The Riling Of Rena Ryuuguu

[Dundee Slaytern]

Silence reigned for a brief moment as a great beast started to fall to the ground. The silence broke when the beast's body slammed onto the surface, causing tremors to resonate around it. Victory was Rena's, but at a cost. The price was small, but her pride was wrecked. For the very first time in her entire life so far, she met a Dragon that did not act dumb. It did not play 'Chicken' with her. It targetted smartly. It actually made her use real combat tactics.

"Wow."

That was Rena's thought. It pretty much summarised everything.

Oh.

And Kelsey died too, but that's not important.

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The fight started normally enough. Rena had swaggered to the Dragon and taunted it to do battle with her. With three Red Dragons under her belt, Rena saw little need not to throw caution to the wind for this fourth one. It had a name, Saladrex; and it opened the battle with a breath attack.

"So far, so good," or so Rena thought.

That was when things started going wrong. Much to Rena's surprise, when she circled around Saladrex, it did not follow her as she expected, but it chose to attack the rest of the party instead.

"Woah, woah, hey! Is this suppose to happen?" Kelsey shouted as Saladrex towered menancingly over him. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Damn! That's a wasted spell!"

Kelsey never got to say much next, because well... he died. Fried golden-brown by Saladrex's breath attack. His dying words were, "Well. Talk about irony. A fire Sorcerer dying to fire... oh dear me... *urk* "

"Kelsey! No!" Imoen screamed, as she watched Kelsey combust in front of her. "Damn you!" she shouted to Saladrex, "No one hurts Kelsey but me and Rena!" Fuelled by anger, Imoen's archery shone with precision as she unleashed arrow after arrow into Saladrex.

Saladrex grimaced from the brutal attack and thundered back at Imoen, "You only have yourself to blame, Human! You were the ones who started this fight!"

Rena meanwhile was slack-jawed and standing a slight distance away from the fight. Saladrex... was not behaving dumb. It was actually... behaving intelligently. This was not in their books. This was not what they had expected. This... this was a cause for celebration!

"Check it out! It's ignoring me! It's not after me! Can you believe this? WOOHOO!"

Dodging a swipe, Jaheira screamed at Rena, "Celebrate later! Help us NOW!"

"It's ignoring me! Me! Of all people! Me!"

"REEEENA!"

Fortunately, Imoen proved to be a decent tank with her Protection from Magical Weapons spell, and Jaheira dealt the killing blow.

"ARRGGGHHHH! Not again!" Imoen shouted, "That was suppose to be MY kill! I so want to kill a Dragon!"

"Well excuse me for slaying the thing that was beating on you," Jaheira retorted.

"Boo says we should resurrect Kelsey soon, before it is too late," said Minsc, cutting into the conversation suddenly.

"It ignored me! ME!" Rena said with glee as she danced a jig on the spot.

"You stole my kill!"

"I was trying to help you!"

"Minsc hates to interrupt again, but Boo says- oh wait. Boo says nevermind. Boo says that you women are on a different frequency channel now. Minsc knows not what that means, but if Boo says so, it must be true."

Minsc's words were not heard. The din of the women drowned out each other into a cacophony of discordance. Meanwhile, Sarevok was poking at Kelsey's body with his sword.

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To be continued...

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Author's Notes
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The mod component, "Smarter Dragons" apparently does not affect Dragons in ToB. ASTOUNDINGLY, this meant that the ToB Dragons became SMARTER, not dumber, than their SoA counterparts. [img]tongue.gif[/img] After fighting two ToB-based Dragons, I have come to the decision to NOT install the mod anymore. I want my Dragons to have intelligent AI.

The fight with Saladrex was mostly handled by the AI Scripts. The initial plan was to have me control Rena, while the rest of the party acted on their own. When Saladrex targetted Kelsey however, I decided to take a backseat and just take screenshots. Hence the death of Kelsey. I was too happy with Saladrex's AI to care about reloading. Half the party could have died for all I care, so long as the party won the fight. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Minor update before 'The Ritual'.

Watcher's Keep Level 5:
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The Staff of the Ram +6 is one of the best weapons for backstabbing for a good reason. It has an amazing base damage, and even though you cannot backstab Flaming Skulls, you can still 1-hit KO them with a Critical Hit.

