Part XII of the Swordflight Walkthrough. Continuing from Part XI: Fort Akhaz: Marching Mountains. Swordflight (2008-2022) is a NWN Module for Neverwinter Nights 1 (2002).
At this point, I still consider Swordflight Chapter II to be one of the greatest campaigns ever made. Now, I've said that before, and I've played through the second installment before (so this is not premature gushing), but this playthrough is just reinforcing what I already knew. Basically, instead of finding faults with Chapter II (common on subsequent playthroughs of campaigns) I'm actually appreciating it all the more. Probably only Fallout (1997), Baldur's Gate (1998) and Jagged Alliance 2 (1999) are this good (campaign-wise, that is: combat-wise, nothing can touch Jagged Alliance 2).
As with classic hubs such as Baldur's Gate, Athkatla and Sigil, the player feels busy. There is a lot to think about at all times.
Some quests I began but then backed out of due to their difficulty; then, I returned to them later and was able to push through. Other quests I began but then became side-tracked by quests within quests. I delved the sewers several times and descended to Dark Calimport several times as well (I can't resist jumping down yet another trapdoor). I estimate that I've already spent 15 hours exploring and questing in the sewers/the Muzad. There is just so much to see and do in and under Calimport; plenty of points of interest took me off my main quest paths, and I often found myself calling up journal mode to refresh my memory of the specific task at hand (thankfully, the journal entries are informative). During this time, I became rather immersed and put updating my blogposts on hold. So that's why I've gained a couple levels since the last post [see: updated Chargen & Building].
Note: Be sure to right-click screencaps → open in new tab (then zoom-in if necessary). I've scaled dialogue screencaps to 1600px in width. Most other screencaps are 200%, too. Viewability should be good now. You could also just left-click to enter Lightbox mode and mouse-wheel through the pics, but they may not display at full size (depends on the resolution of your display, I guess).
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Assisting Kalomas is a well-narrated quest which must be completed before we can go to the aranea base in the Spider Swamp.
Having crushed the goblinoid army in the Forest of Mir, and the orc army in the Marching Mountains (i.e, completed the Humanoid Armies mega-quest), we return to Galhadr Estate in Calimport:
We find Hamad Galhadr in his office, awaiting news:
While an assault on the aranea base is being prepared, Hamad sends us off on another mission, the quest for which is called Assisting Kalomas:
We make our way to the Zekar estate to the south...
... and meet up with Kalomas Zekar himself...
... who tells us with whom we are to rendezvous, before teleporting us...
... to a hidden encampment of refugees in the Calim Desert:
(Such is the wizard's power and reach.)
In camp, we form a capable quartet for this adventure:
The PC and Jalal:
And Snajagh and Talu (who were sent by Hamad):
The party heads off into the desert wilderness in search of mysterious maruaders who are kidnapping people from the camp.
While they don't have much trouble crashing through the pack of Blazing Fire Beetles...
... their combat prowess is tested as they face off against a pack of sand troll super-tankers:
(Slow was so damn useful there... those trolls are incredibly tough, and sport immunities out the ass.)
Passing through a cave of sand trolls...
... the party moves back out into the desert to find the path through the rocks choked with - you guessed it! *shudder*
Battered and bleeding, the party pushes on to discover a corpse dumped in the desert:
Cause of death is thought to be vampire:
A prayer is said and a cairn erected for the deceased (a noble gesture, to be sure):
Nearby tracks are also examined:
We head back into the troll cave, grab some wooden stakes (for any upcoming vampires), and make our way to a cave that we probably shouldn't have entered! We found it to be positively choked with Blazing Fire Beetles...
... all of which simultaneously unleash their fire bolts at us:
Surprised out of our minds, we absorb the bolts of fire and then take 'em out:
Reminds me of.
Having overcome them, we are rewarded - Swordflight-style:
Sweet.
That was a dead-end, though. So we follow the tracks that lead into a tunnel and another cave entrance:
And here we use a Rune of Invigoration (heals us, restores our spell slots):
It turns out to be the entrance to a Hidden Fortress in the desert. Inside, the heavily buffed Snajagh and Jalar charge towards two guardian golems and start whaling away on them:
No problems there due to their enchanted wields (though the Clay took some beating).
Proximity traps are cleared before solving a puzzle that grants us entry to the next chamber:
(Place the correct weapon on the correct statue; clues are given through riddles.)
Flanked by Flesh Golems, a Sphinx confront us in the next chamber.
It poses a riddle to us:
However, it is not going to let us proceed to the second floor of the fortress without a fight:
The dual-wielding Jalar tore the Sphinx a new asshole, as can be seen here:
But the Flesh Golem fist-attacks were surprisingly damaging; Snajagh's hide received a beating.
The second floor of the fortress is much larger...
... and much more dangerous.
Gargoyles break out of stone statues, and non-trivial undead spawn within the party's ranks:
The Gargoyles' sneak attacks are frequent and devastating:
It's good if Snajagh unleashes Hammer of the Gods... [feedback]
And again, Slow can help [feedback]. But this combat encounter isn't easy, full stop. Which is exactly what we want.
Next up, we go up against undead and golems; no fewer than four skeleton mages. Jalar's on-hand sword sports on-hit disruption of undead at DC 22. Nice. Bypassing deep HP pools with vorpal-like effects is so satisfying.
At the end of this section we find a token prisoner to rescue:
Then, more undead are encountered guarding a dragon statue (it's similar to the previous one; i.e, non-trivial). An altar sits at the foot of the statue dedicated to the Cult of the Dragon:
A summary of our progress is given in the journal:
Two locked and trapped chests on either side of the altar hold key dragon- and undead-bane items.
Yes!
