Thomas quest for Ascension

[Dundee Slaytern]

? Both Demi-Liches use Imprisonment and Demi-Lich Howl. Both are level 9 spells and use the level 9 spell slots.

ADD] Oh, and Saladrex is Chaotic Evil.

ADD] ADD] The WK Demi-Lich is tougher than Kangaxx the Demi-Lich. It has immunities that Kangaxx does not have, namely immunity to Instant-Kill and Slay effects (hence the no effect from Runehammer and Turn Undead). It is also immuned to backstab. Kangaxx does not have these 3 immunities, so technically speaking, if you create a level 10 Finger of Death, Kangaxx can be killed by it.

[ 02-23-2004, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: ? Both Demi-Liches use Imprisonment and Demi-Lich Howl. Both are level 9 spells and use the level 9 spell slots.

That's what's so odd, I know both both Imprisonment and Demi-Lich Howl are level 9 spells, which is why I expected the shield to be gone within seconds. This is what I got in the Spells tab for both Kangaxx The Demi-Lich and the regular Demi-Lich in IE though:



Now I don't know if the number below the "Level" column really has any meaning, if maybe all that matters is the "Level" number in the Description tab for the spell itself, but it's the only way I can explain how my single shield absorbed every single Imprisonment he cast during the entire fight. I can't find the Demilich.CRE file in the override folder either, which, I think, would indicate that whatever caused this bug, it wasn't any mod.

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Assassin: [img]redface.gif[/img] Planetars can't hurt the Demogoron, but Devas can... I never knew that. How about Elemental Princes? Anyhow, good job on WK.

Hmmm, what was it I wrote that gave you that idea? I don't think my Deva ever even attempted to attack Demogorgon in that fight. Devas, Planetars and Elemental Princes all have +3 enchanted weapons though, so they all three should be able to harm Demogorgon, who is immune to +2 weapons and below.

[Dundee Slaytern]

IE lists all the normal spells properly, but lists all the innate spells as level 1. Now, I dunno whether it is a bug in IE or the game. However, I cannot find any indication that the spell is level 1 in NI.

[SimDing0]

Innate spells have to be level 1. It's an IE thing, and bad stuff happens if they're not (like scripts going wrong).

[Assassin]

Now, I'm starting to get confused with my weapon immunities. I thought the Demogorgon was only +4 to hit... (and that Devas hit as +5, from what I read somewhere, because of their MoD+2)

[Rataxes]

Reached Sendai just now and got through her seven statues fairly easily. Then she showed her true "improved" self. Wont report the fight just yet, but I will say that the sentence in the ReadMe that goes something like "These improvements puts her approximately on the same level as Improved Abazigal" is just about the funniest thing I've read in any such documentation [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[ 02-24-2004, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Assassin]

You beat it [img]redface.gif[/img] That fight's insane.

[Rataxes]

Back on track for this seventh (twentysecond) part.

With Demogorgon dead, Watcher's Keep clean from top to bottom, and no other minor quests to undertake, it was time to resume the hunt for the remaining of The Five. I'll skip the details of my stay in the desert village of Amkethran due to lack of space, but what I will say that what I saw of Baltazar's rule over this village left a sour taste in my mouth. He did meet with me and gave me the locations of the two enclaves, but I later witnessed many abuses of power by his subordinate monks, and at one time had to step in to defend a priest from one of them. I also helped Marlowe restore his daughter, though in the end, I let the lich have his way, it was a legitimate and consensual agreement after all.

But then I left Amkethran to seek out Sendai, a woman I knew absolutely nothing about. After a few hours in the woods, I met a man who claimed to be a woodcutter. I wonder though, why would a woodcutter be dressed in an elven battle suit? It all seemed a bit weird, but he claimed to have seen a few drow to the west so I put my suspicions aside for the moment. Passed two graves on the way, I would have to ask the woodcutter about those later. Arriving at the location he had pointed out, I was immediately ambushed by a Hive Mother (out here?!!!), some drow, and a few Umber Hulk Elders. I immediately fled and summoned a Deva, knowing only the Hive Mother would pursue me. I have come not to fear these any longer, since their Anti-Magic rays don't cause casting failure, and they rarely do anything but alternating between Anti-Magic ray and Cause Serious Wounds. With a Deva to to back me up, the eye died quickly. For the remaining ambushers, I summoned four servants and sent them off on their own. From what I could tell on the battletext, they were successful.

