Kirinyale

Phew. Thanks everybody for this thread. I've just finally managed to kill Redbeard on normal difficulty after about a day of trying. That was so hardcore that I just want to share my story in case it would be useful for someone else. First of all, I was self-confident enough to totally screw up my preparations: just before starting the final quest, I took some time to kill Beloch (no problem at all) and Zephyrine (hard, but totally realistic once you realize that her watchers don't really heal themselves too much if you concentrate on taking them out - at first, I thought that this was something similar to Moritz'kri's twin zombies). Anyway, after killing the dragon, I thought to myself: "nothing will be harder than that", and just sold most of my (mostly unused) potions, wands etc. to get some expensive equipment. I only left myself a lot of healing items, 10 or 11 phoenix shards, and just a little bit of everything else - like 6-9 of each strongest kind, evenly spread throughout the 3-man party. And some staves of ice, corruption and calling (these kinds were the most useful ones throughout the game, so I though I won't really need the others). Well, all of this turned out to be a huge mistake, but it was too late when I discovered it. I didn't even have a save BEFORE starting the end-game adventure at that point, as it was as eventful as it promised to... And now, to the battle with Redbeard. I've tried several different tactics, but here's what worked eventually: 1) Before you talk with him, enter fight mode and position your party members: - 1a - the one with highest dexterity (to move first) must stand near one of the switches. He must be able to teleport - i.e. either be a shadowwalker (shadowstep) or wear the scarab with teleportation ability. - 1b - spread everybody else somewhere along the south wall, where the secret doors are. Not too close to Redbeard, but close enough to attack him. 2) Pre-summon the strongest pets you can (my main character was a shaman, so I could summon a drake by her and the weakest kind of salamander by Jenell, who was mostly specialized on combat). 3) Start the combat. You might have to replay this a few times until the random things get a suitable enough: - 3a - you must be able to hurt Redbeard enough in 1-2 turns and force him to make his first "offer" and start summoning soul jars. - 3b - the character standing near the switch doesn't take part in this combat. He (Shima in my case) just waits. - 3c - the first soul jar must be in the room Shima opened! Don't bother to open the second room. - 3d - Redbeard should not successfully use terrify until you open the secret door and step inside (see below). If that happens, chances are you'll lose too much time for a good start. - 3e - use summoned pets to keep Redbeard busy and hurt him a bit more. Both drake and salamander have fire-breathing abilities which are pretty useful (not as much as sorceress skills, but still good). 4) Once tbe first stage is done, move ALL of your characters into the room with the first soul jar and take it out as fast as you can. Also "let go" of Redbeard with your pets and lure him into the same room, then try to keep him somewhere near the entrance (as far from your party as you can). 5) Tactics for the rest of second stage (until Redbeard's second "offer"): kill soul jars quickly if they appear in your room, then concentrate on Redbeard. If another jar appears - break it. If it appears in the other room - ignore it. You can still deal enough damage to Redbeard while there's less than 3 jars. Make good use of haste, war chant, phoenix gems etc (I didn't have much, but it proved enough). Don't heal to often, but try to do it before anyone dies (I believe I finished this battle without resurrection, though I had some scrolls). If Redbeard succeeds in using charm or terrify - don't hesitate to cast group mental cure from a scarab (that requires some luck to avoid stunning/terrifying/charming of the one who wields that scarab - was Nathalie in my case). 6) Once Redbeard makes his second offer, even if you were lucky to get all jars in your room before, now he will start summoning them really fast, so you'll have a hard time disposing of them. Luckily, you can still ignore them while there's less than three. As soon as he creates a third one - destroy it (otherwise Redbeard is almost immune to everything, and damaging him for a max of 10-15 HP is clearly not enough even when he's almost dead - I've lost one of my attempts because I risked fighting him with 3 jars alive, until he finally overwhelmed me with the 4th one and I was out of everything). If a jar appears close to you and you think you can destroy it real fast (1-2 turns) - then maybe destroy it too. Otherwise - keep striking Redbeard as hard as you can. Refresh your summons when you can - their fire breathing still helps! AND DON'T FORGET PHOENIX SHARDS - if you not use them now, then when?! They REALLY help getting a lot of damage through in just a few turns. If you do everything all right, the Keeper will fall eventually... Well, that's about it. And just a few useful notes on immunities: - Soul Jars are vulnerable to fire, frost and acid, but not energy and lightning. Physical damage works too. - Redbeard is vulnerable to pretty much anything while there's not too much Soul Jars present. Try to blast him with energy abilities when you can, save everything else for jars if possible. - Earthquake is disappointingly useless (too weak), except it sometimes helps to knock Redbeard back a bit.

I'm on Windows XP Pro SP3, and don't have any other OS to try the game on it. Other than that, I think this file should provide enough details: http://www.kirinyale.../tmp/DxDiag.txt

Hello, I've purchased Avadon: The Black Fortress on Steam a few days ago, and I'm experiencing a seemingly random bug when all item tooltips (both in my inventory and in trading UI) suddenly stop working. I hover my mouse over an item and - nothing. I can't see what it is and what it does. This problem can be "fixed" by re-launching the game, or sometimes fixes itself after some time (usually after a dialog). Still, it's very annoying to have to re-launch or wander around and talk to people just to be able to properly shop for something. Is there a better fix for this?