bridgefort and the Flaming Fist column easily routs the crusader force. Unfortunately Edwin and Baeloth call it quits right after, both annoyed at M'khiin's continued presence in the party - effectively ending the Alphastrike team.

They blamed the dancing goblin.

At least they don't abandon the army though, unlike that deserter Viconia who has vanished entirely from the column roster and isn't among the dead either. Once all is settled, the army goes on the march once more - pursuing the broken crusader force back to their stronghold of Dragonspear castle.

Insight: You have the option to surrender the fort here and save lives on both sides, but what good is having an army if I don't get to use it?

The Cursed: Den of Wolves

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The huge boat is home to packs of wolves and wolfweres, and the team does their best to lure out the hordes to the larger spaces outside. This works a few times before a number too large to handle pursues them. Khalid leads half the herd away into the forest while the others fight, killing the rest despite Alora having her jugular ripped out.

Bad dog!

When they finally get to Khalid all that is left is his gear, and a good number of enemies left to slay. Catharina, Party Girl and Yeslick finish them off but still have the upper levels of the ship to clear. It is now that Catharina learns the value of invisibility as it lets her do more than scout - it lets her have first attack, provided she is out of view when casting.

Lightning bolt, fireball, and summoning wands deal with the next floor up and on the highest floor a single chaos spell leads most of the monsters to kill each other, except for the ultra dangerous, regenerating boss wolfwere. Party Girl ends up luring him away too, but she escapes using the boots of speed.

Insight: This invisible mage strategy is amazing. Use it when you get into difficult spots.

The Cursed: Shipwrecked

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The team returns to Ulgoth's Beard to turn it what few quests they can from their last foray to Durlag's tower, as well as hand in the stolen sea maps to a curious knowledge seeker who then asks the party to sail on his already prepared vessel in hopes to find a special shipwreck. Sure, why not?

We can swim in plate mail, surely!

One storm later and it is the team that is shipwrecked on a distant island, with the only other surviving crew member, Alora the halfling thief, joining them. They find a stand-offish community who also seek to leave the island but are stuck due to the man wolves that guard the forest / timber supply.

Their leader tasks the party with clearing out the monsters who turn out to be shape shifting wolfweres that have a penchant for lure traps. While they are easy enough to slay, they always seem to do damage due to their fast and accurate attacks. Soon the party finds their lair... a large shipwreck of the vessel they had set out to find in the first place!

Insight: There are no vendors on this island so make sure to bring supplies.

The Cursed: Durlag's Guardians

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Despite knowing there is a demon knight lurking about, the party descends into Durlag's basement and finds the locked doors that stopped them before to still be an obstacle as both Tiax and knock spells have no effect on them! Instead Quayle finds hidden levers that manipulate the portals and let the party deeper into this floor.

While the traps are still deadly and numerous, so are the guardians this time around - with greater doppelgangers and spirits of Durlag's past haunting the halls. Tiax rejoices when one such spirit drains all the life from Quayle, but isn't laughing for long when he steps on a trap that makes a hallway literally crush him to death. Ew.

It's pretty dark but that area used to be a hallway.

A circle of inward facing, lightning shooting wyvern statues is used against some of the defenders but upon reaching a guard chamber with four doom guards the team is just too demoralized (and too weak) to continue. Once more, they abandon the tower for other pursuits.

Insight: If it wasn't obvious yet, Durlag's tower is hands down the hardest adventure zone in the game.

The Cursed: Unfinished Business

[Part of the Cursed story line]

After much searching through the city, the team finally finds Catharina's poisoner at a tavern and slays him for the antidote he carries around with him. What an odd assassin. The party then has to do some "evil" aligned stuff to placate Tiax, such as stealing a telescope from a museum and stealing some sea charts from a shipping company.

Pleased that they aren't "goody-two-shoes" Tiax agrees to accompany them back to the Cloakwood mines and with his skills, and the knock spell Catharina learned at the city, they free the slaves of the lower levels and finally flood the mine.