Time to confront that woodcutter. Marched back with my minions in line behind me, and asked him about the two graves a few hundred feet away. He said his wife had recently died and didn't want to talk about it, I had difficulties buying that when there were in fact two freshly dug graves out there, so I shared my thoughts with him, and he that seemed to be his cue to blow his own cover. Before I knew it, another half a dozen ambushers were all over me, but the battle quickly swung over to my advantage when my servants got to work and ganged up on one drow at a time, while my Deva had her opponent constantly stunned. With some Energy Blades to deal with the spellcasters, this little skirmish was soon history.

With the death of the "woodcutter", the entrance to the enclave was suddenly made visible, and after my surviving servants took care of the weak guards, I entered. This reception area of the enclave was littered with several dozens of low level creatures. What do you do with low level creatures? You cast Death Spell. But what if you don't have Death Spell? You cast, Storm of Vengeance! Besides being a decent damage spell, it also has this nice little side effect of instantly killing all enemies of 8th level and lower. I assaulted the Barracks next, thinking it was best to not give them any time to organize themselves. With HRDS + Imp Haste/Invisibility on, it was a piece of cake.



Got a key from one of them which granted access to the tunnel systems. Through one passage was a huge spider nest. There was a time when threats that consisted entirely of "Save or Else" devices such as poisonous attacks and Web Trap would've bothered me, but it was way past now, and the Holy Smites I had memorized were enough to cleanse the entire nest. The other tunnel was different. Not necessarily tough, but against enemies that just keep growing in numbers the more you slay, there's no other option but fleeing. This came to my realization a tad too late



but I still managed to get out of there with some fervant slashing at the fighters closest to the exit. The next area was clean for most part, stepped into some kind of crypt and turned the lich residing in there. Back out on the catwalk, I assumed the way to Sendai would be the one guarded by all those Umber Hulks who fell victim to a few Holy Smites earlier on. Yep, yep, none other than Sendai's personal priestess awaited behind the next door. She challenged me to kill her pets, and then disappeared. The plan against Ogremooch... well there was no plan, just buffed myself up as usual and replaced Crom with the Shield of the Order to ensure that he never got to hit me with his dispelling fists, seeking sword did the rest. The priestess herself had gone and hid in the other room, together with a few friends. No points for guessing what happened to the vampire, and the Hive Mother I lured away from the priestess and attacked with my Deva.

What's next, a small Mind Flayer lair? Eeeeehk, boring. Energy Blades, Deva, *SWOOSH!*, *SWISH!*, *SLASH!*, *SKRRRAAH!*. More Mind Flayers! *SWISH!* *SWOOSH!*, *SCHRRKAAAAK!*.

Well, with that ugly business behind me, it would seem that there was nothing left between me and Sendai. Time to kick it! Went in with only a moderate amount of buffs, just to probe the situation and get a taste for just how bad things had become. It looked fine to start with, not much new, just a a few drow guards by the stairs that did not look all too intimidating. 2 seconds later, I was nearly crying like a baby. Four of them had rushed up to me with Greater Whirlwinds activated and pierced my -17 AC with every single blow. 2 seconds, that's about the time it took them to send me to that all too familiar video of a hand dissolving into dust.

Ok, reload. I'm NOT gonna win anything if I try to melee those guards. So I pulled out the only method I know that can kill lots of drow from afar - Fire Storm. Only memorized two of them, figuring I'd need the rest for Energy Blades and Devas later on in the fight. Entered once again, and before Sendai could initiate dialog, I ran away to the other side of the room, well beyond the sight range of those drow. Fortunately, the first of Sendai's statues spawn on the left side, meaning I was completely alone on the right. Peacefully cast my Fire Storms to the other side, and it was a complete success! The storms obliterated both the guard pack and Sendai's first statue. Better yet, none of them moved to attack me, but just stood still and kept trying to escape the inevitable by chugging down potion after potion.

After this first step, the remaining statues of Sendai were pretty easy, especially since there was no time limit. I could thus approach each battle slowly and steadily, instead of having to rush them. Once the (unmodified and weak) drow defenders that spawned with each new statue were dead, and the statues suffered from moral failure due to being Near Death, I had all the time in the world to renew buffs and heal myself. The fight with the archer statue was particularly leisurely.


