D&D General Demetrios1453 Plays the Gold Box Games

[Demetrios1453]

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 42): The Mulmaster Beholder Corps (Part 2)

So far, the fights in this cave have been tougher than most, but still easily manageable. But that's about to change, as the next few fights are going to be very tough (and lead to a fight that is nothing short of ridiculously tough!)

After entering this part of the cavern, we move along the right wall until we reach a door.

Buffy picks the lock (pretty much all the doors here have been locked, and she's had no problems unlocking them so far), and we enter the hallway beyond.

Nah, what fun would there be in that? It's just a single beholder, so we should be able to defeat it with relative ease if initiative goes well.

Attack!

It's positioned a fair distance away, but still within reach within a round for my melee.

Baroness Bella runs up...

Then moves back, prompting an attack...

And goes back to get her attacks in.

Since it's used its attack this round, it can't start using its eye rays, and it goes down pretty quickly.

OK XP, but no treasure.

We head through the door on the right.

Attack, of course!

Yet another Dark Elf Lord. Thankfully, he doesn't have magic, so we just have to run up and wear him down. After a few rounds trading blows, I'm able to position Buffy correctly, and she takes him down with a well placed backstab!

He's got some... interesting treasure.

Love all the weird magical polearms randomly appearing in this game.

At least the longsword is useful for the moment, until the party leaves the caves and it vaporizes in the sunlight. After some deliberation, I give it to Bant, who isn't currently using a +3 weapon or better. The reason I'm worried about that will soon become apparent.

(As you can see, that partisan was just +1. I mean, who would make a magical partisan?)

On the table, we find a note:

Heh, "commands" instead of the usual "requests" for this sort of thing. Obviously our host doesn't take no for an answer.

We head back out to the hall and to the door directly across from us.

As you can see, the combats have been steadily ramping up. This is where it starts getting tough. I thought about doing a full buff session, but decided against it, since, even though this will probably get a bit messy, it's reasonably survivable. The encounter after this, however...

We open the door...

Yeah, there won't be simple local guards in this place! Time to attack!

"Suddenly furry"? I mean, the mustaches are a bit much, but "furry"?

Oh.

Rakshasa are basically immune to spells, but can themselves cast some spells, especially lightning bolt. They also only take half damage from weapons of +2 or below, hence me giving Bant the +5 weapon. The good news is that they have fairly low HP, so I should be able to start carving through them fairly quickly once my melee get down there. The party will probably have to eat some lightning bolts, but they probably won't get enough off to make it too dangerous.

So, my melee run down there...

Stinking cloud? The problem there is that, while the characters are making their saves to not be incapacitated (and thus vulnerable to insta-kills), they will have negatives to their attack, which will make the already hard-to-hit rakshasa even harder to damage.

And yes, that rakshasa who is casting does indeed launch off a lightning bolt.

We do manage to start taking them down, but extra stinking clouds are causing issues.

While my melee attempt to maneuver around the clouds, my ranged are doing reduced damage due to the rakshasas' resistance.

Finally, Baroness Bella is able to take down the last one.

Not all that much XP (I would think they would give much more given their resistances!), but they had a few gems and jewelry on them.

Another card, with the same message, is found on their bodies.

(As you can see, they did manage to get off a few lightning bolts, and we've taken moderate damage.)

We head back out to the hall and continue through the western door. As we pass through it, though...

Four ogres? Pretty laughable, given all the other high-level encounters here! The only thing that will slow us down is the distance, as my melee can't reach them on the first round.

Once we're able to reach them, it goes quickly. Brother Baltor is a ranger, and they're of the giant type, so he gets to do some extra damage!

The XP is laughable.

After that, we reach the door on the right. This time, I'm definitely buffing up, as this is a particularly tough encounter!

And now to break out the new buff, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

22 STR is nothing to sneeze at! All my front line melee have the spell cast on them.

The party looks nicely buffed. I'm not worried about the damage taken so far, as this encounter has far greater dangers than mere physical damage...

(Enlarge has quite a long duration!)

We open the doors and...

Beholders, plural, are much more of a danger than a single one. Hence all the buffing beforehand...

Everyone ages. No one but Baroness Bella cares. (Her age is currently 26 for anyone who was worried, so she's fine, and we have plenty of leeway with further uses of haste until elixirs of youth start popping up in PoD).

And... even with all that preparation...

As we're stuck in a corner, I need Bant to go and run alongside the two beholders to the right, while we take down the one in the lower left. That part was done successfully, but Bant lost initiative to the beholder in front of him, allowing it to get off several eye rays. The disintegrate ray luckily had no effect, but the flesh to stone and death rays sure did!

One re-load later...

