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CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6 | CHAPTER 7 | CHAPTER 8 | CHAPTER 9 | CHAPTER 10 | |
Brynnlaw | Spellhold | Asylum Dungeon - Level 1 | Asylum Dungeon - Level 2 | Asylum Dungeon - Level 3 | Asylum Tests | Escape from Spellhold | City of Caverns | |
ASYLUM DUNGEON - LEVEL 3
Horseshoe Wheel
The party descends to the next level of the dungeon. Now it's safe to rest up without getting ambushed by Bodhi's vampires. The party proceeds through the door immediately within view and to the south.
Imoen finds a secret door that's a little south and east. Within the small room is a horseshoe wheel. Turning it causes another nearby secret door to open, which opens the way for Trolls to attack me.
Trolls in SCS are somewhat more difficult to deal with. In vanilla BG2 even a single point of fire or acid damage sufficed to finish off a Troll after it had been brought down. In SCS it takes about 5 or so points of acid or fire damage to permanently kill a Troll while it is in its recuperative state. Acid or Fire Arrows (involving a saving throw) are thus not the most reliable method for dealing with Trolls. In this instance Jaheira's Flame Blade spell provides a reliable method for finishing them off.
One other monster that shows is a Spirit Troll, which can cast Clerical spells and drain strength with its attacks. Persistence nonetheless should suffice. Jaheira's Flame Blade has expired by now, so Avastrian delivers the coup de grace with a Burning Hands spell.
There are containers in the room that the Trolls came from which have a scroll of Breach that Avastrian scribes, magical ammunition, and a couple of Mithril Tokens. Avastrian holds onto these as they will lead to a couple of rewards.
Paintings
The party continues south and east. On the other side will be a few Minotaurs, which are defeated easily enough. A container in the room has a couple more Mithril Tokens, some magical ammunition, and a scroll of Sunfire.
Avastrian scribes the Sunfire scroll, as it enhances some of my tactics. I often have Avastrian render himself invulnerable with protective buffs, and then move on ahead to absorb the monsters' onslaught by himself while the rest of the party fires away at a safe distance. The Sunfire spell can sharpen these kinds of tactics considerably.
The party continues to the next room to the north east. A well in the middle has a couple more Mithril Tokens, a Minotaur Horn that I'll use later, as well as a Mind Flayer Painting. I leave the painting be, as I'll get a higher xp reward for not using it.
There are three statues along the side of the room. They'll yield paintings that I will use, but not without setting off some kind of dangerous magical trap. So I have the party leave the room. Jaheira then casts Protection from Fire and Death Ward on Avastrian.
Avastrian then goes into the room by himself. The statue on the left yields a Troll Painting. This unleashes a Disintegrate spell effect, which Avastrian's Death Ward absorbs harmlessly. The statue in the middle yields an Umber Hulk Painting. This unleashes a Cloudkill effect, which Jaheira gets rid of by casting Zone of Clean Air. The statue on the right yields a Djinn Painting, which unleashes a Fireball that is easily minimized. Note the theme of immunizing one character against the harmful effects, while keeping the rest of the party at a safe distance.
Painting Doorways
The party back tracks to where they first entered this level. This time they go down a hallway that starts a little more north and heads eastward. There will be a door to the north after the hallway bends.
On the other side will several Yuan-ti, including a Yuan-ti Mage. Avastrian starts off by casting Cloudkill just beyond their fog of war. This is not so much with the expectation that they'll take damage during the whole of the spell's duration. It is more with the idea of 'smoking them out'.
The various bends in the narrow hallways plays to my advantage. Imoen starts off with a Skull Trap right at the door, which the Yuan-ti inevitably set off as they have to come through a tight doorway. The party retreats further and further back, and each time Imoen plants another Skull Trap after the party rounds another hallway bend. Each time the trap will be set off by the Yuan-ti as they have to follow me through the narrow halls.
This also yields another advantage. When I return to the room to the west, I go south from the hallway and oblige the Yuan-ti to follow me. This also forces the Yuan-ti Mage to come closer to the party than he would like. Once he does, Jaheira grabs the opportunity to hit one of the Yuan-ti with an Insect Plague which spreads to the Mage. Avastrian and Imoen unleash their Chaos and Slow combo, and this allows the party to hack down the Yuan-ti one by one.
Soon only the Mage is left. Keldorn could use Dispel Magic to bring down the Mage's protections, but this is not optimum since it will get rid of Insect Plague effect as well. Instead, Imoen hits it with Breach. This tears down the Mage's protections but still leaves it suffering from the Insect Plague. The party soon chops him down.
The party now finds itself in a room with multiple doorways that resemble the paintings I've collected. Note that I could have used the Mind Flayer Painting to open the Mind Flayer door on the far left. Killing the Mind Flayer on the other side yields the Flame of the North (Two-Handed Sword +2, +10% magic resistance, +4 damage to chaotic evil enemies) which could serve as an interim poor man's Carsomyr. Ultimately I prefer to get the higher xp bonus that comes with not opening this door.
The door on the right reveals a Noble Djinn, that is easily killed and leaves behind a random treasure.
The Troll Door to the left releases a quite tough Spirit Troll. I have Avastrian cast Haste beforehand. He and Keldorn then persist in attacking it after it has put the rest of the party to sleep with a Greater Command spell. Once the rest of the party wakes up, I am able to bring it down. Jaheira casts Flame Blade in order to finish it off for good. The Spirit Troll leaves behind Malakar (+2 Katana, +2 to armor class vs. slashing weapons). Since I'm here, I'll take the opportunity to express my opinion that dual-wielding is a good idea when the off-hand weapon offers benefits besides one extra attack. In this regard Malakar does nicely, although Avastrian does have better in mind for the future.