The Dragon on this level was handled PURELY by AI Scripts. The sequence was simple enough, make the party walk towards the Dragon and let everything go automatic from there. As a result, I had to reload a couple of times, but on the fifth try, I finally nailed the Dragon without anybody dying. It was fun to see how the party would act on their own.

Improved Demogorgan:
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I tried using the AI against Improved Demogorgan, but it proved to be pointless in the end. In the improved version, Demogorgan repeatedly summons more Demons which the party would repeatedly target over and over again. In short, a stalemate.

Left with no choice, I went manual for this battle.

Greater Deathblows were good for taking out the Glabrezus quickly, and Demogorgan himself was not that tough. Demogorgan spent most of his time casting spells, which meant I had more or less free reign to attack him with impunity. I used summons( Mordenkainen Swords are gold here) to distract the lesser Demons as Jaheira casted multiple Storms of Vengence to help pacify the battleground.

Planetars were very good distraction tools as they can cast Heal on themselves. In this screenshot, you can see Jaheira casting Defensive Harmony, and a vorpal effect on Demogorgan. Demogorgan however, is immuned to instant-slay effects.

When Demogorgan was near-dead, I tried to finish him off with Bigby's Crushing Hand. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Unfortunately, he resisted it with his Magic Resistance. Otherwise this would have been such a cool finishing move. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

In the end, Demogorgan was defeated through mundance means...

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To be continued...

Coming up next, seven turns in the glade.

[Babyseal]

Very nice pictures from ToB. I have seen so many nice screenshots from SoA but not from ToB so far.
Thx Dundee for sharing them.

Cheers.

[Demonheart]

This is really great work Dundee, i eagerly await the next installment! Keep it up!

[Dundee Slaytern]

It was peaceful in the glade as Rena settled down to make a campfire. She and her party were on a timed mission, but there was no need for them to hurry. Kelsey would take care of things soon enough, as soon as the Djinni, that Kelsey was talking with, stopped laughing...

"You amuse me, Sorcerer. I ask from you one final time. Will you have no regrets?"

"Actually, I do have a lot of regrets... Just do it already, and get it over and done with."

"And so it has been commanded, and so it shall be done."

With that, the Djinni smiled, and people started dying.

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It all started back at Watcher's Keep. Demogorgan had been defeated and sent back to the Abyss. When they came out from the building, a yellow-robed man approached them.

"Rena? Is that you, Rena?"

Rena sighed, "I knew it was too good to last. Somebody had to get me sooner or later..."

"Please, please. Do not misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to fight, but to hire your services."

And so a conversation started between Rena and the man, who was named, 'Pontifex'. The mission seemed daunting at first, but Rena began to see openings in it as the conversation dragged on.

"So... only the Priestess needs to stay alive?"

"Yes, yes. Only she needs to. The rest are expendable."

"You will not mind if we attack them wantonly? With no rhyme or reason?"

"There is reason! You need to stop the Ritual! And I think you will find it to your advantage if you attacked them covertly. You only have seven hours left after all, although it is less now, due to all our talking."

"One last thing... The Priestess will not appear until we defeat her Guardian right?"

"Yes, that is true. Which is why you need to fi-"

"Hush-hush, the fighting is not important. I just need to make sure that she will be out of harm's way when we get there. See you in an hour or so..."

"An HOUR?! You look like capable people, but there's a limit to bragging!"

"I wasn't bragging. I was being modest... We'll probably be back in less than an hour."

Pontifex was aghast. Had he made a mistake in hiring these people? His mouth flapped silently as he tried to find words to reply with, but his mind was blank. He had little choice in the end. There were only hours left, and this was all he had to work with.

"Hurry now, you yourself said that time was of the essence."

"I-I am warning you now. Do not mess this up."

"Whatever, just get on with the show already."

"Gnargh!"

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As they entered the glade, Rena started giving out orders. Imoen casted Protection from Magic Energy on everybody in the party, and as she did so, Kelsey started a talk with Rena.

"By the way, Rena. I still don't quite get what you are trying to do."

"Don't think too much about it, Kelsey, and drink this will you?"

"A Potion of Insight? What for?"

"You're going to need it..."

"Why?"

Rena giggled, but she did not giggle like a sweet little girl. Nay, she giggled like a diabolical miscreant who had just laced somebody's underwear with nightshade. "Come closer, Kelsey."

Kelsey gulped as he went nearer to Rena. Rena used one of her hands to cup over Kelsey's ear and whispered into it mischeviously.

