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Dragon's Eye - Level 1 | Dragon's Eye - Level 2 | Dragon's Eye - Level 3 | Dragon's Eye - Level 4 | Dragon's Eye - Level 5 |
DRAGON'S EYE – LEVEL 4
Albion
I set up my 'Dragon's Eye' savegame before the party enters the fourth level. Some ways ahead north will be somebody named Albion. If you want to avoid a confrontation right away, be sure to have somebody besides a Paladin do the talking.
If you can temporarily stay on Albion's good side, there will also be a merchant who sells spell scrolls a little north and west of Albion. There will also be other accessible rooms, but it doesn't amount to much. Much of this level is cut off by a series of doors that normally cannot be unlocked, even by Thieves. But if you choose to attack Albion or any of the other Eldath monks here, their true natures will be revealed, and all of the previously locked doors will swing open. Thus, when you choose to declare your hostility is a fairly significant decision.
I quicksave after I speak to Albion. There is a chest that I want cherry pick, in a room a little east of the large central room. And it's behind the locked doors. So, I get as far north as I can until I'm in a room with Shanna the Healer. Derrick then casts Haste. I then kill Shanna, turning all of the Eldath monks hostile and forcing the doors to open. Now that I'm hasted, I make for the room with the chest. It will have any 2 of the following (which are set when you first enter this level):
The one I want is the Peacekeeper. The reason is that the final boss for Dragon's Eye requires at least a +2 weapon or better to hit. Cassandra, with her Dazer +1, is one of 2 characters left (besides Derrick) who has yet to upgrade her weapon. The Peacekeeper thus makes for a good interim weapon, as well as ensuring she can participate in the fight against the final boss.
If I don't get the Peacekeeper, I reload the 'Dragon's Eye' savegame. If I do get it, I reload my quicksave and go from there.
The High Summoner
Now there is something important to keep in mind. Once you start hostilities with the false Eldathyn and the Yuan-ti here, there will be somebody named the High Summoner towards the southeast corner of the map who will summon monsters like Trolls non-stop. The monsters will also come straight for you. Since he may start at some distance from you, it will be easy to get overwhelmed.
So, he is my first priority. I make my way as far southeast as I can, at a spot where two Eldathyn are standing guard by one of the locked doors. I have Derrick cast Haste on the party. I then kill one of the Eldathyn to force the door open, and then run as fast as I can (aided by the Haste spell) towards the High Summoner. I try to get everyone into the room as briskly as I can manage. The High Summoner will actually have 2 other Yuan-ti Priests with him, so I spread my warriors out so that they're attacking all 3 of the Priests and interrupting their spell casting. Alliria casts Entangle to prevent more monsters from coming through the door, and Lanatir adds Web. Many of them are caught in the crowd-control, so Lanatir blasts away with Fireball. If enough had gotten through, I could have had Lanatir cast Confusion and Derrick cast Slow as a one-two punch, but it didn't come to that. Another danger in this battle is that Gheelo the Librarian will arrive and often cast Slow on the party, which can put the party in real danger of getting physically overwhelmed. But lucky for me, he couldn't cast spells while caught in Lanatir's Web.
Once the battle is over, I loot Gheelo's body for the Bracers of A.C. 6, which will be an improvement for Derrick.
I then make my way back towards the stairs back up to level 3. On the way there, I kill off Shanna the Healer and Albion.
I then check out the spot where Gheelo the Librarian used to be. In one of the bookshelves, I find a couple of potions, and scrolls of Monster Summoning I and Flame Arrow. For spells whose damage output clearly depends on higher character level, with Flame Arrow being a prime example, it is often better to let a single-class Mage use them. Thus it is Lanatir who scribes this spell into his book.
One last note for this video, you normally cannot rest on this level. As such, I go back up to level 3 to get some rest.
The High Ritualist
Now I explore around for a bit, but matters come to a head in the large central room against the High Ritualist. Here, I show another method of crowd-control. Confusion from Lanatir plus Slow from Derrick. Both spells are party friendly, and force their targets to make a saving throw at significant penalties. The Yuan-ti will often simply wander around aimlessly, or even attack each other. And even if they can get around to attacking me, their chances of being able to connect on any physical blows is much reduced. This method is often better suited to when you're going to get swarmed from all sides. The Black Thorn and Derrick then take down the Ritualist with missile fire.
I then make my way to the chest in the room to the east, and Cassandra gets her Peacemaker club. I also happen to get a Fire Dagger +2 as well.
I then explore around, and find other items, like a Blur Deck (Blur with limited charges) and Oils of Serpents Scales.
Marchon of Waterdeep
You may have noticed that I didn't open the door to the room west of where I fought the High Ritualist. There's a reason for that. Inside are a small group of adventurers led by Marchon of Waterdeep. If you open it while there's even a single Yuan-ti still alive on this level, Marchon and his crew will race to the conclusion that Yuan-ti are coming to eat them, and they'll frantically try to fight their way out. So, it's much better to wipe out all of the Yuan-ti on this level first. Then open the door, and you have the option of having Marchon watch over you while you sleep. And indeed, you won't ever be able to rest while you're on the last level of Dragon's Eye, so Marchon's your chance to get respite while you're fighting your way through the last level.
If you're interested, you can kill Marchon and his friends without any loss of reputation. Most of them carry relatively mundane stuff like +1 weapons, but Marchon himself carries a Flaming Longsword +2 (+10% fire resistance, +1d3 fire damage). But, I just prefer to use him as a rest spot in between the fights on the next level.
Speaking of which, I make my towards the southeast corner, and set up my 'Dragon's Eye' savegame, just before going to the last level.