The Umber Hulk Door releases an unusually powerful Umber Hulk that takes some effort to bring down.
Gesen Bowstring
The party continues north, then east, and then into a room with three Clay Golems that are standing dormant for the time being. A chest in the room has a Diamond, 4 Mithril Tokens, and the Gesen Bowstring. I save the Diamond since it's used to upgrade a ring as part of the Items Upgrade mod. The Gesen Bow will be part of my future plans for Imoen, so obviously I'll want the string.
Thing is, once I grab the Bowstring the door will close. The Clay Golems will also turn hostile and attack me. This can be a dangerous fight, especially for a lower level party that may not be packing a lot of magical blunt weapons. The key to this is positioning. I will be relying on Jaheira and Anomen to bring down the Golems one by one, so I don't want them to face too much heat at once. I thus position them closest to the Golem on the right. Keldorn and Minsc face the Golem in the center. This also means that the Golem on the left will have the most opportunities to attack over time. I thus position Avastrian and Imoen, each protected by Stoneskin and Mirror Image, closest to this Golem in order to absorb its attacks. Anomen and Minsc both cast Armor of Faith on themselves. Avastrian adds Haste to the party. Imoen loots the chest to begin the battle. Anomen and Jaheira take town the right Golem, then the center Golem, and then the left Golem. The door opens up afterwards.
The Slayer
Now the party travels to the southeast corner of the level, killing a couple of Trolls along the way. They then turn north to a room with four globes. The first globe on the left casts Slow at the party. The next one to the right casts Cure Serious Wounds on a party member standing in the middle of the room. The next one to the right casts Haste on the party. The last Globe on the far right casts Cause Serious Wounds on the party member standing in the middle of the room.
Avastrian continues by himself northwards. He has another confrontation with Bodhi, who is accompanied by two Elder Vampires. This ends right away as Avastrian unknowingly transforms into an avatar form that had been used by Bhaal, the Slayer. This forces Bodhi and the other Vampires to flee. Avastrian will be hostile towards other party members while in this state, thus the reason I left the rest of the party behind.
Anomen goes on ahead, and coaxes Avastrian to follow and thus safety absorb Avastrian's attack. The Slayer transformation wears off after a little while. I then use the second globe on the left to heal Avastrian of his wounds.
Minotaur Horns
Now Avastrian equips the Shield of Balduran. He goes back to where he confronted Bodhi, and then to a room a little to the west. He kills off a single Minotaur. A container has 4 Mithril Tokens, Bullets +1, Bullets +2, and a scroll of Chain Lightning which he scribes.
He continues to the north side of the room, where he kills 3 Minotaurs by himself. The Shield protects him from the Gauth that is nearby. Once the Minotaurs are dead, he finishes off the Gauth.
Now he regroups with the party and unequips the Shield. The party returns to where Avastrian confronted Bodhi. Note the large Minotaur statue. A hallway leads east and then south from the room. At the other end is a room with a few Minotaurs. Note how I let them come to me instead of fighting them at a narrow doorway. A container in the room has some magical arrows, a scroll of Limited Wish, and a second Minotaur Horn.
I have Avastrian scribe the scroll of Limited Wish. There's two reasons for this. One, I prefer to have Imoen use spells whose effectiveness depends on Mage level (e.g. more damage with each Mage level) since her Mage level will be higher than Avastrian's. Limited Wish is not dependent on Mage level, so there's nothing lost with having Avastrian use it. Secondly, the options that are available after a casting of Limited Wish are dependent on the casting character's Wisdom score. Avastrian has a higher Wisdom score, so he can make more effective use of the spell.
The party returns to the room, and Avastrian affixes both Horns to the statue. This opens the door to the next level, and earns 29,500xp for each party member. But I'm not done here just yet.
Token Machine
Now the party heads back to near the room where the Gesen Bowstring was found. This time they head through the door to the south. The room on the other side has a Stone Golem. It can be hit by magical weapons, blunt or slashing. It can also cast a Slow effect on nearby party members. The containers in the room have more Mithril Tokens, bring my total to 21, and a scroll of Maze. Avastrian scribes this scroll, and the rational is similar. Maze's effectiveness is not limited by the casting character's Mage level, but by the Intelligence score of the target. It thus makes sense for Avastrian to make use of it.
Further south will be a strange machine that the Mithril Tokens can be inserted into. The rewards are as follows:
On the other hand, a long term objective is for me to eventually have everybody wearing boots that will double their foot speed. In fact, one of the key benefits of the Items Upgrade mod is the option to combine Boots of Speed (and there will be several throughout the game) with other boots. But for now the choice is any easy one. Avastrian spends 15 tokens to get the Boots of Speed, and then 5 tokens to get the Boots of the North.
Avastrian is first in line for Boots of Speed, because I use certain tactics that involve Avastrian rendering himself invulnerable through magical protections and then absorbing the monsters' onslaught by himself. The boots make setting up position that much easier. It also augments his role as a warrior, able to quickly move from one monster to the next as he cuts down one after the other.
Jaheira wears the Boots of the North. In the long run she'll have an armor that provides fire resistance, and an item that immunizes her against electrical damage. She thus rounds things out with a source of resistance to cold damage. I eventually plan to combine her Boots of the North with another Boots of Speed to create the Blizzard Boots under the Item Upgrade mod.
Now that I'm done here, I head back to the exit to the next level.
