The corridor behind the next door contains some more goblins.
*YAWN*
It's actually kind of cute when they try to fight back.
One of the goblins dropped some magic arrows.
Stop with the false ambiguity already. We all know these are arrows of biting.
We can never be sure.
'We can never be sure' MY ASS.
Another one dropped something really cool. A scroll of one of the best spells in the game - True Sight.
Awesome!
Sorry, no screenshot of the spell.
A have another of these 'save my game' feelings.
Ok, seriously. These fucking traps are everywhere here. How exactly does the owner move around and not fall into them all the time? He must have one hell of a memory.
Or carry a lot of healing potions.
Yet another trap.
Looks promising.
Helm of Balduran! I've missed you so much!
Indeed, it's the Helm of Balduran, the best helmet from the first game. I'm not sure if it can be found here, if You start a new game without importing a character from BG1.
There's also another one of those wand keys here.
Whoa. What's that?
Right. I always wanted one of these...?
It actually has a use, so let's keep it.
Amulet of metaspell influence! Long time no see, good friend!
It allows us to memorize... Oh hell, everybody can see what it does in the screenshot.
Well, hello there, ladies! It seems that my earlier button-pushing with Aataqah wasn't completely wasted after all.
You might be reading too much into this.
Wow, I'm talking to three girls at once. I haven't done anything like this since... Well, never.
I see that the evil wizard guy has good taste in certain areas.
Fairy queen? Is it some kind of gay slang? Because if it is...
No, she's an actual fairy queen.
Oh, ok.
You might even come with me. My solo play does not extend to all aspects of my life, you know...
Alright, alright, I'll help you. Geez. Women.
Right. Some hills I won't remember. I'm sure it will all be in the journal, whoever writes it.
Wait, Ilyich?
Vladimir Ilyich?
My guess is, the name similarity is purely coincidental, considering they live in completely different universes.
I guess that's true. Also, I now know that the bad guy's name is Irenicus. People should be telling me to come here and talk to these fair ladies in the first place, instead of leading me to the guy drowned in a jar.
This room looks like it's completely free of traps of any kind.
Yeah...
The two golems we destroyed earlier would've come after The Codex' blood now, but everybody probably knows that already.
The funny thing is, disarming any of these traps gives me more experience than I'll get from killing every goblin in this place.
Shit, another one? That's exactly why paranoia is considered an illness, not a perk.
You've got to be fucking kidding me.
Are we done with the fucking traps? Good!
A potion of thieving mastery.
Not that I need it. I'm already a master thief.
Another key.
This one not for a wand, but for a portal.
A literal key to a portal? What is this, a poor man's PST?
In a way, yeah.
We also find magical bracelets and some kind of a jewel.
That's a jewel? I wouldn't guess from the appearance alone.
Ok, these I know, but they looked completely different the last time I saw them.
It's the new art style. Just roll with it.
I think this is a good time to show The Codex' spell book.
Why now? Am I going to be casting a lot of spells in a moment?
Not really, I just forgot about it earlier.
Here's level 2.
Level 3.
Level 4.
And finally, level 5. We also have one level 6 spell learned (True Sight), but are unable to cast it yet.
I bet this is the portal I found the key to.
What tipped You off?
Fuck you too.
Wow, this Irenicus guy really has a knack for long, narrow corridors. At least there are no goblins in this one.
We enter the library, encountering its guardian mephit.
Fucking yay.
Dust Mephits have 50% physical damage resistance, I think. Other than that, they suck.
They suck? Wow. How completely different from all the other mephits!
What will we find here, I wonder...
I will only show the spots where we found something
except books. Like this healing potion here.
Goblins! Give me a second.
Ok, done.
Another oil of speed.
Yet another Dust Mephit...
Flying scum!
I'm not sure what the Glass Dust status effect does, but it can't be very dangerous.
More goblins. It will only take a minute.
Ok, we can move on.
We find some more healing potions. The sucky ones this time.
A scroll of Identify. Always useful.
