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Not Telling
I'd never seen the CoC part of the RR mod before, or even been really aware of it, so it caught me by surprise. I really enjoyed this encounter and it was a challenge, even though my party is technically a little higher than the CoC party (however, they had all the advantages!). I didn't read anything about this encounter first. It took me two tries to get them.
Our party was around 4 million XP:
Wierdo LV 16/19 Illusionist/Thief Gnome w/ Staff of Magi & non-detection (Detect Illusion 75%)
Darth LV 12/20 Berserker/Mage dual Human
Starria LV 18/15 Cleric/Ranger half-elf
Mazzy LV 21 Paladin w/ Carosymr
Viconia LV 26 Cleric w/ shield of harmony (immune charm/confusion)
Imoen LV 12/21 Thief/Mage dual (Detect Illusion 100%)
Wierdo, Darth & Starria have been adventuring through BG1 with Imoen, and she got to LV12 as as thief there. I wanted her rounded-out as a thief for BG2 (and, in particular, is why her detect illusions is at 100%). This also meant that she (I) initially sacrificed some mage XP, in order to be fair. Mazzy is modded to be a paladin (as she should be), and looks cool wielding a sword longer than she is!.
Anyway, Our party were on the way back from kicking Bodhi-butt. All were in good spirits & health but many of our best spells had been used. Too top it off, we had gone a bit over-the top sweeping up the last undead & spiders floating around in the catacombs. Wandering home, we were tired but ready for an ale at the Copper Coronet.
Next thing, we get ambushed magically. Whatever spell buffs we had left were dispelled completely. We had nothing left and talked our way out of the situation for some good experience, but after I saw Venduris use that nifty ring of his I knew that there was going to be blood.
So I reloaded my save and got my guys to sleep in a tomb for a night beforehand. There is a nice little tomb to the south of the graveyard, near the entrance, which even has a permanently lit brazier to keep you warm at night and to cook some sausages on. Very cozy.
The first time we tried to take on the CoC mob we got hammered. Selina's sequencer with Greater Malasion and Chaos wiped out three of my party (Imoen, Vic & Starria). I was still determined to take the CoC on and was persisting, but accidentally moved the protagonist onto the traps near the top and .... reload time.
Second time lucky. Here's how it happenned:
Wierdo cast Mass Invisibility, then goes up a bit and hides next to the cart. She wears cloak of non-detection.
Mazzy used Vailor's helm to make a simulacrum of herself, then launches into the fray
Mazzy's simulacrum summons a deva (HLA ability)
the deva casts dispel magic at the top half of the fight zone
Darth goes bererk and looks for something to hit
Starria drinks potion of clarity
Vic summons a fallen deva
Imoen drinks potion of clarity
Using Venduris' own tactics upon his party, Wierdo's mass invisibility took a little longer but worked to upset some enemy spell targeting and confuse them temporarily. Mazzy managed to produce a 12th level version of herself, who also promptly summoned a deva. As Imoen & Starria dranks the potions of clarity instantly and before Selina's sequencer went off, everybody saved against the Chaos (Darth had his barbie rage, Vic her shield of harmony, Mazzy had high MR ~85% thanks to Carosymr & some other items, and Wierdo & Mazzy also had ridiculously low saves).
The invisibility was only going to last a few seconds so Vic, Starria & Imoen took the opportunity to spread out a bit. Wierdo hid in the corner and detected illusions. The two Mazzy's and Darth were looking for trouble and found Gorf.
Next round,
Wierdo activated spell trap from her staff, took a pot-shot with her bow of Gesen and detected illusions.
Both Mazzy's (wielding Carosymr) activated greater whirlwind and focused on Gorf, whom they could now see.
Darth cast Prot Magic damage & then focused on Gorf
Both devas (fallen & non-fallen) cast globe of blades
Imoen cast ADHW into the middle. This took a while to execute.
Starria cast something ... maybe creeping doom
Vic cast True Sight
This is when it got interesting. With two G. whirlwinded Mazzy's & Darth wailing on Gorf, even his -6 against slashing weapons didn't mean much. When Vic's true sight came off the revealed a few more CoC guys (but not Venduris). Imoen's ADHW only seemed to affect Gorf & Zane, but had a big impact on them (esp Zane, who was now near death). Gorf went down in one round, but Venduris and Zaeron T'ane managed to get backstabs into Darth first. Thank god for Darth's barbarian heritage and ~160 HP! And a stoneskin contingency spell ...
Then came one of the best bits: a deva and a fallen deva simultaneously casting cure critical wounds on Darth. classic.
Once Selina was revealed, Wierdo targeted her with a ruby ray of reversal. This striped her spell immunity. The moment that had gone off, Darth got her with a spell trigger (pierce shield, breach, PW silence). Suddenly naked & speechless, she only lasted a few more seconds as the two Mazzys and then Darth & two devas started wailing on her. She survived just long enough to panic
Bodak became the next target, although he managed to go invisible a couple of times while we beat him up. Didn't do him much good though as our thieves are good at detecting illusions and Vic had true sight on now. Bodak didn't last long, but longer than Selina.
Meanwhile, Imoen used another trigger (pierce shield, lower resistance, chain lightning) to penetrate Zaeron T'ane's defences and that was pretty-much it for him.
Kerick was now visible, so we moved over to him and he died after a few blows.
Venduris was a bit of a pest. He kept going invisible but we kept finding him again, and so on. Keep everybody moving to make backstabs hard. Eventually we nailed him down with sword in his clavis or whatever they call it. And finally we relieved him of his lovely ring. Sweeet!
What a great and challenging mod! I learned a few tactics from this encounter, and a new appeciation of the thieves' detect illusions ability!
