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CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6 | CHAPTER 7 | CHAPTER 8 | CHAPTER 9 | CHAPTER 10 | |
Underdark | Kuo-Toan Caves | Illithid City | Beholder Caves | Ust Natha | Leaving the Underdark | |
UST NATHA
Adalon
Now I go north, and cross the bridge where I earlier fought a squadron of Drow. The tunnel branches two ways. The path to the right leads to the city of Ust Natha itself. I take the path on the left, which leads to the lair of the Silver Dragon, Adalon.
She's had her eggs stolen by Bodhi and Irenicus, and she tasks me with their recovery. She casts an illusionary spell so that my party is disguised as Drow Elves.
I then leave the lair and take the path on the right. The safe and simple response of my being Veldrin from Ched Nesad suffices to gain me entry into Ust Natha.
Solaufein
Now I enter Ust Natha, and the first thing I see is a merchant bazaar. The merchant to my immediate left sells spell scrolls. The one spell that I'm interested in purchasing is Spell Sequencer, which allows a character to unleash 3 spells of fourth level or lower. My preferences are as follows ...
For Avastrian (and for Jan Jansen in the evil party), I prefer Stoneskin + Fire Shield + Mirror Image. The idea is that for a Fighter/Mage or Thief/Mage build, being able to put up multiple buffs at once that offer protection during melee combat is a great thing to have. It means the character can handily defend himself in a pinch.
For Imoen (and Edwin in the evil party), I prefer three Skull Traps strung together. Even with the enhanced AI of SCS, you can still for the most part keep a single-class Mage out of harm's way simply by keeping the Mage at a distance from the main brawl. Physical protection isn't quite the same concern as it is for a multi-class build. I thus prefer to put together a more offensive option in place. Skull Trap has no limit on the damage it can inflict. It literally inflicts 1d6 worth of damage for every Mage level the character using it has. Hitting the enemy with three Skull Traps at once can blow them away outright.
The merchant a little more north sells armor and weapons. Some of the more notable ones include:
I then head towards the Male Fighters' Society, and speak with a Drow Warrior named Solaufein. He then bids me to meet him near the gate to the city. Once there, I find both Solaufein and Handmaiden Imrae. They have a quest for me, to rescue a Matron Mother's daughter named Phaere. I am to rendezvous with Solaufein near the entrance to the Illithid City within 12 hours. *Note* Keep in mind that these time limits must be observed strictly, otherwise the city will turn hostile.
Chandrilla's Party
Now I leave Ust Natha, and head south. Once I'm across the bridge, I buff up and summon a Skeleton Warrior and a Fire Elemental. Due west will be a hostile adventuring party that includes an Elven Cleric named Chandrilla, a Mage named N'Ashtar, an Ogre named Boz, a Thief named Damien, a Goblin archer named Simbja, an Imp named Pitch, a Skeleton, and a War Dog.
I tease a little west, and once the foremost show, Imoen casts Web as a method of crowd-control. This results in the enemies either being stuck in the Web and unable to come forward, or unable to cast spells. She accentuates things by adding Chaos to further limit their ability to attack. I hoped Jaheira could get off an Insect Plague, but she always got interrupted one way or the other.
Boz does manage to make it out, but Avastrian cuts him down. Keldorn exposes Damien with True Seeing. He, Anomen, and Minsc are then able to cut him down.
Meanwhile Imoen begins pelting the distant foes with Skull Trap after Skull Trap until it leaves N'Ashtar by himself. Once it looks to be that N'Ashtar will soon be by himself, Keldorn uses Dispel Magic to get rid of the protections that the Mage just put on himself. After that the party simply shoots him down at a distance.
Boz leaves behind Dragon's Breath (+4 Halberd, +1 point each of fire, cold, electrical, and acid damage). Incidentally, 12 hours is my deadline, so I can safely rest once after this battle.