Evil parties can do this much earlier and just drown everyone!

One of the freed prisoners, a dwarven cleric named Yeslick, offers to join the party. They accept as healers are in big demand where they are heading next... back to Durlag's tower. A tourist group from Ulgoth's beard is present this time around in the main entry but they are slaughtered when a demon knight appears out of nowhere, declares the tower his own, and fireballs the room before vanishing again.

Only the party, and one tourist who somehow avoided the blast, survives.

Insight: If you gain too much reputation by doing good things, evil party members will complain and ultimately leave. The same is true the other way around.

The Cursed: Faceless City

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Only now do we finally reach the titular city.

Having lost yet another party member, the team heads to Baldur's Gate proper to look for new blood - but despite finding numerous thieves in random houses none are willing to join the group. Indeed, all they find is trouble when they find out an assassin has poisoned Catharina and she now only has 10 days to live! Good thing it wasn't one of those instant death poisons huh?

Knowing that timed-quests are a thing, the party focuses on city exploration and soon run into the Iron Throne head quarters where without hesitation, they launch a full assault. Instead of finding a cure, they find that most of the Iron Throne leadership has been replaced by doppelgangers and a greater one incinerates Faldorn before they are all slain. The druid barely survives and abandons the party to recover back in the Cloakwood.

This goes for the other merchant leagues in the city as well and it seems someone named Sarevok is to blame. Needing a drink from all this knowledge the party gets into a bar fight against a competing adventuring party whom they slay, which attracts the attention of the murderous Tiax - who asks to join. Since they've been looking for someone with his skills, they accept - much to Khalid and Quayle's disapproval.

Insight: Baldur's Gate is a huge city and some districts are divided by walls. The direction you take to enter those areas dictates which side of those walls you will appear.

The Cursed: Is this Azkaban?

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Down the well the party runs into a dead end by way of locked doors and without a thief or knock spell, they have no choice but to leave Durlag's tower for now. Instead they head North across the previously closed bridge at meet Flaming Fist captain Scar who asks them to investigate the Merchant's League at Baldur's Gate.

The smarty pants gnome cleric Quayle joins them for this task, but Catharina decides to detour to the unexplored Northern lands first - helping a farmer against a zombie horde and discovering the small settlement of Ulgoth's Beard. This quaint village is curious due to its fascination with Durlag and his tower. They even have regular tours to the place!

An arch-mage runs the town and he asks for aid in recovering his cloak. A simple task on the surface, but when Catharina accepts she her team are teleported to a wizard island prison where most of the inmates equal parts powerful and crazy. Shar-Teel is immolated by a flame strike early on, but the team manages to clear all the scum and recover the cloak, which earns them a return trip to the village.

Flaaaaamestriiiike!

Insight: Damage over time attacks such as Melf's acid arrow or poison works well against spell casters as it increases the odds of having their spells interrupted - basically wasting their move.

The Cursed: Durlag's Basement

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the higher levels secure the team heads downstairs and finds a thief NPC who is leaving the grounds and basically acts as a EULA that the dungeon below is more than unfair. This doesn't stop the team from descending and being welcomed by a twin fireball trap! Fortunately Faldorn is pretty good at healing now.

Soon, they meet four ghost warders who each ask for a quest item before letting the team access the deep well down. While the ghasts and spiders on this floor aren't very dangerous, progress is terribly slow due to all the cheap traps but the team quickly learns to be on their toes around anything where there are already dead bodies.

Of course, upon giving the last quest item to the warders they all turn hostile and are walking cheat codes. One is a walking cloud kill generator for example. To defeat them, the team hides in an engine room while Party Girl, equipped with boots of speed, protective spells and lots of healing potions baits them into the "long hallway trap", easily spotted by the pile of bodies on either side of it.

It's called using the room to your advantage!

