An explosion rippled through the temple of Bhaal where Sarevok and his retinue waited. From the now open, our party emerged. In the distance, we saw a lone armoured figure at the pulpit of the temple. There was a big symbol of Bhaal on the floor of the temple, that characteristic symbol of a skull surrounded by blood droplets.
Earlier, the wall I had built in front of the temple doors had been still there. So we had needed some way to get in without tiring ourselves out. I had plenty of potions of explosives left.
The place was filled with traps, so Imoen went in, invisible, to untrap them all first. The traps on the symbol of Bhaal though were permanent and could not be removed.
-
I moved in a little closer under cover of stealth.
Sarevok was looking a little pale behind his mask. Skinny, even.
"You are indeed family. No other could have lived to oppose me in person. Of course, it will not matter in the end. Ultimately, I will prevail, and a new era will be born unto the realms," Sarevok said, sensing my presence.
He wasn't actually looking in my direction though, his eyes scanning to and fro.
"Did you have trouble finding food and water in the temple? I imagined the four of you would have had trouble subsisting on rats all this time," I said from around a pillar, darting to another before his eyes could track where I was speaking from.
Sarevok's face was contorted in anger. He took a deep breath. "Father Bhaal is dead, but the slaughter I will orchestrate shall prove me to be his most worthy successor. It will raise his power from the ashes. The streets will run red with blood when my work is finished!"
I grinned at his attitude. Not going to admit that I gave you such a hard time huh? Heh.
"Sounds a bit far-fetched if you ask me," I said, ducking around the pillars out of the view of his eyes. "Did you even research if that would work? Check with a priest, find a ritual in a manuscript? I doubt Bhaal left a way for us to succeed him willingly."
"Fool!" Sarevok yelled in frustration. "I do not wish to RESTORE his power, merely to RAISE it! With the divine blood that flows through these veins, I shall assume control over that which he so foolishly lost! I shall BECOME Bhaal. THAT… is the only acceptable outcome."
I took a moment to compose my next response. "Rieltar is already dead, Sarevok. He can't hurt those you care about anymore," I said, my voice softer. "That would be on you now."
"There is no one I care about! None but me!" he screamed. "All that is left is for us to end this in a manner… befitting our heritage. Face me! Face the new LORD OF MURDER! Angelo! Tazok! Reveal yourselves and let's finish this now!
-
There are exactly four enemies in the final encounter, and each one was a significant threat.
Tazok, commander of bandits
125 hit points, AC 3, Thac0 4, 2d4+12 damage, 9 attacks per round! Saving throws: 1 (best) in everything
9 attacks per round is absolute nonsense. Tazok is mighty, but believe it or not he is the weakest threat in the group.
Angelo Dosan, de facto leader of the Flaming Fist.
75 hit points, AC -1, Thac0 -2 (bow) Starts with following buffs: Invisibility, Protection From Normal Missiles (5 turns), Minor Globe of Invulnerability (1 Turn), Haste (permanent) Armed with Longbow+1, Arrows of Detonation x8!!!! Casts Remove Magic and Shadow Door
Yes, you read that correct, 8 Arrows of Detonation! Each explodes for 6d6 fire damage in a huge radius. Angelo can melt parties easily with that onslaught. Because of his arrows of detonation, everyone in Sarevok's party has at least 70 fire resistance.
Semaj, Jame's Ohlen's self-insert
53 hit points, AC 0 vs missiles. Starts with following buffs: Invisible, Mirror Image, Protected from Normal Missiles Has various uninterruptible Tattoo of Power and/or contingencies abilities: 1st casts both Greater Malison and Magic Missile; 2nd casts web and stinking cloud, 3rd casts Mirror Image, Chaos; 4th casts Mirror Image and Lightning Bolt Plenty of Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, Magic Missiles
Semaj alone can defeat the whole party if allowed to unload his spells on the party. Chaos in particular is a Total Party Kill spell. Unlike most mages, he has Vocalise to counter Silence.