Phaere's Rescue
Now I head towards the entrance to the Illithid City. Anomen does the needed buffs. Chaotic Commands for himself, Avastrian, Jaheira, and Minsc, and Protection from Evil. He also summons five Skeleton Warriors. Avastrian and Imoen protect themselves with Mirror Image. Avastrian then caps everything with Haste.
The party rushes forward, and speaks with Solaufein to start the battle. Several Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks will appear, but the party has the resources to quickly overwhelm them in physical combat. Jaheira helps matters with a Defensive Harmony at the start of combat, and Keldorn also uses True Seeing to negate the Mind Flayers' invisibility. Note that although I didn't find it necessary, Death Spell can also work on these Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks because in this instance the Flayers are treated as summoned creatures.
Solaufein then bids me to meet with him in the city.
Qilue's Brain
I find Solaufein and Handmaiden Imrae at the same spot near the merchant bazaar as last time.
Shortly thereafter, a Duergar Dwarf demands that I speak with his master, the Aboleth in the nearby tank. The Aboleth bids me to kill a Drow Priestess named Qilue and bring back her brain. I could tell it off for 20,000xp, but it's ultimately more rewarding to fall in with its request.
I travel to the entrace to Qilue's house and then buff up. My buffs include Haste, and Potions of Giant Strength for Jaheira and Minsc. Immediately within view will be Qilue and two Drow Wizards. I immediately have Avastrian attack the nearest Wizard. Jaheira casts Insect Plague, hoping to overcome Drow magic resistance.
Anomen summons a Skeleton Warrior, and Imoen summons a Nishruu. They perform perfectly their role of distracting the Wizards. Avastrian quickly kills off one Wizard. Qilue comes forward, and my warriors hack her down. The Nishruu holds up the surviving Wizard, and Avastrian soon rushes forward to help finish him off. I managed to kill them off quickly before the other Drow Wizards to the right joined in.
Anomen got knocked out by a Greater Command spell, so Imoen goes around grabbing a little treasure. Qilue leaves behind her Brain, and the Bone Blade (a +4 dagger). The good party will sell it off. *Evil* With the evil party, I have the Bone Blade upgraded to the Quietus Dagger as part of the Item Upgrade mod. I have Jan Jansen do quite a bit of backstabbing and the Quietus Dagger, with its +1 to backstab modifier, will be his weapon for the duration of Shadows of Amn.
There will be three Drow Wizards to the right. I simply have Anomen summon five Skeleton Warriors, and then have Avastrian lead them to attack the Drow Wizards. Keldorn expedites matters with an occasional Dispel Magic.
I return to the Aboleth with the Brain, and get 10,000xp.
Lasaonar and Chanthrilla
I then go north and enter the Tavern. I speak with Phaere, and she tells me I have three days to relax. The video then proceeds with a devotee of Lolth killing a follower of Vhaerun.
I then go to the west side of the Tavern. I speak with somebody named Sondal, who stages Drow vs. Drow matches. I then watch a Warrior named Lasaonar defeat four members of the Male Fighters' Society by himself. I then proceed to fight Lasaonar as well. Avastrian, protected by Stoneskin and Mirror Image, is easily able to outlast the Drow. I then get the Blade of Searing (+3 Bastard Sword, +1 fire damage) as a reward.
Lasaonar's Matron, Challintha, now wants to fight me. I take the opportunity to rest, and reconfigure my spells so that they include a couple instances of Breach. I then buff to the max, including buffs that will immunize me to as many types of spells as possible. These include Remove Fear, Chaotic Commands, and Death Ward. I also add Spell Immunity: Conjuration, since it will immunize me to spells like Blade Barrier or Globe of Blades. I also show a workaround in that I have Avastrian cast Haste, and then put on the Ring of Freedom, so that he can benefit from both.
Once combat starts I remove Challinthra's buffs with a Breach spell. I let her summon a Fallen Deva and an Aeriel Servant, as I collect decent xp rewards for killing them. After that it's a matter of staying on top of Challinthra and wearing her down.
