[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Leslie: OK. I'll start a new thread and post my progress.

Just read it, Leslie. Good Job {so far} [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] Entertaining reading and some great ideas for tactics.

As for my solo attempt, it is staggering and stumbling ahead. I had hoped to defeat Ilyich and his entire crew on my own, but I finally had to use the acorns to summon some help against the Galbrezu. I tried several times to beat him on my own, but ended up dying each time. {sigh}

After defeating him (back in the Sewer Room), I had the nymphs follow me into the library and we cleared out the duergar that were waiting for us there. Their spells came in handy since I had used most of mine against the Glabrezu. They disappeared before the battle was over, but they gave me the edge I needed to finish the fight without losing too much health. I still had a couple of spells left, (skull trap and one MM), so I used that to defeat the cambion demon, then I took a quick rest and headed into the Plane of Air to find this genie I had heard about. I defeated the mephits without too much trouble. Just used straight hack-n-slash until I got to the big platform, then sent a couple of skull traps ahead of me to help soften up the mephits there. Took a fair amount of damage from a couple of them before killing them all, but a Potion of Extra Healing took care of that.

Then I talked to the genie, learned he had something that belonged to me, and headed back to find it. I killed the duergar that had been spawned after my previous rest and headed for the dryads. Got the genie's lamp, returned it, and got a big sword for my efforts. I then returned to the area with the dryads and took another rest. I knew there were several duergar guarding the portal in the room next to Irenicus bedroom and I wanted to be at full strength when I fought them. I had cast my last Skull Trap before resting, and memorized two more during my rest.

When the Duergar Duo showed up after my rest, I just ran back to Irenicus' room. The fighter followed me but the mage stayed behind. I summoned the nymphs and moose again and we made very short work of the fighter. I then cast my two Skull Traps into the room to catch the duergar fighters in there as they came out. That didn't work as well as expected, since they came by them so quickly that only one went off. There were two fighters, so I used MM on each of them. That damage (combined with the one Skull that went off), weakened them quite a bit. In the meantime, the dryads managed to successfully cast Mental Domination on BOTH of them, so I sent them BACK into the room to fight their former colleagues. Unfortunately, they set off the other two Skull Traps on their way in, which finally killed them. But it also did a LOT of damage to a THIRD fighter that hadn't come out yet, so the moose was able to kill him with just two hits as he chased me around.

Now that the fighter-types were dead, it was time to deal with the mages in the room. I hadn't actually seen them yet, but figured there must be at least two spellcasters since there had been 3 fighters. I cast a Stinking Cloud ahead of me in hopes of knocking them out. I moved forward far enough to see the first one (who was knocked out by the SC). I used a Melf's Acid Arrow on him (in case he recovered from the Cloud), and then finished him off with regular arrows. Much to my surprise, he was the ONLY spellcaster in the room. I searched the barrels there and found a Scroll with Fireball on it (been looking for THAT one for awhile). The nymphs and moose disappeared again at the end of the summons spell, but I still had a couple of spells left over (one Mirror Image and one more Acid Arrow). I healed what little damage I had taken and then cast Draw Upon Holy Might to buff up my physical stats, then went after the Duergar mage I had left in the dryad area. I cast my Mirror Image then hit him with my last Acid Arrow. Then I just rushed forward and started pounding on him with my +3 Club.

So now I am trying to decide if I want to go back through Level One and clear out the other Duergar that I left behind, or just go on to Level Two and try to get out.