Impressions from the First Ever Hunt for Malcanthet

Impressions from the First Ever Hunt for Malcanthet.

I think it was a mixture of excitement and anticipation that made everything seem so clear and sharp during the hunt.

As we entered the Plane of Portals I could feel a tension in the air akin a held breath waiting to exhale.

From the first spawn, you could tell that something was different, though you could not quite put your finger on it.

For those of us who thought that we were there to hunt down a mistress of
the abyss it quickly became apparent that it was we who were the hunted. In this strange barren landscape, we were the outsides and the hosts at Malcanthet’s command came at us in huge waves, surging and Uncontrollable.
The party was composed of seasoned veterans; we worked as a fine tuned machine, each knowing their job and doing it in time with the swirls and eddies of combat.

Over the span of about an hour we made our way thought the different maps
of the plane. With Malcanthet’s minions probing our strengths and our weaknesses at every turn.

Outside the portal to Gaping Maw which leads to the planes ruled by Demogorgon, we thought she would make her stand. The sheer size of the spawn was unnerving to behold. But our killing machine honed through countless hours spent in the abyss went to work; the tanks keeping the huge spawn at bay while casters rained fire and destruction on Malcanthet’s host.

Then just as quickly as we saw her, she was gone, fleeing deeper into Gaping Maw and toward her ex-consort Demogorgon.

We boldly went though the portal hot on her heels. It was in the Screaming Jungle with Malcanthet’s minions mixing with Demogorgon’s, that we began to move more cautiously thus slowing our progress for a time.

Seeing our resolve, it became clear to Malcanthet that we would not relent and return home empty handed, Malcanthet had no choice but to lay her final trap for us.
As we entered the great square of Lemorux the capital of Demogornon’s Realm, a host was arrayed against us of such immense size that I could not even begin to get a sense if their numbers.

Having grown accustomed to victory the group waded into this sea of demons without hesitation. But the sheer press of numbers began to slowly push us back. Succubi, Incubi, Glabrizu, anchored by Balors and Marilliths began to push back the ten stalwarts who dared invade their plane and threaten one of their lords.

For a long time the battle teetered on a knife’s edge. But the enemy’s numbers took their toll and we were pushed all the way back to the entrance of the plaza. Our backs against the wall, we knew that it was now or never.

Maximus our weapon master planted himself in front of the spawn, and basically said to the entire host to here and not an inch further. He was backed up by Sora the ranger, Jaerilla our rogue, Vagrant our Paladin and Trevelyan our indestructible bard as they rallied around him and tried to form a wall that would give the casters room to work.

Wandaerris, one of the two sorcerers in the party began a never ending rain of power word kills on the host. But as quickly as one demon died. three or four would rush in to take the fallen demon’s place.

Chrysalis our druid bravely waded into the host attempting to nature’s balance as many of the demons as he could, only to be brought low by the crushing numbers of the enemy. Estrella our cleric was a blur as she ran thought the swirling chaos
to greater restore and resurrect downed party members.

Retribution our shifter was in beholder shape firing ray after ray at the never ending mob arrayed against us.

It was then, as four of the party were down and the host was starting its final assault on us; I saw her in the crowd. Malcanthet our goal was here and helping direct her minions from the fringes. I suspected that this was really her last attempt to destroy this party of hunters who thought they were a match for her and her minions.

Seeing no alternative, I knew that someone would have to begin to really bring the pain to this huge host, but this could only be done from an unassailable position.

Right behind me was a small alcove between two buildings. Quickly making my way there I used my transmutation epic to wall around myself. This would buy me time.

Setting Evards Black Tenticles, and cold clouds I got ready to take the host head on. There is a kind of zen a caster falls into at such times. Thunder claps flew from my fingers and began to concuss the spawn, I fired one after another cueing them as quickly as I could.

I was floating high above the host in my tiny world of destruction. I could see Max dueling Malcanthet right up against my wall so switched focus to right in front of the epic wall, and continued my shower of destruction upon her and those creatures lapping around the wall.