Bant gets a good initiative roll and runs along the two beholders, causing them to attack, and thus keeping them from using their eye rays. Everyone else concentrates on the lower left beholder.

This strategy works like a charm this time, and soon, we've taken down all three beholders!

Excellent XP for taking them down:

And a few gems and jewelry.

Oh, a list instead of a note!

Well, their persuasion success rate wasn't too high, thankfully. I do wonder if the lich mentioned is the one we meet in Secret of the Silver Blades.

At this point, we camp and heal up, and re-memorize spells (I can't wait until the game starts saving your memorized spell lists, which I believe starts in the next game. With so many spells memorized now, it's a time-consuming chore to go through and re-pick out the spells each time). We do make one change, however...

Both Bragir and Brin will memorize one confusion spell each, given the upcoming encounter. While it will make this encounter only a little bit easier, it does make a lot funnier (and chaotic for the enemies!).

Having rested up (thankfully no interruptions, which is very possible here), we head out and continue along the corridor.

We very pointedly save here. I've been saving quite often, but this is one spot you 100% definitely need to save at. Why? Well, let's see what happens when we open that door...

"Throw caution to the wind" is always an interesting choice!

Oh dear.

Oh my!

We have found the fabled Mulmaster Beholder Corps! And they brought friends. Lots and lots of very dangerous friends!

So, next time we'll attempt to fight this roomful of horrors!

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I think your party is about to ascend into legend. Very painful, harrowing legend, but legend nonetheless.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I think your party is about to ascend into legend. Very painful, harrowing legend, but legend nonetheless.

The pain will mostly be theirs, I assure you.

 

[touc]

Of all the many times I played this battle, there was only 1 way to win it, with a very specific magical item used right before you walk into the room. And, I'm pretty sure if the game followed the rules for anti-magic, it wouldn't work.

 

[Seramus]

Of all the many times I played this battle, there was only 1 way to win it, with a very specific magical item used right before you walk into the room. And, I'm pretty sure if the game followed the rules for anti-magic, it wouldn't work.

Dust of Deliciousness, right? Right?

Jokes aside, there's a pretty cool breakdown of how to do it without that item. Though it's no less cheesy.

 

[touc]

Jokes aside, there's a pretty cool breakdown of how to do it without that item. Though it's no less cheesy.

Cool (even though the author did admit modding the game to exceed demihuman limits and get a solid advantage). A crazy undertaking regardless, probably moreso even than the Pools of Darkness "Dave's Challenge."

 

[Seramus]

(even though the author did admit modding the game to exceed demihuman limits and get a solid advantage)

That's fair. I speculate that most players use Companion to break the racial level limits these days, though not necessarily to get an advantage. The last time I played, I uncapped my Dwarven Paladin and Kender Cleric/Thief so they didn't stagnate!

 

[Demetrios1453]

That's fair. I speculate that most players use Companion to break the racial level limits these days, though not necessarily to get an advantage. The last time I played, I uncapped my Dwarven Paladin and Kender Cleric/Thief so they didn't stagnate!

Yeah, it's just so youre not stuck with nothing but humans in the later games. Honestly, the only advantage that non-humans have is multiclassing (the other advantages are pretty minimal) and even the humans can be dual-classed on their end. I've often played with a human ranger dual classed to magic user, but the most advantageous time to do so is at the start of PoD, which, unfortunately, features lots of giants that your ranger would normally get their advantages towards, and the poor character is stuck being a magic user at that point!

Also, the Dragonlance games feature non-humans with (certain) multiclassing with no level limits, and it hardly impacts the game.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 43): The Mulmaster Beholder Corps (Part 3) - The Mulmaster Beholder Corps completed!

So, there was a lot of discussion in the thread after the last post on how I would proceed with this battle.

Yeah, I'm opting for the easy way out. Simply because trying it without using the dust of disappearance is a long, involved process that can quickly end in disaster if a single mistake is made, forcing you to start all over again. From past experience, going that route
is nothing more than an exercise in prolonged frustration.

And it's not like waiting to use the dust in the final battle is the better choice; a buffed, max-level party can usually win that final battle without major difficulty, even without the dust. No, since we have it, it's better to use it here.

So, we start to buff up. It's still helpful to buff since characters can still be attacked by creatures directly next to them (but, thankfully, can not be targeted by spells and special abilities), and extra damage and attacks makes plowing through the mass of monsters go a bit more quickly.

Once our buffs are done, Buffy uses the dust.

(I just clicked it too quickly, but it is amusing that the word "Invisible" is invisible!)

Note just how long the invisibility buff lasts! Many of our buffs will be gone by the end of the battle, but thankfully the invisibility and enlarge will remain right through it, and well beyond.

We head in...

Everyone ages. No one but Baroness Bella cares.

