I entered one of the caves not really knowing what I was getting into, and there were about 15 wolves, werewolves, mages, and two stone nuisances. I'm happy to say that I defeated all of them on my first go, but just as I was about to save, one of my characters was teleported or something to a completely different area and attacked by 8 or so harpies! What happened? I looked at the messages, and there was no mention of it. All it said before my character disappeared was that he had killed the last stone nuisance. Is there a trap or something that I missed? I have to fight the battle all over again now because I wasn't able to get to my character in time.

Refresh my memory. Was there a Crypt Thing there? They have offensive Dimension Door spells that fling you randomly somewhere if you fail your save.

Nope, no crypt thing, which is why I'm so confused. I'd killed everything and then my character was teleported.

Update:

I did the fight again, and this time didn't lose anyone or get teleported. I'm not sure why it happened the first time, but guess there's not much I can do! Now my new question is, I discovered that I'll have to fight the stupid nuisances again to get the flawless gem on the altar (I was miffed when there was nothing there my first go). Will I just have to fight the nuisances or additional creatures with them again when I go to get the flawless gem?

[ 03-02-2004, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: Shotgun ]

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The answer is maybe. It is possible to run through the five chambers in such a way that you only have to fight the stone nuisances in each chamber ONCE. The trick is to go into each chamber ONLY as far as necessary to find the chest with the flawed gems and then exit BEFORE getting to the altars. Here's a rough walkthrough:

Go through the northernmost portal - enter a chamber with spiders, kill the spiders, turn east (carefully) - find the chest, grab the flawed emerald inside and exit the chamber.

Go the next portal clockwise - enter, fight some bears, turn south, find the chest, take the flawed moonbar and exit the chamber.

Go to the next portal cockwise - enter, fight a TON of harpies (really nasty fight), go east, find the chest, grab the flawed pearl and exit.

Retrace your steps to the northernmost portal and go to the next portal to the south. Go west, find the chest, and grab the flawed skydrop gem. Continue past the minotaurs along the southern branch. Put the four flawed gems (skydrop, emerald, moonbar, and pearl) into the chest of seasons one at a time. Go back to the branch in this cavern and head NORTH. Fight the rest of the minotaurs and the two stone nuisances at the Altar of Heaven. Take the flawless star saphire from the altar. Exit this chamber.

Now go to the last portal. NASTY NASTY fight! Kill the stone nuisances and take the flawed fire agate out of the chest and the flawless sunstone from the altar. exit the chamber.

Back track to the chest of seasons, drop the flawed fire agate into the chest and then leave this chamber.

Now go to each of the other three chamber with untouched altars. Fight the stone nuisances and retrieve the flawless gems from each of the three altars.

VOILA!!! You've recovered all five flawless gems and only had to fight five pairs of stone nuisances. [img]smile.gif[/img]

1) Cast Shield on any character that can do so.

2) Laugh, point fingers at Stone Nuisances as you prance through their Magic Missiles.

Note: It's not worth the effort to kill Stone Nuisances. They give too little XP.

Note: (Minor)Globe of Invulnerability and Enthrophy Shield grants immunity to Magic Missile as well, but has a very short duration.

And use blunt weapons. [img]smile.gif[/img]