I immediately use it to identify the jewel we found earlier.
'Piece of the Equalizer'? Sounds gay. What is it?
There are crafted weapons in this game, we can make them out of various pieces.
Are they any good?
Some of them, yes. Equalizer actually kind of sucks. Besides, it's a longsword, so we won't be using it anyway.
Why am I even carrying this thing, then?
Because I tell You to.
Moving on, we encoutner the dreaded Ilyich.
He's a dwarf!
Duergar, actually.
What's the difference?
Probably the same as between elves and drows. Duergars, well... live underground.
Oh, yeah, that's a huge fucking difference.
We try to cast FireBall on them, but the spell is interrupted.
Fuck!
The same thing happens to Web.
FUCK!
We finally mange to cast Slow on them.
Better than nothing, I guess.
We first eliminate the mage. It helps a lot that decides to come as close as possible before casting anything.
He could've had poor eyesight. You know, being an
underground dwarf and everything.
Shut up and kill the others, will You?
Let's try my new bhaalspawn power! Boo!
All right! I already like it more than that sucky slow poison.
The Codex suffers some damage. Ilyich comes closer to inflict even more.
Ha! I would like to see that.
OW! FUCK!
Tell me more about what You would like to see.
Fuck you!
Mwahahahaha! Slaughter!
We have to use up one healing potion, but Ilyich soon croaks.
Boom! Headshot!
We kill the one duergar left in sight range. All the others ran away in random directions, cowering.
They fear me, as it should be!
Die, pincushion dwarf!
Yeeeehaw!
Duergars don't even defend themselves, still being affected by the Horror spell.
I don't mind.
Do You really get satisfaction from killing defenseless opponents?
I-can-get-no sa-tis-fac-tion. 'cos I try. And I try. And I try... Hey, hey, hey...
I withdraw my question.
Ilyich dropped a nice looking armor and the acorns dryads told us about.
I feel strange reluctance to touch Ilyich's acorns...
I shall refrain from commenting on that.
Thank gods, it explicitly says they're dryads' acorns. Which is kind of weird in its own way.
Can You drop the acorns subject already?
We heal a bit before moving on. The lesser healing potions are hardly worth carrying, so I don't hesitate to use them.
We also find two more of the greater ones.
And two more.
The lesser potions from before had been wasted after all, as I decided to rest a few seconds later. The door visible in the screenshot leads to a small optional area. It can be opened using the statue of air elemental we found earlier.
The armor we found turns out to be the Mail of the Dead, which was the best chainmail in BG1, if I remember correctly. It will replace our current armor.
Current inventory.
Shit, that's one
horny helmet.
Oookaaaay, this is something new.
No effect. Surprising.
Right. I have the feeling I should save my game before continuing.
Casting mirror image won't hurt either.
Ok, so, this might have been a mistake, considering I don't have any good magical weapon.
Mwhahahaha! Slaughter!
Seems that a normal steel blade was sufficient after all.
That was supposed to be a demon? What a joke!
He drops a somewhat decent loot, but nothing special.
Meh. I won't be using this anyway.
We enter the door mentioned a couple of screenshots back, entering an air plane of some sort.
What? An airplane?
As in a plane of air element.
Oh, that.
The plane is inhabited by Air Mephits.
I somehow did not expect it to be rock mephits or ballet dancers.
Another mephit (mist one) joins in, as our hero gets blinded.
Fucking winged shitheads.
The blindness lowers (actually increases, but You know what I mean) The Codex' THAC0 by 20 points. A little too much. Some kind of a bug?
Not necessarily. The game probably just hates me.
Unable to hit the mephits in melee, our hero resorts to magic to deal with them.
We are lucky to get both spells successful, but I make a mistake of hitting both mephits once, instead of one twice, which kills none.
It's good I can always rely on You to get me killed when everything else fails.
Not sure if the one Magic Missile barrage proved enough, or if we managed to pull off three consecutive successful ones.
Fuck yes!
