Twisted rune and mercenaries in bridge district (spoilas)

[Throrgrim]

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1st, my new favourite word is full on.
right, as you know, i was looking for loads of didfferent quests in chapter 3. i was walking around bridge district when i found a locked house. i picked the lock, rogue stone did sumthin and i was sucked into some kind of astral plane or summin?
well, i went walking around and found this lich who said summin about the "Twisted Rune". I said i wouldn't stand for that and he full on cast gate, and summoned loadsa people to his aid and i was full on dead.
so i thought hmmmm strange i'll ask you guyz about it, so i loaded up and went into delsoar's inn. then this mercenary bloke threatened me. i was told he would help in a later quest, but for fun, wanted to full on kick his azz, but everything went vice-versa.
so i'm thinkin, wot is it with every1? (thats not my question)
i had already defeated the party near the balthis estate with mages etc.
could someone please explain wot the heck the twisted rune quest is, wot i hav to do, and wot will these mercenaries do?
ps. wot does a winter wolf pelt do? i summoned two but the balor killed one and i picked it's pelt up. wot can i do with it?

[Rataxes]

SPOILERS
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The Twisted Rune quest will net you the Staff of the Magi, the ultimate spellcaster weapon but also potentially one of the cheesiest items in the game.

The mercenaries are part of the Limited Wish quest I think. I've always just killed them for the exp though, it helps to lure them downstairs where you will get help by the guards on watch there.

Wolf pelts have no use other than to be sold I think, they were a nice source of money in BG1, where cash was much more scarse.

[ 11-25-2002, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[The Dude]

First, the wolf pelt - you can sell it. I don't think there's anything else to do with it.

The mercenaries are unrelated to the twisted rune. They play a part in the gong quest which you get via casting limited wish.

The twisted rune consists of just fighting the lich and friends. It will yield you the staff of the magi - which is a tremendously powerful staff - well worth the effort. However, it's a pretty tough fight. You'll have to either be pretty high level or use some devious strategy (or both).

[Throrgrim]

ace i'll lure them down stairs for help on those mercenaries.
and i do have a cunning plan (private baldrick)
I'll let my main char and loads of summons walk in. then run away and keep sending in more summons now and then. when he casts gate, i'll use protaction from evil [img]smile.gif[/img]
do'ya think that'll work?
[add] wot does the staff of the magi do?

[ 11-25-2002, 05:37 PM: Message edited by: Throrgrim ]

[Buster_Wiz]

In regards to the staff of the magi fight......perhaps spoilers
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Well, that might work, but I tried this quest at level 14 and I honestly just couldn't do it (solo sorceror). What happens is that one of his helpers will cast an area of effect death spell and it will kill a majority (if not all) of your summons. I eventually gave up and came back at level 18 when I had time stop, and ruby ray of reversal (even then it was a very difficult fight solo). The only general tips I can give you on this fight (tactics will be vastly different for you than for my "party of one") are as follows.
-Have some sort of way to dispel a mislead/invisibility true sight comes to mind here, and Keldorn can always help you out there if you don't mind him in a party (other members always got in the way for me).
-Have some sort of way to take down magical defenses, ruby ray of reversal was invaluable here
-Buff yourself up to the gills either during the fight or before, make SURE you have something to absorb a few spells, as well as something to help with the melee combatants (stoneskin,blur, project image, ect ect.)
-IMO either take down the beholder, or the lich first. The reason for this is that they are probably the most dangerous, The lich will teleport next to you when you start the fight and will usually get your projecting character (mine anyways) with a sunfire or somesuch spell. The beholder is just plain nasty =)
-The two melee combatants can be distracted with summons really easy (*cough* mordy sword *cough*), they aren't exactly high on your priority list here (or mine anyways)
- The human mage can be largely left out of the battle until the end if you don't walk forward enough to uncover her from the fog of war, however, if the fight is going poorly (like it was for me) you can always kill her and take the staff, it will help you out quite a bit in the battle (free spelltrap).

Anyways, just be patient and make sure that the enemies don't have any free time to just drill on you, make sure they are always occupied with something

On a side note the skeletal warrior summon works absolutly great here for distracting spellcasters.

Thats just how I beat the twisted rune society with a level 18 sorceror, this is my first time through the game, and I only play on core difficulty, so some veteran out here will probably have a better strategy than a newbie like me =).