Improved Ilyich: No rests! (some pics)

[Rataxes]

I never intended to go through the dungeon without rests, or to make a story of it, until something went terribly wrong right before facing Ilyich [img]smile.gif[/img] So I've got no shots from the 1st, part unfortunately.

Difficulty level was Insane.

Having decided on a Ranger/Cleric, I soon found myself lying inside Irenicus cage. Got rescued by Imoen moments later and proceeded to free Minsc, welcome him into my party. Rescued Jaheira as well, but kicked her annoying butt out of my gang and left her to get out on her own.

Thus my trio strolled onwards and soon found an Ogre Mage, whom we promptly slaughtered while, with a bit of luck, avoiding all of his blows.

Minsc was sent into the yellow corridor to scout and found a pack of dogs. I quickly hid in the shadows and joined him, we simultaneously charmed a dog each with our innate ranger abilities. Those dogs served nicely as fodder for the thief waiting in the dark, he also managed to waste both of his Paralyze charges on the other dog after he backstabbed the first one to oblivion. We then moved in for the kill, piece of cake when the pesky Assassin had been stripped of his special abilities. Imoen used ID and received her very first Paralyze wand (with -4 Saves!!), which would serve us greatly later on.

On we went, into the sewers. Sent the surviving dog forward and he attracted the attention of another thief just outside Rielev's room. The thief amazingly enough got a critical miss on his backstab, thus allowing that half-dead dog to absorb two more Paralyze charges before he perished. We then once again moved in to kill the now defenseless thief. Imoen later on found an ID scroll on a dead goblin which was used to gain access to a second Paralyze wand.

Spoke to Rielev, got the golem stone and some healing potions. My R/C was now equipped with dual War hammers while Minsc held on to the old 2-handed sword we found earlier. Stopped by the two Lesser clay golems on the way back. Imoen cast Stoneskin and attracted the attention of them both, one at a time. Minsc and I could thus safely batter them to death for an easy extra 4000 XP.

Got the Sewer golem to open all the doors and prepared for the fight with the Greater Otuygh. I cast DUHM, Imoen hasted us and then went out to attract his attention. She was unaffected by the poison and cast a Chromatic Orb. The creature was sadly not stunned however, so Minsc and I rushed out to kill him. This went without much pain since the beast was intent on getting to Imoen, yet we blocked his path. Minsc was still poisoned once by the Dolorius Decay, though I swiftly cured him, and all three of us managed to lose quite a few hitpoints before Imoen was able to dispel the Insect Plague that was released after killing the Otuygh.

The 2nd most difficult/annoying encounter in this dungeon was thus completed, and the path to Ilyich was rather thin on obstacles. Dispelling the traps in the bedroom and Portal key room earned my PC a higher cleric level (which in the end didn't help me much) and got me a few nice items. Minsc and I now both had THAC0's below 10 and AC's of 2 and 1.

Strange enough, no thief pack had spawned in front of the portal, and I was thus free to pick up Yoshimo from the 2nd level. We went back to the first level and headed to the library. Killed the mephit there and Minsc and I went forth and charmed two of the three dogs that accompanied the thief in the library. The thief wore a completely harmless Polymorph Other wand and we thus charged on instantly after he backstabbed the first dog, killed him before he could even finish the other dog.

Imoen and Yoshi now attempted to set up some traps to deal with the Glabrezu. Getting Imoen to plant her traps required quite a few reloads due to her phenomenally poor Trapsetting skill. It was done however, and her two traps together with Yoshi's (who managed to plant them both on the first attempt), were just enough to kill the Glabrezu, which Yoshi lured out.

The only weapon we had that could harm the Golem was the Staff +1. So I equipped my R/C with it, used DUHM and one Oil of speed. The Golem was quickly taken care of with my Hasted fighter using Hit'n'Run tactics, and then I overwrote my one and only save. This is where I made my mistake, I thought it would be a terrible waste to sleep only some thirty secs after using one of my precious oils. So I decided to to try and take them all out now. My party was in a quite poor shape though. The R/C was at 100% Health, but the other ones were at 25-50% and my remaining spell selection was quite small. I was limited to a Slow Poison, Minsc to a Berserk, and Imoen to a MM, Lightning, and Monster summoning I, with a bunch of more or less useless spell scrolls in her backpack. Yoshi did have both of his Special traps left, which proved to be the key to success.

No big preparations could really be done, Yoshi planted a trap outside the the visual range of Ilyich's party. Minsc used the other Oil of speed and we then both removed our armors and hid in shadows. Imoen got a couple of Kobolds out of her Monster summoning spell to serve as cannon fodder.

Minsc and I moved in behind the enemy party, Zhivago began casting True Sight, but Yoshi tossed a trap from a safe distance right smack into their party, this one slowed Karamazov and Zhivago. Minsc and I still remained silent while Rasputin and Ilyich charged towards the lone Kobold I had placed in front of the other trap, which also absorbed Ilyich's annoying Classic Blunder ability. The instant they moved away, we revealed ourselves and began hacking away like mad at Karamazov. She was still quite deadly, even when slowed and within melee range. Ilyich and Rasputin both got hurt by the other special trap, and now Ilyich was also slowed. Imoen used her first Paralyze wand on Rasputin - and then he was history.