Say whaahh?! Oh right, Arrows of Piercing are just +1 enchanted, not wise Sendai

When it was down to the last statue, I made it panic and strolled away into a corner to prepare myself for the big one. Not having a single clue what to expect, I just threw on everything I had, and then went back to kill the final statue. Now, nothing happened for a few a seconds, then the screen froze. Sendai blabbered something about the statues meaning nothing, and then she suddenly appeared in the middle. Peace and quiet reigned for maybe half a second, then Sendai got rolling. Something, probably the vast amount of scripts being executed, caused my machine to slow down to a crawl for the next ten seconds. In which time 4 Invisible Stalkers and 2 Fallen Devas appeared in the middle, 3 Projected Images of Sendai spread out across the map and instantly came under the protection of three stacked Spell Immunities, and 6 new Drow Elite Guards spawned by the stairs.

I had no intention of trying to win it that first time, just wanted to see what I was up against before I attempted to work out any kind of strategy. Plan A was to sink my AC to the bottom and then try to smoke out Sendai's defenders with a pair of Fire Storms. It worked, at least to the point of successfully releasing the two storms, and it did get rid of a lot of the drow, but I now noticed that new Drow Elite Guards continuously kept spawning by the stairs. Madness!



They were dying by the dozen, but it did nothing to improve my situation. I soon gave up on trying to confront the drow, I'd never in a million years emerge victorious. One important thing I noticed in all that chaos, was that the projected images didn't seem to do much, not much offensively anyway, even when I was in sight. Maybe they were only there to give the illusion of a threat, and distract any attacker from the real caster? Which is what they were always meant for, and nothing but!

Not confronting the drow meant keeping on the right end of the room, and fighting Sendai from there. So that's just what I did. I had managed to get a save point just before killing the final statue, so I restarted from there and buffed myself up for a fight with a pair of Devas and some Invisible Stalkers. Sendai herself teleports away from the middle to someplace else as soon as the battle begins, so I only had her summons to contend with. Oh, and one of those harmless projected images.



With the Invisible Stalkers blocking the way so only one Deva could reach me at a time, this little skirmish was surprisingly smooth. The PI had teleported away some time ago, and when the last of the stalkers fell, I was once again completely alone on the right side. What to do? I waited. Waited for the PI's to disappear firstly, but then I also noticed that Sendai's stacked Spell Immunities weren't permanent, but were now disappearing one after one. After the PI's disappeared, the humming sound of her protective spells had revealed her position to be 12 O'Clock, so I fired away a Dispel Magic and got that lovely message

Sendai: Dispel Effects

Aaah, no Protection from Fire any longer for you my dear drow! And it would seem that you lack any kind of innate resistance as well. Bring on the storms!

To my great relief and surprise, Sendai didn't react at all to the fire suddenly raining down on her. Unfortunately, though my two storms should've been enough to roast her twice over, she had a special healing potion that brought her back to full life whenever she came close to losing it. As if that wasn't enough, some kind of script activated two rounds later and summoned a whole slew of new PI's and teleported Sendai away to the stairs. Attempting to kill her now was futile, what with the ever-growing mass of elite guards by the stairs. I charged to the left side, kamikaze style, just to see what it was like.


Here it is, the Improved Sendai Battle, in all it's cheesy madness

This was less than 3 turns after these guards started to spawn, you can appreciate their multiplication rate! Anyway, I had actually found a successful method to bring her down. All I needed was... more Fire Storms. Got rid of all the Energy Blades and filled the entire level with storms. It was not like a Deva was ever going to be useful in a fight like this. With 10 Fire Storms in the trunk, I entered Sendai's HQ for the fifth time and acted exactly like before, up until casting that Dispel Magic. The only difference this time was that I just kept casting. I had 8 storms to waste, so I just kept lobbing storm after storm up to the 12 O'Clock spot until she died. Turned out I didn't need more than four.



There. Took me probably two dozen reloads, but she finally succumbed! And thus ends this report. Thanks for reading, and come back for Abazigal tomorrow.

[ 02-26-2004, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Assassin]

[img]tongue.gif[/img] So basically, Fire Storm to kill the guards, run to the other side, kill the summons, Dispel Magic, some more Fire Storm.