The Cursed: Time of Prophecy

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Imoen and Catharina spend a good amount of time with the elves, but the peace is broken by the arrival of a Bhaalspawn hunter who happens to be a Bhaalspawn herself. Unfortunately for her, she and her mercs are not equipped to deal with a planetar and are promptly killed.

Pretty sure this fella classifies as a Planetar too!

Right after she falls, the step-sisters are brought to a pocket plane dimension created by Catharina's subconscious where they meet a Solar (one step up from planetar) who vaguely says they must train as the prophesied time is at hand before vanishing again. Also present is ghost Sarevok, for whom the small price of a sliver of Catharina's soul lives again and joins the party!

Catharina is also able to summon any living previous ally which turns out to be a one name list. Korgan, the evil dwarf beserker is called and rejoins the team. He and Sarevok pass the first "pocket test" for the party, killing angry civilians and knights out for Bhaalspawn blood.

Insight: Sure hope this game is solo-able (winnable with a one person party), as it seems to quickly be heading that way!

The Cursed: Irenicus

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The duo find Irenicus sucking the power of the great tree to become a god and promptly kill him with summons. Unfortunately, since he still has Catharina's soul, she and Imoen (maybe he took some of hers too?) follow him down into hell where a small gauntlet of tests await them to see which one deserves to be Bhaalspawn.

Both Catharina and Irenicus pass, leading to the actual final confrontation where Irenicus transforms into his demon form and summons greater demons to aid him. The girls summon their own assistance as usual, and because they have more experience with summon tactics - as well as copious amounts of Horrid Wilting spells - they win. Catharina takes her soul back, and Irenicus dies.

Sucker got horridly wilted.

She and Imoen then wake in Suldanessellar, where the Elf queen declares them heroes and lets them stay for as long as they need to recover from this whole ordeal.

Insight: The only trick to beat Irenicus both times is to remember to reposition as needed.

The Cursed: Suldanessellar

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Upon returning to Athkatla, Catharina finds Imoen at the Copper Coronet who needs help with that lead for the missing elf city. Together they return to the Harper house at the Docks District and planetar the evil mercs now residing there. Upstairs they rescue Jaheira, who was reduced to being their play thing this whole time.

As Imoen suspected, she knows where Suldanessellar is and using the magic lantern reveals the city once more. Inside, the elves are still bravely fighting Irenicus' forces which are mainly comprised of golems and rakshasas. He has also magically sealed the palace of the great tree, and the team needs to summon a woodland avatar to open it.

A wood land avatar that looks like Swamp Thing.

Collecting the items for the summoning ritual is mostly easy, except for the one item held by Irenicus' black dragon. It is a long fight, and Jaheira is melted by dragon vomit before it is slain. Catharina and Imoen then proceed into the palace for the final confrontation.

Insight: I quite like big maps now. Just summon the planetar early, haste it and send it forth then supplement mord-swords as needed. It was also interesting to see it solo a balor and a pit fiend, this is because its sword has a chance to auto kill anything it hits.

The Cursed: Between the Lines

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Not wanting to fight through the lines of Elves and Drow, Catharina opts for the Bilbo Baggins method - invisibility and haste. With enough zig zagging they make it through the combat lines and out into the sunlight... where they are promptly arrested by the waiting Elves above.

After being questioned by their leader, they learn that somehow Irenicus has made their city of Suldanessellar vanish! Convinced that Catharina and Imoen want Irenicus dead, they task the party with looking for a magic lantern stolen from Elven lands that can find the city.

Irenicus must really love this game.

Ok wait, they have a magic lantern that can find the city? Does that happen often enough to warrant the creation of said lantern? I guess so! LOL. Catharina immediately suspects it will be with Bodhi, so the elves give them some stakes and holy water then send them on their way back to Athkatla.

Insight: If you are going for the run method, make sure you manually control your people. The AI pathing is lousy for that purpose.