"No, I'm not going to repeat the process to reincarnate you as a human. Nor half-orc. There's a risk of killing you or myself every time we try. Stop asking," Thalantyr said sternly to me.
Awwwwww. Well, I wasn't too hopeful. I knew the risks were probably too high, but I had to ask.
The rest of the party was giving me dirty looks again. Neera in particular was shaking her head after I asked Thalantyr if he could reincarnate me as something else.
With our reputation maxed, I was now enjoying the maximum discounts possible at stores. No point holding back now. I purchased for Neera every spell in Thalantyr's inventory that wasn't outright useless. Any spell which required a squishy mage to enter melee and/or punch someone in melee, I considered useless. I made a special exception for Vampiric Touch, which restores hp and doesn't require a melee hit in spite of the name.
I didn't really need everything. I just enjoyed having lots of options.
Our business concluded, we waved our goodbyes to Thalantyr and Melicamp for now. We'd be back for more shopping, eventually.
Thalantyr had words for me as we left, this time. "Sonny. I trust you will be cautious in your travels as well. I wish you 'intelligence' on your journeys. I would wish you 'luck', but it runs out much quicker than you would think. Good day."
I guess that's his way of saying, thank you for helping me save my apprentice for no benefit to yourself.
As we walked out, Neera asked, "Why haven't you passed the new spells to me to scribe yet?"
"With this many scrolls, let's hedge our bets first," I replied. "We'll return to the safety of the inn first. It'll be easier for you there."
Gary Gygax, creator of D&D, had always tried to make magic finicky. Reasoning that bending the rules of reality should be difficult, or something to that effect. ADnD rules requires wizards to learn new spells by scribing said spells from scrolls into their own spellbooks. The thing is, the scribing process can fail and there is a maximum number of spells a wizard can know for every spell level, both which depend on the intelligence of the wizard. Neera has an intelligence of 17, with which so her scribing success rate is 75% and spells known per spell level is 14. Except as a wild mage, Neera get's a 15% penalty to scribe spells successfully (this is considered a bug). A mere 60% success rate for scribing scrolls of spells that were very limited or hard to get was super unacceptable. Normally I'd adjust down the difficulty of the game so that scribing always worked, but that option wasn't available to me now. So I had to think of other means of improving the odds.
After trekking for 20=16=36 hours, everyone was dead on their feet. Back to town we went, and we had another night of rest.
The entire affair was a bloody waste of our time. Being a goodie-goodie sucks, folks.
Back in the inn, Neera was about to start the scribing process. Resting, scribing, memorising, this was going to take Neera all day given the number of scrolls. There was a writing desk right next to her bed site so she could switch up between whichever she needed. I and Imoen were there with Neera at my insistence.
"Before you start, you need to drink this," I said to her while handing her a red potion.
Neera eyed the red potion with suspicion. It didn't help that Imoen's eyes widened in recognition and she started to giggle, in spite of me glaring at her.
"Alright, I don't remember what that potion is. So I'm being pranked, am I?" Neera asked, nonchalant. She probably thought this was a joke so she didn't actually have to drink this potion, whatever it was.
I stuffed a pillow into Imoen's face and shook my head at Neera. "It's no prank. You're about to scribe 3255 gold worth of scrolls, many of which are extremely rare. This potion will make certain your success rate is 100%. Also, it removes the limits of how many spells you can know at once."
"Sounds… good?" Neera said, and pointed at Imoen. "Then why is she having a giggle fit at my expense?"
"There are, uh, side effects," I admitted. "During this time, you will also be as weak as a kitten and as very unwise. Well, no difference in Wisdom in your case."
Neera's eyes narrowed at my last remark, then widened. "NO! I'm not drinking that stuff! No way!"
"Then pay me back for every spell scroll you fail to scribe. Also, replace every rare scroll lost," I said dryly. "To show how serious I am, I and Imoen are both here to serve your every need while you are weakened by the potion."
Imoen stopped laughing and pushed the pillow aside. "WHAT! I ain't gonna be no maid!"
"Then pay me back for every spell scroll Neera fails to scribe. Also, replace every rare scroll lost," I replied dryly. Again. "I'm not exactly thrilled to become Neera's personal butler myself."
Obviously, neither of them could repay that much money nor replace such rare spell scrolls. The two looked at each other, uncertain.
"Being that weak would suck," Neera said, considering her words slowly. "But having both of you both at my beck and call? Oh, that wouldn't be so bad."
Imoen cringed, then grabbed my pack. Shifting through it, she found my potion bag and pulled out the Potion of Genius. "Almost as good, no side effects!" Imoen declared, triumphantly.
She was right actually. The Potion of Genius should increase the success rate to 97%. Or in Neera's care, 82% due to bugs.
