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THE SPIRIT ARMY
The Wrath of the Bear God
I did the usual pre-buffs beforehand. I leave Mulsantir through the front gate, whereupon Gann explains to me I need to decimate enough of his army first before I can hope to take down Okku himself.
I then go on ahead and speak with Okku a bit before the inevitable. This battle can be long and hard. Once it starts, Kaelyn begins a buffing sequence of Freedom of Movement, Stone Body, and Battle Tide.
Valeria meanwhile acts as a decoy, absorbing a lot of the physical onslaught, and placing herself first and foremost in harm's way. The tactic buys time for the other party members. But she still has to be careful, and indeed at one point gulps a Potion of Heal after Okku has been chipping away at her.
She and Safiya also crank out spells like Empowered Chain Lightning and Empowered Firebrand. Gann pumps out Fire Storms repeatedly.
Gann announces that enough of the spirit army has gone down for Okku to become vulnerable. However, there's still enough surrounding me so that I continue to pump out the offensive spells to both damage Okku and take out his followers (for the xp as well). Safiya also targets Okku with spells like Empowered Polar Ray and Empowered Disintegrate. Okku is soon overcome in the process.
I am now left with a choice between devouring his spirit or controlling the now emerging spirit hunger and sparing him. The former involves a commitment to use One of Many as an ally instead of Okku. The latter means Okku now becomes a party member.
One more thing, Valeria is now afflicted with the Spirit Eater curse. Note how there is now a spirit energy meter on the top left corner. If the meter goes to zero, my protagonist will die. I must at least sometimes consume the spirits of certain creatures in order to keep the meter up. There's more than one approach to that which I will describe as this guide progresses.
*Evil* The Wrath of the Bear God
Zarathos starts off with a Blade Barrier spell, so that his enemies will dice themselves around him. Gann and Safiya are careful to stay outside the radius of the Blade Barrier. Zarathos then cranks out Empowered Chain Lightnings. He is also Okku's primary target, so he may have to gulp down a Potion of Heal once in a while.
Gann gets himself into position so as to catch as many enemies as he can with multiple castings of Fire Storm. Safiya is likewise cranking out offensive spells from a distance. The battle is won in relatively short order.
The key difference is that Zarathos chooses to devour Okku's spirit, attaining both the Spirit Husk and Okku's Essence. The Essence can be used to add +10 Strength to a belt.
Valeria's 23rd Level
Valeria begins the video by handing over the Telthori Totem over to Okku. Just having it in his inventory will improve his Will saving throws. And believe me, Okku can use all the help he can get with his saving throws.
She then collects the essences that were left behind by all the spirits and elementals that were killed.
She also got a 4,000xp quest bonus for completing the Wrath of the Bear God quest, so now she has enough xp to advance to the 23rd level. She takes the Expose Weakness feat during this level up. The description in the official Mask of the Betrayer manual is a bit misleading. What happens with this feat is that your first attack will automatically hit for damage, while your second and third attacks and so on will still need successful attack rolls to connect for damage. If the Expose Weakness autohit first attack actually missed its attack roll, you'll get a message saying "Expose Weakness: Failed". What that means is that the Expose Weakness autohit first attack still connected for damage, despite the missed attack roll, but that the armor class penalty and extra Dexterity based damage didn't kick in. If the attack roll succeeds, that's when not only the autohit damage, but also the armor class penalty and extra Dexterity based damage, all kick in together. Armor class penalties and Dexterity based damage will also be cumulative with each successful use of Expose Weakness. The autohit feature of Expose Weakness allows for Valeria to flagrantly abuse the Improved Combat Expertise feat with no drawbacks.
Valeria also now has access to 9th level spells. One of her choices was Energy Drain, which causes a single creature to lose 2d4 levels. It's a fantastic spell for singularly powerful monsters that may otherwise give the party a hard time, as it likely means less ability to connect with physical attacks, lower saving throws, less hit points, and loss of higher level spells. In fact, there's a very powerful Telthor spirit in Mulsantir itself that this spell really comes in handy against.
Her other choice was Shades. There are three possible uses for this spell. One is to mimic a Delayed Blast Fireball when cast at enemies. Another is to mimic Summon Creature VIII when cast on a spot on the ground. The third use is to cast Premonition, Protection from Spells and Shield on the spellcaster all at once. All three spells will last for an hour for each level of the caster, despite Protection from Spells and Shield normally having shorter durations. It goes without saying that the third self-buff use is my preferred use of the spell, allowing me to cast it as a long-lasting buff at the start of each new day. Note also that it was the availability of this spell that allowed me to select Necromancy as my school of specialization without any regrets, which would normally have the drawback of having no access to Divination spells which include Premonition.
Devotion of the Red Wizard
I am back at the gate of Mulsantir. Notice how there will now be the occasional telthor animal spirit wandering around. If you're ever in need of spirit energy, right here is a reliable spot.
I then speak at length with Safiya, learning what little she knows about the Spirit Eater curse, and also getting her opinions on the other companions.
I speak to her a second time because I have two prerequisites in place. One prerequisite is that I have defeated Okku and his spirit army. The second prerequisite is that my influence with Safiya is now at 100. Safiya already has her Devotion of the Red Wizard feat at influence 75, which gave her bonuses to Concentration and Intelligence, and the Improved Empower feat. Valeria needs both of the aforementioned prerequisites to get her Devotion of the Red Wizard feat. For Valeria, the feat confers +2 Intelligence and +4 to the DC of any spells she casts.
Entering Mulsantir itself again starts Act II.
