Part 35

Our route to Fireshear is through Neverwinter, where the game has previously suggested that there are docks. While these existed in theory in the first game, you couldn't really get to them.



"This is the place… so, d'you think Steelfist is getting a kickback from sending us here?"

"I'm almost certain of it. The bigger question is whether we can convince them that any of us are dwarves or gnomes."




"Ugh. If I were a dwarf I could fall overboard and drown quickly."

"We're going to a tropical island for our next adventure."




"Oh. Shit. Okay people, remember, it was like this when we got here!"






"Furry snow monsters? I wouldn't think that they'd be either one or the other…"



"Not snow monsters…yeti."



"Whatever they were, they don't appear to be here now… which is, if anything, more disturbing. They just wrecked the place and left."




"Yetis, remember? Weren't you paying attention?"

"Er… yeah, that's right. Hey look, the torches are still burning! This must have happened in the last hour or two."





"Well, this is awkward."

"Not as awkward as finding his body would have been. Maybe he escaped?"



"No body here either… it definitely looks like they either escaped, or they were somewhere else when it happened."



"I always forget, who has a red axe as their emblem?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to have a talk to them about it since I have this axe."



"Looks like not everybody left!"



That picture is a lie. The enemy here is a great orc and some ice hounds, which are like hell hounds except ice themed. They even breathe ice at you when they attack, for 2-7 damage. It's a save attack for half, so you're always going to take some damage from them.



"Is that last part a name, or are they telling them to leave?"

"In either case, it's an assault on the common tongue."



"It looks like some of them decided to stay and move in after everybody else left."

"If they'd just pay the rent, they'd probably be welcome."



So, this is our first glimpse at the monsters that wrecked this once thriving city. They come in three varieties, and take extra damage from fire. This doesn't do us much good here, but it'll be useful in the future. In addition, they can grab on to your characters and keep them from moving. This attack does additional damage each round, but it's not the worst thing about them… I'll cover that in a minute.



"He was definitely following them pretty closely. Did they just not notice that he was there?"

"It does settle the question of whether or not Ghogh is a person."



"Somehow the square is less of a mess than the diplomats quarters were."

"Let's just hope that doesn't mean they were smart enough to know the difference between the two places."






"Er… yeah, it's a great sign. Good luck with that."

"What kind of merchant has three apprentices?"



"You… you just keep on doing what you're doing there."



"We might get a bit lost, but we'll get there eventually."







"...I was a lot happier when I thought it was just yetis."



"Is there nothing on this island that doesn't eat people?"

"I wouldn't even rule out the dwarves and the gnomes."



I've always liked Remorhaz as a monster, since they're just such a weird construct. They're giant centipedes that have an internal furnace and will eat polar bears and that can melt weapons that strike them. The last doesn't really come up in the game, thankfully, and they're basically big meat shields. Oh, and there's also one in front of us. This is basically an ambush.



"They're like giant magpies, collecting anything shiny. Although that ring looks pretty nice."



"I think we might have stumbled upon the main invasion force."

"I hope so, because if we haven't that means that there's even more of them out there somewhere."



Pictured right here is the thing that makes these some of the most annoying encounters in the game. What we're actually dealing with here is a two phase set-piece battle, where some reason the yeti have a fear aura. Their fear aura is stronger than a dragon's, and you can pretty much assume that the first two rounds of a battle are going to be your characters running around in terror and scattering to the four winds. To make things worse, you're close enough to the edge of the map that your characters will attempt to flee and will actually leave the battlefield.



This is an extended image to show the extent of the fight. Most of it is actually chopping through piles of ice hounds after the yeti have been wiped out.




"Somebody find Ghogh, I think I've figured out who's in charge."



This shot was taken after several rounds of everybody running around like idiots. I think that's Alaric after he decided to try a panic run that allowed every single yeti to attack him a couple of times. The Grand Yeti is exactly what you'd expect: a bigger, meaner version of his troops. Also, he has 50% magic resistance for some reason.





"Not that we had much of a choice, with you putting us on the spot like that…"

"Eh. We'd need to go there anyway to get a boat to wherever it is we're going next."



"There are a lot of things rotting down here, as we've seen."



"And some things that smell just as bad when they're alive."



Whatever else you can say about umber hulks, they're definitely umber. Or not, since umber is a brown or reddish brown color and these look distinctly purple. They can theoretically cause confusion with a sonic attack, but I've never seen them actually do it successfully.



"Good Gods, they must breed like rabbits around here if they can have this many people being eaten by monsters on a regular basis."

"It looks like this is the end of the road, though… nowhere left to go but the docks."



"Reminds me of that medusa… I wish this was a medusa."



"Oh come on, you mean we didn't wipe out your entire species yet? Couldn't you have stayed in one convenient place for it?"




"How in the Nine Hells did that thing communicate with them to let them know what it wanted?"



"I think we're about to perform a considerable service to the entire Frontier."



I'll come right out and say it: that's one of the least intimidating Beholder sprites I've ever seen. He looks worried and upset, like he's thinking about doing his taxes. Despite that, he's extremely dangerous. Every round he's going to launch a Flesh to Stone Ray at you and a Slay Living attack, and it's pretty much impossible to get through this fight without having at least one person fail their save. His Achilles Heel is being extremely slow and having a somewhat limited range. One of the best methods you can use to deal with it is to keep your characters back and pepper him with arrows, then make a final rush and attack with swords when he comes around a corner.




"Er… we really appreciate that and all, but could you point us toward your nearest priest? We're fresh out."



"Which one of those has the smallest possibility of beholders?"

"Ice Peak it is, then."





"Can't you just drop us off in a city that's not full of people who hate us?"

"Around here they'd have to find one first."



"Not even if they need us to save a tropical island?"

Character Snapshot






Some of our characters have taken a dive in their HP total as a result of constitution loss during the battle with the beholder. Nothing much to do about it, I'm afraid, as this game doesn't give you options for recovery spells that don't have that effect. Stone to Flesh also takes its toll, and you're not going to get out of that one easily. Vermunt is wielding our reward from the Shearmaster, which actually now that I look at it isn't as good as the previous weapon he had. I also went ahead and identified Kriiador's equipment… I just wish I could pry it out of his hands.

Next Update: The Journey to Ice Peak: Part 1.