If you making a stand means I can finally kill you, then by all means go ahead.
And indeed it meant just the thing.
We are showing You the death of this random orc so You know we are dedicated to making this dungeon 100% monster free.
Except sneaking by everything that has respawned.
Yes, except that.
Tazok... Tazok. Nope, doesn't ring a bell.
He helped Sarevok.
Helped who?
Forget it.
I don't remember you at all, but maybe this spell will prove en-lightning.
It seems we are having a bad pun day today. Sorry about that.
Wow, I think this was the first time when lightning-bouncing proved beneficial to me.
Here lies Tazok. Killed with one Level 3 spell. R.I.P.
He had some stuff on him.
Finding this here would make more sense if it was a random drop.
It is pretty random, IMO.
Chief Digdag had some sort of magical armor.
Why do they even bother to enchant plate mail, if it is cheaper to just buy a full plate?
Ooh, shiny!
Ooh, shinier!
I see an unfamiliar spell symbol.
Looks like fun to use.
I always give all the fun to use spells to the third mage in the party, after making sure the first two have useful stuff.
We don't even have a second mage.
Problem solved.
You can still learnt it. Free XP is free and XP.
We also find this scroll. Might prove handy.
Oh, great, another one of those plot doors.
Just to be clear here, lass, I'm not throwing myself at anyone, especially anyone male.
The door to the empty cell is closed too. Just so You know.
HOLY SHIT HE'S FUCKING HUGE!
Um, what? Let me get this straight. Gorion kicked your ass. And you are challenging me, even though I am much much much stronger than him. Does not compute?
Oh, yeah, right. I can see Gorion rolling in his grave with the eyes of my imagination. Totally.
So, you've dragged me all the way here. Even sending me a challenge. In writing. And all this just to tell me you don't really want to to fight me and instead I should just continue what I was doing. For your amusement. WHAT THE FUCK.
That depends. Is she still a virgin?
I even wanted to follow this quest route and steal the deed from old Windspear, but he bugged out and disappeared from the game entirely after our previous conversation.
brb
He doesn't see me. Let's try backstabbing.
I think he has Stoneskin cast.
Damn, he does.
Some quality Bioware writing here.
Conster protects himself from normal weapons and goes invisible with Mislead.
We destroy his image clone.
He is basically dead in the moment of becoming partially visible.
No hard feelings, shit-eater.
Firkraag does not invest in his goons' gear much.
We have the plot key.
Yeah, you go on ahead. I need to take care of something first.
And we got a Fighter level up. Good timing.
The Codex now has some proficiency with short swords.
Guess who's baaaaack?!
I guess there is only one way to find out!
Our first attempt is done just like that, with no buffs. Firkraag immediately protects himself with Stoneskin, but we'll take that over Contingency any time.
Whoa, I can fly!
Firkraag starts firing away his spells and dragon abilities (damn wing buffet). Our hero has problems even getting close, not to mention landing a hit.
Say hello to my little friend!
I did not really expect it to work the first time.
Death Count: 165
Load.
I don't think there is time to summon demons WHILE THE FUCKING DRAGON IS TRYING TO KILL ME!
Let's summon it beforehand then.
I CHALLENGED A DRAGON! WHAT WAS I THINKING!?
Our hero does not save vs. Dragon Fear this time.
The Codex's saving throws are awesome and stuff, but we need some reliable spell protection.
Death Count: 166
Load game.
How about some buffs?
Let's start with one.
Spell Trap is one of the great great abilities provided by Staff of the Magi. I really wish we had Stoneskin available too, but at this point we were out.
How about you actually do something this time, fiend?
To be honest, fighting him with this stick does feel like trying to kill an ogre with a toothpick.
You've just missed a 150-feet long dragon.
Don't talk to me.
FUCK, that hurt!
That does it for Nabassu.
I bid you all farewell.
It seems there is absolutely no point in going toe-to-toe with Firkraag without any buffs.
Death Count: 167
Load again.
That was funny and all, but we need to start taking this seriously, because dying hurts. Also, that Nabassu sucks donkey cock.
The old BG1 times of spamming summons are long gone, but we can at least have five Fire elementals at the same time.
Let's see if that is enough.
Burns! Burns!
ARGHGHRGRHRGH!
And red dragons breathe fire. Hard.
It was not enough.
Death Count: 168
Load once again.
Do we have any way of protecting me against that fire?
Well, we have the fire ring, but 40% resistance will not be enough. We also have the dragon shield, but You need both hands to use Your staff.
It is indeed a mighty staff.
Let's see if Spell Trap can protect You from the fire.
Nope.
Death Count: 169
Loading.
Any other ideas?
Maybe we need to be faster and kill him before he kills You.
ThisUsuallyWorks.
Oomph!
