Spider Swamp - Aranea Base, Part XIII

Part XIII of the Swordflight Walkthrough. Continuing from Part XII: Cult of the Dragon. Swordflight (2008-2022) is a NWN Module for Neverwinter Nights 1 (2002).

We are currently in the Galhadr Estate in the Noble & Wealthy Estates in Calimport:

We are speaking with Hamad Galhadr in his office:

In the previous post, we reported our success in assisting Kalomas Zekar in regard to a Dragon Cult which had arisen in the Calim Desert [recap].

The following exchange is a direct continuation:

As a reminder, we first encountered the aranea in Chapter I of Swordflight [link].

Then, in this chapter, we battled aranea as we picked apart their armies in the forest and the mountains. So now, we are going to assail their stronghold in the Spider Swamp!

My party composition for this adventure is as follows:

PC + Barazh:

And Snajagh + Kelem:

The week-long journey to the allied forces Staging Area is complete:

First, introductions:

And then it's down to business:

Time to hunt some aranea!

We take the northern exit to arrive in a vast swamp. Crickets are chirping, frogs are croaking and flies are buzzing; it's quite atmospheric.

The framerate in the swamps is fine providing that Shiny Water is disabled. Grass or no grass, my framerate didn't change. Increasing its draw distance would likely hit it, though. 

It's best to disable Snajagh's spellcasting or he will waste the likes of Fire Storm on smaller, easier mobs.

We slay swamp vipers in the west:

... tanky swamp trolls...

... and ettercaps and swamp spiders in the east:

Potion of Freedom wards off immobilization inflicted by Web:

See those three ettercaps on fire in the back row? They have been hit by Firebrand - a great spell!

Post-battle, we free a soldier who was trapped in a cocoon. He gives us info on what went down:

(Looks like there's a missing *snarl / growl * interjection there. Or perhaps everyone's fave gnoll was too busy licking his wounds...)

At any rate, we push on through the swamp to arrive in its northern zone.

The heroes take out more snakes, spiders and ettercaps en route to the elevated cave entrance. 

Inside the heavily trapped cave, we find many creepy-crawlies getting about.

"What are they up to?", one may ask.
Answer: "Waiting for us to come and kill them, of course! This is D&D!"

However, our confidence is shaken when we scout deeper into the cave:

With patience, we manage to draw out the lesser, roaming enemies; that way, we only have the queen and aranea mage to battle.

Suitably buffed, it was the combination of Sneak Attacks and Critical Hits that got the job done. Basically, solid physical-based damage-dealing. The arenea are pretty squishy; Barazh just stepped on the mage as he charged the queen.

Ok, we've got the critical key to the base now (it was on the aranea mage's corpse).

Exiting the cave back out into the swamp, we find ourselves before the base; it's the cave entrance on the left of this pic, between the waterfalls. 

There are many lizardmen and aranea to battle in this zone. We haven't fought lizardmen since the Asabi Caves in Chapter I. It seems the aranea were able to recruit some into their ranks despite our efforts to prevent them.

At this point, a combination of Flame Weapon and Firebrand does the trick:

We enter the aranea base.

The first level of the base is quite large. By virtue of Invisibility, it's possible to bypass every enemy in this level, every enemy in the next, lower level, and then simply take the portal to the sewers in Calimport. 

But I prefer killing things and then taking their stuff.

We step onto the bridge, open its gate using the key, and cross it to find what seems to be a welcoming committee on the other side [cf. IWD welcoming committee: pic, link].  

Hello, assholes!

Well, I'm actually stealthed and just scoping the place out, so in fact I say nothing. :P

This side elevation shows the sneaky ranged lizardmen who like to fire onto the bridge from sidechambers:

I silently signal to my companions to come join me (right-click portrait → follow). All hell breaks loose as the aggro catches sight of them! As my companions tank the aggro and draw the surrounding fire, I'm launching volley after volley of evocations from a position of relative safety (Improved Expertise is active, as is concealment and DR).

And here we can see Barazh doing what Dwarves do best: laying down the smack on the loud-mouthed bugbear hero!

An awesome mid-level battle! I played it through several times. We mopped the rest up without too much trouble.

There are several aranea to slay in nearby chambers. These ones are just squishy generic aranea, as opposed to the custom ones we have battled in the forest and the mountains. Still, even generics can be troublesome if they start spamming Web and ILMS.

Some aranea are supported by orcs:

(Empowered Firebrand.)

... In one of the chambers we find papers of interest that show just how butthurt the aranea are:

Having read through the Zeaxua's declaration, the PC may state their views in relation to the matter, which shifts their alignment:

Zeaxua is our primary target: the leader of the aranea.

