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Torrannor posted:FuriousAngle, you should have your party ask for "The Ecology of the Unicorn". While his friends were scouring the towers, Chad decided to cut back to the library for some easy reading.      
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Apr 30, 2015 01:58
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The search continued as the party scoured and re-scoured each level of the towers, searching every nook and cranny that they might not have searched in the first place. Then, when they had searched every inch of unsearched tower, they re-traced their steps and searched every inch they'd already searched- which at that point was all of it. In one tower they met a friendly shade who was kind enough to give them a quest.   Wait... did we speak before? Yeah, we must've. She seems to remember us.   Wait... did we kill her soldiers? Yeah, we must've. She seems to think they're dead.   The party valiantly backed the lone elf into a corner and began to give her the proverbial thrashing. What else could they do? After all, she had requested they lay her to rest. When the dust from the battle had cleared the body of Kaylessa laid, conveniently clutching a piece of the machinery that they needed. Unclear as to why a spirit would leave behind a body, or where she would have been storing the piece of machinery, the party took their reward and headed back to Gelarith, hoping he wouldn't need them to collect yet more pieces.         drat... guess that wasn't it either.They climbed to the top of another tower. Chad and Goblin were really begining to loathe stairs, and everyone else was starting to develop a particularly nasty disliking of them.                                After ending the conversation with the spirit, the party huddled together and spoke in hushed tones. Hey, didn't we kill some elf priests not too long ago? NOW THAT CHAD MENTION IT KORVID DO REMEMBER KILL LOTS PRIESTS! Seriously? Is he actually getting dumber?So they turned around and spoke with the lone spirit again.      Hey, what's this in my pocket. Hey, Denaini, look at this.      And so it came to be that the party began to descend one massive set of stairs, only to walk a short distance and ascend another. And believe me, dear reader, as bored as you might be hearing about all this travelling... just try to imagine WATCHING it. Once again in Gelarith's lab...             Is that... is that it? Have we finally finished this infernal scavenger hunt?It looked like it was, for after that Gelarith had nothing new to say. Chad said "Welcome to Corneria" to him a few times, but nobody thought it was very funny. Once the gnome was done referencing what seemed to be a fairly obscure joke from another world entirely, they turned their attention to Larrel.           Now, please enjoy this small, simple representation of what it looks like when a storyteller tries to capture a cinematic and manages to ruin the immersion.      And once again, the storyteller manages to botch the re-telling (or capture) of part of the story. Please imagine the following image without the surrounding window and imagine it as a pure image, telling the epic journey from one place to another without a single incident. 
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May 2, 2015 13:25
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The Severed Hand can be a bit of a chore to play through, but I find it really pretty cool design-wise anyway and the atmosphere and background-story and such is fairly well-done. I'd say it marks the start of the best part of IWD, continuing into Chapter 4 now.
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May 2, 2015 14:04
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Insurrectionist posted:The Severed Hand can be a bit of a chore to play through, but I find it really pretty cool design-wise anyway and the atmosphere and background-story and such is fairly well-done. I'd say it marks the start of the best part of IWD, continuing into Chapter 4 now. Honestly, it killed the momentum for me. If it weren't for the fact that I was dedicating myself to actually finishing this LP I would have given up and moved on to something else at this point.
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May 4, 2015 19:12
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Here is the cutscene for all who are curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2TS4nnCnQM The first time I played Icewind Dale I had a lot of fun exploring the Severed Hand, but I agree that it can drag a bit when replaying the game. Also, did you miss the diary of Larrel's daughter Evayne, FuriousAngle? Larrel has a lot to say about that if you ask him about it. But you can probably look for it later when you return to the Severed Hand with the animals and plants for the garden, and when you have Evayne's journal from her tomb in Dorn's Deep.
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May 4, 2015 20:01
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Dude should have gotten a warranty on that repair, there's no way it'll last until the next age of mankind.
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May 5, 2015 06:10
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Torrannor posted:Here is the cutscene for all who are curious: Thanks for adding that! I was so focused on finishing this section that I hadn't even thought to video capture then upload the cinematics. Also, it does my heart good to know that I'll end up back-tracking to this place once more. Glazius posted:Dude should have gotten a warranty on that repair, there's no way it'll last until the next age of mankind. I'm sure he's keeping his eye out for any Inn-Sewer-Ants agents.