Sondal's Pit
The next three battles in this fighting pit are against Drow Mages, one at a time. I used to have Imoen do these battles in vanilla BG2, but she's too low-level to handle it in SCS. My approach is pretty much the same as it was for Challinthra. I layer Avastrian with all kinds of buffs, on top of his Cloak of Mirroring and Haste-Ring of Free Action workaround, in order to immunize him to as many kinds of spells as possible. He can thus safely wait things out while the Mage opponent expends his or her spells and his or her protective buffs wear out. Once the moment's right, Avastrian closes in for the kill with his Celestial Fury.
*Evil* Sondal's Pit
Edwin has a rather easy time of it with a simple method of overwhelming the other Mage with summons. He casts Shadow Door to disappear. In the latter two fights, he also casted Project Image to milk more summons out his repertoire. He then summons a magic resistant Skeleton Warrior or two to start things off. If the other Mage uses Death spell, Edwin will have succeeded in baiting the Mage into using it prematurely. Edwin can then summon a Nishruu, which will then make a b-line for the Mage and start draining his spells. If the Mage doesn't use Death Spell after a while, Edwin will throw in Summon Nishruu anyway. Edwin can then continue to throw in more Skeleton Warriors, or even a Mord Sword for good measure. It will only be a matter of time before the Drow Mage gets overwhelmed.
Szordzrin's Pit
Eye Tyrant
I head back towards the entrance to the city, and speak with Phaere again. She bids me to meet her and Solaufein at the platform south of the Tower of Sorcere.
The quest is to kill a Beholder. The same combination of items works as always, but be sure to kill it quickly before it damages either Phaere or Solaufein. Otherwise they'll both go hostile. Also, I make a point of landing the killing blow on the Beholder in order to get both the 14,000xp for the Beholder itself and the 20,000xp quest bonus.
Dola Fadoon
I have three days to kill, so I head over to the platform near the entrance to the city. I then go east a little. I notice several Drow constantly torturing and rehealing a Djinn named Dola Fadoon.
Here I engage in a deliberate choice to trade gp for xp, by killing the Djinn so that it can return to its home plane. I get myself out of potential trouble by paying the Overseer Handmaiden 4,000gp.
Deep Gnome Patrol
Now I go to see Phaere again the Tavern. Her next task for me is to slaughter a Deep Gnome patrol. Solaufein is coerced into helping me.
I head towards the entrance to the Deep Gnome Village. On the way there I tell Solaufein that I can handle it myself. I then go a little further ahead, and convince the Deep Gnome Leader to give me his helmet as proof.
I return to Phaere, and everybody in the party gets 28,500xp. She then commands me to meet her in the Female Fighters' Society.
Kill Solaufein
Phaere wants me to kill Solaufein, who will now be found in the Male Fighters' Society. That is indeed an option, but one that turns out to be quite committal down the road. The safer long term option is to not kill Solaufein, but ask for his Piwawfi Cloak as false proof.
This is where I can now rest. Note that both Stoneskin and Iron Skins last for 12 hours, which often means that I can cast those spells, and then rest with the assurance that they'll last another 4 hours after I've woken up. In this instance I grab the chance to rest up so that I can get the most out of that 4 hour post-waking period.
Every character in the party gets 30,000xp upon returning the Cloak to Phaere. Phaere now also wants to sleep with Avastrian, but he bluffs his way out of it by vaguely mentioning a prior commitment.
Jarlaxle and Deirex's Tower
Phaere bids me to meet with her Matron Mother in the Temple of Lolth (towards the southeast corner of the city) as soon as possible. Once there, the Matron Mother wants as an ingredient for a ritual the blood of either an Elder Orb, a Kuo-toan Prince, or an Elder Brain. I already have all three, but it's better to agree to the request for future fulfillment.
