Part 160: Chapter CLVI - Dream on, fool.

Chapter CLVI - Dream on, fool.



So yeah, stable.

Let's head outside and get a lay of the land.



Much better.



Seems we've come to the right place!



Ankhegs and Treants are the enemies we face here.



The entrance to the Citadel is well guarded, it took quite some effort to push through.



Almost looks like an alternate version of Windspear Hills, doesn't it? Time to head inside.



These enemies are troglodytes, they're pretty weak.



Kind of a weird place for a fountain but soothing nonetheless.



The skeleton-spawning necromancers are back again, there are two of them on this floor.



Drow are also present, the wizards put up quite a fight.



Step on the platform and low level enemies spawn, completely useless otherwise.





The library does have a book that might be worth keeping.





We'd better hang on to this coal as well.



See what happens when you leave the guys alone?



The aftermath is satisfying at least.



That's it for this first area, otherwise known as 'Troglodyte Hall' in the guide.



Really getting a lot of mileage out of Planescape:Torment dungeons, Roxanne...



Gotta justify these somewhat-fresh corpses somehow, I suppose.



Some more coal to be found here.



Creepy.



Nothing worth mentioning about the rest of this area dubbed 'Lieutenant's Quarter'



Baldur's Gate 1's dungeons were unbearable when it came to pathfinding, in no small part due to Pelligram and Haiass throwing a wrench into the whole thing. Coming across these areas conjures up all sorts of bad memories.



This area's full of drow...



...And not much else, fittingly it's called the 'Drow Mistress' Cave.'



In the next area we're greeted by a Red Wizard, I really thought we'd be running into them a lot sooner and a lot more often but oh well...



This area is based on the Windspear dungeon which means that there are a lot of false doors.



My cursor tells me I should be able to interact with this tub but I never found a use for it.



We fight another ultra hard kobold 'Netheril Admiral' in this area.



Nice cloak, we'll be needing this switch as well!



As soon as we pick up the switch this area's flooded with skeletons.



There's also a sarcophagus in this side area.



Melicamp is going to love this!



Told you!



The conclusion to his quest will still have to wait, though.



That's it for the 'Admiral's quarter.'



Backtracking to the Lieutenant's quarter we come across a side area.





We find the third and final pile of coal here.



A second side area serves as a shortcut between the Troglodyte Hall and Admiral's quarter, the middle tomb is the entrance.



I originally thought this was just another false door but it's the entrance to the next area.



That's quite a drill.



Insert your own joke here.



Looks like we'll have to free him first, we have to go back to the Drow Mistress' Cave to get the key.



Speak for yourself, Sandrah.



What was even the point of this little cameo? She's not even supposed to be alive!



Let's just get the key and go back to the mechanic.



As it happens we've already collected all the items we need.



Coal goes in the back, the handle goes on the side.









After the cutscene we move to the next area.



We're greeted by some wizards and Black Hand cultists.



This'd make for a fine bar.



Thanks for letting me know, how do we proceed?



As it turns out we just have to step on this grate, which takes us to...



A final boss area if ever there was one.



Cyric is waiting for us here with the ultimate weapon, a Sandrah clone.



Cyric does nothing while we wail on her.



After a while she runs out of juice and departs, leaving us to fight Cyric who still stands around doing nothing.



That was easy.



Szass Tam: Worst villain ever.





Cyric storms off and Szass Tam appears.



He's aided by a Babau who promptly fucks off seconds into the fight, not even his minions want to stick around.



Szass Tam is excessively hard. I've mentioned before that I'm not that good at Baldur's Gate to begin with and any motivation to play the game with a modicum of effort has left me a long, long time ago. I'd wager that anyone would have trouble taking this guy down, he's nigh invincible and hits like a truck. He also regenerates faster than I could deal damage to him. I basically had to cheat my guys to full health every other second just to keep this thing going.

Since I'm the only one who's made it this far I feel like I'm entitled to a little shortcut.



After a set amount of time Edwin and Candrella arrive to help out and Szass Tam becomes a bit easier. Candrella actually puts in effort, Edwin just stands there like a statue.



Even using ctrl-y did nothing to end this fight, it just seemed to end automatically after a couple of minutes. Just an excruciating experience all around.





We're not done quite yet, Cyric is still out there.



We use the teleporter...



And go back outside where we face a very cowardly Babau.

Next time we'll finish off Sandrah's story for good. If only that were the end of this entire experience...