The first priority was putting together the party. That was nice and easy with Kivan in the Promenade and Kelsey in the government district. Sold some stuff, went to the Slums, went to the Coronet. Using Kivan in particular to disrupt spellcasting, the guards around the slaves in the CC were very easy. Used Charm Animal when fighting the Beastmaster, again, no challenge at all. The Tuigan Bow and Kivan are a deadly combination, and made very short work of the guards in the Coronet. Agreed to help Hendak in the sewers. Got Lilarcor, which was pretty key, particularly when dealing with those goofy myconids in the corner of the sewers. After a quick rest, went upstairs into the Slaver Boat. Concentrated most of my fire on the Captain, with Kelsey disabling large groups with slow and Kivan picking off archers. Freed the slaves with no problems. One of Kelsey's encounters triggered when I left the boat, and by the time I got back to the Coronet, I had fought about 5 encounters in the Slums that weren't there before, including the Improved Battles Cohrvale, which was really just more easy loot. By this point, I had enough cash to pay off Mr. Bayle, and get the nice trinkets from the Shadow Thieves.
There were several things I wanted to do before I left for Spellhold.
- Buy the Shields of Balduran and Reflection
- Get Breach
- Get some sort of stronghold (I have the multiples patch)
Breach would be accomplished by simply levelling up. In order to get the Shields, I would have to raise some loot. I didn't feel comfortable yet taking on any of the big quests, mainly because of the best random spawns in dungeons component of tactics. So I started running around doing little things. First did the Circus, and then the UB Spider's Bane quest. Funny thing happened though. When I went to sell the Web Sack to Ribald, he offered me 48k for it. I thought "great deal," and did it. Then he had it for sale for 15k. How does that place stay in business? In any case, I had enough to not only buy the two shields, but also the DoE for Jaheira.
Restored Kalah for a Reputation point, then did the Harpers Quest. Prebek actually took a reload, I'm ashamed to say. The second time, Kelsey hit him with magic missiles before his protection went up. After that, I focused missile fire on his assistant, and melee on the flesh golem. The rest of the quest was no problem, and thanks to Santarin's fine theft skills, we emerged quite rich. Also did the Tirdir quest, as well as the Tanner's. I'm debating whether I should pursue the Human Flesh path for Minsc. Also, ran into the Crooked Crane, and right back out again, but now I have the Daystar.
Did Boo's Kidnapping, which, if you have never played UB before, you should install just for some of the dialogues in this quest. Hilarious.
Went through the sewers pretty easily. Took care of the party in the north end by drawing them off one at a time, then frying them with missiles and spells. Saved Haer'Dalis from Mekrath without any problems, thanks to Breach followed by Kivan, which has developed into an excellent tactic. With his five attacks per round, he can almost prevent his poor target from doing anything. He has a THAC0 of -2 at level 11, so he hits most of the time. If a mage has stoneskin up, simply use elemental arrows to disrupt his spells.
The Planar Prison quest was disappointing, to be honest. The only conflict of any magnitude was with the demon Thrall Master. But a couple of Lower Resistances later, and he was again toast. The Warden was pretty simple, especially once Kivan got into his grill. In any case, I got Jaheira Boots of Speed, which are turning out to be really invaluable - she's like a border collie herding sheep with our enemies sometimes.
Did a little bit of the De'Arnise Keep and the Unseeing Eye quests, but I decided against going there yet, and instead went to face Bodhi. Her minions were a cinch. Tanova, as always, was the most challenging, but using Kitthix combined with NPPed meleers took care of her pretty quick.
Bodhi, however was a different story...