Her speed and buffs let her avoid most of the damage (I think it is lightning bolt x 6, fireball x 3) while the ghosts face tank the full blast... 3 times. Yep, she has to run laps before they are all destroyed.

Insight: A character moving fast enough evade lightning bolt traps as they are directional. Arrow traps and fireballs seem to be homing though, and no matter how fast you run you will get hit. Even through walls!

The Cursed: Durlag's Tower

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Rather than head for Baldur's Gate, Catharina opts to try explore the remaining areas on the map first and thus the team finds themselves at Durlag's tower, a massive abandoned fortress. The two initial Battle Horror guards set the tone right away, as more undead defend the place in sporadic groups.

One such group is led by a Doom Guard, who manages to slay Eldoth before Faldorn's summoned dread wolf can tear it down. The tower interior is quite cozy, despite all the ghouls and traps lining the place. At the top floor they manage to free a succubus, and on the inner parapets encounter greater basilisks.

Yeah, I failed my saving throw.

Fortunately by this time, the party has many potions of mirrored eyes and Khalid just drinks one then holds their aggro while the rest of the party pepper the lizards to death from range.

Insight: When properly geared, basilisks are pieces of cake. They don't move and only have the gaze attack, which they only use on the closest target. If that target is immune to gaze then they basically become experience pinatas.

The Cursed: Mine Later

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The mine boss is a talented mage, but seems to be restricted to where he teleports to. A cloudkill does the job of interrupting his spells and killing him but his two summoned battle horrors certainly live up to their name, slaying Branwen in melee.

That's pretty close to a battle horror.

Catharina manges to sun fire one to oblivion and then ice storm the second while Khalid holds it in place. From the letters recovered after the battle it seems the Iron Throne is in cahoots with the conspiracy had plans to capitalize on the iron shortage. Handy that their head quarters is in nearby Baldur's Gate.

As for the mine, the slaves suggested to flood it but without a way to unlock the lower cells this would mean drowning some other captives too. Instead Catharina just asked them to wait for her return. On the way out, the team actually catches up with Eldoth who is still lost in the forest and let him join them to rest and recover at the Friendly Arms Inn.

Insight: I figured I'd be able to recruit another thief elsewhere, but a knock spell would have also sufficed. Alas, it's not one any of my casters had at the time.

The Cursed: Cloakwood

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Following the clue from the bandit camp, the team heads next to the massive Cloakwood forest - home to a multitude of wolves, ettercaps, annoying web traps, jihadi druids, a nest of wyverns and lots and lots of spiders. Poison is abound here, so Branwen prepares all the curatives she knows.

As they work their way deeper the meet the bard Eldoth who is thinking up some plan to get into a girls pants, the ranger Coran who wants aid in hunting wyverns, and the druid Faldorn who wants the new mine deep in the forest to be shut down. Coran and Faldorn are recruited while Eldoth is told to take a hike.

Not a cave sane people would enter.

Coran manages to kill his wyvern but is stung in return, forcing him to leave the party while waiting for his antidote to kick in. Just a bit further the team finds the mining operation setup by the Iron Throne traders using slave labor. No cursed iron here! The defenders put up a good fight, but are unable to stop the party from reaching their mage boss on the bottom floor. This teleporting bastard is a difficult fight.

Insight: Items of free movement will reduce your annoyance in the spider parts of the woods. Otherwise, you'll be waiting a long while like I did for the web traps to expire. Alternatively, bring a thief who can detect and disarm traps.

The Cursed: Bandit Hunt

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Firewine Ruins are home to more kobolds who have rigged traps galore. As the party gets separated while wandering through the tunnels, both Safana and Viconia are dragged off into the dark by the little bastards while the rest of the party locates and defeats their ogre mage boss and finds a clue where to find the main bandit camp. It seems all these baddies are working in unison!

Gold is a great unifier!