Now I head out. A little north of the Tower of Sorcere will be a Mage named Visag. He offers a magical rope for 1,000gp. It's entirely practical to intimidate him into giving it to me for free.
I act on his advice and enter Deirex's Tower. Here's the thing, I hit pause the moment I go through the tower entrance. I then command everyone to attack Deirex. With a little luck, Deirex will still cast the Imprisonment spell on me to progress the game but I'll also end up using that time to kill him outright. This is admittedly cheap but the alternative is to face him at full strength later on, which makes for an incredibly difficult fight.
When the Lich does cast Imprisonment, I am sent to the headquarters of the famed Drow Mercenary, Jarlaxle. He evidently wants certain gems from Deirex's Tower, and sends me back.
Now I go back in through the entrance. Deirex is already dead thanks to my little trick. I loot his corpse for Deirex's Tooth, and the Jaellat Wardstone. I then loot the cabinets for spell scrolls and other treasure. Scrolls of particular interest include Limited Wish, and Melf's Minute Meteors, which a Mage can use to give him or herself +6 projectiles that also inflict fire damage. Another cabinet also includes the Armor of the Viper +5 (armor class 2, -2 penalty to saves vs. poison/paralysis) which will be an upgrade for Minsc, but not just yet.
I then find the gems that Jarlaxle wants, and am immediately teleported back to his headquarters. He then gives me some gold for my troubles and sends me back to Ust Natha.
Note that there are two doors above the entrance that led to Deirex. Either of these leads to a treasure cache that includes several gems, a Shortsword +2, a Two-Handed Sword +2, a Wand of Missiles, a Wand of Frost, a Crossbow of Afflication +2 (-2 Strength), a cursed ring, and scrolls for Cacofiend and Ruby Ray of Reversal. Note that I stow away the Rogue Stone and the Pearls into my Bag of Holding, as they're ingredients needed for upgrades that I want under the Item Upgrade mod.
I could use the Jaellat Wardstone in an attempt to destroy House Jaellat, but I want to be higher level first. I put that off for now.
Worshippers of Ghuandahar
Now I continue north. Near the Female Fighters' Society will now be a Priestess of Lolth named Taso Kala, who demands that I destroy the remaining holdouts of a Cult dedicated to the worship of Ghuandahar.
The Cult will be found in the platform south of Deirex's Tower. It consists of several Drow Priestesses, including their leader, and a couple of Otyughs, and several Slimes of various sorts, including Mustard Jellies, Olive Slimes, Gray Oozes, and Green Slimes.
I have Imoen set up five Skull Traps at a choke point. Note that I don't have the luxury of resting and setting up as many Skull Traps as a I want, so I have to settle for five. Anomen sets up a Symbol: Stun at around the same point. Anomen also adds a few long-lasting buffs, and then summons five Skeleton Warriors.
Now Minsc scouts out their location. Anomen then gets things going by casting a Fire Storm over them. Sooner or later, the Cult heads for me and trips the magical traps. They'll have quite a few buffs in place, so Keldorn gets rid of them as soon as they appear with his Dispel Magic.
Once the Fire Storm is ready to expire, and my magical traps have been tripped, Avastrian casts Haste on everyone and then sends the Skeleton Warriors on ahead against the Cult. They might actually be in danger if the Priestesses still had their buffs up, but this is where Keldorn's Dispel Magic has made all the difference. The Skeleton Warriors begin hacking down the Priestesses one by one. The rest of the party helps out with missile fire at a distance. It soon becomes only a matter of time.
It turns out that Taso Kala has no reward to offer for my destruction of the Cult. Oh well.
Silver Dragon Eggs
Now I begin a series of complex maneuvers to try and get the Silver Dragon's Eggs out of the Drow City.
Once my destruction of the Cult is finished, I return to the Tavern. Note that I have been saving up on a few Potions of Invisibility of late, and I now give everyone at least one. Avastrian also memorizes an instance of Invisibility 10' Radius. Note also that The reasons for all of this is to be able to make good my escape from Ust Natha when the time comes for it. I then rest up.
