#mindlfayer

- [ FL A Y E D ] 4th OF JULY- And Happy Independence Day to all Americans fellows ♥

Prison Break

Last time, Rowan and the gang had snuck into the goblin stronghold through the front door, and had proceeded to (very quietly) gather information about the Absolute's movements before taking out Minthara and Priestess Gut. With only Dror Ragzlin remaining, it was time to bust Halsin out of goblin jail and wreck the joint.

- I admit, I did get a bit unlucky getting Halsin out of his prison. I mean, it was easy enough to get the fight going, but the goblins got a few lucky hits in, managed to coat the stairs in grease, and even got Wyll to drop his shiny new axe. Admittedly, that last wasn't a huge problem, as Wyll only has one level in Paladin, so he was still mostly using his Warlock skills, but still.

- With the initial round of goblins dispatched, I did take the time to sneak around the less exposed areas of the keep to eliminate the goblins in smaller batches. Halsin did offer to leave the party to make it easier to walk around unnoticed, but I figured if seven adventurers were good, eight would be even better.

- I also grabbed the opportunity to take out the torturer, Abdirak. Rowan had already been flagellated by him in order to get the Goddess's pain blessing, and I had really wanted to get his mace off of him. It probably would have gone a lot quicker if I had just jumped him and started attacking, but I felt bad about doing that so I ended up stealing repeatedly in front of him to goad him into snapping. Granted, I wasn't worried about losing the element of surprise - eight against one isn't really a fair fight after all.

- It was at this point I realised I still hadn't upgraded Rowan's Illithid powers, so I took a quick break to shove some baby squids into his brain XD This ended up being pretty useful in one of the upcoming battles, as I'm sure you can imagine. I also took a second to check everyone's gear - poor Lae'zel is still the worst decked out of the lot, but oh well. I know she gets better at higher levels, but I never really warmed to her, and barely used her in my first playthrough.

- Dror Ragzlin beckoned at last. I was a bit more careful with my set up, as I remembered how much of a pain this fight was the first time I did it. I had most of the team file in and place themselves around the throne room before coming in with Rowan and Halsin and setting the fight off. This ended up being really useful, as I was able to knock out a lot of the weaker goblins, and take out the goblin cleric, before they had a chance to do too much damage. Gale's newly acquired counterspell also came in handy, even if I did end up using up all his third level spell slots to use it. Rowan also had a few big hero moments - I've been getting better at being less precious about using everyone's powers, and I managed to get off a few really good bardic debuffs - including casting Crown of Madness on Dror Ragzlin himself! He even ended up taking out three members of his own team before shaking it off!

- With Dror out of the way, we bid farewell to Halsin and proceeded to clean up the last few goblins inside the temple. I also cleared out the secluded area behind Gut's chambers, finding the long ladder down to the Underdark. I was sorely tempted, but I decided ultimately to hold off from climbing down. It was then I did something very, very stupid. I forgot to take a short rest. And I left via the front door.

- Not my finest hour - the second the gang walked out they were thrown into combat. Fortunately I'd given most of my tanks gear that would let them roll better initiative, but still, there were so many enemies and all seven members of the team were running low on spells and looking pretty injured. I did have a moment of panic, but then I remembered - Rowan still had the Ogre horn in their backpack! The addition of three massive ogres to the fight did help to even the odds a bit, but it was still a slog; by this point, Gale had no spell slots left, so he was mostly using cantrips or scrolls. Rowan and Shadowheart similarly were running low, so for those two I focussed on healing and buffing / debuffing rather than wasting spells on trying to do damage. Astarion was great as always, darting around and taking out enemies left right and centre. Rowan and Lae'zel both came pretty close to being downed, but some quick healing and temp hp from Shadowheart saved the day. All in all the fight was an absolute chaotic mess, and were it not for the Ogres I think it would have gone a lot worse.

- I did consider double-crossing the ogres and attacking them to get that sweet, sweet xp, but considering the mess they had just saved me from I felt that might be a bit rude, so I bit them good day and left the goblin stronghold. There were still a few stragglers here and there that were cruising for a bruising, but after the mess I just went through they didn't pose much of a challenge.