Sage Bartimeus

**Major Spoiler**This page contains unmarked spoilers about important events. Proceed at your own risk.

 **Sage Bartimeus** is a sage and an accomplice of Sage Erideus.
**Biography**
Sage Bartimeus was a battlemage that specialised in fire magic, to the point of inciting jealousy from others in the Sun Court. He was recruited by Erideus as a sort-of security guard for the expedition, intended for "[dealing] with anything or anyone that obstructs [his] mission, if it comes to that" according to his journal. Throughout Erideus' expedition, Bartimeus and the other members followed him along in going through the many Mua-Ta memory stones to give information to Sage Asmodius, the sage that ordered the journey.

Upon reaching the Sunless Oasis Bartimeus had to intimidate the iron Mua-Ta off with fire magic to secure a safe passage to the Obsidian Temple. Inside, him and Stormspeaker blasted away a large number of undead in the halls as Sage Luxious and Adept Sonorius dissolved the wards around the dark artifact. Alas, the corrupting power of the artifact had ruined the expedition, with Sonorius murdering Luxious and escaping into the jungle as well as Erideus inciting Asmodius' wrath. As Asmodius sent "reinforcements" to the island that Erideus requested before the betrayal, Bartimeus and the other sages responded with "fire, thunder and arcane song", until they were all eradicated. Him and Stormspeaker then dealt with a creature likely being the Arcane Horror as well as more undead reanimated from the "reinforcements", until he eventually went insane and fled the temple, leaving Erideus by himself.

At some point, Bartimeus had fled to the Forbidden City and for no known reason whatsoever, opened a portal to the inferno, a subsection of the arcane realm of fire.

**In-Game**

Just when you've decided to write him off, you've run into the man in the Forbidden City, of all places. As it turned out, Bartimeus has gone completely mad following the events in the Obsidian Temple, and was now trying to establish a permanent portal to the Inferno, an evil, demon-infested part of the Arcane Realm of Fire, to some undisclosed, lunatic end. You've foiled his plans in the last moment, but not before he let a small legion of demons into the world.

Sage Bartimeus is the final boss of the game's epic content and can be fought in the Forbidden City, starting from Dungeon Level 24 and Character Level 30.

**Combat Proficiency**
Bartimeus at first glance appears to be very weak - 350 health is lower than that of Bone-Wing and he does not have the dangerous **Decaying Breath** that makes it difficult. Instead, he has a cloning ability called **Simulacrum**, which can also be executed by his copies.

**Simulacrum** creates a copy of the boss at its current health, meaning that within three turns you will face three copies of him, his true power. The battle revolves around dealing an equal amount of damage to each so that the ability re-gains the least total health as possible - you want to kill at least two copies with one attack and prevent the third from cloning. In total, Bartimeus has a maximum health of 1050.

To help you deal as much damage as possible before he clones, Disintegrate Essence and other stuns or mutes can be cast at the very start of the battle - because **Simulacrum** clones at the current health rather than at full, you will effectively be inflicting triple damage - pair it with the Heartwood Branch, Metaphysics, Hermeticism and the Wandering Sage crewmate and the reduced cooldown on stuns is enough to stun-lock him. If luck isn't on your side you will at least face him with far lower health on his end. For melee characters with less viability for area spells you can afford to get each copy individually down to low health before finishing them off all at once as long as they don't die. Poison and damage reflection can accelerate this process, but be careful if a copy's health is near the single-digits as the damage per turn may kill it prematurely.

His other ability is **Conflagaration**, a morale-reducing skill which inflicts massive damage on everything, including the copy that casts it. Since all three copies will spam it to no end, you are very likely to succumb to low-morale penalties and even flee the battle, undoing all of your hard work. This is where fear resistance shines as a stat - you may wish to replace one of your less-used spells with Spirit Shield and consume the Tonic of Personality to raise it. Having a supply of Blood Moss Wine is also useful for an instantaneous burst of morale in case the penalties start hindering you.

Even if you can handle the morale loss, the three copies deal a total of over 60 damage per turn if all of them use **Conflagaration**. As it is an ability, your only way of dodging is through the Mua-Ta Acolyte crewmate and Nimble Grace, together "evading" around half of the time. Stuns and mutes will also temporarily slow down the damage received, although it is best to use Word of Power as Insect Swarm is less likely to proc on bosses.

Sage Bartimeus is the only boss that drops exclusive loot: the File:Item powercore hd.pngFile:Item powercore legacy.pngPower Core.

  **DMG:** 20-24
  **CRIT:** 16%

Effect on Player
 **Simulacrum**File:Simulacrum.png | *Creates a perfect copy of itself*Effect* Creates copy of self at current HP (Status effects do not carry over) *Cannot be used if all spaces are occupied by living enemies*

**Trivia**
* Sage Bartimeus' in-battle portrait, as well as the rest of his crew, were drawn by Mislav Nimai Smetana.
* Sage Bartimeus' description on the quest text for The Price of Freedom is crossed out before killing him, upon picking up the last entry of the Traitor's Journal.