People were down and resurrecting each other as a final press of 20 or so elite monsters came crashing upon us. For me there was no pause just keep casting. It was then that I looked down and saw that I was down to 5 or 6 spells. My mind was racing, and I began to think that even this effort may not be enough against such overwhelming odds.

Just as I began reaching for a biojuvinator to restore some of my spells, I heard a cheer go up from the party, Malcanthet was down!!

Once again I just wanted to share a small taste of what the Special Events on Higher Ground are like.

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The Hunt for Malcanthet Queen of the Succubi

The Plane of Portals is a place of infinite possibilities and infinite danger. Those Adventurers unlucky or foolish enough to spend any time in that perilous place know that danger is always waiting.

Expect the unexpected, watch for the most subtle of signs; the nearly imperceptible tingle of electricity in the air, or even more enticing, the scent of perfume wafting though the plane of portals.

It is rumored that the Plane of Portals is not just the territory of Pazuzu, but that recently a half mad paladin was seen staggering though Zariel’s workshop rambling on about a demoness of such unspeakable beauty that to see her once, was to have her vision seared into your mind’s eye forever.

What little could be gleaned from his disjointed account, is that this was no mere demoness, but a Lord of the Abyss, her fearsome power and cruelty akin to that of Graz’tz or Demogorgon.

Those traveling though the Plane, should be warned against following a sweet seductive scent that is this Demon Lord’s sirens song and calling card.

It was only after Zariel consulted with the Sage of Ascension, and auguries were cast, that a new threat facing the known Universe was made apparent.

It was made clear, that Demogorgon in aspiring to claim the Wand of Orcus for himself, and become the
Prince of Demons. Is attempting to enlist the aid of Malcanthet ruler of the 570th plane of the abyss and the mother of his offspring Arendagrost.

Emissaries have arranged a meeting between the two, but the auguries are not clear on the exact timing of the event. It is believed that there are two possible times at which this alliance could be consummated.

In the hope of preventing the alliance, Zariel has sent out a call for a group of adventurers, with immense power, and hopefully fortuitous timing, who would brave the dangers of the Plane of Portals, defeat Malcanthet and her guardians, thus preventing this meeting, and ending this new threat to the universe.

The auguries have also hinted, that Malcanthet may be carrying on her person an item so rare and powerful as to be the first of its kind to be found in the known universe.

This is a Special Event Brought to you by the Hard Working Dev & DM team of Higher Ground.

Obox-Ob Defeated as Prince of Demons Last Night

The thud heard round the Universe, (Obox-ob as Prince has fallen)

Last night’s Obox-Ob as prince of demon’s fight was an impressive testament to team work and everyone knowing their jobs.

I have found that huge endgame runs such as this really seem to bring the group together, and the sum becomes greater than the individual parts.

The key to a Demon Prince is on everyone focusing their fire power on him. Though that is not really enough, everything must happen in the correct order with each class knowing what to do when.

Thus one of your arcanes starts the spawn with Death of Magic, initiating the fight so that the rest of the Prince spawn appears without buffs etc.

Then a well timed Immutable Force is key, this gives the group a much needed 30 seconds of invulnerability. The druid then needs to use Natures Frailty, to bring down the Prince’s spell resistance as fast as possible, if this is followed up with several Natures’ Balance spells, then this allows the arcanes to get to work.

It is the Tanks job to be on the Prince applying pressure and keeping his regeneration in check. If they have used a Constitution enhancing artifact and have Breath of the Beast available, this is the time to use it and inflict the prince with fire vulnerability for a short time.

The cleric needs to get Blade Barrier under the Prince and being using mass heals on the party to keep us fighting.

Our Bard must Curse quick and use taunt on the Prince to bring his ac down thus giving the tanks an opening to do their jobs. Healing spirit and healing circle are his next priorities. As well as a quick song for anyone who goes down.

Just as Immute is about to go down it is up to the leader to time and call for Starfires (this Epic spell does a large amount of magic damage in a large area and inflicts magic vulnerability for a short time.) If the Starfires are well timed, this also provides another few seconds breathing room.

