Aragorn and his story - long with pics !

[Leslie]

Warning !

Spoilers about the last fight with Improved Irenicus ! Also some minor cheese used !
SPOILER !
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Aragorn sat down and thought for a while. He reflected back on his adventures in the past two months and how he had escaped from a dungeon where a mad mage had locked him in.

His sister somehow found a way to free herself and him - probably because of the thief skills that she had learned when she was younger. However Aragorn decided that he won't put her life in danger - he somehow felt that this was all about him. He saved his good friends Jaheira and Minsc and let them go. They wanted to help but respected Aragorn's decision to continue on his own.
He met many helpful friends in his adventures but decided to continue alone in his quest for revenge and his lost soul.

Aragorn was a good man. He was always willing to help his community, to heal people if needed and he hated undead. He was developing powers through his experience to really turn them away or even destroy them if he focused well.
But at the same time he loved animals and was very skilled with weapons and ways of the forest.

Because of his love to the animals he one day decided that he will never sacrifice an animal in a fight. Although he knew how to summon a helping hand he never ever used it in a situation where that helping animal could die.
He made one exception though - he could call a lot of insects to really annoy his enemies - they couldn't even cast spells then. He knew that those insects wouldn't die but just got bored with it and flew away. They were his only helpers in in quest to find peace within himself.

He was reflecting back at all his great fights and felt somehow that this will be the hardest of them all. He already won a battle with mad mage but he pulled him deep into Nine Hells.

He passed the tests that awaited him there and started gaining new powers. But just before the last Tear of Bhaal was inserted to open the door to Irenicus - the mad mage, he decided to sit down and meditate.
He closed his eyes and concentrated hard to remember all his spells that he learned in these two months of heavy fighting. It took him eight hours of concentration and then sleep to be sure that he could use all of them.

Then he prepared for a fight - he was a master of protection ! No mental spells could block his mind, he knew how to avoid death for a while, elemental damage was a piece of cake and after all that he drank a potion of invulnerability, a potion of heroism and a potion of speed.

Now he felt ready ! He inserted his last Tear and the door opened !
There he was - the powerful mage laughing at him ! And with his wicked magic he somehow stole Aragorn's best equipment - his amulet of power, the powerful warhammer and the shield of the famous fighter Balduran !

And Irenicus even showed him his enemies just a for a moment but long enough for a skilled and veteran fighter like Aragorn that he thought of ways to destroy them. He knew that all together were to strong for him. He noticed how fat the Dragon was ! Maybe if he ran in front of Dragon's nose and lured him into one of the stairways, the Dragon's body would block the way !

YES ! It worked ! The Dragon was pissed but couldn't follow Aragorn into small stairway and all the other enemies just stood behind him and couldn't do anything. Aragorn now used one of his spells to see very far and noticed all his enemies behind the Dragon's ass.
Aragorn decided to use Fire Storm which always hits enemies.

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...of%20fight.JPG

And in all that confusion he started to target Sword of Greed with help of his good god. Holy Smite really hurt the sword and other enemies and three rounds later the first enemy was down !

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...eed%20dead.JPG

Then he decided to attack the powerful mage with his insect friends but the Dragon always blinded him with his breath and Aragorn felt that his experience could be sapped away from him. So he grabbed his Mace of Disruption in his hands as soon as Dragon attacked him and started attacking him with a magical sling that somehow channeled his strength into a powerful hit. The Dragon tried to heal himself but a magical bullet always interrupted him. Soon he was just large pile of dead meat and with his death the powerful amulet appeared in Aragorn's inventory. Cool !

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...gon%20dead.JPG

Aragorn was now in trouble - all the other enemies could see him and started approaching him. He knew he had to stay away from them because they were still too strong. He materialized powerful Energy Blades with which he could attack from a distance. He ran through many of his enemies and most them were to slow to follow him. But there was this strong Orb of Fear that really shattered his body with magical rays so Aragorn gritted his teeth and with a surgical precision started to attack already wounded Orb. It was a tough fight because he had to run and snipe at the same time but ha was a master fighter and a couple of rounds later a tough foe was down. And the Shield was back !

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...ear%20dead.JPG

His next priority was the powerful mage that could hurt him from a distance. The Wraith was too slow and Aragorn waited for the right moment to call his insect friends and they attacked the mage with a fury ! Aragorn saw the opportunity and attacked the mage with both powerful weapons he had. The mage soon died and a Cloak was left on the floor. It was one of the most powerful cloaks Aragorn found in Amn and he put it in his big bag. Maybe this could be useful later ...

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...rst%20dead.JPG

The slow Wraith was still following him and Aragorn focused on his critical points of the body and started to hit them with still active blades.

