BG1 Survivors (Wild Mage TuTu run)

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Go Tiax! Keep the updates coming.

 

I'm almost inspired to have a go at this myself, though I only have the vanilla BG installed (with a few components of BG1 Unfinished Business). I will get around to Tutuing it some day and adding the NPC pack.

Coran has always been awesome for me, but I generally find mages a liability and tend to do without them.

Are you planning on doing the TotSC parts as well? (I generally do Durlag's Tower before entering Baldur's Gate to get it out of the way - I must admit there's something about it I really loathe, though I can't put my finger on it as it does seem quite well designed.)
I'd be surprised if anyone makes it through Durlag's Tower in one piece, though I'm not confidant of your ability to survive Sarevok, either. But go ahead and prove me wrong.

 

This party wont survive the the full game, it's as simple as that

 

@Gholam: Thanks, I'll hit that area. The party of five (Dynaheir, Safana) hit that area shortly before the fatal events occured, and we were able to clear it out quite successfully. I think I'll have a look after picking up Edwin and maybe Coran.

@Caradhas: I think there's something behind Tiax's claim that he will rule all after all. Never again shall I mock him.

@Cal: I actually have only been able to get TotSC installed once before in my whole entire life, and I was like eight back then. Region problems, you see. Therefore, my memories of all TotSC-related areas are exceedingly dim, and so I'm not going to do those areas without knowing what I'm going to be up against.

I forgot to include Faldorn in that list, but, well...we all know she won't survive. Eldoth dying also destroys my chance of having Skie, so that's two NPCs gone for the price of one!

Also, I'm considering ending the game if I manage to get all my NPCs dead, the reasoning being that it'll be more like a solo game than a Survivors match that way. But you can feel free to bet on who you think will die last. After that, I might start a fresh round, or go on to play less traumatising games. I urge you all to try it, 'tis very fun and gutwrenching. I recommend a Cleric type, because you can never get enough healing.

I just suddenly remembered the existence of Viconia...she'll be my next choice if Tiax dies.

 

Oh I agree Faldorn won't survive too long (does she have a kit? a wild shapeshifter or destructive avenger suits her best IMHO), but I trust Viconia's ability to survive, she has the best DEX which grants her best AC when combined with good armor/shields, she also has very good MR which helps a lot. Though she has low CON, cleric's 8 hp/lvl is not that bad, either.

 

I'm not playing with NPC kits this time. Might do it next run. I agree, Avenger suits her very well, and is what I would give her if/when I do install NPC Level 1...mind you, I tried this morning, and it didn't work for me. Oh well.

 

Sirins!
I won't bore you with how we dealt with the hobgoblin army (spells + ghast + slings and arrows), but what we did to the sirines took several large strokes of luck, and countless relaods...

First, Nahal tried to launch a Dweomer Skull Trap into their midsts. Twice it failed, but the last scored a jackpot: Silence! Two of the sirines were silenced, thus robbing them of their invisibility. Tiax, with the boots of Avoidance, charged in and managed to summon his ghast before he got poisoned and charmed. The ghast proceeded to rip everyone up, but poor Tiax was dying slowly. Safana and Nahal returned, the former shooting missiles, the latter shooting magic missiles by way of wand. Tiax shook off the charm, with very little HP in the 2 - 3 range, and managed to CLW without being disrupted. This done, he and the ghast proceeded to kill the remaining sirens. Victory!

We continued on, hiding behind Ghasty, who tore apart the Carrion crawlers. Against the next batch of sirens he went up alone, and he made an amazing series of saves (one reload taught me that he CAN be charmed), and killed two sirins before Sil even saw us. When she did, Ghasty was standing right behind her, and satisfactorily chunked her. What a wonderful little undead beast-slave this is.

Safana levelled up, too.

 

Yay for Ghasty!

 

Good inspiration this. I'll be popping in EasyTuTu for the first time in my life and go the same way, all the way with a female monk.

 

Alrighty!
We managed to steal the treasure. How? Tiax + stealth. He became encumbered, however, so he put on the Cloak, turned into a wolf, and ran the hell away. A golem gave chase, but we fled and left ghasty at the entrance to hold him off. Ghasty died, but oh well. We escaped. Along the way some worgs, apparently ignoring natural instincts, decided to attack wolfman Tiax. But, we fled.