Once all this is in place; then it finally comes down to who wants it most, and how much heart your party has. As people go down and are resurrected only to go down again. This is when people start thinking about limbo; this is when parties break as one then two then most begin hiding in Greater Sanctuary looking for a way out of the crushing spawn.

 These epic battles are the forge fires for true heroes, they are the test and temper of their will to fight and these fires burn bright every night on Higher Ground.

Just want to share a tiny taste of a Demon Prince Fight.

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Tonights Main Event Obox-ob

Obox-ob Prince fight tonight

Tonight for the 3^rd time in Higher ground History, our group of insane hmm I mean intrepid adventurers will take on Obox-Ob as Prince of Demons.

This is going to be a battle for the ages with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance. Nearly a month worth of abyss runs will culminate in this showdown between good and evil.

I love Higher Ground for these epic endgame battles, huge spawns backing up some of the deadliest foes known to Dungeons and Dragons. What better way to spend an evening with friends than on this epic quest. The suspense building  with each passing night as you get closer and closer to this one night and this major challenge.

As I write this, I am thinking about the changes and updates coming to HG very soon. Limbo the mysterious plane and Paragon area, and the 66th layer of the abyss and facing down Lolth* in her true goddess form, then finally the Elder Evils; wow that is going to be some amazing content.

When I first heard about the Elder Evils and the Paragon areas in the pipeline I knew it was time for us to plan and build for the future. Now we are almost ready, the guild has 9 players able to field level 80 paragons to defend the universe against this new peril.

Right after Obox-ob we will again face Demogorgon and his offspring Arendagrost** in the last demon prince fight for quite a while as our next step will be a grand cycle of the hells which will include 5 demigod tags for those who are up to the challenge.

We are doing this in final preparation for the elder evils and paragon areas yet to be released. It is a time to learn and a time to teach as we get ready for the future.

*According to the Forgotten Realms storyline, Lolth began as an intermediary goddess abiding in the sixty-sixth layer of the Abyss, the Demonweb Pits. Through the events that transpired in War of the Spider Queen series, she transformed herself into a greater goddess as she is depicted now in 4th edition, the Demonweb Pits becoming its own plane.

**According to accounts at the time, "The beast vaguely resembled an immense wingless dragon of gargantuan size. Instead of legs, it moved upon a sea of tentacles. In place of scales, it was covered in coarse black fur and had three heads that resembled monstrous horned fiends that breathed bloody acid, fire, and frost. Its six-fold eyes offered instant death to anyone catching their hideous gaze..."

The Deepest Abyss (1 click away from disaster)

The Deepest Abyss (1 click away from disaster)

Most of us live on a razor’s edge every day.  Since a well balanced and brilliantly conceived persistent world like higher ground tends to be an excellent mirror of an alternate world/life the risks and dangers on higher ground tend to be magnified and force the player to really appreciate the fine line between victory and disaster.

Last night we attempted to take on Orcus Lord of the Undead in his frigid abode of Thanatos. Orcus is never an easy run. He is well defended by legions of Undead as well as a very elaborate system of keys and phylacteries.

Of course, getting to Orcus is the relatively easy, if time consuming part of the adventure. It is fighting Orcus in the citadel of his power while attended by a huge host of his minions were you really begin to appreciate the tiny margin for error that a party of adventurers really has.

Last night all went well as we got ready to set up for the final confrontation with Orcus. When getting ready to take on an Abyssal Lord, positioning can often make the difference between win or wipe. So not wanting to take chances we opted to set up behind his throne, which is a highly defensible area that should afford us an extra 15-30 seconds of safety in which to focus all of our abilities on bringing down Orcus before his summons begin to appear.

But, mischance is fickle, thus last night one of our players miss-clicked on Orcus while trying to get into position. This miss-click began the fight immediately with the party in absolute disarray.

Hoping to salvage the situation, I gave the order for everyone to focus on Orcus in an effort to bring him down fast.