Minsc and I had nearly finished off Karamazov, though she had almost finished me off as well. We had been hacking away constantly for more than two rounds, only stopping once to disrupt Zhivago's Deva casting. Minsc had even used his Berserk ability just to get that extra edge we would certainly need. She finally died, and the instant she did we began working on Zhivago. I now lost control of Minsc due to the Berserker rage, and he had been reduced to 15% Health after attracting Karamazov's attention for a few seconds before she was killed.

Ilyich had now killed the Ogrillon that I also received with the Monster summon casting, which was the last creature I had to stall him with, and now he charged towards Minsc, albeit very slowly [img]smile.gif[/img] Never the less, Minsc targetted the right foe, and as long as Ilyich, who now had regained his normal speed, didn't see what a sitting duck Minsc was, I'd be alright. Imoen tried to Paralyze Ilyich, but he made his save. I had been reluctant to get Imoen or Yoshi near anything hostile due to their very fragile nature, but now I deemed it safe for them to begin hacking away at the disabled Rasputin, who wouldn't remain that way for a very long time unless I finished him off soon.

Zhivago was almost dead, a hasted dual-wielder and a furious and hasted Minsc didn't take that long to chop up anything, even at this point of the game. He died just as Ilyich took his first swing at me. He was barely injured, but that changed soon after Imoen cast MM and Minsc and I had aimed a few swings in his direction. I had to move away though, since he was hurting me at a far more devastating rate than we were hurting him. Which caused him to target the still uncontrollable and badly injured Minsc. Well that's it for him I thought, but no, Ilyich missed him on the first swing, and before he had the chance to swing again, an extremely lucky Critical strike from Minsc, a Lightning Bolt from Imoen, a failed backstab from Yoshi, and two quick swings from my own two war hammers, had knocked him out permanently. Rasputin was still alive, but in his disabled state we quickly killed the last remaining member of Ilyich's crew.


Here they all lie, they died and left me bloody and battered, yet everyone in my party luckily survived

A breeze from here, as always [img]smile.gif[/img] With our new equipment, both Minsc and I were down to 6-7 THAC0 and -2 AC. Still hasted, we mopped the floor with the Cambion and the mephits behind the dimension portal, we took a lot of damage damage from their elemental attacks, but with our newly found potions, we were no longer critically wounded. The Djinni was released and Minsc soon held Chaos +2 in his hands

On we went to the 2nd level where Yoshi, Minsc and I hid in the shadows. Yoshi instantly backstabbed the last of the mephit portals (mephits with color spray are BAD!), while Minsc and I simultaneously struck the third mephit portal (Mephits with unlimited fireballs are even worse!). This left four mephits and two portals, which were soon destroyed as well.

Killed the clone, killed the shadow thief, drank some potions, charmed some dogs, drank some potions, killed an assassin, disarmed a trap in the noisy corridor engine room, disarmed six more traps, killed the vampire with a somewhat decent backstab from Yoshi, drank some more potions. Used my Monster summoning scroll on the last remaining Assassin. Backstabbed a duergar


Nice one Yoshi! If I hadn't witnessed it myself, I would've thought that that was quite a bit out of his damage range

hacked the rest to pieces. Was backstabbed by Frennedan and proceeded to kill the last trio of shadow thieves.

And then my party was close to a very well deserved night at the Den of Seven Vales



There, all done in approximately eight hours, took me two hours real time

Thoughts

- Charm animal is an extremely useful spell in this very dungeon. Always thought it was useless, and it still damn well nearly is, but it proved to be essential in beating all those thief packs without resting.

- The Paralyze wands are extremely potent, you've got a good chance of disabling even Zhivago or Ilyich for 10 whole rounds with one of these. Only get one charge, but that's more than enough for a Hold spell that only allows a save at -4.

- That special traps can be tossed into position from a distance is simply too cool for words

- This was fun, might do it in my next run through Ilyich as well.

- Don't you go and think that I did this on the my attempt [img]smile.gif[/img] The Ilyich fight required several reloads before everything went somewhat as planned.

[ 02-06-2003, 04:21 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Xen]

Well Improved Iyllich is very good enemy.It is hard battle but when u win you fell dvine....

Cheers

Xen

[Kaltia]

Ouchies, dude, and gratz! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] I'd try it out but my CD2 is broken...replacement arrives Friday, I'll be whinging then [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Brennihelvete]

Very well done. I enjoyed reading that. Got a little shocked by Yoshis backstab though. Didnt know he was capable of dealing out that much damage that early in the game. Congratz

[Dundee Slaytern]

Very good job, Rataxes.

[Rataxes]

Thanks for the compliments y'all!

I've no explaination for Yoshi's backstab, I would've thought him capable of tops 90 dmg on a critical backstab with his Katana +1 and 17 STR, where those extra 24 pts came from is a mystery to me [img]smile.gif[/img]

[daan]

The pics never load on my comp.
Me or you ?

[Alson]

Ditto.

[Rataxes]

My account is down at the moment due to traffic overload. Too many people viewing them pics I guess

I'll try to get another host to upload them to.

Update: Gah, can't seem to find any other good free hosts. Just wait until tomorrow [img]smile.gif[/img] They should be up again by then.

[ 02-06-2003, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[daan]

?? What's that thing on the first picture ?
Is that the demon ? My demon looked strikingly different ..
This one looks a lot more like those demons you encounter in Watchers keep,..
Mine was a plain demon like the one that spawns in the guarded compound f.e.