Buried Ruins 4, Swordflight (Part VI)

Part VI of the Swordflight Walkthrough. Continuing from Part V: Buried Ruins 3. Swordflight (2008-2022) is a NWN Module for Neverwinter Nights 1 (2002).

Buried Ruins 4 Swordflight

Mummy madness. En route to the Mummy Warlord, Ramurg, there is a particularly nasty passageway stacked with mummies and skeletons headed up by skeleton priest, skeleton mage and skeleton guardian. It is possible to bypass the entire encounter by means of magical or conventional stealth, resolve the Ramurg situation peacefully, and thereby complete Buried Ruins IV without engaging or triggering aggro at all, but my preference is to vanquish the undead in standard battle.

The mummies DC 12 Fear aura is crippling, and, as far as I know, only Paladins sport innate Fear immunity at low level (Aura of Courage). My last playthough was conducted with a Paladin, and I don't remember having any difficulty with the mummies. (Paladins are also immune to on-hit mummy rot by virtue of Divine Health.)

Being a Rogue (1) / Illusionist (4), my base Will saves suck ass. However, I can buff saving throws as follows:

• 4 base + 1 Ghoul Chopper + 1 Ring of Resistance + 1 Bardsong + 1 Bless potion (Fear save only) + 2 Owl's Wisdom potion = 10.

But the only 100% guaranteed ward against Fear I know of that we can employ is the Potion of Clarity, which indicator can be seen hovering over my head as I tank the trio of mummies by virtue of AC 30 (AC 34 if we purchased a Haste potion from the innkeeper):

For safety reasons, they should be lured out one by one, if possible.

Once they're dealt with, and while still thoroughly buffed, I move in to take out the skeletal undead. This encounter is "a surprise spawn". Though it's not so much a feeling of surprise - more like dread. The squishy but dangerous mage takes priority, followed by priest, guardian and low-tiers.

Ramurg the Mummy Warrior. This is a satisfyingly difficult encounter. While it's easier to resolve the encounter peacefully, I'm going to attempt to take out Ramurg with my Gnome Rogue (1) / Illusionist (4).

"Examine creature" stats:

Ramurg hits hard, swings his Sandstorm two-hander twice as fast as we do, and sometimes activates Knockdown. Proof of damage capability:

With our "super-tanker" AC of 30, we can vanquish him by spamming the Wand of Lightning from point-blank:

Or take him out by means of melee:

Stats:

The one-off 17th level Flame Weapon scroll bought from the Zombie sported a higher caster level than my Flame Weapon spell; thus, it was employed against Ramurg. In addition, a 17th level Bless Weapon scroll was also employed for its 2d6 divine vs. undead (I bought several of those scrolls from Roigo, and used them throughout the undead-heavy ruins).

The Ghoul Chopper adds 1d4 positive energy, and the +2 bludgeoning comes from Zarala's Bardsong. The excellent AB is granted by True Strike.

Further optimizations could be made, but that got the job done. It was touch and go, though.

It's important to keep Zarala waaaaay back, as Ramurg may disengage from us and decide to go after her instead (shudder).

If Ramurg slays the PC, the 125 point experience penalty won't be felt since we just reached 5th.

The finale of Chapter One is staged in the Master's Sanctum. It consists of a cutscene and dialogue some of which is screencapped here. Character exported. Ready for Chapter Two.

Conclusion:

I thoroughly enjoyed replaying Chapter One; it's a pure D&D adventure module. The Buried Ruins is a great low level dungeon crawl; the best. It's comparitively difficult but not unfairly so, and its itemization balance, combat encounter design, area design and quest structure is top-tier. Dialogue, journal entries and lore descriptions are well-written. Chapter One is basically a professional mini-RPG in all respects, just not published commercially.

Despite my character not being optimized for undead-based combat encounter design, she managed to pull through by employing a mix of melee and the arcane (spells, scrolls and wands) - and by buffing thoroughly. My ace-cards were the two Wands of Lightning, Improved Expertise, and key spells and scrolls that augmented my tanking and physical-based damage dealing (e.g, Magic Armor, Ghostly Visage, Bless Weapon and Flame Weapon). Invisibility status was also very helpful in getting optimal positioning from which to mount the initial attack.

It wasn't easy-going, though. I face-palmed and cursed a few times; mainly, concerning my dumb-as-rocks and squishy-af familiar. I may change familiars... (they do get upgraded somewhat later in the campaign).

Both Zarala and my familiar were of little help against the undead. As decoys, summons were all but useless as meatshields (even the elemental "stick-summons"). Nothing wrong with that, of course; it's just an observation.

Thief utility skills such as Open Lock and Disable Trap added to my XP yield (Zarala is also capable in this respect). UMD was helpful (Monk boots).

I discovered all of the secret rooms (I love finding secret doors that lead to hidden chambers filled with treasure; it's pure D&D) and found all of the eight ancient artifacts for the first time. The character benefited from Intelligence, Lore and other checks including even Appraise. These reinforced the role I was playing and made me feel that my character build mattered and that I was actually role-playing the character (reactivity).

We're heading into Chapter 2 Swordflight now.

Neverwinter Nights	Swordflight Chapter 3	Buried Ruins 2	Thieves' Guild	Mazar's Golems
Swordflight	Swordflight Alignment	Buried Ruins 3	Goblinoid Army	Precious Metals
Rogueknight Interview	Swordflight Walkthrough	Buried Ruins 4	Orc Army	Hammer & Anvil
Swordflight Chapter 1	Shifting Sands Inn	Calimport	Dragon Cult	Bloody Blades
Swordflight Chapter 2	Buried Ruins 1	Zataroth	Aranea Base	Zagash the Terrible