Ajantis, Ankhegs, and Magical Island Prisons

I wasn't looking for another tank for long.  As I said last post, I wanted to take the major roadway from the north to the south, being on the lookout for bandits and information about the Iron Throne.  So I head north and, as luck would have it, immediately run into the paladin Ajantis.  He happens to be trying to solve the bandit problem too.  A match made in heaven, it seems.  He's level 6, 45hp, and has ++ in two-handed swords and two-handed weapon style...not bad.  However, his dex is low...just like Kagain's.  I only have one pair of the Gauntlets of Dexterity, though.  Not too thrilled...someone's AC is going to suffer.  After some armor rearranging, I have full plate mail on Idaen, ankheg armor on Ajantis, and full plate mail and an amulet of protection +1 on Kagain.  He's only at 0 AC, though (Idaen at -2 and the paladin at -3).  I don't like this too much, since the plan is to have Idaen be the superpriest he's meant to be, not a primary tank.  I guess I will be on the lookout for another warrior indefinitely.  Until then, gotta make the most of it...and decide who I like better, the dwarf or Ajantis.

So...the north:

• We fought some ankhegs.  A lot of ankhegs.  I definitely went over my quota.  They can dish out damage, and Xzar was killed by one of the beasts.  But no problem: I'm not in a hurry.  It will take the bandits some time to re-mobilize and form a new base of operations, so I'm not on borrowed time.  That's not to say I don't intend to go to Cloakwood soon, because I do...but it's not going anywhere, and I'd like to get a first-hand experience of the bandit problem first if I can (am I being redundant about this?).
• Got involved with some fisherman and an Umberlant.  I confronted the priestess, and she told her side of the story.  Unfortunately she stayed hostile for some reason, and we had to kill her.  I let the fishermen know I wasn't too happy...but what did they care?  I walked off with another flail +1.
• Got denied from Baldur's Gate.  The bandits and Amn are still a problem, so the city's closed off right now.  I figured I would check it out to get the pulse of the city, but the gods of plotline were looking out for me.
• Cleared a farm of zombies.  Not much to it.  Can't really think of anything clever to say about this one...? (Other than "zombie apocalypse" is my favorite genre of fiction.)
• Headed to Ulgoth's Beard to visit.  The villagers here still seemed to be feeling some of the major problems that the rest of the coast was...but didn't care as much?  The biggest concern having to do with bandits seemed to be that the Durlag's Tower tourism business was hurting.  Also met Mendas and Shandalar.

And how interesting they were...I told Mendas that I would retrieve a chart from the Merchant League for him, but that's going to have to wait until some of the political turmoil dies down and the city opens back up.  He was telling me to hurry since the Merchants' ship was already being prepared...but I somehow doubt the ports are allowing free travel to and from the city during such a precipitous time...

And Shandalar wanted me to run an errand for him...and I did it.  I guess because of the way he knew something about me, it seemed like it would lead to some kind of answers.  And because the task itself seemed strange and intriguing.  But to not seem like too much of an errand boy, I at least made him wait a day or so...while I marched down to the Friendly Arm and resurrected Xzar.

I almost immediately knew we were in way over our head...when I saw we were on an ice island in the middle of nowhere.  We went inside and confronted the first group of mages...very, very difficult battle, one in which I had no business winning with a level 5ish party. [Sidenote: the PC died the first attempt, and I had to reload...again, that can't be a part of the narrative of this blog.  Why not?  I don't know.  It just can't.  In fact, there are (of course) a good number of times where the PC dies and I have to reload, but I'm only mentioning those moments sparingly.]  Xzar got fried by a Fireball, Montaron got Confused then Melfed, and Kagain...well, Kagain died too.  Somehow Idaen, Imoen, and Ajantis seemed to come out alive.  Looks like that's the group I'm stuck with now.  Let's see if we can't find this goddamn cloak and get the hell out of here.

So what was the strategy?  No way of detecting traps...so I used some magic protection potions and sent Ajantis or Idaen off to scout.  This is where the Boots of Grounding and potions of absorption came in handy too, for the lightning traps.  I got through the rest of the mages...no fight was as tough as the first one, though the ankhegs were pretty hard.  I had to rest a few times...Idaen ended up memorizing Miscast Magic (since Silence has been seemingly worthless lately) and multiple Raise Undeads (to have a nice battalion of skeletons), and Imoen memorized Invisibility for scouting purposes.

I spent a day and a half or so on that island, maybe a little bit longer...after I got the cloak, I went through and cleared the rest, since I probably wouldn't even have the chance to come here again...and hey, we're adventurer's, right?  Imoen doesn't have Identify, so I didn't even get a chance to see what powers Shandalar's cloak had.  I spoke to him immediately upon returning, and he took it from me.  Maybe I should have left and got it identified, maybe keeping it for my troubles...but too late.  So, this was a little odd...I'll come back here once I get the chart for Mendas, but let me head back down south and finish what I was supposed to be doing.

Idaen, lvl 6 cleric/lvl 5 ranger

Ajantis, lvl 6 paladin

Kagain, lvl 5 fighter

Montaron, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 6 thief

Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 5 mage

Xzar, lvl 5 necromancer

Yikes...two posts today.