Chapter 6: Spider Sandwich
When last we left Shepard, the crew had set out for the Cloakwood and had found...
...loads of trash combat! Yeah, the first part of the Cloakwood and the third part are pretty much full of it.
: A cloak...in the Cloakwood...how...unexpectedly cheesy...
Stinking Cloud helps to keep spiders and Tasloi under control.
This here is Aldeth Sashenstar, a merchant who went hunting with some buddies and apparently some druids didn't like his choice of pastime. He wants some help defending himself.
The druids show up. Great dialogue choices, huh? Wanna bet on what happens with the second one?
WHAT A TWIST!
: Hippie beatdown incoming!
The fight ends so quickly, there aren't any screenshots of it. Aldeth leaves, but not before giving Shepard a nice potion and some gold.
Trivia time! Seniyad is actually the Archdruid of the order Jaheira belongs to. See how well that was acknowledged? This is the case with quite a few NPCs and their backgrounds. Branwen was turned to stone by Tranzig, yet says nothing when encountering him. If you choose to infiltrate the Bandit Camp by joining with one of the roving bandit patrols, and have Kivan with you, he says nothing to Tazok, despite his biography saying Tazok raped and killed his wife or something. However, some NPCs actually do take things into account.
Khalid is beset upon by wolves, and killed.
: Replacement time!
: How convenient that a spot just opened up in our party...
This is Coran, arguably the "better" of the two Fighter/Thieves. His 20 Dexterity make him a thieving and ranged attack machine, and he only needs Strength for backstabs, of which he'll have plenty of giant strength potions to make use of. His Constitution is a little crappy, but that too can be amended with potions of fortitude at level up.
: And now we at least have a thief...
The party travels deeper into the Cloakwood, into the spider's nest area. The enemies include spiders, ettercaps, spiders, and more spiders. Poison is a danger, as are Web traps, of which all the enemies in this area are immune to.
: A magical sword, huh? I'll take the case!
Remember what I said about Web traps? They're everywhere here...and Coran's Find Traps skill isn't exactly up to snuff.
Spiders! Sleep, Entangle, and Stinking Cloud are all used here to hold them off. It even catches the nasty sword spider that was in the group. Those buggers don't have poison, but move very quickly, strike many times a round, and deal a lot of damage. Entangling it neutralizes a big threat.
The group runs into some Ettercaps.
: Bring down the lightning!
Call Lightning, the level 3 Druid spell, is pretty great as far as single enemy damage spells go. It usually deals a lot of damage, and it's electrical damage, which few things resist. The downsides are that it only hits one enemy every 6 or so rounds (making it good for prolonged engagements) and may only be cast outdoors.
: Spiderdome; two parties enter, one party leaves.
: It's an honest question...
Shepard's crew start things off with a bang, using both a Necklace of Missiles and a Potion of Explosions to stack two fireballs on top of each other. They weaken Centeol enough that Shepard, Minsc, and Coran can quickly finish her before she can even get a single spell off.
They then follow up with two stacked Stinking Clouds as well as an Entangle, catching the spiders up close, including the sword spiders, and knocking out the Ettercaps and spiders in the back.
This allows the crew to easily mop up, without any casualties.
: CHA-CHING!
Here the party finds a normal ring, a cursed ring, a wand of frost, the body of that guy's brother, and Spider's Bane, a phenomenal two-handed sword (a +2 weapon that provides free-action, that is, it prevents the user from being held, entangled, webbed, slowed, hasted, or anything else that would affect movement).
More spiders, more lightning.
: That's good...because I wasn't planning on giving it back.
The group brawls with a bunch of phase spiders, one of the deadlier breeds, seeing as they have poison that deals 2 damage a second, and they have the ability to teleport short distances. Often they will end up right behind your lines, sinking their fangs into your mage(s).
After the spider onslaught, the next area is relatively boring. Essentially it's a druid grove, except the encounters with the druids aren't particularly interesting as they only show up one by one. Some scripted animal companion summons could have gone a long way here.
COWABUNGA! Check the textual tsunami out. This is Eldoth, a joinable NPC. He's a bard, which pretty much makes him a total PoS character, but he does have a few perks. First off, he has the special ability to make a certain amount of custom poisoned crossbow bolts. They are decent, but only he can use them. Second, having him in the party is the only way to get Skie to join up with the group. Although, Skie is essentially a watered down Imoen, whose thieving skills will pretty much be set by the time you have her, and likely on things useless to the party (pickpocket/stealth). Finally, if you have Eldoth and Skie in the party, you can collect a shit-ton of ransom money. It's pretty much the only reason to even consider having them join.
The one friendly druid in this area. Well...they all are normally friendly but...you'll see.
He gives Shepard and crew a useful anti-magic potion.
: So wait...this Shadow Druid recognizes Jaheira as one of Seniyad's group, but Seniyad himself didn't? What the fuck?
: You've got to be kidding me...
Somehow this druid actually gets off a Hold Person spell. He still dies easily.
This is Faldorn, another joinable NPC. She's a pure druid, and also purely useless. Jaheira is pretty much better in almost every way. The only thing Faldorn has going is a nifty Dread Wolf summoning ability once per day. Unfortunately, it's not worth Jaheira's better stats and better fighting capability.
: Oh look...a veritable "tree mansion"...I thought these hippie types were all about sustainability...
: Big surprise...
The "Shadow Archdruid" is pretty much all talk, having very little ability in combat. He'll try to cast a spell, but ends up getting sliced and diced. It's kind of a shame they didn't think of something a little more interesting to give this guy for abilities.
Here's a guy training some baby wyverns, and trying to get people away from them.
Shepard and crew use a Charm Person spell on him to make it so he takes the brunt of the wyvern's attacks. Baby wyverns don't hit as hard, as often, or take as much damage, but they do pack them same poison as the big ones; a brutal 5 points of damage a second.
Time to head into wyvern country....
But before that even happens, the party is waylaid along the way.
: Just some wyverns and a spider, huh? No problem...
Let's just say I forgot wyverns were immune to Web....
: Awwwww hell no! Rewind this!
This time the crew makes it to the wyvern area of the Cloakwood, and the game shows this movie of a wyvern making off with a cow.
However, the joy is shortly removed as the Hamadryad, a nasty wood spirit similar to Sirens. It takes over a few party members, a web trap goes off, and Imoen is held by it's rapid fire spellcasting. Oh...and some baby wyverns show up later. I think you can guess how this ends....
: Enough is enough! I've had it with these motherfucking wyverns and this motherfucking nymph! Time to open up a can of whoop-ass! Let's do this shit again!
Wyverns again. This time with two more spiders. Not to worry, Dynaheir summons some dogs and wolves to serve as fodder for the wyverns, while Imoen and Jaheira unload powerful offensive magic.
: Much better.
: How do you like a taste of Hold Person?
: Guards...we must be getting close to the mine.
After dispatching the guards, Shepard's band goes into a large cave.
Some fireballs, a Stinking Cloud, and a Wand of Paralyzation shot open up the fight in the wyvern den.
Jaheira casts a Bless spell to buff up the party, while Dynaheir and Imoen fire off barrages with their wands. The warriors concentrate on holding the line.
And the wyverns fall.
Loot time!
:Check out that huge wyvern corpse. Now THAT would be a fight!
The crew continues on, towards the Cloakwood Mines.
Next time; Shepard and crew blitz the enemy stronghold in the mines.
will be able to take away the nostalgia I feel when I occasionally sit down and replay them. Ach, ich bin ein katzenfisch.