Wake up! Wake up!
This isn't going anywhere.
Death Count: 170
Load the game.
It seems that this isn't an usual enough fight for the usual ideas to work.
Let's try something completely different then.
Like what?
Stay back and shoot him with arrows of piercing.
LooksLikeItsWorking!
UhOhIThinkHeJustGotPissed.
I still think we have made some progress.
Death Count: 171
Load, load, load!
I really need some protection from that fire...
I'll see what we can do.
Check this out, we've found this scroll of Fire Shield (Red) earlier.
IHopeItWorks.
MOTHERFUCKER!
Firkraag's fire breath still hurts, though.
Fire Elementals are unable to do anything to the dragon, their only role here is to provide distraction.
It is however doubtful if they can last long enough.
ThanksForTheVoteOfConfidence!
After we ran out of Fire Elementals, it was quickly over.
Death Count: 172
The Load.
Have you ever been eaten by a dragon?
What kind of a question is that?
The teeth are fucking huge up close.
Another attempt. Our hero stands just in range, hoping not to draw Firkraag's attention sooner than it is necessary.
The main strength of our Fire Elementals is that they laugh off Firkraag's breath weapon.
SecondWaveAttack!
It's like throwing pebbles at a stone wall.
The +6 damage modifier of arrows of piercing is cancelled by either Firkraag's magic immunity or his saving throws, but their +4 THAC0 bonus is very useful. Although, in retrospect, using +2 arrows would probably have been more effective.
I don't know if You've noticed but we are rapidly running out of elementals here.
He's already near death, just keep shooting!
Uhm...
KEEP SHOOTING!
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Death Count: 173
Load the game.
There will be a time when I will stand in front of you with my bow and you will be cowering in fear, lying on the ground with arrows sticking out of your knees, begging me to spare your life. Then I will remember this very moment and just KEEP SHOOTING!
Um, yeah. Ok.
Skipping forward to when the first wave of elementals dies. Our hero is already withdrawn to a tactical spot.
GoForthMyFlamingBasketballTeam!
I just got very tired...
It's the
caffeine Haste wearing off.
I think he just killed himself.
Just as we were going to finish him off, obviously. Maybe we could not bear the thought of being killed by You?
What do we do?
Load the game, of course.
I think we have been in this spot already. Should I KEEP SHOOTING?
No, quick, cast Magic Missile!
Fuck, I've just noticed that Your Fire Shield has already disappeared.
No fireshield? That's bad.
Indeed.
Death Count: 174
Loadette.
That wasn't the best moment for that spell to wear off.
Yes, we could live without that happening. Especially You.
Skipping to the point when the second wave of Elementals is almost dead.
We wisely withdraw.
Fire Shield wears off at just that moment, so we renew it.
Summonning the third wave of elementals, Two should be enough. Hopefully. The Staff of Fire is running out of charges.
Our hero casts Magic Missiles and shoots arrows while the spellcasting cooldown lasts.
ARGH. MyArm!HeToreMyArmOff!
Two elementals were not enough, it seems.
These are one huge stairs, by the way.
Death Count: 175
Loading like crazy.
How about we don't go cheap on the elementals?
Fine.
Firkraag's magic resistance almost makes the Magic Missiles not worth it.
Almost.
On average they do more damage than an arrow.
64K XP is around 72% of the experience cap in BG1.
Thank you for that useless information.
I like how they thought of providing us with the Identify scroll, in case we did not have one with us, so we could check what the badass looking sword is.
Not THAT bad.
Too bad we don't have any inventory space to spare.
*JAWDROP*
When I first saw this sword, it made me wish I was a paladin.
Soon, you will be mine, Carsomyr. Soon.
Looks promising.
It would have been useful to have this scroll BEFORE this fight.
We wouldn't have used it anyway, since it's the first time we find this spell.
Levelling up. The Codex' Set Trap skill is now more than respectable.
We talk to Iltha after leaving the dungeon. Her father is still missing, meaning we probably can't finish some part of the quest.
Damn bugs!
Before we finish for today, we visit one more person.
I wouldn't want to wear a helmet made from a cock. Trice or not.
Good thing I kept it then.
Sure, why not.
Uhm, am I supposed to wait while you work? I was hoping I could just come back tomorrow. Hello?
Let's see if it is any good.
Nice!
This was always my favourite armor in the game, since it was treated as non-magical, so the user could also wear ring of protection with it. I thought it was because the armor was superior to a standard one sue to have been made of dragon scale, and was indeed non-magical, but this ability has been removed by some fixpack or another (so it was a glitch after all, it seems). Still, Red Dragon Scale is going to replace our standard full plate, if only for the bonus to Fire Resistance.
---
Next time: The Codex willingly goes to help a priest, and regrets it pretty fast.
Figures.