"Are you willing to pay me back for every spell scroll Neera fails to scribe?" I asked dryly.
Imoen hesitated, maybe considering the risks. In the end, she nodded fiercely. "I'll make it work. But!" Imoen pointed at Neera, "Yer gotta make her pay too. Otherwise she'll fail on purpose to annoy me!"
"HEY! I wouldn't do such a thing!"
"Yes, you would," I said in agreement with Imoen. "Imoen, you're only delaying the inevitable, you know? We're going to use this Red Potion eventually."
"I'll delay it for as long as I can!"
In the end, Neera succeeded in scribing all but one spell, Hold Undead, which we probably didn't need anyway. More importantly, she managed to scribe the Stoneskin scroll from Ekandor which was a rare and critical spell, as well as Skull Trap and Fire Arrow, which were not so rare but more important replacements for Lightning Bolt for her level 3 slots. The mishaps at Adoy's and getting my hair burnt by Neera's bouncing lightning bolts were still fresh on my mind.
In other words, good enough. I didn't hold the two pink irritations to the cost of the Hold Undead scroll after all.
After all that scribe work, it was time for more shopping! This time at Thunderhammer smithy.
Finally, I bought Full plate Armor for 4020 gold and Shadow Armor+3 for 7035 gold! How much was it before? Whatever, I'm paying less! Gotta love me a discount. After all that purchasing as well as selling some stuff we no longer needed, we still had about 10k gold left. I should probably buy more goodies from Thalantyr, though I hadn't decided what yet. It can wait.
With our new armors, Khalid has AC-4 (-7 vs slashing), Jaheira has AC-5 (-8 vs slashing), and I had AC0 (AC-5 vs slashing, with the anti-slashing Girdle). We were well protected, and my new Shadow Armour+3 boosted my Hide in Shadows by +15 to 65.
And now I was getting concerned with Imoen's experience levels. She is level 6 now, and with 18k experience more she will reach level 7. If I wanted to Dual-class her from thief to mage, I had to do it then, which temporarily disables her thief skills. That meant I should bring her to all the early areas which need trap removal before she reaches Level 7; that was Ulcaster, Firewine, the Bandit Camp, and the Cloakwood Mines. If I went ahead completing Brage, Bassilus first, would I accidentally hit level 7 before I was done with Cloakwood Mines?
As you can see, Dual-classing is really only for players who can manage these considerations. Honestly, I didn't like doing this. Imoen would need another 90k experience as a mage to unlock her thief skills again. I was relying on Imoen as my trap remover, so the time I would end up spending without her essential trap removing skills was going to be extremely long unless I use a way to power-level again.
In fact, I did know one more power-leveling method, involving Basilisks again. I guess I could do that. I'm ending up using every viable cheese strategy available this run huh?
Now my problem was, how was I going to explain all these considerations to my party? Planning to go to places where Imoen's skills would be needed earlier rather than later was super dependent on meta-knowledge.
Or maybe not?
We had just done some purchases when I announced the change of plans to the group. First to Ulcaster school, just south of the Song of Morning Temple. Then to Gullykin nearby. Then flush out the bandit threat.
"Why did you change your mind, again?" Imoen asked.
Okay, here goes. "Remember that talk we had about changing your focus from thieving to casting magic?"
I had spoken to her some time ago to get her okay with the whole dual-classing thing. This whole plan hinged on her agreeing to that in the first place after all.
Imoen's eyes narrowed a moment, then relaxed. "Yup, I remember now. While I'm focused on learning mage skills, I won't be practicing my thieving skills temporarily."
I grinned. "So I figured we should go to places that actually make use of your thieving skills while you still have access, uh, are still practicing them. That means dungeons like Ulcaster and Firewine bridge."
Imoen gave me a thumbs up. "Makes sense to me."
To my surprise, that was good enough for the rest of the team too.
Neera later asked me privately why I changed my mind. I tried to explain Dual-classing considerations to her but she shut her ears. "Nerds, ugh," she said.
If you don't want to hear the answer, don't ask next time!
The Ulcaster school of wizardry was long ruined due to unknown events. The ruins of the former school sat on top of a hill. We circled around the hill until we found a narrow path that lead up to the ruins. The ruins themselves were basically a small maze of broken walls above ground. The main area of interest was the basement, where the most fearsome monsters would be.
As one might expect from such a ruins, the area was filled with zombies and skeletons, which weren't a major problem for a party of our experience and skill.
One particularly fearsome skeleton warrior stood out though. It stood tall and practically radiated power from its being, and it wielded an enchanted flail.
Icharyd, the skeleton warrior in question, was a pretty straightforward foe. It was technically a skeleton warrior of an absolutely ridiculous level 15! It had 3 attacks per round, AC3, and an amazing THAC0 of 10. With a THAC0 that good, it could hit Khalid on a 10+4=14 or better. Not good at all.