This also accidentally saves the halfling village of Gullykin, as stairs up lead to a hidden place well behind their town walls. Here they encounter the man hater Shar-Teel once more who was helping to defend against the kobold infiltrators. She joins the group and convinces them there is no time to waste and to abandon the two missing girls in favor of scalping bandits.

There are plenty of victims for her at the bandit camp hidden deep in the woods - a combination of humans, hobgoblins and gnolls making up their number. None of them are a match for the team with Party Girl one shotting most with her heavy crossbow. Their boss seems to be away though, and correspondence indicates something about a mine in the Cloakwood forest.

Insight: Summoning creatures, especially via wand, works well when out numbered against ranged opponents - as I learned in the thief battle of Black Pits. Get a mass of them and send them in as meat shields / distractions for your main party. It's more fun than casting protection spells.

The Cursed: Firewine

[Part of the Cursed story line]

On the return trip from the goblin lands the party goes by Firewine Bridge, a ruin rumored to contain great treasures - and even more kobolds. Outside they find a hapless adventurer with a cursed box, and she explodes when the ogre mage contained within bursts forth.

Catching the party by surprise, this foe manages to do massive damage and in a flash of light both Neera and Baeloth vanish into ash mid combat. That's enough to dissuade the survivors from exploring the underground below and they move on, crossing paths once more with the dark elf Viconia who joins their number.

Only the unworthy would fall to little blue men.

With her they achieve many things, exterminating a Xvart village, culling a gibberling horde, saving a berserking captain from a cursed sword, securing a dig site where Viconia decides to take a cursed Netherese idol for herself, and helping the thief Safana to raid treasure underneath a lighthouse. Safana is impressed at the group and offers her services. They accept, knowing they'll need her skills in the Firewine Ruins.

Insight: The cursed idol makes your party the target of a number of undead each time you sleep. This interrupts spell memorization and healing, but you also get all the extra experience for killing them.

The Cursed: That was Wild

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Down to half strength, the party returns to the Friendly Arms Inn to recruit Dorn the orc as well as Neera and Baeloth who (seem to be getting close) returned there from Nashkel . Neera is particularly annoying this time, saying the team owes it to her to escort her to an elder wild mage so that she can learn to control her powers.

Catharina obliges her and they follow her lead to a goblin infested area. Fortunately they pass a bluff test to convince the goblins that they are friends, letting them skip right to the boss' cave - who happens to have the elder wild mage hostage.

The boss goblin isn't fooled though and attacks, and Dorn "the ultimate warrior" is defeated by the little green man. I assume the orc was castrated before being kicked off the cliff into the underground ravine below. It's only after defeating boss gob that the Thayans chasing Neera show up, and put up a good enough fight to warrant the use of summoning wands.

Frankly, Baeloth is preferred.

Despite the victory it is ultimately all for naught as the old wild mage has zero wisdom to impart and accidentally teleports himself out of there. Possibly to the moon.

Insight: Wild mages are potentially really strong if you are willing to reload unfavorable random effects. They can literally kill themselves and their party each time they cast any spell.

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: Iron Shortage

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Khalid finally leads Party Girl, Catharina, Minsc, Dynaheir and Branwen to the Nashkel mines. On the way the team encounters yet another assassin group but have the unexpected ally of Dorn the angry orc who wants payback on his ex-crew.

With all the scum cleared Dorn thanks the team and suggests that if they ever need a "real" warrior, he'll be waiting at the Friendly Arms Inn. The team proceed to the still active mine and find (four floors down) that a team of kobolds had been corrupting the ore veins with a strange fluid, causing the iron shortage.

Seems that they also work for money!

They are led by a human though, and based on his correspondence he is just one small cog in a bigger conspiracy. Also found at the base of the mines is the elven mage Xan, once adventurer now prisoner/bitch. They free him and make their way out the "back way" which is a massive shortcut to the bottom floor. That would have been handy to know about on the way in!

Insight: All those "important" letters? Junk them after reading them to save bag space. It's only at near end of the game where you need to hang on to a few of them.