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May 5, 2015 15:04
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Ho again, gentle readers! Let's re-cap since it's been a while since we last checked in on our intrepid adventurers. Having spoken with Larrel, it became clear that they would have to delve deep into the mines of the dwarves. The shade of the Shattered Hand was kind enough to teleport them to the mines, but at that moment... Oh wait! I actually have a book to give to Orrick! Who? The wizard back in town. Chad, can't this wait? No way! We need to get that sweet quest XP! Gods drat it...And so they trekked all the way back to town just so they could turn in their quest item. This is another reason why it took so long for me to update you. It was quite a walk!       So with their minor quest turned in, the six adventurers head back to the dwarven stronghold. Of course, they didn't expect it to be without opposition.       Why'd your text turn white? W... what?   And a fierce battle broke out! Of course, the orog was not alone. This only made Goblin more excited, though, and the dwarf was sure to be the first to partake in the melee. Finally! After all this walking I was starting to think we were never going to get to throw down like this! Then, like in a Steven Seagal movie, another Orog came out to face them... one against six! Korvid would have praised his bravery, but he was too busy burying his sword into the flesh of the evil humanoid.  Then three more came,not quite as foolish as the last orog. Given that they had just battled their way to the top of an ancient elvish fortress filled with the shades of a multitude of elven warriors, priests, and mages this trio was hardly worth commenting on. And then, stepping over the bodies of their slain foes, they entered the cave that could only be the entrance to the dwarven stronghold. This way, fellows! If memory serves, this is where my ancestral home's secret entrance lays! Stop trying to have a backstory and just let us know of any enemies we might run into. I believe the secret entrance is completely un-guarded.He was wrong.  KORVID NO SENSE EVIL BUT THESE CREATURES WANT KORVID AND FRIENDS DEAD! Yeah, they're myconids. Fungal enemies that... I don't care about their stats and monster classifications, you nerd! Just tell us how to kill them! I think causing enough structural damage to them will be sufficient. ...? Stab them a lot! Continuing through the caves, they found a room full of orcs. Somehow, the brutes had either evaded the myconids from earlier or they managed to live in peace with them! While the party braced themselves for another unlikely parley session, they were all relieved to find this a welcome case of Fireball-diplomacy.  With no answer to the mystery of the orcs' ecology, the party left and found themselves engaged in combat with more myconids. Some of the tricky bastards were utilizing the high ground to taunt the part with hopelessly weak attacks.  Though the myconids were not the ones to be truly worried about. On their way to meet the mushroom monsters, the adventurers ran afoul a much larger threat. Ettins! Well that wasn't so bad... I was kind of expecting more of a... MORE ETTINS! Having slain the giantkin, Goblin took a moment to enjoy the scenery and viewing the stonecraft of his ancestors. Not much of a secret entrance if you advertise it like this. Shut up, midget!Once again exploring their new surroundings, Goblin and company noticed a passageway that was slightly illuminated, as if some light source lead beyond. I know I've frequently said that the party was unprepared for things in the past, but this time I mean it.  A battle awaited them on the bridge that lead into the dwarven fortress. The combined forces of orcs (possibly mind-controlled) and drow! Dark elves! Orcs! Spiders! Spiders! SPIDERRRRS!The battle was brief and chaotic, with the assaulting heroes trying to take down as many of their enemies as they could. The flanking spiders certainly didn't help matters any. So with no way to avoid the various inevitable deaths, Birgitte sounded for the retreat. They returned after a short rest, utilizing hit and run tactics to clear the ranks before they wandered into the crossfire.   With the front row of fighters taken care of, the party advanced to the bridge. This time, though, they were ready.  
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May 25, 2015 05:20
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Always thought this was one of the better set-piece fights in the game, definitely one thing IWD did better than Baldur's Gate or its sequel I thought. Early IWD does have the same issue as BG with both of the games being very RNG-reliant in terms of getting crit and one-shot by an archer at level one or the like, but once you start getting up in level, where the BG series turns into spellwars and enemies get tougher by taking less damage (whether through spells, resists/immunities or just low AC), and doing a ton (late BG and Fireballs/those annoying Fireball arrows being a good example, even before caster superiority really kicks in), IWD is more moderate about those things allowing encounters to flow and unfold better and in more satisfying manner, while also letting you more reasonably build tanking characters and let your physical attackers show off their stuff without getting completely shown up by spellcasters.