The sun was starting to go down, so I managed to catch Icharyd unawares with a good hit before the undead monster turned on me. I ran away as fast as my little legs would carry me, towards the rest of the team.
Upon catching sight of me and the undead monstrosity hot on my tail, Jaheira cast Doom, Branwen cast Chant, and Neera used a scroll of Protection from Evil on Khalid. I ran past Khalid, tapping out and he moved in to engage Icharyd.
Before any of those spells could complete however, Icharyd was already upon Khalid and grinning menacingly. Icharyd swung out with his flail, and Khalid lifted his shield.
To our horror, the flail went right around Khalid's shield and konked him directly on the head with a loud clang. Khalid reeled back, his helmet having taken the brunt of the blow. He was definitely hurt, but still standing. Not a good way to start the battle.
Since every other caster was still busy, I channeled positive energy into my own fingers and healed Khalid myself from behind. Invigorated, Khalid stood tall against the skeleton warrior.
One after another, our spells completed, protecting Khalid from further harm. I, Imoen and Neera had all switched to staves, striking at Icharyd just out of reach of the flail while Khalid held his ground. Jaheira and Branwen stepped forward to strike with club and Spiritual Hammer.
While Khalid stuck his shield right into Icharyd's face, the rest of us struck the foul skeleton again and again until at least it lay broken at our feet. No further injuries, thankfully.
"That fight would have been much easier, if SOMEONE didn't flub scribing Hold Undead in spite of having drunk a Potion of Genius," I said aloud as we dressed Khalid's wounds.
I could hear pink-haired irritation #2 kicking rocks behind me.
I considered our spell usage while battling that one foe. One level 2 spell, three level 1 spells. Was it efficient? Icharyd was a pretty significant threat at this stage of the game, so I guess it was alright.
It's a LOT easier to judge how many resources to commit when you already roughly know how big a dungeon is, as well as the danger presented by an enemy. Most modern RPG games will present the information about an enemy upfront, so you can see how dangerous an enemy is and what its weaknesses are. I was relying on my prior knowledge here, but when playing the game, I would use a mod which allows me to check enemy stats in-game. Since I knew how much trouble Icharyd was going to be, I could take decisive action accordingly.
The next undead thing we regarded more carefully. From behind a ruined wall, the party peered at an apparition was walking the grounds. The spirit had appeared as night fell, mumbling something. It was unarmed, but from the vague outline it appeared to be wearing mage robes.
"Is it safe?" Neera asked me.
"Doesn't seem hostile, if that's what you're asking," I said. "I think it knows we're here. Just isn't reacting much."
Back in the game, sure, I knew for sure the spirit was safe. But not everything has followed my expectations to the letter. Sometimes I have had to do things in a certain way here to get the results I expect in the game. So I'm trying not to take things for granted.
That the ghost wasn't attacking us meant we were already off to a good start. We approached the ghost, the team cautious of any sudden movement. As I got closer, I said, "Greetings. We are adventurers, looking to right any wrongs in the land. May we be of assistance to you, good ser?"
If this ghost laughs at me, I was going to abandon this bloody quest right here and now.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the ghost didn't acknowledge me. It kept mumbling something, "the best of school… a storehouse of arcane knowledge… lost, all lost…"
The party watched the apparition continue to wander aimlessly, mumbling, grieving. It continued, "…all for knowledge did we strive… nothing left… hope would return with the retrieval of the simplest of tomes… beneath the rubble… on the lowest floors… history is so important…"
The spirit halted, and surveyed the ruins before it. Then it looked skyward, at the stars in the sky. In spite of being a ghost that was barely visible, we could see its face stricken with regret. "…we shall all live again… someday…"
Without needing to discuss our next plan of action together, we set about looking for the stairs down. We had wordlessly agreed to help the poor ghost. Or try to, at least.
"I wonder what happened to this place," Imoen asked aloud as we descended the steps into the basement.
I shook my head. There was very little information in-game to what actually happened.
Khalid cleared his throat. "I, I think I heard a bit. Calishite mages were concerned with mages in the Ulcaster school doing research on binding demons. Or something like that. There was a huge disagreement, a big battle, and then, this was the result."
"A battle that left nothing but ruined walls above ground?" Branwen said, "What a glorious battle that must have been!"
"Glorious wouldn't have been my choice of words," I muttered under my breath.
Neera caught my shoulders suddenly, giving me a fright. She asked, "We're not fighting demons, are we? Is giving the ghost his book back really a good idea?"
"Demons this close to ground would have ravaged the area," I said, considering. As for the book, what book was it we were fetching again? I couldn't remember. "We'll carefully examine at any book we find and decide for ourselves."