The other chambers contain many spell scrolls (logical, since the aranea are arcane by nature). A couple secret doors lead to hidden treasure rooms, too.

We decend to the second level. Unfortunately, the tunnel collapses behind us, trapping us down here. This happened to us in the Buried Ruins, as well [link, pic]; it's good design to force the player to push on and make use of whatever resources they have, and can find.

My Gnome Illusionist scouts out a mega-mob in the central chamber; it's headed up by custom aranea: conjurer and necromancer. Death Ward is mandatory for two reasons: Water Elemental DC 20 drown and necromancer DC 25 Finger of Death. Don't have Death Ward status? Well, someone in the party is probably going to get insta-killed.

Kelem's Turn Undead can be useful against the skeleton warriors. Note how the conjurer has Mestil's Acid Sheath active. That is a nasty retributive spell ("You hit me, you get severely hurt.") Also, the fire elemental gets ready to unleash a cone of flame:

Here I'm happily launching IGMS into the mob:

But then I incur the wrath of the fire elemental. Still, I was confident enough to tank it while I unloaded IGMS from point-blank --

-- Right into its face.

Snajagh is pro-active in dispelling negative status effects. Here, he cleanses himself post-battle.

Next on the hit list is the lizardman high shaman:

That's gotta hurt. This has been an effective tactic: tell companions to stand their ground → stealth into the mob under the effects of Invisibility → get into a good position → tell companions to follow → once they're in a good position, tell them to attack → while they draw the aggro, get off some devastating evocations such as IGMS and Firebrand.

See, NWN doesn't have full party control. So it's not easy to send your tanks/physical-based damage dealers into the fray. Plus, even if you can get them to attack, they'll probably just go for the first enemy they see. Usually, that's some low-tier enemy that isn't the threat. But we want them to get amongst the mob; preferably, right next to a squishy arcane spellcaster (such as any wizard or an aranea custom; anything that impacts combat encounter outcomes). So, under the effects of Invisibility, we can get deep into a chamber and pull the tanks into the pack. Then they can wreck house while we unleash direct damage, immobilization and debuffing spells from the perimeter.

***

The aranea base is now cleared and looted. Our little gnome scurries into the portal in pursuit of the aranea leader, Zeaxua:

We now find ourselves in the sewers of Calimport; specifically, the wererat lair. There is a massive mob of vermin to cut through to get to Zeaxua and the other aranea; about 40 rats and wererats headed up by the wererat leader (who, if I remember rightly, is part of another quest or quests).

Reminds me of.

Empowered Fireball is employed to great effect:

Boom. Love those floating damage indicators.

Or we could employ Slow for safety reasons:

Then, the aranea mob are taken out in a spectacular lightshow:

Epic!

Again, aranea are pretty squishy. Providing we ward against Web, they're not a big problem. Just watch out for Zeaxua's DC 27 9th level illusion spell, Weird.

Ok, the aranea force has been crushed!

It's not over yet, though. As we make our way out of the sewers, we are assailed by Consuming Fire monks and assassins!

As per the Cult of the Dragon monks [pic], these guys are downright scary:

Their collective attack rate is insane. Not just that, but they don't hold back on activating nasty offensive feats such as Stunning Fist, Knockdown, Death Attack and Quivering Palm!

In this screencap we can see Barazh succumbing to Quivering Palm; yes, he's history. Nice 80+ dmg hammer blow by Snajagh on the right, though.

Then, here, Kelem has been hopelessly immobilized by Stunning Fist. We can see the Death Attacks and Knockdowns being attempted, too. On the right, Snajagh's inflicts his second 80+ dmg hammer blow of the encounter!

Now, this encounter with the monks feeds into another fork of the main quest; one which, like the Aranea quest, also has its origins in Chapter I.

In fact, there are several forks that come together as Chapter II wraps up; it's quite the culmination.

Just one thing I'd like to point out here... because of the slow leveling pace, big areas with lots of similar enemies, and lack of OP loot, we get to feel the capabilities of our character, and its growth. This is something that most RPGs do not feature because their leveling pace is too brisk, there are too many OP items, and their area design and encounter design is far too varied. Most RPGs feel like theme parks because the devs are worried that players will get bored if they aren't seeing completely new things all the time, but this is actually not a good thing, and just caters to casuals with short attention spans (who are only interested in beating the game and winning, as quickly as possible, and seeing as much as they can in one playthrough). Swordflight doesn't stoop to that, which is great.

This is a campaign for people who actually enjoy RPGs and Dungeons & Dragons. Like I've said before, it's eerily similar to the tabletop game; pacing is so important: we're not rushing to 40th level here in 20 hours. We're enjoying 80 hours of game-play at 5-15; arguably the "sweet spot". There is something to be said for that, I think.

Next up: Mazar's Golems!

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