14. Sendai's Enclave and the Third Challenge
Inside the woodcutter's hut is a rune of Clangeddin, which you can
use to enhance the runehammer +3. West of the hut is a scene of a
slaughter, where you'll immediately encounter a couple of drow
(5,000 experience points each), a hive mother beholder, and umber
hulk elders. The hive mother consistently casts finger of death and
death ray, so eventually, you'll lose characters if you don't take
her out quickly. Cast chant, bless, and protection from evil if you
have the opportunity as well to improve your saving throws. Return
to the woodcutter, and he'll tell you to go to the graves north of
his hut.
At the graves, you'll be ambushed by some gauth and more drow. The
gauth aren't as dangerous as regular beholders, but you should
still take them out first. Send a couple of fighters to engage in a
melee attack on the drow with crossbows, or you'll take a
beating.
Underdark ambush. The woodcutter and all of the creatures in the
woods are disguised drow that'll attack after you explore a few
strange occurrences in the woods. Ensure that you have your
fighters spread out near the animals before you initiate a
conversation with the woodcutter after this graveyard ambush.
When you return and speak to the woodcutter, he'll change into a
drow and attack, as will all the animals in the area. The drow at
the north of the map have crossbows, but the real threat is from
the wizard in the southeast corner of the map. Before you start
speaking to the woodcutter, you should position your fighters
around the animals, including the one that becomes a drow wizard,
to ensure that you can get in some quick attacks. Each drow will
earn you 6,000 or 7,500 experience points. When they're all dead,
an illusion will be dispelled, revealing the pathway to Sendai's
enclave, earning you 10,000 experience points for each party
member.
The Enclave
Entering the enclave, the entrance is guarded by myconids. Pick
them off with ranged weapons and slowly advance to meet a few waves
of umber hulks and spiders. Ensure that you have some dispel magic
spells ready to remove confusion caused by the myconids and umber
hulks as well as some antidotes to avoid poison damage from the
spiders and myconids. Once you get to a bridge, send an invisible
mage to launch a massive damage area of effect spell, like comet or
dragon's breath, on the group of drow and umber hulk elders that's
waiting there. There are three doors you can go through, all
labeled on your map.
When you enter the drow barracks, don't leave the entryway and let
the drow come to you. After an initial wave of about five fighters,
you can scout around a bit and reveal a more formidable group,
including Thelynn'ss and a priestess. You can use an area of effect
spell like comet or dragon's breath to severely damage the
remaining group (although the drow have magic resistance, so it
might not be as effective as you expect). Or, try to flank
Thelynn'ss and the priestess to take out the drow armed with
crossbows around the periphery. When you've cleared the room and
exited, you'll get a brief cutscene informing you of what to expect
in the remaining passageways and be awarded 5,000 experience points
per party member. Ensure you pick up the drow key on
Thelynn'ss.
If you enter the north passageway, you'll encounter a slave master
and some derro and derro berserkers. The slave master will then
leave, and you can deal with successive waves of derro.
Unfortunately, the derro will start coming from behind you as well,
and there's no limit to their number, so you must keep pushing
forward through the gauntlet. Launch a few offensive area of effect
spells in front of you, like comet, to give your party some
breathing room before reinforcements arrive. Then, summon a few
creatures to serve as rear guards as you advance. Eventually, Orogs
will join the assault, but keep advancing until you catch up to the
slave master (he'll retreat a second time before he finally stops
to fight). Killing him will make the reinforcements stop coming, so
make that a priority.
If you enter the south passageway, you'll encounter a large group
of spiders (mutated, phase, and sword) led by Lashar'ra (200,
18,700 experience points), a giant spider that has an innate blur
effect and can summon additional spiders. There's lots of antidote
potions on this level, so you shouldn't be in much danger from
poison, but you should still rely on ranged weapons to take out
most of them before they even get into range. There are web spell
traps throughout this corridor, primarily off the main path. Since
your thief will likely be too busy fighting to detect them, have a
priest cast a detect traps spell to avoid stumbling into the traps.