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...WW%20fight.JPG

The Wraith of Wrath was incredibly tough enemy - he just withstood many accurate hits - and Aragorn was beginning to doubt his long range attacks.
And when he had only two blades left - the Wraith was finally down and Aragorn's super strong warhammer was in his possesion again.

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci.../WW%20dead.JPG

There were still some enemies around Aragorn but that was just a matter of seconds and a scary silence filled the giant hall.

KABOOOM !!!

The mage was back ! He tranformed himself into something hideous and used his magical tricks again to take ALL of Aragorn's items and weapons and threw them away. That was too much ! Aragorn used one of attacking skills which helped him to attack like a whirlwind and he knew that he could also move faster !
He ran and avoided Irenicus' first attack, destroyed some shadows on the way with his powerful hate to undead and grabbed his equipment. There was no time to put the armor back so he just pulled the Ironskins from the ground and waited for mad Slayer to come closer. The Slayer still hurt Aragorn through his iron skin but that was only a scratch.

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...er%20fight.JPG


Soon he was defeated - but NOOO !
The mage was back AGAIN ! And he was even more powerful than before ! He could even stop time ! Aragorn searched for the powerful cloak and for the first time in his adventures he felt the power and security the Cloak had.
Irenicus The Shattered One was angry. He stopped the time and attacked Aragorn with many magical attacks but most of them just bounced from the Cloak.

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...ed%20angry.JPG

Aragorn was ready. He knew that the outcome of this fight will depend on his insect friends. The timing was crucial becuase he could not afford to be interrupted while calling the insects. There were three magical swords attacking and following him and a barrage of spells form mad mage.
But Aragorn was patient and took the right moment to call for his friends. And they attacked the mage again and again his greatest weapon - MAGIC - was not available for him.

http://members.tripod.co.uk/cabalaci...%20trouble.JPG

But he had another magical trick again ! Whenever Aragorn tried to come close to mage to really hit him the mage would somehow teleport away !
Aragorn searched for his magical sling and stayed just in the right distance from the mage that he felt maybe too secure. He whirwinded his sling with crazy speeds and eventually blasted through mage's stoneskins.

THE MAGE WAS FINALLY DEAD !



Aragorn whiped his sweat away and checked his inventory if all the equipment was there.




THE END


P.S. I played through all of SOA and never used any summon - not from equipment (Kitthix, Horn of Valhalla, ...) or spells (Fire elementals, ...) except Insect Plague and Creeping Doom. I didn't use Cloak of Mirroring except for the third fight. I used Boots of Preservation against Jonny because his Shatter Magic is cheesy too.

I also didn't use Vhailor's helm - because that is a summon too. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The only way to beat Kangaxx the Demi Lich was Scroll of Protection from Magic.

I really enjoyed this fight and a fight with Pontifex was also a good one.
I am now entering TOB.

Read ya ! Have fun !

P.P.S. Thanks LennonCook for hosting my pictures !

EDIT] Edit on request. Your last filename seems to be incorrect though.

[ 05-08-2003, 12:52 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[Xen]

Wow..cool story Les!
Cheers [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Leslie]

Hmm - no pictures ?

What did I do wrong with the URL's ?

[Alson]

Um. Try replacing the spaces between the words with %20.

For example:

~~Start of fight.JPG[/IMG] -> Start%20of%20fight.JPG[/IMG]

ADD] Wow! Nice avatar... much better than the oh-so-unimpressive White Dragon. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-07-2003, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: Alson ]

[Leslie]

Well thanks Alson but I am too late.
I cannot edit my post so could Dundee please try to make my pictures alive ?!

Thanks !

[Vedran]

Better start a new thread - there is a lot of pictures there, and these replies down there will only prolong the loading time (perhaps that doesn't matter to those with DSL, but we on dial-up are not happy).

[Alson]

It could also be a specific problem with Tripod - I remember similar Ironworks/Geocities problems. Dundee?

[Dundee Slaytern]

Interesting... very interesting usage of the Dragon of Pride. Funny how most melee soloists end up using their enemies as meat shields... ... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Was this fought on Insane Difficulty? I noticed that the various 'Tears' spawned weaker versions of themselves. If so, more kudos to you.

ADD] For future reference, Harm + Critical Strike = Weeping Wraith of Wrath.

[ 05-08-2003, 01:08 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[Leslie]

Yes - I played all the way on insane. When Dragon died there were about 15 wyverns left. He just kept spawning them.

And the remaining beholders were killed with Greater Deathblow ability.

Still not all pictures - just checked - IMG is missing. I can't edit anymore. Dundee ?

[ 05-08-2003, 03:22 AM: Message edited by: Leslie ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

I converted most of the links into URLs to prevent grief for those using dialup connections. Only the last two pictures are using the [IMG] tags. However, your very last picture's URL is an invalid address. You might want to doublecheck where it is.