[Cerek the Barbaric]

To misquote a line from a famous 1980's movie.....

"YEEEEHAAAAAA.....DESTHER'S DEAD!" {bonus points if you can name the correct line and movie}

OK, Desther isn't actually dead, but I DID defeat him - FINALLY!

Since I had Saved the game at the point just before I enter the room with Desther, I decided to give it another shot before starting all over back in Neverwinter to pick up Linu.

Using the advice given here, I told Daelan to stay in the room just to the side of the entrance to Desther's area, then drank a Potion of Invisibility. Setting traps inside the room did not work. As soon as I successfully set the trap, the Invisibility was negated and I was attacked. A quick re-load and I tried again.

I noticed that there are 9 "henchmen" (in addition to the Ritual Creatures). These are located in 3 groups of 3 around the room...so I used the Staff of Power to target each group (one at a time) with a Fireball. After targeting a group with Fireball, they would rush to attack and I went back out in the hallway. I had Red Tiger come out and help with the resulting melee while I closed the door to prevent the others in the room from coming out. This tactic worked quite well. I learned it is important to draw the whole group out, but to get the door closed - otherwise Desther will come out also.

A couple of trial-and-error runs, and I had defeated all 9 henchmen without taking any serious damage myself (well, nothing the Healing Kits couldn't handle anyway). Unfortunately, Desther had also come out as I killed the last group of 3. I had Red Tiger follow me back into the side room and we shut the door behind us. We took a few minutes to restore ourselves to full health and opened the door. Sure enough...Desther was there waiting for us. Red Tiger and I hit him with everything we had, but it didn't do a bit of damage...and Desther killed Red Tiger during the process.

Realizing that it was useless to fight Desther until I killed the Ritual Creatures, I quickly gulped my last Potion of Invisibility to get away from him. I went back into the room with the Ritual Creatures and drank a Potion of Speed. Then I attacked them with my Sonic Staff. Magic spells had been ineffective because they have a high resistance, but straight physical damage killed them very quickly. Each R.C. fell after only 1-2 hits (12-15hp total). Desther had come in and was chasing me around the room as I ran from one creature to another, but he was having a hard time hitting me. Fortunately, he didn't try to blast me with any spells.

After killing the last Ritual Creature, I quickly turned and shot my last Magic Missile spell at Desther. I was overjoyed to see him finally take some damage. Even though I was still at full health, I wanted to keep as much distance between Desther and myself as I could, since my Master of Melee was no longer available. I searched through my scrolls, planning to use a Summon Creature when I found an even better choice - Bigby's Interposing Hand!!! I cast it and watched with satisfaction as Desther kept trying to push his way around the hand to attack me. I started smacking him with my staff (since it does more damage than my crossbow...and I also tend to miss a lot with the crossbow). The Sonic Staff and a couple of Magic Missiles from the Staff of Power eventually drained Desther's will to fight.

So now I have only to loot...er...search through the rooms on this level and then haul Desther's sorry hide back to Neverwinter where he will answer for his crimes.