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May 25, 2015 12:51
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That was a pretty nice bridge fight. Are the spiders prone to going after the orcs or are you just getting pincered?
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May 26, 2015 03:55
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That bridge fight killed my whole group the first time I played the game, it was surprisingly fun. You are lucky that none of the myconids were successful in confusing your guys, I always have to fend off party members who attack my guys when I fight them,
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May 26, 2015 07:28
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Glazius posted:That was a pretty nice bridge fight. Are the spiders prone to going after the orcs or are you just getting pincered? Thanks! I thiiiink the spiders were summoned. Either way, I was so busy running towards the orcs that I didn't notice the spiders creeping up behind me. It was definitely a pincer, though, and that was definitely bad news for my casters. Torrannor posted:That bridge fight killed my whole group the first time I played the game, it was surprisingly fun. Oh man, Korvid and Goblin are terribly, terribly stupid so it would have made sense if either of them had been confused. You're right, though. The characters are so twinked out that if one of them had started attacking the party it would have ended badly.
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May 26, 2015 13:43
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Like in real Dungeons and Dragons, the party is usually it's own worst enemy. Most of the fights in BG 1+2 were fairly doable as stand up fights but retreat seems a more common strategy in Icewind. Is that mostly your playing style, more/better enemies in comparison, or just low level shenanigans?
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May 26, 2015 23:07
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Congratulations; this is the Let's Play Thread of the Day for the 27th of May, 2015
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May 27, 2015 01:56
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thiswayliesmadness posted:Like in real Dungeons and Dragons, the party is usually it's own worst enemy. Most of the fights in BG 1+2 were fairly doable as stand up fights but retreat seems a more common strategy in Icewind. Is that mostly your playing style, more/better enemies in comparison, or just low level shenanigans? I'm happy to run away if things are looking dicey and I'm completely unprepared for a fight. Usually I try and stick it out, though. I hate load screens, but having to reload a game because my magic user was swarmed by spiders and my cleric was dropped by a lucky crit takes even longer. no they will not posted:Congratulations; this is the Let's Play Thread of the Day for the 27th of May, 2015 I WIN! I WIN! 
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May 27, 2015 14:16
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FuriousAngle posted:I'm happy to run away if things are looking dicey and I'm completely unprepared for a fight. Usually I try and stick it out, though. I hate load screens, but having to reload a game because my magic user was swarmed by spiders and my cleric was dropped by a lucky crit takes even longer. The worst case is wanting to run away and having your heroes be immobile due to spells like web etc. quote:I WIN! I WIN! You deserve it.
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Jun 4, 2015 12:31
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Torrannor posted:The worst case is wanting to run away and having your heroes be immobile due to spells like web etc. Funny thing... the party found a box of "Rings of Freedom" laying about. They're now impervious to paralyzation.
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Jun 6, 2015 04:15
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Rings of Freedom are one of those items that don't sound too handy at first glance, unless you're really familiar with how much movement crap D&D can really throw your way. But I guess you're free to act in true Arthurian heroic fashion now.
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Jun 6, 2015 04:59
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thiswayliesmadness posted:Rings of Freedom are one of those items that don't sound too handy at first glance, unless you're really familiar with how much movement crap D&D can really throw your way. But I guess you're free to act in true Arthurian heroic fashion now. I used to play 2nd Edition AD&D in a tabletop campaign back in high school, so I know how much it sucked when the DM threw web or some other nonsense at us. In this game it seems that the web fully paralyzes you, making free movement even more OP. Drop a web, effectively freeze all enemies in a room, then wade in and hack their nuts off. And yes, it sure helps in the running away department.
