Part 126: Chapter CXXIII - Here is a first taste of your reward, great hero.

Chapter CXXIII - Here is a first taste of your reward, great hero.



Back to Icewind Dale once again.



I'll warn you guys up front, this was quite the slog.



I have fond memories of this map from IWD2, mostly because of the great soundtrack that accompanied it. Too bad it's not playing now.





A new addition to our party.



While visiting the houses we can enter we pick up a quest.





The inn is quite cozy.



This sounds interesting.



We check in with the mayor, he gives us a quest but I never got around to completing it.



Time to leave this place.



A lot of enemies in the wilds beyond.



We head back for a bit which leads to this scene.



I guess we can look for them while we're in the ar-



...Oh.



From here we can go west, north and east. Let's try the west area first.



A familiar area, let's check out that house to the north.



Ah, a kooky hermit. Let's see about this temple first.



In the next area we run into these adventurers but they leave before we can talk to them.



These things are called Shadow Samurai, they're quite a pain.



Chilling.



A fight? Sign me up!



Can't go this way, have to go around.



Quite a tough fight.



The spirit opens the door for us.



If only the picture could illustrate how much of a pain it was to go through.



The inside's not much better.



Some of the monks don't attack you, they've gone mad.



After this (sort of) boss fight I decided to head back out to rest.



Jaheira's 'friend' decides to show his face again, his loss.



Now that that's over and done with we can head back in.



I guess I should've known better.



She's still going, this romance really does go on forever.



Sandrah gaining experience in these moments will never cease to amaze me.



Great, more riddles.



Time to get to work.



You know, for once I'm glad Sandrah decided to take charge.



...Except she managed to get it wrong.



I had to do the entire thing by myself, I eventually had to resort to trial & error. On to the next floor.



A cheap imitation of Kangaxx, he wasn't too hard to deal with.



Eventually I get teleported to this place, I don't know what triggered it.





Screw this, I'm done with this area. Time to head out. Suffice it to say this area was an absolute pain to go through.





We get the hermit his supplies.



Back at the crossroads we decide to head east now, the first time I get teleported back but the second...





We can't go through the portal, guess it's time to hit that frozen dragon.





That's the ticket, next up is some sort of maze.



We have to kill this thing multiple times before it decides to stay dead.



Entering these flames leads to an encounter, avoiding them is very hard. Lots and lots of repetitive combat.



Thank God we got through that, the next area...



...Is another fucking maze.



More and more combat, I'm getting sick of this.



Finally, we're out.



Will these talks ever end?



Don't mind me, just passing through.



Let's see what this 'Great One' has to say.



Trippy.



A bit of an anti-climax, I've got to say. (The hoard is barely worth mentioning)



Oh boy.



This fight was such a pain that Sandrah actually managed to get herself killed. I thought it was impossible by this point. She's only died about four times so far.



After a couple of tries we manage to beat them.



We get these items for our trouble.



There's another dragon hiding around here, might as well kill him as well.



That's it for this area, time to head back.



That just leaves the north, what do we find there?



Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just. More. Combat.



Welp, her brother's dead. What a shame.









What a complete and utter waste of time, I shouldn't have bothered but since I teased this two times I felt I had to include it.



Oh, we can revisit the fishing village. Let's d-



Oh for fuck's s-



Fine, let's get this over with.



Demonhunting, huh? Good thing we're experienced.







Let's get this party started.







Area after area of fights, nothing noteworthy.



At the end there's just one more demon to deal with. No big deal.



The monk sacrifices himself to close the portal.



Jaheira's finally calmed down a bit, good.





'Veto Death' sounds like an interesting skill but I couldn't actually find it. I think it's the second time she gained this skill.







And that's that.





Looks like Portpentyrch is back to normal, quite a lovely place.



We bump into Garalial at the inn. Now there's just two things left to do.



Anomen's back in.



That takes care of Fishing for Trouble.

Next time we'll *finally* get back to the main quest, there's a few sidequests here and there we've yet to take care of but they shouldn't take up too much time. We're at the final stretch!