Shade Dragon: Dead, 2 down, more to go.(spoiler)

[PeeWee]

After defeating Firkraag, I paid a visit to the Temple Ruins and spent well over a day there. Lots of small things to kill and obtain. The fire protection armor proved useful in this area.

After exploring the area with Aerie and her Staff of the Magi, I quickly gathered my troopers and went undead hunting. Two guys turning undead while the rest pounded away. I picked up Mazzy and dropped Korgan. Mazzy was a character I had to get comfortable with. Didn't take long. She's considered my archer and later proved her worth.

After having Minsc finish the statue questions and gathering the objects in the lava, I then saved to proceed to the lair.

I knew ahead of time to mem protection spells that helped prevent stats drain/fatigue. So with my party buffed up as usual I summon in the pets. I hasted and rushed the dragon - pausing every other second to quickly set the melee ppl around the dragon. Minsc had simulacrummed his twin in.

Upon getting closer to the shade lord, all my pets poofed. I didn't knwo what to make of this except that maybe this made the dragon hostile. I didn't take any chances. I started to whack away at the dragon but for some reason it was still "blue"....and I thought it would be hostile by now. I was dealing out enough dmg at this point but thought it would make no difference. I quickly have Aerie initiate dialogue while my other guys are still targetting the dragon. As soon as the dialogue is finished I pause and cast off 3 dooms followed by a lower resist, breach and then insect plague.

The wing buffet blows the party away except for Anomen and Aerie. I'm using chromatic orbs to put in some minor damage added to the insect plague. Anomen just got off his bolt of glory. Then the dragon is furious and attacks Anomen. I get all my guys to the center and run Anomen around the outer edge in circles to buy my ranged attackers time. Not much dmg is being done.

At this time, I've gotten the dragon down to injured. I land a few more spells like delorous decay and another insect plague. The magic resist seems to be picking back up. I land my last breach and hope things go the way I planned em to go. Mazzy is now the one who is closest to the dragon and she runs him around in the lower corners. With few spells left, I then turn to wands...first wand of frost and it does nothing great. Then I use a wand of fire. Nothing.

Dragon is now in the middle of the room with my guys spread out. The wing buffet seems to help me gain distance more than hurting.
My main guy took quite a hit trying to melee up close with his celestial fury. Minsc was using the dragon sword against the shade dragon. Anomen and Jaheira started to deal small amounts of damage. I had to get Mazzy close enough to Minsc to get her the arrows of biting off of him.

Next thing ya know, I have Aerie cast one of her few chromatic orbs left and UGH.... PETRIFIED... 45k exp. I quickly pause.

I remembered someone saying that if you petrify and kill the boss type npcs, you won't get the loot. I figured I won this fight but not in the manner I wanted. What to do now... I thought I had a scroll somewhere in my packs. I did [img]smile.gif[/img]

Minsc had a stone to flesh scroll and I gave it to Aerie. Before using it however, I tried having my bounty hunter pick pocket, didn't work. Still hostile. Good. I made sure to turn off all scripts just in case one of my guys decided to whack em by accident.

I gather all the guys around the dragon. He's badly injured. My main guy stood the the left side in case he would get the aggro(didn't want him to die and made sure he had space to run). As soon as I cast the scroll spell, I pause and then select my party to attack the dragon. Got a few hits in before I was blown away. NEAR DEATH.

But I'm out of spells and my guys are spread apart. Anomen was going to die but I ran him out of melee range, Jaheria was too close and I couldn't see her til late. She bought my guys time however. I loved how she sacrificed herself for the greater good. I started using ranged weapons and had NO LUCK til out of the blue MAZZY scores a critical hit with the bow and an arrow of biting. 23 points of dmg was enough to topple the dragon. Then I got another 45k exp. Dunno if this wiped out the first 45k exp I had.(btw, this dragon is way way easier than Firkraag. first try and I'm lucky.)

I pause, take a screenshot, check things and resurrect Jaheira. After gathering the dragon remains, I'm disappointed somewhat. A scroll and scales with gems. I save and see an exit.

In thinking I could go back to the top part to rest, I make a big mistake. I took the wrong exit. HEH. There is dialogue and Aerie has one group haste left. I already had used healing spells after the dragon fight so my men are almost full health. Shade Lord was easy. Aerie had on turn undead while the rest of the party meleed to win. After a few cut scenes and looting, I'm done here.

Not a whole lot of great items for my party members to use but had Minsc lvl up, Mazzy level up, Anomen leveled up, and hitting Umar Hills caused my bounty hunter and I think Aerie to level up.( I also finally get the chance to gate in a pit fiend...you can kill it for 16k exp a pop - now they seem to be easy kills. Played with new spells for a while and logged off.)

Gonna see what Cromwell makes me and either hit the planar sphere or the sewers to see what lies ahead. Have't done my stronghold quest yet nor Nalia's Keep. Got things to do before I get into chapter three. Hoping by then I'll be lvl 15 and run into more bigger encounters.