Just wanted to say thanks for the late night quest last night. Sune recruited, and Helm charged us with retrieving a key. I got to go in with like 10 people into the highlands and visiting the minotaurs. There were lots of undead, and I was a might short on holy water, but it was great fun. I was casting like a madman, and the warriors were killing everything. Undead minotaurs, warrior mummies, skeletal devourers, and and a Minotaur Lich-god (?), oh my.
In addition, the night before the Ghoul King didn't just take his beating and die. No, he was talking smack and laying it down. We barely escaped with our lives (smaller group), and it'll be a while before I visit him again.
I'm a newbie here (started playing the game 2 weeks ago and found this server through friends...I usually play online as Glinkle Daernorn)...someone recommended I post this experience online to show other newbies that cool stuff is happening here...so here it goes (what follows is all attributed to the Gods and my own experience with what happened...all I know is that it was great fun even though perhaps what I attribute to the Gods or my own actions had other causes...):
Last night, the Gods of the Neversummer had their fun with us (me and 2 friends...I'll call them Jack and Beans)...We (Jack, Beans, and myself), were exploring Ogre Pass and Giant Mountain around 8 pm CST USA when what I believe to be an avatar of one of the Gods, known as ‘forest walker’, suddenly appeared and helped us clear out giants along with 7 escorting treants and 5-10 celestial acherons (perhaps this wasn't a God, but another player...regardless we all attributed it to the Gods)...
Forest Walker kept talking to us that the balance between evil and good must be restored...I agreed (except about balance between law and chaos, which I kept to myself) and role played since my gnome cleric was Lawful Neutral...after clearing out the giants with us (Jack, Beans and I thought it was awesome) the forest walker then turned on us...however I soon noticed that the Forest Walker was only targeting Jack and Beans and not me.
I watched as Jack and Beans got chased and thouroughly beat down by the acherons, treants, and forest walker (I had no spells left and needed to rest so I couldn't help)...the forest walker chased them from the mountain top, then returned to me saying “Balance has been restored” and “I bid you farewell”, etc., then the deity left...
Soon Jack and Beans came back asking what had happened...I had front row seats, talked with the Forest Walker, and was never damaged...
Later, we were exploring the Giant Caves at Giant mountain, started around 8:30 pm CST, and halfway through, my 13th lev cleric, Bean's 9th lev rogue type, and Jack's 13th lev fighter-dwarven defender type were contacted by the Gods along with anyone else on the server who was interested in a quest...looking to get into a party of 7th - 14th lev characters.
We agreed and we were transported to somewhere near the Northern Coalition along with 6 other characters (so 9 in our party now)...
Jack and I were most likely the highest level characters, everyone else was 7-9th...
All 9 of us were stuck on a boat waiting for an area to open up. Some Northern Coalition NPCs were milling around on land. Some of our party opened up on these unsuspecting NPCs. I begged them to stop since I was from the Northern Coalition...2 NPC deaths later, and the party members stopped...perhaps it was my request that no one assault the Northern Coalition or else I would not use resurrects or heals on the offending party member in the upcoming quest? After I made this announcement, our party stopped assaulting the NPCs.
Helm soon appeared to us. All of us were requested by Helm to enter an undead lair and rid it of a growing presence (undead Minotaurs), then return a magic key/item to Helm...Helm unblocked the way from the boat and then all of us made our way through the area to the tomb in the NW (everyone ran from Northern Coalition NPCs now rather than combating them). This was very cool for me since I realized that some of our party members wanted to take them out but maybe because of my request they did not? (I like to think in some small way my actions saved some of my Northern Coalition brethren...hee hee).
We went in the tomb and found undead Minotaurs...after 2-3 subterranean levels of our group overpowering the undead inside, we started running into Mohrgs...undead that can make you die if you fail Fortitude save with some sort of sonic attack? Furthermore we were fighting off howling Banshees and Mummies too.
Fortunately I never died, but I was resurrecting and healing people all over the place...
Finally we made it to the inner sanctum of the minotaur lich...it took 30 mins and all our spells to defeat him...many of us were dying..finally (what follows is my understanding of events...perhaps someone else who participated last night knows a little more detail...) I was able to cast a very lucky Heal on him (last spell left after 4 previous failures of the same spell on the lich...wanted to save Heal for one of our party members, but decided to finally use my last one up...) to bring him down to 1d4 HP (did 320 hp damage) works like 'Harm' on undead? Then one of our meat shields...perhaps Jack? took him out with one hit...then grabbed the magic key.
It was most excellent...a very fun evening...we were teleported out by Helm, granted xp halfway to the next level, then transported back to Avendell...bade farewell to all other party members and then logged out.
By then it was 2 am!(when Jack, Beans and I were only going to play for an hour or two!) Very cool...
My thanks to the devs who created this quest for us...I can't wait to log on again soon! Perhaps my next post will be about the enemy I've seemed to have made known as 'The Black Knight' 10th lev cleric/2nd lev Blackguard last time I checked (yes I have run from you before, perhaps we'll meet again and a battle will ensue?)...
Take care all,
Glinkle Daernorn
Humble cleric of Callarduran Smoothhands
For such an impromptu large quest, I'd say it ran rather smoothly. For the most part, you all worked as a team and proceeded with caution, a massive improvement from last time.
Holghask, you did quite well as a support cleric. Although there are many who think clerics belong on the front lines, I'd say clerics are even more effective behind the scenes. I've been working on a support cleric recently, and having 10+ major heal spells (and those lovely raises) memorized can definitely turn the tide of battle.
Relating to the heal spell, for this mod it is changed. Instead of fully healing one or reducing an undead to 1d4, it does healing or dmg based upon caster lvl. Therefore, it is likely you finished off that Minotaur Lich with your damage spike.
Believe me, it was fun on this end, as well. Keep on playing and events will surely ensue.
But, it's such a draining job that, until you've DMed on an NWN server yourself, you the playerbase, have got to cut the DMs some slack. - Flailer
And I agree about the support clerics. I've got a drow cleric at level 16 which has air and healing domains. She's perfect for hiding in her darkness, letting near dead comrades hide in the darkness, get healed, and then run out into battle again. Plus Heal, Raise Dead, and Resurrection... And in a spot having Call Lighting? That's a fun support cleric.