Using Epic Wall around myself I set up toward the north east corner of the room and began trying to take out blood winds using greater ruins which would enable me to open up and use evards black tentacles, incendiary cloud and delayed blast fireballs on the spawn.

I knew that I was taking some big risks here, surrounded by epic wall and with several kick back mobs still in the spawn I would need to watch my health like a hawk. Blocking all this out I began to cast and cast, there is almost a Zen like feeling to watching your casting queue fill up as you go through an arcane casters formula of destruction. Evards, evards, cloud, dbf, dbf, dbf each cast is 3 seconds 20 seconds in I can see the Balors making their way around the main spawn and Orcus to get to the party. Ok now Starfire (A high damage epic spell usable only once per day) and Orcus is Injured.

Things are on target and we may be able to recover. 30 seconds in immute (Immutable Force a druid epic which makes the party invulnerable for approximately 30 seconds) is down and Orcus is beginning to summon, the artaglith in the back of the spawn is summoning zombies at an exponential rate. The zombies kick back is beginning to get past my resists. I have used my 2 ruins on blood winds at the start of the fight.

I bio (Bios are magical pots that restore a casters spells, but are only usable every 5 minutes.) ok ruin the artaglith, precious seconds tick by as I carefully target on the atratglith within a writhing mass of creatures at the far end of the spawn.

The ruin hits but the artaglith does not go down, ok keeping my fingers crossed as I attempt to use my second and last greater ruin. My targeting if good and he goes down. But as I re-focus on the main spawn the room is literally awash with abyssal zombies and several blood winds.

Being out of ruins my only hope is that our cleric is able to implode the blood winds fast enough for me to bring the pain to Orcus. I queue fire orbs which are a targeted spell to at least keep his regeneration to a minimum as I wait on the cleric to clear the blood winds.

Roughly 50 seconds into the spawn, my epics wall is breached. The very experienced tanks in the party react quickly to close the breach with their bodies buying me a few more seconds in which to Starfire Orcus again. The whole massive spawn seems to wilt under the huge wave of magic energy I unleash. I can see my life bar plummet as I take massive kick back from the spawn.

A slight smile plays across my lips as I see Orcus at Badly Injured even as my character dies under a full press of monsters and overwhelming kick back.

I hope this gives you a bit of an intro to the very challenging end game areas that are available on Higher Ground.

Pelor and Destroying the Wand of Orcus

What do they say in the Matrix? “No one ever makes the first jump.”

Well last night’s attempt to destroy the Wand of Orcus was the first jump for all but 2 of the party members, and it showed.

The whole idea of bringing the wand to Pelor is quite a fun twist. You get to fight through the plane of Elysium which has been taken over by the hordes of the abyss.

Many of the spawn compositions are quite challenging because they include unusual combinations of Party Kick back monsters and tough old favorites such as Balors, Mariliths etc.

This keeps the party on their toes, and keeps them from just going duke nukem on the big badies until the problem monsters have been eliminated.

The whole trip though Elysium to the Palace of the Sun takes about an hour of game time, this is a tad slow as the group adjusts to the new challenges they encounter.

As always the Death Knights seem to be a sticking point for the group, they are tough and can turn and fear their opponents causing chaos to erupt wherever they go. Pretty much the current strategy seems to be, have the Bard use Dirge of the Deathless (This is an epic spell that grants temporary Fear and Critical Hit immunity) while the tanks pile on the Death Knight (no negative damage can be used as this heals the Death Knights) and the casters go crazy with acid damage and evards to bring them down as fast as possible.

Once the group arrives at the Palace of the Sun, they are ushered into the Invocation Chamber where they give the pieces of the Wand of Orcus to Pelor. 

Pelor then goes into a trance state as he attempts to focus all of the powers of light on destroying the wand.

This is when the Lords of the Abyss, chose to make a final attempt at reacquiring the wand pieces.

Graz’tz, Obox-Ob, Jubilex, Demogorgon and Orcus all send hordes of their minions to wrest the wand from Pelor’s hands.