"You... you've gone mad..."

Rena laughed and winked at Kelsey, "We'll be fineeee. Just fine."

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As screams echoed throughout the glade, intermixed with the wailing of women and the lamentations of men, Kelsey thought back on that split moment of insanity. Yes. That was what it was. INSANITY. Only an insane person would have done what they had just did.

It was true that they were protected from the spell, but they still felt some nauseating effects as the spell tried to rob them of their bodily fluids. Kelsey could only imagine what it must have been like for those who took the full brunt of the attack. Those who survived the first time... did not in the second round.

After the screamings had died down, and there was no more whimpering to be heard in the glade, the only thing left for them to do was to pick up the spoils of their victory. Kelsey felt sick. He felt like a mass murderer. Was this not what mad Sorcerers were suppose to do? Does this incident make him one of them? Why, Rena. Why? He asked himself over and over again. If not for Imoen, he would have left the party long ago already. Curse the blindness of love!

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To be continued...
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Coming up next. A battle report, and the most difficult fight of Watcher's Keep.

[Dundee Slaytern]

A word of caution to those who wish to use the Area-Nuke Tactic in the Ritual Glade. Apparently, if you kill the Ritual Guardians too fast( haha!), it can break the script, the script that makes the Ritual Skulls vulnerable.

In my case, two of the RSkulls( there are seven) remained 'invulnerable', and I had to resort to INT-Drain to kill them.

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Power Word Stun works on the Lady( disrupted the Ritual without killing her). [img]smile.gif[/img] But she still turned to goo afterwards.

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Defeating Pontifex via normal means is near-nigh impossible. Unlimited Time Stops and Improved Haste plus a physically damaging breath attack means you will almost certainly need to cheese to win this fight.

After trying many, many, different types of conventional methods, I finally resorted to using PRATI. A True Sight from a scroll to dispel his IInvisibility, and Breach to remove his Combat Protections.

The end result?

Vorpal Death. Such an appropriate remark by Imoen too.

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To be continued...

[SixOfSpades]

What I would have done . . .

For a total carnage screenshot, I would have taken sweet, sweet advantage of a rather dumb quirk in the Ritual AI. I'm sure you're familiar with WeimerTargeting(c), wherein as long as you are visible, the Duergar Proletariats know exactly where you are and will ignore everything else to run to your location? Yeah. Same with the Ritual.

Step 1: As soon as you enter the map, cast PfME on everybody, and have them all drink an Invisibility Potion. And turn off AI.

Step 2: Give somebody the Preserving Boots, Amulet of Power, and the Ring of Gaxx, or something else that provides good Regeneration.

Step 3: Have that person explore the map. Make sure to get within the visual range of all the bad guys.

Step 4: Move to some location where a minimum of bad guys can see you, and fire a missile at one of them--just enough to break your Invisibility. Then, drink another Invisibility Potion.

Step 5: Watch in glee as every single Ritual Guardian on the map comes charging to your exact location.

Step 6: Have Kelsey launch the Abi-Dalzim's Nuke to end all Abi-Dalzim's Nukes, with you right smack dab in the middle of it. Screenshot.


I don't think there's any way to avoid the Countess turning into LCL. And what, exactly, is a normal way to beat a Dragon? Personally, I like to give cheesers like Ponifex just what they deserve--I get around his protections by just casting a TStop, casting another TStop right before it ends, and whacking him with the SotM. And I favor Imoen/Nalia over Kelsey, because at that point they'd be able to whip out a nasty Improved Haste/STR Girdle/Belm/Kundane combo.

[Link]

I believe this tactic was mentioned by you in your review of the Ritual Component some time ago, SoS. Wasn't it part of your grand Tactics Review? I recall your computer not being up to the task because so many things happened at the same time ('the map tilting to the south-east').

[SixOfSpades]

Indeed, indeed. Although that computer was a Duron 750MHz running Windows ME.

[Assassin]

Defeating Pontifex via normal means is near-nigh impossible. Unlimited Time Stops and Improved Haste plus a physically damaging breath attack means you will almost certainly need to cheese to win this fight.

You sure about this? I've had success with summoning a Planetar and Elemental Prince and Imrpoved Hasting everything, attacking with some minor spellcasting support. As long as you spread out... (Maybe there was some mitigating factor; like a Time Stop by a F/M or something)