Co8 New Content: Hickory Branch

:blush:Love the new HB

Spoiler below

Spoiler

Although I did have a slight problem with the pit trap when two characters got caught in it neither of whom could cast dimension door! I ended up having to teleport the whole party to the entrance and come in again

Clairvoyance/Clairaudience makes it a lot easier tho

mea culpa I should have looked more closely in the box :doh:

 

Same here, I AM FINALLY GETTING TO SEE IT! Heh heh

On a side note, I noticed the Orc Sniper had a masterwork bow and +1 arrows, they will still only get a +1 to hit.

Maybe you did this for the +1 damage?

Oh, and this definitely is NOT my grandfather's HB.

 

Don't want any spoilers since I haven't tried the new Hickory Branch yet- but does this quest still come from Kenter Nevets or can I kindly do away with him now (trying to complete the assassination quests from Gremag)?

 

HB has joined the ranks of "after the temple" stuff.

You'll find a notice eventually on the board, there's more to it than that but like you said ... Spoiler free zone here.

 

Quick question - in v8 did you 'switch on' the diplomacy options for HB, or are they still placeholders?

 

Ok, I'm coming in a bit late here, but maybe you are still interested in hearing my comments after I just finished HB 7.9 and was here the first time ever. I went in with a party of six at lvl 12 (barbarian 8/fighter 4, rogue 10 / fighter 2, sorc 12 + Meleny, Ronald, and Zaxis) and crafted gear, and left with loot spilling out of my extradim. chest, an overall feeling of having survived pretty intense combat, and 2 levels more.

Spoiler

The setup with the ranger is very nice, but the person as such is a bit annoying. More on that below.

I followed the basic tactic of scouting ahead with an invisible or sneaking rogue, sneak-attacking single foes and tackling larger groups with spells and ranged weapons from a distance. Only when I decided to take the bugbear and gnoll ltds. head-on, I learned that some of these guys actually would talk and run away, and that I was supposed to get info from them this way. I had assumed that I would learn about the command structure by overhearing conversations while sneaking. This even seemed to work because the two ltds. had a dialogue about the giant ltd., but for some reason it didn't register in my log. Apparently you need to talk with the guys directly to move ahead in that quest.

Coming into the rune field from the north after dispatching the gnoll and bugbear camps, I immediately pulled back when the explosions went off and made it out ok. Meleny tanked the hill giants like a champ and we finished the north and middle group with spells and ranged, using the rogue as spotter in the field. I also saw the third group at the bridge in the south and lobbed a cloudkill down there, assuming that would take care of them.

Only it didn't, since these AoE spells only seem to work when the mobs decide to join combat, whatever that triggers. So I ran into that group again a bit carelessly and made a grave mistake when the explosions started off again. My first reaciton was to pull back again, but then I thought I could not jump over the walls of the fort (turns out that was wrong and would have worked), and moved in to the western side. Three rounds in the blast field and a bit of bad luck cost me the sorc and Zaxis, so I decided to reload. Moved in from the north, north around the pit, talked to an orc ltd. and took the group in front of the cave entrance out with another cloudkill. This combat was also joined by an orc captain running in from the south.

The battle in the cave started out a bit tense, but a well-placed Stinking Cloud tipped the scale quickly in my favor. The orc captain, now identified as Krunch, looked suspiciously like the guy we had killed outside moments earlier. Level-up and safe rest in the cave was very welcome, since we had pretty much run dry on spells at this point.

Going outside, we were greeted by the gnoll and bugbear ltds (the latter hit like a brick), who were, somewhat surprisingly, joined by the thought-dead orc lewie AND HIS DEAD BODY, which was not too dead to execute AoOs on my squishy party members, which seemed a bit unfair seeing how hard he hits. Back for another rest.

Finally, we made it to the giant party in the south. The ogre ltd didn't bother to talk, but attacked outright. Except for a few who were close enought to charge up, the giants fell to cheap cloudkill tactics once again. Next we were aggressed by a CELESTIAL GIANT CHICKEN hiding in the underbrush, wtf?

The red minotaur in the crypt turned out to be another hard hitter, and I momentarily regretted having sent my rogue behind him for sneak attacks, but losing initiative to four spell casters in good shape meant that he couldn't quite capitalize on his strengths. He was half dead even before the Stoneskin went up. At least he had talked, which made my final score on that 5/9 (gnoll, bug, orc ltds, hungous, mino).

On our way out we were then beset by a group of stragglers who for some reason had a high-level lich with them. Guy has some potent spells, feebleminded my sorc and unfortunately disintegrated my rogue before taking out his own party with, I believe, blasphemy, then quickly fell to my barb. I cast Power Word: Reload not without some trepidation, but then my sorc disintegrated the lich in the first round, problem solved. Turns out that Hungous' dying words, "angry man is coming for you" or something, were referring to this incident, but otherwise the presence of the bony guy remained a mystery. We found his phylactery with a reasonable searching effort (there are actually not so many places that are somewhat hidden, yet accessible). The phylactery was friendly and said "a good day to you" and "how may I help you", and "help" before it finally shut up. Surreal.

Then we went back to Verbobonc and discovered that the annoying bitch from earlier had taken Asaphs job and was very intent on bossing us around some more. Then it turned out that she was actually running some kind of protection racket where the patrol people had to meet quotas of 200 gp per week under threat of violence. While my sorc can deal with verbal abuse, this blatant abuse of power of course had to be dealt with on the spot. With the help of a bugbear barbarian, who found Zaxis so charming that he kept following us, we quickly dispatched the evil wannabe thug-queen and her Holly minion and left the building.

Despite being lawful, Meleny and Ronald appeared to disapprove of such purveyance of quick justice for unclear reasons and were acting a bit confused in the skirmish. I cannot see a reputation entry, and the good guards and people of Verbobonc seem quite content with the outcome, but I have to wonder whether we now somehow broke some important quests? And, more importantly, is the protection racket gone for good, or will some unseen hand still take 200 gold out of our purse at regular intervals?

 

I want to add, I find it very nice how the mobs regroup and move around, apparently falling back to strategic positions in a reasonable way.

 

So, does killing Bethany break anything?

 

Maybe initiating combat through getting caught pickpocketing her shiny longbow (so technically, she started it), leaving the dirty work to the illegal bugbear and quickly fleeing the scene was the key to success?

 

And I'm dying to know: Why is there a celestial giant chicken?