The party then has the unenviable task of defending Pelor who is in a state of total concentration from these hordes as he works on the wand.

The group must prevail against 13 mega spawns that gate into the chamber, each spawn is composed of some of the nastiest denizens of the abyss who continue a relentless assault upon Pelor and the wand.

The novelty of all this was too much for the group last night and Pelor fell to the hordes  demons on the 4^th spawn. But our group is resolute and will attempt to destroy the wand again on Sunday.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments in this mega quest, which is played out only on NWN Higher Ground. http://highergroundpoa.proboards.com/index.cgi

Thursday Night on Higher Ground:

My group has been slowly been collecting tags and the pieces to the Wand of Orcus while adventuring in  the abyss as preparation for returning the pieces of the Wand of Orcus to Pelor for its final destruction.

Last night was our final night of tagging for the first of two scheduled attempts. Many in the group needed the wand piece held by Obox-ob to have a full set. And this is why last night once again found us in Zyon  the twisted horror infested realm of the Demon Lord of insects.

The main challenge of this run is keeping characters from being infected by the Ekolids (Insectoid Demons). Just being in their presence is enough for a low saves caster to become infected.  If this happens, the character begins to grow Ekolid eggs inside their body, making it difficult to concentrate, then causing excruciating pain and finally culminating in a scene much like the alien movies where hatching Ekolids overwhelm their host and hatch from the host’s body to plague the group with more and more Ekolids.

I have had numerous experiences with newer parties where the entire screen was completely filled with Ekolids from infection allowed to progress unchecked.

Last night we cautiously made our way through the twisting tunnels leading to Obox’s throne room using a puller (a character with greater sanctuary, Mordenkainens Disjunction and black blades of disaster).

The idea is that they encounter the spawn first mord them to get their spell resistance down, and the use a black blade to lead them back to the party which is set up at a choke point with area of effect spells ready.

Barring a random spawn which can land on the party, this allows some control over where the fight will take place and provides a terrain tactical advantage to the players.

Using this technique we were able to reach Obox-ob’s throne room in about and hour of game time, and were now ready for the trickiest part of any part 3 abyss run.

Because Demon Lords are able to summon at a very fast rate (Around every 30 seconds or so), any party wishing to beat them is forced to really bring the fire power to take them down quickly.

Unlike the Hells where it is often possible for under powered parties to wear a spawn down by slowly picking it apart, in a Demon Lord fight you are done one way or the other in a fairly short time.

Last night’s party had 3 arcanes and with proper tanking and support the party was able to make short work of Obox-ob, this is the only way to go because long term exposure out in the open to so many Ekolids as the Obox spawn is quite large would invariably lead to massive infection issues and a wipe.

After finishing off Obox, some of the more crazy hmm I mean intrepid group members tried to go after Graz’tz  Lord of Azzagrat with a party of 4. We learned the hard way that the party mix must be exactly right or a party that small cannot deliver damage fast enough to Graz’tz to bring him down.

To the party’s credit we did reach the throne room and cleared his throne room spawn several times until we were forced to conclude that the damage output we brought was just not enough to take him down before he was able to summon more and more minions.

All in all quite a fun night, I hope this gave you a bit of an understanding what some of the very tough end game content on high ground is like.

Btw I am on every night at 8:00pm east coast US time. If you get on and need a bit of help or direction starting out feel free to send me a tell using our chat commands (Type: !tell “bin so bad” then your message).

I look forward to meeting you online and introducing you to this amazing world.

Orcus as Demon Lord and Thanatos

Thursday and Friday Nights:

Thanatos the abode of Orcus is s a frigid place filled with undead. For the past two nights and with gritted teeth we have worked our way through all 9 layers and into his citadel of Everlost.

Getting in is only the first challenge. Hartoon who is the gate keeper for Orcus is a super Lich who has 7 phylacteries that must be destroyed before you can actually harm him. Over time we have developed a technique that is a kind of cat and mouse game to avoid having to fight the same battle 7 times.