Next up: Bandit camp.

Finding the camp itself - on the Bandit camp map, I mean - was a little difficult. We negotiated through several packs of wild dogs, skeletons, and hobgoblins, but got there without too much trouble. Tiax went ahead, to scout, and brought back scrolls of Fireball and Web. These two spells should be a godsend, but they were not, because Nahal in his retarded glory failed to copy BOTH.

Clearing the base itself out was an ordeal. Every time we approached, we would be pincushioned. Eventually, I worked out a tactic. We went into the tent - the one that stashed the scrolls - and summoned Ghasty near the entrance. Nahal threw a Mirror Image on and went outside, danced for a bit, and entered again. Bandits and Targohz Tenhammer followed. Targohz was easily charmed, and he and Ghasty managed to rip everyone else (who were Horrified thanks to Edwin) to pieces. Repeat; Credu (or whatever) and another bunch of bandits drawn in. The Charm wore off, but it was easily reapplied. Finally, Targohz snapped out of it, and, seeing his friends dead on the ground, went insane and attempted to attack us. He was put down with a few slingshots from Tiax and Magic Missiles from Nahal.

The group went outside and managed to rest (don't ask me how...I assume they just set up a tent in the middle of someone else's camp), and then it's time to brave the bosses inside the main tent.

Before the battle, Safana and Tiax quaffed Oils of Speed, and Edwin quaffed a Potion of Defence while Nahal setup a Mirror Image. We charged in.

As soon as battle began, Tiax threw out Ghasty, and I left him to his own devices. He was armed with the warhammer of the late Targohz, and could deal decent amounts of damage, and he also had -4 AC due to the ankheg plate and the Gloves of Dexterity. Safana, I loaded her with what I think is poisoned arrows and shoot people. Edwin and myself launched spells at the mage. The battle went incredibly well, and was entirely one-sided, until the end. Ghasty had managed to rip apart practically all of the enemy, while the mage was falling under barrages of Melf's Acid Arrow and Magic Missiles. However, the tide of battle turned.

Tiax got hit by the gnoll, and died.
Safana was poisoned, and heavily wounded. I got her to drink an antidote, then I intended for her to drink a healing potion, but the aftereffects of a Melf's Acid Arrow slew her, too.

And then, suddenly, the battle was over; the dust settled, and everyone but me, Edwin, and Ghasty was dead (yes, Ghasty outlived Tiax!). I was rather shocked. But, being true to my word, I removed Tiax and Safana from my party, and bid my farewells.

Nahal levelled up to 5, and received two level three slots. This might have been nice if he had, oh, I dunno, managed to learn FIREBALL or something. Geez, what a loser.

Anyways. We transported our companion's equipment into nearby boxes, but took especially the magical longbow one of the enemies dropped. Next stop: Cloakwood. Well, FAI actually, because we rested up first (and Nahal got a Horror). And then, Cloakwood.

I've actually always been able to go to Cloakwood forest, the first part, because of some mod or another. However, being cool and hard-arsed, I had refused to get Coran on basis of morality. Anyways, once in the area, we made a straight dash for him. Two bands of tasloi encountered us, but we shot Horror spells at them and they fled. And then...Coran! We gave him the longbow as a gift, and he gained a wonderful, wonderful 8 THAC0. To prove his worth, he shot every single tasloi he could see to death in a few shots.

We then headed to Peldvale, got our arses kicked by gibberlings (because Coran ran out of arrows. Heh, Coran ran), and ran away to Beregost. There, we rested and bought supplies, and I pondered if we should get Viconia or Finch to join our party next.

 

Now that is a surprise- I thought Tiax was going to go the full distance. In regards to getting a cleric- why not both?

Oh, and I hope the ghast was getting his fair share of party treasure! He fairly earned it.

 

Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not Tiax!!!!