My melee move up and start hacking away at the beholders. Since we're invisible, they can't target us with their eyes, so the best they can do is their (very ineffectual) bite attacks.

Time for a bit of fun.

I target in the middle of the drow and high priests...

And everyone makes their saves or resists.

Bragir makes a go of it.

Meanwhile, I'm just getting spammed with these messages.

The rakshasa and high priests keep trying to cast spells, and then aborting them. The best they can do is when the high priests get a few prayer spells off on themselves.

Bragir gets a bit luckier with his spell.

Two high priests and one drow are affected. I hoped that they could sow some chaos in the middle there, but they mostly just stand there doing nothing instead of attacking their neighbors.

Well, time to pull out the big guns then.

The beholders and rakshasa aren't going to be affected by spells, so this is mainly to start clearing out the high priests, and chipping away at the drow, even if their magic resistance often causes them to be not affected either. I'd say on average about a third of the drow take damage from each of the fireballs, and every little bit helps.

My melee keep hacking away at the beholders in the front. Brin and Bragir each cast yet another fireball each.

A few rounds in: many of the high priests have fallen, many drow have been damaged, and the melee are moving quickly through the beholders.

Brin and Brandir again cast fireball, further clearing the middle out. As that was the last one available to each of them, after this they'll just stick to using their bows and taking down low-HP foes.

My melee have cleared out many of the beholders, and most of the drow have been wounded pretty seriously after multiple fireballs. The rakshasa in the back are just twiddling their backwards-facing thumbs, wondering why everyone in front of them is dying.

Brin takes down the last of the high priests.

By this point, the number of foes has been seriously reduced.

Baroness Bella takes out the last of the beholders.

Meanwhile, Bant and Brother Baltor have moved up to start taking down the rakshasa.

Annoyingly, my buffs are beginning to fade. It's not putting anyone in danger, but it is dragging out the fight a bit.

Baroness Bella has taken a bit of a beating, mainly from the dark elf lords, who are able to attack her when she's in a square next to them. In revenge, she takes the last one down.

With only two rakshasa left, they quickly fall.

And the battle is won!

And the XP reward is definitely worth it:

Shockingly, this doesn't allow anyone to level (although a few are getting fairly close).

We divide up the currency.

And rummage through their items. Most are from the high priests and drow, and all those items are no better than what we have now, or will melt away as soon as we step outside.

At the bottom of the list, however, are a few interesting items.

We examine them to see if there's anything worthwhile.

Oh, that composite short bow +2 is nice! All the characters have composite longbows, but none are magical. Despite the range being less, it's still a keeper! Buffy will get that item.

I wisely decide that it's a good idea to save the game at this point. Don't want something to go wrong and have to re-do that fight!

After that, we move across the room to the door on the opposite wall. Here we find the beholders' treasure room!

Let's see what they have.

You just have to laugh at that copper and silver. We'll just stick to the platinum, gems, and jewelry, thank you very much!

Beyond that, there's a good amount of magical items!

Lots of magic-user scrolls. Hopefully we'll find some useful spells on them. Beyond that, after identifying the items, there's not much of interest, all of the weapons and the shield being just +1.

We head out, and then move to the exit of the dungeon.

Bant was the only one using a drow item, and we had already switched him back to his regular weapon.

Back to Dagger Falls!

We head to the magic shop to offload a whole bunch of items and stock up on arrows.

In fact, even after selling all of our superfluous treasure, we still buy so many arrows for this to occur:

Luckily, that happened right as I was topping the last person off.

On to Dagger Falls proper, so we can rest, heal up, re-memorize spells, and see if we have any spells worth scribing.

I have so many scrolls that I just gave half to Brin and half to Bragir to see what they could scribe.

After that, I switched the scrolls between them, which resulted in one final spell to scribe.

There are a couple of fireballs and hastes in the scrolls, but most of them are going to be sold off when we go back to the magic shop here shortly.

In fact, Bragir has pretty much every spell available in the game right now. Here's his spell list for the curious:

Brin's spellbook isn't quite as complete, but it's close, with her now missing only a handful of spells.

Baroness Bella and Brother Baltor are near leveling up, with Bant not too far behind.

And since I haven't done it in awhile, here are the character sheets for the party:

And so the infamous Mulmaster Beholder Corps has been defeated! So... we should be headed to the final areas of the game now, right? Well, not so fast. There's still one more way to get some further XP (and hopefully useful magic items!) so we can be as high level as possible before going to the final fights. We'll pick up there next time.

Map of the Mulmaster Beholder Corps dungeons:

 

[Seramus]

As a fun note, dust of disappearance is a cheesy but fun way to handle the final battle of Gateway to the Savage Frontier!

This is only relevant for people who are going the full 6 games in a row. It doesn't apply here.