Part 58: Necropolis Campaign, Map Four, Part Three

Angels cry
And angels hurt
Angels dance
And angels flirt

Two more portals to go.



The last Fragment is out in the lake at the bottom of the map. There are some Pit Lords guarding it, but no problem for Kaspar (seriously Specters are pretty amazing for creeping).



As is customary, Ana gets the Phoenix Disc (note that Sandor, for whatever reason, is the only Hero that never gets it in his campaign), and the Tear appears. Luckily it's just near the Shipyard, so it's not that far a trek.



The last two portals are found in the northwest corners of the map. I think this one doesn't even have a Hero guarding it.

Click here to listen to the conversation!


I have prayed to Elrath... And recieved no answer... This is not what the dynasties were created for...

Sarah, this is the only way. The preparations were made. Emperor Liam has sent word to Duke Slava. We will become offical tutors to the twins.

For the first time in thirty centuries I have a doubt.

You heard the prophecy... Darkness will rule Ashan if we do nothing. One of the twins will suffice... the choice will be yours.

How will I choose which innocent to sacrifice?

Choose the one you feel has the greatest chance of survival. Elrath will guide you.

Chaos! It is the only power that Darkness truly fears...

We must face the truth. It is the only way...

And Sarah appears to have chosen Kiril. We don't know if Sarah knew about Uriel's plans for Anastasya, but she certainly knew of the plot to kill Slava - it was the only way to get Kiril into Sheogh, after all.



The Necropolis' Tear of Asha building is pretty nice, giving a 100% boost to Necromancy. They also already have a building that increases the increase of Necromancy points by 10%, which works out quite well. Necromancy IV is a powerful racial and this makes it even better.

Angels feel
And angels die
Angels eat
And angels get high



The final portal. Let's see what our last scene with Uriel is...

Click here to listen to the conversation!


It was my idea, Michael! Not Sarah's... Something had to be done! Slava was lost to us... I've known Jorgen was a Faceless for a decade...

But Anastasya... by what right? You've broken your oath. You vowed to protect the Dukes of Griffin!

Anastasya killed her father, not I.

You thread the silk the way it suits you! That's Faceless talk. The truth is simple! You used dark magic to control an innocent mind!

The Faceless are evil. They are preparing their return.

You've assassinated a Duke! And Sarah! She's taken Kiril to Sheogh!

The Faceless are exposed. Kiril has a slight chance, and no harm will come to Anastasya. I'll have Liam send her to the Falcon prison and see to her interrogation myself. She will be melded with Aurora. It's a blessing.

Uriel! I share this body with Pavel Griffin. He has been screaming away in my mind since he's learned that an angel killed his son! If I gave him control he would kill you and every Angel he could get my hands on!

I promised mother we would both out live her.

What have we done?

I've seen enough Uriel. I've seen enough.

Oh yeah Anton's being bossed around by his grandfather. And Uriel seems to be like a little child. 'I didn't do it! She did!' Funny how Anastasya was the same way at the start of the campaign...

If I haven't said it before, this family's a rolling ball of issues.

Our reward for destroying the last portal is the final piece of the Magister set. This should immediately go on Anastasya, along with the rest of the set.



This portal now opens up. Any guesses for the final boss of this campaign?



Before that, Ana is going to visit the Abyssal Worm. It'll be immensely helpful in this fight.

As is customary, let's look at her final stats, too.



83 Magic Power. Bear in mind that Irina only had about 60. Anastasya also has high Might and Magic defenses, and even her Might Power isn't too bad. Part of the reason is due to the fact that Anastasya got a better set (the Magister set increases Magic Power, while Irina's Prophet set increases Magic Defense), and Ana has on a pair of bracers that give +6 Magic Power (so she technically has about 77) but still... whew. Now imagine if Anastasya was Blood. We never completed the Skeletal Spearmen quest either, which would have given us another +3 Magic Power.

For angels are like us
In so many ways
Angels have fights
And live throughout the days

Uriel, it's time we had a final chat. You're hiding in the Citadel... the last refuge of your mind.





So we're going to kill Uriel in his mind. Why not?

Seriously, listen to the following conversation.

Click here to listen to the conversation!
Anastasya! What are you doing here?

Ah... my angel... my love!

You don't understand. I've prepared you for an Angel's soul...

Let's set some of your memories straight. First of all, I'm not your mother! Secondly, I'm no longer affected by your dark spell.

The Faceless are the enemy... They're to blame, not me!

If I've learned anything from this ordeal, Uriel, it's not to blame anyone else for what you alone chose to do.

I think this might be one of the best moments in the game. The developers really did a good job for the characters in this campaign.

And I think some have been waiting for this since the first map.

Boss Fight: Uriel



First off, note the very specific Tactics formation. I'll explain it in a second.