Nearby, we also find a secret door leading into a hidden treasure room holding loot bags and piles of gold.
Nice.
Six vampiric cult-monks of the Cult of the Dragon await us behind a reinforced gate.
Now, let me tell you something about these guys: they are going to beat your party to a pulp. This combat encounter is hard.
Why aren't they attacking me? Because I'm under cover of stealth, and they don't sport True Seeing. Why is my character not see-through then? Because I modded out the transparency effect of Ghostly Visage, Invisibility and Improved Invisibility. Why did I do that? Because I like to, you know, actually see my character clearly, and at all times (I also modded out the ugly-ass Barkskin and Stoneskin effect, too, but I digress...)
For this battle, the PC wields the recently itemized undead-bane crossbow loaded with holy bolts. Talu wields the other great crossbow. The ammo, along with Snajagh and Jalar's melee weapons, are buffed with Flame Weapon and Bless Weapon. Everyone is buffed to the heavens.
Below: The PC drops clvl20 Sunburst scrolls on the monk-pack. The damage is good (two very lucky rolls) but as a result she drew aggro and was level-drained, stunned and slain on the spot. Oh well, I needed to test the efficacy of those scrolls, anyway.
And yes, the monks employ the insta-killer known as Quivering Palm. I didn't test if a Potion of Death Ward protects against Quivering Palm, but I was unable to ward against Stunning Blow with a Potion of Freedom (I probably should have tried a Potion of Mind Blank, but I don't think I had any, so whatevs).
As the monks are slain, they float back to their sarcophagus as a cloud of gas, wherein they regenerate and respawn after an interval. Thus, we need to be quick to vanquish them utterly by staking them. Otherwise, we're dead meat.
The loot found in the monks' quarters is proportionate to the difficulty of the combat encounter; in other words, it's highly rewarding.
Talu has been utterly useless up until this point, but in this battle he unleashed IGMS a few times. That made me pretty happy.
It's not over yet, though. On the third floor...
... we have the following to contend with:
... we have the following to contend with:
The Cult Mage is nasty!
She unleashes DC 28 Wail of the Banshee; it instantly slays the PC + Talu (arcane spellcasters are not known for making Fort. saves). Thus, Potion of Death Ward is mandatory.
Anyway, I try something else:
Under cover of stealth, the entire party moves in. The Cult Mage figures something is afoot and casts True Sight in order to scry us. But, by that time, the party has positioned themselves around her. Then, they attempt to execute a coordinated attack.
The first IGMS inflicts a ton of damage as the Cult Mage cast True Sight; it puts her on her last legs immediately:
Problem was, the second IGMS was deflected by her Spell Mantle (which she managed to call up just after the first IGMS).
Luckily, though, Jalar had just finished off one of the Flesh Golems, and was able to strike her down. In the above screencap, he looks too far away to do that. But trust me, he got the hit in. High-fives all 'round for that one. I love that guy.
So, the vampiric cult-monks have been utterly vanquished!
Exploring the chamber, in addition to finding some great treasures...
[For more info, see Hammer & Anvil]
... my gnome illusionist discovers another magical device [cf. Zataroth]. This allows her to enhance her Precious... from this to this.
Very, very, VERY nice. What can we do with the magical device if we're, say, just a Fighter? [Answer].
In addition:
Our journal again updates with a clear and concise summary of what we're dealing with:
We weave our way through the trap-laced passageways and make our way up into a valley to the summit of the fortress, where a blue dragon called Varaxazh'kalvzor awaits us.
Exploring the chamber, in addition to finding some great treasures...
[For more info, see Hammer & Anvil]
... my gnome illusionist discovers another magical device [cf. Zataroth]. This allows her to enhance her Precious... from this to this.
Very, very, VERY nice. What can we do with the magical device if we're, say, just a Fighter? [Answer].
In addition:
Our journal again updates with a clear and concise summary of what we're dealing with:
We weave our way through the trap-laced passageways and make our way up into a valley to the summit of the fortress, where a blue dragon called Varaxazh'kalvzor awaits us.
Mandatory parley:
Oh well, we tried!
Of course, we buffed ourselves to the heavens beforehand. Potion of Clarity or alignment protection scrolls are mandatory to ward off the dragon's fear aura.
IGMS along with solid physical-based damage dealing from Jalar and Snajagh got the job done:
The dragon flees:
Cult of the Dragon done and dusted!
We return to the camp, say our goodbyes, and take the portal to return to the Zekar estate in Calimport...
... where we inform Zekar of our success:
(The letter of recommendation helps us unlock the top-tier merchant in Calimport. See Part I for what I purchased there; i.e, awesome stuff. :P)
We return to Hamad as well:
The journal sums it up best:
This quest (Assisting Kalomas) was bad ass. As with Siege of Akhaz, I was completely immersed due to the finely-tuned balance of its dialogue, exploration and combat encounters. Itemization was rewarding, useful and interesting. There is even some solid lore in there. The attention to detail in all this quest's facets is quite impressive. What a great segment of the campaign!
Next up: The Spider Swamp!
I've discovered a compatibility issue with Swordflight and yet another mod. This issue is not the fault of Swordflight or Enhanced GUI, as they are not developed with each other in mind.
ReplyDeleteSo please note that Enhanced GUI (which I've recommended here: https://lilura1.blogspot.com/2017/08/Neverwinter-Nights-Best-UI-Mods.html) is not compatible with Swordflight's respawning menu: upon our death, the game crashes immediately and without fail.
I crashed several times as I went through a process of elimination.
As soon as I removed Enhanced GUI, the respawn menu appeared and the crashes stopped. CPP, PRC, ACP, Tony K's and Project Q use with Swordflight is also discouraged (as they are also not compatible/entirely compatible).