ZDBlog

The Nautiloid

Right in the beginning I had the fortune of finding a ring with +1 CON on the dead illithid in the opening room. A nice start to this playthrough. The intellect devourer I pried from the open skull of the illithid’s victim makes a useful ally, but there is good in freeing this creature, even if only for selfish reasons, so I attempted to mutilate it in order to make it more subservient. The dice thought otherwise as I failed the DC 15 DEX check to do this successfully. “Us” as it calls itself when you free it, makes no attempt to communicate and instead hisses and runs away. This leads me to wonder if I should allow myself to save scum in order to make sure the most evil decisions are successfully carried out. For now I will refrain, as consequences for evil decisions are just as much a part of this playthrough as consequences for evil actions.

Meeting Lae’zel gives no options to be rude, much less outright evil. So I’m forced to team with her for the duration of this ship escape. We dispatch the imps with a quickness. Using Lae’zel’s strength to toss one around as a thrown weapon, while Astarion stabs and dodges for the few rounds that they live. No interesting loot here but both characters are now equipped with crossbows for ranged attacks.

In the pod room, naturally, destroy the brains of the subdued thralls in the center. Lae’zel calls me a fool because I didn’t read the labels first, but I knew what I was doing. Shadowheart pleads for rescue, but we walk on by. Going through the Eastern door, we meet our first visit from our neighbor, consequences. Us is here and it isn’t happy with my mutilation attempt. It promptly attacks, along with another intellect devourer. Astarion and Lae’zel were especially good at avoiding being hit. I was able to take no damage out of sheer luck.

Speaking of luck, Lae’zel found a legendary cloak with an affix called “Mark of Wonders” which automatically rerolls a 10 or less on ability and skill checks until you roll higher. Over time I’ll have to figure out if this is the obscenely broken “cannot roll less than 11” that it looks like, or if it just means you keep rerolling until you beat the initial roll. Finding this cloak was great and all, but the cambion captain is much stronger in this mod collection, so he slapped the mind flayer down for good after only 4 rounds while taking only 40 damage. Thankfully, I had killed the imps in that time and was able to dash for the console to escape before that flaming greatsword came down on either of us.

The Beach

Don’t question how you survived, just savor the good fortune. We ignored Shadowheart so she isn’t unconscious on the beach nearby when Astarion wakes up. Continuing further down the beach, though, she can be found pounding on the door into the Overgrown Ruins. Shadowheart is pretty evil if the player doesn’t dissuade her darker decisions, so I figure she’s a worthy party member, despite initially leaving her to die. Being a rogue, getting into the ruins proved easy enough. I need to beeline to Withers so Shadowheart can be respecced out of that garbage Trickery Domain. Using just the two characters, the skeletons that attack when you open the door to Withers’ tomb were no joke. Apparently, Ice Knife doesn’t require verbal components and the mages would cast it with impunity. Silence, Ice Knife, and Chromatic Orb flow like wine. I was forced to use some cheese tactics to win. Not gonna lie; they killed me a few times and I had to reload from my save. I eventually got it, and earned a new camp buddy.

With Withers acquired, it’s off to fill the party. Gale isn’t the most evil character, but necromancy isn’t well accepted and there are few better suited for the role. Up to the tieflings deciding what to do with Lae’zel and apparently the only way to provoke them to attack me straight out would be to attack them first. Even freeing Lae’zel before they walked away didn’t trigger a fight.

With a full party, and respec capabilities, I changed Shadowheart to a Death Domain cleric, and leveled the other 3 into the more suitable mod-enabled subclasses; Blood-Letter, Necromancer, and Echo Knight. Now, off to clear the trash out of the ruins. I snuck up and used illusion to get the outside group to gather near the weakened part of the floor then shot down the large stone, killing 3 of them immediately. Gimblebock gave chase and I lead him out to the broken railing above the door from the beach. Using Lae’zel to run up on him and shove him to his doom. Murderhobo mode engaged.

Heading up to the Grove from here, we find Kanon arguing with Aradin and his party about opening the gate. The goblins catch up and attack, which gives Lae’zel some more body-tossing practice as she heaves the two archers from the hill down on top of their captain. There was no discreet way to murder Wyll or Aradin’s party in this combat, but the bugbear in the goblin group did kill Aradin’s ranger. Social interaction on my end was limited here, but I did go with the “jerk” response to intimidate Zevlor and Aradin as they argued. In hindsight, I think letting them duke it out for my entertainment would be more unethical.

That concludes my first session. I saved after breaking up the 1:1 argument inside the Grove. Next session we will get to alienate Wyll, befriend a hag, and murder more goblins… possibly a pair of tieflings if we can do it without angering the whole grove.