The Codex slashes down the Mist Mephit despite his blindness. I have no idea what is these guys' AC, but it can't be very good.
Moving on, only to encounter... another mephit!
Color me fucking surprised.
Ok, make that two.
Flying turds!
One down. The other went invisible.
Good thing I have the true sight spell... Oh, wait, I can't use it yet.
The other one goes down too. It was a Smoke Mephit.
Shut up! Nobody gives a fuck what exact kind these things are! They might as well be crap mephits, for all I care.
Oh, I You would
not like to fight those. Think about it.
...Ok. Let's move on.
We get a rather high level spell as a reward.
Hell yes!
All the elemental summonning spells are best cast before combat, due to their 3-round concentration time. Our meta-gaming knowledge should prove crucial in using them effectively.
Moving on, we enter an area with more mephits.
The Codex is blinded by another Mist Mephit and stunned by his friend, Steam Mephit. The situation looks dire for a moment.
Fortunately mephits are unable to kill our hero while he's helpless.
Fuck, that was close.
Running away Retreating while healing potions are digested.
I fucking hate these fucking mephits.
Our hero turns back to fight, only to be stunned again. For some reason, Mist Mephit is stunned too.
We quickly dispatch of the little abomination right after regaining ability to move.
And fucking stay down, shitwad.
But I forgot that it was the Steam Mephit that had the stun ability, not mist one. The Codex suffers the status effect again, this time having very little HP left.
Steam Mephit fails at life, and only deals 4 damage to our defenseless hero. After recovering, The Codex quickly quaffs another potion and dispatches the enemy.
YES!
Let's move a little more carefully, shall we? I'll hide in shadows to first scout this platform here.
We find some more mephits and decide to treat them to fiery death.
One mephit is killed and another one wounded. The third one affected turns out to be a Fire Mephit, which is, well, immune to fire.
Soon, the fliers come to show their affection. Air mephit wounded earlier is killed by arrows, but a fire one comes close and tries to make The Codex extra crispy.
Ow! Fuck, it burns!
YES, DIE!
A quick 40-hour rest before moving on.
Fuck yes, a magical lamp! I definitely could use a wish, or three.
Don't get Your hopes up.
I just remembered that the last djinni was a major disppointment, with the ogre mage appearing to butt-rape me, and stuff.
Wow, it would be so cool, if I could recover all my stuff here. That would be an even better wish than the one I thought of earlier, even though it contains much fewer naked women.
It's only the first update and I am already tired of this railorading. Does it improve later?
Not really, no.
Sure. I'll help, if it's the
only way of dealing with this quest.
Done and done. Any excuse to
creepily stalk talk to the lovely dryads is good.
Have to admit, the way they seem to be speaking as a collective mind is a little disturbing, but hey, nobody's perfect.
What? 9500 XP for what exactly? I haven't helped them in any way yet!
For killing the Ilyich guy?
I already got the XP for that. Like, right after he died.
Picking up the acorns then?
This is fucking retarded.
Yes, I have fucking returned, because I somehow wasn't to able to mention the djinni in our previous conversation. And that's why I came here for in the first place.
The flask has been recovered.
15000 XP. Oh, yes. Carrying the flask all the way here, from there, sure was as difficult task as killing Sarevok. Totally.
Speaking of Sarevok, this is supposedly his sword, although weakened after the original owner went to hell.
Since the new owner, namely me, is stronger than the last one, shouldn't the sword be stronger as well?
Don't try to analyze it. Just... don't.
With the sword equipped, we get two attacks at 5 THAC0. Not bad.
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Area completed!
While we reach the portal to leave, we are ambushed by goblins!
Oh, no! It's the dreaded goblin revenge! I am doomed!
Ok, seriously, I hope we are done with the goblin nonsense. It was silly from the start and hasn't gotten any better since.
And this is a good moment to finish the update.
----------
Next time: the second level.
Wait, what second level? I thought we were leaving?
Uh, no. There's another floor. Haven't I mentioned it?
