Preparing a return to Targos...

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Someone in my D&D group once ran an Orc Bard who used a drum as his instrument. He had horrible Charisma and all his Perform checks were woeful. He would often burst into bellowing song at inconvenient moments, including when we were trying to sneak into a castle.

 

LOL. Some Orc bards (or their players) are better tied down to a chair, than actually traveling with the party. It sounds like yours is one of those.

Not ole Triug, though. He is a lot smarter than your average rat, and a lot more pleasant than your average ochre jelly. In fact, I maxed his charisma and gave him a decent intelligence for diplomatic skills, so he's quite a comely, refined lad (if you can get past the fangs).

 

Sounds like fun and makes me want to play the game . I had a very similar party once; my half-orc was less refined fighter(4)/barbarian(x). Dual wielding ranger/rogue-types are one of my favorite builds, not uber powerful but very cool.

 

The horde has now been broken and Targos has been saved, at least for the moment. Guthma was a powerful bugbear chieftain, to be sure, but his greatest strength proved to be his undoing. He believed so fervently that he would succeed, that he did not see his defeat until Renespr's axe was burrowed deep into his heart.

Triumphantine's March has returned to Targos as heroes once again, hoping for some much deserved rest. But, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Lord Ulbrec has issued an order to send them in search of the reinforcements from Neverwinter. Well, at least the pay has been good.

They will spend the day recovering and spending a little of that hard earned coin. On the morrow they shall set off with Oswald in his air ship in search of allies, and what is sure to be plenty more adventure, and danger. If Phan plays his cards right, and can remain beyond the eagle eyes of Niev, tonight may be the night that he truly gets to experience Kiara, not as the Paladin warrior, but as the blushing maiden. Sometimes even a paladin needs the touch of another.

Underneath the reverie of another victory won is a question that has been plaguing the party. Who is this Sherincal? And who does she bow to? It is certain that Triumphantine's March has made powerful enemies.

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@Kullervo if this thread is making you wish to play, I will advise you to jump on that impulse. I'm simply having a great time with my game.

Now all party members are ECL 7. Triumphantine (aka Triug, aka Phan), my Half-Orc Barbarian1/Bard6 has proven to be my most effective killer, with 27% of the experience value and 25% of the kills.

All party members have become extremely powerful, and now that Maraph'en (Wild Elven Sorceress7) has fireball at her disposal, things are really heating up.

I had a weird issue when leveling up Maraph'en to level 7. When I assigned her newest spell, a level 1 spell, the game crashed. I ended up having to download DaleKeeper and level her up manually. Odd, right?

 

I'm now in chapter 4, and just entered the Underdark. All of my team members are CL 12 (Kiara and Niev are ECL 13), except for Triumphantine, who is level 13 thanks to a nifty and EXPENSIVE manual he read while staying with the Black Raven monks.

Had a good time in the Andora/Ice Temple Area. I've seen many posts about how difficult the Sherincal battle is. I managed to take her down on my first try without any party deaths. I actually had a tougher time with the Queen Rhemoraz (sp?), when after she died my team got engulfed in flames.

The temple was fairly straight forward. The Battle Squares challenge was simply a grueling experience to complete -- but I gained some awesome items in the process.

Icewind Dale's difficulty level out of the box is comparable to the difficulty level of Baldur's Gate II AFTER a tactical mod is installed to dramatically increase difficulty.

I love how enemies swarm my team, set ambushes, and generally work together. It makes for challenging battles.

I'm most impressed with my party leader, Triumphantine. He's a Half-Orc Barbarian 1/ Bard 12. I was concerned as to just how effective he would be in battle. Well, he just keeps getting better and better, and outshines the rest of the party by a significant margin in terms of kills and experience gained. He is credited for 1/3 of the party's kills in a group of 6. I use him as a pretty straight forward sword slinger, with two handed weapons and some defensive spells to help keep him in the fight.

Looking forward to exploring the Underdark next!

 

Thorasskus is slain, and his remaining forces within Dragon’s Eye are in disarray. The question that so many are asking is how did a small band of adventures accomplish so much, come so far? Were they to stop and contemplate their many deeds, Triumphantine’s March would probably find them no easier to believe than anyone else. When foes descend from all directions there is little time for such idle contemplation, however. Surviving until the next day, the next hour… the next moment is what an adventurer must consider when deep in hostile territory.

At the same time, facing one’s mortality every moment of every day does tend to increase a person’s need for companionship, romantic or otherwise. The simple flirtations between Phan and Kiara that began all the way back in Luskan – an entire lifetime ago, seemingly – have blossomed into a love that is worthy of a bard’s tale. Phan has always been a remarkable Half-Orc, a testament that a book should not be judged by its cover. But even so, he has spent most of his life outcast and hated. Now he has finally found his place, in the arms of his beloved, Kiara de’Chantille. Even Niev knows not to try to stand in the way of his half-sister’s infatuation with Phan.

Now that he is not looking over Kiara with his every waking moment, Niev has turned his eye toward the Wild Elven Sorceress, Maraph’en. She has yet to answer his advances, but neither has she put a stop to them. Now it is her traveling companion, Renespr, who has assumed the role of the protective warden. He does not allow Niev to pass a moment with Maraph’en unless he is nearby.

Vothe, who came to Phan’s side as his protector, has become a guardian over all of his companions. In those all too brief moments of respite, Vothe is ever watchful. He communes with nature and seeks warnings of impending danger.

The six travelers, in spite of many differences among them, have learned to trust each other with their lives, and it is perhaps this reason more than any other that is responsible for their many victories. But their struggle is not over yet. The Severed Hand is still a long journey off, and much is yet to be risked if Triumphantine’s Watch is to confront Isair and Madae there.

Tonight the party shall enjoy some comfort in Kuldahar, and celebrate another day that they are fortunate enough to draw breath. Tomorrow they will set off again against dangers untold.

 

Makes me want to dust off my old copy and start a whole new group from scratch. I still have yet to beat the game

 

Glad to hear it outputrotation. I'm also honored to have evoked one of your 64 posts in your time on these boards since January 2003. I figure, you don't post here, unless you really have something to say.

I'm a little sad, as I just defeated Isair and Madae not 5 minutes ago. Sad to see the adventure come to an end. I'll have to write a proper conclusion when I have a little time.

 

Marceror, I applaud your (quite obviously) better skills at suspension of disbelief to be able to accurately roleplay something as ill-suited to it as Icewind Dale 2. It's been entertaining to read your story.

 

Thanks Sir Rechet. I don't see it as suspenion of disbelief anymore than it is in a game like Baldur's Gate. Yeah, I have to buy into the idea of a world called Toril, filled with monsters, dragons and wizards, and the like... but otherwise, why should these characters be any less real or believable than Anomen, Nalia, Edwin, and without their own interparty dynamics?

Creating the backstory is the most time consuming part, which in this case I did back in 06, but for reasons I can't even recall, I never did much with them. From there, it's not so different than the sort of roleplaying that occurs during a P&P DnD game, where your imagination gets to run wild. In particular, I became quite connected to the Half-Orc Triug, stage name Triumphantine (Phan for short), and his struggle to be accepted by the world in spite of his Orcish features. The idea that an Aasimar Palidan could fall in love with him was also one that appealed to me, and gave me a lot of ideas.

Some parts were harder to roleplay, like chapter 6 where the plot of the game itself gets a bit convoluted. But as I value roleplaying much higher than I value powergaming (and I did some of both in this playthrough, make no mistake)... the extra creativity required to create those extra roleplaying opportunities resulted in a much richer gaming experience for me.