James Ohlen is one of the game's developers, btw.
Sarevok Anchev, Bhaalspawn, my brother
135 hit points, AC -5, Thac0 -9, 1d10+11 damage, 3 attacks per round Fire/Cold/Electricity/Acid resistance: 90% Missile resistance: 50% Saving throws: 1 (best) in everything
Sarevok has the best Thac0 in the game, so preventing hits from him is going to be extremely difficult even with ALL the defence stacking available.
-
All at once, quite a few things happened.
Sarevok and Tazok engaged our small army of Skeleton Bulls and nymph.
Angelo started casting Remove Magic on us, but one Arrow of Dispelling from Imoen (from stealth) and one Arrow of Piercing from Khalid interrupted him immediately. Those don't count as Normal Missiles, thankfully. The Arrow of Dispelling removed Angelo's Protection From Normal Missiles, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, and Haste.
Semaj's contingencies erupted, hitting our whole party with Greater Malison, Stinking Cloud, and Web before we could do much else. Then the wizard Dimension-ed Door behind our party, nearer to the door.
-
In most games, Semaj's scripted behaviour meant that he would do this fancy maneuver even before Sarevok spotted anyone if players sent a scout to sneak towards Sarevok, allowing the whole party to solo Semaj. I couldn't really count on this weird behavior to happen in-person, so I had prepared a special present for Semaj instead.
-
As soon as Semaj teleported in, he realized he was surrounded by 4 crossbow traps and 2 Skull Traps. It was at this moment Semaj knew he had f*cked up.
Kaching, 3k experience points and a dead mage!
-
In order to make those skull traps work, I had to clear all the bats in the area first. Tedious, but the results were worth it.
In the meantime, our party waddled in the Web, having Freedom of Movement, and Jaheira cast Zone of Sweet Air from just outside the Stinking Cloud to remove it.
Angelo's opening moves are always to cast Remove Magic, followed by Shadow Door. While these are good moves to make, it was also his weakness. While Skeleton bulls engaged Angelo, we had been pelting Angelo with a huge barrage of speciality arrows and bullets. Oils of Speed, unlike Haste, retains its benefits through Freedom of Movement. Angelo went down before he completed his Shadow Door, his second spell, before unleashing a single Arrow of Detonation.
Sarevok and Tazok continued to slash and cut through our Skeleton Bulls, which resisted slashing damage readily. Tazok fell to ranged fire before they were done, having no resistances to missiles unlike Sarevok.
At last, there was only Sarevok. Sarevok quickly took stock of the situation, even as arrows and bullets rained down on him. In spite of the chaos of battle, Sarevok realised something very disturbing.
Sonny was missing.
"Where ARE you?!?" he screamed.
The rest of Sonny's party grinned or gave a little shrug.
The warrior from Calimshan barred Sarevok's way to the party's backline. No doubt the warrior would be enchanted to the maximum with defensive magics.
Yet Sarevok swore to himself he would cut them all down with his blade.
My Staff of Striking disagreed. Striking from invisibility, my blow ripped right through Sarevok's fancy helmet, leaving a huge dent in it which concaved right into the back of Sarevok's skull.
Sarevok went down from my strike from behind, his sword clattering to the ground.
The blow was fatal, and Sarevok had but moments to live.
A pointed at him with the Staff of Striking on my shoulder. "You wanted to become a god through mass murder?" I shook my head sadly and swept my hand across my chest. "It never would have worked in the first place. It was all for nothing."
Sarevok chocked back on his blood, struggled to get on his feet in spite of his terrible wounds. "You, you don't know that!"
But I did. The only way to become a god through Bhaal's divine lineage was to gather all the essence of Bhaal by killing all his children, then bathing in it all in the Throne of Bhaal itself.
"I'm sorry, but it's over now," I said to him, sincerely. "Rest in peace, brother."
Sarevok, snarled at me, coughed blood, then started to laugh. And laugh, and laugh.
And then Sarevok died.