Uriel is likely the hardest Boss in the game, and a strong contender for one of the hardest fights in the game itself. What makes him so tough? Well...

• Uriel has 135,000 health. That's more than I think any Boss in the game. He also has extremely high defenses and 50 Initiative, as well as a Movement of 8.
  
  
• Uriel has a Might Power of 14,500. He's going to be hitting very hard. His attack is also a piercing attack that hits two tiles in front of him, allowing him to occasionally hit two stacks at once.
  
  
• Uriel is immune to all negative effects. Dark Embrace, Time Stasis, Agony, etc. Blood Magic spells will still work, but any additional effects (like Chilled) won't work.
  
  
• Notice those Praetorians and Marksmen stacks? Like the Ghosts in the Mother Namtaru fight, these are essentially super-souped up versions of them. They have about ~1,000 health per creature and are in stacks of 15, so that's about ~15,000 health to blow through for each one, and they do hit fairly hard. Uriel also has two spells he can cast on them: Fanaticisim, which increases Morale by 100, and Divine Presence, which fully heals the stack, dispells all negative effects on them and renders them immune to them for the rest of the battle.
  
  
• If that wasn't enough, Uriel also has Mass Resurrection to bring all the dead stacks to life. (There's an achievement for killing him when all his stacks are dead, but it's pretty tough) But there's more - Uriel has two turns like any other Boss, but if he can't Resurrect his minions for any reason (either they're all still alive, or you're blocking their corpses), then he can go into a Holy Rage and gain an extra turn a round for the rest of the battle.

So, that's a lot of trouble. We can immediately take some quick steps to help tip the scales in our favour. The first is Petrification/Sacrifice. It gives us free reign of damage for two to three rounds, which is amazing - the Vampire Lords' Out of Time also greatly helps here.

The second is our Tactics formation. Our Archliches are the primo unit in this fight - they're dealing over 10,000 damage a round, which is very helpful in whittling down Uriel. Our Fate Weavers are also dealing close to that amount, and the Skeletal Spearmen are hitting for about 5k. Naturally, we need to make sure Uriel never gets to them - our formation is set up such that our walker stacks block Uriel from getting to them, since he's a Large creature. Note that the Fate Weavers can still be hit by Uriel if he tries to hit the Vampire Lords - if possible, move them one space forward at the start of the fight to prevent that (use Out of Time to free them from a single hit). Our Ravenous Ghouls are kinda useless here to deal damage, but they're still another stack to prevent Uriel from getting to our true MVPs the Archliches.



The third is the Abyssal Worm. The Abyssal Worm slowly consumes a stack by 10% of it every round till it dies. It is treated as an obstacle with 3 health. The big point in our favour? For whatever reason, Uriel and his minions don't deal structural damage at all. So the Abyssal Worm will keep his minions occupied for at least 10 rounds while they wail helplessly at it. Sure after that Uriel can resurrect them again, but the Abyssal Worm makes things so much easier, especially without the Praetorians soaking up damage for him.



Uriel hits very hard, as you can tell. If you have Stone Skin, it goes a great deal in softening his blows - at this stage my Anastasya's Stone Skin was reducing damage by a further 80% (remember percentage based effects stack multiplicatively, not additively). Our boosted Necromancy is also very helpful here for healing off damage. Theoratically, one can use the infinite Petrification trick against Uriel (Vampire Lords and Fate Weavers can both outspeed him), but unlike the Breeder Queen, Uriel can still retaliate.



Even with souped up Magic, Anastasya's not doing a whole lot with her spells on the grand scheme of things. This is what I mean when I say late game, Blood Magic starts taking a sideline to pure power.

This fight can be very hard - bear in mind that this time round I have a lot better tactics than I did before. It's a fight worthy of being a final boss. The only thing that stops Uriel from being the bona fide toughest fight in the game is that he doesn't grow in strength, unlike Miranda. So given enough time, you can just build up lots and lots of ranged creatures and massacre him in a few rounds.



But eventually, he falls...



We still have to defeat the rest of his minions, but at this point it's just cleanup.

Angels cry
And angels hurt
Angels dance
And angels flirt

Death of an Angel (YouTube via Polsy)


And... we may have just killed Liam. Two for one special!

Click here to listen to the conversation!


Anastasya? Is that you? I...

...stabbed me through the heart? I've gotten over that.

Anastasya... I regret killing you. Something inside me told me that you would be far better off dead...

Stop... you made the right choice. I've brought justice to father's murderer... there was no other way. But I do have a request...

Anything, Anastasya...

Could you teach me how to make a kite?

Certainly... I could even make you one.

I'll need two. I want to fly them with you and Kiril. I want that more than anything in the world.

This game, man. This game.



And we're left with two more maps... Anton's and Kiril's. It can only go downhill from here folks!