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Jun 6, 2015 05:54
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Welcome back to: Assault on the dwarven ruins, part two! Once the heroes had crossed the perilous bridge it was just a matter of tracking down the fleeing orcs and slaying them. After all, the party was rather upset at having almost been slain and they were looking for some payback. There would be no survivors. Frothing at the mouth, Goblin chased after the hated orcs, eager to charge them back-rent for living in his kin's ancestral home.  Of course, the more orcs the ruins threw at the party the more Goblin could vent his frustrations from all the talk talk talking! Korvid and Caim seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a lot as they tore through the enemy ranks. And that's when the big guys showed up!   Like a short, smelly blur Goblin charged in, his axe swinging in a vicious downward arc that rendered the orcs' helmets and armor useless. There would be no looting these bodies.   While it may be boring for you and I to sit through so much of this action, let me tell you the party was loving it. Even Birgitte and Ian seemed to be enjoying the ability to cut loose and really lay into these big green jerks.  This was not to last, though. Soon the party ran into more of the dreaded dark elves that they had seen on the bridge. The drow were a much more difficult opponent than the orcs so some modicum of tactics were needed. No longer could the adventurers just hack and slash mindlessly at their oponents... now they had to dodge, feint, dodge, duck, and dodge.  Before too long all signs of life on that level (aside from the party themselves) had been erased. The entry level of the dwarven ruins was deathly quiet. And that is when they found their first puzzle.  Interesting... you'd think we would have had to solve one of these sooner? What's the point in throwing one in halfway through the game?As the first of the party stepped into the room the tile beneath them gave a horrifying "CLICK" and electricity surged from the ceiling, damaging each of them. Using a complex method of trial, error, and healing spells, the group sent their representative across the figurative mine-field to get to the center of the room, whereupon a switch was activated that slid open one of the room's panels!  Little did they know that they managed to completely miss another portion of the ruins. Had they turned left instead of right they would have found themselves in the orc-infested labyrinths beneath the dwarven fortress.  The secret door led into a winding staircase that took the six companions into a very strange room. The room seemed to be filled with gears and cogs without any evident machinery for them to go to. Also, there was a dead body on the floor. The body was looted, though no memorable treasure was found. They DID find yet another trap. I'm starting to get about sick of this. My kin were a bunch of jerks. Hmm, there's a note on his person.... Well, that didn't clear up much...Moving on, they left the gear room and found what Goblin referred to as... The great forge! We're on the right track! Heading up another set of stairs (as if the elven fortress hadn't had enough stairs for all their combined lifetimes) the party found themselves facing down a chatty spirit.       Wait... is Goblin asking for background plot information?! What's going on here? Just shut up and enjoy the moment.           Wow! Lookit him go!         The ghost offered them clerical services (for a fee, of course) and sent them on their way. On the other side of the large, wooden doors they could hear scuffling, as well as the sound of exposed bones grinding against each other. There was sure to be a battle on the other side...
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Jun 6, 2015 06:26
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Another opportunity to fail at turning undead!  (So, was it just roleplaying that had the party being fried by lightning in the room with the switch?)
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Jun 6, 2015 13:14
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Cleric- Turn Undead!! Lich- Bolster Undead!! Warriors- Stab Undead!! I look forward to seeing which is the most effective. Keep up the good work, FA!
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Jun 6, 2015 15:59
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Torrannor posted:(So, was it just roleplaying that had the party being fried by lightning in the room with the switch?) Roleplaying! Yyyyyeah, that's the ticket! achtungnight posted:Cleric- Turn Undead!! Thanks! Spoiler: It's going to be more like "HIT UNDEAD"/"RAISE UNDEAD"/"HIT UNDEAD HARDER"
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Jun 7, 2015 06:16
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So, dwarven halls. Any ridiculous stonework traps yet?
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Jun 9, 2015 03:28
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Glazius posted:So, dwarven halls. Any ridiculous stonework traps yet? 
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Jun 13, 2015 21:49
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For those who don't understand the puzzle, the table in the first room shows the three correct/safe symbols (hammer & anvil/crossed axes/intertwined rings) for the scary circle in the next room.
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Jun 13, 2015 21:56
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Torrannor posted:For those who don't understand the puzzle, the table in the first room shows the three correct/safe symbols (hammer & anvil/crossed axes/intertwined rings) for the scary circle in the next room. Also trial and error works perfectly fine with someone as used to physical punishment as Korvid is.
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Jun 13, 2015 22:32
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