Party On! (Episode 2, Minor Dragon's Eye Spoiler)

[NobleNick]

Having a GREAT time going through the first half of IWD again: Sashii, my veteran Thief/Illusionist is seasoning in some fresh recruits, namely a bard named "Bree," and "Druulf," a fighter destined to dual over to druid.

My original intent was to just get some characters up to speed to join my original game; but I am having so-o-o-o-o-o much FUN,, I think I'll find some excuse to bring someone else up from ground zero. (Will ANY of my parties EVER finish this game? Never even make it to HoW at this rate!)

Having an overpowered mage along, who also happens to be strong on thieving skills, is just plain FUN. And the bard is great to play with, too! (The Bardic Horn of Valhalla, or whatever-his-name-is, is a MUST!!) Together, it's just plain a hoot!! Take, for instance, the first level in Dragons' Eye..... (SPOILER)
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You guys know how, right from the start, this level is packed with lizardmen of various flavors. Remember how, the first time through, you sneak forward a little, battle it out with a few toughies, lick wounds, sneak, fight, lick, rest, repeat? Well, Bree summoned berserkers to the right, and Sashii threw a fireball forward, the second we got in the front door. Heh, heh, that loosened things up, a bit, and it just didn't stop...

The berserkers went WILD! I don't know if it was because Bree started playing "3 Heros," or because Sashi's fireball had brought most of the enemy hp down really low, or what; but it seemed like every other berserker hit took a lizard down, and about every third lizard-guy went down with a critical berserker hit.. The cave was rocking with the constant flow of critical hits and meat was CONSTANTLY FLYING through the air! Heads and other body parts bouncing off the ceiling! Meat sticking to the walls! And blood everywhere!

Knowing that you can't tell a berserker to do anything, I quickly moved Bree deeper to the right to suck the remaining guys from that corrider into the fray. Sure enough, they get there just in time to see the last few main party lizards go down and a few of the berserkers licking blood off their blades.

Oops, too bad!

Sashii and Druulf let arrows fly while Bree gets to where her song would help all; then when the right-corridor lizards were almost done-for, Sashii moves down the forward corridor and lures out some berserker bait bait from the first room to the left off of the main corridor. Sure enough, the lizards get strung out as they leave the room chasing Sashii and I am treated to another full sequence of berserker-blender action.

Quickly, not knowing when the berserkers would "time out," and knowing what lay ahead, I moved down the main corridor and repeated the tactic of luring lizards towards berserkers, but make a stand far enough ahead of the berserkers to LURE THEM deeper into the cave.

Stand, fight, berserkers come forward to help, move one character forward, lure lizards back to within sight of berserkers, berserkers start moving forward, lure lizards AND berserkers deeper into cave, stand, fight, berserkers continue forward to engage, Druulf help berserkers, Bree play "Heros", Sashii help til fight almost over then run forward, lure lizards back to within sight of berserkers, everyone go forward to (or sometimes PAST) the lizard, stand, fight, Sashi throw fireball if party engages more than six lizards at a time, repeat, .....

I cleaned the WHOLE level, except the snake king room and the "bug rooms" down that first right corridor, in what amounted to one flowing engagement! No healing, no looting, no intermission! It was great! When the last berserker went down, there were only about three (very hurting) lizardmen left from the final great battle in front of the townspeople prison. I sent Sashii back to loot everything, and she counted over thirty corpses, and that's not including the MANY that got SPLATTERED against the cave wall: Lot's of loot just lying on the floor with noBODY to go with it. Whoa! Adrenaline-rush city!

So, heh, heh, I rested, and the SECOND thing the snake king met AFTER Druulf talked turkey with him was a bunch of (bet you've guessed!) (Oh, the FIRST and THIRD things, of course, were fireballs.)

The pressure of finishing before the berserkers timed out kept the adrenaline pumping; but now I am wondering: Is there a berserker timer? I know if I leave them, even for a moment, they go, "Poof!" But if you keep them in sight, how long do they last?

What's a party,
Without a song?
Bards rock!
Party On!!

edited for clarity and to fix some font control code problems

[ 10-11-2002, 10:54 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[Lord Brass]

Hhmmm, not sure on that one. The prescribed ability of the horn is to summon them once per day, as to whether they have a duration or not, I don't think most people have them last that long before they get chopped themselves.

BTW I take it that Sashii has been imported into your new, current game. That would explain why she can cast Fireball already, as I thought that there was only one scroll in the wretched game.