Now I return to the Matron Mother with all three of the blood items she wants. Everyone in the party gets 22,000xp. Phaere wants to see me in her apartment within the hour. So I head over to the Female Fighters' Society for said meeting. She wants me to betray the Matron Mother by replacing the Silver Dragon Eggs with fake eggs that she has made herself. I could betray Phaere to the Matron Mother, and then proceed to the Demon Summoning Ritual, but I prefer to fall in with Phaere's request for the time being.
I head back over to the Temple of Lolth. On the way there, Solaufein drops in. He offers me his own fake eggs to fool Phaere as well as the Matron Mother. This is the reason why I recommend sparing his life. The alternative is to fight a Demon Lord that cannot be scratched by any weapons that are less than +5 enchantment. At least this way, you can make a relatively clean break from the city.
Now I enter the temple. I look for a gangway leading to a room on the east side of the Temple. Standing before the door will be two Egg Guards. The cleanest way is to simply kill them, and then double-check to make sure the rest of the Temple hasn't gone hostile.
Once that is done I enter the room, which has three Stone Golems and two Clay Golems standing watch. Anomen and Minsc buff themselves with Armor of Faith. Jaheira and Anomen attack the Clay Golems, while the rest of the party attacks the Stone Golems. I then switch Phaere's Fake Eggs for the real Silver Dragon Eggs and leave the Temple.
Once that is done, I return to Phaere and give her Solaufein's Fake Eggs. She then teleports away. An Imp who talks like Yoda and serves Adalon arrives and reminds me that my only chance of surviving is to make it out of the city with Adalon's eggs.
I then head over to the Temple.
Demon Summoning Ritual
I enter the Temple, and then the Matron Mother begins the Ritual. One important thing to note here is that, even if you fool both the Matron Mother and Phaere, SCS shortens the time within which my cover will be blown and the entire city of Ust Natha goes hostile. Also, Ust Natha itself has been ramped up significantly so that trying to fight my way out of the city is pretty much suicide. So ... I literally do not have a moment to spare in trying to make good my escape from the city. I bunch everybody around Avastrian, and he casts Haste, while the Matron Mother is busy completing the ritual.
The Lesser Demon Lord shows up, and kills both the Matron Mother and Phaere for offering him fake Silver Dragon Eggs. Generously using the pause-key to avoid losing any time, Avastrian loots the Matron Mother's corpse for treasure, as well as the Ring of Spell Turning (Minor Spell Turning once a day), and the Gorgon Plate +4 (-1 armor class, +15% each fire and acid resistance). The latter will make a good interim armor for Jaheira. Phaere leaves behind Solaufein's Piwawfi Cloak, and the Gnome Leader's Helmet.
Once Avastrian has taken what he wants, he places himself back in the middle of his party, and proceeds to cast Invisibility 10' Radius. The party then hightails it as quickly as possible out of Ust Natha. Note that the Infinity Engine was notorious for certain annoyances on account of its pathfinding. One was that if a party member was blocked by other party members en route to his or her destination, the party member would very often go off in a completely different direction. It is important to watch out for this, and avoid it by often clicking repeatedly on interim desitinations in order to make sure my party makes smooth and steady progress towards the city gate. It turns out that my preparations and execution has succeeded, as I am almost at the city gate by the time my cover is blown and the Priestesses begin to uncover my location with True Seeings.
One final note is worth mentioning. Once I do leave the city, there's about a 50/50 chance that the city gate may close behind me permanently. I don't want this, as I plan to level the whole city, House Jaellat included. If it happens, I'll simply reload my auto-save and leave the city again. When I kill a couple Drow who follow me outside of the city gates, and the gates remain open, that's when I quick-save.
Although I'm not entirely done with Ust Natha just yet, I am well on my way to leaving the Underdark.