 

Better get Finchy, 'cause you are going to need a healer... and Viconia might be more powerful if you pick her up later on. Darn it... I was rooting for Tiax to be a Survivor. In Tutu, he has more stuff to say/things to do, but for a crazy meglomaniacle homicidal Chosen of Cyric, he ain't that bad (rather, he is just the right amount of bad to be the FR equivalent of Dr. Evil or a slid James Bond villain).

 

A wonderful quote! And so true!

 

Ghasty is the main reason I'm feeling sorry for Tiax.
I second the party treasure request that Decados made.

 

We followed Decado's advice, and picked up Finchy. However, I took one look at her stats - 8HP?! A quick check of the Record Screen shows that she was only level one. What?! Why doesn't she level up according to Nahal (5) ?!

So, we took advantage of her glasses to identify some stuff, then left her. I mean, with 8HP she's going to die in two seconds flat, and I find her funny. She'll just drag us down by taking a share of the XP, anyhow. Personally, I think 3x identify/day is a bit overpowered, what with the all-round low Lore and importance of level one spells in BG1. Most mages don't have the luxury to stuff an Identify into their spellbook because a Colour Spray is infinitely better. 1x/day might be better, IMHO.

So we left her in Beregost, and headed for Peldvale, and picked up Viconia. Our reputation fell to 8 (Disliked), which Coran wasn't too happy about. I'd like to add that I have the low reputation = better prices part of the Tweak Pack installed, for the sake of my evil party. After all, they have to deal with enough crap already, they should be able to intimidate people for cheap stuff. Anyhow, after that we made a dive straight for Gullykin, and picked up Alora, who was relocated because of the BG1NPC mod. This is a necessity because Coran's skill focuses are in stealthing, while Alora's is in Open Locks and Pickpocket. Neither can find trap competently, which is a very bad thing. The BG1Fixpack seems to have overlooked her when relocating BG1 weapon proficiencies, because hers was in Spear and Unused. I used ShadowKeeper to edit her back (Small Sword, Missile). She was level four.

The party of five went back to the bandit camp to get our loot, and here I discovered a bug in Finch. Amongst our travels we had came across some books, and when I picked this up from the stash, she started talking to me - all the way back from Beregost! The conversation that ran, however, is the one about rejoining the party. She continously did this until we put the item back in the stash. Seems like someone forgetting a check to see if she's actually in the party. While in the bandit camp, we also wiped out Mr. Crush and his hobgoblin buddies. When we were done, nary a bandit was left to be seen. Eldoth and Xzar have been avenged.

What sort of stupid idea is it to have Officer Vai disappear as soon as you have a large collection of bandit scalps due to fighting the bandits? Bah...

We would keep adventuring, but Coran started whining about wyverns. So we hurriedly ran over to Cloakwood. Note the word "hurriedly", which here means "without antidotes or healing potions". You see, I had thought the wyvern area was the one directly after Coran, but...well. It is a mistake I shall remember, as you will see.

So we hit the Spider Area of Cloakwood. Three important things are necessary for this area: 1) Find Traps 2) Antidotes 3) Fireball for the Fat Thing. We have none of the above. Viconia threw out a Find Traps spell, which happily located them, but neither Coran nor Alora were able to disable them. So we drew out the spiders and got them to cross over, where we then made mincemeat of them.

Viconia is armed with a Sling +1 (we had picked it up in Beregost for a cheap 150GP!), and as such had pretty good THAC0. She and Coran shot down many spiders in this area.

Having completely forgotten which way to go we headed down, and in a certain area we got beset by Spiders, and Viconia got poisoned. She quaffed a potion and Nahal healed her, but alas, it was no use. The poison acted too swiftly, and the drow soon died, leaving me without a cleric... (looks like I'll have to pick up Faldorn)

This is the gist of what happened last night. I must admit, however, to faltering from my cause in two occasions when Alora and Coran died. I had Nahal pull some highly unorthodox endeavours that I normally wouldn't have done, getting him killed. Okay, in layman terms, I charged him into spiders. This is completely against the spirit of Survivors and it shall not happen again.