Even using this technique this can still be quite challenging and will test most parties resolve.

Last night’s Orcus fight was quite close. On the surface we won and took him down in under 3 minutes. But having fought him many times as a demon Lord and 4 times as Prince of Demons, I could see the writing on the wall, as players began to go down become incapacitated from the various effects and kick back from the rest of Orcus’ spawn.

Even as Orcus was near death I could see, that the many debilitating effects focused on the party were taking their toll. Plus the Blood winds (Party Kick Back Mobs) where playing havoc with the casters that needed to use Area of Effect spells on Orcus.

As is often the case, party composition is the key to success, often times parties will just not have enough quick damage to take down a Demon Lord before his summons overwhelm them. This coupled with a party’s lack of strategy can be fatal to the overall effort.

I am looking forward to this evenings assault on Zyon 1,2,3 and our showdown with Obox-Ob.

Neverwinter Nights Higher Ground Thanatos

Saturday night in Thanatos,

Thanatos if the abode of the infamous demon lord Orcus. This run starts out in Orcus gate a city of the undead, but quickly transitions into frozen tundra with a never ending blizzard.

These are some of the hardest maps in the abyss due to poor visibility and many overlapping spawn points that keep you fighting though the whole map.

Last night’s group had three sorcerers which helps speed up the run greatly. To everyone consternation we actually wound up doing the run twice as we had one of our regulars come late and miss the tag for part 1 (You cannot attune part 2 if you don’t have a part 1 tag). This would have thrown off the whole cycle, so we moved servers and redid the run.

Tonight We are shooting for Thanatos 2 and 3, Part 3 is where we confront Orcus as Demon Lord and attempt to wrest a piece of his wand from his cold dead hands.

Side Note: A full abyss cycle consists of acquiring all 5 pieces of the wand of Orcus from the 5 demon lords in the abyss (Roughly 45 layers).  This process can take as little as a week (If we show up on time and run fast) to a year or more for players with limited game time.

Does Friday Night in Zyon = One night in Bangkok

We started by clearing the Plane of Portals (This is the entry to the layers to the abyss).

All went well until we got lost, lol no one had opened a map so we wound up in front of the Azzagrat portal which was not the abyss plane we wanted to take on last night.

We then fought our way to the correct portal, and managed to clear the first spawn.

This is when our druid crashed and lost all his epics. So he decided to run back to Zariels workshop (Most hells and abyss runs start there). While on the way he somehow managed to rest spawn and die.

So half the party had to port back and then run to try and rez him. Luckily we got to him before he limboed. But it was about this time that our ranger took a wrong turn and went to a different map of the abyss even as I screamed “Nooooooo” at him.

Needless to say he ran right forward and spawned quite a bit of the map before the two sorcerers in the party got to him. Once again we rezed him in time, but this began quite a fight between the 3 of us and quite a big nasty spawn.

All this wound up eating up quite a bit of our time so the planned Zyon 1,2,3 (Each abyss layer is composed of 3 maps thus 9 maps to get to a Boss fight with several minis in between.) Had to become a Zyon 1,2

We had a few players that were newer to the abyss, which makes for a fun Zyon, as the main demons there called Ekolids infect players with low saves, causing them to die and hatch more Ekolids!

It was actually quite funny to see the 2^nd map of part 2 almost completely crawling with Ekolids. Most  of us were down to only 1 or 2 rests by this time.

In the end we won and got the tags, though it was a long and painful run to be sure.

After this i needed a break so went to see Hangover 2 (Quite good and funny) Then logged on in time to help out on a Dis run through the hells.

Returning the Wand of Orcus to Pelor

We are getting close to the end of the first cycle ( Meaning we have managed to defeat 4 out of the 5 demon lords nessesary and taken their pices of the wand of orcus.

Marketing HG

I did quite a bit on the new marketing push. Will post results here quite soon

NWN Higher Bround Grand Opening

It's quick and its dirty, but its free.

Just getting this started so that we can hear from the players of HG about how fun Higher Ground is.