There are no items in this passageway.
Once you're through either the north or south passageway, you'll
enter another area populated by drow and umber hulk elders. Advance
slowly, equipped with ranged weapons and with a few summoned
creatures in front of you, and pick off the enemies that appear.
Since your summoned creatures will block the advance of your
enemies, you can use area of effect clouds just beyond your
creatures and damage the rest of the enemy group, since the
corridors are narrow, and they'll be grouped (although it's less
effective because all your opponents will be resistant to magic).
The large room in the center of the map leads to the lair of a
lich, Odamaron. The lich loves to cast spell trap in addition to
standard spell defenses, so use pierce magic and breach spells to
make the lich vulnerable to your fighters (spellstrike is ideal).
There are traps leading up to the lich's podium, but they aren't
dangerous to your fighters, since the traps are just silence
spells, so charge forward and get within melee range. On the lich
is the heart of the damned, the eye of Tyr, and a drow wardstone.
As soon as you leave the room, you'll be treated to another
cutscene and 5,000 experience points per party member.
Going through the eastern door, you'll be met by Diaytha, who will
inform you that Ogremoch is waiting for you in the next room.
Ogremoch is the elemental prince of earth, and he's guarded by two
greater earth elementals. But if you enter his room slowly, you can
avoid fighting them all at once. Ogremoch will cast earthquake on
the first creature that enters his room, so you might want to send
in a summoned creature first to spare your party some lumps. Aside
from casting stoneskin frequently, Ogremoch isn't much trouble and
is worth 56,000 experience points. Once you've taken Ogremoch out,
Diaytha (14,000 experience points) will be waiting in the next
room, along with a hive mother (50,000 experience points), demon
knight (16,000 experience points), abashi (9,000 experience
points), and vampire (12,000 experience points). They're all
dangerous opponents, but Diaytha's a druid spellcaster, so you
should take her out first, while ensuring that the vampire is stuck
tangling with an opponent that is protected from level draining.
Since there's not much room to maneuver, spells like holy smite and
other offensive area of effect spells work well.
Diaytha's droogs. Diaytha has a strange assortment of creatures as
personal guards and each of them is dangerous. Diaytha and the hive
mother should be your highest priority targets.
Entering the next door, you'll be given an option for your main
character to fight Captain Egeissag (125 hit points, 20,000
experience points) in a one-on-one battle. It's an easy victory if
you have a fighter character, but it's much tougher if you have a
spellcaster, unless you can get some defenses raised quickly. You
can elect to decline the challenge, in which case you must deal
with a group of drow armed with crossbows, who are on an elevated
platform, so you can't reach them except with ranged spells or
weapons. Either way, once you get by the captain, you'll have a
conversation with a familiar beholder and be awarded 5,000
experience points per party member after another brief cut
scene.
In the next room, you'll encounter an ulitharid and an umber hulk,
and there's a couple of vampiric mind flayers in the neighboring
alcoves. Through the main door awaits Mithykyl and a couple more
ulitharid minions as well as another umber hulk. The real test
awaits through the next door, where Sendai awaits. Before you get
to engage her directly, you must fight through waves of statutes
that will animate. One mage statue around the room will animate at
a time, which will also prompt a couple of drow fighters to appear
at the door. It's a tough fight, since you must engage successive
high-level mages and fighter escorts with no time to rest between
battles. Keep casting haste and protection spells such as
protection from evil, defensive harmony, bless, and chant, and use
your fighters' high-level abilities. Your mages must consistently
cast pierce and breach spells to dispel defenses and ensure that
your fighters' attacks will be effective. Sendai is even more
dangerous, since she'll consistently use spell sequencers and
contingencies to maintain defenses and can still use offensive
spells. You'll need truth seeking to dispel the mislead spells she
consistently casts. As soon as you defeat Sendai, you'll be taken
back to the pocket plane for another encounter with the
Solar.