Anyways, Coran is quickly proving his worth. After hunting down the wyvern, I think the four of us shall travel around the Sword Coast for a bit and pick up spare bits of equipment (Boots of Stealth, Bracers of Archery, etc). Possibly with Faldorn. Then, when Nahal is of a higher level, we shall go to the mines in hopes of picking up Level 6 Yeslick. Wait, Yeslick is multiclass, isn't he? Would he be 5/5? Or 6/6? I'm so confused...

Coran is proving to be immensely powerful, and our party's survival is dependent on him. I almost wish that Nahal is a girl so (s)he could romance Coran. Yes, I'm that grateful to him.

Re Lore and Decados: If Ghasty could have treasure, then I would give him all the gold we have and let him retire in the underworld somewhere.

 

Yeah, I got that one too. Amusing at first, but I quickly learned to leave the books untouched.

I'm sure there is a 'no gender requirements' buried in tweaks...

 

We finally managed to trek through the spider area without further incident, and then we hunted down Peter of the North and his two friends, which shut Coran up. Then, we grabbed Faldorn (needed a healer), and continued onwards to the mines.

The pre-mine battle with Darsus and co. went sweetly. A Stinking Cloud began the battle, while Coran pumped everyone with poison arrows. A beautiful Surge that Held one of the fighters helped immensely, and the mages were struck by a Skull Missile (the poor man's Fireball). Nobody died. All in all, very sweet.

(Ironically, we have more problem dealing with average guards.)

About here I installed the patch that lets Coran backstab with longswords, because it makes sense. The first level of the mines were cleared by him alone, with the Boots of Speed and running about backstabbing people.

The second level, with the mage chick, was incredibly difficult. We went around the long way, and picked up Yeslick first (meeting Ghasty's friends on the way - they didn't see it that way, though...). Yeslick has a wonderful 61HP. The battle took many, many reloads, but in the end, Coran lured them out into the ghast-passage, and Nahal shot a Stinking Cloud. Some of them tried to come from the other way, and were held off by Faldorn (Ankheg Plate, 0AC) and Yeslick (Full Plate Armour + Gloves of Dexterity, -4AC). However, the mage chick and some goons were still in the hall area. I won't go into detail, but it took a LOT of stealth-and-backstabs.

Coran, Alora, and Edwin levelled up here. Coran I invested a little into find traps and mostly into stealth, Alora I poured her skills all into Find Traps, and Edwin got level three spells. Unfortunately, he FAILED TO LEARN THE HASTE SPELL OFF THE MAGE CHICK. What a retard.

We rested, and continued on. The second level began with a Skull Missile to the face that cleared the room out pretty well. The rest were handled by Faldorn and Yeslick being damage sponges up front while Coran shot everyone into pincushions. The crazy half-elf reached about 120 kills around here. Clearing this level was overall quite easy.

And then, the big bad himself. Daevaeron. Alora managed to find and clear the Phoenix Guard traps, which made the battle a lot easier. Yeslick charged in after casting Spiritual Hammer, eager to get his revenge. Nahal and Edwin supported with spells (nb: Edwin had learnt Slow from Natasha, but didn't come into play here). However, just as Daevaeron was about to die, being plummeted by Magic Missiles, he managed to shoot a Melf's at Faldorn, Hold Yeslick, and summon an Ettercup. The ettercup bastard poisoned Yeslick, and killed him dead.

Killed him dead. Yeslick.

We managed to slay both ettercup and mage, and Faldorn was running low on HP. We cured her and she drank a potion, but alas, the spell was too potent. And she died.

She died. After the battle.

I sat rather stunned, because I had hoped that Yeslick would go the whole way. He had great amounts of potential. I was tempted to reload. But, nay, I persisted, cleared myself of that thought by quicksaving over my previous save, and grimly exited the game. I placated myself with the thought that both of them sacrificed themselves for a cause they believed. Yeslick got his revenge, though post-mortemly, and Faldorn died for the sake of the grove.

There are no NPCs left, except for Quayle, who is the worst cleric in the world, and Finch, who is level one. There are no frontliners left, only spellcasters, a rogue, and an archer. This journey, I fear, shall soon come to an end. Stay tuned.

 

Don't let the dream die!

 

This run has been so fun, it's worthy of a blaze of glory finish. Go get them, DM!